Fantasy Football Today - Toughest Players to Rank: Cardinals and Jaguars WRs, Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiyah Love and More (05/14 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Which players are giving us fits when we do our rankings? The guys give you their lists after we open the show with a final thought on Derrick Henry and some news and notes (4:40). De'Von Achane got a new contract, while Malik Nabers had another surgery. Is he a Round 4 pick now? ... Jamey's list of toughest players to rank includes Chase Brown and Bucky Irving (7:35). How high should Brown be ranked, and is Irving the definition of a trap back? Jamey also tells us why DK Metcalf (17:15) and the Jaguars wide receivers are tough to rank. Heath knows how good Christian McCaffrey (29:30) can be, but that workload is concerning! Meanwhile, it's tough to rank Jeremiyah Love and the Cardinals wide receivers (35:50) ... Should George Kittle be a Top 100 pick (45:30)? After we discuss Kittle and some tight end strategy, Dave gets into his WR rankings with tough calls on Tetairoa McMillan and Emeka Egbuka (49:30), Alec Pierce (55:50) and KC Concepcion (1:05:00) ... 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 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

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Come to the show, everybody. Thursday, May 14th.

This is fantasy football today. And we are, man, having trouble ranking some players. Having trouble ranking the Jaguars wide receivers, the Arizona wide receivers, George Kittle coming off of Tornikill. Achilles or talking about him maybe being ready for week one. Having trouble ranking Malik Neighbors. We have news on him having a second surgery.

A couple of rookies that were having trouble ranking. We'll talk about it right now. We're also going to give you just an early peak just for funsies. For funsies. Three mock drafts done by our fans. Our fans only mock drafts or whatever you want to call it. We have ADP from those three drafts. So we'll refer to that throughout the show.

What's up, Dave? White Sox baseball is back, ladies and gentlemen. They are good. They are 500. Are they good? Are you kidding? They're amazing. They're 500 on May 14th.

They've got two wins in a row over Heath's Royals. This is the latest that they've, latest in the season that they've been at 500 or better since 2022. It is pathetic that I am this excited about it. It's pathetic that I'm excited about baseball at all. But here I am going. crazy for the Chicago White Sox. That's all I can think about.

Adam, do you want the calves of the pistons? Pistons. Yeah. I would have said that a couple of games ago, and now I don't know if you won either one. For the Knicks, you're saying? Yeah. I don't have a choice.

Yeah, right. I don't have a choice. You have to take one. What am I supposed to say? If you wanted one. They just don't have any score. They just don't have enough scoring. I think he got fouled last night at the end of regulation.

Of course he did. Right? Okay. I was listening with my phone off. on the phone with the sound off, so I don't know what they were saying. But he should have, were they in the penalty? Should they have shot free throws there? Yeah.

Yeah, they got screwed. I think you'd rather face James Hardin, just because you know he'll screw up. He scares me, though. That's the beard? I also think Tobias Harris looks like the weekend. What do you think? Yeah, he does. Anyway, we got an email from Todd.

who just, and I meant to bring this up during our whole Derek Henry conversation yesterday, and I totally forgot, but I think it's something really important. We don't have to spend a lot of time on it, but just to throw it out there. Todd said, one possible concern for Derek Henry this year

other than his age is that his fullback, Ricard is gone, is on the Giants now. He seemed to have more success running behind Ricard. I don't know if he did have more success. He did. Ricard's good.

I never mentioned Tyler Linderbaum's name and that I regret that. So it's just something to keep in mind with Baltimore. more is they don't really have a starting center right now, and they lost their fullback. So, you know, probably a couple of strikes against Derek Henry. Are they big strikes?

I'm not sure, but it felt like it was important to at least bring it up. If we're going to talk comprehensively about Derek Henry, I should have mentioned Linderbaum especially. There you go, now it's mentioned. Schedule comes out tonight. Our reaction to it comes out tomorrow on CBS Sports Network at 1 p.m. Eastern. So we're going to tell you teams that we think have maybe easy schedules, easy paths, difficult schedules, good week one matchups, difficult week 17 matchups, the types of things

that you might want to consider. All right, news and notes. Jamie, you originally sent a list of players that are tough to rank and included Malik Neighbors. We'll talk about him here. He had a second surgery on his knee to remove scar tissue. The scar tissue was causing stiffness. The Giants are still hopeful that he can be ready for week one. Neighbors tore his ACL and had a meniscus repair as well.

his ADP in the three mock drafts that our fans have done on CBS is wide receiver 11, 25th overall. Neighbors is going in between George Pickens or just after Pickens and Nico Collins just before AJ Brown, Chris Olivae and T. Higgins. But the second surgery, it was a second spitter. Second surgery, Jamie, for Malik Neighbors. Yeah, look, it could obviously be a good thing in the fact that, you know, getting the scar tissue cleaned up and hopefully doesn't have any lingering effects, but you are talking about week four is when he got hurt and still dealing with complications from the knee situation. Hearing different timelines, we don't know a firm date about when he'll return or when he'll

be ready to go or if he'll be on the field for, you know, start a training camp or even week one at this point. So I think when you start to stack him up against some of the receivers, you mentioned, I'd rather have those guys. I think taking neighbors in round two is a little bit too tough to buy into right now. For me, he's a back end of round three early round four selection. I just think there's enough risk built into Malik neighbors right now that I'd rather get him at a good price as opposed to maybe buying him at a ceiling. And I'm just concerned that we're maybe dealing with a little bit of a slow start coming off of this injury and coming off multiple surgeries now.

Okay, back of round three, beginning of round four for Jamie. Anybody higher or lower than that? Right around one or thing? Round three. Yeah, I'm around three, but not the back end of round three. Okay. And then if you're going to take a shot on a Giants wide receiver, I mean, I still like Darius.

Let's just say he starts the season on the Puplist or something. I know nobody likes Darius Slayton. Well, Clayton's also injured too. Yeah, Slayton is coming off core surgery. The report was he's expected to be available for training camp. But would it be Mooney for you guys? If it's a receiver, it would be likely. Or if it was a pass catcher, it would be likely.

But a receiver, yeah, I'd probably go Mooney. but, I mean, you got fields now in the mix, too. So I would guess that it's probably just mix and match, kind of like what Dart did aside from Wondell Robinson last year. Is anybody going to move Jackson Dart down in their rankings? None of less neighbors is going to miss significant time. Correct. All right.

Next news item, Devon A. Chan. He signed a four-year, $64 million extension with $32 million guaranteed. Devon A. Chain is currently 12th in CBS ADP from those three mock drafts and the Jets signed wide receiver Tim Patrick who is now a fifth round pick in, no, not

going to be drafted in fantasy. Tuffest players to rank Jamie, go with Jamie's list first. Chase Brown. I was a little surprised to see him on the list here. Jamie's just like, man, he's probably going to be RB1, but I can't justify ranking him there. So what do you think

about Chase Brown? 22.3 points per game in the last six games of the year with Joe Burrow back? He's incredible. And I kind of go back and forth. This is just my, I guess, my own personal struggle with this is like, you know, should he be a first round pick or should he be going in early round two? And it comes down to how many running backs should be in front of, you know, a handful of receivers.

