Fantasy Wildcards + Stack Attack, Mysterious Upside - Fantasy Football Podcast for 6/9

The situation, it's going to be an opportunity for Damian Williams. And this team has shown last year, he had no problem playing a guy that was kind of, meh, Mike Davis got a ton of snaps. So Damien Williams, Tyler Algier, going for the first pick in the draft. So if you don't get the touchdowns, if you don't get the, you know, the strange games where he was really, you know, he had multiple touchdown games, I think two times last year.

It could be bad. And so I haven't ranked the highest. I still think he's essential to this offense. But do I, am I scared? Oh, I'm very scared. And it's Mario, it's not Matt Ryan. Like, Matt Ryan's a very good quarterback. Mario is not. No, it's a problem. End of sentence. No, you don't need to expound on that anymore, Mike. I mean, 31 year old hybrid running back. Jason and I were trying to determine which NFL teams on the footcast today.

are the bottom group because we were trying to figure out where Houston could, who could beat Houston to the bottom? It's like Atlanta has that on lockdown. Down there in the bottom three, Kyle's not here today, but he would just affirm what I'm saying. So I think Patterson is a very wide range of helping your team at a great average draft position, right? On underdog, he's the RB 29 right now. Finished nine last year. You don't need nine.

You get RB 15, 20, you got a value, right? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of crazy the fact that the top 10 running back from last year, who's in pretty much the exact same position this year, is someone that I just never draft. I mean, and this isn't like a high up pick, middle, late rounds. I'm like, no, no, thank you. And you're right.

It's important that we remember how good he was for fantasy, especially the first half of last year, because he very well could be relevant again. I don't think it's going to happen. I have a hard time drafting him. I like going with the youth. But the flexibility helps. The flexibility certainly helps. I mean, on sleeper, being able to, you've got injuries all season long. Being able to drop him into either wide receiver or running back is a luxury. Yeah, that is very nice. The way that I like to draft my wild cards is young guys.

who've shown some flashes versus the old guys. And so my first fantasy wow card is Cadarius Tony, wide receiver for the New York Giants. Last year, a rookie who was both incredible and also worthless, did nothing. He missed half the season, majority of the season. Feels like he didn't.

even play last year, except in a few stretches where he became the starter and dominated. I mean, he went out there a couple weeks in a row and he had, you know, nine targets, six receptions, 78 yards, 13 targets, 10 receptions, 189 yards. Oh, yeah. I remember playing that weekend, hey, Andy? Remember when we played Darius Tony against Jason in the faceoff?

Yeah. That was sweet. Yeah, that was real sweet for you guys. Then, of course. Cadarius won me the money that week. Yeah. Then he gets injured. So it's like, oh, man, this brilliant superstar looking rookie who, I know people always throw around like the, man, he could be a Tyree kill. And it's like, no, you can't. But he's one of the only players that I've ever seen on the NFL field that was like, whoa. He just makes other NFL defenders look just stupid because he turns on these.

After Jets and just burns people. You didn't want to go with burners because you want to say burns later. After Jets? After Jets? It was sitting there. You even started the B sound. Yeah. You moved. You pivoted from burns to Jets. It works. Once he came back from his injury, he had another game. Those are my after Jets. Right. He had another game with 12 targets. I mean, he was, and then he got injured again. So it was like.

He couldn't stay on the field, but if you look at, Mike, you talked about it a lot last year, yards, or I'm sorry, targets per route run. Yeah. That has been such a truly predictive, telling statistic that that's how we saw, you know, the Antonio Brown beautiful fantasy breakout that was coming. And we've seen it just be a really successful metric. He was targeted on his.

routes more than like Cooper Cup. I mean, an enormous rate. He has the fourth highest rate among 77 rookie wide receivers with 50 plus targets since 2014. And at the same time that he was getting targeted on his routes run, he ran 2.1 yards per route run, which puts him in an elite rookie group. Here's the rookie wide receivers that have averaged that. O'Dell Beckham Jr., A.J. Brown, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase.

Tyree Kill, Juju Smith Schuster, and Cadarius Tony. I mean, that is the elite of elite when you think of rookie breakout wide receiver seasons. We just didn't get to see him on the field. So you've got Brian Dable coming to town. Maybe he fixes the offense. He costs you nothing. He's in the ninth or tenth round of drafts. You're going, do I want Tyler Boyd or Michael Gallup or Cadarius Tony who could be a superstar? So that's the great side. He could also...

I mean, he could be not part of the Giants by week one. He's had off the field issues. They go and they sign Wondale Robinson or draft Wondale Robinson, who is kind of a similar build and type of player as Cadarius Tony. And then there's Daniel.

Jones, who's trash. And, you know, his, here's his top wide receivers that Daniel Jones has supported. Darius Slayton was wide receiver 35, Sterling Shepard, wide receiver 49, Kennedy, wide receiver 84 in 2019, 2020 and 2020. So Tony could be nothing, but I'm willing to take the shot because of the brilliance we saw in short, short stretches on the field and his youth, I go with the youth wild cards. Tony is very difficult because.

In the games that he succeeded last year, and again, you're looking at those metrics across, like, what, 57 targets last year, how much was a byproduct of intention and how much was a byproduct of absence? And you get Kenny G back and, you know, say whatever you will about him. They paid him a lot of money to come in and be a primary target. Like you said, they drafted Wondale. I don't know.

