Fantasy Football Daily - Fantasy Football: Top 10 Takeaways from the NFL Playoffs | Stafford’s Surge, Puka’s WR1 Case & CMC’s Dominance

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

FANTASY POINTS 2026 EARLY-BIRD SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE LIVE. GET OUR BEST RATE WE'LL OFFER THE ENTIRE SEASON, 20% OFF! NOW THROUGH SUPER BOWL SUNDAY: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Theo Gremminger breaks down the 10 biggest fantasy football takeaways from the NFL Playoffs, connecting postseason performances directly to 2026 redraft and dynasty value. From Matthew Stafford’s late-game heroics and Jordan Love’s stabilizing finish, to Puka Nacua planting his flag as the potential WR1 overall, this episode digs into what truly changed over Wild Card Weekend. Theo also tackles the Chargers’ offensive collapse, Ladd McConkey’s value reset, Rhamondre Stevenson’s playoff takeover, and Colston Loveland’s emergence as a true superstar tight end. Plus, major ripple effects from George Kittle’s injury, Christian McCaffrey redefining RB receiving usage, and looming offseason storylines involving A.J. Brown and Josh Allen. 🔥 Stafford, Love, and the QB playoff value shift 📈 Puka’s WR1 case, Loveland’s TE leap, and Rhamondre’s surge 📉 Chargers collapse, McConkey concerns, and Kittle’s 2026 outlook If you want to understand how playoff football reshapes fantasy value for next season, this is the postseason breakdown that actually matters. Where to find us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/⁠⁠TheOGFantasy ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the Discord here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/discord#/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast Transcription Here: https://podsqueeze.com/embedded/transcript/RDzYtkV8vWz5vMSfM7oqBX 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 #FantasyFootballAdvice #NFL #FantasyFootball #StartSit #Week7 #FantasyFootballAdvice #FantasyFootball2025 #Sleepers #MustStart #FantasyFootballPodcast #FantasyPoints Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top 10 fantasy football takeaways playoff edition. We're breaking down everything you need to know from fantasy football from this week's wildcard round right here at fantasy points. Let's get it. What's going on? Theo Greminger, Fantasy Football Daily on the Fantasy Points podcast network and Fantasy Points YouTube. Back at it. Thought we drop a reaction show right after this week's action because these games were so lit. There were so many games with comebacks this year.

so many times where teams looked out of it, where we thought we knew who's going to win, and there was some really high-level comebacks this week. We're going to break them all down right here. And we could have really started with multiple teams, but let's start out with the city of Los Angeles. You had the opening playoff game, sort of a throwaway game.

You had the Rams against the Panthers. Huge point spread in this one. Carolina was a home team, but a huge home dog, despite their success against the Rams earlier this season. And the game looked like this one would get out of hand early. The Rams had an early lead. Carolina fights back, and it ends up being an unbelievably entertaining 34, 31 Rams win, including a touchdown with less than a minute remaining. So, you know, you give a lot of props here.

Dave Canales has this program headed in the right direction. When you break down the Carolina roster, it's not like an overwhelmingly talented roster. And I understand that there was a low bar to cross with the NFC South. But you understand like where this team was before Dave Canales got here, where it was dark times for the Carolina Panthers. They had given up a huge amount of capital. including DJ Moore, their top wide receiver at the time, to acquire Bryce Young.

He has a terrible rookie season. And for Dave Canales to get them to the playoffs this season in year two, his head coach there, was really telling. And if you look at the players that were leading Carolina, I think we'll go back and we'll say that this was a really impressive year by Dave Canales. This team's headed in the right direction. But got to talk about the Rams. Got to talk about the city of Los Angeles. and let's talk about Matthew Stafford and what he's getting in terms of like all-time great status. And I'm not dropping hyperbole here.

The stats don't lie. So Matthew Stafford has 304 passing yards and three touchdowns in this one, including two fourth quarter touchdown passes to Kyron Williams and to Colby Parkinson. And the Parkinson one was with 38 seconds left while trailing. 31-27, keeps the Rams Super Bowl hopes alive, keeps the Rams season alive. And Matthew Stafford is now up to 49 touchdown passes on the season after this performance. This is the 10th most touchdown passes all time in a season when we include the playoffs. And you're talking about rarefied air here. Stafford has two of them now. So Stafford has two of the 10 best all-time touchdown past seasons in NFL history when we include the playoffs.

