Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Preseason Power-Up + Position Battles, Rankings Risers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/10

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Preseason kicks off tonight! Biggest preseason storylines and things to watch for on today’s fantasy football podcast! Which position battles will have big fantasy implications? Plus, fantasy rankings risers from training camp, NFL News, and a new edition of Best Ball Breakdown! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for August 10th, 2023. Dive into the 2023 Ultimate Draft Kit + Draft Analyzer! UltimateDraftKit.com Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. Visit https://underdogfantasy.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Foot Clan. It is that time of year to get into the ultimate draft kit and make sure you are prepared for your draft. Everything you need. We have prepared for you.

Tiered rankings, player profile videos, our breakouts, our busts, our sleepers, and we're always updating it. So make sure you get it right now before it's too late at ultimatedraftkit.com. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Is it football time? It's a question. No, I heard the question, Mark. I also heard you laugh at your own joke in the middle of it. Look, when you tell a good joke, it's okay to laugh at it. Yeah, I agree. It's just that was... Oh, you didn't think it was a good joke. Ah, I see.

No, it was okay. I heard the question mark. That's good because the inflection of my voice went down. Yeah, it's just the laughter damaged the question vibe a little bit. But is it football time? I don't know. Houston, New England? Let's find out.

Minnesota, Seattle? It's preseason football time. Do we get anyone good tonight? I wonder if we're going to see. CJ Stroud, baby, let's go. Okay, all right, all right. That's good. Backup quarterback for the Houston Texans.

JSN. We should get some JSN snaps tonight. Yeah, and hopefully some Charbonnet as well. Okay, all right, I'm in. It is. Yeah, it's football time. You're in on NFL football. Yeah.

Oh, that's good, Mike. That's going to'm in. It is. Yeah. It's football time. You're in. That's exciting. You're in on NFL football. Yeah. Oh, that's good, Mike. That's going to help the show a lot. Welcome in one and all. Andy Mack and Jason, the fantasy footballers with you. Deucers in the building. Al Borland dressed in black. Keep deucing.

Weird, right? Yeah. Strange. Strange. I mean, black beard, black hat, black shirt. Cadillac. Yeah, not bad. And Judge Giamatti here as well. Time bomb joke.

Raps galleon in the building over there in Ducer's Alley. Also black hat. What is happening here? Finally, he's the only one dressing professionally with a polo on today. Oh, I'm missing my work outfit. What am I doing? Yeah, embarrassing. It is Thursday,ust 10th we are going to talk pre-season dreaming today talk about some of the stuff we're watching

hoping for you brought up charbonnet the rookies are so fun to watch in the uh in the pre-season you get to you know put your eyes on these players at the NFL level and what they can do. You just hope you don't get Kerryon Johnson in the preseason. Am I right? Am I right? No comment. You mean like big breakaway runs?

I'd say, yeah, drastically move up the ADP. Yeah. This is that time when you are watching the players that you like and you hope. It's the most selfish hope of all time. I want them to look good, but not too good. Right. Just good enough to confirm my priors, but not good enough that other people know what I know.

Or if you're really confident in them and you're like, I know this player is going to be good. You want them to just be so quiet in preseason. You're like, no, no, don't even play. Just sit him. Yes, absolutely. The Amir Abdullah,

the, the, the one cut heard around the world. Yeah, actually that's the one I was remembering. Yeah. Carry on look good too, but it was the mirror that moved two rounds of ADP.

The truth is if you're in a dynasty league, you can just fully root for them to succeed, though. True. Right? You don't have to worry about the draft capital. What do we got going on? The ultimate draft kit available right now, updated every day. Sometimes I give Jason a gift, and yesterday I gave him a gift.

I moved Devon A-Chain up a little bit. You gave the Foot Clan a gift, and you gave yourself a gift. Really, I gave you a gift. You should see how close Raheem Mostert and A-Chain are now in production. Proud of you. Does that mean I need to move them down so we can balance things out? I didn't take it to the limit, Mike.

I didn't take it to the limit. You didn't want the newcomer to steal the show? No. UltimateDraftKid.com updated every day. The community, for those of you just joining us, it's at join the foot.com. Become a member of the foot clan. You get a bonus weekly episode of the show.

Some upgrades coming over there soon as well. And we are going to have an in-season app this year. Yeah, baby. I can't promise you exactly when, but as soon as possible, we will be getting you an in-season app very early into the year. Yeah, I had mentioned to the Foot Clan that it will be ready for week one,

and then I was told that I shouldn't say that, that we can't hit that timeline. And to that I say, watch me. Watch me. Because it'll be there. It'll be there week one. Okay, great. I'm sending this to the dev team. That's right.

Clip this up and send it to the dev team. Wow. Impressive. Poor guys. At the FF Ballers over on X. Here's a quick question. Who has risen in your rankings the most during training camp? I'll hop in because it was a training camp I expected to not see the player.

It's just Javante Williams. Coming into this season, he was pretty much, for all intents and purposes, off my board. Just, you know, the injury, the timeline, the normal medical recovery. It's just a player I wanted to avoid at all costs. And the fact that he was never put on the pup, that he went into training camp, that he's been a full participant, that he was in full padded drills, tackles, going to play in the preseason.

