Transcript of Sleeper Picks + Late Round Steals - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/18

¡Hola! And now we turn to the world of sports. The football season is upon us, and that means it's time to get ready for your fantasy football drafts. The ultimate draft kit from the Fantasy Footballers is the Cat's Pajamas and only tool you need. The best rankings in the business, sleepers, breakouts, values. It's even got a free companion app. Don't be a pigeon-livered foozler. The Ultimate Draft Kit will keep you on the up and up and keep all the hornswogglers at bay. Don't even think about entering a fantasy football draft without it. Don't be a square. Head to ultimatedraftkit.com today.

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. Tuesday, August 18th. The Fantasy Footballers. Rated PG for today's episode.

Pretty good.

Yeah, they—

we have to release a rating now.

Great news. We did not get removed from the internet from—

what did he say?

Well, that yesterday had some moments in it. That was—

that was—

you got to go watch that show. That's a hot show.

Yeah, just, you know, what did he say? It was wild. It's another day. It's another day of injuries. We'll get into it on the news. We always have to talk about injuries. It is annoying. But we have—

let's hold off on that as long as we can.

Yeah, we have a segment at the top here, Performance Climbers. We've also got sleepers on today's show, sleeper picks on the show today. So that's very exciting.

These, we got some Ambien sleepers for you today.

We have some like deep sleepers.

We're going after it.

Yeah.

Calling some shots.

The rim, a lot of rim. REM. REM. Yeah.

I was one.

Rim sleep. Like a lot of rim sleep.

I got there.

Wouldn't they call it rim?

Yeah. That's what I was. That was the issue. Rim.

Rim. Now you said rim. Rim. Goodness gracious.

Eyes and ease.

You were saying rim a lot.

Pronunciation has become a bigger issue on this show than ever before. And I don't know why that is.

I was, dude, I'm like basketball rim, double rim. It's hard to shoot in the park. And I have no idea where Andy's going with this one. But it was REM.

REM sleep. Yes.

Not to be confused with the band.

REM.

Yeah. Yeah.

It does seem like the end of the world right now.

We're falling apart.

The UDK for Life giveaway is going on. You still have a chance to get in there. We're going to do a live stream next Monday and give away a UDK for Life and a signed Jamar Chase jersey and probably some other swag and fun stuff like that.

Maybe.

UltimateDraftKit.com. This has been requested.

Dominate your draft with Ultimate Draft Kit. Dominate your draft with Ultimate Draft Kit.

I'm not sure why.

This gets requested.

So if that doesn't persuade you—

funny, but I don't, I don't see the appeal, but people love it.

There you go. So we have a lot to cover today. We had a big signing in the world of the NFL and it will have implications.

Did it in the COVID of darkness too. You know what was that about?

What's funny is we never, like, we have a Slack channel for all the breaking news and anybody in the company that finds it can put it in there. Nobody ever linked an actual article in the channel last night. It was Jason breaking the news and he said, not even breaking news. He just said in all caps, he was just like, oh, come on.

Yeah.

This is a sleeper episode and my sleeper today that I was all prepared for was Josh Downs, who I still, I still like, I'm still willing to draft, but not looking as good today as he was. I don't know, this time yesterday.

Yeah.

So we'll, we'll get into the signing of a veteran wide receiver there in just a moment.

But first, Performance Climbers presented by GMC.

Every week we've been looking at players that are moving up in their ADP, their average draft position. Week over week in performance climbers. 3 names each and every week. This week, Jonathan Brooks, Terrence Ferguson, Marshawn Lloyd are the names we're going to discuss. Jonathan Brooks has been flying up draft boards.

Oh yeah. Like to a point where I think it is getting inappropriate.

He's a rocket man.

I saw someone who said they play in a— it's a legit league that takes it very serious. They just had their draft. And Jonathan Brooks went in the 6th round.

Holy schnikes.

Yeah. And so that's that bad. I mean, that's just aggressive. I do think that's early. Bad. I mean, yes. I mean, I, I think it's earlier than is appropriate for a player who has yet to do anything, is still, I believe, the backup and isn't on a team that projects like, let's say he wins the job. Obviously, if Chuba goes down and he's there by himself, great. But that's not what is being— you're not drafting for that.

No.

Otherwise you'd be taking Blake Corum. You know that he would be the better option if that's what you're trying to do. You're drafting this guy because you think, hey, he's younger, he's more explosive, good offensive line, they want to run the ball. And he only has to overtake Chuba. He should, he could. But in that world where he does, Chuba's not going away and it's not like you're on a great offense. So What is his like, what do you see as both players are healthy this year? Jonathan Brooks is the better player. Maybe even early in the season, they make that transition. What's his bull case?

I mean, I think it's pretty high when you saw what Rico did last year for this very team, even in a world where people were starting Rico when Chuba was back. And they are the 10th highest run percentage team in the NFL. So to your point about the offensive line, I think it's about the first round talent and it's about the upside of a team that wants to run the football a ton. I feel like Rico took over the league for a while.

He did for a couple of games.

He had like a 3-game stretch where he dominated the league.

And then I think Brooks has a higher like potential than Rico does. Not that he will—

I mean, like last year Rico You know, everything about Jonathan Brooks is he could be a boat. Like he was—

where's JCM? Because you brought up Jacory Kroski yesterday. If you could start a team today, are you taking JCM 10 out of 10 times over Jonathan Brooks? Because JCM is a 7th, 8th round pick, right?

JCM right now is a 9th round pick.

Oh, you're saying in fantasy?

