Mid-Round Madness + Trade Telemarketer

being the red zone efficiency guy as well. So he's had a history of more years of being hyper-efficient at scoring touchdowns than not. So I don't disagree with that. In the bath, out of the bat, it doesn't matter. Yes. Splash. So look, we've talked about this guy in the offseason because when Tyreek Hill was out, I truly believed Sammy Watkins has the ability, the reptilian bounceback ability to be.

Like a top 15 wide receiver. I feel like I made the case for that. Obviously, things have changed. Tyree Kill is back. He's not being suspended. And nobody now wants Sammy Watkins. He's dropping like a rock. Right now he's at the top of the eighth round and still falling. This is not, he's at the 803. He's the 34th wide receiver being drafted and still people aren't touching him. Andy, are you going to touch him there? I wouldn't touch him anywhere. Exactly, which is.

very good, except for fantasy football. So here's the thing. We can all agree that Sammy Watkins is a huge injury risk. I can't. Nobody in the world could argue against that that there's not the potential for that. That's something that's baked into a little bit more with certain players, but is still out there for everyone. Anyone can get injured and anyone who has a long history of injury history.

They do until they don't. You know, Frank Gore was such a red flag, if you can remember back 70 years ago when he was a young lad. And, you know, every year. During the Great War. Yes, exactly. And nobody wanted him. And then all of a sudden he became the Iron Man. So I'm putting that aside a little bit. But the real question is, is he actually good when he's on the field? That's where I think, Andy, what would you say to that? You would say, was he successful for you in fantasy? Forget the games missed. But when he was out there, did you like having him?

I think that when he was out there on the field, sure. Yeah, he gave you, he was pretty good last year. And that is true. He was pretty good. I was not expecting you to say that. No, no, no. I'm on record saying I just think he's not the player that people expect him to be out of college. I don't think his ceiling is the same as people would want it to be.

But I agree, like when he was on the field last year for the best offense in football, pretty productive. Yeah, he was pretty productive. So if you take a look at his games and you just extrapolate him out 16, that doesn't work because there were two games that he basically didn't play in. They wanted to test him out. And he had like, you know, we're talking almost no snaps in those games. But they go down on the game log as games played in truth. Because people probably played him too.

They might have one of those two they might have. One of those two they might have. They wouldn't have played him for one of those where it was really iffy. But the point is he had eight games where he was actually on the field for, you know, more than 20% of the snaps. And he's usually up around 70 or 80% of the snaps. In those eight games, he had 51 targets for 39 receptions, 515 yards and three touchdowns. So you just double that because eight goes into 16. You're talking about a thousand yard receiver with six touchdowns.

And that would have ranked. He would have had 178 fantasy points. That would have been just ahead of Amari Cooper last year as the wide receiver 17. That's what we saw already with Sammy Watkins in the best offense in football. And now he's an eighth round pick and dropping being the 34th wide receiver taken. You've got...

A lot of the offseason was talking about the rapport being built with Sammy Watkins and Pat Mahomes because Tyreek Hill wasn't there. And, you know, he's going to step it up. And a lot of good fluff pieces. Admittedly, you know, what else are you going to say? We have nobody. If you're buying a house, sometimes people, they want to go to the new build. You know what I mean? It's pretty fine. It might cost you a little bit more. But you want to go to the new build because you just don't want to do the fix them up prodig. You don't want the contractors. You don't want the work. You don't want the headache. Watkins feels a lot like.

that project. Sure. It feels like that kind of a, like the real question I have is, look, I'm looking at Marvin Jones, Sammy Watkins, same round, three picks apart. Who do you want? You want Sammy Watkins or do you want Marvin Jones? Marvin Jones. And I would take Sammy. So I mean, it's just one of those in those mid rounds. It's really a difference. So I was looking at like I'm usually an early running back drafter. So it's in these rounds that I'm looking for wide receivers. And depending on which wide receivers I got early, maybe I want safe.

Maybe I want upside. I see Sammy Watkins clearly is not the safe pick, but he's the upside pick. He's the guy that you say, hey, if he ends up with a handful, if he ends up with 10 touchdowns because Pat Mahomes slinging him out and he's done it before, all of a sudden, now you do have an upper end wide receiver two for a great team. What happens if Travis Kelsey has problems with the ankle? Yeah, I mean, what happens to Sammy Watkins? I think Sammy Watkins becomes a huge beneficiary because you've seen him. Big guy.

as an efficient red zone option. And when you match that with a really great red zone quarterback, that great things can happen. That would be something to watch for. They definitely used him differently in Kansas City than he ever had. In his four previous years, he had never seen a catch percentage above 62 and a half. And he was over 72% last year. They didn't take the deep shots with him because they had other players to do it. They had Tyreek Hill wide open. It was like, I'm looking deep. Oh, that little guy.

He was much more of a possession guy. Yes. And that makes him interesting for sure. All right. So Sammy's dropped enough to where you're back on Sammy. If I can get 100 plus targets from Pat Mahomes in the eighth round, I'm going to take it. That's all it is. All right. My second candidate for mid-round madness is Latavius Murray running back for the Norland Saints currently being drafted at 706.

That is the running back 34 off the board. Fringe RB3, RB4 category. Already went with an RB2. Might as well go with another one here with Latavius. Why not? Look, last year, for all intensive purposes, like, it was a bad year for Mark Ingram. Expectation missed the first four games. Still, all but two of Mark Ingram's weeks, he was inside the top 34, just playing the complimentary role to Alvin Camara. Look.

