Fantasy Football Today - Bounceback Candidates! Justin Jefferson, Bucky Irving, Terry McLaurin and More (01/28 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Before we get to the bounceback candidates, we talk about the coaching news with Joe Brady being promoted to Bills head coach, Mike McDaniel sticking with the Chargers, the latest on Brian Daboll and more ... Kicking off our bounceback candidates with Lamar Jackson (18:00) and a wide receiver combo (23:45) of Terry McLaurin and Justin Jefferson. Clearly Jefferson will be better, but how much better? Then we discuss three offenses (29:30) that we're hoping to see bounce back: Chargers, Bucs and Eagles. How confident are we in this trio of teams? Are there enough targets to go around for Ladd McConkey to excel? ... More bouncebacks including Jayden Daniels (41:25), three running backs (44:00), wide receivers (49:30) A.J. Brown and CeeDee Lamb plus Sam LaPorta (58:10) ... Email us at [e-mail] 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 Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  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 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

Hey, Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive the Price's Right Fortune Pick has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show, only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games, like Plinkgo, Cliffhanger, and the Big Wheel into fun casino game features. Don't forget to download the BetmGM Casino app for exclusive access and excitement on the Price's Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the Price is Right Fortune Pick only available at BedmGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario. At 1866, 531, 2,600, to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetmGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario.

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the show. It's Fantasy Football today, presented by BetMGM, Make It Legendary. We still have some time left before the Super Bowl,

so we'll talk about some bounceback candidates, won't do much game previewing this week. be for next week. But bounce back candidates and coaching news. Offensive coordinators, maybe some head coaching momentum, stuff like that. Actually, I don't know. We did get a head coaching hire. We got Joe Brady being promoted to the Bill's head coach.

And what does that mean for Brian Dable? Will he end up in Tennessee or Las Vegas? Adam, Jamie, and Heath here. We'll go through your news and notes. Then we'll get to some bounce back candidates, including a couple of quarterbacks who were top five in ADP last year and kind of stunk for your fantasy team. Sorry about that. Good morning, Jamie. Why are you apologizing?

I just feel bad for the people who drafted Lamar Jackson and Jaden Daniels, you know. Okay, that's fair. You're empathizing. Not empathizing. Right, exactly. Is there a better word to express empathy than I'm sorry? I feel for you. I feel for you. Okay. We'll do that. Yeah, I'm sorry does imply you were in some way responsible. Right. Like, because the jobs that we have, like, the way it comes across is like, I made you draft that guy. Well, you did. I thought Is Brian Dable not for sure with the Titans? No, he's still up for the Raiders.

I think it's like the Mike McDaniel thing. Like he's agreed to be the Titans' offense coordinator unless he gets the head coaching job. For the Raiders. Yeah, which I think he's had at least two interviews for. One of my favorite moments on FFT Dynasty happened this week. I had Jeff Bell from football guys on, and we were talking about playoff risers and fallers.

he is a bills fan and we had somebody in the chat that broke the news of Joe Brady getting promoted to be the head coach for the bills. So I got to break that news to him and get his instant reaction. And it was similar to what I've seen

from other bills fans. Which is what? Oh. I don't really, you know, I kind of, I get the sentiment both sides of it, right? You know, because it seems like kind of,

a little boring, I guess, but they're scoring a lot of points with him. I mean, they have a great offense. Seems like it's a lot of Josh Allen. But, I mean, the result, let me see here. I think the problem from from Bill's fans' perspective, it's like, okay, so you guys think everything we're doing is working except for Sean McDermott. Like, that was the problem. I mean, it seems it's very similar to, I think, with Harbaugh and Tomlin, you know,

that they feel like they've reached a point where they can't get to the next level. level with the same guy in charge. I don't think it's necessarily fair to McDermott. Not that I think it's a problem that was a problem for Tomlin or Harbaugh, per se. But I think in the case of McDermott, like, you get the interception doesn't get called that way. The penalties don't get called that way. If they win that game, they're potentially in the Super Bowl. If things work out well for them, he's obviously not getting fired, even if they lose the Super Bowl.

So those series of events lead to him getting fired as opposed to if they win that game and maybe win the next game, you know, here we are. He's still the coach. So I don't know how much of this was Josh Allen wanting a change because the first person they interviewed was Brian Daibble, who was his former offensive coordinator. They end up hiring his current offensive coordinator who he, you know, seemingly has a good relationship with. I think the biggest thing for Josh Allen and the bills is how much of the office. offense that we saw, which I don't think was necessarily great. I think you're right, Adam. A lot of it was just Josh Allen being great. How much of the offense will change because of what Brady was doing to adhere to what Sean McDermott wanted? Because a lot of it was somewhat conservative.

Now, granted, personnel, I think factors into that, you know, they don't have exactly the greatest receiving cores. We're well aware. All of the sentiments, I don't know if we touched on it here, but all the sentiments about Keon Coleman, for example, after the firing were pretty awful. We didn't touch him on it. We should, Jamie. So let's give a little summary. Give a little summary of what's gone on there with Keon Coleman, who was their top pick a couple of years ago, and it hasn't worked out.

And then there's, I guess, no one seems to agree on whose pick it was. So being their general manager was kind of answering a question in regards to Keon Coleman. And the owner, Peruga, Terry Puluga, jumped in and basically said that it was the coaching staff's recommendation to draft him. and they didn't want to draft him. He was, I don't know, the whole thing was just awful. But then there's all this video of Brandon Bean being so excited to draft Keon Coleman.

It really seems like it was Brandon Bean's pick. Yeah, and again, like if you're blaming the coaching staff and then hiring from within, especially the offense coordinator who had to have some saying this, it just doesn't all come together. So, you know, I hope that for Keon Coleman's sake, either A, he gets a fresh start, maybe they trade him, or B, he gets an opportunity with a new head coach to get some, you know, clearly playing time, but, you know, opportunities to perform at a high level. They need to add receivers. We know that.

You know, Adams already attached AJ Brown to the bills. It makes a lot of sense. You know, I think Alex Pierce, who's, to me, one of the top free agents. I don't know the entire class, but George Pick is clearly, but he's getting free. But, you get the point, like, one of the top free agents hopefully ends up there. They just need to give more weapons. But I'm always curious when things, like, you know, like this happen, especially when you have a defensive-minded head coach, does the new coach,

new coordinator, former coordinator, it's to sort of open things up and be a little bit more aggressive. And if that's the case, and we're not seeing run bubble screen or run bubble screen, go make a play Josh Allen, as P. Priscoll likes to say, then I hope there's an opportunity here for this offense to be a little bit more fluid and maybe give Josh Allen some more chances to throw the ball downfield and develop weapons. Also, I think like some of the pushback, the bill's leadership is getting is that's just like that's terrible if keon kohman was no longer on the team yeah yeah that's just terrible leadership to talk about a 22 or 23 year old guy that's still on your team yeah that way that's awful yeah it is i i mean look he's obviously had a a rough tenure so far but i felt bad for him

they were publicly just calling basically calling him a terrible draft pick without saying the words uh one thing to know so so a couple things i know joe brady offensive coordinator now promoted to head coach of the bills they've been in his two years as offensive He's been two and a half, but the last two seasons where he's been the offensive coordinator. They've been third in points per game. Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I don't have what they were last year, but, or 2024. 2025, they were third in points per game.

