Fantasy Football Today - Early Breakouts for 2026: Fantasy Players Set to Rise! (04/01 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

We break down our favorite early breakout candidates for 2026 and the players already showing signs of a major jump in value. These rising stars could become league-winners as roles expand and situations improve heading into next season. If you’re looking for 2026 fantasy football breakouts, these are the names to track now before their hype takes off. (4:50) Omarion Hampton (9:10) Bhayshul Tuten (14:50) Tyler Warren (17:45) Harold Fannin Jr (22:15) Colston Loveland (25:50) Luther Burden (30:22) Romeo Doubs (36:00) Quinshon Judkins (41:30) Zay Flowers, Tetairoa McMillan (46:50) Kyle Pitts (53:29) Ashton Jeanty (56:00) Cameron Skattebo (01:00:00) Emeka Egbuka (01:02:25) Alec Pierce 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

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. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Love the sophomore class for 2026. It's going to be a lot of breakout candidates on your fantasy football roster.

Welcome to fantasy football today. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Dave Richard. That's Steve coming. No, Adam Azer. He's enjoying his last. few days in sunny south florida getting a few chance to hang out with some family and take some time off well deserve time off for him we're still here though working as we always do

we're going to talk about a lot of guys that we're excited about for the 2026 campaign guys that we consider as breakout candidates and all but three if i did it right we all have five candidates that we listed all but three of them are from the rookie class of 2025 so we are all excited about the sophomores heading into this season. The list of names are for Dave, it's Omari and Hampton, Basial Tutin, Tyler Warren, Luther Burden, and Romeo Dobbs. For Heath, it's Quinchan Judkins, Zay Flowers,

Teddaroa McMillan, Kyle Pitts, and Harold Fanon. For me, it's Ashton Genti, Camp Scadaboo, Ameca, Ameca, Aleg Pierce, and Colston Loveland. So as you see, we're excited about these guys. Gentlemen, how are we doing? Are we excited about our breakout candidates? Heath, I know you spent a lot of time putting this list together for our show for today.

Yeah, looking at the text, it looks like I spent about eight hours from the time that you sent the request, the time that I sent the names. So really dug deep to find the best breakout candidates and can't wait for all these guys to win people's leagues. I always find it interesting to try and define breakout. I'm not sure if we all have the exact same definition

for breakout candidates and what it means. I'll tell you what mine is. I always look to find. players that I think will have a career year. Best year they've ever had. And sometimes it's easy. Like Romeo Dobbs as a breakout, that's absolutely going to be an easy call to make because he might be the number one wide receiver in New England.

And sometimes the players that are on the breakout list are names that are superstars already, but we expect them to take a jump to the next level. And people go, oh, that guy's already broken out already. Like you might hear about it, Jamie, that Cam Scadaboo's broken out already because he had that stretch where he was averaging like 19 people. our points per game. Well, that was just for a stretch. It wasn't for the whole season. And here I am making the argument for you. But the bottom line is that all these guys could certainly build on what they did in their second year. And it might be the best year of their

entire careers. And not confusing at all because on Monday show, when we did sleepers, we had Romeo Dobbs as a sleeper. So we're not even off to a non-confusing start with our categories as well. So he had. I did not know that. Okay. For that, you were on vacation, Dave, or on a trip taking some time off. So, yes. So, have some more Romeo Dobbs conversation. So Dave, let's get into your list first. So again, your five guys, Amarion Hampton, Bachel Tootin, Tyler Warren, Luther

Burton, and Romeo Dobbs. And let's start with Omar and Hampton. We've talked about him recently with the show we did last week, I believe it was favorites of players that were looking forward to for our early favorites, players were looking forward to for the upcoming campaign. Hampton was

one of my guys. So what makes him a breakout candidate for you? Well, we can start up that I think he can beat the 15.1 PPR points per game that he had last year. He actually had a higher PPR average and a better consistency rate that's games with 15 plus ppr points than Ashton Genty had. He had eight games with 15 plus touches. He had over 16 and a half and half of those games. And the ankle injury that he had, it cratered his year and it meant that other running backs would get involved.

And Kamani Vidal is still there. And Keaton Mitchell is now there. But so is Mike McDaniel. And the new offensive coordinator, I just think it's going to make a huge difference. We've seen what McDaniel's done with Achan. I actually have the numbers in 2025. There were 15 times that a running back had 15 plus ppr points. 2024, 11 times, 23, 12 times.

So if there's going to be 11 plus times that a Chargers running back is going to have 15 plus ppr points, I'm going to assume that Amarion Hampton will have most, if not all of them. Super talented guy, three down guy, third and avoided tackle rate. last year. He's got room to improve as a player. I see him as a round two pick. And I wonder if that's not drafting him at the ceiling. I think he's actually got a little bit more room, just like Gentie, to be somebody who could be a top 10, maybe even a top five fantasy running back in 2026. So the thing that I like about what McDaniel has done as his time as the Dolphins coach, it's not just what he did with A-chan. It's also what he did with Rahim Mostert. And Mostert, that

season that he had his breakout year, the first year that McDaniel was the head coach there, McDaniel was head coach there, tied for the NFL lead in rushing touchdowns. So we've seen him use two different styles of running backs, essentially. Now both guys in terms of Mostert and A-chan extremely fast running backs. Hampton may not be the top end, may not have the top-end speed that Mostert has displayed and even A-chan has displayed. But I don't think he's obviously slow. And so clearly if the offensive line stays healthy, even with the offensive line injuries last year, like you noted, Dave, his time when he was healthy in terms of Hampton, he was a very successful running back.

It's just a matter, I think, of will they use Vidal, who clearly, you know, showed something to obviously his head coach, not his offense coordinator. And then now the addition of Keaton Mitchell, another guy that's obviously got some speed as well, well, those two guys in particular maybe can decap the upside of what Hampton can be. So I'm curious to see where is Heath? Where are you comfortable drafting on Martin Hampton? He'd probably going to be a two, three turn type guy for me. I think if you're talking about total fantasy points, I think the hope for a breakout is he just plays 17 games. He averaged 15 fantasy points per game last year.

That's very close to what I have him projected at now. I think it will be really interesting what percentage of the running back touches he gets. You mentioned Badal, you mentioned. to Keaton Mitchell and how heavy of a run-heavy offense this is. Mike McDaniel has kind of been all over the place in terms of just based on personnel. He's a very good coordinator, and he uses the guys that he has. So if Hampton gets to where he's getting 70% snapshares and he's the guy getting a lot of those targets that A-chan saw, then, yeah, he could break out and be even better than 15 fantasy points per game.

It's going to be interesting to see how they use him. I think we're all excited just to what degree, you know, how early in round two do you want to buy into him? You know, Heath is going to wait to the end of round two. So I took, I took him in the first PPR draft we did post-free agency, very close to the one-two turn. I'm very excited about Omar and Hampton. I keep adjusting my rankings between Hampton and Ken Walker and Genty and all these guys. Just the upside for Hampton is amazing. And this next guy has a lot of upside as well, and that's Bachel Tootin.

