Breakout Picks + Megalabowl Announcement! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/21

And what did he do? Because all of a sudden, he became kind of a workhorse back. And from that point forward, the last six weeks of the season, he dominated me. Yes, he did. He was a running back two or better every single week. He was a top 10 running back half of the time. He was the running back won one of the times. In fact, during that stretch, he was the running back four in fantasy football. I mean, he was not, you know, he wasn't just good. He was great. And he was in. one of my favorite things, he was drafted to be great. And this is the first opportunity he was ever given to do that after that injury. And he was. It was Christian McCaffrey, Austin Echler, Jerich McKinnon, and then Cam Acres, right there as far as the top four running backs over the last six weeks of the season. Over the final month, he on average was carrying the ball 19 times. So these are not small numbers. He was carrying the ball 19 times over the final month and averaged.

Five and a half yards per carry, and that included a game against the Denver Broncos. Yeah, I mean, he's built for that kind of a workload. He's 510, 216. He can take that and handle it. He played on 70% of their snaps in five of those final six games. That is a number that very few running backs can hit. It was so weird. Yes. It felt, I'm not discounting the performance. The opportunities are amazing, but it legitimately felt like the Rams said, And we're done with the season. And then it was like, let's just give it to Cam Acres every game, all game long, get this season over with, get Matthew Stafford back, and then let's start anew. I completely agree. I think that's what they did. They're just like, hey, just leave them out there, give them the ball a ton. We'll run them into the ground. We don't care about this season. But then what Cam Acres did with those carries has proved, oh, well, dang.

Okay, so he's really good. Oh, yeah, we drafted you in the second, right? We drafted you in the second round, and you're dominating out here. If he can get 70% of the snaps, so last year, only four running backs hit that. Dalvin Cook, Saquan, Barclay, CMC, and Josh Jacobs. If you get 70% of the snaps, you're great for fantasy football, just period. And the depth chart is really begging for him to be a 70%. you know, workload type of guy. You're not worried about Zach Evans, Royce Freeman, Ronnie Rivers, and Kyron Williams, who hasn't even seen the preseason? No, they, I mean, it is one of the most solo type of backfills. I know that some people really like Karen Williams. We love this tape in college. He hasn't done anything forever. He hasn't even seen the preseason football field. There are, uh, there are a handful. I mean, he's the starter. He's right. There are like three or four backfields where I feel like when they go into the running back room.

to like review tape. They make everybody with the starter sit in the back row. Like everybody in Cincinnati, there's Joe Mixing up front and everybody in the back gets to sit back there. This is one of, Austin Ecklers up front. Everybody else in Los Angeles has to sit in the back. I don't think any of these guys in Los Angeles except for Cammakers gets to sit up front. Yeah. So I believe he will receive the opportunity this year to be, you know, a 60 plus percent. type of player. That's what I actually think will happen. But you can see the path for him getting 70%. If that happens, he'll be a true breakout. He'll be a league winning type of pick. He is not someone that you have to draft super highly. You know, he's going right now as the running back 24 near the 6-7 turn on ESPN. That's just, it's a shot worth taking because there's very few guys that you could say, oh, he's just a workhorse back with Stafford and Cup and Acres.

could actually be a good offense. I mean, we know we've seen Todd Gurley succeed with Sean McVeigh's system before and be a fantasy dominator. And so I believe, I actually believe Cameron Acres, sorry, Cameron. Thank you. We'll have a very good fantasy season this year. All right. My breakout candidate was just duking it out for a my guy spot where I ended up going, Jemir Gibbs. But I'm excited to get the opportunity to talk about him on today's show. It is the wire-to-wire leader in the Buffalo backfield, all offseason, the coast-to-coast starter who seems to have every opportunity going into the year is James Cook. Dalvin's brother, Zamir White's teammate from college, part of that national championship team. But James Cook is going to have every opportunity to prove himself this year. And one of those surprising things.

about Cook is like if you watched him play last year when he had opportunities to me he was always impressive it's just that those opportunities were minimal um you you had so many opportunities that devon singletary took away from him 230 of those to be exact but when he was out there he averaged 6.2 yards per touch my favorite characteristic of uh i almost said delvin um james delvin sorry james delvin uh was that He just found a way to be available to Josh Allen in the passing game. The 6.2 yards per touch was the fourth highest by a rookie running back over the last decade. It was Camara. It was David Johnson. You can say that because it was his rookie year. And Andre Ellington, actually. And he led all running backs. Oh, Andre. I know. He led all running backs and rushing yards over expectation by a wide margin last year. So, you know, I didn't think.

