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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Fantasy Football Sleepers | Running Backs To Draft or Fade (Ep. 1657)
01:00:53
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- [00:00]
Noah de Barrasso
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Pat Fitzmaurice
I'm Jake Hofer and this is Back 40, a limited series show on Wire.
- [00:09]
Chris Welsh
To Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode I'll be asking eight whitetail.
- [00:13]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Hunting pros a focused, thought provoking question about hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?
- [00:23]
Chris Welsh
Should you?
- [00:23]
Jake Seeley
That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand.
- [00:28]
Chris Welsh
Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app.
- [00:31]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
- [00:35]
Chris Welsh
What's up friends? And welcome into Fantasy Pros, the fantasy football podcast. I'm Chris Welsh and today we are talking sleepers. Are there sleepers in August? You're dang right they are. But we're not just talking any sleepers, talking running back sleepers. Whether you're a hero or a zero to the running back range, these are going to help your team out. And joining me today is Pat Fitzmaurice and Jake Seeley, two of my best friends in here. Jake rockin the hat and Pat rocking the takes. Pat, what's up buddy?
- [01:05]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Doing well, Walsh, how about you? I got four drafts cooking simultaneously including Jake's flex. Best ball league. So yeah, it feels like we are deep into August. It feels good.
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Chris Welsh
While we're doing the show. Are you going to be drafting while we're in a show?
- [01:18]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah, hopefully not. I've got, I should be okay in, in one league where we've got a one hour clock and there were like six picks to go before. So you know, as long as we hustle through, I've got you guys on the clock. Got to hurry this.
- [01:30]
Chris Welsh
We're all going to be, we're all going to be watching you. We're going to be watching you. See if your eyes start to wander and you start drafting while we're doing.
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Jake Seeley
He also pre drafted a spot too, so unless he gets sniped, I think he's good.
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Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah.
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Chris Welsh
Jake, this is great talking about these running back sleepers here because we're coming off of your flex leagues. I just did my one quarterback last week. I think you guys are in the best ball here and that is a definite strategy. I saw in the, in the one quarterback league where you know, there was that slight run of running backs and, and then there's kind of a big wait. And I would actually say the interesting thing about doing this show as well is over the last couple days, at least while we're recording this, quite a few running backs that were sleepers are not so sleepy anymore. They're starting to jump up and we're going to talk about a few of those guys. Whether it's been people are screaming about the usage that these guys are getting in preseason. Maybe a guy in front of another is going to be traded. There's some rumors out there, there's floating, so there's a lot of craziness in it. But we're going to be talking about fantasy football sleepers and through value sleepers, deep sleepers, and we're even going to get into the discussion of the players that are disguised as sleepers. So fake sleepers, if you've never had that. So we've got all of that in store for you on this episode today. If you guys want to follow along with some of the conversation, you guys can always check out how we're referencing some of these players when we do ECR or adp. So ECR is the expert consensus ranks which you can find over at fantasypros.com rankings or you can check out the aggregate ADP fantasyprose.com NFL/ADP. If you want to take a look, you can pick your formats and then you can see like, all right, this is what you know, espn, Yahoo and a couple other sites. This is what the aggregate ADP does. We'll be using those and you will be using it with us. So let's jump in and let's just get right into the names. We are talking value sleepers. We've got a couple names that we're going to be hitting here. So Jake, why don't you start us off. We're kind of looking at like rounds six through nine where, you know, we're not identifying sleepers as like first four. Yeah, thank you. First four or five rounds or anything like that. We're not into the deep sleeper range here. So this is that mid tier identified sleeper. Who is number one for you?
- [03:43]
Jake Seeley
I say number one. I'm not that excited about it, but.
- [03:45]
Chris Welsh
I've been getting number one on the list.
- [03:46]
Jake Seeley
Yeah, well, I was gonna say I admittedly been getting more excited because the situation behind this running back has been somebody who we have a lot of excitement for, who's been injured and then the person finally got their chance, that being Miles Sanders and did Miles Sanders things which said, hey, you know what, clearly you're not the answer. Which means as of right now, Javante Williams is like, I know we're excited for Jaden Blue, but I do believe that Jaden Blue was always going to be a timeshare piece at best. Anyway, which could be Jalen Warren Value, don't get me wrong. But if there was going to be a lead in this backfield, let's remember Javante Williams before he got hurt and if we could even get 90% of that, who included passing game work and passing game ability. I think Javante Williams is the winner here because unfortunately the Blue injury, he hasn't been able to get on the field this past week. And that doesn't mean that Jaden Blue is not going to be involved, but I think that just opens the door even more. So similar to the situation with Tyrone, Tracy and Scatterboos, Scatterboo hasn't been able to get on the field to kind of make his impact and take some touches away from Tracy. So I think this is very similar. As long as Javante Williams is healthy, they've kept them out, which tells us he's the one. I think that we should get in on this because if Javante Williams is even a fringe RB2 or RB3 where he's going in this range, it's not the most exciting. Like I said, he's not number one in my excitement poll, but he's number one and like, hey, this is a value. If you do what your approach that you didn't kind of say is like the hero RB was, a lot of teams were doing that in flex is one big and then I'm waiting four or five rounds to get another running back and that could be your answer at number two, but you're getting them as a number three.
- [05:15]
Chris Welsh
So one question to ask you is if, man, if there was a Brian Robinson that wasn't on the Commanders, like so that would have been a situation where we hear these rumors where Brian Robinson could be traded. My instant first thought was like, oh my gosh, the Cowboys have been tied to running backs all off season, but clearly those teams are not, not a good match and not a good pairing here. So you kind of take that off. But like if it weren't, I know I'm playing this weird scenario because maybe there's another running back or two that could be floating out there. Would that have changed your mind at all? If there was a running back of the ilk of a Brian Robinson that could have been available for it for the Cowboys, would you be worried about that at all? That that rumor that they were looking to try to acquire somebody could affect this usage, that you're kind of playing out for him to be a sleeper?
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Jake Seeley
Of course, because that would tell us that they don't the Cowboys don't have faith that Javante Williams is anything like he used to be. I mean, we're now talking, we're going to the third, for all intents and purposes year from this injury for Javonte Williams. If we kind of give him a pass, like, all right, last year should have been the rebound, but the timeline kind of put it more at the back end. Not that he looked good at the end of last year, but we're now at the point where if it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen. Like this is kind of like the dead tell. You could go back to Deonta Foreman who kind of had that late revitalization in his career, but this what that was like a three year scenario. So you could say that's the case. But as you're asking the question, if the Cowboys were still looking, if they were still interested, health cuts happen and they add somebody to the roster that'd be like, hey, Jalen Blue still banged up. Miles Sanders looks like trash. Phil Moffa is not a factor, which I don't think has been a factor to this point. But all that being said is just adding another piece would be like, like go to the Texans. Damian Pierce got cut because Woody Marks and Joe Mixon surprisingly ready for week one. And they bring in Damian Pierce then yeah, that would give me a little bit pause because that would kind of be a telling. Maybe they don't believe he's okay.
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Chris Welsh
Yeah, and I guess a better way for me to have phrased it probably was like, let's say the Jaguars openly were like, hey Travis etn, we are going to sell him. And then we also got like the, the Chargers saying, you know what, we're going to move on from Najee Harris. If you knew that there were one or two viable running backs in the market, would, would even the speculation give you a little bit of pause on a guy like Javante knowing the history?
