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Justin Boone's Rankings: Biggest risers and fallers post-preseason

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
Sep 1, 2026
Published
Tue, September 1, 2026
40
Player insights
35
Players mentioned
Topics
MarShawn LloydChris BellMike Washington Jr.Tucker KraftAudric EstimeBreece HallCarnell TateChigoziem OkonkwoChris OlaveChuba HubbardD.J. MooreDalton SchultzDrake LondonEmmett Johnson
Player analysis

Player insights

40

Audric Estime

NegativeBreakout37:30

Matt Harmon notes that Estimé has upside and is a player to target at the seven-eight turn once the starting lineup is filled out, as the risk is mitigated.

Insight page

Breece Hall

NegativeValue38:40

Justin Boone ranks Breece Hall as a third-round pick, placing him behind Ashton Gentry. Boone notes that Hall has already 'broken the injury seal' and carries risk, though he is expected to be ready for Week 1.

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Carnell Tate

NegativeBust100:09

Matt Harmon is avoiding Carnell Tate, expressing skepticism that there will be a significant price jump or fantasy value in the current Titans offense, even if he has a big game.

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Chigoziem Okonkwo

PositiveBust108:41

Justin Boone has moved Chig Okonkwo down his rankings to a low-end TE2. The addition of Stefon Diggs and a difficult offensive line situation limit Okonkwo's path to being a primary target in the offense.

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Chris Bell

PositiveBreakout56:37

Justin Boone highlights Chris Bell as a riser, noting his return to play in the preseason following an ACL injury as a positive sign for his potential role.

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PositiveSleeper93:57

Matt Harmon is high on Chris Bell, noting his return to play in the final preseason game after a torn ACL is a great sign. He views him as a target in deeper formats and best ball drafts, specifically around the 16th round.

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Chris Olave

PositiveProjection41:31

Justin Boone ranks Olave in the second round, noting that the Jordan Tyson injury removes competition for targets. Olave finished as the WR9 in fantasy points per game last year and had a strong finish in the fantasy playoffs.

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Chuba Hubbard

NegativeUsage56:45

Chuba Hubbard is expected to be available for Week 1 and may start the season as the primary back in Carolina. However, he is expected to lose work to Jonathan Brooks as the season progresses.

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D.J. Moore

PositiveUsage48:18

Justin Boone views Moore as a riser, noting he is the primary receiver for the Bills alongside Dalton Kincaid. Matt Harmon adds that Moore was misused in previous schemes and should see more successful route usage in Buffalo.

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Dalton Schultz

PositiveValue112:00

Justin Boone has moved Dalton Schultz up his rankings, noting his production as the 11th-highest scoring tight end over the final 13 weeks of last season. He is a reliable compiler who is back in play.

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Drake London

NegativeValue43:45

Matt Harmon considers London a second-round value at 21st overall, though he expresses skepticism regarding the Falcons' quarterback situation heading into the season.

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Emmett Johnson

PositiveSleeper40:18

Emmett Johnson is a high-upside handcuff behind Kenneth Walker. Boone expects Johnson to be a top waiver wire target if Walker misses time, noting that Johnson looked good in the preseason and is in a valuable spot.

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George Kittle

PositiveValue104:06

Justin Boone considers George Kittle a top-three upside tight end who is currently available at a discount. While he expects a slow ramp-up early in the season, he believes Kittle remains a weekly threat to finish as the TE1.

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J.K. Dobbins

NegativeInjury39:19

Justin Boone expresses concern regarding Dobbins' durability, noting that he has suffered injuries every other year, which creates a path for backups like Jonah Coleman to gain value.

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Ja'Marr Chase

PositiveProjection122:10

Matt Harmon ranks Ja'Marr Chase over Bijan Robinson, citing the potential for a nuclear fantasy season if the Bengals' offense improves its run-pass balance. He believes Chase has 20-touchdown upside.

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Jayden Reed

PositiveValue12:51

Justin Boone recommends taking shots on both Jaden Reed and Matthew Golden at their current ADPs, as both players have the potential to emerge as key contributors in the Packers' high-volume passing offense.

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Jonah Coleman

PositiveDepth Chart38:49

Justin Boone highlights that the Broncos brought in Coleman to be the J.K. Dobbins replacement. Despite being third on the depth chart, Boone believes Coleman is the player to roster if Dobbins goes down.

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Jonathon Brooks

PositiveBreakout55:55

Jonathan Brooks is a riser with significant breakout potential. While Chuba Hubbard may start the season with a 50-50 or 60-40 split, Boone expects Brooks to gain value over time. He is a preferred target over Tony Pollard in the 8th round.

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Jordan Love

PositiveProjection11:55

Matt Harmon and Justin Boone are bullish on the Packers' passing offense, expecting a more spread-out, high-pace attack. Harmon notes that seeing Jordan Love call plays in the preseason is a positive indicator, and Boone believes Love is a QB2 who could challenge for top-12 fantasy numbers.

Insight page

Jordyn Tyson

PositiveValue96:45

Despite an injury, Matt Harmon is willing to draft Jordan Tyson around the ninth round if he has an IR spot. He cites positive buzz from beat writers who called him one of the best players on the team this summer, suggesting he could be a second-half fantasy factor.

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Josh Jacobs

NegativeBust7:19

Matt Harmon advises against drafting Josh Jacobs entirely due to his placement on the commissioner's exempt list following battery and criminal damage charges, noting that the potential release of a video could lead to further NFL discipline. Harmon emphasizes that Jacobs carries significant red flags and warns that he cannot be placed in IR spots in most leagues, meaning he would burn a valuable bench spot.

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Juwan Johnson

PositiveValue112:00

Justin Boone ranks Juwan Johnson ahead of Chig Okonkwo, highlighting his consistency as the TE14 in points per game last year with nine top-10 weekly finishes. He is a sneaky play early in the season.

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Kenneth Walker III

NegativeInjury40:23

Kenneth Walker carries significant injury risk due to a history of nagging injuries. Boone expresses nervousness about drafting him as a first-round player, noting that the fantasy community is largely ignoring the durability concerns.

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Makai Lemon

PositiveValue98:20

Matt Harmon remains a believer in Makai Lemon despite a slow start due to hamstring issues. He advises drafting and holding him, acknowledging he will likely start the season slow from a usage standpoint but could develop later.

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Malik Davis

PositiveDepth Chart42:23

Malik Davis has secured the number two running back role for the Cowboys, beating out other competitors. This role also provides a slight boost to Javante Williams' fantasy stock.

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MarShawn Lloyd

PositiveBreakout6:31

Justin Boone has moved Marshawn Lloyd up to RB26, targeting him in the sixth round. Despite past injury concerns, Boone notes Lloyd sought expert help this offseason and is a 25-year-old with significant upside. With Jacobs on the exempt list, Lloyd is expected to start as a meaningful fantasy piece with top-15 upside, as he is the most explosive option in a backfield where Chris Brooks and Caleb Johnson are not viewed as primary threats.

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PositiveBreakout38:12

Matt Harmon identifies Lloyd as an upside player to target in the later rounds once the core starting lineup is established.

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PositiveValue60:30

Marshawn Lloyd is preferred over Jonathan Brooks by both Boone and Harmon due to a clearer path to touches in the Packers' offense. He is considered a strong late-round upside pick.

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Matthew Golden

PositiveValue12:51

Justin Boone suggests drafting Matthew Golden alongside Jaden Reed, noting that both receivers are undervalued and could see significant production in the Packers' projected pass-heavy scheme.

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Mike Evans

NegativeInjury52:47

Justin Boone has downgraded Evans due to recurring lower-body soft tissue injuries (hamstring, quad, groin, foot) and his age (over 30). Boone questions if Evans can remain durable enough to return fantasy value.

Insight page

Mike Washington Jr.

PositiveBreakout18:41

Justin Boone identifies Mike Washington Jr. as a riser after a strong preseason performance. Boone notes that Washington has looked fantastic and is part of a group of players who have improved their stock significantly over the summer.

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PositiveBreakout30:57

Mike Washington Jr. is a major riser after a fantastic preseason performance where he proved he belongs at the NFL level. He has forced the coaching staff to shift from a bell-cow approach for Ashton Gentry to a two-back system, as Washington provides an explosive element the offense needs.

Insight page

Najee Harris

NegativeRole43:35

Najee Harris has landed a role with the Giants, fitting their power running scheme. While he is behind the starter, he has late-round value as a backup to a starter with durability concerns.

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Rhamondre Stevenson

PositiveValue13:53

Justin Boone views Rhamondre Stevenson as a massive value and the clear lead back for the Patriots. Despite Travion Henderson's presence, Boone notes that the team trusts Stevenson for high-leverage situations and that he finished last season strong. Boone ranks Stevenson ahead of Henderson and suggests he is a sneaky flex play in the middle rounds.

Insight page

RJ Harvey

NegativeValue38:20

Justin Boone notes that Harvey's ADP has fallen nearly 10 spots recently due to the rise of Jonah Coleman. Boone argues Harvey's ceiling is limited to a 'pass-catcher plus' role, and he would likely only provide massive value if multiple injuries occurred ahead of him.

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Seth McGowan

PositiveSleeper44:56

Seth McGowan is a deep sleeper on the Colts who would likely serve as the primary backup if Jonathan Taylor were to miss time. He is a recommended stash for late-round draft picks.

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Terry McLaurin

NegativeBust44:23

Justin Boone and Matt Harmon have both downgraded McLaurin. The combination of the Stefan Diggs arrival and the Laramie Tunsil injury, which has negatively impacted the Commanders' offensive line, has reduced their confidence in the offense's ability to sustain big plays.

Insight page

Tony Pollard

NegativeBust47:31

Tony Pollard is a major faller due to concerns about the Titans' offense, poor offensive line play, and Tajay Spears receiving significant preseason work. Boone sees no ceiling for Pollard and advises against drafting him at his current ADP.

Insight page

Tucker Kraft

PositiveValue13:01

Justin Boone highlights Tucker Craft as a player to watch, noting that he appears to be healthy and has demonstrated fantasy-relevant potential when on the field.

Insight page
PositiveValue104:06

Justin Boone views Tucker Craft as a high-upside tight end target who is currently undervalued due to injury recovery. He notes Craft has top-three upside at the position, similar to his performance before his injury last year.

