Wake up! 10 deep sleepers to target in your drafts | Yahoo Fantasy Forecast

Intro [Music] hello it is Thursday August 22nd I am Andy Baron welcome to the Yahoo fantasy forecast uh as our good friend Matt Haron would say it is a hell of a day to talk ball and joining me to do it today it's it's Sal vetry uh it is fantasy football thought leader fantasy football influencer Sal vetri s how are you what's going on Andy it's a it's a good day to be here it's actually the perfect day to be here because I have my first serious draft tonight so I brought a list of sleepers that we'll be talking about today there's a list here but I'm selfishly also on here to try and hear some of the things you're goingon to say and maybe bring that with me into the uh draft streets tonight so this could be a little bit of misdirection from you today you ever you ever engage in that little bit of little bit of light misdirection where you tout a sleeper that you're not really into because every you know that everybody in the league that you're about to draft is me personally what you have to say me personally I would do that I've been I've been there's been claims that I've done that by many of people but no I would personally never do I'm not I'm not going to say that I've never done it well you know the thing that I will do actually sometimes and this comes up more often during baseball season um I will I will make sure to I will make the ad before I tout the player on social right like I'll it's probably not the sequence that that um people are looking for but I will definitely make the ad in all of my personal leagues before I before I say anything on social before I write anything hey you got to play the game you got to play the game yeah you got to play the game we're all out here playing the game um listen I one thing that I should get to before and Sal teas it we're gonna we're going to talk some sleepers today that's a Frau term we're going to talk some sleepers today it's convictions week and all that um but I want to let you know that the fantasy mailbag is open for business for the rest of August at the end of every show including Today's Show we'll be answering the pressing questions that you have heading into your most important drafts you can tweet at us we'll be sure to tweet out at the beginning of each week uh a reminder but you will get bumped to the front of the line by submitting your questions via voice memo or video we are begging for your videos please do it um to Fantasy mailbag at yahoosports.com our goal is to get to as many of your questions as possible all right we are continuing convictions week um that should have a theme song by the way I'm not going to attempt to sing it but convictions week should definitely have a theme song um and our goal today is to identify some top Sleepers for 2024 um obviously goes without saying it is massively important perhaps more important to nail your first round pick your second round pick your third your fourth you know get the top of the draft right get some rock solid names at the top of the draft I'm not not saying you can Overlook that um but then you also want to take big swings later and and you want to get some guys you know think of think ofe moster last year who was often drafted think of you know any number of play think of CJ stra Jordan love um any number of players who really popped last year perhaps you're thinking of a Sam laporta who was for many a sleeper not for all this is this is why I actually hate using the term sleeper I don't know how you feel about this cell but like when you when you use it you know whatever it's a it's a clicky term it's a searchable term there's there are reasons that we have to use the term sleeper but you always find people um on your social feed who are like dude um bro I I had that guy in deie back in 2018 he's not a sleeper um I get it like there's your your league context is everything the way that you define a sleeper is going to depend on you know whether it's a 16 Team league with nine Flex spots or whether it's you know just a standard Hometown 10 Team league I don't know how you feel about this term s yeah I think it depends on where we're addressing if if it's Twitter y you're going to have to find somebody in high school right now for it to be a great sleeper for the Twitter streets but for most people at like the people I'll be drafting with in one of my home leagues tonight they just got back into this maybe three days ago so anybody that's brand new to the league even if they're entering their third season they probably forgot the guy's name by now I think sleeper still a fair term yeah th this is the thing right there's there's some of us who have been Drafting and mock Drafting and best balling since like May um but that is a very small percentage of the fantasy audience most people are exactly what what s just described where they're like waking up Sal and Andy identify 10 deep sleepers to football when we get through like the second and third preseason games and they're still buying draft magazines and they're like they're just reacquainting themselves with the player pool so some of the names we're going to be talking about today are probably repackaged breakouts they're people that we've been talking about maybe for for a few months but you know the audience renews itself all the time so we're going to get to the sleepers um normally the way I like to do these things is secret lists of sleepers breakouts whatever ever but um s is super prepared hyper prepared so he's got a bunch of names in the document already and unfortunately I can see some of his sleepers so I might I might pretend to be surprised but I am not actually surprised um let's let's get into it um s give me it doesn't have to be your top sleeper you can build to the top sleeper if you like but give me give me a sleeper you're excited about for 2024 yeah definitely let's build to that I I'll start with the bills rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman their second round pick and I think a lot of us got on the off on the wrong foot with Keon Coleman if you want to take it back to the draft prep he was sort of this hot or cold Prospect people didn't really like him with the same Vigor as the top five wide receivers in the draft so there's already this bias of and maybe not Keon Coleman then the bills in the draft they trade back a couple of times the Chiefs who take a wide receiver the Panthers end up taking a wide receiver and there's some skepticism around what the bills are doing now will their offense regress I think we got off on the wrong foot we have to reintroduce ourselves now to this new version of Keon Coleman the potential number one receiver for the bills been on the field every single snap with the starting unit according to PFF in the preseason so far and this offense for Buffalo I think a lot of people think it'll take a step back you have Stefan Diggs gone Gabe Davis for what it's worth is also gone a new receiving core coming in but right now Vegas has them as the six shortest odds to lead the NFL in scoring so I don't think they'll take a step back still have Josh Allen still have a quality to good offensive line and Keon Coleman could be if not the number one probably a top two receiver in this offense I I want this for him so much um I can't even begin to tell you like he was such a he was such a revelation just in the just in the early press conferences right like it would be so fun and so good for the NFL if this guy if this guy can just be like a semistar he doesn't even he doesn't have to be Stefan digs he doesn't have to be like you know multiple time all all pro but um this is this is a really fun human being and I and I very much want