Fantasy Football - Dynasty Draft Tips + Rookie Sleepers, Age Cliffs - Podcast for 5/14

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into the podcast. It's the fantasy footballers podcast, if you're nasty. No Andy, just me, but Jason is also here, too. My best friend. Your best friend. Yeah, we're going to have a party today. It's a mailbag show. Oh, yeah. And Brooks wants us to. The bear is here. Jay Gris, Cardboard Bear Extraordinaire. The bear is here. Yeah, it should be a fun one. We're doing the dining. You know, this makes sense. It's a very, you know, you remember back in the, I mean, we had in the 80s and the 90s on today's very special episode. Right. The fantasy footballers. Yeah. This, but it makes sense that Andy wouldn't be here because.

This is Dynasty Week. Right. This is the Dynasty Show. And I mean, look, we've got, so Footclair, if you are unaware, we have another podcast, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Show, comes out every Wednesday, and that has me and Mike. I think we call it the Dynasty podcast. Do we call it the Dynasty Show? I do. Obviously. Jeremy's shaking his head no. Yeah, definitely the dynasty podcast. Okay, it's a dynasty podcast. Welcome to the fantasy footballer's show. Well, you know, you call what you want. I call what I want. But every Wednesday, we release a new episode of the podcast show, fancy footballer dynasty edition. And Andy does not usually participate in that. Right. That's Mike and I, Borga Betts.

It's great show. If you're listening to this, if you want more Dynasty content, make sure you download, subscribe, do all that jazz. Is that why he's the worst team in the league and we were in the playoffs and then I won? Yeah, that's probably why. I mean, so goodies are not on today's episode, you know. Sorry about your voice. He has lost his voice, which is pretty important for podcast showing. Yeah. And. Additioning. Yeah. But hopefully back next week, we've got a lot. Oh, he is. He is Jay Gris, the cardboard bear. Like I said, it's a special edition of this edition of the podcast show. Welcome to Dynasty Week. Once a year around this time, we have ourselves a good old-fashioned Dynasty Week. The theme of today's show will be dynasty related and to help us celebrate it. We are giving away a signed James Cook, Jimmy Cook, of the Buffalo.

bills i almost called him the buffalo bears because this bear is in my face he's large is a full grizzly uh but if you want in on that all you got to do is have pre-ordered the ultimate draft kit the udk plus be an ultimate to your footclan supporter you can do any of the above no you don't have to do all no no you just you just pick one of those and then not only are you securing the udk for the lowest possible price which releases in about two weeks in two weeks two weeks uh There's something you're going to grab to help you out with the draft. You might win a sign James Cook jersey. That's a win, win, win. James Dalvin Cook, a great running back. Man, he got real good. He really did. He got real good. He went from a guy that was like, well, he was efficient with touchdowns, doesn't get a lot of volume to just the dude. Oh, they were split at two ways. They're splitting it three ways. Now it's just like, man, he's too good. He's too good to give.

anyone else the ball there and led the league in rushing. So that makes sense. So check that out, ultimate draft kit.com or join thefoot.com if you want to be one of the long term supporters of the show. Today's quick question, who is a later round pick in rookie drafts not getting talked about enough? I'll bring up Andy's since he's not here. And because. You probably don't agree with it as much as myself and Andy do. I totally agree that he is a sleeper. I just... You didn't love the film. Correct. And that's fine. Nor did the Tennessee Titans. I mean, they liked it enough to draft them. But in the fifth round for what we're looking for. Your better argument there was nor did the NFL. Okay. All the teams let him drop to the fifth. The Titans were the one that actually pulled the trigger. Nicholas Singleton... Yeah, they were like, eh. Well, they need a depth.

