Fantasy Football Today - 09/16 BONUS: Mailbag & A.J. Green Perspective (Recorded Fri.)

Episode Date: September 16, 2017

Before we get to your questions, let's put A.J. Green's first two games in perspective. Then we're grading trades, setting lineups and answering commissioner questions To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Here we go! We're here to help you win the ultimate bragging rights. A fantasy title. Let's go! Now, here's Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Alright, remember Heath Cummings? I do. He's back. What up, Heath? It is so good to be here, Adam. This is the happiest day of my life. Good. Very happy to hear that. I don't believe that, but what is the happiest day of your life? Well, it's probably got to be a four-way tie between getting married and the birth of my three children.

And then I would say the fifth best day of my life was seeing that Jamie made Ty Montgomery his start of the week in week two. Love it. Love it. And yes, I have Ty Montgomery in. No, we don't have him in the Heathden League. We don't have in the Rejects League. Sorry. No, we don't have anybody as good as Ty Montgomery. No, we sure don't. We have DeMarco Murray. He should be better, but we shall see. Listen, are you hiring listeners? If you are, you got to use ZipRecruiter. With Z DeMarco Murray. He should be better, but we shall see. Listen, are you hiring listeners? If you are, you've got to use ZipRecruiter.

With ZipRecruiter.com, you can post your job to 100-plus job sites, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. This is your Saturday mailbag, and this is Friday afternoon as we are recording So how you doing Heath? How's your house? The house is not a problem at all

You know it was The winds blew a little bit It rained a little bit Yes I feel very fortunate The keys really was awful for them And I feel terrible for those people. We did not really have – it was just a little rain and wind. Yeah, yeah.

I know losing power can be kind of a bummer, which is why Heath was not on any of the podcasts from home on Skype. But now we're just about back to normal. So before we get into emails and tweets, there was an AJ Green stat that I wanted to give out because I feel like people are panicking over AJ Green. I'm talking to somebody in the office this morning and he's telling me about all the green trade offers he's getting. And should I trade AJ Green for Leonard Fournette in a PPR league? And I said, no, I mean, you could, it's not a terrible trade. And then he said, he asked the Fournette owner and the Fournette owner wasn't even the least bit interested in giving up Fournette for Green.

So, you know, Green was obviously going a lot earlier than Fournette, just a few weeks ago. This is the stat I wanted to give. A.J. Green, through two games, has 10 catches for 141 yards. Last year, in weeks two and three, he had 10 catches for 115 yards, even fewer than what he has this year. And then he had a 173-yard game with a touchdown the following week. And then the two weeks after that, he had 10 catches for 133 yards. Again, this year it's 10 for 141.

So he did this twice last year. Now, look at those 10 for 133 in weeks, I think that would be five and six. The next two games, two straight games with more than 120 yards. A.J. Green is fine, in my opinion, Heath. People are freaking out. He's done this before. This happens. It's week one and two.

It looks worse. But over the course of a season, this happens, even to a guy like A.J. Green. Yeah, and it's like A.J. Green's terrible, awful game was, what, five catches for 67 yards? It's not like you get goose-egged or something. This is the time, if people are really worried about A.J. Green, this is the time where I'm making trade offers for A.J. Green. Yep, totally agree. So this is all about the people, about their questions let's get to it

ryan on twitter says would you trade aaron rogers for levion bell obviously but it's a trade between me and my wife no chance no no no you don't i just don't make trades with your wife period um because like there's a couple of different outcomes and i don't know that any of them are good first off you make that trade with your wife and everyone else in the league is going to scream collusion it's good point yeah and it's pretty easy to prove collusion when both people stand to benefit from the other one doing well especially if there's a prize involved yeah that's true and then the other one is she realizes that you made this trade with her and it was not a good deal for her. And then you have to deal with that side.

Or the trade goes poorly for you and she gets the best of it. And then you have to deal with that. There's no benefit here. No way. But if it weren't your wife, yes, trade Rogers for Bell. Yes. From John, would you trade Stefan Diggs for Zach Ertz in PPR? No, I would not.

Not even with the recent news about Sam Bradford's knee. I would not deal Diggs for Ertz. Right. So as of Friday afternoon, there's a chance Bradford does not play this week. You're more up on the news than I am. I was just doing a fantasy baseball podcast. Anything to add? Yeah, I was taken aback, and this may happen a lot over the weekend

with things that I just missed when I was living in the dark. But Adam Schefter tweeted out an hour ago, the Vikings have guarded optimism but concern about Bradford's left knee injury that required an MRI this week. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, that's not great news from Schefter about Bradford's knee. But also, there's optimism. I expect he's going to play this week.

And there's just too much upside with what we saw from Stefan Diggs in week one. He could be a top 10 wide receiver. I'm not trading him. Would you trade Jonathan Stewart for James White in PPR? That's from Mitch. You probably should. I might struggle with doing that because

Stewart got 20 touches in week one. He's got another good matchup, I think, in week two against the Bills where they should have a positive game script. You probably should. I would struggle with it. From Rick, Cook, Clay,

or Hoopa this week at tight end? Cook, Clay, or Hoopa this week at tight end? Cook, Clay, or Hoopa? I like Clay the most just because of potential target volume, but Cook was also one of my favorite tight end streamers this week. From Matt, which pair do you like better rest of season? Dalvin Cook and Corey Davis? Dalvin Cook and Corey Davis? Or Jordan Howard and Kenny Galladay?

I'm going with Cook and Davis. They said they were working him in in Week 1. He wasn't quite a full go in Week 1. He got 10 targets. Yeah. Corey Davis is the man. He looked like a stud. Galladay's good as well,

but I don't know how much difference there's going to be between Jordan Howard and Dalvin Cook now with Tariq Cohen in the picture. John from Long Island. I can't be the only one that sets an alarm clock for 2 a.m. right after waivers run, right? It's a great strategy to grab unclaimed guys, especially the defenses. Been doing it for years

now. You're not the only guy because I have people in my leagues that do it as well. I do not. I cannot imagine the look guy because I have people in my leagues that do it as well. I do not. I cannot imagine the look I would get from my wife if my alarm clock went off at 2 a.m. and she said, what's going on? And I said, I have to pick somebody up off waivers.

I have to pick someone up. What, like from the airport? No, no, from the waiver wire. Yeah, that would not go well. So, good for you, John. Yeah, good for you, but not for anybody else uh this is from oh no oh frank from a small city in central new york i don't really know where central new york like what's central new york should i know that i'm a new yorker yes you should i have no idea okay um you maybe you could look at a map. Yep. He says, Dear Eric, Lee, Andre, and Peerless. So that's Eric Moulds, Lee Evans, Andre Reid, and Peerless Price.

I like it. Yeah, that's good. I have a hard time choosing who to start at wide receiver and flex. So he needs two receivers and a flex in standard scoring. Michael Thomas, let's just say yes to that. Yep. Michael Crabtree, Terrell Pryor, Adam Thielen, Tyrell Williams, and Dalvin Cook. So we need one receiver from these four.

Let's start with that. Crabtree, Pryor, Thielen, and Tyrell Williams. I'll go Pryor. And a flex in standard from Crabtree, Williams, Thielen, and Cook. I'll go Cook. Okay. And I'll go eat. And let's see.

Central New York. Uh-huh. I guess you, like, that's difficult, but I might say that, like, Ithaca or Syracuse. Okay. Okay. Okay. There you go. Thank you. Yep.

I like it. Tyler in a suburb outside of Denver. I just don't know. No. Breckenridge. Breckenridge. Big Ben or Stafford? Ben.

Anderson. I'm worried about Stafford this week. Anderson or Crowell in PPR? Anderson. Hill, Adams, or Thielen? Tyreek Hill, Devonta Adams, or Thielen in PPR? I'm going with Tyreek. Zach from a city southeast of Pittsburgh.

We need Dave. Washington, D.C. Okay, yes, perfect. Zach from D.C. PPR League. Buck Allen or Tyrell Williams at Flex? Call him. Better call Tyrell Williams at Flex? Call him. Better call Tyrell.

Yes. Hey, I did – oh, you know what I did last night? Other than watch that – last night, it's Friday right now. Other than watch that dreadful football game, I did a draft on the draft app. Actually, if you give me a second, I'll pull my team up. It was a six-team draft, Six people in the draft. You draft the quarterback, two running backs, and then two wide receivers slash tight ends.

My team's amazing. Everybody's team is pretty good, but I think mine's clearly the best. Tom Brady, Devontae Freeman, Leonard Fournette, Antonio Brown, and Demarius Thomas. Love it. Yeah, that's excellent. Yeah.

You really did a nice job. It's very fun. That draft, 30 players picked, took a few minutes. It's really cool. Download the draft app right now. It's a simple daily fantasy app. You can do snake drafts whenever you want. The drafts, they last for just one week, so you're just playing week by week.

