Fantasy Football Today - Post-Draft/Free Agency Sleepers: Aaron Rodgers, Dalton Schultz, Israel Abanikanda & More! - FFT in 5 (05/05 Fantasy Football podcast)

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

The NFL Draft is over, and the free agency period has mostly wrapped up. Join Dave Richard and Heath Cummings as they unveil early sleepers for the 2023 season!  You can also follow the full-length Fantasy Football Today podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs. You can listen to Fantasy Football Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast." Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

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It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. It's never too early to talk sleepers, and that's what we're going to talk about now on FFT in 5. What's going on, everybody? Heath Cummings, Dave Richard, rolling with you on FFT in 5. One of us barbecues meats to perfection.

The other one eats all of it. It's up to you to figure out who's who. Heath, we're talking about sleepers for 2023, and it's early May, so no one's going to hold you to these, but it's fun to just start to talk about them. I'll go first with a sleeper that I don't think is on your list. It's Aaron Rodgers now that he's with the New York Jets. I don't want anybody to lose sight of Aaron Rodgers with 24.6 fantasy points per game in 2021

and 29.1 fantasy points per game in 2020. Those were his last two years with Devonta Adams. They were years where he was healthy. The Packers were good. Now he's not even on Green Bay. He's on the Jets. I like his receiving core now. I think Garrett Wilson is going to be an absolute stud.

And you can wait till late on draft day to get Aaron Rodgers. I did in our most recent mock draft. Yeah, that's right. We did a mock draft in May. So what? Want to fight about it? I took him late. He's my QB1.

And I think he's a fantastic sleeper for the upcoming season. Heath, hit me back with one of your sleepers. Yeah, you're correct. He's not on my list. I'm going to go much, much deeper at quarterback, and I will go with Sam Howell getting the chance to start for the Washington Commanders as not one young star wide receiver in Terry McLaurin, but two.

Also, Jahan Dotson there. Love the weapons. Love the fact that he has Eric Bien-Ami coming in to run this offense. You know, the architect of the top best offense in football for the last five years. I know we don't give him credit for that, but I'm going to. And I do believe that Sam Howell has some rushing upside that he showed in his last year at college. He has shown the ability, especially in the red zone, a nose for the end zone.

I could see him having a season not that far from what Daniel Jones did last year. Less rushing, more passing production, but similar bottom line. Jones was a top 15 fantasy quarterback on a per-game basis. That's six points for all touchdowns. Sam Howell did have a 100% success rate in fantasy. He started one game. He had 20.3 fantasy points in it. All right, back to me.

And this is another name. I don't think he's on your list. Why am I going with all the older guys, but here I am doing it. Dalton Schultz with the Houston Texans. Think about the receivers that Houston has. I know Heath can name the receivers, but you, the listener, the viewer, can you, of course you can't. I mean, you can name Nico Collins and you know that they drafted some guys, but Dalton Schultz is the one that I think fantasy managers need to keep an eye on. In Dallas, he was a red zone threat. Got plenty of targets down low. And think about this offense that the Texans are going to build this year.

Former guy who was the passing game coordinator. Former passing game coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers, Bobby Slowik, now the offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans. Who was the tight end in San Francisco for all these years that's been great for fantasy? You know his name. It's George Kittle. Is Dalton Schultz going to be as good as George Kittle? Absolutely not.

But with C.J. Stroud, a quarterback, and I really like C.J. Stroud, I think Dalton Schultz has a chance to be first or second on the team in targets. That usually means that you've got a shot to be a top 12 fantasy tight end. If you can do that and pick up some touchdowns, I think he'll be able to pick up some touchdowns. Again, another late round pick that you can wait on the rest of your legal laughing for doing it. I think he'll be pretty good. Heath Cummings, give me your second sleeper.

I'm going back to the Irv Smith. Well, one of the biggest draft day winners in that the Cincinnati Bengals were unable to draft one of those young tight ends that everybody thought they were going to. Smith now locked into that Hayden Hurst role, which is about 85 targets last year. Listen, I don't think he's a great athlete. I do think he's a better athlete than Hayden Hurst is. I think that we'll see his touchdown rate be better. We'll see his yards per catch be better.

And if you're going to choose a tight end in the double-digit rounds, you might as well choose one in one of the best offenses in football. Being tied to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals offense is something I'll take in the double-digit rounds for my tight end.

You are going really, really deep on your sleepers. These are like, these might be players that aren't even necessarily picked in the majority of one QB fantasy leagues. I do have Irv Smith projected for more fantasy points than Dalton Schultz. So if Dalton Schultz is picked, then I think Irv Smith should be. I would take that bet. Don't, don't hold me to that because when we get to August, who knows if I'll feel that way, but for now I would take that bet. All right. Last sleeper for me, I'm picking two guys because they're both kind of the same. Well,

they're the same in that they're both rookies, rookie wide receivers, Jalen Hyatt with the giants and Jaden Reed with the green Bay Packers. They are not the same stylistically when it comes to playing football, Jalen Hyatt, a deep ball threat, someone that I think can make the giantsants very dangerous in the downfield passing him. Did you know Daniel Jones was top 10 in adjusted completion rate on deep balls last year? You could look it up from Pro Football Focus. They will tell you that that's exactly the case. And Jalen Hyatt is not a complete receiver, but man, can he get downfield? He's going to be one

of the fastest players on the field. Whenever he's on it, that was an element of the Giants offense that was missing last year. And I'm not a huge fan of Romeo Dobbs. the field. Whenever he's on it, that was an element of the Giants offense that was missing last year. And I'm not a huge fan of Romeo Dobbs, and I know that there's a huge quarterback issue in Green Bay. Christian Watson's the man. We talked about him. Heath, I know you love him as a top 40 player for 2023, but I think his running mate as far as wide receivers go

will be Jaden Reed. He's just a solid slot receiver, good pass catcher inside of 15 yards, not somebody that I would expect to burn down the field, but someone that I think you can get late, keep on your bench for the first few weeks of the season, and could end up being pretty good. Hey, the Packers had a wide receiver. It was Watson last year,

and there were moments where Dobbs was okay. Now they can do it again with Jaden Reed, formerly of Michigan State. Okay, I gave you four sleepers. Heath, you can give me one or two sleepers. It's completely up to you. Israel Abanakenda. I do believe that he will play a 1B role to Brees Hall,

especially this first year of Hall's recovery from the ACL. I would not be surprised if the rookie is actually a fantasy starter early in the year as Hall works his way back from that injury. I think even when Hall is 100%, we're going to see 10 to 15 touches per game for the number two running back. He'll be a high-end flex right in that A.J. Dillon range. Aha, you named a player that's going to end up getting drafted

in every league in the Band of Canada. I love it. I would give you my scouting report on him, but we're out of time. We're way past our time limit on FFTN5. So we are out of here. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already on YouTube. Don't forget to follow along wherever you get your podcasts, FFTN5. Weight loss. It needs to be fast and sustainable. Noom GLP-1 starts at just $149 and ships to your door in seven days. Take it from Clay Vossier, who lost 35 pounds on Noom.

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