Fantasy Football Today - 13 Risers & Fallers: Justin Fields, Rico Dowdle, Jalen McMillan, Najee Harris, & More! (03/14 Fantasy Football Dynasty Podcast)

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Join us as we welcome Davis Mattek to dive into the latest Dynasty Rankings Risers and Fallers, discussing whether these shifts truly matter and spotlighting key free agents we're still waiting on. In today’s show, we break down notable risers like Justin Fields (10:40), Aaron Jones (13:45), and Christian Kirk (16:45), alongside fallers such as Gardner Minshew (19:50) and Tank Dell (23:25). Davis answers three big questions, including the biggest Dynasty winners and losers of free agency so far (1:35, 3:05), plus an optimistic case for Evan Engram in Denver (6:10). We also analyze unsigned free agents (27:40) like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Cooper Kupp, and Keenan Allen, as well as their potential Dynasty impact. We debate if moves (33:40) like Marquez Valdes-Scantling to Seattle, Josh Palmer to Buffalo, and DeAndre Hopkins to Baltimore matter in Dynasty leagues. Tune in to find out where you can follow Davis’ work and get expert insights to dominate your Dynasty Leagues! 🏀 Join Our Bracket Challenge: https://tinyurl.com/fftbracket2025 Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Enterprise. For lives in drive. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today, Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings. Joined today by my good friend Davis Maddock. It's been a while since Davis has been on the program but he has been many times in the past. Just remind everybody where they

can find your work and tell them what you've been working on. Yeah, they can check me out pretty much every single day on YouTube. YouTube dot com slash Davis underscore Matic. And then all of my more analytical rankings, dynasty, redraft, basketball, all that stuff. And some of the more serious work, Patreon dot com slash Davis Matic. On today's show, we are going to talk about rankings, risers and fallers. stuff and some of the more serious work, patreon.com slash Davis Maddock. On today's show, we are going to talk about rankings, risers, and fallers.

I have my March dynasty rankings update coming next week. I've pretty much done the update, although I'm hoping we get a few more landing spots before I have to release those on Monday. Talk about some of my biggest risers and fallers. We'll talk to Davis about his biggest winners and losers so far in free agency. We'll talk about some of the lower end guys and whether or not we think they matter either in the NFL or in our game dynasty and then who we're still waiting on. Do any of those older guys matter? We were just talking about that before the show, but we always start with three questions for our guest. And Davis, I'll just hit you with the big one first. Who is the biggest dynasty winner of free agency so far? You know, winner is, uh, it's, it's a little complicated because I don't think any like premium tier assets really got influenced by this free agency move. I would actually say in terms of a premium tier assets, someone who you'd

get multiple first four, it's Brock Bowers getting like basically locking down 17 games of competent quarterback production. If I wanted to say a guy who is like maybe irrelevant, maybe you'd trade a third to this guy could be on, you would maybe actively be trying to trade for this guy. It's Devante Adams where Adams went from a, you have him on a team that finished fourth in your league last year and you'd just be happy to get them off your roster. Two, you might send out the two Oh two. If you're kind of on the edge to try and win this year for him now, I think.

Yeah. We talked about that on Tuesday, how while he is going to a place where he doesn't have Aaron Rogers and they do have a number one wide receiver, that doesn't really matter with the Rams because everything is so concentrated that it's absolutely possible that both those guys could just see 10 targets per game. I think the thing that I love the most is Cooper Cup was part of the club. Like good friends with Matthew Stafford, good friends with Sean McVeigh, they saw him play last year and they said, you know what we think it's worth spending a whole lot of money to upgrade from him to Devante Adams.

Well, it's not like his targets just fell off last year. So I feel pretty good. I can't, what would you put an over under next year on Adams' target set? 163. I think I like that number at all. A great guy for contenders to go try to trade for. And just, you know, he may be your wide receiver one this year, definitely a wide receiver too. Let's look at the flip side of this, where there are winners, there are losers. Who was the biggest dynasty loser from free agency so far? Yeah, this is going to be an unpopular one, but it's Terry McLaurin. So

Terry McLaurin again went from a, I don't know, he's 30 years old, but he's, he's been a good athlete. He's a little bit of a late bloomer. Maybe he's got a little bit more tread on the tires, uh, with the addition of Debo Samuel because McLaurin has always been a pretty good deep threat, but his good fantasy seasons have come playing with jabronis. Right? I mean, frankly, like his, his best fantasy seasons have come without any other serious target earner on the team. And even if Debo is, you know, let's call it, uh, he's, he's overcooked chicken is getting a little bit rubbery, but you could still eat it in terms of, of being cooked. He is going to replace that short and intermediate stuff in the cliff offense.

