Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The 2016 "Footies" Winners! + Pump the Brakes, Playoff Picks

This year he had four. But he was the number one tied in because he had 1,125 yards on 85 catches. The past three years, 16 games, 16 games, 16 games, 67 receptions, then 72, then 85. He's ascendant. Okay, he's 27 years old. He's in his peak. They know how to use him. And, yeah, you don't get.

You don't get Martel's been his three touchdown game every eight games. But you get consistency. You do. It's not every single game. I mean, you had, coming off those hundreds, you had a stretch of 24 yards, 32 yards, 23 yards. Tight in. That's tight in. Yeah. But I'm saying, can Travis Kelsey compete with Gronk and Reed? A healthy Grom and healthy Reed. I don't think so because I think of what you said. The Alex Smith and the offense, I don't know if he can compete with those guys.

But he certainly took it home this year. Basically, he was third place this year, except Reading Grunk got injured. All right. Next up is the most important position in real football. The kicker. Boom, boom, boom, kicker of the year. Why did we not have a boom, boom kicker of the year? That was a failure. The Foot Clan was quite disappointed. I heard about it on Twitter. Oh, man. I apologize. You know who's not going to be nominated for that? Chandler. Chandler, Katanzaro. Anyways, the quarterbacks.

Quarterbacks of the year, we had some great ones. My man, my favorite guy to draft before the season was Drew Breeze. He's been great. Andrew Luck, Andy's favorite guy to draft next year, Kirk Cousins. You had Matt Ryan and Aaron Rogers, the one and two in fantasy football, but this year there can be only one. And running away with it is Matthew Ryan.

guy who also was a guy tops in our in our sleeper list on our on our ultimate draft kit uh matt ryan finished as the quarterback two with 66 percent of the vote he was amazing this year and for where you drafted him i mean you had to look aaron rogers finishes quarterback one i i would have in my drafts taken him as the first quarterback off the board that's going to cost me a lot i would much rather instead of having erin rogers in some garbage

Running back, let me draft Melvin Gordon where Aaron Rogers was going, and then grab Matt Ryan, the number two quarterback. He won a lot of people championships this year, and he finally got it going with Kyle Shanahan with Julio. Great season over 5,000. Oh, he didn't get to 5,000. No, he almost got to 5K. It really interesting thing here. Mitchell Rends on Twitter here. This thing is, it's kind of picking up some steam going viral. He put out a test for people. He put up a poll, and he said,

Who had the better season? They deserve the MVP. Aaron Rogers or Matt Ryan, right? Aaron Rogers comes in with 52% of the vote. Very close. Very close, but Aaron Rogers wins. Then he does a blind test. Who had the better season? Any quarterback Avers, quarterback B, gives the team record and gives the stats. 81% for Matt Ryan. So it's funny how we are blinded by...

These names that we know and we love. No. I'm just throwing this out there because I said this on Twitter about a week ago. My MVP this year, it's hard not to give it to Matt Ryan, but it is Aaron Rogers. Oh, no way. It is 100% Aaron Rogers. Here's why. Because what you don't have in all of that.

is you don't have Devanta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. You don't have a defense that's good. You don't have the sack leader in the NFL. You have a defense that collapsed. You have running backs that just died one after the other after the other. And you had a team that halfway through the year was dead, dead to rights. And one man put them on their back and ran the table. You take Aaron Rogers away from the pack. And they're...

they're competing for that number one pick. You take Matt Ryan away. I think they're doing the same thing. They're doing the same thing to me. I mean, the Falcons. Swap them. Swap them. Yeah. Put Matt Ryan on the Green Bay Packers. They're not a playoff team, not even close. Put Aaron Rogers on the Falcons. Those things are too hard to compare because they're, they are where they are. They got to do what they can do with the cast around them.

I voted for Ryan. Ryan, yeah. All right. Breakout player of the year. We have that. We have the rookie of the year, the comeback player of the year, the steal the draft, and the nickname award still to come. Oh, man. Breakout player of the year. This goes to the player who, well, they broke out. They put a subpar year, a mediocre year up yet last year, and they broke out into fantasy glory this season. For consideration, four nominations. We had Mariotta. We had Derek Carr.

Jay Ajai, who finds himself on a many of these voting list. Tevin Coleman, Devante Adams, Travis Kelsey, Melvin, Gordon, and Cameron Brate, and the winner for the breakout player of the year with 997 rushing yards. It's Melvin Gordon, a.k.a. Mr. Perfect situation. Ten touchdowns, two receiving touchdowns, did it through the air, did it on the ground, despite some injury.

JJI came in second with 14% of the vote. Congrats to Melvin Gordon. This has not been a great show for Jay Ajai. Has he lost or finished second on all of them? We double pumped the brakes. Oh, man. And then he's coming in number two. Second on waiver wire wonder. Yep. And second here. We're going full Adam Gase on JJE right now. Well, take the challenge, my friend. Just trying to bury him. Melvin Gordon. My opinion. Your footy.

Is it in the mail? Absolutely. Be careful putting that one on your foot. But Melvin Gordon did change my opinion of him throughout the season. I don't know if he's guaranteed the workload that he was given. Danny Woodhead, to start the year, was absolutely, it was a 1A, 1B. Danny Wood had all the receiving down work. Danny Wood had was getting goal line work. So did Melvin Gordon show?

whoever the new coaching staff is, did he show enough that they're going to put their trust back in Melvin Gordon? Because he's going to be drafted like this is what people are expecting. That's what stinks is that there's a new coaching staff coming in. And possibly they've said they want to keep kidding whiz and hunting the offensive side intact. So maybe there won't be a massive change there. But let me just ask this. I do not have a fear about Gordon at all. Let me ask this. Just for the record because he's high draft capital.

