Fantasy Football Today - Rankings Risers and Fallers! (08/07 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  As training camps progress and reports continue to come out, which players are moving the most in our rankings? We start with a lengthy Chris Godwin debate (1:40) as Chris is warming up to him but Dave is a little more cautious. Then Dave tells us why Brian Robinson (10:30) is a rankings riser and both guys reveal why J.K. Dobbins is moving down in the rankings (13:55) ... A lot of news and notes to get to (19:35) with most of it about running backs. Is Nick Chubb going to catch more passes? Is Tony Pollard getting too much Fantasy hype? Who are the backup RBs you need to know about? Then it's back to our rankings risers. Chris's risers (31:40) include Joe Mixon and Brandon Aiyuk. Dave's risers (41:30) include Christian Watson and Mike Williams, and there are many more ... We finish with the rankings fallers from Dave (49:45) and Chris (59:00). The guys don't agree on how to rank the Seahawks wide receivers or Rhamondre Stevenson. They do agree that Michael Pittman should be lower in the rankings. Dave has Jonathan Taylor in Round 3! ... Email us at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. All right, good camp so far for James Cook and Brandon Ayuk and Rashad White, among many others. Those are some of the rankings risers we're going to be talking about today on Fantasy Football. Today, we'll also talk about rankings fallers. Alvin Kamara, News & Notes. We got a busy show for you. I'm just realizing I left my glasses on. I'm going to take those off.

I've never done a show with my glasses on before. What's wrong with glasses, man? I've got glasses. Chris has glasses. Let's go. We're nerd. You can see the ring light in the glasses, I think. So it's a little distracting.

So yeah, I'm going to take those off. Anyway, good morning. Happy Monday. Anybody have a case of the Mondays? If you're going to take your glasses off, I'm taking my glasses off. We're going to go crazy here today. No, no case of the Mondays. I had coffee.

All right, great. I can't read anything on the screen in front of me. I'm going to have to put my glasses on. So Chris Towers is here joining us on this Monday morning. We have position previews for the rest of the week. Tuesday and Wednesday is running back. Thursday and Friday, wide receiver and mailbag on Saturday for you. But Chris, you're here. I want to hear about your rankings risers and

followers. Give me your biggest rankings riser right now. Gosh, biggest rankings riser. Well, I guess I should pull up the list of guys that I sent. Actually, you know what? Let's just get into it. I started out at the same place that everyone else did on chris godwin and i'm starting to become more open to the possibility that we just overreacted to look the loss of tom brady and the the downgrade from him to either kyle trask or baker mayfield is going to be a significant one i think there are reasons to be concerned about how much that often is going to pass relative to the past few years. But Chris Godwin's a really good player.

And I think that's being overlooked him and Mike Evans in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense. They're not going to throw the ball 740 times or whatever it was last season. I believe it was the most pass attempts in NFL history, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense. But this offense should still clearly run through Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. That's still the strength of this offense. It's going to come down. But I think this is probably still going to be a team that throws more than the average team.

Chris Godwin, remember last season, was coming back from that torn ACL, wasn't 100% at the start of the season, had the hamstring injury in week one, said he didn't really feel 100% until after the team's bye, which was in week 11, remember. Yeah. From week 12 on, this is what his 17-game pace was. 136 catches, 1,331 yards, only five touchdowns. I think touchdowns are going to be tough to come by in this offense,

but I just think we've seen Chris Godwin succeed with, as a fantasy option, three different quarterbacks in his career. He's had Tom Brady, obviously, and then I'm blanking on this. Jameis Winston, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Jameis Winston, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick were the other two guys. We've seen him succeed as a down-the-field guy. We've seen him succeed as a possession type

in the short area last year. You know, sorry, 5.1 yards per catch after the catch is a pretty strong number for a guy coming back from a torn ACL. So for me, it's just like we're kind of burying him as a wide receiver three at this point in drafts and ADP, all that stuff. I don't really see any reason why he can't catch 100 passes again

in this offense. I get Mike Evans being more touchdown dependent, being more big play dependent in his career. I can see that being more of a concern. But Godwin, it just feels like such an easy volume play where I'm not sure DJ Moore is a better player than Chris Godwin. I think that's open to debate. I'm not sure Justin Fields is a better passer than Baker Mayfield.

I'm pretty confident the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to throw the ball at least 100 times more than the Chicago Bears. Godwin ahead of Moore? I have Godwin ahead of Moore, yes. All right. So, Dave, this is one of the segments I was going to have was a Chris Godwin debate because this is one player that's on – the only player I think that's on someone's rankings riser's list

that's on the other guy's follower's list. So someone's rankings risers list. That's on the other guy's followers list. So you've moved Chris Godwin down in your rankings, Dave. I read last week how Mike Evans has started to play more in the slot and camp, and they intend to move both these guys around. I just did the quick research on how Chris Godwin did last year when he lined up in the slot. Technically, all of his touchdowns came when he lined up out wide, but his ADOT was nearly two yards per target lower. His yards per catch was nearly, it was a yard and a half lower when he was out wide versus in the slot.

Both those stats, very weird to me, considering that he was out wide. He also ran just 156 routes when he was out wide versus in the slot. I believe in like what Chris was saying about Godwin is how I feel about Mike Evans, terrific talent, get him the football, work on getting him involved in the offense, even more than they have in the past and let him be the guy that can kind of carry these things. And he's typically been the more explosive receiver of the two,

not taking things away from Chris Godwin as an explosive receiver, but he's never really had the metrics of being an amazing downfield threat. When we talk about wide receivers with huge playmaking ability, he's always been a volume play. Chris mentioned that he expects Godwin to continue to be a volume play. And I agree, but only to an extent last year, Tampa Bay led the NFL with 44.2 attempts per game,

pass attempts per game, not run attempts per game. There's no way they're going to be anywhere close to that with Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask and a new offensive coordinator and a new philosophy on offense. I bet they're going to be much closer to the middle of the pack, which is going to be around 33, 34 pass attempts per game. That's 10 attempts per game. That's going to kill the target volume of everybody in that offense.

But he can't be a number two, a low-end number two receiver. I think there are other receivers that I can draft who have a better profile to either get more targets or have better efficiency numbers than Chris Godwin, who's going to be sharing, theoretically, Evan stays healthy, in this Tampa Bay offense. And also, I think there's going to be a lot of games where Tampa Bay is competitive, where they're not going to have to chase points

and get up into that 37, 38, 39 pass attempt game. So this is something that really works against Godwin, in my opinion, somebody who's always been very reliable in full PPR because he gets a lot of targets and he'll still get a lot of targets, but it's going to be based on how much they throw. This has been a Heath Cummings argument for months. And I think he said that he's not even sure. Maybe I'm talking out of you know where, but I think he said that he's not sure that Godwin can get to even 80 catches this year.

And if he's not, if he's getting 80 catches, is he getting much more than a thousand yards? Probably not. Is he getting more than four or five touchdowns? No, maybe I'm not excited about him. I've already moved Mike Evans ahead of him in non PPR. I'd probably take Evans out of Godwin and half PPR. And I'm getting close to putting Evans out of Godwin in full PPR. All of that being said, and I'm sorry for going on, it was at this time last year when we were afraid to get DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett on our teams. How did those guys turn out? But they got great quarterback play. The guy I compare these Bucs receivers to is Amari Cooper

because he had bad quarterback play, and he finished as a top 10 wide receiver. I don't think he was top 10 per game, but he was certainly a great pick. And Gobbin and Evans are the two guys that I would nominate as this year's Amari Cooper with Gobbin I would take ahead of Evans. I would also point out just I think that the Seahawks comparison is instructive in that are we too confident that the quarterback play in Tampa is just going to be an outright disaster? Right, right, right.

