The Ringer NFL Show - Fantasy Sleepers for 2023

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck are back to reveal their sleepers for the upcoming fantasy season and categorize them into various tiers, from overlooked guys in the earlier rounds to the deepest of sleepers (1:44). Finally, the guys close with emails (60:21). Check out our 2023 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to a golf podcast unlike any other. This is Fairway Rowland on the Ringer podcast network. I am your starter. Joe House every week on Fairway Rowland. It is myself and our PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard talking all things, professional golf, amateur golf, amateur betting, professional betting, amateur drinking, professional drinking,

my birdie buddies. If you want to hit them straight out there, please check out Fairway Rowland. Every week, available on Spotify. Football show, my name is Danny Hyfitz. And I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck, and we are updating our rankings this week at fantasy football.com.

That will be up later this week, exact date TBD Thursday-ish. Whenever it comes, we got our top 200 players ranked, downsides, downside to bottom line for all 200 players. You have a draft so you can do a draft, whatever platform you're on, and do our rankings alongside, click players away. If you want to turn cookies on, you can save players throughout all the way up until your draft

so you can leave the site, come back, and all the players that you hit the little bookmark tab on. It'll stay there. You can keep track of sleepers and everything like we're going to talk about today. A bunch of stuff coming at fancyf football.3.com. But today, here on this podcast, we were doing our sleepers. Yeah. This is a banger week for us. We did our guys on Monday.

Now we're doing sleepers. This is red meat. Training camp. It's happening. The season is so close, you guys. Are you guys ready for this, by the way? Hopefully. It's like the premise of the shows.

We're ready. So I'm freaking hope so. So with sleepers, just adjust this up top. It's like, what's a sleeper? And when it was like, I don't know, pre-internet, I feel like it meant one thing. And now there's the internet. And now there's like the weird new internet where Twitter's named X or whatever the

fuck now. So I almost didn't curse for like five minutes. but we're going to just categorize our sleepers basically like bands. We're going to go like mainstream, like, you know, sleepers, like kinds of sleep. We're all the way to like deep. So we're going to like start with like, all right,

don't yell at us at these are two mainstream sleepers. And by the end, it'll be people you hopefully never heard of. So I hope that's a good plan. Tell them the categories, high fits. Well, we got light sleep. Like a light sleep. It's like, all right, you've probably heard of him. But it's a dad nap.

A little dad nap. DK's a dad nap. Not off. A couple glasses of wine after dinner. Food Network's on. Been there. You're on the couch. I saw a video the other day of a dad who was watching his two kids.

They were like painting. He told them to paint him sleeping and he took a nap. That is brilliant. I shared that with Skippy. I said that to Skippy. I'm not kidding. The light sleepers, the dad nap is when you're sleeping upright. Yep.

Yeah. That's what this category is. Like there's a cup on your stomach. It's like your head is just down. Like your chin is on your chest. Yeah, big double chins here. All right. Let's start off with.

a guy who I'm sure a lot of people are not going to think as a sleeper, but if you're just coming back from the summer, you've not been paying attention whatsoever to fantasy football. Anthony Richardson, quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, I think is maybe the best late-round quarterback sleeper of this season. So going into this year, we got him at QB15. The Fantasy Pros consensus is QB18. I think he's much higher when it comes to like underdog and best ball and these types of things.

the sharps probably because people are just like way more plugged into it but basically if he falls in your draft i think he's well worth grabbing in the middle to late rounds just because he has you know that true elite upside um for cheap so at quarterback i think people have kind of caught on that the running thing is important there's not many real true sleepers um but richardson bottom line he could suck at passing he could be really really bad at passing and he could still be, you know, a top five, top three quarterback potentially if he, if he scores enough touchdowns, if he runs enough, which I think he's going to based on the coaching staff that they have with the Colts and based on, you know, just his athletic profile and size and all that stuff.

So, yeah, the running upside is what makes him absolutely ludicrous ceiling. I would just like to say this is a real Ricky Bobby sleeper from D.K. This is like, if you're not first or last, so just go for first. And I would also like to note the last time D.K. really, I mean, last year, we talked a lot about Jailen Hertz. Tray Lance and Justin Fields. But D.K. all the way back in 2019 was like pounding the table for Lamar Jackson, which was a very similar at the time prospect of like,

we don't know what's going to happen here, but if he's good, this is the kind of player that destroys fantasy leagues. And then obviously Lamar was like incredible. So I'm not saying Anthony Richardson's going to do what Lamar did and set the record for rushing yards by a quarterback and only league in passing. Exactly.

That's not going to happen. But, D.K., I guess my question is like, how much of a risk reward is this? obviously the reward is if Anthony Richardson is this incredible Cam Newton's player. But like you're our draft expert here too. You're scouting these guys on tape. How likely is that Anthony Richardson actually steps in and his rookie year is that good? Or competent enough that he can run a lot for fantasy even if he sucks in real life.

Yeah, I was going to say I think the bar for good is really low because I guess the assumption here and really the only gamble is that he is going to be running a lot. I think he's going to be running a lot. If he ends up running a lot, he is almost surely going to be very valuable in fantasy. because at the end of the day, you can be pretty terrible at passing and you still be an elite fantasy quarterback just on the fact that you're running

and scoring touchdown. So just for an example, look at Justin Fields' season from last year among 33 quarterbacks who were passer rating qualified. Fields was 27th in attempts, 26th in yards, 25th in passer rating,

dead last pressure rate, dead last in sacks, 31st in off target throw rate, 16%. Ooh, 16th in past TD, so right in the middle. And that's 16 or he had 17 past touchdowns. That's like not very much.

Essentially won a game. He finished as the QB5 in points per game. And that's because he ran, he was scoring 11 points rushing per game. So everything on top of that is just like a little bonus. And so you really don't have to look much further than last year. Justin Fields was an atrocious passer. I mean, there was definitely some really highlight throws in there. And I think he really flashed the ability Fields did to develop in that area.

but at the end of the day, he was not a good passer last year, like by any metric almost. And so I think that's kind of what you can expect from Anthony Richardson. Like many rookies, most rookies, don't really do that well at passing. And so, you know, basically this is just a bet that he's going to be running on. And with the coaching staff there with Shane Steichen, you know, brought in ostensibly to run,

like what Jalen Hertz has been running the last couple of years in Philly, I think the odds are good that he's going to be running a lot. So I don't know, I just love this pick. It's funny. there used to be, you know, only a few quarterbacks like Anthony Richardson and Justin Fields, right? It was pretty much like, even as little as four or five years ago, it was like Lamar and Cam Newton. And now, it's just going to be very interesting. Five years from now, I wonder how many quarterbacks in the NFL are going to be like Anthony Richardson types and Justin Fields types. And where if like the top 12 quarterbacks you're drafting are just all a spectrum from Jalen Hertz to Anthony Richardson's to Trey Lances.

and that's just kind of the entire ecosystem of quarterback in the top 12 for drafts. Craig, to your point about there's more players like this, like Anthony Richardson, Bill Barnwell and ESPN had an incredible stat earlier this summer about exactly that, this trend of running quarterbacks. So from 1951 to 2001, so 50 years, if you look at like 100, 100 club, like 100 pass attempts, 100 carries in a season, for 50 years, four quarterbacks did that. like ever in a 50 year span. And then even if you look at like 2006 to 2010,

the only quarterback who did that, 100 carries, 100 attempts was Michael Vic. It was just Michael Vic. Like just last season, we had five guys to it. Wow. Five guys had 100 carries and 100 attempts. And like we went 50 years with four people doing that. So it's just,

it's everything we've been saying of like quarterbacks running and it's like a very complicated thing. It's like obviously the nature of the game changing, stealing ideas from college. obviously like a lot of ideas of what the quarterback position looks like, who can play the quarterback position, which is a very loaded thing historically. But we're now seeing it every year and it's almost becoming normal. Quarterback scrambles are extremely valuable when you look at it from an EPA per play point

of view. And a lot of that time is a lot of the reason is because a lot of those scrambles come on like third down. You can scramble for a first time. But just think anecdotally to, okay, say the teams that your team is playing. Like how frustrating is it when everything goes right, running. a quarterback drops back. All the guys are covered.

