Aloe Vera Players

month and a half, Brian Johnson. The streak is alive, yes, and I have reasonab believe we'll be back next week too. I think I will be. I'm already looking forward to that. Let's call it a full on guarantee. I like the sound of that. Nothing is going to happen between now and next week that will stop you from executing next week's Fantasy Football Weekly. This week, we're going back to a subject we had at this time last year. Are

aloe vera players? What are alo vera players? Brian, Guys, we thought we're going to be a soothing addition to our fantasy teams last year, but they burned us. They burned us, but but no, but we're gonna go back to them now and they're going to soothe our burns, that's right, qualities they burned us last year. But we're going to go right back to the well and they are going to be soothing if this coming season. And what's better at least for my guys is they're much cheaper. Yeah,

they're all cheaper. These are all guys, that's right. These are all guys that are gonna cost you less this year than than most years. Um, I've got five guys. You've got four guys that were going back to the well on. These are all underperformers, in some cases dramatic underperformers, um, And but guys that were optimistic on and guys that

were buying on including offseason leagues, including dynasty leagues. Yeah, these are these are all guys that I think have the chance to make good for the uh, make good on on the wrongs of last season. Let's begin with Trey Lance. Everybody's totally off of him, and obviously things couldn't have gone more wrong for him last year. He fractured his fibula and suffered a significant what they called

ligament disruption to his ankle. But that was back in Week two, so we never got to see anything really with Trey Lance. He had the one game in a monsoon in Chicago, and then that happened. I didn't hear the ligament disruption. Yeah doesn't sound good, does it. No, it doesn't. But the good news is it repeated reports that he's already working out and he's going to be one hundred percent for OTAs and he and Sam Darnold will be effectively the healthy quarterbacks to start at least

the off season program for San Francisco. Now, the reason I'm remain interested in Trey Lance, Brian the running. The running rushing quarterbacks are a fantasy football cheat code. Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields were all top five fantasy producers at the quarterback position last year. And we all know

San Franciscos loaded with weapons. It doesn't take elite quarterbacking skills to gravy train off of the abilities of George Kittle and Brandon Aouka, Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel and for the same reasons that they made Trey Lance the second pick of the draft two years ago. You know,

the crazy athleticism, the arms, strength, and mobility. I mean, if it all comes together for Trey Lance, he's got if it all comes together, he's got top five fantasy upside because of the running he'd bring to the table, all about the rushing. Lamar Jackson would have been on that list if healthy Daniel Jones was sniffing the top five. Yeah, gotta love the running quarterbacks right now. You know, there's

unfortunately this competition. Right so, Brock Purty looked legitimately qualified to be an NFL quarterback in the games he played, and you know, who knows even in that, you know, the postseason game that he got knocked out of, who knows what could have happened in that game had he stayed healthy. Sam Darnold they brought in and this is my biggest worry on Trey Lance. They knew Trey Lance was going to be healthy for the starter of OTA's mini camps and certainly into the season, and they still

brought in Sam Darnold. Yeah, they're kind of they've kind of been saying that Purdy should be ready by week one. I'm not buying into that whatsoever yet. Tommy John surgery. Now it's not a starting pitcher, but still, right, I don't know. I think Darnold, I think he'll push Lands in camp. But the upside on Lands is so insane that uh, yes, I like the pick. I will say this though, I did throw a ticket in for Sam

Darnold come back Player of the Year. It's like, I don't blame him, well, you know Smith last year, right, and it's a great spot for whoever starts it is because again, all you have to do is just get the ball into the hands of your playmakers. I just don't like that they signed Arnold at all. Yeah, um, because if they, if the Niners really believed in Trey Lance, I think they would have just rolled in with Trey

