Fantasy Football - 2nd Half Sleepers & TNF Preview + BREAKING NEWS! - Podcast for 10/22

Los Angeles to put in what order? I don't have that. I literally, if you told me you like, Quentin first, Keenan second, McConkey, third, I did tell you that exactly. Is that exactly what you said? That is what I told you a minute ago. Yeah, I was, I must not have been listening. Um, or you told me McConkey's first. Yeah, I, I, I, or you told me that put him in a blender. I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. So how does Addison? line up? Well, he doesn't have two other guys to fight with. I was going to say, I feel like three other guys, if you include Gadsden. I think I would take Addison, like if I'm going to start one of those four, I think Addison is a safer bet. I think he really could be. Yeah. This is a fascinating game because these two good defenses, but you're on Thursday night football. You've got to make your decision early. And there's question marks everywhere. No one is like,

Must start outside of Justin Jefferson. Even Mason, right? You have, it should be good for Mason. If Aaron Jones actually comes back and plays this week, now you've got a split where you're concerned. You know, were you starting Jordan Mason week one, week two when Aaron Jones was there? I mean, he was a questionable start. But Aaron Jones, according to Kevin O'Connell, he expressed optimism earlier Tuesday that Jones would be able to play. I mean, that is probably, I think I would play Mason. I think I'd be comfortable doing it. What about Jones? No. You would not play Aaron Jones? No, I would wait a week because I just don't know what the workload's going to be, me personally. Yeah, that's fine. But the Chargers, like you said, the run funnel. That's the one area that they've been more vulnerable to giving up fantasy points. I would say, I would call Aaron Jones a startable player if he goes. There are so many teams right now that are.

Yeah, Al, it would be his number one player. Owl would, I mean, that would be his best player on his roster. Yes. But other teams probably not. Right. Well, because he had Justin, he's like, I don't want good players. Oh, yeah, he would have been. Jefferson was the best player, but then he gave him to Mike. For Garrett Wilson. Oh, he's holding up the, oh, he even moved the camera already. He's holding up his trophy. Is that trophy for bad teams? It was a great team last year. No, it was. I paid the price this year. You did. All right. We good? Anything else in that game, Jason?

Al? No. Jay Gris? No? Okay. Moving on. Second half sleepers. All right. I want to give an opening statement before we get into these names. All right. Second half sleepers. We have a lot of data on this season. If you've been on the website and the premium tools, you get the strength of schedule, the streamfinder, you can see all that data in which teams are playing well against different positions. We reference it all the time. I wanted to make a conscious effort. on this show today to not take a layup. Or I want you to feel gross about it and uncomfortable. Yeah. Otherwise, this show is meaningless to you. If it's a player that you love that you know. I think Sequin Barkley is going to be better the second half of this year. Actually, that's a perfect example of somebody that could have been thrown out there. Me too. Derek Henry? Yeah. Yeah. But what I won is I want the names when we say them, you might recoil a little bit. And that's okay. Yeah.

That's okay because that's what makes them an actual sleeper that could be easily acquireable in your league. And we'll share mics as well. Yeah, let's start with mics, which really should be Jay Grizzas, right? Yeah, let's see what he thinks. Oh, he's a big fan. He's a big fan of Colston Loveland. Of the Bears. Yeah, Colston Loveland is Mike's second half sleeper. It is not an overstatement to say he's been. 100% unusable so far in fantasy in his career. Has he scored four points in a game yet? He is not. Okay. So yeah, that is an irrelevant player who is on the vast majority of waivers. Fast asleep. Fast asleep. He is pretty much in a coma. I am not a huge fan. I was not a huge fan of his pick the whole time. I didn't love his tape. We talked about Loveland quite a bit on the Dynasty podcast that came out today.

