Sleeper Picks + Hype Trains, Sony & Etienne News - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/25

You know, seven touchdowns was a low number for 300 opportunities in Jacksonville on an offense that just couldn't get down to the goal line. So where opportunities might be lacking this year or reduced, positive regression in the touchdown totals could come and bring that, you know, stabilize his value. Do you think that's going to happen? I'm very concerned.

He's still, yes, the fantasy value of James Robinson has gone up. And he is, if you got him in the wherever he was going in the sixth or the seventh round, that is now looking like a solid value. He'll probably jump into fourth round, maybe fourth or fifth round. But my biggest concern is Urban Meyer. In this coaching staff, they were willing to use a first round pick on a running back, which is.

bad football process to me. For a team that's rebuilding from the ground up to say, yeah, this is what we're going to spend our pick on, our really high value first round pick, that's already a bad decision to me. And just they were going to use all three guys. They had said we're going to do it. And so I think that Carlos Hyde is on the field far more than if you're rushing out, you know, proclaiming, oh, James Robinson back to what he was last year. I think that's...

you're going to be sorely mistaken. And to illustrate, to give actual data for us saying, oh, they used them a ton and they didn't use other running backs. I want to illustrate how true that was. Here are the running back percentage opportunities for James Robinson last year by week. 100%.

89%, 85, 100%, 87, 100%, 100%, 96%, 100, 100, 100, 100, 90, 100. And if you're like, well, yeah, maybe he's just that good. Here's Dalvin Cook's numbers, who is the clear leader of, you know, he is a workhorse back, 67%, 78%, 73%, 77%, 44%. Like, those are workhorse numbers, not hundreds and 90s. So the message here is that,

I think we've ranked him appropriately. He is still very valuable. He is certainly a steal at the draft price he had been at. Yes, correct. And I think we're all comfortable if you slot him in as an RB2, if need be. But probably not expect last year, James Roberts. Yeah. He's running back 19 for me. He was 20. Oh, I know why. Yeah. Someone else fell behind him. Let's talk about another first round running back gone awry.

Do you guys want to talk? Go ahead. Sorry. No, more Jacksonville or what? No, no, no. I was getting ahead of myself. I was thinking that we were talking about this trade already. Okay. Go ahead. I was in the throngs of the James Robinson area. It's tough to see when you're in the throngs. Yes. Clouds your vision. Oh, boy. Throngs everywhere. I'm sorry again. The Rams acquired running back Sony Michelle from the Patriots on Wednesday for two draft picks.

Fifth rounder, sixth rounder this year that conversed to a fourth rounder if the Rams get a compensatory pick. So there's fallout here. We said all offseason that something's going to happen in that backfield. Darry Henderson has not proven himself to be durable enough for them to go into a season in which I believe and they believe they can win a title. So Darrell and Xavier wasn't going to be enough for them. They go out, they pursue Sony Michelle.

Who's had a fine preseason? Very pedestrian runner at this point, but certainly an upgrade over Xavier Jones in the backfield, more experience and can be utilized in this offense, which is a good running offense. It's a good scheme. So very interesting. I was reminding people on Twitter this morning that both Sony Michelle and Rashad Penny were drafted ahead of Nicholas Chubb. Yes. Which at the time, I mean, Nick Chubb had.

was okay, but just a year or before that, he had a devastating injury. It's hard to blame, you know, you look back and you say, wow, that's a fun fact. But at the time, Rashad Penny, I mean, he's dealt with injuries. And then Sony Michelle won them. Most Patriots fans are fine with it because he helped them win a Super Bowl. And that exchange is good enough. But fantasy fallout here, Daryl Henderson had been up at 16 for me.

This is going to siphon a significant amount of carries from him. I still have him as the carry leader. But I do have Sony getting over 130 carries alongside him. So a downgrade for Darrell Henderson fans. Yeah, I mean, it's clear that the Rams don't believe that Darrell Henderson can.

carry the massive workload that they hoped a running back could carry. That's why they went out and got Cam Acres in the first place, spending their draft capital. And then they waited until, you know, they're like, we're going to protect him, we're going to keep him good. And then he heard his thumb again and had to leave practice and they were worried if Henderson was going to be ready week one. And so they knew they needed to get another player. But this takes a lot of the...

upside away from Henderson. Henderson should still be the primary fantasy option for this good offense. So he's certainly not dead. He's a very low, he's a low end RB2 for me. I have him behind James Robinson now. That's why James Robinson went from 20 to 19. But Sony is, Sony is capable and he will siphon a lot of.

a lot of carries away from Daryl Henderson. I had Daryl Henderson up in the 270 carry range. That's a lot. That was a ton. And I think you're going to see Sony come in here and carry the ball 150 times. And that's going to come at the expense of Daryl Henderson. I am concerned about goal line. Malcolm Brown last year, if you remember the way the season started, a lot of Daryl Henderson excitement or hope. And then the goal line went to Malcolm Brown.

