FA Breakdowns + Buy/Sell, Andy Returns! - Fantasy Football Podcast

have acquired cornerback Darius sleigh from the Lions in exchange for a 2023rd and fifth round draft pick. What was your reaction to this move as a, you know, well-respected corner, one of the weaknesses for Philadelphia. You know, they pick him up and he's in that division now. You know, he wanted out. And so that's, you know, he kind of forced his way. But from the lion's standpoint, this is just such a dumb, dumb. How did he write out of town, Jason? What's that?

How did he ride out of Tim? Oh, no, no. On a sleigh. On a sleigh. Oh. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it's like, all right, he wrote a sleigh. That's fine. It just wasn't, I mean, I don't know who's at fault there. I think we share blame. Is that joke better in quarantine or out? I think out. I think if we're together, that'd be better. But the reality is, you know, if they, you know, Slay had the one year on his contract, if they play him out.

Then they get a third round pick for him compensatory plus his services. Now they're basically getting a fifth rounder. From the Eagle standpoint, they desperately needed a playmaker in their secondary. Did they overpay him? Sure. But every time you sign someone new, they're always overpaid. And then the market resets and yada, yada. I know that he has great numbers against Mari Cooper. So Mike, you'll be thrilled. That's what I was going to bring up. Warren Sharp on Twitter at Sharp football. He did.

point out and highlight just how well Darius Slay has just how well Darius Slay has performed against Amari Cooper. I mean, he essentially just shuts him down. So that'll be a really fun matchup that we get to watch twice a year. Well, and really, you know, whenever you see those numbers with high profile cornerbacks and what they do against high profile wide receivers, sometimes it's shutting them down. Sometimes it's a team.

rotating the offense away from them. It doesn't really matter because it jacks up your fantasy production if you own Amari Cooper and now he's got Darius Slay in the division twice a year. So that is the kind of fantasy implication of this move. Hey, before we get to the craziness of the rest of the free agency, you want to thank a new sponsor today, Farragun. And I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart because this thing is awesome. It doesn't matter who you are super athlete or trying to get, you know, back on the horse like me.

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dot com slash footballers, theragun.com slash footballers. Free agent frenzy. I didn't get to participate in the last free agency frenzy episode of this show. And so I am very excited to talk about some of these moves that we haven't talked about yet that you guys did not talk about on the last episode. So let's start with Todd Gurley. Let's start with Todd Gurley. The Rams released Todd Gurley.

And then, you know, by the time your face went back to normal after the release, he signed a one year $5 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons. What was your initial reaction? I think I tweeted what we always say on this show, Mamas don't let your boys grow up to be running backs because look at this off season with Todd Gurley, David Johnson, you know, DeVantza Freeman, all of these big money contracts to running backs.

And, you know, the dynasty owners that thought you had something everlasting, which, by the way, you never do at running back especially, at any position really, but certainly at running back. Here's Gurley released the Kikog in this offense. How did you react? Well, my first thought was, Ellie, Atlanta, it's a pretty decent landing spot. We've seen success out of the fantasy running back there. Devonta Freeman, I mean, it's been a couple years.

since it's happened, but at least it's a high-powered offense. And if you look at what Todd Gurley did last year, salvaging his fantasy year, it was all touchdowns. Like, that's how he got it done. And he got him by the boatload. So now he's in Atlanta Falcon. Dan Quinn, his Falcons, as long as Dan Quinn has been the coach, the Falcons have always been in top 10 in offensive yards.

We know Quinn's a defensive guy, but he's surrounding himself, self-smouth. He's surrounding himself. He's surrounding him smelf with some serious, yeah. He's got smart people around him. Matt Ryan is a very good quarterback. Unfortunately, the last two years, these are numbers that we don't want to hear for Todd Gurley. 29th in rushing attempts last year, two years ago, 30th in rushing attempts.

They had some good years, like I said, back in 16 and 17 when it was Devante Freeman was great, and then it was the Freeman, Tevin Coleman combo. Their offensive line, granted, they had a bunch of injuries, so it's hard to really... They always do, though, Mike. They're going to have them again. Yeah. It's built into Atlanta somehow. That's an excellent point. Break it down, though, RB1, RB2. I mean, what do you think, Mike? What do you think, Jay? I would say that Todd Gurley, I would put him

I think he can still be a running back one, like a lower end. Yeah, I've got him probably sneaking into that 12 spot. I would rather have him than David Johnson, you know, if you're talking about two players that have changed teams. One of the things that really gets lost here on Todd Gurley, because the degenerative knee, the utilization of C.J. Anderson two years ago and the fact that when they came out this last year, it was all managed workload, is the fact that he was healthy.

And he played. And then all of a sudden, the last seven games of the season, when they were like, oh, man, we're not going to make the playoffs. They used him like crazy. He was, you know, averaging almost 17 touches per game over that stretch. And during that stretch, he was the running back nine. Yeah, Mike, you're right. It was a lot in touchdowns. That salvaged it. But I think the thing that that really salvaged was the fact that they weren't using him in the passing game at all. I mean, it was ridiculous. Todd Gurley, this guy who's like one of the best pass catching.

running backs out there for the previous two seasons, all of a sudden is like, yeah, we're not going to do that anymore.

