Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Sleepers, Fliers, Late-Round Steals

plan for, I need to focus more on running backs or more on wide receivers or whatever going forward. And you get a grade. That's the most important part, right? We look at your team and we grade your team. Get that stamp. Everybody gets a B-minus. No, that's not true. But seriously. All right, James White. James White's on our sleeper list. You start with James? Yeah. Let's talk about James White. I mean, is this just pie in the sky hopes? Are we just appropriating Shane Varene value to somebody in New England and just saying,

Uh, they're going to do it. So it's James White. That's, yeah. Yeah, that's, well, that's how I see it. I'm not, uh, huge on James White. I think, I completely agree that the, the argument makes sense. You know, the, the past catching back has been very productive in the last few years for New England. And that, that guy is gone. Vareen is gone. So the best man up will, should replace at least some of that value.

Here's one of the things about James White, that even sleepers I prefer over James White, James White has an advantage in the sense that starting game one and game two and game three, he very much, I think it's probable, it's definitely not guaranteed, but I think it's probable that he is in the role of the past catching back from day one, and that's his job. You don't have to wait for an injury in front of him, and you can grab him off a waivers or get him with your last pick in most leagues.

Personal favorite sleeper is a guy who does need that. I love me some major pain, some Cameron artist pain. I've been touting this guy since right after the draft. He is... Such a good nickname. Major pain. I feel like you've been touting him like...

You were like in the birthing room of major pain saying, thank you. Nobody was talking about him. I started talking about it. I thought you were stupid. Well, that's just a personal thing. Nothing to do with Cameron Artist's Pain. But Cameron Artist Pain is a really good, if you know his story and his backstory, they could make a football life on this guy. Because people might not know. Yes, Cameron Artist Payne is a rookie running back at Carolina Panthers behind.

The Mr. Glass. Mr. Glass himself. Jonathan Stewart. And here's the thing. Fiberglass. Here's one thing I do want to point out. So if Jay Stu goes down, Carolina has said they can see Artist Payne as a three-down back. He started preseason in third on his depth chart. He has moved in the second game to second. And I think he had like, I don't know his exact stats, but he had. He's had a very good camp, a very good preseason game. I think he busted off a 33-yard run. And we have to remember that Carolina.

while we're all expecting, oh, Jay Stu's going to get the complete workload, you know, we've wanted that for years, even when we thought DeAngelo Williams was kind of falling off or got, you know, he was a little bit injured. And they have always frustrated us by splitting that up. So who's to say that they don't like Cameron Ars Payne and say, hey, you're a talented back, get in there. So I really like him. Into the draft, grab him, because he could be a fantasy league winner.

I don't always recommend handcuffs. It's always about the situation. But when I do, I recommend Cameron Justice Payne. It's always about the talent and the opportunity that that player will get. If I have Jonathan Stewart, I'm going to make an attempt. You better have. I'm going to get pain on my teams. And you'll be able to. Right now, you'll be able to. So the guy I want to talk about it. Wait, wait, hold on. I wanted to bring just final thought on Cameron and Artist Pain. I'd rather have Artist Payne on my team than Nile Davis. I'd rather have Cameron Artis Payne on my team than...

Oh, the name just slipped out of my brain. So, Niall Davis, James Starks. I'd rather have him on my team over James Starks as a handcuff. There's only one handcuff I would rather have on my team than Artis Payne. Anybody going to guess it? No. Ryan Matthews. Oh, yeah, of course. It's hard to think of him as a handcuff. Yeah, because that's going to cost you a much higher pick. He's like a handcuff plus. Yes. Plus plus. All right. Now I'll let you proceed. Thank you. So the guy I want to talk about Stevie Johnson.

