Transcript of Undrafted Gems + ALMOST Football Time! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/8

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

Welcome in.

That was, that was upsetting to my soul.

I find that that's what you say. Pretty offensive. Yeah.

Like, guys, I mean, was that spot on? Deucers are nodding.

Andy nailed it. The end of that. That's what I'm talking about. The end of that was troubling to me. Is that how you hear my voice? That's how you hear my voice. Welcome in.

Look, your voice is still struggling. We couldn't have week 1 opening without him.

Especially after our live underdraft, all the shouting and screaming last night. Oh, brother.

I'm all for substitutionary welcomes and we can make other people rotate through until I get But I'm here and we had our League of Record draft last night. That did not help the vocal recovery. I would say it did help the Mike celebratory—

Oh man.

Mike was the Super Duper Champ last year.

Yes.

And he, so he won in our dynasty and our League of Record and he has enjoyed that very much. And so the champ often does something special at the draft and Mike, Mike had, when I showed up, there were 2 banners bigger than I knew they could make that had been hung from the walls.

One of them very inappropriately hung.

He's removed, like he removed things from the wall to get these to fit. I mean, like they are gigantic super banners, which, okay, step one complete. I expected a super banner. Then I rolled up and there were some hands that like he had, he had brought in a bartender. And so there was a bartender with a bar. He had hung his own banner from that. And so, and then he had his own custom cocktail.

Yes.

Which was actually quite delicious. Very refreshing. And, and Al had so many, he drafted all wide receivers the whole night long.

And so it was part of my, like, I didn't really have picks.

Right.

So it was part of my strategy was get everyone to get people off of their game. Let the players drop to me. They didn't drop to me.

No, no, they didn't. But I mean, your team's all right. So then we get, we get going and like we're all set up and we're getting ready for the draft. And then the icing on the cake was in rolls 2 fine gentlemen, part of a jazz duo.

Yes.

So we had live jazz right next to Mike's drafting spot.

We had an upright bass and guitar.

Which was, dude, it was unbelievably good. Honestly, when they showed up, I felt bad for them. I was like, these guys don't want to be here in this room of, fantasy football nerds doing a draft and they're like, why are we here? Why are you paying us to do live jazz music here? But then it was awesome. They loved it. And every time they stopped to take a break or something, it was like, this is, this is not as good as when they were playing. No.

And I will say, on the other hand, I think the bartender had the time of his life. He is normally dealing with mother-in-laws at weddings and ends up at the league record draft and it was a good time. So that's what we did last night. And now mercifully a new season begins. Not a, not a year of Mike, right? Al, it's over. That's right. Yeah, it's over.

And we're covering the years, a game on this episode.

Yeah. Mike's dynasty team. If it doesn't win 5 straight from here on out, he'll be bummed. But you were saying we're going to cover an actual game today. We have football starting Listen to this.

Tomorrow. Oh, but tomorrow is Wednesday.

That is in fact what the NFL is willing to do any day, all the time.

I'll forgive it on week 1.

Yeah, I'm fine. Week 1, I am fine with it. Week 1, I'll forgive it.

But don't worry, there's a Thursday game.

Yeah, no, this is great. Oh, that's right.

It's Thursday football.

And also Sunday and Monday and it's going to be great. And we're finally here. And 99% of you have drafted your teams. There are still Megalobowl drafts taking place. I believe Papa Josh, you're back there. Did we add a— I don't want to speak out of turn. Yes, we have a noon Wednesday draft.

Correct.

So we have our final Megalobowl drafts and apologies for those that drafted in the very first spot. There was a bump with the sleeper system. We had to redraft a couple of leagues and that's never happened before, but apologies on that. Drafts have been happening. If you want to get in the Megalobowl, it is official. We have the most people that have ever been in the Megalobowl.

Oh baby.

This year. And you can go to megalobowl.com. It is our super league, $22,000 to $25,000 range right now. I'm not sure what the exact number is. I know we passed the record, but there's drafts today.

Yes. There's a draft at 8 PM Eastern tonight. So if you want to draft tonight, you can still get in and there's another draft tomorrow.

Before the games at noon or noon.

I believe it's 1:30 PM Eastern.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's track this down.

There's a lot of different times. I thought it was noon. I thought it was noon Central.

It is not. I mean, it's close. It's noon 30 Central.

Noon 30.

1:30. I'm looking right now. I'm— I'll tell you right now. I'm in that queue. So that's where I'm going to be drafting. Times always display in your local time zone.

Whoa.

Look at us.

Yeah.

Our UK friends, whatever draft time shows up is your draft time. It'll show it right there. So I'm looking at 10:30 AM tomorrow for our time is when I will be drafting.

So hopefully everybody's drafts went really well this past weekend. About 50% of, I think we had about 50% of the people drafting had a big draft this weekend. So it's fun. It's time to go. We got to, we got to finally see how players perform. We got tons of stuff on today's show. We got the waiver wire looking at undrafted gems. Guys that you can pick up, maybe see what happens in week 1. I think that's the biggest—

I'm going to need these names.

Post-draft tip. Mike does. Mike is, uh, his team is thin.

Yes.

His team is strong but thin.

As they would say, stars and scrubs.

Yes. So we'll talk waiver wire, undrafted gems today. We will preview the Wednesday Night Football game. If we have time, we'll get in some mailbag. We got news to cover. We got a lot going on. And of course, all season long, 17 weeks. Join the community. Use the ultimate dashboard. Get your start-sit tool, all of the rankings, tons of free stuff on the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. Always going to have resources for you. We have continued to refine our weekly rankings processes individually. You're talking 12 years worth of iteration and improvement to try to give you an advantage each and every week. We want to help everybody out, whether you're a part of the Foot Clan or not. Tons of free resources, articles. Kyle Borgogan is in the house today.

