Early Breakouts & Sleepers + Dalvin Cook Rumors - Fantasy Football Podcast for 6/22

Welcome to the best teaser of all time. We've got sleepers and breakouts on today's show. We put a little fear in Jason's heart and a whole lot more. Make sure you like, subscribe, and leave a comment. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Short and sweet today. More concise. I don't know why. Just trying to tidy some things up. It's going for efficiency. I just know it'll be a, it's a long show. It's going to be a big show today. And every second counts, Mike. Welcome in one and all, the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, back with you. Fun show today we have breakout and sleeper picks on the show. Oh, baby. Which I find to be kind of a, when you look at.

breakouts and sleepers in particular with the way the media cycle is now and social media and podcasts and like no one really hides right yes does that yeah i mean uh you know a decade ago sleepers were people you hadn't heard of right now with the news cycle and the fantasy frenzy and i mean everyone listening to this show right now is doing it in the off-season, you have heard some of these players, but it's really more a matter of, you know, finding the highest probability of the players that you've heard to hit or the highest ceiling. Yeah, I mean, it's just like you were saying, you know, it's hard to hide anymore, but we want to bring names to light that we think have a tremendous amount of upside when it comes to being a breakout. And as a sleeper, the names should not sound.

obvious. They should have questions. There should be a path, a ribbon that you can tug on and find your way through, but it shouldn't be somebody that is clear and obvious. It should be somebody that a couple things have to go their way. Yeah, some dreams. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. You see what I did there? Jason, Jason still. I missed that one. We were talking about sleepers. Yeah. And then, there it is. I'm in. I like it. Last year, this show is actually our live show in Detroit where Mike had mentioned Miles Sanders. Oh, well, well, well. Definitely outperformed his average job position. So credit to you, Mr. Wright. Thank you. And that was also the episode where Jason the Pander Bear. Oh, yeah. It was more of a lion bear. Took off his shirt and had like a lion's jersey. Yeah.

Do you have a mug and everything? Oh, I had a hat. I was lionsed out. That was a good time. A couple of reminders at the top before we jump in. We haven't mentioned it in a while, but if you're interested in supporting the show, becoming a part of our community, you can go to join thefoot.com. The foot clan is mighty and strong, and we have a Discord community and a ton of perks for you over there, including an extra episode of the show every single week. We have access to Folklaan League so you can find people to either fill in.

a spot in maybe one of your leagues where you need a good player or the opposite. You can go fill in a spot for somebody else in a league and join together. And all the tools on the website as well are basically for the in-season. They're all unlocked, you know, when you join the Foot Clan. So everything from, you know, the streamfinder or the weekly snapshot tool or even on player profile pages, you know, seeing the beautifully. colored rundown of fantasy finishes, all those things. They're all included in that. So let's join thefoot.com. And obviously the UDK is out now at ultimate draft kit.com. Our quick question. No, but we had one more. Okay. Oh, that's true. That's true. Because the need like a no, well, I don't know where you were going to go. I was going to go with the new episode of the dynasty podcast hit yesterday. Yeah. And someone made a, someone made a debut appearance.

On the Fantasy Footballer's Dynasty podcast. I'm not going to tell you who it is, but I've been on the show. I've been on the show. And Jason's been on the show. So somebody else. It's Brooks. No way. Yeah. That came out yesterday. Yes. So it was a lot of fun is what I'm hearing from whomever was on the show. All right. Quick question from Brandon in Indianapolis. When discussing players like Damian Pierce or James Robinson, or I'll add Philip Lindsay, you guys often bring up their team's lack of draft capital investment in the player and how it can be a concern about the player's long-term value. That is true. We bring that up because teams aren't committed financially to these players. And so even a player who has a rookie season like Philip Lindsay over 1,000 yards,

You can't pencil them in as a starter for multiple years because, you know, if they've struggled in the short term, it's very easy for the team to make an adjustment. They don't feel committed. His question, though, is does that philosophy only apply to running backs, or could someone like Brock Purdy, who was the last pick of the NFL draft last year, fall into that grouping and fear as well? So it applies. for sure to every single position. Every single position it applies to. Now, there are outliers to that. Austin Ackler was an undrafted free agent. It took a, it took way longer than it should have, though. Like when you were watching the Chargers and Melvin Gordon, and then they're like, Austin Ack looks way better than Melvin Gordon. Why, like, get this kid on the field. That was when Gordon was great. Yeah, and they just, but Gordon kept getting on the field because he was a first round pick.

