Fantasy Football Today - 2026 Fantasy Rankings: Players 19-24 in PPR Leagues (06/25 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Finishing off our consensus rankings with players 19-24 in PPR leagues! Adam starts the show with some water cooler stats (4:22) including Trey McBride TDs, Kenneth Walker rec/game, & Saquon Barkley's elite seasons. After some news and notes (16:42), the FFT crew jumps into the rankings with Chiefs teammates Rashee Rice & Kenneth Walker (19:00). Will Walker improve the KC run game and how does that impact Rice in 2026? We compare Saquon Barkley to Derrick Henry (30:45), is there value in each experienced RB in round 2? Later, the guys talk Nico Collins (39:38) and how he is underrated among fantasy managers. The show finishes up with Brock Bowers & Trey McBride (51:55). We talk the right time to select a TE in your 2026 drafts, and if McBride can replicate his dominant 2025 season.Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Up to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Finishing up an extended look at the top 24 players in our consensus rankings. Today we're talking about Rishie Rice, Sequan Barkley, Nico Collins, Kenneth And finally the tight ends, Brock Bowers and Trey McBride, who check in at 23rd and 24th in our consensus rankings. Now, the rankings did change a little bit. Yesterday, we talked about Henry and Pickens, for example, as top 18 players. They've moved a little bit because the rankings get updated a lot. They're now 20th and 21st.

So you can see here from 15 through 24, actually, Rishie Rice has moved up. He's now 15th in the consensus rankings. Then it's Hampton and Gentie, then Barclay, Nico Collins, Derek Henry, George Pickens, Walker, Bowers, and McBride. And one more reminder today. We're going to talk Rice, Barkley, Nico, Walker, Bowers, McBride. All right, good morning. Heath, big show for you.

We got a lot of Heath-related content on today's show. You know, I heard you say this when we were doing the mic check, and I thought there's no way that's a good thing for me. Like, if you said we had a Dave-centric show or a Jamie-centric show, I would think that like we'd be saying a lot of good things or highlighting their work. I assume this is just going to be embarrassing me. No, not at all. I think we have a very funny dad.

joke that one of our listeners sent in that I'd like to share with you. It's a visual one. So I'll do my best. It's a guy and a girl talking. The guy says, hi, my name is Heath. And the girl says, hey, nice to meet you. I'm Heather. And he says, this isn't a competition. It's so good. It's really funny because Heather is just Heather. And it's very, I don't think the audio audience can really appreciate it, but they call this a meme, I guess. This is very good. What do you think, Heath? Yeah, I mean, I think he probably could have used my face

who had made it a little better. No, it's fantastic. Really good. And that was from Jason in Pennsylvania. Good job, Jason. Now we got an email from Alex all the way back on June 10th, 15 days ago. And he said, listening to yesterday's show

when you and Heath were talking about the Knicks' historic spread, and Heath said, no one is listening to you and bringing it for water cooler talk. I wanted to let you know both at, work and with a friend, I told them, quote, if the Knicks win, they'll be the largest finals underdog ever. So you definitely have some water cooler sway. Of course, I was wrong about that stat. Probably less now since it was an incorrect fact. You should have stopped with the meme.

No, I just, I just want, you don't know this Dave and Jay because you were out. But my goal on this show is always to get people repeating stats, things they hear on this show at the water cooler. I want water cooler stuff. stuff. Don't people work from home now? Yeah, fine, the fridge. Like you? You want full house and cheers back on television, too?

What? Some people, you know, a lot of people work. You guys, we have it lucky. We're lucky here. We don't, well, Dave's at the office. But we don't go in the office much. Dave, how often do you hang around the water cooler? Oh, man, let me tell you, it's the place to be here at Paramounts CBS Sports Digital

studios in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Well, would you guys like some water cooler stats? Here we go. Water cooler stats about some of the players we're talking about today. I don't recall saying yes to this. Trey McBride had eight touchdown catches of 10 or more yards last year. No other tight end had more than four. It's the most touchdowns of 10 or more yards for a tight end since Eric Ebron had nine

such touchdowns in 2018. Ebron then went ahead to score nine more in his career. in 34 more games. Not the best guy to compare Trey McBride too there. No, Kittle, I think, had one or two seasons with seven, but eight touchdowns of 10 or more yards for Tray McBride. For a guy who could never score touchdowns was interesting. If McBride finishes as tight end won again,

but loses the four point per game advantage he has over the field that he had last year. So he scores 14 points per game from 18 points per game. Is he a bus, but he's still tight end one? No one's going to think of him as a bus. Yes. Well, okay, he's being drafted where? 24th-ish? Yeah.

I'm going to guess his ADP's probably going to end up around like 15. Yeah. If it's there, then it's busty. So 14 is not that much. So if we make it 15, because two years ago, you had Kittle, McBride, and Bowers all in the... Whatever number you want to put it at. So he...

That's a big deal. He comes down and he's one and he's 15.3 points per game. He was 15.6 in 2024. And Bowers is 15.4. And Loveland is 13.8. And Warren is 13.5. Like, do you consider McBride a bust? No, but he's not like, he's not amazing.

You're going to certainly consider Loveland and especially Warren way better. If I'm maybe not bust, I would probably say yes. But at the very least, if that happens, he was a bad pick at the two-three turn. Yeah, and Heath you alerted us to a, this could go in the water cooler talk as well, a tweet from Rich Rebar of Sharp Football. And he said that Trey McBride basically ran about 22 games worth of routes last year for a team. They were first in the NFL and pass attempts. He ran 120 more routes than the next closest tight end.

So just a lot that went right for, It's just another way to express something we've talked about a lot. Like, they're probably not going to lead the NFL in past attempts again. And if Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson are both healthy all year, Trey McBride's probably not going to have the same huge target share that he did last year. He's just a pretty obvious regression candidate. But the question is, does he regress to 17 fantasy points per game, in which case the two, three turns fine.

If he regresses, I've got him at 14 and a half in my projections, but 15 fantasy points per game, I don't like that at the 2-3 turn at all, especially with all the other tight-ins we like. I think I know Dave is McBride over Bowers. I know he was prior to this conversation. Still am. But I think consensus-wise,

we for the most part have been ahead of Bowers over McBride and Gibbs over Bejohn. I think he, let's throwing out numbers. If a tight end average 17 points per game, I think that tight end average 17 points per game, I think that tight-time ends worthy of a one two turn pick personally. That's a massive season. There have been only eight tight ends. There have been eight tight ends who have done it in the last 10 years, and three of them have been Travis Kelsey. One of them was McBride last year. He was like 18 and a half

points per game. He was on one of the worst passing offenses of any, even though they threw the most, of any of the teams that produced a tight end that averaged 17 points per game. So if you're just thinking about how many points Does McBride need to justify that pick? I don't know. I'm just going to throw this out there. McBride and Bowers. 17 points per game, to me for a tight end is one two turn.

16 points per game, middle of round two. 15 points per game, two, three turn. Just a guideline. Yeah, but I think like what Heath has been saying and saying it for a while is that we could see a few guys in this range, right, Heath, if I'm not mistaken, And like, you're not, not again. This isn't the year of the tight end.