I guarantee that those wide receiver screens, the slants like that is going to be Depot's territory now. And I mean, that might trim 40 targets off of the easy stuff. McLaurin could run hot on touchdowns, but the easy stuff, the layups are gone for him now, I think. Well, I think that last year is maybe kind of missed by some people. And I've always been a little bit lower than consensus on McLaurin and dynasty anyway, because it feels like he's always been older than everybody thought he was or acted like

he was. He's 30. But also last year was very, very similar to prior years of Terry McClure and screw it. He just ran hot on touchdowns. He scored a lot more touchdowns and that's a product of finally playing with a good quarterback. Sure. I'll tell you, there's a couple of guys who I had as followers that were not going to mention them later.

Cause we talked about them more on Tuesday, but DK Metcalf and George Pickens both went backwards in my dynasty rankings. And I have those three back to back to back. How would you rank Pickens, McClellan and Metcalf in dynasty? Uh, Pickens first, Metcalf second, McClellan third. But part of that is I think George Pickens is going to be traded. My read of the situation is that the Steelers kick, they, they start, they stared into their crisp ball and they realized like Pickens is going to be agitating.

We actually don't think he's worth the money. We're going to let him be someone else's problem and we're going to bring in Metcalf that, that, and maybe it won't be true, but I think the ranking still holds even if they are teammates, but that was my read of the situation. Yeah. I I'm very hopeful that George Pickens is going somewhere else. Relative before, before they play real football games, I don't, I'm very hopeful that George Pickens is going somewhere else. Relic before, before they play real football games. I don't, I just don't understand what the Steelers plan would be.

If not, you have an offensive coordinator that's shown consistently. He's going to draw 500 past plays per season. You don't have a quarterback and yet you think you can, you, you need to have these two wide receivers. It doesn't, it doesn't make a lot of sense yet, but it's still early in the off season. I don't know if this third question is more difficult for you than the first two, but it would be for me. I've found myself really, really unmoved by this two year contract for Evan Ingram

in Denver. So I want you to give me the optimistic case for Evan Ingram as a Denver Bronco. So last year, Bo Nix had 549 aimed throws 135 of those went to Coraline Sutton. Just listener in your head, ask yourself who you think is number two, I promise you it's not the it's not the player you think it is. It's not the player you think it is. Givante was second, but with 70. Then there were 10 players on the, or nine players on the roster with between 20 and 55. So pretty simple.

All you have to do is consolidate just a little bit. 75% of the routes. That's really, that's it. If you just, if your base projection is Emberdinger, 75% of the routes, there's not a path that the Broncos could take from here to week one that would convince me he's not getting a hundred targets. I mean, I guess maybe if they do, if they trade for Brandon Iuk or, or something I'm totally not seeing, then sure. But if their wide receiver room is a rookie, Cortland Sutton, Troy Franklin, Lil Jordan,

who by the way was reportedly this summer bulking up to try and treat like play actual inline tight end and Marvin memes. Ingram is going to finish second on that team in targets. And I'm a big Marvin memes guy, but Ingram will just get, memes will probably score more fantasy points, but Ingram will get more targets. And really you sound like me talking about almost anyone else. Like I am generally the guy, it's volume over everything. There's opportunity for him there.

He's shown the ability to earn targets. Here's my problem. Evan Ingram saw 115 targets in 2017 and turned it into 722 yards. He saw 109 targets in 2020 and turned it into 654 yards in one touchdown. He saw 98 targets back in 2022, 766 yards in four touchdowns. Like, I just don't know, he's been so incredibly inefficient through his whole career at turning targets into fantasy points. And then last year was the worst 5.7 yards per target on the season.

And yeah, he had 64 targets in nine games, but I just, I hate betting on him having some sort of efficiency spike as a 31 year old tight end in an offense that like Sean Payton's offenses have a, if you look back a long time ago, there is a history of good production for tight ends. If you look at the last four or five years, it's like 60 targets per season go to that position. Now, certainly you would think that targeting Evan Ingram and free agency is going to change that. I'm just not sure if he's any good anymore and or even as good as he used to be. But I think more

people are going to look at it like you do than I like. I do. And that's why I wanted to have you kind of give that case. Cause I'm probably, I mean, he's not very good. I will say this, Evan, like some guys in fantasy are receptions, merchants or touchdown merchants. Ingram is not even a receptions merchant. He's just a target merchant. Just these these gross empty like he doesn't even his catch rate is is below positional average despite having a low a dot. I mean, he's just not a very good player. But basically every year he's ever been on a football field,

his coaches have been convinced to give him the ball more than you would anticipate. Yeah, no, you're, you're that's exactly right. I will, I will just finish off by saying the last two seasons in Jacksonville, two years ago he had an eight out of five and average four and a half yards of yak per reception. Yeah. Last year, 5.4 and the yak fell to 3.2 yards per reception. Yeah. Last year, 5.4 and the Yak fell to 3.2 yards per reception. I think he's Zach Ertz only not quite as good.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I think that's a very good, a very good comp, but Ertz a better catch rate. Yes. Ertz catch is better at catching the football. They both pretty much catch it and fall down. That's what's take our first break and then we'll get to some dynasty rankings, risers and fallers. Eat with us. Taste the many flavors of our cultures. Laugh with us. Smile. Joke. And bring each other joy.