Right now I have him, I think, at 13th overall. He is RB6, I believe. It's just how good can he be once again? We saw what he was when Samadjai P. Ryan was on. the field versus off the field and just, you know, a little bit of a dip in production and certainly a little bit of a dip in usage. I mean, I love him. I think he's got so much, so much upside potential.

Like he's been as high as eighth overall and again, right now 13. So it's just kind of shuffling him back and forth between a handful of wide receivers behind him versus, you know, should he go in round one. So it's just kind of a struggle of basically is Chase Brown a first round pick. And right now I don't think he is, but he's right on the cusp. What scares you guys about Chase Brown? Heath, I'll go to you, you know, because we've seen two years in a row with Burrow becoming the starter two years ago after Zach Moss got hurt, elite production. Last year, Final Six games, Elite Production.

What scares you about, Chase Brown? I think, no, I think the thing that used to scare me about Chase Brown was just not knowing if he was actually as good as his fantasy production had been, worrying that either the Bengals' offensive line or the fact that the Bengals threw 700 past. in a season would kind of cap his upside. I've pretty much moved past those concerns. I don't have him as a first round pick. I've got him 13th overall. He's my, I think, R.B6 or 7 right now. I'm just kind of done doubting Chase Brown.

Okay. Let's go to our next guy here. It's Bucky Irving. Bucky Irving went from 5.4 yards per carry as a rookie to 3.4 yards per carry as a sophomore. He did deal with injury. and been seeing him go in the third round or so, checking the CBS ADP.

Bucky Irving is going in the fourth round. 45th. Wow. Still higher than I have him. Wow. Okay. Jamie, he's on your tough to rank list. Where do you have Bucky Irving?

Yeah, just outside of round four, so 49th overall, you know, similar to, I guess, where he's going. But the fact that he's not. healthy is concerning. The fact that, you know, Zach Robinson was glowing about Kenneth Gainwell comparing into Tony Pollard. The fact that, or maybe it wasn't Robinson doing that, but a member of the Bucks, I think it was a running back coach, who was with him in Dallas, with Paul Bair in Dallas, Sean Tucker being there, and we saw what happened last year with taking away goal line opportunities. So, you know, I'm still a Bucky Irving believer. I still think there's plenty of love about his talent, but can he overcome his situation and now injury?

And we saw what that was like after he came back from the shoulder and foot injuries last year. Like it was it was tough to watch. It was tough to deal with. It was certainly tough to start him. And so you're looking at a Bucks offense that may, I don't think, go in a completely different direction, but has other options to choose from. And so if Gainwell is going to eat into his passing down production and Tucker's going to eat into his touchdown production, we are talking about the definition of a trapback.

And so that's the type of player that you typically want to avoid. We've seen him go in our drafts in round three. I don't think that should be the case at all. round four is getting a little dicey at this point. And when you start to compare him to Tony Pollard and Chuba Hubbard and, you know, Judarian Price and, you know, the list of guys that we talked about in that range last, yesterday show, DeAndre Swift, you know, I mean, you can make an argument. All those guys have a better opportunity than he does right now,

just given the fact that the timeshare could be absolutely awful. So still, again, hopeful that Bucky Irving can be that guy that we saw in his rookie season, can be that guy that we saw in the first four games last year before the injuries became a problem for him and he missed time, it just feels like we may not see that guy unless there's another injury in Tampa Bay's backup back home. Dave, your thoughts on Bucky Irving? Do you like this ADP at 45th overall?

I actually do. I have them ranked higher. This is actually the second running back in a row that we've talked about that I'm higher on than both the other guys. And it's, it's, I do have them ranked as a round three pick. It's before the shoulder injury came out or the fact that it's lingering. I kind of want to see what it looks like by the time we get to training camp and whether or not he's still suffering from it.

Totally agree that Kenneth Gainwell is a problem. He's going to be in the problem in the exact same way that Rashad White was the problem last year. I can't get out of my mind how good Bucky Irving was, despite not having great efficiency, those first four games before he got hurt. It was 18 p.pr points per game. So, yeah, you can make the case that D'Andre Swift is going to be better than him.

Trevion Henderson's going to be better than him, Brees Hall is going to be better than him. I don't know if those guys have the same type of upside. Henderson does. Can't say that. But those other running backs, I kind of feel like Irving is a little bit more upside. I still believe in this offense as a whole.

And if Bucky's healthy and he stays healthy, and he's still going to get a ton of touches. He had 22 and a half touches per game in his first four. There were five games all last year where he played 60 plus percent of the snaps. He had 18 plus touches in all five of those games. If he's still going to get that kind of a game, workload, I kind of want to bet on his upside. I'd be shocked if he got that workload.

He had it last year, and he had the exact same type of crowded running back group. Yes, but he also had a guy on an expiring contract, not a guy that they went out and targeted. He has a new offensive coordinator who likes to throw to his running backs a lot, and Irving may not be in that role, given what game most pedigree is. And as we saw at the end of last season, when Tucker was getting involved, certainly at the goal line, that was at the expense of Bucky Irving. I think it's also a little hard to say that Bruce,

Hall does not have as much upside as Bucky Irving when Breesaw has had a better career than Bucking. It's a longer career than Bucky Irving. The first four games that Dave mentioned, Buck, Irving was on pace for 81 catches for 820 yards and 10 receiving, or and eight receiving touchdowns. I don't think if they planned on using him in that role, they would have gone and gotten Kenneth Gainwell.

And I just, I, I, I, he was, how many, how many of those catches came on third downs to begin with because I think that's the role Gainwell is going to have. Just because Gainwell is going to be there in passing downs. I mean, we've talked about this ad nausea. Running backs will catch passes on first and second downs, too. The answer is zero. He did not have a single third down catch in those first four games. Right. And he still

average 4.8 targets per game. I don't, yeah, that's the thing. I don't really know how to reconcile that. He had a 21.3% target per outrun rate. That's really, really high. No, it's not really, really high. It's high. It's good. It's good. Yeah. Can you do that again?

I don't know. This was one of the guys in my bust column that came out this week. I just, I think right now he looks like, like remember the Ben Gritch trapback. I don't know if anybody has ever looked more like a trapback going into the season with Kenneth Gainwell playing third downs and Sean Tucker handling goal line work. Yeah, well, right. I think we can safely say Kenneth Gainwell will probably be handling third down. Yeah, he's in the Rashad White. Less certain, less certain though that Sean Tucker will be the goal line back, right?

That could be a coin flip. But at least we have to consider it a possibility, if not a strong possibility, because it's happened last year. And then I don't know how much of the fact that Bucky Irving was the third best rusher on Tampa Bay after he came back from injury was injury related. He wasn't. He just wasn't good. He wasn't. That's very fair. but there was a different situation and circumstance that I don't think.