And we had some disagreements there because Matthew Betts was, that was like his guy in the off season going into the draft. Obviously, the NFL agreed. Everyone was trying, it was reported that people were trying to trade up for him. So this is someone that the NFL thinks is a great player drafted with that capital on an offense that should be ascending. And part of the reason Mike picked this pick is because they have the second easiest. rest of season schedule for the tight-in position. Tight-end is one of those positions that is schematically relevant for starts and sits. So you have a highly drafted rookie. You would expect to be better in the second half of the year than the first half. Who was injured? So you expected him to get off to a slower start. If he gets incorporated in more and more as the season goes along, he's certainly a good sleeper option. I don't believe in him.

but Mike does and the Bears do. Yeah. Where do you stand on Loveland? Do you think he's going to, do you think he's going to like really be an impactful fantasy player? I will say this. Arande Gadsden was not relevant two weeks ago. Right? Non-existent. Rookie athletic tight-in. Yeah. Draft capital for Loveland through the roof. Targets have gone up. Snap counts have gone up. Cole Komet is banged up. Schedule is good. Kind of the definition of a sleeper to me. I think Loveland... That's not what I asked you though. I mean, I laid that out. What do you believe? Do you believe Colson Loveland this season will become... No. Okay. But I don't think that's a great question for this segment. Interesting. I feel like it's the most important question we could actually try to answer. Okay. Well, I mean... Okay, let me explain myself. All right. I don't think that this second half sleeper is not like a probability.

argument. Okay. So when you ask me a question about, like, Loveland, I don't think the probability is that Loveland is going to be that. The possibility is there. And Mike obviously believes that that's a high likelihood. Like our individual picks, we might have a high probability attached to it. I hope so. Yeah. But I see the path, but I don't believe it will happen. Okay. You said something that I thought was so stupid. Okay. And then you really redeemed it. Oh, that was, that was a, that was a good, that was. Yeah, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. All right. So my. Feel so validated. Yeah. After being called stupid. Um, my second half sleeper is a guy who has been vomitously bad and this is great that Mike is not here. Breaking news. I'm not stupid. No, that's not the, that's not the breaking news. That would be really breaking news. Uh, Jane Daniels officially ruled out.

Okay. So there you go. The line makes sense. Mario will start. Yeah, Mike being gone, this is great because I know it's been, you know, tough sledding for him. One week since you. This was a my guy for him. Chase Brown has been one of the worst picks so far in fantasy football. You know, a high draft capital in your fantasy draft and irrelevant. You know, week one was. You know, he got to 10 fantasy points. But until this past week, he hasn't done it again the entire season. I think most people benched him even for this last week and he's been an irrelevant player. He's looked bad. You know, it's not like he on the season. Okay, Burrow went down and he's doing everything he can. The truth is he was not doing anything good. He wasn't breaking tackles. He wasn't looking efficient. He wasn't.

um overcoming the obstacles in front of him but i think joe flacco really has made a difference for the bangles for chase brown we saw it this last week breaking news that's strike two man this that's right to one more the chance to hit you twice with breaking news was no irresistible just saw the breaking news man darren waller has been placed on i r come on man I need you to keep talking about what you're talking about. I trade a fourth round pick to you for a guy who never scored for your one game. He went in my lineup to goose me. So can I, can I? And I lost by 0.33 fantasy points. And then he goes on IR. Al, let me tell you, let me tell you about this trade, guys. So Jason had kind of wanted Darren Waller. And he's not doing.

anything on sunday two weeks ago just nothing disappearing and i so i sent him a trade offer for this fourth and he or a fifth or something like i don't remember a third i guess you were asking for a third and i was countering with a fifth yeah and i nothing's happened and the game is like two minutes left in the game and he catches a garbage time touchdown darren waller and i fire over that trade and under a second i'm like meet in the middle i'm like let's go let's go and he tries to squeeze me for a little fab and then i and then he you technically sent the offer because i i had rejected it but anyway so so yeah you you fought for him and then this is bad luck i mean it's just unfortunate and i i assume this is four game i are and then we'll see do you have any news on that um oh they signed gregg dulcitch off their practice squad irrelevant um sorry you you got to keep talking about chase brown who

gross people out all first half of the year because I want to see if one more piece of news comes in. Okay. So if you watch Chase Brown, the very first game of the season, he was okay. You know, then Burrow goes down. Yeah, I was waiting for breaking news. Bucking Irving. No, is it real? You have more? Get out of here. Bucking Irving and Chris Godwin will not be back for Sunday's game of both officially not playing. So you're Tess Johnson and your. Ameca, Buk. It's ridiculous. I'm not talking. You can't possibly feel like you can make an argument of any kind right now. I'm done. I'm out of here. But you like Chase Brown, huh? Maybe. We'll never know. Oh, the hat trick on breaking news, never before seen. I don't even know where to jump back in. I'm going to talk about Chase Brown here. What happened is he came in, he looked okay. Then Joe Burr goes down and he's not good. Joe Flago comes in for two weeks and in two weeks. He was a very efficient running.

