Fantasy Football Today - FINAL Do Not Draft List! 15 Players We’re Avoiding: Trey McBride, Ashton Jeanty & More! (08/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Help us raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital here: https://tinyurl.com/FFTDonate2026Drafting this weekend? It’s time for our FINAL 2026 Fantasy Football Do Not Draft List. We’ll start with a major injury update from around the league that you need to be aware of before you're drafting. Then Heath, Dave and Jamey reveal five players they absolutely will not draft at their current ADP, including Trey McBride, Cam Skattebo, Breece Hall, Christian McCaffrey, Ashton Jeanty and Josh Allen. We’ll explain the biggest risks behind each player and discuss who we’d rather draft instead. If your draft is this weekend, this is the final list you need before you’re on the clock.Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Who are we not drafting? That's what we're talking about on today's fantasy football today. Welcome to the show. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Dave Richard. That's Heathcom. We're going to tell you about players

that we are looking to avoid. As we know, it's a very busy draft weekend coming up. Next two weeks are going to be where most of the drafts happen. So we're going to see a big shift in average draft position that's probably going to determine

how we view some of these players. But we're talking about guys that are going to matter to you or maybe not matter to you if you're going to avoid them like we are. But before we get to that, we want to talk about some players that are dealing with injuries

because, again, very, very, popular weekend for drafts coming up. You might be doing your draft now as you're watching us. You want to know about certain players that are dealing with injuries and just what our comfort level is and where we're looking to draft some of these guys. So guys, let's start with the running backs because we're dealing with several different moving parts. Some guys are coming back to practice.

Some guys are still dealing with injuries that are going to be out for a few more weeks. Excuse me. You see the list here. Ashton Genti. Kenneth Walker, Josh Jacobs, Bruce Hall. We're going to talk about Genti, Jeremiah Love, Bruce Hall a little bit later, Trevion and Henderson. Some of the injuries they're dealing with.

these are some guys that we're looking to avoid. But Dave, when we see Josh Jacobs on this list, back at practice, has dealt with this groin injury, but, as we found out from their general manager yesterday, they are potentially preparing to miss some time, for him to miss some time due to a potential suspension. So how are we approaching Josh Jacobs? When are you drafting him?

Who are some guys that you may be looking to compare him to when we get to that spot in the drafts? Well, just to be clear, they said that they have contingency plans just, and the quote is, in case. there's a suspension for Josh Jacobs. The fact that there hasn't been one so far tells me that the league may not be keen on giving them one. We're really

close to the start of the season. It would almost be unfair for them to do such a thing. That being said, we know that Josh Jacobs is capable of being one of the best running backs in fantasy football, and you don't have to draft him that way. You can get them in round three at this point. I think that that's the time to go and get Josh Jacobs. There is a little bit of risk because you never know what could happen, the groin

injury, the suspension, whatever. But I do think that there is a chance for him. to actually end up being a very good fantasy value if you're getting him in that early round three range. For me, he's ahead of Ash and Genti because we're really not sure where he is at with that injury. Javante Williams and Kyron Williams,

I think Jacobs has more upside. Same thing with Jeremiah Love. Don't know where he's at with his injury. I think Jacobs has a little bit more upside. Heath, if you draft Jacobs, are you drafting Marsha and Lloyd? Is that something that you're targeted? I would like to.

I'm probably not going to force it, depending on the depth of the league. We were just talking about the situation before, but I think those handcuffs situation, with the guys that are really uncertain right now. If you're in a deeper league where it's going to be harder to have three starting running backs or harder to replace them on the waiver wire,

then it's more important to me to go get Marshawn Lloyd. If it's a league where you only have four or five bench spots and you're only starting one flex, then I'm probably not quite as worried about it. It's good that we all got the memo, by the way, to wear black today, so we're all in agreement. It's a bust episode. That's true.

We only use the word bust. Do not draft. Do not draft. Let's talk about the... using the word bus. Let's talk about the bears running back, because we want to be negative. Let's talk about the bears running backs. So do not draft this positive?

Well, you're going to draft them still. We'll get in set when we get to that part. Let's talk about the bears running backs because Kyle Monongai is still dealing with his knee injury heath. How do you view Monongai? How do you view DeAndre Swift? How much has Swift benefited because of Monongai's absence in camp? Well, I think Swift's benefited for a couple of reasons.

One is Monongai's absence in camp. And it just kind of highlights the contingent upside that he has. Because he's being drafted right around Arby 18 to 20, which is probably where he's going to finish if Kyle Menongi's healthy. all year. So you're kind of drafting him where he's going to finish, but he has that upside if Menongai misses time. The other reason he's been upgraded was a lot of the names that Dave just said, a lot of the names we're talking about right now have fallen below him. So I like him. There's a big tier of running backs that I have at the 3-4 turn. He's in that tier. I'd prefer to

draft him early in round four. All right, so we'll see how this goes with Menongai. I expected to be ready for week one, but really helping the situation for DeAndre Swift. what's also helping the situation in Carolina for Jonathan Brooks is Chuba Hubbard dealing with his injury as well, battling a hamstring problem. So Dave Canales kind of gave us this, you know, landscape of what it would look like when both guys are healthy. How are you viewing the Panthers backfield? I don't really want to reach for either guy and the fact that we can get Chuba Hubbard pretty late right now in drafts because he hasn't been practicing and people are worried about this injury. It actually encourages me to take him and play the long game with Chuba Hubbard.

