Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Dynasty Trade Targets + Rebuild vs. Contending? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 5/13

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Fantasy Football show for May 13, 2025. Dynasty trades! Andy, Mike, and Jason each pick players to trade for and trade away in dynasty leagues. Find out which dynasty trade targets could also be sleeper picks in 2025 fantasy football drafts! Plus, advice on turning the corner from rebuild mode to contender. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.Get the lowest price on the 2025 UDK at UltimateDraftKit.com - Instant access to the Dynasty Pass with the UDK+(00:00) Introduction(01:40) Dynasty Week(10:35) NFL News(20:55) Let’s Talk Trades(21:45) Justin Herbert(26:35) Ricky Pearsall(31:49) Kenneth Walker(36:05) James Cook(40:00) Saquon Barkley & AJ Brown(44:55) Joe MixonConnect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in! Tuesday, May 13th. Welcome in one and all the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Jason Moore, Mike the Fantasy Hitman, I'm Andy Holloway. And here we are again. Another fine episode of the podcast.

Coming your way, right now. Right here. It's kind of a special one. This isn't a normal week. No, we are 19 days away from the Ultimate Draft Kit releasing June 1st, as it does every year for the past, I mean, how many years have we had the draft? Don't worry about it.

10? Nine. Nine. Ten, something like that. But we have been plugging away this past weekend on player projections for every player on every team, all three of us, and we are just about there. Been working on that for a while. Excited, all the sleepers, the breakouts,

the busts, the values, everything you need to win your league, getting those things ready for June 1st. And part of the month of May, which it is, is, well, I'll push this button. ["Dynasty Week Theme Song"] Welcome to Dynasty Week. ["Dynasty Week Theme Song"] Welcome to Dynasty Week. That's pretty nice. Yeah, very nice. So it's year five. Dynasty Week is back.

Two episodes this week. We'll focus on some dynasty topics. Today we've got Trade For and trade away candidates for dynasty leagues. We have a good dynasty themed quick question that we'll be jumping into momentarily. And we got a giveaway, a very easy to enter giveaway for the next week. Uh, sign Nico Collins jersey. If you would like to enter, it is free to enter at footclangiveaway.com. We'll give away that signed Niko Collins jersey. I don't know where Niko ended up in either of your rankings. Was it?

It was pretty good. Better or worse than you may have thought? Honestly, it was right where I thought. He doesn't strike me as a top three wide receiver, but he's locked in the top 10. He's chilling at number five for me right now. To me, of all the people that could finish number one on the year, he is in that category. For sure. I think he could, yeah. Just on the basis of if the touchdowns come his

way. I think that's, you know, we don't, none of us have CJ Stroud ranked really high. Correct. He's an interesting name for Dynasty Leagues as well right now. For sure. Young, stud, great quarterback who was the what QB2 or something? I mean he- In dynasty? Yeah. Yeah. Expectations for what can be. And it wasn't that last year. So that'll be an interesting name to see broken down for 2020. Like can he redeem some of that value in 2025? redeem some of that value in 2025? Yeah, for sure. I mean, CJ Stroud was as hot as any player in fantasy, especially in dynasty going in last year. And so you've always got the post hype sleepers,

the guys that disappoint on the hype on one year. People kind of swing the pendulum too far the other way, and then they come back and they're like, oh yeah, that was the player that we love. Now, it could be that, it could be Baker, because Baker, that was the player that we love. Now, it could be that, it could be Baker, because Baker, he was always the comp for last year's CJ Stroud of how crazy people got for CJ Stroud. He was gonna be the next Patrick Mahomes, he's gonna have a decade of being a top three

fantasy quarterback, and that was what happened back in the day with Baker Mayfield, when they added Odell Beckham in the offseason after his incredible rookie year. And it was like, okay, this is the next king. And then, I mean, Baker's back, but he took himself a tumble to like, you're talking to waiver wires in single quarterback dynasty.

Well, probably not waiver, but. His story. At a certain point, I'm sure he did. Oh, Baker definitely did. Yeah, I mean, his story is like very difficult for anybody to ever repeat. It's so rare for a player to fall out of favor and play poorly for so long

and then come back and find his footing. Thank you, McVeigh. Yes. It was the scent of McVeigh. Just a moment. That's all you need, man. You just need to be around him a little bit. So here's a dynasty quick question

How do you know when you've turned the corner from a rebuild into a contender? I did laugh at my at your yeah Yeah, I mean what you wrote down here. It's the freaking truth What what is how do you know when you've turned the corner from a rebuild to a contender when your team's good? I mean people over think this like crazy It's like just look at your team. The team with the most points at the end of the game is gonna win, guys. I'm just saying, people wait too long.

They say, oh, I'm a rebuilding team, so I can't be a contender. If your team is good, I'm not saying best, I'm not saying top three, just is it good? Do you have good players? Can you win more than half of your games? If your team is good, then you should consider yourself a contender.

You should be in the situation where all you gotta do is make the playoffs. So let me translate that into a slightly more complex answer. Okay. Because I think that that's obviously true. I mean, maybe it's making the playoffs. Is your team a playoff contender?

