Busts & Value Picks + Caleb Saves Chicago? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/21

It's fantasy draft season, which means you need the Ultimate Draft Kit to dominate your draft. Premium stat projections, tier-based rankings, 100-plus player profile videos, and a sweet, cheat-sheet creator that you can dive in, mark all of your players, print it out, or use it on the app. Lots more where that came from. Check it all out at Ultimate DraftKit.com. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway. Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Welcome in the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Al Borland and Papa Josh, they're over there in Ducers Allie. It's busy season. Yes. Yes, it is. We have a Busts and Values episode of the podcast today.

We've got hungry for more. We've got news to talk about. We've got announcements. I almost missed the welcome in. I'm going to be honest. For real? Yeah, I was just looking through the show doc knowing how much we've got to cover. And all of a sudden that beat hit. And I was like, welcome in. So it was really. No, it was a true reaction. It was a startle. It was not a welcome. It really was. I know we've all got we've got drafts going on, which have been very, very fun. We're through two weeks of the preseason. I watched the third episode of Hard Knocks yesterday. How was it? I've got thoughts. Yeah, how big was Keenan? Keenan is lost all the way. He looks fine. It was a temporary... Tell me your secrets, Keenan. Keenan is in good shape. He was rather dominant. The two thoughts that I have is one, like, just general commentary. It's opinion. It's subjective. I think they need better stories.

I do. I think they need better stories on... They're phoning it in? Not on purpose. I mean, some people, I think, maybe, like, we're better at finding them in years past. So, I mean, the danger of reality television. Sometimes they're there and sometimes they're not? Right. Yeah, no, that's true. And you have these teams, I mean, there's more and more and more media training for all these players. You've got to get rid of that nonsense. Like... protect the protect yourself, protect the brand, all of these types of things. Say nothing controversial. Yes, but compared to win hard knocks. I mean, the show's been on, I don't even know how long for a very long time. So it's a different type of, these are players who grew up watching hard knocks. And they're like, you, you're not getting me like that. That's fair. That's fair. I mean, I think the, the other takeaway is, and again, complete just my opinion based on three episodes.

of kind of candid access to Caleb Williams and the team. There's a lot of people going out there and making a big deal about the Bears. They're kind of a posh pick to make a run with a rookie quarterback, which I think is scary on some regards, especially for Chicago, who's never had an all pro since 1950 to put that kind of pressure, right? Like if that's the prediction, you save the franchise, that's hard. That's hard for, you'd be hard for Peyton Manning. It was hard for, you know, Philip Rivers. It's hard for any of these young rookie quarterbacks. But I think it's going to work with Caleb. Okay. I think the demeanor and the kind of, like he's not Tom Brady. Like his mindset is not Kobe. It's not chip on the shoulder. I've got to prove you wrong. And I'm going to outwork you. But it's also a little bit the skill and talent is there. And he's got a level of unflappable to him that I think will translate really well to being an NFL quarterback where, you know, to forget the bad play. When you're a rookie, you're going to make bad plays.

and to go on to the next one. So I am, I do think it's going to work with Caleb Williams in Chicago. And for all the Chicago fans, long suffering. But how long? I mean, because, you know, I believe it's going to work. Like how long until it works? Yeah, like are you saying that you think it's going to work this year? Because obviously saying, you know, it should work for Caleb Williams long term. That seems easier. But your take is it more specifically. You don't want to give me easy. Yeah. No, I don't want to give you easy. I don't think Chicago is a playoff team this year.

I think they'll right. Roast them, Chicago. I think they're right on the fringe, though, and I think it's possible. I just think that I think long term, this was an amazing decision, obviously, by them to, from the trade to get the pick to moving on from Justin Fields. I think it's very different. I think Caleb Williams is going to break that 4,000-yard passing record, and I think the future's bright. That's all. That's all. It's always fun to watch. I'm not saying like it's not been entertaining. It is entertaining. A couple of big announcements. Oh, this announcement sounds terrible. Wow. Okay. What happened? What happened is that we have the loser button. No, I mean, what's the terrible? Yeah, I want to know. What is this bad news? Papa Josh is really constipated. Oh, yeah. That sounds pretty normal. That's the news. No, look, the loser horn is a trumpet. And then the horn announce has no graphic.

