Fantasy Football Today - 02/20 Fantasy Football Podcast: Early Sleepers

Episode Date: February 20, 2018

Jamey debuts his first list of sleepers, but first we're reacting to Doug Martin's release (2:30) and more from around the NFL ... Comparing the upsides of Marcus Mariota and Patrick Mahomes (15:00) plus the prospects of Devontae Booker and Marlon Mack (23:21) ... Two sleeper WRs in very different situations (29:03) and two young TEs (35:31) that could take the next step ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Never too early for sleepers, breakouts, and busts.

You can go to the website and check out Jamie's first edition of each category. And today we're talking sleepers on the podcast. Welcome back from a three-day weekend. I'm all fired up. You had a three-day weekend? We all had a three-day weekend. It was President's Day. No.

Where were you? I was working. Well, you know what, Jamie? You worked so hard. My kids had school. Really? Yeah, they had a make-up day from the hurricane. You worked so hard. My kids had school. Really? Yeah, they had a makeup day from the hurricane. You worked so hard.

You deserve a month off. A whole month? I'm going to give that to you. All I've got to do is get us through this last podcast. That's so nice of you. You, sir, get a month off. I like how Adam thinks he's making this call. Well, this is the last podcast for Jamie for a month.

For a month. Tell him why. Because our baby is due. Not my baby with you or with you, Dave. The podcast baby. We're not going to tell anybody about our baby. Adam's our baby. Yes, we'll be having the baby on Thursday, the 22nd, February.

God willing, everything's okay. And I will be taking some time off. 2.22. Easy to remember. Easy. Very easy to remember. Let's hope it's at 2.22 p.m. Let's not.

No? No. Earlier? It's planned. Okay. Yes. We'll know what time it is. Okay.

Well, why don't you start it at like 1 o'clock, and then whatever. I don't know. Okay. So anyway, we're going to get a lot for Jamie here. And when he's gone, we get to talk about his breakouts and busts behind his back, which is terrific. But today we'll do sleepers. Some of them, I won't go through everyone, but I plan to talk about Mariota, Mahomes, Devontae Booker, Marlon Mack, Cameron Meredith, Sterling Shepard, and a couple of tight ends. It's most of the list, but not all of it.

How about this? Cameron Meredith, you may have forgotten. He had six games in 2016 with nine or more targets. He scored double digits in standard scoring leagues in five of those six games. He had four 100-yard receiving games in those six games. Pretty cool stuff. So he's on the list. But we'll get to that in a second.

We also have to talk about Doug Martin. And here we go. Email of the day is from Craig Walker in Newfoundland. Fantasyfootball at cbsi.com is the email address. Craig says, where's a good landing spot for Doug Martin? And will DeMarco Murray be cut? Welcome to the XFL. He'll get a job before then.

No, he won't. Yeah, he will. Someone will sign him. It's going to be a job before then. No, he won't. Yeah, he will. Someone will sign him. It's going to be a veteran minimum deal. He'll be a part-time player. It almost doesn't matter where he'll go because I don't think fantasy owners are going to be excited about him. Ideally, if you really wanted to find a good for fantasy landing spot for Doug Martin, he goes to a place like Seattle where they have open competition

for every team every year. If he's cheap, they'll bring him in. They'll kick the tires. He's got a connection in Denver. What if he goes to the Colts? Listen, I could name any team and Jamie's going to make this noise. Yeah, it's true. No, name a team where you won't make the noise. The XFL.

The XFL. Can you name any teams? They don't have teams yet. So the Saskatchewan Rough Riders? Look, I feel bad for Doug Martin. He probably still had something left in the tank before his addiction situation a couple of years ago. But this is what happens at this position. These guys fall off a cliff. This is a guy who has two 1,400-yard seasons.

That's really an interesting career. Two great seasons, four bad seasons with less than 500 rushing yards. He's off the fantasy radar for now. The second part of the question was, will DeMarco Murray be cut? Yes, we expect that to happen. Where do you think

a good landing spot would be for DeMarco? Somewhere where he could be a third down back, which is where I think that's the remainder of his value at this point. Somewhere where he can catch passes, get 40 catches a year. You think he's just done being great? He should retire.

He could go to Seattle. Retire? He could go to Seattle. Everybody's going to Seattle. I don't want anybody to go to Seattle. I like Chris Carson. I don't want anybody to go to Seattle I like Chris Carson Another part of this is Peyton Barber Any interest in him? No He finished fairly strong

If he ends up as the starter there But that's such a stretch They're going to address that position They're going to be in the Saquon Barkley conversation Depending on how far he falls on draft day Okay Also it's a bit of a dead zone In fantasy football right now in the Saquon Barkley conversation, depending on how far he falls on drafting. Okay. Also, it's a bit of a dead zone in fantasy football right now, which is why I was so happy that Jamie wrote Sleepers, Breakouts, and Busts.

You just seen the look on your face. It's like total relief. You didn't have to think about what we were going to do. What the hell are we going to talk about today? Well, Adam, I just finished my Sleepers. Oh, thank God. That's actually 100% what happened. It was like the best part of your day.

I really – I was so embarrassed by our last podcast. Like I didn't have time to prepare for it, the Bean Boozled thing. By the way, if you didn't hear, I actually did eat one at the end of the show. No, I ate 95% of it. I don't know. That does not qualify as eating. Yeah. I'll take the under on 95%.

If you gave your kid food and he ate 95% of it, would you say, oh, he didn't eat today? There's a difference between eating 95% of his food and eating 95% of a jelly bean. And also, you did not eat 95% of a jelly bean. No, you chewed on 100% of a jelly bean, and then you spit out like 35%, dude. All right, well. You couldn't even finish the wimpiest jelly bean in the Bean Boozled box. You could hear it for yourself at the end of last show, but it was one of my worst shows. So I was happy that we had something concrete to talk about.

But we'll also talk about some mock draft stuff, some mock NFL draft stuff, and where guys could go and what that would do and just have some fun with it. Here's another email. Email of the day number two is from Tony from somewhere in Kansas. Not even a clue. Look at that name. S-C-H-O-E-N-C-H-E-N? Shonchen?

