Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Rookie Rundown QB & WR, News, Mailbag

plenty of that and maybe he's done maybe he's broken down a lot maybe he's forcing a trade no i'm just throwing out possible options and or maybe it's just like you say his body is starting to turn on him he's tired of losing uh and i don't i i think he'd

I think he's coming back. The lions still hold out hope. They said that they still want him to come back and play. The wounds are fresh. They hope that he will and there is a chance, but I will say this. If I am drafting very soon in a best ball league, I am grabbing me some Golden Tate while his stock is low because when we saw two years ago especially when Calvin Johnson was out of the lineup, Golden Tate was a monster. So.

Looking forward, maybe... I do not think he will be back. I'm in disagreement with Mike. I think we've already had that conversation. This was a rumor that came out a month ago, and then now we have more cemented confirmation on that from the family and the team side. It's not done deal by any stretch, and that's a lot of money. We saw rumors about Marshall and Lynch. They didn't go this far last year, but $12 million talks you back into playing. So, all right, what else do we got going on?

If he were to go, ESPN Lions reporter Michael Rothstein says maybe Marvin Jones would be heading Detroit's way. That's interesting. Marvin Jones is a nice complimentary wide receiver. And I think Golden Tate is good enough to be a one. I think he showed that the, not this last year. So two years ago, when Calvin Johnson missed all that time where Golden Tate was the man, get him a good complimentary piece like Marvin Jones and you can still have success.

All right, the Jets could have interest in tight-in Scott Chandler. That was reported. This is an offense that did not use the tied-in very much. What's interesting, though, is it would be a, he'd be reunited with Chan Galey. And Scott Chandler was a touchdown. He was a touchdown guy up in Buffalo with Chan Galey. So why is this viable? I mean, well, Scott Chandler maybe gets a boost. Could be a drain.

on Brandon Marshall or Eric Decker if you have another touchdown capable guy. I see this news and I go, don't do it. I love Brandon Marshall. I see this news and I don't think a lot's going to change. Mostly irrelevant. I agree. I don't think Scott Chandler's skill sets much different than what, Cumberland. But he's shown he can catch touchdowns. He did it for the Patriots too. Yeah. By did it for the Patriots. Wait, you line them up on the one.

Okay. He's capable of doing it. Not every titan can do that. No, that's why it's news. So, all right, impending free agent, Chris Ivory said the Jets might not have the cap space to re-sign him. Hey, very interesting. Chris Ivory, let's say he walks. What do the Jets do? Are they drafting for the position to compliment, you know, with Bilal Powell? Are they really relying on a Ridley Powell type of backfield? Maybe.

That's not a super reliable group, but I do think if that ends up happening, Powell looks great. They'll probably address it through the draft. If Cap is the issue. Alfred Morris, maybe lands in New York. He's a grinder. It's a swip swap. Yeah, very, very similar. I think the free agent market is going to be much better this year for running backs than last year. Last year, there was a lot of...

Oh, where is everybody going to go? And there wasn't much interest for all of the free agent running backs. And the reason was because the running back draft class was enormous. We heard about it for two years prior to last year's draft. That the depth at running back this past year was supposed to be great. And what I keep hearing from the people that I actually trust this year is that there's just no running backs in this year's draft class. There's not a lot of depth, not a ton where you can go into the draft no matter what.

Draft pick you're at and go, we can get a guy that we like. Carlos Williams in the fifth round or whatever it was. Oh, the list goes on, right? You had so many guys, even undrafted guys. Thomas Rawls. Contributed. Yeah, Thomas Rawls. All right, the chiefs have signed Zeus. You got that money. 46 million dollar extension. Kelsey had a good game in the Pro Bowl from what I've read.

from people who watched it? I think it's a good time to be Travis Kelsey right now. I mean, he had this Pro Bowl game. He got this brand new contract. He also has a new reality show of basically The Bachelor starring Travis Kelsey. Which did he negotiate first? Do you think he was negotiating the Bachelor deal? As soon as the Bachelor deal got signed, the Chief said, oh, we got to sign him now. He's going to be big, he's going to be a big deal. He's going to...

command some money once his reality TV star fame hits. He is the second highest paid tight end. Those stats are always laughable to me sometimes. Because of the recent. Because every year, Charles Clay last year was the same situation. You can't pay. I mean, you're not going to pay him more than the best, but I wouldn't know who's paid the most? Wait, hold on a second. But I assume now it is not.

No, it's not. The most guaranteed money is... Where is that? Oh, my goodness. It's recent. Go ahead. He destroyed his knee. Jimmy? Jimmy Graham. Oh, yeah. And then that's the thing, too. Is it the contract? Is it the guaranteed money? The newest contract is always makes them the most paid, but it's still interesting. Yeah, well, before we get to the rookies and look at the quarterbacks and the wide receivers this year, we want to take a second think.

