Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Our 10 most interesting fantasy players for 2024

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp of WGR-550 and the Deep Dive Fantasy Football podcast dig into the most interesting players from a production standpoint in the NFL this year, including Jordan Addison Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, the fantasy football show with Mike Shope of WGR 550 and the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast, the show presented by Underdog Fantasy. And I got to tell you, Mike, I'm pumped. We're here. Waivers, lineups, pick-ems, things that matter. Oh, it's great. It's a great time. Great time to be alive. It is. Once I get through waiver stuff in all my leagues, then I'll feel better.

Like by tomorrow, a lot of the high stakes leagues run on Wednesday night. Now, this is not underdog best ball, which is so beautiful because you don't ever have to touch it. You just sort of find out at the end how you did. But that season is over. So, I mean, pick-ems are certainly not over. That's just kind of starting. But in terms of the big money fantasy leagues,

tonight is really, I mean, it's a relative term, but it's hard work. I mean, it's not really work. It's just when you, as I've told you off the air, I drafted a couple of main event teams over the weekend and there's not so much to do there because you kind of knew everything by Saturday and Sunday, you know, who the handcuffs were, where the injury risks lie, all that. But some of these, you know, at least mid stakes teams, we drafted in May and you look at the draft board and the free agent pool, and there's just like a

lot of guys that you want. And some of your guys are dead, Elijah Mitchell or AJ Dillon, you know, players like that. So there's a lot to do. And then figuring out how much to bid on these guys for a league that started so long ago is really challenging. Yeah. It's amazing how much changes with a lot of these teams just between the start and finish of the off season. And now you get to find out how they're going to actually do. That's my favorite part. I know that the fantasy football universe enjoys drafting and drafting and drafting and drafting, but we're gonna go through some thursday night

football action and uh what how to look at some of those pickums and so forth and some of the most exciting things that we're intrigued by that's been the theme of the show mike for the entire week is just what are you pumped about what what can't you wait to find out about because we've been previewing it for absolutely ever uh but i want to start with uh what you pumped about? What can't you wait to find out about? Because we've been previewing it for absolutely ever. I want to start with what you think about Jamar Chase and what is going on there. Personally, I'm not really sure what his end game is here. If they're not going to give you a contract this year, which is their right to do, then you play out the year and you get paid next year.

And even Justin Jefferson got banged up last season. That did not prevent the Minnesota Vikings from giving him $35 million a year. I think that Jamar Chase should just go out and play. A lot of times that's what ends up happening. But do you factor this in, what has gone on with him in training camp? Yes. So my read on it is he probably thinks he can win, or at least he wants to find out. I mean, what happened with Brandon Ayuk, that was a win for Brandon Ayuk. It was a win for Jefferson. It was a win for CeeDee Lamb to hold out in Dallas. I think we'd all have to say that. So I kind of think sort He had a lot of leverage in the end because IUK happened,

and they just sort of felt like they probably had to do it. Cincinnati is a tough nut. I mean, that's not a team where you can just assume you're going to get your money, but Chase is finding out, and in terms of pick-ems or fantasy football, it's almost impossible to know how it will go. There are examples of players in this kind of situation who just stay away. Le'Veon Bell did that, and he would have been a top two pick in fantasy that year, and he got you exactly zero points, and you probably lost. So you have to decide if you're still drafting like tonight or something

with the opener on Thursday, what kind of risk tolerance do I have? Because it's really impossible to know what's going to happen. You can't get in his head. I mean, if he thinks it's better for him long-term, if he's willing to miss the season, which is going to be his public position, then okay. Again, it's a team that is notorious for being tight. He might think it's best for him to get out of there,

but also he could walk in the door today. And that's what's happened other times too. He's been around, which makes it even a little bit more, you know, complicated. So I think if you haven't drafted yet, Chase was going in that like four to seven range pretty much all summer with Jefferson, with Tyreek Hill, who would sometimes usually go ahead of them, and Amon Ross St. Brown. Then you get to A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson.

At this point, I feel like there's so many comparable options that I would probably pass on Chase, but you get to a point, or I do, where it just feels like a little bit too good to be true. The tournament stuff is mostly all drafted, not entirely though. And out there in Vegas this week and in these final main event drafts, there'll be teams perhaps getting Jamar chase at the one, two turn, and they're going to love it. They're just going to have to cross their fingers that he, you know, shows up and, you know, plays soon, if not by Sunday.

Now you are right that the other wide receivers have gotten it resolved. And Jefferson's was very early CD lamb. sunday now you are right that uh the other wide receivers have gotten it resolved and jefferson's was very early cd lamb it was almost like jerry jones told everyone we're doing this on purpose so you talk about us which is a 90s jerry jones thing with the nfl needed that that doesn't need it anymore but uh that's just how he does business but with cincinnati you are right that if any team is going to dig its heels in and say, we are not going to pay you, then it's probably them. But as high as he was drafted, his salary makes him a fairly wealthy man.

