0:00What's going on, man? Welcome back to the basement. I'm running today is draft day for your idiot league mates, a content creator league with me, the BDGE
0:08guys, so Nicker Gallano, J Mo, their whole crew, and then these snapback guys, so the settlements, you have Icy Vert joining, you have the Nerd Sesh
0:16guys joining as well. It is a very fun league. It is a broadcasted league out to the internet on YouTube. You can see
0:24the channel here. I'll have a link in the description in the comments section down below. But, we want to do well.
0:28This is, of course, what I do professionally. It's also something that's going to be broadcasted to the world, so we don't want to embarrass
0:34ourselves, and then we also want to win the prize money up top. So, what I did in preparation is I spent multiple hours
0:41yesterday going through my rankings and updating and tweaking to make sure everything is just perfect for this draft that is going to kick off in
0:49exactly 2 hours. So, today I am going to give you my updated, dialed-in top 60 rankings for fantasy football. We can
0:58talk through how I see the tier breaks, the players I'm targeting, the players I'm fading, and then also give you an
1:02updated scope after this Ashton Jeanty injury, and talk through how I am playing the board today, August 25th. I know a lot of you guys
1:11have drafts coming up. As always, if you enjoy, subscribe if you're new, leave a like, and let's get right into it. Now,
1:17of course, we're going to be showing off the basement draft guide. You can get my rankings over on the basement draftguide.com. We have worked super,
1:26super hard on it, and this is just a really nice intro for you, so you can kind of see what it looks like, how it works. Also,
1:33we're going to talk about the rankings in this video, but you of course have the ADP Edge tool, where you can look at
1:36my rankings versus consensus ADP, Sleeper, ESPN, Yahoo. Uh you can see the players that I'm changing around, as well. All of my changes I'm making every
1:45single day. Uh and then also an interactive cheat sheet. If you want something more simple, bam, you can cross these off as you go. But, let's
1:52get right into my top 60.
1:56Essentially, the first five rounds of drafts for full PPR leagues, two wide receiver, two flex is what we are working with here. Here are the
2:05player notes over here, and we'll just kind of bounce around. Now, there's not really much to say when it comes to tier
2:09one. You have Gibbs, you have Bijan, Jamar Chase, Puka.
2:13I will say Gibbs locked and loaded 101. There's really nothing else to say there.
2:19Awesome offense, pass-catching ceiling, explosive running back. Uh they want to run the offense through him. But, where it gets tricky is two because people are
2:25starting to get cold feet when it comes to Bijan Robinson, and I definitely understand it. Uh their quarterback situation is brutal with Tua and Michael
2:33Penix. Tua has looked awful. This offense has looked awful. So, it's like Bijan's great, but he starts to have similar concerns
2:42to a guy like Devon Achane where if this offense is bottom five, can Bijan still be a special fantasy producer? I'm not
2:49budging on him at two at this point, but if you wanted to talk yourself into Jahmyr Gibbs in a tier of his own, you
2:55absolutely could. And I just think given running back scarcity, I would want Bijan second overall over the two wide receivers here in Jamar Chase and Puka
3:02because as we've talked about in our draft strategy videos is you take Jamar Chase or Puka, you come back around in
3:07the second, and especially now with the Achane injury, running back is wiped, and it's almost forcing you into a zero RB start, which in home leagues I really
3:16wouldn't go for. Uh Jamar Chase locked and loaded wide receiver one next to Joe Burrow. Nothing needs to be said there.
3:21Puka Nacua, of course, has some injury concerns. He right now has been out of practice with I with an injury I honestly can't even pronounce.
3:32It's like psoas or something like that.
3:34Uh but, it seems like he's going to be good to go. I'm not budging on him just yet. McCaffrey just returned to
3:38practice. This is our second tier here.
3:39It seems like he alternates between being the guy you needed in fantasy football as like a 24 25 point per game
3:45scorer and being one of the worst picks on the board. Every year that you take McCaffrey, you are playing roulette, and
3:51I think that that's what you're playing this year. Then we have JT. I think in this five and six spot we want to be
3:56taking running backs here again. Very good chance that the running backs in tier three don't make it back to you.
4:02So, that's my tiebreaker, but certainly in like three wide receiver one flex full PPR formats, you can definitely break the tie to JSN to Amon-Ra St.
4:11Brown. Really tough to rank these two.
4:13Amon-Ra St. Brown in a much better situation. I think JSN's the better player.
4:17I break the tie to JSN.
4:20And I will say as well, I mean you're not going to see any big changes here, but I have consensus ADP picked as the
4:24thing that we are comparing against. You can pick any of these to see who I'm higher or lower on given the format.
4:29Now, I have James Cook in this tier as a huge target.
4:34He is somebody or and I will say I'll sort of speak on these tags here. I have targets, I have avoids. The player
4:42rankings are where they're ranked. Like don't see that James Cook is a target and then move him up to the five spot.
4:47Like I have him ranked where I have him ranked, but nine spot is higher than consensus. We are two spots higher than
4:52the 10.6 consensus ADP. And I want to be drafting a lot of James Cook this year.