Yeah, he is.

He was in for the draft yesterday, recorded a show this morning, and he is our editor-in-chief taking care of business with the articles. And those are all for free available at thefantasyfootballers.com as well. So quick question of the day is one of my favorite of all time because it's just true. And so this, this quick question of the day is amazing. It is who is a player that you might have been on the fence about. But now that you drafted him, and I'm going to say last night in our draft, you're behind him 100%. You really see the arguments for this player now. And I mean, outstanding.

I could tell you one. I could tell you the most truthful one because it is exactly what you're saying where I was really on the fence until on the clock, me and my co-manager, we talked ourselves into the upside.

And since that time, I was like, you've now confirmed it.

I've confirmed it. We were in a— we're in another draft right now and I took him again.

Oh yeah.

It's, it's Bucky Irving. Amazing. Bucky Irving is going to be so good, guys. I am sure of it. 24 years old.

He's still young.

He was dealing with the shoulder injury. That injury has passed. It's wheels up, baby. He's in flight. Also, I drafted Blake Corum. He is going to be a sensational superstar. Oh my God.

The Blake Corum one is awesome.

To be fair, I have, I have not changed on Blake Corum.

No, but you drafting him is comedic.

I want, I mean, I went into that draft saying I have to leave this draft with Blake Corum. He's one of the best picks in fantasy. That's like, I know I am Mr. Kyren Williams. I still am. I think Kyren's going to be a top 12 running back.

You're going to be Mrs. Blake Corum.

Hey, you available, Blake? No, I love Blake Corum. He's an excellent back.

Should be, you know, rostered everywhere. So would you say like right now because he's on your team? Would you say you're kind of rooting for like Blake Corum to take over the backfield and like dominate?

Because he's on my team. Yes.

Yeah.

I don't have Kyren. I have Blake. So come on. I hope I'm wrong about Kyren.

My, my, my player in this category of on the fence about, but once I drafted him, I'm 100% about was Woody Marks. Woody Marks, who I got so late in this draft. I wanted to add a little running back depth and I was trying to talk myself into who was available. And you know what? I realized right after I drafted Woody Marks that those 50-50 timeshare conversations in Houston really rung true to me. You know what I mean? They really seemed authentic and real. And I'm, you know, old busted David Monfortuny, just pretty much on the edge of retirement.

I've been trying to tell you.

Woody Marks. I mean, this guy is explosive. And who says the young guy can't take over the backfield? So obviously change of heart there right about the 8th round.

And it wasn't a change of heart, but Malik Willis, I just have gone from being like, this is, this is a good end of draft pick as like a QB2, which he, that's what he is for me too. I mean, the guy's just oozing with top 5 upside clearly. I mean, with the amount that, the amount that he's going to run. And we're— look, Chris Bell is totally going to work. His ACL is very fine. And special shout out.

Speaking my language, Mike.

Special shout out here because Kyle is in the building. And if you listen to the Fantasy MVP show, Kyle had some strong words for this character who is now on our team, George Halani.

Come on now. You're a Halani bro now.

Oh man.

We're fully in.

We love the guy.

Unbelievable.

Unquestioned goal line running back for the Seattle Seahawks.

I mean, if you want to know where Mike was draft pick-wise yesterday, just speak George Halani's name. That's about where you were drafting players you might have to flex at that point.

Yeah. Well, come on. Who out there, how many drafts are going on where Halani is not being drafted?

Lots.

I think, I think everyone.

No.

I think everyone.

Well, not everyone. Not as I drafted him.

No, that's true.

Because he's 8 touchdowns coming in. I'm just coming in hot.

Al, was there anybody in this category for you? I know I'm putting you on the spot, but I know you have a lot of wideouts and things like that. Was there anybody that you drafted that you were like on the fence about, but now are convinced might perform for your team? No, I knew they'd all be great when I drafted them. Okay. All right. We'll just go right into the news.

News and notes from around the league.

In the least exciting announcement of all time, the Falcons announced Tua Tagovailoa will start in week 1 against the Steelers.

Sure took their time.

Yeah. One week before kickoff and they know who their starter is. I think this is a Penix not ready to go yet, or at least that's how it's being approached because that gives them the ability to say, you were always going to be the starter, Penix.

I took Tua Tagovailoa in a draft.

You don't have to. Some things you don't have to say out loud.

It was an 18th pick. Yeah, that was a G.

Final pick of the draft. He was in my queue. He was the last quarterback that anyone could take that wasn't a full backup. It was crazy. Shane Steichen, this is good news, said Alec Pierce is expected to play in week 1 against the Ravens.

Come on. All good news. We want all good news this week.

Rome Odunze was not seen practicing.

Didn't you listen to Mike a second ago?

Yeah.

We want all good news.

Just the good stuff.

No, I didn't.

See, that's what you sound like.

Rome Odunze not practicing, but Kyle Minungai is back at practice. DeAndre Swift back at practice.

Yes.

Jonathan Brooks worked to the side at practice again on Monday. General soreness.

Oh, general salute to you.

Let me say this. I realized something about—

He's keeping Brooks on the sideline.

I want to be in on Jonathan Brooks, but let me tell you, I am a weak-willed individual when it comes to that. I realized that if I see one, like one step on a clip from him at practice that doesn't look right. I all of a sudden want to be so out and like Chuba for life. Like I am terrified of Jonathan Brooks, but it could work, but it might not work.

Yeah.

What team does he play for, Jay?

He plays for the Dead Ringers, Andy.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. Because I drafted him and he's going to be so great.

