Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 IDP Corner - Week 2 Preseason Review

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

Justin Varnes (@downwithIDP) and Tom Simons recap some notable preseason action from Week 2 from an IDP perspective. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Welcome to another edition of the IDP Corner, sponsored by FantasyPoint.com. My name is Justin Varns. I'm one of the IDP analysts at FantasyPoints.com. you can follow me on Twitter at Down with IDP and my partner in crime joining us again from the West Coast,

Mr. Thomas Simon. How you doing tonight, Thomas? Hello, hello, hello, hello. Always the sound effects guy. I'm always doing well. I have to, especially in today's world. Absolutely. So we're going to dive right into our preseason two,

week two breakdown. This was an interesting one because we kind of got half and half information we'll be rolling into next week, which we're going to talk about in a second. But what do you make of preseason week two, Thomas? Well, we weren't quite sure what we were going to get out of week two. But we did notice there was quite a few teams that used their starters for 40 to 50 percent of the snaps. And, you know, they played almost a half a game.

Some of them even went into the third quarter. But there's still a number of teams that sat their starters in this preseason week two. You know, teams like Kansas City. their defensive players played 50 to 53% of the snaps, and yet there were other teams that didn't even run their starters out. So you're still, it's being treated as, okay, they're still rolling out the carpet. They're still getting up to speed.

But they're looking at these games as more of a checkdown on what they want to do with players that are bubble players. And, you know, if you don't start a game and you get in late in the third, third or even fourth quarter, then chances are you're going to be, you're a bubble player and you're on the verge of being cut. So I think that what are your thoughts about week two turning into week three? Well, I'm with you. There's so much that can be misinterpreted in these preseason games. It's, you know, it's really easy to see somebody out there go, oh my gosh, I guess now they're the starter when that's not the case. And preseason week two has,

You know, this is a new format. Normally we've had four preseason games. Now it's only three. And so this second week was going to be something, you know, it's uncharted territory, how they're going to split up playing time and make roster decisions and camp battles decided on the football field was that normally we see that happen in week three. But obviously this time we, and we kind of got half and half. I'm with you.

It's a little hard to decipher that. But that's what people like Thomas and I are here for. try and help sift through these two leaves. I do believe week three will provide a lot of answers, not all of the answers, but a lot of the answers from some of the questions we've built up through training camp, week one, and week two of preseason. You have to take this with a grain of salt because of the fact that these defenses are not rolling out their schemes and their big, you know, their full systems. They're basically just running out these basic plays to get the players on the field and contact.

And again, we'll see probably a lot of these teams do more, you know, more look at their starters and get them in there for a quarter or more. Pretty much all the teams will. There is still one or two teams out there that are just going to say, the hell with this, I don't want to risk, you know, players getting hurt. I mean, we're going to go over the injury list in a few minutes and you're going to see why teams are more scared of playing that third game because they do get a big chunk of time off before they start the season.

So again, it's kind of a catch-22 because if they don't do it, then they go 10, 15 days before they see a game and their starters haven't played at all. So they're stuck in the middle here, and I think you're going to see a lot of teams turn to their starters in week three. Let's move on to news and notes. You got a few from the Patriots and Eagles game, I believe. Yeah, rookie defensive linemen, Christian Barmore, and safety Kyle Dugger.

They both started for the Patriots against the Eagles. Now, both had a solo, and Barmore took, I believe it was 43% of the snaps, and Dugger took 38%. And Dugger added two PDs. So these two got a lot of playing time, and I think they're going to be a little more involved. We talked about Dugger in detail last week. and Barmore, I think, is going to have a big role in a rotational situation on that Patriots defensive line. Yeah, one thing we noticed was the rotation of Dugger and Phillips.

And we still haven't, you know, this is one of those questions we are hoping to see answered in week three. We know that Bill Belichick is going to use both of them. But in week three, does Dugger continue to, quote, quote, be the starter over Phillips? and possibly play more snaps or was just just, you know, sometimes this will happen and you have to notice if the, who you think is the incumbent starter even dresses. If they don't even play a snap, then that really makes it unclear as to why that person was out there.