4:56So, if you're in like a two wide receiver one flex half PPR league where things are to shift towards running back, you can definitely take James Cook
5:01higher. The offense is obviously going to be the offense. James Cook is going to compete for leading the league in rushing yards, but I do think that there
5:08is a secret trapdoor of upside this year if he can catch passes. It's a big if.
5:13But they of course bring over Pete Carmichael who comes from the Sean Payton tree. You also have Sean McDermott getting fired. So, now that
5:19Joe Brady is the head coach, one, that means we could see more pass attempts, right? Like Sean McDermott is a defensive minded head coach. He might
5:26have been more on the side of let's play defense, let's run the ball, let's eat the clock. What if Joe Brady comes in
5:31here, someone that was the head coach or not the head coach, he was the play caller for 2019 LSU. Of course, I'm not
5:36saying that this team has Ja'Marr Chase, Jefferson, and Joe Burrow, but someone who's more offensive minded might want to play more up tempo, might want to
5:42pass the ball more. Uh and then also Pete Carmichael coming in might float the idea of let's get James Cook some receptions. Then I have a tier
5:51break.
5:53And this is where it gets tricky.
5:55I personally have the two receivers ahead. They project better. They are hero wide receivers to me. CeeDee Lamb at my wide receiver five, Justin
6:03Jefferson at my wide receiver six. We talked about this in the legendary wide receiver video. I ended up nudging CeeDee Lamb just ahead of Justin
6:09Jefferson here. Uh just due to the fact that the offense is just so much more stable. We know what Dak Prescott is and
6:14what what the Cowboys are. George Pickens is there, but I don't think that it limits his ceiling in the same way
6:19others do just because Dak Prescott is so good. Dak in any given year can challenge for damn near 5,000 passing yards and 40
6:26touchdowns. And I think we could see a similar setup to what 2024 Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins was where Ja'Marr Chase was the
6:35wide receiver one overall. Tee Higgins was a top five point per game receiver.
6:38And then Joe Burrow was awesome. I think that that is all in play for the Cowboys. People forget. People talk about CeeDee Lamb like he's not a
6:44special player. Last year he was banged up.
6:47He had some bad touchdown luck.
6:49But you go back to his 2023 season. I believe he had 23.7 points per game, which would have been the wide receiver
6:56one overall last year. Uh truly monstrous season. And then Jefferson's Jefferson at this point uh he has just been on an awesome pace in terms of
7:05every single year. I think that he might be the leader in terms of active players in yards per game. Uh outside of his
7:11games with JJ McCarthy, he has been one of the best receivers in the league. It just comes down to how much you view
7:16Kyler Murray as an upgrade. And do we get to see a JJ McCarthy start at any point in time? Uh then we just get to
7:23all the running backs. This is where to me, once the two receivers go off the board, it becomes an arms race to who
7:28can just rattle off these running backs in round two.
7:32We're splitting Harris here. I go Chase Brown. We did the legendary running back video. And just because of the target earning upside, the offensive upside
7:40with the Bengals, touchdowns, he he averaged 20 plus points per game in his games with Joe Burrow last year. It gets
7:46super tough for me to move Chase Brown much lower. He feels a lot like Austin Ekeler in Austin Ekeler's prime, which is, you
7:51know, I'm saying that in a positive manner. But, we're also in a spot here where I'm pretty confident that Kenneth Walker, Saquon, Derrick
7:59Henry, and Devon Achane are all much better talents as players. So, that's where it gets spooky. When we are drafting players based on their
8:07environment and not their talent this early in the draft. Uh then I have Kenneth Walker, someone I'm pretty certain is talented,
8:15but we haven't seen him put it together for over an entire season. I do think that the Chiefs went out there and made
8:19him a priority to run the offense through him, and I think that we're going to see a 20 plus point per game
8:25scorer in an Andy Reid offense for the first time since LeSean McCoy. I I don't think Kareem Hunt ever hit 20 plus, but it is the
8:34most talented running back Andy Reid has had since LeSean McCoy. Uh I do believe in Kenneth Walker's talent to that extent, but if Chase Brown and Kenneth
8:41Walker make you squeamish, Saquon Barkley is my 2.02. He's absolutely fine there.
8:46We saw in 2024 what his upside could be.
8:49I'm sort of splitting the difference here. On one hand, I could see Saquon absolutely crushing this year and having the 2024 season where he's a 20 plus
8:56point per game scorer, but the nerd in me looks at it and says he scored so many of those touchdowns from
9:0220 plus yards, 30 plus yards, 40 plus yards. This is a team that again is going to do the tush push in close. This
9:09is the team that at time and time again, even honestly less of a it's some team level stuff, it's also a lot of Jalen
9:15Hurts of not wanting to feature Saquon in the passing game. If we could get 60 plus catches for Saquon, he'd be a top five pick.
9:25It's just with Jalen Hurts and the lack of checkdowns, it just doesn't happen a ton. With A.J. Brown leaving, there is
9:30upside for it to happen. There is upside for them to go away from the tush push now that they have a new OC.
