Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - NFC East Breakdown, News, Mailbag

bringing in Ryan Matthews. I'm curious your guys' thoughts as when we get to them about their past catching abilities and how that affects Darren Sproul's role in that offense. They were a number five overall offense last year in terms of yards per game. Pretty much, you know, top 10 across the board. They brought in San Bradford, obviously. Foles is gone. They drafted Nelson Aguilar, a guy I really liked out of USC in the first round at the wide receiver position as they lost.

Jeremy Macklin. So a lot of turnover. LaShawn McCoy's gone. Are we just hanging our hat on Chip Kelly here? Absolutely. I am. Because if this exact situation happened on another offense somewhere else, we might say, ah, we've got to wait and see. Yeah, I'm not waiting and seeing at all. I got this stat from Matthew Berry's shout out to Mr. Rota. Since 2013, when Chip Kelly took over, here's the...

Here's the quarterbacks who have outscored the Eagles quarterback. As we know, there have been injuries and things, but if you combine the Eagles quarterback to be one person, three quarterbacks have scored more. Randall Cunningham, that's his name. Sure, Randall Cunning. Here's the guys who have scored more than the Eagles quarterbacks. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck. That's it. And Sam Bradford, we're forgetting about San Bradford in 2013, was a quarterback. He only played seven games. In seven games with...

The Rams with nobody there was a quarterback won four times. I am all over San Bradford, assuming he's healthy, coming into the season. Yeah, that's why you care so much about Sanchez, right? Exactly. Because the Eagles quarterback is worth drafting. It's definitely something to watch. And, of course, that's going to change who receives the targets from them. You know, different quarterbacks have different rapport with different receivers. Let me bring this up here. There's a lot of people that play best ball leagues, MFL tens, those type of things.

Are you saying a good strategy might be to just take Sanchez and Bradford? Yeah, that's not bad. Has your last two picks of the draft or something? No. No, I would say no. I would do it. I wouldn't do it because you're going to lock up a... It would take two roster spots to lock up one single position. Yeah, that's true. But you're guaranteeing a... You're guaranteeing one of those quarterbacks, but you still need multiple quarterbacks in an MFF. I don't know. It was an interesting thought. Yeah, I mean, I can see. I don't have a problem with that. I just wouldn't do it myself. So...

Let's try to get our heads around the wide receiver position a little bit. Jordan Matthews had, I believe, about 85 catches last year, 860, 9 touchdowns, 8 touchdowns. He had 85 catch. Oh, no, that's Macklin. Sorry. Yeah, I think. He only had 67 catches. 67 catches, 8702 yards, 8 touchdowns. There you go. So he was in that, you know, he came in as a rookie. He made his mark. He was definitely the second best.

a fantasy receiver on that team, Macklin is out the door. Mike has made a point over the last, you know, a few months about the fact that Kelly produces a wide receiver one generally. Yeah, got career years from D-Jex and then the following year, Matt. Right. Now, the only thing I'm going to say to that, because both of those guys are, we're in the league longer, okay? That's fair. Jordan Matthews was. And if you ask Chip Kelly what his offense is, it is a running offense.

It is predicated on the run and the short pass. And so the offense dictates where the ball goes. So sometimes it's Nelson Aguilar. Sometimes it's going to be Jordan Matthews. It's going to be Ertz. It's going to be Sproles. It's going to be Matthews or Murray out of the backfield. So for me, because of how long Matthews has been in the league and because I don't believe that he's necessarily, I'm the only one in this group that doesn't believe he's a wide receiver one guaranteed. Oh, I don't. Jason doesn't. I've got a wide receiver two. So I guess my point is I want to keep.