this to be want this to be right I'm actually going to instead of you know asking my typical probing question about uh the player that you that you led with I'm actually going to go right into one of my sleepers because um it's another bills receiver and I W to I want to emphasize the fact that more than one player from this offense can pop um I'm gonna talk about khil Shakir um but here's the thing and i' I listen if you've been listening to convictions week you've already heard me talk about Dalton concade too like why we've talked about a bunch of bills but here's the thing there's over 240 vacated Targets in this offense right between Gabe Davis and uh and Stefan Diggs like there is a lot of opportunity to go around and we can get a we can get a full beefy workload for Keon Coleman and still get a bunch of extra work for cancade and still get a bunch of extra work for Shakir and still feed Curtis Samuel when he's healthy right like there's there's a lot of opportunity available here and we're talking about one of earth's best quarterbacks in just a great offensive environment so you you shouldn't feel as if um you know there can only be one right answer in the bills offense because this is a receiving core that's kind of Reinventing itself now um specific to Shakir last year the guy the guy caught 39 of 46 targets which is pretty ridiculous for a wide receiver that's like a it's like a ratio that you might see for a running back um and he's not he's not like some big downfield Target it was a relatively low a dot but this is also some somebody who got a lot of yards after the catch and that's a tribute to him it's a tribute to Josh Allen it's a it's always a bit of a com of the the quarterback and receiver when we see somebody piling up yards after catch like that but you know he converts 46 targets into 611 yards fun fact about him uh is that he actually LED all qualified wide receivers in passer rating when targeted last year it was 133.6k Shakir last year was one of the most productive things that any offense did at any time um finish the year strong I just man I I like everything about this guy's setup and again we have over 240 vacated targets here so we can we can accommodate breakouts for multiple Bills receivers um s where are you like where do you have these two guys in your ranks like like are you are first of all which one are you more proactively reaching for and um how do you sort out the bills receiving core generally yeah so I'm above the market on both guys in my rankings I have Keon Coleman higher right now as the number one receiver I did have Curtis Samuel so with the news that Samuel's week to we should definitely bring that up um that did move these guys up even more slightly you know a couple spots in the rankings two three spots um so Keon Coleman's a guy but like you were saying so many vacated targets and another point to bring up is that Ken dorsy was fired mid-season last year Joe Brady did not have an entire offseason to kind of get the offense he wants to roll with and get all the Personnel that he kind of wants to roll with bringing in Curtis Samuel having some input in what's going on in the draft getting Coleman so I think that's actually going to matter a lot more than people maybe are accounting for and Josh Allen is going in the second round of fantasy drafts maybe the third round if Dalton can Kade in round five or six is the only bills pass catcher in the first 10 Rounds something seems off if we think Josh Allen's gonna have another big Year ah man that's that's such a good point and it's one of the things that I like to harp on occasionally in Fantasy is like when we have these real disconnects between where the quarterback is ranked and what we're doing with all the receivers you know there's an opportunity there right and usually it's the other way usually you know you find these situations where like we're really high in a bunch you know Jared goff's a pretty good example right we've got Alan Ross St Brown in the first round we've got Sam leapor as the tight end one um we like jir Gibbs because he's you know such a a receiving option in that offense and yet Jared gof is kind of buried in the ranks um and but this is the opposite scenario right we're not like nobody's quite sure what to do with any of the receivers but we love Josh Allen and obviously a little bit of that is the rushing upside but you can't you know you can't be the qb1 on rushing upside alone you you've got to also find a way to get to like 4,400 passing yards which he does um so yeah it's such a good point that if we're right about Josh Allen multiple Bills receivers are definitely going to have to pop for us all right give me your second sleeper for this list second sleeper let's go to the running back position round 1314 depending on the draft you're in and I want to talk about Tai Chandler the Minnesota Vikings this is a roller coaster and I think we're at the point with Tai Chandler where it's going back up ready for that exciting drop so here's the thing with Chandler uh he starts last year as sort of this you know breakout potential candidate only Alexander Madison in front of him team trades and picks up cam Acres okay it's kind of halted but in week 10 when cam Acres goes down you see Chandler finishes a top 30 back so a flex option a running back two for you in 50% of the final six weeks including a week where he got a start and had over 150 yards against the Bengals so you're up high on that roller coaster Alexander Madison gets cut it's looking good again and then the team signs Aaron Jones a day after cut the morning after the Packers cut him so now we're in this spot where okay Ty Chandler goes again from this exciting breakout to and Aaron Jones is now there and Jones is a good player averaged over five yards per touch last year had a great postseason for the Packers when he was available he was on the injury report for half the weeks he missed six games he's approaching 30 years old and his explosive run rate that's runs a 10 plus yards and his broken tackle rate were at career lows last year usually don't come back as you approach 30 years old so I think we're in a situation where Tai Chandler who was explosive last year he averaged himself as well as Jones five yards per touch could be seeing 45 50% of the snaps right away week one they've said great things about him last year they said great things about him entering this season and it kind of brings me to this spot where you look at the draft you see a situation in Tennessee the Titans have a seventh round pick in fantasy and Tony Pard and Ninth round pick in Taj Spears I view this backfield pretty similarly when you have Aaron Jones going around six or seven but you have Tai Chandler going around 13 or 14 I think he's the discount version of a Taj Spears maybe even a discount version of like a Jaylen War yeah it's a good way to frame it I I wish I could push back a little bit on this but I but I love this call um I think Tai Chandler is like a like a final round pick in a HomeTown League can really pay dividends um there's there's no way they're PL like the highest and best use for Aaron Jones cannot it simply cannot be like you know 23 25 touches per game you're not going to get through a full season of Aaron Jones at that sort of workload so I think there's a I think there's an immediate opportunity for Tai Chandler there I think that's a really good call and you're right we have we have way too big a gap between those two I'll I'll stick at running back for my second sleeper and I'm going to go and this is you know I've talked about this guy a couple times on a couple of different platforms and it's really like a A sly way to fade Rashad white is what's going on