Fantasy Football Daily - Fantasy Football Sleepers 2025: Draft Strategy & Hidden Gems to Target with Mike Leone

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Use code SCOREMORE10 at checkout for 10% OFF any subscription. Dominate your league. Win more bets. Level up your game Which mid-round WRs offer upside despite murky outlooks? We debate Chris Olave vs Jakobi Meyers vs Rome Odunze vs Jerry Jeudy vs Stefon Diggs — and why Olave may quietly explode under Kellen Moore. Plus, sleeper alerts for Emeka Egbuka and Ricky Pearsall, breakout TE battles (Mark Andrews, David Njoku, Tyler Warren), and touchdown-chasing RBs like Jordan Mason vs Brian Robinson. Scott and Theo discuss ideal RB stashes (Pollard vs Spears, Skattebo vs Tracy), WR risers like Jordan Addison and Jayden Reed, and whether Jaylen Warren could still deliver despite Kaleb Johnson buzz. We also break down Green Bay’s Round 8 dilemma (Reed vs Golden vs Kraft) and debate how much risk you should tolerate with Joe Mixon or Chris Godwin in 2025 drafts. Fantasy Football Daily brings you sharp analysis, breakout picks, and sneaky upside bets to win your league. Where to find us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/TheOGFantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/2Hats1Mike ⁠ Join the Discord here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/discord#/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to Fantasy Points for FREE: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast Transcription Here: Fantasy Points Website - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NEW! Data Suite - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://data.fantasypoints.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/FantasyPts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #FantasyFootball #2025Rankings #DaveKluge #RB1 #WR1 #QB1 #TE1 #FantasyFootballAdvice #NFL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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owned and operated by affiliates of service corporation international. Fantasy football sleepers in 2025. Taking a look at the players you should be targeting and fading in rounds 9, 10, and 11. A little bit of round 12. I'm joined today by Mike Leone of Establish the Run, one of the sharper guys in the fantasy industry. And I'll give you a compliment, Mike, because I don't usually say this to too many guests within the fantasy industry. You're somebody who I don't want to see in my draft rooms. Mike does very well as a drafter, sort of like in FFPC and FFC, you've done well over the years,

really, really sharp through your process. And we're going to cover an L ton today. Specifically, the player I want to dive into first, we're starting to see ninth round exposure to him. Occasionally he goes in round 11 and has been like an easy click for a lot of people in round 10. There's a lot of steam, a lot of hype with Braylin Allen this year, entering years. two was a really, really like fast riser as a collegiate. I started in the Big Ten when he was 17 years old, had really, really strong production at Wisconsin. Jets draft him last season, got off to a really, really fast start. It was a big waiver wire ad for many and then really, really

trailed off. But the vibes are there. The tape looks good. And it's easy to get excited about this sort of player. Are you in or out on Braille and Allen having a fantasy impact? in 2025. Yeah, this is a difficult one. The hype train, I'm Braylin Allen. I don't think is slowing down anytime soon after that first preseason game where he looked good. And the way the usage was, it kind of, you know, was leaning people the way of him maybe

having even a little bit of a standalone role, not just being a good handcuff to Breece Hall. I'm a little bit worried the price tags getting too expensive. You mentioned how he trailed off last year. In my mind, I like remembered him being very efficient last year. But he ended up just like 3.6 yards per carry really struggled after kind of a hot start. So I'm a little bit out in the ninth round. I think there's like other bets to make. But I get it.

It's also hard to handicap. I don't know what you think on this. Like if there's any odds of a breeze hall trade, I don't think that's likely. But I have heard some rumblings there. Yeah, I mean, we see these cryptic posts on X from people like whether they're faking it or not. sort of insinuating that Dallas might be looking to trade for a back. We get the Galaxy Brain going on that one. Certainly, when it comes to the Jets roster, trading Breece Hall to me makes a lot of sense

because you haven't paid him. He's due for a contract extension. You're seeing all these guys like Kyron Williams get contract extensions. In your neck of the woods, James Cook might get one before the season. And when it comes down to it, like if they're not going to pay Bruce Hall, you might as well cash out. then you look at the roster and just the functionality of the offense where they like Braylin Allen, they like Isaiah Davis, and I mean, not to get over our heels for how a guy looked in a preseason,

but Donovan Edwards looked like Michigan Donovan Edwards in the preseason game the other day. So they have the sort of the backs to get through it. Now, Brees Hall, the devil's advocate case is Bruce Hall might be the second best receiving option on their team. So are they really handcuffing their ability to win games this year, which I think that they're going for it. I think that there's like some mixed opinions. Aaron Glenn doesn't seem like a guy who's like, hey, we're going to get through the season and then take our big leap in 2026. I think they're going for it this year. So a lot to unpack there.

But yeah, if Brees, let's say that there's a shock trade this week. Brees Hall gets traded to the Dallas Cowboys. Where does Braylon Allen end up in drafts? That's where, like, I'm wondering if there's. the profit there isn't as much as people might think. Like, does he move up to, you know, he moves up to, I mean, if we look where Breece Hall is going right now, you know, third round, starting to slip a little bit. I don't see Braylen Allen going any higher than the sixth round, maybe seventh, probably six,

but I don't think he moves up further than the sixth round. And maybe I'm wrong on that, but you mentioned kind of how they have a surprising amount depth at the running back position. So I do worry a little bit that like if you remove Breece Hall that maybe it's not quite the workhorse role for Braylon Allen that we're envisioning. And then if they don't move on from Breece Hall and he is there, he's a really, really talented back. So that's why I get hung up on it a little bit too, where I just still really like

Bruce Hall despite some of the signals that are moving away from him being a workhorse back. So I took a lot of Braylin Allen again earlier in the offseason when he was quite a bit cheaper. But I think he's a I think he's moving towards being a little bit overpriced. But I certainly understand, you know, why people like him. And if you've been drafting a lot of him, you're definitely happy with the way things are developing. Yeah, I think for me, it's, it's the unknown of what a Tanner-Angstrand offense is going to look like and an unknown for like the influence Aaron Glenn's going to have on this offense. I always think coaches want to gravitate towards Breeland Allen.

I talked about this with Scott Barrett last year a lot. Just the fear I would have on some coach looking at Braylon Allen and saying this is the guy, he's got to get 15 carries a game, no matter what. It's just the, you hear these like next worldly stories about how he's 240 with like 8% body fat, just a just an absolute mammoth running back. So I think there's a lot to unpack there. I think that with Bruce Hall, I agree with you. When he starts slipping, he becomes a really easy click because he's never averaged fewer than 15 points per game. if he's on the roster, he's going to catch passes this year just based on the lack of a wide receiver 2, a lack of a tight end, big time target magnet at the tight end spot.