I mean, either a guy is or isn't healthy. And so my opinion on him has changed the most. I still want to see it in the preseason, see how he looks, if he looks like himself. But there are examples. This injury was just more severe than an ACL. If it was just an ACL, it would be like, okay, it was more like Brees Hall had a less severe injury

and his draft capital hasn't been affected as much. But there are certain human beings that for whatever reason, Adrian Peterson or young Jamal Charles or Todd Gurley, when they get that bad injury at a certain age, they're fine. They recover quick. And if that's what's happened, I want to be aware of it. Javante is a good answer because I mean he was potentially undraftable. Yeah. If you thought he was going to miss some time combined with

the Pirine acquisition the injury I do think there is still the chance and you said it you want to see him in the preseason. I still worry about a trap there in the sense that you know Pirineyan gets involved and and and he's not 100 and we don't know what this offense looks like but inevitably he's got to go way up people's boards for me it was dj moore there's a few answers mike has one that is also an answer for me but dj moore um when you look at the the numbers the passing numbers from justin fields last year combined with the historical situation for DJ Moore, where he just lives in this 18 to 25 fantasy range with no upside.

I do think there's a legitimate chance that this is just a special connection this season. And then Justin Fields takes that step forward. If you read everything coming out of camp and the type of offense they're putting together and the number of screen, or not screen, slant plays that they're connecting on, like the get the ball in DJ Moore's hands type of offense. If the targets are there for DJ Moore,

I think he could be one of those surprise picks that's simply not going to go that high up average draft position boards because there's a history, and history just kind of holds players back. And you could look at it down the line as a great value. Yeah, with the actions of the Chicago Bears trading down from – they had the first overall pick. They could have taken anybody they wanted in the NFL draft, including a quarterback.

They chose to trade down. They add an offensive lineman, but part of the trade down was you add DJ Moore. You don't trade down in the NFL draft from the number one to get a number one wide receiver and then be status quo with your passing attack. Your numbers, they go up. You only trade a second to get a big wide receiver who's now hurt chase claypool uh right to stay status quo so i'm i'm in agreement that like the numbers just they should go up but it's a very scary situation my

the player who's risen the most for me during training camp it is a flowers rookie wide receiver for the baltimore ravens Now we did get a slight update. Rashad Bateman, who was kind of the de facto number one wide receiver for them heading into the offseason. He's off the pup, so he's finally back. He'll be able to get himself into football shape. He's doing what he does best, which is ride the bike on the sideline and kind of like look like you're going to try to play football at some point. He at least has enough time here to be ready for week one. And Rashad Bateman, he is a difference maker.

We don't know if he can be a true number one yet. Zay Flowers was drafted in the first round to make sure that this wide receiver core was a trio and ready to go. And Zay Flowers, combined with all my thoughts on what i'm projecting that todd monken will do for the ravens offense i'm very excited all right let's get into the news news and notes from around the league presented by usaa insurance yeah i was about to ask you if you're ready for this one Jay but you are uh Frank Reich said Thursday Miles Sanders suffered a little bit of a tweak of his groins a little bit tweak at practice on Wednesday unlikely to suit up for the preseason game you don't like to see it

no you don't like to see right when preseason hits a player who's I I feel like his biggest knock against him has been his ability to stay on the field, is hurt. I don't like it, especially for a player that I've been very into, I've drafted a lot of, I've spoken highly of the expected role. I think Miles Sanders, if healthy, has a phenomenal season. But these preseason timeline injuries, when you're within a month to the season, really sucks to have a soft tissue issue like that.

If you would like to see his comments on the injury, we do have them up on groinindex.com. Kareem Hunt left Indianapolis. By the way, I saw it too. I saw some thread. On Reddit. Reddit popped up, and it was someone was, I think they were happy to find out that it's not just a bit on the show i mean it is but this is a real it's a real

website that it's like automated automatically updated we send our look we have a beat reporter the fantasy footballers have a reporter for each and every team to make sure that we go get that quote and then they just as soon as a groin injury hits technically if you look at their credentials they they aren't part of the fancy footballers they are part of groin index.com oh okay right they are they're representing their foot in the bill for this really important currently six players miles sanders, Eddie Pinheiro, Traquan Smith, Kenneth Walker, Rasheed Shahid, and Reggie Gilliam are groined out right now. Kenneth Walker. I don't know if I want to be groined out, man.

We've got to get Walker off this list. Yeah. I mean, it's killing me. It's generally a celebration when you can get yourself off of groinindex.com. Yep. All right. Kareem Hunt left Indianapolis without a deal. What is happening?

Offer was made by the Colts, unable to reach an agreement. Kareem, what are you doing? It's very easy and obvious to know what Kareem Hunt is doing. He thinks he's worth more than he is? He thinks, and he's probably probably correct that he gets one contract left like he gets one more chance this is it he's just got to leverage he's got to leverage these teams against each other and just hope he's playing the game right he's playing chicken but it's all about money here it is and in the it's just crazy because it's like great visit with the saints

as soon as he put his foot on the field, the Colts called and said, hey, we'll pay you more. Then he gets to Indianapolis. It was $2 more. I mean, it's clearly like we don't know. Is it possible that Kareem went there, had the meeting, and they told him, like, Jonathan Taylor is not getting traded. We're bringing you here to be a depth piece.

