 What's up everybody welcome to the Fandula hurry up I am Frank Stanfield joined by Jim Sonis of Number of Fire to bring you some bold predictions for the 2019 fantasy football season. What's going on Jim? I am excited for week one just around the corner preseason was fun I really did enjoy preseason, but to have actual football in week one and have actual data to work with after week one It doesn't get a whole lot better than that. So I am beyond excited. How are you doing Frank? Same man super excited for week one just around the corner here a lot of fantasy football drafts still going on over the weekend So we're gonna give people some bold predictions for the upcoming season And the first one that you have Jim is revolving around Lamar Jackson a very polarizing quarterback this year What do you have on Lamar Jackson? Yeah, I think at the end of the year We'll be talking about Lamar Jackson being a top five quarterback for fantasy and for fantasy is key there Because I don't know what Lamar Jackson will do as a pastor. That's a complete mystery to me But he doesn't have to be super accurate to be a good fantasy quarterback And either be a good real-world quarterback because Lamar Jackson is such a threat with his legs He opens up additional room as a passer as well. That's beneficial to him He doesn't have to be as accurate. That's good for him They also added to their past catchers this year in the draft pretty heavily So I like the weapons around Lamar Jackson. I think that's very good Even with him being thrown into this offense mid-season last year where the offense was not really tailored around him yet He still went out there and showed that he has just a massive floor for fantasy He scored at least 16 fantasy points in every game that he started He had more than 20 points twice and now you give him a full-off season for them to build this Ravens offense around him And I expect really good things for him in fantasy in 2019 I think there's kind of just this blob at quarterback once you get past those top-end guides And I think that Jackson is firmly within that second tier and anybody in that second tier could be a top-five quarterback And I think that Jackson given the floor he has for rushing and the upside He could had if he could do anything as a passer is really good. So Lamar Jackson someone I'm getting pretty much everywhere I know that his cost has gone up as a summer has gone along, but I am still buying him where he's going I think that the upside in the floor are way too good for me to pass up Lamar Jackson is a cheat code for fantasy football this upcoming season because of his rushing ability Also working with offensive coordinator Greg Roman who has worked with similar quarterbacks in the past Jim Son, it says Lamar Jackson a top-five quarterback this upcoming season Let's move over to the running back position and honestly Jim This one has me pumped up because I have a ton of shares of Aaron Jones already in fantasy football What do you have regarding Aaron Jones this season? Yeah, I feel like whenever I have a late third round pick and Aaron Jones falls to me It's always like this little celebration like he shouldn't be there I would consider taking him in the second round if I had to but I don't have to right now because he's just so cheap And I think that with Aaron Jones. I think he's going to return first round value Which is why I'm so excited to get him in the late third round which I can at times get him for this year And I think there are a couple of things you want to look for in trying to identify running backs Who can return first round value you want guys? We're going to get a lot of rushes a lot of targets and a lot of touchdowns and Aaron Jones is A candidate to have all three of those things see average 5.3 targets per game last year when he was in his bellcow type role Which is a role I expected to be him at the start of 2019 Nat LaFleur their new head coach has also mentioned how much he wants to get his running backs work in the passing game I think that that makes a lot of sense And it's also good to hear for a guy like Aaron Jones who has shown he is capable as a receiver as well And an offense led by Aaron Rodgers is always going to be a threat to score a lot of touchdowns Add in that their offensive line has extra depth this year and they're also really good among the starters And Aaron Jones has everything that you want for a guy to be a first-round running back You don't have to take him there You don't have to buy any means but I think that that's really the upside for Aaron Jones And I would not be shocked if we're coming back here in 2020 and talking about here And how Aaron Jones is a good first-round pick in the mid to late part of that So Aaron Jones if you can get him in the third round, I would take him every single time But even if the draft car cost it seems a little bit higher than that I'd be willing to take him at the end of the second because this guy's upside is just so good Aaron Jones has averaged 5.5 yards per carry in his career Matt LaFleur wants to run the football more this year as well with the Green Bay Packers a Lot of the times in fantasy sports. We're trying to find that third round pick that can return first-round value Jim Sonnis Thinks Aaron Jones is that player? Let's stick with the running back position here and a little bit more doom and gloom this time when it comes to Joe Mixon and the Cincinnati Bengals Jim. What do you have regarding Joe Mixon this season? Yeah, it's not a bold take to say that