Fantasy Football Today - Sleepers! Best Late-Round Picks (08/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Donate to St. Jude as part of our Draft-A-Thon! Bid on pre-draft calls with our experts, a spot in our Podcast League, a guest spot on our show and more! https://ebay.to/3p4Dc3Z Need a late-round pick that can win you a bunch of weeks throughout the Fantasy season? Well we've got a big list of sleepers to put in your queue! Dave starts with Isaiah McKenzie and David Njoku. Heath debates Njoku and gives a couple more tight ends to consider (8:00). Heath also makes the case for a couple of preseason risers (11:15) Dameon Pierce and George Pickens. When you're drafting a late-round WR, how much should the quality of the offense matter? ... News and notes (19:50) on Alvin Kamara, the Rams running backs, Darren Waller's red zone role and a lot more. Then we get back into the sleepers (27:05) with a long James Robinson discussion. Dave provides more sleeper RBs (35:15) like Isiah Pacheco and Trey Sermon, a list of sleeper WRs (40:40) including Wan'Dale Robinson and Rome Doubs, and a couple of QBs (43:10) to keep an eye on ... Now it's time for Heath's sleepers (49:30)! He'll start with Justin Fields and Carson Wentz before debating Nyheim Hines (53:00) with Dave. And he's got a trio of young WRs to draft with a late pick (59:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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 Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." 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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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? I know I can. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. This is going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Wake up! We're talking sleepers here on Fantasy Football today. What is a sleeper? We'll tell you about our difference between sleepers and breakouts and give you a whole bunch of names to know for late in your draft, guys that could really outperform their draft position. That's mainly what we're talking about today. Sleepers, Wednesday is busts.

Thursday is a breakouts bonanza. Four different episodes with a different industry guest. That's going to be awesome. That's coming up on Thursday for you here on FFT. Adam, Dave, and Heath ready to talk sleepers and also some news on Alvin Kamara, some news on the Rams backfield. Matthew Stafford

making progress. Darren Waller maybe going to get more red zone targets this year. That's going to be hard to do with Devontae Adams there, but that's what he said. They're going to get him more involved in the red zone. So we'll talk about all of that. We'll start the show right now with Dave and Heath. Heath, you can go first.

Give me two of your favorite sleepers. Mm. Mm-mm-mm. All right. Did Heath fall asleep? Heath, why don't you leave and come... Let's kick Heath out and have him come back in. Heath, maybe restart your computer.

We'll get your internet going a little bit there. All right, Dave, give me two of your favorite sleepers. I should steal Heath's sleepers right now, shouldn't I? I'm not going to do that. The first one that I'm really gravitating toward and I've done a lot of research on is Isaiah McKenzie. And I don't think a lot of people have talked about McKenzie. Buffalo Bills, it looks like he's their slot receiver this year. He's been practicing with the ones, didn't play in their first preseason game like the starters didn't play in their first preseason game. And there's been tons of buzz about him out of Buffalo. I just listened to an interview that Josh Allen had today. It wasn't today. I listened to it today. It's a week-old interview, but Allen was raving about McKenzie, how he's gotten better, how he's got speed. And I think the best way to

think about him is he's Cole Beasley, but with speed. We saw a little bit of it last year. There was a game last season where Beasley was out. McKenzie replaced him. He had 12 targets. He had 11 catches. He had 125 yards receiving, and he had a touchdown. I don't think he's going to do that every week. Big shock. But I think he's going to be involved in this offense, and I did some digging. A quarter of all of Josh Allen's targets went to whichever receiver was in the slot last year. I think that's a decent dose.

We also know that Beasley had at least 80 catches each of the past few years. I think it was 82 on the dot each of the last two years. And this is an offense that's going to throw the ball. And McKenzie should be way more explosive than Cole Beasley was. Beasley didn't even average 10 yards a catch last year. Here's the best part. McKenzie, rather, is going to be a very late pick in every draft. There's going to be a lot of people in fantasy that just do not know who he is, where he came from. I think that he's got all kinds of upside to finish as, I really want to say a low-end number two fantasy receiver. There could be three receivers in Buffalo that could finish top 24.

I think that offense is strong enough. I think Allen is strong enough. And the price you can't beat. He's someone that I think can help fantasy managers in full PPR this year as soon as week one against the Rams. Okay. Yeah, I think you'll give me one more in a second, and I think if it's the running back, then

that'll be kind of the most high-end guy on your list, but I think if you look at Dave's... No, I'm going to go in a different direction. All right. If you look at Dave's list of sleepers and Heath's list of sleepers, I would say that Dave's are deeper. So, if you're in a 10-team league, I don't know if you're drafting Isaiah McKenzie. I mean, he's definitely a good name to know.

But I would say Dave's are deeper, which is great. We need both varieties here. Give me one more sleeper, Dave. The other sleeper is a name that you've heard of before, David Njoku. And there might be people that turn off this podcast just because I said his name, because for years he's been somebody that fantasy managers have said, okay, he's got talent. He's got a chance. Let's see what he can do. But he's been in a crowded tight end room and in a crowded offense with some shaky quarterback play. And that's not going to change. There's going to be shaky

quarterback play, but that receiving core in Cleveland has really been drained. It's Amari Cooper and not a whole heck of a lot else. And they just paid Njoku a ton. I've started to do research on him as well. I've talked to some friends in Cleveland. It looks like David Njoku's got a chance to be the second most target getter in Cleveland, which, I mean, that's what you're looking for from a tight end is to be first or second in targets on his team. Cleveland's offense isn't the one you necessarily want to go with. But here's the kicker.

You can draft Njoku late and you can start him week one. He plays against Carolina. I think that that's an okay matchup. Week two against the Jets. I think that's a good matchup. So two good matchups to start the year for the Browns. The quarterback issue is problematic, but it's Brissette. We know that Brissette isn't a big chance taker. He doesn't throw downfield. He might check it down a lot. Njoku could end up being a five catch per game tight end in an offense that just doesn't

have a lot of weapons to it. And just like McKenzie, late round pick, not on the radar of a lot of the people that you play with in your fantasy league. I don't know, man. I just, I would love him. I mean, I would call him breakout if Watson were the quarterback, because I think there's a great chance for him to be number two on the team and targets. But Jacoby Brissett is just one of the worst quarterbacks for fantasy purposes. And you know, the Browns are going to run the ball an absolute ton. You have low pass volume and bad passer. I just don't know how David Njoku gives you anything consistently. I just don't want to draft him. Can I give you one other note that I think you might like?

Think back to last year. When did Mike Gusecki become a thing in Miami? Was he? Oh, he had that mid-season stretch? It actually started before the mid-season. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know where I'm going with it. Yeah, so the Las Vegas game. Yeah, I guess a lot of Brissette there.

But no, I mean, not really. Because Jacksonville and Atlanta was with Tua. It kicked off with Brissette. Brissette had three games, weeks three through five. Yeah. Gusecki averaged 14 PPR points per game with two games over 15 PPR points. And Gusecki and Njoku, I would say, are very similar in terms of skill set. I think Njoku could be better than Gusecki, to be honest with you.

