PodcastFrom Yahoo Fantasy Forecast

12 bold fantasy predictions for the 2026 season

STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.

1 hr 30 min

Duration

Estimated from transcript

Sep 7, 2026

Published

Mon, September 7, 2026

Player insights

Players mentioned

Topics

Carnell TateEmeka EgbukaQuinshon JudkinsBaker MayfieldBucky IrvingChristian WatsonColston LovelandD'Andre SwiftJahmyr GibbsJaylen WaddleJordan LoveJordyn TysonJosh JacobsKenneth Walker III

Player analysis

Player insights

Baker Mayfield

NegativeProjection21:20

Matt Harmon notes that Baker Mayfield plays a 'high wire act' that can lead to high-level production but is also prone to turnover and sack risk if he suffers an injury, making him a volatile fantasy asset for the 2026 season.

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Bucky Irving

PositiveValue26:26

Matt Harmon notes that he has become significantly higher on Bucky Irving throughout the offseason process, indicating he is a player to watch within the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offense.

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Carnell Tate

NegativeBust54:38

There is significant concern regarding Carnell Tate, who is currently being drafted as the rookie WR1. He has recorded zero catches in the preseason, leading to doubts about his immediate fantasy impact.

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NegativeUsage90:47

Matt Harmon expresses concern over Carnell Tate's usage, noting the Titans have struggled to get him involved in the preseason. While Harmon was initially excited about the landing spot, the team's inability to force targets his way and the reliance on other receivers like Wan'Dale Robinson makes him nervous about Tate's immediate fantasy impact.

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Christian Watson

PositiveUsage40:51

Matt Harmon is relentlessly drafting Christian Watson, viewing him as a key part of the Packers' downfield passing attack. He expects Watson to pay off his top-30 wide receiver ADP if he stays healthy.

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Colston Loveland

PositiveValue110:35

Justin Boone is bullish on Colston Loveland, drafting him five spots ahead of his current ADP. Boone views Loveland as a focal point of the Bears' offense alongside Luther Burden III and expects him to be a major contributor in the passing game.

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D'Andre Swift

PositiveValue110:38

Justin Boone identifies DeAndre Swift as one of his favorite players to draft, noting he is three spots ahead of ADP on the running back and encouraging managers to be 'all in' on the Chicago Bears' offense.

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Emeka Egbuka

NegativeInjury19:49

Matt Harmon has pulled back on drafting Emeka Egbuka due to a toe injury, noting that toe injuries are particularly concerning for wide receivers and that the injury 'seals already broken' after it impacted his performance last season.

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PositiveProjection25:27

Matt Harmon predicts Emeka Egbuka will lead the NFL in receptions in his second season. Egbuka played through a hamstring injury and out of position as an X-receiver during his rookie year; he is now expected to play in the Z-receiver/slot role where he excelled as a prospect. Harmon highlights the Buccaneers' offensive line as the best in the NFL and notes that Egbuka's transition to a 'big slot' role mirrors the successful usage of Drake London, suggesting high-volume potential despite concerns regarding a toe injury.

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Jahmyr Gibbs

PositiveProjection15:05

Justin Boone predicts Jahmyr Gibbs will break the single-season scrimmage yards record (2,509 yards). With David Montgomery's role diminished, Gibbs is expected to see a 'bell cow' workload. The Lions have the easiest fantasy running back schedule this year, and Gibbs is training for a larger volume. While potential involvement from Kareem Hunt could impact red-zone touchdown opportunities, Boone argues it will not hinder Gibbs' ability to accumulate massive yardage totals.

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Jaylen Waddle

PositiveUsage27:08

Josh Norris and the hosts are highly optimistic about Jalen Waddle's 2026 season, specifically noting his role as a 'movement off-ball player' in Denver. Despite skepticism regarding a 118-target projection, the consensus is that he is a 'dynamo' in play-action schemes.

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Jordan Love

PositiveProjection39:44

Matt Harmon argues that Jordan Love is an undervalued fantasy quarterback who could have a breakout top-five season. The Packers are expected to play with more pace, and Love has a strong receiving corps in Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, Jaden Reed, and Tucker Kraft. Despite offensive line concerns, Love is a strong target at his current QB16 ADP.

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Jordyn Tyson

NegativeInjury93:59

Matt Harmon notes uncertainty regarding Jordan Tyson's availability, stating that his return timeline is unclear and he may not be a factor until midway through the season, which creates an opportunity for other receivers to emerge.

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Josh Jacobs

NegativeBust40:16

Matt Harmon expresses significant skepticism regarding Josh Jacobs, citing red flags in his profile and potential suspension concerns. He notes that Jacobs may be less explosive than in previous years, though he remains a red-zone threat. Harmon explicitly states he is not drafting Jacobs at his current ADP.

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Kenneth Walker III

PositiveProjection3:40

Josh Norris predicts Kenneth Walker III will finish as a top-six running back in points per game, arguing he should have been a first-round pick. Walker is the primary addition to the Chiefs' offense, which aims to improve its 20th-ranked explosive carry rate. Walker averaged over 17.5 fantasy points in games with 60%+ snap shares, and Norris expects him to exceed that snap threshold consistently. Matt Harmon notes Walker's pass-catching potential, citing a 51-catch pace over his final six games last season, and suggests he will be a 'franchise changer' for the Chiefs.

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Ladd McConkey

PositiveRole25:51

Josh Norris believes Ladd McConkey is the best wide receiver on the Chargers and expects a career-high in targets if he remains a full-time player. The team's shift toward heavier personnel sets (Charlie Kolar, David Njoku, Alec Ingold) is expected to funnel more production to the team's best pass catchers.

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Luther Burden

PositiveBreakout101:56

Justin Boone predicts Luther Burden III will emerge as a fantasy WR1 from Week 3 onward. Despite a recent groin injury, Boone is unconcerned, citing the player's recovery progress and his elite efficiency metrics from last season, including top-20 rankings in targets per route run and yards after catch. Boone believes Burden is a perfect fit for Ben Johnson's offense and is drafting him 11 spots ahead of ADP.

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Matthew Golden

NegativeBreakout40:51

Matthew Golden is viewed as a player who could ascend in his second year. Despite some uncertainty regarding his role in a crowded Packers receiving room, Harmon is drafting him aggressively, noting that his current ADP makes him a low-risk, high-reward shot.

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Mike Evans

NegativeInjury49:55

Mike Evans is flagged for recurring injury concerns, specifically soft-tissue and hamstring issues that have persisted for seven straight years. His inability to practice consistently is a concern for his reliability.

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Quinshon Judkins

PositiveProjection29:12

Boone projects Quinshon Judkins as a top-15 running back, noting he was the best rookie runner last season. While his production dipped after a week-eight shoulder injury, he was an RB14 in the six games prior. Josh Norris remains skeptical of his ceiling due to the Browns' projected status as a bottom-tier offense.

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PositiveValue36:52

Matt Harmon and the source suggest that while Judkins has a tough start to the season against the Jaguars and Buccaneers, he could be a prime buy-low candidate after week two. The coaching staff has discussed using him as a three-down back with increased passing game involvement, which could boost his fantasy value.

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Rome Odunze

PositiveValue110:40

Matt Harmon and Justin Boone both express high confidence in Rome Odunze, with Boone drafting him 21 spots ahead of ADP. Harmon notes that he has seen an eight-week stretch where Ben Johnson ran the entire offense through Odunze, making him a highly productive and reliable target.

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Tyler Warren

PositiveProjection118:29

Justin Boone includes Tyler Warren in his bold prediction that four tight ends will finish in the top 10 for receptions. Despite a summer injury scare, Boone expects Warren to be ready for Week 1 and highlights his role as the de facto number one receiver for the Colts, having led the team in targets last season.

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Zay Flowers

PositiveBreakout23:57

Josh Norris projects Zay Flowers as a potential top-seven wide receiver, citing a potential touchdown reset under new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. Flowers' limited red zone usage last year (10 targets) is expected to improve, mirroring the red zone activity seen in Declan Doyle's previous work with Amon-Ra St. Brown.

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Full transcript

Episode Transcript

1,236

0:00What's going on, everyone? I'm Matt Harmon. Welcome to the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast.

0:04And it is, oh baby, it's a hell of a day to talk ball because we are in person in our lovely New York City studio.

0:11And joining me to talk a little ball, it is my good friends, Justin Boone, Josh Norris.

0:15Boone, what's going on, buddy? How you doing? Man, we're in New York.

0:19We're feeling good. And we're only a couple weeks away from week one.

0:22We're actually going to be able to start reacting to real football.

0:26Because people have been massively overreacting to preseason football and to training camp videos and injuries.

0:30So I'm excited to get this thing going. Josh, do you feel uncomfortable at all that Hayden is not next to you?

0:36It's fair. Are you kind of a lost puppy in this situation?

0:39We know Hayden showed up with a turtleneck on CNN.

0:42So I felt like I could, you know, step out into the sunlight for the first time in weeks.

0:47And join you guys in an actual studio outside of my basement.

0:50Yeah, unfortunately it's a little cloudy out there. So we've got to work on your tan a little bit later at a different point.

0:57It's always a work in progress. Always a work in progress.

1:00I'm there with you. Boone, you said we're only a couple weeks away from real football.

1:04Actually, when the people are listening to this, happy Labor Day folks.

1:07Because you guys are getting this with real football right around the corner.

1:11But as Boone peeled back the curtain, we're pre-taping this bad boy.

1:14Okay, we pre-recorded this show so that you guys could still get some goodness over the Labor Day weekend.

1:19And we could maybe have real lives. Actual conversation face-to-face?

1:22Well, yes, that too. On a fancy football podcast?

1:25But theoretically, when you guys are listening to this, I am hoping that I am like three glasses of wine deep right now.

1:31At a vineyard somewhere. With my wife and my dogs.

1:34Because those three ain't gonna see any of me for the next few months.

1:37Because football season is right around the corner. And thank God it is.

1:41But it's a little annual tradition for us on this Labor Day show.

1:45We do our bold predictions. So the boys and I have 12 bold predictions for you to kick off the fantasy football season here.

1:51Plus our 2026 fantasy football MVP. So no pressure.

1:53This is a big show here today. Again, this is pre-recorded.

1:56So if anything maybe sounds a little weird. Nothing will be.

1:59Nothing happens from now until we go off. Nothing happens at all.

2:03Just give us some grace with that. Because, you know, we've done a lot for you people.

2:07Okay, we've done a lot of shows for you people over the last few months.

2:11And let's get it started here. Bold prediction number one.

2:14Josh, because you are the new man here among the Yahoo bros.

2:17What's your, you get to start. What's your first bold prediction?

2:20Ken Walker III should have been a first round pick all along.

2:24You know, we always talk about how teams are honest with us through their draft picks and through their wallets.

2:29Ken Walker III was the only addition that the Kansas City Chiefs made on offense this entire offseason.

2:34And why? Well, they want to totally change how they run the football and create explosive runs.

2:39I mean, this Chiefs offense has had high success rate in terms of runs.

2:42They're hitting singles and doubles. And that was good enough to win some games.

2:46Most recently, not enough to change the course of a four-quarter action in terms of winning the game at the end.

2:52I mean, they were 20th in explosive carries last season.

2:55They ranked 10th in rush yards before contact per attempt.

2:57Then 32nd in rush yards after contact. So the perfect man for this job is Ken Walker III.

3:02We know that any time in the 26 games that he's played over 60% of snaps, he has averaged over 17.5 fancy points.

3:09But Boone, I'll tell you, I think he's going to average over 60% of snaps in every single game this season.

3:14And I really do think we'll look back and say, oh, yeah, one of the best running backs in the league that

3:20we saw in the playoffs in the Super Bowl last year, now going to Kansas City Chiefs.

3:25That was pretty good. We should have taken him in the top 12 overall picks.

3:29Yeah. I mean, Harmon knows how I feel about this.

3:32We talked about him on an episode, you know, a few weeks ago, just going over my league-winning picks.

3:37I had him in there, but I was hesitant to do so because I had him in there last year, Josh.

3:43Like, I knew the talent was there. We knew the possibility was there.

3:46And now, finally, there's no one in his way.

3:49There's no Zach Sharman that's going to be there to steal work.

3:52He could totally just step into the kind of volume that we saw down the stretch when he was averaging almost 130

3:58scrimmage yards per game over those last six contests.

4:00Like, this guy could absolutely be one of the top backs in fantasy.

4:04And, Matt, maybe I'm the boy who cried wolf because last year I was telling people to draft Ken Walker III.

4:10However, we can, you know, zoom out, look at the actual football when he was given the rock and say, oh, that

4:16probably would have worked out for us if when they got to the 20-yard line, the 10-yard line, they didn't sub out K9.

4:22And instead, they put in Zach Charbonnet. It's just amazing to me.

4:25Like, right now on Yahoo is going 15th overall.

4:28In consensus rings out there from, like, 70 experts, he is the 21st overall player.

4:32Like, that's nuts to me. I would rank him 13th and I would draft him all the way up to, like, the 10th or 11th pick right now.

