Fantasy Football 2018 - Trending or Ending, Tier Drop Candidates

Shaheen, while I like him, you know, long term, I think that he could become something. I didn't need to make that move. I'd rather have the running back death. And then an hour later, the report is, oh, well, they're going to cut C.J. Anderson. And we've kind of hypothesized about that. They can cut Anderson with no penalties to their cap. Zero dead cap. Say nine million. So, wow, you can hold on to Sanders and Thomas, cut C.J. Anderson, save a lot of money for your cap. That's the right move. But.

I digress to the Anderson possibly being cut, and then they filled that in with they want Devante Booker to be their guy, which sounds great for my dynasty team. Yeah, that's very interesting. So if you're in a dynasty league, go see if you can buy. Oh, if you're in a dynasty league, I... A cheap Booker? Yeah, oh, if you can get him cheap, but I was going to say, if you can sell Booker right now off of this hype train and get something...

that you deem better, I would probably do it. I think Booker has a potential, but we also saw when he was given the opportunity as rookie year, he just didn't hold up. Devante Booker, Kenneth Dixon, Joe Williams. How would you order those for your dynasty landscape? I think you ordered them. That was it.

Booker, Dixon, Joe Williams. I think Dixon's a better player, but that's a lot of baggage, hasn't played football in a year. There's a lot of running backs there now. Yeah. Rob Demoski, the ESPN Packers reporter, says that now might be the time for Green Bay to move time Montgomery back to wide receiver. Obviously, Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams in the backfield. Yes. I've speculated my belief that Miranda will be out the door. It's a perfect opportunity for...

Time Montgomery to go back to the slot. So I can see it. This is why in basketball leagues, I really like drafting Ty Montgomery because I feel like he will be involved. Even if Punter, even if Jamal Williams takes over that starting role, I think that they know Ty Montgomery's valuable asset to the team and will be utilized in some fashion. I'm sure we will answer more questions and talk more about this on tomorrow's Jointhefoot.com episode.

Mailbag episode where we answer listener questions. I haven't even told you what we're doing on today's show. And we're starting that segment right now. But we're doing, well, you know, I'm just going to play the drop. Exciting. Trending or ending. All right. This is about Brooks career in the fantasy football podcast business. Is it trending or is it ending guys? Is Brooks on the way out? I'm going trending.

Because he's a handsome man. The judge gets a compliment. You have never said something so nice about. I've bodied him so many times on this podcast. All right. We're doing trending or ending. We're going to look at some of the things that happened in 2017 and make a case on whether we believe they'll continue, whether it's the beginning of a trend or whether it was kind of a one-hit wonder type of season. Perfect example. The first one on our list. Alex Smith.

Is he going to be a top 10 quarterback in 2018? Last year, 2017 was the QB4. He had never finished above QB13. He has had four seasons in the past as a quarterback 22 are worse, but obviously a very, very impressive season showed that he could take advantage of the weapons that were given him, Travis Kelsey, Tyree Kill, but now he has to Washington, making this trending or ending all the more complicated. What do you think, guys?

It's easy for me. Really? Oh, so super easy. It's ending. Yeah, I think that's the easy, that feels like the easy call. But at the same time, you know, all these numbers of, well, Alex Smith has been so bad. And he has two seasons over 3,500 yards, only one season over 4,000 yards. But those were his last two seasons. I agree that it is the easy answer because I was leaning on the side. And I'll give you a chance to share your thoughts, Jay, but.

My initial impression was, oh, you know, Andy Reid, not having those exact weapons. Well, Kirk Cousins put up three, four thousand plus yard seasons under Jake Gruden, including a 4,900 yard season, 25 plus touchdowns in all three. I believe Alex Smith is a very competent and capable quarterback. But I do think that I'd rather have them in Kansas City overall. So top 10, maybe right on the edge. The thing is for me is,

These last two years, you said, are Alex Smith's best two years. And I don't think that's a coincidence that coincides with Tyreek Hill. Those are the two years. He had a guy that could take a little screen slant, you know, small pass. Or just burn people on the nine. And then you could throw it deep and he's, you know, wide open. How many, I mean, we've talked about this before on this show. How many of Tyreek Hill's touchdowns were these super long touchdown? 30 plus yards. Yeah. When it's that.

you know, it's pretty much like all of his touchdowns. Right. And when he's scoring all these touchdowns from distance, it's him doing it much more so than Alex Smith doing it. Not that Alex Smith hasn't thrown a good deep ball and hit him in stride here or there. But my point is, I think Tyree Kill made the fantasy relevance of, you know, Alex Smith. That's your belief. So you have ending. Mike, you haven't weighed in with an official trending or ending here. Yeah.

I'm going, I'm with, I feel like I'm with you, Andy, that you're talking, he can still put up. I just don't want to dismiss him because I think he's capable. Exactly. And I'm not going to dismiss the growth of Josh Docks and James and Crowder is still there. So Chris Thompson, there are still some weapons. And the fact that Kirk Cousins was able to get things done, it says to me that it's not an impossible thing for Alex Smith to maintain some fringe quarterback one numbers. All right. We kind of brought him up earlier inadvertently.

Drew Breeze, the fantasy drop-off that we saw from Drew Breeze. He had had 30-plus passing touchdowns the previous nine years, obviously last year. A huge difference in the amount of rushing touchdowns in the Mark Ingram, Alvin Camara explosion that we witnessed. What do you think about Drew Bree's fantasy drop-off? Is that trending? Is that the way it's going to be from now on through the sunset of his career?

