The Ringer NFL Show - Top Sleepers of 2021

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

We rank our top sleeper picks for the 2021 NFL season. WR Jerry Jeudy, Broncos (1:08) WR Mike Williams, Chargers (9:07) QBs Jalen Hurts, Eagles, and Justin Fields, Bears (15:55) RB AJ Dillon, Packers (21:44) RB Mike “Funk” Davis, Falcons (26:28) WR Jarvis Landry, Browns (33:50) WR Henry Ruggs III, Raiders (40:57) WR Robby Anderson, Panthers (46:56) TE Tyler Higbee, Rams (53:02) TE Adam Trautman, Saints (54:56) WR Jakobi Meyers, Patriots (59:30) WR Michael Gallup and TE Blake Jarwin, Cowboys (64:29) Email us at [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Mallory Rubin. And I'm Van Leithen. Check out the Ringerverse podcast from The Ringer for all things, superhero movies, nerd culture, and fandom entertainment. We have instant reviews and fun takes on all the latest news and more. Available now on Spotify. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I am Danny Heifitz, and you are about to hear our top sleepers for the 2021 season.

But one quick note before we dive in, I said a lot in this episode that our fantasy football draft guide will be coming out this week. It will actually be coming out next week. So keep that in mind as you listen and enjoy the show. All right. So without further ado, our sleepers for the 2021 season, we have not shared these with each other. I actually have no idea who you guys are going to pick.

And do either one of you want to go first? Sure. I can go first. Break the seal. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. I don't want to have the same ones as you guys. Yeah.

So you guys can tell me if you, if either of you have this guy, I'm going with wide receiver Jerry Judy for the Broncos with my first pick. His... Your first pick? It's quite the sleeper. Yeah, sorry, with my first sleeper pick. According to ECR, which is expert consensus ranking, he's 96th overall and the wide receiver 36th on the board. I think he's got a pretty solid chance of beating that ADP this year.

So let's kind of look at the big picture. He comes in, highly touted former Alabama receiver. I think he went somewhere in the middle of the first round, like 15, 16. Very, very highly thought of prior to his rookie year. and then I guess people think he disappointed as a rookie. What do you think? What's like the general perception of his record? Of course he disappointed.

He didn't have a catch in the red zone. People thought he was the best receiver in the class. And did he like lead the league in drops after Deonté Johnson? He definitely disappointed. Yeah. Yeah, he was second. No one talks about that. Only Deonti.

People talk about it in Denver. To that point, I want to give some context on what a quote unquote disappointing rookie season is and should be. Justin Jefferson is not the new norm. normal. Justin Jefferson is an extreme, extreme outlier. I just want to like reiterate that. The Josh Allen of Ypres. Exactly. Exactly. Like, that's the best receiver season ever. Right. Yeah. Like, that's not going to happen for every freaking guy. So I was looking at, I was looking at Judy's rookie season stats. And then it just kind of dawned on me that they

were actually pretty similar to DK Metcalf's rookie season stats. So here, I'm just going to run through, I tweeted this last night and got some people that were kind of angry about about this, but people get angry about everything. So Jerry Judy as a rookie 13 targets 52 catches 856 yards three touchdowns DKMeccaf as a rookie 100 targets 58 catches 900 yards

7 touchdowns So like the main difference here is 7 touchdowns To 3 touchdowns I will point out Russell Wilson was DKMagaf's quarterback Jerry Judy was catching passes from Drew Locke Jeff Driscoll Brett Rippin And Kendall Hinton

Although I don't think Hinton completed any passes or maybe he did one pass. Regardless. Going down the numbers more. Judy averaged 16.5 yards per reception as a rookie, D.K.K. Metcalf, 15.5. Judy, 12 drops. Metcalfe, eight drops.

Judy, 39 first downs. Metcalf, 39 first downs. Judy, 13.5, average depth of target. Metcalf, 13.0, average death of target. Judy, 19.4 target rate. Metcalf, 19.3 target rate. Judy 157 PBR points and Metcalf had 187 obviously because of those touchdowns. And again, because he had a far, far better quarterback.

Yeah. I'm just saying, I'm not saying that, I'm not saying that Judy is Metcalf. What I am saying is we have to keep perspective. We have to remember that not every freaking rookie is going to be Justin Jefferson. I think there's a solid chance. Let me rephrase that. I think number one, I think that's a pretty damn good rookie season. And number two, I think that there's a solid.

a chance he has a big breakout year in his second year. I think he's that talented. I think there's a reason he had so much hype going into the league. And I really don't think we should be looking at his rookie season as all that disappointing. The drops, I think were the main thing that were disappointing and I get that. But I mean, if you look at the players that lead the NFL with drops every year, it's like DK Metcalf. It's all the best players. So is Jerry Judy D.K. Metcalf or is he not D.K. Metcalfe? Is Finkl is Finkl? I could not agree more. Let me, let me, I'm not going to say that Jerry Judy is D.K. MacK. They're not the same exact.

They're not the same style. You're talking about D.K.Metkaf, so I feel like he's D.K. Metcalfe. Did you completely miss the part where I said, it gives you context over the type of rookie season he had, all right? He had a league high 26 unkatchable targets last year, Jerry Judy did. A league high 23% of his targets were uncatchable. He had five targets in the end zone that were deemed uncatchable, uncatchable by PFF, which is the second most of any player. He only had seven end zone targets, which was 42nd in the NFL, and he caught zero. There's a lot of meat on the bone here that with a little bit better quarterback play,

this guy could absolutely blow up in his sophomore season. I really do think that. I don't know if the drops are worrisome enough for me at all to be out on this guy. I'm glad you mentioned uncatchable because it's the 21st century, and we've needed the statistic for like 70 years. Like the idea that all past attempts are equal in reality. So there's, I think 200 and 200 receivers are eligible. and like Jerry Judy had the third lowest catchable right?

Like he was one, he was literally 200th out of 202 players, which is to say Drew Locke fucking sucked. So my question for you is, why will it be different? This is not a bet on Jerry Judy, D.K., you're just betting on the Broncos quarterbacks. Judy's the same player. Judy's good. So is this, here's the thing.

If Drew Locke is the quarterback for the Broncos, how do you feel about Jerry Judy versus Terry DeBridgewater, quarterback for the Broncos? Does it change a lot for you or no? I think you specifically, High Fitz, I believe, have sort of changed my mind on what I want to happen in Denver. I think now I actually do

want Bridgewater to win the job. Because I think, number one, despite the fact that I think Drewlock is going to be more aggressive, more yolo ball down the field, like more big plays, more big time throws, blah, blah, blah. Bridgewater is going to get people to

ball more efficiently and basically the offense is just going to have a higher floor, I think. So I'm on team Bridgewater with the hopes that Judy is going to break out. I also think that there is a lot of uncertainty with exactly where the Broncos see Judy playing long term. Maybe he's just going to play all over the formation.

I think they started out with him playing a little bit in the slot. They tried to move around. He ended up only playing 33% of his routes, running 33% of his routes from the slot. He was playing outside a lot. They obviously did pick KJ Hamler in the second round last year, so he was getting involved. But if I'm thinking about the Broncos'

best three receiver set for 2021. I think it's Cortland Sutton, Tim Patrick on the outside with Judy in the slot. I don't know how the team sees that. Maybe they see. But Judy's still playing a lot. He's still a first round pick who took in 15th. He's still a really talented player. Like, he's not coming off the field for KJ. Hammer. Right. Frequently. I, yes, that's correct. But I also think in theory, especially this year, maybe not long term, but this year, Judy's production would take a big jump if he was playing in the slot, particularly if Bridgewater's quarterback, because we've seen that with Robbie Anderson last year in the Panthers offense.

He's just getting those short over the middle screens, things like that where it's getting the ball out quickly. You know, Bridgewater, like, his career hasn't really been a push the ball down the field type of guy. So I think it all would like match up for a big breakout for Judy if all those stars align. Regardless, my point is really more that I'm betting on Judy's talent and the idea that the Broncos offense will get like slightly more efficient,

it's Locke, who has maybe, maybe he'll take a little jump in efficiency, or Bridgewater, who will just be much more efficient, like, full stop. So basically that's where I'm getting at. I think Judy is good. I think that we shouldn't be looking at his rookie year as a complete failure like a lot of people, I think are. I think it was a pretty damn good rookie season, and the sky is the limit with what this guy can do in year two and beyond.

