Fantasy Football Today - 2026 Sleepers, Breakouts & Busts: Devil’s Advocate Edition! (07/20 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Adam Aizer plays devil's advocate as he challenges Jamey Eisenberg and Dave Richard's top sleepers, breakouts, and busts for 2026. We kick things off with Patrick Mahomes as a sleeper (9:03), debating whether his current ADP creates value while weighing his injury concerns and the state of Kansas City's wide receiver room. News and notes includes a Cam Skattebo backflip (19:09). Next, it's bust season as the crew debates whether De'Von Achane (24:10) can overcome Miami's offensive concerns and if Davante Adams (32:52) can keep finding the end zone as his age increases. Adam also questions the week-to-week consistency of Zay Flowers (41:04), forcing Jamey to make his case for the Ravens top receiver. We wrap things up with running backs Omarion Hampton (46:15) & Kenneth Gainwell (58:48), discussing Mike McDaniel's influence as Hampton's new offensive coordinator and whether Bucky Irving will limit Gainwell's fantasy upside in Tampa.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.

Monday, July 20th. Welcome to fantasy football today. It's Devil's Advocate Day, or I get to look at Jamie and Dave's sleepers, buses, and players they love and play devil's advocate, be like, I think you might be wrong about that. Also, World Cup final. Yesterday, actually, I don't know, kind of cool, the way it.

You know, you of all people as a Giants fan should appreciate that there was no scoring. Yeah, I fell asleep. I slept through the first about 75 minutes of the game and didn't miss anything. And then I left the room for 10 seconds and missed the only goal. But anyway, football season is over.

But training camp has begun. So real football season is here. And fantasy football season is certainly here. And we're fired up about it. All right. So devil's advocate today on Patrick Mahomes as a sleeper. Devon A. Chan as a bust. Devante Adams as a bust.

Zay Flowers and Omari and Hampton to have big seasons. Kenneth Gainwell as a sleeper. These are calls that Dave and Jamie have made. And I'm just going to see what could go wrong with those calls. But first, I, I think, think this is kind of a cool stat. And on Wednesday, we're going to have a do these stats matter episode. So here's in the spirit of that. You know, Patrick Mahomes, Dave is a guy you have as a sleeper. And for whatever reason, he has been so bad inside the five-yard line over the last two years.

It just, they stink there. Guys aren't getting open. The completion percentage is bad. And the one guy, though, that's been pretty good is Rishie Rice. And Rishie Rice had a 58 8.3% target share inside the 5-yard line when he played from week 7 through 15. That would have led the NFL over a full season. The only guy who was better from week 7 through 15 had a higher target share inside the five-yard line was Devante Adams. So I think the point I'd like to make here just watching the tape and seeing that stat is that Travis Kelsey, I think, used to be that guy for Patrick Mahomes.

And we're not really going to talk about Rishue Rice much on this episode. But I think Rish Rice has to be that guy now. and we think about him with catches, catches, catches, catch him. I think there's a chance that even, he's not the biggest guy, it's not the typical Evans Adams kind of guy. I think he could be a goal line receiver, basically, Dave.

And I think this stat could be pretty important. True, but let's not lose side of the fact that Mahomes last year, despite playing only 14 games and he got hurt, I think fairly early on in one of those games, was tied for fifth among quarterbacks and touchdowns inside the five with nine. So not a huge number. And I get what you're saying. Really?

Yeah. I don't know. Rushing or? No, no, no. That's passing. Okay. Strictly passing touchdowns. He had nine of them inside the five.

Yeah. All right. Well, his efficiency has been much worse and the touchdowns have been down in recent years. Like he's 22nd in completion rate inside the five yard in the last two years. The first six seasons of his career, he was second in completion rate. He was also top five. and pass attempts inside five, which is a pretty big factor too.

If he's having all these opportunities, yet he's inefficient, he can still score touch shots. You do have to wonder, and first of all, it sounds so silly to me to have Patrick Mahomes as a sleeper. Like those two words do not go together. But his value in drafts is so good that I can't help but want to take him

with a middle of the late round pick. And that's where he's been going in drafts. And you do have to wonder how Kenneth Walker's arrival could impact just how many past attempts he does get inside the five. And that does hurt his case. So there you go. Part of your devil's advocate case for Mahomes, I made it for you. You're welcome.

You know what? I was focusing on Rice with this step, but we can jump right into the Mahomes sleeper thing. But Jamie, you want to get a word in about Rishu Rice potentially being that guy. Maybe there's some hidden fantasy value that we didn't even kind of factor in for right. I shouldn't say that.

But it's like a little sneaky that he could be that, that reliable touchdown guy from Mahomes? I think that, first of all, probably three separate categories here. I think for Rice, it's pretty easy to see how good he can be if he just stays on the field. So you have a really crappy receiving court in its entirety on paper. It's awful. And so, aside from Rice, you know, you have Worthy who has yet to do anything. You have Kelsey who's 36.

You have Tyquon Thornton, who is what he is. you know, Cyrus Allen's getting a lot of buzz, understandably so. Everybody else probably stinks. So they need Rashi Rice to be healthy and to be on the field if they don't add anybody else. Mahomes, I agree with Dave, that it's, so I struggled this, you know, my sleepers, I've already done two versions of sleepers. Like, once you get past, like, the quarterbacks that everybody is going to draft, I think, top 13, 14-ish guys, you know, and Mahomes kind of toes that line a little bit. like anybody sees these guys late, they're going to draft them if they have the ability

to carry two quarterbacks, their rosters are deep enough. Like, why would you not take Patrick Mahomes be just sitting there with what he can be? Well, okay. We'll talk about Mahomes a second, but I think the point that Dave made about Kenneth Walker is the most telling here about this entire thing. They were 32nd and running the ball last year. They stunk. They could not do anything on the ground.

And that's what their entire offseason has been. You have Mahomes coming off of his knee injury. they need to take pressure off of him, at least in the early part of the season. So it's going to be Walker, it's going to be DeMercado, it's going to be Johnson, it's going to be whatever they get out of Breschard Smith, probably more of a special team's guy than anything else. But they now have entirely revamped their run game. And hopefully for the better if you're in on Kenneth Walker.

But still, Mahomes is going to be a solid fantasy quarterback. It's just to what extent. And again, we'll get into this, but will he run as much? And that's the biggest concern, because, coming off the two ligament tears in his knee, ACL and MCL. Like, is he going to still be able to produce like that? And that's the concern. And that was a week 15 injury, too.

It was late in the season for him. I think ACL and LCL. Two ligaments. Sorry, if I got it. Two ligaments. Jamie, can you talk about the difference between the LCL and the MCL? No, I don't. Let me call Marty.

Because I certainly can't. All right, we'll get into the Homes in a second. Just a quick little promo here. Tomorrow is our Scott Turner episode. He's coming back on. He was such a great guest last month. One of the things he said was that Brock Bowers may be the best player he's ever coached. Really resonated with me.

