Fantasy Football Today - Top 12 TEs for 2026! Tough Calls with the Sophomore TEs (01/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: January 21, 2026A quick round of news and notes (3:00) as we react to Mike McDaniel going to the Chargers. Is this great news for every Charger? Then we have some fun facts (6:35) for the AFC Championship game includ...ing a reason for Broncos fans to have hope ... Unveiling our Top 12 tight ends for 2026, we start with the Top 3 (8:40). Is there a big gap between Trey McBride and Brock Bowers? Which sophomore TE made the Top 3? We move on to TEs 4-6 (17:05) and debate Harold Fannin Jr. vs. Colston Loveland vs Tyler Warren. Also, Tucker Kraft makes the list ... TEs 7-9 (25:35) include Sam LaPorta, Dalton Kincaid and Kyle Pitts while TEs 9-12 (37:40) include Jake Ferguson, George Kittle, Oronde Gadsden, Isaiah Likely and Juwan Johnson depending on whose list you're referencing ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi,com Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Shop our store: shop.cbssports.com/fantasy SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports.
What a play!
Can you believe this?
It's a no idea.
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
Off to the races and he stays on his feet.
It's just going to go the distance.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Top 12, tight ends for 2026.
Welcome to fantasy football today presented by FedMGM.
Make it legendary.
It's Wednesday, January 21st.
Tomorrow, we will.
Break down the conference championship games.
Tell you who to put in your DFS lineups and all those things.
Today, though, just a quick news update, a few of them for you,
and then we'll get into the tight ends.
One and two are going to be pretty easy.
After that, there'll be a lot of debate.
Adam, Azer here.
Hello, good morning, Dave Richard.
Adam, hello.
It's an interesting position already, tight ends.
It's not going to be like it was last year.
It'll be kind of like it was a couple of years ago.
And we'll see where are we going to put George Kittle,
who thinks he's going to be, you know, ready fairly early in the season.
Heath, good morning.
Good morning, Adam.
Hello.
Jamie, permanent glasses wear are apparently Jamie Isberg.
He's on a little bit of a streak here.
Good morning, Jamie.
Good morning.
How are you?
Stealing my look, man.
How am I?
I'm doing well.
I have something happened to me today.
I went to the doctor today.
Good.
And they told me something that.
Do you cough?
Do you go ahead and cough?
No one that the doctors ever said this to me.
I showed up.
They said, Adam, your appointment is tomorrow.
And then I went home.
So that's my warning so far.
May add a few tests to what we were planning on running.
Yeah, maybe.
Tomorrow we'll see.
I'll be a longer appointment.
All right.
Anyway.
You enjoy that glove snap.
Oh, no.
Here are your news and notes.
Giants news.
Hooray, Cam Scadaboo could be ready, should be ready for the start of OTAs.
So it looks like he's doing pretty well in his recovery.
Malik neighbors, they're hoping that he'll be ready for the start of training camp.
We'll say about that.
The Chargers is the big one here.
Now, Jamie and I are going to do FFT Express after the show.
We're going to talk about the coaching news in general.
So I'm not going to let Jamie even speak during this segment.
Jamie can wipe his, clean his glasses.
But Heath, Chargers expected to hire Mike McDaniel as their new offensive coordinator.
You like it?
It's very exciting.
Yeah.
I think everybody should be hopeful and excited.
There could be maybe a boost for just about everybody involved.
Dave, excited?
I am.
Think about what happened to the offensive line in the second half of the year for the dolphins.
And I know when you think Mike McDaniel, you do not think offensive line.
You think running backs, you think offense, etc.
I thought that they scheme that line better and they made improvements there in the second half of
the year. And then you think about the charges offensive line. And all the BS, they went through
injuries. Obviously, a humongous part. Staying healthy is going to be very, very important.
But just the mere fact that McDaniel got what he got out of that offensive line in Miami is really
encouraging on top of what he can do, scheming up Justin Herbert, scheming up those receivers.
And obviously, Omari and Hampton, Kamani Vidal, that run game is going to be very, very fun. I love this
higher. I don't want to get too, like, too excited about it. But I really think that
The Chargers could be the Dark Horse candidate for the Super Bowl.
But they could be.
They really could be.
I mean, who's going to have a better?
Evergreen comment.
Who would you take right now in the, in the AFC West, Chiefs or Chargers?
Who finishes with a better record next season?
We don't have enough information.
You know what I'm going to say.
You know what I'm going to say.
I don't need to answer.
Yeah.
I think for the second year in a row of the Chargers.
Oh, I'd think the Chiefs.
Find a way.
Okay.
And Jordan Addison's trespassing charges were dropped.
So we can cross that off the list.
I don't know what I meant by lists, but off the lists of concerns, whatever it is.
Programming.
All right.
So like I said, tomorrow conference championship previews, DFS.
Maybe you've got to get a mailbag in here soon.
Jamie, what do you think next Thursday?
We'll get Dan on.
We'll do a mailbag.
Sounds good.
And we'll preview the Pro Bowl.