Yeah.

I'm in.

Cardinals head coach Michael LaFleur said he's optimistic Jeremiah Love will be able to play on Sunday against the Chargers. You'd love to see that.

We would. I don't like that verbiage for week 1.

I mean, what, what will happen? I just realized this. I mean, it doesn't seem possible, but what will happen if when we come in on Monday next week, the Chargers who are supposed to be great lose to the Arizona Cardinals this weekend? What would happen to your brains? Because the Chargers are the perfect team that could, like, of any team that would, if they lost to the Cardinals, Cardinals, you'd be like, of course, it's the Chargers.

I mean, what would happen would be a complete deflation of everything you believe in for the Chargers.

And maybe life.

Yeah. I mean, it's all fun and games, but it can't happen.

And that also means the Arizona Cardinals will be one game out of drafting Arch or Dante.

Kyle said that the Chargers are the number one survivor pool pick right now for week 1.

Oh, don't do that.

And he says he can't click it out of fear. The Chargers just completely disintegrating 92% of survivor pools in week 1. I mean, do we want the comedy? Don't we just want to see the world burn?

Sometimes. And I can see how the Cardinals can score on the Chargers. I just cannot see how the Cardinals can stop the Chargers offense ever. There's no defense.

Is that game in— it's in LA, right? It's in LA. Oh boy. Just saying it'd be funny.

I assume it's the highest spread of the week.

It's at 10.5. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Take the over.

Trayveon Henderson did not practice again Sunday or Monday. He has not practiced since suffering an ankle injury on August 24th. The bailout continues for Jason. New England versus Seattle tomorrow. We're previewing that game. It doesn't seem like Trevo is going to be out there.

No, no, certainly not.

Speaking on Pat McAfee's show, I will say, I'm sorry, but I guess we're covering the game. But it's like, even if he plays, I'm not I don't think you can start him.

Adam Schefter said there's a real possibility that Puka Nacua avoids any discipline this season.

Who said that?

Adam Schefter.

Thank you.

See, you know what stinks is his last name, Mike. Normally when you try to re-pronounce, it's like Schmeich Schmeich. Like certain names don't rhyme well. You need to come up with a different name for him.

I'll lift the embargo.

Are you giving it back?

I'll lift the embargo.

Are you— got over it? No. Okay.

But we, I will lift the embargo.

What if I call him Adam Pelissero?

No.

Puka Nacua might avoid discipline. It is still in the back of everyone's mind that drafts him that he could be, something could happen. His whole situation is going to be one of the most interesting ones to watch for the next few years. How do you look at Puka in a dynasty league? Because he could be the single best dynasty asset. There's a world where that is, he's top 3 or Not.

Dynasty-wise, I definitely think he's still top 5. I know, Andy, you and I disagree on the contract. Like, I think he'll be a Ram long-term, but let's say you're right.

Oh, I don't, I don't think he won't. I just think that there's a chance.

Yeah, there's a chance that they don't extend him. That, you know, I mean, currently they haven't given him a contract.

I think they're waiting to see if he's back on track.

But let's say he did. The Rams are out and he hits the open market. Like, he's going to get the biggest contract of all time. from some wide receiver needy team because he's a great young wide receiver. So I, I don't worry about him outside of just being a knucklehead.

And I mean, that's a reason though. I mean, Rashee Rice, I think, you know, one or two incidents removed is a different place in dynasty. I just—

Rice is more gimmicky than Puka. Like, oh yeah, Puka can translate to other teams.

He's probably in the best spot he could ever be in though.

I mean, oh yeah. Yes.

McVay and Stafford. Josh Jacobs' first court hearing has been moved up from November 17th to September 10th.

That's— this is a big deal.

Convenient.

Yeah. One of the things that's really frustrating is that people who respond to what we say on the show act like time isn't an element of what happens in the fact that like we said some things about the November 17th date, which had implications on how long he would be out. If they move the date up 2 months, that has implications on what will happen. And so I no longer stand by the same comments because the data has changed.

Yeah. If things change and this is a brand new change, it matters. And the new impact is that it appears at first glance, and we don't know if this is going to go to trial, if it's going to be, you know, plead out. We don't know the future, but this does imply that because they moved it up now that he's on the exempt list and he can't play football, they're trying to get the process completed quick enough so that his suspension can go soon and he can get back to football this season. As of this moment, my expectation is that the second half of the season, you're probably going to have Jacobs back on the field. We don't know.

Yeah. I mean, just do the math. You're going to miss week 1. You're going to have this hearing. If they reach a settlement soon thereafter, Add 6 weeks, week 8, 9, 10, maybe that's when you're seeing him back on the field.

And there has been precedent in the past for games on the commissioner exempt list that are missed, essentially being credited towards— that's not a guarantee that it would, but the 6 games, let's say there's 2 weeks that he's already missed that, you know, it could just be the first 6 weeks. It could be 6 weeks out after that.

And there is a world where Marshawn Lloyd shows some stuff. And the distribution of work changes when he returns and things like that.

That's the— that is a— I think if you took Lloyd, I think that's a good takeaway of like when you take Lloyd, you're betting because we— is Marshawn Lloyd good in the NFL? We have no idea. We like the role and the upside is massive if he is good. If he is in fact good over these next handful of games, I would imagine, I think Jacobs misses 6 at least because of the allegations. If Lloyd is good in those 6 weeks, he will be a part of the team moving forward. Josh Jacobs won't come back and just completely dominate the running back room. Lloyd will be involved.

Malik Nabers. ESPN says it looks like he's good to go for Sunday night.

That's what we're talking about.