Lance and Brock Purdy. But then again maybe they just I feel like you can never have too much quarterback depth. Sam Darnold by third string or second string standards is fine, pretty good. But right now Trey Lance's value can only go up, really can't go down, right. I mean, he's like quarterback fifteen sixteen kind in that range, and last year he was inside the top ten based on the Russian potential of course, So you're buying for pennies on the dollar, Brian, And that's you know, that's a lot

of my interest in Trey Lance. It costs you effectively nothing, and he's an alo vera player. I just I liked him going into last season. I had him on a bunch of teams going to last season. I got burned, and I'm hoping I'm ready to get hurt again. Speaking of that way, pennies on the dollar. Yes, I have a quarterback getting drafted after Trey Lance. Oh boy, a former Super Bowl champion MVP. I think you might know where I'm going with this, Russell Wilson. Yes, wow, I

love the contrarian nature of this. Allow me more. Last year of drafted as quarterback ten roughly inside the top seventy five players overall, expectations were sky high. Yeah, but he was a figurative punching bag all season long. We had our fun with his touchdowns versus toilets ratio. I think he eventually did. I think he eventually topped the toilets. It took till mid December. Yeah, he eventually dethroned the thrones, but finished as quarterback twenty four in points per game.

Though He's like two good games came at that one very end of the scene. Yes, and one was in week sixteen when you were dead in the water. If you were relying on Russell Wilson, but right now his ADP is one hundred and twenty fifth overall. That's quarterback eighteen. Yeah, so it's a fire sale on Wilson and at this price, I'll take my chances on a bounce back. Thankfully, it's not his second year Nathaniel Hackett system. He was not

cut out for head coaching duties. Sean Payton a huge upgraded head coach, of course, especially especially for an offense on the offensive side of the ball. Courtland Sutton seems like he's gonna stay in town, as is Jerry Judy. That's a couple of nice receivers. Greg Dulcitch showed some flashes. Unfortunately, Javonte Williams might not be ready if at all, but they'll they'll fill in for him at running back. They already have some JP Ryan tim Patrick supposed to come back.

So it's really just about the price DA right now at QB eighteen. If I'm not going after the big name guys, the Josh Allen's, the Jalen Hurts of the world, and I'm gonna stack like three quarterbacks towards the end of the draft. Wilson is one of the guys that I'll have him that rotation for. I think you've missed on one of the most compelling arguments for Russell Wilson and an improved season. He got rid of some toilets,

take some toilets out. No, not that. What I think the most compelling part is offensive line was a disaster last year. Injuries everywhere, including Garrett Bulls or left tackle him is most of the season, maybe all the season. And they brought in Mike mcclinchey. I mean, this is going to be a much better offensive line and that was such a big part of the problem last year. And gotta believe that that's that's gonna make put Russ

in a much better position to cook. And hopefully he just chills on the commercials and all that other off the field crap. Just focus on football. Yeah, No, I don't come on like a little bit like Baker may Yeah. Pretty much. The only Patrick Mahomes is outpacing his commercial. Yeah right, you want to say it? The next ela vera player for me. JK. Dobbins last year a disappointment, obviously. He finished his RB forty eight while hobbling around the field.

Still messed up from last year's ACL. Unfortunately for Dobbins, he appeared in eight games and it was on again, off again. Remember, you know, he was very adamant that he wanted to start the season, but he was clearly wasn't ready and then missed a bunch of games and he came back and you know, but a lot of what hurt JK Dobbins last year and the reason he

finished RB forty eight he scored two touchdowns. That's it, and you know a lot of a lot of what we thought going into the season, why I was optimistic on JK Dobbins was that he was going to get so much of the goal line work because he had always gotten the goal line work and they didn't run

Lamar Jackson very often at the goal line. So I was really optimistic that the touchdowns would be the one thing you could really count on from JK Dobbins year off the ACL, and that never materialized and didn't even have that many chances at it. And here's what I found really interesting digging up date on Dobbins' season, Brian, he finished at an impressive five point seven yards per carry. He finished fifth in yards over expectation last year and JK.

Dobbins finished seventh and breakaway percentage. He had a better year than any of the numbers would suggest in a totally broken Ravens offense. And remember they couldn't pass at all and defenses would come in stack the box, and you know, Baltimore's passing offense just offered no resistance. So presumably Ravens offense is more balanced this year. And I'm back on JK. Dobbins. I like it. He'll be two years removed from the major knee injury he saw that

was sa kuon Barkley. He struggled his first year back and Dobbins wasn't quite the prospect Barkley was, but he was pretty cool second round draft equity. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, I'm optimistic on JK. Dobbins. Okay, let's go. Let's go back to you. Who is your next ala Vera player? We talked about him last week, but I gotta mention Brandon Cooks again, who has recorded one thousand yard receiving seasons with four different teams and six one thousand yard