I was going to sneeze. So thank you for the pause there, gentlemen. But the sneeze has left me. I thought you were pausing for dramatic effect. Oh, yeah, no, it was just I was going to sneeze. I started to get really nervous. I thought you had broken down. I thought it was another leg injury while you're sitting. It applies to everyone. So Brock Purdy, what he did is he came out and went undefeated as a starter, was taking a team. Sure, I know the record and the teams and all that. No, he was going to point out the playoff game. He lost the playoff game. Yeah.

Oh, come on, Mike. Come on. Hey, look, facts are facts, man. So, you know, when a player really does something very special and very public, they can overcome that. But it applies to every position. Sam Howell, right? If Sam Howell, who was, you know, last year, he was rumored to be on the first round bubble. Will he drop to the second? Will someone spend a first rounder on him? He fell to the fifth. If Sam Howell struggles this year. And he will. You know, the rug is, when he struggles? The rug is going to be pulled out from underneath him, whereas on the flip side, when first round picks, it's not just financial investment. It's a political investment, public perception investment. Yeah, general manager pride and coaching pride and fans, expectations. We know this as fantasy players. We put people into our lineup that we spent a high fantasy draft pick on and we might keep them there too long out of.

sheer stubbornness. Yeah, 100%. So it does apply to all positions. If you look at wide receivers, tight ends, any position, the rope, the leash is longer for mistakes to be made. And that's really what it's about. It's not about how good they play. Philip Lindsay was great. It's about an injury comes along. Well, if an injury comes along to Damien Pierce, the team is not. committed to him the same way that if an injury comes along to Breece Hall. So, yeah, it will apply. And honestly, I don't know if Brock Purdy has done enough to truly be impervious to that. If he comes out and struggles with the injury and has a bad season and, you know, gets replaced or maybe the injury lingers and he needs to have a cleanup and.

whoever comes in, Darnold or Trey Lance. That's fair. There's no guarantee that he gets a chance again. Yeah, and the truth is, we talk about it a lot and we brought up a bunch of running back names because that happens quite a bit. You know, the fourth, fifth rounder, six rounder, they do have breakout seasons or have opportunities. It doesn't happen at quarterback. It really doesn't. And the ones that have are the stories you tell of the six round Tom Brady. Brock Purdy started five games. That is more games than all seventh round rookie quarterbacks over the last decade have started combined. So in the last decade, seventh round quarterbacks have played four total games. So it is a little bit of an outlier and a non-traditional thing to have happened where the team is this confident in a last pick of the draft. But your point about the injury, like especially with a team like San Francisco that has won so many games with different quarterbacks,

If the injury caused Purdy to be sat down again and then they go on a six-game winning streak with Sam Darnold, there will be no guarantee that he gets that job back. And I say Sam Darnold because today there was a news report saying that he is the front runner for the number two job, and Trey Lance would be the third. Oof. Yeah, it's not great. Has there ever been? I believe as Mike said, and it's the inverse. It's like the last pick in the draft. Brock Purdy is your starter. And you traded the world to go up to, what, three? Yeah, it is a, it is a, does, if Trey Lance, like, doesn't start a game this year for the four years, it's just, it's a massive disaster. Isn't it net neutral, though, because of Purr? You can choose to look at it like that if you want, or you can realize you traded two future first to move up to the third. It feels unfair. And you could have drafted like a, in a real impact player at number three. What's crazy is that as.

as outlier as Brock Purdy is. That's how outlier the Trey Lance situation is, too. We're coming into. At least in terms of total starting opportunities. Because he hasn't played his way out of it. We haven't really, we haven't seen him fail. Behind the scenes, it seems he has. Yeah, that he must have. If you're going to put Sam Darnold up ahead of him at this point. But yeah, Trey Lance was the number three pick. I mean, that was a head. Jamar Chase went five. in that draft. Jaylen Waddle went six. So, you know, Certain at nine. Like you, you could look at it the appropriate way, which is they blew it. Yes. But they did get lucky with Purdy. If you look at it the other way of like, well, if we drafted Purdy there and you're like, that's just, you're just lying to yourself. They messed up. And but thankfully for, you know, all of the people in charge of the 49ers is.

