Fantasy Football Today - TOUGH TO RANK! Which RBs and WRs are We Struggling With? (05/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

The wide receiver position gets tricky beginning as early as late Round 3. There is a big glut at the position that is very tough to rank including guys like DeVonta Smith, Courtland Sutton and Davante Adams, and we'll talk about that at the top of the show. We've also got some news and notes (10:30) on a potential Jameson Williams breakout, the team with the toughest schedule and more ... Let's get to the running backs who are tough to rank beginning with Breece Hall (20:35) and then a trio of RBs (24:40) who could be very good mid-round picks or who could be traps! One of us is very excited about Isiah Pacheco, but there are certainly risks. We also discuss why the Cowboys and Giants RBs (39:00) are tough to rank and then we compare Kaleb Johnson and Quinshon Judkins (41:50) ... On to the WRs (48:00) who are difficult to rank, DJ Moore is the headliner. We also discuss Davante Adams (54:50) and the Chiefs WRs (58:50) ... Email us at [e-mail] 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 Express on Apple: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FFT Express on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FFT team on Twitter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @FFToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @AdamAizer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @JameyEisenberg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @daverichard⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @heathcummingssr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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." Visit the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠betting arena on CBSSports.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sportsbook reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sportsbook 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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Of TV's number one show. These people are dangerous. I'm doing this alone. Not at all. Every Batman gotta have their router. Culture! Justin Hartley stars. I made a promise. I will never stop looking. In Tracker, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus

and returning CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet. This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. It's mailbag time. So it's not really mailbag time.

It just got the mailbag time. So it's not really mailbag time. It just got the mailbag trio mailbag tomorrow, but mailbag vibe today, mailbag vibe today on this Wednesday, May 14th, Adam Hazer, Jamie Isenberg and Dan Schneier. Dan, I give you full license to make fun of my hair. I desperately need a haircut. So go for it. Pretty obvious. You need a haircut right now. You got that Corey Matthews vibe going right now, which is not a terrible vibe, honestly, to be honest with you.

While needing a haircut, I don't think it's actually a terrible look for you to give yourself a little bit of that curly, Jew-fro-y type look. I think it kind of works for you. With that said, I'm just happy to be here guys. It's been a while and I just had one of the worst 24 hours of my life, these last 24 hours. To spare you all from the gruesome details,

let's just say this, I gave a whole new meaning to Dan on the can. Jeez. Face first, Neurovirus, food poisoning, I don't know what it was, but it was bad. Well, glad you're healthy, man. Good to have you back. Wow. Jamie, how are you? How are you? How was your 24 hours? That was great. That was great. Thank you. How was yours? I can't stop coughing.

All right. Well, here's going to the finals, baby. Okay. Well, don't say that just yet. I haven't feeling that type of comment. Like like this is gonna this tonight's game is feels Adam to me like it's gonna be a weird game where the Knicks don't win and they took them for granted and Everyone starts to feel a little bit of that tightness cuz now the Knicks are losing three straight without Tatum The cell probably not four and a half point favorites tonight. Yes, I was surprised by that. I want to talk about fantasy football here Plenty of time to talk. Well, if the Knicks win, we'll just do a whole Eastern Conference Finals breakdown on the middle.

Yeah, we'll also go Panthers tonight. Now I was, Jamie and I are doing these fantasy cares, eliminator leagues, they're best ball leagues, they're wild formats. You can start up to three quarterbacks, you kickers, head coaches. It's insane. I even think punters if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, I said kickers, I meant punter. Obviously you can start kicking.

But I think punting is part of this too, I think. I gotta read the rules again. But I got on the clock yesterday and this is where I'm really struggling. Jamie, it's like late round three, all the way to round six or so in a 12-team league. It's the wide receiver position, man. And the guys I had to choose between, like DK Metcalf and Marvin Harrison Jr., Devontae

Adams, Zay Flowers, so I wouldn't have taken there. They had just gotten off the board. Also, Debo Samuel was taken there. I didn't like that pick way too early. But for me, it was DJ Moore, Devontae Smith, Rasbo Samuel was taken there. I didn't like that pick. Way too early. But for me, it was DJ Moore, Devante Smith, Rashi Rice was... I don't know if I noticed Rashi Rice because the rankings are very different than ours on this website. Chris Godwin was available. Jerry Judy was available. Jordan Addison, Cortland Sutton, Jamison Williams, Jawan Jennings, and I feel like I could make a case

for any of them with that pick. I took DJ Moore. I don't even know if I'd make the same decision if I could do it again, but boy, this range of wide receiver, very difficult. So today's episode, Jamie, is toughest players to rank. That's where it starts for me is I just, there's a glut of wide receivers, over a dozen, I'd say,

and could see them finishing in any any order. It's really like after wide receiver like 13. Yeah, where you start to get the questions of you know, you mentioned a few names there. I think, you know, handful of guys don't really enter the conversation for me, but they're certainly in the next group of receivers. But yeah, you know, Devante Adams and DJ Moore and you know, those those guys, Rashi Rice, you know, Devontae Adams and DJ Moore and you know, those guys, Rashi Rice, you know, Xavier Worthy, you know, those guys that have top 10 upside because we've seen it in spurts. We've seen it for seasons.

You know, some of these guys are obviously older. You know, can Cortland Sutton continue to produce like he has, like he did last year? Can Terry McLaurin produce like he did last year? You know, so there's a lot of guys at that position. And it's funny because I also, I'm in the same type of league as you are. I also did a magazine draft with other analysts from other industries, from other publications, excuse me.

It'd be fun with other industries. Yeah, right. I got some automakers in there, a coffee shop owner. It was great. From other sites. And I had the fourth pick and I started with B. John Robinson, which obviously is no-brainer. And then I went Trey McBride in round two because I didn't love the receivers there because at that point there was 11 off the board.

And got lucky, I think, in some sense that that T Higgins fell to me in round three but it's a three receiver league my starting receivers I like I just don't love it's uh it is T Higgins, Cortland Sutton and Xavier Worthy and it's a it's a solid group knowing that you have I like it. Running back number one. Yeah but it it's like, should I have gone CD Lamb there and maybe, you know, Kyron Williams or Chase Brown or, you know, one of those guys in round two, is that a better start knowing that receiver in a three receiver league kind of dries up a little bit? We've talked about this a lot, I feel like through the last 12 months of the calendar year and we saw it play out a little bit in the regular season last year, more and more and more. The running backs are

making a comeback in fantasy. I feel like in that, in that range where we used to just pile on receivers and that's the range you're talking about. Some of the best plays are running backs, which makes me feel like I do want to lean more toward receiver in that early round pick too. But how do you take lamb over Bijan? That's right. It's just like, it's a tough spot. I wouldn't do it. I also think- Lambs had a better year. Lambs 2023 was better than Bijan's best season.

So, could make the game. I also think, you know, we talk about draft slots and draft positions. Like the back end of round one almost feels like a better place to be than the beginning of round one. Now, obviously you're getting one of the top five or six players clearly, but I don't know how much of a drop-off there is at the back in the round one, especially like when you start to compare

Malik neighbors and Nico Collins and Prakrit Apua and getting two of those guys. Yeah, so like the person that picked at 12, I don't remember the the picks, but they went back-to-back receiver. Might've been Niko and Brian Thomas, and then ended up with two really good running backs in three and four. So, you know, the two turns I was like, I almost want to be there than where I was, you know, just from the caliber of running backs

that fall to you in that range, while still getting to, you know, top five caliber receivers. I think that makes sense because of what we were just talking about with the running back depth as it goes through. But I will say this as far as the high end outcomes, co, I do feel like taking injuries out of it. There is more variance even with like Nico, with Brian Thomas than there is with Bijan or something like, or a player of running back up there.

