691: Week 6 Sleepers

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Speaker 1: This is the latest with your host, Jay J Zach j J Zacherison. What's up everyone, It's JJ zacharieson in this episode six hundred and ninety one of the Late Round Fantasy Football podcast sponsored by FanDuel. Thanks for tuning in. Last week wasn't so bad on this Sleeper show. Khalil Shakir posts a top twenty performance as Buffalo's primary slot guy. Mike Boone was a top thirty running back, Dion Jackson was in the top twenty five. James Cook scored in garbage time. Those were some pretty decent hits, but it definitely was not perfect. Matt Collins did absolutely nothing on his four targets, Zay Jones did very little on his eight targets, and Teddy Bridgewater, the only quarterback streamer that actually played, left his Week five game early. Overall could have definitely been worse. We've had way worse weeks than that. There were some good picks in there, so let's keep it going into Week six. 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Instead of looking at three tiers or buckets of sleepers, we're looking at just two. Now. We'll look at players you might be able to start this week who are rostered in ten to fifty percent of Yahoo leagues, and then the second bucket consists of deeper sleepers. Guys rostered in fewer than ten percent of leagues will kick things off as we always do, and that's with a quarterback streamer Daniel Jones. Danny Dimes. I feel like Daniel Jones is not getting enough credit for what he's done so far this year. He's playing with legitimately terrible weapons, given all the injuries that they've dealt with, and he's still a mid range QB two in fantasy football, and obviously the Giants are winning two. But Jones has scored at least twelve fantasy points in every outing with those weapons. That doesn't sound like much, but given the circumstances, that's not bad, especially when you consider he has just three passing touchdowns on the season. You at least know going into a given game he's gonna provide something because of his rushing. He's averaging forty six yards per game on the ground this year. That equates to over a passing touchdown in fantasy scoring. And I mentioned the fact that he has just three passing touchdowns. That's another thing to point out here. The Giants have scored ten touchdowns this year, seven of them have been on the ground. That three to seven pass to rush touchdown rates show is the second lowest in football, behind only Philadelphia. The lowest ratio since twenty eleven has been point five to nine, so we're looking at some possible regression in how the Giants are scoring touchdowns. And this week Jones gets Baltimore, a team that ranks is the sixth best matchup and adjusted fantasy points a lot of quarterbacks, he's a pretty decent streaming option. I'd still play Gino Smith over him, but Gino's percent roster numbers shot up this past week. A wide receiver, We're gonna go back to the Bill's slot guys. If Isaiah McKenzie goes this week, I think he's a very strong play in a game that has the highest over under on the slate. Remember when Jamison Crowder was healthy, McKenzie wasn't the full time slot guy for the Bills. Crowder's now out, and while they may throw Khalil Shakir in there a little bit, McKenzie's likely to be the primary slot guy when he's healthy, and that's a big deal and one of the most attractive passing offenses in football. Kansas City's also allowed the eleventh most slot yards this year according to PFF. And for those of you with Shakir, I have Shakir in plenty of leagues too, I wouldn't drop him if Mackenzie's trending up. We don't know for sure how this position is going to be split, and Shakier's a very good football player, so hold on to him just in case. I'm just projecting Mackenzie to see more work at this point. In his last two contests, he's hit target sharers of sixteen percent and eighteen percent, and that was with more competition now in that same game between the Chiefs and Bills. As Marquez Valdez scantling, he hasn't had a monster game yet and maybe it won't come this year, but he was wide receiver twenty last week after seeing a nineteen percent target chair. He's now average a target chair per game of nineteen percent since Week one. He's also run the most routes for Kansas City this year. That can go a long way and a Patrick Mahomes led offense, especially in a potential shootout. Zay Jones is probably going to be a staple for this show because he's seeing enough work in his offense and chances are he's just never going to rise above that fifty percent threshold. But Jones is coming off a wide receiver eighty one performance. His percent roster number definitely did not jump after last week. The good news, though, is that he still saw an eighteen percent target share for Jacksonville last week. That's a number that he's now hit in three or four games played. The Colts are not the best matchup and they held Zay the last time these two teams played, but he can work as a higher floor by week filler in PPR formats. I don't like him as much as the other wide receivers that I'm going to talk about on the show today, but an eighteen percent target chair should be called out on a show like this. A player I definitely like more than Jones this week is Rondell Moore. Arizona's facing Seattle this week. Seattle's been decent against wide receivers and the justin fantasy points allowed. They've been really really bad against the rush, but they've allowed the fourth most slot yards this year, and that's where Moore is likely to line up. Arizona slot guys have seen a lot of work this season. Greg Dortch was the primary slot receiver before Rondell Moore came back, and he saw nine, four and ten targets in the three games where he was the starter. This past week. Rondell Moore had a twenty one percent target chair this game against Seattle, has his second highest total on this week slate. I think Moore is a nice high floor option, especially in PPR formats. And then Alec Pierce is the last wide receiver to bring up in this tier. I talked about him also on the fifteen Transaction Show this week, but to reiterate some of those points, he's still playing behind Paris Campbell technically, but he saw a twenty five percent target share this past week and he's looked really good. He's a freak athlete capable of making big plays. We just need Matt Ryan to throw the ball down the field a little bit more. That hasn't happened that much this year. But I'm expecting Pierce to build off his performance and morph into the Colts unquestioned wide receiver two. It's definitely not a great matchup this week, with the Jags ranking as the fourth best matchup against wideouts and adjusted fantasy points allowed, but there's not a lot to choose from off the waiver wire. He at least has a chance to see a decent amount of work. Now let's shift our focus to running backs. Eno Benjamin still hasn't crossed that fifty percent rostered threshold despite the injuries all over that Cardinals backfield at the time of this