They've been great for years. And they were still very good last year. So if a team that has no success makes that move, everybody who was in charge no longer has a job. The question on the Dynasty podcast yesterday that was brought up to the special guest. Yes. Around Brock Purdy was like, do you care if he's the starter when the season begins? You know, and how does that impact all the other players? And my answer is pretty much no because they're a machine. I mean, the 49ers are, I mean, that guy's answer was no because they're just a machine that works and you just, you just put another amalgamate quarterback. Which is, it's absurd. God save us all if they have a great quarterback. I mean, like a true top 15 quarterback. That's what they were trying to do. Because they did a lot with Jimmy G and Brock Purdy. Yep. All right. Well, let's, uh, it.

Let's move on. I don't think we have any big news. Monitoring the Tyreek Hill situation, he's been investigated for assault and battery at a marina in Miami Beach. So we will, we don't know a lot as to how that could impact him. So not a lot to talk about. Huge signing for the Rams, though. Yeah, Sony Michelle arrives. He's back, baby. Oh, man. All that nice Cameron Acres talk. And now obviously that's done. Yeah, so this is great. I mean, what it actually means is that clearly Zach Evans and Kyron Williams didn't show enough yet to make them not want to go get Sony Michelle. I don't know. You're just adding some depth. We'll see if Sony makes the team. Well, look, it can't be a good sign for those two guys, in my opinion, to add a free agent back. Yeah, if those two guys are dominating and looking amazing, they're not going to be like,

Let's add a fourth. Let's add some depth. Maybe. There's just, there's not a whole bunch that could be dominating yet. Okay. And then the other bit of news, which, I mean, it's not really news, but the rumor mills just continues to churn. Oh, I don't even know what we're going to say. I know what he's going to say. For Dalvin Cook. Oh. And Dalvin Cook has now retweeted multiple jets related tweets on the interwebs. Let's go live. to Breece Hall truth or Jason Moore. Jason Moore. Let's go get the spotlight over there. Jason Moore. Get your reaction. We have Breece Hall coming off a sensational few games, but tore up his knee pretty bad and looked like he would be a three down running back. But if Delvin Cook goes to the Jets, how are you going to feel about that? I'm going to feel pretty. I'm going to say I'm going to feel fine outwardly.

And I'm going to be pretty upset inwardly. I will wait to see what the contract is. Hopefully it is one year or no guaranteed money in here two. It'll be a two-year contract because it'll be the Aaron Rogers window. Yeah. And then I will be. Look, at the end, Breece Hall today is a significantly better player than Dalvin Cook today. Or I should say in like four or five months. But it's Dalvin Cook versus. Bam Knight, Michael Carter, who am I missing anybody for the Jets backfield? That might be the names worth mentioning. Like he jumps up to number two of the depth chart and the, dude, Dynasty, Dynasty running. Oh, yeah, and Abandakanda is there as well. I mean, that's, that is trouble. Trouble for three down work. Look, Dalvin wants to be a jet. I don't know that the Jets want Dalvin to be a jet.

I don't know. In that scenario, are you referring to yourself as the Jets? I am referring to me as the Jets. I don't believe the Jets want Dalvin Cook there. I agree with you in that case. Dynasty running backs, man. Other than guys like Bijon when they get drafted in the top 10 is just they could even guys the high level as Breece Hall. You still have to be freaked out that someone could come in and ruin everything. What was paid for Giovante Williams before the injury last year in Dynasty leagues? Like you're saying, I mean, what was the cost to acquire the guarantee? Yeah. It is your day in the sun, Giovante. Yeah. No. Well, if you want, I mean, we talked a lot about this on the Dynasty show yesterday. So if you want more, not that specific brief news, but just running back longevity and dynasty. So.

