Fantasy Football - Week 1 Hype + Changing Opinions, Undrafted Gems - Podcast for 9/2

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Oh, so soon. It's so soon, everyone. I feel it. Yeah. I can feel it. Like, I can hear everyone shouting it in their brain. Any minute now. Soon. soon. Welcome in one and all. Any Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballers podcast back for September 2nd. Week one. Week one, baby. Week one of the NFL season begins now. Hopefully you all enjoyed the long weekend, the holiday weekend, the draft day weekend. We completed our League of Record draft last night. And Al Borland, the current

reigning champion. He did it up. He did. And I feel like he had a very successful ropa dope too of I didn't hear him talking about it at all. And it's like, I know he's going to do something. He has to. But there was that little voice. I'm like, he really hasn't mentioned it. What he's, you know, like I got plans and like I don't do all this and holy. His plans included having to. call the local fire department and discuss with them what was going to happen. This is not a joke. He spoke with the local fire chief. I guess he wanted to make sure that the pyrotechnics that were part of his draft opening celebration. Do you have that picture? We're office safe. Do you have that picture that you can put up on the screen now?

Because if people are watching on YouTube, YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers, I'll send them, we sent a picture over. We took one last night and we'll have them put it up on the screen here. There it is. Oh, there we go. There's the picture of the champion. No pyrotechnics in the picture. I'll describe it to you. You can't see the lights, Jeremy. I don't even know what I'm allowed to say because I don't know what your wife knows about what you spent on draft day. But let's just say there's more equipment in the office than we used to have. including lighting rigs and pyrotechnics and smoke machine was that smoke what was that gun definitely was awesome yeah there's a fog gun that was separate than the fog machine oh yeah so you bought both uh acquired both of those correct okay acquired and my wife knows i bought it all she just doesn't know how much it costs okay well we had our league of record draft and um it was a good time i know it changes everything our league

being done our draft last night completely makes football here it's you know we're looking at week one matchups and i play mike week one which is unfortunate for one of us yeah well your team is you know should be good it should be a lot more draft capital it should be than the two of us coming in yesterday so um that's that's going to be tough sled but i'm so excited i'm so excited to see how months of all this work and talk and yada yada jibber jabber it's like that's a description of our show now we get to see what happens yeah all the uh the bill kroskies of the world get out there and play some football um i i drafted a great team from 2018 uh nick chubs on the roster jk a dobbins on the roster kreem hunts on the roster that's how you get upside i mean i'm sure that

uh the falcon will share some league of record rosters against my will i i went in there with as naked as a man can get your second pick was in the seventh round which were a three keeper so really yeah and one of my keepers was joe mixon right so no i uh i have nothing on this roster i went all in last year and i'll beat me in the title game so uh you'll see all the rosters mike mike's team is mike was the one they got watered yeah because and he everything went Real bad. Yeah. So last year went bad. This year the draft went good for Mike. So we'll see. He is one CMC injury away from being depressed. That's why I don't want to play him in week one. Because he's got CMC right now. But if our first game against each other was week three, I don't know. Maybe he won't. But this is week one. A couple of big announcements. Lots of you drafted this past week. And hopefully, I mean, I saw so many rosters, so many players using the UDK.

to set up that sweet, sweet draft team. But a couple of things. One, the Megalobole is still going on. There are draft times today and a final draft tomorrow. A lot of people sent me tweets and stuff this weekend. Can I still get into the Megalabole? The answer is yes. We have, I guess, technically two more drafts because one is like happening right now. We have a Tuesday evening draft. So tonight. and then Wednesday morning and then all of the Megalobole drafts will be done. You can learn about that at megalobole.com. Now, if you wanted to be a part of the Megalibol, one of the easiest things you can do is if you bought the UDK, we give you a dollar for dollar credit on the UDK towards an ultimate membership. So the draft kit is part of the draft season, and then we have an in-season app and in-season tools, including the ultimate dashboard and a bunch of in-season optimization tools for your lineup. And if you want to be a part of that, that is what the footclane is.