Because once you get into the playoffs, anybody can win that. It happens every year, but maybe we don't get so locked into this identity of how long it's going to take you to rebuild your team, because if you set out to be a rebuilding team and then you get surprised, some of the players that you've drafted, um, you have an opportunity to win now. I think I would say don't pass up that chance because you don't know that that's going to continue forever So if you've got good players, you've identified yourself as a rebuilding team, but you're surprising halfway through the year Yeah, be willing to go in that doesn't mean to abandon in all of your youth and your plans and your project

But that might mean adding a couple of veterans because those are always available on a huge discount. I mean Al Borland just did this this past weekend trading with me, who is, I hate to say this, messing with my whole- This is big news. ... is my whole identity, but I am actually rebuilding. It has been- Yes. ... since the beginning of this show. Yes. I don't believe you.

Yeah, no, tank, man. I do not believe you for one second. Here's what's going to happen. I'm just calling it now. Oh, okay, I don't believe you. Yeah, no, tank, man. Tank. I do not believe you for one second. Here's what's going to happen. I'm just calling it now. Oh, okay. You don't believe that I'm rebuilding. Correct. Well, he's rebuilding as of right now.

Okay, that's fair. That will last for, I would say, until week one. Maybe, maybe, until week one. I just traded Kelsey and Kamara away, and I traded them to a team that has been rebuilding and has the potential to win. It's rebuilt. It's rebuilt and that would be Al Borland's team along with Kyle.

Whose team? Kyle's team. Yeah. And they've rebuilt it and then they decided to add Kelsey and Camaro to give themselves a shot at a run. Now that was a mitigated, you know, a safe level risk. Like they didn't trade all their young players for old players or anything like that. It's not like, you know, you have to go all in

and give yourself no future. It's just, don't be afraid to make the moves you need to win this year just because you think you're in a rebuild. If it's going good, help it win a title. Yeah, my favorite thing you just said is don't make your identity a rebuilding team. Like, that's not what your team,

like, okay, you're in rebuild mode, okay. You're in a pit stop. Yes, exactly. You're skinning some new tires on real quick and you'll be right back out. 100%. Sometimes people get too caught up with like, you know, oh, I'm a rebuilder. It's like, no, you don't want,

do you want to always be a rebuilder? No, just like get some new wheels on there and get ready to press the gas. But I'm really, I'm rebuilding, Jay. I sure am rebuilding. You have draft picks now, right? A few. Which is rare for you, almost impossible. I have some.

I have his second next year, so I really hope he rebuilds. Yeah, he will be- He will be like a first. Yeah, we'll be using those picks This season to trade for assets to go and win maybe if I start well Yeah, one one open to it, but no I look It's a good answer Mike. Did you have anything you wanted to add? Yeah I mean, it's just like looking at your starting roster is your is the majority of your starting roster Good players for as Jason Moore said is your team good it like Because depth is very difficult and there's things about your bench that you just you don't know right now like my the

everyone is in a dynasty league not everyone but the majority of teams have like Everyone is in a dynasty league, not everyone, but the majority of teams have like, do you have two starting running backs? Because if you do, if you have two starters, you're doing better than a lot of people. But then you're like your bench can be full of these backups who as of as of the recording of this show in early May, those guys have little to no value. And then week six, all of a a sudden you have an RB2 on your bench things change rapidly so it's is your starting roster right now

looking like a team that can win that can beat out half of the league yeah so that's where that's my starting point I'm sad because you got to rebuild yeah I'm sad to have to be accepting reality in this situation. Because I didn't- You pushed it way further than we thought you could. I genuinely don't feel like I won enough titles. That's the truth. Yeah, that's fair.

It was a long run, and I didn't win enough. And that's why you're playing to win. I held on for a long time. I felt like I was in an advantage position because everybody wanted to rebuild, and so I was always in this position to take on older con, you know, older players, which I think helped a lot. But, um, I see Jason still doesn't believe me. I can tell. I can tell he still doesn't believe me. Have you seen my team? Oh, yeah, no, I know. It's trash. You'll be back quick. I so and as soon as you smell a victory you'll buy in maybe we'll see

News and notes from around the league This is a big one, oh man we got to say goodbye to a Send it in we got to say goodbye to a drop drop we've had since the first year of this show. I mean he predates the first episode of this podcast. Send in the car. Send in the car. Derek Carr.

They are sending him into retirement. Yes. This is a bit of a shocker. Derek Carr announces retirement from the NFL after 11 seasons. We are going into our 11th season. He was dealing with shoulder issues. It seemed like he was positioning for a trade or to find a new team and it turned out he's done. Yeah, his shoulder issue, he got soreness and he was trying to see if he could just

kind of play through that, or rest, rehabilitate, and then it was determined that the only way that he could come back was surgery, miss a season, come back next year, and he decided to walk away to go into retirement. And if you haven't seen the day one retirement video like on Instagram, it is the most wholesome, awesome, like I don't know if you like Derek Carr or not,

but watch that video and you're like, I like Derek Carr, I'm happy for him. Hey, he, I mean he's retiring, so it's the time to give him his flowers. Like an 11 year career as a, I mean he was a starting quarterback for 11 years. I don't remember if he started right away as a rookie, but he was a, no, he was not scheduled to start as a rookie where he was drafted, but to turn that into the career that he did, it's incredible. It always felt like you were just a little, little too short, except for that year three.