And so, Dave, this is one where personnel is probably. still, I would say, undecided and complete for what Jacksonville may be looking at here. But they make one addition this offseason in Chris Rodriguez. They make a huge subtraction in Travis A-chan, Travis E-T-N at the time. That's not going to be confusing, by the way. Yeah. If Tudan-H-T-N-E-C-T. If Tudin opens training camp as the starter, where are you drafting him?

And what are your expectations? I like him. I'm drafting him right now in round six, and I'm assuming that this is it for the Jaguars running game, because they like to use three running backs and specific roles. Tutin is obviously going to be on the team, and LeQuint Allen, another rookie from last year. I think they really like him on passing downs,

and then they just signed Chris Rodriguez to a decent deal. I'd be surprised if they spent serious draft capital on a running back, especially since they don't have a lot of draft capital to begin with. thank you, Travis Hunter. And so I think the pathway is there for Bachel Tutin to, at minimum, be the guy that leads this team in carries, rushing yards, total yards. Can you lead the way in total touchdowns? I think it's possible because he did score a bunch of short yardage touchdowns.

Last year, all five of his touchdowns on the ground last year were inside the five. He had a 71% I-5 success rate that was better than double of what Chris Rodriguez did with the commanders last year. I think there's a lot of room for him to be a better back and a more complete back. And he's never going to rise in drafts to where we're drafting him at his ceiling. His ceiling is very high. The floor is pretty low. The floor is a trapback, a guy that maybe gets a thousand yards on the year,

but maybe only four touchdowns, maybe only 30 catches along with it. That's not somebody that I'm drafting in round two or round three. I'm much more comfortable with him in round six. He is in that same range for me as David Montgomery and Chubmary. Hubbard, it's not an exciting range. It's a low end number two running back range. But if I'm right, and if the Jaguars do not add to this running back room moving forward,

at least not meaningfully, then we're going to see that stock rise a little bit. I bet he'll be drafted in round five, a top 60 pick in drafts come August. All right. So Heath, the last draft he did, he was actually a round five pick. Thomas Schaefer took him at 57th overall. So I'll play the game. Adam likes to play with us here. Would you rather have basal tootin in round five at 57th overall or Chris Rodriguez?

And I think I took him. And Chris Rodriguez went at 121 overall round 11. So right now, not knowing anything more than these are the two guys that they have probably at the top of their depth chart, who would you rather have? I mean, at cost, what did you say, Roderick, what round was Rodriguez again? Round 11. Yeah, I'll probably take Rodriguez. is. I think there is a way where Tutin's ADP sneaks into round four even, and that is if the Jacksonville Jaguars act like at the start of camp, he's the starting running back. Like, if we get a

lot of Liam Combe quotes about Bachel Tutin being their lead running back, there are enough people, I'm looking at you, Jacob Gibbs, who believe in Tutin's elite upside that he could push into that round four discussion. At that point, I'll probably be out. Round five seems just about right for now. I look at him in a pretty similar range as I do other rookies. And I think on the high end is RJ Harvey and on the low end, it's Jacori Groskey Merritt. And the thing that all three of those backs have in common is they have explosive ability that can turn touches into fantasy points at a very good rate. And they all three have things that are not complete about their game. And we're going to have to wait until they start playing real football

to see how many of those things they've improved. So let me ask you a question from a dynasty perspective because these guys are always very tricky because right now there's huge upside for basal tutin. But there's also huge sell high potential for Tutin because if they do draft someone, whoever that may be, as Dave alluded to, no first round pick because of the hunter trade.

So it's not going to be Jeremiah Love barring something crazy. So do you sell high right now on Tutin? Is that what you would recommend or would you say this is a perfect hold candidate because if he does become the starter, you're looking at somebody that you got at a great price last year that could deliver huge dividends. I think it depends on what you can get for him. So looking at my dynasty rankings, I've got him at RB 23. In the dynasty rankings, the three guys above him are not near as exciting from a long-term upside perspective,

but are much more likely to give you starter production this year. and those three guys are Javante Williams, Travis E.T.N. and D. Andre Swift. And so, like, those guys might just have one year of starter production left, and it's probably RB2 production at best. Right. But Tootin could be anything, as Chris Towers used to like to say, he's kind of the mystery box. If I am a contender, and I've got Tutin that I drafted in round late,

two or early round three, and I can turn them into one of those guys that will help me win right now, then I'm absolutely doing that. Yeah, it makes sense. All right. We're going to take a break right now. We come back and get it to the rest of Dave's breakout candidates. Heath's breakout candidates, my breakout candidates. Stay with us here on Fantasy Football Trade. All right, Dave. So this is a guy that you were high on last year in Tyler Warren, and it paid off for the first half of the season when he was looking like a superstar. And then we get to week nine and Daniel Jones breaks his fibula, plays three additional games with the fibula injury, and then suffers the Achilles injury. But really, it was when he was when. and Daniel Jones first got heard is when Tyler Warren's numbers really started to go south, unfortunately. So now we come back this year, and there's no Michael Pittman. I did see Chris Ballard. We'll get to a lot of the news from the owner's meetings on Thursday's show. But Chris Ballard says that they're excited about Josh Downs, for example. I'm sure they're excited about Tyler Warren. Why wouldn't they be drafted him in the first round last year? And again, played very well. Tyler Warren is most likely going to be as high as tight end three for a lot of people, probably three, four, five for most fantasy analysts.

Yep. Where do you have Tyler Warren ranked when are you willing to draft him? And can he be better in year two than he was at the start of year one? Jamie, I've got him fourth among tight ends and full PPR. And he'll be there in half and non-PPR as well. I feel good taking him in round five. And that could always change. You can move up a little bit.

let's see what this Colts offense looks like. It could also move down if Daniel Jones isn't ready. He is absolutely tied to Daniel Jones. So get well soon, Daniel Jones, and get back into action for the Colts. It was the first 12 games with Daniel Jones when Tyler Warren averaged 13.1 ppr points per game. I am fingers cross hopeful he can get right around there over the course of a full season, especially without Michael Pittman and the 111 targets that he had last year, now in Pittsburgh.

11.1 ppr points was the average for Warren over the course of the season. That's good for a tight end. It's not great for a tight end. Only four tight ends had more ppr points last year. I think Warren can get over that in 2026. I think he'll be a better player overall. I think he'll still score a bunch of touchdowns. It's just such a weapon for Indianapolis and make him somebody that you think about once you

see, I think Lovelland will be the consensus number three tight end. And that's I haven't ranked. Once Lovelland's off the board, that's why. when the radar goes up for people for both Warren and Harold Fanon. I think both of them are in that, and I've talked about this a bunch, they're both in that round five range of tight ends that can help you out and be difference makers for your fantasy team.