And that's why I think Atlanta is good for Todd Gurley, at least on a short scale, not necessarily for Dynasty long-term value. But I think that Matt Ryan will throw the ball a lot to Todd Gurley, and that's going to up his fantasy value. We've seen Kyle, our editor of the Borgogan, talk about vacated targets going to the running back position. And you've got, you know, Austin Hooper gone, Devante Freeman gone. I think Todd Gurley comes into a lot of receiving work. You can have a situation where.

It is the smartest move for the Rams to move on, the financial ramifications and what they've committed to and then all the questions that they have to undergo during the year and still have Gurley be a productive fantasy asset in Atlanta. And there were a lot of worst destinations that he could have ended up in without question. Now, I guess, yeah, like Denver. And we will talk about Melvin Gordon momentarily, but I want to, I don't want to forget the other side of this equation with Daryl Henderson.

and with the Rams running game. And where do you sit when you look at somebody like Gurley in the next year's fantasy draft versus a guy like Darrell Henderson, somebody with elite college production, somebody that was, yes, you know, a year too early on the height, but going to have an opportunity. But Malcolm Brown is there. What do you think? For Henderson, it's, it's tough. I honestly, off the top of my head, I have no idea where people are going to feel about him for his ADP. But going back and just looking down, looking at his rookie year,

He did have two games, week seven, week eight, back-to-back games where he had 11 carries in both of those games. But what was the cohesive piece there? It was that Malcolm Brown was gone. He was injured. And as soon as Malcolm Brown returned, Darrell Henderson was shut down again. So it's very, very disappointing to see a player with his draft capital for a team that needed...

to fill other positions on the team. Instead, they went with Henderson. The fact that he could not get on the field is highly discouraging. You find yourself concerned with that? You don't just chalk it up to early being in the backfield and the rookie, you know, being a rookie learning the offense. I mean, you and I both know what we saw in film from Henderson. Yes. Coming into last year and the explosive difference between him and Brown, I just.

It's kind of like Gore. But that's what I mean. It's Gore versus Singletary last year to me. It's like eventually Singletary earns the opportunity. He did. And Singletary won out. By the end of the year, Singletary was the starting running back over Frank Gore. That didn't happen with Darrell Henderson. And Malcolm Brown is still on the team. If you look, it's very, very disconcerting to me that Henderson could not get on the field. I agree with Mike here. Malcolm Brown last year.

was the forgotten man who everybody was saying out of Los Angeles. Look, this guy's still, he's the backup. He's the number two guy. And then he was the number two guy. And then he got injured. And then once he was back, he was the number two guy. So could Darrell Henderson take over. Yeah, he could. But I don't just, I don't just give that to him. In fact, I would expect them to spend a decent, I think they'll use high draft capital value on a running back and go get.

a replacement for Gurley that's a rookie rather than give the ball to Darrell Henderson as the next lead back. That's mine. Yeah, I think having it given to him isn't going to happen. You're not wrong there. I do think he will earn that. I think he will earn that opportunity based on, you know, they made the investment in him in his history. But you're right, Mike. I mean, we haven't seen it on the field yet. So it's just a, you know, you have to put your faith and belief in the player and the talent, not the evidence yet.

And it could be just another year of everyone drafting Daryl Henderson, and we're telling the Footland, scoop up Malcolm Brown late because he'll probably end up being the starter. Darnell Anderson, which do you prefer? Darnell Anderson, yes. It's his time to shine. What about John Kelly? I mean, if you're in a Dynasty League, what? I'm just saying in a Dynasty League. Of course, you're going to say John Kelly. He is still on the team.

Is he really? Yes. I mean, look, I love the college tape. I know you like him because I remember you talking about him. And Darrell Henderson. I mean, but that's kind of the point, right? Like he had great college tape, great college production. It didn't matter. It didn't matter because he wasn't used by the team. And I wanted him to be used. We might love. He was a lower draft capital pick, though, too. And we were definitely not in consensus about John Kelly. I'll tell you that. Sure. The draft capital, I think, is the big differentiator there because Kelly was, I think, a sixth rounder. Yeah.

All right, Melvin Gordon, two-year deal, $16 million, heads to the Broncos, kind of a head scratcher to me. You look at the situation with an undrafted yet highly talented player in Philip Lindsay in Denver. And it can't help but remind you of Austin Echler, a very highly talented, undrafted player in Los Angeles. And here's Melvin Gordon coming in to ruin the undrafted party.

Gordon goes to Denver. It's not the money I expected him to get on the open market. Certainly the money he had to accept it. No, no, it's not. It's all about revenge now, Mike. It's all about revenge when the money doesn't add out. Well, if you heard, he had an offer from another team for more money, took less money so that he could play in division. Now, nobody knows who that team is. And the only team that was even rumored was the bills who came out and said, we didn't make an offer. So, but.

That's what's been said. Does that technically mean like when the Chargers made him an offer like a year and a half ago? Right. That was for a lot of money. They offered me way more. That he decided to wait. Oh, man. It's so brutal. And so if you want to start talking about the actual implications, I mean, it was, it was a bad year for Melvin Gordon because he was, you know, two years ago, he was an absolute fantasy superstar.