Fantasy Football - Sleeper Picks + Late Round Steals - Podcast for 8/18

Jordan Mason. Now, Jordan Mason is a guy that's not going to catch a ton of passes. That's not his profile. But I do think he will be a very, very dominant running game player. He'll be the goal line back. This offense should be significantly better without nine running into the ground. Even if you look last year without that scheme, in the games without nine at quarterback, you had...

him scoring 10.6 fantasy points per game. That's not like, oh my gosh, you've got to put him in, but that's like quality for a team that was really struggling on offense. And keep in mind, when JJ McCarthy wasn't there, it wasn't like they had the answer, you know, and they had some other great quarterback playing. It was Carson Wins and, you know, and issues. Jordan Mason is perfect for this scheme. If you look at.

him versus Aaron Jones, especially this version of Aaron Jones, and you look at head-to-head outside zone scheme. Jordan Mason has averaged 5.86 yards per carry, one of the best in the entire league, versus Jones 4.3, miss tackles 4.29 versus 0.1. Explosive rush rate 9 to 3. This scheme is made for Jordan Mason. All the camp reports are saying every day he breaks one long.

one long run every day. And, you know, he's got that in his bag. In fact, you know, since coming in the league as an undrafted free agent in 2022, there's Devon A Chan and Jamir Gibbs. There's only two players with a higher yards per carry than Jordan Mason. It's, yeah, it's hard to, it's hard to even think about Jordan Mason that way. It's, it's not, it has not been a ton of, of opportunity for him. He had the year where,

You know, he took over for, because Christian McCaffrey was going to be totally fine until he missed 10 weeks. And it was like, Jordan Mason was awesome during that period for San Francisco. And you think back in your head, I'm like, man, I like Jordan Mason last year. I don't think he was really that good. It didn't work out. He ran for 4.8 yards of carry, like on a terrible team. If you get this offense fixed up, and I think Kevin don't.

I'll still believe in Kevin O'Connell, even though I'm not a huge Kyler Murray guy, if he's not catching passes, but he is the primary runner and the goal line running back, where he's being drafted. To give you running back two numbers would be just outrageous at that point. We talk about at the end of drafts, try to target teams that look like they might have a good offense, and you're not sure who the running back is. So like Washington and Jacori Cross Comerite, that's one of those guys where it's like you're targeting him,

because you think he's the lead guy and you think that Washington could have a good offense. I think that with Kevin O'Connell and Kyler Murray, Minnesota could have a good offense. And then it's just a question of, well, who is it? Because right now, ADP-wise, Aaron Jones, I believe, is still going above him. Double-check that Kyle. They're pretty close. There have been some talk about Claiborne, too, right? Yes, I will say he's just a deep sleeper to keep an eye on, a very explosive rookie. He's very small. Who's a rookie last year, though, right? No. This year. Yeah, he's a rookie coming in this year. Kyle just pulled this up. Mason.

had more 10 plus yard runs than Trayvion Henderson last year. Yeah. This is, Mason was doing things very quietly because it wasn't frequently turning into. That's kind of his build. That's kind of a, like I like the idea of focusing on the scheme change because I feel like that's what benefited him in San Francisco. Yeah. I think in certain schemes or situations, he doesn't look that explosive. He doesn't look that special, but.

if they're moving things to be more forgiving for him. Speaking of the build, here's a quote from Kevin O'Connell from this month. He was talking to the president. He says, you guys could probably even tell just the way he looks. He's an unbelievable shape right now. I think the things that he thrives at were emphasizing in some aspects of our different run game schemes. And he's reportedly down about 15 pounds, which we've talked about, you know, that when. I was just going to say, and he's like a big boy. And you don't, he's like, Jordan Mason. I don't.

We have him listed at 2.30. Yeah. So if he's down to 2.15. Get that explosive speed up. All right. All right. We'll take a break and come back. I'm going to share my final sleeper with you. You're picky about your fantasy draft. You got rankings, sleepers, mock drafts, and too many tabs open. You know what else you should be picky about? Buffalo sauce. Introduce a primal kitchen. The official buffalo sauce of the NFL. Primal Kitchen Buffalo sauce. It's made.

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Fastest is based on analysis by Ucla of speed test intelligence data of national speed score results for the second half of 2025. The best mobile network in the U.S. is based on analysis by Ucla of speed test intelligence data, second half of 2025. All right, we got Pat Bryant, we got Jordan Mason, and then I'm going to bring up a name that I will not be surprised if he has five receptions or more in week one of the NFL season.

I don't think Mike likes it, but I'm going to go. No, no, I was going to say the drumbeat of hype is like off the top of my head where I just, okay, what's been going on? Pat Bryant, Parker Washington, and this guy are like, those are the big three of who have been getting the publicity. It's Cyrus Allen, rookie wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs. It's time we talked about him more in depth. Fifth round pick.

A lot of people out there surprised he made it that long. He was not invited to the combine. Yeah, he is, what's wild about him, too, is that he had the third most touchdowns in the FBS last year. This is a player that, like you said, it has been a solid drumbeat throughout the entire preseason. Patrick Mahomes is healthy and back. Tyquan Thornton is out with a hamstring. Rashi Rice hasn't looked himself. Travis Kelsey is old.