I think part of the problem with Njoku is that he never really got the opportunity to be the guy. Because right when it looked like he was going to get that opportunity, the Browns brought in Austin Hooper. And they kind of pushed David Njoku to the side. And now Hooper's gone. Harrison Bryant is another tight end they have. I like the talent coming out of FAU. I just don't know if he's going to be able to ascend. I think Njoku is going to get a shot this year. It's a low risk, high reward deal at the tight

end position. He could end up being fairly useful. And I just, I think about all the other tight ends that I've tried to put into this spot as a late round guy. Gerald Everett looks like he's got some competition at his own position in Chargers camp. Noah Fant was playing with, he played the whole first half for the Seahawks while DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett sat out. I wonder what that means. That kind of freaked me out a little bit. Gasicki, I'm very uninterested in.

Kyle Rudolph is touchdown or bust. We could talk about other tight ends, but I think Njoku's got a profile that gives him a shot to be decent. The only other one that I think fantasy managers will take first is Alberto and Denver. But what are the odds that he's going to end up being first or second on his team and targets?

Well, you have him listed as a sleeper too, so who would you rather have, Njoku or Alberto? I have Njoku ranked ahead of Alberto. Okay. All right, let's bring in heath hello heath maybe maybe heath yeah uh we did a little computer reboot turn you know they all turn it off turn it off and turn it back on again trick all right heath uh why don't you give me a tight end i i'm just gonna ask you for two of your favorite sleepers you can do that as well But since we're talking about Njoku, you have a couple of tight ends on the list that you provided today, Irv Smith and Tyler Higby.

I know you take Irv Smith over David Njoku. Would you take Tyler Higby ahead of David Njoku? And why does everyone hate Tyler Higby? I would draft any tight end that I would draft over David Njoku. Okay. I just don't have any interest in the Jacoby Brissett-led Cleveland Browns. Low volume, low efficiency, and a tight end that's never lived up to the hype or the athleticism that he currently possesses. Irv Smith, I think, he was a top 12 tight end in consensus rankings last year.

And then he missed the year with injury, and we've just kind of cast him off. And I don't, I don't really believe that. I think he's going to be better than Tyler Conklin was last year, which was a high end number two tight end. He has a chance to be the number three on this team and targets behind Jefferson and Thielen and Thielen's had so many injury problems that it could be Jefferson Osborne and Irv Smith.

By the time we get to the middle of the year now, Irv's had some injury problems as well, but he's expected to be ready for the start of the season. He's still just 23 years old. There's no reason we should have expected him to be good already in his NFL career, especially considering that he missed last year due to injury. Yep, second-round pick, 50th overall in 2019, finished pretty strong at the end of the 2020 season before missing all of 2021. That is Irv smith

yeah i don't i think people view tyler higby as not having enough upside like they think he's just a boring guy who's going to finish around tight end 12 but that's not fun and i could get that except for the five game stretch that we saw from tyler higby that showed that if sean mcveigh decides to throw it to him that many times, he does have that much upside. Yeah, and even at the end of last year, he was really good the last six games of the season, including the playoffs. He was fantastic, Tyler Higbee.

But I think outside of the guy, Cole Komet might get 100 targets because there's nobody else to throw to in Chicago. But the guys behind Higbee, I don't have near as much target upside, in my opinion. And most of them don't play in as good of offense as Higby does. And so I don't think that just because he didn't score touchdowns a year or two, he can't have a good touchdown year. Tyler Higby, the last six games of the season, including two postseason games,

he was on pace for 82 catches, 878 yards, six touchdowns on 113 targets. He had 41 or more yards in every game. So strong finish for him. And people like poo-poo Higby for that because, okay, he's had two good six-game stretches. Yeah, well, that's two more good six-game stretches than most of the tight ends being drafted in the six spots in front of him. Yeah yeah he's tight end 20 right now all right give me a non-tight end a sexy sleeper here sexy sleeper from he's coming well i mean like i i wrote not for long next to damian pierce and george pickens but they still have adps outside of the top 10 rounds and i would guess in pickens case he still will in a lot of drafts for a while. So both of those guys, I think,

have chances to be like they have the talent and they have the opportunity to be top 24 at their position. I expect Pickens to be better than Claypool. I moved him ahead of Claypool before that game on Saturday. And Damian Pierce showed just in a few cuts that he has something that Marlon Mack, Rex Burkhead, Royce Freeman do not possess. That's explosiveness. Let's talk about Damian Pierce really quickly here and where he's going. We did talk about this on yesterday's show, but let's bring it up again. Damian Pierce, I have his ADP kind of parsed out.

So he's RB45 on Fantasy Pros, but there's no specific date range there. Over the past week on NFC, Damian Pierce, rookie running back for the Texans out of Florida, is 107th overall. He's RB38. Over the past two days, he's a little bit higher than that.

He's RB36 overall. I think he's something like 98th overall. Sorry, he's RB36 and about 98th overall. And he's going just behind the Seattle guys, just behind Kareem Hunt. And do you think Damian Pierce, I mean, you said you'd take him over Miles Sanders, Heath, on the running backs preview. Would you take Damian Pierce over Kareem Hunt and the Seattle running backs? And I have Damian Pierce, Kareem Hunt, Miles Sanders, like back to back to back.

So that's the exact like Sanders and Hunt's the same range for me. And I have the Seahawks backs behind them. So yes, he is. He's a top 30 running back in that RB 28, 29 range for me right now. And there's a chance that if we get an indication from Houston that he's the week one starter, he could be a borderline top 24 guy. I think you could have that discussion with him and Antonio Gibson or him and Cam Akers,

especially if Akers continues to miss time. Him and Elijah Mitchell, if Mitchell can't practice, we know he's not going to play in the preseason, but if Mitchell can't practice, there's a chance Pierce could sneak into that RB24 discussion. Do you care, before I even give the numbers, because i won't do it if you don't care do you care what the number two wide receiver or pass catcher in general has done in four years that mitch trubisky's been a starter four years that mitch trubisky has been a starter? No, I do not. Okay.

Just because it was Matt Nagy's offense, so it's a completely different thing. And I, while I don't project the Steelers to throw the ball near as much as they did with Ben Roethlisberger as their quarterback, I do project them to throw it a lot more than the Bears did when Trubisky

was their quarterback. Well, Trubisky, in four years as a starter, averaged first two years, 27.5 pass attempts. That's crazy low. 31. In his third year, he averaged 37 pass attempts per game. In his fourth year, he averaged 33.6 pass attempts per game. I did remove some partial games in there. There were a few of those.

But the games he started and finished or came close to finishing, last two years, Trubisky averaged 37 and 33.5 pass attempts per game, basically. So that wasn't completely insignificant. But okay, if you don't care, then I won't bring it up. But suffice to say, he has not given us a good number two wide receiver or anything, really. But he did give us two top 12 wide receivers in back-to-back seasons. It was both Allen Robinson. But we did see Trubisky do that.

Okay, so George Pickens, because I guess that's what I'm thinking here. It's like, if I have a late-round wide receiver pick, and I want a wide receiver sleeper, I do love, I mean, the talent of George Pickens is intoxicating. This was a five-star recruit who just unfortunately barely played

in Georgia, but as a freshman in 2019, he had 727 yards and eight touchdowns at 12 games. And then he played 12 games for the rest of his career, including none in 2022. But if I'm looking at a late round wide receiver, am I really going to take, well, I shouldn't say, am I going to take the number two, maybe number two wide receiver? Cause Claypool, you know, exists, uh,

on Pittsburgh or, you know, Romeo Dobbs or Christian Watson, uh, you know, do I do it or a guy who, I don't know, maybe Tony ends up in that range and has a chance to be the number one wide

receiver on a team. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't know how good of a... And this could be wrong, but I don't know that Dobbs and Watson have a significant chance to be number one on the Packers in the markets this year.

