Keep/Trade/Cut + Upside Players - Fantasy Football Podcast for 6/6

We've got a wild and wacky show for you today. We are Keep Trade Cutting a bunch of different players, whether they're in the same situation, same archetypes, same round, and we've got a lot of great discussion, plus some mailbag on today's show. Like, subscribe, and enjoy. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Someone's excited for June. Welcome in one and all. It's a man powered by the infernal necromatic powers of... I don't know. What are you doing, Diablo? I think you're just scurry through hell. I mean, you just kill demons, right? I may... You're powered up. Once again, jumped into the fray. I did... Did you see the tweet? The tweet was very funny. That was actually sent to me by my...

My sister's boyfriend, because I played video games with him. Okay. And he was making fun of the fact that I have, you know, you know, like a spouse and kids and responsibilities. And we were trying. Making fun of, huh? Well, I mean. This is, this is a husband material here? I mean, I think. Does your sister know this? I think this is in his plans maybe, but right now his priority is Diablo four. And he has the luxury of it. I mean, we were all young once. It was a long time ago. I mean, we've even gone from the part where Mike used to play a lot of video games. Yeah. Then you used to buy a lot of video games and leave them in their shrink wrap. Yeah. Yep. And now I don't know if you even buy them and keep them in the shrink wrap anymore. No, I don't keep them in the shrink rack. I, shrink wrap. I keep them nice and tidy on my hard drive. They're there just in case I need them. Other folks who were not playing Diablo like I was.

I mean, this is going to be short-lived. I'm going to crack out. Right. And then be threatened with some consequences in my marriage, and then we'll move on. But no, most people were probably using the UDK this past weekend because it did release on June 1st. And so hopefully you're enjoying that. Our team, very proud of the work put into it. It's come out that we have the equivalent word count of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone. That's the amount of original content in the UDK to go along with the player profile videos, to go along with sleepers, breakouts, busts, lots of different stuff. So you can check that out. It is available now, everything, not just the UDK Plus, the full UDKK, Ultimate DraftKit.com. We also, go ahead, Mike. Say the draft analyzer is July 1st. I just don't want it. That is true. I mean, you said everything. Yeah, I'd lie.

I meant the UDK and the UDK Plus. There we go. Thank you, Mike. And then the draft analyzer hits July 1st. There we go. Okay. Sorry. I lied. Also out. Street Fighter 6. That's what I was doing. Were you really? Yeah, man. Oh, you're playing video. I'm back, baby. Oh, my gosh. Midlife crisis. A couple of young men over here. You were fixing a flat tire like a real man. Yeah. How'd that go? I guess it worked. Did your phone? Make the proper call? No, no, my hands had to tear away parts of tigers. Wait, you had to do it? Yeah, and I did it, and we drove home. But you did call Al Borland. Oh, yeah, I can't do it on my own. Al was there for me to support me, send me videos of how to do this stuff. Oh, did he send you some tutorials? Oh, of course. Thank you, Al. Did he rip up his own car in order to display it for you? Wow. He's a real man. Al is a very selfless man, genuinely.

Shout out to Deucer's Alley this morning. Yeah. Thank you. Justin Jefferson signed Jersey. We're giving it away. We've given it away. The giveaway is over. Congratulations. We're having a hard time today. Your brain is somewhere. Mine is somewhere. I didn't even have lunch. Oh, man. Power through. Nicholas Barbary. Congratulations. You've won a Justin Jefferson signed jersey. We'll make sure Papa Josh gets that in the mail to you. And congratulations. We'll do some more giveaways here soon. That was a big one. Yes, it was. Justin Jefferson. The website, the Fantasy Footballers.com, all the rankings for 2023. They're up there. And we're working on a start-sit tool for your drafts. That'll come out here soon. Be available to everybody. And lots going on. So you can follow us on socials. What do we call that? Because it's not a start-s-s-s-sat. Who do I draft? That's not.

