Second Half Sleepers + Trade Targets, ROS Outlooks - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/28

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore. Are you doing some hand-dancing over there? I guess Wednesday October 28th, the Fantasy Footballers podcast, back with you for another episode of the show, episode 2003. The Quest for 3000. The Quest for 3000 begins now. Second half sleepers on today's show. Thursday night break down NFL news. Your questions on the mailbag is really we're going to have a golden show soon. We're going to have show 2026 in 2026. Okay. So that's a golden show. Yeah, it's like your golden birthday is like if you, you know, we're born on the 25th, your 25th birthday would be. Yeah. Got it. So producers. I mean, do something special. Communities over at join the foot.com, the website, the fantasy footballers.com, all the ranking starts it to all that stuff available to you. If you still use the internet, Instagram.com/fantasyfootballers. Shout out to the still first place. Show me your touchdowns in the megalable DJ is number two. Purdy Strange flowers. Number three. Number four is he shall not be named. And then swaggy at number five Jason 14 and oh, I'm climbing. But at 537th place. It's still like the top two percentile. We had a quick question. Can you say that second percentile? Yeah, I saw the clip. Yeah, what do you think? It's rough. And I just got I got to think he's just talking etymology. Like not knowing it was person. Right. Like the the genesis of the word versus like he said some stuff though. He said some stuff that was like, I'm not really been a numbers stats person. We see that. Nick, you know, hi, I hate analytics writing. And do you hate losing nerds more than you enjoy winning? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's oh, yeah. That's human nature. Did you see me on Monday? It's a it's great to win. Is there is there people who have the opposite? Let's just be honest. If you lose in fantasy, it completely feels like an injustice happened. Yeah, because you can find a win. You do not. I would yes. I intended to win when you win. You do not. There is no revisionist history to a win. You don't go back and go like. Like I don't go to you guys and point out his best player only scored 10. And his spot start didn't work out in his quarterback through an interception. I never tell you that stuff. I'm like, I won. I did good stuff. When I lose, it's like Tony Pollard had the best game he's had in three years against me. You really went into the laboratory. I was. I was mad. I was mad. I'm still mad. I just opened up Tony Pollard's box score today. And it's nine eight thirteen four seven thirty seven. He's trying to get out of town. He's like, Hey, trade deadlines in two weeks. Let me show some stuff. We all hate losing more than we enjoy winning, although we enjoy winning. When winning the championship is different, like the memories I have of my high kicks in my underwear, you know, when Alan Robinson was going down, when I knew like, dude, you didn't need that part of it. But I mean, but that's the memory. You know, those that sticks with you, but the normal wins normal wins do not stick with you. They just don't. I don't. I don't remember a good, important win on my way to the championship versus I remember lots of. I remember rivers freaking Phillip rivers with his seven hundred interceptions. I remember that loss. And that was, you know, it was just a normal week. I remember playing a defense against Ian book. And knocking off. That was a win. That was a win is the middle finger against Al Borland. But, uh, yeah, I mean, definitely. I think we all agree on that one. Let's talk. It's stupid. Losing. Yeah. No, it's stupid that we feel that way. Like, why do we feel so compelled and driven to put such time, energy and resources into a game where the goal is to not lose. Oh, which, yeah, which we just said it was like why do we do lose and I mean that I've heard I've heard professional football players. They say the same thing. They're like, yeah, a loss is so much worse than actual win. Why what is wrong with us? Yeah, if you win, it's just like, okay, onto the next. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, maybe we'll be happy tonight. We wake up in the morning and we go to work. That's it. And a loss. You're like, I'm upset for weeks. Yeah. Yeah. The teams talk about wanting to give teams two losses. Like that's that is in the locker room. The idea, the Detroit Lions did it the last couple of years. They were notorious for this. Teams would lose to the Lions. And then they would lose the next week. They would be so beat down. That that loss carried over to the next week. It's it's human nature. I'll said, would you be more upset to lose a thousand dollars of your money out of your own pocket than you would be happy to find a thousand on the ground. Yes, I think most people are going to say, definitely, I'd be more upset to lose my money. I don't mean it'd be pretty cool to find that thousand. Yeah, but you already have the money and you've lost it. Yeah, probably worse. We're talking like normal people. Right. Okay. News and notes from around the league. Lamar Jackson is quote, believed to be close to 100% expected to play Sunday against the bills. That's a huge game. It's also not how the human body works. You're not so injured that you can't go even though you were expecting to go Sunday. And then three days later, like I'm 100%. Well, it's 100% out of what fair, fair 100% out of 30. All right. I will let it go eventually, but it's entertaining right now. But the coaches were very surprised that Lamar did not play last week. I mean, it got a little weird. What this means is we will play this week. I don't think we can take, you know, the whole action. We're not going to be fully 100% you want the game to be great? The bills, the bills, Ravens games going to be awesome. According to Adam Shepter, the cult ownership does