Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Fournette to the Bucs! Let's Sort it Out (09/03 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 3, 2020

Ronald Jones or Leonard Fournette? Ok, it's Fournette for most people. Can he reach new heights on a new team? Is this backfield just going to be a mess? Dave Richard tells you his thoughts, and if you want to hear Jamey Eisenberg's thoughts on the backfield check out Wednesday morning's episode of the "Fantasy Football Today in Five" Podcast!  Listen to the brand new Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-in-5/id1528634304 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

What a play! Off to the races! Touchdown! Oh, he's done it again! Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. Well, good morning, everyone. We are done with our Draft-a-thon. We had a very successful night. We want to thank you all. We reached our goal. We raised $30,000 for St. Jude. That's the most important news. Our listeners stepped up. It was amazing. We had just a terrific night talking fantasy football. And we had, I guess, a content gift throughout

the night because Leonard Fournette was signed by the Buccaneers and we got to talk about it with analysts from all over the industry and with Bucs beat writer Greg Allman of The Athletic. But right now we get to talk about it with Dave Richard. I will update you. I know Jamie, if you want to listen to the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast,

Jamie reacted to it. He's not really interested right now in a Bucs running back. He thinks it's going to be a mess. Heath texted us. He wasn't able to make this podcast, this emergency pod. He's got Ronald Jones, RB41, Leonard Fournette, RB25. Dave, you've had time to think about it, to sleep on it. Where are you at with the jet with the uh bucks okay so I've obviously been touting Ronald Jones all off season long pre-season long I've

been excited about the headlines and the highlights and everything else and now I'm looking at my rankings and I don't know if I can even take him in round eight I've got him at running back 39 as of this moment uh behind guys like Matt brita philip lindsey even antonio gibson and it hurts it's it it doesn't feel good and it really doesn't feel right but facts are facts okay and i can't play favorites when it comes to fantasy football you got to look at it from a very objective point of view and this is now they draft key sean vaughn okay maybe that's a big deal turns out maybe not a big deal then they sign with sean mccoy at the beginning of training camp okay what's that about maybe he'd be a you know a pass catching you know option for them with ronald

jones and now they've added leonard fournette so the actions speak volumes i don't care what bruce ariens has said about Ronald Jones. Clearly, they want somebody that they're more comfortable with than Jones. So all the effort and all the work that he's put in this offseason just might not be enough or it is enough. But they they see Fournette as a better talent and they want to have him on the team and give him the chance to be that guy. So at the very least, we're going to Jamie's Jamie could be right. At the very least, we could see both Fournette and Jones in a split, almost like what we could see in Cleveland with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt,

where both of them can mix and match, play any down or distance. And and it's bad for defenses. It's bad for fantasy, but it's really good for Tampa Bay. Yeah, that's just that's just one way. But but but then we also have McCoy and a Google Wally and Greg Allman It's bad for fantasy, but it's really good for Tampa Bay. That's just one way that this could go. But then we also have McCoy and Aguboale, and Greg Allman said that he's not sure that they're going to have to cut anybody. So we can obviously readjust if they do cut somebody,

but I think the difference with the Cleveland situation is, in this hypothetical Cleveland situation, both of them are involved in the passing game, or at least Kareem Hunt is. You know, it's possible that neither Ronald Jones nor Fournette is really that involved. Now, we know Brady's going to throw to his running backs on first and second down, not just third down.

But Agumbo Wale could be the third down back. McCoy could factor in a little bit. You know, it could just be a mess. We have to at least have that possibility, right, where there's no steady running back. I mean, you look at McCoy going to the Chiefs last year, and that's kind of the way it was until late in the season when Damian Williams got featured.

But that really stunk for fantasy. That's just the only comparison. I think that's the most relevant comparison last year to this year. You know what I mean? Because this doesn't happen every so often, where a well-known running back becomes a free agent right before the start of the season and joins a new team. But this is different than that because Fournette is a better player now than McCoy was at this time last year. And I also wonder if Fournette was just brought in to really kind of push everybody down the depth chart a little bit.

And McCoy, maybe he hasn't been that good in camp. We know that he's dealt with a fumble issue and drops issues and maybe a goomba wally hasn't taken that next step so maybe this is more about them than it is jones where they go okay jones is good mccoy might not be a goomba wally might not be and here's this running back who who is exactly in the mold of what our head coach likes, who can catch passes, who can be physical. Let's get him if we can. And they moved mountains with their salary cap, apparently, to get him. I thought he might not even be a fit because of what he would ask for

on the free agent market, but here he is. And it wouldn't surprise me in the least if by week three, and this is another way this could go, he's main guy for tampa bay and ronald jones is the supplement it's entirely possible that it goes that way too and i don't really see it where ronald jones is the main guy and fournette is the supplement because the one thing that we did not hear was fournette being a bad player in practice in jacksonville okay but but well well we did hear doug marone say that they released him for football reasons. You might not believe that.

