Lineup Fantasy Football Show - 5 POST-HYPE SLEEPERS You NEED to Buy Before Training Camp for Dynasty Fantasy Football

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

While your leaguemates are swearing off of these post-hype sleepers, go out and buy them before their prices skyrocket by training camp. 5 of our favorite trade targets include... 0:00 - Dynasty Fantasy Football Post-Hype Sleepers 0:27 - CJ Stroud 4:59 - Matthew Golden 8:30 - Tre' Harris 12:38 - Jalen Coker 17:18 - Michael Pittman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're identifying five players who fail to live up to their initial hype, but now present an incredible value that could help win you a championship in 2026 and beyond. Welcome to the lineup fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And we are not going to waste anybody's time, Mello. Let's jump into your first Dynasty Fantasy Football post-hyped sleeper. This one's a little icky. And it's not really icky from like a cost perspective.

I guess he's not the deepest of sleepers in that sense. But he's an icky boy. That's C.J. Stroud. icky, hicky boy. She is icky. The stench on him is vile, disgusting smelling. I think what happened with C.J. Stroud was the laws of karma ensured that he had to get little broed by everyone on NFL Twitter after trying to little brok, Caleb Williams. But I think he's kind of done his time now.

The karma is kind of worn off. I think we've gone far enough. And it's time to move on from this stent. And I don't have to recap Stroud's performance in that playoff game against New England. We all already know how that went. It was putrid, unwatchable, probably even criminal in some jurisdictions. But I just think people have let the taste in their mouths linger a little too severely. That bad taste just hasn't gone away.

But we as the extreme fantasy community that we are, what we did was we overrated Stroud after his rookie year. and now we've underrated him because of those recent events, when in reality, he's just a good but not great quarterback, and that's exactly what he was his rookie year, even though we overhyped him. And that's exactly what he still is now, even though we trash on him and act like he's absolutely horrible.

He's just a good quarterback. And even though he's not great, good is good enough, particularly for Superflex leagues, and at just 24 years old still, he could be good on your team for years and years to come. And if we look at what really went wrong for Stroud in the Texans the last couple of the years, I think the number one root cause I can point to

is just the horrific offensive line play. And it's not like they've completely fixed it. It's not like it's the most promising offensive line still. But they have made moves. They have brought in Braden Smith from the Colts, who's a starting caliber offensive tackle. They brought in Wyatt Teller and Free Agency as well. They used their first round pick on Keelan Rutledge, a guard.

So they are making moves. It is going in the right direction. Hopefully the offensive line play will improve. They also brought in David Montgomery to help fix the run game, which should benefit the offense as a whole, keep them on the field, take some pressure off Stroud. And they also have this really exciting group of receivers that we like, headlines by Nico Collins, of course, who we all know how great he is.

Mitch, I know you love Jaden Higgins. I really like him as well. He's a second year guy who could really take the next step this upcoming year. Jalen Lowe, another second year guy who I think could take a big step forward. And then of course, Tank Dell, who is sensational as a rookie, he should be back and healthy this year as well. So there's no shortage of talent at wide receiver. And we look at where CJ's stride was just a couple of years ago. He was like the biggest sweetheart of the fantasy community. And now all of a sudden he's valued at the quarterback 19 on keep trade cut. Just one of the most obvious post-type sleepers to me. Though, what a, like, crazy fall from grace in two years? Like, do you remember even in redraft how high we were drafting C.J. Stroud? Before I break down anything else, you just said, I was just thinking about how funny it would be if, like, after a fantasy football game, somebody had texted you the same message that C.J. Stroud said to Caleb Williams.

I was like, you're going to be a hell of a player in this league, bro. You just got to learn from all those mistakes. That guy would be at Waffle House the next three years straight. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'll bet, text. But yeah, I think the most important thing you said there is, like, the Texans have had absolutely atrocious offensive line play the past few years, and they went out and they addressed it in free agency.

