The Ringer NFL Show - 33 Preseason Questions: Don’t Draft Bell, McCoy's Downshift, and RedZone MVPs (Ep. 123)

Episode Date: August 11, 2017

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark continue their 33 Preseason Questions leading up to opening night with some fantasy-draft advice, including someone on the Browns that can win you your league (04:15), how the Patriots finally have a reliable fantasy running back (07:30), and why you shouldn’t draft Le’Veon Bell early this year (10:15). Then, the guys weigh David Johnson vs. Zeke Elliott for first overall pick (18:15) and discuss why LeSean McCoy could be in for a down year (29:00). Finally, Robert and Kevin pick their RedZone channel MVPs and highlight some rookies that should find the end zone all season long (33:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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To the Ringer NFL show. Part of the Ringer podcast network. I'm Robert Mays. And sitting way too close to me on the couch in my apartment is Kevin Clark. Kevin, how are you? I'm just fired up about the pretty. season. I need human contact. We are both in Chicago, Illinois. Kevin is stopping over during using the same recording device. Same recorder. That's why we're next to each other. I had to

hide all the bodies that were here before Kevin got here. There's a lot of cleaning to do. I mean, it's just one of those things. I, just so the listener is aware of this, I arrived here at Casa Maze and he said, can you help me put, what is the cover on the upholstery? I washed my cloth couch because sometimes you need to do that, right? I took it off and I couldn't get it back on the cushion because it's a two-man job. And I really appreciate you helping me do that. That's a big ask. I know. I'm sorry. I'd be here 10 seconds. I brought you to a delicious lunch spot though. I feel like that's pretty good. Next time I come here, you're going to ask me to help you move. That's in play. I mean,

I won't tell you before I'm that I'm moving. But when you get here, I'll just drop it on you. All right. You find out about preseason? I'm, you know, the preseason is not my favorite. But every once in a while, you know, last year with Zach Prescott and Russell Wilson was this guy, and maybe Deshaal Watson is this year. There's one guy that just seems to put it together and like, okay, this is real. Like, this is a guy I'm going to want to watch. This is a guy that deserves to play. Yeah, maybe. So I'll be a lot and look out for that. A lot of times, the guys who look vaguely decent in national games early are way overrated. Do you remember the, maybe it was against the Bears. Remember,

the little Bortles hype? Remember that? I just not remember that. I don't watch the Bears in the preseason. It existed. It was like this one one team I avoid. There was this one random Thursday night. And he went, you know, like, I don't know, 10 or 15 or something. And it was like, well, you got to start Bortles. We all know how that movie ends. Very well, actually. Extremely well. Bortles is feature hallfammer.

All right, guys, we're back to our 33 questions. We've done seven of our 33 so far. We're going to do three more. Again, we're going to be coming to you every Tuesday and Friday until the start of the season. We're going to have special guests on. We're going to take some questions from Twitter. And today, one of the, we really wanted to dig down.

You know, we wanted to have one specific. topic because we're getting to that moment in the calendar where everyone's doing their fantasy draft. I know mine's coming up in a couple of weeks. I've really started to pour over all of the resources. And that is why the subject of today's show is fantasy football. All of our questions are fantasy related. The questions we solicited from you guys are going to be fantasy related. So that's what we're chatting about, Kevin. Okay. So I'm not a diehard fantasy football guy. I play in some leagues, and it's not a yearly ritual for me. But what I can say is I'm fairly good at identifying sleepers because even though, I mean,

there are guys who are just fantasy geniuses. They're guys who just know exactly and they're amazing. Evan Silva, all of those guys. Those guys are geniuses that they would dominate me in a league. However, what I'll say is that if you're around camps enough and you're around NFL people enough, you start to realize situations. And fantasy football is so situational. Last year, I remember someone came up to me at the ringer office and said,

give me a good sleeper. I said Michael Thomas, only because you sort of understand the situation. We talk all the time about, you know, just the benefits of being around Drew Brees. And so, yeah, I mean, there are guys like that. They exist and you know sort of where they're going to go and you know that they're going to get a thousand yards. Yeah. I mean, in terms of roster construction and things like that, you're probably not the greatest

resource, but on individual players, which this podcast is going to be about. We're going to talk about individual guys, the situations they're in. whether they're going to outperform or underperform expectations that are pretty much conventional wisdom. They're going to be along with the average ADP in most cases, the way we think about these guys. So that's what the questions we're going to try to answer. Who's going to be better? Who's going to be worse than we expect? And the question we're going to start with is, who is the non-obvious guy that could win you your fantasy football league this year? So somebody that's going in the third, fourth, fifth round that has a chance to be among the best players at his position.

and if you can grab this guy at a discount, you have a chance to have a huge advantage. This guy, for me, might be lower than the fourth, fifth round. Your guys, one of your guys will be a fourth round pick. One of them will be probably lower. But for me, if you want to talk about sleepers, and this guy is in a deep sleep right now, I kind of like Kenny Britt, man.

