PodcastFrom Fantasy Football Today
8 Riskiest Players + Late-Round Tight Ends, Injury Updates & More! (08/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 4 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 27, 2026
Published
Thu, August 27, 2026
36
Player insights
33
Players mentioned
Topics
Bucky IrvingChristian WatsonJonathon BrooksAlec PierceBreece HallBryce YoungChris BellChris GodwinChris RodriguezChristian McCaffreyDalton SchultzDeVonta SmithJadarian PriceJames Conner
Player analysis
Player insights
Alec Pierce
Breece Hall
NegativeBust36:40
Dave Richard is fading Breece Hall, labeling him a 'do not draft' candidate in the third round. He cites concerns over the Jets' offensive effectiveness, Frank Reich's utilization, and a training camp groin injury.
Insight pageBryce Young
NegativeProjection62:00
JJ Zachariason notes that Bryce Young struggles under pressure, which is bad news for the entire Carolina offense.
Insight pageBucky Irving
PositiveBreakout5:07
Bucky Irving is identified as one of the biggest risers in the industry, with his ADP climbing to the 3-4 turn in recent FFT Open Leagues.
Insight pagePositiveBreakout24:23
Dave Richard remains high on Bucky Irving, keeping him as a top 50 player. He expects Irving to handle goal-line work and potentially exceed 1,000 total yards with around 35-50 catches, noting that Irving looks bigger and fits a scheme favorable to his outside-run style.
Insight pageChris Bell
PositiveInjury43:35
Chris Bell is trending toward a Week 1 return and could potentially play in the season opener.
Insight pageChris Godwin
NegativeValue22:08
JJ Zachariason has moved Chris Godwin into his top 30 wide receivers, viewing him as a reliable target-earner worth taking in the late fifth or early sixth round to avoid the volatility of other receivers in that range.
Insight pageChris Rodriguez
NegativeRole43:50
Chris Rodriguez took reps in the two-minute drill with LaQuinn Allen out, but JJ Zachariason notes this shouldn't cause panic regarding Bejal Tootin unless Allen's injury persists. Zachariason fears Rodriguez may be the goal-line back, though he notes Tootin had better efficiency inside the five-yard line last year.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
NegativeBust5:36
JJ Zachariason expresses concern regarding Christian McCaffrey's durability, noting that in the two seasons he exceeded 400 total touches, he failed to play a full season the following year. Additionally, the 49ers' offseason additions of Mike Evans, DeJount Stribbling, and a healthy George Kittle suggest the team may reduce their reliance on McCaffrey in the passing game, potentially lowering his PPR upside to a 16-18 points per game range.
Insight pageChristian Watson
PositiveProjection20:41
JJ Zachariason feels better about taking a chance on Watson due to a potential target uptick; he averaged 5.5 targets last year and could reach 6.3 with the departures of Dobbs and Wicks. While he is volatile—having 18+ PPR points in only 3 of 8 games with a 70%+ route rate—he profiles as the WR1 on a good offense and could reach 14 PPR points per game.
Insight pageNegativeBreakout32:02
Christian Watson is highlighted as a breakout candidate due to his efficiency as a yards-per-target standout. While volatility is a concern, his target share increased significantly late last season, and he is preferred over Mike Evans by some analysts due to his youth and current health status.
Insight pageDalton Schultz
PositiveValue28:10
Dalton Schultz is viewed as a relevant late-round tight end option due to injuries opening up opportunities. He had over 100 targets last year and previously averaged 11.9 PPR points per game during a mid-to-late season stretch.
Insight pageDeVonta Smith
PositiveProjection60:16
Zachariason is excited about Devontae Smith's outlook, citing the expectation that the Eagles' offensive line will bounce back to being one of the best in the league.
Insight pageJadarian Price
PositiveValue45:55
Jadarian Price is viewed as a high-upside late-round target, especially while Zach Charbonnet is sidelined. While there are questions about his role and the Seattle backfield, Zachariason notes Price has fewer obstacles than Bejal Tootin and could be a steal if he secures the featured role.
Insight pageJames Conner
NegativeInjury46:45
James Connor is questionable for Week 1 due to an ankle injury but is expected to factor into the Arizona offense.
Insight pageJayden Daniels
NegativeProjection55:42
Concerns about the Commanders' offensive line, which is ranked among the worst in the league, could force Jayden Daniels to speed up his throws or rely on his legs. While this creates injury risk, it also provides rushing upside. Zachariason maintains him as his QB6.
Insight pageJeremiyah Love
NegativeRole22:30
Jeremiah Love's fantasy value has dropped to the fourth round due to an ankle injury and concerns about his role in a crowded backfield. Tyler Algier's presence threatens Love's touchdown upside, and analysts prefer taking chances on healthier players like Devon Achan or DeAndre Swift.
Insight pageJonathon Brooks
NegativeRole62:05
JJ Zachariason suggests that Jonathan Brooks will likely require improved offensive line play in Carolina to reach his full fantasy potential.
Insight pageNegativeProjection62:05
Jonathan Brooks may struggle to hit his potential due to concerns regarding the Panthers' offensive line, which is currently in flux.
Insight pageJosh Allen
NegativeValue37:26
Josh Allen is a 'do not draft' player at his current ADP of 19th overall. JJ Zachariason argues he is not significantly better than the field of quarterbacks available in round four or later.
Insight pageJosh Downs
NegativeInjury22:53
Josh Downs is currently dealing with a minor calf injury, leading to a debate regarding his draft value compared to other options.
Insight pageJosh Jacobs
PositiveUsage19:15
Despite minor concerns regarding a potential suspension and recent injury, Josh Jacobs is viewed as a top-30 player. When healthy, he averaged 19 PPR points per game last season, and he has recently returned to 11-on-11 practice drills.
Insight pageJuwan Johnson
PositiveValue28:48
Juwan Johnson is a viable late-round tight end target, especially with Jordan Mims out, as he should be second on the team in targets. He averaged 11.7 points per game in nine games with Tyler Shuck last year.
Insight pageKenneth Walker III
NegativeInjury43:19
Kenneth Walker experienced swelling in his foot caused by his shoe, but JJ Zachariason does not believe the injury is a significant concern.
Insight pageLuther Burden
PositiveInjury43:31
Luther Burden has returned to practice and is trending toward being available for Week 1.
Insight pageMakai Lemon
PositiveUsage46:48
Makai Lemon has been utilized frequently in motion and on short-area throws for Philadelphia.
Insight pagePuka Nacua
NegativeInjury13:42
Puka Nacua is dealing with a groin injury and has missed practice time, leading to concerns that the injury could linger or limit him early in the season. Despite this, his floor remains high as a WR10 if healthy, and historical data suggests he would still maintain strong fantasy production even if the Rams' pass volume regresses to middle-of-the-pack levels.
Insight pageRashod Bateman
PositiveUsage46:53
Rashad Bateman has performed well with Zay Flowers sidelined, leading to speculation about whether he could impact Flowers' target share.
Insight pageSaquon Barkley
PositiveProjection60:16
Zachariason is excited about Saquon Barkley's outlook, citing the expectation that the Eagles' offensive line will bounce back to being one of the best in the league.
Insight pageStefon Diggs
PositiveUsage56:20
The Commanders' offensive line issues may force shorter throws from Jayden Daniels, which could benefit Stefan Diggs if his route depth is adjusted.
Insight pageTerrance Ferguson
NegativeSleeper29:00
Terrence Ferguson is a wait-and-see late-round tight end prospect. While not a starter yet, he could become a valuable asset by mid-season if he secures the third pass-catcher role in his offense.
Insight pageTreVeyon Henderson
NegativeValue37:47
TreVeyon Henderson is a 'do not draft' candidate at his current ADP of 67th overall, especially given his recent injury. JJ Zachariason suggests drafting players like Blake Corum or Kyle Monongai rounds later for similar upside.
Insight pageTua Tagovailoa
NegativeRole50:52
Tua Tagovailoa is set to start for the Dolphins, while Michael Penix Jr. will not play.
Insight pageTucker Kraft
Tyler Warren
NegativeInjury43:43
The Colts are playing it safe with Tyler Warren, who may not practice this week as they aim to have him ready for Week 1.
Insight pageZach Charbonnet
NegativeInjury48:24
Zach Charbonnet is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in January, creating uncertainty regarding his availability and role for the start of the season.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
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0:52Livemomentus.com, promo code FFT. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
0:55What a play! Can you believe this! It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
1:00Off to the races! And he stays at his feet!