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All right, it's time for the rookie rundown. We're going to look at that very long list of incredible rookie quarterbacks, and we're projecting them forward, and we're going to talk about wide receivers, what guys did and what we think they'll do next year. The question in part, at least, for Mike and for Jason and myself, is this, better or worse? Are we expecting better things from these guys? It should be kind of a foregone conclusion for high rookies, right? They've got to be better.

But we'll see. We'll see what we think. Because there's situations change. Things change. And I might have been exaggerating about the very long list of contributing rookie quarterbacks. There's two. There's two guys total. There is James Winston and Marcus Mariotta. Let's give these guys some, let's give them some credit, some pretty good rookie years.

Different things happened for each of them. Winston really turned his season around and became somebody who was an ascendant talent and the better quarterback right now. Yeah, well, you know, one of the differences between James Winston and Marcus Marriota was what happened with the offense around them. What happened with James Winston as the year went on is they started to really open him up. The difference between those two guys when it comes to completion percentage and yards per attempt are...

are very, very similar. Neither one beat the other in any dominating way. The real difference was James Winston had, you know, through the ball way, way more. He had 312 completions to 230 for Marcus Marriota. So James Winston finished with over 4,000 yards. Great. I mean, that is historically great numbers for a quarterback.

Let me put this – oh, sorry, go ahead. No, I understand. All I was going to say about that is Mario was only played 12 games. Yeah, I was just about to – If you actually look at a per game basis, Marioada average, according to fantasy data, 17.5 points per game, Winston was 17.2. And so –

That, again, just looking at that doesn't tell the whole tale because you had a season that changed for Winston. So you look at the back half of his year. He had a much better back half of the season. He's got a lot of weapons that I really like in Tampa. But projecting these guys forward, better or worse for either guy? I think that next year you're going to see very similar fantasy numbers from James Winston and an improvement for Marcus Marriota.

I base that mostly, for my own opinion, on what I see as the biggest outlier of all that they did this year, which is James Winston getting six rushing touchdowns. He got six extra touchdowns on, you know, he only rushed for 213 yards. It just didn't seem like he is built for that for, you know, ongoing purposes. And I don't think he's going to, I mean, six rushing touchdowns. That's got to put him in the top.

What, three this year? Cousins had five. Yeah, see, this is where I actually disagree with you where... I think five is about where I'd put him. Six, three, two and thirty pounds. I mean, Cam Newton is only 15 pounds heavier. No, Cam's a different level athlete, but I'm just saying Winston is large, and where you're in that range where it's, you're on the two-yard line, you go to pass, it breaks down. He's, he can take it in. He's quick. And I...

For 22 touchdowns through the air, I think that can go up. I don't expect Doug Martin. Let's assume Doug Martin is back. I don't expect Martin to have the, I expect him to have a worse year next year because I thought Martin had researched tremendously. I think it will go down. His production will go down as James Winston's production goes up. I think Winston is a quarterback one next year. That was going to be my question. He finished 13th this year.

I think he improves. I think he becomes a quarterback one. What we don't want to overlook for Marcus Marriota, though, is a triple threat. Triple threat. And what do I mean by that? He throws touchdowns. He runs for touchdowns, and he catches touchdowns. He did. He caught one. It's good to see you focusing on that statistic. He'll do that every year. It's interesting because if you just look at the numbers, I like a lot of what I see for Mariotta more than Winston.

Obviously, Winston had a good year. I think they're going to be very close next year. I actually think they'll both be in the QB1 range. They've got to get Marriota another option, another pass-catching option, in my opinion. Look, he threw less interceptions. Yes, he played a few less games, but he had 19 touchdowns to win since 22. He had a better quarterback rating. He had a better completion percentage.

It's hard to choose between those guys because I like Mike Evans a whole lot more than I like the weapon, you know, the weapon is the way it feels like Delaney Walker. Doriel Green Beckham, who we'll also talk about today. Yes. They started using him more and more as the season went on and I think he can be an added weapon to Marriota for all intents of purposes this next year. So that is one thing I like. Whereas Vincent Jackson, I think they're going to.

bring him back, despite his cap number, and he seems like he's not getting any younger. I don't know why. Yeah, but he doesn't have to be the one anymore. So, Mike, if we're breaking into the top 12 with these guys, are you taking these two sophomores ahead of Ryan Fitzpatrick next year? Ooh, Ryan Fitzpatrick.

You've got to contextualize draft round and everything, but let's just say, I'm the last one picking a quarterback. I have my pick of all three. I might go with Winston. Okay. Other guys in that range would be like the Eli's, the Staffords, Kirk Cousins, and then on the other side would be like Carr and Alex Smith. Yeah, I think most of those guys I would take over Winston, but he's going to be a guy that's...