It's great news. The team released the very expensive Darius Slayton, who was going to be owed $13 million. Which is a good sign for Nabers and a good sign for Malachi Fields and a good sign for Isaiah Likely.

They hate him. They hate him. How?

That's the week that the season is starting. You're like, ooh, time to save some cash. Like, that is so dirty to this player. Like, if you had cut him when you, you wanted to get rid of him forever ago, let him go find a different team. I mean, I, I don't know why they hate him because you can't. This has to be an— this has to be like a personal thing that they just don't like him.

They also paid him a 3-year, $36 million extension.

They had to.

Yeah. They've always been backed into having to rely on Slayton, who has been fine.

He's the longest tenured New York Giant.

Was.

Was.

Because the week before the season, they sent him packing.

Jameis Winston, 2-year extension. So if Jaxon Dart keeps running like a chicken with his head cut off, Winston is there to help and that is a good thing.

Yeah, we love it.

Breece Hall trending towards playing week 1 with the groin injury. That's good. That'd be a really nice thing to be able to do is play if you just drafted him. And then what do we have? We have Tyler Smith, left guard for the Cowboys, thumb surgery, sideline 4 to 6 weeks.

Yeah.

Weakens that offensive line. Let's take a break. We'll jump into some undrafted gems.

Waiver Wire presented by T-Mobile.

All right. It is the Waiver Wire, the first time and only time we'll be doing this segment before the season begins because we always want to talk about some post-draft options on the waivers.

Look, sometimes you wake up and you look at your draft and you go, Hmm.

Hmm.

I don't know if I, I don't know if I like that guy on the end of my bench there. Maybe there's a different, better option.

So we want to look at some players that you should pay attention to. Maybe it means picking them up now. Maybe it means keeping an eye on them.

Right.

There's a lot of different ways to go about it. We'll obviously have waiver wire segments each and every Tuesday during the season to talk through the best pickups of the week. And so, you know, I thought one interesting thing Like I was really working through my headspace and maybe you guys can help by consulting for me. I'm in the draft. I have a pretty good team. My team's all right.

Yeah.

Yeah. Everybody online was like, so you play in a 4-team league?

No, it's 12-team. Yeah.

But it's a keeper and you were set up from last year.

Yeah.

I, I, so I am thinking to myself, how much am I truly going to value The insurance backs for the players that I have on this roster that right now looks really good, but we've done all the numbers. Injuries are, you know, 24% of running backs, top 24 running backs make it through 17 weeks. You're going to have injuries. But I also know it just sucks to have—

It does.

An insurance back on your roster in week 1. It doesn't suck in week 5, 6, 7, even later on, maybe late end of season. It just sucks in the beginning because I want to be pulling different players off of the waiver wire. If I draft an insurance back, I feel like I got to hold them for an injury and then I get impatient and I'd rather be playing around with, you know, rookies and things like that. So, you know, I know—

I think it depends on who the insurance back is. In the situation of guys like Blake Corum, Jonathan Brooks, and Chris Rodriguez-Crawd, you still have the opportunity where week 1 you learn something and that they are involved and that they are a startable flexible asset that still has the insurance upside of going higher. There's others that, you know, are just like Kyle Minungai would just be— he's not going to usurp the number one role on the team or be so involved.

I like Swift, but I like Minungai as a flex with benefit player. I don't think he's just a pure insurance running back.

Yeah, I think Corum, Brooks, Minungai. Krod for sure, possibly Allgeier based on workload for Love.

Yeah, at least the first 2 weeks.

All those guys should get weekly touches no matter what.

Right.

I agree with that. Not just, not the like, you know, pure backup situation. Gainwell's probably in that category too.

No, Bucky. It's all Bucky now.

Oh my gosh.

Don't you, don't you do it to me again, Kenan.

I'm not sure if we check the tape and Kyle probably has some AI doing it every minute. I'm not sure if we Check the tape if you had said Bucky Irving's name more than 3 times in the last year.

Yeah.

And there he was on your team.

Yeah.

And you were positioned—

You played that one close to the vest.

Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't let people know.

Even Jason didn't know how much he loved Bucky Irving.

I was hiding it from myself until he was the last of a tier and I had to take him and went, he's going to be great.

That is, it's so fantasy football.

When that name popped up, I was like, what?

Yeah, me too.

And then followed by Blake Corum. Who is this guy?

A desperate man on draft day. A man who is inventing his strategy. Jason got thrown off from the jump yesterday.

This was a real issue because— so our team, we are—

Not good.

Yeah. I mean, so we went all in last year to go after the championship. At the time it looked like it was like Mike and I and—

Which all in the League of Record for the new listeners is you trade a lot of future picks and you like, you move them down.

Yeah. So I had basically no picks coming into this year because of last year. Then I lost my high equity pick, my gamble of Jonathan Taylor in the lottery. That stunk. And then my pick spot, there's 6 studs in this draft and I got the 7th pick. So I went into this year going like, I am playing for next year. I traded CeeDee Lamb for Malik Nabers when it looked like he wasn't going to play the beginning of this year because I figure 2027. So I'm like going for 2027. Me and my co-manager, we are setting this up trying to do what Andy did this year and how he arrived at this, you know, great super team. And then at the right at the draft, we're like, okay, do we want to vote on anything? And the league changes the rules on the number one pick to make it a lot like a playoff system for the bottom 4 teams. And you got to win to get the best picks.

And I look, we're trying to prevent what you're doing.

Absolutely. I would vote for this any other year. It's a good, it's a good thing for a league, but I came in already. Like I'm already in this strategy. It's not fair. So I was, I was like, come on, man.

It was such a, I mean, 10 minutes before the draft, you're changing this.

