First Class Fantasy - AVOID These Injured Players? | Fantasy Football 2026 w/ DPT Adam Hutchison
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 1 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 18, 2026
Published
Tue, August 18, 2026
22
Player insights
20
Players mentioned
Topics
Malik NabersTucker KraftBrock BowersChristian McCaffreyChuba HubbardDeVonta SmithEmeka EgbukaGeorge KittleJaylen WaddleJonathon BrooksJordan LoveJordyn TysonJosh JacobsKyle Pitts
Player analysis
Player insights
Brock Bowers
PositiveUsage19:25
Despite playing through a PCL sprain, Brock Bowers maintained strong usage with 32 routes run per game.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
PositiveUsage4:26
Adam Hutchison notes that while Christian McCaffrey may hold himself out longer when not 100% healthy, he consistently returns to form and provides high-ceiling performance; he should be an automatic start when healthy.
Insight pageChuba Hubbard
NegativeInjury47:28
Chuba Hubbard is dealing with a hamstring strain and is classified as week-to-week. Adam Hutchison notes that Hubbard has a history of soft tissue injuries, including calf and hamstring issues, and expects him to miss significant time in the preseason.
Insight pageDeVonta Smith
PositiveValue54:40
Adam Hutchison strongly prefers Devonta Smith over Makai Lemon at their respective costs, noting that a veteran missing time with a hamstring injury is less concerning than a rookie missing time.
Insight pageEmeka Egbuka
PositiveValue9:00
Adam Hutchison maintains a positive outlook on Emeka Egbuka despite his current toe injury, noting that data shows no decline in snap or target share for wide receivers returning from turf toe. Hutchison explicitly states he is not fading Egbuka at his current ADP of 38.
Insight pageGeorge Kittle
PositiveValue56:11
George Kittle appears to be well ahead of schedule in his recovery from an Achilles injury. Adam Hutchison recommends drafting him as a starter and pairing him with a cheap backup like Terrence Ferguson or Brenton Strange.
Insight pageJaylen Waddle
PositiveValue57:15
Adam Hutchison is comfortable drafting Jalen Waddle at his current ADP, dismissing concerns about his injury history as largely bad luck. He believes Waddle will be a major fantasy factor if healthy.
Insight pageJonathon Brooks
PositiveValue48:48
Adam Hutchison is comfortable drafting Jonathan Brooks in redraft leagues despite his injury history, noting that Brooks is expected to see significant work while Chuba Hubbard is sidelined. However, Hutchison views him as a riskier asset in dynasty formats due to the potential for the Panthers to move on if he suffers another major injury.
Insight pageJordan Love
PositiveProjection20:54
Jordan Love is compared to C.J. Stroud in terms of being a big thrower downfield who likes to take chances, which may lead to increased passing attempts for the Packers offense this season.
Insight pageJordyn Tyson
NegativeInjury42:46
Adam Hutchison expresses concern regarding Jordan Tyson's recurring hamstring issues, noting that while the current injury is reported as minor by Nick Underhill, the history of hamstring problems over the past year creates a risk of snowballing and potential loss of playing time.
Insight pageJosh Jacobs
NegativeInjury21:20
Josh Jacobs is dealing with an injury that could lead to a slow start to the season, potentially forcing the Packers to lean more on the passing game.
Insight pageKyle Pitts
Makai Lemon
NegativeInjury54:40
Makai Lemon is dealing with hamstring issues that have persisted since rookie camp, leading Adam Hutchison to doubt his ability to contribute immediately in 2026.
Insight pageMalik Nabers
PositiveBreakout33:40
Malik Nabers is a strong breakout candidate who meets key metrics for players returning from ACL tears, including high pre-injury target share (28.2%) and yards per route run (2.2). While he may miss Week 1, he is a high-upside pick for the second round.
Insight pagePositiveBreakout39:50
Malik Nabers fits the specific metrics and historical profiles of players who have successfully returned from ACL tears to produce in fantasy football.
Insight pageMike Evans
PositiveValue55:43
Adam Hutchison views Mike Evans as an acceptable draft pick, noting that his quick return from a quad injury is encouraging.
Insight pagePuka Nacua
NegativeInjury27:47
Puka Nacua is dealing with groin and psoas (hip flexor) soreness. While his injury history is extensive, his ability to produce through pain is noted as a positive. The psoas diagnosis is viewed as more favorable for healing than an adductor strain.
Insight pageSam LaPorta
PositiveValue23:26
Sam LaPorta is a high-priority target ranked as the TE4. Despite back surgery, the team's willingness to pursue a long-term deal suggests they are confident in his medical recovery. He is expected to thrive in a pass-heavy offense.
Insight pageTrevor Etienne
PositiveSleeper52:17
Adam Hutchison is stashing Trevor Etienne on dynasty benches as a flex play, citing the uncertainty surrounding the health of the Panthers' primary running backs.
Insight pageTrey McBride
PositiveUsage19:20
Trey McBride demonstrated elite usage last season, maintaining an 'insane' clip of 40 routes run per game.
Insight pageTucker Kraft
NegativeProjection16:43
Adam Hutchison is bearish on Tucker Craft for 2026 due to concerns over his recovery from an ACL tear and his low route participation. Craft averaged only 23.9 routes per game last season, which Hutchison notes is significantly lower than elite tight ends like Trey McBride (40), Brock Bowers (32), and Kyle Pitts (30).
Insight pageNegativeUsage19:33
Tucker Kraft averaged 23.9 routes per game last season, even with Christian Watson sidelined. There are concerns regarding his ability to replicate his yards-after-catch efficiency and whether Green Bay will increase his route volume while he recovers from a major knee injury.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Every single time we get a notification on Twitter, it's Adam Schefter, it's some beat reporter telling us that there's another player
0:07that has gone down in practice due to some injury and we're never really sure what the timeline is.
0:12On top of that, there's a ton of key players coming into this season that had major offseason surgery and we're trying
0:19to kind of sift around and project how these guys are going to play this year and how much risk should we
0:25be building in to our rankings with these guys.
0:28Today we have a jam-packed show, we're going to be really excited to talk about some of these players and the recent news right here on Player Profiler.
0:36What is going on folks? Pete Nob here with Player Profiler.
0:39Got a really exciting show planned for you today.
0:42I have Adam Hutchison over at Football Guys who is a DPT, right?
0:46So he focuses specifically on the injuries and providing data-driven analysis for these players, projecting their timelines, building out models to kind
0:52of get an understanding of what the historical comps are with some of these injuries and how we can kind of project
0:59their timeline to come back as well as project how they will produce with these injuries.
1:04Adam, thanks so much for joining us. Tell the audience a little bit about what you're working on with Football Guys, the
1:10kinds of models, the kinds of things that you've built so far and what the folks can expect if they start to follow you.
1:17Yeah, I appreciate you having me first of all.
1:20I mainly talk about everyone's favorite subject in fantasy football, injuries, right?
1:23I mean, we love injuries in fantasy football. I have the best job of either being the wet blanket or maybe the
1:30optimist depending on what we're talking about with what players.
1:33But you mentioned it a little bit. I try to really focus on the data side and give some people some data-driven
1:39content when we're talking about injuries just because, like everybody else on Twitter, I'm not evaluating these players.
1:45I'm not getting my hands on them. So I don't know exactly.
1:48I have a little bit of a clinical background and expertise that can help.
1:52But I've also spent a lot of time, because I am a nerd, really gathering some data on terms of return-to-play timelines,
1:59re-injury risk for specific players, wide receivers, running back tight ends, and quarterbacks in our fantasy football are the most common positions in fantasy football.
2:06And then trying to work some things in there in terms of fantasy production to give fantasy managers all over, but specifically
2:13our Football Guys subscribers, just the most informed information when they're making those start-sit decisions for players.
2:18Yeah, I love it. And let's just kick it right off.
