Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early QB Rankings Part 2

of the running game. Who are they going to give the ball to? Is it going to be more Jimmy Hill? They lost two wide receivers. Is Eifert going to be that potent in the red zone? Or is it going to be the running game? I love AJ Green. I like Andy Dalton just fine. But again, one year of more than 30 touchdowns in his career out of five seasons. That's enough for me to say, I'm not going to move him up into that upper echelon. Doesn't mean he can't finish there, but that's the disparity that I see. And obviously, it's a big one between those two guys.

I fall on the side of, hey, I've had enough Andy Dalton. Okay, that's fair. Marcus Marietta at 15 in our consensus rankings. We talked about him earlier, had the longest play from scrimmage for a touchdown last year. Rush from scrimmage last year. He's somebody who... Andy's boy. Yeah. How high do I have him? Seven, right? Seven. We have this really unique thing in our rankings that obviously we did not try to do, but I have Andy Dalton at seven.

where Mike has him at 13 and Andy at 25. At 7, Mike has Philip Rivers where Andy's got him at 17 and 11. And at 7, Andy has Marcus Marriota where the two of us don't have him nearly as high at 16 and 22. So for some reason, lucky number 7s. It's like a casino thing. Are you spinning sevens? This is all of our risk position for some reason. That's very high for Mario. I think I told you both. I doubt he stays at 7. However,

I do see him as a QB1. I think that you saw over the second half of the season, well, over the entirety of the season, a very accurate quarterback who had very few weapons. Now you add DeMarco Murray, two new offensive linemen. You add Terry Robisky as the offensive coordinator, somebody who I think is going to, who is more creative. But he lost Ken Wisenhunt.

Again, another plus, another checkbox. We'll see what they do in the draft. I think they could draft another offensive weapon at the wide receiver position to go with Green Beckham and a returning Kendall Wright, a very reliable Delaney Walker and a guy who can run the ball. He does not make a lot of mistakes. You talk about the difference between, you know, I bet just about everything on him having about half the interceptions that Winston has next year. Because Mariotta takes care of the ball. He's very accurate. He didn't have a lot of weapons.

Just from a statistical standpoint, that offense has to improve. I have a lot of confidence in Marioita being a weapon. And when a guy can run the ball a little bit, put up those yards, I like him. Maybe it's a little too high. I'll be first to admit. Seven sounds too high. The problem with me for Mariotta is I just don't see the scoring as far as touchdowns. I mean, he had 19 touchdowns in 12 games.

uh you know that puts them on pace for you know like about one and a half a game which that can absolutely can improve i'm not saying that i just don't see i don't see a huge jump coming for there i would be shocked if mariotta threw over 30 touchdowns i i think does he need to to be a one though i think he does i mean you like because for as much as we think of him as a running quarterback 12 games 252 yards 87 yards on one play that's

That's about a third of the production in one play, which that was also the second longest rush by a quarterback in history. Now, if he's going to continue to give me historical runs, I can jump on board with Mario. Rushing attempts went up in the second half of Malarkey took over. Yeah, it is true. I think when you look at his game log and you go back and watch the film, I was actually a little bit surprised with Marietta. I did not think just kind of feelings-wise at the end of last year that he was very,

pass happy. He wasn't a quarterback that was going to put up yards in my mind. He was much more the Russell Wilson build. And as I went back and kind of investigated game by game, and look, he surprised me. We forget that on his last game, if you're just looking through the game log, he went out early in that game. So he was actually on pace. He was on pace for almost right on the dot, over 4,000 yards.

if you take that injured game that he basically did not play in out of the equation. And I was surprised by that to see that Mariotta, Mariotta, was on pace for 4,000 yards. But he's not as big a runner as... You know who he feels like to me? Now he's a little bit better of an athlete. He feels like Alex Smith.

He feels like that's what his career path is going to be. It could be. That's not the worst. Yeah, again, it's not the worst. I think Alex Smith is a good quarterback. No, but from a fantasy perspective, it wouldn't be good. Right. Yeah. That's, they remind me of it. From an accuracy perspective, can run better than people think. Yeah. Doesn't really focus on the long ball at all. Yeah. Last year, I believe Mariotta was the least accurate over 20 yards. Yes. Over 20 yards in the air, he was the least accurate passer in the league. I just, I, I, I, I, I,

That wasn't premeditated. I just thought of that now, and then I'm going to go with that. Marcus Smith. Marcus Smith. I hope that's not the case. You know, he certainly was more prolific in college, but, you know, Smith was in that level too. He certainly, the big argument for him is weapons. Last year, he had nobody. Kindle Wright got injured, and it was basically Delaney Walker. This year, he's got so many more weapons. And that makes such a difference. Zero wide receivers in the top 50 in fantasy.

That's incredible. For Tennessee. If you put... I mean, that doesn't do very... That doesn't help. I would love to see one of these, like a Coleman, a Doxon. Personally, I wouldn't want them to be on there, but if you add a guy like that to a really potent guy to that offense, then that improves my opinion on him. All right, so let's move on. Where are we at? 16. Yep. All right, 16 is Ryan Fitzpatrick. He had a career year last year. He gave two.

Wide receiver is the opportunity to be ones, essentially, with Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker having double-digit touchdown seasons. You know, he threw 31 touchdowns, which, you know, when you think of a career year, maybe you don't think 31 is a career year. But for Fitzpatrick, he does run the ball a little bit. Yeah, he does. He had a pretty low pass rating. He's kind of a gun slinger. Interceptions are an issue at times. Consistency is not what you get out of him. For him being ranked this high, he really falls into a streamer-only category for me.