I mean, look, he could always get hurt again, but I don't know if he's going to have the same type of problems. Yeah, sure. Yeah, he is. All right, we're going to take a break here. We'll talk about D.K. Metcalfe and the Jaguars wide receivers when we come back on fantasy football today. We'll be right back. Welcome back, folks. DK. Metcalf is going 85th overall.

I'm so rusty right now. 85 divided by 12. That's round eight. the beginning of round eight, seven, eight turn. Okay, so Jamie, you have D.K.K. McHaff on your hard-to-rank list. He's, you know, just been kind of bleh since that second year breakout for him. But his target per route run rate the last three years, 21.9%, 19.7%, 21.4%. Not good enough.

Might be good enough for an eighth round pick, though. Jamie, D.K. Metcalfe. Yeah, I think just obviously was tough to watch and perform last year. was tough to watch this offense perform last year at times. You bring in Michael Pittman, who could easily be the number one receiver from a target standpoint with Aaron Rogers. But you also bring in Mike McCarthy.

And Mike McCarthy's passing attack has been very successful. Obviously, Aaron Rogers has done well with McCarthy. You're still talking about a guy that's 42. You're talking about a guy in McCarthy that took a year off last year. And again, the target competition is a little bit different because Metcalf really didn't have that problem last year with Gameel being the second best receiver on the team. So I just wonder if,

If like does D.K. McCaff have one last season of maybe quality production, not standout production, not great production, not must start wide receiver production, but good enough that you justify where he's going. Like you said, round eight for what still should be, at least on paper, the number one receiver for this team. Again, we'll see how that all shakes out. We'll see what, you know, this team looks like. They still haven't even brought back Aaron Rogers yet.

So it could be a disaster of epic proportions, given the quarterback room and what it looks like right now. But I'm expecting Rogers to be there. I'm expecting him to obviously acclimate while, you know, being reunited with McCarthy. And I think Metcalf can end up being a nice surprise. I just don't want to overvalue him and certainly overrank him. So he's in the 30s. He's not even a top three wide receiver in terms of, you know, number three receivers. I just, it feels like at times when I look at the rank is like it's too low for what his production could be.

Yeah, Heath. If I was going, I think I'm the high guy on D.K. Metcalfe, and I'm not sure that I love that. But if I was going to make the optimistic case for him, it would be that last year, the Steelers threw 550 passes, and only 42% of those passes went to wide receivers. That's an Arthur Smith statistic. Kyle Shanahan's offenses have been really low

in terms of like the wide receiver share of targets, and they've been right around 50%. Mike McCarthy's wide receiver target rate has been 60% of their pass attempt. and the last couple of years he's been calling plays. His teams have averaged about 585 pass attempts per game. So I think there are more passes in this new offense, and I think a higher percentage of those passes go to wide receivers.

Dave, in the fans draft, you're seeing the ADP on the screen here, DK Metcalfe, 85th overall, then it's Jacoby Myers, Ricky Pearsall, Jordan Tyson. First of all, would you take Myers, Pearsall, Tyson ahead of Metcalf? I would take Tyson and Pearsall ahead of Metcalfe. and I can be coerced into taking Myers too just because I think Myers is safe. I'm not big on Matt Kaff. I'm okay with him going early round eight. But I think the Pittman edition hurts.

And even though there's this great track record of Mike McCarthy playing at a fast pace, I don't know if they can get away with that with Rogers. I don't know if Rogers wants to do that. And I don't know if Rogers is going to attack downfield even as much as he did last year. I do really like the point Heath made about the tight end. involvement in Pittsburgh in 2025 and how that's probably going to go away. That helps D.K. Mecalf.

That could open the door for me to be interested in him at this ADP, but it's back-to-back years where he's seen around 12 to 12.8 ppr points per game, and his target volume was 7.2 in 2024, different offense, different team, different quarterback. 2025, it dipped to 6.5. Maybe it gets closer to 7 again, but I bet he's still in that. middle of like 12 and a half ppr points per game. Okay. So that's D.K.

Mek-K. And then I just wonder guys looking at- last year that actually wasn't terrible. It was about wide receiver 24 per game last year, DK-Met-KF. Yeah, which sucks. I hope that's not the case this year. And right, but, you know,

with 12.5 p-br fantasy points per game, if he had done that in 20203 or 2024, that's wide receiver 36 per game, not wide receiver 24. But last thing here, looking at the CBS ADP, looking at fantasy pros ADP, about 25 picks earlier than Michael Pitman. So would you guys rather have Metcalf

or take a 25 pick discount and get Pitman? Discount. Come on, Heath. I am so, like, Michael Pitman was already one of the most boring wide receivers in the NFL, and now he's going to play with Aaron Rogers. And I just, I can't, I have a hard time caring.

I think he's a better fit. fit than Metcalf with Rogers. Rogers does not throw downfield. He's one of the lowest A dot quarterbacks in football. That's not a METCath thing. Right. Does that continue under McCarthy? Maybe Michael Pittman has a 20% target share

and catches a bunch of passes eight yards downfield. But I'm worried they cannibalize each other. Well, I think what you're seeing is that nobody's excited about either of these guys. D.K. Metcalfe, this has to be his lowest 80s. since his rookie year. I would think maybe his second year. I don't know where he was drafted. All right.

Let's go to the last one. And this is a Jamie one, but it's really for everyone. It's all three Jaguars wide receivers. Brian Thomas Jr. came back for the last six games of the season. In those six games, Jacobi Myers had 46 targets.

Parker Washington had 35 targets, but he missed a game, and he played less than 56% of the snaps in three of the five games. Breton Strange had 31. targets and Brian Thomas Jr. also at 31. That's a 16.6% target share for Strange and Thomas. So, Jamie, with some trouble ranking the Jaguars wide receivers, where are you on right now? All outside the top 36. It's really just a matter of, I think, what you're looking for with your

build, because you still have to view Brian Thomas as having the most upside. Because if he hits, he hits big, as we saw in his rookie season. If he fails, we saw what the failures look like, but you're not spending a high draft pick on them. I don't think anybody should. Then it comes down to you want to talk about boring wide receivers. If we're calling Michael Pittman, boring Jacoby Myers is almost the same definition. Has more upside than Michael Pittman and could be the best wide receiver in Jacksonville. But again, when we've seen Myers at his best, it's been in the most depleted receiving cores that he's played on.

New England without anybody else there, Las Vegas without anybody else there. His numbers took off when they got rid of Devante Adams. So I think Myers is safe, but I just don't think has a huge upside. Then you see what Parker Washington did last year, and it's hard to overlook that, knowing that this is a guy Trevor Lawrence likes, this is clearly a guy Liam Cohen likes, and how do they keep him off the field? Then there's the wrinkle that, you know, you didn't mention Adam, which is obviously Travis Hunter, as the post just showed in the chat.

How much will Travis Hunter play? What role will he have? Who is he taking off the field? Brent Strange, obviously, is a factor. The backfield's different now without Travis E.T.N. there. So we'll see, you know, if they do decide to use LeQuint, Alan Moore, you know, in a pass catching role, as opposed to maybe Basial Tutin or Chris Rodriguez. Rodriguez doesn't have a pass catching pedigree. So it would make some sense to maybe add somebody else there.

