Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Sleeper Picks + Late Round Steals - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/22

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Late-round sleeper picks on today’s fantasy football podcast! Find out which players Andy, Mike, and Jason are targeting near the end of 2023 fantasy football drafts! Plus, more Jonathan Taylor updates and NFL News! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for August 22nd, 2023. Dive into the 2023 Ultimate Draft Kit + Draft Analyzer! UltimateDraftKit.com Compete in the largest fantasy football league! Megalabowl.com Connect with the Fantasy Footballers Podcast: 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

including a new chance to win cash every minute in the app. Get into the game with Monopoly Double Play at McDonald's. While supplies last, one in five chances to win game piece prizes at outset, chances to win Double Play prizes based on time of code entry, and draw prizes based on number of entries in each draw. See rules in the app. Get a credit card annual fee waiver and earn C-plus points faster with the Scotiabank Ultimate Package and bank more entertainment. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think.

What's going on Foot Clan? Great show for you today. I wanted to invite each and every one of you into the 2023 Megalobol. You hear that? You hear that? The Megalobol is a tournament-style super league with over 20,000 Foot Clan players. We want you in it this year competing for the championship where you get to be the Megalobol champ and you get into the 2024 Listener League. Go to megalobull.com to enter welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host

andy holloway jason moore and mike wright oh welcome in. Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Oh, Chubby, my neighbor. Tuesday, August 22nd. The Fantasy Footballers podcast. Andy, Mike, and Jason, Al Borland on the switches and the dials. Papa Josh in the building.

The Rapscallion as well. Did you just fist pump Josh? Okay. That's all right. Over in Ducer's Alley. A variety of sleep amounts in the studio today. You know, there are days when things just go according to plan. And we stroll in here and we all high five and, you know,

share some donuts and then flip on the switches and we record a podcast. And everyone's got a good night's sleep. Those are great days. And then last night, you know, a myriad of our staff had things going on, but we're still here. We're here. We have, what, one, have what uh one two three four five six of us a combined 12 hours sleep we should this should be a great show to be clear the 12 hours is me and mike yes that's it but um we're excited to be with you we have a sleepers episode today we have so much going on in the fantasy football

universe you were just preparing for the show, Jay. That's right. That's all I was doing. And the show sleeper this show. Yeah. Okay. Oh, I get it. It was a real bad sleeper joke. My mind was not there, Mike. I'm sorry. It really was the backwards of what

the joke should have been. That's the problem. But that's Andy's fault. We lingered on it too long. That's on me. I threw out the zinger. We had a chuckle. We could have moved fault. We lingered on it too long. I threw out the zinger. We had a chuckle. We could have moved on. We should have just moved on because it was so bad. But now here we are. It's getting worse. The more we talk about it. What a bad joke that was.

It was the opposite. I want to welcome everybody that's brand new to the show. I've seen a lot of people on Twitter that have reached out and said they just found us this year. Oh, what's up, everybody? Oh, man, congratulations. Which means every, oh, my goodness.

Everybody, somebody broke the rule of not talking about us to their friends, and so I appreciate that. Everybody out there that is willing to tell other people about this show, you're a real one. Yeah, well, it's year two. All you new people, you don't have to tell anybody this year you go you go and you win next year challenge yourself if you want to find us over on socials it's at the ff ballers at andy holloway at jason ffl at ff hitman we'd love to

talk to you over there follow the show we got a lot of good stuff coming as the season gets ready to kick off but yes thank you to everybody who is following the show subscribing leaving us a review all the good stuff that helps helps us grow get the word out the foot clan is mighty and strong the ultimate draft kit is available right now I know know a few people. You drafted last weekend. I saw the roster starting to come through. Saw some people have some great success, I would say, based on diving in, building out that draft board, the cheat sheet, picking up some of these sleepers, these late-round guys. Saw some ninth-round Jahan Dotson flying onto people's rosters.

Oh, yeah. Did you see my boys' flowers last night? Yeah. Oh, man. Did you see my boy, Zay Flowers, last night? Yeah. Oh, man. I could barely see him, but yeah, I did. Don't care. He was sneaking through the defense. Oh, man.

It's good. The rookie talent. I am so excited for Zay Flowers. I know you are. You really should have made him a my guy. He was on yesterday's breakout. Maybe something else. Yeah.

But the Ultimate Draft Kit, you can find that at ultimated on yesterday's breakout. Maybe something else. Yeah. But the Ultimate Draft Kit, you can find that at ultimatedraftkit.com. Pick it up. You'll be ready to go for your upcoming drafts. You heard it at the very top of the show. We've got the Megalobowl right now. You can get there at megalobowl.com. I feel like I'm just throwing URL after URL out, but there is a lot going on right now.

There sure is. It is the season. You fill the utility belt right now for the season. With URLs? With URLs. It's figurative, Mike. Okay.

