Sleeper Picks + Preseason Battles

I don't think that it's guaranteed that he's going to have any role on this team. I don't. I would be shocked if he doesn't have a role. You've been out on Crabtree for like three years. And I don't think it's guarantee. Look, you don't add veteran guys at the 11th hour going into week three. You know, those are not high priority players for your offensive system. Sure. I understand he has experience in the air raid and the concepts. But you're not like.

Kishon Johnson is going to have a bigger role than Michael Crabtree is. Christian Kirk, Larry Fitzgerald. Those aren't the guys I'm arguing for. If Crabtree plays, it would be over Kishon Johnson. It would be the coaching staff has decided even though he's been the quote star of camp. But maybe we've seen plenty of superstars at training camp who aren't actually ready to play when it's Sunday. So maybe Crabtree comes in as the third wide receiver.

All right, Anthony Miller's been out of action since August 10th. This is not great for the early season prognosis for Anthony Miller. No. He needs to move forward. The team loves him. They talk all about the mental reps he's taken and the attention to detail in the meeting room, but you need to be on the field. Anthony Miller was my sleeper pick from about a week and a half ago, had put that in, and this injury took him out. I've replaced him because I don't want to draft a guy that's going to get off to a slow start. I still think keep your eye on him.

pick him up off of waivers when he's healthy and back out there. He's definitely a talented receiver. All right. There was some news yesterday about the Vance Dance, Vance McDonald. They asked the offensive coordinator of Pittsburgh whether he would see increased playing time in 2019. He says he won't. He's never going to play the full game. That's never going to happen. Mike put his pants on so quick. Look, I've recovered.

Okay, so initially, when that came out, especially coming from the mouth of... Oh! That was me yesterday. And the OC, I mean, it was a kick right to the netheres. After I picked myself up off the floor, the tummy ache subsided? Like, yes, he doesn't have to play the full game. Most tight ends aren't George Kittled, Travis Kelsey, Zachert's playing 90% of the snaps. I mean, you look at...

Like Evan Ingram over that second half of the year where Engram was a great fantasy tight in, I mean, he's playing 70% of the snaps. And I still believe that Vance McDonald can get up to that. Maybe he doesn't ever play the 90% play the full game. But it would be absolutely baffling if Vance McDonald isn't playing up around the 70% of snaps. I mean, you just look at the depth chart and say, okay, if he's not. Xavier Grimble. Who?

Not so nimble. Right. So I don't think they've got a choice. I mean, you need pass catchers out there. They'll play two tight ends. I mean, Grimble will be out there. He'll be the inline guy like Jesse James. And I don't think this is a story. The story for Vance McDonald is like is not.

Oh, I really hope he gets all the snaps for the team. The story for Vance McDonald is there's this giant gaping hole of targets with Antonio Brown leaving the team. And snaps at the tight end position. Sure. But I mean, even if you say, hey, he's going to be on the field. Grimble will be in line blocker. Just like Jesse James was snap-wise, I'm more interested in the fact that Big Ben now cares about throwing the ball to Vance McDonald. It's not so much, you know, any of the, oh, he's not going to get an extra snap. I doubt.

that this offensive coordinator is going, well, you did that many snaps. Right. And you're off the field. Last year was his healthiest year. So, yes. Your point is well taken, Andy, that if he just plays the same amount of snaps that he did last year, he'll still get more targets because Antonio Brown is not out there playing those same snaps. 15 touchdowns? Is that what Antonio Brown had last year? Yes, sir. So he'll have zero for them this year.

Bold take. So, red zone opportunities. You take a tight-in, give him three more touchdowns on the snap count that Vance had last year. I still think there's reason for optimism. Yes, I've recovered, and I'm still there. I have not adjusted Vance McDonald's. Well, the dance would have gotten out of control if, if he came out. If Randy Finner said, we're never, did the Bruce Ariens with Godwin and said, he will never leave the field. Oh, man. That would be an inappropriate dance. Yeah. This was interesting to me.

Jay Glazer reporting on watching Cooper Cup at practice says he timed better in every athletic test post ACL tear said it was amazing what Cooper Cup looks like. So we've done this ping pong ball a little bit with Cup. It's super excited. He's the best value in fantasy because all three of those guys are valuable and he's the latest one. Then it's he might be a slow start, more two tight-in sets.

give him a chance to recover from the ACL. Then it's, oh, he looks better than he did before the ACL. He's a young player. He was a red zone threat. Where do you fall on the pendulum swing of Cooper Cup? I've been fully back for a couple weeks since when he went into training camp, was fully cleared to practice right away. I mean, that's a huge signal number one. And then just injury people that I trust have been watching him saying Cooper Cup looks like he is, he's back to health.

Of course, he still carries the ACL risk of these guys tend to hurt a hamstring at some point, usually early on in the season. So that risk exists, but that's baked into his ADP, where you're drafting Cooper Cup right now. If he didn't have any of those problems, he'd be going at least a round earlier. All right, a couple hype train things. Alexander Madison, a little hype report yesterday. Alexander Madison.

He's name is Alexander Madison. This is Jay Glazer, by the way, who did the Cup report. He's a big fan of adjectives. I mean, big ones. Can't stop raving about the Vikings. The Vikings. Not Jay Glazer. The Vikings. Well, Jay Glazer reported that the Vikings were raving to him. I'd just say the report is a lot different. If we're like, guys, Jay Glazer loves Alexander Madison. Sure, sure. Front row tickets. His point was the hype train here is that.

