Fantasy Football 2017 - Sleepers + Values LIVE from the Great White North

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We are not coming from Playdraft Studios. Well, we are. We are coming from the International Center here in Toronto, Canada, the fantasy footballers. We did it, North America. We did. We're here. Andy Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballers. Great show today. We got rising stars on the show. We've got sleepers. We've got values. We've got some news. Everybody wants to know what's going on.

with the breaking injury news. Wait, wait. Did something happen? Can't use the word breaking and injury. That's offensive. That's, yeah. Yeah, we landed in... Oh! Yeah, we landed in Toronto, and I got my phone out, and I tweeted, hey, we landed in Toronto. We're so, you know, happy. Let's get this fantasy sports show going. And immediately, my phone was responded to that comment with...

About 100, dude Julian Edelman just blew out his knee. And so that is some of the news we definitely have to cover it. We'll talk about Julian Edelman. We'll talk about Spencer Ware, implications of that, how they affected our rankings. And we're each going to bring you a sleeper and a value pick of our own. Maybe disagree, maybe agree. We'll see.

What happens? If you want to follow the show, you can do it on Twitter at the FF Ballers. We're on iTunes, as Jason said. You can subscribe over there if you're on an Android device, Google Play. On the Fantasy Sports Network, we're on YouTube so you can follow us. Wherever you listen, wherever you watch, we're going to kick this thing off with our rising stars. Raising Keynes, Rising Stars of the Week. I got to say, before we jump in, we're live so we have like an actual real sound system. I sound very good.

on those drops. You sound very good? I sound very good. You could just listen to yourself play guitar all night long. In bass. Yeah. So if you haven't heard this segment, the Raising Cain's Rising Stars, once a week we get on right now with the preseason games. We're taking a look at players that are maybe moving up our boards, individually, players that you should be paying attention to. And we're each going to bring one up. And I'm just going to get mine out of the way. Yes, please. Because...

My player might as well be compared to a vegetable that you need to choke down to get to your dessert, but I'm telling you... Beats. Yeah, I wouldn't eat beats, but I would draft Jonathan Stewart, okay? And I know I brought this up before, but Jonathan Stewart is my rising star, and how can such an old man be a rising star? He's a... When the star burns out, right, it becomes more like a dwarf? He's a dwarf star. Is that right? That's fine, because he's a dwarf running back.

How are you not arguing with this that he's about to go supernova? Like isn't that the end of the life of a store? Because he's not. Yeah, that's true. That's why he's not going to go supernova. But when you are sitting there in the ninth round and Mike wants to talk about drafting Jeremy Hill and you look at Jamal Williams and you have a starting running back who had nine touchdowns last year and running backs are hard to come by, I think you need to pay attention to Jonathan Stewart because everybody wants the flashy new star.

And Christian McCaffrey is going to do work. He's going to do work in PPR leagues. He's going to do work in half-point leagues. But I still think you're going to see a baseline with Jonathan Stewart. And if you've gone wide receiver heavy early, if you've taken that early tight end, I'm telling you need to pick up Jonathan Stewart late in drafts. He's being disrespected, as maybe you think he deserves. I didn't say that. I think you need to pay attention to him in drafts because he's not sexy. You don't want him. But he's going to keep your team healthy, just like those vegetables.

Sure. So who's your rising star? I'll jump in, but I've also noticed Jason's Rising Star. And we, with these combo. That's cheating. With this combo package here, we sound a lot like Miami from their off season. We sound like the media in Florida pumping them up. Yeah, nobody hyped players better than the beat writers in Miami. But we're about to beat them. All right. I'm Rising Star of the week. Devante Parker.

We know that I've become infatuated with... In love. The targets from Smoke and J. Cuddy. And then we saw even more proof of concept with Parker actually using athleticism, making an incredible adjustment in-air, huge run. Didn't finish with a touchdown. That would have been, you know, a nice little cherry on top. That would have been an extra round in ADP. Yeah. So he held it off to keep the value. Probably, but still two for 78.

Jay Cutler loves him, and that's what matters. In fantasy football, when a quarterback loves a wide receiver, and by all accounts, I've seen a couple Valentine's, I've seen some flowers since, signed cigarette. Right. That's all he put on there. And we know who it was. It was Jay Cuddy to D. Parker. We had a session earlier today. We were doing some AMA asking fantasy questions. The question was posed.

What's the actual ceiling for a guy like Devante Parker compared to where you want to draft him? How are you making those adjustments now? We say, look, there are players you watch in the preseason. And that's what the preseason is for. It's the eye test. It's not the stat line necessarily. It's the eye test. Is it somebody that you see and what is the real ceiling for a guy like Devante Parker in that offense with Jake Cutler? Yeah, well, Jake Cutler is the big difference maker here. I mean...

A lot of us thought Devante Parker could reach out and have a great season prior to Jay Cutler. Reach out or breakout? Breakout. I mean, come on. This is me speaking. And when Jay Cutler came to town, the first reaction that we had was it's not good news for the dink and dunks of Jarvis Landry. But if he ends up doing what Jay Cutler does, which is laser target, one guy.

way too much, regardless of the coverage. That's your opinion. Sure, just my opinion. And throws the ball with a very strong arm, very far down the field. That's the game that Devante Parker will thrive in. So if we're talking just upside. What's the actual upside? I think the actual upside is top 15? Absolutely. It's a wide receiver won without a doubt. Now, that's not to say I'm projecting him. What if you put your money on where he finishes into year?