recording. I'm not sure who's in or who's out, but chances are Eeno's going to have a role this weekend, and it's a role against the league's third worst defense against running backs and adjusted points allowed. The Seahawks have also allowed the most rushing yards in the league. It's the perfect spot for Benjamin. He might not see all of Arizona's rushing production, but he can be effective as a receiver too. He's now hit a double digit percentage target share in two games this year in a part time role. Rashad White is also in play this week. As I talked about in the ten Trends episode, White's at that forty percent snapshare mark. And now the Buccaneers get a matchup against Pittsburgh. Now, Steelers fans, you might want to cover your ears, but the Seagers may be the worst team in football right now. Pittsburgh's sort of been a pass funnel to start the season. The rank is the best matchup in football for wide receivers and adjusted fantasy points allowed, while being below average for running backs. But if Tampa Bay gets a lead in this one, don't be surprised to see a good bit of Rashad White. It's a tough week with Buys, so he's firmly an RB three territory for me this week. Another thing I've been talking about is the Chiefs backfield chair Clyde Edwards Hilaire has now out snapped Jack McKinnon in just one game this year. Last week, cech saw just one more carry and one more target than Jerck McKinnon. The only game where their rush attempts were dramatically different was Week four against Tampa Bay. As I've been saying, the Bills Chiefs game could be a shootout, McKinnon is likely to play a little bit in that game, so he's cheap exposure to it. According to my rankings and tiers, he's in that RB four range this week, and then lastly in this tier Mike Boone. We'll see how Latavious Murray gets deployed in this backfield in Week six, but Boone handled over thirty percent of Denver's running back rushes to go along with an eight percent target chair last week. He's now averaged over a ten percent target chair per game over his last two. Now, maybe things get really really messy with Latavious Murray. It's very very possible, but Boone's been pretty good. He's gained fifty eight rushing yards on ten rush attempts over their last two and last week alone he put together an eighty five yard performance on ten total touches. He's definitely a risky play, but he does make some sense against the Chargers, who rank as the fifth best matchup in adjusted fantasy points allowed to running backs. I've got five super deep plays for you this week, who I definitely hope you don't have to rely on, but you never know. The first is DJ Dallas. Rashad Penny being out for the year means that this is now Kenneth Walker's backfield. I talked about that at length on Tuesday's fifteen Transactions episode, but don't be surprised if DJ Dallas gets some run two. Walker should see more work as a receiver than Rashad Penny saw, or at least we shouldn't count that out. But Dallas could very easily be deployed as the team's pass catching back. We saw them do that with Travis Homer earlier this season. The Seahawks get the Cardinals this week, and like I said, this game is a pretty high over under, the second best on the slate. So DJ Dallas makes some sense if you play into that backfield ambiguity. And there's also Pierre Strong. It's a pretty similar situation for Strong as it is DJ Dallas, where there's a running back injury allowing a third stringer to potentially be a second stringer. Damian Harris is out for New England, and I'm well prepared for Romandre Stephens season. I also recognize that a player like Strong could just end up getting more run than expected. We're not flawless with our projections. Now. He's been dressed, but he's barely playing for the Patriots. He hasn't played that much with Damian Harris being healthy, but I'm calling him out as a pure dart throw right now. They get Cleveland, and Cleveland has been bad against running backs and fantasy this year. They've been a top five opponent. You absolutely need to have Ramandre Stevenson in your lineup, but don't totally totally sleep on Pierre Strong Randall Cobb had a huge day in Week five. He had thirteen targets in a thirty three percent target share. We cannot expect that each week. We shouldn't expect that each week, and we have to recognize that he's still not playing in two wide receiver sets for Green Bay. He has played eighty two percent of his snaps from the slot, though, and the Jets rank first in the NFL and p scent ince of targets allowed to the slot this year. I do think Cobb's ceiling is just generally limited, and we can't assume the Packers are gonna throw a ton in this game. But the matchup is at least there this week to exploit. And then I'm a little bit intrigued by Darius Slayton this week too. At the time of this recording, it sounds like there's a chance that Wandel Robinson could be back this week, So keep an eye on that. I mean, keep an eye on the whole Giants pass catcher situation. But even though Slayton didn't lead the team and routes run this past week, he looked good. He saw twenty seven percent target chair. Maybe that earns him a little bit more time. And now he's facing Baltimore, a team that ranks is the eleventh best matchup and adjusted fantasy points allowed to wide receivers. And then lastly at tight end, Cameron Braid. Right now at the time of this recording, he's still in concussion protocol. That means that Kate Otton is in play. In Week five, ot And caught six of seven targets for forty three yards. He ran forty nine routes, he had a fourteen percent target chair. He was their tight end one. It was just him. There's nothing scary about this matchup against the Steelers. And if Brad misses this game, Aughton is a nice streamer now for streaming defenses, usually the streaming defenses do pretty well, but last week not so great. So let's get back on track this week at like Washington, as I pointed out on the fifteen Transaction Show, And you could even go with Chicago, who they're facing, because that game on Thursday night could be a slop fest. I think Cincinnati's in play too, they get New Orleans. The Saints have been the third best matchup for opposing defenses this year, and I think regardless of who's under center, Cincinnati works, and then Indianapolis is the last streaming defense against Jacksonville. The Jags are an average opponent who's been struggling on offense the last couple of weeks. Indianapolis is at home their two and a half point favorites according to Fandles Sportsbook, and there's a low forty one and a half point over under, so you could go in the Colts direction too. 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 searching for it pretty much anywhere podcasts can be found, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter at late QB. Remember to check out Lateround dot com, join the Patreon, subscribe to the newsletter, do all that fun stuff. As always, thanks for listening. I greatly appreciate it. I will talk to you tomorrow with the weekly Mailbag show.