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Full transcript

Episode Transcript

1,079
0:00Big show for you here today. Justin Boone joins me for a rankings update.
0:04Who's going up? Who's going down? His rankings after we've seen training camp preseason.
0:08Roster cut down day is in the books. We got a ton to get to in this one.
0:13Ashton Gentey falling down Boone's rankings. Meanwhile, a Patriots running back is going up.
0:17We talked through the Marshawn Lloyd ranking after Josh Jacobs was placed on the commissioner's exempt list.
0:21Would we rather have Marshawn Lloyd or Jonathan Brooks?
0:24That was an interesting discussion that I had with Justin Boone here.
0:27Plus, we give a full refresh of our round one rankings.
0:30And by that, I mean, I give you my round one rankings and Justin Boone tells me why I am a complete
0:36idiot for the orders one to 12 that I have of the players on that one.
0:41All right. All that more caught up on today's show.
0:44Let's get into it. What's going on everyone? I'm Matt Harmon.
0:47Welcome to the Yahoo fantasy forecast and it is a hell of a day to talk ball and joining me to do just that.
0:53So weird. It's always weird to go from the in-person back to the digital, but it's always good to be with my guy, Justin Boone.
1:00Boone, what's going on, buddy? I know, man. We've seen a lot of each other recently.
1:05It wasn't just doing a bunch of shows between the New York offices, Buffalo.
1:09Our live event was fantastic over the weekend. We got to go to dinner a couple of times.
1:14We got to go for drinks. It was a fun week that we had together.
1:18And yeah, now we're back here, you know, just doing it digitally.
1:21I don't like it, man. I'm going to be honest.
1:24I don't like it being live. And then also on top of that, having the live crowd, it's just fantastic.
1:29It takes the show to another level, but that's okay.
1:32We do have one fun variable. It's going to happen during the show, Harmon.
1:36And that is you and I are in a live draft, which begins in about an hour's time.
1:41So that final half hour of the show, we've seen how I react on Sundays when I'm trying to update my rankings before kickoff.
1:48It might be something similar. I'm going to be like midpoint mid sentence.
1:51I'm going to be on the clock and I'm just going to throw it back to you because I'm going to focus on making my pick.
1:59Yeah. I think what we know for sure about the two of us is that Boone cares much more about his fantasy
2:05leagues, his own leagues, than he cares about you guys, the listener.
2:08But I'll tell you what, if I screw a pickup because I'm on, I'm live on this show here, I'm a man of the people.
2:15Okay. I'll, I'll do it. But by the way, this, this league is a one we've did.
2:20We've done the last couple of years. You were in with us last year.
2:24Of course, your first year here at Yahoo can't possibly go worse for me than it did last year when I took
2:30like CD lamb in the first round, Amari and Hampton in the second.
2:33I, I, I stumbled into Joe Burrow at one point.
2:36I was like, Oh my God, by, by week four, my whole team is just gone.
2:41But Ricky Pierce, I was a draft league. So yeah, I think I took Xavier worthy in this league and I was
2:47talking myself into it, even though I hadn't drafted him many places.
2:50And then he went out and got hurt in what the first quarter of the first game.
2:55So yeah, we both had some struggles. I made it to the playoffs.
2:58I didn't make it much further than that, but this year is a different story.
3:02Fresh start, Armand. That's right. A fresh start. All right.
3:05Well, yeah, we had an absolute blast over the weekend together.
3:08If you guys haven't checked it out yet, make sure, make sure you go to YouTube.
3:13Of course you can listen to it as well, but we'd love it.
3:16If you go to YouTube and check out the recording of our live in-person show from Buffalo, it was absolutely electric.
3:22Got to meet so many of you guys out there as well.
3:25It was really cool. An absolute blast. Totally loved the event, but it's back to serious business here because you guys have
3:32your drafts coming up here very shortly in Boone.
3:34We have a draft coming up, not just this one that we're going to be doing today.
3:39We got another draft tomorrow live at 5 p.m.
3:41Eastern, the Yahoo fantasy analyst draft. It's Tuesday. Okay.
3:44It is coming up and I should reiterate to people.
3:47This is not just a little mock draft. Okay.
3:49This is a league that we will actually be playing out over the course of the year.
3:54I will be consistently reminding Boone how much farther ahead of him I am in the standings.
3:59Um, I, I'm actually still debating whether I'm going to take a troll pick in the, at the eighth spot to just
4:05take Saquon Barkley ahead of Josh Norris and really upset Josh.
4:08Um, or if I'm going to stick to my rankings and, you know, do what we have to do.
4:13So again, it's, it's an interesting draft here coming up Boone.
4:16Very excited of course for that, but we have a great show here for the people today.
4:21We're going to be going over Boone's biggest risers and fallers in his rankings over the last couple of weeks.
4:26So revisit, uh, and put pretty much close to right in pen, our first round draft picks at the end of the
4:32show here for your fantasy leagues this season. But first we do have some news and it's not really a pleasant topic.
4:39Honestly, walking off the plane, uh, on my flight home yesterday and seeing the news about Josh Jacobs.
4:44It's again, it's a tough one to talk about because this is a serious situation.
4:48Obviously the allegations against Josh Jacobs are not great, but he has been placed on the commissioner's exempt list.
4:53Uh, last week is Adam Schefter note noted that, uh, Jacobs was charged with battery and criminal damage to property.
4:59Both misdemeanors by the Brown County, Wisconsin, uh, Wisconsin district attorney.
5:02Um, Jacobs was really arrested back in May. This is something we've been talking about for a while now.
5:07Boom. Allegedly there is a video, uh, that goes along with this incident as well, which, you know, I hate to.
5:13I, this is the job. It, this is the job.
5:15It is what it is. I hate to make it like a brass tax fantasy, you know, kind of analysis on this
5:22whole thing, but I pretty much have not been taking Jacobs at all this off season because of not just this risk,
5:28but as I've said, he basically runs the gamut of red flags that a running back can have at this point in his career.
5:34But the fact that, you know, this video could drop at any moment, I, again, I hate to be crass about it
5:40because it's a serious situation, but he's somebody that you just, I don't care how late it gets.
5:45You just should not be clicking this guy at all.
5:48At this point. That's my opinion. Uh, do you feel any differently about it?
5:52No, I think you're probably right in that respect.
5:55And there's still a lot of variables. We don't know, right?
5:58Like this video is apparently out there and we know how this works with public perception and it shouldn't be this way,
6:04but it is this way that guys will have charges against them.
6:07Guys will get arrested. People will kind of approach it one way.
6:10They won't like it, but there won't be that maybe public outrage you expect.
6:14And then all of a sudden when a video drops, now everyone is up in arms and the NFL has to react
6:20and come down with a harsher punishment. And it really seems like the little bits of news that we've had coming out
6:27here are pointing towards that eventually happening here. But again, we don't know that for sure.
6:31So right now I've moved Marshawn Lloyd way up to RB 26.
6:34I'm taking him in the sixth round. Um, I think all the reports about him this summer have been really, really strong.
6:40We can't forget the injury situation that he has had the first two years of his career where he's really been unable
6:47to do anything because he just keeps getting hurt.
6:49But then this off season, he went out to the Meyer Institute.
6:52They went and went over everything for months with him and tried to hopefully figure out what this problem is.
6:58And remember Harmon last year, we heard a similar thing about Christian Watson.
7:02It wasn't the same place that he went, but he went to some experts dealt with his injuries, came back last year,
7:08suited up for the rest of the season and looked as good as he ever has.
7:12And when we're talking about a younger player, this isn't like a JK Dobbins situation, right?
7:17Where JK Dobbins has several seasons where he's gotten hurt, hasn't been able to finish the year.
7:21And we've kind of seen how his career has gone.
7:24And now he's getting a little bit older. And you can't really assume that all of a sudden he's going to get healthier.
7:30This is a player in Lloyd who's 25 years old.
7:33He's only been in the league a couple seasons.
7:36So I think there is a good shot that he could potentially get over these injuries and go on and have a great career.
7:42And it might start very, very soon here, because if Jacobs remains on the, you know, the list here, it looks like
7:48Lloyd is going to start the season as a meaningful fantasy piece.
7:52And a guy who has, you know, RB to maybe even like top 15 upside in this office.
7:57We have questions about the offensive line for sure, but he's somebody that can do things in the passing game.
8:02The team has talked about how explosive he's looked out there, how he's kind of added a new gear to their backfield.
8:08So I think you have to be very excited about him on top of the fact that who's he competing with in that backfield.
8:15Chris Brooks is someone who does a lot of things.
8:18Well, he'll be out there as a pass protector.
8:20They'll mix him in, but not somebody that you get excited for for fantasy, not somebody that's going to get the kind
8:27of volume that can come through with a big fantasy day.
8:30And then Caleb Johnson, who they trade for, who at this point is still just a dynasty stash and a depth piece.
8:36I'm not looking at him as somebody that's going to compete for that starting role.
8:40So Marshawn Lloyd kind of out of nowhere in a way has stepped up and become a very important fantasy draft pick.
8:46And I would take him in the sixth round, man.
8:49That is so funny that you said running back 26 for Marshawn Lloyd.
8:52Yep. Literally. I put him in the exact same spot and that's pretty incredible.
8:56Yeah. So 118th overall ADP on Yahoo over the last seven days.
9:00Obviously that's going to come up. I am as my 69th overall player.
9:03So yeah, we're in the pretty much the similar range here to me belongs in that fifth tier of running backs, which
9:09is, you know, the Patriots guys it's, it's Jonathan Brooks, the Steelers running backs belong in this range.
9:14And I mean, yeah, he's a guy that's tethered to what I still think is going to be a good offense, even
9:20without Josh Jacobs in the mix here for, you know, bare minimum six games at the, at the probably longer than that.
9:27If not, he just might never play again for this team.
9:30So, I mean, yeah, I think that Marshawn Lloyd's in a really good spot here.
9:34I wouldn't just totally rule out that Caleb Johnson does something.
9:37I know you're not either. Just because it's a fresh start for him.
9:40Theoretically, it sounds like they're going to lean into a little bit more outside zone, you know, which is what you want
9:46to do when your offensive line personnel is a little bit hit or miss here.
9:51Overall, I think that's probably what's going to happen here.
9:53And Caleb Johnson, that's theoretically what he should have done as a prospect coming into the league.
9:58And he just has a fresh start with this team as opposed to, you know, two seconds into his NFL career.
10:04He like loses them a game on special teams, which is what happened with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
10:09And he just gets kind of thrown to the shadow realm by two coaching staffs there.
10:13So yeah, I'm not saying there's a lot here with Caleb Johnson.
10:16I don't have Caleb Johnson dynasty bags that I'm trying to protect on this one either.
10:21So to me, I'd just like keep an eye on him because we obviously know that Marshawn Lloyd has struggled to stay healthy.
10:27But yeah, running by 26, like when it gets a little dicey at that position, I think that's the right spot for Marshawn Lloyd at this point.
10:35One other quick thing that I will add, if anyone out there is considering taking Jacobs, maybe with a later round pick
10:41and stashing him in most leagues, you cannot put a player who's on the exempt list or who's suspended in your IR spot.
10:47I know I have friends who are already complaining about that, that they want to put it.
10:52Oh yeah. And you can't, that shouldn't be the case.
10:55So if you're taking him now, you're also burning a bench spot, which is very valuable.
10:59We know, especially early in the season, we have like those hot waiver wire names.
11:03You're going to have to sit there and look at Josh Jacobs potentially on your bench and try to figure out what to do with him.
11:11So I agree with you. I don't really want to draft him anywhere.
11:14You know, there is a spot where when you get to the later rounds and they're all kind of dart throws where
11:20you might throw that dart, but I don't really want to do it.
11:24I'm never usually like the fantasy rules, you know, get on my high horse type thing about this stuff.
11:29But yeah, putting non-injured players in your IR spot, get a grip.
11:33Okay. Please give me a freaking break. That should only be for players that are hurt.
11:37Don't absolute nonsense clown, clown behavior. Otherwise, last point on this, just before we move on, this has been a kind of a consistent drumbeat on the show.
11:45So just to make the point one more time, if you're here on August 31st, you say, oh boy, I haven't done any fantasy research.
11:52I better watch Harmon and Boone break this stuff down here.
11:55The Packers are going to be a different looking offense this year.
