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Rookie heat check: Are we buying or selling preseason hype?

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

1 hr 24 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 21, 2026
Published
Fri, August 21, 2026
29
Player insights
26
Players mentioned
Topics
Carnell TateMalachi FieldsMike Washington Jr.Adam RandallAntonio WilliamsCade KlubnikCaleb DouglasCarson BeckChris BellChris GodwinCyrus AllenDe'Zhaun StriblingDenzel BostonEmmett Johnson
Player analysis

Player insights

29

Adam Randall

NegativeDepth Chart23:23

Harmon views Adam Randall only as a speculative backup to Derrick Henry, jokingly referring to him as a 'nepo pick' by the owner.

Insight page

Antonio Williams

NegativeProjection58:09

Matt Harmon has dropped Antonio Williams in his rankings, stating it does not look like he will be an impact player this year.

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Cade Klubnik

NegativeProjection63:15

Matt Harmon and Hayden Winks express concern about Cade Klubnik potentially taking over the Jets' offense, noting that his reliance on RPOs and first-read throws could be problematic for Garrett Wilson's fantasy production.

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Caleb Douglas

PositiveUsage55:00

Harmon notes that Douglas is a riser in his rankings and a player to watch for two-WR set snaps, citing a consistent positive drumbeat throughout the offseason.

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Carnell Tate

NegativeProjection36:02

Harmon is nervous about Carnell Tate's outlook, noting his ADP is dropping and he is concerned about the Titans' offense. He fears the team will rely on bubble screens and RPOs for Wan'Dale Robinson, which doesn't fit the vertical skill set of Tate.

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NegativeValue38:00

Matt Harmon is actively moving Tate down his rankings due to concerns about the Giants' offensive environment and quarterback play. He views Tate as a player to avoid in drafts, preferring elite quarterbacks over him in rounds 6-7, and notes that he rarely ends up with Tate on his rosters given his WR35 ranking.

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Carson Beck

NegativeProjection62:38

Matt Harmon views Carson Beck as a player with limited upside who serves as a 'keep the train on the tracks' type of quarterback. Harmon warns that if Beck starts, it would likely negatively impact the fantasy value of teammates like Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson.

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Chris Bell

PositiveSleeper72:28

Matt Harmon and Hayden Winks are high on Chris Bell, noting his impressive speed and size (225 lbs). Harmon has been drafting him in the 17th-18th round and believes he could be a productive player on the move, comparing his potential range of outcomes to players like Deebo Samuel and DJ Moore.

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Chris Godwin

NegativeUsage58:02

Matt Harmon has been charting Chris Godwin's routes and reports that the results are not looking great, suggesting a potential decline or lack of impact.

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Cyrus Allen

PositiveSleeper30:47

Harmon is 'way ahead of market' on Cyrus Allen in dynasty and likes him in redraft as a late-round dart throw. He notes Allen is trending toward being a three-wide-receiver set starter and has been 'lighting everybody up' in camp.

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De'Zhaun Stribling

PositiveSleeper49:11

Harmon is very high on Stribbling, ranking him as his WR42 and suggesting he is a priority late-round sleeper. He praises Stribbling's route running, release moves, and ability to beat man coverage, noting that he is a better prospect than Quentin Johnston and should be drafted once Johnston is off the board.

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Denzel Boston

NegativeBust45:37

Harmon advises a heat check on Boston, noting that while he is a talented contested-catch receiver, he is likely the third or fourth option on a poor offense. He expects Boston to flash on tape but struggle to maintain consistent fantasy relevance compared to players like Concepcion who have easier paths to targets.

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Emmett Johnson

PositiveSleeper21:12

Harmon identifies Emmett Johnson as the most likely RB2 in Kansas City and his favorite waiver wire target among the deep-league rookie group. He notes the coaching staff and broadcasters love him, and he could see sacrificial touches to keep Kenneth Walker fresh.

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Fernando Mendoza

PositiveRole58:44

Matt Harmon and Hayden Winks believe Mendoza should be the Week 1 starter. While they expect Kirk Cousins to hold the job initially, they anticipate Mendoza taking over by October or November. Mendoza is noted for his mobility and ability to execute layered throws, making him a potential waiver wire add or superflex consideration.

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Garrett Wilson

NegativeUsage64:25

Matt Harmon projects a 28% target share for Garrett Wilson, noting that he can be a productive 'grind-out' wide receiver even with Geno Smith, though he expresses concern about the impact of a potential quarterback change to Cade Klubnik.

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Jadarian Price

NegativeRole7:20

Hayden Winks notes that Jadarian Price has shown improved pass-catching ability in training camp, though pass protection remains a weakness. His fantasy outlook is heavily tied to Zach Charbonnet's recovery from February 20th ACL surgery; if Charbonnet starts the season on the PUP list, Price could see significant volume. Winks currently has Price ranked exactly at his ADP (RB26, 68th overall) and lacks a strong conviction to move him up or down.

Insight page

Jeremiyah Love

PositiveValue5:34

Matt Harmon and Hayden Winks agree that Jeremiah Love is being significantly undervalued at his current 27th-overall ADP in Yahoo leagues. Harmon argues that Love looked like an elite prospect on tape and in preseason, out-snapping Tyler Allgeier at a 75-25 or 80-20 rate. Despite concerns about the Cardinals' offense, Harmon believes it will be competent enough for Love to showcase his explosiveness, making him an auto-click in the third or fourth round.

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Jonah Coleman

NegativeRole9:54

Hayden Winks views Jonah Coleman as a solid, scheme-fit player who does nothing wrong but lacks the elite explosiveness to be a high-ceiling fantasy asset. Winks expresses skepticism about Coleman's path to a top-20 finish even if J.K. Dobbins misses time, suggesting he is more likely to be a touchdown-dependent flex option. Harmon agrees that Coleman is a late-round target but warns he should be one of the first players dropped if Dobbins remains healthy early in the season.

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Jordyn Tyson

NegativeValue25:07

Harmon advises against drafting Jordan Tyson at his 92nd overall ADP due to recurring hamstring injuries and a projected return timeline of week nine. He suggests that taking him is essentially taking a zero for the first half of the season.

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Kaytron Allen

PositiveBreakout21:22

Harmon highlights Katron Allen as his favorite prospect among the deep-rookie group, noting he is battling for the RB3 role in Washington and resides in an ambiguous backfield that could eventually lead to him becoming a starter.

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Kenyon Sadiq

NegativeValue65:51

Matt Harmon advises against drafting any rookie tight ends, specifically calling Kenyon Sadiq a 'nebulous' move tight end and suggesting that drafting him at his current ADP is equivalent to lighting a pick on fire.

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Kirk Cousins

NegativeRole60:19

Hayden Winks notes that Kirk Cousins looked sharp in the preseason and knows the offense well, but he is expected to eventually be replaced by the rookie quarterback.

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Makai Lemon

PositiveSleeper40:13

Harmon views Lemon as a bench-upside WR4 who could see increased usage as the season progresses. While Dontavian Wicks may start in two-WR sets, Lemon has the potential to emerge if Wicks struggles, with Harmon noting that if Lemon develops into a player like DeVonta Smith, it would be a massive win.

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Malachi Fields

PositiveUsage55:00

Harmon identifies Fields as a player with a clear path to snaps in two-WR sets for the Giants. He views Fields as a more interesting fantasy option than Darius Slayton or Darnell Mooney because he fills a specific need for a physical receiver who can win over the middle and block.

Insight page
PositiveBreakout57:44

Matt Harmon highlights Fields' downfield ability, go-route proficiency, and improvisational skills. Harmon considers him underrated in the rookie class and notes he is likely to beat out Darius Slayton for a starting role.

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Mike Washington Jr.

PositiveBreakout16:00

Hayden Winks is high on Mike Washington Jr., citing his unreal explosiveness and rare athleticism, which compares favorably to Adrian Peterson. Winks believes Washington will eat into Ashton Genty's snaps and projects him for roughly 84 touches. If both starters were to miss time, Winks would prioritize Washington over Jonah Coleman as a waiver wire pickup, noting that Washington's scheme and talent profile make him a high-upside stash.

Insight page
PositiveValue19:25

Matt Harmon ranks Washington in the same territory as other late-round running backs and suggests taking a shot on him at the end of drafts. He views Washington as a high-end waiver wire pickup if anything happens to Gentry, noting his elite athleticism comparable to Adrian Peterson.

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Nicholas Singleton

NegativeBust23:34

Harmon is not interested in Nicholas Singleton, citing poor pass protection in the preseason and a lack of confidence in his talent. He also notes that Singleton lost his job to Katron Allen in college.

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Omar Cooper Jr.

NegativeBust66:47

Matt Harmon and Hayden Winks express significant concern regarding Omar Cooper Jr.'s development, noting he appears heavy and struggles to get on the field. Harmon compares his potential floor to Khalil Shakir but warns that his ceiling is problematic.