Or you can kind of think, well, maybe this, I'm pretty sure the starter is really going to be the starter. Darius Leonard isn't dressed for the game and doesn't take a snap, then you're not worried about him losing his role. Right. But Phillips did dress and did come in after Dugger. So that will be one. That's one of those questions.

We're hoping we'll get a little more clarity on week three. Another equally frustrating situation, this is going to mirror basically what we saw. The Dallas Cowboys have had this is now their actually their third preseason game, if you include the Hall of Fame game. And we're seeing a pretty clear picture. And it's a real mess out there. Micah Parsons is looking amazing. He looks great to the eyes, great on the stat sheet. PFF is grading him well.

I mean, this is not a mirage. Micah Parsons is the real deal. And we're seeing Jalen Smith and Leighton Van der Lehersh and Keanu Neal kind of rotate around him. One of their favorite packages, as we mentioned last week, was Micah Parsons and Keanu Neal kind of as they're passing down or nickel or dime, you know, linebacker duo. So the question is during this week three that we're going to see, does Parsons play every snap with the starters and the other three kind of rotate around him? Or do they create this too frustrating of a mix where Parsons is only on the field 60% of the time and kneels on for 40% and Smith and Layton Van derresh mix those up? I'm hoping there's a crack of sunshine here that Parsons can be reliable.

And it's the other three that will be unreliable. but we're kind of waiting to see that. I put a poll on Twitter before we, you know, last night to try to get through a whole 24 hours to see what it would say. But the poll was about this exact issue with Jalen Smith and Layton Van derresh, which was at what point, like if you just assume that Parsons is the lead dog here, at what point is Jalen Smith or Leighton Van der Lech of value? And it was pretty close. LB 12 to 24, i.e. LB2, came in at 17%. The value really showed up at LB 25 to 36, which is kind of your LB3 there. So if he falls, if either Jalen Smith or Leighton Van der Leyen Fals fall, in my opinion,

I'm looking at him as LB4s. I'm not sure they're going to be consistent enough to even be an LB3. But yeah, everybody kind of chimed in as LB3, LB4 is where you want to be thinking about taking someone like Jalen Smith or Layton Vanderech. But really, I'm just focusing on Parsons and I'm hoping to get consistent linebackers elsewhere. You know, with all this discussion of these four linebackers, we haven't even mentioned Jibril Cox, who came in in the second half, and he was the one out of all the linebackers.

Cox took the most snaps. He took 46% of the snaps. Granted, they were second half. But he tied for the team lead with Vandreche, with three solos. and assist for tackles. So Cox is going to be, I think, right up there with Parsons as far as the two that they're going to look for in the future with Parsons being the anchor. Now, we haven't even discussed, you know, the roster cutdowns.

You have to cut from 85 to 80 by Tuesday. And then after week three on the Tuesday following that, they have to drop from 80 to 53. So that's where the big one's going to happen, and that's where a lot of trades are going to go down. Teams are like Dallas are going to trade somebody like Jalen Smith to take care and alleviate this problem that they have at linebacker. And if that happens, then Van der Wesch's stock rises a tiny bit, but so does Jabil Cox and Neal. So this is kind of a frustrating situation. And even with the third week, we're probably going to have to wait until after the game and then find out what they do with the roster cuts.

Now, somebody I want to mention who had a, we talked about last week in regards to these coming back. We talked to Dr. Edwin about landing Collins and him returning from the Achilles. And we were concerned a little bit as to whether or not, you know, how is he going to respond? How should we look at this? Collins didn't start this past week, but he did play. And surprisingly enough, he had this one particular play on tight end Thaddeus Moss, I believe it was. He just came out of nowhere.