not want to trade, Jonathan Taylor. They have traded Quentin Nelson live on the show yesterday after the show to forest Buckner, who I think we said on the show, I thought we'd get traded. C. Hawks and 49ers sending these guys to the NFC West, the cults, you know, regardless of whether you want to trade or not, this is the proper posture for the best offer you can receive. There have also been rumors. I mean, we went through the teams yesterday. I basically yesterday, Jason and I were talking. I have it down to basically three teams at this point, which is Minnesota Cincinnati, Denver, I think, with the three that we said. But you were paying for it, not the bangles. I don't know if the bangles can afford him with their two wide receivers in quarterback, but I would love him to go. You know, seeing all the videos, Jonathan Taylor's wife is taking over socials. Yes. But she was talking about when she found out Quentin Nelson was traded, she feels like they've already been traded. It's a brand new team. There's no Chris Ballard, some of the best friends, some of the lives that are on the line. Michael Pittman when he was gone. Yeah, she's like, it feels like rookie year all over again. So we'll see what the team does. I don't they should. They should do it because tearing down. It just comes down to whether they get a good enough offer. They've got to get more than a second round pick for him. Yes. I don't think so. Well, I mean, I think that that's what they will think. Yeah. I'm just like, I wanted to be traded very selfishly. Like there's a location he could go. It'll be awesome for me. A team. I like my fancy football team. But this is you if you are rebuilding, you cannot rebuild on a 27 year old running back. Yeah, that's you will not get there. It's his career was Christian McCaffrey when he was traded because he was he was right around there. Yeah, he went for a two three four. Yeah. And he went to the two three four five. He he took four picks to get. And John the Taylor is not gone for cheap. I mean that that team. There's multiple decisions to be made identity of the franchise is one of them. You you don't have a face to this team. If you trades. If you trade, John, then tell your face. The face of the team is gone. I know they bring that up like the selling to the tickets already sold. Not for next year. No, that's what I'm talking about next year's tickets. The season tickets might retain this like trading Larry. Like in the doldrums of the Cardinals trading Larry is not like you do something to the fan base. It's a full goodbye. You have to at least give them an off season hope that maybe we could win. Now if they can go get a, you know, a first round pick from Minnesota. Okay, every was 26. Yeah. So every was 26. Jonathan Taylor is about to be 28. I just I'm saying it's the entire argument of the Arizona Cardinals drafting Jeremiah love to build like you're building outside. like this doesn't that it does not get you a winning franchise. The player, I think we'll get traded first is Josh Downs. I don't think Josh Downs will be on this team much longer. We'll see dealers are rumored to want to wide receiver. Chiefs as well. Kansas City needs to do something Tyrone Tracy Jr. placed on injured reserve. The prophecy of eliminating one running back per week is still coming true. Oh, man, start it with four. Please be single tarry next time. Released. Now you've lost Tracy. It's a hamstring injury to IR and you've got cam scataboo and Devon Singletary, which this is a team that could be interested in a trade for running back. Oh, Josh Downs is requesting a trade now. Yeah, I mean, yeah, because he went into the locker room and there were no jerseys in any of the things next to him. I think Downs is a great trade for candidate, not in fantasy, but like in the NFL, I think, you know, the chiefs. There was a lot of rumors about him. Josh Downs doesn't fix the chiefs. He helps. They, they need a quality wide receiver. And he is a quality rough. He helps, but I, I wouldn't make that move. Kyle Menungai, not spotted at practice. They're still waiting on him to get back. And Matthew Golden, DMP on Monday and Tuesday with a shoulder and foot injury. Now is Chicago, are they Monday night? This week, I feel like they're a later game. The matchup is Seattle news. Yeah, okay. So the, so not being there Tuesday is not a shock. I expect him. I hope I have been expecting him to be there for their normal practice routine, which I guess technically, I mean, it's tough because he hasn't been there for three weeks. Yeah, but the timeline for four you'd be on IR. Exactly. The timeline I expected him to miss the games you missed and play this week, but TBD. Matt LaFlaur on whether Matthew Golden will be available because they play on Thursday. So on one hand, missing a couple practices, not too strange. On the other hand, he said, sure hopes. So still working through it. So he could be out. You could see an uptick in Watson and Kraft and Saviour Williams and Jacob. Oh, and the butter man. Bo Melton. All right. Well, unless you guys have any. You have any other trade news? We got any trades. We do have the cold. Tony Pollard believed to be more likely to be traded than Jonathan Taylor or Barclay. We did have that one. Yeah. Which there were, there were Tony Pollard rooms earlier. Oh, Barclay rumors have been going, but I don't think he wants to go. So we'll see Thursday night. Thursday night breakdown. Having done 2,000 shows of the fantasy footballers podcast and been through 12 seasons, it has been much more exciting at the trade deadline in recent years. Yeah. It has been much more fantasy football. Yeah. Younger guys have become GM's. Now they don't. I will say this. Warning. Very exciting when a player is traded. Very unlikely. They're going to do what you think they're going to do in fantasy. I'm already Cooper. Players get traded at the deadline. You know, it's like Josh Downs. He's not doing it with 100% of the work