Fantasy Football Today - BONUS: Hyde, Singletary, McCoy and More! (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 31, 2019

If you're getting ready to draft and need immediate reaction to the Carlos Hyde trade, LeSean McCoy getting cut, Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills getting traded and more from today, this episode will help you out! How are we ranking Duke Johnson, McCoy, Carlos Hyde, Devin Singletary and Frank Gore,?  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 fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. FFT bonus pod!

Yes, Saturday night. Adam Azer here. And roster cut day. So, Ben. Ben Gretsch is here. Ben, you made the team! Congratulations. Yeah, yeah. I passed final cuts.

I'm really happy to be on the 53 minute. Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah. So, Ben is our esteemed analyst out in Washington State who's hopping on here after taking in a Huskies football game this afternoon. So we appreciate his time. He wrote a story about the Bills running back situation. It is up on the website, cbssports.com slash fantasy. But if you're drafting tonight, if you're drafting tomorrow, we wanted to get something out as soon as possible. Ben, who is the biggest winner from today's events?

Well, it's probably Devin Singletary. I mean, LeSean McCoy getting cut obviously opens up a ton of opportunity, but I would be a little bit hesitant to say he has huge upside. I think for me, his upside is very similar to what we saw from Kerryon Johnson last year. He still has Frank Gore there, who's going to take some early down rushing work, and he still has TJ Yeldon there who's been a pretty efficient pass catcher throughout his career has at least 30 catches in each of his four NFL seasons thus far pretty pretty good pass catching back there's some potential that Singletary takes even more of that work and I would suspect as the Bills maybe fall out of contention if presuming they

do they might surprise this year but if they're a little bit out contention, they would give him some more run later in the season. But especially starting off, that's kind of how I'm viewing it, that he has guys on both sides taking a little bit of his rushing work and a little bit of his receiving work, and it kind of limits his overall upside. Okay, I'll be a little more optimistic and just say that they released LeSean McCoy, and maybe they realize that the future is now, so let's not have Devin Singletary lose too many carries to Frank Gore. I do expect that to be the case at the start of the season, Ben.

I agree with you there. I just wonder if there's an opportunity for Singletary to really win this job, and I think that's what was happening with Kerryon Johnson. That's a good comparison. I think he was winning that job. I think he was starting to get that feature work, and then he got hurt. So I wonder if by midseason we do have a real true starting running back for the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, and I think if we look at who's going where in 2019 drafts and where to take Singletary,

two names jump out to me. One I wrote about in that article, one I saw on Twitter. Miles Sanders is the name that I mentioned. Similar situation, right? He's coming into what seems like a little bit of a committee, and we're hoping that he can earn more work. Now, Sanders is in a better offense behind a really good offensive line. I would take Sanders over Singletary.

The other name is Darius Geis. Similar situation. He's got Adrian Peterson probably taking some of the early down work and Chris Thompson taking some of the pass-catching work and probably in a worse offense than the Bills uh that Washington might have the worst offense in the NFL although a team we're going to talk about a little bit later Miami is is is right there contention with them so I would take probably take Singletary a little bit ahead of Geis even though I think Geis might be a little bit more talented uh but you know we really don't know

with any of these guys Geis obviously missed last year, Sanders and Singletary being rookies, how good they are. But that's kind of the group, and that's where you want to look to draft him, I think. Can you believe the Dolphins and the Redskins once played in the Super Bowl? Okay, so your biggest winner is Devin Singletary. I'm going to cheat. My biggest winner today is Deshaun Watson.

Great day for him. I know that's not really what we were thinking about with this podcast, but he gets Laramie Tunsil, and he gets Kenny Stills, which can only help him. So, but he's obviously a big winner. Carlos Hyde is a big winner. Carlos Hyde has a role now on a very, very run heavy team, uh, whose lead running back is a guy who's never had more than 104 carries and that's Duke Johnson. So, um, who's get to him in a second. Who's your biggest loser right now? Biggest loser. I mean, it's probably Duke, but I'm not. Or it's LaShawn McCoy.