He came about 10 to 12 yards and just slammed him as soon as he caught the ball. So in one of his first plays in the game, it very well appears that Collins is back and is ready to play. Granted, he didn't. He only saw, I believe, was 18% of the snap. in this game and he didn't start, but I think he's going to be ready for week one. I want to update us on some more LB rotations that we've mentioned a little bit in the past that are murky. One of them is the Kansas City Chiefs last year. They were incredibly frustrating. And we were hoping that Willie Gage, Jr. would kind of take the lead. We'd heard

good things in camp. He did come out and start with Anthony Hitchens. It was Hitchens. I was hoping he would replace, but it was Anthony Hitchens and Willough Gay, and also Ben Neiman, who's becoming Ben Nemesis to me, because last year they pumped up Ben Neiman. There's always going to be our three-down linebacker, all these great things, and he came out and played like seven snaps in that opening game, and then he played just enough to be annoying all season. So he was out there. So it was Hitchens, Gay, and Ben Neiman all kind of rotating around. What we need to see in week three is, will Gay really take a clear lead here? if not, he's not going to necessarily have that fantasy relevance that we're hoping for.

Another one is that luckily is a clear situation. We've just seen, you know, all, you know, every thing that we've read and seen, everything has been completely consistent with Arizona's linebackers, Isaiah Simmons and Zaven Collins. They again were the starting two inside linebackers. When they were in three linebacker sets, we've got to finally see Jordan Hicks. But when it was down to two, it was Collins and Simmons. and they're on the field a lot.

There probably won't be many opportunities or many situations where we'll only see one of those linebackers on the field, and that's because of their versatility. You don't have to take linebacker Isaiah Simmons off the field and replace them with a defensive back. All you have to do is just make Isaiah Simmons, who is also a defensive back, be a defensive back. So that versatility should keep Simmons and Zaven Collins on the field for the majority of the snaps, and we really should see some nice production. I think out of both of them. It's hard to, I mean, you're really splitting hairs in terms of how this is, this is going to go down

in terms of Simmons and Collins. I think, I think Collins will be more consistent. I think Isaiah Simmons has the higher floor, but also the lower ceiling just based on his tendency to probably get moved around all three levels of defense, which just creates a little bit of inconsistency. But these are really, really close. I like both of these guys. Indeed. And two other linebackers from that game that we haven't mentioned. Nick Bolton, the rookie that Kansas City drafted this year, he played in the second half, and it doesn't look like he's going to be very much involved, at least not in the beginning of the season. He'll be a rotational kind of guy playing on special teams. It's going to be gay, Hitchens, and Neiman that we'll be talking

about most of all for the first half of the year. And then on the Arizona side, Jordan Hicks is just, We warned everybody that it looks like he's on his way out, and this is becoming even more concrete. And it's really tough to understand because that's a guy who has 100 tackles in two straight seasons. And 100 tackles and 10 tackles for loss, two consecutive years. And yet he's not even being discussed as a starter. So, in fact, he's not even being discussed on the roster. He's another guy who could get traded at the cutdown date next week from tomorrow. So that's something we've got to be keeping an eye on.

Now, speaking of another linebacker in Seattle, unfortunately, I worked that game. It was brutal. I mean, it was a 30 to three score. Denver blew out the Seahawks. Now, granted, it was the Seahawks didn't start any of their starters. Bobby Wagner didn't play, Jerome Adams didn't play, Gwonder Diggs didn't play, so on and so forth. One guy that did play and played quite a bit, he took 56% of the first. of the snaps was Jordan Brooks. Brooks had a really nice game posting six solos and an assist,

and he was all over the field for the long time that he was out there. Now, granted, I think a lot of that they didn't plan on him doing this, but Ben Burr-Curvin blew out his knee on the opening kickoff, and we'll talk about it in the injury report, but that created a need for them to play Brooks more. So he did respond with a really nice game. All right. Moving on, let's hit what we're going to call kind of our quick hits here. So instead of digging in as much, we're going to kind of do a little bit more of a rapid fire, get through some other notes, other things that were notable, but don't take quite as much analysis and breakdown and things to sift through. So, Thomas, why don't you get a start?

Well, we've been watching him all summer long, Alex Singleton. He continues to shine. He posted five solos and two. assist with a tackle for a loss. And he did that in just 24% of the snaps. That was only 19 snaps. He did that. So he had seven total tackles in 19 snaps. The guy was all over the field.

