Breakout Picks + Standout Schedules - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/19

Your drafts are almost here. Make sure you are swagging out if you're the champ. Go to fantasychamps.com. Get yourself an awesome trophy, an awesome belt, and here's the kicker. If you add one of the bling rings or the brand new black and gold stunner rings that are awesome, they are $60. You put that in a trophy in your cart. Use the code free ring and you're going to get that ring. Well, just like I said, for free. For free. Go to fantasychamps.com, you fantasy champions. to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Monday episode of the fantasy footballers. Jason Moore is here. Mike, the fantasy hitman present accounted for backwards cap and all. Is my hat on backwards? Now, see, I have been a little bit curious. I'm Andy Holloway, by the way.

You got a haircut. Yes. I know this. To be true, because you came in and we noticed it. But we only noticed it because of the sides because you continue to wear your caps. That's right. Are you just waiting to debut this for the live show? I mean, what is the... Well, an underrated part of a haircut when you have a short hairdo. You look better in the hat. Once the hair is cut, too. You do. Yeah, I mean, this is, it's all just part of it, man. Yeah, but you just haven't really, you know, I'm breaking it out on the show. Some say, are we not showering? Oh, no, this is, I'm fresh out of the shower today. I'm proud of you, man. It's, I've been told it's too sexy. Oh. I don't doubt it. And I hate that. This is like, you're like a bodybuilder with a shirt on. There's no, that's just stupid. Why do it?

You know, you've got, he's doing it for us. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I am protecting you guys. Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a hat man. Yeah, no, you got a nice head of hair under there. Oh, yeah. I bet you anything. We got a breakouts episode on the show today. Very excited. This week we're going to get into breakouts and sleepers, busts, value picks, and mock draft and some other stuff going on this week. Very excited. Sleeper is presenting the Megalus show live in Los Angeles on Saturday. We will be out there at the Palace Theater. We'll be giving away tons of autographed gear. We got a grand prize giveaway. We have a Q&A live after the episode of this show. We'll be doing our bold predictions episode live in Los Angeles. So if you want to come and hang out with us, ballerslive.com, your last chance to get over there and do it.

The listener league, all of the winners have been notified and emailed. So this is, I mean, I guess this is only news for those that didn't win. Basically 99% of you, this is bad news. However, because the winners already know, so they didn't need to be told. No, why did you bring this up? I'm sorry. Here's why to bring it up. Seriously, genuinely, thank you. We had a thousand different submissions, not an exaggeration. and the time, work, energy, effort, talent, character, personality. We just have an amazing audience. We thank you. I am so sorry that we could not have everyone here. Obviously, you can play in the Megalabole, and that's coming soon, and the winner will get to play with us next year. So you always have a chance, even if your submissions fail.

And the Ultimate Draft Kit available right now, Ultimate DraftKit.com. This is getting into the biggest weekend for drafts here very soon. So you're prepping up. I've been talking to people. They are getting ready. They're getting set to dominate on draft days. So pick up that UDK. Now, most of the time listening to this podcast is very beneficial for your fantasy team. Yeah, it's great. However, I have to share a story. Oh, man. You have to actually listen to the show for it to be beneficial. I mean, that's true. That's true. However, this person did. Justin wrote in, and I just couldn't help but share this story. Actually, Jason, why don't you read it? All righty. If you don't mind. Yeah, no, I don't mind. So this story, not a question, just a hilarious story that may lead to my divorce, says Justin in Alabama. Driving back from the beach yesterday, I forced my wife to listen to the My Guys episode.

mainly because we were having our family draft last night. I have won the league three years in a row. It's the only league that I'm in where there's no money involved, but it's probably the most competitive league because of all the trash talk, which is very similar to our league of record. My wife usually follows ADP and reads weekly waiver wire articles, but doesn't know much beyond what she is told to do by the articles. She decides to read that particular week. Well, she had the sixth pick, and she was excited to- Six overall, huh? It sounds like it. She was excited to stray away from ADP to take Tank Bigsby with the sixth overall pick and was so excited because that was the only name she remembered from the My Guys episode.