11:58I think they're going to play more spread. They're going to play with more pace.
12:02They're going to throw the football a lot more, both by design and by necessity.
12:06And Boone, I don't remember if we talked about it on the live show or not, but I think that when you
12:13look at Jordan Love calling plays in the second half of that preseason game, that's bullish to me.
12:18Okay. I think this is going to be a more Jordan Love focused offense this year.
12:22So we've all said it. I think I'll say it one more time.
12:26Definitely make sure you're taking shots. At this passing game, I really like where everybody's going right now.
12:31And Boone, I believe you feel pretty similar. Yeah, I totally agree.
12:34We've been talking them up, you know, all off season long.
12:37I think Jordan Love was the one who's kind of come along a little slowly.
12:41But if we expect all these other guys to do that well, then Jordan Love definitely moves into that group of QB
12:47twos who could potentially challenge for, you know, top 12 kind of numbers.
12:51So, yeah, I want pieces of this offense. I think the decision between Jaden Reed and Matthew Golden is really just take
12:57shots on both of them at their ADPs because both these guys could come through.
13:01And Tucker Craft, we might talk about him a little bit later, Harmon, but it seems like he's going to be pretty healthy.
13:08And if he is, we know what he can do for fantasy.
13:11Yeah, take your shots on both Jaden Reed and Matthew Golden.
13:14You can let me and my good friend Josh Norris fight about that one off camera.
13:18Okay, let's get to the biggest risers and followers at running back this preseason.
13:22Let's try to hit everybody here on this list, Boone.
13:25So let's start with your first riser. Who do we got here from that perspective?
13:29Yeah, we can try to move through some of these quickly because I know what we're like and we'll talk forever.
13:35But we got a lot of guys that we want to talk about here.
13:39The first one, and remember we did a show before the preseason, Harmon, about the players that I was worried about their
13:45ranking or who could change the most. I forget what we actually called it.
13:49But one of the players that I talked about was Travion Henderson and Ramondre Stevenson, right?
13:53What was going to happen in that Patriots backfield?
13:56What were we going to learn over the next month or so?
13:59Well, I think what we learned is this is Ramondre Stevenson's backfield and Travion Henderson will have a role, no doubt.
14:05But not much is going to change from what we saw last year.
14:09Basically, all the beat writers there, everyone around the team, they're still talking as if Stevenson is the guy.
14:14And the challenge was set out to Henderson. He had an opportunity this offseason to prove himself.
14:19They wanted to show, you know, can you be that pass protector that we can trust?
14:23Can you be that, you know, between the tackles runner that can keep sustaining drives for us?
14:28Sounds like they still feel like Stevenson is that guy and the guy that they're going to want to put out there,
14:34especially for a team that has Super Bowl aspirations, especially for a team that has a fairly tough schedule to start the season.
14:40And when they had a tough schedule last year in the playoffs, what did they do?
14:45They put the ball in Stevenson's belly. They put the ball in the guy that they trust, the guy that they have faith in.
14:51So right now I'm looking at this. I moved Stevenson ahead of Henderson a little while ago.
14:56You can still take shots on both of these guys.
14:59But Stevenson is somebody who's kind of a sneaky play right now.
15:02I think, Harmony, still going in a range, like you mentioned, where we believe Marshawn Lloyd should be going now.
15:08That's a spot where if you miss out on some of the top backs, if you want to come back around and
15:14get a third running back, maybe a flex running back, you could really grab Stevenson there.
15:18And you're getting a player in an offense that I think could even be better this season.
15:23Like there's a lot of talk about how you bring in A.J.
15:26Brown, you bring in Romeo Dobbs that might actually pull defenses away from the line of scrimmage a little bit and make
15:33life just slightly easier on these running backs. So I'm looking at Stevenson as a massive value, I think, right now.
15:38And somebody who last year his stats are kind of skewed because he did get hurt.
15:43There were games where he left. There were games where when he came back, they kind of eased him back into the
15:49lineup in part because Henderson looked pretty good at that point.
15:52But eventually they went back to Stevenson and he was crushing like late in the season, man.
15:57This guy was putting up fantastic stats, right? Like it was it was unfortunate because I think we saw Henderson get out
16:03there and actually look pretty good when he got the opportunity.
16:06This isn't something where I would compare it to like the Broncos backfield where R.J.
16:10Harvey kind of got there just on volume once J.K.
16:13Dobbins got hurt. I think Henderson actually looked very explosive, had big games, and I still think he can be really good for fantasy.
16:19But that's just not the way it's going to be at the start of this season.
16:24And I question when that change will happen, if ever now.
16:27Yeah, maybe it happens later this year. Maybe 2027 is the time for Travian Henderson.
16:31But yeah, I was always disturbed by the fact that in the postseason, the snap rate was 31 percent Travian Henderson to 70.3 percent for Mondra Stevenson.
16:39And if you just look at like their total touches last year, regular season of playoffs, it was 232 touches for 1,291 yards for for Stevenson.
16:46For Henderson, it was 250 for 1241. I mean, just pretty close.
16:49There wasn't a big gap between these two backs overall.
16:52Again, I do think I guess I wonder, Boone, like one, Henderson probably just didn't show the improvement that they were hoping
16:58for from year one to year two in camp.
17:01Doesn't mean he can't do it at some point.
17:03But right now, they're still looking to see it.
17:06And I think you mentioned the word explosive with Henderson.
17:08There's no question he brings an explosive play element.
17:11But I wonder if because this passing game, I mean, I just got done charting Kayshawn Booty's profile for reception perception.
17:17They're just running this guy in so many deep routes because it's like a very deep based passing game.
17:22I wonder if they just look at, hey, we want the running back to basically hit the singles and doubles and keep the offense on schedule.
17:29And that's where they look at Romandre Stevenson is that guy.
17:32So we'll see how it plays out in terms of current Yahoo ADP.
17:36It's still a slight lead for Henderson over Stevenson, 73rd overall for Henderson, 76th for Stevenson.
17:40I would and I have for a while now had that flipped essentially here.
17:44So I think that makes total sense for our first riser and somebody that if you fall behind at running back a
17:50little, he makes sense to grab there. Your first faller here, Boone, is someone that also makes a lot of sense given the way the month has happened.
17:58When there's some context we have to give to this one, but the first fallers Ashton Gentry, like how can he not be right?
18:05And there's two parts to it. The first part is, of course, the injury.
18:09He suffers an ankle injury. And man, the early reports on that injury that came out of that practice where he had
18:15to be helped off by trainers and the team was taking a knee and praying for him and all that stuff.
18:21It seemed like we were going to get news that he was going to be out for a long time, maybe for the whole season.
18:27And that, I think, kind of sticks in people's brains right now.
18:31Since then, we've gotten maybe a little more positive news in terms of this injury where they only keep three running backs
18:37in that backfield, that cut down day in him and Mike Washington Jr.
18:41And Dylan Lobby. So that's at least to me a sign that they don't think Gentry is going to be out for a significant amount of time.
18:48They didn't put him on IR or anything like that.
18:51So they obviously think he's going to be back early in the season.
18:54So I think all those things are very good.
18:57The other part, though, to all of this is the Mike Washington Jr.
19:01Of it all. And he definitely looked great in the preseason.
19:04But there's no doubt about that. I mean, you know, we'll talk about him in a second here because he is kind
19:10of part of a group that I want to mention as risers this summer because he just looked fantastic.
19:15And Harmon, I think we talked about him going all the way back to the combine.
19:19We did a show where I was talking about guys that I thought could rise based on their combine performances.
19:25He definitely did that. And now he's showing at the NFL level that he could probably be a starting back at some point.
19:31It's still early, but he at least belongs. And when we're talking about, you know, the summer and August and preseason, I
19:37really want to see rookies get out there against the pros and show that they belong out there.
19:42Mike Washington Jr. Definitely does. And now Clint Kubiak has like changed his tone a little bit.
19:47If you go back to like May, he was talking about Ashton Gentry being a bell cow.
19:52Now there's more talk that both these guys are going to get work.
19:55And I do think that makes a lot of sense.
19:58Is that going to completely sap Gentry's value for fantasy?
20:01I don't think so. But is he going to be this absolute monster workhorse bell cow?
20:05Maybe not. Maybe he is going to give up a little more work to Washington.
20:10So all of that boils down to him falling down a little bit.
20:13He was going as like a late first round pick.
20:16That's where I had him ranked earlier this summer.
20:19Now I have him down in the late second round.
20:21And he's after that, like big group of running backs that we always talk about.
20:25And Saquon Barkley and Kenneth Walker and Chase Brown, Devon A.
20:29Chan, O'Marrion Hampton, even Derek Henry I have ahead of him now.
20:32So you're taking on a bit of risk with Gentry based on the injury and not knowing what he's going to look
20:38like early in the season based on the fact that the injury seal is already broken and he could get back out there and suffer another injury.
20:45You know, the cascade type injuries where they're trying to compensate and he hurt something else.
20:50And he could lose a little bit of work to Mike Washington based on the fact that he left the door open
20:56for Washington this summer and Washington just absolutely knocked it down.
20:59And if you think about it, too, you mentioned the combine dating all the way back to the combine.
21:04Clint Kubiak was talking about how he wanted to have he likes to have a two back system.
21:09Obviously, he did in Seattle last year. He wanted a little bit of a compliment.
21:14And by all accounts, they really like Mike Washington, obviously, as a draft prospect, what they've seen from him so far.
21:19So, yeah, it just makes sense to give Mike Washington some carries because he brings an explosive play element that you're not
21:25going to get consistently in the past game because just where that is right now.
21:30And it's going to keep Ashton Gentry a little fresh, you know, I mean, how so let's just live in a hypothetical
21:36world, Boone, where Gentry was 100 percent healthy. Like he never suffered this injury, but Mike Washington was still crushing it.
21:42And there was still that consistent drumbeat. And we got all these quotes from the coaches.
21:46Yeah. Like, would you say like, would Gentry be a first round pick for you there?
21:50Or would he be more like a mid second?
21:53He would he would be back at the one to turn in my mind.
21:57Yeah, I might have Barkley and Walker ahead of him.
22:00So he would take. So even with the specter of Mike Washington, you would you would still you would still have him there.
22:06Yes. But again, I have factory in Mike Washington.
22:09That would be a little lower than I had him in the rankings before all of this.
22:13So I would be moving him down a couple spots, but I still think he would belong at the one to turn.
22:19And I think based on some of the things that we've heard here and seen them do, there's a chance that he
22:25is going to be healthy sooner rather than later.
22:28It doesn't sound like this is a high ankle sprain at all.
22:31So he could be out there week one. And we know that this offense in this environment should be a lot better
22:37than what he dealt with last year when he compiled pretty good stats, right over 1300 scrimmage yards and 10 touchdowns.
22:43It didn't always feel like that. But with the upgrades in the offensive line, Brock Bowers being healthy, Kubiak being there now, the quarterback situation is better.
22:51There's a lot of reason to think that this offense is going to produce much better for fantasy.
22:56And so if Gentry's healthy, even with Mike Washington having a little more value, Gentry could still be a very good back for fantasy this year.
23:03Yeah, I think that's fair. I would still have him.
23:06I'd probably say like, yeah, early second round pick around that turn is totally fine to me because, yeah, I mean, you
23:12can see it a little bit of work at this point.
23:15Everybody does for the most part of the running that position.
23:18Jared in the YouTube chat asked Ash and Gentry or Brees Hall.
23:21Like I'm still taking Ash and Gentry, even with all those things that we know ahead of Brees Hall.
23:27It's, you know, maybe not crazy to have them in the same tier, but I feel like there's enough difference between the
23:33two to still have Gentry as kind of a right.
23:35What we know right now with injury included second rounder and Brees Hall to me more of a third round.
23:41Does that make sense to you? Yeah, I totally agree.
23:44And Brees Hall's already broken the injury seal, right?
