Episode 115

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Published on:

20th Nov 2023

Fantasy IIsland Mid-Season Overachievers: The Unholy Alliance of Puka Magic and a Walmart-QB Realness!

Sweet T and Bombo are back in the chaos of Fantasy Island, where they dive deep into the wild world of midseason overachievers. Sam "I'm-not-just-a-W" Howell, Baker "The Resurrected" Mayfield, and CJ "Rookie Sensation" Stroud lead the charge. Can Sam survive the Washington Football Team curse? Will Baker finally get a standing ovation from Sweet T? And is CJ Stroud secretly carrying the Texans on his rookie shoulders?

But wait, there's more! Brian Robinson Jr. is making fantasy owners rethink the meaning of "committee," while DeAndre Swift proves that a change of scenery can turn a committee into a one-man show. And don't sleep on Puka Nakua, the rookie sensation who's not just a name – he's a lifestyle. Plus, Devante Adams survives the chaos in Vegas, and Bombo explains why catching passes from Jimmy G is the NFL's equivalent of a retail therapy session.

Get ready for the laughs, the hot takes, and maybe a coconut or two. Buckle up, because Fantasy Island is where the fantasy meets reality, and the hosts aren't afraid to sprinkle a little sarcasm on your favorite overachievers.

#FantasyFootball #MidSeasonMadness #PukaMagic #BakerBounceBack #CJStroudShow #DeAndreSwiftRevival #DevanteInVegas ##FantasyIIslandPodcast

Got a problem with us? Think you know better? Prove it. Shoot us your scorching hot takes or icy hate mail at getatus@fantasyiisland.com. We'll read it, laugh, and then keep on schooling you. Hit subscribe, unless you enjoy being the laughingstock of your league.

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Transcript

Fantasy iisland Mid-Season Overachiever

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[00:00:00] So without any further ado, let's go ahead and get into our quarterbacks. And number one on this list is kind of shocking, but not really, because we kind of called them out. Remember, King was calling this guy out early in the season before preseason. And. Guys were just like, what, what, what?

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[00:00:38] He doesn't run a lot, but when he has to, he can get it done on the ground too. So, I like me some Sam Howe, but what do you think?

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[00:01:09] Sam Howe is in a same type of situation where the offense is asked to throw the ball 50 times a game. He's just a little bit more efficient. Undersized, but honestly, Sam, how is the NFC East Justin Herbert? This guy is just. a cannon all over the field, throwing it to weapons. Like he's making these guys weapons because I know that King said earlier in the year, having Jahan Dotson, Curtis Samuel, Terry McLaurin, the benefit is for Sam Howell.

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[00:01:44] You know what, I'm just gonna say this. There's only three fantasy points between Herbert and Sam Howe. That's it. Herbert is three points

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[00:01:54] what I, I know you

[:

[00:01:58] I know that you didn't see that and that's why I had to throw that out there because you were more right than you realized. Alright, so, Okay. Let's, let's keep this, let's keep this rolling and let's go into our number two overachiever of the year. I'm going to be the first one to say, you know what? I took pop shots at this guy. I'm not a fan of his, I'm not a fan of him as a person, how he operates, how he conducts himself, but I can't deny the fact that he has overachieved so far this year.

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[00:02:45] So far on the season, he is number 16 in fantasy PPR. He has over 2000 yards passing. He's got 2143. He's got 14 Teddy's. He's got 149 fantasy points overall. That's not bad when you think about it. It's not bad. That is respectable. He's in the middle of the pack, he's right above Joe Burrow, he's right there, right just a tick below Kirkland Cousins before he got hurt, he's above Trevor Lawrence, he's above Derek Carr, he's above some decent quarterbacks that has gotten a lot of love over the past few years in fantasy.

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[00:03:37] I'm going to go with the domino effect of wrongness. So I told everyone on the island, don't invest in Mike Evans. I told everyone that Rashad White was going to take a hit because of Baker Mayfield and that Baker Mayfield was probably not even going to start. The reason why all those guys are balling right now is because of Baker Mayfield.

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[00:04:23] They'd be in a lot better position than they are right now.