in Indianapolis. If he gets picked up by Kansas City, or he gets, I mean, you could have some hope, but the odds of them going into a new system, a new scheme. I mean, what's Marv done? Marv has done jack crap. He's barely running any routes. So just temper the expectations. Jonathan Taylor. So he gets. He's not really running them. Oh, it's so satisfying. I mean, I, I feel like who we thought he was. It's win-win for Cardinal Finns. Yeah. If he dominates, it proves we suck. Yes. We can be madder at our team. I love that. If he sucks, we get a better pick. It proves that he just sucks. And then we were right to get rid of him when we did. And we got the Texas two. And we got the Texas two step. Yeah. All right, Thursday night Carolina at those Green Bay Packers, we just talked about Carolina coming off a butt weapon. I mean, just, yeah, nasty. Them, them cheeks still raw for sure. Right red. Agreed. Vegas line. Green Bay minus three and a half over under 47 and a half. Green Bay, coming off what some call a defeat. Others call a game stolen from them. Now you got to admit it, man. Yeah. I admit that your kicker miss two. Yeah. Like pinching. Gosh, you don't think he missed those. Get bent. Did he miss two? We will take no a care of it. Yes. Was it it? Would that six points have helped you to win the overcome? Sure. Okay. Yeah, that's he doesn't know how much he wants to have to cut out of the show as the producer. No, they got a raw deal in that game. Thank you. That's all I want to hear. No, I agree. They had some calls that went against them that I think were objectively crap, but the six points would have helped a lot. Yeah, the calls were lopsided in favor of the Lions, but there's thousands of games where refs are bad and you just got overcome. Yeah, you see, we were getting there with them and then you saw that and both teams have been up tempo. Carolina, you know, seeing them bounce back. I don't know if we'll see it in this one. I mean, the game is at Lambo on Thursday night. I've seen better things from the the Green Bay defense. There's rumors of it won't happen this week. Play soon, but Michael Parsons is practicing soon. Soon. That's the rumor. Losing Matthew Golden, I think that would be significant to the hey, get a load of this. Hey, check this out. Throws from Jordan Love, but maybe it's an opportunity for Tucker Kraft to step up. The Tucker Kraft story. I think that one for the rest of the years really interesting to me. Like he leads all tight ends and design targets screens, quick hitters, design place to him. He's out there for the majority of routes, more routes than almost any tight end and football, but he's come out off of an ACL injury. He's been a tight end one and three of the past four weeks. So he, my thought is he'll come on towards the end of the year. I don't know if that's you guys' opinion as well. It's like completely think that I think he is actually a really good trade for a candidate because he's been disappointing. I mean, people that drafted him, he hasn't been bad, but not like they were not like kill you just like, where's my weak winning week? He didn't live up to the expectation, the hope when you drafted him of he's maybe he's a top three guy. What do you think he is on the year? I'm just curious. Oh, that's a I have the number right here. I guess he's like tied in seven. He's seven. Okay. You were the best guest. I don't I don't know how you do it every time. The the thing is is he's going to a glasses on or something. He's going to see him with the jelly bean machine. Better dominate that day. Yeah, 32,652 beans plus he's all two. Yeah. He's off by one or two. But yeah, I mean, he's coming off of an injury where you expected a slow start the first half of the year and he's been pretty darn good. The you know, as things go later in the year and he gets healthier and healthier and stronger. We're going to get real talker two by four. I think you're going to get Tucker two by four. Yeah, I do. Christian Watson, you play him. How you feel about Jacob's in this one? I mean, I think most people that have him are going to play him. The matchup says you the matchup says you would have played Marshal Lloyd, right? Because the panthers are terrible against the wrong. So yeah, you played 29th and scheduled adjust to giving up 24.4 a game. That's going to be my new barometer. It's like I'm I'm not in on Jacob's like you guys are. But if you would have there's a matchup where I'm like, yeah, I probably would have played Lloyd here. I said he's so much better. I said he looks better than those other guys. I just don't think greatness is coming. We shall see Teneromeg Mellon, Jalen Koker. Go back to the well on them in Chuba. It was just a a disaster of a week. We talked about that. You kind of had to throw it out defensive scores. Short amount of, I mean, limited possessions. That game was lost in the first quarter almost. Bryce Young, always a huge risk. Jordan love leading the league in deep pass attempts. Yeah, you I noticed it. I noticed it last game. Yeah, those are great when they worked out. Sometimes you're like, why don't they throw deep more? And then in that game, I was like, that's why like if you don't hit three or four of those in a row, your drives are just over. I think that's kind of the the start. Sit break down. I think the real the biggest question mark and, you know, I feel this. I have this is Bryce Young. This is not a good matchup. He has been dominant before last week. I was shocked when I really went and looked at how good he had been for fantasy through the first seven weeks or the first six weeks of the season. And then completely shut down by the Tampa Bay of Buccaneers. You follow that up with a difficult matchup. I mean, you had the, you know, you've had the Packers give Dak Press got a bad game. Caleb Williams. Goff was two points under his usual average. And so now it's really tough to imagine. I want to start. Bryce, what you're saying