And I just mixed them up. You just saw a trumpet. I just saw the trumpet. I'm like, this is going to make this sound. But we announced it. He's clear. His battles are free. Just now. Breaking news. We did put one of those buttons in our bathrooms. And so when, what is happening? It goes through the whole studio. When you've completed, you push the button and everyone knows. Dun-da-da-da. Wonder who that was. Wasn't the Falcon. I know that. All right. All right. The megalable. I just wanted to mention it again here at the top. You can go to megalobol.com and every footclan supporter gets a free entry to the largest fantasy football league in the world. We've made some awesome changes. Trades are back. If you've played in the past, normally we've had, I mean, over 20,000 people have entered the last couple of years. 5,000 people are in as of this morning. We really opened it up yesterday, so they're flooding in. And so that's megalobole.com. Head over there.

and the community is JoinThefoot.com. We announced a bunch of unique stuff yesterday about the chance to get in there, including the ultimate tier, which if you bought the UDK and you want to become a Foot Clan supporter, you can translate the purchase of the 2024 UDK into an ultimate membership, which is available at Jointhefoot.com. And don't forget if you win the Megalobole. You are in our 2025 listener league and you get a Foot Clan ultimate tier for life. And Jason, we do have one more announcement before we jump into all that we have prepared on today's show, including Hungry for More and NFL News. Do I know what it is? Well, you wanted to share some of the things happening at the live show. Oh, this. Okay, so I did want the list. We've got the live show on Saturday. I think there are a few tickets left. If you want to go, Ballers Live.com. That's Los Angeles. In Los Angeles. Palace Theater. Yeah, sorry. But we're giving away a bunch of stuff there.

signed stuff. And I just wanted to give an example of some of the stuff that if you're there, you might just catch this. We're throwing them out. Throwing them from the stage. Signed Justin Jefferson jersey. Signed Jalen Wattel. We got two Jalen Waddle jerseys. We had to. You kept one? Okay, we'll throw out. No, I don't know what happened to it. I'm just saying we had to. Oh, okay. We got a Kyron Williams jersey, a James Cook jersey, a Nico Collins jersey, a DJ Moore jersey, an Evan Ingram jersey. And we've got classics that have been around the studio for a while, throwbacks. Can I read them? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're giving away some classics. Yeah. So we're giving away tons of those jerseys you mentioned, but then we have. You have the list of the class. We were looking around the studio and what we had autographed.

And we thought it would be fun. There is a signed Dante Pettish jersey. Yes. Going into the crowd. There is a sign Calvin Ridley jersey. Alshan Jeffrey. Kenny G., we've got David Johnson going out there. Austin Eccler, Michael Crabtree. We have a Michael Crabtree. I remember that guy. So lots of fun stuff. So BallersLive.com. Come see us on Saturday. Someone's out there going, man, I want the crab tree. All right. Moving on. Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eads. All right, this week on Hungry for More, we're looking for those rising stars. Players you've seen a flash from, had some nibbles in preseason. You want to see more of it? And Jason, why don't you kick it off? Yeah, I'm going to bring up a guy who was my number one favorite rookie running back coming in in the draft season before the NFL draft. It was...

Rookie Trey Benson, who just so happened to go to our Arizona Cardinals, and it was exciting. Now, he's a backup. Through the off-season program, it was pretty disappointing. You know, listening to local beat reporters, it was like he's not, you know, he's competing with Amari Demarcato and guys that he should just, you know, Michael Carter, we're not even sure he is the backup. However, lately it has gotten better and better for him. It seems like he is establishing himself as the running back too. If you watch this. Last preseason game, he had nine carries for 43 yards. That does not include a 20-yard run that was called back due to holding. And he played every first and second down snap before he was removed. Amari DiMarcato played on third down. So I do feel like if James Connor goes down, which James Connor has never played a full season ever in his entire career.

Trey Benson will be really valuable. And he's a good back. This is a guy. I mean, I've said this many times. I am always hot and bothered for any running backs that weigh 215 plus pounds and run sub 4-4. Those guys just were very hot bothered. And so, I mean, that's a check and a check. 216 pounds, 439. I loved the film. And just the fact that we saw. him break out. And I want to bring him up also for Dynasty. If you're in a Dynasty League, I do believe that halfway through this year, before James Connor gets injured, I mean, Trey Benson is going to be a forgotten man. He's going to be irrelevant. He's going to be cheap to acquire. Define cheap, though, because people who are spending first round rookie picks on. Did you say James Connor? Because I think you said James Connor is going to be cheap to acquire.