Yeah.

I thought you were like, he was drafted in the NFL in like the 7th or 8th round.

No, I said in fantasy-wise, Jonathan Brooks is, if he goes, in the same round as JCM. I just feel like it's a similar situation.

I would be taking Bill every single time because I feel quite confident that Bill is the starter right now. Like, it's certainly not for sure. And Rashad White, it may be far more timeshare than I think it's going to be. But it's like Brooks has done nothing except for, for get hurt. I'm okay with the bulkheads because I think if Jonathan Brooks hits, he's a top 24 running back. Like Rico had his time. He took over. It got kind of messy there. If y'all remember, like it was, oh, Rico took the job and then he's, and then coaches being coy about, well, who's the starter? And we all know it's supposed to be Rico. Then Chuba comes back and they're trying to say they don't want Chuba to lose his job to injury, but it was so clear that Rico was better on the ground. And then Rico became the starter again. Then it went back and forth. So I don't hate the idea of drafting Jonathan Brooks, but the fact that he was running back 58 in early June on Sleeper and he is now the running back 35, like this is, this man's in a different stratosphere.

Well, I don't think we knew anything about his health and whether they were confident with him in the beginning of the summer. Rico was 51% of the carries last year and 10% of the targets. And I think people are just looking for higher upside value later. I guess I find myself slightly more on the Brooks side of things where I am too.

It's just 6 grams intense.

I would take him over JCM.

Over JCM. What about, what about Dobbins? JK Dobbins?

I would probably take Brooks.

Wow. Yeah.

But mostly because I love Jonah Coleman, who could have easily been a sleeper name on today's show. And I don't like RJ Harvey and I don't trust Dobbins to stay healthy nor be kind of like he was a late signing, a late re-signing by Denver. So like I think part of the plan in the draft was see what happens. But is the future JK Dobbins? I don't think so. So I don't know.

Long term, but I think this year it's definitely Dobbins.

Yeah. So I mean, Jason, you didn't answer. Are you JCM or Jonathan Brooks?

I would be JCM. I loved Jonathan Brooks's film, but it's really tough coming into year 3 on a team that I still don't I don't think is a great offense. And I, and I, I believe that while he is going to be the more explosive back, I don't believe it will be a situation where now he is the only back in town. Chuba is a solid veteran there that, you know, hasn't, hasn't looked bad. And so he'll be involved. So if this just becomes a timeshare, I worry about that. I think it's easier for JCM to beat Rashad White. Than it is for Jonathan Brooks to beat Chuba. I think that's my—

I think Brooks is taking the job. It's just the at what point and when he does, is it actually valuable enough to start?

I will say if he gets the job entirely, if he like just wins and they're like, hey, this is the future of our team, we're going to unleash him. Two years ago, Chuba for the Panthers, he was the running back 13. So maybe the bowl case for, for Brooks is that, and I think that's when people are drafting him. They truly think he will be a top 15 running back if he wins that job. That's the part I'm a little bit more skeptical of.

The second name, Terrence Ferguson. If you don't know him, tight end, second year guy for the Los Angeles Rams. Somebody that I think we hoped would have success in a bigger way for fantasy last year. This is a tight end room. I know there's excitement around Ferguson, but it does have Colby Parkinson, who is the starter on the depth chart. Tyler Higbee is still there. Davis Allen, who has flashed, is still there. I believe Max Clare was the draft pick, right?

Yeah, it's a very, very busy—

like, I don't know what 12 personnel is if you start 4 tight ends at the same time. I don't know what that becomes number-wise, but let's talk about Terrence Ferguson because he's up about a round. I think some people are excited. Puka's dealing with the groin. I guess I feel a little bit like Sean McVay has fooled me a few times.

He certainly has.

I mean, even going back to like Gerald Everett, Gerald Everett, like I feel like they are like almost willing to just throw the ball to any tight end that's open ever.

They're willing to throw everybody off the scent.

Yeah, we will draft this player in the second just to trick you. Yeah, I think that the part of the reason that we feel fooled by McVay with different players, whether it's Allen Robinson or Gerald Everett, it's actually in part because Sean McVay has gotten so much fantasy value out of so many different people. Cooper Kupp was a sensational superstar. You're chasing best-case scenario. Puka, a 5th rounder, all of a sudden is literally maybe the best wide receiver in football. And so you're saying if you have talent and you put them on this offense, maybe something something truly special could happen. And that's the argument for Ferguson is you look at how many, you know, Colby Parkinson was a touchdown machine. Now he's in front of him right now on the depth chart. But at the same time, this is a player in Ferguson that is very different than the others. And what's happened this offseason and in preseason shows that a utilization of Ferguson as a much more full-time player, the way that McVay has been talking about him, as completely understanding every part of the system now. He's on the field, you know, in preseason for the starters.

He was on the field in all formations. In camp, he's been making play after play after play, and they really need a third option. And, you know, as Davante Adams is, you know, your number 2 option behind Davante, you have no idea of any kind of solid piece that can really step up. And then Obviously at that age, if Davante Adams falls off, drops off, deals with an injury and can't get back, there's an opportunity for someone to be a really talented pass catcher. He was, he dealt with injuries his rookie year. He didn't get on the field that much towards the end of the season. He started to finally get on the field. He was like up to 70% snaps. Then he got injured in the playoffs. He was, he was back up to some higher snap percentages. So we really haven't seen him, but on the limited snaps he had, he was over 20 yards of reception. This is a really like good pass catching weapon. So I think the argument for Ferguson is should he actually get 80% of the snaps, which I think is reasonable because of how many tight ends they use.