Because with those receivers added to the mix, Travis Hunter and the two and the three receivers that sexins added with Christian Kirk as well coming In there's gonna be some touchdown variance there It could you could have some outcomes play out where Thomas doesn't score all the touchdowns or Nico doesn't score all the touchdowns But Bijan, you know what you're getting there. Oh, I mean, yeah clearly but I think just in terms of like roster build Yes, you know like you're getting to it. And again, you know, could be Pooka and neighbors. It could be Amara St. Brown. You know, we've seen him slip a little bit.

AJ Brown, you know, still, if you wanna, you know, sort of not necessarily go at the 12 spot, you know, so there's a lot of different ways that can work out for you. But I do think like your point is valid that the running back depth is so good. In this case, for example, so I just told you my start running back tight end three receivers round six, I took RJ Harvey.

You know, I was told that. Oh yeah. Yeah. I took, he was my first running back in the eliminator. He's talking him up big to this so far. This off scene is like, I don't see any reason to take them off on third downs. Yeah. So I think my ideal start would be if I had a late pick.

So I wanna end up some way somehow with a top eight receiver, Chase Jefferson, Lam, Hookah, Nik, it's not my order, Hookah, Nikko, Brian Thomas Jr., Aman Rasim, Brown Malik Neighbors. That's eight, AJ Brown is a very good consolation prize. He's in his own tier at nine for me. I would love to get, you know, I don't think I'm gonna get Bijan and a top eight receiver.

I don't think I'm gonna get Gibbs and a top eight receiver. I do think Gentie and H-An and a top eight receiver is very doable if you have one of the later picks. And that's what I would be hoping for. And then there's another guy that none of us ever talk about. He could have been on the players we don't talk about enough. I don't think any of us ever draft.

It's Derrick Henry, who was amazing last year in every format and don't even think he'll be a first round. He won't be a first round pick if just the CBS guys are drafting. He was in this draft I did. He was the 10th overall pick. It's crazy.

Was that one of like the coffee guys or automakers? No, but I mean, it was not a bad pick because he surprised us last year. No reason why he can't do it again. All right. So we'll get back to, we'll get to some players that are tough to rank in a moment.

Let's do some news and notes. The Trey Hendrickson situation for the Bengals is coming to a bit of a boiling point and he obviously wants a new contract. He is one of the best defensive ends in football. Hopefully they can work it out, but he might sit out some games. He might hold out training camp. Certainly he's going to hold out if they don't have a contract in training camp. Baltimore safety, Ardarius Washington tore his Achilles. So that's probably a season ender. He started 12 games for the Ravens in 2024. So Detroit offensive coordinator John Morton said that Jameson Williams is going

to have a breakout season. He cited Williams attention to detail and that he's been great in meetings. My question is Jameson Williams was wide receiver 17 per game and non PPR 26 per game in full PPR because he was only on pace for 66 catches. Can he do better than that guys? 26th per game in full PPR 17th per game and non PPR. Can James and Williams do better than that?

Maybe 75, 80 catches. Yeah, I don't think he's gonna to be a 90 plus catch guy unless something happens to St. Brown or Laporta. There is a change clearly, you know, so Ben Johnson's gone Johnny Morton is in and if they're designing a few more plays for him, that's obviously a bonus. You know, we'll see how much I don't think Tesla or you know, Tim Patrick being there is is that much of a detriment to what these guys do. They're pretty much going to funnel targets to the main guys for the most part. So I think he's in the mix of that group that we talk about, 20 through 40 of those wide receivers.

Anybody can be in a low end number to receive. I think for him to be a top 15 receiver and be in the 65 to 75 catch range he's probably gonna have to score 10 touchdowns and that's something he definitely do. I was gonna say big play touchdowns are the only path forward I could see but I don't personally think I think the schedule breaks a little worse for the Lions passing game this year. Well, big play touchdowns for Jamison Williams. That's what he did. He had six touchdowns of 35 or more yards last year. Only Jamar Chase had more.

Chase had seven. Williams had six touchdowns of 35 or more yards. No other player had more than three. They were the only guys who had more than three and they had a combined 13. And then just, I'll just give you the target breakdown the last nine games of the season. Because the first half of the season was weird for Williams.

The first two games he had 20 targets. The next four games he had 10 combined. And then he missed two games with an injury. The last nine games of the year, this was the peak of the Detroit passing game. Jared Goff, 36.4 pass attempts per game on pace for 5,268 yards, 43 touchdowns. They were unbelievable. Jamison Williams was on pace for 115 targets. Sam Laporta was on pace for 121 targets. That's

the problem. It's Laporta. Like you know, St. Brown's going to get his, but Laporta averaged more targets per game than Williams. Laporta did miss one game in that stretch. Ahmad Rasayn-Brah was on pace for 155 targets. They were all fantastic. But remember, that's based on Jared Goff throwing for 5,268 yards and 43 touchdowns. Next news item is our last one for now. The Giants have on paper the hardest schedule in the NFL. Their teams last year, their opponents last year

had the highest winning percentage when you look at the schedules of every team. The New York Giants, usually that's not a team, not a three-win team getting the hardest schedule in football, but that is the case. I think it's very relevant. Now we have a bonus episode tonight. Dave and I are gonna hop on at about 9 p.m.

to talk about the schedule. Won't be a long episode. We'll just give you some things that stand out. Teams that look like they have good playoff schedules or early season schedules. I'm gonna look at maybe a couple of wide receivers that might have the worst cornerback matchups. I think Garrett Wilson might be on that list.

But I also think Malik Neighbors might be on that list. So I'm worried about the Giants having the hardest schedule in the NFL. Dan, I'm worried about it from a neighbor's perspective because I think that gets Jackson Dart in there sooner. And I don't know that I want that. They're going to lose some games if they really have the hardest schedule. A lot of that is based on playing Philadelphia twice, Washington twice, Dallas, not going to be, they never beat Dallas ever. They got the cheap, they got the AFC West, right? So that's very tough. So that's McDuffie and that's Sertan.

And that's obviously the Eagles with their young corners and maybe Latimore matters. Maybe Trayvon Diggs matters. I don't love this for for Malik neighbors personally. I remember. Sorry, go ahead, Jamie. No, I just say because you keep all your notes available. Do you remember who had the toughest schedule last year? I can look at, let me look at the schedule release. Thomas, I'm sorry, if you could maybe try to find last year's date for the schedule release episode, I will look it up on my computer.

Go on. I am curious too, because I would venture upon saying there's a little bit of, I don't wanna say overthinking, but maybe putting a little too much weight on the matchups for neighbors or the schedule for neighbors in this regard, just because of what he did last year and how much table designed that offense around him from a target volume standpoint, from a targets per game, the way they kind of designed different areas of the field to use him in, including even areas that he got open in the deep, the deep

half, and he just didn't get the ball or it was off target. Russell Wilson now comes in and he's the best, at least last year. He was the most efficient deep ball passer in the NFL. Now, if Jackson dart plays, I'm with you, Adam, that could complicate things, but either way, the still, the offense is still designed around getting neighbors, the football, um, and making the D forcing the defense to do either take him out of the game. So they open up other stuff or let him eat.

So I think the target volume should still be there, which is ultimately what we're looking for. Will the matchups dictate how many points he can score? Maybe. Or how many touchdowns he can score? Maybe. But I'm not worried about neighbors at all. I'll give you a pretty hot take that Malik neighbors

after he missed weeks five and six with a concussion was pretty disappointing for the rest of the season. I mean, his quarterback was Drew Locke for most of the rest of the season. But he was, he was, he got so many targets. He really didn't do much of it. I remember in the Baltimore game, cause he went, he went seven games without a touchdown.