here I'm pretty interested in Bucky Irving um he enters the season you know he's kind of claimed the the number two spot on the depth chart for Tampa Bay behind white um and and white white had a nice fantasy year right like it was it was fine it was a good yardage total you know basically a full workload guy um he was not overly impressive as a rusher I will say and not that yards per carry is everything but it was like 3.6 yards per carry not much after contact either like Rashad white was not exactly among your leaders in yards after contact for per attempt he was he was about 2.5 for the season according to PFF um and then like but but it was his work as a receiver pretty much that that made him fantasy relevant um and that's like that's not nothing I I like Rashad white well enough he's not he's not buried in my ranks or anything like that but he is exactly the type of running back in my opinion that a you know it that a team can fall out of love with um and they can fall in love pretty easily with somebody who really Pops in the preseason and does everything asked of them and and Bucky Irving has been man Bucky Irving has been while while not you know a i wanton I won't actually classify like his preseason as like loaded with highlights but it's a lot of for a for a smaller back it's a lot of impressive downhill running um a a lot of impressive work between the tackles I think he's been really good he he had a short yardage T TD in the first preseason game he's also a super accomplished college player coming off back-to-back thousand yard seasons at Oregon um and and I think the most exciting thing and the thing that makes him such a a you know a plausible replacement for white I'm not I'm not trying to you know I'm not trying to move bashad white out of his job necessarily I'm just trying to find space for Bucky Irving um he he caught 87 balls over the last two years he caught 56 passes last year and I think people know that like you know Oregon's offense was a lot of near the line of scrimmage um pass attempts and man he was really good in that game um I don't like again I don't necessarily think that Bucky Irving is taking over a full workload here but I would be a little bit surprised if we don't see him at least as a rotational Runner to open the season uh I don't know s where are you on where are you on white this year where are you on this back field yeah I am definitely concerned in terms of the coaching change for Dave Canal love to ride just basically Mike Evans and Rashad white last year throughout the entire season he was giving a lot of props to Rashad white you mentioned him not being as efficient in terms of yards per carry the offensive line wasn't great last year they are hoping it's improved this year with an addition to grah Barton how much will it be improved we'll see on that I think the biggest bonus or maybe favoring spot for Bucky Irving is they drafted him and that was it like there's no other free agents coming in here to try and compete with him Chase Edmond has been there really not done too much while there they're saying now maybe a roster bubble cut candidate he's like the biggest competition Bucky Irving currently has in that back field for the rb2 job so in terms of like a fourth round rookie right away hitting the ground and running it's a good situation for all right we're going to take our first break and then we're going to come back with a few more sleepers all right s we're back give me sleeper number three sleeper number three takes us back to the wide receiver position and I'm almost hesitant saying this name but these last couple weeks have gained a little bit more confidence and it's Josh Palmer in round 13 of drafts the Chargers wide receiver here's the thing this entire Chargers offense is brand new besides Josh Palmer I mean you're talking coaching staff you're talking receivers tight end running backs everybody's brand new even pieces their offensive line Palmer's been there for three years has a connection with Justin Herbert and the reason why I think that that's important is Herbert hasn't been in practice the last two or three weeks he returned in a limited fashion uh two days ago but he hasn't been getting that connection with these new guys in the offense he has experience with Palmer who has started 11 games these last three years when Keenan Allen has missed averaged 12 and a half fantasy points per game in those contest pretty good numbers while also competing with Austin Eckler in the Target shair Mike Williams doesn't have those guys now entering this season so I think Josh Palmer is an interesting player if he would say a ninth or a 10th round pick going in the 13th round he has a chance to be this team's number one receiver competing with a rookie and lad makoni is probably his biggest competition right now yeah this is this is pretty fair and you know when when all of us talk about the Chargers offense basically um you know everybody everybody gives a little bit of a nod to Lad makoni as as a you know a rookie who's a potential wide receiver one for his team I don't I don't know of anybody who's terribly enthusiastic about the about the Chargers passing game generally right I'm terrified of what a Harbaugh Greg Roman collaboration is going to look like we've often seen Greg Roman offenses finish dead last in the league in terms of pass attempts um but I you know I don't I don't necessarily love Justin Herbert fantasy this season but I think the I think the world of his arm talent and it is kind of hard to imagine that no Justin Herbert wide receiver is g to finish inside like the the top 30 right somebody will and I think Palmer might actually be the most the most plausible candidate for that like I like makoni I like everything that we saw on film from him um and I think he's a really interesting talent but Palmer's a pro and and a and a pretty good Pro and is he like you know super Dynamic electric you know um game-changing wide receiver I don't know that he's that but um he's been a really effective and really efficient Pro and he's like he's like the one guy here that that is clearly a circle of trust player for Justin Herbert and that that has to matter at some point right yeah I think so and I think the situation with Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh is pushing down Josh Palmer outside of just not having a big name already in fantasy but those two were together with the 49ers years ago they had these wide receivers put up pretty good Target Seasons if you include the postseason Michael Crabtree in 2012 146 targets Anquan Balden in 2013 150 targets and in 2014 both those guys had over a 100 targets so that was 10 years ago the NFL's only become more pass happy that was without Justin Herbert who I would say is a better quarterback passing wise than a Colin Kaepernick that they had with the 49ers so I think this is an interesting spot for like minimum 100 maybe 120 plus targets for Josh Palmer and in round 13 assuming you have a decent catch rate on that he's going to pay off that's a really good way to frame it he's probably the sneakiest candidate for like 100 to 120 targets uh in the entire game I think that's I think that's fair to say I'm going to go with a guy who I think can find his way to 100 targets and is is also tied to perhaps a questionable passing offense uh I'm going to go with Rasheed Shahed uh last year I mean I think people know at this point in his career exactly what he is he's been a bit of a big play specialist right um average depth of Target last year 14.6 his his passor rating and this is a little bit fraud too because we're talking about a guy who's attached to Derek Carr and that's not ideal um but shahid's passer rating when targeted