The pass rush is closing in. And then all of a sudden, the quarterback just like escapes, runs, gets a 20-yard gain first down, like backbreaking. It's just so frustrating. And I think it, you know,

that, of course, bears out in the numbers, the EPA numbers. So having a guy who can do both is, is really important. Obviously, passing is still important. It's going to be important.

But for our purposes, just, you know, guys like Anthony Richardson, we don't know what they're going to do in their career. But this year, I feel like the rushing is going to be there. The NFL finally caught up to Madden.

There was no more frustrating opposition than a running quarterback when your buddy would just send four guys deep and scramble for a first down. I'm already going off on a tangent right here at the beginning of the pod, but you know what I think is amazing? The three big changes to the NFL,

I think, in the last 20 years, which analytics, but really just the three big changes, are like kind of aggressiveness, going front and forth down, where the general concept being keeping the ball is more important than losing field position. Quarterbacks running the ball, right? And then passing. Passing's better than running.

All those things are so fucking obvious to anybody who's ever played madden. Like anybody who's ever played madden, it was so obvious intuitively that like you got to pass overrun. You got to go for a fourth down because you want to keep the ball at the end of each half. And like you should like, dude, run the ball with your quarterback. Like it's great. And it's like incredible how long real life NFL coach. took forever to figure those things out that every nine-year-old knew. I guarantee you Michael Vick was the most popular Madden player for like seven straight years.

Well, it's the 20th anniversary of that because that was Madden O'Four, but that came out in 2003. So we're 20 years old on the Michael Vick Madden. Yeah. That was, yeah, it's true. Have you seen NFL coaches, Hyphitz? Like, is this really that surprising? I'm only half kidding when I say part of the change, I think, is that these, like, Mike McDaniel probably grew up playing Madden.

And so they get it intrinsically on this other level. but to bringing back, I do think this is probably all caused to change the rules of fantasy football, which, you know, we're invented like 70 years ago when this wasn't a thing, but we'll get to that another time.

But to your point, D.K., Anthony Richardson is like a cheat code and it's still one more thing from Bill Barnwell's column, which is incredible. It's why running backs are devalued. But Barnwell had another amazing stat that basically quarterbacks

are taking under 10% of goal line carries even as recently as like 15 years ago and now they're up to over 18. So, like an 80% jump in the percentage of like goal line carries that quarterbacks are taking, which I mean, that's incredible in a very pretty short time period. It's a sea change. I love it. Yes. Quarterbacks are running the ball, man.

Anthony Richardson, I like that. I feel like we really deflated running backs. Do we want to talk about running backs? Do we stick to quarterbacks, though? Let's go to running backs. I want to talk about somebody who I'm back on with. We've had an on-again, off-again relationship, much like him and his head coach. Cam Acres running back on the Los Angeles Rams

Cam Acres has had a bizarre career for somebody who just turned only 24 years old He had a pretty strong rookie season And I remember doing the Flying Coach podcast with Sean McVeigh And he told me he was like Cam Makers is going to be an animal this year Like he's fantastic, I love him I was so excited And then he tore he blew out his Achilles In training camp missed the entire year

Somehow came back The last game of his sophomore season came back looked pretty bad. Then the next year comes. He's still less than a year removed pretty much from his Achilles injury. He splits time with Darrell Henderson. He looks terrible. Him and Sean McVeigh have a falling out.

It looks like he might retire. He might never play a game with the Rams again. He left a team. Left the team for two weeks. Philosophical differences between offensive game plan between Sean McVeigh and Cam Acres, immaturity problems. Then he comes back for the final seven. games of the season when Matt Stafford's hurt, the quarterbacks are Bryce Perkins,

John Walford, and Baker Mayfield. And he's fucking awesome. In weeks 13 to 18, the final six weeks of the season when it was John Walford and Baker Mayfield playing quarterback. He was the RB5 and points for game. He was averaging 17 carries a game for 85 yards. He was averaging one touchdown every game. He handled practically 90% of the carries inside the five yard line.

He was just like a full-on workhorse bell cow, like whatever. thought Cam Acres is going to be, you know, McVeigh loves kind of a three-down back, a Todd Gurley type, and Acres kind of looked like that guy. I mean, all of the kind of minutia stats from last year were fantastic in the final five weeks. His snap share, his route share, he was running a lot of routes, his expected fantasy points. All of them were like top five in the league. And then, you know, we thought, oh, maybe the Rams are going to replace him with somebody

because of him and Shum McVeyer, do they get along. They didn't really do anything because the Rams of so many other holes, they couldn't really spend any money or time. on running back. So he's just kind of there. I mean, they have Zach Evans and Kyron Williams are the players behind him.

And look, assuming Stafford and Cup are healthy, which is a big assumption, but I think Acres is going to smash his ADP. You know, he's kind of going around 50th, 60th right now.

But this guy's super talented. He's two years from this Achilles. He's 24 years old. He looks great. If you watch the final five games of season, he looks awesome. He looks like what everybody wanted him to be. So I think I'm in on Kim Acres.

Even if the Rams suck, I mean, the guy's going to get 20 touches a game and you can get him in the sixth round. It's truly a roller coaster with this guy. I legit thought he was done in the NFL. Of course. I thought his career was over. And it was like good, you know,

it was a good dream that he could be like the next Todd Gurley or whatever. But like, it is very crazy to think that this guy could come in and just like have a ton of volume like you were saying. And that's exactly what it seems like McVeigh wants to do. And he's now a couple of years off of the Achilles. Who knows? And honestly, Karen Williams is not like a challenge. he's not a challenger in terms of like the early down stuff

Karen Williams is more like a past catching guy and then Zach Evans is a complete who knows so he doesn't have a lot of competition either so yeah everything you said just to echo it it's kind of crazy how it's all ended up but yeah he I think people are just kind of like hanging on to the fact he looked really terrible when he came back originally and so maybe which was like five months removed

from an Achilles tear I think Cam Acres is the NFL's George Costanza because it's like that episode where George keeps trying to get George I'm branded are firing. And then every time he tries to get fired, he just gets promoted. It's like, KMaker keeps trying to get cut. And then he just keeps getting promoted. They're like, all right, I want to trade.

And they're like, all right, you stood up to me. I respect that. You get the lead job now. And he's like, I actually am going to retire. They're like, you know what? We're going to run the entire offense through you. They just had no ability to get new running backs because, number one, they didn't have any early picks.

And number two, I don't think they have very much cap room. So if you look at their roster, I know, I've mentioned this a few times on a show, but they have like 50 rookies. Like more than half of their roster is just like undrafted rookies. 90 man roster, 40 rookies. 40 rookies on the 90 men roster for this. The most bizarre roster I've ever seen. And yet I'm actually very excited.

We'll get to a couple other guys on this. While we're on the Rams, should we hit, Cam Acres is like a light sleep. I might have to delve into like the comatose sleepers and do like a late round. This is like a later round. Just talk about the rest of the Rams. Yeah. It's like while we're on the Rams, dude, Tyler Higbee.

Wow. I didn't realize we have three Rams in our sleepers. That's probably not good. Might not be the best idea. Well, here's why. Here's why, though. So basically, it's just you're buying the dip on the Rams. Right.

The Rams, believe it or not, were dead last in yards last year. Like, everything that could have gone wrong for the Rams last year went wrong. Like, how many games did Stafford play? Like, six or something? But he was terrible anyway. So, yeah. Well, he was the elbow injury, the back injury. Two important parts of your body if you're a quarterback.

Horrific. So Stafford's hurt. Cooper Cucson. Cup gets hurt. And even before Cooper Cup got hurt, the offense was horrific. Their offensive line was mangled. So offensive line they had 10 combinations of linemen in 17 games.

Like 10 different so every other week they're teaching a new person how to do a different job. Like that's crazy. It already wasn't a great line anyway. Everything was wrong. And then the Rams this year, they blow it. They're basically like, look, we're going to blow this up. They want to go get Caleb Williams. But they can't straight blow it up

because then Sean McVey will retire. So what they're doing is they're creating like a football fantasy football paradise. They're going to let Sean McVeigh cook with the offense so that he doesn't get bored and retire. They're just detonating the defense. The defense is full of guys

that are indistinguishable. They're Oppenheimering the defense. And so it's kind of like Oppenheimer on defense and Barbie on offense. But like they traded away Jalen Ramsey. They have all these rookies, all these like no-name pass rushers on defense. And so they're going to be the Lions last year.