4:39Yeah, man. Listen, I get it. Before we go any further on the Kenneth Walker stuff, I should have mentioned off the

4:45top, but I was just so excited to get into the takes here, the rules on bold predictions.

4:50Because there are some rules here on bold predictions.

4:53And this is less about us and more about remember the accountability out there for bold predictions.

4:57If you miss on a bold prediction, remember, it's just a bold prediction.

5:01It's not supposed to be completely accurate. It's a bold prediction.

5:04If you get it right, though, if you get it in the neighborhood of being correct, you get to victory lap that.

5:10If you get it completely correct, like I did when I said Jackson Smith and Jigba was going to lead the NFL

5:16in receiving yards last Super Bowl on Football 301, you get to say it at least two times every month before the next season starts.

5:23So this is my one. I've got two more here at some point.

5:26But anyways, those are the rules on bold predictions.

5:28Got it. My question, Josh, is how do we know if this is a correct bold prediction when you say he should

5:34have been a first round pick all along? So give us some parameters on what does a successful season look like for

5:40Kenneth Walker in your bold prediction universe. You know, glad I'm prepared for this.

5:44So there are six running backs going in the first round of Yahoo right now.

5:48Yes. And so he just has to finish as a top six running back in points per game this season.

5:54So he's got to outproduce some of these names.

5:56Outproduce one of Saquon Barkley, James Cook, Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, B.

6:00John Robinson, Jameer Gibbs. Or again, there are six being selected in round one.

6:03Wouldn't that mean if he was like the running back six or running back five, then yeah, he should have been a first round pick.

6:10One of the things that I think people underrate with him, too, is the pass catching ability.

6:15Like for a long time, I think people kind of looked at him like a guy who couldn't do that.

6:20Last year, average three receptions per game. And those six outings that we're talking about down the stretch, it's a 51 catch

6:26pace over the course of a full season. The year before, it was even more.

6:30It was over four catches per game in his 11 contest.

6:33That's a 71 catch pace, right? So he has that in his bag, and that's what could really unlock him and get

6:39him up into the top five or so. Yeah, listen, I'm in on Kenneth Walker as well.

6:44I think we were talking about this beforehand. I've like flipped him, Derrick Henry, and Justin Jefferson somewhere between 12 and 14

6:50overall in my rankings for a long time here.

6:52The pass catching, I think, will be real in Kansas City this year.

6:56And Josh, like I think Kenneth Walker was brought in here to be a true change force for this offense.

7:01A franchise changer. A franchise changer as they are, I think, changing their stripes a little bit on offense.

7:06Like I wish they had gotten out of the same schematic family, you know, maybe for the offensive coordinator play call higher with Eric Biennium there.

7:14But at the same time, I mean, they just desperately need someone like this.

7:17And I think Kenneth Walker also desperately needed the change of scenery.

7:21Like, I think he was pretty, I've just heard people talk about this, he was a good soldier all throughout last year,

7:27but was pretty frustrated that he ever got to be that guy.

7:30He was pretty clearly going to be that guy in Kansas City.

7:33I know you chart all of these Chiefs wide receivers.

7:36This has a huge impact on the passing game, too.

7:39So, in terms of, they have lived in the short run-after-catch pass world for a very long time.

7:43A lot of the downfield stuff has not worked out.

7:46Patrick Mahomes has somehow become one of the least accurate downfield passers in the league a bit too often.

7:51And so, if Kenneth Walker here can change the math on the back end, in terms of, you know, forcing single high

7:57in coverages, then maybe we get back to some of the days of, oh, now we get the intermediate and downfield portion.

8:03Even if, you know, they have many, many, many of the similar and same wide receivers still running out.

8:09Very nice. Also, the offensive line for the Chiefs is pretty strong, right?

8:12Awesome. Our guy Nate Tice had him in the top 10.

8:15Brandon Thorne established the run. He's got him in the top 10.

8:18So, that's just another little feather in Walker's camp.

8:21No question. And just last thing to put on top, the cherry on top here for Kenneth Walker.

8:26I've got my maybe hesitations with Eric Biennemi as a pass game designer.

8:29I think he's objectively one of the best running back coaches in the NFL.

8:33I mean, I think it's not a coincidence that DeAndre Swift is coming off maybe his best and most consistent season as a pro.

8:40And Swift was a guy that's like, he bounces too much.

8:43He doesn't read things out. And I think you could kind of lobby some of the same criticisms that Kenneth Walker.

8:48I'm really interested to see what that marriage looks like by the end of the season.

8:53All right. Let's get to the next bold prediction here, Boone.

8:56One of those running backs that Josh mentioned, one of the top running backs.

8:59This is your first bold prediction here. Yeah. And saying good things about the guy that's going 101 is a little silly.

9:05Like, how bold can we go with it? Right.

9:08That's what I was trying to figure out because I really believe this is the year for Jameer Gibbs where we just

9:14see him go to an absolute astronomical level. Right.

9:16So, for me, it's Jameer Gibbs is going to break the single season scrimmage yards record.

9:21That is over 2,500 yards, 2,509 yards set by Chris Johnson.

9:24I just see so many things setting up in his favor this year.

9:27We know the talents there. We know how good he is.

9:30David Montgomery finally out of the way now. And this kind of unlocks him and puts him into that zone where he

9:36could just go completely nuclear this season. I think that's really important.

9:39And also, we're at the Kareem Hunt visiting phase of trying to find someone to go in the backfield with him.

9:45Right? It's not Isaiah Pacheco's been injured. Sione Vocky's more of a special teams guy.

9:49They don't have that other option. And if it ends up being Kareem Hunt, I'm not that worried about maybe he'll steal some touchdowns.

9:56But in terms of yards, they are going to just absolutely unleash Gibbs this year.

10:00And we're hearing him talk about how, you know, he's getting himself ready for it.

10:04He's training for that bigger workload. Dan Campbell talking about how he is going to be a bell cow this season.

10:10He can do it, right? He can absolutely do it.

10:12And then everything else involved with it. The Lions are favored in 14 of their 17 games this season.

10:18There's going to be a lot of positive game script.

10:20They have the easiest fantasy running back schedule this year.

10:23Last year, it was the hardest fantasy running back schedule.

10:26So we're going to the complete opposite end of the list.

10:29Just everything setting up in my mind for him to have one of these monster, monster campaigns.

10:33And the only question is, how far can it go?

10:36Before I throw to you, Josh, I do love that one, we are tempting fate with the Kareem Hunt mentioned here.

10:42If he's signed with the team by now, I do think there's some analysis to do about that.

10:47And Nate and I actually talked about that on a previous show, how Kareem Hunt could kind of impact the backfield rotation here.

10:53But it doesn't impact your goal prediction at all.

10:55Because if Kareem Hunt is there, he's going to be annoying and take some touchdowns away, which is going to bother people.

11:01That's going to bother people that took him number one overall in fantasy.

11:05He's going to be there to take some pass protection reps away.

11:08Because as Nate has brought up many times, Gibbs' pass protection is a little shaky.

11:12You know, that's maybe the weakest part of his game.

11:15But it doesn't impact those yards from scrimmage, baby.

11:17So I like the, I'm maybe galaxy-braining your bold prediction here.

11:20But I'm just saying, if Kareem Hunt has signed, I don't think that stands in the way here.

11:25Matt, I'll spin it for those touchdowns. Because I just look back to last season, which was Jameer Gibbs' best year, right?

11:31He owned 57.3% of the Lions' carries inside of the red zone.

11:35That was good for nine touchdowns. If you travel down to Dave Montgomery, he also had, you know, 33 carries inside the red zone for six touchdowns.

11:42So, like, even, I think they could lean on Jameer Gibbs because they have said that they are willing to do that

11:48more so in recent years than they did during his rookie year.

11:51And it's totally fine maybe if he's not 245 pounds like Kareem Hunt might be at this point.

11:56But, I mean, if you even take 20 of the carries that Dave Montgomery got in the red zone last year and

12:02impart those onto Jameer Gibbs, then he, you know, ties CMC last year in terms of the vast majority and the most touches of any running back.

12:09So, like, touchdowns we absolutely love on top of the yards.

12:12And I can see a pathway where it goes in that direction as he breaks fancy football this year.

12:18When you mentioned the size thing, too, in terms of the top six scrimmage yard seasons ever, three of those guys were

12:24205 pounds or less, including Chris Johnson. What's the record again?

12:27Right. The scrimmage yard record? 2,509 yards. Now, he's flirted with 2,000 yards in the last couple of years.

12:32Hasn't quite got there. But, again, was still sharing with Montgomery to an extent.

12:36And we've seen other guys kind of go after it, too, right?

12:39John Robinson last year had almost 2,300 yards. Saquon Barkley, almost 2,300 yards the year before.

12:43So, it's not like, you know, NFL's changing and we don't have guys that are threatening that record.

12:48I think he's going to be the one this year.

12:51Now, the only caveat I will say is that, you know, we found out this year Chris Johnson battling ALS.

12:56Yeah. You know, we're wishing him the best. And, you know, in that battle, could we see a scenario where Gibbs is

13:02actually getting close to this record and out of respect kind of they take the foot off the gas?

13:07Maybe things through it all. But I'm just saying.

13:10Every possible outcome here. I'm giving myself outs just in case he comes close but doesn't quite get there.

13:15Remember the rule of bold prediction. If he comes close, if he's second, if he's second in yards, you get to take a victory lap.

13:22All right? Those are the rules. So, we worked offensive lines a big deal here too.

13:26Like last season, that was, I think, the core reason why the lines kind of took some steps back.

13:31But then you spend a first round pick on Blake Miller.

13:34Hopefully, Cade Mays is somewhat okay after this injury.

13:37But they even, you know, tried to find some depth going up there and trading for Juice Scruggs and, you know, signing Ben Barge and all this stuff.

13:44So, we know that at some point this season, your best five offensive linemen do not start out there.

13:50They are injured. And so, the Lions, a couple years ago when Ben Johnson was the play caller, won the best in the league.

13:56And they're trying to get there, once again, I think this year.

13:59And that obviously impacts Mike Jameer Gibbs. And I really think that the petsing higher is mostly about the run game.

14:05Yeah. Fixing the run game here as opposed to, like, changing anything in the passing game.

14:09I think that will be pretty static of what we've seen in Detroit.

14:13I just can't say this enough. I think the Lions are going to be one of the right answer offenses here.

14:19So, I mean, there's a reason Gibbs is going number one overall.

14:22There's a reason I think this prediction can get pretty close.

14:25I know. Well, I'm assuming that you think the gap then from the 101 and the 102 between Jameer Gibbs and B.

14:31John Robinson isn't just one pick. That it's like a vast, vast canyon.

14:34Yeah. It's this prediction is basically like, congrats if you have the 101 because you're getting the player this year.

14:40What could go wrong? I mean, that was exactly what I thought when you said this is just like, I think universally consensus.

14:46There's almost no discussion anymore between anyone about like it's Gibbs 101.

14:49Well, we all watched Tua in the preseason. And, you know, Michael Penix is coming off injuries and that's who you're attached to if you're B.

14:56John Robinson. Listen, I get it. I'm not actually arguing the take.

15:00I'm on board with the take. I'm just saying when there's this much consensus, like something will go wrong.

15:05Always scary. Something will go wrong. But as I mentioned, I'm with Boone on this one.

15:09I think that the Lions are one of those right answer offenses in the NFL.

15:13For my first bold prediction, I'll dovetail it into an offense that I actually think is going to be one of those like sneaky right answer offenses.

15:21The more and more I thought about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the higher and higher I've gotten on this offense over the

15:27course of the process to the point that I think Emeka Ibuka is going to lead the NFL in catches in his second NFL season.

15:34And so much of this comes back to one.

15:36I think this guy is a really, really good player.

15:39Don't care at all about the first half, second half splits in terms of the production.

15:43I think when you look at the full picture, it was a really good rookie season.

15:47And that was all while he was playing through a hamstring injury.

15:51His quarterback was playing through as he's let us know many, many injuries.

15:54The offensive line was banged up. This offensive line, as Nate and I talked about on a show at this point, I

16:00guess this was last week, but technically in human time, it was yesterday that this is the best offensive line in the NFL, according to Nate's rankings.

16:08And I buy that. I think Baker Mayfield looking trim, by the way.

16:11Okay. Looking, looking, trying to get a contract. He's trying to get that money.

16:15He's in that. Nobody respects me. Part of the Baker Mayfield cycle, which is usually when he plays a cycle.

16:20Yeah. He's he plays his best ball when he's there at that point.

16:24Right. So I think there's a lot of shoot.

16:26Even Bucky Irving is a guy I've gotten way higher on over the course of the process.

16:31But to come back to Emeka Buka, this to me just goes so much back to not only were all those variables

16:37present in his first season, he was also playing out of position.

16:40He was playing as the X receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Mike Evans was hurt.

16:45He took 69% of his sample snaps outside in his reception perception sample, 64% on the line of scrimmage.

16:50That's just like diametrically opposed to who he was as a prospect when he was a 74% snaps inside.

16:5581% off the ball is kind of a big slot.