She was the butt of the jokes for the next two hours during the draft and is still not talked to me since the draft ended. Oh, no. Tank Bigsby taken in the first round. That is, uh, oh no. Because I believe, Andy, that was your third my guy if memory serves. Uh, it serves. Uh, that's right. Both of you. Oh, my gosh. So not, I mean, tank Bigsby six overall in at least one draft. Here's what I can tell you. Justin's wife, name unknown. Plenty of people have drafted someone in the first round who gets injured, misses the year, and wins the championship. So stick with it. Just assume your first round pick got injured. She might be in trouble. It's an uphill battle. All right, let's jump in. Welcome to Ready to Roll, presented by Nissan. All right, we're.

going to jump into another edition of Ready to Roll, which has been really fun to kind of prime you up with some strategies to help you heading into the season. And this one fits the moniker ready to roll pretty perfectly because getting off to a great start in fantasy is an actually underrated part of drafting a team. So it's a great tiebreaker between two players. When you are looking at that opening schedule, that can help. make all the difference. And the truth of the matter is, and we brought this up on tips and trick shows or, you know, many of you with experience playing fantasy football already know this because your team looks nothing like the day you drafted it. We say the draft sets a great foundation. You don't win your league at the draft because, you know, it gives you the ability to make those maneuvers throughout the year. Justin's wife. Justice Reif will need to pay close attention. Also, I would pay close attention to this one because this segment.

is probably the only time we're going to say it as succinctly before the season. And this is a good strategy for fantasy football. I implore this strategy of looking at the beginning of the season as even probably a little bit more than a tiebreaker. I care so much, so much about the first month of the season when I'm drafting and redraft. It makes a huge difference. And so that's what we're going to look at is the opening schedules for several players at all of the positions. players that are set up to succeed to start the year. And it's funny because I got, you know, I got an email the other day. And they were basically saying like, are you, you know, what about the end of season schedules as the differentiator between these players? No, no, no, no, no. And that's not a good way to think about it because the turnover at the defensive strength position, you know, it changes so quickly year to year, not just like, is this defense good or bad, but how they play the different positions. Some teams become very weak against tight end, strong against tight end.

and all of the different positions. And that data, which we put into our in-season tools, we really don't even start showing you that data until. Now, see, I just pivoted from data to data. Which do you prefer moving forward? Well, data is usually what I prefer, but he is also from Star Trek. Oh, okay. So you go data? No, I think I do. I use data. Because data sounds like dad-da. You know what I mean? Right. Papa. Yeah, I get it. No, let's go data. But they call him data because he had the data. That is true. He was a robot. I think they called him data because he had the data. Oh, yeah. You don't call someone. It's like, oh, you got the milk. I'm going to call you Mike. That doesn't make sense. Malk. All right. You said succinctly. My bad. Officially, yes. This is not succinctly. But we don't show you the end of season. Like the end of season schedules are to be decision makers midseason. That's why I traded for Dak Prescott. That's why I traded for David Najoku last year. It wasn't.

looking forward from the draft day, it was halfway through the year. Yeah, there's a lot more data official data midway through the year where we know. Right now we're guessing about the first month of the season. We're going to be right more often than we're wrong, but we will be wrong using last year's data to project it. And so looking at the quarterback position, we're paying attention to more than just how these teams were against the past last year. Although if you use that as a guide to start the season, Jaden Daniels. plays against the 29th, 27th, and 28th past defenses to start the year and then goes up against Arizona who can't pressure the quarterback. So Jaden Daniels actually has a great start to the season based on last year's data, but we're also looking at over-under. We're looking at projected total points in these games where Kyla Murray, to a Tung of Iloa, who always gets off to a hot start anyways. I do feel like he has probably been a little too ignored in draft conversations in terms of

You don't have to make a lifetime commitment to Tua. But starting the year, you've got over, under's of 49, 51, and 49, and then a really good matchup against Tennessee. He's a much better draft pick than I had been spending the offseason thinking, and this is why. I mean, if you start the season three and O versus O and three, it makes a pretty big difference. Yeah, as far as your fantasy team, absolutely. And then Jared Goff, we've talked about his schedule. Oh, yeah. It's so juicy to start the season that he has to be on those lists as well. And he had, you know, he had seven top 12 finishes last year. At the running back position, you look at strong opening schedule possibilities. You can look at Josh Jacobs facing some bad run defenses based on last year's data and, you know, being the new main man in Green Bay.