I don't think Baker Mayfield's good. His production last season, especially 6.5 yards per attempt, 60% completion percentage, he was terrible. Before that, even when Baker Mayfield wasn't a great player, he still averaged over 7.2 yards per attempt in all four of his first four seasons. 4.1 touchdown rate, at least in each of his first four seasons.

Those aren't great numbers, but they're not, and this might be a bad comp because Sam Darnold actually outplayed him last season in the same offense, but it's not Sam Darnold in New York. It's not Zach Wilson stuff. I don't think Baker Mayfield's good but we have seen like Jarvis Landry be a pretty useful fantasy option with him I know Odell Beckham wasn't great but different type of player and

was still like in the low end wide receiver too high and wide receiver three range it was just not the elite production we were hoping for so i think baker manfield's probably not good i just i think there's a little too much certainty that he's going to be just an outright you know tire fire and well one thing to point out is that we saw baker play last year in two different offenses how often did we watch him and go oh wow maybe there's some potential there. There were flashes when he was in LA, but that's about it.

The difference between him and Geno, and this is just off the top of the dome, we didn't see Geno play much, if at all, for several years before he got this chance in Seattle. So there were things that Geno might have learned along the way to improve his game. I don't know if Baker's making a jump like that in one offseason the other thing I want to point out and then add them back to you Seattle averaged 33.7 pass attempts per game last year that was pretty close to league average Lockett finished 16th in PPR points per game DK 25th in PPR points per game obviously they would have been higher if Seattle had thrown more last year.

Yeah. Okay. All right, then. That's Chris Godwin. Dave, who's your biggest rankings riser? And look, so I just, we have like 30 guys talking about today. So if we're a little brief on some of these players,

I just want to let our listeners know. I think it's more important today to give everybody kind of a lay of the land instead of a lot of debates because there's a lot going on and stuff you may have missed in terms of people moving up and down the depth chart and things like that. So, Dave, who's your biggest rankings riser right now? I think we got the debate out of the way with Godwin,

and I thought it was pretty good. My rankings riser, and I'm always looking for running backs I can draft in the middle rounds and maybe get better value from, Brian Robinson in Washington. The reports are great on him. They're saying that he looks leaner, faster, making an impact in the passing game. Now it's all practice and we'll see what happens, but I I'm, I'm going to be lucky enough to see him in person at his preseason game against Washington or against Cleveland rather. Uh, he always plays for Washington I'm curious to see how he'll do and I wonder if we're kind of ignoring him because he's not on a great team

questions about the offense but I'm almost certain that he's going to be their guy inside the five as long as not inside of two minutes in the first half of a football game that they will go to Robinson and he will have a shot to score some decent touchdowns this year. And we're getting him in like, I mean, I can look at the NFC ADP just to throw a number out there at everybody, his average draft position in the month of August, this is 44 drafts, a hundred point five, five overall. I love the idea of getting a starting running back with some touchdown upside at 100th overall. Yeah, that's basically where he's going in Fantasy Pro's 110th overall, Brian Robinson. Would you take in a PPR league or would you take Brian Robinson or Antonio Gibson? Robinson.

In full PPR? In full PPR. It's close. They're really close, but Robinson. Would you take Brian Robinson or Khalil Herbert? I've got Herbert one spot ahead of Robinson right now. In a week, that could flip. Okay. Alright, I want

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fantasy football today, but on the audio side, download, subscribe to the fantasy football today dynasty podcast, wherever you listen, let's get a rankings faller first from Dave. Dave, who's your biggest rankings faller? One of my rankings fallers that I sent you was J.K. Dobbins. It just makes – or I'm sorry. That's not – oh, I did send you Dobbins. Did I send you Dobbins? What the hell is wrong with me? You both sent Dobbins, a mutual faller.

I'm worried about him. What's going on? Is he going to be back in camp for Baltimore? My son. Go ahead. Am I back or not? You're good. You're good. Go ahead. Hello. four i'm worried about what's going on is he going to be back in camp for for baltimore my son go ahead am i back or not you're good you're good good hello what a horrible 30 seconds this has been um dobbins fell to the sixth round in my son's draft he's in a competitive league with a bunch of his friends you know these are teenagers so they aren't as sharp as adults of course but i i think that dobbins in round six is good value but he's sliding, and I don't think it's crazy to see him there.

I do expect him to eventually get into the fold in Baltimore and to be a good contributor in this offense. So there's a dip here that we can buy, but he's fallen in my rankings. Behind who, Dave? He's gone behind Miles Sanders. He's gone behind Rashad White. Oh, wow. Yeah, I mean, james connor jameer gibbs like he's someone that's got he doesn't even have super huge upside because we've never seen him profile as a big time pass catcher i know they're talking about that in

baltimore i feel like he's got 10 touchdown potential which is great 1300 rush yards that's pretty good that's that's a running back that ceiling profiles is like a round two pick that's pretty good but i don't think he'll ever have the catches to go along with it so it's almost like 12 ppr or non-ppr points per game you're going to draft them sooner than that non-ppr not many people are playing that format anymore all right chris um how about you give me a rankings follower? I mean, I 100% agree with Dobbins. It's mostly just the uncertainty around his situation because we're assuming it's based on contract demands.

He is also on the pup list, and he wasn't taking part in offseason workouts allegedly because of injuries. And that uncertainty and that lack of clarity is a little concerning for me because if it was just the holdout or hold in, I guess, I don't think I'd be too concerned. But the fact that there is some uncertainty around his health

is a little concerning to me. And also just Baltimore's kind of been an overrated fantasy backfield over the past couple of years. There was the year where, was it Mark Ingram had 15 touchdowns? Yeah. Other than that, this really hasn't been a great place. And I do think there's breakout potential for J.K. Dobbins because, you know, new offense coordinator Todd Monken has routinely used. You know, he's given, I think, one running back 14 and a half carries per game all but one season of his career as an offensive coordinator.

So I do think there's some potential for J.K. Dobbins to finally get 250 carries and really be a breakout. But the just weird vibes, I guess, is the best way to phrase what's going on with J.K. Dobbins. The uncertainty has certainly dropped him in my rankings a bit. Okay. And I thought it was interesting, J.K. Dobbins versus Rashad White. Dave has White ahead of Dobbins.

White, as I mentioned at the top of the show, has had a good training camp, and I think he's on your risers list, Chris. Would you take Rashad White or J.K. Dobbins at this point? You are muted, Mr. Towers. I do still have J.K. Dobbins ranked ahead of Rashad White but yeah there have been for me my concern with Rashad White coming in was

we were assuming he was the clear RB1 but because he was so I would say bad as a rookie that I wasn't sure they were just going to hand him the RB1 job but from what I've seen out of camp, that's absolutely what's happening. And that clears up a lot of the concerns. He's a volume play.