16:58Zach Robinson putting him in the Z receiver position.

17:00I've seen some people like this is like what Cooper Cup was playing.

17:04Honestly, the best analogy is actually just look back to Drake London.

17:07Like Drake London was a guy who was, I mean, a better prospect and a better player in Abuka, I think, but

17:13still first two seasons, X receiver and Arthur Smith's offense.

17:16And the production was kind of come and go, not just because of that, but also quarterback chaos and all the things that we know about that offense.

17:23But he moves into that Z receiver position, you know, 30% snaps in the slot, more snaps off ball than on ball in his third and fourth season.

17:31And if London hadn't gotten hurt last year, he was a top three player in points per game before that injury in week 11.

17:38So I just think there's other than the T word, the toe, turf toe, maybe big deal.

17:42Depends on, depends on which, depending on which Twitter doctor you believe or whatever.

17:46We just don't believe Todd Bowles whenever he says anything about the injuries, but that's the big variable here.

17:51But even then, okay, he's a little slow in the first couple of weeks.

17:55Then he smokes the rest of the, the rest of the season, leads the NFL and catches.

18:00I think the Buccaneers are fascinating from a Todd Bowles perspective.

18:03Yeah. Where, you know, a couple of years ago and he, he hires outside of his friend group, which is rare in the NFL, it seems.

18:10So a couple of years ago, who are Todd Bowles, his friends?

18:13That's a good question. Um, you know, he hired Liam Cohen.

18:16That offense was amazing. Then Liam Cohen immediately gets a head coaching job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

18:21Even before that, he, you know, hired Dave Knauss.

18:23When you're in charge of the offense, he goes and gets a head coaching job.

18:27Then he tries to hire from within with Josh Grizzard.

18:30And, uh, that doesn't work and he's gone. So it's almost like, Hey, the offense is so good that the OC then

18:36gets hired as a head coach, or it kind of fails.

18:39It kind of becomes mid. It kind of has high points and then low points like last season.

18:44And I'm fascinated to see which version we get of that with Zach Robinson.

18:48So one, I kind of think that Zach Robinson's a little bit like Bud Light, Liam Cohen.

18:52Anyways, I, I think the run game is a question mark from a design perspective, but I think it was objectively good for receiver usage in Atlanta there.

19:00Um, by the way, I just want you to mention the Todd Bowles part of this because I've mentioned this many times on the show.

19:07Shout out to me. I have a personal trainer, uh, Joe Durdall, Chesapeake, Virginia, one life.

19:11Get yourself hooked up there. You got your next month free.

19:14Let's hope, but he's a, he's Bucs fan. And I was just literally in human time telling him yesterday, I was like,

19:20I'm so jacked up on the Bucs offense. And I hate to tell this to you, buddy, cause he's not the biggest Bowles fan.

19:26I was like, yeah, Bowles is getting a contract extension after they win the division this year.

19:31And the offense is top 10 and Zach Robinson will be gone.

19:34And yeah, you'll live in the exact cycle again.

19:37So that is the Bucs cycle, but I do think this is one of those on years for the offense Boone.

19:43I feel your skepticism from next to me. I, we talked all last year, trying to figure out the Ibuka thing and those splits from the early season.

19:50Much of it up to that. And I had talked myself into him.

19:54I was really getting excited about him. And then the toe injury happens.

19:57And I don't think that we can just sweep that under the rug because Hey, I just did.

20:02No, we talked about how the injuries happened for him and that impacted the rest of his season.

20:07It wasn't the same player. And now the injury seals already broken.

20:10And this is a position receiver position where a toe injury is big time concerning.

20:14So they have the ninth easiest schedule for fantasy receivers.

20:17Like I said, I just was letting myself kind of get excited about him and I was drafting him a lot.

20:23And now I've pulled back a little bit just because of this toe injury.

20:27It makes me worried. And it's one that I'm kind of staying away from him now in drafts.

20:32I find I'm going with other guys in that range again, because there's so many good receivers that we like in that area.

20:38He ends up being the guy where I'm just kind of like, you know what?

20:42I don't want to get involved with this toe issue.

20:45I mean, listen, that's fair. The voice of Scott Pinaus, he's always ringing in the back of my head.

20:50Don't draft into injuries. They're going to find you.

20:52You're kind of drafting into what I think is ultimately a minor injury.

20:56Number one, we don't know if it's turf toe.

20:58Fair. Todd Bowles also said that Bucky Irving wouldn't return into the fall.

21:02And then he was back at like a practice a week later.

21:05Yeah. Like it is impossible to read. It's about, I would love for anyone else associated on the Tampa Bay, but your

21:11payroll to comment on the toe injury, literally anyone else to say anything about the toe injury.

21:16So yeah, it is definitely a variable here, but that's why it's a bold prediction, you know?

21:20Right. One final point. Baker Mayfield is a wild ride and to watch him is the same thing.

21:25When Emekek Buka had that insane start to last season, just going back and revisiting it, there were like double coverage, ball

21:31going through defenders hands, him coming down with these unbelievable catches on the field after Baker was buying time, buying time, avoiding sacks, all this type of stuff.

21:39And all it took was like one bad hit, one injury to Baker Mayfield.

21:43And that kind of living on the edge high wire act that he plays then turns into, oh, now he's turnover prone,

21:49sack prone, all that type of stuff. So you're also hoping obviously for Baker to play at this crazy Houdini like level for 17 games.

21:55Yeah. I do think the high wire act though, with him in the role that he will be in with these like

22:01big breaking routes, which is what we saw in the early part of the season for a Buka.

22:06I think that can be a positive, but I definitely realize I'm walking a tight rope here with the toe injury with the Baker Mayfield of it all.

22:14I never know which is the right year to bet on Baker Mayfield, but I'm assuming this 2026 season is going to

22:20be one of those years, but we are going to take our first quick break.

22:24We come back. We've got more bold predictions. We'll get into that right up to this.

22:28All right, we're back. It is time for more bold predictions here for the 2026 NFL season.

22:33Josh Norris, you're back up, buddy. Let's go. Well, I'll dovetail what you just said by Mekek Buka and include him here in my next comment and prediction.

22:41All right. One of the fourth round wide receivers is going to finish top seven in wide receiver scoring this season.

22:46Love a non-specific bold prediction. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

22:49I'm going to give you specifics here right now.

22:52And I think we can even include the final pick of the third round, which is Zay Flowers.

22:57Then through round four, that's Jalen Waddle, Tedderone McMillan, Emek Ekbuka, Ladin McConkie, and Garrett Wilson is then the first pick of the fifth round.

23:04I've said it many times. This is like my favorite cluster of players of any position to draft the season.

23:09Like this is why I love a running back, running back, then a wide receiver, wide receiver start from that one, two

23:15turn is because I can get two of these guys and feel awesome about it.

23:19And, you know, everyone in the fancy football bubble loves to write these think pieces on who's the next JSN.

23:25I mean, I think you can use all six of these names and make a case for them.

23:30I mean, I can do it with Zay Flowers because, you know, Matt, that the big thing that needs to change for him is just simply touchdowns.

23:37He's never scored more than six touchdowns in a single season.

23:40I think this is a reset season for that potentially with Declan Doyle coming in.

23:44I mean, he had just 10 red zone targets last season, 17 over the last two years.

23:49Freaking Olamide Zaccheaus had more red zone targets and touchdowns than Zay Flowers did last year.

23:53Who coached Olamide Zaccheaus? Declan Doyle. Also, Declan Doyle was working with Ben Johnson, who previously got someone like Amon Ross-St.

23:59Brown. This is the one right here. Yes, and while Amon Ross-St.

24:02Brown would have a few extra pounds on Zay Flowers, Amon Ross-St.

24:05Brown is like the player in terms of red zone activity for his team.

24:09I mean, it is 64 red zone targets over the last two seasons, and that's equal to 19 touchdowns.

24:14Even if we get to eight, nine, and heck, even 10 touchdowns for Zay Flowers, that takes him then from, you know,

24:20the wide receiver 17 into the wide receiver seven category.

24:23And I think he's already going to pay off where he's going, but again, the condensed field work Boone is something that

24:29could take him and rocket ship him up into like, oh, we should have drafted him much, much earlier this year.

24:35Well, and this is exactly why I said what I said about Abuka last segment, right?

24:39It's just look at all the names in this list.

24:42Why take the risk on him when you have all these other guys that you could go after?

24:47I know Jalen Waddle, somebody that we've talked about so much on the show, he was on my list of guys who could lead you to a title.

24:54So excited about him this year. I have some of these guys like Waddle and McAughey up in the third round.

25:00Zay Flowers, of course, as a third round pick.

25:02And you end up in these weird scenarios in drafts.

25:05So we've talked about it a little bit, Josh.

25:07The idea of how early do I go after these guys or can I risk it and wait until the fourth and

25:13hope that I get one of them? And it's just such a great group that, yeah, we should be hitting it hard.

25:19I mean, yeah, 34th overall is Zay Flowers over the last seven days.

25:23I mean, shoot, you could put T. Higgins in here as 34th overall, kind of same spot there.

25:28Rashid Rice, that's probably not going to happen. Jalen Waddle, Tedrow, McMillan, Ladd McConkie, Van Emeka, Ibuka.

25:33So yeah, I mean, drafters are starting to make the decision to go for those guys as opposed to Ibuka.

25:38But any one of these guys I could see really hitting here.

25:41If you had to like really, is Zay Flowers the one you have the most confidence in?

25:46It would be Zay, but I mean, I can also make the case for Ladd McConkie, for example.

25:51So where I feel like we started to get bored with the Ladd McConkie hype, maybe because there was just so much of it.

25:57And then, you know, there's some injuries on the offensive line.

26:00That's part of it. But still, I feel like it's kind of calmed down a little bit.

26:05So for Ladd and how Mike McDaniel brought in just heavier bodies for this team in terms of Charlie Kolar and David

26:11Njoku and Alec Ingold at fullback, too. So that was the pathway for Jackson Smith and Jigba last year to get, you

26:17know, 51% of his fantasy production on 38% of his routes with heavier personnel on the field last year.

26:22Because when you get these bigger, let's say, less productive pass catchers on the field, then it all gets funneled to your best players.

26:29And so I don't know exactly if Ladd McConkie is going to be out there in every single snap.

26:34I would hope so, because to me, he's clearly the best wide receiver on the Chargers.

26:38And, you know, Mike McDaniel has already posted seasons, top six, top three in terms of scoring offenses with the Dolphins.

26:44And that was with Tua. And so what can you do with Justin Herbert here?

26:48So if Ladd is a full-time player, and again, they utilize these heavier personnel sets to the degree I think they're going

26:54to, then yeah, we should see at least a career high in targets and a fancy season here from Ladd.

26:59This prediction, this is like no notes, Josh. This is my favorite.

27:03I have four bold predictions today. This is my favorite that we're going to talk about all day long.

27:08It's just such a good range of receivers. I definitely flirted with a Jalen Waddle sees 150 targets, bold prediction, you know,

27:14because I just think he's going to crush in this offense.

27:17But I feel like that was a point. I mean, 220 more routes Portland Sutton ran last year than Jalen Waddle.

27:22220. And that team, what, is near the top in terms of play action usage?

27:27I mean, Jalen Waddle off play action is just a dynamo.

27:30So again, I could go three minutes on each one of these names.

27:33And that's why, to me, I just want to include the whole round.

27:37I mean, these are the projections for Jalen Waddle that I'm seeing on the screen right now, 118 targets.

27:42If Jalen, don't do it. I almost did it.

27:44I almost did it. I will do this if this happens.

27:47But I'll come back to bite you. Ask me after the three roses.

27:51Then maybe I'll say something about Jalen Waddle on 118 targets.

27:54But I will be stunned if he has 118 targets.

27:56I'll take the way over on that because he's even more of the type of player, which I talk about Ibuga getting that role change.

28:03I think it matters even more that Waddle is going to be that movement off ball player in Denver this year.

28:09So again, I know I said I wasn't going to hammer the point about Waddle because I feel like I've hammered it so much this offseason.

28:16But for the folks who are just tuning in for the first time, they're like, welcome.

28:20Hello. Well, there's a lot of them. Look at the numbers.

28:23Look at the numbers. There's a lot of folks who come in here at the end of August, early September and say,

28:29I mean, I haven't done a damn bit of research for fantasy football.

28:33What are these goofs? Draft two of these guys.

28:35Yeah, there's the take. There's the actionable take from Josh Norris here.

28:39Draft two of these guys. And when we talk this much about a player like Waddle, normally when I'm at home, I

28:45reach back and I knock on the wooden wall.

28:47Right. I don't know if you can reach the wooden case back there, but yes, we need to knock on some wood because yes.

28:54Thank you. We do not want to see anything happen to Jalen Waddle this year.

28:58There's a massive season coming for him. That is for sure.

29:01So we like these round three to four ish, five ish players at the wide receiver position.

29:05Boone kind of dovetails perfectly to your next bowl predictions.

29:08The running backs who are kind of in that next range here.

29:11Yeah. So we talked, maybe you go a couple of running backs early, then you grab a couple of receivers and then

29:17you end up in like round five, late round four sometimes.