Insight page
Full transcript

Episode Transcript

1,107
0:00Big show for you here today. Hayden Winks joins me for a heat check on the incoming rookies in fantasy football.
0:06Have we gotten over our skis on guys like Casey Concepcion?
0:09Where are we at with Jeremiah Love? What do you do with Jordan Tyson late in the draft?
0:14Any of these sleeper running backs going to be good this year?
0:18Are there any tight ends among the rookies that are drafted in fantasy football?
0:22Carnell Tate, are you guys as freaked out as I am?
0:25Tons of great information coming up on this show.
0:27A lot of stuff to get to. All that and more coming up on today's show.
0:32Let's get into it. What's going on everyone? I'm Matt Harmon.
0:35Welcome to the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast presented by Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL.
0:39All season long, Toyota is celebrating the passion, traditions and unforgettable moments that make football America's obsession from fantasy football to every kickoff rivalry and Sunday ritual.
0:47And it is a hell of a day to talk ball and joining me to do just that looking great on the
0:53other side of this year broadcasting his collared shirt.
0:56It is my good friend Hayden Winks. Hayden, what's going on, buddy?
0:59What's going on? I love the show premise. I love getting negative about some of these players and realistic is the word
1:05I'm going to be leaning into today with these rookies.
1:08That's right. Today on the show, we are trying to do a heat check on the rookies, the expectations after training camp, preseason, the hype train.
1:16Some of these guys, it's going to be a little bit difficult.
1:19There's already one particular rookie that I've looked at my rankings versus ADP.
1:23I'm like, oh boy, getting a little bit spicy with that ranking on one of these rookie wide receivers.
1:28So very excited for the show today. Will we be able to give ourselves a heat check?
1:33Will we be able to manage our expectations? Probably not, but only one way to find out before we get into the premise of the show today.
1:41Exciting news that I've been sharing with you guys over and over again, and it's not stopping anytime soon.
1:46Bill's fans, Boone Brigade, all the folks in the Buffalo area, Yahoo Fantasy Draft Weekend presented by Verse is coming to Dick's
1:52House of Sport in the Buffalo area on Saturday, August 29th, 3 to 7 p.m.
1:56I'll be there. I'm going to be there. Justin Boone, he's going to be there.
2:01Josh Norris is going to be there for a special live edition of the Yahoo Fantasy forecast.
2:05If you are getting ready for your draft, this is the place to be.
2:09If you haven't thought about your draft yet, this is definitely the place to be.
2:14You need to be there. Bring your league mates, bring your friends, bring your enemies.
2:18I don't care. Come hang out with us on Saturday, August 29th at 3 p.m.
2:22Eastern, Amherst, New York. Hayden, you're too good for us.
2:25You're not going to be there. Bummer. But the rest of the crew will be there.
2:30So you'll have to be there in spirit. I'll be there in Santa Barbara if you guys want to go find me out in beautiful Santa Barbara.
2:37Tempting offer. I mean, don't tempt me twice with a Santa Barbara trip.
2:41No, no, no, no. I'm going to be in Buffalo, New York for Yahoo Fantasy draft weekend.
2:46That's where I'm going to be. And you guys will be there too.
2:49Okay, let's get into the show today. Let's waste no more time.
2:53Before we do, though, I just want to say reminder to the audio gang.
2:57I know we are live on YouTube right now.
2:59If you're watching us on YouTube right now, subscribe to the channel for God's sakes, please.
3:04We would appreciate it very much. But we do love our audio listeners, our podcast folks.
3:08And just a quick reminder, this is being taped before preseason week two.
3:12So if we talk about Raiders players, Texans players, 49ers players or Chargers players, we don't know what they've done yet in preseason week two.
3:19So, you know, if Deshaun Stribling has 200 yards and three touchdowns in the preseason, put a little caveat there.
3:25You know, maybe it's possible. It's probably going to happen.
3:28It's probably going to happen. Let's start with the rookie running backs here that are actually being drafted in Yahoo leagues right now.
3:34There are four of them. There's Jeremiah Love, who we're definitely not going to see play again in the preseason.
3:40There's Jadarian Price, Jonah Coleman and Mike Washington Jr.
3:42Let's just quickly start at the top. Kind of easy to give ourselves a heat check about Jeremiah Love right now.
3:48No, Hayden Winks. I'm taking the inverse of this one.
3:51I think he's trending towards being one of the most mispriced players in the opposite direction.
3:56I was just doing the show with Josh and he says that the consensus rankings is like 40th overall right now.
4:02I think that is a massive overreaction to what this is.
4:05He might be ready for week one. Let's say he's not.
4:08You can't find a replacement in week one. That's on you.
4:11We're talking about somebody that looked the part like a truly elite prospect, both on tape in college and in that preseason game.
4:17He was running way, way, way further ahead of Tyler Algier than I was anticipating.
4:22Typically, the rookies like some 50-50 split. It was like 80-30 or 80-20, 75-25 kind of in that ratio with Algier right away.
4:28And he's going to catch the ball. That offense might be a little bit more, I'll call it competent.
4:34You call it, you're curious. I think there's going to be like competent level ball there.
4:38Enough for Jeremiah Love to show his explosiveness. I think we've completely overcorrected here.
4:42I still am at 26th overall. Every single time he's available in the third round, I take him.
4:47If he's available in your guys' round four, that is an auto-click for me.
4:51You want to be playing for first place last time I checked.
4:54Oh, yeah. I mean, fourth round, give me a freaking break here.
4:58Yeah, Nate and I just had the show yesterday looking at the offensive projections versus ADP that's most out of whack.
5:04And definitely the Cardinals, obviously ADP rank sixth value.
5:06I mean, people are taking their players highly, including Jeremiah Love, who right now has 27th overall ADP in Yahoo Leagues.
5:12I get it. The Cardinals offense is not projected to be very good.
5:16However, I am more on the competent side of things.
5:19And if you look at it, DVOA projects them to be the 20th best offense.
5:23Vegas projects them to be the 32nd ranked offense.
5:26I will take somewhere in the middle there, if not closer to the optimistic side here.
5:30I do think this is going to be a competent offense.
5:33And yeah, it's a running back one, an extremely talented player.
5:36And I'm glad you brought this up here, Hayden.
5:39I get it. Look, I'm one of the ones, me and Scott, we've been beating this drum for like four years now
5:45about how we want you to start fast. We want you to get off to a winning start.
5:50You know, if you're 5-0 in Yahoo Leagues, I read the stat off earlier this week.
5:55If you're 5-0 in Yahoo Leagues, you're like a 91% chance to make the playoffs.
5:59I get that. But like you said, can't you pass this thing together for one week, two weeks?
6:04I think we're like overreacting to some of these injuries right now.
6:08It's like, oh, they might miss week one. I get it.
6:11You should still be able to figure it out.
6:13Yeah. I mean, just you draft for Mondray Stevenson.
6:16He's your RB2 for a week and like just keep this thing moving.
6:19I think the upside is so obvious. I mean, you watched him.
6:23Those clips before he got injured. I mean, that's exactly what you want a player to be looking like.
6:28Like what? And like that looks like a truly elite player.
6:31Not a good one, but that looked like the best in the NFL.
6:35And that's what he's supposed to do. They drafted him third overall.
6:38Like we keep forgetting like third overall. Like this doesn't happen.
6:42Yeah. Not to mention like the offensive line looks pretty good in preseason too.
6:45I get it's preseason. It's a scheme that helps its offensive linemen out more than the last unit did as well.
6:51So it's just, that's why I keep saying like Cardinals curious, Cardinals competent, whatever you want to say.
6:57I think there's too much talent on this team for this to be like a complete joke of an offense.
7:02So yeah, it sounds like we're both not really willing to give ourselves a heat check on Jeremiah Love.
7:08We're actually kind of saying, Hey, you know, you might want to consider him at that 27th overall pick, if not like
7:1430, whatever you want to say, let's get to the next running back here.
7:18And I think we've talked about this player previously.
7:20Hayden, Jadarian price, heat check on Jadarian price. Where should the people be looking at him right now?
7:25Yeah. So training camp reports have been generally positive.
7:28Maybe pass protection has been a weakness, but he's catching the ball more than he ever showed at Notre Dame, which that
7:34was like a role that you have to project.
7:37But also he has, you know, the context that he was splitting with Jeremiah Love.
7:41So you obviously, when you have that level of a pass catcher in your backfield, you're probably not going to catch that many passes.
7:48So there's a chance he's just a totally fine pass catcher.
7:51The big thing that I'm struggling with is all the reporters seem to think Zach Charbonnet is like nearing a return.
7:57And then I just looked it up again today.
7:59He did have his ACL surgery on February 20th.
8:02I mean, February 20th. Typically, that would mean we'll see you sometime in November.
8:06And that's like when the ramp up period starts.
8:08Everyone's talking like this might be a September is even going to start the season on PUP.
8:13That would be such an outlier scenario. If that proves true, then Jadarian price.
8:17I think it's gonna be a little bit more difficult for him to like have that crazy season.
8:22But if we like kind of stay true to a February 20th ACL surgery means that this is just gonna be Jadarian prices backfield for a long time.
8:30I think that this price tag is very reasonable.
8:33So unfortunately, my take is I have him ranked exactly where his ADP is.
8:37I don't have a strong case either way. Maybe I'm just like putting some cold water on the Charbonnets nearly back.
8:43That would be a record breaking time. Yeah, I mean, right.
8:46Like Christian Watson last year, he tore his ACL in January of 2025.
8:50He returned in October, like mid-October-ish, week eight. He got back in week eight.
8:53And that's one of the biggest freak athletes in the world.
8:57Right. And it was like a it was a miracle that he returned that quickly and then had the best season of his NFL career.
9:04That was like an outrageous thing. I can't imagine that's gonna happen two years in a row.
9:08Again, not sure what Zach Charbonnet's peptide routine is.
9:11You know, we'll see. But I mean, my God, like that would be incredible.
9:15And otherwise, like, you know, George Solani is an interesting, deep, deep sleeper type.
9:19But I mean, he was playing pretty deep into that preseason game last time we saw.
9:23So, yeah, to me, I think I'm with you.
9:26Running back 26 is where he's going off the board in Yahoo drafts right now.
9:30I have him at running back 26. 68th overall.
9:33I've got him 70th overall. I just want to kind of be in line with where people are on Janarian Price right now.
9:39We'll talk more about him when we get to our mailbag segment at the end of the show.
9:44So let's go to Jonah Coleman, because this is one, Hayden, where I do think the people and maybe me need a
9:51little bit of a heat check on Jonah Coleman, because it's really easy to get excited about this guy.
9:56We also had him on the show pre-draft. It's really easy to root for this guy.
10:01Sometimes you get those two variables together on an offense that I think is going to be really good this year.
10:07It can kind of get plus a starter that we know has injury concerns.
10:10A second you're running back in RJ Harvey that like, is there, is there anybody?
10:15Is there, are there any RJ Harvey truthers left?
10:17I don't know if you've seen like one fantasy analyst hype up RJ Harvey this year.
10:22I've yet to see one and which means he's probably gonna have a great season, by the way.
10:27So again, all that being said, there's a lot of ways to get excited about Jonah Coleman.
10:32But how do we, like, what do we, do we need a heat check here on this player?
10:37I would probably put him in the heat check bucket.
10:40Nothing for what he's doing wrong. In fact, I think he's like a totally fine player.
10:44He's a perfect scheme fit. I can see him doing some of the pass protection stuff that Harvey is not going to be dealing with.
10:51I don't think Dobbins is going to do that.
10:54So I think he's going to be in the mix right away.
10:57I think the hard part to overcome is just the history of this committee backfield.
11:01Um, and I'm not sure if you have to throw the ball to the backs as often as they have had to
11:08recently when you have someone like Jalen Waddle in the mix.
11:11Um, so we'll see. I think that it'd be even difficult for me to rank.
11:15Like, let's say J.K. Dobbins does miss half the season, which like we think could happen, but also like he can just stay healthy the entire year.
11:23R.J. Harvey versus Jonah Coleman. Like all of a sudden, like I think that would be a pretty difficult thing to get right.
11:29I think that Jonah Coleman probably with more trusted between the tackles guy, maybe, uh, a slight lean in favor of Coleman for the goal line role.
11:37But R.J. Harvey's way too explosive. I think that all the fun stuff of the offense would go to Harvey's way.
11:43So even if you do remove the Dobbins piece of the puzzle, like do I see like a very clear path, like a top 20 fantasy running back?
11:51I, I'm not sure if I do. Like, I wonder if it would be closer to like the Ramond Ray Travion show
11:57where both of these guys like in the RB 20s is a little bit inconsistent.
