Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Undrafted Gems + Fantasy Fears - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/5

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Undrafted players who could have a fantasy impact! On today’s fantasy football podcast, players to stash now before they become hot waiver wire targets! Plus, George Kittle backup options, NFL News, and greatest fears for the 2023 fantasy football season! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. --- Fantasy Football Podcast for September 5th, 2023. 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 Welcome to the Waiver Wire, presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit youtube.com/fantasyfootballers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in! I liked it. It's a special week, Jason. It sure is. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, Tuesday, September 5th. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Very excited to be with you this fine morning, afternoon, whenever you're listening.

Football is this week. Very soon. Very soon. And I find myself, dare I say, excited. Really? At the prospect of football starting. Wow. Just the prospect. Okay.

Which has been there for a while. But no, Thursday. That's also known as the day after tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, we have real football that matters, that will score us points in fantasy. Everyone undefeated right now. That will not be the case after the weekend, but we're there. And a lot's going on.

We had our League of Record draft. I was going to say, everyone is technically undefeated, but Jason and I, after the draft, we may already be owing one yeah yeah we're you know uh i'm once upon a time to not finish in last place this year once upon a time some men sold their souls yeah for a playoff run something i respect and uh encourage but the picks that you had yesterday in our League of Record draft, I mean, this was at one point in the draft, and I love this because there's so much to share from this League of Record draft,

and the Rapscallion is going to be sharing a bunch of video and images from our draft because they are worth it. But my favorite part, I think, was when Jason had multiple consecutive picks really late that were clearly just players that would only be great if injuries to their major stars happened in front of them yeah he because he was grasping at a way to piece this roster together beyond his keepers i'm gonna need a little bit of luck. He filled out some insurance policies. So if you haven't heard us talk about the league of record, we can trade picks.

And often that leads to teams who are making a playoff run. People decide if they're in or they're out and you swipe those credit cards. And I mean, it's interest free for six months. Yeah. Like it, it feels good until draft day when the creditors show up and start repossessing all of your stuff.

We are a three-keeper league, so I have my three keepers. Which are good. Yeah, they're good, and everyone has their first rounder. But before my second pick could be made, Kyle and I, which shout out to Kyle the Borgogon is in town. He's in the building, Deucer's Alley today. He flew in for the draft. Before our second pick could be made, Raheem Mostert was already drafted.

That's how dire the situation was for my running back room where it was just like, well, I guess I'm not going to draft any running backs. Now, Jason, I need to say this, and this is what will be shared on social. Jason is the defending champion. Yes. Jason did win the draft. He sold his soul and was rewarded with a bounty in this life. And he has a co-manager, Andy Schneider, who works for us.

And Jason went full John Hammond at this draft i mean there we we showed up at the studio and i didn't know any of this stuff i mean i knew he had spent some money but there's a flag yes hanging in the parking lot pointing to where the draft is with these pictures of him in the in the winter uh that in championship jerseys there's a balloon arch go that we all had to walk through to get into the studio where a had to duck because yeah it was once the sign was hung under the balloons it was low clearance yeah it was it was horrible and then you walk into the draft room where a banner that was bigger than the i mean almost bigger than the wall here it barely barely fit on the. I mean, it's a 15-foot ceiling in there, I think.

And that was 15 feet of banner. And it's just both of their faces up on it. He brought cupcakes that we all had to make the decision, do we eat these delicious cupcakes that are colored in the team colors for his stupid championship team that say eat it on top of the cupcake? And you think it's over. And then halfway through the draft, you get a ring at the doorbell. We're in the fifth, sixth, seventh round,

and in walks Marilyn Monroe, the singing telegram, who sings a championship birthday song to the champions. It was a shocking moment. I don't know how she showed up. It was like, what is Marilyn Monroe doing here? But yes, you can sing to me. I am the champion. And so, yeah, we got all that on tape.

And so he enjoyed that part, not the picks. No, the picks were few and far between. Mike and I had the same second pick. And then after that, I had to wait three more rounds for my third pick. So, yeah, my team is going to be a little tough this year. But it doesn't matter because I got the ring on the finger. Mike, did you get the ring? No.

No, that's worse. No, I did not. I will say this. Al Borland had a great draft. He had those picks. Yeah. I said people decide if they're in or out. He decided he was out.

Last year. Yes, so he's in now. Yeah, he's in now. And, yeah, it was a good time. Hopefully, I mean, I know a lot of you drafted over the weekend. Hope your drafts went well. We've seen the rosters flying through on socials at the FF Ballers. The Megalobull drafts have started.

And I've seen a bunch of those rosters as well. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you've already had it, you've enjoyed those drafts. We have drafts today and tomorrow. So if you are not in the Megalobull, which is the largest season-long tournament, you get placed in a draft in a 12-team league. We keep track of the standings as a whole.