But looking at just the receivers, like to me, it's Thomas is the one that I'm going to swing for the fences on. And if I need somebody more as a floor, it's either going to be Washington or Myers. And that's the way I haven't ranked right now, Washington first. Did we talk about what James Gladstone said? No He was on the I think Rich Eisen show last week And was like we are absolutely not done

With Travis Hunter playing both ways And even went so far as Because Eisen kind of said Well like the defensive snaps go up The offensive snaps have to go down And he kind of pushed back against that He said all we're saying is the defensive snaps Are going to go up

Wouldn't be good would it You know who I'm not drafting I'm not drafting Brent and strange. But if we take a, let's take a look at ADP right now. So it's really interesting because on CBS, I think they're back to back to back among wide receivers or they're very close. Jacoby Myers is going 85th overall right after D.K. Metcalfe.

They're not back to back to back. There's like Jordan Tyson's in there. But Jacoby Myers 85th, Brian Thomas Jr., 88th, Parker Washington, 90th. It's, yeah, there's Ricky Pearsall and George. and Tyson in there, but they're essentially going in the same exact range. Myers, then Thomas, then Parker Washington. Fantasy pros is a little more spread out, at least with one of them. Has Brian Thomas Jr. at wide receiver 34, 76th overall.

Parker Washington is next, wide receiver 35, and then Jacoby Myers is, I think, wide receiver 40. He's going 94th overall. So it's close amongst the early drafters. I mean, Parker Washington was so good down the stretch, including 26.5 fantasy points at Denver. His last four games, including the playoffs, 19 or more PPR fantasy points. It is tough. I guess do you even want to get one of these guys?

Or are you just like, I'm going to skip them? Again, I think it comes down to what you're looking for. So if you're set with your three or four wide receivers and you're talking about bench plays, bench players who could turn into something, for me, that would be Thomas. Because, again, like, if he can regain something close to his rookie season, or maybe there's a mid-season trade still. But obviously, just looking at if he stays on Jacksonville,

I still think he has the most upside. Then if you're talking about, okay, I took a chance on some. So let's say, you know, you draft a Luther Burden who's got so much upside but unproven or I'm trying to think of somebody else that may fall into that category. whatever the case may be with your first two or three wide receivers and you're like, okay, I need somebody that's a little bit safer, then I think you look at Washington or Myers, you know, just based on what Washington last year, Myers career history. Travis Hunter to me is a late round flyer at best.

I think you're just looking at it. What is the GM who traded his draft picks supposed to say about a guy that they drafted that high to play both ways? If he was just drafting a cornerback, they're not making. that trade. If he's just drafting a receiver, they're not taking him. So it's more, I think, him trying to clearly make sense of why they did it and still try to fit it on the field as much as you can. But they also don't go and trade for Jacoby Myers last year if they feel like they still have this potential stud-wide receiver or player who could play that side of the ball to the

extent of maybe what he's saying. So it just feels like it's too crowded for Travis Hunter to really matter for fans. Okay, let's go to Heath's list. We've, got I guess three Cardinals on here and we've got two 49ers. I like the AFC West flavor. Christian McCaffney. I'm not NFC West. No, they're in the AFC now. I was right.

Christian McCaffrey going seventh overall, eighth overall. He has the seventh highest ADP, but he's going eighth overall in our CBS ADP. Whoops, let's get those menus out of there. And he is in between Amon-Ross, St. Brown and Jonathan Taylor. He's tough to rank for Heath Cummings. that Christian McCaffrey. Well, I mean, he had 413 touches in the regular season, which as Jamie talked a lot with Seekuan Barclay last year is generally a very bad thing.

He's also undeniably the best player in fantasy, probably if he plays 17 games. His rushing efficiency was really not very good last year at 3.9 yards per carry, and there are other metrics that didn't look good either, but he averaged over 7 yards per target once again and caught 100 passes. like it's it's how scared are you to give up on the chance at the upside and I was too scared last year and how much do you let that influence your position this year so where do you have him where do you have McCaffrey probably like right where he's being drafted I think seventh or eight's now I've got a eighth so perfect if I just if I just don't have a take it's hard to be

wrong. Jonathan Taylor or McAfrey? Taylor for me. Dave, where do you have McCaffrey? Ninth. Not only does he have this concern about having so many touches, he talked about it. It's 450 touches, if you include the postseason. He's also 30, and he's also had coaches already come out this offseason and say, yeah,

we've got to find ways to take work off of him. So I think they know that they can't overwork Christian McCaffrey all season long. what does that look like? Does that mean that Jordan James is going to get eight touches per game and McCaffrey is going to get 18 touches per game? Well, I still would love to have Christian McCaffrey if that's the case. But the last time that he had a lot of work in a season, well, he came back last year and he was awesome.

But earlier in his career, he had a lot of work, and he came back and he started to suffer some serious injuries. And it harpooned two of his fantasy years. So I don't want to necessarily be totally out. on Christian McCaffrey. So I get where Heath is coming from by saying, well, if I don't have a take, I can't be wrong. I just, I don't know if I can say,

okay, give me Chase Brown. Okay, give me Drake London. Okay, give me Rishi Rice instead of Christian McCaffrey because you know what McCaffrey is capable of. I think the way you feel better about it on draft day is if you take Christian McCaffrey in round one and then you get another 49ers running back, it should be Jordan James,

probably in round nine. I don't think anybody's going to look for him before that point. I just to he didn't have big workload though in 2024 just to what did he have in 24 you played four games played four games it's it furthers your point that right okay that's fair I'm sorry what was it 2023 that he had the big season or 23 he was amazing best player in fantasy 20 24 came back had the knee injury missed the rest of the season yeah 25 was how can I forget that goodness gracious I think the the thing with with McCaffrey right now and I'm sure we would all agree. If you say he's playing 17 games, he's probably the number one overall

pick. And so it's like, do you want to risk that potential by passing on him in round one? Nobody's going to take him over Gibbs or Robinson, whatever order, because of where those guys are in their careers and what the upside is for those two guys. It's a question of, does McAfree seem better to anyone than Jonathan Taylor or James Cook or Chase Brown or all the receivers that go after are the top three guys, you know, starting with the Monaro St. Brown. So, you know, just going back to, you know, and I don't want to speak for anybody because I'm sure their opinions may have changed. But if I remember correctly, when we did the early rankings in January, I think Jacob and Dan were very, we're still very high on McCaffrey. I'm pretty sure Dan had him as a number one running back. So, you know, we're five months removed from that. I'm sure something has changed, you know, Lions backfields changed, Falcons backfield changed, coaches have changed. So, but still, you know what he's going to do when he plays. Now, to Dave's point, will they change some of that? Sure, it could happen.

You know, they drafted another running back that they probably have to justify taking because they reach for him and Kalin Black. But how do you take McCaffrey off the field when he is their offense? And now you have Kittle coming back from injury or receiving core that's very different, you know, maybe better, but different. And so he's still the catalyst of what they want to do and probably need to do. So hopefully he stays healthy. And if he does, you're going to be rewarded by taking him at the back half around one.