23:46So we think he's going to be back for week one, but it's not like he went through the summer unscathed.
23:52You mentioned Mike Washington is one of the risers.
23:55You kind of have like a whole group here for your next riser, like some of these, these number two running backs here.
24:01Yeah. And I kind of cheated, right? Cause it was like, we should just do like 10 players or something, but I
24:07always want to talk about more guys. So whenever I can do it, we're going to sneak more guys in here to talk about a Mike Washington jr.
24:15We just went over. He looked fantastic. He's definitely one Emmett Johnson on the chiefs.
24:19I mean, you talk about a guy being behind a back who's had some durability concerns.
24:23And I feel like people aren't talking about Kenneth Walker previous to last year, last year, he got to share that backfield
24:30and then he looked great down the stretch. But in the years prior, he always was dealing with injuries, nagging stuff when he was on the field.
24:37He was great. Is he going to be able to step into this workhorse role and survive and keep it going?
24:43Or will they need to get somebody else involved?
24:45If Walker goes down, like I'm going to write the waiver article this year, Harmon.
24:50I know at some point Emmett Johnson is going to be leading that article.
24:53We're going to see Kenneth Walker miss a game and Johnson's going to be the number one pickup that week.
24:59And we saw a cut down day. They got rid of Amari Demercato.
25:03I didn't really think Demercato was a true threat there.
25:05I thought the rookie was much more exciting, but Emmett Johnson looked good out there.
25:10Like what we're hearing about him. And I think he's in a really valuable spot.
25:14You could say something similar about Kael on black for the 49ers.
25:17I want the back who is the number two option behind CMC.
25:20We've talked all off season about CMC 450 touches.
25:23When you include the playoffs last year, his age being 30, is he going to be able to hold up or will he break down at some point?
25:31I hope it doesn't happen. I do not want to see him get hurt, but I want to hedge my bet and
25:37go out and get the number two back in that Kyle Shanahan offense.
25:40And right now it looks like black is that guy.
25:43Malik Davis kind of surprisingly to some extent ends up as the number two back with the Cowboys.
25:48And now this is where Amari Demercato actually lands.
25:51They pick him up on waivers. So we'll see if Demercato can factor in.
25:55But it seems like the coaching staff likes Davis there.
25:57They allowed Jaden Blue and Phil Moffa, these guys that we've talked about over the last year.
26:02Harmon, will they ever step up to be the number two in Dallas?
26:06The answer was no. And it's going to be Malik Davis, the veteran there who has a chance to back up Javante Williams.
26:12And that also kind of boosts Javante Williams fantasy stock as well.
26:15Najee Harris, another guy that I think we could look at and say now he goes from not having a team earlier
26:21this summer to being in a position with the Giants where Tyron Tracy Jr.
26:25kind of played his way out of a role in my mind.
26:29He didn't look good at all this summer. And now Najee kind of fits that power running game that they want to do.
26:35Scadaboo's still the starter, but Najee's going to have a role.
26:38Do I think it's really going to ever turn into anything meaningful?
26:41Maybe not. But when you're talking about grabbing a late round back and a late round back who's behind a starter that
26:48has had some durability concerns of his own in his young career, Najee definitely has some value.
26:52And then if you want to go like super, super deep, you know, I always do this.
26:57Seth McGowan on the Colts. This is a guy that like no one's really talking about.
27:01But if Jonathan Taylor were to go down, it looks like he would be the next one to back him up.
27:07So when you get late in drafts and a lot of the obvious one injury away guys are gone, if you still
27:13want to grab a running back to stash, Seth McGowan could be somebody that you look at there.
27:18Yeah, I like it. No, the Seth McGowan call is a really good one, but he's one of these sleeper one injury away types.
27:25Oh man, the Kenneth Walker injury part is such a good point.
27:28It feels like we're all just waving it away.
27:31And it makes me really nervous because when we talk about our first round rankings, I've kind of hovered around with him as that 12th overall player.
27:38And I just, I like it, but I don't like it.
27:41So Emmitt Johnson, definitely a name that you guys need to know, but we're going to take our first quick break.
27:47We come back, we're running through more risers and followers and boons rankings.
27:51We'll get into that right after this. All right.
27:53We are continuing to talk through risers, followers at the running back position.
27:57Since Boone gave us such a glowing review of all these running backs that you've definitely heard of before.
28:02Let's get to a name you do know for the faller section here, Boone.
28:06And this one is a, it's a pretty dramatic fall.
28:09I think for, for this particular player, maybe just his entire team.
28:12Let's hear it. Who's the next faller. That's why we had to go to break that to towel me off before we
28:18got into any more running backs here. Cause I went too deep with the last ones there.
28:23Uh, this faller, not somebody that I necessarily thought would fall.
28:26I thought we had a pretty good assessment of what he was and yet somehow it's gotten worse.
28:31Now, Harmon, if I go back to Boone June, you were not around.
28:35You were like in Europe, sitting on a patio, taking photos, enjoying your life at this point.
28:40But we had our buddy Richard on the show.
28:42So we were talking about, do you miss it?
28:45You miss it. Yeah, definitely. What do you think it'll happen again someday?
28:48Harmon, maybe 2027. We'll, we'll let you go again.
28:51Um, but rich, we had rich on the show, rich rebar and rich made a case for Tony Pollard being this year's Javante Williams.
28:57And I heard him out. I thought he made some really good points.
29:01And at that point we had, I think a little more hope for this Titans offense.
29:05And I want to remind everybody, like this is early in the process.
29:09There's a new coaching staff there. There's a lot of young players.
29:12We have to give them some runway to figure this out, but it's not looking great after this preseason.
29:18After the reports we're hearing out of Tennessee, Cam Ward really not looking comfortable in this new offense, the offensive line still being a huge problem there.
29:25And that could make things very difficult in terms of the learning curve with this new offense and taking advantage of some
29:31of these new weapons that he has. And Cardinal Tate, Wando Robinson, and really just this offense as a whole on top
29:37of that for Pollard, we're seeing Tajay Spears get used more than him in the preseason.
29:42Now, is that a scenario that it's a veteran back and they don't want to overwork Pollard maybe, but it also seems
29:48like that's where the way the coaching staff wants to approach this.
29:51That's kind of what they've said, that they see both these guys getting a lot of work.
29:56And then later in the season, when I think they inevitably fall out of the playoff mix, neither of these two are on are under contract next year.
30:04So could we see them maybe get Nick Singleton out there, the rookie to see what they have in him?
30:09And could that complicate Pollard's fantasy outlook later in the season?
30:12It just it all comes together, Harmon, to just make it not want to draft Tony Pollard.
30:17I don't see the ceiling for him. I don't really see him being as valuable later in the year.
30:22So what are we doing taking him there? I'd much rather address the position earlier.
30:26And then once we get to that stage where he's going, I want to be looking at quarterback potentially.
30:32I want to be hitting wide receivers. I think there's other running backs in that range that are interesting.
30:37Like just don't waste a pick on Tony Pollard.
30:39Yeah, you have him 86. I kind of have him in the same range along with ADP here.
30:44Just sometimes there's a team that you can just like cross off your draft board.
30:49And I kind of feel like the Tennessee Titans are that team this year.
30:53And they have some interesting players. They have some interesting young players, especially.
30:56I mean, Carnell Tate was my wide receiver one in this draft class.
31:00I think he's going to be pretty good this year.
31:03But from like a watch the tape perspective, like he's really going to win you your watch the tape leagues.
31:08But at the same time, from a fantasy league perspective, my problem with the Titans as a whole, and this is a
31:14perfect kind of encapsulation of it with Tony Pollard.
31:17Some of the picks like at this point in the draft that are small hits, but big misses are just the worst picks that you can make.
31:24And like, let's even say it works out, like works out for Tony Pollard.
31:28You take him as running back 30. And like, what's the best case scenario we showed on the screen earlier?
31:34He's finished what? Like running back 23. And you know what?
31:37Yeah. Running back 22, running back 23. I kind of think like that's the best case scenario.
31:41And you know, whoop-dee-doo, whoop-dee-doo if you get that right with Tony Pollard there.
31:45So he's not just someone I'm, you know, I would never take him under any circumstance, but where his current ADP, I
31:51do find my eyes going to other places. And that's just kind of my worry with this Titans team as a whole.
31:58I'm just not that into the day ball experience at this point.
32:01I don't know that him and Cam Ward gel very well.
32:04And it just, to me, like Wando Robinson is going to catch a bazillion passes in this offense and they're not going to be a very good team.
32:12So it doesn't really, it doesn't really lend me to want to click on their running back one right now.
32:17And I think I feel that way about the entire offense.
32:20You kind of hinted at it there, right? I bring up all the time.
32:24I want fantasy to be fun. And there's certain teams where I just don't want to have to watch them.
32:30And I know I'm not obligated to watch games where there's players that, you know, are on my fantasy team.
32:35I know I don't have to, but early in the season, I'm going to be watching every single game.
32:41Anyway, as the year goes along, I do not want to have to watch these Titans games.
32:45We get to December and I'm trying to win important fantasy matchups.
32:49These are not the kind of games that I want to be watching a Titans team.
32:53That's out of the playoff mix. That's just kind of getting by.
32:56So Tony Pollard, I don't see the ceiling. If you want to take a shot on Tajay Spears, cause he goes much later.
33:03Fine. But again, I don't know that the ceiling's there for him either.
33:06And Nick Singleton is probably more of a dynasty pick, or if you want to get him late and try to in
33:12a keeper league, hold him for next year, you could do that.
33:16But overall, I'm worried about everybody. You said you still have maybe a little bit of hope for Carnell Tate, like based
33:22on what we saw on the preseason here. I'm worried about him.
33:25I don't. I'm worried about Robinson. Gunner Helm at one point was like, oh, maybe.
33:29I don't think Gunner Helm has a shot. I think he's even off the sleeper radar now.
33:34So yeah, this offense, it's unfortunate, but we're going to have to probably wait another year before we try to talk ourselves into them again.
33:41Brutal. I want better for you guys out there, you Titans fans, cause you guys are a passionate fan base, sneaky, passionate fan base online.
33:48And yeah, I'm hoping for better for you guys.
33:51I'm hoping I'm wrong about my Titans skepticism. Next one up here is a riser.
33:55This is Jonathan Brooks, and he's obviously somebody we've talked about a lot.
33:58I think people know the case for Jonathan Brooks at this point, Boone.
34:02But now there's like a little bit of a different situation.
34:05It sounds like Chuba Hubbard is going to be available for week one.
34:09So Brooks is definitely a riser. But are you nervous?
34:11Maybe the fantasy industry has jumped the shark a little bit with the Jonathan Brooks kind of hype train.
34:17His current Yahoo ADP is 85th overall. Is that still a palatable range for you?
34:21Even again, he's clearly a riser right now. Yes.
34:23I don't think that's crazy at all. There's certainly some people in the industry that probably have gone overboard when it comes to the Brooks hype.
34:31But in that range, he's the kind of player I would rather take a shot on versus a guy like Tony Pollard, right?
34:37Because there is a path towards Jonathan Brooks potentially breaking out and having a bigger season and having a bigger ceiling for
34:43fantasy where we're saying we don't see it with Pollard.
34:46And we never, at least the way we talked about it on this show, we never really suggested that this is Brooks
34:52backfield and Hubbard's going to sit on the bench.
34:54No, immediately, even after the Hubbard injury happened, we talked about when he's back, he's still going to be involved.
35:00This isn't potentially if Hubbard's healthy, he could still start the season as the number one back.
35:05But over time, what have we seen? Last year, injuries struck.
35:08Well, they've already struck for him this year and he eventually lost his starting job.
35:12And I think this team would like to see Brooks take over the starting job in Carolina.
35:17So I think over time, Brooks is just going to take on more and more and more.
35:21And the start of the year might be 50-50.
35:24It might even be 60-40 for Hubbard. But little by little, Brooks is going to gain in value.
35:29That's the kind of player that I want. When we get to a more meaningful part of the season, he's doing his
35:35best work and he still has a lot to prove.
35:38He's got to prove that he can stay healthy.