So you got some evidence that they want to use a couple of backs, Mike. Is that how you see it? Yeah, I still like Henderson, but I have my concerns. I've seen, you know, Twitter out there of like, if you, like we weren't worried about Sony Michelle on the Patriots. Should you be worried about him on the Rams? And I think, yeah, they went out and they got him. Yes, the draft pick compensation is not egregious, but they still said.

These two backups on our team, that's not it. We want a veteran in here who can help stabilize the running back room. And they went out and they got Sony Michelle. Not just goal line concerns, but it sounds strange to say it, but passing work. Sony Michelle had that in his production profile as a player in college. Yes, the Patriots did not use him like that at all. They had James White.

But does Sean McVeigh say, hey, I'm going to see what Sony can do on third down. Let's see how his hands are. That's another concern for Daryl Henderson because if he loses that aspect or some of that aspect, then you have an even lower floor here for Henderson. No. Breaking news. This one's not bad. Oh, okay. This is, I mean, Mike, hold on to something. It's mind blowing, but not bad.

I mean, you're sitting down, so that's good. Okay. Jacksonville has officially announced that number one overall pick. Trevor Lawrence will start week one. We made it through. The battle is over. Oh, Gardner Minshu. I'm sorry. You weren't able to beat out the number one overall draft pick from a brand new coaching staff. The highest touted number one overall draft pick since Andrew Luck, who we all knew was going to start from, I don't know.

The end of last year... You know, this is big news for Gardner himself. Yeah. Because wasn't he holding it? Yeah, the poops. He wasn't going to the bathroom until... That probably didn't help the competition. The constipation. I mean, imagine taking a shot in the ribs when you got to take a poo. Oh, man. He's really put on... You might just go right then. He's put on the weight. But he's going to have a very fibrous diet from here and out.

Real quick, Jamal Williams could end up in a leadback role for week one against the 49ers if DeAndre Swift is sidelined or limited due to the groin injury. So for further status updates, groin index.com is available. Let me ask you guys real quick because we didn't mention the Patriot side of it. What are you doing with Damien Harris now?

This was an endorsement of Ramandre as a depth back for Damian Harris is what it was for me. So they chose to go with JJ Taylor in that running back room, versatility on special teams. Right.

affirms that, you know, James White is going to have his role. So I didn't move Harris. Okay. Very much at all. Maybe I might have given him another 10 or 20 carries. Yeah, I did move his carry count up. He moved up a little bit in my rankings, which I think was appropriate. But I do agree with Andy that it was primarily, they loved what they saw and easily so from Ramandre Stevenson, who while we're not bringing his name up as a sleeper on today's episode.

Ramandre Stevenson is a sleeper for this season. He's like I talked about this at the pre-draft season. He was the one back that was crazy to me where it was like he looked unbelievably good and super fat just depending on which game I was watching. If he was healthy, he was blowing my mind and it seems like he's come in and looking healthy so far.

So when he looked super fat out of curiosity, is that also correlated to he looked bad on the field? That is, that is what I'm saying. He looked slow and... He looked out of shape. Yes. Okay. Got it. Got it. Tomato. Um, Ian Rappaport did say, take it for what you will. It's very clear to me that James Winston is the leader in the clubhouse. That was Tuesday. We all have Winston stated as the starter as of right now. So moving forward with our best guests there.

And some quick news items. Stefan Diggs is resuming practicing. That is good news. Will Fuller is running routes. Great for a wide receiver to do that. Ryan Kelly, Center for the Colts, is back. Practicing. That's important for Jonathan Taylor and Carson Wentz. And we'll leave it there. That was today's news and notes presented by Sleeper. They just released their new web app. 21 new things they updated for 2021. They've got an iPad app now.

or iPad use has been optimized. And so maybe move on from that old fantasy platform. Check out sleeper. Get your league set up over there. They're already number one in Dynasty. Our sleepers are but a moment away. But we want to thank supporters of this show, including DirecTV, because we know what you want.

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