started playing here. Tadaroa. Yeah, I mean, the 47 and a half point over under in a tight line. I have, I have the question of Kyler Murray against Detroit or or Bryce or Bryce. And it's like, I don't know. I mean, Jacobi was a stream of the week. Would you play Jacobi? It gets Dallas or would you play Bryce? I played Jacobi. I think all three of those are very similar to me. And the nice thing is is Bryce Young at least this year. You know, he bounced back from his kind of all let down performance to play great at home. But the, you know, this one is in Lambo. I think I lean Jacobi. I think I lean Kyler. I do too. It's the, the day to gathering I think is going to be interesting here because looking back who, who and when Bryce actually played Chicago week one, we can get easy work. We can get fantasy points against them Atlanta and week two Atlanta was still Completely broken at that point, uh, Michael Pennix had not come to save the day. Cleveland much tougher defense for a completion percentage drops to 54 Fantasy wise is not a good game Detroit. We're back Philly they've not been a very shut down team lately, but the the completion percentage was weighed down at 51% and then plays Tampa a a defense on the rise so I I now that we are at this point with more information. I don't think Bryce is gonna be an auto Start until like we until I get a few more games under the belt play them in good matchups and this one is not one correct Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. We're gonna take a break and get into some second half sleeper picks and in the mailbag Second half sleepers All right, um, we have a couple of second half sleeper picks, which is a you know, it could be a trade for target situation It could be a hold and get ready for the run situation. You always have names that win championships every year that have really done nothing in the first half of the year or even the first two-thirds of the season So we've each picked a couple of names out Jason. Why don't you kick us off? Sure I'm gonna go with a rookie who just got back from injury Jacobi Lane the rookie wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens. I What we've seen from him is very minimal He has barely been on the field because he broke his wrist and he missed four weeks with a fractured wrist after that You know start in week one then he comes back and we haven't seen him with Lamar So it's like he hasn't done anything. This is a this is a I just got him off of waivers this morning This isn't even like a trade for candidate because you probably don't have to trade for him But I do think this is a guy you can acquire cheaply or grab off of waivers and I think bright days are ahead the Ravens offense with Lamar Jackson I know we haven't seen a ton, but what we have seen I think it's gonna work I think it's gonna be really good Mark Andrews is toast and Lamar has been able to support two past catchers in the past that being Mark Andrews and Zay flowers with Mark Andrews out of the way Jacobi Lane had a great drum beat all Offseason long his highlight catch after highlight catch in camp in preseason and then you go into week one and he's on the field as a day three pick Or day two was he a third-rounder. Yeah, so a day two pick as we say He's on the field for enough snaps right off the bat in week one until the injury gets an in zone target from Lamar Catches a touchdown, but it's called back on penalty He's already had some flashes of some really great hands plays and The strength of schedule going forward 10th easiest for wide receivers is five red zone targets through only those three games two of them in the In zone I think that right now he's flying out of the radar because no Lamar and his injury, but well, and he hasn't had You know the injury like you said he hasn't had a breakout game. No, no, he hasn't had a fantasy finish. He was matters yet He was very close to a touchdown last week. Yeah, he's he's very interesting because we We've been in this place where it's hard to Outside as they flowers outside of the premiere won't number one target You know how much work does Bateman get relic is it gonna go back and forth with bateman and Jacobi Lane can lane take over that go to type of like The one thing from Lamar that we've seen historically is that he just kind of falls in love with certain targets You know anders has been that guy as they flowers obviously as I mean Zay flowers is just unbelievable. Yeah, but Jacobi Lane is somebody that has the size To maybe like you said if anders is being I mean when I see a catch from a tight end right now on Baltimore that does anything It's a quavos. It's not it's not mark Andrews. I don't even he might have been still running back to the huddle from the play before I don't even know where he is, but I think Lane is very interesting. I think he is very much in that deep sleeper category Yeah, he's he's a Grab and hope that you see some kind of second half break out. This is not an obvious one like Caleb Douglas You'd rather have on the roster then I think I would rather have Jacobi Lane simply because of the difference between Lamar and the Ravens Offense versus what you're hoping to squeeze out of the dolphins offense I would rather have the number two for a good offense than the number one on a on one of if not the worst offenses in the league. What's your back up sleeper pick? My backup sleeper pick and it's very much not a deep sleeper pick is Jeremiah love Jeremiah love is on a bad team right now in fantasy Like whoever drafted him it was unfortunate He he was you were playing him and then he was kind of a backup and sharing time then he got injured You probably are not an undefeated fantasy team and that team needs to make a move Right now today. They're not sure if they get him this week or not You know what I mean that maybe he practices I expect them to play but they have to get wins most teams that have Jeremiah love and I still fully expect them to be an