The Baltimore game, he scored, they were down by like 30 points in the fourth quarter. He scored on some backup scrub. Then against the Colts, he had a huge game. And then against the Eagles backups in week 18, he had a, he had 64 yards and a touchdown. I don't think it really matters. It's like whatever. He's awesome, but he really wasn't that good after the concussion.

You have to put him in the category of most potential targets. Right. Yeah. Of all players in fantasy. You have to hope that year two is better than year one. Forget about anything else around him just from my growth standpoint as a player. So those two things alone, I think, make him that much of a better potential fantasy option, which is saying a lot because he was great last year.

All right, I'm gonna take a break and I'm gonna tell you the notes I have from my schedule release episode, our schedule release episode, mine, last year. We'll be right back. Discover the magic of Bet MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games

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I'm doing this alone. Not at all. Every Batman gotta have their router. Coulter! Justin Hartley stars. I made a promise. I would never stop looking. In Tracker, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus and returning CBS fall.

All right, quick programming. So yeah, tonight, Dave and I bonus episode, on Wednesday night, Thursday episode will be a mailbag, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Okay, here's what I had. Interesting stuff. The Tennessee wide receivers have tough matchups to start. I don't know if that played out at all, but they did.

They had Jalen Johnson, Sauce Gardner, Jair Alexander, Jalen Ramsey, and then they had a bye. I don't know if Ramsey was even playing at that point. The Chicago wide receivers had a tough matchup to start. Three of Tampa Bay's first four games were against teams that finished in the bottom six in scoring defense. I bet they got off to a pretty damn good start against Washington, Detroit, Denver and Philadelphia, although I guess Denver and Philadelphia were pretty good.

Atlanta might have a good playoff schedule. Dallas has a tough start. They got off to a pretty bad start. The Rams have a tough postseason schedule. Niners and Jets on the road and then the Cardinals. I like Seattle start. I don't know why I put that, but I like Seattle start. Did they get off to a good start? I think they got off to a pretty good start.

They were, yeah. They had Miami, Detroit, the Giants early. They had New England early. They had Denver in week one, but other than that, that's all I got in the notes. I don't know what else was said. Sorry. All right, let's get onto the crux of the show.

Players who are difficult to rank. Jamie has a big old list and he's, let's start with the running backs here. So definitely not breaking down every player. There's like 20 today, but Breece Hall, O'Marian Hampton, DeAndre Swift, Isaiah Pacheco, Javante Williams, Tyrone Tracy and Cam Scadabu. Breece Hall, go ahead, Jamie. I tried to give you like a sample size throughout the rankings, not just the guys at the top.

So I mean, look, we know what the situation is, Breece Hall, right? He's coming off a disappointing finish to last year. And then Aaron Glenn comes in and says, he's gonna use all three running backs. And so, you know, you have a quarterback that doesn't traditionally throw to his running backs and runs and gives you rushing touchdowns in Justin Fields. And you have a guy in Breece Hall who, when he was at his best, has been a heavily involved receiver out of the backfield.

And so those two things don't match on top of the fact that you And so those two things don't match on top of the fact that you have now maybe two other guys. I don't think that's necessarily a, it's going to be a 10, 10, 10 split if you're giving them 30 touches per game, but it could be maybe Isaiah Davis works on passing downs and Braylon Allen is a change of pace guy. And all these things just sort of become hugely problematic for Breslau. But we know what the upside is because the upside has been amazing.

The year two post ACL when he was supposed to be terrible was his best season to date. And then he got off to a good start last year and the reception is really just cratered once they got to Monte Adams. Well this receiving corps is pretty miserable right now. So you would hope that there's some design you know, designed plays, design options. And this is the Detroit offense to extent, you know, coming to the jets. And so hopefully Breeze Hall gets a significant opportunity in all three facets of, you know, first and second down short yardage, and then, you

know, working in the passing game. So there's still a lot to love about him, but there's also the potential downside of sharing work and losing rushing production and receiving production. And then we have a trackback. Yeah. Najee Harris, first six games of last year with Justin Fields, he was on pace for 272 carries. He was on pace for 40 catches though. And that would be low for Brees. And then the, you know, Justin Fields took most of the goal line carries. I think he had more than Najee.

Najee was on pace for three touchdowns. He had one touchdown in those six games. How many does Justin Fields have? He had at least two. I'll look for you real quick. But that's a possibility for, not be, yeah, he had hit, hit, hit five touchdowns. Now she had won in those six games.

I'm not saying that's going to be the split, but it's a huge problem. All right, so a Breeze Hall or Joe Mixon. Mixon. I'm still going with Hall there. I understand the case against Hall for sure, but I think there is some upside to the idea of with Justin Fields in there. And I know they're going to try to bring that Lions offense over, but I think there's going

to be, it's going to have to be different wrinkles to it. If you have Justin Fields, you have to design some quarterback run scheme around that, like some running quarterback scheme around that. For example, like zone read, I think they're going to run that. And I think that's gonna benefit Brees Hall, give him better angles to attack and give him more space to work with, which I don't think he had a great amount of last year

watching the Jets. They were okay at times in pass projection, not good in the run game. So that could work to his benefit. And he's still ultimately a big play merchant. But what you said, Jamie, about the passing game, that really is standing out because when he did have that

Those dominant fantasy season there's not a lot of targets and I'm a little scared to where those are come from I just think there's more upside with Hall though than mix in for me Okay, so just last thing on Hall according to ESPN Breeze Hall's rush yards over expected per attempt has dropped from 1.4 to 0.7 to 0.4 in three seasons. So he just hasn't been as good of a rusher even you're looking at the advanced metrics. All right. Next three running backs are all going to be I think in the same range. I don't I mean it's a big range but they're definitely gonna be ahead of Javante Williams who's the next guy we'll talk about so it's Omarion Hampton

Deandre Swift and Isaiah Pacheco. Hampton for the Chargers, Swift for the Bears, Pacheco for the Chiefs. I think you probably all know that but Jamie is that how you rank them? Hampton, Swift, Pacheco? Currently, yes. Hampton, we know the upside could be amazing. But how much of this is going to be a split backfield where he's not even the lead guy because of Najee Harris for at least one more season? And so this is something that I don't know if you guys struggle with, I certainly do at this point in the season, when we're in the midst of rookie-only drafts and dynasty is so much on the forefront of our minds, the upside

for a Marion Hampton is through the roof because we know he could be just ridiculous and may, I don't know, I don't think it's a stretch to say could challenge Genti to be the best running back of his class given his destination and his talent and everything that goes along with it. I don't think he will, but he could. Then you have to take a step back and say, okay, the redraft proposition for him is he may be second fiddle to a guy that doesn't get hurt and doesn't fumble. For a coach that's a pretty no-nonsense, I'll take the three yards as opposed to waiting for the 20-plus-yard run. Najee Harris is going to do that a lot. How much will Hampton be second fiddle and Najee Harris is going to do that a lot. And so how much will Hampton be sort of second fiddle

in an offense that we know can be multifaceted if they want to, which they showed us at the end of last season. It was very run heavy early in the process. And then as I think Herbert's foot got better, they started to throw the ball a little bit more as Lad McConkie developed and everything that sort of went along with that. JK Dobbins is getting hurt. But you saw what Dobbins did in this offense and Hampton, a younger version of Dobbins and maybe just as explosive. So there's there's a lot to love about him. So I struggle with Hampton versus Harvey, for example, in redraft. I struggle with Hampton versus these other guys. You know, once you start to get to basically running back 20, it becomes a little bit of

what you need versus how your roster build is going. Can I ask you a question, Dan? I haven't really gotten any of your NFL draft takes in a long time. So the way I evaluate running backs and share for the draft is I look at rankings from other websites and I say, okay, these are the guys I'm going to look at. I honestly, and I had read, you know, going into the Marion Hampton, eval for me, everybody talking about he's RB two in this class, he's so good. Some people have him ranked ahead of Gentie, this and that. If I had not gone into the process with that, with knowing that information, let's call that like a bias. I never would have thought of a Marion Hampton