Come. Walk with us. Indigenous tourism Alberta. So I'll kind of go through where these guys moved in my rankings. We'll gloss over a few of the guys that we talked about on Tuesday, unless you really have something you want to say about them, Davis, the quarterbacks who went up the most in the last month for me, Justin Fields goes from QB 25 to QB 16. We talked about that a lot on Tuesday.

He is basically Anthony Richardson. Um, we, he's going to get a chance to start this year. We think, um. If he keeps the job, he'll probably finish at the top 12 quarterback, but he may start four games and never start again in the NFL. But Justin Fields went up because we weren't sure he'd get this opportunity again. Daniel Jones, the reason we say we think Richardson's going to get the chance to start Jones, signs with the Indianapolis Colts and moves up for me. Again, I think a pretty good landing spot.

We haven't really talked about this much at all, but as much as I've kind of mocked Daniel Jones on our main show, because Adam Azer is a Giants fan over the last half of a decade, he's still a guy who to a lesser extent is better in fantasy than he is in real life. Do you think there's any chance that he beats out Richardson? And if he does, do you think he's a solid QB two this year? He definitely is not going to beat him out for week one. No, no chance.

Now Richardson could play poorly enough. I think of these two guys, Fields and Jones, um, I'd be more likely to buy on Fields because the Fields production will be actually really high end when he's on the field. Jones could totally backdoor a quarterback 11 per game season or whatever. But there, I mean, Justin Fields has ran for 1100 yards and eight touchdowns as a starter before like the high end is much better. I mean, he had a 30 point game last year for a coach who actively did not want him to do anything who literally just wanted him to hand the ball off.

So now again, the trouble would be, you know, the guy who has fields in your league probably believes more than the market. So he's going to be like, yeah, so he's just going to be like, well, what is, would I rather have Jackson Dart or Justin Fields? Well, a guy in your league can be like, well, I would just rather have Justin Fields. You know, I just truly, I really, I really would. Jones, I actually think you could, you could pry away, like, I'll give you two-thirds and some flotsam, you know, whatever. Some wide receivers never going to pan out. Troy Franklin. Troy Franklin at two-thirds probably gets you Daniel Jones in some leagues and super flex formats, I

bet. And I think like Jones is, there's several guys that we're kind of going to talk about this line with today, especially when we get to the do they matter range. But Jones was in that territory, even in a super flex league where he may have been getting cut before rookie drafts to make room for that third round pick or that fourth round pick. And now he's in a situation, I think, where you definitely probably need to hold Jones until we see Anthony Richardson play a good month of football. Like he's someone that is a must roster and wasn't necessarily tracking towards that. At running back position I had three risers I wanted to highlight. Aaron Jones

from RB 30 with the uncertainty of free agency to RB24 staying in Minnesota. Najee goes from RB32 to RB26. I would say that it probably seems strange to see a guy older than Najee ahead of him, but this running back position is such a win now position. And Najee just got a one year contract anyway. Like he would move ahead of Jones for me if the Chargers don't spend significant draft capital on a running back. But I'm still pretty open to the idea that Najee Harris might have one year left as like a worthwhile starter in fantasy football and then Elijah Mitchell, who was, I'd pretty much just forgotten

about and I think is on the waiver wire and a lot of dynasty leagues right now signs with the chiefs to maybe compete with Isaiah Pacheco, who we think an off season will be enough for him to regain the burst that he lost with the broken leg, but it's not guaranteed yet. Um, is Mitchell in that range where you, like, you, you definitely want, want to hold onto him versus a third round rookie pick. Third round rookie pick. I don't know, man, in general, yes, but like, oh, Damien Martinez might just be like the running back 24 this year or whatever.

I would say, I would say, you know, I guess, I guess it kind of depends if I could, if I could claim Elijah Mitchell or add him with a third round rookie pick in a lot of these leagues, I probably would do it. I mean, Kansas City is going to draft a running back, but I mean, running back three on the Kansas City Chiefs is not worth nothing, as we've seen in years past, and it will remain a fluid situation. Frankly, I have like no interest in Aaron Jones or Najee Harris at these prices in dynasty. Like if I'm going to cobble together something to add for, you know what I'd rather do? I would rather just pay whatever the Alvin Camara owner wants. Like if I'm going to start parting with picks, I'd at least like to have a chance to get, you know, 17 points per game or whatever Aaron Jones and you're not doing that. No, I think you're, I mean, obviously the reason for me that Jones is

hires, cause I think it's more likely that he gets closer to that than Najee. Najee might have two or three years left as a plotter. Jones was still at times last year pretty awesome, just didn't score the touchdowns. But again, I expect Minnesota is probably going to add a 1B that could become a 1A in the middle of the season as well. So a lot of these, as I would say, even with Adams and definitely with Aaron Jones, if I'm buying him right now on a contender, I'm buying for what I think is dirt cheap, way too cheap. But these are the types of players that I would rather add in season when we get to that point.

