The 2024 “My Guys” Episode! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/16
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Oh, it's here, baby. Welcome to the My Guys episode, but it's not just the My Guys episode today. It's the My Guys episode.

It is the final day of the UDK for life giveaway, the ultimate draft kit. And if you don't have the ultimate draft kit or you don't know what it is, it is the one tool you need to dominate your draft. We have our historically accurate tiered based rankings. We have blurbs on every player. We have hundred plus video player profiles breaking down who are the sleepers, the values, the breakouts, the busts. You are going to love it. And if you get it,

Today, by 6.30 p.m. Eastern, you are automatically entered in to win a UDK for life forever. And if you write it with a quill, you can bequeath it to others. So check it out and get all the information you need at ultimatedraftkit.com. And now, let's get to them my guys.

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Friday, August 16th. Okay, it's my guy's day. Yeah, there it is. We didn't do this yesterday? We did not. Gotcha.

The comments were, there were some that were expecting it. Yeah, I saw some correctly predict that today's episode was going to be the My Guys episode. Nailed it. Impressive. Ten years. Ten years of My Guy episodes. In fact, Kyle grabbed a hot stat. We have had

So, you know, today we'll reveal three names each for the My Guys episode, but there have been 90 before today's episode. 91 if you count Dante Pettis and what happened that year. But we have selected My Guys from every NFL team over the nine years, except for one. Do you know the one? I do. I saw it. The Atlanta Falcons. Does that change today? Nice. Nice, Mike. Stay tuned.

Jason said it at the top. If you were watching him on YouTube, the UDK for Life giveaway is today. So this afternoon we're going to be live everywhere. So you can find us on YouTube or we'll be live on X. And if you pick up the Ultimate Draft Kit before the end of that live stream, we're going to give away the UDK for Life. We're going to give away a signed Justin Jefferson jersey. We're going to answer your questions live online.

And so you can pick up the UDK at ultimate draft kit.com. Very excited about today. Big expectations, culmination of a long off season as we get ready to go for the regular season. It's also the day we hold our breath for injuries. Oh, I know. For the rest of the preseason. I mean, there have been, we all put out different messages on social media, asking people to guess are my guys. I gave a big hint. Technically nobody got it.

But also, technically, you kind of did because there have been some pivots over the last week, some due to injury. And so it's going to be really, really exciting to hear these today. But first, let's jump into some news. News and notes from around the league presented by USAA Insurance. We did have a preseason game last night. The Patriots and the Eagles...

I got to see a decent amount of this game, including every snap from Drake May, the rookie quarterback. And Jacoby Brissett looked a little bit shaky. He had an end zone interception. And Drake May had some plays that, for the first time on film,

As an NFL player, looked like some of the stuff we wanted to see from college, in my opinion, including the rushing capability. He had a read option placed to score a touchdown, made some good intermediate throws, found Jalen Polk on the outside who looked, I use the word saucy. I like it. He could move. We all know what it means. Yeah. When you got the sauce. You know, it was nice to see that. Yeah.

Gerard Mayo said that he was making strides, and the reports right now is the competition is not over. Drake May was making strides. Correct. Because there was a typo.

On a report earlier that Dron Mayo said that Mayo was making strides. It's just one letter. It's just one letter, man. You know all about that. If you just miss a couple of letters, it shouldn't matter that much. So he was reporting that he, as a coach, was making big progress. I hope he is. You know, first-time head coach, you want to be making progress too. We don't give enough credit to the fact that most coaches can progress and hopefully become successful.

better as coaches, as people. And then there's Dennis Allen. Has a coach ever, Deion Sanders, referred to themselves in the third person? Outside of Sanders? A coach. Well, Deion Sanders is a coach, Mike. An NFL coach.

Okay. He's a coach right now. College smallage. That's in the back of my head. College smallage. That's right. But imagine Bill Belichick up there. Belichick did a great job today. That's too much. Maybe in about 10 years, the next wave of head coaches. It will be Deion Sanders when he's an NFL coach. He will Deion Sanders. Good news. Sean McVay said Matthew Stafford is expected to return to practice next week.

I mean, that is phenomenal news. There are too many very expensive, highly important fantasy options for the Rams to not have Stafford. And that's one of the biggest risks with drafting them. Like, you look at Puka Nakua or Cooper Cup, and you think the risk is, oh, I'm not sure which one is number one. You know, the risk is not each other.

The risk is Stafford's health because if Stafford goes down at least the first half of the year before Jimmy Garoppolo is the backup, then that is just devastating. Ouchy wah wah. You know? Oh, yeah. All right. That was today's news and notes. Not a lot. Presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

It's time. I didn't really want to delay. I didn't really want to, you know, we didn't need to add in any peripheral small news. We needed to get right into it because you've waited long enough. The tease, it's been long enough. It's time. Man, speaking of 10 years of my guys, we're still using the same clip from 10 years ago. It's time to move forward. Thank you. I mean, everybody that has chosen to listen today.

avoided seeing that graphic. But it's a throwback. It's the singular worst lip and mouth animation that has ever been constructed in the history of mankind. No. You see the way I was dancing? I mean, that's pretty much what I look like on a dance floor anyways. Oh my goodness. It is time to jump in

And I feel like I want to get this one out of the way. I don't think I saw a single human being guess my My Guys without including him. So let's just do it. Calvin Ridley. Calvin Ridley. What? I'm shocked. This is unbelievable. Calvin Ridley is my singular favorite pick in every single fantasy football draft. He is the Mike Evans pick of this year where I had such –

incredibly strong conviction from day one on Mike Evans last year, who ended up being drafted in the seventh round as the wide receiver 33 in drafts last season and ended the year as the wide receiver five. Calvin Ridley is being drafted in the seventh round this season as the wide receiver 37. And there isn't a draft. I will go without taking him. He is, um,

I don't know what it is. He is that proper age, and Mike Evans was this too. It's kind of the James Conner thing. You reach a certain age, and it doesn't seem like anything anybody says, any circumstances, will change how somebody views them. He signed the largest free agent contract of any wide receiver to a new team since 2016. So...

NFL general managers, at least one, really found Calvin Ridley to be a desirable asset to go and spend that amount of money. And there is so much doubt in the fantasy community about his ability to perform. Calvin Ridley would have been a my guy well before

DeAndre Hopkins got injured. Oh, he was already written in Sharpie on your board. Yeah, this was chiseled, actually. I took a tablet out. You ruined our whiteboard. With the Sharpie? With the chisel. It was really unnecessary. You could have just written it. I didn't chisel the whiteboard. All right, listen. Calvin Ridley is just such an extreme value, and the parallels between the Evans story are just so ridiculous. Even when you look at

the problems that people had with Mike Evans last year was it was Baker Mayfield. And I was able to come in here and tell you, like, I have confidence that Baker Mayfield for all of his flaws and problems is a great deep ball thrower that takes shots down the field and is going to make the difference. That's what you have with Will Levis. He lets it rip. I mean, we've posted every single play from Will Levis in 2023. He had the highest average depth of target in the national football league. And,

These are going to be, I mean, this combo is going to be a match made in heaven. I have so much confidence in that. And now you have injuries to DeAndre Hopkins. The path is clear. If you want to get into the hype train, we had a beat reporter out of Tennessee. This was the quote. With every passing day of watching Calvin Ridley at Titans camp, the more confident I am, and I love this, that the Jaguars are morons. Ha! Ha! Ha!