He has the opportunity to do something for fantasy that's special. That's my argument for him.

Yeah. 11 receptions last year. Like you said, 231 yards on those receptions. You know, you, you didn't get to see a lot. What you saw was explosive. And like, you know, we were kind of saying they must believe in Davante Adams because they didn't add more pass catchers. Maybe they do have more confidence in the tight end room. Marshawn Lloyd is the last name here in performance climbers. And he's appropriately gone up a round and a half in draft in ADP because we can actually talk about him this time of year because he's actually healthy right now. I mean, Marshawn Lloyd is a very talented player. The nice thing in preseason was that he was very clearly the backup to Josh Jacobs. There was a news report today that Jacobs is returning to practice. He was dealing with an—

ah!

Yeah, they all are. Butterfly, my friends.

Butterfly.

But yeah, I mean, Marshawn Lloyd is very similar to Jonathan Brooks in the—

very, yes.

He's a very talented, explosive running back who was young and like could be something special and just We haven't seen them. They've been injured their entire short young careers.

But it feels like one more injury in Marshawn Lloyd is the Kendray Miller route of like, yes, he's— see you later. We're never going to see you again.

Kendray Miller is the ultimate comp for Marshawn Lloyd. Talented back that, you know, it's like you— when they're on the practice field, usually it's like, whoa, explosive play. You hear some news and then too explosive exploded some part of his leg. I think there's more forgiveness for Jonathan Brooks because Jonathan Brooks tore his ACL twice, you know, and it's like, okay, it's a big injury. Marshawn Lloyd's broke.

Stabbed his toe.

Everything. He's now on his thumb with it.

Remember when he hit his thumb with the nail?

Oh, that was just bad aim. It was bad aim. You got to use a wooden mallet if you're Marshawn Lloyd. This is a player who's on his 72nd injury, so you don't expect him to actually be out there.

But if he is, there's a world where Lloyd and LG are just week 1 starters. Because Josh Jacobs, either he could reinjure the groin. He has missed some time or he could be suspended. We do not have conclusive like Jacobs, Nakua suspension news yet. So it's like there is a world where like the draft pick, if you're drafting this week and you get Marshawn Lloyd with your last pick, which you can't like that Ferguson and Lloyd are last pick or free agency. And if you get Lloyd, there's a chance he's literally starting for the Green Bay Packers in week 1.

Yep.

Yeah, that is true. And when you look around the league at the players who are really, really good insurance options, until Marshawn Lloyd is injured, he is a great insurance. Like Blake Corum, Marshawn Lloyd, Tank Bigsby, these are the players to me that are the best of the best. I don't really include Jonathan Brooks in that because I think he will actually be playing, not just an insurance back.

All right. That was Performance Climbers brought to you by GMC. We are professional grade. We'll take a break and come back with some news. All right. Let's do it.

News and notes from around the league.

All right. Jason broke the news to us last night. The Colts signed wide receiver Keenan Allen to a 1-year, $8.32 million contract.

Oh boy.

Keenan is 32 years young, entering year 14, played 7 seasons with Shane Steichen, by the way. That was 7 seasons with him in Los Angeles. You remember Steichen brought back Philip Rivers last year. The wildest thing to me is that Keenan Allen was the leading, he had the most receptions for the Chargers last year.

Yeah, nobody will remember, nobody remembers that. You say that and you're like, that's not true. That's true.

Yeah, it's also Kyle has, like, Kyle is the ultimate Keenan Allen truther, which I mean, to have a player of his caliber and be a truther for him, it that works out. Right now, Keenan Allen has the 10th most receptions of all time. Kyle, are we 100% sure? Because that is—

Come on, Mike.

Come on.

Hey, come on. I am just protecting myself from giving an incorrect stat. But so he's currently at 10th. Well, if he has 48 catches, yeah, we'll take him to 3 into the 3rd most receptions of all time.

He would pass TO and Tim Brown and Chris Carter and Marvin Harrison.

Volume machine, man.

So it's really an interesting signing.

Seems like a pretty necessary signing for the Colts.

We literally made an Ashton Dulin joke yesterday about—

and they heard us and they're like, yeah, okay.

I don't like the sound of that.

We'll bring him on board. The interesting question to me is how is he going to be utilized? I will say this. There was a part of me that wanted to pivot from Josh Downs on my sleeper pick today to Keenan Allen today because obviously in drafts he's going to go— his ADP will never catch up. He's going to be super duper late.

You know, he's so old he's getting to the long sleep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So he's way past REM. He's like the real deep.

He's way past REM.

Yeah. He's way past REM. But he's, he's getting towards RIP.

It's been a long—

he's getting towards— he's getting towards RIP sleep. And this is— this is a guy who's going to come out. If you remember last year, the first 4 weeks of the season, he was like the best wide receiver in fantasy. He was so good the first 4 weeks. It was like, oh man, he's eating Lad McConkie's lunch. And to start the year, you've got Alec Pierce working back from an ankle injury if he's even ready for week 1. The question has been about Josh Downs, whether he could play outside. He's always been their slot guy. And now this year with the absence of Michael Pittman, it was like, he's going to get the opportunity to play outside. He's had that in camp. That's part of why I was really excited to bring him in because the opportunities for him are—

the Colts were too enormous.