He talked about DJ Moore. We asked him about all the guys that, a lot of the guys that he had coached, DJ Moore, Christian McCaffrey, Garrett Wilson, Brock Bowers, et cetera. And so he's a former offensive coordinator. It was most recently the passing game coordinator for the Jets. He came on and was so good that. we decided to have them back. So if you have any questions for Scott, I think I have four so far through email. Send us an email at Fantasy Football at CBSI.com. Fantasy Football at CBSI.com.

Put Scott Turner a question in the subject line and we will try to read them on tomorrow show. Wednesday, do these stats matter? Thursday and Friday, of course, we have episodes, but we also have a CBS Sports Network episode 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday on CBS Sports Network. So big week for us. Devil's advocate on Patrick Mahomes as a sleeper. First of all, he's going about QB 13 or 14, 13 in Fantasy Pros ADP, 14 in CBS ADP. So about 105th to 120th or something like that in ADP. Let's call him around 9, 10, 11 pick.

Let's say round 10. Is there any case you want to make for him as a sleeper, Dave, that you haven't already made? he averaged over 23 fantasy points per game and six point last year in his first six games without Rishi Rice, that was over 28 fantasy points per game. I still view him as one of the best throwers in the NFL. I know he had a bunch of rushing stats last year. And I think push comes to shove. He will take off and run if he has to.

I don't think the rushing yardage and the rushing touchdowns will be as good as it's been in the past because of the knee injury, because of the opportunities or lack thereof because the run game should be better this year. But he's still one of the best. quarterbacks. And really, it's all about the ADP. The fact that we're getting him so much later than so many other quarterbacks, I don't even care. Like if I've already, if I draft Josh Allen in round three or four, I will, I will still

draft Mahomes later and have both those guys sit one on the bench. What's the downside that Mahomes averages 21 fantasy points per game? We've seen that from them in 2023 and 2024. That's still decent. That's still, okay, by week quarterback, maybe somebody gets hurt and I can trade Mahomes. and the offense is going to be better this year. I think they'll be a little bit more balanced, so not as relying on him overall,

but still for a opponent, and I disagree with this notion that it's a bad receiving core. I think they're still good. Are they around middle of the pack? Sure, but. Who's good, though, besides Rice? We don't know what Worthy is because he got hurt last year. And if Worthy does his job right,

and if Rice draws attention, then I think Kelsey will be in one-on-one situations enough where he can be solid. Not good because he's almost 40, but solid. And then you've got Kenneth Walker and whoever else catching passes out of the backfield. I still want to give the benefit of the doubt to Andy Reid as far as play calling goes that he can make some things work. I think the offensive line, as long as they say healthy, I think they'll be able to protect Patrick Holmes a little bit better. Yeah, I think that this is going to be a league average group of pass catchers as a total with one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

And he's a force multiplier that makes them better than they are. Well, that's all well and good, Dave. But here comes the devil's advocate. Okay? I am a friend of the devils today. First of all, you're not going to see this on the graphic, but I don't really agree with you about, you know, this notion that he's such good value because he's still going basically the same,

Patch of Moehmus, basically the same ADP as Matthew Stafford. He's going ahead of Jared Gough. He's going ahead of Bo Nix. And these guys are also, you know, maybe not Nix, I don't know, but these are very good fantasy options. Trevor Lawrence isn't going that much further ahead of Patrick Mahom. So even though he's QB 13 or 14, he's still in a range of very good quarterbacks. I think that's a premium pick at the quarterback position.

Premium might be a strong word, but still a valuable pick of the quarterback position. Okay, why devil's advocate? He was quarterback five per game last year in six point per passing touchdown leagues, but he averaged 30 rushing yards per game. By far a career high. He's usually more like 21 rushing yards per game. and now he's coming off a torn ACL and XCL or LCL, whatever the heck it was, in week 15. So definitely going to be less than 30 rushing guards per game, might be less than 20 rushing guards per game.

Last three seasons, he's been a good quarterback. He's been sixth in yards. He's been ninth in touchdowns per game, passing touchdowns. But ninth in fantasy points per game. And before last year, Q be 9 per game, Q be 10 per game, and 6 point, Q be 12 per game, could be 11 per game, in 4 point in 20, 3 and 2020. for. Why? Because of the lack of big plays. The explosive plays are just gone. The past attempts of 20 more air yards, just not good anymore. Is it all his fault? Definitely not. But we need to see

that change. Maybe Xavier Worthy will be the key to that. I don't know. I don't think Tyquan Thornton is the answer. And then my last note here, receiving court, not that great. You guys already went over it. You have differing opinions on that, but they didn't really add much other than Cyrus Allen to the receiving court. So what does he do this year? If he's not rushing, is he still like QB10, QB11, which he was in 2023 and 2024? Also, think about the amount of plays that Patrick Mahomes makes off schedule because of his mobility. You know, does he have to stay in the pocket more this year? Is that a problem?

So I just think, I think the knee injury could be a big issue for him. And if you look at two of the last three years, you're barely, based on how we finished in 20203 and 2024, you're barely getting any value on him at QB 13 overall. So that's my argument for Patrick Mahomes as a sleeper. I don't think he's going late enough. I think you're drafting him pretty close to his floor. And that's what makes him exciting. You mentioned some of those quarterbacks,

Trevor Lawrence, who I would take ahead of Mahomes this year. Malmonds has been better on a per game basis each of the last three years. Jared Goff, two of the last three years, Mahomes has been better. Who else did you name in that? Stafford. Two of the last three years, has been better. Obviously, Stafford last year was really, really good.

Guess what? He was about two and a half points per game better than Mahomes in 2020. But so much of it was rushing. 30 rushing yards per game. No, no, no. I heard you when you said it. But the idea that Petra Mahomes is about to become Kirk Cousins is mystifying to me. I don't think that that's what's going to happen. This is the leopard doesn't change his spots. And while he might not, he may stay in the pocket a tad longer. he may hesitate a little bit to run with the ball when things break down. But he's a gamer at heart. All these guys are. And I would be surprised if his rushing yardage goes from 30 to zero.

If it goes from 30 to 20, no one's going to be surprised. If it goes from 30 to 15 per game, all right, I'm shedding a point per game. That's a lot. It's a problem. But again, it's still a quarterback that we're drafting in close to the double digit rounds at his literal floor. And what if, Adam? What if the receiving quarterback? stays healthy, Mahom stays mobile,

he still has a good arm. The efficiency on deep passing gets a little bit better. You're getting a steal. He's such a great quarterback just in general that I don't mind taking the chance on him with a late round pick. Okay. Yeah, by the way,

again, I'm just playing devil's advocate. So don't necessarily. No, you're not. I know this is how you really feel. No, I mean, look, I think there's some positives that I didn't mention because the devil wouldn't let me mention it. But he's been really like the play action efficiency has been a lot worse.

And I think that's going to, that's going to improve. Especially with Walker there. Absolutely. I think there's a fun one for you. He gets Biena me back as his offense coordinator. Yeah. Sure.

During their time together, he averaged over 28 fantasy points for him. Yeah. But I just, there's been one year in his career, is 2022, where Juju Smith-Schuster was their best receiver. Emma Holmes was great.