His usage last season was a fireable offense. They painted him into a little stupid box. And this is a player that you need to force feed the ball at every layer of the field, which they will do. The offense, Jason, you've talked a lot about Kellen Moore and the innovation and what you have confidence in with Devontae Smith and A.J. Brown in Philadelphia being more innovative. Brian Callahan is bringing over a Cincinnati offense where they will be in the shotgun, where their pass rates with Joe Burrow

were top half and then the last two years fourth and second this is not the Derrick Henry experience in Tennessee anymore this is going to be what do we have in Will Levis and the type of games that they're going to win are going to be with letting Will Levis throw the football to a true number one in this offense and Brian Callahan's come out and said you're looking at a

Similar role to the one that Jamar Chase played in our offense. He has already proven he knows how to use a versatile number one receiver with a unique skill set. His average opposition is criminal. And Will Levis is a perfect combination for the downfield throwing. Will Levis does two things. He takes sacks without seeing pressure, and he throws the ball deep. He's a man. And he also has the, like people are not affording him the

chance to greatly improve with an offseason and a head coach that has been good with a quarterback before. And Ridley was, guys, Ridley was the wide receiver 17 last year. Yeah. He's being drafted at 37, and this was in an offense. Because people are big mad. They're big mad, and there were all those close plays Mike keeps mentioning around the end zone. Like this was a player who last year was number two in the National Football League in red zone targets.

What are we doing? What are we doing? Please draft him everywhere. It won't cost you much. Think about it. You will be going more likely if you draft Calvin Ridley. This is a wide receiver three. Yeah, yeah. In your draft board that I think has true. I think he has top 12 potential. I really do.

With, you think Levis can support? I mean, I guess Baker supported, you know, Mike Evans last year. Evans has a much longer history of success, but Calvin Ridley, like you got to remember, like this was an elite, an elite option in Atlanta.

And then we've got one year back in Jacksonville where you had the elite games, but inconsistency, which has been a hallmark of Trevor Lawrence. I would expect some inconsistency in Tennessee. I'm not going to say that every game is going to – this is not wide receiver five finish. This is the best value in your draft. So getting it out of the way, the one you already knew was coming, everyone's rolling their eyes into the back of their head. But Calvin Ridley to me is – he's like the –

He's been locked for a long time. Your confidence in him has allowed me to really change. I remember you go back and find early offseason where I said I'm out on Calvin Ridley. Coming over to a team where you're not even 100% positive that he's the one with Hopkins there. Hopkins could be the one and he could be the two for Will Levis on a bad offense.

changing teams at an older age. I was just out, out, out. As time has gone on, the drumbeat obviously around the reporters about Calvin Ridley just being incredible there. He's the clear one. Now Hopkins is injured. And what is truly amazing is that there's not, like a lot of times we'll have this My Guy show.

And, you know, not toot our own horns, but we see the ADP go up from some of these guys. People started drafting them earlier. You can't do it. This guy. Well, no, I'm just saying that has happened many times. There is – it's not – I read many books. I'm not saying it in a bad way. Oh, my gosh. I'm simply stating facts, but there's nothing that can happen. I can barely hear you out of your own butt right now.

You smell that? We all do. It smells like popcorn. There's no way that Calvin Ridley's ADP can go up. No, I don't think it's possible. We don't have the power. No, no, not at all. Because I've tried for three months. No, I mean, he is going to stay exactly where he is. And where he is, I think, is a value. You're grabbing him as someone that has potential, has upside, is a quality receiver. You're drafting him around guys that are much more unknown commodities.

All right, my guy number one in the books, Calvin Ridley. You saw it coming if you've been listening to this show. Who is going next here? I guess I'll hop in because I've got a guy that I don't think too many people are going to be surprised about either, so I will rip the Band-Aid off with this guy.

Devon A. Chan. Yes. Oh, I love him. I love my little bitty Devon A. Chan. Look, he is awesome. And I think there comes a time in every fantasy manager's existence where they have to look at themselves in the mirror and ask an important question. All right, I'm looking.

Am I a coward? Oh, no. Am I a coward? Nobody. Wow. Nobody calls me chicken. Well, that's the thing about Devon Achan. This is a risky pick. And when this is the My Guys episode, I had this thought a couple months ago with making Devon Achan one of my My Guys. I am not necessarily telling you the way that Andy told you that you should draft Calvin Ridley. I'm not saying you should draft Devon Achan. What I'm saying is

I am drafting Devon Achan. I ain't no coward. I ain't no coward. This is a my guy. This is a risky pick. He got injured a couple times in his rookie year. He's undersized. He's in a crowded backfield. He is also

Probably the most electric and explosive player we have seen since CJ2K. He certainly has speed like that. I went and watched, and I'll post on Twitter after this episode is done, every single snap and target from Devon A. Chan last year. And there are just play after play after play where when he gets a little crease, you watch these defenders and it looks like they're playing flag football.

because they're reaching for his waist as he is just out of their grip. He's unbelievably fast and you can't stop it. After watching the film,

There's only one other player in the entire NFL that is like him, and that's his teammate Tyreek Hill. Yeah, they've got some fast guys in Miami. Yeah, it is really not fair. You look at his role, I think that's the worry, right? Is he going to get enough workload to be valuable at that 2-3 turn or maybe in the middle of the second round where you're going to have to take him?

Right now he's listed as a co-starter with Mostert. On first downs last year, the Dolphins had two running backs on the field 48% of the time. Now that's not just number one in the NFL. That is like, that hasn't happened since fullbacks were a thing. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're on the field together and Devon Aitian lines up all over. He lines up in the slot a ton. He is a great pass catcher. We'll get to that in a minute. But I want to focus on the fact that last year in nine full games played,

He was averaging 15 opportunities a game alongside Mostert. 15 opportunities a game. 85% of running back ones over the last six years have had 16 and a half opportunities a game or more. So you're telling me going from his rookie season to his sophomore season, he needs to get like one and a half more opportunities a game?

Of course that's going to happen. You listen to how Mr. McDonald's, a.k.a. Mike McDaniel, a.k.a. the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, talks about Devon A. Chan. And, you know, he talks about how he's changed his body, he's changed his diet. He is integral. And everyone else on the team, the other players, are relying on Devon A. Chan on most plays. I think he's going to be out there a ton.