And there's not a lot left at running back at wide receiver. And you can wait on quarterback a little bit longer if you want to go get one of those tight ends, Warren's at the top of the list of that group for me. So Heath, you have Fanon as one of your breakout candidates. I have Loveland as one of my candidates. I think Dave is right that he's probably going to be the third guy based on the loss of DJ Moore or the removal of DJ Moore as he was traded to Buffalo and what Loveland showed at the end of last season. But really, I think it comes down to do you prefer Fanon or do you prefer Warren? So if you've been driving the Harold Fanon bus since last year, kind of right along with Dave with Tyler Warren, assuming that the Browns don't make any significant additions, they're going to draft at least one wide receiver.

but let's just say it's somebody that's filling in alongside Jerry Judy and Isaiah Bond and whatever they have left there. And we get positive reports about Deshawn Watson or maybe Shudor Sanders. One of those guys takes a huge step forward, whether it's health or just development. Which of the two do you prefer, Tyler Warren or Harold Fanon? Yeah, I don't think anybody could reasonably answer this question until after just day one of the NFL draft. Because the real thing for me is going to be, do the Cleveland Browns take Carnal Tate or one of these other, elite wide receivers in the top 10. If they do, then it's Warren.

If they don't, then it's Fanon. I don't really worry about the quarterback play harming him that much. Like we talk about how Tyler Warren fell off after Daniel Jones got hurt. Harold Fanon, Dylan Gabriel was absolutely as bad or worse than anybody who played quarterback for the Colts last year after Daniel Jones got hurts. Shador Sanders was a rookie who loved throwing the ball to share Harold Fanon, but still, a rookie who was not a first round pick. I think if the battles between Deshaun Watson and Shador Sanders as a year-two quarterback,

the expectation should be the quarterback plays probably going to be a little bit better than it was last year. No reason to think it will be worse. So the real question just comes down to, do they go get an alpha-wide receiver? If they do, then I think you put Fanon at the back of the top three rookies. And if they don't, then I think Fanon's second to love them. So we have Tate, we have Lemon, we have Jordan Tyson. How many of these guys you consider to be? I don't know if he, I wouldn't consider him an alpha, but like he's good.

I just don't know if he's. He's not going to be their first pick, but he might be their second or third pick. They've got. So my question would be is, which, where is the sliding scale to you where Fanon does not slot in in in your mind as number one in terms of targets for that team? I think it's that first pick they have. And there's probably three guys they could take with that pick. It seems more likely to me that it's Tate than anybody else, but Tate or Lemon. And then Tyson's kind of a wild card. The thing with Tyson is like, will he even be on the field for the entire rookie season? Maybe he doesn't impact fanning quite as

much. But it's really probably one of those three guys. And yeah, they could trade down to 12, so it doesn't have to be top 10. But one of those guys with their first pick would move me off of Fanon ahead of war. And the problem I have with both Warren and Fanon in terms of drafts, and I've talked about this a lot, like my other breakout tied in and my sleeper tied in from earlier in the week, like Kyle Pitts, Sam Laporta, Isaiah likely a lot of times available after those guys are taken. And I don't see much of a difference. I mean, those guys were all, except for likely, better than these rookies last year.

And you get the potential positive or negative, which could change the draft capital of Tucker Kraft and George Kiddell as well. You know, both guys coming off sniffing and injuries. I will say this. I got a text message from somebody from the owner's meetings who spent some time with Todd Monkin, raving about Harold Fanon, understandably so, but raving about Harold Fanon. So said the expectation would be is that they're going to draft a wide receiver, did not say when. And another one of your breakout candidates they were raving about as well, which is Quinn John Junkin. So, Monkin was at least. So Fanon in line for a great year to boost, hopefully.

And I think the fun thing about Warren and Fanon, and I don't think Lovelland because of what the maybe expectations are, but I think the fun thing is you can kind of just wait it out, especially if you're on an end and you start to see one of these guys or two of these guys go in that round four-ish, maybe round five-ish range. You just kind of wait to see, okay, I'll take the ladder of the three and could be getting the best of the three. If that's the case, then what is it about Loveland

that puts him head and shoulders ahead of the other two tight ends for you? I know what it is for me. I think he could have the best. I think Chicago's going to throw a lot, and I think he's going to have a great target share being there, and we saw it from him last year. But he's your breakout, and I know that you are kind of, you think very highly of Loveland, Jamie.

Yeah, I think for me it's when we saw Romo, Doones A get injured and Luther Burden was starting to emerge. What you saw, including the two playoff games, and it's just, you know, sometimes we look at obviously the raw data and say, okay, it's not necessarily enough. For me, it's 10, 13, 15, 10. And that was the four games in terms of his last four games in terms of targets. And it was a matter of battling through a, you know, shoulder injury coming out of the draft process.

And I think, you know, getting adapted to the NFL, Ben Johnson using him a little bit more. We're removing 85 targets, which isn't a huge number when you still have to feed Luther Bird and feed Romo Dunzee. But this was, you know, he's talked about this a lot from the standpoint of Kyle Pitts and for Sam Leporta and really that Browns tree. Ben Johnson has certainly proven with Leporta and now Colston Loveland that when he has a tight end, he will feel. feed his tight end. And that tight end, if it's a playmaking tight end, can certainly produce and hopefully produce at a high level. And so Loveland would not shock me if he leads to the bears and targets, would not shock me if he is pushing not just these three rookies to be the best of the trio, but also pushing Trey McBride and Brock Bowers. I think, you know, what we saw in those four

games is elite. And the pedigree, you know, clearly being a first round pick, being the first tight end taken of this tremendous tight end class, as we, you know, we'll spend more time this offseason talking about Mason Taylor and Arana Gadsden and Gunner Helm. I mean, there's just a lot to love about what this group should be able to produce. But I think Colston, Loveland, to me, it's almost like, you know,

when we start to talk tiers at this position, you have the two at the top. Then I think you put Loveland almost in a tier by himself. And then these next two guys, I don't think anybody will do that because I don't think that's fair to Warren or Phan because they have the chance to be better than him based on what they showed as well. But it wouldn't surprise me if that's just how it's almost

drafted. And I think you kind of alluded to that, Dave, a little bit. Like, we'll see the two guys go, then we'll see Loveland. The thing that really kind of convinced me, and it's a very, not convinced me, but just made me more open to Loveland being in a different tier than these guys. It was only 119 snaps last year, but according to True Media, there were 119 offensive snaps, regular and postseason, where Colston, Loveland, Roma, Dunesay, and Luther Bird, and were all on the field.

So that's two full games, basically, if they all three played 100% of the snaps. In those 119 snaps, Colston Loveland had a 34% target share. Romadunes a 20% Luther burden 19%. Like it was just, it was a clear net. The hope is, and I guess

Cole Kmetz still on the team, right? Yep. The hope is that, and Colson Lovelin was already playing more snaps at the end of the year than somebody like Dalton Kincaid, but we've kind of been waiting for Dalton Kincaid to become a more full-time player for three or four Cs. seasons now. The hope is that Colston Loveland actually plays 80% of the snaps next year.

And he could be a 25% snap share tight end. Could be amazing. Yeah, absolutely. You know, sky's the limit for him. I think really the question is, is how soon do you want to draft him? And Andy in our chat says amazing data point, Heath, for Heath to use a small sample size is very, very telling because that's not something that Heath usually does. So very excited about the upside for for Colston Love. And let's talk about his teammate, Dave, because Luther Burden is another player

that a lot of people are excited about. And you got the report, I'm guessing it was right around the start of the meeting, so I don't know if somebody spoke to Ryan Poles or Ben Johnson from Chicago media, but saying that Caleb Williams spending time throwing with, already with Colston and Lovell and Luther Bird. I didn't hear Romo Dunezay's name in there,

which is maybe a positive for Burden, maybe a little bit of negative for O'Donzee, but I'm sure all these guys will get together at some point before camp starts, before off-season workout starts. But Luther Burden gave us a little glimpse of just how good he could be. And Adam said this on a recent show. Like when you watch him play, you just see the upside and how good he can be.