Remember the Lions last year? They were the Mario Kart Rainbow Strip because the Lions give up the most yards in the NFL. So every game the Lions played, the offense had to pass. they were shootouts. That's how Jamal Williams led the league in rushing touchdowns.

Like because the Rams, sorry, the Lions ended up with the third most yards on offense behind only the Chiefs and Eagles who made the frickin' Super Bowl because the Lions' defense

was so bad. That's the Rams this year. So we're talking about a team that the Rams were dead last in yards last year. They could be pretty easily top 10 this year. And then we're just talking

about players who are downstream of that. And like Cam Acres is, Tyler Higbee is at tight end, like Van Jefferson at receiver. Like all these players are, just kind of like part of this rising tide of like the Rams might be top five in yards

on offense purely because their defense is going to suck on purpose. I am looking at their roster right now. Their defense. Who the fuck are these guys? Who, have you heard of, okay, I'm going to tell me yes or no if you've heard of these players. Two jargons and a lie, Rams defense. Marquis, Copeland. They have two Ernest, Ernest Brown, the fourth and Ernest Jones.

Damn, they went double Ernest. A guy named Russ Yeast, who we've discussed on the podcast before. Russ Yeast. There's a million guys here I've literally like never heard of. And I think there's something like 10 undrafted free agent rookies on this list. Dude, how many guys are you named Ernest these days? How'd you find two of them? No, there's two earnest on this team.

Earnestly, I'm very worried about this defense. But yeah, I think, again, like you said, it's a good rainbow strip. opportunity for a lot of offense. If the offense is good, like, at least they can move in football, you know, and they'll be playing in shootouts. It is like the Seahawks from a couple years ago or the lions from like last year, year before. I'm excited about it.

And by the way, like when you're talking about sleepers, you have to make some assumptions. Like some things have to go right for sleepers to emerge. And if this offense is as good as we think it can be, these are the guys. So, hi, Fittzy, this is your guy. Higbee, right? Yeah, no, I mean, just Higby in general. like I think Higbee and Van Jefferson, like, are these guys that are just downstream of what we're talking about the Rams. And I think that it's just like Cooper Cup and behind those guys, like the Rams have nothing.

It's like, I'm not afraid of Ben Scaronic. And I think Higby's right there. You know, I think, D.K., I think you're a bigger believer in Van Jefferson than me. But I think that's the overall thing is they think the Rams are going to be a much better, more prolific offense than last year. And it's like overall, you're buying a rising tide. Remember how we talked about George Pickens having the quietest 800-yard season of all time? Do you remember that Van Jefferson had an 800-yard season in 2021? I always thought Van was good.

I had no idea. I think, okay, so exactly, Craig. I actually am a weird truther when it comes to Van Jefferson. He came out and he was a little bit old for a prospect, so I think a lot of people sort of wrote him off. But he was a second round pick. Son of an NFL receivers coach, like a really good route runner. He was extremely impressive at the Senior Bowl.

And then he had 800 yards in his second year. And then he tore his knee up and basically didn't play for half of the season last year. But if you look at what he did when he started playing major snaps from week 11 on last year. And again, this is without Cooper Cup. So great and salt, but he led the team in receiving. He had the most receiving yards. He played 92% of snaps.

And this was from week 11 on. And so he and Tyler Higby were the two guys in this office and this past offense that really emerged with Cooper Cup out. And I think, you know, if this is a past every team, those two guys are going to be the beneficiaries of the. And obviously Cooper Cup is going to be the biggest one. But like past that, you can see one of these guys have 800 plus yards. And so that could be like a good solid flex option if you're Jefferson.

And then Higby could be a huge sleeper at Titan Inn. Yeah, I think and those are probably more like closer to like comatose level sleepers. Yeah. But if we go back to Dadnap for a hot second, just like guys closer to like top 60, top 50, Craig. Yeah, Miles Sanders running back formerly on the Eagles is now on the Carolina Panthers. Again, yeah, like you said, he's kind of going in that 50-60 range. I've always thought Miles Sanders was good. He's also had a weird career.

He's kind of never been able to score touchdowns. and that's kind of been his biggest problem. But he was awesome last year. He had 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns. And I think he's always been good, but it's just been hard to tell. Is he good because he's been on the Eagles with that great offensive line

and with Jalen Hertz kind of diverting defenses? Or is he actually just good? I mean, he's basically his career. He averages five yards per carry. And he's now on the Panthers, which are kind of like the mini Eagles, if you look at their coaching staff. Their head coach is Frank Reich,

formerly on the Eagles. Their running backs coach is Deuce Daly, who was the running backs coach when Miles Sanders got drafted in Philly. And the quarterback's coach is Josh McCown, who was formerly on Philly. They signed him to a big deal, Miles Sanders.

Four years, 25 million, which is not nothing, 13 million guaranteed. I think it was the biggest running back contract in free agency. That sounds right.

I believe that's right. Oh, it's close. Him or Montgomery. But look, Frank Reich offenses usually just have one main running back. Jonathan Taylor on the Colts last year, 17 carries a game.

Marlon Mack on the Colts, he gave 17 carries a game before that. The big question here with Miles Sanders is like, is he going to be third down, Is he going to have a three-down roll, or is he just going to be first and second-down guy? And I think he's priced right now

as if he's just a first-and-second-down guy, which to me is fine. Look, on the Eagles, he basically played half the snaps, and he got about 16 touches per game. And he was the RB-13 last year. Well, if you go to the Panthers, after McCaffrey left, it was the Deonté Foreman show on early downs.

And it was basically the same thing as Mal Sanders. They gave him 50% of snaps, around 18 carries a game, and he was good. He had 80 rushing yards a game. Deonti Foreman was good. And so I'm like, all right, So now we have Miles Sanders, who they just gave a $25 million contract to, on the Panthers with Bryce Young, with a good offensive line.

And at the very least, he's going to be what Deonté Foreman was last year, which was the RB21, which is where Miles Sanders is getting drafted right now. If he does get the three-down work, which he's shown he could do, his rookie season, he had 50, he caught 50 passes for 500 yards when Deuce Daly was there. I'm like, look, if this guy gets a third down roll, I think he has a chance to be a top 15 back. I like it a lot. Yeah. And I think there's a chance. I like this one, too. I go back and forth on him just because I'm a little worried this offense is going to stink.

But at the same time. I mean, look at what Foreman did last year on the offense. I know. It's a new coaching staff, though. Yeah. But that, and you think that's a demerit? I see that as a positive. Well, there's just a lot of wildcards because it's a new coaching staff, new offensive,

sorry, new quarterback, rookie quarterback who we've never seen in the NFL. But when I do think back to Bryce Young in college, you know, I think I comped him to to an NBA player whose name I'm completely blanking on now. Jason Kidd. I commented to Jason Kidd because he's like got this insane field vision. He just knows where everyone is at all the time.

And there's also sort of like he does this basketball play where people who have seen him play like will recognize this. He like will run up to the line and then like pass it. Like he's cutting to the cup and like, you know, dishing it off to someone. Did you just call the basket the cup?

Yeah. It's all right. We'll just move on. It's something that people do. That's a common phrase. Just pretend it's an older generational thing and move on. I mean, it is. You've never heard this?

I have heard it. I don't really hear people say that these days. Okay, well, I'm old. I could tell you're a Sonics fan. You're younger than Jason Kidd. That's true. I think it is true, actually. But anyways, he's definitely not 40.

Sportsball. Jason Kidd is 50. Okay, yes, I'm younger. Bryce Young, last year, on a team that didn't have a lot of good receivers. I think his leading receiver was Jemir Gibbs, the running back. So, you know, there is a chance here that they really utilize him more in the past game

than people are expecting as my overarching, long, meandering point. If you consider him in the dead zone, I think he's one of the few dead zone guys that's actually kind of has a safe floor and a relatively decent ceiling. I like it. I've just made too many similar mistakes for me to personally be on board,

but that says more about my baggage. That's fair. The NFL futures are out, and now's the time to get in on the action early this season. And right now, new Fandall sportsbook customers can get a $100 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. I would recommend betting the under win total for the Giants, because they're not going to be as good as last year.

