2nd Half Sleepers + Hopkins Traded! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/23

Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes quarterback for the Kansas City Chief, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers podcast, Mike the Fantasy Hitman, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, Wednesday edition.

Always a lot going on to talk about. And today is no exception. More wide receivers on the move in the NFL. So we'll talk about that on today's show. I know we're all sitting here waiting for waivers to go through in our League of Record. And all of you out there listening, it was Waiver Day. And it's a good time to remind you to drop it like it's hot because we've got, you know, players that are going to hit the waiver wire today because you've got to make choices. You've got to make decisions. There are players to be dropped. It looks like the most Fab was spent on Jalen McMillan in our league. Guilty. In most leagues, I think that'll be the case in super flex leagues. James was the prize. Kate Otten also arriving on Mike's roster. Yeah. Kate Outen's on the block, everybody.

Jason overspent on Troy Franklin, not as surprising. No? Impossible. Impossible. I did not overspin on Franklin. I acquired. Wait, we gave you that about no. Oh, yeah, baby. He spent four times the amount of the next highest bid. But, um, not enough. You know, the trade, the trade offers today, or I'm sorry, the NFL trades today will have implications too. As I see juju Smith, Schuster hitting the waiver wire. in our league of record as well. So it's always good to get a lay of the lane and see what's going on. I do want to share that, you know, I did not compete in today's festivities. My team is too good to need players from the waiver wire. Okay, congratulations. And also have very little fab. But I was looking to acquire more fat. You should have no fab. Well, you should have zero. You know, that's what I was going to get into. So yesterday I left work a little early. I had to, I had to fill in the gap.

One of my kids was at an orthodontist, and they pulled that we're starting your appointment an hour and a half after you arrived. Oh, that is nasty. What's the point of appointments? They were very apologetic. Good. But my daughter was getting braces on, and my wife was stuck at the orthodontist, and my son needed to be picked up. You know, there's a lot going on. Very busy time. You know, I'm a responsible father. Let me go over to Deucer's Alley over here. The man in the hat hidden behind his own shame. And so I'm driving around. Not me. I am a, no, not you today. It's the Falcon. But that's pride, not shame. So I'm driving around and I had put a little note out into our League of Record that I, you know, I was just trying to pick up some fab. It was like if anybody wants Michael Wilson, any fab offer will do. And I get a sweet offer. I was shocked. I was like, this guy is hitting the waiver wire. I'm shocked.

And I got an offer, Michael Wilson, for $5 a fab. They smashed except. Smash except. I wanted that five fad. Little did I realize. Keep in mind, Andy had $5 a fab at the time. That's all I have left. This was going to double his fad. That's why you needed fap. This is why I needed fap. Little did I realize that when I smashed except driving, being a responsible dad, picking up my son, I don't got time to focus on looking at trades and driving. Yeah, that's a hard. Okay, technically I was parked. Okay, I was in the line. All right. Drive line is acceptable phone work. Yeah. You trade, but don't trade in drive line is what I'm learning because the offer that the Falcon, Falcon hadn't ever sent me an offer in Sleeper ever. I had to do the accept. You know how when someone first sends you a deal to trade with you? They're like, do you accept this message? So this is his debut. Yeah, it's a collect call. He had sent me.

Michael Wilson and my $5 for nothing. I can't even believe Sleeper allows you to put that in the system, but they do. So I paid $5 of Fab to send Michael Wilson. You were one of those teams that were paying for someone to take this player off my roster. A lot of leagues would say that's on you. Yeah, not this one. Who's the commissioner of our league? I am. Yeah. It's funny because I remember years ago, we talked about it on this show. It was our listener league. I made a trade for D. Johnson and I got Duke Johnson instead of David Johnson. And I took that on the chin. I said, that's on me. I should have looked at the trade better and I kept it. I didn't reverse. Is that your actual position on this thing? Because I assumed it wasn't. No. No, it wasn't. I love giving you grief about it. But you saw it.

You know, immediately the whole league is laughing at you and you're like, that was a mistake. It was very funny. It was a clear mistake. It was a great laugh. But like people, if this happens in your league, because I know that there are some people out there listening. It's like, no, Andy should not be allowed to undo that. Yes, he should. It's like, let accidents be undone. If someone drops a player, I saw someone tweet this out, they had a player hit waivers, they dropped them, but they don't have any league rules allowing you to undo it. Here's your league rule. I'm telling you this is your league rule if you have a league. If it happens, if an accident happens, and immediately, I'm not talking like the next day or eight hours later, but like when the accident happens, someone goes, oh, whoops, I didn't mean to do this thing. Undo it. This is like, come on. Now, I don't know. Al over there is saying that it's just my fault. I didn't pay attention. And I guess that's true.

