PodcastFrom Yahoo Fantasy Forecast
12 do’s and don’ts when drafting in 2026
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 23 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 3, 2026
Published
Mon, August 3, 2026
56
Player insights
44
Players mentioned
Topics
Colston LovelandSam LaPortaCeeDee LambDak PrescottGeorge KittleGeorge PickensLuther BurdenMike EvansRicky PearsallTucker KraftAaron JonesBaker MayfieldBijan RobinsonBlake Corum
Player analysis
Player insights
Aaron Jones
PositiveBreakout109:23
Matt Harmon uses Aaron Jones' rookie season as an example of a player who took time to displace a veteran (Jamal Williams) and rewarded patient managers.
Insight pageBaker Mayfield
PositiveValue23:32
Scott Pianowski ranks Baker Mayfield as his QB21, noting the potential for a pass-centric offense in Tampa Bay.
Insight pageBijan Robinson
NegativeUsage102:06
Matt Harmon advises against drafting Brian Robinson as an insurance policy for Bijan Robinson, arguing that the backup is not a direct, high-upside replacement and that drafting handcuffs in August caps overall team upside.
Insight pageBlake Corum
NegativeUsage37:49
Matt Harmon notes uncertainty regarding the backfield split between Kyren Williams and Blake Corum in the Sean McVay offense.
Insight pageBrian Robinson
NegativeUsage102:06
Matt Harmon explicitly advises against drafting Brian Robinson as a handcuff for Bijan Robinson, noting that he is not a high-upside replacement and that drafting insurance policies in August is a 'sucker play' that limits roster flexibility.
Insight pageBrock Purdy
NegativeProjection6:57
Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski have downgraded Brock Purdy following the Pearsall injury and general 49ers offensive fragility; Harmon is considering ranking Jackson Dart, Dak Prescott, or Bo Nix ahead of him.
Insight pageCarnell Tate
PositiveBreakout107:16
Matt Harmon suggests that Carnell Tate could see his opportunity increase toward the end of the season, advising fantasy managers to exercise patience with rookie wide receivers.
Insight pageCeeDee Lamb
PositiveValue37:05
Matt Harmon identifies CeeDee Lamb as a player with good value in the Cowboys' high-priority offense.
Insight pageNegativeRole57:07
Matt Harmon compares CeeDee Lamb to a 'cake' in terms of his role as a crafty slot receiver, suggesting his game ages well.
Insight pageChigoziem Okonkwo
PositiveSleeper29:03
Matt Harmon identifies Chigokonkwo as an interesting late-round sleeper tight end for the 2026 season.
Insight pageChris Olave
PositiveBreakout48:49
Matt Harmon highlights Chris Olave as a prime example of a receiver who had a breakthrough season in year three, proving that breakouts occur beyond the second year.
Insight pageChristian McCaffrey
NegativeUsage8:46
Scott Pianowski notes that Christian McCaffrey is coming off a massive workload last year and is part of an aging, potentially fragile 49ers core.
Insight pageColston Loveland
PositiveValue19:24
Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski view Colson Loveland as a high-upside target, noting his strong late-season and playoff usage with regular double-digit targets. Harmon ranks him 35th overall despite an ADP of 43, making him a preferred value over other vanity tight ends.
Insight pageNegativeValue31:52
Scott Pianowski likes Colston Loveland but fears his rising ADP will price him out, noting that Tyler Warren offers similar value at a lower cost.
Insight pagePositiveBreakout107:38
Scott Pienowski notes that Colston Loveland went 'nuclear' during the final two months of the season for Chicago, serving as a prime example of why patience with rookies is valuable.
Insight pageCyrus Allen
PositiveInjury35:14
Matt Harmon notes that Cyrus Allen appears to have avoided a serious injury, with reports suggesting only a bone or shin bruise.
Insight pageDak Prescott
PositiveValue17:26
Dak Prescott is viewed as a high-value quarterback target who provides production comparable to more expensive options.
Insight pagePositiveValue37:12
Matt Harmon identifies Dak Prescott as a player with good value in the current draft market.
Insight pageDaniel Jones
NegativeValue22:32
Matt Harmon ranks Daniel Jones as his QB22, noting that if healthy, he could flirt with usable fantasy numbers, though he is likely not 100% healthy.
Insight pageDavis Webb
NegativeRole40:46
Matt Harmon notes that the Denver Broncos offense is exciting but carries uncertainty due to Davis Webb being a first-time play-caller.
Insight pageDeebo Samuel
NegativeRole6:46
Deebo Samuel has returned to the 49ers on a $7 million deal; Matt Harmon views him as a useful but hyper-specific and diminished player who is not expected to carry a massive workload.
Insight pageGeorge Kittle
NegativeInjury8:48
George Kittle is coming off a major Achilles injury sustained in January, raising concerns about his health and role in the 49ers offense.
Insight pageNegativeInjury32:29
Scott Pianowski is fading George Kittle due to injury concerns, specifically noting his mid-30s age and the recovery timeline from an Achilles injury sustained in January.
Insight pageGeorge Pickens
PositiveValue37:05
Matt Harmon identifies George Pickens as a player with good value in the current draft market.
Insight pagePositiveRole55:54
Matt Harmon identifies George Pickens as a 'pie'—a player who can be inconsistent but has high-level upside when winning in tight coverage.
Insight pageJames Conner
NegativeUsage110:52
Matt Harmon suggests that James Conner may receive ceremonial carries early in the season, but could see his role diminish as the team potentially transitions to Jeremiah Love later in the year.
Insight pageJameson Williams
PositiveUsage21:07
Matt Harmon highlights Jameson Williams' significant production jump after Week 10, where his target share on routes increased from 15.6% to just under 19%, resulting in an average of 84.7 yards per game.
Insight pageJared Goff
PositiveValue19:04
Jared Goff is highlighted as a high-floor quarterback who plays mostly indoors and has led the league in touchdown passes over the last four seasons.
Insight pageJavonte Williams
PositiveValue37:07
Matt Harmon identifies Javonte Williams as a player with good value in the current draft market.
Insight pageJaylen Waddle
PositiveValue54:33
Matt Harmon admits he is ahead of ADP on Jalen Waddle, emphasizing the importance of knowing the market cost while being willing to draft players he values higher.
Insight pageJeremiyah Love
PositiveBreakout110:47
Matt Harmon identifies Jeremiah Love as a potential late-season breakout candidate, suggesting that while he may be buried behind James Conner and Tyler Allgeier early, he could be 'unleashed' later in the year.
Insight pageJoe Burrow
PositiveValue17:23
Scott Pianowski views Joe Burrow as a high-upside quarterback option who can be drafted a tier later than the top-ranked signal callers.
Insight pageJordan Love
PositiveValue19:10
Jordan Love is a viable late-round quarterback target who has a 30-plus touchdown season on his resume and could see increased pass volume due to Green Bay's defensive and running game context.
Insight pageJosh Allen
NegativeValue17:10
Josh Allen is a consistent top-tier quarterback, but Scott Pianowski questions the opportunity cost of drafting him early compared to the depth available at the position.
Insight pageKellen Moore
PositiveRole38:44
Matt Harmon is proactive about the New Orleans offense under Kellen Moore, believing it can be a decent fantasy unit even if it doesn't reach top-tier status.
Insight pageKyren Williams
NegativeUsage37:49
Matt Harmon notes uncertainty regarding the backfield split between Kyren Williams and Blake Corum in the Sean McVay offense, though he expects the offense to be productive.
Insight pageLuther Burden
NegativeBreakout47:55
Matt Harmon clarifies that he has no negative stance on year-two receivers like Luther Burden, but warns against fixating on them as guaranteed breakouts.
Insight pagePositiveBreakout107:36
Scott Pienowski highlights Luther Burden as an example of a rookie who improved in the second half of the season, reinforcing the strategy of being patient with rookies.
Insight pageMakai Lemon
NegativeUsage107:18
Matt Harmon notes that if Makai Lemon struggles to earn playing time in two-receiver sets behind Dontavian Wicks, it is not a reason to panic, as rookie development often takes time.
Insight pageMalik Nabers
NegativeInjury28:43
Scott Pianowski and Matt Harmon are cautious about Malik Nabers due to injury concerns. While acknowledging his top-five receiver ceiling, Pianowski will only draft him as a reactive pick if he slides past his ADP, rather than proactively.
Insight pageMike Evans
PositiveProjection8:52
Matt Harmon is excited to draft Mike Evans, noting he remains a threat to win downfield and could be a double-digit touchdown player if he stays healthy.
Insight pagePositiveValue108:14
Scott Pienowski recounts scooping up Mike Evans in 2014 after he was dropped by a league mate early in the season, illustrating the value of picking up discarded rookies.
Insight pageNick Chubb
PositiveBreakout109:04
Matt Harmon and Scott Pienowski discuss Nick Chubb's rookie season, noting that despite a breakout 105-yard, two-touchdown game, he was dropped by many managers before eventually becoming an RB1 by late October.
Insight pageQuinshon Judkins
NegativeValue45:13
Matt Harmon notes drafting Quinchon Judkins as a running back three, expressing concern about the overall balance of his roster when prioritizing wide receivers.
Insight pageRashee Rice
NegativeBust35:02
Matt Harmon explicitly labels Rasheed Rice as a 'red light' player he will not be drafting this year for multiple reasons.
Insight pageRicky Pearsall
NegativeInjury5:27
Ricky Pearsall is out for the entire 2026 season after aggravating a PCL injury; he will be 27 by the start of the 2027 season.
Insight pageNegativeInjury43:33
Matt Harmon mentions losing Ricky Pearsall in a salary cap draft, noting that teams loaded with running back depth often struggle when they lack wide receiver impact.
Insight pageSam LaPorta
PositiveProjection19:44
Matt Harmon believes Sam LaPorta is being undervalued by the market, projecting him for 850 yards and 7-8 touchdowns with a ceiling of 1,000 yards. Harmon attributes his late-season dip to injury and play-calling changes rather than talent decline.
Insight pagePositiveValue30:24
Matt Harmon considers Sam Laporta an incredible pick this year, projecting him for 850 yards and 7-8 touchdowns, noting he is a tier above the late-round options.
Insight pagePositiveValue45:57
Matt Harmon suggests waiting on tight end until Sam Laporta's price drops to a comfortable level, allowing for earlier investment in running backs and wide receivers.
Insight pageSean Mannion
PositiveRole39:46
Matt Harmon notes positive feedback regarding Sean Mannion's potential as a play-caller in Philadelphia, citing his diverse coaching background.
Insight pageTucker Kraft
PositiveValue30:21
Matt Harmon identifies Tucker Craft as a very good pick at the tight end position for the 2026 season.
Insight pagePositiveInjury33:07
Scott Pianowski is avoiding Tucker Kraft this season following his knee injury, noting that the Packers' offense is not built to support a high-volume target leader, making Kraft a better target for 2027.
Insight pageTyler Allgeier
NegativeUsage110:55
Matt Harmon notes that Tyler Allgeier may see early-season work, but warns that his role could be reduced as the season progresses in favor of Jeremiah Love.
Insight pageTyler Warren
PositiveValue30:18
Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski view Tyler Warren as a great pick with a path to lead the Colts in targets, offering similar upside to Colston Loveland at a better price.
Insight pageZay Flowers
PositiveBreakout51:26
Matt Harmon views Zay Flowers as a player who has improved each year and could take another step forward with a new play-caller and potential usage changes.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Big show for you here today. It is the beginning of our August daily schedule.
0:04Yes, that's right. The Yahoo Fantasy Forecast live every day, Sunday to Thursday, because it's fantasy football time.