Tony Pollard is getting older, Tajay Spears is a smaller kind of more niche back. Nicholas Singleton in the fifth round, this was a guy who was the number one recruit in the nation. Okay, so he came into college as a very, very highly touted high school athlete. And then in college, all he did was he had a a four-year career at Penn State as the all-time leading touchdown scorer with 45 rushing touchdowns and I've brought this up on the dynasty show probably this show in the past there is a weird correlation between fantasy football success in the NFL and for the running back position rushing touchdowns in college that

That is one of the stickier stats, not that rushing touchdowns necessarily are sticky, but that one has a high correlation to success in the NFL. You don't get much better than 45. Oh, and also, he had over a hundred receptions in college. That's an outrageously high number. So you're telling me that the two things that score fantasy points, he can catch the ball and he could score touchdowns. He's 220 plus pounds. So he can be used in a goal line situation. I don't feel like that's really... Tony Pollard or Tajay Spears's specialty. So this is just someone, it's a sleeper, it's a fifth round, you know, NFL draft pick. We usually just, you know, look at them as wisps of smoke in the air and try to like smell like, oh, this, this smells good. Is it a fire? Yeah, I don't know. Do I like this? Every now and then you can find, you know, a Bucky Irving day three pick, but Singleton is someone to keep your eye on, you know, 226 pounds.

And he also, he, keep in mind, he injured his 226 pounds. Did I say that? I did say that. No, the deuce, none of them are paying attention. Okay. Yeah. They are checked out. Yeah, you said 220, six pounds. Six foot. So a newborn baby. But at the senior bowl, which is, you know, obviously after the, the collegiate season, he entered his foot. So if you want to talk about dropping in the, in the draft of the fifth round, that could be a legit reason. he is dealing with an injury so a team would have to sacrifice some of that time i i did like the prospect like katrin allen his is running mate there at penn state i prefer nicholas singleton from a fantasy football perspective i didn't realize singleton was going to get that long of a segment otherwise i would have shut that whole thing down okay you know that's why i went uh i'm going with zachariah branch zach branch of the atlanta falcons he's a third round pick now he

His production profile is one that we can be scared off of for fantasy football when everything is so manufactured for a kid in college. Like you're not running the true NFL routes. The screen warrior. Yes. But there is an opportunity here. A third round pick by the Falcons, also known as a day two pick. He's athletically gifted. He's a bit undersized. But there's room for him. There is absolutely room. There's room for him anywhere because he's so small. Thank you. You can put him to carry on. But it's like it's Drake London. Yes. And Kyle Pitts, you know, we got the franchise tag, but Kyle Pitts is just such a weird player who sometimes shows up, sometimes doesn't. And Branch can easily earn himself, you know, like essentially a full-time role here for the Atlanta Falcons. And maybe they're able to.

manufacture him touches as well. So for a third round pick, I like this. So usually when you're a screen warrior and usually when you're undersized, two big strikes against you where I don't like betting on those prospects. And I do think Zachariah Branch will fail. However, I love betting on him specifically because he is worth the reward if he succeeds. Most of these guys in today's, not today's, in 2026, the wide receiver draft class. I think a lot of them are going to be good NFL wide receivers, a lot of good depth pieces, but not make an impact on fantasy football. They're going to be their wide receiver two or three for their team. They're going to help move the chains and be important and not be someone you're starting in your lineup. Zachariah Branch has a superpower where if it hits, you know, the Tyreek Hill whispers, I don't think I've seen another prospect who has the same burst.

as Tyreek Hill other than other than bridge when when he four three five it's not even fast it's not even the four three five there's you know the line just this the the burst from stopped to start is outrageous Tyreek was obviously he's a one of one yeah and he's built far more than than branch to be able to take the NFL you know punishment but I do think if branch hits it's going to be a higher ceiling than a lot of the other like round three, round four rookie picks. So I like that as a sleeper option. And then my sleeper option, I've personally drafted him everywhere. I've put my stock. You are a big supporter. I'm a big supporter. Ted Hurst, wide receiver drafted in the third round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I like the film. The Broughthurst? We'll work on this. No. Sorry. Yeah, I don't know about that one.

You know, the last two seasons, he led college football in 20 plus yard receptions. He is 64206. He is a tall field stretching error apparent. He is not Mike Evans. He's not a first round NFL pick. He doesn't have the production profile of Mike Evans, but they're bringing him into that role. You know, Zach Robinson literally was just saying having a true X weapon in an offense is important. Speaking of Ted Hurst, the draft pick, they just lost Mike Evan. So I think he does come in and maybe he splits time to start the season, but it looks like Emeka Ibuka is going to be in the Z-roll. Chris Godwin is a slot player. Ted Hurst has an opportunity as a day two pick, who I really did like the film. I think he's a good, he high points the ball well. He always gets open deep. He uses his speed very well.