He's looking more and more like this guy is going to be close to a three-down linebacker. He's going to be the one that will spend the most time on the field for the Eagles. Chris Jones. If anybody got to see him go off there, He looks great as a defensive end. They've experimented by moving him out there. This is another thing like we mentioned with Arizona.

You hear whispers that they're going to start experimenting with Chris Jones playing outside the tackles. And then he happens a little bit in training camp, but you definitely want to see it with your own eyes. And boy, do we do that. A couple of years ago, Jones had a breakout season. And then they shifted him. His role inside became a little bit more, it became less progressive. basically. His roles and responsibilities changed a little bit. And we accurately predicted that he wouldn't be able to repeat that kind of breakout production. But now he's in a different role

and possibly his most productive role of the three. He looks fantastic playing off the edge. And as his ADP currently, he's buried. He's somebody that could easily be a DL2, if not DL1, playing there. And some leagues, he might still even be a defensive tackle. And if you play a defensive tackle league. If you could get somebody like Jones who is seeing a lot better matchups and getting to use a combination of his speed and his power

to his advantage, I think Chris Jones's arrow is pointing up this year. You know, we want to talk about linebackers in Washington. We've talked about Jammin Davis and the rookie that they drafted this year, but it was Cole Holcomb and John Bostic

who ran with the first team defense in this preseason week two. Holcomb started and took 14 snaps and Bostick took 13. Now granted, Davis did come into the game later on. He took 30% of the snaps, but it was kind of an eye-catcher that Holcomb and Bostick were the ones that started that game. So we need to keep an eye on that in preseason week three. Another linebacker who we're excited about a second-year player out of Cincinnati, Logan Wilson.

he clearly is the go-to guy there in Cincinnati. That's what they drafted him to be, but it just took a little, it took a year longer than they wanted, and a lot of that I'm sure had to do with COVID. They clearly were not happy with their linebacker play last year. It was, you know, one of the reasons Jesse Bates had an amazing season last year

was he was on cleanup duty a lot. I mean, you know, not every free safety is kind of cleanup duty in terms of how they are productive, but in last year's case, that was the deal with Bates. They just had such, you know, poor linebacker and defensive line play. Just a lot of leaky holes there in that defense.

And they moved Logan Wilson to that kind of three-down role. And he's playing well there. It looks like he is locked in. The other note is that next to him, Jermaine Pratt is starting, but he's getting replaced by Jordan Evans on passing down. So that really not only puts a damper in Pratt's consistency and upside, but also is a clear indication that Wilson is the guy there not Pratt. Another linebacker to talk about Pittsburgh, Joe Schobert.

We talked about him last week in regards to we thought that maybe Devin Bush was not rebounding well from last year's injury and that they went after Schobert because of the fact that they thought that he could step in for Bush and if Bush wasn't doing so well. Well, they both started this week. and it was Robert Spillane who came in off the bench, and it was Schobert and Bush as the starters. So we're still concerned with the fact that we're not sold on Bush being 100% healthy, and we can see him doing the same thing he's done in the past in his first year,

which was he would play only one week he would play 45% of the snaps next week, 65. So there's that bouncing around that could happen. I think Schobert's going to probably be more consistent anywhere between 60 and 70 percent. And I think Spillane's the one that's going to sit on the bench until an injury happens. Atlanta Falcons rookie safety, Richie Grant, has mostly been playing a snaps in the slot, which is inconsistent for fantasy. But depending on how they use him, we could see an instance here where we get a little bit of that, Mike Hilton or Logan Ryan Love, because both of those were essentially safeties.

who tried to man the slot and, you know, racked up not only a lot of tackles because, you know, slot corners nowadays are on the field, you know, maybe 60, 80 percent of the time. But also there at the edge, getting pass rushing opportunities, you know, tackles for loss, really kind of ramp up some big plays. I'm not, we're not sure if he's going to play there exclusively and really be somebody we can rely on the way we did Logan Ryan and Mike Hilton the last couple of years. But it's something definitely to watch. Jalen Hawkins, the other safety, he mainly played deep.