I've been working this strat for a month.

Jason spent the rest of the 4 hours during the draft. holding, restraining himself from beating up the co-manager that suggested it, which—

Co-manager is bringing things to votes. Also, I can tell you a lot about the Week 15 schedule. I got to prep. I got to win that week.

That is amazing. What about some— so when you look at those guys, those are all, I think, high-end insurance-backed standalone value. Maybe that— maybe the Giants are in the picture there with Skadaboo. Whether it's Najee or Tracy at some point. Now what I had a problem with was just deciding on like, like I have, let me just give you my scenario.

Okay.

I have Kenneth Walker who is not always healthy. So Emmitt Johnson to me, I think that was one where like, yeah, because he's a rookie, because he's young, I wanted to take him.

And you loved his tape.

And I loved his tape and I, and I, and he's obviously earned that backup role. So to me it's like that one, I think I wouldn't even feel bad having on my team. The other one was De'Von Achane. And, you know, I— Ollie Gordon is who I preferred in that situation because in my opinion, if Achane leaves, you know how sometimes the depth chart doesn't reflect what happens when a player goes out, a different back ends up taking over. Like Keaton Mitchell's the 2, but Kamani Vidal would have a tremendous amount more value probably if Hampton's down.

And like Denver, Jonah Coleman, if If J.K. Dobbins, yes, if we're going to hold on to if for J.K. Dobbins, if he misses time, I think Jonah Coleman moves into far more touches than RJ Harvey.

Right. And so right now, Jaylen Wright is the running back 2 on the depth chart. Ollie Gordon is the 3, but to me, Ollie Gordon is the more talented back. So I went there, but I know I'm just going to release this dude.

Yeah.

I'm just going to release him. I'm going to release him tomorrow morning.

Because that one, like when you have, you know, like a Tank Bigsby who's looked fantastic for Philadelphia on his touches, a team as bad as we're projecting Miami to be. Sure. Yeah. We're leaving the window open. Maybe they surprise us. They're going, they're not going to be a good team.

And if the super talented running back who's getting all the work misses time, I don't really like, I'm, Jalen Wright or Ollie Gordon, I don't think either one will be, you know, going out there being a top 10 running back.

Like we talk about, you're like the way on the waiver wire, you know, so-and-so season-ending injury. You're like, this is a full fab dump for this player. The Miami situation, if you announced it right now that Achane is going to miss the season, I'm going to try and put one of the Miami guys on my roster, but I'm not like, I'm not going to dump my full fab to go get them.

So in terms of current roster percentages, some names to pay attention to on the high-end insurance backs. Brian Robinson Jr. in Atlanta, who should get goal line from the jump, but would obviously be higher upside. Tank Bigsby. Malik Davis seems to be the running back too in Dallas.

Oh, he definitely is.

And then Mike Washington, if he's out there, you know, we already have like with Jeremiah Love and Ginty to start the year. You have ankle injuries that are always like, could they reinjure the ankle?

Yes.

And then you'd have extended starting opportunities for Allgeier and extended starting opportunities for Mike Washington potentially, right?

Oh yeah.

And then Woody Marks. Woody Marks is at 59%. The team, I know we can believe or not believe, but the team has said it'll be 50-50. My draft says he'll be 100 Marks, 0 Monty.

Woody Marks looked like, I mean, it's preseason, but Woody Marks looked better to me this year. And look, it's crazy. Players get better. They actually can improve going into year 2. I thought he looked, it looked solid and we'll get more work from David Montgomery. I think that it, I think it's more of a 60-40 split. 60-40, maybe 65, but 60-40 where it's in— there's certain league formats where Woody Marks can start for you.

Talk to me about wide receiver options that you look at as undrafted gems right now. And we can talk about whether they were drafted in our league at all.

Yeah. To me, the rookies, we always love taking a shot on. We know that the data says that they get off to slow starts if they're not a high-end first-round NFL draft pick. You know, if you're taking a shot on Jacoby Lane, who's popped in preseason, or Malachi Fields, who looks like he's the number 2, and now that they released Darius Slayton, that's probably great news for Malachi Fields in New York to get on the field. You've got Chris Bell for the Miami Dolphins, who was a first-round talent, but then he had the injury, who's healthy. But I, my assumption is that all of these wide receivers will not play enough snaps in week 1 to be really fire.

Those are all guys I'd want to have in week 1 to see if something happens though. Yeah, because they have a pathway to huge opportunity.

Yeah, I would throw Caleb Douglas there as well. Chris Bell slash Caleb Douglas, 2 rookie wide receivers for the Dolphins. I think Caleb Douglas has the opportunity to get off to a faster start because I expect him to play 75-plus percent of of the snaps from week 1. So Malachi Fields and Caleb Douglas, those would be the 2 that I think you'll be able to see something week 1, whereas the others I'm not confident. Even, even I think Chris Bell's more talented. Jacoby Lane has looked awesome. I'm just not positive they're going to be on the field week 1 enough to really make a decision as to whether you keep holding them or not.

I agree. Malachi Fields, we, we were like just a couple picks away, Kyle and I, when the news broke. So we would, based off of our roster, it was like, okay, we got to take a chance on Malachi Fields. I haven't seen any reporting about this. So this is just like trying to think about the situation. Odell Beckham did make the team. Just like, and the reports of him, they've, he's, of course, he's not young Odell Beckham, but Malachi Fields is He was a 3rd round pick. Am I right, Kyle?

That is correct.

He was.

So that's a day 2 pick, Mike.

Remember? Oh yes. Yes.

Round 3.

Day 2. He was a day 2 pick. But just saying of with the release of Slayton, it wouldn't shock me to see OBJ as a full-time starter for the Giants.