We put them on the website at megalobowl.com, and you track along during the year. And then there is a tournament-style finish to the season where from weeks 15, 16, 17, we eliminate half the playoff teams each week, and the winner gets a spot in our listener league and the title of Megalobowl champion. And you can still get in.

Like I said, drafts today and tomorrow. You pick a spot at Megaloball.com. Jason is drafting today. Oh, I'm tomorrow. I literally was just like, shoot, I drafted 43 minutes. I am tomorrow morning. Oh, alright. You said you wouldn't say. I did, but I felt

like I had to share it. That's going on. There's a lot going on right now the draft was a blast and we are into our quick question what is your biggest fantasy fear heading into the 2023 season so is this like get it out like speak it right right now so maybe it doesn't happen yeah uh for me it's it's a positive fear, but I'm terrified. What? Well, this will make sense.

I'm terrified that Brees Hall is going to be unbelievable, just so good, because he's always been my dude. I love Brees Hall so much, but because of the injury, I have kind of decided I didn't like where he was going in drafts. You decided he wasn't your guy anymore. No, don't you say that. That's what I heard all offseason. No, how dare you?

I love him so much. Thankfully, I've got him in our main dynasty league if he does well. But there's a part of me that just goes, he's so good and so special that even though Dalvin Cook is there and even though he's coming off an ACL, he's got the talent to just Adrian Peterson this thing and come off of the ACL and be a dominant great fantasy asset this year but I do not have a ton of shares of Brees Hall across most of my leagues my best ball leagues like I just didn't scoop him up enough and I feel like I'm going to be punished for my my lack of true love. Yeah, exactly.

Conviction, strength, confidence. Those type of words. Those type of words. Cowardice. So, like, it makes it really hard because I want him to succeed. I was going to say, that's a weird fear because it's entirely, I mean, I guess it's a fantasy fear. Because you want to see him succeed. Yes.

You want to see him succeed for other people that drafted him. Yes. But you didn't get enough of him. Right. And then I'd be like, you would. So what do you want to happen? I guess I actually do want him to succeed. That's what I was going to say.

I do want him to succeed. So maybe it's not a fear, but I. You just don't like how you're going to feel. I don't want to have been out on him. Oh, this is. I just don't like how you're going to feel. I don't want to have been out on him. I'm really afraid that I'm going to find a briefcase of a million dollars, and I'm not going to know how to feel about it. Right. See, you get it.

Well, because he didn't put any deposit down on the briefcase. It's going to someone else. Ridiculous. It's FOMO. Mike, what do you got? Oh, I like this. I got that my boys in purple are going to end up letting me down because I have backed Alexander Madison,

and I have backed J.K. Dobbins, J.K. 2L, very much this offseason. I think that they're both going to be fantastic. Huge opportunities. But this is the NFL. This is fantasy football. Things don't always go as you have seen. The probability hits the other side. So I'm still in,

but that's like the biggest fear is those two guys are not who I hope and dream. And then purple pain. And then I am standing inside the restricted area and Andy just dunks. Oh man. Cause I'm not, I can't draw the charge. I mean, if, if it goes down for madison we are i'm gonna actually need to set up a dunk on you like i think so i think

we'll come to my house i will lower the hoop a little bit and i will dunk on your face yeah um i would vice versa oh no i. I will do no such thing because I'll just say, yeah, expected. Breaking news. I don't know. This isn't Alexander Madison. No.

Alexander Madison toward ACL. The dunk right now. No, I... Look, I couldn't help but break this news. Al Borland, I just found out through Slack, you ate a beetle?

Almost. You drank a beetle? What happened back there? Brooks was trying to cue me to change something on the back wall. I took a drink of my LaCroix, and something didn't feel right. And I spat all over the desk, and there was a beetle in it. Just now? Just now.

It's breaking news, man. This desk is wet over here. There's some water on the light board. So if the lights go out, that's why. How did a beetle get in the can? That's a quick beetle. I have no idea. Wow.

All right, back to the fantasy fears. Gross. That's a real life fear. Yeah, that one is bad. I'll throw this out there. Pop it. Pop it, Josh. I had the exact same thought, Mike. I'm good. We're all checking'll throw this out there. Papa Josh. I'm good. We're all checking our drinks.