But they've been a very slow-paced team. 26th in pace in 2025, 28th in pace the year before that, 28th and 31st in pass rate. So they haven't been throwing the ball much. But then you also look at their personnel. They haven't really been designed to do that. They just, they've whiffed at wide receiver, basically. So will they play a little bit faster? Will they have to address wide receiver?

I mean, they absolutely have to. It's a good rookie class so they could do it through the draft. Obviously, A.J. Brown is going to get traded there. I guarantee it. But if that doesn't somehow happen, you know, they've got to figure out a way to address that. a few other news items here. So Drake May has a maybe a little shoulder injury. They're being a little coy about it right now,

but hopefully he can be 100% healthy for the game. Bill Belichick will reportedly not be a first ballot hallfamer. That's kind of big news right now. I don't know. Anybody want to share any hot takes or should we move on? I think you should. I think it's good. He's cheated.

That's exactly what I was expecting. You don't think Barry Bond should be in the Hall of Fame, so you shouldn't certainly. should agree with this this move. Yeah, I kind of do. Yep. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Let's see what I got the Titans. So it looks like, right, we said, Brian Daibel will be their offensive coordinator unless he gets the Raiders head coaching job. And I guess we can talk about it when it becomes official. But Heath, would you like that?

I think it's probably better than what Cam Ward dealt with last year. Now, it's the old X's and O's and Jimmy's and Joe's thing. Like, they got to go. You don't go out the bills needing some guys. They got to go get some guys. It won't matter if they don't. But yeah, I think I'm slightly optimistic about it. Yeah, I read an article, I believe on ESPN, talking about Daible, a lot of RPO's with the Giants.

And that was something that Cam Ward did a lot of at Miami. It was very successful for him. So he might see that. I mean, Ward looked good down the stretch, you know. And again, you know, clearly one of the most under-hyped number one overall picks we've ever had, you know, just not discussed after the draft, not discussed a lot during the season, not in consideration for rookie of the year. There's just a lot of things that he just kind of went under the radar, including again the way that he finished. I think it was, I don't know,

I don't remember week 18, but I believe going into week 17, he had like three or four games in a row with two touchdowns, you know, two passing touchdowns. So he finished the season playing well. He obviously did not have Calvin Ridley for the second half of the year. The, the rookie receivers that he had weren't exactly the most talented duo going into the draft. His tight end started to play well down the stretch.

I think that's a position of strength. Even if Chigal Conquil leaves, I think Gunner Helms got a chance to be a nice player. So there's pieces here. There just needs to be, I think, an alpha at the top of the receiving core

and probably figure out what the run game's going to look like. Cam Ward threw seven touchdowns in his first 12 games, and then he threw eight touchdowns in his last four games, not included. Those two each team.

Last four? Not including week 18, where he actually did run for a touchdown on his only possession. He scored 9.2 fantasy. Oh, where he got. And he hurt his shoulder and missed the rest of the game. And for those of you that are so concerned, he would have been the Pro Bowl quarterback instead of Shreder Sanders if he was healthy. Is that right?

Yes. Cam Ward also had a stretch of six straight games with an interception from weeks three through eight, and then he only threw one more rest of season. And he only ended up with seven picks. for the year. All right. We've got, Jamie, what do you think about Atlanta and what we can expect from their offense

with Tommy Reese calling plays and not Kevin Stefansky? I mean, look, Stifansky, it's so hard to sort of, I think, for a lot of people, to wrap their heads around him as the coach for the Browns. Because when you first got there,

when he had Baker, he obviously had success, whether that was because of, Baker, because of him, clearly it's, you know, as we're seeing with the stupid Belichick, not making the Hall of Fame people saying, well, now Brady is the reason why they were so successful. You know, they clearly went hand in hand. Savancy's a good coach. I think he's a good offensive coach.

I think he showed in his time in Minnesota as a play caller or, you know, being part of the offensive staff there. I don't remember exactly if he called plays, I think he did. But he can run an offense. You know, so Tommy Reese running the offense, I think doesn't necessarily mean anything about Defans. I think he's going to do great things. in Atlanta if they figure out the quarterback and there's just unbelievable talent there that can get better.

You know, it was good. We've seen some good seasons from Drake London. We saw finally a great season from Bejohn Robinson. We saw great seasons from Kyle Pitts last year. We saw a great season for Pitts as a rookie year. You know, so I hope, and we've talked about this, if Pitts does not stay, that they find an Isaiah likely type of player, you know, a free agent that's out there

or draft somebody that's going to be a good player because tight-end production for Kevin Stefansky's tenure in Cleveland, you want to call it Tommy Reese's reason why. But I mean, David Najoku had some really solid seasons. You know, we used to joke, I forget who was Harrison Bryant. You know, the combination of Njoku and Bryant was always very successful in the beginning part of that. And then what we saw last year from Harold Fanon. So I think the tight-end production will be awesome if the right players there, again, the right quarterback.

So I think it's a good hire. I actually likes Defansky in Atlanta. I don't remember a big shift last year when Reese took over the play calling from Kevin Stafansky, which I think was after the first. It was basically right at the midway point in the season. I would expect it to look like a Kevin Stapansky offense. And maybe, I'm hoping, like Jamie said, for Pitts or likely, but maybe they just run a year of David Nogoku.

He's a free agent. Okay. Maybe they trade for Fannin. Yeah, I can't imagine why Cleveland would trade their best player. offensive player, sorry, quite as far as him being better than Miles Garrett.

We had talked, yeah, that's probably a jump at the gun. We had talked about Mike McDaniel, maybe not ending up with the Chargers and getting a head coaching job.

It's official, right? I mean, he is the Chargers offensive coordinator, right? I believe the press conference yesterday solidified it. Yeah. Okay.

You'll, you know, you can skip ahead to, that's why a couple of chargers are on my bounce backlift. Right, exactly. And the, Jets fired their offensive coordinator, Tanner Engstrand, who came over from Detroit with Aaron Glenn.

