Fantasy football expert Matthew Berry of NBC Sports and FantasyLife.com is high on Malik Nabers’ 2025 draft stock despite the Giants’ swirling uncertainty.
And he considers Jets running back Isaiah Davis a flex sleeper down the stretch of this 2024 NFL season.
“I think if you redid the NFL Draft today, there’s a decent chance that Malik Nabers goes over Marvin Harrison Jr.,” Berry said this week on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “That’s not hindsight being 20-20. Going into the draft there were a number of draft evaluators I know that had Nabers over Harrison as their number one wide receiver prospect. So I don’t think there’s any question from anyone as to this kid’s talent.
“And fantasy success very simply comes from two things: really it’s talent and opportunity,” Berry added. “Are you good, and will you get the opportunity to be on the field and have the ball in your hands? That’s really what it boils down to. And Malik Nabers has both: he is super talented, and he’s going to get an opportunity. He’s going to be out there every snap.”
To Berry, Nabers even transcends the Giants’ uncertainty at an offense’s two most important positions: play-caller and quarterback.
“We don’t know who the quarterback of the Giants is gonna be next year. I’m not even sure who the coach is gonna be,” Berry said. “But whoever is, whether Brian Daboll comes back or there’s somebody else in charge, that person’s gonna look around and say, ‘You know what? I don’t have all that much to work with on this team, but what I do have is a stud at wide receiver.”
The 2024 NFL season isn’t over yet, though, so Berry is promoting Progressive’s new Fantasy Backup Sweepstakes. Fantasy Managers in the bottom halves of leagues can visit FantasyBackupPlan.com before Dec. 18 to upload a screenshot of their rankings for a chance to win a piece of $59,000 in prizes.
Then for fantasy managers still looking for an edge in their playoff matches, Berry’s list of sleepers begins with a New York Jet who is not 100 percent rostered across the board yet: running back Isaiah Davis.
“Look at the Jets upcoming schedule; they’ve got Jacksonville, the Rams and they’re at Buffalo. Yes, Buffalo is great, but they should be down [some players after clinching],” Berry said. “Davis is the pass catching running back here. I think you can make an argument Davis is more talented than Braelon Allen. I know that Braelon Allen’s the bigger guy.
“Breece Hall is dealing with a knee injury,” Berry added. “I know the Jets are saying we’re not shutting Breece Hall down yet. But you’ve got to shut [him down]. It’s a knee injury to one of your franchise guys in a season that’s lost. Why on Earth would you put Breece Hall out there? So I think Isaiah Davis is gonna get an opportunity here to get some run.”
Berry also said after a better offensive output against the Dolphins, the remaining Jets players and coaches are “playing for jobs next year,” so that bodes well for production regardless of their record.
“I think they’ll perform well down the stretch,” he added. “So I like Isaiah Davis there in a flex sort of way.”
Sleepers aren’t always obscure backups available to be picked up off the waiver wire, though, either. Sometimes, they’re underperforming stars whose late-season opportunity portends enormous playoff production.
And Berry believes there are two such players in Arizona: Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray and Harrison Jr., the rookie wide receiver.
“It’s been a very up and down year for both those guys,” Berry said. “Kyler Murray’s my ride or die. And it hasn’t worked out the way I’d hoped. But one of the things that I think goes overlooked is that Murray has faced a really tough schedule, but his upcoming playoff schedule is awesome: Patriots this week, then the Panthers, then the Rams.
“Marvin Harrison Jr. the last couple of weeks has gotten multiple end zone targets,” he added. “He hasn’t come down with a ball yet, but they’re trying to get him the ball in scoring position. He’s still got like a 20 percent target share. So they’re looking for him. Those are two guys that have been middling this year that I do think will have a big fantasy playoff run.”
While the fantasy playoffs determine champions, meanwhile, there is also a race to last place happening in leagues everywhere. And Berry — whose FantasyLife.com has a fantasy football punishment generator to customize humiliating consequences — has seen it all.
Here are some of the funniest fantasy football league last-place finishes Berry has encountered through the years.
The Game of Thrones punishment: “If you’ve ever seen Game of Thrones, there was a league where they basically enacted the scene where [Cersei Lannister] had to walk naked through the whole town. The loser of the league was completely naked except for boxer shorts, and he was wearing a sign that said ‘Fantasy Football Loser’ around his neck. And the rest of the league followed him throughout the city in robes with bells going, ‘Shame! Shame!’”
The Posterizing punishment: “You know how at grade schools’ basketball courts the hoops are like only eight feet? They went to one of those eight-foot hoops, the loser of the league had to stand under the hoop, and then each member of the league took terms dunking on him — just completely posterizing him. And then they filmed it, and they shot it in slow motion and got [photos with] legs around him and everything dunking on the kid.”
The Paintball punishment: “There’s a league in the Bronx where the loser of the league has to dress up as a lion, and the rest of the league chases him with a paintball gun, they hunt him down. So you’ve got 11 people chasing this one guy, he’s in a lion outfit running around, and the other 11 are chasing him shooting at him with paintball guns.”
The Fathead punishment: “Maybe my favorite one is this league in San Diego, I actually don’t know if it’s still a thing. But do you know Fatheads, these massive posters you can stick to a wall? They’re often these life-size posters of like Josh Allen or Jalen Hurts or whatever, pick a superstar. Well, Fathead for a while had an option where you could send in a photo that could be made into a customizable Fathead. So the loser of the league had to get a Fathead of the winner. The winner got to choose the photo. And the loser had to display the Fathead in their bedroom.
“And the other rule was you weren’t allowed to explain why you had this Fathead,” Berry added. “So the year that I wrote about him, the guy that won was on a bear-skin rug wearing nothing but boxers and just posed with his hand on his head like he’s some centerfold model, but he’s some 25-year-old guy with a beer gut. So this poor kid [who finished in last], this single guy, for a year had to have a Fathead of his buddy in boxers, a giant life-size Fathead above his bed. I’m guessing his social life wasn’t great that particular year.”
