Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - 2nd Half Sleepers & TNF Preview + BREAKING NEWS! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/22

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Oct 22, 2025. Rest of season trade targets! 2nd half sleeper picks from Andy, Mike, and Jason on today’s episode. Who is being undervalued the most in fantasy football leagues? Plus, Week 8 start/sit decisions, and a preview of Thursday Night Football! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.(00:00) Intro(04:35) Backup Options(10:25) NFL News(15:25) Thursday Night Breakdown: Vikings at Chargers(27:10) Second Half Sleepers(28:30) Colston Loveland(32:00) Chase Brown(37:00) Jordan Love(45:15) Mailbag(46:15) Starting Tez Johnson and Emeka Egbuka?(47:25) Should I quit fantasy football forever?(50:30) Which underperforming rookie running back could still breakout?(53:00) Best waiver pickup you’ve ever had?Connect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Fantasy Footballer's Studio is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Wednesday, October 22nd Jason Moore, Andy Holloway and a cardboard bear today. Mike is, he was going to be here.

He is Mr. Mom this week. Single dad this week. His life is out of town. Everything was smooth. Everything was fine. then one of the kids got sick. It happens. And so he is taking care of that.

And we are here today. We've got second half sleeper picks on the show, a Thursday night game to get into, some news to catch you up on. Your questions to answer? Yeah. No, it's going to be a good show. We just saw waivers go through in all of our leagues right before.

There's a new manager for Brock Bowers in the chopped league. You got seven days. That team is doomed. I mean, it's virtually impossible for it to happen again, but I have to imagine everyone in the league is rooting for that to happen. There's a reason I only bit a little bit. I couldn't believe. I've been on the edge of CHOP for like three weeks,

and I was like, this is the thing that would push me right over the edge. It's so funny because he's not playing this week. Right. Well, that was my hope. Maybe that breaks the curse. He can't hurt you on by, but still. It was fascinating to me how much clearly the curse has factored into real bids. Because he's gone for a lot of money.

He's going to come off the buy and be one of the best tight ends in fantasy football. That's my belief. Yeah. For a bunch of teams going out that week. Right. That's how it feels. There you go. Megalobole leaders right now through seven weeks.

Pook Nukem, number one, overall out of 20,000 plus players. the megalobole. So congratulations. Pook-Nukum in first place. Smokey the bear, though, hot on his heels. Oh, only you can prevent forest fires. You can find us. I am in 4,713th place.

With what record? 12 and 2. Okay. You can find us on X at the FF Ballers. You can follow me at Andy Holloway, Jason at Jason FFL. Don't give out, Mike's. No, don't you do it. Okay.

He's got to be here. He's got to earn it. Yeah, we deleted his Twitter because he's not here today. Right. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Make sure you subscribe just in case AWS goes out. Yeah, that's true. We had the show on Monday where we couldn't post the podcast because the entire

internet's hinging on one U.S. East AWS server. And, well, Google doesn't use AWS. So YouTube was up and the show was up and we were waiting to post a podcast for like, what five hours guys the producers were we're clicking the button to try the upload again every five minutes every five minutes for five hours and um yeah so you want to subscribe youtube dot com slash the fantasy footballers and then click the bell and then you'll be alerted when mike goes live on sundays for sunday live which is an hour before kickoff gets you ready with the last minute news and unfortunately meteorology reports yeah yeah i think

Thankfully, it does not appear as of this moment to be as bad of weather as it was last week for some of those games. I'm just seeing this news that to Rod Taylor, who had a chance to start on Sunday, is considered day-to-day with a knee injured. Yeah, he has not been a model of health. He is a backup that still gets hurt. It seems like every year, every year he is needed. The starter goes down, only so that Tyrod can go in and go down. It does seem that way. It has been that way for a while.

So we'll see who we get in New York. But let's talk some backup options. Backup options, presented by progressive insurance. All right, well, the most dropped players on Sleeper over the last 24 hours, Justin Fields, Caleb Williams, Emmanuel Wilson, Hassan, Haskin, Sean Tucker, Michael Carter. Whittington, McCaffrey, Mike Evans, poor one out, Cameron Johnson, Michael Mayor, Darren Waller, A.J. Barner, Mason, Taylor. So most of those make sense to me. Yeah, I would say most of them makes sense. Waller probably should hang around if you got an IR spot. Yeah, it's right. I mean, a lot of leagues don't have IR. You're going to miss more than likely at least two weeks. And with the bypocalypse where six teams are on by, you might just have to do that. I mean,

Jeremy's over there going to have to drop a starter. He doesn't have anyone on his bench to be able to drop to find a tight end right now. So you're going to have to make a trade or something, Jerr. That's right. Yeah. I would say make a trade with me.

Or do nothing. None of that's going to make a difference. We have backup options for you, though. So if you didn't get the waiver ads that you wanted, we were just going through all of our leagues. We definitely missed out on some players we wanted. Here are some backup options you can pay attention to. and you know for me there were kind of two names I wanted to just float out there

check to see of Harold Fanon was dropped just due to kind of reaction to the roulette of tight ends these it looks like 29% of leagues he's out there you know through seven weeks he has the fifth most targets of all tight ends and the fourth most receptions you had a weather game last week so he didn't perform up to you know what you hope for but he's on pace for, you know, almost 80 receptions. That's probably going to go up with no Njoku. Oh, yeah, for sure. I think he is a great start this week.

He is used in the area of the field where you're actually going to get targets because, you know, the Browns aren't pushing it downfield. So, like, downfield to the Browns right now is Harold Fanon. It's like 15 yards. Yep. It's really juicy. The other name I was just going to throw out is because they're going into the buy week, just, I mean, BAM Knight's going to be everywhere.