It is true, but I don't actually think it should have stood. Oh, it was fun. It was a great true. It was so fun. So I want to know, though, before we get the show started, it's jam packed, but Falcon, what, what demented spirit conjured up this offer in the afternoon? I just left. Like, what, did you, was this strategic? Like, this will be a real, like, I know I pay you to work here, but you, you were doing something else? No, I was just on the bathroom and. Of course. Of course. I was like, this would be kind of funny. It's where he does his best thinking. I mean, you look, you said any fab. Negative. Right. Negative fab is. That's true. There is just that what entertained me the most is the thought that he was sitting there thinking this will be funny. Like I'll be able to do this and he'll probably click except. And he was right. Yeah, Papa Josh said regret is not reversible. Accidents are. That's right. That's a good way to put it.

All right, congratulations to, can you read the name of the Megal Bowl leader for me? It is. Let me get back to the top. N. E. NELS 8912. That's the current leader in our Megalobole out of 20,000 participants. I'm having a pretty good Megalibole year. I don't know about you guys. I'm sitting at 11 and 3. Ooh, very nice. Lamar Jackson, thank you. Thank you very much. Marvin Harrison, no thank you to you. Yay. But congrats to Nells, who's leading the Megalobole. Has the Falcon fallen all the way out of contention? I still have a lot of points. My record's just not as good. Okay. Yeah. What else do we got going on? We got some Hungry for More. Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eads. Some interesting names on today's segment. I will start with a player that probably categorizes as starving for more over the last several years.

Giovante Williams. Yeah. What I saw for the first time in the Sean Payton era this past week was the plan coming to fruition. Sean Payton has been a historically great coach when it comes to running the football and letting that establish the offense and putting up points. And I recognize that this was a bit of. You know, Norlands did not play well. Their defense is not playing well. But 17 opportunities for Javante. He looked explosive for the first time in two years. And if the plan can be executed by Sean Payton, it seems like it's going to be Javante. I mean, Jolio McLaughin has shown his limitations this year. He's not on the field a lot. Estimate has fumbled multiple times. Javante looks good. And this week.

you could have a real back-to-back big-time performance. In fact, I think Mike, who had a slow start in League of Record due to injuries, I think he is percolating with optimism and hope. I'm feeling a lot better. Because he's made some moves. I mean, the fab spins today tell me this is a man hungry for more wins, and Javante may be a key part of that. Yeah, so the Dynasty podcast on the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty show came out today, and every week on that episode. We do a deep dive on three different, a deep film dive on three different players from a dynasty perspective. Mine was Javante Williams. I went back and I watched every snap from this last week. And then I wanted to see more. So I watched every snap from the week before. The week before that, the week before that, I looked at the last month of Javante Williams to kind of see, is he improving? Is his explosiveness coming home? He's got a little bit more broken tackle rate, but certainly.

nowhere near the 2021 pre-injury, Javante, you know, broke a tackle rate that he had. My takeaway was this. Yeah, I'm curious about this. He is an average NFL running. I didn't see anything that was special. He didn't break a bunch of one-on-one tackles. But he will 100% get what is blocked for him. And the offensive line and the system is starting to come together. Mike McGlinchie, their right tackle, who is their highest paid player, he... came back from injury and dominated. It made their right guard so much better. Their right guard sucked the previous three games. And then all of a sudden, you see the right side of the line, which they are running to, I believe, the second most in the NFL for Just Cause, opening up holes. And when you do that, Giovante is, he's a big strong back so he can get that head of steam and go pick up eight to 12 yards on a single carry. We saw that a couple times. So yeah, this week against Carolina?

