PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Sleepers To Help You Win In Fantasy Football

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

Zach Berman and Fran Duffy team up to provide a quick look at a couple of notable sleepers in fantasy football drafts as the preseason inches closer. Which players at each position can help you win your league? The guys have you covered. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's August. That means it's fantasy football season, so we're ready to discuss it here on the PHLY Eagle Show. I'm Zach Berman. That's Fran Duffy. Fran, fantasy football season, you're excited? I am excited. I always have a handful of teams every year. And you get to this part of the summer, you know, like the beach, you get the fantasy football

magazines. I don't know if you did the same thing when you were a kid, but like getting to this time of year, it almost feels ready to get back into the grind. And usually fantasy football drafts are a good way to do that. So we can all discuss the top players at each position. Yes. But let's discuss the sleeper. That's really what's going to win someone their draft or their auction.

We'll start with quarterbacks. Who's your quarterback sleeper this year? Yeah, I think for this one, this one is a little bit of a deeper cut from the rest of these other players that we're going to discuss today. But for me, I'm going to go to a familiar name in that he was among the top 10 quarterbacks drafted a year ago. And that's Anthony Richardson from the Indianapolis Colts. You know, you and I were sitting at this desk earlier this summer when it was announced

that he was going to have a procedure done. and his medical status and his health was a big discussion point throughout the summer. Well, he's been out there for the early stages of training camp, and for all intensive purposes, is outplayed Daniel Jones. And so right now, the ADP, the average draft placement for Anthony Richardson is at 169. That's a dart throw late in your draft. You're basically getting him for free. And at that point, you have to take into account the what if scenarios, where it's,

all right, what if we are wrong? What if Daniel Jones is not the starter? What if Anthony Richardson is the starter? we don't even need to say like best case scenario and he hits the ceiling that everybody had for him coming out of Florida. But if he's the starter with his rushing upside and what he could be, you're getting him so late in drafts. It just makes sense to hit that button and draft him whenever you can. Yeah, well said. I always like those post-hyped sleepers.

Yes. And that's why I'm going with Trevor Lawrence here, who's also going into 160s. And so you look at some of the quarterbacks drafted ahead of Trevor Lawrence like Drake May. I look at the talent Trevor Lawrence has. he has Liam Cohen who worked wonders with Baker Mayfield, has a quarterback friendly offense. Brian Thomas is one of the top young receivers in the league. You add in Travis Hunter now.

There's a lot to like there. He hasn't quite put it together. He also is a good running threat. We've seen that in the past. He was banged up last year. So I think if Trevor Lawrence can be healthy with the weapons that he has, with the new head coach, I'm expecting him to outperform that draft slot.

You buying stock on the Jaguars overall this year? No, not overall this year. But I mean, there's nowhere they can go with up, right? And I think they're going to be a little bit better. I don't think they're going to be quite the playoff team they were under Peterson. But I like some of the young pieces that they have. Yeah, it's an interesting group certainly going into this season. So let's go to running back.

This is a position everyone kind of looks toward who's your sleeper running back. Yeah, for this one, I kind of took the approach of, all right, who is a player that, you know, wherever we're drafting them now, we have a good chance of drafting that player much, earlier 12 months from now. And so I'm going to go with Amari and Hampton, the running back first round pick out of North Carolina by the LA Chargers. We got to see him in the Hall of Fame game this past week. But when you're looking at Hampton, obviously the big storyline with that backfield is the

fact that Najee Harris had an accident at 4th of July and had suffered an eye injury. And so he has not participated in camp. It's been a very cloudy kind of reporting on that situation. So to me, I'm surprised that the average draft placement for, for Amarian Hampton, the ADP has not ballooned up to this point. You're still getting him at 51, right around 51 in terms of where he's going in drafts. Here are some of the other running backs that are going in this area with Amarian Hampton. Chuba Hubbard, can he replicate 2024 with the Carolina Panthers?

