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.