2:21We're going to talk about a bunch of hot topic players, recent injuries with guys maybe this week, last week that have
2:28gotten hurt in some capacity, as well as guys that came in with off-season surgery.
2:32But before we do that, tell us a little bit about your process.
2:36What is the most interesting thing you have found in your data this year?
2:40Is there anything new that's popped up where you're connecting certain dots between, like I said, historical things or maybe certain injuries
2:47that you say, hey, okay, this is starting to become more of a trend where I can start to project X, Y, Z.
2:53I'm not an injury guy, so this might sound like when I'm talking, most viewers are probably like, yeah, that's probably how
3:00I would say it, the way Pete's describing it, because I don't know how to speak that language.
3:05But in layman's terms, for maybe the casual like myself, when it comes to these injuries, is there something specific this off-season
3:12that you found that you feel is pretty interesting?
3:14It doesn't have to be about a specific player, but maybe just something in the research that you've done.
3:20Yeah, I mean, from a general sense, like I always like going over the off-season and looking at some of the season-ending
3:26injuries and trying to find some data points that point to players having like a favorable outcome.
3:31You know, specifically, the big one, obviously, is ACL tear or even Achilles tear.
3:36And I'm sure we'll talk about some of those players, but finding some of those data points that can be indicators for
3:42success the first year after the injury is interesting.
3:45One of the things, too, you know, we touched on a little bit of just talking about like average return to play timelines.
3:52This thing I'm really working on this off-season, and I integrated it last off-season, but I'm tweaking it now as we gear up for redraft season.
3:59It's just looking like, so if we know on average NFL wide receivers, for example, miss two and a half weeks with
4:06a hamstring strain, we get that narrative a lot of like, is this player injury prone or is this guy just fragile?
4:12It's susceptible to injury. I like to take specific players and compare them to that average and see what players historically undershoot
4:19recovery timelines or tend to take a little bit longer.
4:22Finding some of that information, I think, is really interesting.
4:25So like some guys that have been really notable, like Amon Ross St.
4:29Brown's dealt with a couple of really nasty injuries, but he does a really good job coming back a lot sooner than
4:35typically his other wide receiver counterparts do. George Kittle's another one gets banged up a lot, but has really done well with returning sooner than we expected.
4:43And then a guy like Christian McCaffrey sometimes really struggles in terms of injury timeline when dealing with specific injuries, but where
4:50some of the fantasy production where you expect a normal decline, when Christian McCaffrey is healthy, Christian McCaffrey gives you Christian McCaffrey performance, the high ceiling.
4:57So he typically, at least from looking at the data, somebody that might hold himself out a little bit longer if he is not 100%.
5:05But when he is healthy, he's somebody that should absolutely be in your lineup every single week because we always see him return to form.
5:12Yeah, McCaffrey is one of those players where you just say to yourself, you're either getting a top five season from even
5:19an overall player standpoint, or you're getting frustration because of the injuries.
5:22But you know what you're getting as long as he's healthy, right?
5:26I know people are a little worried because he's getting up there in age.
5:30But one other thing I wanted to ask you, because I think it's an interesting topic before we go into the first
5:36player, is it seems like, and this isn't maybe injuries, but this is just more about longevity with players.
5:42It seems like we get major discounts on older players and players have been able to stay consistently at a high level,
5:48especially the elite ones later on in their careers, right?
5:51Devontae Adams, a lot of it was touchdown driven, but still can still run routes with the best of them.
5:57You see players like Derrick Henry, who's obviously an alien.
6:00We talked about Christian McCaffrey. Mike Evans is kind of one of those guys too, where the play hasn't really dropped off.
6:07Now, some of them are still susceptible to dealing with these injuries.
6:10But do you think that there is something to sports medicine, rehabbing, what guys are putting in their bodies, how they're training
6:17that is leading to these elite players staying at a peak level later on in their career?
6:22Or is it really just the sheer fact of sometimes it's just luck and some of these guys have just really just
6:28kind of running hot on their luck not running out?
6:31Yeah. I mean, I think it's kind of all of the above.
6:35The interesting point that you talked on some of the players that you named, even though they're older, they're really elite producers at their position.
6:42And it also helps just from like a fantasy football perspective, I think not overcomplicating it.
6:47And guys that are in really good environments, maybe if they are a little bit older, we should still be going back to the well with those guys.
6:55I mean, when Devontae Adams was like with the Raiders and then with the Jets, people were really questioning like, hey, is he hitting a wall here?
7:03And then he goes to the Rams for two seasons and it's like, oh my gosh, Devontae Adams is, you know, a top 12 wide receiver.
7:11Similar to Mike Evans. I mean, Mike Evans, yeah, he's struggled with some soft tissue injuries.
7:16He's getting up there in age. Man, I want pieces of the 49ers offense.
7:20So when he's out there, like I think he's obviously going to be an automatic start for people.
7:25So that I think helps. But, you know, answering to more of the medicine side of it.
7:30Yeah, there's been a lot of research in terms of like sports medicine rehabilitation.
7:34But a lot of these guys, especially the ones that take their NFL career seriously, and that's why they're playing for such
7:41an extended period of time, are really being careful and specific about the types of things that they're putting in their body, supplements and nutrients, things like that.
7:49Yeah, that's a good point. And I think like some of these guys are also a little bit smarter than maybe guys in years past.
7:56Right. And they are so focused on keeping their body right.
8:00I mean, even silly things like I was listening to Drake London talk on Ryan Clark's podcast.
8:05And he said, Ryan Clark, I haven't gone out since I've been to Atlanta.
8:09Like, like he's not going out drinking. He's not going out partying and stuff.
8:13But like in the years past, early 2000s, even like before that, like it was just kind of that vibe where a
8:20lot of these guys and those guys still do it.
8:23They go to clubs and they do whatever. But it also just feels like there's a lot more of these guys that are hanging out inside.
8:30They're playing video games after they're trying to decompress, relax.
8:33They're not going clubbing. They're not doing all these different things.
8:36And, you know, for some of these guys, a lot of times it's these elite guys that are, for whatever reason, keeping their focus together.
8:44And they're not really putting themselves in those situations and they're keeping their bodies right.
8:48So but enough of all that. Let's get to the players and let's talk about some of these guys so far.
8:54I know on the show sheet we did have Jordan Tyson, but I do want to actually start with Emeka Egbuka.
9:01So let's go ahead and start with him first.
9:03Emeka Egbuka is a guy who last year, right, runs really, really hot to start the season and then gets the hamstring
9:10injury and continues to kind of fight through that.
9:13Looking at some of his career injuries, right. 2021 missed two games.
9:162023 had a high ankle sprain, you know, with the tightrope requiring a tightrope surgery in 2023.
9:21And then in 2025, right, had dealt with like a hip groin issue early on in the season, which we talked about as a rookie.
9:28And then also had that hamstring injury in week six and didn't really miss any time.
9:33Right. And then continue to kind of play through it.
9:36Baker obviously kind of fell off. He was dealing with injuries himself.
9:40It was a combination of that with Egbuka. Now we're coming back.
9:43Right. We think Egbuka is going to be healthy.
9:46We're all good. We're past it. Baker looks good.
9:49We're everyone's very excited for the Egbuka breakout. Right.
9:51He's going as, you know, pick 38 off. Off the board.
9:55Right. And now he goes down with a little bit of a lower body injury where it looks like it's could have
10:01been a high ankle sprain, but now it looks like it's turf toe.
10:05We're not totally sure. But talk to us a little bit about Egbuka.
10:09Would you prefer to be a high ankle sprain or would you prefer to be turf toe?
10:14And what are your thoughts on, you know, when does it start to become a concern for his status for week one
10:20or just that he'll even will be 100 percent?
10:23Maybe he does come back week one, but maybe not 100 percent.
10:26Well, I mean, first off, hats off to you.
10:29That was a very thorough injury breakdown. The injury breakdown there that we got that that is that is top notch top notch stuff there, Pete.
