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

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary: "Fantasy Football 2017 - Sleepers + Values LIVE from the Great White North"

Release Date: August 28, 2017

The Fantasy Footballers Podcast took a unique twist in their August 28, 2017 episode titled "Fantasy Football 2017 - Sleepers + Values LIVE from the Great White North." Recorded live from Toronto, Canada, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright delved deep into the 2017 fantasy football season, focusing on sleepers, values, and breaking news that could influence draft strategies and team management.

1. Live from Toronto: Setting the Stage (00:00 - 02:10)

The episode kicked off with a playful banter about their recording location, clarifying that they were broadcasting from Toronto’s International Center rather than the Play Draft Studios. Mike Wright humorously noted, "We landed in Toronto and we're so, you know, happy. Let's get this fantasy sports show going" (00:24), setting an energetic tone for the live session. The hosts emphasized their excitement to present rising stars, sleepers, values, and the latest injury news critical for fantasy managers.

2. Rising Stars: Identifying Key Players (02:10 - 09:55)

a. Jonathan Stewart: A Late-Drafted Gem (02:31 - 03:58)

Andy Holloway introduced his rising star, Jonathan Stewart, highlighting his consistent performance despite being overlooked. "He's not sexy, you don't want him, but he's going to keep your team healthy," Andy asserted (03:00), advocating for drafting Stewart in the ninth round as a reliable late-round pick to stabilize the roster.

b. Devonte Parker and Jay Ajayi: Potential High Performers (04:05 - 07:25)

Jason Moore spotlighted Devonte Parker, praising his preseason adjustments and synergy with Jay Cutler. "There are players you watch in the preseason and that's what the preseason's for. It's the eye test," Andy explained (05:11), emphasizing the importance of evaluating players beyond just their stat lines. Mike Wright presented Jay Ajayi as his rising star, noting his impressive preseason performances despite concerns about the Miami Dolphins' overall outlook. "He is absolutely going to be great," Mike confidently stated (06:29), predicting Ajayi’s rise in rankings due to his touchdown opportunities and role in the offense.

3. Breaking News: Impacts on Fantasy Rankings (10:03 - 18:32)

a. Julian Edelman’s ACL Tear (10:07 - 13:07)

The hosts broke the news of Julian Edelman suffering a complete ACL tear, a significant blow given his status as a top fantasy receiver for three consecutive years. Andy Holloway posed critical questions about the future of the New England Patriots' offense without Edelman. Mike Wright discussed potential replacements, particularly focusing on Brandon Cooks, while addressing the uncertainty surrounding Edelman’s return and the overall impact on the team's receiving corps.

b. Spencer Ware’s Injury and Kareem Hunt’s Role (13:07 - 18:32)

Spencer Ware's season-ending knee injury sparked a discussion on the implications for Kareem Hunt’s draft value. Jason Moore and Mike Wright debated whether Hunt should be drafted in the fourth or fifth round, considering Ware's uncertain return. Andy Holloway shared his ranking of Hunt as an RB12 in half-point leagues, underscoring his potential to take over the role if Ware remains sidelined. The conversation highlighted the strategic decisions fantasy managers must make when key players are injured, balancing risk and potential upside.

4. Sleepers: Undervalued Players to Target (22:00 - 27:42)

a. Danny Amendola: Overlooked Wide Receiver (22:25 - 26:58)

Jason Moore recommended Danny Amendola as a sleeper pick, drawing parallels to his 2015 performance where he stepped up after Edelman’s injury. "Amendola was a PPR monster," Jason noted (23:18), suggesting that if Amendola starts getting consistent targets, he could significantly outperform his draft position. Mike Wright echoed the sentiment, recognizing Amendola as a valuable waiver wire pickup despite concerns about potential injuries.

b. Ted Ginn Jr. and Emmanuel Sanders: Reliable Targets (26:58 - 41:48)

Andy Holloway proposed Ted Ginn Jr. as a late-round sleeper, emphasizing his speed and reliability when paired with a stable quarterback like Drew Brees. Meanwhile, Mike Wright highlighted Emmanuel Sanders as a consistent performer, comparable to Jarvis Landry in target volume and touchdown potential. "He is a great value because he is being drafted right now as the 34th wide receiver off the board," Mike explained (39:14), positioning Sanders as a strategic pick for sustained fantasy success.

5. Values: High Potential at Low Cost (28:00 - 36:35)

a. Jeremy Hill: Solid RB Value (29:38 - 32:19)

Jason Moore identified Jeremy Hill as a valuable running back, cautioning against overvaluing his performance due to previous running back controversies within the Cincinnati Bengals. "Take the Pepto Bismol and then you draft Jeremy Hill," Andy quipped (32:45), underscoring Hill’s efficiency and goal-line opportunities as key factors that make him a strong value pick.

b. Andrew Luck: Elite QB at a Discount (32:19 - 36:35)

Defying conventional draft fears, Andy Holloway championed Andrew Luck as a top-value quarterback available in the later rounds. "There is a difference. You don't just draft every injured player, but you do draft a player who... was a top 12 quarterback," Andy advocated (33:02), arguing that Luck’s proven consistency and high ceiling make him an exceptional late-round investment despite concerns about his injury status and Arizona Cardinals’ offensive line.

6. Mailbag: Listener Questions and Expert Advice (42:04 - 48:41)

The hosts addressed questions from live listeners, offering tailored advice on various fantasy scenarios:

• Brittany in Toronto: Inherited a team centered around Blake Bortles. Andy humorously dismissed it as inheriting a tragedy, advising bold moves and packaging deals to unlock team potential (42:51).

• Sean in Toronto: Asked about the running back situation in the NFC East. Mike Wright suggested drafting Ezekiel Elliott and Darren McFadden while cautioning about inconsistent performances. Jason Moore recommended late-round bets on potential backups like Wendell Smallwood or Darren Sproles (44:46).

• Eric in Rochester, NY: Queried whether Jimmy Graham could be a top-five tight end assuming health for Gronkowski and Reed. The consensus was affirmative, with the hosts highlighting Graham’s role in Russell Wilson’s offense and his potential for touchdown opportunities (46:58).

