Week 2 Sleeper Picks: We’re targeting future value here in Week 2 and there’s lots of available firepower. It appears quality TEs are going to be in short supply this season.

Do yourselves a favor next year: keep that hamster between your ears on break a few weeks longer leading up to the NFL regular season. Spend more time with the family, have some drinks with friends and don’t bother with a lot of this football stuff outside of watching preseason games. Mock drafts, hypothetical player rankings and talking heads in ties, all of this analysis means nothing once “The Curse” descends and life gets in the way of your plans for fantasy football immortality. Not losing your head to overreaction (“Is Kareem Hunt a false idol? NO!”) and seeking waiver wire deals – while not losing waiver priority – will be your North Star in these turbulent times ahead.

I’m not preaching a sexy gospel here: HODL. That’s a sage term used by those in the blockchain and cryptocurrency realm. Seeing the plan through doesn’t fit today’s ethos (“I what it now!”). Maybe this is how my grandfather felt as he warned me in vain that, “It’s going to go to the dump,” as I recklessly played with my toys thinking, “what the hell did that guy know.” A World War II vet, Naval Engineer, raised a family of four, it turns out he knew a lot.

What’s the point, you may be asking? Your team is going to go to the dump if you over think it, especially right now (I have a PhD in overthinking my team for the loss, trust me). I’m sure you have a spot on your roster to play with – and you should – but don’t start going on an add/drop binge thinking you’ve clearly seen how the next four-six weeks will unfold. You haven’t, friend, life has all sorts of plans to rough you up this season. We’ve been down this road with Ryan Fitzpatrick before. Stick with the plan, barring injury catastrophe. Play it safe and by God if Todd Gurley’s backup is available in your league, pick him up, C’MON MAN! (Just seeing if you’re paying attention.)

Managers who drafted Greg Olsen, Doug Baldwin or Delaine Walker, owners of Etherium ($ETH), they fly their flags at half-mast this week. Whoops, life happened and you’re screwed, now what?

We’re targeting future value sleepers here in Week 2 and there’s lots of available firepower. It appears quality TEs are going to be in short supply this season. If you are in a 12-team league, it’s getting nasty and fast.

Week 2 Sleeper Picks

Geronimo Allison, WR, Green Bay Packers (FanDuel: $5,000 DraftKings: $3,800)

“The Curse” threatened to get the Packers’ asses HARD by striking Aaron Rogers’ knee with a category Zeus level bolt of lightning (1.21 Giga Watts of pure fear, baby). Cheeseheads globally were reevaluating their lives! It could have ended any hope for Geronimo Allison. Instead, Rogers showed exactly why you can’t take your eyes off the Pack, even for a half. There’s huge upside on this pickup and I LOVE undrafted playmakers, as they tend to be very hungry. Allison was targeted eight times Monday and was ahead of Jimmy Graham in the pecking order. Only taken in 13 percent of yahoo leagues, you could do far worse on a bench stash.

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Brandon Marshall, WR, Seattle Seahawks (FanDuel: $5,700 DraftKings: $4,300)

It appears Marshall’s plan to have a late-career, Randy Moss-esque year has taken a monster step forward. Doug Baldwin is done and there is a prime slot available for anyone on Seattle ready to be a playmaker. Who knows if osteoporosis will win in the end, but Marshall should be rostered this week. A player just 9 percent owned has rarely had such immediate upside potential. I would burn a mid-to-late waiver pick going after him if my receiver corps looked soft.

Tavon Austin, RB/WR, Dallas Cowboys (FanDuel: $4,500 DraftKings: $3,500)

This sounds as crazy as Christine Michael and maybe it is, buuuut, Dallas did not look particularly good this past Sunday. Like really, really didn’t look good. Enter the dual-threat RB and WR Tavon Austin. This is more of a bench stash play to see how things shake out in Dallas, but as we have seen, even in anemic offenses, Austin has the potential to make big plays. I also like the flexibility that a player with dual designations receives. His Week 1 stats are dreadful but I think the ‘Boys realize whatever game plan they had last week needs to be canned for something new. This provides opportunity for someone like Austin, currently a watch. He also might make a sneaky and very low cost DFS play.

