Let's cast all of reality TV and not just 'The Bachelorette'

(Editor’s note: Every Sunday, we’ll wrap up the week on PFF Fantasy with some topic one of our writers has been thinking about of late, and recap the features, columns, and podcasts you could find on the site that week.)

If you’ve been anywhere in the vicinity of Football Twitter the last few days, you know that our own Mike Renner is appearing on this season of The Bachelorette. I’ve never actually seen an episode of the show (or The Bachelor, or Bachelor in Paradise, or any of the family), but I can tell you now … Mike is good for the show.

You’ll see what I mean when the show debuts (or, if you don’t watch, when every single person in your Twitter feed makes jokes about it). I don’t know how well Mike did on the show (he wouldn’t tell me) — I almost hope he’s one of those that does just well enough to not win but become the next Bachelor (that’s how it works, right?), because it extends the fun for everyone involved.

But because I am this person, the fact that Mike is going to be on the show got me pondering (or forcing a topic, you choose) what other football players or well-known football personalities would make sense in reality TV or on game shows. So here we go:

We gotta put Bill Belichick somewhere, right? I want to see him on Survivor. I know if he were to ever go on the real show, the other contestants would immediately vote him out just for being the famous guy, but taking the Belichickian personality and knowledge and cunningness and giving it to someone not instantly recognizable would be amazing.
There are several duos I’d like to see on The Amazing Race, but I think my favorite would be Aqib Talib and Michael Crabtree. In fact, CBS needs to be on the phone with their respective agents right now for whenever they retire, because forcing them to work together traveling around the world would be *ahem* amazing. (And an amazing duo for entirely different reasons, but also one I’d kill to see, would be Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.)
Let’s get Alex Collins on Dancing with the Stars, just to see how often they can bring up his Irish dancing in commentary and/or how often he can work an Irish dance into his show routine.
I was going to say that Matthew Berry should be on Shark Tank, given his myriad interests and business outlets, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he’d actually probably be a shark, not a contestant.
Rob Gronkowski needs to go on Naked and Afraid for, oh god, so dang many reasons.
Undercover Boss needs to have Jerry Jones, because I would pay to see him disguised up.
Kelvin Beachum, Tim Tebow, and Robert Griffin III all appeared on Fixer Upper, but now that that show is gone, let’s look to Property Brothers and give an episode to Alex Smith, because after seeing him throw a dodgeball, I want to see him swing a sledgehammer so very much.
Oh man, let’s set a dream foursome for Chopped. I want Ricky Williams, Jared Lorenzen, Marvin Jones, and Mike Ditka.
Given all the talk about his privileged upbringing, I want Josh Rosen on The Price Is Right, just to see if we can get an Arrested Development moment.
Kyle Juszczyk on Wheel of Fortune, because a lifetime of teaching people to spell his last name has to have made him good at letters.
And finally, come on, let’s get me on Jeopardy when I go to my audition next month.

The week in review

The biggest thing everybody in fantasy is talking right now is the season to come. To that end, Jeff Ratcliffe offered up his top-200 PPR rankings with explanations for the 2018 season. Tyler Loechner recapped a best-ball mock the PFF Fantasy staff participated in.
Wednesday was a tight end-heavy day on PFF Fantasy. Tyler Loechner eulogized the end of an era at the position, with Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, and potentially several other longtime tight ends ending their careers. Tyler Buecher explained how to approach the position in TE Premium startup drafts (he also highlighted how to approach quarterbacks in two-QB leagues). And Scott Barrett put Jordan Reed’s high ceiling and low floor under the microscope in his Metrics that Matter series (he also broke down drafting a team defense this week).
Heading into 2018, Mike Castiglione highlighted Marlon Mack and four other second-year players who still have high fantasy potential despite middling rookie numbers. Dan Clasgens listed all the quarterbacks he thinks have the potential to finish the season as the position’s No. 1.
Pat Thorman brought back one of his annual hits, a look at quarterbacks overrated by traditional passing metrics.
Looking further down the road, Curtis Patrick highlighted the running backs who could go in next year’s draft for devy purposes, while Michael Moore offered up a mock draft of the first three rounds of 2019 for fantasy.
Michael Moore’s Player Showdown series investigated two former teammates, wondering whether Jay Ajayi or Kenyan Drake is preferable for fantasy for 2018.
Scott Spratt’s research looked at running back size (in particular Alvin Kamara), and looked at whether Melvin Gordon is actually good or just a product of the Chargers’ system.
And Daniel Kelley looked at fantasy scoring in unique ways, first by looking at which players saw the biggest percentage of their 2017 scoring in a single game, and who managed to be the small-sample fantasy leaders of the year.

Podcasts

Undervalued and Overvalued Best Ball Options
PPR Top 25 Rankings
Fantasy Specialty Podcasts