Sleepers + Draft Day Fears, Dad Jokes - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/24

We have sleeper picks on today's show. We're talking through some news, getting you ready for your drafts. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave a comment, enjoy. Before we start today's show, I want to invite each and every listener into the 2022 Megalabol the largest fantasy football league on earth. We had over 18,000 playing with us last year. We're hoping to jump over that 20,000 mark this year. Go to megalobol.com. win the league, and you are in next year's listener league. It will be a great time. Check it out. Megalibull.com. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Wednesday, August 24th, Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. Big show today. Big show.

Breakouts yesterday. Today we're talking sleepers. Who should you grab at the end of your draft? Sleepers. We'll each be sharing a couple sleeper picks on today's show. Have some news to talk about. Excited to have you with us. The season is inching closer. And we have a couple of updates at the top of the show. First, you heard the Meglabo's open. So you can go to megalobole.com. Yes. Secondly, today's Wednesday. And it is the first week of our Spotify live show. Oh, baby. The fantasy footballers party room. It's time to party. You like partying? Come on down. Come on down to the party room. Every single Wednesday, 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Eastern. We will be live on Spotify. We will be.

bringing listeners up on stage to ask questions. We will be talking about everything and anything that has to do with fantasy football, breaking news, the upcoming week throughout the year. And it's a great time. So many gifts. Yeah. So many gifts. We finally take off the ties. You know, we're so buttoned up and official and professional. But this is where we really loosen up. Oh, yeah, I'm Donald Ducking on that show. Yeah, and it's bad for everyone in the studio. But you can join us. You can listen on the Spotify app. You can listen on Spotify live if you want to participate in the conversation. And I believe you can even listen on the web now. They're just making it so easy to party. Which means you better be there. And then lastly, a reminder, the ultimate draft kit available now. Get ready for the drafts this weekend.

at Ultimate DraftKit.com. The quick question today comes from Instagram user DJ Hookadon. Okay. Wicca, wicka. It says what is your worst fear during your fantasy football draft, which I thought was a really interesting question. You spent all this time preparing, but what's your actual worst fear? What's the worst thing that can happen to you? I... I'll hop in here first because I saw your answer in. Do you want me to share it real quick? He said he's first. Yeah, I did. I claimed it. Okay, you just said I'm going to hop in. Yeah, I licked it. But your answer is better. Thank you. You have like the true tilt moment. But the thing that I've experienced in a couple drafts recently is that absolutely sucks and it's a big fear is when you are playing the position gamble, you know, that you're at the end of a tier and you're like,

I think this player will make it back based on ADP. And it's like the last running back you like or the last whatever position. But at the same time, it's like you're kind of reaching there. And so you go, well, I think you'll get back. And then you take that risk. And he doesn't get back. And now you're like, that position is smoked for my team. That is one of my big fears. So the one that I had written down was this moment that happens. When you have four or five names that you know you'll be happy with and all of them go directly before you. And so you're combined with this simultaneous, I only have meh options, nobody that I love and the clock. Because that moment, very few of us can think clearly when none of those options are there. There's a lot of pressure. That's the moment fantasy players inadvertently.

Go by pure ADP lists. Oh, yeah. You almost have to if you're ill prepared in that moment. If you had a lot of times you're four picks away and you've got four guys you love. But when it goes boom, bam, thank you, ma'am, those four guys are gone. Then you're like, ah, who's highest? And then it becomes like at least some of you is trying to save face with that pick or can be in that position. And that's where the ADP, you just take who's next on the list and you end up with a player you don't like. That's the panic, worse fear moment. And that comes from, I mean, to some degree, it's being underprepared, you know, not having alternative options. But it's not always that. Sometimes it is there are options there that you know are the next pick. You're just not excited about them. So that moment stinks. What is so funny to me about that moment is that that moment can happen multiple times for a draft. Oh gosh. They stack on each other. But what's funny is like, so there are more.