We know he's an explosive runner, but he's an unreal pass catcher. In college, if you don't remember or you didn't know, he caught 60 receptions in his final two years. Now for context, because NFL, that sounds good, not elite, Bijan caught 60 receptions his entire college career. And I think we know what an incredible pass catcher he is.

He was targeted on 24% of his routes last year, which is a great number for a wide receiver. And more importantly, Mike McDaniel utilizes him as a first read target in the offense. He was targeted on 67% of his targets as the first read. He was what the play design was for. That was number one in the NFL as a rookie.

When you look at historical breakouts, the largest jump for running backs is year one to year two. That's where the massive explosion happens. It's also when they're in their age 22, 23 season. All these things are aligning for Devon A. Can I ask you a question? I'll allow it.

What if you are a coward? Then do not. Listen, if you're a coward. Like if you know that about yourself. Yeah, it's a fair question. Don't draft him. Okay. You can't handle it. But I'm just going to tell you right now, if you are a coward, there will be one or two potentially maybe with trades or playoffs three times a year where your cowardice is going to be pissing your pants because you're going to be

facing him on the other side and you're gonna go ah dadgummit that guy could put up 40 points on me is there a good running back for cowboys to draft is there or is that another show Christian McCaffrey I

I'd be okay grabbing him. No, I mean, you know, if you want to play the coward way, you're just going to look at volume. This is not volume. This has to be explosive. But he is explosive. He led all running backs in yards per touch, 7.7 last year. I'll post the film. You could take a look yourself. I don't want to be out on this guy. And I think that if he is healthy, right, if he plays the full season, next year you're going to be talking about a guy who's a top three pick. That's his upside. Okay. Okay.

Well, I had no idea you even liked him. Yeah. That's a shock. We'll take a break. We'll come back with Mike's first My Guy.

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Back from the break, and it's time for Mike to reveal numero uno. My number one, my guy, I have stated on this podcast that he is absolutely the best quarterback to draft all things considered this fantasy football season.

The Homer hater calls, get that bull crap out of here. Kyler is the best quarterback target in your drafts. Right now on Sleeper, he is going as the quarterback eight. And here's the deal with Kyler. He just turned 27. I have no age concerns about Kyler Murray running. He is averaging 27.

Over 20 fantasy points per game and 38 rushing yards. Now, the 38 rushing yards, I get it. People out there might say, well, that sounds kind of low. Well, guess what? Only five quarterbacks since the year 2000 have hit those marks. 38 yards a game on the ground?

That's right behind Jalen Hurts. That's right in line with Cam Newton. That's right in line with Josh Allen. That's how much Kyler Murray actually runs. We forget. It's just under 700 yards a year. We forget.

How great Kyler has been for fantasy football because we all have brains like a goldfish, and if you haven't done it really recently, we tend to forget about it. And a year and a half, close to two years of Kyler Murray's career was deleted from that ACL tear, but he is back, and he came back in a big way. The Arizona Cardinals, to start last year, were 1-8. They were putrid. They were one of the worst offenses in the league,

And then Kyler comes back, and they're a top 10 offense, like immediately. And this is a team that was lacking. Top 10, huh? Yes. Top 10 in yards. Top 10 in points per game. Top 10 in plays. No Marvin Harrison. And this is with, look, Trey McBride was there.

That was it. You know, it was rookie Michael Wilson who was, he was not ready to be a number one wide receiver. Like, it's not his fault, but Kyler was able to take this team, this offense, and carry them because he is that good at football and he is that good for fantasy football. We have some other bonuses that we love. Arizona

is a fantasy-friendly offense. They went for two after scoring a touchdown 34% of the time. That's the highest in the NFL. Yeah, baby. Yeah, baby. That's a bonus, man. A free two points, possibly, at the end of a touchdown? Like, that's sensational. He ain't getting nothing for an extra point. That is correct. You know what I mean? Yeah. Leave that garbage to the kickers.

They went for it on fourth down 27% of the time. Third highest in the NFL. Keep those drives alive. Those extra opportunities. Bonus. Yeah, they really do add up. And last year, once Kyler got in, look, QB nine in points per game from week 10 on. Again, with that bad team. And that includes four games of over 20 points.

Last year, Kyler had a 3.7% touchdown rate. That's about a full percent lower than the league average. I don't blame him. He wasn't surrounded by talent. He's had multiple years. His sophomore year, 4.7% a touchdown percent. A 5% the following year. For what Kyler is used to putting up on the field, it was not as efficient. He has...

He doesn't have the dangers of the pocket-only passers. C.J. Stroud could 100% be the revelation and be a top-three guy.

But the path for things to go wrong for pocket passers is so gigantic where Kyler Murray, because he runs so much, you have a floor and then you have a built-in upside of if Marvin Harrison is as great as we all think he's going to be, that's a number one wide receiver, a number one tight end, and on top of that, opportunity cost is almost everything in the fantasy football drafts, that ADP. Kyler's going in the seventh. Kyler's going as the QB eight.

And he is, to me, safe and has massive boom potential. Yeah, but what if, hear me out, what if a couple rounds earlier I can grab Anthony Richardson and he could turn into Kyler Murray? He absolutely could. Anthony Richardson could turn into Cam Newton. He could. It could be a boat.

Kyler Murray is a boat. Kyler Murray just might be Kyler Murray. Look, we want hot starts. His odds are high, actually. They are, actually. Probabilistically. It's 100% hit rate that he is still Kyler Murray. We want a hot start in the first four weeks of the season. Their first three games right now, 48 projected points. That's the over-under for those first three games. That is absolutely delightful. And in week four, when it's not 48, 48.

It's the Washington Commanders who are, by all accounts, they should be one of the worst defenses that we've seen in a very, very long time. Kyler is absolutely, absolutely my target in all fantasy football drafts.

They have no pass rush. They have no defense. The defense is still going to be a work in progress. They have one player in the top 100 right now in Buda Baker. The defensive capability to slow people down, they're going to need to lean on the offense to get through. It is so wild to me that Kyler came back with that Arizona Cardinals offense, which...

Again, I can't stress how bad they were through nine weeks. And then the quarterback comes in and puts up four 20-point games. That's outrageous. All right. Number two on my My Guy list. I'm going to tease it with a Beat Reporter quote. Oh, please be better than what Jason brought. He said, it does not take long to see and hear the difference.

