Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Values & Injury Review, News, Mailbag

Yeah, no, not going to happen. But what about Jordy? The truth is with Jordy, even though he's a little older. His injury happened so early, which is also true of Kelvin Benjamin, obviously, even earlier. But the injury happened so early that he had time to get back and be healthy. We saw months ago that he was running full speed. Everybody's saying that he looks great, not just the GM, but the beat writers. You know, Jordy should be back. Now, the question is,

He's still older. Is he a little bit slower? Has he lost the step just not because of the ACL, but because of age, rust, any of those things? You know my opinion. You know my opinion. I believe Jordy Nelson will be back. I think he will have a great year and that the Green Bay Packers' offense will rebound and take a step forward as a whole. I'm not projecting them to be the best offense in the league, but certainly not.

better than where they were last year. Over, over under, wide receiver eight. Oh, that's a great over under. I'll go under, but I love him. Yeah, I'm going to, man, I'm, I guess I should say higher, lower. I'm going to take the push. I'm going eight. So let me say this. So do you have him in wide receiver one range or just like? No, he's a one. He's a one. Okay.

And he might beat it. I'm not very confident in that. I'll take him right around that range. But one of the things we said we wanted to do was to remind people about players. Jordy Nelson, yes, he'll be 31. Who cares? I don't care. Here's what he put up. 98 receptions, 1,519 yards, 13 touchdowns. The last time he took the field. So let's remember that.

Yeah, he was, when we were coming into last season, he was one of our favorite guys. I think Mike, he was, he was my number one. Number one, because he's one of the most. Well, he does it all, too. Yeah, he's not disrespected, but he's not respected for what he's done. He's had two different years. From the fantasy world you're talking about. Fantasy football. He's had two different years where he finished as the number two wide receiver. I mean, you're talking about Antonio Brown type of.

you know, level of consistency there. So, yeah, when he comes back, he is definitely a guy that we should not be afraid of the injury and forget what he's done. Mike McCarthy's there. Aaron Rogers is there. You don't have other variables mixing in here. You have an ACL injury early in the year, and he's healthy. So Jamal Charles is coming back, and there's hesitation and excitement for Jamal Charles because he has done this before. Yep. And...

He has also spent his entire career averaging more than five a carry. And so if you guess wrong on Jamal Charles, you're going to be burnt. That's the cost of acquisition for Jamal Charles this year. You pass on him and he burns you that direction or you don't pass on him.

And he does repeat an injury, or he isn't the same guy coming off his second one. So what have you guys heard about Jamal Charles' recovery from the ACL and what the expectation is in your mind, not necessarily the team's mind? I mean, Charles has already posted videos of himself in his workouts where, I mean, we're just common. Folk, we're not doctors. But Charles is saying it's going well. Will Carroll, if you don't follow him on Twitter, he's kind of an injury.

a guru type guy that he's a great follow on on Twitter. At injury expert. Thank you. I couldn't remember his handle. It's a pretty good handle for being an injury expert. And so the goal for Jamal Charles is to be ready for year one. Here's why I am buying into Charles. I'll start with the negative. He tore his ACL in the year 2011 and he came back the next year and he was.

only averaging 5.3 a carry after a couple years of in the sixes. So that was very disappointing. I'm sure CJ Anderson looked down on him. He couldn't keep it going. Now, a reason why last year where I had some concerns for Charles was not the player was his targets. It was almost like they removed him from the passing game where in 2013 he had 70 receptions.

2014, only 40 because his targets got cut in half, which was, that was troublesome for me. Frustrating, too. When he was, he was just a dominant force in fantasy football in 2013. However, last year in only five games, 30 targets. So they completely went back to it. They realized the error of their ways that they need to run the offense completely through Jamal Charles. Play one. Hand the ball off to Charles. Play two.

If you're not going to hand it to Charles, throw to him if he's open. Let me ask you this, Jason. Sometimes teams, or at least the idea, is that you go easier on a guy as he comes back from a repeat type of injury. He's older. Do you think Kansas City's perspective on this recovery will be, let's not get him hurt again? No, I don't because they've never really gone too hard on him. That's one of the...

frustrating things as a fantasy owner. They don't generally give him 30 touches a game because they've always used him in a way where he's most efficient. And I think that they still will. You look at when you have, efficiency is a good word for Tom. When you have otherworldly talent, right, we're not talking about a good running back here. We're talking about one of the best film talents that you watch and go, wow, this guy is amazing.

in the league over the last 10 years. And statistically. And if you look at some of those guys who are, yeah, who are the best of the best, Adrian Peterson, Jamal Charles, the incoming Todd Gurley, these otherworldly type of talents, one of the things that factors in is their work ethic. These guys are not just physical freaks because everyone in the NFL is a physical freak. They're physical freaks who work their tails off. And Adrian Peterson, when he came back from his ACL,

was a couple yards away from setting the all-time rushing record. Jamal Charles has already done it once. So I think you have to put your, you've got to say, Jamal Charles. That's the side you're betting on. Yeah, I'm betting on Jamal Charles this year. Absolutely.

Two more guys. Joe Flacco, obviously the number one thing you want when you tear your ACL is to be given $66 million in extension money. And that's the confidence level that the Ravens had on that. If you guys have $66 million, we'll tear your ACL right now, live on the air. Kickstarter. It's only for $66 million, though. And then you've got Dionne Lewis. Dionne Lewis got his, he tore his ACL. This was later. Later in the season.