I'll remember the Amari Cooper, Michael Crab, tree combo to begin that year. I think they were undefeated through a bunch of games, were very close to it. Carr was pacing that year to be an MVP candidate. And then what, he broke his ankle or something right at the very end. He was 17.9 fantasy points per game his highest was that year But fantasy finish wise man. This was he was the he was He was he was the quarterback too. He was 2014 13 19 19 17 13 13 15. He's just a teenager

So yeah, that's it. No more cars. No more cars. And now the question becomes what happens next for the Saints, for the team, for Tyler Schucht, for the Olavi and Camara. The fantasy ramifications here are very impactful, very important to diagnose. It would have been better with Derek Carr. More fantasy points all the way around for everybody. But Derek Carr was also, especially at this stage of his career, not something that was so spectacular that they can't move forward from.

Right, it's tough. I mean, talk about just on a platter for Tyler Shuck. Oh yeah. You were selected ahead of Shador Sanders and Dylan Gabriel and Jalen Milrow and you have an opportunity now to compete with Spencer Rattler and Jake Hayner, both of whom we already saw.

Which means you are the starter. You just won. If, if, if. Like we've seen those guys. If he's not starting in week one, something has gone. Yeah, shuck him off your dynasty team at that point. It's gone real bad. So today's episode is trade for and trade away candidates. We had our guys kind of penciled in last week

as we prepared. And I told Kyle, you need to add one more player to this because right now, if I had Tyler Shuck, I am 100% trading him away. The hype is wonderful. It's just recouping. I don't feel like there's, see I. There might not be a market.

I don't think that there's really hype or a market for him. It's just nowing. I don't feel like there's See I there might not be a market, but there's really hype or a market for him It's just now, you know, he's a star in two quarterback leagues. I really think people They're willing to pay something for a starting quarterback, especially the teams just starving I mean, there's always a couple teams in two quarterback leagues that like they basically don't even have a quarterback trade you very little form Sure, I think he's gonna be the starter for the Saints for years. He might be, so I- Like I think that's the most likely outcome.

I went and I watched after, you know, recently I watched a bunch more of his tape, and I will be completely honest, I really liked him. I liked him- That's why he's recommending trading him away. I liked him as much as, in fact, personally, a little bit more than Jackson Dart. But I don't see him as a first round talent.

I see him as a second round talent, which is where he got drafted. And the thing is, is day two quarterbacks, they are a trap for everyone, including NFL teams. If they were talented enough, they'd be taken in the first. They weren't. They would have been taken by the team that drafted them and they fall. If you look since 2014, 24 day two quarterbacks being selected, of those 24, there's only three

of relevance, which is Derek Carr, Jalen Hurts, and Jimmy Garoppolo. Pretty much, other than that, only three had a starting job for more than one full season. This is a team that's going to have a top 10 pick next year, probably, with with Tyler Shuck. So dynasty-wise, you could make an argument that his value might be the highest today of all time. Yeah, I think this move, the retirement Rashid Shahid, it's brutal for him. He had a special connection with Derek Carr. Olave is still gonna be the number one, but we saw how bad it can be on offense for the Saints last year when they don't have

Derek Carr. And so you are gambling. I mean Alvin Kamara, the check downs, he'll probably be fine. The check downs will be there, but the offense is worse. But the offense is worse and you know, Olave's already a risk, regardless of quarterback, just due to the concussion history. And so you're looking at, look, I think I said it a few weeks ago, I don't think the Saints are a good football team, I just don't.

I just don't think in that division they're gonna be able to compete. And I thought that with this shaky car situation, so to Jason's point about maybe having another top 10 pick, it could happen. It's, you offense has got to figure it out. I like Tyler Shuck's film too, personally. So I think he will be the starter. We've seen enough of those other two guys.

Alvin Kamara was really good on a per game basis last year. He outperformed his draft price and all that. But if you take a look at the Derek Carr games, the first month of the season, Alvin Kamara was averaging 24.5 fantasy points per game. That's incredible. That would have been number one. Yeah. And then after the last 10 games, he was averaging 13.3, which is still a relevant fantasy option, but it is a massive step down.

Yeah, that's true. And they don't, I mean, he'll be the guy. It'll just be the guy on a team that you don't necessarily love the offense for. And, you know, that kind of feels a little bit like Tennessee last year when they were playing quarterback roulette and we didn't, you know, Pollard was okay good sometimes not good sometimes Jonathan Brooks on the PUP officially placed there by the Panthers won't play in 2025 which means Chuba Hubbard Rico Dowdell and some other fellas like Trevor Etienne will be the backfield in Carolina I love Chuba Hubbard this year mm-hmm he's. He's just a good running back. He's just a great running back.

I do. I think Chuba is a good running back as well. His ADP should be fine, but he's one of the players that'll be interesting of the way that Rico was brought in and the way that Chuba slowed down at the end. I think the timeshare is closer. It's still Chuba's team, so I'm not declaring this Rico, but I'm saying eating away more at the work

than we will be happy with. James Cook declined to say whether he'll hold out for a new contract. Do people really hold out anymore? Aren't they only hold ins? Yeah. Because of the... Yeah. So he could just say, yeah, I won't hold out. He should have just said, I'm not gonna hold out. Yeah Aren't they only hold-ins? Yeah. Because of the... Yeah.