James Cook, who's Mike's my guy, but faces Arizona and Miami and Jacksonville, a really strong opening season schedule. And then Taj Spears, and I'll say obviously slash Tony Pollard, because Tennessee's running opponents in terms of how they performed last year, they're not good to start the year. So, again, these things change, but it's good to know if you're making that decision between two very similar players, you know, Patience is not a very acquireable virtue for fantasy players to start the year. It's very hard to be patient if you've been disappointed with bad schedules. At wide receiver, Malik Neighbors. Another my guy. Great start to the year. I was getting the reactions I was getting to every Daniel Jones pass in preseason week two were outrageous. It was like.

Well, so were the passes. Yeah, the passes were outrageous. He had a good game. I mean, he had a couple big catches. I think he had 54 yards. But then Daniel Jones coming out, the ACL had two picks. Godwin, Chris Godwin and Mike Evans have strong starts to the season. Yes, they do. And Jameson Williams, if he is a thing, he will have the chance to be a thing because he's got that same juicy schedule as Jared Gough. And then at the tight-in position, A lot of positive buzz around Evan Ingram and his camp performance and his performance in joint practices. He has a great opening schedule. I still am, I'm always glancing at Ingram later in drafts. I know that it's not been unanimous here, but I am. And then Hunter Henry, who's been one of the, quote, Unvisible men, I think. Unvisible? Invisible. Okay, that's a word. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely said invisible. I thought he was doing an under joke.

I wasn't. Oh. Yeah, no, it's just a mispeak that we don't allow here on the fantasy footballers podcast. The dad-dad told me that Hunter's been invisible. Okay. Yep, perfect. I really don't like how this is turning. You normally have kind of a... Yeah, I've got a stranglehold on the misspeaks, but now I'm just... Ever since I knocked the tooth out, it's really gone sideways. I'm really taking it over. Um... This one, you know, Pat Friermouth is lined up to have a great start to the season. However, I would bring to mind that Friar Mew's situation with Arthur Smith is not, I'm not encouraged in preseason through two weeks in terms of how many snaps he's got with the first team. We know the tight end rotation in Atlanta was terrifying with Kyle Pitts. So I'm actually, I'm actually pumping my own breaks on Pat Friar Mewth personally.

Good thing you're in a student driver car and I'm in the other seat and I'm hitting the gas, baby. The Mewth going to be Luth. You don't know which quarterback's playing which week. They both have looked horrible all offseason. And now you have different tight ends playing and the Muth hasn't been Luth in years. So I'm sorry, Jay. I'm out. Season long, that's perfectly fine because Hunter Henry, who if it might remember that Hunter Henry also had a really strong start to last year. Obviously different team, different quarterback. But like Hunter's opening schedule. I'm searching for Hunter and I can't find it. Yeah, you're not going to. The opening schedule for the Patriots like fantasy points against. He was the number one? Yeah. And the number two tight in for the first two weeks last year. Yeah. Sounds about right. So he's if you, maybe you're in a larger league. You're in a 14 or 16 team league and getting a tight end. It just has not worked out. You're going to be streaming the position.

I would check out some of these guys with the better opening schedules. Last year, it was, when we were talking about these types of players, it was Jake Ferguson and Sam Leporta, two guys who were just not really drafted if they were. It was in the late double-digit rounds, but they both had such juicy opening schedules. Now, that's not me saying we did it. We called Sam Leporta. It was saying these are two players that we identified that. could start out pretty hot. And I would say when you're looking at different positions and schedules, you'll hear this all throughout the season. The tight end is the position to me of all of them the most where I care about who is good or bad at, like the teams that are really bad against tight end are just, they've got a hole in their defense that they don't know how to fix. And week after week after week, even bad tight ends, they...

They just can't, they just can't guard them. Sometimes it's a choice too. Like, I'd rather be beaten by Hunter Henry than, you know, well, I guess a bad example. They don't have wide receivers. Jalen Polk or somebody. Yeah, exactly. So it is like you said. Yeah, schematically, that just might be how you funnel your defense. But I really do like targeting tight ends that are going up against really bad, like the top five or the bottom five. defenses against tight-in. Obviously, this is last year's data we're looking at mixed with some of the new year, but it should still work out with these three guys. All right, something to keep in mind for you. That was ready to roll presented by Nissan. Find Your Path in the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek designed to be aggressive all the way up to the front grill.