I do think you're right that everybody views him just is not as good as C.D. Lamb and Justin Jefferson now, and it might just, if you just put Judy on. the Vikings or the Cowboys, like maybe he would have had C.D. Lamb or Justin Jefferson season. Yeah. I definitely think that the recency bias is infecting all of us with this. So I like it. I will say,

I just want to put this out there. I do think C.D. Lamb and Justin Jefferson are better. I'm not going to, I wouldn't say that he's better than those guys. I just think people are, like, way too down on Judy. Based on what he did as a rookie, in my opinion. You could have owned the corner. All right, Craig, who's your sleeper for this year?

So I, my, my, uh, my sleepers are kind of, I have two tiers. My first tier of sleepers is like feeling really good about it. My second tier is like, eh, you know. So like, like a, like a nine hour sleep versus like, you know, the daytime nap where you needed it, but maybe you're a little grog if you wake up. Exactly. This is like I'm 11 hour, took some Z quill and I'm just knocked out. Rem sleep.

This is REM, REM sleeping. Yeah, it's my REM sleeper. Mike Williams, I'm the Chargers. I love this guy. What? Mike Williams is your REM sleeper? The one you feel good about. Yeah.

Danny. Okay. I'm all ears. Listen up, Daniel. I'm all ears. All right. So the wrap on Mike Williams, at least from my perspective, based on literally just watching him, watching the Chargers play football, he catches bombs.

He comes down with pretty much every, like, crazy deep 50-50 ball. You're like, Jesus, Mike Williams caught it. He's got like amazing hand-eye coordination. He brings everything down. But he sacrifices his body, and he's hurt all the time. like an outfield they're running into the outfit wall. Yeah.

Which I respect, you know, as a football player, like, good for you. You're playing your heart out. But like, Jesus, take it easy a little bit. So last year, Mike Williams and Herbert were off and on a bit.

You know, it wasn't the smoothest 2020. But like, I would say, can you blame them? They had a lot of shit going on, COVID. And Mike Williams was literally constantly hurt.

The dude was nicked up throughout the entire season. But sprinkled in 2020, he had like some big weeks. He had a week of 109 yards in two touchdowns, 99 yards in a touchdown, 72 in a touchdown, 108 in a touchdown. He had a lot of big blow-up moments, which is what you like in fantasy football. He has weak-winning weeks. And now Hunter Henry, the tight end on the charges last year, he was second on the team in

targets, catches, and red zone targets. He's gone. He's in New England. Gone. And they didn't really, I mean, they added Jared Cook, but I don't think he's as good as Hunter Henry. And they have this new O.C. and Joe Lombardi. Evan Silva reported that Lombardi has already publicly promised that Williams is going to get higher percentage targets, which, is a big deal for him because he basically catches deep balls, and that's it. They don't really give him more opportunities. The thing about Williams that I like is he gets a lot of red zone looks already, but he doesn't catch any of them because perhaps they're like Evan Silva reported, like they're just not high opportunity catches. They're throwing fades to him. They're throwing

fades on first down to be safe, but like they never happened. He was two for 13 and three for 16 in red zone targets in the last two years, which isn't great. He was eight for 15, his second year when he had 10 touchdowns. But when you boil it all down with Mike Williams, What I think is I think he could be the Mike Evans to Keenan Allen's Chris Godwin on the Chargers this year. I think they're going to throw a lot. I think their offense is going to be really good.

And Mike Williams is going to be the Red Zone guy. There's nobody else. Keen & Allen's not that big. It's like 6-2, but not like a Red Zone guy. You have Austin Echler. I just think there's so much upside for a guy being taken. He's the wide receiver 48 going 1201st overall right now.

There is so much more upside than the rest of the guys on this list. Would it really surprise you if Mike Williams had seven? 70 catches for 1100 yards and nine touchdowns. Like I think that is super possible for him. Mike Williams is like a fantasy thirst trap. It's just it pulls someone else in every year.

Well, I'm in. I'm liking all of his photos. Yeah, because I was going to say the same. It's like it feels like we do this every year and... Every year. But also this is a very good argument. Like I'm all in on this too. Like I agree with you.

It's like there was going to be a... There was literally like, this is the Ryan Tannel breakout year in 2015, 2016, 2016, 2017, 2018. Everyone gave up and then it happened in 2019.

I am paying for the Mike Evans fantasy only fan. Mike Williams fantasy only fans. You're the only fan. I still, I became a...

That's a really good name for sleepers. Only fans? Only fans? The only fans? The only fans? Yeah, that's really funny.

Wow. Maybe we'll do that. I want to say... I've liked Mike Williams since he came into league. I think he's a fun player to watch and all this stuff. But I've been

I became such a big fan of him last year during Hard Knocks when he came out on the on the practice field. And he was like not wearing his COVID tracker or whatever. And someone was like, oh, where's your COVID tracker? He's like, oh, I don't know. And he was like, what happens if I get caught? And they're like, it was like $50,000. He said, that's 50K is what they said like, yo, that's 50K. Oh, hell no.

And he runs back in immediately. Like, I was like, this is the most relatable thing. Like, this guy's a multimillionaire. Can you imagine if they ran a 40-yard dash, but if you didn't, like, but they were just guys who thought they were going to be fine $50,000 and they're just running back to their car.

I feel like you ran a 401. 50,000 yard dash. Well, the thing about it is like, for some guys, 50K is like, is people, like super rich athletes, I think, or like, whatever, 50K, fucking, who cares? This guy was like, oh, fuck that. I'm going to get this.

I just thought that was relatable. Can I say one more thing about Mike Williams? So he's essentially had three years as a starter. The first year he had 10 touchdowns. The second year he had 1,000 yards, and last year he was super hurt. So put them all together. I don't know.

1,000 yards plus 10 touchdowns plus. Yeah. So would you take him in the top 100? Yes. What's his ranking? What's his ranking right now? We've got them in our illustrious rankings at fantasyfutball. The ringer.com.

We've got the illustriest Mike Williams at 93 and half PPR. Perfect. So wide receiver 42. But Craig has him like 20 spots higher or 15 spots higher or so. So me and my negativity is dragging you down. I think him being a wide receiver three on your lineup is like extremely reasonable. Wow. Okay. I can see that.

If you're wrong, we'll only find you $50,000. What don't you like? Is it just the injuries? It's that I don't think that there is any player who's more dead to me in fantasy than Mike Williams. And I mean, not one. Okay, so push comes to shove. You're on the clock.

I know this isn't reflected in our rankings, but it's just one of those things like a gut feel. are you going to take Brandon Cooks over Mike Williams fuck maybe I look at it I'm not I'm not I've got we got a

rent tire we need to change if you lose by like five points and you play Mike Williams and he gets 1.6 if he has like one catch for like 12 yards like damn I'm a fucking moron I don't want that feeling

I've had plenty of that my life and like I'm done with it like you know what I'm 2021 like I'm done with I'm cutting out toxic too old for my life like Mike Williams like you know what

like goodbye okay can I give you guys sleepers shot. What do we call? Only fans? Who are you an only fan of? Only fan of? No, not quite. You're the only fan of Michael Waves. All right. I'm going to give you guys a combo meal right here. Every mock draft I do. I think the rules every time, Hyfitz. But I know, continue. What? He's like, well, he's like, my guy's going in the first round, but. Please. I, I do. I did two at the same time. Oh,

no. I, every mock draft I do, I end up with the same two quarterbacks. It almost doesn't matter. Jaylen Hertz and Justin Fields as my two quarterbacks. I love both of them. Yeah. And it's, it's Jalen Hertz is my starter. I usually don't draft backup quarterbacks. I'm changing that this year. I want Justin Fields on my bench in every league. And again, it's simple. As long as fantasy football has these really stupid fucking rules where passing yards are worth like less than half of rushing yards. I'm just, you know, I'm going to forget up every time. I don't care. We're doing this. It's really dumb. Okay.

Progress is made by unreasonable men. Rushing guards worth twice as much as fast yards. That's dumb. But the fact is, until that changes, you want quarterbacks who could run the ball. I think Matthew Berry had this good stat that was like nine of the top 10 quarterbacks last year had more than 200 rushing yards.

Eight of the top 10 quarterbacks in 2019 had more than 200 rushing yards. You need it because someone's going to run. So Jalen Hertz, you can pretty consistently grab, like way after Justin Herbert's, way after the Rogers is are off the board, way after Russell Wilson, You can grab Jalen Hertz.