The team is on board Alexander Madison. He's a good player. And this is not very different from New Orleans. And as much as Mark Ingram had a role on the roster. Last year, Latavius Murray had a role on the roster. Dalvin Cook has not been the pinnacle of health. Alexander Madison is starting to look like a very interesting flyer in the Jalen Samuels category of fantasy drafts. Yeah. Look, he could. He could have standalone value.

I know that all, like, we've, you guys especially have been very high on Dalvin Cook. The inside Minnesota source is talking about the entire offense is going to run around Dalvin Cook. And look, if you want to, if you're still on that side, that's perfectly fine. But if the team is in fact really falling in love with their third round running back pick, it just, it creates a little bit more probability that maybe Dalvin Cook doesn't actually.

achieve that workload that they've been talking about. To me, it's all about goal line. You know, the reports where Alvin Cook was going to be the goal line guy this year. If that's the case for fantasy, he's going to be unbelievable. It has a chance to be in the top three. But if he's not, if he's splitting that 50% of the time with Alexander Madison, who is built for that, then that's going to take the upside. That's going to take the top off of it. And that does concern me. I've tried to reach out.

to some Minnesota insiders will stay tuned. There's opportunity there for sure. So that was today's news and notes from Sleeper, play on a fantasy sports platform that does not suck. Modern design, infinite customization, support for redraft, dynasty, check out the Sleeper app. Now, before we get into our sleepers, we're doing Sleeper picks on the show today. We've got to thank today's sponsors. And this episode of Fantasy Footballers is brought to you by,

Head and shoulders and Walmart. Now, Mike, I want to be clear about something with you. What's that? Using head and shoulders. Every day, it's great offense for your hair, Mike. What? Andy, I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying about the offense. But head and shoulders, it's great defense for the flakes. But at the same time, what I'm saying is it's offense. It's defense. I know I said we don't always agree, but it's offense. It's...

It's defense, Andy. We'll shift gears. Chunky peanut butter. Creamy peanut butter. That's ridiculous. Peanut butter and jelly. Peanut butter and honey. What is happening? That's asinine. You're stupid. Best hair in the NFL, Travis Kelsey. Odell Beckham. Yeah, you might be right there. Pop. Soda. I got that from my mom. We call it pop around the house. Dogs? Okay, dogs. We can widely agree. Agree on head of joy. Back to head and shoulders.

It's like a two-point conversion for your hair, Mike. Andy, we talked about this. It's like a safety against flakes. I think it's more offensive. Look, defense for a flake-free scalp. Check out head and shoulders on walmart.com or look for head and shoulders blue and white bottle at your local Walmart store. And no matter where you fall on that debate, they'll give you 100% flake-free scalp, offense or defense. Check out head and shoulders, Walmart.com or...

Look for it. Find it at your local Walmart store. Exactly. And Foot Clan, wow. World of Warcraft Classic is coming. You give me the tingles. Blizzard Entertainment has been hard at work restoring and recreating the original world of Azaroth as it was in the earliest days, just as you remember it, right down to the last pain staking detail. We are talking, Leroy Jenkins in his heyday. We're talking UBRS runs.

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So you're ready to go the moment the servers go live. Check out wowclassic.com slash fantasy footballers for all the details. Sleepers. All right. Yesterday we had the bus show. We had the breakout show the day before. Now we're on to sleepers. We've each got a couple of names we want to bring forward. Jason, I'm going to set the ball on the tee for you. You can go first. Sure thing. I've got a twofer here.

I've got a two-for. I've got two running backs I'm going to throw out really, really quick because one, I just want to name is Malcolm Brown. Malcolm Brown is a guy that is the actual backup to Todd Gurley. It's not Darrell Henderson. Yes. But Darrell Henderson is going to the seventh round, and Malcolm Brown is late 13th, aka undrafted. So get Malcolm Brown. But the actual guy that I am very interested in also very late in drafts is Damien Harris. Damien Harris...

The rookie running back for the Patriots, they spent a day two pick on him in the third round. After spending a first round pick on Sony Michelle last year, winning a Super Bowl, Damien Harris, look, everyone loves Josh Jacobs, right? He's the number one back in the league, but he was the, essentially, he split time with Damian Harris at Alabama. He was the backup to Damien Harris because Damien Harris is a really talented back. He has rave reviews early on in camp.

He got injured for a little while during camp, and then the buzz went away. But now he's back. This last preseason game, he looked awesome. The other players came out and talked about how awesome he was. Rex Burkhead came out and was like, the dude's been great. And that's whose job he's taken. Sorry, Rex. But the upside with Damien Harris, we always talk about rookie running backs. They can explode, you know, two and a quarter per year, finish as an RB1. Sony Michelle.

has a wee bit of an injury history. Tours ACL in high school missed games at Georgia for a fractured shoulder blade, an ankle injury, another knee injury, then gets drafted, was expected to fall in the draft because of his degenerative knee issue. Then he ended up missing the beginning of the season to a knee issue, then missed a couple more games later in the season. Already this year has had another knee scope. It's not going away. His knee's not like,

Oh, good. I got a new knee. I'm good to go forever. So Damian Harris is a very late round pick that I think could get involved more than is expected. I think he could take some of that Rex Burkhead passing work. I know yesterday you talked about not being in love with James White. I think Damian Harris is a reason against James White. Well, I mean, these are sleepers. I just wish you could talk about Damian Harris without talking down about Sonny Michelle. Well, but he's the upside.