2021, he had 50, including the playoffs, where they won the Super Bowl. This year, he's going to pass that number unless we see something weird and the Rams don't score next week and get eliminated. I think next week's game could be a loss. It's not a given. L.A. is perfectly capable of winning that game, but I think it's going to be a competitive one against the Chicago Bears. But when we talk about Matthew Stafford, we have to talk about him.

just cementing his legacy. 10th all time, and he's got two of the top 10 seasons of all time. You look at the quarterbacks on that list. Dan Marino, Patrick Mahomes, Peyton Manning twice, Drew Breeze, Aaron Rogers, Matthew Stafford. That's the list. Stafford just absolutely bawling out this year. Huge, huge performance from Pukonakuwa that we'll talk about in a moment, but Stafford deserves a lot of credit.

It'll be interesting to see how the market treats him next year. Pocket passer with not a whole lot of rushing upside. But now that we've seen the Pukanakuwa, Devante Adams, combination working, then you factor in Terrence Ferguson a year older, Colby Parkinson. The Ferguson-Parkinson combination at tight end next year is going to be even better than it was this year, my gut feel with Ferguson getting a year more mature in the league. Then you factor in Blake Corum, Kyron Williams, the two deep running back roster, very strong there.

And the Rams have the 13th overall pick. They have their late first round pick, which could be the last pick if they win the Super Bowl. And so two first round picks, and they have a lot of a lot of cap space. So this offense next year could be even more loaded with skill position talent. Matthew Stafford, absolutely bawling.

And Pukukua making a strong statement, not only to be the wide receiver one overall in fantasy next year, but to be the one. Now, I have Pooka Nakuwa at the 104. So I guess I'm a Puka Nakuhaater by only ranking him fourth overall in my 2026 rankings. I have right now Bijan and Jemir Gibbs at the top, one, two, running back, running back. And then I have Jemar Chase at three and then Puka at four. I guess I got to reconsider that one.

I dropped my top 25 rankings with Scott Barrett. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can check it out. It's one of the most recent videos we dropped. And he makes the case for Puka Nakuwa to be one. Scott looks pretty sharp on this one. Pukonikura was unbelievable in this game. Scored the game's first two touchdowns, 14-yard touchdown grab to start it out,

then a five-yard rushing score. And then they continued to go to him throughout the second half. 18 targets for Pukua, 10 catches for 111 yards. And the concern with Puka heading into this, year is he didn't have a huge touchdown season under his belt. Year one and year two. Drew targets, got a lot of catches, didn't get the touchdowns. Now he's got 12 touchdowns this season. So Pukua checking off every single box you want to see from an elite fantasy football asset, completely, completely locked in heading into 2026. Now going across town, things are not nearly as good.

SoFi Stadium is shared by the L.A. Rams and the L.A. Chargers. And beginning of the year, it looked like the L.A. Chargers were going to be right there. They started the season out 3 and O. If you remember, there was the big win over Kansas City in Brazil that was just a massive win for them. Then they start the out the season 3 and O. Well, fast forward to Sunday and they end up going out in terrible fashion. They lose this game 16.10. to three, and indicative of the Chargers' lack of scoring in week 17, weeks 18, and now in the wildcard round. The Chargers really can't do anything on offense right now. And of course, multiple strong offensive linemen were lost here, huge issues on the O line, and it caught up with them. Justin Herbert had 57 rushing yards, and that 57 rushing yards was more than any other skill position player had in terms of rushing production or receiving production. Omar and Hampton one touch then leaves the game. Just terrible stuff there.

When you go back with the Chargers, it's like they scored 34 points in week 16 over Dallas, and then after that they haven't been able to do anything. Herbert was sacked six times in this one, and he was hit 11 times. No one can win if you're not going to protect the quarterback. Chargers have a chance to be one of the leagues like bounce back offenses next year. simply by the offensive line being healthy. But I got to bring this one up. And if you're a Ravens fan, cover your ears right now

because you've seen this story a million times. Another year with a Greg Roman offense going out in just catastrophic fashion. And now this one with Roman, like again, Greg Roman doesn't can't control offensive line injuries, but this has been a trend. If you were a Ravens fan during the Greg Roman era as offensive coordinator, you saw plenty of games like this. where Greg Roman couldn't score, and they could do anything.

