Fantasy Football Today - Unveiling 14 Breakouts for 2025, Plus Big NFL News (04/02 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

If you want to draft a sophomore quarterback to be your breakout star in 2025, which one should you choose (2:40)? We debate Bo Nix, Caleb Williams and Drake Maye and spotlight the sacks for Williams and the interceptions for Maye ... Going through the NFL news from the Owners Meetings (19:50) with items on Christian McCaffrey, DeVonta Smith, Isiah Pacheco, Breece Hall and more. What do the guys think of what the coaches had to say? Then we get back to the breakouts with some players (35:00) who both Jamey and Heath are high on including Ken Walker and Bucky Irving. Should these guys be drafted in Round 2? ... Rapid fire breakouts for Jamey (44:40) and Heath (53:40). We touch on Ladd McConkey, Rome Odunze, Jaylen Warren, Chase Brown and more ... 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

Okay, flights on Air Canada. How about Prague? Ooh, Paris. Those gardens. Gardens. Um, Amsterdam. Tulip Festival. I see your festival and raise you a carnival in Venice. Or Bermuda has carnaval. Ooh, colorful. You want colorful. Thailand. Lantern Festival. Boom. Book it. Um, how did we get to Thailand from Prague?

Oh, right. Prague. Oh, boy. Choose from a world of destinations, if you can. Air Canada. Nice travels. 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. Off to the races! And he stays at his feet! This is gonna go the distance! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. We've got a fun show for you today. We have some breakout candidates, but also Jamie's back from his little vacation at the Ritzy Breaker's Hotel in Palm Beach. Welcome back, your highness. Well thank you, sir. Should we feed you grapes during

the podcast today? You know when I called you on the way back from yesterday's quote unquote vacation you had you had told me about your lunch. Yeah. Lunch. You had you had a more fancy lunch than anything I had at the fancy hotel I was at. I had a granola bar one day and a little bowl of fruit another day. Yeah. So Jamie was at the Breakers for the owners meetings.

The owners were staying at the Breakers. Jamie was not. Very nice hotel. Anyway, we're gonna talk about some of the takeaways from that. So we do have a bit of a newsy show, but we got what Jamie heard about, Breece Hall, Rashi Rice, Isaiah Pacheco,

Mark Andrews, Kenny Pickett, and Trevor Lawrence and more. Plus breakouts from Jamie and Heath and Dave's reaction to it. And guys, I wanna start with a Twitter poll. All right, so your breakouts list, like Jamie's got Caleb Williams on his, Heath has Caleb Williams and Bo Nix and Jaden Daniels I'm sure we could all make a breakout case for Drake May. So obviously Jaden Daniels is the best sophomore quarterback

I didn't include JJ McCarthy on this list, but let's go ahead and show this Twitter poll here Expo six point per passing touchdown league, which quarterback are you drafting for your fantasy team? I was a little surprised by the results. Caleb Williams is currently edging out Bo Nix in first place. Caleb Williams has 40 percent of the vote, Bo Nix 37 percent and Drake May about 23 percent. So I just use those three second year quarterbacks. Who do you want in a six point per passing touchdown league? Bo Nix, Caleb Williams or Drake May?

Right now, the results are Caleb one, Bo Nix two, and Drake May in a pretty distant third. Heath, how would you have voted here? I would probably say, I would say Bownix. I understand leaning on the pedigree of Caleb Williams and the fact that he's seemingly just got an enormous upgrade in terms of the coaching staff. And I wouldn't argue too hard against it. I certainly thought going into last year that Caleb Williams had a lot more upside than Bo Nix. But you know how my process works. Bo Nix was a lot better than Caleb. Caleb Williams could improve 15% in his fantasy production this coming season and still not be as good as Bo Nix was. And Bo Nix can certainly improve as well.

Caleb Williams was the number 22 quarterback per game. Bo Nix was the number nine quarterback per game. If you remove week 18 for Bo Nix, where he scored 41 and a half points against Chiefs backups, he would have been QB 10 per game. So still like, it was a really impressive game. It had boosted his numbers, but he still was a top 10 quarterback per game. So still like it was a really impressive game. It boosted his numbers, but he still was a top 10 quarterback per game

even without week 18. Drake May was, you can't, yeah, it's hard to say with him because he was QB 28 per game, but he had three or he had four games where he left with an injury or barely played. So it was kind of tougher to say with him. Dave, how would you have voted in this poll?

Dave Korsunsky I would have voted for Caleb. Bonex would have been second. Drake May would have been third. And it's all about, well, do you take what Bonex did and just assume that he's going to be about as good again? And then if you do that with Drake, with Bonex, then you should probably do that with Caleb Williams. And then you get, you know, where Heath's at, which is Bo Nix, he's proven that he can do this. And so you'll take him first. But with Caleb, the biggest issues that he had involved play calling slash play design and offensive line woes. They've already fixed three fifths of that offensive line in Chicago.

And I at bare minimum, the play design should be much better under Ben Johnson. Whether Ben Johnson can evolve Caleb Williams in one off season from, you know, holding the ball too long, trying to play Superman too often into a refined quarterback that'll take the easy throws and then still make big plays when those opportunities present itself. That remains to be seen. I'm, I'm banking on the upside for Caleb. That's why I'll take him first.

We're also not talking about one of your first six or seven picks on draft day, but bone X is still a really good option. If you don't want Caleb Williams, or if you miss on Caleb Williams, knowing that he should still be in that 22 P PPR. I did it again. 22 or more fantasy point per game range. Jamie, how would you have voted in this poll? Same way as Dave. I think you look at, you know, all three of these guys have gotten an upgrade in some way, shape or form. You know, Williams and may have gotten the biggest upgrades. You know, Nick's getting Evan Ingram but Williams as Dave alluded to you know play caller and an offensive line, you know, there's still probably the

Opportunity to get another you know, especially if Keenan Allen doesn't return as expected Drake may play caller as well new weapon as well Well, they're clearly not done also. So you're hoping that the Upgrades for William and may close the gap from where Nix was last year by comparison to those guys. I think the nice part about all three of these quarterbacks is you can probably take two of them. And the best pairing would probably be to take one of the two guys who struggled with Go Nix. So if you believe that Nix can sort of play at the same level, then you take him as sort of your, okay, he's my fallback option. Those other two guys, if they take the leaps that they could potentially get to, it might

be a little bit better than what Bo Nix had. Certainly how he performed last year. So that's kind of the approach I would take with all three of these quarterbacks. You probably need to pair them with someone else. Nix is probably the one you don't need to pair with anyone else if you just want to sort of hope that he replicates what he did a year ago. But I think the upside for Williams is a little bit higher. And the upside for me, it will get closer to where Nick's was last year and where I think Williams can get to. Yeah, I want to bring in Thomas here because Thomas commented on my Twitter poll and he

said he'd take JJ McCarthy, which hopefully was a joke, but- No, no, he can't jump on the McCarthy train now. He was all Aaron Rodgers. You got to let McCarthy play itself out first doesn't matter Who the quarterback is for the bike it doesn't matter who the quarterback is for the Vikings That's who you want on your fantasy team That's a pretty good take yeah, he might be the best, but I don't think you could justify drafting him But I have a question for you Thomas. I would like to share my screen, but in a it's a very, like techno technologically pathetic thing that I'm going to share

here. I can I share a Word document? How would you feel about that as the producer of this? Oh, man. I mean, you're already talking about it. Right. I just want to make sure I'm gonna say this is. Can you guys see that? I boosted, I zoom in a little. Yeah, you can zoom in on this. This is great work. All right. So these are 17 game paces.