0:09All right. It's August. Your drafts are coming up sooner than you know it.
0:13And on that note, Scott Pianowski joins me for a little do's and don'ts, 12 of them, as we head into August here.
0:20How should you balance the quarterback board with the tight end board?
0:23Are we going vanity in either of those positions this year?
0:27What is the area of wide receivers that we are targeting the most this year?
0:31Tons of information coming up on the show for you here today.
0:34All that and more. Let's get into it. What's going on, everyone?
0:38I'm Matt Harmon. Welcome to the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast.
0:40And it is a hell of a day to talk ball because it is August, baby.
0:45It is fantasy football drafting season. The NFL preseason is right around the corner.
0:49What a great time to be alive and joining me to talk a little ball today.
0:54To welcome in the great month of August. It is my good friend, my guy, Scott Pianowski.
0:58Scott, what's going on, man? Yeah, echo everything you said.
1:01It's a great time to be alive in the fantasy football streets.
1:05It's a great day to be Matt Harmon. Heard it might be your birthday.
1:09Is that true? It is true. It is my birthday.
1:12I'm 35 years old today, Scott. Yeah, so I had all my fun last night.
1:16I had my big annual tomahawk steak at Heirloom, one of the best restaurants in Virginia Beach, period.
1:21Had my tomahawk last night. I got all my fun out so that I could have the real fun here with you
1:27today on my birthday and do a little fantasy football podcasting.
1:31How about that? Are you in the best shape of your life, Matt?
1:34Duh. You just saw me. You know I'm in the best shape of my life.
1:39Come on. Come on. Be serious. Wow. Yeah. Matt's looking pretty buff.
1:42Yeah. Between Harmon and Boone, we are well suited this year.
1:45Kabaka and I will be on the bench, but you guys are ready to crush the combine.
1:50We're going to crush this episode today because we're doing one of my favorite things.
1:54I know we talk about players and stats and videos and Rasheed Rice versus air and all that stuff, but today we're
2:01actually going to teach you how to draft and give you tips on how to be better at the table and how
2:07to be a better fantasy football manager. And I guarantee if you listen to this program, you get something actionable out of it.
2:14It's a little bit more subtle, but we're not giving you the fish today so much as we're teaching you how to fish.
2:20That's right. I love doing this episode and I love doing these types of episodes every year with you, Scott, where we
2:26really dive into the nitty gritty about how to draft, how to think about fantasy football here as we welcome in the month of August.
2:34So just a little reminder for the people. Yes, it is.
2:37It is August now. And that means we are now daily from this moment through the NFL season.
2:42We are now daily Sunday to Thursdays on YouTube right here at 4 p.m.
2:46Eastern. Our goal with every show this month is to get you ready for the most important drafts that you've got out there.
2:52You know, even the drafts you don't consider that important, honestly.
2:56OK, this is a draft like you kind of sort of care about.
2:59It's that last minute office league that you got talked into or whatever.
3:03We're going to get you prepared for that one, too, in addition to your most important drafts.
3:08So we're going to kick off our draft season content with an annual tradition here.
3:12It is our 12 do's and don'ts when drafting this year in 2026.
3:16But before we get into that, we do have to cover some fantasy fallout.
3:20It just seems to be something with these damn 49ers wide receivers every single day.
3:24Yeah, not my favorite birthday present I've ever gotten.
3:27We learned that Ricky Pearsall is out for the season.
3:30He is going to miss all of 2026. We were kind of preparing you guys for this earlier this week on the
3:36show with Boone that it was a developing situation.
3:39He again now they've decided he's not going to be able to play through that PCL after aggravating it.
3:44He is going to be out for the entire 2026 season.
3:47Hopefully he comes back in 2027, which, by the way, Ricky Pearsall will be 27 by the time next year kicks off.
3:54So just a very unfortunate start to his career for a guy that missed zero games due to injury in college.
4:00Just an unbelievable twist there for him. But in response to this, Scott, the Niners have gone out and found an old friend.
4:06Debo Samuel is back with the San Francisco 49ers.
4:09And I got to say, you're talking about me being in the best shape of my life.
4:14Debo looking pretty good out there at San Francisco 49ers camp as well.
4:17So thoughts on this situation? Have you recalibrated some of your Brock Purdy optimism?
4:21Do you have interest in Debo Samuel? Where are you at with Dazon Stribling?
4:25Lots to consider right now with the San Francisco 49ers, Scott.
4:28I'm not the first person to say this, but man, what an old collection of talent on this offense, right?
4:34McCaffrey and Kittle and Debo. And, you know, Pearsall, very sad about a week ago at the Fantasy Football Expo on a
4:41team of mine that was a little bit more running back centric than I'd like it to be.
4:46I had probably one receiver down, but I had Pearsall on that team and had him penciled in as maybe my wide
4:52receiver three, hoping to be a breakout player for me.
4:55And then a few days later, I'm dropping him for whatever was left in the waiver wire.
5:00Very sad day. And all the more reason why you want to build a robust wide receiver room because you're just not going to find.
5:07Yeah, I realize once a generation Puka Nakua pops on waivers, but it's so hard to get impactful help on the waiver wire.
5:13Yeah, I think I have to come back down a little bit on Purdy.
5:17It's still Shanahan's system. I still like all the players here.
5:21It's just a matter of what versions of them we're getting and who's going to stay healthy.
5:26McCaffrey had a huge workload last year. Kittle's coming off a major Achilles injury in January.
5:30Samuel, obviously a back nine player. I didn't mention Mike Evans, another one of their 30-something players, a player I'm very excited to draft this year.
5:38I know we were very battling for him in the expo.
5:41I think you ended up getting him the salary cap league when I really needed a receiver.
5:46So they need Evans to be healthy. I still think he's a double touchdown guy if he plays that full season.
5:52But, man, I don't want to give any credence to some of the theories out there, some of the kind of spooky
5:58hocus-pocus theories of why guys get hurt in San Francisco.
6:01But, man, it's another year where it feels like they're going to be one of the more injured teams in the league
6:07just based on the flow of training camp starting with this awful Pearsall news.
6:11They were just one of the most fragile teams in the NFL coming into this.
6:15Like even when Nate and I did our top 10 offenses shows for Football 301 not too long ago, that was kind
6:22of my analysis on the Niners was if everybody stays healthy, if everybody's out there, yeah, this looks like it could be a pretty cool offense.
6:29And Brock Purdy could have a really nice year.
6:32I mean, they were honest. They were the eighth best offense last year after having a season from hell and kind of my like cumulative offensive metrics.
6:39But the thing that was the most problematic area for them was they were not explosive at all.
6:45Explosive play-wise, they were outside of the top 20 offenses in the league last year.
6:49And Pearsall right now probably was their most explosive guy.
6:52You know, when you look at I mean, Mike Evans can still win down the football field, but he's obviously an older player.
6:58Debo Samuel. I think Debo based on who he was last year, still like a useful player, but he's obviously just a hyper specific guy and very diminished.
7:06And they signed him to a seven million dollar deal.
7:09They're signing him, you know, in late July, August.
7:12We know what that means. They're not expecting a ton out of him.
7:16So it just gets one of those offenses where I would have loved to roll into a season with Brock Purdy as my QB one.
7:23And I'm still going to kind of have him ranked in that similar range.
7:27But, you know, I've started to look at like, do I break ties now and rank a guy like Jackson Dart or
7:33Dak Prescott or like Bo Nix even ahead of Brock Purdy?
7:36All in the same tier to me, but I think there's an argument for that.
7:40But the guy I do want to just like speak positively about here for a moment before we move off of this one.
7:47I do think like Dazon Stripling is a guy, you know, he's got a hamstring injury right now.
7:52We don't know how serious that is, but like, of course, every nineers receivers banged up.
7:57He's just someone that I think is very much draftable in all formats right now.
8:01Scott, he's someone that you kind of need to you need to look at the exact right routes for him.
8:07You know, again, like if you're looking on the screen here right now at his reception perception chart, there's a lot of red.
8:13But the routes that really matter, you know, for this offense, like digs and slants and honestly, the routes that he ran
8:20a lot in in in old misses offense last year did actually have some pretty strong success.
8:25I think he can beat man coverage. He's really good with the ball in his hands and at the catch point.
8:31I think there's a way that Stripling could ultimately be maybe not like, you know, the nominal league winner type, but a
8:37really good hit is a late round rookie receiver.
8:39Scott. Yes, certainly a player to target. But they drafted him with the idea that he'd have a role this year, and
8:46now it's kind of forced into it with the news with Pierce Hall.
8:50And I echo what you say about the quarterback rankings.
8:52I did move Dart above Purdy. I already had Dak Prescott above Purdy.
8:56And right now, Purdy and Nix is kind of a seam call for me.
9:00Purdy goes from somebody who if I'm going to be one of the and we're going to get to this point in a second.
9:07But if I'm going to be one of the last teams to draft a quarterback, a lot of times I like to
9:13double tap it and get the best second quarterback among my opponents.
9:17And Purdy has gone from maybe the person I'd like to be in charge of my quarterback committee to I'd be more
9:23comfortable as he can be my quarterback to take him with another strong guy and play matchups and see how the flow of the season goes.
9:31But certainly down a half tier for me. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
9:35And also, I think that makes a good transition into our exercise here, Scott, because as we give out our 12 do's
9:42and don'ts for draft season here in 2026, Scott and I are going to take we're going to take a look at basically like every position.
9:49We're going to take a look at our kind of overall thought process when it comes to fantasy, both for this year
9:55and from like a real macro perspective. But we are going to start out a little bit micro here, Scott, with something you were just talking about.
10:03What is your first do for your first don't for the 2026 fantasy football season?
10:07Yeah, the first don't is don't be in a rush to get a quarterback.
10:11And we talk about a lot. It's one of the disconnects of football and fantasy football in the NFL.
10:17The quarterback is everything. If you don't have a quarterback, you can't sleep at night.
10:21And teams do crazy things to get a quarterback that they can believe in for one reason or another.
10:27In fantasy, it's the New York subway system. You miss a train.
10:30There's another train coming in five minutes. Yeah, Josh Allen, he's been quarterback one, quarterback two for a million years in a row.
10:37And he'll probably do that again. But how much better is he really than the Jackson or May or Daniels or Burrow?
10:43And then, OK, Joe Burrow, if he's healthy, carnival football in Cincinnati.
10:46That sounds like fun. Is it that much different than what Dak Prescott's going to do in Dallas?
10:52And he goes a tier later. Do you want to wait for Herbert with the situation in Los Angeles with the Chargers?
10:58Chris McDaniel, healthy offensive line. We're all excited about that.
11:01Caleb Williams took off last year with Ben Johnson.
11:03They have a lot of ascending talent on that target tree.
11:06Wouldn't you like a piece of that? Trevor Lawrence was a league winner late last season.
11:11I feel great about any of these guys. Maybe Purdy goes on the back burner with the news we talked about earlier.
11:17See how that goes. Jackson Dart could certainly be a league winner if he stays healthy.
11:22We know he's a dynamic runner. We haven't mentioned Matthew Stafford, who was the MVP of the season last year.
11:28Has great receivers in Sean McVay cooking in Los Angeles.
11:31Do you think Patrick Mahomes is a comeback season?
11:33Can Kyler Murray get revitalized in Minnesota? You don't have to like all these guys.
11:37I'm sure you'll like some of them. And I haven't even mentioned the guy who has the most touchdown passes the last four seasons.
11:44He plays almost his entire season indoors. That's Jared Goff.
11:47Very high floor. Jordan Love going to throw the ball.