We just didn't see it necessarily from a numbers perspective consistently across the course of the season. Does that happen in 2026? I think we'll see him play more. And just that simple fact that his route rate will go up and he'll be more of a full-time player for the Bears, will push his target rate up. It'll push his numbers up, and it'll make him a viable number two fantasy wide receiver and full PPR,

maybe a little bit more of a high end flex and non-PPR, but he's a tremendous athlete. He's obviously able to get open both in the short area and then make a play after the catch or go deep. And Caleb Williams can find him. I think addition by subtraction, having DJ Moore out of there, his 85 targets will open up things for all the past catchers there.

But I think burden will be the one that benefits the most from it. And you're right. It's really hard to find stats that make burden look great. The best I can do or the best that I found so far is that he average 15.2 PPR points on 6.5 targets per game. That's a lot of PPR points on such mild target volume in the four games without Romo Dunezay from weeks 14 to 18. We know O'Dunzee's going to be back. We know more won't be there. So I'm hoping that he can get to that 6.5 target per game mark, maybe even get to 7, and because he will play in more games higher than a 50% route rate, he didn't have a lot of those last year.

And he didn't have great fantasy production in the games when he did have a route rate higher than 50%. So it's just about getting more work and more opportunities and being more involved in his second season. We see it all the time from receivers taking that leap in their second year. I think Burden will be locked into that. And I think he is worth taking as a number two receiver in full PPR. So when would you draft him?

And then Heath, two questions. Same one. When would you draft Luther Burr? because I know you're more excited about him, let's say, than a mecca-A-A-Bucca. We've talked about this a little bit already. And how many targets do you have for the three top pass catchers for the bears? So, Dave, when are you drafting Luther Burden? I think Burden's worthy in full PPR of being a top 50 pick.

So let's call it round four. I will go three-four turn. And Dave said he was looking for other stats to show how awesome Luther Burden is. Amongst players, wide receivers, you had at least 50 targets last year, here are the yards per route run leader puka n jsn zay flowers a monroe st brown c d lamb luther burton drake london those are the receivers at 2.36 yards per route run or better like colston loveland we just need luther burden to play 7580 percent of the snaps and we're going to have a very fun time i have lovelin right now at 109 targets burden at 120 and o dunzee and a dune zay and at 120. Okay, so you're not far off, obviously, for all three of these guys in a similar range.

And the fact that you have Odunzane, burden at the same numbers, is target-wise, at least. That's interesting. Yeah, I think burden will, I just hope he doesn't get overdrafted. You know, I, you know, again, like, I think I said this when we were all together last week,

like, this is the type of player we are all saying has the chance to be great. But we have not seen him consistent. over a significant stretch. You want to talk about small sample sizes. Right. It would be great. And so more gone, more from Caleb,

more from this just potential budding superstar. We're all hoping it's going to happen. We just have not seen it happen yet. But this is a guy that you'll hopefully invest in properly and not ruin your fantasy team if it doesn't come to fruition for one reason or another because whoever the next Alameday Zakias on their roster is, you know, steps up and takes away too many targets that we're just not hoping to see. All right.

Last guy for Dave is, again, somebody we spent some time talking about. So Heath, I think, is taking more of a mid to late round approach, right, based on where his ADP is. If I'm not mistaken, Heath, that was your, you know, sort of view of Romeo Dobbs at this point, like wide receiver 3-4 type of player. Yeah, I think my question with the reason I had him as a sleeper, And what Adam would be pushing back on if he was here, because sleepers win weeks, breakouts win leagues. I have Romeo Dobbs projected for the best season of his career.

I also have him projected at wide receiver 38. Is that a breakout? Dave. So based on my definition, it is because it's the best year of his career. Based on where I also have him ranked, which is right around where you haven't ranked, then maybe not, because that's not somebody who could potentially win you your league. he's absolutely somebody who can help you win some weeks, though, and we saw that as recently as last year. He had some massive games last year with Green Bay.

He just didn't have a lot of games with a ton of targets. He had seven games with six or more targets. He didn't have very many games with eight or more targets, and that's really been the way his entire career is gone. He's been around five, five and a half targets per game each of his first four years. Now he's going to New England. They've had a bunch of targets. I think the numbers 102. Correct me if I'm wrong.

That's the targets vacated by Steph. Fond digs not being there. This is assuming they don't add anybody else because obviously if they add another big time wide receiver, that's going to take away from Romeo Dobbs and push him right back down in that five and a half target range. But maybe he gets to six and a half targets. Maybe he gets to seven targets. He's a pretty good receiver. He's not the fastest guy. He's not the strongest guy, but he can track the ball downfield. He can adjust the throws. He's got very good stop, start. He can change his direction. He can move a little bit. And I think the Patriots will be able to use him in a bunch of different ways. And if they don't have a true 1A wide receiver and they're using a bunch of

guys, he's going to be at the top of the list in terms of target volume amongst that group. And I think that from week to week, he'll be a little frustrating. He'll have a bunch of games with eight, nine PPR points, but also have some games north of 17 ppr points. A good number three receiver, not the best number three wide receiver. But Dobbs is definitely in the range that you're talking about. Heath. I'm probably more, I don't say like, I don't know, excited is the right word, but I'm more encouraged, I guess. I haven't ranked a little bit ahead of where you guys are, just with the hope that he's a better version of what we could saw from Stefan Diggs last year

because I think he'll play more. Adams talked about this a few times that the Patriots were in some games where we just didn't see Drake may throw a lot, and I think that will be a difference this year because their schedule will be tougher. So we get a little bit more of a little bit more pass volume in the Patriots offense. Again, contingent on Dobbs being that, you know, quote unquote number one guy. And there's an opportunity for him to have the best year of his career, but also I think not to push to be a top 24 wide receiver,

but I think to push to be a top 28 to 30 wide receiver. So slightly, again, slightly ahead of where you guys are looking for. You know, I keep going back to the conversation we had post-free agency, the first show he did when he signed with New England. And for me, I would rather have Wanda Robinson because I think Robinson's familiarity with Brian Dable helps and, you know, also stepping into most likely the number one receiver. receiver role there.

And we've seen a higher ceiling for him, you know, than we've seen for Romeo Dobbs. But I don't think they're that far off because if we see more throwing from Drake May, I trust Drake May at this point more than I do Cam Ward. So I'm probably be a little bit more aggressive, I guess, in drafting Romeo Dobbs and have maybe slightly higher expectations. Can I give you some names? Can I give you some names? Sure.

Chris Godwin or Romeo Dobbs. Godwin. Pearsall or Romeo Dobbs? Dobbs. A Jaguars wide receiver or Romeo Dobbs. Dobbs. I might take all three Jigs. Yeah, and you listen,

Ryan Thomas has proven to be a much better wide receiver in his one season than Romeo Dobbs has yet in his four. Same with Jacoby Myers. You know, so it makes sense. You know, I just, it's buying into Josh McDaniels.