Did they mean to do that with Cadarius Tony last year in a volume perspective, or did they have to? I remember the first time that he had his breakout target performance thinking that wasn't him. That was the fact that they didn't have anyone else to go to. But as the season went on, as he got injured and came back, there were still other people around. And Sterling Shepherd is gone now. He had a late season Achilles injury. So, I mean, TBD, but he is a true wild card. I can't imagine him being a meh fantasy player. He's either going to be great.

or just be irrelevant and we won't remember his name in five years. I think you're right. I mean, essence of a wild card and young enough to where the volatility, the unknown, the upside, it's all there still. It's not like we've, it's expired. He has that all in him. Mike, who's your first wild card? All right. The first guy I want to talk about is the newly signed Kansas City chief wide receiver Marquez Valdez Scantling. Not juju. I want to talk about MVS here.

because what is going to happen in Kansas City? And because like the knowns of Kansas City, okay, Patrick Mahomes in the range of outcomes for Patrick Mahomes, 5,000 plus yards, 40 plus touchdowns. They, you know, set the news world on fire when Tyree Kill, there's like grumblings from Adam Schefter's timeline that, oh, Tyree Kill.

You know, they can't reach a contract extension, and now maybe they'll trade him. And he's been traded to the Dolphins. And then, okay, we get to the draft. What are the Kansas City Chiefs going to do for the wide receiver position? And the answer was nothing. Their answer was they brought in Juju on a one-year deal, whatever the base was, like a couple million. And yes, it can't hit 10 million.

if he hits his incentives and reaches his statistical output that he needs to. But they also brought in MVS for a three-year $30 million deal. Like this was a guy that they went after as a potential replacement. And there are some things about it that it makes sense. Like he's never, MVS has never shown out on a football field on any sort of consistent basis. But we have seen.

several spike weeks from him because he's big and he's fast. His speed score is actually truly an elite speed score for how fast he is and how large he is. Tyree Kill, 25% of those targets from last year, those are gone. MVS led all wide receivers in average depth of target, 17.5 yards per, like that's where he is going down the field. And that's something that Patrick Mahomes can absolutely excel in.

But at the same time, we have never seen MVS. And he's had several opportunities of like the Green Bay Packers need Valdez Scantling this week to truly step up and be a number one guy. But he has not done it. And yet the team with their actions and their money have said, we think that he can come in and not replace Hyperkill, but be a big part of the solution in replacing the numbers and the production and the targets.

that type of kill was taking. So I'm just like he's going, you know, extremely late. In best ball, he's going in the ninth round as the wide receiver 48 in Sleeper. Even later than that, the consensus, at least draft picks right now are the drafters believe it's easily going to be juju as the number one option for this team at the wide receiver position.

And I think that it could be MVS. And while I'm not saying that he is anywhere near Tyreek, we're not saying top 10 is in the option here for Valdez Scanling. But like the guy could easily be a wide receiver three. And he's not being drafted anywhere close to that. And like, because again, we've never seen it. But the money is there. No team has won a juju the last two years. At least no one's willing to give him.

An extended contract, no one's willing to give him a contract of note. And yet here comes Valde Scantling right out the gate with a three-year $30 million deal to play with Patrick Mahomes and have the option to be the number one wide receiver, who could be great and could be absolutely nothingness. He's certainly a huge wildcard. The biggest case against MVS for me,

is that they've done this before with Sammy Watkins. They gave him three years, $48 million, and he peaked at 52 total receptions, 40, 52, 37. So, like, I don't know, like Patrick Mahomes has come out and said, it's going to have to go a lot of different places this year. But it's an interesting bet for a player that, you know, has explosiveness.

but I don't know if he can get over 50 catches. That's the part that's like, Tyreek gave you both. Tyree gave you all of the juju Kelsey underneath and he gave you all of the MBS over the top. So definitely a wild card. Yeah, he's certainly a wild card, but it is so hard to trust a guy who's had the opportunity before and failed. And it's like, wow, you didn't have Patrick Mahomes. He had Aaron Rogers. Like he's, he's had a first belt, Hall of Fame quarterback. He's had the opportunity. He's the same guy.

I don't trust it. Okay. I guess it's up to me, huh? Mm-hmm. I'm going to bring up a bigger name that I think is a fantasy wildcard because the cost, like people are paying up for him. I see trades for him with a lot of excitement, and I think he's a wildcard. Michael, Pittman, Mike. We're all very excited. Can someone hit the drop, please? I can't do that. Deucers, help me out. I need a wildcar version. Do we have, do we have Petty City? This is that. Thank you.

That was unbelievable. How was that not just ready to go? Did you know he was going to talk about Michael Pittman? I figured I would hit it later, Mike, but you really set it up early. I don't know what to do with Michael Pittman. I know that there's a really strong case for him at least maintaining a tremendous amount of value. We all have them ranked pretty similarly. Mike has him at 12. Jason and I at 14.

His underdog ADP is 14. So we're like with the consensus, we all have them ranked very fairly. Last year finishes the wide receiver 15. I think that's where the beginning of the question marks begin to emerge is a projection for him to move forward. And I know a lot of that is based on this hope that, look, Matt Ryan produces wide receiver 1 fantasy finishes. That's what he's always done. Roddy White, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, very briefly.