That's not the worst call in the world. He's currently being the 46th wide receiver coming off the board right now, 123 overall, according to the ADP on 4th. fantasy pros. He is going one spot behind Adam Thielen and two spots behind Jamal Charles, who how many guys are ahead of Jamal Charles and kids? I love, in Denver. I love Jamal Charles. I just want everyone to know that when he said the fourth round pick, he was going off script. I thought this question was, we're just doing a sleeper. So let me explain the Kenny Britt thing. First of all, Cleveland's got really not a lot of options as far as, as far as offensive

weapons go. Terrell Pryor was incredible in that offense last year. He's off to Washington. By the way, and this is really important. If throwing fourth round picks, get freaking Terrell Prior. Because Terrell Prior is going to be awesome in Washington with Kirk Cousins. Having said that both of those guys are going to be the focal point of an offense. I think the ball just has to go somewhere. I think the quarterback play is going to be a little better than anyone thinks. Only because, and here's the thing, I think people think the Browns are going to be the Jets this year.

And I don't necessarily know if that's the case. It's not the case at all. I think Hugh Jackson is a really good offensive mind. I think they've got some talent. They rebuilt that offensive line. They're going to have time. I kind of like Kenny Brin had a thousand yards last year. He was targeted over 100 times.

This catch rate was pretty good. I could just see a nice little season for him. This isn't the best way to go about it, but I do think one smart thing to look at when you're considering fantasy value is how much those teams value the players. Yep. And if you look at Kenny Britt's contract in relation to the guys he's being drafted around, they're not comparable.

They're not comparable at all. Kenny Brick got $17 million guaranteed from the Browns. to $32 million contract. They're going to use him. And it's not like Kenny Britt's 34. He's 28 years old. I think that's a really good call. I mean, he's not going to be a top five receiver.

No. But if he finished as the 14th receiver in fantasy football this year, I wouldn't be surprised. I absolutely think he can be the number one guy. And, you know, Corey Coleman will see what the target share is there. But the Browns paid Kenny Britt to be a focal point of their passing game. And with the infrastructure there, The offensive line, Hugh Jackson, I hope Deshaun Kaiser playing quarterback, you absolutely could see a scenario where Kenny Britt is a very useful fantasy player.

Yeah. I mean, look, Coleman was really good last year, at 400 yards, showed a lot of flashes. You've seen some-super talented. I mean, just crazy talent. You've seen some really nice training camp plays from him at this point. But especially if Kaiser's in there, Kaiser's going to need a security blanket. And with the experience that Britt has, I just kind of like him as an every down target. I really like that one.

For me, two guys jump out. And this is, I always think about it this way. Yours, you went a little deeper. With me, it's what guy can I pick 15th at his position, 16th, 17th, 15th, 15 to 20, and have him be a top five guy. That's how I think you win fantasy leagues in a lot of ways. And there are two guys for me that jump out. Mike Gillisley is somebody we've talked about all the time.

Think about how many touchdowns look at Air Paul. This is the most interesting. Mike Gillisley, again, I can't stress this enough. Numberfire said he had the most efficient. rushing season this century. That's pretty damn good. Now you're pairing him with Belichick. I'm in.

I want to be clear on this. The only reason I didn't pick Mike Gillisley is because I've picked Mike Gillisley on two other categories, one of which got cut. That's how much I've been talking about Mike Gillisly. It doesn't make any sense to me

where he's going. So according to Fantasy Pro's rankings right now, or their ADP, he's the 24th running back being taken. 61st overall. He's in the rail. Yeah, you get a little worried about the playing time with Balochie.

Well, that's the problem. They're so weak to week there. I totally understand that. But the guys he's going around and behind make no sense to me. Legerrett Blunt is right ahead of him right now. Amir Abdullah is right after him. Those guys are in the same spot. Lagerap, who knows what Ligarip is going to be in Philly?