It's like my grill. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitored traffic and weather conditions. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, we've got a lot to get to today. It's a breakout show, but I did want to kind of ask you your favorite players of the weekend. We got another week of preseason football. And the two names for me, Bo Nix's performance in Denver, it's looking like Bo Nix. I mean, it's looking like collegiate Bo Nix with the efficiency and the level of, you know, the completion percentage. And so I was really impressed. I think Bo Nix was my number one. And then I'm still going to throw Roma Dunesay out there. Sure. Yeah. I am trying to go to bat for him lately. I am a believer in Roma Dunesay and the...

essentially the broken play in Chicago. I think that what we've seen thus far with the offense is that Caleb is willing to move around, extend the play. He's made some outrageous throws. He's made some mistakes, all of that stuff. But as plays break down, it seems like the homing, the eyes, the homing missile is going to Roma Doomsay on some of these plays. And they had a big connection this last weekend. And just looking at, probabilities with Keenan Allen. He's 32 years old. There's only been, you know, a handful of players at that age and older that really put up kind of prolific seasons when it comes to total receptions. We did see Thiel and do it last year. Larry Fitzgerald had done it. Reggie Wayne did it when you're 32 plus and you get over 100 receptions. But I just want to leave the door ajar there for the...

Ninth overall pick with incredible athleticism, you know, big body, competitive catch guy. I think that there's a chance that we're talking more about Roma Dunesay than we think at some point this year. And we'll leave it there. I don't hate the take at all. I believe in Rome, the player as well. I hate that three wide receivers for the Chicago Bears were being drafted inside the, what is it, the top 36, if I'm remembering that number right, Kyle. of just knowing 100% that not all three of those guys can pay off. That's been everything about the argument against Rome. And it was, you know, betting on Keenan Allen who has been, was still great last year. He was still an elite player. So that's just the question. If Keenan Allen is the one who falls apart this year, yeah, Rome will be fine. It's just a matter of all three will not.

All three will not pay off that ADP. Yeah, that's for sure. I think he's talented for Dynasty. I love Roma Dunes A. What he showed this preseason is like he's legit. He's very good. I still, for redraft, do not believe. Like, Rome wasn't building the day. It's not going to be built in his first. Bustin. Give me a busted. I didn't even stop for it. I'm with it. I'm with the bussy. Okay. Well, I'm a big fan of Rome, the city. Mike's a fan of Rome, the player. So. The thing is, is he is going to be right now to start the season. We just got finished talking about how important starting the season is. He projects to be the third target, you know, for a rookie quarterback. And I wanted to bring up Caleb Williams as my takeaway from this preseason because he had a couple of plays. If you're just looking at, you know, if you're scrolling Twitter and you're looking at some of these plays, the deep shot to Roma Dunezay down the sideline, the one that was to Adunzee in the corner of the end zone, which.

should have been a touchdown except Odunze was stepping on the out of bounds line. You'd be like, holy moly, this guy is so special. It's everything he was drafted to be. If you watch the whole preseason game, you go, oh, he did, he did nothing. It was just three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out for, you know, the first almost right up until halftime when he had that final drive that worked. And so I think you're going to have speed bumps. in the road. And it's what Mike talked about. Right now, Rome is the 33rd drafted wide receiver on sleeper. I mean, he's ahead of Jaden Reed, ahead of Xavier Worthy, who's like another rookie who maybe he's the third best quarterback. But he's playing for Patrick Mahomes or Calvin Ridley. Like, are you taking Roman Dunezay ahead of Calvin Ridley? Because he's going way ahead. No, my argument for Rome is more that the drafting of talented rookie wide receivers late in drafts.

as Flyers has paid off for me in years past. But he's not late. Not late enough for your taste, which is fine. But I think in some leagues he will be late. And I also, you know, you do want the guy that if he starts going out there in two wide receiver sets all the time, he'll make an impact. If one of those two guys goes down, he'll make an impact. So at least keep your eyes on him. It's not a prescription for reaching. Yeah, I would agree. When you bet on talent, the wild world of the NFL happens. Injuries happen and you go, well, the reason that guy works is because of injury. Keenan's never been hurt before though, right? But it's not just like, oh, an injury ahead of him made him good. It was he's got to have both. You've got to have talent and opportunity. I would probably be even more hesitant if there was a history between Caleb and Keenan as well. The fact that Keenan is coming over from another franchise and they haven't played together helps me a little bit too in terms of Caleb picking his favorites. But we'll see what happens there.

