Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - 2nd Half Sleepers + Hopkins Traded! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/23

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Rest of season trade targets on today’s fantasy football podcast! 2nd Half Sleeper picks, Hopkins trade reactions and more. Plus, Hungry For More players, injury news, and a preview of Thursday Night Football. Get ready for Week 8 fantasy football! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for October 23rd, 2024. (00:00) - Intro (07:55) - Hungry For More (08:15) - Javonte Williams (12:00) - Cedric Tillman (16:20) - Kareem Hunt (20:15) - NFL News (33:45) - Second Half Sleepers (33:50) - Andy’s Sleeper (41:10) - George Pickens (45:00) - Dak Prescott (51:15) - Vikings at Rams Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: Hungry For More presented by Uber Eats News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Monopoly is back at McDonald's, everybody. This is an alert. It's time to get back to Mickey D's. Monopoly Double Play is back at McDonald's, and it's easy to get into the win. First, you peel on pack, and then again in the app. There are millions of prizes to be won,

including a new chance to win cash every minute in the app. Get into the game with Monopoly Double Play at McDonald's. While supplies last, one in five chances to win game piece prizes at outset, chances to win Double Play prizes based on time of code entry, and draw prizes based on number of entries in each draw. See rules in the app. Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike, the Fantasy Hitman. Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, Wednesday edition. Always a lot going on to talk about, and today is no exception. More wide receivers on the move in the NFL, so we'll talk about that on today's show. I know we're all sitting here waiting for waivers to go

through in our League of Record and all of you out there listening, it was waiver day and it's a good time to remind you to drop it like it's hot because we've got players that are going to hit the waiver wire today because you got to make choices. You've got to make decisions.

There are players to be dropped. It looks like the most fab was spent on Jalen McMillan in our league. Guilty. In most leagues, I think that'll be the case. In super flex leagues, Jameis was the prize. Cade Otten also arriving on Mike's roster. Yeah. Kate Otten's on the block, everybody.

Jason overspent on Troy Franklin. Not a surprise. No. Impossible. Impossible. I did not overspend on Franklin. I acquired Troy. Wait, we gave you that button?

Oh, yeah, baby. He spent four times the amount of the next highest bid. But, you know, the trade offers today, or I'm sorry, the NFL trades today will have implications, too, as I see Juju Smith-Schuster hitting the waiver wire in our League of Record as well. So it's always good to get a lay of the land and see what's going on. I do want to share that, you share that I did not compete in today's festivities. My team is too good to need players from the waiver wire. And also very little fab. But I was looking to acquire more fab.

You should have no fab. You should have zero fab. That's what I was going to get into. So yesterday I left work a little early. I had to fill in the gap. One of my kids was at an orthodontist, and they pulled that we're starting your appointment an hour and a half after you arrived. Oh, that is nasty. What's the point of appointments?

They were very apologetic. Good. But my daughter was getting braces on and my wife was stuck at the orthodontist and my son needed to be picked up you know there's a lot going on very busy time you know i'm a responsible father let me go over to deucer's alley over here the man in the hat hidden behind his own shame and so so I'm driving around. Not me. No, not you today. It's the Falcon. The Falcon.

That's pride, not shame. So I'm driving around, and I had put a little note out into our League of Record that I was just trying to pick up some fab. It was like, if anybody wants Michael Wilson, any fab offer will do. And I get a sweet offer. I was shocked. I was like, this guy is hitting the waiver wire. I'm shocked.

And I got an offer, Michael Wilson, for $5 a fab. Smashed except. Smashed except. I wanted that five fab. Little did I realize. Keep in mind, Andy had $5 a fab at the time. That's all I had left. This was going to double his fab.

That's why you needed fab. This is why I needed fab. Little did I realize that when I smashed except driving being a responsible dad picking up my son i don't got time to focus on looking at trades and driving yeah that's a hard okay technically i was parked okay i was in the line all right all right driveline is acceptable yeah yeah you trade but don't trade in driveline is what I'm learning because the offer that the Falcon. Falcon hadn't ever sent me an offer in Sleeper ever. I had to do the accept.

You know how when someone first sends you a deal to trade with you, they're like, do you accept this message? So this is his debut. Yeah, it's a collect call. He had sent me Michael Wilson and my $5 for nothing. I can't even believe Sleeper allows you to put that in the system, but they do. So I paid $5 of fab to send Michael Wilson. You were one of those teams that were paying for someone to take this player off my roster.

A lot of leagues would say that's on you. Yeah, not this one. Who's the commissioner of our league? I am. It's funny because I remember years ago, we talked about it on this show. It was our listener league. I am. It's funny because I remember years ago, we talked about it on this show. It was our listener league. I made a trade

for D. Johnson and I got Duke Johnson instead of David Johnson. I took that on the chin. I said, that's on me. I should have looked at the trade better and I kept it. I didn't reverse it. Is that your actual position on this thing? Because I assumed it wasn't. No, it wasn't. I love giving you it. Well, Abby, is that your actual position on this thing? Because I assumed it wasn't. No. No, it wasn't.

I love giving you grief about it, but you saw it. You know, immediately the whole league is laughing at you. Oh, my gosh. That was a mistake. It was very funny. It was a clear mistake. It was a great laugh. But, like, people, if this happens in your league,

because I know that there are some people out there listening that's like, no, Andy should not be allowed to undo that. Yes, he should. It's like that. Like, let accidents be undone. If someone drops a player i saw someone uh tweet this out they they had a player hit waivers they dropped them but they don't have any league rules allowing you to undo it here's your league rule i'm telling you this is your league rule if you have a league if it happens if an accident happens immediately, I'm not talking like the next day or eight hours later, but like when the accident happens, someone goes, oh, whoops,

I didn't mean to do this thing. Undo it. This is like, come on. Now, I don't know. Al over there is saying that it's just my fault. I didn't pay attention. And I guess that's true. It is true, but I don't actually think it should have stood.

Oh, it was funny. It was a great troll. It was so funny. I want to know, though, before we get the show started, it's jam-packed, but Falcon, what demented spirit conjured up this offer in the afternoon? I had just left. Like, what? Did you? Was this strategic?