35:40Like we're not totally over the injury stuff. He's had a good summer here.
35:44A lot of positive reports. He looks pretty good.
35:47But we need him to do it over a long period of time.
35:50And we need him to overcome some of the other issues in this Panthers offense.
35:54Like we just talked about the Titans. We can't just kind of push off to the side.
35:59The idea that the Panthers have some injuries on their offensive line.
36:02Bryce Young might not be the long-term answer at quarterback here.
36:05They have a fairly difficult schedule for fantasy running backs.
36:08So there are still some issues. And yet, if we're trying to find that player that could break out at the running
36:14back position, he's going in a range where I don't think it's that much of a risk to take a player like
36:20him who could potentially have that big ceiling. Yeah, eighth round is totally fine for me with Jonathan Brooks.
36:26So, okay, in the this guy can't stay healthy, but we are intrigued with the upside division.
36:30Would you rather click on Marshawn Lloyd or Jonathan Brooks at this point?
36:34No, I'm taking Marshawn Lloyd. I think the path's a little more clear for him.
36:38And I just would rather invest in that Packers offense.
36:41You? Yeah, I think that's the right answer. I feel like if both of these guys hit their ceilings, I think Brooks,
36:47it's hard to say because it's after the injuries and all of that.
36:51But I feel like, obviously, Brooks was the better talent when they entered the league.
36:55Who really knows where? I mean, really, who knows where either guy is at this point?
36:59We're throwing darts in a range where running back gets pretty gross here.
37:03So there's really no proof of concept anyways. Like how many?
37:06Brooks, I know off the top of my head, it's 12 touches so far in the NFL.
37:11How many touches have we seen of Marshawn Lloyd?
37:13I mean, we are totally throwing darts here at this point.
37:16But I do like your point that there's less competition in that Packers backfield.
37:20And I mean, we're talking about let Love cook.
37:23I don't think we're at a point where we're letting Bryce bake here at this point.
37:27So yeah, I do think Lloyd's the right answer.
37:30And where Brooks is going, we talked about this, like in terms of draft strategy and other episodes, the idea that you
37:36could basically have your entire starting lineup already filled out except for quarterback, because we wait on quarterback, right?
37:41So you get players at running back at receiver, you get yourself a tight end.
37:45And then things do kind of drop off in terms of, you know, players that I'm excited to draft once you get
37:51to this area, like the seven, eight turn or so.
37:54And that's why at that point, I want to look towards an upside guy like him, or I want to be trying
38:00to grab an injury discount tight end or find my starting quarterback and all those things.
38:05But the risk is just completely gone because you filled out your starting lineup.
38:09So you're just purely into upside and Brooks has that upside.
38:12Obviously, Lloyd has that upside as well. All right.
38:14Last running back here on this one. You know, look, I've mentioned on the show, I've been in search mode for RJ Harvey truthers, RJ Harvey hype men.
38:22It's tough to find them, but I found a couple of them here of late, including Ray Garvin on this very show.
38:28So we at least had some positivity on the range of RJ Harvey.
38:32But Boone, you're here to tell the people, well, don't buy any of that positivity.
38:36This is a guy that's been going down the rankings.
38:38Well, the drafters don't have that positivity. I'm looking at like the ADP on Yahoo.
38:43He's fallen almost 10 spots over the last week or so.
38:46And I think that's totally tied to the Jonah Coleman rise, right?
38:49And people realizing the whole Jonah Coleman story that we've been talking about since the draft, that the Broncos brought him in to be the J.K.
38:56Dobbins replacement. And Harvey was fine last year. Like where you're getting him, he could return that kind of value.
39:02If you think about before Dobbins got hurt last season, Dobbins was the RB 22 and fantasy points per game.
39:07Harvey was playing like that part time role, that pass catcher.
39:10Plus, he was the RB 33, you know, 8.7 fantasy points per game.
39:14Kind of a boom or bust flex option. That's OK.
39:17I don't think that's going to win your league.
39:19And if and when that inevitable J.K. Dobbins injury happens, which we don't want to see, but every other year it has happened.
39:26If that occurs last year, Harvey had no competition, right?
39:28That's why he had decent stats for fantasy. It was RB 9 on a per game basis from week 11 on, you
39:35know, had four top 12 fantasy finishes in his last six outings.
39:38But that wasn't based on efficiency. That was based on volume and touchdown scoring.
39:42And this year, Coleman is going to eat into that.
39:45He has a competent player who is going to step into the Dobbins role.
39:48And obviously, Sean Payton likes him. He's talked him up a ton.
39:52People have seen Coleman play. He's looked good. And he's the kind of player that really could step into that role and
39:58keep Harvey where he is locked into just that pass catcher plus.
40:01So if you're taking him, what's the ceiling? Like now you need two injuries to occur in order for him to like
40:07return massive value and become a top 15, top 20 kind of fantasy play.
40:11So I don't really like to invest in guys like that.
40:14And I know it seems counterintuitive right now because Coleman is the number three on the depth chart.
40:19But if Dobbins goes down, Coleman's the one that you're going to want to have on your roster.
40:24And I've been pretty steadfast about that all offseason.
40:27Yeah, I think that makes a ton of sense.
40:29And it's like unless you're PPR scamming, I'm really not sure what the ceiling is here on the RJ Harvey situation.
40:35We're going to transition into wide receivers. But before we do, I know you guys have some big drafts coming up.
40:41I have a draft coming up here in 20 minutes, Boone.
40:44OK, so do you. We're going to be in a draft together.
40:47You know, what would really help is if we had a little Yahoo Fantasy Ultra subscription in our lives.
40:53But don't worry, you guys can get one of those for 25% off right now.
40:57Yeah, that's right. You can claim a 25% off discount today on the Yahoo Fantasy Ultra subscription, which includes a 150 plus
41:03page draft guide and access to our strategy lab.
41:05Even better. Like I said, 25% off right now on the first year of your annual subscription fee through September 7th at 1159 p.m.
41:12Pacific. Time runs out. No more discount for you.
41:15So claim your discount today. 25% off Yahoo Fantasy dot com slash plus.
41:18Boone is still grinding out. He's mixing chemicals in the strategy lab.
41:22He's grinding out the rankings. We're all putting stuff together for the kid.
41:25It's a living, breathing document. Get it in your lives today.
41:28Let's get to the fallers and risers at wide receiver here.
41:31Boone, your first riser is Chris Olave. Obviously, this is related to the Jordan Tyson injury.
41:36I'm sure just how high can we take Chris Olave in our fantasy leagues right now?
41:40I mean, I think he belongs in the second round.
41:43I think he's right in that mix. People are very excited about AJ Brown and players like that.
41:48Why can't Olave be that right? This dude was the wide receiver nine in fantasy points per game last year.
41:53And I know I'm preaching to the choir Harmon because we were both on him last year.
41:58We talked about him in our, you know, after the season recap show and we were handing out fantasy awards.
42:04He was one of the players last season that when you look back, you're like, man, Chris Olave was one of those
42:10guys that I needed to have in my lineup or I was very excited that I did have him in my lineup.
42:16Average the six most targets per game and then just completely turned it on late wide receiver to overall behind only Puka Nakua in the fantasy playoffs.
42:23Top 10 fantasy receiver each of the last two weeks of the fantasy playoffs at the most important time.
42:29And it, it sucks that we're putting him here as a riser because normally we wouldn't have to.
42:34He would just be a player that we really liked, but yes, the Jordan Tyson injury.
42:38That's really what's bumping him up here because there was just a little bit of concern that now he was going to have a, an equal running mate.
42:46He was going to have somebody else that was drawn away.
42:49Some work might not get the same kind of volume that he had last year, but Tyson's not going to be around for at least a little while.
42:57I don't think we're going to see him until October, maybe mid season.
43:00We don't really know what the recovery timeline is there yet.
43:03And during that time, Olave is going to get off to another hot start.
43:07The saints have the eighth easiest fantasy schedule for receivers.
43:10Tyler Shuck apparently had like some struggles early in training camp and then got right.
43:14And he looks totally fine. Kellen Moore's offense. We know the pace that they play at.
43:19It's going to be a lot of volume available here.
43:21I just, I love Olave at that two, three turn.
43:24And I don't even want to say it this much Harmon because well, you're at a different part of the draft, I guess, tomorrow than I am.
43:32So we don't have to worry about it. You're picking all the way at the other end, but Olave is somebody I'm
43:38definitely going to be considering when I'm at that two, three turn.
43:41Oh, I mean, that makes complete sense. You have him 25th overall.
43:45I'm 23rd overall. We're both the head of current ADP.
43:47And yeah, I mean, the name to me that makes a lot of sense in that second round range is Drake London, who's the 21st overall player.
43:55Obviously, I love Drake London, but I think talent wise, those guys are close.
43:59And I just feel a little bit better about the, I mean, it's, it's August 31st Boone and the Atlanta Falcons have
44:05not yet told us who is their starting quarterback, because I'm not sure they want to admit who their starting quarterback is in week one just yet.
44:12So yeah, Jack, we're going to get some Jack Strand starts in our lives with the Atlanta Falcons.
44:17That makes me a little bit skeptical. Your next fall or your first faller here at wide receiver is a tough one
44:23to talk about because this is a guy I've also been dropping down my rankings.
44:28Speaking of the Yahoo fantasy ultra subscription, the draft guide, of course, which you can get.
44:32I saw a YouTube comment that said it did not.
44:35They bought the fantasy package thing and it would spice up their bedroom.
44:38Didn't work out. We don't I don't know if I can say this, but I believe legally we did not claim that that was going to happen.
44:46So that's a different type of fantasy. Different subscription service for that one.
44:50We don't we this is a family program here, please let's let's let's keep it PG.
44:54But in the Yahoo fantasy ultra draft kit early on the Terry McLaurin was one of my flag plant players.
44:59I'm like, yeah, put this in put that put him in the my guy section a couple weeks ago.
45:05I'm like Mo Jason Ben the editors. We're going to scratch that one for the record.
45:09We're going to take him off there. So yeah, Terry no longer a flag plant player for me this year.
45:15He's also following you on your rankings as well.
45:17So yeah, the arrival of Stefan Diggs was like the obvious thing that happened and we knew that was a possibility and
45:23dig showing up if it was just that alone.
45:26I think I still would be in on Terry and I'd be like, you'll be fine bumping down a couple spots, but
45:32he's still going to have a good year. And yet the Laramie Tunsil injury is just to me what's changed everything, right?
45:38There's very few linemen where if you take them away from the offensive line, all of a sudden things completely change.
45:44And he's one of those guys and the reports we're getting out of Washington now are this offensive line looks terrible.
45:50It's not allowing the offense to really do anything.
45:52Now you start to worry about Jaden Daniels and his health because he's dealt with durability issues.
45:57Last season was basically a write-off because he was in and out of the lineup.
46:01And when you think about Terry McLaurin, like there's all this talk that David Bauer is going to move him around the formation.
46:08They're going to try to get him some easier looks.
46:10That's great. But Terry's also a big play guy.
46:13And are you going to have the time for those plays to develop if you can't get that blocking?
46:18So overall now, Harmon, I'm just, I'm a little bit concerned.
46:21I wanted to buy into this commander's offense and because the defense looks so bad, it was like, well, they're gonna be throwing a ton.
46:28It's gonna be a lot of fantasy points here.
46:31It doesn't always work out that way. If you can't feel the competent offensive line, you can't do that much on the offensive side of the ball.
46:38And now I'm starting to get worried that we just need to bump all these guys down a bit.
46:43And I definitely have bumped McLaurin down. You know, there's a group ahead of him that I just really like when you're
46:49talking about Parker Washington and Christian Watson and DJ Moore and Jamison Williams.
46:53I'm taking those guys ahead of him now. Yeah, I still have like considered Terry in the fifth round.
46:58But I thought he was like a solid, solidly fourth round receiver before this.
47:02So I've docked him a little bit. But I had Zach Miller, who is our web manager at Reception Perception, message me over the weekend.
47:09He's like, in your heart of hearts, would you really take Terry McLaurin over Roma Dunze right now?
47:14I'm like, I mean, yeah, like I would. But I would have done it with conviction about a few weeks ago.
47:20And now I don't really have that same conviction anymore.