7. Conclusion: Strategic Insights and Final Thoughts (48:41 - End)

Wrapping up, Andy Holloway emphasized the importance of a holistic approach to fantasy football, encouraging listeners to combine expert advice with personal league dynamics. "Make your own decision and take a more holistic approach to fantasy football," Andy advised (50:12). The hosts reiterated their commitment to helping listeners win their leagues by providing strategic rankings and actionable insights.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike Wright on Jonathan Stewart: "He's going to keep your team healthy." (03:00)
• Andy Holloway on Kareem Hunt: "He is absolutely going to be great." (06:29)
• Jason Moore on Danny Amendola: "He is literally your last positional pick. You watch week one. If he's getting targets, then that's amazing." (24:25)
• Andy Holloway on Andrew Luck: "He is the overwhelming value in the draft at the quarterback position." (33:00)

Final Thoughts:

This episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast provided a comprehensive analysis of key players to watch, strategic sleepers, and undervalued picks essential for the 2017 fantasy football season. Broadcasting live from Toronto, the hosts delivered insightful commentary and actionable advice, ensuring that both novice and seasoned fantasy managers were well-equipped to navigate their drafts and manage their teams effectively. Whether it’s leveraging late-round gems like Andrew Luck or capitalizing on the potential of Devonte Parker and Jay Ajayi, the episode was a treasure trove of strategies aimed at winning in style.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Foreign.

[Mike Wright]

To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the Play Draft Studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, we are not coming from Play Draft Studios.

[Jason Moore]

Well, we are.

[Andy Holloway]

We are coming from the International center here in Toronto, Canada. Fantasy footballers, we did it.

[Mike Wright]

Northern America. We did.

[Andy Holloway]

Very excited to be here. Andy, Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballers. Great show today. We got rising stars on the show. We've got sleepers, we've got values, we've got some news. Everybody wants to know what's going on with the breaking injury news.

[Jason Moore]

Did something happen?

[Mike Wright]

Can't use the word breaking and injury. That's. That's offensive.

[Jason Moore]

That's.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, we landed. Yeah, we landed in Toronto and I got my phone out and I tweeted, hey, we landed in Toronto. We're so, you know, happy. Let's get this fantasy sports show going. And immediately my phone was responded to that comment with about a hundred. Dude, Julian Edelman just blew out his knee. And so that is some of the news we definitely have to cover.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll talk about Julian Edelman, we'll talk about Spencer Ware, implications of that, how they affected our rankings. And we're each gonna bring you a sleeper and a value pick of our own. Maybe disagree, maybe agree. We'll see what happens. If you wanna follow the show, you can do it on Twitter. Heffballers. We're on itunes. As Jason said, you can subscribe over there if you're on an Android device. Google Play on the fantasy sports Network. We're on YouTube, so you can follow us wherever you listen, wherever you watch. We're gonna kick this thing off with our rising stars.

[Mike Wright]

Raising Canes. Rising stars.

[Jason Moore]

I gotta say, before we jump in, we're live, so we have, like, an actual real sound system. I sound very good on those drops.

[Andy Holloway]

You sound very good.

[Jason Moore]

I sound very good.

[Andy Holloway]

You could just listen to yourself play guitar all night long in bass. Yeah. So if you haven't heard this segment, the Raising Canes Rising Stars. Once a week we get on right now with the preseason games. We're taking a look at players that are maybe moving up our boards individually. Players that you should be paying attention to. And we're each gonna bring one up. And I'm just gonna get mine out of the way. Just.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, please.

[Andy Holloway]

Because my player might as well be compared to a vegetable that you need to choke down to get to your dessert. But I'm telling you.

[Jason Moore]

Beets.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I wouldn't eat beets, but I would draft Jonathan Stewart. Okay? And I know I brought this up before. But Jonathan Stewart is my rising star. And how can such an old man be a rising star?

[Jason Moore]

He's a. He's a. When the star burns out, right. It becomes more like a dwarf.

[Andy Holloway]

He's a dwarf star.

[Jason Moore]

Is that right?

[Andy Holloway]

That's fine because he's a dwarf running back.

[Mike Wright]

How do you. In the ninth round, how are you not arguing with us that he's about to go supernova? Like, isn't that the end of the.

[Jason Moore]

Life set you up?

[Andy Holloway]

Pretty much because he's not.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why he's not gonna go supernova. But when you are sitting there in the ninth round and Mike wants to talk about drafting Jeremy Hill and Mike wants. And you look at Jamal Williams and you have a starting running back who had nine touchdowns last year and running backs are hard to come by. I think you need to pay attention to Jonathan Stewart because everybody wants the flashy new star and Christian McCaffrey is going to do work. He's going to do work in PPR leagues, he's going to do work in half point leagues. But I still think you're going to see a baseline with Jonathan Stewart and if you've gone wide receiver heavy early, if you've taken that early tight end, I'm telling you, you need to pick up Jonathan Stewart late in drafts. He's being disrespected as maybe you think he deserves. I think. I think you need to pay attention to him in drafts because he's not sexy, you don't want him, but he's going to keep your team healthy. Just like those vegetables. Sure. So who's your rising star?

[Jason Moore]

I'll jump in. But I've also noticed Jason's rising star and we with these combo.

[Andy Holloway]

That's cheating.

[Jason Moore]

With this combo package here, we sound a lot like Miami from their off season. We sound like the media in Florida pumping them up.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Nobody hyped players better than the beat writers in Miami.

[Jason Moore]

But we're.

[Mike Wright]

We're going to do it anyway. Beat them.

[Jason Moore]

All right. My rising star of the of the week, Devonte Parker. We know that I've become infatuated with in love. These the targets from Smoke and J. Cudi. And then we saw even more proof of concept with Parker actually using athleticism, making an incredible adjustment in air. Huge run. Didn't. Didn't finish with the touchdown. That would have been, you know, a nice little cherry on top.

[Andy Holloway]

That would have been an extra round in adp.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So he held it up to keep the value probably.

[Jason Moore]

But still two for 78. And Jay Cutler loves him. And that's, that's what matters in fantasy football, when it, when a quarterback loves a wide receiver. And by all accounts, I've seen a couple Valentines, I've seen some flowers since. Yeah, signed cigarettes.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

That's all he put on there. And we know who it was. It was Jay Cuddy to Dee Parker.

[Andy Holloway]

We had a session earlier today. We were doing some ama, asking fantasy questions. The question was posed, what's the actual ceiling for a guy like Devontae Parker compared to where you want to draft him? How are you making those adjustments? Now we say, look, there are players you watch in the preseason and that's what the preseason's for. It's the eye test. It's not the stat line necessarily. When it's the eye test, does he. Is it somebody that you see? And what is the real ceiling for a guy like Devontae Parker in that offense with Jay Cutler?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, Jay Cutler is the big difference maker here. I mean, a lot of us thought devontae Parker could reach out and have a great season prior to Jay Cutler.

[Jason Moore]

Reach out or break out.

[Mike Wright]

Breakout. I mean, come on. This is me speaking. And when Jay Cutler came to town, the first reaction that we had was was it's not good news for the dink and dunks of, you know, Jarvis Landry, but if he ends up doing what Jay Cutler does, which is laser target one guy way too much regardless of the coverage.

[Jason Moore]

That's your opinion.