1:03He's just gonna go the distance! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
1:08Hey, big weekend of fantasy drafts is coming up, and I just realized I need some team names.
1:13I just, uh, I'm not feeling my team name game right now, so happy to hear some suggestions.
1:19We'll definitely get Team Name Tuesday back in the mix at some point.
1:23Welcome to the show! I got a good one from last night.
1:27What was it? Uh, one of my team names in one of the leagues we do is gonna be Go to the 500 section.
1:34Ha ha ha ha! The last hour of our draft-a-thon just really got away from me.
1:39Really got away. The last 40 minutes when Nando came on.
1:43Really, Nando host. What a shocker. If the two, uh, young men who are, uh, came on the show last night that
1:50randomly came on the show last night, uh, at Universal Studios.
1:53I hope they're having a great time. I hope they got to see Scott Fish again.
1:58And that was one of the most incredible things ever.
2:01It was so cool. I wish, like, we should do more of that.
2:05I mean, you never know how it's gonna happen, but it was basically, for those of you who missed it, we had our three-hour draft-a-thon show yesterday.
2:14I'm gonna talk about some of the, uh, things that some of the other analysts from around the industry said.
2:20But we had Scott Fish joining us live from Universal Studios where he was vacationing.
2:25And he just started, I was like, we were like, let's get some man-on-the-street stuff.
2:29So he just started shouting out, hey, Christian McCaffrey or Amon Ross St.
2:33Brown? Nobody paid attention. Christian McCaffrey or Amon Ross St.
2:37Brown? Then he finally found these two guys who, he was like, you guys know Jamie Eisenberg?
2:42You guys know Mike Florio? And they were like, yeah, yeah.
2:45They came on and asked some questions. It was very cool.
2:49But that was last night. Today is today. Thank you all for donating.
2:53Thank you all for watching. Today, we're gonna try to help you get ready for your draft, telling you about risky players
3:00like Christian McCaffrey and Ashton Gentey and Jeremiah Love, when to take them, giving you news updates, giving you some takeaways from the draft-a-thon.
3:07One of the biggest risers I think is pretty clear at this point is Bucky Irving.
3:12Whether the industry's gonna be right about him or not.
3:15I mean, I saw him going at the 3-4 turn in one of the FFT Open Leagues yesterday.
3:21I want to talk about Bucky Irving. A little bit of do not draft list.
3:26And offensive line. We're gonna talk about some offensive lines.
3:29Apparently, the commander's offensive line struggled mightily in joint practices.
3:32And who else is worrying us right now? Let's start with drafting risky players.
3:36Christian McCaffrey is blank in your rankings. Jamie? 11th.
3:39Dave? 8th. 8th. Okay. Me, he's more like 5th.
3:42I don't really. It just kind of, whenever I feel it, whenever I'm feeling it, let's just go with that.
3:48Sounds like you're feeling it. This guy has averaged 23.8 or more PPR fantasy points four times in his career.
3:54Four full seasons in his career, at least 16 games.
3:58And I'll remind you, in 2022, Christian McCaffrey had 381 touches.
4:01He played three postseason games. They probably went to the Super Bowl that year.
4:05It was a long run. Maybe it was an NFC Championship game.
4:09And he came back the next year, played 16 games on average, 24.7 points per game.
4:14So no, he didn't have 400 touches, but he had 381.
4:18I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not crazy.
4:20Who would you? I mean, you're not crazy. Look, he's amazing.
4:24We all want him to be amazing. We all want him to be the same guy that he was last year and
4:31the same guy that he's been every year of his career when he's been healthy.
4:35However, two times he's been over 400 total touches and two times he has failed to play a full season the next year.
4:43So it's tough to say it's safe. And you reference what year?
4:4623. What's 2022? 381 touches, including. No, I don't think that's right.
4:50I think it's 2023. No, it's 2022. Oh, okay.
4:53Maybe it's 23. It was the year he got traded to the Niners.
4:57Oh, I see. 2022. Okay. So this year was San Francisco.
5:002024, he missed time. Yeah. So 2022, 381 touches.
5:03They did not go to the Super Bowl. That was the year where Purdy got hurt in the playoffs.
5:09They lost Philadelphia. Okay. They lost the NFC Championship game.
5:12Three postseason games, though. And then he played a full season, basically, and he averaged over 24 points per game the year after.
5:19But he didn't hit 400 touches. I get it.
5:22Yeah. Three years ago. He's 30 now. Young. Whatever this mysterious absence was.
5:26All part of the plan, Jamie. You're not paying attention.
5:29Yeah, all part of the plan that his coach either lied about or he wasn't forthcoming about or just, hey, I'm good.
5:36Listen, nobody wants to be more wrong than me.
5:39I want to be wrong on this. It's the same thing I said about Barkley last year.
5:44I want to be wrong on this. I want him to be awesome.
5:48I have McCaffrey in my longest running Dynasty League.
5:51I have McCaffrey in a league that I drafted the other day because he fell to 11, and it was too hard to pass up at that point.
6:00So I think if you're comfortable drafting him, you've been the only person that I've seen in drafts that I've done that has taken him fifth overall.
6:08I thought Mike Florio said it best on our stream last night.
6:12He wants other people to take him. I feel the same way.
6:16I want somebody else to take him, and I want them to be rewarded by doing so.
6:21But at the same time, I'm drafting a lot of Kalen Black.
6:25I want to see who's going to be the number two running back there because we've been down this path before.
6:32So I'm nervous. That's the only way I could frame it is I'm nervous about McCaffrey staying healthy for a full season.
6:38Let me tack on one other thing, Adam. Look at what the Niners did this offseason.
6:43They brought in Mike Evans. They brought back Debo Samuel.
6:47They drafted DeJount Stribbling. He's going to be a thing.
6:50George Kittle's healthy. They are not going to be, or at least they don't want to be, as reliant through the air
6:57on McCaffrey as they were last year. 7.1 targets per game for McCaffrey was a high.
7:02That's the highest average he had since he went to San Francisco.
7:05It's the second highest of his career. It's the highest he's had in San Francisco by 1.7 targets per game.
7:12So if we knock that down, and it makes sense to knock that down given everybody that they've added in San Francisco, that's fewer catches.
7:19That lowers the PPR threshold. That lowers what the upside is.
7:23And I think the addition of Kalen Black and Jordan James getting healthy, I think they're there to take some of those lesser important carries off of McCaffrey.
7:32And that just opens the door for him having just a little bit less.
7:36And I talked about it on the draft-a-thon. I think there's a world where he averages somewhere between 16 and 18 PPR
7:43points per game and make that look like 12 to 14 non-PPR points per game, something in that range, where he's still
7:50worth a first-round pick, but not a top-six pick.
7:53And there's obvious downside. We've talked about it. Jamie just talked about it.
7:57It's real. And it makes me nervous to take him anywhere close to where you're taking him, Adam.
8:02That's fine. I understand. I understand. I'm looking at eight different FFT Open leagues.
8:07I'm going to tell you, he went 11th. He went 11th, 7th, 6th, 8th, 4th.
8:11I saw him go third in one league, seventh in this league, eighth in this league.
8:16I may have repeated one. Fifth in this league.
8:19So he's all over the place. Next up, next up, risky player, Puka Nakua.
8:23Maybe suspended. Still has in practice. He's got a groin injury for Puka, is it?
8:28Yes. Yeah. Would you rather have Puka Nakua or Jackson Smith in Jigba?
8:32Today, it's Puka. But we're getting closer to that point where if he's not back at practice soon, you've got to imagine
8:39that this injury could limit him a little bit early on in the year.
8:43And maybe it lingers on. And you might feel better taking JSN.
8:47Jamie, Puka or JSN? It would be St. Brown for me if I have to choose another receiver, but it would probably
8:54be both of them going to move Puka down.
8:57So I think just looking at it that his ceiling is wide receiver one.
9:01We saw that last year. His floor is probably wide receiver 10, I think, at minimum, as long as he's healthy.
9:08So hopefully there's, you know, reason to buy into him still being that guy.
9:12And as of now, I agree with Dave. I'm not moving him down.
9:16Yeah. It's just the only two players who averaged more than 22 points per game last year, other than quarterbacks, were Puka Nakua and Christian McCaffrey.
9:24And it's a shame that we have questions about both of them going in.
9:29I want to show a graphic here because we got an email, great email from Bob.