And then, you know, it's like now with Keenan there, I don't know who plays where, but Keenan is not signing this deal. To be on the bench and they need him. He will be involved. So I think, you know, if you're drafting a guy, maybe like a Malik Nabers who, you know, maybe there's a chance he still does, you know, he's not there week 1 or something. You just need a late round guy you can start for the first month. I think Keenan gets off to a—

he was at his career, he's at his career lowest yards per catch last year in Los Angeles. So that's something worth noting. It was at 9.6 inside outside, you know, where he'll be on the field, which is inside that first 15 yards.

Oh, Kyle snuck in an all-time among wide receivers, among wide receivers for the total receptions.

Okay.

I tell you what, I'll tell you who's catching 50 passes minimum this year is Keenan Allen.

Yeah. He, so you're going to have to drag him off the field. So Michael Pittman is not there. Alec Pierce, the recovery is, I think it's fair to say it's slower than the team expected. He's been out on the practice field walking around stretching, blah, blah, blah. Pierce will come back and make an impact.

But what's the difference between Michael Pittman and this version of Keenan Allen?

Probably nothing.

Like this version of Keenan Allen and last year's version of Michael Pittman, they're pretty, pretty close.

Yeah, they're probably not that different in terms of what this team needs. Now, you know, is it different for Keenan in Los Angeles last year where like maybe not, maybe, you know, Ladd was a, is a slot receiver. And Tyler Warren is going to be in the intermediate short area targets to compete with Keenan. But it's a pretty significant signing in terms of like the volume equation, especially for Josh Downs. I think Josh Downs, they paid all the money to Alec Pierce. Tyler Warren is getting all the targets. And when you fade back to pass, you're going to throw it to Keenan over Downs.

Do you have more interest in Keenan Allen or Stefon Diggs?

Diggs.

Yeah, I think Diggs has more long-term value for the season.

So there you go. A new lay of the land. Our updated rankings for Keenan Allen and the Colts are in the UDK at ultimatedraftkit.com. But he keeps going and he will help them and he knows the system. So Jordan Tyson. All right. Here, here, I'm going to try to give you some good news with the bad. The bad news. He's going to miss 2 months. That's pretty bad.

Yeah.

The good news. I've been told it was the other hamstring. Really? Than the one that was injured. That's what, that's what I was told. That it was a different hamstring. Is that good?

I mean, it's just systematically weakening his entire body.

What I thought I—

Kyle said that, that is the case as well.

Okay. All right. Well, I mean, yeah, I guess, I guess it's better. Maybe it's better.

Regardless, his capacity to injure both.

This does mean that he's not there at the beginning of the season.

Makes him a brutal pick.

A 2-month timeline says I would not be surprised if they just put him on the PUP guaranteeing that he misses the first 4 weeks of the season. That's what I was probably the smart thing to do. You've got to protect himself from himself.

I think on PUP though, he actually, if it, if you're going to get that news, that's probably the best case scenario for you. If you're talking for your draft, if you have an IR spot like people are going to be itching, you know, Kyle, what's his ADP, like 6th round or so. So he'll probably—

that's mid to late October return.

I'm around like probably around the 8th or the 9th round. I'm going to guess people will start getting a little sweaty and be like, hmm, Jordan Tyson, just put him on my IR and I get him when he comes back. So it's, it really, really sucks. It It takes the ceiling case that I've been making for Tyler Shook. It really damages that. I still believe in Shook as a fantasy quarterback. He was on pace for over 4,200 yards without Jordan Tyson when he took over as the sleeper. The conversation of, you know, we were talking George Kittle and saying, you know, Jake, if Kittle doesn't play the first couple of weeks, Tondre is a great backup.

Joan Johnson overtakes that now of someone who just another name to add to this late tight end list.

And you really should be paying attention like Joan Johnson.

I might not draft any early tight ends. I'm starting to fall in love with all the many late guys. I mean, you can bring Kincaid, Goddard, Likely, Joan Johnson. I mean, and there's, there's more.

Ferguson. There's a lot. I will remind you there is almost When we hit this point in the year, there almost is always a ton of guys who are like, they're kind of interesting. They're pretty interesting. And then we get into week 2 and we're like, they all stink.

Yeah, I mean, that's true.

But the process does work. But Jawan Johnson has the— he has been making tons of plays in training camp. Like the, you know, the drumbeat for Tyson was extremely loud. It has been loud for Jawan Johnson, but it felt like Okay, if we have Olave and if you have two top 10 wide receivers on the field, how does, how was there enough for Jawan Johnson? But now there definitely is.

Well, they have Barryon Brown as well who's been making deep sleepers.

I would imagine Velay will be the one who comes in and is the starter opposite. And I mean, if you're talking Bryce Lance was a fourth round wide receiver as well.

Yeah.

And you, you're familiar with the, I'm familiar with the Lance boys and their work or lack of work.

Breece Hall groin injury out 2 to 3 weeks according to Aaron Come on, man. Matt LaFleur said Josh Jacobs with his started doing butterfly stretching and will return to practice today.

Yes. Thank you, Jason.

I've been trying to tell you guys.

I had to DM Josh about this.

How far do you get in your butterfly?

I don't get as far as I want. I'm not knees on the ground. No, nowhere.

Yeah. But you know who doesn't have a groin injury right now?

Jason Moore.

That's right.

I don't. Rams head coach Sean McVay said Puka is still dealing with soreness in his groin.

I'll DM him.

By the way, I want to apologize to everybody. Groinindex.com has not been what we've made up. It's not our fault. These have not been officially reported groin injuries. These are just on the lowdown.

Yeah.

Like, I don't know.

These are unofficially official.

When the season starts. The Groin Index is tied into the official reports on the injury report, unfortunately.

