Breakout Picks + Austin Ekeler Joins the Show! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/24

Oh, okay, James. And then they punted, and then they got the ball back and then scored a touchdown. It just seemed like what people have tried to tell James forever is like sometimes punting is the right move, not picking it up. And so the fact that he did that won the game so handedly. I think he will be the starter. However, I was also surprised unpleasantly so when I was statting out James with this receiving core, his options. And I do not.

like, they don't have a lot of options on offense here. They're without Michael Thomas, no Treyquan Smith right now. Troutman went down. So you've got Camara and apparently the best wide receiver of all time, Marcus Calloway. So if I were, my point is when I was statting them out, I was like, man, if I was a coach, I feel like you would have another aspect to your offense with Tayson.

I feel like I would still want Tase him as the head coach, but I expect it to be Winston. So in my opinion, then, to bring it into the segment, no fire from Winston as a fantasy quarterback for me either. And as nice as it is to see him make those decisions in preseason game two, it's when the team's down by a touchdown or two touchdowns that I want to see him make those on the field. Now, if I was head coach Sean Payton.

With this stat line as my emotional backing to defend to my team, I would take the chance on Winston here because you saw Tayson last year, see what you have in Winston and make a transition if you need to at that point if he's unsuccessful. That's the way I would go. But for fantasy purposes, Hill is more valuable because he's going to run the football consistently. Winston's going to be 130 to 250.

rushing yards. That is a, you know, not a big number. So Mike, where do you stand on the whole discussion? I think James will end up as the starting quarterback. And for fantasy purposes, I was also pretty bummed when I plugged him in because James has always been so fun for fantasy football. And, you know, big time plays, airing it out. Yeah, he threw an interceptions, but then he was always, he was giving you huge performances.

What I think, though, is James could be a – James isn't somebody you're going to draft necessarily, although he's fine, honestly, as a quarterback too and a Superflex. But as time goes along, it won't surprise me to see James become fantasy value or fantasy relevant as he gets Michael Thomas back. If Calloway really is this player that we've seen shining in training camp and shining on the field and preseason,

I think by the halfway point of the football season that people could be picking James up and going, okay, I'm going to play this guy for a few weeks. I do want to remind people, and this was part of the process last night with Stadding James and looking at my numbers, is that historically he wasn't, I mean, he had one year, one single year with Bruce Ariens.

who is kind of known for this downfield with elite wide receiver options where he was fantasy relevant. His fantasy finishes the previous four years were not good. And so you have a history with him. He was 13th in his rookie year. Then he was 12, 22, 22. So I kind of tried to take a balanced approach saying, look, if Jason's right, if the recipe is I follow Drew Brees, I don't turn the ball over, our defense is elite, then he's probably going to be middle of the pack.

But it's going to be interesting to watch. And hopefully we get some clarity. Like fantasy players that are drafting this weekend would love to know who the quarterback is in New Orleans. Yeah, the latest comment from Peyton yesterday was when asked when is he going to make a decision. He said before game one. So thanks. Cool. Cool. All right. That was where there's smoke. There's fire presented by Trager Grills. You can put a Trigger Wood Pellet Grill.

in your starting lineup and make every game day more delicious. You can head to Trager.com slash footballers to discover how simple wood-fired cooking can be. We're going to Trigger out for our League of Record. Yes, we are. So Sunday there will be ribs. There will be, what, burnt ends. There's going to be some. I've already started fasting. I'm gearing up. Didn't you say you had a lot of pizza last night? Look, I was a little bit sad.

I meant this morning, Andy. Oh, okay. Well, let's... I haven't had breakfast. Let's transition into the news. News and notes from around the league presented my sleeper. Well, last night's game, there's more to discuss here. We had Travis E.TN exit with a foot injury in the New Orleans Jacksonville game. Was in a walking boot after the game. Ian Rappaport said he suffered a list frank.

foot injury. No, I missed that part. But the x-rays that I saw, like the report this morning was that the x-rays were negative. What does that even mean, though, when they say it, they said it's negative on a Liss-Frank injury? Yeah, it's one of those where I think we'll have a better timeline coming out in the next 24 hours or so and have a better understanding. But this is obviously terrible news for him, for Travis E.TN.

James Robinson's value goes up. I would expect that if there is an injury like this, he's currently in a boot. It's a list frank that you're going to see James Robinson really shouldering the load to start the season. And Carlos Hyde will be involved to the bemoaning cries of every Jacksonville fan. That was going to be my question is James Robinson. Because the way that it worked if you're watching the game, it was a whole lot of James Robinson. Then it was Carlos Hyde.

And then we saw Travis ETN very limited snaps, unfortunately, because of the foot injury. Is James Robinson now, let's say that ETN's going to miss a couple games. Is Robinson presenting a value where he is, or do you have concerns that the way that Urban Meyer is going to use the running backs is that Carlos Hyde will be in there too much?