I don't think he's a super talented player. I don't think it's a great offense. But look, if he's going to get 240 carries and 70 targets, then it doesn't really matter how good he is. Are you guys taking J.K. Dobbins, Rashad White, or Alvin Kamara first? I will take... In PPR, it's going to be White, then Dobbins,

then Kamara. And in non-PPR, it'll be Dobbins, White, Kamara. I have it Dobbins, White, Kamara right now, but Dobbins and White are closer than they are to Kamara, although Kamara still has, I think, more upside than we might want to give him credit for.

Well, we did about five minutes on Kamara on Saturday, or I guess it was Friday when the news broke. It was me and Heath Cummings, so if you want to check that out, it was a bonus podcast. You can find it in our feed. We're going to take a break. When we come back, a bunch of news and notes and more rankings, risers and fallers.

We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money click before you dig ensure your next project is safe visit ontarioonecall.ca it's free it's easy it's the law data sourced from the orcga 2023 dirt report welcome back everybody okay sam howell getting most or all of the first team reps in Washington.

They have not completely countered out Jacoby Brissett, but at least it looks like it's not so much a competition, but it is Howell's job to lose in Washington. Running back news, sit down. We got a lot of it. Mike Florio says that the Broncos and Chiefs are among the teams interested in Josh Jacobs if the Raiders rescind the franchise tag, which is not completely out of the question, I guess,

that would make him a free agent. It would save the Raiders $10 million. That's his agent trying to get Jacobs paid. Okay. Yeah, I don't really think that's going to happen. By floating that rumor out there. Yeah. The Rams, this is just a lot of handcuff stuff maybe right now,

just depth chart stuff. The Rams, according to ESPN, see Kyron Williams as their number two running back and perhaps a better pass blocker than Cam Akers. Yeah, third down back type. Damian Harris and Latavius Murray were competing for short yardage reps, but both of them in Buffalo have been behind James Cook

and Harris has been the second team running back. I guess the question would be, is Harris or Latavius Murray going to take James Cook off the field in short yardage? Yes. Okay. The answer is yes. That's expected.

But Cook has been a riser, so we'll get to him. Also, yes. Bears running back Deontay Foreman. This is the annual time of year where everyone's involved in the passing game, especially the ones that are never involved in the passing game. So Deontay Foreman, Nick Chubb, which maybe I buy a little bit more. Ryan Robinson. Ryan Robinson, for sure.

That was one that I wanted to bring up. Dave already did. These guys have been used more in the passing game. But I actually look back to 2019. And before, so that was the year that Kareem Hunt signed with the Browns. But he was suspended for the first eight games. In the first eight games of the season,

Nick Chubb had 25 catches. So he was on pace for 52 or 53 catches, whatever it was, over... I might have my math wrong. No, I think about 53 catches over 17 games. We did see that in 2019, which was a long time ago. Saints running back Eno Benjamin out for the season.

By the way, the Saints are hosting Kareem Hunt today. So we'll see if anything happens there. Good, another running back. Yeah, exactly. Chase Edmonds could be Tampa Bay's third down back. So in the discussion about Rashad White, is that a concern that Chase Edmonds, that they like him and maybe he could be the third down back, Dave Richard? We've seen Edmonds in that role before and lose it so that doesn't really scare me off of Rashad White very much last year was a terrible year for Chase Edmonds started with the Dolphins and we thought he could be good I think he had 12 carries in week one for 25 yards and then he lost his role and then he got traded to the Broncos it just was a bad year for Edmonds. Before that, he looked like a pretty good player in spurts, and I think he's only 27.

And by the way, Baker Mayfield actually has a pretty good history of throwing to running backs. 20%, yes. Yeah. We saw it with Duke Johnson. We saw it with Nick Chubb, as I mentioned, and then Kareem Hunt. Last year with McCaffrey, for what that's worth. But how about you, Chris?

I guess the role of Rashad, why he's really probably going to need to be on the field a lot to be great. So what about this chase Edmonds potential third down rule? I mean, that's one of the things that I'm really trying to keep an eye on. And there just hasn't been a ton of reporting out of Tampa. You know,

I've seen a few reports that they view Rashad white as a, a clear three down back, which was why I've ranked him, put him as a riser. But if there's any ambiguity about his role, I don't really want very much of Rashad White because he feels like a pretty classic dead zone RB where I don't want to speak for everyone. I don't think he's a particularly good player. What we saw last season was pretty uninspiring. I thought he couldn't

beat out a pretty dusted Leonard Fournette and certainly wasn't all that much better than him when he had his opportunities. So if there's any ambiguity about his role, especially as a pass catcher, because that's I think really what the appeal is. I'm not going to I'm not going to have

Rashad White as a top 12 or top 24 running back for sure. Miami rookie running back Devon Achain is day-to-day with a leg injury. Keontae Ingram looks like the frontrunner to be James Connors' backup in Arizona. Chris Evans is a name to know. I think we all like Chase Brown potentially in Cincinnati, but it could be Chris Evans as Joe Mixon's backup. And right now in Indianapolis with Jonathan Taylor out, with Zach Moss out, Evan Hull and Deion Jackson have been splitting first-team reps.

Tank Bigsby had a good day in camp the other day. He scored a couple of touchdowns in a red zone drill. Hold up, didn't the Colts sign Kenyon Drake? They did sign Kenyon Drake. Yes, they did. Yeah, like the answer to your question, when you don't have anything good at running back, is to sign Kenyon Drake, and That makes it all worse for fantasy. This will be a mess if they don't have Jonathan Taylor.

Tank Bigsby is, you know, whatever. He's a potential goal line stealer and handcuffed to ETN. Dearness Johnson has also been in that role, though. Yeah, but you cannot find a bad word about travis etn right now all it seems to indicate that he is having a great camp and poise for a big year that's another rankings riser fingers crossed on that one uh amir abdullah and zamir white have been splitting first team reps for the raiders the cardinal sign martha mack whatever how about this chris kenneth gainwell getting-minute drill work for the Eagles,

and they're using so many running backs there. I don't know that we have any clarity right now about what to expect. Yeah, the pressure. I was looking back at some of the stuff I was writing

this time last year, and I realized that a lot of the stuff we're seeing out of Eagles camp is exactly what they said last year. They were using four backs in the first team. They were cycling everyone through.

Then when the season came, I mean, four backs got on the field right but it was all miles sanders in the running game so that's one of the things in the preseason i really want to keep an eye on is is how they use the the rushing downs i guess if because if it's if there's no clarity in the rushing role then it's deandre swift is the guy to use. But if Rashad Penny is the clear lead rusher, then I think it opens up some other avenues. But yeah, Gainwell is going to have a role. DeAndre Swift is not going to dominate every passing snap here. And that's a struggle when it's a team that hasn't thrown the ball

to running backs very often in the past. Love going after Penny if I go zero RB in my builds because he can get me off to a good start. We can expect him to be healthy for, fingers crossed, the first month of the season. It's almost the same thing that we said last year about Penny. He can be a starter for you to begin the year. He's an RB2 to begin the year.