The Broncos fired. You heard of the potential replacement is, right? I saw Frank Reich's name. Yeah. Yeah. Denver fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, who wasn't calling plays, but a guy who's been with Sean Payton for a long time. And Peyton also said that after, you know, when they did the surgery on Bo Nix and they explored the ankle, apparently he had a preexisting ankle condition that made a fracture inevitable.

and it happened really at such a bad time. But Peyton also said he has no concerns about Bo Nix's ankle going forward. T. Higgins said that Chase Brown got better each and every single week. And, you know, that's, we always kind of love Chase Brown's opportunity. If he really is getting better as a rusher, then, you know, look out. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry for the season, 5.1 yards per carry in his last 12 games. And finally, Michael DeRocco of ESPN thinks that the early indications are that Travis Hunter will primarily play cornerback.

Boy, he could end up being one of the worst dynasty picks. What a shame. All right, we got a mailbag on Friday. So get excited for that. Get your questions in. Haven't seen a lot of questions. So if you have any questions, and it doesn't have to be a football question.

It's an off-season mailbag, me, Jamie, and Dan on Friday. I think 10 a.m. Eastern. I think we're locked into that time right now. But, yeah, please send your questions to fantasy football at CBSI.com. That's the letter I, football at cbsi.com. We'll be right back with our bounceback candidates after this. When the weather cools down, Golden Nugget Online Casino turns up the heat. This winner, make any moment golden and play thousands of games like her new slot Wolf It Up and

all the fan favorite huff and puff and puff games. Whether you're curled up on the couch or ticking five between snow shovels, play winner's hottest collection of slots. From brand new games to the classics you know and love. You can also pull up your favorite table games like blackjack, roulette, and craps, or go for even more excitement with our library of live dealer games. Download the Golden Nugget Online Casino app, and you've got everything you need to layer on the fun this winter. In partnership with Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling problem call ConX Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600. 19 and over. Physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply.

See Golden Nuggetcasino.com for details. Please play responsibly. All right, bounce back candidates. Heath is Lamar Jackson, Justin Jefferson, and Terry McLaren. Oh, Lamar Jackson, what a tremendous start to the season for him. 33 or more fantasy points in each of his first three games went downhill from there. Heath, what is Lamar Jackson bounce back to? And does the lack of an offensive coordinator right now,

do you think anything could change based on who they hire? I mean, something could change based on. who they hire, but I think just in a vacuum, we saw Lamar, this is the Lamar Jackson experience. It's kind of been this way throughout his career. There are stretches where he's the best quarterback in fantasy football. There are stretches where he leaves games early and it crushes his fantasy average. What we saw that was new this year is he came back, I think, and tried to play through some stuff and the rushing just kind of fell off of a cliff, especially when he came back towards

the end of the season. Three, his last three games, he had a total of eight rush attempts. And for the season, his rush attempts were down about 40%. Now, you hope this is not a case of, he's 29 years old and he's just not going to run quite as much. I don't think that's the case at all. He still had a very good passing touchdown rate. The passing efficiency, 8.4 yards per attempt. I don't think Lamar Jackson lost any skill last year.

year. It's more of a bet on hopefully he doesn't leave a couple of games early next year. Hopefully he doesn't get an injury that causes him to run less. But I think that there's probably more upside with a head coaching change and hoping that maybe we get just a few more Lamar Jackson pass attempts. Maybe we get a little faster-paced offense than what the Ravens have been the last couple of years. To Heath's point, you know, we kind of go through these scenarios where we have gone through these scenarios with him a couple of times. And then it depresses his draft value. And you get such an incredible player at a lesser price. Now, he's not going to fall very far. If I recall from the six of us who did the rankings, he was still top five in all of our lists. But we were discussing him as the

number one quarterback last year. And he was going in round two. So if you get this guy in round three or maybe round four, depending on how quarterbacks go in your league, he may not be the same player, because he's clearly going to slow down at some point and maybe run less. And maybe that's what we saw last year. But as Adam and I talked about this Heath on the FFT Express on Monday, like, what's the number of rushing yards where he's still in contention to be the best quarterback? Like, is it 600 yards? Is it 700 yards?

You know, I don't know if he's going to have a thousand yard rushing season again. That's a lot to ask. But if he's north of 500, because he's never going to be a high rushing touchdown guy unless just things change. He's not going to be a tush push guy. he's not going to be a guy that when they get inside the five is going to steal a lot of rushing touchdowns again unless just the new coordinator changes some things or his game changes. But I think you can't necessarily rely on him strictly as a passer to be a top three fantasy

quarterback. You need to have that rushing production to get him there. And at what point does it become, oh, he's just not running enough? You know, to me, 600 feels like a good number, 600 rushing yards. You know, in his first three games, like I said, he scored 33 points or more in all of them, and he was on pace for 669 rushing yards. I think the question, he's obviously, this is the most obvious guy of just being affected by an injury. He kept getting hurt in practice.

He kept getting hurt. You know, he comes back from his first injury, and he scores over 30 points against the Dolphins with a four touchdown game, 33.6 points there. And then injury after injury, just playing hurt, not. running and really finished poorly. So the question is like, does he bounce back to what he, to his 20, 24 form or is the number one quarterback in fantasy, had a 50% touchdown rate in the red zone, which was the highest since at least 2000?

Or does Lamar Jackson bounce back to, you know, top, top, you know, like QB4-ish, 24-ish five points per game instead of closer to 30? We don't ever expect anyone to do going into a season, whether it's Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or. anybody else. We don't ever expect for anyone to do what Lamar Jackson did in his best two seasons. So I think he was doing it again. He was doing it again, you know? Well, I mean, he could. Yeah. But that's that's an outlier performance. And he was doing it again. I think you could go through those three names I just said and find four week samples where they do that all

the time. First three. It was it was right in a row, like right out of the gate. He just picked up right where he left off. That doesn't make it any more likely for him to keep doing it than if he did it, weeks five through eight. Like it's just, that's, so is he going to do that for a full season? I doubt it. Right. No, no. I'm not going to, right.

But I think at the very least, we get to bounce back to 25 points per game. All right, football fans, you can bounce back if you're, if you're first to score a touchdown bet doesn't go right. So picture this, you bet on your favorite player to score the first touchdown of the game. But his teammate scores instead, well, if this happens, bet MGM wants to give you another chance at the end zone. With BetMGM's second chance promotion, you'll get your stake back if your first touchdown score

second instead. That's right, bet on any pro football player to score the first touchdown of the game. And if you're right, you win. And if your player scores second, you get your stake back in cash. With BetMGM's second chance offer, you have a chance to keep the fun going

after the first player crosses the goal line. Try a first touchdown score with confidence, score a wager, sorry. Try a first touchdown score a wager with confidence today. Bet MGM, make it legendary. We got a couple wide receivers on Heath's list here, Justin Jefferson, and Terry McLaren. All right. What do you have to say about these fellows? Well, I think that McLaurin is kind of like the Lamar thing in that he just, like, and Jamie

talked about this going into the season, and he was right about it, the holdout and not being necessarily in good enough shape to play football or ready for the season. And he got hurt after week three. And then he dealt with baseball. backup quarterback play for most of the time that he was back. But still, if you look at what he did from even week three on when he only played 60% of the snaps, he was still on pace for almost 1,100 yards and 66 catches. And it had six touchdowns. So there's a bounce back there no matter what.