receiving seasons since twenty fifteen. That's basically the most among any wide receivers during that span. More than Stefan Digs, DeAndre Hopkins, Davante Adams, Keenan Allen. Last year he was drafted his wide receiver twenty three. That was also roughly inside the top seventy five players overall. People were expecting that safe, typical wide receiver two production, thousand yards, six or seven touchdowns, but we did not get that. It

was an absolute disaster in twenty twenty two. For Cooks only played thirteen games, but when he was on the yield and healthy, he was ineffective. He finished as wide receiver forty two and points per game. But it wasn't all on him. He was on the Texans, Yeah, that

was It was clearly a struggling offense. And Davis Mills, as much as I was optimistic he could be a you know, I never thought he'd be a great quarterback, but I thought he could be like a serviceable NFL quarterback, Davis Mills is really a backup quarterback, as did I. I thought Mills might turn out to be something special, but it's not looking that way. But he should have a new quarterback to start the season. I can think

we can say he will have a new will. No, he's not gonna Texas anymore, he will have a new quarterback, Dak Prescott on the Cowboys. Now he gets his fifth chance, yes with the Cowboys. And even though since that trade his ADP has surged a little bit, he's still currently wide receiver forty four and that I think when the dust settles, he'll be somewhere in the mid thirties, outside the top of thirty, but that'll still be a discount to me. I think there is potential for a hit

for him to have his best season yet. Of course, cb AM is the top target that recently draw a ton of attention, and I think we will get that safe wide receiver two production from Brandon Cooks this year. So he is my second Alovia player. I'm going with Michael Pittman as my next alo Vera player two years ago. So let's back up two seasons. Twenty twenty one. It was his second year and it looked like he was ready to launch into stardom. All the metrics were heading

the heading upwards. And really thought that in twenty twenty two he was going to take another big step forward and instead Michael Pittman size sizeable decrease in yards and touchdowns and the numbers just didn't come together. Now A lot of it was because he was catching passes from Matt Ryan currently out of the league. Sam Ellinger, who could be out of the league. He's on roster, but he could be out of the league before the thing is set and done. And Nick Foles, who's the ultimate

quarterback journeyman. By the way, you know many teams Nick Foles has been at least five eight eight eight. That's why I can come the ultimate quarterback journeyman. I woever I hear Nick Foles. I don't think of the Super Bowl. I remember his seven touchdown game against the Raiders when he when he was on the Eagles. That was amazing. Whenever that was yep, yep. I don't think it was the same year of the supernow, wasn't It was prior to that. But anyway, what really killed Michael Pittman was

the feeble arms of these quarterbacks. His a DOT last year plummeted from ten yards per pass two years ago all the way down to six and a half yards per pass at It's a hits a major difference. When you're losing four yards on every catch, that hurts your overall fantasy performance. That adds a pretty quick it does. He is still Pittman, a big, physical receiver, ideally built four goal line box outs. We know he can catch

down field. And indeed, okay, so Indy's got picked four, they're gonna go quarterback here almost certainly at pick four, or they get Lamar Jackson there kind of that's all, you know. Maybe it'd be great for them if they could do it and retain pick four. I don't know how that would be possible, but maybe Young and Stroud are probably gone, right, so those two quarterbacks are gonna be gone. It likely leaves the Colts with a developmental

quarterback like Anthony Richardson or will love Us. That's not great for the short term of for Michael Pittman, but that's some speculation on my part. Still think Pittman is a very good wide receiver talent, and if the quarterbacking is non awful what we talked about him to get back and talked about him last week, it's most likely regardless of who they end up drafting a quarterback is

Gardner Minshew, who Yeah, it's a great point. Gardner Minshew's your probable, Yeah, probit upgrade over the corpse of Matt Ryan and Sam Ellinger for sure. Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. Who's your next? And to say your final, No, you've still got two left. Who's your next? Ela Vera player, One of my all time favorites, Darren Waller drafted as tight end five last year, and as we all know, he did not meet those expectations, mainly

do injury. Though played only eight games, he was seventh among tight ends and points per game. So if he, you know, finished the season nowty, he would have been sniffing that tight end five finish. But now, as most know, if you don't know, he's been traded to the Giants, where if he's healthy, he's the queer cut, the best receiver on the team receiving option. Yes he will. He's

