Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Dave Richard’s 2025 All-Breakout Team REVEALED! (08/26 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's time now for the Dave Richard All Breakout Team for 2025. This is Fantasy Football Today Express. Welcome to show. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Dave Richard. Hall of Famer, Fantasy Hall of Famer. I would love saying that. Dave, you can give everybody here.

Starting point is 00:00:19 You've got it twice over the last 24 hours. And you haven't said anything like that over the previous three years. Well, I mean, when you're on the, under the spotlight, it's time to, you know, highlight. your career achievement. And so hopefully I'm not the only one that's make everybody aware of what the information they're getting. So we have the all breakout team for you for 2025. Let's start with the quarterback.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Who is the quarterback you're targeting to break out the season? Let's give credit to the future Hall of Famer on this one. You were on Drake, Drake May before I was. It took me going to see the Patriots in practice to really get a grip on Drake May. I thought he looked great going up against the commander's starting unit. I love the way that he threw the ball. Not just, he really didn't throw it Stefan Diggs as much.

Starting point is 00:00:59 It was DeMario Douglas, it was the tight ends, it was Kyle Williams, it was Cajon Booty, it was Trayvion Henderson. This is a different type of offense that he's in this year. He's got better people to throw to. He himself has a year's worth of experience. And the offensive line, especially the right side of that offensive line, should be better. These are all improvements for Drake May over last year, who in his last 11 games averaged 18.6 fantasy points per game and 6 point. He is a top 12 fantasy quarterback, and I do not mind beginning the year with him as my starter because of who they play. Week one against Las Vegas, week two against the Dolphins.

Starting point is 00:01:37 It's great setup for him. And last year, his 10 healthy games, he was on pace for 630 rushing yards. Again, if you don't take anybody else on pace performances, so just him versus the field, he would have been the third best running quarterback behind Lamar Jackson and Jaden Daniel. So there's a lot to like about what he could do with his legs. And Josh McDaniels did have a running quarterback once upon a time in Cam Newton for a season and was able to do a lot of great things with Cam, still running a similar style offense. I think that Drake May will run as well.

Starting point is 00:02:10 All right, let's talk about the running backs, Dave. So who are the two running backs that are going to be breakout candidates? Bucky Irving had a great half year. I am going to call for him to have a great full year. Over the course of 2024, he averaged 14.4 ppr points per game. but that number looked like 18.1 in his final eight games that includes the postseason, that includes only two games out of the eight where he played more than 60% of the snaps. I think the buck's offense is going to be just as good, even if Liam Cohen isn't there.

Starting point is 00:02:37 I think Bucky Irving plays just a little bit more than he did last year. That gives me hope that he can meet or exceed the 18 PPR points per game that he had last year. I would still take Chase Brown ahead of him, but I'm going to take Bucky Irving ahead of Jonathan Taylor, Kairn Williams, Omari and Hampton, I think he does have a breakout second season. And Jamie, I've started to move Jordan Mason ahead of Aaron Jones in my non-PPR rankings and in my half-PPR rankings. They are damn close and full PPR. I think that the Vikings will eventually skew young at running back.

Starting point is 00:03:09 And Jordan Mason, who isn't a three-down guy like Aaron Jones is, I just think that he'll be the one that ends up getting more of the high-value touches as far as rushing goes and probably gets more carries than Aaron Jones as well. I think they want to be a stronger gap team. I think he can do that for them. And so drafting Jordan Mason, we've started to see it late round seven, round eight. We're seeing him go. I think he's going to be worth that ADP.