10:37I mean, even talking about tightrope procedure. I mean, that's that's well done.
10:41Yeah. I mean, so the 14 I mean, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have really kind of downplayed this injury.
10:46Some teams do initially when they're talking about injuries.
10:49I usually tell tell people like the practice reports will will give us some clarity.
10:53They're calling it a toe injury. They haven't specifically called it a turf toe yet, although most are kind of thinking.
11:00I mean, it would be the most common toe injury that we would see in the NFL terms of like turf toe versus high ankle sprain.
11:07To answer that question, I think we would rather deal with the turf toe situation.
11:12And I'll break that down here. So if it's just a toe injury looking at NFL wide receivers, non-specific toe injuries, I
11:18get a I've got a sample of like 35 NFL wide receivers.
11:22I've dealt with that specific injury designation since like 2018.
11:25On average, time misses about one to two weeks and camp, you know, with teams not having to operate on a seven
11:31day window or sometimes even like a five or six day window because they're playing weekly games.
11:36That can sometimes linger a little bit longer in the preseason just because teams want to be a little more conservative and
11:43get these guys ready for the start of the season.
11:46Turf toe, though, if we filter down or drill down to just specifically turf toe injuries, that's typically like a four week injury on average.
11:53I mean, they can obviously be much more longer than four weeks, but that's just the average timeline that we see.
11:59So my thinking with like a Mecca Bucas, if he sits out this week, maybe next week and is able to come
12:06back two weeks before the season starts, I'm feeling pretty good that it was probably truly a minor toe injury.
12:12If he sits out the entire preseason, which is possible that they might even do if it is a nonspecific toe injury
12:18and just be a little bit more conservative. But if he sits out the entire preseason and is really not really practicing
12:25or practicing, just starts practicing close to week one, I would be a little bit concerned as a turf toe.
12:31The good thing about a turf toe injury is in terms of like NFL wide receivers, the most limiting thing is time.
12:37It's typically an injury that results in a longer time period missed.
12:41But when players return, on average, there's no real decline in snap share.
12:45There's no real decline in target share, meaning they're given their normal workload.
12:48They're given their normal kind of role in the offense with the target share.
12:53I think those are positive things for a Mecca Bucas.
12:56And then you nailed it. I mean, if people have watched quarterback this offseason on Netflix, Baker Mayfield is dealing with a ton of injuries.
13:03If we want to be looking at a Mecca Bucas with rose cover glasses, we can certainly bake into like some of
13:09a Mecca Bucas production post injury could have been done because of Baker Mayfield.
13:14And I think we saw some of that with just like the target quality that even Mike Evans was getting.
13:19There's certainly something to like Baker Mayfield dealing with a couple of upper body injuries as well.
13:25All this to say, you know, we've got his ADP here.
13:28You've got a round pick 38. Like, I think that's perfectly fine.
13:31Click. If you wanted to use the injuries as a deal breaker for someone else, that's fine.
13:36But I would still be drafting a Mecca Bucas.
13:39I'm not using any of this stuff to fade him just yet.
13:43OK. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's kind of the best way to kind of kind of wrap that up with him
13:49is like, are you looking at it as a way now?
13:52Of course, if we're sitting here two weeks from now and a Bucas has I mean, are there really even like setbacks with something like turf toe?
14:00I mean, I guess you could re aggravate it if you try to get back out there a little bit too early.
14:07And if there is a re aggravation, maybe you're concerned.
14:10But I guess to your point, like it's really more the ankle that's more concerning because there is more of a of
14:16a drop off in production or maybe use it.
14:19Whereas with the turf toe, if they're out there, they're probably going to they're probably going to play.
14:24Do they numb it up like with turf toe?
14:27Do they shoot it up with anything? Typically, there's not really like a splint typically that you can put on it.
14:33Right. So do they just spat the spat the foot a little bit, which if you're not familiar with that, like viewers
14:40wise, it's really when you just really wrap it up with tape around the shoe.
14:44So if they're if they're truly dealing with turf toe, they'll usually put like a really rigid insole or sometimes even like
14:51a metal plate in the shoe to limit the amount of toe extension that a guy's getting.
14:56Because really, when they're running and pushing off of that toe, that can be the most irritating factor.
15:01I mean, again, looking at some of the data, there's not a high re injury risk.
15:06It's really when the player sustains the injury. The most limiting thing that I've seen for fantasy is it can be a multi week injury.
15:13We talked about like on average four weeks. It can be five, six, seven weeks, which can hurt you, obviously, because this
15:20is a guy that's just sitting on your bench.
15:22If you don't have an IR spot or sitting in your IR spot and traditional redraft leagues.
15:27But then once they're back and they're activated, the data says we should be plugging this guy back into our lineup because
15:34he's going to be resuming his normal workload and role in the offense.
15:38Okay, perfect. We're going to take a quick break.
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16:34Oh, I cut the ad short. So I guess we're coming right back.
16:38So sorry about that. The next guy we're going to talk about, though, guys, is Tucker Craft.
16:43We're going to do a little bit of a blend here, right?
16:46Players that came into the season with some sort of injury and then guys that have already kind of got injured in camp.
16:53And we're trying to kind of facilitate and get a feel for what our vibe is with them.
16:58So Tucker Craft is an interesting one, right? I mean, 25 years old.
17:02We know the explosiveness is there. He's going off the board at 81 right now.
17:07We're getting a really nice discount on Tucker Craft, in my opinion.
17:10Just looking at some of his health over college and the NFL.
17:14In college, he missed six games due to an ankle injury in 2022.
17:18He did tear his pec during the offseason in 2024.
17:21That was in the NFL. And then he returned for the regular season.
17:24Did have a little bit of a minor knee injury, left knee injury in September last year, but did play through it.
17:31And then he obviously tore that right ACL, which ended his season and he missed eight games.
17:36Did get activated from the pup and did return to practice.
17:39Packers are kind of easing him back into a full workload.
17:42Concern wise, I guess, you know, the ACL recovery entering the season, roughly nine months removed from that surgery.
17:48What would be the concerns with Tucker Craft, if any, for you?
17:52And do you think that his price here at 81 is justified?
17:55Or do you think that people are baking in the injury a little too much or even not enough?
18:01And that's why he's going where he's going. And maybe you think he should be going somewhere else.
18:06Yeah. I mean, if people have been following me this offseason, they're probably a little bit annoyed with how much I've been talking about Tucker Craft.
18:14Just because he's honestly been a really difficult click for me.
18:17Um, he's coming off the ACL tear for Tucker Craft.
18:20I think there's two things that really bake into why I'm a little bit more bearish on him in 2026.
18:26And it comes down to two simple things, production and usage.
18:29So from a production standpoint, I mean, he was really running pure last season.
18:33Um, when we look at tight end fantasy production, two of the most sticky stats, it's honestly intuitive.
18:39It comes down to yards after the catch and routes run.
18:42So when we're talking about production efficiency standpoint, yards after the catch, uh, a third of Tucker Craft's points came off of
18:48yards after the catch, which makes sense. We like these athletic tight ends in fantasy football.
18:53Um, but even stickier than athleticism scores is yards after the catch.
18:57The more yards that you're getting, the more points that you're getting.
19:00I have a little bit of concern what that looks like in 2026 after he's coming off of a major knee injury.
19:07Then we bake into the usage part of it, where I talked about, again, another sticky stat is routes run per game.
19:13Um, makes sense if tight ends running more routes, he's probably getting more targets.
19:17He's probably catching more passes and scoring more points.
19:20These are the top guys in fantasy last season.
19:23Trey McBride ran 40 routes a game last season.
19:25Insane clip. Brock Bowers even injured coming off of a PCL sprain ran 32 routes per game.
19:30Kyle Pitts, 30 routes per game. Tucker Craft was all the way down there at 23.9 and that's with Christian Watson, not playing.
19:37He was coming off of an ACL tear himself.