That I can agree with it. What are you talking about Tray Benson? If I said that, I did not mean to. No, I'm talking about Tray Benson. I think because of James Connor, I said before James Connor gets injured, I believe that Tray Benson will be much more affordable to acquire. It's very similar to a former Arizona Cardinal, Trey McBride, who comes out and is behind a veteran. And then he was, he was, you know, in the draft season. Mike and I, we spent a first round pick, which I usually don't do on rookie tight ends. We pulled the trigger on that in our champ champ champ league. You love rookie. You love rookie tight? It looked like a dead pick because he was just not involved. And I think Trey Benson is not going to be involved to start the year. However, James Connor is not the future of this franchise. James Connor, I'm guessing, is not even back the next season. And Trey Benson will be a, I believe, a star in fantasy in the future.

So halfway through this year, if he's really irrelevant, I would try to scoop him up. I'll just throw out a really deep name here, Deonta Foreman for the Browns. Really deep. Was that sarcasm or real? No, that was real. He looked great in preseason this last week. He always does. And he also got the two snaps he got with the first team offense happened on the one yard line. We have highlighted this throughout the offseason with Jerome Ford. Like if Deonteforman has the goal line opportunities, Like, it's funny because Foreman looked very Karim Hunt-esque in his opportunities. He was five for 46 in the receiving game. He had, you should look it up. He had a cut in the open field that was pretty amazing. And his opportunities with the first team came on the goal line. So depth at running back in Cleveland is interesting with how much they'll use Jerome Ford, Pierre Strong, Deont de Forman, the free agent acquisition. I think he has the opportunity to earn more snap.

Look, it's hungry for more for a reason. So he had nine rushing touchdowns last year, Kareem Hunt did, in Cleveland's offense. They do look for somebody else to be the goal line back. That wasn't drawn forward. Yeah, Ford is not going to be the goal line back. So, I mean, if it's Foreman and this team is as good as I think they will be, which is going to be an incredible defense that is, you know, there were a playoff team last year going through four quarterbacks. I think that the goal line role is valuable. So, you know, even if you're in best ball and you look at the chance, like Foreman could have a couple.

you know, two touchdown games or something like that. Mike, what is you're hungry for more? Boys, I am hungry for cold, hard cash. I am hungry for some wide receiver contracts. What is happening in the world today when we have three top tier wide receivers? Like we can, let's say two elite wide receivers and one top tier guy. Jamar Chase, Brandon Ayuk, CD Lamb, all out there. not practicing, not with new contracts, and we are, we're in draft season now. So I just, I wanted to bring this up because I think it's worth having just a quick conversation of are there elevated levels of concern starting to grow for these players? Yes. They're elite, and they're not running backs, but they're still not out there practicing, getting the reps, making sure that the timing is good with the quarterbacks.

uh and the playbook so where are you guys at because these are those that's two first round picks and one and brandon iuk is going you know often the third maybe even late second sometimes so where are you growing in concern of adjusting projections i haven't adjusted projections but i'm i mean this is such a great hungry for more call out because gosh i'm sick of it like get on yeah it's it's super annoying now it's like when i'm at the the this you know if i'm in the top three picks Two of those top three are going to be, you know, or a top four, for me, two of those top four are Jamar Chase and C.D. Lamb. And it's like, I would love for these guys to be playing football. And the report coming out, and I don't know how much I believe it because game checks are different. But like the report that Jamar Chase isn't going to step on the football field without an extension when he's got two years left. His feels bad. All three of them are.

they just feel different. Each situation feels different. Like yesterday there were some positive news from Jerry Jones that they're making progress on CD Liam. I put the poll out, who do you want to sign first of the three guys middle of yesterday? Almost 50% said CD. And then Chase and then Iuke in terms of, but that's like kind of draft order. So it's like how desperate are you? I would imagine that if I had a handicap right now, my guess is CD signs. and Brandon Ayuk resigns with San Francisco. Okay. And Chase does not get a deal done, but maybe they restructure something. I don't like it. It's not fun. Jason said it. We're sick of it. I spent all last offseason saying, I'm not worried about Josh Jacobs. I'm not worried about Josh Jacobs. He's going to be fine. He'll be back in camp. Everything will go well. There were other things that went wrong in Las Vegas beyond Jacobs being late to camp. But.