9:36It just doesn't seem very likely. And also, this offensive line is getting older. They lose Jeff Stoutland and all of a sudden
9:43they are a very fragile fragile bet when you look at this offense. Then we have a Marion Hampton.
9:49Uh and I will say all these guys are in the same tier. So, I'm very much a big proponent of like tiers are tiers. Yes,
9:56I have Chase Brown, Walker, Saquon in this order, but you can order these guys however you want within their own tiers. Uh at the 203 you have a Marion
10:02Hampton.
10:05On one hand, you have Mike McDaniel's running back. We want pieces of this offense. The offensive line is better, but they're starting to get it hurt. We
10:10have Biadasz getting hurt. We have Rashawn Slater potentially not back at practice yet. So, it's really Joe All and kind of the funky bunch here. But, I
10:17want pieces of this Chargers offense.
10:18Marion Hampton could absolutely crush this year as a second-year running back with upside. Then we have Derrick Henry.
10:24In full PPR, he's an enigma. I mean, he's my 204 in full PPR. So, I'm actually in on Derrick Henry this year.
10:29We're three spots ahead of consensus on Derrick Henry. Who would have thought?
10:33We know what he is at this point. We've seen him crush in 2024 where he was at like 19 plus points per game. If he can
10:39hit that from the 204, that's not a terrible outcome. And then there's also been a lot of talk that they could get
10:44Derrick Henry used in the screen game.
10:46And then that is when Derrick Henry could just go absolutely nuclear in a really strong offense. Uh then we can talk about Devon Achane and avoid for
10:53me. I will say he is my 205. I'm sports I'm four spots lower than consensus. And this is where I wanted to speak on the
10:58avoid tag. I have him 205. He's an avoid. But, if you get to your point in the draft where Devon Achane is the best
11:05player on the board, take him. Like don't just say, "Oh, he has the avoid tag. I can't take him here." I have
11:09these players ranked where they're ranked for a reason, you know? It's just the avoid tag is just simply me telling you, "Hey, I'm lower on this guy than
11:16the consensus ADP." That doesn't mean that when you get to the 17th overall pick and Devon Achane is the best player
11:20available that you don't take him. This is the part, you know, I have him ranked in a spot where this is where I would
11:26now take him. So, Devon Achane is tough.
11:29Uh the receiving upside like we just talked about with Saquon. Saquon is one of the best receiving prospects of all time. His rookie year on the Giants, he
11:35caught I think like literally 90 plus balls and you get Jalen Hurts and now the guy can crack 50 plus catches. Devon
11:42Achane has a similar deal here with Malik Willis. I think with Mike McDaniel leaving, they're not going to be able to
11:47cover up the offensive line's deficiencies as well.
11:51The offense might suck.
11:53It's not great, but at the end of the day he is a talented player. He's going to be the bell cow.
11:57Uh but he's just he makes me squeamish compared to these other options just given the environment he's in, right?
12:02We're talking about the Bengals, Chiefs, Eagles, Chargers, Ravens. It's pretty simple on paper why I would prefer those running backs. But I have him at the 205
12:10because again, it is an arms race to stack up as many of these running backs in round two as possible. Then once all
12:16the running backs are wiped, I would have Bowers, AJ Brown, and Drake London in their own tier. Bowers, of course, is an absolute monster. Uh I
12:23know some people were saying like they wanted my Bowers take after the Gentry injury. I don't see it really affecting things very much for Brock Bowers. I
12:31think Ashton Gentry will be back at some point, which we'll talk about when we get to Gentry, but I'm I'm getting some
12:36weird vibes that I I don't know that Gentry will be ready for week one or like even week two, week three, week
12:40four. But I still think Brock Bowers will be the focal point of this offense and defenses will now be able to game plan
12:46for that. I mean, they already were, but like without Gentry, they can just really hone in on Bowers, but then he's
12:51also going to get more volume without Gentry. So it's kind of a I think it kind of cancels each other out. Uh then we have AJ Brown, someone
12:58that I think has all the upside in the world attached to Drake May.
13:02This could be a 2020 Stefon Diggs situation where he comes to a new team or even like if you want to dream really
13:08big, uh Randy Moss in '07. I'm not saying he's going to score 24 touchdowns or whatever it was for Moss, but one of
13:14these situations where a wide receiver that we are pretty certain is one of the more talented players of his generation getting the best quarterback of of
13:25career. It's all lining up here. Then we have Drake London, similar concerns to Bijan.
13:29This offense is really scary to bet on.
13:32But Drake London, even in this offense with Michael Penix, has been a guy where last year before his PCL injury was a
13:3719-point per game scorer, but then also with the PCL injury, is that going to linger? We saw that be an issue for
13:42Ricky Pearsall. It's also a concern for Brock Bowers. Brock Bowers and Drake London both coming off that PCL knee injury. As of right now, they seem fine,
13:49but just something to to think about.
13:51Then we have tier four.