Players you really like. You know what I mean? Well, but it's all relative to the ADP and where you are in the draft. Grab the players you like. I don't know that I would call it the worst fear, but I have done this before. It's where you kind of forget who's on your roster because the clock is going. And then you draft a wide receiver and you go, oh. I also have the running back from that team, and that's not a stack that I really wanted on my team, or so you either forget, or you're just like, this is clearly the highest tiered player, and I feel like I'm being backed into selecting this player, and it's...

But I don't want the running back of the wide receiver from this same team. I just, I don't think that's going to work out. That's fair. Yeah, I had a draft with Kyle and Betts. The three of us went in on one of the great Danes. And we had a draft that was just like that. We were at the turn. And every time it got to us, there was like one or two players super, you know, past ADP and we loved. And it just was like our team. Yeah. You know, it was like I don't want Michael Gallup and CD.

Right. For the playoffs. It was like, oh, and so over and over, that's just kind of some bad luck. And as a quick follow up, Mike, what's your worst fear for like a season, like in the season? Oh, going undefeated. Oh, undefeated. Yes. Okay. That's your worst fear because there's too much. Too much pressure. Too big of a head. Yeah. All right. Into the news we go. News and notes from around the league. All right, let's start here. ESPN reporting that, or speculating that Mike Davis could get most carries, the most carries in the Ravens backfield early in the season. I believe this to be true. He's looked actually very good in the preseason. John Harbaugh has said that J.K. Dobbins is, you know, kind of back on track, but he's not locked in as a week one started. We already know Gus Edwards, now placed on reserve PUP to miss the first four weeks.

I mean, we are back to the veteran patrol in Baltimore. Yeah, it really, really stinks. And Mike Davis will be valuable in the beginning of the year. Like, you can grab J.K. Dobbins. And J.K. Dobbins, I'm really hoping it has a really good recovery and a great season. But it's not going to start fantastic. You don't come back off of an injury. Not, I mean, he's not fully participating in practices yet. And then just because it's week one, be like, All right, you're a full-time player. Like, you cannot start J.K. Dobbins, week one. If you draft him, you have to have someone else to play week one because I think that if that's his first game back to action, how many carries, how many touches is he getting in his first game back from injury? It's not like he's, you know, in a couple preseason games to warm up. They're not going to go out there and give him 15 touches. The crazy part, Jason, and I'll put you on the spot here with this decision.

The Ravens play the Jets in week one. If you had Mike Davis and Jacob Dobbins isn't playing or you have Breece Hall week one against the Ravens, who's going to perform better in week one? Mike Davis against the Jets or Breece Hall against the Ravens. That is a dirty question. It's dirty. I will play Breece Hall. Okay. But Mike Davis should also. But you know you could be wrong. Well, absolutely. I could be wrong. But it's not to take away from Mike Davis. I think Mike Davis is a. legitimate, you know, flex style start in week one for volume. Yes. Yes. I mean, he's not, you know, this is last year's Devante Freeman, Latavis Murray. These guys were pretty much toast, but they had fantasy relevance. Juju watch. He missed practice again on Tuesday. Andy Reid said that his sore knee occurred during the Monday after the first preseason game. I mean, that just plain lines up with.

what was supposedly happening for a while. He plays a game. It swells up. It's sore. He needs it drained. Yeah, it's not good for the narrative of him really returning to form of his former fantasy star. Former form. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Andy Reed says he'll be ready for the regular season. Should be fine for the regular season. Is he still? It's scary. I mean, that's a scary thing if that he goes out. Okay, he turns the corner, he's great. Week one, he plays. Then his knee gets sore again after the game, and we have to go through all this every single week. You're on panic and watching, is Juju actually going to miss? Is there a chance? And when he does, because I feel like it's inevitable, he's going to miss a game or two with his knee, you won't know until Sunday morning when Juju is a surprise inactive because you'll...