They're not going to be, you know, record breaking across the board. But it is fairly deep at the top in terms of McBride and Bowers, Bowers McBride, however you want to rank them. Then the next group of guys, which I think is a pretty good group of Loveland, Warren, Pitts, LaPorta, Kraft, Fanon, like, there's a lot of talent there and a lot of good opportunities for these guys. and then maybe Kittle and Kelsey can still, you know, produce at a high level. Kelsey was very good with Mahomes last year. Kittle obviously is looking like he's trending in the right direction coming off the Achilles

injury, especially if you saw some of the footage from Tide NU that they posted this week. You know, so it is an opportunity like while those guys, to your point out, I'm like if they do produce that level, but that was kind of what I was getting at. Like where is the sliding scale stopped to where McBride is not a bust, where there's, you know, six guys over 13 points per game, seven guys over 13 points per game. Like, do we potentially get that? And I think we could.

You know, again, like, where does it stop and how much better is McBride? I think just the case, you know, against McBride from a year ago is they let the NFL in past attempts. They didn't have a run game at all. They should now. They, you know, it was like the perfect setup of, hey, we're down two scores. Okay, Jacoby percent and, you know, Charlie McBride without Marvin Harrison on the field, go out and just, you know, live together.

And that's what they did. They just produced at a very high level, and it was amazing for us. Will that happen again. You know, is Michael Wilson going to be Puka Nakua, as, you know, LaFleur indicated? Is Marvin Harrison going to be Devante Adams, you know, and are we going to get these two wide receivers? Not producing at that level, because that's crazy, but just taking enough away from McBride that it hurts him to where he's just, again,

closer to the field. A hundred points better than Tide Ent to in Kyle Pitts last year. And again, four points per game better than Brock Bowers last year. or George Kittle, I forget it was, but just an absolute fantastic season. I just think we got to rain in a little bit. Okay. Well, those are some McBride stats. And here's some more water cooler stats.

I hope you're all thirsty. Kenneth Walker, he's averaged fewer than two catches per game in three of his four NFL seasons. And he has six career catches in the two-minute drill. The chiefs have been 25th or lower in running back rush attempts in seven of the last eight seasons. What do you think is more likely to happen? Which trend? Walker more than two catches per game? Or Chiefs higher than 25th in running back rush attempts?

You mean Walker fewer than two catches? No, because he's been fewer in three or four. Like which trend is going to break? Is he going to have more? Oh, Chiefs being 25th or lower in running back rush attempts. Both. Both? Okay.

I don't think it's going to be both. I think it's definitely going to be both. running back rush times. As long as Walker's healthy. I have Walker at 37 catches. So I'll go with both, too. And I'm the logo, Adam. Sequin Barclays played seven healthy seasons.

Two of them were super elite. In the other five, he's been RB7, 31, 5, 9, and 15 per game. So he's been kind of all over the place, but kind of weird that Barclays only had two, you know, amazing seasons in seven healthy seasons. And over the last, I think we talked about this stuff when we mentioned Barclay one or two weeks ago.

Over the last two seasons, Sequin Barclay has zero one-yard touchdown runs. Zero. Fourteen running backs have at least five in that span. He did have three carries from the one-yard line last year. He did not score on any of them. And last Barclay stat for me right now, Barclay, he scored nine total touchdowns last year,

I believe seven rushing, two receiving. Six of those nine touchdowns came in games seven games where Lane Johnson played 75% or more of the snaps. And the Eagles average like 25 points per game in those games. So that's like we always talk about the Chargers offensive line. The Eagles were really beat up and they always do so much better when Lane Johnson is healthy. He played nine or ten games last year, but only seven of them, 75% or more of the snaps. And last thing for all of you, very thirsty people.

Nico Collins has been good for three years. He's missed a lot of games, and he's left a lot of games early. But if you look at Nico Collins, the games, only the games where he's played 50% or more of the snaps. In two of the last three seasons, he has averaged at least 18.5 ppr fantasy points per game. And didn't happen last year. How many games has he played at least 50% of the snaps? I could tell you, but I'm not going to. because it's going to take me

probably like on average 12 a year maybe well that's it well that sounds about right to me I mean he only played 12 games two years ago yeah all right okay so it was it was 13 games in 2023

and it was nine games in 2024 and 15 last year so about 12 a year but he does have that potential he's shown it in the past cool

all right we got some news and notes for you when we come back and then we'll talk more about these guys rishi rice Iqa and barclay andico collins

it'll be an interesting exercise all right so am I wrong here what if we all ranked them if rishi rice you're all dead last for me did rishie rice

and tramek bride kind of start breaking out at the same time it was it two and a half years ago yep second half of 23. I wonder who's averaging more targets per game in that stretch.

I can get that for you during the break. Yeah. All right. Let's find out. Are we azer statting it? It's like the last six games of Rishiris. It's, you know, when Rish Ries broke out and when. But we have to take out the game that he got, it's ACL torn, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He'd had zero targets in that game. So, again, that's 17 regular season games without that game. We'll be right back on fantasy football today. All right. we got well i just got rishie rice is 9.6 targets per game since week 12 of 2023 okay that's more than mcbride yeah i think micbride is uh since week eight of 20203 is on pace for 159 targets and that divided by 17 is 9.4 okay that's amazing for both of them um i real quick

the news and notes detroit cornerback terry and arnold was arrested in connection with a rober and kidnapping. This is kind of a wild story, some pretty serious allegations against Terry and Arnold, and we'll see how that plays out. Brandon Ayukes seems like he wants to sign with the commanders. He said he will sign with them if San Francisco releases him. The commanders didn't say it back. Why would the commanders want him at this point? Every time he talks, I feel like it's less likely he's ever going to play football again. Jacksonville signed. Serious question just because he's training in Maryland. Who would you rather have right now? Stefan Diggs or Brandon? If Ayukes is

healthy, I'd rather give him the bag because he's younger. I would not pay either one a dime. Why not digs? It feels really strange. Enjoy Treeland Berks that I trust. I certainly would rather have what they seem to be acting like than what. I shouldn't say, I'd pay Stefan Dix. I wouldn't not pay Brandon Knight at all.

I mean, with Terry McClure and where he functions on the field, wouldn't like maybe Keenan Allen make more sense and you can at least trust that he's going to show up every week and. Yeah. I think Diggs are Allen. Yeah, absolutely. That's Diggs now. I mean, Diggs is basically a slot guy now.

Yeah, but I So Diggs has these off-field, you know, he's fine. He's like he's in the clear, it seems, but he's had some stories. But I actually am quite impressed with what he did last year at age 31 coming off a torn ACL. I don't think Diggs gets enough credit for that. He was really good. Just didn't play all that much.