There you go. So, quick question of the day. Comes in from David in Pittsburgh with quite the greeting. Says, greetings and salutations. Isn't a salutation just a greeting? It's both, yeah. Well, it's a double greeting here. So greetings and greetings.

Or salutations and salutations. First time commissioner here finally convinced my league to switch to FAB. Congratulations. Which is a free agent budget for those out there who have no idea what we're talking about. Two questions from David regarding free agent budget or free agent acquisition budget. How often do I run waivers? So let's start there. How often do you run waivers when you are on a FAB system, which I guess we'll backtrack a second. A FAB system is essentially instead of open waivers, which generally is ordered by reverse order of standings,

and when their waiver priority is spent, you go to the back of the line, which is the kind of default standard for a lot of leagues. FAB is different in so much as you have a generally, maybe it's $100, $200 budget. Every team gets that amount of money at the beginning of the year, and you can bid blindly. It's blind bidding on free agents every week. It levels the playing field.

If somebody wants to spend 80% of their budget in week one, they have the right to do so. They have equal chance of getting a player. But that budget is spent out over the course of the year. So if you're not good at budgeting in real life, you might not be so good at fab. Fair. But how do you run waivers in a fab system?

Sure. So I'll start it off as in the games have happened. So waivers are closed on Tuesday. Give everyone a chance to recover from the weekend, recuperate, really dive into the information, and know who they want to target. Then Wednesday through Saturday, have it be – Jay, what is it called when it does it? So we run it so the fab runs at a specified time,

but then it does not open. I think they call it continuous. Closed. I can't remember the verbiage for it. So then it basically runs once a day, Wednesday through Saturday. Then on Sunday, it's locked until waiver time. It runs, checks everyone's bids, and see who gets to add which player, who spent the most of their free agent budget.

It runs as normal on Sunday as well. Sunday, the preferred is have it open, run the bids, but then it stays open. Because every once in a while, there is a situation on a Sunday where a late player gets scratched. There was no news about it. You were not planning for it. So we like to leave an option open for people on Sunday. And it doesn't run on Tuesday.

I think we leave it open through Monday as well. And then they close on Tuesday. Yep. Do you still have a free-for-all period in which players can be picked up on a first-come, first-served basis? Only on Sunday morning. Yeah. And then the same thing happens Monday morning, right?

Yeah. We run it as a normal fab and then open after that. But, of course, on Monday, most players are locked because they've already played their game. So Monday, you just make sure it runs on Monday, but it's a real small pool of players. All year long, we have a waiver wire section on the website. We have a waiver wire.

We have a segment on the show. Yep, and we talk about who our priorities are that we're really targeting. We do talk fab budget, what we're willing to spend, like what percentage of that. So just make sure you tune in on Tuesdays. You know what, Al? I wanted to talk to you for a second. I was thinking maybe you should hit the news and notes button.

I think that's a great idea. Don't you think so? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Just trying to get that producer job security. Yeah, you know, I'm feeling lazy today.

I don't want to hit those buttons. We got a lot to talk about. Yeah. I think we're going to spend some time in the news because let's start with the big, big announcement yesterday. Jonathan Taylor has been given permission to seek a trade. Okay. Moments after Irsay said, we won't trade him and we won't trade him now and we won't trade him in October.

Yeah, but to be fair, it's not right when he said it and it's still not October. So I think he's pretty honest here. It does sound silly, but yeah, what they're seeking, though, I don't think they're going to get. They're wanting a first-round pick value or compensation that equals a first-round pick value, and then John Taylor obviously is going to want a new contract that's the problem that's the issue so you have to find a team that is not only willing to like if Jonathan

Taylor was cut today just the Colts said I hate you you're gone and he's a free agent I don't know what kind of a contract he's going to find on the open market given this time of year and the teams are ready to go I'm sure he would find one but it's not a big bada-boom moment. But then for a team to say, not only do I want to give you a big bada-boom, but I'm also going to give up draft capital to that team to get you, I don't think there's going to be much of a market. And we've actually seen this with other players. Austin Eckler, when there was more time left in the season

and teams could make plans, he was given permission to seek a trade. Sure, but he's also 28, right? Yes, he's older. Jonathan Taylor would be a much more reasonable player to get a long-term contract. Still 24 years old. But my point is the market said to give you both draft compensation and a new contract at the same time for the running back position, I just don't think it's going to happen.

Something will have to budge, I think. I think the compensation costs will have to go down based on whether this team thinks he ever wants to return and play. There are vast fantasy implications here. Yes. It's not generally a good thing for a team, like for Jonathan Taylor to switch teams right now and find a good role on a good team.