JK.
But tomorrow,
1 p.m.
Eastern,
we have a special edition
of fantasy football
today that you can watch
on YouTube
CBS Sports Network,
special edition.
Go to YouTube.
com,
that's fantasy football
today be the easiest
way to see it probably.
But we'll do our top 12s.
We've got a special guest
joining us.
It'll be fun.
We'll see you at 1 p.m.
on Thursday.
Here's just some quick notes
from CBS Sports Research
on the...
We're doing it on CBS Sports Network
or we're doing it on YouTube.
Right.
Yeah.
I don't know what you're talking.
It's on Sports Network 1 p.m.
It'll be on YouTube later.
That's how it's been all year.
I think we're going to simulcast it now.
No.
Oh, okay.
I thought we were going to simulcast.
It's a very elaborate setup you guys have.
All right, either way.
It'll be on YouTube eventually.
Okay, conference championship notes for the AFC championship game from CBS Sports Research.
Jared Stiddam is going to be the seventh quarterback to make his first start of the season in the playoffs.
The first six went one.
one in five.
The only quarterback who won his first start of the season in the playoffs, Frank Reich,
192 in that 32-point comeback against the Oilers.
Amazing game.
He'll be the first Jared Stidham, first quarterback to enter a conference champion start
with zero pass attempts on the season.
Drake May versus Jared Stidham.
First conference championship game between quarterbacks who were drafted by the same team.
They were both drafted by New England.
You want to have a little hope, Broncos fans?
Patriots have allowed 58 sacks this season, including the playoffs.
The Broncos have 71 sacks this season, including the playoffs.
Highest combined total by a team and their opponent entering a playoff game all time.
Got to get some pressure on Drake May.
Drake May has been sacked 10 times and fumbled six times in the playoffs.
Most fumbles by any player in the first two games of a postseason on record,
which goes back the last 35 seasons.
And finally, the Patriots are the only undefeated team on the road this season.
They're 8-0, but they have never won in Denver in the playoffs.
They're 0-4.
Tom Brady was 0-and-3.
Okay, there you go.
Thank you very much to our awesome CBS Sports Research team for those notes.
And football fans, bring that playoff energy to your pro football bets all season long.
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All right, here we go.
Let's get to the top 12 tight ends.
Yeah, who we go!
And let's do one through three.
So you're going to see a lot of kiddle here.
Dave's are updated.
It does not have kiddle third.
Where'd you end up with kiddle, Dave?
Kittles in the 20s.
Okay.
Wow.
So you'll see that the kiddle, like the rankings for me, Heath, and Jamie are from recently,
but not recently enough.
And Dave has adjusted.
Anywho, the new top three, McBride Bowers for everyone.
And then Dave has Fan and third.
I have Fanon Third.
Heath has Fanon third.
Jamie has Loveland third.
But I feel like I've got to get Loveland third
because this was before the playoffs.
I'm going Loveland third.
Heath, are you going to adjust?
FOE.
All right.
Oh, boy.
Dave, I'm surprised.
So these are updated for you.
You went Fanon and Third ahead of Loveland and Warren.
Trying not to have recency bias cloud me here.
It's just the fact that Fanon, as of now,
is not just the top tight end on the Browns,
but the number one target getter,
the number one wide receiver.
As long as that's the case,
I'd rather draft him who's still just as much,
just as much close to the same type of athlete as Colson Loveland is.
But with an opportunity in a much clearer path to hoard targets,
get end zone targets,
he's not sharing the field with the burdens of DUNZE's DJ Moors of the world.
And I can't help it just fall for the,
the volume that's there for a player who's already shown us over multiple stretches as a rookie
just how good of a player he is for our teams.
Jamie, you did go with Loveland, right?
Yeah, Loveland's going to go as tight end three, right?
Yes.
And as I said, when we, I think previously discussed this, maybe we were talking about the playoffs,
that I kind of want to see what the Browns do because they lost the tight end friendly coach.
They are going to have a new coach.
We don't know what the quarterback's going to look like.
We don't know the receiving court is going to look like.
Loveland has the tight end friendly coach
and certainly has shown the connection with his quarterback,
who I think is going to continue to get better.
So it could easily change.
This was, as I said,
this was I think maybe prior to the playoffs
when we were previewing the wild card route,
that I struggled with this,
and you could read the story on the site,
which shows where George Kittle was ranked for us
at the time that was going into Week 18.
that this was one that I struggled with heavily,
you know, Loveland and Fanon,
and mostly was because of this,
the uncertainty in Cleveland.
So,
um,
really can't make an argument for or against either one going ahead of the other at this
point because I think they're both going to be awesome,
as Dave just alluded to.
Uh,
I just think there's a little bit more security involved with Loveland,
who again,
great tight end class as we've seen play out.
You know,
you factor in Arande Gadsden,
Tyler,
Tyler,
you know,
Terence Ferguson.
There's just lots of love,
uh,
Gunnard Helms,
a lot of love about,
all these guys, this was the guy that was drafted first.