Multiple games where they scored like 14 points or fewer, and a ton of games where they scored 20 points or fewer. 16 to 3, New England and this one, it's over. And we got to talk about, we talked about Pukua. Let's talk about a player who wasn't that far away from him in ADP when we were drafting teams this past summer. And these two players might as well and be on different planets right now. Ladd-McConkey was, if you go back in time to this time last year,

Ladd-McConkey was in Fuego. His dynasty stock, his bestball stock, his redraft stock, everything was Ladd-McConkey. He set in an NFL, look, first of all, let's look at the regular season he had. As a rookie, Ladd-McConkey averaged 15 points per game. Most years, that's a wide-receiver-1. I believe he finished just outside of wide-receiver-1 territory, like the wide-receiver 13 right around that area. ends up playing a playoff game against the Houston Texans,

nine catches, 197 yards, and a touchdown. McConkey ended up steaming all the way into the second round this year in high stakes drafts and an underdog. And at the low was like a two, three turn pick. Like you'd get them in the first couple picks of the third round and people'd say, whoa, you got lad there at like the 304. That's a great value. Well, not so fast.

Ends this one with three catches for 32 years. yards. And McConkey had nine games this year, including this one, with 42 or fewer yards on the game. Not exactly the year two breakout that we're going to pay for. So a lot of the storyline was about Brian Thomas Jr. this year and what a disaster picky was. Now, this is certainly not a pro BTJ take, but McConkey also catastrophic. And McConkey ending the season in this fashion, really, really bad stuff here. Really, really interesting player when we look at where the market will value him in 2026? Does he turn things around? Or is what, what's more real with Ladd? Is he more like the player, his rookie season, who averaged all those points per game? Or is he more

like this and the player we saw this season? Or is he somewhere in between? I think the market might be split on him, but very, very terrible weight in the year. And this is a stat that I took from the underdog guys. So underdog social media dropped an absolute banger with this one. Ladd-McCocki had nine catches for 197 yards in last year's wildcard lost to Houston. And over his last seven games played, he's had 190 total yards. So he had more receiving yards in the wild card week last year than he did this year in his last seven games played. Just really, really dark stuff over there. Just terrible, terrible stuff when it comes to Ladd-McConkie.

Let's talk about the New England Patriots. And New England gets it done here. New England, this is a huge win for Mike Vrable. I understand that this was a home game. I understand that this was a game that New England was supposed to win. They had the number two seed. They won 13 games during the regular season, or excuse me, 14 games during the regular season.

But this was still a game that people were saying Los Angeles could upset them in this one. I know a few of us at Fantasy Points thought Los Angeles had the capability to affect this offense, to make this a little bit better of a game. But we got to give it to New England. They won the game. Drake May, really, really strong game as a runner, has 66 rushing yards, adds a touchdown

pass, 268 passing yards. I would say Drake May got it done, not like a slam dunk type game for him, but he got it done. But the story here is Remandre Stevenson, and he continues to put up fantasy numbers. Today he did it as a receiver. Three catches for 75 yards, got loose with a catch and run where he ran for. 48 yards after the catch. So that's a catch. Three catches for 75 yards. And he adds 10 carries for 53 yards. So significant. Another game with Mondre out touching Trevion Henderson. So 10 to 9 on the rush attempts. But the receiving work, it was four targets for Ramandre, only one target for

Trayvon Henderson. And Remandre Stevenson ends up leading New England in receiving yards with 75. Remandre Stephen's season is still here. And it's continued from the end of the regular season. Week 17, 102 total yards, two touchdowns. Week 18, when most of us weren't playing fantasy, unless you were a DFS manager, 153 total yards, three touchdowns. So Mondre is getting it done. And he's going to be not only a thorn in Trayon-Henderson's side for the rest of the NFL

playoffs, but if Mondre returns to New England, on next year. And I know that there's a chance that they could save some cap space and cut Mondre this offseason, but I don't anticipate them doing it. He seems to be a big favorite of Mike Vrable and Josh McDaniel here. And I think that this is also a player that they've gave the money to before they even had Vrable. So I think the front office values him as well, and he's playing at a very high level. But he's going to be a thwart in the side for Trayvion Henderson. I might have to lower Henderson a little bit in my ranks. Anybody who's watch my content knows I want to steam Henderson up to round two.