- [07:26]
Jake Seeley
Maybe a few spots and I want to go crazy, but maybe a few spots.
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Chris Welsh
Pat, what do you think about Javante Williams here as a sleeper ADP? He comes in at 36 and a half PPR in our aggregate, which has got like Yahoo sleeper, RTS sports in here. He's going right above J.K. dobbins. He's actually going below Cam Scatter Boo, which kind of opens your eyes ranks. He's one spot higher. He's 35, he's in tier five, but he's above like Ramon Stevenson. Tank Bigsby has gotten a run here. So that's A general range on our ranks in adp. But what do you think of him as an actual sleeper?
- [07:59]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I think that's about right where he should be. I think I've got him at like RB 34 or something and I think we with the price we're paying right now, that almost bakes in the risk that there's some sort of trade possibility ETN or someone else from another team landing in Dallas. But man, I would love to see Javante Williams go back to the guy he was pre injury, the guy who made everyone mad at Melvin Gordon for being in his way in Denver and everyone wanting and Melvin Gordon was a pretty good back in his own right. But like everyone just wanted Melvin to get out of the way so it could be the Javante Williams show in Denver. Like he just had this great combination of power and explosiveness and he caught some passes too. So he could be that like he is a clear Runway to get a lot of work for Dallas. And you know what could be a fairly high scoring team. Like we with back back and with the firepower they have at wide receiver, like the Cowboys should put up some points and you know, getting the top running back from this team this late in the draft, if he is indeed the top running back in anything like his old self, you could turn a big profit there.
- [09:08]
Chris Welsh
Are you sold that he is? That last little sentence, you almost sound like you were just, you're like, yeah, this is a good pick by Jake, but maybe you're not completely sold on it.
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Pat Fitzmaurice
You're like, if he is, I just don't know. I mean, we have not exactly got overwhelming affirmation that the old Javante is back. But we've also haven't heard anything to the effect of, yeah, this guy looks totally cooked. So I don't know, it's one of.
- [09:31]
Jake Seeley
Those situations where no news isn't good news. It always almost be like, could we get some good news to be good news?
- [09:37]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Right? No news is no news in this case.
- [09:40]
Jake Seeley
Yeah.
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Chris Welsh
All right. Well, speaking of cook, there's different ingredients that put together a sleeper sometimes that can be like a player that's going to pop in week four, four or five, we draft them kind of high. We have to sit on them. Another one of those ironically can be kind of a, I don't know, a crusty, uninterested player that does like Javante that could play week one and then all of a sudden they just work themselves into the entire year when everybody was thinking they would fail. That kind of seemed a little bit like your guy Pat, where things were kind of lining up where everyone was like, yeah, he's fine, but usage is going to come down. That other guy is going to keep floating and he's going to be the player. But one of those ingredients to your player is a is a guy that is going to be out there. It looks like week one kind of unaffected by anybody else. And maybe this is going to make where he's going even a bigger value. So who is that player?
- [10:27]
Pat Fitzmaurice
It's Tony Pollard. And yes, please don't yell at me in the YouTube comments about picking Tony Pollard as a sleeper when he's clearly not a sleeper. He's more of a value pick. And we were told to go outside the top five rounds in adp. Pollard has an early sixth round ADP and he's that ADP is probably going to be in the fifth round by this weekend with the realization that Tajie Spears probably isn't going to be back anytime real soon for the regular season. And look, I have to admit that I was not all that into Tony Pollard earlier in the offseason, mainly because I do think Taje Spears is a good player. And Titans head coach Brian Callahan had said repeatedly during the off season that he wanted to carve out a bigger role for Spears. Well, now Spears has a high ankle sprain and high ankle sprains kind of have a way of thwarting the best laid plans. It's typically a four to six week injury and then players sometimes aren't themselves immediately upon their return. So Pollard should get a lot of work early in the season. Titans don't really have another running back who could be a one for one replacement for Spears. Like Spears is a good pass catcher. The Titans have Julius Chestnut, who had he's had five catches in three NFL seasons. And they have rookie Kalal Mullings, a former linebacker who probably profiles as a short yardage specialist. I know Pollard hasn't been as efficient the last two years as he was as a change of pace back earlier in his career behind Ezekiel Elliott with the Cowboys. But Pollard is a solid runner and pass catcher. Titans face one of the easiest schedules in the league this year, and last year they had a lot of injuries on the offensive line. But this unit is healthy now and the Titans signed Kevin Zeitler and Dan Moore in free agency. They could have one of the better offensive lines in the league. Cam Ward should help improve the overall quality of the offense. And oh by the way, if you make it to the championship game in your league Tony Pollard is a Week 17 matchup against the New Orleans Saints who had one of the worst run defenses in the league last year.
- [12:30]
Chris Welsh
So when you prefaced it is the idea and I know what you're getting at and it's good that we reiterate I said it at the top but like we're talking about like between like round six and nine. But you really seem like you focused on the value side versus like the sleeper. Is it that you think he can beat his current spot which is 25 ADP, that's a consensus 24 rank or do you think it is that he can hold? Because I feel like when you said value you look at him as like he's a dude that's going to like really hold that value of where you're drafting him right now.
- [13:00]
Pat Fitzmaurice
No, I mean right now I think he's better. Like he should go ahead of where his ADP is. He's kind of a target for me right now. Like I've got him, I've got him 48th overall in half point PPR.
- [13:13]
Chris Welsh
Do you think overall who has the better opportunity to really beat their current value? Javante Williams down at 36 but becoming like an RB2 or Tony Pollard who is like a fringe RB2 three to being like let's call him like a like a mid range RB2.
- [13:30]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I mean Javante probably just because he's so, so much further down in the rankings and yeah, I mean like I don't know how many points the Titans are going to put up. So Tony Pollard, I don't know if he has a realistic shot at double digit touchdowns and maybe Javante doesn't either. But I do expect the Dallas offense to maybe be a little better than the Titans offense.
- [13:51]
Chris Welsh
Well if yeah, Spears can stay on the field that's going to just be more opportunity for Pollard. What do you think about Tony Pollard in this range, especially in that kind of like sleeper versus maybe value value sleeper you can hone in on Jake, what do you think about Pollard?
- [14:04]
Jake Seeley
It's a wet fart came to mind. Like I'm thinking like I'm looking for a snack and I go in the refrigerator and there's that pudding cup that's been sitting there for three months in the back and I'm like fine, no rice cake. I won't go that bad. I'm just like fine, I'll eat the little snack pack and I'll be happy for five seconds. Mostly because I was completely out on Tony Pollard before the injury happened. Mostly because he had the entire workload last year until very late in the season. But he even still had the vast majority of at the end of the season, but his backfield all to himself and he was still RB25 in points per game. That's the thing. It's like Pollard is fine. It's not that I disagree much with what Fitz is saying. Where he is, he's a fine value. He's a fine RB2. That's all he's going to be. When you said, do you say hold or the upside, I 100% was hold, hold the door until you're disappointed and you're sad that you have to let him go. The one thing I will say, the schedule is nice except for week one. Fortunately, he has the entire workload to save his week one. But that's what I'm going with here. If there was no injury to Spears, I was completely. I had. I had Pollard outside of my top 25. Actually, I still do. I am at 26. I had him down around 30. Like I was rolling the dice. And I think it's going to come down to roster construction. So I'm not going to say like Fitz is wrong 100% to say he's a fine RB2. If you want somebody, then you just know what you're going to get. Cool. But like, when I'm drafting this range, usually Pollard would end up being my third running back, which might sound enticing to some people, but as my third running back, I'm usually waiting another round or two taking a Javante, taking a ETN or Bigsby, taking like those kind of guys where there's a path to getting inside the top 18 or so, where I just don't see that for Pollard. So it depends on what you need. Like, if I have a lot of risky wide receivers, then I'd say, you know what, Fine, I'll take Tony Pollard. So I really think it comes down to, even though we disagree to a degree and we're not that far off from each other, it comes down to team makeup for me.