He was really good in that context. Yeah, but he was one of the most efficient wide receivers. Most of it was just a super high catch rate. But one of the most efficient wide receivers in the NFL. Yeah, I would not touch Brandon Ayuk's. I would not take Brandon Ayuk on my roster right now. No. The Jaguars signed Brenton Strange to a three-year extension

worth up to $48 million with $25 million guaranteed. It's a shame for fantasy purposes that it doesn't really seem like Strange has much of a path to being consistent this year. It's just too crowded. But he's a solid player. And Matthew Stafford, for those of you who own rostered him in Dynasty leagues,

year to year with him, he's going to make the decision whether or not to keep playing. All right, players 19 to 24 in the consensus rankings. So where are we on Rishi Rice now, guys? Now that the dust has settled a little bit, Heath, you seem pretty excited about him. I think I have him, well, probably right where everybody else does now. He's 14th for me. I think you can start considering him at the one-two turn. We will certainly hope that nothing happens in the next couple of months that changes that.

and you always have to be worried about that with Rashi Rice, especially when it's the offseason. But assuming that he is at training camp for the start of it and that everyone's current expectation that he faces no punishment is what happens, then he has a chance to be a top five wide receiver. And full PPR, he has a chance to be the best wide receiver. Ooh, that's a bold take. I mean, I didn't say he will be, but he's not in the top tier of that discussion,

him, but I think he's in the second tier. Yeah, sure. Okay. And Dave, you have Rice kind of where Heath has him, 13th, 14th. Jamie, though, you still have him 20th, Rishy. Yeah, I didn't want to screw with your show, so I didn't update my rankings yet. Okay. Where do you think you'll have Rishir Rice?

Round one. Okay. All systems go. So, yeah, he's just, he's been like McBride, just super consistent over the last three years, so many targets. What could go wrong, Dave, for Rishi Rice? Okay. On the field, on the field.

Literally anything would be unsurprising. Okay, so we're not going to talk about anything that's happened off the field. He does have a mild injury history. He had a knee cleanup, obviously, this offseason. Concussion cost him three games last year. The left knee explosion in 2024 cost him a season. Then the bigger issue for me, and this is what I think, might make them a little bit more inconsistent is the change at running back in Kansas City and the fact that they brought in Kenneth Walker.

And we're all really excited about Kenneth Walker coming in and being the face of that run game and doing really well. I do have a little bit of a hard time believing that both Rice and Walker can be awesome on a week to week basis. And I feel like I talked about this last week. I'll give the stats again. 18 career games when the Kansas City running back is at 50. 15 plus carries. Rice has had 17 or more in eight of them, 14 and one of them, 13.3 or fewer in nine of them. Kind of makes them a 50-50 proposition, and you might say, well, 13.3 PPR points isn't that

bad. If you're drafting a wide receiver at the one-two turn that's doing that half the time, it's not great. He also has 20 or more PPR points in half of four career games when a chief's running back while he's been in the league has had 20 or more carries. So all that on top of the injury concern, any type of bounce back from Kelsey or Xavier Worthy, it does make me a little nervous about Rishie Rice,

but I just think he's earned so much credit in this Chief's offense for being the go-to for Patrick Mahomes. And Holmes is still going to need the go-to, especially if he's not as mobile as he's been in the past. I have a hard time with wide receivers once you get past C.D. Lamb. And Rishie Rice, at least in full people, is the placeholder for me as the next best wide receiver that fantasy managers can trust because he still has upside. The Chiefs have been top seven in past attempts in six straight seasons.

They just love to throw. So Dave, follow up question, obviously that's important for Rice. Follow question for you, are you kind of low on Walker then? I don't, I think I'm low by comparison to where Jamie and Heath have him. I'm not sure. You're the same as Heath, 25th. Okay. Jamie has him 15th.

Jamie's a little higher. Okay. So, yeah, I have a hard time buying into both Rice and Walker being awesome. I think one of them can be awesome. I think there's a chance both of them can be really good. But if I had to pick one in full PPR, I'm taking it. Yeah, what do you guys think? I think, I think Jamie's going to end up being just like both of these guys are top 15 picks.

And that's, I think that's, you could see the chiefs throw more and Rice still gets a big volume just because Mahomes kind of does what Mahomes wants to do. Like this team infamously ran through the most out of RPO's last year. And maybe they'll just run fewer RPO's because Mahomes just always chooses the pee. But I think it's still his team. Yeah, they probably get, they're going to run them all more than they have. But they're not, they're not taking the ball out of Patrick. McHamom's hands. And he throws, I mean, he's shown us this with Kelsey.

As Kelsey's aged and not been the same guy, Patrick Mahomes is still going to throw it to the guys that he feels comfortable with. And I just think that their offense has been kind of average three straight years. Yes. And Rushie Rice was awesome through all of it. Yeah, but I mean, that's the pathway to both Walker and Rice being good is just, their offense just gets better. Instead of finishing 12th and 13th in points per game, maybe they can be six or seventh or

something like that. You have a quarterback, yes, they're still going to obviously dominate the plays and what he wants to do. He's coming off a significant knee injury. And so what we saw from him in last year was he was running the ball a ton. I think that goes away. I think this is where Kenneth Walker wins.

I think they use him in the passing game a lot, which is why I think we're to see a spike in his production in the passing game. That's all you've heard out of minicamp is that they're just so impressed with what he's done as a pass catcher and surprising them as a pass catcher, et cetera. Now, does that mean he's going to turn into peak Austin Echler? No, he's going to do, I think, the things that Kenneth Walker, does best, which when he's been featured has been absolutely amazing throughout his career. And so you saw it in the postseason last year.

They paid him all this money to be this guy. They were 32nd and rushing last year. Like that has to improve for this offense to get better and for them to take pressure off of Mahomes and not have him have to be a superhero time and time again. Obviously, it's worked for them. But again, he's getting older. Kelsey's older and he's coming off this knee injury. So I think the run game gets better.

I think that Walker is going to be a more dynamic running back than we've seen from him before because of these opportunities to play in the passing game. And he's going to get all these touchdown opportunities that you lost last year from Zach Sarbanet. So I think there's a chance for both these guys to be extremely successful. This receiving core is absolutely abysmal when you get past him. So Xavier Worthy could take a step forward, but it's a big if it's a big question mark. After them, it's the sacrificial X, whatever we want to call Tyquine Thornton, and just a bunch of nothing.

You know, so these young guys are going to have to step up potentially if Rice missed his time. there's just nothing there besides a 36-year-old Travis Kelsey and Rashi Rice, which is why Rice should be awesome. Kelsey should be an amazing value pick because what we saw from him last year, when Mahomes was healthy, he was still producing at a very high level. And then I think Walker is going to do a lot of great things. Now, the scary part for Walker is, if you want to just tie him into this also, is that could they take him off the field for these other guys?

Because they really did invest in their backfield. They spent another draft pick on a running back. They bring in DiMercado, who they like, who I think is going to end up playing a little bit more on special teams probably than anything else. But still somebody that could be a factor here. And we'll see what Breschard Smith does. But I think he's also going to be a special team guy more in the return game. But I think you're just looking at these two guys as this is what the new chief's offense is. It's a finally, it's finally a guy in the backfield that's not just a retread

player or somebody that we're hoping to see coming off an injury. And you know, you said they, they've struggled to run the ball. When Pacheco was healthy and that guy, he was one of the best fantasy running back for that stretch. Yes. Thank you. I remember. Walker could be that guy and maybe even better because his pedigree and his resume is obviously better. So I think they're both worth taking late round one, early round two. Again, I'll be ahead of it on Walker and maybe it looks silly if he gets hurt again because you got a fact that in. But last year, stayed healthy, played at an unbelievable level, was the best running back just if you take the stretch of games in the postseason and compare it to the best player last year in McCaffrey.