And I think we're starting to see why.
And I wonder if he didn't have the shoulder injury coming into the year,
would we have seen a lot more of these type of performances earlier than just the last stretch
of the season?
Okay.
The other thing I'll point out is just the move here for 2026 drafts could be,
here's the top four, draft the fourth guy.
Don't reach for the first guy.
Just wait till the first three guys, whoever they are, wait until they get taken.
and then put up the antenna for the fourth guy.
Okay, just so real quick,
if you're looking at, this is not include George Kittle
because if you're watching right now,
you see Kittles.
Right.
If Kittle were healthy,
it would be five.
Yeah,
but why not Warren?
Why is he not part of this discussion?
Also,
I think the only problem I would have with that is like,
depending on where ADP settles,
I think Loveland and Fannan are going to be much closer
and points per game to Warren,
than they are to McBride and Bowers.
So it's not like you can just pass on
Trey McBride in the early second
and find a Trey McBride in round four.
You're probably getting 75% of it.
Before we focus more on the year two guys,
the rising sophomores,
let's talk about McBride versus Bowers here.
Is it an easy call, Heath, McBride over Bowers?
I mean, we all have it one too,
but is it easy?
No.
don't think it is at all.
It may be, for me, it may be changed in the coming weeks when we find out, like, who the
quarterbacks are for these teams, who's running, calling the plays for these teams, who the
top wide receivers are for these teams.
I don't think, like, in their situations last year, and with Bowers not being 100%, it was
pretty clearly McBride was better.
And I think McBride showed us a level of upside.
that I'm not sure.
I was pretty high on McBride going into last year,
and I wasn't that high in terms of what he just did.
But kind of like Fanon, the OC that just left was a very,
very tight-in, friendly offensive coordinator who comes from the same coaching tree.
So who's going to be running their offense?
Who's going to be throwing the football will have a big impact on it.
We kind of already know probably Bauer is going to have Mendoza,
but we don't know anything else.
McBride in the first five games of the season, when Kyler Murray was the quarterback,
he was the number six tight end per game.
McBride averaged 12.5 pprar fantasy points per game.
He was on pace for 143 targets, which is terrific.
But 99 catches, 935 yards, three touchdowns.
That was the pace for McBride with Kyler Murray.
Last 12 games with Jacoby Reset, McBride was on pace for 137 catches,
1,366 yards, 14 touchdowns, 180 targets,
21.1 PPR fantasy points per game, which is amazing.
But keep in mind, Jacoby Reset was throwing 40 times per game
and was on pace for almost 4,800 yards with 33 touchdowns.
So the past volume, the passing production will not be that good
for the Cardinals next year.
And yeah, all right, McBride, but it is going to be McBride over Bowers
for all of us right now.
Heath gave an interesting take there.
And let's take a break, and we'll talk more about the year two guys,
because it's either Fanon or Loveland at three,
and then Tyler Warren's going to be in this mix as well.
Who's number six in this group?
Well, yeah, who's number six?
We'll find out.
When we come back on fantasy football today.
So, tight ends one, two, three.
For Dave, their McBride, Bowers, Fanon.
For me, despite what you see here,
they're going to be McBride, Bowers, Loveland.
For Heath, McBride, Bowers, Fanon.
For Jamie, McBride, Bowers, Loveland.
and who's 4-5-6, Jamie, 4-5-6 for you?
Four would now be Fanon.
Five would be Warren, and I believe six is now Tucker Craft.
Fanon, Warren, Kraft.
Heath.
Loveland, Kraft, Warren.
Dave.
We've got a consensus on names for the top six.
My 4-5 and 6 is Loveland, Warren, Tucker Craft.
I think we have a consensus.
there's a decent chance
after I was just talking about
the offensive coordinator
that left Trey McBride
Sam Leporta
definitely deserves to be in this conversation
he could crack my top six
but I'll leave him a seven for now
Leporta is sixth for me
so I would go McBride, Bowers,
Loveland, Fanon, Warren,
LaPorta and then I had Kraft 7
no real preference there.
I mean,
Laporta's 17 game pace
was 93 targets.
Kraft's 17-game pace was 94 targets.
You want to remove week 9 when Kraft played 49% of the snaps
his 17-game pace was 100 targets.
One of them's coming off a torn ACL.
One of them's coming off a season-ending back injury.
So I guess it probably makes sense
to have Kraft ahead of Leporta.
I'll stick with Leporta now just for fun.
Am I crazy?
Was there a report that said
Leporto may not be ready for week one?
I didn't see that.
Adam had mentioned that toward the end of the season
that you read something somewhere about that.
I don't even remember.
Well-sourced reporting.
I don't remember.
That's possible.
Let's see if I can find it.
Yeah.
Sorry about that.
Leporta was tight end seven per game,
so he's probably around that for everybody.
But anyway, Fanon and Loveland and Tucker Craft are all four, five, six,
or it's, sorry.
Three through six is Fanon, Loveland, Warren, Craft.
in some order.
So what do we think about Tyler Warren, guys?