- [15:56]
Chris Welsh
I like the construction idea too, of if you got Pollard as the third RB maybe compared to if you had taken like an RJ Harvey, that was your RB2 or even a Travion. Yeah. Like, if you think maybe those guys are going to just be a little bit weaker in the first couple of weeks, you really have Pollard for that protection early on.
- [16:13]
Jake Seeley
That's a good way to look at it, too.
- [16:14]
Chris Welsh
Yeah, there's like a construction side that really works.
- [16:16]
Jake Seeley
You can even get Pollard with Javante and be like, I can wait. I don't have to try and plug Javante into my lineup. I can hold Pollard for a while to see what happens. That kind of situation.
- [16:24]
Chris Welsh
Situation like a hero. Like a hero rb. Like you take your one big guy and then you wait a while and then Pollard is number two and Javante is number three. If you even wanted to do that. So there's some other use cases where he makes a lot of sense. All right, we got two more names that are coming up in our Value Sleepers. But first, get in the game. Best Ball is live at DraftKings. 15 million is on the line with real stakes and real excitement. Best Ball is the biggest fantasy contest at DraftKings. We're talking a $15 million guaranteed prize pool with two millionaires being crowned for and second place play season long fantasy football the DraftKings way. With best Ball, there's no waiver wires and no roster management. You get bigger rosters so injuries won't end your season. Just draft your team and you're set. If a shot at winning a share of $15 million isn't enough to get you excited first, I don't know what is, but we're going to try. So check this out. DraftKings is offering everyone a draft one get one special. Your $20 entry fee scores you a bonus ticket. So download the DraftKings app and use code fantasypros. That's code fantasy Pros for all customers who enter the NFL best ball 15 million millionaire contest to get a bonus ticket and get a shot at being crowned one of two millionaires only at DraftKings.
- [17:40]
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All.
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The Iheartra Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Value sleepers part do we've both got a couple players in here. I've actually mentioned one of these guys. So Jake, I had mentioned this guy potentially being traded. There's no actual discussion. It was just kind of a throw out here. There was so much discourse in the Twitter fantasy football verse about his counterpart and how amazing his counterpart is. So I'm setting us up here to talk a little Jaguars running back here. So which of those running backs are you on for a sleeper or value sleeper as your second guy?
- [22:01]
Jake Seeley
Both. But I will say because we're looking for the answer who can lead the backfield. Initially, in week one of the preseason it was all Travis Etienne and then when he left the field with the first team, there was a little sprinkler for Bigsby, but he didn't get a touch. And then he got work with the second team. Well, the second week came around and it was the 5050 SPL people were talking about earlier on and Bigsby was even on the field for passing down work. Now, the reason why I say ETN over Bigsby is not so much the fact that like yes, I acknowledge Bigsby looked better than ETN running the ball last year. There's objectively or subjectively pick which AFL you want to go and he looked better and was better going back to two years ago. We know how great that first half was for ETN. But if it's assuming a 5050 split even, let's just say that's the worst case scenario of what we want from fantasy. We want somebody to have the 60% or we want somebody to be the clear lead. But in that situation, I know Bigsby was out there in week two, but I think we all expect and still believe ETN would be the pass catching option. So similar to Najee Harris and Jalen Warren of the Steelers last year, I'd rather have the pass catching option. I'd rather have the one with more upside. I'd rather have somebody in the offense that potentially does have to throw more under Liam Cohen and has more explosiveness. And that's why I would take ETN over Bigsby. That Being said, they are both so cheap. This entire backfield is so cheap because of the uncertainty that you can drag draft all of them, take flyers on all of them, including hand one that we'll talk about later because of fits is that you can spend on all of them. And no, I don't really want to draft three running backs from the same team, but you could take two flyers. The cost of two flyers, potentially one winning out is going to help your team because they're all cheap right now.
- [23:43]
Chris Welsh
Yeah. And Fitz, that's kind of the thing that jumps out to me is like if ETN was like 24, you know, if he was like the Pollard value or something like that and then Bigsby were like 30th and then Tutin was like 38, you'd look at this and.
- [23:55]
Jake Seeley
You'D be like blah.
- [23:56]
Chris Welsh
Like it's all just too much and everyone probably go to the cheaper end. But I mean ETN kicks us off and he is ADP and ECR ranked 32. So he's almost just a straight up like running back four as far as value. He's the back end of whether you want to call it RB3 or Flex however you want to use it. It's a cheap cost. But what do you think about etn? Jake alluded we're going to talk about another Jaguars running back here in a little bit, but the cost is just really low, into the 30s. Do you there's some value sleeper in ETN this year?
- [24:26]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I mean there could be. I think there's a really wide range of potential outcomes with etn. But the cost on all these guys is so cheap. Like it, it pays to invest in these murky back fields because you could turn a big profit on a modestly priced back. And it was not that long ago, early 2023 as Jake said, that ETN was basically giving us numbers befitting a first round fantasy pick. Like he was really good in early 2023. Contrast that to last year when ETN objectively stonk, I mean he averaged 3.7 yards per carry last year. He forced 17 missed tackles in the running game all season he averaged -0.28 rushing yards over expected per carry. He averaged 1 yard per outrun as a pass catcher. It was just bad. And now he's in the final year of his contract. But maybe he could flourish in a Liam Cohen offense. Like Cohen uses a lot of wide zone and that's probably a good scheme for ETN skill set. But like what if the Jaguars just kind of Decide to move on and turn things over to Bashal Tootin playing the Lightning role in a Thunder and Lightning tag team with Tanks Tank Bigsby. So I don't know, you know, ETN's got this RB3 average draft position. I can imagine him being an every week fantasy starter. I could imagine him being a guy who people are waving like three weeks into the season.
- [25:55]
Chris Welsh
Okay, so let me ask you this then. What, what. What's the scenario where you take him? What does it look like? I have one in my mind. If you want me to set you up here, like I was thinking, you go and you take. Let's take a HN or Jacobs. Just give me one of those hero guys. And then you're waiting, you're waiting and then all of a sudden you had to lock down your RB2 is Caleb Johnson. And you know, you've kind of, you know, there might be some potential upside. You're right there. To me, that's kind of the scenario where I start to go like I think I was saying it with the last guy where it's like, all right, I got this like maybe unquestioned early player, rookie, that a guy like ETN would make a lot of sense as a veteran who's going to get some volume at least early on. To me that's a scenario where I'm probably targeting ETN a tiny bit more. Where if I'm left with my options of being like wherever you are, Brian Robinson, Tyrone Tracy, Jalen Warren and him. And I've got a Caleb, you know, as my number two or even an Aaron Jones as my number two, I feel like that would prompt me to want to take an etn. Is that. Would you co sign on that Fitzy as the scenario? Do you have a different scenario where ETN would make sense?
