VSiN By The Books | September 7, 2026 | Hour 2

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SPEAKER_2 (1:14)

This is VSiN, the sports betting network.

Dave Ross (1:35)

Top of the hour, it is VSiN By The Books on this Labor Day Monday. Dave Ross right here at the Mid Gaming Hall, Franklin, Kentucky. Our closer Jensen was back home in Cleveland, Ohio. Marty Hurney, our GM, is going to join the program later on this hour, talking all things NFL, getting us ready for Wednesday night. Zachary Cohen, our managing editor, is going to join the program as well. VSiN Senior Editor, rather, and talk all things US Open and NFL and College Football as well. But right now, very excited to have Alex Dunlap join the program, co-host of the Roster Watch podcast. Check him out, rosterwatch.com on that podcast as well, and joins us here in the Progressive Guest Line. Give him a follow on X at Alex Dunlap, NFL. Well, we're excited, Alex, for Wednesday night here to get to week one of the NFL season. I know people have got their drafts out there. Let me ask you, is it easier to kind of look at, when you're looking at sleepers and roster construction, guys you want to avoid or guys you're really targeting? Because it feels like if you got somebody you really want, then they get snagged in the draft, you're disappointed, and you got to jump elsewhere. Is it easier to say, you know what, there's certain guys I'm going to X right off my sheep, so if somebody else takes them, I don't have to worry about it.

Alex Dunlap (2:43)

Well, you know, there's some spots, and thanks so much for having me, guys. There are definitely some spots where you can think to yourself, man, all right, this is one where, I think it's okay this year in a couple spots to say, this is one that I'm completely avoiding. I don't always think that that's definitely the way to do it though, you know, kind of a saying in fantasy football that a lot of the community uses is, you know, you shouldn't hate players, you should hate ADPs, you know, you should hate average draft positions, right?

At some point, most players will become a value if they fall far enough, but yeah, generally I would think that, you know, you should have a cheat sheet, you should stick to the cheat sheet. I would personally recommend using the cheat sheet at rosterwatch.com, the Ultimate Draft Cheat Sheet, a plug for our product, but at a certain point, those are going to tell you, but sorry, all right. Well, you know, if this guy's far enough down the sheet, you've kind of had him as a fade, right? But at a certain point, it's not necessarily the player you don't like, it's just the price that he's going for.

Jensen Lewis (3:45)

All right, Alex, a guy that is a devout Browns fan here in Northeast Ohio. I know there's been a lot of buzz about the young receiving corps here for Deshaun Watson to start with. And Casey Concepcion has made your list as a draft sleeper. Now that brings warm feelings to my heart because I feel like my brownies are gonna be playing from behind in a lot of these early games. So that means potential volume for him.

Is that really where you get behind having him as someone you can snag later on? And just knowing that there could be some early symmetry or some early connectivity between Deshaun Watson and Casey Concepcion?

Alex Dunlap (4:22)

Well, I don't think he's gonna be a sleeper in your home league, Jensen.

You got a whole bunch of Browns fans there. Cuz clearly there's been a whole lot of buzz around him.

For somebody like me that travels for the NFL draft stuff to the Trine Bowl and the Senior Bowl and the NFL Combine and all the pro days. And Casey Concepcion was just right down the road from where I am there. And Texas A&M, of course, as you know very well after getting off to just a monster monster start at NC State and going and just playing through what really was when you watched the film in college at Casey Concepcion at Texas A&M. Just it's almost as eye opening to how bad Marcel Reed is at Texas A&M as it is about how good Casey Concepcion is. And so going to a situation with just an awful quarterback like it's going to be at the start here with Deshaun Watson doesn't worry me as much because he had just such awful quarterback play in college. And he was still just able to make such things happen. And you just see, it's like what the media has told us in Cleveland is we're going to use him in all these different ways. We're going to design ways to get the football in Casey's hands. We're going to make sure that he's involved in all aspects of the offense. And then you see in the first preseason game, and it's not just in the preseason game, man. It's that we were there at the joy practices. It's like they do. It's like they get down there in the red zone and they're doing this, this end around stuff to him, little bubble screens down at the, down, down at the goal line. The, the reverse that they had, I forget which preseason game that was, but just, I mean, finding high leverage ways to get this guy touches. He's basically like one of the most talented wide receivers in this whole class for one. And for two, he's going to be the wide receiver one for that football team. I mean, that's clear and obvious to me. He's by far the cheapest wide receiver one of any, any player in the whole league.