29:20And should you go running back again? Are some of these receivers still going to be on the board?

29:25I find myself often going running back at that point.

29:28And really, these two guys are two of the players that I'm hitting the most.

29:32Cam Scadaboo and Quinshon Judkins. And my bold prediction is that they both finish as top 15 fantasy running backs.

29:38And if I had said that last season when each of them had these really, really gruesome injuries, I don't think anyone would have believed me.

29:45But man, the recoveries on these two, phenomenal, right?

29:47We saw them both participate to some degree in OTAs.

29:50Cam Scadaboo out there in the very first preseason game and looking pretty good.

29:54Now, I said no notes on your last one.

29:56I think this is the one that I'm probably going to get the most notes on, I'm guessing.

30:01But the thing for me is we saw them over small sample sizes.

30:05We saw them show this kind of upside, right?

30:07And Harmon's going to be sick of hearing this stat because I brought it up so many times.

30:12But Scadaboo stood it up for eight games, you know, in his...

30:15It's nice that you think I remember. It's nice that you think Matt listens to you.

30:20No, I listen to you, but I gotta... He's reading on his laptop while I'm talking.

30:24I've seen it. I'm online shopping. I'm online shopping.

30:26Yeah, no, I've been putting data over you. No, honestly, I'm just like looking at the rosé menus here.

30:32No, but seriously, I listen to you, but I barely remember the stats I got to bring to the show.

30:37I don't remember the stats sometimes. Six healthy appearances for Scadaboo.

30:40In those games, he averaged the seventh most fantasy points among running backs in half PPR.

30:4417.4 fantasy points per game. I know Tyron Tracy Jr.

30:47might have played his way out of a role in that Giants backfield.

30:51Might have played himself off the Giants roster potentially this preseason.

30:54But last year when those two were healthy together, we saw Scadaboo just dominate him in terms of routes run, in terms of targets.

31:00He basically had around 75% of that stuff. Tyron Tracy, not really as involved.

31:04And then you look at the last four starts for Scadaboo, and the volume was huge.

31:0822 touches per game. The only running back during that stretch that had more touches per game was Christian McCaffrey.

31:14Caveat, small sample size, all that sort of stuff factors in.

31:17But this is a guy that that Giants team thought last year that they could really build that running game around.

31:23They're still listing him as the starter. And yes, Najee Harris is there now.

31:26But Najee Harris is coming off an Achilles stare.

31:29He also might not be by the time this show is out.

31:32Well, that's fair. Yeah, that is fair to say.

31:34But I think when we hear the beat writers talking about Najee just looking huge and he's a big guy.

31:40He's definitely a big guy, but he's coming off an Achilles stare.

31:43Do we really think he's going to have a huge role in this backfield?

31:47Or is he just going to come in and be that second back behind Scadaboo?

31:51So I don't know what you guys think about the reports more recently about how he's kind of getting on the nerves of the defenders.

31:58I was going to say I wanted to read this quote off, which I saw in the airport yesterday flying up here.

32:04This is from John Harbaugh. Pat Leonard tweeted this out.

32:07John Harbaugh asked about Cam Scadaboo's, quote, infectious energy.

32:09Harbaugh said he got a 15-yard penalty at the end of practice.

32:12Did you see that? Yeah, it's infectious. It can be infectious the other way.

32:16An infectious disease type of thing. We want it to be in a positive way.

32:20Boone, how do you feel about the fact that the guy you're hyping up here was compared to an infectious disease by his new head coach?

32:27He's a wild man. And how often does the offensive players and the defensive players not get along?

32:32That's fine. He's basically best friends with Jackson Dart, right?

32:35We just need the offense to rally around him and this run game to rally around him.

32:40And someone else will be involved. It might be Najee Harris.

32:43But Scadaboo, to me, has shown at least he has this kind of upside.

32:46And then Quinshon Judkins might even be more interesting.

32:49Josh, you and I were talking before the show about, I have some thoughts that, you know, the Cleveland Browns offense could

32:55be more interesting this year than they were. Oh, baby.

32:57Good luck to you. You had your segment last year of games nobody's talking about or whatever it was called.

33:03And the Browns were just basically irregular. The Browns were irregular in that segment.

33:07Well, now going into this season, I think they have a lot of pieces.

33:11Yeah. Quarterback aside, they have a lot of pieces.

33:13Just the guy who touches the football. We're curious about a lot of young players, a lot of young talent.

33:18And Judkins might be getting overlooked a little bit.

33:21I know he had the injury later in the year, but think about how good he was before that.

33:26Oh, yeah. Top 20 fantasy running back in four of his first six games, including three weeks inside the top 12 during that stretch.

33:33And I think what throws off his stats from last year, it wasn't the injury at the end of the season.

33:38It was the shoulder injury that occurred because it hurts a shoulder in week eight.

33:42The numbers change from that point on, right? If we isolate the six games before he suffered the shoulder injury, RB 14

33:48over that stretch after the shoulder injury, RB 30 from week nine to week 15.

33:52So if we can keep this guy healthy with these new pieces around, they're going to make defenses, hopefully respect the pass game a little more.

34:00Assuming the quarterback can give us even something close to average quarterback play.

34:03But Judkins as well has shown that he's shown that Josh has made at least five or six facial expressions during this.

34:09And this is not the only time we're going to be talking about the Browns today.

34:13So I can't wait for the future conversation. I have some notes.

34:17Okay. First, I love on your vote. She's like, no notes.

34:20You say, I have some notes. So I think Quinsha Judkins was the best rookie runner in the NFL last season.

34:25I agree with that. I'm nervous that that doesn't matter.

34:28Um, I think actually this is in a better environment this year than he was in last year.

34:33Todd Munkin, a hopefully much improved offensive line, but the big change for him is going to be defense like that defense

34:39kept the Browns in games that they had no business being in.

34:42So that gave Quinsha Judkins carries in the fourth quarter carries in the third quarter.

34:46I mean, that defense kept the Bengals to 17 points, the Packers to 10, the Dolphins, the six, the Raiders to 10,

34:52the Steelers to six and the Bengals to 18.

34:55And so while I think Quinsha Judkins is freaking awesome and creates yards on his own and all that type of stuff.

35:01Um, I'm pretty nervous that he can even be a big wind player because it might just be kind of, Oh, you

35:07dropped him as running back 22 and it becomes the running back 16 and like the small wins get you there.

35:12And then with scataboo just quickly all off season, all giants beat writers have said they want to make a big splash

35:18at running back where that was Ken Walker or Travis a-chan or Jeremiah love and they didn't get any of them.

35:24I guess the splash is not J Harris if he's still on the team by this point.

35:29And so to me, if you're ringing between the lines, that's just indicative that they don't want him to have this massive work.

35:35Now, if he just outperforms everyone, he might do it.

35:38But I kind of just, again, go by the money and the draft picks and all that type of stuff and the buzz that's underlying here.

35:45And I'm a bit nervous that despite being a run, run, run, run offense, if he gets the type of massive opportunity

35:51share that he got last year, that kind of right now looks like a three headed or four headed backfield.

35:56I think the big concern with, uh, dovetailing both of these guys together is that, uh, the giants are projected on average

36:02to be like the 22nd best offense and the Cleveland Browns are 32nd.

36:06Uh, so that makes this a little difficult, uh, to hit both of these guys, Boone.

36:10And the funny part is, yeah, the guy that's on the 32nd offense, the Cleveland Browns, I think that's an infinitely better player.

36:16I am just concerned that camp Scadaboo is a mean player.

36:19I've never on the Labor Day show and I'm somewhere three roses deep.

36:23I can say like, I think he might be a mean player.

36:26I think someone like Quinchon Boone though, is maybe the toughest player to rank for me in this style where as an

36:32individual, you're watching him and he's fricking electric. He's awesome.

36:35And so in your head, you're like, Oh, if things bounce, right.

36:38Then he can do that on an average team, but then you have to put him in the environment that he's in.

36:44And like, does that matter? Like how much is that going to matter this year?

36:48Here's a reason why we're taking these guys in the fifth round.

36:52That's why I was going to actually ask you though, because, uh, while Quinchon Judkins, yeah, he does go in Yahoo drafts.

36:58Yeah. Kind of in that third pick of the fifth round.

37:01Yeah. He's like the 54th overall player right now in this moment in time.

37:04Scadaboo is the 44th overall player off the board.

37:07You have to take him over all the wide receivers.

37:10I just mentioned on the point that you said, no, no.

37:13There is never a chance. I'm doing that in the drafts that I've been in.

37:17I have not seen him go ahead of a lot of those receivers.

37:20So I know that's what it says in ADP right now, especially with Najee signing.

37:24I think maybe some ADP more recently. We'll see Scadaboo fall.

37:27Who just has without, not in my league. That's one spot between last week and this week.

37:32So we're going down one. Both these guys have, and you guys hear me talk about schedules a lot.

37:37They both have, you know, easier schedules, 10th, 11th, easiest schedules on the season.

37:41I also want to add one more thing about them.

37:44Okay. Especially for Judkins. This is one where you might not have to draft him because at the start of the year,

37:50he gets the Jags who are monsters against the run.

37:52And then he gets the box who just made Vita Veya happy when he's out there.

37:57The run defense is very tough. After that, the schedule gets a lot easier for him.

38:01So that might be a buy low opportunity. Scadaboo could be the same thing.

38:05He gets the Cowboys who last year were a positive matchup, you know, week one, he gets them.

38:10I think their defense is going to be a little better this year.

38:13Yeah. They're going to Rams in week two. That is a very scary matchup.

38:17After that, the Titans, the Cardinals, the commanders. So even if you don't draft these guys, get ready for me to talk

38:23about them after the first couple of weeks as potential buy.

38:26So I'm going to rewrite your ball prediction here.

38:28Okay. Okay. I don't know if that's in the, is that in the charter?

38:32Are we allowed to do that? Um, your bold prediction is trading for Quinchon Judkins and Cam Scadaboo in week three could

38:38be a fantasy league winning move versus drafting them.

38:41That is a great YouTube headline. It's almost like that's what you do.

38:44You know, these are the, these are the 17 players that you should trade for after week three.

38:49I mean, I'm flicking that video. I'll tell you what.

38:52The easier approach is obviously draft them and ride out the first two weeks.

38:56That was the two weeks that you said. You're not always going to be able to make that trade in every league, but yes.

39:02Um, overall on the season, I think these guys are going to be meaningful fantasy pieces.

39:07And I think we saw glimpses of it last year.

39:09Got it. And I think we're going to see an opportunity to have it again this year.

39:14And actually, and Quinchon Judkins as well. One other thing, um, they've talked about, and now I feel the need to throw

39:20everything at the wall here because the way you two approached it.

39:23And I knew it was coming. Roll a deck, some notes in his head.

39:27He's like, okay, I got to cover this to cover my bases.

39:30New coaching staff has talked about using him more as a complete back, a three down back.

39:35Maybe he gets more involved in the passing game as well.

39:38And that could help bump him up. He's going to need it.

39:41He is going to need it. All right. My bold prediction here.

39:44Uh, my second one, final one for this segment.

39:47I mean, this is, this is actually less likely than yours.

39:50Jordan Love wins MVP this year. And the reason that I want to make this the bold prediction on the fantasy show

39:56and not like on a 301 or anything like that is that I actually think it's pretty unlikely that he wins MVP

40:02because I don't know that the Packers are going to be all that good this year.

40:06I actually have a lot of Packers skepticism specifically about the defense.

40:09Definitely about Josh Jacobs. I mean, Cam Scott was probably number one running back that I'm not drafting an ADP then or number two.

40:16The number one is like Josh Jacobs. Yeah, I'm not.

40:19And this is probably tough at this point to say in again, real time.

40:22As you are listening to this, you might not know about the Josh Jacobs.

40:26Like, is there a suspension or anything like that?

40:29But even without that, there's still a lot of red flags in his profile.

40:33So I'm not sure that the Packers as a team are going to be good, but this is just the easiest way to say that.

40:39I think we have, and again, shout out to Scott Pianowski who flagged this on the show a couple of weeks ago.

40:45It is pretty insane that we as the fantasy bubble are talking about the Packers are going to throw the ball more.

40:51We all want to draft Christian Watson. We all want to draft Matthew Golden.

40:55We want to draft Jaden Reed. Tucker Kraft sounds like he's going to play week one.

40:59Sounds like he's going to play week one. And we all mean you're not going to get us to say a bad

41:05word about Tucker Kraft on any Yahoo property. It's actually in all of our contracts.

41:10We can't. We love Tucker Kraft. So all of that together, and yet no one wants to draft the quarterback.

41:15Truly, he goes like outside of the top 20 quarterbacks.

41:18Mathematically, that doesn't make any sense. I just think if all these things combine the way that we want it to, Christian

41:24Watson stays healthy and pays off a top 30 wide receiver ADP.

41:27Jaden Reed finally stays healthy and has a big year.

41:30Matthew Golden ascends in year two, which is a low bar because it was not much in year one.

41:35He ascends in year two. Tucker Kraft stays healthy.