And we're talking, like, people are stuck starting really bad players. Bam Knight had a ton of opportunity in the last Cardinal game, and Trey Benson is not eligible to return until week 10. The trend in Arizona has actually been to give Bam Knight more work and Michael Carter less work. That is what has happened. And so 17 opportunities last week, he had scored two previous weeks. Last week, 57 yards on the ground. You know, I don't think BAM night.

America Carter are very good, but a starting running back for a period of time, including Dallas right after the buy week, pick them up during the buy. If you have the ability to do it and stash them on your bench. That is, that's something that I think people need to take advantage of. The player I wanted to highlight is another player going on to buy. It's Matthew Stafford. He is the type of player. I expect to be dropped in a lot of leagues. He's not been, you know, he wasn't drafted super high. He hasn't finished very high. in fantasy for a number of years, and with all the buys and him being one of the players going on by, I would imagine, many leagues he's dropped. I would scoop him up. You know, it's been,

with Devante Adams around the goal line, it's been not just Kyron Williams. And that has made all the difference for Matthew Stafford. He's been great the last few years, but for fantasy purposes, the touchdowns have come on the ground, and that's just wrecked him. The last month of football, Matthew Stafford is the quarterback four in fantasy points. He was the quarterback two, five, and five in three of those four weeks. So going on the rest of the season, they've got a good schedule. I think that Devante Adams makes a difference. And I've got a couple other names to throw out there.

Now, there's been new talk this morning that I saw that it is legitimately concerning that rumors are that Lamar really might not play this week. Now, currently, the over-under, the Vegas lines of how many points they're expecting to score, the Baltimore Ravens being favored, the expectation appears that Lamar is playing. So I don't know if that line has moved this morning with more rumors that maybe he misses. However, there will come a time, I think, this year where the tight-end position, whether that's likely or Andrews, matters with Lamar there. I mean, the Baltimore Ravens have kind of been deleted from our thought process

because the last month without Lamar has been so bad, they're not going to be that bad. They are going to be a team that is scratching and clawing to get back in the playoffs. And the best part is their defense is wrecked. You know who it reminds me of? A lot last year, the Cincinnati Bengals. They started, what were they? They were probably one in five, something like that. I think they were one in five.

And their defense was healthy and off. and you saw people win championships with that Burrow Chase stack because they were scratching and clung almost made the playoffs and they did it because MVP caliber play from Joe Burrow. When Lamar comes back, he's going to put that team on his shoulders and he's going to throw a ton of yards, ton of touchdowns. And so the weapons there, yeah, you got flowers, but I think Andrews and maybe Isaiah likely, who hasn't really had an opportunity yet to do anything this season. And those are guys I'd be looking at on the waivers.

That was backup options, sponsored by Progressive Insurance, quote today at progressive.com. Let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league, presented by Progressive Insurance. Well, no team has really been more hurt on the offensive side of the football than Dan Quinn and the commanders. When you don't have your quarterback or your best two starting wide receivers, I would say that that is a tough position to be in there.

It's fair. I mean, the 49ers say, you know, hold my beer, but at least they have Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, they've lost their quarterback. They're starting wide receivers. They're starting tight end. Yep. And their entire defense. Yep. They're getting some back, though. In fact, when we get to second half sleepers, I have a name from the 49ers worth mentioning. Dan Quinn said the plan is for Terry McLaren and Debo, Samuel. They have a full week of practice ahead of their Monday night game against the Chiefs. That's great. So that's exciting. I just was going to mention the Chiefs are 10 and a half point favorites right now. against the commanders. Yeah, right now, I don't think we have information on Jane Daniels, whether he has a chance to play or not.

The expectation, and that line says, I think, as of this moment, that it should be Mariota. Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said Bucky Irving and Chris Godwin are getting better, but they didn't know whether each could play in their play or return to practice this week. And they have a buy week next week. You know, this is three weeks missed for Bucky Irving. They didn't put them on IR, so usually that means you're trying to get a player

back before four weeks. However, with the buy next week, I would not be surprised at all. You know, I don't know how true it is or isn't. Like, we talk about this and they're, they're all human beings, so maybe there is truth, but like you're playing the Saints. You're, you know, the Buccaneers are going to play the Saints and I feel like you go, do we want to rush them back? We can beat the Saints without Bucky. No, and then give them another week for the bye week. Yeah. Yeah, it's a very different report in the McCorn and Devo going to have a full week of practice. Kevin Stefansky says he's hopeful David Nijoku will play in week 8 remains day to day.

So he could be back sooner than we expected. That would suck. That would be awful. For Fanon? Yeah, because Fanon and Nogoku, if you combine, like if you look at just tight-in stat team tight-end, the Browns are hot this year. I mean, they are on fire. You just can't start either one of them because they're both. getting a good chunk, neither is getting a great chunk together. It would be great. So please either one of you don't play. They should take turns. Stay fresh. Just like every other

Sunday is Fanon and every other Sunday is Najoku. Or they both wear the same jersey each week. Oh, and then so every play. Every play just gets attributed. I'm fine with that. The Jets are moving forward towards naming Tyrod Taylor the starter to Rod Taylor, sorry but the reports is like they know who the quarter of it's going to be they don't want to publicize it, don't want to give the a competitive advantage.

No, they also have not named their starting wide receiver. They don't have them to name so they're like looking for wide receivers. I think they're doing open tryouts right now. You see the comments from their owner? Yeah. Where it's like he said they'd look good if they could just

complete a pass and then they also said with this quarterback, but like the quarterback's on your team. Yeah, that's rough. Aaron Jones, Vikings running back, designated a return from injured reserve. He's got a 21-day window to return, was limited on the walkthrough, but he's going to come back soon. I think they really need him. Yeah, they definitely need him.