11:50Maybe more in Green Bay. He's had a 30-plus touchdown season on his resume.
11:54Lake Willis, how much is he going to run?
11:57I don't need to mention every quarterback in the league.
12:00The point is this. It's a very deep position.
12:02And your opponents, right? When they're taking Josh Allen, when they're taking Lamar Jackson, when they're taking Drake May, they're probably not taking a backup.
12:09If they are, they're going to do it very late in their draft.
12:13So you can easily get a quarterback at a very nice price that you like.
12:17And then maybe get a second quarterback if you want to play matchups in the expo I mentioned earlier.
12:23I got Goff and Love. I would have rather had Trevor Lawrence, where I think wound up on your team.
12:28But the point is I have two quarterbacks I like.
12:31I can play matchups. And there's just no rush to fill this position.
12:35And you ask yourself, of the four positions, you're always going to be asking yourself, what can I find later in the
12:41draft or maybe even on waivers that can be impactful?
12:44And it's so hard to do that at wide receiver.
12:47And at running back, every running back of worth is going to be drafted and or fought over on the waiver wire.
12:53You're much more likely to find an inexpensive difference maker, a quarterback, and a tight end.
12:58So therefore, you don't have to attack those positions early.
13:01I know a lot of people think it's an advantage.
13:04I'm getting Josh Allen. I hate my wide receiver running back builds when I spend an early pick on that quarterback or even on a vanity tight end.
13:12So I don't want you to really – I said quarterback is the tag I have here on the script, but I
13:18really could put it in for tight end easier.
13:21I think quarterbacks may be an easier sell to people.
13:23People might be more nervous about shopping in the inexpensive tight end streets.
13:27But at the onesie positions, I want you to be patient.
13:30I think you can really get away with it.
13:33I'm right there with you on this one this year.
13:36I think this is a fantastic year to go late-round quarterback.
13:39I mean, you very well could have, Scott, like listed off almost every starter in the league and been like, you know what?
13:46There's a case. Like honestly, I get to kind of my QB – shoot, even QB 22 right now in my rankings.
13:52I have Daniel Jones. If Daniel Jones is healthy, like he probably could be going to flirt with like usable fantasy quarterback numbers.
13:58And again, he's probably not – he's definitely not going to be 100% healthy, but he is likely to start week one.
14:05You know, that's obviously, again, QB 22. QB 22, you're getting pretty desperate there.
14:09But you mentioned Jordan Love. I have a QB 20.
14:12You have Baker Mayfield at QB 21. I think those offenses could be pass-centric.
14:16I think obviously they're good offensive environments. We've seen Tampa Bay flirt with like top five efficiency numbers, you know, in recent seasons.
14:22Obviously, that was more like Liam Cohen driven than Baker Mayfield driven.
14:26And we'll see where Zach Robinson falls on that continuum.
14:29Jordan Love with Green Bay. I do have some real serious ecosystem questions about Green Bay, but more so about like the
14:35defense and the running game, which could honestly lead you to like more Jordan Love pass attempts.
14:40So, yeah, to me, Scott, I have – you said it very well.
14:43I hate my teams when I end up forcing myself into especially early quarterback.
14:47Now, early tight end, I think I can get down.
14:50Actually, this is going to transition to my next point too, so I'll put a pin in that.
14:55Like I can get down with the early tight ends.
14:58But quarterback especially, when I'm doing my overall rankings, I do end up finding like I place Josh Allen pretty highly because
15:05he's just so set it and forget it. But that next tier of guys, which for me, tier two of quarterback is
15:11Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels, Drake May, Jalen Hurts.
15:14I end up breaking a lot of ties in the overall rankings against those players, Scott, because I find tier three with
15:20full of a lot of the names that you mentioned there so appetizing.
15:24So, a lot of this though, Scott, I'll throw it to you this way.
15:28It does kind of depend on your league, right?
15:30You do have to know, of course, like the folks that you're drafting with.
15:34Are they likely to take that too early backup quarterback in terms of how far can you kick the can down the road?
15:41But I promise you guys, even if you wait until like rounds nine and 11 to double tap the position, as Scott
15:47mentioned, you're going to come away with two really quality options this year.
15:51Right. I mean, I spent the absolute minimum for my quarterbacks at the Expo salary cap, and I came back out with Goff and Love.
15:58Maybe I'm more amenable to that than some other people are.
16:01I haven't mentioned Tyler Shuck either. New Orleans, we think Kellen Moore is the right answer.
16:06He was playing really well at the end of last season.
16:09The thing is, no matter who you are or what teams you believe in or what type of quarterbacks you want, if
16:15you're more insistent on somebody who has a running component, if you're okay with a Joe Burrow or a Dak Prescott where
16:22they won't run so much, obviously Goff won't run at all.
16:25I dare you to look at this quarterback board and not feel like, oh man, there's like 18 answers I feel really good about.
16:32And this is why you go out and do a mock draft or maybe do a best ball that you have a
16:38low investment in or something like that and try it.
16:41Take your Josh Allen, take your Lamar Jackson, take your Drake May and see how you like that build.
16:46And then wait and wait and wait and sit on your hands a little bit more and see how you like that build.
16:53I mean, I find myself when I look at those Josh Allen teams, all those teams are like, man, I really need
16:59to get lucky with my running backs. Or man, I feel like I'm playing a receiver down.
17:04It's just an opportunity cost that I'm not, it's a check I really don't want to write right now.
17:10Man, it's so well said, just the depth of the quarterback position.
17:13I'm glad you talked about Jared Goff and Tyler Shuck.
17:16Those are two guys I really like at the position as well.
17:19But I'm going to transition because I kind of touched on it there to my first don't of the draft season, which
17:26is in conjunction with this because it's the other onesie position.
17:29Folks, don't wait too long on tight end this year.
17:32Okay. Because I do think like there are interesting and fascinating kind of late round tight ends.
17:36You know, honestly, all the way till like, you know, tight end 16, like Chigokonkwo, I think is a really interesting sleeper this year.
17:43The problem is that that tight end 10, which to me starts at like Travis Kelsey and Ginson to like Isaiah Likely.
17:50Now that Malik neighbors looks like he's going to be a little bit healthier than I probably expected a month ago.
17:56And Mark Andrews and Dalton Kincaid. I kind of think those are all like the same in the same tier with a guy like Chigokonkwo.
18:03So what I mean by that is I kind of want you to lock in a tight end a little bit earlier than that.
18:10I'm curious, Scott, if you found yourself taking any of the vanity tight ends.
18:14But to me, that second tier of tight ends, which starts honestly at Tyler Warren, who I think is a great pick this year.
18:21I think Tucker Craft is once again a very good pick this year.
18:24And Sam Laporta, man, I think is an incredible, incredible pick this year.
18:28I have liked my teams a lot when I'm shopping in that bucket at the tight end position as opposed to waiting.
18:34You know, the next tier of guys like Kyle Pitts, George Kittle, obviously, with the health question, Harold Fannin with an environment question.
18:41Sure. But to me, I think tight end, like we've we're showing the rankings here from from Hayden.
18:46He's got Kyle Pitts a little higher than I do.
18:49But even still, like after Sam Laporta, I think there's a pretty significant drop off and then a really significant drop off
18:55outside the top 10 players of the position this year.
18:58Sure. You underscore the importance of tiering, which is critical for fantasy success, where where the talent clusters and when you have
19:04to get in on a guy before there's a drop off.
19:08You identified a lot of players I'm targeting. So McBride Bowers, too expensive for me.
19:12And as much as I want Colston Loveland, I'm glad I already have some Colston Loveland shares.
19:17I'm just afraid the helium with him, the ADP is just going to rise so much that I'm probably going to be priced out of Loveland.
19:24One reason why is because I don't think there's that much difference between Loveland and Ty Warren.
19:29And it's a lot less crowding in Indianapolis. I mean, obviously, the Chicago offense looks more fun, looks more healthy.
19:35I think there's more upside there. But I think Warren has a path to lead that Colts team and target.
19:41So he's the first guy I'm kind of quasi targeting here.
19:44Here, Laporta, he was the number one tight end his rookie season, and he's had excused absences the last two years.
19:50He was hurt a decent chunk of last season.
19:52I don't see why Matt Laporta, Sam Laporta can't be, Matt Laporta was a baseball player.
19:57Sam Laporta can't be like 850 and 7, 850 and 8.
20:00And if things really pop, maybe a thousand yards is in his range of outcomes.
20:04An offense I like, an offense is probably concentrated.
20:07Jamison Williams came on late last season when they changed the play calling.
20:11But Laporta was missing those games. I don't know that that necessarily has a say in where it goes this year.
20:17I think Laporta is just a guy people have forgotten about or fallen out of love with the last couple of seasons, not his fault.
20:24So that's a tier I would like to shop in.
20:27But also, I don't mind. I might maybe be a little bit more okay with if I had to go to battle
20:33with a likely or with a Dalton Kincaid or with a Dallas Goddard or something like that.
20:38Mark Andrews, Jawan Johnson had a great season last year.
20:41If you follow the money, I think there's a lot of interesting tight ends in that tier as well.
20:46I think there are, again, I agree with you.
20:49There are kind of interesting guys there. I just find that area of tight end so interesting in the second tier that
20:55I'm kind of telling people don't wait too long to get your starter.
20:59Now, if you could find your way to take even a secondary tight end if your bench is deep enough or something like that, I think that's fine.
21:07I do want to double back to the Sam Laporta point just because that was a really good one by you to note the Jameson Williams.
21:14You kind of get to do a choose-your-own-adventure idea with Jameson Williams in terms of why did he have these dramatic first and second half splits.
21:22Because in the first nine weeks of the season, Jameson Williams was targeted on 15.6% of his routes, and he averaged 44 yards per game.
21:29He caught 21 passes in those nine weeks. From then week 10 on, he was targeted on just under 19% of his
21:35routes and averaged 84.7 yards per game. Some of that is just, I think, natural variance of who Jameson Williams is, Scott.
21:41But also, when you think about that was the week that Sam Laporta got hurt.
21:46Week 10. That was also the week that Dan Campbell took over the play calling, and I don't think Dan Campbell was
21:52going to come in there and not max out Sam Laporta.
21:55I just think that's a classic case of target consolidation between essentially two pass catchers that needed relevant volume in Amon Ross St.
22:02Brown and Jameson Williams beyond what Jameer Gibbs was doing in the backfield.
22:06But now it looks like ADP-wise, people are just kind of putting Laporta on the back burner.
22:10And I don't know that I totally buy into this whole idea of offenses and this guy and the role and everything like that.
22:17But, I mean, Drew Petsing, the tight ends in that offense, obviously Trey McBride's a great player, but a lot of that runs through the tight end.
22:25I mean, even Michael Wilson not too long ago said the big reason why he broke out in the second half of
22:31the year is because Drew Petsing's offense runs through the X receiver and the tight end.
22:36And not the Z receiver, which Michael Wilson was playing prior to Marvin Harrison Jr.
22:40getting hurt. I think this passing game is still going to look a lot more like Dan Campbell's vision than Drew Petsing's vision.
22:47But nevertheless, I do think Laporta, all things considered, there's multiple variables pointed to him being a really good pick.
22:53And again, he goes in kind of the 80s right now in overall ADP.
22:57I think that's a great value to get him there.
22:59Yeah, he's definitely on my target list. Somebody I'll be overweight on and you're getting an offense you like, a schedule you
23:06like, indoor games, a player who's done it before, a player who's a nice part of his career arc entering his fourth season.
23:12There's a lot of things I like with Laporta.