Starting point is 00:03:33 So the question, because we've done a couple shows now where Bucky Irving's been a breakout candidate for you. And I know I posted some of our breakout candidates on X for a show that we did on CBS Network. And a lot of pushback was, how can Bucky be a breakout? And you gave a good explanation why. I guess my question would be is if you're considering him to perform at that level that we saw at the end of last season, why is he not ahead of those guys and why is he not in the same range as, let's say,

Starting point is 00:04:00 a Ashton Genty, Derek Henry, guys that are going at the back end of round one. If you're expecting that level of production the entire season. I've got him six spots overall behind Ashton Genty and that ilk of running back. The only running backs I have ahead of them as of now, and this is full PPR, is A. Chan, because it's full PPR, Jacobs, Chase Brown. That's it. And if we learn anything about A. Chan's calf, not healing up, then that's an easy one that you can just slide right by and Bucky. Or if you're nervous about A. Chan, take Bucky Irving ahead of A. Chan at this point.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Okay. So good picking round two, and we'll see if he's able to perform like he did at the back half of last season. I think a lot of people excited about Bucky Irving. He's a good picking round two, but you might be able to get him in round three. Yeah. You could see him slip in some cases to round three. We saw that happen in a recent draft that we did, a recent mock draft that we did on CBSports.com. All right, I can take quick break here on FFT Express.

Starting point is 00:04:56 We come back into Dave's wide receiver breakouts and tight end breakout as well. I bet you can guess who that guy is going to be. Ontario, the weight is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget Online Casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips.

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Starting point is 00:06:01 Please play responsibly. All right, we're back. So we got the quarterback is Drake May. The running backs are Bucky Irving and Jordan Mason. The wide receivers are? I'm going to skip over Keon Coleman. You can read about my thoughts on him and why I'm talking. trying to get him in every single draft.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Let's give you some names otherwise that you're probably going to take significantly ahead of Keon Coleman anyway. The first one, Marvin Harrison Jr. I think that the bulking up is something that does concern me. But if it means that he's going to run shorter routes and still see a lot of volume and Kyle Murray seems dedicated to getting him the football, then I think we'll see a good year from Marvin Harrison, Jr. You might be able to get him in round four, maybe even round five in some leagues.

Starting point is 00:06:42 I do think he is PPR dependent. I think Jameson Williams takes another step forward. He was really great toward the end of last season. I want to say his last eight games, the average 15 PPR points per game. I think he can be a little bit better than that over the course of little season, but there's room for him to hit a ceiling too because of his explosiveness. And I think the Lions offense, like the Bucks,

Starting point is 00:07:00 I know they changed coordinators. I don't think they miss a big beat here. I think that they can still be a very, very good offense. Jameson Williams, somebody that I would take in that round four or five range. And Ricky Piersall, been loving his game. ever since, honestly, since the middle of last year when he had that one big game against Tampa, you kind of rained me in on that and said, you shouldn't buy into it because it was Tampa. But in those last three games for San Francisco, 18 PPR points as an average in those games.

Starting point is 00:07:26 And he's looked outstanding. We know about all the other injuries in the 49ers receiving core. I think there's a chance that this is rare to see a receiver in San Francisco see eight targets plus per game. I think he can get close to that. And I think a hot start is in store for Ricky Piersall as well. So Pearsall will be your flex because we're going with a two running back, two receiver flex league. I do want to ask you about Harrison because you said something there at the end that he's PPR dependent. I mean, that's interesting for a guy that scored eight touchdowns last year as a rookie.

Starting point is 00:07:57 I almost think he might be better in non-PPR than PPR. I think he's just going to see an uptick and target volume. And I think that he'll do a lot better with it. And maybe that ends up making him great in non-PPR as well. So maybe I shouldn't have said that. Last year he was at 6.8 targets per game. I bet he gets to like, I don't know, half target better on a game to game basis this year. And the touchdown potentially, he should have had more than eight touchdowns last year.

Starting point is 00:08:21 There were a bunch of misfires from Kyler Murray on fade throws. Yeah, shocking that Kyler Murray couldn't get his targets into the end zone. I do think that the narrative of him running more could actually help Marvin Harrison a little bit because of the way that he runs his routes right now where there's not a lot of separation initially. that in some of these broken plays where Kyler's scrambling and running potential a little bit more can open up a few off-schedule throws to help Marvin Harrison, Jr. Absolutely. I like the call of Jameson Williams.