He's a different type of player than Jordan Mason, obviously. Yeah, soon would be very, very soon. A couple days. You're saying, do you think he'll be back in a couple days? I do. I think he plays this week. That was news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers.

Not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. I was just thinking about how fun it would be to listen to the Falcon, try to read the disclaimer at the end of an ad. Oh, bleh. Do you know what I mean? That would be so fun. I would love to. You want to give it a rip? You should have showed up there.

Yeah, you're kind of your employed. Let me just hear it. All right, let's go. You can get through this perfectly. Oh, my God. Let's go. You got this. Progressive quality insurance.

Yes. And third party insurers not available in all states or situations coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. Okay. You got out there. Yeah, you started real bad with different words. But the rest of it was pretty good. Yeah, good job. I am proud of you.

You see that coming, did you? Reading is not for everyone. Reading's not for everyone. Okay, I don't know why I did that. Sorry, buddy. All right, we'll take a break. We'll come back with Thursday night football. Falcons a good sport. Oh, he is. Yeah, he's the best. All right, here we go.

Thursday night breakdown. Thursday night breakdown. The affirmation. I'd love to see the Falcon Breakdown. down this match. Break down this entire game in a solo.

Just him and Jay Gris. Okay. Well, the Minnesota Vikings, we just talked about them briefly with Aaron Jones. They're three and three hanging in there

with the quarterback situation. Heading to Los Angeles to take on the chargers at so-fi. The charges are four and three. Vegas line charges minus three. Over under is 44 and a half.

You know, this is this is a really interesting game to me because I don't I feel like the Chargers to a lesser degree but maybe maybe similarly to the Broncos a little bit of Jekyll and Hyde going on there are games in which the Chargers I know that you know there's a lot of things to blame there the offensive line

the injuries to the running back core those would be the significant reasons why they struggle but at times they look unstoppable even in the game they just lost they looked unstoppable on offense for parts of that game once they got it going yeah I mean, when they had to put the pedal to the metal, they can. And I think part of that is that's kind of the issue. It's like they try to be conservative. You know, they want to play a conservative brand of football, usually the Harbaugh defense and run game.

And it's not working. And so when they got down by a bunch and we're like, hey, we're just going to have to go high tempo, push the ball down the field. That's like, that's what they do best. Yeah, and I don't, I think I would probably disagree that that's what they, that they want to do. slow thing. I don't think I buy that narrative anymore coming off of the second half of last year and the first half of this year basically leading a neutral pass rate. I think they do want to lean on Herbert. They just can't successfully lean on Herbert when they allow so many pressures. They have allowed the most pressures in this last game against Indianapolis, which credit to their

defense. 35 times in that game, Justin Herbert was pressured. That is the most since 2019 in any single game. Herbert is so capable of 404 any week. Yeah, 400 and 3 last week. Yeah, you just don't know exactly what week it is going to be, which is like why Bo Nix was irrelevant through three quarters and great for a quarter. And that was a perfect microcosm of Denver. They actually looked horrible for three quarters.

They just figured out how to turn it on in one game, not the next game. Minnesota, though, that's what they do. They bring the pressure. I could see this being an almost upset. that. I could see this being Minnesota taking this one on the road. You know, Carson Wentz, I would say it was borderline awful last week against Philadelphia, and they were still in that game. That's just the way Minnesota plays and the way that their coach and the way their defense plays, they're just in games that they shouldn't be.

And the way that their defense lines up against the Chargers, it's, man, I learned last week. I just go with it. Yeah, you just follow. I'm supposed to just go with it. you just go with whatever you feel but this feels early it was early last week um i don't even have it in the board my board drop isn't even there i'll bet jeremy jeremy hit it hit it jerry just hit that hell that was fast andy's almost upset of the wig yeah i'm just gonna go with it i'm gonna go with it early that's how it feels yeah with the spread i did take the vikings um on this one it's

i think it's going to be a competitive game uh the viking's defense has been a question to me. The way that the Chargers' offense and the Broncos' offense has shown up where sometimes they look unbelievable, unstoppable, and sometimes they look, you know, incompetent, that's kind of how I feel about the Vikings' defense. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to be like they are,

they're one of the top three defense. They just looked, you know. I still feel that way. You still. I do. But they've had a few games. Yeah, they've had a few breakdowns where it's like, ah, they didn't show up.

There were big plays last week. That was the problem. On a Thursday night short week on the road, that's where it's like, are they going to show up in a massive way in that setting? Yeah, and Hassan Haskins right now did not practice on Thursday. It looks like Kamani Vidal Sassoon will have the backfield mostly to himself. He's already been called doubtful. That would be Haskins by Jim Harbaugh. So that hurts too.