That is a lot of money to leave on the table. If he's going to just sit home and not play waiting for another contract that will pay him even more money. I think with players of this caliber, even if it gets a little ugly, they usually get resolved. And we saw that from the San Francisco guys. And we saw that from Chris Jones last year, Chris Jones, I believe he sat out week one and then got it done, came back. And by week three, he was Chris Jones. And by the Superbowl, he was pressuring Brock Purdy and helping them win so I think that

it will end up going that way but even if he misses a week or two weeks in comparison to some of the other top wide receivers this could end up having an impact on how many points you end up scoring so that that's one to definitely keep an eye on but with contract stuff I always lean toward it just benefits so much everybody to get something done that they probably should. And that's a Cincinnati team that I look at as having Super Bowl expectations that they should be right in that conversation. But if he doesn't play for a significant amount of time, then who does that benefit most on Cincinnati? Well, that's even an example of how he has more leverage

than maybe in the average case. And I'll add that what might be different in comparing him with Le'Veon Bell is that that was a running back who was thought to be probably at or near the end of his career. Like what is the next contract? Whereas Chase can probably expect

to get a big contract somewhere eventually, whether that's Cincinnati or somewhere else. So he might be willing to sacrifice the year if he thinks that helps him long term. There are two names, well, actually three, starting with T. Higgins. I mean, whose value goes up if Chase doesn't play? Of course, Higgins. He becomes Cincinnati's wide receiver one. He's pretty good for a wide

receiver two and very good actually. So he becomes interesting as long as he's motivated. I mean, it was mostly about him over the summer, whether he wanted to be there, but I would think, you know, you get on the field and you try to, there's a chance he's got an opportunity to really cash in with his next contract, depending on how this year goes. And you have two players that are behind Jason Higgins in Cincinnati, Andre Yoshivas from Princeton, and then Jermaine Burton, who was a day two pick, controversial prospect from the college ranks. Everything I've heard and read this summer has been that Yoshi Voss, who played on the team last year, has been really impressive and is reliable,

whereas Burton, and you've got Collinsworth dropping, or not Collinsworth, Herbstreet, dropping weird hints on their preseason broadcast about sleeping in meetings and whatever. Like, I haven't really sort of, other than his being behind Chase on the official depth chart, heard anything good about Burton. So I think Yoshivas becomes a late round, you know, what are we playing? We're playing Pickham, DFS, things like that. You know, I wouldn't be afraid to click on his name because there is the potential that he becomes pretty relevant in that offense.

And you have Mike Kosicki as well at tight end who might get an uptick from a chase absence. But Burton, you know, back in the underdog draft season, a fun name because we're playing for those late season weeks and he's a rookie and you're not so much worried about what's happening right now as what should happen in December. But in terms of like regular leagues

where you're setting lineups now and everything else, he's, he's tough to click on. If you hadn't gone into such detail about Yoshivas, I would have said, no, no chance that that's a real guy. Uh, but I think also the point there is when you start talking about those receivers, then, uh, Jamar chase can be like, come on, come on, come on, look, look at who else we're talking about. And I do think that sometimes it hurts a guy to sit out and have another opportunity for someone else because the quarterback there does good things for other wide receivers. And even when Jamar Chase got injured a couple of years ago, Joe Burrow was still very good during that time. But you know,

we, I think we all know that Jamar chase will eventually be one of the best and highest paid wide receivers in the NFL. So that's one to keep an eye on there. But along with the theme of being excited about the start of the season, I want to know who you're most excited to find out about or to start finding out about in week one. So you've made a list of the players you're most interested in here? Okay. So you want to go back and forth? You want to give me one?

I'll give you one, and we'll go back and forth here. Who are you most excited to find out? I love that idea. I have a quarterback, a running back, two receivers. No, a quarterback, two running backs, a receiver, and a tight end. Does that fit with what you have? Do you have a list? You want to do this that way?

Yep. We'll rap battle style with the list. Okay. Well, I'll give you my quarterback first. And I think maybe the most curious player, other than the rookies, I mean, you could name any rookie for this question. What does Jaden Daniels look like in the NFL you know is Bo Nix somebody who could have fantasy relevance and stay a starter any rookie works leaving the rookies out of it I went with Kyler Murray

because he's in a much better situation now now really a veteran in the league, healthy, relatively new coaching staff, Marvin Harrison Jr. There's a lot of shine on the Cardinals right now and a lot of excitement about whether Murray might have even an MVP season in him. So he's one where I want to see it. In terms of fantasy football, he has been one of the most buzzy players, at least quarterbacks, this summer. And I get it. I mean, in drafts, he's like quarterback eight or something, not somebody,

as we've talked about, you know, strategy when it came to drafting. I like to wait, and Murray is one of these guys that I'm happy to pick in round seven or whatever it is. But how high is the ceiling, you know, with Harrison, with Trey McBride, who was excellent down the stretch last year, and a generally positive-sounding situation in Arizona, he's my quarterback for this question, somebody that I'm really curious about, excited to see what they look like.

I also picked Kyler Murray. So let me pivot. Let me pivot. Let me pivot with Kyler Murray. 2021 now feels a long time ago. He had an ACL in there. He had a complete franchise meltdown in there. But what you saw for maybe 12 weeks was what it can truly be when things are going well for Kyler Murray. And I also wonder just about the connection with his coach and how things have changed with their new regime. Because I think with Steve Keim and Cliff Kingsbury, it was a zoo out there.

And I think Jonathan Gannon, who has some Vikings connections, I've always heard really, really good things about Jonathan Gannon that they might be able to put him in a little bit more of a stable situation. Because I think what they would do is anytime something went wrong, they'd be like, why aren't you a better leader, Kyler? Right. It's your fault. And I just don't think that's going to be their approach anymore. And getting him some extra weapons is, you know, at least it puts a spotlight on Kyler Murrayray i wonder how much he's going to want to run if he's going to be the same runner uh after the acl so i'll pivot and i will go with will

levis they have done a lot to try to help mr levis there and the small sample was a guy just trying to throw the ball as high up in the air as he possibly could while being collapsed upon by pass rushers every time i saw a will levis highlight it was like ah throw the ball right and i but you know he was somebody that was talked about by the draft analysis world as an elite prospect the nfl did not agree but tennessee also did not go out and get some other veteran quarterback to compete with him in camp. They said, you're our guy. You're going to start here. I have read nothing of Tennessee's camp that has suggested one way or the other, whether Levis is going to succeed, but they quietly, because no one really cares about the Titans. They quietly added a good amount of talent around him.