Yeah, he did. For four weeks. And what if he stays healthy for two months? You know, the fantasy gods will smile on us would be an amazing value and we're talking around eight round nine and he has dropped weight i don't know i mean on friday i talked about an espn report that that deandre swift it was more of like a gut feeling that deandre swift was starting to you know look better and and maybe bidding to be to be the guy and my my concern with Penny is,

I mean, we're talking maybe zero catches for Penny, maybe one per game. And if he doesn't score 60 yards and no touchdowns, you know, Jalen Hurts scores so many touchdowns near the end zone. You talk about touchdown dependent. I mean,

that is sure. That's why he's not going ahead of Swift. And that's why he's not like around seven. But I know I get that. I get that. But there's good. There's value in Penny. Yeah.

Yeah. There's one cent. So I think it's unlikely that they have multiple starting running backs for fantasy like that. That does. There's a great ambiguous backfields where you can see like Detroit. I can see both Jameer Gibbs and David Montgomery being worth using. Philadelphia, I think it's either they've got one guy who's an RB2 or they've got three guys that are RB4s,

and there's not a lot of room in between that. Right. Okay, last running back note is a big one here. So ESPN's Dan Graziano was at Dallas camp, and he basically scoffed at the notion that this is going to be a run-heavy team. And he has a quote from a Cowboys official. Look at our personnel.

Do we look like we're built to be a run-first team? And then he went on to say, no, they don't. And he said, look, I expect Pollard to be the number one running back in Dallas, obviously. This is Graziano, not this Cowboys official. And I think Pollard will be the number one running back in Dallas, obviously. This is Graziano, not the Cowboys official. And I think Pollard will be a nice fantasy asset. I'm just not sure you should expect any more production from him this year than what he gave you last year just because Elliott is gone.

The Cowboys still see Pollard as a player. They have to be careful not to overwork if they're going to keep getting the best out of him. So I would expect them to use other backs in combination with him. The Cowboys are higher on second year back Malik Davis than you might think, and I believe 5'6 rookie Deuce Vaughn will have a role as well.

So does that analysis, if it holds true, does that take him out of the first round? Not for me. I don't entirely buy it all. I also would say that he kind of, Graziano's also kind of saying that Pollard's going to have a role in the passing game.

So sure. You know, which he did last year and he did a good job with it. And there's 12 touchdowns missing from last year from Ezekiel Elliott, not being on the team, 12 rushing touchdowns. Zeke had that role. Zeke's not there anymore.

And I don't think Malik Davis is going to have that role if you give Pollard six more touchdowns on what he did last year and he scored a ton of touchdowns last year you're talking about 18.6 PPR points per game who Tony Pollard how many points per game 18.18 I was. I thought you said 8.6. That's why I didn't know. No, 8.6 would not be good. That's not a first rounder, but 18.6 is pretty close to what Derek Henry gave you last year in PPR. Yeah, I've got him as more like an early

second rounder. I think he's my number 15 overall player. That's with like I'm only projecting like one and a half two more targets per game and three carries per game more. So I'm not projecting like one and a half, two more targets per game and three carries per game more. So I'm not expecting him to suddenly have a Josh Jacobs role or anything. I think among the top 12 running backs, Pollard is probably the lowest in projected rushing attempts for me. So there is definitely, I think, still room even on that projection for him to outperform expectations.

And if he gets another one and a half targets per game, I'm sorry to cut you off, Chris. I thought you were done. No, you're good. You're getting close to five targets per game. He averaged almost 3.5 last year. I'd love to see that. That would be amazing.

He'd be a monster. He'd be a monster. Wide receiver news. Sean McVay downplayed Cooper Cupps injury. Hopefully this is nothing serious. Cortland Sutton having a good camp. Yeah. Every time Russell Wilson needs a completion,

he looks to Cortland Sutton. That's never burned anyone before. Let's get him in the top 12 wide receivers, baby. Let's do it. That feels very personal. I had a very good season last year fading Cortland Sutton. And I'd be happy to do it again.

I mean, I'll take him around pick 100 or something like that. Right, yeah. Like, where he's going, who cares? There's no downside to taking him. Round 10. Rashad Bateman could be back soon. Garrett Wilson should practice this week. TJ Hawkinson left practice. There's a thought that this is contract related,

but he left with, I think, a trainer. I don't know. It's a bit of a vague situation now with TJ Hawkinson. Probably nothing to be concerned about. Unfortunately, Houston center Scott Quisenberry is out for the season with a torn ACL and MCL. So that's a significant injury. One of the first we've had.

They're going to have to start a rookie there. Yeah, and they had one of the worst offensive lines in terms of creating in the run game. They were last, I believe, according to PFF, in yards before contact created. True, but they are changing their run scheme. So I don't know if it means anything. They added Shaq Mason as well.

That's the Houston Texans. I won't give you the defensive injuries or notes or whatever, except I will say that Carolina signed Justin Houston and Chicago signed Yannick Ngakwe, two pass rushers there for Carolina and for Chicago. Alright, back to the rankings risers. Give me 30 seconds. Tell me

why you're rising this guy, where he is in the rankings, and then if there's a need for expanding, we will do that. Chris, Ryan Tannehill, start with him. Yeah, he's QB 22 for me. He's going the rankings and then if there's a need for expanding we will do that chris ryan tannahill start with him yeah he's qb 22 for me he's going 31st still over the past two weeks in nfc drafts at qb behind mac jones and jimmy garoppolo i think ryan tannahill i mean we've seen this guy be a top 12 ish quarterback for multiple seasons even in a low volume passing offense deandre hopkins by all accounts still looks very good was a very good player last year. Traylon Burks

has an opportunity to step up and play a bigger role in Season 2. I just think we're burying this guy as a QB2. He's not someone you want in one QB league, even necessarily as a backup, but I think it's a high-floor play with a decent number

of QB1 weeks. Agreed. Good. All right. Yeah. Rashad white. Want to spend a little more time on this Rashad white. Where'd you move him up to Chris? He's still,

I think a fringe RB two for me. Yeah. I have him 26 at the running back position. That's partially just like, I really liked David Montgomery. I still have David Deandre Swift ahead of him, but the going from being uncertain about what his role is going to be to getting some reports that Rashad White is viewed as the clear lead runner

and obviously the passing downs work if Chase Edmonds doesn't take it, which that report would be bad. He's moved up from a dead zone RB3 to a fringe RB2 with room to continue moving for me. All right. How about Joe Mixon? Where'd you move Joe Mixon up to? Joe Mixon, I'm mostly just trying not to move him too far up. But ever since he got his contract situation settled,

I don't really see a reason why he shouldn't be viewed in that RB one discussion. We know how valuable that role is going to be. We saw Samaj P Ryan be a must-start player in that offense. I don't have any faith in any of the various fifth round pick backup running backs that they've got. So I just think Joe Mixon, I think was third in the NFL and green zone touches last season at the

running back position. Wasn't efficient converting them, but we saw a 12 touchdown season from him, I think, two years ago. I just think there's 250 carry, 75 target. That's not even the upside. I think that's kind of the floor for Joe Mixon and double digit touchdowns with just a little bit of better variance than last season. He had the most depressing season where he averaged just over 17 PPR points. Right. This is a guy who was a must-star fantasy running back. And we've gone from like, oh, wow, Joe Mixon's the most talented running back in the NFL

to now it's just like, he's done. He's a scrub. Nobody cares. And it's like, it doesn't really matter. It's a great offense. There's no competition for touches. And they used him in the passing game a ton last season. So I just, I don't know.