Garrett Wilson could have the highest target share in the league. And I think a breeze hall, if on the roster, is still going to catch a lot of passes. So I get it. But that being said, I think I'm okay with Brillen Allen at the inflated price tag because if they're trying to emulate the lion's offense, a really healthy dose of the David Montgomery role would make a lot of sense. And I have the potential running lanes playing next to the mobile quarterback in Justin Field. So I'm into Braylon Allen. I think I'm into him in the ninth round.

I prefer to get them in the 10th, but that's just the way things go sometimes in August. Let's talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars backfield. Travis E.T.N. led the backfield in the most recent preseason game. ETN is an interesting one. A lot of people wanted to fade him this offseason. You also saw some people clicking the button whenever they could. He is by far the highest pedigreed past catcher among all the Jacksonville Jaguars backs, besides, you know, of course, the LeQuint Allen profile.

But of all the guys in the top three, Travis ETN, we go back to the 2020 season, the 2022 season, his effectiveness as a pass catcher. we don't really see that from Tank Biggsby throughout his entire career. And Basial Tutin seems to be running as the number three back. Are you in or out on Travis ETN as a potential value? And looking at his ADP, you're still able to get him inside of round nine. We're seeing him more and more often inside of round eight, but he still slides into, you know, depending on the draft room, somewhere in the mid-9th.

Yeah, I like him a lot in the ninth round. Drafted in a main event the other day with Drew Dinkmire. We just missed him in the ninth round. We actually ended up going Biggs being two-tut-in with our next two picks in the ninth of the tenth. So it's an ambiguous backfield in an offense I think will create a lot of fantasy points for the running back position. If you look what Liam Cohen did in Tampa Bay. I do like ETN probably more than most. I know it's kind of, you know, less sexy to go for the veteran there instead of.

for kind of the second year player in Bigsby or the rookie in Tudin, but the past catching profile that you mentioned, I think is really huge. And I could kind of see ETN being like the poor man's Bucky Irving for Liam Cohen in this offense where maybe he doesn't have that huge workload that Bucky had down the stretch for Tampa Bay last year, but he's got, you know, more efficiency than you would think based on his last two years, given his pedigree. And I still think he has that athletic talent.

and then you get him involved in the past game in a variety of ways. So I do like ETN. I probably like ETN most in that backfield. I do like ETN most in that backfield. Then it's tough between Bigsby and 2. And it kind of depends what bet you want to make. Like if you're trying to gamble on the week one leader in carries, that's going to favor Bigsby for sure.

If you're just saying, hey, this is an ambiguous backfield. Like give me the rookie that they went out and made sure they got in the draft. and that's the one who emerges over the course of the season, and I want the second half player that's really going to help my roster. That's where I prefer Tudan. And I generally, you know, if I was forced to pick between the two, would lean towards Tudin.

Yeah, it's an interesting one for me. I drafted Bigsby in a main event at a pretty decent range. Tutan is a player that we were really excited about throughout the dynasty rookie draft season, just sort of a next-level athlete. And you sort of envision this Bucky Irving-like, descendants for him with the Liam Cohen last year overseeing Irving the takeover, Rashad White. But I got to say, the fact that Tutin doesn't seem to have that buzz going with the beat reporters, that buzz going within like just the coach speak and even the player quotes.

Last year we had such vibes on Irving this time of year. August was like everybody started drafting Bucky Irving because every single Bucke's budget. beat reporter was like this guy is tearing up camp. You'd see all these positive quotes from Cohen, positive quotes from Todd Bowles. We just don't have it with Tutin. So I think even if it's a begrudgingly case for some who maybe were burned by ETN last year, I think the case for ETN to catch 55 passes just by being on the field a lot is completely there. And if he has that sort of workload as a receiver, he's going to end up beating his ADP. So I think I'm in on it. I get it, though, if you want to take Tutin as like a contingent upside play,

I think the appeal of Tutin would be he could be a direct handcuff for both of these guys where he can catch the ball, whereas we don't necessarily see that from Bigsby. Bigsby did have that as a collegiate, which is interesting. I wonder if we see a little bit of that from Cohen. But Tutin just seems like more like a contingent upside play, but still a really, really fun one based on his athletic profile. We're going to take a quick break and we come back. We're going to talk to Mike about multiple players that he is targeting.

And we're going to see if he's in or out on J.K. Dobbins, putting it together two years in a row. What's up? I'm John Hansen. Best Ball is back and it's only at Draft Kings. And there's 15 million reasons to be excited. A $15 million guaranteed prize pool with two millionaires being crowned for first and second place. Draft Kings is offering everyone a draft one get one special. Your $20 entry fee scores you a bonus ticket. Download the Draft Kings app and use the code PS. That's code PS for all customers who enter the NFL best ball 15 million millionaire contest

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Enter the Best Ball 15 million headliner contest by 9-4-25 to get one bonus entry. $20 entry fee required. Reward expires in 30 days. See terms at draftkings.com slash NFL dash best dash ball. Welcome back, Fantasy Football Daily, Theo Greminger with Mike Leone. Mike, what do you have going on this time of year over to establish the run? Yeah, this time of year we're honestly constantly tweaking our rankings. for all formats, including FFPC.

So you can get our redraft rankings over there. You can also, if you haven't listened already to the Establish the Edge podcast, I did an offseason projection special with Ben Gretsch, where went really in depth, eight episodes, one for each division in the NFL, kind of going through the nerdy ins and out of projections and where we see some opportunities where projections can help us and where they might lead us astray. Yeah, those Established the Edge episodes were excellent.

Ben's going to be joining Scott and I on School of Scott podcast, I think this week. And a shout out to John Daigle, who also crushed it on Establish the Edge earlier in the offseason. But I got a lot out of those ones. You guys really, really go in depth. Like those were really, really good ones. Highly recommend them. I think they still have some evergreen quality, even though you dropped them a couple of weeks ago. If you want to catch up on offensive coordinators, situations.

And you guys basically covered down to like sometimes the number three running back in offenses. You're going pretty deep on those ones. A lot of fun. Let's talk about another somewhat ambiguous backfield. R.J. Harvey, I think, is going to start separating from J.K. Dobbins in terms of ADP. He already has, but there's a lot of, like, enthusiasm with R.J. Harvey drafters and certainly in the dynasty streets, R.J. Harvey coming in and having a really, really strong rookie season. But J.K. Dobbins was also very, very productive last year in Los Angeles. the healthiest he's been in his entire career. And we get Dobbins in a situation in Denver where you can kind of envision two running backs putting up fantasy numbers.

