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

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To claim your bonus and start playing today, that's fendool.com slash fff age and location restrictions apply. Bonus issued as a non-withdrawable site credit that expires after 30 days. Sleepers. All right. We are into our sleepers episode. And I'm not going to go first here. We each have two names we're going to bring up. I don't know how long we'll talk about each one of them. We'll, you know, play it by ear.

But two names that each of us individually really like. And I guess we'll find out over the course of the episode whether we agree with one another. All right. I will jump in first. And I'm going to lead this thing off. Wide receiver Jacobi Myers for the New England Patriots. Well, I'll all be darned. And I think that he should firmly be entrenched in your sleeper status. Look at what he did last year.

He finished with 59 receptions for 729 yards. That's okay. But realize that Jacobi Myers wasn't really a full-time player until week seven. And at that point, once he was in there, he was the guy. And he was seeing seven plus targets a week. That is a 30% target share in the New England Patriots offense. And the question comes down to, yeah, they added a bunch of guys. I get it. Nelson Aguilor is there.

He's a big play wide receiver. Jonu Smith, Hunter Henry, these guys were added. John Hu is very interesting as well. But look at the history of this offense, this McDaniels offense. Maybe it wasn't just, oh, Tom Brady prefers to throw to the slot wide receiver. You had the prolific numbers of Wes Welker and Julian Edelman and Danny Amidola. It's like maybe it's that, maybe that wasn't just a Tom Brady thing. Perhaps that was the scheme. That was a.

I mean, we had so long that it was Tom Brady was the face of the New England Patriots. It was hard to, you couldn't remove him from the tendencies of the offense, but you got to see Brady and the Bruce Arian system last year and really airing it out. So Jacoby Myers is very interesting at the end of your drafts, especially in PPR drafts. He's already tearing it up in the preseason yet again. And I think that he.

Jacobi Myers is the new Julian Edelman, and they're hoping that Aglore is going to be that outside deep threat presence. Well, and if you get more passing volume, if it ends up being Mac Jones that takes over, that could help the equation. But I'm saying that that passing volume last year, that was the bad, quote, bad Cam Newton, where he was seeing seven targets a week. That might just be, you might just say Cam Newton. That might just be Cam Newton. But you're right. I mean, week seven on, 123 target pace, 90 reception pace.

The evidence in eyeballs this preseason looks like Jacobi's kind of that dude. Yeah, and Jacobi Myers was, he's had a couple, you know, or like he's been an off-season superstar before. This isn't the first time people were excited for it. But I think there was actual reason to be the excitement last year. It paid off. It wasn't massive fantasy value, but again, that he.

wasn't scoring touchdowns. If you combine that target share and that level of receiving volume, the touchdowns will come. They won't be eight, nine, ten touchdowns, but you throw four to five receiving touchdowns on top of all those targets. And Jacobi Myers is very relevant as a wide receiver three. All right. Before I hand the baton to Jason, sometimes there's some confusion on how sleepers are even defined in fantasy football.

So I'll bring that up. We're really looking at players that are either drafted very late or not drafted at all, but have the potential to emerge over the course of the season. So it's hard these days with so much fantasy football knowledge out there. This isn't like 10 years ago. You know, podcasts are everywhere. There are the amount of written content and video content out there.

There's a lot of covers now for fantasy football. So the term sleeper, it used to mean, I can tell you about a player that you probably haven't heard of. That doesn't really exist anymore. So you have to look at ADP and players that are being overlooked almost.

Yep, Jason, who's your first sleeper? My first sleeper is third-year-wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons Russell Gage. Russell Gage is going... Russell Gage. Yes, imagine if he was a Seahawk.

Here's a thing with Russell Gage. He is being overlooked because Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts is the reason that, I mean, Kyle Pitts is coming in here and he's replacing Julio Jones. Well, he's coming in. Oh, no. Calvin's replacing Julio. He's replacing Calvin. I am still of the mindset that Kyle Pitts is a rookie tight end. And I'm still of the mindset that even if he has the greatest rookie tight end season that we've seen in recent history, it is not enough to get in the way of.

these other options, especially Russell Gage. If you look at what he did, last year, their buy week was in week 10. And then Julio kind of, he came out, he got injured right away, played one kind of full game, but for the most part was gone during that stretch after their buy, weeks 11 through 17, which is a good chunk of time. That's seven games. And during that time, in the second year, Russell Gage kind of showed that he was good.

Like he was good at football. He was on a 140 target pace, a thousand yards, seven touchdowns. He was a solid fantasy option. This is a guy who during that time last year from weeks 11 through 18, he was the wide receiver 18. He was a very relevant plug and play option. And now Julio is gone. And I think that part of the reason they traded Julio is not just because of Kyle Pitts, but they're going, oh, we got Russell Gage.