when this all season started and they went and picked up Damian Harris and Latavius Murray, that he would dominate camp the way that he has. They didn't add anybody in the draft, so that was step one. We thought maybe they'd add a younger talent in the draft. Latavius is 33, and he's going to have a role, and he may hurt James Cook around the goal line as Damien Harris might, but Damien Harris has been banged up. He's proven nothing in camp. Week two in the preseason? James Cook was on the field for 15 of 16 plays with Josh Allen. All the shortyarded snaps actually went to him. You know, Latavius got on the field, but not a lot. I just think that this is one of those players that everything that look like it could be against him in the preseason and in training camp has been rebuffed. He's pulled the shield out and it's just deflected off the shield. And he has been the clear.

runaway starter for this football team. And so I still have some internal fears, but he is a seventh round draft pick right now at running back 31. And one of the reasons he was in contention for a my guy was simply because the draft value is so, it's so good. I got him at 23. Jason has him at 24, well ahead of ADP with upside. And so, you know, is this guy, when you look at how it can go wrong, to me it's, He's between the 20s somehow, and they find a way to replace them inside the – but I just don't think it's going to happen. And I think they're going to throw the ball a lot. Sure. To James Cook. Yeah, and he's separated himself. So I think James Cook is a tremendous pick that you can drop right into your flex and then maybe get top 24, maybe get top 15, 16 on a bunch of weeks. He's got breakaway speed. He's got great pass-catching chops. We know how valuable those are.

And he really started to take snaps at the end of last year. This is not like a completely unproven scenario. Like he was basically 50-50 over the back part of the year with Devon Singletary. And they obviously moved on from Singletary for a reason. So I think they have a lot of confidence in James Cook. My off-season with James Cook has been the most robust character arc of anybody for the season. Because it was early on in the off-season, especially after the Damien Harris signing, it was I. I am completely out. O-U-T on James Cook. And then the news, the drumbeat, started to pick up. And then he got to the point of, okay, I accept James Cook's ADP. I think it's fine. He has some upside to now to the point of I actually have him ranked above where he's going on Sleeper. And his, the hard part is we have not really seen Buffalo Bill's running backs sustain.

a season long worth of value. You've seen, you know, spurts here and there. Like, Devin Singletary was a good player for them. He had a couple of really good fantasy outputs, especially last year. But it just was never, ever on every single week. And Josh Allen just hasn't been throwing the ball to the running back that much. But James Cook, if he is truly the guy and that the talent that we saw at the end of last year on the field moved forward, He is, I think he is someone that you should actually target. I've moved from out to completely in. Give me a bonus breakout pick this year. You know, we all had our main pick right there. Jason, why don't you go first? You want me to jump in here? No. You got it? I think that this is a great opportunity to talk about this player. It was my guy for me last year. The lumberer. The lumberer Gabe Davis.

I've been wanting to talk about him, but I feel like I'm not allowed. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I feel the same way about Cortland Sutton. Gabe Davis finished last year as the wide receiver 27. It was very disappointing. It came in, you know, some big games and some inconsistency, but he still finished as the wide receiver 27. The problem was he didn't have that true breakout that I think we were calling for. And oftentimes that happens a year late, a post-hyped sleeper. It's a very... common thing for people to see the path of a player to break out, call for the breakout, it doesn't happen, they fall in ADP, and then they break out. Like, that happens frequently. This is a 24-year-old wide receiver who camp reports have talked about how he's catching everything, absolutely dominating in camp, and he's being drafted as the wide receiver 43 or 47, depending on your platforms. For Josh Allen, he's the number two target for Josh Allen. Like, I get it.

There were burns last year. He disappointed. But where you're drafting him, there's very little risk. He's going to beat that ADP faux show. He's not going to be the wide receiver 47. And there's a chance. He actually becomes a really, really valuable fantasy asset. And at the very least, because of where you draft him, because he's your wide receiver four, he's just a, you're injecting volatility into your lineup for big game winning performances. Better try to catch one of the four. of 17 last year that he showed up last year I agree yeah that that's still the risk right that is the risk that's why he's being drafted lower but if he ends up going out and half of his games are good that's actually really impressive for a wide receiver and he could absolutely do it and genuinely like every single day you're reading stuff from camp about how he's just looked great he's just catching absolutely everything and catching everything that's the phrase that's constantly being used and that's the one I like the most because

His catch percentage on his career has just not been very good. He caught 52% of his passes last year. You know, if he was a 63% catch rate, last year he would have been great. He would have been a great pick. So he gets the targets in the offense and they're valuable targets. They're downfield, in zone, you know, big fantasy scoring performance. And just the final point on Gabe Davis, which is why he will dominate. This is year two after a my guy. I mean, our history of having a year to my guy. This is a Cooper Cup call? Yeah, exactly. Man, I want that catch percentage to change because this guy, I know he averages the huge yards per catch, so that's going to bring it down a little bit, but 52% of your passes, that's going to stop people throwing to you. That's got to be the transition. Yeah, I mean, there's no way he only catches 52% of the passes this year. I really think he's in line for a much better year.