Other than just wanting to see Jason's reaction, I don't think there's any other news we have. Do you have anything, Brooksie? No, sir. All right, let's move on. Breakouts. All right, early breakout picks. We've each selected a name we want to bring up and discuss and talk about. And we kind of define that breakout term as a player prime to become a fantasy superstar, a game changer, the potential to tier up. You know, we build out the UDK every year and we categorize players into tiers. You know, we're looking at players that we think could be perennially in a higher tier after their performance this season. Generally, these are players that we've seen Flash, right? But maybe they don't have the full season of dominance under the belt. So at the top, it's a player we've brought up. I know I do not stand alone in liking this player at all.

But it's Jahan Dotson, wide receiver for the Washington commanders. I'll often talk about it. I think I took him in the mock draft on Tuesday as discounted Terry McLaurin. You can get him two or three rounds behind Terry McLaren, who, look, I'm not going to pretend Dotson's the one and McLaurin's the two. It's the inverse. But I think it's much more 1A1B than it is 1 and 2. Like Terry McLaurin does not represent the Jamar Chase Tyreek Hill. type of number one to me. You saw Dotson have a nice start to the year. He had four touchdowns in the first four weeks of the season, went down with a hamstring, took him a while to get back, and then he was really, really effective when he returned. In fact, the final five weeks of the season, he paced the team in targets. So he led Washington, seven a game. That was more, barely more than Terry McLaurin.

He led them in targets per route run, which is a stat I know, you know, tickles Mike's fancy. Yes, it does. Almost 30%. That's from weeks 13 through 18. That's an outrageous number. Yeah. So you saw, you saw tremendous potential. Jason's talked about a consolidation of targets in this offense. But look, the pace over that last five weeks for Dodson and McLaren was essentially 120 targets, 70 plus receptions, 1100 yards. And. 10 touchdowns each. So this was something that you saw in the field when you watched Washington play and he was able to be out there. And the one thing that we haven't brought up very much with Dotson, you know, you can make the statistical argument of you've seen these stretches and you can also throw some cold water on it with the fact that the quarterback play is going to be inconsistent because it will. But we haven't really talked about the creative opportunity.

that they're going to have with Eric B. Enemy, right? You're going from Scott Turner as an offensive coordinator to Eric B. Enemy, and generally speaking, talent means you'll be focused when, or you'll be featured when a creative offensive coordinator comes into play. And so I think you're going to see Dotson schemed into a lot of creative opportunities with Eric B. Enemy. We already know how good his hands are. I love it. I think Jehan Dodson is a player that we all have him ranked ahead of ADP. I have him 20 spots ahead of ADP in terms of a fantasy finish. So I think Jehan Dodson is a perfect second year breakout candidate. You know second years for wide receivers is a huge opportunity. And I know I'm not going to get any real disagreement from you guys on that. No, I think both of us love Jehan Dodson. And, you know, you've obviously got issues with the quarterback play there.

And so there's question marks there of whether Sam Howell can get it done. There was issues last year, too. Right. And that is, I think, the important takeaway is they're not going to get worse. They also aren't going to get better, but they don't need to. The player himself should get better going into year two. And hopefully the offense coordinator helps that quarterback, too, to just put them in a position to succeed. Well, that's why I think the consolidation of targets will be there. Like, you've got. a newer, you know, pretty much a rookie in Sam Howell. He started one game coming into play. And you have two dominant great wide receivers. Like simplify the offense. You know what I mean? Look that way. Look that way. One of them going to be open. Yeah, that's fair. And I'm, I know you're about to reveal your breakout. Oh, yes, I am. But? But we got to wait a second. Oh, no. And now, Jason, you are permitted to reveal a player that, uh,

You have been very high on all offseason. I have been high on him. I've drafted him as if he is breaking out. And that is someone who is expected to break out, was drafted to be great. Thanks, Tony. I was going to say a Hall of Famer. And that's Trevor Lawrence quarterback for the Jacksville Jaguars, who had an abysmal rookie season, one of the worst touchdown rates we have ever seen. on a dumpster fire, Urban Meyer. Oh, that rhymes. Absolute calamity there in Jacksonville. An Irvin Meyer dumpster fire. In his rookie year. Doug Peterson comes over. with healing ointment for the personalities of the Jaguar. Cast the demons out. I mean, that's what he had some holy water and he's putting it on everybody. You look at the videos. Save us. Even this off season, I know, Andy, I showed you the video. I don't know if the listeners saw the video of the schedule release that the Jacksonville Jaguars did. It was just such a great work by their social media team.