The vibes were bad early in the offseason, but now that we know he's going to be there, I don't see any reason he shouldn't be a top 12 running back. And you're not lying about the passing game. He was fourth among all running backs and targets per game, sixth in PPR points per game. A lot of that comes from that one matchup. Week nine, 55.1 points.

Without that game, it's not a great fantasy average. But that doesn't mean that he can't be a little more consistent this year. Three straight seasons over 15 PPR points per game. Yeah, I did the Flex League draft with Jamie and Jay Seely this weekend, and Joe Mixon was my third round pick. I'm thrilled to get him at the end of the third round. I will literally do that every time

I draft. I'm good with that. I think he's a 2-3 turn pick. I like Mixon better than Ramondre Stevenson. I don't know how you guys feel. I think it's a certainty that the Patriots are going to sign a running back. So is it going to be someone who actually matters?

Cook would matter, obviously, if it's Fournette or Zeke or something like that. I don't know how much that would matter. But I don't see why I'd take Stevenson over Mixon, except you could say that Stevenson's a better player than Mixon, which is not a small deal. But I hope Mixon can just be better.

I hope their offensive line can be a little bit better. It should be. Yeah, it should be. They have to figure out right tackle, but they should be better at left tackle for sure. Yeah, kind of a small issue at quarterback for them too. I don't know if you heard. No, he's six weeks to recover.

He'll be fine. Hopefully he'll be fine. Listen, a lot of people might be upset about taking Mixon in round three. If you see his name in round four, I don't see how you can't be at least willing to take the chance on him again if he's there. By the way, when we say

rounds, we're always talking about 12-team leagues. So you might see him in round four in a 10-team league. Yeah. Very, very, very possible. Okay, moving on here. Back to Chris's list, which I did have in front of me briefly. Chris, very, very possible. Okay, moving on here. Back to Chris's list, which I did have in front of me briefly. Chris, who's your next rankings riser?

Chris Godwin, who we talked about plenty already. We don't need to spend any more time on him. So I'll go with Brandon Ayuk, who I've moved up to wide receiver 30. I've talked a lot this offseason in the FFT newsletter about the 49ers math problem, and it's a really hard one. And like, I just saw a report.

Hey, could Christian McCaffrey have a thousand thousand season? It's like, well, if that happens, everybody else in that offense is not going to be worth drafting at their prices, but it's just hard to get around the,

the constant drumbeat with Brandon. I, we saw it last training camp that he was just clearly the best player in the offense. I don't know if I believe he's the best player. Debo Samuel is pretty good, but man, Brandon,

I, it's just really good. And I want to have some, what I moved him up mostly because I just realized I wasn't drafting him at all. And I want to have some exposure to the possibility that like Debo Samuel gets hurt and misses 12 games. And Brandon,

I use a fringe wide receiver one, you know, like I think that's well within the realm of possibility. Where are you taking him? Like sixth round? Fifth round? Is that too optimistic? I feel like round five. This is going to sound dopey, but I think round five is just too soon.

Too rich for my blood, but round six, if I felt like you felt, I would take him there. Yeah. Iyuk, we're talking about him. So I think Iyuk versus Marquise Brown is really interesting. I've got him back-to-back. I am so unexcited about Marquise Brown, but it's a volume play. That's an offense that I think needs Marquise Brown to be available

and productive, especially on short routes, and we've seen Brown get that job done before. Iyuk is explosive. He's having a great camp, all that stuff. The headlines are great. The math problem that Chris referenced, I also recently wrote a story about the 49ers offense. Five games last year, including the playoffs,

were Purdy's healthy, McCaffrey's healthy, Kittle's healthy, Debo's healthy. Iuke averaged 3.2 catches per game, 9.6 PPR points per game. I think it would make sense that the 49ers would want to get them more involved in the offense and that they tilt targets more toward him and away from Kittle and other peripheral players in that offense, I think that's what has to happen. Either that or else an injury to Debo or McCaffrey for Brandon Ayuk to really hit that potential.

It's what keeps me from taking him in round five. I can't do it. I do think one thing in Ayuk's favor is that Kittle, McCaffrey, and Debo, at least two of them you could throw the injury prone tag on right it's hard to imagine all three of them staying healthy maybe iuk is less injury prone maybe it depends how you feel about that uh he's super interesting um but just to sum it up when all the guys were healthy and they were playing with brock purdy it was debo samuel who was getting four targets.

I think his target share in those games was like 26%. Kittle. Kittle is the one I'm really concerned about. His target share in the games where they were all healthy, I think, was 11.5%. Kittle had 4.2 per game. Debo had 6.8 per game. And Debo also had 3.2 carries per game. And Iuke had 23 targets in five games.

All right, moving on back to Chris's list here. We had Iuke and we have two rookie. Oh, no, sorry. One rookie, but one guy who's like basically a rookie, Justin Ross. Jalen Hyatt and Justin Ross as, let's say, late round flyers right now. Jalen Hyatt, third round pick for the Giants.

Justin Ross, a long journey for the Chiefs and getting some reps now. Who would you take first, Hyatt or Ross? Probably Hyatt still because there's a bigger need for a wide receiver to step up in New York's offense. The one thing that's funny is like I saw a stat that was like

all of Daniel Jones' completions to all of his wide receivers in 11 on 11 drills. And like jail Hyatt was actually like fifth or sixth on that group. He's only had four completions, but it's like apparently every single one of those completions has been tweeted out by the giants official account and has gone like minorly viral because I've seen so much about him. Same with Justin Ross,

where it's not exactly clear either of these guys is going to even be a starter on their teams, but the roles are very ambiguous in those passing games. There's an opportunity for both of these guys. They're showing flashes. I'm just making sure that I get them into my late round discussion. I'm not saying Jalen Hyatt and Justin Ross even need to be drafted in every 12 team league.

But if you're looking for those late round dart throws, talented, big play-wide receivers in ambiguous passing situations is a pretty good option, I think. All right. Dave, let's talk about your rankings risers here. Yeah. James Cook.

Okay, let's do a 30-second recap. Where'd you move him, and why? He is in the round six range range and in PPR, I'm fighting myself on putting them in round five. I am getting excited about them. Loved how excited Josh Allen was talking about James Cook and saying without being prompted that he's quote going to take a large portion of the carries. And in the past game, he's going to be kind of a dual threat guy for us and i i think this is one of the ways that buffalo is going to try and diversify their offense is by using james cook in the passing game very worried about his touchdown production but a thousand total yards and maybe 40 to 50 catches on top of that i'm willing to take the

chance on him in round six as a low-end RB2 in PPR. He's going to fall farther in non-PPR. David Montgomery or James Cook? I've got Cook one spot ahead of Montgomery in PPR. Montgomery clearly ahead of him in non and half. DeAndre Swift or James Cook? Cook. Chris?

I'm kind of not a Swift guy. Because I'm slow, you know? I'm big. Yeah, totally. My 40 time is like 10. All right. Chris, who you got? James Cook or Montgomery?

