Fantasy Football 2017 - Preseason Week 2 Recap + Rising Stars

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Ultimate Draft Kit. It's got everything that you need to be ready for those fantasy drafts. And those fantasy drafts, they are coming up. So you better make sure that you are prepared over 100 video profiles. Our projections for every offensive player of note. Matt Harmon from NFL.com, his reception, our sleepers, our breakouts, our busts. Oh my, the tears. I'm telling you that this thing is absolutely jam-packed and it has everything that you need.

to be ready for a fantasy draft. So head over today to Ultimate DraftKit.com. To the fantasy footballers podcast. Coming to you from the Playdraft Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, it's Monday. This is the week. August 21st. I spent some time beyond the wall.

this weekend and I've come down with a cold. Yeah. So bear with me. If you need to tag me in at any moment, you just, you put the hand up. All right. WWE style and I will get in there. Mike is used to, he's getting used to this hosting gig over on the DFS pod. Doing a mighty fine job over there, Mike. Yes, you are, Mike. All right, welcome to the show. We've got a great one. We're going to go through the preseason week two highlights and kind of let you know what.

what players were buying into because of the performances, what players maybe you don't need to buy into, despite good stat lines, right? We watch for different things. Sometimes in the preseason, you see much more opportunity, obviously, for certain players than you'll ever see during the regular season. We'll try to wade through some of that with you. We've also got our Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. We each picked out a player that we think is rising, and we want to make you aware of heading into your drafts and into the upcoming season.

So very excited about that. Don't forget you can win a David Johnson autographed helmet over at footclan giveaway.com. That giveaway, you can enter it right up until the beginning of the season. And then we're going to go ahead and give that baby away. So don't miss out on your chance there. And follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. We are always sharing new articles, new information, new things going on. So don't miss out over there. All right, guys, we're going to start with the rising stars.

Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Whig. All right, some interesting names on today's Rising Stars segment. Mike, why don't you kick it off with a player I'm buying into as well? Sure, I'm going to kick it off because I'm kind of known as the pessimistic one when it comes towards this offense. So I want to show it some love, show that I'm not just a cruel, hardened man. Yeah. When it comes to the Los Angeles Rams, Cooper Cup looked great.

He looked like a perfect fit for the scheme. We've talked about him on the show that he has a great opportunity for a rookie wide receiver and he fits that West Coast that get the ball out, quit, the dink and dunk. And you saw Jared Goff, dinkin and Duncan and actually look like a competent quarterback that if they can keep this style going, then...

Maybe Jared Gough won't be a complete disaster this year. And a big reason for that was Cooper Cup. He had the big play. Of course, it was a broken defensive play, but scored a nice touchdown, got wide open, showed solid route running, good hands. He's going to be a PPR value late in your draft. If you're looking for a wide receiver that's just going to get, you know, how many targets? A game? Yeah. How many targets a game you feel like Cooper Cup can get to? I think he's going to be a three or four reception guy at game.

Yeah, which is a lot. I mean, for late in drafts, I mean, that's a nice value guy that you know you can slot in as a PPR three. So long as Jared Goff can move the offense like he did this last week, then, you know, that's the thing is, okay, he gets three or four receptions a week. How valuable are those receptions able to be coming from Goff? But he looked pretty good, right? Right. Honestly, I think the Los Angeles Rams looked better.

This week, then they have looked in at least two years. Like, I haven't seen one game where it was like, wow, there they are. I'll hop in. My Rising Star is a guy that I brought up several months ago. A lot of people hadn't heard of them then, and I had heard so much about this DeAngelo Henderson character.

And, you know, everything from rookie camp to, you know, early training camp was just so glowing on this guy. You might want to throw a team in there now. Others might not have heard of him either. Sure. The running back, what would you say, like four? Running back four coming into the season, rookie running back. Number one in your heart. You might be the two. The Denver Broncos. And what I loved about him then was you've got Devante Booker who.

does not appear to be a very efficient running back. You don't know yet. And he's hurt. And he's hurt. He's going to miss time. CJ Anderson, who is usually hurt. And Jamal Charles, who was hurt several years ago when last he played football. And so the situation was good. I watched some college film on him because the hype train was rolling. And I said, eh, I was not impressed. I am officially.

retracting that unimpressed college film because what he has done for the first two weeks of preseason is when you watch the film you could see someone who looks different there was a play that was called back on a holding that did not affect anything for him which was this awesome touchdown reception where he just he was hopping and scooching and just make a guy's miss he looked just like on that play dion lewis a couple years ago where we called him you know butter he was like hot warm butter yeah

DeAngelo Henderson has really impressed me. I think he's got an opportunity there too with the other backs to emerge. Do you think that DeAngel Henderson is going to make Jamal Charles expendable? Yeah, he probably does. And Charles hasn't seen the field. So it could be a problem. I mean, could quickly go the way of Aryan Foster last year with Jamal Charles where he's gone. So I'm going to go with Rex Burkhead. I'm going to go with Rex Burkett of the New England Patriots. Goathead. You know what I saw?