You can wait on quarterback. But here's the thing. Jalen Hertz made three full starts last year. I'm not even including when he got benched in week 17, which was the hilarious tanking thing. But in the three full starts he made, he was the third best quarterback in fantasy for those weeks. The only guys ahead of him were Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.

So like the upside is unbelievable. Not to mention the fact that like we haven't even seen an offense truly designed around him. I'm really interested to see what their Eagles are going to do. Now maybe Nick Siriani is going to be able to do it. but if Jalen Hertz has top three, top four quarterback upside, I want him on my team when we figure that out. But the flip side is, to me, it's not even that risky because I also want Justin Fields on my bench because, again, he runs like a 4-4, but he's also as a quarterback.

He's like a big game hunter. D.K. still has his, you can also go to D.K.'s draft guide. Justin Fields is a really good quarterback. I don't think he's going to be on the bench very long. Maybe you've got to wait two weeks at most, three weeks at most. He's going to be playing. And then you're taking two shots with Jalen Hertz and Justin Fields at guys that very reasonably, one of them could be a top five fantasy quarterback this season,

but you're not going to have to draft them anywhere near like that on draft day. And like that's where fantasy is going. You need guys who have devastating rushing and also can dice you up in the passing game. That's where real life is going. This is where fantasy is going. And if I get those two guys, I'm ecstatic. I mean, I don't, yeah, I have no argument there. I love this.

I think it's perfect. I do too. But so your sleeper is drafting both Jalen Hertz and Justin. No, no, no. The sleeper is I like both of them, but I end up doing both and I almost encourage it. Like, I like Jalen Hertz, but basically I'm not really interested in getting like the Mahomes, Kyler, Josh Allen, Dack this year. Even Herbert and them, Russell, I think we're all a little overvalued. I like waiting. If I can get Hertz, I really like that.

But I don't mind getting Tanner or Tom Brady or even Stafford. But if I want one of them, I want Justin Fields on my bench. Like I want both these guys ideally. But I like both of their odds. My point is that I see both of them as similar profiles of they could be, they could finish ahead of Lamar Jackson this year. They could finish ahead of Josh Allen this year if things go right. I like the idea of aligning both of them, but even one is really good.

What, what do you, what's your take on Trey Lance? Because I think Justin Fields and Trey Lance profiles similarly in my mind, like as guys with that Jalen Hertz style upside because of their running ability. And both of these guys, honestly, are better passers than Hertz, in my opinion. So they might have higher upside. It's just a matter of when they're going to start. What's up with Lance? Are you down on Lance in general?

Or you just think Fields is going to start sooner? I think it's two things. I think that Fields and I think that there's a, first of all, I want to be clear, there's a chance that Trey Lance, forget rookie season. Trey Lance is the best career of any of these rookies

just because the Niners' offense could be so much better than anything the Jaguars can do. However, I think that field starts before Lance. Like, I just like, like,

there's a big difference between Jimmy G who's been there for years and they're bringing Trey Lance who didn't play football last year learning the Shannon system there's a big difference between him competing with Jimmy G for week one versus fields competing

with like Andy Dalton for week one is a huge difference to me there's way more pressure on the Bears to get field to the field and also they'll probably be a better team the Niders don't need Trey Lance immediately like unless they start losing there's not going to be a ton of pressure

on them to rush a kid who's coming from the FCS who didn't even play football or get to play one terrible game in 2020. And then secondly, I also just think that the bears, I don't know, they're kind of more exciting. It really comes down to that, honestly. I just don't know if Trey Lance will be on the field by week eight,

but I'm very confident fields will be playing before the end of September. Yeah. I will say the one thing I think that's interesting about Lance, and I've heard this kind of going around the Twitter sphere or whatever, but the 49ers have a really intriguing stretch run in the fantasy playoffs where they face the Bengals, Falcons, Titans, and Texans down the stretch.

And so people are already thinking forward and being like, yo, I could have a truly like league winning upside quarterback in that stretch if Trey Lance is the starter in the fantasy playoffs or whatever. So that's one reason.

I think that's one reason to stash Lance. And I'm not going against Fields. I love Fields. I'm just saying like I think both of those guys offer that upside. I love the idea of drafting a guy so that you could start in week 14. That's some wishful thinking.

I was going to say, I don't have the patience to wait 14 weeks and not pick up all these running backs. I kind of, I'm more of a Belichick, you know, we're trying to win this week. I can't. I've never been someone who aligns their bye weeks in week nine.

Like, I don't give a shit. Yeah, that's typically me too, but that's fine. D.K., got another sleeper? Yeah, I do. So I'm going with A.J. Dylan from the Packers, so I think I'm like, I'm like, I'm the high. Did not see that come back. Really?

that coming either. I think I'm the only one that's high on AJ Dylan. You're the only fan. AJ Dylan only fans. What is there to not like about, well, okay, look, don't answer that question. A guy who's six foot, 247 who runs a four, five, has like the free, one of the freakish, um, athleticism profiles of any running back ever. He's like 98th percentile running back in terms of athleticism.

He averaged 5.3 yards per carry last year. And in the time, in the game that he got like to be the guy. for the Packers. He only carried it 21 times, 124 yards, and two touchdowns. He looked awesome doing it in the snow. So I guess I understand the fact that he's behind Aaron Jones is a big factor, but I really do think that there's a chance that AJ Dylan turns into a solid RB3 slash flex type guy this year who is going to get utilized more than people think I think. And the fear with Dylan is, and I think that this is a legitimate fear, but I don't know if I buy it, is that he's not, he can't catch the ball.

He's like not, he's a zero in the passing game, I think is sort of this impression. But I don't think that's necessarily the case. I do, you know, it's one of those things where it's like a question of have you done it versus can you do it type of deals. In college, he wasn't a big pass catcher. But the Boston College offense just was not, they didn't throw the ball. Like the offense ran through him and he didn't catch very many passes. But what I've seen from him in the pros and what we've heard from beat reporters is that

they like him in the passing game and he's been solid in the passing game. I think there's a chance he's just a better pass catch than anyone thinks and he's going to inherit basically that Jamal Williams role where you're getting 30, 40 targets a year, 150 plus touches a year. And if this Packers offense is good again this season, that's going to be very valuable. And if Aaron Jones gets hurt, this is a league winning guy. Like among handcuffs, I think he's maybe one of my top guys. Plus he has some standalone value. So I don't know. I'm just like, I don't really understand why people are so down on Dylan. I think there's this narrative from him coming out of college that he wasn't good. But I mean, the dude just,

he's huge. He's going to get the goal on carries. The hatred is the residual of like negativity against the Packers because they traded up for love. And then not only did they not take a receiver in the first round, they took a freaking running back in the second round who the dot, the knock on him was he can't catch passes. So the idea was, wow, the Packers not only got Rogers, no receiving help, they drafted a quarterback. And so just the general cloud of darkness overshadowed him. I think my fear is like in a vacuum, if I like close my eyes and you say 150 touches on the Packers,

I'm like, ooh, that sounds good. But like Jamal Williams could spell Aaron Jones pretty much in every way. And I would, I think it's pretty safe to say Aaron Jones is a better receiving back than AJ Dillon at this point in their careers. Yeah. And it's so comfortable. And it's like usually where these other running backs get values by playing on third down. by being the past catching guy

if they're not the guy getting the most amount of carries. So if Dylan's not going to be the past catching guy and Aaron Jones is obviously a very capable runner and he'll start, it's like,

so we're thinking Dylan's going to steal like a drive here and there and be the first and second down guy on a few drives. I don't, I really don't know how they're going to do it.

I think that if anything that maybe they'll trade like drives, like full drives where they're... Like they did with Jamal Williams. Yeah, like each guy is getting first second and third down.

Are you down in Aaron Jones or are you saying that I guess it's the same thing as last year. It's the same thing as last year in my mind. I'm exactly... Just swap in Dylan. Yeah, basically what I'm saying is that Dylan is going to be the new Jamal Williams. I think there's some doubt that that's the case because of his past catching ability,

his perceived past catching ability. So are you feel... Do you feel comfortable flexing A.J. Dylan if Aaron Jones is 100% healthy? You could start A.J. Dylan on like an off week, whatever. I mean, I think so, yes. I think, you know, obviously it depends on your team. But week one, I think he is a flex. Jamal Williams is finished as an RB3, aka a flex.

in three of the past four years. Now, maybe he's not as good of a flex as some receivers or whatever. Or maybe he's just a guy that you use. If you're going zero RB, you know, you want him in your RB2 spot. You're just going to not like take your lumps or whatever. I do think he has the ability to be that type of guy.