Why wouldn't you have asked Heath? I don't know. I should have asked Heath. I am him. The Saved by the Le'Veon Bell song. Saved by the Le'Veon Bell song reminds me of a video I saw on YouTube called Sochin, Kansas. All right, Dave, please stop. Okay, so anyway, Tony says that the Saved by the Levee on Bell song reminds him of Zach Morris is trash. Have you guys seen Zach Morris is trash?

We talk about this yet? No. Oh, it's very funny. And you would all like it. If you've seen Saved by the Bell, you'd like it. And people have asked me if I sing the theme song to Zach Morris is trash, and I don't. But it does sound like the Levee on Bell song. Does it sound like that thing Dave was like?

Zach Morris is trash. That's what it sounds like. Oh, it's the theme song, but it's to Zach Morris is trash. That's all it is, but then it goes into detail about how horrible of a person Zach Morris is in every episode. He's terrible. He's the worst. It's kind of like the Daniel LaRusso thing. And he's like the hero of the show.

Yeah. All right. We got other podcasts for you to listen to. They don't talk about Zach Morris is trash, which is a shame. Canel and Bell is a really good sports talk show that we've got for you. It comes out really early in the morning, too, so that is helpful. We've got In This Corner for wrestling, for MMA, and for boxing. We've got the Sportsline DFS podcast.

We've got the Ion College Basketball podcast, one of the best college, if not the best college basketball podcast in the world. So check it out. Go to cbssports.com slash podcast, singular, and you can subscribe there. Some more news and notes other than Tampa Bay releasing Doug Martin. We have some Eagles news. They have promoted wide receiver coach Mike Groh to offensive coordinator. Doug Peterson is obviously going to run the show, call the plays.

But Jamie LeGarrette Blount says he wants to return. He loves Philadelphia. He called Deuce Daly maybe the best running back coach he's ever had. He wants to come back. LeGarrette Blount. I mean, you sign LeGarrette Blount, you're guaranteed to make the playoffs and probably win a Super Bowl.

So, look, he played really well in the Super Bowl for them. And he fills a role for whatever team he's on as that short yardage, physical type running back, depending on however many carries a team wants to give him. Obviously, he wants to probably establish some roots in his final, what's most likely his final stop as a 30-plus-year-old running back,

but I would like to see them move on from him because I would like to see J.H.I. in a more of a featured role, Corey Clement in a bigger role. Maybe they bring back Darren Sproles, which has been some conversation, but LeGarrette Blount staying in Philadelphia would not be the most ideal situation if you like the guys that are already there.

The Chiefs signed cornerback David Amerson, former Raiders cornerback. That's a great secondary if they keep Marcus Peters. I think Amerson's bad, though. He was good two years ago. He was bad last year. It's still a good signing for them because they got him cheap and it's like a no harm, no foul type of deal. Absolutely.

Yeah. And now they can move Fuller who they just acquired in the Alex Smith trade, keep him in the slot. So if you have those three guys plus Eric Berry coming back, that's a tremendous secondary. I would not want to go there if I'm Kirk Cousins of Denver to have to face that team twice. And it's just more bad news for Derek Carr probably who always seems to have a team twice. And it's just more bad news for Derek Carr, probably,

who always seems to have a tough division. And they might trade Marcus Peters, though. That's the scuttlebutt now. That's getting out there. Yeah. Okay, AJ McCarron is a free agent. All right, how much worse do you think he'd be than Kirk Cousins? Considerably. I would probably put him in the Case Keenum category.

I'd rather have Case. I'd rather have Case. I'd rather have Case too, but I'm just looking at it from a guy who has some upside in the right situation. Let's play a hypothetical. We established Josh Gordon is a top 12 receiver if Kirk Cousins goes to the Browns, right? You said that, I believe, Dave. I did. Top 15. On board?

Top 15? Right there. What if AJ McCarron goes to the Browns? Josh Gordon is what? Same. 15. Okay 15? Right there. What if AJ McCarron goes to the Browns? Josh Gordon is what? Say? 15. Okay. Right around there.

He wouldn't be – I would be surprised if he was their quarterback for 16 games. This is a team that's going to take a quarterback almost anywhere he goes, whether it's Cleveland, Arizona, wherever. They're going to draft another quarterback, and McCarron will start four or five games. He'll do what Mike Lennon did. And then if he goes to a team that drafts a rookie, and that rookie is anywhere close to ready, they're going to put the rookie out there. I saw from our former colleague who works for the Browns, Nathan Zagura, he said,

he tweeted this out, how would you feel, Browns fans, about McCarron, rookie, Kaiser, as the top three quarterbacks for next year? Yeah, I don't mind that plan if that's their plan, because then you still get a guy for the future. You get a bridge guy and you know, you still have Kaiser as the fallback option. But is McCarron case Keenum or is McCarron Mike Lennon? That would be the fear.

You're spending money on him. Well, I think it probably makes you – it makes it easier to draft like Josh Allen, who's more of a project, if you have him at Karen. If they draft Josh Allen, I wouldn't think he'd play – I wouldn't think Allen plays much. The Browns, if they keep both of their picks, are going to be fascinating what they do at the top of the draft

because they're clearly not taking two quarterbacks. So do they take best player available at one, fallback quarterback at four, or vice versa? Yeah, they're not going to take two quarterbacks, but I thought about that. Like, what if they did? Not with those two picks. Not with those two. One and four.

Yeah, I mean, ideally you do it. Why not, though? Redskins did that. I was going to say, ideally you do it to Redskins. You take one in the first round and one later, you know, and they ended up with the guy later being good. By the way, Heath has responded to the question. And he says, scone chin.

Scone chin, Kansas. But he also said, but I'm awful at that, so I'm sure I'm wrong. Oh, okay. Well, thanks, Heath. And the Jets apparently are willing to do whatever it takes to get Kirk Cousins, according to the New York Post. Talking about $60 million in the first year. ESPN said Bilal Powell, another Jets note, is viewed as a complimentary back, perhaps to Elijah McGuire.

