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0:07Posts... Raj. Mo.. Blahush. Foo, it's JJ! In the episode 1119 of the Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast.
0:12Tuning in, thanks for. Before getting to the mailbag questions this week, I just want to send another reminder to check out the Late Round Draft Guide.
0:22There's over 270 pages of content that includes game theory, strategy, ways to spot breakouts and busts, players to target, players to avoid, and more.
0:30You get cheat sheets with the guide as well, and I'm now updating that guide twice a week up until football season.
0:37You get an update of the rankings on Wednesday, and then you get the update of the rankings again on Friday, alongside
0:45the players to target, players to avoid, and late round dart throws.
0:49So if you're listening to this mailbag episode on a Friday, which is when it releases, you should have that updated guide in your email inbox.
0:58You can learn more about it, check it out over on lateround.com.
1:02The first mailbag question this week is from Eric from the Members Hub on lateround.com.
1:07It says, Hey JJ, appreciate another great season of draft content.
1:10Love the work you've been doing with Market Score.
1:13Thank you. With three pass catchers from the Bears going so high, I'm curious that there have been similar seasons in the
1:21past where three pass catchers from the same team were all drafted in the top 70, and if those players all met or exceeded their ADP expectation.
1:30I'm wondering if this would provide meaningful context for understanding the range of outcomes with these Bears players.
1:36Thanks. So I dug into this. I looked at all teams since 2014 who had three pass catchers, some combination of tight
1:43end and wide receiver, drafted in the top 72 overall.
1:47That gives us through round six in a 12-team league.
1:50There have been 11 teams where that's been the case.
1:54Now we'll get to the results in a second.
1:57First, as a lot of you know, I often analyze through the lens of average draft position expectation.
2:03At every spot in a draft, at every ADP, there's some sort of expected points per game for that player.
2:09And that's all based on history. So a player drafted 50th overall might be expected to score 13 PPR points per game or something like that.
2:18If that player then scores 14 PPR points per game, then he exceeded that expectation by one PPR point per game.
2:25When we look at the 11 teams who met this criteria of having three pass catchers with high ADP, it's been rare
2:33for all three of those players to exceed expectation.
2:36In fact, it's only happened once. The 2023 49ers saw it happen with Debo Samuel, George Kittle, and Brandon Ayuk.
2:42The good news is that six of the 11 teams saw two of the three players exceed expectation.
2:48Three of the 11 saw one, and then Washington in 2017 when they had Terrell Pryor, Jordan Reed, and Jamison Crowder.
2:55Talk about names that we haven't heard in a while.
2:59All three of those players got destroyed. They were terrible versus ADP expectation, especially Terrell Pryor.
3:04So you can interpret this a lot of different ways.
3:08On one hand, I do think odds are against seeing all three of these Bears pass catchers beat expectation.
3:14On the other hand, the most likely outcome here, just based on this small sample, is that two of the three do well against expectation.
3:22Keep in mind though too, this is against expectation.
3:25When ADP is higher, expectation is higher. It doesn't mean that all three of these players will just be unusable in fantasy
3:33football, or one of them will be unusable. For example, when we have tight ends in this sample, because some of these teams only have wide receivers.
3:4286% of the tight ends hit 10 or more PPR points per game.
3:46Almost 60% of the wide receivers get to 14 or more PPR points per game.
3:51I don't think this means that we have to fade one of the three pass catchers in this offense.
3:58Because remember, we're playing a game of probability. If you miss out on Luther Burden and Colston Loveland, and you think those
4:05are the two players who are likely to hit in this offense, it doesn't mean that Roma Dunze is an automatic fade.
4:13We know this can go in a lot of different directions.
4:16We know there's a chance that Loveland is the odd man out, or Burden's the odd man out.
4:22So yeah, I'd say the likely chance here, just based on our limited sample, is that two of the three end up as good picks.
4:31You hear that, it might freak you out a little bit.
4:35But keep in mind, players that aren't in this kind of situation, they're going to bust too.
4:40This next question is from the mailbag forum on Lateround.com.
4:44It's from Brian. It says, Hi, JJ. Big fan of your work.
4:48Thank you. A guest came on your show recently and stated that he wasn't leaving a draft without having someone from the Chargers on his roster.
4:56Curious for your thoughts on Lad McConkie. So I had talked a lot about Lad back in like May, especially in the late round show.
5:05I'm in on Lad. This Mike McDaniel offense is going to have so much more motion to get his guys open and
5:12in space compared to what we've seen over the last couple of years in LA.