They addressed it in the draft. They've given CJ Stroud the weapons. The one thing I'll say is, like, obviously, if he still can't get it going this year, there's going to be major, major concerns. But I think they've put him in a position to succeed. And I think, like you said, he's not the deepest sleeper because he's still got a little bit of name value.

from his rookie year. Yeah. But man, imagine being told you could get C.J. Stroud at this price back in 2024. You wouldn't have been able to believe it. No, no one would. You thought CJ Stroud got like hit by a car. No, he did something worse, though. He started podcasting, which I think is the other piece of the karma.

That's true. That you can't be an NFL quarterback on a podcast. I would be like basically Tom Brady mixed with Patrick Mahomes if I never pick up the microphone. It's just the price you pay. It costs me everything. Yeah, it's just the price you pay for being the lineup fantasy podcast. I love that pick, though. Let's jump into a guy that I feel like I've seen both sides,

but I think feels really icky after last year. And that's Matthew Golden. Price now as the wide receiver 34 on Keep Trade Cut, still only 22 years old. I feel like I'm stealing a mellow guy on this one, because you talked about him a little bit earlier this offseason, but Matthew Golden's rookie season was somewhat of a disaster for Dynasty managers.

I feel like there's no better word for it. You likely had to spend a first-round pick in your rookie draft on a guy that gave you little to no production. He didn't score a touchdown until, I believe, that Bears playoff game. Yep. I want to say. But I do want to argue there were flashes there. And I think you should be excited whether you have Matthew Golden and are holding him,

or you're going to go out and buy him like we were suggesting in this episode. The Packers went on to trade Dontavian wicks this April of the Eagles, and then they proceeded to allow Romeo Dobbs to walk in free agency in New England, which is a pretty long walk. and then they make no real moves in the receiver room unless you consider resigning bow melt and then sky more as real moves, but I don't consider them real receivers. So they have seemingly left a path wide open for a guy they spent a first round pick on, I believe the 23rd pick in the first round in 2025, who is still 22 years old.

So honestly, if we're going to look at Matthew Golden, no, I'm not going to come at you with a he's this PFF receiver grade and he's got this yards per route run. the metrics aren't there because he didn't get enough playing time. The Packers clearly are sending a message that they want to give this guy an opportunity to succeed here. And so you have to ask yourself, if what we saw on the field wasn't necessarily bad last year, he just wasn't getting an opportunity, then you have to think, if I felt that he was a first round pick in Dynasty Rookie Drafts last year, I've got to be willing to pay a wide receiver 34 price tag on this guy while he's still 22 years old.

Yeah, I didn't leave last season thinking I'd be like a huge Matthew Golden believer in dynasty. But for the price he's at right now, the upside is incredible. There's not very many guys being ranked where he is with even close to the amount of long-term upside that he has. And that's why I do kind of like him where he is right now. You mentioned like Romeo Dobbs being gone. He kind of was the wide receiver one for most of last year. So, I mean, I do think that's meaningful. that he left on Tavian Wicks. Another guy you mentioned

that rotated in is gone and Christian Watson can't stay healthy. I don't know if there's a single, like I don't even know if injury prone's a real thing. If there is though, like if there were a picture of it, it'd be Christian Watson. So there's a lot of opportunities.

I still think they've cleared enough of a path for him that I'm excited about him at this price tag. Oh yeah. I mean, there's an even, you're right. Even injuries aside, there's a very real chance. He's just their wide receiver one. He's just Jordan Love and Lafleur's wider. Super 1. Absolutely. I also want to mention before we keep going, two guys that I think one of each of

our guys really here that we didn't get to talk about, and that's only because we had mentioned them in prior episodes. I think Ladd-McConkie is like the most perfect guy for this. And I'll put a card up right now for that episode if you want to check it out where we talk about Lad. And another guy you mentioned was Jonathan Brooks, who's an even, almost an even better example of post-hype sleeper, because we haven't even gotten to see it yet in the NFL. The, it's funny when we decided this, we were doing this as an episode, those were the first two guys that came across my mind. Then I was like, I already talked about them too much. Yeah. But I do like the golden pick. And I actually have another second year receiver for you who did basically nothing as a rookie. And it's Led McConkey's teammate in Trey Harris. This one is admittedly purely hypothetical. But I mean, that's why he's a sleeper because it is so hypothetical. As a second round pick last. year he got plenty of buzz, a lot of people liked him, but he fell well short of expectations, didn't really do much at all as a rookie. Also, with the coaching and personnel changes that the

