Fantasy Football Today - Don't FORGET About These 11 Players! Dak, Bucky, Higgins, & More! (08/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Help us raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital here: https://tinyurl.com/FFTDonate2026Jamey, Adam, and Dan break down the under-the-radar fantasy football players you should NOT forget about on draft day. They start with the latest NFL preseason injury updates (3:00) before highlighting key fantasy football sleepers and values, including a potential Baker Mayfield bounce-back season (15:33), David Montgomery as the lead back in Houston (27:19), and Tee Higgins’ high upside in the third round (37:26). Get expert 2026 fantasy football draft advice on players who could provide major value and help you build a winning roster.Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

It's getting close to fantasy draft time for a lot of you with your leagues, and we're here to help you dominate those drafts. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Dan Schneier, that's Adam Mazer, not the usual trio that you used to seeing, but we got a lot of fun for you today on fantasy football today. Real quick, we're going to talk about this a lot on our mailbag. How you feeling after the big tennis match last night? Feeling pretty good, you know, came down with another win.

A little unhappy with myself, I was not the most gracious winner, so I got to work on that. We agree you have to win two sets to win the match, so technically nobody won. Okay. And by the way, our colleague Heath Cummings, who set the lines on this, is declaring this in no contest because it did not finish. We're going to be joined by Heath. Hopefully, he's doing a draft in Memphis as part of the St. Jude's draftathon that we're doing, raising money for St. Jude.

So we appreciate everybody who has donated so far and continue to donate. We are hoping to raise over $200,000 for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. So a lot of drafts are happening this weekend, guys. We want to make sure everybody's up to date on a lot of the the latest player news because a lot of injuries to guys that are going in the first four or five rounds, starting with Puka Nakua all the way through the tight ends, three major tight end injuries that we're dealing with with Sam Laporta, George Kittle, and Tyler Warren. But let's start with Puka Nakua at the top.

So if you're drafting this weekend, it's kind of just what do you do with some of these guys if you have your draft this weekend. So Puka Adam is one of these wide receivers that's in the top four guys going in the first, basically six overall picks, six or seven overall picks based on the CBS Sports average draft position. So if you see the first three guys come off the board, which I think is going to be pretty consensus, Jamir Gibbs, Bejohn Robinson, Jamar Chase, are you taking Puka at four? Not anymore, because there still could be a suspension. I think for the most part with injuries, unless we have an actual timeline with somebody like a Jeremiah Love or a Brees Hall,

I'm one week away from moving guys down. But with Puka, I am going to go with JSN ahead of him and move him to fifth overall and wide receiver three as opposed to fourth overall wide receiver two. Yeah, I mean, we've seen him fall a little bit in drafts. I just hold. hope that if he's healthy and isn't suspended, he could be Wadryserie 1. We saw that last year. Chris McCaffrey still has this undisclosed tightness that he's dealing with. Kyle Shanahan, understandably so, being optimistic about McCaffrey. At what point in the first round, if you're still taking him in the first round,

are you comfortable with TMC? I think I'm still taking him at five or six overall between those two positions. Tim or JSN for me there, and I may move up Amman Rosset Brown if it's full PPR. I mean, you don't love to hear Kyle Shanan say the exact same quote he said two years ago. word for word. I don't know if he was trolling us, but at the same time, there have been murmurs

that it is contract-related, which I can understand as well. And if that's the case, I'm less concerned. So he's still the guy who can win you leagues in full PPR league or half PPR.

So the upside is worth it. Yeah, I'm very concerned, personally, just because the last two times over 400 total touches next season missed significant time due to injury. So hopefully everything's okay

with McCaffrey, and there's the optimistic view of it's taking him in the middle of the first round. Emeka, Abuka is dealing with his toe injury at him. We have a somewhat of a timeline that he should be ready for week one. Does that make you okay with Abuka in round three?

Absolutely, yeah. I think more late round three, because you just never know if these are going to linger or not. And this is a guy now has got a lot of injuries so far earlier in his career. So after Chris Olavé, Devante Smith, and Malik neighbors, he comes into play there. I think you could argue McConkey, Zay Flowers, guys could go ahead of him. But I'm definitely going to take Abuka ahead of Garrett Wilson, ahead of Tetero and McMillan and players like that. But it's a three-four turn kind of play, if possible, maybe as early as, let's say, 30. second overall, I'd consider Abuka. And one of the themes of our show today is talking about players you may have forgotten about.

Chris Godwin seems to be somebody that players that fantasy manager overlook a little bit. We'll talk about Godwin when we get to the wide receivers later in the show. Dan, you got Josh Jacobs, another player that could face a suspension, dealing with this groin injury, got back into practice a little bit late in the week, but still dealing with this potential injury and suspension situation when you look in Jacobs. I still think Jacobs is one of the guys that I'm taking. If everything falls a certain way and I'm at the point in round three, I think, middle of round three.

Probably more comfortable taking him there. The suspension is an issue, and this groin injury, or is it a groin for Jacobs? Yes. I think it's less of an issue. I think this was always the plan to ease him into training camp. I think he could be one of the best picks in fantasy. Could be. We just don't know. I mean, it might be worth the risk, especially in a 10-team league. We have a little

bit more roster depth. I mean, Josh Jacobs, if he plays 17 games or even plays 15 games, he's probably going to be a top 12 running back. He would clearly be in that, instead of a top 12 that we have this year, he'd be a top 13 guys. you know, and you could get him a round later than you had to. Let me ask you this, though, because last year we didn't really have a direct handcuff for him.

It seems like that's emerging right now. Does that make it easier to take? Yes, yeah, I mean, I was going to make that point too. I mean, Marshaun Lloyd, the way they used him in the preseason, he played every single snap with the starters. He's basically, look, he's probably going to get hurt, but he looks like a pretty good handcuff right now. And if you draft Josh Jacobs, I do think you should pay up a little bit to get Marshaun Lloyd. And then you just lock up that backfield. Yep.