But if I expect Jaden Daniels to bounce back as well, I almost put both of them on the list, but I didn't want to put two players from the same team. I think that helps McClure. I think going into the season with his contract situation settled helps McClorn. And I would just expect he's probably not going to bounce back. Listen, we went into last year even before we had the holdout concerns saying there's touchdown regression coming. So I wouldn't expect him to bounce back to 13 touchdowns.

But the five prior seasons, he'd been between 77 catches and 87 catches and between 1,000 yards and 1,200 yards. I think that's probably what you're getting from a moment. McLaren and he probably scores eight touchdowns and he's probably a number two wide receiver. Justin Jefferson, you know, do you think he should be a first round pick, 2026? Second round pick. But last year, he was worth what, a fifth round pick?

He was wide receiver 30 per game. Yeah, that's maybe six. And I didn't, I felt like when watching his struggles with J.J. McCarthy, sometimes it was just McCarthy not playing well. Sometimes it was just there. the connection wasn't right between those two. And whether McCarthy's the starting quarterback week one or not, if he is, I think that he and Jefferson will have some things figured out.

He's not getting back to 1,800 yards, kind of like what we said with Lamar, but I do think he's probably getting back to being a top 12 wide receiver. I think the hope would be is, and it may not be McCarthy, you look at his numbers with Carson Wentz, and that's the production I think you should be expecting from consistent Jefferson. I don't want to say Leach Jefferson,

because elite Jefferson, I still think can get back to 18 hundred yards with the right quarterback, but is that guy going to be in Minnesota? You know, so whether it's McCarthy and, you know, a proven guy and Aaron Rogers, I don't think Jacoby Persec gets free

of Arizona, but, you know, that type of guy. You know, a veteran proven option that can be consistent in case McCarthy gets hurt, magically, gets hurt slash benched, gets benched out right, one of those scenarios. Because what he did with Carson Wentz, I forget the number of games,

but he was averaging over 16 PPR points per game with Wentz, which I think is clearly second round value and a good enough fantasy-wide receiver that could even get better, you know, with the right type of production. So they had offensive line issues throughout the course of the season last year. Jordan Addison was in out of the lineup last year.

T.J. Hawkinson wasn't necessarily, I think, the type of player that we were hoping he was going to be, you know, still a year removed from the ACL tear. There's just a lot of moving parts with Minnesota, and I still believe in Kevin O'Connell. I still believe in Justin Jefferson. I think everybody does.

It's just a matter of can you believe in the quarterback-wide risky repairing and when you're going to be willing to take that risk. Yeah. Well, here with Carson Wentz, you said he averaged over 16 points per game, but he did not even score a touchdown in those five games with Carson Wentz. That's true. And, you know, he was on pace for 11622 yards, zero touchdowns on 170 targets.

And, you know, the targets, he only had a... Part of that was without Addison, though, right? I'm not mistaken. It was weeks three through eight, so I want to say one game. Yeah, so Addison was out three week four, right? Let's see. Jordan Addison, he missed only one of those games. One of them.

And the other, one other thing about those games with Carson Wentz is he played Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and the Chargers. Four of those five teams were top eight against wide receivers. It's actually like a tough stretch for Justin Jefferson and he was still on pace for over. He averaged over 100 yards per, no, not quite, sorry, like 90 yards per game or something like that. Who knew that was the cell high window. Yeah, who knew, right? But, you know, I think just for, like, if you think he's just going to go back to being potentially the number one wide receiver, he certainly could.

He's talented enough. We're just seeing a trend. Just want to point out, we're seeing a trend with Minnesota the last two years. They've had a really, really good defense, and they don't throw the ball as much as they used to, especially with McCarthy. You know, Wenz was like 33 pass attempts per game. I mean, if he gets back just to 2024, when they didn't throw quite as much, it's 100 catches for 1,500 yards and 10 touchdowns, I think. We'd all be pretty good with that. No, we'd be great with it.

At this point, Jefferson's not going to be debated with Jamar Chase and C.D. Lam and all that. I'll say. No. No. But yeah. Well, again, unless there's a huge change at quarterback. Yeah, that's true. Right.

Right. They hit a home run there. Okay. So you had Terry McCorn. Maybe keep Sam Donald. Get him back. What's that? Maybe get Sam Donald back.

Yeah. You had Terry McLaren and Jamie had Jaden Daniels. We'll get to Jamie's list in a moment here. I didn't have so much a list as I had three offenses that I'm hopeful for bounce packs. I have questions about all of them. I'll rank them in the order of the most confident of them. bouncing back. And all of them are represented in the list of Jamie's breakouts.

But the three offenses that I had here were the Chargers, that's in order of most confidence I have them bouncing back. Chargers, I'm going to say Eagles, then Bucks. And Jamie's got Herbert on here. He's got A.J. Brown on here. He's got McConkey on here. He's got Bucky Irving on here. So these are offenses that for the Chargers, it's just,

We always talk about Joe Al, Joel, Chowal. They were really, really good when he was healthy. But also, they got McDaniel now. And Rishon Slater, their other tackle, he missed the entire season too. So there's so many reasons to like the Chargers offense right now. The Eagles offense, I mean, this is their points per game in their last four seasons since they acquired A.J. Brown. Second, seventh, sixth, 21st. If they trade A.J. Brown, that's a problem.

If they keep them, I still think they have problems there. They have, like, is Lane Johnson going to play? They've been so much better when he's been in the lineup. I don't know who the most, I think the most obvious bounce back candidate for them personally, Jamie, is Barclay. You put A.J. Brown on there. I mean, you didn't have Barclay on there, but that doesn't mean you don't consider him one. But, like, his metrics were just too bad, in my opinion.

I don't think he could do this poorly again. He was RB 16 per game, Sequin Barkley, 17 per game. But yeah, the Eagles, I do have some concerns about them, but it seems like they should bounce back. And then the Bucks, there's another team that was never really healthy. Like, everyone at the same time, maybe the last four games of the year when Evans came back, but Bucky Irving was always battling something.

Tristan Wurbs was in and out of the lineup. So those are the three offenses. I had Chargers, Eagles, Bucks. You have all of them represented. How would you rank them in terms of, let's like, who's going to, points per game, Chargers, Eagles, Bucks next year. How would you rank them? chargers, bucks, incomplete right now,

because we don't know the offense coordinator for Philadelphia, and that could change everything. And it's funny, like, you know, see a lot of the Eagles beatwriters, and they do such a great job. You know, there's a lot of them, obviously, it's a big market. How's nobody wants this job? You know, they can't find anybody to take this offense coordinator job.

