Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - BONUS Episode: Mailbag and Listener Questions

It's not an either or. That's my answer. That's your answer? What do you think? Don't believe that it's an either or. Find the value and find grade A receivers and match them with those top-tier running backs. Either strategy. Maybe that's a cheater answer. Well, it sort of is, but the truth is either strategy can work. Dude, we just did it.

Yeah, that was essentially what I said. I said neither strategy is bad. If you had to do either one is great. I said grab studs. If you have to choose, you know, you can do either, I would prefer to do the running backs. But it's just a matter of who's on the board and grabbing the studs versus filling out the roster. There's a lot of people who are wide receivers. That's what they want. They want the elite wide receivers at the beginning of the draft because they're theoretically safer. They are safer. Well, not theoretically.

Yes, they're safer than running backs, but it's actually not as high as people think. People think it's an automatic where running backs is about 50%, but when I've broken everything down, still to me, I'm going to take that risk because that 50% player is league changing for your team if you have one. All right, this one comes in from Baraki, Tudix, from Phoenix.

Oh, hey, a fellow zonian. He says, hey, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimley. That's, uh... You're all over that one. Scooby-Doo. I'm just trying to distribute these characters across. Oh, the three of us? Yeah. Well, clearly we got Gimley here with the man, Bud, and the beard. I mean, Mike's... I guess that makes... Um... I... Yeah, you gotta be... You're more of an Oreo Gorn.

Oh, very nice. All right. He says, when playing in multiple leagues, how much importance do you put on having similar players across your teams, especially in relation to running backs and quarterbacks? Do you typically lean towards diversifying your bonds or sticking with one player that you really like? Well, I've got an answer for this one. Okay.

Because I answered this on YouTube. Oh, no way. How did this get tossed in here? I don't know. Well, my answer is if I believe that I have a difference-making player ranked in my rankings, like Ariam Foster for me this year, is dropping in every draft that I'm in. He's my number one running back. So I'm going to take him in pretty much every league because I'm betting on the difference-making player that I really believe in.

If it gets the middle rounds and it's guys that are more of a coin toss, I might diversify a little bit. I mean, I don't necessarily want to go with Charles Johnson in every single league if I believe in Michael Floyd, the same as I do in Charles Johnson. I might spread it around because I don't want to get buried in every league because I've been wrong once or twice. Yeah, and it's also...

you know, if you're in different leagues, you're drafting in different positions. And so the guys that are in one slot, if you're drafting from the first or from the 12th, you're probably for the first several rounds going to be talking about totally different guys. And so it's going to be different. I would say for me, if I'm in like a paid, like if you do 10 different MFL leagues, I would rather diversify assets because I'm putting money in. And if it pays out 10 times, I'd like to diversify. But don't you want to win all 10 leagues because of the one guy that you know about?

Yeah, that sounds like a stupid gambler versus smart gamblers. Oh, that's why I never won money. Let me spin this question to you, Mike. All right. And look towards, how often do you reach for your guy? Frequently. Because even if you might be early. Yeah. I don't mind going around even two rounds early if I'm very confident on a player. It depends on the position. But if.

If I have that feeling in my gut, I go with it. Yeah. All right, this one comes in from Kevin from Pittsburgh, and we haven't answered it already on YouTube. So that's just, you know, that was intentional to tease people to go and look at the YouTube channel. I see what you did. He says they keep three players with no penalty and the draft begins in round four, which is pretty normal. 10-team PPR League, he has to choose between Aaron Rogers, Demarius Thomas, Jordy Nelson.

Odell Beckham Jr. and Rob Grankowski. Which three of those five do you keep? Mike. My first question is, what is the scoring system? Well, the quarterback does get three bonus points for 25 completions and three bonus points for 300 yards passing. And then you have bonuses for the other. Right, like normal hundred. Pretty normal. Yeah. That actually changes it for me that I'm going to keep Rogers.

So that's significant enough of a bonus structure to keep Rogers. Because Rogers is frequently going to be above 25 and 300, far more than the streamers. When I stream a guy, what I want is two touchdowns and 250 yards. That's my goal. So I'm not thinking I'm going to get a guy who's going to 300 yards. So with no penalty with Rogers. So I'm going to go Rogers, Gronk, and Jordy. Okay. Yeah.

I think, I like the idea of taking Rogers because of the scoring system and because in reality he's your third pick. You know, or, you know, you could say that. You're, you've already got two other guys. But because of that, I don't like spending two of my three on the Titan and quarterback. I think that just leaves you so depleted. In a PPR. Yeah. In any, in any league, if you take the quarterback and the Titan early, every time I'm done with that draft, I just hate my team because I'm so.

much weaker running back in wide receiver, and those are the most important position. So for me, I would take Aaron Rogers, Demarius Thomas, and Jordan Nelson. Yeah, but Gronk is essentially a wide receiver one pick that you can play in your tight-ins line. Well, I was going to say, Gronk is definitely in for me, and that's simply, he's not better in PPR than he is in standard. You might even argue. I mean, he's not a PPR tight-in. Right, exactly. That's my point. He's a great difference-making tight-in regardless of format, but he doesn't get a bump because he's...

He's in PPR to me. I would say compared to other tight ends, he gets a PPR bomb. No, very nominal. It's small. But he gets targeted more than any other tight end. No. No, he wasn't even his, his catch. His catch totals. If you look at his snap count, he was actually lower than. I don't want snap count. No, not targets. You don't get points per target. My point is he was around Kelsey's snap count. He was like 100 more than Kelsey. He wasn't in the 1,000 range. And he doesn't get.