This is why we win awards. Yeah. 17 game paces for all four. Oh, wait, Heath, you're muted. Maybe zoom in just a little bit more. Zoom in more. Okay. Like like a lot more. Yeah, like twice as much. How's that? Wow. Wow. Okay. So these are 17 Game Paces for the four rookie quarterbacks, Daniels, Williams, May, Nix. This removes any game that they left with injuries. Two of those for Daniels, three of those for Drake May, and it didn't include only his starts. So three starts for Drake May, nothing for Caleb Williams, nothing for Bo Nix. You see the 17-game pace. Caleb Williams

is by far the worst. Three of them were on pace for 26 to 29 touchdown passes. Caleb Williams was on pace for 20. He did excel in limiting interceptions though. You see the rushing totals here. Like Daniels blows everyone away. But Caleb Williams on pace. Caleb Williams to Bo Nix, all on pace for 81 to 92 rushes.

Bo Nix 430 yard pace. Caleb Williams 489 yard pace. Drake May 625 yard pace. I would say completely unsustainable yards per carry. He had the highest yards per carry by a quarterback since 2011 when Christian Ponder and Michael Vick both averaged 7.8 yards per carry, which is what May averaged there.

But I just want everybody to kind of take a look at what they did. Drake May was almost as prolific of a passer, you could say, as Jayden Daniels. Same amount of yards, two fewer touchdowns, but a lot of interceptions when you just look at their healthy starts. So hopefully this hilarious Microsoft Word document is actually helpful for people who are watching on YouTube right now.

Well, the only other thing I want to add is I think when Dave said what Caleb Williams two biggest problems last year were that was letting him off the hook a little bit. Like Caleb Williams biggest problems last year, in my opinion, were the fact that he did exactly what we were worried he was going to do coming out of college, which was running around with the ball way too much and trying to play hero ball. And then his other problem was that his on target percentage was one of the lowest amongst quarterbacks who threw enough to count. Like Anthony Richardson, Cooper Rush, Jamis Winston were worse. Aiden O'Connell was worse.

Dak Prescott in a few games. Bryce Young was worse, but he was not, he was highly inaccurate and often when he was throwing the he was highly inaccurate and often when he was throwing the Roma do not say. And the sacks. So I wanted to talk about that. Like I want to talk about Caleb Williams sacks and Drake Mays interceptions. Which one should we start with?

Okay. Caleb Williams sacks, 28.2% sack per pressure rate. That was a second worst in the NFL. Only% sack per pressure rate. That was second worst in the NFL only will levis was worse. If you look at sack per pressure rate, just go year by year and look at the guys who are have the worst sack per pressure rate. And I'm going to I'm going to use sack per pressure rate instead of sack per drop back rate. I feel like maybe that gives us a little bit

better idea of quarterback versus offensive line How can you have how good are you at avoiding that pressure? Okay. This is a really bad list. This is a mostly bad quarterbacks Not not exclusively but I'll give you a little bit of hope for Drake may or for sorry for Caleb Williams 28.2% sack per pressure rate as a rookie Kyler Murray 28.2% sack per pressure rate. As a rookie, Kyler Murray, 26.1%, he has been so much better in his career since then. There was one, Russell Wilson, Russell Wilson as a rookie, 29.7% and he got much better. So I can give you those two examples of guys who were really bad as rookies and much, much better throughout their career.

I think that's good. I also think like it's worth remembering that those guys, while they've gotten really good at that, are still probably two of the guys that a lot of coaches think hold the ball too long. Like Russell Wilson is still like when you people he gets blamed for things, it's holding on to the ball too long, right? But doesn't that kind of mean that you can hold on to the ball too long and still be a successful quarterback? You just have to get it is possible, right? Right. I think if you if you believe in Ben Johnson, then you're going to believe in Caleb Williams, because this is a guy that passed on jobs last year. And had essentially his pick of jobs. I don't know how many but he definitely had an opportunity to take multiple jobs this year. Jacksonville was certainly in the mix. Chicago is in the mix. I don't remember

who else I think there's one of the team. He took this job because of Caleb Williams. Yeah, yeah. So right, if you believe that he is going to be good at this, then it's going to be because he makes Caleb Williams good. Let me talk to you about Drake May's interception rate. Drake May had a 3% interception rate, was the seventh worst in the NFL last year. Nobody good had a higher interception rate than him.

Baker Mayfield and Dak Prescott were close. They were at 2.8%. But in the last 15 years, which rookies had a higher interception rate than Drake May in their rookie seasons? Pass or rating? 15 years. 2010 and on.

Geno Smith, Deshaun Kaiser, Christian Ponder, Josh Allen, Justin Fields, Sam Darnold, Blake Bortles, Josh Rosen, Brandon Weeden, Cam Newton. Those are the only quarterbacks who had a higher rookie interception rate in the last 15 years. I ended on a high note. I ended with Cam Newton, but it's not like he was a great passer in his career. You know, he was obviously great rusher. Josh Allen was in there. He stands out. But I can't a pretty bad list there. A big problem for Drake may. I really don't care at all. No. Yeah. I just assumed that's going to get better. He was

a much more accurate passer than Caleb Williams was the fact that he had a much higher percentage intercepted doesn't really bother me. Isn't that letting him off the hook a little bit? Yes, he is. It is. I'm more concerned about a quarterback playing hero ball in the pocket and taking too many sacks and developing out of that than I am throwing 27 interceptions his rookie year. Right. So I would want to go back and look at those interceptions and see how many of them are really on Drake.

Eight of 10. I looked at them today. Two of them were drops. One of them, maybe you could argue, I think it was Pop Douglas, he wasn't looking. Maybe it was a route issue, but some really, at least seven, if not eight of 10. Okay.

I think it's not great, but that's how it goes, especially in the case of May, who we knew coming into the year was not a polished product and not a ready to go quarterback. The Patriots knew that and they told us that because they didn't start them right away. All right. Also, like seven interceptions last year

would have been an exceptionally good interception rate. We're talking about a really small sample size. Taking one interception away changes things drastically. He, but he, okay, you're right size, taking one interception away, changes things drastically. He, but he, okay, you're right. He was an interception, in his junior year of college, he threw some picks, but Peyton Manning had a 4.9% interception rate in his rookie season, as Heath, I think, was alluding to.