- [27:02]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Well, Walsh, right now I've got got ETN ranked I think 88th overall in half point PPR and I've kind of got him as this. He's in this buffer zone between the wide receivers I like and the wide receivers I'm just like depth guys. So like ahead of him I've got Jordan Addison, Ricky Pierce, all Juwan Jennings, Jacoby Myers. Below him I've got guys like Michael Pittman Jr. Debo Samuel, guys I'm not quite as into. So if I go with a real wide receiver, heavy build early in the draft and maybe I've only got one running back to this point and I'm looking for, you know, guys who have a chance to emerge as as every week. Running back Twos for me. Like I could put ETN in that category as long as I'm already sort of happy with what I have at wide receiver.
- [27:51]
Chris Welsh
Jake, any other different scenario that you would build for why Travis ETN makes sense to your team or do you like what we put together?
- [27:58]
Jake Seeley
I like I probably wouldn't go the Caleb Johnson only because a week two in the preseason you just that's just a name that was in my mind that similar to what we were talking about before. Like I would want the cheaper option with Jalen Warren because I don't know what's going on with Caleb Johnson. That's a complete sidebar. That's a conversation for another day. What the hell was that use in week two? Why did you draft him if he's not going to be Najee Harris? Why are we doing this with Kenneth Gainwell? So that being said I do I would to your question though like Caleb Johnson would go back to the previous conversation because of what we just saw in week two. I want Caleb Johnson with Tony Pollard and the fact that like I don't need Caleb Johnson in week one because that's worrisome now I think Trevor Travis ETNs the similar thing is that I want two running backs and I want somebody like Tony Pollard. Travis Etienne I would do that as much as I don't want Tony Pollard because I want a backup plan or I should say I want to plan in place ahead of him in case he's not the answer because if he's not the answer I agree with Fitz. Move on from him to do not do the thing where you draft Travis eta it doesn't happen in two weeks. You didn't need to drop them but you held on and it pops off in week three. He goes back to the bench a week four and then it's the whole you spend the rest of the season not knowing when to play him and you miss all the good games anyway.
- [29:09]
Chris Welsh
Yeah never starting him in the right point here. All right. The second Pat this is your second value sleeper. Hit us with him.
- [29:16]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Zach Charbonnet and I just I want to invest in the Seattle backfield this year. Like I'm I'm very interested in drafting Kenneth Walker and if I don't get Walker I want to get Chardonnay. And I'll even consider drafting both Walker and Charbonnet even though I'm generally not a big handcuffer in drafts. A couple of reasons why I'm so jazzed about the Seattle backfield this year. First of all the combination of a Kubiak paired with Rick Denison has historically produced some awesome running games. Like Clint Kubiak's dad, Gary Kubiak was the longtime offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos under Mike Shanahan, and Gary Kubiak also happened to be John Elway's backup quarterback in Denver. Rick Dennison is a former Broncos linebacker who was either an offensive assistant or the offensive line coach for Denver back when Gary Kubiak was the OC and the Broncos running game was magic. Back in those days they had Terrell Davis, they had Clinton Portis, and they also got these big one off seasons from guys like Reuben Drones, Mike Anderson, Tatum Bell. Like Clint Kubiak's first stint as an offensive coordinator was with the Vikings in 2021. Dalvin Cook had almost 1200 rushing yards in 13 games that year and and now Clint Kubiak is running the Seattle offense with Rick Dennison as one of his assistants. And the Seahawks have pretty much signaled that they want to get their running game going by spending a first round pick on interior lineman Gray Zabel, who looks looked absolutely phenomenal in the preseason this past weekend by the way, like he was mashing people. And they also spent a fifth round pick on a 274 pound fullback from Alabama, Robbie Uts. As for Charbonnet, like he's been really good whenever he's gotten the chance. He averaged 3.35 yards after contact per carry last year. And when Kenneth Walker was hurt, Charbonnet had two touchdowns against the Dolphins and two more touchdowns against the Cardinals. He's also been really good as a pass catcher, 75 catches over his first two seasons. And let's face it, we know Kenneth Walker's had kind of a hard time staying healthy the last couple of years. So I think Charbonnet might have some standalone value even if Walker is healthy. And he could be a monster if Walker were to miss more time.
- [31:33]
Chris Welsh
It's interesting. A lot of the narrative is around Ken Walker and this team and you hear everybody talking about their love for Ken Walker. He's also one of those weird ones where his ADP and ECR don't really match up up. People rank him higher but they don't draft him at the same spot. He is a ECR 34 and half PPR, so that's inside the top 36, but his ADP is 38, so that's four RB spots. And when I say that I'm not doing overall, I'm just talking positionally. That's four positional spots Lower where he's being drafted. So really interesting dynamic. Is Charbonnet a guy that you're targeting Sealy, or is it all about Ken Walker? Or neither.
- [32:06]
Jake Seeley
So it's funny, this has kind of been a roller coaster for me. By the way, I was trying to see if Dennison overlap. No. Shawn Moreno. He didn't. I was going back and trying and then looking at some of the names of the Broncos for the year. That was fun that the rabbit hole I just went down. But anyway, it's gone up and down and up again. So initially I was. Because I looked at last year before we even go down this path, which I agree with everything that Fitz has said about this offensive system. But looking at last year and look at how good Charbonnet did in the absence of Walker. Like, there was concerns. We hadn't seen it yet. We've seen Charbonnet and Burst, but it kind of be similar to the Warren situation where it's like, do they really want him one, to be the guy if Walker's out? And then two, can he be the guy? A lot of these running backs, we'll. Throughout the NFL, they're great in timeshares, but when asked to be the guy, they become less efficient. So that was a big question that I thought was answered. So I was like, hey, why wouldn't you use Charbonnet more this year? Why won't you peel off of Ken Walker a little bit and maybe even look like the Steelers? I know I keep referencing them, but they're a good callback for this. And then talk to Michael Sean Duggar of the Athletic who covers the Seahawks. And I said everything from reports, everything with this team has been saying they want Kenneth Walker to be the bell cow. And I'm like, wow, well, that means we need to move back to Kenneth Walker a little bit. But now I'm back in and with Fitz on this because Kenneth Walker needs to get on the damn field for it to be a bell cow. You can be a bell cow all you want, but if you're in this shed getting milk because you can't get on the field, like, I don't even want you out there. So I'm backing on Charbonnet mostly because I think he needs to be in the conversation with like a Tal Algier, the Isaac Garendo, where these are. There's a lot of handcuffs that we want, but there's some top tier ones. Charbonnet should be one of the first, like you say, David Montgomery first. Charbonnet is probably either second or third at worst. So that's why I'm definitely still drafting Charbonnet.
- [33:49]
Chris Welsh
All right, value sleepers in the books again. These are these guys that are kind of like floating just before we get to the top 36. So now let's jump to deeper sleepers. These are RBs that are outside of the top 36 and half PPR. We're looking at ranks. We're looking at ADP sharp and actually would have kind of qualified there. Couple players names have just popped up over the last couple days and been more enticing and frankly, that is where we're going to start with this very first one, Jake, as we are going to be hitting, not any quick hitters or anything like that, but we're going to be moving a little bit more on the deep sleepers. Brian Robinson apparently is on the trading block and that makes a few names quite interesting. But you're picking the one that maybe more people should be talking about and aren't. It's Austin Eckler as your first deep sleeper. So let's.