It's one of the best offensive lines in football. Certainly we believe in Bo Nicks at this point. And Dobbins is now in sort of a range of drafts where you're taking him alongside wide receiver two's in offenses. you're taking him alongside some appealing tight ends and some appealing quarterbacks, but he's still an interesting one. He is sometimes going inside of round eight, but oftentimes going inside of round nine. Are you in or out on J.K. Dobbins in Denver this year and also your general thoughts on RJ Harvey?

Yeah, I lean in on Dobbins. I also, you know, I draft a lot of teams where I might only have one running back heading into rounds eight, and to have someone like Dobbins who I think is going to be startable out of the gate is appealing to me along with some ambiguity in that backfield. I don't have, you know, a ton to say about RJ Harvey in terms of, you know, from a prospect perspective, I know like I like Trayvon Henderson a lot better than RJ Harvey. I know those two have been pitted together like pretty closely. I think maybe that ship has sailed anyways with how Henderson looks so excited. explosive in the first preseason game, but for a while, they were going pretty close to one another.

And I'd always sided with Henderson there. But, you know, Harvey, an older prospect seemed like he was maybe overdrafted a little bit. But yeah, when I'm looking at this backfield, these Sean Payton offenses do throw to the running back a whole ton. They both have kind of this high value touch upside that we like. I think Harvey's price is fine, but I still like. Dobbins where it might not be as clearly heading Harvey's way as we think. And to get Dobbins in that spot where he was efficient in his comeback year last year,

like did not expect it. He's 27 years old, so he's not like super old. It's just he's had to deal with these horrific injuries over the past several years. And you throw in that efficiency behind the O line that you mentioned is very strong. Brandon Thorne for us at ETR has him as the fourth rank O line. And then you throw in that he's going to catch more. passes in this offense than he has in his previous stops, you know, playing under Greg Roman type offenses where the backs just didn't get a lot of reception volume. You don't want to hold that

against him because I think that's more a function of the offense and he's going to get more reception volume in this offense in Denver. Yeah, I think Dobbins, when I did my article about six weeks ago, maybe two months ago, and it was the initial zero and hero RB target list, I had Dobbins as a as a strong target and also RJ Harvey I think at that point when he was like a sixth round fifth round pick was also made sense for you if you wanted to start your draft that way. I just look back to 2023 where we had three Denver running running backs all catching passes, Joliel McLaughlin, Javante Williams and Samage P. Rhine. So even if we have RJ Harvey in like a prominent receiving role, Dobbins is going to handle some carries and he's, also going to get a handful of targets. So I agree with you. If you're drafting zero or if you need to play catch up at your RB2 spot in Hero, clicking the button on JK Dobbins, especially when you get

them in ninth round is a really, really fun one. You can envision a scenario where both of these players are averaging like 12 and a half, 13 and a half points per game for a while. And then if one misses time, the other really, really steps up and becomes sort of a low end RB1. We also really love the offensive line. I think we have them as our number two ranked offensive line. So ETR and fantasy points, both on Denver being a top five offensive line this season. Another position that we're seeing, especially, this is a question that's very important for tight end premium leagues like the FFPC, but also important if you're drafting on sleeper, ESPN, Yahoo, NFFC, you have this cluster of tight ends going pretty close to one another.

So in FFPC, these guys are all ninth round picks. There's some upside plays here. Dalton Kincaid, Jake Ferguson, Colston Loveland. If you had to, and we'll throw Tucker Kraft in there as well. So Jake Ferguson, Colston Loveland, Tucker Craft, and Dalton Kincaid, all going in this cluster between tight end 11 and tight end 14, all inside of round nine in FFPC. if you had to pick one, Mike, which one would you go with? Yeah.

First, I'll just say I like this cluster in general. I know our rankings at ETR have tight ends five through nine or ten all kind of ranked behind ADP. And then we have this group of tight ends that you just mentioned, mostly ranked above ADP. So just from a drafting strategy perspective, if you do miss out on an elite tight end or even because of like the tight end premium scoring and the double flexes going back. to tight end i do like maybe bypassing that when you just miss the elites i think then you get this overvalued group and then you come back to this group that you're mentioning and i can make different cases for all these tight ends so pick pick two of them then mike i'm gonna i'm gonna go loveland is my favorite um but i do like to go i'll go loveland is my favorite just honestly like the rookie

upside and there's a little bit of i'm just remembering lad mcconkey last year with like this insane yards per outrun in college but we were We were worried he didn't run a ton of routes. Colston Loveland is sort of the tight end version of that. Not much volume on his profile, but the efficiency on a per route basis was just incredible in college. And then just wanting to invest in this Ben Johnson offense in Chicago that has a wide range of outcomes.

And that's what we're looking at in fantasy. Like it could fail, but could go really, really well and then have some weak winners in it. So I'll go Loveland. And then, God, it pains me to go against Kincaid, who I love as a bill. fan. I do think there's some interesting stuff in the target pro-out run profile that gives him some upside if the season breaks a little bit chaotically.

But on base, he's just not going to run a ton of routes. He's not the red zone kind of tight end that you kind of hope for. And that's where I'll just take Ferguson's route advantage in an offense where obviously you have the target competition in terms of C.D. Lamb and George Pickens, those are going to be the top two. But there's no like strong wide receiver three. I don't think there's any tight end two, cutting into his playing time. And that should be really good for his base reception volume.

And I'm just excited about the Dallas pass offense in general. So I'll go Ferguson behind Loveland there in that group. Yeah, it's really interesting. And I agree with you. It's really an appealing group. I'm way ahead on ADP for Tucker Kraft, way ahead for Colston Loveland. Kincaid, I think, is a little bit under the radar, sort of a post-type sleeper. To what last year we had to pay this super high premium for him.

now you're getting him in tight end two range. And I think it's a lot of like disdain from drafters who were burned by Kincaid last year. He could end up being a really, really big winner this year, especially with, you know, Khalil Shakir is a little bit banged up now in Buffalo. And just the fact that King King's a year three player. But I agree with you. Loveland's the one where if I miss out on Colston Loveland in drafts, I'm like really upset about him. And in FFPC, I made a point of like trying to get as much Loveland as possible in Dynasty

rookie drafts. I think he's going to end up being in the mix for who is the Titan 3 in Dynasty. You can already sort of make this bull case for Loveland there. But I think by the end of the season, it might be Bowers, McBride, Loveland, especially when you factor in just how young he is. Tucker Kraft, I think the argument for him is he has a chance to lead Green Bay in targets, which is a huge driver for big-time tight-end success in fantasy if we can find those guys who lead the room.