It's buying into, you know, Drake May, and it's buying into what the rest of this receiving court looks like right now. So, again, you know, depending on on the round. So you're probably waiting until at least round seven, right, to drafts.

Romeo Dobbs would be my guess. Like I'd be looking for him, depending on how heavy, wide receiver is drafted, like late, round five, early round six. You know, so that's kind of the range I'm in for him. All right, let's get into a couple heaths guys, and we'll take another break. So we already talked about Harold Fanon. The other guys for you are Quinchan Jutkins, Zay Flowers, Teteroa McMillan and Michael Pitts. Let's talk about Jutkins, because coming off the injury that he suffered last year, looking at this team and maybe some of the deficiencies that they could have

offensively because of the quarterback play, the wide receivers, you know, certainly the wide receiving court right now is very incomplete. Assuming Judkins is healthy and again, the conversation coming out of the owner's meetings is that they expect him to be ready for training camp. Is Judkins somebody you think can push to be a top 15 running back? He's going to get drafted as a number two guy. How high are you on Quinton, Dougans? Oh, I think he could be a top 12 running back.

I still believe in his talent as a rusher. The Browns are a very unique bad team because their defense is not bad at all. And that is like, and so they, I think when we look at Todd Monkin and the way he's attacked offense in college and in the NFL is that he highlights his best players. And they get the ball a lot. And I think that right now,

the only two for sure good players they have on offense are Quinn Sean Judkins and Harold Fanon. So I think this could be a situation where his approach is, you know, let's just have a run heavy attack. I think Judkins is the perfect type of back to be, like, he's not Derek Henry, but if you told me we're going to put one of the rookie running backs in a Derek Henry role, Quinchan Judkins would be the one that I would choose. And I think he could have 20 rush attempts per game as they try to keep games close. And when they need to throw, they throw the ball to Harold Fanon. I think he has the opinion. I mean, he's shown the ability to score double-digit touchdowns. He could be one of those guys that's maybe a top eight back in non-PPR,

a top 12 back and a half PPR, and a top 16 back in full PPR. When are you drafting Judkins and then Dave, follow up, same question to you. So I think it's going to get interesting as we go through drafts because you don't want to take a guy around earlier than you have to. I would probably have Judkins in the round three conversation. It's possible he's always going to. going to be there in round four, so I'll settle on drafting him in round four.

I'm going to be way closer to the floor on Judkins. I agree that he's a good player and a great talent. I think the situation is really bad. I got to give Cleveland credit for what they did with their offensive line. They've added a bunch of veterans. The longer they stay healthy, the better it'll be for Quinn Sean Junkins. But speaking of health, he's coming back from a fractured fibula, a dislocated ankle. We've got to make sure that he's okay from that.

we've seen those injuries, slow down players previously, especially running backs, when they've had that issue before. And I'm with you. That Brown's defense is good. It's not one of the best in the league. And there could be some games for this offense. If it's really not improved any further than it is, they're not going to be able to put up points. And by the time we get into the middle of the third quarter, we might not see much of Quinnshot Judkins. I don't know how big of a factor he can be in the passing game.

And as far as Monkin, as a play caller, there have been times where he's done great with his running backs. But most of those running backs have been Derek Henry. And as good as I think Quinn John Jenkins is, I don't think he's Derek Henry. So I'm going to see him a little bit differently than you heat. I'm going to take him in like round six. I want to get him close to the floor or just not get him at all. All right. So let me ask you just based on our last draft.

These were the running backs that went and he went in round five. So start around five. Heath Camp Scataboo or Quinn John Jenkins. I am going to take Judkins. Okay. Dave. Scataboo. Okay. Basial Tutton or Quinchon Judkins? Judkins.

Judkins. J. Harvey or Quinshan Jutkins? Judkins. I'm going to be Judkins and all these guys. Okay. And then we get into round six. Chuba Hubbard or Quinton Jutkins? I have Judkins ranked just ahead of Tutton and Chuba. So for now it is Quinshan.

Okay. So we're in the range of where Judkins can go. I think if I can get him late round four, I'd be okay with it. Round five would for me be the sweet spot and, you know, barring. He's 100% and everything is all systems go, which I don't know if we're going to get that until maybe the start of camp. Then maybe I could see early round four. Yeah, and if he's not ready for the start of camp, then I'm going to lower him a little bit. I will say that like as a rookie on a team that was next to last and points scored, he was still averaging 13 fantasy points per game from week 3 through 14.

Yeah, he had, you know, very solid year. And again, no training camp. You know, so he had the off-field situation as well. So maybe two years in no training camp, which would be disappointing. But, you know, hopefully he's healthy and can, you know, showcase some of his skills. All right, we're going to take a break when we come back and you get into the other three guys for Heath. And we'll kind of go fast through my guys because we've talked about a few of these guys already. But more breakouts coming up on fantasy football today.

All right, welcome back to the show. We're talking about breakouts here for. 26. We're looking at the candidates for Heath Cummings and two receivers that were drafted in a relative similar range in the last draft we did. This was a half PPR mock draft. You can see the results on CBSBORS.com. Teddaroa McMillan went with the 32nd overall pick and Zay Flowers went with the 45th overall pick. Heath, is that how you would draft them, McMillan over Flowers? Or would you take Flowers over McMillan? I would take Flowers over McMillan and I may have been asleep at the wheel in this draft or I started off in a way that caused me to

not take Zayflowers earlier than that. But I think I'd probably have flowers at the end of round three and McMillan in round four. So he may have been a little overdrafted than that. I know people get more excited about the year two breakouts, and I do think the year two breakout is a possibility for Tedroa McMillan. I'm a little bit more worried about the stability of his quarterback and offensive situation. But he is a guy that, like, when you are as successful as he was as a rookie,

a lot of times we expect great things in year two. And he did put up a thousand yards in 17 games, scored seven touchdowns, has the ability to be a guy who is, I think, scoring close to 10 touchdowns per season if he's in a functional pass offense. And that's what we're going to have to find out and how high the pass volume is in that offense. For Say Flowers, incredibly, like I think he's one of the guys that everybody would say, wait, he just broke out. And he did.

not sure he can be better on an efficiency basis, but he did that finishing as, I think, a top 12 wide receiver last year on a team that threw the ball 422 times. That's exceptionally low even for the Ravens. Like, even if a normal Ravens team, you might expect 480 pass attempts. So I expect he's the clear number one target in this offense. I think we should expect more pass attempts from them next year than they had. last year. And Flowers has a chance to come close to the efficiency from last year and be even better on a per game basis. 422 targets? 422 passes.

Or passes, I meant to say, yes. And how many of those were going on? If number one overall pick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My bad. But Lamar didn't throw every single one of those passes either. And there was a time last year where Lamar was off. So a healthy, functional Lamar for 17 games and a Declan Doyle offense, that could be really good for Zay Flowers. Maybe a little bit of Zay Flowers positive touchdown, unfortunately. Yeah, you know, I've never been a big Zayflowers guy for fantasy. I've always loved the talent. I've never loved the situation, but I'm kind of liking him this year.