their wide receiver one. And right now, with the price tag of tight end eight, I will roll the dice one last time on Darren Waller in the tight end waste land, short and sweet there. Yeah, I'm buying Waller at that price. Yeah, at tight end eight. Yeah, I'm too. I like because he gives you tight end three upside. Yeah,

because he's done it before. We know that Waller can be that um and you know he's he's aging, but he's he's got some he's aging, but he's he's low mileage because he wasn't a major part of that Raiders offense or before that, the Ravens offense um until the last really three years. So there's a lot of tread on that tire for a thirty year old. I think he's thirty thirty one, Okay, yeah, right in that range. Well, we're just worried about this year and he'll be if

he's healthy. Love it, love it the potential. When we come back, we're going to pivot to another tight end, find out who our next alo vera player is. In moments, welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly, Paul Charching Brian Johnson with you. Thank you for listening. You may have caught that we are doing Fantasy Football Weekly micro editions, five to ten

minute breakdowns of players. We did them last week, We're going to do them next week as well, so you can look forward to hearing some of those, and your feedback is appreciated on those at Paul charchying on Twitter. It's the best way to let me know what you think is We're it's an experiment. Do you like it. Are you listening? Do you enjoy it? What can we do better? We're here for you. I plan to listen. I haven't listened yet, but I will. I saw that

Kyle Pitts is the first player. Yes, episode without you? I know, without you, Tyler? Uh did Hilo did a good job? You'd have been proud, you'd you'd have liked what You'd like that? As you can imagine, I took the contrarian side of that debate. Oh so right, let's not even get like I haven't listening because I don't want to get triggered. Yeah, that's probably smart. But there were four other ones or three other ones. You can listen. I'll listen to them all and everyone else should as well.

Mark Andrews had a massive drop in productivity from the prior year. His stats last year down roughly forty percent in yards, touchdowns, and fantasy points. It was a huge miss for Mark Andrews, even in the tight end waste Land. It turn out he wasn't even an every week starter, which at the end of the day was crushing. What made it more painful is he got off to a great start. He did. Probably his final numbers came first month of this team, that would be the first six weeks.

He topped sixty three yards one time. After week six. He did not score after week six, so it all came to a crashing halt. And I was trying to remember exactly when Lamar Jackson laughed, and I'm like, if it must be closer week six, and I thought it turned out it wasn't. Mark Jackson played twelve through week twelve, so it wasn't all just because Tyler Huntley can't pass, although he's not a very good passer. But you know

what did happen right around week six? Andrews he got dinged up a bit and he did miss a couple of games in there. But Rashad Bateman's last full game was week seven, and when Bateman competent wide receiver, the only competent and the only field stretching wide receiver to open up the middle of the field for Mark Andrews. And without that, they didn't have anybody who could press defenses down the field, make safeties play it away from

the line of scrimmage. Everybody's defenses were able to double Mark Andrews and go make Devin DuVernay beat you. They would have been better off just signing a couple of tracks stars it could at least run fast. Well they did that with Shawn Jackson. That's why they brought it to Sean Jackson at the end of at the end of the season. But he's not it's not at that stage of his career. Um, now, let's being Lamar Jackson.

We don't know who the quarterback is going to be for the Ravens, but odds are the way things are looking right now. It's give me Lamar Jackson. It's not. It doesn't appear to be going anywhere right now. And if not pro bowler Tyler Huntley, pro bowler Tyler Huntley, that's a possibility now. One big advantage working in the favor of Mark Andrews is the change of offensive coordinator. They're they're going from the run heavy stylings of Greg

Roman to Todd Monkin. Now he was George's most recently George's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Stetson Bennett, and presumably he's going to bring more balance to the offense. But his last time in the NFL's an offensive coordinator. He spent two years with the Buccaneers. Jameis Winston and might be loved Stu Beard Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Buccaneers in those two years ranked fourth and first in passing yards