Because Pittman and Pierce may not be back next year, Jamie.
Warren, in his first 10 games, he was the number two tight end overall, but number
six per game.
He's having a really nice season.
Last seven games completely fell apart, even though he was on pace for 109 targets in
those seven games.
But it's just the production was bad.
What do you think about Warren?
I think he's a chance to be special.
I mean, you know, the quarterback is going to determine, I think, how this all, you know,
shakes out for him.
even if the receivers are back, you know, so Pierce is most likely gone.
I think Pittman will return.
But Daniel Jones was making him into a consistent starter, you know, a steal-on-draft day.
You know, one of the one of the guys you were going to be, we're still going to be talking about, you know, for many years.
But I think he would have been probably, I think, more in the, hey, could it be Loveland, Fannin, or Warren?
I think we're kind of all just kind of settling.
It's Loveland and Fanon.
and then Warren.
So if they make a splash at quarterback, if they get the right guy,
if Daniel Jones makes a speedy recovery and looks like he's going to be great in camp with Pierce gone,
maybe again with Pittman gone, I don't know.
I still think you're kind of just looking at him as the next guy.
So to your point, Adam, which you ask Dave, could there be five guys that we're talking about here
in terms of, you know, the consensus and easy, you know, guys that are going to be selected
in probably their first five rounds?
Because I think Heath is right.
You have to sort of separate them in the top two, then the next.
too and then I think Warren but look things can certainly change for Warren where he gets closer
to where I think Loveland and Fannin will go.
Heath, give me your thoughts on this trio of rising sophomores.
I think that Loveland and Fannan have a little more upside than Warren does.
Just notice the order that Heath said they're very important.
Yeah.
In that is, has nothing to do with their circumstances.
I just think that those two are a little bit better players and a little bit more likely to have a,
not a Tray McBride season, but a great tight-end season.
All of them, though, well, except for Loveland, like Fannin and Warren, we have so much to learn when it comes to what their 2026 situation is going to be.
And that's going to have a big impact on it.
I think I saw something the other day that said maybe they're going to let Pittman go and keep Pierce.
That would probably be better for Tyler Warren.
So I think if we just do it based on talent,
it's, as Jamie said, you split the first two out and put Warren third.
Do you, are you, what?
Just based on talent?
Tyler Warren, come on, this guy is extremely talented.
I love Tyler Warren.
I love his talent.
He is, he's a monster out there.
I have no qualms at all with his talent.
He's as talented or more than either.
They're all extremely talented.
I don't think I'm separating any of them.
I think they're all in the same.
I personally, they're all in the same talent boat.
And I think Gadsden might be in that.
He's so good, he might be in that boat too.
So Adam, just to that point because, you know, again,
based on where these guys are going to get drafted,
I think McBride's going to be somewhere in the late round one,
round two range, Bowers, late round two, early round three range,
depending on coach quarterback, et cetera.
maybe pushes away into a miller round two.
But then I think we get a little bit of a separation.
Probably round four is where you start to see Fanon and Loveland,
Loveland and Fanon come off the board.
If you see that, though, Adam, based on how you're talking right now,
are you taking Warren immediately?
No.
Right now today?
I mean, because otherwise you may not get him.
Like we've seen him go, I think, in round six in both of the drafts we've done,
one PPR, one half PPR.
No, he went in round four.
Half PPR.
Half PPR went first pick of round four.
He went two.
spots ahead of Coach.
Oh, that's right.
I remember Jacob making the comment.
Warren over Loveland was.
Yeah.
In a span of 13 picks, we had Warren, then Loveland, and then Fanon was the first pick of
round five.
Okay, so let's just assume that that's not going to be how it probably goes, at least as
of now.
How soon when you see those two guys come off the board would you be reaching for one?
Two receiver league, I'd say a round later.
Three receiver league, probably late round five or six.
I don't think he's going to make it that far.
So he did in PBR and the PBR document, you know.
Yeah, look, if Pittman's not back, that changes things.
Who's their quarterback, you know?
Is it Daniel Jones coming off a torn Achilles?
Achilles.
Yep.
That scares me a little bit.
There's, that's, I think, one of the things this week and getting ready for FFT Dynasty shows
that I really think we need to look more into.
there are way more teams that need quarterbacks right now than there are good quarterbacks.
There are going to be multiple teams that kind of get left out or start somebody that we aren't sure if they're any good or not.
Like what's the bidding war for Jacoby Per Set going to look like?
Right. Mac Jones.
Overset's under contract.
Mac Jones is too.
Has needed any good extension?
Mac Jones is under contract for one more year.
So there's even fewer.
What?
Jacobi is too?
Jacobi's going into a contractor.
I believe Mac is as well.
Malik Willis is about to be a free agent.
Watch him get overpaid.
Dolpham guys already know about Roger.
Who's that?
Tua.
Yep.
He will be.
I thought the cap hit was so prohibitive with Tua.
No, I think that's bad.
Find a way to move on.