We have a lot of stable situations. I don't know if there are teams that pop into your head right now. Miami is definitely the team. I just don't see that making sense. Dalvin Cook is one thing it's a one-year deal it's a rental you don't have to give up anything in terms of draft cost but you just drafted Devon A-chain you have a stable of of other players in the backfield I and I don't think Jonathan Taylor is the prototypical San Francisco style running

back for this team he's not a speed to the outside, A-chain, Mostert type of player. He's not that type. I don't think Miami's a real possibility, personally. I think we're saying that should he go to Miami, if Miami ponied up the two second rounders or even a first, then it would be wheels up for Jonathan Taylor. I'm saying Miami would tell us what their actions. This guy, he's going to be the dude.

I mean, Jonathan Taylor ran a 4.39. Like he's not slow by any stretch. Well, top speed, yes. Breakaway speed, yes. I'm talking about the San Francisco system, though. I don't understand why they would do that. It makes no sense to give up compensation when they could have signed Alvin Cook.

I think they would take a significant step forward if they had Jonathan Taylor, assuming Jonathan Taylor was healthy. I mean, you talk about that San Francisco system. Christian McCaffrey isn't the straight burner. He's just a freaking great running back, and so is Jonathan Taylor. We forget how dominant he was a couple years he ran for 1800 rushing yards at five and a half a clip like the dude is awesome uh there's questions about his health now so that makes it even more difficult for a team to be confident

to say I'm going to give draft capital money and everything but I I do think that if he were to go to Miami, he would dominate. Okay, we can agree to disagree there. The Bears make more sense. They have actual cap space. They have actual compensation they can give up. It's a young team. They're not paying a quarterback yet. Right.

You want to find that team that's, you know. Like the Colts? Yeah, just like the Colts. Yeah, but that situation has fallen apart. Yeah, it has i i mentioned this in our slack i think that ursa is still mad about the trent richardson trade from years and years ago where he gave up a first rounder so he's like well you're gonna give me a first rounder for johnny taylor which is also really funny of you're you're telling this guy with his actions like

no we're with your actions, we're not going to give you a contract extension right now. We don't necessarily think you're worth the money. Okay, trade me. Ooh, we would get a lot back if we traded you right now. Well, both of these things, like, they can't be running at the same exact time. Yeah, I mean, it's just, I feel bad for running backs. If you're a fantasy manager of Jonathan Taylor

or you're drafting this weekend, what do you do with Jonathan Taylor? Because, you know, he doesn't have a football team right now. Sure. The way I'm handling it right now is the same as it's been kind of for the last month or so. At his ADP, I don't like it. The injury concerns, the contract concerns, mobile quarterbacks don't target their running backs as much.

Rookie quarterbacks don't tend to have strong offenses, and their running backs just don't do great. That is certainly balanced by the fact that Jonathan Taylor is an elite difference-making running back, so he may be able to fight through it. But at ADP, I'm out. If he drops maybe a round and a half, then I'd be willing to take on the risk.

I think it's a matter of who's on the board. So, for instance, right now he's fallen into the second round now. On ADP, he is at the 203. And when I look at the players and kind of the breaking point, for me it's after Tony Pollard. Like I would rather take Tony Pollard over Jonathan Taylor right now, but the next running back is Najee Harris, and I think I would put Jonathan Taylor still ahead of Najee for that.

I don't think I'm doing that. You're going to take Najee? Well, I just don't think Jonathan Taylor is going to be himself, regardless of the roster, in week one or week two. Like it is going to be himself regardless of the roster in week one or week two like it's going to be a while he hasn't been at camp the injury thing who knows how real it is it's got to be somewhat real yes uh and then he doesn't have a home and i'm looking at like i'm looking at the entire landscape of the nfl i don't think he gets traded i don't either i think the most likely thing is he slinks back into the Indianapolis backfield. Yep.

And who knows how much work he gets in week one or week two. He could be a midseason trade. Maybe. Yeah. I mean, the Bears could really use a running back and have space. Obviously, Miami has been in the market for a running back. I'm looking at the rest of these teams and I'm going

the only other one that even comes to mind is Tampa Bay. And Tampa Bay is like you only do that if you're competing for a Super Bowl. The only other team that came to mind immediately for me was the other team competing for Christian McCaffrey. And that was the Buffalo Bills. The Buffalo Bills were going hard at a superstar running back because they thought that would put him over the top.