9:34It said, is anyone slightly concerned with Puka's 2026 volume given how stout the Rams defense is projected to be?
9:40Doesn't it seem more likely for JSN to finish with more points?
9:44So I did some numbers here. I want you to look.
9:47This is Puka Nakua. Now, he usually has every year of his career has had 10 to 12 carries.
9:53What I did was... Carries. Oh, yeah. Carries. Carries.
9:56So I just used his receiving stats. Didn't put any carries in there at all.
10:01Fantasy points per game last year just on receiving stats for Puka Nakua was 22.5.
10:05The Rams ranked fifth in pass attempts. The rest of this is hypotheticals.
10:09Sorry, it says 2023 and 2024 and the fantasy points per game.
10:13That's actually my mistake. That's not what those numbers are.
10:16So you can ignore that if you're looking at the graphic.
10:20These numbers are, let's just say the Rams were 16th in pass attempts last year.
10:24How many points would Puka have averaged based on his yards per catch, yards per target, catch rate, touchdown rate over the
10:31last two seasons and his target share? If they had been 16th in pass attempts per game, Puka would have averaged 20.1
10:38points per game on 167 targets last year. If they had been 28th, I think worst case scenario, fifth fewest pass attempts
10:45in the NFL, he would have averaged 17.4 fantasy points per game.
10:49And that's bad. That's bad for a guy who's going to the top five.
10:53That's like a second round pick or maybe a one-two turn kind of player.
10:58But that's if the Rams had been 28th in pass attempts.
11:01I don't see that happening. They're usually middle of the pack in pass attempts.
11:05Last year they were fifth. They're usually middle of the pack in pass rate.
11:10So I think maybe you look at if they had been 16th in pass attempts, he still would have had 167 targets.
11:17He's had a 30% target share when he's been on the field each of the last two seasons.
11:22And he played three games last year, three healthy games where the Rams allowed less than 14 points.
11:28And he had 8, 11, and 11 targets in those three games.
11:32Hope that helps a little bit. Next risky player is Ashton Gentty.
11:35Since seeing him a lot in the middle of round two, sometimes all the way to the middle of round three.
11:42Would you rather have Ashton Gentty or Devante Smith?
11:45Still Gentty right now, but that's close. They're almost back-to-back for me.
11:49Almost back-to-back for me, too. I've got Smith two spots higher.
11:52Josh Jacobs. There was a note yesterday. It was a little almost alarmist that they talked about the Jacobs suspension in a press conference.
11:59They said they have plans in place in case Josh Jacobs gets suspended.
12:04But they didn't say they expected it or anything like that.
12:07This was the GM for the Packers. Would you rather have Josh Jacobs or a preseason riser, Travis A.
12:13Chan? Jacobs. Still Jacobs for now. Okay. Still close.
12:16Jamie, you see the breaking news? On Alec Pierce, yeah.
12:19Yes. Oh, he's off the pup list. That's great.
12:22That's really good. Okay. And Josh Downs has a calf injury.
12:25We're going to talk about him soon. All right.
12:28So, Jacobs, you're taking him ahead of A. Chan.
12:31How about Jacobs or Kyron Williams? Jacob. Oh, Trev.
12:34You said A. Chan, and immediately my mind went to Devon A.
12:37Chan. I would rather have Devon A. Chan than Josh Jacobs.
12:41Who did you ask now? Which Williams? Kyron. I'd rather have Jacobs than Kyron Williams.
12:45I'd rather have Jacobs than Kyron and Javante Williams.
12:48So, is Jacobs top 30 player for you? Yes.
12:51No. Okay. Where is he, Dave? 26th. All right.
12:54He was RB9 last year, and he was even better than that before he kind of played the last few games of the year injured.
13:02Bagged up. And he had three games where he played fewer than 40% of the snaps.
13:07Take away those three games. His healthy games. Josh Jacobs averaged 19 PPR fantasy points per game.
13:12I mean, that is a first-round player. So, it's very appealing.
13:15But, you know, he hasn't been practicing. I think he's back.
13:19He just got back, right? To practice. I don't know if he's gone through any full team drills yet, but he has been back at practice.
13:27I think he has. He did. I think he just did 11 on 11 for the first time this week in a long time, Josh Jacobs.
13:35Which is fine, especially for running backs. Like, you don't want them getting all beat up during camp.
13:41And let them take it easy. As long as they're practicing in full, you know, week and a half, two weeks before
13:48the start of the season, we're good. All right.
13:50Next up, Jeremiah Love or Tee Higgins? Jeremiah Love being one of those risky players.
13:55Tee Higgins probably one of the safer players. Higgins for me.
13:59Tee. I think it's getting kind of crazy with Jeremiah Love.
14:02I mean, he's a fourth-round pick in a lot of leagues right now.
14:06And why? Why such a downgrade? That's like a full round.
14:09And he could be back for week one. Where would you draft RB16?
14:14Round three. Mid-to-late round three. Mid-to-late round three. Exactly where I have Love.
14:18That's what Gentty was last season. And that's – there was an email.
14:22I can't remember who it was. It was one of the best emails we got all year, I think.
14:28For me, anyway. Said, we had Gentty – we had Love ranked somewhere around 13, 14, you know, before his high ankle sprain.
14:35And he said, Gentty was RB15 or 16 last year per game.
14:39That's the worst outcome that we've seen from any running back drafted in the top 10, you know, over the last 10 years or so.
14:46Zeke, Fournette, even McCaffrey in full PBR. McCaffrey didn't have a great rookie season.
14:51He just caught a ton of passes. McCaffrey, Jameer – not Jameer – but B.
14:55John Robinson. Yeah, anyway, like, it seems like we were drafting Love at his floor before the ankle injury.
15:01Now he's going around later. Am I not reading – Now he has an ankle injury.
15:06Yeah, he does. That's why. But it was a preseason month.
15:10All right. I get it. I mean, look, it's a good sign that he was back at practice yesterday, you know, doing
15:17some rehab stuff visibly, you know, so people can see, you know, that he's moving around.
15:22I think the concern comes in that he's injured on a bad team with a rough schedule with competition in his backfield
15:29of one specific scenario that hurts his upside. And that's the touchdowns.
15:32Because if Tyler Algier does what Tyler Algier is capable of doing and probably the role that he's going to play, that's
15:39where Jeremiah Love is going to lose. Look, he looked awesome in that game against the Raiders before he got hurt.
15:46He has the ability to be awesome. Again, I don't think this is someone that you necessarily run away from.
15:52But what has changed on top of his ankle injury is Travis Achan's competition is also hurt.
15:57And so I would rather take the chance on him over Jeremiah Love just given the circumstances.
16:03DeAndre Swift's competition is hurt. I'd rather take the chance on Swift over Love.
16:07That's just two players that I dropped him behind.
16:10He was already in that mix, which I think a lot of people were struggling with, of Josh Jacobs and Kyron Williams and maybe Javante Williams.
16:18And so that whole jumbled group that starts round three and goes into round four, there's pros and cons for all of them.
16:25And so who's healthy, who's not is a big factor.
16:28And I think right now, Jeremiah Love factoring in everything is a little bit risky, which is why you bring him up.
16:35Yeah, no, he is for sure. And he's going, you know, I just have eight random FFT open leagues pulled up.
16:42He's going similarly to Colston Loveland. Who would you guys rather have?
16:45Loveland or Love? Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love.
16:48Love. All right. We're going to take a break.
16:51I got a book of versus Garrett Wilson. Mike.
16:54What'd you say with a little Loveland, we're the little Loveland, Mike Evans versus Christian Watson, Josh Downs versus the John Stribling.
17:01We'll be right back to talk about more risky players, then give you some draft a thon takeaways.
17:06A couple of couple of or three late round tight ends.
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18:09Terms apply. See site for details. All right, I'm going to move on to a Mecca of Buka here, but I forgot to have played.
18:17The worst soundbite thing ever when we were talking about it.
18:21I thought you did that on purpose. There we go.
18:24A Mecca of Buka or Garrett Wilson? Who do you like better now?
18:28Garrett Wilson. G-Dub. What a shame. It is. Yeah.
18:31Wilson or, I mean, a Buka or Tedro McMillan?
18:34They're back to back and I've got Ted a spot higher.
18:37I think the thing about the players you keep bringing up is if you're into drafting them, you're going to get them at great value now.
18:45I know. Think about this. Luther Burden comes back to practice yesterday, right?
18:49We all love Luther Burden before he got hurt.