- [34:32]
Jake Seeley
Yeah, before you teed that up, I was actually going to say I was going to throw a Nolan McLean curveball at you with that spin rate, by the way, and look at that for a base. But say, look at that, I was going to throw that at you and say, hey, you know what, maybe we save this name for Pat's last and then talk about both of them. Maybe we pull Pat's up and switch it that way and throw the curveball in the other.
- [34:49]
Chris Welsh
If Pat's cool with it, we'll do his name, we'll move on.
- [34:51]
Jake Seeley
Yeah, come to him in a second because I don't necessarily disagree. We'll get to his in a second. The real answer here is like, I think that Austin Eckler is just being overlooked. Period. End of statement this year. Austin Eckler was still productive last year when healthy and I know there's a question of whether or not he's been healthy, but he is as of right now. He has been this entire off season. His role is not changing and his role even last year was an RB three and a half and full point ppr. And there's a big question. You said the Brian Robinson trade talk that got started yesterday from Jordan Schultz and whether or not that even happens is fine because whether it's Brian Robinson who Pat's going to talk about, whatever it is, Austin Eckler still Austin Echler. And that's what I'm excited about here is also on top of it you look up and down this depth chart we've talked on previous shows of why I'm a little bit more positive on Deebo Samuel than a lot of people. Mostly because of the Jabronis that Jaden Daniels had to throw to last year. It was 200 targets going to all these other names that weren't Terry McLaurin and Zach Ertz and those are just the wide receivers. They've been trying to make things happen and part of that was Austin Eckler not being on the field for some of that. I still think Austin Eckler for a full season could be walking into 70 plus targets. And as so with the few carries that he's going to get, he'll be an RB3. And that's why it's not that like oh my God, you have to smash Austin Eckler in every single one of your leagues. It's just nobody seems to be talking about him this year.
- [36:12]
Chris Welsh
Yeah, it's an interesting one. And Pat, the big popular name that's jumped up because we'll talk about these guys as kind of a grouping here. We moved one of your lower names up up here and it's Jecory, Crosby, Merritt who is the big boost. I mean he is going to fly up boards right now. I mean we're talking people at take.
- [36:29]
Jake Seeley
Him in the third round.
- [36:30]
Chris Welsh
Yeah, yeah, well they might with that. We've been seeing some of these drafts go first Trayvon and then 12 will be merit. But you know, if Robinson goes, I think a lot of people are vaulting him into that spot and he's a guy that was, you know, 40, 50 ADP who is flying up. As a matter of fact, if I can even try to find it real quick, quick. Merit with 78among ECR ranks on RB. So obviously like we have not seen him get caught up. ADP is 64 so things are starting to move but that's way, way down there. You're making a bet on Merit. Getting a lot of run this season and being a value sleeper or deep sleeper.
- [37:09]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah, first of all, let me say I totally agree with Jake on Eckler. There are actually two targets for me in this Washington backfield. Like Eckler has been one of the guys I've drafted most often to this early drafts. He's going way later than he should. Scored double digit PPR points in eight of his 12 games last year and when Brian Robinson Jr. Missed a couple of mid season games with a hammy injury, Eckler had 134 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns in those two games. So yeah, he's going way too low and he's not the guy who's threatened by Jakory Crosby Barrett, like Eckler's role is going to be the same. He's going to play on passing downs, he's going to play in the two minute offense and he's going to occasionally be like the, the change of pace, play a series here, that or guy behind whoever's like the main early down starter. Crosby Merritt is absolutely a target for me and right now Brian Robinson is the guy with the, you know the, the skull and crossbone sticker like the, you know I've got on the bleach that I keep under my sink the drum beat with Jecory Crosky. Merritt has just gotten too loud to ignore like all right, so this guy goes by the nickname Bill by the way. Jakory Crosby Merritt. I'm not quite sure why yet, but I'm sure we're going to be reading about that soon. He has just been a sensation because he's money. He's the big beautiful Bill in Washington right now. Yeah, he's been a sensation in Washington's training camp and this guy was a late seventh round pick, was not even invited to the combine. Crosby Merritt only played one full college season in FBS. He almost had had 1200 rushing yards and 17 touchdown runs for New Mexico. Then he went to Arizona but had eligibility issues and only played one game. But then he had a crazy pro day. He ran a 4.45 in the 40 and high jumped 41 and a half inches. So this dude is an athlete and man, he has been the talk of training camp and one of the team's beat writers, Ben Standing of the Athletic has suggested that Brian Robinson might not even make the team team because of what a revelation Crosby Merit has been so far. And his ADP is like RB64. It's been moving up but you can still get him late and it's going to be real easy to move off him and just wave him if you know he doesn't pan out. But this guy just might end up being a starting running back for an up and coming offense that's going to put points on the board this season and you can get him like well into the double digit rounds of drafts right now.
- [39:35]
Chris Welsh
Okay, so let's touch on that for a second because first there's a part of me that wanted to push back and just be like, there's also a scenario where there's too many cooks in the kitchen and they could all eat into each other. And we're not going to, in a week to week basis be able to, like, you know, if one guy gets the, you know, the hot run, then they're the one that, you know, Eckler this week and Merit this week. Rodriguez is out there. Deebo, you shouldn't dismiss. I mean, Deebo could take, like, short yardage stuff, but to your point, the costs are too low. This is kind of back to the. Everything is cost is too low except this. It's going to change this coming weekend. So what if. What if Eckler is going inside the top 30 and what if merit is going as a top 36 back as well? What if they're both going in that general range? You said, like, oh, it's really easy to cut right now. Visually, what we're seeing, it is easy to cut, but if people start taking him inside the top 40 and Eckler inside the top 30, is it really going to be easy to cut? And do you think we should consider a situation where maybe there's more of a rotation that eats into everybody's value if these guys cost more? Pat, start with you.
- [40:41]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I don't think Echler is moving up just because he has been really stable, like with his ADP and ECR all offseason. I don't think people see, like, the possibility of a bigger role. And I kind of agree it's not going to be a bigger role. So I'm not worried about that. If Crosky merits adp, moves up that high, it's probably because the team has, in fact traded or waived Brian Robinson, in which case I'm okay with the higher cost. I mean, still. Yeah, you want to give me an RB38 after they've, you know, told Brian Robinson Jr. To hit the bricks? Sure, I'll take crosky merit at RB38 in that case, but if he's going RB38, if. If, like, Robinson is still there and it's just someone in your draft this weekend being the trendy guy, like, wanting to jump on that in the seventh round, then I'm probably. I'm not going to be that guy. Like, I'll let someone else do that. But beyond the seventh round, I'm starting to get interested.
- [41:41]
Chris Welsh
Jake, would you be comfortable taking Bill over a Cam Scatterboo?