Do we have a beetle problem? Put my hand over my cup. Papa Josh just said his biggest fear is that JT is out all season. No. Jonathan Taylor misses, which it could happen. Yes. I put this down. It's a bit broader than specific players,

but just the idea that, I don't know, I was thinking this morning, if all the top running backs let people down again in the first round, are we going to be entering a new age formally in fantasy football of the workhorse-less draft picks? I mean, are we going to be – like I love taking the powerhouse running back. I still believe and will always believe that is the most valuable position to have

because they're so scarce. But if you go a number of years where making that investment in the first round is not delivering the goods, I think it's going to change the dynamics of fantasy a little bit. And it is certainly possible. That's the way that coaches have moved. Look at the early round workhorse running backs. Besides Bijan, McCaffrey, he's getting old.

Eckler, he's getting old. Derrick Henry is old. I mean, it's truly a conundrum for fantasy players. I just watched some social media video of people at one of these fantasy football conferences recently, and they were taking polls of people of who the biggest bust is going to be this year. And it was like, you know, Derek Henry, Austin Eckler,

Bijan Robinson. It was first-round running backs that people had doubts about and it's going to change the game especially if like what if Kelsey and Andrews deliver again

yeah you know how high do those tight ends start to climb up or like the three big quarterbacks what if it's the same

three this year Hurts, Mahomes, Allen they're going to climb up again if somehow they're six points better again than like the mid-tier quarterbacks.

It will be. It's going to be chaos. It will be interesting. All right, let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Sean McVay says he will have more information on Cooper Cupp's hamstring injury and week one status on Wednesday.

He was visiting a body specialist. That's cool. To better understand the hamstring issue. What degree is that? I'm not going to hit the panic alarm, but if we had like a slightly lower, you know how you go to like, what is that? The DEFCON levels? Yes. Or I don't know, on the Enterprise, what is the right before red alert? Oh, that, I don't know. Talk to the nerd over here. Yellow. Or I don't know, on the Enterprise, what is the right before red alert?

Oh, that, I don't know. Talk to the nerd over here. Yellow alert? I don't know. This does not have the right sound to it, is all I'm saying. What, body specialist? You don't like your wide receivers going to a body specialist? We've been around this game long enough to know that this kind of language

could mean a lot of things. I mean, this could be a player dealing with an injury for six, eight weeks or longer. It could be something wrong that is not being disclosed to us now beyond the hamstring. I am just very worried. Last night, we didn't have to draft Cooper Cupp. He was a keeper for somebody. But what do you do here? Are you investing in Van van jefferson or uh

you know puka nakua or somebody or even tyler higby who we only had we only saw one game where stafford played and cooper cup didn't but he had eight targets in that game um this is a big problem it really really sucks and this is also why the later you can draft in fantasy, the better, because, you know, I was in the middle of a draft where I had already taken Cooper cup, um, in a slow draft. And then it was like, Oh, he had a setback. And when you have a setback on a hamstring at that age, it is not going to be a quick recovery. It's going to be a month. He will miss more time than we want. And then you you just you just pray when he's back that that he can stay healthy at that point and honestly if you draft cooper cup you want him out

you do not want him rushing back you it's okay to have him miss a month he is valuable enough to be a a good pick like for instance if you guys knew for sure he's going to play 13 games this season, he'll be healthy from week five on, but he's going to be injured the first month, where would you draft him? Probably back of the second. I was thinking second round. That was my first thought. Yeah, second round.

Because once he's back, I mean, if you knew he was going to be healthy. That's the hardest part is, is back-back or is he half-back? And so that's where he's lower than that because you don't have a guarantee that he's going to be back and healthy. But certainly he'll change the landscape of fantasy by himself. He's the highest risk-reward player now in the draft. Agreed. All signs point to Joe Burrow playing in week one,

according to NFL Network's Ian Rappaport. All right. Shane Steichen said the team would use a running back-by-committee approach to start the season with JT on the pup. Don't care. Deion Jackson, Zach Moss, Evan Hull. They're working out James Robinson right now. Moss is likely out for week one.

If you recall, he had a broken arm, but he will be back. Week one, there's definitely some league scenarios, like deeper leagues or deeper starting formats, where Deion Jackson is worth the pick. I would think as long as Zach Moss is out, Deion Jackson is the first man up here. But the overall, I mean, once

Zach Moss is back, even with the addition of Evan Hull, who's a tremendous pass-catching running back, this seems like a disaster that probably only ends up clogging your bench. George Kittle! Oh, man. Did not practice on Monday.

Groin injury. This is not great. Here we go again. So monitor George Kittle. That's just like what you should do every week for the last three years. Yeah. I mean, we've already kind of expressed

because of just how George Kittle works for fantasy, that he's not a great draft pick right in the middle rounds. He's not someone we're targeting, and this makes him basically off my draft board. But does this do anything? We talk all offseason about there's a lot of mouths to feed with Ayuk, with Thiebaud, Christian McCaffrey. That was the argument against George Kittle?