Other than that, it's been Prime Kelsey and Tyreek Hill. and that, you know, those guys aren't walking through that door. And honestly, he hasn't even been that much better when Rishi Rice. In fact, you could argue he's been worse when Rishie Rice has been on the field. I don't even know that Rishie Rice is that good for him because it causes Mahomes to just have a six-yard A-DOT, basically. Although that's the big thing. I want to mention that.

Last year, the A-DOT went back up. The explosive plays got a little bit better. And he did improve. He needs to be throwing the ball downfield more because 20-23 and 4, just too much dink and dunk. All right. I think is, I mean, for the record, if you care, I think you make a good point about Mahomes being a sleeper. Just, I don't think he's going to be fifth per game necessarily, but,

it's in the range of outcomes. I suppose. They're going to have to hit more explosive plays for that to happen. Yeah. All right, let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll go through some news. Stop doing backflips, Cam Scadaboo. We'll be right back on FAA.

All right, welcome back. News and notes. Cam Scadaboo did another backflip to prove how healthy he was. and he didn't stick the landing. And I just don't get it. Why would you do that, dude? But apparently he's okay. Do you see who was on the dais with?

No, I didn't. It was Jackson Dart and two of our friends from the fantasy footballers. No kidding. Yeah, they asked him the question that everybody's been circulating, his answer. Oh, how is he doing? About doing the backflips.

Oh, what did he say? What did Scatibu say? Yeah. Essentially, like, I'm going to continue to do it. Oh, okay. I'm not going to get hurt before the season starts. Yeah, well, yeah, almost did.

I guess then I should say that Andy Holloway of the footballers is going to be in the FFT Open if anybody wants to play against him. He was not there. Because he's preparing for the F50 Open. It's taking it very seriously. More on that. We'll talk about that later in the week. Former Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald is working out to see if he's in shape to play

this season, according to Bleacher Report. Good article on CBSports.com on our NFL arena. It's just an injury update on some of the key players who are entering training camp with some type of injury question and what their status looks like. So a few big ones here, Green Bay linebacker Micah Parsons could miss a chunk of the season. And that could actually, I think, be fantasy relevant because that could mean worse defense, more passing, and that's what we need from Jordan Love. I have what should be the layup of all layup bets with our friend Pete Pirsko. Oh, what are we got?

So Pete in his top 100 had Michael Parsons ahead of Will Anderson. I didn't agree with that one. No. I said because Will Anderson has two healthy legs right now. They were healthy. It's a different story. So we have a bet whose guys more sacks this season. So the longer Michael Parsons miss, not sacks per game.

Total sacks. Why would he make that bet? Because he thinks that Michael Parsons is going to come back and be a game worker. So, he could. He could, yeah, but that's a bad bet. Congratulations. He's counting on Will Anderson's, you know, he hasn't hit that high-end sack number yet.

All right. Interesting. Okay. I feel pretty good about that one. And then a couple other defensive notes, two safeties for the lions, Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch. They don't really have a timetable.

They could miss big chunks of the season, especially Branch. And again, we want, we love bad defense, more passing. Philadelphia rookie wide receiver, Mackay Lemon said he'll be full go for the start of training camp. He's recovering from a hamstring injury.

And Baltimore signs center Ethan Posick. Dave, he's coming off of torn Achilles. He's a veteran center. They need a center. Is he guaranteed to be the starter for the Ravens? What's the deal here with Ethan Posey? I would imagine that if he's healthy and ready to go, or even if he's like 85%, he can beat out, you know,

former Colt starter Danny Pinter for that job. But it's just a hunch. I don't know. Pinter's a decent officer. offensive lineman himself. So I guess that's one of those spots that we'll see on. But the rest of that offensive line for Baltimore really isn't that bad win healthy. On paper, it's actually a pretty decent front five.

Okay. Adam, I know you've just been watching Kim Skada, do flips over and over again. And I asked you this last week about Marvin Harrison. Did you see the photo of Travis Hunter? No. So go look at it quickly, see how Travis Hunter looks. Then you can compare it to Marvin Harrison. But while you're looking at that, apparently Trevor Lawrence took his entire receiving

court to go throw except for one person. Travis Hunter? Please don't say Parker Washington. Please don't say Parker Washington. Brian Thomas, apparently not there. Oh. Yeah, I don't know what to search here. I just type Travis Hunter's shirtless pick on my work laptop.

Yeah, yeah. I might get a call from HR today. So I didn't see anything. Did you click on the phone number I told you to use? yesterday, by the way? No. What was that? I'm pretty sure that was our producer's phone number.

So Thomas is out today. Our other producer, Sam, is Sam Davis is producing this week. And I didn't have Sam's phone number because he's relatively new. And Jamie gave a phone number and a group chat said, this is Sam's number. And I was like, there's just no way that, like, I didn't believe you for one second. So who's number one thing? You don't have to just tap it and you'll see who it is. No, it's going to call the person.

No, it's not. I'm a little lost in my texts here. You want me to do this? Yeah, who is it? Who is it? I'll do it right now. Hold on. All right.

Meanwhile, let's get into some devil's advocate, starting with Jamie. Sam, this is your number, right? Okay. All right. Get at no chance. That was Sam. Yeah, right. Sam, we'll see who it is.

All right. Anyway, Jamie, you have Devon A. Chan as a bust. You're going to make your bus case, and I'm going to play Devil's Advocate. What's your bus case for Devon A. Chan, who is a second round pick right now going about 16th overall. The Dolphin Stink. You done? Yeah, I'm good.

All right, let's go, let's go. The devil didn't want to wait because guess what? They stunk last year, too. They were, first of all, they were 30th in pass attempts. So he still was able to catch passes there in that environment. And, yeah, they were, what, they were like 20th in scoring or something like that? I don't even remember. They were really bad.

First of all, he is so good, but the devil's advocate case. He's so good. I gave this stat a couple weeks ago that Jemir Gibbs' average 1.5 fantasy points per touch since coming into the NFL. Well, so has Devon A-chan. And that is insanely good. That is better than the very best of Ladanian Tomlinson and Priest Holmes back in the day. They had a bad offense in 2025.

And then I have this line here, Bueller, Bueller, which is my way of saying, who else? There's no one else on the team. You want to talk about the chiefs being bad? This is the worst team in football other than Devon H.N. He's the only guy. And 2023, Brees Hall is an inspiration. He was the number two running back in PPR overall, number six per game, number five per game and half PPR.

he had 76 catches that year. The Jets were 30th in points per game. They had Garrett Wilson on the team, but 168 targets. They did throw a lot, 35.4 past 10s per game. That's just an example of a running back on a terrible offense who had a really good year.

Jonathan Taylor also did it on a really bad offense as well. So that's my devil's advocate case for Devon A. Chan. He's too good. The offense was bad last year. Breast Hall's done it on a really bad offense. And there's just no one else on the team.

He's going to get every touch. everyone. It's obviously a hope is that he's going to get every touch. But the concerns would be twofold. One, their projected wind total is four and a half in Vegas. And so that leads you to believe they're not going to score very much and the touchdown opportunities are not going to be there for him. So that's hard to trust that he's going to get into the end zone on the ground, probably overall. You know what the numbers have been. We talked about this a lot with Tua, without Tua. So over the last two years, he's almost 10 points. per game worse without two of Tunga Vailoa on the field. Ten fantasy points per game worse without two on the field. That's amazing.