So really an interesting decision, but I agree with you. Attack this tier of tight ends. I think it's a lot of positives there. Let's talk about one other tight end, and it's been a player that for years you had to talk about a ton on podcast, but not necessarily this year as much, but the vibes are pretty good with Kyle Pitts.

Are you also mixing in some pits this year? man uh i have so many scars from kyle pits i think like honestly at his cost like i hate you know just keep buying him all the way down the cliff where he's falling you know as the adp drops every year by by a little bit and a lot bit from last year but where he goes right now i do still think like there's a small chance at him unlocking that upside i don't think it's high but But essentially if he does what he did last year at his ADP, he's fine. And then if we can kind of unlock a little bit more, I do think this Atlanta offense is going to throw more than people think.

The Kirk Cousins injury last year, I mean, he started off the year with the Achilles thing. They started off real conservative. He kind of found his groove. And then he injured, I think it was a shoulder. And then they had sort of a disastrous several weeks span before they went to Michael Panix. And when they went there, you know, with a rookie. rookie quarterback. I think they were playing things a little bit conservatively. I think they're going to open it up some this year. Certainly have them leaning, run heavier than most offenses, but not to the

degree that they were last year. They're also a pretty uptempo offense. So yeah, I think Pitts is a pretty good gamble where he goes right now. I don't want to, you know, get out over my skis on it, which I've been guilty of with Kyle Pitts in the past. But at tight end 16, there's not a ton of risk, even if the odds of the big time reward are, you know, dampened meaningfully from past years. Mike Leone is ready to be hurt again by Kyle Pitts. That's exciting stuff there. I agree with you. It's, I mean, I've had to mix him in on best ball, you know, exposure because, you know,

there's a chance that Atlanta could be super consolidated. A lot of Drake London, as much Bejohn Robinson as possible, Mooney when healthy, and then make a case for Pitts. And I think Michael Pennix, there's some unknowns there where can he really unlock this offense. We get the indoor environment. And again, we're paying tight end 15 prices for Kyle Pitts. It's not like the old days where we had to pay the excessive, excessive price tag. Let's take a quick break. We come back. We're talking about Josh Downs. Get you and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues

like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. And Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network. on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at go transit.com slash tickets. All right, Mike. Another player that's sort of a hot button one for many fantasy managers is Josh Downs. Like there are fantasy analysts.

There are fantasy managers who feel like they are getting an absolute steal every time they click the Josh Downs button. then there is a lot of cautious takes where not only do we have question marks about the quarterback situation in Indianapolis, we also have question marks about Josh Downs usage. Is he going to be on the field for two wide receiver sets? And we have the unknown factor of just how highly targeted is Tyler Warren going to be. When you look at Josh Downs, is he a huge upside pick? Is he a structural pick or is he a player you're just not that interested in? I'd say structural pick going down the middle here where I like, you know, the 30% target per route run last year is amazing.

That's awesome. It's a younger player where you want to bet on kind of that per route efficiency moving forward. We're about a half round to a run ahead of ADP on him. At the same time, I don't see like the really big upside payoff here. And you mentioned Tyler Warren. That's going to increase the target competition. And even with his strong targets per outrun last year, in pure target share, he wasn't really separating much from Michael Pittman, who was playing through an injury, his back injury

much of last year. So I could see some ways that target per out run for Downs dips if we have a healthier pitman and then we bring in Tyler Warren. And you mentioned the two wide receiver sets and whether or not he plays in those. You know, I don't want to be ever overconfident that a young skilled player won't have a growing role because those are kind of the big wins when that happens. But in this case, I am somewhat skeptical it happens. Like I don't see him displacing Michael Pittman in those two wide receiver sets.

Eddie Mitchell is having an incredible camp. Alpiers is a guy they trust to be a field stretcher. I just don't think that the way this offense operates, that they're going to feel the need to make that move on downs. Could it happen? Certainly, it would be great for him. And then you just factor in quarterback play. Daniel Jones, not a very good quarterback, Anthony Richardson, I think maybe gives the offense more

upside in real life, but less upside in fantasy because it's going to be more rushing from him. It's going to be a lower completion percentage. And where does that high-end reception volume come from for Josh Dallas for him to hit that really big upside? So I do think his talent makes him a very safe pick where he goes. But, yeah, I don't see the very high-end upside here. Yeah, and you're seeing it where it's a player where actually I see the ADP sort of trending downwards. I was in an FFPC 350 and I took him in the 10th round and I said, you know, maybe I'm really getting an edge on downs there.

But then you're starting to see him trickle in in the occasional 11th round appearance. And then in other drafts, he goes inside a round eight. So I think if you, the big takeaway for for me is if you're still over the top on Josh Downs, then you can actually mix in some. ninth round exposure, 10th round exposure now. I don't think he's a player that's ever really going to hurt you, hurt you. But again, I sort of have the same thoughts that you have on really talented player. If he was on a different team, I think the fantasy upside would be there, not necessarily on the Colts. And the Adnan-I-Mitchell stuff is very interesting because they used a second round pick on him last year.

And it's always been a player that's had really positive coach speak, really next-level. athlete. So the Adonai Mitchell story, I think, hasn't really fully been told. And Alec Pierce was so good last year for them. Pierce had sort of a breakout season, really fun best ball pick last year, and he's just not going to disappear. So just a lot of mouse to feed in Indianapolis. And that's without us really knowing the full scale of what Tyler Warren's usage is going to be like. Very quickly, are you in and out on taking some Tyler Warren? You talked about the inflated group of tight ends when we were talking about our tight end ADP decision. But Tyler Warren at tight end nine, he's going higher.

You see him in round six, round seven in FFPC. But I can make an upside argument for him. Are you there? I like the upside argument, you know, of that group of tight ends in front of the ones we mentioned. He's the one that I like probably taking a chance on most, maybe him and David and Joku, who I think, you know, different types of bets. But as the price continues to increase, I do think it's just a little bit too rich and just not really like how I want to structure my teams.

So it's not that I'm super bearish war. And it's just I don't see, you know, necessarily a huge gap between him and Colston Loveland, for example, if you want that really big upside rookie tight end profile in your room. So getting back to Josh Downs, he goes in this range of wide receivers where we start getting towards the. bottom of the wide receivers, we're kind of excited to draft tier. Some people call it the last draftable wide receiver. And certainly we're going to go a little bit deeper than this. But let's move Jaden Reed into this tier because of the recent injury news. He's in a walking boot.

Let's throw Jaden Reed, Josh Downs, Keon Coleman, Michael Pittman, also of the Indianapolis Colts, and Jaden Higgins, all into a five wide receiver tier. these players usually are going inside of round nine and into round 10. If you had to pick a player out of this group of five or maybe two players that you're really into, who would they be? I would say Jaden Reed's the one that I'm most likely to take here. Now, there is, you know, similar two wide receiver set concerns with Jaden Reed as there is with Josh Downs.