And I think he could be somebody that nobody has really drafted or paid a lot of attention to that we go, oh, wait, wait, Will Levis is good now? Because that's just kind of the nature of the beast with second year quarterbacks. Yeah, second round, second year makes it even sort of less certain. Yeah, it's a great call. They seem to be really ready to lean into a passing attack. We've talked about how there are a few franchises where there's going to be some cognitive dissonance this year because we've really never seen them be

aggressive, throwing the ball, the Bears, the Falcons, the, not always, but the Titans, another one. And they're kind of set up to do it. And they also, I mean, he's enough of a draft investment. And your point about what they didn't do, they didn't even bring Tannehill back. Like you would bet on Levis to play the whole season. And if it goes really off the rails, then maybe not.

But they're probably, what should they do? They probably should want to look at him, you know, in full and see if they've got somebody they want to spend up on. So, you know, in fantasy, he's a what? I mean, super flex leagues where you have two. He's he's drafted and he's somebody that might fit nicely if you had like an elite quarterback one. He's definitely a curiosity, though. And, you know, in a regular one quarterback league, you should be on waivers. And if you have an injury or something, you see maybe if he starts well, if you want to go to him.

Yeah. And I just think of him as the who did we all miss while we were doing our fantasy drafts that you go what wow what wait that guy ended up having a great season uh who you got next by the way my point my guy for that kind of thing like i missed out on the quarterback i wanted is geno smith i'm not i'm not really curious about geno sm, but I think he still gets overlooked and I like his potential this year. Okay. My running back one for this players I'm excited to watch and sort of find out the answers on would be Devin HN in Miami. And the big question is, can he hold up? What kind of workload will they give him? Raheem Mostert is still there. He led the league in rushing touchdowns, rookieookie Jalen Wright. Who knows exactly how much work they intend to give A-Chan. But

last year, 130 touches, 11 touchdowns on the ground alone, 7.8 yards per carry. They had a 70-point game against Denver that he starred in. Nobody would have started him that week because he was a backup and he didn't even play week one. You take that game out and it's still an incredible short but incredible fantasy season for A-chan. Second round pick, I'm all in. I mean, I just feel like the upside is so high I can't resist it. The offense should be similar.

The Dolphins, you know, it's most of the same guys. I want to see, you know what happens balance between hn and most dirt and just how high is you know is the ceiling for hn and the dolphins folks u.s cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic we try to put our phones down for dinner but but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use their phones less? Ironic. Let's find us again with Us Mode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started.

Just in general, for all Dolphins related things, is Mike McDaniel going to be able to evolve and still find ways to get these explosive plays as they had so many of them last year or is there going to be a little bit of national football league figures it out with someone like a Chan CJ Spiller came to mind that year he averaged I don't know six yards of carry they're all like oh CJ Spiller RB1 he's going to be a superstar and the next year it was okay and then it wasn't really great after that is it one of those or is this guy i'll throw an old name for you napoleon kaufman is it napoleon kaufman who

can keep being that guy uh does he have that kind of speed and quickness and creativity to get him the football in space i tend to think that he'll still be good and not not like eight yards to carry good but uh there are some guys who are just truly special with the ball in their hands uh we had here with Cordero Patterson they just didn't do it enough but then once other teams did like oh there's there's something really there and you don't you don't you don't need that kind of pace to win on the on the draft pick at all like you don't even need you don't need 7. yards. You don't need that kind of touchdown efficiency. You just need something, what,

two-thirds of that is a home run when it comes to what you drafted. I think maybe the key for the Dolphins is can Tua get better off script and not have them become so predictable because even when you think you know what they're going to do, Tyreek Hill running in full speed or

Waddle behind the formation, stretching out the defense, putting that pressure on, it still should be great for the running backs. Sorry, I was mid-sip there. Yeah, my fault. I saw you. You didn't read and anticipate. But I think we went through that with Cousins for a long time about, oh, maybe he'll become more of a playmaker. They don't. They really don't. It's really, can McDaniel continue to adjust and tweak

and show things that he showed before and change them? This is where Kyle Shanahan is just absolutely brilliant. You think we've got it figured out. Oh, when it's at this formation, it's this, and then it's completely something else and someone's running wide open and you go this defense is horrible what are they doing uh i have bijan robinson it's not a hot take it's but last year i was told this guy's different this guy's different you have to draft this guy at the top of the draft you can't not draft this running back because he will play

receiver and running back which nobody's done since Marshall Falk by the way if you hear this about everybody all the time oh this guy's gonna line up in the slot he's gonna run routes he's and they never do because if they could they would they would be receivers it's more valuable anyway i have uh enjoyed some of his highlights but we didn't really see this revelation of a running back so now that they're going to have a passing game with kirk do we see a little more and now with you know arthur smith somewhere else and uh taylor heineke and desmond ritter somewhere else i i think it should benefit him but i still am intrigued of where whether his draft status ever comes to fruition right i've been drafting breese hall over robinson and some of the receivers too and it's not because I question his talent. And I've told you, we talk every week about the Falcons.

Like I'm in on all of it. But it's Tyler Algier who was his compliment in that backfield last year. And what it sounded like this year is that the plan is for something similar to that. That can still amount to a huge fantasy season for Robinson. But Algier is the guy I want to pick, you know, 10 rounds later, because not only do you get perhaps that value or he might even be a flex play with Robinson healthy. But of course, if you have Robinson go down, then maybe it's to the moon for a guy you picked at the end of your draft. But I agree. How well did Robinson show?