Starting point is 00:08:52 I like the call of Ricky Pearsall, especially with the hot start. We'll see what happens in the middle of the season, but, you know, beginning of the year with Ayuk on IR and whatever Joanne Jennings looks like, whether he's coming back or on IR himself, could be great. All right. So we have our quarterback is Drake May. Our running backs are Bucky Irving and Jordan Mason. your wide receivers are Jamison Williams and Marvin Harrison, Jr.

Starting point is 00:09:14 Our flex is Ricky Pearsall, and our tight end is? It's not Tyler Warren, because again, I've talked a ton about Tyler Warren. Everybody knows that I would take him in round eight and every draft, but let's look at a tight end later. And I can only give you one. I can't give you two. I got two tight ends whose last name begin with K.

Starting point is 00:09:31 I'm going to go with Tucker Kraft as the one then, because if Matthew Golden could be the number one wide receiver, and we talked a little bit about Golden at the end, in at the end of our main show, our FFT show. Kraft could be the number two target getter, started mentioning this back in January that Matt LaFleur was lamenting that he didn't get him the ball more.

Starting point is 00:09:50 He was unbelievably efficient last year for the Packers, just didn't get a lot of targets. And so if he can kind of fill, this is the same type of offense at the 49ers run. Imagine him filling the role of George Kittle. Maybe not to the same type of like hyper-efficiency that George Kittle does because not a lot of people can do that. this is still a great tight end to take late.

Starting point is 00:10:11 And so if you whiff on McBride and Bowers and the George Kittle early on in your fantasy drafts and you wait at the position, you can take Tucker Kraft and I think he can help you at bare minimum get double digit PPR points week in and week out, be a potential touchdown score in the red zone for Green Bay, and obviously you can make some splash plays too. I said this a lot that once you get to the late tight ends, you know, so when you get past the three that you mentioned, you get past that group of. of Najoku, Leporta, Hawkinson, Ingram, Kelsey, Andrews, who can get you to the 10 ppr

Starting point is 00:10:46 point per game range? And then who can get you to the 10 to 12 ppr point per game? Obviously, you're looking for anything above that. But I think that's the sort of range you want to live in. And Kraft has kind of been there each of the last two seasons right around 10 ppr points per game. I think this is the year that he takes a step forward, especially Jaden Reed's banged up right now. You know, he could see he could be number two on the team of targets behind Matthew Golden. And it wouldn't be surprising based on how the Packers operate where they really don't feature a single guy to an alpha level type of range of targets or production or total target, excuse me.

Starting point is 00:11:18 Like, Kraft could easily be in a similar target level with Golden, with Reed, with Dobbs. Like, it could be frustrating, but from a tight end perspective, it would still be pretty good. So I like that call as well. All right, so to wrap up the Dave Richard, all breakout team for 2025, we have Drake May at quarterback. We have Bucky Irving and Jordan Mason at running back. We have Marvin Harrison, Jr. and Jameson Williams at wide receiver. We have Tucker Kraft at Tide End, and we have Ricky Pearsall as they flex. So hopefully a lot of those players will deliver.

Starting point is 00:11:48 It should be a very, very solid fantasy roster. And listen, you don't have to reach for a lot of those players. Bucky is the only one that you're taking in the first two rounds and should have an opportunity for all of these players to. You can acquire this entire team if really wants. You know, no first round picks. You get a stud still. Get Bucky Irving in round two.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Get Marvin Harrison in round four. Get Tamis and Williams in round five. Ricky Pearsall, round six, Jordan Mason, round seven, Tucker Kraft, round eight. It could work out really well. Drake May round nine. I'd still take Tyler Warren in round eight and Tucker Kraft in round nine. Okay, there you go. So, Ntian, Keon Coleman.

Starting point is 00:12:18 Yeah, Keon Coleman after that. Dave likes a lot. But that's a neat. Easy breakout team to acquire. All right. For Dave Richard, for Thomas Schaefer, I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching.

Starting point is 00:12:29 He's not bad. Paramount Podcasts.

Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Dave Richard’s 2025 All-Breakout Team REVEALED! (08/26 Fantasy Football Podcast)

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