13:53These are guys that I'm drafting at the 2-3 turn, at least at the top here, right? So, you take your Bijan or Gibbs,
14:00you come back around, and then these are the receivers I like. Nico Collins, now that Jayden Higgins is hurt. Yes, they
14:04bring in Kayshon Boutte, but I think that Kayshon Boutte actually helps him a lot, where Kayshon Boutte is a guy that
14:09is going to be a field stretcher, which means Nico Collins doesn't have to play X and kind of soak up those vertical
14:15routes. Boutte can kind of clear things out, and then all of a sudden Nico Collins can get moved around the formation and used in the intermediate
14:21parts, out of the slot, get some layup targets, and then Nico Collins can really challenge for 20-plus points per game. Then we have Neighbors.
14:29This comes down to risk tolerance. We're five spots higher than consensus here.
14:33Off the ACL tear, how do we feel about it?
14:36It's really tough to say. I think it as I click record to start recording this video, it came out that Malik Nabers is
14:41going to be uh like he he shed his non-contact jersey. I think that he's going to play literally week one. He might be a wide
14:48receiver two out the gate, but he has such monstrous upside heading into year three. We saw his rookie year when he
14:53was like a 35% target share guy. He dominates targets. He's one of the best players in the league, and if he was
14:59fully healthy, he'd be going right next to CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson in that 1-2 turn area. Then we have Chris
15:05Olave here.
15:07Jordan Addison goes down. We saw last year Chris Olave averaged 18 points per game with Tyler Shuck.
15:13Can he take a step forward even further to 20-plus points per game? That kind of all comes down to Tyler Shuck, but Chris
15:18Olave is a good pick, I will say.
15:20Definitely something to think about. The concussion history, the blood clots this off-season. There is some downside there, but I do like Olave where he's
15:26going. Then we have George Pickens. I don't know how he gets to 20-plus points per game next to CeeDee Lamb, but I suppose there is a scenario where
15:34George Pickens is just straight up a better player than CeeDee Lamb. That takes a lot of dreaming big, but even if
15:38not, again, I think that he can be what Tee Higgins was in Ja'Marr Chase's triple crown season and give you 17-plus
15:44points per game next to CeeDee Lamb's 20-plus points per game. Then we have DeVonta Smith, and I would say this is
15:49like a mini tier break here to DeVonta Smith, who I I don't have quite in the same breath as those guys, just given that
15:56his quarterback is Jalen Hurts. But, A.J. Brown leaves, this could be a lever to pull where A.J. Brown goes, new OC in. DeVonta Smith in games
16:05without De- or DeVonta Smith in games without A.J. Brown has been like a 30-percent-plus target share guy. Can he come in right away
16:12in this fresh era for him, I guess I would call it, and be the undisputed alpha? But then also, what is his touchdown upside
16:19in an offense where every time they're inside the 10-yard line, it's going to be rush attempts, it's going to be push
16:25pushes. Uh then we have Trey McBride.
16:28This is where I want to have him. I I flipped him from a void to just a normally ranked player. I'm three spots
16:33lower than consensus, so tight end hungry leagues, we're not going to get him here. But, he did just have a top-five PPR points season ever for a
16:41tight end. And we are now regressing that all the way to the 26th overall player, 22 and 1/2 by consensus. This
16:47sounds about right.
16:48He definitely had things inflated by the Cardinals having way more pass attempts than anyone else, by him having way more routes run than any other tight end.
16:57But, this is where I'm comfortable putting him. He crushed last year, he could easily crush again, and if not, he can give you a solid 15 points per game
17:03at tight end, and give you a real edge at the position. Then we have Breece Hall.
17:08Uh the groin injury keeps coming back as very positive. Uh Jeff Mueller on Twitter, literally yesterday, said that he's good to go. Like, I really wouldn't
17:15lower him for the groin injury. What it comes down to is the Jets offense. The Jets offensive line has looked great.
17:20There's been reports coming out of camp that Geno Smith has looked better than expected.
17:24I just think last year Breece Hall already was in this like top-15 running back in points per game area despite having quarterbacks of Justin Fields and
17:32Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook. And while yes, those are bad quarterbacks, they're also scramble-first quarterbacks and took his receiving ceiling from 70-plus catches
17:43down to he had like 38 last year, I think, which is really, really low for Breece. I think that he's going to go
17:49back up to a 60-plus catch season. I think we're going to see some efficiency with this offensive line, and I think
17:53Breece Hall has a lot of upside here to outproduce this price tag. Then we have Jeanty.
17:59I have him 28th.
18:0014 spots lower than consensus. I want to remain low on Jeanty here until we get something firm.
18:08You guys can say all you want. Like I I If I If I'm If I sound crazy, you guys let me know. All right? If I'm putting
18:13on the tinfoil hat, which I kind of am here, but when a guy goes down ugly and the entire team takes a prayer circle,
18:21and then he goes into the back locker room, they run tests, they run tests, and we're talking like 6 hours later, they say, "Oh, well, he
18:28They made it seem like, oh, he just he just twisted his ankle." Like, no way.