Oh, gosh, no. No, you're not right. But look, Rex Burkhead got the opportunity to start. Gillisley is still missing time. It's going to become a real problem for Gillisley if he misses another week of preseason play. And this is not exalting Burkhead to a high draft pick, but right now he's basically a 13th round pick. He's going around Joe Williams. And I want Rex Burkhead more than I want Joe Williams. He showed a capability in the passing game.

He basically ran the Dionne Lewis quick route across the middle of the field, took it in for a touchdown. He looked good. He looked solid. And he was somebody, again, just like Gillisley, handpicked by Belichick, one of many. It's not a nice situation there when you have to pick. You know, Dionne Lewis came in with the second team. You have James White. But I like Rex Burkhead as a later round. Take a shot on him. If something's not right.

with Gillisly. For a long period of time, there will be plenty of snaps for Rex Burkhead in this offense. Yeah, and he showed that he was capable with them. They were really wanted to see what they had out of them because it seemed like they were rushing, rushing, rushing with Rex Burkhead. And then every time they went to pass, it was like, oh, there's Rex Burkhead. I felt like he was the Patriots first team offense. And while he won't be that in the regular season, it's nice to see that he is fully capable. I agree. My notes on him were just plus, plus, plus, plus, plus.

That's good, right? Yeah, those were good, not minus. Over the off season, I mean, when the signing happened, I was really excited for the potential Burkhead. The Gillisley signing, obviously, through cold water on that. And you could see that in the average draft position where Gillisley is a fourth, fifth round pick. And Burkhead's kind of the forgotten man. I still think that over the course of the season, Gillisley projects as the touchdown guy, he will get more snaps than Burkett. But Burkhead's...

He's a solid player, and he can be very efficient. So those were the Raising Cains Rising Stars of the Week. Remember, game day tastes oh, so much better with Raisin Cain's tailgates full of fresh 24-hour, marinated, hand-battered chicken fingers, and fresh-brewed sweet tea. Visit Raisincains.com to find your nearest location. News and notes from around the league. All right.

Anquam Bolden has decided to retire after, oh, less than two weeks with the bills. Good for you, Bolden. That's what I say. Yeah? Yeah, because no, when he signed a contract with the bills, the bills were trying to win. And he said, okay, well, I can be the, I can be the final piece here of this receiving core. And then the bills are like, eh, we're not really trying. We're out of here.

Well, we'll play for 2018. They sent away Sammy Watkins. They sent away Derby their best cornerback. Who looked great in preseason. So if you're in, if you're Antoine Bolden, you're going to put your body through another year in the NFL just for a team that has zero chance? No, thank you. It does bump up Zay Jones. Charles Clay? Yep. Charles Clay has been. Andre Holmes? You see, I never forget Andre Holmes is 6'4. Well, that, look, Andre Holmes.

He may be the outside receiver there. You just have to pay attention to that. You see Matt Harmon talking about sleeper potential of Andre Holmes. But if I wanted, if I had to own anybody in the passing offense, it would be Zay Jones. This has to move Tyrod Taylor down, though. Yeah, his weapons to pass to are, you know, I mean, his best weapon is currently not healthy right now in Jordan Matthews. And.

I think the confidence that the individual practices. Yeah, barely. He's jogging and saying that when he moves his arms, his whole body hurts. That's literally what he said. So, yeah, the thing is, is I don't believe that Tyrod Taylor has the starting position locked down for 16 games. That's my worry with you. Yeah, it seems like it. All right, Jordan Reed, activated off of the PUP.

He's got those orthodontists in his shoes. He's ready to go. And now he has miniature actual dentists in his shoes. Is that what you're saying? Yes. His toes are all braced up and they're ready to go. You know, it's great. It's great to have him back. I think Kirk Cousins needs him back. Watching the Washington office, we'll get to it in a little bit. They looked putrid. They did not look, you know, average to me. They looked out of sync and awful. But Jordan Reed was missing.

Jordan Reed being back will be helpful. The question is, how often will he be missing? T.J. Eldon, hamstring injury in the first quarter, didn't return. Duane Harris was signed by the Jaguars. Just a depth play there. I mean, you already have Yeldon, Ivory, Fournette. Thomas Rawls was sidelined with the ankle injury, did not play in preseason week two. That's bad news. That's bad news, man. Why is that bad news? Just because of his injury history. Do you know if they were the same ankle?

It is said a minor ankle ailment. It's not good news. It doesn't give us any more clarity, but it might not mean much to Thomas Rawls, you know, time on the field. Lacey started in his place. Chris Carson shared first team reps with Lacey and gained 27 yards on six carries. We'll talk about that later. And some rumors coming out that Garrett Blunt might not be a lock for the final roster in Philly. Benannis. How about you stop running him on stretch plays just to see?

Why don't we see what he has? Let's see if Ligariblunt can outrun these guys, huh? Yeah, the answer is no. Don't put them. Don't try to plow them over. You don't want to have a race where you're betting on Ligariblunt. So if this somehow happens and they decide weeks before the season, they're bailing on their starting running back. Is there anyone from Philadelphia's backfield that you have real interest in or just?