From a sedan to a Porsche when the cars are passing. And this player is not a sedan. Malik Neighbors. He's not like an affordable family car. He is not an affordable family car. We are talking about the Porsche himself. Malik Neighbors, wide receiver of the New York Giants. It was June 1st when the UDK was released and we did an Explain Yourself segment. And I said a quote like,

That there was a point in time where I thought Malik neighbors would end up on my guy. He's ending up on my guy and my confidence in his skillset and ability is tremendous, but I want this conversation and argument to be persuasive on the basis of,

of convincing you that this can work in New York. Okay? Yeah, that's the issue. Because I don't need to go and tell you about the collegiate numbers and the collegiate stats and the separation. He was drafted where he was drafted for a reason. I love that he lines up all over the field like a seedy lamb can. I love that he crushes every kind of defense, man and zone. In fact, his numbers are better than Marvin Harrison against both of those. However...

The question mark in everyone's mind around Malik neighbors is going to be draft price and the time that he's spending in New York. And again,

I want to tell you why. I mean, this is a chicken or egg situation. We talked about Daniel Jones and the numbers he's put up in the passing game. He's also had no true alpha, which is a big, big problem. There are 200 vacated targets on the already struggling Giants passing offense, and here arrives Malik Nabors. You look at the ultimate draft kit, and you look at the target share expectation for Malik Nabors, okay?

I got them at 25%. You guys have them at 27% and 28% of the team's targets, according to the UDK. Sounds about right. Over the last decade, 12 rookie-wide receivers have hit a 23% target share. Okay? So 23%, which I cannot imagine a healthy Malik Neighbors on the field under 23%. Me either. All 12 of them were double-digit fantasy points. Okay? So you talk about some security. Per game.

Double-digit fantasy points per game. Yeah, because it's not impressive at all if they did that on a season. If you finish the season with double-digit fantasy points? That would be really bad. Right. That would be a disaster. No, per game. Okay, good. They're average.

Fantasy points per game was 13.2. So if you're over 23% target share, you average 13.2 fantasy points per game. For context, Jamar Chase was at 13.3 last year. So when you get a target share as a rookie, it is exceptionally valuable. But then you say, well, the Giants, man, I don't even want to watch them. They were kind of a surprise two years ago. Last year was trouble.

Here's something exciting about those 12 wide receivers I talked about. The historical evidence. 75% were on teams that did not make the playoffs. Wow. 75% of those. They were on third and fourth place teams in their division. Same with neighbors.

neighbors is going to be in that boat and rookie wide receivers and why making him a my guy is so exciting is that they are often league winners down the stretch of those 12 wide receivers 75 of them increase their fantasy points per game over the final five weeks of the year because they get better they become more integrated into the offense and we're talking absolute stud territory i am in on the league neighbors i think you have a shot at a true alpha

If you're drafting on ESPN, the value right now is even greater. He's a mid to late fifth round selection. I like that. Being drafted at floor levels like wide receiver 24 range is

Jason just said, A-Chan, and the possibility of where he'll go in next year's draft. Malik Nabors, I think, could be a first-round draft selection next year that you're getting in the late fourth, late fifth, depending on your platform, that you're taking behind some guys like Josh Jacobs and, you know, they have more question marks around volatility and explosive capability. Malik Nabors, the player,

tremendous confidence. The evidence of a rookie wide receiver drafted in that range, it's very, very positive when they get a target share. Could he be disrupted by an injury? That's always the case. On my guys last year, we had three kind of home runs, and then we had two that were on their way. Mark Andrews got hurt. It's going to happen. It is walking the land, going through the minefield, trying to get at my guy all the way to the end of the season sometimes.

But if he stays healthy and he's on the field, this offense cannot function without this gentleman. So Malik Neighbors, I think the possibility of a really, really impactful season is there, and I'm willing to take him on all platforms and especially ESPN. What I hate about Malik Neighbors and fantasy football right now, because I've been, I think of the table, I've been the most concerned about his ADP.

But hopefully what's not coming through is I have no concern about his talent. I think that he is going to be an elite player. It's just the risk of the ADP to me has been a point of like, oh, man, I don't know. The second half of the season is 100% true. We see that all the time. So if he gets off to a slow start, just hold on. And one other thing I want to throw in because I was looking at the –

history of rookies over the last 10 years drafted inside that top 10 range. For the NFL draft? In the NFL draft. And it's like they don't generally, like either they completely unmitigated bus, which is a small percentage, very small, like Corey Davis as a rookie, or they really kind of are going to outperform that ADP. So you're kind of taking him knowing that he's not going to end up

where he's being drafted. That's very unlikely. He's either not good or he's great. The only two that I could find that were kind of neutral to ADP were like Devontae Smith was drafted at 36, ended at 29. That wasn't a crazy, impressive rookie season. Amari Cooper was at 20, finished at 22. There were a couple guys in that category. I wonder what Corey Davis did. Corey Davis was ADP of 46, so you didn't spend it on him. Okay.

He was a 10th round pick. He ended up as 93rd best wide receiver. So that was a disaster, but

He was not highly drafted. I mean, Drake London was one, but he's a ninth-round pick. So when you're drafted anywhere in this range, you don't really finish there. You end up with a much higher finish. Jamar Chase was the wide receiver 26 off the board. He ended as the wide receiver 5. Wada was 41, ended at 16. Evans was 38, ended at 12. So I think that that's the perfect kind of player you want to add to the roster where you're looking at that high upside. He is...

Regardless of if you're in on the ADP or you're out on the ADP, drafting Malik Nabors is drafting to win your championship. Fair? Yeah, he's a talented, fun, explosive rookie, and those tend to work out in the NFL. All right.

My second my guy. I'm here. This is the one that I think people had the hardest time guessing. I might have. I don't know what I say. Where did you go? I wasn't questioning your current location. This is like episode 1600 and something. You know I have no idea what comes out of my mouth at all times. So shame on you. Sorry, that's on me. Am I here? Are any of us here? Let's kick it off with my second my guy, a running back.

Isaiah Pacheco. Isaiah Pacheco pachecks a bunch of boxes for me. I thought you were going to say pacheck this out. They're both good. I was happy. Yeah, nice. There are a couple of boxes I love. Pacheck those boxes. Pacheck those boxes. Look, if you're too afraid to draft Devon A. Chan, if you are the coward, then Pacheco's a great option because I think he is being drafted at his floor.

There are certain things that work in the NFL for fantasy. One is being on a great offense. Two is being a good pass catcher as a running back. Pachek. Pachek. Thank you. This is great. Oh my gosh. Three, it's when you are 215 plus pounds and run sub 4-4, the hit rate on that is outstanding. Pachek. Pachek.

I want to read to you the, I've talked a lot about how I think Kansas City Chiefs as a whole right now are undervalued in ADP for what I think they're going to do in 2024. Here are the total points scored by the Kansas City Chiefs over the last five years. 451, 473, 480, 496, 371.

Now, obviously their defense was a little better, but that is an outlier. That is totally different than what you expect from the Kansas City Chiefs. And if I had to bet whether they're going to be in the 400s or the 300s, I think that is an unbelievably easy bet that I would push my chips all in on. So you've got a big bodied pass catching back.