It was just such a weird team. Archaic offense and strategy. You draft these guys so high and then limit them like that. It doesn't make any sense this is the year hopefully where Robinson Kyle Pitts Drake London pop and they look like the Falcons want them to be the players they drafted yeah and I think that they have significantly upgraded their offensive style with Zach Robinson as their offensive coordinator there that tree just has a lot of success. Not as much as success is your tree for broadcasters, but it is close for Sean McVay.

Who's next on your list? Well, a different kind of choice, but I went with J.K. Dobbins. I mean, the Chargers, it's polarizing. You have people who have just forgotten about them. They were 5-12. Herbert is hurt already. He might be fine by this week. All the skilled position players, talent that have left. But Jim Harbaugh, Greg Roman,

there's a lot of success there. Herbert is really good if he's on the field. Dobbins has, you know, what a tough career he's had. Great prospect out of Ohio State, but 2021, major knee injury, multiple ligaments, a hamstring injury too. 2022, he's saying he's back, but the same knee gave him problems. He missed half that season. Last year, it's all good. Third quarter, week one, torn Achilles.

I mean, no running back in history has come back from that. It's unprecedented. But if he's good and we still don't know where the chargers are likeliest to turn at running back then that could be really good and this is a guy who's even cheaper than algier in drafts so just kind of a what the heck late round pick in fantasy if you're still drafting or on waivers you know it's so inexpensive you might as well give yourself the chance that Dobbins you know still has it and so I'm curious to see what he looks like and really hand in hand is what the Chargers want to do with him you know

is it Gus Edwards is going to be Kamani Vidal or someone else. We don't know yet. But Dobbins has such talent that if he's healthy enough, you might get something real out of him. One of the hardest parts of just football in general, but especially on the fantasy side, is trying to figure out the injury risk of a player like that. And even with Cam Akers, there was a report that Cam Akers was going to sign with the Vikings. And then they decided not to.

And a physical is involved. And then he goes to the Texans. He looks actually really good during the preseason. And he's had two Achilles tears, which you would think you would just want to run away a thousand miles an hour from a player like that. And then I watch him play. And I'm like, whoa, I mean, it looks like he's still got the burst. And it is 2024 with the science in the medical field that we have. So for somebody like that, I like that bet, um, to take them in the late rounds, because I just think we're getting

better. It used to be, if someone had an Achilles, you looked like Dan Marino in 1994 for the rest of your career. Uh, but that's not the case. Now I'm going to go with all Packers receivers. Uh, I mean, I, this is a maybe cheating, but I don't know which one to pick is the most interesting. Uh, the Packers people love Romeo Dobbs. They loved on Tavi and Wicks, but I still am thinking that Jaden Reed might be the guy that Jordan love ends up trusting the most and somebody who it feels like Matt Lafleur believes in him in terms of the short passing

game and the yards after catch game, which you can rack up. If you're PPR person, you can rack up a lot of that. And then now I'm told that Christian Watson's hamstrings are the same size again. And that's interesting, I guess. And so like these, there's four of them and I don't know which one is going to be the one who emerges. I think it will be one of them. My guess is Reed, but I want to find out if this group of Packers receivers who I think are all talented, that if someone's going to be the the alpha packer there it's at some point love it you know we call these leagues where we're setting lineups each week redraft leagues as opposed to best ball like on underdog and they set up as a potential redraft nightmare if if a team is bad you know not to start anybody you're not even tempted there's

no decision to make you know the great receivers in. You're not even tempted. There's no decision to make. The great receivers in the league, you never think twice. You put them in. Green Bay goes to Brazil to play Friday against the Eagles, and who knows what that'll be like. Try to decide which one of these guys to start. You might have a Deontay Johnson

instead or somebody that seems safer and their game isn't in Brazil and they're sort of like a safer floor I think with the Packers even if any of those four players has their biggest game even like a really big game on Friday night that's not necessarily going to tell you anything about week two because that's kind of what their second half was. Everybody's promising. You really do, I hate to say it, you really do need an injury, probably, to get clarity on Green Bay. Romeo Dobbs has some hand injury.

I don't know yet what his status will be for Friday night. I just know that those guys have been told not to leave the hotel, I guess, in Brazil, a weird one, not a good thing. But, yeah, I like them all. In best ball and underdog this year, those were all easy clicks. Jordan Love is pretty easy. You know, it's kind of a fallback for a starting quarterback in a redraft league. But which one of those guys?

There's a good argument for all of them. Wicks, who was the cheapest, had the most fantasy hype. But even in the preseason, there was never really any evidence that he was going to play much, you know, like a prominent enough role to make you want to start him necessarily in fantasy. Yeah. It's hard to figure out also if Watson's hamstring thing will keep him healthy for the entire year, because that would scare me. And also just when you have other guys emerge, if that means Watson will be relegated to more of a deep type of role, as opposed to being their number one guy, because when he was drafted high,

it looks like, okay, he's going to be the guy that they lean on heavily, but then they draft all these other wide receivers as well. And so are they going to fit into, all right, you're the guy that goes deep. Reed's going to catch the underneath stuff. I don't know. I guess we're going to find that out. That's the whole point. And I'm also curious even just to add on to that about Jacobs in the backfield. Me too. Because they made that big move to move on from Aaron Jones and bring him in for a lot of money. And apparently he could have signed with the Chiefs and didn't want to, according to him, which is interesting.