He was two points per game better during that postseason. stretch than McCaffrey was for the season. Again, it's not replicable. Don't expect that. But could he be 18 points per game or more? I think so. I think he's got that much upside in this offense. My big question with everything Jamie said, because I think it was pretty much all right was the touchdowns part. Is we have, last year, we talk all the time about how much Matthew Stafford threw to Devante Adams inside the 10-yard line. Last year, Mahomes finished second in pass attempts inside the 10-yard line, despite the fact that he got hurt in week 15. he had 50 passes inside the 10-yard line.

That's been a thing that's been pretty consistent for the chiefs, is Mahomes either passing or running it himself inside of the 10-yard line. They love those little whatever you call them to Travis Kelsey on the misdirection. And that's the one thing that Walker really, like he didn't have that. I think he'll have it this year. I don't think they're taking them off the field for a running back inside the 10. but I don't know that he's had a lot of success inside the 10. So is it pounding Ken Walker at the goal line?

Or is it another creative Mahomes touchdown? Well, Mahomes had five rushing touchdowns last year. Kareem Hunt had eight. As a team, they had 10 rushing touchdowns from the five-yard line or closer. And I don't know if this, which is pretty solid and pretty much in line with what we've seen from the chiefs in the Mahomes era. I don't know if that's over she raised that. I mean, he had seven rushing touchdowns. in 2024 and 13 games.

What's that? Kareem had seven rushing touchdowns for them in 2024 and 13 games. Like that's... Yeah. I mean, if Walker's getting that, he's probably going to... I'm going to say he does better than that personally. I think we could be looking at a 10 touchdown season for them. It's funny if you look at their rush attempts inside the 10 last year, or I guess that's

inside the 5. Inside the 10, I'm not... I think they had... I think they were through more passes inside the 10 than they ran if you don't count Mahomes runs. Probably, but I didn't know if this was a Rishi Rice or a Kenneth Walker thing because Rice, most of his touchdowns are short-yarded touchdowns. So it's like, does he get hurt because now they have Ken Walker? Or does Walker get hurt because the chiefs don't run the ball all that much there?

I mean, I guess I would just say like the chiefs, when their offense is clicking, none of this really matters. They just score a lot of points and the good players do well. I just don't know. They still don't have an explosive playmaker in their receiving core unless worthy is actually good and we just don't know it yet. So I just don't know what to expect. If they're still like a middling offense, then probably one of these two players is going to be disappointing at that value. But yeah, I think they ran the ball enough near the goal line for last year for Kenneth Walker if they do it again to be successful this year. I just don't think he's going to be the third downback.

And he's never been a two-minute drill back. So I'm not so optimistic. I mean, 37 catches, you said Heath. Jamie seems to be more optimistic for more. I think where sports line is, 45 receptions, I think is realistic. That's a lot these days, you know? That's a big deal. All right.

Well, that's Ken Walker. You know, he's not next in the rankings, but we knocked him out along with Rishie Rice. So then Rishie Rice is, we call him 19th, even though he's 15th, but for the sake of our show. Let's throw that list back up again, actually, 15 through 20. for. Rishi Rice, 15. Hampton, Gentie, 16, and 17. So let's get to Barclay now.

He's now 18th in the consensus rankings. And he is ahead of Derek Henry, because I think a few of us yesterday said we'd prefer Barclay to Henry, and they were back-to-back yesterday with Henry ahead. Now Barclay's two spots ahead of Derek Henry. Anyway, Dave, why should we be optimistic about Sequan Barkley after he was, I believe, RB 15 per game, and just a huge bust last year?

Bye-bye, Kevin Petullo. Hello, Sean Mannion, hello Lane Johnson. Offensive lines healthy should be, hopefully it stays healthy for the balance of the season.

I think the change in offense and going to that West Coast style that everybody else is using should be favorable for Sequin Barclay maybe a few more designed targets for him. And we were squeamish on him last year because he had so much work. And he did come into 2025,

including the postseason. He had nearly 300. He stayed on the field. He was healthy. I don't like that he's not getting goal line touchdowns, but he hasn't been getting that for a while. I could see an efficiency bounce back. I could see him being worth a second round pick in full PPR,

getting around 16 PPR points per game, which is exactly what he averaged in the first eight games of last year. And right around then, maybe a little bit after is when Lane Johnson got hurt. The whole offense fell off without Lane Johnson on the field. So hopefully, A, Lane Johnson stays healthy, and B, the Eagles have a good alternative to Lane Johnson for if slash win Johnson misses time. I'm not going to say that he's truly a linchpin, but stats kind of suggest that an offensive tackle is a linchpin for Philadelphia. Heath, that stat I gave about Barclay having zero one-yard touchdown runs in the last two seasons and only three carries from the one-yard line last year.

And I don't know how many Derek Henry had from the one, but he had 24 carries from inside the five. yard line last year. I'm now starting to rethink Barclay versus Henry. But anyway, what do you think about those two running backs? Pretty different profiles, I'd say, because Henry's this touchdown machine and Barclay's probably going to have to break off some long ones like he did two years ago. Yeah, and the thing about Derek Henry is he also occasionally breaks off long runs. Yeah. I think it really probably comes down to this new offensive philosophy. does it have more targets for the running backs? Because I don't think the tush push is still legal, right?

Yep. The tush push has been more effective at gaining one yard than a Sequin Barkley run pretty much throughout Jalen Hertz's career. So I don't really expect a big change in their approach at the one yard line or in short yardage. It just does Barclay get enough targets to make up for the fact that Henry scores more touchdowns. And it may not just be that either. Does Barclay bounce back at all in terms of his rushing efficiency? Because, like, he averaged 5.8 yards per carry in his first year in Philadelphia. It was down to 4.1 last year.

That's an enormous difference if you're talking about 250 to 300 rush attempts over a full season. And it's a yard and a half difference. Whereas I know you'll love this because YPC4 life, Derek Henry, been over five yards, each of his two years in Baltimore. I still have Henry one spot ahead of Berkeley, but I don't have a strong I think it's pretty much

a toss-up and probably comes down to which one of them shows any sign of aging or gets hurt. Another edge for Barclay over Henry is that he plays a ton. Jamie, the top 10 running backs and plays per game last year just being on the field.

McCaffrey, Taylor, Bijon, Barkley was four. and then it was Giovante, Kiron Williams, Genti, A. Chan, Jemir Gibbs, Chase Brown. But that's one of the appeals for Barclays is that he just really doesn't leave the field much.

Are you optimistic, Jamie, for Barclay this year? I think just the fact that they say they're going to throw him the ball more. You know, that Sean Mannion's offense, I think is going to allow him to be more involved in the passing game. And that's something that's huge for him because, you know, look,

he's not going to be a 90-catch guy like we saw as a rookie, but can he get close to that 40-catch plateau, 50 cash plateau, like, that's huge. And you've just taken away the best receiver in Philadelphia. So while Mackay Lemon and Marquis Brown and all these new additions, Donatavian Wicks are going to be a factor, obviously. I think Barclay might be their second or if you want to throw Dallas Godin or the third

best pass catcher. So involve him more in the passing game. I know that's not something that Jalen Hertz has done very much because of his ability to use his legs and escape when things get in trouble. But maybe those couple of passes that happen over the, you know, couple. Several passes that happen over the course of the season, the more design passes, you know, he averaged, you know, based on the graphic that we showed, 2.3 receptions per game in 2025. If that can get north of three, then that's just a huge boost for him. So give him

more opportunities in space, give him an opportunity to still be the playmaker that we know he's capable of. I think that's going to help him in a big way. So yes, it should be close between him and Henry. You know, you are talking about two running backs that very similar from a two-year period of changing teams and one having a little bit more consistent success, one having a huge spike year. But I think when you look at it, like the things that Henry has lost in terms of the center and the fullback and the thing that I hope that Barclay will gain in terms of his role in the passing game, that's what gives him the edge for me. So I think Henry will outrush him. I think Henry will out touchdown him. I think Barclay and his reception totals getting back to a level of a little

bit more respectability for what the type of player that he is, I think that will give him a little bit of an edge. Okay, that's Sakewan Barclay. So we've got Rishi Rice, Kenneth Walker, and Sakewan Barclay discussed. That leaves us with Nico Collins and two tight ends. We're going to take a break on fantasy football today. Finish up with the last three players in our top 24 consensus rankings after this. Nico Collins, another guy that we're hoping will bounce back.