Plus, I do think he's 247 pounds. They're going to use him near the goal line. This entire conversation is assuming Aaron Rogers plays football this year. I think we all agree he's going to show up the training camp. Yeah. All this changes if he doesn't go. That is that.

That's the assumption. Yes. D.K logs on to fantasy only fans and types and thighs. It's the quad squad? The quads? If we're going quad squad, I got a sleeper for you guys. You get another quad guy? Wait, let me think.

DK., who's a quad guy? Mike Davis. Mike Davis. God damn right. It's Mike Davis. Of course it's Mike Funk Davis. So again, Craig has the Robert Woods theory that, you know what? There are certain guys that would be a lot more famous and popular if they had a

better name and more interesting name. Mike Davis has ranked 47th. I thought we weren't due. I thought he's a little high for a sleeper. I have him in the 40s. Other people have him in the 60s. He's like 75 on ESPN. Fantasy person has him at 47. R.B.

23. I don't care. I would take him in the first round, not really. But I just love Mike Davis this year and I want everyone everywhere to love Mike Davis as much as me. He's Funk Davis. Now here's the thing. He's the most boring running back with the most boring name on the most boring team in the NFL, which is a bad sell.

They're not the most boring team in the NFL. Is there a team anyone cares less about than the Falcons? Think about it. Yeah, I think so. Who do you really care less about than the Falcons? I mean, I feel like there's quite a few teams that care less than. Who? Name one.

Name one more boring than the Falcons. Texans, for sure. The Texans are many things. They are not fucking boring. I don't know. You're telling me, you care more about what the Texans do this year? The franchise, like, as an idea. The Giants.

going on there is not boring. There's a lot there. It's not boring. Maybe David Johnson versus Philip Lindsay for the backfield's boring, but the team's not boring. The point is the Falcons are boring. I promise. The Lions? Really cares about Atlanta sports. The Lions.

Come on. There's no argument. There's no argument to be made that the Lions are more excited. The team with Kyle Pitts versus the Lions. Okay. You're taking the Lions? No one really cares about the Falcons. People care about Kyle Pitts. The point is, Mike Davis is a boring guy.

He's like the club sandwich of boring. It's just stacked on stacked on stacked. We're not saying the Falcons are interesting here. But here's the thing, I really do think Mike Davis can win people leaks. I really do. The Falcons running backs last year, so they had Todd Gurley,

they had Edo Smith and Brian Hill. Those guys had 99% of the touches at the running back position. Those guys are all gone. 99% of the backfield touches are gone. The only guys they brought in were Mike Davis and Javian Hawkins. And Javion Hawkins is an undrafted free agent.

Maybe D.K. likes him from his deep scouting. He's still an undrafted free agent. Like, this is now, Arthur Smith is the... Dude, he's like 180 pounds. Yeah. Seriously, what are the Falcons doing? The Falcons hired...

It's a good question. It's a good question. The Falcons hired Arthur Smith to be their head coach. He was the offensive corner for the Titans. And just casually the last two years, Derek Henry had 3,500 yards and 33 touchdowns the last two years. That's pretty good. Now, obviously, Mike Davis is not Derek Henry.

I'm not trying to say that. No one's trying to say Mike Davis is Derek Henry. But I am saying that Mike Davis is the guy. He's the starting running back for the Falcons. in a quote unquote committee, but the committee is one veteran running back and then like four other guys who have like a combined like 25 career carries

and like Cordarell Patterson, who is a fucking receiver. There is no one here to compete with him. He's gonna be a two down back. He's probably, but he's also the best suited for third downs and goal line carries. There's no competition here.

And this to me, it's like if he is like 30 or 40 spots lower in some websites, some rankings, he's like 20, 30 or 40 spots. spots lower than the Jakey Dobbins of the world, the David Montgomery's, the DeAndre Swift, the Miles Sanders. Now, maybe like one or two of those guys better than him, but I think he really could outdo like two or three of those guys, if not all of them this season. He just has bad branding in a city with bad branding. But God damn it, I love Mike Funk Davis.

Let me ask you this question, though. I, you know, your impassioned pitch for Davis, it's not falling on deaf ears. I do agree with you in a lot of respects. However, I will ask you this question. When it comes to the running back dead zone, the quote-unquote running back dead zone, Davis is falling in drafts where you see guys like Cortland Sutton. Wait, do you want to explain the running back dead zone? Claypool. Yeah, so essentially it's like, I would say running back, I don't know, sixth, fifth round, running back 16. It's like drafting and running back in the 40s and 50s kind of sucks and maybe the 60s too. Well, even like higher, maybe like 30s to the 50s. They don't pan out.

Historically speaking, they haven't been strong. And then the other thing, and more importantly, it's the opportunity cost because there's some really good receivers in that area. So basically what you're doing is taking a bad running back relative. Or you can take like fucking CD Lamb or Robert Woods or whoever DJ Moore. And you're missing out on that like upside. So basically my question is, and this is, I guess it just depends on your team, of course,

and how the draft is going. But like, to me the worry about drafting Mike Davis versus grabbing a guy later is you're missing out on this pretty good tier of receivers and maybe even tight ends like Mark Andrews T.J. Hawkinson in this area. Are you worried about that or is that just, are you just basically saying like if you need an RB2, grab him here? You know, it depends on how your draft is going. No, I'm not worried of it at all because if you're drafting on like other websites,

everyone else is mostly using that site's rankings. Like again, ESPN has him at like 75. I forget where Yahoo has him, but it's like if you can get Mike Davis at 60, what I'm saying is I actually think he's going to perform like someone who is closer to 35 or 45 overall. Like Mike Davis is to me, and just in terms of like who's going to outperform by actual like value the most,

I'm looking at Mike Davis and he's the one whose rankings around town just seems the most off. Just because it's like, it really is this the guy? But I just, unless they sign a veteran, which I don't think so because Mike Davis is the veteran they signed, this is a two down back with the upside.

But he's also to me going to be the goal line back. He's got all the opportunity and all the high value touches that you want. too. I don't think that they're giving the undrafted free agents or the journeymen from the previous regime that they didn't sign are going to get the goal line touches. I think Mike Davis is getting all the important work. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Do you think they sign another back come start the season? No. So if you want to play devil's advocate, you could say that. I think that the person that I have lower than everyone else is Miles Gaskin. Because I think Miles Gaskin and Mike Davis are weirdly

similar, even though they're not similar players. But like, they're both are like kind of the leader of the pack of an ambiguous backfield. I'm out on Miles Gaskin because if the dolphins went into this season with week one with their roster today, I actually would love Miles Gaskin. My problem is that they tried to sign Kerry on Johnson and the Eagles got him, but that signals to me. They've been like, yeah, like playing footsie with Todd Gurley. I think the dolphins sign a veteran back, kind of like how some team always signs

Carlos Hyde like two weeks before the season. You're like, oh, shit, that sucks. I think the dolphins will do that this year. But I don't think the Falcons are going to do that. Genuine question. I'm not saying that you're wrong. How often does a guy who gets picked up late in the year slash at waivers actually matter, like in the rotation?

Like, does it happen very often? I mean, I know that you keep bringing up Carlos Hyde, but... What I'm thinking about is when Duke Johnson, the Browns trade, or sorry, the Texans traded a third for Duke Johnson, and we're like, well, that's a lot. They're probably going to use Duke Johnson. Then they signed Carlos Hyde, like, literally, like, Labor Day or August 31st, and they made him the starter, which sucked. Yeah.

And that Carlos Hyde was good, but he just sapped Duke Johnson. So if you're stuck in the dead zone, perhaps turn that into the funk zone. The funk zone. There you go. Good segue. Who's next? It means Gregorio. So my next guy in my tier that I feel really good about, and I'm honestly, I don't understand why this person is so low.

And it's boring. I gravitate towards the boring players who people are just like sick of. It was Robert Woods, I think. Was it last year I did the whole Robert Woods thing? Or was it two years ago? Last year, I think, yeah. Jarvis Landry. Oh, Landry.

Jarvis Landry on the Browns is, let me read you at Jarvis's finishes in his last six years. Wide receiver 17, 18, 10, 27, 22, and last year, 41, which is what he's currently ranked this year as the wide receiver 41 on the expert consensus ranking.

