Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Preseason Takeaways: Jeremiyah Love, Cam Ward, Fernando Mendoza & More! (08/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

The first preseason games are in the books, and our fantasy football experts break down the biggest takeaways heading into another important weekend of NFL action. Jeremiyah Love made his NFL debut �� so where should you be drafting the Cardinals rookie after getting our first look at him? De'Zhaun Stribling popped for the 49ers putting himself on the fantasy radar as a potential playmaker. Fernando Mendoza looked impressive in his preseason debut, while Cam Ward and the Titans offense struggled. What does that mean for Ward, and could Tennessee's struggles impact the fantasy outlook for Carnell Tate? We also look ahead to this weekend, including Malik Willis making his Dolphins debut, whether the Panthers will hold out Jonathon Brooks with Chuba Hubbard dealing with an injury, and plenty more fantasy football storylines to watch as preseason rolls on.

Let's talk a little preseason what we saw last night and what we're looking forward to seeing this weekend right now on Fantasy Football Today Express. Okay, busy night last night. You know the rookies are pretty much always going to play. That's the exciting thing. So we got to see Jeremiah Love yesterday. I got to see a little bit of Ashton Genty. Talk about Cam Ward. Buzz your girlfriend. But Jamie, what stood out to you in the Thursday night preseason games? Yeah, I think two rookies help themselves in a big way. Jeremiah Love, you mentioned. So, look really good. It'd be nice if he could play the Raiders every week, and that was fantastic to see. But man, does he look like Adrian Peterson? Just watching him run and the way that he moves, it's just amazing what this kid can do. And hopefully this is a preview of what's to come, what's to come for this upcoming season. So I think you can safely take him early in round three,

if you want to take him late in round two, because of the run on running backs that we're going to see. I had him in that bunch of guys of him, Kyron Williams, Josh Jacobs. This was enough to put him ahead of those guys, especially given Jacobs, you know, concerns with injury and potential suspension. The other guy that stood out was Deshawn Stribling, who had a great debut for the 49ers.

You mentioned the disgusting offense on the other side of the ball. But shriveling, I mean, again, no Mike Evans, no Kirk, no kittles, so a lot of missing parts there, no Debo for the 49ers. But, I mean, when you get buzz and then you see it and it looks legit, like he's got an opportunity here to be a playmaker. So a guy that moved up a couple of rounds for me as well. Yeah, I just want to talk a little bit more about Jeremiah Love here. So there was a decent amount of starters on the opening possession for both teams. You did get some of ones on ones for Arizona and Las Vegas, which was good to see.

And he comes out and he starts the game and he had a really good game. But his two biggest runs for what it's worth, 11 carries 50 yards. as two biggest runs came against backups and with backups. But he definitely did split with Tyler Alger. So this is nothing that we didn't expect. I think, though, the way he looked out there, you're hoping, Jamie, as the season progresses, we're going to see less of a time share.

Do you think that's going to happen? I mean, we also don't know what James Conner's availability and role is going to be by availability. I mean, is it going to be on the team still? You know, hopefully there's a trade that happens and he can help another team. But yes, look, he's going to most likely lose goal line work to Tyler Algier.

We know that's kind of been Alger's mantra the last couple of seasons. And once upon a time, he ruined another high profile rookie in Bejan Robinson. So I think just in the case of Jeremiah, I love, you got to keep expectations in check.

He's not going to have an easy matchup like this. You know, Raider starters or a lot of team backups, you know, in what we'll see. So it was just fun to watch and, you know,

better than him coming out and crapping on himself. You know, like he looked the part. And I think that's the encouraging thing. So, you know, anybody that was in the Jeremiah Love camp, oh, I'm taking him in round two. I'm taking him early round two. You know, they were excited. Anybody that was like, oh, a little bit concerned, you got a little bit of a comfort factor.

And I think that's what matters. All right. Also for Arizona. Well, first of all, we didn't get McBride or Bowers, which is a shame. But also for- Yeah, you got them for one play each, right? Oh, did they play one play? I believe that's what I saw.

All right. Michael Mayer had a touchdown on two targets. Kirk Cousins looked good. Fernanda Mendoza looked good. Really nice arm strength, made some good throws. The touchdown throw, Jack Bess was nice.

You know, kept him in a safe position and gave him an opportunity score. And look, it's going to be hard to keep that guy off the field, too. Yeah. But Marvin Harrison, Jr. caught a touchdown.

He had one target on that opening possession. Michael Wilson, he didn't play every snap, came off the field a little bit, but he still had two targets. I don't know if we learned anything there. Again, McBride, only playing one snap.