For a great offense with Mahomes, who they are good at getting running backs, receiving touchdowns. I want to remind you, Kareem Hunt, when he was in his second year as a running back one for the Chiefs, he's a great pass catcher. How many receptions do you guys think he had in that season? We're going way back. Way back, I know. This is rookie season? Second year. I'll go 50? 40-something. 50, 40, 23.

23. What? Yep. And he had seven receiving touchdowns on that because Andy Reid is so good at designing stuff like that from the shotgun. 70% of Pacheco's runs were from the shotgun. Six of his seven touchdowns were from the shotgun. This is just a clever offense, and he's a good back. And the workload is there. He had 18.1 opportunities last year at 4.6 yards of carry. So it wasn't just workload. It was efficiency. That's right. Tear that turf up. Perfect.

Pachek. He was seventh among all running back in red zone touches, and he was efficient. All running backs. All of them. All running back won. Inside the 10-yard line, he only had 10 carries inside the 10, but he turned that into five touchdowns. So that's a number that could go up.

And if you look at what this team has done transactionally and said verbally, it is that Isaiah Pacheco is the dude. Over the playoffs, where it mattered the most and they won a Super Bowl, in the wildcard round, he had 76% of the Kansas City running back opportunities. Divisional round, 84%. AFC Championship, 90%. And in the Super Bowl, 89%, including six targets.

Also, just a little weird nugget. He's the only running back in NFL history to start and win a Super Bowl in his first two seasons. So he's just a winner. You know, my guys are winning. That's a great stat, man. That stat's crazy just because, man –

You ended up in the right place, buddy. Yeah. I mean, what an amazing way to start. So they committed to him down the stretch. And then what happened in the offseason? They let 32-year-old Jarek McKinnon walk. They replaced him with no one but an undrafted free agent, Dineric Prince. It's a fun little storyline, but that's not a worry. He's not a king. No way. He's a prince. Speaking of a king, last year Isaiah Pacheco missed a few games on a per-game basis.

He scored 13.7 fantasy points per game. That's identical to what Derrick Henry, King Henry, scored last year as the running back eight. He's being drafted behind that this year. And where's he going? Right now he's the running back 11. He's in the third round. Yeah, I see 12. Yeah, it depends on platform, 11, 12, 13. But that is his floor, 11, 12, 13. He is a workhorse back.

that's going to catch the ball. I mentioned this quote earlier, but I want to read it verbatim from Andy Reid because he was asked. From myself. He was asked who's going to fill in the third down roll that's been vacated by Jerick McKinnon. He said Pacheco is ready to handle all of that. He's good with the protections. He's good with the technique and the fundamentals. He can run all the routes. He's got great hands, and he does. He had 49 targets last year. He turned it into 44 receptions.

He's a solid player. He's explosive. He's got a body that can withstand a big workload. And what would a year three – That would be the fulfillment of a six-year wait in fantasy football from the last time that Kareem Hunt was a Kansas City Chief. Yeah. Because we've been waiting six years to put somebody else in those shoes. And I'm calling it. This is going to be the year where he is a running back one. All right. Another quick break and back with the rest of the My Guys.

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This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. In the spirit of spooky season, let's talk about wearing masks for a moment. Some of us wear masks and hide more often than we want to at work, in a social setting, around your family. Well, the only kind of mask you should focus on wearing this October is the spooky fun kind. I remember all through high school masking and not even realizing what I was doing, but just trying to hide the struggles, the mental health struggles I was going through and trying

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Sometimes players are expected to do one thing, and then they don't come through on that fulfillment. And then the following year, everyone forgets how good a player actually is. Jalen Waddell. Jalen Waddell of the Miami Dolphins. We're entering year four, and because of last year, I think there is a little bit of fatigue. Also, look, it's the elephant in the room.

He is the wide receiver, too, behind Tyreek Hill. He is not Tyreek Hill. But you know what? Jalen Waddell is really, really good. Remember this past year, all the hullabaloo about how sensational the rookie year of Puka Nakua was and that last week Puka broke the reception record for a rookie wide receiver? You know whose record he broke?

Jalen freaking Waddle. Like, the guy just broke the record a couple years ago. In year two, he leads the NFL in yards per reception, and he finishes as the wide receiver seven with Tyreek Hill on his team. Year three wasn't what we had hoped for, and yet his third straight year with a thousand yards season, he finished as the wide receiver 34. He only played in 14 games.

And yet, in points per game, he was right there with Chris Olave with only four touchdowns. Talking about Jalen Waddell. It felt disappointing.

But then you can look behind the scenes at the numbers because, again, while missing games for Jalen Waddell, he also had tons of games where he would be leaving in and out because he had these nagging injuries that his body just could not seem to recover from. It happens. But compare some numbers. From 2022 when he was the wide receiver 7 to last year, 2023, his catch rate,

went up five points. He was really close in yards per game. His targets per route run went up last year. His yards per route run went up.

The big thing was the touchdowns. The touchdowns just didn't happen to come for Jalen Waddell this past year. But that can absolutely bounce back when you have a quarterback who leads the league in passing yardage. Jalen Waddell is made for the NFL offense of 2024. He absolutely destroys zone. While we're talking about concerns of, well, these quarterbacks, they can't seem to overcome the two shell. They're playing zone. They're stopping these guys.

Jalen Waddell destroys zone. His 3.09 yards per route run against zone ranks fifth best amongst all wide receivers over the last five years. Two of those are, in fact, Tyreek Hill. And it's the question of can these guys coexist? Well, Tyreek certainly can. He's been a top 10 in half the games that he's played with Waddell, which is 16 games.

Waddle was a top 12 in five of those games. Again, this, I'm not saying he's Tyree kill, but I'm saying that people forget how great Jalen Waddle is. Jay, you brought up the speed of Devon HN. Jalen Waddle is just right behind him at four, three, seven. It's unbelievably unfair to Jalen Waddle that one of the fastest men on the planet is the third fastest guy on his team. Fourth fastest by 40 times. Who is that? Jalen? Oh,

Oh, most of these? Oh my gosh, these Dolphins. And Jalen Wright's at a 4.38. That's a slow guy. Looking over the first three years of Jalen Waddell's career in a full PPR, he averaged more fantasy points per game in his first three years than Calvin Johnson.

DeAndre Hopkins, Cooper Cup. Wait, average more what? Fantasy points per game. That's what I thought you might have said, but that didn't make sense with those names. I totally understand. It is a made-up stat. Wait, say that again. Genuinely. In a full PPR, over the first three years, he's averaged more points per game than Calvin Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins, and Cooper Cup. And in fact, in that time span, he averaged the same as A.J. Brown. This is where Jalen Waddell is. He was drafted too high last year.