Yeah, that makes sense. You know, right now, I think they are very happy with what they've had from James Cook in camp. But again, Jonathan Taylor, he is a special talent. We forget because he was injured last year how good he is. Injuries. Let's talk about what happened yesterday. Terry McLaurin, he exited the preseason game against the Ravens

with a turf toe injury. X-rays were negative. He's going to undergo an MRI. Our own injury expert, Matthew Betts, who's the co-host of the Dynasty podcast and the DFS show, normally four to six weeks. Turf toe is a big-time bummer. It lags. Lingers just lingers thank you it

stays around for a while and it really hurts a hurts a player like you lose your explosiveness so hopefully it's i mean i don't know the levels of turf toe but we're standing by for some good news but expecting the worst yeah that's not that's not good I mean uh Jahan Dotson had a big game in the preseason game last night and and his his average opposition is going to rise just based on this news after this news I I put the risk up a little bit with uh Terry McLaurin took a few targets down because he it's it's realistic that he might not even be there week one and if he is there he's not at full strength and actually I have Terry McLaurin who everybody knows I really really liked this year but after those changes Terry McLaurin is not that

far ahead of Jahan Dotson to me he is an ADP but he's just not in end of season rankings Sam Howell looked good again he did he did and then we found out moments ago that Seahawks wide receiver, my breakout name yesterday on the show, Jackson Smith and Jigba undergoing wrist surgery today in Philadelphia could still have a chance to be ready for the start of the season, but surgery is going to determine how long he will miss. This is bad. Yeah. But, yeah, so let's say he's back

week two we don't we we miss one game what are you doing with his adp like are you are do you need it to go down one round two rounds are you just are you fine saying no this this is a truly special rookie i'll still willing to take him at ADP and I'm seeing this whole seventh round right now yeah he he will probably drop because of this news and I don't know that he necessarily should if you believed in him as a talent you taking Dotson are you taking Jackson Smith I would take Dotson who's going a round or two later yeah I mean so obviously where he's going in general I haven't been taking him but my point is wherever you have been drafting Jackson Smith and Jake, but I don't believe it should be viewed significantly differently.

He got in the entire training camp. He's probably not going to play. What is he missing game-wise? Like a little bit of the third preseason game. Sure. And then you didn't really draft. Like when I love Jordan Addison, he's. Like when I, I love Jordan Addison. He's my guy.

I'm not expecting, I'm not starting Jordan Addison in week one. I'm not even expecting him to play the majority of snaps. This is a season long rookie wide receiver pick. So I'm not allowing how the beginning of the season might be slowed to rob me of the talent that you could see the second half of the season. If you draft him and he doesn't play, you will get to put him on IR and you will get to pick up another player. True.

Todd Bowles announced that Baker Mayfield is the team's starting quarterback in Tampa. And you know what? Man, dude, I love making fun of Baker. He hasn't looked that bad to me. Like, I've seen some – Preseason? Early training camp was comically bad.

Yeah. But it was a few plays, you know? Yeah. But those are, I mean, all it takes is one hysterical looking play. Yeah. And he had a couple. To fulfill our biases against the players. But he's actually, he's actually looked pretty good.

Yeah. Week one. He looked like it looked like week one. Oh, this is done. I mean, he had this strong end of the season and a handful of games for the Rams too. You know, especially that amazing game that he came in. That was so cool. He got traded and then two days later was starting.

And then had a great game. Jason, you wanted to talk about this in the news, just the Damian Pierce preseason usage situation. Yes, we didn't talk about it coming in off of preseason action yesterday and i think that that is doing a disservice to the foot clan because what we saw in the preseason game and the utilization was that he was used completely the first it was like 12 of the first 14 snaps with with the starters out there it was Damian Pierce and my first thought when I when I looked at that was like oh did Devin Singletary not play was he you know rested as the

veteran no he did play later he came in behind him it looks like Damian Pierce has a real stranglehold on that position and I know I spent some of the offseason talking about my skepticism with Damian Pierce because of his lacking of solid draft capital, a new regime, and you add a veteran good running back in Devin Singletary. However, I think it is worth pivoting and changing your opinion when you see this kind of utilization. He was in on third downs. He was in on types of plays that he didn't play at all last season it was all rex burkhead in there and so i i raised damian pierce up significantly i'm much more uh bullish on his outlook for this season groban style yeah yeah i mean damian pierce looks to be belkow central and if this team has you know i guess a little bit more ceiling in certain games with a

different quarterback and cj stroud who's gonna have his ups and downs but if damian pierce is on the field then you're going to have you know he's going to be in contention for for some nice finishes miles sanders george kiddo elijah mitchell and as isaiah pacheco all returned to practice pacheco took over first string work. Anything else? Anything else going on? Everybody staying healthy in the last 10 minutes? We're good back here.

I'm seeing thumbs up. I'll tell you. Very talkative group in Deucer's Alley. They should trade Jonathan Taylor for Clyde Edwards Allaire. Oh, your dynasty team. What? What? No, Jason, Jason.

No, this is a football move. Let me ask you a question. If the NFL drafts started like this last one that just went by. Okay. And Jonathan Taylor was just thrown in the mix with the rest of the rookie players. You know, you had Bijan, you had Jameer Gibbs. And he comes with a brand new rookie contract. Sure. Where does he go?