No, not now. I don't think we can say that now. I didn't mean that they did. I meant Kadarius Toney did. But would I rather take a guy who's going to be number two on the Packers as opposed to number two on the Steelers? If I'm looking at number two wide receivers,

do I go for this guy's got the most talent and the best pedigree? Can you tell me what Aaron Rodgers' number two wide receiver has done the last four years? Well, no, because that's irrelevant. Why is that irrelevant? No, it makes your argument. It's irrelevant because he doesn't have Devontae Adams.

I wouldn't care about these guys if Devontae Adams were there. He doesn't have Allen Robinson. He has Deontay Johnson. Like I said. Deontay Johnson, I mean, there's nothing. Okay. Deontay Johnson has been a target hog. Deontay Johnson's the number one wide receiver.

Well, Allen Robinson, I've made this case. Allen Robinson wasn't really a great receiver with the Bears. He just got a ton of targets. Okay, the overall question is, how much does the quality of the offense and the quality of the passing game matter when you are trying to make your late-round wide receiver selection? Oh, if you're asking me,

I think it matters less than normal. I mean, you don't want to take a... Like, you poo-poo Njoku because Jacoby Brissett's his quarterback. If I was saying to take David Njoku in round six or even round 10, that would be a mistake because of the quarterback situation.

But you're trying to catch a little lightning in a bottle with a late pick. You're trying to find talented players who are going to see a lot of targets with late picks. And I think the word lot should be modified a little bit when we're talking about later on picks, maybe a hundred targets instead of the usual 120, 140 that we went. Did you see that projection for George Pickens with an early mid round pick?

What bring it back up. The one we just showed on the screen for the CBS Sports. No, I don't see our screen while we record. What did it say? 119 targets for George Pickens. Okay. So that seems a little wild to me. I'm going to take the under there.

116. I would too. 116. He lied. 116. It may have just changed. It's better constantly than ever to become more accurate. It may have just changed. How many touchdowns did they get? To become more accurate.

All right, hold on. I want to compare that projection with your projection, Heath. Yeah, because I just updated it on Saturday. I have him at 114. Wow. That's really close. And catches, yards, touchdowns? 70, 940, and 6.

And this projection is 72 catches, 908 yards, and 5 touchdowns. So fairly similar. I will say, people probably don't know this, but when you see a projection, either in our draft room or on our stream or whatever, it's a sports line projection. It's not a Heath, Dave, or Jamie projection. It is a sports line projection. Guys, I want to move on and get to some more names here. We got some news

and notes to get to. I want to talk about the podcast league. It is time. You can... Well, you know what? I'm going to hold off a day because I need to make sure I... It is time. Tomorrow. I just realized that I don't know the exact date of the podcast league. It's already

been set. I'm guessing it's a Tuesday night right before the season starts, but I don't know already been set. I'm guessing it's a Tuesday night right before the season starts, but I don't know for sure. But I'm going to give you the date and time so you know if you can make the draft before you give a submission. But just be on the lookout. We'll be talking about the podcast league soon. If you're watching on youtube.com slash fantasy football

today, thank you, first of all. And please hit that button to raise money and donate to St. Jude. We've raised $1,300 so far and we're trying to get to 10K. So please donate.

The draft-a-thon is August 31st. It'll be a live stream for six hours. First two hours are on HQ. The last four hours are right here from 8 p.m. to midnight at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. But we're going to try to raise as much money as we can for St. Jude throughout the rest of the month, so please be

a part of that. Okay, let's do some news and notes. It looks more and more unlikely that Alvin Kamara will be suspended this season, or it looks more likely that he won't be suspended this season, according to Adam Schefter. So, when should Alvin Kamara be drafted?

Late round one. Early round two. That's where he's going to go. It's going to be right in that range. How does Kamara compare to Aaron Jones and DeAndre Swift? I have my head. I have it Jones, Camara, Swift.

But I was the guy, the reason that on yesterday's winners and losers podcast, you guys had to have a three minute discussion about Deandre Swift. Cause I put them on the list. Right. I'm a little more worried about Swift than I am either too. I'm glad you did. I,

it was a good discussion. Cam Akers and Daryl Henderson have soft tissue injuries, tissue injuries fragile backfield yuck this has been pretty much um the one of the worst outcomes you could have asked for for cam makers this this training camp period pre-season period august this august has been bad for cam i was hoping for highlight videos and clear number one back and Sean McVay talking him up. And it's, uh, it has not been that I am nervous about the Rams running backs. It's almost as if Cam and Antonio Gibson and Josh Jacobs all got together and said, who can drive their ADP down the lowest before the start of the season? Because I just take turns moving these guys

to the back of the line. Elijah Mitchell is behind them all. But I do have, I'm going to have Clyde. I don't know, I don't quite yet, but I will have Clyde Edwards-Hilaire ahead of all three of them. You know, I think if you like these guys, if you believe in them,

you're starting to get an opportunity. They fit into maybe the sleepers show. Because Daryl Henderson can't stay healthy. I can't say that Akers can. But I could just see either one of them really being very, very valuable at some point, hopefully for a big chunk of the season. But if you like Gibson, if you like Akers, if you like Jacobs, then it's actually kind of a good offseason

because they're going to just keep on falling. And I wonder at what point do they become great values? I mean, there's downside now with Gibson that there might not be a point where he's a good value. I still think all three are good values in round six. Yeah, for now. Akers, I don't know. Yeah, I guess I'd say Akers in round six. Yeah, for now. Akers, I don't know. Yeah, I guess I'd say Akers in round six is fine.

All right. 12-team league is when we say rounds, we're always talking 12-team leagues. Yeah, I would say round seven for Akers in a 10-team league. Matthew Stafford is practicing in full, so that's good. They might pump the brakes at some point, but right now he's making good progress. Darren Waller says the team plans to use

him more in the red zone this season. So from weeks 1 through 11, Waller got hurt in week 12. Waller had 11 red zone targets, which ranked 12th in football. Hunter Renfro also had 11 in that stretch. Derek Carr had the 7th most red zone

pass attempts in the NFL. Carr was throwing the ball a pretty decent amount overall and in the red zone pass attempts in the NFL. So Carr was throwing the ball pretty decent amount overall. And in the red zone, Waller and Renfro were both tied for 12th most. And now they bring in Devonta Adams. So I don't know what to make of this. I mean, I,

he almost, it's, it sounded like he was throwing Gruden under the bus. And like, they didn't really have a plan for me. Now there's a plan. I thought he said, I thought he said,

the defenses didn't have to plan for me. Now they a plan i thought he said all right i thought he said defenses didn't have to plan for me now they do i may have read that quote wrong i might have read that quote wrong adam one of us is an idiot it's probably me i'm not sure neither of you guys can read so we both probably got it wrong well you have the quote in the notes don't you no he just said that teams are going to have to that he's going to be used more in the red zone i'll find it let's go to the next. I'll come back to it. Go to the next news item here. Seahawks acquired J.J. Ortega Whiteside.

He doesn't matter, does he? No. Jimmy Ward. He'll be cut. Safety for the. Unless he can play quarterback for Seattle. Let me run through this. Let me run through this.

Jimmy Ward could miss the start of the season due to a hamstring injury. Melvin Gordon returned to practice. Pittsburgh running back Jalen Warren was getting first teamwork, undrafted free agent. Yeah, he's impressed in Steelers camp. He didn't impress in the game as much. I thought McFarlane looked really good early in that game. He looked great.