And I'm not saying that Chuba Hubbard is a better running back to Jonathan Brooks, but I can't can't say that he's not either. We haven't seen Johnlin Brooks play much in two years in the NFL. And so far this preseason, he's had a couple of moments. He's looked all right. But I still view Chuba Hubbard as somebody who can handle passing downs, might be better suited for the goal line than John the Brooks. Maybe they want to keep Chubbard in there. And I know the coaching staff likes him a lot. If they both are there week one and they stay healthy all season long, Brooks is the one you're going to want to have on your fancy team. He should be better. He should get more touches. Kind of like how Rico Doudal did last year. But it's not like RICO Dowell

finished there. He had his moment. But he didn't finish years one of the great running backs of fantasy football. Yeah, hopefully they'll get their tackle situation. They need that. They need that. Because both left tackle and right tackle dealing with injuries, so that would certainly help things. But this is going to be a team that we know is going to try and run the ball. So hopefully one of these two guys stands out.

Heath, we got both commanders running backs battling injuries right now. Jacquiry Karaski Merritt, something's going on with his lower body, not expected to be serious. Rashad White's got this hamstring injury, has kept them out for about a week. How do you view those two guys going into the season? Almost exactly the same way that I view Jonathan Brooks and Chuba Hubbard. I think the roles might be pretty similar. There may be a little more pass catching for Jonathan Brooks, and we may be a little more certain that Bill,

Jacori Cross-Kee-Mera, is a good NFL rusher because he did lead the NFL in success rate last year. But I have Brooks one spot ahead of Jacori-Kroski-Mera. I'm taking both of those guys in round seven. I have White one spot ahead of Chuba-Hubbard. I'm taking both of those guys in round 10. Yeah, it makes sense if you're just looking at it from who's going to do what roles. I just wonder with the commander situation that

Rashad White can probably do everything. I don't think Jacori Kroski-Mirate. They want him to do everything. Well, I think that's kind of with Chuba too, though. Like, we've seen him be a workhorse running back in the past. Like, he could do everything. All four of these guys, if one guy gets hurt, I think, could be really crushed their value. And Washington's

another team with offensive line issues. In fact, they're worse there than they are in Carolina. We're hoping that the tackles for the Panthers come back. There's not going to be a return of Laramie Tunsell at left tackle for Washington. and their center is also banged up. Yeah, not ideal, and they were really struggling in their joint practice with the Ravens this week.

Let's look at the wide receivers here. We'll go a little faster on some of these guys here. So we'll show you the list of the players that are battling injuries here. It starts with Pukunakua, goes down through Xavier Worthy there. We'll get to a couple of these guys when we talk about our do not draft list as well. Mike Evans and D.K. Meckoff are on those lists. But, Heath, when you look at the situation with the Rams, Pukunakua has now missed significant time with the groin injury,

another player who may be facing a possible suspension, What does his injury status do for him because he's going to be considered one of the top five or six overall players? Have you downgraded him at all? And then if he does miss any time, what does that do for Devante Adams? Yeah, I haven't downgraded him yet, but I did have him fourth. We've got that group of round one wide receivers, Chase, J.S.N. St. Brown and Puka. He's been fourth for me. He's still fourth for me. It would take something more for me to move him behind C.D. Lamb, Drake, London, Jefferson, that group.

Devante Adams would make us all look foolish for drafting him so late if Pooka Nakua misses time. It sounds like he's had a very good camp. I think he's the most obvious touchdown regression candidate at wide receiver. But the one that people may not be thinking about it is if Pukinakua does miss time, Terence Ferguson's going to pay off for a lot of people that I think have maybe been over drafting him if everybody's healthy. If one of these guys is not healthy, Ferguson could be awesome.

We know they're going to be in a lot of 13 personnel. We know that he's going to be probably the titan that they feature. Last year was Kobe Parkinson this year. they're seemingly going toward Ferguson. So a good late round target if you are taking two tight ends. Dave, I know you've been very excited about a mecca, Buka. We're all looking forward to seeing what he could do without Mike Evans there, but still battling this toe injury, similar situation.

How you view of Bucca? And then what does this do for Chris Godwin? I saw the Buccaneers practice against the Jaguars earlier this week, and there doesn't seem to be much pessimism about Abuka's availability for week one, but there is a little bit of cold water being thrown on him making that huge leap. The leap that I was kind of hoping that he would take this year and maybe be the 2026 version of Jackson Smith and Jigba. He should be ready to go week one.

I'm drafting him like he can finish the year as a quality number two wide receiver. But after watching the Bucks practice, I really liked what I saw from Chris Godwin. Look like the Godwin of old, lined up in the slot a lot, was on the same page with Baker, Mayfield on a number of plays. He didn't get the same type of target volume in practice as Ted Hurst and Ted Johnson did. And I think that's because the Bucks are trying to get those young guys acclimated. They know what they've gotten Chris Godwin. That's a role that he's got locked into.

I wouldn't be surprised if this year ended and Abuka and Godwin were both north of seven targets per game. It would be awesome. Mike Evans basically averaged nine targets per game, so there is some guys, you know, some opportunities to go around for both of those receivers. Not to mention Evans dominating touchdowns, Red Zone looks, that's open now.

That's right into Abuka in Godwin's hands. And Jalen McMillan should also be a factor too, so we'll see what happens there. Heath, you said a few weeks ago that Luther Burden's injury saved you from taking him in round three. Well, he returned to practice yesterday, So trending in the right direction should be available for week one. Are you back in Luther Burden in round three?

Or you just buying the dip and taking him in this case, early round five? Did I tell you guys that I got Luther Burden in round five last night? I think I told everybody 17 times. I was so excited. I've got him right in the middle of round four right now. It's funny, like the guy that I have ahead of him is Abuka. And one of the reasons I had Abuca ahead of him was because Burden was hurt and Abuja wasn't. Now it's kind of flipped, and I was just kind of looking at this.