I'm guessing it was more guaranteed money to go to Green Bay. But that whole situation, I think LeFleur is good at running the ball. Will they improve with Matt LaFleur? So a lot going on there. I didn't know that about the Chiefs, but it might say something about them. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's just him having a better deal with Green Bay and then telling someone, oh, no, I didn't want to sign with the favorites.

I wanted to sign with the underdog as if green Bay is an underdog. It's just, is that like a thing you say on a podcast? And then you're like, why did I say that? That's not real at all. I don't know. But that was an interesting comment that he said he could have signed

there and decided to go somewhere else. Well, we'll get back to this later when we talk about tomorrow night's game, because Kansas city at running back back, they made a move recently and they could be interesting. I will say next, you know, just to sort of – it's a comparison we've made a lot a few times this summer is the Green Bay receivers and the Bills receivers.

And I'm definitely curious about that. My day job is talking about the bills on WGR and just like what the balance, you know, target share is going to look like. And the season starts Sunday and I still have no idea at all. You know, is Curtis Samuel healthy? Maybe Coleman, the rookie Shakir Kincaid knocks MVS. Like, I don't know. So they're similar to the Packers in, like, which one do you start? Is that sturdy week to week? The easiest answer for that is Kincaid because he's a tight end, so you have a different, you know, equation there

when it comes to that team versus the Packers. The player I would go with next, number four for me, and I know I said earlier I didn't want to pick a rookie quarterback, but I am just so excited to check out the Malik neighbors experience. Most analysts seem to have declared Daniel Jones as not problematic. Like that's the sort of knee jerk thought like, well, why not draft Malik neighbors in fantasy is because Daniel Jones isn't good, but there's just such a chasm for target opportunity with him. And you've got the beat reporters in a tizzy about how he moves and what he looks like.

The draft capital is there. So I am definitely excited. Vikings Giants in week one to see if possibly Neighbors is a 10-catch like right away as a rookie, I think I have a little bit more curiosity and excitement for him than even do Harrison at this point, just because there's been so much, you know,

said and, you know, written about how he looks. Oh, I know. I was thinking the same exact thing that Harrison, there hasn't been a whole lot that's been put out there. He didn't play in preseason games. And so no one has seen him for a very long time. I was listening to Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo talk about this the other night,

and they were like, are we sure that Marvin Harrison exists? There've been no sightings of him on a football field since Ohio state. But whereas neighbors, there's a lot of clips that have been put out there. We saw preseason games. So everybody gets at least some view on him. Roman Dunzey feels sort of the same way. Like, oh yeah, this top guy who was drafted that I just haven't heard much about because everything has been about Caleb Williams.

You could bunch them. Let's find out about these rookie wide receivers. But I am also very interested in how this plays out in week one because the Vikings secondary has new players from even when training camp started. Stephon Gilmore is here. Fabian Morrow is here. Shaq Griffin didn't practice during the entire training camp, which doesn't seem like that's a great sign.

So if there's an opportunity there for neighbors it's definitely this week against the Vikings at the same time they're going to probably sack Daniel Jones as well so how many opportunities is he going to get um I love that one the last one uh that I had was oh obviously Jordan Addison because I think the Vikings do want to throw the ball less and also from training camp. And I would do this to Sam Darnold looked at number 18 and then he looked around at everyone else and said, no, number 18. And then he did it again and threw it to Jefferson over and over and over and occasionally to our guy, Johnny Munt, and then back to Jefferson. And it's not to say that Addison didn't make any plays during training camp at all, but

it was noticeable how much I felt like Darnold was leaning on wide receiver one. And I thought, well, you know, Addison will be fine. I don't think the suspension is going to happen anytime soon, but that does loom. If you're talking about drafting players for the playoff race in fantasy at the end of the season, because that kind of projects to when he could get suspended depending on how it plays out in court. But I just want to know how Sam Darnold's going to distribute the ball because we could so easily predict Kirk Cousins. You could write it down before the season and get within a handful

of targets, get within a handful of yards with him. And now that's just not the case with Sam Darnold. So I want to find out what Jordan Addison does. Yeah, that's really interesting. So one of the cool things, the many cool things about the underdog app is as you're drafting, and I ended up drafting enough teams to make this, you know, something I really wanted to study. It gives you your exposure,

how much sort of entry fee money you've invested in each guy and then percentage. And I'm looking up Addison because he feels like somebody I didn't draft much of. A lot of these are team contingent, right? Like the green Bay, Minnesota week 17 playoff game,

which is the most important week in best ball mania on underdog. That kind of thing can tilt it. But I'm at 7.1% on Addison and not much in terms of like the big money leagues. Whereas I'm over 10% on Jefferson. You know, just sort of logically average is going to be 8.5 because you've got a 12 team league. So if everything was equal, you draft sort of the average guy, 8.5% of the time. I'm a little higher on Addison than I would have guessed because, you know, it was the suspension risk and that still exists. But while I think Jefferson is probably still Jefferson as

a fantasy player, I don't know after that. And then there's like the question marks about Hawkinson and Aaron Jones can catch the ball. I wouldn't be super optimistic for Addison right out of the gate. As a Vikings fan, you hope to get a couple of big plays. That's sort of his brand. And maybe you get sort of like a 3- 51 and one kind of game on Sunday against the

Giants but even that is tough to start without more volume so if we're talking pick'ems I don't know his numbers but I might say under although that's what the market might be telling me already yeah you could go either way on this maybe Addison not being drafted as high by some people or his numbers being a little lower, but I just don't think they want to throw 42 times a game with Sam Darnold, which could reduce it. And I also think that he's being implored to check it down to Aaron Jones. If the deep ball is not there, then I don't think they want him going through four different reads on a play and then firing it into a tight window in the middle of the field because that just screams interception.