I'm sure Kareem asked that question. I'm sure Kareem asked the question, how much will you pay me in dollars? Yeah, this is money. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that's impossible. I'm just saying it's a little bit of a bridge too far for me to speculate on that. Anthony Richardson will start Saturday's preseason contest in Buffalo. Good, good. Listed as co-starter with Gardner Minshew.

Sam Howell. I really hope that they both take the first snap. Together. Yes. They line up a wishbone, but it's two quarterbacks. Two quarterbacks. And you don't know who's going to get the ball. That's what Trask and Mayfield are doing.

Sam Howell will start on Friday against the Browns. There you go. It's been a minute. That was today's News and Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. All right. Preseason power

up. All right. I've never really gone into a segment with all right before. Well, now we have. How did it feel? Not great. As a fantasy manager, we're talking about what we're looking for in this preseason, specific position battles that we are paying attention to,

things that we're excited about. We've got three preseason weeks to pay attention to, three main preseason weeks. I was accused of being, I don't know, like a party pooper with some of my negative sentiment around what's happening in the preseason, the fact that we just don't have the same expectations we have had in previous years. When we had four preseason weeks, it was very traditional for the third week

to be starters, maybe first, second, even third quarter. Yeah, usually three quarters. And then you don't see them in week four. Now it is a mixed bag, and predominantly you don't see starters that much in the preseason. Maybe you get a quarter out of them at some point. That might be preseason week two or week three. Well, and a lot of times in addition to that, it's not just the starters, but it's not just the offense, but it's the defense too. So,

you know, if you're not able to catch every preseason game, which nobody is able to watch every single preseason game easily, you don't know when you look at that box score. Okay, these guys, the first string that played, they did well. Were they playing against the ones in the beginning of that game? Because the other team might just decide, eh, we're not playing any starters. So it's always, it's hard to have as reliable of takeaways. I pay attention to things, it is the first time you see them in full pads.

This is not combine season. You're not, you know not running in a straight line. So game speed, I can remember Dalvin Cook from years back, bad combine. The preseason speed, you're like, oh, I get it now. There's going to be players like that this preseason at every position where you're like, it's a play here, it's a play there. It's not necessarily how many yards they have or any amount of, it's not the touchdowns, it's play to play. Are you seeing some things that are special about these players?

Just give you a gauge of do they belong here? A lot of these rookie storylines, it's like do they belong here? And this is the number one point, Jason. Don't pay attention to Allen Robinson. Go on. Yeah, that's always a good takeaway for the preseason for training camp. I'm hearing good things. Yeah, I know.

I would agree with you that one of the main things I look for, I'm watching rookies as close as I can because this is where you get to see that game speed. Can they pull away from NFL defenders? And you're watching rotations, right? So we're going to talk about the running back rotations we're going to be paying attention to. But who's first? Who's second? Who's third?

Like, who's getting the work in what order? And if they get an opportunity in the beginning of that game to have to do a little bit of a hurry up, who's in there for that? It won't be a two-minute drill, but it'll effectively be something like it. I just want to look at rotations and game speed. So let's look at the running back position, some of the position battles we're paying attention to this preseason.

Jason, I want to start with you because this is a very interesting backfield in terms of average draft position and fantasy they're all outside the 10th round and they're dealing with injuries like where he most are oh i just revealed it didn't i whoops he didn't practice and then jeff wilson hasn't been practicing and then devon a chain mispractice so you're talking the miami backfield yes i am they are the team I want to keep an eye on the most. I am so excited about Devon A-chain and what he can do in this system specifically. With his speed and the way that they run this system. And all the reports from camp have been glowing about A-chain.

That he's exceeded expectations. That they might be out of the Dalvin Cook sweepstakes simply because of him. The other players are saying that he's a dude. He's so fast. He's breaking tackles. He's good between the tackles, too. Yeah, and you saw it in college. Coming into the NFL draft, I was completely out on A-chain.

I loved what he did in college, but when you're 188 pounds at running back. 189, please give him his due. He had another deal this morning. He added a pound since the combine I believe he was 188 uh at the combine 189 now so he's really putting on the lbs 10 years from now so but you know where he landed was perfect for him the opportunity with Mostert and Jeff Wilson is the only other two running backs and and the thing is, you saw this last year with Raheem Mostert, with Jeff Wilson. They ranked seventh in the NFL in fantasy points per touch.

You don't have to have him get the ball 20 times for him to be really good for fantasy in this system. In this system, when you're trying to keep up with Waddle and Tyreek, and you can't stack the box, and you've got uh you know a really creative offensive play caller if you can get him to the second level he gone uh let me quiz you on some you might already know this number off the top of your head but i happen to be glancing at it earlier do you remember the yards per carry for raheem osert and Jeff Wilson last year. I do not. I would guess that both were near 5. 4.9 each in that offense.