That's my wide receiver 18 and 19. I may swap that back and put Burden ahead of Abuka. He'll probably still be a high round four guy. That round three, four turn is more running backs for me. But Burden will be the top wide receiver in round four. Yeah, we like that he's trending in the right direction. So view him appropriately now and maybe downgraded Romo Dunsey just a little bit because now Burden back on the field.

Dave, I'm going to give you the entire Colts passing game here because we have exciting. We're going to transition to tight end. So if you guys want to throw up the tight end list as well. So we got Josh Downs now with a calf injury. Alec Pierce, we got the news today off the pop list. dealing with that ankle injury. And then you got Tyler Warren who's been battling this groin injury. So how do you view the Colts passing him? Not great because everybody's banged up.

Warren is still the one I want, especially if it's a league, well, it really has to be a league where I'm starting a tight end. If I'm not being forced to start a tight end, then I'm less interested in taking Tyler Warren with a top 50-ish type pick. But he's the first one that goes off the board. And right now I have downs ahead of Alec Pierce. I've got to still react to the news of Pierce coming back to practice. And I could see myself making a switch and putting Pierce ahead of downs because Downs is banged up. But neither one of these wide receivers, I'm excited to draft until round eight.

And if I'm getting that late in a draft, then there's immense value in both of them, particularly in PPR leagues as it applies to Downs. But we just got to see him get back on the field. He dealt with injuries last year, dealing with injuries again now. At least Pierce is healthy, and we know that his role is going to evolve in Indianapolis

should be able to not only be that deep threat that he was last year, but also pick up a bunch of short and intermediate throws too. I'm really worried about the fact that he's going to try to do something new. Dave talked about the role evolving and hasn't got to practice at all. Yeah. Like all off season, he's not been healthy enough to do all the stuff. And now I don't know that he's 100 percent healthy. He's off the puff. He's going to, I would assume, be doing individual drills first and then he's going to try to get through some team drills. We've seen some videos of him walking around that don't look like a 100% healthy person. So I'm going to, I'm going to wait to move him up

until he gets through a couple of team practices and then is still okay. But where would you move him up too. Like let's say, he's got two weeks before. He's round nine right now. Okay. He might get to the very end of round seven for me. I don't imagine he'll be a top 80 pick. Right. But the round eight pick is where I think he left. Yeah, I'm just, I think, out altogether. He probably won't get into the single digits for me. I just don't like what I've seen. I don't like what the expectation is. You know, you still have Daniel Jones coming off an Achilles injury. And they were not great together. And Keenan Allen. The majority of Pierce's- Yeah, we can't forget about Keenan Allen. We forgot about Keenan Allen. The majority of Pierce's production came without Daniel Jones, which is shocking that he was the one that

was thriving with Philip Rivers and then at the end with Riley Leonard. His production, you know, I know you like to do this, the percentage of his fantasy points was the last six games of the season when Daniel Jones was not there. All right, so on top of Tyler Warren, battling the groin injury,

a couple other tight ends that are dealing with injuries, some positive, some negative. You got Sam LaPorter with the hip injury, back of practice, that's positive. You got Tucker Kraft doing with the injury. He just got word report from ESPN's Adam Schaefter. The Packers are signing Janu Smith. So another tight end in the mix there for Green Bay.

And then George Kittle dealing with the Achilles injury. So of these three tight ends, Heath, which is the one you feel the most confident, and based on an injury standpoint? On the injury standpoint, I'm going to go with Sam Leporta because he didn't have a back injury through the offseason. He was cleared from that. When I saw hip, I was worried because hip and back can sometimes go together. This sounds like it was just he got hit really hard in the hip. He took a couple weeks off. He was back. They said it was a very physical practice in his first practice back, and he was doing 11-on-11 work and was fine. So Sam Leporta, I'm not that worried about. And in the case of Kraft and Kittle, both guys coming back from injuries last year, both have been activated off the Pup list trending in the right direction.

I wouldn't worry too much about John V Smith going to Green Bay impacting Tucker Kraft. Just another pass catcher that they can rely on there in Green Bay if they need it. Real quick, if you draft George Kittle, do you draft another tight end with him because of the concern that he might miss week one? I think just given the fact that the games in Australia is still the uncertainty of it, you should absolutely put somebody on the radar like a Terrence Ferguson. If you want to go with the higher end guy, Mark Andrews. Dalton Schultz. Dalton Shultz would be great. Joanne Johnson would be great.

You know if you want one of these veteran guys that can still produce and be heavily involved. Speaking of tight ends, we're going to take a break right now. When we come back, we're going to tell you why Heath does not want to draft Trey McBride, one of the guys that Heath is looking to avoid in drafts this year. That's next on FFT. Welcome back to fantasy football today. We're talking about players that we're looking to avoid on draft day.

Our final do not draft list or our bus list, if you want to frame it that way. I think just in the case of for context. you will still take these players if they fall to the appropriate spot. We say do not draft. It's do not draft at their cost at what their average drafts. So that, I think, is a big part of this conversation.

So let's start. We're going to do Heath's guys. We're going to do each segment for each of our do not draft list. So this is Heath does on the, Heath gets the spotlight here. Okay. Your five guys that you're highlighting here for this

are Trey McBride, Cam Scadaboo, David Montgomery, Mike Evans, and Caleb Williams. Trey McBride is still your number one, Tidenti? Still my number one tight end in full PPR. For people that look at, at it as McBride, as Brock Bowers, they're at the top.

Why is Tray McBride a do not draft player for you? So I think one of the best compliments that you've ever given me, Jamie, was earlier this year, you said, I'm consistent. And I'm not always consistent, but I try to be consistent. I've given a pretty significant boost to both Sam Leporta and Kyle Pitts because of the tight-end friendly head coaches that they inherited from Arizona and from Cleveland. Drew Petsing was Tray McBride's offensive coordinator for the last three seasons. He will not be this year.