Fandall has tons of different player props like passing yards, touchdowns, rushing, and receiving totals, and more. Also, great team markets like to make the playoffs, win the division, and Super Bowl matchups. And you can parlay together different picks for even bigger payouts. Just sign up at fandle.com slash ringer fantasy and get $100 in bonus bets, guaranteed,

when you place your first $5 bet. There's no better place to get ready for the football season than on Fandul America's number one sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NFL. So don't miss your chance to get $100 in bonus bets. Win or lose when you make your first $5 bet. Go to fandle.com slash ringer fantasy to sign up today. Must be 21 plus and present in select states.

Gambling problem called 1-800 gambler or visit the ringer.com slash RG. First online real money wager only, $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-mustrable bonus bets which expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. C terms at sportsbook.

Fendell.com. I think we can get to like maybe I think it's time for Normie sleepers. These guys are like REM. These guys are what I would say as traditional sleepers. Go to eight hours. Yeah.

It's like Sanders and acres. We have kind of high up. We have them as like top 60 players. Normie, all right. You want to run it back? Gabe Davis, baby. Gabe Davis.

Bill's receiver. Gabe Dave. We still doing this? How long are we doing the Gabe Dave thing? I think Gabe Dave is the classic post type sleeper. He's literally like the classic post type sleeper. No, it's just the post. It's just the post type sleeper.

It just felt like a long time because he was really bad last year. But Gabe Davis, he was hurt. He was hurt. And like, look, at the end of the day... I think he's post post. I think it was his rookie year we liked. And then we were like, oh, no, no, no. He said two bad years back to back.

No, he blew up after the Chiefs Bill's 13 second game in the playoffs when he had four touchdowns. Yeah. And that was somehow technically 2022. And then we spent all of the year, the all off season. and talking about Gabe David, we're like, well, we know that won't happen again, but in our minds we're like,

but what if it did? And then guess what? He didn't meet our expectations. Yeah, I think he is a post-type sleeper. I think that's the right way of framing it. He had eight, games under eight points last year, and they had four games over 14.

So it was kind of a disaster. If you had him, you hated him. That game was in 2021, the game that he had 200 yards and four touchdowns, 2021. 2021 season or the 2020? 2020- 2021 calendar year.

It was in the playoffs. It's January 21. Wow, well, I'm bad with, time. And then last year was 2022. This year's 2023. What are we talking about here? Am I crazy? It was two and a half years ago that game. No. He went off at the end

of the 20. Oh yeah, you're right. Shit. Is it really? Yes. He's a post post type sleeper. Oh my God. No, I'm looking at it right now. Bill's Chiefs was, that was January of 2022. It was the 2021 season, but the playoffs are in

the next year. It's 2021 season. What is time really other than a construct. Oh, right. 2021 season, 2022 year. I think that, you know what the best podcast content is?

Is arguing about what year is. Okay, so just to be clear, because if I'm wondering, I imagine everyone listening is. Craig is gaslighting us right now. I just got gaslighted by math. You know what I think?

I think sports seasons should not pass the calendar year. I think they should all stay within the same calendar year. The only one that does that is baseball. Yes. And other smaller. sports, but yes. Oh, yeah, NBA, the insufferable, like, 20, 21 season. Like, come on with that shit.

It's terrible. But everyone, all right, whatever. The NFL does that now is because they're going to add a game. It's because it's been like two, maybe three weeks sometimes. They should start earlier. Start August. High fits, this reminds me of like, you know, we have very strong, very good editors that I'm very grateful for.

But, like, I remember a couple times where I'm like, you know, in the 20, in the playoffs of the 21 season. And then, like, they would have to change it because it was technically in 2021. You have to say 21, 22. Yeah, it's terrible. You just say in January 2020, all right. Should I do whatever? In January of 2022 in the playoffs,

Gabe Davis had four fucking touchdowns. It's fucking confusing, man. And then we spent all off season in 2022 being like, well, in this upcoming season, which is also in 2022, what if he's really good? And I am here to say the whole, what has actually changed, though, about Gabe Davis other than our expectations? They were too high entering last season. I kind of think they're too low now because at the end of the day,

he's the deep threat for Josh Allen. And I'm like, it's inherently volatile. He was underwhelming last year, but he was dealing with an injury. Yes, his hands, I would prefer if he could catch footballs consistently. But you know what? Life can't be perfect. But I kind of look at this. I'm like, the bill's offensive line should be better.

Dalton Kincaid is at tight end. We'll see how effective he is immediately. But I think if more underneath options should only be better for Gabe Davis, like hitting, like striking lightning on those deep shots. And I kind of just look and I'm like, Gabe Davis is a top 60, top 50-ish player last year was too rich. You can get him outside the top 100 now. We've got him our wide receiver 40.

He's our overall 97th player. That's totally reasonable for a guy that you're like, he could be, you know, someone who could be like, you know, maybe your fifth receiver. You can get him even later than that. And so if you're getting a guy outside the top 100, like Gabe Davis, that's exactly where I want to like take a gamble on the guy. So I think it's like the definition of a post-lip sleeper. Yeah, I like this.

I actually do like this. I think the team still likes him. I think he's going to retain his role as like that big play outside deep threat guy. You know, Kincai's not going to be that guy. They signed Deonté Hardy who's literally like five, six. Khalil Shakur, I think, is more of a slot type option. Who else do they got?

They got Justin Shorty was a fifth round pick. And I can't think of anyone else. Trent Sherfield, who I think is also like a slot guy. I don't know. Like they've just, to me, Gabe Davis is kind of locked into his role. Yeah. it's a contract year. And if he's healthy, that's huge.

He's kind of like the Mike Williams of the team where you're like, he can have big, big blow-up games, but when you actually look at his stat line throughout the year, he has a lot of like two catches for 33 yards. Yeah. Do you guys ever throw, like, a phone at someone?

Or not throw a phone at someone. But you're ever in a situation, tossing some of your keys, tossing something. You know, you're going to show him a meme. You're showing something of your phone. You're showing someone you tossing your keys, whatever. And like someone, as soon as they happen,

like, oh my God. though they weren't, they don't like to have things tossed at them. It's like the George Michael, like flinch, George Michael on the turn. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I will say Gabe Dave has those vibes where it's like he's great at everything about being a receiver except like the catching part. We still doing that? Yeah. I just picture it's like throwing like a broom to him or something. It just turns it back. It just hits him in the backs.

Other than that is wonderful. God, that show is good. Yeah, catching's important. But I think you can. There's no Cadarious, Tony, but... Oh, for crying out loud. Yeah, Tony hurt his meniscus. It came out. So that's not great. Fielding a punt before...

Fielding a punt before players came out for practice. Cool. I feel like he's not going to play. He's not playing this year. I'm out. He was out there early, getting in reps. He's dedicated. So if Travis Kelsey is the number one guy in Kansas City,

what's like the sleeper stat? Like, who... Sky Moore? Yeah. I think I'm on Skymore next. This is a guy who they picked in the second. second round, came in, and as many rookies do for the chiefs, like, didn't really do a whole lot his first season. He was just trying to learn the system, trying to learn.

And he was never really, like, a super refined guy. He was more of an athlete trying to learn to play receiver type of deal. But I think, you know, based on everything we've heard this offseason, they've really liked his progress, being in the right place at the right time. And famously, his touchdown in the Super Bowl was he and Tony lined up in the wrong spots, but he just was the benefit of that. God, can you imagine if that was Tony's? No, it was Tony's.

It was supposed to be Tony's, but they lined up in the wrong spot. They lined up on the opposite sides of the field anyway. But yeah, to me, like, he is probably the next option in that offense if Tony is going the way that we think he's going. I mean, somebody, we always joke, you know, somebody's got to catch passes.

Who the hell is going to catch passes on the Chiefs? If Tony's hurt, we have MVS, which is Marquez Valdez Gantling, who's 29 years old and has never had more than 600 yards in a season. Skymore, Justin Watson, Richie James and Rashi Rice.