41:37Well, the quarterback is probably going to throw for 30 to 40 touchdowns and have one of those like at least in

41:43December he's in the conversation for MVP seasons because all the nerds are like, look at the EPA.

41:48Look at this, that, and the other. Adjusted yards per attempt.

41:51And he has this dynamic season. I do think he's a really undervalued fantasy quarterback.

41:55Josh Jacobs, 12 red zone touchdowns last year because while he might not be as explosive as he has previously been, he

42:01is one of these players that when you get in that condensed field, they just pound the rock three times in a

42:07row or two times in a row. So if he's suspended, if he misses time, whatever it is, then half those touchdowns

42:13that they're going to join love, I think makes up some of your argument here.

42:17The other part is I am relentlessly drafting Christian Watson, Matthew Golden this year.

42:21Relentlessly. Uh, we are finally at a point and I'm just crossing my fingers.

42:25This is true. This is a wide receiver trio and not a quartet or beyond that.

42:29Uh, they're all rotating in there. My only hesitation is the offensive line.

42:33Um, last year, their best group of five only played together 18% of the time.

42:37The one guy that played 17 games is now on the Carolina Panthers and Rashid Walker, their best offensive lineman in Zach

42:43Tom partially towards the teller tendon in week 14.

42:45And they're kind of still mixing and matching and all that type of stuff.

42:49But I agree. Like if they don't have a volume hog and Josh Jacobson, they are asked to throw the football more.

42:55This is an ambitious downfield thrower. You know, as guys do perfectly match that in Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, and then

43:01some manufacturer stuff underneath with Jane Reed and Tucker craft.

43:04Uh, it is perfectly created for Jordan love to have like, he's already a good player, but a true breakout top five like season.

43:10The offensive line is concerning. I'm glad you brought that up.

43:13I've been trying to move love up though with the Tucker craft news, especially and all the things regarding that receiving core.

43:19It's just hard. Like, I don't know where you have him ranked Harmon, but like when I look at my rankings.

43:25Jackson Dart or Jordan love at cost, uh, give me Jordan love.

43:28I mean, I'm going to rank Jackson Dart higher just because I think the rushing upside is there for him.

43:34You have to default to that. But I like, I would much rather wait and get Jordan love who I have ranked as QB 16, by the way.

43:41In terms of the rankings, like it's tight in that range, right?

43:45Like guys like Malik Willis, guys like Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff, even Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray.

43:49All these guys have a top five season. Yeah.

43:51Who are we moving him ahead of? That's the trouble that I get into each time I'm doing my rankings and my

43:57projections is that he's in that group. But where does he land in that group and how high can you actually push him?

44:04I am 16. So he's, uh, the fourth quarterback in my fourth tier.

44:07And I agree. Like there's a group in tier three, like the Herberts, the Trevor Lawrence, the Caleb Williams, Dak Prescott, Jackson Dart, Bo Nix.

44:14I think those guys, because they have more rushing upside, you kind of have to boost them up there.

44:19But if you just truly want to punt on quarterback, like I would take Jordan love ahead of Matthew Stafford.

44:25I would take him ahead of Patrick Mahomes. Malik Willis is tough.

44:28It's just such a wild card, but a QB 20 for me there.

44:32But the guys that I would, I mean, even Kyler Murray, like I really wanted to put him ahead of Kyler.

44:37I really wanted to put him ahead of Kyler Murray because I just have more faith.

44:42But Matt, if he wins MVP, he's going to outscore all of those.

44:45Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm with you. That's why this is a bold prediction.

44:49Remember, remember, remember the rules here. But no, I mean, for Jordan love to just on the offensive line point, I actually

44:55think that is a bigger detriment to the run game and Josh Jacobs.

44:58And it will be the past section, especially because, and again, this is part of the narrative that I think people haven't

45:04put enough focus on love as this part of it.

45:07All the reports had a Packers camp and you saw it in the preseason that they want to play with more pace.

45:13They want to get into the huddle faster. You know, this team annually is among one of the slowest pace teams in the NFL.

45:19This kind of all of these McVay Shanahan offenses are.

45:22It's almost like the one, you know, proton torpedo.

45:25You can put that thing in a Death Star and blow it up.

45:28It's just they play a little, you know, nerd out.

45:31Hey, hey, buddy. Anytime. Listen, so you get that there.

45:34You're more pace into the offense. Get into the huddle faster.

45:37There's a small. It's not as loud, which is good because this movement actually aged so well.

45:41There's a small movement on the internet that wants to see like let love cook.

45:45Like we made this with let Russ cook. I don't know if you want to be associated to that.

45:50But this time it's for real. Yeah. This time it's for real.

45:54I have a hot take, another bold prediction to add on to yours.

45:57Okay. Okay. I think it's ridiculous that Matthew Golden is going after Jane Reed on every single.

46:02No, I think that's correct. Really? Also, that's not a prediction, Josh.

46:05That's it. That's no. As in, I think Matthew Golden is going to score at least a tier above Jane Reed does this season.

46:12Why? He's out there in two wide receiver sets.

46:14Oh, I hadn't heard. They're not going to run to wide receiver.

46:17No, they will previously. No. So they have Tucker Kraft.

46:20They have a fullback in Chris Brooks that they used quite a bit last year as.

46:24Yes. And then. Fullback. I guarantee you by the time the show comes out, they've made another move at Titan to run this heavier personal looks.

46:32100%. So I think Matthew Golden is. Matt, we shouldn't just like have.

46:35This is who he was in his rookie year.

46:38I. I'm a. Listen, I'm a Matthew Golden centrist.

46:40Okay. So I'm actually not going to make a strong, strong argument.

46:43Well, I mean, you don't really have to if he's going in the sixth pick.

46:47Exactly. That's why it's like take even if you I've said it based on his rookie season, I could kind of see it going either way.

46:54Like he could turn into a really good player.

46:57He could maybe just kind of be. A useful player, like, but useful, not useful.

47:01If you get the intonation and the word there, I think that's both possible.

47:05But at his ADP, who cares? Take the shot.

47:07But I just think like Jane Reed is. I've seen Jane Reed be a better player in the NFL than I've seen Matthew Golden so far.

47:14And that does at least move the needle for me.

47:17But listen, the last thing we need to do is get into a deep argument about the Packers.

47:22We're going to do that in a couple of days.

47:25Well, I think the reality here is we are just saying draft players from this offense.

47:29It is a pretty undervalued unit right now. But with that, we are going to take our next quick break.

47:34We come back. We've got more bold predictions coming at you guys.

47:38We'll get into that right after this. All right, we're back.

47:41We've got more bold predictions for you. Josh, hit us with your next bold prediction.

47:45Dajon Stripling finishes as the rookie wide receiver one.

47:47Yes. Yes. I mean, this is not that big of a leap.

47:50I mean, to everyone else. But we'll go through this.

47:53Okay. It's not a big leap relative to the field.

47:56In any other occasion, if the 33rd overall pick that finished anywhere from second to 10th in offensive points and plays, you

48:02know, on that team had a preseason like Dajon Stripling, people would be losing their minds.

48:06You know, especially when you consider that he's competing with 33-year-old Mike Evans and whatever Debo Samuel is here in his retirement tour.

48:12But I think that everyone, the world, the universe has been slow to react to Dajon Stripling's preseason.

48:17I have his wide receiver 34 right now, 76 overall.

48:20And consensus rings out there, 70 plus experts that do this.

48:23Wide receiver 56. Expert is crazy. 139 overall. Even on Yahoo, at this moment as we're recording, 116 overall.

48:28So all he has to do is beat Jordan Tyson, who's injured.

48:32Mekhi Lemon, who's missed all of camp. Casey Concepcion, awesome, but no rough offense.

48:35I just think people are anchored by their opinion, either dynasty or draft communities on Dajon Stripling and aren't opening their eyes

48:41enough to how impeccable his entire offseason has been and even on the field in preseason so far.

48:46The NFL love this guy. And we've said it on the show before, to the point where he was turning down top

48:5230 visits because so many teams wanted to bring him in before the draft.

48:56And I think that's where the fantasy community maybe did lag behind quite a bit on that one.

49:01Also, you mentioned Mike Evans. You mentioned the receiving core.

49:04George Kittle, 30 years old, coming off a torn Achilles.

49:06CMC, 30 years old, coming off 450 touches when you include the playoffs last year.

49:10Like, he could absolutely turn into the guy in this offense.

49:13You have him slightly ahead of me. We've both been excited about him.

49:17I have to. I have him in the 30s as well among receivers.

49:21I think I have him a couple spots behind you in terms of the overall rankings.

49:25You have him in the 30s? We're in. Yeah, it's so funny.

49:28I think Boone is maybe the only fantasy analyst I haven't heard talk about stribbling over the course of August.

49:34So I'm glad you're like, keep going on more stribbling stuff because I want to know more about what you think about

49:40this guy from just the overall perspective. Well, we've seen receivers who I think are much lesser players in this Kyle Shanahan

49:46offense come on and have great fantasy stretches. Remember that stretch of Jawan Jennings?

49:49What if Jawan Jennings had a jetpack on his back?

49:52Demarcus Robinson, Kendrick Bourne. We've seen so many guys step up.

49:55And man, the fact that Mike Evans already has the injury seal broken here, we're seeing him in and out of practice.

50:01Could that just be a veteran who doesn't want to practice?

50:04I mean, we've known for the best staffer thing last year.

50:07I hope so because my God. I know. We can't string five practices together.

50:11But if you also go back and look like the injury history on him, on Mike Evans specifically, seven straight years where he's had soft tissue, hamstrings.

50:18Like it's concerning and there might be a reason why the Bucs were like, all right, well, he's not coming back.

50:24So Brock Purdy last year, most accurate passer 10 plus yards on the field.

50:28That's the second time already in his career that he's been the most accurate passer in the NFL in that area of the field.

50:34Again, this is tripping that Matt so far in the preseason.

50:37We've seen him win on the outside. We've seen him win the slot.

50:41We've seen manufacturer touches in his direction. We've seen motion to get him into these stacks and free releases.

50:46Like this is already, by the way, he's a fantastic blocker.

50:49Like I thought coming out of Ole Miss, he had, and it wasn't perfect.

50:53And it hasn't been perfect in the preseason. He had the potential to be the best blocking wide receiver.

50:58What, you know, kept Brendan Ayuk from having an awesome rookie season and find himself in the doghouse at times?

51:03The effort in the blocking department. You have to do that.

51:06McAulshian in offense. He checks all these boxes. And what we haven't even seen yet is the yards after the catch.

51:12Go against the game against Georgia. I mean, he was running away from SEC defensive backs.

51:16So again, I just think that people are getting so anchored by their pre-draft opinion and their bias and that they're wrong and then they aren't reacting enough.

51:24And they should just wipe away all that and take them.

51:27Because we get to a point in drafts where I have more negatives about a bunch of these wide receivers versus, oh, it's a mystery box a bit.

51:35But I have so many more positives in the direction of stripling that I just have a season past the strip club.

51:41I get it. Listen, you don't have to convince me about stripling.

51:44I really like stripling as a prospect. I put out the YouTube video a couple of days before the draft saying he was my favorite day two sleeper.

51:52And they took him, you know, very first pick of day two.

51:55A little bit aggressive. A little bit aggressive. But overall, like what you've seen in the preseason is a lot of what

52:01I liked about him as a prospect. Like he looks, this is rare, but it's kind of comforting to see.

52:06Sometimes good, sometimes bad. In this case, I think it has been good where what he's done in the preseason is exactly

52:12what I imagined him as an NFL player. You've seen the blocking.

52:16You've seen him work on in-breaking routes, as you're seeing on the screen here, his reception perception charts, like dig route success

52:22rate really high, slant route success rate really Pretty good to shoot in offense.

52:25Absolutely. Yeah. Those are the routes, by the way, like when I started to really get high on the Brandon Iyuk, you know, Brock Purdy marriage.

52:32And then same thing with Ricky Pierce on obviously this didn't work out because the injuries.

52:37It was those routes like Purdy loves to throw those routes, the dig routes and everything like Stribling can do that.

52:42Also, you know, above 50th percentile success rate versus press coverage, like 52nd percentile.

52:46He can get into his release as well. The blocking, the catching the ball away from the frame, like high window targets.

52:52He has looked like the guy I expected him to be in the preseason.

52:56I think the question is just, and I'll pose this to you, Josh, like, could you see him still being, even though

53:02like everybody's gassed him up and I think justifiably so.

53:05I haven't quite gotten him into the 30s yet at receiver, but I see where you're at only because I still can

53:11also see this being a situation where he is a mid to second half of the season guy.

53:16Like I can absolutely see a scenario where in the first three weeks of the season, Shanahan slow plays this thing and

53:22he runs out behind Evans and Devo Samuel. Like, is that still within the range of outcomes?

53:26I think Stribling is going to play two wide receiver sets quite early in the season.

53:31And I think from a jump. Yeah, I mean, Matt, I guess my point is when I look at the rankings, I

53:37have him ahead of Alec Pierce, Quentin Johnston, DK Metcalf, Jordan Addison, Matthew Golden.