You'll have gone the whole season of this is his regiment. And he plays. You're like, oh, well, he'll play. Don't worry about it. He's not practicing. He's still going to play. Sunday, it's going to sneak up on you. It's going to be probably at a very, very bad time. Would you go with the adage, if it's sore, start Skymore? Would you be willing to? I would not, yes. But when the time comes, please use that rhyme. Yes, oh, of course. Kyle Shanahan said Elijah Mitchell is on schedule to play week one. Oh, man. So the problem with the Elijah Mitchell situation is he was very injury prone last year. And so have, you know, they didn't have Jeff Wilson available for a decent portion of the year due to injury. Trace Herman, due to injury and being in the doghouse. Bad. You do have a currently healthy group of alternate RBBC options.

So Elijah Mitchell is in that category. Like Elijah Mitchell, J.K. Dobbins, who are you drafting? You know, how do you feel about those two guys comparatively? Are you more confident that Mitchell will have success? Yeah, I mean, I think they're in the same tier of player. I would rather draft Elijah Mitchell because I care about getting off to a strong start for talking about home leagues, being able to, you know, make transactions, make moves. I think Elijah Mitchell does start week one. I think he's a fine play week one. This isn't, you know, he has a hamstring issue he's dealing with. He's on track. This isn't recovering from a really intense ACL and extra ligaments knee surgery that he's been gone forever. This is, you know, we've seen plenty of players have a hamstring, get ready, and go. That being said, I doubt a full workload. His risk is, his risk rating in the UDK is high because that's a.

That was his problem last year, just being able to stay on the field. We had a report from PFF this morning, multiple league sources identifying Daryl Williams in Arizona as a potential surprise cut or trade. He was signed this offseason. The team seems enamored with Eno Benjamin and Jonathan Ward. So they also drafted Kante Ingram. So you do have kind of a... Maybe they just like the other players they have in the running back room more than Darrell Williams, the newcomer. We have had, you know, kind of as that James Connor insurance policy for a few weeks now. It's just trending that direction.

Yeah, yeah, the things that Cliff Kingsbury has said about Eno Benjamin, the things other players have said about him, about other players talking about how Eno was in the doghouse last year that he didn't study hard enough, didn't work hard enough, and now Cliff's saying he's a completely different player, he looks great, is working hard. So Eno's got the role right now is what it appears to be. They also traded for Cody Ford from Buffalo to strengthen the offensive line. I don't think James Connor can hold up the whole season. to a massive workload. So it's going to be a little bit of like, if they do it, if they give Connor everything, it may be a wonderful ride for a little while. But I think they will try to share the load and take some, you know, snaps away. Yeah, hopefully it can come like Dalvin Cook's injury scum, which is like, you know he's going to miss two games during the year. But then when it gets back, it's just right back to just full workload.

And then the athletic talking, you know, speaking of insurance running backs, Dantrell Hilliard, clearly the second best back on the Titans roster. So they had drafted Hassan Haskins. It's Hilliard right now. If you want to, you know, if you draft Derek Henry, like I said, I'd take him at three. And I did that today. We have a family league that just started a draft. I had the number three pick. And I took, I took Derek Henry. I don't mind you trying to. kind of protect that early investment on an older back that was hurt with the last pick of your draft. But I'm not expecting Hilliard to be like if Henry misses a long amount of time, there's going to be more backs involved. Right. To me, I'm not drafting Don Terrell Hilliard. Maybe you're in a very deep league. You got, I don't know, eight bench spots or something like that where he's just a lot of the players are going to be gone. Then.

maybe I will consider adding him. I think this is just news. It's good news for us for heading into a waiver week if Derek Henry is to miss time. All right. Into the sleepers we go. Sleepers. I should remind people if you need a trophy for your league, go to fancy champs.com, by the way. If you're starting up a league, you need a trophy. You want to hand it out to the winner or yourself. When you win, head over there. I'm not going to go first this time. I went first yesterday, so I will let somebody else take the floor. I don't know which one of you wants to do it. I'm sure you both have jets, but go on. Yes, actually. Corey Davis is not. It's Kenneth Gainwell running back from the Philadelphia Eagles. We've been talking about him a little bit over the past week or so. Currently going, if you're in your home leagues on Sleeper in about the 13th round and best ball 11th round over on underdog. So, I mean,