Richie James, by the way, getting tons of hype in training camp. Why? Because he's like on the field? Yeah. Play? Can I give two possible

alternatives for the Chiefs? Yes. Richie James. Option one. Who emerges by Kelsey? Nobody. It's just Kelsey. 2,000 yards.

But nobody did last year. did last year. And Patrick Holmes led the league in passing yards. No, but I'm saying there was nobody last year. And if you look back, Juju had like eight, nine hundred yards and they had McCull Hardman. And now both of them are gone. So it's going to be nobody again, minus the two of them. Somebody quite literally has to catch the 48 touchdown. So I, I think an underrated person, I'd shout out to Scott Barrett of fantasy points who's been on this train for, dude, Justin Ross. Just quick download on Justin Ross. This is a comotist.

sleeper. He was a receiver at Clemson. He was a pretty solid prospect. Six, four, two hundred and five pounds. He was the leading receiver for the Clemsonston team that won the national championship of Trevor Lawrence. As a true freshman. As a true freshman, he had a thousand yards and nine touchdowns. T. Higgins was on that team. Yeah. T. Higgins and Hunter Renfro were on that team. And Justin Ross was like better than them. And so, but he was a freshman, by the way. So Justin Ross, but then they found out that he had this spinal condition. And they didn't find it until he like 20-20. And so they know if he could even play football. So then he doesn't get drafted because of this. He ends up having

to get this like surgery and then he also breaks his foot. So medically he's a mess. He basically just redshirted like a medical red shirt for the chiefs last year. But this is a pretty talented dude. And he's now taking first team reps with the chiefs. I don't even know if you need to draft him. He's more like if he's good like pick him up on waivers. Very end. He's been name checked by Patrick Bahams a couple times in soft season. Not that that necessarily means anything, but he's like in there. He's in the mix for sure. Dude who didn't get drafted because of a spinal injury. better bet to be on the field than Cadarious Tony. Like, I wonder if just like the last three rounds of your draft,

you should just draft three chief swive receivers and just one of them will be good. Right. But then you're getting like one probably flex guy. Like is the upside there? I'm saying with the idea that one will take off and find an established role. Yeah, yeah.

Like if you just draft Justin Ross and Richie James and Cadarius Tony, one of them's got a way. right foolproof what if his or she rice get him too there you go who else we got i want to talk about jerry judy who's another guy who's kind of just plagued people for season after season here but you know i everyone the thing on jerry judy is like he's so talented route running separation the thing about that is it's all still very true grand barfield had a tweet Jerry Judy was the second wide receiver in the NFL and man coverage

on receiving yards per route run last year. Like when he's on man, he just shakes people and is good still. And Russell Wilson was terrible. And I saw a stat on FantasyPoint.com for the first 10 weeks of the year last year, Judy saw the third lowest rate of catchable targets among all qualified receivers,

the third lowest rate. He was behind only Marvin Jones and our guy, Kyle Pitts, baby. Which basically just goes to, show you that he was working with nothing. And look, it got better. Russell Wilson wasn't as bad as the year it went on. And Judy got better with him. He was the wide receiver eight and fantasy points per game in the last six weeks of the season, which I feel like people don't really talk about. He had 900 yards last year. Jerry Judy, like the quietest 900 yards ever. Seriously. He was 28 yards away from 1,000 yards last year. I feel like... Is it quiet if all the receivers

are bitching about Russell Wilson? Quiet, quiet on the fantasy rosters. So look, this is like a Sean Payton bet. This is a... Russell Wilson is going to improve bet. He's, I feel like we did this last year, and he's another post-type sleeper just like Gabe Dave. I'm into this. I'm still a believer in him somehow after all these years. And I also think Russell Wilson's going to be much better this year. I think that Jerry Judy, I would separate him in Gabe Dave, only because at Gabe Dave is going like 50 spots later.

But I think the difference is that Jerry Judy is on the short, short list of receivers kind of like two years ago, where a receiver kind of going that. like 40s, 50s, like a true mid-range receiver that could actually be like top 12 at the end of the year. And there's very short list of guys who can do that and he's one. Gabe Davis is like a true number two. I mean, Jerry Judy has the possibility

to actually like be a real number one on the team. Yes. If you can get a number one receiver and a Sean Payton offense in the 70th at the 70th pick, you know. On that note, I want to stick with the Broncos for a hot second. Dude, my great, terrible running back

obsession this year, who's probably going to disappoint everyone, but I will love, captured my heart already. The Samajai P. Ryan going back to the Broncos. The Mike Davis goes to Samajia P. Ryan this year. He's actually pretty similar. I'll be abundantly clear. To Mike Davis. So maybe this is it.

I will make sure to contextualize my love for P. Ryan, which is he's going outside the top 100. And in terms of a player going outside the top 100, this is my freaking guy. And I'm saying don't reach 30 spots for Samajee P. Ryan. However, he is probably, Samajie Pern is my single favorite player going outside the top 100. Because it's like he was the backup to Joe Mixon last year for the Bengals. played like 10 quarters. He was better than Joe Mixon, straight up. Like, Samaji Piran came in and people were wondering if Joe Mixon was secretly injured because he was so much, Pryan is so much better than Mixon.

And then he signed with the Broncos. The Bengals wanted P.R.N. signed with the Broncos because Sean Payton called him and said, P. P. Ryan told him he was like waffling. And Sean Payton was like, have you seen how I use running backs? Why would you play? Why would you sign somewhere else? Like, we're going to use you. And so that's the thing.

Basically, my short answer is I think P. P. Rine's being drafted as floor. He's being drafted as like, like he's going to. get the short side of the platoon with Giovante Williams. And that's where you're taking him is as if you're getting the short side of a platoon with Giovante Williams. In poker, this is what they call you have a lot of outs, a lot of different ways to win a hand.

P. Ryan can deliver totally on his value, even if Javante Williams plays every, all 17 games, if P. Ryan's just getting like passing down work as like the Kirkland brand Alvin Camara. But there's also a world where Javanti Williams coming off a devastating multi-ligament injury is not ready to play the beginning of the same. season or suffers another injury at some point in the middle, in which case, dude, P. Ryan has the bulk to be a goal line back. He's the skill set to be like a passing down. He can pass. He's smooth, the route runner. He can catch his soft hands. He can block. He's the kind of guy that

coach is like, which is why Peyton recruited him. I just kind of think there's a ton of ways that P. Ryan is like a really high upside flex that you put in your lineup each week. But also if Giovante Williams gets hurt, which again, he's basically had like a JK Dobbins injury last year. P-Rine's the kind of guy that could just like, you know, again, discount Jerich McKinn did at the end of the year. I'm not saying he's on the chiefs, but like I just, I just, P-Rine to me is like the epitome of there's a,

like, like you're getting him at his basement value, but there's all these different ways they could be valuable. Not a lot of downside here. By the way, Russell Wilson last year, he's at the stage in his career, I think,

where he's just like, I don't want to get hit anymore. And he had a 23% pass rate to running, backs last year, which I would bet was like his career high by a lot. And it was fifth most in the NFL. Like he was just dumping it off to running backs. And maybe that was partly due to the offense just being terrible. But it would out surprise me again that that he like looks to just get the ball out.

Like they, I think Sean Payton is going to instill in him like don't take sacks. Don't try and scrim around. Don't try and do too much. We're going to run the offense. We're going to do. We're going to use our run game. We're going to do play action. But also just like get the ball out.

get the ball to your guys. That's what he did, obviously, with Drew Brees late in his career. So I don't know. Like you said, there's a lot of ways that you can win this hand still. And if Wilson continues to like pass to his running backs a lot, like there's a lot of upside there.