So I'm with you on that one. And as for Tedaro and McMillan, I think the talent's there for him, too. I'm with you on the situation. he had a 57% catch rate last year. Seven drops on top of that. Bryce Young as his quarterback didn't necessarily help him a lot. I would love to see the Panthers do absolutely nothing with their receiving core between now and August.

And that would encourage me to have McMillan, maybe even higher in my rankings, and maybe even take them ahead of Zayflowers. I like both of these guys. But I think if things stay the way they are in both Baltimore and Carolina, we could see McMillan with the higher ceiling. And he could end up being, a top 10 type of fantasy receiver.

This was your draft, he's just so you know what you did. So you started with Jonathan Taylor and Ashton Genti. I don't think anybody fault you with that in half to PPR. You were picking from the 11 spot, as you said, I always ruin you. So you're drafting at the back end of round one. Then you went, I think this was kind of a steal,

T. Higgins at 35th overall, and Luther Burden with your pick in round four. So you took Higgins and Burden. I should have taken Zay over Burden. Isay overburden? Yeah. Yeah, if you had to do it again? I would have loved that start.

If I got a had Taylor, Gentie Higgins, and Zay. Yeah, it's pretty good. So these are the receivers that went in round four. It was Burden to you to start the, well, Dave took Travis A. Chan. Then it went burden. Then Garrett Wilson. Then Devante Smith, which I don't love in round four. Then Zay Flowers.

Then Mike Evans. I took Ladd-McConkie. Then Jalen Waddle went in round five, DJ Moore, round five. I'm sorry, McMill was already at the board by then. So, yeah, you can redo that draft. You'd be taking Zay Flowers over Luther Bird. And the last guy for you is Kyle Pitts, who, you know, again, we've talked a lot about. And the Falcons have said they're, you know, trying to get a deal done to make sure that they lock him up after giving him the franchise tag.

So this is a story that we're going to have to keep an eye on to see that there's no hold out here. Assuming that he's in camp, on time, no issues. now the guy for for Kevin Stefansky, which, you know, has started a nice tight-end coaching tree. How excited are you for Kyle Pitts, knowing that he did give us one great fantasy season as a rookie, disappointed for the next three, and then finally came back last year and looked like an absolute superstar,

again, somewhat contingent on the games that Drake London wasn't there. So how much do you like Kyle Pitts in 2026? The thing that I really like about that breakout, other than the fact that Drake Lennon wasn't there, is that he did that in his lowest A-DOT season. The first three seasons of Pitt's career, he was used more as a downfield option. A-DOT was 10.8, 13.8, 11.4.

It's gone down the last two years. It was down to 7.4 last year. That is kind of a staple of a Kevin Stefansky offense as well. You're going to see more of those short-area lay-up targets for tight ends, and then hopefully they can do more after the catch with them. He's averaged over five yards of yak after the catch. the last couple of years. So I think we'll see the catch rate spike.

And it did last year, 75% on the lower A dot. And listen, it's been 170 targets per season for Kevin's DeFantzies tight ends. Yes, Drake London's there, but who else? They're going to throw the ball to Bijon Robinson. Those three will take a majority of the targets, I believe. you don't have to draft Kyle Pitts as a top five tight end, but he doesn't just have top five tight end upside. He has number one overall tight end upside.

He's still 25 years old. It's kind of a running joke of how young Kyle Pitts is, but he is still just 25 years old. I think Tua is a good thing for him because we know what Tua is. And if Michael Pinnock's may better than that, great. That's fantastic for Kyle Pitts also. So, and Dave, I know you're, every time we bring this up, I kind of say the same thing. You're a little bit more pessimistic about Kyle Pitts, you know, understandably so, which I think a lot of people are.

You know, just looking at what the track record of his career has been. And, you know, at what point do you want to buy back into Pitts when you have the guys that will be ranked ahead of him? Three of them we just talked about in terms of the young guys that are, you know, maybe the next Kyle Pitts, you know, hopefully from a positive standpoint, as opposed to a negative standpoint. but, you know, guys that flashed in their rookie campaign and then disappointed, you have, again, those names would be Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, and Harold Fanon. You have, I think, Pitts in the same range, at least the consensus will be in the same range of Tucker Kraft and Sam Leporta, and George Kittle, swimming he's healthy. And then you get to that next group of guys, which is probably going to be, you know, maybe another couple of young guys, let's say Ronda Gass is in that mix. Dallas Goddard will be in that mix. Jake Ferguson, I don't know if who I'm missing here.

But, you know, the Elsie, Isaiah, I'm sorry, likely is another one that's probably Mark Andrews, Dallas Goddard, George Kittal. Yep. Hockinson, Tony Gonzalez. Where does Pitt slot in for you? Is he closer to the top five or is he closer to 12? He's a placeholder at eight for me. Honestly, like I look at some of the other tight ends that we just named and none of them make me excited. And Pitts doesn't necessarily make me excited either.

You take away the games that he played without London. So these are the games with London last year. There were a dozen of them. He had 6.2 targets per game. Love that. 9.6 p.R points per game. That's very Kyle Pitts-esque. And if that's what we're going to get,

if Drake London's healthy for 17 games, then I don't want to prioritize that. I don't want to make that somebody that I'm going to feel good about drafting. That's a mid-round pick. But that being said, am I really going to take Kelsey, who's 37 years old over him, or he will be 37 years old. Am I going to take Isaiah likely? Maybe.

If I really feel good about likely, I could see myself doing that. One of the other tight ends that have been around a long time and are really just more of touchdown or bus types, the Ferguson's, the Kincaids, the Andrews, the Goddardts, they're not very exciting either. And if I'm going to be stuck with one of those tight ends, I'm just going to wait on the position and draft two of them in the double-digit rounds. So here's where Kyle Pitts went. He went in round seven.

And this was after, so round five, we had Loveland, which I think slipped. Obviously, you know, you want to say sleep with the wheel. Letting Colston Loveland fall to round five feels like just amazing value. Tyler Warren also went in round five with the last pick at 60th overall of Dave. Harold Fanon went at 65th overall. Tucker Kraft went at 66th overall. I won't mention it went between Tucker Kraft and the next tight end, which was Sam Leporta,

which another guy feels like great value, 73rd overall. I know Heath, we talked about that. You thought that I got him at a great price for a guy that you're very excited about. And then Kyle Pitts went 81st overall. So it went Leporta, then Pitts, in terms of the tight ends. And then Isaiah likely was the next one off the board, followed by George Kittle, both those guys going in round eight. So I think what we'll end up seeing is, if I had a guess, George Kittle's kind of going to be a wild card and all this.

If he's healthy, he probably pushes the other guys down. But let's just say the first seven tight ends off the board in some order, Tray McBride, Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, Harold Fanon, Tucker Kraft, Sam Leporta. And then I think it's going to be probably the decision between Pitts, Isaiah likely. I'll throw Kittle in this conversation, and then probably still Travis Kelsey just based on name. And if you look at what he did last year with a healthy Patrick Mahomes, still very good. So it's a matter of where you want to buy into Kyle Pitts. And it'll be interesting to see how that goes from an average draft position standpoint and to what Heath said, which I think is a small note. But a big one eventually is do they add to their receiving court?