And I think he'll work. So Ted Hurst, I think that's a name people need to pay attention to because, again, just like Branch, what he does as a 6-4 wide receiver who had a lot of like fade catch touchdowns over smaller DBs and did him very well. If he hits, he's going to be a touchdown machine. And then if only he goes to a good quarterback in Baker who can throw touchdowns. He's interesting because like the pre-draft process. So he went to Georgia State. So, you know, a D1 school, but a smaller conference. I was like, oh boy, it's Hakeem Butler all over again. We're all the fantasy nerds. We're like, look at this six four guys running four four. And then the NFL is like, we don't want Hakeem Butler. But.

Third round pick. Yeah, Butler fell to like the fifth, right? Yeah, fifth or sixth round. So the NFL decided, at least the bucks decided that we're going to go in on Ted Hurst. And where he's being drafted, I think he is a solid pick. One of the weirdest things this year is the absence of thousand yard receivers on all these highly touted collegiate prospects. Like that's always been a barometer for me. Like if you don't, if your best season in college wasn't a thousand yards. I have a really hard time thinking. But this year it's like all of them. I mean, Tyson had a thousand, Lemon had a thousand. Tate didn't, but Tate's, he wasn't the one on his team. But then it's like all of the other day two picks. Almost none of them got a thousand. At least, at least hers, you know, goes over that bar. Right. Into the news. News and notes from around the league. Can you hit the money for me? Oh, yeah. Devon A. Chan. Holy.

Folks, I forgot we got a new one for the back wall and I didn't want to hit the wrong one. Got you. All right. All right. The money is flowing for four years. 68 million buckeroonies. The extension for the Dolphins player making him the NFL's third highest paid running back at 17 per year. 32 million guaranteed. Last year, 11 fantasy points every single game. I mean, he is an awesome guy, deserves every penny, 32 million guaranteed. How bad does Devon H.N. feel looking at Jeremiah Love, realizing Jeremiah Love got 21 million dollars more in guaranteed money than this massive contract. Yeah. That's, that kind of stinks, but also Gibbs is like, oh yeah, Gibbs is like, huh? He did what? Your money? Money, please.

We got to get that dropped. Yes, we do. We got to cut that up. Then there was a, in not fun news, athletic, we got to report, Malik neighbors underwent a cleanup procedure a couple weeks ago. You know, for a lot of injury experts out there, this was not shocking news. We just, you never liked to hear that a guy who had ACL and meniscus surgery had to have a cleanup to get rid of some scar tissue. We want Malik neighbors healthy as possible long term, but it feels like he may not be ready to start the year. No. Maybe it's just a couple weeks. Maybe it's the pup. I mean, it just depends on your perspective. This is great news for me. This is great news for me. You made a trade. You made a trade last year for you like you traded away the 2026 season.

in League of Record. The 20, yes, correct. Like the upcoming season. You have already traded that season. I'm out. I am O-U-T. I, me and my co-managers. Good nighter. We have been saying for the last year for the last year, we're the future, future champ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I'm out on 2026. And, um, you idiot. This is ridiculous. You did the same thing two years ago. Got last- Not before the season started. You got last place because you sold and played for the future. Yes, about half or three the year. I'm out in front of you, Mike. I'm out in front. I went after it hard last year. Josh Jacobs went down for me and then Daniel Jones went down, which hurt Jonathan Taylor. You won the championship, I didn't. But because of that, I have very little draft capital. So coming into this year, I just made a one-for-one trade. I traded away C.D. Lamb for Malik Neighbors. It's perfect. And I hope neighbors starts on the pop.