This team is not going to overuse Alvin Kamara. They have an agenda that involves playoff games and the Super Bowl. And I think we've seen from Latavius Murray over the last several years. There is a trust around the goal line with him. He was effective in that role in Minnesota. And this is the number three offense in football that he gets to go to. So I just simply think Latavis Murray without an injury to Alvin Kamara, mind you, if an injury happens, my goodness.

How good. Where does Latavius Murray go in drafts today of Alvin Camaro was on their shelf tomorrow? I mean, he can catch the football. Third round, sort of. I don't think he goes that high. But, I mean, because he's still, he's still going to be undervalued because people don't. There are just players you don't want to believe in. Well, look, Damien Williams, though. I mean, Demi and Williams, draft capital is there because he's on one of the best offenses in football.

All I'm saying is if an injury happened, obviously you've got a home run. I'm not projecting that. But I can't help but think he finishes ahead of RB34 with week-to-week flex appeal in an offense that's going to be this good in year to year to year. Sean Payton's offenses, they lead the league in rushing touchdowns. I mean, this is just their MO, and it doesn't get, it's only going to get better as this team, what, 13 and 3 last year? Right. Great defense.

Drew Brees is getting older. And last year, Mark Ingram saw 11 goal in carries. That was six most in the NFL. And he missed four games. Right. And they're not just going to move all of that over to Camara. No, they're not. And Latavius is known for being, you know, they give him the rock down there. So I think it's very interesting. I think that he's obviously being discounted heavily because of the fact people don't view him as the same talent as Mark Ingram. But Ingram just wasn't.

really as great last year as he was the year before. It's almost like he was missing something. Ingram? Yeah, like a part of his training regiment that he was pulled away from him. That he had to miss some time because of this particular training. Something that might enhance his performance on the field. Something like that. Okay. All right. So I know you guys like Latavius at that value. Yeah. Yeah. So you're not going to fight me. I am not going to fight you on that one. Nope.

I will fight you if you try to tell me that he is very good, though. I think Latavis Murray is fine. I accept your fine comments. They were quick. They moved on him quick. They did. They identified him. I trust Tom Peyton, and they identified him quick and signed him quick. If you remember, Latavis Murray was saying he's only going to go to someplace where he could really, he wants to be.

an integral part to an offense. He wants to get the ball and be utilized. That's where he was going to go. We were mocking that. He was going to be the starter. Right. And then he goes and immediately signs with the Saints. It will be a one-two punch there. Yeah. That is, it's always been the case. It'll be that way again. Mike. All right. What you got? I want to talk about a player who has been the.

The hype train through training camp has been rolling along at a steady pace because it looks like he is actually healthy. I want to talk about wide receiver Cooper Cup from the Rams. Right now he's going on Fantasy Football Calculator as about the wide receiver 21. And I have been very hesitant to...

endorse Cooper Cup at his draft price. It's very, it's tough to buy a guy coming off of an ACL tear. I know that in today's age, you know, of medicine, players recover, but they don't necessarily recover right away. And this is still, you've got to pay attention to Cooper Cup. If some, if he gets a hamstring injury on the same leg where he tore the ACL, then Red Alert, then you just erase all of this. Men in Black flash this from your memory.

But he was clear to be a full participant in training camp eight months after the ACL surgery. Last year, when he was playing in weeks one through five, he was the wide receiver two. Only Adam Thielen, who had taken his final form and was dominating fantasy football. That was the only player slightly ahead of Cooper Cup.

as the wide receiver 2, 7.8 yards after the catch. That's best of qualified wide receivers. And what about his ability to return from injury? Well, we kind of got a sneak preview of that, a little trailer last year when we thought Cooper Cup was done for the year. He went down and it looked bad and he was gone. He missed a few games. When he came back, 5 for 89 in a touchdown. It was right back into the scheme as being a heavily utilized wide receiver, a primary red zone guy.

Last year, I mean, this only bumps guys up. His total target number, Andy, I hope you're ready for this one. Oh, because it was 55. Oh! He only played five full games and still had six touchdowns last season. This is, it's his third year. Like, it feels to me like Cooper Cup feels like a guy where you've been talking about him for a long time. This is only his third year in the league. He's on what a top?

Two offense in the league between. Do you believe that those three wide outs can all finish in the top 20? I do. Because you're kind of. Oh, I very much do. Yes. This is the Green Bay Packers of old where three wide receivers can finish that high. Did you see Cooper Cubs quote getting back into practice? I'm awesome. I'm tripping over myself. I'm so juiced.

Oh, careful with that. Whoa. We can't talk about Mark Ingram and then say that word. Yeah, I mean, like you said, Cooper Cup was the wide receiver two for that stretch. Robert Woods finishes the wide receiver 10. Brandon Cook finishes the wire receiver 13. Yeah, it's just double edge with the limited time you had with Cooper last year, right? It's like you wouldn't have projected that over a whole season like he's going to be. No, no. Would you have thought he's the number two guy at the end of last year if he kept going? Not number two. Okay. No, but.

like top 15 is in and the fact that spurts of being the number two guy is like in his range of outcomes because it's it's not us projecting maybe he can do that it's no he literally was doing that his camp report changed you a lot it did because you weren't as bullish on him obviously before you knew he was back he was not on the active pup he's super juiced yes as are you i am and he's a great player and he is he is the primary red zone

receiver for the Sean McVeigh, Los Angeles Rams. I'm very interested in that. No, that makes sense. Compelling. All right. So I brought up my risky swing for the fences mid-round wide receiver. I'm going to pivot over to my very good odds to beat where he's being drafted, safe draft pick wide receiver. And that's a legend of the game.