0:00Summer is here, and Home Depot is your destination for hot savings.
0:04Find unique items at low prices with our exclusive brands, fire up the grill with cookout classics like burgers, and don't forget delicious produce like fresh melons.
0:12Or treat yourself to summer's sweetest lineup with Kroger Brand's limited edition All-American Ice Cream Collection.
0:16Whatever your summer plans, Fred Meyer makes it easy to enjoy high-quality food at affordable prices.
0:21Fred Meyer, fresh for everyone. Sierra has all the best active and outdoor brands for the super athletic stuff, like running gear for cruising up the trail.
0:29Woo! And the super athletic-ish stuff, like fishing gear for chilling by the creek.
0:33Nice cast. Fitness apparel to push for higher reps.
0:36You got this! And golf balls priced so you can afford to lose one.
0:40Or a few. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all.
0:46From athletic to athletic-ish, Sierra's got it. Typically, for these sleeper shows, we give you a list of four to six names at each position.
0:54That's going to be different here for this episode, for these quarterbacks.
0:57Yes, we've talked about it at length that this year the elite quarterbacks are underpriced, namely because they all got injured last
1:04year and get them at a better value this year.
1:07But when diving down deep through the ADP list, through the draft list this year, Hayden, you and I believe that there's
1:13really only two names people really need to have at the top of their mind heading into their fancy drafts this year,
1:20and how that these late-round quarterback targets could be the skeleton key to winning your fancy league.
1:25So, before we dive into those names, let's also talk about the rubric here.
1:29What makes a late-round quarterback star? I think there's like three different buckets.
1:33There's the pocket passer that all of a sudden plays like an MVP level.
1:37Last year, Matthew Stafford went 165th overall, an underdog, and he was the quarterback that had the second-most points for their fantasy teams out there.
1:44And then the other buckets are, I think, a veteran-changing team, new offensive coordinator, new play caller.
1:49Daniel Jones from last year was an example of that.
1:52And then the third one is just a new starter that runs like crazy.
1:57And I think the second and the third bucket are going to be our answers for this.
2:02And that was Jackson Dart maybe from last year, and there's been better examples in previous seasons.
2:07So, it's like one of those three clear buckets to me is how you can find a quarterback two or quarterback three
2:13in ADP finishing as a top-12 guy. So, I'll scale it down even more, simplify it even more.
2:18To me, the two buckets are you need to be in a top-eight scoring offense and or a mobile quarterback with rushing
2:25production, and that equals your floor of points on a weekly basis.
2:28And you brought up the three names that I was going to bring up to, the three late-round steals from last year,
2:35and you can kind of, again, pick that apart from 2024, 2023, and so on.
2:39The first one is Drake May. He was obviously quarterback three in points per game last year.
2:44The Patriots scored the eighth most points just as a team, and Drake May himself, the fourth most rushing yards among all quarterbacks in the league last season.
2:53Then you brought him up, Daniel Jones. Before he got hurt, I believe, Hayden, the Colts were the number one scoring team
2:59in the NFL at 29.8 points per game. That was prior to his week 14 injury.
3:04And then there's Jackson Dart, as you pointed out.
3:07Yes, he finishes the top 13 quarterback in nine of 12 games as a starter.
3:11The team did score the 16th most points, so that doesn't fit into what we're talking about.
3:16But 42.5% of his fantasy points from this past season were rushing.
3:20So all three of those names fit in either of the buckets that I brought up, and I think both the names
3:26we brought up today have a chance of fitting in at least one too.
3:30Yeah, completely agree. And this is not just from last year.
3:34This is like the same type of buckets for years.
3:37The other kind of new note for fantasy quarterbacks this year, at least on best ball, is the quarterback 2-3.
3:42Think about quarterback 13 to quarterback 30. They're all being drafted two-ish, three-ish rounds earlier than where they typically have been, which
3:49just makes it harder to find sleepers. And I think some of the strategies that have been working, which recently has been
3:55like three quarterbacks no matter what, but I do think that this year, because the pricing has changed, we should think through that a little bit differently.
4:03But that's deep best ball weeds. I'm trying to think about Yahoo drafts in this episode.
4:08And here's, I think, two guys that I think are going to be definitely drafted after quarterback 12 that have a chance
4:15of being a top 12 quarterback in fantasy this year.
4:18Okay, let's dive into those names. The first one for us is Kyler Murray, now of the Minnesota Vikings.
4:23He's quarterback 17 on Underdog. We're also going to bring up your home leagues over on Yahoo.
4:28He's quarterback 16 there, the ninth or 10th round, depending on the platform.