So in terms of a fantasy option, he's doing a good job on the back end there, but not really somebody we can rely on for fantasy value. Not all deep safeties are not usable or unusable for fantasy, but so far Hawkins' role is looking like one of those free safeties that too often are going to be too far away from the action. A couple of linebackers we should talk about. that are getting a lot of playing time in the preseason. Now, granted, they're not going to be starters.

But they're veterans and somebody that we should keep an eye on on both of these teams. And that's with Chicago Bears have Alec Ogletree and the Giants have Reggie Raglan. They're both getting a lot of playing time in the preseason. With Roquan Smith and Danny Trevathan not playing in the first two games, Ogletree has been seeing a lot of playing time and making the most of it. And with Blake Martinez out with a due to a quote-unquote illness, Raglan's been taking over his spot for the Giants. So these are insurance or handcuffs maybe for both of these teams in regards to their inside linebacker starters. Come prop up on Thrive Fantasy this football season.

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Download Thrive Fantasy in the App Store or Play Store or by visiting www. ThriveFantasy.com. Tune in to Extra Points LiveStream every Sunday morning to find out some of our favorite Thrive Fantasy props for the day, sign up and prop up today. Well, let's move on to some notable injuries, shall we? Wow, and some of them are kind of eye-opiners. We'll fire through these really quick. One of them was Zadarius Smith.

The information came out that he likely is going to miss the season opener due to a back injury. He was activated for practice this week, but as the week progressed, he didn't fare very well and was still slowed by his back injury. And it doesn't look like he's going to be ready for the opener. Now, in Cincinnati, there's some brutal news with Joseph Asai rookie that we talked about last week. We mentioned he had a great preseason game, and he injured his wrist, and we wanted to keep an eye on that well. He's undergoing surgery on a meniscus injury and his out for the season. That's a big, big loss for the Cincinnati Bengals. It's the same type of thing that is going to happen to the Jets who lost Carl Lawson for the season with a torn Achilles. And that's a big,

big hole for this Jets defensive end position. Now, Jacob Phillips, linebacker in Cleveland suffered a season-ending torn biceps. He was the backup to Anthony Walker, the Mike linebacker. And we know that Walker has a history of being in and out of the lineup with injuries himself. So Phillips was kind of an insurance on Walker. Well, that went out the window too. Now, I mentioned Ben Burk, Hervin suffering a torn ACL on the opening kickoff in this past weekend in Seattle. Well, that could help Cody Barton maybe be upgraded and see more playing time. Brooks and Bobby Wagner are going to be the ones that will be manning the, the, the starting jobs, but it looks like Barton is now for sure going to be the Sam linebacker

and see at least 50% of the snaps. Another major injury was LJ. Fort, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL. Malik Harrison and Fort were battling for the inside linebacker position next to Patrick Queen. And it looks like Harrison obviously now is going to be the inside linebacker starting next to Queen because of the fact that Fort's done. for the year. Now, last week we talked about Jared Davis, and Jared Davis was having a great camp. We mentioned the fact that a change of scenery was doing him really well, and then he was going to be

possibly a late round pick that you could get a sleeper-type linebacker that could be a linebacker two, maybe even a low-end one. Well, he injured his ankle, even though it's not a high ankle sprain, it will likely keep him out for at least two months. And they're hoping to have a lot. him back after their by week and week six. Now, that's a big out. Chances are they'll keep them on the roster. And then when the season, just before the season starts, they'll put him on the designated to return IR list, which means that he'll sit there for three weeks. Either that or they'll put them on the PUP list. Either way, that's something that's going to happen to Davis. And then I'm trying to think of who might fill in for Davis. There's a couple of names

that are there. Obviously, C.J. Mosley now is in the driver's seat. He probably, he was already in the driver's seat probably for the production there. But, you know, depending on how Davis was going to bounce back, we were trying to figure out how much of that was going to kind of chip away and Mosley's lead there. But who will replace Davis? That easily could be, there's a kind of a, I think, a two-way street here or two-way race. One of them is kind of a player that has come out of nowhere, which is converted safety, Hamsa Nostraldeen. Now, he has been impressing throughout the entire training camp. He's the type of player that they're that they're rooting for in trying to get him on the field and basically have their own version of Isaiah Simmons. It's not a perfect