Okay, we're going to take a break. And we're going to come back and talk about the Arizona Cardinals who have moved from the AFC West to the NFC West. And we'll be right back on fantasy football today. Heath, should we lump together the Arizona Cardinals wide receivers and Jeremiah Love? Are they related in a sense? No. Okay, because my theory was like they had no run game last year. And they had, if not, during the Brissette run, which I think started in week six,

I think they led the NFL and pass attempts. If they didn't, they were very close. They led the NFL and past attempts for the season. For the season, okay. So, yeah, that's why I thought having trouble ranking the Cardinals wide receivers might be related to the fact that they drafted Jeremiah Love, which might hurt them. I think it's more that with Jeremiah Love, it's Ashton Genti trauma. This could be a disastrously,

bad offense. And something that's different than the Ashton Genti situation is they've also still, for some reason, brought back James Connor and went out and added Tyler Algier. So the one thing that saved Ashton Genty and kept him as a must-star running back was the fact that he touched the ball all the time and handled all those passing downs and caught a bunch of passes. We can't even say the first couple weeks of the season that's going to be the case for Jeremiah Love.

But at the same time, I think he's awesome. And generally it's a pretty good bet to take a running back drafted in the top 10 of the NFL draft earlier than where I have Jeremiah Love ranked, which I think is round three. So it's just with love, it's it's the situation in terms of how bad the offense could be and the potential that he's splitting. With Wilson and Harrison, it's the fact that like first off, I don't think they're going to throw the ball at Trey McBride as much as they did last year. but that's just what I think. If they do, then only one of these guys can really be relevant. They can't both matter.

And Wilson was so awesome with Brissette when Harrison was unavailable. And Harrison's so much better of a prospect in terms of what we think he could be and the upside we think he possesses, even though Wilson showed so much upside last year, that it's just really hard to rank those guys. The Cardinals were last in running back rush attempts.

first and pass attempts. They did throw to their running backs quite a bit. Third most running back targets, seventh highest running back target rate. But, yeah, I mean, it was a perfect environment for the past catchers to do well. Yes. They were trailing a lot.

They were throwing a lot. And then, you know, Marvin Harrison couldn't stay healthy. So there was just basically one guy that first half of the season was mostly Harrison doing okay. And second half of the season was Michael Wilson. but let me give you this stat real quick and tell me your thoughts. And if you're watching, I'll try to get Jeremiah Love off the screen and get to the wide receiver ADP. Very, very few routes here.

We're talking 82 snaps for Marvin Harrison Jr. in his last three games, weeks 13, 16, and 17. And he was playing hurt. And he was playing hurt. But here's the target shares for the big three for Arizona when Marvin Harrison was on the field. So this is after Michael Wilson broke out. and established himself as something. So 82 snaps, about 60 routes for these guys. McBride and Harrison had a 21% target share.

Michael Wilson had a 19% target share. And I think it's such a small sample size, but he thought sorts of you since you said they were tough to rank. But that's got a, that's on my mind with these guys. That would be a scary scenario if it's somewhat evenly split three ways. That's the, and I did put Shane McBride in the, Cull. I think that's the,

that's the, that's the Tray McBride bust case right there. If he has a 21% target share, he is an awful pick in round two and probably in round three. And really, kind of like just what I was saying, if both Harrison and Wilson are around 20%, then they're both maybe borderline wide receiver threes.

Yeah. And let's see, let's see where they're going. Marvin Harrison Jr., can I spell, is going 59th overall. and Michael Wilson is going ahead of him in the early ADP, 57th overall. Jamie, those guys, you're not going to see both them going in the end of round five.

I'll look at Fantasy Pros. Michael Wilson is going 85th overall as wide receiver 38. Marvin Harrison Jr., 70th overall is wide receiver 31. That's better. What do you think about Harrison and Wilson? It's almost exactly where I have him ranked. I think you look at Harrison and what he did when healthy. with Brissette, which wasn't very much three games,

he may have had the Michael Wilson production that we saw. Probably not to the same heights because Wilson was, you know, dominant targets. But, you know, you look at what he was doing finally with a pocket passer and not a guy that was playing off script, and maybe that's what he needs, you know, because he just didn't seem to mesh well with Kyler. You know, something that was obviously working for him.

So I'm hopeful that the guy that we saw for flashes in his first, you know, a couple of seasons. And the guy that we saw in Ohio State can, you know, hopefully show up or at least close to that. So I mean, you know, we've referenced this time and time again. The five or six drafts that we've done already, I think I've taken him in four or five of them. So it just ends up being, to me, a number three receiver that I kind of gravitate toward because I still believe in the player. And I think the situation is much better for him. I just wish we would have seen it last year.

But if we had seen it last year, he's not going this late. And obviously in the case of Wilson, he did things that Marvin Harrison has yet to do, and he did it in the same offense. And so the hope is that he can still do that, but obviously do that as the third option, as opposed to in some cases being the first option. I think everybody's saying the second option last year because of how McBride performed. But obviously Michael Wilson was playing at a level that we just keep waiting for Marvin Harrison to get to. So I like the ADP that Fantasy Pros has. I hate the ADP so far in the early drafts on CBS. We haven't seen that reflect so far in the drafts that we've done with our other analysts, but they have gone close.

together. So, you know, the people that are anti-Marvin Harrison are going to probably try and get Michael Wilson. The people are pro Marvin Harrison will probably just hopefully get him at the right cost. I don't want to reach for either one. But so far, I think where Marvin Harrison is going is a very good value for what you can still be. And Dave, last thing, I'll let you weigh on this. I know you spent some time this morning watching this offense. But in that small sample size, those roughly 60 routes where all three were on the field late in the season, I absolutely hate this. Marvin Harrison Jr. had a 15.7 yard a dot. He is not going to be successful in fantasy. I don't think with that kind of a dot. But give me your take real quick on the on the Cardinals offense.

So throw out a lot of what you know about last year from Arizona because two things are changing. Number one, it's going to be a much better offense. We're talking about Michael Flore taking over. This is somebody who has been seven years, the right-hand man of Kyle Shanahan, three years the right-hand man of Sean McVeigh. Yeah, I've talked about that as a reason to love, Jeremiah Love. It's also a reason to buy into what this team can be like as a passing offense. But that being said, could either of these guys be Pooka Nakua or even Devante Adams? I struggle with it.

And I know that there was such a great profile for Marvin Harrison coming out of Ohio State. Man, we really haven't seen it. There have been flashes, but otherwise we just have not seen him be that guy. And you can blame it on the quarterbacks. you can blame it on injuries. We just haven't seen it. And Michael Wilson, when he got an opportunity and it came last year, he actually looked pretty good.

He's actually like one of these kind of freaky size speed guys who can change direction, not bad for a dude who's as big as he is. And I'm kind of interested in them, but I don't know if I really want to target either one. And I'm especially certain that they will not have the same type of passing environment that they did last year. There were two games last year where in Arizona, Arizona Cardinals running back had 15 or more PPR points.