Yeah, I think this is a strong pick. I don't have a lot of notes on this, to be honest. I think this is, makes a lot of sense. Do you get another guy? I want to talk about Evan Ingram really quickly. I think to me he's just a little bit underrated

going into the season because he has a reputation that he developed over the first couple of years. years of his career as like a guy who drops ball all the time literally dropping the ball this might be this might be a dad nap sleeper yeah maybe that's possible um and i we don't have to dive deep into it but it did seem like they kind of like discovered how to use him correctly and how he could really thrive later in the season um and i just think there's a chance that they're really build on this you just got a new extension big money deal i don't know to me evan ingram when you when you're talking about like some of the the i guess like second or third tier tight

ends. If you're, if you're missing out on the Kelsey's, the Hawkinsonsons of the world, the Andrews of the world, like, he's the guy I'm looking at because I think he could end of being a big part of their passing game and really like develop in terms of like dumpoffs and yards after the catch, which is really what he was doing towards the end of last season. So I think they really figured it out. They kind of like dialed in how to use him. And I think he could really build on that this next year. Evan Agram was an infuriating player to watch for the Giants. And I personally blame him for the losing Thursday football game to the Eagle.

that scarred me. This is the one where Daniel Jones fell down, running straight up. God, the Giants would have won that game. But no, it's, you know,

this is some hardcore cutting analysis, but Doug Peterson, coach of the Jaguars, perhaps may be a better offensive mind than Jason Garrett when he was running the Giants offense or Pat Schumer. So, right.

Yeah, I think you're dead on D.K. when you talk about the Jaguars, just not to use Angerman. Like, we were saying, earlier this week, pay don't pray.

Like, I think tight in a quarter, back especially but tight end it's like you pay for kelsey you pay for mark andrews so you don't have to pray you find a guy evan ingram's like the last it's like the last exit before you have to like cross a bridge you know what i mean it's like yeah this is the last chance where you can like you know maybe it's a bad example at the toll but you can pay for evan ingram and if you go past this you you will be praying that you find a tight end or else he had streaming one every week he had 98 targets last year and i think that number could in in theory go up this year i know that they got calvin rudley

in the mix now. But yeah, I think that's the only fear. But they're not, like, they're not going to be cannibalizing each other's, like, routes and, and the style of plays that they're doing. Because he's more,

like, short intermediate. Yeah, if anything, it's going to hurt. It's definitely hurt Zay Jones, obviously, but it would hurt Christian Kirk, probably more than Ingram. Yeah. The Jaguars have a really weird thing

where they had three different, three different players of the best year of their career, receiving wise, and every, like, catches yards and touchdowns. There are three players. Yeah. Which is kind of...

Says a lot about Trevor Lawrence, I feel like. Yeah, it does. You just never, that's just the kind of stat you never, you never hear that. Speaking of things, you never hear a lot. Things from Aaron Rogers. Says a lot of things I've never heard before. But my thing with Aaron Rogers this year, very brief sleeper with Rogers.

As you know, he's in the New York Jets. Very simple pitch. Aaron Rogers every year has been healthy has been a top 10 quarterback in fantasy football. Like if he hasn't been injured, he's been a top 10 quarterback every single year. Right now, Aaron Rogers being drafted as like the 16. or 17th quarterback off the board. So a guy that's never been outside the top 10 when healthy is going 16th through 17th. Again, like P. Ryan, Aaron Rogers is being drafted at his floor.

His ceiling is pissed off Rogers goes nuclear. I'm not even saying that has to happen. I'm saying you're getting Air Rogers at his floor. And if you're not willing to pay for Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hertz or Josh Allen or even pay for, you know, Justin Fields of Lamarborough, if you have to pray that a quarterback goes off, I think Rogers is a pretty freaking good one, especially if you're in a two quarterback league, but it's like you can wait 80 spots and get Aaron Rogers and kind of just everything he does above average, literally, because he's the 16th, 17th quarterback, anything he does above average is gravy.

But I personally think Rogers is really underrated right now because the thumb injury at his throwing hand. Anyone who's ever throwing a football knows that you need your thumb to throw a freaking football. He had a broken thumb all season. So it's like, I'm kind of like, yeah. I personally think Rogers is going to be like Brady with the bucks, which no one remembers. But people thought Brady was freaking done in 2019 with the Patriots. I think that was Rogers last year. So I think Rogers is like the perfect upside backup quarterback.

The drumbeat of hype coming out of Jets camp already is starting to chip away at my anti-Rogers stance. I will admit that. You knew, though. You knew that was going to happen. He was just going to have hype through the roof in the offseason. I mean, at the end, at the very least, it's good that they're like looking really strong and looking really sharp versus being a complete disaster. So I'm starting to soften my stance. We talked about Garrett Wilson yesterday.

Like I'm starting to get more excited about Garrett Wilson because I think Rogers is pretty dialed in. It sounds like they're on the same page in training camp, which is, of course, better than not being on the same page. It doesn't mean a ton, but it means maybe a little bit. And so, yeah, I'm starting to get worn down on my anti-Rogers stance, and I think I agree with here, here, high fits. Another guy I like here who you can get right around 100th in drafts

is Jahan Dotson, second year wide receiver on the commanders. He breaks my one cardinal rule, one of my memento tattoos, which is don't draft guys with shitty quarterbacks. But if we're in sleeper territory and we're just throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks,

I genuinely think he's one of the better receivers in the league and he just super passes the eye test. Last year he started, remember how hot he started last year? He had four touchdowns and four games. And everyone's like, Jesus. This guy just had that natural body control that he was just coming down with balls on the sidelines.

He was like immediately a threat in the red zone. hurt. But then when he came back, like the last five games of the season, he was just like kind of not better than Terry McCloran, but was like pretty much right on his level. He out targeted him. His expected fantasy points were higher. He had a better yards per route run than Terry McLaren. It was more of a 1A, 1B than it was like a 1 and a 2. And the guy just has a natural ability to catch touchdowns. You know, he's basically like in the top 10 as a redstone threat in terms of market share last year. So look, Eric Be enemy, the former OC, the Chiefs, is now in Washington.

The quarterbacks are Sam Howell, who's a second year player to North Carolina, and they have Jacoby Preset as the backup. Is that really that worse than anything they've seen the last three or four years? No. So I'm like, look, if Deshaun Jot, you know, usually between year one and year two is when these rod receivers make a leap. So around 100, Dotson, who, you know, immediately looks like a strong red zone threat and somebody who could maybe steal a little bit of McLaurin's work,

I love Jehan Dotson. As a Giants fan, Dotson is the kind of guy I'm pissed that Washington has Jehan Dotson. He's just one of those guys that just makes plays happen. He's under the radar good.

I totally agree. People forget he was the 16th pick overall. He was a first round pick. He's a really good player. Dotson's the first rookie to catch seven touchdowns in fewer than 14 games since O'Dell Beckham Jr.

Like, so he, not only the, as you mentioned, Craig, four touchdowns in his first month. The final month he played, played, to your point about him playing better, John Dotson had the seventh best yards per route run among all receivers in the final month of this evening. Not rookies, like, all receivers.

And yards per route run is like the best statistic we have for measuring quality of receiver play. Seventh and yards per route run. And he just plays like DeAndre Hopkins. He's baby DeAndre Hopkins. He's 5 foot 11, but he plays like he's 6 foot 4. And he also just plays faster than his 40 time. Like, I, he's awesome.

I love this pick. I want to piggyback. I also like this pick. I want to piggyback on this one and throw out one more Super Sleeper, and that's Sam Howell. Like if Sam Howell, what if Sam Howell, number one is a better passer than anyone's giving him credit for? That's great for- Sneaky Runner. Sneaky Runner. That's what I was going to get to is like he has.

So basically when I remember, when I think about him in college, he was either chucking it deep or taken off and running. And like, to me, that's potential for fantasy gold because he's going to be scrambling a ton. They're not going to ask him to do too much. I would assume Eric Bienemy is going to come in here and not try and put too much on his plate in terms of like going through progressions and all that. Like they're going to use him, utilize him in the rushing game a little bit. Let him scramble around. Let him try to make plays. And again, that could like really translate to fantasy because he's an aggressive downfield throw who also really likes to scramble.

And so number one, that could be good for guys like John Dotson, Terry McLaren. Like they could be a little bit better than people are thinking. And I think that Bienemy is also a big wild card here. Like, you know, what if they do bring in? obviously we always talk about like, oh, they're going to bring in the chief's offense. But what if they bring in a style where they're going uptemple a lot? You know, they're spreading things out. There's just a chance that this commander's offense is going to be at least more exciting for fantasy than people are giving them credit.