on deep balls was 121.5 like one of the best things the Saints did last year was was throw it deep to rased Shahed he's been from the moment he entered the picture for New Orleans a couple years ago he has been a clear Dynamic play playmaker um the only signif ific move that this team really made at wide receiver in the offseason was to part ways with Michael Thomas so we know that there are a few additional targets available Shahed if we get a full season and that's been a little bit of a thing uh in his first two years but if we get a full season I think he should see a 100 opportunities this year they will be um you know high high yield downfield opportunities um and and sometimes that makes a guy a high variance roller coaster of a receiver um and that's not for everyone I get it um maybe this is one of those players that falls into the category of we really like him in baseball we you know we don't know when to start him in uh managed season long leagues but man um most wide receivers are actually a little bit like that like the only the only super consistent highlevel wide receivers that you're going to get are the guys that you're drafting in the first and second round and basically everyone else is a little bit of a carnival ride um and Shahed happens to be one of those guys where like the big weeks can actually win you a matchup um he's not somebody who's going to swing between like 30 receiving yards and 90 receiving yards he's going to have some of those 30 receiving yard games and then he's going to hit you with like three catches for 150 and two touchdowns um and that is the kind of player who will win matchups and so I always like to have you know whether it's a deeper League Flex position whether it's a wide wide receiver three spot I like to have a guy like that on the roster it's not for everyone um but I'm I'm particularly interested in Shahed uh you think that's crazy to Target aint receiver who isn't Chris no I'm like well above the market on Shahed probably more than any other Saints player maybe Joan Johnson's close but the thing that I like with Shahed I'm terrified of this offense a lot because of the offensive line you could say what you want about Derek Carr but under pressure it hasn't looked pretty but that might work in the favor of Rashid Shahed if his role does change this year from just a downfield option to still having those pieces of his game but maybe Clint kubak coming over takes some things from the 49ers middle of the field receivers yards after the catch cuz if that's the case if that comes over just a little bit and the offensive line isn't as good as we probably think it won't be then you're going to see a lot of short passes to Shahed and that's where those receptions can go up for half PPR PPR and yards after the catch yeah you've you've kind of just given us the scenario that would that would actually unlock the potential for like a wide receiver two season for Shahid right if if and I I don't want to like I don't want to speak it into the world necessarily because I don't know that it's what they'll do with Shahed but man if he got some layup targets like if he just got some of the I don't I don't expect him to run a lot of the the Michael Thomas routes just like the you know quick Slants Easy Button stuff um but if he did that would be really exciting and we would have some real yards after catch opportunities and some big play opportunities and it would open up Shahed as like a plausible you know PPR asset as well all right give me your fourth sleeper for this list yeah I want to go to the quarterback position here usually I'm trying to secure my quarterback by like round nine or 10 where Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams are going and then I'm kind of checking out like I need to get a guy by then but these last couple weeks in best ball in mock drafts I'm seeing Trevor Lawrence fall late into round 10 into round 11 pretty often these days and that just seems too late we kind of touched on this earlier but his pass catchers Christian Kirk goes in like round six or seven Evan Ingram round six even Brian Thomas the rookie pushing towards round 10 now if all these guys are going earlier Trevor Lawrence probably has to have a good year to sustain that and not to mention something that kind of goes under the radar this division might have just the group of worst secondaries you look at the Colts look at the Titans pretty bad the Texans are probably the best secondary but like middle of the pack on paper entering the year definitely some young talent and then the Jaguars themselves might have a bottom three secondary I think there's just going to be a lot of passing success in this Division and you get the face those teams six times this year Trevor Lawrence also has sneaky rushing upside last year he was a guy who was playing with an ankle spring at one point during the season and still finished top 10 in quarterback rushing still had four rushing touchdowns he's 220 pounds a huge frame around the Red Zone you probably get a couple extra TDS I I love this call and this is another one of those situations where if you've been listening during convictions week uh you know that I'm on Trevor Lawrence and one of the appealing things is that like almost anybody who had him on a roster last year was super unsatisfied with uh the season they got from Lawrence and they're probably out on him this year so there's there's less competition um I felt a little weird discussing him in the breakout players podcast because I I mean the like the guy's been on the national radar forever um he he we can certainly say that he broke out in the NFL a couple years ago when he I mean he led his team to a playoff one win um it's great season like clearly an ascending Talent last year a step back there were so many plays and I I don't need to remind people of this there were so many plays that were either drops or like bobbled catches or one foot inbounds one foot out but like the Collegiate touchdowns his season was so full of that I I mean he he could have had 30 touchdown passes last year he's still got the huge arm I love Brian Thomas um that that was just a spectacular addition if you want to talk a player who pairs perfectly with what Trevor Lawrence has inarguably done well which is you know get deep um you know huge arm th like throw the Deep ball like that is that is Brian Thomas's game that is definitely Trevor Lawrence's game so I just think they have a really nice complimentary set of receivers um and he is set up for pretty obvious success and he like there's there's sneaky R like rushing upside with Trevor Lawrence too it was it was one of the best parts of his game as a Collegiate player and the the one other thing that I that I like to remind people with Lawrence he's only like he's he's really young he's still as we speak he's still 24 years old he is he is one year older than Jaden Daniels um so we are nowhere near um at least in theory what like Peak Trevor Lawrence is going to be we don't have to like I know he's been in the league for a little while we can toss out that first year because of the disastrous coaching situation but like still a really young player who is still learning the league in my opinion yeah and I think that when we just look at Lawrence hasn't had a top 10 quarterback finish yet so like you were saying earlier he's kind of let some people down in the past and now he enters this year without Calvin Ridley I think a lot of people see these things as negatives but Calvin Ridley in this offense was kind of miscasts maybe coming into that similar type of a role is the complete receiver you want in that role he just ran by defensive backs in college won't be the same in