Now, maybe they're holding out for somebody that's, I don't think Kubiak makes a lateral move, for example, but maybe there's somebody on Seahawk staff or the Patriot staff that they're waiting for. Maybe they're waiting, you know, getting pushed back by somebody who's hoping to get an offensive coordinator job someplace else or even head coaching job someplace else. Like, I can't pronounce his name, but the passing game coordinator for the Rams, Nate, whatever his last name is. So, you know, there's a number of different ways this could end up.

But clearly there's some disconnect there. I think just in the case of the Chargers, you know, you've added a very bright offensive mind. forget about what Mike McDaniel did as a head coach. In his tenure in Miami, he had a season with Tuatung of Iloa as the leading passer in the NFL. And now he has a much better passer. He had a season where his running back led the NFL and rushing touchdowns. And now he has a first round pick. That was a 30-year-old Rahim Moster.

We know what he did with Devon A-Chain. We know what he did with Tyreekill. We know what he's done with Jalen Wado. We know what he's done with Jonu Smith. Like there's just been different parts of this offense. that is now getting what could be, you know, just a significant talent upgrade in a lot of different spots. And so there's just a lot to like about this. And, you know, you mentioned Joe Alt and just even the numbers last year when Justin Herbert had Joe Alt.

And that was without Rishan Slater, like the numbers were good. So Herbert to me is so much, I don't know, bounce back, re-breakout, however you want to classify this. Like he's somebody that I think you should be excited to draft. Ladd McConkey's values on the rise. I'd be surprised they bring back Keenan Allen, but who knows. One more year of Quinn Johnston. I think Arronday Gadsden's going to get a boost. Obviously, Armine Hampton's going to be fun to draft because of what this offense does with its running backs.

We'll see what they do to enhance it. Who else they bring in? But still, like, there's just a lot to love about the Chargers. And I think we would be somewhat excited about the Chargers. maybe everybody except Heath in just knowing that the offensive line being healthy and now you add McDaniel to it. To me, it's got rocket ships attacks to it.

Yeah, I guess I wonder how much better we think McDaniel as an offensive coordinator than Greg Roman. The Chargers were 20th in points per game this year. That was his worst mark since he was on the 49ers in 2014. And they were great when they were healthy. What? And they were great when they were healthy. I don't know that he did a bad job.

Right. But it will be interesting to see these guys in a new system and to see which guys are the guys he likes to use. I think everybody's going to be extremely excited about Amari and Hampton and Ladd McConkey are the two guys. And maybe a really good opportunity for value on Quentin Johnston. Don't forget they drafted Trey Harris in the second round this past year. So I want to talk more about McConkey. Let's do that. We'll take a break here.

We'll talk more about McConkey, get into Jaden Daniels, three running backs on Jamie's list. Sam Leporta is another guy that shows up here on Jamie's bounceback list. We'll be right back after this on fantasy football today. Hey, this is Richard Deich, the host of the sports media podcast. If you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports, the sports media podcast has you covered. I've been turning down interviews all week. A copy reached out.

Oprah, George Stephanopoulos. So I said, no. I was booked on the Deich podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. So McConkey, 2025, 4 as a rookie, you know, was just phenomenal. But kind of did it in this, a little bit too good to be true. Super efficient.

wasn't really getting a ton of targets because they were kind of run heavy. And then in 2025, his target per outrun rate falls to 18.9%. And that was very surprising. So yes, Keenan Allen,

I think was a big reason for that, but also the emergence of Quentin Johnston, the emergence of Ironday Gatston didn't help. Now you've got Trey Harris. Let's say Allen's gone and Trey Harris, you know, gets more targets. I probably won't get as many as Kian Allen got, but I don't know.

know, you know, do you look at this as sort of a crowded receiving core, Jamie, and maybe Ladd-McConkie, who's just more or less a slot guy? Let me check that slot, a 61% slot rate. It's not, it's on the high side, but we've seen wide receivers have great seasons with that kind of slot rate. Yeah, I don't know. You get what I'm saying here? The situation has changed.

They did not have a tight end a year ago that we cared about. They did not have Quentin Johnston as anything significant. The situation has changed a little bit for McConkey. And they could have one of the best defenses in football. So you have them on the bounceback list, but what are your expectations? I don't think he plays as poorly as he did last year. I don't think he plays as great as he did his rookie season. But I think there's certainly a lot more to offer and a lot more that he will give us

with now a better play caller from what I would consider a passing down's perspective. So to his point, I don't think Greg Roman was the re-referral. reason why the Chargers completely fell apart last year. I think that had a lot to do with health. But I also think, you know, when you don't have protection for your quarterback, the lack of opportunities to throw the ball down the field are certainly not going to be there. So if you tell me that both tackles have the chance to play the majority of the season, Keenan Allen's gone, Mike McDaniel's now calling plays, Justin Herbert gets better, gets back maybe to the type of thrower that we saw earlier in his career, or at least in parts last year when he had protection.

I don't know. This is a guy. I think that's an easy player to target when we talk about the receiving options for fantasy managers and how it kind of falls off. This is the type of guy I would like to get. So if you go running back round one, depending, you know, early round one, depending on what you do with the swing, I still think early round three is a place to start to consider Ladma Conkie.

I don't know if that's where his ADP will settle. But that's where I would start to consider him. Once you get past the top 10 or 12 wide receivers, he's in that mix for me. I think it's going to be really interesting to see what the past run split for the Chargers is this year. Just because I think we know what Harbaugh prefers generally. There's probably a reason he chose Roman the first time. And three of the five years that McDaniel has been, he probably wasn't calling plays in San Francisco. So if you want to rule that one out.

But he was an OC for one year and a head coach for four years. Three of those years, they ranked. better in rush attempts per game than they didn't pass attempts per game, including last year. And when he was with Shanahan, it was like they were top five in rush attempts and towards the bottom in league at pass attempts because that's what Shanahan prefers to do. So I think for McConkey, that matters probably more than it does for anybody else. You can have a team that's really good running the ball.

