Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Top Bounceback Candidates! Kyler Murray, Ashton Jeanty, Justin Jefferson & More! (08/01 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 1, 2026

Who's ready to bounce back in 2026? Adam Aizer and Jamey Eisenberg break down their favorite fantasy football rebound candidates, including Kyler Murray with the Vikings, sophomore running backs Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton, wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Mike Evans, plus whether Mark Andrews and Travis Kelce can return to elite fantasy production. If you're looking for league-winning values and players primed to outperform their 2025 seasons, this episode is packed with must-know draft advice.

Bounce back candidates for 2026. A great way to find value in your fantasy drafts. Let's talk about it now with Jamie on FFT Express. All right, Jamie, you are on the clock. Who are some of your favorite bounce back candidates? Let's go by position. So let's start a quarterback. And I think one guy that falls into this category for me,

aside from the obvious one. So I think Lamar Jackson will be better. I think Jane Daniels went healthy will be better. I'm going to go to Kyler Murray. And, you know, last year was obviously very frustrating, disappointing. We know all the things that have it all shook out. There's an easy path for him, assuming he beats out JJ McCarthy, but there's an easy path for him to be a top 12 quarterback. He still is among the best Russian quarterbacks in the NFL.

I hope Kevin O'Connell will allow that to still be part of his game. You know, averages over 36 rushing yards per game in his career. And now he's getting the best receiving core and maybe the best coach he's ever had. And so Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Joan Jennings, T.J. Hawkinson, we know the crew there. Kevin O'Connell's gotten great production from Kirk Cousins, but also some very, very well-known journeymen like Nick Mullins, for example, Josh Dobbs. He's turned them into quality fantasy quarterbacks during the stretches,

those guys have played. So Kyler Murray is an easy late-round quarterback for me to target, especially if I'm taking the chance on somebody that could, you know, fall into that top 12 range. So I think Kyler Murray bounces back. But again, if you want to go with the more draftable guys, I think Jane Daniels stands out to me. you know, the way that he started the season last year,

and we'll see what this receiving court ends up looking like. But just based on the way that he plays, how he runs, you know, I think he's got top five upside, if not more. Yeah, and then Lamar Jackson, in 2024, Lamar Jackson averaged 30 fantasy points per game and six point per pass in touchdown leagues. In 2025, he scored more than 33 points in four of his first five games. It's obvious what happened to him last year. He just kept getting injured, different lower extremity injuries.

He's honest to me, I think Mar Jackson is the most obvious. that's why you didn't say him. The most obvious bounce back candidate. I'm fired up for the quarterback position in general to bounce back at the top. All right, running backs. So let's go with the sophomores who didn't perform to their expectations last year. We'll start with Omari and Hampton and Ashton Genty. And I think you're looking at it.

The coaching for both of those guys should be better. Genti getting Clint Kubiak, Hampton getting Mike McDaniel. McDaniels had two very different fantasy seasons from two of his running backs. Rahim Mostert leading the NFL in rushing yards one season, Devon A-chan, being one of the best dual threat running backs that we've seen for the last couple of years. And Kubiak's just coming from the Seattle offense where he helped both Ken Walker and Zach Sharbonnet produced at a high level. And now Genti, presumably, is going to get both of those opportunities. Work at the goal line, be the passing downs back to everything that they want those guys

to do. The offensive lines should be better for both of them. For Hampton, it's getting Rishan Slater, who he didn't get a chance to play with last year, and Joe Altback. And then for Gentie getting Tyler Linderbaum and hopefully a healthy Colton Miller back. So both offensive lines better, both coaches better, and the talent, I think, is evident based on their pedigree. So excited about both those guys. I think Gentie is worth taking late round one. I think Hampton's worth taking early round two, but both have the chance to be top five

running backs if things work out in their favor. What about Bucky Irvin? Do you think he'll be a bounce back guy this year? I hope so, you know, especially as somebody that has some dynasty shares of him. But it's hard to expect a huge season if everybody's stays healthy because you're hearing one and one A in terms of how they view the depth chart between Irving and Kenneth Gainwell. Gainwell is coming off the 70 catch season. I think Zach Robinson is going to involve him in the passing game. I referenced this on the

full-length episode that Pete Priscoe spent some time in Tampa Bay. That's one of the things he came away looking at is that they're going to use Kenneth Gainwell a lot. And Pete is a Bucky Irving guy. So if Gainwell is going to steal passing downs work and then you have the potential of Sean Tucker stealing the rushing touchdowns, it feels like Irving can be a trapback. But I think if he's healthy, he's their best guy. We've seen that he can work in the passing game and be successful. Doesn't need to be a third down back because they'll throw to him on first and second down.