in that way. And I just want to know how you felt about him. Like to be, I guess where he went, you think about the guys who went in that range in the 20s in the NFL draft. You got guys like Najee Harris, Rashad Penny. It's actually kind of a lousy list of running backs who've been drafted. Josh Jacobs was there though. But running backs drafted late in the first round,

it's a little hit or miss. But did you ever, did you think of him as that kind of a prospect? Like it was great, can't miss guy. I personally did. He was my RB to in this class by a by a wide margin. I would say Henderson was my RB three and he was a different kind of back. But for me, the thing I like about Hampton the most is when I watch him run, he reminds me a lot of Jonathan Taylor at Wisconsin, except he has more to

his game, which I'm about to go over, but just from the sense of big high runner, which is not always a good thing. You can get caught up up line, line of scrimmage. If you run high, you want really a low center of gravity, but after contact, he's just able to dominate and he's able to really get into that second gear, which allows him to make those long runs like he doesn't, he's not a particularly fast, straight line runner though he is for his size,

but that second gear on tape really stands out to me. And his whole profile to me is really impressive. Like very few fumbles, one in 2024, we're a course back 25 or more touches in eight of his last 12 games to end the season last year. He has that acceleration I talked about in and out of cuts, which people love. He was a track star at the high school level, the jump, uh, the broad jump,

the long jump, the triple jump. He jumps out of the gym. And one thing I really liked about his game, which I think will stand out in your one with the chargers is he's a much better receiving back than people realize. Like when you watch the tape, you'd see that North Carolina would design pivot routes for him, which are not easy to run for running backs, those like angle Texas routes. And he would really do a good job, in my opinion, of beating the linebacker on those routes and getting open. He had, I think, two drops on 80 career targets.

So really sure hands as well. And a lot of experience in past production because they didn't take him off the field. He was their true workhorse there. I think he had what a single season record for UNC of 2033 all-purpose yards just a totally dominant player at the college level who did everything for them. So for year one with the Chargers I like I think Najee will eat into his workload a little bit but I'm thinking like why wouldn't Hampton be their passing down back. He can do it all and passing down is a much better receiver than people realize. I think that'll give him extra value for fantasy. Dr. Justin Marchegiani... Okay. All right. So— Dr. Justin Marchegiani... I think Adam just— we didn't touch on the other two guys. Just in

turn— Dr. Justin Marchegiani... Yeah. Dr. Justin Marchegiani... The case for Swift and Pacheco. Dr. Justin Marchegiani... Yeah. Dr. Justin Marchegiani... You know Swift could be an absolute monster if he's the guy for Ben Johnson and they don't add somebody else. You know, there's talk of maybe Nick Chubb going to Chicago that will clearly crush, you know, I think both guys, but.

Right. Look, if he's going to try and mirror his offense in Chicago that he did in Detroit, and this is his Jameer Gibbs, maybe without as good a David Montgomery because Roshan Johnson, I don't know if he's there yet. There's top 15 upside for Swift.

So it's almost like he's one of those guys at this point if you're drafting could really be a huge difference maker. He could also be a backup if they bring in somebody like Chubb, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing for him because we saw what Nick Chubb was at the end of last year and the, you know, injuries that he suffered. I'm not the only reason I bring up Chubb is because there's rumors of that but yeah yeah I do think that there's so much upside for DeAndre Swift but it's you know how do you how how high should he be ranked because he clearly has had opportunities before he was the guy in Philadelphia we know he

lost the rushing touchdowns and that was his detriment. He was with Ben Johnson in Detroit and was never used the same way that I think we hope he can be used. So I kind of just view him as a fallback RB to as opposed to a guy I want to target and draft. Uh, I mentioned one thing on Swift. Yeah. That's interesting to me. Just listening to the case you broke down, Jamie, and you could even add in Chicago did

so much to improve their offensive line this off season, which is true. And another benefit for Swift. It feels like we're running into a similar situation. We get these a lot in fantasy in this preseason, uh, time of the year. And I would, I would love to have Azur stats on this, or just like have some way to find out how often this does and doesn't work that entire case. Jamie felt like it was situation based. And that's okay.

Like sometimes that does work out, but like we've seen Swift fail a lot as a runner at times we've seen him fail as a receiver, just not being able to be the guy we thought he would be, he's had fumbling issues at times in his career that held him back in Detroit, some injury concerns, like his whole entire case for why you would bet on upside there is the coaching and the cast around him. Yep. Uh, so I just wonder how many, like how many times has that worked

and how many times it failed? Just from my feeling on it, it feels like it fails a lot more than it works when most of the case is situation based. But that's just an Azur step. There you go. I think also with DeAndre Swift, he's never been good in short yardage

and last year he wasn't the goal line back. Obviously it's a new coaching staff, but I don't know that he's going to good in short yardage. And last year, he wasn't the goal line back. Obviously it's a new coaching staff, but I don't know that he's going to have that role. Yeah, no way. As far as Pacheco goes, he is totally my guy right now. Really? 100%. I mean, where's this?

Because of the value or because you think he's gonna have a big season? You think it's the value, right? I'll start out by because of the value, but I'll say there is no reason why he can't have a good season. I would say the only reason that Pacheco wouldn't be a great value and wouldn't have a really good season

is that he's still not recovered from the broken leg. So I don't like guys coming off of leg surgery. He had leg surgery. It's just to me, the fact that he was able to return for much of the second half of the season and the Super Bowl run tells me that it wasn't as serious as like what Chris Godwin went through, right? And what Tony Pottwell, Tony Pottwell got hurt in the playoffs, but you know, he was

able to return after having surgery. But goodness, I mean, look at his competition. Am I really supposed to be afraid of Kareem Hunt? Yes. No, are you kidding of Kareem Hunt? Yes. No, are you kidding? Kareem Hunt can only run straight for eight yards. I know, but it's not about what Kareem Hunt can do to us, to our eye test.

It's about what the chiefs think of Kareem Hunt. You don't know what the chiefs think of Kareem Hunt because Kareem Hunt has never competed with a healthy, good Isaiah Pacheco. Isaiah Pacheco from week three of the 2023 season through his week two injury, okay, that's 20 games, I believe, because it includes the Super Bowl run from the previous year. He averaged 16.7 yards, 16.7 carries per game, and he was on pace for over 50 catches. He was basically a workhorse for the Kansas City Chiefs. Okay, if he, he's gonna, he's gonna blow away Kareem Hunt if he's healthy and he's right.

And I think he could be just outstanding. We were taking him in the second or third round last year. I really hope that Kareem Hunt is not the reason why he should be a sixth round pick or something like that this year. Like, I just don't buy it with Kareem Hunt and the other guys they have there. I think taking him in the sixth round makes the most sense because I think if you're reaching for him, you're trying to get that player once again, which he still could be. Well, yeah, that's my point. He's going late enough where he still could be. Well, yeah, that's my point. He's going late enough where he still could be the player we were taking.