So if you look back on Jarvis's year last year, to the naked eye, he was really bad. He had 840 yards and three touchdowns and 15 games. He had the worst season of his career, and it was bad because it was a year when Odell tore his ACA midway through the year. We put him in the burn book, I believe, right, D.K.? I did at the end of the year because I was just, like, sick of it.

But yeah. Right. Everybody was sick of Jarvis, but he was, like, incredibly fucking hurt, so much so that they scaled back his snaps. He had, like, major hip surgery where they shaved down cartilage and removed two pieces of bone in his labrum in his hip. And then he broke his ribs in week five and just played through it. He literally just played through ridiculous injuries in 2020.

Yeah, those are not good injuries to have. And he was the 17th that. of 84 wide receivers and yards per route run. Anytime they're like shaving bone, I'm just like super concerned. Seems bad. Bone shouldn't be shaved. No. Stop. Yeah. In 2019, everyone's like, well,

because I think the argument would be okay, cool. Odell's back, though. What's that mean? Well, in the the first year with Odell, Landry beat him in every category. Targets, catches, yards, touchdowns. He was better. And they both played the whole season. So somebody explained to me why the hell Jarvis Landry is currently

ranked at what he did last year. Why receiver 41. That's what he is ranked at. He is only one of seven wide receivers who have finished as a top 24 wide receiver in five of the last six years. He's like the picture of consistency. He's known for his amazing hands. And honestly, I think he's a really like, kind of an electric player, but for some reason we don't see him that way. I think it's because of like... Because he ran a four-six. It's because he ran a four-six. People will not let go of it. It's like Keenan Allen's like that too. Yeah. But look, at worst, at worst, Jarvis Landry

is the number two option in an ascending offense. And like, listen, you can make the argument that, like, they don't run the ball. But I kind of think that's going to change. They don't pass, you mean? They did that to protect Baker. But, like, Baker got better. And the second half of the season,

they threw a lot more. Yeah. That's the thing. I think a Jarvis conversation is secretly a Baker conversation. And I'm curious with DK thinks because the, like, Baker quietly has had to play in four offenses.

And now this is the first year he's ever had an offseason in the same offense. I think that is an underrated part of quarterbacks. Like, especially quarterbacks who fail. like you look at quarterbacks who like have sucked and you're like oh well jason campbell had four offenses in his first three years that's what baker's dealing with the other fact is mary k cabot reported in the for the cleveland plains dealer i don't know if it was a couple weeks ago but basically just kind of reporting what everyone else kind of knew which is expected which is that baker felt a pressure to get odell the ball which is a thing and like a very thing that doesn't get talked about but it's like quarterbacks do feel pressure to get players the ball michael thomas does demand targets in new orleans there was a a pressure to get O'Dell the ball when he came to Cleveland and that that kind of messed up the natural progressions he had in the offense. But like Baker looked better down the stretch. Like, D.K., what do you think of the Brown's offense this year?

Yeah, I mean, so I'm looking at the Browns, like their stretch run of the season over the final six games of the regular season. And this doesn't even include the playoffs where he was pretty solid. You know, he had a three touchdown game in the wild card round. So in the last six games of the regular season. He had 11 touchdowns to one pick, 103 rating. He also added 90 yards rushing. And a touchdown. Yeah, and a touchdown. And he was actually the fantasy QB11 in that stretch. He was averaging

18 points per game. So, you know, it's one of those things where that's a small sample. And you're picking, you're cherry picking, obviously, like, his good games to finish the year versus like his entire season. There was a stretch there like before the three weeks before that he didn't throw a touchdown. But it was because there was like 90 mile-in-hour wins in every game. So, you know what I mean? It's hard to really know.

If you look at the last five weeks of the season after the weather shit, the Browns threw it 38 times a game. The first half of the season, they're 27 times a game. I forgot there was that three-week stretch where they had like residual weird winds, lake effect, snow back to back-to-back. I mean, look at the offenses that Stefanski was with in Minnesota. I mean, they were able to, with digs and Thielen, like, support two good fantasy receivers in that offense.

And cook. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, there's, maybe we're just way too low on Baker Mayfield. It's very possible. I just feel like I'm not very high on him,

but like I'm also acknowledging the fact that I could just be totally missing it. And maybe this offense does throw the ball more. And maybe these, he can activate these guys. I think their defense will be a lot better. They won't throw as much. I guess, well, first,

one thing we're not talking about here, Jarvis can throw. Who do you think is a straight up better passer? If someone had to make a one pass to save, But it's a stronger arm. Would you want Jarvis Landry or Tassum Hill? To like 40-yard pass to save your life. Oh, God.

Oh, God. That's a hard question. For the sake of my selection, I'm picking Jarvis. I think it's Jarvis by a lot. But it's just like a lefty. It looks cool. I may pick Jarvis over Daniel Jones. Listen, I just don't know why.

Like, I haven't you make the point that like this is his first year in back-to-back years with a coordinator or a coach calling plays. It's also the guy who won the coach the year. It's a really good coach. He's so good, he won a game from his couch. Yeah, do you remember the Browns in like December? They had to play a game and all the receivers were like quarantining. So they had to do a walkthrough in a parking garage without the entire receiving group.

Like thank you to whoever emailed us in that fact. We forgot off the 2020 weird shit that happened episode. But you know, I kind of like this from Craig because it's true. It's like Jarvis is just so boringlyly. consistent. Boring lately. Getting his hip bone shaved, I could totally see him just being a super great value. You're like, oh yeah, why did I take Brandon Cooks over Jarvis Langerie?

He was a startable flex player in the worst season of his career playing through three snow games with a shaved hip bone. And every other year of his career, he's been awesome. And we're just like, no. All right, that's a good. All right. That's a good pitch. Well, okay.

I'll take it. All right, here. You're Jarvis Landry only fans. Congratulations. All right. Should I go or you want to go, D.K. I can go. I'm into the portion of my list.

This is like deep sleepers, I would say. At least, you know, like these are not top 100 guys. I'm into the 150s here. And I don't feel super strongly about this. So this isn't REM sleep anymore, like high quality? This is now like dad's sleep. Tossing and turning. Yeah, you've got to get up.

150s is deep. So Henry Ruggs are the Raiders. He is right now 149 on the expert consensus rankings at Fantasy Pros. the wide receiver 58 at fantasy football dot the ringer.com who cares about fantasy pros let's see where we got him

we got him at the wide receiver 162 142 so he's slightly higher nice well that's our consensus you have him higher than us you have him higher than we do correct I have him at 123 overall

so that was like the big reason I picked him is because I'm a little bit higher on him than you guys and so here's here's my spiel his rookie year kind of a disaster right 10.2%

target rate, which is yikes. He also cut his thigh while he was moving like a month before training camp and just had to miss. And he heard his knee like week one or two or something. I forgot about this. Yes. So there's variables to this, of course. But 10% target rate as a rookie

was actually 15th among rookie receivers. It was very bad. This is the guy who was taken the first receiver off the board. Famous very, very fast speed, like 427 speed or whatever it was at the Combine, dynamic playmaker for Alabama, all that stuff. However, they just, it was kind of strange because they took him so early in the drafts,

took him out of Alabama where he had been frequently used as like a slot, or sorry, as like a screen guy, like yards after the catch. He was very dynamic runner in space. Like this was all the things that were very good about him. And he wasn't really that much of a deep threat for Alabama. Like he caught a few deep passes. but they basically took him in the draft and then changed the way that he was used entirely as a rookie. He was like basically a one-trick pony, deep threat, stretched the field type of guy.

His A-DOT was like one of the tops in the NFL. He, let's see here, his average up the target, 17.2 yards, which was second among qualifying receivers in the NFL. 22% of his routes at, sorry, 22% of his targets at Alabama were screens. He only got two targets total on screens as a rookie. What the hell are the Raiders doing? So are they going to fix that this year or no? So that is what I'm banking on in this analysis is that the Raiders will have heard the criticisms and kind of figured it out. Vic Defer from The Athletic actually wrote this the other day.

The one receiver, quote, the one receiver we can lock in for a lot of targets is Ruggs, says to Fur. Gruden, here's the criticism of the Ruggs pick. So he is the one receiver we can lock in for a lot of targets. If anything, it's going to be like, I don't care if it's just a safe face. He's going to get targets. He's going to be a big part of his offense. That's like how we said David Johnson last year. Remember the Bill O'Brien thing?