[Mike Wright]

Sure, just my opinion. And. And throws the ball with a very strong arm very far down the field, that's the game that devonte Parker will thrive in. So if we're.

[Andy Holloway]

What's the actual upside? I think the actual is a top 15.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely. It's a, it's a wide receiver one, without a doubt. Now that's not to say now you put your.

[Andy Holloway]

What if you put your money on where he finishes in the year?

[Mike Wright]

End of year. Right now, Right now I would say he finishes the year as a very low end wide receiver two or a very high end wide receiver three. But he'll have those weeks that are monstrous blow up weeks. Now the guy that I see as the rising star, the reason Mike was saying we're sounding like the Miami beat.

[Andy Holloway]

Writers is because you picked a first round pick as your rising star. Is that. Yeah, first round, first round.

[Mike Wright]

It's way.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, with the live show. Way to put yourself out there.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, big risk.

[Jason Moore]

Got. He went on a. I went.

[Andy Holloway]

Jonathan Stewart in front of people.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Well, here's the deal. Mine's good. My player is good. So you can draft them. It's Jay Ajayi. And here's the reality. Don't worry. No, but there is a lot of concern even. Even for me. I mean, the reason from me, he's.

[Andy Holloway]

There was and now there isn't. And therefore he's your rising star.

[Mike Wright]

Ye. Thank you. I mean, this is very simple. I mean, if you go back a couple weeks, you had concussion issues, he was out of practice.

[Andy Holloway]

Aaron Rodgers, look.

[Mike Wright]

Look at the vibes for the Miami Dolphins. Have they been good lately? No, they have been horrendous.

[Andy Holloway]

You mean like over the last 10 years?

[Mike Wright]

Sure, over the last 10 years or over the last, you know, month and a half. Everybody's been getting injured, the vibes have been bad, including Jay Ajayi. But here's what we saw this last week that really cemented it for me that he is absolutely going to be great. One, we saw the downfield passes from Jay Cutler. What that means is more opportunities that line up because of pass interference or, you know, just getting tackled down. Just. Just like what happened with Devonte. Parker had that huge, you know, 60 plus yard reception and he wound up at the two yard line. And Jay Ajayi got the opportunity on two different occasions to punch in basically a goal line touchdown. Not everybody can actually succeed at that. Jay Ajayi, that, that first touchdown, you.

[Andy Holloway]

Don'T really have to sell him.

[Mike Wright]

He was running like we're in on him.

[Andy Holloway]

He's already a top 10 pick.

[Mike Wright]

I know. But for the listeners, I want them to realize what he showed on the field was great. He runs to the right side of the line and he was met with about four defenders. And Jayajai said, I will go down in two yards. And so that's what he did. He got in the end zone, he went down. All right. You know, nine carries, 53 yards, two touchdowns. And the best part, my absolute favorite part about Jay Ajayi is Damian Williams. Because Damian Williams is horrifically bad. And he's the only other running back there. Someone clapped.

[Andy Holloway]

Who clapped for Damian Williams being bad.

[Mike Wright]

Williams being horrifically bad? Let me give you his Mrs. Williams. Oh, yeah. Damian Williams had four carries for negative one yard.

[Andy Holloway]

Look, he's one of the few guys, Gurley and jj who are outside what people consider the elite upper echelon. Where you'd put Zeke, where you'd put David Johnson, where you put Lev Bell.

[Jason Moore]

I'm struggling with Le'Veon Bell.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Is he a rising star for next week?

[Mike Wright]

If you're struggling then. Yes, you need a rise on Levy.

[Andy Holloway]

We're going to move on. We'll talk about news. Those were the Raising Canes rising stars of the week. Remember guys, game day tastes better with Raising Canes tailgates full of fresh 24 hour marinated hand battered chicken fingers. I don't even know if they have them up here in Canada.

[Mike Wright]

That's a good.

[Andy Holloway]

But visit raising canes.com to find your nearest location. Let's get into the news.

[Mike Wright]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, it's been confirmed. Complete tear of the ACL for Julian Edelman. One of the first big blows of the off season came on the same night in which Spencer Ware was injured. His season is over. The 2017 season is over. And you have to ask the question with Edelman at his age whether he'll be back. But that's not the question for fantasy owners right now. They want to know the implications. I've got my take on the whole scenario. I know, Mike, you're going to talk a little bit about it later, but who steps up? What is the implication of a Julian Edelman less offense? This has been the leading receiver fantasy wise for this team for three years. So what happens?

[Jason Moore]

Well, it's interesting because of what happened on the exact same night was Chris Hogan went full ham, full hamburger.

[Andy Holloway]

He owns the preseason though.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, well, it's a fair point, but. And he also had huge games from time to time last year. So if you look at my mentions, I mean, they're ablaze. People are very excited for Chris Hogan.

[Mike Wright]

Everyone saying, how high do I draft Chris Hogan?

[Jason Moore]

But I mean that's, that's that recency bias. It's, it, it's difficult.

[Mike Wright]

Right?

[Jason Moore]

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

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I believe that a lot of it's going to come down to what they do with Brandon Cooks. If they end up moving Brandon Cooks in the slot, then you're going to see a consistent Brandon Cooks looks, you know, impossible. I know it feels impossible to say that we have not been very high on Brandon Cooks because even if at the end of the year he finishes with a great stat line. It was hard to play. You're going to get a lot of lousy games in there, but you're losing. You know what, what usually equates to 140 targets. And if those, if he moves into that role, I think Brandon Cooks will be safe weekly with a high ceiling, high floor combination. However, this is really close to the start of the season. He was not practicing for that role. And we've seen, you know, in the, in Patriots past, they've got a next man up mentality. And if a guy goes down, it's not shift the pieces around and reorganize things. It's like you. You're up, and that's kind of usually what they do. So, you know, when I look at my rankings, I did not bump Brandon Cooks up drastically. I gave him a few more carries or a few more receptions. And, you know, Hogan did move up a little bit. He's near the 50s now for me. But Gronk is actually a little bit more enticing because there's very few players that are more tried and trusted on those third downs and goal line other than Julian Edelman and Gronk. And now one of those is gone.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, 98 receptions for Julian Edelman in 2016. Those are going to have to be replaced. I think it does bring up the baseline for Brandon Cooks as possible outcomes. Right. Like, he still might be hit and miss because that's the name of the game in the wide receiver core for New England. I've already said on the show I'm not really touching the backfield because I think it's going to be, you know, what's been alluded to. There might not really be a depth chart. There's four running backs. There's Lewis and White, Gillesley and Burkhead. And I'm probably taking the same approach. Like, if your name's not Gronkowski, if it's not Brady, I'm probably going to just play a game with someone else. Like, I just don't want to mess around with it because I don't even know if you guessed right what that really means when you lose, other than Brandon Cooks having a fairly decent baseline. So let's talk about Spencer Ware, carded off the field, right knee injury last night. Now, it looked worse than what it's seeming to be. It looked like it could be a season ender. Andy Reid's come out and said, look, sprained knee, PCL could be involved. I went into my rankings, I took a look at KAREEM Hunt, you have a dual threat running back, somebody they already love, somebody they already gave first team work to. What do you do with Kareem Hunt now? Not knowing if Spencer Ware is out three weeks, Is he out two weeks? Is he out longer than that? How much do you move him up? Now that we have drafts, I mean, today's the biggest. We're recording this on the biggest draft day of the year. So where does Kareem Hunt really belong? Where do you take the shot on him if Spencer Ware's missing time?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. It's going to depend on the league you're in and how up to date they are on their news. Usually when news like this comes out, you can still get a guy a little bit later than you think. When it. When it's so close to draft day. I just took Kareem Hunt in the fifth round of a draft, and I would easily take him in the fifth round again, because even if Ware only misses a few games, that means that the season starts with a really talented running back as a true workhorse. Who could take that role now? I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