Maybe, maybe not. James Cook ran extremely hot with touchdowns a year ago, better than he had ever done earlier in his career. Alvin Kamara, he's getting older. Kieran Williams, they keep adding young backs. He's taking a lot of volume over the last few years. Bucky Irving. I'm always wary of the day three running back that has that huge first season. And then the value is sky high fantasy wise. And they usually coming back to Earth, there's usually regression there. And then James Connor is another guy who is neck and neck right now with O'Marion

Hampton. And to me, when I'm looking at Hampton, he's young. You got the draft pedigree. You've got a coach that wants to be able to come out and run the football with a solid offensive line. To me, all signs are pointing towards Hampton out playing this draft slot. Yeah, well said there because I think the Chargers under Harbaugh is a good place to go for running backs. And so Hampton, and you talked about him coming into the draft, a lot of talent there. I'm going with Chase Brown. And Chase Brown is someone who is starting to get hype. But you look from like week eight on last year when he became the featured back, he was terrific.

And he's in an offense with obviously Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, T. Higgins. You know, they have Mike Jaseki. They have now Noah Fant. So there's a lot of different options in there. When they run the ball, it's going to be Chase Brown. He's their top running back. He's that age profile that I like. You know, he's entering year three there.

And I just saw so much in the second half of last year. It wouldn't surprise me if he's a top 10 running back this season. He's got some receiving chops as well. And he plays with the quarterback in Joe Burrow that is willing to utilize the running back in those checkdown situations. And so he's going to have some receiving. volume there as well. Let's go to wide receiver. Who's your wide receiver sleeper? Yeah, this is another one where I'm saying, okay, you know, who's a player that we could be drafting much

earlier one year from now? And I'm going to go with a former top 10 pick, Roma Dunzee with the Chicago Bears. And look, everyone wants to be, you know, attached to Ben Johnson. Everyone wants to be attached to the former number one overall pick in Caleb Williams. The question is, you have so many potential targets, potential number one targets in this offense. Is it going to be DJ Moore, who's going 12 spots earlier as the wide receiver 22. Roman Dunzee right now is wide receiver 34 on average in ESPN right now. So he's going 12 spots earlier, DJ Moore. But I don't know, like the headlines, the buzz with him and Ben Johnson,

like hasn't been peerless. You know, I think that there was, you can kind of read between the lines there a little bit with how Johnson has talked about DJ Moore's performance from a year ago where, I mean, there was games where he literally like just like walked off the field. I think when you look at a dunzee and the way that they talk about a dunzee, I just feel the warm and fuzzies kind of come through the screen a little bit more there. And then obviously, look, they draft Luther Burden.

They draft Colston Loveland. There's going to be a lot of mouths to feed in this offense. But to me, we know what they did for Sam Leporta and for Ammonra, St. Brown. And while Adunze has been more of a boundary receiver, whereas St. Brown, it was a high volume guy in the slot for Ben Johnson. I think that Adunze might be the guy that if there's all this ambiguity between he and DJ Moore, give me the guy who's going later. I don't feel that I don't feel that confident that I'm going to draft. after guy one full round earlier in DJ Moore.

I'm staying in that same draft class too. Okay. And I'm going with Marvin Harrison Jr. Oh, interesting. I like your Dunezay pick. I was considering him. Those were, I mean, I'm so high on Marvin Harrison, the player. Yeah.

And I think he fell below expectations last year as a rookie. Kyler Murray. He's in the second year with, obviously with Harrison. That's an offense that there's not as, many other players kind of taking targets away from him. And when he was hot last year, he was really hot. And so I think that if he can just get more consistency, but you look at the talent alone,

I'm willing to bet on that talent. I'm going to be fascinating just to see if his role and his usage changes it all here this year. Because last year, it was so much where he was used vertically down the field and essentially like a field stretcher to open things up underneath and an intermediate area of the field. If he's going to be that day, I mean, you spend a top five pick on the guy. Like you would think he's going to be the,

the focal point. I'm interested to see if they make more of a point to feature him in that offense. One player I just wanted to ask you about, too, as a potential sleeper, is Devante Smith, because he's being drafted. And, you know, the ADP here is 74. Crazy. And we saw two years ago, or we should say 2022, like what he could do at the high watermark.

And he's obviously, we see him in training camp when he's healthy. He's automatic. Do you think that he's someone who's going to be better. than that draft position. I do. I think when you look at it, he was a prisoner of volume last year and a lack of opportunity.