I don't know if it was a combination of him running behind. I think some of the Steelers starters were playing on that offensive line. And I, I wonder if it was that, or if it was, they was running at Seattle and that defense just didn't look good early on. I cannot read the exact Darren Waller quote.

I got it. I got it. Yeah. I sent it. I got it. Yeah. I sent it to, but Dave was right, but the quotes fantastic. There were a lot of,

go ahead, Adam. I just sent it to you on G chain. You can read it word for word. There was a lot of times in the last couple of years where I felt like there wasn't a clear defined attack in the red zone or like a plan for me specifically. I was kind of like, what the heck am I doing sometimes?

But now I kind of feel like that's something that's in place with Josh McDaniels. For me, there's no reason why my big butt shouldn't be dominating in the red zone at all times. Did you just say Darren Waller is a big butt? He said it, not me. That's kind of rude. Speaking of rude. I do have news here. J.K. Dobbins, John Harbaugh says J.K. Dobbins is kind of back on track.

All right. Kind of back on track. All right. Very kind of back on track. It's encouraging. I thought he looked a little better than he did before. So he continues to improve and we'll see where it goes. Okay. There was also the just so because you had said, where is this coming from? Rightly, I think. Ramondre Stevenson was working in the James White role in the two minute drill yesterday. Yeah, that's right. That's in my notes. You didn't let me, uh, you didn't let me get to it. You stole that from me. So that was a good steal.

Heath. I applaud you. It was well timed as well. All right. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, more sleepers for you. And we'll try to read your emails at fantasy football at cbsi.com. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt these aren't your average orcas these guys

are organized marketing team did you get those social media posts scheduled for the seal migration aye aye captain we even have an automated notification for all pod managers when they go live they use monday.com to keep their teamwork sharp, their communication clear, and their goals in sight. Monday.com for whatever you run, even orcas. Go to Monday.com to dive deeper. Hey, question for you guys. Yeah. What is a sleeper?

Give me your definition. Someone that you draft late with the hope he outperforms his ADP or the value that you take him at greatly. Someone who is being drafted outside of the single-digit rounds who I have ranked higher than their ADP. Okay. And I'm going to tell you the difference between a sleeper and a breakout. You guys should know it, but you remember my saying, right? Yes. Yes. This is a good saying. Yeah, it is. You want to say it? You want me to say it?

No, this is your quote. Okay. Sleepers win you weeks. Breakouts win you leagues. TM. That should be on a t-shirt. Jamie did not say that. Jamie never said that. Thank you, though, for doing that. Okay, let's get to some more sleepers. Dave gave you Isaiah McKenzie.

We got to talk about James Robinson. He's on Dave's sleepers list. His ADP right now, RB 37 on Fantasy Pro is 108th overall. And I thought, well, maybe James Robinson over the last week, I'll look at the NFC average draft position. I like to do that because you can set a date range. Let's see what it is over the last week.

It's RB 47. So even later for James Robinson, 126th overall. So I can say with confidence right now, he is not a top 100 pick in most drafts. And maybe we just, people want to just see him play. I don't know. But I mean, really, what an opportunity to get a starting running back. So Dave, make the case for James Robinson as a sleeper.

He kind of just did for me. We know that in the past, he's been a fantastic fantasy running back. He was top 10 in PPR points per game two years ago as a rookie. You want to talk about a sleeper? He was the ultimate sleeper two seasons ago. And last year with all the issues that Jacksonville had, he still was 25th in PPR points per game. And I think if he had a regular amount of touches from week to week and a good offense, he'd finish higher than 25th. It's a different look now for him. He has, he's coming off of an Achilles injury and that's something that could be

impacting cam acres. And we don't know how it's impacting James Robinson, but I think the Jaguars are slowly bringing him along. He hasn't had any contact in practice yet. He hasn't, he didn't play in the first preseason game, but he's starting to work more in seven on seven drills. And I think they're,

they're trying to time it up where he's practicing with the full starters in 11 on 11 drills, and maybe even getting into the preseason before week one. And I don't see ETN as a workhorse back. I don't think the Jaguars necessarily see them that way either. They need somebody to help ETN and they need to have a rushing presence. i think robinson right now on their roster is the best guy to give him that and so taking the chance on him what'd you say he was the 40th running back off the board 47th running back off the board 37th on fantasy pros and 47th in the last week on i mean this is this is such a golden opportunity for you to take Robinson round nine plus, and he could end up performing like a round four pick. I just don't – I don't disagree with anything Dave said.

I don't think it's possible for James Robinson to do these things and Travis Etienne to be a good pick where he is being drafted. Yeah, I agree. I don't think Jacksonville is going to have two top 25 running backs. I've been saying that. I've been mostly bringing that up with Jamie because Jamie just loves Etienne. He likes him in round three.

There's a couple of things from that game. Etienne didn't look as good on his target as I was hoping he would. And he does bounce the ball outside very, very quickly. And I just wonder, like one of the reports was that Robinson, they were hoping could play more on passing downs because of pass protection.

And then I wonder in short yardage if Robinson's the guy. Oh, he's got to be. You would think so. I mean, you take one look at Travis ETN and he doesn't look like a football player even when he's got pads on. Coaches don't usually like guys who bounce it out at the goal line very much. So I don't, it's hard for me to see if Travis ETN is not like doing all of the passing game work and he's not the short yardage back, how he's a good pick in round four? I can try to answer that. Look at the other targets in Jacksonville and

think about how ETN's speed makes him an absolute game breaker. I would imagine that both Trevor Lawrence and Doug Peterson would agree that finding ways to get him the ball more than just four or five times a game through the air is something that they can work with and something that they want to do. It's almost like I almost wonder if they see him as an Alvin Kamara type as a pass catcher. And there isn't, you know, Christian Kirk has never been a number one guy. We'll see how he does. They've got Zay

Jones, Laquan Treadwell, and Evan Ingram. It sounds like a bunch of receivers from fantasy losers past. ETN could be first on the team in targets, much less second. That's how those guys could go to the top 25. I'm not drafting

Trevor Lawrence if that's the case, but, Oh, I think he's a sleeper too. I know, but he can't be throwing to James Robinson more than anyone. That would be bad. But,

but, uh, I mean, look that I find that question. He's like, how is he good in the fourth round to be much harder in non or half PPR full PPR. You could at least make the case where he's just going to have so many catches. But in non PPR, forget it, unless he wins the job.

I guess you could say he's a former first-round pick. James Robinson was not even drafted. I think he hasn't cared. I know. I don't care either. He's more athletic, for sure, than James Robinson. Because Robinson has been good. James Robinson is a professional running back. Yeah, he's been good. He really has.

He was a top eight running back in 2020 as a rookie and per game top eight as well. Last year, he had a couple of games where he played a combined 19 snaps. But if you took those games out, he was on pace for 1,331 total yards,

43 catches, 11 touchdowns. So when he was actually used, James Robinson was really good. So I think we would all agree. great sleeper, James Robinson, right? Yeah, I do. I love him. As long as he can get back to healthy. Are you taking Isaiah Pacheco or James Robinson?

Robinson. I'm pretty sure. I need to check that. Pacheco that. Yeah, I have Robinson around ahead of Pacheco, but I still have Robinson in the round 10 range. Let me just say this. If Robinson were healthy and participating in every aspect of practice, where would you have him ranked? Oh, probably around six. Right. You're getting a around six player potentially in round

nine or ten i again i think and somebody brought this up on twitter and maybe not the best of ways but like the difference between the way we talk about cam akers and james robinson like there's there's a little hashing out that needs to be done there in that you're right because we've seen good efficiency from robinson and they're both in the achilles club well and acres was really rushed back when he came rushed back looked bad hasn't been great since but has had far longer to recover than robinson has i don't know if that's true well he tore his in i mean technically I mean, technically, Robinson's still recovering. When did he tear his Achilles? Right before training camp.