I'm going to guess the quarterbacks that are going to hit the market
that are going to have teams with, teams that are going to
have contract issues. You're going to see Kyler. You're going to see
Tua. You're going to see
Rogers. You're going to see
Gino.
Gino is a good one, yeah.
Cousins. Russell Wilson.
Well, cousins, they just restructured his deal to make it
more easier to get rid of him.
Okay. Right.
It's going to be awesome.
I mean, there's a chance
Mitchell Trubisky ends up starting somewhere next year.
I mean, so then we get to like
the Kraft La Porta range here
and you guys have craft in your top six.
I have him seventh with Leporta six.
And then for, you know what, let's just do, who's seven, eight, nine.
Let's go to seven, eight nine.
Jamie, seven eight nine for you?
Trying to give you the most recent list that I put together.
Seven is Loporta, eight is Pitts,
nine is Kincaid.
Reporta, Pitts, Kincaid.
Yes, and Pitts is a free agent,
but obviously you've got to love this to Fansky hire for him.
And Heath, 789.
exactly the same although where pits goes and where isaiah likely goes um will could could shift
that for sure what if isaiah likely ends up in alina with stefansky or in kansas city to replace
travis kelsey dave i like where heath's mind's at uh i sent in pitt seven kincade eight
and sam leporta nine if leporta if i just sent you a story adam on yeah what dan campbell said about
Leporta. This was on January 1st.
It sounds cautiously optimistic that he'll be ready to go for the season.
It'll be a lot easier to take Loporta over Kincade and potentially Pitz if he's over this
back issue.
Okay.
So Pits, Kincade, Leporta for Dave.
Similar.
Jamie and Heath have basically the same guys.
But it's Pits.
Wait, I'm sorry.
I got confused.
We also need to remind some people.
That's the theme of the show for you today, Adam.
We need to remind some people, like the list you're looking at is the list that I submitted before Week 18.
And so somebody in the chat thought I was way too low on Loveland earlier in the show.
I said he was fourth.
Just a reminder.
So Pitts-Kincade and Leporta for you, or what was the Leporta Pitts-Kincade?
Leporta Pitts.
And do I have to put somebody nine?
Yeah, you sure do.
Well, that's so is Concade.
but he's the one that I just would rather,
like I hope likely or Gadsden
or somebody else moves at him.
He's the placeholder
for whoever is the ninth best tight end.
Kincaid, including the playoffs,
played 14 games.
I believe two of them were not full games.
In seven of those,
he scored 11.5 p.pr points or more.
When he was out, he was good.
Mm-hmm.
Scored a lot of touchdowns.
So the thing, the reason why I have Kincaid,
I think it's 10th,
and what I like about
Mike Davele likes tight ends right?
Who knows?
So what I like about Kincaid is
When the Giants fan, no.
He's been, I mean, does he like tight ends?
There's no evidence that he's going to feature a tight end.
This is a joke.
He's going to be a next head coach.
Yeah, he could be.
So anyway,
his route participation rate was never higher than 62.5%.
So that's bad.
But he's very efficient when he was on
the field.
2.83 yards per out run led all tight ends.
This is Dalton Kincaid we're talking about.
Will they play him more?
This is what we talked about with Colston Loveland.
His target per out run rate was really good, but he wasn't on the field that much.
And then the last few games of the regular season and into the playoffs, that changed, and
bam.
So I don't think Kincaid can do that, but I do like that his target per out run rate's
been good basically all three years.
19.8% is a rookie for Kincaid, 27.2%, 24.4%.
3% the last two years.
When he's on the field, he gets targeted.
Can he carry not 2.83 yards per route run,
but can he get to 2 yards per out run,
something like that, and play a lot?
If he's like playing 80% of the snaps
or running 80% of the routes
and getting targeted at a high rate,
then I think you're going to have a pretty good player.
I think a good question for him is how hurt was he throughout this season,
especially like in the games where we thought he was a full participant
because you talked about what happened with Colston Loveland when they got in the playoffs.
Well, when the bills got in the playoffs, they played two games,
and Dalton Kincaid played less than half the snaps in both of them.
And that's pretty much what he did all season long.
His snap percentage actually went down from year two to year three.
And if that was just solely because of injuries,
then it's easy to see him having a much better year last year.
If it's because they don't really want to play him when they're not going to throw in the bowl,
then that's a bigger problem for,
for long-term growth.
I mean, he basically just plays like a slot receiver.
You know, so it's,
he's never going to be considered like a traditional tight-in.
We have some other names here.
No, it won't be like that.
What's the cost?
To me, that's what it's going to come down to,
because I think everybody will view Dalton Kincaid as,
yeah, he's great, especially,
he seems a little too touchdown dependent,
but if he's going to cost me a sixth-round pick,
I can go in four different directions
at other positions, obviously.
be really good with letting somebody else get Kincaid.
If it's round eight, if it's around nine,
you can tell me where he went in our mocks.
I don't mind that cost,
even though he's a big time injury risk.
So quarterback, running back, wide receiver,
you're going kicker or defense.
What's the fourth position there?
I don't know.