absolute dominant player Down the stretch and then one other name to throw out there as kind of another one Jonah Coleman who had his break out Have you guys seen the stuff with JK Dobbins? Yeah, I don't know what to believe on the internet. I know I know I have on the internet I had the same thing where I saw it and I was like is this true? Did he really unfollow the Broncos there? There are issues happening there. Obviously he wants to get the ball so far Mike you brought up the squeaky wheel has gotten the cut or the bench which you did the if you didn't say it he Allegedly has unfolded that we're doing the thing. Yeah, we're doing the athlete thing where we Remove your team from your social media he stormed out of the locker room three days ago following the win I always hate that. Yeah, I agree after a win. I don't know if we have a verified report Of him unfollowing the Broncos the rumor grew out of speculation and frustration following the win Yeah, but Jonah Coleman is out of the room way out snapped him this last week right off of injured reserve was Excellent looked great Sean Peyton says got to get him more touches. Definitely They've got the second easiest rest of season schedule for running back. So Jonah Coleman Jeremiah love Jacobi Lane. I think those are players that will have much much better more important impactful second halves that have to this point done nothing I will go next because Mike I know he's going to bring up another rookie situation. So I'll I'll Bring up two tight ends that I think are going to be second half league winners Colston Loveland. Yeah of the Chicago Bears. Yeah, we're back We we to the discussion of like we at what point do you call do you feel like you call it where you're like okay? I've seen we said we needed to see Caleb. I've seen enough I'll be like and Caleb came back. I thought it would be more games, but going from seven to 12 targets I'm not very many tight ends can get 12 targets that are you know big play type of guys 20 plus yard catches touchdowns and two straight with Caleb Williams looked at at the goal line I mean you you almost saw this like we know room of dunes a now is going to be a disappearing act on the ridge like sometimes He's there sometimes he's not Luther Burton is just not the kind of Like he was he had two big plays in the first half last week four catches dominates Doesn't get a target in the second half of an important game Again can disappear at times. I don't think Loveland's going to disappear With Caleb Williams very often He's been in line. He's been his target. He's gone from 10% Through the first three weeks of the year to 25% The expectations look they were high. It's a long season You know like gird your loin a little bit. Yeah or loins, I guess just one just gird one of your loin Pick your favorite, but I think Colson Loveland is the like target. It's the top tier pick It's still a trade target for me behind bowers and McBride He is the next player I want for a chance for him to win me a championship even overtucker craft Even over Isaiah likely it's Colson Loveland for me at three. Yeah, if there's a value differential between what I'm saying and what your league thinks of Colson Loveland I would go pursue that I did try to do that I tried to turn trucker craft into Colson Loveland and give up more It didn't work out. It didn't work out But um the backup name to bring up Who just snuck through waivers in our league, which is an embarrassment because In my head see Jason's signed this guy three times now. It's true. You fell for McVase trap. So listen Jason has signed this tight end three times this year. I just assumed he was already on his team. It was my mistake It was dumb. It's Terrence Ferguson. This is the deep sleeper category. This is the You might get some special stuff you might get disappointed because they have Davis Allen Colby Parkinson Tyler Higby That's a lot of tight ends but Terrence Ferguson When you go straight into nine targets in week two Um, you don't have Devonte Adams and you have a MVP at quarterback and a team that really needs to You know push it on the offensive side to get into the playoff hunt to meet Terrence Ferguson is a sneaky Player that you know you might not need to do anything right now. He may just sit on waivers. Yeah, that's probably okay If you if he's on IR, which I don't know if he is still for you. Yeah, I I'm holding his windows up. I'm but he's not active so you can probably just tuck him on IR, right? That's the hope I assume I hope I pray that Jordan Tyson is coming off IR this week and so I'll just swap him into my eye. Well, the buy week is this week. Oh, no, I mean, next week. Yeah. Well, did you, uh, guess I'll have to hold a miscalculated? That's fine. My team's playing for 2027. All right. I will jump in and I apologize because you heard me talk this name yesterday, but I went and I looked and I was looking and looking at schedules and how things are going. And this was the player that I still came up with. It's Antonio Williams of the Washington commanders. So I'm just kind of reiterating why he was my number two overall pickup from from today's waiver run at third rounder, AKA a day to pick for a third round rookie, though, the sixth most targets for a third round rookie to start the career over the last decade. You know, you have downs, McLaren, Cooper Cup, Deante Johnson, tanked out and then Antonio Williams is is right there. So the hardest thing for these third rounders AKA the day two guys is will they even be on the field? And we know that it generally it takes time. It has not taken a bunch of time for Antonio Williams. And then you have the Terry McCloren injury, which I referenced this quote, but here is the actual quote from Dan Quinn about Williams and Stefan Diggs. Steph is doing well workload shouldn't change as much. I think it'll be others that would climb up more. Antonio Williams is one that you'd see getting more targets like asked about Stefan