Amir Abdullah is going to cede carries and playing time to Theoretic. Tavin Coleman is going two spots behind him. It's the same sort of deal. The upside with him for the touchdowns is so high that I just feel like. that I just feel like he's worth a dice roll in that spot. I would hammer him if he was available in my league, which he probably won't because it's a keeper. The other guy that I would go with is currently going 51st overall,

21st among running backs, and it's Dalvin Cook. Delvin Cook is going to be the man. Dalvin Cook is the 21st running back. I think because people are worried about Murray. Everything you've heard about Dalvin Cook coming out of camp is that he's looked really good. And everything you've heard about Murray has been kind of the opposite. I was not surprised by that. I like Dalvin Cook.

I feel like he's going right behind Ty Montgomery. I don't want any part of that. Montgomery is not going to get the work in that offense. And you've heard that Jamal Lewis and him are splitting first team reps. I just think that if Cook can emerge and be the man in Minnesota, which I think he's going to be. I would much rather have him than Spencer Ware, C.J. Anderson. Joe Mixon is going 11 spots ahead of him. That makes no sense to me.

I totally agree with you. I love both of those guys. obviously, you should do a pickup where you don't call Jamal Williams, Jamal Lewis. Do I call him Jamal Lewis? If he's Jamal Lewis, man, he's going to be real good. Time Montgomery's got no chance. Although Jamal Lewis now would not win a running back competition with Time Montgomery at this very home.

That's probably true. All right, what's next question? All right, let's switch gears a little bit. So that's a guy you want to chase, right? That's that category of player. Let's go the other way. who is a guy that's being drafted in the first round, big name somebody,

most people are going to be after that you wouldn't touch with a 10 football. Your fans to drafts this weekend, right? No, a couple weekends from now. Sunday of Labor Day weekend. Okay, gotcha. If I was drafting now, and even if I was drafting then,

I would stay the hell away from Levi-on-Vell. Really? I don't know what's going. He's not in camp. That matters. Do you think he's honestly going to miss time? No, I think camp matters for Levi-on-Bone. Okay, there's a couple of things.

Number one, when you start missing training camp practices, that really matters. And listen, when he gets there, it's not like he's going to be backing somebody up or something. He's going to play. But I'm saying there's going to be a slow start. That's when you get into maybe as slower as September. I've covered a lot of holdouts in my day. And I just hear about assistant coaches really talk about how there is a little bit of a learning curve. Is he working out?

I'm sure he is. Is he in great shape? I'm sure he is. And there's a couple things that worry about Bell. First of all, I think it's going to be kind of a weird locker room dynamic. I don't want to get into sort of hot take territory here. We've chatted about this. But I really think that when Leveon Bell comes back,

Antonio Brown came out on Snapchat and basically said he needs to get to camp, which, you know, that's happened a couple times, maybe in the last decade. Remember that happened with Brett Farve and Javon Walker? And it became a really big... Wow. That was what I thought about that a long time. Because it's very rare that one player says,

get your button camp to another player when it's a contract issue. That's kind of a no-no. You're not supposed to work out other guys' money. And so not only do you have that, but then Brown's showing up and a Rolls-Royce and stuff. I don't know. I just think when he gets back, there's going to be a certain amount of weirdness within that locker room. I don't know how much of tangible impact that'll have, but it's just a point we've been making privately that I want to make on the pot. I understand that.

It's just, but when you look at the production. No, I think he's amazing. I just think that even if there's some weirdness there, even if there's some extracurricular stuff that we're not, that the, fans don't really understand and are not giving enough credence, I still think he's just going to get so many touches and is so talent that it won't matter. I'm not sure if he's the safest running back, which we'll get into a little bit later from a question,

from a Twitter question that we got. But I just think that he's still somebody I would want, even if it's at the first or second bit of overall. He's definitely not the safest running back because he's played 16 games once in his four-year career. That's a big part of it too, right, is injuries. But, I mean, you look at what happened last year, 75 catches in 12 games, 106 yards a game.

When he gets the work, he's so, so good. I understand what you're saying, but I'd still like him at the top of the draft. They're going to have to work them in. Listen, would I draft Leveon Bell really high? Hell, yeah, I would. But what I'm saying is that if you have a top three pick and we've been talking about top three picks all day, if you have a top three pick, I'd probably go elsewhere. I don't blame me for that.

I just think that he's a guy, even if I have the third pick and say David Johnson and Zico won two, I'd still like Levyon Bell at three. That's what I would say. Okay. My guy is somebody who I have loved. I loved watching play for a long time. I think he's excellent. But I just think that for right now,

if you look at some of the writing on the wall with the stats, how far he is to do his career, I don't want Jordy Nelson as the current price tag. And I love Jordy Nelson. I have for a long time. But I just think that if you're looking at where Jordan Nelson is going in drafts right now, you would have to take him 13th overall

and sixth among wide receivers. That's in the same range as to Marco Murray, Jordan Howard. He's going ahead of Michael Thomas. I understand that Jordan Nelson had an incredible fantasy season last year, but if you watch Jordan Nelson play, the burst is not the same. He's not the same player physically. And how can he be?