Sure. But if George Kittle is gone I mean your MVPs but like week one right out the gates I mean you could see really big games for Debo and Ayuk all my teams with Debo would be pleased

because it's still a little scary because of the multiple targets there but you're right. John Harbaugh said Mark Andrews will resume practicing on Wednesday. He had missed a bunch. A lot. With an undisclosed. It's ominous.

Don't like it, but as long as he's back practicing. Yeah, nobody had ever told Mark Andrews what the problem was. He just kept saying, Mark, don't practice. Why? We're not going to tell you. Just don't practice.'t practice. Why? We're not going to tell you. You're hurting, but we're not going to tell you where. Is it my knee? But if he practices.

Don't ask again. If he's practicing on Wednesday, I mean, it should be no problem. He was your first pick in the draft. He was. Devon A. Chain, return to practice. Dolphins running back. It's very interesting they're beat up

right now Jeff Wilson's not going to be playing for the first four weeks you've got Chris Brooks getting picked up in Dynasty Leagues

because Salvin Ahmed is hurt as well Chris Brooks beat out Miles Gaskin who was cut but yeah it's most dirt

and it's most dirt and A. Chain yeah that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance learn more at But yeah, it's most dirt and it's most dirt and a chain. Yeah. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Quick break. And we'll be back with the waiver wire.

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Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. I have something to admit before we jump into this segment, which is I did eat the cupcake. Yeah. Everyone ate the cupcake. Not true. You didn't eat the cupcake? I ate half the cupcake.

Okay. Well, that's eating some of it. And Kyle ate none of the cupcake. Not true. You didn't eat the cupcake? I ate half the cupcake. Okay, well, that's eating some of the cupcake. And Kyle ate none of the cupcake. Kyle. I would never. Oh, good man. Good for you. I would never have eaten that cupcake. If someone else brought me a cupcake that said,

eat it from the champ, I would take that cupcake and I would throw it in the garbage. Jason, you are lying in front of thousands of people right now. No, I genuinely would never, ever have eaten that cupcake. That's. Jason, you are lying in front of thousands of people right now. No, I genuinely would never, ever have eaten that cupcake. If it was a donut? Okay. All right.

All right. I mean, look, I got limits. So it's a cupcake situation. Yeah, it's a cupcake problem. It's just the cupcake. It's not principle. I will be bringing donuts for my championship. My toe manager would not eat it in your

presence, but he did take it home. There you go. All right, here we go. Welcome to the waiver wire presented by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. All right.

We are one week away from a waiver wire segment with recommended pickups. But this week we are going to be talking about undrafted gyms that you can pick up off the waiver wire. I plugged in all of our rosters last night in our league of record. And look, I'm going to be browsing. Yeah. And making sure that I, you know, I don't have a better swap, or sometimes you go grab a player that's on IR and you throw them on your IR and then go pick up a player again. Every single league that you're in that you have already done your draft,

you need to go and look at the waiver wire. I know there's claims already in on the League of Record. News changes, things happen, players are missed in drafts where you didn't think about this player. I remember when, when you drafted Kyler last night, I was just like, oh yeah, Kyler was an option to draft. You know, that just, that happens. And so take a look and see if some of these guys we're going to recommend are out on your waivers and if they're better than someone you drafted, or like Andy said, if you were to have already grabbed someone

that you could throw on your IR and need to pick someone up, we've got some recommendations. So let's go ahead and share some undrafted gyms, and then we'll toss in some George Kittle tight end pivots if you need some starts to start the year in case he misses time. Jason? Yeah, so I'm going to throw out Marvin Mims. Yeah, I like it.

If you drafted in the last week, he might have been drafted. He's risen significantly very recently. Denver Broncos rookie wide receiver. Denver Broncos rookie wide receiver. The first pick of Sean Payton in the Broncos era. This is a player who I loved. His production profile is great yes loved his talent his film before the NFL draft and I loved that he was drafted really high he was a round two pick

he was the 63rd pick off the board and he went to Sean Payton the problem was it was clogged you had Cortland Sutton he's not going to play ahead of. You had Jerry Judy he's not going to play ahead of. And you had Tim Patrick he's probably not going to play ahead of to start his rookie year. Well Tim Patrick is gone and Jerry Judy is gone. If Jerry Judy doesn't play to start the year, if that doesn't happen, that's vacating seven targets just himself alone. And you've got Marvin Mims now in a situation where he's in on two wide receiver sets. He is a talented rookie who is going to have to be on the field, even if he hasn't earned his way yet.

It's going to happen. And so you look at these other great wide receivers. My guy, Jordan Addison. Jordan Addison might not have as much run on the field week one as Marvin Mims. And so I think if he's out there on waiver wires, I would pick him up over several guys. And you start the year against the Las Vegas Raiders. So he could get off to a quick start.