The Jets are looking at Kirk Cousins and not so in love with Bilal Powell. Not looking at Kirk Cousins. Backing up the Brinks truck for Kirk Cousins. Yeah. Not a great landing spot for him if Robbie Anderson is suspended. Fantasy-wise. Even if he's not, it's not a great landing spot for him fantasy-wise. Of the teams that are in the Kirk Cousins rumor mill, that's the worst one.

Right, yeah. We're hoping for Broncos. I'm hoping for Vikings. Vikings, Broncos. They're like 1-1-A for me. But I like Cleveland, too. Actually, Broncos. They're like 1 and 1A for me. But I like Cleveland too. Actually, I think he'd be great in Cleveland. To me, those three are like the tops.

I would put those as the top three. Probably Arizona four. I wouldn't like Arizona. And then the Jets five. Why not? Because their offensive line is in tatters. They're receiving quarters in tatters. I agree, but I like it better than the Jets, though.

I don't know if I do. I might take the Jets over Arizona. Okay, well, we're going to talk about Jamie's sleepers, but it's time to buy some tickets, everybody, and time to save money on the SeatGeek app. Use our promo code. It's FFT. Get $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase.

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You need to download it for sports, for concerts, for comedy, for theater. Our promo code is FFT for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. Download the SeatGeek app and use the promo code FFT. You guys have a nice holiday weekend? Sure. I know what you're talking about. Oh, you didn't have one. Right. I had a very nice holiday weekend. Oh, you didn't have one. Right.

I had a very nice holiday weekend. Oh, you're saying it. Oh. I did. I had a nice holiday weekend. Went to a wedding. Weddings are always fun. Played HQ at the wedding.

You guys played that? You played HQ at the wedding? Yeah. Like the actual game, or was it like a bride and groom version of HQ? No, no, no. The wedding was kind of fun. So you were bored at the wedding, so you went to your phone to find something to do.

There were like three of us playing HQ. You ever play? No. Did you play Temple Run and Candy Crush there, too? I would have. I'm kind of obsessed. All right, here we go with the sleepers. Did you win any money?

No, I've never won money. I've never gotten more than like six questions right. It's very difficult. Early sleepers starting with Marcus Mariota. All right. And Patrick Mahomes, another quarterback on the list. All right. Mariota was two years ago. I think he was the number 14 quarterback.

Last year he was the number 21 quarterback. New offensive coordinator. Jamie, why are you excited about Mariota as a sleeper? It's just the upside that if he returns to his form from two years ago, you're getting great value for a guy who's going to go obviously very late because I don't think anybody's excited about Marcus Mariota like we were last year. So Matt LaFleur, the new offense coordinators, last two stops he's worked with the MVP two years ago and Matt Ryan and was a big part of Jared Goff's turnaround last year. I still think they are good weapons for the Titans.

I think it's a great offensive line in Tennessee. And so Mario, to the last two years, has averaged about 330 rushing yards per game. If he could stay in that range. Wow, that's a lot per game. I'm sorry, a season. That's what I thought, yeah. I apologize. If he can get to close to 4,000 yards passing, I don't know if that's realistic,

but let's just say 3,500 plus and get back to a 25 touchdown guy like he was two seasons ago when he threw 26, then I think he's going to be one of these guys that we look at and say, great number two quarterback who I ended up starting most weeks during the season. He had almost 3,500 passing yards in 2016. Wasn't too far off last year in 15 games, and he only had 15 games two years ago, too. And really, it was the touchdowns, right? That was the biggest bugaboo with him is that he only scored 13 touchdowns last year. It's gross.

Passing, right? Yeah, he had five rushing touchdowns. And, you know, our colleague Pete Prisco talked about this a lot from beginning of the season to the end of the year, that he just never looked right, you know, maybe coming off the broken leg. And then the hamstring injury that he sustained, you know, certainly didn't help things. So he probably wasn't 100% healthy. And I think I heard something along the way that he had a shoulder problem and a back issue. And a quad issue in the playoffs.

I mean, that's the big thing. He's always freaking hurt. Yeah. Again, you're looking at it from the standpoint of we talked about this's the big thing. He's always freaking hurt. Yeah. Again, you're looking at it from the standpoint. We talked about this on the last show. Quarterback is very deep. And so which of the guys that you can get as a number two option can ascend to the number one ranks? And those were the two that I highlighted for this version of sleepers.

I think both Mariota and Mahomes have that type of upside. Mariota, because at least least have seen it before. And the reason that, at least for me, why I liked him coming into last year was I thought, okay, having the year that he just had plus the weapons that he was given, the addition of Davis, you know, I thought that Eric Decker would be a little bit better. Not that he was going to be a good fantasy option, but better for the offense. And Matthew's still playing a role. And they never got on the same page, all three guys.

They were all hurt at various points. And Walker, once again, was their most consistent threat. Would you guys take Dak Prescott or Marcus Mariota? Prescott. Prescott, but not by much. Is it an easy call to take Garoppolo over Mariota? Yes. For me, yes.