And similar to Josh Downs, I think the most likely case is Jaden Reed does not crack two wide receiver sets. But I'm a little bit more in to read than downs for a couple of reasons. One, we've got like two years of just incredible yard per outrun profile from Jaden Reed. And secondly, the quarterback play, I think, is very superior in terms of passers of the football when you look at Jordan Love compared to Danny Dimes or Anthony Richardson. And I think the market in general is undervaluing that Green Bay is going to throw a lot more than they did last year.

You know, there's some Malik Willis games in the data. Jordan Love wasn't fully healthy last year. And they kind of got into this stretch where things were working where they were just feeding Josh Jacobs, not expecting them to be even like positive pass rate over expectation, but a lot closer to neutral than they were last year, which does open up the upside for some of the Green Bay pass catchers. I like Matthew Golden a lot too. I'm not trying to be like forcing myself to pick one or the other who's going to be the guy. that main event that I mentioned that Drew and I just did recently. We ended up with both Golden and Reed just kind of hoping that one of these guys becomes like the clear breakout target for love and an offense that throws a bit more. So, yeah, I'm still investing in Reed in this group.

I think he has the most upside. I'll say I've done a lot of podcasts this offseason. And anytime I have a guest who's someone I think is sharp and also analytical, they're in on Jaden Reed. Sean Siegel's in on Jaden Reed, urine on Jaden Reed, Ryan Heath over here is head over heels on Jaden Reed. There's just a lot of really smart people on Jaden Reed. I think I'm team Matthew Golden,

but I've been constantly making the argument that you want to take these Green Bay pass catchers because all three of them, including Tucker Kraft, are priced to hit. I think we'll get to a scenario where two out of the three are going to be big ADP winners this year. And we're going to say we, you know, there's two out of these three guys beat ADP by two and a half rounds.

So I'm in on it. And Jaden Reed, we also have, I think the contingent, there's a contingent argument with Reed also that I think if Josh Jacobs were to go down, we'd see more of those manufactured running plays. We saw it years ago with Aaron Jones when he went down. That's sort of when we had peak rookie year Jaden Reed. So just with the Marshaun Lloyd sort of failing. to get going, always injured. I wonder if you'll see a little bit more of the Debo type plays for

Reed, which sort of unpacks a little bit more for him. So really an interesting one there. Let's pivot back over to the running back position. Dallas Cowboys, where are you going with this backfield? All three of these, well, it's four if you want to talk about Phil Mafa, because all these people want to talk about Phil Mafa recently. Nobody knows what's going on with the Dallas running back situation. The highest drafted guys are Javante Williams and Jaden Blue. You've got others simply saying just take Miles Sanders late because this is a true backfield that we just don't know what's going on with it. If you had to make a bet with a Dallas Cowboys running back, who would it be? And just to preface it, we're seeing Javante Williams and Jaden Blue often as the first Cowboys running back

selected either in the ninth or 10th round. So it's an ambiguous. backfield on a team that we think is going to score a lot of points. And I don't need to use a pick until the ninth or tenth on one of them. Yeah, I like 10th round jade and blue quite a bit. In redraft, just taking the upside swing, right? I don't really care about necessarily getting a guy like Javante Williams, who maybe is going to be the one who sees the field right out of the gate and has some usable weeks, but just very worried that the efficiency upside for Javante is toast.

Blue is, you know, he's an undersized back. They didn't trust him with a lot of volume in college, but man, he's very explosive. And I can sort of see a way this offense breaks where they become very pass heavy and they just get these explosive players on the field. And they, you know, hopefully they don't try and establish like kind of a traditional ground game. I know last year they did with Rico Doutel, but the team had some issues overall last season that I'm hoping, you know, this year with a healthy DAC and bringing in George Pickens. just lets them lean into what they do well. And I think that means playing a lot of Jaden Blue. And maybe he doesn't get this huge workload,

but he could be used in the passing game, very efficiency-oriented type play. So I like Blue the most out of this backfield. And I don't mind drafting any of them again, though, like similar to the Jags backfield. When you start getting a backfield on a team where you think there could be a solid amount of fantasy points to the running back position, and it's so ambiguous that everybody in the back,

field's round nine or later, I'm willing to bat on all of them, but blue is my favorite. Now, just to kind of, you're oftentimes speaking to redraft managers on this show, but you also play a ton of best ball. Do you think like attacking the Dallas backfield makes more sense from a redraft sense or a best ball sense or kind of both here? I think both, but I'm a little more skittish on blue in in best ball where sort of the risks associated with him and redraft, it's kind of like if it doesn't work out, like you're churning the roster spot. You know,

you can go over it. And there's a bit more, I think, value in basketball of just having the guy that's on the field and like getting some usable weeks where they got like Javante Williams. But I'm open to drafting, you know, I'm not a huge handcuffed person, but I've taken some best ball drafts where I've taken,

you know, one of Blue or Javante a little bit earlier and then Miles Sanders late, where I feel like they're so, that if you just kind of hope you bet against the right player that gets phased out and it's more the workloads on the other two that you end up selecting, you're in a pretty good spot. You're going to ping pong some weeks in best ball that can be valuable. But in redraft, you know, you're not looking at it quite the same way, but it's more like, hey, multiple bets.

One of these guys is going to become very useful and pay off their ADP. I don't know which one yet. So I'll take two of them and then just drop, you know, whoever it is a few weeks in this season once I have more information. Yeah, the stack cuffing, double-tapping running backs in bestball. I've had that conversation with you. I've had that with Jack Miller also have established the run. It sometimes can really pay off.

Graham Barfield's also sort of in on that with this backfield. I agree with you that in redraft sense, Blue would be the one that I think is absolutely the best target. Has a really explosive profile, low 4-340 type runner. and also caught a lot of passes at Texas on a team surrounded by NFL talent. So for me, Jaden Blue, if we have an injury to Javante or Miles Sanders, and we know Jaden Blue is going to get the high value touches in this backfield, we might get really excited about him.

He might be the kind of player that is ranked as like the RB19 for the week, the RB20 for the week. But on the flip side, I think if it's a Javante Williams-Miles Sanders situation, It could be a starting running back is the running back 31 this week. The backup is like running back 37. We're not excited to start either of them in a redraft sense. So I think swing for the fences. Let's do a couple of OTC decisions for running backs in this range.