12:01The offense is good, but there's just like not picking a side necessarily.
12:05So I think that's my problem with Jonah Coleman is like one, you're waiting for J.K.
12:09Dobbins to get hurt. And then when that does happen, like what exactly is the big payoff here?
12:15Is the big payoff like RB 27? Probably right.
12:17Like a bit of a touchdown or bust flex type running back, which, you know, if you get that off the waiver wire, that's totally fine.
12:24Right now he's an 11th round pick in drafts, which again, take him in the end of your drafts.
12:30Who cares? Like at this point, especially if you're drafting right now, and let's say J.K.
12:34Dobbins has a camp injury, then you've, then you've profited on that ADP there.
12:38I think just the question is if you take him, be prepared.
12:42If Dobbins stays healthy in the first four weeks of the season for this to be one of the first guys that
12:48you drop, you know, for the hottest waiver wire pick of the week.
12:52Yeah. He's going to be on your waiver wire.
12:54And I think at the end of all of our waiver wire shows, we'll say, just pick up Jonah Coleman.
13:00Just we're getting ahead of it. That's how I think this season's going to go.
13:04Um, so he's not really somebody I'm drafting a whole lot of, uh, but I am noticing he's having good camp.
13:10The coaching staff loves him. Uh, and it matches up what I saw as a prospect where he was, you know, he
13:16doesn't have enough explosiveness for me to love him, but he also does nothing wrong.
13:20Could he be Devin Singletary as a, as a pro?
13:23Like, I think that's totally reasonable. Oh yeah, totally.
13:26And that would be a win by the way, for a fourth round pick.
13:30Like, and especially in a, I think at some point we might need to have a heat check on this entire rookie class.
13:36Like the more I've looked at this, I'm like some of these top guys are in a little bit not ideal spots.
13:43Right. And we knew this when we did dynasty drafts, like back, back after the NFL draft.
13:47So he's a guy that rocket up the board because of landing spot and just like the ambiguity of this entire running back class.
13:54He could end up being a really big win in dynasty.
13:57Even if Hayden, he's the exact player that you just outlined there where he's a bit of a boomer bust, you know, running back three flex type.
14:05But again, I think being tethered to this Broncos offense, one point I just wanted to pull out there that you mentioned
14:11was, you know, Sean Payton at times, one of the critiques of him, you know, and I think you're picking nits when
14:17you're critiquing a Sean Payton offense, cause it's a great offense, but is that he's gotten a little bit like screen happy
14:24at times over the last couple of years, shoot, even dating back to the Russell Wilson period there when they were together for one season.
14:31And you wonder like, is that Sean Payton? Cause they were a great scheme screen team with the new Orleans saints.
14:37Or is it, you know, what Bo Nix likes to do?
14:40Cause he was a heavy screen passer, of course, back in the collegiate days at Oregon.
14:44And you know, again, it's like some of that stuff just hasn't been great in Denver.
14:49You wonder if that's part of the Davis web thing here and how they might change to be more of like a downfield oriented passing game.
14:56Cause apparently web and Bo Nix have a great relationship and a great rapport by all accounts.
15:01And I just think that that might be something that we see differently to cut.
15:05This isn't really like a Jonah Coleman point, but that might be something that's different between the Broncos offense that we typically
15:11think of it and what it might be like more of a downfield oriented passing game in the coming seasons.
15:17I think Bo Nix has actually a really strong arm.
15:20His accuracy has actually been maybe a little bit more disappointing, but I think that is like his arm strength is actually pretty surprisingly strong.
15:27Especially when he's like really ripping the ball down the field.
15:30I think for over the last couple of seasons, he might have the highest or the longest air yards pass completed in
15:36the NFL since he got in the league. It was like 70 something yards down the field.
15:41So like, I would not be surprised if it took some more shots and, you know, Jalen Waddle on these crossing routes this year.
15:48I'm very excited for that. Yeah. Deep crossers posts, everything like that.
15:51Yeah. Jalen Waddle obviously is going to cook this season.
15:54This is a player. The last running back is being drafted in Yahoo leagues right now that I feel like you might
16:00need a hate, a heat check on this one brother.
16:03Like it's Mike Washington jr. I saw you tweet today.
16:06What Mike Washington jr. Plays football today, which is true, but he is playing football tonight.
16:11Again, if you're listening to this tomorrow and he's had, you know, 200 yards and three touchdowns, uh, apologies, but yeah, Mike Washington jr.
16:17I feel like you might need a little bit of a heat check on this player.
16:22You're getting excited about Mike Washington jr. Which by the way, if I'm, if I'm playing armchair psychologist for you, Hayden, I
16:28also think it's because you're a little, maybe not that big of the genti fan or like maybe just neutral on genti.
16:34So is it a little bit like, am I, am I fishing in the right pond here?
16:39I'm going to steal this from Josh. Josh buried this about 55 minutes into our show today.
16:44He was like, I think Mike Washington's going to eat into genti snaps a little bit.
16:49I'm afraid to say, I'm not afraid to say that, you know, in the top 15 minutes of a show over here,
16:55Matt, I think he's, I think he's, I think he's pretty cool.
16:58Uh, his explosiveness is unreal and they had nobody behind them last year behind genti.
17:02I think that there's like no way you can't get through the season where he's not touching the ball like 75 times.
17:09And that's not like a huge number, but I think last year's RB to like touch the ball like 22 times or so.
17:15And it might've been like Raheem Mostert or Dylan lobby.
17:18So I think he's a real player. Yeah, exactly.
17:21Uh, 84, uh, touches right here. According to our projection that feels appropriate.
17:24I would put him into the bucket though, for fantasy purposes with tank Bigsby, Marshawn Lloyd, uh, Tyler Algier, where I have
17:31no concerns that these guys are going to be the RB twos.
17:34If the starter goes down and the guys most likely to miss time, do an injury this year are the guys that
17:40touch the ball the most, which would be obviously Ashton Gentty and like those, uh, the Saquon Barkley types.
17:46So I have them right next to tank Bigsby and Marshawn Lloyd, uh, in my rankings.
17:50I have them last because you know, it's the Raiders, not the Eagles and Packers, but he was a real prospect, uh, to me.
17:57He took some like, you know, you got to envision him hitting the right hole enough, but man, we're talking about like
18:03one of the rarest athletes at the position. Uh, and there's nothing holding him back at this point.
18:08So to kind of relate it to the guy that we just talked about, let's say it's week five of the NFL season and obviously knock on wood.
18:16We hope none of this happens. Week five of the NFL season, JK Dobbins, Ashton Gentty, both are going to miss like four weeks.
18:23Who would you rank higher as a waiver wire pickup?
18:26Mike Washington or Jonah? It's not close. Not close.
18:28Mike Washington. I think Mike Washington would be like a blow the entire budget on Mike Washington.
18:33You're going to get like real work out of him that the, the scheme is also just like very competent in general.
18:39And I think like that's going to be a big difference here.
18:43Uh, just you'll see him tonight. He's going to hit the hole and you're like, wow, not too many backs, uh, look exactly like that.
18:50Um, yeah. Based off the NFL combine, his closest comp was Adrian Peterson.
18:53He's not going to be Adrian Peterson, but there's, you know, 16 running backs on the entire planet that can say that
19:00they were close to Adrian Peterson athletic, athletic wise.
19:02And Mike Washington is one of them. Well, and even if you just think about this scheme with Kubiak and Kenneth Walker last season, yeah.
19:09Take a sip of water after that, uh, heat check the, the lack of a heat check on Mike Washington jr here.
19:16Uh, but no, I mean, if you think about the scheme, obviously like a guy like Ken Walker, an explosive back downhill guy.
19:22We saw what that can look like when it's really cooking.
19:25Uh, so I get it. You know, again, he, for me is ranked in the same territory as all those backs that you outlined there.
19:32That's like, Hey, it's the, I actually just took him not too long ago in the apex draft with a bunch of
19:38sicko writers where it's just like, Hey, we're, we're shooting darts at the end of the draft.
19:43Take a shot on Mike Washington just in case.
19:46Cause yeah, I, I do think that if anything ever happened to Gentry, he would be one of those high end running back pickups off the waiver wire.
19:54Last point though, on this discussion. I mean, if, if Gentry seeds like 80 touches to Mike Washington jr, does that make
20:00him a really uncomfortable click in the, in the late first round?
20:03I mean, I'm, I'm sensing for you. The answer is yes.
20:07I have as my RB 11. I would take him like 16th overall, which means I don't take them.
20:12So I'm not saying he's going to be a bust.
20:15Uh, I like Kenneth Walker and those types more.
20:17Yeah. He's someone I really weigh against like Derek Henry, Kenneth Walker.
20:21I'm just looking at like, why would I not like Kenneth Walker and, and, and Derek Henry more?
20:26I think there's probably similar outlooks. There's talk about Gentry being more of a pass catcher.
20:30I'm not a hundred. I mean, he'll probably catch more passes this year than Derek Henry, but okay.
20:35I think I liked the Ravens offense better than the Raiders offense.
20:39So he's a guy that I kind of, I think I've been as low as 15th overall on Gentry and as high as 11th overall.
20:46And I keep kind of flipping all that around.
20:48So we'll see when we have to actually turn the tests in here pretty shortly where I land on the Gentry thing.
20:55I quickly want to just talk about, um, you know, not each individual one.
20:59I just want to throw this group out there.
21:01These other running backs that people, uh, you know, should know as rookies who is the most likely to make a dent
21:07in their backfield slash be brought up as a sicko waiver wire segment option sometime during the season.
21:12Emmett Johnson, Kansas city chiefs, Katron Allen, Washington commanders, demand clayborne, Minnesota Vikings, Adam Randall, Baltimore Ravens, Nicholas Singleton, Tennessee Titans.
21:18That's five names there. Which one grabs you right off the bat?
21:22I will say my favorite prospect of them all was Katron Allen.
21:25Uh, he's battling to be the RB three for the commanders.
21:28The one I feel most confident in being the RB two is actually Emmett Johnson.
21:33Then you get the benefit obviously of playing for the chiefs.
21:36I was listening to the TV booth during the preseason game.
21:39The coaching staff absolutely loves them. The broadcasters absolutely love him.
21:42He's got an awesome story. He's running, uh, maybe a bit bigger than they thought because he's not the biggest guy out there.
21:48But if something ever happens to Kenneth Walker, and I really don't want this to happen, but he does have a history
21:55of, you know, like core surgery and that type of thing.
21:58Uh, I do think it would be Emmett Johnson as the first guy up with like Rashard Smith.
22:03Who's just like a converted wide receiver, like really like a nothing burger.
22:07I think Emmett Johnson. Yeah. Emmett Johnson's probably my, the guy that I would be most excited to, you know, throw some fab money on.
22:14Uh, I have him as my RB 57. It's only like the very deepest of leagues, but there to me, they're not
22:20that big of a difference between, you know, him, Isaiah Pacheco, like, you know, Kalen Black's in that mix as well.
22:26Jaden blue. It's like, we're throwing darts here, but at least there's some positive, uh, buzz on him.
22:31Yeah. Um, I think I, I think that's right in terms of he's the guy I have ranked highest out of the
22:37next group here, like 176th overall or whatever. I think he could even just mix in a little bit just to keep Kenneth Walker fresh.
22:44I mean, a big part of what was awesome about Kenneth Walker during the playoffs last year is that everybody whined all
22:50year that he didn't touch the ball in fantasy enough.
22:53And it's like, Oh yeah, he looks great. He looks better than everybody else in the playoffs.
22:58You know, um, we, you know, we did some of that whining on this show here as well too.
23:03So, you know, what's fair is fair. Uh, so I think Emmitt Johnson could actually just, you know, be a guy who
23:10takes some touches, some sacrificial touches to, you know, keep Kenneth Walker fresh.
23:13I think that could actually happen here. Katron Allen's probably the guy that is in the most ambiguous backfield.
23:19Um, you know, that could actually maybe be the starter at some point.
23:22I like Adam Randall only as like a speculative backup to Derek Henry.
23:26You know, he's the Nepo pick cause the owner took him.
23:29Um, the two guys that I feel like I don't really get it is Claiborne and Singleton.
23:34And, you know, listen, I'm, I'm talking about Boone behind his back here.
23:38So, you know, that's fair, but he brings up Nick Singleton all the time.
23:42And like, I, I just like, it doesn't move me at all.
23:45Does it doesn't move me at all? Number one, I don't know if Nick Singleton is any good.
23:50Number two, he got blown. I know, I know he's not good.
23:54Well, you're more than willing to go out there and say not good.
23:57Uh, I'll be generous and say, I'm not sure if he's good.
24:01I do know that he got, you know, blown up in pass protection in the preseason.
24:05Not a, not a good sign there. Third thing is, okay, let's say he, he, he is moderately good for a day three rookie.