Very effective, but both players prone to injury. It is a committee in Miami. Is that fair to say? I mean, it's a full committee. I think all three players will get worked in, absolutely. 31st in rush attempts last year, 16th and fantasy points wow uh Mike you are paying attention to the Bears I am paying

attention to the Chicago Bears running backs because much like the Miami Dolphins these are guys sure Khalil Herbert is technically at the 9-12, but this is essentially another three-pack of running backs who all have a chance, and they're all going in the 10th round. Right now, my chips are on Khalil Herbert. I am betting on the talents that I believe that Khalil Herbert has. Also, the reports in training camp have been this is Khalil Herbert as the number one. It is the rookie Roshan Johnson, who a lot of people like, but he is currently the number three.

And then Deonta Foreman, the free agent, has been brought in, and he looks like he's the number two. But it's like Khalil Herbert. I'm trying to do some quick box score hunting, but it looks like when Khalil Herbert receives at least 16 carries, it's limited, it's a small sample, but if he's at 16 carries, he's at 70 plus rushing yards. Now that isn't always great if you're not putting in any receiving work or you're not

scoring a touchdown, but if you're getting 70 plus yards a game, and if Khalil Herbert's the guy, he should see at least 15 plus carries a game because you look at what they've done with David Montgomery, Montgomery the past four years, 200 carries, right? If you're getting that amount of yards, that's a 1,000-yard rusher in the 10th round who can give you some spike weeks. We've already seen that happen where last year when you had Khalil Herbert playing for David Montgomery, he was a top-12 running back two times.

He's been the number one overall. Sorry, that was 2021. You had last year against Houston, he was the number one overall running back. You had a stretch from week six to eight where he was a top 24 running back each of those weeks. I think he's a good player. I think the Chicago Bears offense is going to be improved. So Khalil Herbert is very interesting to me, and specifically what I'm watching for is does Khalil Herbert come in, get a few drives, and then he's gone? Or is it Khalil Herbert comes in, gets a drive, then Deontay Foreman gets a drive, and then Khalil Herbert comes back onto the field,

kind of signaling, no, we're going to be taking turns, we're going to be shifting guys in. So I think that's a pretty important thing for the team to tell us what their actions. And Roshan's that type of player that's going to get a lot of preseason work because of where he is on the depth chart right now. So you're going to get to see his skill set on display for the first time and what potential could be there over the course of the year

because I believe this is Khalil Herbert's final year under contract. I might be mistaken there. He has one more. One more after this. This is year three for Herbert. So Roshan's role will be interesting as well. Deonta Foreman added this offseason. I'm excited to see how much of Jameer Gibbs we get this preseason in Detroit.

David Montgomery and Gibbs join a roster that produced so many rushing touchdowns with Jamal Williams last year, a lot of effectiveness with DeAndre Swift in the past couple of seasons. I know that there is worry out there in the fantasy universe that Jameer Gibbs could just be DeAndre Swift. It could be that level of involvement and workload. I don't think that's going to be the case. What I am most curious about is whether you get,

is this going to be the Alvin Kamara emergence of Jameer Gibbs to the Mark Ingram of David Montgomery? That's the likely outcome, but we have not seen how they're going to use these guys. I think we're likely to see two potential outcomes here where I think Gibbs could be're likely to see two potential outcomes here where um I think Gibbs could be very very effective for fantasy and David Montgomery could be used way more than we think I believe both of these players will produce at their average draft position I really do

the the question about um is Jameer Gibbs just DeAndre Swift I think that is a little bit fair, but also you have to separate the actual talent. Gibbs is a far more talented player than Swift coming into the NFL. I mean, you could see that just by the fact that he was drafted number 12 overall. This is a first round talent who has incredible speed. Swift does not have Jameer Gibbs' speed. Swift was a good prospect. Gibbs is a great prospect. So at the running back position, that's some of the things we're paying attention to. Quick break, back with some wideout battles. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Security in Canada gives you that coverage.

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and it's the Ravens wide receiver room in general because sometimes these very murky situations, like the backfield in Miami where guys are going in the 10th, 11th, 12th round, they are where the diamonds are found. They're mined. We mine diamonds, right? Yeah. So it's some hard work, and sometimes it's easiest in fantasy drafts to just not deal with

murky situations. But the ones that are always worth dealing with are ones that involve later round draft picks because, you know, the cost of getting it right early in a draft because, you know, it's second, third, fourth round pick. It's, you know, you get that wrong. It's a big mistake. Maybe you take someone safer. But later in the draft, if you get it right here, it's a huge advantage. And here's what I know about the Baltimore Ravens wide receiver room. I don't think that all three guys are going to finish wide receiver 45, 50, and 52. Agreed.

So I think you're going to have one of these players, maybe two. Is it the wide receiver? 31? Is it the wide receiver? 22? Is it the wide receiver? 25? Like there's going to be players finishing well above this ADP and this ADP is there because we don't know who they are right now. And so Zay Flowers, Rashad Bateman, Odell Beckham, um, you know, you look at possible outcomes, Beckham could be more involved than we think he will be. This was a recruitment project by Lamar Jackson. He wanted Beckham there.

So from a PPR perspective, we could get surprised. Wide receiver 52, Beckham's on the bus list because we haven't seen it from him, but it is a place where you could be surprised. Yeah, the stat that just blows my mind is the league low 12% of plays that were three wide receivers last year for the Ravens. That is not just the league low. That's the lowest 11 personnel rate over the last decade. The NFL average is 61%.

