Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Fantasy Football Rookie Rankings: Best Draft Values by ADP: Love, Tate, Lemon & More! (07/28 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Help us raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital here: https://tiltify.com/@cbs-sports/fft-draftathon-2026Adam Aizer and Jamey Eisenberg break down the rookie class and discuss which first-year players they're most excited to draft based on current ADP, draft cost, and upside. The conversation includes whether Jeremiyah Love is worth his price, why Carnell Tate and Makai Lemon could become great values, and how Jordyn Tyson, Denzel Boston, KC Concepcion, Antonio Williams, Zachariah Branch, and Kenyon Sadiq stack up against the rest of the class. Plus, they highlight additional rookie sleepers who could make a major impact in fantasy football this season. Which 2026 rookie are you targeting in your fantasy drafts? Let us know in the comments!

We love a good rookie in fantasy football. Which rookies are we most excited to draft right now on FFT Express? Welcome, everyone. So obviously, Jeremy Love is the most exciting rookies going to go first among the rookies, but it doesn't mean we're most excited to draft. That ADP matters here to average draft position. Welcome, Jamie. What's up? How are you?

Yeah, I'm fine. You don't care. So who are you most excited to draft at their current cost in this rookie class? I think the top three receivers should get you excited. You know, you're getting Cardinal Tate as a high-end number three receiver, has the chance to be the number one guy in the Titans offense and, you know, a top five overall picking the NFL draft for a reason. So it could be special.

Mackay Lemon, you know, hopefully we don't have any more issues with the hamstring problem that he dealt with in minicamp, but could clearly step into 120 targets with AJ Brown no longer there. And then you look at Jordan Tyson, and to me he's the biggest wild card of all this because you have still the Chris Olavé blood clot situation. You have Tyler Shuck and what he should be able to do in year two in a Kellanmore offense. And really there was no second receiver of significance once they trade to

Rashid Shaheed, even if you factor in Shaheed at the start of the season. So I think all three of those guys have an opportunity to be, you know, fairly special talents, you know, once you get past Jeremiah Love. And it's pretty interesting when you look at these three rookies and their ADPs. This is a little bit of an oversimplification here. but Tate is basically going at the 5-6 turn. Tyson is basically going at the 6-7 turn. And Lemon is basically going at the 7-8 turn.

They're essentially a round apart with Tate, then Tyson, then Lemon. So who are you most excited to draft at that cost? It would be Lemon. I'm excited about the Philadelphia offense. We just spent some time talking about it on the full-length episode that we recorded Sunday night for Monday. I think you look at Jalen Hertz. He's getting knocked a little bit too much. You know, the, I think it was ESPN, had the story, you know, postseason following the Super Bowl,

just how poorly, you know, he adapted to the previous offense under Kevin Petulow. I think he'll be better throwing over the middle than the narrative of he won't do that or won't, you know, or won't be successful at it. And that's kind of where McCoy Lemon is. You know, there were a lot of people who liked McIalleman as the number one receiver in this class. There's a lot of comparisons, easy comparisons to Mara St. Brown. So with the ball in his hands, he could be pretty special. He could be electric.

Opportunity is there. You know, I got finished saying on the full-length episode, you know that I'm excited about Devante Smith. It's kind of for similar reasons, but at a much reduced cost and much lower expectations. But, you know, again, there's just an easy path to success here for Lemon. So I'm hoping he takes advantage of. Yeah, he was my favorite. And there was a stat from Todd McShay.

McHae, McCoy Lemon averaged more than three yards per out run. versus both man and zone. Only five wide receivers drafted since 2021 have done that. J.S.N. Jalen Waddle, Dwayne Eskridge, Jamar Chase, and Devante Smith. Four of those five, three of those five are studs, I guess, and Waddle might be as well. I don't know. They're all really good.

So it's a good company to be in here. And he also had 16, McCoy Lemon, right? Like this little dude, people think it was a slot guy, 511, 192 pounds. 16 catches of 20 or more air yards last year. Third most in the nation. Jordan Tyson had five. And he had three times as many deep ball catches as Jordan Tyson.

All right. We'll take a little break here and talk about Jeremiah Love when we come back. There he is. Please happen. The agony is part of the fun, J.B. How much you hate it only makes me want to play it more. We'll be back after this. All right, yeah, so Jeremiah, I love in the third round.

You cool with that? Yeah, I don't love Nathaniel Hackett. I don't love what Nathaniel Hackett said, you know, that he's a rookie, and if you follow the beat reporters for the Cardinals, Tyler Algier has gotten a lot of first team reps already. You know, Nathaniel Hackett talked up James Connor, you know, what his role is going to be. So we could see three players on a bad team,

three running backs on a bad team, splitting work. But I think when you look at what the investment, was in love, the fact that Connor couldn't stay healthy last year is north of 30. Tyler Alger, I think, was brought into play a specific role, short yarders, goal line, all those things, that love has a chance to be, you know, a pretty special talent. The one that I struggle with with love just from a ranking standpoint is him versus Kairn Williams, because we got the Blake Corum positive reviews, you know, based on his workouts this off season and what Sean McBay said.