I already thought he was going to take the role.

[Mike Wright]

I don't expect to own the role the whole year. I think when Ware comes back, it'll be more of a split. But instead of being a split in Ware's favor, it will be a split in Hunt's favor. So I would be fine, maybe even in the fourth round. But, you know, because we don't have enough information on the specifics of where.

[Andy Holloway]

Isaiah Crowell or Kareem Hunt. Mike. Ooh. Try to hide your dynasty, excitement of the fact. Kareem Hunt on your team already trying.

[Jason Moore]

To be non biased about it. And it's probably Hunt.

[Mike Wright]

Wow.

[Andy Holloway]

So is that offensive potential versus yeah.

[Mike Wright]

That means Hunt's never getting to me is what you're saying.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Because if in that league, Mike, if.

[Jason Moore]

You'Re going to take him in the fifth, you're not getting him.

[Mike Wright]

Because I'm just saying I wouldn't let him pass me. Okay. I would be willing to take him in the fourth, but I don't think I can reach to the third yet.

[Jason Moore]

As of right now, for me, it's a fourth round pick and you have follow the money. And here's just a look inside of what this show was supposed to be. The show was supposed to be a celebration of the sleeper of Kareem Hunt.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. He was your original sleeper for the.

[Jason Moore]

Show, in which I got it really right.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he nailed it.

[Jason Moore]

Predicting injury, excellent projection but his college production is absolutely incredible. 41 receptions his final year. He, he profiles the way that Andy Reid wants a running back to be. And I think that if Ware misses three weeks, it's, it's done. It will be Kareem Hunt's job. Spencer Ware, sure, he becomes a high level backup stash if something were to happen to, to cream Hunt.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's, that's third round then.

[Jason Moore]

But here's the thing. The team already gave in the draft. The team gave up a ton to move up for Patrick Mahomes. Teams don't necessarily like to give up their draft equity, even seventh round picks. You've seen that in trades for players like, yeah, I'm not going to give up a late round pick for that guy. They made a move, big move. Third round comes around, they decide, okay, we're going to cash in even more of our draft equity for Kareem Hunt. The team loves him now. I was fully in favor of Spencer Ware maintaining the starting job for at least half of the season before. I felt like Kareem Hunt could take things over. But now they have.

[Mike Wright]

There's.

[Jason Moore]

There's no excuse to hold Kareem Hunt out.

[Mike Wright]

I think I agree with the premise of what you're saying with the draft capital and the cost, but I wonder how much the Kansas City cap situation was involved there because they couldn't afford their players at all. They were in such a bad cap situation. So getting rid of draft picks in that sense actually helped their overall team. If you're saying follow the money.

[Jason Moore]

But the gm and then also directly after the draft, they, I watched the GM talk about Kareem Hunt and they had him essentially just outside of the top tier running back. And they said, well, that's why we have to go get him.

[Andy Holloway]

When I thought Spencer Ware my miss the year, Kareem hunt was my RB12 in half point leagues. So that's how high the projection is. If he had all of that work. Now we don't know when Spencer Ware is getting back, so it's guesswork at this point, but a lot of people making their draft picks and need to make a decision on him. Let's talk about. Yeah, I'm sure you're so excited about this last bit of news before we get into sleepers, guys, big news. Blake Bortles has been named the starter.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, you know, we just worked ourselves.

[Andy Holloway]

Back to the sad fatigue situation we had with Blake Bortles at the beginning of his journey. Are we just.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Does he, does he finish the year yes. So he.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. He finishes the year as the starter. He plays 16 games and he is better than most people think he will.

[Andy Holloway]

Does Alan Robinson get counseling?

[Mike Wright]

Allen Robinson is frustrated with all of the quarterbacks there. There is no great option that might.

[Andy Holloway]

Be the saving grace for Blake Gordles. There's not a. You're just not going to get any better.

[Mike Wright]

You know, we talked about this off air. I brought this up. But the last game that not, not this current weekend, the legendary bad game in week two, when I watched the film and I went, I said, you know, I, you know, am I crazy to think this? I don't think Blake Bortles played bad. He had one really horrific pass. He was not helped out by his wide receivers at all. Every first down, it was, you know, running for negative five.

[Andy Holloway]

Was there any chance that they popped in like all of last year's game film when they were reviewing? Certainly not just one game.

[Mike Wright]

I think it's motivation. I mean, this is the Tom Coughlin, you know, style of motivation where you say, oh, that might be right.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

Where he ruins careers by benching people.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we're going to get into the sleepers. Before we do that, we want to thank the sponsor of today's show. Look, it's one of our favorite tools as fantasy football analysts. That's NFL Game Pass. If you're not in NFL Game Pass, if you're not using that, it's the most efficient way that you can review things. We're talking about passing the eye test. Well, they got condensed games over there. On NFL Game Pass, you can. The day after the game, you can hop on there, you can watch a whole game squish down into 30 minutes. It's one of our favorite resources when we've got to get on the air the next day, whatever your favorite game is, NFL Game Pass has got it all. The live market, out of market, preseason games, full game replays, they've got everything and they keep adding to it. They've got a great app that you can watch it on. Like I said, if it's NFL football and it happened, NFL Game Pass has got it. Best of all, you can get a free game pass trial. Sign up [e-mail] fantasy footballers. That's NFL.com fantasy footballers.

[Mike Wright]

And we want to thank me undies. Not just my undies, but me undies. They are soft and wonderful. They are worth checking out for. Sure. Because, you know, you want to look good in your underwear and you want to be comfortable, Right?

