Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Shocking Stats from 2016!

You might have another year left of good value. What can you get from Garrett Blunt? Like we have a third round pick at the most, but I don't even think you'll get that. Oh, someone would be willing to buy Legerat Blunt for another year-long rental, and they'd give up more than. I doubt it. Here's another one. Matt Forte was the RB6 in standard scoring for the first 10 weeks, making us look bad, by the way, because we did not expect that.

That good of a start for Matt Forte. But he was the RB 59 from weeks 11 to 17. Yeah, take that forte. His teammate Bilal Powell was the RB 9 from week 10 on and finished the year at 5.5 yards of Kerry's second best in the league because that's what Bilal Powell will do when you give him half of a season, a workload. So Matt Forte, undervalued next year, overvaluing? Probably undervalue.

And it's so bizarre. Like, how does Blau Powell keep doing this? And his team continually says, no, you're going to, your second string. I mean, that's not a hard question for me to answer. Is not? No, because you can make metric comparisons with Andre Ellington. And everybody under the sun knew Andre Ellington is not a bell cow. But every statistical metric for multiple years showed him as the greatest yard per carry player in the league. If you give him the opportunity.

But I don't even care about Yard Perkere. I'm saying watching Bilal Powell is a lot different than watching Andre Allen. When I watch Matt Forte or Bilal Pal, I'd rather have Forte play on the field. That's how I feel. Interesting. I think Bilal is good, but I don't think he's better than Matt Forte. It's not necessarily that he's better or worse than Matt Forte. It's that I think they're close in skill, and they just...

beginning of the season when Forte was, you know, that high up, what was it, running back six, it's because they were feeding him the ball. Blau Powell was not getting any touches on the field. Which is the reason why you need Matt Forte. If they're going to feed the ball to Matt Forte, he belongs on your roster.

He could pull a Frank Gore year out. He's got a, they're going to be paying him a decent amount next year. I think they will give him the ball. And I think he will be underdrafted. And I'm not going to make the same mistake. He didn't look, even though he got injured the second half of the year, he didn't look much different than Matt Forte has looked to the previous three seasons, very Frank Gore-esque. And so I will, I will certainly when he's dropping to, you know, if he gets down to the fourth round,

I'm going to take Matt Forte. But it won't be a fun clique of the mouse. I'm not going to be like, I'm not going to name my team the young guns. Matt Forte, 362 yards after contact this past year, which is pretty good. It's top. It's tops. It's tops, not tops, but it's in the top tier. Wide receivers. Let's talk about a couple questions here.

T.Y. Hilton became the first Colts player since Reggie Wayne to lead the league in receiving yards, 1,48. Don't know if people know that. Also registered the most receptions of 20-plus yards in the NFL this season, 28 of those, finishing the top 10 fancy points for the first time in his career. And he is, you know, he's connected to Andrew Luck. I mean, this is a combination that has five more years of potential. He is an enigma to me.

It's the last stat, the last fact from that blurb of this is the first time he's been in the top 10. And he, T.Y. Hilton, you talk about the ultimate boom bus guy. T.Y. Hilton would, he'd finish with fine production over 1,000 yards, and it was 6, 7 touchdowns. But he would get 50% of his production in two games. So as a fantasy asset, he was.

actually not very helpful for your team, except for those two weeks. The other times you're getting 30 yards and it's just absolutely crushing you. So has Hilton turned that corner as an NFL player as a wide receiver? Because we know that the talent is immense, but he was also a situation for the Colts this year where I loved Moncrief. A lot of people out there did. They saw it as this is the possibility for Moncrief to break out.

But the only thing that broke from Moncrief was his shoulder. Over and over. And gave Hilton a huge opportunity share of that offense because Heltorset did not get it done. It says a lot to me that Hilton can have this kind of season, average 15.9 per reception, which is third highest in the league, with the duress that luck is under. Because if luck has more protection, which is almost, I mean, it's hard to have less. So if he has more protection, you know.

I look at Hilton and I watch Hilton play. When he catches the ball, he is open. He is so open. He has the ability to get separation with that speed, his route running, and finding a spot where when luck extends the play, I don't see any reason that I wouldn't trust T.Y. Hilton. I think he can repeat what he did last year. He was a beneficiary of injury prone historically.

the Moncrief injuries, but it's not like, so this is the first time his career he's finished top 10, right? I mean, that seems surprising. He only scored six more points than himself two years prior in 2014. But in 2014, we didn't have all those top wide receivers.

magically disappear the way this year that top tier of wide receivers disappeared that number one number two number three number four number five guy they didn't score what they have been over the last few years t y hilton what he did this year is replicatable but that is going to be that that wide receiver 1213 you know that that bottom

wide receiver one that that top in wide receiver two i don't think he's going to be a top 10 guy next year all right i want to i want to do a little rapid round response to some of these stats right now because i'm going to go through a few kind of quicker i just want one of you guys to kind of contribute some some thoughts on them and then i'll move on to the next one um let's go here after week six amari cooper failed to crack the top 24 in ppr leagues uh eight of the last 10 weeks he was a wide receiver 27 in that span

Also known as scoring the same amount of fantasy points as Ted Ginn Jr. Mike, Mike, what do you say about Amari Cooper? Man, it's interesting that you come to me as I feel like I am the one on the show who's kind of been the lowest on Cooper, not that I have, I hate him by any means. I think he's extremely talented. It just, it felt like this was what he was going to do. He's going to have these huge games, but he's going to disappear.