I don't think they're going to go away from McBride, but I had to be. taken away from his target share. I think he probably has some touchdown regression. He ran two full games more routes than any other tight end in football last year because this was a team that was always down two scores in the second half and Trey McBride was out there running routes on every play. He'll still be running routes on every play. They may still be down a lot. There's going to be some regression in terms of the number of total pass attempts. We're going to we've had now the emergence of Michael Wilson. There was not a part of a part of Trey McBride. big breakout, especially when it came to touchdowns, was when Marvin Harrison Jr. was hurt

last year. And maybe most importantly, I'd just rather draft Colston Loveland, and he goes later than Trey McBride. So if I have to choose between the two, I'm going to take Loveland. I would take Trey McBride if he was going 10 picks later. I think every coach that gets their hands on Trey McBride is going to be a tight ends coach because of how good of a player that he is last year with Jacoby Brissette. And I think Brissette is part of the solution here for Trey McBride. 10.6 targets per game, 21.1 PPR points per game, and 10 total touchdowns. That's amazing.

And I don't think he comes close to those numbers this year, but is still the guy to get in full PPR leagues as the number one tight end. I don't think anything's really changed for Arizona. I don't think their defense is any better. I know Jeremiah loves there. He's banged up how much more effective will they be running the ball? It'll be a step forward, but it's not going to be three-sefrey.

I don't think so. They were so bad last year. And Jeremiah Love is an awesome talent, but he's banged up right now. offensive line isn't great. I still think they're going to end up throwing a lot. So it wouldn't surprise me if this year ends and Trey McBride, I don't know about, what did you say, two games more worth of routes? Maybe like three quarters of one game more worth of routes compared to everybody else. I think this Cardinals team is still going to sling it.

I think McBride's going to lead the team. Targets, catches yards, and touchouts. I think it'll be good enough to be the number one tight end. But it's only in PPR. Half PPR, not PPR. I'll drink the Kool-Aid on Brock Bowers. And I do think like that that offensive line being bad in this defamation. Penske-Petsing system. And you noticed this. We're going to talk about Kyle Pitts a little bit later. But in the Falcons' first pre-season game, when the quarterback doesn't have time, they've always got the tight end out there in the flat. We're just running underneath right behind the Blitz. And we're just going to dump it off to the tight end. I think a lot of those targets may go to

Jeremiah Love in this offense. And not, they won't be designed to the tight end because most teams don't have those dump-offs to tight-ins. It's really that specific coaching tree that does. Certainly more than last year, but don't discount McBride getting like a bunch of those types of targets and that's what helped them be so great for PPR last year. Let's talk about the two running backs. We'll sort of combine them together because they do go in a similar range. I know the ADP doesn't necessarily suggest that, but I think we're going to see them maybe get a little bit closer because of the concern

about Cam Scadaboo. So you got Cam Scadaboo and David Montgomery. Scadaboo is ADP right now 34.9. I think that's the biggest reason why anybody should be a going on. Yes. Cadaboo is RB16 on CBSports.com. Montgomery is RB 22. What's your concern about both these guys?

So yeah, for Scataboo, it was, I think, coming into the year, it was the injury. And we think that's okay. I mean, it was a gruesome injury for both him and Quinshon Judkins, but they've done enough in the preseason that we're kind of discounting that now. I'm kind of starting to wonder if his head coach likes him. They just brought in Noggi Harris. I believe Coach Harbaugh was asked yesterday about his, about Scadabu's infectious energy. And he said, yeah, he got a 15-yard penalty in our last play.

He's more of an infectious disease. And it's just, that's not exactly the time. Scataboo and Jackson Dart and this whole Giants offense was such a weird thing last year, just in the way they had success. And now you've got Harbaugh and Nagy and Roman. I think they're looking for a little more professional football. Najee Harris is that. So I'm worried that Scataboo is not the full workhorse running back that we need him to be,

and that this offense is not very good. David Montgomery, I think he's just going to share more than people think he's going to. We've heard that a little bit. Woody Marks probably get a handle pass. downs, maybe to have more carries. I think Montgomery and another guy we're getting ready to talk about are very, very similar in that if he scores 10 touchdowns, he may pay off at his current ADP. I don't think there's much upside at his ADP. I'm worried about how many running backs are in that kitchen for the Giants, because Najee Harris is probably going to elevate to being the guy behind Skadaboo, and then they might

keep Tyrone Tracy and Devon Singletary. That's four running backs that they could use on a week-to-week basis. People that are drafting Camp Scadbu based on what he did last year are going to get burned for it. he's a round five pick and a late round five pick at that. Mike Evans is still very popular for fantasy managers, going as wide receiver 27 at 66.5. It is overall ADP. What's the concern level for you? I feel like Chicken Little running around saying the sky is falling,

the sky is falling. But all offseason, I was worried that Mike Evans at his age and has had struggled with soft tissue injuries each of the last two years, can he stay healthy? I'm not even going to make any substation jokes. It's just the fact that he's got the injury history, he's got the age concern

and then he can't seem to get through a week of practice without another soft tissue injury popping up. He had the quad, he's got the groin now. I just, I think, I wouldn't be surprised if he scored the touchdown in most of the games that he plays this year. I would be surprised if he plays more than 12 or 13 games. And this Shanahan offense has not been one

that generally features a number one wide receiver with a lot of targets, especially if Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle are both healthy. I think the thing you're hoping for is Joanne Jennings scored nine touchdowns last. year can Mike Evans get to that level or better, which he's got six years in his resume with a thousand yards receiving and ten touchdowns. That's the guy I think that a lot of fantasy managers are hoping for, but 33 years old,

like you said, it's been one injury after another. All right, last guy for you is Caleb Williams going as QB8, 75.1 overall in the CBS Sports ADP. And I get it because the fun stuff that he does is really exciting. And you think if he could just be a normal quarterback the rest of the time, he could be so awesome, he could be. But there's just too many quarterbacks with a very very. very similar projection.