And he is, where is he exactly in the consensus rankings? Bring that up here. Let's see, Collins is 19th. and an average draft position, he is 23rd at wide receiver 9. Dave, what kind of bounce back are we going to get from Nico Collins? I think we'll see him get right back to where he was in the first 12 games of last year, 16.8 ppr points per game. His role is rock solid, eight targets per game last year, 8.3 targets per game the year prior.

The easy number one wide receiver in Houston. this is another wide receiver, however, that is seeing his run game change, although I'm not nearly as worried about that for Nico as I am for Rice. And I'm not even that worried about it for Rishi Rice. But David Montgomery coming there could cost Nico Collins some opportunities inside the 10-yard line. But still, just a dynamic pass catcher. He's done so well for Houston. I think Stroud's going to continue to lean on him. I don't think there's a huge step coming for either Jaden Higgins.

or Jalen Knoll in this offense. And fantasy managers can gravitate toward him as one of those borderline top 12 wide receivers who should still get a lot of work. Why? Okay, when you look at, I'm just asking a question. Why Rish Rice over Nico Collins? We were not doing that. Well, last year was what different he had the suspension.

So forget that aspect of it. But why, Heath, why Rishie Rice over Nico Collins? Better quarterback, better offense. I like Rice is probably, like Dave talked about eight targets a game for Nico Collins, which is really good. It's probably nine to nine and a half for Rashi Rice based on what we've seen in the last three years. So more targets. And it's funny because I think both of them, we talk about all the concerns for Rashi Rice, but they're mostly off the field. I am more concerned about Nico's ability to stay healthy than I am Rises.

Are you concerned about Nico's ability to produce? I mean, to produce 18 fantasy points per game, yes. I haven't projected for 15. I think it's interesting that we're talking about him as like a, and he is, we're hoping for him to bounce back in terms of efficiency. But he's never played more games than he did last year. He's never had more targets than he did last year. He still averaged nine points.

3 yards per target last year, which is elite four wide receivers. I think probably more likely that that season he had in 2023, where he averaged 11.9 yards per target and scored, had a touchdown on 7.5% of his targets was probably the outlier. I would not expect him to get back to that. That was 2023? Yeah. Well, in 2024, look, you got to take out three guys.

games, weeks 5, 11, and 18, he played fewer than 50% of the snaps. But one of those games, he was awesome, though, right? One of those games, he had like 70 yards and a touchdown barely played week five. 2024, the games that he played more than half the snaps, he was on pace for 108 catches, 1,579 yards, and nine touchdowns on 161 targets. That's about 18.8 points per game, which is why I was so excited about him last year, did not work out. So the targets just went way down last year.

I mean, he was on pace for 136 targets last year, which is weird. But, you know, he's still, Nico Collins has been one of those guys that he's kind of played on this team that doesn't get a ton of national attention. They've been good, but they're kind of boring. He's been one of the most efficient,

statistically one of the best wide receivers in football over the last three years. Does anybody think of him that way? Do you guys think he's a superstar wide receiver? I mean, if you put him on the Bengals, he's probably a first round pick. If you put him on the Rams, he's probably a first round pick. You know, like you put him with better quarterback, better offense. I think there's obvious ways that he shines a little bit differently, a little bit brighter.

But look, he's certainly been, you know, you're probably asking the wrong group because obviously we follow it a little bit differently. You know, so we certainly are aware of what Nico Collins is capable of doing and dominating. I think the interesting thing for this year is there's just so much positive reports coming out about Jane Higgins and now Tank Hill might be, Tank Dell might be back. Dalton Schultz is still going to be a factor.

Like, I don't think Nico Collins has a target concern, but it may be a little bit to downgrade him when you're comparing him to some of these other guys in that range. And then you factor in CJ Stroud and what the struggles have been since his rookie campaign. And then you factor in that this defense is so dominant and they don't have to throw as much. And then you factor in that if David Montgomery is healthy or the run game should take a huge step forward from where it was a year ago.

So like all these things sort of come into play here with with Nico where he should be in this mix with Pickens and A.J. Brown and maybe still Crystal Lave and some of these other guys that are, you know, back end of the top 12 at the wide receiver group. So in a perfect world, Nico Collins is dominating targets and looking like he did in 2023. In an imperfect world, he's sharing targets a little bit more. He's still got to worry about the health concerns, and his quarterback isn't exactly the best. So to me, he's a late round two pick. Dave's the highest on him. Dave has Collins 15th.

Jamie and Heath have him 21st and 22nd, which at least means that everyone likes Nico Collins at his current ADP, which on Fantasy Pros is 23rd overall. I mean, I think the comparison that's very easy to make, based on stats, maybe even based on like body type and somewhat how the way they play is A.J. Brown. Yep. Right? He's just, he's younger than A.J. Brown. Why do we, I don't know if I can ask Heath because Heath has A.J. Brown solo. But why, why Nico over A.J. Brown? Dave. Because I just, we've seen him as a target hog in this offense. We're assuming that A.J. Brown will be a target hog in New England.

And that it'll all work out just fine when in reality we are coming off a year where AJ Brown spent the first half of the year dealing with injuries. And he was terrible. And so I feel a little bit safer with Nico. And I think Nico is just overall like a more steady wide receiver. You asked Heath why Rice over Nico and Heath gave two really good answers. The third is that I think there was more smash weeks there for Rash and there will be for Nico Collins. I don't believe Nico had a game last year with more than 25. ppr points. I know Rishi Rice had a bunch.

I just feel like Nico is a solid low-end number one fantasy wide receiver. If you pencil them in for 16 PPR points, I think he's going to get that for you. I would just like it if my solid borderline wide receiver one played more than half the snaps, more than two-thirds of the games. That's fair. By the way, Corey in the chat says,

like mean girls tried to make fetch happen. I feel like the CBS sports fantasy guys are trying to make Nico Collins happen. And I really think that's me. I want to point that out if you feel that way. It's probably... Well, it's Dave. Dave has him 15th.

Okay. This is a weird comment because before last season, he was averaging... Nico was making Nico happen. He was averaging over 17 PPR points per game. That's my... I don't understand what people are like forgetting

about how good he was averaging over 17 points per game two years in a row. And he was on his way their last. year if you azer statet it. No, no. If without the, it's over 18 per game of you Azer Statted. It's still over 17 per game if you don't Azer Statt it.