Okay. Yeah. And Robinson... July? Robinson played 14 games last year. Okay, so let's... Right, so Robinson's on... I'm saying Akers now has had far longer than Robinson.

Not Akers had before. Oh, okay. Of course, yeah. All right, so let's go... Dave, I'm going to finish up with your running backs here, and we'll go kind of quick, and going to finish up with your running backs here, and we'll go kind of quick, and then you can do all your wide receivers as well.

But you've got Isaiah Pacheco, Zemir White of the Raiders, Ty Montgomery of the Patriots, and Trey Sermon of the 49ers. So Pacheco for the Chiefs, Zemir White for the Raiders, Ty Montgomery for the Patriots, Trey Sermon for the Niners. So Pacheco for the Chiefs, Zamir White for the Raiders, Ty Montgomery for the Patriots, Trey Sermon for the Niners. Pacheco was the second running back up for Kansas City in their preseason game against Chicago. The stats weren't good. I still like how he played. He was quick,

both off the snap and into routes, caught a ball, turned upfield, took a hit, stayed balanced, gained five yards after the play. Huge riser in camp. He played a little bit, I think, on the second drive, but didn't play into the second quarter, was ahead of Ronald Jones, was ahead of Jarek McKinnon, gives the Chiefs an option if they get sick of Clyde Edwards-Alaire. You can still take them late. People who aren't paying attention to fantasy like you guys are, who are listening, don't even know who Isaiah Pacheco is. I think he's absolutely got the profile of a sleeper that's worth taking in round 10. In that same range where I would take George Pickens, Pacheco is there for me.

Ty Montgomery, I think, is the leader to be the passing downs back for New England, even though he prominently said that Romandre Stevenson was getting that work in the two-minute offense. We'll see. Montgomery's never been great, but if he's got the James White role, that's a ticket to 60 catches over the course of a season. He's a PPR-only sleeper. Trey Sermon made my list because I went to watch the 49ers game, and I started with Tyron Davis-Price because he's the rookie and always excited to see what the rookies could do. And I thought Davis-Price looked okay.

Trey Sermon looked better, and Trey Sermon was playing ahead of him. There's been talk that he's been a good passing downs back for San Francisco. I'm kind of intrigued by Trey Sermon, and I think a lot of people will want nothing to do with him. And we know that Elijah Mitchell is already banged up. He had five injuries last year, et cetera. And Jeff Wilson, I don't know if he's anything more than just a guy. Sermon could elevate himself.

He's someone I'm taking late in draft. What did you make of the fact that Trey Sermon played and Jeff Wilson didn't in the preseason? That's fine. I think Trey Sermon's got a lot of ground to catch up in Kyle Shanahan's mind to earn a prominent role. I don't know who to target. I don't know who to target.

And then all three backup running backs have very similar ADPs recently. Right, everybody's kind of taking their shot. They're all, they're all cheap though. But, but I think like the Wilson thing made me think more of the Brandon Bolden thing with the Raiders.

Like they know what they have in Jeff Wilson. Right. Jeff Wilson himself is at a hard time staying healthy and he's older. They don't need to see Jeff Wilson in training camp. They need to see Sermon and TDP. And I will say there's just a little more steam on the Ramondre Stevenson pass-catching train, because we know Bill Belichick only tells the truth. Ramondre has done a real good job improving his pass game skills, emphasized that he likes what he's seen from Stevenson as a pass protector in year two. Good.

That's pretty big. Yeah, that is big. And I mean, if Damian Harris gets traded or gets hurt, you want to talk about a guy you can draft in the middle rounds and have value of

what's like a third round pick. If their run game split is the same as it was in the second half of last year and Stevenson takes the James White role, then it's Stevenson over Harris by a mile. By a mile.

Yes, no question. Yeah, yes. No question. Yeah, that's pretty significant. Because actually, when Bill Belichick calls out a player for doing well, that does hold a lot of weight, doesn't it? That's not Pete Carroll saying it. Well, he did it earlier this year, this August. I shouldn't say this year, this month with Mac Jones. And Mac Jones started training camp looking good.

And then everything kind of bottomed out because they decided to change things up in New England. I think that's different though, because this is telling us about, I mean, we know Mack Jones is a starting quarterback. This is telling us about a very important role in the Patriots offense that Ramondre Stevenson is definitely making progress toward gaining,

or at least being a part of Damian Harris. Isn't going to be their third down back, but all right. Anyway, is anybody taking him in round seven right now? Eight. Stevenson?

Yeah. No, but I will be moving him up. Me too. Round eight range, right in the Rashad Penny-Ken Walker range. I think Damian Harris is just not going to be on any of my teams unless it's non-PPR, but there's just not a lot going for Damian Harris is just not going to be on any of my teams unless it's non-PPR, but there's just not a lot going for Damian Harris unless he just gets 70% of the carries.

Unless he gets traded to the Rams, that would be pretty cool. I don't dislike him in half PPR as long as he's being drafted where he is in PPR. Does that make sense? Which is where? Which is like round seven, eight. Yeah. 69th overall. So the end of round six.

So that doesn't go that high in our drafts, but yes. Damian Harris. Okay, sorry. Dave, we've got this big group of wide receivers. We're going to get to Heath's sleepers to end the show. But big group of wide receivers, young, mostly young guys here. Giants wide receiver, Wandale Robinson.

Packers wide receiver, Romeo Dobbs, who's over the past week, wide receiver 67 on NFC. James Prochet for Baltimore. Paris Campbell for the Colts. And Zay Jones for the Jaguars. So... Jones is there because I think

he's just going to play a lot. I think Prochet will too. Paris Campbell, if he stays healthy, is a candidate for 50 catches. Robinson's the one who's interesting to me because I think Kenny Galladay is spent. I don't think he's good anymore. Kadarius Toney's on and off the field. Sterling Shepard isn't back anytime soon.

I don't think Colin Johnson's going to be a significant factor in New York. Waddell Robinson could end up just falling into good production by virtue of being healthy and available and in a role that this current coaching staff designed for him. I wonder how long, because I think like week one, there's maybe not, but there's almost got to be no question that Kenny Galladay is starting and playing most of the snaps how long at this point i don't know if that's true i mean they they owe him so much money still yeah he will be absolute guarantee at least i think his dead cap number is 31 million it's 15 million year. Who else are they going to play? Oh, yeah. Tony healthy.

Shepard. Tony. Well, Shepard won't be ready for week one. Galladay and Tony will theoretically be on the outside and Robinson will be in the slot. But you're right.

I mean, Galladay cannot get open. Tony cannot stay on the field. I didn't really think about it that way because I'm not interested in the number two or three receiver on the Giants. And Barkley is going to be a huge part of the passing game. But he might be by default. Dave Wanda Robinson might be the number two or three receiver on the Giants, and Barkley's going to be a huge part of the passing game.

But he might be, by default, Dave, Wanda Robinson might be the number one wide receiver, but the way on the Giants, but the way, or in fantasy, but the way you said it was almost like you like him better than Romeo Dobbs. Is that the case? It is. I would draft him, and you know how I feel about Dobbs. But I still think Dobbs has work to do to be the number two guy in Green Bay. Still got to prove it.