Quite possibly. I think that that really was true. I mean, I think you were drafting him last year. And so the only possible outcome last year for Jalen Waddle was to be burned by him. That's what I believe. His ADP was like, what, seven? Wide receiver, nine. Nine. I mean, it was just expensive. And that price has come down because people were disappointed relative to the price.

And so it's a little bit of the post-hype sleeper storyline. A little bit. He's going as the wide receiver 17 over on the sleeper platform. On average across platforms, wide receiver 19. Yes. We've brought up the platform comparison tool because over on ESPN, Andy, I think you mentioned, was it Calvin Ridley's was much lower? Much lower. Jalen Waddell, a fifth-round pick right now in ESPN. By the way, Puka cheated. I mean, Puka had one more reception than Waddell.

in one extra game than Waddle had. Oh, that's not fair. So that's cheating. And not only that... Well, to be fair... They got him the record and I think they pulled him right out. Yeah, they pulled him right out. But it is true that he wouldn't have... Yeah, but you went for a record. Waddle, you know... The point being...

They're like, Puka, most receptions for a rookie in history. Jalen Waddell had that record. Yes. That's what he can do. You've been in on him all offseason. Yeah, but let me ask you this, Mike. Who would you rather have, Jalen Waddell or ZD Lamb? I hate you. Okay, you can move on now, Andy. What did we just talk about on the tips and tricks?

Get over it. What was the number one rule? Get over it. It wasn't called get over it. It was called start fresh. Okay. All right. Are you ready to move forward? Yeah, I got Waddle. Who clicked the button on that trade, Jason? Did Mike click the button? Did I click the button? I thought you were telling me to move on because I clicked reject until you guys. It's part of moving on. All right. Start fresh. All right. My third, my guy. Before I get into it, I'm going to give you three players that were finalists. We have never done this before.

Three players that are like, they were right on the edge for me. Cooper Cup got a little bit weary when you combine Stafford's, like everything hinges on Stafford. You know, this is the, like the Jenga you've been playing. You know what I mean? Like you pull that one block out. Structural integrity. And it all comes down. But Cooper Cup, I think is a value. DJ Moore.

I'm just going to say the name. He was a finalist. And then the most left field one was Brock Bowers. I really believe that he may be utilized in a wide receiver just as a wide receiver so often that you'll be very happy with the pick. But my third and final my guy has been a journey, a long journey with this guy. But I think he's the seal of your draft.

Tank Bixby. Tank Bixby? What? Andy, tell us why. How did this work? Tank Bixby. It is not. The long con. Oh my gosh. So why is he the best value in the draft? You son of a gun. This is not. I can't believe this worked. Yes. It is not Tank Bixby. Wait a minute, Andy. What?

Wait a minute, Andy. I have a golden ticket that says I could change your opinion here. You cannot pick my my guy. All right. Oh, you sons of guns. The button said something different. Yes. Eat it. All right. Do you have a real button for me? Thank you. Jaden Daniels. High five. Oh, I can't believe that worked. Swish. Jaden Daniels.

Just above Tank Bigsby, guys. Jaden Daniels is my third my guy. Wow, you pulled that off so perfectly.

I have, because we are in Phoenix, in Arizona, the Jaden Daniels story for me, it's a long story. He was a starting quarterback for Arizona State for many years before he transferred. I watched him play football. He was always, you know, he's a great quarterback for Arizona State relative to what we've had out here. But at no point during that journey at ASU did I say,

This is going to be a future top five NFL draft pick that's going to change the game. You said very opposite things. Yeah, well, I mean, the point was really that I thought he was kind of a mid guy, just a mid quarterback. Good for ASU, probably not an NFL player. He transfers to LSU and he has a senior season, a Heisman season that was parallel to what Joe Burrow did in a lot of ways. Joe Burrow was insane. He was 60 touchdowns, 60 interceptions or 60 touchdowns.

Six interceptions. That's unbelievable. When I looked it up again, I was like, what? That's crazy. That's a mistype. Yeah, someone put that in wrong. Jayden Daniels went 40-4 touchdown to interception ratio at LSU. And the storyline with him going into this draft, it really is about Jayden Daniels, the player, and some of the things that make him special.

But it's also about fantasy scoring and some of the things that make that special if you run the football. And I want to focus in on an interesting number with Jaden Daniels, who's going in the 10th round, by the way. The price on Jaden Daniels right now is the price on Anthony Richardson last year as a rookie. The price on Anthony Richardson right now with two games played in his career is five rounds higher. I will never draft Anthony Richardson. I'm not going to do it. Jaden Daniels is your discount Anthony Richardson this year.

And in college, he was 43% of his team's rushing yardage. That is the third highest ever for a first round running back. But here's what's really interesting. He had the highest scramble rate of a college quarterback in their final season over the last decade. Scrambles are what we call undesigned runs. They're not

You're not doing a design quarterback run. And, in fact, in fantasy, wildly enough, last year, a scramble was worth two and a half times the fantasy points of a design quarterback run. The commanders gave up 65 sacks. That was the highest in the league. Now, he has to stay healthy. Yeah, what was his ragdoll percentage? His ragdoll was 100%. He's one of the first ragdoll players.

Every play. He needs to attach the helmet to the shoulder pads to make sure that it stays on. The head? His head needs to be attached? The commanders gave up a lot of pressure. And a scramble run by a scrambler is worth double a designed run, which we expect design runs to be part of the Anthony Richardson experience five rounds earlier.

He averaged, according to us, our average projection for him is 109 rushing attempts. That puts him sixth at the quarterback position. And I think looking at the college stats, we all could project higher. It's just kind of irresponsible to do. But Jaden Daniels at the value. He's got Cliff Kingsbury. He's been brought up before. He's had great success. Kyler was the quarterback seven with Cliff Kingsbury. As a rookie. As a rookie.

And that was a 20 passing touchdowns. This is not a, my guy, because Jane Daniels is going to break the NFL and throw 35 touchdowns as a rookie. This is, you can throw 20 and you can scramble and you can end up the quarterback seven while you're being drafted as the quarterback 15. I also want to point out, you know, Drake may scrambles, right?

There isn't a wide receiver in that offense right now today that you can look at and say, that is an alpha. That's your Malik neighbors. That's your, you know, go to wide receiver. And despite the struggles and the way fantasy players feel about him, just watch football. You have to watch football to know it. Terry McLaurin is a true number one wide receiver at the NFL level. Who's been dealt a thousand quarterbacks and offensive coordinators. And it hasn't panned out to that season that breaks fantasy, but,

But this is not Drake May. You have a number one in Terry McLaurin, no matter whether they're figuring out what their number two is. They have tight ends that can play football. They have Austin Eckler out of the backfield that can help you out.