The targets per game, nearly three per game less, without Tua on the field the last two seasons. And Malik Willis is going to be most likely the small sample size that we have, fewest target percentage to running backs as a passer. That is probably not going to change very much. Now, maybe it does with some design plays to Devon H. because the receiving court is so bad, it's just a very bad environment for him. And so I think if you're getting him in round two,

his upside as a player just by himself is still potentially worth it. But then you just have to weigh it against who else is around him. So he's going to go in that group of running backs of Chase Brown, Ken Walker, Ashton Genty, Omarian Hampton, Derek Henry, Seyquan Barkley, and obviously pros and cons for all of those guys can either be better or worse than H&D, depending on how you want to look at it.

But this could just be one of those situations where this team is so unbelievably awful that his numbers are just not going to excel and exceed to what the expectations are for where you're drafting him. So I'm just a little bit concerned. I think round two is still a good spot for him. I have still seen some cases where he goes in round one. I hate it. It just makes me sick to see him go ahead of James Cook in some cases, Chase Brown.

in some cases, some of these other guys. I just can't make the argument that he's better than those guys. So just given the circumstance. If he was on any other team, any other team, I think he's got top five upside overall, top five player overall upside because we've seen it. But I just don't think that happens this year. They were 25th in scoring last year.

I'm sorry I was looking for that number. You do, Jamie, have A-chanis, your RB7. So behind Chase Brown. I continue to slide. Yeah, right now is still ahead of Walker, Hampton, Gentie, Berkeley, Henry. I'm obviously conflicted. guys that I'm conflicted on here, even though I'm going to make the devil's advocate case, you know, I'm nervous as hell about A-chan, Dave, because here's another thing. I mean,

what if he has some minor injury late in this season, you know? They're almost certainly not going to make the playoffs. I'd be surprised if they were in it, like in the mix. They could easily shut him down. I don't usually play that game, but they could be the worst team in football. They have incentive to shut him down. So where do you come out on him at 16th overall for A. Chan, Dave? Too high, too low, or is that porage just right? I've got him higher, and it's not with a ton of confidence. It's more like, who else am I going to take when I get to the one-two turn that I think has the potential to deliver 16 ppr points per game. And I settled on that number because, A, what Jamie said about Malik Willis's running back target rate, it's very true.

It's very low. 13.1% in the pros, 9.1% in college. This is typical with running quarterbacks. They don't like to check it down. But also Bobby Sloick, when he was in Houston, running backs had a 16. percent target share. So it's not going to be high. And we're coming off of a year where he caught 67 passes, almost 500 yards, four touchdowns. That made up about 43 percent of his total PPR point value in 2025. That's scary to think about. And I don't know, I'd have to go back and double

check. I'd want to fact check those stats that he's 10 points per game worse without two of, but I do know. It's insane. Yeah. No, last year was 4.7. And, he averaged 20.8 with Tua, and then 16.1 in two games, tiny sample size, without Tua Tua Vailoa. So I'm thinking that he can get to around 16 PPR points per game. And if I'm drafting them at that number, who am I looking at that's going to be better than that? I agree 100% with Jamie. I think James Cook is going to be better than that. I think Chase Brown will be right around there.

I feel a little bit better about Chase Brown and his offensive environment than I do. Devon A. Chan, sub two targets per game. game. But some of the receivers that we've talked about, you can poke some holes in. And I think I'd rather just take the chance on Achan having a bunch of breakout games. I'm with you, Adam. I don't think about late season benching because of a minor injury or anything like that. He's still just a rare talent. And as long as he's healthy through training camp, I do think this Dolphins offense will put up points in some of their games. I don't think that they're going to be so bad that they're going to be held to three and 10 points most weeks. could be some garbage time mixed in. But I think Devon A-chan is still worthy of being a top-15, top-16 pick as of now. There aren't enough wide receivers that I look at and go, yeah, I got to take him ahead of Devon A-chan for sure. All right. And then the last devil's advocate point, I guess I'd say, is all the stats you guys gave about Malik Willis not throwing to his running backs.

Bobby Sloick, the now offensive coordinator for the Dolphins, not throwing to his running backs in Houston. Malik Willis was playing with Derek Henry and Josh Jacobs. Bobby Sloak, one year, he did have Joe Mixon, who had 52 target. it's in 14 games, which isn't bad. That's just pretty good for Mixen. And the other year he had like Devin Singletary and Damian Pierce. So it's just Achan's a different animal. If you don't throw to him, then you're insane.

But it's not that they're not going to throw, just not going to throw to him as much. Yeah. And you're talking about, so this is, I saw this in fantasy points data. So this is running back favoritism, a graphic that they had early in July, 224, 2025, Tua first in this category,

Malika Willis last in this category. Like there's no way, and you're right Adam. It's who he was throwing to, but it's also who was throwing to A Chan. So it's like there's, he couldn't get any different in terms of the profiles for the two quarterbacks. Yes. Yes, it's true. One guy runs a lot. One guy can't move.

But I just, I'm curious to see. This is an interesting experiment, right? This is kind of like the tight end thing with, you know, Trey McBride. I'm sorry, blanking on the name. Petzing, right. How did I blank on that name? But is it a personnel thing? Is it a tendency thing?

Because what is Malik Willis going to do when his best receiver by far is his running back? I would assume he's going to have a career high RB target rate. If he doesn't, he's insane. All right. Next one, Dave Devante Adams is a bust for you. And, oh, am I going to devil's advocate the crap out of you on this one? but what's your bust case for Adams? Almost 40% of his PPR total in 2025 came from the 14 touchdowns that he had.

I have a hard time believing he's going to match that number. And I think the ADP is just a little too high. I recognize he's still one of the better wide receivers in this league. You can go watch his film from week nine. There are plenty of examples on there. Just I picked a random week to see it. You could probably see it any week. He can still get open.

He's got some great cuts. We know he's not the de facto number one wide receiver. And we know he's more of a. red zone threat. But I just imagine that the touchdowns are going to go down. The targets have gone down each of the last two years for him. His PPR points per game total has gone down just as much. It's like two targets per game and two fantasy points per game down each the last two years. We know he's 34 years old. He's going to turn 34 this season. There's just there's a lot of downside that has to be baked into Devante Adams. And I feel like his ADP is just

too high. It's too rich for somebody who can still be good and can still contribute to fantasy leagues, but just not to the point where people are, are drafting them and picking them up at right now. All right. Oh, I'm so excited. Like, his ADP on fantasy pros last I looked was late round four. No. I'd go a full round later. Uh, okay.

Yeah, you're right. But he's wide receiver 24. So late round four, I don't know. I mean, I just think at wide receiver 24, and I actually believe this, I think that's actually fine for Devante. Adams. Here's my devil's advocate case for him. He's also wide receiver 28, by the way, in CBS ADP. Okay, no target competition at it. He's still, because he actually was on pace for 138 targets last year. 81.6% catchable target rate. That's really bad. One of the lowest of his career.