So he could just say, yeah, I won't hold out. He should've just said, I'm not gonna hold out. Yeah. I'm not lying. Nick Chubb's days as a Cleveland Brown seemed to be over. This was Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry saying

that it is unlikely the team brings him back, so. That one, Nick Chubb was a player that I feel like everyone liked. Yeah, for sure. Like there's running backs out there that that a lot of people like and they're high profile running backs, but there's there's groups. You're like, I don't really, I don't think that player is as good. But Nick Chubb was just that dude. And then that whatever week two or week three knee injury was just that was dark. We also found

out that the Eagles will host the Cowboys in the first game of the season. That's a fun one. And George Pickens, welcome. Welcome to the East. This whole we're slowly rolling out the schedule. It is don't get me started. NFL. I love the NFL. My eyes are rolled. We haven't are rolled. We are on the back of my head. We haven't discussed this, but we are on the exact same page of- A press release about a press release? Stop it. Stop it.

Just release the schedule. Let us buy our tickets. It's not that cool. Yeah. It's not that cool. You love it, don't you, Jay? I don't love it, but I understand it. And they're doing exactly what they should do because they own the press

always if they can if they can put out one piece of information and have Press releases and every sports news and Twitter and social media. Stop it. Here's a new one I'm enabling never announce a schedule. You just get on a plane. You don't know where you're going now We're talking you fly somewhere when you land, you know who you're playing. That's what I want When is the official release? It's like tomorrow or something, right? Yeah. Yeah Wednesday. Yeah. Yep Maybe who knows well Jason will be front row at the event All right. We'll take a break come back with some talk. What city's hosting this? Oh gosh, no. Oh my God.

All right, Jason's got his tickets to fly out for the schedule release figured out in that break. Let's talk trades. Let's talk trades. Spectacular. Had you seen that videography? I don't remember it. I saw it this morning. But I liked it.

That's a new one. That's a new one from the biggest loser. Very nice. All right. We're talking trades, players to trade for players to trade away in dynasty based on where we're at right now. Middle of May, players you might want to put on the roster for me. I'll start that. Go ahead.

The trade for candidate for me is, I think we're going to enter a window here for Justin Herbert that I think will be extremely good for your dynasty team. I think we're entering now I'm not going to go as far as Super Bowl champions that Jason may have. Well he made a lot of Chargers fans very happy. But I do think that the stability on the team the addition of Lad McConkey Trey Harris Mike Williams Johnson still there, the weapons that they have, Hampton out of the backfield. Justin Herbert, we already, I don't think anybody would argue that he's one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks in football.

No, that dude could chuck it. I mean, he is a tremendous passer. He is able to evade pressure. He can throw on the run. He can make plays when it matters, and he's 27 years old. Now Mike, he was one of your trade targets in the dynasty pass. He has been, because I am with you, I think that he has been, he's undervalued. That's the reason I want people to go after him right now,

is I think that there's a chance that you could trade a player, a quarterback, for Justin Herbert and a little something and Maybe you're not really taking a downgrade in dynasty This was a player who in his first three seasons was the quarterback 9 2 and 11 So we know what's in the arsenal. This was these were years. He was throwing for 4300 to 5000 yards injuries offensive philosophy they took a toll on the past two years. And I just think that this team is heading in the direction where, look, they

proved they were willing to put more on his plate over the back half of the year. Yes. And you know, he's got a head coach who loves him, more weapons. Do they have enough weapons? I'm not sure exactly, but you look at that post-bi-week Justin Herbert last season, he was top 10 in neutral pass rate and completion percentage and yards per game and EPA per pass and explosive plays. And he's got more weapons than he's had in a while. So eight top 12 performances in fantasy from week eight on. That's second place behind Lamar Jackson.

I think Justin Herbert is one of those players and I even mean it in redraft like you were talking a later round quarterback this year in redraft or acquiring him on the cheap in dynasty because you're at this stage of his career where people think they might have they might have him figured out and what he's going to be and I think there's a fatigue there in dynasty that you can benefit from if you're looking to pick him up. And I don't know if that's Baker, right?

Or somebody like that in that category where you could go get Herbert plus a little something for Baker. I don't know, but I think he's a trade for target. I like going after Herbert. Not because I think it is an absolute home run of go get Herbert. I promise you that things are turning around this season. It's not that at all, not because I think it is an absolute home run of go get Herbert.

I promise you that things are turning around this season. It's not that at all, but it's in the range of outcomes. He has shown us he can do those things. And for pocket passers, like try and go trade for one of the runners. It's gonna cost you so, so much. So you- The running quarterback. Yeah, the running quarterback.

So now I gotta find a pocket passer who I think could do a Joe Burrow. Try and go get Joe Burrow. You're not gonna be able to do it. But Justin Herbert in the right system has shown he can be a 5k 40 plus touchdown type of a player and it's the fact that it's hard to see the path for that to come back. Even this year we're working on a redraft rankings. I'm like, oh man, I know the second half was so much better for Herbert, but it's tough for me to get him into my top 12.

But I know that the talent is there. Embedding on talent in dynasty over situation is frequently, like if you go with that path, you're going to win more than you lose. There's a really good historical comp to me. And that's Matthew Stafford. Nobody has ever doubted that Matthew Stafford was a top tier arm talent quarterback in the league, but there were ebbs and flows in his early years.

So hot in the injuries. Yeah. I mean, he was, he was quarterback five in 2011, 10 and seven, had an off year, came back with top 10 finishes. I see those two players, obviously not at this stage of Stafford's career, but as an early career, Matthew Stafford, so what's going on with Herbert, I think there's an opportunity.