the NFL we'll have to add a little bit more Nuance but there's going to be those plays even if he only sees 90 to 100 targets this year even less than that if a good amount of them are let's say top 10 in 20 plus yard targets per game for Brian Thomas that's going to pay off a guy who goes in round 11 and that's going to help Trevor Lawrence as well who goes in a similar part that's a pretty good like just stacking combo there uh to get a quarterback and a wide receiver late with a ton of upside yeah it's super attainable too it's one of those it's one of those pairings that's really easy to put together in any fantasy league um all right I'm gonna I'm gonna go a little deeper at quarterback and I I want to be clear that I am not recommending this guy for like your your 10 team one quarterback League okay I think you can go ahead and leave will Levis undrafted in formats like that but if you play in a superflex if you play in like a you know I've got a 16 team draft coming up um I'm I'm interested in will Levis and there's not there's not a whole lot from his rookie year outside of one game that I can that I can point to uh to tell you yeah this this kid has all kinds of potential right like it was the one big game in which he basically threw half of his touchdown passes last year um he he actually finished with fewer than 200 yards in like five of his nine starts I'm not I'm not trying to dress up his rookie season as if it was you know just an unqualified success uh it wasn't took too many sacks there were issues what I do like about his situation is this is another example of a team that that just really like they did all they could in the offseason you saw Carolina do this too there's you know this was a constant theme you know shoot you saw the Bears Do It um in advance of drafting Caleb will like they've built things up around will Levis in a really positive way this is where Calvin Ridley lands so the receiving core is better you've got somebody who's basically in his prime um the the offensive line much better than it was last year they at least threw resources at it um so we expect that to be improved um so there's there is Reason for Hope here I don't I don't know what the I don't exactly know what the new offense is going to look like it's a it's a bit of a weird collaboration we'll see how it goes um but I'm but I'm kind of a believer in Lev's Talent um we don't have to we don't have to worry about the arm the arm is pretty huge we saw that in the in the huge Splash game with DeAndre Hopkins last year um he's not he's not Trevor Lawrence necessarily as a rushing threat but uh plenty of rushing touchdowns as a Collegiate player it's a little bit of his game he's got a little sneaky you know you can you can imagine a scenario in which will Levis uh you know when they get down on the goal line and which will Levis is maybe the primary option so I can see a path to like five or six rushing scores I think he can be kind of sneaky in in superflex and I don't mind ending up with him you know if I'm in any sort of format in which we're starting to quarterbacks I don't actually hate Landing him as my second QB I don't know how you feel about him and that and that Titans offense yeah I think they've done everything they can to try and have him set up for Success this year you even bring in Tyler Boyd a reliable slot receiver uh you bring in trying to improve the offensive line that'll probably be the biggest question for me get Lloyd cushenberry a center that's pretty good a veteran pick up JC them with a top 10 pick if he can hit for you at the tackle position I think now you're really cooking and you have everything you need for Levis and then it just comes down to his play which now having a full off season to be the guy not having Ryan tanah Hill there and not going into the year with the mindset that you're the quarterback too I think that's probably going to help a lot yeah offensive line still a huge issue because we see one thing that we see all the time in the NFL is like you know teams can throw resources at a at a at a position like that at a unit like that and it doesn't like it still takes a lot of time for an offensive line to gel right like you can you can have some brand name linemen that you bring in and it still doesn't look great in the in the early months of the season so if but if that's better and I can't believe it's going to be worse um then then we really have a nice setup for Levis um give me your fifth and final sleeper yes so I can go either tight end or running back is what I'm debating I have a couple here but I'll go with the tight end here we haven't hit on a tight end position on my end so I'm looking on Twitter I'm seeing some stuff pop up I know guys that I like at the tight end position so I see the name no a f a lot fan a lot and I'm thinking okay maybe this guy is going to be like an 11th to 12th round pick then I look in drafts as recent as yesterday he's a 16th 17th round pick still undrafted in a lot of leagues he's going five to 10 Rounds after guys like Pat fouth David and joku and I honestly believe he has a similar upside in terms of targets and just playing time as those guys which usually leads to Fantasy production now some people might say right away get into the comment section he was a Titan 38 last year he had no touchdowns what are you talking about and yeah I would agree with that but the context matters I mean he was being rotated through with two other tight ends Kobe Park and will dley they're gone it was nothing to do with Talent it was more so the way that his offensive coordinator liked to use those tight ends he's also gone Shane walren now in Chicago a new offensive coordinator in town and Ryan grub a lot of talk about him potentially coming in and running a lot of three wide receiver sets he did that in college at Washington had them being a top five offense in college football last year so I think no no Fant could go from being outside the top 30 wide receivers in route participation and snaps you got to be on the field to score fantasy points to maybe breaking into top 12 top 10 range and if that's the case he can finish as a top 10 top 15 tight end instead of the tight end 24 where he goes now and just a reminder he did have two top 12 Seasons during his time with the Broncos to start his career that was when he was a full-time player he should be going back to that this year yeah as you may know there's no greater way to Pander to the host of this podcast than to Hype an Iowa tight end uh so I I am appreciative I think this is a great name to introduce um you know it's a tight end seems like a crowded position and I I you know I don't know if Noah fan is somebody that you're drafting again in like a 10 Team league you probably don't probably don't stash a bench tight end in a format like this but couple things uh that I'll just remind people of like very few tight ends in the history of the combine and the history of pre-draft testing have have tested as athletic as Noah fan like this is a this is a rare athlete by NFL standards at least when he came into the league so huge Talent there no question about that um they paid him in the offseason too at the same time that they let as you mentioned dley and Parkinson go so and that in combination with um you know a new offense that promises perhaps a little bit more passing volume I'm super excited I think this is a great name I think it's a spectacular deep League name and I have ended up uh I've ended up in a number of leagues not surprisingly I mean it's never a surprised if I get an Iowa tight end but I've ended up with Noah fan quite a bit um I love that call I'll give you for my last sleeper I'm going to go back to a a tight end that