4:32For me, Hayden, this one's pretty simple. Like you are getting a discount on Kevin O'Connell's offense because they finished 26th in scoring last year.
4:40All that you have to do is rewind to 2024.
4:42They finished ninth in scoring. In 2022, they finished eighth in scoring.
4:46So while I have my questions about Kyler Murray as like reaching this number one overall pick and being a top 12
4:53starter across the league on any given season, I have more questions about maybe his ability than others.
4:58Just the environment that we're here in mixing with his skill sets is like a recipe for us to nail down as
5:04the quarterback 17 or 16 year drafts, a league long starter for you in your lineups this season.
5:10I have Kyler Murray ranked as a quarterback 10.
5:12He's being drafted as a quarterback 17. So like I'm like drafting him as if like this upside case is coming to
5:19fruition just because it seems so obvious. So from 2022 to 2024, that's when KOC and Justin Jefferson were there without J.J.
5:25McCarthy slash Carson Wentz. Kirk Cousins averaged over 20 fantasy points per game.
5:29That's equivalent to the quarterback seven in this last year.
5:32Nick Mullins and Sam Darnold averaged 19.8 fantasy points.
5:35That would have been the quarterback eight. Josh Dobbs, remember coming off the airplane.
5:39He started for a couple of games. Not very good at quarterback.
5:43He still averaged 17.5 fantasy points per game, which was the equivalent of the quarterback 17, which is what Kyler Murray is being priced at right now.
5:51Keep in mind, all of those guys, except for Josh Dobbs, did that without running.
5:55Kyler Murray has averaged 37 rushing yards per game over his career.
5:59And there's been a couple of seasons where he's even been better than that.
6:03He should be way, way, way healthy versus that ACL tear from multiple seasons ago.
6:07So if we get like 30 rushing yards per game on top of all the passing production and the weapons are still
6:14really good, the offensive line is better now than it was a couple of seasons when Kirk Cousins was balling out.
6:20And then I do think just like the verticalness does help with Kyler Murray, who has statistically not been a good downfield quarterback.
6:27But I do think if you watch him, the ball does explode on his hand and he does want to throw the ball down the field.
6:34He just has not been very successful. Well, on 20 plus yard passes, the Vikings were first in success rate from 2022 to 2024.
6:41That helps when you have Justin Jefferson's like to me, this is like so obvious that I didn't.
6:47So I really do not understand why he's being priced all the way down at quarterback 17.
6:52I kind of do. I mean, just watching his 2025 versus 2024 stuff, some of his worst ball of his career was this past season.
6:59And obviously that was what from week one through week five.
7:02And that's all we got. So I understand it for the market standpoint.
7:06And as you pointed out to open the show, let's say the high end mid quarterbacks are being drafted earlier than ever.
7:13So that's going to lead us to liking a lot of those names because the quarterback position is in a very good
7:19place, I think, in the league right now. So someone like Kyler Murray is kind of, I think, falling through the cracks a little bit.
7:27One note as well. We had Ryan Heath on the program around last year in July.
7:31And a lot of what he said on the McShanahan tree really does continue to show up year after year.
7:37I mean, it's why we told you to draft Brock Purdy.
7:41And in the games he played, he did score a whole bunch of fancy points.
7:45All of those in Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan are one of their disciples as the play caller.
7:50They just have this offensive system that boosts fancy production from their quarterbacks to a much, much greater extent than many of
7:57the other systems that is trying to chase this group.
7:59Question for you. Where does Kyler Murray need to improve to not slip through the cracks and become not just a fancy
8:06scorer, but what we all hope he can be as like a real life quarterback to?
8:11I mean, it's like crossing routes, you know, just throwing the ball over the middle, saying within, you know, within the structure for a half second longer.
8:19He has not been very good at that, obviously playing with his height.
8:23Like there's like very real limitations. I also want to note that the Cardinals are like one of the biggest joke organizations in all the American sports.
8:31And if you look at the NFL PA surveys, the Vikings are like number one in the league.
8:36So like going from like a terrible environment to like where everything around you just seems functional.
8:41That's not lost on me as well. And then like you said, with the Shanahan stuff, a lot of it's just like play action.
8:48And from 2022 to 2024, before the offense went off a cliff last year because the quarterback play, the Vikings were second in play action rate.
8:56Since 2022, Kyler Murray has a 51% success rate on play action versus a 43% success rate without the play action.
9:02So you're going to get the downfield passing numbers rebounding for Kyler Murray, I would guess, at an all time level.
9:08And then just like more play actions can be good for Kyler Murray, where he doesn't have to, you know, scan through the ball immediately over the middle.
9:16Like he's the play action steps way down the field.