And you could do the same thing with McCaffrey if you want to get Kalon Black who's looking like the backup there. For the Jets, though, maybe Braylon Allen's going to be that guy. He's another player dealing with a groin injury. A lot of different views on Brissal because last year was bad. Jets still not a great team, but seemingly looking like he could be the guy once again if he's healthy. Brissal's per game and per touch stats are really unbelievable if you look at it. He's been one of the more efficient backs both in the past in the run game. And he's done it without great quarterback play.

It really, for me, depends on do you believe in Gino Smith to move this offensive? little bit more and score more. Without that, if you're not confident there, I think he could be one of these dead zone trapbacks. So he's been somebody I've avoided for most of the drafts. I can get that. You know, I think if he's fallen to round four, I'm all in. And that's why I haven't ranked now was round four because of this injury. Round three was always a little bit too pricey for me, especially with Jacobs there, Kyron Williams, there, some of these other running backs. Jeremiah Love was there, Adam, before the high ankle sprain. What are we doing the Cardinals running back now? Yeah, high ankle sprain is one that can linger and can affect people, really. But you look at

like, Sequin Barclay had a mid-season high ankle sprain, and he basically had the same yards per carry before and after. Jonathan Taylor had a mid-season high ankle sprain, missed three weeks, and he averaged, I think, 4.7 yards per carry after. C.D. Lamb, week three or four last year, whatever it was against the Bears, high ankle sprain, and he was great. I mean, he was super efficient when he came back, so I'm not that worried about it. He's a mid-to-late round three pick to me, and he is going to get,

I think he's going to get a lot of touch. I think he's going to get a lot of catches. So I kind of like this injury. I hope it makes Jeremiah Love fall a little bit, and I will snag him mid to late round three. I'll just clarify, you don't like the injury, like the value that has come as a result of injury. I love that he's hurt.

I just, you know, it's fantastic that he's got that. I'm going to go out and get a high ankle sprain this afternoon. I love it. I want to just cover the tight ends, because I want to get to your visit with the Giants and the Dolphins yesterday. So we have three tight ends that are dealing with injuries here. We got Sam Laporte has got this hip injury,

lines sort of downplaying a little bit. Tyler Warren expected to be out about a week with a growing injury. It feels like growing is the new ACL at this point. And then you have George Kemp. Kiddellie's injury. We had this conversation on our podcast today. Does this make you more inclined to take one of the top three tight ends

because you just know that they're safe right now and the production could be amazing? I don't think so. I think this year specifically taking one of those top three tight ends is really passing up on a really good player at running back and receiver, specifically at the running back position, which is deeper than it has been. For me at this point in time, I'm pretty much leaning toward late round tight end again, and I know it's like greater late, but I'm kind of off the grade and I'm just on the late right now.

How about you, Adam, with these three guys? like, do you scared with these injuries, or is it maybe driven the cost down to make them a little bit better to take? I hope it does with Warren. Kind of same thing I'll talk about Jeremiah Love because I'm not that worried about Tyler Warren. They don't seem to be worried about it. So I think round five would be a great spot for Warren. I'm not quite ready to go round four with him. This is all good news for George Kittle, right?

So I think round eight for Kittle, talking about a guy who's been a top three tight end per game in seven of the last eight seasons. I'd love to get him in round eight. Laporta, I'm not going to draft, I don't think, just because I like them. I just think people like him a little bit more than I do. I'd take him in round seven if he falls there with the injury. It doesn't make me more likely to take the top three guys. I'm fine taking them at value. I do like the last three guys, likely Kelsey Goddard, I think, more.

As soon as he gets like Fantasy Pros Goddard ADP and not CBS, Goddard ADP, which is around seven or eight, which is too early. Yep, so we'll see how I do think Lipport is ADP sort of falls to a spot now that he goes behind pits and crafts, and maybe he becomes a great value pick. All right, Dan, so you went to the Dolphins Giants' Joint Practice yesterday. I want to ask you just a couple points on each team. Let's start with the Giants.

We know Malik Neighbors was not there, but a lot of questions about the backfield. So you have Najee Harris now part of the group. We saw Tyrone Tracy have the missed block and everybody putting it on him like it's his fault. I think it's probably a combination of both. But how do you view the backfield now with Camp Scadaboo, Tracy, Devin Singletary, and Najee Harris? It's a really interesting backfield, specifically the way they they've played this thing out in training camp and in practice because reality is they're rotating guys in. And yesterday I saw all three guys, Scada, Bo Tracy, and Singletary get reps with the first team offense and Jackson's art.

More specifically, when they ran the two-minute huddle drill at the end of practice to get into field goal range, you know, both teams ran it. It was Singletary in the no huddle offense. And we saw in the preseason game, Singletary made a big play in the passing game with Jamis. One start had to come out with the injury and go to the medical tent. So I'm very intrigued. And then Najee Harris worked with the second team, but had two of the most explosive runs of the the whole practice, including a red zone touchdown. So it's interesting.

After practice, actually, Dave Richard asked about, asked Harbaugh about the backfield and the depth of it. And he seemed kind of iffy on naming anybody a starter or kind of being full-fledged in supporting any player there. I think the clarity that I have is that I don't think Tyrone Tracy is a good draft pick anymore. If you're going, I want to handcuff Cam Scatibu. Because if Scatibu gets hurt, I don't think anyone runs away with this job.

I think Tracy could be kind of useless. The question is really about Scatibu. I think the Giants would be pretty stupid to not make him their workhorse unless they just don't think he's physically there. He had a very gruesome injury. But he should be, hopefully, so much better than the other guys. If he's not, then he's just not that great of a running back. He doesn't have breakaway speed, but he's super tough, and I think he's an absolute weapon near the goal line. It'd be a crime if he's not their goal lineback.