We're like, he has to give him the ball. I actually think Ruggs is good. The thing we missed on that was that Bill O'Brien would get fired in four weeks, which we probably should have factored. Yeah, yeah. So Ruggs finished his first season with 43 targets, 26 catches, 452 yards, and two touchdowns, including one that was the game winner.

You know, with the cover zero blitz against the hell Mary. The covers, oh my God. Yeah. Legendary. I just think, you know, if we can never assume rational coaching, but what we can assume is ego-driven coaching, right? I guess. Nice.

And I think that, I think that, you know, Gruden's going to see, like, everyone talking about C.D. Lamb, everyone's talking about Jerry Judy, all these guys, Jefferson. And he's going to say, we need to, like, make rugs a thing. And he's going to get him involved on more screenplays. He's also, like, nothing. Nelson Aguilar is gone from that offense, so there's going to be plenty of open targets. So I don't know. I just think I don't, I'm not necessarily saying he's going to be like a breakout star.

I just think there's a strong chance he can significantly outplay his ADP, where you're getting him, maybe be a flex here and there. I don't, I don't know if I'm willing to say it'll be like a wide receiver two or anything like that. But I do think he's going to be a type of guy who has a much better season as a sophomore than he did as a rookie. and the big reason is, I think just the Raiders need to make it look like this was not a stupid pick. It might sound weird to base this on, like, John Gruden wants to look good

to prevent the hot takes, but like Gruden does have a strange motivation of proving people wrong. Like, I'm pretty convinced he came out of coach. He came back to coaching half because, like, Sean McVeigh and this generation of coaches that he had, like, given their first jobs to where now like everyone's like,

Offensive Wizard. He's like, Sean McVeigh started as like quality control assistant for Gruden. He's like, now this guy's the smartest guy. Like, I was the young head coach. And, like, half came back out of, like, borderline jealousy. So, like, I kind of, like, he does.

He is, like, the coach who reads all the stuff. He's like the kid who is in college, but he goes to the high school party still. He's like, what are people saying about me? No, so I think you're right. So basically, you're betting, it's a mix of rugs being more talented than it seems, but also just, like, there will be opportunity here. And you're getting essentially, I mean,

it's kind of like the extenuating. of the extension of the Judy conversation where it's kind of weird. Judy and Ruggs, I believe, both did not have a catch in the red zone last year. However, you're getting Rugs, the first receiver taken last year outside the top

12, 14 rounds? Like at that point, who gives a shit? Just throw the dart on the talent. Yeah, that's kind of where I am. Yeah, it's just like, you know, I'm not saying he's going to be a superstar, but he's super cheap. I think he's talented.

He's very fast. He's very good after the catch. I think all these things, if they use him correctly, he's going to be, he's going to surprise him people, put it that way. I don't, you know, again, I'm not going to say he's like on the level of CD Lamb and Jerry Judy. I still think it was a dump pick, but I think he's going to be better this year than he was as a rookie. But he's better in 13 round for fantasy than first round for the NFL. Yeah. All right. Can I get, I get one more REM sleeper if you want, like a high quality?

Sure. So I just love Robbie Anderson to the receiver for the Panthers this year, man. Like, I just, everything about him. Craig, what's your skeptical face, Craig? Are you saying he's too high up on a rankings to be a sleeper? I can already smell it on you. Listen, I texted, I slacked you guys, and I was like, who's the highest ranked dude you have? And you didn't respond.

And D.K. said 90-something. And I was like, okay, cool. That's the range. And every single guy you've picked, it's like not even above 90s. I'm giving you REM. Look, man. Cool. My next guy is going to be Kyle Pitts, so we'll see.

Oh, please get out of here. Okay. Oh, wait, you were making fun of me. Robbie. No, Robbie's, Robbie's disrespected. So I feel like Robbie Anderson has the ceiling of like a Chris Godwin, a Cooper Cup, and Adam Thieland. It just does not get treated that way in part because no one cares about the Panthers, kind of like the Falcons.

But he's coming off the best year of his career. And sometimes a career year is like either random or a fluke and you don't want it. And sometimes a career year happens because a player goes to a new team and is used completely differently than they were at the old. team. And that's what happened with Robbie Anderson. He's on the Jets. He's on Adam Gase. It's a bag of organization with incompetent owners with an incompetent structure that had an incompetent coach with a complete rotating cast. No one can succeed there. And Robbie Anderson was not used well. The Panthers, the sign-in-free agency, Joe Brady, who is a competent offensive

coordinator. He was the guy ran the LSU Joe Burrow team that was the greatest college offense in the history of college. And they used Robbie Anderson as like more than just a field stretcher. They used them in all kinds of routes. They got him intermediate targets. They had him run more stuff. And so what? They gave him the ball in space. And so what happened? Robbie Anderson had more yards after the catch last year than he did in 2018 and 2019 combined. Like they started using him all over the field. So look at that. A career high, 1,100 yards, which is pretty freaking good. But it's not just that. It's like it actually could, he actually could be better this year. because, one, they got Sam Donald,

who one I think is better than Teddy Bridgewater. He's certainly more aggressive downfield pass than Teddy Bridgewater, and he has a rapport with Robbie Anderson for being in the Jets together. So there's familiarity there, which is good. And then also, Robbie Anderson, whose role will probably be bigger for a better offense, he only had three touchdowns. It's pretty hard to have 1100 yards with just three touchdowns. So not only is he a pretty good bet to do better in another career year this year,

it seems like pretty certain he's going to have more touchdowns this year. and he just has a lot of upside with a pretty high floor. He had more catches this year. Sorry, he had more targets than DJ more. And he was on pace for more targets. So, like, it's more of a one-two situation with DJ more than he gets credit for. But he's going a lot of places you can get him in the 60s or whatever. I think that you could get him a lot higher.

I think he's a really good guy. And also the video of him with the Surper and not knowing what the Panthers mascot was and thinking he was a bear, it's hilarious too. Lots of life with Robbie Williams. That's like something I would do, I feel like. Can we play that clip? For the people don't know, do you, like, remember that video that went viral when he thought that the Panthers mascot was a bear?

Can we play that? What's that man doing? A bear. Panther. That's Sir Per, bro. Who? Sir Per. How you say that?

Sir Per. Sir Per. Oh, Sir Per. Wow. You call him that? Yeah, that's his name. So you be like, what's up? Sir Perth.

Great. Robbie Anderson, to me, is the perfect example of, I'm not going to say. that it is not coaching logic. Like, before the season, before last year, everyone was so excited because DJ Moore

is going to play this role for the Panthers and he's perfect for that slot, you know, take the ball, yards after the catch, all that stuff, all over the middle field.

And instead of just doing what everyone expected, the Panthers made Robbie Anderson, six foot three, a 190-pound guy who'd functioned as a deep threat for most of his career

the DJ Moore role that we all thought was happening. DJ Moore was like literally built to play that role. He's like so athletic, big, thick guy, like run after the catch abilities, like a running back with the ball in his hands. And they give that exact role

to Robbie Anderson instead of 6 foot 3, 190 pounds, like bean pole, like who has deep speed. Like, none of it made sense. It still doesn't make sense. But that also just doesn't mean that it's going to change. Like, I think there's a lot of wishful thinking still happening.

that the Panthers are going to let DJ Moore do that next year. And maybe it's just going to be Robbie Anderson again. You know what I mean? Or maybe it's going to be Terrace Marshall over the middle or something like that. You know what I mean? So I just think it's so interesting because no one was really on Anderson, I don't think, before the season, or at least not, he wasn't a big time sleeper for anyone.

And, you know, he just came in and played this role that no one was expecting. And I think this is just like a bigger picture thing for like why fantasy is so hard sometimes. It's like, damn it. how the hell could we have predicted that one? I just think overall that was weird. But to your point, I don't know if it's necessarily going to change. Like his role might be exactly the same, even though everyone still, I think,

as wishful thinking that it's going to be DJ Moore doing that more this year. Yeah, I mean, he was a fluke and it never went away. He seemed like a fluke. Like the first three weeks of the season, you're like, all right, this is a fluke, Robbie Anderson. I honestly think there's a lot of reasons why I think people refuse to believe he's good. One, the Jets thing. Two, people don't like late bloomers in fantasy.

I think we have a hard time. leaving late bloomer's or thing. You don't buy it. Yeah, you don't buy it. Completely agree. The next one is, honestly, I think the fact that he's really skinny is a factor. Yeah. I think just people don't trust you if you're really skinny. Only as far as I can throw you, Craig.