And the fantasy community we've talked about, they've gotten smarter and smarter and smarter about drafting these quarterbacks and finding them late in drafts. They are blind and missing right now on Jaden Daniels. I know you guys agree. Here's our pick in the mock draft yesterday. What a great pick. It really was. Not to toot your own horn. No, no, I would never. Yeah.

But this is the only guy, round nine or later, that has the rushing upside. And to me, this is the player I would be actively going into my draft saying, I'm going to build an amazing roster, and then I'm going to take Jayden Daniels. Even if I take him in the ninth. Even if I want to make sure I get that guy. Yeah, for sure. I agree with you. I mean, it's funny because we've talked about a lot of this offseason, you know, how...

You want those mobile quarterbacks. You want the ones that are dual threat. They're not just runners, but they can pass well. And so we've got Kyler and Jaden Daniels as my guys, and those are my two primary targets. If I don't end up with a Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen, then those are the two guys I want on my team. You guys, see, Jason, you told me to share some of my finalists before I revealed Jaden Daniels. Yeah. I now believe you wanted me to do that.

To set up your tank Bigsby drop. Oh, I didn't, but that's... Okay, okay. That would be... Yes, I did. All right, Jason. I am in 100% of agreement with Jane Daniels. Oh, voice crack. But Jane Daniels... Try whistling. And this is... I think Kyler's the best quarterback target in fantasy football.

That's not going to stop me legitimately. That will not stop me from taking Kyler and then a couple rounds later taking Jaden Daniels because the price is so cheap. That's what Richardson was for people last year, his second selection. Yeah, if Jaden Daniels is in your 10th round, if you're in the 10th round and you already have your quarterback, grab Jaden Daniels. Yeah, like the sleepers that we're looking at in the 10th round, of course, hitting on those players, if it's a wide receiver or running back, it feels so, so good.

But it's looking at the probability of who's actually going to hit in the 10th round at that position. It's really low for everybody. Meanwhile, Jaden Daniels has the cheat code built in and he can throw. Like this is not – No, he is a – That was the point with the 40-4 at LSU is that Burrow came in as an established passer and Jaden Daniels can – he can sling it. Yes.

All right. I guess it's time for my list of finalists, those who did not make. A lot of people thought DK Metcalf was going to be on there because I'm higher than ADP. I do think he's a good value. He wasn't really in consideration. I feel like you and him had a relationship for about like a four week or it was a fling. I still think he's a good value, but he's just a slight value at where he's going. He's not someone I'm

thoroughly excited about. I don't think he's going to be one of those players that just absolutely wins your league for you. So my two main finalists were, I was very close to going Devontae Smith. The whole offseason, very, very close. And I would have loved to go with Ladd McConkie if it wasn't for the

Off-season, recent health issues of Herbert and Ladd McConkie that just make it a little too spicy. We should actually finally see him on the field this week, they said. Yes, they are both back. I think Herbert was out of the boot. That's great. I believe in those players still.

But it was the opposite that happened. There was a guy I was just so madly, madly in love with, and there was only one worry I had this whole offseason was whether or not he was going to be healthy from a week 13 injury. And we saw increases, baby. My guy. Tank Dell.

Nathaniel Jasper Tank Dell Jr. That's a mouthful of awesomeness. Look, he's the second year wide receiver for the Houston Texans. He finished last year as the wide receiver 38, but in only 11 games. Yet he had as many top 12 performances as Devontae Adams,

or Brandon Ayuk had, and they played the entire season. He was going to be a league winner. There was a moment last year where independently Andy and I had not talked. We had not shared with each other our love and our belief that he was going to be a league winner, and we both went out and tried to trade for Tank Dell midseason. Andy actually got him. I was sad. He was happy. Obviously, he got injured and was not the guy yet, but he has the chance to be this next year. Now, he was injured in week 13.

I'm going to talk about his injury concerns a bit, but before that time... That sucked so bad. It did. He was cruising. So fun to watch. You want to know how he was cruising? Before that injury, he was the wide receiver 10 in points per game. He was between Jamar Chase and DJ Moore as a rookie.

but Nico Collins and Stefan Diggs are there. Voice of public opinion. Yeah. Well, when Nico and Tank were both on the field, because Nico had his own injuries, in those games where they both were on the field, Tank had a higher target share. He had a higher air yard share and a higher fantasy points per game average. So it is not outlandish to think that at the end of this season, Tank Dell could be the number one. Don't hear what I'm not saying. I love Nico.

Hear what I am saying. I'm not super into Stefan Diggs. But 72% of Tank Dell's receptions went for a first down or a touchdown last year. He was important. He was awesome. And for such a small wide receiver, he was not utilized that way last year. Okay, 60% of his targets were 10 plus yards down the field. You think of him as like, oh, is this like a screen manufacturer guy? He had one pass the entire year was behind the line of scrimmage.

70% of his snaps were out wide, and you watch in three wide receiver sets this preseason, you saw...

Stephon Diggs coming into the slot. That's where I think he belongs at this stage of his career. And I think he opens the field up even more. I've said it a million times. I tweeted out every target from Tank Dell earlier this year. I don't know in the modern NFL. I don't know how you stop Tank Dell. I watch it. I'm just like, you can't really stop. I actually do know the answer.

Tell me. You have him blocked. You have him blocked on the goal line. Oh, yeah, deep down in and have Damian Pierce roll up on your own teammate. So is he really going to take the next step? That's the question, right? I think we all like him, but that's a good question. There's only seven rookie wide receivers over the last decade who have averaged 60 receiving yards per game and 15 yards per reception and had seven touchdowns.

That list is Mike Evans, Juju Smith-Schuster, who was great early in his career. I know he's a joke now after injury. Terry McLaurin, A.J. Brown, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins. And he did that in 11 games played. The next year for all six of those guys, the next year, all of them increased their receiving yards by a lot. Double digit receiving yards per game increase.

The C.J. Stroud offense, don't be surprised if he hits 75 yards per game in this offense. And so then the only question is, but that dude's going to get injured again. He's tiny. Labeling someone as injury prone is not logical. And our injury expert and licensed physical therapist, Matthew Betts, cringes. He dies a little bit inside every time someone labels someone as injury prone.

But the injury last year in week 13 was a fractured left fibula when they were bringing him in to block, and Damian Pierce rolled up on his leg. It was a freak accident. Get that man some milk. And you know what? He seems like he recovered well. He looked great in preseason. It was nice to see one big play in preseason to just kind of like if you weren't sure you wanted to make the commitment, that was –

That was it. That was a great gesture. I literally was like, man, you know, I'm in on Tank Dell, but I feel like we haven't heard a ton about the injury and the recovery. And it was like that day that Tank Dell has the huge touchdown. Oh, he's playing and he's good to go. And he looked exactly how he looked. He gets open in space and then makes guys miss.