I think the thing with both these guys is, they're getting significant coaching upgrades, and this is gonna be the telling point for both of these quarterbacks for how their career may go. Look at what Trevor Lawrence has gone through. With coaching change after coaching change after coaching change for a guy who was considered

to be such a high prospect and has just struggled. And so does getting Ben Johnson and Josh McDaniels and what those guys have done with other quarterbacks in their careers, does that help these two guys get to the point where they're hopefully going to get to? And I think just to tie it back to what we talk about here, these are not, like Dave said, they're not guys you're taking early in your draft. These are fallback quarterbacks. These are late round options to an extent. Williams will go ahead of Drake May and probably Bonnex by the time we see what ADP looks like. If you're drafting appropriately, so if you're taking these guys, you're probably taking two

quarterbacks, you're hopefully getting somebody that's a little bit more stable. So if they struggle, certainly they struggle early. You know, you have somebody that you can pivot to and still get you the points that you need. You also don't have to take two quarterbacks because there will still be some decent quarterbacks on the waiver wire after your draft is over that you can go and pick up.

And by the way, last thing, and we'll take a break here and get to the rest of the show. There was a quarterback who was who had the third highest sack rate and the hold on loading loading the where is he like the eighth highest interception rate in the NFL last year. And that was Baker Mayfield. I just want to point out you don't want to be near the top of these lists. And he was definitely near the top of the sack rate list. Not terrible. I mean, 2.8% interception rate when I was just telling you Drake Mays was 3%. It's not so good. So just something to think about. Baker does do a lot of things

that are pretty dangerous. And I think he led the NFL in fumbles last year as well and only lost two of them. All right. Let's take a break here. Before we do that, I wanna tell you about the With the First Pick podcast. All right, they are doing really cool things right now. So for all of you, you have a favorite football team out there, the With the First Pick podcast, they're releasing full seven round mock drafts

for each team. So I think they just released like the Arizona Cardinals. So check and see if your team is out there right now. You go hear how your team might approach the NFL draft. But this is a great way to get acquainted with the draft prospects and hear from experts in the field. So that's the with the first pick podcast. Go to cbssports.com slash podcasts to see all of our shows.

We'll be right back after this. Yeah, I wanted to start the show with that quarterback conversations. I do think that a lot of people are going to want one of those three quarterbacks as a backup, if not a starter on their team, they have to choose who. So I look forward to having that debate throughout the off season,

and things could obviously change after the NFL draft. Now, let's get to the news and notes here. Most of this coming from the owners meetings, and a lot of this, you know, Jamie got on his little recorder as well, and we'll be writing about it on the website. But Nick Sirianni did not commit to Dallas Goddard staying on the roster.

He said he's on the team for now. So here's 16 games over the last three seasons. Devontae Smith with AJ Brown, but without Dallas Goddard. I guess I should give you his 17 game pace in those 16 games. 94 catches, 1,353 yards, 12 touchdowns on 129 targets. His points per game, Devontae Smith, his points per game in those games would have made him

wide receiver six in non PPR, eight in half PPR, ninth in full PPR last year, and even better in 2023. So in conclusion, over the last three seasons, 16 games without Dallas Goddard and with AJ Brown, Devontae Smith has been a top 10 wide receiver. Art Rooney, the owner of the Steelers, he's optimistic about signing Aaron Rodgers. He kind of sounds like it's going to happen.

Todd Bowles is hoping- There was some talk yesterday that they thought it was gonna be done. happen. Todd Bowles is hoping- There was some talk yesterday that they thought it was gonna be done. Yeah, Todd Bowles hoping Chris Godwin is ready for week one. Kyle Shanahan said, okay, Kyle Shanahan said Christian McCaffrey is healthy and doing great. You guys feeling that?

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, as you sort of alluded to, I think last week, that did not have surgery on his knee. So that's a positive. We thought that that might have been the case. Said that he could have played in the playoffs had they made it. So again, Kyle Shanahan said that in week one. Let's take that for what it's worth.

Based on where he may end up getting drafted could be one of the best value picks in your league it's just a matter of like you know when we had Dan on and Dan said he's his number two running back right now people still feel like that then you could be in a little bit of trouble if he's you know clearly not the same guy but the way the 49ers are operating right now seems as if they're going back to being all in on McCaffrey, which is a very positive Okay Carolina head coach Dave Canales said he thinks Xavier league it is a number one wide receiver

Yeah, I said you need a number one wide receivers. I think we got that and Xavier in Xavier or whatever. He called him Kevin O'Connell said Jordan Mason will be a 1b in the Minnesota backfield We're gonna talk about Breece Hall in a second, but Jets head coach Aaron Gledd said he wants to use all three running backs. So he didn't, and it wasn't a great quote in terms of Breece Hall, but we'll talk about that momentarily. Super. And they've got a running quarterback now too.

So that's fun. Rasheer Rice on track to be ready for training camp. He tore his LCL in week four. The Cardinals signed defensive lineman Kaleus Campbell to a one year deal. Five point five million dollars. Denver's Denver's GM said they're going to draft a running back. Very honest assessment there. So I think that's not a surprise.

John Harbaugh said he fully expects Mark Andrews to be on this on the team. He's going to be a Raven this season, it seems. So all right, here we go. Let's get a quick reaction from Dave. In 18 game season seems more likely. Give me like a three word reaction. More more work for everybody. Touchbacks will go to the 35 yard line. Means that DSTs will matter a little bit more.

Maybe even considerably more. Replay assists will allow referees to reverse penalties for face masks, tripping, horse collars. Love it, they need this. Yeah, each team will be guaranteed a possession in overtime, even in the regular season. Love that too. The NFL will further discuss, they haven't decided yet,

they will further discuss making playoff seeding based on record rather than winning the division. I'm mostly indifferent to that. I think it's amazing. Teams can wear alternate jerseys now four times a season instead of three. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I don't know if I can express myself in just a few words for that. Amazing news.

Just the ramifications are huge. 16 of 32 NFL teams support banning the tush push and it will be discussed at a later date. It's a health issue, not a cheating issue. Okay, Jamie, let's talk about your AFC notes here and what Aaron Glenn said about Breeze Hall. Let's talk about that and start with that. What were your takeaways from what head coach,

Jets head coach, Aaron Glenn said about Breeze? I mean, I hate it. You never want to hear three backs. You know, we get nervous when we hear two backs, you know. So for a guy in Breeze Hall who, as we saw two years ago, where we've heard a little bit, you know, because of the post ACL, looked amazing and came back last year. He was the number two player, not running back number two player based on the sports average. Uh, was a bust, you know, struggle mostly second half of the season. His receptions went down when the Monte Adams doing the roster. And so the hope would have been, okay, coming back this season that it could be a featured guy. Now, Aaron Glenn comes from Detroit and it was defense coordinator, but they had a very successful tandem as well aware.