Like, this will be a real. Like, I know I pay you to work here, but you were doing something else? No, I was just on the bathroom. Of course. Of course. Of course. I was like, this will be kind of funny. That's where he does his best thinking. I mean, look, you said any fab.

Negative. Right. No. Negative fab is any fab. There is just that what entertained me the most was the thought that he was sitting there thinking, this will be funny. Like, I'll be able to do this, and he'll probably click accept. And he was right.

Yeah, Papa Josh said, regret is not reversible. Accidents are. That's right. That's a good way to put it. All right, congratulations to, can you read the name of the Megalobowl leader for me? It is, let me get back to the top. It is Nels8912.

That's the current leader in our Megalobowl out of 20,000 participants. I'm having a pretty good Megalobowl year. I don't know about you guys. I'm sitting at 11-3. Okay. Very nice. Lamar Jackson, thank you. Thank you very much.

Marvin Harrison, no thank you to you. Yay. But congrats to Nels, who's leading the Meggaloball yeah has the falcon fallen all the way out of contention um i still have a lot of points my record's just not as good okay yeah uh what else do we got going on we got some hungry for more welcome to hungry More, presented by Uber Eats. Some interesting names on today's segment. I will start with a player that probably categorizes as starving for more over the last several years. Javante Williams. Yeah.

What I saw for the first time in the Sean Payton era this past week was the plan coming to fruition. Sean Payton has been a historically great coach when it comes to running the football and letting that establish the offense and putting up points. And I recognize that this was a bit of, you know, that New Orleans did not play well. Their defense is not playing well.

But 17 opportunities for Javante. He looked explosive for the first time in two years. And if the plan can be executed by Sean Payton, it seems like it's going to be Javante. I mean, Jaleel McLaughlin has shown his limitations this year. He's not on the field a lot. Estimates fumbled multiple times. Javante looks good. And this week, you could have a real back-to-back big-time

performance. In fact, I think Mike, who had a slow start in League of Record due to injuries, I think he is percolating with optimism and hope. I'm feeling a lot better. Because he's made some moves. I mean, the fab spins today tell me this is a man

hungry for more wins and Javante may be a key part of that. Yeah, so the Dynasty podcast on the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty show came out today, and every week on that episode, we do a deep film dive on three different players from a Dynasty perspective. Mine was Javante Williams. I went back and I watched every snap from this last week, and then I wanted to see more.

So I watched every snap from the week before, and then I wanted to see more. So I watched every snap from the week before, the week before that, the week before that. I looked at the last month of Javante Williams to kind of see, is he improving? Is his explosiveness coming home? He's got a little bit more broken tackle rate, but certainly nowhere near the 2021 pre-injury Javante, you know, broken tackle rate that he had.

My takeaway was this. Yeah, I'm curious about this. He is an average NFL running back. I didn't see anything that was special. He didn't break a bunch of one-on-one tackles, but he will 100% get what is blocked for him. And the offensive line and the system is starting to come together. Mike McGlinchey, their right tackle, who is their highest-paid player, he came back from injury and dominated. It made their right guard so much better. Their right guard sucked the previous three games.

And then all of a sudden, you see the right side of the line, which they are running to, I believe, the second most in the NFL for just cause, opening up holes. And when you do that, Javante, he is a big, strong back, so he can get that head of steam and go pick up 8-12 yards on a single carry. We saw that a couple times. So yeah, this week against Carolina, they're going to be opening up

some holes. I think it'll be a meal. It'll be a nice meal. The way that I view Javante is a solid RB2 going forward. He should get the opportunities, 17 opportunities this last week, but he did not strike me as special and healthy and like, oh, he's back, baby. It was like,

he's going to be a good matchup play, and hopefully the offense, it's a young, young offense. You've got three rookies at skill position players out there almost the majority of snaps, and so, one of which being your quarterback, they should get better as the season goes along, but bad matchups will be tough for him all right uh so giovante is my

my entry to hungry for more mike who do you have i got cedric tillman we talked about him a decent amount yesterday on the waiver show cleveland brown's second year wide receiver he was a third round pick just a couple years ago and he in that draft class, he was like the only prototypical outside wide receiver. He's 6'3", 215. So this is a bigger guy. The rookie year was bad. It was bad. The raw production was bad.

The peripherals were bad. But the Cleveland Browns passing game was just, it was bad. The raw production was bad. The peripherals were bad, but the Cleveland Browns passing game has just, I mean, aside from the end of last year has been very stagnant. Then this week after the trade of Amari Cooper, 12 targets, eight for 81, 82% of the snaps. He went right into a featured role for Cleveland, three targets early in the first quarter. He was involved, you know involved in the intermediate area of the field. We'd love to see that. Two end zone targets. They just didn't come through.

And the matchup now against Baltimore where people just have to throw on Baltimore. This is because Baltimore is going to put up so many points on you. And then the big news, had you not seen it, Jameis Winston is now the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Did you hear the explanation? I saw it. They basically said it was a game strategic game script type of decision to make DTR.

That's me winking, everybody. To put him in that position. Take it for what you will. That's big news, Winston. And there's also, there's like full Cleveland reset news going on right now, which involves the trading of David Njoku. There are three teams. Oh, I hadn't heard that one yet.

There are three teams. Don't do it. Three teams that have inquired. No, no, no, no, no, no. We need Njoku. Including the Chargers. Well, okay. Very interesting. we need Najoku including the chargers well okay very interesting and Jason's stream of consciousness to the the progression of the news is very fun yeah I mean if Will Disley's out there

getting 11 targets yeah okay I am not saying and I don't think we are saying that Jameis Winston is the savior of the universe for the Cleveland Browns. But Watson had been horrifically bad, like historically bad these last few years. So to me, Jameis has to be an upgrade. And Jameis does crazy stuff. He throws pick sixes all the time. We've seen him. He'll get out there.