Yeah, a week before the season.

We don't have the Groin Rumor Index.

Right.

Yeah. We should look into that. I will say it's very good news. Because should these have been official, I can't imagine growing index could have handled this amount of work. It probably would have. It's just like too much data would have broken the site. Yeah. Our hard drive is not large enough.

Doom, butterflies, scratchings. The Giants are signing.

Can we just put a picture like of how to on there for the time being?

Yeah, we can try. Yeah. Let's get that. Let's get that done. Get the devs on it. Instructional diagram for butterfly stretching. The Giants are signing former Steelers and Chargers running back Najee Harris to a 1-year contract.

I think—

That's so courteous of them calling him a former Chargers running back, isn't it?

I—

That's really how it's being reported for. I mean, it's true, but former Chargers.

So some depth here.

I think there might be more to it. This is—

What say you?

Najee is a great pass protector and Tyrone Tracy did his very best to get Jackson Dart murdered, murdered in a preseason game. I think they might be also concerned about like, is Skadaboo ready to go? I think there is, there could be something to this.

When I looked at this running back core, I thought one of the best in the league. Like without Najee, you're talking about a young stud in Skadaboo. You know, Tracy, a capable back. Tracy is very capable. And Devin Singletary, he's still fine as a veteran, as your third back. I looked at this group like, wow, what a good core. The fact that they went out and signed Najee said they don't think— they feel that they have a need. And so that—

yes, that's where it's big concern.

It's like kicking the tires. I mean, Najee's coming off an Achilles injury at an older age.

Yes.

I feel like maybe it was—

I don't know if it will work for the Giants. I'm just saying like this is a signal to me that they're concerned about some things. And it's G-Ro, man.

Yeah.

G-Ro apparently loves Najee Harris.

Familiar with his work or lack thereof. And he's like, if he had been healthy, my whole season would have been better.

It makes me a little more hesitant on the Skadaboo ADP.

You'd be surprised if Skadaboo was dominating and doing everything. It's just like he's, he's just taking over practice that they would go out and sign him. Now I will say this.

I don't feel like he's the, I think the name is bigger than the maybe be the real sign. Could be like Nick, like, like if Nick Chubb got signed right now, right? Do we? That's how I look at it.

Maybe is the, but like, does he make the team? Well, that's what I was just about to say. He makes the team. That's what I was about to say.

A 1-year deal.

If he exactly right, Andy, if he makes the final roster, then I'm a little bit concerned with Skadaboo's ADP right now.

We're getting the butterfly stretch up there. All right. Let's jump into sleepers.

Sleepers.

I want you to get up on this desk and kind of demonstrate what they're—

no.

Sleepers. We have a bunch of consensus sleepers in the Ultimate Draft Kit at ultimatedraftkit.com. These are our individual picks and some of these kind of deeper sleepers, deeper sleepers today. We define sleepers as players who are drafted later that—

or maybe not drafted—

or not drafted, players you might not know about, but could have an impact. 3 names. I went with a wide receiver, Jason, a running back. Mike, you went with a wide receiver. Why don't you start? Because I'm sure your energy's very high for this gentleman. It is.

And this is— look, this is a deeper sleeper where perhaps this is not a draft situation. It may like— but, you know, a larger leagues, I'll be interested in this player. I'm talking about Pat Bryant, second year wide receiver of the Denver Broncos. The drumbeat of camp is deafening about Pat Bryant. Every, like, I've seen so many interviews of just of teammates. They're saying, okay, who's the guy? Who's the guy in this year's? Pat Bryant. All of them are saying Pat Bryant. Coach Payton is infatuated with Pat Bryant. He's talking about him all the time. Of, you know, like how he— Kay Adams, how are you going to keep him off the field? We're not, is the answer from, from Coach Payton. Even Vance Joseph, the DC, is talking up Pat Bryant. And so just a couple of stats here. It was slow for him, but it's always round 3 or later wide receivers. They just, they don't make noise at the beginning of the year historically. You know, like when you look at the gigantic sample size, but towards the end of the year, he really was starting to do some stuff. From Week 11 on, he was averaging 6 targets, targeted on 22% of his routes.

If you remember the playoff games, there was some unfortunate injuries, but you had the game against Buffalo. Pat Bryant took 3 offensive snaps in that game. Pat Bryant had 3 receptions for 32 yards. In on 3 snaps. Like he was really becoming a part of the offense. You have, it's a, it's a little bit more murky now. You have Jalen Waddle and Courtland Sutton, but just all reports talking about Pat Bryant being the guy, maybe he even overtakes Courtland Sutton this year. And it's like, is there enough volume? Well, last year, Bo Nix led the NFL in pass attempts. I don't know if the Denver Broncos are going to lead the the NFL in pass attempts again, but it's there. The coaches are willing to, to go that route if they feel like this is how we have to win games. And this stat in particular is very interesting to me of he is one of 5 round 3 wide receivers over the last decade to average 6 or more targets from week 11 on. And I'm telling you, round 3 guys really don't do anything from in the first half of the year. But from Week 11 on to average 6 or more targets, here are the rookies who did it.

Terry McLaurin, Diontae Johnson, Cooper Kupp. Here's a clunk. Lynn Bowden Jr., if you remember him. But Terry, Diontae, Cooper Kupp, and Pat Bryant, like, it's— the volume was starting to increase. You saw it in the playoff games. He got knocked out early from both of them. But he looks like he's the real deal and he's just, he's a great route runner. You know what you had Coach Payton when they drafted him saying, I kind of see a little bit of Michael Thomas. Now maybe that's just hyperbolic coach pumping him up. But the way that it has transformed to this offseason, the Denver Broncos seem like they are all in on Pat Bryant taking a huge step for their offense.