So the fact that he's already looking at it with his coaching staff and saying that not only do they like Braylon Allen, but they also like Isaiah Davis, that we could be looking at all three of these guys getting touches like this is terrifying if you're going to buy into Paul bouncing back. He should still be a starting fantasy running back. He should still be drafted, I think, as a number two fantasy running back. But, you know, for a guy that had, I think, just a pretty big pendulum swing of maybe going in round two to now potentially late round three, I could see him anywhere in that range, maybe even round fourth.

Just another note that you had, Andy Reid said that Isaiah Pacheco probably shouldn't have come back. Most guys probably haven't come back, but if you know him for a minute, you know he wasn't going to be held back. That was Reid talking about Pacheco returning from the injury and not really playing that well down the stretch. Do you think, how realistic do you think it is that Isaiah Pacheco will end up with a higher ADP than Breeze Hall? I don't think ADP will be realistic. It would not be surprising if Pacheco

is better than Hall, but I don't think it's realistic that he will get drafted ahead of fall unless we see significant reports and a lot of traction of Pacheco is back to being Pacheco and the guy that we saw the first two games of the season and the season before is there. And Elijah Mitchell, for example, won't matter. Kareem Hunt won't matter. And that Breeze Hall is rotating heavily in practice and whatever with Allen and Davis. Anybody can anybody see that? Can anybody see Pacheco rising above Beast Hall or or Breeze Hall? No. Assuming that Breeze Hall is healthy?

No. Okay. Also, what did Andy Reid say about Elijah Mitchell? You know, just what you expect about a new player. You know, he's excited about him. The one thing that he did, you know, sort of referenced on Solisted was, you know, what he likes about him as a pass catcher. And so he used the words, you can flex him out and use him in the passing game that way. So did they find their new Derek McKinnon, their receiving option? You know, he talked about his health, again, unsolicited saying when he was healthy in San Francisco, he was really good. I'm sure they're viewing him as a compliment

as opposed to replacement for Pacheco, again, based on both comments in regards to his backs. The thing we'll have to figure out is who's the handcuff and who's the number two running back there in Kansas City because Kareem Hunt, we know, is a guy that they're familiar with and comfortable with, as we saw last year. But is Mitchell the one that you want to get because of maybe the upside based on age, based on where he's at in his career comparatively to Kareem Hunt. So you'll be curious to see how these two guys compete with each other, assuming Pacheco is back just unquestioned as the lead guy.

That's an interesting comment about him as a pass catcher, because even in his big breakout year in 2021, Elijah Mitchell had 20 targets, 19 catches, 137 yards and one touchdown. In the two years since, 12 targets, nine catches, 21 yards, no touchdowns. I'm going to look at what he did in college. Um, not a great, not like a, an amazing track record of catching the ball in college. So this is something that either Andy Reed is just BSing about, or he really sees something there that maybe Mitchell does take a step forward as far as the past

catcher goes, but that would be a little surprising. I wouldn't go in planning to target him for his reception totals, but it could be something that again, new coach, new system, clearly he's coming from a great place. So it's not like he's coming from that team and bad offense. But again, this is now Andy Reid's project to an extent, and we'll see if that helps.

You heard John Harbaugh talking about Mark Andrews and saying he's working really hard. I do fully expect him to be playing for us next year, he's just too good a player. I just wanna throw out a comparison here. Mark Andrews last year averaged 11.1 PPR fantasy points per game.

He had in 17 games only 69 targets and he had 11 touchdowns. So 11.1 fantasy points per game. Does that remind you of any tight end in the last five years? Eric Ebron? That was 10 years. I was going, I was going Robert Tonion. Robert Tonion averaged 11.8 points per game,

which is better than Andrew's last year. In 2020, he had 59 targets in 15 games. Andrews has 69 and 17 games and Tonya also caught 11 touchdowns, 52 catches, 586 yards, 11 touchdowns compared to Andrews. Fifty five catches, 673 yards, 11 touchdowns, 17 games like I can't. I really hope he's not Robert Tugend, but we see if he's going to be targeted 69 times in 17 games, that's a guy that could be dropped if he doesn't keep scoring touchdowns at a ridiculous pace.

There were people considering dropping him in the early part of the season last year. It's just a matter, I think, of when you're drafting him. If you're reaching for him based on what his resume is, then you're probably him, you know, so he if you if you're reaching for him based on what his resume is Then you're probably going to be somewhat disappointed if that's replica replicated if you're drafting him at a value because people are concerned And he falls to the right spot like you know, if he's one of the late tight ends, I'll take him all day long Isn't this who he kind of is now though because even last even in 2023 6.1 targets per game in 10 games, 13.5 PPR points per game. I'll take six targets per game though.

I was going to say, I think this is all a little bit insulting to Mark Andrews. Right. Like Robert Tanyan had 14 career catches in two years before he had his 11 touchdown season. If Mark Andrews is Robert Tanyan, he's not Robert Tanyan. No, I know that, but he also had 69 targets in 17 games. He had a down year in terms of target volume, and I think that's concerning for a projection this year. And you don't draft him as a top three tight end

like we used to because of that, but he's also an elite tight end who made up for the lack of targets by scoring a bunch of touchdowns. Yes, he did. All right, Christian Kirk, let's talk about Christian Kirk Jamie and what his head coach to Miko Ryan said about him. Sounds like he's gonna be their slot receiver, which is

interesting given what their, you know, depth chart looks like right now. So they're gonna add somebody else, presumably. But that's what he said, you know, gonna make a lot of plays for us on third down, gonna do it from the slot and gonna be a good target for CJ's job. Was very praiseworthy of his speed, you know, so you know, sees him obviously doing some things. He said, you know, playing in slot making plays from the slot down the field. So it's definitely, you know, we talked about Devante Adams, his landing spot, you know, this was a great You know a scenario for Christian Kirk where he ended up knowing that there's guys hurt, you know

He I didn't give you the tank tell a quote But you know, he gave the typical player hurt comment about a guy that may not play I got the same thing from Dave Canales only gave you a FC stuff You know, you brought up a lot of the NFC stuff already in the news and notes I'll give you some different stuff tomorrow. But he did say, Canales also about Jonathan Brooks, you know, like the he's attacking the the rehab, you know, strongly, you know that anytime I hear that, that there's probably not going to see him anytime soon. So with Tankdol not most likely playing a good portion of the 2025 season, if at all, Kirk just, again, could be one of the best value picks that we see, you know, guy that has proven to be a good fantasy receiver on a lower end scale, got the opportunity first year in Jacksonville

to be, you know, very successful. I think we'll probably be somewhere between that, but I think it could be a consistent starter in three or four season leagues by the time the season's over. All right, and then just give me one more here. You can either talk about the Browns quarterback situation or Trevor Lawrence. Well, I mean, Trevor Lawrence is just trying to get healthy, you know, Liam Cohen's excited to work with him

