824: Week 8 Sleepers

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Speaker 1: This is the Lady Podcast with your host JJ zacher Retha j Jake zacher reson What's up everyone. It's JJ Zacharyeson in this episode eight and twenty four of the Late Round Fantasy Football podcast sponsored by FanDuel. Thanks for tuning in. It was not a good sleeper show last week. In fact, it was one of the worst ones of the season. Calling out Josh Downs in his slot matchup. That was a big win. Taysom Hill was a good one too, but mostly everything else kind of fell flat. Derek Carr was okay enough as a streamer, I guess, but Jeli McLoughlin, Latavius Murray, Curtis, Samuel Wandel Robinson not great. I've got to be better than that each week. I'm ready to turn things around here in Week eight. I've only got one quarterback play for you this week, and it's a repeat of last week's and Derek Carr. He's still rostered in ten to fifty percent of Yahoo leagues, which is the range that I look for with this tier of players. Cargets Indianapolis. The Colts defense this season ranks fifth and offensive touchdowns allowed and their top half in the league, and air yards per attempt allowed. They also are bottom half of the league in pressure rate, and the Colts have also given up the tenth most adjusted fantasy points the quarterbacks this year. According to Fandals Sportsbook, New Orleans is a completely average team total on the week, so the matchup is a favorable one for car and his team total is average, so he could give you some decent production this week. Let's move on to running back and talk about Devin Singletary. At the time of this recording, his percent roster numbers up to eighteen percent, so it's starting to climb, but it's still not nearly high enough. Post by we might see Houston just go right back to how they split that backfield to start the year. It's very possible, but I'll stage just one more time that in their game before the bye, we saw Houston's backfield shit. Devin Singletary saw forty six percent running back rush air. That was a season high. He had an eight point three percent target share, another season high. He played fifty four percent of Houston's snaps, that was a season high. If that trend continues, then Singletary is going to be usable in fantasy football, and this week Houston gets Carolina. Only the Broncos have been worse against running backs and justin fantasy points allowed this year than the Carolina Panthers, and that's largely because of how bad Denver was against Miami earlier this year. So singletary makes plenty of sense off the waiver wire this week. It sounds like Roshan Johnson could be back in Week eight, and if he plays, he's also in play. He'd be an easier player to start had Deontay Foreman not gone off last week. But there's still some intrigue here. The Bears get the Chargers, they're eight and a half point underdogs, a negative game script that potential that could get Roshan Johnson on the field more than Deontay Foreman. Now Foreman had a healthy target share this past week, it was eighteen, but he actually didn't have the best route participation. In fact, Darren ton Evans ran more routes than Deontay Foreman last week. Johnson had played that role before his injury, before the concussion, So if he grabs hold of it again this week, and what could be a negative game script and really a decent matchup for running backs in general. But if he has that pass catching role. He could come through with a decent week. You could also look at a Mari de Marcado. The matchup against Baltimore's actually not that bad on paper. The Ravens rank is the fourteenth best matchup for running backs and justin phantasy points allowed. Now, my fear with de Mercado is that last week's usage just won't happen again this week. That's very possible because last week he saw ninety three percent of the team's running back rushes in a fifteen percent target chair. He was a bell cow back. Now again, they're facing Baltimore. At the very least, De Marcado's likely to be the pass catcher out of that backfield because he's done that in each of Arizona's lie last three games. He's had route participation of fifty six percent or better in each of those contests. So if that negative game script hits, De Mercado should be on the field. But then there's the upside of him seeing ninety three percent of the backfield rushes that would really make him viable. And then the last running back in this tier is Darryl Henderson. It's a tougher matchup this week against a Dallas team that ranks tenth best against running backs and a justin Fantasy points allowed. But Henderson saw the most work for LA last week in that backfield. He ran the ball eighteen times. Now, I do think it's a little bit premature to say that he's some sort of bell cout, but there's always the chance that they give him more work this week as he gets reacclimated to the NFL. So he's a fine RB three type. Now, moving on to wide receiver. I talked about him on the fifty Transaction show this week, but I feel like people have forgotten about Tank Dell a little bit. He hasn't played since Week five, but he's already got multiple games with the twenty three percent target chair in the season. He should be back and ready to and I've got him projected in that twenty percent target share range that means he's okay to throw into your lineup. Kendrick Bourne is still under the fifty percent rostered mark two and he gets Miami in Week eight. Miami ranks is the twelfth best matchup in a justin Fantasy points allowed to wide receivers, and Bourne has played as a starter in each of his last three games. That wasn't the case. From weeks two through four. He's seen target shars of thirty five point five percent and twenty three point three percent over his last two and in a game that could feature New England throwing the ball more than usual, Bourne's a good play. To be honest, I didn't realize that he was still out there in so many leagues now. Curtis Samuel is right on the fringe in this tier, but I'm gonna talk about him here because there aren't many good wide receiver options in this range. But Samuel gets Philadelphia