18:52The entire industry loved Luther Burden before he got hurt.
18:55And now you got him in round five potentially.
18:58Well, would you rather have a Buka or Burden?
19:01I still have a Buka ranked one spot ahead of him, but if a Buka remains out through the weekend and into
19:08the right part of next week, I'm with Burden in.
19:11I have a Buka higher considerably. Mike Evans, who plans to play week one, even though he has a groin injury, according to Jeremy Fowler or Christian Watson?
19:19Watson. Double checking my rankings. I have Watson higher.
19:22Yeah, we had Adam Ronis on yesterday during the draft-a-thon.
19:25He's from Fantasy Life, and he's got an FFT Open League, and he's a terrific analyst.
19:30And I asked him for some breakouts. He mentioned Christian Watson.
19:34And it's just, I want to, you know, it's been a while since we've really broken down these players, but I want
19:41to remind everybody, Christian Watson is a yards-per-target standout.
19:44He has been second in yards-per-target two straight seasons behind Alec Pierce both times.
19:48High ADOT guys usually are great at that. But he was also starting to get, you know, a lower ADOT.
19:54Like, came back first three games last year at a 26-yard ADOT from weeks 11 through 18.
19:5915.5-yard ADOT, which is high, but it's not that high for Christian Watson.
20:04And a 23.5% target share. 28.3% target per outrun rate from weeks 11 through 18 or 17, I can't remember, for Christian Watson.
20:11Exciting stuff, but no Tucker Craft during that stretch.
20:14Didn't really have a healthy Jaden Reed. Matthew Golden, you know.
20:17But, okay, you guys are taking Christian Watson over Mike Evans.
20:20Are you yet? I think Christian Watson is such a good player, but I do worry about the targets, you know.
20:27Yeah. I worry about the volatility. I'm still taking Evans.
20:30Reluctantly. I'm worried about his volatility, too. I mean, we're talking about two players that have some injury concerns.
20:36But at least one of them is a little bit younger and isn't hurt now.
20:41And that's Watson. And I feel better taking the chance on Watson.
20:44Seeing an uptick in targets, he averaged five and a half last year.
20:49If we're thinning the receiving core in Green Bay with no more Dobbs and no more Wicks, then maybe he can get to 6.3 targets per game.
20:57And that can bump up his PPR points per game to maybe closer to 14.
21:02I think it's going to be a roller coaster, though.
21:05I've looked at so many metrics with him, and it's less than 50% of the time.
21:10Less than 50% of the time, he was good when he had a 70%-plus route rate over the past two years.
21:16Christian Watson? This is Christian Watson. Eight games, including the postseason, where he had 70% of the routes run last year.
21:2318-plus PPR in three of them. 12.6 or fewer in the other five.
21:27He's good enough to be a low-end number two wide receiver.
21:30Not worth reaching for, but there's that point in the draft.
21:34You get to late round five, early round six, and you look at what's left, and you might get a little nervous.
21:41At least you're taking a guy who does profile as the number one wide receiver on what should honestly be a good Green Bay offense.
21:49And maybe that defense isn't as good, and it forces a lot of pass-heavy game scripts.
21:54You have a lot of guys in that range that are very similar profile.
21:58You have Jameson Williams. You have Marvin Harrison. You have Mike Evans, Christian Watson.
22:02They're, for the most part, volatile players, somewhat touchdown dependent, may or may not lead their team in targets.
22:08Brian Thomas Jr., all these type of guys. So the pivots, if you need a receiver in that range, I've moved Chris Godwin into the top 30.
22:17I think he's worth taking in this range at this point, late round five, early round six.
22:22Parker Washington, another one that has that type of upside as well.
22:26So if you just don't want to deal with the inconsistencies but targeting guys that are going to get more targets, you
22:33can move to a couple of different wide receivers there.
22:36Okay. Let's go on to, by the way, the Packers have been 30th and 27th in pass attempts the last two years.
22:43Just get me closer to 20, and then we won't have to worry so much about the target crunch.
22:49Let's go to the last one that I have here on this risky players list.
22:53We've liked Josh Downs all offseason. Would you rather have Josh Downs who's now dealing with what's being called a minor calf injury or Dijon Stribbling?
23:01I'll take Stribbling. Downs for Dave, Stribbling for Jamie.
23:04Okay. We didn't get a ton of consensus on this one.
23:08We did with Abuka versus Garrett Wilson. We did – oh, is that with – D.
23:13Higgins and Love, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about Gentry or Devontae Smith?
23:17I forgot. What did you guys say there? I said Smith.
23:20I said Gentry for now. Okay. All right. Well, there you go.
23:24Let's tell you what you need to know in terms of content.
23:28We have our must-draft destination on the fantasy site, cbssports.com slash FFT must-draft.
23:32We love that you listen to the podcast, but if you want our must-draft players, you want a little write-up on them,
23:39you can go to that URL, cbssports.com slash FFT must-draft.
23:42This is a brand-new feature that we have, exclusive picks from the FFT crew organized by where we target these players throughout the draft.
23:50So as you move through the draft, you can see which players we think you should be targeting in each range.
23:56Again, it's brand new. Be one of the first to check it out.
24:00It's brand new. That's brand new. What time are you guys on?
24:04Noon? Yes. Noon, Eastern, CBS Sports Network. If you miss it, you can see the replay at youtube.com slash Fantasy Football today.
24:11The guys will be talking about their do-not-draft list, and we'll have a little preview of that later on in today's show.
24:18Draft-a-thon takeaways. ways. So there was a, you know, decent amount of buzz about Bucky Irving and him moving up.
24:24And I wonder if we're overreacting a little bit from Pew to report, just speculating that Sean Tucker might not make the roster.
24:31And now we're just maybe thinking, oh, well, he's not a factor anymore.
24:35Um, Dave, you mentioned on the show last night, you saw Sean Tucker not working with the starters, but to me, that's
24:42not a huge surprise because his role, he's not a starter.
24:45He's just maybe a goal linebacker, but one way or another, Bucky Irving seems to be on the rise right now.
24:52Dave, do you feel that? Do you think it's act?
24:55Do you think it's justified? And where are you on Bucky?
24:59I'm not ready to move them up my rankings, but I also never really sent him too far South in my rankings.
25:05He's a top 50 player. He remains a top 50 player, uh, would take him ahead of running backs like Judkins, Scadaboo price and Montgomery.
25:13And it's on the hunch that maybe this worry about Tucker does go away a little bit.
25:19And Bucky is best suited to handle most of that work near the goal line, but he's also, he looks great.
25:25Put on a little bit of muscle. He looked a little bit bigger than I remember him being, and they're going to
25:32run a scheme that's going to be favorable to him.
25:35A lot of outside runs, letting him win the edge on the outside.
25:39I think he can do that against plenty of defenses.
25:42The offensive line for now is healthy. They were under siege on the first day of their joint practice against Jacksonville, but
25:49that was in pass protection more so than, than run.
25:52And you worry a little bit about because last year he definitely got a bunch, certainly early on in the year, 4.8
25:59targets per game in his first four games before he got hurt.
26:03I think that goes down because gain well's there, but he's, he stands out as somebody who could get north, well, north
26:10of a thousand total yards and still catch in the neighborhood of 35 passes.
26:14Let's call it. So it comes down to just how many touchdowns he gets.
26:19And he had no carries inside the five last year, but Sean Tucker at nine Rashad white had eight.
26:25And if those guys aren't there, that means that those carries are up for grabs.
26:29I'd be surprised if they went to, if Tucker's not on the team, then Josh Williams, I'd be surprised if gain well
26:36got a lot of those, I think Bucky would be in line.
26:40And so getting him at that four or five turn range, I'm good with.
26:44I'm hopeful for more than 35 catches from Bucky Irving.
26:47You know, I keep giving this stat, but the first four games of the year, he was on pace for 81 catches
26:54did not have a single target on third down in those four games.
26:58I don't think 81 is even close to possible, but you know, 50, I think could be just because Baker Mayfield has
27:05had a history with Tampa Bay of throwing to his running backs on first and second down gain.
27:11Well, it's definitely going to play on first and second down, but you know, Bucky will play a little bit on third down, I think.
27:19But anyway, like, uh, yeah. So four or five turn, we're still thinking for Bucky.
27:23That's where I've got him, Jamie. He's in round four for me.
27:27I think just, you know, the part of the, the, the reason that I moved him up was really more about the
27:34guys in front of him with scadaboo and this whole mess of what the giants backfield could look like.