He probably goes... Top 10? He goes ahead of Gibbs. Does he go ahead of Bijan? No. Bijan would go first. I mean, that's a... I think the... With the fresh rookie contract, I don't know.

Are you saying we know everything we know about Jonathan Taylor right now? I guess it's... Or the draft prospect, Jonathan Taylor? No, I think he's saying we know... No, I was just saying if Jonathan Taylor was in the draft right now... Because I'm trying to think of teams giving up a first. Is it going to be teams at the back of the first round that would be willing to do it? I mean, without the contract considerations?

Because right now, it's a rental, right? Yeah. He's not going for a first. He might go for like a two. Like a two and a three. And then a three two years from now or something. I think he's playing for the Colts. Yeah.

It's a wild situation. I mean, Saquon, you got him back in camp. You were happy if you had the investment in him. Jacobs, it looks positive right now, although he's not there. So I am not. Like the amount of reports that have been like, Jacobs will be back next week. Well, he's at the buffet.

Stop it. He's coming back in shape. That dude works. Oh, it's a shape. It's a different shape. All right, that was today's News & Notes brought to you by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA. That dude works. Oh, it's a shape. It's a different shape. Alright, that was today's News and Notes brought to you by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters.

Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Okay, I just took a glance over here in Jason's direction. Something I try not to do very often. Yeah, it's dangerous. It's Medusa-like. He's not.

You don't want to get excited, I hear you. He's not one of the sleepers I'm talking about. I'm proud of you. I thought today, based on what happened to you last night, which you didn't get a lot of rest, you might actually be asleep by now. No, I'm proud of you. I thought today, based on what happened to you last night, which you didn't get a lot of rest, you might actually be asleep by now. No, I'm still awake, and I feel better now than I did at the beginning of the show. Rejuvenated with all those injury news?

Yeah, they really pumped me up, you know? All right, into the sleepers we go. Sleepers. All right. We've all picked out kind of a main sleeper to bring to your attention today on the show, along with a couple other names that we want to mention to you. We've got a bunch of sleepers, breakouts, busts, and values in the Ultimate Draft Kit. These are players that we're individually picking out for today's show.

Maybe players that you aren't necessarily aware of their opportunity that may be kind of forming over the course of training camp. Different reasons why they might be able to excel. Jason, I am certainly in agreement with yours, so why don't you start us off? Yeah, so this was chosen for me about a week and a half ago in preparation for this show. This was not a reaction to his incredible breakaway 60-plus yard touchdown run that we saw in week two of the preseason.

But my player is Jalen Warren, the backup running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a second year player who was an undrafted free agent from Oklahoma State. He looked special last year on the field. That was the first thing I noticed. He reminded me so much of Austin Eckler and just kind of whenever I watched him this smaller, and I don't know how much of the undrafted nature is like seeping into that evaluation where it's like, it's rare for an undrafted free agent to look so good. Well, it's just he has that quick, that twitchy type of speed,

and you were, look, Najee's not the fastest guy in the world, so I think it's just. Yeah, and Jalen Warren's 5'8". Right. So he's another shorter guy, although J warren's 5'8 right so he's another shorter guy although jaylen warren's 5'8 215 so he actually he's a beefy boy he's he's a small beef stick uh because you know he's short but he's uh you know cut a cut a real good beef stick in half and that's jaylen warren um but he's he's really talented so there's a couple of reasons

that I think he's a great sleeper pick but I want to start with the talent with what we've seen on the field um over the last decade first of all this is just an interesting stat over the last decade there have been exactly 100 rookie running backs this have seen more than 100 touches neat that it's on the dot but of that group neat stat neat stat neat stat um of that group Jalen Warren ranks 15th in yards per touch tied with Travis Etienne he forced 29 missed tackles which is PFF's eighth highest elusive rating he's looked really good on the field and even last year as an undrafted free agent with Najee Harris on the roster, he already was their preferred third down back. He played 55.4% of their third

downs. Thank you. Najee Harris only played 41% of the third downs and Najee is a three down player, but oftentimes they brought in Jalen Warren. He is a more twitchy, explosive playmaker in the vein that we've seen with Austin Eckler back in the day when Melvin Gordon was there. And it was like, man, we kind of got to get this guy on the field more, even though Melvin Gordon's really good. My pro Jalen Warren take is not an anti-Naji. I know a lot of people are super anti-Naji Harris. They think he of people are super anti-Naji Harris. They think he's not talented. He has no explosiveness.

He'll never amount to anything. And maybe he... Those are extreme claims associated with those that are slightly down on Najee. No, no. He's just a... I mean, you said it. Jalen Warren is much more explosive, much more twitchy. Najee is the sledgehammer. Yes.