chargers have made this offseason, there's some fear, and I'll even admit, I think some very legitimate justified fear that the chargers are going to run a lot of two tight-end sets this year, yeah, which could limit Harris's playing time quite a bit. So with all that said, why do I have hope? Well, there's a few different reasons. The first, I'll start with the coaching change I talked about, Mike McDaniel. Yes, he may run some too tight end sets, but I'm just automatically bullish on any offense called by Mike McDaniel. We've seen his track record in San Francisco in Miami. I want receivers on Mike McDaniel's offense on my fantasy team, because they historically produce. Then you look at the other guys that are there, or should I say the other guys who are

not there because Keenan Allen is out of town. That helps a ton. He was a pretty significant part of this offense last year. Then you have Quentin Johnston, who remains pretty unreliable and inconsistent. I don't know how Mike McDaniels feels about Quentin Johnston if he's going to be a big part of this offense. And he's also going into the last year of his rookie deal. So I would be a little bit surprised to see him in L.A. for the long term. And the Charters really didn't do anything to address the receiving room in free agency or the first two days in the draft. They did draft a receiver in the fourth round, but up until that point, they hadn't done anything all offseason to bring anybody new in. And we already have seen Harris's involvement increase a little bit,

just at the end of last year, as we frequently see with these rookie receivers. He played more snaps in each and every one of his final six games than he did in any of his first five games. So very consistently played a lot more down the stretch. If he is able to win wide receiver two duties in LA, which I certainly think is possible, he might even be the front runner. He could be an incredible value. He's currently the wide receiver 67 on keep trade cut,

which is worth about a third round pick, far less than you had to pay for him just a year ago, but now the opportunity is so much better. I almost think you should have opened with that because I fully agree with you. I think this is one of those like somewhat of a lottery ticket in the sense of like it really doesn't cost you much. I think the upside's crazy.

I think the one point I wouldn't fully agree on is I do think Quentin Johnson will have somewhat of a consistent role targets wise in this offense. But that being said, like, Trey Harris was a guy that people were extremely excited about last year. And I think there's so many more reasons to be excited about this offense this year. You talk about Mike McDaniel coming in. We've talked about Joe Alt and Rishon Slater coming back and being healthy and this offensive line being improved. Like, I think that this is a super, super good situation in L.A. here. I think Lab McConkey, Justin Herbert, and honestly more than anybody, Amari and Hampton are getting all of those bumps when sometimes those ancillary pieces that have a lot of upside don't get talked about as much. Yeah.

And I will agree. I don't think Quentin Johnson's going to go away. And it wouldn't surprise me to see him have a higher target share than Trey Harris. but it also wouldn't surprise me to see the inverse, and I would say price doesn't suggest that. So he's somebody, I would agree, is probably more of a lottery ticket than like a safe bet, but that's why he's a sleeper

and I feel like when I'm willing to take that shot on. We're taking the shot that Quentin Johnson, what's the opposite of a post-type sleeper, a guy that surprised you with how good he was and then he just fell back down to earth? One of the most interesting career arcs of all time, no doubt. Truly, truly. All right, let me jump into my final player,

before we hit our best buy for post-hyped sleepers in Dynasty Fantasy Football. Mello, we're doing lines. I can't believe we haven't broken in to a Jalen Coker full-on conversation all spring long, but we are talking about the 24-year-old wide receiver out of Carolina, who is currently the wide receiver 56, according to keep trade cut. Mello, I think our personal biggest fears with Carolina this offseason is that they would make a move to bring in a new pass catcher. our main flag plant was that they'd end up with Kenyon Sadiq.