He's like Andy Dalton. He has the gunslinger mentality. And that means some bad things will happen for the Cleveland Browns, but some really good things will happen to on the offensive side of the ball, which translates then into fantasy for us. Let me give you the three teams rumored to be

connected with David Njoku as of 15 hours ago. The Chargers? You can make more sounds in association with the teams. The Colts? You can make more sounds in association with the teams. The Colts? No, no, no, no, no. Barf. And then the Broncos.

Those are the three teams. I think that would be great for the Broncos. A brilliant move. This is a team that has, or a system obviously Jimmy Graham in the past, they know how to use the tight end. Greg Dulcich hasn't gotten it done. Their schedule is very favorable, too.

Yeah, so, I mean, that would be good, but that would be a downgrade for Njoku. Right now, Njoku is the most important target on his offense. Yes, and so to bring it back to Tillman, opportunities should be there, and passing yardage above 200 is the kind of framework that we're looking for and hoping for. Cleveland's recipe the rest of this year, though, is play some defense and get lucky. Yeah, Cleveland is the only team that has not scored 20 points

in a game this season. I'm guessing that goes away this week. Denver Broncos, according to our strength of schedule, where it is schedule-adjusted, the seventh best for tight ends moving forward. That's the Broncos. Is there a more contrasting

mood change at the quarterback position than the transition from Deshaun Watson to Jameis Winston? Isn't that the greatest contrast you could ever have? Yeah. You're going from someone who like who's party do you want to go to right look there's what we have is hope we have actual hope

that the pass catchers and the offense for the browns could score more than 20 points all right jason you've got a former cleveland brown as you for more. Yeah, and a great player who is getting all the work. The utilization is blowing my mind. Troy Frank. No, it's Kareem Hunt. Kareem Hunt. The utilization is blowing your mind. You're talking about two weeks, 28 opportunities, 24 opportunities, 52 opportunities.

That's the most in the NFL. Joel Embiid would never. Back-to-back games. 38% of Kansas City's total rush attempts and targets have gone to Kareem Hunt. Now, if you're like, 38%, is that good? Is that bad? Over the last two weeks, which are the two weeks that Kareem Hunt has had a job in the NFL, that's second behind only Brees Hall.

So this is an offense that will get the job done at least. They're going to be up in most games. They're undefeated right now. Kareem Hunt's looked good, man. He's looked good running the ball. I know he's 29 years old. He's not the explosive rookie he was when he came to the Chiefs, but he is kind of a bell cow player here.

Yes, he is. They still have P. Ryan involved in some of the passing work. And, you know, they'll bring people in. But he is a really important fantasy asset. You remember Carson Steele? Oh, I sure do. That was this year. I traded for him.

And then Kareem Hunt got signed. That was a month ago. Yeah. Kareem Hunt got signed, and he said, hey, can you go get me a coffee steel yeah and steel said yes sir mr hunt don't come back right uh yeah so i'm i'm hungry for more cream hunt i've picked them up at a couple places and it has been a delightful it's funny because your your dynasty team due to injuries and underperformance had been really teetering on a disappointing start to the year and it feels like over the last two weeks

cream hunt has been the linchpin of keeping you as a top tier yeah you know it's been yeah thank you cream just i need a couple more weeks out of you let me get these guys back it's what makes dynasty league so wild is like so much conversation ends up around the top three or four or five round type of picks but then the like linchpins of championship teams often times are Jared Patterson yeah Jared Patterson or like I had Raheem Mostert three years ago when he was considered dead

Raheem Mostert's been like a fundamental part of my team for two years like when you have players that come out of the woodwork like if Kareem Hunt the rest of the season is this Kareem Hunt which it seems possible now Pacheco we did get some optimistic tweeting, but whether he's back for the playoffs, you know, that's more of the conversation.

Some of the old guys still matter in fantasy football, believe it or not, and even in dynasty leagues. Mike was a little skeptical. We were talking about this the other day. Mike was a little skeptical when I drafted. This was like, I don't know. Oh, yeah. This was like, I don't know. Oh, yeah. This was like five or six years ago.

Derek Henry, because he was an old, he was like, ah, he's going to be, you know, coming up. He's older. You used a really, it was like your second round pick and a startup for a running back who's already like near the age cliff. And there's some guys. Champ, champ, champ, champ. Some guys are true outliers.

All right. That was Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats, the official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. You can order now. Oftentimes the quantity we order determined by how the games go that day. Tell you that. All right, let's take a break, get into the news.

Let's check in Deucer's Alley real quick. Oh, okay, you're still here. Oh. The Falcon's still here. I'm proud of him. That was a good gag. Maybe he's adjusting his coffee schedule. Hold it.

Hold it. Squeeze. Clench. Squeeze it. Hold it. Squeeze. Clench. Squeeze tight. Stay in. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Jason wasn't done with the poop jokes.

No, he wasn't done with the joke. You doing okay, Falcon? Yeah, I actually did adjust my coffee schedule. Oh, fantastic. Look at you putting work first. Incredible. He adjusted it to not drinking it anymore. Wake up a bit earlier, brother.

All right. The big news this morning, although there is more than one story, the Chiefs, who had been rumored around Cooper Cup or adding a wide receiver after the Juju Smith-Schuster injury news, after the Marquise Brown injury news, after the Rashad, uh, Rashi Rice injury news. They have acquired the Andre Hopkins veteran wide receiver from the Titans who escapes the clutches of Will Levis and arrives, uh, to a quarterback with more interceptions. Um, the Titans get a fifth-round draft pick.

Is that real? Oh, yeah. No, he has more than Will Levis? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Levis has missed some games. Yeah, yeah. Levis is an equal opportunity turnover guy. He'll do the fumbles too.

Right, so more turnovers, just fewer picks. So DeAndre Hopkins arrives with the Chiefs. I put a tweet out this morning immediately upon the news asking the question, rest of season DeAndre Hopkins is the wide receiver blank? I had a number? I am curious what your number would be. I don't know if you want me to share it first. I'll write mine down.

