Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Breaking News, Training Camp, This-or-That

And look, he played, if he's playing lighter, he'll be able to do that. He's in top shape. He's got the drive. Ryan Fitzpatrick, please come back. Now there are reports they're not talking. Yeah. I mean, talk about just, this is one of those situations that is going to dominate the news of the fantasy off season, and then he's going to sign and we're all going to forget about it. Yeah, and I hope. We agree to disagree on that. That hell sign?

Yeah, the Hill sign. Yesterday started their training camp. They were a training camp on Wednesday for the Jets, and Ryan Fitzpatrick was not there. So you now officially don't believe he's going to sign with them? No, but I think it's 50-50. Oh, you've reduced. I'm still 85-15. Yeah, you're still 85% that you think fits. I mean, I have reduced to the point of being 50-50. I still think, I mean, it makes all the sense in the world for him to be there, for them to...

give them the offer. They have the money. They can very easily convert some of their cap room without trouble. So they have the money to give him. I just very high on Marshall. On the last show we did on Tuesday, he was my favorite pick from the current third round ADP right now. Go get him. Go get him. That's what I'm telling you. 32 years old is not that old.

for a wide receiver of his caliber. You know, you think about the guys that are true beasts for 7, 8, 9, 10 years. You know, you're Steve Smith. Steve Smith was putting up monster numbers at 36, at 35, at 34. You want me to bet my house on which double-digit wide receiver has a chance to keep doing it? How about Brandon Marshall? Give me that over Alan Robinson. Double-digit, you mean? Touchdowns. Double-digit touchdowns. I'm just saying, like, those are those numbers you say they're hard to predict year to year. Just give me Brandon Marshall.

He's a monster. They throw it to him in the red zone. Look, I've got more news. We've got to get through a few more blurbs of news. We're going to play this and that with a special guest here in just a minute. Is there a piece of news here you want to get out before we move on to the game? Because there is a report from the Miami Herald saying Foster. Aaron Foster is the favorite to start over J. Ajai.

As long as Foster is completely healthy. I know Mike's on the Ajai train. That's interesting. We need to monitor that. I think we should talk about that next episode when we've got a little bit more information. I still, look, I'm not going to invest heavily in Foster, who has the world record for injuries.

You know, we just talk about Jordy. When you come back from one injury, it leads to another. He's coming back from a heart injury. He's leading to it. So I'm not trusting Aryan Foster this year. We added Dorio Green Beckham to our bust potential list because of where he's being drafted in the thought process on Dorio Green Beckham. There's a report that Andre Johnson is working out for the Titans right now. They sign Richard and Matthews. They have other pieces in the fold. Their Kendall Wrights looked really good in camp. I just think, man, I mean, for that offense and the amount of passing they do, Dorio Green Beckham belongs in that stay away category. Agreed.

All right. Is there anything else you want to see? You want to talk about it? Let's bring in a good friend. All right. Let's play a game. All right. We like playing games here on the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Today we're going to play a game of this or that. This is something we played with Brandon, Marion Lee from Pro Football Focus. Now, Mike is not here, Jason. Mike is not here. No, it's a great day. Yeah, it's a great day. Mike's not here. But look, if we play a game of this or that and you and I have some sort of.

disagreement. They have to have a tiebreaker. There's no one to tie. And the most natural fit to bring on to the show is a professional stock car racer, NASCAR driver. Ty Dillon is here. What? Yeah. Ty Dillon, also a fantasy football junkie. How are you doing, Ty. I'm doing great, man. It's cool to be on the show, and glad I could be the tiebreaker. I think it's a fitting name. Well, it's very important.