24:12Am I interested in the third running back on the Tennessee Titans?
24:15I'm not even sure I'm interested in the number one back on the Tennessee Titans.
24:20Titans. Yeah, it's, it's a pass for me on the whole Titans experience.
24:23And then, yeah, he lost his job to Kate Ron Allen.
24:26Kate Ron Allen, just a better, he just understands the position, kind of gets North South a little bit better, finishes on contact a little bit more.
24:34Uh, they really had to like the more Penn State saw Nick Singleton, the less they wanted to play him.
24:40Um, and that's college. So yeah. Yeah. All right.
24:42We're going to take our first quick break. We come back.
24:45We'll talk some wide receivers and there are certainly going to be some players that I need to heat check on.
24:51We will get into that right after this. All right, we're back.
24:55Let's get into wide receivers here. And this will certainly be a section where I think both of us probably need a
25:01little bit of a heat check, but first Hayden, I think we might need to give the people a heat check on
25:07Jordan Tyson, or maybe I'm going to try to give the people a heat check on Jordan Tyson because you know, I
25:13still hear other folks, the other folks be like, you can, you take this guy just and stick them on the end
25:20of your bench and, you know, kind of see what happens.
25:23I haven't like totally tank Jordan Tyson in my rankings or anything, but I mean, if he's going to miss, I don't
25:29know, four weeks of the regular season, like play it.
25:32And there are some reports he might not play until October.
25:35I just don't really see the point at taking him at his 92nd overall ADP right now.
25:40I mean, again, if he falls farther than that, maybe, but you tell me if you disagree here, I just have just
25:46right now until he falls a little bit further.
25:49He is a guy that I can't really take right now because not only like, okay, he gets the back theoretically in October.
25:55Number one, we can like him as much as we want as a prospect.
25:59And I love his fit in new Orleans. We don't know what he's going to be yet as an NFL player.
26:05And then two, we showed on the graphic just a minute ago, hamstring, hamstrings, hamstring, hamstring.
26:10Like this has been a consistent thing for him this calendar year.
26:13I just think you could easily be taking a zero here with Jordan Tyson.
26:17Definitely possible. I got him 128th overall. I have a couple of kickers and a couple like the top defenses ahead of them.
26:23So he's purely a second half of the season dart throw.
26:27Now, if he falls to that range, there's eventually there becomes some wide receivers.
26:30I just don't see the upside path that I would actually just take, take some zeros for Jordan Tyson.
26:36The hard part with that, it's obviously the extent of the injury history, which I'll even say goes back to where he
26:42almost dislocated his knee back in 2022. And I think maybe that injury kind of impacted how he played in college.
26:48And you do see the stories from like Christian Watson and Marshawn Lloyd is another example of this.
26:53Like a big knee injury actually makes your soft tissues kind of weak over the next couple of seasons.
26:59And you have to like work through that to the point where I think the Saints are probably going to have to slow play this.
27:06And then you look at the schedule and I see the October reports.
27:09Everyone says two months. Okay. That's middle of October.
27:12Well, week six is middle of October. Matt, would you play Jordan Tyson on MetLife turf in week six if you were the Saints?
27:19Probably not. And then would you bring him to France and maybe you should go to France for, you know, the soft tissue treatment.
27:25But week seven, their game is in France. And then it's week eight.
27:29The bye week is the best time for him to return actually in week nine at home against the Cleveland Browns.
27:35It probably is. So if I was setting like a realistic timeline for him, it's that week nine game.
27:40And then you're going back to is he are they actually going to play him 100% of the snaps?
27:46Actually, how good is he? How actually good are the Saints?
27:49You got to get into those questions. And so unfortunately, I would rather just take the, you know, Romeo Dobbs.
27:55Like, I don't think that's even close. Like, give me the Romeo Dobbs.
27:58Give me the Michael Pittman types. Give me Jalen Coker.
28:01And then I'll get to the Jordan Tyson stuff.
28:04Yeah, that's that's the range that I have him right now.
28:07I moved Coker ahead of him. I moved to another rookie.
28:10We're going to talk about a couple of rookies.
28:12We're going to talk about I moved ahead of him.
28:15And yeah, I think there are some guys Dobbs Sutton, you know, that you might want to take ahead of him just
28:21because like those guys are going to score you points, especially like you're talking about week nine.
28:26We're well into bi-week territory at that point, especially if you this is a totally different discussion, by the way, if you
28:33start like a bunch of wide receivers and certainly if you have an IR spot, sure, go ahead and take Jordan Tyson
28:39and stick him in that IR spot and just see what happens.
28:42Totally different discussion. But if you play in just a traditional redraft league where you've got to like hold a guy on your bench, it's one thing.
28:50And look, people in the comments will probably bring up the Odell Beckham example, right, where he didn't play for the first four weeks of the season.
28:57He came back and immediately looked like one of the best players in the entire NFL.
29:02Maybe that happens for Jordan Tyson, but I had enough questions about him as a prospect where I'm not sure that I
29:08I'm just going to moonlight him into that territory.
29:11So, yeah, I think for me, it's probably a pass.
29:14Even in my next rankings update, I'll probably push him down even further because there are just some more interesting players there.
29:20But yeah, I'm a believer in what he can be in this offense when he's 100 percent healthy.
29:25I have no idea when that is going to be.
29:28The Saints and they should feel like they have a shot to win the division this year because it's the NFC South.
29:34But this is a long term build, man. You just extended Olave.
29:37Shucks in his second season. Kellen Moore in his second season.
29:40There's no reason to come out here, push him early and have him aggravate that hamstring injury.
29:45And then we're still talking about it. Like you want to not be talking about that hamstring.
29:50Yes. In 2027. That should be the goal right now for the Saints, which is tough to hear.
29:55But it's something to just at least consider. Yeah, I think the schedule did him no favors.
30:00So I would say the most likely return date is that week nine game.
30:04Brutal. Keep an eye out for Bryce Lance, by the way, if you're like a total sicko.
30:09I thought he could at least be like a sacrificial vertical receiver.
30:12So, you know, just keep him on like the keep him in your mind.
30:16I'm not saying you need to draft him or anything.
30:19These are the rookies that are being drafted right now in Yahoo leagues.
30:23Carnell Tate, Makai Lemon, Casey Concepcion, Denzel Boston, Dazon Stribbling, and then Jacoby Lane and Cyrus Allen.
30:27I can't believe the Cyrus Allen agenda has reached the point that like he has an ADP right now in Yahoo leagues.
30:34I filtered my sheet by rookies and sure enough, there he is at 129th, actually ahead of the two Browns rookies, by
30:40the way, with ADP in the last seven days.
30:42Yeah, absolutely crazy. Crazy. Listen, let's just first give a heat check on Cyrus Allen.
30:47And I will start as the Cyrus Allen guy.
30:49We're still talking about it. Look, I totally am fine with you.
30:53Want to take him in your final round? You want to right now you're drafting.
30:57You don't need to take the kicker to defense.
30:59You do that later. Fine. Go ahead. I have taken him in.
31:03I took him in the Apex League. Like I said, where you have to start receivers.
31:07That's the worst draft in the entire world. Great draft, but it's the worst draft in the entire world to get behind
31:14at receiver because those freak shows are all taking receivers way too high.
31:17I took Cyrus Allen. That's cool. That's great. I'm happy to have Cyrus Allen.
31:21We're still talking about a day three rookie who needs to earn reps and the whole deal.
31:26I agree. I moved him as high as I possibly can, which got me to wide receiver 61.
31:31I like him in redraft more than like best ball formats because we're just, you know, we're just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
31:39And he is trending towards being maybe a three wide receiver set starter with Taekwon is missing a little bit of camp
31:45here and he's just been lighting everybody up and he's, he's a different type of wide receiver than they have to some degree.
31:52Um, you mentioned the man coverage beating seems important.
31:54Uh, so I'm leading, I'm leaving the light on for him.
31:57Um, and then at the same time, you know, nine out of 10 of these guys do absolutely nothing.
32:03Uh, if I'm going to be, you know, taking a shot, at least I would do it with the Patrick Mahomes offense.
32:09I'm way ahead of market on Cyrus Allen and dynasty.
32:12I have been since the NFL draft. Um, I have my wide receiver 63.
32:16So same range here. Just again, if he comes out there and he runs 15 routes in week one and doesn't catch a pass.
32:22I mean, that that's going to happen here at the same time.
32:26You know, you mentioned Taekwon Thornton. The only update I've gotten from Xavier worthy at a training camp is like, he he's
32:32giving away a PlayStation, which is pretty cool. Yes.
32:35Good for him. But yeah, I mean, that's, that's about all I've got on the Xavier worthy thing right now.
32:40Uh, Jacoby lane. Can we also just go the inverse here and then we'll get back to the big names.
32:46He check on, on Jacoby lane here. Uh, Hayden, because I think that this is just one social media post.
32:52So, you know, come on. Uh, I watched a drill today cause I'm a loser.
32:56You know, the, the Ravens receivers going through the drills.
32:59Zay flowers is first catches a pass. Then it's Rashad Bateman catches a pass number two.
33:03And then number three, it's Jacoby lane catches a pass.
33:06And the comments are all wrong order. Three should be one.
33:09That's wide receiver one that that's when we, I'm cool with Jacoby lane having a role and making some cool plays for this Ravens team.
33:16A little bit of a heat check on what we've seen so far.
33:20Yeah, I got him as my wide receiver 66.
33:22I put him in the same conversation with Cyrus Allen.
33:25Like you're just hoping, you're just hoping that he can be out there in two wide receiver sets because I think that's
33:32almost kind of like the, the rule in fantasy football.
33:34Like there's very few like Tyler Boyd slot only guys that are relevant in fantasy football at this point, there's teams aren't throwing the ball enough.
33:42So if you're not in two wide receiver sets, like you're pretty much a waiver wire guy at this point.
33:47So that's the battle, you know, lane versus Rashad Bateman in two wide receiver sets.
33:52I think there's a chance that Jacoby lane passes them up over the next couple of weeks here, but you just never know.
33:58I just, I really like Jacoby lane for Lamar Jackson and the Ravens more than I like him in like fantasy.
34:04I'm very excited about what he provides. They've just not had this style player.
34:08At least like, you know, the 22 year old version of this style player since Lamar Jackson's been a pro and Mark Andrews isn't doing anything in camp.
34:16And Isaiah likely was very productive in the red area.
34:19He could be the answer there. I'm not expecting a lot of volume for him, but like, could he have seven touchdowns as a rookie?
34:26I think that is possible. Yeah. So classic, you know, better in best ball type player.
34:30Yeah. I definitely think that he is good for this Ravens offense and he is the type of player that they absolutely
34:37needed because man, talk about just the devil inside you sort of debate here.
34:41You know, you've got like a guy in Rashad Bateman who can run every route and separate at all three levels, but
34:47you know, maybe it doesn't do all the little things type.
34:50Well, and then it's Jacoby lane who can't get open, but you know, my God, can he catch everything?
34:55Does he have tractor beam hands? So can we combine them into one player?
34:59That would be a pretty cool, uh, that, that would be, you know, I don't know, Nico Collins.
35:04Okay. So yeah, I mean, listen, I think he's probably not going to ever be a consistent fantasy option unless he gets
35:11better as a route runner and as a separator, but he can be a great player for the Ravens and very helpful.
35:17I was listening to Declan Doyle and I wasn't listening to him.
35:20I was reading Declan Doyle quotes. Uh, and he mentioned Jacoby lane is reminding him of plug your ears.
35:26Everybody Michael Thomas for his ability to work over the middle and with his big catch radius and stuff.
35:31Uh, I'm not sure if I saw that I saw more, you know, like circus catches in the end zone, but if
35:37we are seeing more in breakers in preseason and camp, then we saw at USC.
35:42Um, if you like really wanted to dream big, but that was like, okay, Declan, let's, uh, let's, let's, let's go outside,
35:48touch some grass for a, for a moment here.
35:50Yeah. Um, I'll leave it at that. All right.
35:53Let's get into some of the bigger names here at the wide receiver position.
35:57And Carnell Tate, I think the people may, might not need a heat check on Carnell Tate.
36:02Cause his ADP is starting to drop a little bit and I've started to drop them in my rankings, but Hey, I'm,
36:08I'm, I'm a little freaked out about the Carnell Tate stuff.
36:11Um, from, you know, what we talked about with Josh on the Sunday recap show, just the way the Titans offense looked.
36:17And I just feel like if, if there's any receiver, who's going to outproduce the outside guy, you know, on his team, it's going to be Wanda Robinson.