23:15Is there any part of you, you mentioned just kind of Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Colson Loveland, probably too expensive for your taste?
23:21Is there any, if you had to take like relative to ADP, those guys, McBride is like 19th overall in ADP.
23:27Brock Bowers is 25th overall in ADP. That's kind of crazy to me.
23:31I feel like that should be, I feel like that should be like flipped.
23:35I think Bowers should be going early. I guess it depends on where you look.
23:40Colson Loveland, 43rd overall in ADP. If you, relative to cost, which of those three would you most rather take?
23:45It's definitely a loved one for me. Just a little bit cheaper.
23:49And man, those targets he was getting late last season and into the playoffs.
23:53And I always care, especially about playoff usage because that's when the chips are all in the middle.
23:58That's when the games are literally the most important.
24:00And he was getting double-digit targets regularly. I think it's like 48 targets his last four games.
24:05Something like that. But yeah, he just, the breakout happened.
24:08It started in that Cincinnati game. He was uncoverable.
24:11He has a decent chance that he leads that team in touchdown catches on a talented roster.
24:16And the problem is that there's a lot of nice things to say about Bird.
24:20And if Dunzey is healthy, he's a good player.
24:23But I think Colson Loveland's going to the moon.
24:25I think so, too. He's the guy relative to overall ADP I have most ahead of where he is going right now.
24:31So yeah, I'm with you. If you're taking one of those vanity tight ends, I do think it's Colson Loveland.
24:37It's just going to be very room dependent. I feel like his actual, yeah, ADP-wise, he's 43rd overall.
24:42I have him ranked as the 35th overall player.
24:45There are going to be some people that are way high on Colson Loveland.
24:49And it's going to be really difficult to get him there.
24:52So tight end, don't wait too long. But quarterback, I think based on what Scott and I are talking about, you can wait for quite some time.
25:00We are going to take our first quick break on this show.
25:03We come back. We're continuing to run through our do's and don'ts for the 2026 fantasy football season.
25:08We will get into that right after this. All right, we're back.
25:12Scott Pianowski and I are continuing to give you our do's and don'ts for the 2026 fantasy football draft season.
25:18And Scott, for your second don't, I mean, it would not be a Harmon Pianowski, like don't do this type of show.
25:24If you did not offer up a little piece of advice on this next note, what is your second don't for this draft season?
25:31Yeah, kind of an evergreen piece of advice for me.
25:34Do not draft into injuries. Don't go looking for injuries.
25:36They're going to find you. Your roster is going to be beaten up during the season.
25:41So and this is let's make it clear what this is and what this isn't.
25:45I'm not talking about a player who may have an injury history.
25:49You're worried about he's going to get hurt. You have to decide what that's worth.
25:53And I'm not saying you can or can't draft those players.
25:56It's up to you. I'm saying Pearsall is a great example.
25:59He's now out for the season. But the moment that news moved in the wrong direction, I basically termed him an undraftable player.
26:06I hate doing it. It's not satisfying. I often say it's not fun to play fantasy sports like an actuary, but it's
26:12usually the correct move to do as such. Again, injuries are going to find you.
26:17Don't be the hero of, OK, well, this player says that they said four to six weeks.
26:21The player says he can come back in three.
26:24They always say their superheroes are going to come back soon.
26:27And then when these players come back off injuries, a lot of times you need to approve a game or two or
26:33to get them off a snap count to get them back to full throttle.
26:37Maybe they don't get back to full throttle until the next season.
26:41I'm always going to look for the healthiest roster I can get, knowing it's not going to stay that way.
26:47But when injuries go in the wrong direction, I'm going to take them seriously.
26:51I'm going to let somebody else try to catch the falling knife.
26:54Scott, I was just doing the math in my head.
26:57I'm pretty sure this is our ninth season as co-workers together.
27:00Time flies. Unbelievable. Ninth season as co-workers together. And obviously, I'll speak from my side.
27:04A lot of admiration for your work even before we worked together.
27:08And I will still say that of all the things you've taught me in the nine years of us potting together, working
27:14alongside of each other, and again, admiration before that, the thing of yours that I repeat the most is don't draft into injuries.
27:21They're going to find you during the fantasy season.
27:23I tell not even just like say it on the show, say it in my writing.
27:28I tell that to like my friends all the time.
27:31Like, hey, listen, what my big piece of advice to you is, as my buddy Scott says, injuries are going to find you, man.
27:38You don't got to go looking for them essentially.
27:40And yeah, it's tough because you want to take the injury discount for certain players.
27:45But it just the reality is, and I think the best part of what you said there is that even when guys are back, they're partially back.
27:52Right. I think that that's something that what I love, what I love doing with reception perception so much is just being
27:59able to track guys over the course of the season.
28:01And even for some, and there's so many like injury cases, especially with the 2024 class of wideouts where they're coming off
28:08injuries or they played through injuries last year or whatever.
28:11And it's just so obviously like, oh yeah, that, that guy's out there in name only.
28:15He's not the same version of himself. So it just, but we treat these things like very binary.
28:20He's healthy because he's out there. He's not healthy because he's, he's not out there.
28:25It just is. It doesn't work that way. This is not how, this is not how the human body is.
28:30That's not how athletes are. That's not how football players are period.
28:34However, Scott, we do have to make these choices sometimes in fantasy football.
28:38And I think one of the toughest guys this year to evaluate in this way is Malik neighbors.
28:43And I'm kind of curious where you are on neighbors because for like the last, I don't know, every other month, this
28:49off season, I think I've been 100% in lockstep with where I think you were as well, which is just don't take this guy.
28:56Like just when he's, I don't even consider him in my wide receiver rankings because the injury news has been so bad.
29:02Now the injury news has definitely taken a positive turn in the last week and a half or so.
29:08He's actually been out there. You know, the route clips are out there of him on, on Twitter.
29:13And for the most part, you know, I spoke with Josh and Hayden about this on their show, their first Yahoo branded show on their channel.
29:20And we broke down these year three receivers and Hayden at that point was like, yeah, no, like we got to start
29:27bumping them up the rankings into kind of that round two to three turn.
29:31Have you made that same bump? Are you going against your own advice here with a guy like Malik neighbors, who is a pretty unique talent?
29:38You never want to say never with somebody like neighbors, because we know his range of outcomes is one of the top
29:44five best receivers in fantasy and then the NFL.
29:47But he's going to be reactive pick for me, not a proactive pick.
29:51I'd have to be in a room where he slid maybe a half round past his ADP, a full round past his ADP.
29:57I'm not going to draft him proactively. So he was a red light guy for me maybe two, three weeks ago and really all through the offseason.
30:05I'm willing to call him yellow, but he's not he's not going to get green status for me the rest of the summer.
30:12So if the context was right, I would draft him.
30:14I would not do it really happily. It'd be more of a situation I felt I kind of backed into.
30:20And he's sort of like he's practiced and then he's not practiced and he's practiced again.
30:25I think it is going to be a little bit of a management thing here as we're leading up to the to the season and everything.
30:32I personally have him kind of in. I would suppose it's supposed to kind of call it tier two of receivers for sure.
30:39But he's the last guy in that tier for me.
30:42Now, that's a really quality and big tier of receivers for me this year.
30:46I think guys like just similar players that I have ranked here.
30:49This is the George Pickens tier. It's the T Higgins tier.
30:52It's the Devante Smith tier. I am totally comfortable if you want to take it's kind of a you dependent thing with neighbors.
30:59I think specifically if you want to take the risk on him and think, hey, I'm going to go ahead and take
31:05him over a guy like Zay Flowers, who is probably more of a floor pick than a ceiling pick.
31:11But I want to shoot for that ceiling. Go ahead.
31:13But I think to me, Scott, I would take neighbors over guys like Emeka, Buka, Ladd McConkie, Terry McLaurin picks.
31:19I really like this year, but I just think the ceiling on neighbors is higher than those guys.
31:24So would you take any of those names over a guy like neighbors?
31:28Yeah, you're a half step ahead of me on neighbors.
31:31So you would get him in those situations where I'd be more comfortable with the McConkies and the Lucas of the world.
31:37Terry McLaurin and neighbors would be a really tough scene call.
31:40That's the type of decision I probably wouldn't make until I was in the draft.
31:45The names were staring at me and I had 12 seconds left on my clock.
31:49Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, like, again, this is a developing situation.
31:53We're saying this here on Sunday, August 2nd. We'll see what we're saying, you know, August 22nd when it comes to Malik neighbors.
31:59He said there's no target dates on his return.
32:02The plan is just to keep stacking days and see where it goes.
32:06So, again, yeah, I think that's just something we're going to have to track with him in particular.
32:11Before we move off of this topic, are there any other receivers or any other picks this year, Scott, where there's too
32:17much of an injury red flag, even if you like the player, that you're just kind of saying, hey, I'm going to
32:23let someone else draft into this situation? Sadly, that's kind of how I feel about the comebacks with Kraft and Kittle, even
32:30though we've been getting mostly positive news. Now, maybe Kittle is the guy to take more seriously here because his Achilles injury
32:36was in January and he's in his mid-30s now.
32:39Look, he's probably my favorite player in the NFL.
32:41I think he's already in the Hall of Fame, certainly on a Hall of Fame trajectory, whatever you think of George Kittle.
32:47But I don't know that he plays a full season.
32:50In fact, Jake Tongass in deeper leagues, I think is a really good last-round pick.
32:55Or when you start filling your IR slots, I'd have an extra player to add.
32:59I'd look to add him. I think he's on rosters for all the Expo teams that we saw last weekend.
33:05But Kittle is somebody I'm not going to draft.
33:07And Kraft, I kind of I'll believe it when I see it.
33:11This really hurts me because I think Tucker Kraft, between Justin, you, and I, was probably like the unofficial Yahoo Fantasy guy of the summer last year.
33:18And he validated this for two months. He was the tight end, too, in all scoring before he got hurt.
33:24So that was a screaming right answer. And then you had to put him on IR or cut him, whatever you do.
33:30And that's nothing more painful than that. But we still know they haven't had an 100-target player since Devonta Adams.
33:36I think somebody's gotten 100 exactly, but nobody's gone past that.
33:39Maybe this is a different year. Maybe they've finally gotten that receiver rotation where it's more streamlined.
33:44And you're going to have a more steady rotation of snaps for guys.
33:48But still, this is not a team that's built to have an 130-target guy, 125-target guy.
33:52So Tucker Kraft off the knee blowout. It still is a guy I'd want to draft maybe in 2027 this year.
33:58Because people are just so excited about what he did last year.
34:02I think they're maybe applying that and being proactive with him a little bit more than I'm comfortable with.
34:07So a crafting kid will apply for me. Although, I feel lucky, Matt, there hasn't been a lot of injury attrition.
34:13The Pearsall news really stung. But in different years when we were leading off the show, we might have had like a 20-minute segment.
34:20Going through seven, eight, ten injuries. That's a fair point.
34:23I feel very fortunate that we haven't had that type of summer yet.
34:27So let's knock on wood. We also know last year it was a historically healthy season for running backs.
34:32I don't know we'll ever get that run out again.
34:35But let's enjoy it while it's here. So we always want to see our best players on the field playing at their theoretical maximums.
34:42And certainly healthy. We've been lucky so far. But we know football injuries are going to come.
34:47And maybe you'll see more of it once the preseason kicks in.
34:50Or once some of the drills, some of the teams start hitting a little bit more in practice.
34:55Whatever it is. But something I'm going to be very careful with.
34:59Also, Rasheed Rice is a player for a lot of different reasons.
35:02He's a red light player for me. I can tell you I'm not going to be drafting Rasheed Rice this year.