comparison, but again, it would be the type of player that they could rely on a little bit more heavily in coverage situations, which is something that every team needs to have more of. And the other player, if it's not Homsah, it might be Jamie and Sherwood, who's another player who's kind of up and coming. But these two players are going to have one more week here to prove that they are able to take that position next to C.J. Mosley, likely they'll be on the field. But the question is, will either one of them truly take hold of this and possibly be a three-down player for us? If so, that's a deep, deep sleeper. Yeah, Nazriel Dean is, has been playing a lot more outside linebacker, and he's pushing Blake Cashman to the sidelines.

And from what you just said, the fact that he's shifted from the safety position and is very good at coverage, especially on tight ends, they may want to keep him there and bring in Sherwood for the early downs next to Mosley and then move Nasraldine inside, possibly, if they keep both of them. or one of them on the field for three downs. It's going to be an interesting watch, but it's definitely Jared Davis has gone for the first, most likely the next two months. And continue on with the injuries. Stefan Gilmore is day-to-day with a quadricep injury.

These next few are going to be just minor things that we will touch upon. San Francisco's defensive tackle Maurice Hurst suffered a high ankle sprain. He'll miss some time. Michael Kendrick suffered a turf toe. He just signed with San Francisco and they were looking to use him on a regular basis. And then he'd suffered a turf toe sprain. He'll also miss some time. Antoine Woods injured his hamstring and didn't return to the game in preseason week two. Also injured in preseason week two was Nicholas Morrow. He injured his ankle. He's expected to miss some time.

And now this benefits Nick Koukowski, which we mentioned last week, or the green dot. So there's a good chance that Morrow could lose the starting job to Kukkowski if he takes advantage of this situation and does well in Morrow's absence. And finally, J.J. Watt returned to practice on Monday coming off a hamstring injury. And he didn't look bad. He didn't look great. I mean, he didn't do a heck of a lot. But the fact that he's back in playing is a good sign for the Cardinals. Now, I have a question for you, Justin. What's that, Thomas? So, hey, Justin, what is monkey knife fight?

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Well, we wrap this up with the Discord board and the questions that we've been asking everybody there to send us and maybe we talk about in the podcast. And a user member, Mr. B, asked a few questions regarding, are there any sleeper line out there and also asked about who's the Green Bay linebacker to own. Would it be Chris Barnes or Devandre Campbell? I'll start us off real quick with the Packers, and it's looking more and more like Barnes is the man to own. But the fact that they're not playing Campbell might suggest that he's being saved

to avoid injury as they are counting on him, so he's likely going to start next to Barnes inside. But I think Barnes is manning the position that Blake Martinez and Christian Kirk say last year. What we called is the money or gold linebacker position on this Packer team. So I would have to say that the younger Barnes is the one that will most likely be the one you should count on and be looking two out of the two. What are your thoughts on that? I totally agree. I don't think Campbell's going away.

I think we're going to see, you know, one of the things that we've seen from Green Bay over the last couple of years is this more heavy reliance on a single linebacker and more dbs and coverage. So there was usually only one linebacker we could rely on. Well, now they've got, you know, but this is a new defense. They have a new defensive coordinator in Joe Barry, who, you know, was an assistant with the Rams. And they certainly used a healthy amount of single linebackers. but they definitely use plenty of two LB sets as well. I think not only do they want Barnes to kind of have that role, he's kind of up and coming,

and Devondra Campbell still has plenty of football left at him, but he's bounced around from three different teams now, which can give you a little piece of that he's not finding enough snaps out there on a team to be as fantasy relevant. So Barnes has already been the three-down lineback so far in camp also in I mean he only played 12 snaps in preseason week two but of those 12 snaps he played a pretty solid game another part of that is that Kamal martin had a poor guy he had a he had a really rough game um so kamal martin as as possibly being somebody to contend with barns

for snaps we can pretty much wipe that off the table was it was a long shot anyway martin would have had to just play a ridiculous game and unfortunately he had the opposite of that so You know, for me, Barnes is in the driver's seat, and I'd rather invest a draft pick in a younger player and in a, you know, kind of a developing defense than a player like Campbell, who I'm sure will see plenty of snaps, but is likely on the downside of things. And I believe it's a one-year deal that he signed. So, and they've been using Orrin Brooks next to Chris Barnes. Now, I don't think Brooks will start the season as the starting inside linebacker. I think we're going to see next week whether or not Campbell plays. If he doesn't, then there might be an injury situation or something going on with a veteran that could affect whether or not he even starts on opening day.