And he had a high A dot for him. So that's part of it. But he and Stafford, as good as a year that Adams had, It's wide receiver nine per game in PPR. They were not on the same page all the time. They didn't have great chemistry, it seemed. I feel like the catchable target rate's going to go up. He still gets open. ESPN had Devante Adams with the 14th best open score. Dave just talked about, watched the film.

He gets open. Fantasy point status suite, I believe, had him number one overall in separation. And he is a touchdown machine. We know that. Eight or more touchdowns in nine of the last 10 seasons. And eight or more touchdowns in nine straight seasons when he's played at least 12 games.

So I'm going to throw out a number at you here. I looked at all of the examples of a wide receiver catching eight or more touchdowns in the last decade. And I came up with a number of 13.4 PPR fantasy points per game. That is the basically wide receiver 24 per game in 2024 was like 14.4. And in 2025, it was about 12.4. So I picked 13.4 as wide receiver 24. Let's just say that because that's his ADP. 86% of wide receivers who have caught eight or more touchdowns over the last decade

have averaged 13.4 or more PPR fantasy points per game. 86%. 92% of wide receivers who have caught 10 or more touchdowns have averaged 13.4 or more points per game. He's basically Derek Henry as a wide receiver. So that's my argument for DeBonte Adams. I think wide receiver 24 is perfectly fine. Jamie? I think you're right about that.

I don't think anybody would love to draft him in round four, so you're both probably coming at it from the right perspective of, A, the ADP for Fantasy Pros is just pushing up wide receivers a little bit too much, and B, wide receiver 24 is the right range for it. I think I have them 26, 25, 26 in that range. So I'm perfectly fine with that if you're just going to be chasing wide receivers. I think you'd probably find some other players,

and that's range round-wise that are probably a little bit better or safer. but look, the biggest thing for me with Devanti Adams, yes, the touchdowns were the reason why he was a good fantasy receiver last year. He had 15 total when you factor in the playoffs. He also missed a couple of games too. So still very impressive with how much he was able to find the end zone. 44th in receptions, 60-something in receiving yards. Like it was awful for him. I think it was 60-something.

You know, just, I'm sorry, it was 34th in receiving yards, 44th in reception. Just awful. That number will improve. The biggest thing for me was they were potentially in on Devante Smith. They were potentially in on a wide receiver at 16 where they took Ty Simpson, and they didn't do anything. And so they still, obviously, then they were talking about maybe trading, you know, Devante Adams, if you believe the reports, they still have faith in him. And so the fact that it's Puka and Adams and Stafford and that group still together intact

without anything to really crack it aside from a second round or third round tight end that they drafted, like this is still one of their guys. And anytime you're one of Sean McVeigh's guys, that gives you some ability to be productive. Now we've seen Cooper Cup fall off. We saw Robert Woods fall off. We've seen guys when they get older, they don't necessarily produce the same level.

It's understandable. And as Dave said, I believe his birthday is December. So you're going to get the majority of season with him. Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve will be 34. So you're going to get the majority of him at 33, not 34. Oh, great. But still, it's at that cost, I'm perfectly fine with it.

If it was, you know, he's still wide receiver 15 and people are chasing it because of the touchdowns, I'd be completely out. But I think in this spot, I'm okay with it. Okay. All right, we're going to take a break. We have three more players to talk about. Players we love.

Jamie loves Zay Flowers this year. Dave loves Omari and Hampton. I'm going to play devil's advocate, not loving that. And Sleepers, we got one more, Kenny Gainwell for Jamie. Although I put Kenneth Gainwell in the notes. So maybe we're talking about two completely different players. We'll be right back on FFT. Jamie loves Zay Flowers.

is coming off an awesome year where he was wide receiver 12 per game with only five touchdowns and 17 games actually did have a rushing touchdown as well. All right, why do you love Zay Flowers? Let me give you his ADP real quick. Zay Flowers is wide receiver 15 going 35th overall. I think it's a good spot for him. I mean, you look at this offense, this receiving core, another one, you know, similar to the Chiefs, you take, you take Zay Flowers off the field and it's another one that's just completely miserable.

But we'll see what the two rookie receivers do. and obviously Rashad Bateman still has maybe something left to offer. But it's really just about, you know, building off of what he did last year. I know this is more of a Heath guy than my guy, but still very excited about him as well. You look at the games when Lamar Jackson was healthy from week nine on. Top 10 in receiving yards, top 10 yards after catch, top 10s yards per route run. Yeah, top 10 yards per catch. I think there's more to offer.

It really comes down to can he catch more touchdowns. And that's hopefully going to be a Declan Doyle. thing because the touchdowns have been capped at five. But I think we're going to see a little bit more of a more volume in the passing game. I think that's something probably that Lamar Jackson wanted. And I think that kind of is where the two heads budded in terms of Harbaugh and Lamar and keep sort of things status quo. But I'm excited about Zayflowers.

I think taking him in late round three is worth it. Yeah, he's he's so good. I mean, it's tough to make a case against him because he's obviously one of the most talented receivers. But here we go. Speaking on behalf of my friend, B. Elzebub, it's devil's advocate on Zayflowers. Number one, he's had 120 targets roughly, two straight seasons with very, very different results, number 36 per game two years ago, and number 12 per game last year. Next up, lack of green zone and end zone targets.

And there's kind of a reason why Zay Flowers has struggled. He doesn't, to score touchdowns. He doesn't get targeted where it counts. Catch rate regression. So this is the argument that Heath likes to make. That his catch rate in three seasons has been, you know, really, really good twice. And, okay, 71%, 64%, 73%. I think it might go down.

Because you have to factor in the A dot here. And he had an A dot in between 11 and 12 yards and looking at guys that have to, that kind of a dot, it's pretty rare to find a guy with a 73% catch rate. So I think if he keeps that a dot, I think the catch rate's going to go down. And fourth one is just not enough pass volume. I know Jamie just said that you think the Ravens are going to throw more, and they probably will. And Heath keeps talking about that, that even last year, they were low, just, you know, from a

Lamar Jackson standpoint. But there's only been one year in his career where the Ravens were not bottom five in past attempts, and Jackson got hurt that year. So they're not going to throw in a lot. And it's still very hard in PPR to finish, you know, top 12 even on a team that's bottom five in passing, in pass attempts. So those are my cases against Dave Flowers. There's nothing to do with him as a player. It's just like, I don't know that, I don't know that he's going to have a 30% target share again.

And I made my case. Dave, go ahead. he's not going to. And I do expect the Ravens to be a little less run reliant than they've been in the past. But I think they're going to use tight ends quite a bit. And they've added some bigger physical wide receivers in the draft. And I think that's by design. I think they want to be a bigger, tougher team.

And Declan Doyle, we don't know how he's going to be as a play caller. His tendency has been to lean on tight ends, or at least he's been around people who's leaned on tight ends. We saw that in Chicago last year. Denver and New Orleans before that when he was with Sean Payton. And I don't know how many games we're going to see Baltimore chasing points and trailing in. And that's usually when we see Zay Flowers at his best. It's very rare when we see Zay Flowers and Derek Henry putting up big fantasy points in the same week. I think it's 10 games in the last two years when they both had 14 plus PPR.