No one is clamoring for Kenneth Gainwell. Possibly the true Kenny G. We shall see. Time will tell us that. The problem with Kenneth Gainwell for when he was a rookie, he was a fifth rounder this past year. It was disappointing based off of the prospect. He was a really exciting player back at Memphis. He was the guy that kept Antonio Gibson off the field. And so we had some excitement for him to come in and be a rookie running back. The fifth round was some cold water on that. But then he comes in, and he was a lot better than we remember. Last year, he excelled as a pass catcher seeing 50 targets, one of 25 rookie running backs over the last decade to hit that mark, targeted on over 24% of his routes. Like that's an outrageous number that was 6th,

best among the running back position. He took that third down roll. The Eagles, yes, it was a running back by committee, but Kenneth Gainwell really, I think, proved to this team that he should see more opportunities. And now we have Miles Sanders who has a history of being injured still, still missing time because of a hamstring injury. This is like, we are approaching. Red alert to me for Miles Sanders of you got to move him. That includes today. Yes. Yeah, he's missing practice again today because of the hamstring. You've got to move him down the draft board. Kenneth Gamewell showed that true upside. Where is he on the depth chart? Who knows? But he had three top 12 weeks last year. That was as many as Damien Harris and Giovante Williams. He is a good player.

Ninth among qualified running backs and broken tackle rate. He is shifty. Should he see an uptick in opportunity this year, which it could end up being Boston Scott? Absolutely. I'm not arguing with that, but we are talking about. Great Scott. Is that for Boston Scott? All right. Yeah, yeah, okay. Al flexing his muscles back there. He's quick twitch on the drops. It could be Boston Scott, but. We're talking about sleepers here, guys, in the very, very late rounds. If it is actually Kenneth Gainwell, I think he's going to be a stud. Like a top 24 finish for Kenneth Gainwell would not surprise me in the least for a team that had the highest rush rate in the NFL, 51% of the time, very run heavy. And he's a good player. So in the 13th round...

It's hard to find someone with the upside at the running back position who is already in line for opportunity, doesn't need things to just completely break right around him. He will be in there week one getting things done. So Kenneth Gainwell. Yeah, and if this team ends up passing more, I mean, obviously he's a running back and there's a team that ran a lot last year. But if they pass more, I think that bodes well for Kenny Gainwell versus Boston Scott. Because Kenny Gainwell is a very, very, very good pass catcher. And going into year two, he profiles to be the type of back that we want. I do like that. I worry about Boston Scott.

They give him so much run. I just, I like Boss Scott. I don't think Boss Scott's a bad player, but it's like, let your best player shine. Well, they think he is. They think he is the best player that they have. The rational coaching. Every sleeper on this show is going to come with a thousand ifs. I mean, that's what makes them a sleeper. Yes. It's the ifs aren't answered. That's why they aren't being drafted. It's just if they do happen, you're in a good situation. The sleeper all bring up undrafted in most leagues. The chosen one, Dale. Juan Dale Robinson, New York Giants wide receiver. This was a player used as a jack of all trades as a hybrid running back wide receiver at Nebraska. You don't. We haven't been able to say a lot of good things about the Giants wide receiver room other than they're paid the most in football. But he transferred to Kentucky.

He was used in the slot, which is what they're going to do in New York. And he dominated in the SEC. I mean, he had 100 plus receptions, 1,300 yards, 7 receiving touchdowns, set the Kentucky school record for single season receiving yards. This is a player that I think shocked people. He went ahead of George Pickens. He went ahead of Skymore. He's 5-8178, but none of this would matter to me if Brian Dable hadn't joined the staff. as the head coach instituted a new offense and then hand-picked Wondale Robinson to come in and play a significant role on this offense. He has already locked up the slot receiving position. It's actually very entertaining to watch him run routes and then Kenny G run routes. I don't know if you saw this video where they were going through the route tree and just running routes, you know, in practice.