27:40I'd rather take Bucky Judkins and the offense that he's going to be on and just the struggles that are happening there.
27:47So I just feel like when we get to that point of past the group that I mentioned, you know, Javante and
27:54Kyron and Jacobs and Jeremiah love a chance, Swift, uh, Brees hall, like he's the next running back.
27:59Yes. Yeah. Okay. Uh, what else from last night?
28:02So there were some, uh, some late round tight ends that were talked about Ben Gretsch and Dan Schneier both talked up Terrence Ferguson.
28:10Jacob talked up Juwan Johnson and Dalton Schultz. Jamie, how would you rank Juwan Johnson, Terrence Ferguson and Dalton Schultz?
28:16And who's, you know, when you talk about the highest guy, where is he in your rankings?
28:21Uh, those guys are all back to back to back 15, 16 and 17.
28:25Um, so Andrews is tight end 13 as the first number two tight end in my rankings.
28:31Kincaid is 14, 15 is Schultz, uh, just with the Higgins absence.
28:35And, you know, I think he'll be over a hundred targets.
28:38He had over a hundred targets last year. Prior to that, he was basically 88 targets in each of the first two years in Houston.
28:46Uh, Juwan Johnson right after him, you know, the longer Jordan Tyson is out, I think the better that is for Johnson
28:53who should be second on the team and targets.
28:55And then Terrence Ferguson is the highest Ferguson in my rankings ahead of Jake Ferguson.
29:00Um, that could change once we get some clarification on Puka's scenario of health plus suspension, because I think that's the guy
29:07who wins the most if there is no Puka for any missed games, but they still need a third pass catcher.
29:14And by all accounts, he's going to be the third pass catcher there unless you're factoring Kyron.
29:19So we'll see. But, um, I think just looking at upside the two veterans and the second year guy for me, better
29:26than Brenton strange, better than I had Chico Conklo there for a majority of the off season prior to Stefan dig signing.
29:33Um, I'm trying to think of any other veteran guys.
29:36There are the, the also ran tight ends like, you know, Schultz and Johnson.
29:40I did not expect to be in this type of scenario, but injuries have opened the door for them to be very relevant once again.
29:48And I mean, Schultz had 106 targets last year.
29:51That's just, I never, I didn't remember that. He didn't really do that much with them, but that's part of the problem.
29:58Well, he actually did do a lot with them in PPR at the second half of the season.
30:03Yeah. You know, he was, he was a guy we kept saying he should be added.
30:08He should be started. He should be started. He should be started.
30:12He should be going to be the case once again.
30:15And the same thing with John Johnson, you know, these guys were afterthoughts that could be very relevant to your fantasy team.
30:22Probably going to be a little frustrating, but Dalton Schultz did have a nine game stretch mid season, you know, mid to
30:29late where he averaged 11.9 PPR fantasy points per game.
30:32He had some huge games in there. John Johnson got off to a great start, then slumped, then got pretty good.
30:39But then like the last four games of the year, Devon Vele did not play in any of them.
30:45Chris Olave missed week 18 and he still, oh, John Johnson only had a 17.5% target share, but he did average 11.7
30:51points per game in nine games with Tyler Shuck just wasn't very consistent.
30:55But yeah, I mean, if you're sitting there going, man, my tight end stink, uh, John Johnson, Dalton Schultz, uh, I don't like those guys.
31:03You'd be okay throwing in your lineup week one, right?
31:06It's more for Ferguson. It's more of a let's wait and see kind of deal.
31:11I would assume. Sure. The other two guys as starters, you can't draft Ferguson as a starter.
31:16Right. Exactly. Okay. Unless Puka's out week one, doesn't make the trip to Australia.
31:21I don't, I don't think that anybody wants to start Ferguson yet.
31:25You can, if you're stuck, you know, like that's the gotta be with that qualified, right?
31:30So if, if you miss on tight end and you go with a combination of Schultz and Ferguson or Kincaid and Ferguson
31:36or Andrews, you know, even if you want to go to, you know, as high as Kittle, Kelsey Goddard, the last three
31:43guys that are typically rounding out the top 12, like you're not comfortable with whoever their matchups may be early in the
31:50season or in the case of, Hey, I'm going to take Kittle and, and that's your end.
31:55Then easily you're starting him if there is no Puka, but I don't think you want to go into the season with starting Ferguson.
32:03Like that's the type of guy that by the middle of the year, if he's heavily involved Puka or not, you'll be
32:10really thrilled that you have him on your team.
32:13And just talking about late round flyers, if you're desperate, I think it was, it was the draft-a-thon league that we did yesterday.
32:20I just kept taking running backs. I just really liked the value.
32:24I have like five good running backs, but I only, but it's a three receiver PPR league.
32:29So you can start four receivers. I only think I have four receivers on my roster.
32:34Uh, no, I have five, but Devon Valey is a guy I want to mention as someone who, if you're in that
32:41kind of format where you have to, where you could start three or four wide receivers and you, you know, and he might, he might be good.
32:49He might be okay for you at the beginning of the year.
32:53I don't know if he got drafted in this league.
32:56Remember Jamie Valey? I don't remember. I'm sorry. He did not.
33:00I feel like I could name five other, at least five, maybe even like 15 other receivers.
33:05I'd rather have. I'll tell you what, I have Khalil Shakir on my team.
33:09He was one of my last picks. That's one guy I'd rather have.
33:13I don't know. I would. All right. Trey Tucker booty.
33:16Now that he's in Houston. Uh, Dobbs is going with a late check.
33:21I would have taken for sure. He was off the way off the board.
33:25I would take flyers on both the dolphins rookies ahead of him too.
33:29Yeah. Yeah. All right. And wait a minute when you, Oh yeah.
33:33Both the dolphins. You're talking about, you're talking about bench players and I agree.
33:37Cause I don't think Valey has any real upside, but I think he could be, you know, 10 ish points per game in PPR, right?
33:45Like get you four catches a game or something like that.
33:48But I feel like we can, why are you drafting those players?
33:52Right. I'm sorry. I didn't draft them. I don't, but that profile, like why would you draft that profile?
33:58You may not have a choice. I'm saying he could, how many, what round are we in?
34:03If you don't have that choice, Adam around 18, 13, 14.
34:07No, you can find better than that. Half the people listening.
34:10Don't even know who Chris bell is. Chris bell is a rookie wide receiver on the dolphins who had just got taken
34:17off of the, the, uh, NFI list. He's coming back from an ACL.
34:21He's ramping up. I would much rather take the chance on him or his rookie teammate.
34:26Jamie just talked about these guys, Caleb Douglas in Miami.
34:29They're going to get fast tracked into the starting lineup.
34:32You draft players that have upside that might be able to hit within the first three weeks of the season.
34:39I don't think they lay has that. I don't think, I do not think Chris bell is going to hit within the first three weeks of the season.
34:47I might not, but they lay was solid last year.
34:51I mean, as I recall, tell me what solid is.
34:54Okay. Let's look. He scored 6.7, 23.3, seven and 11.9 fantasy points in his last four games before it's ending.
35:00One game. Great. One game. I would say a solid is the 11 point game.
35:05And then two games where he did not help you whatsoever.
35:08He had, he had seven, eight, five, and six targets in those four games.
35:12You think Chris bell is going to average six or more targets per game?
35:17Not at the beginning of the year, but, but so I think that you're both coming at it from the right perspective, but just different approaches.
35:25So I think Adam is trying to get somebody that if you're stuck early in the season, you can get some production from, but there's very limited upside.
35:34I think what Dave's talking about is, which is where I would side is that I would rather put players on my
35:41bench that hopefully by the middle to the end of the season are going to be in that starting conversation because they're good.
35:48I completely agree. We don't have to get into this more.
35:51I completely agree with you. There might be a scenario where you're in a league that you can start four receivers and
35:58two of your guys are hurt or something like that.
36:01And you're desperate. Devon Vele might get off to a better start than those high upside guys.
36:06It's all I wanted to say. It's that's fair.
36:09A very specific, find them off the waiver wire, very specific scenario.
36:13All right. Um, let's give me a real quick, we'll take another break in a second here, but give me a quick
36:20preview of your do not draft list and give me one guy that you're going to talk about on CBS sports network today.
36:27Dave Richard breeze hall going to stay on this Hill.
36:30I'll die on it. If I have to very worried about how effective the jets will be worried about how Frank Reich
36:37will utilize them and not maximize it. Don't like the fact that he had a groin injury in training camp.