Everybody that's listened to me talk all summer knows that I prefer Brock Purdy. I'd rather draft Justin Herbert. I'd rather draft Trevor Lawrence. I think that there's, I think Jared Goff is very likely to score just as many fantasy points are right in that same range.

And those guys go a lot later. If any of those guys in that group had a ADP at 75, I wouldn't draft them. Because I can get somebody else at 90 or 100 that I think is going to do pretty much the same thing. Just repeat your quarterback strategy about waiting. You need to wait and get a steal

on draft day. There's people that are telling you, just wait on quarterback, wait on quarterback. Well, if you do that and then a quarterback falls to a really good spot in your draft, why would you pass that up? What if it's Josh Allen in round three? What if it's Lamar Jackson in round five? Drake May in round six, Joe Burrow in round six. If you see something like that and you just can't believe it,

the steel is sitting there in front of you, take the quarterback. Don't pass it up. Right, and that could be Williams or it might not be Williams because he's going too soon. All right, so we'll see where Caleb Williams ends up in your leagues, and if you're somebody that's going to pass on him, or if you're going to get excited and draft Caleb Williams. All right, we're going to take a break right now.

We come back. It's Dave's turn to talk about a couple running backs he's concerned about. You've heard him say this a lot about Brise Hall. He'll defend, or maybe not, Brees Hall's draft value for 2026. That's next on FFT. Welcome to the Brise Hall segment. This is Fantasy Football today.

I'm Jamie. That's Dave. That's Heath. And we're talking about Dave's players that he's looking to avoid on draft day. The players he is not planning to draft. And Brise Hall has been a very fun topic of conversation for these two to debate. So let's just start right there.

we can show the list of the players that you're looking to avoid. But really, the headliner is obviously the guy at the top. So let's talk about Breece Hall. He is RB19 going basically the beginning part of the fourth round 39th overall. That's not good enough for you? No, that's not. I'd still wait a little bit longer. The back part of round four is where I'm going to be on Breece Hall.

But at least I appreciate that his ADP is falling a little bit. And I don't know if it's because of anything I'm saying. I think it's because of the groin injury they has and it's cost him a big chunk of training camp. But that doesn't help Breeze Hall's cause. This is still a Jets team that wants to use three running backs. The coaches have said as much. Frank Reich is the new play caller there. I'm not excited about him.

His track record with running backs in 10 years as a play caller is terrible. Four times has a running back had 13 plus PPR points, three times with 15 plus. And once has he had a guy that's been awesome. And that was Jonathan Taylor when he was a younger player in the league. Breece Hall, obviously, with the injury, questions about the offense and how much they're going to score. They've been bottom five and points scored. six of the last seven seasons. Last year he had a workhorse role, Jamie, 17 plus touches per game,

13 PPR points per game. Half his season was a total disaster. I'm not excited about drafting him, and I don't want people to reach for him in round three when they start to see those running backs go off the board. I think his ADP is absolutely perfect. So I've got him a little bit higher amongst the running backs. I've got them at 38th overall.

One of my favorite Breece Hall stats, there have been three running backs since the start of 2022 that have seen 200 targets. and average 6.5 yards per target. Those three running backs are Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey, and Breece Hall. He's awesome in that role. And the coaches have said,

one of use three running backs. The offensive quarternader also recently just said Breece Hall is a bell cow. So I do think what really went wrong last year was the shape of those touches. He had more carries, he had fewer targets, and then he didn't score touchdowns.

He's never really scored rushing touchdowns, but he had nine total touchdowns two years ago when the offense was awful. He had eight total touchdowns, The year after that, when the offense was awful, only scored five last year. I think the touchdowns bounced back. The shape of those touches change a little bit with Brayland and Allen staying healthy, so you use him more on the early downs and the trapback roll,

use Brice Hall more on passing downs role. Would not be surprised at all if Brice Hall's the top 12 running back. I'll add this. I do think the early schedule is favorable for the Jets. So if you already have Bruce Hall on your team, you're a little nervous. No, no, no, I'm just saying. If you've got him and you're a little bit nervous, you can enjoy the first part of the season and then sell high on Brise Hall when the schedule

gets worse. This guy, I think, is relatively obvious. Trevionn Henderson. He's going as RB 26th overall. The thing that's crazy to me is that Ramandre Stevenson is going three running back spots later and 13 picks overall later based on his ADP. Think about where we were last year with Trevion and Henderson.

Every report out of New England was positive and we were all excited. All three of us were really into. I was thinking him around three. Yeah, yeah. You were really into him. I was taking him around for where we were you taking Trevianne? Behind Jamie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, he obviously is the genius here when it comes to Travion Henderson. And then what happened? He really wasn't that great. And honestly, neither was Romandre Stevenson until injuries came into play. When Ramadre Stevenson got hurt in the

middle of the year, we saw great numbers from Trayvon Henderson, but otherwise, he wasn't really that great. And Remodry didn't really step up until the end of the year when they just gave him all the work. This year, the reports out of training camp are not positive for Trayvon Henderson. He hasn't improved in past protection. His vision is still a question mark. Meanwhile, Remandre Stevenson getting all the reps with the first team offense, having a bigger role in the red zone offense. I can't believe the words are coming out of my mouth, but I'd much rather have Remodre Stevenson than Trevion Henderson. Henderson's being drafted at least one full round too soon, if not two full rounds. Don't go after the hype on the second you're running back.