But, you know, I wasn't really necessarily drafting McCoy. I think Duke Johnson's whole situation obviously changed. But I hesitate a little bit to call him a loser because we figured they would bring someone in. And we knew they'd bring someone in. And Carlos Hyde is not the most talented player. He's not been very efficient the last few years he's somebody that i projected there in in an article i wrote uh about a week ago right after the lamar miller injury it's interesting that houston didn't press and didn't go sign somebody right away like doug martin was available for

instance um and they also made a lot of trades where you know i threw a joke out on twitter that that guy in your home league that always gets fleeced in every trades, you can start calling him and calling him O'Brien because he's the Texans seem to get fleeced on every single trade today. But for Hyde, they gave up a player they were intending to cut anyway. So they didn't actually shell out a whole lot for him. They waited a little bit. They were patient. It doesn't seem like they were panicking. I still kind of like Duke to lead this backfield. And of all the scenarios that could have come, this may have been one of the better ones. So maybe I'm maybe I'm misspeaking a little

bit by calling him the loser. No, I mean, we we said that they were going to add someone and we weren't the least bit surprised that that someone was Carloslos hyde and there was always a chance of that uh so this can't be a huge shock so i i think he is a loser just because it would have been better if they added nobody right and if they added somebody that had no pedigree carlos hyde actually did not play very well for the cleveland browns last year but in his first four games with cleveland um he scored double digit fantasy points in non-PPR in every game. And he only had four catches. His yards per carry was terrible, but he scored five touchdowns in those four games. So you're hoping that he gets the Lamar Miller workload, which in three seasons was about 16 carries per game.

16.3 carries per game for Lamar Miller in three seasons with Houston. That's 261 carries. Actually, you're not hoping he gets that because if he gets that, that limits Duke Johnson's upside. But I had Carlos Hyde, and before the cuts, last night I was trying to make some waiver claims, and I was thinking about picking up some players. Honestly, I don't remember who. Just looking who's available.

And I had Hyde on my bench in a couple of leagues, and I said, I'm going to wait, and don't cut him because let's see what happens here. So what I said on Facebook, in our Facebook group, I asked the question, let's see how the fantasy football community is feeling about these guys right now. Rank them in half PPR. Duke Johnson, Carlos Hyde, Devin Singletary, LaShawn McCoy, and Frank Gore. Most of the answers had Johnson and Singletary at the top, and I think typically Johnson.

But then some people started saying, Duke Johnson played behind Carlos Hyde last year in Cleveland, and people think he will again this year. I don't know that that's going to happen. Maybe Hyde gets the first carry, but I think Johnson should, and I think he will get more touches. But how would you rank Duke, Hyde, Singletary, McCoy, Frank Gore right now? No, I was going to say, I mean, that's sharp from the listeners. That's how I would rank the top,

Johnson and then Singletary. McCoy would be pretty far down, although if he lands with the Chargers and Melvin Gordon, who now the Chargers have given Melvin Gordon the ability to seek out a trade, and if he ends up getting traded, a lot of things can happen. Maybe McCoy resuscitates a little bit his value by landing there, but he would be lower for me. Frank Gore, probably the absolute lowest on this group because he's still part of a committee. We know he's not going to be heavily involved in the pass game, and he's not going to be heavily involved in the past game and he's probably going to be phased out late in the year. There's just no upside there.

I mean, he's a non-PPR early season fill-in if you've drafted so terribly that you need an early season fill-in and typically we don't need fill-ins early in the season so he's somebody that would probably last for me. But I would put Duke Johnson at the very top and the reason is, yes, we've seen these two players on the same team, and we've seen Hyde play ahead of him.

But this is a different team. And it's important to look at how the team – what the team's actions tell us. And the Houston Texans traded a fourth-round pick that can turn into a third-round pick and likely will now turn into a third-round pick to get Duke Johnson. To get Carlos Hyde, they waited a week, like I said, after they had a massive need. We're hoping to maybe get him for free. They ended up trading a player that they're going to cut anyway. So essentially they did get him for free. To me, that is a symbol of bringing in a guy, yes, a priority guy, because they didn't just

grab Doug Martin when they could, but they brought in a guy for depth. They didn't panic. They didn't send a first round pick like they're sending for every other player in the league. But they brought in a guy for depth. They didn't panic. They didn't send a first round pick like they're sending for every other player in the league. They just brought in a guy for depth. But Duke Johnson, they went out and they actively acquired even before the Lamar Miller trade.

To me, they have told us that they prioritize Duke Johnson. And I think, especially because Duke Johnson is going to get more of the receiving work, which are the more high value touches in PPR, we have to still have Duke Johnson ahead of Carlos Hyde, even despite the fact that, and it was just last year, at the beginning of the year in Cleveland,

even despite the fact that Hyde was playing ahead of Johnson on a different roster. Okay, so let's do some rankings. I also want to talk about Kenny Stills going to the Texans. Does that hurt Will Fuller? What goes on with the Dolphins now? Is Albert Wilson a sleeper, Ben? I mean, I like him. Yeah, I mean, he's kind of a watchlist guy for me. He's not someone I'm drafting, but if he's going to be playing a lot of snaps in week one in the slot, yeah. And

especially with Stills gone, there's going to be more available targets now. They have a lot of receivers there, but yeah, I like Wilson. Yeah, so I mean, it could be Devontae Parker. If he's on the outside and Ryan Fitzpatrick's just slinging it downfield, it could be Devontae Parker, you know, if he's on the outside and, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick's just slinging it downfield. It could be Preston Williams. It could be Preston Williams. And Jakeem Grant was, you know, kind of a gadget player that was pretty good last year as well.

