Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Franchise Focus: Los Angeles Rams

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) and Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) preview the Los Angeles Rams 2021 season in the companion podcast to the 2021 Franchise Focus piece on FantasyPoints.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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responsibly. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Welcome back to the franchise focus series. I'm Graham, and I'm joined today for the first time in this series with Scott. it's a special edition of the two bars. Our guys, Joe and Tom are out at a wedding, visiting some family for the next couple of days. So Scott and I are filling in for Joe and Tom.

Definitely excited about it. First and foremost, want to say off the bat that these are, you know, if you've been listening to these podcasts, which, you know, if you're riding with us at this at this point, you're at like 14, 15 teams deep. You've probably heard this a million times. But if you haven't, if this is the first time listening, go check out the. companion piece for the Los Angeles Rams. We're going to be talking about the Rams day, Scott and I are. But if you haven't, go check out the franchise focus, full article up on the site for the Rams. It breaks down pretty much everything you want to know. On each team, we've got Tom's, you know, team futures with the win total, Super Bowl odds, NFC championship

odds, key moves. I've been bringing down pace and tendencies from like, you know, coaching perspective and I've got some stats in there. I can already tell you, Wes wrote a Bible on the RAM scheme. There's a lot of good stuff in there. And then Joe and Tom have been breaking down the fantasy contributors from a fantasy perspective. And then, you know, John has been breaking down the team altogether. It's just kind of an all-encompassing project here. Scott's also been doing some fantasy strength of schedule for every team. So yeah, man, it's just an all-encompassing prospect. And also, if you want to, if you haven't subscribed with the Sutter, ready. You want to use code 21 Barfield 10 to get 10% off your subscription. These franchise

focus podcasts or franchise focus articles, excuse me, are in our basic package. So just the, you know, the cheapest one. If you want to get in on those, 21 Barfield 10, you don't want to use 21 Barfield 10. That's not what you want to use. 21 Barfield 10, get you 10% off. Also, before we get into it, Tom has also been doing Wayne. more in-depth betting previews. So you can get the Rams betting previews, like, you know, what props and all of that he likes from a betting perspective. That is on the premium side of things. And again, if you want to get those 10% off, 21 barfield 10, definitely not 21 barit, but Scott, let's get into it, man. We had probably the biggest, I don't know, maybe.

Yeah, there's, there's, you know, the week before training camp is always good for a couple big injuries, but man, none bigger than Cam Acres. Tori's Achilles in a, you know, training session away from the facility a week before training camp starts, just a brutal blow for fantasy, brutal blow for the Rams. Listen to how bad this was for me. So there's, you know, sort of self-improvement advice is to not to not check your phone the first hour after you wake up. Don't go on social media because all too often it puts you in a bad mood. You know, people are at each other's throats. There's political stuff, whatever.

And so I woke up late, which is, you know, customary for me. And I go outside, hang out by the pool for a little bit. Then I go back to the computer, check my email, notice I'm on the clock in an FFPC league. It's a league where I took handmakers in the second round. and I'm torn between Elijah Moore, my guy, and Darrell Henderson. Henderson makes sense because of light on RB and, you know, I get that, that potential handcuff. And I go back and forth on it.

And then I take Elijah Moore and then I check Twitter and the news that Cammakers done for the year, potentially career-ending injury. So not only did I screw up that pick, but like one of my favorite guys after the year already have a bunch of exposure to him. And yeah, the entire day, brutal mood. Horrible, horrible mood. Yeah, you and I have been talking a lot about the Rams running back situation, like in Slack, just off air, just, you know, bouncing the ideas off each other like we

usually do. And my biggest thing with Akers is just like he was always expensive. Like you never really got the discount on him, you know, over, you know, how many times have we seen backs that we extrapolate, you know, four or five starts, just get massively pushed up boards. And I kind of felt like Airbus was that guy. I mean, I loved the potential role, but I got lucky and kind of stayed away and instead have a ton of Drell Henderson. So we're on opposite sides of the field now. But looking forward, man, what do you think about Henderson and where are you drafting and where have you kind of made that adjustment?

Yeah, he's going in like late round four these days. Yeah. And so I kind of want to stay away from him. And last year, you know, I loved Ronald Jones at ADP, even though he wasn't a bell cow. I just saw Tampa Bay's offense smashing, tons of goal line opportunities for him, tons of volume, didn't really trust Keishon Vaughn. Clyde Edwards-Halear, another one of my guys. And then shockingly, Leonard Fernette and Levi-on-Bell both get cut. Those guys, you know, start stealing work from the other two guys I like. And, you know, they were more or less bus. So I can definitely see that playing out for Henderson, although, of course, it would be just my

luck if Deshawn Watson goes to Philly tanking Jalen Hertz and the Rams don't don't add anyone and Henderson goes off and I have no exposure. But yeah, I mean, the big thing with him was, so we saw what happened with Can Makers out last year, is weeks two through, two through six, two through two through seven. And he was basically, you know, an unsexy low end Darby two, about 14 XFP per game, 14 fantasy points per game, 14 carries, about two targets per game. And Malcolm Brown, who I don't think is anything special, was mixing in quite a bit, just about 55% of snaps for Henderson. He did have three games over 19 fantasy points in that six-game stretch, but a bunch of games

with absolutely nothing and with Brown stealing a lot of the passing down work. Man, I don't know. It could be the case where you remove one guy from the equation and now it's an even better workload because there's less competition. I just have a hard time seeing that happened. Henderson, you'll remember all of the data points suggesting he was a high level prospect. And we just have not seen that at all. I disagree. Last year, Henderson was much, much better man. I looked into this yesterday and 40 running backs saw 100 or more early down. That's first or second down carries last year. And Henderson was really, really efficient. He was fifth best and success rate. So that's like carries that generate positive,

expected points. And he was second best in first downs per carry. Alvin Kamakers was mediocre in both of those stats, like actually worse than mediocre, but actually below average. So I don't know, I think Henderson was really good last year until he got hurt. And, you know, no Malcolm Brown. You know, it's fake junk and Xavier Jones back there now. Yeah. So, I mean, efficiency stats for wide receivers, I like a lot. You know, typically you rank highly one year and yards per target stats like that.

You're going to see an uptick in targets the following season. With running backs, it really doesn't matter too much to me, especially because it's already such a volume dependent position for fantasy points. And we saw, you know, Henderson healthy at the tail end of last season. Cam Acres still banged up. And Acres was just given a massive workhorse role where Henderson was a complete afterthought. And, you know, all the indications this offseason where, oh, you know,

Acres is going to be a featured back, which I think shows you what they really think about Henderson. You know, when he drafted him, they compared him to Alvin Kamara. And, you know, he was losing passing down work to Malcolm Brown last year. So I don't know, man. I don't believe in the talent, and I don't believe in the workload. I just, I'm highly skeptical, although indeed, you look at the depth chart right now, and, you know, it's, it's, it's weak.

It's certainly very weak. I mean, that's the thing, though, man. It's like Acres, when he went off in those final four or five games, Henderson was on IR. He had a really bad ankle injury. Well, just the last two games. He wasn't on the injury. He wasn't on the injury report before that. It was the last three.

So Week 17, he was on IR, and then obviously, there two playoff games he didn't okay okay you're right you're right yeah so that's the other thing man is like i just don't i don't really believe that acres was going to get like this todd girly-esque role where he got like 80 to 85 percent of the snaps and all the goal line stuff uh i think acres could have paid off his ADP by getting like 65 percent which is like on the cusp of the bell cowbell i never once thought that acres was going to get this like you know vintage 17 18 girl all right listen let me just let me just let me just let me just let me just let me just cut you off here. So Henderson, completely fully healthy weeks, 13, 14, 15.

Acres saw 21, 22 opportunities, 32 opportunities, 18 opportunities. Henderson, the last two games, saw seven and seven snaps, just a complete and utter afterthought. Yeah, no, I hear you. But early in the year, it was, you know, Acres got banged up. Henderson played really well and was, you know, the 1A. I don't know, man, this is kind of moot now because, you know, at this point, the Rams are going to have to add somebody. These are my favorite debates because I can't be wrong. We'll never know. We'll never know.