He and I were talking last week when I was in Green Bay about how crazy it is that it's been 10 years. He's been in the league for a decade. And maybe he was coming off the ACL. He was a little bit slower last year. But I still think that with the regression and touchdowns, it's pretty much inevitable. I would rather have younger, higher upside, more sudden athletes. he's going ahead of Des, you know, T.Y. Hilton.

I would just rather have those guys because I feel like they are further away from the cliff. I mean, Hilton led the NFL in receiving yards last year. His touchdowns aren't going to be there. That's the problem. With a guy like him, you're looking at eight scores

just because of the way he's used and Nelson is such a red zone target for Rogers, but I still don't. I understand the Hilton thing only in the context of maybe Scott Tolseyan's going to be throwing him in September. If you're looking at the price tags for it right now, you have to take Jordan Nelson with your second round pick. You could get DeAndre Hopkins at the end of the third round.

It's not even a conversation for me at those prices. Yeah, I mean, I tend to agree with you. I still think Nelson has a lot left in the tank. I think that he's a good player, but that's so high. When I'm in Green Bay, there's a constant chatter about Aaron Rogers trusting his receivers. And he and Brady are very similar in that regard. And they sort of make you earn their trust, if that makes sense. And so when you have it, good things happen.

And we've seen that over and over again, both in New England and Green Bay. Jordan Nelson has Aaron Rogers trust. He knows if he throws a 50, 50 ball that Nelson's going to come down with it. He's going to take a little more chances going Nelson's way than he would with the younger receiver. So I do think that he's still, he is a very beneficial fantasy player. I agree with you. Maybe he's not the top, top tier anymore, but still three straight years of over 1250 yards, 14 touchdowns last year, almost career high.

It's pretty good. Another guy, you know, it's not necessarily the same level. You don't have to go as high to get him, but I'm a little more apprehensive as brain in cooks. He's going 11th overall among receivers. For me, people worry about gillessly and the timeshare. I'm worried about cooks on the target share. I just feel like there's no way he gets enough balls. to be somebody that's worth the 11th wide receiver spot.

I totally agree with the ball around way too much. Listen, man, they have so many options and they have a running game that might be much improved. You just don't know what the Patriots offense is going to look like. And that's not just a yearly thing. That's not a, oh, let's wait until the third preseason game and see what it looks like. That's a weekly thing. They are so week to week there. And that's why I think fantasy owners get frustrated is that sometimes when they want to feature Chris Hogan,

they'll feature a Chris Hogan. and then when they say, yeah, game plan is really called for Hogan. They're really taking away the slot stuff and there's no more Chris Hogan. You have to go the 21st overall pick to get, excuse me,

the 27th overall pick to get Brandon Cooks on Fantasy Pros. Yeah. You can get Julian Edelman 30 picks later. Wouldn't you rather do that? You're literally describing the Patriot salary cap philosophy. You can get Julian Edelman 30 picks three rounds later.

I'm doing that. There's no way I'm paying that much for Bramonon. I'm a cheaper guy. This is what's happening in free agency in two years. All right. That's a couple of fantasy questions. We're going to hit more of those

when we get back, including your ones from Twitter. We're also going to chat about who we think is going to be the MVP of the Red Zone channel this year. Hell yeah. But before that, let's take a quick break.

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on our Twitter and Periscope at Ringer. All right, so we asked you guys on Twitter last night, toss us your fantasy questions. We got so many good ones that I didn't want to just take one or two, Kevin. I wanted to try to rip through these quickly, do a little speed round. Lightning round. A couple minutes per question just because I wanted to chew on these. There's some really good ones.

The first one comes from single pain of Justin, and he wants to know who is the safest first round running back. And he says barring fluke injuries, but I feel like fluke and guys that are injury prone are two different things. So I feel like we should take that into account, guys that are constantly nicked up when considering who, the safest guy. So who would you go with? There's a couple of different layers here.

Because from production standpoint, it's Ezekiel Elliott. I think that's interesting. I would not say that. Well, I mean, there's a huge elephant in the room. It's definitely, you might get to spend it as a certain season. No, it's not even from a production standpoint. So, so that's, that is sort of the looming issue with,

with Elliott. So I don't think he'd be considered sort of a, a sturdy pick with the top three pick. He's definitely a risk as far as that goes. having said that, I don't think that the Cowboys' Offensive Line is going to take as much of the fall as people think. I still think they're a, I don't know, top three offensive line just because they have three really good players. I know you're not as high on Tyron Smith's back as most people.