You got to remember, he had a high ankle sprain that he was playing through as well that he got early in the season last year. So I think he could still break out. He's only 24 years old. Jackson Smith and Jigba of the Seattle Seahawks is my bonus breakout pick. He's so good. He's so good. Yeah, I mean, right now he's going wide receiver 35 in the seventh round. He is, people need to remember. You can talk about Zay Flowers. You can talk about Clinton Johnson. You could talk about Jordan Addison. Jordan Addison. This was the highest draft capital pick. This is the best wide receiver, bar none in the draft. Players like that just end up demanding targets and performing for fantasy. This was a player better than Garrett Wilson and Crystal Lave by their own admission when he was at Ohio State. And you're never getting him at this price ever again the rest of your life. So if you want, if you're in a keeper league,

where they're, you know, one of those leagues where they're like, we get the questions every day. The draft cost is where you drafted them. And next year you're going to be coming here going, do I keep, you know, Garrett Wilson for a second or do I keep Jackson Smith and Jigba for a seventh? And we're going to answer JISN next year. Yeah. That's what's going to happen. So I think, you know, you don't need to be smart enough to figure out how it happens, whether that takes away from Lockett or Metcalf or whatever. Just trust that the talent will reign supreme. And speaking of another rookie, I will talk about Zay Flowers because he is my... See, I said you could talk about him. He's my bonus breakup pick, rookie wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens currently going in Sleeper as the wide receiver 44, ESPN the wide receiver 48, Yahoo, wide receiver 51.

This was the 22nd overall pick in 2003, a 4.4240 time. He is fast. He is shifty. He plays much bigger than his size. There were a lot of people that I trust in the draft community who were whispering the name. This kind of looks like Antonio Brown, the way that he moves his body. And the bonus stat for Zay Jones is he has the lowest wide receiver 1 ADP. with a top five QB top five quarterback being drafted in the last decade. That is not true. It's not? No, Zay Jones does not have that. Zay Flowers does. Did I say Zay Jones? You sure did, Michael. I keep doing it. You got me good. But the point being, look at what you. You got me. You got me. It's interesting for people to be so in on Lamar.

Which I am one of them. So in on what the Baltimore offense could be, the transition with Todd Monkin to a pass heavier offense, to a faster moving offense. We want uptempo. We want passing volume. And yet, because of how ambiguous the wide receiver room is, these wide receivers are just absolutely plummeting in the draft, which I get it. I'm not sure. You can't be 100% confident who to take your chance with. But I'm taking my chance on the rookie. I'm taking my chance with Zay Flowers. I think he is an absolute smash pick where he is going in the ninth round. The rookies are always enticing. You should. If rookies have talent and they are in just anything that is an average to above average situation, you should be targeting them. Here's a cool stat. Speaking of these rookie wide receivers. Cool stat. Cool stat. Cool stat. Since 2014.

There have been 18 first round rookie wide receivers who had 50 receptions as a rookie. All 18 of them were drafted as a top 30 wide receiver the next year. 10 of the 18 were drafted as top 15 wide receivers. To Andy's point earlier, when you're grabbing these guys, you'll never be able to get these players again at that price. Yeah, it is, I mean, last year I put that rookie wide receiver plan into place. I was limited on my draft picks and legal record. And I added Olave and Garrett Wilson and Traylon Burks. And I just kind of shot my shot. Yeah. Yeah, that's the way you said. Shooters. Shooter shoot. And three or four of them ended up very valuable for trading, for giving me a shot last year. So two of the three here in the bonus breakout pick, J.S.N. and say Flowers. Cool. I mean, there are a number of guys that I think we're all keeping our eye on laid in traps.

that have the ability to, you know, I don't, I don't know where I sit at, the Quentin Johnston looked good. And when you talk about rookies, he looked good again in preseason yesterday. He's also had drops, which was a problem for him at TCU. You know, when you compare that to like Jamar Chase, that wasn't really a collegiate issue for him, from what I remember. But the opportunity is going to be there. And I know we like that offense. So the rookies are going to have their shot. Let's do a couple of mailbag questions. You ready, Mike? Let's go. Mailbag. If you have a question for the show, go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com or dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB with your question. Adrian, I'm stuck between keeping Remonderry Stevenson in round six or Alexander Madison in round 10 before Zeke had Stevenson.