The fact that he's not out on the field has us, you know, a little concerned and worried and watching to see if we can gather any information on this. But Barnes is out there. Barnes is making the plays. Barnes is the guy we would get behind. And this is one of the situations where we have. We mentioned kind of earlier, it would be one thing if Campbell was dressed and came in in the third quarter. That would be a clear sign that Campbell is second or third team, and they're expecting him to be that, and they're going to try and keep Berks fresh. That is not what we saw. They had Campbell on the sidelines, saving his, like you said, saving his veteran legs, trying to keep him healthy.

That is a clear sign that as of now, unless something changes next week, Campbell should be on running with the ones and be part of. of the first team defense. How many snaps he has over Barnes or how many snaps he'll be able to maintain on a weekly basis, that's another question. Yeah. And again, if he dresses and Burke starts, then it's going to be Birx who will probably start the season next to Barnes. And that definitely seals the deal on going with Barnes over Campbell. Now, we want to touch base on some sleeper linebackers. Mr. B also asks about, are there any sleeper linebackers? There's quite a few out there for dynasty and keeper and just overall, in general, linebackers that you can get in the middle to late rounds,

depending on what type of league you're in, how deep your league is. The deeper your rosters are for IDPs, the higher in the drafts and or more in the auctions, these players are going to go. But a few that I'll start off. off with. We mentioned Alex Singleton. This cat is really, really doing extremely well. He's looking like a solid three-down linebacker. He could be very well be the one on the Eagles who takes the most

snaps. So Alex Singleton is one target we would be focusing on. Another we mentioned already is Jordan Brooks. The injury to Burke, Burkirvin, is going to open the door for Brooks to solidify his playing time on the defense, and he'll be most likely playing the K.J. Wright position. I do have to throw out the possibility of K.J. Wright being signed. He's still out there and is a free agent, and now that they're a little thinner at linebacker, they may bring right back, and that could hurt Brooks a little bit. But for overall sleeper, especially long term, I think Jordan Brooks is a solid choice. Now, you had mentioned Xavier and Collins. He stepped right into the starting lineup. Jordan, who? Hicks is already on

his way out the door, and don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out, because Collins is now playing next to Isaiah Simmons, and it's looking more and more like Collins could be taking more snaps than Simmons in regards to Simmons coming out of the field in certain passing situations. And the other one linebacker that we've been touting all along to keep an eye on because he's been taking the Mike first team reps with the Bengals is Logan Wilson. Wilson is going to be most likely a three-down linebacker for the most part should be taking anywhere between 85 and 95% of the snaps. I'm going to dig into some kind of deep sleepers here. These are players that if you're in deep dynasty leagues, these can. be stashes. We may see some of them this year. I'm going to avoid the big ones, you know, like

Pete Werner and Nick Bolton and all of the kind of bigger rookies that everybody should be pretty much aware of. I'm not going to consider those sleepers in terms of the depth of which I'm digging here. One of the ones I'm going to start with is rookie third round draft pick for the for the Rams, Ernest Jones. He's had a really good training camp and beat reporter Jordan Rodriguez reported that we've been seeing Jones take snaps with the ones in training camp next to Kenny Young and that's over Micah Kaiser. I don't think he's going to be a three-down player for them right out of the game. I think this just could be a situation where maybe this could be something where in the middle of the season, Jones all of a sudden steps up.

up or an injury happens and he kind of steps up. If both Kaiser and Young are playing well, Jones would just be a dynasty stash for next year, but they took him in a third round. He's having a strong camp and they're already experimenting with him, possibly running with the ones. That's all arrows pointing up for me. Another one is Derek Barnes out for Detroit. This is another guy who they're kind of moving up the ranks.

he's forcing their hand to have have a move up. Now, as of right now, they just have Alex Anzalone, who's their main guy in the middle. Jamie Collins is the Will Linebacker there. He moves around a lot. He's going to be somebody who is going to play on the edge. He's going to use them in OLB and Edge snaps as well as coverage snaps inside linebacker.