We're all tired of it. We want certainty. We want to know what we're doing. We're drafting now. It was all fun in games before we were drafted. Yeah, we're in drafts right now. We've got drafts this weekend. Your main league listener could be this weekend. So let me ask you, you know, push comes to shove. If you're on the clock and you've got to decide between Jamar Chase, who I would have had ahead in my rankings, do you switch and pull the trigger on Bijon or Breeze? because of these fears, like not knowing as of this moment? Yeah, I mean, I would. I would. I mean, I'm probably drafting those guys ahead regardless, but, but yeah, I would, I would let that be a differentiator. What would be talking about? You don't want Bejan or Breeze on your team? Jamar Chase has had a bumpy ride for a couple of years. I mean, I think he's very, everyone's waiting for that year, which will probably happen at some point, the 2,000 yards, the, you know, 17 touchdown year. That'll probably happen, but.

Just sign that you know you're going to pay them. Like this is what's the most frustrating stupid part. We all know how this ends. You write a big fat check. The number that they're asking for, you're going to give them. You're going to do it. Like we fast forward two weeks, four weeks, whatever long it is, we're going to report that you're paying bananas money for these guys. So do it now and get them on the field. Stop hurting your team. Save face by adding two. dumb contract stipulations that make you feel like the big man. Yeah. And then get the deal done with the money they want because you know every team in the league would do it. Per article 7B. I, Jerry Jones, voice my disdain that you have put me through this. I just want it on the record. Yeah. Do that. I will be paying your fourth check in pennies, but otherwise all terms agreeable. All right. That was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats. Get almost almost anything for Game Day delivered with Uber Eats.

official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. You can order it right now. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, Tyree Kiel will be ready for week one. That is the report from PFFN, Adam Beasley. AJ Dillon didn't pack. Did you see Mike McDaniel, his comments? No, I didn't. Were they as entertaining as everything he says all the time? He says, I'm really good at Thumb Wars. He lost. Because it's, oh, that's good. So it's a thumb injury for Tyreek and apparently it happened playing Coach McDonald's. That's good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that's fun. AJ Dylan didn't practice due to a stinger. Nothing big there. This one, Jay Lonnie Woods, expected to undergo surgery. The man the myth. Yeah, I mean, it does hurt the team who is kind of, you know, they need more weapons and Jelani Woods is a big weapon. But.

They have a pile, you know, Will Mallory and Moalley Cox and Kylin Granson, like they have a bunch of tight-ins anyway. This is every year. Every year the Colts have four or five relevant, three of them get hurt, and the other two are irrelevant, and we move on. This is why I was so sure that Brock Bowers would be a cult until the Raiders ruined it. Juan Johnson has been activated from the PUP list, tight end of the saint, underwent foot surgery this spring. So another deep sleeper. Yeah, and they don't have players outside of a lave in the passing game right now anyway. So Brock Bowers missed Tuesday's practice with a sore foot and missed the last preseason game with the same issue. So, yeah, just something to monitor. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll come back with some bust picks. All right. We're going to jump right in.

right in the last two days we did breakouts and sleepers are individual picks for these categories all of our consensus picks are in the ultimate draft kit where we have at least two-thirds agreement most of them i think this year i think i don't know if we're are we getting soft no i think we're we just we're getting better and we all agree on some of these these clear more lips uh this episode we do not agree this episode we got some uh yeah this is there's some bad takes Yeah, I agree. Yours are troubled. Yeah. Bus. All right. We each have a individual bust pick. Jason's is deeply upsetting. I agree. Mike, do you want to go first? You want me to go first? I'm happy to go first. I'm trying to save, like, I can see the analytics of people that watch our show. And a lot of people listen to the whole thing. But like.

statistically speaking, there's drop off over time because people have a certain amount of time to listen. So you can watch it, you know, like 100% of people listening and then it goes down a little bit. So then I'll go next. I'm trying to push yours to the back, Jason. Yeah. All right, Mike, you go first and then we'll get to Jason and I's very controversial picks. It, uh, it, it's kind of been the same, the whole off season and my, my opinions haven't changed. I think that Joe Mixing of the Houston Texans now. I don't think he returns on his ADP. My main point of argument is that he cannot keep getting away with this. And what I mean by that is, he can't keep getting away with this. I am Jesse Pinkman right now of the guy has been good for fantasy football. You can't argue with that. But it has been inefficient and gross to watch and he can't keep getting away with it. Last year, he was.