There's some stuff that I'm concerned about. I think continuity is important. We've discussed this. We don't even know who the left guard is going to be, you know, whether it's going to be Jonathan Cooper or somebody else is working on there that I can't remember. No, it's not Chaz Green. It's something else because Jazz Green's hurt.

So I can't remember the name. It honestly doesn't matter. I think that's kind of the point, right? And then the fact that Tyron Smith is missing time. He's missing time with that back. He's a big man. The last thing in the world I want is Tyron Smith to be hurt. That is terrible to me.

But it's still that thing where even if they're the third or fourth best offensive line in the league, that still is such a step down from being the clear cut number one, no questions asked offensive line. Well, I agree with you. But, I mean, there's still, there's questions about Arizona. Who the hell knows what's going to happen? with the weapons around David Johnson. Is Carson Palmer going to go from having a down year

to just falling off a cliff? I don't know. So there's not really this player. If Levion Bell were in camp and none of this stuff was happening, it would be far and away Leveon Bell. But it's not. He's not in camp.

I have no idea when he's coming. He seems very stubborn. You hear sort of rumblings about the negotiation and you get kind of worried that maybe this will go deeper than people think. Talking about a production standpoint being the safest, there's a reason that I would not say,

Ziciel. it, if you look at the snaps that Levy on Bell got last year, it's remarkable. I'm looking at Numberfire right now is a very interesting chart from Scott Barrett, DFP, on Twitter. Levy on Bell got 93% of the Steelers snaps last year at running back. The next highest guy is David Natson at 79. He got 94% of the carries 99% of the running back targets. They use him so much.

And if you look at his production as game by game, for the last six weeks or the seven weeks the season last, six weeks the season last year, 146, 120, 118, 23, 123, 122, playoffs 167, 170. That's just on the ground. He had at least four catches in every single one of those games. I mean, it is, it's remarkable how he gets used in that offense. And I just think that they're going to use him so much when he's on the field that he's in that conversation just from a production standpoint. Again, you got to worry about, I mean, if he, if he, If he shows up in what, a week or two, then coaches start saying maybe we give more work to this guy,

this guy, maybe we change the game plan a little bit. You know, but James Connor is obviously a rookie, but he's making waves. I think he's their number two running back for sure. He's been a little banged up though. Yes, he has. He came back to practice, though. Yeah, I think that he's going to, you know,

we'll see. Maybe they don't give him as much work this year, but they were not afraid to do it last year. And that's even when they had DeAngelo-Liams, who did well when he got to play. I think the other stuff, though, is worth considering. David Johnson to me is right there just because he's going to get so many touches in that offense

and he's such a huge part of their passing game. When you look at Arizona, or excuse me, when you look at Pittsburgh, there are just so many other guys there they want to use consistently, Brown, Martavis Bryant's back. In Arizona, you have Fitz and then you have David Johnson, two guys they chuck it too. And I just feel like he's going to get so much work

that for him and Bell, it's 1A, 1B to me. I'd put Zeke lower looming suspension offensive line fall off, things like that. I just think that he's third in that hierarchy to me. I'm so upset about what happened to the Cardinals' offense. I hope it's going to be okay this year. They were decent down the stretch last year. They were so fun to watch when it's all clicking.

I hope they are. We talked about the Cardinals last week as a bounce back team. I think that they can really, they're never going to be back to that 15 level just because the offensive line was better. Palmer's two years younger. And Michael Floyd was an actual player. I think that they can be really scary, though. Yeah, agree.

So the next one we got is from Tyler Cuchera, and he says, who's the best second tier running back to take? He said mid-draft. I think second tier is higher than mid-draft because the top tier is the first round guys. We've been talking about a lot. Zeke, David Johnson. After that, I feel like the group gets really interesting because you can win or lose a draft based on this second-round pick, third-round pick running back.