18:32No way he like goes down super ugly, the whole team is upset, and then like if he just twisted his ankle, they
18:40would go into the locker room, and they would just like report it right away.
18:43So, I don't believe it. I think it's a high ankle sprain, and I think it's like a a bad high ankle sprain is what I am
18:49gathering, which means and right now it's August 25th, so there's not any urgency for the Raiders to put him on IR or to give a firm
18:57report, and the reporting's also been sketchy. I think Schefter Rapoport went on the McAfee show yesterday, and still it's like there's nothing concrete.
19:06They're They're leaving something out.
19:09Maybe I'm crazy, but there's something Something doesn't smell right with this Jente situation.
19:14I think that there's a lot of reporting that's downplaying it as oh it's just a twisted ankle. I think it's a bad bad
19:18high ankle sprain and I think he's going to miss multiple weeks potentially go on IR.
19:23That's just my gut feeling. We'll see how this goes. As we get more information, I will continue to update the rankings and I will say his target
19:29round is round three. I'd still take him in round three, which by the way, this is the target round for everybody. It's just
19:35where I would suggest taking them even if a player is an avoid.
19:40Round three is the price that I would pay on a guy like Rashee Rice. Then we have Jeremiah Love. Similar deal as
19:45Ashton Jeanty. He has his own high ankle sprain he's working through, but in the preseason he looked electric. I think that this is on the lower concern side
19:53of things. Really the issue is is he had an awesome workload in that preseason game next to Tyler Allgeier. And then
20:00this injury has now kind of opened the door back open to let Tyler Allgeier come in and make this a 50/50 split. And
20:06that's what's concerning to me. Then we have Zay Flowers. Everyone out there is going to roast Zay Flowers and say oh he
20:11can't score touchdowns. So what happens when he's Lamar Jackson's number one overall wide receiver?
20:16He finished as a top 12 point per game wide receiver last year in a really big down year for Lamar Jackson.
20:22Zay Flowers heading into year four, could he have his best year yet attached to Lamar? And if Lamar throws for 35
20:27plus 40 plus touchdowns, why can't Zay Flowers catch 10 of them?
20:31I get he's short. We have a new head coach. We have a new offensive coordinator. We have no more Isaiah Likely. I think Flowers could luck into
20:39some touchdown looks here. Then we have Rashee Rice.
20:42He's somebody that I I I'm low on. I have him as an avoid, but again, if he gets to 31 you can take him. He's just
20:47not for me.
20:49He's just not for me. He is somebody that has like a 5-yard A dot. He's a gimmicky player. He he is somebody
20:55almost similar to Chase Brown in a way of like this is actually the perfect juxtaposition where I am insanely certain that Garrett Wilson is 10 times
21:04the wide receiver Rashee Rice is. Rashee Rice just has a 5-yard A dot spam me the ball roll attached to Patrick Mahomes,
21:10whereas Garrett Wilson's quarterback is Geno Smith.
21:14Rashee Rice could completely kill me here. He could go for 20-plus points per game and be one of the guys you need. I
21:20just can't see the Chiefs continuing to run their offense through Rashee Rice.
21:24We have multiple knee injuries now. We have multiple off-the-field things now. We have him serving a stint in jail.
21:31And this offense just hasn't looked right in the Rashee Rice era. Then they bring in Kenneth Walker to run the offense through Kenneth Walker. That's
21:38why I have him ranked so high. So, Rashee Rice, he's not for me.
21:41Uh then we get to tier five. These are guys that I'm taking in that middle of the third area, I guess I
21:47would say, or like really like three-four turn. We have first up Garrett Wilson. I will say, if you're seeing what I'm wearing, I'm wearing
21:52like a Jets polo.
21:55The uh theme for your UD League Mates draft is everyone's showing up like coaches. So, today I'm showing up like Adam Gase, which you might be like, "Oh,
22:05well, what about this is Adam Gase?"
22:07Well, that's my Adam Gase impression for anyone out there. Um I hope that maybe two of you guys laughed at that. Um all
22:17right, so we have Garrett Wilson.
22:18Garrett Wilson, I like he I'm just I'm just extremely certain that he's an elite talent. He earns targets, and if this offense can be even
22:26just normal, right? This can't be an offense where last year they were under 3,000 passing yards, but even last year Garrett Wilson through five games with
22:32Justin Fields was at 19 points per game as the wide receiver five. We're getting a pretty nice discount here. I'm six
22:37spots higher than consensus. Then we have Josh Allen. Honestly, depending on how shallow your league is, right? The the more percentage
22:45your quarterback takes up of your starting lineup, right? So, if it's two wide receiver, one flex, your quarterback's really important. If it's
22:49three wide receiver, two flex, that really devalues quarterback there.
22:54Josh Allen's a tough one. He has been amazing for five years running. He doesn't have quite the same ceiling league-winning upside as some of these
23:01breakout receivers, but his floor is so high that I think once Garrett Wilson's off the board, instead of taking one of
23:05these breakout receivers, I'm fine just doing the Josh Allen thing. Uh then we have all of these breakout receivers kind of bunched up here. You have Ladd,
23:13year three breakout attached to Herbert.