36:25You know what I'm saying? So I'm nervous about the Carnell Tate stuff right now.
36:29I've been reading Easton for you is really good reporter for the Titans.
36:33Oh yeah. He, he just had a column and it's just like Wanda Robinson's just going to absolutely cook.
36:38And I'm just like, you know what? That's exactly what my fear was.
36:42And it's exactly what's going to happen. And if you guys watch that preseason game, it's not that they were just struggling.
36:48It was just a Wanda Robinson coded bubble screen RPO offense that I'm just not sold.
36:53That fits Cam Ward perfectly. I view Cam Ward more Jordan love, hold onto the ball and launch it down the field
36:59and see what happens rather than like, you know, put the ball on the money on time and like an RPO offense.
37:05So don't love that. It might be the worst offensive line in the league.
37:09Uh, and then I really liked Carnell Tate as a prospect, but he is one of these, you know, Brian Thomas types
37:16where for the most part, he is going to work vertically and kind of along the sideline.
37:20I think he can do more than that. They're just not like a proof of concept.
37:25And some of these guys kind of get typecast where I would just be wondering if he's going to run like the most difficult routes in the playbook.
37:33So Wanda Robinson can run a fricking bubble screening and catch his seventh pass of the game.
37:38Yeah. This type of receiver just really struggles when you have a quarterback who's playing in chaos and, you know, you got an offensive line.
37:45That's not great. Like it's funny talking about this with Nate on the AFC South preview for football.
37:50301 Dan Moore is like a huge X factor for this team because when he hit free agency, the left tackles like, oh yeah.
37:57I mean, that's just the going rate. That's the market.
37:59You pay a starting left tackle that much. And it's like, oh, well, that's why it's not that great to play this,
38:06pay this player that much because he's, he was one of the worst starting left tackles in the NFL last year.
38:12So yeah, it's just, it's, I really liked Tate as a prospect to trying not to get too nervous if you took
38:18him early in your dynasty draft, but you just need cam ward to be better than what we've seen so far, which
38:24is, I still think possible, but the day ball part of it really makes me nervous.
38:29All the analysis about, well, look at what day ball did with Malik neighbors as a rookie.
38:33I mean, not only is Malik neighbors, just a fundamentally way different, like way better player, way different player too, in terms of getting the designer touches.
38:41Yeah, totally different. That season with Malik, like so much of it was like kind of working underneath and whatnot.
38:47And I just, I think kind of take can do a version of that, but his comps were like closer, like upside
38:53comps would be like, you know, closer, like what DeAndre Hopkins, actually Calvin Ridley was one of my comps for, um, you
38:59know, so like the environment's got to be clean for that type of guy.
39:03And at the same time, I've been trying to move him down my rankings.
39:07There's pretty much a gap. Like I would say after, you know, and like, we'll see about Mike Evans, Devante Adams and
39:13those types, but there's a gap from that list all the way down, like multiple rounds where there's like almost a wide receiver.
39:20There's like not a wide receiver that I want to draft for like rounds and rounds.
39:24He's kind of in the middle of that. And I can only drop them so far down my wide receiver rankings, but he's not somebody I'm drafting.
39:32Like I would rather just take, you know, one of the elite quarterbacks rather than Cardinal Tate, like if Jalen hurts versus
39:38Cardinal Tate in like round six, round seven this year, like it's not close for me.
39:43Yeah. My fifth tier of wide receivers starts with Cardinal Tate, DK Metcalf, Stefan Diggs.
39:47And it's like, all right, do it. Well, that usually means I don't get Cardinal Tate, by the way, if I have
39:53him at wide receiver 35 in there, I usually don't get him.
39:57But if that was to happen, it's like, okay, well, yeah, I mean, I probably would rather take the upside shot on
40:03whatever Cardinal Tate is just on the off chance that it looks a lot better in Tennessee.
40:08But again, that usually means that I don't really end up getting a lot of him in drafts.
40:13Makai Lemon, next one up here, still being drafted in Yahoo Leagues.
40:16Obviously, we haven't seen him in preseason. He has not been healthy throughout the course of the offseason.
40:21Hayden, do I need a heat check? Because I keep dropping Lemon in my rankings, even though I really like Lemon as a prospect.
40:28And I think he's a cool fit in this offense.
40:31But I'm starting to, you know, I'm starting to inhale the fumes from the Dontavian Wicks candle.
40:36You know, I'm starting to get back into that again.
40:39Do I need do I need the heat check here?
40:41I'm becoming more optimistic. He's back at practice right now.
40:44So that's positive for Makai Lemon. I think maybe the first couple weeks of the season, it'll be Wicks and two wide receiver sets.
40:51And then we'll see, you know, is it the positive side of Wicks that shows up in the first month or is it the negative side of Wicks?
40:59We're talking about like one drop pass from Wicks and then Makai Lemons and two wide receiver sets for the rest of this career.
41:06Like that's like kind of the upside case that we have with Makai.
41:09So I actually have them like really close to Carnell Tate in my rankings.
41:13Uh, I thought they were like, I thought a lot of these guys in the draft were pretty much in the same tier.
41:20I had Carnell Tate ranked the highest. I can't say that he was so much better than Casey Concepcion and Makai Lemon.
41:26Uh, and obviously these, it's not the best environments for all these guys.
41:30The Eagles are the best team, but do want to remind people that like Devante Smith, who is an excellent football player.
41:36He's been very boom bust as the wide receiver too.
41:39In this offense, if Makai Lemon turns into Devante Smith, uh, in his NFL career, that would be an amazing, amazing win here.
41:45Uh, and Devante Smith has had some moments where we're scared to be putting him into our wide receiver three spot.
41:51So I think he's a bench upside wide receiver four.
41:54I think as the season progresses, uh, the better he begins to look.
41:58Yeah. He's just a tough player for me to rank because I do believe that Wicks is going to be a factor in this offense, especially early.
42:05I like based on all reports he's earned it.
42:08He's got familiar with the offense and I think he's a really good, talented player.
42:12Like my God, stop showing the routes on the screen right now.
42:16Producers like I, I, I've, I know what it looks like.
42:19Like this is like dangerous material for me to be looking at.
42:22Okay. So I do think he's going to play a role in this offense is Dontavian Wicks.
42:27And then it's just like you said, okay, if they're like splitting wide receiver two duties early, when do we get to
42:33a point where we're comfortable putting Makai Lemon into our fantasy football lineups?
42:37Like maybe when the Eagles offense takes off in the second half of the season, because I think that could potentially be in line.
42:44But yeah, again, a bit of a better dynasty pick than a, than a redraft pick right now.
42:49It's Makai Lemon. Let's get to the next guy here because talk about like another, this is another, I need a heat check.
42:55Hayden, I have a little, little, yeah. Okay. Well, great.
42:58Well, we're not going to be able to help each other on this one.
43:02Cause I have a little internal tool that I use where it just compares Yahoo ADP to my rankings.
43:07I pull this bad boy up. I see, okay, who am I highest on relative to current Yahoo ADP right now?
43:13It is easily by a long shot, Casey Concepcion Brown's rookie wide receiver.
43:17And yet I get it. The heat check is easily just Casey.
43:20We're seeing your headshot here. Move a little to the right.
43:24The heat check is he plays for the Cleveland Browns.
43:26However, Hayden, I'm really excited about what Casey is going to do.
43:30Kent, how can we possibly get the heat check here?
43:33I also have a tool and Matthew Golden's my number one wide receiver head of Yahoo ADP, but number two, Casey Concepcion.
43:39I know that you love him as a prospect.
43:41I saw the same way. I see like Jalen Waddle.
43:44I see like Zay Flowers with maybe a little bit more broken tackle ability.
43:48Like I'm seeing like not good players. I'm seeing like very good players.
43:52Great player. Yeah. That compared to him. Monken sees it the same way.
43:56I'm glad in the preseason game, he didn't start in two wide receiver sets.
44:00You got Jerry Judy on a million, millions and millions of dollars.
44:03He was out there. But later in the game, he was available for two wide receiver sets.
44:08You manufacture touches for him. He almost houses a punt return, which he was excellent at at college too.
44:13He's lightning fast. He's denser than you think. I think there's absolutely a case for Casey Concepcion.
44:18Known as the highest drafted player in fantasy among all these rookies.
44:21And I want to be drafting him every single time he's available for where he is.
44:26And to the point, I would just take that Yahoo ADP and just throw it out the window.
44:31Like he's not, he's not, he's not leaving my team.
44:34Like we're talking round nine. If you have to just throw him in there.
44:38I don't care. I think he's going to make it work.
44:41Yep. I have him as my 92nd overall player.
44:43So we're in the same draft range there. And yeah, I, I think he is better than Zay Flowers.
44:49Obviously the Browns are a worse team than Zay Flowers' rookie season with the 2023 Baltimore Ravens.
44:54But he was wide receiver 32 in points per game in half PPR that year.
44:58And a lot of that was just some of the scammy stuff that I think that, and at that point too, I
45:04remember at the time being like, no, no, no.
45:07Zay Flowers is a real man. He's not a little, he's not a little PPR scam receiver.
45:11Like this guy's a real deal. Watch him win down the field on his routes against like man coverage, big breaking routes and stuff like that.
45:19And I think Casey's better than Zay Flowers. Certainly as a prospect, I think he will be a better NFL player.
45:25And Zay Flowers is awesome. He's gotten better and better every season.
45:28I think this guy's just going to be scratching the surface as well, his rookie season.
45:33So that's the thing to me, like we can loop Denzel Boston into this conversation.
45:37The heat check on him is like awesome player, but kind of this is the type of receiver, a better version of Jacoby Lane.
45:44Like it's always these type of receivers that people love to watch in training camp.
45:48Very easy to see why they're good contested catches.
45:51They look the part, the whole deal. But then, you know, you're on an offense like the Browns are likely this year
45:57and he gets three targets in the first per game in the first four weeks of the season.
46:02It's hard to access him, but it's going to be easy to access Casey Concepcion on some of these layup targets.
46:08So to me, man, it's just I heat check is definitely needed on Boston.
46:12I don't think it's needed. I think the people need to let go of the Brown stuff a little bit on the Casey Concepcion.
46:19My truth, my personal truth is Casey Concepcion should actually just be like the wide receiver 32 in rankings.
46:24We should just get this over with and he's just going to be a baller.
46:28Luckily, we don't have to draft it that way.
46:31And I see the same thing with Denzel. I had a first round grade on Denzel Boston.
46:36I personally had him ranked ahead of Jordan Tyson in my pre-draft rankings.
46:39I thought that he was like a real player.
46:42Maybe, you know, Michael Pittman adjacent, maybe a tier above that.
46:45Maybe he can do like a Drake London impression, something like that.
46:48But it's just harder for him if he's going to be as an X receiver, which he is going to be in
46:55this offense for him just getting the easy stuff because they already have the Harold Fannin.
46:59And by the way, their running back, I thought was one of the best running backs on tape last year as well.
47:05So we're talking about like the potential like third or fourth option on a really bad offense.
47:10Like the realistic take is he's going to flash on tape and we'll talk about him in the offseason.
47:16Yeah, like definitely a dynasty buy. And speaking of dynasty, last thing we'll save this on Stribbling who's getting drafted.
47:21We'll save him for the other side of the break here before we talk some of the other receivers and everything because
47:27Stribbling is definitely worth the conversation, especially after he's going to go for 200 yards and three touchdowns tonight.
47:33But just last point on this, I just updated my dynasty rankings last night, Hayden, on reception perception for the wide receivers.
47:39And I moved Casey Concepcion to my second rookie receiver spot.
47:42And I feel really good about that right now because, number one, he was my wide receiver to pre-draft anyways.
47:48Like I already had him as that guy and it was really close with Carnell Tate.
47:52Like, you know, that's the real like get two beers in me take.
47:56And I would have just said like, yeah, Casey Concepcion is better than Carnell Tate.
48:00But, you know, he just Carnell fits all 32 offenses, whatever the whole deal.
48:04I'm looking at it being like, man, yeah, it was it was pretty like if I was doing a rookie draft right
48:10now, I would take Casey over Jordan Tyson. I would take Casey over Makai Lemon because, number one, those guys aren't going
48:17to give you any points at the beginning of the year.
48:20Certainly not Jordan Tyson. We'll see about Makai Lemon.
48:22And I'm kind of looking at like, why wouldn't I just have him ranked ahead of Carnell Tate right now?
48:28But I still couldn't quite do it. That to me is like I have, you know, wisdom of the crowds.
