Fantasy Football - Early Breakouts & Sleepers - Podcast for 6/9

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Tuesday, June 9th, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, I'm Andy Holloway. Although I look like Jason Moore. You do, black shirt, black hat, cantaloupe. Thank you, Mike. We're twins today, so you should wear yours backwards. All right, I'm down. Yeah, there we go.

It's a cool guy. I'm young, hip now. Yeah, there you go. I don't know how to do that. Yeah, you got to tighten it up and have it barely sit on your head. Isn't that right, Matt? In honor of Fred Bersche. Isn't that right, youths? Yeah. Don't even know how to wear a house. Ah, you need a red hat for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, there you go. You look super cool. Dude, I can't. Oh, dude. I can't wait for Ted Hurst to break out. Mike, didn't you say that the other day? Or somebody in this office was like, oh no, it was Schneider.

He goes, Ted Hurst has to. Yes. He has to break out. He's like, this has to be a thing. Yeah. And now you see why. So welcome in. Fresh off of the weekend. Everybody have a good weekend? Yeah. Played a lot of golf. Yeah, you did. You did play a lot of golf. You even joked about the fact you might be out on the course this morning when we were going to record. Goodness gracious. I wasn't 100% sure you were lying. But I'm here. Did you play good golf or just golf? For me, yes. Yeah. For others, no. And did you buy how many new golf gadgets?

Have you? A handful. And they bring in the- What's the time frame here? They bring in the score. I mean, yeah. Yeah. That's my best score ever. Jason is the ultimate pay to win. Oh, yes. Yes. The ultimate pay to win. For sure. In all aspects of your life. If I could- Competitive advantage. It costs me a couple bucks. Absolutely. Here you go. Absolutely. Here's my bank account. You're like, what if- People are like, oh, I hate the- No, man. I'll just slip you a Benji. I hate those games where you pay to win. I'm like, give me all the pay to win games.

Well, and Al, what is this? You said you're going broke trying to keep up with Jason? That is correct. Good luck. You're buying all the stuff he's buying? So far, but I'm running out a lot faster than he is. Oh, man. We got a great show today. We have- You guys. Yeah, Mike is just- He's just off from the sideline. Mike just- He came out with us once, shot better than everybody, and then went home. Yeah. Early retirement. I just- I figured out who you guys were. I'm looking for real competition. You're going to wait a while. Yeah. Oh, man.

I'll wait to see you next year. I'm going to see if you can pay enough to get on my level. Oh, I can. Oh, my goodness. Mike offers lessons. He'll pay you. Oh, my goodness. Instagram.com slash fantasyfootballers. The community's over at jointhefoot.com. We'd love to have you join the ultimate tier and get the brand new, just released, 2026 ultimate draft kit. Oh, it's hot. Made quite a few tweaks this week into some rankings. I don't know if you guys reacted to the player-endorsed George Kittle. Thinks he's there for week one. Both George Kittle and Tucker Craft- More optimist. We're still a ways out, but I'm falling for it.

I'm falling for it. That one is- I think that's very interesting at that position in particular. Yeah, that's fair. Because if a player at wide receiver is ahead of schedule and he's going to be there, it's like you have a lot of options that you can choose from to mitigate that risk and not mess with it. Whereas at tight end, the upside, like if you don't have, I mean, whether you put all four of the big guys in the category, Warren, Loveland, and Brock and McBride. Beyond that, it's like, okay, I take a shot on an injured Kittle and maybe he plays week-

Maybe by week four, he's great. Whereas the other guys, you pick up a Laporta in the draft versus what Kittle's upside is, it might be worth it. Yeah. I think more so with Craft simply because he's younger and he was looking very dominant. He's about to get the bag, too. Sure. But I saw, I think it was Scott Barrett online talking about this year is like the year of the peptides. So all these timelines and these recoveries, the Wolverine, everyone's on, you know. Well, don't forget one of the key factors for George Kittle. Yes. He is. That's a man. He really, it is a pure will and a desire to play football.

He loves football. He loves. Did you hear him talk about Mike Evans? Yeah. About how he wants to like cry every day because he's got this true, unbelievable alpha wide receiver for the first time. A veteran that actually loves the game. Yeah. He basically said that. He basically is like, for the first time in my career, I've got a real wide receiver here. It's me, Ricky. Yeah. Ricky's like, nah. What? You want to say something good about me? Is that Ricky Pearsall's voice? It's me, Ricky P. Oh, man. No, that was an interesting one. Ricky Mouse. Ricky Mouse? Oh, man.

It was right there. Oh, man. So you got Mike Evans on one side and Ricky Mouse on the other side. You didn't even mean to do that voice. That just happened. I was trying to insult him. And you did. Yeah, you did. Only because George was insulting him without saying it to him. He didn't hear anything you said. He was in PT. Oh, yeah. Let's talk some more news. Hey, I'm over here. News and notes from around the league. Oh, my goodness. Well, the Packers locked up, sort of. Christian Watson. He agreed to a four-year extension worth up to $92 million.