Joe Mixon will fall short of expectations But it's kind of worded vaguely intentionally because I like the volume for Joe Mixon I think that's super encouraging But the ceiling is is very scary and this team is very scary right now because you look at injuries in the NFL They're gonna happen every time and an injury that occurs in September or October is going to be a red flag But injuries that happen in July those are even bigger red flags and the Bengals had several of those They had their left tackle have shoulder surgery He's likely done for the year Then they moved their left guard out to left tackle back out to left tackle as he was there last year and the guy Who could have potentially or play plays that guy left guard decided to retire They have since had a second retirement on the offensive line AJ Green went down which hurts this team's offensive efficiency and the Bengals are in a pretty scary spot where they could wind up being a Pretty dysfunctional team even with Andy Dalton and Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd being fully healthy That is a pretty major concern for me that this offense could just fail the function and that's a concern for Joe Mixon We have not seen him be This bell cow running back who gets a lot of carries and a lot of targets outside of basically the second half of last year So I'm concerned we talked about Aaron Jones checking all three boxes Potentially for this year and Joe Mixon checks the volume box and he checks maybe the target box But I'm scared about this offense. So I think that his cost has come down He's now going off the board in the middle of the second round That's not egregious But I'm not gonna take him there when there are guys like Daven Cook, Aaron Jones, Leonard Fournette, Devonte Freeman still available I'm scared of this offense and it makes me pretty wary of Joe Mixon And I would not be shocked if he fell if he falls well short of expectations Yeah, this one hurts Jim and it's hard to blame you really because of everything that's happened with the Cincinnati Bengals Injuries to their offensive line, retirements to their offensive line, AJ Green going down with injury I think Joe Mixon is a really really talented player But could be in for a really really tough season with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2019 Let's move over to wide receiver and RJ ETS Jets, jets, jets, we saw Robbie Anderson take off in the final month of the season You think that that's going to carry over into this season, Jim? Yeah, I think Robbie Anderson has a good chance to be a high-end wide receiver too And based on where he's going in ADP as wide receiver 29 That would be outperforming his ADP by quite a bit And you could be concerned about Robbie Anderson because they did bring in Jameson Crowder, Leavion Bellas there, Quincy Inouye was healthy, and Chris Herney will be back after his four-game suspension But I think that the way you want to think about this jets team, based on the way they've been operating in the pre-season is Kind of like the Rams, I'm not saying they'll be the Rams I'm saying that they're similar to them in a lot of ways Specifically in that they're going to run a lot of three wide receiver sets Adam Gates has wanted to do this in the past He has done so in the pre-season with the Jets And what that means is it's probably going to lead to a relatively narrow target tree Where Leavion Bell will get his, Aswell, Crowder and Inouye But there's still the possibility that Robbie Anderson is getting upwards of 20% of the targets And that's valuable when it's a guy who is as good as he is But also who gets the variety of targets that Anderson gets Because Robbie Anderson, among the guys in this team He's pretty obviously the best deep breath that they've got And Sam Darnold, despite the reputation that he had at the beginning of last year He does like to throw deep 20% of Sam Darnold's attempts last year When at least 15 or 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage That ranked 10th in the NFL out of 41 qualified passers So you may think of Sam Darnold as a guy who likes to throw short But last year that was not the case He did go deep pretty often And it's almost always going to be Robbie Anderson who's getting those targets And those are high value targets And I want to get as many of those as I could possibly get The Jets have been running up tempo during the pre-season two So concerns around pace may be still there but not as big as they were And if they decide to operate as a mid-level team in pace Like if they rank 16th in situation neutral pace Robbie Anderson's upside is pretty good So I understand the concerns around Adam Gase's reputation As a play caller and the conservative nature of their pace I understand the concerns about added targets But Robbie Anderson is going to get the targets that we want And this team I think could outperform expectations So Robbie Anderson's a guy I am targeting pretty heavily in the sixth round I think he makes a lot of sense and I would not be shocked If he winds up being around the wide receiver of 15 at the end of the season Robbie Anderson a super talented wide receiver I think he proved that last year But Jim I have to ask you any concern over this mild cash training he's dealing with Yeah we were talking about with the Bengals Where concerns in injuries in September make sense But injuries in August and July are pretty concerning So it's something to keep an eye on for sure But at least based on what we've seen so far from Anderson I