In mind, maybe Aguilar's value should be higher and Matthew should be lower. Because the offense predicates where the ball goes, a lot of quick screen passes, and it's a running offense. So I think you will get stinkers even out of guys like Matthews in this offense. I agree that whoever's taking the ball long is going to have the good value.

based on this offense, right? The run sets up the pass. You bring the defense in, you go over the top, and that's where Jeremy Macklin lived. That's where Deshawn Jackson lived, and that's where Nelson Aguilar could live, or maybe Jordan Matthews, we'll see. But what we do know is that Jordan Matthew... Or Josh Huff. Or Josh Huff, for sure, or Zach Ertz. So we've got to keep our eye on it, but what we do know...

that helps us is that Jordan Matthews is an incredibly good wide receiver. His hands were among the best last year. We're talking to Odell Beckham Best. His ranking on pro football focus was, I think it was like, it was definitely top 10 last year. And among the rookie receivers from reception, his success against coverage was, I think, second or third best.

Yeah, so he's super talented, and he's got the opportunity this year. We'll see what role they put him in, but I do like him a lot. I think that there's a very high, high, high floor, and then there's also high potential upside. So that's where I like drafting a guy like that. He only played 65% of the snaps, by the way. Yeah, he had a great year. He had a great year because that offense is dynamic. Eight touchdowns is a rookie. That's great. Zach Ertz is a guy getting a lot of buzz this off season. Brent Selig.

You don't like the buzz or you don't like Ertz? I don't like the buzz. I love Ertz. Is it just easy? I mean, he was just so easy when he was like going in the 10th and then the 9th and then the 8th and now he's going in the 7th. You knew it was coming. I know, but when he was in the 10th, that was my guy that I was like, this is my target this year and I was planning to get Zach Ertz in my drafts. And now I'm like, well, now in the 7th, I think he's worth it. But.

I'd rather have a running back or wide receiver there personally. So I'm just upset by that. But I do think if you're the type of player that wants a good tight end and you just have to have one, Zach Ertz is absolutely worth the seventh. Got to have that tight in. Mike? Yeah. Ertz thoughts. I like Ertz a lot. His upside is we don't even know how high he can go right now. He had almost 60 catches, 700 yards playing 50% of the snaps.

everything for Zekertz is can he block? Did he improve his physicality enough over the off season where he's going to get on the field? If he gets on the field in the 70 percentile of snaps, then he can easily hit 900 to 1,000 yards, which for a tight end, that's exactly what you want. He has to be able to do that. I worry that he's going to be somebody that you know right away whether you made a right decision on because if they're a running offense.

And if he cannot predict, you can blow smoke all offseason about being able to block. If you don't block in the first two games on a running offense for DeMarco Murray, you might be crying about Zach Ertz, but I'm not predicting that. I'm just saying he seems like a guy that's not, you know, Jason Whitton's going to be on the field. You know Jason Witton's going to be on the field. Will you guys want to talk about the running backs real quick? Yeah. Yeah. Man, a lot of fantasy implications for all of the.

the Eagles players because of the offense that they're on. And so let's talk about the question I brought up earlier. Murray and Matthews can both catch the ball. Is this the year Sproles takes a step back? No, it makes no difference on Sproles because they cannot catch the ball any better than LaShaul McCoy could.

Lisham McCoy can catch the ball just as good. Well, that's just one guy, though. Now they've got two guys. Well, but they're not, I mean, how often are DeMarco Murray and Ryan Matthews is going to be on the field at the same time? That's not what I'm talking about. Matthews will take third down snaps away from Sproles. That's what I'm talking about. My point is I think that they're going to use Aaron Sproles in the same way they used him, and they're going to mix. I don't see it taking away from him. But I do, when it comes to Ryan Matthews, that's the running back that I want the most on this team.

Oh, I won't. You got to keep talking then. Well, from a value of where you get him. So, DeMarco Murray, I think, is actually a good value in the second right now. But to get Ryan Matthews in the ninth behind a guy who, granted, he played 16 games last year, but the reason that DeMarco Murray wasn't super highly drafted going into last year is why? Because he's notoriously injured.