47:23So yeah, it's a shame because I was with you.
47:26I really was excited about this offense. But, you know, after talking with Jori Epstein last week, time is a thing, in
47:32the New York office about what she was hearing from commanders camp and just the offensive line reports and David Blau.
47:38He's really into magic. He's thinking about all these trick plays.
47:41He's got to cook. I'm like, David, there's enough on your plate, brother.
47:44We don't need you cooking up trick plays. Let's get the regular plays to work first.
47:49And I'm not so sure the regular plays are going to be working all that great for the Washington commanders right now.
47:55Yeah, this is one of those teams I've definitely just given a general stock down to at this point.
48:00But we're going to take our next break. We come back.
48:03We're talking more risers and followers of the wide receiver position.
48:06We'll get into that right after this. All right, we're back.
48:09Our next riser here is someone that like when I look at my rankings, this guy or Terry McLaurin, I'm not sure.
48:15I used to feel a lot of conviction on that.
48:18But now I feel like DJ Moore, our next riser here is somebody that we should talk about.
48:23And Boone, I have to ask you, are you pandering to Damien who took me to task in the Q&A section?
48:29I'm glad you brought him up. Yeah, I'm glad you brought him up.
48:32I was going to. He really went at you.
48:35He really had a bone to pick with you.
48:37And it was fun to watch. We just kind of Josh and I just kind of sat back and let him go, let him cook.
48:44And it was fun to watch you, I thought, try to update your rankings live on the spot as you leaned over
48:51to your laptop and started to hit things. But I did not update my rankings on the spot.
48:56How dare you? How dare you? By the way, what I'm referencing is a discussion in our Q&A feed that happened after our live show in Buffalo.
49:03That is actually going to hit the audio feed as a bonus pod this evening.
49:07So if you're listening to this one, that should also be in your feeds as well.
49:12Where you hear Damien get up on the mic and be like, Matt Harmon, you know, I love your work.
49:17You're the wide receiver whisperer. I'm like, all right, this guy's about to pitch me a softball right down the plate.
49:23Let's let me get up here and talk about routes.
49:26And no, he's like, I can't believe you have Teddero McMillan ranked ahead of DJ Moore.
49:30And he really let me have it on that one.
49:33He was cooking on that one. It was great, by the way.
49:36It was a hilarious interaction. I think I got to a good explanation in the end.
49:41But anyways, Boone, enough of me. Why is DJ Moore a riser for you?
49:45Well, and he was right about a lot of the points he was making until he started to get into the like,
49:51he's going to be a top 10, top 12 receiver this year.
49:54And then it was like, OK, maybe there's a little bit of Bill's fandom sneaking into this one.
49:59But perhaps there were questions about DJ Moore coming over to the Bills and, you know, what kind of role is he going to have?
50:06What we've seen so far, you know, coming out of practice and, you know, some of these joint practices and stuff.
50:12He's getting a lot of work and he is the best receiver by far that they have had since Stefan Diggs.
50:18And the fact that they were looking to pepper him with targets early.
50:21Now, he did get a little banged up. There was an injury scare.
50:25He's fine, though. No concerns there. In fact, it's the other guys in that receiving core that are dealing with injuries.
50:31Khalil Shakir has an undisclosed injury. Keon Coleman has a foot injury.
50:34He's also still Keon Coleman. So he's not really going to factor in Josh Palmer more of just a contributing piece, right?
50:40Like he's not going to be a star that's going to command a ton of volume.
50:45And Skylar Bell might develop into something, but he is not going to hit the ground running as a meaningful piece of this offense.
50:51So DJ Moore right now is going to be a huge part of this passing attack.
50:56Him and Dalton Kincaid are what it's going to revolve around.
50:59And I think you got to get excited about him to some degree here.
51:03He's playing with a great quarterback and he's only one season removed from over 90 catches.
51:07That's something that he did back to back years before that down year last season.
51:11And he's had 90 catch seasons in three of his last five years.
51:15Like we know he can eat that volume up.
51:17We know he can do it. It's a good setup for him.
51:21You like that he has a history with, you know, Joe Brady.
51:24I think there's a lot of reasons to get in on DJ Moore this year.
51:28And he's going in that range where there are a bunch of receivers that I like, but I want to make sure
51:34I am getting some more of him. Yeah, definitely going in the range where we like taking wide receivers.
51:40I have him as my 45th overall player. His ADP on Yahoo is 56th overall.
51:44And that was my point to Damien. It's like, hey, use my rankings.
51:47You're going to be getting DJ Moore. You know, you're still going to get some Tetairoa McMillan too.
51:52I'm pretty much in line with there, but that's the way I like to design the rankings is not like predicting who's
51:59going to finish where at the end of the season.
52:01You know, it's more just when you use my rankings, I want you to get certain guys.
52:06So I'm a little sensitive to ADP when I put those things together.
52:10So good question by Damien. Again, you guys can be able to hear that in the Q&A feed there and good explanation
52:16by Boone for why DJ Moore is rising. I did a little study on my reception perception data.
52:21I think I've mentioned this before where looking at DJ Moore, he was like the fifth most misused player based on the
52:27routes that he ran and based on the routes he was successful on.
52:30And I think he will run those routes that he's a little more successful on this year with the Buffalo Bills.
52:36But Boone, let's get to your next faller here.
52:39This is a veteran wide receiver as well that kind of goes in the same range as DJ Moore in drafts.
52:45All right. I think you're throwing it to me, Harmon.
52:47I'm losing just a little bit there, but I think you threw it to me for my next one.
52:53And this guy, another veteran going to a new team, basically going in the complete opposite direction in terms of his stock this month.
52:59And that's Mike Evans on the 49ers. And we knew that there was the durability concerns.
53:04We knew there's that injury history with him. You can go back to 2019 every single year since then.
53:09He's had some type of hamstring injury this summer in and out of practice with lower body, soft tissue stuff, quad groin foot.
53:15But the question becomes, is this a veteran player who is getting much older?
53:19He's on the wrong side of 30. Is he just trying to avoid some practice or is this a guy that is absolutely just breaking down?
53:27And if you look at Evans, I mean, he's missed 12 games over the last two campaigns.
53:31I worry that he is somebody that might not have it anymore, that that's why the Bucs didn't bring him back.
53:37That's why he's with a new team right now.
53:40And as good as Kyle Shanahan and that offense are, I don't know that Evans is going to return value this year in fantasy.
53:46Now, when he's on the field, he will always have that wide receiver to upside for fantasy.
53:51He'll have that scoring potential. But man, you have to worry with all these injuries already.
53:55Is he going to be able to hold up?
53:58And then you start to look across this entire offense and you go, well, George Kittle sounds like he's coming back soon
54:04and he's looking like his recovery is going well.
54:07Well, CMC right now, he should be OK. If Debo Samuel there, you have Dazon Stribbling coming on.
54:12And now you start to question, like, what is the ceiling for Mike Evans here if he's not out there for a big chunk of the season?
54:19And I think that's a legitimate concern, Harmon. Yeah, I think that is a legitimate concern.
54:24And speaking of legitimate concerns, I'm sorry for the little choppiness on the feed here, Boone.
54:28And I had the draft client up for our draft that's starting here in three minutes.
54:32And they started playing some video of some knucklehead explaining your draft slot and all that.
54:37So it just caused a little choppiness in the feed there.
54:40My apologies. No, I'm kidding. By the way, you do a great job on those videos.
54:44It's really great to see you just pop up.
54:47I was going to say, it's a very handsome guy that does those videos before the drafts.
54:52He's handsome, well-spoken, represents Canada very well, I would say, on those videos.
54:55So yeah, no, you do some great work, that is for sure.
54:58Okay, yeah, I'm with you on the Mike Evans thing.
55:01It's just difficult at this point. I'd love them to string together a couple days of consistent practice.
55:06And I do worry that there's just a little bit of implosion risk with this 49ers team overall.
55:11You have your last two riser and your last riser and faller here.
55:15A little bit more cheating from you with a massive list of names, but your risers are day two rookie wide receivers.
55:21Your fallers are first round wide receivers. Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson, Makai Lemon, Omar Cooper Jr., Casey Concepcion, you mentioned is the exception.
55:27I agree with you. Casey is probably the only one of those guys that even in Dynasty, I've bumped up the list
55:33here over the last month or so. My question to you, Boone, is less about like, let's go through each of these
55:40individual names because you've got a bunch here for the day two rookie wide receivers.
55:44You have Stribling, Malachi Fields, Caleb Douglas, Zachariah Branch.
55:46I don't know about that one. Jacoby Lane, Chris Bell.
55:49How much of this do you worry, though, is like preseason brain?
55:52You know, these guys are in a good spot and they've impressed a little bit.
55:57How much do you want to weigh what we believe about these guys as talents coming to the league versus like the
56:03opportunity and maybe some of the buzz that they've had over the last few weeks or so?
56:07Like, where do you kind of stand on the dichotomy there?
56:10I think Fields and Branch probably fall under that one where there is a path towards them getting playing time and actually putting up some stats this year.
56:18Is it going to be meaningful for fantasy? Probably not.
56:21But Stribling is in a spot where we just talked about it.
56:24Think about how old all those guys are on the 49ers.
56:27If Mike Evans isn't out there, Stribling could be an absolute star for fantasy this season.
56:32So I've moved him way up. I'm looking to take him as many spots as I can.
56:37Chris Bell and Jacoby Lane are two others where I think Chris Bell being back already, being able to play in the
56:43last preseason game coming off of the torn ACL.
56:45That's a great sign for him. I thought he was a really good prospect and now he's going to get a chance
56:51to come on a little bit earlier than I expected coming off the injury in a Dolphins receiving core that didn't really have that much.
56:58So that's exciting. And then Jacoby Lane in this Declan Doyle offense that we think is going to pass a little more in Baltimore.
57:05Other than say flowers, like they don't have that much.
57:08Mark Andrews getting older, not really sure. There's been some mixed reports about him this summer.
57:12So I think Lane could turn into an important piece of that passing attack.
57:16So really, that's how it breaks down for me.
57:18All of these guys have kind of had good summers, gotten some hype, made some headlines.
57:23I would say Stribling, Lane and Bell are the three that I am targeting in redraft leagues.
57:28Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
57:30Chris Bell, like deeper in best ball drafts, like the 16th round, stuff like that.
57:34If you play in deeper formats, I really like taking him there.
57:38And yes, Stribling, of course, has gotten to the point where he's going in the single digit rounds.
57:43I think that's probably right for him to be.
57:45I don't want to go too crazy on the Stribling thing, but I do think single digit rounds is totally comfortable with him.
57:51Just before we get off of this, with these first round wide receivers who still have some decent ADP.
57:57Yeah, I kind of want to put like Omar Cooper Jr.
58:00to the side because I was always kind of skeptical he was going to be a fantasy factor.
58:05I probably want to put Jordan Tyson to the side as well because what are you going to do about that?
58:11It's an injury. Well, what do you want to say about that?
58:14I would still take him. Like, I don't know exactly where his ADP is settling because it's kind of all over the place at the moment.
58:21But once you get to like the ninth round or so, I would start to consider him because he is a guy
58:27that you can throw into your IR spot and then use that bench spot on someone else.
58:32And he showed enough like the beat writers were talking him up.
58:35They were saying he was one of the best players on the team this summer.
58:40So if we do get him back, if he can get healthy, those are a lot of ifs.
58:45I understand. And it's probably not going to happen until the second half of the season.
58:49But he at least generated enough buzz where this could be a guy that is an important piece for fantasy in the second half of the year.
58:56So I'm OK grabbing him where he's going because he's fallen very far down.
59:00And I kind of feel the same about Makai Lemon.
59:03Like, it's a delayed launch because of the hamstring issues and OTAs, the hamstring issues in training camp.
59:08But he's back out there now. And don't expect that he's going to do much for you early in the season.
59:14But you grab him, you hold him and you see what he can turn into.
59:18Because I still believe in the player, despite what the public perception might feel because of the injuries and because of how