5:17Over the last four, no team has had more motion at the line than the Miami Dolphins by a healthy margin too.
5:25Mike McDaniel also doesn't run a whole lot of 11 personnel.
5:28During his time in Miami, only the Ravens ran less out of 11 personnel than the Dolphins did.
5:34The Dolphins were tied with the 49ers. Fewer wide receivers on the field means more of a target funnel to the wide receivers who are on the field.
5:44Over the last two seasons, McConkie has a 2.52 yards per route run rate on routes with one or two wide receivers on the field.
5:52And his targets per route run on those types of plays is 26%.
5:57When there's been more than two wide receivers on the field, his yards per route run falls down to 1.83 from 2.52.
6:04His targets per route run goes from 26% to 21%.
6:07That's a pretty significant difference. This goes for a lot of us, but I think we're all pretty bullish on what this
6:15Chargers offense might be able to do this year.
6:18They could be a top 5 offense pretty easily.
6:21Lad McConkie is attached to a good quarterback. There's a lot to like about this situation, so yes, I've been drafting Lad McConkie.
6:29This next question is from Phil from the Members Hub.
6:32It says, on your recent show with Rich Rebar, you discussed drafting Ramondre Stevenson over Travion Henderson in certain circumstances.
6:39The main argument being, pass pro prowess and trust from the coaching staff.
6:43Hasn't that logic failed us time and time again with favoring a current starter over the more explosive younger player?
6:50I'm thinking of Zach Moss in the Bengals, late career Cowboy Zeke, Damian Harris ironically involving Ramondre.
6:56Can you drill down further into how the argument is different with Ramondre this season?
7:01I think the very clear difference here is that you're making the assumption that Ramondre Stevenson is a worse player than the guys that you just mentioned.
7:10Late career Ezekiel Elliott is not Ramondre Stevenson. Damian Harris, a guy with zero pass catching chops, is not Ramondre Stevenson.
7:17Zach Moss is not Ramondre Stevenson. Look, I was on the Henderson side last year.
7:22Trust me, I get the allure. But I also recognize that Stevenson played really well.
7:27He was better than I anticipated, especially during the second half of the season.
7:32I've said it before on the show, but Stevenson was first in the NFL last year and rushing yards over expected per rush.
7:39He was first among qualified running backs and catch rate over expected.
7:43And keep in mind, with some of the other examples that you're showing, we don't have a year-long sample of those players
7:51playing ahead of the more explosive player in their backfields.
7:54We do with New England. To the point where Henderson was irrelevant in the playoffs.
7:59And look, I'm not saying that Henderson won't matter at all on fantasy football.
8:04He will. There's still a lot to like about his profile.
8:08But I do think there's a lot more substance to this Ramondre over Travion thing than a lot of those instances in the past.
8:16Not only that, but with a lot of those instances, I was in on the more explosive back.
8:22The younger player. The seemingly upside player. I just think we can't deny what we saw last year.
8:28And honestly, what we're hearing out of New England this year.
8:32This has questions from Twitter. It's from at Jaysman1.
8:35It says, For teams drafting from 103 or 104 in PPR, do you consider heavy wide receiver builds as a viable approach?
8:42Often, the top running backs are gone by that 2-3 turn.
8:46So does pivoting make more sense? Either a wide receiver, wide receiver, or wide receiver, bowers build.
8:52Do we just let the tiers guide us? Thanks.
8:55So I did a Reddit AMA this week, and shout out to the Fantasy Football subreddit.
9:00But this was a question that got asked like eight different times.
9:04And it's a super, super valid question. In a vacuum, I like Jamar Chase and Puka Nakua more than Christian McCaffrey.
9:11But the way that most draft boards fall, if you get one of those wide receivers in the top half of the
9:18first round, you're going to miss out on that really good running back tier in round two.
9:24And then you may not love who you're staring at in round three, at running back.
9:30Especially if someone like Nico Collins falls, or someone like George Pickens is there.
9:34You might want to go wide receiver once again.
9:37I think that's the bigger deal here. In your question, you're only talking about the first two rounds.
9:43It's really about the first three rounds. So all this has made me shift my tiers a bit to putting CMC in that second tier.
9:52You have Gibbs and Bijon in tier one, but then if you'd rather go with a running back in the first round,
9:59knowing that you can get two very good wide receivers in rounds two and three, you may have to just take a chance on Christian McCaffrey.
10:08And if you don't want CMC, I get it.
10:11I'm still drafting him because the upside is clearly insane.
10:14But maybe you take on a Chase or a Puka and you immediately try to trade.