All right. At this point, who do you have ranked higher, Mariota or Luck? Luck. Luck. Okay, but that you have ranked higher, Mariota or Luck? Luck. Luck. Okay, but that doesn't mean he's a sleeper. There are a lot of good quarterbacks. Exactly. There's like, when you start talking about sleepers,

you might be able to get 22, 23 players deep at the position. So let me ask you a question. So week five was the Miami game that Mariota missed. That was a knee injury, right? Hamstring. Hamstring. Okay, right. So first, I'll give you a little optimism on the rushing yards. As Jamie mentioned, he's been around 312 to 349

rushing yards in each of his last two seasons. A little bit of optimism. In his first four games before the hamstring injury, he averaged 29 rushing yards per game, Marcus Mariota. That's a 464 yard pace in 16 games. Then he comes back after missing the Miami game. Here are his rushing yards. 0, 8, 6, 51, 5, 4, 23, 11, 4. And then his final two games, 24 and 60 rushing yards, and then 46 and 37 in the postseason. I think it's pretty easy to look at it and say when he was healthy,

he was actually on a really good pace. But then after the injury, he was barely running. And 46 and 37 rushing yards in two postseason games. So I think it's maybe borderline realistic to expect Moriota to set a career high as long as he stays healthy with more than 350 rushing yards. LaFleur has already talked about being more aggressive, throwing the ball down the field. That's not something we've seen a lot from him over the course of his early

part of his career, mostly because I think of the offense. And also being a little bit more up-tempo with the offense as well, which is what you've heard the Titans say. The players have said that. We're better when we're in this hurry-up mode, and that's not something that Malarkey encouraged. So I think that you'll see a more aggressive approach, which will probably lend itself to him being more aggressive as well.

Okay, our next sleeper is Pat Mahomes, or Patrick Mahomes. And he is of the Kansas City Chiefs, and he played one game last year. He scored 10 fantasy points in Week 17 against the Broncos. Alex Smith was the number four quarterback in fantasy. Is Pat Mahomes even being drafted in our drafts? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he is. He did not go in the standardcos. Alex Smith was the number four quarterback in fantasy. Is Pat Mahomes even being drafted in our drafts? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he is. He did not go in the standard one.

He went in the PPR one. Okay. Which is backwards. You'd expect him to maybe go in the standard one and not the PPR one. I think just for anybody looking at our drafts right now, I know we said it when we did the draft review, we're doing this a little bit blind because our draft room is not set up yet, but our rankings are set up.

So it's a little bit of a different process, how we usually go about drafting, how most people go about drafting. So there's going to be a lot of players, not a lot of players, there's going to be a few players that slip through the cracks. And I think he was one of them in the first one to your point, Dave. It would be more likely that he goes in a standard draft than a PPR. Yeah. Well, Dave, how do you feel about Pat Mahomes?

Where do you have him ranked? I've got him 19th among quarterbacks. Who's in that range? I've got him behind Rivers, Goff, Carr, and Matt Ryan, and he's ahead of Alex Smith, Mariota, Dalton, Eli Manning, Blake Bortles, that group. I think he's draftable. There's going to be a lot of hype around him six months from now,

and once we see him go out there and play, and if he looks good, and if Tyreek Hill is healthy, and if Travis Gels is healthy, this offense could really produce some big numbers. He's got a strong arm. He's a big dude. And I think he'll be able to make just about every single throw that they'll ask of him. I don't see them taking a very conservative approach with their offense just because he's inexperienced. They've clearly hitched the wagon to him.

And it's really going to come down to just how deep they go. And I thought they threw deep a decent amount last year for Alex Smith anyway. And I think there's going to be more of that this year. And it's going to come down to just how many good decisions he ends up making. Okay. Who do you think has more upside, Mahomes or Mariota? Mahomes. Oh, easy, Mahomes.

Mahomes is top 12 upside. I think Mahomes could be Wentz. Like the leap that Wentz took from rookie year to second year, we just haven't seen it from Mahomes. But I do think that you're looking at a guy that everyone's going to put on their draft board fantasy-wise, late-round pick, and then if things click, there's a lot of upset. Like you said, Alex Smith was the number three quarterback. He's got more big play potential than Alex Smith does.

Maybe not the consistency, maybe not the lack of interceptions because Smith is as conservative as you get. But you look at what this kid did in college. And that performance against Denver, it's hard to gauge because he didn't have Tyree Kale. He didn't have Travis Kelsey in the game. He was playing in Denver. It was Week 17. You don't know how much Denver was trying because they were clearly out of it. But their starters were playing.

But playing and trying, I think it's a different scenario if it's Week 10 versus Week 17. It was a good performance. I mean, it was only 10 fantasy points. He didn't score any touchdowns. 284 yards. It was an excellent performance.

And like 62% completion percentage. And showed you the things that he's capable of doing. You know, escapability in the pocket, throwing the ball down the field, eyes down the field. You know, he made Albert Wilson look like a star that game. And so if they can get another player there, you know, I mean, maybe Wilson, because if there's some connection from those two guys working together. And Wilson's a free agent. They'd have to re-sign him.

Okay. So, you know, just maybe we talk about free years, you know, just upgrading that second spot. You know, plus what they do with their backs out of the backfield. You know, it could be a very fun offense. So he should be on everyone's radar. All right. Let's go to some running back sleepers. It's Devontae

Booker and Marlon Mack. As of right now, as of February 20th, who are you more excited about, Devontae Booker or Marlon Mack? I have Mack ranked higher just because he's right now the only guy on the team as their potential starter. It's going to be really interesting to see what they do.

If they go the Doug Martin route and just get a crappy veteran to compete there, then Marlon Mack's got a ton of upside. If they go the Saquon Barkley route or draft somebody in their first two days, then Mack goes back to a complimentary role. But I think he's going to get more work than he got as a rookie. We saw last year when he got 10 or more carries, he was successful. He had that three times.

He had three games of double digits of fantasy points. So he's not a starting fantasy option like what Booker could be if he gets that full-time role. But I think there's probably more upside for Mack if you're just looking at it from their player standpoint. Yeah. Mack, I don't know. You guys always seem pretty high on it. Like always seem kind of excited about him. I never really thought he did anything last year.

But look what he played with, though. I know. He did have three games. You said three games with nine or more carries? That's what I had. Ten or more carries. Ten, 15, and 11 fantasy points? Or ten touches.

