Sleeper Picks + Late Round Steals - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/22

Yeah, and Jalen Warren's 5-8. Right. So he's another shorter guy, although Jalen Warren's 5-8-215. So he actually... He's a beefy boy. He's a small beef stick because, you know, he's short, but he's, you know, cut a real good beef stick in half, and that's Jalen Warren. But he's really talented. So there's a couple of reasons that I think he's a great sleeper pick. But I want to start with the talent, with what we've seen on the field. Over the last decade, first of all, this is just an interesting stat. Over the last decade, there have been exactly 100 rookie running backs. This have seen more than 100 touches. Neat that it's on the dot. But of that group. Neat stat. Neat stat. Of that group, Jalen Warren.

ranks 15th in yards per touch, tied with Travis E.TN. He forced 29 miss tackles, which is PFF's eighth highest elusive rating. He's looked really good on the field. And even last year, as an undrafted free agent, with Najee Harris on the roster, he already was their preferred third down back. He played 55.4% of their third downs. Thank you. Naji Harris only played 41% of the third downs. And Noggi is a three-down player, but oftentimes they brought in Jalen Warren. He is a more twitchy, explosive playmaker in the vein that we've seen with Austin Echler back in the day when Melvin Gordon was there. And it was like, man, we've got to get this guy on the field more, even though Melvin Gordon's really good. My pro...

Jalen Warren take is not an anti-Nodji. I know a lot of people are super anti-Nadji Harris. They think he's not talented. He has no explosiveness. He'll never amount to anything. And maybe he... Those are extreme claims associated with those that are slightly down on. No, no. He's just a... I mean, you said it. Jaylon Warren is much more explosive, much more twitchy. Naji is the sledgehammer. Yes. And, you know, Matt Canada has come out. and said in response to this preseason week two that Najee's the dude. He's their guy, and I think Najee will be involved. My point in making Jalen Warren a really good sleeper pick is I believe that he can play his way into weekly flex opportunity. We saw that towards the end of last year. Naji played all 17 games got healthier at the end of the year. And at the end of the year, you saw a couple startable games from Jalen Warren where he's catching enough passes and he's explosive enough where it's kind of that Tony Pollard situation.

Behind Zeke where you just go, man, he's really, really good. Then you also have the insurance option. Like I believe if Nanjee Harris got injured, that Jalen Warren could be special, could be a league winning type of pick. So you've got someone that I think has value, has talent, and has an upside that most people in the 14th round just don't seem to have. If you believe Jailen Warren is going to handle 55% of third downs. To me, that is a requirement to change your view on Najee Harris. Because Najee Harris' premier season, his actual ceiling, was associated with tremendous receiving game work. Mm-hmm. And so if you're going to, if there's even a chance that you remove a majority of that work from Najee Harris, to me, that does remove his ceiling as a running back. Well, Najee's never been a ceiling play. Najee's more of a... Didn't he finish it four?

Yeah, right, but I'm saying like when you draft him right now, you're not drafting him because you think he could be the number one back. You're drafting him because you think he's going to get 350 total touches. But last season, when he finished as the running back 14, you know, and had a really good second half. That was with Jalen Warren playing 55% of the snaps. But if you draft Jemir Gibbs, Romandre Stevenson, players around Nazi right now, you might want something different than that. Yeah, no, that's fair. Mike, who's your sleeper selection? I agree with the Jalen Warren pick. I think he's really talented. I think he is going to force himself onto the field. So I certainly agree with that one. I like the draft, just for Jalen Warren real quick. I like the draft price a lot. It will be interesting because I realize the snap percentage is on third. But just historically, what we've seen from Mike Tomlin and like how much of that was Najee's foot.

I think there's a chance for Warren, but I do think there's a chance that Noggi's back to being just a true three down. You think he can get up to 3.8 to carry? He may be able to. My sleeper pick, the king of the offseason is back. It is Romeo Dobbs of the Green Bay Packers. And it's you got to remember the just kind of the whole story for Romeo Dobbs because the fact that the drum beat got so loud. And then it felt like, Really nothing happened. And Christian Watson, his teammate, who was drafted way higher than he was, had that huge breakout at the end of the year. So I think that the success of Watson just did an artificial pushdown of what Romeo Dobbs actually did. Over the first eight weeks of last year, we're talking averaging almost 80% of the snaps, six targets per game, which for a fourth round rookie pick is not, like that's not nothing. Three games inside the top 25.