Do you have one more? I did write up Kyle Pitts for this answer, but we always talk about Atlanta. We already have, you know, is he healthy? Is the offense, you know, modernized? He's only tight end six. He's also seemingly impossibly still only 23 going into his fourth year. Everybody wants to know Kyle Pitts. But because I just brought up the underdog exposures,

and I'm looking at mine right now, my number one owned player at any position is Brock Bowers. Okay. And he's another 72 guesses that I would not have come to Brock Bowers. Well, he's another rookie. So I'm breaking the rule that I set for myself already, but I think like nobody's high on the Raiders. Just even these, even these other teams, like the Vikings that went after quarterback in the first round you can wonder of course Minnesota had the unfortunate McCarthy injury but you can wonder if they have their answer you can wonder if Denver has its answer or New England or Washington right but the Raiders didn't do that and it's Gardner Minshew and what have we been hearing the most

when it comes to the Raiders about it's whether Devante Adams will be there all season you know it just seems like it's kind of limited to a mediocre season and maybe a terrible season is better the way it goes in the NFL to set up for next year's draft but I am fully I fully believe that like Bowers is this really special player at tight end and he was so much fun to click on all summer Matthew because it was well usually when you missed out on Kelsey Andrews Kincaid McBride even Pitts even Kittle Engram and Joku and like okay well here I am in the eighth round and I don't have my tight end yet and there is a chance Brock Bowers gets all the easy stuff from the Raiders. You know, maybe it's limited. And he's such an athlete that I think even as a rookie, this is risky.

I mean, rookie tight end seasons are not usually that good. We saw Kincaid have a playable season. Laporta, of course, you know, broke that mold last year. It's not like I'm super heavy. It's like 20% or something is all, but still, still significant. But Bowers is somebody like, I would love it if on Sunday I saw 10 targets, seven 50 touchdown. Like if you, if you drafted him at the end of your drafts,

most redraft leagues, like he might even just barely go. And you get something like 20 points in week one they're at the chargers this week i mean let's go that could be really exciting i saw them line him up as a fullback and i was like okay we don't need too much of that this man's gonna get the ball yeah but you know you run a little flat route and uh gardner minshu is gonna find you they have so few other weapons outside of Devante Adams. And when I covered a 3-0 barn burner there last year, it was noticeable that the only person that they would throw it to is Devante Adams.

The smart play for them is to completely go to the bottom and try to draft a quarterback because there's no place to compete there. But you have to throw to somebody.. But you have to throw to somebody. The bad teams have to throw to somebody. That's the rule. And he's probably second. If they do trade him at midseason, then you're the next man up. Love that.

When you throw it, but it's not to somebody, that's a flag. Yeah, intentional grounding. Unless someone's in the area, or at least the referees decided that someone was in the area which i don't know how there's like did you think he was in the area i didn't i don't know did you what are those conferences like i know anyway or or when you intentionally to put it one way intentionally ground the ball just standing there and doing that that can be fine, too. Depending on the situation. But if you hitch and then do it, that's a flag. Jaron Hall did that in the preseason game. They didn't call him for it, but it's a penalty.

That happened to Tim Couch once. Lost them a game. Just so everybody knows. We know they won't call that unless they feel like they absolutely have to. Because it's almost a guaranteed punt. And we don't want too many punts anymore. No, we don't. Okay, so this week we've got a huge game.

Ravens and Chiefs here. I want to go rapid fire through some of this. But I also want to remind everyone to check out Underdog Fantasy. And Underdog is discounting the dogs this Saturday. From midnight Eastern to game time, you'll be able to use four different discounts on players from all your favorite dog related college football teams so it's very easy to find you go to underdog fantasy click on pick them college football and you will see between midnight Eastern and game time, the discounted players that you can pick higher or lower on.

So make sure you check that out. Lots of dog related matchups for this week. Georgia's playing. That's a bulldog. North Carolina State, the Wolfpack. Northern Illinois is playing. They're a dog, right? That's a stretch.

Wolfpack is a stretch. That's dogs. Used to be. That's a dog. I think that's a dog wolf pack that's dogs used to be a dog i think that's a dog dogs come from wolves not to get you know political yeah right i don't want any god i don't want any um who studies that biologists whatever anyway um so you should go to underdog fantasy and check out the it's just lots of players that are going to have these discounts. Pick any pugs.

I have a pug. Is there a team name? There is the great Danes of Albany. One of my favorite team names. That is very opposite, very opposite of a pug. Yes. So if you use the promo code purple,

you can claim your special pick, get a first time deposit up to $1,000 must be 18 or older terms. Apply concerned with your play call one-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org okay Lamar Jackson at 216 and a half yards passing would you go higher or lower with that is Lamar Jackson gonna come out prove to everyone again that he can pass the football even though he's proven it a million times and prove to everyone again that he can pass the football, even though he's proven it a million times and seems to be kind of obsessed with that? Oh, man, I can't wait to hear that narrative explored yet again here,

going into another season, coming off a second MVP that he won almost unanimously like he did the first. We're going to see what you sort of guess at here and poke at as we talk about pick-ems because I placed one today, a four-way pick-em, and I went higher on Jackson's passing total, 218.5 is what I saw. I love that. He went 272 in the playoff game.

The first thing you do is figure out your favorite narrative for the game. And if you happen to have the Ravens playing from behind, which they did that day, but they almost never did last year, you got to think any quarterback's going to get there on passing yardage, such a modest number. So 272 in the playoff game when they scored 10 points. Second year with that offensive coordinator, they're still not flush with receiver options. You know, name their wide receiver too.