Big Taylor Swift guy. I know that. Montgomery pretty clearly for me with overcook. Swift, I think, is a little closer. Montgomery is just... I think that there's a high floor in that offense but man if gibbs isn't you know a really good player right away or if he gets hurt i just think montgomery has top 12 upside in this offense there's i think

he's going to be a part of the passing game but if gibbs misses time montgomery could be a 60 catch guy you know he's been a good pass catcher in his career. He's a good pass blocker, all that stuff. So I just, I think the upside and the path to RB1, I think there's basically no path for James Cook to finish as a top 12 running back this season. That's just, in that offense, it's basically impossible. Montgomery, I can see a pretty clear path. Dave, Brian Robinson, Rashad, Penny,

I think we covered them. Is there anything you want to add? Who do you prefer? You can rewind 15 minutes and hear about both of them. Who do you Robinson, Rashad Penny, I think we covered them. Is there anything you want to add? Who do you prefer? You can rewind 15 minutes and hear about both of them. Who do you prefer, Robinson or Penny? I believe I have Robinson ranked higher. Because I think you can stay healthier.

Christian Watts. Christian Watson. He's one of two Packers receivers that's been making plays consistently in camp they had a uh they had a scrimmage as part of their packers family night and i like that jordan love was making plays off schedule and that always helps with somebody like christian watson who can make plays after the catch whether it's a deep ball that travels 30 yards and he catches it and runs the rest of the way for a touchdown or he takes a short crosser in for a touchdown, which he did last year with Jordan Love.

I'm targeting him around 50th overall. I'm hoping to get him on my teams as a high upside wide receiver too. I never see Christian Watson lasting that long, but let's check the ADP. It is that long. I don't know. It really depends on how ADP has him, like 57th, although I'm looking at fantasy pros. I don't know where NFC has him. He's 46th on NFC over the month of August. And that's fine. I would take him in late round four.

Okay. Fair enough on Christian Watson. Mike Williams, a riser for you. He's also been getting moved around the formation in LA and just rave reviews about the Chargers passing game ever since their camp open. That doesn't surprise me given who the new offensive coordinator is and who the quarterback is. Herbert's healthy, great system to work in. Once Quentin Johnston gets established, it's going to be really hard for defenses to contain

anybody. They're going to play a ton of zone and that could lead a lot of open situations for mike williams to make a catch and then make a play after i have not been a big mike williams guy over the course of his career i am willing to take a chance on him now because i think the price is actually lower than it's been over the balance of his recent career the last couple seasons mike williams or brandon iuk i've got williams here's how i have it ranked williams godwin hollywood brown brandon iuk back to back to back to back in ppr i actually have they're pretty much all right in the same range. I have Brown ranked highest, then Williams, then Ayuk. And we really would prefer these guys be our third receiver.

Yes, for sure. And that's not bad there. It's a late round five, round six range. So later, Nico Collins and DJ Chark are two guys you have as risers, and they both have the opportunity to be top receivers for a rookie quarterback. And DJ Chark has definitely had a good camp, a lot of good press there for him. So who do you like better, Collins or Chark? I like Collins better.

He's also gotten some great headlines out in Houston. And these are two receivers that fantasy managers have gambled on before and mostly lost. But they've got good opportunities to be target leaders for their teams. I'm always on the lookout. You know, I'm always on the lookout for running backs in the middle rounds. I'm on the lookout for receivers in the late rounds, because I want one or two who I can feel good about as my top depth guy. And I think that Collins definitely qualifies as that last shark, a little Shark a little more nervous on than Collins.

Okay, but Shark is someone to know because I don't know, should I be taking him ahead of Jonathan Mingo at this point? Yes, I would. How about Phelan? I would there too. Easy to do that in non-PPR. A little bit harder to do in full PPR.

This last one is really interesting. The rookie tight ends. Dave just put rookie tight ends as rankings risers. It was one is really interesting. The rookie tight ends. Dave just put rookie tight ends as rankings risers. It was a great draft class. A lot of them got taken pretty early, either in the first round or early second round, all getting good buzz. Of course, rookies always get good buzz, you know, for the most part, but all right. How many of them do you really think should be drafted among the rookie tight ends in a 12 team normal league? The answer's two. And you know, the names it's Dalton Kincaid in Buffalo and Sam Laporta in Detroit, but there's a third one that started to make waves. And it's one we really haven't

talked about. It's Luke Musgrave who's been fitting in with the Packers passing game. And we know that in that system that they run, they've always used a tight end as a target. They're not necessarily making him fantasy relevant. And I don't think that Musgrave is going to get drafted in every single 12-team league, but it's a name to know, especially in tight end premium. The other two guys, great reviews for both of them. They're already playing with their first-team offenses. I believe Kincaid opened camp with the first-team offense,

and Laporta followed soon thereafter. Laporta is a play on the early part of the season without Jamison Williams there. Maybe he sees an uptick in targets. He's someone that you just start your season with as a streamer. Same thing with Kincaid. I would take Kincaid first. All right. It's time to take a little bit of a break here and get to our rankings fallers after this on Fantasy Football Today. Finishing the a on a down note literally players moving down in the rankings maybe i didn't have to say literally maybe that was obvious that was literal i don't know um figuratively yeah dave jonathan taylor is moving down in your rankings

he's been moving down and he's in that round three range for me. So I'm basically avoiding Jonathan Taylor until I feel a lot more certain about what his future holds. It's just too murky right now. I don't like that the Colts are making multiple additions at running back and getting guys on and off the roster at that position. They seem to really be planning for, you know, at least beginning beginning the year without Jonathan Taylor. It sounds crazy. It just sounds like that this thing could be mended quickly and

Taylor's back in there. But what if this goes right up to the start of the season and Taylor doesn't practice in camp? He's there with the team, but he's not practicing. It just makes me nervous that he's going to, you know, suffer some sort of injury. We know that he was slow to recover from an ankle. He may or may not have a back problem. And then you've got the issue of the quarterback taking work away from him, not just anywhere on the field, but also in short yardage goal line. I'm getting nervous about drafting Jonathan Taylor, unless it's at a good price. Round three is where I have him ranked. I would consider him in late round two. Mixon, Ramondre, Taylor. Who's your favorite?

Ramondre is ahead of Taylor. Taylor is one spot ahead of Mixon right now. Okay. And also on your fallers list is Chris Godwin. We talked about him, J.K. Dobbins. We talked about him. Samaje Pirine falling? He's falling because Javante Williams is rising.

And it sounds like Williams is doing what we were hoping Brees Hall was going to do, and that we thought Javante had no chance of doing, and that's participating in training camp in the preseason, and he's apparently looking fine, and he's going to get in some games before the season starts, and he might be Denver's lead running back to begin the year. I am certain that Piran's going to play in passing down situations,

but I think Javante could end up being the 1A right away in Denver, and that's something that we didn't necessarily see. He's going to go in that round five range. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people seem to think both of them are going to have roles, both of them are going to have good fantasy value, or at least fantasy value. Well, Pirine's the bargain, if that's the case.

Yeah, and he's the guy that you hope has early season value and then also has a handcuff. He's kind of like a super handcuff where he has his own standalone value, hopefully, especially early on in the season before Javante's 100%, but then if there's

any kind of setback with Javante, you know, Samadji Piran's probably ranked as a top 24 running back if Javante misses time. Piran's ADP in August on NFC is 105.55 and Javante is at 59.32. It's easy to love Piran's value there, but I was ranking him significantly higher because I thought that there was a chance that he could be a great early season running back.