I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. But he, you know, pro carry basis, he wasn't very good in those games. But really, it's just like for both of these guys, for Booker and for Mack, the quarterback's going to make a big difference for these running backs. The last time Andrew Luck was healthy, Frank Gore was the number 12 running back in

fantasy. In 2014, when Andrew Luck was healthy, Ahmad Bradshaw caught six touchdowns. See, this is the kind of role I could see him having, is catching passes out of the backfield and at a high level. Yeah. So I think even if they added, let's say they drafted Barkley in the first round, I still think he's going to have enough of an opportunity

that you'll take him with a late-round pick. Frank Reich's last three seasons as an assistant coach has seen him with teams where they use multiple running backs. Three years ago it was with the Chargers, Melvin Gordon, Danny Woodhead last two years with philadelphia they've obviously had guys go in and out but sproles had a big role in their cory clement had a big role in the super bowl um and and there was never really one guy in philadelphia and they tried to make one guy with the chargers with melvin gordon as you know that year 2014 he that year, 2015, he didn't score any touchdowns. That's true.

How do you feel about Booker? Because this is a guy who really hasn't been that good. He had a six-game stretch. This is kind of deceiving, right? So he had a six-game stretch in 2016, his rookie year, Booker, with 19 carries per game, an average of 19 carries per game, a feature back for six games. He averaged 3.1 yards per carry.

He did not do well. However, in fantasy, he did very well. Eight or more fantasy points in standard scoring leagues in five of the six games. One game really bad, two points. But, you know, he got a lot of work. He scored touchdowns. It was that simple. What do you think?

I mean, would a quarterback solve most of the problems, just open the offense up a little bit? Well, I mean, look, his rookie year, there was no quarterback. There was no offensive line. So he was basically in a disastrous situation. Last year, better offensive line, but he was sharing the ball. Bad quarterback play as well. You had C.J. Anderson and Jamal Charles part of the rotation. I think it's looking at it from is he the guy without much competition?

And from what the reports are out of Denver right now, that's the way they're viewing him. Now they'll give D'Angelo Henderson some work. They're going to bring somebody else in and not go into his two tailbacks, obviously. But it's who they're bringing in. And this is the hardest really position to figure out if you're trying to do this category. Sleepers? For now. Yeah. Because without free agency, without the draft out if you're trying to do this category. Sleepers? For now. Yeah.

Because without free agency, without the draft, that position is going to change so much. So this is really the struggle that I have with writing this. And so it's looking at guys that if there's somebody still brought in, can they have some value late? And can they have a stretch in part of the season where I think they'll be successful? So like Marlon Mack and Matt Breida, those are two guys that are on this list. And you could probably throw Booker in there as well. If there's competition brought in that's of a significant level, let's just say Le'Veon Bell gets free and goes to one of these teams.

These guys are crushed. Saquon Barkley goes to one of these teams. They're probably in a bad situation. But can you still look at them with late-round picks, and could they maybe have a small window of opportunity to help your fantasy team? And I do think that there's reason for upside with these guys depending on how the ADP will shake out when we get them. I have him ranked 34th, and I feel filthy.

Booker? Yeah, I'm going to move him down. I can't draft him. There's no way I see him being the main guy there. I know that he's been in tough situations the last two seasons. He didn't do great with them. You're talking about him getting eight fantasy points in however many games. Five out of six

games. That's good. But how many were with ten or twelve? Two. Okay. So that's not that great. It's okay. It's serviceable. It's a guy I might want to have on my bench. It's not a guy that I want to take in round seven or eight. Yeah, I feel the exact opposite just given the fact of what we've seen from guys like Joe Mixon

last year had a nine game stretch where he was averaging nine fantasy points. Booker could easily do that. If he just given the fact of what we've seen from guys like Joe Mixon last year had a nine-game stretch where he was averaging nine fantasy points. Like Booker could easily do that. If he's given the chance. Well, that's the thing. That's the conversation. If he's given the chance, then there's upside. If he's not given the chance, then there's no reason to even consider him. But I think what the – just following the tea leaves, getting rid of C.J. Anderson frees up cast space.

Are they going to spend money on that position? Probably not. Who will they draft? That's the question. So if they do draft somebody of significance, can that guy beat out Booker? Can that guy beat out Henderson? Then obviously Booker's not worth drafting in the spots you're talking about. Does his age bother you?

Not now. I mean, 25? No. He's 26 when next season starts. All right, Cameron Meredith and Sterling Shepard are a couple of wide receivers that Jamie has on the sleeper list. Let's start with Cameron Meredith. And I already gave out the stat.

Look, when he got the opportunity, when he got the targets in 2016, Cameron Meredith was really, really good. I mean, four games with 100 receiving yards out of six games with nine or more targets. So that's excellent. And he'll be entering his third season, his fourth year. Missed all of last year. But go ahead, Jamie. Take it away.

Your thoughts on Cameron Meredith. Well, first he's got to stay there. He's a restricted free agent. But that obviously is a team that needs desperate, desperate help at the wide receiver spot. Their number one guy last year was Kendall Wright. Their number two guy was Josh Bellamy. Those two guys combined for two touchdowns. So it's a spot that needs a huge upgrade.

They can't go even if just bringing back Meredith, hoping Kevin White can stay healthy, and then trying to piece this together. So if he's the number one guy there, then that helps his fantasy cause. But this is a team that's going to be better offensively just because of a philosophy change, a coaching change. I don't think you look at them and say they're the Rams, that Trubisky makes the second-year leap that Jared Goff did because that's not realistic.

And I don't know if Nagy has the – is Nagy or Nagy? I always get confused. We think it's Nagy. If Nagy has the same upside as a play caller that even Sean McVay did. But they'll be better just by default. And I think having Meredith on the field is something that, based on where you're going to be able to draft him, because nobody's going to be excited about him.

Like you said, Adam, two years ago, he was a good find as a free agent for fantasy owners. Last year, he was somebody that at least I know I was touting as a sleeper before the injury. And here we go. As long as he's back at 100%, where you should be able to draft him, should pay big dividends.

I'm sure he's going to stay in Chicago because he's not going to take a lot of money off their cap number as a restricted free agent. Somebody else trying to get him. I don't know if any other teams are really going to chase him. No matter what. Even if the Bears use the second round tag on him, no one's taking him. And then he's playing there for less than $2 million or whatever it is. It might be more than two, but not that much more.