Mike, you got it in your head? I'm thinking about it. He is... Just an initial reaction. This is not like, please please this is not like a guarantee right we don't know he was the only some injury um i'll tell you the number then you guys tell me what you're thinking my number was 16 okay jason your number 20 20 20 25 25 okay so there's your range. Initial reaction range. We already saw this last week.

Our leagues were filled with trades that included Devontae Adams and Amari Cooper. Because people with news, it's exciting. If I had DeAndre Hopkins, I would be trying to trade him on the news of being with Patrick Mahomes. While we were sitting here, literally while you were asking that question, I get a sleeper alert that DeAndre Hopkins in our Dynasty League has been added to the trade block like of course i mean that's what you should do if you've got hopkins if people want to trade high and hot for him thinking he's going to be rushy rice then then trade him at that value because again we talk about this a lot if you're trading on hype if you're trading on value, then let's say he hits. Well,

presumably you received back something that was worthy of that. But if he doesn't hit, you received something back that was worthy of more. So I would always trade back. He just hit the trading block in League of Record. Oh, of course. Yeah, that makes sense. So I guess I'm the most bullish of that situation. I just see the need as desperate. I mean, last week, Noah Gray outperformed Travis Kelsey in that offense. You don't have, like, we can all kind of commentate on Patrick Mahomes' inability to put up fantasy points. I don't know if anybody could with this current receiving group,

and Xavier Worthy was not going to be somebody they can lean on like Worthy and McCall Hardman they work great when you're putting the game plan together and creating cool goal line plays like their gadgetry you know what I mean they're not the main tool in the tool belt Hopkins is a sure-handed, route-running, reliable possession receiver at this stage of his career. I think you're going to have six for 60 in the can. If he gets in the end zone, you're happy, and I think you will every other week. I think you're probably not far off there. This version of Hopkins is he's slower. He doesn't separate as much. He's not explosive. You're not going to get an 80-yard touchdown. But if you compare this version of DeAndre Hopkins to current version, or at least two weeks ago version, of Juju Smith-Schuster, Hopkins is way better. He looks better in his routes and his fluidity.

His hands are awesome. So Juju has proven in this offense that once you're acclimated, Juju knew this offense. And so that's something that is worth paying attention to. They brought Juju back because he was already part of this system, this offense for an entire year. Same with Kareem Hunt. This is new for Hopkins. So he's going to take a little bit more time to get plugged into the system. However, he is better than Juju.

So I do think in a couple weeks you're going to have a wide receiver too going forward. The Saints surprised everybody by not trading Alvin Kamara but extending him. A two-year 24.5 extension. It puts him under contract through 2026. If you remember, because this was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. Well, first thing I thought was, oh. But the second thing I thought was, this was a player who chose not to hold out in the preseason and camp, and yet it was rumored that he would.

Because he wanted an adjustment to his contract. I don't know if this is the team kind of completing the sentence there, where he, in good faith, showed up. And so the team, in good faith showed up and so the team in good faith continued to navigate the cap and put him on the team i am a little bit surprised that this is the move uh so the saints had what a wild franchise i if you want to know how little you and me all of us understand about the salary cap just look at the the new orleans saints who have no money and always give their guys a ton of money but that's years down the road they kick the can down the road so much it's unfathomable um it's you know they've got zero

percent apr on they're loading these credit cards i i i don't know i I think they're still paying for Drew Brees for like 12 more years. So this is a cap move for them that they believe is smart. And for about eight years, we've said it's going to come calling and someday it will. But as the cap keeps increasing the next year and the next year and the next year, they're always okay enough to put together a solid roster. And so maybe they'll be fine forever. They have been for long enough. But it's just wild, man. I can't believe that a team that is so cap strapped is like,

hey, you want some more money? It's very, very weird. Hey, old running back, you want some more money? I think that the Giants might have been well advised to follow this principle with Saquon Barkley in the offseason, perhaps kicking some cans down the road and paying him an extra $2 million to keep him on the team. But Kamara, not heading out the door.

Saquon and neighbors with that defense, they could actually be a competitive team. They were like a Saquon away if they could just pick one up uh jamis winston we talked about it he's going to start we also got word that the browns are going to let ken dorsey start calling all offensive plays moving forward they were 13th in pass rate last year buffalo was with ken dorsey calling plays that is part of his calling card that only helps the equation with jamisis Winston. Listen to this, boys. Tua Tungavailoa expected to practice in full today. He's playing against the Cardinals.

That is the expectation, I think, all of us. If you look at the betting lines, right now, unless there's a setback, Tua will start this week, which is glorious news for everyone. Your Wad your hill hn mostert and i hope for him yes i really do it's it's one of those things where you live your whole life with the joy of playing the game you love and you're 26 well how old is he i don't know well if you're concerned if you yeah no one knows his mom is unsure. Let's see. Yeah, 26.6. Yeah. You know, to his health should come first for sure.

I know Mike McDaniels talked about like that coming for, and that's why they're going to start him against Arizona Cardinals. Because they're like, where should, what team could we hand select to make sure he does not. It's like a preseason game. Right. The Cardinals sacked Justin Herbert a handful of times last week. Their defense was wildly okay last week.

It was the black jerseys. They were feeling. Yeah, it made no sense. You couldn't run on them last week. Their pass rush was coming despite no personnel to do it. So it's mostly a joke. Maybe they're figuring something out with a defensive head coach, but I doubt it.