They're not going to be just like a slog, slow, crappy offense. And like in theory. Yeah. And the BNemi thing, it's almost underrated because there's been so many things around Washington with Dan Snedder selling the team and everything, which we somehow didn't hit. But like many thoughts on that. But B. Enemy took this job because obviously for a long time, Eric, Bionemy is the offensive quarter to the chiefs and all these other chiefs guys got jobs. And basically, you know, Eric B. Enemy being black, not getting a head coaching opportunity,

kind of became like the face of the lack of diversity and NFL hiring processes. And it just was this giant thing. Reading the T leaves here, the reason Eric Bionami, he didn't get fired by any read or anything, Andy Reid let Eric B. Enemy take a lateral job with Washington with the context being, when the ownership group changes and the new owners come in who don't owe Ron and Rivera anything, Eric Bienemy's best chance of getting a head coaching job Andy Reid Bionemy

everyone kind of agreed was crushing this season them firing Ron Rivera and just being like why don't we just promote Eric Bienemy because he did such a good job at this offense so Eric Bienemy

like he chose his spot like Eric Biener was like if I make this offense good this is my best chance at head coaching gig I'm not going to say that they're going to be a good offense but they have a lot of good skill players

Terry McLaren Jahan Dotson I think Curtis Samuel is always underrated. He does get hurt a lot, but he's a pretty good player, pretty good skill player. They have Brian Robinson, Antonio Gibson. I do like Chris Rodriguez. Logan Thomas was a really high volume guy at one point. Like, they have some skill players here. And so, I don't know, man.

Like, there's a chance this team could be kind of a hidden gem when it comes to, like, fantasy points. I can already see a first take where Sam Howell, like, beats the Chargers on Monday night football. And it's going to be like, listen, after his junior. year, he was going to be a top two pick in the draft. And then he lost a lot of NFL caliber players. And then he had a bad senior year. But we all knew he had the skills. We all knew he had the arm talent.

We all knew he had the leg talent. I'm not surprised to see Sam Howell doing what he's doing. I think, yeah, Sam, again, they're going to move the part. He's short. He's short king. So, like, they're going to move the pocket. Is he short? How short is Sam Howell?

Is he like 6-1, 6-2? He's not tall. He's 6-1. He's listed at 6-1. Yeah. 6-005, so 6.5. He ran for 828 yards in 2021 in North Carolina. Yeah, dude, I'm telling you,

is chuck it or run. Literally, that was the offense. Probably bad news for Antonio Gibson, the checkdown. Possibly, yeah. All right. Last thing, I just like Jordan Love. I think Jordan Love's going to be good,

and it's, I, like you, have no idea how good Jordan Love is going to be. I would just like to say, sitting is underrated for quarterbacks. So many of the great quarterbacks have freaking sat. And the only reason quarterbacks have been thrown into the NFL Woodchipper early is for like contractual structural systems of how salary caps finance. There's nothing new with what coaches think quarter.

Every coach, if the salary cap didn't exist, would let quarterback sit for a year. And so I'm not saying he's as good as Aaron Rogers from Holmes. But Aaron Rogers came out in 2008. First year as a starter. Obviously, he also sat for a few years like Jordan Love. He was the number two quarterback in fantasy that year. Patrick Mahomes, 2018, comes out number one quarterback in fantasy. fantasy. He sat for a whole year. I'm not saying Jordan Loves as good as Mahomes or Rogers.

What I am saying is, that's what you're saying. No, what I'm saying is we have seen dudes sit and then come out and we think of them like rookies because we don't know what they're going to be and they're not like rookies at all. They set the league on fire. We've seen that happen. What if he's like a Gino Smith light? Like he's just been sitting behind the, behind the scenes, developing, learning the offense, like getting it down on Pat and then comes in and is like actually able to run the offense really well. All I'm saying with Jordan Love is if that's the case, I'd rather that happen with him on my bench than on waivers. I don't want to happen. You know what I mean? I don't want Jordan Love to look good. And I could have drafted him in the last

round. And instead, I took like, I don't know, Khalil Shakir from the Bills, which high upside guy, I don't know. But like, you could, like, there's a lot of like flotsam floating around the end of drafts with your last pick. I would just take Jordan Love and just see what happens. And if he sucks, you can cut him. But just in case he's good. I want to believe with Jordan loves. But didn't the CEO, uh, um, Mark, whatever his name is. I'm blanking on namesday. Yeah, Mark Murphy.

He came out, I think, yesterday and said, yeah, we're going to really need the defense to step up early in the season. Well, I think it's smart. It's like you want to hype down. Set expectations. Like the Yankees were idiots because they called up Anthony Volpe as the shortstop this year and they talked about him like he was Jesus Christ and Derek Jeter had a baby. And it's like, guess what he's 23 years old?

What are you doing? That's like what James Gunn did for the Flash movie and David Zazelof at Warner brothers. They were like, this is the great. The latest superhero movie we've ever seen. Well, at least they have to sell tickets. The Packers have people are having babies delivered and calling for season tickets to the Packers. Like, it's fine.

The Packers are a very interesting offense, though, because if you look at who Jordan Love is going to be passing to, and maybe, like, honestly, maybe this is a good thing in terms of, like, he was throwing a lot to these guys last year and training camp and stuff with Romeo Dubs, Christian Watson. And then now we've got rookies and Jane Reed and Luke Musgrave, who are projected starters. Like this is an extremely young skill player group, particularly at the past catchers. And so I think that to me is a little bit of worry too that like they're all going to be kind of learning together. But at the end of the day, I am with you. I think him sitting for so long is definitely beneficial for him, especially for the type of prospect he was. And so, you know, if he comes in and just runs Matt LaFleur's offense, by the way, if Matt Lleflur makes Jordan love a star, like Matt LaFleur is going to go down as like the greatest coach of all time.

He's already like got the best record over the first how many many years. years that he's been coaching now. Like if he goes and just transitions right to Jordan Love, like this guy's going to, his reputation is going to be through the roof. Greatest of all times a little much, but I agree. I'm just, well, I'm Dean. That's hyperbolic, of course. But like, what's his record?

What's, what's Matt LaFleur's record so far? It's got to be like 45 and 10. Yeah. Does not have, I mean, started 13 and 3, three years in a row, two years in a row, which is pretty crazy. His record right now as a coach is 47 and 19, 71. 1% win percentage. And they deal that building an offense that he kind of had to build it with Rogers

and Rogers do some things, but not certainty to do everything. Jordan Love's not going to have opinions. Jordan Love's going to do whatever Matt Lefford tells him to do. And I'm not saying that Jordan Love is better than Aaron Rogers. What I'm saying is that the Packers offense might be better with Jordan Love this year than with Roger's because Jordan Love having sat being able to execute one cohesive vision for Matt Lafleur might be better than an injured Aaron Rogers with a broken thumb trying to pull two different visions of an offense.

with Rogers way and LaFleur's way. And it's like Rogers wanting his way but not being able to execute it. I actually think Jordan Love might be better this year than Rogers was last year. This is exactly why I brought up Gino Smith, Heifitz, because everyone was like, oh, the Seahawks lost Russell Wilson. They're going to Geno Smith. Their offense is going to suck, blah, blah, blah. They're going to go and be the first overall pick because they're going to not win any games.

And then Gino Smith comes in and actually runs the offense. Like Russell Wilson runs the Russell Wilson offense. Gino Smith came in and ran the Shane Waldron offense, which is related in at least in some ways to what Matt Lafleur runs for the Packers. And so I don't know. To me, that's why I thought of Gino Smith is because if he just comes in

and runs his offense pretty efficiently, this offense could be really good. So I don't know. But to me, that's a big leap just because they have so many young guys. And I'm sure they're going to focus on the running game a lot. They have two good running backs

that are really young receiving core. It's a good dart throw. But, I mean, best case scenario, he's like, Kurt Cousins. And that's pretty good. I'll see. I'll just draft Kurt Cousins. Did you guys,

did you guys see how Kurt Cousins, where is those like, or like, use like brain scanners to like clear his head on that quarterback show on Netflix? I love Kirk Cousins. Did you see that? I would, yeah,

I actually did not. I watched the first one who was talking about how much he loved Coles Cash. I use brain scanners sometimes at night. It's called whiskey. And I, and I just sit there and I relax. What is it?

What does the brain scanner do, Craig? It's like brain training. He watches videos with these like, you know, things on his head. And like the video will go like black every like three seconds. And it like keeps his brain alert. And he says it clears his head. And he said he played great last year because he did it more. Good God.