You know, we need, we need some decisions to be made here on the show. So we want to go through. This is really your audition. We're actively looking to replace Mike. Yeah, you're the first one. Send your resume along. Mike, Mike, we can get them out of here by the end of the week. But yeah, let's go through. We picked basically five head-to-head matchups here for a game of this or that. Guys that are really close in our consensus rankings as a show. And I want to get your take.

on who you would take in fantasy drafts as of today. Now, I want to start here, because I know you're a Carolina guy. I want to start with Cam Newton versus Russell Wilson. I'm a Russell Wilson guy this year, and so I'm going to put your fandom to the test, not that I'd blame you for choosing Cam, but where do you stand on the Cam Newton versus Russell Wilson for the upcoming season? That's tough. I'm a bit of a homer. I'm a huge Panthers fan, so I love Cam Newton. He's probably my favorite player.

My wife is from Seattle, so I am a team. I do watch all their games. That's going to be a tough one. I think Cam's actually got the better wide receiver core that has more potential, and I think he's definitely got the higher ceiling this year going on the year. All the thing that worries me is with Kelvin Benjamin coming back. Last year, his best attribute was that he was spreading the ball around and getting everybody involved and just made their packing game so much stronger and opened up the field for him to run.

When he gets Calvin back, I hope that he doesn't just zone in on him. I think Devin Funches has gotten a lot better. I think they have potential to be one of the best passing offenses this year because they finally have some receivers that can make something happen. And then on the Russell Wilson side, we don't know how long Jimmy Graham is going to be out. He might start the season. He might miss a couple games. And he wasn't really a factor last year. And I don't know if anybody really knows if Doug Baldwin was for real.

I know I like Tyler Lockett, and they've brought some pieces in through the draft to help their offense, but Russell Wilson is going to have a lot of work on his shoulders just to maintain that, you know, those fancy points that he puts up weekly. But I think he can probably get it done, but I do like the ceiling for Cam seems to be a lot higher. Yeah, I like that take. Jason, what do you think?

Yeah, no, I'm glad that you went Cam here because it gives some good perspective. I as well would go Russell Wilson. I think that what we saw after Jimmy Graham went down was the new offense, where they're putting it in his hands. And I think he is the better quarterback. Cam had, you know, crazy career highs across the board. Now, obviously, that's great. He took a step forward, but it's also a sign we've seen with a lot of quarterbacks where...

They take that huge step forward in the next year. It takes them a couple years to get back to that level. Both are great, but I would probably go Russell Wilson. They're definitely neck and neck. Let me ask you, piggyback on that real quick. You mentioned Kelvin Benjamin coming back. From a fantasy perspective, what do you think he does this year compared to his rookie year? Well, I know going into last year, the hype was huge, and he seemed like he had lost some weight going into the second season, and he was really dominating training camp, which you get a lot of those stories coming through training camp.

They really liked what they saw from him, and then he toured his ACL, and it was a non-contact play. So that kind of scares you a little bit. I feel like he'll get off to a little bit of a slow start, just being a little bit rusty. Hopefully he gets it all back through training camp. But I think he's got potential to be a top 10 receiver this year for sure. I think Cam's going to be hungry. He's kind of one of those guys that loves to prove doubters wrong, and he's got plenty of those. Coming off a Super Bowl loss, this team doesn't have hardly any turnover, and all they've done is added a few pieces.

I think they're going to be just as strong and probably one of the best offenses. I definitely like to target the best offenses when I'm drafting. Yeah, and I think you're probably in the majority with Cam over Russell. I think we're a little bit contrary on that, but they're pretty neck and neck here in our rankings. That's why we're bringing them up. So let me move on to a running back battle. Devonta Freeman.

burst onto the scene. He put up unsustainable numbers in those first 10 games, but they were incredible kind of fantasy-defining numbers for a lot of owners, fantasy owners. Devontha Freeman or Eddie Lacey in 2016. Oh, that's a tough one. Devonsa Freeman had some of that at points in the season last year. He looked like a superstar, probably the best runner back in the league. And then at the end, he kind of tailed off. Don't know if he was getting worn down or what. It seems like the Falcons.