They're going to be opening up some holes. Oh, yes. So I'm excited. It'll be a meal. That'd be a nice meal. The way that I view Giovante is a solid RB2 going forward. He should get the opportunities, 17 opportunities this last week. But he did not strike me as like special and healthy and like, oh, he's back, baby. It was like he's going to be a good matchup play. And hopefully the offense, it's a young, young offense. You know, you've got three rookies at skill position players out there almost the majority of snaps. one of which being your quarterback, they should get better as the season goes along, but bad matchups will be tough for him. All right. So, Giovante is my entry to Hungary for more. Mike. Who do you have? I got Cedric Tillman. We talked about him a decent amount yesterday on the waiver show. Cleveland Brown's second year wide receiver. He was a third round pick just a couple years ago. And he, in that draft class, it was, he was like the only.

prototypical outside wide receiver. He's 6.3, 2.15. So this is a bigger guy. The rookie year was, it was bad. It was just, it was bad. The raw production was bad. The peripherals were bad. But the Cleveland Brown's passing game has just, I mean, aside from the end of last year, has been very stagnant. Then this week, after the trade of Amari Cooper, 12 targets, 8 for 81, 82% of the snaps. He went right into. a featured role for Cleveland, three targets early in the first quarter. He was involved in the intermediate area of the field. We'd love to see that. Two end zone targets, they just didn't come through. And the matchup now against Baltimore, where people just, they have to throw on Baltimore. This is because Baltimore is going to put up so many points on you. And then the big news, had you not seen it, James Winston is now the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.

Did you hear the explanation? Yes. I saw. They basically said it was a game, it was a game, strategic game script type of decision to make DTR. That's me winking everybody. To put them in that position. I take it for what you will. That's big news, Winston. And there's also, there's like full Cleveland reset news going on right now, which involves the trading of David Njoku. There are three teams. Oh, I hadn't heard that one yet. There are three teams. Don't do it. Three teams that have inquired. No, no, no, no, no, no. We need Najoku. Including the Chargers. Well, okay. Very interesting. I didn't know where he... Jason's stream of consciousness to the progression of the news is very fun. Yeah, I mean, if Will Disle's out there getting 11 targets, yeah, okay. I am not saying, and I don't think we are saying that James Winston is the savior of the universe for the Cleveland Browns. No. But Watson had been...

horrifically bad, like historically bad these last few years. So to me, James has to be an upgrade. And as long as, and James does crazy stuff. Like, he throws pick sixes all the time. Like, we've seen him. You know, he just, he'll get out there. He's, he's like Andy Dalton. He has the gunslinger mentality. And that means. Some bad things will happen for the Cleveland Browns, but some really good things will happen to for fantasy. On the offensive side of the ball, which translates then into fantasy for us. Let me give you the three teams rumored to be connected with David Njoku as of 15 hours ago. The Chargers. I mean, you can make more sounds in association with the teams. The Colts. No, no, no, no, no, no. Barf. And then the Broncos.

Those are the three teams. I think that would be great for the Broncos. A brilliant move. This is a team that has, or a system, obviously Jimmy Graham in the past. They know how to use the tight end. Greg Dulcich hasn't gotten it done. Their schedule is very favorable too. Yeah. So, I mean, that would be good, but that would not be, that would be a downgrade for Najoku. Right now, Najoku is the most important target on his offense. Yes. And so to bring it back to Tillman. Opportunity should be there. And passing yardage above above 200 is the kind of framework that we're looking for and hoping for. Cleveland's recipe the rest of this year, though, is play some defense and get lucky. Yeah, Cleveland is the only team that has not scored 20 points in a game this season. I'm guessing that goes away this week. Denver Broncos, according to our strength of schedule tool, where it is schedule adjusted, the seventh best for tight ends moving forward. Is there a more for the Broncos? That's the Broncos.

Is there a more contrasting mood change at the quarterback position than the transition from Deshawn Watson to James Winston? Isn't that the greatest contrast you could ever have? Yeah. You're going from someone who... Like whose party do you want to go to? Right. Look, there's... What we have is hope. We have actual hope that the past catchers and the offense for the Browns could... score more than 20 points. All right, Jason, you've got a former Cleveland Brown as you're hungry for more. Yeah, and a great player who is getting all the work. The utilization is blowing my mind. Troy Frank. No, it's Cream Hunt. Cream Hunt. The utilization is blowing your mind. You're talking about two weeks, 28 opportunities, 24 opportunities, 52 opportunities. That's the most in the NFL. Joel and Bede would never.