And Kenny G couldn't have seemed like he cared less to be out there. Well, he looked like he was weighed down by all the money that he's just carrying on. His socks, his shoes, they're full of coins. He asked for it in coins. But Wondale just looks like he is locked and loaded as a starter. And as a player that this regime picked, you're basically, you're getting him for free. His ADP is like wide receiver 73 right now. he's going to get a ton of targets in the slot. He's going to be at worst in the 40s at the wide receiver position with upside. I mean, Cadarius Tony hasn't been able to stay on the field. Kenny Gallaudy hasn't been able to stay on the field. Sterling Shepard is injured and not going to get onto the field. So to me, this is like you could get a rookie Jarvis Landry type of season. Or, you know, you've seen slot wide receivers. Jaylon Watt will have a successful rookie year.

Wondale has some upside and he's a free shot and he's a rookie and these rookies outperform their ADP. The thing I would point to is Cole Beasley. Like Cole Beasley, when he went to Buffalo, I mean, he was already, you know, quite old for a wide receiver. And then Brian Dable, who was the offensive coordinator there back from 2018. And Cole Beasley, 2019, 104 targets, 2020, 107 targets last year. Because it, I guess the efficiency just completely melted away, probably because Cole Beasley's just, he's past his prime. 112 targets. Do you people remember that Cole Beasley had 112 targets last year? Like, this, the part of the offense, part of the table offense, runs through the slot wide receiver.

And I am in on this pick. All right. Let's take a quick break and come back with Jason's sleeper pick. Mr. Moore. Well, I certainly remember. Cole Beasley's target counts because my sleeper that I'm bringing up is Isaiah McKinsey. And I'm in on this one. The replacement for Cole Beasley. This one is near and dear to my heart last year during the DFS season. When Cole Beasley was out, Isaiah McKinsey was a guy who stepped up, won people some money, and had an unbelievable performance. Now, Isaiah McKinsey is a really twitchy. You know, he's one of those jitterbug guys that just really... A jitterbug. A jitterbug. He's one of those guys that really lights the field on fire with how quick he is. But he's been a special teams guy. And when they resigned him this offseason, I assumed that his role was going to predominantly be that. And they brought in Jameson Crowder to man the slot. But...

If Isaiah McKinsey gets that opportunity, we have seen over the last two years two games where Cole Beasley missed. He missed one game each season. Here are these stat lines when Isaiah McKinsey filled in for Cole Beasley in those roles. Granted super small sample size, but both games he was unbelievable. Last year, 12 targets, 11 catches, 125 yards, and a touchdown. Two years ago, he came in nine targets, six. for 65 and two touchdowns. Both times he was a top six fantasy option on the week in this offense, in this role, if he gets it. Well, he's got it. That's a done deal, basically. I mean, he's been the star of camp. If you look at the preseason games when the starters were out there in week two, McKinsey played every single snap and 11 personnel with the starters. This is his role. He is five years younger than Cole Beasley.

far more athletic. And, you know, the knock on him is, you know, he's 5-8-173. He's a smaller guy. Cole Beasley was 5-8-174. Like, they're the same size. He's just a newer, more electric version. And now that it appears very clear that he has got this role, I mean, the role has a lot of targets coming. You just brought up Cole Beasley, 2019, the ninth-most slot targets in the NFL, 2020, the third-most. slot targets in the NFL. 2021, the second most slot targets in the NFL. The NFL leaders in slot targets over the last three years, Cooper Cup, Tyler Boyd, Cole Beasley number three. So there's a role where you've got a lot of targets. There's a new player with a lot of athleticism on a great offense. I think it's an upgrade over 33-year-old version of Cole Beasley.

How does that work with your thoughts that James Cook and the running game is going to get a bunch of those targets that were Beasley's? So here's why, I mean, if you're wondering and you're like, oh, he likes James Cook, oh, my guy is Gabe Davis. He's in on the Bills. I'm in on the Bills passing game because I think that this is a team with a head coach that could. break records in passing. I think they could come out and throw the ball 75, 80% of the time. Like this, they are going to use Josh Allen and his strengths and they're going to test the boundaries of modern NFL. That's like my view of the 2022 Buffalo Bills. And if they do test those boundaries, push those boundaries, pass more than any teams ever passed before, or get close to that as far as like neutral game passing script type of metrics.