I could pick multiple wide receivers.
There's more than positions that I would like there.
Four different directions, not four different positions.
I think it's kind of hilarious that we have Kyle Pitts in our top ten.
Why?
Because so much of his production was the games without Drake London.
True.
Yep.
You know, I mean, weeks 12 through 15, he averaged 20.1 PPR fantasy points per game.
Drake London comes back.
He scores 18.7 in the first game, then 3.6, then 11.8 PPR fantasy points.
Yeah.
That's over 11 and 2 out of 3.
It's pretty great.
It is.
If you make the argument, though, I mean, obviously, I don't even know if it's different in talent
because of where Pitts was drafted,
but almost all of Loveland's great games
came without O'Donzie on the field.
Yep.
Until, well, yeah, no, that is true.
But he just started running more routes.
I think that's the difference.
I'm just saying, though,
like, if we're going to start nitpicking
for certain things, like, that's a very similar conflict.
No, I just think it's funny because Kyle Pitts
has had year after year fantasy managers
some have been like, well, this is going to be Kyle Pitts's year,
and he never seems to fall out of fantasy relevance.
And this year, he probably did, right?
I mean, this year, 2020.
He definitely was not drafted as a starting fantasy tight end.
This is the first time in his career, and he obviously delivered.
It was a contract year for him, so we know how that goes sometimes,
that players, when they have those scenarios, they play to their best potential.
They play through injury.
He performed at a very high level.
He was the number two tight end in total points at the position.
Finished a good 100 plus points behind number one, training, right?
But obviously, it was a great year for him.
And I think when you start to, you know, he said,
do I have to pick somebody as a placeholder tight at nine?
Like we're at that point where you're looking for upside and hopeful scenarios.
And, you know, again, these lists that you're looking at were submitted before some of the coaching news.
I think Kevin Savansky there, if Pitt stays, is awesome for him.
Yeah, especially if they get the quarterback situation, right?
Because that's what that guy has done.
He did it in Cleveland.
We're sitting here talking about Harold Fanna.
We were talking about David Nizoku for the last couple of years.
Once he got a quarterback that featured him in Joe Flacko, we just got through talking.
about this yesterday with petting and what he has done with the tight end in
Arizona while he came from the Cleveland system is why we like train McBride before he
broke out which was what we were hoping for to see and so I think this is a a huge
plus and like to Heath I mean he said you know if Isaiah likely ends up in in Atlanta as
the Pitts replacement like that's awesome you know so it's it's really that that team
that you're looking at the player on that team in that position and if Pitts does
stay he may get the franchise tag like
Like, it's going to be fun, I think, to draft him this year.
But you're getting him at a good cost.
Not really.
If he's being ranked, you know, eighth, it's not going to be that great of a cost.
He averaged 10 points per game, 10 PPR fantasy points per game with Drake London.
That's what Colson Lovelland average for the season.
That made him tight end 18 per game.
So it's been disappointment after disappointment after disappointment, basically for Kyle Pitts.
Talking about basically three incredible games, including a 45-point game, three touchdown game at Tampa Bay.
And you hate Kyle Pitt.
I kind of do right now.
We're talking about tight-in seven or eight or nine.
Like, this is after all the good players are gone.
I don't know if you're talking about a guy in round six, though.
Yeah, well, he went.
When did he go?
Did he go in round six?
I got you.
So he went in round seven, 11th pick of round seven.
Here were some of the guys taken around him.
This is which draft?
Half PPR.
What about the full?
Well, Jamie, I don't know.
Let me see. What's it called? It wasn't called January, was it?
Yeah.
Oh, I don't, I have to log into my wife's account.
Oh, that's right. This is where we caught you.
But in the half-PPR league, he went in the same area as Evans,
Ramandre Stevenson, Ricky Pearsall, Tony Pollard, DJ Moore, Kyle Pitts, RICO Dato, Caleb Williams,
Blake Corum, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Addison.
Dave, once Adam was caught, and I clearly alert Anando of the situation.
He said, I can't believe you're not going to the Hurricanes game.
Why don't you take some of, quote, Ali's winnings.
Allie's winnings wouldn't have gotten me a parking past the Hurricanes game.
Let's see.
What's her password?
We're really going through all this?
I'll see if I can find the PPR results since I don't have to log into my wife's account.
But like...
Like round seven, the 11th pick.
That, like that's not a prohibitive cost.
That's a pretty, I think it's pretty, it's not, no, it's not prohibitive.
But it's a good, but it's a good pick.
And by the way, at this point, we, it's not certain that Kyle Pitts is going to stay in Atlanta.
There's, there's a number of different directions that he could go in and still be very, very, very targeted.
So I don't mind at this point taking him in late round seven.
That's fine.
Once we know where he's playing, we'll have a much better idea of work.
He should go and whether or not he'll be worth it.
But he's last year we weren't sure if he was going to get drafted.
That's the end of that comment.
Now we know he's going to get drafted.
Maybe it'll probably get drafted with the top one, not top 80 pick by the time.