Of course, he ends up in New York because, yeah, sure, why not? Without him there, they don't really make any move in free agency, and then the biggest thing they do in the draft is a third round selection of Chris Brasel. And like, I think all in all, that's a huge win for Jalen Coker. So now, let me get into some of the numbers about why you should be excited. When you look at things cumulatively from 2025, I think it's easy to think that Jalen Coker wasn't all that impressive, but it's also easy to forget he missed the first six weeks of the season with a pretty serious quad strain.

Once he came back, he managed two wide receiver two finishes and a wide receiver one finish. He came in cold on the season, which I think is incredible, still ranked as a top 50 receiver and PFF's receiving grade across the entire NFL. And of all wide receivers in the NFL who ran a hundred or more routes, Jalen Koker finished 10th among all of them with a catch rate of 76.7%. just one spot below a guy you might know him, Pooka Dukua. More opportunities rising up towards the end of the year as he was ramping back up to speed. Like I said, missed the first six weeks of the season, comes in cold.

Xavier Legate's target share starts dwindling, Jalen Koker starts rising. I know I don't have to tell you twice that Jalen Koker is going to fully take whatever targets Xavier Legat had. And so now, elephant in the room, it's so easy to get excited about Jalen Koker in this offense. But I think we all know that T-Mack is the new hobby. here in Carolina and he is the real dude that's going to be getting everything. But I think that's suppressing Jalen Coker's price a little bit more than it should. What's not getting talked about enough, in my opinion, is how this offense as a whole is

ascending, and it doesn't really feel like anybody's coming up along with Tback. Because if you look at the running back room, I would call it a pretty ambiguous situation right now. You have the people that believe that Chuba was hurt last year and that he's actually very good, he just wasn't healthy. Fair. People think Jonathan Brooks is more talented, he'll come in. So you don't really know where to draft those two guys. Then you look at the tight end room. I don't even want to look at the tight end room. And then you look at the wide receiver room. And it's kind of a similar situation like, oh, okay, so who's going to be the wide receiver too here? I think the numbers tell you and the trust in the coaching staff tells

you it's going to be Jalen Koker. But I think people just kind of feel like this Panthers team is a mess and they don't know what piece is to buy. So I guess my point here is I'm telling you to buy Jailen Koker. You know I'm a cokehead. You know I love Jalen Coker. I like that sniff first. Oh, I'm fienden right now. I mean, I was a little sad to see them take Brasel with Day 2 Capital. But I don't necessarily think that means Jailen Coker's dead.

In fact, I still feel very good about him going forward, operating probably predominantly out of the slot, being a big part of this offense. Also, people don't talk about, and by the way, hand up, I'm a T-Mack guy. Like, I'm one of the T-Mack guys singing his praises. But, like, people forget in that playoff game against the Rams. cocker was the guy in that game. I know it's one game, but he was so big for them in that game. It was easily their number one weapon. He's not going to be that week and week out going forward.

But he's going to continue to be a part of this offense. If there is somebody to be excited about other than team back, it kind of has to be him. It's not the tight ends, like you said, when we are prepping for this episode, I almost felt like disgusting and just putrid enough of a human to bring up Jetavian Sanders because he's the tight end 42 on fantasy pros and he's young. Jesus. But, no, I mean, even that didn't do it for me. I just don't think he's good enough to warrant any sort of real conversation. We might need like a real nasty boys episode. Like if you watch this, you got to take a shower after episode and we can open up with Chachavian Sanders. We might have to after this. It is 80 degrees in my house. It's like 90 on yours. I'm going to have to shower regardless.

We truthfully just record an episode and a file may be corrupted and we may have to re-record it. But I mentioned it's, it's like 90 degrees in yours. I'm going to have to show regardless. But I mentioned it's 87 degrees in my office, and I'm like sweating right now. These takes are just too hot. That's what we bring here on the lineup. All right, let's jump into our best buy for post-hyped sleepers here in 2026 in Dynasty Fantasy Football. Before we do, hit the like button if you're enjoying the episode. It helps us truly, truly so much. And hit the subscribe button so you can catch every new episode.

