Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Free Agency Preview, News & Notes

Oh, yes. All of his texts are just going to. That's what he has set up for his agent. When the agent calls through, he just hears that. So let's start with the running backs. And I think the best way to go about this is we're going to give you the names of the guys that are out there. So you can have some, you know, this is a fun part of the year. It's fun to see guys. Very speculative. Every fan loves the new free agent to arrive.

on their team. They loved the visits. I mean, I remember when Peyton was a free agent before he went to Denver, he visited Arizona, and Mike and I, I remember we were just freaking out. We were all, oh, maybe. I remember when Joe Montana was visiting out here. That's a long time ago. And I, there's a rumor that the Cardinals had accidentally locked the front gate and it took like 20-something minutes to open it up for him to get in. Really? Yeah, no, it's a real story. That was, no, Joe Montana. Back before the Cardinals had any money or a reputable franchise.

All right, so what I want to do is I'm going to go through some of these names, but I want us to talk about really, Jason, the teams that need running backs. I mean, that's who. Yeah, that's where we need a start, right? Where are these fits going to happen? So the teams that need a running back, you've got Washington, they very well might need a running back. I assume Alfred Morris is going to be out. Tennessee Titans could very well use one. So far, everyone they've drafted has done nothing.

Dallas is the most sexy team, right? Everybody wants to go behind that offensive line. Nobody believes Darren McFadden can get it done. The Houston Texans losing Arian Foster have another. They didn't really lose him. Well, that's true. They booted him. They cut him out of town. I thought you said they quit him. Yeah, they did. They finally quit him. Carolina is someone in the draft that's been said to be looking at a running back despite Jonathan Stewart there. I can see that. He's usually been in a tandem. New England.

New England definitely needs an upgrade at running back because Dionne Lewis is not really their running back. He just lines up in that position and catches. Their weapon back. And then, of course, your Super Bowl champion, Denver Broncos, because they don't have any, do they have a running back even under contract? Joanne Thompson. Yeah. Ronnie Hillman, C.J. Anderson, both are able.

Ronnie Hillman's an unrestricted free agent. He's just gone. CJ Anderson, he did get a tender, but he was undrafted. Very surprising. An original round tender. Anyone that gives him some money, Broncos are not going to be able to match that or not choose to. And they get nothing. You get nothing.

It's true. If somebody signs anything. And Ronnie Hillman has still petitioned for Brock Osweather to join the team. So I think Hillman could stay around because I don't know if anybody's going to pay him. But we'll talk about that. Let's start at the top. Doug Martin and Lamar Miller are the guys that we see headlining this class. There's debate of whether we kind of believe Lamar Miller might actually be the best free agent running back, especially because you're going to probably pay less for him than Doug Martin. And he's 24. The age, you know, I was surprised to see that Doug Martin is 27 years old. I still view him.

like the exact same age as Lamar Miller. I would think both of those guys are 25, but it's surprises. You've got three years of more prime running back years for Lamar Miller than you do Doug Martin. But Doug Martin has certainly had a better, I would say a better career, better numbers on the ground. Better proven workload. He will get the bigger payday between the two. Because Lamar Miller, we complain. What do we complain about last year? He doesn't get the touches. Well, and if you haven't gotten the touches before, how do you know if you hold up?

You don't know if Lamar Miller can take 270, 300 touches. Oh, I know. And I know he can't. You know in your heart. If I'm a GM, I'm going out and getting... I don't like you love Lottavius Murray. Lamar Miller told me personally that he can do it. Yeah. He can handle the load. So rumors say that six plus teams are interested in Doug Martin, and why not? I mean, if you need to make a splash and a guy who's... He's still young, 27 years old, has shown he can hold the workload. Not going to probably go back to Tampa Bay at this point.

They couldn't come to an agreement. Now you're in open negotiation period. So the Raiders are a team that has two things in common. One, they are saying they want to get another running back. Now, I believe that that was under the premise of they want to get a backup running back for Latavis Murray to kind of spell him more. Right? That's Jason's opinion. That's my opinion. But here's the other position they're in. A ton of cap room.