I think the interesting thing about Denver on in the wide receiver room, in the running back room, is that there isn't a consolidation that is obvious to us in terms of the utilization of— you got 3 running backs that are going to get a bunch of snaps. And then my biggest worry about Bryant is just the existence of like the Sutton, Mayers, Franklin universe. Can we get consolidation in your opinion to the point where—

I do.

Where Pratt Bryant, you know, takes over?

I do think that watching Courtland Sutton over the last couple of years, he is still a, he's like, he's still a starter. Like he deserves to be out there on the NFL field, but we're towards the end for Courtland Sutton. And if you have a new emerging wide receiver who, if you play him all the time, all your offense is better, Peyton strikes me as someone who will make that change.

There are few to perhaps none of any players this offseason who I, who I've read more constant positive news about than Pat Bryant. He is really truly like every time that there's an open practice, there's tons of different reporters. It's not just the guys from Denver. Everyone everywhere, any kind, there's, you know, inter-team scrimmage. It's like he has been the big leap forward guy. And I think it's important to realize those day 2, day 3 picks, they do get off to slow starts in their rookie year. That is, that is, you know, when you bring up the second half of the year for Pat Bryant and how good he was, that's pretty much all you are asking.

Like, that's, that is, that's what you can look at.

That's what you can look at to see success in future years. And so I, I don't know what you do. I mean, to me, this is more of a dynasty take. Like, I don't know if I'm drafting him in redraft at the end of drafts or not just to hope that he's on the field. You can, and perhaps he, you know, he starts week 1 and overtakes Courtland Sutton in target order, if not in snaps. But in a dynasty league, he's got a much brighter future than what his rookie year looked like. So the value should be under what, you know.

Sure. I am also bringing him up. Like I said, I don't know if this is a draft Pat Bryant, but this is a, in the first few weeks, if, if like the, the auxiliaries, you know, like, so the, the amount of routes he's running and maybe the production doesn't match it. He is a player that, that if he starts making noise, I will be aggressive on the waiver wire. You know, sometimes you just have to be. We bring these names up so that you are ready when we're like, hey, the number one waiver pickup this week.

There's smoke. There might, you know, and the fire starts to go. Pick them up. You want to go next? You want me to go, Jay? You too.

I'll hop in. I'll hop in since you guys both have wide receivers. I'll go with a running back. My sleeper this year is Jordan Mason. I've brought him up on pretty much every mock draft. He's the guy in the later rounds that I am looking for to find.

Fill out your running back for the Vikings.

Yes, running back for the Minnesota Vikings, for Kevin O'Connell and for the new running game for the Vikings. I don't know if you guys are aware, we're, you know, we're not in Minnesota, but the biggest news outside of the quarterback battle is all about the change of scheme. Kevin O'Connell has talked about it in every single interview across the board that their big takeaway lesson from last year is that they need to rely on their defense and run the ball better. So starting the day after their last game last year, they got together and they changed their scheme. They're going to a vertical wide zone scheme. The entire reason is to fit their personnel, they said. That's the San Francisco— that's the San Francisco, you know, design. That's, that's their scheme. Implementing that because it fits their personnel and their personnel is really Jordan Mason. Now Jordan Mason is a guy that's not going to catch a ton of passes.

He's—

that's not his profile. But I do think he will be a very, very dominant running game player. He'll be the goal line back. This offense should be significantly better without 9 running it into the ground. Even if you look last year without that scheme, In the games without 9 at quarterback, you had him scoring 10.6 fantasy points per game. That's not like, oh my gosh, you've got to put him in. But that's like quality for a team that was really struggling on offense. And keep in mind, when JJ McCarthy wasn't there, it wasn't like they had the answer, you know, and they had some other great quarterback playing. It was Carson Wentz and, you know, and issues. Jordan Mason is perfect for this scheme. I, if you look at him versus Aaron Jones, especially this version of Aaron Jones, and you look at head-to-head outside zone scheme, Jordan Mason has averaged 5.86 yards per carry, one of the best in the entire league versus Jones 4.3. Missed tackles forced 0.29 versus 0.1. Explosive rush rate 9 to 3. This scheme is made for Jordan Mason. All the camp reports are saying every day he breaks one long, one long run every day.

And, you know, he's got that in his bag. In fact, you know, since, since coming in the league as an undrafted free agent in 2022, there's Devin Achan and Jameer Gibbs. There's only two players with a higher yards per carry than Jordan Mason.

It's, yeah, it's hard to It's hard to even think about Jordan Mason that way of like, it's, it's not, it has not been a ton, a ton of, of opportunity for him. He had the year where, you know, he took over for, cause Christian McCaffrey was going to be totally fine until he missed 10 weeks. And it was like Jordan Mason was awesome during that period for San Francisco. And you, you think back in your head, I'm like, man, I liked Jordan Mason last year. I don't think he was really that good. It didn't work out. He ran for 4.8 yards of carry, like on a terrible team. If you get this offense fixed up and I think Kevin, I'll still believe in Kevin O'Connell, even though I'm not a huge Kyler Murray guy, even if he's not catching passes, but he is the primary runner and the goal line running back where he's being drafted. To give you running back 2 numbers would be just outrageous at that point.