[Jason Moore]

I feel good.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Well, Me undies. They're made from sustainably sourced, naturally soft fabric that is three times softer than cotton. I can testify to that. And here, how about this for the fellas? For the fellas. Meundies diamond seamed pouch cradles. Your family heirlooms. This is a family show. Yeah. Well, this is about your family's lineage.

[Andy Holloway]

Cover your eyes, J. Grizz.

[Mike Wright]

You know, it's gonna give you the stuff and the support you need without feeling too tight. So listen, just go to meundies.comfootballers to get 20% off, free shipping and 100% satisfaction guarantee on the best, softest underwear you'll ever own. That's Meundies.com footballers. This is a limited time offer. So what are you waiting for? Start wearing the best underwear of your life. Go to Meundies.

[Jason Moore]

We call them cloud undies. Really?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Slash footballers right now.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's talk sleepers.

[Mike Wright]

Sleepers.

[Jason Moore]

You learned from the last time that.

[Andy Holloway]

They wouldn't talk over it.

[Jason Moore]

Good for you.

[Andy Holloway]

Is there a point where you're going to just want the entire show to be the drops? There's just no. There's no actual content in the show.

[Mike Wright]

Called the Rock Show.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, I'm gonna let Mike kick this one off. We're each gonna name a sleeper. Yeah, because yours kind of ties into the news. I didn't say I liked it. Just because you're starting it. Just gets it out of the way.

[Jason Moore]

First is the best. All right.

[Mike Wright]

First.

[Andy Holloway]

That is the worst.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going second.

[Andy Holloway]

You didn't remember that from grade school?

[Jason Moore]

I did, but I said the rhyme in my head, and I wanted to update it and make it better so I feel better about myself. Anyways, I've give. We've given tons of sleepers. You know, on this show, Kareem Hunt was supposed to be my sleeper. You know, Andy Dalton, Adam Thielen. And I wanted to bring up someone new who's just now emerged. That's Danny Amendola. Look, people are very excited. They're very excited for Chris Hogan. Chris Hogan does not play Julian Edelman spot. People are excited for Brandon Cooks. Maybe they move him to Edelman's spot. Maybe, but you're still paying up. Here's who. You know who you're paying nothing for right now in drafts? Danny Amendola.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm definitely paying nothing for him.

[Jason Moore]

That's fine. But in 2015, we already have proof of concept for Danny Amendola. 2015, just two years ago. Edelman went down in week nine, and who was there?

[Mike Wright]

I remember those Games.

[Jason Moore]

Danny Amendola, he was a target monster the game. Edelman went down 11 targets. The next game, 12 targets. Amendola's next game, 13 targets. He was a PPR monster, a half point PPR machine. And he's proven it in that time because of course, Amadola then did what he does and he get, he got hurt. I understand. But in that time period where he was given the Edelman job, he was the wide receiver. Seven in points per game. Game. We. It's. And like I said, I just, I wanted to bring.

[Mike Wright]

You're bringing the name up and because we, we.

[Jason Moore]

We don't know what they're going to do. If it's Cooks and it's am. If Amendola is nothing, he is literally your last positional pick. You look, you watch week one. If he's getting targets, then that's amazing.

[Andy Holloway]

Hit the bricks.

[Jason Moore]

If he, if he does not get targets, you cut him. There's. There's absolutely nothing that you have to invest, but everything to gain if Amendola actually goes inside.

[Mike Wright]

I will say that you bring up a good point, because what I want to do when it comes to Amendola is I want to wait and see and then pick him up. But the reality is you have missed that role. He will be one of the hottest waiver wire pickups, and I'm going to have to spend a lot of money on a guy who will play very well for a week or two before he gets injured.

[Jason Moore]

He's only going to play a few, but they're going to be so real valuable.

[Mike Wright]

But my point is, I think that does lend a little bit of credence to the last bench spot role and maybe we'll see something to clue us in in the fourth game of the preseason.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, not. Not from Uncle Bill. He will give you nothing.

[Mike Wright]

Even still, I think this is a situation where you might see because they need that rep. They need that. I mean, if, if Amendola is stepping into that role, I think they will want him to play that role for at least the first drive or two of the fourth preseason game. That'll give you a little clue.

[Andy Holloway]

We talked about this already. You know, I'm not in on Danny Amador. I'm not willing to jump into the DeLorean and go back to 2015 for three games of targets. So I'm not in on it. But you're bringing the name up. That's fine. I'd rather spin that last pick or that 12 round pick. My guy's Ted Ginn Jr. All right. Ted Ginn. Junior, he's going to drop passes, but right now, he's the 54th receiver off the board. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Now you pair him with Drew Brees. Look, over the last three years, no, Drew Brees, starting wide receiver, has finished outside the top 34. He's the 54th wide receiver off the board. That value, in and of itself is good enough for me to draft him. Last year, Cooks and Thomas were 8th and 11th, right? Cooks is gone. I'm not saying he's Brandon Cooks for by any means, but Drew Brees has always been able to do this. He's been able to take players that had a very narrow niche, talent, guys like Robert Meacham, and give them a 45 for 709 and make them millions of dollars. Make them millions of dollars. Exactly. And Ted Ginn, if he's proven nothing over his career, and what he showed with Cam Newton is that he can. He can run. He can run like the wind. You got the most accurate quarterback in football, and you just need a few.

[Jason Moore]

Sam Bradford disagrees.

[Mike Wright]

Did you.

[Andy Holloway]

It doesn't matter if he's pigeonholed.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, I mean in. In preseason, you saw his speed is. He has not lost the speed. I watched him fly wide open, get hit with a great strike, and then just drop that ball like, who cares?

[Andy Holloway]

He's setting up.

[Jason Moore]

We're over this.

[Andy Holloway]

Fair expectation. All right, Jason, go ahead.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, I'll give you a sleeper.

[Jason Moore]

We interrupt this incredibly amazing podcast here with. We had breaking news. This is the part of the show where Jason launches into an incredibly articulate, incredibly informed, amazing, hot take of Cameron Meredith being a sleeper. Unfortunately, since the time of us recording the show, Cameron Meredith has torn his acl. So we will spare you the contents of having to listen to Jason, and we will get you back to the better part of the podcast.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Lots more sleepers on the website. Ultimate Draft Kit.com. big list on there. Let's go and talk some values.

[Mike Wright]

Values.

[Andy Holloway]

One another time. All right. Why don't you identify a value for the listeners?

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so the sleepers are later rounds.

[Jason Moore]

Those are adjacent going on right now.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, I mean, look, we want to make the show great, right?

[Andy Holloway]

We do want the grammar on point, though. So, Mike, why don't you take this?

[Jason Moore]

All right, I'll jump in here first. Andy mentioned this. This character at the beginning of the show, but he would rather have.

[Mike Wright]

Wait, are you going to explain what a value is?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's what I was kicking to you. Oh, you hopped Nails and you ruined it.