I think the Browns situation is is very interesting because of where they're picking, you know So I have the number two overall pick And it seems like just based on the things you heard coming out of the meetings, um that they're probably not taking a quarterback at two So if they don't take a quarterback at two, at what point do they get back into the draft and take a quarterback? And Stefanski said, we haven't gone through the draft yet, but did speak highly of Kenny Pickett. And so are we going to get to a point in the season, early in the season, where Kenny Pickett is a starter for the Browns, and then the trickle down effect of what that means for David Njoku and Jerry Judy, most importantly. But also,

does Pickett have an opportunity here to be relevant in Superflex leagues and two quarterback leagues and maybe a waiver wire option at some point, you know, for one quarterback league. So they've had success with backup quarterbacks, as we know in the system, you know, so it's hard to just, you know, completely dismiss it. Joe Flacco came off his couch and was great. Obviously, Jameis Winston was great. You know, you can sort of compare

those two guys to Kenny Pickett and clearly those two guys have much better resumes, fantasy and reality. But Pickett may end up being someone who matters and hopefully he's able just to connect with Jerry Judy and David Njokwu if he's the starter. So if you're sitting there right now in your dynasty leagues and shallow formats and Kenny Pickett and Super Flex or two QB leagues was not available or you want to trade for him, might not be a bad idea to get him cheap just to see what happens again. These are guys that buy weeks injuries, they could certainly matter at some point. Good stuff.

All right. For more on Jamie's takeaways from the owner's meetings and his vacation in the sand in the breakers, just read it all on CBS Sports dot com slash fantasy. They have they have wonderful tennis courts at the breakers. Oh, do they? I guess I should stay there then. I still think you probably did more tennis and luxury luxurious things than I did in the two days I was on vacation. Which was which two days? Monday, Tuesday.

Yeah, I did play tennis Tuesday night. Yep. No, Monday night, Monday night I played, yeah. Yep. Yeah, okay. All right, let's get to some breakouts here. So the mutual breakouts that Jamie and Heath both had on their list were Caleb Williams, Ken Walker,

and Bucky Irving. Ken Walker and Bucky Irving. Heath, what round do you think Walker and Irving should be drafted in? I think we're probably looking at the round two, three range. I think that shouldn't be surprising at all if both these guys go before Breeze Hull. And listen, if the coaching staff keeps talking about

Walker, like he's kind of the clear starter and Zach Sharpen is a good complimentary back, then maybe Walker goes in the first half around too. I just don't, I don't think people will do that. Um, where has he been going in our drafts? I mean, I feel like Walker's probably going to have a late round three ADP. That's just my, my Dave, you can feel that. Yeah, I do. Because enough people have been burned by Walker that they're gonna go I can't I can't trust this guy. To me, it all comes down

to how often he's going to get 15 plus touches per game. That's his magic number. I went back and check this this morning because I knew we were going to talk about past three seasons, when he's had 15 or more touches in a game. There's been 30 of them 16.8 PPR points per game Awesome, like it's it's not second round worthy. It's close to maybe it is second round worthy But toward the end of the second round, but it's not exactly You know Dynamo for fantasy, but a very good fantasy average when he doesn get there've been 12 games under 15 touches. Some of them are games he's left early. 7.8 PPR points per game. That's cringe. So I am hoping that the Seahawks are true to their word that they want to run the ball more and

they want Walker to be the guy who does it. But I also want to see them improve their offensive line. And they haven't really done a good job of that this offseason. So I'm going to be a little skittish on Walker as of now. I still have pre-sale I I would take Ken Walker ahead of Brees Hall I was doing it before Aaron Glenn's comments. I certainly will do it now after Aaron Glenn's comments The thing that stands out to me about what Walker did last year the most was his involvement in the passing game. And it would not be shocking with Justin Fields a quarterback for the Jets and Sam Darnold a quarterback for the Seahawks that Ken Walker has more receptions than

Brice Hall and no one in a million years would have ever thought that going into last season. So now based on what they both did last year and based on what's the situation at hand for both of them this year, if the receiving totals are even close or in the favor of Ken Walker, he may be significantly better. And they don't have D.K. Metcalf, right? I mean, so that's only a bigger boost to his receive. I mean, they do have Cooper Cup. They do have Cooper Cup. That's true. And then Bucky Irving. I

mean, he keeps getting drafted in the third round in our drafts. Do you have NFC ADP to reference for these two? I will shortly and someone else should talk and then I'll tell you. All right. Yeah. I think he's around too quick. I wouldn't be surprised if you know, the hype gets out of control, but based on what he did last year while in the initial phases of when he was breaking out, sharing with Rashad White

and then as we saw as we got to the end of the season, giving him more work and him handling it and handling it well, the sky's the limit for him. So I know Dan, the last time I was on at least, was concerned about the draft capital when he was selected and the success rate of those guys. Again, I think we just got to move the goalposts and how running backs are viewed. So if a team doesn't draft you in the first day and even on day two, I don't think that necessarily means you don't have an opportunity to be successful. It's the same head coach. It's the same coach that was in the building with them, you know,

so to Heath's point about when these guys break out and then there's a coaching change and that was when those guys have failed the James Robinson's of the world, you know, Bucky Irving still on the same, I think path to, you know, being the guy for Tampa and Rashad White, I know as a factor factor but I don't think he's a is that much of a speed bump in him having a breakout season. The most encouraging thing from last year he only had three games including the postseason Adam where he played at least 60 percent of the snaps. So we're talking already about a running back who got it done not with just touchdowns or not with just catches just efficiency across the board.

And if he gets more playing time and more touches and he keeps that efficiency, then what's stopping him from being close to a top five fantasy running back? If he's a tackle breaker, playing behind a good offensive line, should be pretty damn good. Buc-ee's currently RB, well, he's currently the 19th pick by ADP at NFC. Breece Hall is 31st. Ken Walker is 44th. Wow. Yeah. What's stopping Buc-ee Irving?

He was from weeks 10 through 18. Um, I didn't include, I must have included week 14. He played only 16% of the snaps in week 14. But from weeks 10 through 18, he was the number six running back per game. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry. He was on pace for 51 catches. He was so good.

And I don't know what stops him. I guess I would say he's not going to be the third down back. And he's probably not going to, you know, average 5.4 yards per carry again. He's small. There is an offensive coordinator change. Like the offense could just not be as good. That's what I'm thinking because I. But it's an in-house guy though. That's the thing that's encouraging. That helps. thinking because I. But it's an in-house guy though that's the thing that's encouraging. That helps. But yeah. We don't know what that change does mean. You gotta be fair to Heath on this. It doesn't mean that it's gonna be a drastic blow up of the offense. And personally, I never

like it when a new offensive coordinator is using the previous offensive coordinator's playbook. So I think that's just one of those things that you're gonna have to be. I know what you're saying though, Dave, but again, he was part of those that planning process. But didn't the Eagles two years ago, when they lost their right, they hired in house. awful disaster, right? But guys were hurt, though. I mean, that's, I don't know how

much of the the coordinator change was a factor in the failures so much and the play calling so much. I don't even know if they were calling plays because I think Sirianni may have been calling plays. I mean, look at Patrick Mahomes after he lost to Eric Bionimi. Maybe. Maybe. That ag effect.