Stevie Johnson in Buffalo had three years of over 1,000 yards. The wild route runner. That's what we hear. That's what I see. He's unorthodox. Yeah, it's neat. In San Francisco, he was not used properly. But he only had two drops. He dropped two passes. Colin Kaepernick had 102 quarterback rating when targeting Stevie Johnson. So it's kind of strange that they didn't want to get him more involved. So he was highly productive.

win used. He's now in San Diego. Tremendous opportunity. Antonio Gates has been suspended for four games. There's production that needs to be filled. And Stevie Johnson, he can play anywhere. He can play the outside. He can play in the slot. So there's just... How many touchdowns has Royal caught over two years? Fifteen touchdowns in the last two years that have gone away because Eddie Royals gone. So that, I mean, that's a void that needs to be filled. And while...

Woodhead will catch most all of them. Some of them will need to go somewhere else. How many catches will a woodhead catch of a woodhead? Very nice. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right. Stevie Johnson or Eddie Royal. Who'd you rather have? Royal, because he's a two. I know exactly what Royal is. Johnson's a great name. He's going after the 10th round right now, and Rivers has said he loves him in camp.

He's seeing Keenan Allen and him as essentially the same guy on the field in terms of what they can do, the type of versatility they offer. So he should definitely be considered. And Keenan had some nasty drops in that Cardinal game. I was literally just going to joke that the upside of Stevie Johnson is that he can catch the ball. So where they're going right now, Stevie Johnson or Keenan Allen? Oh, that's good. The better value has to be Stevie Johnson over Keenan Allen, right? Is it Keenan going?

I see Keenan's upside as being a higher. As a higher wide receiver 2. I think that's his upside to me. While Stevie Johnson's upside is a low-end wide receiver 2, a guy that you're getting in the 10th round. Yeah, but Keenan Allen's going in the fourth round. That's good value, too. Do you think that's good value? I guess I'm lower on Keenan than everybody else here. All right, so my number one sleeper that I have to bring up is a guy that's basically free right now, which is...

Crazy to me. So Andre Williams of the New York Giants is going right now in the 13th round, the very back end of it. To me, that's a travesty because they drafted him to be this plotting two-down goal line guy. He's on a team that, you know, we've been touting Doug Martin. We've been touting Chris Ivory. Not because, no, no, hold on. Not because they're all world, but because of where they're being drafted. And the value, hey, if you have a one, two-down,

running back, that's a starter in the NFL, that's a premium position. Okay, that is a scarce position. That's why we say draft running backs early. And so we like ivory, we like Martin, late. So why is Andre Williams not in that conversation? Because he was drafted to be that guy. He's going, basically not even being drafted right now. And Rashad Jennings does not have the kind of career that says, oh, he's locked in as a starter. I mean, they drafted Andre Williams to come in and compete.

Now he's going to get the goal line on a team much better offensively than the Jets or Buccaneers, in my opinion. So Andre Williams, to me, it leaps off the page as a large man that can run the ball into the end zone. Yeah, and why he's going so late is because he was pretty disappointing last year. He got a lot of work. But that was very disappointed. That was the point is even though he was disappointing, they still gave him a high volume of carries. So I think they still believe in him.

Don't fumble, Andre. Oh, goodness. That's just a troublesome thing. You fumble on New York's, I mean, David Wilson, man. He was like a three-year doghouse. Yeah, don't fumble. Don't fumble. That's kind of the rule of thumb for all running backs. I mean, who fumbled this past week? They got benched. Jeremy Hill. Yeah, that's trouble. Uh-oh. All right. My next guy that I'll bring up, then, and add to the conversation is Cody Latimer.

Cody Latimer is sometimes forgotten because in the incredible rookie wide receiver draft class last year, he was on a John Fox offense. John Fox, while he'll draft a rookie wide receiver. Wasn't he banged up to start the year, too? He was a little bit, yeah, and so that took him out of camp, took him out of stuff. And then you had Emmanuel Sanders because Cody Latimer is playing for the Denver Broncos, who's a rookie last year, really, really highly touted player coming out of college. He was one of the guys that...

You know, at the beginning of the year, you were talking about the, you know, he's better than Kelvin Benjamin. Maybe he's, and he was playing for Peyton Manning. But this offseason...