48:34I have to appreciate consensus rankings. But if I didn't look at consensus rankings a single time, I think I'm at the
48:40point where I just be like, you know what?
48:42Give me Casey Concepcion. He's going to get the ball a lot more this year.
48:47God, we're so jacked up about a Browns receiver.
48:49And I guess we got to be Shador guys, bro.
48:52Let's see against all odds. We'll see what happens.
48:55All right. We're going to take another quick break.
48:57We come back. We're talking Stribbling. We're talking some of the other rookie receivers.
49:01We'll get into that right after this. All right.
49:04We're back. And the man of the hour gets his own segment here because we did not manage our time well in the previous wide receiver discussion.
49:11So we got to talk to Zahn Stribbling here.
49:14We're going to get to some of the other names, but oh, my God.
49:18What is this? Yes. Oh, yes. I'm usually so good about only silently breaking when the producers show me some stuff.
49:24If you're listening to this, by the way, man, Stribbling.
49:27I mean, if he had the 300-yard game or whatever I said, this is pretty incredible for him.
49:32It's worth subscribing to the YouTube channel and going to Yahoo Fantasy YouTube channel, okay?
49:36And checking out this welcome to the Strib Club graphic just for that alone.
49:40So check us out on YouTube. Look at this because it just caused me to break.
49:44But, okay. We're in the Strib Club here, which is making me uncomfortable to say this into a microphone, Hayden.
49:50And yet here we are. The man of the hour gets his own segment.
49:54Do the people need a heat check on Stribbling?
49:57Yes or no? No. I'm going to the back room.
49:59I'm dancing. It's a full party with Stribbling this year.
50:02I have him all the way up as my wide receiver 42.
50:06And when I talked to Josh about this one, my rule is the second Quentin Johnson gets drafted in your league, you have the pass.
50:13You can draft Deshaun Stribbling. I think, you know, we're talking about probably the wide receiver twos on their team and teams
50:19that we feel very comfortable with the scheme and great athletes.
50:22And you just never know. Stribbling could be way better than Quentin Johnson is at football.
50:27And quite frankly, I think that's probably likely. I think Quentin Johnson's like a totally fine player.
50:31But everything about this offseason has been nothing but positive.
50:34He does all of like the ancillary stuff at wide receiver well.
50:38So it really just comes down to like, can he like sit there and beat man coverage?
50:43Does he know where to line up? Those type of things pass with flying colors, like literally every single day, every beat reporter, every teammate.
50:50While you saw him in the preseason inside and outside zone, man coverage, whip routes, ender rounds, back shoulder fades.
50:55He's done everything correct. So I'm just believing in this.
50:58I think he should be the sleeper. He's kind of becoming Bill Krosky merit from this year, if not even more than that.
51:05But I think that he's actually going to have like have the season we were hoping that Bill was going to have
51:11just because, you know, it's the freaking 49ers. They make everyone go crazy.
51:14Yeah. Two years ago, it was like, oh, my God, does every social media editor just have to have a quota to tweet about Bucky Irving every day?
51:22And then last year was, do they have a quota to tweet about J'Kory Krosky merit every day?
51:28And this year it's Stribbling. I'm hoping Stribbling can be a little closer to rookie year Bucky Irving than rookie year JCM.
51:34You know, fingers crossed because I echo pretty much all the sentiments that you had there.
51:38You know, you, Josh, and I talked about him on the recap show earlier this week.
51:43I was a believer of him as a prospect.
51:45I actually thought his route running against man coverage was some of the things that I appreciated the most about him, especially
51:52his release moves off the line of scrimmage. So while I think he will be like a primary power slot Z off
51:58ball receiver for this team, occasionally they can line him up on ball.
52:02And like if Mike Evans ever got hurt, I think he can take some reps as the X receiver here too.
52:07Here's just how crazy the Stribbling thing has gotten right after the NFL draft.
52:11I add rookies to my rankings. I am like 25 spots ahead of the dynasty market on Stribbling.
52:17I'm like, yeah, you're using my rankings. You're taking Stribbling.
52:19I went to go update them last night. I moved him up farther from that.
52:24I moved him up a tier. He's my wider receiver 40 in dynasty.
52:27And now I'm like three spots lower than the market.
52:30But wait, wait, wait a second. What do I got to do here to stay?
52:34The Stribbling guy. This is, this is outrageous. So yeah, the Stribbling hype is, is crazy, but I totally get it.
52:40And even as his ADP continues to go up here, Hayden, he's 127th overall pick right now on Yahoo, 125, 127.
52:46I've got him in the 90s. I'm like 30 spots ahead of ADP.
52:50And yeah, if you're, if you're using a late round pick this year on a wide receiver, make one of them Stribbling for sure.
52:57I think it's really fun because you can draft like a bunch of running backs early.
53:01Grab, let's say two of the top, you know, 26 or so wider stevers.
53:05Maybe it's like Malik neighbors and Jalen Waddle. Then you've like passed like that tier that we don't love.
53:11And you could go like, you know, Casey Concepcion, Matthew Golden and Deshaun Stribbling.
53:15And then you just need one of the three to kind of hit the rest of your way.
53:20And a lot of my drafts kind of play that way.
53:23I like, you're kind of like hero wide receivers miss out on the entire second tier.
53:27And then you take four dart throws on these kind of sleeper guys that we all seem to like.
53:33Yeah, my, just the 90s in my receiver ranking, I really like.
53:36Like it's awesome in that, as you said, and Ray and I talked about this group, like rounds four, five, six, nice receiver tier.
53:43Just kick it off again when you get to round nine or so.
53:47Because I like Jordan Addison there, Casey Concepcion, who we talked about.
53:50You know, I'm still fine with Quentin Johnson. He goes in that range.
53:54Coker's even later, but I have him ranked in the 90s.
53:57Stribbling. I mean, shoot, obviously Josh Downs and Jaden Reed.
54:00Like, I will still be a Jaden Reed guy over a Matthew Golden guy.
54:04And we'll settle that one at the end of the year.
54:07I know you're really into Golden. And I'm fine with you.
54:10He goes so late. It's like, who cares? It's free.
54:13Yep. Both. Yeah. Any of the Packers guys, I'm fine with.
54:16All right. I'll read off the rest of the guys here that, like, I have ranked inside my top 110 wide receivers coming into this year.
54:23And I'll just, you tell me if any of these guys stand out to you as someone you're going to keep an
54:29eye on as we head into the season here.
54:32Omar Cooper Jr., who unfortunately I think is just like, you can't draft Omar Cooper right now.
54:37And people have stopped drafting Omar Cooper. Caleb Douglas, Miami Dolphins, Ted Hurst, Buccaneers, Elijah Surratt, the other Ravens rookie wide receiver.
54:43Jeremy Bernard, Pittsburgh Steelers, Malachi Fields, New York Giants, Zachariah Branch, Atlanta Falcons, Antonio Williams, Washington Commanders.
54:48Any of those guys you want to make a case for here?
54:51I would say Malachi Fields and Jeremy Bernard have, like, carved out, like, I think a real role.
54:56I think Malachi Fields and Caleb Douglas are your best options for two wide receiver set snaps.
55:01I think that's kind of, you know, the threshold that you got to get in to see the field.
55:06Yeah. Malachi Fields, I think, is pretty interesting just because the other wide receivers haven't really stepped up.
55:11And, like, somebody aside from Malik Nabors is going to play a bunch.
55:15And it does seem like Malachi Fields is going to be that.
55:19And to me, that makes more sense than, like, Slayton and Darnell Mooney.
55:22Like, you have, like, Nabors is going to do the explosive stuff, whether it's underneath or down the field.
55:28Like, you kind of just want someone to, like, go insert block and, like, you know, like, win over the middle on occasion.
55:34Because they don't really have that in the offense.
55:37I think that Fields would be maybe the most interesting.
55:40And it wasn't on our list. But Chris Bell was the one I liked the most that we haven't talked about as a prospect.
55:46We're talking Chris Bell in the mailbag section. So there's a good one for that.
55:51So, yeah, I think that's a good one to talk about there.
55:54Yeah. Caleb Douglas, definitely a riser for me. I thought he was an interesting prospect.
55:58He went higher than I thought he was going to go.
56:01Higher than kind of seemingly anybody thought he was going to go.
56:05But consistent drumbeat there. Where, yeah, Fields, he's a perfect fit for what the Giants need right now.
56:10To the point that, I think it was on one of the Giants draft videos.
56:14They traded up for Malanoa, I believe. And then the first thing that Harbaugh said after that, it's like, okay, now we've
56:20got to start thinking about trading up for Malachi Fields.
56:23Or I might be misremembering the order there. And then he gets on the phone with Malachi Fields and says, we talked about this.
56:30We talked, God, me, you, and God. We talked about this.
56:33I'm like, damn, God is involved with drafting Malachi Fields for the New York Giants here.
56:38You're fading? You're fading God's receiver, Malachi Fields? Unbelievable.
56:40And I kind of talked about him as a prospect, Hayden, as mature Keon Coleman.
56:44And I think there's a real synergy to that.
56:47We're seeing the camp highlights for Malachi Fields. Downfield, go-route stuff.
56:50Actually has some moves off the line of scrimmage.
56:53Some subtlety that I think Coleman is still working on to this point.
56:56And then the improvisational ability. That's what's kind of key with big ball winner, get off script with Jackson Dart.
57:02And that's something we've already seen in the preseason too.
57:05So, yeah, he's not somebody that I have kind of in the traditional draftable range right now.
57:10But there's a lot of guys this year. And maybe the spreadsheets will come back to haunt us.
57:15But there's a lot of prospects in this year's class, Hayden, where the spreadsheets just absolutely hate.
57:19Fields, stribbling. Obviously, it depends on your spreadsheet who some of the other players.
57:23But those are two guys that I think are just really underrated in this year's rookie class.
57:28Yeah. I've talked about this a bunch. Most people doing fantasy drafts, like in the offseason and most fantasy analysts, it's all spreadsheets.
57:35So, if like 10 of your league mates are only stressing about the spreadsheets, like maybe being a tape bro is like
57:41the contrarian way for you to win your league.
57:44So, yeah. I'm fading the spreadsheets even though those are the streets I grew up on.
57:48Look at that. You're evolving. You're growing. I mean, isn't that the path for all of us here?
57:53We eventually just become watch the tape guys. I mean, it is what it is.
57:57I mean, listen, that's all I do. That's what I was doing before we started doing this.
58:02I was charting, by the way, I was charting Chris Godwin routes.
58:06Not looking great for Chris Godwin. I hate to say it.
58:09Also not looking good for Antonio Williams. That was a guy I've had to drop in my rankings at this point.
58:15It's just not looking great for him to be an impact player this year.
58:19But we shall see how that one continues to develop.
58:21Okay. We're going to take another quick break. We come back.
58:25We've got quarterbacks and tight ends to get into.
58:27We'll talk about those guys right after this break.
58:30All right. We're back. This section, a little bit of a stretch here.
58:33Quarterbacks and tight ends. This is where we start to get into the little bit of the dust of this class.
58:39But let's start with the first pick of the NFL draft, which was Fernando Mendoza.
58:44Again, he's playing tonight. So if you're listening to this the next day, and I got to stop saying 200 yards and three touchdowns.
58:50But you never know with Fernando Mendoza. He's a pretty cool player.
58:54Hayden, you just kind of come out and say you just think he should be the week one starter at this point.
59:00I think he should. I doubt he will be.
59:03Just, you know, you got to convince Tom Brady that we should flip this thing around.
59:07Kirk Cousins, I think, could play fine enough to kind of hold the line for a little bit.
59:12I was looking at their schedule, trying to figure out when's the soft spot.
59:16I think there's back-to-back home games in, like, week six.
59:19I think the second one might be against the Rams.
59:22But, like, guess what? You're going to play some hard defenses in the NFL.
59:26You're going to have to battle through it. I think that would be about right.
59:30So October, November is probably when we're going to start seeing him.
59:33He can run around a little bit. He's not going to be, like, tasked with it.
59:38But you saw that in the college football playoff.
59:40He's a big guy. He can run a little bit better than maybe you'd think he would be for someone that gets,
59:47like, a lot of Matt Ryan comps. Like, there's a chance Fernando Mendoza could matter out, like, by weeks and you're scrambling off the waiver wire.
59:54That's probably as far as I'll go. This team's still a work in progress.
59:58Just, like, look who's throwing the ball to that wide receiver.
60:01Like, all those guys, it's not looking pretty. So I draft him in best ball on occasion.
60:06I'm very excited to see him play because I did think that he was a very legit 101 prospect.
60:11And I wasn't going to overthink him. Yeah, me too.
60:14I'm really excited to see him play as well.
60:17And, yeah, it's funny you mentioned the schedule, but we've got a segment coming out with a former NFL quarterback who you guys will really like.
60:24It's a really fun conversation between me and him.