Again, reports say that he's where he should be. I mean, we have to be a little concerned because they signed Donald Brown. Nope. Not really. Donald Brown takes care of that concern right for you. He does that on his own. So what do you thought? Are you concerned about Dionne Lewis? I guess we should ask Jason because Andy and I are both. I'm not concerned about it. Yeah, we've both clearly planted the flag that we're on team.

Team Lewis. I just believe that the money that they gave them, that they gave him early last year, showed what they believed about, Dion Lewis. Wasn't it like a week before the tear? It was. And he got paid, and I think he might not, this could be one of those things that comes into the preseason. You might not see any Dionne Lewis until week one, week two. That's what I believe. I am actually a little bit more worried about Dion Lewis than some of these other guys.

Based on the question you asked me about Jamal Charles, are they going to work him in and be a little bit careful? See, here's the thing. Jamal Charles is older, right? They're not trying to make sure that they've got the next five years of Jamal Charles healthy and ready to go. They didn't just sign him to a new long-term contract. But with Dionne Lewis...

This injury happened later in the year, you know, in November. So you've got a shorter time of recovery and coming up to the year, do you really want to go, well, let's just see what happens again to a guy who has been injury prone. He's had a history of injuries. So to me, I feel like Dionne Lewis from a fantasy perspective, he can't possibly come in and just be touching the ball the same amount that he was prior to the injury right off the bat.

So maybe he's more of a don't draft but trade four candidate, you know, after the first couple of weeks. Obviously, it's too early. It's middle of March. Yeah, exactly. So this is somebody to keep your eye on, I think. You know, all the reports have been good. See if they continue to be good. And he is not your prototypical. He's not Jamal Charles in the sense that he's not your prototypical RB1, right? He's more of a receiver. And so you did see that. No one really, even though it was going on, Dionne Lewis is an RB1. Every single week.

It was, should I start Dionne Lewis? Absolutely. For a while, it took time to get confidence because you didn't know what New England will do with their backfield. And you've seen them take it easy on Gronk when he's returned, limited works. So you need to see what the reports are about Dionne Lewis. I'm pretty confident he will be back and in a good role, but you're right. He could be somebody that he could be a value on draft day if the reports don't look good, or he could be the opposite if people are buying into the...

the really great year he had. All these guys, you're betting. You're making a gamble on Jamal Charles or on Dion Lewis. You just got to decide which side you're on. Yeah, it's a little bit less with ACL just of how far the surgery and the recovery is going. So don't talk about him too much, but give me the Joe Flacco run down here. He's not generally a regular redraft league candidate for quarterback for your team. However, he does have some different weapons. We just talked about Mike Wallace. He's been...

valuable as a streaming matchup play before. Do you see any reason Joe Flacco is not going to be back on the field healthy in week one? No, I don't see any reason. And his injury was the last year, last week of the year. But he's not a runner. You know, he's a guy that's got to stand in the pocket and throw the ball. And not that you don't need your knee. But he's fine. But you're not going to draft him. You don't need to draft him. You haven't drafted him for the last couple of years. Just see what he's got. And I have no doubt that he could still have a great year this year, be a great streaming candidate. But I think he's

pretty irrelevant for, you know, draft season fantasy football. There's probably 15 to 18 quarterbacks that I'd take ahead of them anyways. All right, I'm going to run through some more guys at different positions. These are not ACL candidates. These are just a variety of injuries. I want your guys' thoughts on them. You know, we have quite a few names to get through, so don't, you know, linger too long on them. But let's start with wide receivers here.

You've got Brashad Perriman. He had the sprain PCL and a world of frustration for that team last year. So what is the story behind Brashad Perriman? Do we get to see him play football? I think with Brashad Perriman, it's really, really tough because he had, I forget the name of that disease. It was like Oswald. Was that Perriman? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, where you grow too fast. Yeah, and then he heard his knee. Hodgia slaughters?

Yes, there you go. That's why I did not remember the name of it. But, you know, then he hurt his knee. Then he re-injured his knee. He was frustrated. He was in a bad place. He said he was in a dark hole during the season, seeing the Ravens need him. The GM has come out and again, shockingly said that he thinks we're going to see him this spring, that he's in a good place.

It's a wait and see. Watch camp reports. See if he's playing in spring. And if he is participating in training camp, which he should be, then draft him like he was a rookie this year. That's what I would. But now you got Steve Smith return. You got Mike Wallace. Maybe have Steve Smith returning. You've got Ben Watson. Just a different, it's a different situation. Last year, kind of looked like Bashab training would be the only guy. Des Bryant, you talked about the Jones fracture. People need to remember he's still in a walking boot, isn't he?

Yeah, that was the... From the most recent surgery? Yes, that was the last thing I had read about. They're hopeful with him. So this could be training camp before we hear from him. But here's the thing... And we'll put Julian Edelman in this camp as well because it was a Jones fracture. But Edelman came back, got huge work right away. We alluded to this at the beginning of where Jason has concerns with Des because the Jones fracture...

is an injury of your foot that frequently, frequently re-injures itself. You can look at Ahmed Bradshaw, Julio Jones. If you remember, Julio had hurt his foot, I believe before going pro, and then in the middle of the season breaks the screw in his foot that he had had, so he had to get it redone. Kevin Durant has dealt with this. That's why there's...