Okay. And we talked a lot about just one of the reasons why, why Jamie and Heath love Aaron Jones more than I do is because they think that Green Bay is going to run the ball a lot. No, I, we think that Aaron Jones might lead the Packers in receptions. Okay. Well, that hurts Romeo Dobbs too. Whichever way you slice it. Alright, let's go to Heath

Sleepers. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Two quarterbacks real quick, Dave. Trevor Lawrence is QB 19. He's going after Tua. He's going after Fields. Fields is one of Heath's sleepers. And Marcus Mariota is a 2QB guy, and I think we laid that case out yesterday.

He's going to run for about 400 yards per 17 games. He's acceptable. And for Trevor Lawrence, would you guys take Tua, Fields, or Lawrence? I've got Fields at the top of that list, followed by Lawrence. Yeah, Fields is one of my sleepers, and I would definitely take Fields. I have a harder time.

I actually have Tua, I think, ahead of Lawrence now as well. And it's just like for the reasons Dave was saying about ETN, maybe leading this team in targets like Aaron Jones. I am so concerned that the passing game for Jacksonville won't actually be good and that the wide receivers won't actually be good. You know how I feel about Trevor Lawrence? He is far enough down in the rankings

where for us in our 12-team leagues, you just don't need to draft him. He's a luxury. And I do always pretty much take, not always, but usually take two quarterbacks, but he's not one of them because he's just far enough down in the rankings. And yet, I think I'm really going to

potentially regret not having Trevor Lawrence because he does have the potential to, at some point in his career, be the best quarterback in football. And year two is the year that players often break out. Sometimes it's year three. And for quarterbacks, I think it's a little harder in year two. But he can run.

My God, he just looks the part. He just looks like a superstar. And I don't know. I mean, there's a lot going against him. He doesn't have great receivers. I think the offensive line is going to be a struggle. I'm not a huge Doug Peterson guy, but hopefully he can kind of resurrect his career. But God, I almost wish I had to draft Trevor Lawrence. I don't have to. I almost wish there was a case where all my favorite guys were taken and I had to draft Trevor

Lawrence. But I'm not going to take him over fields. Obviously, I'm not going to take him over lands. That used to be a discussion. But I would take him over Lance. That's, you know, that's, that used to be a discussion, but I would take him over to a tongue of my low. I think. How about, how about you guys? I didn't,

I don't remember that answer. Lawrence. I mean, I think two has got pretty exceptional pedigree himself and now has Tyree kill and Jalen Waddle. Oh, I get there's a hundred percent. Great case for Tua.

I don't think it's a bad call at all and a better offensive mind yeah probably he's got a lot more going for him i just think lawrence is the kind of player that is just potentially on a different level he might be i will say like for the struggles of tua the start of his career has been much better than the start of trevor lawrence's oh yeah it's the start of his career has been much better than the start of Trevor Lawrence's. Oh yeah. It's the start of Trevor Lawrence's career was the start and the end of Urban Meyer's career. I'm blaming it entirely, entirely on Urban Meyer.

You suck, Urban Meyer. You know, I don't know that I get a chance to say this. Urban Meyer is probably my least favorite person in the history of sports. Other than, you know, people who have committed crimes or something, but in terms of, I hate urban Meyer so much, I'm gonna bring on Sheffy T who was probably at UF during the urban Meyer years. That guy was such a dirt bag. And I, I never, yes, I hate him. And what really, do you know how much I respect Jeremy Fowler,

who works for ESPN and used to work with us? I used to work with him. He was the nicest guy. Urban Meyer, when like 10, like 15% of every UF football player was getting arrested each week at that point. Urban Meyer had the gall to tell Jeremy Fowler that he was a bad guy.

Urban Meyer is the biggest piece of garbage. I hate Urban Meyer. I am sorry. What college did you go to Urban Meyer is the biggest piece of garbage. I hate Urban Meyer. I am sorry. What college did you go to, Adam? I went to Miami, but I hate Urban Meyer. And then all of it proven by his actions in Jacksonville. This guy has been a jerk for so long, and he screwed up Trevor Lawrence.

And Schaefer, how do you feel about my Urban Meyer rant? Well, I understand it because you went to Miami. And back when you guys were good, you guys could be good this year. We'll see. But back when you guys were good, you guys had some scummy players on that team as well. So maybe that's the thing. You need scumbags to win in college football. I don't know.

That's heard that argument before. Yeah, since Florida cleaned it up there. I mean, we haven't been good in a long time, we're on our what fourth coach and how many years so he he was all about winning he was a win at all costs coach and oh yeah yeah and which was exactly what miami was the only time they've been good in your lifetime uh yeah that's fine i i don't honestly you criticize all you want every team has urban meyer was a different breed he really was he just he didn't care about all these violations uh you know and i just but you think that the hurricanes did i think it's not just the hurricanes i think urban meyer stood out above. He just was a different breed

of lawlessness. And then look at his time in Jacksonville. He kicked someone. I have read some long-form pieces about Miami in the 80s and 90s that I really think maybe you should have read. This is not about Florida. This is about Urban Meyer. He wasn't only the coach of Miami. He kicked someone. He got caught doing that thing in the bar i mean like that was all in one year with jacksonville the guy sucks i'm sorry well there weren't cameras and everything back in miami's heyday this isn't about my why did i bring you on shafer everybody didn't have an iphone so i don't know i i like urban meyer just because he won us two national championships. Terrible person. Probably, you know, a scumbag. Thank you.

All right. Confirmed. All right. All right. Let's go on to Heath Sleepers here. We'll take a 30-second break for Paramount Plus right here. Check out what's coming up on Paramount Plus, and we'll talk about Heath Sleepers. Welcome back.

All right. Heath likes Justin Fields and Carson Wentz as sleepers. Man, I'm starting to feel like there's going to be some blowback for what I said about Urban Meyer. I was thinking that the entire time you were talking. He's just the worst. All right, Justin Fields as a sleeper. He is QB 17 in average draft position right now

and certainly doesn't have the momentum that that that trevor that trey lance because you know once upon a time it was hey who do you like better fields or lance now it's not even a question for most people so yeah you like justin fields this weekend was the first time that i moved lance ahead of fields but i have them qb 12 and qb 13 um i have plenty of questions about both of them if passers think either one of them could finish the year third amongst quarterbacks in rushing yards behind Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts maybe even one of them gets ahead of Jalen Hurts if Hurts is going to throw the ball 600 times but we saw it last year his final seven starts he averaged more than 50 rushing yards per game I wish that they would go get

Will Fuller and Will Fuller, and Will Fuller could be healthy, and he could have a good number two wide receiver. Maybe they'll find a number two wide receiver over the next couple of weeks. His weapons concern me, but I think Fields has a very good chance to be a top 12 quarterback.

Okay, yeah. His 17-game pace based on his nine healthy starts was 686 rushing yards. And he's shown the ability to rush for a lot more than that. I mean, it was almost a thousand yards in his last six healthy starts. So, uh, Justin Fields,

QB 17 right now, Carson Wentz is QB 24. Is he anything more than a two QB guy? I mean, nobody's going. Is he anything more than a two QB guy? I mean, nobody's going to draft him as more than a two QB guy, but this is a guy who I think his worst finish is QB 14 in seasons that he's played at least 14 games. And he did finish as a high end number two quarterback last year. And I could make an argument that he might throw the ball a hundred times more than he did last year because of the difference from going Indianapolis to Washington. And I could make the argument that he has the best set of pass catchers

that he's ever had in his life, especially a wide receiver with Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson, who I think is really special. So I do think he is undervalued. I will put him in the same tier as Derek Carr and Jameis Winston, and everyone will get mad at me about it. I think he's of great value in two quarterback leagues and not a bad stream-to-start guy if you really wait that long. He faces Jacksonville in week one.