60:27And, you know, we were doing the thing where, where do we get, like, where's the start for Mendoza?
60:32And, you know, you kept looking at some of those defenses.
60:35And my point was, remember we did this with Drake Mayer.
60:38Remember, folks, like, when his first start was against the Houston Texans.
60:42Like, oh, you can't start Drake Mayer against the Houston Texans defense.
60:45That's going to ruin the poor boy forever. Well, yeah, he was only, like, the most efficient quarterback in the NFL last season.
60:52Almost won MVP if Matthew Stafford didn't exist. So, yeah, I think Mendoza will be fine.
60:56It's, honestly, this situation's way better than the situation they dropped Drake May into that season.
61:01Yes. Yeah, that was pretty low bar, but I would say it clears.
61:04I have full faith in Clint Kubiak, obviously, as long as, you know, Bowers is walking.
61:09He at least has somebody to throw the ball to.
61:12So, yeah, it was Bills in week six at home and Rams week seven at home.
61:16At least you're not going into New England, like, for week five.
61:20But, you know, throw the schedule out the window.
61:22Like, I mean, he's going to have to beat these good defenses eventually.
61:26And the Raiders aren't trying to win the Super Bowl right now.
61:29They're just trying to, you know, get him out there.
61:32So, I think earlier than later, after watching him just under center was not something he did in college.
61:37He did that in the preseason game. One to two to three.
61:41Throw the ball. Check down to his running backs in front of, you know, like, play action retreating.
61:46Linebackers. Layered throws. His receiver dropped a ball. The out route to best.
61:50There was more than enough for me to be like, yeah, like, you know, let's probably just start him over Kirk Cousins.
61:56Let's get the bandit off. Yeah, we'll see what Kirk looks like.
61:59You know, he actually looked pretty sharp in the preseason game, too.
62:03And, you know, obviously knows this offense like the back of his hand.
62:06I think there's enough in the receiver room to just be interesting, you know.
62:10And obviously, like, I'm a best guy. I think he's a good player.
62:14Not like a fantasy asset necessarily right now. But I think he'll be a helpful player.
62:18I think Naylor has his uses. Tucker will open things up.
62:22Like, it's enough to me to throw Mendoza out there.
62:24At some point. And get a pretty usable offense.
62:27There's a couple moments during the preseason where, you know, his response to pressure is not great.
62:32But that's fine. Like, that's why he's a rookie quarterback.
62:35You're not expected to do anything. And when he gets out there, I do think he'll be a super flex consideration just because you mentioned that mobility there.
62:43So, yeah, he's certainly, I mean, he's being drafted in Yahoo leagues right now, which is kind of crazy.
62:48Especially non-super flex leagues. Like, you don't need to do that.
62:51Come on. But, I mean, I'm interested to see what this offense looks like when he gets out there.
62:56These other rookie quarterbacks, Carson Beck, Ty Simpson, Drew Aller, Cade Klubnik.
63:00How many of these guys do you think we see make starts this year?
63:04Oh, man. I hope not Ty Simpson. That would be not good for us as fans.
63:08I think Beck probably gets in the mix. I think Klubnik's going to get into the mix the very last part of the season.
63:15I think so, too. The Geno Smith training camp stuff has not been that great.
63:19Especially recently. He's apparently limping around and whatnot. That makes me a little bit nervous.
63:24Maybe Drew Aller, if you give me enough beers as well.
63:27I just think that team's going to be maybe too good.
63:30Yeah. It wasn't the greatest group watching these guys as college players, though.
63:34I think Beck, if he has to play, can keep the train on the tracks type play.
63:38He's got so much experience. He has probably no upside, which is why he was a little bit of a strange third-round
63:45pick for a team that has probably taken a quarterback next year.
63:48I get that. But he's, again, a lot of experience.
63:51He can probably at least get the ball to Trey McBride and swing passes out of the backfield to Jeremiah Love.
63:57I think any, and I do have optimism, obviously, for Marv and for Michael Wilson.
64:01I think any of that probably goes out the window if we start to get some Carson Beck starts.
64:06But I think the other two guys are still pretty safe, which they better be.
64:11They go super early in fantasy football. And I'm with you on the Cade Klubnik thing.
64:15As much as I'm, like, I think this is a pretty good situation for Garrett Wilson.
64:20You know, these guys like Omar Cooper not emerging.
64:22You know, Kenyon Sadiq being injured and probably behind.
64:25Like, we're going to probably be looking at another 28% target share for Garrett Wilson, which when it's Geno Smith, I can
64:31get myself excited about that as a grinded out wide receiver, too, in fantasy football.
64:35But the second we get Klubnik in there, I mean, it better be RPOs and just, like, first read, first read, first reader.
64:42It's going to be pretty problematic. Yeah, that's going to make me nervous down the stretch.
64:46Also, looking at the Jets' schedule, their bye week is week 13.
64:50Like, if you're, you know, hashtag eliminated coming out of that, like, at what point do you turn the keys over?
64:56And that playoff, oh, man, the playoffs for the Jets, you got the Patriots and then the Vikings in there.
65:01Like, you get Flores in the finals against a Klubnik.
65:04It's just like, we're going to be looking at the Garrett Wilson team and be like, all right, am I actually starting?
65:10Am I even starting him at that point? So that's always, you know, that's always the risk with the Jets.
65:16But the last week, the Geno reports have not been, you know, firing me up.
65:20Hmm. Cade Klubnik, can he be better than Brady Cook?
65:23That's a low bar. I think he could be better than Brady Cook last year, who did not actually play any games with Garrett Wilson at that point.
65:31But, yeah, it bothers me how jacked up Frank Reich is to have taken Cade Klubnik because that was just RPO City at Clemson.
65:38That is a little bit troubling there. So we'll see.
65:41By the way, we're going to throw out our last break and get into the mailbag here.
65:45Just real quick, I don't think there's a single rookie tight end that's draftable in fantasy football right now.
65:51We're going to talk about a couple of them in the mailbag segment.
65:55But Kenny and Sadiq obviously is the only one that is being drafted right now.
65:59And I just think that 131st overall, I think you're just kind of lighting a pick on fire at this point.
66:05We're talking about a rookie tight end who's a little bit of a nebulous, you know, move tight end type of player on the Jets.
66:12You just mentioned the Geno Smith reports are not firing you up.
66:15Yeah, I think Sadiq, nobody's drafting him aggressively. He's the tight end 27 off the board.
66:20But I just don't think he should. I don't think you should draft any of these guys right now.
66:25I mean, Mason Taylor's like the forgot about me.
66:28I'm not for you guys listening to you and Nate, of course.
66:31But Mason Taylor was like a real prospect. He like did it.
66:34Did enough last year. People are wondering if the Jets lit not one, but two first round picks on fire a couple
66:41of months ago with Sadiq and then Omar Cooper, like kind of players that would be competing for the same snaps.
66:47If you're an Omar Cooper, if you're an Omar Cooper dynasty drafter, how freaked out are you right now?
66:52Beyond freak. I mean, if you look at his stats next to Elijah Surratt for years, Surratt was, you know, leading and
66:58Surratt can't get on the field in Baltimore. And Omar Cooper apparently can't either.
67:02He just seems heavy. Like he broke tackles up.
67:05He just seems like, you know, the 31 year old version of Debo Samuel to me.
67:09Um, make you nervous. Uh, yeah, I, I would, I would definitely be nervous.
67:13And there was one rookie draft where, you know, he was just like the highest guy in my, it was a good team.
67:20It was late in the first round. He's the highest guy in my rankings.
67:24I ended up taking him and luckily I'm not like counting on him whatsoever on this team, but it was just, uh, I'm definitely nervous about it.
67:31I wouldn't say fully freaked out. I'm not going to say it's over, you know?
67:36Um, but he was a player that I was kind of, it took me a long time to warm up to Omar Cooper as a prospect.
67:43Like my first couple of early watches, it was, that's, this is what people are talking about.
67:48It was like a first round pick. And then she's just like, well, yeah, eventually I think after watching enough tape, like
67:54his game grew on you to the point that it's like, I can see how he has a, I can see why people like him.
68:01Cause he has a really easy application to an NFL offense where he can just be like, I would say Khalil Shakir
68:07is the player that in a worst case scenario, he kind of ends up being that version.
68:12Um, unless it's like a true bottom out scenario and he just can't play at all.
68:17But like in a worst case scenario, it's like, okay, he's Khalil Shakir, which you draft Khalil Shakir in the first round.
68:23I don't know if I'm totally jacked up about that.
68:26So that's why I kind of had him as a fringe early round two type ranking for me.
68:31You take that guy 31st overall in the NFL draft.
68:34It's fine. Whatever. I'm not going to kill you for it, especially in this draft class.
68:38But yeah, there's real risk that that's, that's a very, very shaky profile, especially on a Frank Reich offense where you've got
68:44to cater and design touches for that guy. It should, it, I would definitely be nervous about it right now.
68:50So I'm beginning to wonder if these like fringe first round guys, what we'd label as like their high floor guys, if
68:56we should be reading into that, like, do they not have enough of a ceiling?
69:01And then once they're compared to NFL players, they might not, you know, hit the ground running.
69:05Like the Jalen Polk was kind of another one.
69:08He's like high floor players. Just like, Ooh, maybe that's not like, you know, that's complimentary, but also like maybe that's actually
69:14derogatory for talking about somebody that high up in the draft.
69:17Well, because there's way too many good receivers now.
69:20Hayden, that's, that's the problem is like 80 Mitchell.
69:22Mitchell was in that same tier of prospect to me where it's kind of, yeah, he's a volatile, but in a completely different receiver archetype.
69:29But I had those guys in the same tier pre-draft and it's like, all right, well, 80 Mitchell's been in the league now three years.
69:37Like he's even again, it's, it's a stupid comparison because they don't really even say play the same receiver position.
69:42But you know, that guy's three years into the league right now and he's got his own flaws, but yeah, he's going
69:48to play way more than Omar Cooper jr this year.
69:51So, and then it's just, okay, well, he doesn't do much as a rookie.
69:55Let's say hypothetically, then you're into year two. It's a new staff.
69:59Like you can see how this just spirals for that guy that, like I said, I see the application for him as
70:05an NFL player, but the ceiling just gets pretty problematic pretty quickly.
70:08So yeah, I, I'm glad we had the discussion.
70:11Cause I know people probably are freaking out about Omar Cooper jr.
70:14If you haven't been dynasty, I'm not advising the full freak out yet, but you know, if I took him ahead of
70:20Denzel Boston in my rookie draft, which I didn't, but if I took him ahead of Denzel Boston in my rookie draft
70:27or, you know, shoot stripling at this point. Like, I think I'd rather have stripling than Omar Cooper jr.
70:32And I don't really know what would hold. I mean, they went so close to each other in the NFL draft.
70:38What like what's holding you back from that at this point?
70:41So there we go. Okay. Let's toss to our final break here.
70:44When we come back, mailbag segment, Toyota hotline. We'll get into that right after this.
70:49All right, we're back and welcome to the fantasy hotline presented by Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL.
70:54Every Thursday, we are taking your most pressing questions for fantasy hotline.
70:58And today we asked you, this is not your questions.
71:01We actually asked you a question. What is your best bold prediction for a rookie in fantasy football this season?
71:06Hayden, we've got nine ish to get to here.
71:09We'll see if we can rapid fire through these things because some of them I think will be a quick.
71:15Yeah, no, this is not going to happen. So we're going to try to see if we believe some of these bold predictions.
71:21A few of them are players that we've already talked about.
71:24Some of them that we haven't talked about here.
71:27Number one comes in from Aiden Drake's dad. Not a single rookie will be fantasy relevant this season.
71:32A bold prediction. Probably not going to happen here from Brad.
71:35But I do think it's fitting with the tenor of, man, some of this rookie class, his first round dynasty picks.
71:41It's not looking great right now. Yes, I have almost no notes to add to that.
71:45We knew it was going to be bad. It is bad.
71:48And the guys were excited about play on the worst teams in the NFL.
71:52Oh my God. Yeah, right. Like we have two players.
71:55We're really excited about the Browns offense. Again, we're a little worried about these guys right now.
72:00But there were two players going in the first round from the Jets offense.
72:04I mean, one of the top three receivers in the class by most consensus rankings might not play until Hayden saying week nine.
72:11Makai Lemon can't beat out Dontavian Wicks. You know, people are saying.
72:14So I don't know. What do we do with that?
72:17Yeah, it's not going to be pretty. I think Jeremiah Love is going to save the day for us.
72:22But aside from that, you know, no top 50 players.
72:25We'll see. All right. Next one is let's get PPR.