He's an extreme value where he's been drafted. Regardless of Carlos Hyde, he's a huge value there. And this is going to be hard for Travis E.T.N. to deliver on expectations as a rookie. If he doesn't get the opportunity to be out on the field for a number of weeks, if that ends up the case, like there is no chance that he goes from not on the field to dominant.

rusher on this offense. I would put the odds at zero. Like I think I read before the season, the draft king's line on rushing yards for him was like $6.50. Like that's not happening. Like there's no way he's rushing for 650 yards. He might still be the third downback for the second half of the year, but I would be concerned with, I mean, maybe that's the question, Jason. What are you doing with ETN and drafts? Because he's going well ahead of James Robinson and now.

Yeah, I mean, you can't draft Travis Ety and where he's been drafted. He's been in the fifth round. How far does he have to drop? You know, I don't think I'm going to take a shot on him until he's at least in the eighth round. And even then, I assume that situation is very short-sighted in the sense of, like, in the next 24 hours, I think we'll have a more clear timeline. And then I'll have to...

decide where he ends up landing based on do we expect him to miss if they say oh he could be ready week one then yeah seventh eighth round i think i'm willing to take him and stash him because he was always a second half of the year player more than a oh he's going to come out week one and dominate when when i've taken travis etian that's never been the idea for the second consecutive off season this is impossible mike the fancy hitman right can't be proved wrong or right

with one of his projections potentially. And Adam Troutman suffered an ankle injury. We'll get an MRI today. He went into the tent and then he left on the cart with his shoe off. And I did not like what I saw, fellas. I was emotionally upset. Is this music kind of laid out for you? Is this how you were feeling? I was in a bad way. I did my...

uh my bike ride my stationary bike ride i did it to uh just pure silence oh did you oh yes i was i was actually upset last night it was like hello dr smote friend how was this happening again that last off season if you don't remember blake jarwin uh mike's tight end and both of your picks are they're very you know deeper tight end break out opportunities that

Now, am I right that Adam Trampman caught zero passes in the entire preseason? I believe that is correct, yes. So you didn't even, and Jarman caught one last year. Yes, cash rate of 100%. And I guess technically Troutman's still batting 1,000. Yes, he has no drops. We don't know the severity of the injury yet, but this, I mean, he's off the draft board now that you have to wait and see maybe. Yeah, you're not drafting two tight ins to hold one to hope they break out. Yes, I'm not holding Adam Troutman in hopes that.

the breakout actually happens. Wait for more news. Now, you are correct that he had not, Connolly passes. He was still on the field as much as I had hoped for, but. Too good of a blocker. Yeah, but we haven't seen what is, we haven't seen his true potential yet, and we may not see it this year. It also factors into, you know, Marquess Calloway, the weapon alone right now is troubling.

All right, now to the final desk-adjacent section of the news. Fantastic. We did get a positive report. Clyde-Russelaer went through the morning walkthrough, participated in stretching individual position drills.

It's looking pretty good for Clyde to be all right for game one. Yeah, it certainly means it was not a grade two. It was not the scary Michael Thomas injury, whether or not he might get off to a slow start week one. You know, it's not concerning to me. In fact, I would draft Clyde Edwards a layer now where basically where I was drafting. And then C.D. Lamb was placed on the reserve COVID list.

That's a second, my guy, but this one's not too big a deal, obviously not. We don't know if this was close contact or not, but he's not in jeopardy of missing any games that we are aware of. And then Brandon Ayyuk entered the witness protection program. Thank goodness. That's my third. Let's keep him healthy, keep them safe. Darrell Henderson, mild thumb sprain. If you saw the news yesterday, should be ready for the season opener. Johnny Smith back at Patriots practiced.

And then Matt Nagy did tell reporters today that Justin Fields will start the final preseason game because Andy Dalton will not be playing because he's the week one starter. You don't want to sacrifice your lamb too early. And that is week one is the Rams game. Now let me just one final thought here. We've been joking about the fact that, look, you play the Rams in week one. Andy Dalton starts against them. That's a tough game. You put Justin Fields in there. You might get beat up.

Dalton dominates in that game. You said that with a straight face. That was good. Yeah. I mean, what if he has, what if he has a great week? Oh, wait. We're talking about this. We're going to go with the joke. If he plays well, then he's going to be the start of the week two. He will clearly stay the start of week two. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by Sleeper. They just released their new web app. We've been setting up. We just got the listener league set up in there.

Their new app is part of 21 new things that they updated for 2021. Oh, I see what you did. Yeah. So can't wait for 2055. Oh, got you. So I'll make the switch over to Sleeper, number one in Dynasty already, and they'll be number one in redraft soon. So definitely check out the platform. And before we move into our breakout picks, which I promise Adam Troutman will not be in my featured breakout. That's our breakdown pick.

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