But regarding the injury, the last time Tank Dell got injured was September 1st of 2018 when he was a freshman at Alabama. Between that freshman year and week 13 last year, he played in 59 games in college and NFL. He played 2,472 snaps without an injury. Okay? I was personally not worried about an injury. Well, I think if he's not injured –

He's going to have a lot of big games. What's that? Alabama A&M. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. He was not. I was like, wait, what? Yeah. He played at Bama? Yeah. And if you want to go back to high school. I'm kidding. I didn't go. Put a ball on it. But yes, the point is this was an exceptionally talented rookie. He is being drafted.

later than I think he should be. He's going after Zay Flowers. Apparently we all need to be drafted on ESPN. That's where a lot of these guys are huge values. He's going between Evan Ingram and Kyle Pitts, tight ends in those middle rounds that usually don't pan out. Or you could take Tank Dell, a second-year wide receiver who was boss as a rookie, going with a great offense. Great quarterback. Great quarterback and steps forward. And I didn't even bring up the love, the love that C.J. Stroud has for Tank Dell. That man is in love with Tank Dell.

All right. Thanks, Jason. Mike, wrap it up. So I will throw out the one finalist. Yeah, thank you. The one finalist that I had, it was Nico Collins. But my love for Nico Collins is... It's already well known. It's well known throughout the land. So I wanted to make sure that people know that I really like this player. Tank Bigsby. Tank Bigsby, who is actually my guy. Now play the real one.

James Cook. Oh, that came through because I was lamenting, Jason, as you were talking. I was messaging the guys. I'm like, we should have taken Big Speed, Jason. It would have got you so good. Once you said that, I was like, we just got to do it. Unfortunately for you, I was prepared for that to happen. James Cook, running back of the Buffalo Bills, going right now as the running back 14 on the sleeper platform. And here's the thing.

In today's NFL, the way that running backs are used, yes, volume is still the king of fantasy football at the running back position. But there's about three guys that you know, well, this is a three-down guy. Christian McCaffrey, Brees Hall, Bijan Robinson. Those are the only three guys we feel confident going into the season that it's just they're going to be

Heavy on the workload. Yeah, which is like three of the top five picks. Which is why those guys are easily in the first round. After that, you want guys who have opportunities, but who are also efficient. Last year, James Cook was an efficiency monster. Number one in yards before contact among all running backs. Over 1,500 yards from scrimmage.

Third most in the NFL behind Christian McCaffrey and Brees Hall. He finished as the running back 12 despite only two rushing touchdowns.

We saw a huge shift last year for the Buffalo Bills between the first half and the second half. They started with Ken Dorsey from weeks one through ten. They were five and five. They moved to Joe Brady over the second half of the season, and they go six and one. And a huge part of that change was their pass percentage. Ken Dorsey, they were letting it rip.

Joe Brady, their passing percent dropped down to 31st. Now, I don't expect that to stick down at 31st, but the point being, Joe Brady is a guy who likes to run the ball. This is high-T stuff, and James Cook is absolutely their guy. In those splits over the first half, James Cook was like a 15-opportunity guy

15 opportunities per game type of guy putting up over just 10 fantasy points per game. That jumps to nearly 17 points a game and 20 opportunities per game and not just on the ground. The targets per route run went from 14% up to 26%. And speaking of that 26% for more context, that's elite. That's Bijan Robinson levels of targets per route run.

The Bills have vacated 284 targets because they sent their number one guy, Stephon Diggs, and some other pieces as well. And their number two guy, Gabe Davis. They're no longer on the team. And while we want Keon Coleman, the exciting first-round rookie wide receiver, we want Khalil Shakir, the hope for the later round guy. We want them to step in. We have seen over history that, yeah, that happens a little bit,

But the running back position, they're the ones who often see a bump. And that's a lot of targets to filter out that James Cook can absolutely be involved in. Inside the 10, that's the big concern. Like I said, running back 12 despite only two rushing touchdowns.

He still had 18 carries inside the tent. That sounds like just a little bit of bad luck for a guy who was so efficient leading the lead in yards before contact. You got offensive coordinator Joe Brady talking about the short yardage. And this is the big one. I feel confident with Jimbo, which is

James Cook's nickname, all the way down to its third and one. They're fine. They're fine with him being the short yardage running back. I think that the rushing touchdowns, it's an anomaly. If those come up and he continues his efficiency, he is the player who I think can really surprise despite being in that typical dead zone for running backs. I think that the Bills have made it very clear that they are ready to

give James Cook the work and make him their Bajon, CMC, Brees back. And I don't think that the fantasy community is ready to accept that as a possibility. And I think that's the disparity in draft. Right, because he's undersized. Correct. And look, some guys are just, they're undersized. But he was a second-round pick. His rookie year was bad for fantasy football. So I think that that...

The shine of him being a second-round pick wore off too quick. If you call 5.7 a carry as a rookie bat. I mean, I just mean. I mean, fantasy football, it didn't work out. Great player. That was known. We just needed those opportunities to go up.

I was looking for that drop earlier. I really was. That's funny. So his ADP to me is. Where's it at again? He is going at the 407 RB14. Yeah, it's a great option. I absolutely love this. Fully endorse it. He was actually on my short list as well for a while. He was. I didn't want to bring him up before you brought up the my guy, but this is a guy who was the running back 11 last year with two rushing touchdowns. Yeah.

You're like, oh, he's not going to get touchdowns. So what? What if he gets six? What if he gets six rushing touchdowns? I did stumble on something very funny, and that was like a show doc from four or five years ago with a lot of Joe Brady hype and excitement when he was the offensive coordinator in Carolina. So hopefully it works out better in Buffalo. But this team has a lot of question marks on how the offense is going to function. Their defense is going to struggle a little bit, I think. And, you know.

James Cook has three down workload potential. He has the potential, and he is good. That's, I think, a key for my three my guys here. These are not just opportunity guys. These are extremely talented players that just need a little bit more luck in a certain area. So there you have it, all of our my guys. If you want to share your own my guys with us over on X, use the hashtag my guy.

And let us know who you like and who your favorite maybe was of today's picks. Next week, we're going to have a breakouts and sleepers and busts and values episode. And we'll be live on Saturday in Los Angeles. The live show at Palace Theater, ballerslive.com for tickets is recording. The event is Saturday night and then Wednesday.

We'd love to see you there. We've got a live Q&A and a big celebration and some surprises for you. Presented by our friends at Sleeper and Pristy Knox. A part of those surprises, it's signed gear, including a grand prize. You've got to be there to win it. Yes, we will be throwing way too much signed gear into the crowd.

And so please come and join us, ballerslive.com, grab a ticket. And then the UDK for Life live stream is this afternoon at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Get your UDK now. It's not too late. UltimateDraftKid.com for that. So hopefully you enjoyed the show. That is going to do it for today's episode. But there's more coming, and football is inching closer. Cannot wait. Goodbye. ♪ music playing ♪

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.