That doesn't look like that's going to happen anymore. I don't really like Javante that high, but I had been drafting a lot of Javante Williams. I thought that the hate was going a little bit too far, but that was around seven at the end of round five in a 12 team league. I do not think I'm comfortable drafting Javante there because you just always have to remind yourself to remind yourself guys struggle coming off of ACL injuries I mean right now you can say oh he's healthy he's gonna play

he's gonna play yeah there's a difference between healthy and right exactly exactly it just it doesn't always happen I mean sometimes Adrian Peterson happens but yeah we have enough evidence this is a serious injury to torn ligaments you just can't expect him to be himself at first giovante look there was a lot to like about him as a prospect there's a lot to like about him coming into his career and what he showed but he never had the high-end athleticism for all he did really well there was not the long speed he was not a big play guy he was not a breakaway guy and that's before tearing two ligaments in his knee so i just i think there's a decent chance that he comes out and just kind of looks like he's stuck in the mud for a little while and you know he relies so much on after contact making guys miss if he's not 100

you know it could be a situation where he's averaging 3.5 yards per carry for the first month all right but you are dropping dk metcalf and Tyler Lockett, Dave, in your rankings. Where are you going to take? That's not because of anything they're doing. That's just because of Smith Najigba and what he's doing. All right. Give me some context, though. Who did you move Metcalf behind?

Who did you move Lockett behind? Metcalf is currently behind. Give me a second. He's behind Watson. He's behind Debo I'm still taking DeAndre Hopkins in full PPR out of DK Metcalf I'm seeing Metcalf get drafted a lot earlier than I thought that he should because I do think there could be a semblance of a target crunch form and I wonder if there's going to be a red zone target crunch form as well just given

how excited everybody is about Smith Najigba in Seattle and what defenses are probably going to be a red zone target crunch for him as well. Just given how excited everybody is about Smith and the Jigba in Seattle and what defenses are probably going to try and do to begin the season, and especially in the red zone, I think they're still going to lean toward trying to take Metcalf away. I'll tell you what. He still has a top 30 ADP on NFC. Yeah. If you guys, everybody on CBS is right.

If everyone, well, at least I'm looking at the rankings, Jamie, Dave, and Heath. If everyone's right about TK Metcalf, then he is currently one of the most overdrafted players because Dave is still the high guy on Metcalf, and he has him 22. Jamie has him 23. You have him 15?

I've got him, and both him and Lockett, I actually, there are two players that I project higher than I actually rank them. Lockett, I'm just going to draft Lockett, I actually, there are two players that I project higher than I actually rank them. Lockett, I'm just going to draft Lockett everywhere. He's on literally every single team I've drafted this season because he's going as a wide receiver three. I projected him. His projection is wide receiver 16. I have him ranked wide receiver 23.

I just think this is a really good passing game. Those are elite players. Yes, Jackson Smith and Jigba is going to play a role, but I don't think this idea that he's just going to come in and usurp either of those guys, I think is unlikely. Lockett, just like, yes, he's

been probably, relative to price, the most valuable player in fantasy for like five years in a row. He just consistently outperforms what we expect. We've done this with DK Metcalf. All the young high-end prospect is going to overtake Tyler Lockett. I think it's happened once in four seasons

where Metcalf has outperformed Lockett. I'll bet on the elite talents here. I'll bet on those guys continuing to be really, really productive players. And Metcalf, the big dip last year, his yards after catch went from at least 4.4 per reception in each of his first three seasons to just 2.4 last year. Nothing else really changed. His average depth of target, catch rate,

were all within the realm of his or the range of his career norms. I think that's probably just a fluke. And this is a guy who a couple years ago was a 1,300-yard 10-touchdown guy. So I get the concerns, and there are some scenarios where Smith and Jigba take such a big chunk of the passing game that those guys are hurt. But I'll take the value with Metcalf and lock it falling in the rankings. Do you have it on the top of your head what Metcalf's targets per game were in that

1300-10 touchdown season? Lower than they were last year. That was three seasons ago. Metcalf has had two bad seasons in a row by his standards. His eight targets per game. Certainly by his 2020 standards. I think there's so much at play here.

It's so interesting because you look at Lockett and he is going to be 31 years old yep and he had more than 68 yards in one of his last 12 games including the play but that's tyler lockett no no this is much worse than that this is uh there were very few he was saved by touchdowns last year it was weird and and this was a this was worse and at age, I always bring this up, it does remind me a little bit of Adam Thielen. So that's... But Thielen's per-target metrics and per-route metrics took a big hit,

which wasn't necessarily the case with Lockett. Okay. Yeah, I'm certainly more optimistic about Lockett. What range was it? After week five, you said? It was his last 12 games, including the playoffs. So his last 11 regular season games. One game with more than 68 yards

sounds a lot worse than six games with at least 60. But it's not really that good. Which is a 1,000-yard pace. Yeah, but in a 17-game season, 1,000 yards is really not... If you're scoring nine touchdowns, it's pretty good. If you but that's in a 17-game season, 1,000 yards is really... You're scoring nine touchdowns. It's pretty good. If you're scoring

the touchdowns, then 1,009 is good. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm just saying... Which is what Tyler Lockett does. If he's declining, then it makes me feel more confident

in DK Metcalf. If he's not declining, then I think the middle of round three is probably too soon for Metcalf because you're not getting value. You might be getting value based on Dave Jamie and Heath's rankings,

but based on where he's actually going in drafts, you're not getting that value yet for DK Metcalf. That could change. He could be an ADP faller, not just a rankings faller, if the JSN buzz is still carrying on. But so far, it hasn't happened. All right, I want to make sure we get to Chris's fallers here. So Michael Pittman is actually

a mutual one so i'll let uh that's the last one for dave it's one for chris so i'll let you start chris uh michael pitman is a follower for you and for dave yeah i just won the whole jonathan taylor situation has me thinking that this might just be a disaster season for the colts which wouldn't be an outlier for them. Last season was pretty disastrous as well. But for me, it's mostly just when they first drafted Anthony Richardson, I was like, man, this is the most talented quarterback Michael Pittman's ever played for. And then I started actually doing the thought process

of how much are they going to throw? How good are the targets going to be? And it's probably a net downgrade from last season where I assumed it might not be. And it's mostly just in the sober light of day, I realized that Michael Pittman's not really someone that I think has much upside. He's actually not even a top 36 wide receiver for me.

I see the same for Jamie and Heath. If I get him as my number four wide receiver, I think that's okay. As my number five as a bench guy, that's probably what I prefer, but he's just not someone who's going to be a priority for me. And Dave has him 35th, so he's the high guy at 35 on Pittman.

Ramondre Stevenson, a follower for you, Chris, to where? He opened the draft season as like RB7 for me. Now he's more like RB12. I've got him sandwiched between Mixon and Travis ETN. And there's definitely a path to upside. But one thing that I've really come to realize throughout this process is Bill O'Brien's offenses do not throw to their running backs. This is it's kind of shocking. We think of his time with New England. That was actually one of the worst seasons that the Patriots have ever had in terms of throwing to their running backs. 9.5% of their passes in 2011 when Bill O'Brien was the offensive coordinator were thrown to their running backs. That was with Tom Brady. It was also like Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez was like kind of the peak of that offense. But still, that was a thing in his time in Houston, the second lowest target share of any team during Bill O'Brien's time in Houston.