And there were seven games where no running back had 13. They played 17 games. That running game sucked. We talked about it. It's going to change under Jeremiah Love. He's just such a good talent that I buy into him. Changing the tenor of that offense, that means they don't throw nearly as much as they did last year,

which means the target volume goes down across the board. I'm running out of breath. McBride is the one that I'm mildly interested in. I think I might end up passing on Harrison. and probably end up passing on Wilson, too. The funny thing is if they just have competent quarterback play, they could be a really good offense. I mean, we're talking about,

oh, could this be this bad offense or Jeremiah Love is going to be held back? We've got the pieces to be a great offense here. Lines a little bit of a concern. I get that, but a little bit. A lot of talent. It's better. It's better.

They're the Jets. Same team. Yeah. They're better than the Jets. Yeah, no, I mean, I think, well, yeah, there's similarities. I think probably Garrett Wilson is probably better than Marvin Harrison Jr. But I don't know.

I don't know. It certainly wasn't. Yes. That's a yes. Okay. Is Jacoby better than Gino? I mean, a lot of similarities. I mean, which year is it?

But I don't think of the last five years, five off seasons, I think this is the first one where we would be asking that question. Yeah. Yeah. Like nobody thought it was really. much of a competition. Uh-huh. Well, Heath, George Kittle was amazing last year.

He was the number two tight end per game behind Tray McBride. Coming off of Tornichilles, you're having trouble ranking George Kittle. Yeah, I don't know where to rank a guy that I think could be a top five tight end and could start the season on Pup and is old and wasn't as good last year as he's been in the past, particularly in the one thing that he's always been incredible at, and that is yards after the catch per reception. He is over six yak per reception every year of his career until last year when it fell to 4.4.

And a lot of times that's because the ADOT went up and you lose some yak. His ADOT of 6.7 was the lowest since 2019. He is 32 years old, turned 33 during the season, and coming off of an Achilles, I don't really even want to draft him as anything other than like, okay, it's the last round. I'll put him in my I-R spot.

Yeah. Right now, 90th for George Kittle in the three CBS drafts. I certainly am not taking him in the first eight rounds. 119 on Fantasy Pros. That's closer. What if you knew he was going to be back?

Let's say, you know, week three. avoiding pup when is he back though right there's a difference between he's he's back practicing in week one for a week three return or he's practicing during training camp and they just hold him out for the first couple of games i don't really know right he needs that he needs a month of ramp up time before i'd feel really good about starting him as anything more than a touchdown or bust tight end. And then the other thing is that the tight end position is not the wasteland that it used to be. There it is.

And so is he going to move ahead of Harold Fanon? No. Tucker Kraft? As long as Kraft is on track to play, he'll go ahead of Kittle. I'm not going to move him ahead of

Laporteur or Pitts either. No chance. You know how I have it? I've put him exactly at 100th overall. And I think he's a luxury pick. If I get to that point in the draft, and that's round nine, I love my team. Rounds one through eight, I don't care if I have a tight end or not. If I love my team, I'll go for it with Kittle at that point. I think maybe a strategy we haven't talked much about is drafting Kittle late, you know, 100th, let's say, and then drafting Tanges. He was certainly good enough to be a starter, you know, when Kittle was out. No one will draft him unless it's tight end premium.

I'd rather draft Kelsey. Would you go into your season with Kelsey and Kittle as your tight ends? I mean, you could do that. I'd just say I'd rather... I'd rather draft Kelsey than use two picks on the 49ers' tight end. Oh, so, yeah. Yeah, that doesn't suck either. I mean, again, unless the thing about Tungis,

especially if, you know, Kittl's timeline is early, but may not play, you know, if you'd just draft Kittle and then you could probably pick up Tondis up waivers after the draft starts. Yeah. What if you ask your commissioner nicely? You're like, listen, I want to take, I'm going to take Hiddle, but can you also just give me Tanges after the draft and I can only use one roster. I would allow that.

Yeah, that'll work in your league. What if you don't set any rules about making off-season transactions and somebody adds Tadjus and then you reverse it? I did set the rule. I just didn't implement it. Oh, got you. Okay. Dave, you can go ahead and change that back, by the way, so I can drop some players.

so I'm going to be able to make my draft picks at some point. You're not drafting for a while. I wouldn't worry about it. The best thing I was get married to my wife. The second best thing was not get into the Big Burger Dynasty League. It's a fun league. Being commissioner is not fun. All right.

Tetero-McMillan is on Dave's list of players who are tough to rank. It's McMillan, Abuka, Alec, Alec, Pierce, and Casey Concepcion, and Dave is having wide receiver ranking nightmares. Tetero McMillan, well, first of all, who would you take first? McMillan or Abuka? I currently have a Bucca head of McMillan. Okay.

And I don't know if I even love it. I don't even know. I'll have a decision come late July, but for now I don't even know how much I love it. Look at that, Dave, back to back. 30. At the 3-4 turn, Ameca, Bucca and Tetaro McMillan, right in between Tee Higgins and Devante Smith in the early CBS ADP. So what's difficult about these guys? Mick Millen should be a fantasy football beast.

He's big, he's quick, he's clearly the number one target. The Panthers offense, I think, is ascending, maybe not necessarily ascending like the top half of a case-shaped type of deal, but it's still ascending. And I don't understand why they didn't feed him more targets per game last year, because I don't think it's because of things he did. and I'm still not sure that the run game has been addressed to the point where we should be worried about them running a lot. I don't think the other receivers and tight ends that they have warrant worry.

There should be nothing stopping Tedro-O-Mond from getting to eight targets per game. But I think he should be seeing eight and a half to nine and a half targets per game. He's that good. And he's shown it in flashes as a rookie. Maybe that's what it is. He was just a rookie last year. I don't know, but I want to love him. I want to trust him.

I want to rank him right next to George Pickens. I just can't do it because I know who the quarterback is, and I'm worried about that team just being maybe a little too conservative offensively. So, right, Carolina was 27th in points per game. They were 23rd in pass rate, 27th in gross passing yards per game. It wasn't a very good offense. His target per out run rate, Tedroo McMillan, was 22.3%, which is okay.

It ranked 30th out of 78 wide receivers with 50 or more targets, better than D.K. Metcalf, but it's not great, but it's fine, but they just didn't throw that much. And Jamie, we were talking about McMillan in the superlative show as the next Marvin Harrison Jr.,

the guy who we expect to break out and it just doesn't happen, and we thought maybe because it was offense. But I, maybe in contrast to you, I think the RICO doubtle loss I don't want to speak for you, I'm sorry. But I think the Rico Dowda loss could help McMillan because I do think they used him in a ground and pound way.

They just smashed him up the middle over and over again. I don't think they're going to be able to do that with Chuba Hubbard, maybe with Brooks, but probably not. So I do, I'm optimistic that they won't run the ball as much because they don't have the personnel to do it and they'll have to throw more and that will help McMillan. I don't know. How do you feel about that?