He worked with Peyton Manning all the time. And as of right now, Emmanuel Sanders has a hamstring injury. I don't expect that to stay around, but you know how those work. So you've also got a shifted offense now. John Fox is gone. Kubiak uses probably more wide receivers, doesn't go as many two wide receiver sets. So I think Cody Latimer is going to be on the field more. He's got Peyton Manning more. He is a super talented guy. And he's going in the 13th round. And he was a second round pick in the NFL.

a guy that Kubiak came out and said he expects a big jump from. So where he's going, value, Mike? Oh, yeah, absolutely. The potential is there. These are third receivers in high-powered offenses are... These are guys to monitor and watch at the end of your draft. Yeah, no Julius Thomas in the mix there anymore. Right. And one thing we're saying that's important that you understand in sleepers, this isn't saying these are guys...

who you need to reach for and that you need to grab early. Just because we said so. Yeah. It's that these are the guys when they get to you and it's that late and they're staring at the board, pick these guys instead of the other guys that are in the 13th round. So let's talk about two more guys in this kind of category of sleeper, flyer, late round guys that we want to discuss and bring up to people's attention before we get into the mailback. So, Mike, do you have anybody you want to talk about? I mean, I have...

three or four names that I can bring up. The name that's standing out for me right now is Brandon Coleman, who is going in the 12th round. He's an undrafted guy. He still hasn't shown very much in preseason. He did have an end zone target. Yes. But I'm saying he hasn't come up with anything really tangible for the viewers to see. But we're hearing great things about him in camp. And the only guy in front of him as of now is Marquis Colston.

And so an older guy standing in your way of a high-powered offense, for Brandon Coleman, you can draft in the 12th round right now. Well, he's out there in three wide. Yeah, I was going to say he's not even standing in front of him because the guy that had been in front of him, Nick Toon, has been supplanted by him in camp. So I think Coleman, yeah, he's going to be out there in three-wide already. With Jimmy Graham gone, Kenny Stills gone. How many targets is that? 220 targets. Wow. That's...

Yeah, I mean, that's significant. And we all believe, I mean, most of us believe in Drew Brees. Also, a question about Brandon, a question about Brandon Coleman or maybe wide receivers, I might be ignorant. Is six foot six, is that a good thing or is that a bad? When you're a wide receiver? When you're a wide receiver. Six, six, is that like average? That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Because that's what, you know what? That's what Brandon Coleman is. It's bad if you're a plumber, though.

That's true because it's got to bend over underneath the cabinet. It's also bad if you're like a center in the NBA.

Yeah, that's true. If you're a center, you're right. That's true. Thank you, Mike. Brandon Coleman is six-foot-six. I mean, that's just so great for a red zone target. All right. Another guy worth mentioning briefly, and we can throw some names out. I mean, Leonard Hankerson and Atlanta's worth a quick mention. Roddy's banged up and had elbow surgery. Roddy's banged up. There's no Harry Douglas anymore. Devin Hester's in the fold, but I mean, Hankerson comes from a Shanahan system, so he's worth mentioning because Shanahan's in Atlanta now. If you're in a two QB league, Tyrod Taylor.

I think is someone to watch. I'm just throwing that out there. Just because of the running? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm just saying. The cheese stands alone on that one. Let's see. We've got Jacob Tammy. You know, one thing I've said about Atlanta passing offense is that Toilolo was targeted a ton. He was the least efficient targeted tight in last year. And, you know, we had good.

Tony Gonzalez get targeted a ton. So if Tammy's capable, he could surprise here and there. He could. Philip Dorset is another name that jumps off the page as, you know, people think it's going to take him a year in Indianapolis. I think it might not. I think he's that good. So anybody else before we move on? The one guy that I will talk about, I know you two are not on him. Roy Hulu. Hello. Hello. I'm just glad you brought him up so I could say. And injured guys on new teams. They're super good.