And he's been the worst he's finished in three seasons, last three seasons is 11th per game. He's been eighth, ninth, and 11th per game. He's been eighth, sixth, and tenth per game in non-PPR. So if you get him at wide receiver nine, you're almost at the floor for Nico Collins based on the last three years. Do you guys have Nico ranked lower because you don't? don't have confidence in Stroud? No, I have

all the running backs ahead of him. So Walker, Hampton, Gentie, ahead of him. I think those guys have more upside than Nico Collins this season. I would rather have AJ Brown. A lot of things you said about Nico, about, you know, you're worried about injury for AJ Brown. I'm worried about injury for Nico as well.

I think AJ Brown's resume is better than Nico Collins. So what you said there in terms of what he's produced, I think AJ Brown's been a better wide receiver over the last, you know, three or four years. And I think Brown is going to take a step forward, at least in year one, with Drake May, whereas Nico, I think, is going to sort of live in this level of around 16 points per game. I think Brown can be 18 to 20 points per game, just going to the Patriots. So I like Brown better in the new environment that he's in, and especially when you look at that stretch of six games, whatever it is, that he was healthy and, you know, after the complaints and scored over 19 PPR points per game during that six game stretch. So I think they're both very good.

Obviously, I think they should be taken in round two. But I do think that we're going to get more competition for targets for Nico, just with the improved play from Jaden Higgins, at least again, based on all the reports. If Tank Dell is back, I think that's another, you know, just negative for Nico Collins slightly. You know, again, these are nitpicking points between two very good players. And then I trust just Drake May a hell of a lot more than I trust CJ shot at this point. So I'll take AJ Brown. And I think Nico is just a really solid.

high low end number one receiver who you should just be happy to get in round two so depending on what you're doing round one running back wide receiver I think you should be thrilled to get neico collins again in that 18 to 24 range in round two all right last thing i'm not doing this i'm not doing this up while you were talking i'm not doing this too i told you so or anything like that but over the last three years a j brown and nico collins are basically tied in yards per game and touchdowns per game with Nico Collins slightly ahead of him in both. And the top eight in yards per game at wide receiver over the last three years are Puka, Chase, Lamb, St. Brown, Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Nico Collins, AJ Brown.

I just think that A.J. Brown has been better than public perception acknowledges. I said, I'm sorry, Nico, Nico, yes. Yeah, so I'm sorry. Yeah, not age. And they have been so similar. It's amazing. And again, think about Nico Collins, I would guess of those top eight players, he's left the most games early with injuries. So he's probably even better than that in terms of yards per game.

We got to get true media to have an Azer Stats filter. Yeah, I just, do guys ever get to the point for you, Adam? And maybe Nico's not there yet, where you feel like, yeah, I can azer stat it, but there's not really any reason to expect that he's going to play 17 healthy games. Oh, yeah. But here's the thing. Again, Dave said it, 2023 and 2024, he even leaving games with injuries,

he still averaged more than 17 points per game for this season. No, I'm just saying that he didn't play, like he missed, even if you don't count the partial games, he missed seven games in those two seasons. Yeah, no, honestly, not really, maybe a few players.

But there was one year where three of the most injury prone running backs, I can't remember who it was. It was like, Dalvin Cook was one of them. Maybe McCaffrey, maybe Swift or something like that. They all stayed healthy and played pretty much a full season. He could. And I was just like, I'm done with this predicting injury stuff. Yeah, that's fair.

No, but yeah. Look, Higgins is another guy that I draft a lot of, and I think he falls because he gets hurt every year. You know, if you end up with Nico on your team and the only concern that you've got is that he gets hurt, it's not a bad idea at all to get Jaden Higgins. because I have a feeling that if Nico does miss games, Higgins will be the one that sees the most targets.

And I'm not even thinking about Tank Dell until A, he's back out there on a regular basis, and B, he shows that he's just as fast as he wants to him. He's overcoming a major injury. Yeah. All right, let's talk about the tight ends here. Bowers and McBride. They are 23 and 24 in our consensus rankings.

Heath, who do you like better? Bowers or McBride? I have Bowers one spot. a spot ahead of McBride. Dave, who do you like better? McBride and PPR. By how many spots? They're back to back. Okay. And Jamie, who do you like better?

Also back to back, but Bowers over McBride. Fascinating. Back to back for everyone. And Dave has them the highest, 21st and 22nd. Jamie has them 24th and 25th. Heath has them 27th and 28th. How did we know when it's the right time, Heath, to go into the tight end well? take that tight end. I think probably, like, one way you could do it is when you don't think there's a top 12

running back or a top 12 wide receiver left. But I think a lot of it really should be much different for people who aren't as excited about Tyler Warren, Sam Leporta, Kyle Pitts, Harold Fanon, Tucker Kraft, whoever you want to put in that group. if you're less excited about the second tier tight ends, then you push McBride and Bowers higher because it really does matter a lot if tied in six this year averages 11 fantasy points per game,

as we have seen in the past, or if tight-in six averages 13 fantasy points per game. Jamie, what's your take on that? How do you know, okay, I'm going to do it now, I'm going to get that tight end. I think given the fact that we're going to see these guys probably middle to the end of round two when everything settles. It's what you start to see is available to you in round three.

Because if you think that you can get the player that you're considering in round two in round three, then you pull the trigger on the tight end in round two. Most likely we're going to see McBride go ahead of Bowers. So if you're really in the Bowers camp, then you hope you can still get him in round three. Heath left out one name there, which is obviously Colston Lovelland, who's going to be not far from these two guys, but I think ahead of the other guys that Heath List and Tyler Warren, etc.

So, you know, depending on how you feel about Loveland in comparison to these guys, and if you want to pull the trigger early on Colston Loveland. But, I mean, obviously, it's very similar to what Heath said, you know, so if you're not sold on, you get to this range of running backs of Walker, Hampton, Jente, Genie, Henry, Barkley, and you're just like, you know, oh, these guys are improving or they're, you know, older, etc., you know, in case of Barclay coming off a bad season, and you want to pivot, and you don't love the receivers of Nico Pickens,

London will be in this range, you know, whoever you want to say, then, you know, clearly you're looking at guys that could be difference makers. Bowers, you know, I wonder if he did not get injured in week one last year and played through that or stayed healthy and didn't try to play through that or maybe, you know, took some time off and came back at 100%. Like, would he have had the Trey McBride type season? Because what we saw from Bowers as a rookie was obviously unbelievable.

The offensive environment last year in Las Vegas was terrible. The coach should be better. the quarterback play will hopefully be better. We know the offensive line is a chance to be significantly better. So all these things factoring in, like Bowers has such little competition for targets on paper. Now, will that change if Jalen Naylor or Trey Tucker or Jack Bess or whoever you feel or if they still go out and get maybe a Stefan Diggs or a Tyree kill or something like that?

You know, does that change things? Obviously. But I think just looking at Bowers and nothing else around him. And, you know, please go back and listen to the interview we did with Scott Turner. and what he said about Bauer is just the type of player that he is in Playmaker and opportunities that he should have. Like, this guy could be what Tray McBride was last year, where he's just so significantly better than the field.

I don't think that would be the case, but targets should absolutely be in his favor, and he could lead the position in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and the touchdowns were there, then, oh, my God, he could be an unbelievable special talent. That Jacksonville game that he had last season, which was 40-some-odd ppr points. Like, you know the ceiling and what he's capable of.