No, but the first label that you have is so hard to shed. I mean, think about, like, Keenan Allen, I think some people still think he's injury prone. He's missed, like, two games in, like, the last four years. You know what I mean? Like, there's still labels that, and like, Robbie Anderson just never cracked a thousand yards, and the, like, the jet sucked. it's hard to walk away from that.

But there's value in it. That's kind of my point. Yeah, I like it. All right, Craig. Who's got another sleeper? Craig? Well, speaking of late bloomers here, I'm going with Tyler Higby on the Rams.

The knock on Higby was that he didn't play a full, he just didn't play the full snaps because Gerald Evert was there. Every time Gerald Everett is off the field, Tyler Higby goes insane. In 2019, Higby missed, or Everett missed five games to finish the season. Higby was the overall tied end won in those five games. Last year, Everett missed one game. And that one game, Higbee had three touchdowns.

And now we have Matt Stafford in. There's not a lot else. I mean, I could get into like, you know, he is a career high in yards per target, and he has all the fancy stats indicate that he's a good tight end. He had a great target share whenever it was gone, blah, blah, blah, four straight 100 yard games,

which is a record. But like, I think he's going to be the red zone target for Stafford. And I don't think he's going to have a lot of competition. The Rams are returning all five offensive linemen. I don't think he's going to be blocking a lot. I just like Higby. He's going 110th overall. Guys going ahead of him like Gisickey and Fant.

I think Higby could easily surpass those guys. You've immediately convinced me to rank Higby higher. This all makes a ton of sense. Oh, man. What about OTA star Jacob Harris, the rookie receiver slash tight end or Bryce Hopkins? Oh, rookie tight ends. The only, please.

I'm kidding. I thought you received. And then also a little splasher. I think Gerald Everett in Seattle. Also sneaky one. You're trying to beat D.K. to his corner? Oh, is that one of yours, D.K.?

No, no, it's not one of mine. I just assumed. But I agree with you. He's going to be the de facto number three in that offense. He's good after the catch. I think there's going to be strong focus on getting yards after the catch, getting Wilson more layups, all that stuff. Shane Waldron, Rams, O.C., knows Everett.

Yeah, like Everett comes in and he knows the language of the offense, all that stuff. I think that does matter. He's going, as the 22nd tight end, like the starting guy and the Seahawks with Russell, I don't know. If we're throwing out tight ends for a second, I just have to,

I'm just going to throw it another one. Adam Troutman for the Saints, maybe this is a deeper one. If you're in like a 10-teen league with like a shallow bench, maybe this is a guy that you just pick up after week one. But like,

like he is the guy for the Saints. He's the tight end for the Saints. And this is a team that perennally just has like, Michael Thomas is the number one receiver. Camara just catches a ton of passes. And then like that third role is kind of ambiguous. But again, like they got rid of Jared Cook. They got rid of Josh Hill,

didn't really replace them. Like Adam Troutman is the second year guy. He was the third rounder, I think, and they just don't really have competition from, like, he's going to play for them, and that's such a prolific offense. And if James is the quarterback, which we don't know,

but if James is the quarterback, it just feels like Troutman has way more upside than a lot of the other tight-end dart throws. Like, no offense, I'd rather throw a dart throw at Adam Troutman as the potential three option in the Saints than, like, Gerald Everett for the Seahawks. I do like the Troutman one, yeah.

Why, though? I guess I don't get why it's, why not the Seahawks versus the Saints? Why do you not like Russell Wilson in that offense versus Jamis and the Saints? Maybe I'm just blinded by the fact that at the end of the day I'm just, I'd just rather have a piece of a Sean Payton offense

than a Pete Carroll coach team. Maybe that's just me being blinded. I just feel like all the Seahawks to me are a little overrated because I feel like we're just blinded by the first nine weeks of the season. Yeah, I do. No, like not on talent-wise. I'm just going to step back. You guys go.

Well, I guess it comes. But again, this isn't about the players. I just took off myself. sunglasses like a double take. What a fight? I guess it's like it comes back to, it's not about the players. It's like are the Seahawks going to throw more?

Because it feels like from a distance, here's what happened. They threw a lot in the first half of the season, started to turn the ball over. Pete Carroll was like, shut it down. We're going to go back to running. Russell Wilson is so annoyed by how the season ends.

He throws a tantrum. He watches Tom Brady play in the Super Bowl and is like, holy shit, why don't I have Chris Godwin and Mike Evans? Why aren't we airing the ball out? Pretends to get like a, pretends to make trade demands just so he gets more input in the offense. And I don't know who's winning this tug of war.

Did they just pat Russ on the head and be like, they're there, there, you talk to the OC now, or are they really going to change? That is the question. That is the question. I think to your point, like, a lot gets made out of the Seahawks first half, second half splits. And I think it's fair to say that Pete Carroll sort of pulled back on the reins a little bit.

But they were still, I believe, above average and pass rate in the second half of season. think and Russell Wilson started playing very poorly. But then they fired the guy who did all that. Like, I can't stress that enough. There's several variables here that kind of went into that. And one of them is that number one, they faced, I believe, it was four top ten offenses in their final seven games. It was like they played the Rams twice.

The Colts were in there. Sorry, not the Colts. The Cardinals were in there. I can't remember exactly who they played, but there were some very tough defenses down the stretch that contributed to their fall off. And this is why you never really want to. like use too small of samples

when you're talking about like team stats. I was actually talking to Scott Spratt from football outsiders on his podcast earlier today. And he had mentioned that like in terms of sticky from year to year, it's just better to take overall full season stats than take some stretch of the season like early

in the season or late in the season or whatever. It's just more sticky to talk about the entire season because you're just expanding the sample. You're expanding the plays and it's just more accurate at predicting what they're going to be like in the future because of the way that the schedule works and because of injuries and all that stuff. So I thought that was an interesting point. The bottom line is to me, if you look back on the last few years of the Seahawks, the way that they

play offense, it's, yeah, it's going to be more run heavy than the average team. However, they're far more efficient and explosive than most offenses, and they're still going to score a lot of points. At the end of the day, they're still going to score a lot of points. So I actually think that a lot of the CX players are under-raceous. A lot of the C-X players are under-race players. right now because so many people were like oh my god their offense fell apart last year they suck they're not going to let Russell Wilson cook at the end of the day they're still going to

let him throw and be explosive and they're still going to score a lot of points and that's what we've seen the last five years plus I feel like Tony reality on Around the Horn how many points do I guess who gets the points DK wins DK wins the point

shit DK you need to be like Woody Page and have like a little quote behind you it's a podcast Craig Okay, who's up? So, yeah, okay. Is it my turn or is it Craig's turn? Okay.

Who knows what turn it is? I don't know. Who cares? Who cares? Go ahead. All right, I'm going with Jacoby Myers from the Patriots, who, Wow. Surprisingly, right now, according to expert consensus rankings, is the wide receiver

73, 183 overall. Not for nothing, but he had the second highest target rate in the NFL for fantasy, per fantasy points tracking, which I would say, I believe they eliminated the games where he didn't play significant stats or like whatever. It was like the,

he didn't get involved. He had 22 total snaps in the team's first five games. Once he started playing from week six on, it was like 95% of like, for whatever reason, the Patriots just didn't go to him in the beginning of the year.

They were like, he's not part of our plans. And then the passing game fell apart. And they're like, oh, maybe we should get this guy in. And all of a sudden, he was their best receiver. he played in 11 games from week 7 on i think actually by the way going back to it i think it's probably

because they wanted that they wanted nekeel harry to be a thing maybe that was at the beginning of the year um i know that harry did get injured at some point so anyways i'm rambling a lot happen to kill harry none of it was good jacobie meyers played in 11 games from week seven on he was a low end wide receiver two is the wide receiver 24 and half ppr and ppr and ppr he was wide receiver 22 from week seven on in that stretch. But is this impressive? Like you're saying he had the second biggest share of his team's receiving targets

in the entire league and was barely top 25 with that? I mean, do you want a guy who's going to be a wide receiver too and you can get in the 17th round? Well, there's four new pass catchers on the Patriots. Are you describing his ceiling or are you saying he'll get better with Mack Jones

if Mac Jones takes over for Newton? I mean, I think that there's a solid chance if Mac Jones plays that Myers is the number one guy in the offense. Really? It's either him or Aguilor. Who else is it going to be? Well, I mean, there's two tight ends.