- [41:45]
Jake Seeley
As of right now, the downside here is that if everybody's here come week one, and I think that's the risk, and I think that's more the reality. I mean we're talking about somebody yes, he's in the last year of his contract but again why would a team trade for a running back in today's NFL in the last year of their contract for anything more than a 6th rounder? And do you really give away a productive running back like Brian Robinson for $3 million just to get a six rounder back? It just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. This kind of feels like due diligence and the news got leaked and you know it's news breaking like it's eyebrow raising is going to get headlines is what it feels like. The upside would be like I would draft both as an RB3. Brian Robinson's the Uninspiring RB3. I would take Tony Pollard before I took him. Crosby Merritt is the upside one in case Brian Robinson is gone. Hell if Brian Robinson got hurt next week in practice. This wasn't there in week one. We'd be excited about Crosby Merritt who I think there's some similarities to a previous guy on this team as Alfred Morris. And that's peak though like you told me, 1200 yards, 8 plus touchdowns and again very little in the passing game because part I don't think that's his entire game but a big part being that's Eckler's. I think he's even possibly a little bit more explosive than Alfred Morris. But all that is I think the best numbers if you want to pull numbers from last year is Brian Robinson's numbers. Like I think that's who he can step in and be which is a fine fringe RB2 or 3. But if Brian Robinson's on the team in week one full blown committee, get the hell out of here because you're not going to. They're not going to not be able to use Crosby Merritt if they still have Brian Robinson. So that's the worst case scenario which goes back to my answer. Just give me Eckler instead of trying to figure out can I use Brian Robinson or Crosby Merritt merit at all.
- [43:27]
Chris Welsh
I legitimately think there is a chance that drafts this coming week and weekend merit's going to fly up board. So if you're getting it probably the.
- [43:34]
Jake Seeley
Highest of the all three of them of all that's.
- [43:37]
Chris Welsh
Well that's where I was going. Like I think he goes before everybody. So like if you are presented with the value take it. But I'm not sure the value is is going to be there. We're going to see as the hype comes up but as you know two weeks from now if like Robinson wasn't traded, we'll see. I also wonder if maybe the blueprint for Brian Robinson trade needs to be closer to a Jordan Mason. If like what the Niners traded for Jordan Mason and team like that. So that could be where you hit a stall point why he doesn't end up getting traded. So just throwing it out there. It's a great name and while the value is there, you should take both of these players I think make really sense, a lot of sense for your teams. Jake, deep sleeper number two for you. We're off of the Commanders now.
- [44:16]
Jake Seeley
This is another one that's rising right now. And to go back to about a month ago, I wish I could live in those days again because not only is the name getting more respect, but Tyler Goodson got banged up which just takes another name out of the backfield with it. That being the guy behind Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan Taylor's missed time each of the past three seasons and everybody's just going into this year like everything's going to be fine. We're talking about injury risk with all these other running backs and nobody ever brings up the Jonathan Taylor name seeming except for me. And that's not going to be like haha me. I know other people do. It was just tongue in cheek. But the answer all along has been and I even got pushback on the comments of this show a few weeks ago when I said David Montgomery type of production and be like oh he's more explosive. The production was my point. And the fact that he is underrated. I agree as a pass catcher and that DJ Giddens is and I think that stepping in and being what I said at the David Montgomery comparison was that kind of divisive. One slash cut runner and like he's going to go and cut through and he's not like going to dance around. He's not going to try and bounce everything outside. Oh what does that do in this offense? Exactly what Jonathan Taylor's asked to do. And if DJ Giddens has to step in for a Jonathan Taylor injury, he will be a top 20 running back because they are going to turn to him him 18 times a game like they do any running back. I mean this is the offense that has made a bunch of no names have production for one, two, three weeks while Jonathan Taylor's missed time because more often than not this offense, this system, this style has turned to one option versus trying to make four guys fill in for Jonathan Taylor.
- [45:44]
Chris Welsh
Pat 67 on ADP for getting 66 ECR rank. So he's like way down there probably, you know, a guy at the end of any, any end of any of your drafts you can pick up. Do you think there's in season value as a slee or do you think the sleeper values specifically tied to just being the two to Taylor?
- [46:02]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I mean I do think he could be one of the more valuable handcuff running backs and you know, like he's what he should be for a late rod pick. But I agree with Jake. If anything happened to Taylor, this is a guy we're probably ranking in the top 20 for any given week at running back. And you know, I like what Jake said about the one cut thing because that kind of popped when, when you watch Giddens play at Kansas State, like he changes direction without gearing down and he has this thing where he'll set up his change of direction with these little faints that just have a way of freezing defenders. So yeah, he was a fun watch at Kansas State, just really smooth. And I have seen Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter still love that name by the way. Talk about how well DJ Giddens has picked the things up with pass protection and that is such a good sign for a young running back who is trying to earn the trust of his coaches. Like that tells me they, they might feel comfortable with him as the number two and you know, so long Tyler Goodson and Khalil Herbert.
- [47:07]
Chris Welsh
All right. This was originally Pat's first name. This was the first one. So we moved cross key Merritt up. This is I think another one of those guys that is going to start rising, especially the last like 48 hours at least before we're recording. This has really been a lot of chatter around this player. So Braylon Allen is number two, number whatever, it doesn't matter here. 47 in ECR. So that's the other goofy thing is his ECR is higher than his ADP. His ADP was around 51 of RVs 47 ranked, which you can go check out on Fantasy Pros. I think that's going to start to flip where I think he's going to start going higher than he is ranked here very shortly. But Pat talked to us about Braylon Allen as your deep sleeper.
- [47:49]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah, I mean jets head coach Aaron Glenn has spent the entire off season talking about wanting to use multiple running backs and it's not hard to see the 235 pound Braylon Allen as an early down thumper and goal line specialist. I'm a University of Wisconsin fan. Like I watched Braylon Allen run for 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns as a 17 year old freshman. This guy runs with power. He has good vision, he's got really quick feet for a big back. It's funny, someone in the fantasy pros discord was asking me about trading Isaac Garendo for Braylon Allen in Dynasty and he felt like he should be getting some extra juice as the guy getting Braylon Allen in that deal. And I was like dude, they played together at Wisconsin and you realize Garendo could not get onto the field because Braylon Allen was there, don't you? Like Garendo was just strict backup who never played played behind Braylon Allen and like Braylon Allen played the entirety of his rookie season at age 20 he was the youngest player in the 2024 draft. Like admittedly he's probably not going to offer much value as a pass catcher, but he could potentially score quite a few touchdowns this year. And I think there's like substantial upside with Allen if either Breece hall or Isaiah Davis were to get hurt or if the jets decided they were just going to deal Breeze hall been kind.
- [49:13]
Chris Welsh
Of a lot of grossness with the jets in general. I feel like before preseason start up in camps everyone's like ooh, Fields top five Garrett Wilson. And now it just feels very negative. It's been like Fields is stunk and Breece hall is going to have less usage and Wilson just kind of floating out there. The one narrative positive has been Braylon Allen. Jake, so what say you? Are you a buyer on him being a deep sleeper and that his usage is going to be something you're going to want especially based on his cost?