And there's no management. Set it and forget it. You can draft with up to 10 people. Keep it smaller if you'd like, like I did the six-person draft last night. Cool feature, by the way. Draft even takes care of last-minute injuries for you. You'll get notified if there's an injury and you have to make a change. If you want to win some money, come join me on Draft today. Download the app. Just search Draft in your app store and join the game in minutes, or play on your computer at playDraft.com, whatever you want. Limited time, we got this offer for you here. New players get a free entry into a draft when you make your first deposit. You have to use our promo code FF today. So play a real money game for free. Use our promo code FF today on your first deposit on Draft.

Again, I want you to search Draft in the app store or go to PlayDraft.com and come play for free with promo code FF today. Back to the emails. 12-team half PPR, who to flex? Buck Allen, John Brown, Thomas Rawls. I like Rawls and John Brown this week. Sounds like the difference is Rawls is trending in the right direction. Brown is trending in the wrong direction. I would go with Rawls, I believe, unless we get something positive Sunday morning on John Brown.

This is from Sean. Hey, Bruce, Tony, and Steve. Bruce, Tony, and Steve. This, Tony, and Steve. This is easy. Okay. Who's Steve? I think these are superheroes. Bruce Banner.

Bruce Wayne. Oh, Bruce Wayne. Tony Stark. Steve. Job? Yeah. I don't know. I'm not good with superheroes.

Start two in a 12-team standard scoring league. C.J. Anderson, DeMarco Murray, Terrence West, and Christian McCaffrey. In a standard league? Yeah, we got C.J., Murray, West, and McCaffrey. DeMarco is the easy one. I would also go with Anderson. Over Terrence West? I think so.

Heath, you don't know my stat, huh? You haven't been on the podcast. No, I haven't been on. I tried to listen to them all, but I didn't have internet, so that's why I didn't listen because I would normally have definitely listened. Steve Rogers, by the way, is a superhero. I don't know who he plays. I think he's Captain America.

So 11 games in a row, the Cowboys have held a running back under 70 yards rushing. Nobody's gotten 70 yards in 11 games. And they gave up the fewest rushing yards in the league last year. Okay. And I also checked my rankings, and I have Terrence West one spot ahead of C.J. Anderson, so I'm going to go with West. All right, West and Murray. Richard in Dallas.

Dear Charleston Chew, Mary Janes, Sky Bars, and O. Henry. Candy Bars, I assume. No Heath Bar? That's insulting. That's rude. Yeah. Rude. I need your help in a flex 12-team half PPR league.

Half PPR, who to start? Carlos Hyde, John Brown, Corey Davis, Cooper Cup Carlos Hyde, John Brown, Corey Davis, Cooper Cup I'm going to rule Cooper Cup out of this group right away He's my least favorite I know I'm the lowest guy on him I just don't see him averaging 13 yards per target On a regular basis

I will go I just don't see him averaging 13 yards per target on a regular basis. I will go – because we don't know for sure about Brown, I'm going to go with Hyde. What's a normal yards per target? I mean a normal yards per catch for – if it's a really good player that gets deep targets might be 13 or 14. Yeah. Well, for like the elites – for like the Deshaun Jacksons, it's probably like 16. But for the – 16, right. Beckham's 14 or 15, 16 sometimes.

Yeah. I would expect Koop's going to be around 11 per catch, maybe 12 per catch. Cooper Cup? What's that? Cooper Cup or Amari Cooper? Cup. Okay. Okay.

So what was your answer? I was thinking about yards per catch. Carlos Hyde. What? Carlos Hyde with that matchup? He's going to be involved in the passing game. If not, then Corey Davis. He is.

Yeah, that's true. Actually, if John Brown were healthy, I might go with him. If John Brown were healthy, he would be number one. Yeah. When I initially ranked this week, not worried about John Brown's injury, I had John Brown as a top 20 wide receiver. But he's not practiced all week. Yeah.

I'm guessing he's not going to play. Phil in Brooklyn. Hey, Peter, Clark, Bruce, and Diana. That's got to be superheroes again, right? Sure. Yeah. I don't know who Diana is. It's got to be Wonder Woman.

There's other female superheroes. I actually think it is Wonder Woman. God, we are so bad at this. So the question, Mariota and Luck on my team. Palmer is available. Would you pick up a third quarterback and drop Chris Carson to get Carson Palmer when you have Mariota and Luck? No, I'm not worried about starting Marcus Mariota.

There are a lot of things that happen in week one that people are just taking as the gospel now. The Jags defense being a shutdown defense because they shut down Tom Savage and Deshaun Watson is one of them. I don't necessarily agree with it. There's a lot of good players on that defense, but they're not going to have Jalen Ramsey this week. I saw enough to think that they are

improved. They had a ways to go from improved to you can't start a top five quarterback against them, and I still believe Mario is a top five quarterback. Yeah, so Ramsey's questionable as of Friday. He didn't practice all week either. Also, Heath, you missed my stat. I told you about this.