53:40Like how different is Stribling versus Quentin Johnston? For example, like on the base level.

53:45I have Quentin Johnston 43 and right now I have Stribling at 45.

53:48My prediction, by the time that this show comes out, you will have Stribling at least as wide receiver 39, if not higher than that.

53:55Well, I'm not going to have him at wide receiver 39 because actually the next player I'm going to talk about in

54:01this segment, I'm going to jump ahead of you here in the order, Boone, because it is a rookie wide receiver.

54:07I have this player ranked as my wide receiver 41 and I could see him getting a little bit higher.

54:12That is Casey Concepcion, who I think is going to not just lead all rookies and wide receivers at fantasy points.

54:18I think he's going to lead all rookies, period.

54:20Skill position players in fantasy points. Wow. Except Jeremiah Love.

54:23Okay, okay, okay. One little caveat there, except Jeremiah Love.

54:26Because the only other real contender here, I mean, the receivers, it's just so tough.

54:30Like part of the reason, Josh, why you can be right about this and I can be right about Casey Concepcion, because

54:36we're saying it's not going to happen for Carnell Tate.

54:38Correct. Who's the wide receiver one in terms of rookies being drafted right now.

54:42And I think there's a lot of reasons to be concerned about Carnell Tate right now.

54:47Specifically, he plays with the Tennessee Titans, which literally zero catches in the preseason.

54:50Like they can't even force a catch in his direction at this point.

54:54And, you know, they've all come out. Robert Sala, Brian Dill, this is the vanilla stuff we're running.

54:59I'm like, I don't know, Dave, that looks like what you were running.

55:02Exactly. That just looks like you were running New York, big dog.

55:06So I don't know about that. But so I'm nervous about the Tate thing.

55:09So I'm trying to find like different rookie wide receivers.

55:12And, you know, I guess this is when I, when we sat here, well, I was sitting here, Boone, you were virtually.

55:18I remember sitting here being like, man, I'm so excited about this Carnell Tate landing spot.

55:23Like you can project all those targets after the NFL draft.

55:25And then you really start to see the quality of those targets and specifically where he's lined up, which I've been encouraged

55:31that it's been a little more off ball. And as the Z as opposed to the X, like it looks like they're

55:37going to sacrifice Calvin Ridley and Alec Io manner at the X receiver position, which I think is solid.

55:43But even then they can't quite get that player involved.

55:45This just looks like Wanda Robinson is catching the most passes on the team, which makes me nervous.

55:50So back to the Casey Concepcion is going to score more fantasy points than everybody except Jeremiah Love.

55:55I mean, right now, Jerry Price is the running back 25 in ADP.

55:59And I think that's a good pick running back 25.

56:01Last season was Ramondre Stevenson, 162.8 points in half PPR.

56:04I think that there's a chance that Casey Concepcion can finish with like a Wanda Robinson type of season last year, which

56:10ultimately was just over 170 points because it's a lot of designer stuff here for this player.

56:15I mean, last season, Giants were not playing with good quarterback play.

56:18I mean, Jackson Dart solid. He had his moments, but for the most part, it's designer stuff underneath.

56:23Get the ball in his hands and let him cook after the catch.

56:26And Casey Concepcion can cook after the catch. So to me, he just when I look at all of these rookies that

56:32ultimately have a lot of questions about how much is Mikhail Lemon going to play?

56:37How much can they get the ball to Carnell Tate?

56:39How many snaps is Jordan Tyson going to play this year?

56:42Period. I start to look at and I do respect this dribbling thing.

56:46He actually is the next receiver that I have ranked here among the rookies.

56:50So I'm pretty much with you here, Josh. But for Casey, I just think he's the most insulated to chaos.

56:55There will be a lot of chaos. I get it.

56:58It's Cleveland Browns. But he's just got such a good role, such a good player.

57:02I'm willing to make it. Just to hammer it home.

57:05I think that's where the argument lies for both of you guys on this.

57:08You might be biting off a little more. You can chew that he's going to outscore the top two running backs because

57:14I think they're both in pretty good situations. I couldn't just be like, well, I'm just going to take a different player than Josh.

57:21So I had to make it a little funny.

57:23But you asked the question of, like, could they slow play shriveling?

57:27They could. And it could not even matter. Shriveling could still come through because of what you're saying about Tate.

57:32Because Makai Lemon dealt with injuries and could get off to a slow start.

57:36Because, you know, Jordan Tyson, we don't know when he's going to be back.

57:40And when he does come back, if he can stay healthy, I think he's going to be incredible.

57:45Maybe be really, really good the second half of the year.

57:48But that's going to be a start for him where he's not going to get out there potentially until midway through the season.

57:54So that really sets this up for someone else to come through.

57:57And, I mean, I would choose dribbling over the Concepcion one.

58:00But, I mean, I see the argument for both.

58:03What if I told you I have Casey Concepcion ranked even higher than you do?

58:07Oh, my God. Okay, well, let's hear it. Where have we got him?

58:10I'm at wide receiver 38. Oh, boy. At this moment.

58:13So I love both. Here's the thing. Okay, okay.

58:15Simply put, though, Matt, I would rather have the guy in a couch in hand.

58:19And, you know, attached to Brock Purdy. Oh, yeah.

58:22Versus the Cleveland Browns, Todd Munkin, Deshaun Watson, Shrenory Sanders.

58:25That is, like, the determining factor for me. I mean, I'm not going to argue with you on that part.

58:30But I think that Casey Concepcion was, as much as I like dribbling, and I really was a fan of dribbling's game,

58:36I mean, I'm, like, a mega fan of Casey Concepcion.

58:39He's, like, several tiers better of a prospect here to me.

58:42And, again, I think dribbling can turn out to be a really good, nice NFL player.

58:46I don't even really want to argue against dribbling here because I think this is a great bold prediction for me.

58:52Right, but with Concepcion, I just think, number one, better player.

58:55Do the better players always score more fancy points?

58:57No, they do not. But when you get a better player and in what is ultimately a really fantasy-friendly role, a lot

59:03of – if this was Casey and he was going to be, like, a vertical receiver in this offense, I would not be having this conversation.

59:10But what we've seen from him in the preseason, what Todd Munkin has talked about him, is kind of as that Zay Flowers-type movable chess piece.

59:17And Zay Flowers is, like, a top 30 receiver in his rookie season and, obviously, better offensive environment, Lamar Jackson and the whole deal.

59:24But a lot of it was getting the ball in his hands, letting him cook after the catch.

59:29I think that's what's going to happen here for Casey Concepcion.

59:32My only thing that I'm balking at your ranking of Casey is just that, like, bro, you don't need to rank him

59:38that high to tell people who are using your rankings that they're going to – Oh, I don't care about those people.

59:44Oh, okay. See, I care about the people. No.

59:46I don't care about these, like, little accuracy things.

59:49I care about the people. The only accuracy I care about is Justin Boone's in-season accuracy.

59:53But, you know, based on our rankings, though, that's where people go in drafts on Yahoo, X-Rank, all of it.

59:58So, Stripling has already climbed in the last week, you know, from round 11 to round 10.

60:03Matt, by the time this video comes out, I wouldn't be surprised if Stripling is a ninth-round pick.

60:08And then it keeps going up and up and up.

60:11So, that's what I'm trying to do is get his ADP actually to a point where it should be versus if you're drafting anywhere else.

60:18It's like, sure, you can take him around later or two that where I have him.

60:22But I'm just letting you know how freaking good I think that his season is going to be in the softs.

60:28And we said before the show, once you get to a certain point in drafts, which I think comes around like the seventh round or so.

60:35Yes. There's just not a lot of exciting names once you get there to the point where I consider Stripling in that area of drafts.

60:41I know that's so much ahead of ADP, but still, I think you want a player in that area that has the

60:47upside that you can tell that story on. And once you get there, he's one of my favorites.

60:52Yeah. I mean, I don't feel great about attaching myself to the, you know, how...

60:56Sean Watson era? Yeah. Well, that's only going to last two weeks.

61:00That's going to last the first two rows. Okay, then the Shador Sanders era?

61:04Against all odds, baby. I'm on board with Shador Sanders getting the ball quickly to Casey and letting him do stuff after the catch.

61:10All right. We've got one more wide receiver ball prediction from you, Justin.

61:14Let's hear it. Let's talk about a good offense here.

61:16We've talked about the Browns today. Luther Burden III emerges as a fantasy wide receiver one from week three on.

61:22We're going to add that in there. That season doesn't start until week three.

61:26That doesn't end there. This guy would... He's going to Bali for the first two weeks.

61:30Can I tell you about that Mecca Buka? He leads wide receivers and catches from week three on after his turf toes.

61:36Okay. All right. The early part of the schedule, we talked about this a few weeks ago.

61:41We went over the early season schedules. The Bears do have a bit of a difficult start to the season.

61:46But I haven't understood really why Burden's ADP dropped so much recently.

61:49Because he had the groin injury. People got scared by it.

61:52A day or two later, there was video of him walking around without a limp.

61:56A week or so later, there was video of him out there jogging and testing it.

62:01And all the injury analysts basically were saying, like, this guy looks like he's going to be back by week one and be okay.

62:07And sure enough, he was back. He was a couple weeks to go before the season and he's practicing.

62:12So I'm not super concerned about the injury there.

62:15And this is a player who last year really flashed, man.

62:18And you have to love the talk from that offense.

62:21Like Ben Johnson coming out and saying, like, we're going to score the most points of any team ever.

62:26I love that confidence. I love it. I also love the way that Luther Burden carries himself.

62:30Like, he carries himself like he is going to be a diva number one receiver.

62:34He's got that confidence as well. And we saw the flashes last season, right?

62:38Early last year, week three, 101 yards and a touchdown.

62:41But he was limited to less than 30% of snaps in every contest during the first two months.

62:46From week 10 on, the playing time started to increase.

62:49He averaged nearly 64 yards per outing. That's a thousand yard pace.

62:52So we're seeing signs that he had a lot more there.

62:55His numbers were good enough to make him the wide receiver 28 in fantasy points per game over the final eight weeks.

63:01And there was some really notable performances, right? We saw him go six for 84 in week 16.

63:06The season high, eight for 138 in touchdown in week 17.

63:09And then if you dig a little deeper, you know, he posted the third best yards per out run among all wide.

63:15I thought you were going to bring up the yards per out run.

63:18It was so close. You know, behind only Puka and JSN, finished top 20 at the position in both targets per out run.

63:24Yards after the catch. And the yards after the catch one I thought was interesting because he had so many less catches

63:30than the other guys that were near the top of that list, right?

63:34So this is a player that really showed us that he can do it, who, you know, you've mentioned and you'll get

63:40into it, I'm sure, the Roma Doomsday of it all and how he started the season so hot last year before he dealt with injuries.

63:47But to me, that always seemed like they had drafted these two young players in Colston Loveland and Luther Burden.

63:52I see you both just furiously typing. No, no, no.

63:55Getting ready to fire back here. No, I mean, I'm going to actually maybe support your audience.

64:00They drafted these two young players and it takes a little time to get rookies up to speed and to get them more involved.

64:06It wasn't until week six after the bye week.

64:09Exactly. And later in the season, to me, it really looked like that's what this offense is going to be.

64:14It's going to be those two as the focal points.

64:17A Doomsday is going to be contributing as well.

64:19But really, it just comes down to draft the Chicago Bears.

64:22Like, just draft them all. DeAndre Swift is like one of my favorite players.

64:26Draft Caleb Williams. I've never said that before. Draft them all.

64:29Just be in on this offense. You know, the comments that I see in the analysis is, well, you're drafting Luther Burden

64:35at a ceiling as wide receiver 24. I don't agree with that at all.

64:39No. Like, if Luther Burden hits this year, he's going to be like a top 8, 10 wide receiver potentially.

64:44Like, that is in the range of outcomes here.

64:47And you mentioned everything. And just with Luther Burden's fit here with Ben Johnson, it could not have been a better landing spot for him.

64:53In terms of a play caller that is the best in the league at creating both free releases and also space for his players to work in.

65:01And Luther Burden is just a different mover. I mean, he is almost a unicorn with the ball in his hands throughout the league at this point.

65:08And what I love, Matt, is so often we love these downfield wide receivers.

65:12The big plays. The splash plays. Because when they hit for, you know, 30-yard touchdowns or 60-yard touchdowns, that's 12 points in our pocket.

65:19What I love are gimmies. Shorter ADOTs, right? So, like, half of the ADOT that went in Roman Dunsay's direction is now

65:25going in Luther Burden's in terms of 7.5 yards down the field.

65:28And I love that aspect in this offense. And getting the ball quickly, let him work, and do it over and over and over again.

65:35Here's the thing I would say, though. That average depth of target is coming up for Luther Burden.

65:39Oh, I agree. But I don't think it's going to be a 14 or a 15 or a 16.

65:45You know, versus, hey, if it's still in that beautiful 9 to 10-yard range, ooh, I love that.

65:50Yeah, I think that's where he'll be. Because he kind of has to be in order to be, like, a top 8

65:56receiver, top 10 receiver in this particular offense. Because they hunt those explosives so much.