Yeah, I do think it's a trend. I mean, Drew Brees, fantasy-wise, is dead to me. I love Drew Brees. Strong words. His play has been fine. I mean, you watch. It was not fine. It was great. Well, yes. When I say fine, I'm saying not bad for Drew Brees, which he's a Hall of Famer. Drew Brees has been, you know, he was still Drew Brees last year, but with the success of their running game and with the money that they are putting in and already committing to their offensive line.

and the age that Drew Breeze is now. This is the direction of the end of his career. I don't see them going to 2018 and saying, hey, last year, you know that great year we had, let's go away from our running game. We get back to where Drew Breeze is thrown for 5,000 yards and, you know, over 30 touchdowns. I think they would rather be this team. I think it fits what Drew Breeze is doing. This is what I'm saying. Could Drew Breeze, is he still capable of having, you know, a top five year? 100%.

But I don't think the Saints want him to do that, and I don't think they will have him do that. 137 fewer passing attempts last year than the year before. I mean, he had his best completion percentage of his career. Of the NFL history. Yeah. And he had the most completion. Of all careers. Yes. He had the most completions in the NFL. He set the accuracy record. The only difference. Also interesting, 8.09 yards per.

completion, which was his highest since 2011. I mean, here's where it's weird. It's just he hasn't thrown for fewer than 30 touchdowns since 2007. And aside from last year, his touchdown percentage, which is generally five to six, so with five and a half percent two years ago, five point one, three years ago, it would dip down to four point three. I'm not going to write Drew Breeze off and say that he can't.

so that he will not finish as a top six quarterback. I think that it would be, I'm not jumping on one year of a huge output of Russian touchdowns. If Drew Brees was 34 years old or 35 years old, we would look at last year as anomalous to his career. He's 39. That's why I think we're looking at it and saying the natural progression for a...

a quarterback. Fair. But to me, they're not losing Ingram or Camara. Why would you change the recipe that brought you one Stefan Diggs play away from the NFC title game? I think that the recipe, though, it was the only difference in his numbers. Yeah, the yard is, the yard is down. But the big difference for fantasy was touchdowns going from 32 to 37 to 23. So I'm not, I'm not writing Drew Brees off yet. Okay. A five and a half percent. Drew Brees or Alex Smith.

Drew Brees. Okay. Absolutely. All right. And before we move on to some more trends or some more ends, I want to thank today's sponsor. Try captaining some of the greatest warships of World War II and World of Warships, the free-to-play historical online combat game for more gaming. Folk Clan, I know you're out there playing games. I play games. You've got to check out World of Warships. Every match is a unique experience filled with endless hours of strategy.

I hate when I get involved in a game. And then it's just, there's not enough there. There's not enough content. World of Warships. Endless hours. It's the perfect balance of action and strategy. Look, we're sports fans. Those are two things we get excited about. You can download World of Warships for free today at commandworships.com. Begin your naval adventure. Make sure you enter the code footballers 18. All caps.

Footballers 18, you're going to get a ton of bonus content courtesy of the fantasy footballers, including a free premium ship Aurora, a pile of in-game currency. Jumpstart your epic World War II naval experience. Just download World of Warships today at commandworships.com.

Yeah, and hey, we want to thank Hello Fresh as well. Great sponsor of the show. Everyone that I know lately has been getting these meal kit delivery services so that you can stop having to do the shopping and the planning. There's no more time consuming meal planning or grocery shopping. Hello Fresh makes it easy to cook these delicious balanced dinners and for less than $10 a meal. You just choose your delivery day and everything gets sent right to your door and recyclable insulated packaging. You choose you want classic?

Do you want a veggie plan? Do you want a family plan? There's something for everyone. Plus, there are lots of, this is my personal favorite part from experience. There are lots of one pot recipes for those seriously speedy cooking and minimal cleanup days. So, you know, look, you can look forward to your Hello Fresh box delivery, have it be the highlight of your week, just knowing dinner, just got that much easier. And for $30 off, your first week of HelloFresh visit, hellofresh.com and enter the code footballers.

30 for $30 off. That's hellofresh.com. Footballers 30 for $30 off right now. All right, from fresh to stale. Let's talk about Des Bryant. Trending or ending, is he just a fantasy wide receiver two or three for good now? His big time, big boy years, they seem to be behind him. They seem to be.

2015. He was the wide receiver 81, 2016, wide receiver 32, 2017, wide receiver 34. He hasn't been a wide receiver one since 2014. That was a long time ago. That's what I was going to bring up. You were just a kid. We keep, I wish. I wish. You know, we keep waiting for Des to kind of get back. Coming into last season. We like the X, man. We like that big old body. Coming into the last season, I will fully admit that I was wrong on Des because I,

was a believer that Des was going to come back 100% basically to that 2014 type of season to his touchdown, you know, career rate. And he didn't get it done. He's just, I don't think he is. And then as the season went on, it was easy to tell, okay, you know, I was wrong about Des, not just from the stats sheet, but you just watch him. He doesn't look like the same guy. Can he still get contested catches? You know, you put that ball right on. Absolutely.

You know, I'm not saying he's a bad wide receiver, but he's not a wide receiver one anymore. And I don't, I don't see it changing. Do either of you? No, I don't. And I was the first last year to kind of say, I want Des to be great, but we hadn't seen it happen with Dak Prescott yet. We hadn't seen a prolong. I mean, it matters, right? Like these things matter. You had the Stafford and Calvin connection for many years. You had these.

you know, the rapport, and we hadn't seen that from Dak Prescott over a whole season. Obviously Prescott's willing and able to go elsewhere. I'm very curious whether Des is even in a cowboy uniform come 2018. Yeah, I think he probably is too, but they have to have a more diverse plan in terms of past catching options there in Dallas. That's why I thought maybe Charles Pryor, somebody else ends up there. As far as I'm concerned, Des Bryant.