And there are some guys that are being drafted in those spots that I wouldn't necessarily love. So, Kevin, who would you say? It's interesting to me because I was just thinking about that. You know, teams win draft classes and win drafts by hitting on second and third round guys. And that's pretty much the case of fantasy football as well. Leonard Fournette for me. Interesting. Okay. There's a couple reasons. Number one, obviously he was just supremely talented at LSU. The other thing is, I just don't see a lot of options for Jacksonville. I think they're just going to ride him. That, that regime, the Morone Coughlin regime, is going to have.

have no problems giving him as many carries as possible. They're going to want to establish a sort of weird, vague toughness in Jacksonville that does not, has not existed for a long time. So, I mean, Bortle's going to get bench at some point. And you're looking at Chad Henney, just handing it off to Fournette over and over again. And so is Fournette going to be a franchise changing star? Probably not. Is it going to get an absolute ton of yardage this year? Yeah, I think so, because of this. So there are a couple of guys that jump out to me. The Fournet is interesting. I feel their offensive line worries me still. If they have no passing game whatsoever,

you see what eventually happens to a running back. I mean, Todd Gurley's fell apart. And it was so sad to see. Yeah, but Todd Gurley and his rookie year was great. He was incredible, but you developed, they had an actual realistic NFL offense were part of that rookie year, though. I think that when you develop bad habits

because they're loading boxes, everything else, it becomes problematic. Fournet is undeniably talented. I feel like it's a little rich at the 20th overall pick, the 10th running back for me. You look at who comes. You don't think Fournette's worth the 10th running back?

No. I would put him right on the cusp of that. I would have to look at the rank. It's a little rich for me just because... I think he's right on the outside of the top. So here's what I'm... The guys that come a little bit after him, I'd rather have. So Isaiah Crowell is going 14th among running backs, 30th overall.

That offensive line we just talked about, they're going to be so good that I feel like he's somebody I would want 10 picks later than Fournette just because of the infrastructure that's going to be in place there. Another guy for me is Carlos Hyde. And I know that we had all this talk around the draft that, do they like Carlos Hyde, you know, the rookie that they picked, is he going to be the guy that comes up and takes that spot? Everything we've heard out of 49ers camp is that Carlos Hyde is the man.

And I just love the way that Kyle Shanahan creates opportunities for running backs. That offense is so conducive to backs. And I think that he really has a chance to pop. He is so good when he's healthy. And that's really the biggest question mark to me. But if I can get Carlos Hyde 35th overall, I would much rather have that than J. J. Jaii's 16th than even Christian McCaffrey, 32nd, Blamar Miller, 26th.

That's the price that I would like to pay for those guys. I'd rather wait around and get a guy like Hyder Crowell than get the guys that are being listed in that second tier right after the first round guys. Yeah, I can see that. I mean, I just think that there's just a big group of guys and there's not a huge difference between a lot of sort of 10 through 20 in my opinion. All right, let's get, let's keep going with these. The Patton wants to know in an auction league, which running backs, not rookies,

would you pay market rate for four years? And essentially what he's asking is the guys that you think are going to be, continue their level of production from right now for the next four years. So these are guys that you wouldn't want on the tail end of their prime. And I feel this is a really interesting question to ask at this point, because most of the guys at the top of the draft are younger backs. There aren't any Adrian Peterson's or even Marshawn Lynch's that are the number one and number two guys anymore.

These are dudes that are 25 years old. Running backs age in a hurry, though, man. They do. But if you think about it, Zeke, David Johnson, Jordan, Howard, Levion, Bell, those will be my four. And they're all 24, 25. You're going to get all those guys before they hit 30. So I feel it's the same guys we're taking at the top of the.

the draft. Those names aren't any different based on the way that position is currently. David Johnson for me, you know, two years ago, I think everyone raised their eyebrows a little bit when Bruce area and said that David Johnson was going to be the next martial folk. That is such different body types, right? I mean, she's a big man. Yeah, but I mean, I think he was saying more just as far as. That's why it's remarkable. He's a power runner that also catch the ball. But just the fact that he was able to get 879 receiving yards last year. I mean, we see these guys all the time. I mean, guys like Theo Riddick who can catch the ball but aren't as talented at running the ball. I mean, David Johnson just has it all. He's the total package. He and Bell are far and away,

the best dual threats in the NFL. I mean, 2,100 yards in scrimmage is incredible. He's amazing. I love it. I haven't been my Keeper League. It's the best thing about my life. This is his age 26 season. I mean, he's just incredible. I would take him for the next two or three years. I think everybody else, Levyon Bell, love him, but Levyon Bell has two more NFL years on his body. I would take... Well, not full years. He hasn't played a ton of games.

That's the other part of it. There's not as much on those tires. Yeah, but that's because he keeps getting hurt. So, I mean, there's two ways to look at that. So if I were to pick anybody for the next four years, it would be David Johnson. It's fascinating that you think back to the idea that the Cardinals didn't want David Johnson. They wanted a mirror of Dula. And he got drafted by the lions right ahead of them.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky, man. I mean, it's amazing to get. consider that David Johnson might be on the Lions right now. Think what the Lions offensive, David Johnson was there. All right, let's do one more. From Carter Wynn, which high caliber player is poised to take a big step back due to circumstances out of his control, a la Newt Hopkins last year. You go first in this one.