No, no, no. The value is is fantastic. That's why I was asking, are you are you reaching for him? Was basically what I was asking. Are you waiting to get him in that round six range? I do think that we have a lot of moving parts here because they seemingly are trying to put this backfill together on a very cheap process. And so bringing back Kareem Hunt makes a lot of sense for exactly what Dan was saying. We look at it and we say if Isaiah Pacheco is right, he is going to blow away anything

Kareem Hunt could do at this point in his career. But we talk about this a lot. Coaches like certain things out of certain players. And exactly what you said, Adam, Kareem Holt can run forward and fall forward fast. To quote the great- Not fast. There's nothing fast about it. He's good. He can fall forward sufficiently enough that he doesn't hurt the team. And Elijah Mitchell is now going to be there and maybe take some of that work. And Brichard Smith is going to be there now and maybe take some of that work. bichard smith is going to be there now and maybe take some of that work i don't know and i don't know if kareem if if isaiah pacheco has any sort of slip up or you know mishap or the the leg is not 100 right and he's not bad think about the metric we talked about with tony

pollard on on monday right yeah the the the four four year span that he's been a guy not a not a featured guy but I guess featured guy with Dallas and then with Tennessee the the one year full year to your point about coming back full year his yards after contact metric was terrible and the other three years he was top five right and so if Isaiah Pacheco is not back to being that guy I don't think the Chiefs will have any problem pivoting to multiple guys. And so that's the gamble, right? And this is why he's part of this conversation. The gamble is like, when do you take him?

So I think if we had this, if I remember correctly, Dave has him ranked ahead of maybe Henderson. If I think going back to draft, we had this, you know, Pacheco versus some of these guys, you asked that question. Yeah, I would rather gamble on the upside of Henderson right now, than I would the upside of Pacheco, just knowing that he's coming back from this injury, even in both guys being in shared situations. Okay, I think I'd rather take, I think I said Pacheco

originally, but maybe I'd go Henderson Pacheco, but I would take Pacheco over Judkins and Caleb Johnson. See, I would not. I will those take him over Judkins, not Caleb Johnson. Those two guys are two running backs that I wanted to get your opinions on. But why don't we take a quick break here? We'll finish up running backs and we have three more positions. After

that, we'll be right back on fantasy football today. Dan, would you agree with this statement? The best quarterbacks in the NFL are really good at calling an audible at the line of scrimmage. I wouldn't say exactly audible, but they're really good at their checks and working with receivers. Similar to an audible. Yes. Really good pre snap. Well, you're ruining what I'm going for here because I'm going to call an audible. He's a great quarterback. He's going to change the show. I am going to change the show. I'm going to call an audible. He's a great quarterback and he's going to change the show. I am going to change the show.

I'm going to call an audible here. Why don't we save wide receivers and tight ends for another episode and we'll just focus on running backs and quarterbacks today. That way we can, Oh no, you don't like that Thomas? DJ Moore's the thumbnail. So you guys should talk. All right, we'll do receivers.

We'll do wide receivers and He didn't even let Thomas make his case. He just got scared. Running backs and receivers is fine. He just got scared. We'll do running backs do receivers. We'll do wide receivers and. He didn't even let Thomas make his case. He just got scared off. Running backs and receivers. Running backs and receivers today. And we'll do quarterbacks and tight ends another day. Sorry about that. Okay. So, Javante Williams and then the Giants running backs are on this list for you, Jamie, of tough players to rank. How do you rank Javante and the Giants running backs? I mean, Javante is an easy conversation. If he's the lead running back for the Cowboys,

I haven't ranked too low, you know, just based on this, the simple fact of the workload that he'll get. And even if he's not the most talented running back, he showed the passing game chops in Denver last year with Sean Payton, and he'll get those, get the volume that we will look for. So right now I have him ranked in the early thirties. If he enters the season, even if you like Jayden blue or Jayden blue, um, and, and Mafa and whoever else, you know, miles Sanders, he should still be the best of that group going into the season. He deserves to be ranked a little bit higher.

So it's more of a cautiously optimistic approach for the Giants This is gonna be one of my favorite training camp battles to watch Tracy closed the season getting a lot of work. I don't know how great he was with that work But also the environment around him was pretty terrible I think it'll be a better situation just with better quarterback play with Russell Wilson But scatter boo may be a better version of Tracy just based on his college pedigree. We know he's gonna run hard He's gonna be involved in the passing game. And so I have a tough time of who should be ranked ahead of who. And it's one of those battles that I'm going to be, you know, keeping an eye on just to

see if maybe scataboo can win the job early in season. All right, Dan, who's who should be ranked ahead of who in that Giants backfield? That's a great question. I'm going to put scataboo ahead of Tracy and put on the clock here. And the reason why is I think Scataboo is a more natural receiver. Despite Tracy playing receiver in college, I think Scataboo is a better receiver, both in route running and on broken plays. I think we'll earn that role. And then it just comes down to who's in the red zone. And we know that Brian Dableton, very, very fickle with who he used in the red zone.

And Tracy has a fumbling issue. Scataboo kind of has a fumbling issue too, a little bit. But Tracy's was worse, at least at the NFL level, like with what we've seen so far. And it took them off the field. I will say this though, about this backfield. I wouldn't invest much in fantasy in any of these guys, because Devon Singletary is gonna play.

That's just how it's gonna go. They like Singletary, he was better than people realize on Dave. And throughout his time, Dave will with the Bills, there were a lot of backs getting in the mix there And so we're looking at my opinion one of the bigger splits probably if we look across the NFL I don't know how many teams are gonna be employing Deploying a three-man backfield so on a team with a tough schedule tough schedule a good offense. That's the toughest schedule

I should say yeah, maybe not a good offense I just think we're maybe a little too, it's, it just doesn't set up for great fantasy success. Yeah. Um, all right. So can I add, uh, Quintchon Judkins versus Caleb Johnson to this list here? Yes. My struggle is I feel like they're in similar situations. I don't think they're going to be big time pass catchers. I do think they're gonna get at some point a lot of work, in terms of carries. I think an earlier path to that maybe for Judkins than Johnson, because Judkins with Cleveland,

I just don't really, I'm not afraid of his competition. Jalen Warren's a good player. Jalen Warren deserves carries for the Steelers. And yeah, I don't know, is there clarity for you guys of who you like better between Pittsburgh's Caleb Johnson and Cleveland's Quinzon Judkins? Jamie? You said it. The backup in Pittsburgh to me is a little bit more scary to the starter than the ones

in Cleveland. And Jerome Ford and Dylan Sampson I think are good players and they're going to have an opportunity. But Jaylen Warren may end up getting too much work. He may certainly, I don't think he may, he's certainly going to get more passing downs work and is noted as a very good pass blocker. And we saw what he was in 2023 granted that was not with Arthur Smith, but he did suffer some injury, did deal with some injuries last year. I think, that derailed him in the first part of the season. He was much more involved and more productive in the second part of the season.

So I think when you look at what the Steelers have in relation to their backfield versus another rookie in Sampson, who may end up being, who knows, taking more work than we anticipate because he's an explosive type of guy, and Jerome Ford is there, I just think Judkin's situation, his path to getting more work, little bit. And they're back to back for me. I struggle with it as well. But I feel a little bit safer about his situation

and really his offensive environment right now than I do about Caleb Johnson. Because if it's Mason Rudolph, then that's a little more terrifying than the Joe Flacco-led quartet of quarterbacks that the Browns have. I feel strongly actually in the other way for this. I'm a huge fan of Caleb Johnson in this fit. A long time ago in fantasy, another Big Ten back entered the NFL and he ran behind, I believe he played at UAB and then Indiana, and he ran behind a very similar scheme that he broke out with at

college level, an outside zone scheme, and that was Jordan Howard. He didn't last long in fantasy, but he was really good at the beginning. And Caleb Johnson in this Arthur Smith led outside zone run scheme is the perfect fit. If I could pick one running back who had the best fit of any running back draft in this class, it was a hundred percent Caleb Johnson to the Steelers. Now I trust Arthur Smith. He's designed really good, strong run games over the years, despite bad quarterback play he did in Atlanta. That used to be the case for Stefanski. It wasn't the case last season when quarterback play really fell off.