Remandre is the safer pick. I think our podcast hosts a show during the season on this network on Tuesdays, Adam Azer says it best. If you want a similar profile of a player, just wait two rounds and take Blake Horm. Wait and take Kyle Menangai. They're injury lottery tickets that if the starter gets hurt, you're going to want that player. Trevion was awesome in the three games that Ramandre missed last year, but otherwise struggled when Ramandre was healthy. All right, let's combine two receivers that you have on your list, in Cardinal Tate and D.K.K.M.K. Because they are going back to back.

Tate is 90.5 overall. Oh, no, they are. 90.5 and 90.8. So they're basically back-to-back wide receiver 35 for Tate, wide receiver 36 for Metcalf. Are we overreacting a little bit to the preseason for the Titans? I don't think so. And this doesn't have as much to do with Carnal Tate as it does Cam Ward and the rest of this Tennessee offense. Cam Ward looks terrible.

He's completed zero of six passes of 10 plus a yard. So, air yards. What I say? A yards. A yards. A yards. Air yards. Yeah. So far this preseason, one of those included a drop from Tate, which is problematic.

I don't hate the ADP for Cardinal Tate at 90.5, but he should honestly, you should try and get him a little bit lower than that in that round 9-10 range. And that's where I'd have D.K. MECAP as well. Crowded receiving corps now in Pittsburgh with Michael Pittman there. I like the draft pick that they have Jeremy Bernard. Plus, Roman Wilson, once upon a time, was one of my favorite rookies coming out. He started to step up as well. I think there's just more options and more short area options for Aaron Rogers to go to that will not only hurt D.K. Mecca, but also the running backs.

I don't know if the running backs get the same type of target share that they had last year because of Pittman, because of Bernard and because of Roman Wilson, all being there to take work away from them. I think part of it is the injuries for both men. Metcalf and Pitman. They haven't been practicing, so we haven't got to see what... Oh, definitely, but I think just, you know, the other guys stepping up, I think just, you know, the two starters are, you know, quote-unquote starters, not being there. All right, we're going to let you guys fight again because we've got Kyle Pitts coming up here. So Kyle Pitts is tight end five. I know that's fine for you. It's a little too soon for me. I like LaPorter better.

I know you'd like LaPorter better as well. But you have Tucker Kraft in there also. So Kyle Pitts is somebody you've been very adamant about that you're not drafting. Outside of a five-game span last year when Drake London was hurt, this tight ends averaged around 10 ppr points per game, and there have been seasons, full seasons, where he's average less than that. Now, he was awesome in those five games without Drake London. But last time I checked,

Drake London is healthy, and now it looks like we're going to get the quarterback that we want in Atlanta. We're going to get Michael Panix Jr. as the guy under center there, and not Tua Tua Tua-Tunga-Bi-Lah Loa. I actually was encouraged by what I saw from Pitz with Tua under-center because Tua was getting rid of the ball so fast. Pennix won't do that.

Pennix will look downfield a little bit longer, and I don't know if Pitts is going to be the guy who's there. So I don't want to overvalue Pitts based on the fantasy points that he had as a whole last year. The name of the game here is that Drake London is the number one target. Pitts might have the coordinator that you like, but it doesn't mean he's going to get a ton of work. And even when he has gotten a decent amount of targets for a tight end, it hasn't always resulted in consistent fantasy points. I think he's closer to tight end 10 than tight end five. He had an awesome rookie season and he scored one touchdown and so it didn't look that good in terms of fantasy points.

But it was one of the best rookie seasons that we've seen. He got hurt, had the PCL injury. We've seen that bother guys for multiple years. He wasn't quite as good. He was very good last year without Drake London. That's true. I don't think, based on what that offensive line looked like in front of Tua, that Michael Pinnix is going to have the option to hold onto the ball for a long time.

And I do think the offensive coordinator matters. In the Kevin Stefansky, Drew Petting System, it's not just been Harold Fannin and Trey McBride. It's been David Nogh. It was Zach Ertz when he played. It was Austin Hooper. It was Austin Hooper. It's been a 23% target per route run rate or higher for all of those tied-ins. Kyle Pitts somehow still just 25 years old.

He's still very talented. Reports from camp saying he's moving as well as he has in years. I 100% believe. I prefer him at tight-in six, but I think the ADP is too low. So I love, I've drafted Sam LaPorta in half of my drafts. In three of the other drafts, it's been Kyle Pitts. I just took him in our FFT open picking on six, it was a six-seven turn. So taking him there was...

Which is his ADP. which is ADP, and he was my next highest tight end. I didn't love the receiver value. We only start two receivers in that league. So first time that I've drafted him in a league that we're playing out. Because I'm not in that draft. You're not in that draft, right? I'm excited to somebody else took LePorte already.

So I'm excited for him, so we'll see how he does. All right, we're going to take a break. We're going to come back. It's my turn to talk about some of the players that I'm avoiding. It's very running back heavy. You can imagine Christian McCaffrey is not somebody I'll be drafting. We'll talk about why next on FFT. Welcome back.

Back to fantasy football today. It's my turn to talk about the players that I do not plan to draft for 2026. A lot of it is tied to their value. A lot of is tied to the position that they play and some of the injuries that they're dealing with. So Josh Allen is mostly 100%, 1,000%. No question about it, his average job position.

You have four running backs here. One that is hopefully not going to be injured. One that is hopefully not going to be on the worst team in football and two guys that are battling injuries in Ashton Genti and Jeremiah Love. The Josh Allen conversation could be very quick. It's just really, when you look at it, he's going in the second round, and then there's a huge gap and the rest of the field starts. You listed it off when you were talking about the guys. You might get Josh Allen in round three.

Then you could get Lamar Jackson in round five. Then maybe Drake May, Joe Burrow, in round six. And that's not just us talking about this as analysts. And I know a lot of it's probably going to change over the next two weeks as most of the novice drafters are starting to take part in fantasy football. That being said, the gap between Josh Allen is not that far, should not be that significant. that he is going to just obliterate the field. Please do not take him in round two. Round three, I think we all agree.