Might be a little bit more of an early round three guy because of Mondre, even with his strong talent there. Mondre Stevenson won to watch during this NFL playoffs. And we're going to talk about Jordan Love because Jordan Love, let's talk about a couple guys who, we're going to talk about a couple guys who went out in a very strong fashion. And let's talk about Jordan Love. Jordan Love last year, if we remember, the playoff loss for Green Bay,

Philadelphia absolutely destroyed them. They couldn't score. Wasn't the case this game. Chicago ends up winning the game, but Green Bay, there was a bad field goal missed, but you can't put this one on Jordan Love, not at all. I mean, Jordan Love was playing fantastic, and Jordan Love ends up with four passing touchdowns in this one,

323 passing yards, four touchdown passes, and he connects with four different receivers, He has a touchdown pass to Romeo Dubs. Romeo Dubs heading into Free Agency. Underrated name for free agency. The market is going to value Romeo Dubs. Eight catches for 124 yards for Romeo Dubs. 11 targets there, possibly his last game as a Green Bay Packer.

Matthew Golden had four catches for 84 yards, including a really nice touchdown, really, really strong yak ability there from Golden on that one. Jaden Reed touchdown, and then Christian Watson finds the end zone as well. Not a whole lot from Josh Jacobs, but Jordan Love, 27 years old, has now had a nice turnaround season. Last year, the interceptions were a little bit higher than you wanted to see. This year, he ends the year, including today, with 27 passing touchdowns and only six interceptions. He's a stabilized asset in Dynasty and a solid quarterback in redraft.

Jordan Love, a superflex edge pick next year, potentially. not sure how high he's going to steam up and redraft single QB, but solid, solid. If you're Green Bay Packers fan, you have a strong quarterback situation with Jordan Love there. But the story of the game here

was Ben Johnson and his young stars. And let's start out with Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson is on a generational run as a single caller. Ben Johnson is, when Ben Johnson walks into a room, he's the smartest dude in it. Unless that dude maybe has Sean McVehan.

in it. Like Ben Johnson's one of the best out there. And what he's been able to do with the three season run in Detroit, where every single year, the Lions were top six in NFL points per game, and they were like top 10 or higher in balance, where they'd have like top 10 in rushing yards, top 10 in passing yards, balanced offense, scoring a ton of points, leading the league in 30 point performances. Last year in Detroit leading the league in scoring. the two previous seasons, top six in scoring. Ben Johnson was unbelievable there. Wanted the Chicago job and ends up being a top eight offense this year.

Huge turnaround season. I mean, a huge turnaround season from the Bears in general. 11 wins for Chicago this year. They had five wins in 2024. Ben Johnson shows up, turns things around. And we knew the Bears would be better, but they're a dangerous team right now. They force turnovers and they are scoring points and they have the best signal caller in football, arguably.

Sean McVeigh, again, right there. And there's a couple other lights out coordinators right now. But you've got a one game potential Chicago can beat just about anyone right now. And they have a number of wins over the playoff field. If you recall Chicago also beat Philly, now they beat Green Bay. the playoff wins are starting to add up for Chicago here. And Chicago has got to be feeling good about their chances. First of all, let's talk about Caleb Williams.

Caleb Williams had two picks, but was terrific in the second half. Passed for 361 yards and two touchdowns. And he was magnificent in the fourth quarter. Made a couple of unbelievable plays. And the story is not even Caleb Williams, though. The story is the 21. year old tight end, Colston Loveland, who's an emerging superstar at the NFL level. So the tight end hierarchy in the NFL right now, Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland. And that, I mean,

that's the tier. And that's the order for redraft next year. And that's the order for Dynasty. And the Dynasty probably put Bowers right at the top. But McBride, Bowers, Loveland. And this is not like being reactionary. Loveland's been on an absolute heater. The late season breakout is something we want to buy into. This was the number 10 overall pick. This was one of the most highly drafted tight ends in the history of the league. Colson Loveland is unbelievable.