Okay. So they can't, you know, it's like 50s their schedule, yeah. There was absolutely no threat of an offense with Jake Browning. You know, so Chase Brown couldn't do anything. You've had two weeks with Joe Flacco. In those weeks, you had 4.7 a carry, and then last week was, you know, monsters, 9.8 a carry. You had, you know, the 37-yard run, had over 100 rushing yards. You know that the checkdowns can come from Joe Flacco as well. So you combine that with how bad he's been and how good the schedule is coming up. They have the fifth easiest schedule for running backs the rest of the season, and that's juicy. You get into the playoffs with Baltimore and Miami in your first two weeks. I think he's going to turn it around. He's still got the eighth most targets at the running back position. He's had...

two plus receptions in all seven games. Very few other running backs have done that. And so, you know, he is a target for me. Like I would try to go acquire him because I think the Chase Brown managers are going, this is a mirage. I've had to deal with him. Thank goodness he had a good game. I can get something for him. I'm on the other side where I'm starting to believe this is now we can see what he can do because the opportunity is still his. He's not sharing the work. Nobody else is coming up. So this one will give you a negative reaction. Breaking news. I can hit the button too. That was the breaking news. Sorry. You know, we are running a podcast here, Jason. We're trying. I had breaking news each of those times. All right. I'm real important breaking news. You talk. I'm going to Twitter. This is not a clown show. Oh, you're going to search for it. I'm not listening to a word you say.

Second half sleeper pick for me is actually Jordan Love. And, you know, this is not, he's had one good game. Fantasy-wise, one good game. You did, you did start this segment by saying it should, it should feel gross. You and I are, are in disagreement on Jordan Love. I know we're going to talk about him more tomorrow, and I was surprised about that. Jordan Love is, yeah, well, I mean, that's, That's our job. We've got to find the players that we think are going to emerge that are not necessarily who everybody agrees on. Jordan Love is not playing bad football. Jordan Love, from a passerating and effectiveness standpoint, is not playing bad football. What has happened is he is not producing for fantasy. There's a lot of times that they're not correlated. He had a quarterback four finish against Dallas, bad defense. Okay, we're done. He's lost Jaden Reed, the most kind of...

firmly established, highly talented wide receiver that he had. He has no Jordan Reed. He has no Christian Watson. They're not working Matthew Golden into the target share of this offense very much. I mean, the pass attempts. We just went through 55 pass attempts with Justin Herbert. The last two weeks for Jordan Love, it's 26 and 29. He has a top 10 schedule for quarterbacks over the back half of the year. He's going to get Christian Watson back. Eventually, he's going to get Jaden Reed back into this offense. And again, this is not a you must start him every week. This is a second half sleeper. Who's somebody that you could end up winning your league with? You're going to play the 28th ranked passing defense in football. The Chicago Bears two times going into your fantasy playoffs. And then you're going to play Baltimore in championship week. You're going to play the Giants. You're going to play Pittsburgh at 30, you know, in week eight, it's Pittsburgh this week.

he's going to get more and more weapons there and he's not incapable of having those type of big games. In fact, I- Breaking news. The Giants have designated kicker Graham Canoe to return from injured reserve. He will practice today with the intention of kicking Sunday against the Eagles in Philadelphia. Ho-ho-ho. I found some. I found some news. Kicker news. You found kicker news. I do. I do what it takes. I dig deep. So obviously you didn't have any real argument against Jordan Love, which is nice. So, I mean, the issue I have with Jordan Love, you know, you talked about you lose Jaden Reed. I don't know that he's coming back this season. That's the plan. I mean, like soon? Yes. I mean, I think I think week 10, right? I mean, I think that was the original estimate. So he's eligible to be activated from injured reserve in following week eight.