And, you know, Matt Canada has come out and said in response to this preseason week two that Najee's the dude. He's their guy. And I think Najee will be involved. My point in making Jalen Warren a really good sleeper pick is I believe that he can play his way into weekly flex opportunity. We saw that towards the end of last year. Najee played all 17 games, got healthier at the end of the year,

and at the end of the year you saw a couple startable games from Jalen Warren where he's catching enough passes and he's explosive enough where it's kind of that Tony Pollard situation behind Zeke where you just go, man, he's really, really good. Then you also have the insurance option. Like I believe if Najee Harris got injured, the Jalen Warren could be special, could be a league winning type of pick. So you've got someone that I think has value, has talent and has an upside that most people in the 14th round just don't seem to have. If you believe Jaylen Warren is going to handle 55% of third downs,

to me that is a requirement to change your view on Najee Harris. Because Najee Harris' premier season, his actual ceiling, was associated with tremendous receiving game work. And so if there's even a chance that you remove a majority of that work from Najee Harris, to me that does remove his ceiling as a running back. Well, Najee's never been a ceiling play. Najee's more of a – Didn't he finish at four?

Right, but I'm saying like when you draft him right now, you're not drafting him because you think he could be the number one back. You're drafting him because you think he's going to get 350 total touches. But last season when he finished as the running back 14 and had a really good second half, that was with Jalen Warren playing 55% of the snaps. But if you draft Jameer Gibbs, Romandre Stevenson, players around Najee right now,

you might want something different than that. Yeah, no, that's fair. Mike, who's your sleeper selection? I agree with the Jalen Warren pick. I think he's really talented. I think he is going to force himself onto the field so I certainly agree with that one Mike

I like the draft just for Jalen Warren real quick I like the draft price a lot it will be interesting because I realize the snap percentage is on third but just historically what we've seen from Mike Tomlin and like how much of that is was

naji's foot uh so i think there's a chance for warren but i do think there's a chance that naji's back to being just a true three down i think he can get up to 3.8 a carry he he may be able to uh my my sleeper pick the king of the offseason is back back. It is Romeo Dobbs of the Green Bay Packers. And you've got to remember just kind of the whole story for Romeo Dobbs because the fact that the drumbeat got so loud and then it felt like really nothing happened and Christian Watson, his teammate who was drafted way higher than he was, had that huge breakout at the end of the year.

So I think that the success of Watson just did an artificial pushdown of what Romeo Dobbs actually did. Over the first eight weeks of last year, we're averaging almost 80% of the snaps, six targets per game, which for a fourth-round rookie pick, that's not nothing. Three games inside the top 25. And then we had a high ankle injury, a high ankle sprain. We know that really for all players, a high ankle sprain is very,

very difficult to come back from. You miss a huge chunk of time. Then on top of that, he was a rookie, and Christian Watson was having his true breakout. But what has happened this year, the offseason hype train has been gathering up steam yet again for Romeo Dobbs through the first two preseason games. Jordan Love took 29 snaps. So the starting quarterback took 29 snaps and Romeo Dobbs was on the field for all 29. It is him and Christian Watson as the two starters. The big plays, we're talking, we had a nice TD on a 50-50 ball.

We had a huge 42-yard catch where we had the toe drag swag where they reviewed and called him in. Like as PFF tweeted, he's currently the highest grade wide receiver in the NFL preseason. And so it's not that he's a sleeper pick for a reason. I'm not saying I believe firmly that Romeo Dobbs is going to break out. But the fact that you've had two off-seasons now of a drumbeat of the hype train going, you had the full Aaron Rodgers support last year,

you have the full Jordan Love support this year. Leave a margin. What if Jordan Love is actually good? It's not just Christian Watson who will benefit. If Jordan Love is who the Green Bay Packers want, Romeo Dobbs could come in here and be a flex type of a player. And I think that there is upside, especially considering wide receiver 60 on sleeper right now going in the 13th round. This is a complete throwaway pick that we all love trying to call our shots on sleepers. But you go through the first few weeks. If it hits, it's a massive value for your team.

If it doesn't hit, these are the players that get cut for those first week waiver pick. You can move on. Yeah. Yeah. And I would just add to it, we talk about how historically good for fantasy football it is to draft second year wide receivers. Yeah. But we always focus on the huge names.