digs brings up other name. We've we've said that is a tactic when you're trying to decode and and break through the the bullcrap that coaches give us when they bring up someone else, they were not asked about that's usually a very good sign and schedule wise Philly is this week to tougher matches, but then you have a full month Cincinnati Arizona Tennessee Houston. And Antonio Williams, I think is going to surge at the right time to help bring you to the the fantasy playoffs is his playoff schedule is not great. So maybe he's not a player that ends up being on in your your championship playoff run, but I think he's going to be a guy who helps you get there. Yeah, I I'm with you on Antonio Williams. I mean, you who Brooks is saying even after waivers. Antonio Williams is at 20%. So he's I don't get it. I don't understand it. All the rookies, whether you have created a narrative in your head that is different than somebody else's narrative about them Caleb Douglas and Tony Williams, Jacobi Lane, Jordan Tyson, these are guys that need to be on your rosters. You don't have to go back very far to see players that had a slow start, a slow few, Mackay lemons, another one, a slow few weeks. And then that's the identity of the offense after that point. Like these are teams with opportunities. Like Malik, look, Malik Willis look good last week. And you've got Caleb Douglas who's done nothing, but you know, be a good player. Jayden Daniels is the best quarterback of that group, other than maybe Jacobi Lane with Lamar. But you have huge opportunities for these guys to show you something that you, you know, what are your other options to go pick up a Josh Downs or somebody that you already know what they are? Yeah, that's the the bigger point here is we're at the time of year where there's not many veterans who you're like, Oh, this person's about to take off. There's, you know, there's a handful of guys like Chase Brown. Chase Brown is not really giving us the fantasy football goodness that that we thought we would get from him. We've seen it. So we know that like he can return to that. It's it's not impossible. But these veterans, for the most part, they kind of, they just are who they are where the rookies, they can actually take off and become something new, something more important to your team other than just treading the water with, with certain veterans. So I'm in on that. And then they are back up sleep. And then the other name I want to bring up because I do try to find something just disgusting and nasty. And this one, I think qualifies. It's Sam Darnold quarterback that is nasty. See, we are in agreement on the Seattle sea hawks. Looking at the schedule is interesting for Darnold, because we'll start of the year gets hurt right away. Misses the game against New England. Misses the, the juicy matchup against Arizona where Drew Locke comes out and shocker looks really good against the Arizona Cardinals. But then he gets washing his first game back immediately was Washington, which is not a great defense and you got the quarterback one. So looking at the sea hawks, where teams rank schedule adjusted against the quarterback position. This is their first seven games week one was hard because it's the Patriots. Then you have the two juicy ones where Sam Darnold played one of them. But then after that, the chargers rank third worst, 12, 10, 11. So he's played bottom 12 matchups for fantasy quarterbacks. And we are about to unlock a stretch run where Sam Darnold 28, 30, 25th with Clinton Nelson, yet 26, 27, 22nd. Darnold and good matchups, which ASN can give you good fantasy points. This is again, this is disgusting. But it's trying to find the path where something might break because matchups have been worse like I pointed out to Bryce Young. The matchups were actually now better than we had previously thought with Darnold. The matchups were bad. And now he's got some strong ones coming up for fantasy purposes. So I'm interested to see and watch what Darnold's about to do. All right, there's some second half sleepers for you. We'll take a break and jump into the mail back. If you have a question for the mail back or the website, D fantasy footballers.com, click the submit a question button or dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. Do we not have any voicemails today there? Voice. Okay. No, sir. But we did hear one person leave a voicemail. Maybe this is why you're not getting voice and mess up and say, oh, delete this. First question from Joe. Bench the Jets backfield. If they both play this week, Jets playing at home against the Raiders, if you have breeze hall back, if you have the I would be playing breeze hall. I think when breeze hall gets back, I'm going to put him in my lineup. He's a great running back. I still think he will have the majority of work and is talented enough like most teams could use a breeze hall in their lineup. I agree. But it's where what are you with brailin though. Brailin is definitely a bench. He's really. Yeah. I mean, he's he's going to have the minority of work on a slow Jets team. There's no way you could play the backup running back for the Jets. I just I can't fathom that. I I think that the timeshare has to have closed. I would agree that it's great. Brailin out. Well, even even the week one, like we had brailin out with the touchdown get called back. Then you had brailin out and get the goal line care. It's a little like a Alan has been very good. If you tell me A Chan came back next week, Ollie Gordon's been that good. Right. That you would. But but again, I think Jason is probably right with everything he's saying because breeze. I'd play over brailin. And then playing brailin carries tremendous risk touchdown dependency probably. So it's hard to say start both players. This was bench. Both. I would not bench both. I'd play breeze. Yeah. I I would too. But just to highlight this was a tweet from Zach Rosenblatt who said brailin out over the last four games. Rushing