9:19You're not really throwing the ball over in the middle that much off of it anyway.
9:24So yeah, I just like it's Justin Jefferson, Jordan, Allison, TG Hawkinson, everything's clicking here.
9:29And I think there are some warts with Kyler Murray, but at the same time, he has finished as a top five,
9:35top 10, like real life quarterback in seasons. Like it's kind of ups and downs, Russell Wilson-esque, but he has flashed like top 10 ability in the past.
9:43Just takes a specific type of offense. And I just think that they have it this year.
9:48Yeah, I think that rollercoaster nature ups and downs you talked about comes down to his comfort in it, like his comfort and trust in the environment.
9:56We know he has a history of Cliff Kingsbury, and we have seen Cliff's offenses go up and down at the exact same time.
10:03And when Kyler was comfortable with his play caller and with the people around him, then you did see those really high moments.
10:10And obviously last season, it was obvious from the jump that Kyler and Drew Petsing and Jonathan Gannon just simply were not
10:17on the same page with how this thing was going to work out.
10:21Some more detailed notes on that, though. Like he still needs to stand tall versus pressure.
10:25And I know get your short jokes in here, but like you have to do that in this Kevin O'Connell offense, because
10:32when you allow a play to unfold and stand in versus the fire and don't abandon the play in those moments, there
10:38are windows and throws to be made that turn into explosives.
10:42That turn into 17 yard digs or, you know, 20 plus yard hole shots and all these things.
10:47And someone like Nick Mullins, who you brought up, was doing that.
10:50And we need to see Kyler get back to that like he did in 2024 versus, you know, kind of what he showed in 2025.
10:58And the other thing to me is he needs to be aggressive in the red zone, especially to your tight end.
11:04Like we know we were going through it in stats versus film every single week.
11:09Trey McBride was open way more in that tight field than he got the football when playing with Kyler Murray.
11:14And then what we saw with Jacoby Brissett. So I'm excited for this.
11:18I mean, Kyler Murray is much better than the contract that he is on.
11:22We know why he's on that contract because he's still getting paid by the Arizona Cardinals.
11:27But while we haven't seen exactly a one to one fit like this in the Kevin O'Connell offense to succeed, to me,
11:34that just makes it even more exciting because he hasn't had a lot of these same levers to pull with these other
11:40quarterbacks that he's made into, again, top 10 scoring offenses.
11:43Schedule wise, second easiest. And then he starts the season with the Packers without Micah Parsons.
11:48And that's a high scoring Packers offense. And then the Chicago Bears, high scoring Bears offense with a lackluster defense.
11:54So I think for redraft leagues, like you can start them if you're punting quarterback is your quarterback one and you just
12:00load it up and your flex is awesome. You got elite tight ends, the whole thing.
12:05I do think in like a 12 team league, you can start Kyler Murray as your quarterback one in week one.
12:11And then in best ball, I think he's like the ideal quarterback to whether you have Josh Allen and Kyler and then you're done.
12:18Or if you go like the Justin Herbert, Kyler Murray pick, you know, a really deep sleeper quarterback three.
12:24I think either way, he's like the ideal quarterback to invest ball.
12:27But I do think in deeper redraft leagues, you can just start them right in week one.
12:33Yeah. I mean, this is the perfect redraft quarterback over on Yahoo in that you get that early season schedule that you
12:39talked about and you can see what happens. If it's working, if it's not, if it does, like we saw with Daniel
12:46Jones and Drake May last season, then continue to ride that out.
12:49And in fact, if you wanted to do this later on your draft, closing it with Kyler Murray and this next thing
12:56we're going to talk about, I think is an interesting proposition too.
12:59Although, you know, let's bring him up. Malik Willis is almost certainly not going to be drafted in your home leagues right now.
13:06But Hayden, quarterback 21 over an underdog, quarterback 19 on Yahoo at this point.
13:10Anytime we mention his name, we get vitriol in the comments.
13:13But I just want those people to let us make the case here.
13:17Give your case for Malik Willis and why he could be a skeleton key for fantasy football this season.
13:23Well, small sample size king over 159 plays over the last three seasons.
13:27Malik Willis is the quarterback one in EPA per play, quarterback one in completion percentage, overexpected, quarterback 11 success rate.
13:33That's out of 79 qualifiers. Those are passing numbers.
13:35We're here for the rushing stats, and I got plenty of those.
13:39But as a passer, he is way better in a small sample than your Justin Fields types who have held the line in fantasy for us before.
13:47I'm not going to make the case that the passing production is going to be there.
13:52You and I might be starting in three wide receiver sets for the Miami Dolphins.
13:56It's not going to be pretty there. But the rushing numbers are so obvious.