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[00:04:47] We touched on him just slightly. And that is CJ Stroud. CJ Stroud makes this list as an overachiever, not because we don't think that he could do this, but just from the mere fact that guys, he's a rookie. Remember, he's probably having the best rookie quarterback season. In modern quarterback history. This guy is just balling out right now He's got two thousand six hundred and twenty six yards.

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[00:05:36] I'm, I'm looking forward to CJ Stroud being a top 10 fantasy quarterback for the Houston Texans or whatever team he's on, um, for the foreseeable future. He's got the arm, he's got the work ethic, honestly. He's the reason why Niko Collins is balling out, I think. And Tank Dell. These guys might not even be doing as well on other teams.

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[00:06:16] Wiggling his dick at some masseuse or being utterly just trashed from the knees up and take another L Browns fan. CJ Stroud is here to stay and like you and I were saying, shout out to the Texans for going with D'Amico Ryans as a coach, he's really got them playing.

[:

[00:06:51] get my tinfoil hat on right there, Bombo. All right, so let's go ahead and go into our running backs. Number one on this running back list as an overachiever thus far this year. Is Brian Robinson Jr. Brian Robinson Jr. of Washington is having him a pretty damn good year. He's got 485 yards on the ground. He does have two fumbles. So that's a little concerning, but he's also got five tighties. So he's having himself a good year. He doesn't really catch out of the backfield that much. But he's got 256 yards receiving for not getting a lot of targets out of the backfield.

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[00:07:50] Hundred percent. Number one thing that's working in Brian Robinson's favor is he's catching passes out of the backfield. Now going into this year, we thought that he was going to be a part of a committee with Antonio Gibson. Uh, but really it's just, he's been a workhorse. And if you have a workhorse, even if you're not on a talented team or you don't think the guy's talented, anybody that's getting that many touches should be within your top 15 running backs.

[:

[00:08:28] for sure. 100%. All right. That leads us into number two on this list. Number two on this list. Listen, he's not in the top 10. But he is definitely overachieving not because he's not talented, but because he could never really stay healthy. And he never had those big seasons that everybody expected to. And that is Deandre Swift.

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[00:09:12] And now all of a sudden, because of, I guess, some luck with some guys going down, whatever you want to call it, he was able to showcase his talents. And now this guy is. Balling for them. He is overachieving in the sense of they didn't even want him as the number one featured back. And now he is 614 yards on the season, three tutties.

[:

[00:09:49] you hit it all on the head. We thought he was just going to be part of the committee. He was going to be the change of pace back or the past catching back in a. Committee with Rashad Penny with Kenneth Gainwell sprinkled in their first game of the year. DeAndre Swift gets no run. Kenneth Gainwell gets the start.

[:

[00:10:23] Wow. You heard it here first guys. All right. In our last back on this overachiever list, Bombo, this might come as a surprise to some, it may not. But to you and I, we just, we talked about this and I'm going to tell you right now, this guy, it's kind of a surprise. It's an overachieve and that's Alvin Kamara of the Saints.

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[00:11:37] And that is what Camara is known for and what he can do. And he's really surprised a lot of people and it shows that's why he's on this list. What do you think, Bombo?

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[00:12:12] What does that mean? Checkdowns. And for the Saints, that's checkdowns to your best offensive weapon. The reason why he's balling out like that. Really simple. No need to overcomplicate it. He's getting those check downs and making the most of it. He's made a career out of doing that. And, I mean, like I said, I don't know if the Saints are going to the playoffs or if they're going to be winning real football games, but in this offense, for what he's worth, Alvin Kamara is the engine that's making this offense go fantasy wise.

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[00:13:02] Adam Thielen's quietly having himself a pretty damn good year receiving. He's number eight in fantasy points and receivers, 152 yards, four touchdowns. He's got 159 fantasy points. That's good enough for number eight, just behind. I'm on raw St. Brown. I mean, that's pretty damn impressive. So, I don't know. I don't know what I can say about this guy other than the fact that everybody left him for dead.

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[00:13:54] So Adam Thielen was the first Cooper Cup. So, not a fast guy. Not taking the top off the defense, just a crisp route runner that knows how to get separation and gets to the ball right when he and the ball meet at that point where nobody else can catch it at the right time in full stride.