[Mike Wright]

All right, listen, North America tagging you back in, Jay. I'm back in. Okay, so here's what a value is. A value is a guy that you're not saying is a breakout. This is not a guy that, oh man, he's going to be a top five, a top ten. But when you're constructing your roster those first few rounds, a lot of times you have those super high upside guys, those wide receivers, running backs that have that talent and you need to pair them in the middle rounds, in those middle to later rounds with guys who will outperform the place that they are being drafted. That's what you're looking for. You say okay, he's the running back 39 taken off the board and I'm pretty confident he's going to finish as the running back 22. That's a huge value. And those type of players plug in the middle of your draft. They will make a huge difference for getting you to the playoffs and being able to make good start sit decisions.

[Jason Moore]

These are the players you can play the ADP game with.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

That you know where they're going in drafts. You have a, a pulse on how the public feels about this player and they may be unnecessarily down on them.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, do you want to start or do you want me to give you mine?

[Mike Wright]

I tag you back in, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

I'll jump in here. Andy talked about his rising star, the beats, the very earthy beats. Jonathan Stewart and I want to bring up. Yes, brace yourself. I want to bring up Jeremy Hill. Jason tried to plug his ears but he heard nothing.

[Andy Holloway]

Jeremy Hill of value.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, Jeremy Hill. A value being taken near double digits.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. All that being said, I agree with you wholeheartedly.

[Jason Moore]

Oh well then we are friends again. We've hooked arms and here's the deal. Talk about a history lesson. This is what you have to do with the Bengals and Marvin Lewis. You go back a couple years ago. Jule Bernard is a fresh eyed rookie looking sensational second round pick and the whole world is screaming free Gio Bernard. Meanwhile Ben Jarvis, Green, Ellis is just chugging along carrying the ball 220 times at a 3.4 yard per carry clip. Yet they still continued to give him the ball. You go to the next year, they grab another fresh eyed second round draft pick, Jeremy Hill. And Gio Bernard is clearly it's evident early that he is outmatched. He should not be an early down back for full time work. He's massively underperforming. Jeremy Hill is not Getting carries. Gio Bernard gets hurt. Jeremy Hill comes in and in those three games rushes 63 times for 361 yards. Absolutely dominant. It's his job, right? Well, no, he's still a rookie. When Gio Bernard comes back, there's a running back controversy. Eventually Hill wins out after splitting some time. So my point is simply all these people who are ready to give Joe Mixon the starting job for the Cincinnati Bengals, taking him in the third round, just be careful.

[Mike Wright]

Those people do not include Marvin Lewis.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, the head coach and I'm not. If Joe Mixon is given the starting job and the full time guy, he will absolutely be worth the third round. But you can't confidently say that Jeremy Hill has looked better than he has in years.

[Andy Holloway]

You've said before on the show this year you would take Dalvin Cook over Joe Mixon.

[Jason Moore]

That is correct because I know that Dalvin Cook is going to be starting. I don't know that Joe Mixon is going to be starting. He has the talent to be a top running back one.

[Andy Holloway]

What does Hill offer you? He offers this value.

[Jason Moore]

Nearly double digit touchdowns. I mean, what was it? 910? 9 or around there.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, he's 29 in the last three years.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So he's, he, he's been very effective as a goal line back. Marvin Lewis has shown, and I didn't even bring up Tyler Boyd who couldn't get on the field last year. He, he has shown that he makes rookies earn it despite it's the person in front of them being very inefficient. So even if Jeremy Hill's inefficient, we still don't know that you mix them. Will take the job.

[Andy Holloway]

You take the Pepto Bismol and then you draft Jeremy Hill.

[Jason Moore]

You, you have to do it.

[Andy Holloway]

You take two. What's the maximum, what's the maximum allowable dose?

[Mike Wright]

You can drink a whole Pepto. I don't. I mean, I've done this.

[Andy Holloway]

I, I can prove it.

[Mike Wright]

Asking for a friend.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Jason, you want to do yours? You want. Nope.

[Mike Wright]

You're up. You haven't spoken a while.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that good or bad?

[Mike Wright]

That's. That's bad. I miss your tones of daddy.

[Andy Holloway]

Look, I want, you want the dad voice.

[Mike Wright]

I need the dad.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to go with Andrew Luck as a value. And I didn't think I'd be in the position to say Andrew Luck is a value, but I'm talking. Look, his average draft position is plummeting. We're talking splash Mountain levels. I mean, he is tumbling very nice. He is tumbling down. And I've heard from listeners on Twitter, I mean, he's falling to the 10th and 11th round right now. His ADP that I'm tracking puts him right around the ninth round.

[Jason Moore]

A buddy of mine drafting today just text me, said, what would you say if I drafted Andrew luck in the 10th round?

[Andy Holloway]

There you go.

[Mike Wright]

I've seen 10th. That's 13. It's ridiculous.

[Andy Holloway]

The world is afraid. The world is afraid of Andrew Luck. And I get it. Like, he's banged up. He's coming back. So, you know, Cam Newton just had his first game on Thursday, coming back from a surgery, coming back from an injury, and the fear of the unknown is driving his stock price way, way down. But what I want to tell you is that you are not foolish to draft Andrew Luck. You are opportunistic. Okay? And there is a difference. You don't just draft every injured player, but you do draft a player who 73% of the time last year was a top 12 quarterback, which was 2% less than Aaron Rodgers, second best in the league, who over the last three years, there's not been a better quarterback in terms of more top 12 fantasy performances, even better than Aaron Rodgers. You know what you get with Andrew Luck, and there's a lot of wards, right? You don't like the offensive line, injuries, offensive line play in general, you've got problems. And it's never stopped him from being the most consistent fantasy force over the last three years. And I'm not worried about it. Yeah, maybe he misses game one. Maybe he misses game two. He might want to. He takes Arizona on his first game back, potentially. But let's not freak out. This is not injury freakout time. There's plenty of quarterbacks. You can draft somebody later in the draft, fill in for a couple of weeks, and you get elite quarterback value for basically nothing. I mean, if you're in the 10th round, you put yourself in the position to have 13, you know, 12, 13 weeks of elite quarterback play. Somebody who's proven, unlike Drew Brees, to be pretty much resistant to home road split, resistant to good, bad matchup. We looked at those numbers last year. And so Andrew Luck, to me, I wouldn't have thought he'd be this value, but for me, he's the overwhelming value in the draft at the quarterback position.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I would wholeheartedly agree with that. I mean, a couple of years ago, Andrew Luck was the most common player on fantasy champion rosters because he had that crazy, successful fantasy Season while he was drafted late. That was before people were all in. If you can grab a guy like that in the ninth round because he's tumbling in drafts and then grab Andy Dalton or Philip Rivers or whoever, you know, would be great.