They ran it on 12% of plays. So getting more wide receivers out there is just inevitable. Yeah, and they have the lowest wide receiver one average draft position for a top five drafted quarterback. That's interesting. In the last decade. So it's literally the biggest discount you've ever had on a quarterback projected to be a top five quarterback ever.

And so I don't know if you want to give them each an award like, you know, Zay Flowers maybe is the best, the safest, I would say, to some regard. Do you agree with that? Jason's looking. So my only worry was Zay Flowers. I love Zay Flowers. I've talked him up. I think he's great.

I think he's going to thrive. But to start, it seems like they've still got Isaiah Likely, and they're still going to play with two tight ends. For sure. And so when that happens and there's two wide receivers, let's call it 50% of the time now. Oh, it's the B-Boys. It's probably the B-Boys.

It's probably Bateman and Beckham, and Zay Flowers is not playing. Now, obviously, Bateman has struggled with health. Odell Beckham has struggled with health. And it could very easily be Flowers and whoever is healthy. But I think if all three are healthy, you worry, like, is Zay Flowers getting enough snaps to be a star. It's actually a really, really good point with that number of 12%,

uh, three wide receiver place. I mean, obviously with Todd Monk and coming in, you certainly expect them to run a much faster pace and three wide receiver set that that will be far more of their base offense. But it's still one of the things where you would expect right now Zay Flowers is the slot guy what's crazy is I think

you're going to be able to play like you know how it gets in fantasy by weeks injuries I think Flowers Bateman and Beckham are always going to be players that you're like well I can I can put them in the lineup this week and I might get something special out of them because they're all going to have good weeks Mike Jason what are you watching for at wide receiver this preseason? I'll hop in because you talked about an exciting team. I want to talk about a not exciting team because those still matter for fantasy. Boring. Boring teams.

Boring. Patriots. The New England Patriots are fascinating to me. What is happening? There's another team that is going from what I think was a bad offensive system to what can only be a better offensive system, I hope, with Joe Judge and Matt Patricia out of the way trying to do that science experiment with them running the offense for the Patriots and bringing in Bill O'Brien.

I want to see'Brien I want to see one I want to see Mac Jones is he good he looked like he was going to be good rookie year we forget that like he's a post-type uh candidate yeah I mean he he could actually be good and the problem was the offensive system and the lack of weapons last year yeah and if you look at nebulous wide receiving cores Devontae Parker's been a riser this training camp the last month or so. He got paid. I know he's gone up and up in our rankings, not that he's super high. You've got Juju Smith-Schuster, who they gave money to, a three-year contract to.

You've got last year's second-round rookie wide receiver, who was a disappointment in Tyquan Thornton. And been a disappointment this preseason. Yeah, I mean, he's actually been really good this preseason with the twos. He's doing really well when he's running with Bailey Zappi. Zap, zap, zap. Zap, zap, zap. But has not done as well with the ones, which kind of is what we saw on the field last year.

And then you've got Demario Douglas is a name that we need to bring up. Who has him in Dynasty? I do. No, you don't. No, you don't. Son of a gun, you got him? No, you don't. I was thinking of the, I can't even remember the guy.

No, you don't. I grabbed the Demario Davis of the Bengals. I can't remember. You didn't even get his name right. It's DeMario Douglas. Douglas. Yeah, whatever. That's why you did get DeMario Davis.

Oh, good. You didn't get DeMario Douglas. My claim for DeMario. No, he's making waves in camp. Yeah. The DeMario Douglas Dynasty Stash Flex. Yeah. Hey, look.

It's not about the name, Mike. It was about the fact that I have him and he thought he had him. That was what made it fun. Yeah. Hey, look, it's not about the name, Mike. It was about the fact that I have him and he thought he had him. That was what made it fun. Although, if you want to do this, you got Calvin Austin, and I went and looked him for him. I already had him, yeah. That's what I said. I didn't pick him up.

I held him. At some point, you picked him up. Jason's actually been in Calvin Austin Believer since last year. We were looking through our Dino Jr. team. Can't overcome Allen Robinson in a slot in Pittsburgh. Calvin Austin, by the way, wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Back up to Allen Robinson. His rookie season was put on ice, and they're starting to talk him up.

Oh, you've had him that long? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, my point was going to be, I'm like, eh, maybe Calvin Austin's a guy we can get rid of, and he gave me the laser beam eyes of how dare you even think about dropping Calvin Austin. He's 4-3-2 speed. They have two sixth rounds.

I mean, Demario Douglas is a sixth round rookie, as is Kayshaun. Booty! Rocking everywhere. And Kendrick Bourne's still there. And Hunter Henry. So I just want to see the passing attack. And Mike Gusecki. And Hunter.

Yeah, Hunter Henry is probably the most valuable piece here. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that is a dirty wide receiver room to try to find value. But I think they will be probably, Mike said it the other day, better on offense than we expect. There will be production there. Jacoby Myers in the midst of a horrible offense last season. Still had value week to week.