We'll take Josh Allen. I'd start entertaining it then, yeah. Preferred in round four, but... I mean, I preferred in round 10, but... Preferred in round 10. You drafted him in a league with analysts yesterday. Round four. In round four.

Perfect time to get Josh Allen if you can get him that late. Let's just say round three is probably the right time to target him. All right, let's get to the running backs because that's where I think the conversation starts. So Christian McCaffrey is RB4, based on his CBS Board's average draft position, coming off the board at number seven overall. We've been all over the place, I think, with him collectively.

I know Heath and I think we downgraded him the most once we had this mysterious injury slash rest slash maybe contract. We don't know exactly what it was, but he came out and said this was part of the plan to sit during training camp. I'm still nervous. We have two years on his resume of over 400 total touches the following year. Each time he did not play a full season, four games max was the total in the following here. I don't want to take him in the middle of round one.

Right. Does anybody want to take him to the middle around one? Is eighth overall the middle of round one? It's pretty close to the middle of round one. So I guess I would qualify. I guess that means I'm the high guy on Christian McCaff. No, our colleague Adamazer is taking fifth overall. Right, right, right. And it's, to me, like, it sounds silly to say, well, he's on my do not draft list because I won't take him fifth, but I'll take him eighth. But I feel the exact same way you do. And think about this. The last two times, he had 400 plus such as in the season and then missed time. He was younger. He's 30. now. He also had the highest amount of targets per game that he's ever had in San Francisco

last year at 7.6. That's nearly two targets per game. Think about what the 49ers are added this offseason. Right. Mike Evans is there. Dejohn Stribling is there. George Kittle is back. They have added pieces to try and take some pressure off of Christian McCaffrey there. Plus they drafted Kalon Black for whatever that's worth. Jordan James is there as well. They are probably smart to lighten the load on this 30-year-old running back who's already missed a good chunk of training camp. The way on top, talking, I should be having them ranked 18th overall and not eighth overall, but I know what the upside is and if he can handle the bulk of the season, he's going to be a league winner.

On our draft-a-thon Wednesday night, Mike Florio of ESPN, I think said it best. If you don't want Christian McCaffrey, you're just waiting for somebody else to take him before he gets to your spot in the draft. So we'll see how this goes for McCaffrey. I want to have the conversation about Devon H-N because you guys are much more positive about A-chan. I'm not taking him until round two. Are you both round one picks for A-chan?

I've got an 11th. Late round one. Yeah, about that same exact spot. Okay, so I'll make the case against. You can make the case for Heath. I just worry about this Dolphins' offensive environment. You get almost daily reports from their own beat riders saying how bad this offense has looked at times,

and that's going against the Dolphins defense. A-chan's going to get a lot of work. There's no question about it. He's going to be the focal point of this offense. Every defense coordinator in the world, every fake defensive coordinator of the world, everybody watching this knows that Devon A-HN's going to get every touch for the dolphins. They're not going to win many games. They're projected win

totals, four and a half. I would take the under. I don't think he's going to score many touchdowns. And then you look at his history with Tua Tua Baila Lua. Without Tuau Tung Waila I know it's very wild different times of his career, but it's a 15 point per game difference when Tua is not on the field with him. So Malik Willis is not going... 15 point per per game difference? Yes. 15. Yes. Is some of that his rookie year when Raheim Osher was there? No. Oh, okay. No, I'm sorry. Yes, it is. Again, it's wildly different. different things. But numbers are numbers. So when I'm trying to make an argument, I'm using none. So Devon A. Chan is not going to be as involved in the passing game. I think it's

going to hurt his overall numbers. So I would not take him until round two. So even number 11, too high for me. He's just, he's the most efficient running back in the NFL over the, since he came into the league. His coach wants to give him the ball 40 times a game. And I think we can laugh at that, but it's hyperbole. It's also, I think his coach would love it if you told him at the end of the year, Devon A A. Chan's going to have more touches than any other running back. Like, he is going to be the offense. Malik Willis and his rushing ability should help A. Chan to remain an efficient rusher, even with a subpar offensive line.

He averaged 20 fantasy points per game last year on not a disastrous offense, but a pretty bad offense. They were a bottom third of the league for sure. And Dave went to practice, and it turns out Malik Willis does know how to throw the ball to his running back. Dave saw Malik Willis throw the ball to his running back. Not just once or twice. like five times, six times, and a couple of them were improvich.

Which is good because he doesn't have any wide receivers. So some wide receivers are just not like stud wide receivers. Right. Yes. So. To be fair, yes, he's obviously going to throw it to his running backs. He is the worst quarterback in the last two years in terms of target rate to his running back. So that's true. I think that's changing. I hope so.

I think they're banging it into his helmet. I hope. It won't be as many catches as he had last year. There's no way about it. All right. The last two guys in this list, we can just combine because it's basically injury versus ADP, and that's Ashton Gentie and Jeremiah Love. I'm not taking Gentine in round two.

You said you just did it in a 14 team. That makes a little bit more sense. I would not take him until round three. Right now, he's RB10, so he is slipping a little bit based on the average draft position. It's just such a mystery right now. We don't know exactly what this is. It's been reported as a low ankle sprain, but Clint Kubiak, the head coach of the Raiders, has not come out and said exactly what this is dealing with.