And that's why some of the changes you'll see in the rankings, as I go through, I emphasize 2025 a little bit more until we get closer to the start of the season. And then I'll emphasize it a lot more because right now you don't want to weigh too much this year's production. Christian Kirk was my wide receiver 62. He is wide receiver 44. He is CJ Stroud's number two wide receiver. He had some like really good number two wide receiver seasons. You think it's possible he gets back to that again? Or do you think that he's just, uh, you know, probably around wide receiver 30? Yeah.

I mean, his, certainly his, uh, most common outcome is, you know, he catches like 62 passes and 814 yards. He misses two games with, uh, a knee malady or an ankle or a Pammy or something. And he has like one, he'll have like one game, you know, eight catches, 122 yards, two touchdowns. And then like a lot of like four for forties, because he's not going to be the most dominant guy. The Texans are perfectly positioned to add a wide receiver I believe they pick a twenty four so it will probably be there golden will probably be there. Probably every wide receiver actually other than tat will be there when they are picking so. If the market like if the market agrees with your ranking a wide receiver 44, I would be, I would be a set.

And again, the way I build dynasty teams is like, man, if I'm starting Christian Kirk, something went really wrong. Like, cause I did, I did something really stupid. If I'm, if I'm starting Christian Kirk. Well, let's, let's see about his former teammate, Brenton strange, who I feel really conflicted about pretty much all of the time, but he was a second round pick. Evan Ingram is gone. Strange did have multiple startable weeks without Ingram last year. I am not sure that he's any good, but he is now currently my what tied in 20, which I don't think

tied in 20 is probably very good. How are you feeling about Brenton Strange now with Ingram gone? Oh, see, it's so funny because like Strange is like, well, sure, I'm just going to buy here. Way harder spot to like the barrier for being the tight end eight is so low in terms of the actual points you have to get and in terms of where you'd have to be in the offense. And I'm looking at like, okay, what could the Jaguars do to like eliminate just the role he had last season when he was starting? And I'll be like, well, they probably have to sign another guy at tight end. And I think they signed a blocking tight end. If I remember, maybe they- Johnny Munt, right? There you go. So he's basically insulated. Like basically

you're getting the routes and if Strange finishes tight in 15 or tight in six, it'll just be, well, how many touchdowns did he score? Right. And if you buy the Trevor Lawrence resurgence, you know, pretty, I mean, pretty easy to sell yourself on, on Bren. And I don't even think Bren Strange is that good, but like he's, he's fine. So I think this is a good question. Would you rather have on your dynasty roster a 24 year old Strange or a 31 year old Evan Ingram? Strange, yeah. Yeah, I would. I think their bands of production will be pretty similar.

I don't think either one of them will be like a real difference maker and you could have Strange for four more seasons. Let's look at the followers here. Gardner Mentschew, now definitely a backup. Welcome to the Kansas City Chiefs. Everybody that listens to this show knows that I've always been a big Gardner Mentschew fan. I got to hang out and drink a beer with him at a brewery during Super Bowl week when he was down here. Fun dude.

Glad he's on the Chiefs. I got texts from friends saying, you've got to get a Minshew Chiefs Jersey. And my 15 year old says to me, you can't do that dead. That's basically just wishing a Mahomes injury into existence. So whose side are you on here Davis? Yeah, I think you got to get one. Okay. A good a good a good novelty Jersey is fun.

Yeah, I agree. One hit my I'm 100% though. If I do that and Mahomes suffers an injury next year, my son's going to hate me. So just prepare for that. There's one running back that fell in my rankings. It looks kind of funny. It's like, why did Zach Charbonnet fall down nine spots? Partially because that RB 20 to 30 range is just a complete mess right now. Partially because a couple of guys moved up. Partially because that what RB 20 to 30 range is just a complete mess right now. Partially because a couple of guys moved up. Partially because I do emphasize just a little bit more certainty after we get through some of the top free agents in the projections and he doesn't project

very well. Partially because the teams once again talking about how much they love Ken Walker. I feel like it was a roller coaster ride last year, Davis, where people were early in the year laughing at people who thought Zach Charbonneau was good because look, he can't do what Ken Walker does. And then at the end of the year it was, oh wait, no, Zach Charbonneau is actually better than Ken Walker.