14:00If you guys watch him at any point, whether at Liberty or in the pros here, he's very fast, but he's also very physical.
14:07He's top three in yards after the contact as well.
14:10But his just numbers in terms of the scramble rate are off the charts.
14:14As a Packer, his scramble rate is 15%. The league average is 5%.
14:18That was the highest in the NFL over the last four years.
14:22He's number one in scramble rate among qualifiers. Malik Willis averages nine yards per scramble, which is only trailing Justin Herbert.
14:28Over the last couple seasons, the NFL average is at 7.7 yards.
14:31So when he does scramble, he's really good at it.
14:34Then the quarterback design game, only Lamar Jackson has averaged more yards per carry than Malik Willis.
14:39He's third, like I said, in yards after contact per carry.
14:43I've seen him do quarterback sneaks before as well.
14:45And keep in mind, when they get to the goal line, the starting running back on the Miami Dolphins is 5'9", 191.
14:52I really like Devon A. He's very good. But at the goal line, have we seen him get smoked?
14:57I've seen him get smoked. And by the way, the Dolphins pass catchers are horrific.
15:02But the center is awesome. The left tackle is emerging.
15:05And he's a total athletic freak. Patrick Paul, please go watch some highlights of him.
15:09And then Caden Proctor, they drafted him to run behind him.
15:13So we're here for the rushing stuff. If he's actually a good passer, that's how you can turn him into a legit top 10 guy.
15:20I think we're here for the floor. But I do think the floor is higher than this ADP.
15:25So often, we connect. And by we, I mean the ceiling and rushing production.
15:29When in reality, rushing and mobility is the floor for these quarterbacks.
15:33And then the passing production, the passing evolution becomes a ceiling.
15:36And that's exactly the case here for Malik Willis.
15:39And I want to talk about that passing stuff.
15:42Because you outlined the floor extremely well with the rushing.
15:45When you go back, and again, it's a small sample.
15:47And namely against that Baltimore Ravens game. He had, what, 50 dropbacks this past season?
15:52There was a real rhythm to his game as a passer.
15:55I mean, he ripped up Baltimore. And again, you can get your jokes.
15:59And I know a lot of teams did last year until they switched some things around.
16:04Basically, every single coverage that he faced, he knew what the answer was at the end of his drop.
16:09And made the correct decision. And made some big-time throws in those situations.
16:13Like, okay, is it single high? Back foot, beautiful touch throw to the left sideline.
16:18Complete on the red line. Cover two. Seems shot to Christian Watson in the window overhead of Kyle Hamilton.
16:23Then there was a second and seven blitz. Okay, he trusts the running back in Josh Jacobs to pick that up versus Kyle Hamilton.
16:30Just a slight movement to his right. Reset in the pocket.
16:34Hit Romeo Dobbs over the middle field in zone for a yak first down.
16:38And then a three-level concept. He's forced out of the pocket again to the right because of a blitz off his left side.
16:45Two defenders then drive on the underneath route. And so he hits Jane Reed in the middle three on third and forever for a first down.
16:52Did watch him at Liberty. It felt like everything was along the sidelines and he still did make those vertical passes in that area.
16:59I have absolutely loved the progression. Again, albeit in a small sample of now what we're seeing of like full field reading
17:06and like legit defensive coverage and especially targeting the middle of the field with Malik Willis.
17:11And I think that's exactly what Bobby Sloak is going to strengthen and heighten and focus on is this, you know, extra protection play action.
17:18And then these crossing routes over the middle of the field.
17:21And I think we're gonna have some success and some ceiling outcomes here from Malik Willis in some games with this passing dynamic too.
17:28I will say that the coaching staff does make me nervous.
17:32I really like LaFleur and I'm really not sure what we're signing up for with the Dolphins.
17:37In fact, like you can make the case that like heading into the season, the coaching staff that you probably trust the
17:43least could be the Miami Dolphins here. And like, obviously the pass catchers are even worse than that.
17:48But this Bobby Sloak load up the protection, throw the ball down the field.
17:53I do think that's what they're gonna do. And then you're gonna have a lot of zone read stuff.
17:58I think the quarterback sneaks and quarterback power and all that type of stuff.
18:02You're gonna, you're gonna see elements of all that here.
18:05And that's, that's gonna be exciting. Then hopefully Chris Bell hits the ground running about Halloween.
18:10And we can take some of these crossing routes all the way to the house.
18:14So yeah, I think this is probably stretching it and like your typical 12 team league as him being your quarterback one.
18:21I think we're going to talk about him a lot on the waiver wire in terms of quarterback streaming.
18:27I think in best ball, he's a really interesting pick.