I think it's probably Monday night football at home. Big, rare opportunity. Human beings get up for that. And Dennis Gardak tore his ACL. The linebacker that was playing well for the Cardinals. Just another injury there. Although Darius Robinson should be coming back on the defensive line soon. Mike Evans

expected to be out until after the team's week 11 bye. They did not put him on IR. because of that bye week i think i think they're looking at this like a four-week injury but because their bye week is in there he might only miss three games do you feel confident that he'll be back after the bye and do you feel confident that i mean when you take godwin off the table for the remainder of the season are we missing an op like is mike Mike Evans a player you'd go acquire today if you're a contending team, knowing that, look,

your playoffs are not until 15 to 17. I mean, that is a long ways from now. It's a massive amount of risk. And Baker's a tremendous – he's having a tremendous season where Evans will be the primary target when they're competing in this division. You're not going to acquire Mike Evans for nothing, so it's going to cost your team something,

and then you don't get anything for a month in the hopes that when he comes back he doesn't re-aggravate. I'm not taking that risk now. If you're telling me three weeks from now, when he's on by, and you're a contending team, if you want to try to take that risk then, sure. I think the price is lower now, and he has to go on to IR. Yeah, I mean, if you've got an ir spot and it costs you nothing well fine but if you've got to give up something and you're not going to get the player for a month that's real tough pill to

swallow and yes during the week fantasy football wise you'll be able to put him on your ir but i imagine he's going to be one of those players where it's Wednesday rolls around and it's like, oh, he's questionable. So you're going to have to deal with that. He won't just be marked out for four straight weeks. All right. Dan Quinn said Jaden Daniels is getting close to being back on the practice field. So we could get our Sunday night football. The news on Debouel released from the hospital

dealing with pneumonia we'll keep you updated on his status for this weekend andy dalton was involved in a car accident was at the team facility nobody was um from what i read nobody in the accident was taken to uh the hospital aaron rogers dealing with a hamstring injury in addition to previous ankle and knee injuries. Is this a man setting up his excuse Rolodex? I mean, what is... Maybe. I believe they're real. He's just old.

We've seen his legs getting twisted and battered in these games, so I'm sure they're real. I think the news here is he's not healthy. And so if you're trying to rely on him, oh, he's got Devontae Adams, Garrett Wilson, and Brees Hall, maybe I want to start him. You've got to be worried about the injury risk that he's carrying right now. I was looking quite extensively yesterday at our strength of schedule tool,

which at this point, it's kind of interesting to look at it broken down by playoff weeks, remaining schedule. Aaron Rodgers, Devontae Adams, can they get on the same page? Can this be a meaningful end of the season maybe? I think so. I think they will get on the same page and it will be meaningful.

I would say yes. So fantasy meaningful? Yeah, that's what I mean. I don't care about football. I mean like wins and losses. I don't care if the Jets win. For what? Who cares?

I want Jameis Winston out there throwing pick sixes so he's got to get right back on the field and throw touchdowns. The Rams have opened up the 21-day window for wide receiver Puka Nakua. Take it easy. I need him so bad. I think you might have attached too much of your future to Puka Nakua.

I'm going to go ahead and say I know I did because we're in nine leagues, probably like six that we really care about. And in those six, I got them in four. And so I've had them in none. And it's sucked. Similarly, I am also overexposed to Cooper Cup, who should be back this week on Thursday night, but many teams have inquired about trading for Cooper Cup.

You can take the Chiefs off the board there. They had inquired. They didn't want to take on the money that the Rams wanted them to take on. But Cooper Cup could get sent out of town. We've got rumors about Darnold and Matthew Stafford being traded for one another. That's the scary one for me with Puka coming back. If the Darnold-Stafford swap was made, that would be tough. But those are just rumors right now.

And to be more specific on the Cooper Cup Kansas City, it looked like the Rams were willing to pay the contract if the Chiefs were willing to give up a second. Yeah, high pick. But they were able to give up only a fifth to get Hopkins, who didn't have a big contract. That was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

We have a special segment today. Second half sleepers. What was the expression you used yesterday, Jason, when I told you who my second half sleeper might be on the show? Oh, I said, I just want you to know you don't have to do that yeah you don't have to pick him is that a similar feeling that you have mike when you've seen who i put in hey the news today was really helpful this we live in america the land of freedom you are free to do what you want are you moving forward with this yeah I'm good. Unobtainium underpants.

Hold on to your boots. You gave me the highest grade. I can't have stronger underpants for you. I feel like I would like Mike and I to leave the room. Can we blur out the faces of the innocent? You don't want to be even peripherally associated with this idea. don't think it's necessary but you might be right can i just tell you the process 17 targets over the last two weeks for this player and he happens to be the teammate of deandre hopkins who has been shipped out of town okay listen put Listen. Put them underpants on and talk, brother.

I'm not going to say the name. What I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you all of the facts. Okay. 17 targets over the last two weeks. Kind of. The number one schedule for wide receivers for the rest of

this season. That part is true. From weeks 11 through 18. so your stretch run, Minnesota, Houston, Washington, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Houston. Every one of those teams gives up more points to the wide receiver position than the average, some of them by a lot. Jacksonville two times in that stretch. So the number one schedule

not just for wide receivers, but for whomever his quarterback is, the targets will be there. Will he catch them? Will they be in the Will they be catchable is the question. This is a second half sleepers. To me, this is

a monumental downgrade from what this player was associated with to start the year. Look, I have regrets, but my second half sleeper is Calvin Ridley. Oh, you said you were going to say the name. I think he wanted to lay out the case. Yeah, you don't. I would have just said wide receiver one for the Titans.

Sure. Maybe that'll be easier for people to make that decision. There are plenty of times. 30%, 24% target share over the last two weeks. There are going to be games. There are plenty of times in fantasy football where the names betray you in both directions. Where because of a name

like Hopkins. Hopkins so far this year has had one reasonable game. Everything else has been like 1 point, 0 points, 4 points. I mean, the whole season. I think he had negative yards last week. Yeah, and so I went, based on the news this morning,

and I was like, oh, okay, waivers haven't gone through. Let me go see. And I checked that Sleeper has. If you don't know about this, because I didn't know about it until this year, you can click on a player in Sleeper, and there's a little banner that says check his availability in other leagues and you can click that and you can look at all the leagues you're in and see if he's on any of the waivers he was on just none of the waiver he should have been on all of the way check the waivers for calvin ridley uh through the first

seven weeks last year these were players that were outside the top 36. Garrett Wilson, DJ Moore, Chris Godwin, Debo Samuel, Rashi Rice, DK Metcalf, Jaden Reed, T. Higgins, Amon Ross, St. Brown back in 2021. Most of those names are from this year. I was reading some from 2022. Big names and big performances, they do come

later on. All of those names that I read were like top 15 guys the back half of the year. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm just saying that everything laid out on the table is positive for the opportunity. And now DeAndre Hopkins is not even there to compete. You have to play four quarters of football. You're playing teams where the quarterback and the wide receiver literally have the best schedule. I don't know what else to tell you. That's what we do here is we tell you all the numbers that tell you

why something should work, and if it doesn't work beyond that. Blame Andy. Blame me, not Jason Mike. Blame the Falcons. But you will get the credit if it comes to this. I doubt that. Looking at, you know, preparing for this episode. Oh, I saw it.