I still think this is a pretty clear one, two situation where Walker's got a chance to be a top 10 running back. And if he gets hurt like he has, then Zach Charbonneau has got a chance to be a top 10 running back. And if he gets hurt like he has, then Zach Sharbonne, he's got a chance to be a top 10 running back. He's still young, but he's probably not helping you next year unless there's an injury, right? Yeah. I mean, these are like the worst types of guys to buy in dynasty.

Tony Pollard, uh, Ben, Ben Tate, you know, I, I think of them, the, the, the high upside always really good when they fill in, but behind a clear entrenched starter that the team prefers over them. Yeah, I agree with this ranking. Okay. So the other running back, I think maybe you were a Rico Dowdle guy for a little bit, right? At least you've got some Dallas cowboy affections. He goes to Carolina.

He is now the backup to Chuba Hubbard. I had him ranked as if it was a possibility that Dallas was going to bring him back and be a starter. I didn't really buy into Rico as much. And now I mostly just think he's his dynasty value is almost dead. I mean, he's just a, a handcuff. Maybe, maybe he'll get some third downs or something. Although, these things change rapidly. Chuba Hubbard was completely left for dead multiple times,

actually. Left for dead after his final season at Oklahoma State compared to where he was valued before. Left for dead after his rookie year, left for dead after they draft Jonathan Brooks and somehow life finds a way. So if you are a Rico guy, I would not say never say never. That's well put and like worth the price as a low end backup, but he will turn 27 before they play football. And it's not a great sign as a 27 year old to sign a contract to be a backup. Um, especially when they've got a guy in Jonathan Brooks that they're hoping two years from now is going to be the starter Jalen Macmillan. I think everybody has to was hopeful. If Chris Godwin was gone, that what we saw in the second half from Jalen

Macmillan could turn into more production next year, are you still patiently holding or, and, or buying McMillan with the idea that maybe he's now an extra year away, but he's still going to be really good in the NFL? If the market agrees with your assessment, I think it's a huge buy because I think he got on the field and produced as a rookie and Kate Otton is on the field, but not a meaningful target earner. It's a super concentrated offense. They don't even play a wide receiver for, they do target their running backs more than

average, although maybe that'll change with Liam Cohen out of the building. Maybe that's a more Liam Cohen specific thing. He did it in Kentucky and then did it with Kyron in Los Angeles, but not with who would have been the running back before, I guess, the Akers Henderson combination. It didn't it didn't happen then. So this is this is, I think, a great spot to buy on Jalen McMillan, I think. So, you know, you've been you've said that several times and I didn't even think about the fact that I've got the most recent ADP from Dynasty League football, which I really like to use to kind of check my rankings. And I'm okay if I'm out of line with it, as long as yeah, I want to be high on that guy.

I don't want to be 10 spots higher than consensus if I didn't think I even liked him. Jalen McMillan is currently in most recent ADP, it looks like wide receiver 45. I'm gonna give you some names of some guys in that range and you tell me which one you prefer. So Macmillan versus Khalil Shakir. Oh, uh, Macmillan for sure.

Macmillan versus Ricky Pearsall. Pearsall. Macmillan versus Keon Coleman. Macmillan. Teammate, Joann Jennings. Not teammate, Pearsall's teammate. Jennings. And Debo Samuel, somebody we already talked about. Yeah, McMillan. Okay. So that's right around wide receiver 40 to 45 is probably where you're at on him, which again at wide receiver 48 makes him

a buy. Tank Dell falls from wide receiver 50 to 62. And maybe I just, like, I was kind of thinking he probably wasn't going to contribute this year, but then the news that he's just now having another surgery and it's just harder and harder with his size coming into the NFL and that being the big concern and now major injuries to end each of his first two years in the NFL. Are you, are you trying to buy him cheap and just stash him on IR all year? Or are you kind of... Like, I love Tank Del, but I'm really concerned that it's just... It's over. I mean, you know, that is like a... Depends on the state of your team. Like, if you have... Like, it's actually my favorite thing to do I tanking teams are way more fun and way less stressful.

I agree. He's trying to win. We're like anyone who suspended anyone who is on IR for the year, I'll take them off your hands, you know, and I play in a lot of these best ball formats where we have these huge rosters, 30 man rosters, and there's no management in season at all. I play in like a lot of like industry people because that's a great format. If you are

a busy fantasy person and just don't want to have to mess with it in season. So Tank would theoretically be a great buy if you're tanking. But man, what is the likelihood he's even a part-time player in 2026? I don't know, man. I hate to hear that. It's very sad. I do think he's really, really good, but it's not even can he stay healthy? It's what level of athleticism is he going to retain? Because it kind of looked like early last year, he'd never recovered from the prior injury. So yeah, I'm very concerned for his. The only other faller, we don't need to talk about him much, Noah Gray from tight end 30 to tight end 38.