And unfortunately, I do have to start him week one. I'm not like, I don't think you want to throw him in, but you can and I have to. Good rookie wide receivers don't really give the job back, especially when they're picked by that regime. Like, if he does make an impact early, you know, that's the opportunity you're hoping for for these guys. So I think it's a good player to be paying attention to.

I've got one that'll gross you out. Yeah, it will, and it does. It'll make you throw up any beetles you were eating. It'll make you a little bit older, yes. Adam Thielen. Boo? Did someone say my name? I'm very hard of hearing because I'm so old.

Yes, we know what that means, Mike. What? Old people just proclaiming how old they are. I love it. I'm almost 40. I think Adam Thielen will be the highest scoring undrafted wide receiver in week one. He did not go in our draft last night.

Good for us. Jonathan Mingo went ahead of him. That's right. It was in consideration for my final pick before Mike's undrafted gym fell to me. But he's going to have six-plus targets a week. He's going to be the top target for Bryce Young to start the year. Players of his caliber, veterans, they are very helpful for young quarterbacks. And I think while the season may not progress in a way that you're happy with

Adam Thielen, I think you could steal some starts in the beginning of the year. In fact, a good example would be like, you know, the Marvin Mims versus Adam Thielen week one would be a pretty tough pick for me. You know, Adam Thielen is going to get opportunities in this offense. He looked good in the preseason. He scored. That's what he's been doing his whole career. I think Adam Thielen against Atlanta to start the year, you know, Seattle week three, Minnesota week four. You've got three or four weeks. I'm really excited about that schedule.

And it is a worthy name to bring up. And I do think that when Adam Thielen has success, he will have some success this year. It will be earlier in the season. You know, it might get off to a hot start and then his body will clearly break down. That was going to be my point. We've seen veterans of his age

start hot because he's healthy. Fitzgerald used to do it at the very end of his career. He had a high target, high reception start to the season, but then he kind of faded away. Yeah, the grind of the NFL season was too much. I got to look up his age again.

He's 33, and he is... He's 33 years. And he signed a three-year, $25 million deal. Yeah. Do you like Frank Reich? Do you like him? Do you think he's a good coach? I do.

Okay. Why? I don't know. You just made a whole diatribe about marvin mims being the first edition of the era of sean payton and frank reich made the choice to go out and get adam thielen as the one of the first moves of his era yeah that's fine but sean payton yours doesn't make sense mine does well no sean payton is in control of that roster i don't think frank reich is. Frank Reich is going to have a significant say on the acquisitions

to start his tenure, including the quarterback that he had a considerable say in. But I think that's also the harder point for Adam Thielen is, despite how bad Russ was last year, we're talking about a rookie. In these first four games, maybe Bryce Young out the gate is just absolutely on fire. It's possible. A rookie or Russ, that's a new game we should play. I totally get it.

The name I want to throw out is Sean Tucker of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Great name to throw out. He went completely undrafted because of a heart condition. Back in the scouting, when the dynasty passed. He loves too much. Yeah. Yes, he does. Yes.

Sean Tucker is incredible. Based off of my grading rubric, which I'm looking at production profile, everything, I think, I can't recall off the top of my head, but he was like my third or fourth favorite running back before the NFL draft happened. And we didn't know the medical situation. And it was like, what is happening? How is Sean Tucker, who was such a boss in college, not getting drafted? Oh, okay, he has a heart condition.

Well, he's on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a depth chart that is not solidified in the slightest. You have Rashad White, second-year player, who's, I think, and this is not anti-Rashad White. Rashad White is a good draft day value, but the question still remains, is Rashad White a good NFL player? I think there is a very strong chance that Sean Tucker is already a better player than Rashad White. So Sean Tucker, to me, is a running back you can get with your last pick

who may not need an injury. He may just, over the first couple weeks, be better than Rashad White, and all of a sudden now Sean Tucker's the starting running back. There are backfields in which you would have to have an injury or something happen to give an opportunity to a younger player. And then there are backfields in which a younger player can take it. This feels like one that player can take it this feels like one that they can take it i think kendra miller in uh new orleans is a backfield where he could take it

if he produced better than those guys well he's he's excellent at recovering but he's from injury yeah but he's excellent at getting injured it seems so that's the problem but i quickly hurt quickly back yes yeah i agree kendra miller is in that situation but he's also hurt right now for his his big opening audition but Sean Tucker is is just he he's such a well-rounded running back who can do everything on the field including the goal line including catching the ball so while the Buccaneers may not be the greatest offense in the world, a player who can take a job, it's not often that you get that chance that late in the draft. All right, what if you have George Kittle and you've already drafted him

and you might not have him for a couple weeks with this groin injury? What are some pivots for week one that are on the table? I mentioned him earlier, but my favorite pivot who is undrafted in a lot of home leagues is Tyler Higby. Tyler Higby is going to get off to a really strong, especially if you are in a PPR league. Um, you know, I, I don't think he's a uber talented player, but I think he's the tight end that, that you could say, okay, he's going to have at least eight targets. And if I'm in a full PPR league, that's in my lineup. He's as talented as Dalton Schultz.