And Joe Alt, limited on Thursday with the ankle injury. If he plays, he's playing a little bit less than 100%. Yeah. I think that is a massive deal for the Chargers for Justin Herbert. Both of these teams are kind of run funnel defenses, really good at stopping the pass and average against the run. So I think Vidal Sassoon is a fine start reminder because this is Thursday night football. And Vidal is pretty much like a borderline flex player. He's not a guy that you see. It's like you're running back one. If you are going to start and make sure you put him in the running back slot so that your flex is. open for injuries through the week or or pivots with uh you know whatever it is absolutely and then based on what you just said pass funnel situation um or sorry you said run funnel run funnel yeah because of that the vikings ninth against the pass you have four players that are actually starts it questions in the game with mcconkey johnston keenan and gadston all four of those were a hundred percent startable last week mike wanted keenan to show you and

him something after this strong start and weak middle. He did. McConkey's been great. Johnston's just getting back into the swing of things, got back into the end zone. And then how do you not play Gadsden if you spent up on waivers today for 7 and 164

and you have two straight weeks with the six first read targets and the athleticism? Do you play all four guys even though the matchup isn't amazing? So when you adjust for the schedule, right now on the season, the Vikings are the most difficult matchup for fantasy wide receivers. So putting three wide receivers out there, it's not going to work. No, it's not. It's a

roulette. It's going to be, you know, one guy's going to have a good game and two guys are going to have a bad game and you don't know who. I can't sit here and tell you who to, you know, which one is going to have the good game. If I had to take a stab at it, I'm going to take the highest odds at a touchdown. And that would be Quentin Johnston. So I would rank them in order of touchdowns, which would be, honestly, huge Keenan Allen lad. You could start all three, any of the three, but I think it will be disappointing. When it comes to Gadsden, that is kind of the weakness of the Vikings' past defense,

adjusted for schedule. They're 24th against tight-in. So I think Gadsden, if you paid up and you got him, you've got to chase the last two games, I think. He has played 75% and 79% of snaps over the last two weeks. So it will be interesting to see if he stays right around there on the other side. Would you rather play Gadsden or Hawkinson? Same game.

Gadsden by so much. Yeah, it's crazy. I think that is absolutely true. Because I want a chance to be happy in a big way. You know, not just like a, yeah, okay. Well, last week, Hawkinson, I mean, he had a touchdown that was called a touchdown and overturned, and he was super upset about it because he felt like it was a catch even after the review. And honestly, I think it was slightly debatable.

But had that not been overruled, you would have looked at last week and been like, What a great game. And you would have fallen for a trap there, I think. Because, I mean, you're looking at 15, 12, 49, 39, 39, 38, and 43 yards. He doesn't, he's literally kind of the opposite of Gadsden. Right. At this juncture of his career, he's no longer, he's going to be a screen game guy. He's going to be a short area guy.

Gadsden can give you one play to outpace the fantasy points of five Hawkinson plays. Where would Jordan Addison rank among those? Chargers wide receivers. You realize how good he has been? So, Jordan Addison right now, he's been back for three weeks. He's the wide receiver 14, the wide receiver 20, and the wide receiver 10 with 114 yards,

128 yards, and a game with 41 and a touchdown. Undervalued. Also was in strong, strong consideration for second half sleeper pick for me on this show when we do it in a few minutes. I didn't pick him because of the quarterback change that is coming

for sure. Like, Carson Wins is McCarthy is, yeah. So, but the schedule, the schedule for Minnesota wide receivers, you remember why Mike traded for Jefferson? Shut up. I hate that. They're the best. They're the best strength of schedule situation in the league.

If you have a wide receiver named Jefferson or Addison, the rest of the year is the best for you than anybody else. Yeah, I've got Van Jefferson, baby. Oh, sorry, not that one. Oh, you said if I had a wide receiver name Jefferson. That plays on the Vikings. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Addison is hiding in the shadows to have an amazing second half if McCarthy can get it together. So consider that an honorable mention second half sleeper, a player to go acquire in terms of this game specifically. I wish that I had a better, like, like a strong conviction about which wide receiver in Los Angeles to put in what order. I don't have that.

I literally, if you told me you like, Quentin first, Keenan, second, McConkey, I did tell you that exactly. Is that exactly what you said? That is what I told you a minute ago. Yeah, I must not have been listening. Or you told me McConkey's first. Yeah, I agree. Or you put him in a blender. I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. So how does Addison line up? Well, he doesn't have two other guys to fight with. I was going to say, I feel like I, three other guys, if you include Gadsden. I think I would take Addison, like if I'm going to start one of those four, I think Addison is a safer bet.

I think he really could be. Yeah. This is a fascinating game because these two good defenses, but you're on Thursday night football. You've got to make your decision early. And there's question marks everywhere. No one is like must start outside of Justin Jefferson. Even Mason, right? You have, it should be good for Mason.

If Aaron Jones actually comes back and plays this week, now you've got a split where you're concerned. You know, were you starting Jordan Mason week one, week two when Aaron Jones? was there. I mean, he was a questionable start. But Aaron Jones, according to Kevin O'Connell, he expressed optimism earlier Tuesday that Jones would be able to play. I mean, that is probably, I think I would play Mason.

I think I'd be comfortable doing it. What about Jones? No. You would not play Aaron Jones? No, I would wait a week because I just don't know what the workload's going to be. Me personally. Yeah, that's fine. But the Chargers, like you said, the run funnel. That's the one area that they've been more vulnerable to giving up fantasy points. So, um,

I would say, I would call Aaron Jones a startable player if he goes. There are so many teams right now that are. Yeah, Al, it would be his number one player. Owl would, I mean, that would be his best player on his roster. Yes. But other teams probably not. Right. Well, because he had Justin, he's like, I don't want good players.

Oh, yeah, he would have been. Jefferson was his best player, but then he gave him to Mike. For Garrett Wilson. Oh, he's holding up the, oh, he even moved the camera already. He's holding up his trophy. Is that trophy for bad teams? It was a great team last year. No, it was.

I paid the price this year. You did. All right. We good? Anything else in that game, Jason? No. Jay Gris? No?