Did you Travis Kelsey route up? Xavier, yeah, I did. Yesterday with the slowest. Oh, I missed that. Yeah, it was a lumbering cut and then he just was white. Who is faster, Rashi Rice or Travis Kelsey right now? Rice. Yeah, Rice. But Xavier Worthy also hurt on this team. The Thornton news came out today. Like literally before we did the show, he got carted off of practice. It's a hamstring injury. Cyrus Allen has been, and this is, this is a quote, undoubtedly.

Patrick Mahomes' favorite target in the preseason. Played with the starters. I watched every route that he ran in the preseason game. I watched every senior ball practice. If you go watch the senior ball practice, which by the way, that was one of the places where Ladd McConkey stuck out the most to me when he came into the NFL. You're talking about a player that is extremely versatile.

He played out wide almost exclusively as an underclassman. Then he played in the slot almost exclusively with Cincinnati last year. He's a fifth round pick. The team has talked about, not us. The team has talked about similarities to Stefan Diggs. He made plays in the first preseason game, climbed the ladder. They targeted him frequently. He took an end around, kind of the Andy Reed style, like get him a screen pass and let him run. Looked really fast. So right now you have the combination of preseason hype.

with tons of injury and depth concerns at wide receiver on this team. And a player that I think is slowly but surely emerging, you know, there are great opportunities and his best ball ADP is something you can pay attention to. He was undrafted. It's climbed all the way to the 15th round. They're favored in their first six games of the year. I think Cyrus Allen is one of those situations where I'm trying my best not to just dismiss a preseason hype candidate for Patrick Mahomes.

because other different players with different skills and different opportunities didn't succeed on the same hype train. Sure. And that's the big thing is like, can I go watch the film and say, this player has something or doesn't? I think he'll especially be very good against zone defenses. I think those are the routes where, like, he, you know, he talked about, like, his biggest pet peeve is not being open on every play. Like, this is a player that seems really dedicated to his craft. And the fact that the...

league's best quarterback already has this level of trust in a rookie is something to pay attention to. It doesn't mean that it could be like Pat Bryant where he goes undrafted, right? But you're paying such close attention to week one. Or maybe you've drafted a player that belongs on IR. You flip them to IR and then you sign Cyrus Allen just to watch what happens in week one of the NFL season. Is worthy going to be there? Is Thornton going to be there? Do those guys even impact the kind of targets that Cyrus Allen is going to receive for the chiefs?

That's TBD. But I think he's one of those guys we have to say out loud. We are in it 24-7 all off-season. There are people that have come back to this show. We had comments on yesterday's show. It was like, oh, you guys just have new screens on the back wall? People are coming back to the party. To fantasy right this moment and have not heard Cyrus Allen's name ever because it wasn't a combine name. It wasn't a draft day name. And today's the day they hear the name. So here are a couple arguments against.

that I think people are going to make. Mike has said this around the office all the time. Every year there's a Kansas City guy. Yeah. Oh, it's this guy, it's this guy. Because we have hopes and dreams. We know who Mahomes is. Yeah. And so you have hopes and dreams. And Mike says, you know, it never works out. He's not buying in. There's also, I just did the just the tips for this last Saturday on YouTube. You could check that out. One of those things was talking about if you're not a first round wide receiver, day two, day three, you know, those.

drafted wide receivers don't usually get off to a strong start. The snap percentages is low. So those are the arguments against them. I am in on Cyrus Allen. And here's why. Andy is completely correct that you can't just say because other things didn't work out, it can't work out. That was when I was super in on Rashi Rice as a rookie. Yeah.

That was the same narrative. Everything I heard was no. Skymore. There was a bunch of them. I can't even remember them because they all fizzled out and were worthless. But, yes, Skymore and. Last year, a little bit of Jalen Royals' hope. Yeah, I mean, it's just always those guys. Here's why I'm in on Cyrus Allen. The snap percentages for later round rookie drafts, wide receivers, is extraordinarily low to start the year. They don't get on the field. That's why it's a bad pick.

I think he's going to be on the field. I think he might start week one. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. He's been running with the ones exclusively. Yeah. He was on, you know, every snap with Patrick Mahomes, granted, it's preseason. So maybe they're just getting him some expectation. And week one comes out and he doesn't play. He's 27% of snaps, 46% of snaps. Okay, cut bait.

And bail immediately if that happens. But I do think there's a world where week one, he is 80% plus snaps, and that doesn't happen for these guys. And the other reason I like him, because he's good. Like his, I love watching his routes. I think he reminds me, like, I mean, he just, his, his crispness, his sharpness of his routes is like, I mean, I think it's going to match up well for this team. So I'm optimistic.

Yeah, so here's average for day three wide receivers snap counts for weeks 1 through 6, 24% snaps. That is that. It is a bad bet. You don't get the opportunity. I wanted to talk about Caleb Douglas. You know, he's another rookie wide receiver. The later round rookie wide receivers, they do not usually work to draft them. Pick them up off of waiver wires. Get that second half of the year. I make an exception here solely because I think he's just been exclusively running with the ones. So please don't get hurt before we get to C.