The way they run their offense, they really, when they have somebody hit and they really just give them the ball. Like Julio Jones, they seemed like at the beginning of the season, the last couple of years, he was just on fire, catching all kinds of balls, all kinds of touchdown, and he kind of tapers off. And they went to DeFontza, and he was getting the ball a lot. And he got a lot of production, and then he kind of tapered off. So you kind of worry about them wearing out their stars because they don't really have too many on that offense, especially now. I think they just released.

Devin Hester, they don't have Roddy White. They don't have those guys that have been there for a while. And then you look at Eddie Lacey, the guy who has so much potential but doesn't seem to really care about helping anybody's fantasy teams. But I guess he has reports that he's lost weight, which seems to be the all-season story with him every year. Is he gaining weight or losing weight? I think when they get Jordy Nelson back, if they can get that passing game going again, I think Eddie Lacey's production from his rookie year.

comes back this year. So I think I like Eddie Lacey. He's got another year under his belt, and I think he's going to be a little more focused in this year. Yeah, I'm going to stick with Ty on this one. I'm definitely going Eddie Money. I think that when you look at who's behind both players, James Starks does not present a threat. He had the opportunity last year, and he did nothing with it. Kevin Coleman, I think actually...

does present a threat there for Devanta Freeman. So they're close in our rankings, but I would rather have Eddie Lacey. I'm more sure that he's going to be good than Devonta Freeman, which is weird since last year Devonta Freeman finished number one, and Eddie Lacey had a regress in year. But I believe in Eddie money this year. Yeah, and I'm going to go ahead and cheat.

And choose both guys. Oh, come. No, I'll take Eddie Lacey in a standard format, but I'll stick with Devanta Freeman. I think you're right about, you know, Hester and, you know, Roddy White's gone. Mahamasanoo's in there, but they do seem to ride their horses a little bit. And I think he'll just be involved in the passing game. Kevin Coleman, he could steal some first and second down work. But I like Lacey for standard leagues and Freeman for half point and full point PPR leagues.

Okay, let's give you another tough one here. PPR running back type of guys. Duke Johnson or Dionne Lewis. Kind of the opposite franchises here, but two guys that are very talented, up-and-coming players. What do you think about these two? I like Dionne Lewis, just because he has Tom Brady and Tom Brady's shown that if he has a pass-catching runnerback, he will throw it to him. He is coming off an injury.

hopefully he gets back in the mix again and gets back to the player he was. And I think if he can make it a full season, there'll be a top running back option, especially in PPR league. The one thing I don't like about Duke Johnson is there's a lot of hype coming out of college. And all they talk about is in the Browns is how talented he is. But he had opportunities last year and didn't really do anything with him. There was games where he was.

And they said that he was going to be the number one back, and he was going to get the work. And all he needed was more workload. Well, when he got it, he didn't really do much. So he could progress this off-season and hopefully he learned the game a little bit better. And they say he's got potential, but right now I'm going with a guy who proved it on the field. That's Dionne Lewis. Yeah, I'm really impressed, Ty. But you've got to stop stealing my guys. I am also going Dionne Lewis. The reason I would go Dionne Lewis.

is because I think both guys have potential to actually be very good, especially in the passing game. I would prefer to have the higher power offense. And most questions that come up with me on Dion Lewis, I end up not taking Dionne because I was so afraid of his body style and his injury history of whether or not he can do that for 16 games. But the reality is Duke Johnson is a smaller guy who had a crazy...

injury, history, and college, just kind of every game a little nicked up, missing chunks of games if he didn't miss the whole game. So if I've got to choose between those guys, I'm going with Tom Brady is my choice. And that leads me to Dionne Lewis. It's a clean sweep on this one. All right. I agree with that. I agree with that. Dionne Lewis, the offense. I'd rather have a piece of that. And you're high on Duke Johnson, so that means you must be like sky high on Dion.

Yeah, I like Dionne. Again, he has to stay healthy, like you said. All right, let's move on here to a couple of wide receivers. Demarius Thomas, Sammy Watkins. Demarius Thomas and Sammy Watkins. I know Jason is very high on Sammy Watkins in this studio. What's your take between these two guys? I think that, you know,