That is too aggressive of a timeline. Six to eight weeks was the recovery timeline. I'm saying over the second half of the year, he's going to get weapons back. On a per play basis, Matthew Golden has actually been really good. I know nobody agrees with that. On a per game basis, Jordan Love's been very good. Fifth in yards per attempt, seventh in completion percentage, a career high, seventh in passer rating. He's a great quarterback. This is the same as Justin Herbert. That's what it is. My issue is entirely. that what we saw, did Jordan Love play bad football last year? No, no, he was very good. He was very, very good. And the second half of last season, he played very good football. And he was terrible for fantasy. Yep. Josh Jacobs was the touchdown machine. They figured out how good Josh Jacobs was. And down the stretch, they just said, hey, you're our best chance to score touchdowns. And it's carried over to this season. So my issue is really that I don't know that they're going to change.

what the recipe that is working, he can play good and not be good for fantasy. And I get what you're saying. It's a sleeper. You're trying to find someone that we're not necessarily expecting, someone that has been asleep who has the ability to overcome that. And he very well, could I think that they're going to keep relying on Josh Jacobs around the goal line. And if that happens with, they don't have a wide receiver here. Like they don't have. a Devante Adams anymore. They don't have a guy that's just going to demand the ball around the goal line. Golden isn't it, at least not rookie or golden. Christian Watson has always been that. He has been a high touchdown guy. My point is that they will have the capability soon to do it. I agree with you. I don't think they have that capability right now. But I think that that will come. And I think you look at the final five games of the season and you could be optimistic that that, you know, we've seen people win championships with Joe Flacco. We've seen people win championships with

low-ranked quarterbacks. You know, you're playing roulette with Herbert when you start them right now. There's a lot of quarterbacks in that tier, and I think Jordan Love is my second half sleeper. And I will say that I think, I do think Golden, if given the more opportunities in the offense, we'll have success for fantasy. He's been good on a per target basis. He's just not getting the targets. Yeah. We'll see if, I mean, obviously, Zach Cruz had put out there that he is 60.9% success rate, 78% catch rate. averaging 10.8 yards per target, which is number one among all rookie wide receivers and all three of those. So those are all the best numbers. He's not getting a book of target share. He's getting, you know, a very minimal amount of involvement because they don't need to because you can run it with Josh Jacobs. It's Josh Jacobs team right now. So, so I want to throw out, this is a bonus second half sleep. J.J. McCarthy, the same schedule that we're talking about for Justin Jefferson being great for the past catchers, I think second half.

He is a great sleeper candidate. If I had to personally put a dollar on who scores more fantasy points from week 10 to 17, I think I would take McCarthy over love personally. You got to put more than a dollar on that, brother. As much as you want. As much as I want. As much as you want. All right. Let's do it. Let's do a unit. Okay. All right. Joe Flacco is much more in that category for me. Joe Flacko and T. Higgins are two other names I want to mention for the second half. They're connected. Cincinnati's schedule for quarterbacks, third best in the league. Fourth, easiest for wide receivers. Still no defense. Flacco has been amazing in both of his games, fantasy-wise, 25 and 35 points. Do you know what this- I feel a lot more comfortable with Flacco than McCarthy. Yeah. Flacco with this team, bad defense, great weapons. Do you want to know who it reminds me of? It reminds me of Joe Flacco, two years ago at the end of the year when he won people championships.

With the Browns? With the Browns. Because he also did similar stuff with the Jets for a brief amount of time. Now, I will say both were brief amount of time. It wears off. It does seem to wear off. But there you go. It mentioned in J.J. McCarthy. It's terrifying to me because he's not looked good but for a quarter of football on the year. But, yeah, the schedule, you're right, the weapons. He didn't have Addison yet. Yeah, the system. Those are there. So we'll take a break and hit some mailbag. I wonder who'll do the drop. Foot Clan, we want you to meet Claude, the AI designed to be your thinking partner, Poppin, Josh.

