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.
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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.