31 of it is guaranteed. It's essentially a two-year extension when you look into the details. 2028 would be a decision year for Green Bay. He has a roster bonus of $13 million in 2028. Guaranteed money-wise, this isn't a lot. This puts him in 31st place behind Khalil Shakir and Rashid Shahid and Wandale. So it's nice for them to commit to him. It's a win-win, honestly, for the team of Christian Watson. I mean, he – yes, he's not making the same amount of money that, like, Alec Pierce is making. He's not making Romeo Dobbs money. Wow, because Romeo Dobbs is awesome.

But it's like that's a level of guaranteed money that is – that changes the course of your family forever. And it's not – It's definitely not Pat McAfee money. Oh, bro. Goodness. Mahomes isn't getting – Good gracious. Mahomes isn't getting McAfee money. But it's like – but they commit to Watson. He gets, you know, life-changing money. And they're committed to him. Dude, I am very, very into Christian Watson's ADP. I mean, I feel like – you and I, we were both in on Watson for sure. The drum beats is getting out. But I just feel like he and Alec Pierce are, like, an incredible parallel for one another.

For sure. I think they're very similar. I think their output could be, you know, way outpacing their ADP. Yes. So – and I don't think anything we say about them is going to change it. There are situations that, you know, if the drum beat starts going, the player's going to move up two, three, four rounds. Rookies. It happens all the time. Preseason. Big plays. These guys have been around the block. And when I tweeted out, you know, the extension back when it happened, saying, like, I like seeing this because I have been extremely bullish on Watson. And I'm glad to see that the Packers are agreeing.

Dude, the comments were vast majority. Good luck with that. Yeah. I mean, so speaking to what you're saying is the vibes on Christian Watson are people are just – no, I will not be fooled again by this. And not every player there is the chance that that's all wasted money. I mean, legitimately, if he gets hurt again, which he has not been able to avoid. His soft tissue is softer than most. Jacoby Brissett is officially reported to Cardinals minicamp. Thank goodness. Wow. That was scary for a while. I mean, that's news. Next news. Cam Scadaboo. Participating in drills on Monday's minicamp.

Not just participating. Dominating. Did you see – did you see some – I mean, he looks great. He was making jukes down the field, catching long bomb passes. I love Cam. I think that was very obvious in that summary. Chris Rodriguez. Crod. Jaguars running back. Expected to be ready for training camp. I guess he underwent a procedure in his foot following an injury in the offseason program that Liam Cohen was being cagey and weird about and wouldn't tell anybody about it. But they did say he was expected to participate once training camp starts. It's good that he's going to be healthy for the season.

But I do think this gives a leg up for Tootin to establish himself. He has the opportunity right now to really go into Travis H. Chan Jr.'s role. He's going to do that until Chris Rodriguez is back. So, I mean, I was going into the offseason. The disparity in ADP between Crod. He was way too late drafted. Tootin was just the assumed guarantee. Now I'm actually kind of in on Tootin at where he's going. Yeah, I think it's more positive. Every time he gets a rep and a chance to establish where he was the guy there last year already, it's good for them.

So, I think Jacksonville as a whole might be one of the most interesting teams in fantasy for the entire year. Trevor Lawrence, what they did at the end of the season, the amount of wide receivers, some of which we'll talk about today because I didn't mention it, but we're getting into our early breakouts and sleepers on today's show. And so, if you have the UDK, you know we have our sleepers, breakouts, busts, and values in the UDK. That is our consensus list. Guys that we agree on or at least two and a half of us agree on it. But these are more like individual picks.

And we may agree with one another. I don't know the names that you guys are bringing up. But we're talking early breakouts, early sleepers. I was really – I'm excited to hear your first early breakout pick because I didn't know until this morning who you had in here. Do you agree with it? I'm going to wait until after you give your case in and I'll tell you. You want to jump in? Let's go. Breakouts. Well, I think if we were trying algorithm rules, I shouldn't go first because you just kind of teased it. Right. People are anticipating the longer they watch, the better the algorithm.

It's Parker Washington. Ah, okay. Oh, man. You went first. So, I think this is a very interesting one. We're into the early breakouts. We'll start out here. We each got one name that we want to bring up. A breakout, we define it as a fantasy player that we think could become a fantasy darling of sorts. Anywhere from that to superstar, game changer, somebody that makes a big impact on your team. Maybe they've flashed some signs of success. Maybe they're not being drafted in a spot where... This is interesting considering your feelings on Brian Thomas and Hunter. Yeah. I brought them both up at different times.

Yeah. The Brian Thomas Jr. last season, like, that was a problem, obviously. This offense that Liam Cohen talked about... That was the problem. The ball gets spread around quite a bit. I think some of why I want to bring Parker Washington's name up is out of fairness to those other discussions. Where, you know, Travis Hunter... The story of Travis Hunter is simply the snaps. He could be a great player, and if he gets 50% of the offensive snaps, we're not going to care. Right. It's not going to make a difference. I think what's kind of wild about Parker Washington is, you know, maybe you guys had his stat line memorized.