Like, it's just incredible. Yeah. I think Scott Turner, said he may be that Brock Bowers may be the best player he's ever coached. It was something to that effect. He's mentally, the way he's grasped the game is, is really. Compared to McCaffrey. Yeah.

It was high praise and honestly it was like, it changed the way I thought of Brock Bowers. Or it solidified my optimism for Bowers. Heath, this was your guy last year. You were super high on him. Yeah. And like when he was actually healthy, he didn't really do much to discourage me from that. I do think everything Jamie says right, I think we feel like that in a vacuum, Brock Bowers is a more talented player than Tray McBride.

And that's not saying anything negative about Trey McBride. It's just that's how good we think Brock Bowers is. And we're we kind of, we've talked a lot about how we think the offensive environment for McBride maybe regresses a little bit just because. of how outlandish it was last year, and we're hoping the offensive environment in Las Vegas is greatly improved because of better quarterback play and better coaching. The thing that you really, I think, hoped for is you look at what Clint Kubiak did last year,

and it's not going to be the same thing because Brock Bowers is not JSN. But he just said, you know what? We have one guy who is much better than everybody else is a pass catcher, like the Raiders do. We are just going to do everything we can to get him the ball, a third of the time as we dropped back. And if that happens with Bowers, good grief, we could get the greatest

tight end season ever. Well, that's fascinating. I mean, one of the things with McBride is that I was going to bring this up with McBride. It's not really fair to say yet with Bowers. He's only just had like one healthy season and he was a rookie. But think about some of the great tight ends of this era,

specifically Kelsey and Kittle. McBride doesn't really stack up with them in terms of yards. Yards per catch, yards per target. You know, McBride has been around 10 yards per catch, 7.6 yards per target, around there over the last three years. Kelsey was more like 13 yards per catch and nine yards per target. Three yards per catch better than the best of McBride.

Kittle was even better than that. Kittle was like 13 and a half yards per catch. So it's just, you know, it's just something with, McBride. He's a great player. But when you think about the best tight ends, Kelsey and Kittle, those guys, if they had 160, 170 targets, they might

be able to turn that end to 1,500 yards. McBride's not going to do that. McBride last year had 169 targets and had 1,239 yards. He also had, like I said earlier, the most touchdowns of 10 or more yards for a tight end since Eric Ebron

seven years ago, I think. So I just wanted to throw that out there with McBride. He's great. He's not like Hall of Fame level. Well, he might go. He might at some point. But he's not Kelsey and Kittal. Bowers, I guess still could be.

You know, we don't know what his efficiency will be. But that's not the strength of Trey McBride. Listen, you want to, if you get them at the right price, have one of these two guys. You know, it's not hard to see them being one or two if they stay healthy at the position. they were essentially that in points per game last year with just McBride being significantly better than the entire field. Again, 18 points per game, whatever it was, 18.1, 18.2.

And then there was Bowers and Kittle in the 14 range. He was 100 total points better than Kyle Pitts a tight-int, like that's just not realistic to replicate on both ends. The second guy being that much farther apart and obviously him being that far ahead of the field, unless he's just forced fed targets. But you just think about everything that fell in the place with him. Like he was having a good season with Kyler Murray.

He had an exceptional season with Jacoby Brissette. Is Jacobi Brissette going to start the majority of the games for the Cardinals who are probably going to be a bad team and may turn to Carson back at some point? The run game is going to be significantly better for the Cardinals because of the additions of Jeremiah Love and Tyler Algear. And then you had all of this sort of fall in the placement, McBride, when we had Marvin Harrison play three games in the second half of the season. So now you have Harrison back. You have, again, whatever version. of Michael Wilson we're going to get. And if it's the best version of Michael Wilson, then I think that's hard for all three of

those guys to be successful. You've brought this up, you know, a few times, Adam, just in terms of the target share for all three of these players. So I think what we're looking at is Tray McBride is still going to be really good. There's a reason why, even for me and Heath, and I'll speak for you here, if I'm wrong, tell me, but why we still think that they're going to be close and we just, we like, give an edge to Bowers. This isn't, hey, crap all over Tray McBride, he's going to suck.

we still think he should be late second, early third round pick. But it's just the field is better. The profile for Brock Bowers feels better. And Trey McBride could just take a little bit of a step back, maybe even a big step back, and still be really good. But I think you just got to take it into consideration. Like, if you're expecting last year's Trey McBride, you're probably drafting him too soon.

You shouldn't expect last year's Trey McBride was one of the best tight end seasons we've seen. more than 18 fantasy points per game. With Kyler Murray, Trey McBride averaged 12.5 points per game and five games with Kyler Murray. With Chicobe Rossetti average 21.1 points per game. Here's my issue. It's like I get all the arguments against McBride,

at least, you know, knocking him down to this two-three turn where we have him in the rankings. You know, look, again, they threw so many passes. When he was on the field in the second half of the season, And after Michael Wilson established himself, when all three players were on the field, they all had about a 20% target share. And that's, if you're getting a 20% target share for Tray McBride, that's a big problem. They have Jeremiah Love now. So they should.

Also 20% target share when they're leading the NFL in past attempts. Exactly. They're probably middle of the pack this year. Yeah. I mean, they still could be, yeah, sure. But that's, it was a really small sample. It was basically like one game's worth of routes. My issue is Michael Wilson, is that really the reason why I'm downgrading Trey McBride?

Michael Wilson averaged 4.4 targets per game in the first 38 games of his career. And then he averaged 11 targets per game in the last eight games of his career. But it's Wilson and Harrison. No, I know, but I already know that if it's just like Marvin Harrison and we're not really worried about any other wide receiver, then I think Trey McBride, to me, would be a middle of the second round pick. Because I think he would get an enormous amount of targets. If I think Michael Wilson's going to get six, six and a half targets per game,

you know, and Marvin Harrison is still going to be a factor. And by the way, Marvin Harrison has been the preferred end zone target for the Cardinals in each of his two years. Trey McBride did most of his end zone work when Marvin Harrison was out. If Michael Wilson's going to be a factor, that really bumps McBride down. But it really, like, is Michael Wilson really going to be a factor? I ask myself that all the time. I think he will be. I think he's a solid player

and deserves more targets than what he got in the first 38 games of his career. Heath? Yeah, I think... So I've got McBride projected for 143 targets this year, over under. I think it's a great projection. I'll take the under.

I'll take slightly under. 138. 142.5. And then the other question is, in his first 49 games, he scored six touchdowns on 292 targets. Last year, he scored 11 touchdowns on 169 targets. So I've got him projected for six this year.

Yeah, I'll take seven. It's fine if you're looking at the, if you're watching. They have them for eight and 154 targets. They don't really have them for that great of a season, though. I mean, 1,080 yards. They have them as the number one tight end, but it's, it's, I don't know how many points per game this projection is, I've got it.

Yeah. What do you think? What is it? It is 16. Oh, okay. 15.94. Yeah. So that's, to me, that's again, I said it earlier.

That's middle of the second round type of player. And I've got him at basically 14.6. So just to go back to that for you, Adam. So, again, if he's 15. What is it? Nine? 15.9. And Bowers is 15.2.