Let's go back to let's first do one with Jaden Blue. We'll throw him in there with J.K. Dobbins. We'll throw him in there with Zach Charbonnet and also Cam Scataboo. So these favorite like elite RB2 room slash ambiguous backfield targets, Dobbins, Charbonnet, Scataboo or Blue. If you're taking a player from this range, who is it? Man, that's tough. It's probably Dobbins right now of this group.

I'd say Dobbins. If I really, yeah, no, I'd go Dobbins. In most scenarios, I'd go Dobbins where it's, you know, it's more, I talked about not overvaluing the usability of Javante early, but I think Dobbins kind of threads the needle where he gives you that and a bit more juice and upside than Javante Williams gives use. And, you know, you know he's going to play to an extent, whereas Blue could have, you know, an unstartable role for most of the season as much as I like the upside there. Is Zach Charbonnet the best handcuff running back in fantasy football? Like in certain, we'll see it in FFPC, NFFC Underdog, where Charbonnet, people understand the value there. But for people that are in some home leagues, ESPN, Yahoo type leagues,

Charbonnet falls a little bit lower. Is there a better handcuff if you had to pick a contingent upside RB2 this year? Or would you gravitate back to Charbonnet, who had three top eight weekly finishes last year in games Ken Walker missed? I think with what we know right now, it's Charbonnet, where it's just so clearly they're going to give him the full workload if Kenneth Walker is out and he has missed some practices recently there's not a lot of reporting going on there so i'm not entirely sure um if it's something that we need to be concerned about with kenneth walker or not but

i just wanted to drop that note but yeah a lot of times we kind of wish cast these rb2s where we assume if the rb one goes down they're going to step in and it's going to be you know rocket ship up for them and it's not always the case quite often it's you know a little bit more middling and somewhat disappointing so to have a back in zach charbonnet where we're like nearly 100% confident what's going to happen if Kenneth Walker is out is very valuable. And just the way the offense is set up, they want to run the ball. They want to try to run the ball efficiently. They're going to use whichever back they have in the past game, screen game as well.

So, yeah, I think it's probably Charbonnet. Some other ones that I like, you know, later, but like Tyler Alger, I think is maybe a little bit undervalued as a handcuff type play at a cheaper price tag. Yeah, it's an interesting way of looking at it. I agree Al Jare would absorb a ton of volume. Charbonnet, though, in drafts where I get Kenneth Walker, I'm happy to get them, but in drafts where I don't, especially in a large-scale bestball field, like underdog or an FFPC-Made event, an FFPC 350,

like if I get half a season out of Charbonnet, I'm getting an RB1, so I still don't mind taking them despite this inflated price tag. Let's talk about another range of running backs a little bit behind, do another on-the-clock decision. starting in like the middle around 10 down to like the middle of round 11 we're seeing a remandre stevenson trey benson ray davis dylan samson isaic garendo and then i'll take brelin allen off this list because i i think you know by the time this show airs he's probably up around and a half so again stevenson benson sampson ray davis garendo do you have a prefer

pick of this group of running backs? I think it's Dylan Samson. It's probably close between him and Ramandre. They're very different bets, though. Ramandre is the, hey, you know, we're kind of avoiding the Trayvian-Henterson hype, and we know at least to start the year, it might be more of a split. And you get some guaranteed volume there. But if I'm swinging for upside, I think it's Samson.

This is a team that's going to want to give their rookies a lot. look. You know, it's it's a rebuilding year. And the only thing really standing in Samson's way is Jerome Ford. And I don't think they're going to let Jerome Ford stand in the way of getting a really good look at what Dylan Samson can do. And then with Judkins having an unsigned contract right now and the domestic violence allegations against him pending, there is a chance that he doesn't play at all for Cleveland this year. And if that's, you know, and it's maybe a somewhat higher chance maybe than people think. And that would obviously really paved away for Samson to, you know, not only unlock his upside over the second half of the season, but probably have to be

used in a somewhat meaningful way early, even if Jerome Ford is the primary two downback to start. Yeah, Samson, during the time when they took him during the NFL draft, it sort of showed just how much Cleveland liked him. They take Judkins as an early round two pick and then double tap the position with Samson at the beginning around four. Samson, unbelievable productivity at Tennessee was also productive in a backfield alongside Jalen Wright, who was of course a fourth round pick in the 2023 draft. So I agree with you. I think Samson, if I'm looking to swing for the fences and find a starter out of this range, I like taking the chance on him over Ramondre, where Remandre last led the NFL in fumbles.

I think this whole him coexisting with Trayvion Henderson is a nice narrative. But if Henderson's taking away all of the targets and then we see Henderson really cutting into the rushing share as well, then there's a chance that you see Stevenson really take a back seat to a rookie that looks incredibly explosive. So for me, I think Samson, but I kind of like diving into multiple players here. Benson obviously has a high contingent value of Connor Wartomis time. Isaac Arendo, I'm sort of fading because he never seems to stay healthy. And I wonder if this is a 49ers backfield where it could just be a mystery player

ends up being the RB2 with Jordan James and Garendo also missing time. Let's take one more wide receiver, ADP, just look, and then we're going to talk quarterbacks to end the show. we see this range of wide receivers where getting all the way to the end of round 11, you're seeing guys like Darnal Mooney who's been falling, Luther Burden, Christian Kirk, Rashid, Shahid, and then Brandon Ayuk continues to fall with the lack of clarity as to when he'll return to a football field. If you're drafting in a redraft setting, which of these players is most appealing to you?

Yeah, this is a tough range. You're throwing out a lot of players that I do like. I think IUC's undervalued at the point where he's going so late that him missing five to six weeks, I don't know if that matters for your team. You know, a lot of times this is the range where I'm drafting my last wide receiver or my second last wide receiver. And I just want the second half upside in that case, which does lead me a little bit towards I, towards Luther Burden. I like burden a lot, again, just betting on this offense in Chicago where I think there's a, you know, it's maybe not a huge chance, but there's not often you get offenses that have such a massive switch in coaching. And then you get a year or two quarterback that could break out. And I just look at the chances that some players from this offense vastly exceed their ADP, I think is much higher than the majority of offenses out there.

And burden is someone that the draft capital wasn't amazing, but analytically, the prospect profiles insane. I know JJ Zacharias and stuff absolutely loves him, has him, you know, with his prospect score, the way JJ's model works, actually has burden, like, pretty close to Emeka, and Tritorium McMillan and like actually decently ahead of Matthew Golden. So I'd probably say burden and Ayyth because I'm mostly focused at this point on second half upside. If I were drafting a team structurally different than I usually do and I end up with

a lot of running backs early and then maybe some rookie wide receivers in, you know, round seven and eight, which certainly can happen if it breaks a certain way. Then I'm like, okay, give me Christian Kirk. Like this guy's got an extremely high floor. I'm going to slot him into my starting lineup to start and then hope that maybe some of these other bets emerge over the course of the season. I think he's very stable, safe bet. So a lot of it comes down to the archetype that you need for how you've started your draft.