Back-to-back games, 38% of Kansas City's total rush attempts and targets have gone to Cream Hunt. Now, if you're like 38%, is that good? Is that bad? Over the last two weeks, which are the two weeks that Cream Hunt has had a job in the NFL, that's second behind only Breece Hall. So this is an offense that will get the job done at least. They're going to be up in most games. They're undefeated right now. Cream Hunt's looked good, man. He's looked good running the ball. I know he's 29 years old. He's not the explosive rookie he was when he came to the Chiefs. But he is kind of a bell cow player here. I mean, they still have P. Ryan involved in some of the passing work. And, you know, they'll bring people in. But he is a really important fantasy asset. You remember Carson Steele? Oh, I sure do. That was this year. I traded for him. And then Cream Hunt got signed. That was a month ago.

Yeah, Cream Hunt got signed and he said, hey, can you go give me a coffee, Steele? And Steele said, yes, sir, Mr. Hunt. And don't come back. Right. Yeah, so I'm hungry for more Cream Hunt. I've picked them up at a couple places and it has been delightful. It's funny because your dynasty team due to injuries and underperformance had been really teetering on a disappointing start to the year. And it feels like over the last two weeks, Cream Hunt has been the linchpin of keeping you as a top tier. Yeah. You know. It's been, thank you, Kareem. Just I need a couple more weeks out of you. Let me get these guys back. It's what makes Dynasty League so wild is like so much conversation ends up around the top three or four, five round type of picks. But then the like linchpins of championship teams oftentimes are. Jared Patterson. Yeah, Jared Patterson. Or like I had Rahim most or three years ago when he was considered dead.

Reim Moser's been like a fundamental part of my team for two years. Like when you have players that come out of the woodwork, like if Cream Hunt the rest of the season is this Cream Hunt, which it seems possible. No, Pacheco, we did get some optimistic tweeting. But whether he's back for the playoffs, you know, that's more of the conversation. Some of the old guys still matter in fantasy football, believe it or not, and even in Dynasty League. Mike was a little skeptical. We were talking about this the other day. Mike was a little skeptical. When I drafted, this was like, I don't know. Oh, yeah. This was like five or six years ago. Derek Henry, because he was an old, he was like, ah, he's going to be, you know, coming up. You used a really, it was like your second round pick and a startup for a running back who's already like near the age cliff. And there's some guys. Champ, champ, chip, chip, chip. Some guys are true outliers. All right.

That was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats, the official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. You can order now, oftentimes the quantity we order determined by how the games go that day. I'll tell you that. All right, let's take a break, get into the news. Let's check inducer's alley real quick. Oh, okay, you're still here. Oh. The Falcon's still here. I'm proud of him. That was a good gag. Maybe he's adjusting his coffee schedule. Hold it. Hold it. Squeeze. Clinch. Squeeze tight. Stay in. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Jason wasn't done with the poop jokes. No, he wasn't done with the joke. You're doing okay, Falcon? Yeah, I actually did adjust my coffee schedule. Oh, fantastic. Look at you putting work first. Incredible. He adjusted it to not drinking it. Yeah. Any more. Wake up a bit earlier, brother. All right.

The big news this morning, although there is more than one story, the chiefs who had been rumored around Cooper Cup or adding a wide receiver after the Juju Smith-Schuster injury news, after the Marquis Brown injury news, after the Rashi Rice injury news. They have acquired the Andre Hopkins veteran wide receiver from the Titans who escapes the clutches of Will Levis and arrives to a quarterback with more interceptions. The Titans get a fifth round draft pick. Is that real? Oh, yeah. No, he has more than Will Levis? Yeah, yeah. Well, Levis has missed some games. Yeah, yeah. Levis is an equal opportunity turnover guy. He'll do the fumbles too. Right. So more turnover is just fewer picks. So DeAndre Hopkins arrives with the Chiefs. I put a tweet out this morning immediately upon the news asking the question, rest of season, DeAndre Hopkins is the wide receiver blank? I had a number.

I am curious what your number would be. I don't know if you want me to share it first. I'll write mine down. Mike, you got it in your head. I'm thinking about it. He is. Just the initial reaction. This is not like, please, this is not like a guarantee. We don't know. He was the only some injury. I'll tell you the number. Then you guys tell me what you're thinking. Okay. Jason, your number? 20. 20. 25. Okay. So there's your range. initial reaction range when you, because we already saw this last week. Our leagues were filled with trades that included Devante Adams and Amari Cooper because people with news, it's exciting. Like if I had DeAndre Hopkins, I would be trying to trade him on the news of being with Patrick Mahomes. While we were sitting here, literally while you were asking that question, I get a sleeper alert that DeAndre Hopkins in our Dynasty League has been added to the trade block. Like, of course. I mean, that's what you should do. If you've got Hopkins.