Yeah, and obviously this is for dynasty. This isn't like saying that this year he's gonna be the best. I think he's gonna be a quality fantasy quarterback this year he's going to be the best. I think he's going to be a quality fantasy quarterback this year to be a top 10 quarterback. But yeah, when you're looking for trades, whether you're trading forward or trading away, it's really just about value. Yes. Is this player undervalued or is this player overvalued? You capitalize on that and a lot of times if you take away the player's name,

you know, and you just think about the situation and then compare that to the value, it's like a no-brainer. So I'll go next because I think this one is a no-brainer. I'm going to take the name away. There is a first round wide receiver, an NFL drafted first round wide receiver who went to a great offense with a great offensive head coach who has produced a lot of Fantasy success in fact he has produced a guy in the last three years who's been a two-time top 12 wide receiver Oh, but that players no longer on the team Now granted there is another star wide receiver on this team Wait, he's injured

So you're telling me that there is a wide receiver drafted last year in the first round on his rookie contract who has a pathway on a great offense, a 10 and a half win projected team total, and he is currently being drafted in dynasty startups as the 101th player. Is that how you say that? Yeah. No, no. We know. Definitely 100% how you say that. You got it. 100 month player. Yep that's a sounds even worse than the first time No, that's uh, that's good. I like how about this. He's the

47th wide receiver in the dynasty for 47th He's the 47th Drafted wide receiver in dynasty startups. You can take everything else away and say, I know that's undervalued. Now let's talk about. All right Mike, it's your turn now. Now let's talk about the player. It's Ricky Pearsall.

Ricky Pearsall was a player I liked going into last year. He was a good route runner. He has unbelievable hands. If there is a catchable ball, he will catch it. You should see him do thumb wars. Undefeated. Oh! His hands are incredible. That's a stat we should give the UK. He will catch it. You should see him do thumb wars. Undefeated. Oh! His hands are incredible.

That's a stat we should get in the UK. The thumb war. Thumb weight? Is that? It's dexterity. Oh, thumb dexterity. Yes. Which helps you catch the ball.

I'm guessing Kenny Pickett's not very good on that one. Whoa! These hands! That's all I know. So, you love the first round, Pedigree. I do. I liked him as a prospect. He's got the avenue with Debo gone

and Brandon and I, you currently injured. He's on a good 10-win upside team. But let's look at how he actually played. You can't get on his case for a slow rookie season. He got shot. He did. He got shot in the chest. He got shot through. And it wasn't a late night like, you know, oh, he's going out to the clubs. What do you expect for in the morning?

This was just a robbery out in the daylight where he should have died. And he got lucky. He didn't even get on the field until week seven. Just curious. Does it lower wild to get on week seven. If you're shot once, does it lower your chance of ever being shot again? Has to. Well, like lightning? Yeah. I'm just saying like-

Statistically? Yeah, well, if you got struck by lightning once, wouldn't you feel a little more worried about it a second time? Well, it never strikes twice. Wow, that's true. It's not, but that's what people say. I'm just wondering if he's gotten his possible shooting

out of the way. Maybe he of course has, because I promise you you if you've been shot, you are more cautious about getting shot. That's just my guess. Oh, you haven't had yours yet? I'm not leaving. I don't know if you guys even remember the last two games of the year with Ricky Pearsall, 8 for 141 and a touchdown on 10 targets in week 17 against Detroit and 6 for a very nice 69 and a touchdown on 10 targets in week 17 against Detroit, and six for a very nice 69,

and a touchdown on eight targets against Arizona. I don't remember it being that good. Yeah, well, he had three top 15 finishes, all with more than 15 fantasy points in the second half of the season. He is one of only 19 wide receivers in the last decade with that. And if you look at the list of players,

I mean, they're almost all stars. The three games of? Three games of 15 or more points in the second half of their rookie season. Tyreek Hill, Juju Smith-Schuster, Debo, AJ Brown, Justin Jefferson, Ayuk, Amon Rah, I mean, the list is great. All of them, literally all of them,

except for Christian Watson with injuries, and Brandon Ayuk in the dog house, if you remember that had top 24 Seasons the next year, so it's just one of those things where I look at His situation says he's way undervalued, and I think his talent says people People look at his rookie season like it was a failure, but the dude got shot Yeah, I don't I don't know if I think people look at it as a failure I think they look at it as almost lost sure almost more just like we didn't maybe they didn't know those numbers at

the end of the year. People forget the end of the year. That's for sure. People are out of the playoffs. They didn't even pay attention. If you're not playing in the playoffs with Ricky Pierce on your team, you miss those numbers. Those are good to bring forward because he didn't have the opportunity in the first half of the year to prove himself. Right, and then he was playing behind, you know, Ayuk and Deebo in his rookie season. So I also just saw a clip. Jenangs. Thank you, Jenangs. I saw a clip today of Brock Purdy talking up Piersal and how he loves, how he stays late, he runs routes with them after practice. He's always in the right spot and I why is Purdy running around there? Busted and they're going golfing early in the morning Kind of like breakfast