That's not flashy. You need something shorter? Yeah. Start sit tool. Draft plus. Draft. Who? We'll put that. We'll get that in the workshop. Jason, you're contributing very little to this discussion. I'm just here for the show, man. Oh, man. Quick question of the day from Twitter. If you miss out on an early elite tight end in drafts, are you willing to take two at the end? So this is a redraft question. Yeah, two bad tight ends do not equal one good tight end. Yeah, you don't get to play them both. No, there's no situation where I'm doing that. You're going to, who you're going to draft at the end is someone that you think has a little bit of upside. I've got some names that I would target. I like David Nogoku. I like Greg Dulcich. Those are two kind of later guys that I'm happy to walk away with. I hope they could turn into something. Neither one will because all tight ends suck outside of the top few.

stream off of the waivers but grabbing two thinking like I'm just I'm going to double my odds at one of them hitting is a waste of a roster spot for a running back or a wide receiver that actually you're absolutely right and one of those guys can go ahead and do that on the waiver wire and then you can go bid on yep you know there's going to be some lottery being played in the waiver wire and you're going to have I mean week one prediction tight ends that will do nothing from weeks 2 through 17. There will be some that do something fantastic week one. And God save us all if it's Dalton Kincaid. Oh, man. If it's Dalton Kincaid, there's going to be people dropping serious fab. I mean, like 75%. People will get out of control. My answer to this question, it's probably David Najoku. And it's when I'm looking at tight ends here,

I, it's what is the story? What is the path for this tight end to hopefully become the number two option on their team? Because asking for them to be the number one option is that's just, it's too much. Don't do that to yourself. The number two option. And it's like, well, there's Amari Cooper and no one else. And it worked out in stretches for Najoku last year. We'll see if Deshaun Watson, aka Voldemort, can learn, remember how to play quarterback. That will certainly help. I think the mute is... That's why Chig is on the list for me because Chigakon Quote looks like an easy path to the number two option where some good news about Traylen Berks recently. I don't know if you saw that, but Chig seems like he has an opportunity to be that. You brought up, you brought up Pat Friar Mew. Yeah, because I was like the path to the Muth being the number two option for Pittsburgh, it still exists to me. I know that it's like George Pickens.

Highlight videos galore makes incredible catches all the time. Was strangely underutilized, but maybe that's just how the Steelers see him. And the Fryer Muth, if Muth had just added, I don't know, three touchdowns because Kenny Pickett was not able to do that last year, if Muth had added three touchdowns last year, he would not be being drafted as the tight end 10. He's in the 700s and yards? I'll go, yeah, I'll go vet his numbers. I think he was up there. So, I mean, you're right. That was kind of one of those areas where probably not noticed due to the sludge that was that offense. Yeah, you need to have, you need to have touchdowns. So Fryer Muth, let's see. 732 yards. Yeah. So Fryer Muth had the sixth most targets. He had the six most yards, but he only had two touchdowns. So you just, seriously, you just bump that up to five and that's a huge difference. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league.

I mean, I am hesitant to call this a Delvin Cook update. Oh, man. It's just Melvin Cota cooked by day. Minnesota. We're well into June. We're well into June, Mike. Latest reports, he's cleared to start training camp, shoulder surgery. It's been training in South Florida. A report came out earlier today that a trade between the dolphins and the Vikings back in March was extremely close. But had they done the trade back then, Minnesota would have shouldered more of the financial burden of Dalvin Cook's contract. So maybe that's why they kept holding off. We hear all sorts of things about this moves. When was that back in March? Yeah. So pre- Devon A-chain. Exactly. Yeah. So I don't think that's going to stop. No, they still seem interested. If they want Dalvin Cook, drafting Devon A-chain in the third is not going to stop them. I agree. I agree. And what's wild, though, is it's June 6th.

And at least while we're recording this, he's still a Viking. Yep. And, you know, we also thought Hopkins would still be a Cardinal for a while there. And it changes quickly so that could happen. But I think that the fact that he's clear to start training, I think that's probably a big deal. The other bit of news here, we've got a little hype train news, I guess. I think this is important to keep Mike in his, Mike in place, you know, just. Don't let him get this troutman crap going too quickly in Denver. But Sean Payton, team is starting to develop Greg Dulcich, unique skill set. They called him a Joker. If you read the Denver article about it, traits in the passing game, get mismatches, use them in the passing game. I mean, we saw it on film last year.

It's a very, very talented tight end. And that was as a rookie, when, you know, rookie tight ends don't do much. Five of his 10 games, he had over eight fantasy points. This is why when I'm looking at, you know, who's that young tight end that might take the next step that you're always hopeful for? Greg Dulcich is my late round pick. And then Shailen Berks, I mentioned it, favorite target of Ryan Tanahill at OTAs. Also, that sentence would have... worked out well if you said it was his only targeted OTAs. Yeah, he's the only person there. Um, no other news. Brooks, you got anything? Nothing. You doing okay over there, Al? Doing great. Thank you. Yeah. I was typing. I had to get my hands on. I just trying to give Deucers Elliott's day in the sun over here. Nobody's doing it. Okay. Wow. All right. Thanks, Brooks. Um, all right.