What the heck was it? I think it was nine of the last. The Jaguars did not allow double-digit fantasy points to a running back in like ten of their last 12 games dating back to last year. There's got to be something to it. Well, Marcus Mariota is not a running back. He's not, but I'm just saying the defense is good. They are improved.

Steven Miller. Ooh, Steve Miller from Green Bay, Wisconsin, owner of the Green Bay Packers. I need some commissioner trade advice. 12-team standard league with friends. I'm the commissioner. League trades are approved slash denied by commissioner only, but I do take an unofficial vote to assist the decision. I hate vetoing trades, but this is crazy.

Team 1 trades David Johnson. Team 2 trades Leonard Fournette. Surprisingly, everyone thinks this trade is fair. Are you kidding me? Help me out. There's no way this is fair, giving up David Johnson to get Leonard Fournette. What should he do? You should stop voting on trades.

Should he veto it? No. You shouldn't even have the power to veto it. Change your settings. This is a terrible trade. I don't think you should veto it if the entire league thinks it's okay, but it is a terrible trade. I think you should change your settings so you don't have to deal with these kind of

headaches. I think I love your settings, but just don't veto a lot. I mean, this is a bad trade. Fournette is clearly more valuable than Johnson. It's awful. It's terrible. Steven, you are right. This is not fair. I do not care.

I love it. This is from Jared. Hey, Caesar, Jack, Heath, and Jared. Actors who played the Joker. What's Jared. Actors who played the Joker. What's that? Actors who played the Joker. You're on it. Why is everybody sending us Superhero stuff?

I don't know. But Jared actually told us that. It's in the PS. 12-team standard league at the office. A co-worker who we had to convince to play at all dropped Travis Kelsey for Jesse James. Should I let this stand? What's fair? Well, Jesse James just scored two touchdowns, and Travis Kelsey looked terrible against

the Patriots. I don't know what more you want, Jared. What do you do here? I would try to pick up Travis Kelsey is what I would do. Oh, man. That's tough. I understand that you have to beg people to play sometimes, and you have less than ideal situations.

I do not like a situation where a commissioner is trying to make things more fair or more right for the league. That's just not the way that I think they should be played. I don't know. I don't want the league influence because this guy dropped Travis Kelsey and somebody else picked him up and wins the championship because he got Travis Kelsey. Then you should outbid him. It's not fab.

It's waivers. Well, I hope you happen to have a better waiver claim than him. I want to talk to the listeners about something that could be really useful to them. And any of you out there, if you're hiring, if you need to find top talent, please use ZipRecruiter. It's the best job site you're going to find. And you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. You need to get the word out in order to find the best people for your job openings. And with ZipRecruiter, you can do that. You can post your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click. And then their powerful technology takes over, finds the right people for your job to 100 plus job sites with just one click, and then their powerful technology

takes over, finds the right people for your job. And that's why ZipRecruiter is different. Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you, it finds them. In fact, 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate in just one day. So find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by businesses of all sizes. Any business, you can use this. Right now, our listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free. That's right, for free. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. One more time, everybody. Try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. Joe in Dallas. Pick a wide receiver. Corey Coleman, Corey Davis, Marquise Lee, or Sterling Shepard? I am thinking that I'm going with Corey Davis.

Oh, yeah. From Nathaniel. I just got offered Bell and Martavis Bryant. Bell and Bryant for Dalvin Cook and Michael Crabtree. Do it quickly before they change their minds. Really? You'd give up Cook and Crabtree for Bell and Bryant for Dalvin Cook and Michael Crabtree. Do it quickly before they change their minds. Really? You'd give up Cook and Crabtree for Bell and Bryant? Yep.

Okay. And this is from Eddie. Dear Dustin, Mario, and Mark Paul. Oh, I know that. Dustin, Mario, and Mark Paul. Those are the actors from Saved by the Bell. You're going to get the full theme song soon, everybody. Get excited.

All right. Pick three to start Fournette, Lynch Jacquez Rogers Tariq Cohen Crowell I'm going with Marshawn for sure I'm going with Fournette for sure

And I think I'm going to go with Jacquez Over Crowell And Cohen Cohen's not in that discussion for me. He thinks everyone overreacted to Cohen. He was very exciting. I think he had a chance to have a very nice, long career if he can stay as healthy as Darren Sproles did. But we're not considering starting Darren Sproles with any of these guys.