59:24he looked in the little preseason action that he did get.
59:27Yeah, I really don't care about the preseason part of it for Makai Lemon.
59:31I think he's going to be just fine. I think I don't really care about preseason stats or drops or anything like that.
59:38It's just mostly I do think I expect him to start the season slow just from a usage standpoint here.
59:43So that's going to be a little difficult. Tyson, I don't I think you can take him only if you have an
59:49IR spot, which I did over the weekend in a slow draft where actually I was showing you.
59:54I was like, I think I'm gonna take Tyson here because I've got the IR spot there.
59:59That's totally fine. What do you do, though, with these guys?
60:02Like, just to say, from a dynasty perspective, you're midway through the season or even you're like 75 percent of the way through the season.
60:09You're like a Carnell Tate manager. You're a Makai Lemon manager.
60:12Are you looking to like buy at that point?
60:15When do you start to panic about like a round one receiver that maybe isn't going to be what you kind of thought they were going to be?
60:22I think you can get yourself in some real trouble if you panic and you get rid of them after the first month.
60:29We've discussed this as like an actual strategy before where some of these rookies don't perform early in the season.
60:34And even if you didn't draft them, you get to slide in there in October, pick them up, throw them on your
60:40bench, and then you get to profit when they do come on later in the season.
60:45So it's case by case, but I would give them a little more runway if I'm drafting them there.
60:50I'm going to give them a little longer to figure it out, especially when you're talking about these guys that are dealing with injuries.
60:57The Carnell Tate one, one of the reasons why I don't want to take him is because I don't know that there's
61:03going to be a price jump at all. Like he might come out and have a big game at some point, and
61:09then you could try to move them. But overall, is anyone going to want to spend up to invest in that Titans offense?
61:15Probably not where I can see a scenario where Lemon starts to come on, where Tyson, as he nears his return, people
61:21are getting very fired up about him. Those are the kind of guys that I would be willing to grab and hold on my bench.
61:28And they're also coming a lot cheaper right now in drafts.
61:31Yeah, I wouldn't be panicking about those players either, certainly in a dynasty perspective.
61:35All right, we're going to take a quick break because I got to make a couple of picks here.
61:41All right, in this draft. So we're going to take a quick break and we'll come back on the other side with
61:47some tight ending quarterback movement in Boone's rankings. We'll get into that right after this.
61:51All right, we're back. I made my two picks.
61:53It was very stressful. I ended up with the high ankle sprain combo of Gentty and Jeremiah Love in the second and
61:59third round, in case people are curious. So I've actually been wanting to do that in a draft lately, Boone.
62:05And I finally had, you know, maybe a lack of brains to do it there.
62:09So if it goes poorly, I'll just say, you know what?
62:12I was on the show. It's producing content for the great outlet that is Yahoo Sports.
62:17So we'll just put it that way. Anyways, all right, let's get into biggest risers and followers at quarterback and tight end.
62:23Start us off with a riser here, Justin Boone, so that you can maybe miss your pick.
62:28Maybe if I keep yakking and yapping, you'll never miss a pick.
62:31Yeah, we could just kill time. How many? Oh, we still got a few picks until I'm up here.
62:36So I'll be all right. I'll throw it to you when I do get on the clock.
62:41The first riser here is, again, I'm going to cheat and throw a couple guys together here.
62:46Injured tight ends. So Tucker Craft, who we mentioned briefly earlier, George Kittle.
62:49These were players that for a long time, their recoveries seem to be going very well.
62:54And it seemed like they were going to have a shot to be out there week one or at least very early in the season.
63:01And now that's coming to fruition. And finally, everyone's listening to us and getting on board.
63:05And we're starting to see these guys move up significantly.
63:08I've moved them up even more, but I always had them in a range where I was getting them in drafts because
63:14I think we've mentioned before my approach to tight end this year.
63:17You try to get an elite tight end. If you can't get one of them, you come back around and you try
63:23to get one of these injured tight ends. You're getting a discount on them.
63:27And yet when you talk about craft, when you talk about Kittle, these are players that have top three upside at the position.
63:34We saw craft do it last year before he got hurt.
63:37It was unfortunate that the injury kind of stopped it from being a full awesome.
63:41Breakout season and Kittle basically every time he's out there has a chance to finish as the number one tight end in a given week.
63:48So really excited about these guys, Harmon. I think we're still getting them at great values, but we're just watching their value
63:54rise now over the last few weeks. Yeah. Craft is definitely.
63:57So I was always kind of suspicious that craft was going to be some slow starter or whatever.
64:02And he might be a slow starter. He might be, you know, on a snap count to start the season and everything like that.
64:09But yeah, where he goes, I'm totally down for him at this point.
64:12Kittle still won't be surprised if it's a little bit of a slow ramp up for Kittle.
64:17You know, the Niners have playoff aspirations. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a slow first month, but I think you can
64:23hopefully survive that if you take him in your drafts.
64:26You can, you can get like a, you know, boring tight end a little bit later, just kind of fill some weeks for you in your riser section.
64:34There's actually a couple of those that I was going to reference.
64:37So maybe we can, maybe we can. Well, I was going to say, you could just get Jake Tungis is his backup
64:43and you might be fine for however long Kittle's out.
64:46But if you want to look at him ramping up, Kittle's also not one of these like major volume tight ends, right?
64:52He's a guy that you can grab him and he could score a touchdown or two.
64:56He's like this spiked week type guy. As I look at the draft here and take Jalen Waddle at 311.
65:02Great, great pick. One of our favorite players. But yes, when it comes to tight ends, those two injured guys.
65:07And I also sometimes include Dalton Kincaid in there because the injuries that he's dealt with in the past, getting these injury
65:14discounts at tight end is just a huge, huge value this year.
65:17All right. Who is somebody from a tight end standpoint that's falling down your rankings?
65:21I think people will notice a little connective tissue when you bring up this name.
65:25Yeah, Chig Okonkwo. And I kind of feel bad about this one because I was on Chig as a sleeper, as a
65:31breakout candidate, as somebody that could really come through and have a great season.
65:35And yet, man, I don't know if it's going to happen now.
65:39Stefan Diggs showing up is not great because now that gives them the true number two option.
65:43And you looked at it before and it was Trelon Burks and it was, you know, Antonio Williams, who I think is
65:49going to be a good player, but wasn't proven by any means.
65:53And there was a shot for Chig to maybe be that de facto number two receiver in the offense.
65:58Not anymore. He's got to deal with Terry. He's got to deal with Diggs on top of the fact that we're dealing with this difficult offensive line situation.
66:06And sometimes that leads to tight ends sticking around or having to chip a little bit and not getting as many stats as they would normally get.
66:13So I think all of that boils down to Chig moving down in my ranks and it's made him more of a low end tight end too.
66:21And somebody that I'm not taking that often. If none of my plans work out, like I said, you go to the
66:27injured tight ends, you don't get anybody there. Isaiah likely and Dallas Goddard are kind of like the last line of defense for me.
66:34If I miss out on them, I'm absolutely not happy, but it has happened sometimes because there's guys out there who want
66:40to go grab a second tight end for whatever reason.
66:42And at that point now I want to grab two late guys.
66:46So you could grab a Chig, but you know, you look at Terrence Ferguson, you look at Kenyon Sadiq, who I think
66:52would come on as the season goes along. Juwan Johnson, a more reliable veteran.
66:56Well, Jordan Tyson's out even Dalton Schultz, I think is going to get some better stats this year.
67:01So there's some options in that range. But if you're dealing with late round tight end to that degree, I recommend taking
67:07two of them just to give you another shot to potentially hit on that guy.
67:11Oh boy. All right. I'm about to make a pick here.
67:14So you're going to have to keep talking. Two guys that are rising up your board at the tight end position.
67:20Actually, two guys I would go ahead and take ahead of Chigokonkwo that I would have had behind him previous to this.
67:26Yeah. And they're the two guys that I just mentioned, Juwan Johnson and Dalton Schultz.
67:30And if you look at what they've done, I don't think people really give them the respect for fantasy that they deserve.
67:36Juwan Johnson quietly, the tight end 14 and fantasy points per game last year, nine top 10 weekly finishes.
67:42And when you think about Jordan Tyson being out, maybe being out until midway through the season, Juwan Johnson's a pretty sneaky play early in the year.
67:49I know Josh always talks about pairing Kittle and Juwan Johnson together and that being a great option.
67:54And he's definitely right about that. And then you look at Dalton Schultz, who just seems like such a boring fantasy option.
68:00But with the Jaden Higgins injury, Schultz is back in play here.
68:04I know Kayshawn Booty's there, but still you don't have that real exciting number two option.
68:08And we've seen Schultz produce the 11th most fantasy points at the position over the final 13 weeks last year.
68:14You wouldn't think that's true. It's the kind of stat that like I had to go back and be like, that can't be right.
68:20And yet it is, you know, he finished tied for third in receptions among tight ends with 82, sixth in receiving yards with 777.
68:27He's a guy that just kind of compiles stats for you.
68:30It's not an exciting option, but it's somebody you can plug in and feel fine having in your lineup, especially early in the year.
68:37But I would recommend if you do this, take one of these upside guys like a Terrence Ferguson or someone that might
68:43be able to hit in a bigger way as the season goes along for you.
68:47We only have one quarterback to talk about in this section.
68:50That's a faller. It's Jackson dart. I'm curious, like, why is he falling down your rankings at this point?
68:55Because for me, he's kind of stuck around the same area and he just kind of, he's not somebody I was actively targeting or fading.
69:02He just kind of exists in my ranking. So why is he falling for you?
69:06This one's a little more narrative based because we know when darts out there, he can score, right?
69:11He can run with the ball. He put up some pretty good stats last season.
69:15He showed at times that he had potentially elite upside, but he was just a wild man.
69:20The way he was playing and the vibes that I've got this summer are the mixture of dart and this old school
69:26coaching staff that they brought in in New York.
69:29I'm not so sure this is going to work, right?
69:32You kind of see like the writing on the wall that this could be problematic, that they might be trying to rein him in.
69:38There's been some reports that he's had some struggles here as he's tried to adapt to the new offense.
69:44You think back to this cam Scadaboo situation recently where, you know, Harbaugh is saying that the infectious nature of Scadaboo's personality
69:50can also be a negative, could also be a bad thing at times.
69:53Well, Scadaboo and dart were kind of these culture changers last year with this team.
69:57They were these young guys bringing this attitude. I don't know that that mixes with this new coaching staff and Malik neighbors
70:04being back is definitely a positive because we're worried about that.
70:07But man, we don't have a lot of other proven things in this passing attack here.
70:11And I don't know that dart is going to run the same way.
70:15And I'm just worried about the mix with this new coaching staff.
70:18And because there's so many good quarterbacks this year, I find myself not taking dart and I find myself moving him down
70:24the rankings almost every time I'm updating. Yeah, I think that's really fair.
70:28Just would you rather? I mean, I'd easily rather have like a Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams, if I'm shopping in
70:34that tier of quarterback Dak Prescott is somebody I would take over Jackson dart at this point.
70:38You really are relying a lot on the rushing ability from last year carrying over if Jackson dart is going to be
70:45your fancy quarterback, which it might, but they just clearly want to.
70:48They do want to reign that in. And I just like don't know how good this giant's offense is going to be overall.
70:54How many points are they going to score? So I haven't really been clicking a lot of giants overall in my draft this year.
71:01And that does include Jackson dark because I'm inclined to where he comes up in my overall rankings.
71:06I'm just inclined to wait another like a round or two and get the guys that I think are top tier four
71:12players because you're able to hit more of the wide receivers that go in the same range of Jackson dart.
71:18If that makes sense. No, I totally agree. And again, there's just whether you take Brock Purdy, if you want to go