- [49:39]
Jake Seeley
I am and this is going to be feel like I told you so but if anybody knows me they. I mean that's part of my character anyway. Like so yeah the Braylon Owl thing. I will say this. I agree with Fitz that my comparison coming out of college was Derek Murray a Derrick Henry Latavius Murray kind of mishmash because I don't think obviously nobody's Derek Henry, but kind of that Latavius Murray similarities there. And that was to go back to the I told you so was when I was having hesitations at Breece hall. It was because if we've gone back through Justin Fields good seasons, I know there's not a lot but also just the majority of time that he's been at quarterback there's been a mismatch of running backs that have been alongside of him and I don't think you can tell me right now on paper and I could agree with you, none of them are Breeze hall or even Braylon Allen. But the one telling thing is that when they get to the green zone inside the 10, if you want to use that term, is they turn to and have the person beside him in the backfield as the bigger running back. The bigger running back back with the Bears was back there with him and the bigger running back being that offset Justin Fields not taking it while they want to head to the Thumper to kind of offset what the offense is at that point. Again, also different offenses, different everything. I'm just saying that's been the tell so far. So I've been on Braylon Allen as being a timeshare piece and been down on Bree Hall. So I'm with Fitz. And the part about it is is that if Braylon Allen right now he's just still a bench piece. But if something were to happen to Breeze hall, who also was hurt last year, Braylon Allen is going to step in and be an RB too. Because I do think Isaiah Davis would be a factor. But Braylon Allen would be the lead in that scenario is Davis would be the complimentary piece and the one it's kind of going back to the Echler part of it. The one constant here is that Braylon Allen is going to keep that short yardage and Bell Cowie, not Bell county, sorry, short yards and like that beast thumper roll at the goal line. No matter if it's Davis or Hull with him.
- [51:31]
Chris Welsh
I'll tell you, I really do. If you think in construction for just a second, like I was thinking about this as you were going and it's like an ideal construction of RVs right now where you're balancing on some sleepers has been like give me hero and then give me upside. So again, if you want to go HN, McCaffrey, whatever, and then you want to go with like give me an RJ Harvey or give me a Hampton with that upside, then give me a third back that is like a safety net to that rookie that I took like an ETN. If that is the player, then my 4 and 5, what do I want? I want to play all upside in that secondary market of players you've talked about Braylon Allen, if he were to be the guy, Crosby, Merritt, I think Giddens like those guys that are these solid twos but could be amazing if they're ones. I feel like that's just like a really ideal construction. So it's like hero rookie Upside core kind of boring player. And then two guys that, you know, that can have some value, but if they are put into that spot, like Braylon now would be like a critical one for me. So they're just thinking about construction that leads to our final deep sleepers here. And Jake, this is actually one of the. These deep sleeper, huge upside plays as well. I'm not sure he's. This guy's 100% like the. The handcuff that you would call it, but there is a hand slash, big upside. Kind of like Giddens, I suppose, here. But why don't you hit us with your final of the deep sleepers?
- [52:53]
Jake Seeley
Yeah, the final one. I would just make this the Jake feels braggy type of show this week is I got laughed at a month ago, two months ago, when I was saying, if I'm looking at this backfield and who fits the Raheem Moster or role, it's Ollie Gordon. And we're like, you're stupid. I'm like, okay, fine. I believe that's who fits this role. Let's go back two years. This is 20, 23. People are like, ollie Gordon's going to be a first rounder. Like, let's remember the ilk that came with him. And yes, there's been concerns of last year and performance wise, a little bit banged up and everything, but, like, this was somebody who was thought of as a first rounder. So it's not like he's devoid of talent. And even going into this, I was still ranking J. Jalen Wright in front of Ollie Gordon. Let's make that clear as well, because I thought Wright was going to be the complimentary piece to start. But what's been evident so far is Jalen Wright started with the door creaked open for Ali Gordon. And like, Jalen Wright's the one pushing the door open for Gordon to step through. Like, he's making it wider and wider and wider. He's like, you know what? I'm just gonna lay down on the ground and let you step over me like a mat. Because that's basically what Jalen Wright's been doing on the field is literally laying on the ground. He has stunk so far, and now I'm not completely out on Jalen Wright, but at some point, the Dolphins watching the two, if you strip the names off the jerseys, anybody at home would be like, that guy's better than that guy. And the guy that you'd be pointing to is the better one is Ollie Gordon. At this point, this keeps up, it might even be as early as week one that Gordon takes that number two role which can have the touchdown equity if he's playing the Raheem Mostert role. And no, I know he's not as fast as Raheem. That was the whole pushback I got. But it's that role. It's getting in there inside the 10, inside the 20, and getting some of the touchdown opportunities. And then if anything were to happen to Achan, which apparently it still has as of right now, they're optimistic for week one. But you throw out that one where Achan's banged up, well, then it doesn't matter that Wright's on the field or not, because they're both going to get usage. I think Gordon should be basically drafted and he's undrafted right now. He should be drafted in every league right now.
- [54:52]
Chris Welsh
Pat, is Ollie Gordon someone that's making the kind of end of year rosters as a sleeper you got to get.
- [54:57]
Pat Fitzmaurice
He is unlike Jake, I have totally given up on Jalen Wright. I think he's back. And the whole thing with the whole question mark. Yeah, the whole thing with Ali Gordon was is he the guy who ran for 1700 yards and 21 touchdowns as a sophomore at Oklahoma State or is he the guy who had under a thousand yards rushing his last season in a very disappointing junior year? Well, in two preseason games games, he's looked like the 1700 yard Ollie Gordon. Like he absolutely trucked one of the lion safeties on a a run this past weekend and even had a nice little catch and run. And this is not a dude who caught a lot of balls in college. So. Yeah, no, I like reminds me a.
- [55:39]
Jake Seeley
Little bit of Jamal Williams. That's the jump in.
- [55:41]
Chris Welsh
Yeah. All right, now that takes us to our final of our deep sleepers and Jake doesn't get to speak and you'll kind of see why. So, Jake Z. Zip. This is all Pat. We kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier. So Pat, your final of the deep sleepers is who?
- [55:57]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah, it's Bashal Tootin and I mentioned earlier that Travis Etienne is going in the last into the last year of his contract with the Jaguars and was objectively bad in 2024. New Jaguars GM James Gladstone picked Bay Shaltutin in the fourth round of the draft and presumably got sign off from head coach Liam Cohen on that pick. And, and I know some people are going to say, hey, come on, it was a day three pick. Yeah, it was. But it was at the top of day three early in the fourth round. And this was such a good running back class that there were some really good prospects who slid into day three. And Tutin is one of the most athletic backs in this excellent running back class. He posted a relative athletic score of 9.55 on a 10 point scale and he clocked a 4.32 at the combination combine. Tootin is explosive man, has good contact balance for a smaller back and he catches passes. And Baeshal Tootin is currently the cheapest member of this extremely ambiguous Jacksonville backfield in half point PBR leagues. His well ETN's ADP is RB32 Bigsby is RB40 Tutin is RB54 I don't mind throwing a dart in the double digit rounds at a freaky athlete in this this, you know, murky backfield.
- [57:15]
Chris Welsh
Now why does Jake not get to speak? You're going to find out here in just a second as we finish off those sleepers. But first let's talk about Draft Assistant. Make sure you never miss on any of these running back steals in your real draft with Draft Assistant. Draft Assistant connects directly to your draft, provides both real time pick suggestions and estimations on which players might get taken before your next next pick. Draft Assistant fully integrates your customized cheat sheets and suggests picks based on your rankings, team build, ADP and other factors allowing it to highlight your must have targets before you get sniped. So dominate your draft in real time without the guesswork with draft assistant@fantasypros.com assistant or on the Fantasy Pros app. You can try it for free during your draft by claiming your three day free trial of Fantasy Pros Pro Premium at fantasypros.com premium go and do it today. Now the final segment. These are the fades disguised as sleepers. These are the Dr. Dooms. They will reveal their mask and we will know who the doom is. And Jake that sets us up. You are not allowed to speak as the final awesome sleeper for Pat was Tootin because you are unveiling your doom. As whom?