Okay. Moving on. Second half sleepers. All right. I want to give a an opening statement before we get into these names. All right. second half sleepers we have a lot of data on this season

if you've been on the website and the premium tools you get the strength of schedule the streamfinder you can see all that data in which teams are playing well against different positions we reference it all the time I wanted to make a conscious effort on this show today to not take a layup or I want you to feel gross about it and uncomfortable yeah otherwise this show is meaningless to you if it's a player that you love I think Sequan Barkley is going to be better the second half of this year. Actually, that's a perfect

example of somebody that could have been thrown out there. Me too. Derek Henry? Yeah. Yeah. But what I won is I want the names when we say them you might recoil a little bit. And that's okay. Yeah. That's okay because that's what makes them an actual sleeper that could be

easily acquireable in your league. And we'll share mics as well. Yeah, let's start with mics, which really should be Jay Grizzas, right? Yeah, let's see what he thinks. Oh, he's a big fan. He's a big fan of Colston Loveland.

Of the Bears. Yeah, Colston Loveland is Mike's second half sleeper. It is not an overstatement to say he's been 100% unusable so far in fantasy in his career. Has he scored four points in a game yet? He is not. Okay. So, yeah, that is an irrelevant player who is on the vast majority of waivers right now. Fast asleep.

Fast asleep. He is pretty much in a coma. I am not a huge fan. I was not a huge fan of his pick the whole time. I didn't love his tape. We talked about Loveland quite a bit on the Dynasty podcast that came out today. And we had some disagreements there because Matthew Betts was, that was like his guy in the off season going into the draft. Obviously, the NFL agreed.

Everyone was trying, it was reported that people were trying to trade up for him. So this is someone that the NFL thinks is a great player drafted with that capital. on an offense that should be ascending. And part of the reason Mike picked this pick is because they have the second easiest rest of season schedule for the tight-in position. Tight-end is one of those positions that is schematically relevant for starts and sits. So you have a highly drafted rookie. You would expect to be better in the second half of the year than the first half.

Who was injured? So you expected him to get off to a slower start. If he gets incorporated in more and more as the season goes, along. He's certainly a good sleeper option. I don't believe in him, but Mike does, and the Bears do.

Yeah. Where do you stand on Loveland? Do you think he's going to, do you think he's going to really be an impactful fantasy player? I will say this. Arronday Gadsden was not relevant two weeks ago. Right? Non-existent. Rookie athletic tight-in.

Yeah. Draft Capital for Loveland, through the roof. Targets have gone up. Snap counts have gone up. Colquemette is banged up. Schedule is good. Kind of the definition of a sleeper to me. I think Loveland... That's not what I asked you, though. I mean, I laid that out. What do you believe... Do you believe Colson Loveland this season will become... No. Okay. But I don't think that's a great question for this segment. Interesting. I feel like it's the most important question we could actually try to answer. Okay. Well, I mean... Okay. Let me explain myself.

I don't think that this second half sleeper is not like a probability argument. Okay. So when you ask me a question about like Loveland, I don't think the probability is that Loveland is going to be that. The possibility is there. And Mike obviously believes that that's a high likelihood. Like our individual picks,

we might have a high probability attached to it. I hope so. Yeah. But. Okay. So you said that I see the path, but I don't believe it will happen. Okay. You said something that I thought was so,

stupid. Okay. And then you really redeemed it. Oh, okay. That was a, that was a good, a good, yeah, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. All right, so my feel so validated. Yeah, after being called stupid. Um, my second half sleeper's a guy who has been vomitously bad and this is great that Mike is not here.

Breaking news. I'm not stupid. No, that's not the, that's not the breaking news. That would be really breaking news. Uh, Jane Daniels officially ruled out. Okay. So there The line makes sense. Mario will start. Yeah, Mike being gone, this is great because I know it's been, you know, tough sledding for him. One week since you.

This was a my guy for him. Chase Brown has been one of the worst picks so far in fantasy football, you know, a high draft capital in your fantasy draft and irrelevant. You know, week one was, you know, you got to 10 fantasy points, but until this past week, he hasn't done it again, the entire season. I think most people benched him even for this last week and he's been an irrelevant player. He's looked bad. You know, it's not like he, uh, on the season. Okay, Burrow went down and he's doing everything he can. The truth is he was not doing anything good. He wasn't breaking tackles. He wasn't looking efficient. He wasn't overcoming the obstacles in front of him. But I think Joe Flacko really has made a difference for the Bengals for Chase Brown.

We saw it this last week. Breaking news. That's strike two, man. That's strike two. One more. The chance to hit you twice with breaking news was irresistible. I just saw the breaking news, man. Darren Waller has been placed on IR.

Come on, man. I need you to keep talking about what you're talking about. trade a fourth round pick to you for a guy who never scored for your one game he went in my lineup to goose me so can i can i and i lost by zero point three three fancy points and then he goes on i are al let me tell you let me tell you about this trade guys so jason had kind of wanted darren waller and he's not doing anything on sunday two weeks ago just nothing disappearing and i so i sent him a trade offer for this fourth and he or a fifth or something like i don't remember a third i guess you were asking for a third and i was countering with a fifth yeah and i nothing's happened and the game is like

two minutes left in the game and he catches a garbage time touchdown Darren waller and i fire over that trade and under a second i'm like meet in the middle i'm like let's go let's go and he tries to squeeze me for a little fab and then i and then he you technically sent the offer because i i i had rejected it. But anyway, so, so yeah, you fought for him and then this is bad luck. I mean, it's just unfortunate. And I assume this is four game I are and then we'll see. Do you have any news on that? Oh, they signed Greg Dolstitch off their practice squad. Irrelevant. Sorry, you got to keep talking about Chase Brown who grows people out all first half of the year because I want to see if one more piece of news comes in. Okay. So if you watch Chase Brown, the very first game of the season, he was okay.