Here's what I recommend. If you bought the UDK or the UDK Plus and you're not a member of the Fookland and you want a dollar for dollar credit, go to the website, join the foot.com, go down on the page, make sure you're logged in with your account and the credit will show up right there in the ultimate membership. So that's all you got to do. Papa Josh, I'm looking at you. Did I miss anything there? Because you're going to do it on web, not in the app, so that you get that credit automatically. That's right. The credit will automatically apply if you go to join the foot.com and you're logged in with your UDK account. And you can sign up for the ultimate membership, which is a year round subscription. You get the UDK every year, the DFS pass, the DFS pass, the end season tools, the ultimate dashboard. We did this last year. We finally set up one subscription for everything for all the premium content done by the awesome team that we have.

Kyle, Betsy, everybody involved. And that's on the ultimate tier. Yes, yes. So that's that. The week one rankings, the start, sit tool, the in-season app. All that stuff is up right now on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Lots of free tools and resources over there as well. And you can follow the show on X at the FF Ballers. Follow Jason at Jason FFL. Mike at FF Hitman. I'm at Andy Holloway over there. And you can watch the show, including Sunday live this week. Oh, baby. Right before kickoff, Mike will be live with you on YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers tilting away, start-sit decisions. Even though it's week one, there will be decisions to be made. And we're excited. And, man, football on Thursday. Let's get this show on the road. Undrafted Jams, presented by Walmart.

All right, it is our last chance to share some undrafted gyms with you. I'm, I'm going to jump in here first because I'm trying to look through our draft. And as of right now, it looks like this man remains an undrafted gem, which is, I think, kind of foolish by you guys. Like my draft was done early just due to pick trading. Do do, do, dude. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for calling that out. It's Romeo Dobbs, Green Bay Packers, wide receiver. Last year averaged 77% of the snaps using our strength of schedule tool that's in the ultimate draft kit. These first few weeks, man, at least of, you know, obviously defense has changed, but the matchup with Detroit, I know the over under is outrageous. Then you get Washington should be another high scoring game. And then Cleveland.

You might be able to beat up on them. And then Dallas, which should be another high scoring game. Meanwhile, looking at the wide receiver room for the Green Bay Packers, Jane Reed is still going to try and play, but he has a fracture in his foot. His foot has a break in it. And I know he's going to try and play through it, tough guy and everything, but things can get worse real fast on those things. And yes, Matthew Golden, it remains to be seen as the rookie, when will the rookie be ready to take over? Romeo Dobbs has been there. He's just been a consistent player. He's not, I won't say he's super special, but when he has been called upon by the Green Bay Packers to be their number one guy, he's come through with really decent fantasy football production. And there were whispers this off season, a couple of tweets from beat reporters saying, Dobbs just, Dobbs looks a little different in this, this offseason, this training camp. So if he takes any,

type of level up. There's a chance that Romeo Dobbs is the overall number one wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, a chance. And he's, like our league, going undrafted. And I think that he is, if nothing else, a safe floor play for the first month for teams out there that you're just, you're looking at your roster going, man, I just need a guy to put in my flex, a guy who's going to get me a few points. Romeo Dobbs can do that. And I think with the chance of something great happening. Yeah, that makes sense. It's funny because some of these undrafted gyms, like the guy I'm going to bring up, it's like, I think it's a really good play week one. It's just so hard. Yeah. When you look at the whole season to say, I'm going to take this guy over the other guys that, you know, I see the potential for and start him week one. I'm bringing up Hunter Henry. Right. Hunter Henry has the best strength of schedule to start the season imaginable. It's number one easiest for tight ends over the first month.

and he's gotten off to a really hot start the last couple years. He's the key of week one. Week one and week two. Yeah. The last two years in those two weeks, four total games, he has been the tight end one or the tight end two, three of the four of those weeks. And then you match that with, you know, the new offense. Drake May is doing great. I mean, last year he led the team in targets, in first downs, in receiving yards. They gave him a three-year, $27 million extension. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, and then he's got a great schedule. Because Hunter Henry is the most forgettable player on the planet. Right. People ignore him all the time, every time. He's 100% on waivers. Like no one, you know, unless you're in a dynasty league, he is not drafted. But he's probably a really good week one start. So if you went late round.

