Sleepers & Values, Scary Performances + Kyle Rudolph

He's back in practice. He's healthy. Get him. Yeah, his price is about to go up as well. You get him now or he's going to start. Yeah, I mean, he'll be back in the fourth round. Well, he probably won't get back up there because I doubt we see him in. Probably get up to like the sixth round or so. My value that I want to talk about who I think is one of the ultimate values at the wide receiver position. And that is Kenny Stills.

Wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins. You have kind of the obvious things that are there. Jarvis and his 161 targets are gone. Devante Parker has the broken finger. He has still not been cleared to catch as of yesterday. And my sources are reporting that is a very important part of the wide receiver position. And on top of that, Kenny Stills has actually been good. He's been usable for fantasy football.

Last year, he was a wide receiver one or two and 31% of his games. You may not realize this because the games aren't as big, but that's the same percentage of games of usable games as Julio Jones and T.Y. Hilton last year. And Kenny Stills is now the number one guy on this team. And he's a good wide receiver. Yes. Mike and I have loved Kenny Stills forever. I mean, yes. I do believe that he is a good wide receiver.

In 2016, he had over 700 yards and nine touchdowns. Last year, almost 850 yards, six touchdowns. Those aren't, those are not elite numbers, but this is a wide receiver going in the 10th round. Kenny Stills or Calvin Benjamin? Kenny Stills. Man, I don't get it. You see this, right, Jason? I see that a lot, the lack of logic behind this? But I also, why do you keep picking like, here's a thing though, here's guys that aren't guaranteed to be the one?

I mean, do you like the Miami offense? So let's, okay, was Kenny Stills the number one on his team last year? No. And he had over 100 targets. I know. I like Kenny Stills. I just don't understand. You make all these comments about the bills. You disparage them overtly on the show today. Yes, they're going to be really bad. And Miami, you don't like Miami, do you? More than the, more than Buffalo. We've talked a lot about Miami's offense. More than Buffalo. But Stills, Amandola, Wilson, Parker, Drake.

Five options on a team that you don't like very much. Well, yes, but you're then completely throwing out Shady McCoy, who will be the target leader for the Buffalo Bills. And they actually have a competent quarterback. Shady McCoy will not be the target leader over Kelman Benjamin. I think he will. Here's the thing. I have Kelvin ahead of both Alan Hearns. I'm really, I'm not, I just don't get it. I want to talk about it. This is why this shows all about is it's not about just.

going through the motion. It's about talking through these logic points and disagreeing. And that's all I'm doing is saying, I like Kenny Stills as a pick here. He's the safest possible option there. When we were in our League of Record Draft, every single person passed on Miami wide receivers because nobody knew what to do. It was kind of like when you had a choice of a Miami wide receiver or drafting someone else, people always chose someone else that whole draft. I think Stills went in the...

supplemental rounds of our draft. But that's not always the wise thing to do. Sometimes Mike gave a tip early in the offseason of get your hands dirty in these murky situations. Right. Because someone does come through. And that's what I was going to say is Alan Hearns, Kenny Stills and Kelvin Benjamin, they're all within six picks of each other in my ranking. So you just got to value, I think it's a, you know, it's one of those team things too, where you go, do I need safe? Do I need upside? You know, do I?

You know, those type of things come into which I would take Kelvin over both those guys, but not by much. Okay. I mentioned it earlier. By the way, I guess I should run those back real quick. Calvin Benjamin, Sonny Michelle, Kenny Stills, and then our sleepers were Ricky Seals Jones, Keel and Cole, and Alan Hearns. You can see more of them. All of our consensus, sleepers, breakouts, bust, and values, and the Ultimate Draft Kit at Ultimate DraftKit.com. I mentioned it earlier. We were really excited this year.

to partner with the American Cancer Society and their crucial catch program, which is in association with the NFL, to donate a portion of every ultimate draft kit sale to the crucial catch program, to give back with the ultimate draft kit product. And so a piece of that is we had the opportunity to talk to some of the ambassadors for that program, including Kyle Rudolph.

and ask them some questions both about crucial catch and about fantasy football. I want to share that interview with you guys now. So let's go ahead and talk to Kyle. You talking to me? All right, the fantasy footballers are excited to welcome in two-time Pro Bowl tight end of the Minnesota Vikings. Kyle Rudolph. Kyle is an American Cancer Society ambassador and supporter of their crucial catch partnership with the NFL. Welcome in, Kyle. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. So since partnering on this end with the American Cancer Society and Crucial Catch, we have been happy to learn that they are not only helping lead the charge on breast cancer awareness, but that they have expanded that initiative to other types of cancer as well. What inspired you to get involved with Crucial Catch and what should our fans know about it? Well, a little bit about my background. You know, my younger brother was born with neuroblastoma.

I was about 15 months old at the time. So my family had to change things very quickly around our house and adapt to having a newborn with cancer. And so I've always been very passionate about pediatric cancer. You know, my brother is now 27 years old and a cancer survivor. My family was very fortunate. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

Through a lot of our work at University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital, you know, we've gotten to know a lot of families that have been on the other end of that. So not just pediatric cancer, but cancer as a whole doesn't discriminate, and it affects people of all walks of life. So it's something that I'm very passionate about and tried to everything I can to support.