So I think Scadaoo, big part of his appeal, he was on pace for 60 catches in the games of the normal snapshot last year. I think that's going to be more like 40 to 45 catches. So I don't think he's going to be quite as good. For me, once Breeze Hall is off the board, we're talking mid-round four, I hope. Scataboo comes into play. But I think he's a late round four pick for me because there are some concerns here. He won't have the same type of role in the passing game. But the Giants would be pretty stupid to use Devin Singletary or Nashi Harris ahead of him, in my opinion.

He's fallen into round five for me. I am concerned just because there's a lot of running backs in that range, David Montgomery, Buckingy Irving, Quinchotkin, Jodkins, you know, There's just a lot of guys, I think, that can have similar upside and also similar downside. Let's go to the Dolphins. I think everybody's going to draft him on ATN in the first 15 picks, seemingly getting the full workload. But the passing game, did anything stand out to you that, okay, I want to get Malik Willis as a late round quarterback? I want to target Caleb Douglas.

Is there anybody that you can look at and say, I want one of these dolphins? Well, it's interesting because the Dolphins' Dolphins was completely overwhelmed by the Giants' defense. I think after practice, we asked Brian Burns. It looked like you guys had six sacks out there. He was like six. It was more than that. And they were just plays blown dead over and over again. With that said, it doesn't necessarily dissuade me from Malik Willis

because he's going to scramble more and he's going to run more. And he's going to have a good chance to be one of the highest rushing yards for game quarterback in this year in fantasy football if he starts all 17 games. So I'm in on Willis. I'm in on A-Chin because there wasn't any backup running backs rotating in. It really does seem like he's one of the last true workhorses we have left in the NFL. Passing game a little if he. It was actually Greg Dolchish, who seemed to get most of the targets there during the practice.

Another late round tight end, I think, that you could look at. And so we'll see if Malik Willis could be one of these quarterbacks that a lot of fantasy managers gravitate toward our. We're going to take a break right now. We're going to come back and talk about some quarterbacks that you may be forgetting. Are we overlooking Dak Prescott? What about Baker Mayfield, Jordan Love? Can these quarterbacks be starters for you? That's next year on fantasy football today.

Drafts are happening and drafts are happening to help raise money for St. Jude. Our own Heath Cummings is currently in Memphis. as you're seeing here live, and you can follow along with this draft on the St. Jude Twitch stream. They are doing a draft to raise money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Heath does this draft with them.

I think it's like four or five years in a row. Usually we try to get a hold of Heath, but we're having a little technical difficulties connecting because they're just having so much fun. And so this draft will go on past our show, so make sure you check it out. They always do crazy things. They have people pick their draft picks for them,

people that are watching the stream. But really, it's all, for the same cause and that's to raise money for the st jude children's research hospital there you see heath on on camera there and you can still donate for our draft-a-thon go to tiny ural.com slash ffti donate 2026 you can still bid to be in leagues with us it's again the goal is to raise over two thousand dollars we did a great job with the tennis match you know kudos to these two guys yesterday and heath is doing his part to help st jude as well so

check out the tic-tok stream the st jude tic t-titch t-st dude twitch stream to uh to follow the draft there. Do you think Dan can sing a song that has the word Memphis in it? No, of course. Dan, sing a song that has a word Memphis in it. How, is this, you expect me to just know any song with the word? You don't know. There's one of the most famous songs in the world that has the word Memphis in it. You might be. Georgia. I thought he was going to get that one. You went Georgia. All right. Let's talk about quarterback. So the, the theme of the show today, we got you some news on the players to open the show. The theme of the show today is don't forget about these guys. Let's start with a couple quarterbacks.

Talk about some quarterbacks. There it is. I'm going to Memphis. Yeah, somebody told them. 100%. It feels like we don't talk about Dak Prescott enough. Because we talk about the top five

quarterbacks, which for the most part are going to be in some order. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Drake May, Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels. Then I think it goes Jalen Hertz, probably a QB6. And then this is where Dak Prescott comes into play.

He's in that conversation, I think, with Justin Herbert, Caleb Williams, a lot of those, you know, third tier, fourth tier quarterbacks, depending on your tiered quarterbacks. Where are we on Dak, Prescott, Adam, because when he's healthy, has not played back-to-back healthy seasons since 2019. But when he's healthy, he's amazing. He's 33 years old. You worry a little bit about the

rushing. Last year, the rushing number, the attempts per game came back up from a down year in 2024, but the yards per carry came down. That's a good thing because I think the yards per carry could easily come back up and he can get back over a 200, 250 rushing yard pace, something like that. We could use that. But keep in mind, this guy could lead the NFL in passing yards. And if you look at his 17 game pace from week 7 through 17, because he played half of week 18, that's when C.D. Lamb came back, week 7 through 17. He's on pace for over 4,800 yards. That means he has massive upside.

I mean, he has QB3 upside. He could have that Matthew Stafford kind of season, right? He could just destroy it. He needs to get his touchdown rate up a little bit. It was 5% last year. Needs to be closer to 6%. There's really no reason why that can happen. I have not drafted Dak Prescott once, and I regret it.

That needs to change. I'm going to make it a point. and it's been mostly mocks, thankfully. I'm going to make it a point to get some Dak Prescott. Because I don't care, their defense will be a little bit better. They're going to be super pass-heavy. He's going to be among the league leaders and passing yards. I'm a little less bullish on Brasscott.

And it's mostly because, and we talked about us like four years ago on the show, I knew post-injury, the injury that he had, the major injury, the lower, was it, a leg? Ankle. Ankle injury. The rushing would come down, specifically in the Red Zone. They stopped using him as a red zone rushers. So that, I think, is out of his game at this point. And I actually think the Cowboys' defense is going to take a big jump forward

with Quinn and Williams playing a full seat. season, and obviously Caleb Downs added to that defense. But they're still going to throw. They're going to throw. They've had, I mean, they used to have good defenses with Dan Quinn, and they still threw the ball at time. It's his offense. It is still his offense.