Um, you know, then Burrow goes down. Yeah, I'll wait. I was waiting for breaking news. Bucky Irving and. No, is it real? You have more? Get out of here. Bucking Irving and Chris Godwin will not be back for Sunday's game of both officially

not playing. So you're Tess Johnson and your, um, a mecca, Bucca. That's ridiculous. I'm not talking. You can't possibly feel like you can make an argument of any kind right now. No, I'm done.

I'm out of here. But you like Chase Brown, huh? Maybe. Um, we'll never know. Oh, the hat trick on breaking news, never before seen. Uh, I don't even know where to jump. Okay. So here's what happened. I'm going to talk about Chase Brown here. Uh, what happened is he came in, he looked okay. Then Joe Burr goes down and he's not good. Joe Flago comes in for two weeks. And in two weeks, he was a very efficient running. Okay. So they can't, you know, it's like 50s there was. There was absolutely no threat of an offense with Jake Browning. The, you know, so Chase Brown couldn't do anything. You've had two weeks. with Joe Flacco. In those weeks, you had 4.7 a carry, and then last week was, you know, monsters, 9.8 a carry. He had, you know, the 37-yard run, had over 100 rushing yards. You know

that the checkdowns can come from Joe Flacko as well. So you combine that with how bad he's been and how good the schedule is coming up. They have the fifth easiest schedule for running backs the rest of the season and, you know, that's juicy. You get into the playoffs with Baltimore and Miami in your first two weeks. I think he's going to turn it around. He's still got the eighth most targets at the running back position. He's had two plus receptions in all seven games. Very few other running backs have done that. And so, you know, he is a target for me. Like, I would try to go acquire him because I think the Chase Brown managers are going, this is a Mirage, I've had to deal with him.

Thank goodness he had a good game. I can get something for him. I'm on the other side where I'm starting to believe this is now we can see what he can do because the opportunity is still his. He's not sharing the workbook. Nobody else is coming up.

This one will give you a negative reaction. Breaking news. I can hit the button too. That was the breaking news. Sorry. you know we are running a podcast here jason we're trying i had breaking news each of those times all right i'm real important breaking news talk i'm going to twitter this is not a clown show oh you're going to search for it i'm not listening to a word you say um second app sleeper pick for me is actually jordan love and uh you know this is not he's had one good game

fantasy wise one good game you did you did start this segment by saying it should it should feel gross. You and I are in disagreement on Jordan Love. I know we're going to talk about him more tomorrow, and I was surprised about that. Jordan Love is, yeah, well, I mean, that's our job. We've got to find the players that we think are going to emerge that are not necessarily who everybody agrees on. Jordan Love is not playing bad football. You and I might disagree on that. Jordan Love, from a passerating and effectiveness standpoint, is not playing bad football. What has happened is he is not producing for fantasy. Those things are there's a lot of times that they're not correlated. He had a quarterback four finish against

Dallas, bad defense. Okay, we're done. He's lost Jaden Reed, the most kind of firmly established, highly talented wide receiver that he had. He has no Jordan Reed. He has no Christian Watson. They're not working Matthew Golden into the target share of this offense very much. I mean, the pass attempts. We just went through 55 pass attempts with John. Justin Herbert. The last two weeks for Jordan Love, it's 26 and 29. He has a top 10 schedule for quarterbacks over the back half of the year. He's going to get Christian Watson back.

Eventually, he's going to get Jaden Reed back into this offense. And again, this is not a you must start him every week. This is a second half sleeper. Who's somebody that you could end up winning your league with? You're going to play the 28th ranked passing defense in football. the Chicago Bears two times going into your fantasy playoffs and then you're going to play Baltimore

and championship week. You're going to play the Giants. You're going to play Pittsburgh at 30 you know, in week eight, it's Pittsburgh this week. He's going to get more and more weapons there and he's not incapable of having those type of big games. In fact, Breaking News. The Giants have designated

kicker Graham Canoe to return from injured reserve. He will practice today with the intention of kicking Sunday. day against the Eagles in Philadelphia. I found some. I found some news. Kicker news. You found kicker news.

I do what it takes. I dig deep. So obviously you didn't have any real argument against Jordan Love, which is nice. So, I mean, the issue I have with Jordan Love, you know, you talked about you lose Jaden Reed. I don't know that he's coming back this season. That's the plan. I mean, like soon?

Yes. I mean, I think week 10, right? I mean, I think that was the original estimate. So he's eligible to be activated from injured reserve in following week eight. That is too aggressive of a timeline. Six to eight weeks was the recovery timeline. I'm saying over the second half of the year, he's going to get weapons back. On a per play basis, Matthew Golden has actually been really good. I know nobody agrees with that.

On a per game basis, Jordan Love's been very good. Fifth in yards per attempt, seventh in completion percentage, a career high, seventh in passer rating. He's a great quarterback. This is the same as Justin Herbert. That's what it is. My issue is entirely that what we saw, did Jordan Love play bad football last year? No, no, he was very good.

He was very, very good. And the second half of last season, he played very good football. and he was terrible for fantasy. Josh Jacobs was the touchdown machine. They figured out how good Josh Jacobs was. And down the stretch, they just said, hey, you're our best chance to score touchdowns. And it's carried over to this season.

So my issue is really that I don't know that they're going to change what the recipe that is working. He can play good and not be good for fantasy. And I get what you're saying. It's a sleeper. You're trying to find someone that we're not necessarily expecting. someone that has been asleep who has the ability to overcome that. And he very well could, I think that they're going to keep relying on Josh Jacobs around the goal line.