Golf is like breakfast. You get up early. You're better at breakfast. I'm way better at breakfast All right, Mike. Who do you got? You want to trade away or trade for? I'll just give you my trade for. Trading for running backs in dynasty is tough because running backs can expire quickly. And you're like, oh, man, I just gave up all these assets to go get some guy who was good on my team for a year. But the name I want to throw out,

because I think that he is undervalued on the market compared to what he has done and what his age is at where he can still give you multiple years. That is Kenneth Walker, aka Ken Bone Walker, and I'll get the age out of the way right away here. He's 24.6. Don't necessarily love that, but you know who's going in first-round rookie drafts right now? R.J. Harvey, who Ken Walker is four months older than. So if you're hot and bothered by R.J. Harvey, then you don't need to

worry about the age of Kenneth Walker. He's going into the contract year. We saw the huge uptick in passing game. That is such difference maker where, where Ken Walker was more of just those first couple of years, you know, he's the grinder giving you big plays, but we got him in on the passing work and it was a huge deal and talk about talent among 46 running backs who had 100 or more carries. He's number one enforced missed tackle rate. So while the yards per carry of last year, it was, it was bad. It was under four. He's still like he's doing

everything he can. And last year, the Seattle offensive line, pro football focus had that line ranked at 31st and Seattle has done some things this year to try to address that and make that line stronger. So I just think this is a running back who has showed us he can be a home run hitter if he truly is getting more involved in the passing game. Like if does that stick? I think it's a fair question but at least we saw it. And then the new O.C. already coming in and at

least giving us coach speak that he is enamored and talking up Kenneth Walker mentioning him by name frequently. So this to me, Ken Walker, should be able to give you, he'll get a second contract from somebody. So this is a three-year player at the running back position, maybe even more, who I don't think is being priced in dynasty like other guys. I might be the person that isn't pricing him that way I to me he has a it's the risk factor that factors into his Dynasty value to me where it's like I can see both sides I can see him having a great career year and getting a great second contract. I can also see him

Be injured dealing with injury or just being marginalized on this offense and suddenly that second contract is a Madison contract And I don't care about so I'm sure and I'm not I'm just on the other side of that or maybe my fatigue has run like the Ken Walker breakout experience hasn't happened to the point where You know, I'm satisfied. It doesn't mean that's not in him that that, that he's not capable of that kind of a season. He's got every incentive in the world being on this roster. But maybe I'm more risk averse here with Walker if I was gonna. But that's what I mean of the market price.

Like this. Like I'm not trading a first round pick for it. It is, it is not universally locked in that Ken Walker is. Right, yeah that's why. That people love him. Right, no. Right, yeah that's why. That people love him. Right, no. Where, like there's other running backs,

so they will be, the price will be so catastrophically high for you to go acquire that running back. Where you have to. To get that possible value. You have to take some risks in your trades, or then you're just buying people at the absolute ceiling. Did you have any thoughts on Ken Walker, Jay? No, I mean, I believe it is a risky pick with giant upside. So I mean, if you believe in Ken Walker,

I know Mike obviously does, then this is the perfect time to go trade for a guy that you, if Ken Walker comes out and has a great year, everything Mike said will be right and you will have stolen him at a great value, but it is risky because- Sure, it can go both directions. Yeah, it really can I I'm very curious we'll take a break we'll come back with our tradeaway candidates and I'll mention mine and I

want to know if you'd rather have Ken Walker the guy I mentioned all right my tradeaway candidate is a touchdown expert extraordinaire. It's James Cook running back for the Buffalo Bills who is 25.6 years old. Ken Walker was what, 24.8? 24.6. 24.6. So, a year difference. So it was obviously a humongous year for James Cook.

I had him on my dynasty roster. This name is going to be perfect to bring out because I will just tell you exactly What I traded him for I am rebuilding I want I was nearly desperate to cash in on the Season that James Cook had because I just find it to be very very difficult for him to repeat that value I think he's a really good player. You can be a really good player and not score 16 touchdowns So you was the player who had fewer opportunities per game of lower snap percentage and managed to score more points? Yeah, I mean he had two touchdowns the previous two years on the ground and he was a really good player then too. That didn't change. He was outstanding last year,

a top 10 running back, but I was desperate in dynasty to trade him away. I traded him away for Chuba Hubbard and Draft Capital. And so, and I think I got a couple seconds. Now I'm a rebuilding team. That was fine for me. I was content with that because I feel like Chuba could have just as good of a year as James Cook this year. And he already has a contract going into the future.

That's part of it too. As James Cook is here threatening holdouts, or I don't know if I'm going to hold out or I'm going to hold in or I want to get paid 14 million a year. Look, I watched this team a lot last year. We all did. It was it was a great football team, a great offense. They were not afraid to use multiple running backs. Ray Davis, really good running back. Ty Johnson saw a lot of third downs and pass targets. James Cook is not scoring 16 times on the ground this year again. It's just not going to happen. And so from a

dynasty perspective, this is just the moment. This is your moment to go out there and get top 10 value for a guy that probably settles into RB2 category. He'll get another contract even if it's not the bills. I was going to say when you're talking about trading him away would you if you've traded him away do you want him to sign back with Buffalo or do you like to know that he's locked into this and his utilization is likely capped I can't imagine they change anything or do you want the boat do you want him to hit the market and maybe land in a perfect spot? I could see-