19:40Jaden Reed, not playing dealing with injury and rookie Matt, Matthew Golden, who we've pretty much learned at this point has taken
19:46a while to kind of get up to speed and acclimate himself in an NFL offense in terms of a usage standpoint.
19:53I just really have concerns. I think it was the optimal scenario for Tucker Craft last season and coming off of a knee ACL tear.
20:00I worry about, is he going to be able to produce same yards after the catch like he did last season?
20:06And would Green Bay increase his routes run per game when he's coming off of a major knee injury?
20:12And we've got those guys back. Christian Watson is like really popular click right now.
20:17Jaden Reed's healthy again. And Matthew Golden seems to take a step forward.
20:20I just have concerns about Tucker Craft for other players in that range.
20:24Yeah, I think that's fair. I've been listening to a couple of guys talk about the Packers from last year and, you
20:31know, their plays per game that, you know, they were they were on the very low end of place per game.
20:37And if you look down here on player profiler, you'll see.
20:40Right. I mean, the the actual pass plays per game, only 30, which ranked 28th in the NFL.
20:45I think that could kind of come up a little bit.
20:49We do know Green Bay likes to ground and pound.
20:52Right. And likes to take care of the football.
20:54And Jordan Love, I look at him a little bit towards like CJ Stroud.
20:59And I know that's going to annoy people. And I don't mean from their skill set.
21:03But I just think sometimes their coaching staffs try to wrangle that in because they are kind of big throwers downfield.
21:09They like to hang in the pocket and they like to take some chances.
21:14And so because of that, they try to lean up these coaching staffs, try to lean on the run with Josh Jacobs.
21:20He's dealing with that injury. Well, we can definitely talk about Jacobs at some point, too.
21:25There's a possibility that I think that maybe that those passing attempts come up a little bit.
21:30And I do think that this defense takes a little bit of a step back because Jeff Halfley is no longer there anymore.
21:37And Micah Parsons is not going to start the year off healthy.
21:40He's probably going to miss the first six games.
21:43So because of all that, and then maybe Jacobs starts off a little slow because of this injury that he's got, I think pass plays may come up.
21:51So while, you know, the opportunities maybe are a little bit more, hey, you need to be extremely efficient, which is what Kraft was, extremely efficient.
21:59You know, maybe we get a little bit of balance there where the pass plays come up a little bit where he
22:05doesn't maybe need to be hyper, hyper efficient. But with all that being said, right, we talk about Tucker Kraft and we talk about where he's going, right?
22:14He's going off the board at pick 81. So you're looking at like a round seven player right now, round six, round seven.
22:20Tight ends around his range, you know, are like Harold Fannin Jr.
22:24who goes ahead of him right now at 68.
22:27You have Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts is going at 65, which is kind of crazy in my opinion.
22:32I'm just forgetting about whether it's your pitch. I'm just not taking at 65.
22:36But can sense as in there. That's his average rank.
22:39Do you feel like Kraft is at least appropriately priced or do you think he should be somewhere down in the 100
22:46range where, you know, you're seeing more of those Travis Kelsey's, those, you know, Dalton Kincaid's, those Jake Ferguson's, those Isaiah Likely's, right?
22:52Like those are like that 100 to 110 range, 120 range.
22:56Do you think that's where Kraft should be or you're not that bearish on him?
23:00And you think maybe, maybe somewhere in the middle?
23:03Yeah, I, it's going to be a lukewarm take for me, but yeah, probably, you know, somewhere in the middle and he's
23:09not going to get down to that spot. I mean, I fully acknowledged.
23:13He had an amazing season last year. And that's really, I think what's pulling his ADP up a little bit, even coming
23:20off of a major knee injury, honestly, for me, and it's not to get like too hot takey, like price aside.
23:26I think I just straight up prefer Sam Laporta this season.
23:29And I know Sam Laporta is coming off of, you know, an injury in his own right with the back stuff that was going on.
23:36George Kittle is another one, again, dealing with like a major knee injury, but he's looked good where not straight up, but definitely with like ADP and price.
23:45I just love George Kittle and that 49ers offense and the way that they use him.
23:49And the other one that's obviously going ahead of him, and it kind of depends on league and format is like Tyler Warren.
23:56I think I would rather pay up for Tyler Warren.
23:59If we're just talking about like other players kind of in that, that Tucker craft range, like there's not a ton of
24:06exciting players, but like I kind of prefer Chris Godwin.
24:09Makai Lemmon's ADP has dropped a little bit because of the injury.
24:12Stefan Diggs ADP has come up a little bit because of signing with the commanders, Jordan Addison kind of player.
24:18I just found myself clicking other players this off season where I don't hate Tucker crafts ADP.
24:23I fully acknowledge the talent. I've to click some of him just because I, he is somebody that could burn you, but
24:30I'm just, I'm just underweight on Tucker craft. He's just not been somebody I've been actively targeting in that 80 range.
24:36Yeah, I think that's totally fine. And I'm, I'm actually with you on Sam Laporta.
24:40Um, not a guy that was on the show sheet, but I would love to talk about Laporta because, um, I'm very,
24:47very bullish on Laporta as well this year. And I'd love to know your, your thoughts on him with his injury.
24:53I have Laporta ranked as my number four tight end, uh, Laporta, depending some sites have him at like pick 90.
24:59Some picks at sites have him at like pick 70.
25:02It's, it's kind of all over the place, uh, with his ADP.
25:06But, um, I have Laporta, like I said, as my number four overall tight end, he's coming off of this back surgery.
25:12Um, he's had some, he's had some injuries, right.
25:15But overall, I'm, I'm very, very excited to draft him.
25:18I feel like the team talked prior to him being cleared fully.
25:21The team was rumored by Schefter like a month prior that they were working on deals long-term for him.
25:27And I feel like a team working on long-term deals before the guys even gotten out there and cleared full participant after
25:34back surgery tells me they've seen the medicals. They trust their staff and they feel pretty confident and comfortable with where he's
25:40at in his recovery with this back surgery. Can you talk a little bit about Laporta and, you know, backs is, is
25:47always a very scary thing because they don't really heal very well.
25:50But what are your thoughts on Laporta in that whole situation?
25:53I mean, we could, you can spin it any way you want.
25:57Glass half empty, half full. I'm going to, because I'm a Sam Laporta guy, uh, look at it half full.
26:03You know, the fact that he was playing at all last year was a down season for Sam Laporta, but the fact
26:09that he was playing at all through this back injury and producing it at the clip that he was, I think is rather impressive.
26:16He's somebody that again, you know, is, I think in a better and a more healthy environment.
26:21I'm not trying to make this like a Laporta craft thing, but he's in a better environment just looking at pass plays
26:28per game, uh, Detroit versus green Bay. And I know he's got a little bit more target competition with the Monroe St.
26:35Brown and Jameson Williams and, and Jameer Gibbs coming out of the backfield.
26:38But like, I just look at it like kind of as a wash for what he did last season.
26:44And, and I think there's no reason he can't recover from this back injury.
26:48He's got surgery to address it. I think he's going to be in a more pass heavy offense.
26:53And I, I just had, uh, I felt more comfortable drafting him and I don't really have any concerns about the back
27:00injury until we hear something else or hear something differently.
27:03I think he's going to be, you know, the Samuel Porta of, of years prior.
27:07Yeah. I mean, you talked about it too. Like the, the, his ability to still play through those injuries was pretty, pretty impressive.
27:14Right. I mean, look at it. He was on pace for 75 catches, 900 yards, five and a half touchdowns.
27:20Right. Um, so I, I fully expect him to hit the ground running.
27:24It seems like he looks good. He looks healthy.
27:27We haven't gotten to anything yet though. So I don't want to jinx myself because I mean, the injuries have been flowing
27:33and the injuries have just been kind of coming all over the place.
27:37Um, and let's talk a little bit about Puka Nakua because Puka Nakua is, uh, it almost feels like people are ready to hit the panic button.