Another guy that they'll probably use. It's like the worst offensive line. I do want to take just a quick, quick break, and when we come back, we'll wrap things up. We'll tell you when to draft these guys. We'll be right back. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sports book partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sports book

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Okay, Ben, so let's look at ADP. And Duke Johnson, just according to recent ADP on Fantasy Football Calculator, Duke Johnson going 60th overall, Austin Eckler 61st overall, and Eckler could be really impacted big. I think I may want to avoid the Chargers situation right now in case McCoy ends up there, and I don't want to have outdated information.

But you've got like Duke Johnson, Darius Geist, James White. I think I'm looking at non-PPR. Let me switch it over to half PPR real quick here. Sorry about that. So, all right. Well, okay. So, Tariq Cohen. How would you compare Tariq Cohen with Duke Johnson and Devin Singletary,

our two favorite running backs from the guys we've talked about so far? In half PPR? Yeah. I think I would probably still take Duke. I think I would take Duke over Cohen. What about Singletary? That's closer. I think I would probably take Cohen over Singletary,

just based on the strength of the offense is kind of how I'm using it as a tiebreaker and why I would still have Duke above Singletary. And I guess, you know, Cohen's offense is just going to run to the middle. I think the bills are not going to be a great offense, but they're like, I mean,

the biggest thing I think the biggest takeaway you should take from this pod is it's easy to just not um respond to late news and and just like hey i'm not even gonna draft any of these guys but there's a lot of opportunity here and so you i i it's almost like you have to take a stand somewhere yeah no i'm pro i'm pro devin singletary big time i really am so i think i'm gonna be a little anti on him because i think the bills kind of struggle offensively i've seen frank Frank Gore siphon too many touches in the past. I'm big on him long-term. Cause I agree with you that it's going to,

it's going to take a little while. They're not just going to hand over the keys to him, by the way, they're 53 man rosters out today. Seven of 10 offensive linemen from last year or seven of 10 this year are new. So like their offensive line was awful last year. They did work to upgrade it.

I don't think it's going to be great or anything, but Mitch Morse being out of the concussion protocol, that's their best offensive lineman. He's their center. That's going to help. And also, I think Singletary will catch passes. I don't think it's just that. I don't think it's just TJ Yeldon comes in on third down,

gets all the catches, because they were using Singletary as a pass catcher in the preseason. So I think he'll have some of that work. It just limits Singletary's pass catching upside, much like Kerryon Johnson with Theo Riddick there last year. Kerryon Johnson still caught passes and was effective. But speaking of upgraded offensive lines, Laramie Tunzel, right? So Duke Johnson's situation got, you know, I called him the biggest loser earlier in

this pot. I don't even, I'm almost going to swing all the way back around and call him a huge win because adding that huge left tackle there as well is pretty positive for his situation as well if he can be the lead back. So he's the guy out of those three that I would prioritize personally.

All right, let's wrap up the running backs here. So you're in a 12-team league and you're drafting. What round are you looking at Duke Johnson, Devin Singletary, LaShawn McCoy, Frank Gore, Carlos Hyde? Not in that order. Let's start with Johnson and Singletary. Which rounds are you drafting them?

And give me the running backs that they're going to be around in the rankings, even though you already sort of did that with Singletary. Yeah, so Johnson, I think Tariq Cohen's a good comparison. I would probably take him just above Tariq Cohen, probably in that – he's been getting up into the fifth round in some drafts. I'm hoping that this helps him slide a little bit and you can grab him in the sixth, but I would be comfortable taking him in the fifth. Singletary, yeah, like we said, I mean, I think right where Miles Sanders, Darius Geis are going, he's right in that range.