If people want to trade high and hot for him thinking he's going to be Rushy Rice, then trade him at that value. Because, again, we talk about this a lot. If you're trading on hype, if you're trading on value, then let's say he hits. Well, presumably you received back something that was worthy of that. But if he doesn't hit, you received something back that was worthy of more. So I would always trade. He just hit the trading block in League of Record. Oh, of course. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I'm the most bullish of that situation. I just see the need as desperate. I mean, last week, Noah Gray outperform Travis Kelsey in that offense. You don't have, like, we can all kind of commentate on Patrick Mahomes' inability to put up fantasy points. I don't know if anybody could with this current receiving group, and Xavier Worthy was not going to be somebody they can lean on. Like Worthy and McCall Hardman, they work great when you're putting the game plan together.

and creating cool goal line plays, like their gadgetry. You know what I mean? They're not the main tool in the tool belt. Hopkins is a sure-handed route running, reliable possession receiver at this stage of his career. I think you're going to have six for 60 in the can. If it gets in the end zone, you're happy. And I think you will every other week. I think you're probably not far off there. This version of Hopkins is, he's slower, he doesn't separate as much, he's not explosive, you're not going to get an 80-yard touchdown. But if you compare this version of DeAndre Hopkins to current version, or at least two weeks ago version of Juju Smith-Schuster, Hopkins is way better. He looks better in his routes and his fluidity. His hands are awesome. So Juju has proven in this offense that once you're acclimated,

Juju knew this offense. And so that's something that is worth paying attention to. They brought Juju back because he was already part of this system, this office for an entire year. Same with Kreme Hunt. This is new for Hopkins. So he's going to take a little bit more time to get plugged into the system. However, he is better than Juju. So I do think at a couple weeks, you're going to have a wide receiver two going forward. The Saints surprised everybody by... not trading Alvin Kamara, but extending him. A two-year 24-5 extension. It puts him under contract through 2026. If you remember, because this was the first thing I thought of when I saw the news. Well, first thing I thought was, oh. But the second thing I thought was this was a player who chose not to hold out in the preseason in camp, and yet it was rumored that he would.

because he wanted an adjustment to his contract. I don't know if this is the team kind of completing the sentence there where he in good faith showed up. And so the team in good faith continued to navigate the cap and put him on the team. I am a little bit surprised that this is the move. So the Saints, what a wild franchise. If you want to know how little you and me, all of us understand about the salary cap. Just look at the New Orleans Saints who have no money and always give their guys a ton of money, but it's years down the road. They kick the can down the road so much. It's unfathomable. You know, they've got zero percent APR on something. They're loading these credit cards. I don't know. I think they're still paying for Drew Brees for like 12 more years. So this is a cap move for them that they believe is smart.

And for about eight years, we've said it's going to come calling. And someday it will. But as the cap keeps increasing the next year and the next year and the next year, they're always okay enough to put together a solid roster. And so maybe they'll be fine forever. They have been for long enough. But it's just wild, man. I can't believe that a team that is so cap strapped is like, hey, you want some more money? It's very, very weird. Hey, old running back. You want some more money? I think that the Giants might have been well advised to follow this principle with Saquan Barclay in the offseason, perhaps kicking some cans down the road and paying him an extra $2 million to keep him on the team. But Camara, not heading out the door. Saquan and neighbors with that defense, they could actually be a competitive team. They were like a Saquan away if they could just pick one up.

James Winston, we talked about it. He's going to start. We also got word that the Browns are going to let Ken Dorsey start calling all offensive plays moving forward. They were 13th and pass rate last year. Buffalo was with Ken Dorsey calling plays. That is part of his calling card. That only helps the equation with James Winston. Listen to this, boys. Tua Tonga Vailoa expected to practice in full today. He's playing against the Cardinals. That is the expectation. I think all of us, if you look at the... the betting lines, like right now, unless there's a setback, Tua will start this week, which is glorious news for everyone. Your Waddle, your Hill, A-chan, Mostert, and Tua. And I hope for him. Yes, absolutely. I really do. It's one of those things where you live your whole life with the joy of playing the game you love and you're 26. How old is he?