This reminds me of what it's always sunny when they're like, yeah, it's like you burn the trash. And then it goes up in the sky and it becomes stars. And you're like, you know, I don't know enough about that to disprove you. It sounds wrong, but I can't. I don't know why. Right. So yeah, you know, maybe that's why Kirk had a good year. I guess he stops using them in the playoffs.

I don't know. They're not as effective in the cold. He should just play with them on. I don't know. To be completely serious, like there's a lot of new technology that I don't. I think sounds stupid, but then it actually does work. Yeah, sure. Anything with like brain, like neurofeedback stuff always sounds like really wonky, but, you know, who knows?

Yeah. We should sell these. Let's try them. Email ringer fantasy football. football at gmail.com, if you have like a brain scan company and want to like buy ad inventory on this show. We should see if it makes the pods better. That would be kind of fun. Oh, let's do this. Test them out. All right. Well, on that note, emails. We got an email from Zach saying, Zach. Zach. Zach. Zach. Zach. Again, getting saying's wrong at the worst possible time.

The hiring manager at my last company was doing an orientation with a new hire. He was talking about the uniform policy, what you can do where to work. And we'll talk about the policy. The hiring manager said, don't just freeball it, thinking that meant you could wear whatever you want. But this person who has like HR responsibilities. And then he had to sit down with the owner of the company who explained him that the owner of the company is like, so here's what freeballing means. Remember when we were in high school and we thought freeballing was the funniest term? No.

Because we were in high school like 15 years apart. Right. What was your guys as funniest term then? We had the internet. So like it was more like the urban dictionary existed. we truly Urban Dictionary We did grow up

on different planets It's actually like Shocking to me You didn't get a phone Until college When you were When you were little kids? What the fuck?

When did you go to high school? Did you go to high school In the early 2000s? My freshman year I think it was like 97 So I didn't have a cell phone Until college really Cell phones were around

A little in high school But people in my high school You'd have to like call their house When you went to college You used a pay phone to call your parents. Yeah. There's a line in a hot tub time machine

where he's like, wait, so how am I supposed to find you? I'm just supposed to like go. It sounds exhausting. Like this was like what we lived. If you go back to like the 70s through the 90s and think about how people got things done,

I, this is why I think we're in a simulation because I'm like, there's no way people actually live that way. Like that, there's no way that happened. We're like, you just had a map in your hand

and you're like, I'm going to go to Utah. Go exploring. Yeah. I guess I'll figure out We grew up on different fucking planets. This is some real parent shit where like we're, because Craig,

you had a great one where everyone's parent like has an athlete or four where they just get their names wrong. Like, you know, even Steelers fan, dad had been rooting for 20, like for 50 years their whole life, but can't get Rathusberger right?

It's like the other parent thing that our parents generation does is that when you're going somewhere, they insist on telling you, okay, so you got to take to 60 and you got to get off at exit 24, you know, and I'm like, mom,

I'm just going to follow Google Maps. And I'm going to, to do exactly what Google Maps tells me and I will arrive faster than your stupid shortcut. If I go to the same store every single day and I take the same route every single day, if on the next day I get in my car and my phone tells me to take a completely different route and it looks incorrect and it's actually taking me in the opposite direction, I will still follow it. I would drive into the ocean if Apple Maps told me to. Do people do that? That happens.

Yeah, it was me. I went backpacking in Europe before like cell phones were a thing over there and I was like fucking I would get to a city and I would have like a guidebook that was trying to explain to me where to get like how to get somewhere. I'm like walking around in some foreign country

with nothing but a guidebook to guide me. Here's the one that blows my mind. It's when you would like tell a friend, you'd call a friend on the home phone I guess and say let's go to dinner tonight. Seven o'clock we'll go to this Italian restaurant and you just get there at 708 and you're sitting down and the person just doesn't show up, then what?

Exactly. You just eat dinner and then go home? Yeah, I guess I'm doing something else. And you're like, but what if they get stuck in traffic, you can't leave? Like, at what point do you leave? Yeah. The thing that gets me always is concerts. This is always like, I understand, like you, I guess you had to set a waypoint

where you're like, hey, if we get lost, we'll meet there. But it's like the idea of you go to a concert with people and your general admission, never mind a festival. And you go and you go with people and you're there with your friends. and then you can't find like, what the fuck do you do? Dude, imagine like going like Woodstock. Just waiting at the tower, missing the show, waiting for your friend to show up,

who's just in line for the porta potty? Dude, do you remember classified ads? Think about that now. Classified ads. You put a fucking ad in the newspaper for someone to read the next day to like try and link up with people. The pre-internet was wild.

When my mom graduated college, the New York Times was on strike and all these newspapers were on strike, so she couldn't get a, a job because there were no job advertisers. No classified ads. There were no classified, so she couldn't get a job. How do you get information back then? Email us at ringer

Fantasy Football at gmail.com. It's funny pre-internet stories. Porn in the woods. Porn in the woods is like a subsect of this. You'd like take a magazine passed around for your friends via some friend's dad and take it to the woods and look at board? Magazines, yeah.

You know why America's falling behind in math and science? It's because kids can like go to the bathroom and look at porn on their phones. You wonder why we can't keep up around the world. I mean, you're joking, but there's something there. Yeah. I think it's, yeah, the overstimulation of our youth. I do think it is wild, like, to think back.

And like, I literally have to call my friend's house and ask is like Adam there. Like, can you imagine asking if someone's there anymore? Well, what's the thing that way? What are we doing now that's going to be like that in the future? Because I think the ones like that now, I think our kids are going to be like. It's driving a car. Yeah, you to drive the car? Yeah.

And like, they're going to be like, so when you went from L.A. to San Francisco, what did you do? I'm going to be like, I just sat there and drove and was like,

well, what did you do? And I'm like, I stared at I5 and listened to a fucking podcast. Wild. Wild shit. We're all old.

We just don't know yet. All right. That's all we got. Thank you, DK. Thank you, Kye, for producing this episode.

Thank you to everyone who's going to email that ringer fantasy football atjum. Gmail. com stories from the pre-internet era. Go to fantasyfewport. com later this week.

we're going to have our top 200 up and updated. Oh, can we, yeah, can we get a prompt for people to send in stuff that's like the wildest part of the pre-internet age? This is obviously going to be here. Well, I'm just saying I'm being more specific. Like, what was the wildest thing that like just blows your mind about growing up? Things that, yeah, when you look back on, you're like, I can't either younger people being like how they do that or older people being like, I can't believe we did it that way or kids. Really the genre of you kids have no idea how easy you got it. Also, I was barely listening to you, to be honest.

I was looking at the band. All right, cool. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Beck. Beck. Why Beck? I don't know. When I think of, like, high school or that era, I'm like, I'm a loser, baby.

It was like a huge song. Also, I was a loser. You know what's funny? Is Beck, I feel like he's nominated for a Grammy every single year. And I can't name a single Beck song. Loser. Beck might not be real as far as I'm concerned. He might be like an industry.

playing. Yeah. He's like one of those guys that's going to be music Hall of Fame. I know nothing about music, so maybe that's completely wrong. But like, yeah, like he is, has got his fingers and everything, but like, no one really knows what. You know, like when Matt Stafford was getting started in his career and they're like, he's going to break every single passing record,

but he won't even make the Hall of Fame. That's how I feel about Beck. He's the Matt Stafford of artists. Go, go listen to the intro to loser. That, the intro music, just like the whole, like, the hook really fucking. and slaps. It's really good. I think you're forgetting how good it is.

I don't know much about his other music, but that song's really good. He had a couple like really good hits. All right. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler

or visit fandle.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1,800. next step or text next step to 533442 in Arizona 1-888-78-9-777 or visit ccpg.org

slash chat in Connecticut, 1-8009 with it in Indiana, 1-800-522-4-700 or visit KSgamlyhelp.com in Kansas, 18777-70 stop in Louisiana, visit MD-Gamleyhelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia or call 1-800-5-2-2-4-700 in Wyoming.

Hope is here. Visit Gammley-Help line, ma.org, or call 800, 327, 5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 18778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope NY in New York.