Yeah, I mean, that's... And Dalton Schultz was regularly relevant. Yeah. Turd Ferguson is... Wait, no, no. No, no. Ferguson. No, it's Fergalicious.

This is Jake Ferguson. Yeah, Jake Ferguson. Turd Ferguson. Get out of here. It's a funny name. No, I might be in. It's a big hit. I might be in on Get out of here. It's a funny name. No, I might be in. It's a big hat. I might be in on that.

I mean, it's a good name. But we're moving away from Fergalicious? No, I think Fergalicious for good weeks, Turd Ferguson for bad weeks. Like Hawkinson. We have the Hawk Strap and Hawkules. Yeah, this is important to establish. That's fine. We will see.

Dak Prescott. It's a big hat. Yeah, what do you want? He's fine. We will see. Dak Prescott. It's a big hat. What do you want? He's in! I love that bit. Dak Prescott, his starting tight end has always been solid for fantasy football. It does not matter who that player is,

but Jake Ferguson might actually be a good player with great opportunity. So him and Sam Laporta of the Detroit Lions, who is a rookie, so you can hold that against him, I get it. But over the first three weeks, the best opening schedule for tight ends, Sam Laporta and Jake Ferguson. Yeah, I think you can get by rolling Cole Komet out there too as an interim. If you don't want to throw a rookie out in week one like Musgrave and Laporta,

I would just throw Cole Komet out there against Green Bay, and he just got paid, and he'll get you a few points. He's not going to goose you probably. Week one last year, I'm pretty sure. I mean, when you look at it. The monsoon. At a tight end with the ability to get into the end zone. He was doing it later in the season.

He was. All right. Other things to keep an eye on, stashing Kyler Murray in your IR spot. Yeah, so I have done this way more than I thought I would. Captain, team captain, Kyler Murray. So the actions of the team have said that once Kyler Murray is healthy, he's going to go. When is that going to be? That part we do not know. He will miss four games. He will miss a mandatory four games.

Maybe he's ready to go week five or week six. But when Kyler Murray has been healthy on the football field, he has been an elite fantasy quarterback. I don't know if he can be an elite fantasy quarterback coming off of the ACL tear, but for someone that you can, like, very, very, very late in the draft, assuming you have an IR spot, just put him, take him with, like, your third to last pick, put him on your IR, and then now you just get to go and pick up one of these waiver wire guys that we're talking about and just sit back and wait. Look at the recovery. See how the Cardinals are talking about it if he's ready to go week five

I mean that could be an incredible value and a huge boost to your team yeah if you've got an IR spot in your league which hopefully you do we always recommend having those um picking up or drafting those type of players where you can get a free extra player. I'll throw Jeff Wilson's name out there as well, that maybe he went undrafted or got dropped when he went on to IR. Put him on your fantasy IR and stash him, because we just talked about the Dolphins' backfield. We don't know.

It's an injured mess right now. So if Wilson is able to come back, he could be of strong value this year. It's wild because if Mostert got hurt in the first four weeks, Devon Aitken will have a huge opportunity at the beginning of his career that we didn't see a month ago, potentially. Here's a few names that went at the very, very, very, very end of our draft last night. And I'll just throw them out there. Jalen Hyatt, rookie wide receiver for the Giants.

Jonathan Mingo went towards the end, rookie wide receiver for the Panthers. Rashi Rice went rookie wide receiver for the Chiefs. Roshon Johnson. You know, it might be debatable whether you think he could just take the job from Khalil Herbert. It's certainly possible. The draft capital says he could. Higby went very late.

Deshaun Watson was the third-to-last pick in the draft. It seemed like people were just avoiding him. Kirk Cousins was Mr. Irrelevant, the final pick in the draft. You're welcome, Kirk. I saved you. Mike picked him up. All right, thanks again to our sponsor, NFL Sunday Ticket, on YouTube and YouTube TV.

With NFL Sunday Ticket, it's never been easier to keep up with all your favorite fantasy players. For $50 off your subscription, sign up at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballers. You ready, Mike? Let's go. Mailbag. Mailbag.

Yeah. All right. If you have a question, we're here to help. That's what we do. We want you to win. I'm not talking to you, Jay. I don't want you to win. Well, yeah, I've already done it.

