Preseason Power-Up + Position Battles, Rankings Risers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/10

And so I don't know if you want to give them each an award. Like, you know, Zay Flowers maybe is the best, the safest, I would say, to some regard. Do you agree with that? Jason's looking. So my only worry was Zay Flowers. I love Zayflowers. I've talked about it. I think he's great. I think he's going to thrive. But to start, it seems like they've still got Isaiah likely and they're still going to play with two tight ends. For sure. And so when that happens and there's two wide receivers. Let's call it 50% of the time now. Oh, it's the B-boys. It's probably the B-boys. It's probably Baitman and Beckham, and Zayfowers is not playing. Now, obviously, Bateman has struggled with health. Odell Beckham has struggled with health, and it could very easily be Flowers and whoever is healthy. But I think if all three are healthy, you worry, like, is Zay Flowers getting enough snaps to be a star? It's actually a really, really good point with that number of 12%.

three wide receiver plays. I mean, obviously with Todd Monkin coming in, you certainly expect them to run a much faster pace and three wide receiver set. That will be far more of their base offense, but it's still one of the things where you would expect right now, Zayflowers, is the slot guy. What's crazy is I think you're going to be able to play, like, you know how it gets in fantasy, by weeks, injuries. I think Flowers, Bateman, and Beckham are always going to be players that you're like, well, I can put them in the lineup this week, and I might get something special out of them because they're all going to have good weeks. Mike, Jason, what are you watching for at wide receiver this preseason? I'll hop in because you talked about an exciting team. I want to talk about a not exciting team because those still matter for fantasy. Boring. Boring teams. Bap, but, but, but, but, but, but, patriots.

The New England Patriots are fascinating to me. What is happening? There's another team that is going from what I think was a bad offensive system to what can only be a better offensive system, I hope, with Joe Judge and Matt Patricia out of the way trying to do that science experiment with them running the offense for the Patriots and bringing in Bill O'Brien. I want to see one, I want to see Mack Jones. Is he good? He looked like he was going to be good rookie year. We forget that. He's a post-type candidate. Yeah, I mean, he could actually be good. And the problem was the offensive system and the lack of weapons last year. Yeah. And if you look at nebulous wide receiving cores, Devante Parker's been a riser, this training camp, you know, the last month or so. He got paid. I know he's gone.

up and up in our rankings, not that he's super high. You've got Juju Smith-Schuster, who they gave money to, a three-year contract to. You've got last year's second round rookie wide receiver who was a disappointment in Tyquan Thornton. And been a disappointment this preseason. Yeah, I mean, he's actually been really good this preseason with the twos. He's doing really well when he's running with Bailey Zappie. Zep, Zip. Zab, Zab, Zab. But has not done as well with the ones, which kind of is what we saw on the field last year. And then you've got DeMario Douglas is a name that we need to bring up those. Who has them in Dynasty? I do. No, I don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. I was thinking of the, I can't even remember the guy. No, you don't. I grab the, the.

The DeMario Davis of the Bengals. I can't remember. You didn't even get his name right, DeMario Douglas. Douglas, yeah, whatever. That's why he's, you did get DeMario Davis. Oh, good. You didn't get DeMario Douglas. My claim for. Yeah, I mean. The DeMario Douglas Dynasty Stash Flex. Yeah. Hey, look, it wasn't the, it's not about the name, Mike. It was about the fact that I have him and he thought he had him. That was what made it fun. Okay. Although. If you want to do like you got Calvin Austin and I went and looking for him. So I already had him. That's what I said. I didn't pick him up. I held him. It's some point you picked him up. No, Jason's actually been. He's been in Calvin Austin believer since last year. We were looking through our Dino Jr. Can't overcome Alan Robinson in a slot in Pittsburgh. Calvin Austin, by the way, wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers who. Back up to Alan Robinson. His rookie season was was put on ice. And he's.