I discussed at length in uh in the tight end position preview podcast that we did a little while ago I'm going to go to likely um and again I just want to remind people that when Mark Andrews was absent at the end of last season isaah likely performed almost exactly like Mark Andrews um it was it was a huge run for him over his final six games uh he caught 21 balls 322 yards five touchdowns highlight plays like some of the some of the most electric plays that we saw from the Ravens offense involved Isaiah likele uh his passer rating went targeted last year 147 so one of the best things that any NFL team did last year was throw the ball to Isaiah likely it was one of the best ideas in football um the preseason Buzz has been pretty Relentless to the point that I think we have to expect to see him on the field quite a bit more than we did last year and I think it's also one of those situations where you just can't like you you kind of I don't know toothpaste out of the tube or the genie out of the lamp or whatever metaphor you want to use like I don't I don't know that you can easily put it back in because he was great at the end of last season so we have to see more of him and then you have the upside here of and I'm not you know again I I'm not wishing an injury on anybody but if anything happens to Mark Andrews if Mark Andrews misses games I'm G to have Isaiah likeley in my top five or top six tight ends because when he's playing like you know 80 plus percent of the snaps and he's running routes on all those snaps um he's like good things are going to happen they happened routinely at the end of last season and I would expect them to happen this year as well um how do you like how do you feel this doesn't even have to be about likely um how do you sort out the the Ravens receiving core generally yeah I'll put a closing note on likely 59 catches his final year in college at Coastal Carolina 24% Target share and then he came into that first preseason and I remember was like one of the best preseason the tight end has ever had which like make of that what you will but whenever the dude's on the field he's producing um the Ravens receiving core I mean it's based on like how drafts are going right now like Mark Andrews usually goes before Z flowers that's the guy that if I want to Target somebody it's Mark Andrews I view Mark Andrews with similar upside to like Kelsey and Sam lorta who go 20 30 picks earlier in some drafts and I'm looking at Mark Andrews like oh I mean this guy last year was just as good as those guys there's no reason why entering this season with an Odell belham Jr gone with him still being the main option in the red zone for in the passing game at least for Lamar Jackson that Andrew still can't finish as maybe the number one overall tight end and I get the take him at like the end of the fourth round yeah it's a it's a really good call it's going to be a fun offense and they've got some weapons all right we're going to head into a final break when we return uh we're going to dive into a special segment for you guys and then get into your pressing questions in the fantasy mailbag week one opening week of the fantasy season is about two weeks away uh and as you all know from the countless live reads on this podcast uh we've got a little thing going with NBC Sports this year if you sign up for fantasy league on Yahoo fantasy you will automatically be entered to win a millon ion bucks uh for additional entries into Sal and Andy pick stars and sleepers to target in the Yahoo million dollar sweepstakes that contest you need to start players who score a touchdown on any of NBC's three week one games uh those games are Kansas City Baltimore that's a pretty good game Philadelphia Green Bay also a pretty good game and La Detroit also a pretty good game involving fun offenses um so s let's give a little fantasy advice for these three games specifically give me give me a couple of stars that you would expect to score a touchdown in the NBC opening week games yeah so I look at this first game with Kansas City in Baltimore and right away I'm like okay this has got to be the highest scoring game of the week and you look at the Vegas totals and it's 46 and a half points which is not nothing but it's not top five even in the scoring points for the week in terms of Team total so I'm looking at this and I'm thinking okay what's the what's the catch here maybe since it's week one and the Ravens have a top five secondary on paper entering the season maybe the chief's offense isn't set up as we think it will be this season for a dynamic game they might not be without Maris Brown in the passing attack it's Xavier Worthy's first game could be his coming out party but against this secondary might not be his coming out party so I'm looking at the running backs not only on the Chiefs and Isaiah Peko because of those things but also on the opposite side of this with Derk Henry in the best situation he could be now Lamar Jackson some deception there at the quarterback run game and I'm looking at both guys as the studs that I like to score uh in that game specifically and on the entire week honestly they're my two favorite guys to Target I love that pairing because I think actually that Pacho and Henry between those two uh you've hit on one of them's going to lead the NFL in touchdowns like one of them one of them is going to have like an 18 or 20 touchdown season I I feel like Pacheko is one of the most slept on players Henry not so slept on but anyway both of them great offensive environments and um featured Runners for their teams I will take um you know what I'm going to take David Montgomery um because David Montgomery in addition to piling up touchdowns last year actually actually LED all running backs in carries inside the 10 and inside the five I don't actually expect it to change that much and I know that everybody's really excited about Jamir Gibbs I'm excited about jir Gibbs he's a really exciting player um but when when things go spectacularly well for a team in a particular area I really expect them to Veer away from it and so I think we're still going to see plenty of David Montgomery at the goal line um we're going to see plenty of Gibbs too it's great offense um so you don't need de away from either of those guys but um I I think Montgomery in any given week is probably the most likely line player um to find the end zone so I'll take him I'm also going to take you know Jaylen Herz um the guy who will probably again reach double digit touchdowns for the Eagles I don't know that the that the tush push will be executed flawlessly all of the time this year as it was last year but you can pretty much get a yard or two anytime you want out of Jaylen Herz and uh I expect plenty of points to be scored in that Eagles Green Bay game so give me Hertz in that one okay let's let's move away from the Stars let's let's look you know we've already talked sleepers on this show let's talk about a couple of sleepers each that you expect to score touchdowns that you expect to score touchdowns again in the NBC week one games yeah let's go to this Packers and Eagles game on Friday night in Brazil I'm looking at a sleeper here on the Packers side of the ball the entire offense and that man's name I won't barely lead it's going to be Tucker craft the tight end the entire offense in the passing game for the Packers I like Philadelphia second worst secondary in coverage last year to end the season they added some rookies some young players but they still have James Bradberry and Darius Slay where aging veterans struggled towards the end of last year I think Jordan loving this offense Matt laflor having extra time to prepare for week one in this defense is going to have a