27:45Obviously had a very, very controversial off season. Uh, you know, there's just a lot going on there aside from the health.
27:51And now, you know, there's talk about him running it through running into a door at a party, which I just, I
27:58think that's just stupid stuff that happened probably months ago.
28:01That's just kind of surfacing now on a podcast, whatever.
28:04Um, but he gets, uh, he comes up today and he leaves practice early.
28:08He's going at, he's going to the board top five in drafts right now.
28:12He's got an ADP of like three and a half.
28:15Um, he's dealt with a lot of injuries over his career.
28:18Um, you know, if you look at it, let's, let's just go through some of it really quick.
28:24And then we'll talk about what he's dealing with now.
28:27Uh, in 2023, dealt with the oblique knee and hip issues, but still did play all 17 games.
28:322024, he had a right knee injury, missed several weeks of practice.
28:352024, again, week one, he re-aggravated that knee injury and suffered a PCL sprain.
28:40Went on IR, missed five games. 2025, he had the ankle sprain.
28:43He only missed one game, but then later did deal with chest and rib injuries.
28:48And then today as it stands, right, he's dealing with a groin soreness and he missed practice time.
28:53But then he also said that they, that he, he did practice today and got injured again, uh, in practice today.
28:59So have you kept up with Puka Nakua? Obviously he's a very, very major player, major cost this year.
29:05So it's going to be important if people should fade him or not.
29:09And we're early on here. So I don't want you to sit here and say, I'm stamping it now.
29:14Avoid Puka. That's not what I'm getting at here.
29:17We obviously probably need a couple of days to see what goes on, but where are you at with him?
29:23With the recent news of him getting injured again today?
29:26I just, where, where, where's your headspace with him?
29:28Yeah, there's a couple of things with, with Puka Nakua.
29:31I think the first thing, um, he's going to be somebody that at least in my database is going to come out looking favorably coming off of injury.
29:40I mean, you talked a little bit about it with like the PCL sprain.
29:44You've seen how this has been like difficult for, for players to play with Ricky Pierce.
29:49All it's affected two seasons. Now the two guys most recently too, it's kind of a coincidence that have really obviously been
29:55hurt by it, but they've produced a lot better than other players.
29:59And dealing with that PCL sprain is Puka Nakua and Brock Bowers.
30:02Um, so he's somebody that, you know, could be offensive environment playing with Matthew Stafford could be a little bit about him,
30:09but dealing with some significant injuries has really been able to produce even at a high clip.
30:14So that's favorable in his regard, the growing thing.
30:16I mean, it's going to be something I'm monitoring.
30:19A lot of times these teams come out and say tightness versus a true strain, and they can tend to be a little bit more conservative.
30:27And I tend to think that's what's going on with the Rams here.
30:31Like Puka Nakua is integrated in this offense. He's obviously got a lot of repetition with Matthew Stafford.
30:36If he's dealing with a little bit of discomfort, like there's really no reason to play him at all in the preseason.
30:42Let's get him healthy for, for, you know, week one.
30:45The other thing, I mean, and you talked about it, like, you know, he's, he's a little bit of a knucklehead.
30:52He's had some questionable, like off the field stuff.
30:54So, yeah. I mean, if you want to get really like nuanced and dig in here, like we've talked about some of
31:01the veterans that have done well, uh, maintaining their body and doing the right things like Puka Nakua.
31:06I'm not going to say it's a one for one comparison, but like a little bit of like Brandon Iuke stuff where
31:13it's like, are we putting ourselves in the best position to succeed?
31:16Like this is a job, like make no mistake.
31:19This is a game that we're playing and in fantasy football, we're playing a game within a game, but in the NFL, this is a job.
31:26Like you got to be doing all the right things at the right times and taking care of yourself.
31:32I think Puka Nakua has given us some reason to doubt that, but again, make no mistake, pick four.
31:38Like I'm a coward. I'm not going to pass on Puka Nakua because of any of this stuff.
31:43I might not push him into my top three, but I'm still drafting him in the top four.
31:48If I had, if I had that fourth pick.
31:51Yeah. I think that's, uh, that's really all we're looking to hear there.
31:55And I, and I, I am curious your thoughts though, the style of play with Puka, because it feels like he's in
32:01car accidents a lot because it's just the way he puts his body out there.
32:06Does that have, do you have any concern with the play style and the way he does play?
32:11Um, does that, does that worry you? I mean, there are some guys, I mean, I, I always look at the Tyler
32:18Lockett, like highlight reel where Lockett, I don't know if you've ever seen it where Lockett just always went down and just always avoided injury, always avoided hits.
32:26And he consistently stayed healthy, right? There's some guys that do it and do it well.
32:31And then there's some guys that just embrace contact, uh, which can be a little bit more nerve wracking, but I guess
32:37he has played through a lot of injuries played and been able to bounce back.
32:42So I guess that's a positive in your mind.
32:44And then in addition to that, did you, did you see that there was a psoas as well as the groin?
32:50So he did have the groin, it came back and then he popped up today with the psoas.
32:56Is that just pretty normal? I mean, psoas is like a deep core muscle issue, right?
33:00Like it's not really. So it, yeah, it's, it's a part of the hip flexor.
33:05I actually, that's a good point there. Cause I do remember seeing that last minute.
33:09It was originally like groin and then Sean McVay, Sean McVay came out today and says like a psoas issue.
33:15So it's like groin hip flexor type issue. Those muscles are very close together, um, where they sometimes get diagnosed or misdiagnosed as, as one in the same.
33:24Honestly, if it was a psoas injury, I think that's a little bit more favorable versus an adductor or groin strain just because of how those injuries heal.
33:32So that, that could be a bit of positive news, honestly, for, for Puka.
33:36Okay. Well, that's good to hear. Um, let's talk about Malik neighbors next.
33:40Uh, Malik neighbors, man, this is a guy who he's participating in team drills now.
33:44Um, so he's gotten a lot, a lot of positive reports, right?
33:48Talk about a major swing in an off season for a player who, you know, we're sitting here just going through the timeline right now.
33:55ADP is at 33 at the moment and rising as we're talking, just looking at some of his injury history, get a
34:02concussion, missed two games in 2024, relatively healthy in college, uh, towards ACL and meniscus in week four, uh, missed the remainder
34:08of the season last year, underwent that knee surgery in October.
34:11So it did have some swelling and I guess he couldn't get it done immediately.
34:16Other only Pat Mahomes did, did, which was crazy how quickly he got his done.
34:20Um, but, uh, require that second cleanup procedure to kind of remove that scar tissue and stiffness, which I guess does happen
34:27right when, when maybe the healing and stuff, and it's just doesn't feel right yet.
34:31Um, so they go back in and clean it up camp limited in practice, working, uh, toward full seven on seven, 11, 11 participation.
34:38Uh, so he's not full go in team periods, right?
34:41But he is being mixed in, in team drills.
34:44And again, like we said, a major shift in his outlook, right?
34:48And the drum beat around him because people looked at the celebrity softball game and everybody's losing their mind.
34:53And this guy's, he starts draft dropping for guys like us that are drafting in best ball and like in fricking June and April.
35:00Um, but what are your thoughts on him? I mean, do you think that people are getting too excited about him and
35:07you're kind of like, Hey, let's still pump the brakes here.
35:10Let's wait till he gets integrated. Have you looked at the videos and do you have any thoughts?
35:15Do you put any stock into the, the, the movement that you see in him when he is practicing in these drills at all?
35:22Or, and just what's your overall outlook in him right now?
35:26So I, I was very high on Malik neighbors this off season, looking at NFL wide receivers coming off an ACL tears
35:32and like some of the metrics that the ones that did, uh, that performed well, Malik neighbors hit all of them.
35:38Um, you know, we want a younger age player.
35:41They heal a little bit faster. They come back a little bit quicker, uh, pre C pre ACL target share.
35:47Um, he had a 28 per 28.2% target share.