Yeah, we heard over here that at training camp recently you surprised several different types of cancer survivors with Vikings tickets. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, it was awesome on behalf of ACS and myself to have, I think we had over 10 survivors and their families out to practice during training camp, got them hooked up with field passes, and got them nice and close to the action. Then afterwards, I was able to surprise them with tickets to our

crucial catch game this coming October. So I'm looking forward to having those families, the patients, the survivors, and their families down to U.S. Bank Stadium for our game. That's awesome. You know, we're a fantasy football show, so our listeners wouldn't forgive us if we didn't ask you a couple of fantasy questions. So I'm curious, Kyle, do you play fantasy football, or what are your thoughts on fantasy as a whole? We've asked this of a number of players that have joined us on the show.

Well, it's amazing because, you know, you think back, you know, fantasy football has really taken off, say, the last 10 years or so in the popularity of fantasy football. It kind of drives fandom throughout our game and no longer are kids growing up as fans of their team where they live. They're fans of their fantasy team and players. Right. I've been around fantasy football my entire life. My dad started.

with his buddies from high school as seniors in 1978, a fantasy football league, and they still have it going to this date. So I've been around fantasy football my entire life. I know how much it affects our game and the fandom around our game. It's kind of what rules the ruse nowadays. It's true, and I imagine you went a few rounds higher in your dad's league than maybe some others.

Yeah, he actually didn't even draft me. It's a keeper league. Yeah, it's a keeper league. So, you know, my dad had Dan Marino his whole career, Peyton Manning his whole career, you know, a number of players his entire career. So obviously in a keeper league, you know, for the most part, your roster's pretty sad, and you're just picking guys here and their rookies every year. And one of my dad's best friends had to take me because my dad took someone else. Oh, my goodness. I think since then, he's traded for me.

I just hear about it when I don't score enough touchdowns because it's a scoring-only league. It's old school. They don't do PPR and yards and catches and all that. It's a strictly touchdown. Yeah, I guess when you got started back then, that's what people were doing, and they kept it that way. What's it been like working with the new quarterback with Kirk Cousins this year, and what are some things you're excited about there? Kirk's been a great addition. He's a guy that's come in. Obviously, he's had a ton of success throughout his career in Washington.

You know, he came in day one and, you know, really showing us his work ethic, his attention to detail. He's a natural leader. He doesn't have to try to be someone that he's not. When you're the franchise quarterback, you're going to be a leader of our offense and of our team, whether you like it or not. You know, a lot of times guys are kind of forced into that role, and it's something that comes very naturally for him. He's an extremely hard worker, and it's been fun. Nobody's a bigger competitor than he is. He truly tries to win.

every play and period that we have in practice, and we go against a pretty good defense every day. Yeah, absolutely. I know that a lot of our listeners, us included, are very excited to see how the Vikings season transpires. Let's get you out on this one. Is there an offensive player on the roster that has impressed you in camp that maybe some people in the fantasy football community don't know about or hear about enough? Well, I mean, there's...

I'm biased, obviously. I'm around our guys each and every day. And I feel like we have just so many playmakers, you know, on the outside with digs and feeling, you know, then you go to the backs. And everyone's talked about Dalvin coming back off the surgeon. He's worked extremely hard and got himself back to a level, you know, not many guys ever reached. And, you know, he's a special talent. But I think one guy who kind of gets lost in the shuffle a lot is Latavius married.

Well, Latavius was coming off an ankle surgery last year. And, you know, I had a bit of slow start to the season. But Latavius looks, you know, as good as I've ever seen him, you know, versus competing against him, also seeing him every day in practice. So, you know, obviously, Darwin deserves a lot of attention. He's done unbelievable things to get himself back to where he is. But I look forward to Latavius having a big year as well.

Yeah, that's a great tandem in the backfield. We really appreciate you joining us today. And for more info on how you can support Kyle in the American Cancer Society with Crucial Catch this season, go to cancer.org slash crucial catch and get your own personalized prevention plan using the defender because when it comes to cancer, offense is the best defense. Thank you so much for joining us, Kyle. Yeah, you bet. Thanks for having me. All right, special thanks to Kyle Rudolph for joining us on the show again. Sharing that story with us.

an important cause. And we're proud to support the American Cancer Society with the ultimate draft kit. Everybody who's purchased one, a portion is going to that program. And again, it's interesting. I'm a big Latavius Murray fan because I just believe a lot in the confidence of a head coach and the confidence of a staff. Sometimes that supersedes anything else. You could say all you want for fantasy about Dalvin Cook and

wanting to get every carry, but to me he is an RB2, and that's the ceiling, because I think Latavius Murray is going to be used and involved, and he's going to protect Alvin Cook from himself, maybe, in staying healthy and being involved in a really, really good offense. Yeah, I don't think we should lose sight of what Kyle is saying, though, of Dalvin was first. Dalvin was best. He was, you know, he's gotten back to a level that a lot of guys don't even get to, but yes, Latavius Murray is undervalued in fantasy drafts as well.

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Fantasy footballers. And if you're new to Fandall, they're going to give you a $20 bonus when you make your first deposit. Come play with us at fandle.com slash fantasy footballers. All right. I think that does it for today's show. What else do we got going on this week? Tomorrow's episode, we'll have some preseason lessons. We'll probably get into some average draft position, risers and fallers. A lot of drafts taking place between now and the beginning of the season, which is now just what, 10 days away, nine days away?