Mike, you're looking at Jacksonville. Yeah, I'm looking at they're a very exciting team. If the Trevor Lawrence breakout that Jason and a lot of people are calling for, if that happens, we have a lot of value to extract here. Calvin Ridley, the presumed number one wide receiver who hasn't seen a football field in basically two years or so, he's being drafted as the wide receiver 19. Now, what we know is when Calvin Ridley's on,

last time we really saw a healthy Calvin Ridley, he was sensational. I think he was a top five wide receiver, maybe number three or so on the season. He's fantastic. But then on the other hand, Christian Kirk, last year's wide receiver 11, although a little bit inconsistent, still finished as the wide receiver 11, he has plummeted to being drafted currently on sleeper as the wide receiver 31 like are we really that confident that calvin ridley is 12 wide receiver spots better than last year's wide receiver 11 was that a rhetorical it you can ask answer it if you want what do you think, Jay? 12 spots better, sure.

I don't have a problem with that, but I think both guys might be too low. I mean, you saw two years ago when Christian Kirk was in Arizona as the two. He finished as the wide receiver 26. So I do still think he's being drafted too low. So that's what I'm watching for is do we get to see Calvin Ridley does he really look that much more special than everyone else for the Jaguars wide receivers let's see some Christian Kirk action like it's just it's wild to me to be for Kirk to have been that good for fantasy football and now being pretty much dismissed at that there's there's no way there's no way. There's no way he can be anywhere close to that.

He can't be the number one. And if you know the way fantasy psychology works, sometimes we don't get in on the twos in these offenses because we like the allure of the ones. So there can be value there. We'll call that the Eric Decker syndrome sometimes, right? The Brandon Marshall in New York andic decker was just as good um or also demarius thomas in denver and eric decker was just as good it's always eric decker all right a couple things i want to touch on here

uh before best ball breakdown other players battles situations that we're watching and then i want to i want to cast a coin into the wishing well of something that we're dreaming of this preseason. But let's start with that other situation you're keeping your eyes on. Yeah, I find this year more than ever I'm looking at the quarterbacks. I brought up yesterday that I really want to get my eyeballs on how Deshaun Watson looks. I want to see if he's looking in rhythm and can hit normal passes

unlike what we saw last year. And Jordan Love. Jordan Love is everything to a bunch of different – Dobbs has been rising up and just he's really making some noise in the training camp timeline. Christian Watson is a highly drafted prospect. They will go as Jordanordan love goes so i really need to see if he's good those two guys i'm going to be paying attention to make sense i want

to see all the rookie tight ends um i was joking with jason that this you know he may get tortured by some actually productive rookie tight ends this year probably not sam laporta but possible been been very uh been running with the ones. Been very targeted in camp. We're going to talk about him in a second. Dalton Kincaid. Dalton Kincaid has earned the trust and will be running with the ones throughout the season in Buffalo. Luke Musgrave.

I don't know if you saw the camp report today, Jason. I think you probably did. Just having a downfield threat. The comments made out of the uh green bay area is first time since jamaica finley that you have somebody that can threaten down the field and make a difference in the passing game uh the schoon man back on the field for dallas come on come on luke um has to compete with fergie over there yeah so uh and i feel like i'm forgetting another rookie or two. Michael Mayer.

Yeah, Michael Mayer in Las Vegas. He has been missing camp the last few days. I don't know if it's an injury or what it is, but he has not been participating. And we've got, what, big Darnell Washington? Yeah, Darnell Wright. Last I saw, he has caught eight total passes in all of camp. What? Four of them are touchdowns so when they get

around the goal line actually man that might hurt Fryer me a monster of a man if you're not familiar with him he is they call him the sixth O lineman he is a freak of nature physically I mean yeah you get around the goal line it's like just just toss it to him lob it ever seen mo alley cox before yeah um darnell could hurt fry me a little bit but he could also really help naji harris yes in that offensive line so i i want to see those rookie tight ends i love scat i think i enjoy scouting the tight end position in preseason so um that's something i'm looking forward to quick note on michael mayor bumps and bruises no cause for concern thank you and what i'm going to be another something I'm looking forward to. Quick note on Michael Mayer. Bumps and bruises, no cause for concern. Thank you.

And what I'm going to be, another thing I'm looking for, it's Rashad White of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh, that's a good one. And more specifically, that Tampa Bay Bucs offensive line. You don't want to look. I do. You don't want to look. I need to.

Oh, man. Because if it's bad, I need to know. It's rated R. You cover your eyes. Children, don't watch this for grown-ups offensive line is it's not gonna be good yeah man yeah so let's find out the red band offensive line i mean they do wear red jerseys uh so let's did they fix anything is rashad white truly the dude because at the running back 28 if Rashad White is like that that like a really main time running back and he's going to be used a lot in the passing game which we got the report that that Chase Edmonds could be the third down running back

I don't know if that will hold yeah when when the uh when the action's really happening on the field. They're like, well, we could pull Rashad White out and put Chase on the field, and the Coasters would be like, I don't know if that's such a good idea. You sure about that? Yeah, that's going to be the head coach. So Rashad White I think is very interesting to watch in the preseason. Throw Trask and Baker's battle in there too because it's going to have an impact on Godwin and Mike Evans and Otten and these running backs and their usage based on who wins over there.