Great performance this year. I do not have a word. Next year, do you draft Melvin Gordon or Todd Gurley? That will be determined by the coaching staffs on both teams. They both don't have them now. So I'll let that differentiate them. As of right now, it's Gordon. He's Gordon. Me as well. Rookie of the year, this one barely needs to be discussed. Zeke Elliott, Jordan Howard, Michael Thomas. Tyreek the Freak and Dak Prescott were the nominees. The winner by the biggest margin of any category.

You know his name. 77% of the vote. Ezekiel Elliott. Easy E. Jordan. Jordan was second place with 8% of the vote. Nice tried, Jordan. I think it can be a solid argument about what Howard did with what he had, but you can't argue with 15 touchdowns. 16, really, but 15 on the ground. 16131 yards added another 361 yards through the air. Zika Elliott was everything you hoped for when you drafted him and more. Edge to a quick.

because I was going to talk about this for the waiver wire. Talk about Dak Prescott a little bit. I finished up the quarterbacks, looking at consistency. Who finished as a quarterback one? Who finished top three? Those kinds of things. Who was a guy that really helped you out? Didn't just explode for your team, blow up his point total. There were five guys who had double-digit performances in the top 12. Normal names. Rogers, Luck, Ryan.

Drew Breeze, Dak Prescott 10 times was a quarterback one. He never gave you a top three performance, but he always gave you consistent numbers. He never, I won't say never, but for the majority, he didn't crap your team. And Dak Prescott is a guy who I really like as a target.

moving into next season because I think... Did not have Des with him most of the year. And I think that the public perception of Dak is still one of... Game management. He's okay. He'll be okay for fantasy football. So you can get him, you know, eight, ninth round. Hopefully. Hopefully. All right. Comeback player of the year. We had some great nominees, Jimmy Graham, DeMarco Murray, Melvin, Gordon, Andrew Luck and Matt Ryan. But the winner...

rightly so in an incredible comeback there's no dead legs here it's demarko murray

I mean, that's what we thought. When he was in Philly, he looked like his legs were just gone. But he came back with a vengeance for the Titans. He was a fantasy football difference maker, had 1,287 yards, nine touchdowns on the ground, three touchdowns receiving. He was great. I got to give a shout out here to the runner up. Yes. A man that I voted for solely because I think the way we worded the question was, who surprised you the most?

And I gave, I mean, I buried Jimmy Graham. I didn't think Jimmy Graham had any chance in the world of coming back this season off of his specific injury and being relevant. I'm just so proud of him. Yeah, it was, the resurgence of Jimmy Graham was amazing. But DeMarco Murray, he got back to the system where he can excel. He wasn't in the, that Chip Kelly spread. Everything is lateral. Everything is out of the shotgun. Let Murray, let him pound it up the middle. Next year.

You have a what was a pretty solid rookie season for Derek Henry, who Derek Henry looks like he could be a guy who could handle it himself. But Murray will be back next season. They're on the hook for a good bit of cash for Murray. Any concerns drafting him because he's going to go, you know, third round, back of second round. I think Murray and I think you see almost identical season as you do this past year. That's my prediction for next year. Barring injury, barring a change.

I think you'll see the same thing. They got incredible production out of sharing that workload. They're in the power offense. They love running the football. So I like, by the way, 43% of the vote for Murray compared to 18% for Jimmy Graham. So it was an overwhelming victory for DeMarco. Congratulations on your footy. Yes. It's in the mail. And then we're moving on to the steel of the draft. This is my favorite category for fantasy owner. This is my second favorite category. Okay.

The big dog was coming up. That's my favorite. That's why it's second to last here. But steal of the draft, this is how you win fantasy championships. If you hit on one of these guys late in your draft, you have a major, major advantage moving into the season. And these were all steals. Yes. All the nominees were steals. These were all headline names. You might have won because of one of them, even if your guy didn't win this category. Yes. So without further ado, the nominees for steal of the draft.

LaGarrett Blunt, Matt Ryan, LaShawn McCoy, Melvin Gordon, T.Y Hilton, and DeMarco Murray. Some of these guys taken much later in the draft like a Matt Ryan somewhere. I mean, T.Y. Hilton, he was still a mid-a-round pick, yet he performed like a first-round pick. So I think they're very, very, their place in this poll is acceptable and worthy, yes. The winner is.

He's a big boy. He's a monster of a man. Legerrett. Blunt. Well deserving Ligarrett. The steal of the draft drafted at 102 overall wins this category, wins the footy with 35% of the vote. Melvin Gordon comes in second with 18% of the vote. Congratulations. Legerrett. I believe two thirds of us actually have Ligarrett Blunt in our playoff challenge roster for fantasy football through the playoffs.

Yeah, he looks good to me. Looks good. I took him out for that early pump for next year. The pump. No. All right. One category left. Oh, it's the most prestigious award given to mankind. The Nobel Peace Prize is garbage compared to the nickname of the year. Footie Award. Oh, so many options this year. Oh, there's some great ones.

The Mad Hatter. Who can forget? Oh, C.J. Fedorowitz. You can forget. You crazy mad hatter. The Ralls. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thomas Rawls. Tyreek. The freak. The woke one himself. Oh, Kristen Michael. The competition in this category is unbelievable. The slippery fish? Are you kidding me? Shady? Lashon McCoy. Or how about hooked? Ha!