Fantasy Football Today - FFT Express - Training Camp BURNING Questions! (07/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Adam Aizer and Jamey Eisenberg break down the biggest fantasy football questions heading into training camp. They start with some key injury concerns surrounding Malik Nabers and Alec Pierce. They also talk crucial running back battles in Carolina (Chuba Hubbard vs. Jonathon Brooks) and in Pittsburgh (Jaylen Warren vs. Rico Dowdle). The guys also debate who will emerge as the No. 1 wide receiver in Miami and examine how rookies KC Concepcion & Denzel Boston could fit into the Browns offense. Get the latest training camp storylines and fantasy football analysis to help you make smart decisions on draft day.

Training camps are underway, and what are some of the burning questions that we have right now on Fantasy Football Today Express. Yeah, good time of year. Training camps are opening. We're going to get some updates on injuries and position battles. And let's start with the injuries. Jamie, which injured players could move up or down the most as we enter training camp and start to get more of a timeline? I think we're all paranoid every time we see Camp Scataboo do a backflip. I think a lot of us would love to see Malik Neighbors do a backflip.

So Neighbors is probably the biggest one because he's, you know, a player that I think at the start of our rankings in January when we're starting to look at the 2026 season. Malik Neighbors could be a first round pick. All right. Now maybe a second round pick. We don't know he's going to come back. Maybe the third round. I wouldn't take him until at this point the fifth round.

So there's just a lot of concern, understandably so, did not look good at the charity softball game that he played and running to first base. still concerns about will he be ready for the start of training camp? I think he's the most obvious one that if he shows up healthy, ready to go, no concerns. I don't think round one, but I do think round three would be something that a lot of people would probably buy into, and understandably so. He's just amazing. So we'd love to see him back out there and performing like, I'm sure a lot of Giants fans would like to see. We would like to see it.

And there's an injury to me that is not getting nearly enough attention. Alex Pierce had ankle surgery in March. He's still not back. We don't know at what point in training camp he'll be back. They haven't started their training camp yet. But I just don't understand. I don't really think we've seen a big fall in ADP here for Alec Pierce. But for all the uncertainty we have about him and his role and how he's going to be,

and I understand the excitement, but the guy's coming off ankle surgery, not at one point last year. We're talking about in March. and I just think it's really important for him to get back out there. So I'm going to be keeping my eye on that one. I think for that one, we haven't seen a fall off. If he was healthy, I think we would have seen a spike. Oh, maybe, maybe. All right, which running back position battles are you keeping an eye on?

Oh, there's several. I think the three that stand out to me the most, and one is sort of tied into injury, a start there, is in Carolina. So Chuba Hubbard, Jonathan Brooks, you've heard me say time and time again. The personnel moves, I think, are huge here. The fact that they let Rico Dowdle leave and did not do anything of significance to bring him back. Either speaks to they're expecting a 2024 version of Chuba Hubbard or the first time that will see the Jonathan Brooks that they drafted in the second round coming into the NFL in 2024.

Brooks did not play in 2025 because of his second ACL tear in the same knee. But if he's healthy, can certainly be a significant contributor. to that team and to the Panthers. My fear is that it's going to be a 50-50 split. We don't get either guy stepping forward, at least maybe until an injury occurs or somebody's just that much better. In that case, it'd probably be Brooks.

But that's one you want to keep an eye on. We'll go to Pittsburgh where the Rico Dowdle departure matters. So leaving Carolina and going to Pittsburgh, being reunited with Mike McCarthy. I think that's important to keep an eye on there. But Jalen Warren, my hope, honestly, is that Jalen Warren takes the Kenneth Gainwell role because I think he's going to get enough carries

to still be relevant there running the ball and then could be a 50 catch guy for Aaron Rogers. So I don't care if RICO Dadold won't a starting job. I still want Jalen Warrings. I think he profiles as the better pass catcher and better pass blocker. Two other ones to keep an eye on, I guess there's four, not three for me. So two other ones keep an eye on Washington. We'll see who wins the starting job there,

whether it's Rashad White, who they signed, or Jacori Kroski-Merry. it had two very strong games in his final four outings last year, but I don't think we'll be involved as much in the passing game. Rashad White, three of his last four seasons with at least 50 receptions. And then Jacksonville. This offense could be amazing as we saw last season,

but will we get a true Travis ETN? We still call him Travis ETN because we're talking past tense. So will we get a true Travis ETN replacement out of Basial Tutin or Chris Rodriguez, junior or will we get a three-headed mess when you factor in lequint allen who plays a lot on third downs for them and maybe they start to throw him the ball so that's one to keep it on as well okay i'm going to give you the adps here which values do you like better for carolina chuba harbord in round seven or jonathan brooks in round 10 right now chuba hubbard jaylin warren in round six or ricko dowdell in round eight uh jaylon warren around six rashad white at the nine 10 turn

or Jacori Kroski Merritt at the 10-11 turn? We're talking PPR or shot bite. Bejel Tootin in late round five or Chris Rodriguez, round 12? Rodriguez and round 12. All right. We're going to take a break and talk about wide receiver position battles after this on Fantasy Football Today Express. All right, so we went over Carolina, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Jacksonville as running back battles that we're looking at here in training camp. How about wide receiver position battles?