And then we had a high ankle injury, a high ankle sprain. We know that for really for all players, a high ankle sprain is very, very difficult to come back from. You miss a huge chunk of time. Then on top of that, he was a rookie and Christian Watson was having his true breakout. But what has happened this year, the offseason hype train has been gathering up steam yet again for Romeo Dobbs through the first two preseason games. Jordan Love took 29 snaps. So the starting quarterback took 29 snaps, and Romeo Dobbs was on the field for all 29. It is him and Christian Watson as the two starters. The big plays, we're talking, we had a nice TD on a 50-50 ball. We had a huge 42-yard catch, where we had the tow drag swag, where they reviewed it and called him in. As a PFF tweeted, he's currently the highest-graded wide receiver in the NFL preseason.

And so it's not that he's a sleeper pick for a reason. I'm not saying I believe firmly that Romeo Dobbs is going to break out. But the fact that you've had two off seasons now of a drumbeat of the hype train going, you had the full Aaron Rogers support last year, you have the full Jordan Love support this year, leave a margin. What if Jordan Love is actually good? Like it's not just Christian Watson who will benefit. If Jordan Love. is who the Green Bay Packers want. Romeo Dobbs could come in here and be a flex type of a player. And I think that there is upside, especially considering wide receiver 60 on Sleeper right now going in the 13th round. This is a complete throwaway pick that we all love trying to call our shots on sleepers. But you go through the first few weeks. If it hits, it's a massive value for your team. If it doesn't hit, these are the players that get cut for those first week waiver pickups. You can move on. Yeah.

Yeah, and I would just add to it, we talk about how historically good for fantasy football it is to draft second year wide receivers. Yeah. But we always focus on the huge names. You know, it's like, oh, we want Garrett Wilson. We want Chris Oliva. We want even Christian Watson. The reason we want these second year players is because wide receivers, they can take that leap from being... a good rookie to showing enough as a rookie to having a whole offseason for the first time as professional athlete and come in and know the system better and then really leap forward. So, yeah, I mean, the fact that he's in the 13th round as a throwaway pick as a second year wide receiver who's flashed both last year and this entire camp, I really like it, and especially like, you know, in best ball right now. He's just, he's going to beat.

wide receiver 64. So I like Dobbs quite a bit. Yeah, I mean, there's a reason he's being drafted where he's being drafted. So he's a dart throw that you can take and hope that, you know, Jordan Love is going to have his guys. And we don't know if it's going to be Christian Watson. We don't know if it's going to be Jaden Reed. We don't know if it's going to be Musgrave or Aaron Jones or Watson. But Dobbs is thus far this off season, giving us reason to believe he could be a player building rapport with Jordan Love. And that's what you're searching for.

And the other names I mentioned also aren't proven commodities. You know, he's not on a team where he's having to carve out a role behind Stefan Diggs and Gabe Davis or something like that. So those are some reasons to maybe snag him and see what happens. And like you said, move on if you have to. Jordan Loves looked pretty good this preseason. It's a nice play from Jaden Reed in the last preseason game. Sure. So Romeo Dobbs, you'd love to see that potential manifest this year. because he's a physical player that I think consistent targets would do a lot for. DJ Chark is the name I'm going to throw out as a sleeper. Wide receiver for the- We're back, baby. Wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. A couple of reminders for the DJ Chark Fantasy Football followers, right? He's 26 years old. That is the crazy. I literally just Googled. I was like, how old is he now? And when I saw 26, I was like,