Did Mooney make the roster?

Yeah. No one cares.

I'm just asking. Veterans with injuries. Opportunities. Dontavian Wicks, I drafted him yesterday.

Yeah, I did not like that you took him.

I would much rather have Dontavian Wicks than all of those rookies we just mentioned.

Keenan Allen, who did get drafted. I chose Wicks over Allen at that point in the draft.

Yeah, we chose Allen over Wicks.

Tight ends that I'm watching in week 1, Terrence Ferguson.

Yes.

Keep an eye on how they use 3 wide— 3 tight ends in the LA. That's a Thursday game, I believe. So we'll get to watch that in primetime.

Yeah, I think Terrence Ferguson and Greg Dulcich are the perfect stashes because week 1, you're going to know what it— what is their involvement in this offense. And it's either more than likely it's not involved enough and you just punt them on an important week 1 waiver wire or they're like, okay, these guys are running tons of routes and earning targets. Those are my favorite because like Juwan Johnson. I like Juwan Johnson a lot. I think if I, if I need to play a player, he shouldn't be on waivers. He's probably as good as whoever else was picked in the last round. But if I'm stashing a guy that I'm not playing, it would be the other 2 like higher upside options.

If you want me to tell you a player that is, that nobody has, nobody will roster even if I talk about him and could end up with just a wild week 1 that blows your mind. It is the tight end one for the Chargers. It is Charlie Kohler.

I was just typing.

It's only Kolar to Jason. It's Kohler to the world. Charlie Kohler is the number one tight end for the Chargers. If you look at the competition, you're like, oh, they got a bunch of tight ends. Don't think of it that way. Think of it as they decided to add a veteran declining David Njoku, who's not number one on the depth chart. And then Aronde Gadsden has had the worst offseason possible.

They don't like him as much as fantasy football nerds.

No, they don't. And so literally Charlie Kohler, free agent contract.

Yeah.

Tight end 1, offense we like, an offensive coordinator that will utilize him.

Yeah. Shout out Jonnu Smith.

Yeah.

I just think—

I just think it could be a completely out of nowhere week 1 for Charlie Kohler where everybody's like, agree. We're coming the next time we do the waiver show. We're like, guys, Charlie Kohler, what are we thinking?

Yeah. He's a— I mean, he was in that category of a stash where it's just, okay, well, we'll punt him in week 1 or he will surprise and be there. And you might look at his career. He's going into year 5 and be like, he's had 30 catches in 5 years. He's a blocking— he is a blocking tight end and he is, but he is also very capable. If you go back and look at his Iowa State college, I mean, he's totally equipped to catch 700 passing yards, 756 receiving yards. He's a quarterback? But like 3 seasons of massive college production as a receiver. So he's got the chops.

And then if you want to like a week 1 to keep an eye on the number 1 quarterback to throw on the bottom of your bench as a QB2 to see if you get catch lightning in a bottle is Malik Willis.

Yes.

Plays Las Vegas. Totally worth seeing what that offense, what he can do. I may have placed a financial wager, which I do almost never. I mean, you guys know this. I'm never— I probably place 2 or 3 bets a year on Malik Willis's week 1 yardage. Well, because it is at 1. I mean, I think in some books it's at 168, which would be, I think, the second lowest like ever for a starting quarterback in week 1.

Well, it's because of that Raiders defense, man.

I mean, I find, I find that to be like, I'm just sharing that. I'm not a, I'm not a bet, bet expert, a betspert, whatever you want to call it. That is just one to me that I'm like, my convictions on Malik Willis, that matchup, I think he's going to throw the ball a ton.

I don't know. I'm for it. It wasn't like I didn't just draft Malik Willis at the end and now I'm like, oh, it's going to be great. Like Kyle can attest, my game plan going into this was I really really want to draft Malik Willis and to see what happens. Yeah.

Because if, which Kyler fits that as well, I hate to say it, but like week 1, just see what happens with Kyler because, because maybe something goes right.

He could, but Malik, Malik is going to run more than Kyler. I agree. And he's younger. So it's just, that's why I prefer that side. The truth is if, if Willis is competent, Like if Willis is throwing for 200 yards a game, because he's going to be running for like 40 yards. He's going, he's not going to have a choice with when he looks out and his receiver core is just absolutely seatbelted out there. He's going to run.

Yeah.

I would also throw Tyler Shuck into that.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

He has gone from the highest upside. I'm so excited. We need to get him at the end of every draft to to Jordan Tyson got injured and now it's like, well, Shuck can't do it. Shuck can't be— he's still got—

He was doing it without Tyson last year.

Exactly.

There is a wonderful irony, Mike, of me having— I drafted Shuck with my second to last or last pick and you drafted Malik Willis.

Yeah, it feels—

And so we're like, these are the opposite teams.

Freaky Friday.

It's funny. All right. That was Waiver Wire presented by T-Mobile. When you're updating your roster right before kickoff, you've got coverage you can count on. Just another reason that game days are better with T-Mobile. Check it out at t-mobile.com/membership.

Wednesday Night Breakdown. Wednesday night.

Have we had a Wednesday night breakdown graphic before?

No, because we've never had this segment.

That hits pretty nicely.

I don't even remember doing that jingle.

I don't remember anything about anything. All right. You guys ready for our matchup? Let's do it.

New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks.

Oh, all right. Yeah, we got some new graphics up there.

youtube.com/thefantasyfootballers.