35:50That was third highest among all NFL wide receivers dealing with ACL tears that I've looked at.
35:55You want to career yards per out run pre injury above two, obviously it's a little bit shorter career, but like neighbors cleared that at 2.2.
36:02And then, um, there's some data that points to like average depth of target.
36:07You want kind of a middle ground. So you don't want a guy that's purely a few field stretcher and has a
36:13really high a dot because there's going to be efficiency declines coming off an ACL tear.
36:18So if they're not getting some high quality targets, um, and we see production and efficiency declines and those players send us to, uh, struggle, I should say.
36:26So you want something kind of in that middle ground Malik neighbors, check that box.
36:30I will be completely honest. I was getting a little bit nervous when we learned about like the secondary procedure.
36:36I didn't read too much into the celebrity softball thing, but I, you know, I thought, man does look like he's going to end up on the PUP.
36:45And then it's been kind of a complete one 80 since July.
36:48He's, he's looked really well. He's not been cleared for like full on contact just yet.
36:53So I, I guess the only thing I would say is pumping the brakes a little bit is I think at this
36:59point we can confidently say like he's not going to be on the PUP.
37:04I don't know if it's a hundred percent slam dunk that he's going to be ready week one.
37:09I could see the giants, even with all this positive news, holding them out, maybe a week or two tops.
37:15So fantasy managers should just keep that in mind in the back of their mind when drafting him.
37:20But he certainly steamed up. I expect his ADP to continue to rise.
37:24He, I can really see him being somebody that's like middle of the second, maybe a two, three turn pick.
37:30I'm fine picking him there. Just kind of understand that there is, there is a little bit of risk that he might
37:36not be out there exactly week one, but all of those indicators that I talked about just like fantasy production.
37:42Like, I think we could, we can really be excited about Malik neighbors.
37:46Yeah. And I really wanted to talk about neighbors too, because you know, neighbors, I took neighbors last night in the, uh,
37:53in the NFFC 150 best ball championship. I took him at the, uh, I want to say I took him.
37:59Let's see. I took him at the two, three turn.
38:02I think it might've been at the two, three turn, but you might say you don't, you might say you might also not love that.
38:09But I've also taken him at the one, two turn.
38:12Uh, so I guess my question is like ceiling wise, right?
38:15Like when we talk about a player, um, and like, you gotta assume that coming off the ACL the first year, they
38:22always say, you know, they're never going to be like a hundred percent, but like, does he need to be a hundred
38:28percent to still give us a monster season in your opinion?
38:31Or can he still kind of produce like, you know, we hope even if he's not like extremely, extremely explosive or, you
38:38know, has somewhat of a dip there. Yeah. Um, I, I still think you can get the ceiling games.
38:44Um, I'm blanking on the year, but, uh, Jordy Nelson coming off of an ACL tear finishes the wide receiver to the following season.
38:51Like we, we have some examples of guys like crushing it coming off of, uh, an ACL tear.
38:56And I will tell you straight up, like the, you know, we talked about Malik neighbors being third on that list in
39:03terms of pre ACL target share at 28. Jordy Nelson was one on that list.
39:07Like Jordy Nelson was getting pumped with targets. He was a focal point of that offense in green Bay.
39:13He had a, uh, career yards per route run pre injury, uh, above two at that time as well.
39:18So it's hard to draw like a one for one comparison, obviously, you know, comparing Jordy Nelson to Malik neighbors, but we
39:25we've seen some ceiling games out of people. Keenan Allen is another guy that did really well.
39:30Cooper cup is another guy that did really well coming off of an ACL tear.
39:34And they kind of all had these metrics that I'm talking about that we use for fantasy football.
39:39I mean, there's, there's nothing nuanced about it, but just filtering out specifically to players coming off an ACL tear.
39:45Those are some of the bullet points of the guys that have done well.
39:50Malik neighbors hits all of them. Okay, perfect. Well, that's what I like to hear.
39:54I mean, I, I, I look at it like in one hand, if you're taking him like that high, like the 201,
40:00202, I took him at like the 203 last night.
40:03Uh, I believe it might not have been the two through turn, but it's a, it's a third round reversal.
40:09That's why I'm kind of getting confused. Cause it did come right back to me, but you know, when you start taking
40:16him at the 203 or the 201, you know, you're not giving yourself much margin for error.
40:21Right. I guess. And that's where it gets a little bit tricky, but, um, I look at it as like, if you
40:27value the guy as a mid second, right? Like I don't have an issue just going ahead and taking him at the high, high second round too.
40:35Unless you're just like, Hey, there are guys that have ranked ahead of them that are just sure fire.
40:41They're going to produce. And it does get a little bit gray.
40:45I, in my opinion, after that first round where, you know, there's a lot of guys in that second round, some running
40:51backs where you can make cases for a lot of them, having them in the front half of the round or the back half of the round.
40:59So I love, I think you just probably just take them.
41:02Um, it's kind of, kind of my mindset and how I've been going about it.
41:07Um, we're doing good so far. Just want to take one quick break and then we'll talk about one, two more, one
41:13or two more players, and then we'll get out of here.
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42:10All right, folks, we are back here. Adam Hutchison is here with football guys.
42:14Thank you guys so much for watching up until this point.
42:18If you guys are not already, make sure you subscribe from the audio side, leave us a review.
42:23We very much appreciate it. We've also appreciate Adam taking his time today to go over and sift through some of these
42:30injuries and just give us some perspective because, you know, sometimes it's you see these guys pop up with injuries in practice
42:36and you don't know how to react. And Twitter starts melting down.
42:40I've been there. We've all been there. One guy that everyone's kind of melting down somewhat collectively is Jordan Tyson, right?
42:46ADP of 80, right? This is a player who tore the ACL, MCL, PCL, essentially lost 2023 season recovering back in 2022.
42:52Fractured collarbone. Misses big 12 championship game. Had reoccurring hamstring issues in 2025.
42:56Missed some games there. We all know he didn't do the combine or the pro day.
43:01And then he also, they were kind of easing him in the saints, right?
43:05Early on in, in mini camp and all these things.
43:08Then leaves practice, you know, with a hamstring re-injury today.
43:11Nick Underhill did say that it didn't seem serious, but Adam, how can it not feel serious for a guy who's had
43:17these hamstring injuries for pretty much over a year now to, to have another one come up?
43:23Even if it doesn't feel like it was a strong re-aggravation, it seems like this is something that may not go away.
43:29What are your thoughts? And I know people keep comping that Christian Watson thing.
43:33Maybe that's something that he'll have to look at in the off season, but just in general, what are your thoughts with Tyson?
43:40Are you concerned? Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm a little bit concerned.
43:44And if people aren't really familiar about some of my takes or how I approach things, I'm typically not the alarmist guy.
43:50Like I'm not going to be the guy that's like sounding the alarm on every single injury.
43:55I'm not in this for clicks. Like I'm just going to give you what I think is going on.
44:01And I tend to give a lot of these players the benefit of the doubt, mostly because again, I'm not in that training room with them.
44:08I'm not the one rehabbing them. The breaking down Jordan Tyson's extensive injury list college, like looking at some of the things
44:15there wasn't like a lot of carryover in terms of like, Hey, can this be an issue long-term?
44:20Can this be an issue long-term? Obviously, you know, we don't want to see a player suffer a significant knee injury, but
44:27we talked about it with ACLs and like recovery timelines.
44:30We've seen a lot of players that had those injuries in college or had them in the NFL come back and have very productive NFL careers.
44:37The hamstring thing is concerning to me. So like just filtering out players that have been injured, NFL wide receivers.
44:43I think on average, any wide receiver has about a 12% chance to sustain a hamstring injury.
44:48Healthy guy just having a random injury. If you've had one hamstring injury, the likelihood of having another hamstring injury within the
44:55next three seasons jumps up to 39%, which is doesn't seem high, but that's a pretty substantial number.