No, it's 10 with any running back. It's nine when it's just Derek Henry. When 14 plus for both the running back in Baltimore and Zay Flowers as well, he's been close to seven targets per game each of the last three seasons. I don't know if he's necessarily going to get over. And if he is, it's not going to be by that much. And I just, I think he's a good fantasy receiver and a great NFL receiver, but because the volume isn't going to go bonkers, I just, I can't take them as a round

three pick. I think there are too many other wide receivers that I would rather have in that range, especially in full PPR. It might be different if we're talking catch is not counting. But because of that volume being a limiting factor is work inside the. five being a limiting factor. I think there's other directions I'd go in. I'm nitpicking a little bit,

but I think he's a round four pick, not around three. Okay. Yeah, he's an interesting player, and we talked about him a lot, I think last week as well. We can move on here. That's Dave Flowers.

Let's go to the players that we love, player we love for Dave. Omarian Hampton. All right. He's his second round pick. He's right there with Devon A. Chan. Ken Walker.

In fact, he's going ahead of Devon A. Chan is RB7. So Genti is RB5, James Cook is RB6, and Omari Ann Hampton is RB7 in Fantasy Pro's ADP. Why do you love Omari and Hampton before you answer? Let me give you CBS ADP. He's RB, 123, 45, 6, 7, 8, 9, Rb 9 going 15th overall. Let's call him an early second round pick. He's got the play caller.

They made Devon A. Chan, a stud. He's got an offensive line that might be considered the best in the national football league asterisk. They have to stay healthy, but as of now, they are healthy or expected to be healthy for the start of training camp. He's very capable of contributing in the passing game. He averaged three and a half targets per game in nine games last year. He had better efficiency as a rookie than a bunch of other veterans, including his avoided tackle rate, 25.8 percent. Third best among qualifying running back, because only B. John and Kenneth Walker, the third, had better avoid tackle rates than Amari and Hampton last year. And it's a tough

schedule, but it's not as tough as what the Raiders are going to have. I know a lot of people are going to compare Hampton to Gentie and where they go with a pick with one of those guys in early round two. But I think Hampton's the better pick. I'm not that worried about Keaton Mitchell and the posters around the Chargers front office saying that they want Keaton Mitchell or Kamani Vidal. I think Hampton's going to prove to be the best running back of that group. And I think he's going to earn a bunch of volume in McDaniel's exciting but slow-paced offense.

and certainly in games where the Chargers have a lead, we're going to see Hampton have a bunch of opportunities to break off big runs and to score a bunch of touchdowns. I could see it happening. Last but at least, the track record for McDaniels and obviously the catching that running backs do plays a big part in this stat. But the last three years, running backs have had at least 15 ppr points per game

in 15, 11, and 12 games when McDaniel's been calling plays. It's Achan. That's an Achan stat, but the play caller for Hampton now is the guy that made Achan a stud. and I'm expecting that to continue on, maybe not to the tune of five targets per game, but three and a half targets per game, which is where he was last year,

with a more passive play caller, man, I could see that going up a little bit, and he could get four targets per game and really come through and be a good past catching running back on top of everything else he does as the lead running back for a playoff contending Chargers team. Yeah, I've gone back and forth on Hampton, because I see some warts,

but I'm going to get your thoughts. Because here comes the devil's advocate on Amari and Hampton. Did he have one good game last year? He averaged three point, I should emphasize that a little bit differently. Did he have one good game last year? Only one? He averaged 3.7 yards per carry last year if he removed the game against the Giants who were arguably the worst run defense in football.

Let's talk about his pedigree. Other first round pick running backs in the NFL draft. He was drafted 22nd overall. Here are some running backs in the last 10 years. here are the running backs in the last 10 years, who were drafted 20 to 32 in the NFL draft. Rashad Penny, Sony Michelle, Josh Jacobs, Clyde Edwards, E. Lear,

Najee Harris, Travis E.T.N. Just worth noting that just because you're a first round pick, it does not mean you are going to be great. My next point, more competition than his peers, question mark. So A-chan doesn't really have any competition. I think Gentie's going to destroy, you know, dominate carries in that back wheel. Barclay's going to play almost every down.

Derek Henry is not going to play in passing down, but he's the guy. I'm hopeful for that for Hampton, but I do wonder, because they started out last year splitting with Najee Harris. They ended last year splitting with Kamani Baidel, and I wonder what that's going to look like. And then finally, is Mike McDaniel overrated for running backs? Might surprise you in five seasons with McDaniel as a head coach or a coordinator. His teams have been 15th, 22nd, first, 18th, and 18th. eighth in rushing yards, 20th, 17th, first, 17th, and 13th in rushing touchdowns.

So only two years better than 17th in touchdowns. They actually don't run that much. They don't run a lot of plays, typically, Mike McDaniel offenses. They are very efficient, though, as lead running backs almost always average at least four and a half yards per carry. But he's also not opposed to a split, which we've seen with Moster, which we've seen with Jeff Wilson. So some thoughts there.

Jamie, your thoughts on Omari and Hampton. then he's on the charger, so you probably love him. I do love him. I think, you know, getting, first off, he played four games with Joe Alt, no games with Rashon Slater. So that's a big part of what to like about this scenario here for him. I do think we're going to get a split. You know, the wanted posters that Dave alluded to, you know, was Mike McDaniels in the free agent

process saying he wanted Keaton Mitchell. So to what degree we see from Keaton Mitchell, I don't think it's going to be anything that should scare you off from Amaran Hampton. But the biggest, I think, attraction to him is kind of what we're just talking about with A-chan is the role in the passing game. Because Hampton's going to be their guy on obvious rushing downs. I don't think Kamani-Vidal. To me, Kamani-Vidal is, it's one of those backfields where Mitchell will be a potential

flex option if they use him, like I think a lot of people that are in the pro-Mitchell can't think that he's going to be the pass-catcher. I think if Hampton misses time again, Vidal's the clear handcuff. He's the one that takes that role. I don't think Mitchell takes that role. So if you're looking at it, like I want to handcuff Amarian Hampton,

it's take Kavanaugh, Kvani Weidal with a late-round pick. But I don't think Vidal matters so much in tandem with Hampton. I don't think we're going to see three guys. Now, you reference Mike McDaniel and what he's done. The last two years of Devon A-chan's fantasy production

have been ridiculous. And then you go to, the early part of the Dolphins tenure, and it was an 18 touchdown season, 18 rushing touchdowns for Rahim Moster. So we've seen two different versions of two different style of running backs that Mike McDaniels gotten great fantasy production out of. And that's kind of the hope for Hampton. And so, yes, he did not look great at times last year.

And other times he looked like, oh, okay, I could see why he's going to be explosive and potential and all those things. And I think right before the foot injury, you started to see that because Najee Harris had already gotten hurt and it was start of, you know, what could have been the, the, the, breakout season for him in his rookie campaign. So I'm excited about him. I think there's going to be a lot to love. Now, again, you're comparing him to very good, in some cases, great running back situations.