We talk about at the end of drafts, try to target teams that look like they might have a good offense and you're not sure who the running back is. So like Washington and Ja'Cory Cross, Cross-Gamara, that's, that's one of those guys where it's like you're targeting him because you think he's the lead guy and you think that Washington could have a good offense. I think that with Kevin O'Connell and Kyler Murray, Minnesota could have a good offense. And then it's just a question of, well, who is it? Because right now, ADP-wise, Aaron Jones, I believe, is still going above him. Double-check that.

Pretty close.

There have been some talk about Claiborne too, right?

Yes. I will say he's just a deep sleeper to keep an eye on, a very explosive rookie.

He's very small.

He was a rookie last year though, right?

No.

Yeah. He's a rookie coming in this year.

Kyle just pulled this up. Mason had more 10-plus yard runs than Travion Henderson last year.

Yeah.

Mason was doing things very quietly because it wasn't frequently turning the page.

That's kind of his build.

That's kind of like, I like the idea of focusing on the scheme change because I feel like that's what benefited him in San Francisco.

Yeah.

I think in certain schemes or situations, he doesn't look that explosive. He doesn't look that special. But if they're moving things to be more forgiving for him.

Speaking of the build, here's a quote from Kevin O'Connell from this month. He was talking to the press. He says, you guys could probably even tell. Just the way he looks. He's in unbelievable shape right now. I think the things that he thrives at we're emphasizing in some aspects of our different run game schemes. And he's reportedly down about £15, which we've talked about, you know, that when I was just going to say, and he's like a big boy. Yeah.

And you don't, he's like Jordan Mason. I don't think we have him listed at 230.

Yeah.

So if he's down to 215, get that explosive speed up.

All right. All right. We'll take a break and come back. I'm going to share my final sleeper with you. All right, we got Pat Bryant, we got Jordan Mason, and then I'm going to bring up a name that I will not be surprised if he has 5 receptions or more in Week 1 of the NFL season. I don't think Mike likes it, but I'm going to go.

No, no, I was going to say the drumbeat of hype is like off the top of my head where I was just, okay, what's been going on? Pat Bryant, Parker Washington, and this guy are like, those are the big three of who have been getting the publicity.

It's Cyrus Allen, rookie wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs. It's time we talked about him more in depth. Fifth round pick. A lot of people out there surprised he made it that long.

He was not invited to the combine.

Yeah, he is. What's wild about him too is that he had the third most touchdowns in the FBS last year. This is a player that, like you said, it has been a solid drumbeat throughout the entire preseason. Patrick Mahomes is healthy and back. Tyquan Thornton is out with a hamstring. Rashee Rice hasn't looked himself. Travis Kelce is old. Xavier—

Travis Kelce route up.

Xavier— Yeah, I did.

I did it with the slowest Oh, I missed that.

Yeah, it was a lumbering cut and then he just was wide open.

Who was faster, Rashee Rice or Travis Kelce right now?

Rice.

Yeah, Rice. But Xavier Worthy also hurt on this team. The Thornton news came out today, like literally before we did the show. He got carted off of practice. It's a hamstring injury. Cyrus Allen has been, and this is, this is a quote, undoubtedly Patrick Mahomes' favorite target in the preseason. Played with the starters. If you go, I watched every route. That he ran in the preseason game. I watched every Senior Bowl practice. If you go watch the Senior Bowl practice, which by the way, that was one of the places where Lad McConkie stuck out the most to me when he came into the NFL. You're talking about a player that is extremely versatile. He played out wide almost exclusively as an underclassman. Then he played in the slot almost exclusively with Cincinnati last year. He's a 5th round pick. The team has talked about, not us, the team has talked about similarities to Stefon Diggs. He made plays in the first preseason game, climbed the ladder. They targeted him frequently. He took an end around kind of the Andy Reid style, like get him a screen pass and let him run, looked really fast. So right now you have the combination of preseason hype with tons of injury and depth concerns at wide receiver on this team.

And a player that I think is slowly but surely emerging. You know, there, there are great opportunities and his best ball ADP is something you can pay attention to. He was undrafted. It's climbed all the way to the 15th round. They're favored in their first 6 games of the year. I think Cyrus Allen is one of those situations where I'm trying my best not to just dismiss a preseason hype candidate for Patrick Mahomes because other different players with different skills and different opportunities didn't succeed on the same hype train.

Sure.

Right. And that's the big thing is like, can I go watch the film and say this player has something or doesn't? I think he'll especially be very good against zone defenses. I think those are the routes where like he, you know, he talked about like his biggest pet peeve is not being open on every play. Like this is a player that seems really dedicated to his craft. And the fact that the league's best quarterback already has this level of trust in a rookie is something to pay attention to. It doesn't mean that it could be like Pat Bryant where you're, he goes undrafted, right? But you're paying such close attention to week 1, or maybe you've drafted a player that belongs on IR, you flip them to IR and then you sign Cyrus Allen just to watch what happens in week 1 of the NFL season. Is Worthy going to be there? Is Thornton going to be there? Do those guys even impact the kind of targets that Cyrus Allen is going to receive for the Chiefs? That's TBD. But I think he's one of those guys we have to say out loud, We are in it 24/7 all offseason.

There are people that have come back to the show. We had comments on yesterday's show. It was like, oh, you guys just have new screens on the back wall. Like people are coming back to the party to fantasy right this moment and have not heard Cyrus Allen's name ever because it wasn't a, it wasn't a combine name. It wasn't a draft day name. And today's the day they hear the name.