72:28Chris Bell is a top 18 wide receiver this season due to a Malik Willis deep ball uncontested volume in the wide
72:34receiver room and the Dolphins offense being better than expected overall.
72:37I like that Sterling here built the case up.
72:40It got more and more aggressive. Dolphins offense being better than expected overall.
72:43What are you buying? What are you selling out of this one?
72:47If I can change that one to a four where it's top 48 wide receiver, the rest of this, you know, you can leave it that way.
72:54I'll be like, yeah, let's go. I'm here for it.
72:5718 stretching it. But dude, Chris Bell, I would say he was probably the prospect.
73:02I had the most fun watching because he was buried in consensus rankings.
73:05I show up. I don't watch so much college football, so I show up late.
73:09And then I watched the Miami game and he took like two shallow crosses to the house where he was easily the fastest player in the football game.
73:17And he was like 225 pounds. I was like, are my eyes deceiving me?
73:21Or is this like not a truly special player?
73:24Perhaps there's other things to nitpick about his game.
73:26But of course, I would have drafted him in the early part of the second round, even with the ACL tear, the
73:33fact that he's beating the timeline and there's really nothing in his way.
73:36I have been drafting him in the 17th and 18th round.
73:39If I can't admit that. Oh, OK, there we go.
73:42Yeah, no, I really like Chris Bell's prospect, too.
73:45We had some similar notes here. I had him in the tier of like, yeah, early round to kind of priority.
73:51Take him somewhere there. James Coe asked me before the draft, is Chris Bell more AJ Brown or trail on Burks?
73:57And I was like, OK, can I say somewhere in the middle of that wide cavern in terms of the range of outcomes?
74:03And if I was to shoot, I actually wouldn't shoot straight centrist here.
74:07I'd probably lean a little bit more on the positive range of outcomes, especially because, you know, I think the fact that
74:13Caleb Douglas has emerged seemingly as the starter and X receiver.
74:16Actually, that's pretty good news for Chris Bell Hayden, because there are some parts of Chris Bell's game where you think like,
74:23yeah, big boy X receiver AJ Brown in time.
74:25But I think if he's a guy that you get on the move and run those like crossing routes, the runway routes, that's where he could really cook.
74:33Even in an offense like what we expect Bobby Slowick to run down there in Miami.
74:38Looking at my comps pre-draft, Debo Samuel, DJ Moore, Traylon Burks.
74:41So we did not get to the AJ Brown stuff.
74:43We worked downward from there, but similar players. I think on the move is the way to go.
74:49Just one of the crazy athletes in the straight line.
74:51Absolutely. No question about that. OK, number three comes in from Big Blue Goonie.
74:55Malachi Fields finishes in the top 10 in touchdown receptions.
74:58Yeah, BBG is getting himself excited about Malachi Fields.
75:01I think he tweets to me about Malachi Fields at least three times a week now at this point.
75:06And I mean, top 10 in touchdown receptions. That would require the Giants offense to be good.
75:11I'm not sure it's going to be good, but I do believe in Malachi Fields.
75:15Also believe in Malachi Fields. More importantly than that, BBG, a hell of a follow.
75:19Be prepared, but he gives out good takes. Malachi Fields.
75:22He was ahead on Malachi Fields about a week or two ago.
75:26And it was like, this guy's going to beat out Darius Slayton and those cats.
75:30And I think that's exactly what's happening. Yeah. I mean, when you come into a wide receiver room, it's like, I think
75:36I said this to the producers post drafts. Do we put Darius Slayton as the starter?
75:41Do we put Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin? OK, just go ahead and put Malachi Fields as the starting receiver on the outside next to Malik Neighbors.
75:48And here we are months later, and that's pretty much what's going to happen.
75:52Darnell Mooney is like kind of in trade rumors now at this point.
75:56So actually, Houston, maybe call about Darnell Mooney. That actually might not be the worst idea in the world there.
76:01OK, next one comes in from Cash Lagube. It's a bunch of numbers.
76:05I don't know. Weird handle. Best Ball Cash. There we go.
76:08Sometimes the names are better. Matthew Hibner as tight end one over Mark Andrews, and it doesn't take that long into the season to get there.
76:16Yeah, this is one of the tight ends, Hayden, that again, I'm not drafting him in redraft leagues or whatever, but there's something to this Matthew Hibner thing.
76:23Looked pretty good in the preseason. Was a prospect that some people liked.
76:27And yeah, I mean, it's just probably not going to happen for Mark Andrews this year.
76:32And they do need more of like a true inline presence.
76:35They didn't even, I mean, Andrews is not that guy.
76:38Isaiah likely wasn't that guy. You know, Durham Smythe comes over from the previous Bears offense there with Declan Doyle.
76:43I think there's some real opportunity for Hibner here.
76:46Yeah, there's always like one or two of these tight ends that like largely we haven't heard of that like breaks through.
76:52And he does have an interesting college profile. I didn't actually watch him in the pre-draft process.
76:57He's like pretty buried in consensus rankings, but he started at Michigan, finished up at SMU, had like 400-ish yards in each of those seasons at SMU.
77:04So I think it's more about Mark Andrews than Hibner himself.
77:08But Mark Andrews, I think every year has kind of fallen like a full like, you know, area down the cliff to
77:14the point where it's like, you know, he just might be on the ground at this point.
77:19So that's what makes me like, you know, Rashad Bateman, Jacoby Lane curious.
77:22Because if Mark Andrews like he's not like a real receiving threat at this point, like, you know, Lamar Jackson's going to
77:29walk away with like 30 passing touchdowns this year.
77:31Like they got to go somewhere. Matthew Hibner, 6'4", 251, 91st percentile, 40-yard dash, 87th percentile vertical jump, according to Mock Draftable.
77:37So, you know, there's I've heard worse ideas than 87th percentile vertical jump, 91st 40-yard dash on the Ravens offense where we're
77:44looking for some interesting tight ends here. I've heard worse ideas.
77:47Okay, next one comes in from at too high shell.
77:50Jadarian Price will finish the season with more fantasy points than 2025 Kenneth Walker.
77:53Is that that bold? I mean, yeah, that bold.
77:56I mean, how bold is that? I'm not sure this one counts.
77:59I would say like creative. I'll give you, you know, like it's it is shocking.
78:04But as someone that drafted too much Kenneth Walker last year, you know, he probably won't finish like the RB 26 in the regular season.
78:11And that's where he goes in drafts. So creative.
78:13But I'm not going to say this is bold enough.
78:16Yeah, I'm looking it up right now. See this.
78:19If you had said, you know, 20, if you had said 20, 26, Kenneth Walker, that would have been bold, you know, for Jadarian Price.
78:26And personally, I don't know if I would have totally bought into that.
78:29But yeah, Kenneth Walker last season was the running back 22 in total points in half PPR points per game.
78:35You know, we're talking running back 29. That would actually be a disappointment.
78:39I mean, it was like a relative disappointment to ADP running back 26 with Kenneth Gainwell.
78:43Jadarian Price, same season as Kenneth Gainwell last year.
78:46How would we feel about that as running back 26?
78:49Probably not that great. Not great. Next one, John Kuss.
78:52God, I hate reading social media handles. Parker Jankus here.
78:54Eli Raritan outproduces Hunter Henry. I buy this one.
78:57Okay, this is our most realistic, bold prediction so far.
79:00I really liked Raritan as a prospect. He's apparently been like, not just lighting it up in camp, but like he's going
79:06to be playing over Hunter Henry in some situations type of buzz out of camp.
79:10And sometimes like when these veterans see like there's a merging guy, they're like, give me a contract right now before I'm actually absolutely buried.
79:17So Hunter Henry got one of these like extensions of like, oh, no, here comes father time.
79:22Give me one more paycheck, please. So we just saw that Raritan is going to be involved here within reason.
79:28Yeah, within reason. He is the only other rookie tight end that I have even ranked right now because I could see him getting a legit role.
79:35I do see him getting a legit role and was a player that I really liked pre-draft as well.
79:41So yeah, definitely like that one. And I don't mean to rip on your handle here, Jankus.
79:46I just, you know, I don't want to mispronounce names.
79:48I feel bad about that. I know what this next one is.
79:52Number seven, Josel Sustis. They've, they it's, it's social justice, but they've taken the S and they've switched the J.
79:57There we go. Bryce Lance greater than 850 yards, probably not going to happen, but you know, I like the spirit of it.
80:04As I said earlier, Bryce Lance is somebody that can be a sacrificial vertical receiver to start.
80:09And then in time, I think grow to be like a, like a solid starting boundary receiver.
80:14I think he needed a lot of work as a prospect, but like, I can see the final vision.
80:19Like I can see what people are believing into.
80:22But I think like one of the first practices after Tyson went down, Lance was like in two wide receiver sets.
80:28It's going to be him and Bayley. I think it's like, that's like the actual question mark.
80:32Bayley was like just involved enough as the number two where like in the deepest of leagues, you can like have them
80:39on your bench and see what happens. But someone like Bryce Lance, like could, you know, make that a little bit more difficult.
80:45Yeah. I think there's just so different player archetypes, Bryce Lance and Devon Bayley, but yeah, there's a real chance because Bayley
80:51is pretty much just a power slot that he could be the guy in two receiver sets.
80:56As you mentioned, Bryce Lance here. Last one, they're going to take D house.
81:00We got to use on this one. Ted Hearst ends the season as the second highest scoring bucks receiver, Daniel house.
81:06There we go. So I think you're a little bit more Ted Hearst skeptical than I am.
81:11If I, if I've read into some of your comments previously, Hayden, but I think.
81:15And again, I was kind of mixed on Ted Hearst overall.
81:18I thought he was just like day two receiver.
81:21He went where he should go. That's totally fine.
81:23He's a developmental guy. I mean, he's coming from frigging Georgia state.
81:27You know, there's a lot to go there, but this is one that I think could be spiritually accurate just because I
81:33am pretty skeptical about what Chris Godwin has left.
81:35And Jalen McMillan's a kind of up and down player injury questions.
81:39Like I could see an area where people feel like they just, they want to find a reason for a Mecca book to not be good.
81:46As long as he's healthy, he's going to, he's going to crush relative to these other guys, but I could see her
81:52standing up being a, you know, more involved than we think right now.
81:56Yeah. My comps for him were DJ chart, Justin Hunter, Denzel Mims, like that, you know, explosive big body question marks, uh, within the game.
82:03We'll see if he develops. Uh, but yeah, he had some like really crazy moments and then some very questionable moments, uh,
82:09as project, but before we go, the Chris Godwin stuff, was it just like lack of last lack of explosiveness?
82:15I remember watching him and like his hands weren't bothering him, but he was starting to drop passes and stuff like that.
82:21Like what exactly were you seeing with the Chris Godwin stuff real quick?
82:25Yeah. It's not even so much just the, the drops and everything or anything like that.
82:30Just movement skills weren't quite there for him. Yeah.
82:32To me, I just, and it could be like, just, it could just totally be injuries.
82:37Right. Like, and he gets, he bounced back, he bounces back this year, but typically I don't love the reverse trend there
82:43for a player that's dealt with a lot of lower body injuries and is getting up there, uh, into the thirties.
82:49So 2024 was his best season as an NFL player, 2025.
82:52I think we did see a little bit of drop off.
82:55So I think he could bounce back and be a solid starter this year, but to me, just, he's like a, I don't know about the upside there.
83:03And I love Chris Godwin. He's one of my favorite receivers, uh, over the last few years.
83:08So hate to say that about Chris Godwin. And I hope I am wrong about that.
83:12All right. You guys got a lineup dilemma trade debate or league controversy.
83:16The fantasy hotline is open all season long. So send us your toughest questions.
83:20We just might feature them in an upcoming episode.
83:23Episode Hayden hell of a show today. This was an absolute blast.
83:26Hope you had as much fun as I did talking about these rookies and maybe, but probably not giving a heat check to the people out there.
83:34You know, it also is fun for all of you.
83:36It's Yahoo fantasy's 29th year. And to celebrate day 11 of 29, we are revealing the new Yahoo fantasy draft experience.
83:42Oh baby. It is faster. It's built for the clock.
83:45Redesigned UI, new stats, tables to compare players, real-time draft grades.
83:48After each pick, new post draft share experience. Tons of great stuff.
83:52Okay. I love using it. So you will as well.
83:54That is going to do it for us today.
83:57Thanks again to our friends over at Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL who are here all season long, celebrating
84:03the passion traditions and unforgettable moments that make football America's obsession.
84:06This show will be back on Sunday. Scott Pianowski joins me to recap week two of the preseason.
84:11That's going to be live right here at 4 p.m.
84:14Eastern on Sunday. Subscribe to the channel. Until then, we are out.
84:18Bye.

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