Mike, you have a, you've got another player on the Broncos. Sure. Yeah, this is. And look, there's three question marks, but it is Tim Patrick, Fireball Jones, back from the grave, missing multiple seasons in a row. He's fresh, Mike. Yeah, the legs are rested, very, very rested in rehab. And it, they're like, there's a chance. There is a chance that Tim Patrick just ends up being the best. wide receiver on the Denver Broncos this year. Does that mean good things for fantasy football? I don't know. But I just, I thought it was worth highlighting where we're trying to figure out these wide receiver situations. And the other one is I have to bring it up yet again and I hate it. Do you want the boo? What do you want? Oh, yeah. Can I get some booze? Say it. Yeah. Taste some hill. Oh, that's a groundswell of booze. Taste some hill. The New Orleans Saints.

are infatuated with Taysom Hill. Not so much winning football. They like gadget guys, but they love Taysom Hill. There was a report, I think even before the game this past weekend of a beat reporter saying, you know, hypothetically, if you tell me that Taysam is the second leading rusher for the New Orleans Saints, I will not be surprised at all. He's going to get goal on work. He's lining up literally all over the field because They're using them as a true gadget player. They don't have anybody else. They don't. But it's, which, with an argument for another day, it is simply, if you're playing on a platform where Taysam Hill, is tight end eligible. This is not a call for the platforms where he's quarterback only. If you can put him in as a tight end, it's going to be more of the same of huge, huge spike weeks. A lot of weeks where there's just absolute nothingness, but.

he will have spike weeks like he'll have multiple top five weeks all right other news the raiders have named gardner minchu as their starting quarterback for week let's go wow that's a fist pump that was an aggressive fist pump yes did you hear you didn't hear i didn't hear what did it was gardener minchu no i heard that i heard that oh sometimes it's sometimes it's about the other options though You really hate Aiden O'Connell that much? I think Aiden O'Connell is a better player. I think Aden O'Connell stinks and he'll never be good. Well, I think they're both kind of stink. Gardner Minshew gave us Michael Pittman last year. Yes, that is the best argument. Yes, the fist pump is merely for those who are drafting and believing in Devante Adams. I think this is a much better situation. Brock Bowers? Brock. Yeah, everyone. Jacoby Meyer. Anyone who catches a pass from.

A quarterback. A quarterback who plays for the Raiders. I think this is a much better situation. Well, and we'll really, I mean, what is the opening four weeks for the Raiders? Can you, I mean, what does that look like? Because if you have a quarterback situation where a change can happen. So we got Chargers. So at Chargers at Baltimore, Carolina, Cleveland. Yeah, this is change. This will change. This will change. It neither looked good in the preseason. The accuracy for Gardner was awful. Mitch was a gamer, guys. But what I, the only thing that I'll say is that like Adams wants AOC. So Adams is a loud man.

So maybe there's sacrificial baby in those games. They could be. Or the Raiders just want to do everything they can to make Devante Adams mad. If you're in a. We're doing a great job. They are knocking it out of the park. All right. Yeah. So we'll, you know, Minchu for now. And then Jalen Warren missing multiple weeks with a hamstring injury. This one's big. He is still in question for week one. He could be back out there. I made some very small tweaks to the distribution of work just based on. him being potentially limited in week one, but, you know, it's unfortunate, the injury. And then we got word that DeAndre Hopkins with the knee sprain should be back soon. The team is hopeful to have them for week one in Tennessee. Good for Will Levis to have DeAndre Hopkins back out there. Lord knows we don't want to pass the ball to Kyle Phillips and Traylon Berks. I don't think you're allowed to pass it to Traylon.

Getting back real quick to Jalen Warren. I saw, I'm sorry, I don't have the, Kyle, maybe you could look this up. Their center got injured, right? So it wasn't just Jalen Warren. But I believe the Steelers. Their starting center did, although they spent, I believe, a first rounder on a, or a high draft pick on a center. Yeah. Okay. So it's just unfortunate injuries to start the season. Sounds like they need to dump it over the office line to Pat Framuth, Andy. He won't be on the field, though. So who are they going to throw it to when he's off the field? MVS, who left the second preseason game with the neck injury? X-rays negative. I don't. I don't want to say I don't care about his injury. It does not factor into my thinking about fantasy football his injury. Let's put it that way. Did you guys see the news on Brandon Ayyuk? Me neither. Come on. Oh, I see what you did. This is taking too long. Just signed something.