36:43Hopefully he'll start practicing a week or two weeks before the season starts.
36:47And that'll be out of our heads. I know he's a good running back.
36:52I know he's talented and I know he had a lot of work last year, still average 13 PPR points per game.
36:59I don't think he's a third rounder. Do you think he's a fourth rounder?
37:03I think he's a fourth rounder and a late fourth rounder.
37:06Jamie do not draft list. We talked about a lot of them already.
37:11So, uh, I mean, I'm, I'm going to bring up more arguments against Gentry and love and McCaffrey.
37:16I don't think we need to talk to Von HN again about why I would not be drafting him.
37:22Uh, the other guy on the list is really more of an ADP thing.
37:26And that's Josh Allen. So, um, 19th overall when every other quarterback basically is round four or later, I just don't understand.
37:33He is not going to be that much better than the field.
37:37So do not take Josh Allen around two. I haven't drafted any Josh Allen and, uh, I haven't drafted any Travion Henderson either.
37:44That was the guy I gave last week, uh, on, on CBS sports HQ.
37:49Uh, just curious to see today. Let's see just over the last two days an NFC.
37:54Now that Travion Henderson is hurt, where is he going?
37:57He's going 67th overall. That's already basically tied with Ramondre Stevenson.
38:00I don't get it. I don't get it. I wonder if we're going to be a minute.
38:06You should get it. People love upside. They want to draft a player.
38:10That's got crazy good upside. He has as much upside as, as anybody.
38:14I think as it's true, but a previous episode, Adam, like ranked the, or somebody asked us the question, like rank the backup running backs.
38:21It's hard not to put him first, but it just is not what's reality right now.
38:26And the fact that you just gave a date range that factors in his injuries or injury.
38:32Um, yeah, which we don't think is a big deal, right?
38:35No, but now it's, it's usually something that moves the needle and he's still 66th on our site as well.
38:41And Ramondre 79th. Like that's not, I don't understand that.
38:45Yeah. Me neither. And also again, if you want to, if you want a player who has big upside, if the starter
38:51gets hurt, why take Travion Henderson in round six, when you could take Blake Corum, Kyle Monongai two or three rounds later,
38:58we know like, honestly, even Tyje Spears probably has no decent, not Travion Henderson upside, but he's going to be worth using.
39:05I think if Pollard's out and he goes super late now, okay, fine, fine.
39:10No. All right. Hashtag Titans. Well then don't draft Tony Pollard.
39:13I'm trying not to. All right. I've drafted a decent amount of Tony Pollard, but I'm sorry.
39:18Yeah. It might not be great. Um, all right, we're going to take a break and we'll come back with your news
39:25and notes on Omarian Hampton, Ken Walker, Luther Burden, and more.
39:29And we will finish with some offensive line talk and maybe see if we have time for your emails on fantasy football today.
39:36We'll be right back. My companion for this summer season has been Z Biotics.
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40:36I will send ice cream to the office for either one of you, if you can name without looking the four games that are on tonight.
40:44Oh, I don't know. No clue. Oh wait. Pre-season games.
40:47Yeah. Yeah. I literally looked this morning and now I can't remember.
40:51I looked five minutes ago and I forgot. Uh, it's been, it's been honestly the worst pre-season ever.
40:56Why? They're all bad. No, this has been awful.
40:59Like nobody plays. I feel like, uh, yeah, I feel like the first week we got a good amount of people playing
41:06and it was a little, my love injury. Yeah.
41:09Right. I think that spooked a lot of people.
41:12Well, also last third, like I just assumed last week there weren't going to be a lot of starters playing because all these teams had joint practices.
41:20And then last Thursday, a lot of the starters played.
41:23I was like, this is weird. But then Friday and Saturday, they did not at all.
41:28Basically, which was honestly great because I don't want to overreact from like one series.
41:33Um, all right. Tonight's Pittsburgh, Buffalo, San Fran, Las Vegas, New England at Cleveland, and the Rams are at the chargers.
41:40But now let's get into the news and notes brought to you by stitch fix.
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41:54Omari and Hampton, uh, Dave, I thought you said something, maybe said something last night.
41:59I don't know if it was you about Hampton and just a glowing report about him.
42:04And then we saw McDaniel say something glowing about him.
42:07What's the deal here? Lots of glowing stuff about him.
42:10Daniel Popper from the athletic who is around the chargers quite a bit says, don't overthink it.
42:16It's a no brainer. Omari and Hampton is the lead back.
42:19And then Mike McDaniel took to the press and compared Omari and Hampton to Terrell Davis.
42:24Yeah, that's lofty stuff. That's a, that might be a little much for Omari and Hampton.
42:29That's a coach maybe given a little too much lip service, but it certainly, he wouldn't say these things if he didn't
42:36believe in Omari and Hampton to be a capable lead running back for his team.
42:41Chargers offensive line is mostly healthy losing badish stinks, but they've got their tackles.
42:45They'll be able to solve the problem on the interior of their offensive line.
42:49And I think Hampton is now set up for a much, much better year than he had last year.
42:55And last year was pretty good. Nine games, 15.1 PPR points per game.
42:59I have them as a top 15 running back.
43:02I'm sorry. Top 15 overall. Of course it's a top 15 running back.
43:06Goodness gracious. So you could take both, but if you had a late first round pick, would you take Hampton CD lamb or Justin Jefferson?
43:14Lamb lamb would be the pick Jamie lamb, Jefferson Hampton, but they're all very close.
43:19Kenneth Walker had some swelling in his foot. It was caused by his shoe.
43:23I don't think this is a big deal. So Luther it's been there, man.
43:27Yeah. Have we? No, I'm joking. Luther burden participated in practice.
43:31He's trending toward a week one return. Same with Miami wide receiver, Chris Bell.
43:35I mean, he could play week one day. Was just talking about him.
43:39Alec Pierce is off the pup list. Jaden Daniels has had a great off season, according to the athletic, but we're going
43:46to talk about their offensive line very soon. Tyler Warren may not practice this week as the Colts are playing it safe,
43:53trying to get Warren ready for week one. Uh, Jacksonville use Chris Rodriguez over Bejal Tootin in the two minute drill in
44:00yesterday's practice with LaQuinn Allen still out Dave. Right.
44:03And Allen would normally have that role. So this shouldn't be something that makes you nervous about Tootin nor excited about Chris
44:10Rodriguez, unless the Allen injury does bleed into the regular season.
44:13But who do you think is going to be the goal line back there?
44:17Rodriguez. I'm afraid it's going to be Rodriguez and that's unfortunate.
44:21However, Tootin did well at the goal line last year and he had a better rate inside the five than Rodriguez did in Washington in 2025.
44:29It honestly wouldn't surprise me if Rodriguez began the year in that role.
44:33And if he can't connect on a couple, the Jaguars go right back to Tootin.
44:38I mean, if you don't think he's, we know he's not gonna be the third down back.
44:43That's going to be either of these guys are going to be the third down back.
44:48And if we don't think he's going to be the goal line back, then why is Bejal Tootin not one of the
44:55worst picks in fantasy late round five? Well, there's uncertainty with what's going to happen.
45:00I mean, you know, we could say this, he could be that guy or he cannot be that guy.
45:06I mean, it's not like Chris Rodriguez's resume is that fantastic.
45:09The fact that he has a history with Liam Cohen is something that I think may have got a little overblown or is being overreacted to.
45:17Um, he's already been banged up in, in camp.
45:20So we'll see if he can hold up and, you know, share the role.
45:24I think if you listen to Liam Cohen and everything that's kind of happened this off season, like they want Tootin to
45:31be their guy to what extent and to what roles he'll play.
45:35If he'll play all the role is what we just don't know until we see it unfold.
45:40So I think when you get into that range of running backs, you know, again, to go back to the, the players
45:47that we, we discussed, we were talking about Bucky Irving.
45:50So Irving, Judkins, Scadaboo, Montgomery, then there's two guys and you have one, uh, on the, on the list here to discuss engineering price, like price and Tootin.
45:59There's a lot of questions about them. There's a lot of upside for both of them.
46:04You know, price could be awesome. If Zach Charbonnet is out for two months to start the season, price could be a disaster.
46:11If Charbonnet comes back by October and we don't know how that will all unfold, you know, will price still be featured?
46:18Will Charbonnet be healthy enough to do more than, than is expected.
46:22And for Tootin, it's all the things we just discussed.