66:00Yeah, I mean, Burden is a perfect fit in this offense.

66:03Like, you just kind of want to close your eyes and bet on a player that hit 70% success rate versus man,

66:0980% success rate versus zone in his rookie season.

66:11Is a super talented prospect with one of the best play callers in the NFL.

66:15I'm 11 spots ahead of current ADP on Luther Burden, which has actually only come down two spots on Yahoo, at least.

66:21I know maybe other platforms are different. But he was, like, 58th overall pick before the groin injury.

66:26He's the 60th overall pick right now. Which, actually, 58th overall is one of the more reasonable prices to get Luther Burden

66:32relative to other spots here over the course of the offseason.

66:35But I'm five spots ahead of ADP on Colson Loveland.

66:38I'm three spots ahead of ADP on DeAndre Swift.

66:40But, like I said, 11 for Burden, 21 for Roma Dunzey.

66:43Like, just draft Bears players this year. I have him as a top 40 pick.

66:47And, really, the way my rankings go, he would be in that group of receivers that you were talking about, those fourth-round guys.

66:54Like, that's where I think he belongs, ADP West.

66:56Yeah, I do just worry a tiny bit that two guys can't, like, be massive hits from this offense.

67:01Yeah. And I think that is maybe the hesitation here for me to get, like, wide receiver one in the range of outcomes for Luther Burden.

67:08But the good part about this is if Colson Loveland misses any time, if Roma Dunzey misses any time.

67:13Like, these guys, like Khalif Raymond or – I kind of think, like, John A.

67:17Walker is even good a little bit. Very, very deep stuff.

67:20But I think he's kind of good a little bit.

67:23But none of these guys are going to come up here and be mainstay target getters.

67:28So, even if, like, a Dunzey misses three games or something, Loveland misses three games, that's how this really works out for

67:34Burden, which is also in the inverse for the other two guys.

67:37Quick point on that. In 2023, Ben Johnson did have the wide receiver four, tied in one, running back 11, and running

67:43back 12 in points per game on his offense.

67:45They can create an environment for that to work.

67:48Matt, I will say, you and I have done multiple shows this summer.

67:51For one of those, I know that you rank Roma Dunzey straight up over Luther Burden.

67:56Has that switched? Has that changed? Or do you still have that?

67:59I probably dropped Burden just, like, behind a Jamison Williams type while he was injured just because it's like, well, I kind

68:05of hope that the Bears offense turns into the Lions offense.

68:08I know that the Lions offense is the Lions offense, and Sam Laporta was dealing with injuries.

68:12But for the most part, I'm going to have those guys, like, kind of touching tags there overall.

68:17But, yeah, to me, like, the only thing I would say in favor of a Dunzey over Burden, which I won't use too much of this.

68:24You can go back to a bunch of lie and listen to that show.

68:28Yeah, listen to that. It's just like, I've actually seen a long extended stretch, like eight weeks of a season, where Ben

68:34Johnson ran his entire offense through Roma Dunzey, and he was good and productive while doing it.

68:39But for Burden, it is still mostly, like, the per route, this, that, and the other, which all occurred when a Dunzey

68:45wasn't on the field, which is just a small note that I do think matters here if we're talking full ceiling outcomes for Burden.

68:51But, yeah, again, the take is, number one, draft Bears.

68:54And number two, you don't have to hate one to like the other.

68:58You can like both of these guys and don't participate in the internet culture war that tells you that you have to do otherwise.

69:04But with that, we're going to take our next quick break.

69:07We come back. We've got more bold predictions. We'll get into that right after this.

69:11All right, we're back. And before we get into more bold predictions, reminder for all of you out there, because if this

69:17is your last minute, you're just now tuning into the show, you're preparing for your drafts.

69:22Okay, you're going to need to know that you need to draft smarter this season with a Yahoo Fantasy Ultra subscription, which

69:28includes a 150 plus page draft guide, access to our strategy lab, even better.

69:31New Yahoo Fantasy Plus and Ultra subscribers can get a 25% off the first year, a little discount there on your annual subscription fee through September 7th.

69:39All right? That stops at 1.59 p.m. PT. 11.59 p.m.

69:41PT to be exact. All right? So you need to get on that.

69:45Claim your 25% off today. Claim your 25% off today.

69:48Yahoo Fantasy.com slash plus. The boys here plus our friends all across the country.

69:52All our analysts contributed to Yahoo Fantasy Ultra. Who was up until midnight updating his?

69:56I mean, Boone. A little bit later than that.

69:58I was going to say, Boone hasn't slept in weeks.

70:01Okay? Because he's just cranking through. As we can tell by the camp's kind of a Quintosh on Jackets.

70:06He's just cranking through updates, baby. So again, you folks who are just – if you've listened to the shows all summer,

70:12you can use a Yahoo Fantasy Ultra subscription. If you're just now tuning in, you definitely need to get onto this 25% off discount.

70:18So go ahead and get into that. Speaking of getting into things, Boone, let's get into your bold prediction here.

70:24We're going to tight ends with this block. So I wanted to talk about the elite tight ends in some way.

70:30I wanted to do like a bit of a different bold prediction.

70:33This is a weird one. It's very weird. It's a start in week three.

70:37It's no. It's something that has never happened before though.

70:39So four tight ends are going to finish among the top 10 receptions leaders this season.

70:44Oh, okay. And this is – That's one out for us, buddy.

70:47This is specifically looking at those top four guys.

70:49I mean, we could get lucky and someone else jumps in there.

70:53But we're looking at the top four. Brock Bowers, Trey McBride.

70:56Those are obvious. Colston Loveland, who we just touched on.

70:58We were talking about the Bears. The volume that he was getting last season puts him in that conversation.

71:04And then Tyler Warren on the Colts. I mean, bit of an injury scare in the summer here.

71:09Seems like he's going to be fine for week one.

71:11And he's another guy that is kind of the de facto number one receiver in his offense.

71:16Led his team in targets last year. But this is also weird to me that like we've had multiple tight ends finish

71:22inside the top 10 reception leaders before. It's happened a couple times.

71:25I mean, especially even recently. McBride and Kyle Pitts did it last season.

71:29Bowers and McBride the year before. Ertz and Kelsey had a year where they did it.

71:33There was one year, guys. And Harmon, don't look at my screen.

71:36Where three tight ends made the cut. And that was back in 2011.

71:4011. It was Rob Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham. And I could not believe the other name that just barely snuck in there.

71:46Does anyone want to venture a guess? Was it Gary Barnage?

71:49No, but I love Gary Barnage. It was a shocking season that he had that one year.

71:532011. Yep. It's not. I don't trust Harmon here.

71:56How could you not trust me? That's even more insulting.

71:58I don't think it was Greg Olson. No, it's not Greg Olson.

72:02It's so weird. Do you want to venture a guess?

72:04Do you want me to just give it to you?

72:07Delaney Walker? No. Ooh, Delaney Walker is a good guess.

72:10Brandon Pettigrew. Oh, gross. How gross is that? That's disgusting.

72:12And it was only 83 catches. But that year, I guess, it was a little lower.

72:17That's a lot back then. For a tight end, especially.

72:20I mean, it was definitely 472. It was 700 and something.

72:23Yeah. What a weird, weird name to pull there.

72:25To that point, I'm just looking at last year's totals.

72:28Matt, I guarantee you, you cannot name the third and fourth reception leaders at tight end who actually ranked and tied at 14th.

72:34Well, I actually can because I haven't pulled up here.

72:37For the people out there that did not cheat, it is Dalton Schultz and Jake Ferguson.

72:41Like Dalton Schultz being up there. Yeah, it's Dalton Schultz and new Dalton Schultz.

72:45Right. As the 14th highest player in terms of receptions of running backs, wide receivers, tight ends last year, I think signals

72:51your point where it's not like they have to have the best fantasy season to do it, even though I love drafting those top four tight ends.

72:58Most of them, I'd say. You can just kind of backdoor your way into doing it just when things are funneled in your direction.

73:05Yeah. The Schultz and Ferguson ones, a little boosted by injury as well.

73:08But that happens, right? That totally happens. And for me, we've talked about going running back early.

73:13We've talked about the receiver values you can kind of get.

73:16And, you know, the third, fourth, fifth rounds or so you can find a way to sneak in one of these elite tight ends.

73:22And I think it's going to be totally worthwhile.

73:25And again, Bowers is going to have just an absolutely incredible season.

73:28McBride might take a step back, but is still the number one receiver in that offense.

73:32Colson Loveland. I mean, I mentioned that the volume that he was getting down the stretch last year, 48 targets combined in

73:38his last four contests when you include the playoffs, right?

73:4110 targets in each game. Good player? Yeah. Very good player.

73:44And then Warren, before all the injuries, we've talked about how good he was for fantasy, tight end six up until week 10.

73:50Most targets on the team. But also, if you just take what he was doing up until week 10, before he got a little dinged up.

73:58And then, of course, Daniel Jones gets hurt. Yeah.

74:00He was playing at an 85 catch pace before that all happened.

74:03And that would have made him 12th last year.

74:06So right on the cusp of potentially being in the top 10.

74:09So all of these guys have a chance to be the leading pass catcher on their team.

74:14And I think there's a very good argument to make to draft them in fantasy and for them to have difference making years.

74:20Tyler Warren is the guy who really screws up like my drafts a lot where it's, I want to hit that running

74:26back, running back, then wide receiver, wide receiver kind of run.

74:29And then sometimes in that fifth round, I want to double back for another receiver.

74:33But then he's sitting there. 47th overall player right now on ADP from a Yahoo standpoint.

74:37Fourth round pick. I do really love clicking Tyler Warren there.

74:40I love doing the show with you guys because Hayden hates Tyler Warren.

74:44And I love him this year. He's one of the players that we disagree on most.

74:48It's a good thing he's not sitting there. I could not wait to escape it.

74:52You think there's a chance Hayden's going to listen to this show?

74:56Absolutely not. Yeah, no chance. Okay. All right. My bold prediction here for the tight end position.

75:00By the way, Brandon Pettigrew, A3 catches 777 yards.

75:03So we were right. From? Where do you go to school?

75:06Oklahoma State. Wow. Oh, Matt Harmon. First round pick.

75:08Yeah, first round pick. Eric Ebron was there too.

75:10Scott Lenihan, that offensive coordinator. Good for you. They led the NFL in pass attempts that year.

75:15Wow. Calvin Johnson led the NFL in receiving yards.

75:18So there you go. I can't remember a lot of things, but I can't remember where guys went to.

75:23Dude, listen. I was locked in on the draft.

75:25I love it. Yeah, me too. Cam Newton's here, baby.

75:28All right. Fourth bold prediction for me here is a tight end as well.

75:32Terrence Ferguson. Oh. I'm not going to say it.

75:34Here we go. Oh, I love it. Terrence Ferguson.

75:37I was like, oh, he breaks out. Tell you what.

75:39Terrence Ferguson finishes with more receiving yards than Devontae Adams this year.

75:43I love it. That's a bold prediction, baby. Put that one on the headline.

75:46Here's the deal. Devontae Adams, good player. I do think he's been in some form of decline for the last couple of years.

75:53Not a lot to stay healthy all 17 games.

75:55Love Devontae Adams. Want to be wrong about that.

75:58But I also think Terrence Ferguson, man, is just on like a rocket ship upwards.

76:02He's playing all over the field in training camp.

76:04Great report from Nate Adkins who had a quote from him where he's like, yeah, I'm lining up at Z, X, Y, like moving all over the formation.

76:12He's basically their third receiver. He also might be the fastest player on the team as well.

76:16So he's going to be a vertical guy. I just keep moving him up my tight end rankings to the point that,

76:22you know, I'm not going to have him as a top 12 tight end.

76:26But if you want to take him as like your number two tight end, stick him on the end of your bench, see what happens.

76:33I think if the Rams offense is going to be good this year, they need a breakout from Terrence Ferguson because like

76:39just relying on everything to run back last year and be exactly the same that never works.

76:44And like when teams do that, they get banged the next year.

76:47I think how the Rams can stave off some regression after being the best offense in the NFL last year is they need something else to change.

76:54They need another dimension. I think Terrence Ferguson is the most obvious one to do that as their vertical player.

77:00I know. Go ahead. Don't. By all means. I know people hate when we do something like this, but I'm going to

77:06say it that if Terrence Ferguson was listed as a wide receiver instead of a tight end, I think he goes in the 12th round of fancy drafts.

77:13That's where Debo Samuel and Jacoby Myers are going right now on Yahoo.

77:17I mean, the reason being is he had the most unique role of maybe any skill player in the NFL last season

77:23where 15 of his 31 targets were 20 plus yards on the field.

77:26They basically replaced two to at well with Terrence Ferguson out of those 13 personnel looks.

77:31Now, everything that we've gotten from beat writers is, oh, they can still keep doing that.

77:35What they want to do is give them the ball quickly against linebackers and underneath defenders and let them run out of the catch.

77:42So I can't wait to see this. Like to me, he is a real difference maker this year and he kind of

77:48viewed as his main player because he was just a spike.