It's still like a little bit of a stumper. But I think, you know, the idea that this is a matchup of quarterbacks, the Super Bowl MVP, the NFL MVP, I mean, it's great for that. And the game I'm guessing we get is a game where both quarterbacks shine. I'm over higher on Jackson's passing yards. And there's also, if I can slip this in, those scorchers at underdog pick-em where you see that little red pepper and you get a better payout if you're right Jackson to score a touchdown is like 1.4 x for this game and I think I think he has a good night

and I think you know if he does end up kind of if you will making a statement that he certainly really shouldn't feel like he needs to make then I wouldn't mind mixing that in. I have no data on this whatsoever. So let me say that first, but it always feels like when they open the season with the matchup between memorable teams from the year before the team that lost wins on the other side. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's motivation. I just thinktimore is going to win this game and that lamar jackson's going to be very good for for no analytical point at all but just it always seems to be the case there's also this i mean the chiefs have won these rings the ravens i mean you really do want to respect how much winning they've done. Jackson, in three years,

when an underdog against the spread is 7-0, he's not lost a game as a starter against the spread. His team is covered seven out of seven times. The most amazing thing about that is it's only seven times. He's been hurt in there,

but the Ravens have only been an underdog with Jackson as the starter seven times in the last three seasons. They've covered every time. Yeah. I mean, I think they're maybe my pick at plus three. It's one of the worst things that's happened to how we view sports over the last 20 years. Maybe is everyone who doesn't have a ring is crap and they should all just feel ashamed constantly even though michael jordan is playing here at quarterback for patrick mahomes you you're just

you're just a loser you stink i don't even know why you're putting a helmet on lamar jackson despite your two mvps and your team that's always there. It's just, it's frustrating sometimes because that's the television dialogue that we've created. Anyway, Derek Henry, 65 and a half yards. Would you go higher or lower on Mr. Henry? I think statement game for Derek Henry. My challenge is that I've decided in my head what kind of game it is. And I don't think I want to pick higher on both guys unless I see the Ravens just rolling in this game, which is a little bit much.

You know, Snead left the Chiefs. Jackson can get out of trouble. I think, you know, it's a game where they're, in my opinion, expecting to be able to move the ball through the air, at least more than we sort of expect from them normally. And that makes me want to go lower on Henry. It's a pretty modest number, and I wouldn't want to bet against a Henry touchdown, right? I mean, I mentioned Jackson scoring, but he's not the goal line runner Josh Allen is.

You know, he's more just sort of in the open field, and then at the goal line, they do different things. Maybe that's Andrews. But my pick for this game is both Henry and Pacheco under. Their numbers, this is rushing yards. Their numbers are both in the 60s. I see the Ravens doing well enough through the air, and then Mahomes also sort of keeping up.

And, you know, Henry doesn't really have this challenger in that backfield. Jackson is the challenger to his rushing totals, whereas Kansas City has Samaje Pirine now. And I think he's interesting. I know you didn't ask me about them yet, but veteran, broad end. You mentioned that Josh Jacobs thing that I didn't know about. This might be a team that's been sort of waiting for somebody to come in and play a complimentary role to Pacheco. So I happen to be lower on both running backs. By the way,

as we speak, Kyle pits dealing with a hamstring injury was just showing up in my Twitter feed. Yeah. I don't know how that's going to work. A hamstring with was just showing up uh in my twitter feed yeah i don't know how that's gonna work a hamstring with a giant tight end seems like a bad thing for the falcons but uh to your point i plan on calling many things statement games for players this year uh that's uh i want that to be my thing with henry it was more about the number for me that i might pick higher just because 65 and a half doesn't seem like a lot.

If it's a game that's going back and forth offensively, the Chiefs do have a good defense. But 65 for a guy like that when they're going to run the ball, she doesn't seem crazy high to me. So I might go higher. But I agree with you on how this game should actually play out. Let's do two on the Chiefs side uh pacheco since they did bring in another running back uh well actually you mentioned pacheco so let's do let's do someone else let's do

rishi rice you love rishi rice you've been big rishi rice uh when you said the guy that i'm in the most on i thought it was going to be him five and a half receptions and 60 and a half yards. That seems to be begging for hire. I think it's okay. Now I'm looking at my exposure, 12.9%. Above market, but not insane. Begging for hire is my Christian rock album. Yes, yes. At least I'm getting the words right more often this week.

I think Elsie, Rice, those numbers look sort of right to me. I mean, Baltimore's defense was so good. The Chiefs won that playoff game, but they were really in tough moving the ball. The Ravens just could not get through the fumble at the one-yard line. So I like sort of the Mahomes narratives. Those are kind of obvious, but I do think they move the ball around a lot, the Chiefs. And that gets me to a point with Rice and Kelsey where I'm not too eager to go higher. I think they're both just kind of okay. The guy I'm going

with is worthy in this game because as a rookie, maybe more people aren't going to be ready to, you know, call on him in this game. Rice is playing no Hollywood Brown, of course, but I do like, you know, worthy as a big play option in this game. So I think I'd go over on his or higher on his yards, not getting it right every time and or a touchdown uh it's three and a half catches for worthy in this game and i think the buzz about him has been legit um so i did that instead of rice uh three and a half receptions for worthy seems very reachable for someone that they've been throwing the ball a ton to it seems in practice uh i yeah i just feel like they're gonna lean heavy on rice still uh rookie is first game a little harder to predict and they love throwing that bubble screen

that quick little slant to rice get them yards after catch he racks up receptions pretty fast especially the second half of last year which i think was really the turning point for their offense in general when they just decided you know we should just throw to this rishi rice guy over and over again let me give you one more and i i want to do this when we ever anytime we look at pickups give you somebody ridiculous carson steel you can go and it's got the little pepper emoji so you can really get a huge payout on this one. You can go higher than 0.5 rushes for Carson Steele, who was their kind of camp darling in Kansas City. Would you go with one carry for Carson Steele? And the scorcher is toward the higher side?