35:08Although that covers a lot of different topics there.
35:11Yeah, well, injured players. Thank God the best receiver of all time.
35:14Cyrus Allen dodged a serious injury. It looks like it's just a bone bruise there.
35:19Or shin bruise. Something like that. So thank God.
35:21I thought that was going to pretty much ruin my birthday weekend before it even began there.
35:26The Cyrus Allen injury news. But again, something to keep track of.
35:30And yeah, again, I'm with you, Scott. Not a lot of serious injury situations.
35:34We do just have some big-name players. Big-name good young players, too.
35:37Malik Nabors, Tucker Craft are among them that we got to track here.
35:41This is a Harmon staple here. If we went from a P&L C staple, we're going to go to one of mine
35:47here for my due of draft season this year.
35:50Do prioritize the good ecosystems. And yes, I know.
35:52We've got the word. Go ahead and take the drink.
35:55Ecosystem in the mix here. But the reality is, Scott, I actually put this on the docket to talk about it because, you know, you do want...
36:03Okay. I love it. But the reality is, like, there's a lot of good, at least offenses, that I could tell myself a story about this year.
36:11So when I'm looking at these good ecosystems, again, I did my top 10 offenses show with Nate on 301 pretty recently.
36:17And it was just kind of striking to me to note how deep it goes in terms of...
36:22Like, I had the commander's offense at 19. And I'm pretty excited about what that commander's offense could look like under David Blau, Jaden Daniels, healthy Terry McLaurin.
36:30Now they're just not very deep at some of the other skill position spots.
36:34And it's more theory with a guy like Jacob Conquo.
36:37But that really, to me, makes me want to prioritize the ecosystems where I can almost just say yes to anyone.
36:43Like the Cowboys offense right now. Like, which Cowboy do you want to draft this year?
36:48Yes. Which Bear do you want to draft this year?
36:50Yes. Which Lion do you want to draft this year?
36:53Yeah. Yes. All of them. And I think those teams right now, Scott, where I can look at the depth charts and
37:00pretty much at all throughout the ADP rankings, I think the value on Lamb and Pickens is good.
37:05I think the value on Javante Williams is good.
37:07The value on Prescott is really good. And again, I would say the same thing about the Bears and the Lions as well.
37:14So those are the teams where I just want to try to get all of the right answers to.
37:19And those are the teams I think you guys got to really prioritize this year.
37:24Or, you know, which Charger do you want to draft?
37:26Which Jaguar do you want to draft? Maybe those usage trees are a little bit more complicated.
37:31So I feel like at the end of the season, Matt, I hope I've landed on the right Jacksonville players or the
37:38right Los Angeles Charger players because there's going to be right answers there.
37:41Sean McVay offense is going to have a lot of fantasy goodies.
37:45Are we going to feel better if we had Kyron Williams this year or Blake Corum?
37:49That remains to be seen. Which tight end is going to emerge?
37:53We don't really know yet. But Sean McVay is going to put points on the board.
37:57He's got a lot of talent. Obviously, Puka and Devontae Adams speak for themselves and Stafford coming off that MVP season.
38:03I mean, sometimes it's just, you know, simple. Make it simple, right?
38:07Narrow it down to what teams do you like?
38:09What offenses do you like? Get their players, right?
38:12I mean, you know, the Lions are projected to have the most points if you go by implied totals for the season.
38:18A very indoor heavy season for them. So, kind of implicit in this point, though, is that – so I'm mentioning like
38:25the Bears or you're mentioning the Bears. You're mentioning the Jaguars, right?
38:28To get to Bears and Jaguars last year, you had to take a leap of faith that Ben Johnson was the right
38:34answer, that Liam Cohn was the right answer. And it just seemed obvious, you know, that they probably were.
38:40But, you know, sometimes we like an offense and it goes bad for different reasons.
38:44You know, Kellen Moore, I think he's cooking up some nice things in New Orleans.
38:48So there's a team that I'm proactive about. Even if they're not going to be like one of the top five or
38:55six offenses, I think they can be a decent offense for fantasy.
38:58We saw an overwhelming change in coordinators and in play callers into the offseason and into this fresh season.
39:04So I think we're all assuming Mike McDaniel is going to be a right answer with the Chargers, right?
39:09The classic case of maybe he was overmatched as a head coach and maybe things went bad in Miami, but he's going
39:15to the Chargers at the right time. Are some of the scene calls – who are some of the coordinator changes or play caller changes?
39:23I mean, is Kevin Stefanski going to have the right answer with the Falcons, right?
39:27Or some of these teams where we're maybe not sure or we're making the assumption that they're going to be the next Liam Cohen.
39:34They're going to be the next Ben Johnson, but we don't really have the proof of that yet.
39:39What are some of those offenses that you're like, okay, I don't know this is going to happen, but I believe it's going to happen.
39:46The two that really stand out to me, I would say Declan Doyle in Baltimore and Sean Mannion in Philadelphia.
39:52And it's probably just a little bit more confidence in Doyle because he's been a coach a little bit longer.
39:57But even Sean Mannion, you hear really, really good things.
40:00It comes from good – it comes from like multiple different backgrounds I think would be really fun.
40:06But those are teams that, again, were unlike – I know what I saw in Chicago last year.
40:11I know what I saw in Jacksonville last year.
40:13I know what I saw in Dallas last year with the kind of Brian Schottenheimer, Clayton Adams combination there.
40:19I know that was like top-tier stuff. I'm not saying I'm breaking ties against Ravens or Eagles.
40:24I'm just baking in a little bit of uncertainty that they may or may not be the right answers.
40:29I generally think they could be, and you want to skew into some of that, right?
40:34You want the upside of the unknown essentially as opposed to – if we're being honest here, right?
40:39We do know Mike McDaniel is a really good coach, but how deep in the bag will this go with some of these Chargers guys?
40:46I mean, I'm really excited about the Denver Broncos offense, but it is a new first-time play caller there in Davis Webb
40:52or even a team like Tampa Bay. I like Zach Robinson for receiver usage, but, no, it was okay.
40:58I would say it was okay in Atlanta. It's good for receiver usage, but I think there were other issues there as well.
41:04Yeah, I think those are the type of teams where you've got to bake in a little uncertainty and a little hesitancy
41:11there as opposed to with these teams where, yeah, I know Ben Johnson's good.
41:15I know the Cowboys are good. I know Jacksonville's good, even if it's tough to figure out which guy's going to benefit.
41:21That's another good example too is that when there is ambiguity in these situations where I know the play caller is good,
41:27that's where you can really lean in and potentially get some profit there, even if, yes, I still – as we're sitting
41:33here August 2nd, I don't know the correct and right answer in the Jacksonville Jaguars receiver room.
41:38But you're going to want to take one of those guys because they're good players in a good offense, and there might
41:45be a right answer between these guys. And this also underscores that you kind of have to have an opinion on every offense, on every play caller.
41:52You should at least know who they are and what their style is likely to be and what game scripts they're likely to play in.
42:00Whether you like them, you don't like them, you're sure of them, you're not sure of them.
42:04And you want to have kind of a stance on all 32 NFL teams, 32 NFL offenses.
42:09Yeah, exactly. And, again, that's where just knowing who some of these play callers are is really, really good.
42:15I would say from a fantasy perspective, Ryan Heath does great work on play callers.
42:19His work at fantasy points is really good and worth checking out.
42:22He has a massive article out on play callers and is really good at that part, like the fantasy impact of this
42:29metric, that metric, and how often those individual play callers are pushing those buttons.
42:33And so that is why I use the word ecosystem so much.
42:36It really matters. It really matters for some of these players.
42:39Scott, let's get to your third point here. What do the people need to do for draft season this year?
42:45So I'm really glad you mentioned Ryan Heath of fantasy points because he wrote a piece that dropped late last week about league winners.
42:52And it was really about the shape of where fantasy production comes from and where we can draft it and where we can pick it up on waivers.
43:00And it underscored how hard it is to find impactful players that we don't draft at wide receiver.
43:05That basically, if you're going to have difference makers at wide receiver, those guys were drafted and probably drafted early.
43:11So my third nugget here is build the best wide receiver room possible.
43:15Get wide receivers that start themselves. Win the race to the flex.
43:18I want you to, again, because I don't want you to draft that early quarterback.
43:22I want you to fill your flexes more than other people do or quicker than other people do in leagues that are flex heavy.
43:29But I want you, I didn't even follow this in the salary cap draft at the Expo.
43:34And then I lost Ricky Pearsall. So a team that is loaded with great running back depth is in trouble.
43:40Yeah, that's right. That team needs some help but receivers, Scott.
43:43None of you guys are going to help me in trades either.
43:46So that's going to be an uphill time. I got a hope.
43:50Don't come knocking on my door, pal. Right. Just promise me, dear listeners, get a wide receiver room that starts itself.
43:56Get impactful guys there. It's so hard. You can find playable wide receiver fours, wide receiver fives.
44:01You can find depth and fill-ins and bi-week guys.
44:03Those players will show up. But the odds of getting an impactful player inexpensively are just so slim.
44:09And I just think it's a mistake to go against that.
44:12I want you to build a wide receiver room.
44:14That's the envy of the league at best. And at worst, I want you to say, well, at least I'm above the curve.
44:21At least I'm one of the three or four best wide receiver rooms in my league.
44:25If you don't do that, I really think you're making a big mistake.
44:29Look, obviously I agree with you on this in terms of building a good wide receiver room.
44:34And a part of why I think it's really possible is going to dovetail into my next point that we'll talk about
44:40on the other side of the break. However, my question to you about this is how do you balance the, I think,
44:47correct need to build a really good wide receiver room, the best wide receiver room possible, without getting behind on running back?
44:53Because there have been times in just, and I said this, and I raked myself over the coals for the mock draft
44:59that we did recently on the show, where I really felt like I came out of there thinking my receivers were good.
45:06But I felt like I was behind at running back two.
45:09And I end up with Quinchon Judkins and Kyle Menunga is my running back three.
45:13And Menunga is not even practicing for the Bears right now.
45:16That's a weird situation. We're going to have to keep an eye on that one.
45:20And how do you balance, Scott? And where are the points where you want to pivot back to running back?
45:26Or is this just we're completely fading the onesie positions?
45:29How are you balancing trying to not get behind on running back, which I think is easy and you should not do
45:35this year, versus building a really great wide receiver room?
45:38Yeah, I think it's just a matter of doing it in conjunction.
45:42I do agree that having a strong running back room is important, too.
45:45So what I'm going to do is quarterback is completely on the back burner.
45:49Tight end. If I don't get a price I really like on somebody like Ty Warren or I think Sam Laporta, his price will come to me.
45:57By the time you draft to Sam Laporta, you can easily already have three running backs and three receivers or four and three in some leagues.
46:05So I'm going to quarterback's a back burner, deprioritize tight end.
46:08And your first five picks, I think, should be running backs and receivers.
46:11It could be a 3-2 in either split because I do think running back depth is very important this year, too.
46:17But the thing with running backs is you do have a chance of a later round pick popping if the right player gets hurt, the right opportunity changes.
46:25And waivers, because so much of running back value, running back point scoring is just the role itself.
46:31It's not like Miami in past years, if Tyree Till got hurt.
46:34It's like, OK, well, we have a Tyree Till Jr.
46:37He'll be 90% of Tyree Till. It doesn't work like that.
46:40But for the most part, when a really good running back gets hurt, that probably means that somebody is going to ascend
46:46who has at least 10 to 15 touches in their back pocket that we can project them for coming up on game day.