I think probably the – Miles Sanders is going a little higher in about the sixth, but Geisler is going maybe in the eighth and ninth. Somewhere in that seventh and eighth round range seems good for me with Devin Singletary. The other guys, I'm not really interested in taking McCoy or Gore. I typically just won't take a lot of running backs that are over 30 and in unsettled situations. And Hyde, I could seeled situations and Hyde I could see the case for Hyde but again the stand I'm going to take in this scenario is I'm going to be taking the stand on Duke Johnson's side he catches the passes he gets the more valuable

touches Hyde to me's upside is like Alfred Blue plus like in this Houston Texans offense and Alfred Blue used to be like usable at times but never. So he's not a guy that I'm really interested in either. Yeah, so I think the format also matters for the two Texans guys because I would be interested in Hyde in non-PPR, just like a standard scoring league. Because like I said, his first four games, he scored five rushing touchdowns. But keep this in mind with the Texans.

Lamar Miller just never scored touchdowns. He just was not a touchdown guy. He didn't get a lot of carries inside the five-yard line. He led the team in carries inside the five-yard line three straight seasons, but he had eight, five, and five. That's really like eight's okay. Five is really bad.

He was tied with Deshaun Watson for most carries inside the five-yard line, so it just hasn't been a staple of their offense. And if you draft a guy who needs touchdowns to be effective, like Carlos Hyde is going to, if he doesn't score, you're in trouble. And this team didn't give a lot of rushing touchdowns, three straight years now. Bingo.

And for Duke Johnson, obviously, like a non-PPR league, I don't know. I'm not probably taking him to like round eight. I'm probably not getting him. And in a PPR league, it helps a lot. I could see him being a round five pick, but i'm just a little nervous about a guy who's never done it like we're hoping for duke johnson he's never had more than 104 carries he's only had one season with more than a thousand with a thousand total yards he had like 1300 total yards he's only had one season with more than three total touchdowns so it's it's like a little

bit but he did do it in the acc in his his last two years, he averaged over 18 carries. He averaged over 18 carries per game and over 120 yards per game, and that's just on the ground, not touches per game, but rush attempts per game. Hey, Ben, you know where I went to college, right? Where's that? The U, man. The U.

I know Duke Johnson. At that time? No, but I had season tickets i watched every game uh that's what i was telling you on uh the friday show he used to get hurt all the time he only he only broke his leg once but he i he just would always hobble off the field he led the acc and hobbling off the field that's like a you know like a joke no look i get it he did he was great in college five-star recruit big-time recruit just kind of small he's kind of he's he's not the biggest guy but um all right let i gotta wrap that up i gotta get out of here and

go do the radio show on saturday night ion fantasy football if you're listening to this before that please call us up 10 p.m eastern you can listen on sirius channel 206 or you can listen on cbs sports radio on your local affiliate or on cbs sports radio..com or on the app, whatever. Wide receiver, Will Fuller. I'm a big Will Fuller fan. I got him on a few leagues. I don't know, maybe up to three of the seven I've drafted so far. I love Will Fuller. I think

he's better than Kenny Stills, but it does bother me that Kenny Stills is there. Does this affect DeAndre Hopkins or Will Fuller or Kiki Cutie at all? I mean, I think it affects Kiki Cutie the most because it could mean fewer snaps for him. I'm hesitant to say that it will affect Will Fuller too much. He's been so productive with Deshaun Watson.

I agree with you, your take earlier in the show, that Deshaun Watson is a big winner today with the addition of Laramie Tunzel and the addition of Stills. Stills always has been a productive receiver. I think his skill set and Will Fuller's definitely overlap a little bit, and it is a little bit concerning for Fuller, but I'm with you. I really like Fuller. I'm still buying that Fuller will be productive this year when healthy. I think it's more of an insurance call. I'm not necessarily jumping on Stills, but he will be a watchlist guy. If he's playing enough, he's definitely going to be viable in this offense.

We know Watson can support downfield receiving threats like Fuller. But, yeah, I think we might see a little less of Cutie. We might see both Stills and Fuller stretching the field and creating all sorts of space underneath for Hopkins to work underneath. I mean, they're going to be a lot more multidimensional now after adding Stills. They're going to be able to stretch the field. It's really big for Watson. I totally agree with that. Cool.

And, you know, there's a bit of a mixed track record of wide receivers switching teams during a season, right before a season. It's similar. I mean, you don't have training camp. You're learning a new playbook. Obviously, Amari Cooper was great last year, but Golden Tate was terrible. Devin Funchess, or not Devin great last year, but Golden Tate was terrible. Kelvin Benjamin was okay. But yeah, I mean, overall, I don't like wide receiver switching teams.

So Ben, thank you for hopping on, man. I appreciate it. All of you listeners, thanks so much for being dedicated. Hope this helps you out as you get ready for your drafts on Sunday or Saturday night. And we'll talk to you with a fresh episode on Monday.