People are drafting him. People are valuing him like he's in every week, very consistent type of guy. Meanwhile, Michael Crabtree on the other side of the field is the one that you actually want for your fantasy team. Could Cooper take that next step? Of course he can. But I think it's another situation where I'm not going to be willing to pay the price to get Amari Cooper because there's going to be guys in that same tier that I would prefer to have over him.

All right, Richard Matthews was the wide receiver 71 in the first five weeks of this season. We know he did not start well. Rest of the way, wide receiver 10. Yes. After week five, Jason, Richard Matthews next year. Is a wide receiver two. Okay. I think he is. We've said it before on the show. He is a talented wide receiver.

I liked him when he was at the Dolphins. He's a good wide receiver. He's got a rapport now with Mariotta. I think there's, you know, there's no reason. If they go out and they sign a great wide receiver as a rookie, he's still rookie. I think Rashad Matthews is going to be underdrafted next year. But Jason? Yes, voice of public opinion. We don't talk very much, but you're forgetting about Taj Sharp. Nope. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. He'll be fine. Taday Sharp is good. No, he was fine.

But he was not the Red Zone guy. He was not the target number one. He was not the third down guy. That's Richard Matthews. The longest touchdown reception of 2016 belonged to Brandon Cooks, a 98-yard reception that gave him 15.8 standard league points on one play. That was more than Demarius Thomas scored in a single game all season. That play. That play was more than D.T. Mike.

Demarius Thomas is so good, but is he going to be. But his quarterbacks are so bad. Is he going to be limited again this year? Nope, because Tony Romo is going to end up on the Broncos. Really? Yep. I'm sticking with that. Someone offered me a, they could win the Super Bowl. A dynasty trade with D.T. was in it. It was a bigger trade. And I said, I will accept when Tony Romo is their quarterback. Come back to me. He's like, all right. I'll come back.

You know, Brandon, say, Brandon Cook's, what I was talking about, Amari Cooper, I think Amari Cooper, I like him a little more than Brandon Cooks, but that's how I see those guys. That's how I see Cooper. I see him as a Brandon Cook's type, and I don't know. Amari Cooper has to evolve, right? He has to evolve into a more consistent player. Year three next year. Yeah, that's what I mean. The breakout of year three. Yes. Yeah. He, uh...

He's been snake bit a little bit in the consistency factor. He's had those games where, you know, caught three, four touchdowns with a foot on the line. And he just, he doesn't, Carr doesn't target him in the red zone. No, he doesn't. He targets Roberts and he targets Crabtree and he targets Holmes. Someone talked to Derek Carr and find out what's going on here. Zach Ertz was the number one tight end over the back half of the season. Number one. That's what he does. Hold on. I'm looking into the future. Zach Ertz will be the number one tight end over the back half.

of 2017 and you will hate him that's a little bit not fair though because he was he was hurt and injured in in uh like week one and had a stretch where he was had a stretch where he was really really bad didn't we we had a show not long ago where we picked out a guy for next year and i you know zach hurts to me represents that guy i mean he he could be a top three tied in next year yeah it's where i think he's going to be we we've talked about

Our philosophy on drafting tight ends, I mean, I think that Zach Ertz is going to be that round, six, round seven type of a tight end. No. He'll be Kelsey from two years ago. Yes. No. No, he won't? Ertz is going to fall past that. Okay, well, I'm looking at a fantasy football calculator mock draft. Zachertz, back of the sixth round. Yeah, that's right now, that's the pros and the people that are, you know, the people drafting right now.

are not going to be the people drafting in August. I think in August he's going to be eighth round. Because what happens when you're snake bitten by someone in the draft? You had last year a lot of people saying Zach Gertz is going to have the breakout because I saw the back half of the year before. And so they drafted him a little bit higher and they took their risk on Zach Gertz. And then they were super disappointed because he stunked the first half the year. And that is one out of 12 people in that league. But it was a lot of people.

as a whole. So I'm just saying average draft position. I think he falls. Another young tight end. Hunter Henry, 30% of his receptions were in the red zone, the highest mark in the league. He had eight touchdowns that tied Cameron Brayt for the most among tight ends. Hunter Henry or Cameron Bray next year? Who would you rather have? Cameron Bray. It depends on. Who would you rather have in a dynasty league? Hunter Henry. I have made a play for him like 12 times in our dynasty league. I can't get him. And you're failing?

You're failing? Very important kicker statistic for you. According to Fantasy Football Calculator.com, six of the top 12 kickers in 2016 win undrafted. In other words, if you didn't pick up a Justin Tucker or Matt Bryan, you'll find someone who works. Oh, man. So contrary to Jason's opinion that the kicker is the most important fantasy football position. Don't do that to me. No. You'll find a kicker. Don't worry about that. Get rid of them.

All right, that does it for today's podcast. I'm sure we'll be sharing some more stats and information with you from those articles on the show throughout the off season. Some of the things that came up from this show reminded me. In fact, I took notes. We've been talking about making a show looking back of, I don't want to forget this thing from 2016. And there's some really good things in there. That show's coming up. I'm excited for it. It should be Thursday.

Yep. That should be Thursday's show. So stay tuned for the show after the show immediately following this episode. It'll be on YouTube. We're going to talk about an interesting discovery we made in Tennessee. Awkwardness in the restrooms. Yeah, that's... Make sure you go to YouTube. Biggolts, huh? Hey, thank you to fantasy jocks.com. That's where winners get their winter gear. That's right. And the promo code is footballers. See you on Thursday.