I love his catch rate, 68% over the course of his career. Good size. I don't think he's a number one type of receiver, but this is a team that might not – they're either going to put a rookie – they're either going to draft a rookie really early and put him on the field along with Meredith, or they're going to sign somebody in free agency and it's not going to be anybody great.

I don't think it's going to be Alan Robinson or anything like that. And Meredith will be kind of a de facto number one wide receiver for that team. And I think if you give them 110 targets, he's catching 68 of them or 68% of them. It's right around 70 catches then over the course of the season. And if he averages 13 yards per catch on top of that, that's,

that's going to be a nice number, and he's going to get some targets in the red zone. Now, I was going to ask you, Cameron Meredith or this other guy. Then I checked your rankings, and you don't really have them very close. You have Meredith well behind, but Heath has them back-to-back. And that other guy is Dez Bryant. So how close do you think the gap is between Cam Meredith and Dez Bryant? I mean, just because they're like 20 spots apart in your rankings,

it's a big group that could be somewhat interchangeable. They're not quite 20 spots. I mean, if you're asking me to pick which one I'd rather have on my fantasy team in a vacuum, it's Dez. Right. But, I mean, it might be like seven rounds difference. I saw an interesting video last week, all of Dez Bryant's incompletions. And while there were a decent amount of drops on there,

Dak was way off on a lot of passes. And anybody who watched the Cowboys closely last year knows this already. But for those who didn't, there's a reason why Dez didn't have such a great year. And I think Dak was a huge reason why. Or a huge factor in that. Just passes way behind him or way over his head. Interesting. All right.

So how many rounds apart would they have to be for you to want Meredith more than Dez? Is that a stupid question? They'll be at least five rounds apart. That's what I'm thinking. And I'd rather have Meredith, I think, five rounds later. Well, you're drafting Meredith as, like, at best a number three receiver, if not your number four, and he's clearly got potential to be better than that. Whereas when you're drafting Dez,

it's probably going to be as a number two wide receiver, and you're hoping he can come through at that level. All right, so who would you rather have, Cam Meredith or the next guy on Jamie's breakout, or sleepers list, early sleepers list, Sterling Shepard? I have Shepard higher, but I could change my tune on that. And the reason why is because I think he's going to end up being the number three pass catcher in that offense.

Odell's going to be number one. Oh, that goes without saying. And I think Evan Ingram is going to be number two. And then how much left is there going to be for Sterling? You think that goes without saying? I think he might be the number two. He's going to be the number two receiver. But Evan Ingram is basically a receiver who plays side.

He should have more catches. He'll have more catches and yards. He'll have more targets. It's just a matter of will his production be better. The thing that I like about Shepard is he's entering his third season. I think he's done enough in his first two years that he could take a leap. I don't know how big of a leap,

but maybe it's the Devin Funchess leap. That's probably not a fair comparison because he's done more in his first two years than Funches did. But he could certainly improve in his third year. And I like the fact that the guy who's now in charge of the play calling just came from a team that supported two wide receivers in the tight end and a good clip for fantasy. I mean, Pat Shermer had Stephon Diggs, Adam Thielen, and Kyle Rudolph

as all startable fantasy options. And so I think when you look at Shepard and the rapport that he has with Eli, he's going to see single coverage as long as those guys are healthy. And there's just upside there, you know, based on where he's going to be drafted. So I think people kind of look at it and say, he's the third guy. It's Eli Manning. Giants aren't very good offensively. Offensive line's a disaster.

But he'll have enough good moments that you're not drafting him to be a starter for 16 weeks on your fantasy team or 14 weeks on your fantasy team. But he could be probably a five- or six-week starting option type of guy as long as he stays healthy because last year was a struggle for him based on the injuries. Yeah, Shepard played in 11 games last year. He had 731 yards and two touchdowns. And he only had three games with more than seven fantasy points

in standard scoring leagues. Oh, yeah, always against Philly. But each of those three games, he had 133 or more receiving yards. Big, big games. And a good success rate when the targets were above eight. Now, how many times are you going to have more than eight targets in a game when Odell and Evan are clicking? That remains to be seen.

But there will be a few. Remember when Reuben Randall used to be good every year against Philly at home? Every year. Two or three times. Every time. Okay. And some tight ends. George Kittle and David Njoku.

We're going to save the best for last. And we're going to go with George Kittle first. And then David Njoku. All right. George Kittle. I think my favorite stat about Kittle is that Jimmy Garoppolo threw a touchdown to a tight end in each of the last four games of the season. Two to Selick, two to Kittle. But Kittle had a really nice finish.

I think Kittle only had one. He had 100 yards or a touchdown in two of his last five games. Oh, really? I think you're right. Stupid idiot. But in four of his last five starts, he either threw a touchdown to a tight end or had a guy go over 100 yards. Okay. There it is.

My bad. It's a position I think that he favors. Now, obviously, you're looking at it and saying, does he favor the tight end or was there nobody else there? Because it was Marquise Goodwin, Aldrick Robinson as the top two wide receivers. Trent Taylor was the third guy. So there wasn't a lot to like about that receiving core. They're getting Garcon back.

Goodwin will still be there. There's probably going to be something of an upgrade. You would hope, you know, big-time free agent, probably not. But could there be a Jarvis Landry? You know, that's a spot that he's maybe looking at. Is there going to be a rookie of significance there? But I do think that Kittle showed enough last year that you can look at him and say, late-round pick, not necessarily somebody I want to draft as a starter,

but could be somebody to open the season as a streaming option. If he flops, and maybe it's just a situation of them being better across the board at the receiver spot, then you can move on from him. But he's absolutely in the conversation of taking a second tight end or streaming him to open the season. Yeah, I'd love to know who the 49ers begin the season against. Now, if they're playing at Seattle week one, I'm probably not going to be very excited about streaming George Kittle.