And Loveland is 14.7. And Warren is 13.8. and Leporta is 12 point. At what point do you feel like you made a mistake? I think for the purposes of this exercise, I'm not going to try to predict all those other tight ends. I'm just going to take what I can get because, you know, I'm just going to treat it.

McBride and Nico Collins are both sitting there. Yeah, Nico. You're taking Nico. McBride and A.J. Brown. McBride and Sequin Barkley are sitting there. Barclay and Derek Henry. McBride and George Pickens are sitting there. McBride.

Okay. McBride and Ashton Genty or O'Marron Hampton. Yeah, the running backs. But it's like... So you have trade McBride in round three. You're putting it down pretty far. No, I think I haven't pretty much in the round in the two-three turn. I was looking at your consensus rankings and Olivae, Higgins,

Kyron Williams. I could see McBride falling to round three if Josh Jacobs gets back into round two. See, I don't think so. I think we are not so down on McBride, but we're down on McBride to the point where we are pushing him down, where I think more people will be looking for him closer to the one-two-turn and early in... He's 22nd right now in fantasy pros. That's all I can say.

He's 22nd? Yeah. Okay, so... But I mean, I would have thought the same thing. I would have thought like the average drafter sees what he did last year and just loves Trey McBride. I mean, I got a friend who called me yesterday or a few days ago. He, like, yelled at me for being too low on Trey McBride. He's like, bro, stop being so analytical.

The guy's got, like, a tattoo sleeve. He's a beast. He's a monster. And it was funny because this is how a lot of fans, a lot of football players, football fans think. There's like, this guy's awesome. I've seen him on red zone, like, scoring touchdowns and being a badass, and he's really good.

I'm going to draft him. And I kind of get that. It's like maybe I'm being too analytical about it. But when you start to crunch the numbers, you see the pitfalls. By the way, I should mention Dave, Dave, I don't know what happened with Dave, but he hasn't been on the show for the last 10 minutes. It's a good thing that you just mentioned it now. I know. I think the other thing, because we've talked about Drew Petzing, we've talked about the past attempts coming down.

But Jacoby Percette is 33 years old. Yeah. And just like last year. even not playing the full season was a career high across the board and basically everything. So I see where you're going with this.

The only thing that, you know, and again, you and I are on the same page in terms of the tight ends. Like we're asking, we just saw Jacoby Bresset do this for a Chain McBride. We're asking a 30 plus year old

Kirk Cousins and an unproven Fernando Mendoza to make Brock Bowers elite. Like, I want to throw out the quarter of,

argument with this because I don't think it helps powers. Yeah, that's interesting thinking about like, do you trust the combination of cousins and the number one overall pick or Brissette? He had never before last year averaged 200 yards passing per game. We have to acknowledge there's a possibility that Carson Beck gets called at some. Oh, I said that. Oh, I'm sorry. And that would terrify me.

Maybe it's Gordon or Minchu. That would be okay. So I think the only way we see Minchew is if Jacoby Brissette gets hurt or is just absolutely terrible early in the season. Because I think if we get to the middle of the season and it's just the Russell Wilson benching, I'm trying to think other guys just got benched outright because they were not necessarily the reason

why the team was losing, but obviously the team wanted to try and lose or see what else they have. And we see Carson Beck at some point because they've got to make a decision to see if Beck could be anything for them. So I spent over an hour on this stupid research last night, and I don't know if it's helpful at all.

But over the last 10 years, I tried to find players that averaged nine or more targets, two straight seasons, and then, like McBride, and then had a big drop-off in targets. There weren't that many guys who went from two straight seasons, or at least two straight seasons with nine or more targets, and then had fewer than eight the next year that were not in their 30s. Guys in their prime, they typically kept on going getting those targets, nine or more. If they fell,

it was within the, it was like eight, eight or more. Yeah. But some guys did. 136. What's that? Eight is 136.

And some guys did though. Zach Ertz was one of them. Now he was like 29 turn 30. Zach Ertz had two huge seasons. Then he went to 6.6 targets. Darren at age 30 was another guy. Two huge seasons. Then he went down in targets.

They added Devante Adams that year. Chris Godwin. This was a team that went from like 700 something past attempts to 568 when they went from Tom Brady to Baker Mayfield. And Chris Godwin went from two straight years with nine or more targets to 7.7. So it doesn't happen that often to these guys who are in their prime, but I did find some examples of it happen. I don't want this to come across, though, as if like we're just completely crapping all over,

Trey McPry. I know, right. We still think he's a really good fantasy option. And somebody worthy of taking in the mid to end of round two, early part of round three, just depends on how you want to value those players. think the exercise we did with you, Adam, is perfect. It's like this guy versus that guy. It's going to be the question a lot of fantasy managers come to.

You ask Heath the same question, you know, just at what point do you feel comfortable taking the tight ends? It's just a matter of like, what do you think you're missing out on versus, and this is why I keep asking this, the field, which the field could be really good this year. Again, a lot of question marks with the guys after Maynard Bowers. I wish, again, Bowers had been healthy last year because this debate might have been even better or maybe even solve for you because there could have been a chance that Bowers is just better. But yeah, look, Kyle Pitts had a great season, gets a huge coaching upgrade. Sam Leporta,

great rookie season, huge coaching upgrade. Tyler Warren may lead the Colts and targets and was really good when Daniel Jones was healthy last year. Hald Fanon was great last season in the second half of the year. And even though there's target competition there may be awesome. Tucker Craft could be the best pass catcher for the Packers and Kittle and Kelsey, you know what they're capable of. Isaiah Lack being a great spot. Like this is a really good position. and what at least feels like for the first time in a long time for not just potential and projections. These guys are either coming off good seasons

or have great resumes. Really the only one I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, is like that we're projecting to do something that he hasn't done before, even if it's a small sample size, is Isaiah likely of the top 12 guys. Yeah. All right, sorry. So I know we spent like half the show on Trey McBride.

Do you guys think that either McBride or Bowers, if they really are drafted at the two, three turn, have big downside that they could just be outright busts? No. Again, what do you define as a bus for them? I would say, you know, 13 points or less. I think if you're taking them two, three turns a bus. But do you think they could do that?

Do you think that's true? Sure. I mean, look, McBride had really bad touchdown, has a really bad touchdown history prior to last year. And Bowers is still dealing with what could be a bad offense. You know, again, I like the upgrades, but it could be bad. Yeah. And as you said, we could get a struggling, like Cam Ward was a very good prospect.

It's not like he was great in his rookie campaign. Mendoza could be like that. And Kirk Cousins is just finished. And then Carson Beck could start half the games for the Cardinals. By the way, when you were giving me all those names, the one that I struggled the most with versus McBride was Gentie. I don't know what it is. I just am not excited to draft Ashen Genti this year. Ken Walker or McBride?

Yeah, Walker. But here's the other thing. I haven't mentioned this yet. I personally have a big difference in philosophy when it's a two-receiver league versus three-receiver league in terms of taking tight ends. Much, much more likely to take Bowers and McBride in a two-receiver league.

Three-receiver league I like to fill out the receivers earlier. All right. Thanks, guys. Good show. We have FFT Express coming up. It's 12 minutes on. Tray McBride. Sorry, Dave's internet craft out on him, so sorry we did not have him on.

We will talk to you on Monday with a new week of fantasy football today episodes. Thanks for watching and listening. We'll see you later.