Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Early WR Rankings Part 2

just set the NFL on fire. So this is going to be interesting. It'll be a nice case study. I believe in that system that Marshawn Lynch will have enough touchdown opportunities and touchdown conversions to be very fantasy relevant. But I also think they're not going to give him keys to the kingdom the way that, you know, in Seattle he was, he was really worked. I think they're going to use Richard and they're going to use DeAndre Washington.

So he'll be a solid running back, but I think his potential to be... RB1? I think he'll be a low-end RB1, similar to how I viewed Latavius. My concerns with Lynch and looking at the possibility of outcomes are not so much effectiveness. I don't worry about his effectiveness if he's on the field. The age would make me worry about, and coming back from a year away, would just make me worry about the injury concerns. Like, I'd want to protect my Oakland running back investment in Marshall and Lynch in a draft with a Janlon Richard.

or DeAndre Washington as that depth chart kind of comes around. I would want to protect that because I would worry more about the injury to me than the effectiveness. One of the things that lends itself to Marchand's favor is the fact that they run very similar concepts as they ran in Seattle. I believe Seattle ran inside zone, you know, inside zone 87% of the time. Oakland runs like 75% of the time. There's some similarities there where he's going to be able to come in and just do what he does.

So it's an effectiveness thing from an injury standpoint. That's the worry for me. Very excited to see what happens if it indeed comes to fruition. So the question now for dynasty people is most dynasty leagues, I would assume. I don't have numbers in front of me. But I would have to imagine that almost all dynasty rosters, he has been grabbed in this time period where he was completely free. Is he taking an R league? Yes. And so this question is for you is,

Are you holding on to him and holding out the hope, or are you going to sell him on the hype that he has generated? Because I guarantee there is hype. There is somebody out there who will pay for Marshall Lynch. That's why I don't believe Marshall Lynch goes late or is any sort of special value in redrafts or any other draft. He's got too much of a long-term attachment to people. He's done too much for straight double-digit touchdown years in Seattle.

I will say that I'd like to play him in a dynasty league, but if someone comes hunting for him, I'm open to trading him. I mean, there's no reason I wouldn't want to cash in on that value if it means getting a better long-term running back or a wide receiver. You have to stay willing to trade a guy like that. You can't just, you know. I can't die on this hill just because it's great. You know, I get to sit here and press the wrong button for you. I have to be willing to trade him. And he's the perfect kind of target.

If you're one of those teams in a Dynasty League that you are really in the running, I mean, your team is built for a championship now. You've got a year left, maybe two. I think he'll play for two years, by the way. I agree that he will play two years in Oakland. But I'm saying value of what you're going to get production. I see him like, I'm only banked on this season. But if I wanted a one-year rental and give up, you know, a little bit of future, I think there's a good marriage for Dynasty. We're going to talk about LaGarrett Blunt.

Last question on Lynch, though, from Mike, what do you see his kind of basement, if he's healthy? Sure. Like, what's his basement? Like, because to Jason's point, he's saying, okay, if you're in a dynasty league, you're competing, you might want to go get Marshall and Lynch. What's the worst you're going to get from him, you think, if he's healthy? Essentially what Latavis Murray did last year. I mean, he's going to be. But to me, like, to me, he's more of a mid-R-B-2. The problem is just.

The odds are against him, and his name with this being the hype story, does the hype carry over to actual draft season? And I think it will. I think he will be vastly overdrafted. And I'm not just talking about what round he goes, because that's inconsequential. It's just what guys are people passing on to take Marshaun Lynch. You take Marshaun Lynch or Jai? Ajai.

In a redraft? Yeah. Take Marshawn Lynch or do you take Latavis Murray in Minnesota? That's interesting. I would take Lynch. I think I would take Lynch on there because I don't really love Murray. Lynch or Gurley? That's a great one for Mike. Oh, man. That's, I feel like I would take Lynch right now. Lynch or Crow? Crowell. Crowell.

You take Carl? So that says... Spinter where or March on? Hold on. That says that in a draft. You would take Crowell over Gurley? Yes. Oh, yes. Hmm. Okay. All right. Todd Gurley's dead to me. Let's talk about... Let's talk about... Let's talk about a player who actually had massive production last year and can't find a job and there's no hype about him. Legerip Blunt. Look, 18 touchdowns 1100 yards and no contract. I mean, being a running back sucks. That is the end of the story. I mean, it's just...

Adrian Peterson can't find a sniff. Jamal Charles has been buried by teams. I mean, you just, they don't need them. You just go draft one. Meanwhile. Pierre Garsohn. Yeah, cash is in. Just got paid. I want to be a wide receiver. Legerrett Blunt. There are reports from Ian Rappaport. The Patriots, you know, they have interest in bringing him back working out of contract. The Patriots are interested in every single player right now.

I mean, Marshawn Lynch is the only guy not connected to the Patriots right now. All they've had to do is sit and wait for Legerick-Blanc. I think they want him back, but Mike, how would that make you feel about Rex Berkin? I don't even know. Because if they really brought Lagerie Blunt back with the contract that they gave Rex Burkhead, I mean, I suppose it would be, you know, RIP Dionne Lewis to me. If they signed Ligarra Blunt, Lewis will be cut.

shortly thereafter. So it becomes a little bit murkier for what is Burkhead's role. Not that there's any clarity to what Rex Burkhead's role is right now. Okay. All right. Well, we're going to get into the wide receiver twos. And really, I am not a big fan of most of these guys. We're covering today. But before we do that, I want to tell you about someone I am a big fan of Pristine Auction. We were talking about them before the show. We're always talking about them in the office.

amazing memorabilia things that you can't find at walmart you can't find even on most websites things that are signed by famous players famous actors um gifts for you know your your your family members your you know sometimes you got that boss and it's like oh what do i get my boss is a gift you want to blow their mind go ahead and get them a signed framed you know jersey of their favorite player and the price is because it's an auction

You just can't believe what you can get sometimes. I mean, it's like, my dad came in and looked at the signed jerseys we have, and he's like, whoa, you guys are going to be financially okay? It's like these things are, these things are steel sometimes. So check them out, pristine auction, P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E auction. I was just going to say somebody sent me a picture of their signed out of Malcolm Jr. Jersey, and they sent me a picture of a similar, almost the same product on eBay. It was literally one-fourth of price.