And I think when you and I have talked to on this channel numerous times this year about how we think this offense here in Philadelphia is going to be a little bit more pass happy here in 2025. They honestly, I just don't envision a scenario where they're going to be as run heavy. So I think that obviously is going to equate into more opportunities there

for Devante Smith. He is going to turn those opportunities into production. Now it's just a matter of like him making sure he stays healthy. Obviously he was banged up for. a good chunk of last year as well. If he's healthy, which, look, he's already, he's missed practice here so far here in training camp. He's missed several days. But I think

when you're looking at Devante Smith, if he's healthy and out there on the field, he's going to produce. How about tight end? Who's your tight end? I went with another deep cut with this one. Because to me, tight end is so tough. And one of the big advantages you can have going into a fantasy draft is you are able to identify

someone who's going in the late rounds at that position who can become an impact player in an every week starter. I'm interested to see if Elijah Arroyo, my guy from the draft this past year was a day two pick, John Schneider, the GM of the Seattle Seahawks on draft weekend. So this guys are a round one talent. All the buzz coming out of Seattle is that he has performed extremely well so far in that offense.

It's a new offense there with Clint Kubiak, who, you know, they didn't run a lot of uptempo with the New Orleans Saints with Kubiak as the offensive coordinator last year, but it's a lot of easy layup throws. And so when I look at Arroyo, that's something that he feasted on with Miami last year. Is it, you know what, get him the ball in the flats and let him cook outstanding after the catch. And so I look at a Royo, he's tight end 27 right now in ADP of 169.3. Look, I'm not saying to take this guy as your first tight end.

You might not even take him as your tight end too. If you're in a deeper league, that's your tight end three, or maybe it's a guy that just keep an eye off for waivers in week one, week two. Elijah Royo, that's a guy certainly to watch. We all followed your draft coverage and we knew how high you were on him in the draft. Is this just based on the town or that Seattle situation is in? inviting as well. A little bit both. I mean, they cut Noah Fant coming into training camp. And so I think that there's going to be opportunity there. And like I said, all the buzz has been very positive to

this point. So as much as I would like to go with Kyle Pitts. I thought you know, I was wondering, I was planning to go Kyle Pitts. But for the sake of integrity here, I'll go away from Kyle Pitts. I'm going with Dalton Kincaid. Okay. Dalton Kincaid and Buffalo, who I think can be a top 10, a top 10 tight end. He's not being drafted there. He was expected to take that second year leap last year didn't quite happen there were injuries he he wasn't as much of uh the downfield threat uh he was more the short and intermediate game this is someone who who when he came out of college you were thinking zach irts type player you're thinking a high volume player and you look at the other pass catchers there there's not that one player who's dominating the target share and i think dalton kincade he's he's

almost like uh he can be like a slot receiver for them in a way too uh he's playing with one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. I think that, you know, where are those targets going to go? He had 91 targets as a rookie. I'm expecting that to jump up in year three here if he stays healthy. I think if you're looking for a player in that, you know, 12 to 18 range in tight ends who can be one of the top eight tight ends, Dalton Kincaid's my player. Yeah, I'd love to be able to see him take on a little bit more of that snapshot alongside Dalton Knox. They like to play a lot of 12 personnel. If Knox has an injury, honestly, we're going to say the sunny thing about Devante Smith. If you have an agent, J. Brown injury, Devante Smith stocked through the moon.

I think when you're looking at Kincaid, if he could be the full-time tight end, I'm with you. Like, you just want touchdown upside, attaching him to Josh, attaching a player to the, or getting a player that is attached to Josh Allen, can't go wrong there. I'm going to put you on the spot here because we have Eagles fans watching this. This isn't a sleeper question. This is just an Eagles fantasy football question. You can take Seekwan Barclay or A.J. Brown. Who are you taking?

It's a good question because, you know, Seekwan Barclay is like a mid-first round pick in fantasy drafts right now. A.J. Brown, you can get like round two, round three. we've talked about how nervous I am about Sequin and what the volume could look like this year. That said, like if I'm on the boy, if I end up with a middle of the first round pick and fantasy drafts, not all of mine are coming up in the next two weeks or so. If Sequine's there, like, I just got, I got to take them. You can't be the fool that passes on him. I felt the same way last year when it came to Christian McCaffrey because he had the same concerns.

And McCaffrey, there were signs of him being dinged up coming into the fall, into the fall. But it was just so like you win your league. You are a guarantee that you're going to make it to like the semifinals. If you draft this player, I feel like I'd have to do the same thing. I think I'm going to take Seyquan Barkley. That's Fran Duffy, not just the NFL draft expert, but also the fantasy draft expert. Thank you to Fran.

Thank you to Julia. I'm Zach. You are watching the P.HLY Eagle Show.