I don't want to win this year. I want him to get healthy, start slow. And I guess for everybody out there that is not just selfishly thinking of their own team, he probably starts on the pub. That's my current expectation. Okay. Dr. Chow, a longtime team doctor of the, at that point, San Diego Chargers, he was saying months ago when the crutch was coming out for neighbors. it was a sign that it was a different type of procedure. Because we knew it was a meniscus as well as the ACL. And so it, to him, it was a different sign of the type of procedure, which is not a bad thing. It doesn't hurt long-term recovery, but it does indicate it's going to be a longer process for short-term recovery. So he expects him to not start the season week one. And so I guess I would just tell people,

This is a by candidate the whole season. He's going to start in the pup. He's going to start slow. He probably will not be full strength until late in the 2026 season. Maybe he can help people win championships. Sure. Buy him midseason. But it, you know, don't be afraid of, oh my gosh, this is going to be some devastating career ending injury because we. We're told he's going to be ready for week one and now he's not. I don't think that was correct information from the get-go. But his, we'll have to monitor and be careful with the ADP knowing what you're getting yourself into. For sure. You, where he's going right now in ADP is too high. I expect, if we get closer to the season, it looks like he's going to start in the pub. People won't be drafting him as like the sixth wide receiver or whatever because you're going to miss a month and then he's going to come back and not be full candidate. But, um,

Yeah, I mean, obviously he's still a super talented guy. The pewter report, they're reporting that Bucky Irving has not been cleared to participate yet, as in he's not participating in like getting hit or team stuff. So bets, our injury guy, we had the notes. I'm going to do my best. He had a shoulder. You got this. He had a shoulder subluxation. That's exactly right. yes is it yes that's okay all right i mean that the computer says so uh also known is a partial dislocation i just say that right freaking scientists doctors and nerds all they all they know is big words you're like well what's that oh it's a parcel dislocation that to be fair dislocation is kind of a big word well it's a medium word i can handle the mediums the mediums are okay uh

So Betts believes there should be no issues to be cleared before the start of the season. It's just he had a recent surgery. Just keeps compounding on itself for Bucky. That wasn't. Yeah, because a lot of it, all the worries of Bucky was like the mental health, the rumors, you know, of like maybe he wasn't really doing well. And part of that was I think that he was having mental issues with the physical injuries. But the timeline of this specific surgery should not get in the way. of the start of the season. But in the meantime, keep Kenny Gainwell. Kenneth Gainwell is there coming off a sensational season with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bucks prioritized him. I will be drafting. Kenneth Gainwell will be a late round like target for me. I get that. Panthers general manager Dan Morgan said the team will quote, keep talking through a potential extension for Bryce Young. The.

The situation of Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud is very difficult. Bryce Young is impossibly difficult because, like, C.J. Stroud's been disappointing. We talked about that yesterday on the footcast, the four interception drumming in the playoffs. Bryce Young hasn't really done much good at all. I mean, his team was in the playoffs, but. You know, it's just, it's been, it's been very lackluster of, you know, 2025, his best year, he narrowly surpassed 3,000 passing yards. He had three games all year where he threw for more than 205 yards. Yes, they did play the Rams tough in the playoffs because their defensive running game is, like, that's what I mean of the team is not being carried by Bryce Young.

And the same for the Houston, Texas last year. CJ Stroud was not the identity of the team. The identity was the defense. It's not that they are catastrophically bad quarterbacks, but when you have guys like this, you have to make a decision. Yeah, that's the tough. And do you, like, you get in where the Giants were with Daniel Jones. We're like, I guess we have to pay him, but we know it's probably not the right idea. But if you let him go, now I'm. Like, having him on the team is better than not. Right. You're going to take a step back if you lose Bryce Young or C. Well, maybe not C.J. Strabb solely because they have a backup that looked just as good. Oh, no. Oh, no. General Mills, man, he came in and looked better. But, yeah, if I'm a Pan. If you're a Panthers fan, you don't want a long-term contract for Bryce Young. I wonder. I wonder what the fans. I mean, I know I wouldn't want that. I don't believe he's, like, capable of winning a Super Bowl. And isn't that?

I mean, that's always like the philosophical question of would you rather have, you know, a Kirk Cousins be competitive every year for years. You've got a good offense. You've got a good team. You've got to hope you're getting in the playoffs all the time. Like not current Kirk Cousin. Right. But you kind of know like you're not winning a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins. I mean, as a Cardinals fan, I would kill for Kirk Cousins years. But I don't even know if Bryce Young's at that level. The Jets signed Fireball Jones, aka Tim Patrick. That's only in here because we stand for Tim Patrick forever. The NFL schedule. Apparently this is in our news. This is cool. Yeah. It's in our news for a reason. The season will begin with a Super Bowl rematch between the Patriots and the Seahawks. Neat. In Seattle on Wednesday night? Is that because the, I thought the Australia game was going to be Wednesday night. I think the Australia is the Thursday.