They're starting to talk about. Oh, you've had them that long? Yeah. Yeah. My point was going to be, I'm like, yeah, maybe Calvin Austin's a guy we can get rid of. And he gave me the laser beam eyes of how dare you. You think about dropping Calvin Austin. He's 4-3-2 speed. They have two six-round. I mean, DiMario Douglas is a sixth round rookie as is Kishon. Booty. Rocking everywhere. And Kindergborn is still there. And Hunter Henry. So I just want to see the passing attack. And Mike Giske. And Hunter, yeah, Hunter Henry is probably the most valuable piece here. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that is, that's a dirty wide receiver room to try to find value. But I think they will be probably Mike said it the other day, better on offense than we expect. There will be production there. Jacoby Myers in the midst of a horrible offense last season. Still had value week to week. Mike, you're looking at Jacksonville. Yeah, I'm looking at they're a very exciting team.

If the Trevor Lawrence breakout that like Jason and a lot of people are calling for, if that happens, I mean, we have a lot of value to extract here. Calvin Ridley, the presumed number one wide receiver who hasn't seen a football field in basically two years or so, he's being drafted as the wide receiver 19. Now, what we know is when Calvin Ridley's on last time we really saw a healthy Calver Ridley, he was sensational. I think he was. He was a top five wide receiver, maybe number three or so on the season. He's fantastic. But then on the other hand, Christian Kirk, last year's wide receiver 11, although a little bit inconsistent, still finished as the wide receiver 11. He has plummeted to being drafted currently on Sleeper as the wide receiver 31. Like, are we really that confident that Calvin Ridley is?

12 wide receiver spots better than last year's wide receiver 11. Was that a rhetorical? You can answer it if you want. What do you think, Jay? 12 spots better, sure. I don't have a problem with that, but I think both guys might be too low. I mean, you saw two years ago when Christian Kirk was in Arizona as the two, he finished as the wide receiver 26. So I do still think he's being drafted too low. So that's what I'm watching for is, do we get to see Calvin Ridley? Does he really look that much more special than everyone else for the Jaguar's wide receivers? Let's see some Christian Kirk action. It's just, it's wild to me to be for Kirk to have been that good for fantasy football and now being pretty much dismissed at that. There's no way. There's no way he can be anywhere close to that. He can't be the number one. And if you know.

the way fantasy psychology works. Sometimes we don't get in on the twos in these offenses because we like the allure of the ones. So there can be value there. We'll call that the Eric Decker syndrome sometimes, right? The Brandon Marshall in New York and Eric Decker was just as good. Or also Demarius Thomas in Denver and Eric Decker was just as good. It's always Eric Decker. All right, a couple things I want to touch on here before basketball breakdown. Other players, battles, situations that we're watching. And then I want to cast a coin into the wishing well of something that we're dreaming of this preseason. But let's start with that other situation you're keeping your eyes on. Yeah, I find this year more than ever I'm looking at the quarterbacks. I brought up yesterday that I really want to get my eyeballs on how Deshaun Watson looks. I want to see if he's looking in rhythm and can hit normal passes unlike what we saw last year and Jordan Love. Jordan Love.

is everything to a bunch of different, you know, Dobbs has been rising up and just, he's really making some noise in the training camp timeline. Christian Watson is a highly drafted prospect. They will go as Jordan Love goes. So I really need to see if he's good. Those two guys I'm going to be paying attention to. Makes sense. I want to see all the rookie tight ends. I was joking with Jason that this, you know, he may get tortured by some actually productive rookie tight ends this year. Probably not. Sam Leporta, but possible. Been very, been running with the ones, been very targeted in camp. We're going to talk about him a second. Dalton Kincaid. Dalton Kincaid has earned the trust and we'll be running with the ones throughout the season in Buffalo.

Luke Musgrave. I don't know if you saw the camp report today, Jason. I think he probably did. You know, just having a downfield threat that the comments made out of the Green Bay area is first time since Michael Finley that you have somebody that can threaten down the field and make a difference in the passing game. The schoon man back on the field for Dallas. Come on. Come on. Luke. Has to compete with Fergie over there. Yeah. And I feel like I'm forgetting another rookie or two. Michael Mayor. Yeah, Michael Mayor in Las Vegas. He has been missing camp the last few days. I don't know, I don't know if it's an injury or what it is, but he has not been participating. And we've got what, big Darnell Washington? Yeah, Donnell right. Last I saw he has caught eight total passes.