I saw the quarterback schedule. I saw the wide receiver schedule. You saw the opportunity. You could have done this, Mike. And I went, no, thank you. He said, not today, Satan. Look, it makes so much sense. It just, it comes down to,

can they actually take advantage of the schedule that is placed before them? And that's where the risk comes in. This is, I mean, in terms of getting Calvin Ridley on your team, that's probably a low risk propagation of like, what's it going to take to get Calvin Ridley at this point? A bench player who you're like, hey, you want your insurance running back?

You're like, you just give me Calvin Ridley. You can get him so cheap. I don't think you even have to go play him right now. Just put him there and see if something materializes over the next handful of weeks. He's played, what, four games, three games with Will Levis, one with Mason Rudolph. I think we're getting another one.

With Mason? I think we're getting another Mason game this week where a difficult part for Calvin Ray. This is probably dumb to have brought up again. I'm trying to help you, man. It might, and it could be even slower, because if it's Mason Rudolph this week against Detroit, I'm not interested.

And then you have the two actual tough games remaining, the Patriots and then the Chargers, so it could be a slower start. This is really a week 11 through championship week type of a play. And by the way, 11, 12 and 14 are major bye weeks. I will say this. So if you need a bye week fill-in, that's what I'm saying. Second half sleeper. If Calvin

Ridley were on our waivers, and this is just true, and it's not true for every team, your team's chugging along, you're great, just don't worry about this. Just be happy and keep your team intact. But like for teams that are struggling with injuries, if Calvin Ridley were on waivers, I would have gone hard after him in hopes that he can develop that rapport, especially with Hopkins gone.

There is a place for him to be important for certain fantasy managers, and I think about half of every league out there, Calvin Ridley will be important for them. I mean, this is really just setting expectations right. You've got a guy who's going to get a lot of targets as the one with an easy schedule. It's not like Will Levis is not an NFL quarterback by contract. Yes. Okay.

Technically speaking. He does have an NFL contract. All right. Can we, let's move forward. Mike, why don't you hop in? All right. High-pressure situation here. High pressure makes diamonds, brother.

It does, and hopefully we get another one this year. I'm going with the wide receiver from the Pittsburgh Steelers, George Pickens. I got the only one. Well, I don't really care about the other guys there. He's not a sleeper in the sense of people don't know who he is, but his value, while it's now, the market value is up for George Pickens based off of last week. I think there's a chance that we go even higher here over the second half.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have the fifth easiest remaining wide receiver schedule. Now, this one does have a couple caveats of week eight here against the Giants. The Giants are actually negative four points above expectation, so I guess below expectation for wide receivers, and then the bye week. That part is unfortunate here for George Pickens and championship week is the Chiefs. But between then, you have this really strong stretch, like I said, the fifth easiest remaining wide receiver schedule combined with the hardest schedule remaining for fantasy running backs. And if you ask him about Jalen Warren, that's part of why I like Warren because he actually catches passes unlike Najee

where he's just going to be running into stacked boxes and things. But combined, easy schedule for wide receiver, hard schedule for running back, plus the change into Russell Wilson for George Pickens, I think that we have not just a good play, you have some really, really elite potential here moving forward. He's seen 51% of the team's air yards. That's a number that only A.J. Brown and Malik Nabors are seeing.

And those air yards, you saw it last week. Those things went through the roof compared to what we've been getting for Justin Fields. When he was the quarterback targeted on 29 percent of his routes like that's a top 10 type of a number fourth among all wide receivers and expected fantasy points per route run and again the change to Russell Wilson while I was questioning it of for the Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin looks like he was correct again and that was a hard matchup.

That was not an easy game there for Russ to be thrown into in his first game with the Steelers. So after the bye week, Washington, which we brought up of our – that's kind of up in the air still. I don't know if they're a good defense or not, but Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philly, Baltimore. This is a really, really strong run here, and I expect Pickens to kick it into turbo mode by week 11.

All right. We all see the potential with George Pickens. To see it consistently would be outrageously great. That would be awesome. The only hardship there is that that means Russell Wilson's just back. He's going to play well the rest of the season. We've seen him one game. If he plays

the way that he played for the Denver Broncos last year, which is competent for fantasy football. What was it? Courtland Sutton? Double digit touchdowns. For the Denver Broncos as a whole last year, just everything felt terrible but the play of Russell Wilson was competent like that's I can't give a higher compliment than that

but it was it was enough that if you have a star wide receiver you're gonna get fantasy production they were winning games down the stretch second half of last year but because of his contract guarantees yeah they chose to bench him so that they didn't have to pay out the rest of that contract in in a different fashion um sometimes the second half of the year lightning strikes twice sometimes lightning strikes twice sometimes it's easy and i i believe this is i think this is easy i think this is going to happen just like it happened last year and i think you've convinced me of that it is dac prescott dac prescott has pretty much he's he's super disappointed so far this year uh he hasn't you know he's had three top 12 performances okay but for the most part it's been

uh suboptimal if you compare so both both years last year and this year, week seven buys. Last year, the six games beforehand versus the six games beforehand this year, they're almost the same across the board. Completion percentage in the 60s, 222 passing yards per game last year, 267 this year. Quarterback rating, 88-85. Fantasy points per game last year, 14 a a week 15 a week this year before the bye they had a top 12 difficult passing schedule so far in this in the six games that Dak played now coming out of the bye this is a team that has the sixth easiest strength of schedule for the quarterback going forward last year they had an elite defense. This year they don't. They're going to need to score even more. And if you look at how Dak Prescott plays after the

specific matchups. So over the rest of the season, they only have two quote unquote difficult matchups at all. The whole rest of the way, as far as fantasy points given up when you compare for schedule. And those two matchups are both the Philadelphia Eagles this year, which are technically top five. But he's used to playing the Eagles. Last year against the Eagles, he had a game of 374-3 and a game of 271-2. Those are both fine matchups. And you might look and say, well, San Francisco out of the bye, that's maybe a more difficult matchup. And, you know, you might look and say, well, San Francisco out of the bye, that's maybe a more difficult matchup.