Austin Ekeler, RB, LA Chargers (FanDuel: $5,600 DraftKings: $4,400)

A source of vexation for Melvin Gordon owners from last year, Austin Ekeler is showing himself to be a playmaker given even minimal opportunity. This is somewhat of a handcuff play and a hedge against “The Curse,” which has toyed with Gordon a few times over the past few seasons. He’s available in 83 percent of leagues, which sounds wild! If you are a Gordon owner, thin at RB or are a hot-headed gambler, I would give him serious consideration. I wouldn’t sacrifice an early waiver priority slot for him, though.

Phillip Lindsay, RB, Denver Broncos (FanDuel: $4,900 DraftKings: $4,400)

I don’t understand, Royce Freeman was all anyone talked about in Denver for the past month, it seemed. Phillip Lindsay, however, matched his looks evenly. We now know who the No. 2 man is in Denver. This is definitely a handcuff play; insurance never hurts but this guy looked pretty good during the game. Denver has some tough games ahead against defenses that look strong. Might be a good time plan ahead and be ready if catastrophe strikes.

Antonio Gates, TE, Los Angeles Chargers (FanDuel: $4,800 DraftKings: $2,600)

I spoke about Antonio Gates last week. Now that you’ve lost Greg Olsen and are mid-pick on the waiver priority this week – zero hope for snagging Jared Cook – Gates must be looking pretty good. Here is what we know: the Chargers looked like a mess Sunday, but Phillip Rivers still scored 40+ points in fantasy while losing in real life. Who is Rivers’ all time favorite target? Yep, that’d be Gates. There are going to be a lot of points spread around on the Chargers this season. Gates is going to be the recipient of some of that cheddar. Best yet, you can probably snag him without losing waiver priority. He’s a high-reward low-risk play on DraftKings this week, I reckon.

Will Dissly OR Nick Vannett, TE,Seattle Seahawks (FanDuel: $4,600 OR $4,300 DraftKings: $3,300 OR $2,500)

The passing game is in dire straits in Seattle. Will Dissly stepped up and certainly caught people’s attention. I don’t think, however, this has fully shaken out. But, with Week 1 in the books, Will Dissly is the number 1 passing threat and TEs are already very thin with 15 weeks to go in the fantasy football season. While I wouldn’t use an early priority on the wire to snag either, if you’re hurting at tight end you might want to roll the dice with Dissly or straight up gamble on Vannett. I’d test drive Dissly in DFS this week.

The Crypto Corner (NOT Financial advice)

1. The Winklevoss twins (aka Winklevii) launched a paper money currency backed “stable” crypto coin named Gemini Dollar that is insured by FDIC through the State Street Corporation and meets government regulatory compliance. There have been plenty of “stable” coins with transparent accounting, but the Winklevii have a pretty big name that reaches far outside the crypto and financial spheres. While a boring sector for blockchain, FDIC insured sure sounds safe and A LOT of people have heard of the Winklevoss twins. Mass adoption ensues?
2. Rough week in the markets. Confirm a trend change is my advice before thinking bottoms have hit. Etherium ($ETH) and Litecoin ($LTC) come to mind as things you might want to see a trend change reversal first before buying. $XRP, not to be confused with Ripple, is almost retracing 2017 perfectly. Look at this chart and you’ll see what I mean. Trade carefully friends.
3. I’m a big fan of infrastructure type blockchain projects that will eventually lead to big efficiencies. If the end is nigh for most anything outside Bitcoin ($BTC), as the maximalists will have you believe, these will be the survivors in my opinion. Projects like XYO Network ($XYO) I think will become something long term and be able to withstand any use case storm. I hold no positions in this token currently for the record.
4. Today a US Judge ruled that ICO scams fall under securities law jurisdiction in the latest saga of crypto assets being a security or say property for example. This is pretty big and most likely bad news for the Etherium blockchain ($ETC) where most of ICOs originate from. This could have far reaching consequences for the sector as a whole and should be followed.