I don't know. But to me, when I went back and looked at it, I was kind of blown away. This was a receiver last year who... Really, the breakout for him began in the second half of the season for Jacksonville, and a lot of it was attributed to, well, you know, BTJ, you're struggling, and we lost Travis Hunter. So this is just de facto guy in the game. From week nine on, he was the wide receiver 11 in fantasy, and his final stat line was 847 yards receiving on this team, and that's at 14.6 a catch. He had a tremendous PFF grade as a wide receiver, and this wasn't just all screen passes or underneath or short route stuff.

He's 24 years old, and the team has come out and said, they're pretty much their top priority right now. I mean, they could go try to extend BTJ if they wanted to or somebody else. It's to sign Parker Washington, who really broke out in the second half of the season. You know, his target share weeks 9 through 18 was tied with Jacoby Myers for the lead at the wide receiver position. He played 50-50 in the slot and out wide for this team, and every report from camp so far has been, he's just continuing to ascend. So I think when you look at BTJ, you're saying, can he return to what he did as a rookie?

He's going to be out there for every snap. I don't think you're going to see that return because of the distribution of targets. He did most of what his dominant performances were, was Mack Jones with, what, like a 96% target share? That might be hyperbolic, but it was close to that over the backcats of the year. It was a lot of targets. Basically, when Parker Washington took over, which he was averaging 71 receiving yards a game when he was the wide receiver 11, the Jags went 8-1 in those games. Like, it worked. Him being that heavily involved in the offense.

And the fact he plays all over the field is versatile enough to play all over the field. It's pretty interesting to me. And I think his role is very, very secure. Jacoby Myers is capped. We kind of know what Jacoby Myers is. Britton Strange, I think similarly we know what he is as a possession receiver. I think at 24 years old, Parker Washington still has room to grow. There were only two wide receivers with 50-plus percent of their routes in the slot that had a better yards per route run than him. It was Amon Ra and Dick. So he was, I think my point here is that he was competing fantasy production, PFF rank, yards per route run,

with the best players at the position last year. And that was something I didn't even realize when it was happening. It felt like it was 100% chance and opportunity that he gets these snaps. Not that the team had fallen in love with him, which if you go and read the comments, it seems like that's the case. So, you know, I don't think it's impossible that Parker Washington ends up leading the team in receptions this year. Okay. And so when you talk about draft spot, he's a wide receiver 42. He's a ninth-round pick. So BTJ is probably a value in drafts at his draft cost.

But I think Parker Washington is as well, and he's much further than BTJ. So if you don't like, if you have the burns from BTJ, this is a potential breakout pivot where they could move on from BTJ. Right. They could trade him midseason, and all of a sudden the breakout for Parker is bigger. Because BTJ's got one more year, right? He's in year three. He was a first-rounder, so they can have him for five total. Right. But this is year four for Parker Washington. So his— Yes. So I'm just saying, if they commit to Parker Washington, that's what I'd be watching for in Dynasty Leagues, too.

Like, the team has said that's their next to-do list item is basically Parker Washington and Britain Strange or the next two contracts they want to sign. But the numbers beneath Parker Washington's performance were a lot more than opportunity. It was actual performance. And you watch the games, and you saw what he was able to do on a regular basis. I thought it was super impressive. So I think at the draft cost, he fits the breakout mold. We like Liam Cohen. We like Trevor Lawrence. We like what Jacksonville's offense is capable of doing. So if you don't—like, are you guys believers in BTJ and Travis Hunter?

I am a believer in BTJ. I don't think that you can do what he did his rookie year on accident or just because of Mac Jones. Like, Mac Jones— Yeah, I went and double-checked it. It was a 35% target share. Yeah. He was playing with Mac Jones. Right. But I'm just saying, on the field, he was able to— Yes. But 35% is— Which is not going to happen. That is the elite of the elite. Yeah. On this team now, the way they spread the ball around, the fact that they've added Jacoby Myers and Parker Washington, I don't think BTJ is there.

But as a talent, I believe in BTJ. The question I have is whether or not Parker Washington is going to be on the field in two wide receiver sets. Because right now, I don't think he is. Right now, I think he is primarily the slot guy. And they'll play a lot of 11 personnel. He played 50-50 last year. He played out wide half of the time last year. So I think your question is valid. I think he's proven he can do it. Yes, he can. So then the question is, I mean, which guy is— I think he's a good player.

And that's what I think, in your breakout pick of Parker Washington, that's the part I liked. Is he wasn't just a guy who had some opportunity— He had 95 targets. Yeah, and was fine with it. He looked good. You know, kind of like how we talk about Michael Wilson when he had his little stint. It was like, you watch the film. He's doing everything right. Every level of the field. You can go deep. You can go short. He's running crisp routes. He's always where you want to be. He's catching every pass. If it's contested, he's coming down with it. Parker looked great.