And normally when we get, because Adam Schefter, Ian Rapp, report, the NFL insiders that you all know, they're usually pretty great at getting some information about a timeline. We have nothing. We don't know if he's going to be ready for week one. I would not draft him until round three. And Mike Washington should be somebody you should be targeting as early as round seven, round eight, round nine, depending on how much you want to be aggressive in drafting him. For Jeremiah, I love, hey, we got a video yesterday of him walking up steps carrying pizza boxes. He's getting closer to a return, but another situation where we just don't know. I think his ADP is okay. It's 32.8, so going the early part of round three, I'm just

probably not going to get him until round four. I'd rather take Travis A-Chant. I'd rather take D'Andre Swift. I think Javante Williams, Josh Jacobs, all these guys that he was going ahead of should now go ahead of him because of the uncertainty. Both these three guys who want to throw A-chan in there, three of the

worst projected win totals, according to Las Vegas, which is very good at what they do. And then you're talking about in the case of Gentian Love, two of the worst schedules of any running backs that we're talking about here. So don't love the scenarios for both these guys. In the case of Love, we know he's going to potentially lose goal line touches to Tyler

Alger, and in the case of Gentie, because of Washington, we might get a little bit more of a split. So I'm just out on all these running backs, which makes it tough to draft, but I'm going to pass on McCaffrey, A. Chan, Genti, and love. All right, we're going to take a break when we come back and to get into your questions. Thank you for send them to us on X using hashtag

Ask FFT. That's next here on Fantasy Football Today. Welcome back to Fantasy Football today. It's time to answer your questions. So G wants to know, I have picked three and a 10 man PPR standard. We won't say the league. Do you hate going Chase in round one and then taking Chase Brown in round two, or do you try to avoid stacking

the Bengals? So we have this question a lot about two lions in the first round, Bengals early, Cowboys, two receivers early. Dave, what's your philosophy on this in a tent? When it's a great offense, I don't mind stacking it. When it's a bad offense, it's kind of a problem. And that's why I always feel gross when I end up with two Browns on my team. But when it's two Bengals or two lions, two cowboys, yeah, of course I'd want to go for that. This isn't a problem at all. Plus, Chase Brown, round two? Great value. Yeah, and G, just, you know, switch to a better league. All right, next question.

Brian wants to know, what do you think about this trade? Half PPR, two-keeper league. I don't have a second-round pick. I'm keeping O'Marion Hampton and have Pooka and want to trade Nakuwa for Genti and give up my third round and receive a second round and swap first. Yeah, I'm not ready to do that, especially given the injury to Genti. I think

I'd rather have Puka. Just deal with not having the second round pick. He? Yeah, I mean, I think. I guess Dave's got that one too. Oh, sorry. Yeah, no. So you're getting to move up a full round,

and you're moving from 11-11 to 108 to one-a-three spots. I mean, what would you need? Half-PPR two? Yeah. Yeah, I'd probably do that, and I distract Mike Washington later. I guess. I'd rather keep hookah, though. All right, next question.

Heath, what do you think about this one? Three keepers, 12-team PBR League. Chase Brown in the fourth, Colston-Levelin in the 6th, Rashi-Rice in the 10th, McBride in the 12, Fanon in the 15th, or Coker in the 15th? With three, are you keeping? So I would probably keep Chase Brown. I just said I wouldn't draft Trey McBride,

but if I can keep them for a 12th, I'd probably go Chase Brown, Rashi Rice, and Trey McBride. I would do the same thing. All right, next question. Coup wants to know, Cajon Booty or Jalen Coker? I'm going to go with Coker over Booty, but I like drafting one of those guys late if I can. Yeah, you can probably get both.

I think Coker makes more sense to go first, though. All right. Next question. All right. All right. Last one here. 12 team half PBR, two wide receivers,

one flex, one tight end. What's your draft strategy thoughts having the first overall picks of taking Gibbs? And then would you go with McBride or Bowers or McBride at the two-three turn? Heath, how would you approach the draft strategy here in this format?

So that says Bowers and McBride. I would not do that. If I could get Bowers at the two-three turn, which I just recently did. I know if I told anybody in the FFT Open. I got Gibbs and Bowers and George Pickens at the two-three turn. I think you should expect

that it's going to be a hero R.B. from that spot and just hope maybe that A-chan or Swift or one of those good RB2s falls to the four or five turn. But plan on taking hopefully Bowers or two wide receivers. Dave? I agree 100% especially in a half-PPR where the receivers themselves downgraded a little bit. It looked like it was a smaller league. That means Bowers.

It has a little bit more value. And I do like Bowers over McBride and a half-Bprickr. Just want to take a moment here to thank everybody who donated to our draft-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude. We are not done. You can continue to donate on our Tiltify page. What's the URL again? Tiltify. I don't know, I'm sorry. Tiny URL. Tiny URL.com slash FFT donate 2026. It's just easier if you Google FFT donate 2026, all one word, search for it and then look for the Tiltify link. Yes. So continue to donate. We are a little shy of our goal of $200,000, but we hope to get there. But just want to say thank you to everybody because we know this audience has contributed to a lot

of what we have raised as well and we had a lot of fun doing it. The tennis match was awesome as everybody watched. The draftathon that we did on Wednesday night was awesome as everybody got a chance to see. Tons of fantasy info in that too. Just wanted to make sure,

absolutely, you can check it on YouTube. Just want to make sure we thank everybody for donating and please continue to donate. All right, make sure you check out our fantasy football today podcast, wherever podcasts are available. Like Dave said, you can go back and watch what we did on our draftathon on YouTube,

but our podcast is live five days a week. We'll be getting to the weekend. portion of our shows once the season starts where you can check us out Sunday mornings. We'll do some shows that will air on Saturday also, but the Fantasy Football Today podcast, the best podcast in the business.

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and make my picks in the app. The app is fantastic. All right, for Heathcomings, for Dave Richard, our wonderful production staff, I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching. Fantasy Football today. Who you would like to see? The Matrix. Transformers, Rise of the Beast, or Mean Girls. That is so a fetch.

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