46:25So those two are very risky, but there's so much reward if they hit.
46:29All right. So let's talk about Jadari and price then just a few other quick news items here.
46:35James Connor questionable for week one with an ankle injury.
46:38He could still factor in for Arizona. Makai Lemon's been used a lot in motion and a lot on short area throws for Philadelphia.
46:46That's Makai Lemon. Rashad Bateman's been very good with Zay Flowers out.
46:49I wonder if he's going to be enough of a factor, fingers crossed here, to hurt Zay Flowers this season.
46:56But then yeah, Pete Prisco very high on Jadari and price.
46:59And then there was- He likes him better than love.
47:02Wow. That is bonkers to me. Like as a player or just this year?
47:07I think as a player, I don't want to speak for him, but I know he was very high on price coming
47:13out of the draft, going into draft. Excuse me.
47:16All right. So I want you to talk about price and I want you to talk about Cam Scadaboo and John Harbaugh
47:23saying that there's been an ongoing pecking order at running back.
47:27I'll be back in about 30 seconds. So, you know, don't, don't talk about me while I'm gone.
47:32Wow. You know, Adam's brother was really- Don't talk about him either.
47:36All right, fine. So I, the thing that you worry about with Scadaboo is that he shares too much and that the
47:43Najee Harris signing is a legit threat to that workload that we're hoping for from Scadaboo.
47:48Do I think he's the best option at the goal line for the Giants, Jamie?
47:52Yes, I think he is. And I think the Giants will use him there, but I'm a little bit worried about just
47:59how many touches and catches he'll get game to game.
48:02And I don't think it's going to look like last year, unless it's a game, the Giants are just winning big.
48:09There could be, they could legitimately have four running backs that they rotate in to some degree every single game.
48:15And Scadaboo will be at the top of that list, but I worry about him being this amazing workload monster like we saw for six games last year.
48:24And in the case of Price, I think again, it comes down to when Charbonnet will be healthy because the longer he's out, the better Price can be.
48:33Assuming he's able to handle being a featured type of player.
48:36So this is a different office coordinator. So we'll see if the Kubiak rotation holds under a different...
48:42Is it a Kubiak rotation or a Shanahan rotation?
48:45I mean, if it's a Shanahan rotation, then you got to feel good about Price because Shanahan didn't really rotate his running backs.
48:52He did when he didn't have the guy. It took him until he had a guy to not rotate the running.
48:58Well, I mean, you know, you say that, but Mostert was a featured guy for him.
49:03Mason was a featured guy for him until he got hurt.
49:07Like when he, when he has somebody that he trusts, he typically has leaned on that guy.
49:12I mean, they had a different leading rusher for five years in a row, mostly because of injuries, not necessarily because they
49:19were sharing before they got to McCaffrey. I think the case for Jadarian Price is really how much you buy into Charbonnet and his return.
49:27So if you're looking for a great start and you're comparing, you know, Tootin and figuring out that mess or Scadaboo figuring
49:34out that mess or Montgomery now with some offensive line concerns and you just want to say, okay, I'm going to take
49:41the Seattle running back because that's probably just a good bet.
49:44You take price. Yeah. Yeah. One of the most run heavy teams in the NFL last year, but if Janarian Price faces
49:51new England in week one, which could be tough, they have a great run defense when they're healthy, then Arizona and Washington.
49:58I know Washington tried to beef up on the interior or whatever, but those two teams are horrible against running backs.
50:04I won't go through the whole schedule. There's some good matchups, some good, bad matchup, some bad ones.
50:10But if Jardin Price gets off to a good start, like I could see Zach Charbonnet coming back and me in the
50:17goal line back, but Zach Charbonnet is, he's not a great rusher and he's coming off a torn ACL that he suffered in January.
50:24So I feel like I've been that maybe just not open-minded enough about price.
50:29Just, just like being a steal. Uh, when do you want to take them?
50:33Yeah. Like round six, but I just, I can't sit here and say that I should take Basil Tootin over him, except
50:40for whatever reason, I'm more excited about Tootin's potential because he's so fast.
50:44Like, I don't know how good Price is. I think he, I think he may have been overdrafted in the NFL draft.
50:51Um, but, but Tootin was a fourth round pick.
50:54Like, what am I doing here? Yeah. It doesn't make sense.
50:57It doesn't make sense. I still take Tootin over Price, but it doesn't make any, you know what?
51:03Forget it. I think I'm just going to start taking Price over Tootin.
51:07There you go. And that's what you should be doing.
51:10I just not that excited about Price, but I, but he's got fewer obstacles in my opinion than Basil Tootin.
51:16Like, right. Like this, we're talking this out. It makes more sense to take Price over Tootin.
51:22Doesn't it? I, I think you just have to put in your mind when you're looking at those two guys is when
51:28do I anticipate, because we don't know Zach Charbonnet returning.
51:32And then when Charbonnet does return, you, you said this when you were talking about stashing him in an IR spot, like
51:38if he just comes back and is the goal line guy, that's a pretty prominent role for this team because it's not like they throw lots.
51:47They're running backs to throw enough, but it's not like the receiving totals are going to save Price.
51:52No. So is if he loses 50% of his touchdowns, 60% of his touchdowns, like that could be a huge problem.
51:59Whereas Tootin. So who would you, who would you rather have just based on what they accomplished last year?
52:05Travis, A-chan or Ken Walker from last year. Right.
52:07No, A-chan for sure. And so that's Liam Cohen's running back versus Mike McDonald's running back or Jacksonville's running back versus Seattle's running back.
52:15Like which of the two scenarios are better and pros and cons for both.
52:19I mean, easily can make the case. Like there's 400 vacated touches in the Seattle backfield with Charbonnet out.
52:25Like that's huge for Jadarian Price, who was a first round pick.
52:29Now we've talked a lot about late first round pick running backs and how bad they've been.
52:34And the history is not great for those guys.
52:37But also if you look at when Seattle takes a skill player in the first round, John Schneider's had a pretty good track record with that.
52:45So I think there's, there's potential here for Price to be very good.
52:49You want to take him over Tootin? That's fine.
52:52You want to take Tootin over him? Like I have a question for you.
52:57Who do you think, which team do you think average more running back fantasy points per game in PPR last year, Seattle or Jacksonville?
53:04Seattle. Seattle. Seattle. They were 11th. Jacksonville was 16th.
53:07They averaged about a one, one and a half more fantasy point, 1.6 more PPR fantasy points per game.
53:13So that might be a better way to look at it.
53:16I mean, obviously it doesn't mean it's going to repeat this year, but that might, that's another way to look at it.
53:23It's another way to look at it. There's more roadblocks for Tootin than there are for Price.
53:28I mean, we can worry, we can worry about Charbonnet being a factor in handling his role like he had last year.
53:35And I think the coaches would love to give it to him, but there's also the potential that Charbonnet doesn't heal so
53:42soon from a point he still suffered in January.
53:45I got to run after this, but let's just put it simply like this.
53:49Charbonnet is back October 1st when you're taking Tootin versus Price.
53:53You know, right now he's coming back October 1st.
53:56That's still Price over Tootin. They're both late round five for me.
53:59I guess Price. Yeah. If it's October 1st, I'm taking Tootin.
54:03Okay. All right. Any other news here? Let's see.
54:06Tucker Craft participated in yesterday's joint practice against the Cardinals.
54:09See you later, Jamie. Tua Tungabailoa is going to start tomorrow at the Dolphins.
54:13Michael Penix Jr. will not play. We've been saying, the reports are that, you know, it's basically Penix's opportunity to steal that job from Tua.
54:21He's been so bad. Ruben Bain, first round pick for the Bucs, having a pretty good preseason and good camp, but he hurt his shoulder.
54:29Should be ready for week one. He seemed fine after practice on Tuesday.
54:33I talked to him for a minute and he seemed A-okay.
54:36Remember, shortest arms. You couldn't even really tell. When you look at him up close, he didn't look like a T-Rex or whatever.
54:43There's basically been no great defensive ends with arms shorter than Ruben Bain.
54:48Well, there's about to be. Yeah. As long as the shoulder's okay.
54:51Looks like he might've been a steal. And the Pro Bowl.
54:55Oh, Cedric Tillman was released by the Browns and the Pro Bowl was released by the NFL.
55:00The Pro Bowl has been eliminated. Thank you very much to Stitch Fix for sponsoring today's news and notes.
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55:23Stop shopping and get styled today at stitchfix.com slash football to get $20 off your first order.