And now he's got the money, he got paid the contract. And I think that there's a good chance that with that workload behind him, the reason that not everybody came running after him is because of that. So you got Ryan Matthews behind him. And if, by chance, DeMarco Murray goes down, Ryan Matthews is a top five back. He's not just a good back. He's in a great offense as the Hulk there. So, I mean, I don't see other players in the ninth that have that kind of potential.

You know, when you're drafting running backs in the ninth, I mean, what backup are you going to get that could do that? You're not. And what do DeMarco Murray and Ryan Matthews have in common? Well, they're both injury prone. They've both played one full season. Yeah. Well, it's always hard with a guy like Matthews because I don't disagree with the opportunity. But here's your situation sometimes. When you spend, what round did you say? Ninth.

So if you spend a ninth round pick on Ryan Matthews, and the first three games of the season, he gets eight carries, six carries, seven carries. He produces nothing on the fantasy. Are you going to keep that roster spot for him all year long? If you're not a DeMarco or would you rather spend the ninth round pick on Isaiah Crowell or somebody that has higher potential outside of an injury? Yeah. Well, so here are the guys.

going around him that you could do that with, right? So behind him, tell me if you'd prefer Bishop Sanky or Charles Sims or Darren Sproles? I would take a chance on a Bishop Sanky over Ryan Matthews. You would? You would draft Sanky over Matthews, probably. Yeah. I would not take Sanky over Matthews, but I get the point, right? I mean, you've got the starter who's, you know, going to get the first crack.

All right, let's go ahead and talk about Washington. That's a good discussion on Philly. I'm sure there's much more to say, and we will say it as we kind of go through rankings and talk through these guys and see how camp looks. But the Redskins are a team with players. They, yeah, well said. They are a professional football team. Yeah, and actually, these numbers surprise me, Mike. They surprised me when I was putting them in. You put them in here, right?

The 11th best passing offense in terms of yards per game, the 13th best offense? You're not remembering Captain Kirk how dominant he was for his stretch. That was a short stretch, my first. It was a short stretch, but it was a good one. I will never forget the car crash that was that Thursday night football game. Yeah, neither will I. You were starting him that week, weren't you? So they do have, Kirk Cousins is still on the roster. RG3 is slotted to take that first.

uh quarterback spot and you know camp reports all that good stuff they like to say i mean so far so good for the j gruden rg three rapport this off season saying that uh griffin has made some strides under their new quarterbacks coach they've added an offensive tackle in the first round they added matt jones the running back in the third round they did add a wide receiver jameson crowder in the fourth

And they added a guard in the forest, so they're doing some things to kind of solidify that offensive line. Roy Halu is gone, and so that's an important point because we do want to talk about Matt Jones in that third down roll opportunity. Alfred Morris has yet to, this is just breaking news for you, he's yet to find his hands. So he doesn't catch the ball. No. And then you've got Garsohn, you got Deshaun Jackson and Andre Roberts. So let's talk a little bit. Is there something that jumps out that you want to talk about the Redskins?

Yeah, I want to talk about Alfred Morris. Because I know, Mike, you've been high on him. And so I kind of want to debate. I want to know what I'm missing because I see a trend that doesn't point very well on him.

Alfred Morris, he receives the lion's share of carries, right? So Roy Hulu only got 40 carries last year, and that was pretty much it, and then Alfred Morris got 265. So, but if you look at his, you know, his yards per carry, you always talk about this with quarterbacks, where are they trending or other players, comes into the league rookie year 4.8 yards of carry. Then 4.6. Last year, 4.1. Down, down, down. And then they draft a running back.

Yeah, and he's a free agent. So, you know, why are you not scared about Alfred Morris? Well, I am. I've actually moved him down. All right. I still like him, though, because, yeah, he's trending down. He still had 265 carries for over 1,000. He still had an over 4 yards per carry average. And his success is partially tied to Robert Griffin and Robert Griffin's ability to run.