All right. New England goes to Seattle. Here we go. Super Bowl rematch. The 12 at home. Over-under 44.5. Vegas is, they have the line Seattle minus 3.5. You know, to me, this one, I said this before the show. I know we were breaking it down. To me, this one screams like defensive battle because a lot of the times the defenses are a little bit out ahead of the offenses to start the season. I mean, I'm willing to be surprised. I think it'd be more fun if I was, but 44.5, not a huge over-under. New England, they get to try out some new receiving options for Drake Maye. He goes out there, 4,400 yards, amazing season. Now they got to go on the road and play Seattle. He gets to try the AJ Brown, Romeo Doubs, situation out. I think this is, this is fun. I mean, Seattle obviously 29-13 in the Super Bowl. Drake Maye was under fire. This was not a good game for Drake Maye. 52% pressure rate in the Super Bowl. And man, you know, like any team opening the season at home is going to be, it's going to be electric, right?

Yeah.

The crowd's going to be, but now it's Seattle. There is no louder place.

Yeah.

So I think that the first few possessions are going to be wild. But here we go. We got Drake Maye v. Sam Darnold. We get to see J'Darian Price in primetime to start the season as the primary back. We get to see the true 3-down bell cow, best back they got, Rhamondre Stevenson. So where do you want to start when we break this one down?

I think, I think we should start with the fact that, you know, this is a team that scored 13 points against Seattle in the Super Bowl. They've got changes. They've lost Travion Henderson. You know, they won't have him going into that environment. It's going to be tough sledding, I think, for the Patriots on the road. I'm excited. I hope that, you know, I hope that the new wide receivers are what makes the difference. And instead of, you know, only being able to score 13 points against great defense, they're like, hey, we needed an AJ Brown that could go up and moss against great cornerbacks the way that he was doing against Reek Woolen and, you know, in intramural inter-team scrimmages this offseason. That's the one to keep an eye on for me is just how does AJ Brown look week 1? Because this is a very, very tough matchup for him.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, the expectations are— where are you super excited and where are you tempered when it comes to your start-sit decisions here?

Man, I don't know that— I don't know that anyone in this— well, JSN, look, that— I mean, he's elite, but it's like everyone else is— I'm going to start them if I draft them. Week 1 breakdowns are pretty tough because You know, you're generally speaking, you should be playing the team that you drafted. You will— we already kind of know who our starters are except for maybe like a double flex. But these are— this is a scary matchup, especially on the Patriots side too. It's like, yeah, I mean, Romeo Doubs, you're not going to really—

you wait and see because you didn't draft him to start.

Yes.

Rhamondre, I think you start with the understanding it's going to be volume. Yeah, it's just going to be volume. Here's, here's something that we have not talked about. You talked about, you know, Jason didn't say Bucky Irving's name too much. That was kind of a joke. Obviously we've talked about him. This player's name has never been uttered. This player received 12 targets in the Super Bowl. This player, by all, by all indications, is heavily involved in the offense. But Cooper Kupp plays football for the Seattle Seahawks. Cooper Kupp is a starting wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks.

Yeah.

Can I say it again? 12 targets in the Super Bowl. We'll see. Rashid Shaheed has a whole offseason with this team to further establish himself.

That's a difference of, I'm fine, you know, keeping the eye on Cooper Kupp of how involved he will be. I think Shaheed will be more schemed up, more targeted at this point of his career. So I don't think that—

I would have some captain lineups in, like our old school, like isolated DFS lineups. I'd Cooper Kupp some captain lineups and just get surprised with the volume. touchdown or 2. But yeah, I mean, getting to see the breakdown all the way across the board for Seattle's offense. Like we know who JSN is, but how do those other guys get involved?

George Halani.

How does Halani and Price, that breakdown happen? If you're making a decision, you've got a deeper team. You're having to choose Rhamondre or J'Darian Price in week 1. Do you take the rookie at home with more competition? May not have goal line. We don't know. Or do you take the high volume? You know, Rhamondre is going to catch a ton of passes. Which direction do you go there?

I lean the price side. Just, I mean, these are 2 tough teams to run on. But last year, I mean, the Seahawks, they give up 14 points per game to the running back position. They're at home. They're favored. At least you are more confident that Rhamondre will get the passing work. And we don't know yet. I would say it's near a coin flip. But I, you know, if you drafted Price, you're probably, you drafted him ahead of Rhamondre. They're at home and they're favored. So I would lean that side.

Would you play Price or would you, would you ride the Marshawn Lloyd situation for a few weeks in Green Bay? Because I could see a lot of teams having both those guys. Lloyd going later. I'm just curious. I know we're just acclimating to start-sit decisions, but they're hitting hard.

I have Price just a couple spots ahead of Lloyd. The, the Rhamondre play. So we last year, Seattle allowing the highest running back target share. Like that's where it is. If you can get 4 or more receptions from, from Rhamondre, he's going to end up being a decent start.

Just so people know, since the season's starting, all of our week 1 rankings are up on the site, thefantasyfootballers.com, all of our individuals and then the consensus rankings for week 1 with player projected points right now. Where do we have those guys right now? We have Rhamondre as a consensus. We have Rhamondre 2 spots ahead of Ja'Darian Price just for the context on there for player projections for the week. Hunter Henry dominates in week 1, right? Isn't that what we're supposed to expect?

He often does.

If we're ever going to talk about him.

First couple of weeks of the season. And that is, you know, If you look across the board at how the Seahawks played defense last year, they shut down the running backs, shut down the wide receivers. They were average against tight ends. So maybe that's a place that they'll have to go with their corners locking down AJ Brown and Romeo Doubs.

Yeah, there are some of the top tier quarterbacks have like pretty tough week 1 matches.

Josh Allen going on the road against Houston week 1.