It certainly could be the case. And again, you know, Canal is giving up play calling duties, if in fact that does come to fruition throughout the entirety of the season, could certainly help that theory. I just, to me, McMillan feels like he's going to be very good. I just don't know if Bryce Young as his quarterback gets him to the level we're hoping for, whereas we've seen that with Abuka, you know, in the start of the season last year.

We've seen the level that he can get to. And it's impressive. We also saw the fall off, but that comes with what happened to this team last year where everybody started to get healthy. Well, you don't have Mike Evans right now. You're hearing positive reports about Ted Hurst, the rookie. Obviously, Godwin is hopefully back at 100%,

but he's 30 years old, so we'll see which version of Godin we get because he's got several versions of Chris Godwin. And then Jalen McMillan, who didn't really get the most glowing report with the conversation earlier this week with Zach Robinson. So for me, Abuka's got a higher ceiling in his current situation. I think the floor is safer for McMillan because I don't think he gets worse than what he did last year. At least I'm hoping. But I think if you're just talking about who can be better than the other right now, for me,

I would lean toward Abuka. I think just the ceiling's higher in his current situation. I wonder why he'd be tough to rank. Macabuca was the number three wide receiver per game in his first five. games and the number 58 wide receiver per game in his last 12 games. He stuffed around. Anything else you want to say about Abuka, Dave, or should we move on? I believe that the combination of him getting hurt last year, Mike Evans coming back last year,

Baker was hurt last year, all led to Abuka not performing, not being nearly as good as he was in the first few games of the season. He's obviously going to be healthy this year. Same thing with Baker. Mike Evans is gone. I love what I'm reading about Ted Hurst. I don't think he's going to have a huge impact on what Abuka could be. I agree that Abuka has more upside than Tedro-McMellon,

but I think both these guys have huge upside. I don't think any one of the four of us would be shocked if both finish 2026 as top 10 wide receivers as far as PPR points per game. I think Abuka versus McMillan may just come down to how optimistic you are about a Baker bounceback. Yeah. I'm not. and so I have McMillan hire, but if Baker bounces back, then I book as the answer.

So I kind of told the line with that because I don't think Baker bounces back, but I also don't think Bryce Young takes a step forward. So I think Baker, in his regressed state, if that's how he want to define it, you know, from where he was at his heights, I still think is better as a fantasy, better as a quarterback for his fantasy assets than Bryce Young.

All right, Alec Pierce is next on Dave's list of players who are difficult to rank. Alec Pierce You know he was a second round pick in 2022 And took him four years He had his year four breakout A thousand yards six touchdowns on only 84 targets He's a really fascinating player

I think if I were going to sum him up You guys feel free to disagree Arguably the best deep ball receiver in the NFL So we don't love high A dot guys for fantasy Like really high A dot guys But he is Maybe better at it than anyone else.

Dave, where do you have ranked and what's the difficulty with Alec Pierce? I have him outside of my top 24. He's one of the wide receiver 3s that I'm targeting. I don't think the A.D. stays that high. They just paid him a ton of money. Michael Pittman just hit the door. I imagine that that A.D.

It'll come down. His role will change, but his target volume will increase. Last year, he averaged 5.6 targets per game over the course of the whole season. In 10 games with Daniel Jones, 5.9 targets per game. but 11.4 full PPR points per game. I went back and I just looked over his entire career.

It doesn't matter who the quarterback is. 19 games were he had at least six targets. So kind of a low bar. 10 games with at least 15 plus PPR. So about half, that's not bad. Four of the five came in 2025. That makes me a little bit encouraged for the coming year. And it's just taking the chance on a wide receiver

who's shown us flashes of him as a big play guy and hoping that he can, contribute even more in the small and intermediate ranges in the Colts offense. Can he be a real wide receiver? Yeah. Well, I'm terrified at the Colts offense, though. You know, they were so good last year, best in the league with Daniel Jones. I can't wrap my head around that.

And then he's coming off of torn Achilles. Joneses, yes. Yeah. Alec Pierce is going 56th overall. Yeah, that's a little too rich for my blood. Let me see where he is in fantasy pros, because I doubt it's that high. Alec Pierce is 77th overall, wide receiver 35.

That's a good value. I like that better. Would you take the... If you're terrified of the Colts, I mean, you're right about Jones and the Achilles, but this is the type of offense that we love because it's going to be concentrated targets to three guys. but that's not all that concentrated though.

It concentrated to me is like two guys. Concentrated. Well, I mean, that's like the most pristine situation. But like, you know, when you look at it, I don't, first off, you know, when we're talking like concentrated two guys, like that's the Bengals. Because you know what you're getting from Jason Higgins and they're amazing. It's all, yeah, it's the, it's the cowboys to a degree because like Ferguson doesn't get much right. But I think just in the case of like where you're drafting these guys, like if you're taking Pierce and 5060s a bus, if you're taking him in 77s, it's great. If you're taking Josh Downs where his ADP is on fantasy pros, that's great.

If you're taking Tyler Warren, who is, you know, my guess is going to be, you know, ADP a top five tight end, like I think that's worth it based on what we saw last year when Jones was healthy. So for where these guys are going and what you should be getting from them, especially if Pierce does take this step forward, which is what the Colts are counting on, clearly, you know, bye-bye Michael Pittman, here's this big contract. It should be okay. Now, the biggest thing, obviously, is Jones healthy. And will he be healthy early in the season or will there be a ramp-up period until he gets back to what he was looking like? at the start of the season, which was great for these guys.

I mean, you know, most, it's funny because Pierce did a lot of his, a lot of, not a lot of, but several of his big games came after Jones was injured. So he actually still benefited from the Philip Rivers, Riley Leonard games that we saw, or even, you know, if you throw in the Daniel Jones games with the broken leg before the Achilles injury. So I'm just hopeful that we see 2024 Josh Downs, if not better. I think we see a better version to Heath's point, you know, a full route tree or at least a more complete route tree for Alec Pierce,

and that helps his fantasy production across the board. Tyler Warren continues to produce like he did, and you're just getting the Colts at the right cost. Again, 56th for Alec Pierce, that puts him in a range where you have to really guarantee yourself that he's taking a step forward, and that's just hard to bank him. I think what... But if he does it, if he does it, then 56 is too low.

what would that look like? It would be averaging maybe two more catches a game, maybe less than that, and he'd still be pretty good for 56. Yeah, but if we're expecting him to become a different receiver now that he's got all this money, I don't even know how to project him, right? He's not going to have the same yards for catch, right,

and the same yards per target. He's going to be different, Alec Pierce. I think what scares me is, like, is obviously coming off the torn Achilles for Daniel Jones, It's pretty fairly late in the season, but also I think Daniel Jones was among the leaders in first read rate last year. And he just did what the offense told him to do,

which was great, but that's exactly what happened with the Giants. That one good year for him, wasn't nearly as good, but that one successful year for him. And then the defense is caught on. And I just don't know that Daniel Jones can make adjustments. Whenever he's had moments of being,

good, he comes back the next year and he's arguably the worst starting quarterback in the NFL. It has to be on the table right now, which I think factors into why Alec Pierce is tough to rank. Well, I was trying to think, like, I don't know that anybody has ever transitioned from what Alec Pierce has been the last couple of years into a guy that works in the intermediate. I just went and looked since 2018, there have been eight seasons where a guy had 60 targets and an a dot over 16. For reference, Alec Pierce's AD in his last two seasons,

18.9 and 21.5. The other six guys were Marquez Valdez Gantling, Mike Williams, Prasad Perryman, there's a Deshawn Jackson season in there, John Brown and Kenny Stills. Yeah. Do you know how many targets he had

three yards or closer to the line of scrimmage last year? I got to double check to make sure this is right because this is unbelievable if it's true. I'm going to say zero. He had one. Yeah. He had six targets inside of five air yards. Let's see what it was.