Who scores more fantasy points this year, Jaden Higgins or Christian Kirk? I mean, if you're just doing straight up, I'd say Christian Kirk. You know, we're just saying, hey, heads up, who scores more points? On median, it's got to be Christian Kirk. Who scores more points in the second half of the season? It's still, to me, like, likely to be Christian Kirk, but Higgins, in the cases that Higgins outscores Kirk, he might outscore him, you know, by more if we're just looking at the full range of outcomes. Like that's the appeal that Higgins is you're trying to hit the home run.

But I still think Kirk, even over the second half, is probably favored just straight up head-to-head against Higgins. Yeah, I think that it's an interesting one. I really, really want to mix in Jaden Higgins. Kirk could be extremely annoying for that like upside outcome because I think for Higgins to really, really deliver for us, he's got to end up being the number two target on that team. in terms of this range of wide receivers, give me Luther Burden. Because a lot of your arguments for Brandon Ayuk where Iyuk could give you this massive edge if he comes back in week six, I think could be there for burden as well, where it might be a ramp up period.

And then Ben Johnson just unleashes full time burden. And that'll be a detriment to either a DJ Moore or a Dunezay, where burden could end up being the slot in the Ben Johnson offense where we have a lot of sample size of fantasy success. And like Loveland, both of these guys seem like Ben Johnson favorites. They kind of fit into this Lions type scheme. There's just a lot to like with Burden in this range of drafts surrounded by guys where I think we know what they are, whereas Burden, it's this crazy unknown upside. And yeah, that's a great reference. Like a lot of really smart people had burden before we factored draft capital into it. They had burden as a wide receiver one on a number of

analytical model. So yeah, JJ definitely really high on him. Cody Carpenter was high on him. A lot of people are really, really high on burden. So I think he can end up being a big ADP winner in this range. Let's take one more quick break. We come back. Which quarterbacks should you be selecting in round nine on? Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple. And in just a few clicks, you can have access to our exclusive library of the best slots and top-tier table games.

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Mike, this is a range where people are attacking the quarterback position. It's one of the most predictable years where we know where the ADP lies. You have the early quarterbacks, the big three. Then you see Jalen Hertz and Joe Burrow sort of behind them. Patrick Mahomes exists in his own little plane as the QB6, wherever your league takes them. And then we start seeing ranges of quarterbacks with some guys like Bo Nicks, some guys like Baker Mayfield might get steamed up. But the majority of these low-end QB-1s are going in this range of drafts. So let's do a couple of ODP on-the-clock decisions here. Let's talk about a range of quarterbacks where Bo Nix, last year fantastic as a rookie,

Kyler Murray, who continually finishes as a QB1, or Dak Prescott. These three players have sort of started rising into round nine in Dax's case and falling into round nine for Bo Nix's case. Why don't we throw Baker Mayfield in this mix as well, just because in some leagues he's going there? So we'll call this the late round nine, early round 10 tier of quarterbacks. of these four quarterbacks, which player or players are you most into? I think, you know, it's almost easier for me to say the one that I'm least into to start.

And I think that's Bo Nex. I think he's just a little bit overvalued here. I think he ran a bit hot on touchdown rate. And you're just a little bit concerned that there's some regression there for him. They haven't done a whole ton in terms of pass catchers for him. We did talk about earlier in the show. The O line is amazing, which is a huge thing. thing and he will run a little bit, but I'm just most skeptical on him of this group.

I'd probably go with, I think the guy like most, you had Purdy in there, right? Did you have Purdy in there? No, we can throw Purdy in there. Pretty goes to slightly lower, but go for it. Okay. I think I actually like Purdy the most. And I know you had it, maybe you had a different segment that I blew where you had No, no, no. Purdy didn't even get on here.

So Purdy, to me, when I look at his past two years, two years ago, people were kind of saying this is just the offense around him that's resulting in these really strong passing efficiency stats. It's a lot of yards after catch. It's all these playmakers that they have. Last year, there were tons of injuries to the skill players, to the offensive line, to everything. and the way Purdy achieved a really high yards per cent changed dramatically. It was a lot less yards after catched up, a lot more higher A-DOT, him making plays out of structure. He was scrambling a bit more. So I think he's legitimately very good and going to be, again,

one of the highest efficiency passers on a per-attempt basis this season. And you throw that with a bit more rushing upside that he unlocked last year. And then San Francisco, in terms of points scored, is one. of the teams with the larger projected improvements from last year. And a lot of the quarterbacks in this range, you know, they don't have, if you look at like look ahead lines and average team totals, San Francisco's team total is going to be a lot higher than a lot of these quarterbacks. And when we see a quarterback from this range have a really good breakout season, it's

usually because they run very hot on touchdown. So I think Purdy is the one that's most likely to throw for the most touchdown just because the offense around him and his passing efficiency. So I do like him the most. And then, you know, I think Baker is generally a little bit overvalued. His ADPs come back down to earth some. Kyler is someone that I don't feel great about, but our math likes him a ton, you know, with just enough rushing output there to kind of make it tough for him to not be, you know,

a top 12 quarterback. The pretty one's interesting because he's finished as a QB6. and the QB10 in points per game for the last two seasons. And you're always able to get him as like the QB 12, QB 13. The rushing production just exploded last year. 323 rushing yards had five rushing scores. And we didn't see that at all in his first like 25 starts as a pro. I wonder if that's static or it was reflective of just the way the 49ers offense was

going last season. I think it's probably static. I think it's a player that's more comfortable as he's older in the league. I love the purdy answer. I know Scott Barrett's also really high on him this season. And sometimes you see him going like 25 picks behind the Mayfield Knicks tier. So I think I'm a little higher on Bo Nix than you are. I would push back that he was so good last year,

despite having very middling players around him, a lot of youth at the wide receiver spot. And I think that we can't discount just to, how much better they got at the running back position, talent-wise, with Harvey and Dobbins, how they're going to be just more efficient, where Nick's last year 29 touchdown passes, they also add Evan Ingram, who's going to help them convert a lot more first downs, and all of those wide receivers are one year older. Marvin Mims, a question on Marvin Mims, I think it's interesting because Ben Gretch,

not a big Marvin Mims fan, but Marvin Mims played a lot of snaps. in the preseason opener, MIMS had a really hot end to last season. Do you see MIMS as a player that can help this Denver Broncos offense or one that's going to sort of fade kind of away from his end of the season production due to all the mouse to feed? Yeah, so I did see Ben's tweet on Mims, a little starky kind of talking about the yards per outrun and how if you just look at that, you don't watch football. And I would push back against that.