Yeah, I agree with that. He's going to be a situational play, not a guy you draft. When you pick your guy at the draft, you're picking a guy, if you're using our strategy and you're picking late, you're picking a guy that you hope can blow up and be in every single week starter. That's why a guy like a James Winston, there's reason to believe if he took a step forward, he could develop into that. Whereas Ryan Fitzpatrick, even last year, he finished as the 11th quarterback, which is...

you know, essentially about where I've got him ranked for this next year, assuming status quo. And so if he finishes 11th, that's not a guy you're going to play every week, even though he's a quarterback one. That's a guy that you're going to have to pick the matchups and start when he's, you know, on the road against a super easy team or at home in not winter for Fitzpatrick. Kind of did not do well. For a lumberjack, man, he really falls apart in the winter.

He wouldn't do well in the world of Game of Thrones. And he is tied again. We'll say this. Our rankings are so close in this group of guys. This is another three-way tie for 16th. So him and the next two guys all tied for that slot. Now, at 17, we have Colin Kaepernick, which I think might be interesting for a lot of people. But 17 is right in the middle of the pack. We have the entertaining pleasure right now of having this stand, this standoff between Mike and Jason.

and myself, we'll call you the north side of the desk. Okay. I'm on the south side, and the south side believes that Kaepernick is going to be a 49er, which, honestly, most of my ranking of Colin Kaepernick here has to do with his potential in a Chip Kelly offense to just have some big games, give up, get opportunities to run the ball. You know, that being said, news broke today that Chip Kelly apparently really likes Blaine Gabbard, and so we don't know that Kaepernick's a starter, but if he was in San Francisco, I think he can do some things.

You know, Sam Bradford certainly wasn't a pleasant surprise last year, but he did have some good games. So it will be very interesting. You guys believe he'll be traded to Denver, and that's the reason why we're having a standoff. Well, yeah, but that's, and that's for fun. I've actually ranked him in the Kelly system as well. And I think it will be very interesting to finally see Chip Kelly with.

his style of quarterback. I mean, you think back of what Kelly's gotten done in Philadelphia. You had Sam Bradford, who is a statue. You have Nick Foles, maybe even more of a statue. I mean, he just, Sanchez can kind of move, can kind of move, but he hasn't had his. It's, it's like, I don't know if Cabernet is his, though. Would you say that that's his style, though? I mean, if he, if he's, if he's.

you know, had the last several years of not really having a running quarterback. Are you just saying it's his style because of his college play in Oregon? Yes, I'm saying for college because he wanted to run his offense in the pros. And if it's, I just think it will be, I think Kaepernick will be a better fit for certain things that he wants to get done. I mean, you saw, they were doing read option type stuff in Philadelphia and Colin Kaepernick can get it done.

in that Colin Kaepernick succeeds greatly in formations like the pistol. He has to be accurate because he's a career 59% guy, so he has to jump up to that 65% range to be good in Kelly system. I think that running really helps improve his accuracy because guys will be more open. You know, it's interesting you guys are talking all about this Chip Kelly system because I believe I will stat him up.

from where I have him now, if he gets traded to Denver. Because the weapons that you have to throw the ball to in San Francisco, sure, he might run the ball or run more plays because of Chip Pakely's system. But I would much rather have a guy that's throwing to Demarius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders than throwing to Tori Smith and... Garrett and Cairot, sell it. Yeah, so, you know... Smelter. Okay, well, that, I mean, that is the debate with Cameron. I think it's kind of a...

Even though he's 17, he's kind of don't touch for me right now. Just wait and see what's going on. He's probably a streaming guy. Yes. But he's interesting with the Kelly or the Denver situation. At 18, you have Tony Romo, somebody who I think is probably out of this next group is one of my favorite values because he could get hurt again. I mean, that's the real truth. He could get hurt again, so he's going to drop down. He could. But when he plays...

And he has Des Bryant. He's great. He's really good.

I have Tony Romo at 12. He is my last quarterback one. I think that he's a sneaky grab this year because of his injuries last year. He's shown in fantasy that he can put up great numbers with Des Bryant. I believe Tony Romo is a guy that I'm going to be targeting in a lot of my drafts because if I left my draft with Tony Romo, I'm happy. I think I've got a quarterback that can, if I did a good job in the rest of my draft, I can go and win a championship.

barring injury. So last year obviously was collarbone squared. That's what we'll call the season. He broke the collarbone a couple of times. But in 2014, last full season, he led the league in completion percentage, almost 70%. Yards per attempt, passer rating, and QBR. But he didn't have a high volume of touchdowns because they were, that was the DeMarco Murray's year. Right. I think this, we need to repeat this. He led the league in YPA.

So he's bombing the ball out the yard and completion percentage. That's ridiculous to lead the league in both of those numbers. And Des Bryant is a huge part of that. He had 21 touchdowns. This is 2014. 21 touchdowns in the red zone. Romo is just, I love Tony Romo personally. And that does hurt my heart a little bit because I don't want to root for the Cowboys.

but I think Romo is a great quarterback and I was shocked when I saw he was at he's at 18 for me right now and that's just where he happened to get statted out but I'm with Jason I love Romo for fantasy purposes I would not mind taking him with my third to last pick if he happened to be available and that's my only quarterback going into the season I'd be

perfectly fine with that. What is the, we talk a lot about, you know, our draft kit coming up and we've got that risk ranking. What is your risk evaluation of Tony Romo since he's broken his collarbone three times, but now allegedly has done something to enforce it to stop it from breaking again? The way that Tony Romo plays is as much to do with his injury risk as simply his collarbone. He is somebody who makes plays in the pocket.