Well, football's on the way, and there's going to be a lot of it. Chiefs Broncos, the first Monday night, but the big, the big news to me, Thanksgiving. Clear your schedule. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of absurd. They've got a Thanksgiving Eve game. They've got a Black Friday game now. But to me, the only thing that matters is Thanksgiving Day football is going to be so freaking awesome, barring quarterback injuries or whatever. Every year there's a game or two. And years past when the Cowboys stunk and the Lions stunk, I felt like Thanksgiving football was just bad game, bad game. And then they'd have a decent game. This is Bears Lions, awesome. Eagles, Cowboys, awesome. And then you in the night with Chiefs Bills. Yeah. Yeah. And then I know what I'm thankful for.

Amazon's like, holy crap, look at this schedule. What do we get on Black Friday? They're like, we're giving you the up and coming Denver Broncos. They were one quarterback injury away from making it to the Super Bowl. And who are they playing? The Steelers. The Steelers. Who's their quarterback? I don't know. They don't know. We got Bo Nicks versus Drew Aller Rogers. Who cares? Sorry, Amazon. I mean, look, we're going to watch the game. Oh, yeah. But we'll be coming off the high of the chief's bills. What a game that's going to be. So, yeah, that entire week, clear the schedule. All right. We're moving on, but we've got to take a quick break. Oh, so we're just right into the mailbag? Is that what we're doing? That is correct. All right. Dynasty mailbag. Mailbag. Dynasty edition. All right. Oh, and we have a voice. I would, guys, I think this is the first Dynasty week show I've ever hosted. For sure.

And I'm just not on my game. I was not prepared for this. But we do have a voicemail. Hey, ballers calling in for my community home in Canada. Bonjour. Joining a startup of Dynasty this year. Any tips? Draft tips. General tips. Anything to be great. Thank you. Yeah. So Jason mentions our Dynasty pod show comes out every Wednesday. with Jason myself and or one of us, usually one of us, and then Kyle the Borgogan and Matthew Betts. That goes year long. There's always tons of tips on there. We had, or this week we did our top 10 dynasty startup questions. So that would be a great place for you to start. Essentially we, you know, the real basic of the basic is.

You're going to want to build your foundation of young elite wide receivers over running backs just because of longevity. Yes, the shelf life. Not that elite running backs aren't important. They definitely are. It can really help you in a championship. And then don't really, don't overvalue the youth completely where your team is just like, hey, in three years, my team is going to be, if you start any dynasty team with a thought of in. Two to three years, this team, this team right here, that's not going to work. Whenever I see teams draft that way, they're always three years away. Do you have any quick tips other than that, James? My quick tips are essentially those first like four rounds focus on wide receivers over the running backs. You kind of alluded to that, but you've got the guys like, James Cook, we just talked about how good he is. He's so good. He's almost 27. He's older than you think. Christian McCaffrey.

You're going to win a championship with it. But when you're doing a start-up draft, by the end, maybe you know, oh, I'm a contender. But you don't know when you're in the first round, the second round, the third, fourth round. Maybe the way that the draft comes to you, you build a more youthful team. Maybe you are a contender, but you don't know. And so since you don't know, I want to build a foundation. I don't want, you know, where Christian McCafford is going to get drafted in a startup draft, there's probably going to be a young. proven wide receiver that I can get, you know, a better value. Then later in the draft, that's where I go for the old men. I love getting the, you know, no one in a dynasty startup draft is drafting Matthew Stafford. I mean, he's just dead because. Yeah, especially the old court, like Stafford and Dak. Yeah. Quarterbacks who probably have a few more years of of really high value for fantasy football.

People in startup dynasty drafts want the young quarterbacks. And so just pay attention to them. So if you're feeling, oh, man, I'm a little thin here at quarterback. Take a pause. Take a breath because those guys will be there for you later. Even though it's not a sexy pick, but it's a good pick. All right, this one's off of Instagram. Rick Deeks? Is Christian Watson a trade for candidate in full PPR? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think his value currently sits. He is 27, which is, I can't believe Watson's been in the year in the league that long. That's because he hasn't played as many games as you would think for a guy that age. That's true. What's his?