It's true. It's true. But, yeah, man, this is, it's interesting because, like, the Rams, you know, training camp's right around the corner. It starts on the 27th. By the time this pod comes out, Rams training camp will be basically opening up. I just, I got to think that they're going to be in the market for a body. I have no idea who that will be, but I just, I just don't believe that they're going to go into the year with, with Jake Funk and Xavier Jones as their two and three. So, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm kind of with you on Henderson.

Like, if he's going in the fourth round, I think it's fair. But just, yeah, I don't think there's a ton of equity. And the reason the process behind why I was so heavy. on Henderson. I mean, he's my most drafted running out. He was a great peck. He was a great peck at yeah. Yeah, I mean, the process behind it for me was just like, okay, you know, you have like a direct handcuff. Everybody loves Tony Pollard in the 10th round, but Drell Henderson was going in the 12th and 13th round. Nobody wanted him. And if anything happens to Acres, there's literally jack shit on the top of the chart behind Anderson. And, you know, at this point, Henderson for me is just like,

you know, it's just positive ROI. So I don't really know how I'm going to attack Henderson. in the fourth round. I'm probably just going to end up taking receivers like I've been doing this whole time. And that's been a theme of this podcast. You've been listening for all these teams we've been previewing. But yeah, I think we should leave that Henderson and Acres debate right there. We'll have way more on it in the article. Okay, we just spent the first 10 minutes to this podcast talking about the backs. We haven't even mentioned Matthew Stafford, probably the biggest move of the NFL off season, and probably one of the biggest moves in NFL history. Matthew Stafford gets traded to the Rams.

The Rams give up like a million first-round picks. They haven't made a first-round pick since the Reagan administration. All right. Matt Stafford, man. I think you and I are both kind of lockstep on him, but the market is pretty bullish. I mean, Stafford is a ninth, tenth-th-round pick. Not a huge discount, but I think it's fairly efficient.

What's your take on Stafford in this passing game real quick? Yeah. So Jared Goff's two first seasons under Sean McVeigh, back when he was being heralded as the greatest offensive mind in football, potentially, went 24 and 7. He ranked third and adjusted yards per attempt behind only Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees. The following season led the league in pass attempts. And then Sean McVeigh came out and said, Matthew Stafford is worth two first round picks and a third round pick more than Jared got back. That's how much better he is. And I would just love to see this offense without Kimakers just go all in on being basically what Buffalo was last year.

That would be so enticing to me. You mentioned the ADP. He's my favorite non-Kanami code quarterback at price. I would probably say fifth best MVP odds, ninth by ADP. And, you know, you talk to Greg Kassel, the goat. And he makes it seem like those MVP odds are too low. Yeah. I think Brady and Stafford are really close in that range. They both have like 40 touchdown potential with the extra game.

And they're both pretty easy to stack. I mean, you have like, the thing I like about Stafford and Brady is like you have the benefit of information. So like, you know, if you draft Evans in the fourth or Woods in the fourth, like it's pretty easy just to come back and wait four or five rounds and get their quarterback to stack with in best ball. You know, you don't really have to force the issue too much. But yeah, I like Stafford. I just haven't found myself taking him all that much because I'm kind of all in on, like, Lamar and Dak and the fifth. So I'm usually waiting just a little bit longer to get my second quarterback.

But everything obviously set up beautifully for Stafford this coming year. And I'm with you. I think that was a part of the process in Sneed and McVeigh going out and making this move is not going so balanced. Last year, the Rams were like one of the most balanced teams in the NFL in all game scripts. And I think just regardless of the Cam Acres injury, I think they were set up to throw way more this year. And then now you take Cam Acres out of the equation, it sets up even better. I mean, last year, the Rams were literally dead even in terms of pass rate in both neutral situations.

So in the game is within a score and they were very run heavy when they had lead. So, yeah, that's going to wrap it up, man. We'll come back tomorrow with a preview on the dolphins. Again, if you want to check out the companion piece for these articles or for these podcasts, excuse me, check it out at FantasyPoints.com. Get yourself 10% off with Code 21 Barfield 10. That'll do it. For Scott, I'm Graham.

Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. and come join the roster at fantasy points.com.