Let's talk about our Best Buy, a guy you kind of alluded to a few weeks ago, Mello with Corey from Fantasy Stock Exchange. That's Michael Pittman. I am so excited to talk about him now because we were kind of waiting this out for the whole Aaron Rogers news. But Aaron Rogers is back in Pittsburgh, back with Mike McCarthy. And it's time to get so excited about a guy who just two years ago was being ranked as a wide receiver two and is now available at a low, low price of the overall wide receiver 50. There's obviously one note there. And that's because he's two years older. So obviously as they're getting older, your price is going to drop, but that is way, way too far for me. He's 28 years old, not a spring chicken, but he finished last season as the

Y receiver 18. And before Daniel Jones injury in week 14, he was the Y receiver 13. Now he competes for targets with D.K. Metcalfe, Calvin Austin, Johnny Smith, Pat Friermuth, and Darnow, Washington. That is the top five target earners in that offense last season that accounted for almost 80% of the team's targets mellow. And I don't know if I fooled you there, but did you notice that I mentioned Calvin Austin, who's not even on the team anymore and got 67 targets in this offense? Michael Pittman is going to absolutely feast in an offense that has so much opportunity for a guy that knows how to command targets. You snout Janu in there too, who was a big part of that offense at times last year, who's still floating out there. I believe I don't think anyone signed him.

So I completely forgot John who's not on the team anymore, if I'm being honest. The 87 degrees is getting to me. Even better. That's just a lot of vacated targets, though, which is good. And yeah, Michael Pittman's kind of starting to become one of my favorites. We talked about him a couple weeks ago, like you said, when we were talking about D.K. Metcalf. I was actually building out my top 250 Dynastee rankings earlier this week, and I kind of re-asked myself the question.

Like, do I truly like Pittman that much more than Metcalf, despite the discrepancy in their consensus rankings wherever you look? And the answer is still a resounding yes. I don't understand why Medcap is being ranked so much higher. You have Pittman. They just extended him. They like him a lot. He's the more polished, complete, refined route runner, complete receiver. He's the type of guy that can thrive in this Mike McCarthy offense. He's the same exact age as DK Metcalf. Yet Medcap is ranked significantly higher wherever you look. Ten spots higher on Keep Trade Cut, 13 spots higher on fantasy pros. And that's just positional spots again. So of receivers, he's 10 receivers higher, 13 receivers higher across these different platforms. It doesn't make sense to me, no that this is a, you know, meant to be a dig at D.K. But I think more than anything, it just speaks volumes about why or how Michael Pittman is being so undervalued right now. Well, I have the answer.

You just mentioned they're both 28. So we know it's not an age gap relationship. It's an aura gap relationship. Oh, that's fair. D.K's got aura and I will never question that. drafting D.K. McCaff too high because of the aura he had when he was like a rookie and sophomore with the Seahawks and we haven't let it slip since. Yeah. He's the only person that could show up to a job interview shirtless and it gets him the job. I did that and I've been removed. I've been

kicked out of all Chili's ever. Just banned from Chili's because of it. So that's the time of D.K. has. Pippman may not have that kind of aura, but he is very talented. Like I said, such a refined route runner. Somebody who can win all, you know, short routes, intermediate, deep routes, he's going to thrive in this kind of offense. Yeah, I'm so excited for him. This one was like such a resounding when we came to him as the best spy. I was like, yes. This one just feels so good to me. I feel such a level of confidence. We're going to be getting into some like genuine league winner episodes coming up and like, I hate using the phrase my guys. I think the footballers kind of own that. But whatever our

version of that is, like Michael Pittman's in that conversation for the value I think you can get him at. 100%. I think it's so funny we're talking about him as like a post-hyped sleeper because he's Michael Pittman, but he is. He like actually is weirdly a post-type sleeper right now. 100%. Guys, let us know down below who you think we got right and who you think we missed. And then also let us know who you bought that you think is a great post-hype sleeper for Dynasty Fantasy Football in 20206. Mello, we miss anybody on this list? I think we got it all.

All right. We'll catch you guys next episode.