77:51We got 11 catches last year and I'm saying he's going to beat Devante Adams.

77:55That is a lot. But just to your point before we throw it to you here, Boone, like one of the getting

78:01out of all those formations and being able to do a lot of different things.

78:05This team hired Cliff Kingsbury to their offensive staff this year.

78:08And this is where like Nate and I have been talking about on 301 about how these teams are going to run

78:14with more tempo and pace and everything. This is a big part of the Rams are going to do this because they

78:20hired Kingsbury and being able to stay in 13 personnel, but then go to the snap fast, like run a lot of plays.

78:26But you've got to have Terrence Ferguson split out of 13.

78:29Guess who's probably not in the field. It's not Devante Adams.

78:32Yeah. Betting against the receiver returns 34 in December is probably a pretty good approach here.

78:36But also we had five games last year where Ferguson saw at least three targets, which is not a high bar, just three targets.

78:43He posted 50 yards and or a touchdown in four of those five.

78:46One of those catches is 50 yards. He just has that in his bag.

78:50And if we're talking about like draft strategy, I'm looking at it where I'm definitely trying to get one of the elite tight ends.

78:57If I don't, I'm going after the injury discount guys, Tucker craft, George Kittle.

79:00You can even count Dalton Kikade kind of in the injury discount guys a little bit there.

79:05If I miss out on them and I do have to go very late, I'm grabbing two of the upside players like

79:11Chica Conquo and like Terrence Ferguson, who just goes so late.

79:14You can even scoop him up off the waiver wire after the draft.

79:18Tight end 23, 128th overall player. It's literally free money.

79:20Josh, we got to get your bold prediction in here because we got to get to break.

79:25But also, I think this might be our first negative one so far.

79:28Yeah. I mean, so let's finish this thing up.

79:31By the way, if you're in a tight end premium league, you have to draft Terrence Ferguson.

79:36It's mandated. Final prediction here. Harold Fannin finishes outside of the top 12 tight ends.

79:40If we're looking at it right now, Harold Fannin is the tight end seven over on Yahoo.

79:44And yes, we're talking once again about the Cleveland Browns, but I think for good reason because it ties directly into your Casey Concepcion point, right?

79:51Last year, 43 of Harold Fannin's 76 receptions were caught less than five yards down the field.

79:56Per PFF, 53 of his 76 receptions were on first three targets.

79:59Todd Munkin, when he arrived, took a look at all the tape and said, you know what?

80:04That's not how I want my passing offense to go.

80:07I want to draft Casey Concepcion and I want to draft Denzel Boston.

80:10And what we have seen, and this is just the preseason, is that Casey Concepcion is his easy button.

80:15And there's going to be some real difficult times this year for the Browns.

80:19And there's going to be a section of the playbook that says, okay, when we need a jolt, when we need a

80:25boost, we need to move the sticks just to sustain this drive more than three plays because Quinchon Judkins got stuffed on the first two carries.

80:32Right. Only in the first two weeks. Then we're just going to manufacture touches to Casey Concepcion and allow him to run after the catch.

80:39And I think that infinitely, like majorly takes away from Harold Fannin and what he's going to do in the system.

80:45I mean, the rumors started even before the draft that they were going to go after a receiver or multiple receivers.

80:50Yeah. We talked about it at that point, but it was like, you had to start bumping Fannin down a little bit, right?

80:57Because you knew there was going to be more target competition.

81:00It's a very simple argument right now. He has one, maybe two actual receivers that could get involved.

81:05It's unfortunate, but yeah, it's a great year. Last year, he is still a good player.

81:09Really good player. To expect him to get back to that level in terms of volume and fantasy production, I think it's hard to see.

81:16Yeah. Fringe top 70 player in ADP right now.

81:18Just can't click that button on Harold Fannin. We are going to take our last quick break.

81:23We come back. We are going to tell you who our fantasy MVPs are for this season.

81:27We'll get into that right after this. All right, we're back.

81:30Welcome to Draft Day Blueprint presented by Orgain Creatine.

81:33Whether you're training like it's game day or preparing to battle it out on Draft Day, Orgain Creatine Health gives you the

81:39muscle strength to fuel harder and push farther. Upgrade your performance today with Orgain.

81:43And today, the Draft Day Blueprint. We are telling you who are our fantasy MVPs for the 2026 NFL season.

81:48These are the players that you guys just need to draft.

81:51If you don't draft them, it's over. Sorry. Better luck next year.

81:54Josh, who is your fantasy MVP? Saquon Barkley definitely takes some creatine.

81:58And that's why he is my pick for this.

82:00Why would people take some other running backs ahead of him that have never finished as the running back one overall?

82:06I'm talking James Cook, Chase Brown. That's what it is in consensus rankings up until a few days ago.

82:11That was also Ashton. Did you say Chase Brown?

82:13Yes. In consensus rankings ahead of Saquon Barkley. Look, this entire offseason, you've heard the narrative of, oh, it's all about the passing game for the Eagles.

82:21You know, Sean Manning, what can you pluck out of Jalen Hurts?

82:24What is Devante Smith going to do in the wide receiver one role on the team?

82:28Makai Lemon, you know, a first round pick. None of it matters unless the running game gets back to what it was a couple years ago.

82:35Explosive runs. That changes the math. That's the foundation of this offense.

82:39That is the most important thing. And I think Saquon Barkley this year is last year's version of CMC where people were burned.

82:45Then they don't want to make that same quote unquote mistake in the draft.

82:49Whereas to me, it was just environmental and not an individual thing.

82:52Saquon Barkley is going to maybe be the overall number one player in fantasy football this season.

82:57One of the easiest schedules across the board at every position for the Eagles this year.

83:01We just need that offensive line to stay healthy.

83:03Which it is right now. Yeah, that's a huge key to this.

83:07At least in this earth moment. We'll see by the way, Brad.

83:10Okay, Boone, who is your fantasy MVP? I mean, it's hard for a tight end to be fantasy MVP, but I'm going with Brock Bowers, man.

83:17Like he's coming off an injury riddled season where he still finished as the tight end four in fantasy points per game.

83:23Now he's healthy. We're going to get back to that rookie year where he had 112 catches, almost 1,200 yards and five touchdowns.

83:29But it's just going to be that much better.

83:32Clint Kubiak showing up. Now we have some better quarterbacks that could stabilize that position.

83:36They still haven't really addressed receiver. He is the very clear number one target.

83:40They've made some moves on the offensive line. They're also getting some guys back healthy this year.

83:44And if you look at year one to year two for him, even with the injury, we saw the touchdown scoring improve.

83:50And that's what needs to happen here. Touchdowns can be volatile.

83:53Trey McBride had that finally happen for him last year.

83:56He got a massive touchdown total. So I think that's key is we're going to see the touchdowns continue to rise here.

84:02Brock Bowers is going to put up video game style numbers and potentially finish as like a top three wide receiver in

84:08terms of his fantasy scoring, which we have seen tight ends do before Travis Kelsey did it back in 2020.

84:13He has that kind of upset. And back in 2020, that season you decided for Travis Kelsey.

84:18He averaged 17.4 fancy points. The next closest tight end was 14.

84:21But then you just go down to the tight end five.

84:24That was 9.4 fancy points. So that gives you an advantage of six points against the tight end five.

84:29That's not even talking about the tight end 10, 11, 12.

84:32So it's like this instant. And how many of your fancy matchups come down to just that few amount of points?

84:38So Brock Bowers could bring you that in round two.

84:41I was going to say, that's why Boone, I actually disagree with you that you think a tight end couldn't be a fantasy MVP.

84:47If he's that much better than all the other tight ends, that's actually pretty damn valuable.

84:52So and I think there's a path from it.

84:54That quote we showed earlier, Clint Kubiak saying Brock Bowers is a football robot from heaven and you're fading him.

85:00Unbelievable stuff here. Okay. My fantasy football MVP. Boone, we actually debated this player not too, too long ago versus Drake London.

85:06And you're on the London side. I'm on the Nico Collins side.

85:09We made some good points, I think, on both sides.

85:12But since then, I think I've only come stronger in my belief that Nico Collins is the correct answer.

85:17And he is my fantasy MVP for this year because I think you're going to be able to take him at a

85:23late second round value right now in this earth moment.

85:26He is the 23rd player off the board in Yahoo drafts.

85:29I am ranked as the 16th overall player. He is the player I'm most ahead of consensus on in the top two rounds.

85:35And there's a lot of reasons for this. The fact that Jaden Higgins went down, which is a huge bummer.

85:40I think that's only going to push more work to Nico Collins.

85:44They trade for Kayshawn Booty. That's fine. Booty is a little bit of like a sacrificial player, not a high target target option.

85:50Nico Collins is a high target option. And Josh, you made this point where we were talking about the fourth round wide

85:56receivers like, oh, who's going to be this year's JSN, this year's JSN.

85:59I actually think the right answer is Nico Collins because this is a team in Houston that's Claymore heavy personnel packages.

86:05He's going to be on the field for all those snaps because he is a true, true X receiver, an elite press man coverage beater.

86:12He's going to get those big vertical in-breaking routes that Jackson Smith and Jigba cooked on last year.

86:17CJ Stroud is a top 10 quarterback by EPA per play last year.

86:20I know he was the worst quarterback we've ever seen in the playoffs.

86:24Actually, 10th lowest EPA per drop back since the year 2007.

86:27So I get that was terrible. But in the regular season, he was good enough to get Nico Collins the ball.

86:33He's been Nico Collins quarterback for the vast majority of the last three seasons.

86:36And this is the number two receiver in yards per route run during that stretch.

86:40So all that has to happen here. Touchdowns. I was going to say hamstrings.

86:44Actually, hamstrings got to hang on for Nico Collins.

86:47Other than that, I think we get there. Yeah.

86:49I mean, 14 in-zone targets last year and just four touchdowns.

86:52So to me, he was 26th in red zone production for fantasy last season, despite having the eighth best opportunity.

86:58So that just has to do everyone's favorite term of naturally regressing into the positive direction.

87:02I've never heard anyone say naturally regressing into the positive, but I think that's a good one.

87:07I might say progression, but apparently that's incorrect. So yes, he just has to score more touchdowns this year.

87:12And he should be the go-to player for that.

87:14Love it. Boom. I mean, Nico Collins. You can just say I'm right.

87:18I've been on Nico Collins for a while. We had a stretch a couple of years ago early in the season.

87:23He was leading the league in receiving yards. He's shown he can do that over stretches.

87:28So yeah, there is a much bigger season here for him.

87:31And with the injury to Jaden Higgins, which is awful, it could finally happen.

87:35I am so pumped up for Nico Collins. I'm also so pumped up to finally be able to reveal to the people

87:41our fall in-season lineup here for the Yahoo Fantasy forecast.

87:43It is going to be our best year ever.

87:46It's going to start off on Sundays where I'm going to be on Josh and Hayden's show with Ray Garvin as the

87:52four of us are going to recap all of Sunday's actions.

87:55That's going to hit this feed every Monday morning.

87:57You'll love to see it. On Mondays, Boone joins me for another season of the People's Panic Meter.

88:02He's also going to share his top waiver wire targets every week.

88:05And I've been told we are not allowed to be fast on the waiver wire.

88:09We got to beef that waiver wire out. So get excited about that.

88:13On Tuesdays, Ray Garvin joins me once again for another season of Data Dump.

88:17On Wednesdays, Nate Tice is back on the Wednesday show.

88:19But a little bit of a twist now. We're going to be doing some in-season Dynasty debates and those big debates that

88:25you're going to have at your Flex spot every single week.

88:28So Fantasy Film Room meets Dynasty Debates. You'll love to see that.

88:32On Thursdays, Mr. Josh Norris joins me to preview the weekend's action.

88:35That's going to be absolutely electric. And by the way, Hayden Winks, yeah, I've been saying it's enough already of me having

88:41to rant to myself for 20 minutes on these primetime recaps.

88:44Well, every Monday and Thursday night, right after those games end, Hayden Winks is going to be live with me to recap

88:50the Monday and Thursday night, at least for week one, the Wednesday night game.

88:54So you absolutely love to see that. Sunday nights, I am still going to be doing the solo rants.

88:59So, yeah, I got to get a little bit of talk.

89:02I thought Boone might not start with your show until week three, though.

89:05So the first two weeks of the season, no, you never know.

89:09We'll see. That's when the season starts for Boone.

89:11It starts in week three. It's always great when I can make the same joke five times in an episode.

89:17It was really good. It was good the first two times.

89:20Okay, I'm done. This last time. Let's get out of here then.

89:23A little bit of a hit or miss. Boys, absolutely great show.

89:26We have our bold predictions in. None of this will be correct, but we had fun doing it.

89:31And hopefully we could get you some last, last minute takes here for your fantasy football draft.

89:36So that's going to do it for us today.

89:38On Tuesday, Ray Garvin joins me for Data Dump as we preview week one.

89:42It is finally here. These games are happening. That's going to be live on this YouTube channel at 4 p.m.

89:47Eastern. Until then, we are out.

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