Because it's just right now, Drake London, and then I think that and is easily Kyle Pitts along with Bejan Robinson, not over 100 targets last year. All right, let's get through my five breakouts. We'll do that quickly because, again, a lot of these guys we've talked about, we already got through Colston. and level as well. And we'll start with Ashton Genty. And I think really the easy thing to look at at and say, can this offense be better? Because I think we all look at him and say, we know he can be better because he's just this elite talent that didn't produce at the level that we were hoping for. And it's kind of similar to what happened to Bejan Robinson his rookie season, you know, where there was just high expectations and he didn't fail. He failed to live up to those expectations.

A lot of that I think his rookie season was too much competition from Tyler Alger, Arthur Smith, running that offense. And now you have Genti coming into a Clint Kubiak offense, with what I think is going to be a better offensive line, which what I hope is going to be better quarterback play. We did get the reports out of the owners meetings that they may let Mendoza sit to start his rookie campaign. We'll see how that plays out. We'll see who the starting quarterback will be.

But for me, with Genti is, can you be better than Omar and Hampton, who I love a lot, and I think is in a better environment, offensive system, et cetera. But I think Gentis talent obviously is at a much higher level, or at least should be at a higher level. anybody at this point willing to take the chance on Genti in round one, or would you just kind of wait and see how it plays out

and take him early to middle round two? What's the format of the league? PPR. Round two. Yeah. I think it's going to be round two for me, probably either way. So let's assume the first five running backs off the board are going to be, again, whatever order.

Jamir Gibbs, Bijon Robinson, Christian McCaffrey, Devon A. Chan, and Jonathan Taylor. Where's Gentie for you guys? For me, he's behind James Cook and Chase Brown. Same. Yeah. Great. So we're all in the same range.

High as RB8. Yep. Yes, sir. Okay. So round two, Ashton Genty. I don't think we need to spend much more time on it and just everything should be good for him in year two, hopefully a little bit better. It can't be worse.

They could draft a running back. Yeah, I guess. I guess it just comes down to who it would be. I think if they spend the fourth pick of round two on a running back, that would be enough. They're idiots. Oh, yeah. They're idiot morons, is that amazing? They are the Raiders, Heath.

So it is. Yeah, but this is like a different Raiders regime. I know we kind of say that every time they agree. I know. And then I didn't think that they were necessarily idiots for hiring Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly last year. and look what happened. Yeah, true. Fair point.

All right. So next running back we got here is Camp Scatabu. Another guy to me that's very similar to Quinchon Jutkins. I think the offense for the Giants will be better. But what we saw from Scatabu before his injury, which again, something we have to keep an eye on, was some elite production fantasy-wise. You know, he had a three-touchdown game in there. He was really benefiting from, I think, just the start of the Jackson Dart era

and how that offense was starting to look. We did not see him with Malik neighbors. obviously not see him with, excuse me, we didn't see him with his new coaching staff, you know, now that he has Harbaugh calling the shots and now Matt Nagy calling the plays, but there's just a lot to like, at least as of now. So, you know, we got past free agency. There was some talk about maybe the Giants, you know, pursuing some of the running backs that were available.

And there is still some thought that they do entertain the idea of if he's there, Jeremiah Love in the first round. I hope they don't do that. I hope Scadaboo is going to get an opportunity to be the lead running back. here. I don't think there's a long track record for him based on how he plays and already suffering his first significant injury in the NFL. But for 2026, this could be a guy that challenges to be a top 12 running back. You're not going to draft in that way. I think it's kind of, he's sort of like in that bridge range of once you get past like the top 12-ish guys, I think in the same range where Quintan Jodkins belongs, maybe before some of the guys he've mentioned in terms of his dynasty rankings, but also in redraft, Javante Williams, Dandre Swift, those type of guys. that's where you buy into Camp Scataboo. So, Dave, I know you were very excited about Scataboo in some of our early drafts. I don't know if you pulled back a little bit, you know, since Free Agency,

the last couple of drafts we've done. He was a guy you were taking in round three. Is that still something that you're willing to do? I would still do it. It needs to be in later round three and not early round three. But the upside is immense. We saw it last year in the sample size. It was, where do I have this?

It was over 19 PPR points per game. In six games, right. So super small sample size, but 19.1 PPR points, 15.6 non-PPR points, just to give you an idea of six total touchdowns and six games, how do you ignore that? How do you ignore a guy that's averaging a touchdown per game? That's Derek Henry to the core. It's because of the injuries. It's because, well, he's not Derek Henry. He wishes he were Derek Henry, and the Giants are not the Baltimore Ravens, even though they have the Ravens head coach now. So I understand the trepidation with Camp Scadaboo. There will be people in every single draft that will not be into Camp Scadaboo. in round three, but think about some of the running backs that are going to go after Cam Scadaboo and whether or not you'd be excited to have them around later. And the answer might be, yeah, I would be more excited to have DeAndre Swift in round four or Javante Williams in round four, five, Trevionn Henderson in that same range. And if you're cool with those guys, then definitely veer in that direction and take a wide

receiver, like a Buka should be there in round three. That's somebody I'd rather have than Camp Scadaboo. It just depends on how much you want to go for it. And it's also contingent on how healthy he is. can't make the case about Quinn saying, well, he's got a fracture, he's got to come back from and not do the exact same thing with Cam Scadaboo. The difference is that

we've seen some monster games from Scadaboo. We haven't seen as many from Quinn Sean Judkins. Keith, Travis, A-chan, or Cam Scadabu? Camus Cadabu. As long as Alvin Camerr's teammate of A-Chant's. Devante Williams or Camp Scadaboo? Scadabu.

DeAndreis-Div-Di-D'A-D'A-D'A-D-W. Scataboo. And then Scataboo. So what I was doing, it was going straight down this draft. So round four was A-chan, Travis A-chan. Then it went, Jamante Williams, then D'Andre Swift. I was thrilled to get Cam Scadaboo with the first pick in round five. I think that's just great value.

Yes, that would be amazing. There are some, there's some inflection points in the Cam Scataboo value. One of them is going to be the draft. I think of the guys you mentioned, he's probably the most likely to be impacted by the draft. And then the other one is, just like Judkins, I'm probably not going to discount him until we get him to training camp. But if we get to training camp and Camp Scadabu is not a full go, might have to move him down.

Last two guys we'll talk about here, Emeka, Buka and Alec Pierce will start with Abuka. Dave mentioned, you know, where you could take him in round three. And what we saw from him at the start of the season was clearly amazing when we had the injuries and the slow start for Chris Godwin. But it was 23 PPR points in week one, 12.9 in week two, but he scored a touchdown in that game against Houston. and 14 and a half PPR points in week 3.

20.1 ppr points got that late touchdown against the Eagles. And then 31.3 PPR points against the Seahawks. And from that point on after week five, it was very, very tricky production for him. Had the one spike game against the Patriots where he had six catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. So Abuka, we've spent a lot of time talking about him recently. You have the absence of Mike Evans. You have this sort of hopeful retooling of Baker Mayfield

and this passing attack with Zach Robinson. another new offense coordinator in the Todd Bulls regime. But really it's about opportunity and looking, I think, what the Bucks did, Jason Light, one of the better GMs in the league. We know that we could lose Evans or Godwin going into 2026. They lose Evans. That's why they spend the draft capital on Abuka in 2025. And here we are.