Wait a minute. He's sure about that? He's 26. And I think he will be turning 27 very soon. As all 26 year olds are. No, no, but a couple months. 26.8. It's an incredibly young age for a player that kind of broke onto the fantasy football scene in Jacksonville, had some big opportunities, big performances, finished at wide receiver 16 and 2019, and dealt with injury. And then they didn't choose to bring him back. They didn't choose to invest in DJ Chark. So he ends up on a. Lions team where there wasn't expectation. It was the same situation as this Panther situation. Kind of an afterthought in the offseason. You have more confidence in other players. And in Detroit, he actually had some pretty solid games. He had a usable stretch at the end of the year where he averaged 61 receiving yards a game. He had a number six overall finish in week 14. DJ Chark is, I think, today the most talented player.

in the wide receiver room for the Carolina Panthers. Jonathan Mingo is a youngster. He's going to have to figure out some of the things DJ. The Mingo. The Mingo H.R. Roster spot. You guys, I don't need to make the argument against. No, no, no, no. I just, yeah, say it. Say it. I don't need to make the argument for you. Against Adam feeling. The ghost of Adam feeling. Sorry, Adam. He's so mean, so mean. I just love when you said DJ Chark is the most talented wide receiver because I instantly knew what that had to imply. It implies that properly. He has done things in this league that Jonathan Mingo is going to have to figure out. And when you're a young quarterback, Bryce Young, on a team that's going to compete in this division because this division is very weak, I think DJ Chark is going to be one of the, he could be the last pick in your draft in every draft. You don't have to spend anything on DJ Chark.

Nobody cares about him. Nobody's paying attention to the wide receiver room there. And DJHR can legitimately go out, give you deep play opportunities. In 2022, he had as many 20 plus yard receptions as Chris Oliva. He had more than Mike Williams. So he's a big play threat that has every opportunity to be the starter on this Panthers roster and no one's paying attention to him. And he's still 26 years old and he's done it in fantasy. It is pretty funny to think about. The combination of him being 26. And last year he missed a giant chunk of the season. I think he missed at least six games. And he finished with over 500 yards. That surprises me. Yeah. I mean, he started. It was kind of like he started the year last year. No one was expecting anything. He comes out and gives you four for 52 and a touchdown in week one. And then went down to injury, which has been a problem for him. Ankle injury cost him, what did you say, six weeks? I was guessing. But yes, it is exactly. It was a great guess.

Pretty much seven because his first game back was 16% of the snaps. I mean, his, is his pace yardage wise for week 13 on was almost 1,100 yards. So this is a very capable wide receiver that nobody cares about. I think people are taking flyers on a lot of receivers that don't have the ability to give you tangible numbers because DJ Chark, he feels like Marvin Jones to people. Sure. But he's probably what? 50, 60 years younger than Marvin Jones? At least. Bonus sleepers. Give me a name. I'll jump in because look, I know Bijan Robinson is the hotness. We're all in on Bejohn Robinson. Easy to take him in the first round. But just remember that Tyler Algier, second year running back for the Atlanta Falcons, he set.

The Falcons rookie rushing record last year. For one total year. Yes, for one total year. And I expect Bejanne Robinson to break it. But that's it. I expect it. And even though he was drafted where he was drafted, coaches do wild stuff sometimes. Like Christian McCaffrey was very solid. His rookie year, but it wasn't. We weren't getting the full-time usage. I think he was only 11 points a game. Yeah. He didn't get the Christian McCaffrey workload that you know and love right now. He built up to it his rookie season. And just, I'm leaving just a small amount of margin for the running back 44 on Sleeper going in pretty much the 12th round that maybe Tyler Alger is used more than we expect. Again, this is.

This is just a... It's a sleeper. It's a sleeper. And it's just leaving the slight margin that what if Alger is actually a good player? And he continues to get an okay amount of snaps. Plus, like Jason was talking about with Jalen Warren, if Bijan miss his time, then Alger is... Algier would be the pickup of the week. He would be a monster. I mean, beat riders in Atlanta expect 175 opportunities for him this year. This offense runs the ball so much. There's definitely the opportunity for Alger to have a role. And last year we were constantly surprised with the usage in the backfield. They didn't have a Bijon, but you had like Cordero Patterson where people drafted him, but then you had Caleb Huntley and Tyler Algier. And sometimes you're like, why isn't Tyler Algeria getting all the work? And then it would be a Caleb Huntley week. They just move guys in and out of this lineup. They run the ball more than anybody.