I'm going to go with LaShawn McCoy for a couple different reasons. One, he was incredible last season. But if you look at the infrastructure of that offense, there's a reason they had the number one and number two backs by DVOA. Anthony Lynn is a fantastic designer and architect of a running game. He's now in LA with the Chargers. You also have the situation where we'll Sean McCoy gets hurt all the time. That's not in his control.

He gets nicked up often in his career. He was healthy last season. Who knows whether he's going to be healthy this year for a full 16 games in the way that he's been? His talent is undeniable, but I just don't think the offense is nearly as conducive to running back success as it would have been a year ago. Also, he's 29. It's been a league for a long time. He's on a lot of carries. I feel like it's not as if there's going to be a smaller chance he gets hurt this year

than there's been in previous years where he's actually gotten dinged up. That's interesting. You know, I think the number one candidate that jumps to my mind, we talked about him earlier, T.Y. Hilton is definitely not going to lead the NFL and receiving guards this year, especially if Scott Tolzeon, Scott freaking Tolzeon, who I just saw some tweets this morning from training camp. He can't even take a snap or something. I mean, I still worry a lot about Andrew Locke.

I just don't know what he's going to look like when he comes back and when that's going to be because Chris Ballard keeps talking about how this is a long-term investment. When you start talking about the long term, that means the short term isn't looking so good. And so I love T.Y. Hilton. I've covered him since he was in college. I wrote a profile of him when I was 20 years old and he was 18. And so I love the guy, but I just, I feel like this is this is not going to be his year. And even more outside of the circumstances that he can control, T.Y. Hilton's gotten better every single year. Hell yeah. Mark, what.

I mean, he has got, the way he developed the other intermediate areas of his game last year was so impressive. And that's, it's understandable. I think they are going to slow play luck. And the loser in that situation is definitely, is Hilton. Sure. A couple other guys. I mean, I worry a little bit. I can see the Travis Kelsey thing going two ways.

Hmm. Well, you just don't know who the quarterback is going to be. Yeah. You know, I did, I, we talked last week about Patrick Mahomes coming in mid-year. I think if there's, I think if that offense changes. then Kelsey might get mixed up. Now, the reason I said you can look at it two ways is that maybe he needs a security blanket

and he starts dumping it off to Kelsey all the time. A guy for me, there's no way. I'm taking Marshawn Lynch 12th among running runs. Oh, no way. I love Marshawn Lynch. I love Marshaun Lynch more than members of my family. He's a very important person to me, but why the heck in that offense,

after a year off, would you take Marshaun Lynch ahead of a guy like Carlos Hyde for 25 picks later? It makes no sense to me. Are you joking me? Who's taking him 12? This is ADP, man. I'm sitting here staring at it. 24th, the middle of the third round.

Let me tell you something. Let me give you a little helpful hint. One spot ahead of Tom Brady. Let me give you a little helpful guidance here. If someone retires, that means they were in bad shape typically. Not Jay Culler. He looks great. Yeah, exactly.

I mean, Jay Cull had a torn laborer. He said, oh, yeah, he's going to save the Dolphin Susan. Let's talk about it for two seconds. This is my favorite thing over the last week. is everybody in Miami being like, oh, man, Jay Cudler looks good. He can really sling it. Yes, that was never in question. No one was ever worried about how Jay Culler's arm.

The man has a rocket attached to his shoulder. Let's play football and see how it goes. I've seen this movie eight times. I know how it ends. The thing I love is now that Miami Media is trotting out is Jay Cutler misunderstood. No one, no one is more understood than Jay Cutler. All right, guys, thank you for your Twitter questions. We're going to be asking for those as we keep going through our main ones.

We really appreciate the input. They were fantastic. Thank you so much. And we're going to get to our last question of the show. But before that, let's take a quick break. Hey, guys. Before we go on, I wanted to tell you about our newest podcast, Ringer FC. Each week, Chris Ryan, Rhino-Hanlon, and Micah Peters,

and various Ringer staff members will be discussing everything that happens around the world of soccer. From the Premier League to the MLS, let our soccer experts guide you along ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. So make sure to subscribe and listen to Ringer FC wherever you get your podcasts. All right. So this one is a phone one for me. I did an awards kind of piece a couple of years ago. And I made this one up. And it's who's going to be the MVP of the Red Zone channel? And what I mean there is who are you going to be, if you're at a bar on Sunday and you're watching games, who's going to be cutting in to your screen all the time because they're making big plays, they're scoring touchdowns, everything else. Casey, why don't you go first?