I also love how you say Derek Carr and Jameis Winston are just definitely at the same tier. I don't know that anyone else thinks that. Well, I know because Jameis Winston's had a top five fantasy season, and Derek Carr's never really shown us that. You always say that, but that's so unfair because if you like the player, you wouldn't care about his past. I mean, are you ranking? No, I don't think that's true.

For players that have been in the league for five, seven, 10 years, I do care if they have shown us the ability to do something in the past. Often when guys have career years at age 28, 29, 30, I am the low guy on them the following year. I do think what guys have done

throughout their 20s matter when they're in their 30s. Yeah, it does. But that's a silly argument because Jameis Winston had a top five quarterback season when he, I believe, led the NFL in pass attempts on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So nobody thinks he's got that potential now with this. And you don't either. I'm not saying that you do.

But Derek Carr, I mean, the appeal of Derek Carr is that he just got Devontae Adams. So it's just different circumstances. Yeah. Yeah. Jameis Winston's got Michael Thomas, Chris Alon, and Jarvis Landry. Jameis is a good sleeper too, right? I mean, Jameis could definitely help you win. It's just not exciting, but he can help you. All right, how about Naeem Hines?

Where are you on Naeem Hines right now? He is currently RB43 on Fantasy Pros and RB41 on NFC over the past week and even over the past two days, RB41, about 120th overall. Naeem Hines. When you go zero RB, you should have a combination of guys

who you think could hit it big with an injury and guys who can be possible low-end starters for you without one. And Hines falls into that second group. I've got him in the RB 32, 33 range. I expect a bounce back more to what, maybe not all the way, but close to what we saw two years ago from Hines when he was, I believe, a top 20 running back for the season and RB 30 on a per-game basis.

I think we'll see more catches because for one reason we're going to see more pass attempts from the colts frank reich's even talked about that so a good bounce back and i like the fact that it looks like if something happens to taylor that we might see 15 touches a game from heinz he may have more of that he He's not Kareem hunt, but more of that Kareem hunt flex with Taylor starter top 15 back, maybe without him. So should I spend a mid to late round pick? Depends. Okay.

After round eight, pick on James Robinson or Naeem Hines. I would take Heinz over Robinson and we should probably let Dave speak negatively about Heinz. Cause he's about ready to burst at the seams. I'm not ready to burst at the seams. I'm not ready to burst at the seams. I've enjoyed just sitting back. And I think this is the longest I've gone without participating in the podcast in my entire career.

So thanks for the break. I know. I liked it, though. The Urban Meyer, Adam unleashed hell on Urban Meyer. Heath dropped bombs on his sleepers. This was fun to listen to. It was cool. I disagree on Urban Meyer. Heath dropped bombs on his sleepers. This was fun to listen to. It was cool. I disagree on Hines.

I think that he's a good passing downs back, but I don't know if he's got the upside to be any better than a number three fantasy running back. Because of that upside cap, I'm not as excited to take him. I'd rather take a chance on Robinson's upside before I would go with Naheem Hines upside. And as for Justin Fields, I'm wondering on Fields a little bit because I thought he played. I thought he processed a lot better in the preseason game. I thought he got rid of the ball a little bit faster. I'm scared to death of that offensive line, but a bad offensive line could

lead to more rushing, which leads to more fantasy points. So what have I said about Trey Lance all along is that there isn't a player in fantasy with as much upside as Lance once you get to round 10. I think it's clear that there isn't a quarterback with as much upside as Justin Fields by the time you get to round 11. So Fields to me is someone, let's say you just, you miss on Trey Lance, boom, you just go with Justin Fields next. And you hope that his receivers make plays for him. Moody made a hell of a catch in that preseason game. So did Tajay Sharp.

And they weren't bad, badly thrown balls. One of them was, it looked like a bad decision by Fields, but I think he's got potential to have a pretty good year after all. I didn't know that Heath had a dog. You learn something new about your co-workers every day. Yeah. It's really been a fine performance for my household in terms of getting a podcast out today. Well, I mean, you've been doing this at home for three years now, and I never knew you had a dog, so that's pretty good. Take a bow. Take a bark. Nae's pretty good. I take a bow, take a bark. You know, Naeem Hines, I just want to say my favorite format to draft a guy like Naeem Hines is a 14 team PPR

league, a consistent contributor that you can use as a flex. And I will target those past catching running backs in that type of format. But even if you know where he went in a 14 team PPR draft that I was in on Saturday? No, where? Take a guess. Well, the way you're saying it, I'm going to guess it's round 6. Round 9. Oh my god, that's a great pick in a 14 team league.

It's 3 receivers and 3 flex. I love it. I just drafted him in our Ras Ball. My Ras Ball league. In a full ppr league 12 teams i do think that deeper format does help him um even two flexes yeah that's what ras ball is yeah um and it's best ball and like you said if jonathan taylor gets hurt it does seem like like he might have more work than we may have thought jam Jamal Williams is RB50 on Fantasy Pros. And this part of your DeAndre Swift was a loser take,

I guess, is that Jamal Williams is a winner. I just don't think Jamal Williams is going away. And both Jamal Williams and DeAndre Swift have had a hard time staying healthy. But when we saw Williams without Swift last year, we saw he's going to get a big workload if there's no DeAndre Swift. He's got a chance to score touchdowns and maybe give you, what,

50 to 60 yards when Swift is healthy with a couple of catches. So he doesn't have the target upside that Hines does, but I think he gets more carries even when Swift is healthy than Hines. And if something happens to Swift, he might get 18 carries a game. Would you rather have Jamal Williams or Ken Walker? Walker. I would rather have Walker. Okay, Jamal Williams or Melvin Gordon?

Oh, Melvin. Melvin's in the cream hunt range for me. Okay, Jamal Williams or Alexander Madison? Jamal. Madison. Okay, obviously they're very different players. If Swift gets hurt

and Cook get hurt, how much better is Madison than Williams? Much. I think I would bet on Madison being a top 10 running back in that situation and Williams being somewhere between 10 and 20. Okay. Let's talk about some young wide receivers that you like. George Pickens, you already talked about.

Jalen Tolbert and Nico Collins. How do you rank George Pickens, Jalen Tolbert of the Cowboys, Nico Collins of the Houston Texans? Yeah, I've got projections versus rankings different here, but I will go Pickens, Collins, Tolbert. And I really, I would expect, I mean, we've heard Jacob Gibbs talk about how Brandon Cook's target share was negatively affected by Collins last year.

There's nobody else on this team that you could say that about. It's a two-man pass-catching core. So I do think that Collins could be a high-end flex, maybe a borderline number three if things go right and Cook stays healthy. And if something happens to Cooks, I believe he could be a high-end number three or a low-end number two wide receiver. Tolbert has a chance to start the year off in that range, but I don't have a lot. I think he's more of a short-term player, maybe somebody you pair with DeAndre Hopkins at least to get you off to the start of the year.