yards. Second yards per carry. Fifth mistakles first yards after contact per attempt. Second, 10 plus yard runs. First, 15 plus yard runs. First. So would you bench and watch what happens or would you? That's why I'm saying it's. I think it's more of a conversation. It could come back and it's just breeze. Like we know that Aaron Glenn had said, breeze is our starter. And my defense of brailin out is not breezes a better running back. He's a better football player. That's not at all what I'm saying. But when a guy has been that good for a solid month, he finally got the opportunity to show you what he could do if he's your featured player because brailin for what are we in year three of brailin own. We haven't I don't think we've had a stretch run like this where he really had the chance to to go get it and be the guy for a full month straight. I think that he'll be. It's not it won't be breeze hall 70%. I think it might be like 60 40 Brady writing in on Instagram. Where is Bucky Irving going to finish at the end of the season? Things have trended in the right direction. I'll tell you that much. Jason. Hey, I agree. I agree. Bucky Irving, man, 24, 22 and 26 opportunities the last three weeks. I mean, leading the wave for this team averaging five and attempt on pace for 17 touchdowns in those three weeks. I think he finishes right around the running back 12. Excellent. Yeah, I think he'll be a low in R.B. 1 high end R.B. 2. He's definitely getting enough work to be in R.B. 1. He's talented enough to be in R.B. 1. I just don't know if the if the Bucky Niers offense is really going to get it together. We haven't seen the Bucky Niers offense as as a group really look good since Liam Cohen left it. You know, they had a like a couple weeks to start last year. It was like, Oh, OK, there's still there's still OK. and they just haven't been good for quite a while. - I like the new recipe. - Just handed to Bucky. - I mean, that seems to be the recipe on offense right now. He's given the ball to Bucky and established the run, partly because the right thumb of Baker's broken, but. - They're gonna mummify that guy again. I mean, they keep giving this guy that much work. He is going to. - Well, what's funny is they've actually been, it's kind of like a bunch of work, but not a bunch of snaps. Because he had 59% of the snaps this last week. - Yeah, so his, but listen, his running back two and running back three finishes were 54 and 59% of the snaps. - Well, so in the beginning of the year, they were limiting his snaps. They talked about that. He would hit a number and they'd basically stop playing them. Last week, the week prior, I think he was over 80% of the snaps, and he was getting everything. This week, he was getting everything. And then they blew the Tarnations off of. - Yeah, but he got 54% against Dallas. John Tucker was not active last week in the 85% game. He was active this week. And he's been, you have a scene every game where you look at the sideline and Bucky has his helmet off in the fourth quarter of games, including games that he was. Like they were close. Like you had games that were close. He had his helmet off in the Green Bay Game. - Yeah, I mean, to. - I just, I think they were limiting it. - They were limiting it. But this game was because it was so out of. Do you know how many snaps Bucky had in the fourth quarter? - None. - None. - No, I watched the game. I know he had none, but I mean, I'm just saying they do have two other guys. This was all about the mummification. I'm just saying, they are doing some things to manage him in terms of total snaps in these games. - I think the bigger part is his little body getting hit that many times. - Yeah, he had 18 rushing attempts in the first half. - That wasn't getting hit a lot. - Tell you that, they were dominant. - 18 first half rush attempts for Bucky. - Would you trade Josh Jacobs for Drake London straight up? - Yes. - Yeah, I like Drake London a lot rest of the way. - Drake London is awesome. He's, Drake London should finish at wide receiver, higher than Josh Jacobs finishes at running back. And one of them still will forever carry a scary hidden, nuclear option if that video comes out. Four of five weeks, since week three, 10 or more targets, like that for a player like, that is elite as Drake London, that's gonna work far more than it won't. - Mike, he wants to know writing with Trevor Lawrence of Jordan Love, if he had to lock on in rest of season. - Imagine that's Trevor Lawrence. - I, yeah, I'm gonna go Trevor Lawrence. The scene in for longer, more consistently. - So Sam, I brought up Sam Darnal, because he's acquirable and it's far more disgusting. He has the fourth best remaining quarterback, strength of schedule, at third Trevor Lawrence. - Nate on the website wants to know, he says, I'm three and four in the second, second highest scoring team, but I'm allowing the most points in my league. Should I stay the course with my team or look to trade and change things up? I mean. - Stay the course. - Second highest scoring means you're pretty doing pretty well. - Yeah, I mean, you need to stay the course and not tilt yourself into feeling you have to make transactions. Now, if you were doing great and you had the exact same amount of points scored, but you were undefeated, we would say don't just stand pat, always be improving your team. Mike, you're great at always giving that advice and taking that advice, which I hate. I hate that so much when you're out in the lead. I hate when you're like, I'm gonna make my team better. - Yeah. - It really annoys me. So, yeah, I mean, be willing to always improve. Don't rest on your laurels just 'cause you've got points, but certainly the worst thing you could do, absolute worst thing you could do is feel some pressure and stress. Three and four is fine. You are totally fine to make the playoffs. There's still half of the season left. - Jason, I have a lot more Jackson video coming in. Would you like