23:15Abuka, year two, can he capture the 20-plus point per game magic? Waddle, in a new situation, he has been super efficient on a per route basis over his
23:23entire career. Will he now be the focal point attached to Bo Nix and Sean Payton? Tee Higgins, we know what he is.
23:29This is probably too cheap for Tee Higgins, someone that projects very similar similarly to a George Pickens next to CeeDee Lamb, but Tee Higgins
23:36next to Ja'Marr Chase. And then Terrace Marshall McMillan, who they are using in the slot more.
23:41He's very exciting. He's a great player.
23:43The issue just becomes Bryce Young. How far can he go attached to Bryce Young?
23:47It's a very similar situation to Garrett Wilson, right? Really good player attached to a bad quarterback, but I'm just certain that Garrett Wilson is a top-10 talent
23:57at receiver. Terrace Marshall McMillan still needs to show that. Uh then we have Kylen Loveland, who I really like in this range. I want to be higher than
24:03consensus on Kylen Loveland. I think he's going to lead all Bears in points per game in terms of the skill position
24:09players. Down the stretch last year, he was amazing. And then in the preseason, he got the usage we were hoping for of a
24:15very high route share as one of the focal points of this offense. Then we have my running backs, and I will say
24:21this is an entire tier.
24:24Tiers over rankings. If you're in a spot where you're in a two-running back, one-flex league, two-wide receiver league, half PPR, you can certainly pull
24:31up these running backs to the top of this tier. They're just not for me. I would have, even though they didn't make
24:35the list for the dead zone video, I would have Javonte and Kyren in the dead zone. Javonte, his receiving ceiling isn't there. You're essentially just
24:43buying the touchdown scorer for the Dallas Cowboys, which isn't terrible, but they could score a lot through the air. Javonte could regress. He could get
24:51some of his work taken away. And his yards per route run was so low that he is simply just a between-the-tackles
24:56grinder on a good team, which is which is a good role to have. It's just not somebody I'm going to take 33rd overall
25:02with all of the wide receivers there, just knowing that I can get running backs later. There are running backs who will get to you in
25:08that five-six turn area that I like as well.
25:12Um then we have Kyren Williams, similar deal. I think that I started to get really spooked looking into some of the
25:18Blake Corum stuff. I think Blake Corum could really make this thing an ugly split. And then again, you're just drafting between the tackles tackles
25:26grinder on a good offense, which again isn't a bad idea. It's just not one I want to be taking 41st overall. You can do that with
25:33De'Andre Swift in the fifth round. Uh then we have Etienne who we talked about in our dead zone running back video where I'm actually
25:41starting to come around on Etienne uh with Kamara banged up to start the season. Etienne should be the lead back for the Saints, which should have a fun
25:49offensive environment playing up tempo, pushing the pace. The offensive line is really good. Then we have Jacobs, who I have just kind of buried here.
25:56It seems like he's not going to get suspended, but he's also an aging back who's always banged up. He has a pending
26:01legal case. He also is on a team that has a terrible offensive line. He's on a team that really values Zamir White. Zamir White
26:08has been looking good. I think they're going to lean into the pass more. So, Zamir White I just have a little bit
26:12buried in the rankings to make sure I don't really draft much of him. That's also another thing. I know that some
26:16people will be looking at these rankings be like, "Oh, Zamir White is going to be RB 18." And these rankings aren't me
26:21trying to forecast how the season happens word for word. I know that that's a crazy thing to say.
26:27But this is a ranking of how I would draft these players given each of their range of outcomes. I am not trying to
26:34perfectly predict the wide receiver 22.
26:36I'm saying draft Zamir White at the wide receiver 22 given his upside. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I'm not
26:42looking to hit singles. I'm not looking to be the most accurate mock or accurate ranker in the world. I'm looking to
26:48hunt league winners so that we can win fantasy football leagues and not accuracy contests. Uh but we really like Luther Burden, year
26:55two upside. He's not for everybody.
26:57I get it. Everyone gets really squeamish about the small sample size of routes, but sometimes you have to dream big and
27:02Luther Burden is dreaming big. Then we have tier six.
27:07To me, this is the most important tier in fantasy football.
27:10I find myself wanting to stack up on receivers here. We have Jameson Williams, DJ Moore, Terry McLaurin. We moved up DJ Moore way up after our
27:17legendary wide receiver video. If, like we talked about James Cook, if this offense decides to pass the ball more, look out for DJ Moore. If he is just
27:25going to be straight up Josh Allen's number one receiver, he has a lot of upside. You can see I've been moving
27:30I've been inching him up three spots to the 13th, four spots to 17th, four spots to 19th. Jameson Williams with this
27:36Laporta injury and the way that Jameson Williams closed out last season down the stretch, I am really into Jameson Williams this year as somebody that
27:44could really pop off. Uh and I think something that gets so misconstrued with Jameson Williams is he's so boom or bust, he's going to kill
27:51you some weeks.