tight end, maybe just grab him and start him over whoever you drafted. I think he's going to get off to a hot start. There are a bunch of players that are hot start players that will probably be good players to trade away. And Dobbs could be one of them because Golden's Ascension mixed with the return of Christian Watson. Another one is my guy, Adam Thielen. Adam Thielen is my undrafted gym because look at the team. Look at the team right now. Jordan Addison is going to miss three weeks. When Edison comes back, I'm not going to want Thielen. It's not going to be enough, right? With Hawkinson and Jefferson and Edison, I don't think there'll be enough for him. But the first three or four weeks, Adam Thielen, you know, back home in Minnesota, Monday night football. You know, Jefferson coming off the hamstring, I think Adam Thielen's an undrafted spot start, much like Romeo Dobbs is. But it is interesting. There's a number of players that are like,

When some people get back, maybe they won't be as good. I mean, Xavier Worthy, is he a player that you, depending on what you believe about Rashi Rice, worthy should have a great start to this season. So should Kelsey. But when Rashi Rice comes back in six weeks, do you make an adjustment? Like, we'll have to break down all the players in that category. Even, I hate to say this one. Don't say it. But a Mecca Ibuka. There's a world where, like, that start is so great. Now, you don't have to trade him because he's a youngster and he may just. He may be a superstar forever.

But look, a freshly paid Chris Godwin returns from injury and will be competing for targets. I'm not saying you trade Igbuka, but Evans Godwin will both get targets on this team no matter what. There are a bunch of players in that category where it's like, okay, when they're back out there, maybe you cash in. It's just a good reminder of when you leave the draft very often. And look, I can look in the mirror and I can say I'm guilty of this. You look at your roster and you're like, oh, look at that thing. all year long baby like that's just said it and forget it yeah it's just that's not how it works oh no we're going to have devastating injuries this weekend you're going to have those and you're going to have guys who just it doesn't work out for one reason or another and it's just a good reminder of the to don't look in your don't look at the the the schedule in totality be like okay got this got this no he's you got to break this thing down because you can

If you start one and two, one and three, you get overwhelmed of how can I ever possibly come back from this? And it's break the season down. Break the season down into chunks. Your next two games, who are players that can fill in for those two weeks and give me some points? And that's how you, that's how you sneak your way into the playoffs after a bad start and you eventually get a championship. Absolutely. No, by the way, Hunter Henry, career earnings, 73 million. Yeah. $860,000. The one who does not forget about Henry is his bank account. No. When people are like, wait, you played in the NFL? He's like, yeah. A little, a little bit. A little bit. All right. That was undrafted gyms presented by Walmart. Who knew that you can get what you need in as fast as an hour? Get free delivery on your first express delivery order with the code express. Valid for first express delivery order. $50 minimum subject to availability. Restrictions apply. We got news.

News and notes from Around the League. Presented by Progressive Insurance. The Steelers. Go to Jason's Cam. Go to Jason's camera and put it on the, do get in the spotlight. The Steelers have signed running back Jalen Warren to a two-year extension that includes $12 million in guaranteed money. Mike, you immediately tweeted. I cannot wait to hear Jason FFL's breakdown of this contract. We did get the official debt chart this morning, Warren, Gainwell, Caleb Johnson. And Jason, I don't know if you have any thoughts on this. You and I could not be more diametrically opposed on this player, but that's okay.

No, I don't think we are as opposed as you think we are on Jalen Warren. We might be more opposed. Oh, I'm in on Caleb. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We are there. I still think Warren is actually, he's a great pick. He's going too late in drafts right now. He's the presumed starter. I fully, I mean, where we are opposed is I think Caleb Johnson is an excellent elite running back who will eventually take over. the lion's share of this backfield. He's starting slow as a rookie. Are you saying in totality or you just mean like the carries? No, I mean in totality, including some of the passing. That's where our differential is because I didn't like the college tape the way you did. I thought Caleb was a very pedestrian average guy. And then it's a depth chart and an offensive coordinator that I don't trust. When have the Steelers ever drafted a pedestrian running back with high draft capital?