Or take what you know with Buffalo. I would imagine that if the money comes from Buffalo, then the job security is there with Buffalo in terms of the way they're going to use him and the fact that, look, it's hard. You wouldn't want your guy leaving a top five offense that looks to be a top five offense for a bunch of years in a row to go be the guy in Tennessee or something like that I feel like that was unkind to Tennessee just they might not be that bad there just whoever's the Building man any year now 43% of his fantasy points came from touch from touchdowns. That's a lot So it's just low probability

That you're going to get the same thing this year. So I was very, I felt very, a sense of urgency to get him traded. And he feels so much younger than he is. You know, you're apologizing for a younger player's older, you know, old age in Kenneth Walker. You asked earlier before the break, which player would you want? I checked my dynasty rankings. They are back-to-back But I have Kenneth Walker ahead of James Cook as you should so maybe you can trade James Cook for Kenneth Walker plus some stuff Yeah, I think that'd be a dynamite trade you could you could end up going into the offseason about these guys are out there I mean they could be your free agent premiere Premier Running Backs to be signed next off season together. And based on this year, we'll see who gets more money. Well, speaking of Premier Running Backs, I have a combo

platter of tradeaway candidates. The Running Back Five in Dynasty Startup, which is obviously very high, and the wide receiver five in Dynasty Startups, it is a pair of Eagles, Saquon Barkley and AJ Brown. What a weird guy, doesn't like Saquon? These players are awesome, they will both be top 10 at their position this year, and so someone's going to pay a lot.

You're only getting them from my roster if you pay up for it. You're going to give me a young stud and a one. Then you can go have an awesome season, you hope, or maybe two. But the end of the road is coming for these guys. This is a trick. We've talked about it a lot. We've done it a lot in our leagues. When you have these top tier players, these premier league winning assets, but they're getting towards the end of their NFL lifecycle, you have to get out a year early. Seguin's 28.2 years old. There was a great study we did a couple years ago and it saw that the number one age of the biggest decline,

meaning a 30% decline in PPR per game production. Whoa, hey, a lot of P's in there. Happens at age 28, that's how old he is. Also, since 2020, 10 running backs have seen 330 plus touches in a regular season. Saquon had 378 plus the playoffs all the way to the Super Bowl. Every single one of them saw a decrease

of at least 45 touches the following year, and only two played a full season. So like, Saquon's a little bit riskier than it seems, and right now he's being valued as the fifth most valuable running backs and startups. And AJ Brown. Because he's brutal to deal with, man. AJ Brown is gonna be playing at 28 years old this year.

He's been a Dynasty stud since entering the league, but I would rather get out a year too early than too late. And the decline in wide receiver when they hit that certain mark, and I'm not even talking about production, I'm talking about fantasy value. Look at the Dynasty wide receiver ADP over some of the years of some of the greats. Julio Jones went from one year being valued as the wide receiver

12 when he was 30 to wide receiver 30 the next year. A.J. Green went when he was 29 from being valued in dynasty as the wide receiver 17 to the wide receiver 41. I mean, these are massive drops. DeAndre Hopkins at 29 went from being the wide receiver 10 the next year in dynasty startups, wide receiver 40. Even Tyreek who is still going, last year he was the wide receiver 8, now he's the wide receiver 33. People stop wanting to buy them. People stop, they change into an old man, even when they're productive. And so you're not gonna get value other than what they produce.

If you run Larry Fitzgerald till he retires, great, you got the most out of that. But eventually you can't trade them away. AJ Brown and Saquon, these are players where right now you're not getting out, you're getting a haul. You are getting paid premium prices. You're getting a haul. You are getting paid premium prices. You're going to have a lot of value. And I promise over the next three years, what you receive, if you do good work and go and grab a young stud, a young stud wide receiver

plus a one, that can happen. A young rookie incoming running back plus a future pick. You're going to end up on the plus side of that as you move forward in a dynasty league. I think that talk there, Jason, of just understanding the market, and, cause like Mike Evans, Mike Evans has been awesome for fantasy football. Nobody wanted him this off season.

For the last three years. Nobody, I tried. Like when I, I don't even remember when I traded him. It was forever ago, but even at that point when Mike Evans is still putting up huge years, people don't, the market doesn't care. The market, that player is now far more valuable to your actual roster than it is in terms of trading away.

So if I told you Seagal is the RB7 the next two years, does it change your view? Well, yeah, I mean what's gonna happen to him when he hits 30 if he's the running back seven and then the running back seven is gonna be what happened to Derek Henry where you can't trade Derek Henry. I mean even two years, three years, I feel like four years ago we couldn't get hardly anything for Derek Henry on our roster. So you've gotta make the determination, do I wanna ride this player into the sunset,

into retirement, just get all of their fantasy points, which is a viable option, rebuild elsewhere, through the draft, hopefully you find some people, or do you wanna maximize and get better, you know, quicker? Yeah, no, it makes sense. My up. You're up. All right, my trade away, speaking of knowing. Kenneth, no, it makes sense. My up. You're up. All right, my trade away, speaking of knowing-

Kenneth Walker. Knowing when to do, yeah. Which one should you do? That would be amazing if you did them both. Speaking of getting out while a player still has some- I don't know the name. It's Joseph Mixer. Yeah, you could have guessed this.

Oh my gosh. Who? He has a running back who will be. Tated by Mike Wright. Yes, he hasn't been my favorite, but he's gonna be 29 this year. We've already run through a lot of the Age Cliff metrics, and I took a gigantic L at the beginning of last season. For Joe.