Like if he does it, you win even more than once? Four point three times. So you're really, you're getting in there. Holy cow. For one carry? For one carry for Carson Steele. Oh, man. I wish I had intel on that.

I mean, those are very tempting. They're always those. You know, does somebody get one, whatever it is, one carry. Just takes one. Imagine watching the whole game being like, Carson Steele. I know. Well, you think of the goal line when it comes to the Chiefs and they're always so creative, you know, jump passes and ring around the Rosie and different things. If they trust him,

I mean, good reviews in camp, big guy, like a fullback type. Maybe you get to the one. It's just for me, like if I picture the Chiefs at the one or the two-yard line, Mahomes is throwing the ball to the third-string tight end or just something fun is about to happen, that could mean the rookie, Carson Steele. I mean, I do like underdog plays. I'm not a chalk player. I think this is the fun part. That doesn't always pay great. So I wouldn't want to talk anybody out of throwing that in because it could turn your pick-em into much bigger payout. What I did, I mean, there's a chance.

There's a chance. What I did was a four-way with Jackson higher, as we talked about, Henry lower, as we talked about, Worthy higher, and then also Zay Flowers higher than four and a half because I'm shaping this game where Jackson is having success through the air. And $15 on that pays about $110. So you don't have to get too crazy with these to turn a nice profit. There's, there's a part of me that only wants to do the Carson steel type of picks.

There's, there's so good that there's someone named Charlie Kohler who plays. That's sort of like, if you spelled my name differently. So he, he is, he was a pretty good prospect. Second year tight end for the Ravens. He was a pretty good prospect, second-year tight end for the Ravens.

He was a pretty good prospect as a pass catcher. They've always had these numerous tight ends. Remember, they drafted Hayden Hurst before Lamar Jackson in the first round of that famous draft. Andrews, of course, Isaiah Likely, and Kolar. I haven't heard his name at all this summer, but if he's active, you know, you look for those, those, uh, inactives a couple hours before kickoff. I don't know how long these, these last on the, on the site actually.

But if you were to hear that he were active for the game, I think he's somebody with a little bit of potential. Andrews has not practiced a lot. He had a car accident, uh, but he apparently will be good to go here. I've loved him in drafting this year, but I've always liked the idea of Kolar because I think as a prospect on a team that has multiple tight ends, he's an injury away maybe from being relevant. He just needs to touch the ball once and then you win. So maybe one touch, maybe let him mind. Let's Let's end with this.

You are the fantasy football expert of the show, the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast. People should check it out. Leave us with something. It's week one. Leave people with something of some fantasy advice of how to manage your way, navigate your way

through this National Football League season? Get ready to grind on waivers for running backs. I mean, I think experienced players are sort of used to that, but there are so many injuries at that position. Hopefully, most of the teams you drafted or the team you drafted leaned into wide receiver, players that are much harder to replace. If you lose Jefferson, his replacement is not going to be Jefferson. If you lose Aaron Jones, his replacement could be Aaron Jones, you know, in terms of production. So hopefully you have a team where you've got wide receiver, you've got stars at that position, you shouldn't have any trouble

quarterback tight end finding somebody fine. If that's Josh Allen, great. If it's Jordan Love or Caleb Williams, great. And tight end is much the same. We've covered that. Running back is the tricky one. If you draft a team like that, I know this from experience and we all laugh about it in the industry because this is always what you get in the comments. If you draft a team like that, your running backs are going to look weak. And your running back two is, it might be Tyler Algier. It might be, you know, one of the day three rookies like that might play. I mean, you could look pretty bad there and somebody's going to tell you that online. But you should be able to get away with that.

You can win anyway. And I know this advice is really sort of, we're post-drafts kind of this year, but you can make up, you should be able to make up for that deficiency through waivers. Just figure out the rules. When does it run?

What time? Is it a fab situation where you put bids in? Is it first come, first serve? All kinds of backups. Jordan Mason in San Francisco, who emerged as their number two behind McCaffrey, I'm a little bit worried for the 49ers. You're not going to sit McCaffrey Monday night or Debo Samuel or even Brandon Ayuk just off a holdout. But it seems a little bit shaky to me, the vibes there with all the contract stuff. And McCaffrey had a calf thing.

We don't really know if it was serious at all. Mason is in an unbelievable position if McCaffrey were to be injured. And I told you at the beginning about the waivers in the high-stakes stuff week one, he'll be a big item tonight because a lot of these drafts happened before we thought that he was playing ahead of Mitchell or that Mitchell was hurt in San Fran. So my advice would be, and I'll try to bring up names week to week here with Matt, is be ready to turn over that backup tight end you drafted after you drafted George you know, George Kittle, you don't need them.

So those players flush them for these running backs as you, as you get news. And then you'll feel like, you know, you might have a winning, winning team or I will, I'll feel like you have a winning team. If you do that. Well, my advice was going to be to have a good time, have some fun and use the promo code purple at underdogfantasy.com that's my advice i knew you were going to say that so i went a different direction uh well i'm really looking forward to going through this season with you every week you and i will record wednesday morning preview the thursday night game and uh dive deep into we're going to get into sit or play and then we'll get into pick'ems and all sorts of things

so we're going to have a great time this season so one more next Thursday is Buffalo at Miami oh okay alright that'll be exciting very good alright well thanks for your time Mike and we'll talk to you next week thank you bye