me to? - Oh, yeah, let's hear the break. - He is, quote, strutting out to practice. - Oh, strutting, is it a strut? It's really, I don't think you're calling more walking. - I would call it a jog. - Okay, he's jogging out to practice. - You have to commentate this. - No, please continue. - Oh, okay, yes. - The arms were high and tight. - It's a good jog. - I don't like this bit. So, it's, trust me, it's worse for me. - Trying to talk over it. - 'Cause he has to be a part of the bit. He doesn't want to do it, but otherwise, it just makes me sound like a pothole. - Anyways, so what we were talking about. - Wait, that was the whole commentary? - Yeah, but the video's done. - He just jogged out. - I can do it again. - And he can make the news. - Man. - Nobody's talking now. - How worried should I be about Michael Wilson? She's courting, talking about it. Michael Wilson the last three weeks since the departure. Four for 30, four for 32, four for four. Four for. (laughs) - I mean, you are, they played Dallas this week. I would not be concerned. - I mean, I'm pretty concerned, man. Not this week, I won't be. Then after that, I will be. - Well, about like totality, though. I mean, you play Seattle Los Angeles, the Chiefs. - Totality, I am. - So I mean, worry is not just about this week. It's about like the season. And I think the Cardinals have tremendous challenges. Even when you look at McBride in those matchups, you get to the point where you're like, when is the Carson Beck thing gonna happen? 'Cause it is going to happen. Because you wanna know why it's gonna happen? Because Jacobi Berset has won two games as a starter in two seasons. It's-- - Carson Beck is dealing with injury. I don't know if you had-- - How? - You know, it was a non-contact. I don't remember which body part, but he's been missing time. (laughs) - Which body part, it's something got hurt. - Yeah. - How much should skipping a bi-week be valued when you make a trade, Blaine wants to know? - I think it's actually a pretty valuable little gimmick. I wouldn't overdo it and trade a good player for a bad player simply 'cause he passes by. But when you are making trades, sometimes managers really don't think about that. Especially the further into the season you get, as you get closer to your trade deadline, someone might have had their buy three weeks ago, and you're still two weeks away from the buy that you're trading, and they don't even think about it. They're just looking at a name and a name, and you're getting an entire extra game. It's like money-balling into fantasy football. I think it's a really valuable thing to look at. Sometimes you have to, you're at a record where you're not locked in, and you have to start buying wins. Also be looking at your difficult opponents. I don't know if we've mentioned this one in a while. Because people don't always pay attention to buy weeks, they're not lunatics like we are. But look, who are you playing in three weeks? Do you have a player that's on buy that week? And you're like, I have to beat that team. 'Cause they're in my division. A win in there is in that particular week is worth more than just one win overall, 'cause someone I have to leap for all of the standings. Oh, here's this player, don't you want them? And then in three weeks, they go, wait a minute. It does happen, and it works. - Yeah, absolutely. Thursday, by the way, tomorrow, we're gonna have starts of the week, match-up previews. We've got the Thursday night recap coming up after you guys get to enjoy the game. We'll do that on Friday. We got match-ups, we got wheel of shame. I got one more question for you before we close things out. It's from Nate in Canada. We hear all the trade rumors. Should I be concerned about Patrick Mahomes? - I think-- - I don't think he's gonna get traded. - I don't know if that's right. So the last four, he had a good first two weeks, QB 2013, sorry, 2013, 23, 25. Fancy points of 15, 17, 10, 6. He doesn't have Whiteouts. - Desperately needs Rishi Rice to come back, or they're gonna have to make some trouble. - We're trying to say that hamstring injury wasn't a big deal for Rice, and then he's been gone for two and a half, three weeks. - I thought he was gonna come out of the buy and be fine. - Yeah. And the schedule for Kansas City against quarterbacks is not great, and he's not been, this is multiple years running, where we know the identity of this team is gonna be Ken Walker and the running game in the defense. - It is now, yeah. - I mean, quarterback 12 in 2024. Last year, quarterback 11. I mean, it seems hard to think he's gonna get there with all the other good quarterbacks you can play. I mean, you brought up Sam Darnold, and there are guys in the second half of the season where I don't know if I'd be wanting to count on the homes. - Yeah, I don't think I would either. - No, for fantasy, there's other options. Let me ask you, Mike, the your second half sleeper. - Oh, Sam Darnold. - Sam Darnold or Patrick Mahomes. (laughing) That's the way to close the show. - Patriots head coach Mike Verbal says the team will always consider in way the options of having Trabion Henderson take over kick return duties. (laughing) - Probably should. - And water boy duties. - All right, well, we're paying this guy a lot of money. Like, you gotta get him touches in wide open space. But also, yeah, Darnold will probably have more points than the homes at the end of the year. - Join thefoot.com is the fantasy football community. If you wanna get in there, check out the Ultimate Dashboard, Premium in season tools, the Discord, extra episodes, all that good stuff. If you wanna support the show, two thousand to three episodes into it, join thefoot.com is where you go for that. Like I said, tomorrow, we'll get into starts of the week, Let's start talking through the episode. coming week eight match-ups, Wheel of Shame coming on Friday. We'll catch you then. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at theFFBollars.