And if that happens with, they don't have a wide receiver here. Like they don't have a Devante Adams anymore. They don't have a guy that's just going to demand the ball around the goal line. Golden isn't it, at least not rookie or golden. Christian Watson has always been that. He has been a high touchdown guy. My point is that they will have the capability. soon to do it.

I agree with you. I don't think they have that capability right now. But I think that that will come. And I think you look at the final five games of the season and you could be optimistic that that, you know, we've seen people win championships with Joe Flacco. We've seen people win championships with low-ranked quarterbacks. You know, you're playing roulette with Herbert when you start them right now.

There's a lot of quarterbacks in that tier, and I think Jordan Love is my second half sleeper. And I will say that I think, I do think Golden, if given more opportunities in the offense, have success for fantasy. He's been good on a per target basis. He's just not getting the targets. Yeah. We'll see if, we'll see if, I mean, obviously, Zach Cruz had put out there that he is 60.9% success rate, 78% catch rate, averaging 10.8 yards per target, which is number one among all rookie wide receivers and all three of those. So those are all the best numbers. He's not, he's not getting

a book of target share. He's getting, you know, a very minimal amount of involvement because they don't need to because you can run it with Josh Jacobs. It's Josh Jacobs team right now. So, I want to throw out, this is a bonus second half sleeper. J.J. McCarthy, the same schedule that we're talking about for Justin Jefferson being great for the past catchers. I think second half, he is a great sleeper candidate. If I had to personally put a dollar on who scores more fantasy points from week 10 to 17, I think I would take McCarthy over love personally. You got to put more and a dollar on that brother as much as you want as much as you want as much as you want all right let's do it we'll figure it out okay all right uh jo flacco is much more that in that category for me

joe flacco and t higgins are two other names i want to mention for the second half they're connected cincinnati's schedule for quarterbacks third best in the league fourth easiest for wide receivers still no defense flacco has been amazing in both of his games fantasy wise 25 and 35 points do you know what this I feel a lot more comfortable with Flacco than McCarthy yeah Flacco with this team

bad defense great weapons do you want to know who it reminds me of it reminds me of Joe Flacco two years ago at the end of the year when he won people championships

with the Browns with the Browns because he also did similar stuff with the Jets for a brief amount of time so now I will say both were brief amount of time

it wears off it does seem to wear off but there you go You mentioned in J.J. McCarthy. That would, it's terrifying to me because he's not looked good but for a quarter of football on the year. But, yeah, the schedule, you're right, the weapons. He didn't have Addison yet. Yeah, the system.

Those are there. So we'll take a break and hit some mailbag. I wonder who'll do the drop. Who do you feel like is the most? deserving of the opportunity to do the mailbag drop back there. I think because Falcon did such a good job on the progressive disclaimers. Yeah. That he gets the opportunity again.

Oh, just. I think he's earned it, man. I think he's earned it. All right. Well, there's only one way to get there. There you go. Mailbag. Mill bag.

Presented by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. Yes. No editing. Oh, he came in hot. I want to say that felt like a horse kicking me in the face. I want to apologize to our audience. That's not singing. That was not singing.

That was not singing. I don't think it'll be as bad for everyone. Hopefully you're not in AirPod mode right now, listeners. That was so loud, I think you could smell his breath. Yeah. Wow. You're having a day, Falcon. Man, you are crushing it today.

Honestly, if I were you, I would hit the bathroom. Yeah, I got a trophy for you. I guess we could have gone Jay Gris. Whoops, my bad. All right, into the mailbag we go. If you have a question for us, head to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. You can click that, submit a question button.

You can also dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB and leave us a voicemail question. First question comes in from Patrick and Pittsburgh. Been struggling to find a third wide receiver. Am I crazy in thinking I may be able to start Tess Johnson alongside this guy? And Mika a big boo. For the rest of the season.

I mean, that's a tough one to break down. I think Tess is a very good start in the short term. Because it's a math problem, right? It's if Baker equal production, then Taz equal production. If Baker is throwing for 350 yards, you know, in the majority of his games. Buck, Irving out again? Obviously, that's good. I would agree with you it's more short term.

Chris Godwin is going to come back, and when he comes back, it will be a hit to Tess. I don't look at Taz Johnson as an auto start rest of season. I certainly want to roster him when after him on waivers where he was there. He's exciting. It's fun. There's a chance that it could happen, but no, I don't anticipate that he's just going to be a weekly starter going forward. All right. this is an ominous title for a question

that says quit fantasy football forever at Taylor Given writes in I have lost Austin Echler Mike Evans Amarian Hampton James Connor Aaron Jones to injury this year Okay you're starting with Austin Eccler In my main league Why should I not quit fantasy forever?

Because the emotional downside that you are feeling right now Which you're not aware of or familiar with No I've never experienced an injured player or a bed neutral um that's actually why you play it's it's frustrating when it's injuries it's it's really really frustrated it's sad and it's it's not your fault it's just bad luck but the fact that you are probably pulling a little bit of your hair out it might sound like something you don't want to do but that is why you enjoy it the emotional roller coaster of something to care about in life

you know it's like you can't have highs without lows okay all right um getting existential but go on you can't if it's all good all the time it's not good if that makes sense most everything in life is actually that way you just don't believe it yeah it's uh we've said it before it's you know the lows are lows the highs are high and it's fun and it's a lot of why we built this show is around the we have a league that's almost at 20 years mm-hmm there's no money in it you're playing for the emotional and you know the the connection with your friends and for the false sense of superiority that's the right phrase yeah the false sense of superior for you guys mine is another reason to not quit is i i mean we sell a draft kit and we need

somebody right yeah to play this game yeah ultimate draft kit dot com in the off season in the Fookland.com right now, in-season tools, resources, waiver wire pickup tools, all sorts of great things that you can purchase from us. So I would say don't quit. Right. Yeah. They are great tools. They are great tools, though. So footclan.com, go check them out.