But if he's got a nice matchup for the first week or two of the first three weeks of the season, I'd be excited about him. And, again, remember where Jimmy Garoppolo came from. He learned that tight end is part of, you know, how a great quarterback can perform. It's funny you say that because I went back and looked when I was writing this what Garoppolo did with the Patriots tight ends in his two and a half starts

before he got hurt when he was replacing Brady. Well, Gronk didn't play in the first game against Arizona that game. And against the Dolphins, the game that he got hurt, I guess it was one and a half games. The game that he got hurt, Martellus Bennett was having a good game, but it's hard to know. I didn't exactly see a split of Garoppolo versus Brissette and Bennett, but I do remember I think Bennett caught a big pass against the Dolphins. I think he connected with him well in that game.

He's got the same catch rate as Cameron Meredith. He's at 68% last season. His targets are sure to go up. He only had 63 in 15 games. So I love this call. And tight end to me is going to end up becoming... Awful. No.

Yes. It's always awful. No, I think there's... These guys suck. No, they don't suck. We have this conversation every year that this is the year. No, I'm not saying that this is the year, but I am saying that it's going to be okay

if you don't get one of the big three tight ends. Yeah, but last show you were saying that you're going all in on tight end and drafts. I was saying that a couple weeks ago that I want to try and get one at a fair value. If I don't, I'm not going to freak out because of guys like Kittle and Njoku. They have upside. It's going to be easier to figure out Njoku Once we know what the quarterback situation is in Cleveland Yeah, I mean Njoku I guess you got to be a little concerned

In five games With Josh Gordon His targets were six Then 2-3-3-3 So that's not good But everything is going to be different next year Cleveland had I was surprised

Only the 22nd Fewest 22nd in passing guards per game. I thought they'd be worse than that. But they threw the fifth fewest passing touchdowns. They should have a better passing game. Yeah, Njoku didn't really do much last year, but we know he's talented. We know he's a bit of a project, too.

He started playing football very late, didn't play it growing up as a child. So we knew he was a bit of a project. We can excuse his rookie season. I think, you know, and you'll see it in the breakouts story as well. So I have several young tight ends in there. Adam Shaheen and O.J. Howard are two breakout tight ends I have because I think there's more upside for those two guys than there is for Kittle and for Njoku.

But I think all four of those guys are tight ends that you look at as if you are inclined to draft two, those four are perfect, especially if Brate leaves Tampa Bay. And all four have the chance to be top ten caliber guys. position this year for fantasy owners that if you don't necessarily want to spend an early pick on Gronk or take a you know mid-round pick on on one of the you know retread guys of Rudolph or Walker you know any of those guys because at some point they may start to fade I think these are guys that you know even take two of them you know you can take a Shaheen and a Kittle you can take a Najoku and Howard and hopefully one of those guys hits okay I'm in the process of looking up this very fascinating Jimmy Garoppolo to Martellus Bennett thing. I can tell you that his first two passes to Martellus Bennett of the game,

two catches, 46 yards, and a touchdown. Yeah, so that's enough right now. I knew there was something early in the game. I knew they connected at one point in the game. So of his two starts with the Patriots, one was good for the Titans. Yeah. Excellent. All right.

Good stuff on some sleepers for you. The rest of the list is available. CBSSports.com slash fantasy. CBSSports.com slash fantasy. Check it all out. Ready for some emails? Let's do it. Yeah.

FantasyFootball at CBSI.com. This is from Tyler in Maple Grove, Minnesota. This sounds so nice. Dear Case. Sounds sweet. Yeah. Dear Case, Teddy, Sam, and Kyle. Those are.

Who be Kyle? Rudolph. Oh, all right. Well, he's not a quarterback. Unless they have a fourth quarterback whose name is also Kyle. They might. I want to know who's on their practice squad. All right.

Thank you, Dave. How highly do you value quarterbacks in a 10-team, half PPR, super flex league? Does a guy like Deshaun Watson or Carson Wentz or Jared Goff become a low first or early second round pick? So it's a super flex league. It really depends. It depends on your philosophy. Whenever I'm in a super flex,. It really depends. It depends on your philosophy. Whenever I'm in a super flex, I want to read over the scoring just to make sure I want to do this.

Most of them, I think you'll find they're four points for passing touchdowns. And if it's PPR, then that further pushes down the demand. I think this is a good year where you don't have to take two quarterbacks with your first three picks. Now, if it just so happens that everybody else in your league is thinking that same way and it's round three and somebody like Drew Brees is still there, you take him in a league where you can start two quarterbacks. But outside of that, you can definitely wait this year. The quarterback that he mentioned is named Kyle.

Kyle Slaughter. No relation to A.C. Slaughter. Or Sergeant. Or Sergeant. Wow, you at the wrestling and he doesn't know the wrestling. And me with Saved by the Bell. no relation to AC Slaughter. Or Sergeant. Or Sergeant Slaughter. Wow, you at the wrestling, and he doesn't know what the wrestling is. And me with Saved by the Bell. Well, it's spelled S-L-O-T-E-R, Slaughter. By the way, you just sang,

and one of our coworkers looked over here at you like you were crazy. Well, I mean, that's a little loan. It's factual. And when I say that, I mean me. 100% of the people in my office at home think I'm crazy. That would be my wife. Paul from? That would be your cat. Oh, yeah say that, I mean me. 100% of the people in my office at home think I'm crazy. That would be my wife. Paul from – That would be your cat.

Oh, yeah. No, she's crazy. Paul from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Sounds beautiful there. As beautiful as Maple Grove, Minnesota. I've actually been to Niagara Falls. It is very nice. I heard you had a girlfriend once from Niagara Falls.

I did? We wouldn't know her. What? That's from Breakfast Club. Oh. I'll tell you something about Breakfast her. What? That's from Breakfast Club. Oh. Tell you something about Breakfast Club. No, you don't like it. Not good. Oh, God. Here's what I think. I'm sure if I grew up in the 80s,

I would have loved it. I saw it. The first half was awesome. Anytime the first half of the Breakfast Club is on, I can't. I'm sucked in. But once they get to that emo part in the second half, I'm out. The second they Get to that emo part in the second half Yes I'm out the second they start like Crying principle is the best part

Bender and principle like if that was The whole movie I would I would watch 90 minutes of Judd Nelson and the actor Who played I forgot to mention I met a Fraternity brother of yours oh no he Said that he thinks you look like an Owl oh you're supposed to say who and Oh, no. He said that he thinks you look like an owl. Who?