And if you throw touchdown passes, the quarterback can still be very good. Or if the pass offenses is efficient as it is in San Francisco, the quarterback can still be really good. And that might happen. But McConkey seems like one of those guys who's probably going to need a high volume of receptions to be a real difference maker as a wide receiver. Garrett Wilson or Lab McConkey. Who's the quarterback for the Jets? Who's the offensive coordinator for the Jets? Yeah. I think Gary Wilson's better than Ladd-Maconke. I just asked the chat because I think this is where you go, okay, well, Lab

McConkey. I think a lot of people are going to expect the Chargers to have a very good offense. But they're going to expect more targets for Garrett Wilson. So it's going to be so far four votes in the chat and all of them are for Garrett Wilson. So there's your sample size. All right. Let me ask you, Jamie, about... We get to six. What did you say? Six votes. That might sway it. Six votes, yeah. Well, I don't know if you're in the chat and you see the question, go ahead and respond. Just curious to see,

take people's temperatures there. Let's talk about Jayden Daniels, Jamie, and you have him as a bounce back, and he got off to a decent start,

not a great start, but scored about 22 fantasy points in each of his first two games in six point per passing touchdown leagues, and then got hurt,

and then he came back, 19 points, 27 points, 19 or about 20 points, you know, and then he just kept getting hurt. So he's a bounce back for you,

Jaden Daniels. I mean, we saw what he did as a rookie and we were so excited top three quarterback for 2025 based on ADP, it's hard to not get excited about that player, especially again at a discounted price. So when you look at the rank list, again, for the six of us,

for the most part, he's either fifth at best or in some cases seven through eight. So I think anytime you get the opportunity to draft a player with his upside, he could be a thousand, three thousand type of guy. thousand-yard rusher, three-thousand-yard passer. He was not that far off as a rookie. So, 700-plus rushing yards, 800-plus rushing yards. You know, Heath talked about it. I think it's hard to, you know, not think the same way that Terry McCorn is going to have a better season just because he's going to be on the field. You know, we'll see what they do again with the rest of this receiving

core. But I think just looking at what Daniels did as a rookie, like, these are the type of players that win you fantasy leagues, you know, guys coming back from injury that are still young and have the potential to be awesome, you know, he fits that bill. Is there any reason not to like him? You think he's injury prone and doesn't have the ability to take a step forward? Somebody just suggesting the chat, C.J. Stroud, you know, I mean, clearly that could be the unfortunate path that he follows. Great rookie season that never gets back to that level of production. It's possible.

You know, they've made changes to the offensive staff already. You're talking about an older Terry McLaurin, an older Debo Samuel. It's not like he has an infusion of youth right now. You know, we'll see what they do the rest of this offseason. Debo's a free agent, right? Yeah. Debo? I'm not sure, but maybe.

Yeah, Heath, he's. Yeah, he's a free agent. So, again, you know, where do they go to, you know, build out this receiving court? A lot of still moving parts. Yeah, their personnel sucks. I mean, right now, it's, they, their personnel stinks. Yeah, it sucks. I'm going to stick with that.

I think. Right, but he's not the type of quarterback similar to Lamar Jackson that needs great personnel to still be a great fantasy option. and it would definitely make him better. He'd be more excited about it. But the things that he does on his own. Yeah. All right. Three running backs on Jamie.

Hackerts is probably done. You know, so there's a lot of, you know, new openings to fill. Three running backs on Jamie's bounceback list. Bucky Irving, Ken Walker, and Breece Hall. Bucky Irving, Ken Walker, and Free Agent Brees Hall. I mean, Walker's obvious. We only spend much time on that one. And if, you know, he comes back to Seattle, Zach Charbonnet, he's not ready for the start of the season.

I think I said it a few times now. I'd be interested in round two, you know, depending on what the prognosis is on Charbonnet with his rehab and, you know, following surgery, which I don't even know if he's had yet. In the case of, and if he goes to another team, you know, he could easily be a, a, still a great fantasy option. You know, we'll have some frustration about how he gets it done. But you've seen now two games in 2025, one in the playoffs, one in the regular season, week three, without Zach's actually. Charbonnet, he was 18 PPR points or more in both of those. And if you factor in the 49ers game in the division round, when he left, it was 31 plus points, you know, in that game. So, you know, huge, huge opportunity for him. Brees Hall is still, I think, a tricky one because, again, you know,

does he stay with the Jets? What do the Jets look like? I had my concerns about Brise Hall last year, you know, and sometimes it looked like I was right. Sometimes it looked like I was, you know, wrong, because he still has, you know, still had some great games. And, you know, I think, if you mentioned this the other day, I forget what it was, but his yards per carry wasn't bad, you know, over the course of the season. He's just got so much talent and upside. Like, he's an easy guy to, you know, fall back in love with if everything is right. Again, especially if he leaves or is allowed to leave the Jets because I think the franchise tagging.

But if he goes someplace else and gets, you know, with a great offense, like he could be top five caliber running back. Buckie Irving is, you know, we'll see. you know, they revamped their entire offensive staff. You know, Zach Robinson clearly still used two running backs last year. They have what I would guess is going to be two. I'm going to guess Rashad White leaves. He's a free agent. You know, he's already talked about wanting to reunite with Jane Daniels.

So maybe he goes to Washington and upgrades their crappy person. But, you know, if it's Bucky and just one other guy and maybe we get to see, especially with Sean Tucker, then we get to see Bucky area in the passing game. So I don't think that's Sean Tucker's role. we saw what he was as a rookie. We saw at times last year, certainly before he got hurt, that he could still be an elite fantasy option.

So I think in the case of at least two of these guys, because Walker will definitely have a high ADP if he's the guy in Seattle with Charbonnet, not coming back, if it's still Breece Hall with the Jets with a, you know, shady quarterback situation, you know, not exactly a guy that we love. And Bucky Irving's still in a committee. You know, you may get these guys at just great prices.

and the talent is still there for both those guys to be special. Heath, any thoughts on Bucky Irving, Brees Hall? You said Breece Hall, you talked about him. Was it last episode? I don't know, but you think he is. Yeah, I think Hall's probably the most dependent on where he is. And considering the offensive environment, he still had a very good year last year,

like 1,400 yards from scrimmage. He just scored five touchdowns. You would hope he scores more touchdowns, but the Jets are going to have to make some improvements if they franchise tag him, and he's stuck there. I think Walker, another guy who finally played 17 games last year, I wonder, and I've seen a lot of people say on social media, if Zach Charbonnet is not there and they just make Ken Walker a feature back,

there's no way he makes it 17 games, and so that's kind of the sentiment. And so what we'll find out this offseason is do the Seahawks think the same thing? Because I can't imagine anybody's expecting Charbonnet to help the team the first month of the season at least. So whether they bring him back and whether he's the only running back they give a contract to this offseason will make a big difference there. Bucky's probably the one I'm most scared about. And I wonder the thing that would save him, like if you just think about what the Falcons did last year, if Buckey's in that Bichon role and he's seeing that type of target volume,

then his rushing efficiency isn't really going to matter that much. Now, he may not score that many touchdowns because one of the complaints we had throughout the time that Tyler Algier has been in Atlanta is that, the short yardage carries. And last year the problem for Bucky was they didn't want to give him the bowl inside the five yard line, especially in the second half. So it might be hard for him to score

a lot of touchdowns, but if he catches 60 passes, that doesn't really matter. I'd really hate it if Tyler Algear follows Robinson to Tampa. That would not be good. All right, and then we'll finish up with... Unless they move on from both Rashad White and Sean Tucker,

then I think it'd be okay. Well, I just, I think... There's a possibility that Robinson goes through camp and watches Algier and Bucky run the football and just decides, you know what? Bucky should be our second back, still catching a bunch of passes, but Alger is just a better rusher than he is. Yeah. Or the goal line back, like you said. Well, I think he will be. I don't think, but, I mean, maybe not, but I don't expect Bucky to be the goal line back.