But here's a great point while you looked that up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, someone said they agree with what I was saying about the concerns, but they were reflected in the current ADP. And that's true. Like, you're not, okay, he should not be around five pick, Alec Pierce. But if you're getting him in the 70s or later, then, yeah, like, I don't have to have those types of fears.

Then you, that's when you can take a chance on guys. I completely agree. Based on how good... Here are the receivers going around him. So the five receivers before him are Brian Thomas Jr., D.K. Metcalf, Jordan Tyson, Marvin Harrison. I think Harrison and Tyson are well within the discussion. Metcalf, I'd rather have Pierce.

Thomas, I'd rather have Pierce. The guys after Pierce, Parker Washington, I'll take Pierce. Gordon Sutton, I'll take Pierce. Michael Wilson, I'll take Pierce. Mackay Lemon, again, for me, that's close. but whatever. Like, that's the, that's the range of guys. You could easily see why Pierce should be better than all of those guys.

Okay. I'll take Pierce ahead of every single one of them. Oh. 10 yards, 10 yards or closer to the line of scrimmage and air yards last year. Pierce had 19 targets. Josh Downs had 69 targets. Michael Pittman at 80 targets. Pittman's gone.

Within 10 yards of the line of school? Sure. So this is going to kill the A dot and it's going to kill his receiving average and all that stuff, but it's going to give him more targets and more opportunities. And I don't think it's asking him too much to catch a screen, run a dig, run a hitch. But can't he win in those situations? Yes, I think he's never done it. He hasn't done it or he hasn't been given the opportunity to do it.

He hasn't done it. He's not a consistent way. Yeah. Okay. He caught 12 of the 19 targets of inside 10 air yards. Okay. He's going to get defended differently. I mean, that's part of it too.

You know, there's clearly the target. on his back. I go back to a conversation I had man, who was the coach? It was a Chargers coach when Keenan Allen was his rookie season. Anthony Lynn? No. Don Correale. Mike McCoy. Mike McCoy, the

owner's meeting the next year. The owners meeting the next year saying that you good? Yeah, I'm just flexing. You know, after after King Now's rookie season, the target's on his back, can he win now as the guy? And now Pierce as the target on his back because of the contract.

Can he win as the guy? And Alan struggled in his sophomore season. We'll see if Pierce can, you know, have success now that he's got all the attention because of what he just got paid. A very weird sophomore season for Keenan Allen, you know, just coming off at a brilliant, they tore his ACL that year or now? I was just trying to think, is there at least a less comparable wide receiver in history to Alan Pierce?

The conversation makes sense. All right, we got one more guy, Dave. Casey Concepcion. I certainly can see where he would be difficult to rank. Do you think he should be Brown's rookie ride receiver Casey Concepcion? Do you think he should be a top 100 pick? I kind of do, but it's what I don't know how Todd Monkin sees him. Does he see him the same way that he saw Zay Flowers?

And if that's the case, I mean, wheels up for Casey Concepcion, but it's a terrible passing offense. We all know this, but I do believe that he's got a shot to lead this team in target, certainly the wide receivers, but maybe everybody. I love his route running. I love his speed. I do not quite love his hands. He had some really gross drops, but I think they were focus drops. Sometimes he left his feet when he didn't need to. I feel like that's fixable. And I wonder if he's just a guy that can really play with efficiency and get some good target volume. And those are two things that work really nicely when it comes to fantasy football. So yeah, he's in that mix for me among those players when you're at pick 100 to think

about, and I wonder if you can get them after pick 100. I know I have in a couple of drafts already. And I love it because he's somebody that I kind of want to bet on because he's got good traits and there's a good opportunity to go along with it, even though the quarterback situation in Cleveland is, Keith, make a puking noise. It's not good, but I'm a Browns fan right now. so I'm not going to say anything bad about the Browns. He should have said,

I was looking for my drop. Okay. Concepcion going on Hunter. 122nd on fantasy pros. Like, that's, I think, the range you want to get him at. Yeah, I would take him before then. I think he's got the upside to be worthy of it. Is it him or Denzel Boston?

That's the biggest question. I think it's going to be him. I think he can do a lot more than Denzel Boston can do. Oh, I agree. Mm-hmm. Okay. Josh Downs or Casey Concepcion? Downs. I have Concepcion higher.

I get it. I get why you'd be down for downs. That's interesting. Xavier Worthy is going later than Casey Concepcion in the CBS ADP. Who do you guys prefer? Worthy or Concepcion? I got to get Brandon in these mocks and then that'll change. Sorry, Brandon. I couldn't help myself there. I'm worried about Worthy. So give me Concepcion.

I've got Concepcion a couple spots higher. I do have Downs ahead of Concepcion. I agree with Heath. I think they're close because worthy's in a pretty good spot if Malmes is healthy, given the state of the receiving court right now. But hopefully Concepcion is the guy for clue. Okay. Someone in the chat, Mike Wazowski said,

can't wait for Adam to whine about something. Did I miss it? Did I wind of anything today? I could. About all the vowels in your last name? I mean the continents. Why don't you buy a vowel, Mike? AFC West.

Why don't you ask him to buy an eyeball because he only has one? It's amazing that in the same show that you call Continent spells and the NFC West, the AFC West, you nailed the Mike McCoy thing. Yeah, I really. I think it tells us a lot about your brain. I cannot believe I got that right. All right, listen, we've got to get.

I can't believe what you did yesterday to Jemar Gibbs. It's terrible. What did I do to you? You wished a torn ACL. Oh, I just, Come on, I gave him a low ankle sprain. He was in his two to three weeks. He's fine.

Why couldn't he just, you know, go on vacation to Tahiti for two or three weeks? Because he gets married. He gets fine for that. You're trying to take his money away? Come on, Dave. He's got plenty of it. Now I'm whining. How about he just plays 17 games and we don't think about it, okay?

Speaking of money, how much money is Jamir Gibbs getting after the A-chan contract? Oh, my God. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But I was like, yeah, Ken Walker. And Travis CTIA. They're signing these deals worth

$45 million, whatever. And it's like, Will Anderson gets that in a year. Running back still don't get much. Okay, everybody, we're out of here. We'll see you tomorrow at CBS Sports Network at 1 p.m. Eastern to talk about the schedule. Talk to you then. See ya.