The Jacksonville Jaguars and the Oakland Raiders have all the money they want to spend. I don't know that they want to spend it, at least in Jacksonville's case. But they could go out and land any of the top, I would say three running backs, Forte being the third in that mix. And I would not like that from a fantasy perspective with... Well, that is the problem. With certain signings, you water guys down. It's not just these guys in where they go. It's which guys in the location that they sign are going to get nerfed.

You know, there are certain people that could step up right now and we go, boy, Charles Sims, like right today, right? Charles Sims could be really good until they sign Alfred. Right. Or whatever, you know, whatever thing that happens. It's the worst. The Waterford. I mean, if they, if the Chicago was to sign somebody. Here's a great example of that because Julius Peppers has been recruiting. So the next name that you got here. Matt Forte to Green Bay. Oh, no. I know. You want to stick it to the team that doesn't want to resign you and you go.

In division, you go to Green Bay, but what would that do to Skinny Lacey? Breaking News. I was going to say Eddie Lacey doesn't seem to be as fat. That's the breaking news. Right. Yeah, he's been working out with Tony Horton. He's looking fit. He's in a contract year. I'm surprised you can get in that good a shape in like three weeks since the story broke about Tony Horton. You know what I need. Now that we got these multi-angles.

I've noticed that when we zoom in on myself and Jason, we could use Tony Horton as well. So if you have, if anyone has his number, you know, just shoot it over to me on Twitter. That's pro bono. He does that stuff pro bono. Yeah. Well, it would be big news. Has someone hooked up the phone, a P90X phone for Lacey where he picks that up and Horton's on the other end? Just saying, don't eat it. He just picks it up. Don't eat it. Don't eat it, Eddie. Oh, wait, wait, wait, it looks really good. It looks.

Don't you pick up the Papa John's phone, Eddie. That'll just go straight to Pete. I'll mix those phones up or his career's over. I'm over at Peyton's house. There's a phone over here. All right. So we've talked about Doug Martin. Some of the destinations there, you know, we don't see him going to Dallas, do we? It's possible. I think when it comes to... Doug Martin is looking for as much money as he can get.

He's looking for $8 million or more. They chose not to do that last year with their own leading rusher. So I doubt they're going to bring in Doug Martin. That wouldn't make a lot of sense to me. All right. So Matt Forte is 30 years old. He seems to be resigned to the reality that he's not a full-time back anymore, which is something that is a breath of fresh air because there are guys that go way past their prime and don't understand that they're not...

premium running back anymore, a full-time running back. So, Forte is somebody who I think can go someplace and contribute in a good way. Yeah, I think Forte can be great. I mean, Forte fits the bill for Denver. But does he suddenly become Gio Bernard or that type of a fantasy player from a drafts perspective? You put him on Denver. Let's say they lose Anderson or Hillman or both. If he replaces one of those guys, I love Forte. He won't be a running back one.

But I think he'll still be very solid running back too. A running back on a team with that monstrous of a defense, that's a situation that you want a piece of. And Matt Forte... Well, you know how Kubiak wants to run the offense. Cubs with a running back. I think it would be great. I think if Matt Forte were to go to Denver, he would be an RB one. Because they would probably use him for both guys. Great running system. He still, he showed last year, even though he's 30,

a good running back on the field. You might not have three or four more years left in him, but this year he would be fine. Well, I mean, look at DeAngelo Williams. You give him an opportunity on a good offense and a good team. Nobody's saying, oh, you're too old and taking your fancy points away. They still count. They still count. All right. So Lamar Miller, we're most excited about. He's going to hit the market, most likely, it seems.