We have a Keep Trade Cut episode today. What I was trying to do for those listening at home. Yeah. Was throw the camera over to Inducers All right. And I don't know why he won't do it. Oh, there. There we go. Look at that. Somehow I wasn't following. Are you embarrassed of some way of your appearance today, Brooks? Always. Because you look. You look great. I get that. I like the backwards hat. You're looking mean. And the reason I wanted to throw it over there is we have another face over Inducer's Alley. The Borgogan is not in his normal spot. We don't really know where he is. We've been looking everywhere. Guys, he's in the upside down. But we do have another face over there, Justin Rapp, who is now a part of this team, is sitting in the third seat, social media, extraordinary. And I think he needs a nickname. I just don't know what it is. Those have to come naturally. Yes. Well, I just thought that maybe the footlands could provide some ideas. Right now.

I mean, we call him rap. Yep. That's all we got. It's all we got. Rap tap, tapping. So we'll see. We'll see what they come up with. You guys ready to get into our Keep Trade Cut? Let's go. Keep Trade Cut. All right. These are tough. I hope you brought your brain, Jason. Oh, I'm here. Yeah. Keep Trade Cut decisions for 2023 redraft. Here we go. T. Higgins. Jalen Waddle, Devante Smith. Congrats to Mr. Devante Smith. Did you see his update on social media? What happened? Expecting a new little one. Oh, congratulations. Also, kind of not the kind of, what would you call those photos? If it's you and I guess a maternity photos, right? Sure. A maternity shoot? He is, I mean, it's a beautiful kitchen they're standing in. And she's beautiful glowing the belly. Right.

He's got no shirt on. I mean, this is the most stylish maternity photo I've ever seen in my life. I imagine that he is super shredded. Yeah, he is. I mean, it's just look at yourself in the mirror and say, where I particularly shredded at the time of the maternity shoot, would I have a shirt on? No, no, I would not. No, I may not have pants on. And then my wife may not be in the shoot, and it might just be me taking pictures of myself in my briefs. A maternity shoot is Mike in his briefs. But only if I'm shredded. Yeah, I get it. No. T. Higgins, Jalen, Waddle, Devante Smith. This is this trifect of young wide receivers, they kind of naturally.

belong together, right? Of course, the wide receiver two on their team. Right. You have Tyreek and Jamar Chase and A.J. Brown. Do you think that feels bad for, like, for Higgins? I don't know. Because, like, I mean, I have to believe that T. Higgins watches Jamar Chase play football and goes, Yeah, I get it. He's better than me. But he's the young one. Meanwhile, all these other two players is the veteran who is the true number one on the team. Devante Smith was the number 10 pick in the draft. Yes. And Jaylen Waddle was what? Six. Five or six. I don't remember. Something that Kyle would tell us. Oh, it's six. It's six. Those two guys, I think it would feel worse for. Heisman winner, number 10 pick. Jalen Wattle, number six pick.

T. Higgins wasn't a first rounder, right? Correct. Second rounder. Yeah, you can handle second round, second on your team. I'm just saying that would, like, when if a guy comes in in week one of his rookie year, you go, oh, crap, that guy's better than me already. So let's go keep trade cut, T. Higgins, Jalen Waddle, DeVante Smith, but let's also talk about ceilings because are they the same for these three guys or does one of them have the potential to finish well above the other two? You know, when I look at the ceiling of these three guys, I think Jalen Waddle has,

easily the highest to me. He has a skill set that, you know, when this team puts him in a situation where he can catch and run, unlike what he had his rookie season, I mean, there's, there's a, the amount of big plays, this guy could end up with 10 touchdowns and zero that were targeted in the end zone. That's just kind of the athletic talent. And I also think it's very difficult to guard the speed that the dolphins have. If Tua is healthy and is what we saw the first half of last year before the concussion problems, that to me spells the path to greatness. So he would be my keep in this situation. Of these three guys, I don't think he has the easiest path to end as the wide receiver won for their team. I don't think he'll out target Tyreek Hill. Whereas DeVanta Smith, I think DeVanta Smith could.

into this season, it wouldn't shock me if he ended up with more targets than A.J. Brown. If he was more of the possession guy and A.J. Brown was more of the deep threat. But I'm going to take just the freakish athleticism. Higgins is great. Devante Smith is great. But they aren't the athlete that Jalen Waddle is. I can make an easier case. Like you said, he may be the possession guy, Devante Smith. He can make big plays too. But I can at least make a case where, like, Dallas Goddard was missing for some of the year. They can build an offense around three targets in this law. You know, I can't make that case for the Miami situation. He'd be my keep as well, Mike. Where do you weigh in? For me, it is, it's T. Higgins. And I won't argue that Waddle, like, T. Higgins doesn't, isn't as fast as Waddle. And he can't be the yards after catch player that Jalen Waddle is. But I think Higgins is a tremendous wide receiver.