46:53And that's 80% of the game is just getting the ball at running back.
46:57It's just getting the opportunities, getting the snaps, getting the touches.
47:00Other positions don't necessarily work like that. So I agree with you that running back is important.
47:05My first five picks in almost any league are going to be some combination of running backs and wide receivers.
47:11Yeah, the more I look at it, the more I feel that that's probably how most of my drafts are going to go as well this year.
47:18Don't draft zero RB, by the way. Zero RB is a horrible idea in 2026.
47:23OK, let's put a pin in that because I have a point on the running back base strategies when we get a little deeper into the show.
47:31But for now, we're going to take a quick break.
47:33We come back. We've got a few more strategies to talk through things you need to do, things you need to don't.
47:40We'll get into that right after this. All right, we're back and we're continuing to roll through our draft day do's and
47:46don'ts as we head into 2026 peak fantasy drafting season.
47:49Scott, for my third point here, I'm going to tell you guys don't fixate too hard on the year two receivers.
47:55And this is not to say anything negative about players like Terrell McMillan or Emeka Ibuka, Luther Burden.
48:00Shoot, even some guys further down the board, you know, that I do like and that are in pretty good spots.
48:06But I do think that every year and maybe the fantasy industry is starting to turn tides on this a little bit.
48:12It does kind of feel a little bit. I've heard less buzz, but like you got to smash year two receivers, yada, yada.
48:19Honestly, Scott, I think the year two receivers have been a little bit disappointing at times in the fantasy streets the last few seasons.
48:26And I don't necessarily think that has to do.
48:28Certainly last year was just a complete letdown for year two wide receivers.
48:32Some of that was just bad luck and injuries and everything like that.
48:36The other part, though, Scott, and I think this is where I'm more so driving this take.
48:41Like it's that like receivers still break out in year three.
48:44Receivers still have breakthrough seasons in year four. I mean, think about a guy like Chris Olave last year.
48:49The variables changed for him. He stayed healthy. He was one of the best picks you could make at wide receiver flat out.
48:56Jackson Smith and Jake Bobbys takes this big jump in year three.
48:59I really think and I do an article for Yahoo every year where I rank the top 25 receivers, excluding rookies that are 25 and younger.
49:07And every year when I do that article, man, I'm just like this position is getting deeper and deeper.
49:12And I would argue that you really don't know who a wide receiver is.
49:16Like sometimes you hear people say, well, we know who this guy is.
49:20We know who that guy is. I don't think you really know who a wide receiver is until probably like I would say year four or year five.
49:28Do you truly say like, OK, I think this is where I think this is where this guy is.
49:33So ultimately, my point in saying all that is that you don't just get fixated on these year two breakouts.
49:39Like breakouts are still very much happening in year three, year four and shoot even beyond.
49:44So when you're on the draft board this year, don't just fixate on those year two wide receivers.
49:49Year three, year four, honestly, even into year five, I think guys can still have breakthrough seasons.
49:54Yeah, one thing that makes me nervous sometimes with year two players is just the concept that a player who has only
50:00done something once, we still have to treat with a little bit of trepidation.
50:04And it's so much easier for us to trust somebody who's done it.
50:08Now, granted, that's unfair to year two players because they've only had one season to prove anything to us.
50:13But of course, last year, as you mentioned, that wide receiver group was disappointing overall.
50:18With the understanding that every player is different and every situation is different, is there an age or a part of a
50:24player's career that you would identify as the sweet spot at receiver?
50:27I really am starting to think more and more about that third and fourth year, honestly.
50:32Just because, again, it does depend on certain circumstances and everything.
50:35Has there been a coaching change and all of that?
50:38But I think by that point in an NFL player's career, you have kind of a more guiding light on what their
50:44skill set is, how you want to deploy them.
50:47I also think just to me, it's less about physical development and more just about time on task.
50:52You know, by the time you're in your third season, you kind of know what the NFL is, what it's about and everything.
50:59Your teams have had time to watch tape back on you and your offense and all of that.
51:04So, to me, I really think that third year has become a real sweet spot for guys.
51:09And even again into the fourth year, if you can put some kind of context notes on, well, why didn't it happen in year three for this player?
51:17Where, okay, maybe, again, a guy like Olave can really happen there in that fourth season for them.
51:22And there are definitely players that I think could take that big step forward.
51:26Like a guy like Zay Flowers is a really good example this year.
51:29It feels like we know who Zay Flowers is, right, through three seasons in the NFL.
51:34But I would argue that he's gotten better and added more clubs to his bag in each of those first three seasons.
51:40And now we're getting a play caller change for the first time.
51:44What if there's just change to his usage around the goal line?
51:47It doesn't feel like there will be because it's just the art type of player he is.
51:52But, you know, you never know. So, I think really that year three to year four is where I'm really thinking is
51:58the sweet spot for player development there. Yeah, I would co-sign that.
52:02Of course, I always wanted to defer to your thoughts at receiver because you put so much time into analyzing them and
52:08charting them and letting us know where they succeed.
52:11So, the important thing, too, is just to skew young, too, right?
52:14I mean, it's not that players can't be productive in the middle of their careers or in the back nines of their careers.
52:21But whenever possible, I want to get a front nine team.
52:24I want to get players who haven't had their best season yet with the hope that it might be coming this year.
52:30Yeah, I like that. And, again, at wide receiver this year, there's a ton of different options at that because, again, it's just so deep, man.
52:38It's just quality players all the way down into the 40s here.
52:41All right, Scott, for your fourth point, and we can be quick on this one because we've got to get to another break here.
52:48What is your fourth thing that you don't want people to do this draft season?
52:52Sure. Just don't thumb up your nose at ADP.
52:55It's such a hipster thing to do. I don't care about ADP.
52:58I'm going to get my guys. I'm going to draft them and aggressively and plant my flag and dominate the world.
53:04ADP, everybody, is what things cost. It's the marketplace, right?
53:07You don't walk into the car and say, okay, this is how much I'm going to spend.
53:12What can I get? You wouldn't buy an engagement ring that way or a piece of electronic equipment.
53:17You want to play the market. ADP is just an idea of what things are likely to cost for you at the draft table.
53:24That's important. And also, I'm not going to change.
53:27A lot of people say, well, I want to change.
53:30You can do this on Yahoo. You can do this on other draft platforms.
53:34You can change the rankings that you're looking at.
53:36I don't want to look at the consensus ADP.
53:39I don't want to look at Harmon or Boone or Pianowski, whoever it is, Joel Smith.
53:43We're adding people all the time. Again, Hayden and Josh have joined the team this year, which is very exciting.
53:49I want to know what my opponents are looking at.
53:52I want to look at the draft board they're most likely looking at.
53:56I can have my own board on the side.
53:58I can have a piece of scrap paper if I need it.
54:02You want to know what things cost. ADP is what things cost.
54:05So it just doesn't mean you have to be a slave to ADP by any means, but you should be aware of
54:11it because it's going to influence what your opponents do.
54:14And you need to have that information in your mind at all times.
54:18Oh, yeah. Look, there's obvious wisdom to getting your guys and being ahead of consensus and ahead of ADP on players.
54:24But you got to know, again, what the ADP is, right?
54:27I mean, it's really difficult for me on a guy like Jalen Waddle, where I'm very ahead of ADP on.
54:33But to me, I'm willing to be ahead of ADP.
54:36You just got to kind of recognize that and know that.
54:39But you have to keep this stuff in mind because it's just, as Scott mentioned, it's literally what things cost.
54:45And you want to kind of have a general – there's wisdom in crowds essentially is where this also comes from as well.
54:51Like there's a wisdom to multiple people putting their money where their mouth is or whatever in actual drafts and saying like
54:58this is the order in which things go. And then you can know when to veer away from that.
55:03We're not saying just follow ADP blindly, but at least know kind of Scott right like where the board stands.
55:09For sure. All right. We are going to take another quick break.
55:12We come back. We've got the rest of the things we want you all to know and do and don't do for the 2026 fantasy football season.
55:20We'll get into that right after this. All right.
55:22We're back. Great conversation during the break about pie versus cake.
55:26For the YouTube comments out there, yes, I had some key lime pie for my birthday last night.
55:31They put a candle in it. That was humiliating.
55:33I hated that. Didn't like that part of it.
55:36Don't like any of the birthday spotlight. But the key lime pie was awesome.
55:40That was electric. So, yes, don't worry for the comments out there.
55:43I did. And we were asking each other for the dear listener.
55:47Look at the Dallas Cowboys depth chart and ask yourself.
55:50CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens. Which one is the cake and which one is the pie?
55:54And the correct answer to that, now that I've thought about it, is that George Pickens is definitely the pie.
56:00Because, you know, sometimes pie, when it's not so good, you know, you get that random Thursday night game against the Lions
56:06where it's like, I see loafing on routes. It's just the loaf.
56:09But, man, when pie is good, it's good, Scott.
56:12When it's running and it's getting open against, you know, press man coverage at a high level, some good key lime pie.
56:18I'm a big key lime pie guy. So, the key lime pie last night was, you know, George Pickens against the Panthers
56:25this year when he was, this past season, when he was just dunking on folks left and right.
56:30That Eagles game where he's winning in tight coverage every different way.
56:33That was the key lime pie last night. So, I'm feeling pretty good about that.
56:38I would love to see some George Pickens key lime pie photoshops now at this point.
56:42That would be pretty great. But, let's – Yeah, Matt has – Matt has already said he's going to bookmark pieperception.com and
56:48see if he can get some grades up for next season.
56:52I think cake ages a little bit better than pie.
56:54So, maybe I side toward – it's more important to eat a pie closely to when it was baked where I think
57:01a cake has maybe more of a shelf life if you're refrigerated.
57:04But a deeper conversation that we're going to continue.
57:07Well, listen, again, if we're talking about CeeDee Lamb as that like crafty slot receiver, that sounds like a cake.
57:12It ages pretty well. But, yeah, so it's for pie perception.
57:16Charlie and my legal team are on – they're on that.
57:19We'll figure that trademark out later. But we'll get back on track here with our do's and don'ts.
57:24And I'll throw it to my fourth thing that you do not want to be doing this year.
57:29And that is don't be overly adherent to one draft strategy, especially running back-based ones.
57:33And, Scott, you said this earlier, and this is why I resonated with this point.
57:38I find the only time I'm comfortable with any sort of zero RB and honestly even like a hero RB built this
57:44year, and typically I've liked – I don't mind a hero RB approach in a deeper league.
57:49Like when we were drafting at the Kings Classic, I'm okay with doing it in a league like that where you're starting so many flex spots.
57:56It's full PPR. I'm totally willing to like max out the wide receiver position in those drafts.
58:01In more standard, hey, it's just one flex. You're starting just two wide receivers, two running backs.
58:06I don't love going in here and saying I am doing zero RB.
58:10I am doing hero RB. The only time I feel comfortable doing it really, Scott, is when the room kind of presents me with those options.
58:17So I'm very much this year with running back-based strategies in particular.
58:21Like late-round quarterback, I think I'm very much open to like – I'm trying to be late-round quarterback most of my drafts this year.
58:28But running back-based strategies, I'm very much only kind of pivoting into those when the room presents it to me if that makes sense.
58:34Yeah, the way I would look at these two things.
58:37I want to be proactive with how I build my running back rooms, but I'm not going to be dogmatic about how
58:44many I have to have after a certain amount of rounds.
58:47Where the hero build would say, well, one and stop.
58:50The robust would be like, well, you've got to take two right away.
58:53Bottom line is all my strategies are written in pencil, and I want to be able to pivot to opportunities, to nuances I couldn't have seen coming.