71:24to bone Knicks, like there's so many guys, Kyler Murray, the list goes on and on that.
71:28I just don't feel like I want to get involved with dart this year.
71:32All right. We're going to take our last quick break.
71:35We come back, we're reviewing, maybe writing in pen, our final first round rankings for this year in fantasy football.
71:41We'll get into that right after this. All right, we're back.
71:44Welcome to draft day blueprint presented by organe creatine.
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71:56Today, we are essentially going to focus as mentioned earlier on our first round draft order.
72:01And because Boone just wants to cyber bully me, he thinks it's best if I read off my one to 12 here,
72:07my rankings, and he tells me what's wrong with them.
72:10And you know what? Because I'm a good friend and I got thick skin.
72:13I'm going to handle it here on this one.
72:16So my one to 12 right now is Jameer Gibbs, Jamar Chase, Bijan Robinson, Puka Nakua, Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Amon Ross St.
72:22Brown, Jackson Smith and Jigba, James Cook, Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Kenneth Walker.
72:26Boone, before you tear my first 12 ranked players apart, I will just say that the group that I am still switching
72:32around here is this group at the turn. The CeeDee Lamb at 11 to Derrick Henry at 14, maybe even Devon HN at 15.
72:39That is the most flexible section to me. Like my conviction kind of stops at Saquon.
72:43And admittedly, I kind of don't really know what to do with McCaffrey here because I think there are really good points
72:49that you've made about, you know, potentially fading him this year.
72:52Anyways, thoughts on my one to 12 order. Where do I go most wrong here?
72:57Well, it's not it's not that I'm going to cyber bully you here, Harmon.
73:00And it's that I'm going to ask questions as we go, because I really feel like when we're talking about the first
73:07round, you're a little bit locked into where you're picking, right?
73:10If you're picking at the end of the run, you're not going to have a chance at one of the elite, elite
73:16running backs and that sort of thing. And in the first round, barring injury, most of these guys are going to pan out, if not all of them.
73:23So we're kind of just nitpicking a little bit here.
73:26I guess the first question would be the Jamar Chase over Bajon Robinson thing.
73:30I think most people, including myself, have the two running backs at the top in part because of the way the drafts
73:36kind of go this year, where it gets kind of tricky with running backs and trying to find them as we go.
73:42So what puts Chase over Robinson for you? Because that's a scenario where I'm almost trying to make an argument in the
73:48first round to take a running back. And that seems like one where you've pushed a receiver over him.
73:54Yeah, this is a tough one just because, and look, I was just on the clock in the draft that we're in right now.
74:00I had the third overall pick. I took Jamar Chase, you know, without even thinking about it and knowing that it's going
74:06to, you know, bite me in terms of putting together a running back room later on.
74:11I realized that. So then kind of seems counterintuitive to take Jamar at number two, but I just can't get over the
74:17fact that I'm clicking someone from the Falcons offense versus the Bengals offense.
74:21And I know that might not be the right way of thinking about it, but I do believe that like Jamar Chase,
74:27if everything comes together for the Bengals offense this year, you know, in terms of they, they marry the run in the past game a little bit better.
74:35They get more under center. I really think that we haven't seen the true ceiling of this Bengals offense just yet.
74:40It's been a little bit more, bit more herky jerky than people want to admit.
74:45Like there is a truly, you know, nuclear fantasy season available for Jamar Chase, like a 20 touchdown season.
74:50So, and obviously Bijon's great. I have no problem if you want to rank Bijon second, but just, I'm just, a little
74:56nervous about the Falcons overall ecosystem vibe right now.
74:58So when I'm splitting hairs here, I feel a little bit more secure with Chase right now than just anyone attached to the Falcons offense.
75:05I guess what I come back to is, you know, who was the quarterback in Atlanta last year?
75:10Like it wasn't great then either. Right. And we still see Bijon Robinson, pretty good stats.
75:15So again, that's one where we're totally just, you know, splitting hairs because I think both those guys are going to have great seasons.
75:21If we move a little further down, one of the biggest differences we have is I have Jackson Smith and Jigba at five.
75:28I have him ahead of those running backs. Um, you have him behind those running backs and behind a Munra St.
75:34Brown, who I know has more of a history of consistency.
75:37Obviously I'm under St. Brown is a great pick.
75:39Um, are you down on JSN? Is that why you have him lower or are we also kind of very close in that range?
75:46No, I'm really high on St. Brown this year.
75:48Um, I think he could win offensive player of the year and just, that's where I'm, I'm just kind of boosting him up a little bit.
75:56I do think there are some, and again, this is why this is a fun exercise because we are splitting hairs on this one.
76:02I do think there are some regression risks in the way that Jackson Smith and Jigba produced last year where the Seahawks
76:08are one of the fewest teams in terms of like getting guys out in the route.
76:13Josh has made this point really well, uh, where Brian Flory coming from San Francisco, like they would get a ton of
76:19players out in the route, a lot of different passing off like options there.
76:23We saw JSN have a 35.8% target share, which was the most for any receiver since at least 2015.
76:28Like, is that happening again? Are we pricing in that happening again?
76:31I do think there's some regression risk with JSN, especially again, the way that he produces a downfield receiver.
76:37I'm not down on him whatsoever. You get like a pick in this range.
76:41I would totally take him, but, uh, I do just feel slightly better.
76:44I don't know about the security and the ceiling combination for Amon Ross St.
76:48Brown there. All right. And again, like, I don't think a receiver in Amon Ross St.
76:53Brown, who's been like a top four fantasy receiver for multiple years in a row here.
76:57I don't think we want to give you too much of a hard time for that one.
77:02I will say my piece just again about the JT versus CMC.
77:05Yeah. I've said it on the show before that CMC, the touches, we mentioned this earlier, the touches last year, 450 touches
77:11when you include the playoffs and his age, there really has never been a running back that has had those two things
77:17combined and had a good season the next year.
77:20There's been guys that have had 400 and touches and still come through.
77:23They've all been younger backs when they've done it.
77:26So it would be a massive outlier if CMC can come through with another big season.
77:30And Jonathan Taylor last year, when Daniel Jones was healthy, he was outscoring CMC through the first 13 weeks or so.
77:36So I think that all to me factors in and just give me a little bit of bump to JT, but I'm back on the clock here, Harmon.
77:44So I'm going to throw it back to you.
77:46Is there any reason in particular that you have CMC ahead of him?
77:50Yeah. I mean, it's just, we know what the ceiling is with CMC.
77:54He's the best player in fantasy football. And I mean, I don't know that it's going to reverse course in terms of
78:00what we saw last year, which where the run game did take a step back.
78:04They were not an explosive run game. They weren't even really a consistent run game overall.
78:08You know, can that change with maybe the off?
78:11And again, this is where I'm like talking myself in circles here because I really am just concerned about the Niners offense overall.
78:17But the one guy who can survive any chaos is Christian McCaffrey from that standpoint.
78:21So listen, the JT thing, the other part of this that I would be in terms of slight nervousness with JT is
78:28that what we saw with last season, he was just, I mean, they were just mowing teams down early on and Daniel
78:34Jones was under center, but the more that he got hurt, like they've started to put him in the gun more.
78:39And then in the back half of the year, you know, obviously old man, Phillip Rivers, he's in the gun for the
78:46most part, like they're in their impure shotgun and JT stats do fall off, you know, pretty dramatically in terms of when
78:52he's under center versus running out of the shotgun.
78:54And there's a chance with Daniel Jones come back from this Achilles injury.
78:58He's not able to get under center and push off that Achilles to that full extent from the under center situation.
79:04So we might see JT take a little step back there.
79:07Like I think if you take, if you're putting JT over Chris McCaffrey, you're kind of pricing in like we are going
79:13to get back to early season JT and, and, you know, McCaffrey just you're, you're pricing in a natural regression there.
79:19So it's close call between those two guys. Again, I have them ranked back to back.
79:23The last thing for me, that's a bit different and it's not incredibly different, but I've tried to find every way I
79:29can to move up the running backs that I have kind of early round two backs into round one.
79:34So Saquon Barkley, Kenneth Walker, we both have them at the end of the round.
79:39I've moved chase Brown ahead of CD lamb. Now I know there's been some reports lately, like George Pickens is the actual
79:45number one receiver there and all this sort of stuff.
79:48I think both those guys in Dallas are going to have great seasons.
79:51So I'm not really too worried about who's the one, a one B kind of thing.
79:56I think Pickens and lamb are both really good fantasy picks, but for me, chase Brown, I've talked about him a bunch with you.
80:02The idea that last year, once you had Flacco and burrow, you know, combining later in the season to give them steadier
80:08quarterback play and the schedule got a little easier, he was a top three fantasy back.
80:13Like that's the ceiling that he offers. So I know, I don't think a lot of people have him as first round picks.
80:19I have my number 12 pick. Yeah, I know.
80:22I mean, you're definitely on an island there and I really, I respect and I like to take a lot because you don't see that very often.
80:29I have chase Brown at 17th overall, which is actually a couple of spots behind his overall ADP 15th overall.
80:35There's that's not something that like, I feel super strongly about.
80:38I just have guys like Derek Henry and Nico Collins ahead of chase Brown.
80:42Um, it's really tough for me to weigh those, what I would call tier two backs versus the tier two wide receivers.
80:48Uh, CD lamb is in that range. You know, I have Justin Jefferson as my, uh, 13th or yeah.
80:53Uh, 13th overall player right now. I have a Derek Henry as kind of like that in that range too.
80:59So it's just really difficult in that range to pick the exact right spots.
81:02Um, I, I kind of keep flipping those guys back and forth overall.
81:06Um, but right now that's, that's probably the difficult, most difficult group for me to sort through here is the CD lamb,
81:12Kenneth Walker, Justin Jefferson, uh, Derek Henry Devon H and group.
81:15I'm with you. I think it's a really interesting phase of the draft where we've seen lamb and Jefferson have these monster fantasy seasons.
81:22And yet I'm so compelled to take like O'Meara Hampton and H and these guys ahead of them.
81:27In part, we talked about the idea that like Jefferson is coming off this bad year.
81:31We're not getting any sort of discount. Everyone's just assuming, yeah, he's going right back to being an awesome fantasy player.
81:37And when you have to take them this early in draft, sometimes late first or early second, it just feels a little
81:43icky when you have to spend up that high to get a guy that did not have a great year last season.
81:49So that's a range that I think is very important in drafts.
81:53And I'm seeing it in a draft that we're doing today where I'm picking 11th.
81:57I got lucky to get running back, running back at the start.
82:00And I'm just much happier with how my team's coming out, where if I had taken even one receiver in that range,
82:06now I'm kind of figuring out running back at a way and having to take some of these backs in the fourth
82:12or fifth that I just don't think the value is quite there.
82:16Yeah, it's tough. And the good news is, yeah, if you pick in that turn, you'd be like, what's the order between these guys?
82:22Who cares? You're going to end up getting two of them anyway.
82:26So from a structural standpoint, you'll feel pretty good about that.
82:29All right. That does it for today's show. Great show here with Justin Boone.
82:33We covered a ton of ground all while we are live drafting on the clock.
82:37And we got to get out of this show so that I can go ahead and make a pick because it is coming up here soon.
82:44But reminder, folks, it's Yahoo Fantasy's 29th year. To celebrate day 22 of 29, we are revealing milestones.
82:49Think of each one of them as digital collectibles for moments that matter.
82:53Way to commemorate biggest plays, biggest games, just like a ticket, tickets up or a souvenir, you know, kind of would.
82:59You claim your milestone in the Yahoo Sports or Fantasy app to remember exactly where you were and how you felt when history was made.
83:06Reminder, folks, we do not have your pod coming out tomorrow because the live Yahoo Fantasy analyst draft is tomorrow at Tuesday, 5 p.m.
83:12Eastern on this YouTube channel. We will see you all then.
83:15Trust me, you're not going to want to miss this.
83:18It's going to be a ton of fun. Until then, we are out.
83:22Don't. Don't. Don't. Don't. Don't.

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