I got two. All right. And they're very different. Well, they're very similar, but they're very different circumstances because one, everything has to break right. The one where everything does have to break right as Christian McCaffrey. I saw his preseason debut this week, obviously. They were using him in exactly the spots. I was hoping they would use him. There's been so much criticism with Mike Shula, but he is going to really work Christian McCaffrey everywhere. He's going to put him in the shotgun in the running game. He's going to split him out into the slots, put him out wide, whatever. It's going to be so exciting to see where he is in any given play. I think they want to go ordermore, no huddle. The personnel they want to use,

he's going to be perfect. And then you match him with Curtis Samuel. I mean, wow. I mean, that, that, that, that, there's going to be so much flexible in that offense, that you're going to see a lot of cool things. Second thing for me, this is a little more situational, but it's John Ross in Cincinnati. Okay. They love those run-pass options in Cincinnati. Those are already exciting plays. They, they, they lend themselves sort of college-style wide-open routes.

John Ross is the fastest player, basically, in NFL history. And if he gets open, man, wow. I mean, there's going to be some awesome plays. I love John Ross, and I think that it's underrated that he's just a deep option. John Ross can his play receiver. I'm just worried about Dalton. I like Andy Dalton as a quarterback to a certain extent. I just feel that he is not the best deep ball thrower that you can imagine.

Yeah, I think they'll be able to get Ross the ball on intermediate routes and then he'll be able to run a little bit with it. I just, I hope that happens. I mean, I just think that he's such a talent. And I just don't know if that team is the best fit for him. That's my only concern. Mike, or go ahead. No, I just think, I think that the, um, the offense is a little, is designed a little better than maybe most people give it credit for.

I think that even there were so many problems last year with the offensive line. I think the offensive line is going to be terrible this year again. But I think from purely connecting on some interesting past plays, I think the Bengals are a, a top 10 most interesting offense, not, not top 10 good offense, certainly. One of my, I have two guys as well. The first one is Martaibus Brian. I mean, if he's right physically, I was talking about somebody yesterday.

I actually tweeted about it. Week 15 of the 2014 season is the last time the Steelers' big four guys, the B's. Bryant, Ben, Brown, Bell, started and finished a game together. When Bell came back from his suspension two years ago, that was the game where Rathsburg got hurt against the Rams. When Rathesberger came back against the Bengals in week eight, that's the game where Bell Tour is eight.

ACL. We've never seen this offense at full capacity. The offensive line is the same. There's nothing different about it. And I just think that the amount of one-on-ones Martavis Bryant is going to get, he can tear people apart. And I would not be surprised if you're looking at four or five, 50-yard touchdowns from him this year, just because the way they use it. Yeah. And the Rathusberger has no qualms about chucking it. And replacing Mar-Tavis-Bride and replacing Sammy Coates with Martavis Bryant, yes, please. Give me all of that. Sammy Coates, not good

Sammy Coates, not good I understand that, but Sammy's It's not great, Sammy. I agree with you, he's back practicing. You know, he's not, he's obviously a couple steps beyond Levy on Bell because he missed a full season. But if they can get him for all 16 games, if he's in good shape,

you know, I think that's, that's an incredible tool to add to a team last year that they could have made the Super Bowl. Another guy for me is Michael Thomas. just because I think that he's such a touchdown maker. You know, I know that touchdowns are opportunity-based. He had 11 targets inside the 10 last year, caught 7.

It's not the highest catch percentage. But Breeze looks at him down there. He was tied for second in the, tied for number two in the league inside the 10 touchdowns last year, just behind Jordy Nelson. I feel like he's going to be somebody that gets in the end zone a ton. And considering he's going to be the clear-cut number one option in that offense this year, I feel he's going to get a lot of looks down there. I think I'm going to be looking up a lot and seeing cut-ins from Michael Thomas scoring touchdowns

and considering he's the other centerpiece of my keeper league that is going to make me very happy. Yeah, I mean, we talk about this every episode. Drew Brie is just incredible. Yeah. I mean, those are the guys. I just think that we're going to see them standing in the end zone alone pretty consistently this year. All right, bud. That's it.

That's it. Ten questions down. We will be back Tuesday with another batch of those as we continue our 33 questions for the preseason. As always, we really appreciate you guys. listening. Thank you so much for participating in this one with all the questions. It was so helpful and we'll be getting back to you guys later.