45:00Like talk about all the randomness that can happen in the NFL injury, no injury to say like, Hey, if you've had
45:07one, there's almost a 40% chance that you'll have another in the next three years.
45:11And like Jordan Tyson dealt with this all off season and it seems like we cleared it.
45:16And now we're getting into like the nitty gritty of the preseason.
45:20And this is becoming a potential issue. I certainly respect Nick Underhill.
45:23I mean, no one covers the saints better than Nick Underhill saying that it's minor.
45:28I think we absolutely have to take that at face value because he is somebody that does not BS us with some of these reports.
45:35He tells it how it is. I just don't, I don't want to see this anymore for Jordan Tyson.
45:41Like I don't want to hear about the hamstring stuff because if it starts to snowball and become more and more of
45:47an issue, I think there is a real possibility that could eat into some playing time.
45:52Yeah. And let's just do an exercise here. Jordan Tyson, like we said, goes off the board at pick 80.
45:58I'm just going to name a couple of, of wide receivers.
46:01Forget about other positions. We'll just focus on wide receiver.
46:04Some guys right now, your draft say it's tomorrow that, you know, you're, you're looking to make these clicks and Jordan Tyson's on the board.
46:11Tell me which I'm going to name some names.
46:14You just stop me when you're like, okay, I will take Tyson over this guy.
46:18Okay. Brian Thomas jr. I, okay. So I don't want to start right there.
46:23I I'm a bag. I I've definitely been drinking the Parker Washington Kool-Aid.
46:26I'm all in on Parker Washington. So let's pretend you didn't say Brian Thomas jr.
46:31Okay. We'll pretend I didn't say him. I I'm a big Parker Washington guy too.
46:35So I totally get that. Josh downs. Yeah. I'm, I'm taking Jordan Tyson over Josh.
46:40This might be a bad, a bad experiment. Um, I, I, I like, I like his ADP is at 80.
46:46You feel like even with this injury, you know, possibly popping up, you wouldn't sit here and say, I would drop him
46:52at his, you know, where he's currently priced. I still feel comfortable where, with, with where he's at.
46:58Yeah. This is a good time. I think, I think I would.
47:01Um, but he is a, he is a nervous click.
47:04And this is probably a good point in terms of like how you run your fantasy football team.
47:09There are some people, I mean, you and I are talking about this.
47:13I assume your audience is, is fantasy football enthusiasts.
47:16There are some people that play casual fantasy football and they're like, I don't want to deal the headache of like this
47:22guy being questionable every Sunday and having to decide like last minute, do I need to put him in my lineup?
47:29This might not be the guy for you because if this is becoming an issue in the preseason, it might be an issue in the regular season.
47:37He's a really nervous click, but I do. I love the talent and I love the situation with new Orleans.
47:42They get a play in a dome. He has another wide receiver next to him on Chris Alave, who is obviously a
47:49target earner, but all the attention is not going to be focused on Jordan Tyson.
47:53Like I, I do like him. I'm just, I'm nervous.
47:56I'm nervous, Pete. I'm, I'm, I'm getting nervous about, you know, all the hamstring stuff.
48:01Yeah, I get it. But I think it's a good exercise though, because you're nervous, but you're still feel like the risk
48:07is worth the reward given where he's going. And I think that's the point, right?
48:12That's, that's what we're really trying to get with this conversation today is, is the risk worth the reward given where their
48:18status is with the injuries or their recoveries. So I think that's a good exercise.
48:23Let's talk about one more, two more, I guess, two guys, same team, Jonathan Brooks and Chuba Hubbard, right?
48:28Chuba Hubbard, right? These are two guys that the, I don't even need to really mention the ADP because it's just so all over the place.
48:36I mean, Jonathan Brooks consensus ADP on fantasy process.
48:39One 20 in many drafts that I've been in, that is anything that's competitive, especially in, in you know, in, in high
48:45stakes, Jonathan Brooks goes anywhere between 60 and pick 80, right?
48:48Like that's been the range for Brooks. Hubbard has been a guy that's been going behind him though.
48:54Fantasy pros consensus claims that he's going ahead. So it just hasn't caught up on say other platforms.
48:59Right. And so unfortunately we just haven't seen it, but Jonathan Brooks toward the ACL of Texas.
49:04We all know that good prospect came at prospect came out returned in 2024 as a rookie before suffering another ACL tear, right?
49:11Ends up having two ACL tears in the same knee.
49:14It sounds like the surgery didn't take correctly. Adam, if that's the best way to put it, um, it's not necessarily maybe that he's injury prone.
49:22It's just maybe that the first surgery just didn't take well.
49:25I don't know. Like you'll say, you weren't there for the surgery.
49:28You didn't perform it. You didn't look at his knee.
49:31So you can't really tell. Um, but it's just based on what we're, we're hearing Hubbard though, has had issues staying healthy as well.
49:38When we look at him, he's actually had a lot of soft tissue injuries.
49:43He's got a hamstring injury that just popped up.
49:45So now he's week to week get a calf injury where he missed two games in 2025.
49:50He had another calf injury in 2024, get a hamstring strain in 2023.
49:54And he had an ankle sprain in 2022 and in college, right?
49:58So a lot of soft tissue injuries for, for Hubbard, but a lot of people have been super focused on, on, uh, you know, Jonathan Brooks's injury history.
50:06Now he looks healthy. So Brooks is now going to get a chance to really take the bull by the horns these
50:12next couple of weeks while Hubbard is on the sidelines.
50:15What are your thoughts of Brooks? Cause he's going to get shot up boards.
50:20We know that like, he's going to probably go somewhere on 65, 70, maybe even higher, especially when he hits that one big preseason play.
50:27Um, what are your thoughts of Brooks? Are you nervous drafting him?
50:30Is there going to be a point where he gets too expensive for you?
50:35So there, there's probably multiple layers to this take.
50:37You nailed it. I mean, Chuba Hubbard and Jonathan Brooks have been like two ships passing the night in terms of ADP,
50:44like in, in best ball leagues, Jonathan Brooks is, if he hadn't passed Chuba Hubbard with this news this week, he's certainly
50:50going to move past, past Chuba Hubbard. Yeah. Talking about Chuba Hubbard for a second.
50:55Like they already classified as week to week with the hamstring strain.
50:58I I'm thinking Chuba Hubbard's not practicing again. They're playing again this, this preseason.
51:02I can easily see him missing four weeks. Um, so Jonathan Brooks is going to get a lot of run.
51:08I'm okay with Jonathan Brooks in a redraft. Um, I didn't love him coming out of college just from an injury standpoint.
51:15Like I thought it was going to be really tough for him to have a productive rookie season coming off of that ACL tear.
51:22I'm not going to sit here and predicted that, that say, I predicted that he was going to have another ACL tear.
51:28I'm okay with him in redraft, you know, not to get too nuanced here, but like, I think he has a really
51:35risky profile and dynasty just because he's, and most players are, but he's really another major injury or significant injury away from
51:41like the Panthers probably being like, Hey, we're just going to draft over this.
51:46Like we, we can't, if Jonathan Brooks can't be healthy, we need to add something to this room, uh, or move on for him.
51:53Um, so I like him in redraft. I think he's certainly the more exciting player.
51:57And I think Carolina and you know, everything that Dave canalis has said about their running back room, he seems pretty excited
52:04about Jonathan Brooks, but you know, from a dynasty perspective, I think he might be a little bit riskier of an asset.
52:10And I mean, I know he wasn't on here, but like, if we really wanted to be fantasy football sickos and dynasty
52:17sickos, like I don't mind Trevor ETN just because they're sues.
52:20Yeah. I mean, I, I, I posted today, like you guys are really going to make me do the Trevor ETN thing again and pull me back in.
52:28But like I I'm stashing him on some, some dynasty benches just because there seems to be some, some uncertainty from a
52:35health perspective at the RB one and RB two position.
52:38And that's where you can get some, some real nice value.