this week and that matchup could force more pass attempts to come from Washington. Philly also ranks ninth and percentage of targets funneled to the slot this season, Samuel could take advantage there. I know that he kind of disappointed last week, but he saw his highest target share since Week four, and that Week four game just happened to come against the Eagles, where he got seven of eight targets for fifty one yards. But like I said, in this range of wide receiver, there's not that many good options. This week, I consider talking about Rashid Shaheed, maybe Josh Reynolds. Maybe those are two options for you, but they weren't compelling enough, so we'll stick with those three now. At tight end, Jake Ferguson, he's also right at that fifty percent mark, but he's a juicy juicy matchup against the rams La is the second best matchup for tight ends the season, according to what justin Fantasy points allowed, and Ferguson's hit a double digit percentage target chair in all but one game this year. The last time we saw him, he had only a three percent target chair, but he had a season high eighty six percent route participation. It's a great spot for Jake Ferguson. And then there's Taysom Hill. Be on the lookout to see Ifjuwan Johnson goes this week because he could be back, and that would hurt Hill's upside as a tight end because he's seen really high route participation over his last two games. If Johnson doesn't go, Hill's a legit low end tight end one option with thirteen targets over his last two games, and we know the touchdown potential is there for him. This next tier of players consist of guys who are rostered in zero to ten percent of Yahoo Leagues. So as usual, we're digging deep here. Now, I don't have a quarterback option for you this week. In this tier, I could force someone like Mac Jones, but I'm not trying to force the issue with my advice. There's no one saying that I absolutely need to provide a sub ten percent rostered quarterback here. So let's skip quarterback. Let's move to running back. First on the list, Pierre Strong. Jerome Ford's out with an ankle injury. That'll leave the Browns backfield to Kareem Hunting. Pierre Strong. Hunt is who I personally prefer, but Strong is gonna see tenty of looks. He actually played more snaps last week than Kareem Hunted. Hunt, though, was the leader in rout participation by a pretty decent margin. So while Strong can work in a pinch, Hunt looks to be the safer bet against Seattle. It's at least a beatable defense. Though. I think there's a chance that Jeff Wilson gets more work in week eight than he had in Week seven, but I think that we have to recognize that he didn't play as the RB two for Miami this past week. That was Savon Akmed Akman had a thirty seven percent snap rate, He almost ran the same number of routes as Raheem mostered, and he was the only non Moster running back on that team to see a touch on the ground. Miami has an easier setup this week for their running backs against New England. If they pull out to a lead in that game, Akman might see a little bit of work. So I currently prefer him to Jeff Wilson because of what we saw in Week seven, But when it comes to backup running backs coaching decisions, they can change pretty quickly, so keep that in mind. Now, wide receiver to Mario Douglass is intriguing in that exact same game. I talked about him on the fifteen Transaction Show this week, but he saw a twenty percent target share for New England in Week seven and had by far his best route participation. He's got the highest yards per route run by far in the Patriots this year, So in a game that could force a lot of throws, like I said with Kendrick Bourne, Douglas could be workable. Now a player who I think should be getting a lot more love this week in the fantasy space is Juwan Jennings without Deebo Samuel. Last week, Jennings hit a thirty one percent target shair he out targeted Brandon Ayuk nine to six. The reporting around Deebo Samuel's injury it makes it seem like he's not going to go this week, which means Jennings will probably see a similar role. And they get Cincinnati in above average matchup and adjusted points allowed to wide receivers, so I think Jennings is actually a solid start. And then the tight end in this tier Trey McBride. I wasn't able to talk about McBride on the fifteen Transactions episode because news broke about zachar being placed on IR after that episode dropped, but McBride needs to be on your radar. Arizona's ring second and tight end target chair this season. Now, obviously that's with Zach Ertz and Trey McBride both being healthy, but it's still noteworthy. Even though Ertz has been really inefficient this season, they were still giving him a healthy nineteen percent target chair. McBride has seen his route participation increase over his last two games, but he's still been playing fewer than sixty percent of Arizona snaps. That's gonna jump up a lot without zach Ertz, and that's gonna make him a pretty good volume play moving forward. So I think he's a legitimate high end tight end two this week now at Defense per week eight, I mentioned it Land on the fifteen Transactions show. They definitely work against Will Levis in a poor Tennessee offensive line in that same game, though you could actually look at the Titans defense. The game is a thirty seven point over under and the Falcons are the seventh best matchup and a justin fantasy points allowed for defenses. But there's also the Chargers. They get the Bears in their eight and a half point favorites, and while Chicago looked okay last week, let's give that some context. They face the Raiders and they face Brian Hoyer. This game is in LA. The Chargers are a pretty safe option. That's it for today's show, though, thanks to all of you for listening. If you get subscribed to the Late Round Fantasy Football podcast, make sure you are by starting for it pretty much anywhere. Podcast can be found inter for to follow me on Twitter at Late Round QB. Thanks for listening everyone. As usual, I greatly appreciate it. I'll talk to you tomorrow with the Mailbag Show and then another episode of Late Round Perspectives