Like, this guy moves like a big wide receiver. He's unbelievably athletic. The route running skills are fantastic. He had 15 targets in this game. So Caleb Williams likes throwing him the football and likes target him as a high rate. And we think about Bowers. about McBride, we think about some of those target totals. Colston Loveland year two might be right there with those guys in terms of the scoring production, ends up having eight catches for

137 yards. One of the best performances we've ever seen by a rookie tight end. This Chicago team is very, very dangerous. Chicago versus the L.A. Rams is going to be incredible. It's arguably the two best play callers in football going head to head in a must-weigh. an elimination game. You're going to see some creativity. You're going to see aggressiveness. You're going to see two teams really, really going for it. Chicago has been really good in comeback mode, so they're both not out of it.

And the Rams, we just saw them come back and score a touchdown with less than a minute remaining to win the game. So I think they're going to be fired up for this one. Really a fun game, but Colston Loveland. I mean, I did my bold predictions episode of Fitness Football Daily. I know a lot of you watch that. Check that out right here on Fantasy Points YouTube if you didn't. But I said my prediction was, and this is before this game,

the Colston Loveland was going to lead the NFL in touchdown catches next year. I say he'll have 11 touchdown catches in 2026. I mean, the target total is going to be good too. So we don't want to get too hyped here. But with Colston Loveland, he's the real deal. There's a reason they took him 10 overall. And this is a player that needs to move up in all forms of ranking. he's a player that if you have him in dynasty,

I mean, sit back and relax. Your tight end situation is settled for like the next 10 years. You've got an edge pick just like if somebody had Bowers or McBride. Will he get that sort of generational season that we just saw from McBride? Not sure that you got to sort of thread the needle here. And there'll be balance in Chicago. But Loveland has the benefit of Caleb Williams really likes to pass him the football. and Ben Johnson might be the smartest guy in football.

So Colson Loveland, I think, is going to eat for years. Let's talk about a tight end who Colson Loveland jumped ahead of in the rankings. Maybe the tight end three arguments heading into 2026 would have been there for George Kittle. But that ship has sailed. San Francisco wins a huge one. They go on the road into Philly, beat the defending Super Bowl champions. And San Francisco wins this one, 2319. huge disappointing game for Philly.

We'll get to them in a moment. But got to talk about George Kittle. Kittal, Killy's injury here for Kittal. His 2026 season is in question. And the outlook for it is not great at all. I talked about him for next year, and I had a couple of people who I respect injury-wise over on X, you know, coming in when I posted something about how San Francisco

could approach offensively next year without Kittle. And they said kind of, you know, slow down Theo. He could be back in November. We're still talking November here. We're not talking about a young guy either. So Kittle's going to miss like 10 games next year. And that's sort of a, that's an optimistic outlook. I've seen some people say October, not so sure about that one.

I think you're talking about November next season. So San Francisco is going to have to adjust. San Francisco has some cap space this off season. But you don't get George Kittle replaced. You have to do things differently with your wide receivers and your running backs. You're not going to be able to emulate Kittle. Jake Tonjus did some good things this year, but they're different guys. And it's a different team without George Kittle on the field.

And to their credit, they scored a lot of points in some of the games that he wasn't there. But this is a huge knock for San Francisco. They're going to keep on playing. San Francisco is red hot. And they've been able to overcome attrition at a number of spots. you wonder if it could catch up with them on the road in Seattle next week after a big emotional win over Philly. San Francisco Seattle games are usually very good, but this might be a tough one for them. Seattle's well rested and San Francisco loses George Kittle.

They're already set to lose Brandon Ayuk this offseason. Got to figure Joanne Jennings, who's going to be a free agent, might get more prioritized to bring him back this year. But what's another way San Francisco could be really strong offensively next year without Kittle? How about we get the ball to Christian McCaffrey more often as a receiver? McCaffrey, another sensational game for him, just at it. The guy's on the Mount Rushmore of running backs in fantasy football at this point. He had a terrific year. Now, McCaffrey gets 15 carries for 48 yards, so really nothing there.