[Jason Moore]

Bradford, Bradford.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I don't even care.

[Andy Holloway]

He might still start week one. This is not, it's not done.

[Mike Wright]

If, if I lose, you know, three or four weeks, I'm not worried. We talk about late round quarterback precisely because you don't have to have a great one. You can stream them. And the only reason we don't draft a great one isn't because we don't like great quarterbacks. It's because you have to give up a third round pick. You have to give up a really valuable wide receiver or running back. If I don't have to give up a valuable wide receiver or running back in the eighth, ninth round and I can get a great quarterback, sign me up. I could not agree anymore.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I'm going to play a game.

[Jason Moore]

Do we, should we play the drop?

[Mike Wright]

Do we have the drop?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't have the drop.

[Mike Wright]

You want to play again?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm sorry, Mitchell.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I do have the drop.

[Mike Wright]

I want to play the game.

[Jason Moore]

You gotta give.

[Andy Holloway]

You better deliver now.

[Mike Wright]

All right, well, here's the game. The game is called can I interest you in this player? I'm not gonna say what a game name.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you going to prime time with this?

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And I interest you in this player.

[Mike Wright]

I, I stayed up late last strong brand. Thinking about the brand.

[Jason Moore]

You should see the logo dot com.

[Mike Wright]

Well, no, but the dot net is, I hear just as good. Okay, so if I say the name, I think you won't be excited. I think you're gonna say, well, that doesn't sound like a good value. The guys going around him, I would take over him and that's fair. But I described what a value was earlier and he is the definition of a value. So let me, let me just say this. He is 30 years old at a wide receiver, which is absolutely fine. That's in your prime. You know, he's a little bit older than AJ Green at 29. And there are so many just in the last 10 years. If you look at the amount of players who have had great, we're talking like over, you know, 250 fantasy points. At age 30, you've got the greats like Moss and Calvin all the way to the Houshman, Zadas and Welkers. There are plenty of guys getting it done with. We're talking top performances at age 30. I'm not looking for a Jordy. Jordy was injured.

[Andy Holloway]

Jordy was 31 last year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, he played last year and was.

[Andy Holloway]

He would have been a good reference.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you're just going with 30.

[Mike Wright]

I was literally saying the exact age 30 season. Jordy didn't play that season. But yeah. My point is 30 is not old for a wide receiver like you might feel like it is for a running back. So he's in his prime. Okay. His situation has not changed. Okay. He no more clues, no new game. Yeah. So see if you can figure out who it is. No new wide receivers have come to town to siphon off targets any. No big changes that are going to impact him poorly. His offensive line has gotten a little bit better now. Last year he was with a new quarterback, so now he gets the second year with that same quarterback. So he is in his prime. He has another year with the same quarterback in a better offensive line with continuity and congruity. Here's his finishes. I just shut. I know I say things wrong. Let me live.

[Jason Moore]

Let me live.

[Mike Wright]

See? All right, here's his last three years wide receiver finishes in half point PPR. Three years ago he was the fifth wide receiver. Two years ago he was 20th. Last year with the new wide receiver, he was 20.

[Jason Moore]

New quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. We're following along.

[Mike Wright]

Thank you. I'm glad you are. I'm not. He was the 21st wide receiver. Oh, I got a hand up. I got a hand up. Shout it out. Who you think? Yeah. Emmanuel Sanders is right.

[Andy Holloway]

I like how Jason roped in that Peyton Manning year.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I realized that, I mean, I could say forget the year where he was the fifth wide receiver, but the last two years with awful quarterback play.

[Andy Holloway]

He'S the Jonathan Stewart of the wide receiver position.

[Mike Wright]

20Th wide receiver and the 21st wide receiver. He's actually a pretty darn consistent receiver. Who do you think of when you want consistency with target volume? It's Jarvis Landry. Right. You know the PPR machine. Here is the comparison of these guys over the last few years when it comes to Emmanuel Sanders versus Jarvis Landry. Okay. If you want to talk about finishing as a wide receiver, one or two, a top 24 on a weekly basis, Emmanuel Sanders is three percentage points ahead of Jarvis Landry. 42% to 39%. They're almost identical when it comes to busts. 38% and 39%. Here's the one difference that you're going to get between Emmanuel Sanders and Jarvis Landry. Is those wide receiver one finishes the ability to actually dominate a game and have multiple touchdowns because Jarvis landry lives at 14% whereas Emmanuel Sanders is at 34%. So some of that was skewed by Peyton Manning in this. But he has done this very similarly percentage wise the last two years. I just think he is a great value because he is being drafted right now as the 34th wide receiver off the board.

[Andy Holloway]

707 in the seventh round.

[Mike Wright]

And if you look in the seventh round, right, you got Devontae Parker, right?

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I was gonna ask you. We talked about him earlier, isn't it? Team makeup, roster construction.

[Mike Wright]

Emmanuel Sanders is a roster construction decision because right before him is Devonte Parker. I just said that that dude has the potential to be a top 12 guy. So if you need that on your roster then you're going to take Devontae Parker. But I also said I have him as a low two or a high three. Like that's where I actually think Parker will land. I think Emmanuel Sanders, you know, if I'm just projecting probability, will have a better year and very similar to the guy after him and desean Jackson, higher, boom, you know, potential. But I predict Emmanuel Sanders.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so Andre, Emmanuel Sanders, Jeremy Hill, the values for tonight. Now we're going to do one last segment here and Brooks, Judge Giamatti himself. He's got some questions from the audience here, the listeners, and we're going to. Are your pipes ready, Mike?

[Jason Moore]

Well, I'm going to need some help here. Oh, if anyone's familiar, please join in. Don't be bashful. Let me hear it.

[Andy Holloway]

Just clear your throat.

[Mike Wright]

Mailbag. I didn't hear it but I saw mouths moving.

[Jason Moore]

That's great.

[Mike Wright]

And that's what I would have done if I was in the audience.

[Andy Holloway]

I would have just mouthed, hey, we love helping you with your team. That's what this show is all about. It is about winning your league, enjoying yourself while you do it. If you have a question, you can always go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com youm click the submit a question button. You can also dial our voicemail hotline. 302464, TFFB. As I said, Brooks has collected some questions so I'm gonna go through them right now. This first one comes in from Brittany.

[Mike Wright]

Brittany in Toronto.

[Andy Holloway]

Toronto. That makes sense because that's where we are. And he collected them from people here.

[Mike Wright]

Bonjour.

[Andy Holloway]

Bonjour. She said she inherited a team. How does she unload players when the best player that she has to trade is Blake Bortles.

[Mike Wright]

You did not inherit a team. The best.

[Andy Holloway]

You inherited a tragedy.

[Jason Moore]

Is this a dynasty league? No. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

It's just a Regency.