And I do think Prescott is one of if not the best processing quarterbacks in the NFL, so he will be able to move the ball through the air. The problem is, I feel like I can get an arbitrage play with Jared Gough, a multiple rounds later, and I'm not losing too much there. I have similar weapons, similar processing style quarterback, similar upside from a touchdown standpoint. I'm not losing that much in my mind in the rushing department. You're losing about 200, at least 200 rushing yards.

Maybe. If not 250 with golf. But you're right. Golf was negative one last year with rushing yards. Like you don't get that at all from him. But it is a great comparison because you are talking about guys that should be high volume passers, great receiving cores. And the schedule, if you look at it, really favors the Lions and golf.

So the value there is, that's a great call. Let's talk about Jordan Love. You drafted him in the Superflex league that we did, Superflex mock draft that we did. on our podcast this morning. Jordan Love, looking like he's going to have a little bit of a bounceback year, a resurgent year. He's always been a good quarterback. He just hasn't been a great fantasy quarterback. Do we get that? Probably not. He had a sort of great year three seasons ago. I think he was QB eight or nine per game. He averaged a little bit more than 22 fantasy points per game in six point per pass and touchdown leagues. And I think that's his ceiling.

But what's happened since then? He hasn't been a worst quarterback. He's had some games where he's left early with injuries. That's hurt him on a per game basis. But it's Josh Jacobs. Once they got Josh Jacobs, it's really like midway through Jacobs first season there, they've been one of the most run-heavy teams in the NFL. Love is not a big-time rushing quarterback. He's kind of like a little bit better than Dak Prescott maybe. But if they get back to throwing the ball, if they're a middle-of-the-pack pass-rate team, we could have a top 12 quarterback here, not a top five, but a top 12.

He's probably going to be more like you'd be 17 per game if they're super run-heavy again. But he is really good, and if Jacobs isn't as good or is suspended, we'll have a better year for Love. He'll outperform his 80. It's a tricky one for me because I really like him as a player. You heard Matt LaFleur say this offseason, it's really clicking for him from a mental standpoint, which could mean LaFleur feels more comfortable

with a more pass-heavy approach. The issue being LaFleur's career as a play caller, it's been very slow pace and it's been very run-happy, like he said. Simply in the red zone, that's where it's been the trickiest. So without the rushing upside with the history of the play caller, and obviously if Josh Jacobs plays the full season, it's hard for me to buy in when I have players going around him, like Malik Willis, that I like more.

Even Daniel Jones, a player who I think, I think fantasy managers are really sleeping on this offseason. So I just don't really like the range he's being drafted in. We'll talk about Jones in a second. The thing that I like for Love, you guys mentioned the Cowboys defense. No Michael Parsons potentially for the first six weeks of the season. This is not the same NFC North. You have some really great offenses in this division.

The lions and now the bears, what they do, I think pushes the pace of what maybe the Packers have to do, and they may see a little bit more volume. The downside, though, which is all, this is a tricky one, because you have Tucker Kraft coming off a pretty significant injury, and Christian Watson, who has struggled to stay healthy. If he loses any of those, either of those two guys to meet, he's done. I don't care how good Matthew Golden is. I don't care how good Jay and Reed could be.

He needs both those guys, I think, to elevate himself. I don't think it kills him as a fantasy quarterback because he can still get numbers. But I think if you're talking about top end production, having those two guys on the field certainly matters. Can I give you, I'm sorry, one stat. They allowed 20 or more points in eight games last year. That's pretty good. he scored 21.7 or more fantasy points in six of those eight games.

So without Parsons, if they give up more points, you could have a really nice player here. Yeah, so you got off to go a good start, you know, maybe one of these quarterbacks that you pair with like a Malik Willis, or maybe if you just wait enough, you go a Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield combo. Not all the people would like that, but we're making a transition here. Yeah. So Baker Mayfield, Dan, two years ago, unreal fantasy quarterback. Last year, however, everything fell apart. You had injuries to Mike Evans, injuries Chris Godwin, offensive line was banged up, and then Baker was really hurt.

Another offense coordinator. Two years ago, we had Liam Cohen. We see what Liam Cohen's done for the Jaguars. Now he's got Zach Robinson. Do we like Baker Mayfield as one of these late round guys? Love Baker Mayfield this year as one of these late round guys. You said it best. I mean, last year they had their center playing left tackle.

Now they're left tackle. Their star is Driss and Wurst Back. You can move the center back and he was amazing there. So this offensive line, I think, is going to rebound as one of the five best in the NFL. You have the Buga going into year two. I really like Ted Hurst, the rookie they got. And he's come along strong so far in training camp. And Baker himself, I mean, if you watch quarterback show on Netflix,

because you saw how injured he actually was. He couldn't really throw the ball in some of the weeks. So if he's fully healthy. Now, you have to ask yourself how much of that production was Liam Cohen because that was a career year for him. And it's really an outlier versus the Russians career. Yes. So I'm not sold on that.

But Zach Robinson has a really good track record, I think, as a play caller, specifically getting players like Drake London involved. I think Igbuku will be that player. So as far as late round quarterbacks go, Baker's definitely one of the guys I like a lot. I love it. It's a great call. And the first six games of the year,

Baker-Mayfield averaged 24.9 fantasy points for a game and six point per passing touchdown leagues. Remember that number, 24.9, because he had a 28 game stretch from week 13 or 14 of 2023 to week six of 2025, where he averaged 24.7. That's who he was, late in that first year with the Bucs, all throughout 2024 and first six games of 2025. He dealt with injuries. That's exactly when Abuka got hurt, I think, was week six. He wasn't the same player. Mike Evans was in and out of the lineup. And Evans not being there, I think, hurts his upside because that's his touchdown guy.

But there are so many reasons. The offensive line, all the injuries that he had last year, the fact that he did it for 28 games from 23 to 2025, he's a great bounceback candidate. And just one underrated thing. Jalen McMillan healthy too. I mean, he didn't have McMillan for a majority of that season, too. That's kind of when Baker took off those last part of the season. Remember because Evans and Godin were hurt. in 2023, and McMillan had that seven touchdown performance in the last five games of the year.