And so if Quorum is going to, you know, ding Kyron Williams enough and, you know, you have love even in I think it's going to be a two-headed back for more so than a you know a three-man committee I would probably lean toward the better player and this is not to say that carrie woman is not a good player but clearly if jeremiah love hits he could hit at a higher level so that's the one i struggle with right now i have williams ranked ahead of love but that's one that i keep going back and forth him his adp is pretty interesting on cbs it's 30th jeremiah I love. On NFC, ADP, half PPR, kind of high stakes leagues, 28th.

Yep. Fantasy pros, he's 18th. That is wild. We would not take him 18th. 18th overall, no. Yeah. If you want to look at some other first round picks, Dan made a good point about first round running backs.

Ones that are taken in the top 10, ones that have high investment, right? it's almost like Ashton Genti is the worst case scenario. So we were talking about guys like last 11 seasons. Todd Gurley was RB9 per game and PPR, RB4 per game and non-PPR as a rookie. Ezekio Elliott, top three per game. Leonard Fournett, eighth per game in PPR, fifth per game and non-PPR. McCaffrey, one of the worst examples, 14th per game.

And he had 80 catches in 16 games. Barkley, second per game. Who else was a Bijon. Bijon, another bad example, 15th per game. Again, I think when you look at it, I don't remember all of the ADPs for these guys. Bejohn, we overvalued, Genti, we overvalued.

I think McAfree was probably in the range of R.B. 14, if not lower, because we expected him to be more of a specialist than a full-time workhorse running back. I believe we're still sharing with John that Stewart. It was, yep. So, you know, like the expectations have to be sort of monitored here. little bit. Like if you just took Ashen Genti's numbers and said, this is what he did as a rookie, you said, oh, that's pretty good. Then you remember where you drafted him, it's like, oh, that was

pretty bad. You know, so, like, I think when you sort of just take the, the broader view of what these guys are and what they're capable of doing. So, like, we just got finished on the full-length episode talking about Judarian Price. So another rookie that I think a lot of people are excited about. And where would he have to finish for you to feel comfortable taking him at his cost? So you brought up Ken Walker, where he finished last year, which is kind of where he was drafted last year, I think he said. Yeah, so Ken Walker finished his RB 28 per game and full PPR, probably better in the other formats. And that's a little bit lower than the ADP for Jedarian price right now.

Right. So if you're getting that type of production, you're happy with it. And I think anything on top of it, there's an easy path for Judarian Price to be great here, not just good, great. Again, I think it's over 400 total touches when you look at if you experience. expect Zach Charbonnet to miss the season and Ken Walker not coming back. Like that's a huge opportunity that George Halani and Emmanuel Wilson have to help Phil, well, Price is a first round pick for a reason because they expect him to be their best running back.

As I said, with Price and his outlook, I'm nervous that we get too much of the other guys early in the season. So it's three players sharing the workload. And then Charbonnet comes back. And it's not about, you know, you kind of pivoted a little bit to Charbonnet. It's not about what Charbonnet is going to do. It's about what Charbonnet is going to do to price. So it's not that Charbonnet comes back and he's just all of a sudden fine because he's coming off a significant injury in the divisional round of the playoffs.

It's he's just going to take work away, whether that's two touches, five touches, ten touches. It's another player that Mike McDonald loves. And so, you know, Dave brought up two-headed backfield. It's a different coordinator. We don't know how they're going to do things here in Seattle with Kubiak now gone. The running-game coordinator, his name escapes me, ignoring-game coordinator coming in from San Francisco. so should be an emphasis on the running backs there. I just think that if Price hits the ground running and is awesome,

you're thrilled with it. If he struggles early this season, I wouldn't panic just yet, but it could be a little bit of a frustrating experience. Any other rookies who want to discuss? Yeah, I think the two guys in Cleveland are fascinating. You know, Denzel Boston has gotten the higher,

the more publicity, but Casey Concepter on first round pick. So something to keep an eye on there. And I think that impacts Harold Fanon and, you know, more so for a negative standpoint, then necessarily looking at those two guys. I'm curious about Antonio Williams. I want to see what he does in Washington if nobody else has added.

I'm curious, you know, we've gotten some positive buzz about Zachariah Branch in Atlanta. You know, that's a player to keep an eye on there. Deshawn Stribling is fascinating because now you have Christian Kirk banged up. We have Mike Evans, who's 32. You have Ricky Pearsall can't stay healthy. You know, stribling got a lot of positive buzz also. So that's when to keep an eye on there. We haven't really talked a lot recently.

Maybe we should just, you know, do a little bit more research on why they're not getting more buzz, but the two guys for the Jets, Kenya Sadiq and Omar Cooper, you know, first tight end drafted another second round pick, a wide receiver that could have, you know, a pretty interesting role. The two guys in Baltimore, Elijah Surat being probably the more one to keep an eye on there and what happens with the Ravens wide receivers. And then I think one of the more fascinating ones are the two guys in Miami three, if you want to factor in, I forget his name, Kevin Coleman, Kevin Coleman.

But they have three rookie wide receivers. that could all be in the mix. Chris Bell coming back from the torn ACL. But, you know, there's opportunities available in the Dolphins offense that I think a lot of fantasy managers keep in on. Kevin Coleman, fifth round pick. Yep. Bazinga. All right. That was good stuff. Good rundown of the rookies that you need to know about and how excited we are to draft them. And we'll talk to you next time on fantasy football today. See you.