10:20I just know that once you get into round four, round five, running back just gets a lot more questionable.
10:26So it just depends on your comfort level. If you go with Chase or Puka, you should be aware that you're potentially
10:34going with a zero RB type build. That's fine.
10:37Just know what you're getting into and how to build that kind of team before it just completely surprises you.
10:44This next question is from Roger and it says, JJ, it sounds like Tua is having a terrible camp and won't be starting for the Falcons.
10:52Is there any concern at all for Drake London?
10:55Thanks. So I did talk about this a little bit on the late round show this week, but I want to dig
11:03into these splits a little bit more because they're kind of interesting.
11:07Drake London over the last two years, he's run 384 routes with Michael Penix under center.
11:12He's at 543 without Penix. On routes run with Michael Penix, London has an absurd 2.99 yards per route run rate.
11:19He has a 33.6% targets per route run rate, and he's had 0.63 PPR points per route run.
11:25For context, those numbers would only rank behind Puka Nakua when looking at the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
11:32On his routes without Michael Penix, we're looking at 1.92 yards per route run over a full yard lower, a 26% targets
11:39per route run rate, and 0.44 PPR points per route run.
11:43It's truly been night and day. I thought maybe Tua would be able to step in and at least be a distributor
11:50to where it wouldn't matter a ton, but it's very clear that we want Michael Penix for Drake London, based on how
11:57things have gone for Tua in camp. There's at least some upside here, and it looks like it's at least trending in that direction, thankfully.
12:06The last question this week is from Travis from the Members Hub, and it says, Maybe this is a question, maybe this is a vent.
12:14I'm not too sure, but I find the trends pre-fantasy season so perplexing.
12:19Wide receivers were the talk of the town over the last few years, but now it seems like everyone's talking about running back running back.
12:27People seem to just follow the results of the previous year, and think it translates to the next.
12:33I just don't understand why this occurs. My gut tells me this is all noise, but my mind says, are the masses right.
12:41P.S. With your help, I'm officially the back-to-back-to-back three-time champ of my home league, and I credit it to your info and guidance.
12:49Here's to becoming the four-time. So first off, congrats on the success, but that was not me.
12:54You're the one managing your team, but I do appreciate the love.
12:58Second, I wrote about this a bit in the draft guide this year, but running back ADP isn't so dramatically different this year compared to last year.
13:08I mean, there's a difference, but it may not be as big of a difference as you think.
13:14So much so that people are kind of losing their mind over it.
13:18Now, I did that portion of the guide back in early July, so I'll refresh that a little bit because obviously we're in later August.
13:26And I'll look at Fantasy Pro's consensus ADP from 2025 versus 2026.
13:30When looking at the top five rounds in the 12-team leagues to the top 60 picks, this year we're seeing 26 running
13:38backs get drafted versus 24 last year. So really not that big of a difference.
13:43Round one, six running backs were drafted both years.
13:46Round two, you have five last year, six this year.
13:49Round three, you had three last year and five this year.
13:53Round four, you had six last year, five this year.
13:56And then in round five, you had four both seasons.
14:00So you can kind of see that running back is going a little bit earlier, but it's just not this completely different environment.
14:07Now, there are pockets within those rounds where running backs did move.
14:11RB1 to RB5 is basically in the same spot year over year.
14:16But everything from like RB8 downward is a little bit earlier.
14:19How we define going a little bit earlier is up to interpretation though.
14:24RB1s are generally going two spots earlier than last year.
14:27RB2s, about five spots. Which is a little bit more meaningful.
14:31And overall, among RB1s and RB2s, we're talking like three spots earlier than last year on average.
14:36So yes, they are going earlier. Is it so crazy though that everyone's just reacting to what happened last season?
14:43I don't think so. I kind of think the market's being reasonable.
14:47We have another data point of the NFL trending into a more run-heavy league with heavy personnel.
14:53Which has helped flatten wide receiver while growing the depth at running back.
14:57That may make it seem like that we should be making sure we get elite wide receivers.
15:03Because they're big difference makers. If you get one of those elite wide outs, you're getting a big edge at the position.
15:10But I would argue that we're kind of doing that in drafts right now.
15:15RB1s, where we usually get the best production, like top 10, top 12 running max, they've usually separated themselves historically in terms of preseason expectation versus postseason result.
15:25Like it's really weird how it all formulates every year.
15:28But RB1s, like top 10, top 12 running max, they're usually the ones giving you the best edge.
15:34Once those difference makers are off the board, teams start drafting a lot of wide receivers.
15:39And obviously the super stud wide receivers, they're being drafted among those running backs.