I would say that it would be really interesting if AI could analyze, like, our Slack company channel over 10 years. I don't think we'd want it. And try to figure out, like, track the. sentiment on your joy versus pain over a 10-year period? I think that you. Oh, boy, Kyle says, I got you. I'll figure it out. Yeah, he will too. If you're going to quit fantasy football, do it after a win. You know what I mean? Don't, if you quit now. What, John Elway style? Two Super Bowl titles and walk away? Exactly. There's highs and there's lows. If you leave now, you're

leaving. I'm out of here the league. Yeah, you're, you're a loser. Oh, okay. You don't want to, you don't want to, you know, if you're going to leave. So far, your reasons to not quit are you're a loser and don't be a loser. Those are great reasons, Andy. They're two good reasons. Yeah. That's good.

Underperforming rookie running back question from at Mike Frash, which underperforming rookie running back has the best chance to break out now and the fantasy playoffs? I don't think I said it out loud, but I was definitely thinking it on the Monday reaction show. I definitely like RJ Harvey Harvey more than Trayvon Henderson. in that category. I think Bayshall-Tooten is still, I still think he's there because...

E.T.N. has been very inefficient. E.T. has been inefficient. And he's kind of fallen in and out of favor historically. So, like, you know, what happens if... The best question is, is what happens if one of these guys has a big game, okay? R.J. Harvey, Trevionne Henderson,

Bayshalt-Tooten, Caleb Johnson. If one of those guys has a big play, like the big one Caleb didn't have on Saturday, If one of those guys have a big game, what are the implications for the team? If you look at R.J. Harvey and he has a big game, I can see a logical and rational way that they give him more work because Jacob Dobbins is a veteran, you get more explosiveness and past game work. I can see R.J. Harvey's workload increasing. If Chavion has a big game, I'm not sure anything changes. Well, and another way to look at this is actually as silly as it is and unpredictable as it is, injury is the most likely method to one of these guys having a championship winning end of season.

The starter ahead of them goes down. So take a look at each one and say, well, if the starter ahead of them goes down, which one would have that breakout? The J.K. Dobbins went down. It's R.J. Harvey alone. It's his team, and it's a good offense. So that's great. Chalk that up to awesome. If Ramandre Stevenson goes down, they're going to find someone off the street to put in over Trayvion Henderson right now. That's how it feels.

I don't think they would just give him the everything. They will split reps with Trevion Henderson. I do think that if Travis E.T.N. went down. Bayshel Tootin would get everything, but it's not as good in offense as the Broncos. he's not as good a player as R.J. Harvey. And should Jalen Warren go down, I would be really, really excited to see what Caleb Johnson could do, but Arthur will 100% use Kenneth Gainwell there. 100%.

So to me, the answer is clearly R.J. Harvey, because he has both the opportunity to gain more work on his own, and if an injury happens in all these situations, he would be the dominant. And I actually rank Tewton's second there. I don't blame you there. All right. Twitter question from at PD Packer fan. What is the best waiver pickup you have ever had in your

fantasy careers? Mine was Devon A. Chan at 5 a.m. in the morning. The Dolphins dropped 70 points on the Broncos a few years ago in my keeper league, so I guess you are you don't have a waiver timer that goes through at one time. You're just first come first serve.

I do remember those days. Oh, you... And I lapped them up. Yeah, there was one that I remember that was brutal, brutal, because it was genuinely something that you saw with your eyeballs in preseason and went, oh, okay, I'm going to call my shot. And then the shot was right. But I went to pick this player up at the same moment that you did.

We both, we weren't together. We were at different places. You were at your house. I was at my house. Both watching the same game. We both watching the same game. We both saw exactly what we believed. We both went to pick him up.

You got him minutes before me. I was so upset. And then I believe you went and won a championship that year with him? I think so. And that would be Kurt Warner. Yeah, that was a good one. I remember getting Marshawn Lynch when the rumors around the Raiders were about to happen and I got him on the team like a day before that happened.

I remember I'm fairly certain in our dynasty league, I got Tyreek Hill off the waiver wire. Yeah. Oh, Tyreek was a dynasty waiver wire in tons of dynasty leaks. I just posted mine in Slack, but Pooka Nakua $3 in Dynasty Fab. Dynasty. That's my greatest pickup. Oh, my gosh. That is incredible. When you talk about all timers, like, you know, what's Puka right now? Is he getting to the fifth pick in a startup dynasty draft?

Probably not, no. And you got him for $3 on Dynasty Waiver. I just thought of another one too. A few weeks ago, I picked up Darren Waller. I was able to turn him into a fourth round pick. I don't like you My favorite pickup The one that comes to my mind Was I believe it was

Tim Hightower Oh yeah Oh yeah You've always remembered this one I remember that one because I was so adamant So this was right before the fantasy playoffs I don't remember the exact running back core But the starter got injured

And everyone thought the waiver pickup Was not Tim Hightower or someone else And I was so absolutely adamant I was telling everybody that everybody's wrong. It is Tim Hightower. He is the guy you want. And you got him.

And then I picked him up and then I won a championship with him because he was great. That was my favorite one of all time. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. All right, that was today's mailbag. Watch every game every Sunday

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No refunds is also our policy. Oh, yeah. On this show. It's more like if you hear the podcast, we can't make you unhear it. We can't undo it. I apologize. The damage is done.

We'll catch you tomorrow. Starts of the week. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter. at the FF Ballers.