And this is, I'm going to bet on the passing offense where the numbers for the Eagles and Jalen Hertz ascension last year, it was tremendous. I mean, he was on pace, believe, you know, if you prorate him out to 17 games, he would have hit the 4,000 yard mark. But he's in the mid-20s in passing touchdowns. Meanwhile, Joe Burrow is going to be touching up against 5,000 yards and Joe Burrow could throw 40 plus touchdowns this year. So I want a, I want the piece of that. offense where they all have built in should the number one miss time these guys get a huge elevation um but i'll take t higgins and it's it's hard to you know like just just full box score hunt and look and try and find who was better because higgins has all these games where he played but didn't actually play because he either got

He left the game after one snap or after like half of the first quarter. So I'm going to go with T. Higgins who went in games when they were playing. Jamar Chase was hitting about a 27% target share. T. Higgins was about 21%. Give me 21% of Joe Burroughs. Joe Burrow passing the ball over like 24, 25 for DeVantza Smith. And I think it still works out for Higgins. It's wild because if you look at one of the metrics we have on the site is consistency, which we're looking at the percentage of games. in a wide receiver's case where they exceed 10 and a half points in the last 17 games played. Waddle and Higgins are identical. They both are at 58.8%. And that includes Higgins being knocked out of games. Sure, sure. And Waddle as well. Who missed a view. But DeVante Smith's consistency is up at 64.7%. You mentioned the higher target share. He also had higher red zone targets. Like that's the one area where Jalen Waddle was.

Very deficient compared to the other two. Waddle just had eight of them, whereas the other two were at 12 and 13. So look, you're not going to go wrong with these players. They're all great. I think the biggest risk is probably the injury risk to Tua that could impact Waddle. Yeah, Waddle is riskier, I think, than the other guys because of that. But he finished at seven last time. Yeah, he was already the wide receiver. Seven. I mean, these three guys are all great. And they're all going to round the same spot at your draft. So you're just going to have to pick one. You're not getting both unless they're, you know, right by a turn. And you go with that. And here's a fun fact. All three of these players, they played in the 2019 national championship game in college. Very interesting. Yeah. Yeah, you said that so.

Now, what do you want me to do with that fun facts, Jason? I want you to know it. That's it. That's the end of what you can do with that. Yeah, that's okay sometimes. Sometimes it's just good to know stuff. So, like, Fum on Jeopardy. Right. And then they say these three players. And I'm like, oh, who was in the 2019 championship? Has the show Jeopardy single-handedly made those facts okay to just give to people? I think. Like without that excuse, you'd be like, Well, I could be on Jeopardy one day. I'm glad I know that now. You got to store all the factoids you can store. All right. We are going to take a quick break. Come back with some more keep trade cut. I didn't notice Jason had his Yellowstone Dutton Ranch shirt on today. Well, he's ready. One of his most prized possessions. I was a man yesterday with my tire. So I felt like I could, you know, wrangle some cattle. You could handle Montana. No problem. One spare tire. Next stop, rancher.

I'm sorry, ranchers out there. Jason also thinks he can land a plane, no problem. So I would not worry about this. Keep trade cut. Damian Pierce, Isaiah Pacheco, Rashad White. This is a group of running backs that are being drafted very close together. Question marks galore. Let me start it this way. Before you give me your keep trade cut. Because I don't know if I know your answer. Who do you think is the genuine, most talented player of the three? Damian Pierce. Damian Pierce. Okay. I think I side that side too. I side that side. Yeah. That's normal. You know, this is where when you listen to the show, you get a little bit more context of how we view players and their range of outcomes versus just linear rankings.