Chicagoans will have a chill down their spine with it. Oh, look, I mean, if there is just a philosophical decision amongst the coaches in Tampa that we can't overwork Bucky Irving, then there's a little bit of worry that what if his efficiency takes a step back? And that's certainly reasonable to expect after the year he's coming off of. It was amazing. Just that point. I think it's worth saying, like I know Bucky Irving was really good with three running

backs touching the football last year, but I don't think the comments of Tampa Bay about their running back usage are that much different than the comments of Aaron Glenn about Breeze Hull's usage. Like, Bucky Irving is going to be our lead back, Rashad White's going to play a lot and we need to get Sean Tucker out there more. Like, they're both three back systems. And all that being said, if any one of those running backs on the box or the jets just ends up being head and shoulders better

than the others, then you can bet your butt that they'll change that philosophy. Yeah. The Bucks did it. So in that, I'm sorry, in that stretch where Irving was a top six running back per game, his he was on pace for 264 carries and 51 catches, which is probably not going to give you a first round value in all likelihood, but definitely could give you a second round value. I mean, in today's NFL,

though, 300 total touches is pretty impressive. Yep. In 17 games. Yeah, right. Then 315 total touches. Okay. All right. So those are the mutual guys. And why don't we take a break? We'll get back to some more breakouts in a moment. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. This episode is brought to you by FX's Dying for Sex on Disney+.

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Let's do some rapid fire breakouts, okay? Jamie, let's go through your list first. You give me like a 20 to 32nd breakout case for each guy. Ready, Jalen Warren. If he's the lead guy for the Steelers, he has top 20 upside given the fact of what he showed in 2023. His ability to catch passes out of the backfield,

so we have to see who the quarterback is. But this team I think will still run the ball because of Arthur Smith. And the situation is extremely favorable. Mike Tomlin did speak very highly of Kenneth Gainwell. That's a plus for me for Jalen Warren. Kenneth Gainwell is the number two running back there. Jordan Addison.

Just the opportunity for him to continue to build on what he's shown each of his first two seasons. He benefits from a lot of single coverage in an offense that's very pass friendly. If JJ McCarthy is as good as advertised based on what Kevin O'Connell has said, then Jordan Addison will be one of the best value picks because he will not get drafted as a starter in two or three leagues, but can still be a starter in two or three leagues and an easy starter in three or three leagues. Let's see who's next on your breakouts list. It is Roma Dunezay. And just a huge opportunity. You know, if he's the slot guy has been mentioned for Ben Johnson, we know what that means based on what Amon Ross St. Brown did in Detroit.

But I'll go back to the conversation we had with Dan that I don't think it matters if these two guys in terms of DJ Moran Romo-Dunze are locked into being featured roles in this offense. You know, so whether he's the Jameson Williams guy, whether he's the DJ, the Amon Ross St. Brown guy, you know, he's going to get fed targets. He's going to hopefully have a better quarterback as we've talked about and certainly a better system. So for a guy with his pedigree, for somebody who probably get drafted as a high end number three receiver, can easily be a top 20 guy in year two. Ricky Pearsall.

Well, we saw the last two games hopefully is replicable for the course of the season, you know, not to the same, you know, not to the same extent consistency week in, week out. But Brandon Iyews coming off of Tornado CL, no Debo Samuel, Brock Purdy hopefully won't have a holdout. If he's a starter, first round pick coming out of college, a guy that can get open. I think as we saw as the season went on, what he suffered at the start of the season, end of training camp after getting shot, to come back and let alone play and play successfully, just in this offense, there's immense upside.

And Tucker Kraft, who is on Dave's sleepers list. Yeah, I think sleeper breakout will be kind of determined on how you view his ADP and what you think the expectations are. But Noah Christian Watson, which I know that wasn't necessarily his best moments when Watson wasn't there but Laflora already talked about getting him more involved. We saw last year, you know, right hovering around 10 PPR points per game I think he can get to maybe 11 or 12, you know So can be a you know a guy who will be drafted as a low-end starter But may you know creep into the round the the top five range you know if he gets a couple more touchdown opportunities.

So LaFleur did talk about this I'll give you tomorrow you know being a little bit more pass friendly and throwing the ball a little bit more so that should benefit everybody. He did actually specifically say they wanted to limit Jayden Reed's carries because of fear of injury. So hopefully he touches the ball a little bit more in the passing game too. But I think Tucker Kraft just based on where you'll draft him and the upside that he should be able to give you has the chance to you know, be a top six or seven tight end as opposed to just maybe a top 10 guy.

Alright, so Jalen Warren, Jordan Addison, Roma Dunze, Ricky Pearsall, Tucker Kraft. Those are Jamie's breakouts that were not shared ones with Heath. Does anybody Dave Dave, Heath, you have anything to say about Warren, Addison, Odunze, Pearsall, Kraft? I'll start by saying that I think in the case of, definitely in the case of Odunze, Pearsall, and Kraft, but potentially in the case of all five, no one's drafting them close to their ceiling.

And that's what makes them especially appealing. Because we'll talk about breakouts, like Bucky Irving as a breakout. For example, you're drafting them pretty close to his ceiling as it is. These guys like Warren, if he truly goes the rest of the off season, without any additions to the Steelers backfield, we're probably going to draft him close to the 20th running back off the board in full PPR leagues. And that might be a little too close to the ceiling. Same thing with Addison, who is, you know, you'll draft him as a number three receiver. Maybe he could be a top 24 guy.

I do love how they changed his role mid-year in Minnesota, made all the difference in the world. But those last three guys, super talented in the case of Adun Zampirsal, they can really do a lot. I think we just scratched the surface with them last year and then Tucker craft an after catch monster Who would benefit by more playing time and more passes in Green Bay? I like all five but those last three Very very appealing for fantasy drafting I'm sorry. Can you which three crap? Dunze Pearsall K. R aft Sorry, can you, which three? Oduinze, Piersol, K-R-A-F-T. Have you gone over the tape of Oduinze?

I just kind of wish there were more highlights, you know? Well, if Caleb's willing to throw the ball within 10 feet of him, then Roma Oduinze would have had more highlights. Like there were, it was incredible. And I think I remember watching it happen during the season. Caleb's best throws seemed to almost exclusively be to DJ Moore and Kenan Allen. And he'd throw the ball to Roma Dunze and he'd throw like a 700 mile an hour fastball from six yards away that just bounced off.