That's a good defense, generally speaking. But so far this year, they've been giving up more fantasy points over expectation than the average quarterback. And Dak is coming off a bye. Jamie Eisenberg pointed this out on Twitter, how awesome Dak has been after his bye week and seven career games after a bye. Prescott is averaging 28.1 fantasy points, and his worst outing over that entire career is 22.3 points. So I think

this is a team that can't run the ball, doesn't have a great defense anymore. Dak after the bye last year, if you don't remember, if you didn't have him and didn't experience it, also known as you didn't win the championship, he was on pace after the bye for 5,000 yards and 46 passing touchdowns. Him and Seedy were awesome. Part of that was because, and we saw this last year, he was on this episode last year because the strength of schedule coming out was like, hey, it's all green. It's green lights. It's wheels up for Dak Prescott. Well, guess what's happening this year? Same exact thing. So I think I saw him on waivers in our league of record, which is why Andy's grimacing.

You've got CD. You won the championship last year with that CD Dak stack. And I was like, I am not. I am not letting Andy get him. So I paid one more fab than you had. And you didn't go after him. So you had just spent up on Caleb after him so i was you you would just why don't you give me dac plus 10 fab for nothing i will those trades are hit they're hot

right now they're everywhere they're big time um i i think you're right and you know i guess it's somewhat comforting that i literally couldn't have gotten him right yes until today so we'll talk later all right um bonus second half sleeper picks i'm gonna throw t.j hawkinson's name out there he should be returning soon they've got the third easiest schedule for tight ends and they could use him they could use him why do i know this because johnny munt has production in the offense and he's not t.j hawkinson and and we know that t.j hawkinson passes all the tests all the time so he's ready to go he's the TJ Hawkinson. And we know that TJ Hawkinson passes all the tests all the time. So he's ready to go. He's the second half sleeper for me.

Yeah, that's pretty interesting. My guy to pay attention to is Braylon Allen. The number one rest of season schedule is the Jets. For running back. For running back. Yes. This is really a Brees Hall statement. For sure.

But obviously, Braylon Allen's out on waivers. And if something happens to Brees Hall, the matchups are so juicy, especially through the playoff weeks. Yeah, absolutely. Make sure he's rostered. Mike? And I'm throwing out a defense here. Not that I think that the Cincinnati Bengals defense is an elite by any means,

but it's rest of season. They have two bottom half remaining matchups for a DST play. And then in the playoffs, like if you're looking at who actually has good schedules in the playoffs, we got the Jaguars. You're going to play the Jags? Got the Colts. You're going to play them?

The Cardinals? Like these are not teams that I'm going to believe in. You're saying, just to be clear, those three teams have good schedules, I'm going to believe in you're saying just to be clear those three teams have good schedules but yes you don't believe in their defense right but the best the best one on paper right now is the Bengals you get the Titans

you get Cleveland and then you maybe you want to pivot away against Denver I don't know you're at home against Denver in championship week but that's what I'm saying like it's not that's the worst that's the worst. That's the worst one for that three-game run here for the Bengals. And normally we talk about, like, you want to mix and match, of course, of play the best. Like, if you can play against the Cleveland Browns all three weeks

with your defense, sure, go ahead and do that. Well, and that could change now. Yeah, that definitely could change. New offensive play caller, new quarterback. But pay attention to that DST. And before we get into the Thursday night football matchup, I just want to remind people that the rumors are out there. They're just rumors.

That there could be a potential trade of Sam Darnold for Matthew Stafford. Okay, let's go. Why are you reminding people about that? Do you not remember what the Thursday night football game is? Oh, fair. That's pretty interesting. All right, we got to take a break, then we'll hit the Thursday night preview.

Thursday night breakdown. Thursday Night Breakdown. I want to see the trade pulled off Wednesday, today, halftime. Oh my gosh, at halftime they come out in different jerseys. Minnesota at 5-1, taking on the 2-4 Los Angeles Rams, the DraftKings Sportsbook line, Minnesota. Minus 2.5 on the road, over under is 48 points the DraftKings Sportsbook line, Minnesota. Minus two and a half on the road, over under his 48 points as the third highest of the week. Mike just did a fist pump because he's happier with this than last week.

Yeah, than last week's just... Well, look, the Rams should get back Cooper Cup in this game. Some of the rumors around the Darnold-Stafford swap, you know, there's a significant age gap between Darnold and Stafford. And the rumor is that, and Jack Settleman was the first one with sources to talk about this and other sources have confirmed discussions. Kevin O'Connell and Sean McVay have that connection. They won a Super Bowl together. Matthew Stafford's 36 years old.

I believe Sam Darnold's 27. The Rams are interested in a long-term deal with Sam Darnold. And the Rams are looking at resetting kind of the timeline. Stafford is like, to put it into fantasy football dynasty terms, he's the guy you pick up because you need to win a title this year. It's not necessarily the future of your franchise, but I don't think any of us would. If Darnold's legit, that trade makes so much sense for both teams.

Well, Darnold is 5-1 playing in the Sean McVay system right now. Yeah, I mean, and balling out. It feels like a dishonoring thing to Darnold to talk about this trade, but the truth is when push comes to shove and you go to the playoffs you need Stafford you're not going to do it with Darnold yeah Darnold's not winning a Super Bowl there's not not this year genuinely the way that the Vikings defense has been playing their offensive weapons you put Stafford there I mean yeah O'Connell's won a Super Bowl with Matthew Stafford already.