So Hearst and McMillan adding to Abuka and Godwin, it's a pretty solid receiving court. I didn't realize that both of you, Giants guys, love Daniel Jones. I know he loves Daniel Jones. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You brought up Daniel Jones on almost every podcast. He's looked great. He's doing this. He's doing that.

You said you love Daniel Jones overlooked. The floor is yours. Go ahead. You want to start? First of all, I love how much Dan hates being in the middle. He hates the middle. I'm out of it. I'm not about it.

I like middle and coming. conversations and dinner parties, but not this situation. Not a middle on the show. I would just say that I love him in that, hey, if you want a late round pick, a late round flyer, he's in that conversation now with Baker Mayfield, with Malik Willis, with Tyler Shuck, whatever. We had to see it, and I haven't actually seen it with my own eyes, but the reports are that Daniel Jones is looking great. And the point I would make is that if you're going, he's coming off a torn Achilles. It is obviously a big deal, but last year was the best year of his career, and he barely ran.

And he played some of that with a bro. broken leg. The two worst games he had were with the broken leg, before the Achilles. Yeah, but he ended up as QB14 per game with a broken leg and a partial game we barely played in tour his Achilles. So he doesn't need to be a rusher. He just needs to be mobile. Hopefully he is, and he could be a top 12 quarterback.

I mean, you see it right here on the screen. Look at his first eight games. I don't really understand the ADP. It's almost as if people just think he's injured now or he's just... I think the position is loaded. Yeah, that's the position is loaded, but he was a QB1 when healthy last year. returns, he loses Michael Pittman, but outside of Pittman, they're returning everybody else to that office. We hope. We hope. Yeah, we hope. Yeah, we don't know with Pierce. Right. But Keenan Allen,

it could be a good state valve. I just think the value is really good, and I don't really understand the ADP. Yeah, I think it's just, you know, the Colts are not a sexy team. Yeah. It feels like it's a run-heavy team because of Jonathan Taylor. And then again, I think the position just absolutely loaded, plus he's coming off into just a lot of things that he has to work against. But you've said this quite a bit. If he gets off to a good start, he's going to be one of the more added quarterbacks because of what he accomplished last year. All right, we're going to do. take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about some running back guys, some running back guys, some running backs that we like that are being overlooked a little bit. David Montgomery, we don't talk

about him enough. Buckie Irving, same thing. We'll talk running backs next here on F50. Welcome back to fantasy football today. We're talking running backs that you may have forgotten or just forgot about or just overlooking in drafts or maybe just we haven't talked about them enough. Let's start with David Montgomery, guys. So this is a player who the Lions forgot about at the end of last season. They went to Jemir Gibbs. Montgomery was this sort of RB2 flex that a lot of fantasy manager drafted and then he was just unplayable at the end of the season. So now, Dan, he goes to Houston and the reports have been great. I mean, it looks like he's going to be their guy. I know Woody Mark's had a big run last night and he's going to be a factor. I think it makes

more sense to play Montgomery first and second down. Woody Mark's great track record catching the ball in college. But how do you view the Texans backfield, but more specifically, how do you view Montgomery when he's drafting Montgomery? I love Montgomery. I mean, first of all, last year he had an 86% catch rate. I think it goes overlooked a lot what he can do in the passing. He's not a bad receiver. He's going to get more opportunities there this year. I think it's 33 touchdowns over the last three seasons, which is insane, really, for a guy that we're getting as late as you can get him. I think it's easy to project 10 plus touchdowns.

The game script will be great with that defense. Their offensive line is a work in progress. That's the part that concerns me the most. But I was a big fan of Jennings Dunger, who they drafted in the first round. I thought he was the best run blocking lineman in the class. He's going to start on their interior most likely. So I'm pretty high on Montgomery this year. He's one of my backs I like to target.

Yeah, he's a pretty good value in round five. He's a bridge running back, I think, for us, because after Dave, David Montgomery, you're looking at guys like Bachel Tootin and Judarian Price and the Steelers guys and Tony Pollard and Travion Henderson, right? You're looking at guys who are definitely sharing probably more than Montgomery is sharing. And a lot of guys that we don't even know

if they're gonna be the goal lineback, I think David Montgomery is gonna get the vast majority of the goal line carries. I project it that way. I don't have any basis for that. I expect that to be the case. And I think he's a pretty good running back. He's not a dynamic guy.

It's not gonna catch a ton of passes. Although they've been pretty, the coaches are raving about his route running. So, yeah, he could be like a 40 catch guy. I think he's really interesting to compare to Cam Scadaboo. I mean, I feel like ADP has drilled it in our head that we have to take Cam Scadaboo over David Montgomery, but I don't know that we do. Neither of them at breakaway speed.

Scatabu's longest run was like 23 yards. I think he average about 4.1 yards per carry. Can Dave Montgomery do that? Absolutely. Whose offense is going to be better? That's a toss-up. So- Youth, I think, is why people gravitate towards Scatabu. Yeah, he's 29 years old, Dave Montgomery.

That's the problem. And I would go with Scatabu for that very reason, but Montgomery, Montgomery, but Montgomery a slightly worse version. Oh, we get another week of the rotation that you saw? I'm taking Montgomery over Scatabu. They're already close right now. I think I have Scataboo 2 and Montgomery 22. The hope would be is, and we saw this,

they gave us a blueprint under Damico Ryans in this front office. Joe Mixon discarded, and they turned David Montgomery, they turned him into, you know, still a really good fancerabu. Different players, but, you know, again, the path is there for them. Another guy that sort of is in this bridge range

is Bucky Irving Adams. So last year got off to a great start, had the injuries, came back was not the same guy. They signed Ken's gain well. They still have Sean Tucker. How do you view of Bucky Irving? More optimistically, actually one of the reasons why is Dan made a really good case about him

about a month ago. You mean you guys agree on something? Yeah, we agree on more than we disagree. I don't know about that, but we agree on a lot more than you might think. But Bucky Irving, it really comes down to Sean Tucker and not so much gain well. If he just, in long as Sean Tucker is not the exclusive goal lineback, I think Bucky's going to be pretty good value in round five. If Sean Tucker is basically Zach Charbonnet last year, then Bucky's going to be Kenneth Walker, who was, I think, R.B. 28 per game.