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Disclamers. Yeah. That he gets the opportunity again. Oh, just I think he's earned it, man. I think he's earned it. All right. Well, there's only one way to get there. There you go. Mailbag. Oh, no editing. NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. Yes. No editing. Oh, he came in hot. I want to, I want to say that felt like a horse kicking me in the face. I want to apologize to our audience. That's not singing. That was not seeing. I don't think it'll be as bad for everyone. Hopefully you're not in AirPod mode right now, listeners. That was so loud, I think you could smell his breath. Yeah. Wow. You're having a day, Falcon. Man, you are crushing it today. Honestly, if I were you, I would hit the bathroom. Yeah, I got a trophy for you. Um.

I guess we could have gone Jay Gris. Whoops, my bad. All right, into the mailbag we go. If you have a question for us, head to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. You can click that submit a question button. You can also dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB and leave us a voicemail question. First question comes in from Patrick and Pittsburgh. Been struggling to find a third wide receiver. Am I crazy in thinking I may be able to start Tess Johnson alongside this guy? Emika a big boo. for the rest of the season. I mean, that's a tough one to break down. I think Tess is a very good start in the short term because it's a math problem, right? It's if Baker equal production, then Taz equal production. Yeah, if Baker's throwing for 350 yards, you know, in the majority of his games. Buck, Irving out again. Obviously, that's good. I would agree with you. It's more short term. Chris Godwin.

is going to come back, and when he comes back, it will be a hit to Tess. I don't look at Tess Johnson as an auto start rest of season. I certainly want to roster him when after him on waivers where he was there. He's exciting. It's fun. There's a chance that it could happen, but no, I don't anticipate that he's just going to be a weekly starter going forward. All right. This is an ominous title for a question that says quit fantasy football forever. At Taylor Given writes in, I have lost Austin Echler, Mike Evans, Amarian Hampton, James Connor, Aaron Jones to injury this year. Okay, you're starting with Austin Echler, really? In my main league. Why should I not quit fantasy forever? Because the emotional downside that you are feeling right now. Which you're not aware of or familiar with. No, I've never experienced an injured player or a bad beat. Neutral.

that's actually why you play it's it's frustrating when it's injuries it's really really frustrating it's it's really frustrating it's not your fault it's just bad luck but the fact that you are probably pulling a little bit of your hair out it might sound like something you don't want to do but that is why you enjoy it the emotional roller coaster of something to care about in life you know it's like you can't have highs without lows okay all right um getting existential but go on you can't if it's all good all the time it's not good if that makes sense most everything in life is actually that way you just don't believe it yeah it's uh we've said it before it's you know the lows are lows the highs are high and it's fun and it's a lot of why we built this show is around the we have a league that's almost at 20 years there's no money in it you're playing for

the emotional and, you know, the connection with your friends and for the false sense of superiority. That's the right phrase. Yeah. The false sense of superiority. For you guys. Mine is a real sense. But another reason to not quit is, I mean, we sell a draft kit and we need somebody. Right, yeah. To play this game. Yeah. Ultimate draft kit.com in the offseason. In the offseason. Footland.com right now in season tools, resources, waiver wire pickup tools. all sorts of great things that you can purchase from us. So I would say don't quit. Right. Yeah. They are great tools. They are great tools though. So folkland.com go check about. I would I would say that it would be really interesting if AI could analyze like our Slack company channel over 10 years and try to figure out like track.

the sentiment on your joy versus pain over a 10-year period? I think that you. Oh, boy, Kyle says, I got you. I'll figure it out. Yeah, he will too. If you're going to quit fantasy football, do it after a win. You know what I mean? If you quit now. What, John Elway style? Two Super Bowl titles and walk away? Exactly. There's highs and there's lows. If you leave now, you're leaving. I'm out of here the league. Yeah, you're a loser. Oh, okay. You don't want to, you don't want to. You know, if you're going to leave. So far, your reasons to not quit are you're a loser and. Don't be a loser. Those are great reasons, Andy. They're two good reasons. Yeah. That's good. Underperforming rookie running back question from at Mike Frash, which underperforming rookie running back has the best chance to break out now and the fantasy playoffs? I don't think I said it out loud, but I was definitely thinking it on the Monday reaction show. I definitely like RJ Harvey Harvey more than Trayvion Henderson.