27:53And what I would say is you just have to start him. Like when you draft a player in the fourth round,
27:58you start him every week and you're just going to catch all of the good weeks and all of the bad weeks. The bad weeks are
28:01going to suck, but if you look back at your individual home league, you'll see most of the matchups every week are blowouts.
28:10Yes, does it hurt? It hurts really bad when you lose by 0.3 on a Monday night football game, but most of your matchups
28:16are going to get decided by like 20 or so points. So you want those ceiling spike weeks from Jameson Williams and
28:21it's why I think stuff like consistency is extremely overrated. And it's also overrated year to year. Remember when I first started doing this, Tyler Lockett
28:29was a big boom or bust player and then I believe it was the year where Russ was in contention for MVP. This is going to
28:34be like 2021-2022 area. Tyler Lockett was one of the most consistent scores in fantasy.
28:39It's why if you did any kind of consistency metric year-over-year stickiness, there would be no correlation.
28:46Every given year is its own thing. Some players are super consistent one year, not consistent the next year. Really all that matters to me is a player's points
28:53per game because they're going to be in my lineup. Uh then we have DJ Moore. And if they're not in your lineup, you're
28:57playing too shallow of a league. Like a two wide receiver, one flex, bump that up. Uh then we have McLaurin, number one receiver attached to Jayden
29:04Daniels. Uh Diggs moved him down initially for me, but I think Stefon Diggs coming in, he's going to be more of a situational
29:12wide receiver in three wide receiver sets. I don't think that he's going to really challenge McLaurin for much. Then we have Tyler Lockett at this 4-5 turn
29:19area. I just think tight ends get pushed up so much in home leagues that I want to have Tyler Lockett in an area where
29:25we are ending up with one of the top four tight ends in most of our drafts. I don't mind punting off the position, but
29:30I also don't mind paying up for Tyler Lockett here. Year two guy was awesome last year. Alec Pierce is banged up. He
29:36could be the focal point of this Colts offense. Uh then we have De'Andre Swift.
29:41He's somebody that I moved up after Actually, I got to slap the target tag on Swift, I think. Uh I'm only four
29:46spots higher, but he's somebody in the dead zone research that really stuck out as a guy that's going to be on a good
29:51offense. Jamaal Williams is banged up.
29:54Uh he has outproduced his ADP in the dead zone multiple, multiple times before. Uh then we have Cam Akers.
30:00I will say in the dead zone research, Akers was the frontrunner as the number one candidate. I moved him behind Swift
30:06just because of the Jamaal Williams news and then also Akers was the frontrunner The injury is the only thing. Of course,
30:11the dead zone model can't take into account that Cam Akers had a dislocated ankle last year. That's my only concern is just the injury downside. I know they
30:18brought in Najee Harris. I'm not super concerned about that. I still think that he has an awesome role of being the goal
30:23line back, being the pass catcher, and could really crush this year, but the injury just gives me a little bit of
30:29pause.
30:31Then we have Davante uh brutal year last year efficiency-wise, like his yards per route run, all of that, but also he was effectively used
30:37as the goal line back for the Rams scoring I think what did he score? Like 17? Yeah, he scored 14 touchdowns last
30:44year which was just absurd. I think they're going to use him in a similar role this year and I think that he could
30:47even kind of positively regress on the yards per out run side. Then we have Parker Washington, a guy who's just been
30:54I'm not sure there's been a bigger riser. It's been Parker Washington a huge riser and Jonathan Brooks a huge riser this summer. He seems like he's
31:00going to be the focal point for a Jaguars passing offense that was humming down the stretch last year. Fun player out of Penn State kind of a late bloomer
31:08here in the NFL. Then Christian Watson tore his ACL in 2024. No one thought he would come back in 2025. He comes back,
31:15he's awesome. He averages 13 plus points per game and now he is going to be unleashed as the Packers wide receiver
31:20one for the first time. This is going to be the first time we see a Packers wide receiver room that isn't a five-man
31:26hockey shift rotation where in years past we've seen Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks and all these guys rotate in. Those two are now gone. It is
31:33Watson, it is Golden, it is Reed and that is it. All of those guys will be good for fantasy football. Then we have
31:39Bucky Irving.
31:42A big piece of news before I went live here and it sucks. I'm seven spots lower than consensus even though I like Bucky,
31:46but he's really pushed up. Him and TuTu and I have as like very very similar players and there is a 15 pick
31:52difference here which is crazy to me.
31:54Bucky Irving has a lot of upside heading into year three.
31:57On an offense I expect a bounce back with a good offensive line, Baker Mayfield healthy.
32:02But he is splitting work with Kenneth Gainwell. So the receiving upside gets capped with Gainwell, but a big thing to look at is Sean Tucker is a cut
32:09candidate right now. If Sean Tucker gets cut and we can just split this thing between just Bucky Irving and just Kenneth Gainwell, I think both Bucky
32:15Irving and Kenneth Gainwell are really strong picks in that world because Sean Tucker is taking a little bit of the goal line role away and if we can kind
32:21of just send that back over to Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell, they both become awesome picks. Then we have Basil TuTu in year two running back on a good
32:29offense. The yards per out run was lackluster last year, but if he can get the goal line role which I know is an
32:34if, right? He's next to Chris Rodriguez, but he was trusted as a steady success rate based runner. I know that Tuin you
32:40see Tuin when he was coming out of school, he was a speed score 40-yard dash guy, but last year he was a success
32:47rate runner in terms of all right, it's second and third, we need to get the chains moving here. Bijan Robinson was that guy.