We just need Arthur Smith to take the bill's job and then bring in Kyle Pitts.
Why would you even speak that into?
And two other tight ends.
You just kill each other.
Yeah, so listen, last year, looking at our FFT draft, the league, we actually played out,
and the last draft we did, pick, 7-11, 11th pick of round 7, was Chris Olave.
Picks before that, Jacobi Meyer, so we had Zach Charbonnet, Romo Dunzee, Zach Charbonnet, Jalen Warren,
Keon Coleman, Jacobi Myers, Chris Olave, Stefan Diggs.
Those are the last six picks or seven picks of round seven.
So actually, pretty much you get a few wide receivers come out of this range every.
year that are pretty good. So I think that's actually a pretty high pick for Kyle Pitts, who
has been pretty disappointing. Do you think Kyle Pitts is better or worse than Dalton
Kincaid? You have Pitts ahead, I guess. I have him ahead. Right. Yeah, I have him ahead. I mean,
look, Kincaid, I think Dave having Joanne Johnson there, like maybe I should have put
Joanne Johnson ahead of Kincaid. Maybe, did anybody have Dallas Goddard? Dallas Goddard had a great year.
He's both for me. Yeah. And, um, and, um, and, and, and,
And what was I going to say?
And A.J. Brown could be on the move.
We'll see.
Kincaid, I didn't feel great about it.
I just feel like because Josh Allen could always have a 35 touchdown pass season,
because Kincaid's got pretty good metrics,
I think there is a chance for a post-hype breakout for him.
All right, anyway, let's get to 10 through 12.
Dave's got Joanne Johnson, Isaiah likely, and Jake Ferguson.
I have Kittle somewhere in it.
here. I think I have Kittle 9 and I have
Pitts, Kincade
Gadsden. I also have Brenton Strange
in the mix.
I thought this all screwed up. Let's just go with
Kincaid Gadsden Strange for me. Yeah.
Kincaid Gatston Strange.
Heath,
Kincaid Gatston likely.
Jamie.
Well, actually, Kincaid was at 9,
but I don't
know who I'd want to put it 12. I'd probably just put
Kittl at 12th.
Okay, so I had Kittal like
eighth. I'm the only one who has
that high, I guess.
And, all right, so Heath,
Kincaid, Gadsden, likely,
something like that. Jamie, Gadsden,
Kincaid, Ferguson.
No, no, no. It's Gadsden,
Ferguson, Goddard.
Okay. Sorry. This was
my fault. But anyway, some of the
name, it doesn't matter who has, who
where. Some of the names you're seeing here, Joanne
Johnston, Gadsden,
Kincaid, likely,
strange, maybe Kittle,
Jake Ferguson. Dave, you're the only
one I see was John Johnson here. Talk, discuss. And he's a placeholder. I'm not going to commit to
anybody after who I have at nine, but Joanne Johnson had a good year, averaged over 10 ppr
points per game. He had eight games with seven plus targets, 10.3 ppr points per game in seven of the eight.
He's, as from now, I think he's going to still be the number two target getter in New Orleans.
And as long as that's the case, yeah, let's run it back with Juan Johnson with a late round pick.
I totally forgot to take another commercial break. So we're going to do that.
going to do that now. I'm having a great...
Wow.
Let's not forget. I showed up to a doctor's appointment on the wrong day this morning.
That's how it all started. It has continued. I don't know where I am. We'll be right back
on fantasy football tomorrow.
Hey, this is Richard Deich, the host of the sports media podcast. If you're interested in what's
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I don't even want to talk anymore.
Dave was talking about Joanne Johnson.
Jamie.
That was yesterday right.
Jamie, who do you want to highlight from your last three tight ends?
I mean, they're all, you know, interesting in their own right.
I think for Gadsden, the addition to Mike McDaniel,
especially if Quentin Johnston and Keenan Allen are gone,
that's huge.
So we've seen from McDaniel with spurts of obviously Darren Wallow this year,
what he did with John Hussmith last year.
And if you look at what Gadsden and his numbers were
when Quentin Johnson was off the field,
he was pretty special.
So, you know, he could be a guy who rises a couple more spots
depending on what the Charter's receiving court looks like.
So healthy offensive line, you know,
guy that flashed at times in his rookie campaign,
some losses at the receiving core
if they're not really replaced with anything more
than, you know, Trey Harris or Lambert Smith.
Like this could be great for Aranda Gadsden
with the addition to Mike McDaniel.
Yeah, that'd be awesome.
He's an exciting player.
Heath, talk about Isaiah likely,
major top 12.
Immense upside, we just hope,
for the right landing spot.
I think this guy could,
I don't know that anybody here would be that surprised
if he gets the right landing spot.
Oh, Giants.
ends up ranking like sixth the tight end this year, maybe even higher.
That was horrible.
Yeah, that'd be great.
Heath, let's revisit our Quentin Johnson for Isaiah likely dynasty trade.
Who would you take now?
I probably wouldn't want to be involved in that trade until I knew where Isaiah
likely was playing.
