Fantasy Football - Breakout Picks + Injury Anger, Mike Returns! - Podcast for 8/17

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We have all of our consensus breakout picks inside of the ultimate draft kit. This is a great show opportunity for us to talk about individual breakout picks that we are convicted about, that we have faith in, that we believe could help your team at a discount in fantasy drafts. Since we just talked about them multiple times, might as well, I guess I'll start it off. My breakout pick is Isaiah.

likely. Okay. Isaiah likely. I can see why you wouldn't draft Jake Tongis. Yeah, there you go. I mean, you're going to get a 10th, 12th round value on Isaiah likely. He's one of the highest paid tight ends per year on average. And I think we're, I think we're suffering from unmet.

unfulfilled promises with Isaiah likely in days gone by. The truth of the matter is he's one of the most gifted athletic tight ends. They went out and spent the money to bring him into New York. And while I have my concerns about this offense and Matt Nagy and the offense clicking and dart behind center, I think likely is one of the most obvious, clear discounts and values in fantasy football. We've seen great moments from him. We've seen him.

dominate in zone threat and every single bit of news about this team and what they're saying is he's going he's been the number one target without neighbors on the field and I think the capability is is there I think likely is the most obvious late round pick that's going to I believe be in every week easy start you know when John Harbaugh was talking about his confidence on Isaiah likely they asked him specifically about high volume

in this offense and he said look the numbers that you're talking about the stats that you're talking about that wasn't part of the thing in baltimore because of the supporting cast he said it's going to be a big year and i know he said positive things about likely before but the truth of the matter was he had to share a lot of opportunities with mark andrews and the rest of this offense to me likely is going to be a breakout uh sans injury in in year one in new york um

It's been the theme of spring and summer. I'm excited about it. And we've seen a lot of tight ends be the late bloomer type of situations where, you know, you had guys like Greg Olson not really blossom until he switched teams going to Carolina. You saw Darren Waller, his first fantasy season was at 27 years old, Kelsey at 27 years old. You didn't get Najuku delivering big performance until his seventh season. So right place, right time.

To me, it's a home run. The reason he's on this show is because he just narrowly missed being a my guy for me. So that's the level of conviction I have around Isaiah Eichly. The drum beat for him, I think it's been there. It hasn't been loud in your face like some of the other players that are just really getting buzz. I mean, Jake Ferguson's going ahead of him, Mike. No, the ADP is fine. I'm saying I like it. I think a.

of a late round tight end that could really make a jump, a team that, you know, unless Malik Neighbors is ready to go 100% in week one, you don't know who the top target earner on the team is going to be, could easily be Isaiah likely. And what I can say underneath, there really has been buzz about him. It's just not loud, you know, including the...

Jason and I interviewed Dart. Isaiah likely was kind of the only player he talked about when we asked him out with targets. And then there's been little blurbs here and there that I'm surprised haven't elevated his ADP. So he's sitting at a point where I think he is a very low risk, high upside guy. I don't know if I'm convinced it will happen, but in the market, in range of outcomes, there is definitely one where Isaiah likely ends up as...

The guy who jumps into the top five. What about the fact that Matt Nagy, while we hate him most places, he does involve tight ends more than we usually like? Sure. He loves getting Johnny Smith the ball. Yeah, I mean, I just think that it's going to be a pretty, like Mike, Mike put it best. This is a chance for high upside late in your draft where it, you know, it's not that, you know, we love Colston Loveland. I love Ty Warren.

The crafting is tough. I love him, but if he's limited snaps, that's tough. But, like, there's a world where, like, the gap between Isaiah Likeley's performance and some of those guys may not be as big as you think, but you do have to sacrifice a lot to pull the trigger on Loveland early. Yes, you do. So it's just something to think about, but there's, I mean, there's other late-round tight-end names we've brought up multiple times, like Goddard is another one that I think will be involved. But I think Likeley is a really interesting play in this new offense.

despite the – and I think that there's going to be some growing pains for dart in this offense, but likely is going to be – you know, we saw it. We saw it last year with Theo Johnson that he built a rapport with his tight end right away. And it's interesting because Hayden Weeks pointed out like when he played, all the plays that likely came in on were passing downs. He never put his hand in the dirt once. Theo Johnson was in there blocking for the blocking down. So I think he'll be a targeted receiver in this offense. And you do –

It's just like a little bonus for him of like if Dart continues to get exploded on the field, waiting in the wings, guys, James Winston. Oh. I mean, the odds have seen James this year feel very hot. And if James comes in, I will not have any concerns for any of my past catchers. Yeah, we want we want them routes for the tight ends. I think you'll see a ton of them from.

likely. So that's my breakout pick. Jason, Mike, who wants to go next? I'll jump in here. It is a player that I think the three, like, oh, this guy took the nation by storm last year. And I think as a show, all three of us, we were pretty hesitant because it's a seventh round rookie running bag. Everyone's so excited. Bill Kuroski. He became like the bit of the show. It was a good time.