The wishing well, but I want to know your personal preseason wish. What dreamy situation? What outlandish situation? Selfish wishes. Selfish preseason wish. Look, I'm jealous of Javante getting healthy, not going on the pop. Wolverine blood.

I need my Brees. I need to see my Brees boy. I need him out there. I want to see him in preseason. I mean, I just want. Are we expecting to see him on the field? I don't think so. That's why it's a wish.

This is why I'm throwing the coin in, so that it can come true. You might need to throw a few coins in. Yeah, look, that's a silver dollar. All right, so you want Brees back? I just want to see him in preseason, yeah. Mine is, I want, it's all caps here in the dock i want josh jacobs to return yeah just make it easy on us take the saquon route take an extra few buckaroos get back with the team you know i just make it easy on me for uh make it easy on all the josh jacobs drafters

to not be gambling in late august do you have and this is, I don't know if you've even thought about it, but just top of your head, like a timeline where if you get to this date and Josh Jacobs still hasn't come back, then you're worrying me to just. Yeah. I know his date. It's the day after our draft. When he has them, he goes, oh, no. I mean, realistically, I think it's like you get through three preseason games.

That's all of them. And we haven't heard a whisper. The day after the third preseason game, if we don't know what's going on, that is when you're going to just have to start adjusting expectations because if right now they rescinded the tag on August 10th, you're going to find a new home and you're going to find an opportunity to contribute earlier in the season. If it happens a week before the kickoff, you're in big trouble. Like I don't care if Kansas city goes and signs you. I don't care if Denver signs you like you're not a part of day one plans. If that's the case,

you're going to, it's going to be hard to turn that over on week one two three four uh injury risk will go up with no camp you know at least statistically um i this is why i don't want to deal with any of those questions so my wish is that josh takes a little flight from cabo or wherever he's at right now and strolls into the building and says, I'm here and I got 1700 rushing yards. I'm bringing with me. Yeah. Vegas is fun.

Go home. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. You normally would like other players in other cities like Jonathan Taylor probably flew to Vegas to wait out his contract. Just stay home. All right.

My wish. Yours is so funny, Mike. My wish. Look, it's not often that we have hopes or dreams or desires for a third-string quarterback to get traded. But here we are. And my selfish wish for my Dynasty team is that Trey Lance gets traded. And so we just can know.

Do we not need to dig into that and just ask where? No. You want Washington? Washington would be great. Anyway. It's just not San Francisco? He's not going to start for San Francisco if Brock Purdy is there. If Brock Purdy, if something goes wrong with Brock Purdy,

I don't even know if it's going to be Trey Lance. It might be Samuel Darnold. I just need to know. I need to see it. I need to see five games. Give me five games of Trey Lance as a starter. You're never going to get it. Not in a monsoon.

Just Trey Lance as a starter, and let's all find out together. You're never going to get it. He's never going to see it. Never going to get it. I know. That's why it's a wish. Honestly, he may have the highest chance of starting as a third stringer in San Francisco the way their injuries go.

That is not a – I mean, that's fair point. But you got hopes and dreams for Lance. Now, Lance will get preseason time, right? So the trade has to come when he goes out there. I mean, let's put it this way, Mike. He's probably going to be facing third string defenses. He's going to dominate. He's going to look great.

He's going to dominate. Mike said he wants to see five starts. He did not specify regular season. So over the next two years, five games. I didn't just to see five starts. He did not specify regular season. So over the next two years, five games, I didn't just say start five games. So if we give him the whole preseason, like if they give him all three, I'll count it. All right. I'll take three of those.

Okay. Yeah. Let us know your own preseason wishes. If you're watching on YouTube, leave it in the comments. Come join our Discord. You can get there on the fantasyfootballers.com. And it's free to join over there as well, the community. You can ask your questions, share your dreams,

and commiserate on all your sadness if something goes wrong. Best Ball Breakdown, presented by Underdog Fantasy. Oh, here we are. So because we're in training camp season about to hit the preseason, Andy, you brought up one of your favorite things to watch for in preseason is the tight end position. And we've been monitoring it in training camp because especially for best ball, when you're playing underdog, my personal favorite builds, I pretty much either grab Mark Andrews and then another decent, consistent tight end like a Higby.

Or else, if that doesn't happen, almost all of my rosters are three tight end builds. And the reason that I like and I prefer three tight end builds is because at the very end of your draft, when you're in round 16, 17, 18, the tight ends there are not zeros. The tight ends there don't need an injury ahead of them. They're on the field. They're running routes. You're just hoping this week they get the touchdown. So when you get those there, they, they can be very valuable picks. Um, and whereas, oh, you, you grab a running back there. You're just hoping it's usually an insurance back and maybe there's an injury ahead of them that that you know cracks into your lineup i just wanted to throw this in there because we we normally preface it before we dig

into the best ball breakdown but we are talking about best ball drafts best ball lineup formations for underdog fantasy when you're in there building out best ball teams, which if you're not familiar with that format, you draft, and then that's it. You're done. You get to get the fruit of your labor throughout the season without adjusting your lineup. And you really get to dunk on people for your drafting ability because it's one of those things where sometimes we talk about

with ultimate draft kit, right? You're building a foundation to not lose at the draft yeah absolutely it's it's a that's what you do exclusively in basketball right but you don't win your your championship at the draft and your redraft league you win it at the draft here in underdog like who drafted the best team the starters will be made for you. And so when you're doing a three tight end build, there are a handful of tight end training camp risers who've been on the move from what we've seen. And I want to give you three of my favorite picks that have risen in the last two weeks because of training camp news.