I mean, he hasn't been resigned. So, yeah, he's basically destined for. Where's the best destination for Lamar Miller? Well, in reality. Is it someplace? Of course, it's Dallas. But if Dallas chooses to go the route, they're still not going to pay a running back, which I don't, despair is them for that. Just, I think Houston would be a great place for Lamar Miller.

especially with their quarterback situation is shaky. They don't know what they're going to do. It might end up being Hoyer again next year. Maybe the aforementioned Robert Griffin comes down. And you put Griffin and Lamar Miller on the Houston Texans, which I don't verbatim know the stat, but I believe it was about the last six to eight weeks or so. Houston was actually the best defense in the NFL.

So a similar situation I was just talking about with Denver. You get a monster defense. You get Lamar Miller over there, and they commit to getting him the ball like they did with Aaron Foster. When Foster was healthy on the Texans, nobody else mattered. Well, and you look at the impact of Robert Griffin.

had on running backs, no matter where he lands. Like, I don't want to just lock him into Houston. But no matter where he lands, he had a huge impact on Alfred Morris. And Lamar Miller's a guy who, look, last year, 4.5 a carry, the year before, 5.1 a carry. He's done it fairly consistently, 4.6 over his career, he had eight touchdowns the past two years, and that's unlimited work. I don't think any team signing Lamar Miller, I'm going to say this. I don't think that they're going to, whether he says he wants the 20 or not, I don't think you're seeing 300 carries from Lamar Miller.

I think you're seeing a... I don't know if it was $2.25, $2.40? I think the quote was 20 touches. So it doesn't have to be 20 carries a game. You're right. Give him five catches again. You want those touches. A great landing spot would be the Indianapolis Colts. Because Amad Bradshaw was used so well by Andrew Luckwin healthy around the goal line and in the passing game. If you had that all-purpose back who could really be a workhorse there spelled...

by Frank Gore. I think that would be a very good land. And a team we didn't mention in this list of RV Needy, the New York Jets, they don't have anybody either. I believe all three of their running backs, Ridley, Blal Powell, and Chris Ivory are, they're not under contract this year. So they're really going to need some help. So that's a prime destination for a guy. You got Chan Gaylee's system. You need a guy who's multi-dimensional, a guy like Lamar Miller.

That could be a great fit as well. All right. So let's talk about some of the next tier of running back options. You got Chris Ivory. You got Alfred Morris. You've got the Denver running back buddies. The Denver duo of C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman. And you also have Arian Foster who has been released or has been told he'll be released. So that should have probably been in the news. But Aryan Foster is 29 years old coming off the Achilles injury. But every time he's played, we haven't seen him hit a wall physically.

other than the injuries, right? We haven't seen it. Oh, I guess not physically. I'm sorry, hit a wall statistically. Right. We've definitely seen him hit a wall physically. That's a pretty big wall. Yes, he's hit every physical wall he can. But statistically, when he's on the field, he's productive, he's a workhorse, you can pass him the ball, he can, you know, catch underneath routes, he can run the wheel, he can one cut and go, and could he be a guy that you bring into Denver and match him up with Kubiak again?

I love the idea of bringing him into Denver into the system he knows and thrives in. My issue with Arian Foster is that this is not the same as all. He's been injured so many times and come back from injury. We feel like we know what we get. We get a guy who can recover from it well and come back in game one. He's fine until the next injury, of course. But this is different because it's an Achilles injury. Yeah, but Jason, he's only missed 48% of the games. He's...

been eligible to play in the last three years. Right, yes. That's under 50%. Well, that's good. Compared that to Zach Miller, the tight end. Oh, well, yeah, he hasn't played four in five years. I just think it's going to be hard to come back from that injury at that age and be what you hope you have in a big name, Arian Foster. I don't expect it to happen for any team. I think he's going to go and sign up to be a backup and prove himself somewhere.

That's pretty much my question. I was going to ask you what percentage chance that he has any big role on a team next year? I think it's all about that injury coming back from it. It's really, really tough. If anyone can come back, you've got to think maybe Foster can do it just because of how many injuries you have to come back from. You know? Right. But it's, I don't think so.