I think he was in 2024. I mean, I think he had every role, right? And Sean Tucker was there. Down the stretch. Downstretch. Yeah. Once he became the guy. For six weeks.

Yeah. I bet you he was at the beginning of the year also in 2025. I don't think he was coming off the field. Let me see. I can try to look that up. All right. While I look that up, a couple things. Jamie, it's pronounced Sheal House.

I knew that. I don't know why I didn't say it. Shield House. Rams passing game coordinator. And your wide receivers are Citi Lam, A.J. Brown, and Ladd. McConkey. We talked about McConkey. So C.D. Lamb and A.J. Brown are bouncebacks.

Lamb, again, is somewhat obvious. The lack of touchdowns was really the most alarming thing. And clearly if George Pickens leaves the Cowboys, C.D. Lamb, you can argue, is the number one receiver in fantasy. He was that good in 2023. And so there's just a lot to love about what Lamb can do. But clearly, when you see 14 PPR points per game, that's not the type of play. I think C.D. Lamb is. So did not have the greatest 20-25 season, was overshadowed by Pickens for a lot of the year.

But still with Doc Prescott, same offense. Obviously, the connections there. I think C.D. Lamb is still one of the best receivers in fantasy. You know, it's funny when you said, are we talking about Justin Jefferson with Jammar Chase and C.D. Lam? You know, you don't mention Puginaku and J.S.N. That just shows you, I think, the respect that a lot of people have for C.D. Lamb, that he's still in that caliber of conversation, knowing that he wasn't as productive as a couple of those other guys. So everybody for the most part has CD-LAM as a top-five wide receiver. I think just writing the stock watch from the playoffs and looking at our top 24s.

Dan has, and I don't know if he'll stick with this. This was done week 18. Dan has CD-LAM ahead of J-SEN. So that's, I think, how much he's still hoping that CD-Lam could be CD-Lam again. So he's fairly obvious as somebody who can rebound or rebound at a high level. I still think the same thing for AJ Brown. You know, you look at the stretch of games that AJ Brown had. And I don't have it in front of me.

I'm sorry, but it was like week 11 through 16, 17 in that range. I think it was maybe 15. He was averaging over 19 ppr points per game. Like he was still dominant. He just didn't do it in the early part of the year when everything was sort of in flux and complaining and all these things. It's just a matter of will he still stay in Philly? Will they get the right coordinator in place?

If he leaves Philly, does he go to a team that has an elite quarterback? You know, some people when we were talking about, I don't know who it was in the chat, somebody posted, A.J. Brown back to Tennessee. You know, that's not going to make him, I think, an elite fantasy option. It'll still make him a good fantasy option. But I don't think you want to see him with Cam Ward. No disrespect there. But he's just not at that level of quarterback yet. And I could be wrong. But if he goes to Buffalo, if he goes to New England, if he goes to a team that hasn't established quarterback and passing game and all those things, then I think you feel really good about AJ Brown. But I think you take the sample size of when he was at his best. He could still get there. He's still young enough.

I still have a lot of faith in AJ Brown. And we already talked about McCawkey. So I think all three of these receivers, to me, are top three round picks. AJ Brown did he average 19.8 points per game from weeks 12 through 17. Sorry, that was stretch. Yeah, that's fine. And that was good enough to be wide receiver four overall. I'm not sure about per game probably right up there.

Let's see. Those games were at Dallas. You take everybody's best stretch of games. Yeah, not. Yeah, at Dallas, Chicago, great matchups there. He took advantage of them. Then he had 100 yards at the Chargers. Only had two targets caught a touchdown against the Raiders.

They destroyed the Raiders in that game barely through. Then he was at Washington. Great matchups. He had very favorable matchups down the stretch. Then he kind of struggled at Buffalo, which I think it was a bad weather game. I did think Dan made a good point, mark the tape, about like the way the Eagles are talking about A.J. Brown and not trading him. And it may not be lip service because the way they structure salaries, it is an enormous hit to them if they trade A.J. Brown because they have so much money that they've already guaranteed. It would be great for the new team.

but it's going, if they trade him according to over the cap, if they trade him before June 1st, they have 43 million in dead money. Yeah. I think the one thing about this is like for most people outside looking in, he's unhappy, he's, you know, the live stream where he said, you know, whatever about the offense seemingly wanted to be out of there. Then you ask him and you ask everybody there and there's no issues.

Right. You know, and so there's always the gray area of what's the truth, you know, does he really want out? Does the team want to get rid of him? Do they want to move on? Like, it doesn't seem like Siriani is upset with AJ Brown ever. It never seems like Jalen Hertz outwardly is upset with AJ Brown. Do you remember the playoff game? Well, but Andy Reed and Travis Kelsey do that twice a year.

Yeah. And, you know, I mean, look, there's going to be moments. You know, I think there's, we all get a lot. We've had moments where we yell at each other too. It's been a while. I thought about that somewhat recently. We haven't really yelled at each other in a while.

I'll work on that. I'll see if I can get you fired up. You can. I think there's a very decent good chance. I hate you as a commissioner. That the big problem that A.J. Brown with head in Philadelphia is no longer there.

The offensive coordinator may have just kind of resolved it. And going back to what you said about Dan and C.D. Lamb over JSN. Do we all agree with that? if Kubiak and George Pickens are both on different teams? Yeah, I would take Lamb over J.S.N. Yeah, it's a fair, fair argument. You know, as I, as I wrote in the story,

I think you might be the only one right now, Heath, that has JSN over Chase. And again, this is going back to Week 18, so you may have changed that right, but, now you see JSN and what he just did, right? He destroyed the Rams, had an awesome game, 10 catches, 145. yards and a touchdown whatever it was.

Like the production over the course of season, number two receiver, was fantastic. 21 point, whatever it was, points per game. Like, C.D. Lamb was over 23, you know, so he can do that. Chase in the six, eight games that Joe Burrow started last year was 20.1 PPR points per game. Like, these guys are so good. It's like, if you really want to watch. receiver because I'm going to guess the two running backs get mixed in there, unless maybe a third

creeps up, but the two running backs of Bijan and gives, like if you want one of the top four and if you want to say lamb right now is four, like you just want to pick six in the first round. Will you just shut up already, Heath? You know, just have just had a...

That was bad effort. Like when you, when it happens, you lose control of the things you say. The shoulders. We know the shoulders. A lot of it though is like usually like we're pranking each other in some cases too because like the idiot moron thing was you know we were messing with you. That was when I dropped, that was when I dropped Carson Wentz, wasn't it? Yeah.