So, again, when do you want to draft them? That's the biggest question because I think we all see the upside and the potential. When do you want to draft a Mecca Buka? Dave said round three, Heath, when are you comfortable drafting this sophomore, potential breakout. Yeah, it's going to be the three, four turn. He's right there with Luther Burden for me. And if both of these guys come through the draft unscath,

because Tampa has been fond of adding wide receivers when we didn't think they needed to, then I think you get a little more excited. I do think that Chris Godwin's, whether he's all the way back will matter a lot for Abuka's upside and target volume. Because I think if Chris Godwin was Chris Godwin of two years ago, he probably leads this team in targets. Abuka probably has more touchdowns and averages more yards per catch. If Godwin's not himself and Abuka is the number one, then he could be a top 12 wide receiver. Dave, is he just new Mike Evans?

Yeah, I think that that could be what he ends up being. His two best games came when Mike Evans didn't play. When Mike Evans came back late in the year, that's when his target volume really dwindled. His efficiency dwindled after he had his injury. Baker's injury didn't help things across the board for Tampa. And now everybody will come back healthy, except for Mike Evans, who will come back healthy in San Francisco.

And the Tampa Bay defense has maybe three good players on it, as we said here to four. If you squint hard when you look at Alex Anzolone's name, and this is part of the equation for me. I think Tampa will be one of those teams that has a defense that lets it down. And that means that the offense is going to have to keep throwing to stay in games. and they haven't had a problem leaning on Baker Mayfield to this point. I don't think it's going to stop now.

That means that the target volume should be high for not just a Bucca, but also for Chris Gowan. I think seven plus targets is in play for both these guys. I think eight plus targets is in play for a Bucca, and I'm going to do a little projecting here. I think he's going to get that type of volume. I think he's going to be excellent with it. We already know that he's a very talented wide receiver.

We saw it in the first third of last year. And as long as he stays in good shape, he could finish as a top 10 wide receiver easily. That means we are not drafting him at his ceiling in round three. Last guy here is Alec Pierce, and it feels similar to the Romeo Dobbs conversation because there's a change. The only big difference is that Pierce is not changing teams, but Pierce now has a chance to be the number one receiver for his team

after what he just got paid this offseason plus the Michael Pittman trade. Now, we got the report. Dave, I remember you saying this. pitman trade that they're expecting Pierce to be in the eight plus target range on a consistent basis, on a week-to-week basis, at least, to average, hopefully, maybe north of eight targets per game. So if he gets those chances based on what he's done, which has been over 21 yards per catch, each of the last two seasons, then we're going to get a huge year if those numbers sort

of translate. However, we're expecting him to run different routes and be a different type of wide receiver. And so can he handle being that number one guy being the alpha here? similar to Tyler Warren, we have to make sure Daniel Jones is right. Although most of Pierce's best games did come later in the season when it was the Philip Rivers, Riley Leonard, pairing at the end of the year by comparison to what we saw in the beginning of the season because Pierce was banged up. He missed a couple of games early in the year due to injury. So I think at least the way I approach it, I'm not, I don't want to reach for Alex Pierce.

He's somebody that I would love to have on my team. I sort of look at him and I was debating just because we talked about Christian Watson last week talking, you know, who who who who because I haven't ranked similar and it feels like a similar profile can alec pierce be the better breakout candidate than christian watson i would prefer watson at this point just because i kind of know what i'm getting uh but i love the idea of the wild card of alick pierce and the opportunity for him to get more targets but it just feels like there's a lot more ifs can he a lot more questions can he become that guy can he ascend to that role can daniel jones come back and be healthy and be that type of guy again uh so i'll ask you guys this he you first when

you comfortable drafting alec pierce and can you see not just a year season because I think it's going to happen. But can you see a guy that's going to push to be in the top 24 conversation? It's possible. It's just probably round six for me on Alex Pierce. He's ahead of Romeo Dobbs, but not by a lot. I think the big problem is, and you kind of referenced it, if he's going to get eight targets per game, there is a 0.0% chance that he's going to lead the NFL in yards per catch, and average 20 yards per catch again. It's just not the way, I mean, if he does, then it's going to be an incredible season for the Colts

and Daniel Jones might throw over 5,000 yards. So we haven't seen him play in the role they're talking about him playing. And it's really hard to make a projection for that. And if he's not just running downfield, then the offense looks different too, because that was a big part of him, like him clearing out for other people also.

So I think he's a really hard guy to project, and I just wouldn't want to take him as more than a number three wide receiver. And the expectation is he's that guy like Christian Watson, unfortunately like Marvin Harrison, that's going to win you six or seven weeks. And the rest of the time, hopefully he doesn't hurt you as a wide receiver three. And that's exactly where I have him right. He's in that group of high-end wide receiver threes with MHJ, with Christian Watson. and Wondell Robinson is in that group for me too, if it's full PPR,

just because I expect him to get north of eight targets per game. He's been doing that ever since he's been really involved in Brian Dable's offense and he'll continue to be Romo Dunzei is in that same group. This is the group of high upside wide receivers where you can look at each one of them and say, all right, in terms of just delivering points based on stats that they get, they have potential to finish maybe somewhere between 20th and 24th

among wide receivers, and we're drafting them pretty close to that. can any of these guys finish top 12 at the position? Man, there's a lot that would have to go right for that to be the case. And I can't draft them based on that. And I'm just like you, Jamie. I love Alec Pierce. And I think that he does have huge potential.

I don't want to get too excited about him. I don't want to draft him in round four. That's the same range where we're drafting burden. That's already one player who we're drafting on based on huge expectations that we've really only seen a glimmer from. And you could kind of make the case. case, hey, listen, we're expecting a big bump in production for burden based on a bump in targets. We can say the exact same thing for Alec Pierce. The difference is the quarterbacks that they have.

We feel a lot better about Caleb and we feel a lot better about that offense than we do with Indianapolis's offense of Daniel Jones. So you kind of price that in by taking Alec Pierce somewhere in that early round six range. I guess that's where I'm landing on him, Harrison, Watson, all those guys. And I'd be I'd be overjoyed to have any one of them as my wide receiver three. Yeah, or even in some cases, maybe you're watching. receiver four, depending on how you draft and you start three receivers. He could be flex.

And, you know, again, as Heath said, we could get six or seven weeks where these guys are winning you your weeks, but the other weeks that they're just, you know, maybe disappointing you or just not living up to the expectations. All right, that's what we expect from some of our breakouts, though. We expect these guys to take a step forward and hopefully deliver a big production on a consistent week-to-week basis, but we know that's not always going to be the case. And we know it's going to be a little bit of a disappointment on our next show and we spend some time talking about the players that we're going to consider as bus.

That's later in the week. So hopefully you'll join us for that. This has been a fun conversation on our breakout. For you coming, for Dave Richard, for our great producer, Tom Schaefer. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Advancing football track.

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