This one's so interesting to me, Mike, because we are post-hype season of last year. Yes. And you keep coming. I feel like the way it's gone is this off-season, you haven't been like trying to chase JCM. You just keep coming back to a place where you bring his name up. I spent most of the off-season of like, hey, they had Rashad White. Could he end up being the guy? And, you know, just the way I'm reading the situation right now, it sounds like the team really just they want it to be Bill Kroski-merit.

And the ADP is shocking to me on Sleeper. Bill Kroski is going as the running back 37, which is in fact lower than he was last year around this time. Like that, that is absurd. The people are so mad at Bill. He was. Which, what, Echler was around last year? Yeah. And Echler was a huge part of why I wasn't sure that Bill could take over as the seventh runner. But then, of course.

Echler goes down to the Achilles in week two. But Bill, for what he was able to put on the field, he was very efficient. Over the first five games, you were seeing an average of 6.6 yards per carry. And then honestly, the whole team falls apart. You have Jane Daniels injuries. Things are just, the other guys are getting injured all over the place, like Terry missing time. It just really didn't work out for Washington. And Bill struggled mightily, but...

Towards the end of the season, you know, the final three games, we had an, we had an 18 for 96 with a touchdown. It's against the Giants. That's not great. As in, like, people are beating up on the Giants. But he's taking what's there. The week 17 against Dallas, 11 for 105. He had, he has the juice. On a high note. And we knew he had the juice. Like, his highlights are, like, this is, he's one of the few running backs that.

at any point could rip off the 40-yard touchdown. He has that ability. He's going lower than last year. It's insane. Interesting. Washington, Washington should be a, at least middle, you know, to an upper echelon offense. I still believe in Jane Daniels, despite his thinking he owns the number five. And this is an ambiguous situation. You know what he doesn't own? Oh, you are. Yeah. We're watching you. Think you're going to get 55.

But it's like Chicago, Jacksonville, Minnesota, and Washington. These are the more potent potential offenses. Their running backs are going outside of the top 24. These are the players that can change the balance. Yeah, I want to hit my fourth rounder and all this stuff. I want to find the late round running back that can come in here and really stabilize my team, if not take it to the next level. They've been expressing, we need him to get better with the ball out of his hands.

and talk of, like, we don't want to have pigeonholed running backs. We don't want to, when Bill's out there, the defense, oh, they're going to run it. And when White is out there, oh, they're going to throw. This is something that Washington does not want to happen, which sounds like if Bill takes the job, that's potentially a three-down running back. So that's very, very exciting for going as the running back 37. Krod is gone, so he doesn't have.

you know at that type of uh of competition at the goal line seems like he should get that no matter what so i'm very interested in his adp and i'm very interested in what bill could turn the crowd point is really interesting because he was very effective down there and got a lot of opportunities super effective to be fair that is what i said i know but it didn't need to be repeated i didn't realize you need to beat that i yeah

I didn't realize how bad what he said was. I just knew he misspoke. And I had to call him out on it. And then I realized that's very bad. Leave this in, but you got to beep him. That's very, very bad. I take 20% playing. Fowls are very important. I take 20%. You're telling me I said it like that. Yeah, you did. You did. You did. You did. You guys are nodding like, like you're right. We all heard it. You're nodding like you're telling the truth. Mm-hmm. I don't believe you. Yeah.

No, I, I, that's no way to know. There's no way. We'll never be able to tell if you had actually said it that way first or not. All I know is that whatever way Jason said it was worse. Yes, I will agree with that because I hit it a little harder. Oh my goodness. You tripped into your own trap.

I trapped into your trap. Yeah, well. Is this show still on the air? Do we have to mark this episode differently? We have the technology to push through. Oh, my goodness. Never before. I'm 12 years of shows. I'm sorry, everybody. Back to Bill. I just have a question. Okay. If this is the only, I know you didn't bring this up, and this was basically you made all the arguments for why.

Bill's a good breakout pick. He can do it. This office is blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. I actually think the only reason that you like him is because your argument for why Bucky Irving was a breakout was just simply because you were betting against Rashad White. You're like, he's not good. It really was the crux of the entire argument. Is that what's happening here? It's just like, you just have to compete with Rashad White who's not that good. It, I mean, look, if you want three and a half yards, Rashad White's your dude.

If you want four and a half yards, he's not. I'm not even listening to the show anymore. What? All right, Jason, it's time to talk about your breakout. This is one that I think.