Now Jamie makes a good point. If it's Joe Flacco for the whole season versus Mason Rudolph, then yes, I'm a little bit concerned, but I do think Aaron Rogers will sign. And more importantly, I think we're going to see Sanders or Dylan Gabriel. And I think they will completely crater the offense. I don't love the fit for Judkins there at all. I don't think I think neither is getting a lot of receiving work, but I trust that Caleb Johnson fits this outside the scheme.

He's going to be a bruiser. He's going to be a lead back like Najee was. Warren will be more of a change of pace and they're going to get sick. They're going to have success in the red zone scoring touchdown. So it just feels like the fit is better for me with Johnson. And I really like Johnson and fantasy this year. It's kind of interesting because Johnson and Judkins I think are a really good comparison. They were drafted fairly similarly.

Yeah, Judkins earlier for second round, Caleb in the third. But they are basically the same height and weight going into the combine Johnson 61224, Judkins 6'2", 21, and Judkins ran a 4'4", 8'40", and Johnson ran a 4'5", 7, and Johnson had the worst 10 yard split, and Judkins had a very good one. But when I personally watched them, I liked Johnson substantially more than Judkins.

I can't, like I say it all the time, just can't get over this pretty pedestrian yards per carry for Judkins, especially compared to Trevion Henderson, who shared a backfield with him. And if you just look at them in the big 10 last year, it was five, what was it? 5.7 yards per carry for Judkins? No, no, no, no, that was for the season.

Oh, 4.2 yards per carry for Judkins? No, no, no, that was for the season. Oh, 4.2 yards per carry for Judkins in the big 10. And Caleb Johnson was at 5.9 yards per carry in the big 10. So maybe I just, I guess I'm just not caring as much about the combine stuff. Well, yeah. I'm with you and I have a couple other sets. This is courtesy of Jacob Gibbs. Quinch, is it Quinch on or Quinch Sean junkins. I don't know for sure. I think it's pretty why I always thought he's key

Okay, Quinn Sean. I wasn't sure He was one of the biggest benefactors in all of this class against non-power for competition according to Jacob Gibbs He had a forty point one percent avoided tackle rate first non-Power 4, only 23.6% against Power 4. Pretty much all of the metrics fell apart against Power 4 teams last year for him. And one weird thing about him, he's never, despite playing a lot at Ole Miss, he never had more than 200 yards receiving in a season,

wasn't really a great pass catching back, and he never was trusted to handle more than 40 past protection reps in a season. And when he was like the only time he allowed almost a 10% pressure rate. And so they use Trevion Henderson and past protections by being a smaller back there. That scares me not to say Caleb Johnson can definitely play that role. Um, though I did think he was a more natural receiving back than people gave him credit for.

But I just think that the Judkins profile to me, it's very scary on that Browns roster. I don't foresee myself investing much in him this year. The Browns did have the choice of the two though. Yeah, yeah, for sure. They did. I just wonder about the combine and if that's what pushed Judkins up. And you know, you just go back and look at the way guys are drafted. It certainly doesn't always show up in how they produce, right? DeAndre said, quiet Edward Zeler. Was DeAndre Swift also taken ahead of Jonathan Taylor?

They were really close. They were both back there. Yeah, both were ahead of Taylor, which is crazy. I couldn't believe that. All right. Let's go to wide receiver here for the sake of the thumbnail. And I'm gonna start with DJ Moore. Jamie did have Chris Goblin and Mike Evans on this list. Understandably, they are, I think we've talked about them a lot.

So just in this for to save some time, let's go to DJ Moore here. He was the one guy I really wanted to highlight, man. Jamie, there are so many angles to this. There's positives and negatives. There's target competition. There's to this. There's positives and negatives. There's target competition. There's Ben Johnson. There's Caleb Williams. Is he good? Caleb Williams, does he stink?

There are so many things here for DJ Moore, who he himself has been one of the most exciting roller coaster rides in fantasy throughout his career. You never know what he's going to do. So I find him very difficult. How do you find him? Same. You know, I think you look at all the moving parts. The one thing that's the constant for him is he's the proven guy. You have a second year, Roma doonsay, a rookie Luther burden, a rookie Colston Loveland, and we'll see how much coal commit still is a factor

as more of a pass catcher than a blocker or a role player. But if you're Caleb Williams and things are, we're hoping he's going to play more on schedule and run a more rhythmic offense under Ben Johnson and better protection, but who's still the guy that I think he's going to lean on? I would hope it's DJ Moore. And the question becomes, A, is he the slot guy? Because that's the thing that I think we're all waiting to find out. You know, it seems as if maybe Burton's going to play that role. We've heard some, you know, Rumo Dunze being the big slot receiver. Obviously, there's been a lot of DJ Moore doing that in his

career. So it may just be they're moving all over the place, which I think will benefit more as opposed to if somebody else is in that role comparatively. But there are now, you know, significant target competition, not that there wasn't last year, but how much of it will be Ben Johnson leaning on the two guys that he just brought in, in Loveland and Burden and his excitement for them is clearly very evident. So I went from DJ Moore as a borderline wide receiver one prior to the NFL draft. And now he's a mid wide receiver too. Still very happy to draft him, but he's in that questionable range as opposed to where he was firmly entrenched in the, I'm, I'm okay with him.

If I go running back, tight end round one, running back, running back first two rounds, uh, and then it then going DJ more around three. Like now he's around four or around five picks for me. Yeah, honestly, the look at this stretch of picks, six consecutive wide receivers in the draft that we did last week, our first draft since the NFL draft. I just want to quit fantasy. It stresses me out so much. The, the. want to quit fantasy. It stresses me out so much. Is it the artifacts or the...

No, one QB. Okay. We're in rounds. Oh, I was seven, seven wide receivers in a row. We're in round six here. No, we're in round five. I'm sorry. We're in round five. So we're at pick 50. Zay Flowers, DJ Moore, Jameson Williams, Cortland Sutton, Chris Godwin, Devontae Smith, Jerry Judy. Zay Flowers, DJ Moore, Jamison Williams, Cortland Sutton, Chris Godwin, Devontae Smith, Jerry Judy. I hate, I mean, I like all these picks. I hate having to make the choice. I don't know if I like Flowers here, by the way.

That's, I know Jacob took him. Jacob really likes Zay Flowers. I think he's terrific player. He's gonna run into the same problems that he, I know Jacob took him. Jacob really likes a flowers. I think he's terrific player. He's going to run into the same problems that he has run into his whole career. He's on a very run, a run heavy offense. He's doesn't get targeted in the end zone. It's the Mark Andrews world.

And you know, I don't, does, does a flowers belong with this group, Jamie? I don't believe so. Dan, what do you make of that group? Flowers, DJ? Yeah, yeah. Flowers, DJ Moore, Jamison, Cortland Sutton, Chris Goblin, Devonte Smith, Jerry Judy. It's an interesting group.

I think the only one who has like the target upside I'm looking for would be Cortland Sutton, though there's obviously more competition there. So I may put him a little bit ahead. Godwin scares the hell out of me, not just because of the competition they had, because coming back off an injury, he would be the one I put lowest, I think. DJ more for me, like I think about what Jamie said, and I thought he did a great job breaking that situation down. When I watched the Ben Johnson offense over the years, it relied less on like

rhythmic passing and like back shoulders. Most of what I'm on Ross, same Brown did with Jared Goff was, was by design by Ben Johnson. So I do just kind of think I need to know who's in that slot role. And maybe they will mix it up as Jamie said, and move different guys in, but I don't know if that's the case. And if that ends up being Roman Dunze, which would surprise some people, but not me, cause I kind of feel like he would be good in that role.

That's probably the guy I'm going to want to get. So with DJ more, I need to just, that's the one I need most information on. Sure. There's upside there, but I don't know. I think all this entire group is going to struggle with target volume. Yeah, except for Sutton. Except for Sutton. Last half of the season. I put Sutton, I don't want to say way ahead of this group, but ahead of this group. But ahead. Yeah, same.