in all of camp. What? Four of them are touchdowns. So when they get around the goal line, actually, man, that might hurt Fryer Meath. Monster of a man. If you're not familiar with him, he is, they call him the sixth old lineman. He is a freak of nature physically. I mean, yeah, you get around the goal line. It's like, just toss it to him. You ever seen Moe Alley Cox before? Yeah. Darnell could hurt Frymeuth a little bit, but he could also really help. Najee Harris. Yes. In that offensive line. So I want to see those rookie tight-ins. I love scout. I think I enjoy scouting the tight-in position in preseason. So that's something I'm looking forward to. Quick note on Michael Mayer, bumps and bruises, no cause for concern. Thank you. And what I'm going to be, another thing I'm looking for, it's Rashad White of the Tampa Bay Bucking. Oh, that's a good one. And more specifically, that Tampa Bay Bucks offensive line. You don't want to look.

I do. You don't want to look. I need to. Oh, man. Because if it's bad, I need to know. It's rated R. You cover your eyes. Children don't watch. This is grown up. This offensive line is not going to be good. Yeah. So let's find out the red band offensive line. I mean, they do wear red jerseys. Yeah. So let's, did they fix anything? Is Rashad White truly the dude? Because at the running back 28, if Rashad White is. like that like a really main time running back and he's going to be used a lot in the passing game which we got the report that that chase admins could be the third down running back i don't know if that will hold yeah when the uh when the action's really happening on the field and like well we could pull rashad white out and put chase on the field and the coasters would be like

I don't know if that's such a good idea. Sure, bad. Yeah. That's going to be the head coach. So Rashad White, I think, is very interesting to watch in the preseason. Throw Traskin Baker's battle in there, too, because it's going to have an impact on Godwin and Mike Evans and Otten and these running backs in their usage based on who wins over there. The wishing well. But I want to know your personal. preseason wish what dreamy situation what outlandish situation selfish wishes selfish for me it's preseason wish look i'm jealous of javanti getting healthy got that going on the wolverine blood i need my bris oh i need to see my bruce boy i need him out there i want to see him in preseason i mean i just want

Are we expecting to see him on the field? I don't think so. That's why it's a wish. This is why I'm throwing the coin in so that it can come true. You might need to throw a few coins in. Yeah, look, that's a silver dollar. All right. So you want, you want Breece back? I just want to see him in preseason. Yeah. Mine is, I want, it's all caps here in the dock. I want Josh Jacobs to return. Yeah. Just make it easy on us. Take the Saquan route. Take an extra few buckaroos. Get back with the team. You know, I just, just make it easy on me for, uh, make it easy on all the Josh Jacobs drafters to not be gambling in late August. Do you have, and this is, you, I don't know if you've even thought about it, but just top of your head, like a timeline where if you get to this date and Josh Jacobs still hasn't come back, then you're, all then you're, you're, you're worrying me to will just. Yeah. I know, I know his date.

It's the day after our draft. When he has them, he goes, oh, no. I mean, realistically, I think it's like you get through three preseason games. That's all of them. And we haven't heard a whisper. The day after the third preseason game, if we don't know what's going on, that is when you're going to just have to start adjusting expectations. Because if right now they rescinded the tag on August 10th. you're going to find a new home. Yeah. And you're going to find an opportunity to contribute earlier in the season. If it happens a week before the kickoff, you're in big trouble. Like, I don't care if Kansas City goes and signs you. I don't care of Denver signs you. Like, you're not a part of day one plans if that's the case. You're going to, it's going to be hard to turn that over on week one, two, three, four injury risk will go up with no camp, you know, at least statistically. This is why.

I don't want to deal with any of those questions. So my wish is that Josh takes a little flight from Cabo or wherever he's at right now and strolls into the building and says, I'm here. And I got 1,700 rushing yards. I'm bringing with me. Yeah, Vegas is fun. Go home. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. You normally would, like other players in other cities like Jonathan Taylor probably flew to Vegas. Yeah. To wait out his contract. Just stay home. All right. My wish. Yours is so funny, Mike. My wish. Look. It's not often that we have hopes or dreams or desires for a third string quarterback to get traded. But here we are. And my selfish wish for my dynasty team is that Tray Lance gets traded. And so we just can know. Do we not need to dig into that and just ask where? Like, no, are you on Washington or Washington would be great.