18:30I guess let's hit on the downside case. What do you say the odds are that he like gets benched the season?
18:36And I guess the follow-up to that would be, does it really matter?
18:40At least in a redraft, like you just drop him and pick somebody else up.
18:44But what do you think like the realistic odds of him actually finishing the season as the quarterback one are?
18:50Fair question. He does have $13 million guaranteed also in 2027 season.
18:54So it's not just a one-year contract and that's it.
18:57Now, $13 million, if they're in the top five, top 10 picks next year, obviously that can be backup money and that's it.
19:04But I would have been more nervous if he was going to a team or signed with like, I don't know, the
19:10Arizona Cardinals, which other than, you know, the LaFleur brothers, there's not much of a connection there.
19:15Obviously with Miami, GM, Green Bay, head coach, Green Bay.
19:18And this was their target all along for the quarterback spot.
19:21So it can go sour. It can go south.
19:24Like it happens a lot. It happened with Kyler Murray, who we talked about.
19:28It happens with quarterbacks every single year. But I think the leash is pretty dang long here when you consider like the
19:35next quarterback here is Quinn Ewers, which by the way, the offenses I think are going to be styled very differently with
19:41Quinn Ewers out there, which is like a point and shoot passer versus Malik Willis that you can attack like every single blade of grass with.
19:49Yeah, I think that's well put. I think that his odds of finishing the season, the quarterback one are pretty high.
19:55It's not 100% obviously, but it's pretty, pretty high.
19:58Just looking at the contract, Quinn Ewers is totally different than Malik Willis.
20:02So I think they're going to try to make Malik Willis really happen.
20:05Obviously, there's some rushing injury risk here, but I think there will be moments that we will like the Malik Willis stuff.
20:12I think that he's going to have some like really high end fantasy.
20:16This is an old school Konami code late round Russian quarterback that fantasy has caught on to over the years.
20:22So you don't really get them in late rounds as recently.
20:25But this feels like we're back in, you know, 2018 or 2017.
20:28And it's like the Colin Kaepernick stuff all over.
20:31Yeah, I mean, I was gonna throw out Justin Fields.
20:34We were still drafting. I mean, not we, you guys were still drafting Justin Fields like as like around the quarterback 10
20:41after years of proof that he was not a good starting quarterback, at least with the Malik Willis stuff.
20:46Like he could be a boat in the small sample size says you might have a little Duffy boat waiting for you right here.
20:53So I think he's a great pick, especially in like deeper redraft leagues.
20:57Like if you wanted to go with Justin Herbert and then you have Malik Willis kind of sitting on the bench.
21:03I do think that he's good enough as a bench stash, even in like a 10, 12 team league.
21:09I think a lot of the quarterback, the top 18 quarterbacks, like they all look pretty dang good to me.
21:15I'll mention Jordan Love as maybe like another sleeper for doing something like more in the Matthew Stafford bucket of just like
21:21get red hot in terms of passing touchdowns and ascending offense.
21:25And all of a sudden he can be a top 10 fantasy quarterback.
21:29But I do think we did hit on the two sleeper quarterbacks this year.
21:33And like there's really no need to mention Strouds and Bryce Youngs and those guys.
21:37And again, I mean, on this episode last year, we brought up Drake May.
21:41We brought up Trevor Lawrence and like those guys absolutely hit for where they were being drafted.
21:46It just feels like we are drafting in a different environment, selecting from a different quarterback pool environment this year than we were last year.
21:54And for that reason, again, I continue to mention I am drafting Josh Allen in the third round.
21:59I am definitely going for this Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels area of mid round five to mid round six on top of that as well.
22:07It's also an easier case to make for Kyler Murray when, you know, his surrounding cast is Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison
22:13and Juwan Jennings versus, you know, Malik Willis, Jalen Tolbert, Tutu Atwell, Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas, Malik Washington, Kevin Coleman Jr.
22:20But, you know, that's why you get him a few rounds later, too.
22:24Yep. That's Kyler Murray. I mean, just make the thumbnail, Kyler Murray.
22:27Just remember, Kyler Murray, this show. It's going to work.
22:30Just because of that, I'm going to make the thumbnail, Malik Willis, and we're going to roll from there.
22:36All right. Again, we don't want to waste your time with four or six names.
22:40These are the two that you should be targeting.
22:43We will waste your time with tight ends and wide receiver sleeper videos on the way in the coming days.
22:49So be on the lookout for that. Hit subscribe.
22:51It would be lovely if we could reach 1,000 likes, thumbs up on this video.
22:56And hit subscribe because, once again, it's totally free to all of you.
23:00We'll check in the next video. See ya.