Oh, before Zeke, he had Stevenson locked in, but now he's second guessing everything, because of course, what do you think, half PPR? I will take Stevenson. I still lean to take Stevenson because I know that he is a good player, Alexander Madison being a really good player. That's still just a projection, massive opportunity, but is the round six to round 10 gap enough. Let me give you examples just to make sure you guys stick to that pick. Here's what he's giving up in the sixth round in order to take that gap. He's giving up Brennan Ayyuk or Mike Williams, J.K. Dobbins, Tyler Lockett, Trevor Lawrence. Obviously, players in the 10th round aren't going to look like that. Players in the 10th round are going to be Sky Moore, Daniel Jones, Zach Charbonnet. So would you rather have, you know, a Sky Moore and Remandre Stevenson?

Or would you rather have a Tyler Lockett and Alexander Madison? Yeah. And I lean the Tyler Lock at Alexander Madison. I think the sixth is worth it. If you believe that Alexander Madison is going to have a good season, I do. So I would go that direction. Yeah, I'm sticking with Stevenson. I want sealing and a half BPR. I want receptions. I think Madison offers both of those. But again, it's... knowing that Stevenson is an excellent player. I'm going to take Madison in the 10th. Jeff in Kentucky, me and the guys at work are doing a Superflex for the first time in 15 years of playing fantasy. I have the number two pick in the draft. Should I still take Jefferson or go with the quarterback because of Superflex? Quarterback. Yeah. At number two, I would take the quarterback. Yep. Jen in Illinois is Josh Jacobs going to eventually sign and play in 2023? Yeah, I think so. I have. I got 10 million reasons to believe he will.

I have scooped him up in every best ball. When all the news was really bad about Barclay for a week and there were the reports about how he was going to have to really consider it and he might not, you know, his only leverage is to not show up, blah, blah, blah. He dropped a round. He dropped two rounds and I got him in every league I was drafting at that time. I'm doing the same thing with Josh Jacobs right now, getting him in the back of the second. He'll drop to the third sometimes. Are you doing the same thing with Jonathan Taylor? So Jonathan Taylor, I'm not.

I just saw him going the sixth round of an actual draft because all 12 managers were terrified. Yeah, Jonathan Taylor, I would certainly pick him up before the sixth round. The risk reward, the reward there is worth it. But no, I'm not grabbing him the same as those other two guys because there's also the injury question mark there. Did you see the Ursa comments? Mm-mm. Or he said he made a bunch of comments around Jonathan Taylor again. But the one that got highlighted that kind of stood out was him saying, I'm really looking forward to seeing if Jonathan... Taylor can get back to being the Jonathan Taylor that he was before, like kind of, like the year before last year. Yeah. So that's got an extra wrinkle where it's like it's not just, if it's just contract, I do think Jonathan Taylor's there. I just don't know how he is because we haven't seen him. What about Josh Jacobs showing up in the worst shape of his life? Oh, right. The more. It's not going to happen. Not for him. For Jacobs? No, I don't think so. Eddie lazy. All right. Couple.

Reminders. Megalobole.com. Come join us in the largest fantasy football league ever and the most fun. We've made some huge improvements this year. Really looking forward to it. Play with me. Play with Jason. Beat beat him in a league, that is. And then we've got one other thing that we just haven't mentioned it a lot. But if you need a trophy, a ring, a championship belt, fantasychamps.com has you covered. And if you are one of the mini. Because I know there's lots of you that you do the draft board at your draft. Fantasy champs has fantasy footballers themed draft boards. So 12 team, 10 team, 8 team leagues. So the big board that goes on the wall, put all the player names up there, which is a fun way to do a draft. They have those. And right now they're doing free two-day air, which is a $25 value. So if you think it's too late to grab one for your draft, it's not.

Fantasychamps.com. All you have to do is add it to the cart, the fantasy footballers draft board, and they're giving free two-day air, so you'll have it in time for your draft. Worth checking out. That is it for today's episode of the show. What do we got tomorrow? Sleepers? I think we got sleepers tomorrow. Al, do we got sleepers tomorrow? Does anybody know what we're doing? I believe it's sleeper. All right, everyone's naughty. Talk to you then. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.