There was a little bit of hope, I think a month ago that Travis Kelsey wasn't going to come back and Jared Wiley wasn't ready. And Noah Gray could be the starting tight end that he might score eight touchdowns next year, just because that's the way the Chiefs like to function, but not somebody you're going to be able to count on. Let's talk about the guys who haven't signed. And I want to start with the quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, mostly. Flacco and Winston still out there also. Are there any wide receivers where you're holding out hope that they get one of

these guys so they get the quarterback upgrade? Are you just like waiting for them to sign so you can try to sell them in dynasty? Is there any optimism around any of these quarterbacks? Optimism. Optimism. I mean, maybe a smidgen on Rogers. Maybe you just say, you know what, it was the Achilles, it's the Jets, everything is terrible with the Jets. Name something good that's happened to the Jets in the last 50 years. Is impossible.

Maybe he signs with the Giants and he's just spamming neighbors and it's just like he loves it. Or he signs with the Steelers and the the condition is signing with the Steelers is he's like you got to let me call my audibles you got to let me do my thing the issue is is Rogers himself is so fantasy unfriendly because of those I mean the double zero stuff just like taking every play down it's just like really lends itself to the least fun form of football so that's that's about the best I can do is you could get a quarterback 14 season out of Rogers probably.

It is possible. I do think it's interesting that like over the last two years, Russell Wilson, while everyone's been pretty unified in the fact that he's not playing good football has scored better in fantasy football than people think he is playing. Like I, I am probably more optimistic for fantasy purposes for Wilson than I am for Rogers, and that might just be because I like Wilson more than I like Rogers. But I don't really think, I guess the one good thing if Rogers goes somewhere, if they have a true number one wide receiver that if he won't be able to bring Devontae Adams with him. And we saw before Adams got there, Garrett Wilson, what he had a 23 target game with

Aaron Rodgers. Like he might just go to a place and throw 180 passes to a wide receiver one. And that might be good enough to elevate that wide receiver. The other, the other thing we're still waiting on are the old wide receivers. Cooper cup, Keenan Allen, Stefan Diggs, Amari Cooper. Keenan Allen was at least good last year. Like, is he the best of this group? Yeah.

And I think with him, you just really want him to return to the exact same situation he was in and maybe Keenan may, I mean, Keenan is potentially of the age where he's just like, I don't need to do this whole rigmarole and training camp. And it's like, you want me on August 4th, you know where to find me, you know, type thing. I agree with you. He can definitely still play of this group. Even like the Hopkins range he signed for one year, six million with the Ravens. Like I'm mostly pretty out on this group of veteran guys. Well, that's what I thought. I saw that like we were going to talk about the chargers and bringing Mike Williams back a little bit in the do they matter section?

And the answer is probably not. But I don't know why that's the guy that they thought they should bring back instead of bringing back Keenan Allen, unless they just think he's redundant with Lad McConkey. That's I think that is what I think they think. Is there like these are these are duplicative skill sets. I mean, they were playing, you know, Jalen Rager and and DJ Shark and just like total no one's right last year.

So at least bring someone in who like knows the team and you know what he can do if he does happen to be healthy. Diggs goes back to Buffalo. Do you get more excited? No, no, I put Diggs in the toast categories. 31 years old, coming off, I believe career low, yards per route run and injured.

You know, it's just, it's all, it's like the Texans not just being like, sure. Yeah. You were, you were in the building. We'll, we'll bring it back. We need wide receivers like them choosing to do Christian Kirk, I think is a pretty big flag. Diggs Cup and I'll throw Kenan in there too. I know Cooper definitely is the case, but any of those three, they sign with the team

tomorrow. Are you actively trying to get a second round pick for him? I mean, I just think everyone would say no. I just think, I just, I don't, I don't think you're doing it. Also, I think, but you, you got to remember like our inside of our bubble, those rookie picks do get valued. Like there's a lot of leagues lot of leagues where I can get a player, especially a Kenan Allen Lake player who was that good last year, or I can get Cooper, remember Cooper cup.

I can get Cooper cup for around two pick my round two picks. Never any good. Um, I think there's, there's definitely some people who are willing to give up the picks for the names. It's, it's possible. I mean, I would, frankly, I would just feel embarrassed to try and get something for Cooper. Cooper, I think, is maybe even just likely to not get signed by a team at this point. Now, Cup, I think, is done-ish, done adjacent, but just do like Zach Ertz or

Evan Ingram or just due to the position he plays and how he plays. If he does sign with the team that has a competent quarterback, I mean, he could like actually probably catch a hundred passes. I would love like we just talked about Evan Ingram leaving Jacksonville, Christian Kirk leaving Jacksonville. I'd love to see Cooper Cup in that offense that he's very familiar with with Brian Thomas drawing double coverage Like that would be the perfect situation. I think to put Cooper Cup in I Hadn't thought of that one, but I like it

I mean it sounds like it's gonna be Seattle as of as of this right broadcast Which doesn't does not make any sense with JSN So I don't really know what the, what the, I would, I would not love the bad destination. I don't really love what seems to be Seattle's plan moving into next year. I just, I think it's probably going to be a bad time and they're probably going to have a new coaching staff in a year and a half, but hopefully not for everybody involved.