It's very, very interesting. We don't know what, if anything, will happen. But for this game this week specifically, you know, Minnesota finally took an L. It was a late loss. It was a great game. It was very fun.

It was a last-second field goal, right? He did not have a great game. He was very fun. It was a last second field goal, right? It was. He did not have a great game. He was okay. He took sacks. Four of them. He threw an interception. He didn't look... You know, he looked

middle of the pack in that ball game that they lost, but the defense is so great. And he was fine. In this game specifically, start-sit decisions, you're always putting Kyron in there. He's been unbelievable. He has 24 touchdowns in his last 18 games. He's as close to betting on a touchdown guarantee as we got

since the Christian McCaffrey run. Cooper Cupps should be back out there. What does that do with the rest of the wide receiver options? It seems like it pushes them into a can't start category at least that's my impression but what do you guys think I think it's still open because the teams have to pass on the Minnesota

Vikings that's where they have ended up at least so far through the season the problem is like I mean I guess you can maybe go with 2-2 two two two at well but it like i want i want it to be jordan whittington but you had the last year or last week's debacle of he's questionable he's you know he's limited in practice and then he goes out and doesn't run a single route for the whole game i think he had like nine blocking snaps and it was injury related.

But there's four names there. Yeah, Tyler Johnson was the guy who stepped up. Seven targets, four for 57. Because Whittington didn't play. And DeMarcus and Whittington and Tutu. Those are against this defense. Yeah, I'm going to start Cooper Cup. He's going to be active. He's going

to be in my lineup. Right now on the course of the season, the Vikings' defense has been great, but so has their offense. So the other teams have to keep up. You can't run on them, and you might be down. You would expect them to be down in a game that they are, you know, literally Minnesota is favored. So Cooper Cup's going to need to throw the ball.

You can throw on them their 30th right now in schedule-adjusted fantasy points given up to the wide receiver position, averaging Minnesota Vikings, averaging 32 fantasy points per game given up. We've seen in the game where Cooper, you know, when Cooper Cup was there and Puka was injured, it's like Cooper Cup's, it felt like at least 50%, if not 75% of the wide receiver targets. He's just, he is their guy. They waited. You know, McVay talked about why he didn't play last week it wasn't because he wasn't healthy enough to play it was because he wasn't return to performance

not just return to the field exactly so Cooper Cup is like I mean I there's no world where I would not start him on any roster so Kyron and Cooper I feel like that to me is the end of that story it is to me there's there's enough other tight ends who have peaked their heads up like the Hunter Henrys and now Kate Ottens to where Colby Parkinson is not necessary. Yeah, he's more Colby Jack squat. Nice. Got him. Aaron Jones, been limited but not worried about it right now.

You know, quick turnaround from Sunday. He was dealing with an injury. He looked amazing. So he's in your lineup confidently? For sure. And then you've got Justin Jefferson. What about Jordan Addison? He has three receptions in every game he's played.

That is not great. Yeah, we could use a little more volume there. That's scary because it's kind of like if you score, you're all right. Yeah, and last week against the Lions, did he hit the one big play, a 50-yard catch? I mean, three for 66 for the type of player that he is. That's not the worst, but we've got to get these targets up. Yeah, you don't know who it is.

Jalen Naylor last week had five targets, four for 76. So Justin Jefferson is the one, obviously. I don't think Hawkinson is going to play this week. There just hasn't been enough buzz. I think we'll know early enough. There's a chance. There's a chance. My expectation right now is that he starts next week.

And if that's the case, I think it's really – this game's pretty simple in the sense that it's Justin Jefferson, Cooper Cup, Kyron Williams, and Aaron Jones. All right. I've got the storyline for the game. Awesome. The thing to follow. The thing to be excited about.

Minnesota is playing for Matthew Stafford. Right. Because if you don't win this game, then the Rams are three and four. They're alive. They've got Cooper Cup with Puka on the way. And they're in play. You win this game. The Rams are 3-4. They're alive. They've got Cooper Cup with Puka on the way, and they're in play. You win this game.

The Rams are 2-5. You're 6-1. You're incentivized to make the move. Now, the irony, of course, is that if you win this game, Sam Darnold probably played good football, but that's more persuasive in your tradeoff. Yeah, you want – I mean, if you're – This is the Matthew Stafford Bowl.

This is the Matthew Stafford Bowl. Sam Darnold needs to go out and ball out. And what's ironic is that if Sam Darnold wants what's best for his career, he is having a resurgence, a glorious time. I'm sure he is loving being a Minnesota Vikings

starting quarterback. But their future is already there in J.J. McCarthy. Yes, that's why this trade makes sense. So if you want a long-term starting deal, Darnold, go play your heart out and show the other team, look, you can sign me to a long-term deal. It's so weird. So wait, he's playing for like $100 million. Yes, legitimately.

So the Vikings need to go out there and look awesome and win this game, and if they do, you might see this trade happen. What a fascinating, fun thing to watch. Now, if Darnold goes out there, collapses, and they lose, all bets are off. Yeah, I mean, if that happens, you're 3-4. I mean, the Cardinals are 3-4 in the division. The 49ers are 3-4 in the division. The Rams will be right in the mix again.

Pretty wild. All right, that should be a fun Thursday night football game, and tomorrow we're going to get into all of our starts of the week, all of the matchups. We've got the Wheel of Shame this week, and I am telling you now, you don't want to miss Friday's Wheel of Shame. That's great news.

Mike has no idea what's going on. Jason is ashamed. I have no idea what's going on. Jason is ashamed. I have no idea what's going on. I will not be here Friday. Al, you and I know. Would you advise? It's just a wheel that spins, man. We'll see what happens. Right, yeah.

Also, breaking news, while we were talking, Brooks just put Sam Darnold on the trade block in our dynasty. Yeah, yeah. So that'll do it for today's show. Check out jointhefoot.com if you want a custom waiver wire built to your league. You want the lineup optimizer to get you ready for the weekend. All of our premium rankings and more at jointhefoot.com. Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.