But it's the receiving work. Ties for the team lead with six catches. Lead San Francisco in targets with eight. ends the game with six catches for 66 yards and two touchdowns. One of the touchdown passes was from Jennings on a trick play, but the other one came towards the end of the game on a filthy route in the red zone. McCaffrey ends up, I mean, you can't defend him down there. How do you defend him down there?

It's very difficult, and he ends up running a filthy route, catches a touchdown pass, and ends the game with two touchdown grabs. Christian McCaffrey has three of the top. four highest receiving totals at the running back position ever in NFL history. Not a whole lot of running backs have had 100 receptions in a year. McCaffrey's done it three times. And next year, could he do, could he, could he break the all-time record that he, he has next year? Like, McCaffrey holds the all-time record for receptions in a season.

It's like 118 receptions. It's a crazy number. But could he end up getting into the 125, 130, range. And I know people are going to say, Theo, that sounds crazy. But Christian McCaffrey had 129 targets this year. Why couldn't he take that up a notch? And why couldn't we get him into the 145 target range? And then we'd be really talking about San Francisco, you already saw McCaffrey return to this insane target total this year with no Debo Samuel. So they move on Debo, Debo becomes a commander. They start using McCaffrey more as a receiver than we had seen in

a couple of previous years. And this past year, he had 102 receptions, a silly number for a running back. And you talk about the second most receptions went to Bijan Robinson with 79. So there was that big of a gap between Christian McCaffrey and the next highest catch earner running back.

Jemir Gibbs had 77. Devon Aitchan had 67, 67 receptions. And think about, Christian McCaffrey had nearly 50 more than him this year. It's insane when you think about the usage for A-chan. So why can't Christian McCaffrey go from being a 311 carry guy down to like a 200 carry guy and have San Francisco sign a free agent running back

who can take 100, absorb 100 of those carries away from Christian McCaffrey? Then you talk about getting McCaffrey's target total from the 129 range up to the 145 range, and let's see if you can't break this all-time record. McCaffrey's also going to be 30 years old. He's showing no signs of a slowdown, but you can't give a 30-year-old back, even Christian McCaffrey,

another 300-carry season. It doesn't work like that. It catches up with everybody except maybe Derek Henry, and McCaffrey's rocked up. He's one of the best athletes in the league, one of the most muscular, like, the dude's a ridiculous athlete, but he's not the physical specimen

that Derek Henry is, the linebacker-sized player, the defensive line-sized player that Derek Henry is. Talk about McCaffrey. If you're going to extend his career, why can't he end up filling into, and I'll throw this out, I'll kind of age myself with this quote, the James White role eventually. When he's like 33, 34 years old, he can fill the James White role in like a major way.

So San Francisco adding another running back with a very deep, very, very deep free agent class of running backs. Let's make this team more running back centric without George Kittle and get the ball to Christian McCaffrey as a receiver. Let's see him do it again next year. Potentially the second highest point per game average that we've ever seen from a 30-year-old will be McCaffrey next year. He's not going to get number one. Number one was like Priestholms had a crazy year.

Priest-Holm's had, I think, like a 26-27 point-per-game season as a 30-year-old. That's not going to happen. But I do think McCaffrey could get somewhere close. And let's talk about the team that they beat. Let's talk about Philly. Now, people can talk about. about the cap hit that would happen if A.J. Brown was traded. But there's a lot of beat reporters

that think that this is over, that A.J. Brown's going to get traded from this team. You see the way that he was arguing and yelling with Nick Sieriani on the sideline. It's been just a continual circus lately with A.J. Brown. And to A.J. Brown's credit, like, we've seen some huge, huge games this season, but this one was ugly. The Philadelphia Eagles fans have completely turned on AJ Brown. He had a huge drop on Philadelphia's final possession of the game, which would have given them a massive first down and a chance to maybe keep going. And maybe I don't know if they would have won the game,

but he certainly hurt them with that big drop, went right off his hands. A ball that you're used to seeing A.J. Brown catch ends the game with seven targets. And A.J. Brown has continually been critical. of the lack of targets in Philly. This seems like this situation's ending. A.J. Brown's been fantastic for Philly. He's had an unbelievable run there. Coming from Tennessee to Philly,

all time, like Philly cashed in on that one. It was basically a straight up first round pick for A.J. Brown ends up being Traylon Burks for Tennessee. A.J. Brown goes on to be like all world for Philly. Wins a ring last year for them. So A.J. Brown, Philly got a lot out of them, but it seems like that ship has sailed and he's done.

