Podcast written and created by Cameron Erickson and Cory Sparks.
Transcript typed up by Matty Roell
CORY: Hello, I’m Cory.
CAMERON: And I’m Cameron, and this is the first ever Hawks Sports Podcast.
CORY: Basically, any sports, huge events, or breaking news going on at the time we will be covered.
CAMERON: Because it’s nearing October, the fall classic is coming up real quick.
CORY: It sure is. So basically, we’re going to cover a few of the races going on right now. First of all, the NL Central is extremely tight. The Chicago Cubs have a three game lead on Milwaukee right now – it was much closer earlier on – they’ve been fighting for first the entire time, and the Saint Louis Cardinals are slowly fading out of the picture. And then for the NL West, we have the Dodgers currently leading Colorado by only half a game, Arizona is also fading out of the picture, and I definitely just want to touch up on the Dodgers themselves. They had a huge acquisition with Manny Machado over the trade deadline over the summer. He hasn’t really been the biggest producer in my opinion. He was supposed to be this huge, huge shortstop that was going to change their whole legacy, and they’re losing ground. They were five games up on Colorado a month ago and now it’s a race. So I definitely think that’s something a lot of fans must be disappointed about.
CAMERON: Alright, now let’s talk NFL. We are already heading to week three, and let’s talk about some of the break out players that are going on. I mean, Ryan Fitzpatrick, or what we like to call him, Ryan Fitz“magic”, who has forty-eight for sixty-one completions, eight hundred and nineteen yards, eight touchdowns, and one interception, just in two games. Then the other Patrick, Patrick Mahomes.
CORY: He’s been honestly ridiculous. The guy has thirty-eight completions out of fifty-five attempts, five hundred and eighty-two yards, ten touchdowns, and no picks. Just to put this in a perspective, we’re going to compare him to Mitchell Trubisky; he’s played fourteen games, he has eleven total touchdowns. Patrick Mahomes is putting on a show. He passed for six total touchdowns is his most recent game, he is hitting every single one of his receivers without struggle it seems like. And then we have Khalil Mack.
CAMERON: Khalil Mack has two sacks, two force fumbles, one recovered, a pick six, and one deflected pass. I will just say, that the Bears are most definitely getting their money’s worth on picking up Khalil Mack. I feel terribly sorry for the Raiders for not paying him that – what, three extra million was it?
CORY: Yeah, it wasn’t that bad at all. Honestly, the guy just wanted a little more paycheck behind what he’s been doing lately, and clearly he’s earning it on the Bears. He’s giving them his all, he nearly single-handedly won the Packer game before we all saw what happened there, and then he took down Russell Wilson multiple times, and pressured the heck out of that higher offensive line.
CAMERON: Now let’s get into some Fantasy Football.
CORY: Absolutely.
CAMERON: Well…
CORY: I have a sleeper. We’re going to do some sleepers first for Fantasy Football. So, in case you’re new, for the terminology, “sleepers” are people that most teams will pass up on. If you have your own league, you’re not thinking about them, but secretly, they’re scoring really good. For my first sleeper, I have Blake Bortles. The guy is average in twenty-four points a game. He’s got multiple, multiple options to go to, Austin Seferian-Jenkins at tight end, he’s been a producer for the past two or three years, and then he has Dante Moncrief who has two or three years throughout the whole stage where Andrew Luck was not playing much, where he was their main receiver behind T.Y. Hilton – both very, very experienced despite their age, taking on leadership roles, and I think Blake Bortles is going to take advantage of that completely.
CAMERON: Now for my sleeper pick, I have to go with something a little close to home, but Matt Breida for the Forty Niners. He’s got one hundred and eighty-nine yards right now. He’s leading the NFL in rushing yards and I think that he’s got a lot of great potential to be a starting back that the Forty Niners need. He is sharing carries with Alfred Morris, but if you look at it, Breida is getting most of those carries, and he’s producing on those carries as he has one hundred and eighty-nine yards for a touchdown
CORY: Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I mean, Alfred Morris has been a good producer, and in his it’s rookie season with RG3. He was a pro bowler, and he still is in my opinion, but he is forty more pounds than Breida roughly. I think he’s more of a goal line guy, and Breida’s producing way too much not to be a starter.
CAMERON: I agree.
CORY: So, now we are going to go to a little segment we call “Use Him or Lose Him”. Me and Cameron are each going to take a player who we think you should be starting on your fantasy league this year – or this week, excuse me, and then who you should be benching as well. For my Use, I have the Bears defense. Fifty-eight percent of the leagues own him right now, and then they’re getting started about forty-four percent of the time. They have ten sacks in the first two games. If you’re doing standard scoring, you get one point per sack. I don’t care how many points these guys are allowing, it is bound to happen that they will be getting to the quarterback each and every game. Khalil Mack, Danny Trevathan, and company, you are not going to see anything but dominance from them.
CAMERON: Yeah. I totally agree on that one. Bears defense – people are sleeping on them this year. They are going to be something huge. But, for my Use Him, I would say Ryan Fitz“magic”. Like we were saying earlier, this guy has just came out ready to play, and I think that once Jameis Winston is back from suspension or injury or whatever it is, I forget, Ryan Fitzpatrick has the starting position. I say start him in your fantasy league this week. He is going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have allowed the second most points to fantasy quarterbacks, so I would say start him this week.
CORY: Honestly, that is a horrible combination for them. They have been absolutely murdered, and the passing game they are not doing well. There is no sign of a secondary on their enter team. When you combine it with a guy who is fitting so well with Mike Evans and DesSean Jackson, I don’t even think it’s going to be a fair game. I think it is going to blow him out in the first half. Ryan Fitz“magic” is going to have a heck of a fantasy game this week, and going forward, I don’t think Jameis Winston’s job is secured at all. The guy has had so much disciplinary issues – going through college into the NFL. The Buccaneers took a chance on him. He has performed well, but he has not thrown nine touchdowns in two weeks, and that is what Ryan Fitz“magic” is doing right now. And then for our Lose Him, I have Chris Hogan on the New England Patriots. He is owned by ninety-five percent of teams in the ESPN fantasy football league right now. Here is why I’m not going to be starting him, or even having him on my team going forward; with the addition of Josh Gordon and the fact that Julian Edelman’s suspension ends in two weeks, his usage is just going to decrease so much. He did have sixteen points last week, which is one of his best games yet, and I do think he is a bright young talent, but the Patriots have so much in their wide receiving court. You cannot rely on anybody unless their name is Robert Gronkowski.
CAMERON: Yeah, definitely. And it’s going to be awesome seeing Josh Gordon catch passes from Tom Brady, and then great to see Edelman come back. For Lose Him, for me, Greg Olsen. I picked up this guy this year in fantasy thinking that he was going to come back off of last year – of his foot injury – and just be that number one guy for Cam Newton. But week one, re-injured his foot, and that limited him to only thirty-three yards that game, and then he did not even play last week. He has not practiced all this week! And I don’t think they are going to be playing himin this week; I think they are going to give him time to heal his foot and undergo surgery, whatever he needs to do, and I wouldn’t have much hope that he is coming back in the next few weeks. So I would say that lose him or bench him, do not start him.
CORY: Absolutely. Alright, that is all we are going to have for you for the first podcast regarding sports. We will be doing these weekly, whether it be on football, baseball, the basketball season coming up, the NBA starting – you will get nothing but facts and hard, hard opinions from the two of us.
CAMERON: It has been fun talking with you, Cory – talking sports – and we hope to talk more and just have a lot of fun doing this.
CORY: Absolutely! We will see you guys next week.