Drake Maye going on the road against Seattle in week 1. I would not again. This is your reminder that we'll repeat and ignore probably. Don't overreact to week 1. It's a long season. Sometimes you see disasters. It's very possible Drake May and this offense doesn't look what they're like, what they're going to look like adding these new pass catchers. So there you go. You guys have any other thoughts on the breakdown?

Nope. I mean, go George.

Go George. So now you're, you're fully rooting for George Olani. Fantastic.

But Jay, we were like—

I know we've been more anti-Price.

Yeah.

And so that we need Olani.

It makes sense.

It's just funny.

Yeah. Like if you're anti-Price to just say that you love the other guy no matter what.

Yeah.

Okay.

As somebody that has hated other players, I agree.

That is how it works.

You think I like Rhamondre for real? I don't want to like him, Rhamondre. All right. Why don't we do, why don't we do a little mailbag? Give the people a little extra today. And man, football tomorrow.

Mailbag presented by Paramount Plus.

Guys. Yes, sir. Guys. Yes. Do you realize we're in it? Listen to this. Listen to this question.

Oh no.

It's the most perfect. We're in it.

Oh no.

Chris in Michigan. Chris.

Oh no, Chris.

Chris, I'm praying for you. I believe Malik Willis outscores Josh Allen in week 1. Should I make the switch? No, no, no, I wouldn't do that.

No, not, not Josh Allen.

You think Josh Allen can't figure it out?

Well, let me say this. Last year in week 12, we saw Josh Allen on the road in Houston. He scored 8 fantasy points. So He's going to need to figure it out more than he did last year in this opportunity.

So you're pro Malik?

No, I mean, I would still, I would still start Josh Allen. We've seen him in plenty of tough matchups where he overcomes. I can't fathom that, you know, he's incapable of outscoring Malik Willis. I mean, any week players can, you know, Malik Willis could outscore Josh Allen, but probabilities, our rankings, how we would start players, you, you, if you're convinced, Josh Allen in there.

And you want to have a wild week 1, go do it.

There are definitely situations where it's like guys drafted to start. I wouldn't mind playing like Malik Willis, but not Josh Allen. But I'm saying week 1, we have Mahomes versus Bo Nix. Like you saw, you got Bo against the Chiefs defense and Mahomes off of his reconstructed knee against the Denver defense.

Yeah.

I'd be very open to play Malik Willis.

Over those guys.

Yeah.

Yeah. There was a clarity question coming in from Instagram. What is a onesie? I hear you say it all the time. I don't know what it means.

Sure. Sure. A onesie is where in a standard fantasy football league, there is just one of those players in your starting lineup. So as in one quarterback, one tight end.

So we'll say stuff like, hey, I'm going to take another running back here versus going to a onesie position.

Because you're only required to play the one and then running backs and wide receivers, You have to play multiples.

There you go. Should, Greg wants to know, California, should trade deals and DMs be talked about in the public chat?

No.

What? What do you mean? Should trade deals?

Maybe the inner workings of DMs. Is it faux pas to like talk about those in the public chat? You know, is that maybe what the question is asking?

Oh yeah. Like reveal. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I, this is, this is, if that's what it is, like if you're talking, if me and Mike are discussing a trade, And then I go air the laundry, right? Like I go put his comments or something in the main chat to try to leverage, like leverage for another offer from somebody or like—

If it's trying to leverage, I feel like that's pretty bush league. If it's making fun of someone, I don't know. That's pretty fun.

I mean, they're like, this guy offered this. It'll jeopardize your future deals.

I was going to say, you'll have leverage once.

Yeah. And then no one's going to do that.

And it will. It won't just be the other person that you exposed to, you made mad. Like the rest of the league is going to see that you're out there sharing people's private messages. I'd be careful, but sometimes it's funny.

PJ writes in, who's your go-to later round IR stash player on draft day? I was hoping last night it would be Jordan Tyson.

We all know everyone wanted Jordan Tyson. That's the great one. That is the obvious one. The terrible disgusting one that I also wanted was Isaiah Pacheco. I know. I told you it's disgusting. I'm talking last round, like when you've got no one left and you just, and you just want, you know, to basically get a free player. Yeah.

Would you, so you'd rather do that with Pacheco over like Charbonnet?

No, no. But Charbonnet is not there at your last round. I'm saying like the very last round, the guy that is always available. As opposed to, so for instance, for me, I drafted Terrence Ferguson with my last pick.

Right.

My plan was to just draft Isaiah Pacheco with the last pick and then this morning put him on IR and pick up Terrence Ferguson. Disgusting, awful, unnecessary, but it's just a free, it's a free card. No, I would much rather have Charbonnet. Obviously Jordan Tyson is, is the king.

Yeah.

Is the hero that we all want in, you know, for us it was I think I was hoping to get him at the 6.07, which would be like 9th round. He went a little earlier. So 8th or 9th round.

I was hoping 7th in our league. That was the mailbag presented by Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus is the streaming home to the NFL on CBS all season long. See you Sunday. See you Wednesday. See you Thursday. See you every day. See you tomorrow.

Monday. Happy days.

We got Super Bowl picks tomorrow on the show. So I just got to figure out. Whether I should—

Just gotta figure out who's gonna win.

Be on my Dolphins pick today or tomorrow. I don't know. You guys don't like the Dolphins for the Super Bowl?

You're gonna get some great odds on that.

I will.

Yeah.

I'll make a lot of money.

Yeah. You just need to put $1.

It probably won't be the Dolphins.

You'll be a millionaire.

We'll have to preview the Thursday night game tomorrow. You know what I mean? And then that'll be fun too because football is here.

It's football time.

All right. We'll catch you tomorrow.

Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter @theFFballers.