59:01Because every draft is different. Every draft is a snowflake, and there's going to be people doing things you don't expect.
59:07I realize most first rounds start pretty similar, but then things veer off script, and that's when you have to be ready
59:13to take advantage of, again, the unforeseen opportunities that you have in front of you.
59:18And if you've already mapped out your strategy and pan, you're going to miss those chances.
59:22So trust yourself to adjust to the room and adjust to the situation.
59:26It's like, you know, I'm going to play poker tonight, Matt.
59:29Are you going to raise on the seventh hand?
59:32I don't know. Who's at my table? What's my chip stack like?
59:35What cards do I have? There's certain things you just can't know, and you have to react in the moment, and a fantasy football draft is like that.
59:43So I want you to have a strategy. I want you to think about this, map it out, do mock drafts, whatever it is.
59:50But you have to be ready to go off course when you see opportunities.
59:54Yeah, especially practice your strategies. There's way too many best ball products out there.
59:58There's way too many actual good mock draft simulators now at this point.
60:02No excuse to not have a few practice reps in your belt before you get into your real drafts here.
60:08But, Scott, let's stay on the running back position and go to your next point here on the board.
60:13For sure. So I want you to have a lot of running backs you can start, a lot of running backs you're
60:19excited about, and even some lottery tickets, right? But what I don't want you to do is I don't want you to
60:26ensure, you may say handcuff, your running back. If you draft a star running back, I want you to take somebody else's backup with your reserve picks.
60:33I want you to play for the big inning in August.
60:36And why is this? Well, for one thing, a lot of times we don't know who the right backup is, and you're capping your upside.
60:44You're bunting in baseball. I want you to play for the big inning in August and September.
60:49And there's a time to ensure you're running backs.
60:51That's around Halloween, around November, around Thanksgiving. That's when I'm more likely to play for a very specific game situation, just like
60:57it can be right to bunt in a baseball game in the 9th or 10th inning.
61:02You only need one run to win. Play for the big inning early.
61:06Play for the situation late. If you're going to do insurance with your backfield, do it in season.
61:11Do not do it at the draft. It caps your upside.
61:14Yeah, this is something I 100% validate as well.
61:17We are never taking the backup running back, the insurance policy.
61:20We take – I think I might have told this joke on the show, but when I was at the live Scott
61:26Fishbowl draft this year, I took B. John Robinson fourth overall.
61:29And I brought my wife with me because, again, it was a live draft, and we went to a really nice dinner the night beforehand, whatever.
61:37So she got to come to the live draft with me, and I told her I was going to let her take
61:43the celebrity shot 10th round pick, the final pick that we did live.
61:47And every jerk that is in my league with me is telling her, like, oh, you've got to take Brian Robinson.
61:53He took B. John. You've got to take Brian.
61:55And my wife's like, oh, they've got the same name.
61:58That's cute. I'm like, the one guy we are not taking.
62:01You can take anybody on the board in the 10th round, but we are not taking Brian Robinson to back up and ensure B.
62:08John Robinson, okay? Not a chance in hell. Definitely not in the 10th round.
62:12And we're definitely not doing it in general. We are never taking the backup running back to our star running back because,
62:19Scott, I think what people misunderstand here – like, yeah, I get it.
62:22This is why – this is a long-held strategy in fantasy football.
62:26Your guy goes down, you replace him with the backup.
62:29That's great. But you've essentially just replaced your previously great version with, like, maybe an okay thing, whereas opposed to – you
62:35could have two of the other thing, right? It's like if I have B.
62:39John Robinson and he stays healthy and I take, you know, Jaden Blue, Javante Williams back up and then Javante Williams gets
62:45hurt, well, now I've got two of a good thing as opposed to just, like, a lesser version of the one thing I had before.
62:52The one time I would veer away from this is you better be sure that the backup is a specific player and his upside is enormous.
63:00The best example I can think of in modern fantasy football history was when Priest Holmes was the primary back in Kansas City.
63:06They spent an early pick on Larry Johnson and it was easy to see that if anything happened to Holmes, Larry Johnson was going to the moon.
63:14And there was one year where Holmes got hurt in the middle of the season and Johnson went ballistic.
63:20He had, I think, the best two months anybody's ever had in the fantasy football era at running back.
63:25And everybody I knew who had Larry Johnson that year got to their championship game or won their title because Johnson was
63:31just throwing out, like, 195 and three every week.
63:34It was amazing. Go back to football reference and look at those game logs.
63:38You have to know these specific things. You have to know the upside.
63:42And I don't see a player who fits. There's not a Priest Holmes, Larry Johnson situation that I see.
63:47The problem you're going to have if Bajon Robinson gets hurt is that Brian Robinson is nowhere near as talented.
63:53And also in situations where, let's say, like, a Marion Hampton got hurt, right?
63:57How much would Keaton Mitchell play? How much would Vidal play?
64:00A lot of times teams don't even know those answers themselves.
64:03A lot of times they'll let those answers play out on the field, game situations, stuff like that.
64:08So it's not the clear handoff a lot of times that we want it to be.
64:13I think people have gotten overly – look, insurance, you need health insurance.
64:17You need car insurance. You do not need running back insurance.
64:20We'll talk about it in the middle of the season when it makes sense.
64:24Please do not draft into it in August. It's a sucker play.
64:27It's a minus EV play. You're thinking about building your masterpiece right now.
64:31We'll worry about insurance when it's time. It's not right now.
64:34And the best part about that, Scott, is that when we come around to October, November, we know who that second running back is, by the way.
64:42So, yeah, I think that that makes a lot of sense in terms of that.
64:46We typically don't know that right now. Before we come off this point, I just wanted to – I was chuckling when you were talking about Larry Johnson.
64:54I just turned 35, so I'm obviously staring my mortality in the face.
64:58Scott, you said that was modern fantasy football history.
65:00Larry Johnson was drafted in 2003. I think that might be time to no longer call that modern fantasy football history the Larry Johnson thing.
65:08Not to make your old joke here at this point, but I just think we might need to update the lexicon there.
65:14Well, I'm just going to tell you 2005, Larry Johnson did those final nine games.
65:18Okay? 1,351 rushing, 16 touchdowns, 276 receiving, and another touchdown.
65:21That's over nine games. If you were to apply that to a 17-game season, we're talking about a 2,500 rushing guarded season,
65:2730 rushing touchdowns, and another 521 through the air, another two touchdowns.
65:31So he would have had 32 touchdowns and 3,000 total yards in a full season.
65:35He did this for nine games. Yeah, you won your league if you had Larry Johnson that year.
65:401, I don't think that we will see anything like that again.
65:44Yeah, I don't think Jaden Blue is going to go for that kind of touchdown total if Javante Williams gets hurt.
65:502, that was probably Scott Pienowski, like the most nicest way possible.
65:53He just pretty much told me to shut the hell up.
65:56Well, I'm just going to ignore everything you just said, and I'm just going to tell.
66:01I'm just going to talk about how awesome Larry Johnson was.
66:04So, you know, Scott, I think that was well done, and I appreciate it.
66:08I'm going to get to my fifth do slash don't here, and I'm going to say do practice patience with rookies.
66:14This is very much, again, kind of in the same vein of we're playing the rookie game once we get to Halloween,
66:20once we get to November and everything. If you are drafting rookies right now, like shoot, let's go all the way back to the beginning of the show.
66:28I was talking about DeJong Stribling. If you're drafting DeJong Stribling right now, and he goes out there and he's, you know,
66:35I don't know, playing behind Christian Kirk or shoot Debo Samuel now at this point, and you drafted him in September, don't
66:41just be like, well, it's over for Stribling. You don't know that.
66:44He might be a second and a half of the year guy.
66:48How many times have we seen that with these rookie wide receivers for sure, even running backs?
66:53The good news is, Scott, I don't really think there's honestly that much rookie hype this year.
66:58I think this was a class where it was a little bit up and down, and people had kind of disparate values
67:04and opinions on some of these guys. But certainly at the receiver position, look, if Wanda Robinson leads the Titans in catches
67:10from week one till mid-October, don't be shocked. Maybe Carnell Tate's time is at the end of the year.
67:16If Makai Lemon is, like, struggling to get on the field and two receiver sets behind Dontavian Wicks, who's apparently having a
67:22nice camp in Philadelphia, it's probably going to be fine.
67:25Don't write these guys off too early. Have some patience with the rookies, especially at the receiver position.
67:30Yeah, I mean, look at last year. Luther Burden played better in the second half of the year, and obviously Colston Loveland
67:36went nuclear the last two months for Chicago. One of my favorite things to do is to scoop up discarded rookies when they're dropped in my league.
67:44Because, look, everybody mostly healthy begin the season. You're all excited about your team.
67:48Then a month goes by, and some teams are going to be one in three.
67:52Some teams are going to be oh and four.
67:55And then in week five, the bye weeks come in.
67:58So people start having drop guys they don't want to drop because the production hasn't popped yet.
68:03They can't play that player yet. They need to fill out a lineup this week, stuff like that.
68:08And it's an opportunity to scoop up a player that – I think in 2014, that great rookie class in the Stopel
68:14League, the high-stakes league that Mark Stopel was running for the industry back then, somebody in that league dropped Mike Evans after
68:20maybe five, six weeks because he hadn't done a lot.
68:23I was able to scoop up Evans. I think he also had some bi-weeker injury issues that week, that particular manager.
68:29And I was able to scoop up Mike Evans and get a really nice return the rest of the season.
68:35I love taking – now, that's another reason why you want to get off to that good start.
68:40We'll maybe piggyback that thought before the show is over.
68:43But I love picking up the players that people have run out of patience with or don't just have the time to wait out anymore.
68:50Sometimes people are dropping these guys for good reason.
68:53They have more immediate needs than I understand it.
68:55But, man, I love scooping up those rookies on the post-hype opportunity where they're really inexpensive.
69:00Yeah, I remember Nick Chubb, his rookie season. People wanted to draft Nick Chubb.
69:04They were like, oh, yeah, Carlos Hyde, whatever. He'll displace Carlos Hyde.
69:07It took a minute for him to displace Carlos Hyde that year.
69:11And by the time that he did, a lot of the people who drafted Nick Chubb too early dropped him.
69:17And Aaron Jones, same thing with Jamal Williams. And I just remember every week, go through and see who your league mates
69:23are drafting because sometimes it will be a really, really good kind of candidate in that regard.
69:28But, yeah, I think that's something I just always try to pay attention to is who's getting dropped in those situations.
69:34I'll never forget Nick Chubb's rookie year. So September 30th against the Raiders, Nick Chubb has three carries for 105 yards and two long touchdowns.
69:41And I was like, okay, here we go. Nick Chubb experience.
69:44And the Browns gave him three carries the next week and three carries the week after that.
69:49What are we doing, Cleveland? But if you were patient enough, Nick Chubb took over by late October and was basically an RB1 the rest of the season.
69:57But how do you go three for 105 and two and not get any bump in playing time the next two weeks?
70:03Well, you play for the Cleveland Browns. That's exactly what I'm saying.
70:07Was that when Hugh Jackson was coaching the team?
70:09Could have been. I don't know. Yeah. Hugh Jackson.
70:12Hugh Jackson and Greg Williams took over midway through that season.
70:15What a cast. Todd Haley and Freddie Kitchens were on that staff.
70:18I wonder why they didn't win any games. What a cast.
70:22Greg Williams' credit. He did go five and three.
70:24Greg Williams did go five and three after he took over in midseason.
70:28You know who I – And then Kitchens got the job.