You know, when I look at who I would keep from this bunch, I'm thinking about these are later around, you know, later drafted running backs. And I'm looking at the ceiling case. Now, I've spoken recently against Damien Pierce. My expectation is that he is going to massively lose volume as a day three running back to Devon Singletary, who the new coaching staff brought in and is a very good running back. And you made a very compelling case. I mean, highlighting that. Shear volume is what got him there last year. I think he only had four touchdowns. He would have to go massively up in touchdowns to kind of be what he was last year. Right. And so. And he has a rookie quarterback this year. Yeah. There's a lot of things, reasons that I've spoken against him. But as I believe he is the most talented of these three, just as far as like if I'm a general manager in the NFL and I want to grab one of these backs, I think Damien Pierce showed a lot on film that was good. So if I'm grabbing someone as.

My RB3, I am looking for upside there. There is a clear path of upside for Isaiah Pacheco, Rashad White, and Damian Pierce. You can make the narrative for any of them, whether it's the team they're on, the situation, you know, Isaiah Pacheco gets to play for the chiefs, have more touchdown opportunities, and Rashad White is far more all alone than these other guys and could just volume his way. But in the end, I'm going to lean towards talent. I think Damian Pierce would actually be my keep out of these three guys just because if one of them were to hit, I think it would be Damian Pierce. I don't expect any of these guys to hit. I am more of a cut, cut, cut. But that's not the game we're playing here. We're playing keep trade cuts. You wish. Yeah, I'm going to keep Damien Pierce here. Are we underestimating the potential for Damian Pierce to fill in some of that.

volume difference with third downwork, where we, I mean, he, unlike Pacheco, who had, I think, 20 targets on the year. I mean, it will be, they have Jerich McKinnon. Right, yeah, so Pacheco's not going to do that. But Damian Pierce had a, a good stretch from the by week on where he, in games not knocked out, he was on pace for 58 targets, 41 receptions. We talked about them clearing out that room a little bit. And Rex Burkhead, while he wasn't super involved in the rushing game last year, he was involved in the passing game. So Rex, he's gone. Damien Pierce has opportunity there, yeah, I think that's true. And if talent wins, if talent finds itself on the field, that could be a path. I only brought that up because Rashad Wade's case is entirely PPR, right? It's entirely past catching. Efficiency wasn't there last year on the ground. We're all holding our breath. They don't add another running back to the room.

They might not. I mean, if they're heading for the top five, if their Trask plan, their Baker plan is going to end with a new quarterback, why out of Zeke or somebody? You're not competing. Zeke's not signing there. Yeah. For Rashad White, his, like, the number one threat to touches for Rashad White is Chase Edmonds, who is now on. what his third team in less than a calendar year? Things really turned for Chase. They did. Yeah. He was very good in Arizona. He had, he had his flashes. Miami Denver now Tampa. I had the opportunity to be Miami's primary guy. That got shut down. He got beat out by a, what, a 30 plus year old Rahim Mostert gets cut. He prefers to be called Rahim Moster, by the way. Rahim Mostert? Yeah, not 30 plus year old. Oh, sure. It's kind of how I would go about my life.

Like Jason doesn't want to be known as 40-year-old Jason Moore. 40-plus, 40-plus-year-old. Yeah, no, I don't. So stop that. But so, so Chase Simmons goes to the Denver Broncos. I mean, that does not, yeah, okay, so he was traded to Denver. That does not speak highly of a player getting onto the field, like just. He couldn't catch in Miami. He could catch in Arizona. Yeah, so it was very strange what happened to him. But even though the passing attempts are going to go. way down from where they were for Rashad White and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I still think he's going to be super duper involved. And it's like Pacheco won't have receptions. And unfortunately, while he's on a higher powered offense, maybe the highest powered in the league, they like to throw all their touchdowns. They just, I don't know since Patrick Mahomes has been there. Like what has been an actual good rushing touchdown mark since Kareem Hunt? And Damien Pierce,

Devon Singletary will get him off the field more than people want more than the Pierce Truthers would hope. And so this is a, I want pure volume here, baby. Give me that half point and that full point bump each time he catches the ball. So you're keeping Rashad. I'm going to keep Rashad White. Yeah, Rashad White is very interesting because with Leonard Fournet gone, volume is guaranteed for Rashad White. He just really looked. not good at football last year in his opportunity, which is surprising because he, you know, his athletic profile is good and he received so many opportunities. It could have been a scheme thing where... It could have been his mentor at the time was Leonard Fournett. And Fournette was saying, this is how you do it. This is how you get so much volume and then you're just really inefficient with it. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, honestly, a lot of the dump-offs were probably...