Like you said, Barclay, role in the passing game improves, offensive line improves. Easy to take him over, Martin Hampton if you're guaranteed those things. Gentie, I think everybody's looking at, okay, he was the better prospect. And now, Linderbaum, Colton Miller healthy, better coach, better quarterback play, like all those things pointing in his direction. He's the one I struggle with the most. we've had that conversation many times, Hampton versus Gentie. Walker, I think, is in a better spot than Hampton,

just because of the team that he's going to and the resume that he's bringing with him. And then you can factor in Derek Henry and what he's still capable of doing. So all those guys that are going to be in that round two range, if you want to throw Chase Brown in there too, you can chop it up, pros and cons for what Ameren Hampton does. But again, first round talent, great offense, at least, you know, going into the season, hopefully healthy offensive line.

I think all those things make Amarine Hampton a very attractive pick in round two. Yeah, the struggle, I think, is the guys you're passing up, right? Okay, if we've got a talented running back on a team that has a healthier offensive line and a guy who's going to play on third down and a guy with an offensive coordinator that we think is going to be better, am I talking about Amari and Hampton or am I talking about Sekewon Berkeley? Talking about both of them, right? And why would I take Hampton over Berkeley?

It's certainly fair. It's just, you know, one guy's 29 coming off a, you know, I don't want to say miserable season, but, you know, clearly failed to live up to expectations based on what he did in 2024 for Berkeley. Older offensive line with a lot of questions in terms of health after what we saw last year. And look, we like Sean Mannion and what he can do for this offense. I know what Mike Daniel can do. Hell yes. You know, so I'll lean toward the younger player and what I think is going to be a more explosive offense.

But look, you certainly can make a case for it. There are people that are, look, I'm out on Hampton. If I don't get them in round three, I'm not taking a round two, and I get it. You know, it's looking at production. But those same people are also taking Ashton Gentine in round one, and I don't get that either. You know, I think they're both round two picks. I think they're almost, you know, again, very similar in terms of coming off inconsistent rookie campaigns, injury, performance, all those things factoring into it. I just think there's a chance that we could see a huge leap for Hampton as well as a huge leap for Genton.

as well as a huge leap for Gentie. I don't know if we get that huge leap for Barclay back to what he was. Okay. Hampton was a tough one for me to play devil's advocate on because I think are a lot more positives than negatives. But let me just throw one more thing that I didn't have on the graphic. He, let me compare him to Isaiah Pacheco. Two years ago?

Why? Please don't do that. Two years ago for Pacheco, he gets a broken leg in season, early in the season, has surgery, comes back and hasn't been the same player since. I don't think Hampton had surgery, but he did have a- I don't think he had a broken leg. He had a broken ankle. It broke a foot, right?

I think it was a broken ankle. And came back, wasn't really great. Yeah, he broke his ankle in week five. Does that factor at all in for you guys that he broke his-in last year? He averaged almost the same amount of fantasy points per game in PPR when he came back from the injury as he did before the injury. I guess.

By the way, every game that he had a lot of catches was either without Najee Harris or without Kamani Vidal or with one of them leaving early last year. Yeah, look, he's not A-chan. Don't expect those type of passing numbers. Don't expect those times that type of passing production. But, again, you're hoping that it's McDaniel allowing Hampton to be an above-average fantasy pass-catcher. Forget about NFL pass-catcher, fantasy pass-catcher. So he may not do a lot of the things.

maybe even Keaton Mitchell can do. But as long as he can hold up in pass protection, it'll be on the field for third downs, at least a good portion of the third downs. This is not the type of player you take off the field, if he's doing everything right and if he's healthy. And so I think Mitchell will be maybe some hurry-up offense situations. I think he could be a guy that could be a somewhat much lesser version,

but a somewhat of a version for what Justin Herbert had early his career with Austin Eckler in those situations. Again, he's not going to do that, but that type of player. Look, Mitchell's explosive. And Mike McDaniel likes explosive players. We've seen that. We've seen how the Dolphins have drafted the last couple of years.

He obviously had a huge influence in that. So I don't know if you're going to get the, remember when Achan and Mostert were at their best, A Chan's rookie season? I don't think we're going to see that for those two guys. But I think there's a chance that Mitchell can surprise some people. I just think O'Mary Hampton is their guy. Yeah, oh, for sure, for sure.

All right. Daniels talked about easier completions for Herbert, so he's not over-reliant on big plays. So the quick game is going to absolutely be a factor. That means throws short. throws. That'll help guys like Ladd McConkey. There's no doubt, but it's going to be, it's going to involve the running backs too. And Hampton's going to get a piece of that. And I think Mitchell will be like a part-time player, maybe 15 snaps a game. They'll average anywhere between like three and

eight touches per game. All right. You're on the clock. You have to decide right now. Hampton or Chase Brown. Chase Brown. Hampton or Gentie. Hampton. Today it's, today at a 11.02 a.m. it's Hampton, but by 1122, it might be Gentie. I'm just about locked into Hampton over Gentie. At a higher PPR average last year, better consistency rate, better play caller, better offensive line, and he doesn't play the Chargers twice a year, like Gentie will. Hampton or Drake London? Hampton.

I think I'm going Hampton. Let's just take a look at who they're playing in Week 18, by the way. I'm curious, uh, faces the Broncos for a champ, Hampton faces the Broncos in week 18. So that's good. Nice.

Um, all right. Next one is Kenny Gainwell. Jamie has him as a sleeper. He's going around a hundredth overall. What's your sleeper case for Gainwell? Well, I mean,

Bucky Irving right now, hopefully he's got healthy, but still dealing with the shoulder injury that's lingered into the offseason remiss him time in mini camp. I think we see what Zach Robinson, would like to do where he gave over 100 targets to Bejan Robinson. Now, obviously, Kenneth Gamewell is not Bejohn Robinson, but this is an office coordinator that wants to get his running backs involved in the passing game.

And while Bucky Irving can do that and certainly prove that first and second down will be something where we'll still get opportunities to play in the passing game, Gainmell showed last year that he could be one of the best pass catchers at the position with over 70 receptions. So I'm a little bit nervous about Irving staying healthy. I'm a little bit nervous about Irving being involved in the passing game. I think Gainwell proved also that he could be better as a rusher after what he did in Pittsburgh last year as well, compared to maybe what he was early in his career. It's just an easy guy to take in PPR at this point because there's 50 catch potential.

You look at Baker Mayfield. I know all of it wasn't with Mayfield, but Rashad White, three years in a offense in this team of 50 plus catches, one of those years was Mayfield in 2024. I just think that we're going to get those easy reception totals from Gainwell, and that makes him an easy pick to take at this spot. And especially if Irving misses time, then we're looking at probably a tandem between him and Sean Tucker. and it may just be Gamewell because we saw GameMold what he did when he was the lead guy in Pittsburgh last season and a couple of games that Jalen Warren missed.