Let's take our second break and we'll get to some lower name guys. See if Davis thinks any of these guys matter. So the first name on this list of do they matter? I think probably looked like a joke to Davis because Marquez Valdez scantling. It did go to Seattle, right? Yes. Do you know that last year in eight games with the saints, he scored more touchdowns

than he did in 36 games with the chiefs and the bills. Yes. Yeah, I did. I did know that it's very funny. Um, just not a good, not a good fit because the, I'm not a man. Well, he is returning with the same offensive coordinator, but it's hard for me to imagine Darnold being like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to chuck a bunch of just not really what he's been, but maybe

that'll just be, I mean, the reality is he probably doesn't matter, but maybe. I thought one of the most surprising in terms of dollar amounts signings was Josh Palmer going to Buffalo and getting the deal he did. And there's been, he's had some, some believers in the past when he was in Los Angeles and had when both Kenan Allen and Mike Williams were hurt, he was pretty good. Does Josh Palmer matter in Buffalo? No, no, no. The only Buffalo bills that matter are Allen, Cook, and like kind of Shakir. Alan Cook and kind of Shakir. Javante Williams and Miles Sanders sign with the Dallas Cowboys.

Do either one of them matter? I think I think Javante matters. Yeah, I think Javante will either be like a really solid handcuff to Ashton Genti, Amarian Hampton, Caleb Johnson, one of these guys, or maybe they'll totally just do what they did last year. Everim was like, Oh, you know, they don't do anything in for agency. Their Cowboys are definitely taking Jonathan Brooks. And then they just didn't, they just didn't take a running back at all.

Yeah. I, it's the, it's the match made in heaven, right? Cause we've been talking for a couple of years about how Dallas is this dream spot for a running back to go land in. And we've been talking for years about it. Javante Williams is actually good guys. No, really. He's really, he's good.

It's just, it's the system's not right or he's not healthy. Like maybe we'll find out Javante Williams is not terrible because running the ball, he was pretty terrible last year. Raheem Mostert is a Raider. Does it matter? No, no. They're starting running back is not on the roster. matter? No, no.

They're starting running back is not on the roster. I, you could convince me that the three active running backs on week one game day are not on the roster right now for them. Not, not, uh, not a sincere McCormick guy. We see Davis, the Andre Hopkins is a Baltimore Raven. Does he matter? No, no. He, uh, this is the Des Bryant, Deshaun Jackson, uh, Latavious Murray, Tevin Coleman, you know, Memorial yearly Raven signing. And then Mike Williams has joined Justin Herbert in Los Angeles.

Does he matter rejoined? Uh, you know what? I'll actually give this one. I'm going to say it doesn't matter, but it's, it's got a reasonable chance of mattering just because the, the bar for receiving production, I mean, Will Disley mattered last year, you know? So the bar with the chargers is pretty low. I don't really know exactly what's happening

in San Francisco, except they seem to be having the most fire sale of any fire sale. And I was hoping that we were going to get some news actually during the show. That didn't happen, but I did see a little bit of rumors about maybe Brandon Iuk is actually getting close to getting dealt. Let's start with him. Where are you at on Iuk coming off of this injury?

Are you still a buy? Where would you rank him compared to that McClure and Metcalf Pickens group? Yeah, I, uh, I never liked Iuk. Are you still a by do you where would you rank him compared to that McClure and Metcalf Pickens group? Yeah, I I never liked Iuke like His best season came on 112 targets, you know, it's just like remember Dante Pettis Remember the year Dante Pettis had like a billion yards after catch. He was like a fourth round pick and redraft It's just I used to find play. I mean he he's a five year college player who was like fine. You know, he's, and he was coming off an ACL and it feels like the team just like immediately regretted signing him to that extension and we're happy to,

you know, play John Jennings and, you know, I, I, I, I'm way below market on, um, on IUK. So are you above market on any of the 49ers wide receivers that are going to be left there, Joanne Jennings or Ricky Piercell or anyone else? Uh, above market on Piercell, above market on Jennings. Yeah. I was really, as I went through the projections process this year, like just, man, if you just look at what Jennings has done whenever he's been given the opportunity and then you look at the opportunity he might have if both