So here are a couple arguments against that I think people are going to make. Mike has said this around the office all the time. Every year there's a Kansas City guy. Yeah. Oh, it's this guy's, this guy's, this guy's.

Because we have hopes and dreams.

We know who Mahomes is.

Yeah. And so you have hopes and dreams and Mike says, you know, it just, it never works out. He's not buying in. There's also, I just did the Just the Tips for this last Saturday on YouTube. You could check that out. One of those things was talking about if you're not a first round wide receiver, day 2, day 3, You know, those drafted wide receivers don't usually get off to a strong start. The snap percentages is low. So those are the arguments against them. I am in on Cyrus Allen. And here's why. Andy is completely correct that you can't just say because other things didn't work out, it can't work out. That was when I was super in on Rashee Rice as a rookie.

Yeah, that was the same narrative.

Everything I heard was no more. There was a bunch of them.

Yeah, there were.

I can't even remember them because they all fizzled out and were worthless. But yes, Skymore and last year a little bit of Jalen Royals Hope. Yeah, I mean, there's, it's just always those guys. Here's why I'm in on Cyrus Allen. The snap percentages for later round rookie drafts, wide receivers is extraordinarily low to start the year. They don't get on the field. That's why it's a bad pick. I think he's going to be on the field.

I think he might start week one.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah. Yeah.

He's been running with the ones exclusively.

Yeah.

He was on, you know, every snap with Patrick Mahomes and granted it's preseason. So maybe they're just getting him some expectation and week one comes out and he doesn't play. He's 27% of snaps, 46% of snaps. Okay. Cut bait and bail immediately if that happens. But I do think there's a world where Week 1, he is 80% plus snaps, and that doesn't happen for these guys. And the other reason I like him, it's because he's good. Like, his— I love watching his routes. I think he reminds me— I mean, he just— his crispness, his sharpness of his routes is like— I mean, I think it's going to match up well for this team.

So I'm optimistic.

Yeah. So here's average for day 3 wide receivers snap counts for weeks 1 through 6. 24% snaps. That is the— that is that— it is a bad—

you don't get the opportunity.

I wanted to talk about Caleb Douglas. You know, he's another rookie wide receiver. The later round rookie wide receivers, they do not usually work to draft them. Pick them up off of waiver wires. Get that second half of the year. I make an exception here solely because I think he's just been exclusively running the ball.

Please don't get hurt before we get to see. That is the message, Cyrus. You've already limped off once or twice in practice. Don't get hurt before we get to find out if we're wrong. Please. Pretty please. Injuries every day. By the way, we have 10 tips and tricks coming up tomorrow and a huge announcement on tomorrow's show.

Yes, we do.

By the way, Tyreek Hill, 5th round pick. So I mean, it's pretty much set. Puka Nacua, 5th round pick.

Tyreek Hill, 5'10", 191. Cyrus Hill, 5'11", 180.

Cyrus Hill? Cyrus Hill? Is that his nickname?

Cyrus Hill.

We got Fred Durst and Cypress Hill. This rookie class is going to get the band together.

Oh my gosh.

I can do them too.

Yeah, we got 10 tips and tricks, a huge announcement on tomorrow's show. You don't want to miss it. Trust me, it's something you've been asking for for a while. On Thursday, we'll get into the bust and value picks. On Friday, we'll do Mock Draft Mayhem as well. I do have one thing I wanted to touch on. Yesterday's show was absolutely crazy. What did he say? Yes, thank you. Yesterday's show was nuts. But at the end of the show, Jason and I were talking about like Ramondre and we were going back with Ramondre and Travion and it got like thick.

I don't even want to tell you what happened after the show.

People ask us all the time.

Fisticuffs.

Yeah, we fought. We fought in the street.

We didn't or you'd see he'd be—

I'd be dead.

It was body shots only.

Right. That's yeah. No, for the show we can't go face to face.

Hollywood gentlemen's agreement.

We'd both butterfly stretch before we fought, by the way. Of course. And we're our groins?

Fine.

Feeling good. So we had that whole discussion. And by the way, people ask us all the time. It's one of the questions they ask in the Discord. They're like, you know, you guys have been doing this for 12. This is, I think, our 12th, 13th season.

And we've worked together for 20 years now.

Well, yeah. And so they're like, do you fight? Do you guys argue? What's your biggest disagreements? And it's been like a couple of football things before, right? Which is amazing. I looked this up this morning, Jason.

Okay.

I have known you for 28 years. 28 years. I met Jason as a freshman in high school.

I met Andy as a senior in high school.

Yes.

Yeah.

In the same class. But I want to say something though. Basically, I think one of the reasons we haven't fought for all those years is because Jason is a tremendously gracious man. Forgiving person. And if he wasn't, maybe we would have fought more because I don't think I'm the one that probably stopped us from fighting. So I want to just say that. And I want to say that sometimes when I host the show, I miss the mark a little bit. Yesterday was one of those days. So I just wanted to apologize to Jason for letting disagreement become a little bit disrespectful.

On behalf of Jason. I know.

I know.

I don't accept the apology.

Jason can turn on his shirt. But I don't want it. My job as a host, like I really want to do a good job of letting people breathe and say something. And as opposed to like disrespecting somebody. So I feel like I kind of did that yesterday. So I just wanted to apologize.

Jake just, he's just saying just make out already. So if you're in, we can wrap the show up.

Let me wrap the show up.

I was going to say that just proves that Jason's very passionate about his Travion Henderson take.

It does.

Or I like Ramondre.

Put 10 toes down.

All right. See y'all.

Goodbye.

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