Fantasy Time Machine + Fantasy Superheroes LIVE in SF

middle of the season came in and he was an absolute yardage stud. He was what you expect from a Kyle Shanahan quarterback. To start the year, you were not getting the type of fantasy numbers that we've come to rely from that system. So it was a little bit strange. He still belongs in the late round, but he is absolutely one of those guys. It's the late round dart throw that possibly Jimmy turns into a weekly start. Still handsome.

Very, very here. Well, he hurt his knee. He didn't hurt his face. If he heard his face, if he heard his face, I'm done. But yeah, I mean, look, this isn't a rushing quarterback. Your moneymaker. Well, he, that was the problem. He thought he was a rushing quarterback. Then I'm going to get that extra yard. That's true. That was just a dumb decision on his part. You just, except the truth.

But, I mean, he averages 11 yards on the ground a game. You know, when Carson Wins injured his knee and came back, he hurt himself for fantasy because a big part of his game was rushing. And you didn't see that as much when he had the brace on and was coming back. I'm not worried about that for Gropola. So I'm okay with him. All right, we've got one more to get into now. Mike, you're going to like it. Coach Andy Reed. San Francisco, big fans of trades.

This is the trolley. He's the hype trolley. You never heard of a hype trolley? It's important. Andy Reid comes out. He says Damien Williams will be the full-time starter for the year. He has taken the challenge, said Reed. He wants to do this thing. He earned the right to be the guy. And now it's a matter of production. You've got to go do it, said Andy Reid. So this is, is this hype? Is this?

This is life. This is what it is. Damien Williams is the starting running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, and he said, go out there, go out there and produce, like you did last year. Let me ask you a question. Okay. Look, if you like ice cream, or if, let's say, all you have to eat is ice cream, and you start telling yourself that ice cream's good for you, you might as well tell yourself that you don't have anything else to eat.

Sure. Andy Reid's options in the backfield, you might as well tell Damien he's the next to Adrian Peterson. Because that's who he's talking to. But Andy Reid had every opportunity to go out there and getting something healthy, and he's stuck with the ice cream because it's delicious. Look, look, I think we can all agree that Andy Reid likes ice cream, okay? But...

But the reality is they had very limited cap space and very limited draft capital. So he's the guy. Now, hey, the one guy that's allowed to make that joke is me. No, the reality is this does matter. Like, I wanted Andy to keep going because, you know, Andy Reid says, you know, it's just a matter of can he produce. And I'm on record saying, I don't think he's a great running back. But I'm also on record saying opportunity for running back matters a whole lot more than talent. There isn't a better opportunity.

than being in Kansas City's offense with Andy Reed. Right now, I moved to Damien Williams. He's my number 10 running back right now. Good. So he's an RB1. I'm in. I would never do that. He's 11 for me. Look, by August, Damien Williams will creep into the back of the first round. No, he won't. Yes, he will. No, he won't. Yes, he will. No, he won't. Yes, he will. No, he won't.

Very mature. I'm not going to lie to you, the crowd really egged me on on that, but I like it. All right. That was today's news and notes brought to you, as always, by Sleeper. And a reminder, Sleeper does not just break the latest news. They are the best fantasy platform. And it's funny because you can start to see that on social now. Yes, you can. The grounds swell, the lack of changes elsewhere. And sleepers in the house tonight. Give them a shout out. Come on.

But the nice thing is as simple or as complex as a league that you want, you can get it with Sleeper. Hey, Footland, we want to thank today's sponsor, Hello Fresh. We have been using them for years to make great, easy, delicious meals delivered right to your door. They are America's number one meal kit. Hello Fresh. You can get seasonal recipes. All you do is you cook and you enjoy. They give you step-by-step recipes with...

pre-measured ingredients. There's no waste. You don't have to go grocery shopping. And everything is made in about 30 minutes. You can say goodbye to the endless grocery stores because HelloFresh has you covered. There are...

Great options. You can go vegetarian. You can go family meals. You can get stuff like the Hall of Fame craft burgers. So delicious. They're flexible. They meet your lifestyle. It is very easy to change. Your delivery days, your food preferences, skip a week, whatever you need. It is fantastic. For $80 off your first month of HelloFresh, just go to hellofresh.com slash

Footballers 80 and enter Footballers 80 at checkout. It's like receiving eight meals free only at Hellofresh.com slash Footballers 80 promo code Footballers 80. All right. You guys ready for a brand new segment? Let's go. Party is where? Back to the future. They like it. They like it, Mike. I like how you add an extra 10, 15 seconds for the live shows, for those.

I'm a man of the people. Give it up for Mike. I mean, come on. I thank you. So here's the reality as fantasy owners. If we could go to the future and find those diamonds in the rough, find the players that did what some of the breakout players did last year. Or burned you. Or burned you. If you could know the future, it would go a long way. It would help. And last year, look, a good example, the guy will talk about first is, look, can you identify this year's George Kittle? Mm-hmm.

Because George Kittle, look, if you had George Kittle last year, whether it was... Very happy. If you spent a Kittle, as I did, 44 FAB and picked him up early, or you invested late in your draft. I mean, this was a tight-in that broke out and offered you week-winning weeks over and over again to record-setting numbers. So if there was... Now, there's not always a George Kittle, but if there was, who are the candidates?

in the upcoming season to be the next one. Mike's already smiling. So look, we're talking about a tight end that's going to break out. There may be a dance that you could do, and it involves my man, Vance McDonald. This man does not have a farm, but he has the Vance dance. No pants required for the Vance dance. You may or may not know that. Look, last year, 72 targets came down 50.

receptions for 610 yards and four touchdowns. And here's what's happening with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Antonio Brown is gone. Jesse James are gone. That's 207 vacated targets or over 30 percent. Over 30 percent of those targets are gone. And you could say, hey, Mike, the Pittsburgh Steelers, those passing numbers, they were inflated last year. Big Ben was thrown more than he ever has in his career. And I will say that's a very fair point.