I think the Titans, though. I mean, they're going up against 49ers' backups, and Cam Ward went five for 12 for 57 yards. He had a near interception. He had an intentional grounding penalty that was almost a fumble, you know, almost at his own goal line, just really bad stuff. And then you had a bit of a wide receiver rotation, too,

where you had Wondale played 16 of 21 snaps with Cam Ward, IOM manner 15, Tate 15, Gunner Helm and Daniel Bellinger, the two tight ends, both played 13. Calvin Ridley played seven, but he started. So I imagine he'll play more than that, typically. Anyway, I don't think there was anything good except Tony Pollard actually did play on third down a little bit. But he split with Tijey Spears. This wasn't an inspiring opening audition, I guess, for the 2026 Titans offense, Jamie.

No, you had a nice run from Spears. You had a touchdown run from Pollard. That was probably the highlights, at least, that you could take away from it. And, you know, conversely, if you're looking for Cardinal Tate to come out and have a strong performance, you got to be a little bit concerned there. So, you know, where he's in that mix of wide receivers, probably starting with like Jamison Williams, Marvin Harrison, Brian Thomas Jr., Chris Godwin, you know, I don't know if I'm missing anybody. Romo Dunezay, maybe in that mix. You're a little discouraged by it. You know, I think really the biggest thing is Cam Ward the problem, you know, and I don't think that's the answer yet, but, you know, and didn't look.

good against San Francisco. You know, I didn't see anything like disastrous from the reports this week where they were practicing together, which to me is almost more important than what we saw in the precinct. All right. I'll take a break and we'll fast forward to this weekend and what we're looking forward to seeing. And there's more, I mean, Jeremy Bernard had a good debut. Arronda Gatston played, which isn't great considering David Nijoku and Charlie Kohler did

not play. Aller, baby. Yeah, Aller looked good. Jaden Reed had a couple of catches, even though he's not going to play in two receiver sets, it seems. Marshawn Lloyd played every snap with the first team, which was only one possession. And we'll be right back on Fantasy Football Today Express. Okay, Jamie, let's spin it ahead to this weekend, including tonight.

And, you know, Malik Willis is going to play. I'm curious to see what this Dolphins offense looks like against Washington. Me too. Reports have not been good from their joint practice. So we'll see how things go there. You know, we'll see, I don't know if Devon A. 10 is going to play. I would not play him far with the Dolphins.

But Malik Willis, you want to see how he looks. Really, I want to see how Caleb Douglas looks because there's another guy getting a lot of buzz, and you want to see that continue. For Washington, you'd like to see a little bit of the running back splits and what that looks like. Stefan Diggs is apparently crushing it right now. And I think we may have a slight Terry McLauran problem and maybe a good situation for Diggs because he's connecting well with the guy whose numbers between four and six that we're not allowed to say. So hopefully Jane Darius has a good enough game and performs well in limited action that he'll be if he's out there. I don't even know if he's starting. And Jonathan Brooks is going to play, and Chuba Hubbard is week to week with a hamstring injury.

Yeah, get ready for your biggest riser in drafts. You know, again, you want to see, I'm assuming he's still going to play. You know, that was the plan before the hamstring injury. This is their second preseason game, as we know. So will they give him a drive? Will they give him extended looks? I'm going to guess they're probably going to be very cautious with Jonathan Brooks, understandably so.

You know, not just the loss of hub. but the injuries that he's coming back from. So this is the guy that's got the, you know, rocket emoji strapped to his back. He's going to go probably, my guess is now round six. Okay. And I guess, yeah,

maybe it's the fan in me, but even just the fantasy analyst in me. Can't spell fantasy analyst without fan. I got to see the Giants do something positive. And, and, you know, their offense is struggling so much in training camp.

Got to put something together positive here. hopefully they can do it against Minnesota. I think Jackson Darts should play a little bit in this game. But when a team does well in preseason, Aaron Roger said it himself. The defenses, you don't care about preseason. Defenses aren't showing anything. So it's very vanilla stuff. Offenses aren't showing much either.

But if a team struggles, especially like the Titans, first team offense against backups for the 49ers that are playing vanilla, and you're struggling there, that's a red flag. That doesn't have to be. It's just one week. but it's like a pink flag. Hopefully it doesn't become a red flag. Yeah, it's like...

It's alert. You know, the lions are a good example, right? Because Drew Petting's offense did not look good. But again, that's not something to worry about it right now. Oh, yeah, right. Well, they didn't play their starters. Exactly. All right.

We will wrap it up here. We've got a live mock draft that we're about to do that you'll have in your podcast. You'll be available later today as well. Thanks a lot for watching. us to football today.