It was really, really bad. I think if you watch the film on Odunze, you'll be like, man, this guy did not have very many opportunities to make plays last year. I did watch some going into our episode a few weeks ago, we talked about sophomore wide receivers, and it felt like down the stretch, the whole offense was so much of the offense was designed for DJ Moore. And, and Odunze was just kind of like a spectator but you know I'm actually curious to see what his open score was on the ESPN analytics I'm guessing it probably wasn't that good but let's see because Malik neighbors was number one Odunze was 89th out of a

hundred and this was including tight ends not Not that not that good, but not that bad. You know, not that bad. I'm fascinated to see Odunze and Marvin Harrison in year two. Like those two guys based on what we thought of them coming into the league, what they were where they were drafted, how they performed. Give you some Marvin Harrison stuff tomorrow. But what what those two can hopefully do in year two. Jordan Addison on this list,

he was wide receiver, like 24 per game I think, somewhere around there, yeah 25. Can he be better than that? Or you think, what's his upside, Addison? I mean, barring injury? Yeah. So barring a Justin Jefferson injury?

Per game. I don't think significantly better, but I don't think anybody's drafting him that high If I not 14.2 PPR fantasy points per game All right, Heath. Let's get to your break I don't know if I'm missing anybody but there are three guys. I think they kind of fall in a very similar category and you'll understand why it's Devante Smith, Jalen Wattle, and Jordan Addison. Number two guys.

But have really never fulfilled their potential consistently. Consistently, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All it takes is for Addison to not be a red zone monster. And he tanks. Right. He's good. I feel like he's a good player though. And they write the all of them, right? Good players, their first round picks. They haven't really had the opportunity.

Like you brought up one scenario, Dallas Goddard leaves Devontae Smith becomes a top 10 option, you know, in in all formats, right? Based on his 16 game pace. So you'll probably draft him, let's say, as a top 20 receiver. I know I'll rank him as a top 20 receiver if Goddard's gone. If Tyree Kill is traded, right, which is still potential.

Yeah. Jalen Waddle, we had the first mock draft we did. Remember, everybody was, oh my, Dave took Jalen Waddle. Everybody was like, oh my God, I can't believe he lasted this long. He's got so much upside. That was the, you know, Tyree Kill peace sign after the draft.

And now we're getting it again on Twitter. Of him, you know, Tyree kill peace sign after the draft. And now we're getting it again on Twitter of him, you know, maybe getting shipped out. He'll be a top 20 fantasy receiver. And if we know, God forbid something happens to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison's arrow just, you know, rocket ship skyrockets. Yeah, I think the questions I would have, what is Johnny Smith's role? And what is TJ Hawkinson's role? Because they'll have they'll have roles, but I mean these guys just become infinitely better. Yeah, I'm not good, right I'm not gonna play the what if Justin Jefferson gets hurt game, right? But but obviously Goddard could be out and Tyree kill could as well. So those are more realistic scenarios, but that's I think

if they just even didn't throw their tight end, I'd be more encouraged by but that's I think if they just even didn't throw their tight end I'd be more encouraged by By Addison, but they do have a good tight end. However, they did they were a little run heavy They were kind of run heavy for the first half of the season. So if the Vikings could go back to Being one of the most pass-heavy teams in the NFL might not matter. I would not expect that with a rookie quarterback or first-year starter Yeah, probably and one of their biggest transactions, you know, even on a small scale in terms of what they gave up to get him was acquiring a running back and beefing up their offensive line to run the ball better.

Yeah, Heath's breakouts, Jaden Daniels, Bo Nix, Chase Brown, Lad McConkey, Jackson Smith and Jigba, Rashi Rice, Jaden Daniels, go. He is my number one quarterback in the projections. You look at what he did in three playoff games, 315 yards from scrimmage per game, those are Lamar Jackson type numbers. He finished last year as a top five fantasy quarterback. That's not the ceiling. The ceiling is that he's the best quarterback in fantasy football.

Bo Nix. I generally think, and we talked about this at the beginning, that there is still room. Nix wasn't so good that we're expecting regression in year two. He was still a rookie quarterback and those generally get better. He only averaged 6.7 yards per attempt last year. You mentioned it with the rushing, he ran quite a bit, but the rushing efficiency wasn't quite as good as some of the guys who ran less or similar to him. So I think he has some room for gains there. Evan Ingram is an improvement as well. And I expect he gets a better wide receiver too in the draft. I also would expect him to get a running back who can catch in the draft or run the draft outlet form or run or run. Yeah.

I did a lot of research on the effect of a run game and how it relates to pass attempts for a team. In other words, teams that throw a lot, do they have bad run games? I can give you the results later if you'd like. Chase Brown. I think you could make the argument that we already saw his breakout in the second half of last year. I love the fact that the Bengals have not made any real effort so far to add somebody who's going to take touches away from him. This is probably the most draft dependent breakout of all,

but he could be right up there with Bucky Irving and Ken Walker in the round two, three range this season address. I, I spoke to Zach Taylor. I haven't gotten to that part of my, uh, as Adam called it, my little recorder. Um, but, uh, Taylor, I mean the smile on his face when asked about chase Brown, like, and the answer he the answer he gave, just how he grew into the role. You're right, Heath, and this is something Dan talked about because he was not convinced that the Bengals don't go drop somebody. I would be shocked if they made a significant investment in running back, knowing all the holes they have defensively

and all the money that they just spent offensively with still having Zach Moss on the roster. So he didn't really get a chance to go from starter to backup because he got hurt. I think who knows when we would have seen the breakout for Chase Brown, but it would not shock me. I don't know if he can get that much better because he was so good, but it could certainly be replicated because we saw Joe Mixon be a great fantasy option in this offense. Chase Brown could be a great fantasy option in this offense. Chase Brown could be great fantasy options. Offense like it's just, it's tailor made. If everybody stays healthy, you know, big F, but if everybody, at least, you

know, quarterback and receivers receivers stay healthy, like how do you defend this team and if chase Brown's catching passes, you know, I know that's always your concern, Adam, cause he doesn't play on third, but he did last year, but will they play on third downs? Yeah. Not a huge concern. Then, then it's, Then it's somewhat problematic, but he's one of my favorite players.

I loved him last year, and just hopefully he does not get significant competition. But again, it would be surprising if that's the route that they go. No, my concern is that his last eight games, weeks nine through 17, Chase Brown was the number three running back per game

in PPR, he was on pace for just under 2000 total yards, but also 81 catches. My concern would be they don't use him on third down, he's more like a 50 50 catch guy, something like that, like not an 81 catch guy, but certainly enough catches there. And you know what, it doesn't, it's not like Mixon, Mixon was, you

know, a 50-ish catch guy, didn't play on third down. Chase Brown is really, really good in the passing game. So they, they line him up out wide. He's a weapon. That's something Taylor talked about. And he said, you know, specifically, he's like, we knew he was good in pass protection and he exceeded our expectations. Oh, wow. All right. He Unlike Bucky Irving in that stretch that you talked about from week nine through 17. So it's half the year for him. He played at least 80% of the snaps in every game.