Right. When I told you I'm like, drop Carson Wentz, we'll just add him back. I don't even. Okay, it was you dropped Carson Wentz from the team that we shared without asking me for some scrub receiver on the Jets. and that was back when you thought Carson Wentz was an elite quarterback. Well, he was an elite quarterback. I thought it.

He was. He was great. Yeah, those are a big fight. Gamer Eric says the last big blow up we had was you going off on me for not dropping the players. I don't remember. And then you dropped Devin Neal who's not going to be starting running back to the Saints, and I hate you. Citi Lamb, by the way, is on pace for 156 targets from week's. seven through 17, and George Pickens was on pace for 146 targets from week seven through 17.

Pickens, though, on pace. Oh, they both were on pace for five touchdowns. Pickens, a few more catches. All right. And then tight end. Sam Leporta was a tight end you have on here. He's got the back injury, hopefully ready for training camp. You have him as a bounce back.

And it's kind of interesting to sort of, there wasn't a lot of overlap of Sam Leporta being healthy and James being good. I think maybe one or two games. and then Jamo kind of took off after Leporta, Week 10 was his last game. So anyway, you have him as a bounce back. He's frustrating because he's so up and down with a lot of bad games on this game log here for Leporta.

But anyhow, discuss. Well, you have a coach now as the offense coordinator assuming he's going to be the play caller because Dan Campbell could be the play caller. But Rob Petting's history is from Cleveland to Arizona. You saw what that... It's Drew Petsing. Drew Petsing.

I don't know why. I think I must have Rob Polinkas name in my head for some reason, the general manager of Lakers. Anyway, Drew Petsing from Cleveland was part of that staff when we were fascinated by their tight-in production, goes to Arizona, gets arguably maybe the best tight end in football right now in Tray McBride, certainly in the conversation to be that guy. and the production is elite. And so there's a lot of mouse to feed in Detroit still. That's not going to change. But Jared Goff has shown the ability to use Sam Laporteur certainly as a red zone threat. La Porter's rookie season was fantastic.

He hasn't gotten back to that level. I think we discussed this either Monday or last week. Like there's a pretty clear cut, probably six tight ends. I think that a lot of people are going to draft in some order. You know, likely if he goes somewhere may change that. Kyle Pitts, if he goes somewhere else, change that. But the two top tier guys

of McBride and Bowers, the four young tight ends of Loveland, Fanon, Warren, am I forgetting somebody? Maybe he's three. Mitch those five guys. I'm sorry, Tucker Kraft being the sixth. Tucker Kraft being the sixth guy. Laporta could

and maybe should be right after him, you know, just knowing what he's capable of doing and now getting an offensive mind like Steve Petzig, who can, you know, feature him to a high level. Detroit, I just want to look at one thing here. Detroit was 12th in points per game in weeks 1 through 7. And Jared Goff averaged 29 pass attempts per game. In their last 10 games, golf averaged 37.5 pass attempts per game.

And that was weeks 9 through 18. So I'll tell you where they ranked. Because this is a second straight year. This has happened two straight years where their defense fell apart. They had a lot of injuries. So they go from 12th in points per game in the first half of the season, basically, for seven games to 25th. And it's just something for everyone to keep in mind that they actually could have a good defense if they could just stay healthy. They have a lot of talent on their defense.

Last, you know, two years ago or 2024, it was Hutchinson getting hurt and all of their secondary getting hurt. This year it was basically all of their secondary again. Alie McNeil missed time. Some linebackers missed time. It was crazy. So they are not, maybe not going to throw as much as we hope if they're healthy on defense. But Leporta basically played when the defense was good, right? Yeah.

And Jamo was invisible. And he have, like last year, he averaged a career high in yards per game, catch rate, yards per catch, yards per target, and success rate. Leporta did. Like he just scored three touchdowns in nine games. But I'm very, I may have a hard time. when I actually get the projections done, keeping Leporta out of the top five. I'm very optimistic about him.

But in this stretch, he was on pace for 93 targets. But, Rod Petzig. Chris, Chris Betzick. Yeah. All right, well, there you go. Sam Leporta,

bounce back candidate. And that's it for today's show, folks. You and Dan fight a lot. You and Dan fight a lot. Not real fights, though. It was only one thing, Dan, that I actually got mad at you. You've never screamed, I hate you at an octave, three levels higher than you like voice at Dan?

Probably. Many times, I guess. By the way, I'm continuing along with the wire. And man, it's so fantastic. You're so wrong about the wire. I might be. One hundred percent right. I'm willing to be wrong.

I'm willing to admit. I hope I'm wrong. I'd like to start watching it. Where are you on Sopranos? I'm not good. I'm done with the Sopranos. But I remember. I realized why you don't like it.

Why? Because the picture that is shown and the character that's in the first season that you just have never really liked. I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't really remember. I just remember being bored. It's on the Twitter list. No, I never said that about Michael Jordan, right? Michael B. Jordan.

Keith, what do you make of the, I forget who it was from the Chief saying that they expect Kelsey back? I'm not really surprised. I'm not really surprised by that. I don't think he wants to go out like that. It's going to be really interesting if they bring in another wide receiver trying to figure this out. But if not, you just kind of expect that it's going to be a little bit better than it's been with Nagy there. Gamer Eric says I've been watching Mayor of Kingston about halfway into season one. Great stuff.

Fantastic show. I just don't understand why the reviews are not good for Mayor of Kingston. It's not like a critically acclaimed show. I'm not sure I've ever looked at the critics' reviews of any show that I've ever watched, and I don't know why I would care. No, I haven't either, but I just wanted to read some reviews after season four ended, and I guess season four was the most favorably reviewed season. I don't necessarily think it was the best.

It was your least favorite season, wasn't it? No, I wouldn't say that. I thought you said nothing happened. No, what? Okay, I thought that's what you said. I don't think I said that because I don't think that. Stranger Things last season was my least favorite stranger things season. Oh, I thought it was fantastic.

You liked it too much, Heath. I don't think we ever talked about this. You liked it way too much. That's a big problem of mine. Well, you're not critical enough. I can't take your recommendation seriously if you're not going to dislike any shows. Well, I just, I, I, I, I, I didn't like Game of Thrones.

Oh, then I definitely can't take you seriously. So the one show you should like. I don't watch shows like a critic. I just like what I like to watch and watch that. I don't watch shows like a critic either, but. It sounds like you do. I disagree with the critics about Mayor of Kings. I don't know anyone who has not liked Mayor of Kings.

Oh, my dad. My dad doesn't like Mayor of Kingstaff. Your dad doesn't like anything. He likes a lot of shows. He watches his TV, but he doesn't like their picks up. Or people. Yeah, he likes some people. All right, we're out of here, folks.

We'll talk to you on Friday with a mailbag. Submit your questions, fantasy football at cbsi.com. I'm doing it.