The RB5. However, fantasy points per game, that's his worst since 2019. Yards per route run, worst of his career, yards after contact, worse since his rookie year, breakaway 15 yard runs. The good stuff that we want. The worst of his career, just seven runs of 15 or more yards on 299 rush attempts. Guys, that's a breakaway percentage that is in line with last year's Alvin Camara, Rashad White. Like guys who when you watched him, you go, Well, that guy's getting it done by pure volume and just being on the field. And that's what Joe Mixen was last year. He had 39 attempts inside the 10. Wow. 39. And he scored eight rushing touchdowns. That is an inefficient player. DeAnd just like, awesome. How'd you do that? How'd you get up to eight? And this is a running back five on the season. However, that is because we're not.

We're not taking out game or week, the final week of the season for him, but if you do, because not everyone's playing fantasy football that week, he was the running back 13 in points per game from weeks 1 through 17. His best ability last year was availability. Over the first half of the year, he was scoring basically as much points or as many points as Tony Pollard, who people were big mad at Tony Pollard. Joe Mixing just happened to finish a little bit better, or a little bit better, and it's, The question of, does this work for the Houston Texans? Yes, the Cincinnati Bengals, high-powered offense, Houston Texans, high-powered offense. For the most part, yeah, I want running backs who are in that type of a system. I just think that Joe Mixon is being a little bit overdrafted. He's not off my board, but I think that he is being overdrafted. I'm not sure that he's going to work in this system. Look, this is Bobby Slowick, aka San Francisco South.

The players that we see work for that system, they got juice. Joe Mixen at this point of his career where he's seen his efficiency of yards per carry in the last five years be 4136, 4139, 40. He is not explosive. I don't know who on this team goes in and takes work away from Joe Mixing. That's why I'm saying he's not totally off my board. It could be nobody. Because the Damien Pierce numbers are like Barnum and Bailey type circus numbers. They are so laughably bad. I'll whisper the name Cam Acres. I will whisper that into the ether. He was potentially my hungry for more. Yeah. See, but you can't say it too loud. His preseason performance has been pretty good. We must whisper together about game makers. I just.

I see so many things going wrong for him. Of course, the targets, I brought that up before, of Joe Mixen, love checking it down to Joe Mixen. Last year, the Texans and C.J. Stroud, while Singletary started to turn it on a little bit at the end, they were still one of the lowest targets to the running back position because of C.D. Stroud, how he plays the quarterback position. So again, this is not. I'm not saying it's gloom and doom for Joe Mixen. It's an absolute disaster. There's some things that I love about it, but I'm just, he's in that. You're nervous. He's in the dead zone for running backs for a reason. I know that Jason has a very different opinion on Joe Mixing. Yeah, I don't agree that he is. I mean, I think he's a quality back. Can keep getting away with this? I think he can. I think he will keep getting away with this. I mean, I agree with you that. That system is much better with an explosive.

speedster. I mean, that's where you're going to get the juice of the real high upside. And I would agree with you that Mixon does not have that. But would you say Devon Singletary has explosive juice? I think that he's got good short area speed, better than Joe Mixing. Okay. I mean, maybe, maybe he's. Rebuttal. Yeah. I'm just like, no one has ever. talked about Devin Singletary as an explosive athlete. He's a quality back that has good vision and, and, you know, can make the first guy miss in a box. And Joe Mixen can break that first tackle in a box. And my point is last year, when they made that transition away from trying to make Damien Pierce work, and they said, okay, Singletary's better. You're the lead back. From that point forward, he was the running back nine in this system. I can't wait for them to find that running back this year. Yeah, I mean, this is.

This is why he's not a consensus. Yeah. Bust pick. Joe Mixon is 28 years old. So we're at age cliff. He's going into season eight. He is at season cliff. Like the red flags on Joe are waving rapidly in the winds. I lean, lean, like a slight two steps to the right towards the mixing being okay for this year. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think he's going to be a top five guy, but I don't think he's going to be. you know, the running back 20 either. I look at him and Jacob similarly. Sure. Where good offense, good money, red flags from previous inefficiencies, but I could be just wrong about them in either direction. Yeah, at least Jacobs is younger. I'm going to offend, and then Jason will offend. My bust pick is not going to make people happy. It's Jackson Smith and Jigba. Boo! And I know you're both booing. Yeah.