Cavante Turpin comparison? Did I see that one on there? Yeah, I push back against that a little bit. While Ben's right, the Marvin Mim's yards per outrun profile isn't as strong as it looks like at first glance. Because, yeah, a ton of screen stuff and a ton of downfield stuff. I guess my pushback on that would be like, hey, that's great. That's what we want. We want screens.

We want downfield stuff. And then if he can grow into some additional targets that are going to be much lower yards per route run, but there's going to help his overall volume profile. Those additional targets at a lower yards per out run are still going to be very, helpful. I don't think it's someone you want to be completely out on. And I think it was a very good sign, you know, him playing all those snaps in the first preseason game. Don't want to overrate it. But, you know, I'm leaving the light on for him. I know a lot of people in our ETR slack are pretty skeptical on MIMS and assuming they're going to spread it out a ton.

You know, they got the rookie Pat Bryant there as well. And you've got some veterans that are probably going to be sneaky annoying. So I'm not like super optimistic. It works out. But I don't think it's a horrible bet to make, you know, where he goes in drafts. The final player I want to talk about at the quarterback position, I didn't even include him because I think he's worth a conversation. When we're looking at a player who can crush their ADP, oftentimes we're trying to gravitate towards quarterbacks with big time rushing upside. Justin Fields has a huge sample size of rushing for a lot of yards and scoring a lot of

fantasy points. Where are you at on him this year? He's a player that you can get in this range of drafts. Occasionally he's reached on, but he's settled in somewhere in that QB10, QB11, QB12 range in multiple formats. The vibes seem pretty good this year in New York. The offensive line is going to be improved. It seems like a massive opportunity for Fields. Are you in or out on him being your quarterback in a redraft setting?

Yeah, I'm in. a lot of the quarterbacks we discuss were kind of in this range are quarterbacks that we're hoping the QB7, QB8, you know, QB6 type quarterbacks, they don't, they can't crack the top five quarterbacks. You know, we're just hoping to have a very, very good year and they're clearly inside the top 10. You know, even Brock Purdy, who I mentioned, who I like a lot. But if you're really swinging for the fence, his fields is the one guy that if things break

right because of his outlier rushing profile could be a top six, top five, fantasy quarterback on a per game basis. Now, I do struggle with it. I know our ranks kind of have him a little bit break even at cost right now. And, you know, it depends how you want to play it a little bit. I do have some concerns that the offense just won't be that good. and that even with his elite rushing profile, that that'll kind of stymie the upside a bit more than people think.

We generally look at these top five quarterbacks. And while I just said Fields has that upside, to hit that, you generally need a certain level of passing offense or passing efficiency and passing volume to go with your rushing statistics. So you are kind of betting on field being so outlier with the rushing that he can kind of, you know, combat that trend

and do it without, you know, the strong passing numbers. Because after Garrett Wilson and maybe Breeze Hall in the passing game, I'm talking about Josh Reynolds as the second starting wide receiver. You've got a rookie tight end out there. I'm worried it could get a little bit ugly. So I just want to give both sides to the Fields argument. But in a vacuum, if you're saying, are you in or out on fields?

I would say I'm in. Would you simplify it as when we're looking at that tier of quarterbacks, if I want safety, go with the guy like a purdy, go with the guy like a purdy, go with a guy like a Prescott, go with a guy with even like a Mayfield. But if I want extreme upside, chase the rushing ability in fields? Yeah, I think that's right. And like some of these FFPC drafts that are obviously single QB, you get some real fallers. And I'm not opposed to drafting two quarterbacks.

That's something that I've kind of changed my stance on in the last couple of years, the way the positions played out, I used to be like, I mean, you're just going to start one quarterback and like you make your bet and you stick with it. But when you start getting outside top 10 quarterback costs, I think it's fine to kind of take two shots at a breakout player. You take the shot on fields with the rushing upside along with Dak Prescott and hope that, you know, maybe I'm right that the vision of the Dallas office is just super pass heavy and Pickens kind of unlocks this insane pass efficiency.

And you take kind of two bets and then hopefully, you know, middle of the season, it becomes quite clear who you want. Or if you even want two cheaper bets, you can take fields with like a C.J. Strau, Trevor Lawrence, two a type, these pocket passers that if the offense breaks right, we know they could enter the top 10 conversation. So I'm not opposed to drafting two quarterbacks in a fields build. I'll say that two quarterback builds and redraft, I'm also in on. Years past, I would sometimes just plan a flag and go naked QB saying I'm going to get somebody on the waiver wire.

But I feel like there's so many appealing quarterbacks this year in the QB. B2 range that could really, really beat their ADP, there's going to be a few players that I think are going to be red hot waiver wire ads like early in home leagues that I think we could take and just sort of see the way that things shake out. And if you have concerns about a fields, about a Drake May, about even a Caleb Williams, and you've taken them as your QB1, you can find a second QB quite easily. So I love that take, Mike. Give us one bold fantasy prediction for the season before we get you out of here. Yeah, I'll go Emeka, Buka as a league winner for Tampa Bay.

I've been one of my favorite draft picks all season long. Even going back a month or so ago when I was doing the projections podcast with Gretsch kind of made a comp to Justin Jefferson a little bit in terms of how they reviewed as like these high floor players as prospects and we kind of maybe are too narrow in our thinking and these really good players could just have a higher ceiling than we think. I'm feeling some confirmation bias by all the positive buzz that we're hearing in camp, but I'm also a little bit annoyed because it's driving the price up. But I think the target competition there is a little bit of distraction.

They drafted him in the middle of the first round when they didn't have to. Godwin's coming back from the injury. Evans is a little bit older. Jalen McMillan was solid, but like just a guy, if Igbuka is as good as I think he might be, the target competition isn't going to matter. Not to get people to head over heels. You're Justin Jefferson. I'll add to it.

Justin Jefferson went in a very similar range of the draft. Brian Thomas Jr. went in a very similar range of the draft. Last week we had Rich Rebar on with Scott and I for School of Scott. And we talked about how last year there was four wide receivers drafted, wide receiver 40 or later that it finished his top 15 scorers. I said Igbuka would be my choice this year. I have the same optimism you do.

We're all in on Emeka, Gbuka. Go draft them in your leagues as well. Stick with us here, Fantasy Football Daily, drop in multiple episodes a week. Make sure you check out everything Mike is doing over on Establish to Run. Listen to him on Establish the Edge, and we'll see you soon.