[Mike Wright]

All right. To help how you unload players, it depends on which platform you're using, say, ESPN or Yahoo. You look for the AD drop, and then you just start auto dropping guys and you pick them up off of waivers. I mean, there's not much to say here other than go crazy, be bold, target a guy that has a crazy upside.

[Andy Holloway]

I tell you what, I do.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

If I'm in those situations and I've inherited a really bad team, I'm looking to basically package deal for, like, one or two foundational players, and then I piece the rest of my team together through the waiver wire and some. Some smart pickups. Because if you can accumulate one or two kind of stalwarts instead of the, like, land of mediocrity that you're apparently plagued with, then that's what I would do.

[Mike Wright]

Definitely. I mean, package. A lot of times if you can. I mean, it's hard because when you lead with your best player, Blake Bortles.

[Andy Holloway]

He'S more of a. You gotta hide him.

[Mike Wright]

But if you can package three or even four people and say, you know, man, how can I turn this down if I can get these four players for my one and grab.

[Jason Moore]

You also remind them that Blake Bortles is starting week one.

[Mike Wright]

That's right.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, if he has a good week, you go to town on the trade offers.

[Mike Wright]

Nobody's gonna trade for Blake Portal.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, this one's from Sean in guess what? Toronto.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, bonjour.

[Andy Holloway]

Bonjour.

[Mike Wright]

Fancy meeting you here.

[Andy Holloway]

Can you make sense of the messy running back situation in the NFC East? And I'm thinking to myself, that is. That is a gross situation, because you're going to start off that division with Robert Kelly, Darren McFadden, Garrett Blunt, maybe. I mean, what do you do in that?

[Mike Wright]

You draft zeke and Darren McFadden.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Smash Jackson is.

[Andy Holloway]

But, I mean, is it Blunt? I mean, is it Smallwood? Is it Clement?

[Mike Wright]

I am not.

[Andy Holloway]

Is it a mysterious signing to be.

[Mike Wright]

I am not touching the Philadelphia Eagles. You know, you say you're avoiding the Patriots. I'll take on the Patriots at a lower draft cost, you know, depending on who's there. Because the upside is there. I don't see the upside being there for either the Eagles or the Giants. Those are two teams that they just haven't shown me they're going to have the ability to run the ball now. At least with the Eagles, you have.

[Jason Moore]

A good offensive line and desire they want to run.

[Mike Wright]

Right. So maybe you can't have. But as of right now, if you're drafting, you cannot be confident that it's LeGarrett Blunt's job. There's rumors in the Bushes that they could cut. Cut him.

[Andy Holloway]

They're out of the bushes. They're on the field.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

All you gotta do is watch.

[Mike Wright]

If my man Donnell Pumphrey pronounced with an umphrey good news, he's gonna make. Might make the team. I mean, he is not. He has not fared well since.

[Andy Holloway]

No. That's a mess.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, for the Eagles, I'm only. I'm gonna take the late round shot on Wendell Smallwood. I. I don't believe in Wendell Smallwood's ability, but I do think that he's the most likely next man up.

[Andy Holloway]

He's the next Bishop.

[Jason Moore]

Or you just completely zig here and you grab Darren Sprouls.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Who could. Who could have some fantastic weeds, you know, the Giants.

[Mike Wright]

I feel like the Eagles would be a great landing spot for Ryan Matthews. They would be a great team for him. Maybe they should look into signing him.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, sad times for Ryan Matthews. All right, this one comes in from Eric in Rochester, New York. He drove in.

[Mike Wright]

Where is he now?

[Andy Holloway]

He's right there.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, bonjour.

[Andy Holloway]

No, we're in Canada, so you can still say it. You see how that works? Any border in between and you can say it. All right. Assuming Gronk and Reed stay healthy, can Jimmy Graham be a top five tight end?

[Mike Wright]

Heck, yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Why. Why would Gronk and Reed staying healthy?

[Mike Wright]

Well, because if what he's saying is.

[Andy Holloway]

Jimmy Graham less of a.

[Jason Moore]

Because it pushes everyone down.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I was saying last year, could Jimmy Graham have finished as a top three tight end? Because, you know, Gronk and Reed were. Were out of the picture. And I absolutely believe he could. I think that if Gronk and Reed stay healthy, that Jimmy Graham has the ability to be the third tight end. You think if they were all to play 16 games, he could outdo anyone else out there. He could outdo Kelsey. He could outdo. I mean, give health to everyone. I really do believe Jimmy Graham is a great player that is going to be heavily involved. And he didn't have a lot of opportunities for touchdowns last year. He made them his own. If he continues to make touchdowns from between the 20s and then just get a little bit of normal target volume for a tight end in the red zone, I think Jimmy Graham is I like his situation.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, you have Doug Baldwin and then you have an assortment of receivers that will carry, you know, that second. I mean, he'll be the second target. He should be in the offense and he's a year removed from, you know, his first year back from the very devastating knee injury. A lot of reasons to like. I mean, Russell Wilson's looked great so far this preseason and he's an ascendant player. So if he stays healthy, can get out of the pocket, Graham will be someone he leans on no matter what. So I do like, I think we all agree he can be a top five tight end.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

So, yeah, I agree. Before we close out the show, I want to remind you about NFL Game Pass. You want to go back, you want to watch Kareem Hunt, want to see.

[Andy Holloway]

Those legarit Blunt highlights, those.

[Jason Moore]

But either way, they're there on NFL Game Pass. They've got you covered for all out of market preseason games and those condensed games. That's what we're talking about. That's where you want to be as a fantasy player. If it's NFL football and it happened, NFL Game Pass has got it. So kickoff, the 2017 NFL season with a free NFL Game Pass trial. Sign up [e-mail] fantasy footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, and before we close out, I do want to thank everybody who is here in the live studio audience for tuning in. We appreciate it. And look, if there's anything that this show tries to do consistently, if you're, whether you've listened to the podcast or never before, is to understand that you got to go beyond just the stat lines. That's part of watching film. But it's more than that, too. It's like we can give you our rankings, we can give you our advice, but you know your league mates, you know your league format, you know those pieces. And so we, we try to equip you to make a good decision. Not follow us blindly, not listen to any expert blindly, but make your own decision and take a more holistic approach to fantasy football. Put stats in line with your league mates, in line with tendencies that you see in your league, and then go out there and win. Yeah, go out there and take it home. So again, you can find us on the web thefantasyfootballers.com on iTunes. You can subscribe. We'll be there five days a week, all year long. Thanks a lot. Have a good one.

[Jason Moore]

Don't forget, if you, if you haven't drafted yet, ultimate draftkit.com if you've been slacking we got you covered. Goodbye.

[Mike Wright]

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 @The FF Ballers.