And even David Johnson and Duke Johnson, two really good pass-catching running backs in Houston, combined for a 16.3% target share. That was all their running backs that year. So it's just, it might not be as good a situation for running backs as we've gotten used to in new england and then it seems pretty likely they're going to add someone you know whether it's leonard fournette or dalvin cook it seems pretty likely that it's not just going to be pierre strong and kevin harris as remandre stevenson's primary competition so i just

i think there are more ways for things to go poorly from here than there are ways for them to go really, really well. How dare you forget about Ty Montgomery? Also Ty Montgomery. In that backfield mix. Just one thing. Where did Bill O'Brien call plays last year? It doesn't matter, though.

I mean, I think it matters. The collegiate level. He's making use of the talent that he has which is but stevenson wasn't really a great pass catch he was a he was an enthusiastic and active pass catcher but on a target per round he's no mcafree stevenson wasn't like a difference maker in the passing game it was it was all. No, but we needed those fantasy points from him in order to be good. And so the question is, can he get them back? And there is a little bit of concern there, but I also think that they've painted themselves into a corner with their run game. And Stevenson's got to be their guy. And so hopefully the offensive line

takes a step forward and Stevenson can at least match what he did last year. He averaged 14.3 PPR points per game in six games without Damian Harris. That number feels a little low. That's not where you want to take a running back with the top 30 pick. You want to get somebody after that. If that's the expectation, I'm hoping he's used a little bit more and exceeds that mark this year.

Yeah, I just, right. It's, is he really going to catch it? First of all, like I've said, he wasn't even a third down back, caught 69 passes and only 12 on third down. So they just threw the ball. Which is good. That's a plus. It can be just, you just never know year to year. And I, the only thing is, you know, you talk about the Bill O'Brien offense though, Chris, I mean, I wonder when you have DeAndre Hopkins, was that the bigger factor?

Why throw to the running backs when you can throw the ball? Yeah, Deshaun Watson, too. Sure. There are things that play into it across the board, but it was so consistent over so many years. And it wasn't just the Deshaun Watson era. It was when they had Ryan Mallett starting one season. It's hard to

know, hey, is Ryan Mallett actually doing what Bill O'Brien wants him to? That's a fair question at that time. Ryan Mallett. We shouldn't be going this far back. Let's move to Ken Walker here. Chris, Ken Walker, a faller for you.

I talked about it with you yesterday on FFT and five, you know, could it get to the point where Ken Walker falls so far that it's more appealing? Very. I think like when you talk about the, the ADP, it's possible that he falls,

but he was still before this injury being drafted, arguably as a top 15 running back. He was going ahead of like Joe Mixon and Aaron Jones. I just, I didn't love that value for a guy who probably doesn't have a ton of passing game upside and really needed to dominate rushing work and now that he's dealing with the concern for me hopefully he's healthy but it's just it was a groin injury last year that required surgery and training camp now it's a groin injury again so

the recurring nature of that does make me think there's just a little bit of risk there okay that's an interesting take when would you take ken walker uh he's like rb 20 ish for me so i'm fine with him in i don't know the the 55 to 60 range that's exactly where his nfc adp is living right now yep 55.6 good value there drake l London, a faller for you, Chris. Yeah, this is another one where just kind of like Pittman, I was initially enthusiastic, and then you start to do the math, and it's like, man, unless this team just throws a ton more, I can't justify him as a wide receiver two. He's more like a wide receiver three for me. I would rather have Marquise Brown,

even though I do think Drake London's a better player. And then reports out of Atlanta's camp have not been super positive as far as Desmond Ritter's performance. So I'm just a little worried there, especially with how high the bar is to be a relevant fantasy wide receiver.

And Anthony Richardson, you know, actually, he's put it pretty well. He's been pretty publicly saying I'm lower on Richardson than Dave Jamie and Heath are they have him as a top 10 quarterback but when you look at the position he made a good point on the quarterback's preview why not draft Richardson first higher than you know what I might rank him uh and then take someone later who's still going to be available like an Aaron Rodgers or a Geno Smith or whoever you like in that range, Jared Goff. I'm not going to do that.

I won't get into it. I could speak for a minute or two on that, but I won't. But I think there's a reason not to do it. But, Chris, what do you think about Richardson? Why did you drop him? I opened camp with him as like the number eight quarterback, and I've moved him to like 10 or 11. It's for me, it's mostly just once you start doing the projection, unless you're just projecting him for like 900 rushing yards, he's probably going to be so unproductive as a passer that if he's anything short

of the second best rushing quarterback in the NFL, he's probably not going to be worth starting. I mean, we saw Justin Fields last season really, really good. That was one of, if not the best rushing seasons we've ever seen from a quarterback. And he was, you know, overall fine. He was like, what, QB eight over the course of the full season in points per game. That just, that feels like drafting Anthony Richardson at his ceiling. Cause he's probably going to throw maybe 400 passes. It's still not 100% certain he's even going to open camp or the regular season as the starter. It just I can't justify taking him over to and to Sean Watson, two guys that we've seen the high level upside from. I could justify Dak Prescott and Daniel Jones and Gino Smith.

I think it's fine to take him ahead of those guys. But if I'm looking for a starting quarterback, I'll take two and Deshaun Watson over him. If it makes you feel any better, Fields was fifth per game and four point and six per game and six points. So that is better than eighth. Okay. But again,

that was the bet. Arguably the best rushing season we've seen from a quarterback. Whereas, yeah, I'm sorry. It's just so funny. arguably the best rushing season we've seen from a quarterback. Yeah. I'm sorry. It's just so funny, Chris, that you're dropping him in your rankings to like 10 or 11, which is still way higher than where he's going. Exactly.

Yes. That's always a weird one because where he's going, it's happening clearly. It's just not in any of the drafts that I'm doing. Any draft I'm doing, he's lasting quite a bit longer than that. Or he's going quite a bit earlier than 15 at quarterback. He's going after around 10 in NFC ADP drafts in the month of August. My son took him to be his backup quarterback in his draft with his buddies yesterday.

He took Trevor Lawrence in round six or seven, and he took Anthony Richardson in round 11. And let me finish. That's awesome, by the way. Let me finish off by giving you a piece of advice that I witnessed, something I witnessed this weekend. As you're talking about your son doing a draft, my nephew, he's, I don't know, he's like 11 or something.

I should probably know that. He was doing a bunch of fantasy drafts. He's just like, hey, I had his phone. He's like, I'm going to do a fantasy draft. So I was with him this weekend. So he starts doing it. Yep, yep. So he starts doing it.

The dude's ready to take our jobs. Yeah, for sure. He's awesome. He starts doing a fantasy draft, 10-team league, I think. Whatever, I think we had Cooper Cup and Stefan Diggs was the first two picks. He made a huge mistake.

We don't talk about this enough, but in the fourth and fifth round, I believe, he fell asleep. So don't... You got to stay awake. Yeah. That's kind of rule number one. Yeah, don't draft tired.

Don't draft tired. He was on the, you know, he's like leaning on the couch with the phone in his hand. This could be a mistake. And sure enough, I left the room. I come back. Oh, who'd you get with your last three picks?

He's like, oh, I fell asleep. Let me check. Don't do that, ladies and gentlemen, and you should be fine. Thanks to Chris and Dave and all of you for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow with Running Backs on Fantasy Football.