But consider this. Bucky Irving in the first four games of the year was on pace for 81 catches, and he didn't have a single target on third down. This is a guy that if he's playing, he's going to get targeted on first and second down. 81's too much to expect, but 55 catches, I think even if he's not the third down back, is realistic because he's so good in the passing game. You watch his tape last year, his best plays are in the past. game. So as long as Sean Tucker is not completely vulturing the touchdowns, I like Bucky Irving a little bit better than Montgomery. Yeah, we talk about this a lot, but back-to-back seasons with Irving's top 10 in yards per outrun as a running back. I think he's one of the

better pass game options. They're going to use him that way as an extension of the run game. And I talk about a lot of Jacob Gibbs on Beyond the Box score. Like, their offenses you want to target year after year. Last year was Jaguars and Bears. These are the undervalued offenses that help you win fantasy leagues if you target a lot of players for them. The Bucster profile is really one of those teams with the offensive line getting healthier, Baker getting out there. And also, they have really big issues at corner, which could lead to shootouts in these games. So I'm really excited about pretty much everyone on that Bucks offense. Yeah, I wonder, though, to your point about the passes, the receptions in the first part

of the season, that was when Evans and Godwin were sort of in and out of the lineup, No McMillan. And now, if you're going to use Gainwell, who also could mix in on first and second down, how much of that do we see from? So I think it's a little bit more than just a Sean Tucker problem. I think it is a Gainwell problem, also especially. They gave him enough of a contract. that I think it matters. Not like the Rashad White contract, you know, a one year sort of throwaway deal.

They gave him enough money where I think Gainwell could be too much of a problem, but we'll see how it plays. I do think Bucky's value is fantastic again, sort of in that post-scatibou before the Patriots, you know,

Steelers. Right at the bridge. I just want to add one more thing, something Dan talked about with Baker Mayfield. When I watched the tape of Bucky Irving, I watched every carry from last year,

I thought the offensive line was horrible, horrible. And you expected to be much better this year, so that could really help. Healthy Tristan-Wurfs changes a lot of things. All right, let's talk about Jacori-Crossi America. Last year, this time, this was the guy getting a ton of buzz, and now

it feels like his situation is probably better, but not necessarily getting the hype. Is he a good mid-round pick, or is he somebody that you're staying away from? He's someone I'm really scared of following the Lamarie-Duncel injury. I'll just be honest, that injury really scares me for everyone in Washington right now, because they're going to move back, the kid from Auburn,

who I'm Blankin on. Coleman? Coleman, back to the left tackle. He struggled mightily there, which is why he was moved out of there. Right tackle is Josh Connerly, who also struggled a lot in his rookie seasons. So they have big issues at tackle that scare me there. A new offensive coordinator who we have some hope for, but hasn't really done it. So there's some risk there as well. So I just feel very concerned now with Bill because if Rashad White is getting the passing down work,

and last year, if you look at it, Rashad White proved to give you a red zone back. He was essentially a red zone back for Tampa. Then it's like, what are we getting out of Chikoura Cresdenia outside of some big plays here and there? So it's a scary pick for me at this point. I'm kind of with you. And Coleman was a guard, right? That they're moving to tackle. So not only are you worse at tackle, you're worse a guard now, too.

I haven't really been drafting him. You call it mid-round. It has to be like the end of the mid-round picks. I usually segment the drafts in like first four rounds or early rounds. Five through eight, I consider mid-rounds. I think he's like eight, nine. Oh, I would take him before then. You know, I think when you start to get to that post, you know, you listed that group,

the Steelers guys, the Patriots guys. You know, I would take Jordan Mason over him, for example. Another guy we're going to talk about J.K. Dobbins, I would take over Cross-K. Merritt, because I think there's more upside if he hits. But that's the group that we're talking about here, like RB 32 through 40 is where he comes into plate. You also have, just for what it's worth, Rashad Weiss dealing with the hamstring injury now. And you got the report a couple weeks ago that they're using him more, David Bloud, the office coordinator, using him more in the passing. So I think that benefits Cross-key Merit. The thing that we also saw last year was his best stretch of games came at the end of the season.

No, Jane Daniels. So now you have the opportunity to play off Daniels, as we see with mobile quarterbacks. So I don't think he's somebody to run away from, but it is just interesting. Like last year, seventh round pick, everybody was trying to get Jacori Cross Camarrett. Now he's most likely the starter, and nobody wants to touch him. Let's talk about J.K. Dobbins. So Jonah Coleman, guy getting a lot of hype. RJ Harvey last year finished the season really strong.

Dobbins, though, the first 10 games of the season was pretty solid. Three-headed monster now, most likely. Do we still like J.K. Dobbins? Or do we want to just say, if he's there, I'll take him, but not somebody I'm targeting? He's been a beyond the box score favorite on Phil. I mean, one of the best processing backs in the NFL. If you look at it, going into last year, I don't know if this still holds. He was one of the only running backs in the NFL who averaged over five yards per carry in his career.

Not sure if it held through last year, but that's the type of talent he is when he's healthy. Issue being Jonah Coleman has really stepped up and had an amazing camp. And I listened to Davis Webb, their new offense coordinator, talking about Coleman yesterday, and it was essentially just glowingly speaking about this guy. We don't want to really give him any more precinct touches because we don't want to get him hurt. He's that looks that good. So three-headed monster team that didn't run the ball the way they should have given their offensive line last year through a lot.