Mark Andrews. I mean, a more balanced offense can only help Mark Andrews here with more passing, more opportunities, and he's my next alo vera player. Let's go to your last guy, and that is you're with me, You're not. I'm not with you on this. I maybe I can convince you. Robinson, who currently is still a member of the Los Angeles Ramses, is on the trade block and there as they should be offering to take on some of his contract to any takers. I think the Viking tires,

to be honest with you. But anyway, A rob was drafted his wide receiver twenty one. Last year, he finished as wide receiver. I d I don't even know that he but right now he's going as wide receiver ninety one. Is really sounds right. That's free and I love I love free stuff. I'm not writing him off yet. It was he went to the Rams. It was supposed to be the best quarterback he's ever played with. Yeah, but the Rams were the most hungover Super Bowl defending champions

in the history of the Super Bowl. Matt Stafford not. He didn't even play half the year. When he played, he was hurt. Cooper Cup got hurt. Alan Robinson could not carry that offensive alone, and he only finished with three touchdowns thirty nine yards. But do you remember how many games he played? How many games he played most of them episode I remember, all right. I was gonna guess he was sort of warming up towards the end of his season, but he got injured in his tenth game.

I believe it was in Mega eleven. So you know, if he stays on the rams, he's still starting opposite Cooper Cup, who's all over the place, will be the outside boundary receiver. He was top five in end zone targets for a while when healthy, and he could get traded to a better scenario. But again, the very last pick, and I'm taking him in twenty round drafts with the last pick. Yeah, I'll take that shot in the dark.

And uh, you can't drop him in best ball, But with the in the twentieth round, I'll I can live with that land mine. And if you if you're able to drop him in standard leagues, then you didn't hurt you at all. To take a flyer on Alan Robinson. So I'm going with a little more high profile guy for my final alo Vera player, Deebo Samuel, who dropped down to wide receiver thirty two last year behind the likes of Zay Jones and George Pickens. Really, so what

happened last year? We had nagging injuries, Christian McCaffrey showed up and started taking some of his work. And the real killer here he didn't score touchdowns. He had two receiving touchdowns and just three rushing touchdowns for Deebo Samuel last year, and the revolving door quarterback the quarterbacks take

Garoppolo to Purdy. Yeah, he needs some consistency there. Maybe, I mean I thought those guys but he basically played fine though Garoppolo and Purdy played okay, So to me, I'm not using them as excuse for the lack of production. But Deebo Samuel remains arguably the single most electric player at any position with the ball in his hands. A reminder,

he finished number one in yards after catch. You know many yards he had after his yak number nine yards after the catch for Deebo Samuel total not no not per catch nine might have been. Believe you finished number one by more than a yard over the next closest player in YAK. He was number one in yards over expectation at four sorry six point four yards per reception in yards over expectation, number one, by the way in both categories last year two twenty twenty one. I mean,

I don't have to sell listeners. The Deebo Samuel is a special player. And as for the touchdowns, it's hard for wide receivers to score when they don't catch downfield, and that's part of what hurt Debo. Debo was the second most targeted wide receiver on passes behind the line of scrimmage. He had thirty one targeted passes behind the

line of scrimmage. It's hard to score in those situations, and that does bring some volatility to him because you're not guaranteed the same kind of touchdown usage that you would get from other players. And he wasn't even in the top one hundred of wide receivers and deep ball targets, so you know, it's just that's part of what limits Debo a little bit. And he takes a lot of hits. You know, he gets carries, he gets tackled more than most wide receivers do. But I don't care every players

an injury risk. I'm willing to look past that. And he played basically all of last year, so I just feel like, one way or another, he gets quarterback stability here. No matter who the quarterback is, whether it's Trey Lance or Brock Purty or Sam Darnold, Debo's gonna be back. And I'm ready to get burned again, but I think he's gonna be a cooling ball from my fantasy team. Deebo Samuel, We're gonna buy on the dip. Yeah, he was a late first early second pick round pick last year.

Now getting him late third, which is pretty significant, different discount when you're talking rounds at high Yeah, in the draft. Some recent news stories about Brandon I potentially being traded, that would that would bring some interesting some interesting sit uh you know, usage change potentially to Deebo Samuel. All right, well,

thank you for listening, everybody. Fantasy Football Weekly back next Friday, but also look for Fantasy Football Weekly Micro on Monday through Thursday, as we do short examinations of one player each one of those days. You know who we should get to do like the new intro is the micro Machines guy. Remember him? No, I remember micro Machines, but I don't remember the guy. He would talk really fast in the commercials about micro machines. Also, micro machines very underrated.

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get from micro Machines very well. Be thanks everybody, We'll talk to you in one week's time and even less. For those listening to Fantasy Football Weekly, micro bye bye. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.