The last half of the season, remember he had, I think did this name that player the other day, zero targets against New Orleans in a game where Bo Nix looked like he was gonna be out of the NFL pretty soon. He was absolutely horrible. And then everything changed for Nix and for Sutton after that. The last like eight games, whatever, approximately eight games, I don't remember what it was.

He was the number 10 wide receiver per game, Cortland Sutton. He was a true number one wide receiver. And they added Evan Ingram. That's not nothing, but not much else. Right. Okay. I was surprised when I saw,

you know how many touchdowns he scored in the last two years? 18. 18 with Sean Payton. So since Sean Payton has taken over two different quarterbacks, 18 times. 10 with Russ and eight with Bonix. Like that's impressive. Yeah, you got to put him ahead of that group, I think.

Besides, I mean, DJ Moore's the one you can maybe say, well, there is an upside case for, but even so, I put Sutton ahead of all of them. The only thing with Sutton is that, he's basically the worst Yak guy, again, I mentioned this last show, or when we did name that player, worst Yak guy in football, basically,

for any established receiver. I mean, it's unbelievable. So, like, Jameson Williams is a much more talented player in my opinion than Sutton. Jameson Williams, don't forget he was once upon a time, what was he like the 10th-ish pick? I don't remember. But- Sixth, I think overall.

No, he wasn't that high. But he was coming off a broken leg and he was an early pick. Oh, a torn ACL? Thank you. They traded it up from beer right? It wasn't six maybe. Jameson Williams is a tremendously talented player. Like, Cortland Sutton is probably not going to have six touchdown catches of 35 or more yards.

All right. Well, anyway, I think I'm going to be dedicating a lot of time to trying to figure out who I like in this range and hopefully getting some clarity here. But I think at least we can come away thinking Cortland Sutton has a chance to really out target the guys in this range and hopefully getting some clarity here. But I think at least we can come away thinking Cortland Sutton has a chance to really out target the guys in this range. All right, what else we got here? Devontae Adams. Where is he in that group? You know, I named those seven wide receivers. Where's Devontae Adams for you, Jamie? You call him tough to rank. I have Sutton slightly ahead of Adams, Adams slightly ahead of DJ Moore. So the thing that, again, I want to kind of separate myself

from being the ageist because he's at that age where you really got to panic a little bit. And I don't think he's going to be the most targeted wide receiver for his team because he's been that everywhere he's been since he broke out for the Packers. But if he's not and he's a little bit of a shell of himself, is this too high? At the same time, could he maybe supplant Pukunakua as the go-to guy for Matthew Stafford? Because we know when Stafford finds a guy, he loves him.

And this is an extremely talented player that was great once he got to the Jets last year and how he performed fantasy wise because he commanded a lot of targets from a guy who he has a huge history with. So I don't want to run away from Devante Adams. I also don't want to get too excited about Devante Adams. So he's a tough guy for me to rank. But I do think he's in that middle tier of wide receiver twos of guys that you look for in round four and can still be a very productive fantasy.

He, he would be number one for me among that group. I'm going to be probably high man on Adams this off season. I imagine among us, I just love the fit for him there with Sean McVay in that offense. I was watching a clip of McVay with the Rams and Stafford and everybody in the room breaking down Adams film and he's still got it. And the reason I love the fit so much is the trust in the offense, the trust in McVeigh and the trust in Stafford to produce passing yards and passing touchdowns

more than a lot of the quarterbacks, the receivers we just discussed and the idea that yeah, during the Packers years, Adams was really good as a boundary receiver on the outside because he worked with Aaron Rodgers. When he was at his best for me, it's kind of when he was been lined up in the slot and all McVeigh likes to do is run tight splits where he's going to have all those receivers around the line of scrimmage. I almost wonder if like this new role for him more of like a Cooper Cup, Puka role where he's around the line of scrimmage and he's allowed to use his best trait, in my opinion,

which is his footwork and his release package off the line of scrimmage. He's allowed to use his best trait, my opinion, which is his footwork and his release package off the line of scrimmage to create separation when he's given a two way go every time instead of on the boundary where he's not given the two way two way route. I think he might just dominate in that role and be open all the time for Matthew Stafford. So I just love the fit there and I'm buying in on Adams this year. I know he's old.

I know it's a risk because of that. And another thing that I mentioned recently was Cooper Cup. I think we have this idea that Cooper Cup wasn't so good last year. Well, in his last three games, he had nine targets and four catches combined. In his first nine games and almost all of that was with Pukka Naku'a. They basically missed the

same games. Week two Pukka was out, week two Cooper Cup played half the snaps and left. But in his first nine games, Cooper Cup was on pace for 10, he averaged 10 targets per game. He was on pace for 119 catches, 172 targets, 11 touchdowns. Pukinakua actually got out targeted by Cup because Cup played that one extra half a game, but Pukinakua was on pace for 115 catches, 1500 yards, six touchdowns. Like those guys were both incredible. And Matthew Stafford, by the way,

was putting up pretty big numbers actually. So if he can just do what Cup did, maybe he trails off at the end of the season too. But if he can just do what Cup did, that's actually not just must start. I mean, that's like league winner, you know, that's insane. 119 catches. That won't be exactly the same. But it's always very productive. It's always been a two man game for, I feel like for McVeigh at the wide receiver, his

offense and his passing game. It's always been two wide receivers who have really stood out. That's why I just think it sets up nice for him. Rashid Rice versus Xavier Worthy. Jamie, you call that tough to rank. Where are you on those guys? Very tough. Rice over Worthy right now.

We get to camp and Rice is still beaten up with the knee and not 100%, then it'll be Worthy over Rice. But I kind of want to take one of them in almost every draft that I do because there's so much upside. We saw what Rice was doing in the first three games for the knee injury. We saw what Worthy did in the last five plus games, you know, going into the playoffs and clearly the Super Bowl. So when you look at these two guys, there's immense opportunity here,

especially as Travis Kelsey is not the same guy. I do think there's the wrinkle of Marquis Brown that we didn't get a chance to see fully because he was coming back from the shoulder injury. Wasn't really part of what Rice was doing in the beginning part of the season because he wasn't there and then wasn't right when he was back at the end of the season. Jalen Royals being part of this. We'll see how that goes, you know, as a rookie that might be able to mix plays. But I think when you look at what Rice has been when healthy and maybe what Worthy can be, hopefully there's enough targets and opportunity

to go around for both of them with Kelsey still getting his chances also. And this is reason to buy back into Patrick Holmes as hopefully an elite fantasy quarterback because we haven't seen that for the last two years. So I like the upside of rice still a little bit more than worthy, but if they're, if they're both staring me in the face on draft day, I'm going to take rice right now. If somebody takes rice early, I'm going to try and make a play for Xavier worthy. I don't see myself taking worthy over rice at this particular point. Dan, how about you? I'm worthy over rice. I think we need more clarity, not just on the situation

with the injury of rice, but just like what the suspension, if it's happening, what we're going to get, how many games, maybe we'll get that as we move forward. But it's most likely going to be sub four. Okay. Let's just like go on to that assumption then, I, I, I, again, this is based on speculation of him not getting charged. If he gets charged, different story. But at this point, it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. And so I don't know how they can, you know, code of conduct give him more than a four game suspension, which would probably be appealed down to three or two. I think for me, it comes down to worthy did more.