55:28That is stitchfix.com slash football. All right, Dave, let's talk about these offensive lines that are worrying us.
55:33What did you make of the comment from Nicky Javala who covers the Commanders about how the worst I've ever seen the Commanders offense in years?
55:42Inoperable offensive line. Yeah, not good. And it's especially problematic when you think about what could happen if there's just a ton
55:48of pressure on Jaden Daniels from game to game and whether or not he can survive the whole season.
55:54We've already seen him beat up and miss time.
55:57And this is an offensive line. They lost their best tackle, Laramie Tunsell, their best offensive lineman, and now center Nick Allegretti's on the shelf.
56:05So that's two-fifths of the starting offensive line. The other three players on the line are okay.
56:10Yet you've got to be concerned about what this line will look like and what it means and what adjustments the offense will have.
56:18This takes away time for Jaden Daniels to throw 10, 15, 20 yards downfield.
56:22Who would he be throwing to? That's going to be Terry McLaurin.
56:26It means he's going to have to speed up his throws, short throws.
56:30Who does that benefit? It can benefit the running backs.
56:33It can benefit the tight end, but it really could benefit Stefan Diggs if they lower his route depth.
56:39And obviously, if he's pressured and he's feeling panicked, Daniels will run and that's a double-edged sword for fantasy.
56:45On the plus side, he'll get a bunch of fantasy points running the ball.
56:49On the downside, if he gets hit, it could be curtains and it's a risk.
56:54I haven't moved him down in my rankings much.
56:57I doubt I'm going to move him past any other quarterbacks.
57:00He's been QB six for me all along, but I think it does hurt the upside of all these players if the commanders can't fix it now.
57:09I'll add this. There's still two weeks before the season starts.
57:12This was an eye-opening experience for the commanders. I am sure the commander's coaching staff saw what Nicky saw and therefore will
57:19try and do everything they can to help salvage the offensive line and make it better.
57:24Signing DJ Humphries, I don't know if that's really anything that's going to make me feel better about where their offensive line is.
57:31They're probably going to be in the neighborhood. You see it here on the Football Insights consensus rankings for offensive line.
57:38They're bottom six or seven. They're now going to be bottom four.
57:42I bet if we were much lower than they are here.
57:45Doug Washington here, you're saying? That's Washington. This is Washington ranked, I believe, with Tunsil.
57:50Imagine how bad they're going to be without Tunsil.
57:53That's a bottom five, bottom three type of offensive line.
57:56Now, 2024, Jayden Daniels' rookie season, he was so good.
57:59ESPN run block, pass block, win rate had Washington as one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.
58:05But pro football focus, yeah, PFF, they had them as one of the worst.
58:09So offensive line ratings are so subjective and difficult, I think.
58:13And what you're looking at here is kind of a compilation of industry rankings of offensive lines and which teams are the
58:19best and which teams are the worst with the Browns and the Titans and the Texans and the Packers and Dolphins, which is weird.
58:27We thought the Dolphins had a good lead. Yeah, I disagree with this Dolphins ranking.
58:32But the Browns and the Titans, I don't know that we really, and the Texans.
58:36I mean, those are worrisome. But keep in mind, like last year, looking at ESPN's pass block win rate, some of the worst teams were Detroit.
58:44Detroit was 31st. The Chargers were 32nd, which makes sense.
58:48The Colts were 27th. Let's see. The Bengals were 28th.
58:51It's possible to have a bad line and still produce, but it's not great.
58:55The Saints were 29th. You just named three. You just named four offensive lines that are top 12 in the consensus rankings.
59:02Saints, Lions, Chargers, Colts. Right. You never was going to get injured.
59:06I see that the Broncos up at the top.
59:08That's no surprise. I think they can be better than they were last year.
59:13And the Eagles. That's a big one for me.
59:16It's like the Eagles were so beat up last year.
59:19Lane Johnson missed time. I forget one of their, oh, Dickerson.
59:22Dickerson was playing hurt all year or most of the year.
59:26They're going to bounce back, I think, from an offensive line standpoint and have one of the best in football again, which
59:33is why I'm pretty excited about Barkley and Devontae Smith.
59:36But yeah, I mean, the Browns, like the thing with Judkins, dude, is like Judkins is a great running back, I think.
59:43But one, he's coming off this major injury. And two, he just like Gentie last year, he was a victim of terrible offensive line play.
59:50What's going to change this year, Dave? I'm hoping that the offensive line is better than this ranking.
59:56And you have to give it to Cleveland for overhauling the entire offensive line.
60:00Rookie left tackle, first round pick Spencer Feneau, Zion Johnson, Elton Jenkins, Tevin Jenkins is just okay at guard.
60:06And then Titus Howard came over from Houston to play right tackle.
60:10It ain't great, but at least it's a step in the right direction.
60:14Feneau especially is a step in the right direction.
60:17I don't think they're going to be middle of the pack, but they should still be maybe more closer to like bottom eight than bottom three.
60:25Okay. And I feel the same. I feel, I feel a lot better about the Dolphins offensive line.
60:31They should be middle of the pack. Anything else?
60:33Any other teams you want to talk about that could be impacted heavily by their line?
60:38I think Jacksonville's offensive line is a little underrated after what I saw.
60:43They drafted a rookie named Pregnon who I think it might be a little raw, but they're going to roll with him anyway at guard.
60:50And I think he can be good. You see the Jets offensive line in the bottom half.
60:56I think they're better than that. One of the most insane ones on this consensus rank is Carolina.
61:01Four for four has him third, has the Panthers third best.
61:05Roto, I don't know if that's Roto World or Roto Wire, has them 29th best.
61:09So they are all over the map on the Panthers.
61:13It might come down to when the ranking was made for them because when they're, when they're healthy and their tackles are
61:19healthy, you can make the case for Carolina to be a top 10 offensive line, but with their tackles, their top two
61:26tackles out and their guards were missing for a chunk of the training camp, they're back now.
61:32You could have made the case that they were one of the worst offensive lines.
61:36So putting them in the middle is probably the right thing to do because we don't know when their tackles are going
61:43to be healthy, whether or not their backup tackles will play better, whether the guards can stay healthy.
61:49A lot of questions up in the air. I would err on the side of caution with the Panthers offensive line and
61:56say that they're not going to be one of the top units in the league.
62:00And that's bad news for everybody there in Carolina because Bryce Young under pressure, not great.
62:05Jonathan Brooks probably needs a little help from the offensive line in order to hit his potential.
62:11It's definitely a concern in Carolina. A couple of other ones that stand out.
62:15I think Dallas's offensive line is a little underrated.
62:18I think Minnesota's offensive line, they're already top 12 on this list.
62:22I think Minnesota's offensive line is a little underrated as well.
62:25That could be a top 10 offensive line. I hope the 49ers are really ninth best.
62:30That's where they are consensus, but I don't know that it really played out that way, but every, pretty much every, not it's surprising.
62:38It's a lot of, it's a lot of faith being put onto Trent Williams.
62:42Do you hear that thunder? No, I'm probably going to lose power soon.
62:46So, uh, rain, do you want to wrap up?
62:49Let's get out of here. Yeah. I don't know.
62:52It's fine. If you have anything else that you wanted to know, I'm good.
62:56I'm good. We, we hit on a lot of touch points today when we're going to do a mock draft tomorrow.
63:03Yes. I think that's what we're going to end up doing.
63:06Someone's saying we'll have everybody ready for the, for drafts this weekend.
63:10Chargers O-line is screwed. I don't, uh, agree. They lost their center, Tyler Biotis.
63:14That's a guy who the commanders released with a year left on his contract.
63:18So it's not like they lost an all-row center.
63:21So they, they've got Jake slaughter. It was the second round pick.
63:25He was my favorite center in the draft. I think he's NFL ready.
63:29He'll be good to go. Cole strange is a little bit of a risky guard pick along with a Wosika, uh, at, at guard.
63:37I think I'm pronouncing that right. He played with Detroit last year.
63:40Yeah. Those guard spots are a little spotty, but the tackles are going to be what I think carries the offensive line more than anything.
63:48All right. We're going to talk to you tomorrow and at noon Eastern today with a CBS sports network.
63:54Thanks to Dave and Jamie. We, uh, yeah, good show today.
63:58And we'll do a mock draft tomorrow to get you ready for a big weekend.
64:02Thanks a lot. Talk to you tomorrow on fantasy football today.
64:06Podcasts.