Okay.
The fun of calling it is based on the uncertainty of likely.
Johnson's a year younger.
I think that might just be a simple tiebreaker.
Okay.
And Johnson's going to be on the Chargers next year.
He's got one year left, right?
Yeah, okay.
I'll double check.
It might be two.
Okay.
I think it's picked up as an option.
You got Jake Ferguson on this list, too.
Dave's got him 12.
Jamie, I don't remember if he's still 12.
He's 11th.
He's 11th.
Great.
Another guy that could rise if George Pickens leaves.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
All right, well, that's it for our.
top 12, I don't know, you want to elaborate.
I think we always had Jake Ferguson to say more than that.
Jamie, give me 30 seconds on Jake Ferguson.
I mean, he was great at the start of the season when CD Lamb was banged up
and before Pickens became elite or, you know, started to show those flashes,
but mostly when Lamb was injured.
I think just as we've seen from him, he's going to be a guy that Dak Prescott
will lean on when he's got the opportunity to be second on the team of targets.
And if Pickens leaves, I think he'll easily be second on the team of targets.
So not a bad fallback option, I think, can be in that Jawan,
Johnson type of range, you know, 10 PPR points per game.
More touchdown dependent if he's third on the team in targets, but still somebody, I think
that's a good settle for 10.
Same thing with Dallas Goddor, you know, who's 12 for me.
I just think you look at the situation.
As we saw, he was very touchdown dependent from Dailen Hertz, but we know the scenario when
the two receivers are healthy, just not going to be somebody you feel super confident
in.
But, again, you know, Brent Strange, Isaiah likely, if he's not in the right scenario, you
know, all these guys are just the type of tight ends that you're waiting for unless
You want to just shoot for upside and maybe Gunner Helm without Chico Conco there.
Jacob was the only one that had Terrence Ferguson in his top 12 if Parkinson moves on.
And, you know, he saw some flashes from him, you know, before the hamstring injury suffered that caused him to miss the wildcard game, scored two touchdowns in back-to-back weeks.
The kiddle replacement could be awesome as well.
I was about to bring that up.
You know, Jake Tongis, if he stays with San Francisco, he's a free agent.
But I'm sure they would like to keep him there.
And obviously, if Kittles healthy,
he's somebody that we'll look at as well.
So there's several opportunities for other players to get into the top tool.
Last point on Ferguson,
he averaged almost as many fantasy points per game,
PPR half non,
with C.D. Lamb on the field as Kyle Pitts averaged with Drake London on the field.
You're following me there, right?
One more time?
He averaged almost as many fantasy points
per game, Ferguson averaged almost as many
fancy points per game as Pitts did,
when both of them had their number one wide
receivers on the field.
It was almost as good as Kyle Pitts.
Okay.
That's it for the show.
How about that?
You guys want to talk about my...
Are you sure?
Do you want to talk about my blockbuster
dynasty trade for the other day?
I haven't heard a single thing about it.
We can make trades, but we can't make ad drops.
Got it.
Of course you can make trades, but not add drops.
You can make transactions.
I understand.
Which of your tanking teams is this?
Bake Burger, the original.
Is it or it is?
Just the league that you're the commissioner of,
you're allowing transactions to happen that benefit you.
But other transactions that are perfectly allowed, you're not allowing.
First of all, it wasn't perfectly allowed.
I said it was my fault for not turning transactions off,
but I said I'm turning transactions off.
Then I forgot to do it.
But no, add drops.
Add drops are off.
Trades are fine.
Got it.
Trades.
Why couldn't you make a trade?
Anyway, I traded Malik neighbors.
Transactions are transactions.
I traded Malik neighbors for Michael Wilson and two firsts, a second, and a third.
But the firsts are picks 11 and 12.
So no great picks here.
Malik neighbors for Michael Wilson, pick 11 and pick 12 and a second round pick?
And a third, a third in 2027.
You don't like it?
So do you remember how you acquired Malik neighbors in that league?
Yeah, I do.
You traded, I believe, two players away to get him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's done is done, Heath.
It doesn't matter.
I'm not getting Trey McBride back.
It was Drake, Drake May and Trey McBride.
Well, it wasn't Drake May.
It was a pick and Trey McBride.
The pick turned into it.
Drake Bay.
Yeah.
And now you have pick 11 and pick 12 in the draft and Michael Wilson.
And Michael Wilson.
And 2.8 and a third round pick next year.
I'm more than one player.
I believe neighbors ain't going to win me anything.
We'll be tanking again next year with neighbors.
I got to rebuild here.
You don't like it?
All right.
You don't like it.
It feels kind of like you turned a $100 bill into two quarters and nickel and a dime.
Oh, come on.
You could at least say.
You know how many times I've done that at the casino?
No.
Could at least at 2.20s, a 10 and a 5 or something like that.
All right.
Well, thanks for the feed.
Aren't you glad you brought that up?
Have a great day, everybody.
We're back tomorrow with a podcast in the morning
and CBS Sports Network at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Until then, talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football.