That's what his upside is. No, but he got 12 targets. He's arguably their best receiver right now. Is that what you're expecting for the rest of the season is 12 targets a game? I wouldn't be surprised if he was, like, second on the team in targets, just given how bad their receivers are. Yeah, he's 179 pounds soaking wet. I would be surprised if he can handle it, have a workload for a full season.

Well, catches? I don't know. I mean, carries maybe. Okay, a question from Jay. Is Jay from a town west of Philly that drinks a lot of Golden Monkey? Kansas City. Galladay or Crowder?

I will go with Crowder. Cousin? This is Crowder. Cousins. This is from Andy. Cousins or Rivers, Tyrod, Wentz, Stafford, Bradford, all available? I'm going with Cousins. Over Rivers? Over Rivers. Grade the trade from Anthony.

Give up Gillislee and Marvin Jones. Get Ingram and Landry. Gillislee and Marvin Jones. get Ingram and Landry. Gilleslie and Marvin Jones get Ingram and Landry. I would like that a lot in PPR. In a standard league, I'm really concerned about this Dolphins passing attack. It's one of the things we've not seen anything of yet. And there's just so many questions about whether Jay Cutler will be any good. Whether they're actually

going to throw the ball very often. Who he's going to throw the ball to when he throws it. I'm trying to just stay away from the Dolphins passing attack for week one. I would definitely do it in PPR. Probably not in standard. Last email here.

Jonathan from Palm Desert, California. Javoris Allen, Darren Sproles, or Theo Riddick? You're not going to tell me if it's PPR, I suppose. I mean, the funny thing is they're all kind of better in PPR, you'd think, right? But Allen's probably better in Standard. Allen will get more carries than the other two, maybe combined. I'd start Riddick for sure in PPR. In standard, I'd probably stick with Riddick.

I'm thinking maybe Buck Allen just because they're going to potentially blow out the Bengals. I don't think they're going to play the Bengals again. The Browns. It would be really weird if they did. The Browns, yeah. All right, that's a tough call. So, Heath, welcome back. Good to hear from you.

It was a true joy. There was only one bad thing that happened today. On the podcast? Six weeks ago, my 8-year old pre-ordered NBA 2K today's the release date and I saw release date was on a Friday due to my off day I thought I'm gonna get

eight hours of playing 2K before he gets out of school this is going to be so awesome and then all of a sudden I'm at work and he's at home and he's been texting me all day Telling me new things about 2K When you play him

Do you try to win? Always This is your older son? How old is he? No this is my 8 year old And you try to beat him? Every time we play You never let him win?

He beats me sometimes now If I had let him win He never would have gotten to the point. And also, you asked about my oldest one, and I'm not naming names here, but he absolutely crushes my oldest one in 2K. He does? Yeah. It's ridiculous. Really? And he's going to get beat up because he talks trash while he does it.

I love it. Would love to be a fly on the wall there. All right, it's great to have Heath back, and I hope you all enjoyed the mailbag. Make sure you listen to Eye on Fantasy Football tonight, Saturday night, 10 p.m. Eastern to midnight on CBS Sports Radio or CBSSportsRadio.com. Apparently there is some Bengals news, so hang on just one second. Did you see the Bengals news, Heath? No, I hope they fired everyone.

Okay. Jamie's letting me know. Oh, they fired their offensive coordinator, Ken Zampini. That makes a lot of sense. They should do it again just to make sure. That was atrocious. I'm not giving up on the Bengals, by the way. Bill Lazor promoted from quarterback coach.

I'm sorry? Bill Lazor is promoted to offensive coordinator from quarterback coach. It can't be worse The first order of business Is feature Joe Mixon And yes Shame on you the first order Is throw the damn ball to AJ Green

Okay fine but shame on Heath For that trade offer Oh my god I've not been able to acquire him yet I also Offer Jonathan Stewart for him in one league and got turned down on that, too. You are worse than me now. Jonathan Stewart is going to probably outscore Joe Mixon for at least the first month of the season. Beginning next week, Joe Mixon is getting 14 carries per game.

More and more every game. Beginning next week. I don't know if I believe that, but they're playing the Packers next week. I'm not sure they run the ball 14 times. That's a decent point. But after that, it's odd. All right, take it easy, everybody. We'll talk to you Sunday night, recapping the action. Good morning. Well, I better do my homework tonight. Reading Jamie's starter sick. Day straight chart is legit.

Heath and Adam shared a team. It was a dumpster fire. It's all right. I've got Le'Veon Bell. It's alright I've got Le'Veon It's alright Not George Le'Veon It's alright

I've got Le'Veon Bell