Yeah, he, well, he also took care of that not winning part. Visit the website if you have a question and click the submit a question button. You can also dial our voicemail hotline 302-464-TFFB. I should mention the website. Lots of articles coming your way every single

week from our illustrious and, dare I say, beautiful writing staff. Yes. The Waver Wire article every week, streaming quarterbacks, defenses, and kickers. The Dynasty Report coming every week. The DFS Pass gets rolling. There's a lot going on you'll want to check out. Our first question comes from Madison in Arizona.

Hey, Ballers. Hey. It is because of your show that I've earned the respect of my husband and his friends when it comes to fantasy football. Saving marriages, guys. And now I've been invited into three different leagues. What is the best advice you have for managing multiple teams? Thank you. Love the show.

Madison, multiple teams for Madison. Love the show. Madison. Multiple teams for Madison. Know your limits. That's because, you know, Mike's talked about this recently, but when we first started, it was just, we just kept going and adding more leagues and adding more leagues. And you get to a point where you lose the fun

and it becomes a chore. And so... Waver day, you're punching the clock. Yeah. the clock yeah oh man waiver day is always the like oh no honey i'm gonna need two hours uninterrupted i've got to go through all my lineups and set all the waivers uh so my recommendation would be just like add them slowly you know if if you were invited to three of them and one of them's really really exciting or two of them are really exciting, maybe start there and then work your way up. And that's basically it.

For me, I find that about four leagues is my sweet spot number. Does it make a difference to you if you make a commitment to have some of the same players on every roster? I was going to say. I mean, you have your players that you've rated a certain way that you like. I mean, I've got Debo on a couple of important rosters. Does that change? Because to me, the fun is being able to root for something.

If I want too many teams beyond the work of waiver wire, it's just like not knowing which player I want to do something. Yeah, a lot of players, a lot of fantasy players, they want to have a whole bunch of teams because they want to diversify the players that they have. So like, oh, I was able to get this player here because I wasn't able to get him there. I prefer to have – and look, it's all the eggs in one basket.

So either things are fantastic or they're terrible. but for me, when I have all the players, then on a Sunday morning, everything is simultaneously great and terrible at the exact same time, and then you get these scenarios where I need Justin Fields to score between 21 and 23 points, or it's terrible. So it's just the way that I like fantasy football. I prefer to focus on my main leagues, but just have some auxiliary ones. I think Jason's right. Add one or two of them, see if it works out, and you go through Tuesdays and you're not hating your life. David in Boston.

Boston. Should I drop Chig a con quo for Tyler Higbee? not hating your life. David in Boston. Boston. Should I drop Chigaconquo for Tyler Higby? Full PPR. Yeah, you should. I was the last one to draft a tight end. So I would too. I mean, I'd rather have Tyler Higby right now.

I have wondered recently when kind of looking at the later round tight ends if the Chigokonko reaction to the Hopkins signing was perhaps too extreme. And there's probably still value that could be had there. I mean, Traylon Burks has been dealing with injury. We think he'll be back. But Okonkwo wasn't good just from opportunity. He was also good because he was an athletic outlier and a wide receiver in a tight end's body. The plays that he made are the kinds of plays where you don't necessarily need to PPR your way there. You have two or three bigger plays down the field. That's

what he was doing last year, and he was doing it with inconsistent quarterback play. So I do think that a Conquist could be one of those guys that surprises early. That's just my opinion. Yeah. I, I, um, I think you're right from an athletic standpoint and an overreaction standpoint, but I don't think that his situation will allow him to be a weekly relevant, you know, to level up into like, oh, okay, he's breaking out into just a weekly starter. That's rare for any tight end, but in a low passing volume where you are now the guaranteed third target at best, I still worry about that. So I would go with, especially if there's a full PPR lead,

then I would go Higby. He is a full PPR lead. Yeah, I agree. Then I would go Higby. He had a conco from week nine on. He had a long of 48, a long of 41, a long of 31, a long of 41, a long of 28. So he had a lot of big plays. So you hope that they draw some of that up from him. And you're kind of rolling the dice if you play him and hoping you get a long touchdown. Jack in Cincinnati, great question.

Hey, ballers. In what scenarios should the league have the power to veto a trade? Almost never. Trades may look lopsided to you. Two people have agreed upon a trade. And as long as you have no reason to believe that, say, there is money on the line and two people have looked like they've made some sort of pact

to improve one team to collude and financially benefit both of them. But trades, if you've been in fantasy football for any length of time, go back and look at the trades. The trades that you had a visceral reaction to of like, you get real mad online. You start getting in the group chat. How do we possibly allow this to happen? Go back and look and be like, oh, I was apparently very wrong on that trade.