Okay, it could, in theory, it could be one of the tight ends. I actually am more on the thought that the tight ends are just going to cannibalize each other's target rates. I still think that Myers, I think this is still going to be a passing game that goes primarily through the receivers. I think the tight ends are probably going to be used

to higher a rate than maybe some teams, but I think they'll cannibalize each other targets in a lot of ways. So regardless, like, you're, you can get a wide receiver, a low-end wide receiver two in at wide receiver 73. Like, that's a good value. That's my point. I don't know if he's necessarily going to have that ceiling.

Your rankings at your rankings at fantasy football dot the ringer.com, where do you got him? Let me pull it up. Just relentless plugging. I've got him. I had him at 159 overall. We have him lower because Craig didn't rank him whatsoever. We're negative.

I stand by it. I stand by it. Regardless, I've got them 30 spots higher than consensus fantasy pros rankings or extra consensus rankings. One of the biggest problems for Myers was not necessarily evolving. It was the fact they had zero touchdowns, which goes to the terrible passing offense that they had last year. Cam Newton obviously came off of COVID was a different player. I think he hurt his shoulder at some point in there, too. He was really banged up to a whole lot, the whole thing.

season. And the passing game was more or less non-existent. This year, I think if Mac Jones starts, how different is this offense going to be? I think it's going to be very different. I think it's going to be a more efficient passing game. And I think Myers is going to, he has the upside to be the number one guy in this offense. If he's not, number two or three, it's still going to be, you're still going to be getting

value, I think, on him that late in the draft. So, well, you know, this is the last pick you're making before like a defense at a kicker. And that's kind of what I like about it. It's a good point you're making. Me too. You're getting a potential number one receiver in a team. And if he isn't, you can just give it.

It's free. From week seven on, again, I know that I just preached not cherry picking stretches of the season. But this one confirms your point, so continue. He wasn't playing before that. So it does kind of work. From week seven on, when he started playing, he had 58 catches. Justin Jefferson had 60 catches in the same stretch. So Jacob Myers is Justin Jefferson.

D.K. Metcalf is Jerry Jew. That's what I'm saying. Exactly, yeah. I think the best argument with all of this is what, when you were like, you can get him so late. Like, I really do think his floor is on the ground because they brought in four new pass catchers. And it's like, okay, they could all out play him. He might not play like he did last year. That's fair.

That's fair. Like, they gave Kendrick Boren $15 million over three years. Like maybe he's playing over Jacoby Myers. I have no idea. But you're right. The fact that, like, if they love him and you could get some guy in the 170s, that's going to, like, get eight targets a game. That's fantastic. He feels like the truest sleeper that we've talked about so far.

Like he like literally like you're saying he could a sleeper that might not play or he could be like a low end wide receiver too. We'll see. You're deep. You've scrolled deep into the only fans. Yes. Yeah. Don't you don't want to scroll too much. Anyone else we want to talk about here? Anyone else you guys want to touch on? Yeah. I got I got two more I'm going to combine because they're on the same team. Uh, I want to talk quickly about Michael Gallup and Blake Jarwin on the Cowboys. I almost put Gallup. By the way, it's kind of surprising we haven't had any. duplicate so far. I know. That's a good sign, or is it a bad sign? I don't know. It's like a sleeper. You could argue either way.

So it's like Dak Prescott was on pace to throw for like 6,000 yards last year, right? And we're all kind of on board with him, like being back, the three of us had an argument in ranking our tiers, like should Dak be in tier one?

Yet we only really care about two past catchers on the team. If you're throwing for 55, 6,000 yards, there's got to be other people there who are significantly contributing. Listen, Gallup was really bad last year. I want to ask you guys, how many yards do you think Michael Gallup had last year?

Considering how angry he made me, 17, 19. Give me a real number. Since you're asking the question, I bet it was like $700. Yeah, it was 843 yards, and he was the wide receiver 38 with Danucci and Dalton for most of the year.

Danucci. Which, like, low-key, I mean, He was right outside the wide receiver three range in that season. And he was the biggest sufferer post-D. on the Cowboys. Listen, I don't think he's going to be better than CD Lamb and Amari Cooper, but I don't think it matters. One thing this year I'm really into is, like,

I'm looking at these three-headed beasts on the Steelers, on the Bengals, and on the Cowboys, and I just want one of them. Like, if Dak's going to be amazing, get one of the three receivers. And with Jarwin, sorry, go ahead. What's up? No, just don't forget. Those first few games you're talking about,

back, like week one, he had a touchdown that was called back, like a long touchdown on a holding penalty, which completely changed how we thought of him in the beginning of the year. Yeah, and then in week three, the week before Dak got hurt, he had like 130 yards in a touchdown. He basically gets the least easy to catch targets, but with Dak, it's a different ballgame than with these other quarterbacks. And then to talk about Blake Jarwin here, like Michael Gallup is going as the wide receiver 46. That's insane to me. If you think Dak is going to repeat what he does, there's no way Michael Gallup will finish as the wide receiver. or 46. And with Blake Jarwin, so he tore his ACL like the first play of the game in week one.

He played like 19 snaps. Yeah, like he got hurt immediately, but they signed him to a new contract that year and Dalton Schultz replaced him. Dalton Schultz was third in the NFL in Routes run at tight end last year behind Travis Kelsey and Logan Thomas. And he finishes the tight end 13, Dalton Schultz. This is a deeper sleeper. I mean, Blake Jarwin, he's ranked as like the tied in 19 on most places around there. All I'm saying is, like, monitor there's in training camp, because if they say Blake Jarwin's going to be the starter over Dalton Schultz,

like I just want more pieces of this offense that I can get for cheap, and I think Jarwin is great. Jarwin's a good, he's a good sleeper, deep sleeper. We love Gallup last year. I think just makes sense. It's like, it's like Gallup's a lot cheaper than CD, so if there's any doubt about CD, I mean, I think I'm just so burned from Gallup

that I'm hesitant, but that's kind of the whole point is he's like, as post-type I got a lot of burn book guys. season. The one concern with Gallup is that he's in a contract year and that on one hand, that's always a positive. On the other hand, they might really not have a vision for him with the team. But he is talented. I think that he's probably the most talented guy that would be well-suited to go somewhere else. And it also just makes sense that he wasn't going to get targets last year because we talk about this all the time. But like better quarterbacks can figure out more ideas

of what to do with a play. Like good quarterbacks can figure out all five options. And Ben Danucci can figure out two at best. And down. a good quarterback so he can get to Gallup faster. So it makes sense that he would have a better year. Gallup has all the PFF ratings in his favor. He's very well regarded in that fashion. You know who, if the Cowboys let him go, the freaking Packers, if they can hold on to Rogers.

They should have a good Gallup. Yeah. All right. To your point, Highfit's about being talented. One last thing to add is just not that there are handcuff receivers necessarily. Like, he'd probably be one of the top handcuff receivers because if either Amari Cooper or CD-Land went down, he's still in that elite, elite offense,

he's going to get a ton of volume, and he's good. So he's going to turn that volume into huge production. So not that you could ever really bank on that, but that's just another thing. But I like guys that are already startable on your fantasy team, and then if chaos happens, he gets even better. Outside, you know? Yeah.

All right. I think those are our sleepers or shots in the dark or only fans, whatever we're calling them. Those are our only fans. So we've got, I've got Jalen Hertz and Justin Fields, the quarterback. I love Mike Funk Davis at running back this year. Robbie Anderson at receiver, Adam Troutman at tight end. D.K.

You've got Jerry Judy at receiver, Henry Ruggs at receiver, Jacoby Myers, at receiver. A.J. Dillon at running back, quad squad. And then Craig, you've got Mike Williams, bless his heart. Jarvis Landt, it receiver, Michael Gallup receiver. And then tight ends, Tyler Higbee and Blake Jarwin. Tyler Higbee is one of the strongest ones of the whole episode. I think he's very underrated this year. Yeah.

All right. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K., but most of all, the person we could never have done any of this. The biggest sleeper. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Alt J. Wow. And you think so you're bad. Very hip.

You're a hip, man. You've got style. Breeze blocks, baby. Yeah. Breeze blocks. Wow, yeah. All right. There we go.

We'll probably get breeze blocked on Only fans later. Thank you, everyone. Nice. That was good. Really well done there. Hey, everyone. Thank you for listening. And remember, our 2021 fantasy,

Football Draft Guide will officially be launching next week. So stay tuned for that. And as always, thank you, Craig and DK. We will see you guys next week.