It's certainly a worthy name to mention. And it's more just, it's like it's a thought exercise of don't slam the door on players who were good. I mean, over a thousand rushing yards this past year and really didn't take over until the final month of the season. Just. Don't completely shut them out just because we love Bijon Robinson. It's not mutually exclusive. I love Bejan Robinson. Tyler Algier is a great sleeper pick. He's a worthy pick at the end of your drafts. The name I'll throw out there as my bonus sleeper is Elijah Moore. Bonus. Bonus. Elijah Moore is going to be a third year wide receiver. Got out of the dog house because he was traded away. Here's what happened. Into the dog pound.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I like it. Out of the dog house, went to the pound. That's usually down great. Yeah. For real dogs, it's not the best move. No. So Elijah Moore, it's almost difficult to remember with how bad a season he had this last year, how good he was as a rookie. As a rookie, he came out and the, you know, the second half of the season, after the buy, he was on pace for 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns. His fantasy finishes on a weekly basis. 2832, the number one wide receiver, 21, 3, 9. I mean, he was really dominating. He was much more sought after at that time than Garrett Wilson. Yes. Who was a first round rookie pick. That's how confident a lot of the draft community was in Elijah Moore. Then he got in the doghouse last year and was not utilized much at all, did pretty much nothing. Gets traded over to the Browns.

And he's had a really excellent camp. They're using him a lot out of the backfield as well, which I think is unique and fits his skill set. And some of the things that have been said recently, you know, like Amari Cooper was coming out and talking about like he thinks him and Elijah Moore are going to be like a historic one-two punch. He's like, you know, Torrey hole Isaac Bruce. Like we're going to be, he was just talking about the two of them. dominating. Not bloody likely. Sure. Yeah, no, I agree with that. And obviously this will come down to whether you believe Deshaun Watson has a bounce back to his former glory, but he did look good. I said, I wanted to watch and see how he looked in preseason and he's looked all right. Yeah, Elijah Moore is going to have opportunity. And you talk about the backfield touches. I mean, Kareem Hunt is not there. I mean, they're going to have some more creative ways to take Nick Chubb off the field at times.

Devante Parker, I'm going to throw his name out there for the New England Patriots. Undrafted player right now has a decent chance to be the Patriots number one most valuable fantasy target. They're going to throw the ball downfield more this year, Bill O'Brien taking over from that hodgepodge of madness last season. You lose the primary target in the offense and Jacoby Myers. And yes, I know Juju has arrived, but Devante Parker. Ian Hartett's put this tweet out here. Only Jalen Waddle averaged more yards per target than Devante Parker. That's kind of his game. They gave him money, too. They did. They paid him. We were all surprised, but they did. You're going to follow the money, and this offense is going to give him an opportunity. And look, I know that those weeks, they get, you know, you talk about them nasty boys, Mike. Yeah. You get them nasty weeks. You get them nasty weeks. Buy weeks hit. Injuries hit. And you've got like these, you know.

opportunities to pick up a top target on an offense? Like there are 32 teams. Like Devonty Parker has a chance to be the top target for Mack Jones and the Patriots. And I think their offense will be better this year. So free at the end of your draft if you want to take him. Elijah Moore going in the 10th, Alger in the 11th. Those are some other sleeper names to consider. And like I said, a whole bunch more in the ultimate draft kit. Do we have a number for how many people have joined the Megalobole yet? I can get on that. I think I was asking the crew if they had that number. Do you have it, Al? I do not. Not hearing you. Okay. I can get it. Do I have to stall? We'll just come back to it. Well, the show's over, Jason. Oh, we're wrapping up. Oh, man. I love this show. I think we're probably over 5,000 at this point. We are right. I wanted it as a tease. We are over 5,000. Okay.

So we're about 20,000 away. Make sure you go to megalobol.com. See? The show's over. We'll be back with another episode tomorrow. Thank you for joining us, and we'll talk to you then. Goodbye, everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.