He's their Swiss Army knife there. And they've got Alex Anzolone lined up to be their primary, you know, Mike Linebacker. behind him, this last game was so bad that Dan Campbell just flat out called a couple of players to the carpet and said that they might not make it through cuts. And it's just from the reading I did, a couple of players, well, first of all, a couple of players that had just terrible games were Jalen Reeves Maven and Jelani Tevi, along with actually Will Harris, which is a whole other subject to cover. But there's a chance that Will Harris, you know, who's just made, we remember some

pretty big gaffs he made last year. He, unfortunately, has not had a great run here. But if they take Tevi out of the equation, they're going to start giving those snaps to Derek Barnes. And Barnes was a fourth round rookie. He's a ranging linebacker. He does have some pass rushing chops. He just has to kind of get a little bit sharper on coverage. But he's had a great, uh, preseason. He played really well in the first game in the first preseason. He played really well in the second game. And with Tevi, in particular, Tevi, on the outs. And Alex Anzalone, not necessarily being a world beater there in the middle, Jamie Collins being a little older. I'm going to, I'm going to stash Derek Barnes. And I suggest that you do the same thing. And then one more inside linebacker is

Jermaine Carter for the Carolina Panthers. This, you know, he's been on the on the team for a couple of years, but the real issue here is what's going to happen with Denzel Perriman. First of all, Perriman, at least early on, wasn't vaccinated. And, you know, depending on what, you know, what can happen with how the NFL and the team handles that. I know he's, and he also had an injury. He's now back at practice and he's playing.

But Carter has been taking some very valuable snaps for them and has been playing well. on that situation. And Perryman, a veteran, might find himself getting moved out of that role somewhere in the middle of the season. I have higher hopes long term for Jones and Barnes that I do Carter, but Carter is somebody who could easily fill in and just be a solid LB2, LB3 for you. And then Thomas, I'm sure you got a couple of them, don't you? Yeah, we mentioned Sherwood, Jamie and Sherwood from the Jets. And he's more tailored for an inside linebacker role. And if David Davis doesn't rebound from his injury. He's somebody to keep an eye on and possibly run with down the road.

And the last one I want to mention is Tampa Bay. Joe Tryon is making head turn in Tampa Bay. He's an outside linebacker. He was converted from defensive end out of the University of Washington. He's with the age becoming a problem with Jason Pierre Paul and the possibility that in a year or two down the road, Pierre Paul, JPP won't be with them anymore. Tryon is the one that is stepping in to fill his shoes

and they want to get him out on the field. They can move him anywhere along that defensive line, inside and out. They can put him at defensive tackle. They can put him on the defensive end with his hand in the ground. They can put them as a roving outside linebackers in a two-point standing position and bring them off the edge in certain schemes. Very versatile, explosive kind of guy, big-time thumper. Tryon is somebody you should also keep an eye on as far as deep, deep leagues if you're looking for a sleeper linebacker. Keep an eye on Joe Tryon.

Indeed. I'm going to get a T-shirt made. All right, Fantasy Points T-shirt. Speaking of Fantasy Points, my name is Justin Varns. This has been the IDP Corner. Myself and Thomas Simons kind of co-lead the IDP corner of the FantasyPoints.com site. Lots of great offensive minds over there as well. Obviously, head honcho there, John Hanson.

They cover every aspect of the game, DFS, betting, you name it, personnel changes. We got Greg Cosell, somebody who can hop on and help us with. film study all the way down to the IDP section, which would be myself and Thomas. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week to try and help clean up what happens after week three. Thomas, take us out of here. Be well and be safe. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast.

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