Debo and IU are gone, is it possible we're getting like a top 20 juan Jennings season this year? Yeah. I mean, the guy had the third highest fantasy point total in a single game last year. I mean, obviously that is a total outlier. But the interesting thing about Jennings was even when he was like a total non fantasy entity was a huge chunk of his career targets had come on third downs or in the red zone, just for, I mean, you could say for whatever reason, but I think it's probably just like,

well, one, he's a late wider stever. He was a four star college quarterback recruit and was a quarterback his first year at Tennessee before. So he's really only played wide receiver for like seven years. Obviously that sounds like a long time, but like Ricky Pierce has probably been a wide receiver since he was seven years old, you know, like that's probably always been what he's done. So there's, I think there's reason to think he's got like a crazy ceiling season in him. I know a lot of times we think of our dynasty leagues where we've got 30 roster spots as kind of the norm.

There's a lot of shallow dynasty leagues out there as well. And this guy to make his rookie picks needs to get down to 14 players. Brandon says, what do you do with tank Dell and Jonathan Brooks? If you have to drop down to 14 players, are you fine cutting both those guys? Oh, I mean, 14 players, bro is, is Jonathan Brooks in the top 250 dynasty players right now? I don't have him ranked in my top two 50. I just did mine last year.

I do think he is in my top two 50. I just did mine last year. Yeah, I do think he is in my top 250. I'm trying to do the math and think like in a 12 team league. No, no IR. That's like 160. Assuming you have no IR, I think you might have to cut bait on him. I was a pretty big Brooks guy coming out. But again, when the injuries start piling up like this, Same knee twice. His doctor who performed the surgery is the Cowboys team doctor and they, despite being rumored to take him the whole time, did not take him. I think there's some smoke where there's fire there. Matt has a question about James Cook and here's the deal, Matt. I appreciate, Matt is a subscriber of sports.

Alliance sees the trade charts. And sometimes when we're at this time of the month, I'm updating the rankings and that's moving things in the trade charts, but I've not fully looked at it yet. So I don't actually have a strong take on whether Cook has recently gone up. Uh, but I did want to ask you, cause he is a player. I was all the way in on coming into this year. And he was obviously amazing, but not necessarily in the way that I expected. It was a whole bunch.

I thought we'd get a career high touchdowns, but his career high was like six coming into the year. Instead, he leads the NFL in touchdowns, but there's still way too many, even in the playoffs, Ty Johnson and Ray Davis touches for my liking. And he, for me is ranked amongst the running backs in that range of Ken Walker, Buck Yerving, Chase Brown, where I feel like, man, these guys could be top five running backs, top 10 running backs, and they're relatively young. And also I am not sure that something's not gonna change drastically in the next year to make me doubt them.

Would you put Cook at the top of that group? Right now I've got him at the bottom. Yeah, bottom for me. So like James Cook, I mean, I would have to go back and look some stuff in my database, but I would guess he's the first ever running back to score 17 touchdowns who played less than half of his team snaps. I would guess.

This argument goes one of two ways. You go, well, actually they want Josh Allen to score fewer rushing touchdowns. So actually James Cook is a smash because that just gives him more touchdowns or it goes, well, if you're just not on the field that often and you score a bunch of long ones, then you just run bad. You know, they do a quarterback sneak here. They do a full back dive there. Dalton Kincaid gets seven touchdowns instead of what do you get too?

I think maybe, I don't know. Don't kick. It's not very good. No, I'm not going to bank on him scoring a lot more touchdowns. So if all your points, I think 40 percent of his points came from touchdowns and there are. What's your what's your upside? Because your upside is either he scores the same amount of touchdowns are pretty hard to do or he plays more. But then they resigned Tysigned Ty Johnson. Ray Davis doesn't look like a guy who's going to play less.

I mean, maybe Ray Davis does just play. Right. All and he's a pure handcuff. But yeah, I think a huge guy there. So I think the upside is that James Cook is one of a handful of running backs that I'm really pretty sure are good, like really good. But so the upside would be maybe they give him more touches. But they've not done anything to signal that at all. So they've done they've done nothing to signal it. I mean, I agree. I think

James Cook is is probably good. Yeah. So I like James Cook a lot. I don't like the way the bills are using him. I think you hope that what happened in the playoffs, it changes their behavior. That's going to do it for FFT dynasty. As always Davis, thank you for being here. Go follow him. Beginning of the show.

Tell them again about the Patreon. Yeah. Also all of my dynasty stuff, patreon.com slash Davis. Maddox that's like, you know, rookie prospect profiles, rookie rankings, dynasty rankings, um, get in the discord and all that stuff. And then, uh, all my videos are on youtube.com slash Davis underscore Maddox. Thank you to Thomas. Thank you to everybody who's active in the chat.

We will talk to you next Tuesday.