You know, it's like, oh, we want Garrett Wilson. We want Chris Olave. We want even Christian Watson. The reason we want these second year players is because wide receivers, they can take that leap from being a good rookie to showing enough as a rookie to having a whole offseason for the first time as a professional athlete and come in and know the system better and then really leap forward. So yeah, I mean, the fact that he's in the 13th round as a throwaway pick as a second year wide receiver, who's flashed both last year and this entire camp, I really like it. And especially like, you know, in best ball right now, he's just, he's going to beat

wide receiver 64. So I like Dobbs quite a bit. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason he's being drafted where he's being drafted. So he's a dart throw that you can take and hope that, you know, Jordan Love's going to have his guys. And we don't know if it's going to be Christian Watson. We don't know if it's going to be Jaden Reed. We don't know if it's going to be Musgrave or Aaron Jones or Watson. But Dobbs is thus far this offseason giving us reason to believe he could be a player building rapport with Jordan Love,

and that's what you're searching for. And the other names I mentioned also aren't proven commodities. You know, he's not on a team where he's having to carve out a role behind Stephon Diggs and Gabe Davis or something like that. So those are some reasons to maybe snag him and see what happens. And like you said, move on if you have to. Jordan Love's looked pretty good this preseason. It's a nice play from Jaden Reed in the last preseason game.

Sure. So, Romeo Dobbs, you'd love to see that potential manifest this year because he's a physical player that I think consistent targets would do a lot for. DJ Chark is the name I'm going to throw out as a sleeper. Wide receiver for the we're back baby wide receiver for the carolina panthers a couple of reminders for the dj charke fantasy football followers right he's 26 years old is the crazy i literally just googled i was like how old is he now and when i saw 26 i was like wait a minute he's 26 and I think he will be turning 27

very soon as all 26 year olds are no no but a couple months 26.8 it's an incredibly young age for a player that kind of broke onto the fantasy football scene in Jacksonville had some big opportunities big performances finished at wide receiver 16 in 2019, and dealt with injury. And then they didn't choose to bring him back. They didn't choose to invest in DJ Chark. So he ends up on a Lions team where there wasn't expectation. It was the same situation as this Panther situation. Kind of an afterthought in the offseason. You have more confidence in other players. And in Detroit, he actually had some pretty solid games. He had a usable stretch at the end of the year where he averaged 61

receiving yards a game. He had a number six overall finish in week 14. DJ Chark is, I think, today the most talented player in the wide receiver room for the Carolina Panthers. Jonathan Mingo is a youngster. He's going to have to figure out some of the things DJ chart. Go. The Mingo. I show a roster spot. You guys, I don't need to make the argument.

No, no, no, no. I just, yeah, say it. Say it. I don't need to make the argument for you. Adam. Feeling the ghost of Adam. Feeling. i'm sorry adam he's so mean so mean i just love when you said dj charke is the most talented wide receiver because i i instantly knew what that had to imply it it implies that properly he has done things in this league

that jonathan mingo is going to have to figure out. And when you're a young quarterback, Bryce Young, on a team that's going to compete in this division because this division is very weak, I think DJ Chark is going to be one of the – he could be the last pick in your draft in every draft. You don't have to spend anything on DJ Chark. Nobody cares about him. Nobody's paying attention to the wide receiver room there.

And DJ Chark can legitimately go out, give you deep play opportunities. In 2022, he had as many 20-plus yard receptions as Chris Olave. He had more than Mike Williams. So he's a big play threat that has every opportunity to be the starter on this Panthers roster, and no one's paying attention to him.

And he's still 26 years old, and he's done it in fantasy. It is pretty funny to think about the the combination of him being 26 and last year he missed a giant chunk of the season i think he missed at least six games and he finished with over 500 yards that that surprises me yeah i mean he started it was kind of like he started the year last year no one was expecting anything he comes out and gives you four for 52 and a touchdown in week one and then went down to injury which has been a problem for him ankle injury cost him what'd you say six weeks i was guessing but yes it is exactly it was a great

guess pretty much seven because his first game back was 16 of the snaps. I mean, his, his, his pace yardage wise for week 13 on was almost 1100 yards. So this is a very capable wide receiver that nobody cares about. I think people are taking flyers on a lot of receivers that don't have the ability to give you tangible numbers. Um, because DJ shark, if he feels like Marvin Jones to people, sure,

but he's probably what? 50, 60 years younger? At least. Than Marvin Jones? At least. Bonus sleepers. Give me a name. I'll jump in because, look, I know B. John Robinson is the hotness. We're all in on B. John Robinson.

Easy to take him in the first round. But just remember that Tyler Algier, second year running back for the Atlanta Falcons, he set the Falcons' rookie rushing record last year. For one total year. Yes, for one total year. And I expect Bijan Robinson to break it. But that's it.

I expect it. And even though he was drafted where he was drafted, coaches do wild stuff sometimes. Like Christian McCaffrey was very solid his rookie year, but we weren't getting the full-time usage. I think it was only 11 points a game. Yeah, he didn't get the Christian McCaffrey workload that you know and love right now.

