Fantasy Football Today - FFT in 5: Favorite Mid-Round Targets: Treylon Burks, James Conner, and More (06/17 Fantasy Football podcast)

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Starting point is 00:01:05 And one thing to note as I was looking through the ADP, I'm going by NFC's ADP right now, and quarterbacks are going a little higher than they probably will end up. Patrick Mahomes is a top 12 pick right now. Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts both in the top 18. And a lot of wide receivers are getting pushed up. So one thing that I noticed when I was going through is a lot of the guys are getting pushed up. So one thing that I noticed when I was going through is a lot of the guys that I'm higher on than the consensus right now

Starting point is 00:01:29 were running backs. And the one that really stands out for me, and it's really just, just barely sneaking in James Connor has an ADP of 75.58. So technically counts for this exercise I've got him ranked as like a top 40 player for this season and that might be too high I'll grant but James Connor people keep waiting for him to get pushed out of the way and he just keeps producing even when the Cardinals offense was a disaster last season down through his final seven games which which was weeks 10 through 17, he was averaging over 100 yards from scrimmage per game, 77 rushing yards, 25 receiving yards, four receptions. He averaged a touchdown per game in that stretch. Remember, that was with Colt McCoy and whoever else

Starting point is 00:02:20 at quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. They were not a good offense. I think that offense is going to be pretty bad next season. But if Kyler Murray returns from his torn ACL relatively quickly, it could be a regular bad offense rather than one of the worst in the NFL. And James Conner has proven to be a very productive player when he's healthy. So maybe taking him in the fourth round is a little much, but as a seventh or eighth round pick, maybe. I think there's a ton of value in James Connor, especially if you're going for like a zero RB build

Starting point is 00:02:56 and he's the first one you pick up. Dan, who's a favorite mid-round target of yours? I've got a few, but I'm going to start with Traylon Burks, the wide receiver out of Tennessee. Listen, Burks had some big problems last year dealing with just being a little bit out of shape in camp, asthma issues. Those are behind him. He looks amazing in camp right now. He's in great shape. And despite playing through injuries last year, Burks was pretty impressive on a per game basis. And he had some big moments in the vertical plane as a deep receiver. And I just think this is the year where with this full off season,

Starting point is 00:03:25 with him showing up in great shape, he gets into that great rapport with Brian Daniel early. And we see it play over in the season. I really like Berks. I think out of the range of receivers you get him at or where you get him at, you're not getting too many guys with his kind of target upside and first round pedigree from a talent standpoint. So Berks for sure.

Starting point is 00:03:42 He's a big breakout for me. A few other guys, they don't necessarily see as big of a ceiling for but i like them uh good chance for them to outperform their adp chris would be james cook the running second year running back at a buffalo i understand they added damian harris i understand there's somewhat around the same competition as last year but they drafted cook to play a role in this offense we started to see a little bit of what that would look like toward the end of last season. And I think his passing game role will expand this year. So I like James Cook. And then finally, one more player for me is Khalil Herbert. This is a player who I was incredibly high on when he

Starting point is 00:04:13 entered the NFL. I put him as my biggest sleeper in that draft class, and he immediately kind of made an impact. Now injuries have kind of sapped his production and you look at him this year and you think, well well they did add roshan johnson a running back i like in this draft they did add dante foreman who was productive last year those guys kind of fit the same role they're the same style back he's a different style of back he can be an impact as a big play explosive player in the run game but also in the past game as well specifically the screen game so i think herbert offers something to that offense they don't have and i think that could give him an opportunity to build out a bigger role than people expect.

Starting point is 00:04:46 Yeah, I think the key question for both Cook and Herbert in terms of unlocking some upside is just how much of a role are they going to have in the passing? I mean, with with the Bills in particular, the question has always been for the past couple of years. Are they going to transition away from not necessarily a, a less Josh Allen centric offense, but a less Josh Allen has to do everything offense, because you look at this offense and he is obviously one of the best passers in the NFL, big play machine, but also the running game production is just outstanding.

Starting point is 00:05:22 And especially near the goal line. And those two that, that specifically his rushing ability has hindered the fantasy production of their of their running backs the bills have consistently been in the bottom 10 in terms of ppr points produced by the running back position in the josh allen era because he's so good near the goal he's just a dominating force near the goal line as a runner and he's more willing to scramble than most quarterbacks instead of dump it off to the running back so if they do decide to change that and you know maybe some of the nagging injuries he dealt with last season could lead to that you know there is room for cooks to take a step forward and the other thing i want to point out with trail and

Starting point is 00:05:59 burks the combination that i really look for when i'm looking for upside when you're talking about small sample sizes for receivers is do they get targets down the field because there's a lot of upset there but also can a player be good after the catch while getting downfield targets you know that's something AJ Brown was kind of an obvious comp for Traylon Burks coming out of college because the the combination of size and speed and athleticism. And what we saw last season for Traylon Burks, 11.6 yards down the field, a dot 4.9 yards after the catch per reception. That's a very strong combination.

Starting point is 00:06:32 There aren't a ton of guys in the NFL who offer that. So if he can do that while getting up to maybe 120 targets, you can absolutely see Traylon Burks getting to a thousand yards this season, despite being in a low volume offense. So I really like that call. He was one of Heath's favorite breakouts in the episode we did earlier in the week on the full episode of Fantasy Football Today. So that's a consensus call across the FFT team with Traylon Burks.

Starting point is 00:06:56 That's going to do it for FFT in five. We'll be back next week talking about the top 12 players in PPR drafts. We'll see you then.

Fantasy Football Today - FFT in 5: Favorite Mid-Round Targets: Treylon Burks, James Conner, and More (06/17 Fantasy Football podcast)

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