Yeah. And these are authentic. These are 100% certified JSA authentic. So really a great deal. There are just for people out there, we've got them up on the wall. Yep. Mr. Kevin Cole, man. I think they got a couple of those today if you wanted on that action. And, you know, some Marchons coming. All right, here we go. Wide receivers. You know, I've been, Twitter's been a buzz, as you know, with the Marchion Lynch News. And they all want me to just spend the whole show.

tearing you down, Mike. Which is also kind of funny. Because he hasn't signed yet. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I will admit at this current juncture, I look very, very wrong. Hold on. All right. And ironically, right now, you're actually not. Yes. But as of right now, I'm still right. All that means is we get to play that again, you know, in a week.

All right, number 11 on our early wide receiver consensus rankings. Doug Baldwin, we did a mock draft episode a couple weeks ago, took Doug Baldwin. It was controversial. And for some reason, taking Doug Baldwin, as always is the case. We got the most grief for taking him over Rob Grankowski in this draft. People hate Doug Baldwin. And this is seen in many different ways. What if his name was Flash Baldwin?

Instead of Doug, instead of Doug. Do you think the Doug just pulls him down? He'd get a small bump. But I mean, you can see in the, you know, all the players that we're talking about, you know, today, most of them are going in the second or third round in drafts. And this is the first player we're talking about. He's a little higher up our list. And, you know, he's like back of the third, sometimes going in the fourth. And every year, you know, I mean, since he's kind of broken out. Right.

He just falls even further before the draft. So I think you're going to get a good value here. But there are major wards on Doug Baldwin, major, major wards. I haven't hear you. I want to hear this from you because you've always been the proponent of Doug Ballard number eight in 2015, number 10 in 2016. So for all the haters, he's a top 10 wide receiver, two straight years. Two straight years, top 10 wide receiver.

Two years ago led the league in receiving touchdowns, came back with seven, has a great quarterback, has one of the best rapportes with a quarterback historically of all time when you talk about a quarterback's passer rating when targeting a specific wide receiver. So there's a lot to love here. This is why he's high on our list. He is the clear number one target for Russell Wilson. But the warts are, despite the fact that he finished top 10, two years in a row, he's very, very inconsistent. Yes.

You know, I went through after our last wide receiver show and looked at, you know, fantasy games under 10 points for all of those wide receivers. I statted them all out. How many times did they score under 10 points? How many times they score over? And I was really pleasantly unsurprised. Unsurprised. Unsurprised. I was pleasantly. What's the word? Pleasantly disappointed? That's what I was genuinely going to say. This is what I was going to say.

pleasantly disappointed, which makes no sense at all. But there were only five games last season. Yes, we have no bananas. As a top wide receiver last year finishing the season, there were only five games where he had over 10 fantasy points. And that's really frustrating. And a lot of his games where he disappeared, they were really gone. Now, I will make the argument that the first half of last season.

with what we saw with russell wilson was just terrible he couldn't move i mean if you just look at the box score on the season you look at russell wilson and go oh maybe he stopped running this season no the second half of last year

he was on pace for, you know, what he always runs for. Right. Or close to it. But the first half of the year with his ankle injuries, he couldn't move. He wasn't the same quarterback. The offense was terrible. And so hopefully we can see a more consistent Doug Baldwin. The, that's, that was the narrative I was buying into as well when I really love Doug Baldwin. I still like him a lot, but I have actually moved him down slightly. Tyler Lockett says he'll be back week one. Does that matter to you? I think that helps Doug Baldwin. Sure. I love to have a field stretcher, but.

Doug Baldwin's production overall is actually pretty similar. When Russell Wilson was banged up and when Russell Wilson was healthy. From first half to second. Yeah, I thought there would be a noticeable jump once you saw. And you can see when Wilson got healthy very clearly in his box scores. But Baldwin was just, he just is, he's tough, man, because he's so inconsistent. But then he will give you those.

games where he just wins you a championship. Doug Baldwin. You might have lost one to Doug Baldwin. Yes. Yeah. All right. Doug Baldwin's number 11, though, on our ranks. So we have them very high as of today. Number 12 is the guy that I have hired in Doug Baldwin. I love Demarius Thomas. This is all you, man. Yeah, look, Demarius Thomas comes into number 12. I guess part of that is my fault here with the consensus rankings. But...

I think DeMarius Thomas is going to be one of the best values in fantasy football this year. He's going in the middle of the fourth round. People are, they were hopeful of a Tony Romo to Denver situation. You're probably going to have Trevor Simeon win that role. It could be Paxton Lynch. It's going to be one of those guys in that Denver offense. But Demarius Thomas is a machine. He is a machine and he certainly suffered the past couple of years by subpar quarterback play. But this is a guy who was number five in 2012, number one.

The number two, those are the Peyton years. He dropped to number 11. We'll get a top two quarterback. He's played six. How bad was Peyton Manning in his last year? Yeah. In 2015, he was. And he was 11. He was a top 12 wide receiver with the upside potential possibility of an outcome in the top five. And he's played 16 games, five straight years. You know he's going to be on the field. He played 16 games last year. Ended up number 16. That's not the end of the world. And especially if you get him in the fourth round.