So for me, 100th overall is perfect for Kenneth Gamow. Okay, well, it's hard for me to play Devils Advocate if we have any concerns about Bucky Irving's availability. But it's easy for me to do it if Bucky Irving is, you know, full go and training camp. Here's why. Point number one on Kenneth Gamewall, not being a good sleeper, not a starter and not a real handcuff? Because what happens if if Bucky gets hurt? Sean Tucker could easily mix in there. It might even lead the team in

carries. It's not like a Blake Corum, Kyle Monongai situation. And those guys are going around Kenneth Gainwell where if the starter gets hurt, we've got an immediate starting running back role. Point number two, you mentioned Rashad White and the 50 catches in three of four seasons. Well, he was really bad last year with Bucky Irving healthy. Rashad White averaged about 6.2 PPR fantasy points per game, not even rosterable.

in 10 games with Bucky Irving in 2025. And if you look at the end of 2024, the last four games of 2024, including two playoff games, he had 10 carries and 10 catches in four games, Rashad White. So that role of a reliable number two running back, it completely disappeared for the Bucks

late in 2024 when they just said, Bucky Irving, you are our guy. And then I've already sort of made this point, but I think much better options at similar ADP to gain well. And that would be guys who have a chance to be true handcuffs like Kyle Menangai.

J.K. Dobbins is a starter. Blake Corum, Rashad White, maybe, Jonathan Brooks. These are guys that I think my point against Gainwell is that Sean Tucker still exists. And I don't know that Gainwell ever

has the opportunity to do what he did last year in the one game where Jalen Warren missed and Gainwell was amazing. So I actually don't really love his ADP if Bucky Irving is healthy. And we don't know that. Right. Would you agree?

So again, he's going around 100th overall. I think Irving comes into camp at 100%. We see Gainmole drop probably 10 spots. Then I'll be in on Gainwell. Yeah? Yeah. That's where I haven't ranked right now. It's not a completely different situation,

but it's pretty different from where he was last year, where he just, he had an opportunity to catch pass as Aaron Rogers was getting the ball out fast. Aaron Rogers hated most of his receiving core. So he was throwing it to Kenny Gainwell. Baker Mayfield doesn't have quite the same level of running back target chair that Rogers has had in his elder years,

but he certainly has a better receiving court than what Rogers dealt with last year. So I think five targets per game, that's where Gamewell was. I think that's out the window. Rashad White's season high for targets per game was 4.1 in Tampa, and I think that's when he was a full-time player and not a part-time player. Gainwell is going to be a part-time player. You could talk me into Gainwell having some good contingency value in the event that Bucky isn't ready.

ready to start the season or gets hurt in season. Because I'm not sure how much work Sean Tucker will take away. Tucker's been around a couple of years. I really liked him coming out of college, so I followed him. He's never really gotten a huge opportunity other than at the goal line. But in a PPR league, if you're talking about a running back that you might be able to get 10 points per game from, that's a good role to have for fantasy. But that's somebody that I'm taking after pick 100.

There are other receivers, much less running backs that I'd rather shoot the dart at than Kenneth Gainwell, thinking that he's kind of a low upside player and more of just like a safety net in case I have a problem with my running backs and I need to put somebody into that spot or a flex in case of emergency on a Sunday morning. Yeah, I'm not sure they really love Sean Tucker that much. You know, if you look at the last two years

when the starters gotten hurt, in 2024, it was one game where actually Rashad White got hurt. And while the carries, I think, were exactly the same between Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker. A lot of that for Tucker was the last drive of the game for them in a 21 point win or something like that. It was garbage time. And then last year,

Rashad White, or Bucky Irving missed weeks 5 through 12. In the first three games, Rashad White had 41 carries and Sean Tucker had 10. White just really struggled. And then Tucker got more carries than White. But each of the two times where the starters gotten hurt, it almost feels like Tucker was the backup plan to the backup plan. Yeah.

You know what if that makes sense. Right. Yeah. We all thought, okay, he's, he's a, about to take off when he had that huge game. It was against New Orleans, right? Yeah, they both, Bucky and he... Right, it was Bucky who took off.

No, yeah, right, Bucky took off, but they both were great. Yeah. Okay. There's a pretty good track record, though, of... How many receptions do you think for... For Gamewell? Bucky's healthy all season? Bucky's healthy all season.

40. Yeah, I'd go higher than that, but I don't think he'd get many carries if Bucky stays healthy. So I'm just eyeballing it if you want to... get the total number. There's probably about 30 running backs the last three seasons with at least 50 catches. Three guys under 11 ppr points per game of those 30, only three. Everybody else has been 11 ppr points or more. Sure. But what happens if he's only getting like two carries a game or four carries a game? Well, I'd be very surprised if he's only getting two to four carries a game. Right. But I mean, if Bucky is Bucky, that's what's going to happen. I mean, even if Bucky is Bucky,

we've seen Bucky in a part-time role most of his career. Except when he's been Bucky. So Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh had 39, 39 running back targets on third down last year. Tampa Bay had 14. However, that's a low number for Tampa Bay. They've had 25, 22, and 14 in the last three years in the Baker-Mayfield era. That's running back targets on third down, but it's still nowhere near Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's basically two seasons worth of, of Tampa Bay third-down running back targets. So then the question is, how many, how many targets does he get on first and second down. Probably not that many.

I mean, maybe two-minute drill. I'm not even sure if he's playing on first and second- Yeah, probably none if Bucky's healthy. He's probably playing two-minute drill, be my guess, for sure. And you also have, I mean, look, we are very excited about a Mecca-Buca, and there's reasons to be optimistic

about Jalen McMillan and Ted Hurst. This is a very different receiving core than Baker Mayfield's been used to. Yeah. And a very different receiving core than what Gainwell was working with in Pittsburgh. All right, good stuff. Dave.

finish the show with what was the most fun thing you did in Las Vegas? I don't know if I can say. What's the most fun thing you can say? I don't know. I invented a casino Olympics game that I played with my buddy who I've known for 40 years. And we gambled in 11 different casinos in like four hours. And along the way, we had a breakfast burrito wrapped in bacon. and we had, we split a very small stuffed pizza from Girodano's.

So we got our steps in, got a lot of good exercise, and had some really good food. And I won the Olympics. Way to go. It's the first time I can ever say that I won an Olympic event. How did you get Girodano's? They have that in Vegas. They have a Girodano's on the strip. How does it compare to Chicago Jerdon?

It's actually, well, I mean, like, I had a pre-made personal stuffed sausage. it wasn't that bad compared to Chicago. Okay, nice. The bacon rapporteur was better. Dave, thank you very much. It's good to have you back. It's good to be back. Jamie, yeah, man.

Football season. Click the number. Come on, just click the number. I don't know where the text is. I would have done it, but I can't find the text. Who was on the text? You, me, and Thomas, and James.

Jamie, Dan, and Thomas. Okay, okay, wait. I found the number. Did I find the number? No, I don't know where it is. I'm just so lost here. I'm going to send you a text message with the same chain, and then you just click the number.

There you go. Ready? That's the wrong chain. Okay. Don't read what I send you on the air. What am I supposed to do with this phone? Scroll up. Just tap it.

It's Nando. I'm just to leave you with this. Nando said something so funny the other day, and I said, You know I have to tell Jamie you said this. And he said, no, you can't tell Jamie. So have a great day, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football today.

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