It's a tricky situation that I'm probably avoiding. I wouldn't say I'm avoiding it. I think round nine or ten for J.K. Dobbins, hopefully in a half PPR league. But he was R.B. 27 per game in full PPR, a little bit better than that in half and nine. He didn't score that many touchdowns. He didn't score that many touchdowns. He could easily get more touchdowns.

He averaged five yards per carry on the nose then, so he's still averaging five yards per per carry. You know he's not going to catch a lot of balls. But I think, yeah, I'm fine drafting him as my own. RB3, I guess, but if I do that, I'm probably taking my RB4 pretty quickly after, because I know I can't rely on him for full season. Just to wrap this up, the two things that kind of holds for him almost every year, one, the major thing is the injuries. Yeah. But the other thing is we always overlook him in drafts, and he always outperforms. The Chargers year, last year with the Broncos,

everybody was, oh, RJ Harvey, RJ Harvey, myself included, and there's J.K. Dobbins. And I love the fact that he got hurt, and he was like, no, no, no, I'm coming right back. I'm not doing this again. came right back to practice. So hopefully he stays healthy and maybe could be a surprise once again. All right, we're going to take a break. We come back and talk about some wide receivers you may be forgetting.

We're always talking about Abuca and Flowers, De Monte Smith. What about T. Higgins? What about Chris Godwin? We'll talk about some wide receivers that might matter to you a little bit more than you expect on FFT. Welcome back to fantasy football today.

We're talking about some wide receivers. You may be forgetting about on draft day, not necessarily forgetting, but maybe overlooking. And T. Higgins is one of those guys for me because we get to that two, three turn, and that's kind of where that wide receiver run starts. think it's going to be Malik neighbors and Crystal Lave, DeVarthe Smith,

they flowers, all these guys. T. Higgins has scored 21 touchdowns in his last 27 games, and a lot of those were without Joe Burrow. You talk about this a lot. We don't know how to predict touchdowns, except when guys score touchdowns. Yeah. He's one of these guys that scores touchdowns when you take it to T. Higgins. I feel like we do know how to predict touchdowns.

People say we don't, but I'm not so sure that's true. And even greater sat with him, wide receiver four in fantasy over his last 16 games with Joe Burrow. Just a crazy stat. He's one of my targeted players. When are we taking him? I like to take him after, there's usually a range of the draft

where the big running backs I love, like Amerihanpton and Ken Walker are all coming off the board, and I'm kind of in that range where it's just Jacobs, Giovante Williams. That's when I'm taking T. Higgins. That's typically like a mid-round-two range, late-round two.

Round two? I'm sorry, mid-round three, late-round three. Sorry about that. And the problem is, I can say the same exact thing about Lad McConkey and Zay Flowers, guys like that.

And I don't know how to rank Higgins with those guys. I am hoping that the ADP is true, and I can get maybe both of them, because Higgins' ADP is in round four. I think he's a clear round three player. I have to bring up his downside, though, because he was only on pace for 109 targets last year in five healthy games with Joe Borough. He has one of the lowest target per out run rates of any wide receiver we'd be considering in the first four rounds.

Not one of the lowest, the lowest. However, two years ago, we had a pretty high target per hour rate, and he was the top five receiver per round rate. So if the targets go up, he's going to kill, he needs the touchdowns. I think he'll get them. I think he's very safe. You got a lot of risky guys that haven't necessarily proven it over a full season in that range. He's done it multiple times.

He's super safe. I love T. Higgins. I would love to get him in round four, but if I have to take him in round three, I will. And non-PPR, when you're comparing him to Azay Flowers, you know, even in DeMonte Smith, but guys that don't have the lengthy touchdown history that he has, it's easy to gravitate toward Higgins. Chris Godwin, we're getting a lot of buzz about Emeka Abuka, understandably so. You mentioned Ted Hurst, not that you're taking him over Godwin,

but Godwin feels like the reports have been fantastic. And when he's right, Adam, he's pretty awesome. Not only is he awesome when he's right, he's a guy who destroys ADP. You said J.K. Dobbins, we overlook him. He does better. Chris Godwin, I mean, this is a guy who's been twice in his career on a per game basis, a top five wide receiver. Last year, I thought he would struggle coming off a really gruesome injury in 2024. And his tape was really bad. He looks slow out there, in my opinion. But if he's, he's a lot. I think he's He's back to being, let's say, 80%, because he's 30 now, right? He's 80% of what he was.

He's a great pick in round seven or later. And I think if you're in a receiver-heavy league and you start in three receivers, you could justify him in round six. Godwin's been a guy that I started off really liking. Then I was like, I don't know, he's too old, too injured. Now I'm back in. The reports are good enough. Abukas got a toe injury.

Godwin could be a smash hit. It's been a total reversal for me. He was a guy who was completely out on avoiding because I thought he was more name than game based on the tape from last year. Now that he's looked good in camp, I'm back in because I won't under this buck's offense, and if he is the player he once was or any version of that, we're going to be looking at a good target share

and a lot of receptions. Yeah, I'm not going to be surprised if he's better than Abuka. It's possible. Just because of where he lines up, he's going to play in the slot where he's always been better. Abuka now with the toe injury, like he's one of my favorite targets in any format. Just love Chris Godman.

All right, last receiver we're going to talk about here is the situation in Green Bay, because finally we have some defined roles. But here's Matthew Golden getting this hype. Oh, there's Jane Reed healthy. We haven't heard much about Christian Watson. And I think the upside for Christian Watson could be top 12 wide receiver.