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[00:14:34] Adam Thielen was catching passes from Kirk Cousins and Case Keenum. Like those aren't to me and we've said it on those guys aren't world beaters with their arm. He just does what's right at the wide receiver position and that'll always get rewarded. Adam Thielen being a top eight fantasy option though is crazy and I'm happy for him and I'm happy for owners that were able to get him in the 12th or 13th round and now he's never left your lineup.

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[00:15:01] Let's face it in some leagues. He was probably picked up off of the waiver wire.

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[00:15:08] All right, so next wide receiver overachiever of the year and it's not because he doesn't have talent It's not because we don't think that he can do this, but it's because of the fact that he is a rookie I want everybody to realize Puka Nakua of the Los Angeles Rams is a rookie. He was drafted in the fifth round 177th overall let that sink in guys 177th overall Fifth round. And right now he is the number 10 receiver in the league in fantasy points. He's got 827 yards receiving. He's got two Tuddy's and 159 fantasy points. This guy has come out of nowhere when it comes to most fantasy relevant, just anything.

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[00:16:25] And what happens? Bombo, he's number 10 right now, and I'm going to give you all that credit. I'm going to throw it towards you because you were calling him out from day one. So the stage is all yours. Go ahead and talk about it. Brag all you want.

[:

[00:17:05] He was catching passes from Stafford in camp. So he's not working. He was not working with the threes. He was not working with the scout team. And then when you look at all the things that. Are said that knock Puka. So it was like, Oh, the quarterback situation is real iffy. Well, you know what Stafford is the number 21 quarterback on fantasy, but yet Puka and Cooper cup remain in the top 10 and wide receivers.

[:

[00:17:44] But honestly, possession receivers can't really get shut down because they're going to be getting the targets no matter what. So all of these things to try to discount or discredit what he's done just don't seem to be working. So take all that, throw it out the window and do what me T and anybody else that has stock in Puka does just put them in your lineup and don't worry about it.

[:

[00:18:29] Devante Adams on the Raiders, to me, with this horrible offense, with this horrible ownership, with this horrible freakin coaching situation. All of a sudden, this guy, he's been vaulted into a bad situation. He went from Green Bay to the Raiders, and it has been a shitshow over there for him. Yet. All of that being said, Devante Adams has persevered for the most part.

[:

[00:19:33] Yeah. At First, I was wondering if we should be adding him to overachievers because he was taken within the first three rounds. He's an unquestioned, uh, you know, dominant wide receiver, but on the island, we like to talk about guys who are quarterback proof.

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[00:20:07] Coming into this year, as a Raider fan, I almost felt sorry for Devante Adams because he was going to have to catch passes from Jimmy G. And if something happened to Jimmy G was going to be a quarterback that looks like he works at Walmart. And if something happens to him, he's going to have to catch passes from Brian Hoyer.

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[00:20:43] Kind of like the Garrett Wilson situation where the quarterback going down is going to make this guy's value just tank, but they're going to make the most of it. It's the exact same thing with Devante Adams. The difference is I think Devante Adams blow up starts now. Going forward as the rookie quarterback gets more accustomed and as this coach decides, I ain't got anything to lose.

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[00:21:15] Well for those fantasy owners that have him and those Raider fans out there I really do hope so. I really really do I see the team itself just kind of Breathe some life back into them. They're playing loose. They're happy again So, I don't know. We'll see we'll see if that makes a big difference But the fact that Devante overcame and did what he's done You know and at least top 15 right now is to me.

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[00:22:05] You think you can do better? You think he can, you can, uh, you know, come up with different names on this list and give us a good reason. I want to hear about it. Bamba wants to hear about it. We want to know, but get ready for the rebuttal. Cause you know, it's going to happen.

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The Double I show | Fantasy iisland
Fantasy Football Show
Tired of podcasts that treat you like you're in a league of your own? Perfect, you've just crash-landed onto the island where fantasy dreams go to get heckled. We don't just separate the champs from the chumps; we create a Hall of Shame for those who thought drafting a defense in round three was a masterstroke.

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Got a problem with us? Think you know better? Prove it. Shoot us your scorching hot takes or icy hate mail at getatus@fantasyiisland.com. We'll read it, laugh, and then keep on schooling you. Hit subscribe, unless you enjoy being the laughingstock of your league.