He's a quality wide receiver. And if you actually look at the trust that he has with Matt Ryan, Matt Ryan trusts him enough on third downs. Those are those all important. You know, you were bringing up West Welk or Julian Elman. Those are like those, oh, it's third down. You know where the ball is going. You've got to go to the trusted source. And Matt Ryan really trusted him. He was tied with Stefan Diggs last year for the fourth most third down targets in the NFL. He led the Falcons on third down targets and it had the highest rate.

of his targets come on third down. That just to me shows Matt Ryan likes him. Matt Ryan trusts him. You saw the second half of last year's breakout. The opportunity is ahead of him with target volume. And this isn't a guy where I'm telling you, oh, if things hit right, he's going to be a wide receiver one. He's going to be a top guy. What I'm saying is this is a safe sleeper. This is a guy where I think you're going to draft in a round.

where almost everybody in where he's being drafted are going to end up being nothings, and he's going to be a solid flex play all season. That's what I believe about Russell Gage. All right. My first leaper is going to be rookie quarterback Justin Fields. Oh, let's go. There is so much attention right now on Trey Lance, I think because the ceiling is so evident, like the potential between the confidence of Kyle Shanahan, between the weapons that he has in San Francisco, and then the.

thousand yard rushing potential of Trey Lance. So a lot of the stash tray, see what happens. That's what's being talked about. But I want to give Justin Fields his due. And I believe Coach Nagy's going to do that very soon as well. This was the two-time Big Ten offensive player of the year. This is the quarterback that I, you know, although Ohio State.

fears are out there in the collegiate scouting. And it was like, no, Justin Fields, outside of maybe Trevor Lawrence, he's the best quarterback prospect in this draft class. Then he ends up in this situation in Chicago where there's some hesitancy. But let's just look at the resume. This is a 4-4 quarterback. 4-4. Yes, 4-4-4. There are only... That's how you call Pizza Hut. I mean, remember how RG-3... I really liked that.

Remember how RG3. The song's in my head now. Two, oh, four, four, four, four. Was that international? Yeah, I believe that was national. Like they just, that was the number they were able to get. Sorry. Sorry, Pizza Hut derailed Andy. I mean, I'm the penny. I told you. Like a bad penny, I always turn up. We good? Yeah, all right. Go on. Let me get to the boring stuff. I.

RG3 and Justin Fields. They're the only quarterbacks in the last 20 years to run a sub 4-5. You know how RG3 took things over with his legs. Now, Justin Fields is a pocket passer. That's what he's great at. But the wheels allow him to escape the pocket. And if you watched already in preseason, he was getting the edge. You know, he escaped the pocket. And then when the play breaks down, he gets the edge, the way Kyler can get the edge, the way Russ.

early in his career got the edge. He reminded me so much this preseason of Russell Wilson. The way he used his legs was this perfect compliment to the pass and a real bonus for fantasy. And if you look since 1990, every rookie quarterback that surpassed 80 rushing attempts has not only been a fantasy force, but he has maintained a top 10 quarterback per game pace. So I believe he'll use his legs enough when he gets the job.

to be a fantasy force and be a viable starter. And I've already brought up, like, the Bears fans should love me right now, which has not always been the case. But Mooney was one of my guys. You have Alan Robinson on the other side. You have weapons in this offense. And so I think when he gets the opportunity to start, which, you know, on average, quarterbacks drafted in the top 15, they start by week three. And that includes, you know, the Mahomes and golf who took a while.

You know, last year, what we had Justin Herbert started in week two, the year before, Josh Allen was a week two guy. So sacrificial lamb, Andy Dalton goes out there against the Rams in week one. We'll see what happens. But I think Justin Fields is worth a glance in fantasy football. And, you know, he's going 13th round or right around there, taking a shot on him. They start against the Rams, but then depending on what happens, you got Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas.

for the next four weeks. So not exactly a gauntlet for him to make his debut as an NFL quarterback. I'm completely on board with this. I've mentioned the strategy of at the very end of your draft, when you're looking at guys in the 12th round, I mean, these are not. Yeah, you read them off the other day, and I didn't want any. I wanted to skip the pick. That was last year's. That was last year's just pointing out guys in the 12th round, the hit rate is very minimal.

But the hit rate of these quarterbacks, Trey Lance adjusted fields, like the probability that they hit when they go in, it's very high to me. If they were starters week one, if the teams came out and said they're starting week one, there's no way they're a 12th rounder. They're way higher in these drafts. And we know for a fact they were starting, like they did not trade and draft these guys to sit. They just did. Unless your name's Zach Wilson, who we know is a starter in week one.

And no one cares. But it's the wheels. The wheels for a rookie quarterback in fantasy. If you can run at 500, 600 yards on the ground, then as a rookie I want you. Rookie passers, they're not always that great for fantasy. Not everyone will be Justin Herbert is what you're saying. That is. Some will be Josh Rosen. Yeah, it didn't work out. All right. Talk about Russell Gage's new quarterback.

All right, I'll jump in here with my second sleeper. Yeah, I know you've heard this before. And look, wash, rinse, repeat. And it's going to be the same argument because I believe in the player. It is Brian Edwards, wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders. Join me on this hype train because honestly, this train can only be powered by hype. When a, what a. That is.