He's that good. Is he going to get enough targets? Can he outperform the other two? Where you out with Christian Watson? People are very high on Watson this year. He's one of the fantasy analysts, like prime picks. And I think I understand it. It's based on the role we saw him play

when he came back from the injury last year. The only difference is their roles are all different going into this year. They have, like you said, very defined roles. and they're really going to use a three-man steady rotation with Reed, Golden, and Watson. So I gravitate more towards the later guys you can get Reed and Golden

because you can get them so much cheaper. And an offense we're not so sure it's going to be that pass-heavy. So Watson, to me, is drafted in a range of receivers that I think I'm not comfortable taking him in. I'm nervous that he's going to be one of these guys that's so much better in real life than he is in fantasy because he'll never get the targets because we talked about how run-heavy this team has been.

And Jaden Reed was never really himself, I think, last. year and Matthew Golden hopefully takes that step up. Losing Romeo Dobbs and Don Tavian, Dantaventavent Wix doesn't really matter, but losing those targets. The 135 targets. Right. Yeah. And we never saw Christian Watson and Tucker Kraft at the same time. So I've actually, like, watching that one preseason drive where Jaden Reed was looking

like Jaden Reed, it did make me a little bit nervous about Christian Watson in round five. I think round six is okay because he doesn't need that many targets to be great. He's like Jameson Williams. Give him a hundred, 105 targets from Christian Watson. I think he'll probably be a top 24 wide receiver. It's going to be interesting to see how these guys all operate together. And I think that's the best approach is if you like this offense enough, take the one that goes last of these receivers.

I think by the time we get to another week or so, it's probably going to be Jaden Reed, which I love because when he's been healthy, he's been awesome. But Christian Watson, round six, I think, is the right spot for him. All right, we're going to take a break. We come back. It's just all your questions. That's all we have left is your questions.

You can send them to us on Twitter, X, whatever we're calling it these days, you can hashtag Ask FFT, and we'll answer your draft needs next here on the show. Oh, please turn into our mailbag today. It's coming up at 2.30 Eastern. It's going to be a lot of fun. These guys are already fighting.

All right, Mike wants to know. How much is too much to give for Jamar Chase in Dynasty defending champion? You're looking to dominate. Would you give up to 2027 first, one early, one late, and Garrett Wilson to acquire Chase? No. No, I wouldn't.

The 2227 draft, it's too early to say for sure. but it looks like a really stacked class, so I don't want to be trading those picks away. Yeah, I think that's a little too much, but listen, try and get Jamar Chase if you can. All right, next question. Ash wants to know, Gentie, Walker, Hampton. What's the order got the fourth pick

in a 10-team league looking at second-round option? So, Adam, how do you rank Ashton Gentie, Ken Walker, the third, and Omerian Hampton? Differently than most people, Hampton, Walker, Gentie. Same here, differently than most people. I'm Walker-Hamton-Gentie. But Gentie is the clear last for me.

Yeah, Genti's first for me. I go Genti, Walker, Hampton, and the order that is listed here. So all three should be awesome in round two. Next question. Zach wants to know. Dan is telling me he tops out 90 mile per hour serves and now wants to challenge me in tennis. I watch the match.

There's no zip on the server. It's a dead ball that's maxing like 50. I would embarrass him and having played in 10 years. How is the best way to do this? And benefit, Terry. This is probably somebody located in South Florida, Dan. You're here for a couple more days. We could raise money for St. Jude.

Would you go out and play Zach? Zach, I'll play you any time. We got into it last night. Me and Zach, he made me really mad on Twitter, which is very easy to do. It was not topping out of 50 miles per hour. Maybe last night I was serving really poorly last night, but if you look back at our past matches,

and I have some data on this that my brother has a tracker. It's gotten into the 75, 80 mile per hour range. So go ahead. Let's play, Zach. You'll see. It looks so much slower on the stream. It does look so much slower on the stream, too. Everyone always says that it looks so bad,

but if you actually were there. But the serve was bad last night. I was pretty embarrassed with all my play last night. I'm not going to lie. But Zach, for charity, let's set this up. I'd love to play you because you think you'd embarrass me. We'll see. Dave's serve was like 65 miles number.

All right, next question. Tommy wants to know, our commissioner is looking to spice up the league. What change do you think is best, making it super flex with one flex or adding two flexes and removing the tight end and the kicker? Superflex. Oh, yeah, absolutely super flex and two flexes. Don't remove tight end, but remove kicker and DST. I liked everything you said there.

No kicker, no DST. Super flex is a must. And if you really want to spice it up, go to auction the best way. to play fantasy football. You could also throw in an IDP spot or two just to make sure you're checking out the entirety of what the NFL has to offer. Yep.

Next question. Wendy wants to know, what are your thoughts on Tank Dell? Will he be fantasy relevant? So we know that Jaden Hagan's out for the season with an ACL tear. Is Tank Dell worth a late round pick? Yeah, I think he is.

I think I would have been pretty hesitant before the Higgins injury, but I don't expect this one to pay off quickly. You might not have to be patient, but especially if you have more than five bench spots, I think Tank Dell's worth it. All right. last question thank you roel difference in strategy in a 12 14 and 18 team leagues so

once you take 12 you take 14 i'll take 18 12 is not much of a difference in strategy so i would say play that similar to how you play a 10 team but in 10 team it's probably more valuable to get a good quarterback and a tight end because you don't lose out too much on the running backs receivers 14 team leagues i tend to value running backs a little bit more because the waiver wire is so thin i like to have three running backs on my team that i feel like i could start confidently any given week other than that changes. The 18 team league, it's, um, not good. Yeah, look, there's, there's, take the best player available. You know, your strategy will sort of shake out after the first couple of rounds, but you can,

if you want to get a positional advantage, take a tight end early just because I think you get Bowers or McBride are one of those guys. You can hopefully dominate that position easily, uh, but it's similar to 14 team league. I think the running back position does dry up, but it's, it's, it's tough. I play in a couple 20 team leagues and it's not easy. All right, great job, Adam. Great job, Dan. Great job to our production staff, as always. Make sure you're donating to the Draftathon to benefit St. Jude. Check out Heath on the Twitch stream for St. Jude. And make sure you check out our Fantasy Football Day podcast,

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