am not flashing up the you know the warning signs Yeah the problem is we're not going to get any clarity on him And so probably Wednesday when that first practice report comes out So I think it's one of those weekends where we just keep row to row the world up And keep on refreshing it and see if we get any information But at least based on what we've seen right now I feel pretty okay with it But yeah Frank it's something we're going to have to monitor for sure throughout the weekend He proved that over the final month of the season last year And already has a really good rapport with Sam Darnold Let's stick with the wide receiver position And this time it's MVS Shout out to my ECW Rob Van Dam fans out there But Marquez Valdez scantling Jim a lot of people have been trying to figure out Whether to take Marquez Valdez scantling or Geronimo Allison It seems like you are very clearly taking Marquez Valdez scantling Yeah to be fully in front I'm okay with both I will take either You know if I don't get MVS I will happily take Geronimo Allison But I like the upside that MVS has a little bit more So if I can choose between the two I will go MVS But if I don't get him then I'll take Geronimo Allison too Because I just want exposure to offenses led by Aaron Rodgers As we discussed with Aaron Jones And one thing I think that can be helpful When trying to identify players you want to draft for this year Is ask yourself all right who is going lower right now Than where they'll go in 2020 You're trying to buy them before the cost goes up And I think with Marquez Valdez scantling We could see him be a top five round pick next year If things go the way they could That's my bold prediction is that next year we'll see MVS go Within the first five rounds because He's tied Aaron Rodgers we love that And he's also looking like he'll be on the field In two wide receiver sets Whereas Geronimo Allison may not So they decide to go with heavy personnel We'll still see MVS out there Whereas Geronimo Allison may not It also helps that Marquez Valdez scantling Is a big player who ran a really fast time at the combine And when you can get that size and speed combination It's pretty attractive from an upside perspective We saw MVS flash some of that last year When he got chances Now it seems like he will get a chance For the full season with the healthy Aaron Rodgers With a new offense in place I think those things are all pretty enticing From an upside perspective So MVS going in the ninth round right now I don't think that will last into 2020 So I think that if you want to get MVS shares while it's still cheap Do it in 2019 Get him in your best ball drafts Get him in re-draft as well And maybe buy him in dynasty Because I don't think the cost For Marquez Valdez scantling is going down anytime soon Marquez Valdez scantling aka MVS Just a physical freak 6 foot 4 4.3 7 40 Lot to be excited about this upcoming season With the Green Bay Packers Last but not least We have a tight end It's Austin Hooper And Jim you have a pretty bold prediction When it comes to Austin Hooper this season With the Atlanta Falcons Yeah my bold prediction here Is that Austin Hooper winds up As a top five tight end By the end of the season I'm not going to say he's going to Enter that top tier with George Kittle Zach Hurts and Travis Kelsey Because I don't think Really anyone outside of maybe Hunter Henry or O.J. Howard has that chance But Austin Hooper has a chance To be a top five tight end And I think that this kind of stems From my process at tight end Where I want to target tight ends Who are in good offenses And will score touchdowns And Austin Hooper fits within both those The Atlanta Falcons defense Or offense was good last year But we didn't notice Because their defense was so bad That their offense just did not matter Now they enter the off season They pick up a couple of good offensive Liman in free agency Add two more in the first round of the draft And I would expect an offense That was already good last year To get even better And the positive for Austin Hooper Is they did not add to their pass catchers Sure you get another year of Calvin Ridley Maybe he progresses and takes up more targets But it's not as if they bought Another wide receiver in free agency So it's back at the same group Last year Hooper's target market share Was 15% with 18% of the red zone targets And if he keeps those numbers up In an offense that should be better And should generate more scoring drives this year He does have a path Towards being a top five tight end Now again I'm not going to You know go out of my way To reach for Austin Hooper Because I think that there are a lot of other tight ends In this exact same tier Who are very attractive But if Austin Hooper's on the board from me You know where he's going And I still have a tight end I'm going to take him every time Because I think that the upside in this offense Is really fun I want exposure to Atlanta I think they're a really good team I think that they could make some damage this year Given their new pieces on the offensive line So Austin Hooper is a guy I think could take a step forward this year And I want to buy in before that happens The Atlanta Falcons play something like 13 of their 16 games inside of a dome this year So there's a lot to like with their offense Jim Sonnis is buying Austin Hooper If you wait on tight end In your fantasy football drafts For Jim Sonnis I am Frank Stamphill Thank you so much for watching Good luck in your drafts this weekend And we'll see you next week