Yeah, and giving them so much worth, 300 plus carries every year and always, you know, a running back one. I don't know. Was he always a running back one? Certainly not. He was a running back one his rookie year, talking about Noggi. Yeah, yeah. Always is a different word, though. Yeah, then he was very much a running back two. Two. Okay. All right. Okay. Two. Always a running back two or better. One, two, tomato and tomato. Anyways, Jalen Warren, to your extension, deserves it. Congratulations. And he will start the year, at least, as their starter with some security. We knew that these two guys were both lame duck running backs last year and Warren ends up. They had tendered him, right? And so now they extended him. And if you. And if you, nice. If you, uh, right? That's the phrase. Oh, yeah. People say that all the time. Uh-huh.

If you missed the tweet from Rappaport, when the extension first came in, it was very funny because it was like, hey, you know, Jalen Warren, who has played in whatever like this amount of games and he only has six touchdowns. They just gave him this money. It was like, Ian, what are you doing? It was the opposite of. It was like zero career starts. This was this was the opposite of a pellicero tweet. Exactly. which Rappaport then amended the tweet. He took that part out. It was like, yeah. What are you doing, man? All right, Quinn Sean Judkins. We got news from Mary Kay Cabot out of Brown's camp, Brown's beat reporter, talking about Quinn John Judkins could return to the team as early as this week. Now.

He will face a league. Is it a return if you've never been there? Good point. He will join the team. He still needs a contract as of this recording. He still needs to be disciplined by the NFL. Some people think that DV will be in the three range. I've seen some more debate on that. It could be up to six. I cannot fathom how that could be possible because it's an automatic... I don't think you're right about that. Okay. I'll look into it. I think there's a there is a minimum right but it's the NFL they and because I've seen some people on Twitter like well how can they even suspend and the case went away the NFL has their own investigation that they go and they check and honestly if you if you make news and you make the shield look bad they come and they get you they punish you we've had it before where where like Rothlisberger right

Right. The charges were dropped. He was still suspended. You had the Zeke suspension years ago. Florio had said that even with no formal charges, the standardized NFL personal conduct policy for domestic violence is six games. Okay. Zeke was suspended six games for a DV allegation in 2017. So that's where I'm not saying it will be. I'm just saying three to six seems like the range. I think it's fair to say that. And that doesn't mean he's irrelevant in either circumstance, right? Like he went in our draft a little bit higher. yesterday because of this news and there's opportunity for this team to put him into a starting lineup they're playing for the future judkins was drafted to be their starter he was and samson and i mean ford certainly irrelevant and samson probably not a threat to judkins talent wise so sick whether it's three games in six games in judkins will have an opportunity to perform

And they spent such high draft capital. This is not going to be a situation that's held against him. If they come to a contract agreement, it's just going to be get through the suspension, get out on the field. And you also have the, a lot has to play out on this because he could sign his contract, go immediately on the commissioner's list of you're not allowed to practice because we're still trying to figure this out in your suspension. So if it's six, then the guy has to acclimate to the team. So even if you're like, I'm going to take the chance on Judkins.

It might be eight, nine weeks before he's actually giving you any sort of meaningful touches in a game. Could he end up in a, sorry, Jason, could he end up in a situation where he's playing and they're waiting on disciplinary stuff? Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that could also be. It could happen. That's not how I would see it. No, I mean, we'll find out. As soon as he signs a contract, whether he goes on the commission list, that that will be telling. Because if he doesn't, he could basically be with the team week one. on the active roster and then still get a suspension later. But it's so funny to talk about a guy who literally doesn't have a contract yet. AJ Brown will play on Thursday night football. He is practicing and ready to go. So that's fun. A lot of guys are magically healthy now. We're going to break down the Thursday night football matchup on tomorrow's episode. Our first breakdown of the year. It's so soon. Najee Harris has been cleared for contact.