Position battles is not necessarily the best word for wide receivers, but depth chart and who's going to get the targets, all that. Which wide receiver units are you keeping an eye on? I give you the three worst because I think there's going to be somebody that emerges that will be fantasy relevant. We'll start in Miami where, you know, there's nobody of significance, at least as of now.

So again, when we're recording this on July 20th, they could still sign, any of these teams could sign Stefan Diggs, Devo Samuel, Tyree Kill, whoever the case, maybe. But in Miami, they lose Jalen Wattle, they lose Tyree Kill. They bring in, you know, some veteran guys that have bounced around the league or at least had no real production, 2-2 Atwell, Jalen Tolbert, still have Malik Washington. They draft three rookies. Their best one is coming off a torn ACL, at least based on paper, Chris Bell, where they drafted out of Louisville. But this is just a potential mess. And we just got through talking about the pros and cons,

and Devils Advocate for Devon A-chan and how his role in the passing game could matter here. Greg Dulchitz, their tight end can matter here. But I think if there is a consistent target getter from this receiving core, you get a borderline number three receiver. So my two favorites, at least going into the season right now. And again, nothing more than a pick in round 14 or later. But Jalen Tolbert and Malik Washington, just because I think those are the guys working with Malik Willis right now in Las Vegas. They signed Jalen Naylor. They have Trey Tucker.

They still have Jack Besh. Besh did really nothing as a rookie, but still has plenty of upside. Tucker had a good stretch to start the season when Brock Bowers first got hurt, but really did nothing the majority of the year. And Jalen Naylor has been sort of buried on the depth chart in Minnesota behind Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, had four games last year with at least six targets. Two of those, he was over 17 PPR points. So hopefully target opportunities matter here for all three of these guys.

But I guess one story we didn't really cover with the news and notes is there was a report from Ian Rappaport that Kirk Cousins is going to be the starter for the majority of the season. That would be, I think, really crappy for anybody in Super Flex leagues that are counting on Fernanda Mendo but cousins will hopefully get production or Mendoza with the combination of the two. Somebody's going to have to help out Brock Bowers there. But really, it's you're trying to find out who on some teams, like who's the number two receiver, who's the number three receiver. So San Francisco comes to mind.

Easy to say Mike Evans. You would hope that it's Ricky Pearsall at the number two spot. But they draft Deshaun Stribbling. They still have, they signed Christian Kirk. You know, some to keep an eye on there. Jacksonville, it's so wide open with almost everybody. Like, who's the one, who's the two, the three of the four. we'll see who stands out of that team.

Who's going to be number two in Washington? I think we're hoping it's going to be Antonio Williams, but something to keep an eye on there. I'm trying to think there's any other teams that have some question marks receiving-wise. Yeah, I'm curious about Cleveland because... Oh, I'm sorry. That was the other one I was going to mention

from a crappy standpoint. Yes, go ahead. Yeah, no, I mean, it was like the rookie wide receiver that got the most buzz was the second round pick, Boston and not Concepcio. So we'll see if that continues. I saw somebody tweet this, a Browns fan or like blogger. So I apologize.

It was very early after the NFL draft that they drafted their version of Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. I think that's a huge leap. Well, I mean, you know, years to come, but, you know, a huge leap. I think, though, you can get almost a very poor man's version of Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, where Concepcion is Godwin, getting a lot of targets and leading the team and catches and Boston is the touchdown leader because he's a big play guy. But Jerry Jude is going to factor here. Obviously, Harold Fan is going to be a factor here.

And who the quarterback is going to matter, you know, whether it's Deshaun Watson or Shadur Sanders. Let me tell you something. You were talking about the dolphins? I realized I made such a stupid mistake on the devil's advocate episode. So you remember I had the, we were talking about A-chan. I wrote the Bueller, Bueller. Yeah, I spelled Bueller wrong. I spelled it like Walker Bueller.

Bueller the pitcher and not Ferris Bueller. So definitely the comments are going to crush me on that one. My bad. All right. That's it for F. If you hadn't said anything, nobody would notice. I think people will notice. Do you think a lot of people know how to spell Bueller?

I think they know it's not like that. I mean, I put an H in there. Did you find that or somebody pointed out to you? No, I found it. When you were talking about it, I was like, oh, did I spell Bueller wrong? I think I did. Yeah. You told me like, I got to go back and fix it.

You said I had Kenneth Ganywell's rushing stats wrong in the sleepers column. And I went back and checked because I also have, you know, I published all of my tiers last week, you know, grabbing stats from different things. Like, did I get it wrong there? So I got the rushing stats right in the tears, but I had it wrong in the sleepers column. I thought you were going to tell me that you actually had them right and that I was wrong again. I was not to be a good.

No, no, no. I don't even know where I got those numbers from. I got to go back and check. Maybe a stretch of games. I don't know. Yeah, maybe. Okay. Well, you let everyone down.

Talk to you tomorrow on baseball today.