It's tough for any wide receiver and Andy reads offense as a rookie, but worthy did more in my opinion than rice did down the stretch of the rookie season. And rice also was good down the stretch was rookie season, but I liked the route tree that worthy had more. And I liked the prospect more coming out of college tax out of Texas. And he's just a better overall player to me than rice. He had some issues, like just with sideline awareness last year, Worthy seemed like he did a much better job of that toward the end of the year though. And that wasn't an issue for him. And that

route she really opened up for him. So I just liked the talent better. I do agree with Jamie, though. I like the idea of getting both of those. They're still both really good values. As I'm looking at our like mock draft result, the recent drafts we've done, they still go in a range where I feel like you still get to play into the upside of the Chiefs offense there Not to promote another website too much, but there was a very good article on ESPN comm written by Ben Solak and It's called answering big questions on second year NFL wide receivers It was a very good breakdown of all of the relevant NFL second year wide receivers,

starting with Lad McConkie and all the guys, Xavier Worthy included. And one of the thing, he goes, it's pretty good stat stuff, there's some film in there as well. But one of the things I didn't really realize was that when Xavier Worthy broke out late, kind of a mild breakout, but he did have a very good finish

to the season. He scored 19.6 or more PPR fantasy points in five of six games. Just a lot of that was touchdowns. There were some rushing totals in there as well, but his a dot went way down. And you know, I don't think that's going to happen with rice on the field. So we don't, we haven't really seen a successful Xavier Worthy with a higher A. I don't have to be super high, but a higher A.

Cause Rice's A. is like laughably low. Could be one of the lowest in the NFL. And Xavier Worthy basically became that. I mean, let's see, A. 6.1, 0.7, 1.5 yards. Like it's crazy low. So I'm just saying the only time I really saw him have a big game with a high ADOT was the Super Bowl. I'm not sold that the ADOT is guaranteed to go back up.

I think a big reason the ADOT was so high at the beginning of the season versus the end is because they didn't trust him to run all the routes. So they had him running a lot of those clear out routes toward the end of the season, more trust within the system. He's in the right place at the right time. He understands where to be on the field. That's why the a dot comes down in my opinion.

Maybe, but it's, it was so low and he's not a guy that should have a Rishi rice type of a dot. I don't think unless you're just wanting to make sure the ball gets in his hands. Right. That's just saying getting the ball in space. Yeah. Also they give him, they give him carries. We can't forget about that.

He feels, we talked about this last year, like very similar to what Tyree Kill was doing as a rookie. Yeah. Yeah. And we saw what that became. All right. I have a question for you guys before we go. And it's kind of came up, you know, we had a, we had a comment from a Michael in here. He asked the question or he said like, Hey guys, like, thanks for doing the show.

And I said, thanks for being here, Michael. What did it have been bad for me to call him Mike? His screen name is Michael. You mean you send an email to a guy that you've never met before maybe and his name is Michael in the email and then you meet him. Would you go, hey, Mike, or would you call him Michael? Not Michael, Michael, for sure. Correct you meet him. Would you go, hey Mike, or would you just call him Michael? Not Michael, Michael for sure. I'm gonna correct you.

Yeah, what about, okay, what about this? I played tennis with a guy that I had never met before on Monday and his name when I saw it written out was Joshua. No, like I think I call him Josh. I think you call him Joshua. You gotta go by the written out name. If I wrote my name out as Daniel, I would want you to call them Josh. I think you call them Joshua. You gotta go by the written out name. If I wrote my name out as Daniel,

I would want you to call me Dan. No, you wouldn't. I wouldn't write my name out as Daniel ever. So no, of course not. But, you know, all I took away from that interaction just now, Adam, was I'm a little worried because I had to pick up a racket in a long time. It sounds like you're just playing like four times a week.

I play it a lot. I play it a lot. Yeah, play tomorrow. How'd you do? So it was, it was my first match at the three five level was a doubles match. Got off to a pretty bad start. I came straight from softball to tennis. So that was a challenge. Luckily, I didn't do a lot of running and softball, you know, but we won, we lost the first set lot of running and softball, you know, but we won.

We lost the first set, 3-6, and then we won the second set in a tiebreaker. We were down 6-5 and love 30. We came back, we forced a tiebreaker, won the tiebreaker, and then we won the super tiebreaker, which is first 10 points. We won that 11-9. So it was actually... Great match. It was a great match.

Yeah, great match. It was a lot of fun. This was a partner you've never played with before. Yeah, I've never played with him before. He was a great match. Yeah great match. It was a lot of this was a partner You've never played with. Yeah, I never played with him before. He was really good. He played great Jamie are you problem Jamie? I'll probably play Let's say five times I think until my play Adam again this summer it was six to six. Oh me last year What would be your prediction for this year's match? I think he takes it to a tiebreaker in one set. Wow. And you beat him six four in the other one.

God, that's horrible. I not going to be that close. It's not going to be that close. Let me give you a little perspective. I think I currently would beat last summer, Adam, six, three, six, four, something like that. That's right. So you're not going to bagel me like you think like you think you've not made such a huge jump. I'm my goal is to go 606. So I think there were a little intricacies

to those two games I lost that I can clean up and honestly take care of. Yeah, right. And then like every like every single game you won, there's nothing that I could clean up and take care of. It was like, it's like, it's all you every game was just a turn by your play had nothing to do with me. I've also lost 17 pounds since last year. That's something to consider. I gained some of them. I'm going to be a little quicker on the court.

Okay. All right. Oh, geez, softball. I've been demoted to right field. Oh, no, they're putting you on the team. Yeah, I'm pretty bad. It's so embarrassing. Why are you so bad? What happens? I have a terrible play. I just it's not my sport. It's not my. You were demoted pregame or midgame? Pregame.

We drop midgame? No, pregame. I mean, we have better. We have better players this year, so we added some better players. So one of the guys used to play like short and third. Well, we've replaced him on the on the left side of the diamond. So now he plays second. He's a better second baseman. He should play second.

I made a very good play though. I threw a runner out going first to third from right side. Wow, from right field? Yeah. Did he cut off man or? No. You could get it there?

Your arm could get it there. I one hopped it there, but like perfectly accurate. I could get it. It was shallow enough, but I intentionally one hopped it because I didn't want to sail it over the guy's head. It was really... Oh, big arm. I didn't want to sail it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I was pretty sure...

It's either one hop or no hop. Yeah, it was really... It was the best play that anyone made all game. Hopefully, the manager goes back to the tape, reviews it and says, this is the type of talent we can't leave in right field. Or he's now found his home. You know what? The bottom line is I took it in stride.

I just played as hard as I could and I got called out when I was safe at first base and I went pretty pissed off and I apologized to the umpire afterward. You went off on a numb? No, nothing at him. I was just like really mad and then I was coming back to the bench and I was visibly mad and I felt bad. It was a terrible call. I mean, how did I hit horrible?

I can't two ground outs to short. I was safe on one of them. Acer did you throw anticipation? Yes, I did. I did. That's great. Yeah. They bat you nines in the order? 12th, I think, yesterday.

12th? What does that even mean? Well, everyone bats. We had more than nine. Oh, I've never played softball. I didn't know there were more than nine people who... Well, it's ten. You play four outfielders, first of all. So you're literally batting... you're playing right field and batting last second to last. Okay. That's rough. Yeah, it's very rough. It's embarrassing, you know, are you, are you, are you also rotating in or are you just one? Are you always on the field? Uh, no, I rotated in that game, but I'm not the worst fielder on the team, but I rotated.

Most people rotate. Only a few players played every inning. All right, well, that was a fun trip down horrible memory lane. We lost one nothing by the way. We'll talk to you- One nothing? Yeah, I know, right? It was crazy. It was, like I said, it's wooden bats.

There's not a ton of runs being scored. It looks like the other team's up time against us. All right, we will talk to you tonight. Nine-ish Eastern schedule release. Dan and Jamie, we will talk to you tonight. Nine-ish Eastern, schedule release. Dan and Jamie, I'm at them. See you. ["The Last Supper"] Paramount Podcasts.

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