I don't believe that. Okay, fair enough. But we talked to Greg Allman. He covers the team for the Athletic. And Greg Allman said Ronald Jones, he guessed, he guessed, Ronald Jones would get the first carry in week one. Makes sense. So I think Jones might have a little bit of an audition in week one.

Unfortunately, that game is against the Saints. I brought this up on Twitch last night. It reminds me a little bit of two years ago with the Packers. Aaron Jones was facing a two-game suspension. Jamal Williams gets this opportunity. His first two games were against the Bears and the Vikings, I'm pretty sure. I'm doing this off memory. No, you're exactly right.

And we kind of knew, okay, he's going to blow it because this is a tough matchup. He's not going to look good. And he did it, and then Aaron Jones took advantage of that a couple years ago. Not to a great extent. But, all right, you know, Leonard Fournette, we don't know how – I don't know that we know how good he is because he's gotten a ton of work in his career. He hasn't really been that great of a running back. He has 666 carries in his career.

Yeah, how about that? But, you know, and his yards per catch last year was terrible, but his offensive line could really help because this is a guy that maybe he's a little slow to get started. He's a bigger guy, but give him a good offensive line. He's got the capability to break off long runs. He had a 90-yard run as a rookie. He had four carries, three carries of more than 60 yards last year. So maybe a better offensive line could bring him to another level, Dave.

But I also wonder, well, first of all, I don't know if you said when you would take Leonard Fournette. So let's get to that. And I also wonder if people are feeling like, because there's a lot of Fournette momentum right now after this. Like they're just, nope, Jones is done. It's all Fournette. Maybe it's just because he's the fourth overall pick in the draft three years ago,

and I'm not sure if we should just stop holding on to that. I know I said a lot there, but let's digest it and finish the show on that note. And tell me, when are you taking Leonard Fournette? I will take him as soon as late round six, which is higher than I thought I would take Fournette when he signed with the club, but he just landed in really a spot that is really good for him, frankly, because the worst case scenario, assuming he doesn't get hurt, is that he's splitting with Ronald Jones. I really can't see a scenario where Jones is just so good right out of the gate that he just minimizes Leonard Fournette into 10 touches per

game. And make no mistake, Fournette is not an explosive running back i think jones has an edge on four net in that regard but he is more physical the pedigree matters it's probably half the reason why he got as much money as he did as a free agent and uh you know it's funny it's like the jaguars were tired of him after they spent that draft capital but other teams see him going that soon and they go okay well he was great in college for a reason and he does show signs of that sometimes you talk about the long runs that he has and they get excited about it so i think fantasy managers shouldn't get over excited about four net and start taking him in round four around five unless news changes and it's just made abundantly clear that he's going to be the guy and and that's it but there's a chance of that because that's how arians likes to roll he likes to have one running back dominate the touches and

he likes a guy that's got experience and fournette's got that working in his favor against jones so late round six for fournette is where i've got him all right we'll finish up fournette or most uh mostert is is going to be the guy that i will take over Fournette, and that includes PPR. Fournette or Cam Akers? I have Akers ahead of Fournette as of now. DeAndre Swift? We went back and forth on this on the Draftathon, and I initially said that I would take Fournette over Swift.

I currently have Fournette right behind Swift. So it's Jonathan Taylor at 24, Ingram 25, DeAndre Swift 26, Fournette 27. PPR, Fournette or Tariq Cohen? I'm drafting Fournette ahead of Cohen in PPR. But again, that's close. Fournette's two spots ahead of him. Ronald Jones or Rykel Armstead? Jones.

Ronald Jones or Kerryon Johnson? I have Jones ahead of Kerryon, but I am not a Kerryon fan. All right, last one. Ronald Jones. You said he's behind that. Ask me jones or antonio gibson all right those were my two of my guys right and now here we are mid-round picks uh i will take the chance on gibson ahead of jones as we sit here today all right we got to wrap it up thank you so much dave richard great stuff uh we got another episode coming later today,

but I wanted to get this one out early in the morning and hopefully help you all out. Appreciate it, Dave. I'm Adam Azer. Talk to you later on the Fantasy Football Today podcast.