Okay. Yeah, if you heard our Jalen Tolbert profile over the weekend, a lot of air yards in college, a lot of target share, more so than almost any, the combination of two, more so than almost any receivers in college football. Jacob Gibbs loves Jalen Tolbert. Nico Collins is a guy who, 6'4", 215 pounds, ran a 4.43. He's a big outside receiver and didn't do a ton last year,

but obviously has a great opportunity with the Texans. It was a third-round pick in 2021. The two tight ends that Heath already talked about were Irv Smith and Tyler Higbee as sleepers. And that is more or less going to do it. I want to give you guys one sleeper. You may not have heard of this guy. Kind of young, hopefully finding his footing. But I like the offense that he's on.

Julio Jones. Look him up. He is currently wide receiver. That's a great call. He's wide receiver 63. And you can talk about all these young, unproven guys are very exciting. Don't sleep on Julio Jones.

He's going just before Romeo Dobbs, for example, over the last week on NFC. And yeah, I think this is sleepers win you weeks, breakouts win you leagues. I don't think Julio Jones is going to win you your league. I do think there's going to be

some big weeks for Julio Jones. And yeah, I think he's a sleeper. I'd get him. Would you guys rather Julio Jones or George Pickens, Jalen Tolbert, and Nico Collins? I am double checking to see where I have him ranked compared to Pickens. I have Julio ranked ahead of Pickens. I don't know if I'm going to stand by that,

but I'd say they're close and ahead of the other guys. A couple of other sleepers that seem to fall further every draft we do, especially if you have IR spots, Gallup and Jamison Williams. Oh, boy, did you just segue into our emails? Because Mark wants to know, do you have a recommendation for final round IR stashes? Gallup won't be there.

Williams might be there. Gus Edwards should be there. Odell Beckham should be there. You don't have to wait until the last round. Odell Beckham will not be there because he's not on a roster. Oh, true. You can't put him on the IR. Oh, that's right. You're absolutely right. You don't have to wait until the final round to take an IR guy. If you like Michael Gallup, for example, take him in the third to last round

or something like that. Don't take him over great players, but you don't have to wait until the very end. Is Christian Watson on anything right now? He's on the field. No, he is off the pub.

Okay. I know he was doing some side work, but he's, I didn't know from no name. Dave, give me a name in a city. Devante from Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Dear Sean, Pete, Cliff, and Kyle. Oh, those are coaches. Sean McVay, Cliff Kingsbury, Kyle Shanahan. Oh, NFC, the NFC West. Oh, those are coaches. Sean McVay, Cliff Kingsbury, Kyle Shanahan.

Oh, NFC West. There we go. I keep hearing Debo drop slowly down the rankings as the offseason goes on. But he finished as wide receiver three in PPR last year.

I understand he's the number one regression candidate in the league, but is there really 20-plus guys with more upside? Well, no. We're not saying he's not a top 20 receiver, but does anybody want to... I think we're saying he's not a top 20 pick is what he's referencing.

Oh, okay. Are there 20-plus guys? Then that's a good question. Are there 20-plus guys with more upside than Deebo Samuel? I don't think anybody's questioning his talent or his role in San Francisco. I think everybody's questioning whether or not he can do what he just did again. Tons of rushing touchdowns on top of receiving touchdowns. Seems a little hard to believe.

Kyle Shanahan says he's going to keep using him as a runner. He wants to scheme him up and use him more as a matchup-based runner, not as a typical running back like he did last year. He wants to keep that wear and tear off of him. I'm sure they're going to scheme him up in the passing game a lot. The thing is,

I actually think it's a good call that Debo Samuel might have that there may not be 20 players who have more upside than Debo Samuel, but that's not how you rank it because we think he has more downside than the fantasy community thinks. But I have him at pick 22,

so it's not like I... Okay. I struggle with him and Swift. Does he have more downside than DeAndre Swift does? I don't know. It's hard to make that argument. I think Swift's got more upside so that's an

easy one for me man i have a hard time seeing how swift could have a better year than samuel did last year i don't think samuel has the year that he had last year all right this is from t bro from the gateway to the midwest that's st louis wait i thought st louis is the gateway to the west gateway to the west what's the gateway to the Midwest. I thought St. Louis is the gateway to the West. Gateway to the West, right. What's the gateway to the Midwest? Heath, you need to know this from the Midwest. I do not even agree with everyone about what constitutes the Midwest. So I would be a bad person to choose.

It makes no sense at all to me that we've decided that like half of the northeast quadrant of the country is in the Midwest. Like what? I would say like Memphis. Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, western Pennsylvania. People call this the Midwest. Yeah, I get it. No, I mean, that's the Rust Belt, isn't it? Ohio, definitely.

Northern Ohio is the Rust Belt. Ohio is not the Midwest. Yeah, I agree with you. If people think that, then they're cray. All right, so T-Bro says, we just completed our 10-team PPR redraft last night. First time using FAB. Do you change your bench strategy when you have a FAB league instead of a regular waiver league?

No. I mean, not during the draft right thankfully most of my think it's easier to do zero RB in a fab league than it is in a regular waivers League because if you do zero RB and then you win a couple games to start the year, you may not ever get a chance at the waiver wire running packs. Right. Whereas if you know you really need RBs, you spend big on that first one that comes out. Thankfully, we have almost no non-fab leagues left.

In our, like for us? Right. We like the fab. I got to tell you, I like fab too, but when you're in a lot of leagues, I do not want all of them to be fab. It is more work and more time. That is the appeal of waivers.

It would be like if all of our leagues were salary cap drafts. That would be torture. From Kyle, picking 101, 12-team PPR. I want to take Taylor, then AJ Brown, and Kyle Pitts with my first three picks. Is that too early for Pitts and Brown? Really for Pitts? It is for Pitts.

I will say his name... This guy's name is Kyle, so he might want to draft a Kyle. Does that make any difference? If he's going to take Kyle, you should check with his last pick. If he could spell it. All right, so it's too early.

So 25th overall is too early for Pitts. It's too early for Pitts, and Andrews might be there. And I'm not taking A.J. Brown at 24th either. But... Yeah, it's probably going to be a receiver better than that there. The only argument that I'll give you for Pitts is if Andrews is gone

and then you don't think Kittle or Waller will be there at the end of round four for your next pick, I wouldn't take Pitts 25th, but that is the case. All right. How do you value tight ends and quarterbacks differently in 10 versus 12 team leagues?

That question is from Khan. Khan! You tend to take the superstars a little bit earlier at quarterback in a 10 team league. Kelsey, it's the same thing. You're going to take him late first, early second. Andrews will probably go in the second round in a 10 team league. Someone will want to grab him. But that's really it. The superstars go just a little bit earlier in a 10-team league because more talent at running back and wide receiver drop because smaller rounds,

fewer managers, fewer drafters. Yeah, I'd take Kelsey and Andrews in the top four quarterbacks earlier. But if I missed those guys, I would wait until the very last round because there's going to be good quarterbacks left. And I just want to clarify. It's not that I think the university of Florida did anything that the university of Miami or all other schools don't do. It's specific. I don't think you should go any further than that.

I think you should just stop right there. It is specific to urban Meyer. I just thought he was a rare breed. So I was right. And you were right about what? That you should have just stopped. No, why? Why?

We are so politically correct on this podcast. I'm not saying anything bad. I'm just not an Urban Meyer guy. Not at all. All right, we're out of here. That's fine. Yeah. We are out of here, everybody. We'll talk to you

tomorrow. Actually, we'll talk to you tonight with a live mock draft at 8 p.m. Eastern right here on youtube.com slash fantasy football today. And we'll have busts on Wednesday, breakouts on Thursday. Have a good one.