field day Tucker craft was one of the best tight ends in the entire NFL as a rookie last season and he was in top five in terms of passer rating for tight ends when he was targeted by love yes Luke Musgrave is back and healthy he's going to be out there but Craft's going to be on the field a lot they need him in the Run game he'll be out there for play action I like him as a sneaky option in that game to score and I was going to pick I was going to pick Rashad bitman but I thought better I thought better as another sneaky option here I said no I've been touching this burner for far too long and every time I touch it it hurts so I'm swapping and I'm going to this Rams in Detroit game I'm looking at this it's highest point total on the week so there's going to be touchdowns so right there my odds are better for my sleeper to score I'm looking at the line side of the ball Ram secondary a lot of young players last year added a couple of veterans here and there in the offseason still doesn't look to be one of the better secondaries on paper Jameson Williams Jameson Williams is the guy who the last time we saw him in the NFC Championship he scored twice the next time we see him he's going to score for us and he's going to get us some winnings in the sweep Stakes oh man okay well you you stole one of my sleepers which is vicious that is a vicious attack um I'm gonna I'm gonna piggyback on the Williams call um I think that's definitely happening um and I'm not I'm not like one of the I'm not one of the Jameson Bros either I don't I'm not somebody who's been who's been itching to like to see a fully operational fully functional Jameson Williams I haven't been making a whole bunch of promises about him I I think he's had some really ugly games so far in his NFL career um but I also think that uh the last time we saw him that is legitimately within his range of outcomes any given week um I I've mentioned it before I think the fantasy Community generally has been very disciplined on Williams last year sometimes we get in these Gabe Davis situations and we get like the last taste that we get of a player is so good that we're like oh man this guy's a wide receiver too next year um we haven't done that with Williams so much he's still he's still buried in the ranks a little bit but uh I think he is what whatever else he is or isn't at this point he is definitely an explosive playmaker and I think they're going to scheme up some ways to make his touches perhaps not so difficult and obviously um the man they've really been gassing him up um Dan Campbell's really been talking him up and I'm I'm a little bit of a Believer my other name here is going to be Romeo dobs just because he's always he's just like the Forgotten um Packers Receiver right like we we we talk a lot about this receiving cord and expectations for Christian Watson will he stay healthy and you know what is the ceiling if he does and and how does Jaden Reed build on what he did last year and man they got a couple of good tight ends too I think I think dos is just sort of quietly um like a circle of trust receiver for Jordan love he's been a really good Pro to this point it's not like a noisy camp for him necessarily but um that that guy that guy is somebody that they get radar lock on when uh when they get in the red zone so I think Romeo dobs always in any given week has a decent chance to score and I would expect him to finish this season like if Jordan love is the player that we think he is I I think Romeo dobs can finish the year with with six eight nine touchdowns I think that's definitely um a possibility all right we know for everyone listening to this pod uh that you are likely going to have your most important drafts in the next few weeks they're probably coming up for S they're just beginning uh and we are here to help so welcome to the fantasy mail bag You've Got Mail Fantasy mailbag goodbye all right first question this comes to us from Shannon Shannon says I have a quote just for fun League um I mean they're all just for fun they're all at least partially for fun some of them are for other things um this just for fun League will have eight possibly 10 teams after listening to the latest mock draft episode I'm really leaning uh toward making it a super FX oh good um my question to you is what would be the best roster settings for an 8 to10 team super Flex League um first of all I'll just say compliments on the choice because superflex doesn't fix everything right it doesn't fix all of the scoring problems that have kind of been around at the quarterback position from the beginning but it at least gives a little bit of scarcity to it um like we talk about this quite a bit um in in one quarterback leagues like there's there's no penalty for missing on a quarterback right because there's always you know last year it was Jordan love it was CJ strad every year there's like two to four guys who Bubble Up and become like real differen making quarterbacks who can be had on the waiver wire early in the year so there's never any scarcity to this position but superflex does that um if you're in a 10 Team superflex league there's a pretty good chance that like 30 quarterbacks are going to be drafted and that is going to mean that if you go to the waiver wire all you're going to see there is like Gardner mchu or Bryce young like it's going to be it's going to be tough so s what what settings do you like to see in a superflex I mean I think the biggest change is just making it the superflex league is kind of like biggest roster setting specific you're going to do but the rests kind of just stem from any other league I like to see more roster spots more regular Flex spots paired with that if you only add one Flex spot and you added a super Flex that's probably fine it's probably fine for most leagues but add a second Flex spot the one thing I will say is when you start to add a superflex you start to kind of get that feel of like oh I get to play another player I get to have another guy on my team maybe start to consider not adding extra bench spots because I've been in some leagues where you have nine 10 bench spots and now the waver wire every week isn't even fun it's like not even part of the game you're looking at third strings but out there if you're talking about quarterbacks at that point you're looking at guys like I mentioned earlier in high school literally like in college still so that's probably the route that I would go consider maybe another Flex spot but super Flex specifically strategy wise yeah you got to bump those quarterbacks up two three plush rounds and drafts I I love that answer that's where I was going to go um one of my one of my suggestions to people is always to limit the bench spots um it doesn't mean that you have the shortest possible bench it certainly doesn't mean you have like a two-person bench anything like that but short benches Force decisions um they force some difficult Cuts right um they they they set up a situation which you can't just stash everyone right like you can't just draft every backup running back in the hopes that by week eight something will happen no you have to make tough choices and I think we want that I think we want a dynamic waiver wire is full of interesting names um you're also going to find that if you have short benches it uh it encourages trading too it just encourages transactions and like that kind of roster turnover is really fun that makes a fantasy league fun so and if you're a if you're a pretty competitive manager um it's going to help you it's going to benefit you so I like that answer um and I like the question I love seeing people move to superflex it is generally it is a it is a better version of the game in my opinion okay next