52:41And dynasty leagues is like a flex play with these deep benches by holding him, but tying it back, like Jonathan Brooks,
52:47Chuba Hubbard, these ADPs are probably going to flip.
52:50Like you talked about. And I would rather have Jonathan Brooks.
52:53Yeah. And redraft question. When, when it comes to like the week to week and day to days and stuff, when it
53:00is a hamstring injury, like you said, well, they already listed them as week to week.
53:05Right. Yeah. When you see that, right. As opposed to day to day, like take Jalen Waddle, for example, Jalen Waddle has
53:11the little, you know, soft tissue or like, or like muscle strain.
53:15And they didn't say week to week. They just said he's day to day.
53:19We expect them to come back soon. That's more like eases your mind.
53:23Like if Jordan Tyson, do you expect them to say week to week too?
53:27And is it going to be the same thing in your opinion?
53:30Or do you, are you just waiting for more, more news when it comes to that?
53:35Yeah. This might, this might be like a coach spec coach.
53:38Week index thing where like we get some truth serum on what, what coaches are calling what.
53:43I, at least in my experience of tracking like preseason injuries, they seem to be a little bit more conservative with the
53:50wording of like, oh, some discomfort or some tightness.
53:52And we're going to be precautionary with it. It did get my attention when like, they were like, yeah, Chuba Hubbard has a hamstring strains week to week.
54:01Like in the, especially in the, in the preseason, unless they're just setting the precedent of like, Hey, he's dealing with something
54:07and we're really not going to bring him back this preseason.
54:11And Jonathan Brooks is kind of already in line by assumption of some to be the RB one.
54:16And we're going to see what we got with, with Jonathan Brooks.
54:19Um, but I, you know, some of the wording, it is tough.
54:23I try not to read into it too, to it too much, but in like the preseason, when I saw something like that, it was definitely attention grabbing.
54:31Yeah. Rapid fire. And then we'll get out of here.
54:34Uh, we'll go through a couple of guys really quick.
54:37Uh, Makai Lemon, Devonta Smith, both guys dealing with hamstring injuries.
54:40Makai Lemons had some issues, um, at costs, right?
54:43Makai Lemon, Devonta Smith, ADP 37. Makai Lemon pick 91 at ADP and probably falling.
54:48Um, at ADP at cost, do you prefer Makai Lemon?
54:50This is probably more of a, are you in on Devonta Smith question than it is?
54:55How much are you in on Makai Lemon? Uh, but do you prefer one guy at costs right now as they're both the only injuries?
55:03I, uh, personal preference for me. I strongly prefer Devonta Smith, even at the higher ADP and they're both missing some time with some hamstring injuries.
55:10Uh, it's, you know, uh, a pretty basic idea to wrap your head around.
55:14A veteran wide receiver missing time is, you know, less significant than a rookie wide receiver missing time.
55:20And Makai Lemon is, as you've noted, has missed like a decent amount of even like rookie camp dealing with some hamstring injuries.
55:27So I think there's, there's some reason to have some doubt about his ability, maybe not to contribute in 2026, but to
55:33like get off to a rapid fire pace. Um, if he's missing some, some time here.
55:38Okay. Uh, Mike Evans, George Kittle Evans goes down or not goes down, but leaves due to a quad.
55:43He does come back. So that's pretty encouraging. What are your thoughts just around Evans?
55:48We don't have to go super in depth with these, but just want to hit on these.
55:53What are your thoughts on Evans? It's encouraging that he came back so quickly.
55:57Yeah. Like I said, I mean, I, I tend to be a little bit more of an optimist with this.
56:03I think Mike Evans is, is an okay click and, uh, I can certainly justify it more when we're playing in the 49ers offense.
56:10Okay. Uh, George Kittle, uh, his, his running mate, uh, looks to be well ahead of schedule.
56:15Um, there was a lot of doubt, uh, with that Achilles being that it happened so late.
56:20Uh, he seems to be very ahead of schedule.
56:23He's going, you know, pick one 20. Um, are you comfortable with drafting like him as your only tight as your, as
56:29your starter and maybe backing him up with like a Brenton strange, a Jawan Johnson kind of thing?
56:35Or is that mentality that you have? Cause it seems like a lot of people are in on Kittle with how cheap he's going.
56:42Yeah. I I'm with them and you nailed it.
56:44I would definitely sprinkle in a, uh, cheap backend guy.
56:47Another one that's my favorite. And he's been a popular click for people is Terrence Ferguson.
56:52Like if I'm drafting George Kittle, it's like George Kittle and Brenton strange, George Kittle, Terrence Ferguson.
56:57I've even done a little bit of like, he's a hotter name as we're expected at breakout, but like George Kittle, Gunner,
57:04Gunner Helm, um, just getting somebody super late. But, uh, I'm encouraged by what I've seen from George Kittle.
57:09Okay. Last one. Uh, one of my guys, Jalen Waddle, uh, we touched on it a little bit, right?
57:15Had a little bit of a, of a flare up.
57:18It seems like they're just being cautious. Uh, you know, didn't really specify what it is.
57:22It's a leg kind of like a strain, uh, but it seems like he's going to come back to practice this week coming up.
57:30Do you have concerns about Waddle? Obviously the injury history with him, but the talent there, I mean, he's going off the board at pick 22.
57:37He finished as, as wide receiver 24 last year, better situation, better quarterback, better offense.
57:42Uh, you know, is that a click that you're considering making or are you kind of like those guys you talked about
57:48before where you're like, I don't want to deal with this guy and the concern of him leaving games early.
57:54He's questionable. Yada, yada, yada. What are your thoughts around Jalen Waddle?
57:58Because I think talent wise, if he's healthy, he's going to be a really, really big factor in fantasy this year.
58:04Yeah. I I'm, I'm good picking him. Um, there's that human element of, of fantasy football.
58:09I think he's certainly been a little bit more injured, uh, than typical, but I think he's left like an extra sour
58:15taste in fantasy football managers mouths just because there's been a lot of times that his injuries have come super early in
58:22the games and he's left with like zeros. You know what I mean?
58:25Like, it's not just like somebody else getting dinged up.
58:28Like, I think a lot of that's probably bad luck.
58:31It's just unfortunate, but we were almost like double counting that against Jalen Waddle because he's probably lost two weeks in the,
58:38in those times where he's exited with a zero.
58:41That's really hard to recover from. Um, I like him in Denver.
58:44I like the range he's going in and in terms of his injury history, like I'm not overly concerned.
58:50I'm fine drafting him. Okay, perfect. Uh, well, we're hitting the hour mark.
58:54Thank you so much, Adam, for joining us. Remind the folks what you got going on, where they can find your work.
59:00Um, and, uh, yeah, thanks so much for joining us.
59:03Yeah. Thanks again, Pete, for having me. This has been a lot of fun.
59:07Um, I'm hoping we, we broke down for your audience, some injuries and gave some people some actionable information.
59:13Um, speaking of actionable information, that's really what I try to do for football guys.
59:17So every Monday I have an injury article that breaks down the injuries from the previous week.
59:22Uh, uh, Saturday mornings, I have an article that comes out based on practice.
59:26Reports where I'm projecting players to play, not play what their fantasy football production can be.
59:31A lot of my analysis, a lot of my takes is, is data driven.
59:35I've looked at historical comps. I've dug through the spreadsheets so that you don't have to.
59:40And I've given you, you know, some information to help you make the most informed decision, whether you're playing on the waiver
59:47wire or setting your start sit lineup. Um, and then I'm going to be doing some video content for us at football guys.
59:53I'll be making some YouTube shorts, breaking down injuries.
59:56And then Sunday morning, I help, uh, Joey, right?
59:59Dave Kluge, Jeff Bell, and other staffers there help with some start sits decisions.
60:03So if you're not a player profiler, uh, watching and you want to watch some stuff at football guys, that's where you can find me.
60:10All right. Perfect. Adam, thanks so much. Thank you guys so much for watching and we'll see you guys next time.
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