It feels like he's going to get traded to me, and I realize the cap hit. A lot of people in the YouTube comments are going to say, hey, Theo, Kevin Petulow is the problem there. And I'll agree with you. Kevin Petulow needs to get replaced. This is not your long-term answer and offensive coordinator. To go from Kevin Kellen Moore to Kevin Petulow, huge downgrade.

And he was exposed to this game, for sure. Kevin Petulow, they need an upgrade there at OC, but A.J. Brown's situation looks over for me. I think Devontah Smith, is going to be fine to be your wide receiver one. Devonta Smith's a really good player. At eight catches for 70 yards, led the team with 11 targets.

They'll add another wide receiver this offseason. But I think A.J. Brown, I think they'll get a good amount for A.J. Brown, too. I think this will be a player that a lot of teams are going to want to trade for. Where do I think he's going to go? I think AFC teams, that's where you need to look. I don't think Philly wants to trade him to an NFC contender. I think San Francisco would love to have A.J. Brown.

I think Seattle would love to have A.J. Brown. They've got Capspace. We'll see how they're seeing how they're. season ends, but Seattle is Super Bowl ring chasing right now. I think that they'd be open to that one based on all their cap space. But let's look at, oh, and Washington would take them in a heartbeat. Commanders would love to have AJ Brown. But they're not going to trade them to an NFC team.

They're going to probably trade them to an AFC team. Let's talk about the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo Bills need a wide receiver one. That would make sense. The Baltimore Ravens. We don't know who's going to be their head coach, but A.J. Brown makes sense. The Super Bowl window for Lamar Jackson is there.

Getting A.J. Brown would make a lot of sense. Opposite Zay Flowers. Now you're talking. Also, the next coaching staff is going to run a different offense here than we've seen with Munkin. Maybe it'll be similar, but it'll be a little different. Talk about the Las Vegas Raiders. Raiders have an enormous amount of cap space. Would love a player like A.J. Brown. Let's say they draft Fernando Mendoza.

Let's say they add an offensive lineman. All of a sudden, you have Ashton, Gentie, Brock Bowers. He had A.J. Brown. I think that would be a good start for a young quarterback. quarterback. Plenty of teams here. New England makes a ton of sense. They're Super Bowl ring chasing. They have a ton of cap space. New York Jets would be a wild card. They have a lot of cap space. They're sort of a mystery team this this offseason. Not sure if that would make sense. I don't know if AJ Brown would like that one, but there's going to be a big market for him in the

AFC. And I think there'll be a couple NFC teams sniffing. So I get it. There's going to be a cap hit, but this one seems like it's over to me. It's going to be one of the offseason and storylines that we want to pay attention to is A.J. Brown, does he end up on a team where his target total goes nuts? And he has another sort of legendary year. That's in the wheelhouse. If he's motivated and the team wants to build around him, A.J. Brown, look at the spike weeks this year. A couple of those weeks. Get a couple more of them. All of a sudden, boom, you're a wide receiver one again. So Philadelphia, unbelievable run. I could be completely off on this one. That's just my gut feel. Let me know in the comments if you think AJ Brown will, in fact, be traded.

Got to talk about a couple of guys who had fantastic games. Let's talk about from the same game. Let's talk about Josh Allen, what he was able to do. Josh Allen is just unbelievable. 273 passing yards. And look at the players who were catching passes from him. Khalil Shakir goes nuts. Okay, so I'll give you Khalil Shakir.

He was paid a big contract extension this offseason. known guy. Okay, here's the rest of the wide receiver core. Brandon Cooks, Keon Coleman, Dawson Knox had three catches, Dalton Kincaid had three catches, Tyrell Shavers had a catch, Gabe Davis had two catches, Frank Gore Jr. had a catch. And then of course, James Cook had too. This is a lack of skill position talent outside of James Cook. There's a massive, massive, massive disconnect between the skill position talent and one of the best quarterbacks we've seen in Josh Allen. But guess what?