When asked if he'd be available for week one, he said he's, quote, ramping up to it. Oh, we're ramping it up. Now it's in Brazil. That would be the week one game in Brazil. I hope they fixed that field. Yeah, that was a nightmare. I would skip it with that field. Quentin Johnston cleared concussion protocol. I told people don't forget about him. Yeah. Especially like in best ball leagues and stuff like that that you're drafting. Like, Somehow the concussion and people just stopped drafting Quentin Johnston. Well, no one really gave him permission. No one wanted to draft him in the first place. Okay, that makes sense. Matthew Stafford is expected to start against the Texans in week one. We're going to all be holding our breath every week for a little while. Every week is going to be expected. Stefan Diggs expected to play for the Patriots. How much he plays, how well he plays. I think it'll start a little slow for him.

But if he's ready to go week one, that's fantastic news for long term. We got our first practice from Juan Jennings in a very long time, 49ers wide receiver. By the way, Kendrick Bourne visited, as we expected. I don't think they have a contract yet. Do you know this resident 49er Falcon over there? No, nothing. Because he's going to go visit with the commanders. I think Joanne being back on the field probably slowed that down. Darnell Mooney practicing day to day ahead of the first week. And then Jalen Coker, this was big time news. sucky news if you believe in Jalen Coker. They traded Thielen away. Coker had the slot roll all to himself. And then we found out this weekend significant quad strain placed on IR 4 to 6 weeks. Jalen Coker, goodbye. They signed Hunter Infro. Yeah, it means Xavier Leggett is I think a much better late round pick. Circling back to Joanne Jennings who did not get drafted early. For real?

He went undrafted? I did not realize that. Undrafted Jim. Now I feel slightly like I shouldn't have told you. Why don't you talk? Yeah, waivers will go through tomorrow, Jay. You got some time. All right. We have, did you see the Hunter Infro interview, by the way? I did not. His daughter, I believe, hung up on 10 calls from the agent and the team when they were trying to bring him on to. Because once Coker went out, they called Renfro to sign him. To the active roster. She was watching Bluey. So every time the phone call came in, she kept hanging up on the phone call to keep watching Bluey. Don't interrupt my Bluey. I'm trying to get in my feels right now. They got a hold of him. So there you go. But Jalen Coker is out for a while, which, yeah, it's kind of unfortunate. It's unfortunate for Bryce Young, you know, because Coker is another weapon. No Coker, no Thielen. We'll see what Renfro has left. All right.

Anything else? Break? Any news? Information? We'll keep looking. That was today's news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers. Not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits and conditions. All right. We've got mailbag to get into week one. It's here. This is one of the ad breaks we meant to do. Here we go. Okay. You guys ready to take on week one? Are you ready for this? My body is ready. All right. Let's jump in. Mail bag. Damn. All right. We got some voicemail questions to get to and a whole bunch of questions from all over social media. If you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click that submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. And make sure you pick up the in-season app.

because all of the start-s-sit tools and rankings are in there as well to search for the fantasy footballers on the app store. All right, we're going to jump in to a voicemail question. Hey, ballers. Quick question. I'm trying to decide on who to start in a flex spot in a half-P-R. So it's DeBonte Smith this Thursday or DJ Moore on Monday night. Thanks. Wow. Start-Sit question. Devonza-Smith Thursday or DJ Moore. And that's wild. Yeah, I mean, one of those guys has to sit. It's a nice problem to have. Yeah. It's really difficult. This is, this is kind of stupid, but it's, it's just the truth. It's very difficult for me opening NFL game. If I've got a player I can put in that game, like I actually think DJ Moore. I mean, it's a Monday night game. Yeah, that helps. That helps. I think DJ Moore is the better play, but it would be so tough for me to.

watch the opening game and have a player in it on my bench. I play Devante Smith. Really? Yes, I would. I just feel like with no Micah Parsons, if the Eagles... Oh, the secondary is going to get picked apart. If the Eagles get off to a strong start, all of a sudden you have the second half where, I mean, we saw it a lot last year, right? It's like all Barclay. What's the game line right now? Is it like four and a half, five and a half? I'm rusty. I'm not used to pulling these things up. Yeah. Somebody tell me, Kyle, eight and a half now. So I guess that lends itself to Jason's argument there, but I think the lack of a pass rush will give to Vons time to run wild. I was told this that Dallas team is so much better now that Michael Parsons is off the roster. Let me tell you this. Jerry Jones is setting himself up for a moment, okay? Because if you beat.