Oh, he was all they had, you know, and that's Dan's point, you know, going back to a previous show is that he doesn't think that that's sustainable based on his size that he'll hold up. You know, he did get hurt at the end of the year. Um, but it could bring somebody in. Yeah, they'll bring somebody in, but is it just a special teams break glass case of emergency type of guy like a Kenneth game wall, or are they bringing in, Hey, we're going all in on offense. Hi, I'm Marion Hampton, you know, something like that.

Right. And there's a lot of running backs in this draft that they could do that with. You know, they could take one of the Ohio State running backs. I always go defer to them. It's like the go-to in rounds two, three for a team to get. But if they do, then that could obviously impact the playing time for Chase Brown. It's what you started this off with Heath. He is very dependent on what happens in the draft. All right, Heath, back to you. Lad McConkey.

One of my favorite things about rookies, because I will say on this show a lot, that full season statistics are generally more predictive than second half or random splits or Azerstads. But the one place that I go away from that is when you're talking about rookies and specifically rookie wide receivers in the second half of the year, we've seen countless examples over the years. Among Ross St. Brown, Rushie Rice, I think last year's first three games enough to show that that was real and lad McConkey. Holy cow.

In his last 10 games, he was on pace for 99 catches, 1500 yards and nine touchdowns. And then in the playoffs, he had nine catches for 197 yards and a touchdown. He's a top 10 wide receiver in my projections. He's worthy of a pick in the first two rounds. The only issue with the pace that you mentioned, you didn't left out one stat and that was his targets. He was only on pace for 124 targets in those last 10 games.

So that's the only thing that holds me back because it's like so easy to see him having a really good year but is he gonna end up being a second round pick, like a late second round pick? Hopefully he'll stay in the third round. I just wonder, will they ever throw, I think the number I gave was like 31.8 pass attempts per game after their buy.

They had a buy in week five. Will they ever throw enough for lad mcconkey to be 150 target guy? Does it need to be, you know, to be a to be a true stud? Do you said top 10? Right? I what I would say is like, there were some games where there were target problems. But in that stretch, I mean, the playoffs, he had 14 targets, he had a 12 target game, a 10 target game, a nine target game, an eight target game. Like he had one game with two targets. He had one game that he left early injured. I think he's probably 140 target guy. I was, I, I completely wait, wait, you're talking about within that 10 game stretch, he had a game where he left injured. You're talking about within that 10 game stretch, he had a game where he left injured.

I well, he had a game where he was inactive after. Are you saying that's just an Azerstat? I think so. I mean, knowing me, I would be surprised if I put in a game where he. Well, he was still really good, but he missed week 13 with an injury and he only played 63% of his snaps in week 12. You miss week 14 and yeah, game 12. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's those count. I didn't obviously like I didn't count his bi week. Okay. I was thinking we gave him up with an injury. Sorry. Yeah.

The the chase Brown common I think applies here to you know, do they add a receiver in the draft? That a running back and a receiver in the draft? Could certainly do that. I you. Harbaugh was asked when I was listening to him talk about Mike Williams. He said, I didn't know Mike Williams. He said, first time I met Mike Williams was when we signed him. He said, but Justin was so happy. That made me happy to see how happy Justin was.

So if it's Mike Williams and a day three receiver like Lad McConkey to the moon. There's been some rumors about maybe a Keenan-Allen reunion which would be awful for Lad McConkey in my opinion at least and if they go early at receiver I think that would be awful also. So I think if I'm the Chargers I'm looking at maybe a running back of the future, you know Someone to pair with Najee Harris if you're just talking about skill players and tight end because I don't think Tyler Conklin the answer All right, two more for Heath JSN number. She writes good JSN. I think JSN is one of the obvious ones DK left Lockett left basically the same thing at quarterback this year could be

left basically the same thing at quarterback this year, could be amongst the leaders in target percentage, even with Cooper Cup there. And if Cooper Cup goes down, then he might just lead the NFL in target rate. Rishi Rice, kind of similar to what I said about Lad McConkie is we've seen little stretches from Rice where he's shown just how good he could be. But we haven't seen it anywhere close to over a full season or really even over a half a season. But if you look at his last 10 games that he's played, it's basically 18 fantasy points per game. It sounds like he's healthy. There's no talk about the criminal case. I don't know whatever happened to that. But like a year later, we just don't hear anything. If he just plays 17 games next year, he should be right up there with McConkey as the top 10 wide receiver. All right. That's going to do it for today's show.

And by the way, the only wide receiver who averaged more fantasy points per game than Rishi Rice last year was Jamar Chase. Rice averaged 21.6 points per game in his three healthy games, not going to count. Nine point seven targets per game. And Reed did say, you know, it feels like he's on track for to be ready. For training camp though, right? Not for camp. Not for. Yeah. Well, I don't care about many camp if guys coming off significant injury, if he's ready for training camp, I'm fine with it. Okay. But like McCaffrey is going to be ready way before that just just to put things in

perspective. But you know, we're worried if we're worried if we're fine with Rashid Rice, but worried about McCaffrey, McCaffrey is way ahead of Rashid Rice. Yes, if you're if you're just talking about injuries, McCaffrey is also you know, 65 when it comes to his position and age and and Rice, you know, is just at the start of his career. Are you telling me that you would take Rashi Rice ahead of Christopher Caffrey? No, I would not. I think if both hit, McAfee is more valuable in his position and overall than Rashi Rice, but I don't have to take them in the same spot. I could probably take both of them.

I think we should make a bet. And whatever that bet is, one of us has to draft the old team. In one of our leagues have to draft like only players that are 29 years old or or we're All right, let's here's the bet because it applies to something that's actually tangible to something that we did. Okay. And I'll let you decide because these were two players, one that I wanted one that you

wanted. Raphael Devers is yours. And you give me from this point forward, so nothing that they've done already. So you could wipe out what Devers and his crappy start. This is our fantasy baseball team. I wanted Jazz Chisholm. You wanted Raphael Devers. We took Devers. Chisholm went a couple spots after. I also would have taken Manny Machado over Devers. That was your pick. So you give me whoever you want and you get Devers. I'll stick with Devers.

I'll stick with Devers. No, you are getting Devers. You're giving me the other one. You pick. I'll take Jazz. All right, you get Jazz Chisholm. I'll take, I didn't know about the torpedo bats. I mean, you could give Devers Bam Bam's bat at this point

and he may not hit the baseball. So we'll go April 2nd. They have not played a game yet on Wednesday, April 2nd, April 2nd until August 1st. OK, and the loser of this has to this is what like they're out to take the all old team fantasy points per game. Total points, because I don't want to it just can't come down to injury here. Fantasy points per game, fantasy points per game, not counting games where they pinch it. You can answer that at all.

I will, I will. And then on July 31st, on August 1st, because we're not drafting it on August 1st, we will, the, the winner will give the loser a list of players. They have to draft. This is why we win awards. Let's put it in a word document and show it on the screen. All right. We'll talk to you all tomorrow. By the way, early show tomorrow. What time are we going?

8.15am tomorrow with our bus. You Paramount podcasts