Quite as much as you'd think. But you're distracting me from my answer here, which is Rob Grankowski. I'm going to go Grankowski, O'Dow Beckham, Jr., and Jordy Nelson. I'm going to leave Aaron off. So not a consensus there. We really didn't. Wait, no, no, hold on. So if there's a lot of tight ends with more catches than Grongkowski, how many. Well, you only play 12, so I would guess four or five. Three.

Okay, three. So he's fourth, so I would say he gets a little bump. It's not necessarily that he has more or less catches. It's just a matter of does it matter much in PPR, the difference between them? Does he get a different bump than somebody else in PPR? And I just don't see it. Yeah, he gets a little bump, but not. All right. Doesn't really change it.

But so, sorry, Kevin, that we just gave you details of three different ways you can go. And we do that a lot with questions because, I mean, we agree all the time on some things and we don't agree on others, but hopefully you've got perspective on each of those guys in your scoring system to where you can make a decision that. Yeah. You've got to make the final decision here, Buckland. Whitey from Michigan.

He says, I am a huge Detroit Lions fan and a huge fan of the show. I believe Joyke Bell is going to lose the starting position before he ever hits the field. Whoa, before then? Breaking news. What is the earliest round that you would draft Amir Abdullah? Mike, what is the earliest you would draft your man crush? Whitey. Whitey is telling the truth up in Detroit. A fan who watches Joyke Bell constantly.

constantly. And the answer is fifth round. I will take Abdullah in the fifth round. Yeah, that's a lot of conviction there. Yeah, cool. I think that answers it. All right. Because Mike's clearly going to be the highest. Carter from Edmund, Oklahoma. Hey, guys, new listener to the podcast, love the divisional breakdowns. I can keep three of the four going into the next year. DeMarco Murray, Justin Forsett, Mark Ingram, and Lamar Miller. Which three would you keep?

It is a half-point PPR. And he has a second part of this question, but I'm going to let us answer the first. Everyone but Ingram. Right? Yeah. That's, oh, there you go. All right. He also is drafting sixth in his rookie dynasty draft in the same league. There's a chance that Yeldon will still be there, but he will more than likely be choosing between Tevin Coleman and Amir Abdullah. What should I do?

Now, that's a good question because I had somebody actually, I emailed them back today and they were looking for, they were starting, they're transitioning to a keeper dynasty format, and they wanted to know what mid-round running backs you would consider investing in. And the two guys I told them were Tevin Coleman and Amir Abdulla because you want to look for mid-round values that have a path to a starting job. And both Amir Abdullah and Tevin Coleman, despite what you think, I don't actually believe Jake Bell is going to be.

there forever. And so, Abdullah has a very clear path to a significant role in a good offense. Same with Coleman, if, you know, Freeman doesn't do anything special. If Freeman stinks? Yeah, if Freeman stinks. Coleman's sitting there. And there are a couple other guys, but which would you choose between those two? I am extremely torn because Freeman is actually similar to Jason.

previous of the shower. So like the three days without a shower, that's how bad he stinks, because Devande Freeman stinks. So, oh, man, I think I would lean Coleman, even though I'm on the Abdul Express, but Coleman is on that, the Falcons are a more high-powered offense, so that's the guy I would lean with. I am as well, Coleman, and I would actually take Coleman over Yeldon, even if Yeldon falls, in a dynasty. Now, in a redraft, I like...

Abdullah more than Coleman this year because I'm really confident Abdullah has a role this year that will be getting enough in a PPR or a half point PPR. He's going to be worked in from the beginning and I think second half of the year he's going to do well. We talked about this a little bit with Atlanta, I think it was last show or the show before, where Devante Freeman could, he's going to get the first crack at it. I, you think he's going to. In preseason he will.

You, Andy, think that he's going to retain the first role. I think it's 1A1B. Right. And I think that Devante Freeman will not be able to hold that and Tevin Coleman will go. But in a dynasty setting, I think Tevin Coleman has a good opportunity to become more of a three-down back type. Abdullah, to me, he says he can be a three-down back. But I think his body size and type of player, I think he's always going to be in that

you know, role where he has to have other backs there. Yeah, I don't think either guy's ever going to be a, I mean, there are very, very, very few three-down monster backs. I mean, even we're going to see it this year in Dallas, the transition to, I mean, Randall probably could handle it physically, but I don't think you're going to see it because very few teams are willing to do that. So here's a little follow-up question. Owen from Boca Raton, Florida, says, where do you consider the highest pick?

you would draft Gronkin in a standard in a PPR league. And this is a great question, because I've been drafting in Mox and MFL tens, and he is going as, he went three in one of those drafts? Yeah. I think in a best ball type of league, I like that. Man, the ping pong of Rob Grankowski is hilarious to me. If you've been playing fantasy football for the past few years, you have seen...

insane fear on draft day about drafting him where he goes way down the list or you've seen this, which is up to the top. I like him in the back half of a first round, is where I can still get a premium guy. If I'm spinning the fifth pick where I've seen a lot of times people take them like five, you know, if you're in a 12-team league, where are you drafting again? You're drafting what in the late?

teens. So I would much prefer to take him, you know, if he can fall to the ninth or tenth pick and I can pick another stud guy a couple picks later, that's where I would take him. If I'm in the middle and all the stud RBs are gone, that my elite running backs, not including Hill, because I don't take Hill or that early, then I would strongly consider it. That would be the earliest I would do it. So I tell myself eight is the threshold for me, but let me ask you, Mike.