So you're still willing to draft these players even after they've risen in ADP? Yes, because they have risen to still too low um they they were uh great values now they are very good values I'm going to start with Hunter Henry uh just talked about the Patriots he has been he's a riser Mac Jones favorite target in camp he has and and Gasicki has had almost no um like very few targets and receptions in camp. Yeah, he made one great play. That's kind of what Mike Gasicki does. Yeah, they did.

Are you talking about the catch? The catch. The catch was reported far and wide on Twitter. Yeah, and Ferguson. Jake Ferguson has been moving up the list as well. I mean, he seems to be the clear number one tight end in Dallas, a murky situation that's now becoming more clear. Rookie tight ends, even with a full camp, hard to contribute.

Ferguson's been the guy. So, you know, that's an opportunity there for sure. He's gotten it done. Like, Schoonman has not been there. Yeah, he's been hurt. Sometimes, you know, that gives a player an opportunity and they don't show it but in camp yeah i he's been the guy yeah absolutely and there's 89 targets vacated from dalton schultz and then laporta we brought him up too in in

detroit where look this was an offense where where tj hawkinson had burst games at tight at the tight end position, Mike. Yes, absolutely. My favorite part of the Sam Laporta is Lions beat reporter Tim Twentyman. Oh, that's a great name. What is this name? Yeah, Tim Twentyman. Tim Twentyman? This is the first time you've heard of Tim Twentyman?

Apparently. Oh, man. I've not paid attention. Great reporter. Because when you have a name like Twentyman, I'm going to get this guy. Imagine if your name was like 15-man. What a loser. That's no good.

Normally your surname comes from a historical source. There's meaning behind it. But this was like, does he have an ancestor? He's as strong as 20-man? Oh, I thought this was like, does he have an ancestor? It was like he's as strong as 20 men. Oh, I thought this was lineage. Like his son will be 21, man. And then they just every – they know exactly who his – They don't do the junior, senior stuff.

No. They just change the last name to increase it. Exactly. There have been 20 men in my history, and I am the 21st man. My grandson is 22, man. Yeah. history and I am the 21st man my grandson is 22 man yeah but what his quote was is that Sam Laporte has been taking first team reps since day one it doesn't look out of place at all it's gonna have a big role for the offense starting in week one keep in mind Jamison Williams has a six

week suspension and there are the fourth most vacated targets in the NFL for the Detroit Lions. I really like the talent of Sam Laporta. You heard that, huh? The Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions. I did. You heard it, too. Oh, I felt it. All right, yeah.

So those three guys have had great camps. Hunter Henry for the New England Patriots, Jake Ferguson for the Dallas Cowboys, and Sam Laporta for the Detroit Lions. And if you're like, Jason, I thought you don't draft rookie tight ends. Rookie tight ends in best ball, I don't think any rookie tight end is going to have a great season where you're going to draft them and redraft, and you're just going to plug them in and love it. But if you remember like last year, Greg Dulcich had a handful of really great impactful games. Relevant fantasy weeks. Yeah, and while I still think Dalton Kincaid on underdog

is being overdrafted for what he'll produce, he will still have good weeks as well. And this is the tight end 18 going 152nd overall in Sam Laporta. Now, I just want to make sure. You're talking about Bronco's second string tight end, Greg Dulcich? Actually, if you look at the quotes from Sean Payton. I don't need quotes. He said there's a slash between them.

Yeah, he said there's a slash. The Dallas Cowboys listed Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot as co-starters. Yeah. They could have. Peyton Hendershot, you know, shout out to the blocking tight ends. Troutman, Hendershot, those guys can block. Co-starters listed all the time in training camp. Not for the Denver Broncos.

You know, I don't know if I need this in my life. I don't think we need the Troutman. I didn't renew the subscription, man. I unsubscribed from that newsletter. I don't need it. You know who resubscribed? Oh, gosh. Head coach Sean Pay coach sean payton no no no you can't discount what sean payton said with his mouth he and then and then say that it's him oh this is upsetting yeah sean sean payton straight up said

it's a slash they're co-starters look it's it's it's a joke it's's Greg Dulcich as the pass-catching tight end. But I will say this. Nothing for the 2023 season would bring me a greater joy than Adam Troutman doing something. It will be Troutman and Sutton all over the field in Denver making Mike. I really hope. It's your redemption year. That it is week one. I mean

oh man Troutman gets like two touchdowns all season but they both come in week one. Mike will do a show a la mode. I mean you will come in no clothes on just ready to rock. To be clear that's how Jason describes being naked.

Just in case you confuse it with ice cream on the side. All right. That was Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. Get your first deposit matched up to $100. Using the code BALLERS, enjoy a couple of preseason games tonight. And guess what? We're going to come back here tomorrow.

We got a mock draft episode for you, and we're mixing it up. It's going to be a full PPR, 10-team, three-wide receiver. See you there. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.