You're supposed to say it. Who? And then I laugh because you said who. Damn it, man. I could never nail that joke. Because you're not three? So much potential. All right, here's the question. Did you actually meet a fraternity brother?

No, no. It's a total lie. 12-team standard league with two keepers. We're going from two receivers to three receivers, so I need help with who to keep. Standard scoring. Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon, Keenan Allen. Who do you guys like?

Three-receiver league. Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon, Keenan Allen. I think it's Roback Mixon. Oh, two keepers. Well, if he needs three keepers and he's only giving us three names, I don't think he's sending us three names. I thought, no, this is easy if it's two. You keep Cook and Allen, but if you only keep one,

do you keep Cook or Allen in the three-receiver league? I think the more interesting part of this is if we get to – he's got to make his decision by July, and Cook has not done anything OTAs yet. Well, by July. Oh, if he hasn't done anything. Right. Like he misses all the spring workouts. If he's waiting for training camp and you have to make that call.

Mix is not a bad fallback option, clearly. Yeah. John from Toronto. Hey, Alexander, Aaron, George, and Hercules. No nice things to say about Toronto? I've been there. It's cool. I liked it.

So rank the three cities in terms of niceness. Niagara Falls. Okay. Maple Grove, Minnesota. All right. So you hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. You're picking a city you've never been to over Toronto.

Alexander, Aaron, George, and Hercules are main characters from the Hamilton musical dot, dot, dot, and American history, I guess. Yes, John. Hercules is part of American history? I don't know who that is. You don't know who Hercules is? I'm assuming there's a historical person named Hercules. I don't think it's from Greek. Yeah.

No, no, no. These are characters in Hamilton. No, that I understand. Right. American history. But American history. Unless he means Hercules from the WWE. Hamilton is about American history.

I'm guessing there's a guy named Hercules. I don't know. I don't know the history.'m guessing there's a guy named – I don't know. I don't know the history. Could it be a horse? Maybe. I don't know. All right. Question.

You got it? All right. I've recently been invited to join a pre-existing dynasty league to take over for a team. Beyond the usual things like scoring and rosters, what are some rules that a new Dynasty player should ask about when joining a pre-existing league? Things I thought of so far. Rookie draft rules, salary caps, and off-season trading. What would you want to know if you were? Well, first things first, who's on my team?

He said beyond the usual things like scoring and rostering. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I'm too busy figuring it out. No, I've found who it is. Who is he? Hercules Mulligan. Yeah, I don't know. An Irish-American tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War.

Cool. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty. Oh, very nice. Okay, so, yeah, what would you want to know if you were joining a league, taking over a team? Rookie draft rules, salary caps, off-season trading, all very important things. That, for the most part, has it covered. Right? Who's the dumbest person in the league so you know who to trade with?

Yeah, what's the trading, not just offseason, but what's the trading policy during the season? He's also getting into IDP. You didn't mention that. Any primer tips for someone to get started in IDP? Definitely want to know what the scoring is there and how many you need to start. Most of the time if you're starting more than the cursory two or three IDPs

that most leagues have, you can find good talent off the waiver wire. You shouldn't prioritize them. You can prioritize the elite players at each position, but otherwise you don't have to worry. Okay. Thank you for the email, for the history lesson, John. Hercules Mulligan.

Al from Flag City, USA. Dear Hugh, Todd, Greg, and Amos. Those are Browns coaches. I have two wide receivers that I'm planning to keep, Allen Robinson and T.Y. Hilton. Both could be ranked considerably higher or lower at the start of the season, both Allen Robinson and T.Y. Hilton. Should I try and move one or both now or hang tight and hope for positive news?

Only if you get a really good offer because everyone, if they're going to try and trade for those guys, they're going to do it trying to get them on the cheap. Robinson, we may know by the time you're listening to this what his status is because he got the franchise tag. He's probably going to stay in Jacksonville. And T.Y. Hilton's probably going to stay in Jacksonville. And T.Y. Hilton's probably going to stay in Indianapolis. It's hard to find two players whose values can change more than these two. Well, wide receiver.

Robinson and Hilton. Doug Martin's changed. It did change. It did. He went from a crappy running back on a team that might use him to a crappy running back where no one's going to use him. No, no, he'll be using the XFL. The XFL.

You guys going to watch the XFL? Would you watch? Yeah, of course. It's football. Do you watch the CFL? If it were easier to watch, then yes. I like the CFL. Isn't it on at best once a week on ESPN?

Isn't the Grey Cup on ESPN? It's on. I see it on. But it's, like, right before college football and NFL starts. It's like the zany cousin of the NFL. I think it's right. It's then. I don't even know.

It is kind of weird. There are some crazy rules. Tim Tebow handing off to Doug Martin is going to be fun. I would watch Tebow. I also now. I watch the XFL. I went to a sports bar when the XFL debuted back in 2001. Last time you went to a sports bar?

No, I've been to many times a sports bar. Not on Sundays. Many times a sports bar. I've been with you. I don't know what that was. I think we can get it now. I was at a sports bar when Cameron Meredith tore his ACL. I had to race home.

Are you going to use the owl joke on your kid or anything like that? It's funny, isn't it? I'll be sure not to. Jamie, good stuff, man. We'll congratulate you on Thursday. Thank you. Very excited for you. I'm going to let you take home some podcast equipment in case you have withdrawals.

No. Alright. I tried. Thank you for listening, everybody. Yes. I tried. Thank you for listening, everybody. Yes. We'll talk to you maybe later this week. This might be a one-show week, but that will be very rare. It will mostly be two shows per week during the offseason. So I hope to speak to you later this week. If not, it will be early next week.

Have a great day, everybody. We'll talk to you later. Bye.