32:54So, I think you can couple that with his explosive ability that he showed in college and then also get the screen
32:59game work from Liam Cohen that we've seen Liam Cohen spam Bucky Irving in 2024. He did it with Travis Etienne last
33:05year where Travis Etienne was one of Etienne, Gibbs, McCaffrey, Bijan of having 2.4 plus points per game just off of the
33:13screen game. So, something to look at with Tuin. Then we have Mike Evans who I would love to put much higher than this,
33:17but it seems like he has a injury every other day. Something to monitor really closely right now when it comes to Mike Evans. He is
33:25he the last time that he was on a practice field, he left early pissed off.
33:31We don't have anything concrete since then, so I have him here, but I'm fully ready to nuke him to the 70s. Then we have Judkins. We did the
33:38dead zone research. Judkins is a guy that is a year two player, is going to get all the touches in the world, but to
33:44break out of the dead zone, you need to be on a top 15 offense or average four plus targets per game.
33:50I don't think he can do either, so that's kind of the biggest issue.
33:54Javonte Price, I want to keep moving him up. I even want to move him like ahead of Bucky here. I kind of restrained myself cuz I
34:00don't want to get too over my skis, but they've now shut him down for the rest of the preseason and are saying okay,
34:05put this guy in bubble wrap, he's going to be our workhorse in week one. He's on a good team projected to score for a lot
34:10of points. His only issue is his lack of receiving upside and when Zach Charbonnet comes back, how annoying will Zach Charbonnet be? Then we have David
34:17Montgomery, someone I'm really cooling off on. We moved him down eight spots on August 21st.
34:22We did the dead zone research. It didn't come out good for David Montgomery. He is somebody that last year didn't really
34:27produce much. Now this year he's on a bad offense. Woody Marks caps his receiving ceiling and he's an old running back. So, David Montgomery is an
34:34avoid for me. And then we have Rondale Moore, our last player rounding out our top five rounds of rankings here.
34:41Good player, year three breakout upside.
34:43I think that he gets a lot of credit for an eight-game stretch before injury, which of course he should.
34:48But he ran less routes over that eight-game stretch than Luther Burden did all of last year. They're both small samples, and if you go back to
34:55Rondale Moore's rookie season, sophomore season, like his career yards per route run, his career targets per route run, none of it is any special. In fact, it's
35:02all down in like the Xavier Worthy tier, even below Marvin Harrison Jr. in that draft class. So, Rondale Moore is a
35:08really tricky one for me. I think that he could get some sacrificial X work in this offense, but there is also an
35:13upside case where he is the wide receiver one and outscores Loveland and outscores Luther Burden. And that's why I still have him as the 512 as genuinely
35:22a 5-6 turn pick as my wide receiver 30, uh five spots lower than consensus. Not as an avoid, but somebody I'm not drafting
35:30a ton of. But that's going to do it for us today.
35:33That is how I am looking at the top five rounds of fantasy football drafts right now. Everything is dialed in. I made all
35:39of these changes yesterday to make sure that my rankings are dialed in for this your idiot league mates' draft. Wish me
35:45luck, I'll say as well. If you have a draft coming up, make sure you check out the basement draftguide.com. It has my
35:51tier top 200, my superflex rankings, PPR, half PPR. You guys saw all of my player notes, the player targets, or player tags of avoids, targets,
36:01sleepers, uh my target rounds for every player. You can sync your draft to Sleeper and then get it in the draft guide so it crosses off
36:10players as you go. It is a beautiful thing. It is a living, breathing extension of me. And at this point, I
36:17eat at my own restaurant. This is the ranking sheet that I'll be using in all of my drafts this summer, so make sure
36:21you check it out in the description in the comment section down below, the basement draftguide.com. This is a one-time purchase draft day product.
36:29During the season, if you want my weekly rankings, rest of season rankings, waiver wire article, start sit streams every Sunday, any of
36:35my dynasty content, that's on the patreon patreon.com/ronstewart. If you're on the patreon, you get the basement draft guide half off. If you're
36:41on the patreon for the year and you have an annual sub, you get the draft guide for free. So, I will say, if you're out
36:46there and you're on my patreon, check out the basement draft guide. You get a big discount, but that's going to do it for us today. Appreciate you guys
36:53for watching. Leave a like. Subscribe if you're new and I'll see you guys in the next one.
37:01>> [snorts] >> Oh, yeah.
37:03>> [music and singing] >> This is my cup.
37:09>> [singing] >> Maybe [music] I stand still.
37:13Like this frost.
37:15Ice cold.
37:16Oh, oh.
37:18Ice on my body like I'm froze.