Joe looked awesome. Like he looked sprightly. And then now the end of the year was not great. Granted, he had the ankle injury, so it's harder to know the efficiency of how just, he looked like he had juice. His snap counts were way down. His snap and his efficiency.

So I mean, if you're talking like just metrics about the running back. So 46 qualified running backs, I just mentioned that for Kenneth Walker. So Joe Mixon of 46, 39th of percent of carries where he was stuffed at the line, 38th enforced miss tackle rate, 41st in success rate on zone runs.

Like the guy, and Joe Mixon will probably be fine for fantasy again this year. You know what he is though? What's that? Dog. He's a dog. Yeah, maybe. He's a dog.

Maybe. But his, his like the reason why I really didn't like it when he went to Houston is because he had in Cincinnati, he was getting by on volume. Yeah, for sure. And volume alone. Like, we saw some. And he will this year, and then it will be over. But that's what I mean. That is exactly what's gonna happen.

When you're at this point of your career, like you have outliers like Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry is getting volume, but Derrick Henry is still awesome. Joe Mixon is inefficient and just getting all of the touches and that value that it's it's unstable that could disappear and that could crater at any moment that the coaching staff just says we've had enough we can't keep dealing with guy running at 3.5 yards per carry or whatever we got to try

somebody else out. So that's where I'm saying I'm getting out of Joe Mixon. He's hit the classic 1800 carry cliff where when it's just this number that pops up a lot when you have aging running backs. If they've hit that threshold, that time generally wins against those players and then it's just done. But Joe Mixon, I think, he still has some value because he's a running back, a starting running back who will be good this year. What do you think you can get for him? That's where my worry would be. I think there might be a desperate team

who will give you a future one, especially now that the draft just happened. They're like, whatever, you can swipe my credit card for next year's first, I don't care, give me Joe Mixon. But more realistically, you're probably trying to trade him for just to get a little bit younger. Bet you can get Travis ETN. I bet you could, I bet you could.

Travis ETN's dynasty. There was another category. Values. There was another category for the show, we didn't put it in, but Jason was going to have it. It was a wish he'd never traded for, and it was going to be a Travis ETN. Yeah. That's a whoops. I've just flipped, by the way. I've gone from like a... I like Travis ETN a lot, but it's

way more fun on the... Join me. So much more fun on this side. Being on the ETN hate side is... It's fun. It's entertaining. Literally, you just, as a manager of Travis ETN, you just have to have a vigil. It's the only, it's literally the only path there.

I'm gonna send you a trade right now. I'm gonna send you a good trade for it. Oh, I can't wait, yeah, I can't wait. It's gonna be Aaron Rodgers for Travis ETN. I would never. But it's on the way. Joe Mixon is a guy where I am concerned. I again, I think that he could just volume his way into being a good fantasy running back this year.

But he will be on he'll be on watch of if anyone on that team can show anything that Joe Mixon might lose a bunch of work. Yeah, I mean, he is he feels like a-year rental right now. Yeah team that is competing He also might be a player. I'm gonna tell you this and this is something I'd love to get you both of your opinion on it was indeed Aaron Rodgers Did you accept the trade? I did offer you Aaron Rodgers. Mmm Hall of Famer. Oh, can you say that about Travis? He's a good bench player. He's a locker room presence. Leadership. Oh, he's just done so well over his last few seasons leading teams to great traffic. Here's the question I have for both of you. When you're thinking about rebuilding, and this is just

coming straight from the heart, but I've made some trades in the last week to head towards a rebuild, but there have been some players in some discussions where I realized it's the middle of the year that this is gonna be a better trade. And I wonder if players like Joe Mixon that don't seem sexy in the off season in a dynasty league suddenly seem a little bit more attractive. Two weeks in when they're dominating the first two weeks.

Or at the trade deadline when they're at the RB seven and? Or at the trade deadline, when they're at the RB7 and somebody is on the cut, they have an injury, you know, there's a reason why some free agents right now aren't signed with teams. And that's because they're waiting for opportunities to develop. And I think in fantasy, that happens too. You're gonna have injuries in the first six weeks

of the year, and suddenly a team that was a contender that loses a main running back, Joe Mixon looks really good in that moment. Yeah, that loses the main running back, Joe makes it look really good in that moment. Yeah, it is a very good point knowing when to time the market of, like people always ask, when are you trading my draft picks? Well, you can see the rise in value right before your trade deadline,

and then there is a drastic decrease in value. And then as you approach the real NFL draft, all of a sudden your firsts start getting a little bit more valuable. So yes, timing those things out does affect when you should do it. But it's dynasty week right now, so I have to tell you to trade them right now.

Yeah, and there are more trade targets in the dynasty pass. Mike's special section of the dynasty pass there You can get it as part of the udk plus at ultimate draft kit comm June 1st is when it's released right now is the pre-order price ultimate draft kit comm Get the udk plus or become an ultimate foot clan supporter to get the udk plus for free as part of that membership You can check that all out at ultimate draft kit.com. That is going to do it for today's episode of the show on Thursday. Dynasty week continues. We have rookie sleepers, dynasty FAQ, mailbag and more. Do not miss a minute

of it. The fifth annual dynasty week halfway, halfway done. Oh no. You sure you don't want Aaron Rodgers? I'm sure. 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 FF Ballers.