15:44So we are elevating the projected difference makers at wide receiver.
15:48The Jamar Chase, Puka Nakua, CeeDee Lamb, Jackson Smith and Jigba, Aminra St.
15:52Brown. So like, I think a lot of that is logical and not just some response to what happened last year.
15:59Now, is there validity to the fact that running back has stayed pretty healthy?
16:04Yes, definitely. The thing is, even if we see more running back injuries, which I do think we're going to see, unfortunately,
16:11it doesn't take away from some of the research that we did at late round fantasy football this offseason.
16:18Like how satellite running backs are slowly dying. We're not seeing as many James Whites and Chris Thompsons anymore.
16:24And more of our traditional RB2 types in fantasy football, they're seeing more volume through the air to help give them better floors.
16:32I talked about that with Brandon Gadula on episode 1108.
16:35Even if more injuries occur, which by the way, like I said, I think it's probably going to happen.
16:42I do think that we'll still see better play from running backs based on some of that research.
16:48Beyond that though, wide receiver is just pretty flat.
16:51That's something that I talked about at the start of the offseason on the death of the fantasy football wide receiver too.
16:58I do think we're going to see a little bit more fluff at that position this year, just given where some of
17:06these guys moved in the sheer talent that we have at the position.
17:10But the true difference making alphas at wide receiver, they're going early, like I said.
17:15And when that next tier is deep, it means that you can take a chance on a running back early while still
17:22getting good talent at wide receiver after doing so.
17:26Look, in the end, fading market sentiment is usually a good strategy in fantasy football.
17:31The market makes assumptions. We should probably question those assumptions because we usually think that we know way more than we actually do.
17:38In this case, I do think that the market's kind of overrating some specific running backs in the first five rounds, sure.
17:46But that's no different than any other year. There are definitely pockets where I'd rather take a chance at a wide receiver
17:53than a running back over the first five rounds of a draft.
17:57But I don't think this is a really weird response to another season of run-heavy, heavy personnel offenses.
18:03I think the market's actually doing what it should be doing.
18:07And honestly, I think the way that drafts are moving, the way that they're set up, they're allowing us to go in
18:14a lot of different directions with our builds. So I guess to answer your question more directly, I do not think a
18:22running back, running back start is totally necessary no matter what.
18:25I do think there are parts of your draft where it's a pretty good look though, like the back half of round one.
18:33That one-two turn area has some serious difference-making backs.
18:36And then you can easily loop around the next three rounds and get awesome wide receivers.
18:42We also have to be truthful here and that ADP matters for how we draft, even if we disagree with ADP.
18:49If the market's being completely irrational, we can't just ignore that.
18:52We can't just do the opposite of that because then we can run out of certain positions.
18:58Like if you think the market is drafting running backs too early, but your draft, your league mates just keep drafting running
19:06backs over and over and over again, at some point you have to react to what the market is doing.
19:12You can't just ignore it. And the way that things are set up right now, like I said, there are pockets of
19:20your draft where it does make sense to go running back, running back, just based on what ADP is showing and based on how the market is behaving.
19:29But then, like I said earlier, there are spots in the draft where zero RB makes plenty of sense.
19:36I think it's uncomfortable, but it wouldn't shock me at all if there are some leagues out there this year where zero RB does really, really well.
19:45I think that's why I don't see ADP the same way that others are seeing it this year.
19:51The way ADP falls, there are actually a ton of different ways to approach drafts this year.
19:56You can kind of choose your own adventure based on your league settings and what you're comfortable with.
20:02And honestly, that's the way it should be. That's it for today's show though.
20:07Thanks to all of you for listening. If you yet subscribed to the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast, make sure you are
20:15by searching for it pretty much anywhere podcasts can be found.
20:18And don't forget to follow me on Twitter and on Blue Sky at LateRoundQB.
20:23Early next week, Tuesday's episode, it's going to be the Bold Predictions episode.
20:27People love this thing every single year and I've been hearing from you guys as to when that thing is going to be published.
20:35It's going to be published on Tuesday. But here's the catch.
20:39There are additional Bold Predictions via the Late Round newsletter.
20:43And that's going to be released on Wednesday next week.
20:46If you're not subscribed to the newsletter, do it right now.
20:50Go to Lateround.com, click newsletter, and just submit your email address.
20:53You're going to want to do that for the season anyway.
20:57Again, Lateround.com, just click newsletter. Otherwise, everyone, thanks for listening this week.
21:01Greatly appreciate it. Crush your drafts this weekend and I'll catch you next week.
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