Anyway, anywhere. It's just not San Francisco? He's not going to start for San Francisco if Brock Purdy is there. If Brock Purdy, if something goes wrong with Brock Purdy, I don't even know if it's going to be Trey Lans. It might be Samuel Darnold. I just don't. I just need to know. I need to see it. I need to see five games. Give me five games of Trey Lance as a starter. You're never going to get it. Just Trey Lance as a starter. And let's all find out together. You never going to get it. Never going to get it. Never going to get it. I know. That's why it's a wish. Honestly, he may have the highest chance of starting as a third stringer in San Francisco the way their injuries go. That is not. I mean, that's fair point. But you got hopes and dreams for Lance. Now, Lance will get preseason time, right?

So the trade has to come when he goes out there. I mean, let's put it this way, Mike. He's probably going to be facing third string defenses. He's going to dominate them. He's going to look great. He's going to dominate him. Mike said he wants to see five starts. He did not specify regular season. So over the next two years, five games. I didn't just say five games. So if we gave him the whole preseason, like if they give them all three, I'll count it. All right. I'll take three of those. Okay. Yeah, let us know your own preseason wishes. If you're watching on YouTube, leave it in the comments. Come join our Discord. You can get there on the Fantasy Footballers.com. And it's free to join over there as well, the community. You can ask your question, share your dreams, and commiserate on all your sadness if something goes wrong. Best Ball Breakdown, presented by Underdog Fantasy. Oh, here we are. So.

Because we're in training camp season about to hit the preseason. Andy, you brought up one of your favorite things to watch for in preseason is the tight-in position. Yeah. And we've been monitoring it in training camp because especially for best ball, when you're playing underdog, my personal favorite builds, I pretty much either I grab Mark Andrews and then another decent, consistent, tight-in like a Higbee. Or else, if that doesn't happen, almost all of my rosters are three tight-in builds. And the reason that I like and I prefer three tight-in builds is because at the very end of your draft, when you're in round 16, 17, 18, the tight-ins there are not zeros. The tight-ins there don't need an injury ahead of them. They're on the field. They're running routes. You're just hoping this week they get the touchdown. So when you get those, they can be very valuable picks.

And whereas, oh, you grab a running back there, you're just hoping it's usually an insurance back and maybe there's an injury ahead of them that, you know, cracks into your lineup. I just wanted to throw this in there because we normally preface it before we dig into the best ball breakdown. But we are talking about best ball drafts, best ball line up formations for underdog fantasy when you're in there building out best ball teams, which if you're not familiar with that format, you draft, and then that's it. You're done. You get to get the, you know, the fruit of your labor throughout the season without adjusting your lineup. And you really get to dunk on people for your drafting ability because it's one of those things where, you know, sometimes we talk about with ultimate draft kit, right? You're building a foundation to not lose at the draft. Yeah, absolutely. It's a, that's what you do exclusively in best. Right. But you don't win your championship at the draft and your redraft league. You win it at the draft here in Underdog. Like.

Who drafted the best team? The starters will be made for you. And so when you're doing a three tight-end build, there are a handful of tight-in training camp risers who've been on the move from what we've seen. And I want to give you three of my favorite picks that have risen in the last two weeks because of training camp news. So you're still willing to draft these players even after they've risen in ADP? Yes, because they have risen to still too low. they were great values now they are very good values i'm going to start with hunter henry uh just talked about the patriots he has been he's a riser mac jones favorite target in camp he has and and gisicki has had almost no um like very few targets and receptions in camp yeah he made one great play

That's kind of what Mike is sick. He does. Yeah, they did. We're talking about the catch? The catch. The catch was reported far and wide on Twitter. Yeah, and in Ferguson, Jake Ferguson has been moving up the list as well. I mean, he is, seems to be the clear number one, tied in in Dallas, a murky situation that's now becoming more clear. Rookie tight ends, even with a full camp, hard to contribute. Ferguson's been the guy. So, you know, that's an opportunity there for sure. And he's gotten it done. Like Schoon Man has not been there. And he's been hurt. Sometimes, you know, that gives a player an opportunity and they don't show it. But in camp. Yeah, he's been the guy. Yeah, absolutely. And there's 89 targets vacated from Dalton Schultz. And then LaPorta, we brought him up too in Detroit where, look, this was an offense where T.J. Hawkinson had burst games at the tight in position, Mike.