question here comes to us from Sage Sage says uh what's up Yahoo team my name is sage and I'm an avid listener of the podcast thank you and Sage follows reception perception every year so good on you um I'm actually blind in fantasy football has given me a way to stay competitive with my friends after I lost my vision um man that's like you know we obviously have tried to build a game that is accessible to everyone that is um that that that is really amazing and it's uh thank you for playing with us um Sage says the Yahoo app is extremely accessible for me um to use so naturally I'm addicted now uh in a 10 team double Flex keeper League where we keep players based off where we drafted them I have Kyler in round 15 and Anan in round 16 fortunately uh drafting in the four spot assuming CN CMC and beon are gone top RBS are Barkley Williams and Henry of the top receivers there what do you guys think I'm not sold on CD because of his situation thoughts um Al also Sage says PS ride or die delon's takes um yeah they are some takes uh so I I'll I'll start with you there what do you do what do you do at four in a keeper League where a whole bunch of good players are gone yeah I guess the the CL the clarifier here is does he think CD lamb is going to be there at four then that's an opportunity based on what he was saying that's that's the way I read it yeah so so I mean if there's a chance that lamb Falls to four I would go with it I I they're not going to enter the season without that contract getting settled um it's just not even built for CD lamb to do that in terms of what he'll be losing each week he'll just suit up at that point uh but let's assuming somebody in your league assume that they take him before them and those running backs are the people that are left and just to kind of give you an opportunity here for me personally at that point I mean all those guys are great options Williams saquin and and Derrick Henry I believe were the options there I'm personally going to honestly side with Derrick Henry there he's one spot higher than saquon Barkley in my rankings projected for 10 and a half rushing touchdowns this year uh we talked about him a little bit earlier about just him being with Lamar Jackson even though he's 30 years old he was still efficient in terms of George created per touch last year led the NFL and Carries now he's going to be in this offense where Lamar Jackson runs the ball linebackers are going to have to pause whenever there's a handoff and potential handoff and that's going to give Derrick Henry even more advantage in between the 20s and the red zone so between those options it's a slight lean for Henry because of those reasons over saquan for me yeah I think he I think you nailed this answer that's how I feel too first of all if CD is there I'm going to take CD um this like this stuff happens every year with players who um you know hold out into camp this rarely spills over into the regular season um I I I wouldn't expect it to in these situations and and yeah there are some cases that you can point to where somebody had a little bit of rust in the opening weeks after returning from from a hold out but man I mean the Cowboys built their whole offense out of CD lamb last year and I I expect them to run it back with rough the same approach so um I would take CD if available I wouldn't I wouldn't really think twice about that and then I like Derrick Henry as a pivot I have the same basically I have the same sequence in my ranks as as you do I've got Henry above saquan um I just have very few questions about what Henry's role is going to be in that offense and I man I again I think Henry has a path to a huge touchdown total on the season okay last mailbag question we're going to take this is from Tristan uh Tristan says my draft is in a couple of weeks uh we don't don't choose what order the draft is uh the draft order is set I I assume I'm filling in some words here draft order is set right before we start the draft uh so how do you plan for last minute picking I have my guys that I am targeting but I don't want to reach too much so um s in a draft where you don't know where you're going to pick like I don't know maybe maybe we're the wrong people to answer this question because we're probably both involved in so many drafts that I have I personally I have drafted from every spot and I like I'll have I'll have an approach at every spot do you but do you have do you have advice for uh people entering drafts where they don't know where they're going to pick yeah especially for this situation you said you have two weeks like preparation preparation is what it is whether it's whether it's mock drafts there's free mock drafts there's some paid ones if you want people to not leave after like the fifth round of the mock draft um and not only that you could draft from every single slot if you want to for that um and just kind of see where you're at and then also before your Draft starts like minutes before even an hour before if you can get into the lobby at that point just queue up all those guys you said like have them all ready already in a queue don't be on the clock and like oh I wasn't expecting to pick 11th I didn't know these guys would be on the board cue them all up so you have options there right away and then spend these next two weeks preparing even if it's just like 30 minutes a day you do one or two quick mock drafts and you kind of know who's on the board at what spot depending on where you're drafted yeah I I'll just say that if you draft like if you draft in the first half of the first round um no worries right like you're going to you're going to get a running back or a receiver who could who could very plausibly finish top overall at their position you're going to feel set um one one thing I like to think about if you happen to end up in the back half of the first round um I I want to make sure that I'm not like chasing at each position throughout the draft right because like the top three running backs are probably going to be gone so I don't I don't want to feel extra pressure to oh man I like hey this great receiver is there but man I got to take a running back those three are gone and then you're and then you're kind of chasing and you're behind everybody else and you can you can fall into that habit at each position I want to make sure if I'm in the back half of a of a draft that I have an edge somewhere and you know that that may not be at running back that might mean that you're going to have to like double tap receivers at the top it might mean that I am more likely to be the manager who takes Josh Allen to be the manager who takes either leaport or Kelce right I just want to make sure that at one of the key positions in fantasy I still give myself an edge I don't want to feel like I'm you know like I'm spending the entire draft chasing at each spot okay just as a reminder send in your questions to Fantasy mailbag at yahoosports.com if we don't get to your questions right away I promise we are we are keeping a folder um we we hope to get to them eventually our goal of course is to get to as many of your questions as possible and again if you want to send in a video a voice memo we love that stuff please do it all right that is going to do it for us today on Friday we conclude convictions week uh the best way I can imagine doing it with Dalton Delon unrivaled Master of the hot take we are going to check on uh his most scorching takes you're probably going to wear like uh protective lenses for this you probably want to you know make sure that you have heat shield uh uh technology around you it's going to be something um Dalton never disappoints oh boy uh until then uh for myself Andy Baron for salvet we are out