- [58:32]
Jake Seeley
As Bay Shal Tootin? Look, nothing that pass said about the testing scores and his athletic ability is wrong. What I will also say, and this is something I've said before about Tutin. You know who else was a metric testing phenom? Ty Johnson. What is Ty Johnson doing right now? Nothing. He's a change of pace option for the Bills. They get him some snaps and that's what I think the risk of tooting is. Look, I will say there is. There's a world where too it's a productive NFL running back as a timeshare piece. I just have concerns that all his athletic ability, all his burst and all that type of stuff is just hampered by the fact that I know he can push through some tacklers, but this dude gets tackled around the ankles, the knees chopped down constantly, pass protection issues constantly. And then we've already heard that come up. He can't get on the field. And, like, he can't get on the field in the preseason. By the way, the team that drafted him, he can't get past Bigsby and ETN right now. And that's what I'm going to is like, yeah, it's fine. And I'm not saying don't draft him. Let's make this one thing clear. I can disagree with Fitz. I can basically, it feels like, disagree with the world on Tutin, because apparently, like, I'm the only one who doesn't really like him as a draft pick. It's not that I don't want you to take them. Take them at the end of drafts. My issue is when he's going in front of Nick Chubb, who's the starter as of right now. And yes, we could throw away Nick Chubb in four weeks when Joe Mixon's head healthy. That's fine, but at least you're getting to start somebody to start now. Or even if you don't look like that, look at as purely a flyer. Why is he going in front of Will Shipley, the clear option behind Saquon Barkley, DJ Giddens, who we already talked about, Taj Brooks, the clear option behind Chris Brown? Like, why are he. Why are we taking. Or Chase Brown? Chris Brown's a different story. Why are we taking him in front of clear backups? And, like, that's my issue with Tutin. The biggest part about it, it's not that I have apparently, like, issues with Tootin as a whole. It's just where he's also going is what's frustrating about it.
- [60:27]
Chris Welsh
All right, Pat, who is your sleeper?
- [60:30]
Jake Seeley
You're not gonna let him push back.
- [60:32]
Chris Welsh
You're not gonna want to push back. Do you want to push? I mean, you are. He already just laid his case out for.
- [60:36]
Jake Seeley
I know.
- [60:36]
Chris Welsh
I didn't know if there was any.
- [60:37]
Jake Seeley
More, but I want somebody who, you know, if I was. I'm just thinking, for me, if I'm positively speaking about somebody and then somebody else comes back and pushes back for two minutes, I want to at least get, like, one chance to come back. Yeah.
- [60:48]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I mean, I guess with Tootin versus Shipley, like, Tutin doesn't necessarily need an injury to vault to the head of the class. That's the thing. Like he could actually do it on the merits where they just say, okay, we're kind of done with etn. He hasn't been good. He's. And he has no future with us because his contract is expiring and we know that like Tank Bigsby just doesn't catch passes. He's like pretty much cemented into his, his role. So all Tootin has to do is beat out this guy who was bad last year and is like going into the final year of his contract. So, you know, and obviously the athleticism pays off. And by the way, Jake throwing shade at Ty Johnson, you know, we let all running backs in air yards last year.
- [61:31]
Jake Seeley
Whoopi do give me all the Ty Johnson and Tutins of the world.
- [61:35]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Not that I want to draft Ty Johnson.
- [61:37]
Chris Welsh
Let's not make him make that show. All right, your fade, that is disguised as a sleeper Pat to kick us out of the show here.
- [61:45]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah. So just to reiterate, Brian Robinson, he is going to be the guy who people are drafting in their home leagues this weekend and people start whispering at the table and they're going to be like looking around like what, what's wrong with that pick? And people are going to be like, you ever hear of Jakory Crosky Merritt? So you are putting yourself at risk of embarrassment on draft day if you take Brian Robinson. I mean the appeal with him is that he's been a functional workman like early down back who scored, scored nine and eight touchdowns the last two seasons and theoretically could have double digit touchdown upside in this commander's offense that's on the rise, you know, and I, I think some managers are going to see Robinson's name in the queue and think, well, he's one of the few starting running backs still available and we're almost into the middle rounds here. But man, the, the Jacore Crosky merit buzz, it's, it's like the late afternoon cicada buzz in my neighborhood this time of year. It's just so loud. And you know, the commuter commanders have reportedly tried to shop Robinson. Other teams, like, I would be terrified to draft Robinson right now.
- [62:48]
Chris Welsh
There really is no great situation for him. If he stays, merit's going to eat into him. If he goes, he's most likely and probably 90% of scenarios an RB2 in some type of weird committee. So it's really just not a good situation. And. Yeah, go ahead.
- [63:03]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Yeah. And I was just going to say the thing is like Right now Robinson's ADP is 78 overall and he is in the same neighborhood as guys like Jalen, Walter Waddle, Chris Olave, Jerry, Judy, Jordan, Addison, some of the last wide receivers that I feel good about drafting. Like the opportunity cost of getting Robinson is just like that's not exactly trivial right now.
- [63:24]
Chris Welsh
Lots of sleepers we want to hear from you guys. Your favorite from this episode, your number one favorite RB sleeper below and drop some that you think we didn't talk about that we should have in the comments. We get you hooked up. The Athletics own Jake Seeley, Fantasy pros own Pat Fitzmorris and just little old me just hanging with you guys for all your RV sleepers. Make sure you guys lock into the draft assistant. We got the draft kit. We really got everything set for you for this draft, coming weekend and the ones beyond. So you know what to do. My friends, thank you so much for hanging out with us. That's going to do it for Jake, for Pat. I'm Welsh. We'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros, the Football Podcast.
- [64:01]
Jake Seeley
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros.
- [64:03]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Fantasy Football Podcast Podcast.
- [64:04]
Noah de Barrasso
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- [64:06]
Jake Seeley
Free way to support us is by.
- [64:08]
Noah de Barrasso
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- [64:12]
Jake Seeley
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Noah de Barrasso
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Jake Seeley
Tok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to.
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Noah de Barrasso
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- [64:43]
Pat Fitzmaurice
I'm Jake Hofer and this is Back 40, a limited series show on Wire.
- [64:48]
Chris Welsh
To Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode I'll be asking eight whitetail hunting pros a focused, thought provoking question.
- [64:55]
Pat Fitzmaurice
About hunting and land management. How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?
- [65:02]
Chris Welsh
Should you?
- [65:02]
Jake Seeley
That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand.
- [65:07]
Chris Welsh
Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app.
- [65:10]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
- [65:14]
Sarah Spain
Get fired up y'.
- [65:15]
Chris Welsh
All.
- [65:15]
Sarah Spain
Season 2 of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people, an incomparable soccer icon Megan Rapinoe to the show and we had a blast. Take a listen. Sue and I were like riding the lime bikes the other day and we're.
- [65:30]
Pat Fitzmaurice
Like wee.
- [65:32]
Chris Welsh
People ride bikes because it's fun.
- [65:35]
Sarah Spain
We got more incredible guests like Megan in store, plus news of the day and more. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports Network.
- [65:50]
Noah de Barrasso
I'm Noah and I'm 13. And I started this podcast because, honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now, you know, with Noah de Barrasso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means. For the rest of you, it's not the news, it's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it. Politics is wild, and I'm definitely not here to tame it, but I'm here to make sense of it. Listen to now youw Know, with Noah de arrasto on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast.