Fantasy Football Today - A First Look at the 2025 NFL Draft Class! Are we done with Trevor Lawrence, Rachaad White?

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Friend of the show Matt Cooper is back! And it's never too early to talk about the Class of 2025 and how you should evaluate when getting your assets in line. Plus how does the Davante Adams trade affect your dynasty roster and more. (00:45) - Matt has a special cause for Western North Carolina (04:00) - Does Davante Adams fix things in New York? (11:00) - Garrett Wilson of #1 in 2025? (14:40) -Three Questions For Matt Cooper (21:39) - Class of 2025 observations (33:57) - Should I pick them up on waivers" Week 6 edition (47:00) - "Is it time to quit on these guys" Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings, joined today by my good friend Matt Cooper. On Twitter, he's at CouchScoutsFantasyFootball. That's CouchScoutsFantasyFootball. Welcome back on the show, Matt. Tell everybody what you guys do over at CouchScouts Fantasy Football. Welcome back on the show, Matt. Tell everybody what you guys do over at Couch Scouts and specifically what you're doing to raise money for Western North Carolina. Absolutely, man. Thank you for having me on again. So Couch Scouts is a brand that we started a little over a year ago. I've been running with it for about three years,

but we rebranded to Couch Scouts about a year ago. We have our own website, so couchscouts.com. We want to provide community for people, so we have a free Discord, which I'll share more about in a minute. But on the website, we want to provide tools and analysis, just different content for people to help them win their leagues. Our philosophy is if you scout well, you're going to draft well. And if you draft well, you're going to dominate your dynasty league. So scout, draft, win is kind of our philosophy over at Couch Scouts. And so some of the tools that we have, we have an all 22 film room. So I've been running the Dynasty Nerds film room the last few years,

and I still am doing that. And they are a great resource for studying rookie film. But one thing that they don't really do is they don't have any underclassmen in there and they don't have any IDP players. And so we've put both of those in our film room. So if you are into IDP and you want to scout defensive players, we have that. If you maybe play in a Debbie league and you want to go defensive players we have that if you uh maybe you play in a devy league and you want to go watch every snap for jeremiah smith or arch manning or ryan williams like we've got all those guys in there so we've got the film room we've got some bonus podcasts um we have our main podcast that you can find on any platform just search couch scouts all one word uh but we

have a bonus podcast for members on the site. We do a rookie guide every year. And so when we do the rookie guide, our members will get access to that through the site. And you mentioned Western North Carolina. So our group of co-hosts on the podcast that kind of co-own couch scouts, we all live in or near western north carolina so i live in kind of the foothills in upstate south carolina ashville is about two hours north of me my wife's family is all up in the ashville area and they got hit pretty hard by the hurricane thankfully they're all all right but they got hit pretty hard one of my co-hosts actually lives in the black mountain north carolina area and so he's he and his family are okay thankfully but their community has been pretty hard. One of my co-hosts actually lives in the Black Mountain, North Carolina area. And so

he and his family are okay, thankfully, but their community has been devastated. He's a pastor. So he's been meeting with people for counseling appointments and some of the stories that he's hearing. I mean, you just wouldn't believe it. So these people are hurting. They have a lot of need and we want to step in and help. It's a place that's kind of close to home and close to our hearts. And so all that being said, if you go to couchscouts.com and purchase one of our membership subscriptions, or even if you want to purchase merch, I'm wearing a Couch Scouts shirt right now for those watching on the video feed. All of our proceeds, 100 percent for the entire month of October, is going to the American Red Cross for aid in Western North Carolina. We're not keeping a penny of it. And that's our promise to you.

So if you want to come in and get a great resource and help a good cause, help people who really need it, we would love for you to check out Couch Scouts. That's very, very cool stuff again couchscouts.com as you said 100 of proceeds in october we still got lots of time left in october right we're halfway through the month yeah go uh go get a subscription go help people out cousin ernest says he's here listen to one of his favorite fantasy shows of the week thank you very much and. And I agree with Dynasty Dogs, Matt, and Couch Scouts. They're awesome. Now, on today's show, we had a plan. The best laid plan, right?

That's right. We're going to take a look at the 2025 draft class. We're going to talk waiver wire. We had a game that was inspired by one of our emailers. Are we done with these guys? And then Aaron Rodgers. fired by one of our emailers are we done with these guys and then aaron rogers was aaron rogers and went and traded for davante adams apparently didn't like the way that mike williams ran that last route last night davante adams is a new york jet and like i i open up the stream and the first

thing i see is what do i do if i have both wilson and? Jack also says in the chat, I have Devante and Wilson. The hilarious thing, probably my favorite dynasty team, and it is an IDP team. So I will be using those IDP resources you talked about. That's fantastic. Has both Adams and Wilson and sitting at four and two. And on the one hand, I see this trade and I'm like, well, this is obviously fantastic for Devante Adams. And on the other hand, it's like, do we have to wait another year for Garrett Wilson? And so Matt, I just wonder, listen, it's not been great for the Jets so far. They're sitting at two and four.

Aaron Rodgers is averaging like 17 fantasy points per game. Does Devontae Adams fix everything for Aaron Rodgers? And does Aaron Rodgers fix everything for Devontae Adams? Are these great ads for contenders in Dynasty right now? Yeah, I think that's a great question. It's funny. I mentioned our Discord. It's completely free, and we just want to get to know the people that listen to our show. That's why we started it.

So we're always reacting to news like this. There's like 100 guys in the Discord. It actually kind of doubled the last time I was on your show. A lot of people came and joined us, which was great. In fact, I think we were talking Devi on that show. And we ended up starting an entire new Devi League just out of people that joined that day from your show. So shout out to the couch scouts league but uh no so we have a funny channel in there and somebody posted a meme that

was um they said aaron rogers and davante adams with the jets and it was paul pierce and kevin garnett and the brooklyn nets uniforms oh no that is what we are hoping does not happen. I totally agree with you. And I don't think that's what's going to happen. I'm a little concerned that Aaron Rodgers is not what he used to be. Right. But Devontae Adams, I don't think he's lost a step from what I've seen. He still looks every bit the dominant player he's always been. And I mean, when you look at the seasons that Devontae Adams specifically put up when he and Aaron Rodgers were teammates,

I mean, he was in the conversation for wide receiver one overall every single year. So it's not exactly the same now. Rodgers is not the same guy. There was no Garrett Wilson on those teams. There was no Brees Hall on those teams. But I think it's objectively a bump. I mean, you go from the Las Vegas Raiders where he clearly did not want to be there.

The quarterback situation, I mean, he went because his old college buddy, Derek Carr, was there, but that didn't work out. And it's just been roster fodder, basically, at quarterback ever since. No disrespect intended to the great Gardner Minshew. Thank you for that. The way I framed it, and there's an article on CBS Sports with more of a redraft angle. But the way that I framed it was it's a clear and obvious upgrade for Rogers. He goes from a low-end QB2 to kind of a borderline QB1 for me and six point per pass touchdown leagues.

It's an upgrade, but it's not quite as clear or obvious how big the upgrade is for Devontae Adams. He's remained a 10 target per game guy in Vegas, but the efficiency is cratered. We blame most of that on the quarterback, target per game guy in Vegas, but the efficiency is cratered. We blame most of that on the quarterback, but he also is 31 years old, maybe had a hamstring injury for a couple of weeks already this year. I guess that's fine now.

And has to compete with Garrett Wilson for targets. I think Adams would like just, I think Adams is the wide receiver one there. Would you agree with that? Like in terms of target share, he's going to see the most. Yeah. I mean, I think just because of the chemistry and the history there with Rodgers. Obviously, I still think Wilson's a talented guy.

We'll talk about him in a minute. Right. It could be a 1A, 1B, similar to like an A.J. Brown, Devontae Smith type of situation. But I think the 1A would be Adams just because of the history with rogers there so better or worse than wide receiver 18 for garrett wilson rest of season rest of season uh what is he now do you have that in front of you he's probably 13 yeah my guess i'm gonna say better uh than than wide receiver 18 but i'm not overly confident about that from a redraft perspective i think i'm obviously davante smith had a top 10 season with aj brown as his teammate we've seen it happen right um rising tide can lift all boats

it can mean more touchdown opportunities all the way around it can mean softer coverage for Garrett Wilson and I'm still a huge believer in his talent from a dynasty perspective we were talking about this in the discord earlier and I believe he's fallen to like wide receiver 12 in consensus ADP depending on what site you're looking at whereas he was like a top five guy preseason right around 12 feels pretty appropriate to me and we were saying that because of this news he could fall you know down below some of the guys like uh per keep trade cut some of the guys right behind him would be like Devante Smith, Olave, Ayuk, Jaden Reed, Odunze, kind of falling into the back half of wide receiver twos from a dynasty perspective. And I think that would be a mistake.

I would still rather have him than just about everybody that I mentioned, with the exception of maybe Jaden Reed, just because he's producing at such a high level right now. But yeah, dynasty-wise, he could present a bye for sure. I think the difficult part is that it's not like davante adams is a free agent after this year and if aaron rogers and davante adams both come back next year then you still might not get what we think is what should be like peak garrett wilson production yeah and then you're getting into the point to where value wisewise, I think you're right.

You're not getting anywhere close to top 12 wide receiver value for him. Let's kind of merge these two topics together. And I think I know the answer, but Garrett Wilson or the 101 in the 2025 draft. Probably the 101. And that's just because I expect, like there are some quarterbacks starting to emerge. And so I think you're going to have a shot at potentially getting a high level quarterback.

Still Garrett Wilson over any wide receiver in this class. I do think Ted McMillan, we're going to talk more about the 2025 class later in the show, obviously, but Ted McMillan, he's probably going to be a top 10 pick, but he's not one yet. You know, Garrett Wilson, I guess you could say he's proven like he's never hit that ceiling that everybody has wanted him to hit. Right. But he's a really good fantasy asset.

And, you know, you the the over under wide receiver 18 let's say he finishes wide receiver 15 at his age with right monta adams being 32 years old like that seems like a top 12 dynasty wide receiver to me so i don't know i just believe in the talent so much i i feel like i'm more likely to buy the dip here than to panic on davante adams coming and then we had a good question from the chat and i think it's it's a reasonable question too is this bad for breeze and breeze hall currently third amongst running backs in target share at 15.6 percent this season. I think I could spin it either way, Matt. I could say, yeah, there's no way you can throw 16% of your passes to a running back when you have Garrett

Wilson and Devonta Adams on the team, especially when Aaron Rodgers is going to throw red zone YOLO balls to Alan Lazard on a weekly basis. At the same time, his yards per carry may have just gone up because teams are more scared of the pass. His touchdown odds on a weekly basis may have gone up because the jets might actually score more. So is it just a push for a breeze or would you consider it good or bad? I feel like push. I don't,

he does have a large part of his value tied up in, in the receptions. He's, he's a really good pass catching back And I don't think he's just going to stop doing that. It might be a little lower than it has been. But I think whatever dip he gets in the reception number is made up for with better rushing efficiency and more touchdowns, like you just said. Yeah, I think push in full PPR, maybe even a little boost in non or half PPR. Let's get to our first break and then we'll get to three questions for our guests, which is usually the first thing we do.

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or if you're able to go still deal like a third round pick for him, he's got an ankle injury right now, but 28 targets over his last three games, 14 fantasy points per game over that stretch. He's going to get the Devontae Adams target share for the rest of the season for the Raiders. Trey Tucker should be rostered pretty much everywhere in dynasty, just in case. And you might even in deeper leagues roster DJ Turner. It's possible one of those guys becomes something Brock Bowers, the clear tight end one, but

he already was. Let's go with three questions for our guests. And before we get to the 2025 class, a couple of questions about the 2024 class. Who is the one rookie who has moved the needle for you? You're a guy that watches a ton of these guys in college, probably have much stronger opinions on them coming into the NFL than most of us do. But I would assume through six weeks,

there's been at least one guy who's been like, oh, well, that's translated better or worse than I thought it would. What rookie has moved the needle for you? Yeah, I'm going to say Brian Thomas Jr. For me, he was somebody that I was a little lower on. I didn't hate him by any means. I just think I'm primarily a tape grinder. And so when I'm watching the tape, I feel like he ran like three routes at LSU. It's just what he was asked to do. But he was mostly this field-stretching, deep threat. He's really been a much, much better route runner in the NFL so far

than what I expected, especially this early. And he's probably, you know, he's flown up. My opinion of him has changed drastically. Like if I could go back and redraft the class, I would take him right up there in that like eight, nine range. You know, you could even debate between him and Romo Dunze at this point, I think. I wrote a week and a half ago that he had just passed Rome in my dynasty rankings.

And I noticed just last week, and I think Ryan McDowell even said it happened over at DLF as well, that in most trade charts, most ADP sources, Thomas has just inched past Rome. That could be one that looks silly in like three weeks, definitely in a year, but he's at least like for me, it was worthy lad and Thomas were kind of in a group behind Rome and pretty clearly behind Rome. And now it's more Thomas and Rome and then worthy and lad. Let's get to question number two. Who is the one rookie who has done very little so far,

but you're still optimistic? For that one, I'm going to go with Adonai Mitchell. Okay. I think shout out to Fantasy Points Data with their average separation score, ASX. Thank you for saying it that way. And yeah, we've got a national audience here. We've got to say things carefully but uh

yeah they he's number one i believe i saw a tweet saying yes number one separation yes and that doesn't surprise me i think also number one in the number of his targets that were rated uncatchable yeah that's that doesn't surprise me either. Unfortunately. There's a lot of mouths to feed there. I mean, I like Michael Pittman. I liked Josh Downs quite a bit as a prospect. And I think, you know, people are starting to realize we should have been taking him a lot more seriously in dynasty than just, you know, the throw away. Oh, he's too small. They drafted Adonai Mitchell. Guess he's wide receiver three. doesn't look like it um and Alec Pierce I kind of thought he was dead and Adonai Mitchell was going to just phase him out but he's still

very involved in the offense and it's a low volume passing offense at least when Richardson is out there and there's a lot of factors uh but when you watch the, Adonai Mitchell is running wide open frequently. He's winning deep down the field. He's winning short. He's got the talent. I firmly believe I've seen what I liked about him in college translate to the NFL so far. It just hasn't translated to fantasy points yet. So I'm still a believer I would buy low if there's an opportunity to buy low.

Excellent, excellent choice. There's been a lot of talk already. And listen, we've talked a lot on this show about the cycle that we go through with future year picks. And this is a terrible class. This is the best class ever. You don't want next year's picks. And these things are cyclical, but we have, it seems, are currently in the 2025 class is awful. So I will ask you if you're rebuilding, would you rather trade for 2025 picks or 2026 picks? I, first of all, I'll say, I don't think the 2025 class is awful. Um, so I will talk more about that in a minute, but I'm excited about the class. 2026, it's a little unproven at this point. Like even some of the quarterbacks that we were really excited about, like Nico Iamaleava and Jackson Arnold.

Like Jackson Arnold's been benched. Nico is really struggling now that they've gotten a conference play. There's a lot that's up in the air. Zachariah Branch does not look as good as we thought he was going to look. He's been pretty disappointing so far. So I feel more confident in projecting the 2025 class, but I, I do think that when I'm trading,

if I'm a rebuilding team and I'm trading with a contender and they are going very confident that they're a late first, I want to push and see, can I get the 2026 first? Because the wheels could fall off of that thing. And by 2026, that's a long way off. That pick could be higher than you think versus the 2025 probably is going to be a late pick. So there are situations where I would target both. And shout out 2027 class, by the way. Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams, they're like both putting on the number one and two best true freshman wide receiver seasons we've ever seen.

Dylan Raiola looks like the real deal, like Patrick Mahomes' clone, took Nebraska offense and made it relevant again. I don't feel like I usually see this many true freshman breakouts. And there's more guys in the 2027 class that I'm excited about already than the 2026 class. So shout out to them. And I think there's a lot of leagues where like, can you trade your 2027 first? And how much do you have to pay to do that? If you're going to do that, then I would say, yeah, make sure they go ahead and pay their entry fee for 2027. So, but I think to your point about if you're trading with a contender, it's an excellent one.

Just this morning, I added to my league trade block in a league that's been so frustrating because I've had a great team for four or five years and just haven't got over the hump some second place finishes some thirds some fourths I just put Josh Jacobs James Connor Devante Adams Cooper Cup Austin Eckler and Deontay Johnson on the trade block people who traded for my first this year and I traded all of my picks for this year got like the 10th or 11th pick in the draft people who traded for my if they would have traded for my 2025 first things would be looking much better for them so the wheels can fall off very fast it can happen fast for sure let's talk about this 2025 class. And I guess let's start with this because I think I know the answer,

but relative to other classes, what position does this class look the strongest at? Yeah, I'm not going to go against the grain here too much. I think most people would say the running back class. Yeah. And I agree. In fact, it's gotten stronger, I would say, since the season started. You've had Ollie Gordon kind of fall off a little bit this year, but Ashton Gentry has like stormed onto the scene.

I know we're going to talk about him in a minute. And he's become, you know, a much higher level prospect, even than maybe we thought this class had. And then even like Nicholas Singleton, he was, you know, as far as recruiting pedigree, five-star, he was ranked number one in his class coming in, had a really rough sophomore season. He's come out and looked much improved this year. And he's got all the talent in the world. His vision looks improved. His pass catching looks improved.

So there have been some guys that have really cemented themselves and not that many guys have fallen off here. So I'm excited about the class. I think at this time last year, what we said about the running back class was we should not have any running backs in the first round of a super flex rookie draft. So far that looks pretty smart. Cause brooks hasn't even played yet uh but what would you say like right now is it like four of the top 12 and super flex are going to be running back six of the top 12 how deep is this class i would guess at at minimum three okay because i think john genti for sure will be and then between everybody else, I mean, yeah, there might be some guys that have a bad combine or, you know,

just when we get into their tape, they're not as good as we thought they were and they kind of fall off. But just the sheer volume of other guys like Omarion Hampton, Travion Henderson, Quinshawn Judkins, Damian Martinez, Trevor Etienne. I mean, you could just name off so many guys that could be in that first round conversation that i think at least two others will be besides genti at the end of the day and bucky irving would like to remind you that if one of these guys you really likes has a bad combine maybe you should just ignore that amen i love bucky irving

man i have a lot of shares too, but yeah, I think the running back class three at the minimum, it could be as many as five or six for sure. That's awesome for those teams that need running backs. Let's talk about G&T a little bit because like you mentioned it, he has literally run away with the RB1 spot in this class early, early in the year, just stay healthy kid, compare him to Bijan or some of the best prospects that we've had the last four or five years. Like, where does he fit in? Could this be someone that we're saying in a year is like a generational rookie running back? And we say that too much, but like how good could he be? Yeah. I think the thing that makes it really hard to compare is the fact that he plays for Boise State.

And just the level of competition week in and week out is not what those guys faced. But even when he's played better teams, I mean, they played Oregon this year and went toe-to-toe with Oregon. That game came down to the wire. Jensey was the biggest reason why he put up a monster stat line like absolutely monsters and you would think okay Oregon D line is just going to totally overwhelm the Boise State offensive line and Gentry's just going to get hit

in the backfield all day that's not what happened uh and if he did get hit in the backfield he broke the tackle because I mean he's breaking tackles at a ridiculous rate he's putting so many nfl traits on film from the acceleration the long speed the change of direction the you know he's he's elusive he can catch passes he's breaking tackles the contact balance is off the charts for this guy uh so when you watch the tape it doesn't matter like the level of competition that's not gonna dissuade me off of genti at all he absolutely looks like a really like a high first round pick caliber running back which to me says at the end of the day he's gonna be in the same discussion with the bijans and the jameer gibbs and these guys that went top 15 in the draft i think i

think genti's that good and the numbers i haven't and these guys that went top 15 in the draft. I think, I think Jente's that good. And the numbers, I haven't even talked about the numbers. Like, I mean, he's on pace to break records that Barry Sanders has held since the eighties that nobody thought anybody would ever even come close to every week. He's breaking off hundreds of yards and multiple touchdowns. And it's, it's just crazy watching what he's doing right now. So I'm going to rephrase this next question because I kind of hearing you talk earlier,

I think, I think you feel there is. So what is our hope? Who, who is our hope for an elite quarterback or wide receiver prospect in this class? We talked about three to six of the first round might be running back. So that means six to nine first round might be running back.

So that means six to nine are going to be quarterbacks and wide receivers probably. Who are the guys we're going to be excited about taking early in our rookie drift? Yeah. So the quarterback class has actually been a really pleasant surprise this season. I think coming into the year, Carson Beck was kind of the consensus QB one. And I've, you know, I liked Carson Beck last year when he was draft eligible. And I thought maybe this guy's going to be like a day to sleeper and I can take him in the third or fourth round of my rookie draft. But when the talk started being, oh, he's going back to school and he's going to be the QB one next year. And he's going to be a first round pick. I was like i don't see that at all and so the idea that he was qb1 in the class made me think well maybe it's just not a very good class maybe it's like the year that kenny pickett was the qb1

you know but coming into the season beck has not done everything that everybody thought that he would but so many other guys have stepped up. Cam Ward is looking incredible. I mean, he's got a lot of mobility. He's got a lot of arm talent. He's got the swagger throwing off platform, you know, the big plays downfield. Shadur Sanders, polarizing guy. I definitely think he's got first round talent.

The intangibles sometimes leave a little bit to be desired i think but um you know there's there's other guys that are stepping up jackson dart has played way better than anybody thought um right garrett nussmeyer looks like he's got you know i don't he might stay in school another year but he's got crazy crazy arm talent so there's a lot of quarterbacks that are stepping up and looking pretty good and putting themselves in the conversation to be a potentially first round pick oh and i should definitely mention jaylen milrow i mean he has all the looks of the last couple years when you look at justin fields and then anthony richardson and then

jayden daniels like there's just seems to always be that one guy that flies up boards because he's just so freakishly athletic and the NFL team just can't resist it. And it doesn't even matter if there's question marks about him as a passer, he's just that athletic. And I feel like that, that guy this year is going to be Jalen Milrow. So I think by the end of the discussion, he's probably going to be a high first round pick. So yeah. So I'm not going to try to make too much of this, but I did say quarterbacks and wide receivers,

and that was a great discussion on the quarterback. Should that make me worried about the wide receivers? No, no. I just hadn't got there yet. Okay, good. I just hadn't got there yet. I don't know how deep this wide receiver class is. I mean, there's always people that are going to come out of the woodworks with senior bowl and all that kind of stuff but there are at least four or five

guys right now that i feel pretty pretty great about as prospects one would be tet mcmillan i think he's pretty locked in to be a top 10 nfl draft pick he's like six foot five runs routes like you wouldn't believe for a guy that size he's way faster than you think because he's got those long strides that don't make him look as fast, but he's just blowing by people in the game. He had 90 receptions last year, and he looks like he's on pace to have even more this year. So, Ted McMillan's a great prospect. Luther Burden, I think, is a really, really strong,

high-level wide receiver prospect. He's got ideal size. He's incredible after the catch. If you were comparing the two stylistically, this is a very rough comparison, but Tett would be more in the Marvin Harrison, big, tall, alpha, X receiver mold, and Luther Burden would be more in the Malik neighbors, kind of move them all over the field and get the ball in his hands

yards after the catch. Very rough comparisons, but in that general mold, those are two receivers I feel great about. Travis Hunter is a little bit raw, but he's so talented. If he choose to go the wide receiver route, I think he would be a really high-level wide receiver prospect. I just want everybody to know, because I run a couple of IDP dynasty leagues, and if Travis Hunter comes into the NFL and some team lets him play even half of his snaps on one side and all

of his snaps on the other, I'm going to find some way to make sure that he gets all those points. We've had some defensive players score offensive touchdowns and they don't show up in the scoring somehow. I just want to see Travis. Make him a full-time wide receiver and play on third downs at corner or vice versa. But give us a little bit of Travis Hunter going both ways. That would be cool to see for sure.

And if it was scored that way for fantasy, that would break IDP leagues. He would be such a cheat code. But yeah, I mean, so Travis Hunter, I like. Isaiah Bond, I feel very confident at this point he's going to be a first-round NFL draft pick. He has just looked incredible this year at Texas as the clear number one option. He's so fast. I mean, he might mess around and threaten Xavier Worthy's record. I mean, how crazy would that be?

Two guys coming out of Texas back-to-back years running in the 4-2s. And he's a much better route runner, too. He's not just a speed guy. So I like Isaiah Bond a lot. Trey Harris out of Ole Miss. He's 6'3", 215, and fast, and is putting up monster numbers in the SEC week in and week out. I don't think Trey Harris is getting enough respect. So yeah, I think there's some exciting wide receiver

prospects in this class too. So I feel like you've pretty much laid out almost our first round without giving us an order. And I appreciate that. That's fantastic. We've got a good list of names. I want to give you one more question here. Let's go dig a little bit deeper. Give me one prospect, any position that maybe people just don't know about who do the people need to hear more about that might be i mean you could give us the next pukunuku of it i'm not going to ask you to do that a little more off the radar um i'm gonna go with dj giddens out of kansas. He's a running back that I think he waited his turn behind Deuce Vaughn and has kind of taken over that job, and this year has become a true workhorse bell cow.

And he's a beast. He's really fun to watch. I don't really ever hear anybody talk about him. I think he's a day-two talent, and I think he just kind of gets lost in the shuffle of so many big names in this running back class that he just flies under the radar. And I really like DJ Giddens out of Kansas State. DJ Giddens. Let's take our second break, and then we'll get to some waivers and maybe a couple of guys that we might be wanting to get rid of as well.

We are back. We have some waivers, and it's a weird week for waivers because it's a lot of guys that if you're in a deeper Dynasty League, you're going to tell me, all those guys are already rostered in my league. And I understand that. A lot of these guys are rostered in my league as well. But also, in an average-sized Dynasty League, some of these guys probably got dropped early in the season.

And I want to talk about whether or not we care. They're kind of low-end guys we'll start with the running backs audrick estame isaac garendo and tyler goodson were the three running backs i had here now goodson's not been rostered very much at all he actually looked better than trey sermon the last two weeks as a runner and then the first week they threw all the passes to sermon last week they threw all the passes to Sermon. Last week they threw all the passes to Goodson. Estime and Garendo, guys that probably should have still been rostered but didn't do very much early in the year.

You can talk about with Goodson whether you're just trying to add him to deep rosters just in case Jonathan Taylor can't get healthy. And then with those rookies, did you like one of these guys coming out or are they just kind of roster cloggers that maybe start for you if everybody gets hurt? So as far as tape grade, I would have had estimate higher than Gerindo. But landing spot, I mean, everybody looks good in that Sean McVay offense at the running back position. And so especially a guy, Isaac Gerindo's athleticism, I mean, he looks good in that Sean McVay offense at the running back position. And so especially a guy, Isaac Guarindo's athleticism. I mean, he tested off the charts at the combine. You saw it on that 76-yard run to end the game this weekend.

I think he's the guy that has the most upside here. If Jordan Mason were to continue to miss time and see him, you know, there's so many ifs cause he's the third string guy, right? Like, I don't think he's the most talented, but I think just with his athleticism in the system that makes everybody

look good and he can break off these huge chunk plays. I think he's got the most fantasy upside here in the short term. If he gets an opportunity, uh, estimate, I mean, fine stash him if you want right he's got good contact balance i like his power he's a bruiser but he doesn't really offer much else he's not a great pass catcher he's not you know overly athletic or explosive. I definitely like when, when Javante was rumored to be in the dog house and, you know, he might get cut and he should,

we should be really worried about Audrick Estime. I kind of laughed at that. Like Javante was a way better running back prospect than Audrick Estime. He's the team's got more invested in him. He's just a better player. So Estime, he's a day three pick, which was pretty much lined up with what I saw on tape. And he's the third string.

Jaleel McLaughlin, I think he's pretty established there, has looked good in his role. Now, I think we should probably just mention, and this guy got picked up a little bit more when Rashad White was going to miss the game, but not near as much as what he just did. Sean Tucker just ran all over the defense that Estime and Javante and Jaleel are getting ready to play against the New Orleans Saints. And I'll tell you, I know the Saints are really banged up and it wasn't a great effort and Bucky Irving ran well as well. But as a guy who believed in

Sean Tucker coming into the NFL, that was all the confirmation bias that I needed. This guy is good. Can we get him on the Cowboys or somewhere where he can touch the ball 15 to 20 times a game? Like Sean Tucker, I'm going to have to roster him for another two years because it was one game. I'm so glad you brought that up because I was a pretty big Sean Tucker truther that year as well. And I still will go to my grave saying that if he hadn't had that heart condition, there's no way he would have gone undrafted. I don't know where he would have been drafted, but the talent to me, the tape

that I saw was much better than undrafted. And I'm so glad to finally see him get a chance and an opportunity in the NFL and just really happy to see him perform well with it. I don't know what it means from a dynasty perspective, but I just happy for the guy. And we've got, we're going to change directions here a little bit for the second time on this show, because we've got to talk about something else that uh tom pelissero just

tweeted out about seven minutes ago and i get like the steelers did not want the jets to have all the news these two teams play each other this week and fellas they are tweeting out seven minutes ago the steelers plan to give russell wilson first team reps in practice this week put him putting him in line to make his season debut and start Sunday night against the Jets. Sunday night football. We're going to get Devontae Adams' first game on the Jets. Russell Wilson's first game with the Steelers.

Seven billion people are going to watch this game. And we've got to talk about super flex leagues. Justin Fields, I think currently the QB11. Oh my gosh. to watch this game and we've got to talk about like super flex leagues justin fields i think currently the qb11 oh my gosh quarterback scoring now getting benched as a four and two quarterback for russell wilson who i think is probably better at playing nfl quarterback and better for george pickens and pat fryer muth than fields was was. I know I'm putting you on the spot with something we had no idea about. What's your initial reaction to this, and what do you do with Justin Fields? Man, that is a lot to take in.

First of all, I'm an NC State grad, and when I was at NC State, Russell Wilson was our quarterback. Okay. So you cannot be unbiased here. I love Russell Wilson. I've always loved Russell Wilson. I know it's been fun the last couple of years to hate on him. I know he's corny sometimes, but I always would love the guy because he was so fun to watch play and all my memories uh carter finley stadium in college is watching russell wilson uh so that being said uh he has not looked great his last couple of destinations right i don't know how much he has left in the tank well

i guess it was just one destination it was the broncos but it was right with two different coaches um he looked a little bit better under sean payton i think than under nathaniel hackett uh understandably but um yeah i don't i don't know how much he has left in the tank i'm pulling for him i don't know how much of an upgrade he is to those weapons versus justin fields i guess we'll find out pretty soon um I'm kind of done with George Pickens anyway that guy drives me crazy um I will say talented if you were a conspiracy theorist like letting Justin Fields start against the Raiders and then giving Russ his first start in prime time against the Jets defense in Devante Adams first game back might tell you they just want Justin Fields to start the rest of the year

and Fields could be in by the second quarter because this is a terribly difficult place to start against this Jets team in primetime. I guess my few takeaways would be, obviously Russell Wilson needs to be rostered in all Superflex leagues. He probably still was. Don't drop Justin Fields. No.

Maybe go make a cheaper offer for Justin Fields right now and see if you can scoop up Fields off a despondent roster. I'm more optimistic about Fryer and Ruth. I'm more optimistic about Pickens. I think that the pass volume will go up for them, and I think the targets will be more accurate. We had a section that we can still do. Let's talk about a couple of wide receivers here for the waiver wire.

Sorry for that interruption, but that was something that we needed to talk about a couple of wide receivers here for the waiver wire sorry for that interruption but i i could that was something that we needed to talk about for sure again don't don't drop justin fields even in a one quarterback dynasty league i don't want to drop justin fields certainly not for these wide receivers but there are a couple wide receivers available on the waiver wire rashad bateman still just 9% rostered in CBS leagues. Definitely was dropped in some dynasty leagues, maybe not the deeper ones. And he's kind of been okay so far this year.

He's awesome in terms of separation score. Matt Harmon loves him. Like the film guys will all tell you that Rashad Bateman's a very good wide receiver. He just doesn't get that many targets. He probably leads the league in being wide open and not receiving a target, but still scoring some fantasy points. Is Bateman someone that is like the, the just only giving you hope and not anything else on your fantasy team? Or do you want to make sure

that he's rostered everywhere? I would pick him up if he was on waivers. I for sure would. I do think, I mean, up to this point, objectively, he has been the guy that only gives you hope, but nothing else. That's just true. But he's flex worthy. You can start him with injuries and buys and feel okay about it. And I do think that there's a chance that if he was ever traded somewhere else or just moves on in free agency that he could find new life somewhere. I mean, Baltimore is just such a tough place for a fantasy wide receiver to thrive. That offense is built around Lamar Jackson and his legs, and they're going to have some spike games where they throw a lot,

but mostly they're going to have some spike games where they throw a lot but mostly they're not and you know now they've got this two tight end thing going on with andrews and likely although they're not really using either one as much as fantasy managers would like but it's kind of a mess from a volume standpoint like you said like he's getting targets at you know three or four targets a game which it's just hard to produce consistently at that rate so i i think with more volume he could do more and that much is pretty clear to everybody that watches him play why that volume has never come i don't know because i'm a believer that targets are earned and so it is a little mystifying that he's like, seems to be winning on his routes and getting open.

And the Ravens seem to love him. Like they can't help but talk positively about him every chance they get. So it's not even like he's a bad dude that just like he gets open, but nobody wants to throw it to him. It is a bit of a mystery. Make sure he's rostered in your league. We've got a situation for the Saints. Like usually we're just

starting running backs because they're handcuffs and the starting running back got hurt but the saints are going into this thursday night game chris olave's in the concussion protocol rashid shaheed's got an injury and we're not expecting him to play at this time bub means just scored a touchdown mason tipton was playing before Bub Means was. These guys are 1% rostered in CBS League, so available maybe not in your super deep dynasty league, but in most places. Did you have any kind of take on these guys coming out of college? Any hope that one of them pops in this situation and maybe becomes Spencer Rattler's guy?

Or are they just kind of just deep desperation plays this week? I think probably just deep desperation plays this week. I wouldn't – I'd be lying if I said that, like, oh, I thought either of these guys was some sleeper during their draft year. I kind of – they're guys that you get to way deep in the process at the very end of your scouting when you're honestly kind of done watching film. You're like, I'm, it's the slog. Like by the time you get to the bub means of the world, it's a slog.

And nothing really jumped out at me. Like I wasn't, he went undrafted, right? Like I wasn't, he went undrafted, right? Like I didn't. So the interesting thing to me is that they waived, uh, 80 Perry. Right. It seems like now they could really use him, but like they chose,

I guess they chose Bob means over 80 Perry. I'm not sure really what the deal is with that. Um, cause I did like Perry a little bit as a prospect. I should correct. Bob means was a fifth round pick. So he did a little bit as a prospect. I should correct. Bub Means was a fifth-round pick. So he did a little more draft capital than undrafted, but we're about six months away from there being basically no difference

between those two things. But no, a little bit there. I mean, if you're a contender and you have to, like if you've got a bunch of injuries or a bunch of buys, I think you could throw these guys in a flex spot and pray. And there's a decent chance with everybody else hurt that they do something for you. So I'm not saying they're not worth picking up.

I think there's a decent chance that they do something for you is exactly the way we should transition to this next segment. Scott, send us an email. And I like to to work these in whenever we can and he he's he's despondent i think is the right word probably like anyone who has justin fields in a super flex league right now because is it time to quit on travis etn rashad white and giovavante Williams. I am on the verge of a massive rebuild for my dynasty PPR league. And the, is it time to quit question is different depending on, depending on what we're talking about with these guys. It's like, am I selling low?

Am I just throwing in the towel on this season? Do you have it? Do you have hope that Travisvis etn rashad white giovante williams are going to deliver on the potential that we all saw in them or is it time to quit on these guys i would say uh rashad white is the one i'm least interested in here the other guys in that offense have looked clearly better. I think his workload continues to go down, and he really was a volume-based. I mean, the efficiency has never been there for Rashad White. So the reason that he was such a great fantasy producer last year

is because he was getting all the carries, all the targets, all the everything. And that's just not the case anymore. I don't really trust putting him in my lineup. I don't really believe in him long-term. So yeah, I probably would be fine selling low on Rashad White. Okay. We've got some more guys that I want to go through. I'm not quitting on Travis Etienne at all. I'm not selling low on him. And same thing with Javante. I'm starting Javante in a lot of leagues this week. What could go wrong? We've got some more. Is it time to quit? Is it time to quit on Trevor Lawrence?

I'm going to say no. And that is, I know it's been many years of mostly frustration and disappointment. Even watching that game this weekend in london i mean weren't there like four touchdowns that he threw on the money and they were just dropped there was also one touchdown to brian thomas that he threw like four yards behind him um that should have been a touchdown for thomas but yes i think gabe davis may have scored two touchdowns and dropped two touchdowns so to me trevor lawrence doesn't look broken or washed or you know whatever term you want to throw out there i think he has a major doug peterson problem that's probably about to go away as soon as they get back from london but uh no i i would hold trevor lawrence i think maybe even consider buying low on trevor lawrence I don't know that he's ever going to be the generational guy that we thought that he might be,

but I still think he can be a really solid fantasy quarterback for you. A couple more. Is it time to quit on Deshaun Watson and Bryce Young? Somebody tell the Bears that yes, it is time to quit on Deshaun Watson. Or sorry, the Browns. I said the Bears, didn't I? Yes. Somebody tell the Browns it's time to quit on Deshaun Watson. Or sorry, the Browns. I said the Bears, didn't I? Yes. Somebody tell the Browns it's time to quit on Deshaun Watson.

He looks atrocious. Everybody with eyes is saying it. The people that love the numbers are saying he's historically bad. There's really no evidence that the guy who used to be a top five player in Houston is still in there somewhere. He's played four different defenses that rank in the bottom half of the league in terms of how they've produced or how they've handled the pass, how they've stopped opposing teams. And the only reason those four defenses aren't the four worst is because they've played DeSean Watson and he's been terrible against them. It's absolutely awful.

Is it time to quit? We've got his teammate here. On Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, and DeAndre Hopkins. I would say Amari Cooper is the one I'm most interested in from this group because I don't think he has forgotten how to play. I think he cannot stand Deshaun Watson. I think he's lost all of his motivation. I think he's just kind of mailing it in from an effort standpoint right now. And to me, he's like one trade away from, you know,

he could jump in there and be a pretty valuable producer for a contending roster because he wants to be traded. And, you know, I think that's a real possibility that his situation could change and the talent's still there and all of a sudden the script flips for him. The other two guys, I mean, Calvin Ridley seems pretty frustrated too. Maybe he gets traded. I don't know.

You just signed him. Yeah, that's why I'm saying it. I don't think, like, I just think both of these guys are not getting it done. You can't trust put them in their lineups. They're both getting older. Calvin Ridley has really shown very little since coming back from his long hiatus with the suspensions and all that kind of stuff. I don't have a lot of hope for either of these other two guys turning around. I think DeAndre Hopkins, I don't know if he's washed or if it's just the Will Levis effect.

But neither of these guys seems like they're going anywhere anytime soon either. So they're older players who may or may not be washed, who are stuck in a just atrocious passing situation. So I think most of those guys, even if it is time to quit on them, we're talking about benching them. We're talking about selling low on them. We're not talking about actually dropping them off of your team. I've got four guys here at the end.

And I just wonder if you're like dead set on holding any of them. Is it time to quit on Jalen Warren, Khalil Herbert, Carson Steele, and Mike Williams? I would hold on to Jalen Warren. I think he just came off of an injury. I think he tends to look better than Najee Harris on film to most people that watch. And I don't know i don't know that he'll ever be more than just a flex guy but i would at least hold on to him uh khalil herbert i think you could safely drop carson steel i would probably hold because if kareem hunt gets hurt then i guess he's the next guy in line

but if you're like i would i would not in line. But if you're like, I would, I would not hold if it's, if you're talking about between him and Rashad Bateman, I'd drop Carson steel and pick up Sean Bateman. If you're talking about Gerindo or Carson steel, I'll pick up Gerindo. So a lot of the guys that we talked about earlier,

I would consider adding. And if he's the last guy on your bench and you need somebody to drop, I'm not opposed to dropping him, but I'm not like actively looking to just, right. I'm done with you. You're you're gone. We,

we often in the show with a question from the chat and I'm, I'm taking a little bit of a shot here. Cause I think you might know the answer to this question, but if not, we'll just find another question from the chat. But Taylor asks, are there any super flex mocks coming out with college film on these players? Would be cool if you were doing the project. Taylor Christensen is our chief editor for Dynasty Nerds. And he just did a one QB mock with college film on the player. So we took some of the all 22 from our dynasty nerds film room and put it,

uh, on the mock, uh, for people to kind of get a feel for not only like where they might go in a draft, but what type of player they are and the strengths and weaknesses and, you know, just get a little glimpse on film.

So we just did that with one QB. We're in the works for doing one for super flex. Um, I'm going to be doing the cutups from our dynasty nerds film room to send to him to put in the article. So yes, there, there are mocks coming out and I am on the project and you should check it out. Dynasty nerds.com. Awesome. Awesome stuff. And if you want to sub to the website, you can use promo code coop, C O OO-O-P, and get yourself 15% off. Wow. And we've got one more sub we want to tell you about because we talked about it at the very beginning of the show.

I know you weren't all here at that point. Tell them one more time how they can subscribe to Couch Scouts and help out Western Carolina. Yeah. So couchscouts.com. We've got a bunch of different membership packages on the website. You can do monthly, you can do annual. All of our proceeds from October are going to aid Western North Carolina. It's a place that's near and dear to our hearts. So if you want to get a great Dynasty resource with a bonus podcast, a rookie guide when that time of year rolls around and

all 22 film room, all kinds of great stuff, couchscouts.com. And even if you buy the annual, we'll take a hundred percent from your full year's payment and we're going to send it to Western North Carolina. So everything you buy on the site right now, we're donating all proceeds for October. Awesome. Awesome stuff, Matt. Thank you for being here today. Always enjoy talking to you. Enjoy your knowledge and the good work that you're doing. I appreciate Nada helping us out. Everybody in the chat that was participating, we will talk to you next Tuesday.

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