So two people have agreed. Let it happen. And the hard part of like proving collusion is so incredibly difficult unless you see a trade where it's like, oh, I just traded Josh Allen for – Tua. Yeah. Sure, just a one for one. I'm saying like Jonathan Mingo, a last pick of the draft,

goes for someone who goes in the first few rounds. Right after the draft. Right after the draft. I mean, you can spot something where it smells bad just because you think it's – It's pretty obvious. Yeah, just because you think it is not fair or someone clearly won, that's no reason to veto trade. Or because you want to veto it because you don't want

that team getting better. Get that crap out of here. That's nasty. The proper reaction to that is to get angry. Yeah, 100%. Just yourself. You missed an opportunity. Just when Jason makes a great trade, I'm just like, dang it.

But it's not like I'm going to take that good trade from you you can get vocal you can throw a fit in that chat I mean throw it big but yeah you can't veto it you can't just say I don't like this trade the only

we've always said it's collusion and collusion only what about do you guys think that maybe protecting a new player like someone this is their first year playing and they're just getting taken advantage of in a super lopsided trade would you those are hard is a situation where you're going they don't know what they're doing yeah i mean to me that the problem there is the issue is just with the it's with the person taking advantage of them obviously you would hope that i mean what do you think mike that's that's a really tough situation because

if you invite somebody into the league i think that's when the warning has to happen you know you bring them in and you have to say hey look that you know the dogs are circling um and you probably need to be on your guard about these trades, it gets hard there too because once one lopsided take advantage of someone trade happens, everybody pounces. All the hyenas come out of the woods and start taking their – they're like, let's strip the roster to the bones. That's why you want to be first.

Target the weak link in your league and get there first get the juiciest meat and if you if you want to be not that guy you could encourage that new person to maybe discuss the trade with somebody else that is not brand new yeah and just say hey is this it's just gonna be good for me? The hard part is, like Mike said, a lot of trades look really good on the surface, so you need to leave a lot of room there. Agreed. All right, week one start question.

Might as well throw one out there. All right, it's the time. Jeremy in Texas, Aaron Rodgers or Geno Smith in week one? Ooh, I think it's Geno. I'm trying to remember what's the Jets opening matchup. The Jets are the Bills. Yeah, that's not my favorite. I think I...

Yeah, Geno, I believe, has the Rams. Is that right? Yes, yeah. I'm going Geno. And it's at home. So I think I'm taking Geno. I am going Gino Rogers is a tough pick because I think Rogers is actually going to be pretty good for fantasy this year but the first

four to six weeks are pretty tough and you know you're not aiming for middle of the pack there to start your season and um I don't believe it is the Rams week one. I think it's the Chargers, the other L.A. team. Is that right? Did I say? Okay, so it's not the Rams? Geno plays the Rams. Really?

Yeah. Would you care to apologize for what you just said? No, because I don't believe it. Okay, well, you can Google it real quick. I am Googling. We literally don't know who they're playing. It's the Seahawks at home against the Rams. Oh, yeah.

Do you believe it now? I do. I do believe it now. So, wait. He doubled down? I did double down. Today is week one. When we full dive in, the website's getting changed over.

Yeah, the Dolphins play the Chargers, because that's why I took Tua. I was like over another player. I was because that's why I took Tua. I was like over another player. I was in fact looking at Tua. The truth shall set you free. Okay, well that'll do it though. That's why. That's why you didn't believe it because it said it right in front of you. For Tua. Throw

him in the mix. Tua Rogers or Geno Smith? I will take Tua. Yeah, I'll go to it. All right. Uh, anything else we're forgetting here, Brooksy, before I shut things down,

how, how's the judge doing today? Have you had any of your drafts doing great? Yeah. I did a bunch of best ball drafts over the past weekend for the first time. When's your, uh, when's your home league,

your home league. This is also this past week, uh, two weekends ago, actually. Oh really? Yeah. Any,

uh, any feelings coming out of that draft? How do you feel? It went okay. Leave it there. Doesn't sound great. Not the way you hoped, huh? Sounds like someone drafted Cooper Cup or something. Yeah.

All right, Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Cup, is that your, are they both on your roster? Maybe. Maybe. All right, tomorrow we have our first matchup breakdown of the season the detroit kansas city game on the wednesday episode including a new segment thursday starts of the week and the matchup previews friday we got more matchups in the fantasy face-off wow it feels good to say all that i can't wait for thursday football all right if you want to support the show head over to apple for Thursday. Ah, football! All right.

If you want to support the show, head over to Apple. Leave us a five-star review. Follow on Spotify or Apple. Talk to you tomorrow. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode

of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on twitter at the ff ballers