Josh Allen scores two rushing touchdowns, carries the entire Jacksonville Jaguars defense with him, looked unbelievable. Buffalo ends up coming from behind, winning against the Jaguars in Jacksonville. Buffalo gets the win. Huge shout out for Josh Allen. Maybe this is his year. and it's just a magical season for him. Jacksonville side,

terrific, terrific year when it comes to Liam Cohen there. They win 13 games, they win the division. This game, they had it, though. You wonder if this game haunts them for the entire offseason. A lot of times things are not finite in the NFL. Just because the coach comes in wins 13 games doesn't mean that they're going to come out next year and win the division as well.

I think they'll be the favorite in the division and I think they've earned that. but a game like this, this stings. Because Jacksonville had the ability to make a run in the AFC playoffs. We'd already seen them beat Denver. Jacksonville had a chance to beat Josh Allen here. Trevor Lawrence, three touchdown passes, but he has the two picks. Travis E.T.N.

10 carries for 67 yards. Bachel Tootin also gives you 51 rushing yards. With E.TN, we saw another really strong performance as a receiver. Five catches 49 yards and a touchdown. E.TN has earned himself a massive payday this offseason. One of the free agents you need to pay attention to fantasy football wise is Travis ETN. He's either going to resign with Jacksonville or he's going to sign with somebody else and get the bag. He's going to move up like 50 spots from his ADP this past year when it was depressed.

I think ETS is going to have a really solid market. But the player I want to talk about is Parker Washington. Parker Washington 12 targets, seven catches for 107 receiving yards. Parker Washington looks like he's here to stay. And I get it. Jacoby Myers, Brian Thomas Jr., Travis Hunter is going to be back. But Parker Washington is 23 years old.

I am absolutely buying in on the late season breakout for Parker Washington. Enter the league as a young player, drafted in 2020, 6th round pick out of Penn State, but a player that a lot of people liked. And this year we're seeing it. Let's go over his last couple of games. Okay, so you end up seeing him in week 18,

Parker Washington ends up with seven catches for 107 yards in a touchdown. Week 17, five catches for 87 yards in a touchdown. Week 16, eight catches for 115 yards. And the week before that, six catches 145 yards in a touchdown. Then you factor in the playoff performance he just had. That's five straight huge performances from Parker Washington down the stretch during a winning streak for Jacksonville.

So Jacksonville, like, and again, I misspoke on that one. It was a, not week 18. This was the wild card week for the Buffalo performance. So anyway, you cut it, you talk about the last four weeks of the regular season. and this week in the NFL playoffs. Parker Washington, this is a player that I think that the fantasy community is not going to value as much as they should

heading into the off season. This might be a year three breakout. It's just a late season breakout. And when we look at the earlier in the season, Washington had a couple of other really solid performances. He had 90 catches against the Raiders earlier in that wild overtime win. So I got Parker Washington circled

And I'll be very interested to see the way that early ADP shakes out for the Jacksonville receiving room Again, I just named four guys, BTJ who's going to take a hit from last year, Jacoby Myers, who the market's going to like, traded for him at the trade deadline, got to like his fit, the organization values Myers, but Parker Washington, you talk about him filling a role? last couple weeks, he looked like Chris Godwin did in Tampa under Liam Cohen. That's not hyperbole. And in a playoff game for them to go to Parker Washington at this level against the Buffalo Bills,

I mean, this is something where I think you've got to believe in it. If you can buy low on him in a dynasty format, and when I say buy low, he's not going to be dirt cheap right now, but I think that there's going to be a lot of dynasty managers looking to cash out. And if I'm wrong on this one, I've cost you. but I haven't cost you something premium. He looks like a natural pass catcher and a player who's thriving in this offense. I don't see why this would go away,

despite the players around him. Seven catches, 107 yards, and a touchdown for Parker Washington. With that late season production, just great stuff. Make sure you're checking out everything we're putting out here on Fantasy Points YouTube. And if you've enjoyed my content on this channel this year, do me a favor.

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And we still got plenty of more fantasy football to talk about with this NFL playoffs. Unbelievable. We've got to get to next week. The games next week look terrific. Make sure you stick with us here at fantasy points. We're going to break down everything you need to know to crush your fantasy leagues next season. We'll see you soon.