End of year. Right now. Right now, I would say he finishes the year as a very low-end wide receiver two or a very high-end wide receiver three. But he'll have those weeks that are monstrous blow-up weeks. Now, the guy that I see as the rising star, the reason Mike was saying, we're sounding like the Miami beat riders is because... Is it because you picked a first-round pick as your rising star? Is that... Yeah. First round? Definitely. It's way, I mean, with the live show, way to put yourself out there, Jason. Big risk. He went on a limb. I went Jonathan Stewart in front of people.

Yeah, well, here's a deal. Mine's good. My player's good, so you can draft him. It's Jay Ajai, and here's the reality. Don't worry. You can draft him. No, but there is a lot of concern, even for me. I mean, the reason... From me...

There was, and now there isn't, and therefore he's your rising star? Yes, thank you. I mean, this is very simple. I mean, if you go back a couple weeks, you had concussion issues, he was out of practice. Aaron Rogers. Look at the vibes for the Miami Dolphins. Have they been good lately? No, they have been horrendous. You mean like over the last 10 years? Sure, over the last 10 years or over the last, you know, month and a half. Everybody's been getting injured. The vibes have been bad, including Jay Ajai.

But here's what we saw this last week that really cemented it for me, that he is absolutely going to be great. One, we saw the downfield passes from Jay Cutler. What that means is more opportunities that line up because of pass interference or, you know, just getting tackled down with, just like what happened with Devante Parker, had that huge, you know, 60-plus yard reception, and he wound up at the two-yard line.

and Jay Ajai got the opportunity on two different occasions to punch in basically a goal line touchdown. Not everybody can actually succeed at that. Jay Ajai, that first touchdown, he didn't really have to sell him. He was running to the right. We're in on him. He's already a top 10th big. I know, but for the listeners, I want them to realize what he showed on the field was great. He runs to the right side of the line, and he was met with about four defenders, and Jay Ajai said, I will go down in two yards.

And so that's what he did. He got in the end zone. He went down. All right. You know, nine carries, 53 yards, two touchdowns. And the best part, my absolute favorite part about Jay Ajai is Damian Williams. Because Damian Williams is horrifically bad. Because Damian Williams is horrifically bad. And he's the only other running back there. Someone clapped. Who clapped for Damian Williams being bad? Williams being horrifically bad. Let me give you his Mrs. Williams. Oh.

Yeah, Damien Williams had four carries for negative one yard. Look, he's one of the few guys, Gurley and Jay Jai, who are outside what people consider the elite upper echelon, where you'd put Zeke, where you'd put David Johnson, where you put Levill. I'm struggling with Levon Bell. Yeah, is he a rising star for next week? If you're struggling, then yes, you need to rise on Leviathan. We're going to move on. We'll talk about news. Those were the Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. Remember, guys.

Game day tastes better with Raising Canes tailgates full of fresh 24-hour marinated hand battered chicken fingers. I don't even know if they have them up here in Canada. If they don't, they need you. Visit Raising Canes.com to find your nearest location. Let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league. All right, it's been confirmed. Complete tear of the ACL for Julian Edelman. One of the first big blows of the offseason came on the same night in which Spencer Ware was injured.

His season is over. The 2017 season is over. And you have to ask the question with Edelman at his age, whether he'll be back. But that's not the question for fantasy owners right now. They want to know the implications. I've got my take on the whole scenario. I know, Mike, you're going to talk a little bit about it later, but who steps up? What is the implication of a Julian Edelman-less offense? This has been the leading receiver, fantasy-wise, for this team for three years. So what happens? Well, it's interesting.

because of what happened on the exact same night was Chris Hogan went full ham, full hamburger. He owns the preseason, though. Yeah, well, it's a fair point. And he also had huge games from time to time last year. So if you look at my mentions, I mean, they're ablaze. People are very excited for Chris Hogan. Everyone's saying, how high do I draft Chris Hogan? But, I mean, that's that recency bias.

It's difficult, right? I mean, you talk about how hard is the Patriots running back situation. To figure that out, the wide receiver situation, Hogan, Cooks, now Malcolm Mitchell comes back into play. Does that just boost things for Grong? Are they going to run two tight-end sets more, and Dwayne Allen is involved? So there are a lot of questions. I'm just setting Jason up with some questions because I have my answer for later on in the show.

Yeah, I believe that a lot of it's going to come down to what they do with Brandon Cooks. If they end up moving Brandon Cooks in the slot, then you're going to see a consistent Brandon Cooks. It's impossible. I know it feels impossible to say that. We have not been very high on Brandon Cooks because even if at the end of the year, he finishes with a great stat line, it was hard to play. You're going to get a lot of lousy games in there.

But you're losing, you know, what usually equates to 140 targets. And if those, if he moves into that role, I think Brandon Cooks will be safe weekly with a high ceiling, high floor combination. However, this is really close to the start of the season. He was not practicing for that role. And we've seen, you know, in Patriots past, they've got a next man up mentality. And if a guy goes down, it's not shift the pieces around.