70:31Scotty, you know what? I think you honestly could be one of those guys this year.
70:36And just based on the discourse I've already seen, I wouldn't be shocked.
70:39And he won't end up getting dropped or anything because you're going to take him way too high.
70:45I could see this happening with Jeremiah Love this year.
70:47You know? There's been a lot of – They're not going to play him over James Conner.
70:52They're not going to play him over Tyler Algier.
70:55It's like – Well, they might not play – They might play those guys ahead of him.
71:00But if they do, they'll probably do it for about a month.
71:03They'll give James Conner, Tyler Algier some ceremonial carries and everything like that.
71:07And then by the time it's really start – Like let's unleash Jeremiah Love.
71:11That could happen like later in the season. He's definitely a guy that you're going to – It's tough.
71:16Because as fantasy content creators, you've got to rank him what?
71:19Like running back 13 or something? But he might not be running back 13 when it comes to week one, week three.
71:26Like those early season fantasy rankings. But by the end of the season, I think he definitely will justify that ADP.
71:32So he's one that I could see being one of those guys this year.
71:36And just based on some of the headlines that have trickled out there about LaFleur being excited about these other backs and everything.
71:42Just wouldn't shock me to see him more so unleashed late in the season as opposed to beginning of the season.
71:48Yeah, that's a great call. I could definitely see Love being one of those slow-developing Polaroids where you need to be patient.
71:55And or you can take advantage of the market being a little bit nervous after the early weeks where he's maybe sharing
72:01more than he will be later in the season.
72:04Totally. Yeah. And I'm sure we'll get a ton of panic meter questions on that early on in the season.
72:09And we'll just keep it moving. You've got to be patient with these rookies.
72:13We're going to take our last break of the show.
72:16We come back. We've got two more items that you guys need to keep in mind as you head into your drafts.
72:23We'll get into that right after this. All right.
72:25We're back. We're bringing the list home here. Scott, what is your sixth thing you want the people to do or don't do heading into drafts this year?
72:33Well, the first thing I want you to do is understand the mute button and how that works for these podcasts.
72:39Pianowski definitely not in mid-season form. I was playing it off there.
72:43I was like, I don't know if I can hear you or not, but let's go.
72:47All right. So what is it, Scotty? We've finally gotten Pianowski to stop talking.
72:51That's a win for the entire team. So I want you to play fantasy football with a microscope, not a telescope.
72:57What does that mean? Focus on what's in front of you.
73:00Chop up the season, the little segments. And stop with this.
73:04Oh, look at my dominant week 16 schedule. I'm going to crush everybody.
73:07No, no, no, no, no. Get off to that 3-1 start.
73:10Get off to that 4-0 start. Focus on the early season schedules.
73:14Justin Boone just did a great piece last week focusing on some of the players who have easier tracks in that part of the season.
73:21Like, okay, it's a lot of people. It's a hipster move.
73:24I'm not going to draft a defense. You know what defense I want to draft?
73:28The Chargers. Because they play Arizona in week one.
73:31And then I'll throw them away like a cell phone on the wire.
73:35Maybe that's an old reference to like Larry Johnson.
73:37But be that as it may. Microscope, not telescope.
73:40Let's play what's in front of us. Let's play what we know.
73:43We'll analyze December football when the time comes. Yeah, this is another Scott Pienowski-ism that is like constantly ringing in the back
73:50of my head this time of year, Scott. It's, you know, don't draft into injuries.
73:54They're going to find you. You don't got to go looking for them.
73:58And then the second is get off to the fast start.
74:01Because this is one that just is objectively true.
74:03I share the updated data every year in my draft day blueprint article, which I am writing again this year.
74:09The amount of – like we're talking about, oh, yeah, you want that good playoff schedule.
74:14Which, you know, if you're playing in big best ball tournaments, maybe that's a thing to discuss.
74:19But if you're just talking about your redraft league, you know, typical, you know, home league, whatever.
74:23Your office league with your friends, your high school compatriots, whatever.
74:27Getting off to that fast start is a huge difference maker.
74:30Like the teams that make the playoffs are the ones that win in September.
74:34Like winning September should be something for all of you out there.
74:37And, yeah, defense is a really good example of that one, those early season schedules.
74:42Now, I think one thing I would say, Chargers defense, I am a little worried.
74:46They take a little bit of a step back.
74:48But, you know, week one against the Arizona Cardinals and, you know, that running back room we were just talking about.
74:54Jacoby Brissett behind an offensive line guy question marks.
74:57Maybe not so much week one. I think that might look pretty good in week one.
75:02So, yeah, getting off to the fast starts, getting off to the fast start.
75:06Scott, that is something that I think people don't talk about enough, but we talk about every year here.
75:11And it's not just because the record, you know, gives you a leg up on people standings wise.
75:16That's obviously important. But it gives you leverage as you start, again, October, bye weeks, injuries mounting.
75:21When you have that four and one or three and one record, you can make moves from a position of strength.
75:27And often when you're 0 and four or 1 and three, you get to start doing drastic stuff because every game now
75:33is a must win or quasi must win. And so that winning record just doesn't give you a better percent chance of
75:40getting a bye or going deep in the playoffs.
75:42But it also allows you to manage your roster in a way that's more advantageous to the late season where the guy
75:49with the bad record or the girl with the bad record doesn't have that advantage.
75:53So you want leverage in this game. It's all about the leverage and you get that by getting off to a fast start.
75:59Yeah, being able to navigate the murky waters of the football season from a position of strength anytime you can do it is a pretty good thing there.
76:07For my final note here of the show, I'm going to go a little maybe a little hokey on this one, maybe a little whatever.
76:15But I think for my sixth one here, don't allow fantasy to ruin football because I just think like for your own
76:21number one mental piece, I think this is important here.
76:24What we have to realize is that this is a game about a game and we don't control either of those variables really like you set your lineup.
76:32You make smart decisions. Those are your decisions. It's a personal accountability podcast here in these parts.
76:37However, like once you set those lineups, it's out of your control.
76:40It's out of your control. And yet what's going to happen after you set those lineups is some games are going to
76:46kick off and those games are really fun. And I get this like some people just like fantasy.
76:52They don't like football. That's not the way I come at this.
76:55I love football and therefore it makes me like fantasy a lot because I get to engage with football in a very different, fun and unique way.
77:03I love that. But, you know, this is my it's my ninth season was with Yahoo, my 13th season kind of covering
77:09the league in any sort of mildly professional variety.
77:12And every year, Scott, I just think, God, this game is so much fun, both fantasy and real football, man.
77:17And especially like fantasy content has never been better.
77:20In my opinion, the stuff that's good. There's there's some stuff out there that's not great, but there's there's stuff.
77:26The good stuff has never been better. People are have never been smarter talking about fantasy or talking about football and the
77:32way in which we can use technology and all these kind of things to communicate.
77:36Never. It's never been better at the same time.
77:39Football has never I'm not going to say football has never been better, but it's just getting more and more creative and interesting and unique.
77:46The way these teams are playing, especially on offense, which is why I love talking about fantasy, because we get to talk about offenses.
77:53And there's just so many to go back to the ecosystem point.
77:56There's so many good play callers putting on in all these modern wrinkles.
78:00Like I was just watching the Saints offense not too long ago for Chris Olave's reception perception profile.
78:05It's so funny. Like some of the concepts that they put in the offense.
78:09It's very old school kind of not old school, but almost.
78:12It's it's very like Scott Linehan is on that coaching staff in an assistant manner, and it's a lot of like what
78:19his offenses quote back in the day used to feel like.
78:22But then there's just this little kind of seasoning on top of more, you know, modern football that like Kellen Moore throws in there.
78:29So I just think that's something that we've never been in a better place with football.
78:33So I just want people to not let the fantasy and some of the ups and downs of it sort of ruin
78:40where football is right now for them. Very well said.
78:42I heartily endorse everything you said. And just to slide that into a more fantasy point, let the games breathe on Sunday.
78:49I see these people, you know, I usually watch the games at my home office.
78:53I just got my my two main sets. I got a little streamer TV.
78:57But when I'm at a sports bar, it's 105.
79:00It's 110. Somebody scores a touchdown. I see somebody scurrying their phone.
79:03What roster did I have that guy on? Am I playing against him somewhere?
79:07And I get it. It's exciting. And we're competitive.
79:10And we want to know if something good or bad has happened.
79:13We're just wired that way. Let it breathe. Let it breathe.
79:16I try to wait very long on a Sunday before I even think about checking scores because I've just made.
79:22I spent all week measuring. Measure a bunch. Cut once.
79:25And then watch and play. Try to appreciate it.
79:27Appreciate just how athletic these guys are. How smart the teams are.
79:31And how dumb some of the teams are. Ball bounce is funny for all of us.
79:35It's a great game. It's an exciting game. It's a dynamic game.
79:39Something unforeseen is going to happen in every game.
79:42Every week we're going to be like, oh my God, I can't believe all the stuff we have to unpack.
79:47But if you're trying to land all these planes at 10 minutes past 1 or 10 minutes past 10 on the West
79:54Coast, you're just going to drive yourself crazy. Let it breathe.
79:57Enjoy it. If you have a bunch of teams, I guarantee you one of your teams is crushing.
80:02One of your teams is probably taking it on the chin this week.
80:06That's just the way the game works. But try to appreciate, learn, study, have fun, laugh, whatever it is.
80:11There's plenty of time to see whether your game is headed.
80:14And if you're going to win or lose and what you need on Sunday night, what you might need on Monday, stuff like that.
80:21Let it breathe. Enjoy the game. Don't spend two hours arguing with people on social media or zipping in and out of your phone.
80:28Watch the games and just have some fun. Couldn't have said it better, much more succinctly than I said it there, Scott.
80:34Yeah, it's a fun hobby, but it's one that can drive you a little bit crazy.
80:39But man, if you just kind of are able to realize, I'm here to appreciate the game overall.
80:44And football is so much fun and such a cool place right now.
80:48I think you're going to have a little bit more of an enjoyable season if you kind of look at it that way.
80:54And the best part about all of this, Scott, is that we're going to tell you, we want you to engage in content.
81:01We're going to want you engaging in football all the time.
81:04But we just gave you a good 1 p.m.
81:07Eastern to 4 p.m. Eastern window not to engage with this stuff.
81:10That's when you live your life. But the rest of the calendar, you're going to be locked in here with us on the Yahoo Fantasy forecast.
81:18Because my God, Scott, this was a great show here today.
81:21I appreciate you doing it. And it is just the beginning of our live daily show schedule.
81:26Sunday to Thursday at 4 p.m. Eastern all the way up through August.
81:29We're going to be right here for you holding it down.
81:32I know we just had a comment up there about what is going to be my pen-eating wager.
81:38That was 34-year-old Matt. 35-year-old Matt has matured. I'm not going to be making any pen-eating wagers this season.
81:43And hopefully my colleagues who are much more mature than I, like Scott, can hold me to that.
81:48Then I'm not going to say some dumb thing in the middle of the schedule that gets me eating a pen if something doesn't go right.
81:56Because, like I said, these are variables outside of our control.
81:59But that's enough blabbering from us on this show that is going to do it for today's show on Monday.
82:04Because, like I said, we are daily now. Justin Boone is going to join me to identify our 10 biggest sleepers for the 2026 fantasy football season.
82:12And a little extra bonus, Eric Froton is going to jump on at the end of the show and share his biggest
82:19college fantasy football sleepers for this season. Massive show that you don't want to miss.
82:23And, again, just like every day, Sunday to Thursday, we're going to be live right here at 4 p.m.
82:28Eastern. Until then, we are out.