But it was funny. It was a play on the script and the NFL. Yeah, on everything being script. But what I took away from it, like the owner, the coaches, the players, they were all involved in this video. And they look like they are loving life together right now. Like this was a team that I think is jelling and an offense that is going to be great. Trevor Lawrence looked so good. towards the end of last year and getting his team to the playoffs and having some come from behind wins and really showing something special. He said, well, how good was his sophomore season? He's the second sophomore quarterback ever to put up 4,000 passing yards, 25 passing touchdowns and add five rushing touchdowns with fellow Clemson alum Deshaun Watson. He has a lot of...

big weeks too. Number one, number five, number five, number five, number four, number four. He had as many top five finishes as Justin Fields. He had more top five finishes than Justin Herbert. Last year, he wasn't a world beater last year. He just showed enough that it was like, yes, that's the guy he's supposed to be. He's going to lead this team to division titles, to playoff wins, maybe someday to a Super Bowl. And he's a baby boy. He turned 23 in October. He's still, he's younger than Will Levis, rookie quarterback coming in this year. From weeks nine through 16. Banana. Banana. Banana. Thank you. Yes, thank you. He is younger than banana ramma. Is that on the website? Oh, I don't know. If Cameron's on the website, banana ramma better be on the website. I'll get on that. I'll make a note here. Banana ramma. That's not. I'll fix it. I'll fix it immediately.

From weeks 9 through 16, the Jacksonville Jaguar's offense just looked great. Fifth most passing yards, third unexpected points per pass attempt, top 10 in almost every passing metric. And now they add Calvin Ridley. To a really good core set of Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Evan Ingraham. You've got Travis E.T.N. and Tank Bigsby who can catch the ball as well. This looks like a very powerful offense. It's the second year in the system with Doug Peterson. The second year in the system with Doug Peterson was when Carson Wince was the MVP candidate before he got injured. And I mean, you expect Trevor Lawrence to be good, but you're saying, well, what is a breakout? A breakout to me is,

I think he could throw for 40 touchdowns. I think he could throw for 4,500 yards and 40 touchdowns. And the nice thing is Trevor Lawrence can scramble. He's athletic. He will add 250, 300 yards. He had five rushing touchdowns last year. He has enough of the dual threat, kind of like Patrick Mahomes does, where you just think of them as a pocket passer. Then you look at the numbers and you go, he actually does quite a bit on the ground. Trevor Lawrence can be the next guy to go up into the tier of, what Herbert was, what Joe Burrow did last year. And I expect it to happen this season. He's my breakup. The Titans defense in that division gave up 29 passing touchdowns and over 4,600 yards through the air last year. You get to face a Houston defense that is certainly not intimidating. You know, the Colts probably more middle of the pack. But that is one thing that's attractive, right? Like if you are, if you are.

putting your chips in on Joe Burrow who's going where? Where's it going in? Joe Burroughs third round. Third round. Third, fourth, yeah. And so the chips in on Joe Burrow, don't get me wrong, Joe Burrow is going to be very good. But you also have a more difficult division and defenses to play. Whereas I think we all, we all agree that Jacksonville should win this division. Should. Do you have any other inklings to Tennessee maybe bouncing back or? I mean, that's the only one that actually comes to mind for me. Yeah, it's possible, I guess, for Tennessee, if Ryan Tannenhill can bounce back and Traylon Burks becomes the number one wide receiver that they treated A.J. Brown, essentially like a one-for-one trade of A.J. Brown for Berks. If that works out, I think there's a chance that at Tennessee, and Vrable has done very well with that team, but.

I mean, the heavy favorites have to be the Jags. Yeah, I think they're at nine and a half wins right now, and that puts them as the betting favorites. Okay, update here. Banana Ramma has been added to the website for Will Levis. How did you, did you go one word or did you use one? One word. One word, all A's obviously. Okay. Banana ramma. Yeah. B-A-N-A-R-A-M-A. Did you say that for us, Al? Banana. There we go. All right. All right. We did it. Mike, who's your breakout? All right. It's Chris Olavé, baby of the New Orleans Saints second year wide receiver. It's difficult here when you have a wide receiver where their ADP is already like the breakout is baked in because right now on underdog, he is the wide receiver 12 on sleeper.