Yes, absolutely. My favorite part of the Sam Laporta is Lions Beat reporter Tim 20 Man. Oh, that's a great name. What is this name? Yeah, Tim 20man. Tim 20 man? This is the first time you've heard of Tim 20man? I apparently. Oh, man. I've not paid attention. Great reporter. Because when you have a name like 20 man, I'm going to. Look, I'm going to get this guy. Imagine if your name was like 15 man. Oh, what a loser. Yeah, no, that's no good. Normally your your surname, right? Like that comes from a historical source. Like, you know, there's meaning behind it. But like this was like, does he have an ancestor? It was like he's as strong as 20 men. Oh, I thought this was lineage. Like his.

son will be 21 man and then they just every they know exactly they don't do the junior senior stuff no they just add they just change the last name to increase it exactly there have been 20 men in my history and i am the 21st man my grandson is 22 man yeah uh but what his quote was is that um sam leport has been taking first team reps since day one it doesn't look out of place at all it's going to have a big role for the offense starting in week one. Keep in mind, James and Williams has a six-week suspension. And there are the fourth most vacated targets in the NFL for the Detroit Lions. I really like the talent of Sam Laporta. You heard that. The Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions. I did. You heard it too. Oh, I felt it. All right. Yeah. Goodness. So those three guys have had great camps. Hunter Henry.

for the New England Patriots, Jake Ferguson for the Dallas Cowboys, and Sam Laporta for the Detroit Lions. And if you're like, Jason, I thought you don't draft rookie tight ends. Rookie tight ends in best ball, I don't think any rookie tight end is going to have a great season where you're going to draft them in redraft and you're just going to plug them in and love it. But if you remember, like last year, Greg Dulcich had... a handful of really great impactful games. Relevant fantasy weeks. Yeah, and while I still think Dalton Kincaid on Underdog is being overdrafted for what he'll produce, he will still have good weeks as well. And, you know, this is the Titan 18 going 152nd overall in Sam Laporta. Now, just want to make sure you're talking about.

Bronco's second string tied in, Greg Dulcich? Actually, if you look at the quotes from Sean Peyton, I don't need quotes. He said there's a slash between them. He said there's a slash. The Dallas Cowboys listed Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot as co-starters. Yeah, and they could have. Payton Hindershot, you know, shout out to the blocking tight ends. Troutman, Hindershot, those guys can block. Co-starters listed all the time in training camp, not for the Denver Broncos. You know. I don't know if I need this in my life. I don't think we need the troutman. I didn't renew the subscription, man. I unsubscribe from that newsletter. I don't need it. You know who resubscribed? Oh, gosh. Head coach Sean Payton. No, no. You can't discount what Sean Payton said with his mouth. He and then, and then say that it's him. Oh, this is upsetting. Yeah. Sean Payton straight upset. It's a slash their co-starters. Look, it's, it's a joke.

Is Greg Dolcich as the pass catching tight end? But I will say this. Nothing for the 2023 season would bring me a greater joy than Adam Troutman doing something. It will be Troutman and Sutton. All over the field in Denver making Mike. I really hope. It's your redempton. Redemption year. That it is week one. I mean, if Troutman gets like two touchdowns all season, but they both come in week one. Mike will do a show a la mode. I mean, you will come in, no clothes on, just ready to rock. To be clear, that's how Jason describes being naked. Just in case you confuse it with ice cream on the side. All right. That was best ball breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. Get your first deposit match up to $100. Using the code, ballers, enjoy a couple of preseason games tonight. And guess what? We're going to come back here tomorrow.

We got a mock draft episode for you, and we're mixing it up. It's going to be a full PPR 10-Team 3-wide receiver. See you there. 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 the FF Ballers.