He built up to it his rookie season. And I'm leaving just a small amount of margin for the running back 44 on sleeper going in pretty much the 12th round that maybe Tyler Algier is used more than we expect. Again, this is just a – It's a sleeper. It's a sleeper. And it's just leaving the slight margin that what if Algier is just a – It's a sleeper. It's a sleeper, and it's just leaving the slight margin that

what if Algier is actually a good player and he continues to get an okay amount of snaps? Plus, like Jason was talking about with Jalen Warren, if Bijan misses time, then Algier would be the pickup of the week. He would be a monster. I mean, the beat writers in Atlanta expect 175 opportunities for him this year. This offense runs the ball so much. There's definitely the opportunity for Algier to have a role.

And last year we were constantly surprised with the usage in the backfield. They didn't have a Bijon, but you had like Cordero Patterson where people drafted him, but then you had Caleb Huntley and Tyler Algier. And sometimes you're like, why isn't Tyler Algier getting all the work? And then it would be a Caleb Huntley and Tyler Algier, and sometimes you're like, why isn't Tyler Algier getting all the work? And then it would be a Caleb Huntley week. They just move guys in and out of this lineup.

They run the ball more than anybody. It's certainly a worthy name to mention. Yeah, and it's more just like it's a thought exercise of don't slam the door on players who were good. I mean, over 1,000 rushing yards this past year and really didn't take over until the final month of the season. Just don't completely shut them out just because we love Bijan Robinson. Yeah, it's not mutually exclusive.

I love Bijan Robinson. Tyler Algier is a great sleeper pick. He's a worthy pick at the end of your drafts. The name I'll throw out there as my bonus sleeper is Elijah Moore. Bonus. Bonus. Elijah Moore is going to be a third year wide receiver got out of the dog house because he was traded away here's what happened to the dog pound oh yeah yeah I like it out of the dog house went to the pound uh that's usually down great yeah it's an upgrade for for real dogs it's not the

best move no um so Elijah Moore it's it's almost difficult to remember with how bad a season he had this last year how good he was as a rookie as a rookie he came out and the you know the second half of the season after the bye he was on pace for 1100 yards and 12 touchdowns his fantasy finishes on a weekly basis 28 32 the number one wide receiver 21 3 9 I mean he was really dominating he was much more sought after at that time than Garrett Wilson yes who was a first round rookie pick like that's how confident the a lot of the draft community was in Elijah Moore then he got in the doghouse um last year and was not utilized much at all did pretty much nothing gets traded over to the uh the Browns and he's

had a really excellent camp they're using him a lot out of the backfield as well which I think is is unique and fits his skill set and some of the things that have been said recently you know like Amari Cooper was coming out and talking about, like he thinks him and Elijah Moore are going to be like a historic one-two punch. He's like, you know, Torrey Holt, Isaac Bruce, like we're going to be, he was just talking about the two of them dominating. Not bloody likely. Sure, yeah, no, I agree with that.

And obviously this will come down to whether you believe Deshaun Watson has a bounce back to his former glory, but he did look good. I said I wanted to watch and see how he looked in preseason, and he's looked all right. Yeah, Elijah Moore is going to have opportunity. You talk about the backfield touches. I mean, Kareem Hunt is not there. They're going to have some more creative ways to take Nick Chubb

off the field at times. Devontae Parker, I'm going to throw his name out there for the New England Patriots. Undrafted player right now. Has a decent chance to be the Patriots' number one most valuable fantasy target. They're going to throw the ball downfield more this year. Bill O'Brien taking over from that hodgepodge of madness last season. You lose the primary target in the offense and jacoby myers and uh yes i know juju has arrived but davante parker um ian hardett's put this tweet

out here only jaylen wattle averaged more yards per target than davante parker that's kind of his game they gave him money too they did they paid him we were all surprised but they did you're going to follow the money and this offense is going to give him an opportunity. Look, I know that those weeks they get – you talk about them nasty boys, Mike. Yeah. You get them nasty weeks. You get them nasty weeks.

Bye weeks hit. Injuries hit. And you've got these opportunities to pick up a top target on an offense. There are 32 teams. Like Devontae Parker has a chance to be the top target for Mac Jones and the Patriots. And I think their offense will be better this year. So free at the end of your draft,

if you want to take him Elijah Moore going in the 10th Algier in the 11th, those are some other sleeper names to consider. And like I said, a whole bunch more in the ultimate draft kit. Do we have a number for how many people have joined the Megaloball yet? I can get on that. I think I was asking the crew if they had that number. Do you have it, Al?

I do not. Not here. Okay. I can get it. Do I have to stall? We'll just come back to it. Well, the show's over, Jason. Oh, we're done?

We're wrapping up. Oh, man. I love this show. I think we're probably over 5,000 at this point. We are, right? I wanted it as a tease. We are over 5,000. Okay.

So we're about 20,000 away. Make sure you go to megalobolt.com. See? The show's over. We'll be back with another episode tomorrow. Thank you for joining us, and we'll talk to you then. Goodbye, everybody. Thank you.

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.