Let's take a look at the numbers. Let's give him 575 targets. That's 100 fewer targets. That's still 172 missing targets that we don't know where they are going to go. And here's a fun fact about Vance McDonald for last year. Receiving yards after contact. The aforementioned George Kittle, 338, that's a sensational number. Travis Kelsey, Zeus.

A monster of a man, 239 yards after contact. Oh, little old Vance McDonald, who caught way fewer passes, 213 yards after contact because he's not just one person. Vance McDonald is, in fact, two people because he pulled a temple of doom, and he ripped out Chris Conti's heart and stole his soul. He absorbed him, and now he has the power of two people. Yeah.

Look, and this isn't like, this isn't a Ryan Fitzpatrick situation. I saw you watching that video today, too. Oh, I watched it maybe like one, two, or 23 times. But this isn't Ryan Fitzpatrick where we know that he favors the wide receivers. This is Big Man Rathesberger, who has utilized a tight end as his number two option. I mean, Keith Miller has multiple seasons of over, or I should say, had.

multiple seasons of over 90 plus targets. Vance McDonald, I don't like that as ADPs creeping up. Maybe we're talking about him a little bit too much, but I'm just not talking about it. I can't, man. This is my job. Go home. I'm here to talk about football. Turn off the recorder. But I'm very excited for the breakout potential of Vance McDonald's. See, the thing is, is I buy into him as a potential kind of breakout tight and candidate simply because I don't buy, look, Juju...

You can't do that much more. He can't go up. I mean, 1,426 yards for Ju-Ju. His target volume can't really go up. So it has to go somewhere else. So then it's about Dante Johnson or James Washington or Dante Moncrief. Right. Oh. Moncrief. So I do buy in on the fact. So are you investing in Vance? If I get, if I don't get. Basically an eighth round pick right now. Yeah. So if I don't get Travis Kelsey.

I wait for Evan Engram or a player who's going to be named if I don't get them, then I start targeting Vance McDonald. I will say this. One of the things that you can see a lot in preseason is you see a lot of snaps from the tight-in position. It's something that in years past, when Peyton Manning helped Julius Thomas, Orange Julius, breakout in Denver, you saw it on film in the preseason. Here's the other thing. Who's the backup tight end in Pittsburgh?

Thank you very much. It's Xavier Grimble. Grymble? Grymble? Yeah. Is that from Harry Potter? No, it's the thing you put your phone in and it stabilizes it when you're trying to do. Got it. You can get a nice steady camp show. Not a lot of targets. With Xavier Grimble. He's the one recording fans McDonald's celebrations, yes. So the player that stood out to me on film all last year when all the hype was Hayden Hearst and the higher draft capital was Mark Andrews. Yeah.

And Mark Andrews is basically free in drafts. Mark Andrews, look, it's hard to be the next George Kittle, but from a physical perspective, he did some of the things that Kittle did. What made Kittle so incredible? Humongous plays, right? Yes. Yards after catch. He's just a nineer. If you're a 49er. You're just imbued. By default, you're the best. I should have guessed. Yes. So, Andrews, not a niner. Not a

But his insane yards after the catchability, you saw it with Kittle, you saw it with Mark Andrews last year in flashes. Lamar Jackson went his way. He had a 74-yard reception in week 12, had a 68-yard touchdown in week 16. And the truth is, he's slowly creeping up the draft boards a little bit because Hayden Hearst can't get healthy. Again, they're saying, be quiet. Don't talk about Mark Andrews. But the thing is, is he...

He could be an incredible value. And if he's not, you didn't invest that much draft capital in him. You roll him out there, see what you got. The hype is building for Mark Andrews. And I think he fits that mold of a big play guy. He's friendly on a quarterback learning to throw the football. And Lamar Jackson, that's the truth. So I think you've got to look Mark Andrews way. Well, and the thing about Mark Andrews is he was last year behind Dallas Goddard. He was many people, including mine.

Jason, you as well? I was Dallas Goddard and then Mark Andrews. Those two. I love both of those guys. Mark Andrews was the number two pass-catching option that we really wanted to see go to a fantasy-friendly place. He sort of did, but the problem was they drafted a tight end before they drafted a tight end. So it put this damper on the shine of what Mark Andrews could be, and you knew it was going to take some time before the Ravens realized that Mark Andrews should be.

the tight-in who's featured in the past game. Haydenhurst is a good player. But Andrews should be the one getting the targets. Right. Next George Kittle. Yeah, just to add to that, because I'm a big Mark Andrews fan. I think that he's an undervalued tight-in. I love the idea of him stepping forward as that George Kittle, that late round guy that goes forward.

Once Lamar Jackson took over, he was on pace for 771 yards, which would have been the second most for any rookie tight end since the year 2000. So, I mean, we already saw the rookie break in, now the year two break out for tight ends, which is really common. Who break in and break out? Break in, break out. New segment. You're a wordsmith. Thank you. All right. So mine, when I look at, okay, who's the next George Kittle? Now, you could interpret that as who's the late round tight end that you're going to get a good value on. But how I interpret that is...