I love a motivated Baker Mayfield and he doesn't have the contract that he's looking for right now. If that continues, I think that's going to work in his favor and really the entire offense. So I do think that Irving does have some bounce back potential. I just don't want to draft him too soon. All right. We're going to take a break and find out the wide receivers and tight ends that Jamie's banking on to bounce back in 2026 after this on FFT Express. Okay, moving on to the wide receivers, Jamie, who are going to be the bounceback guys here?

Yeah, I think Mike Evans going to San Francisco was a surprise move, but look, when he's right, he's still one of the better receivers in the league. Hopefully he stays healthy, hopefully avoids the substation and doesn't have the typical 49ers injuries that we've been seeing even right now. But you do have the Ricky Pearsall injury, which, you know, takes away at least the most proven guy prior to Friday. and then they bring in Debo Samuel, who may or may not still be a productive receiver. But I think Mike Evans could be this year's Devante Adams, where a veteran guy changes teams.

I don't know if he leads the NFL in receiving touchdowns like Adams did, but I think he'll do a little bit more. And Evans does have six seasons on his resume of at least 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns. And so if he stays healthy, I think that's within the range of possibility. Remember, Joanne Jennings was on this team last year, had nine receiving touchdowns. I think we all agree that Mike Evans is a better receiver. Let's go to the higher end of this,

and let's talk about Justin Jefferson. Again, if Kyler Murray is hopefully the guy or even a better J.J. McCarthy, Jefferson last year, one of the worst receivers based on where you drafted him, especially what the expectations are for what his talent level is. You know, you, you talk to any NFL coach, GM, personnel player, scout, whatever. They'll still tell you Judge Jefferson is one of the best receivers in the NFL. 32nd fantasy-wide receiver last year was just an abomination for fantasy managers based on where we drafted him. So you look at the stretch of games he had with Carson Wentz, over 16 PPR points per game. When those two guys were together, hopefully. that's the floor. I think he'd still be an 18 point per game guy. I'm willing to take a chance on

Jefferson end of round one early round two. Do we have any bounce backs at tight end this year? That's a great question. Bounce backs at tight end from like bad seasons. I think Mark Andrews could qualify. You know, so gets a tight end friendly coach and Declan Doyle loses Isaiah likely. Maybe we get a little bit more pass, happy offense for the Ravens. So Andrews is worth taking with a late round pick. I think if you're looking at like, don't know what Kelsey did and really don't understand that he was really good in the 10 games that he played,

or 13 games with a healthy Patrick Mahomes. Like, he's got a chance to be still a top 10 tight end. I don't know if he's got top five still in his resume, but definitely can be there. Kittle if he's healthy. You know, I think that qualifies from an injury bounce back perspective. I guess you'd probably say Malik neighbors too from a wide receiver option

that could be healthy. But yeah. It was such a good year for tight end, but I'll throw out a name. of a guy who was just absolutely horrible after four straight years of being very good, T.J. Hawkinson, well, Hawkinson, 2024, he wasn't great either. But the- Pre-ACL-Tor. Yeah, he used to be a really good player.

Does he have any, I mean, no one even wants T.J. Hawkinson right now. It's hard to expect that, you know, just looking at the, uh, the way that this offense is constructed, you know, so he's not going to get more targets than Jefferson. he's probably not going to get more targets than Addison, and he may not get more targets than Jennings. And so, like, if he's fourth, Kyler Murray has had a hard time supporting one guy. Now, the thing that's encouraging is that he did have,

I know, despite the touchdowns, but he did get Trey McBride, good fantasy production right before, you know, Murray Rose replaced. So you can bank on that if you want to. But I think it's, you know, he's going to be one of those guys, I think in Hawkinson, if he scores like eight touchdowns, you know, not a lot of catches, not a lot of yards. Just while we're on the topic of bouncebacks, not tight ends,

it's just going to be a lot of fun and I hope they stay healthy. If Jonathan Brooks and Tankdale play and have, you know, quality seasons, like, that's just awesome. You know, if Brooks missing the entire year after a second ACL, Ter Tankdell, you know, who knew if he could play again? And both those guys getting positive reviews. So Brooks may be the best running back for the Panthers and Tank Dell. I don't think anybody's going to take him with more.

than a late round flyer, you know, unless we get just overwhelming evidence that he's back to being himself. So maybe like round eight, round nine, I think round 10 or later, that was probably where he goes. But we may get to a point where Brooks is overtaking Chuba Hubbard. Like, you know, I was no moderately excited about Hubbard this year because of the personnel and just kind of waiting out this Brooks news. I keep making them so close in the rankings. Like, it's reason to get excited about Brooks in a big way. All right. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you all for watching and listening. Enjoy your weekend. Talk to you later on Fantasy Football today.