Fantasy Football Today - What Changed with the Rookies Since the Draft + What to Look Forward to in 2026 (Fantasy Football Dynasty Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode is brought to you by Dazon. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best players, Messi, Holland, Kane and more are all taking part. And you can watch every match for free on Dazon, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at dazonone.com slash FIFA. That's D-A-Z-N.com slash FIFA. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings,

Starting point is 00:00:39 joined today by Matthew Rupert, Couch Scouts. Matthew, thank you for being here today. Just tell everybody real quick here at the top what you've been working on and where they can find your work. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having us again. Always love getting to come on. Yeah, so we've been working hard getting our members ready for draft season, helping them with drafts, rebuilds, whatever they may need. CouchScouts.com is our website. We have packages for as well as $5 a month and as high as $8 a month.

Starting point is 00:01:10 And you can cancel anytime. So if you just want to check out what we have. If you don't like it, feel free to cancel. No hard feelings. And so we have our rookie guide, which is kind of like our bread and butter. 172 pages, I believe, of rookies scouting, our scoring grades, all of our rankings

Starting point is 00:01:31 for the rookies and tiers. And then we also have an all 22 film room where you can scout underclassmen. So guys like Arch Manning, Jeremiah Smith, if you wanna watch his all 22, even though we all know he's great already. Um, so you can get ahead on scouting for future years. So you can kind of get an idea when you're starting to trade future picks to,

Starting point is 00:01:54 you know, kind of know who you may be able to target in those drafts. That's a great introduction to today's show. Cause the two things I really want to talk about are those rookies, and we've talked about them since the draft, but I just kind of wanted to give a little overview of what, if anything, has changed for Matthew with the class of 2025 over the last couple of months. And I'll talk about a few things that I've maybe slightly adjusted, but also I want to dig into that class of 2026 because contenders or rebuilders alike may be thinking, okay, how much of these 2026 picks really worth Dynasty Dave in the chat says a

Starting point is 00:02:31 Bucca hype train season. We will certainly talk about that as well in just a little bit. Let's start with three questions for our guests and let's just find out who your favorite rookie at cost has been so far. Who's your most drafted rookie this summer and why? The first one wasn't a surprise to me. Uh, so it came out to be a tie. I have two guys where I got five shares each this all season.

Starting point is 00:02:55 The first one was Travis ETN. I just loved, loved, loved his tape. I get that his production profile wasn't the best. And then he went to a crowded backfield with the Panthers But to me, I'm just gonna bet on the talent that I saw and especially at the price where I've been getting him in the fourth round pretty much every time or even late third So I've come away with a ton of shares of him and then or I'm get Gatson another guy that I really liked his tape when I watched it.

Starting point is 00:03:25 And I was just like, I pray that he bulks up enough and really refines more of the nuances of the tight end position with run blocking and everything like that to where he can really be a contributor. And he landed in a great spot, I thought. So I've been getting a ton of shares of him in the fourth round and even undrafted in a great spot. I thought so I've been getting a ton of shares of him in the fourth round and and even undrafted in a couple weeks.

Starting point is 00:03:49 For sure. I wrote about him yesterday and I don't know if I've mentioned this yet this week, but I did update dynasty rankings for all four positions. Those are all over on the site. All of them are live now and Gadsden was probably the rookie tight end that had moved up the most for me now. He was quite a ways down the tight end rankings and kind of the point that I made was, this is a guy and I've already seen it happen in a couple of my leagues that was maybe still on the waiver wire in your dynasty league and certainly someone you want to add and probably put into a practice squad situation. There's a good chance he's behind Will Disley and Tyler Conklin this year, but that there was lots of positive buzz coming out on him from OTAs and it could be a very good situation for sure.

Starting point is 00:04:34 Let's get to question number two. Five years from now, you gotta look into the future. How are we viewing, which class are reviewing as the best between the 2025, 2026 and 2027 rookie draft classes? It's hard to discount the 2027 class, which is all those like super like free generational talents that's at the top of that draft with Ryan Williams, Jeremiah Smith, Rayola, potentially Arch Manning. Um, but I just can't look past the 2025 draft to me. And I said this a lot this off season that to me,

Starting point is 00:05:17 this appears to be a situation like, I think it was 2017 running back class where we had CMC, Kamara, Ornette, Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon, Kareem Hunt. Like just a plethora of running backs that were just staples on dynasty weeks for five years and some eight years now. And I think we're gonna look back on the 2025 class in a similar way with just how deep the running back position was, even if it may take time for some of them to get their opportunities just based on the landing spot.

Starting point is 00:05:51 It is an interesting thing. And I've almost kind of wondered if we're maybe entering a little bit of a drought period at the quarterback position, but the running back class looks so spectacular. It'll be interesting to look back five years from now and see how many of these guys are still starters in the NFL. And you're right. If five or six of them are, then it's going to be hard to overlook this class as the best of the last three. Let's let's it can be one of the guys we're going to talk about later. We can just go ahead and have the conversation or it can be somebody that I didn't even put in the notes, but who is the biggest mover in your rookie rankings since the NFL draft? Gadsden is one, but I will list a name that isn't him since we'll talk about him later. Mason Taylor for me. He's a guy that I thought Mason Taylor for me. He's a guy that I thought he looked so fluid on film for such a big guy. He whacked a little bit the refinement at the position, but looking at the wins of

Starting point is 00:06:57 he's 20 years old as a tight end, like we know that it takes tight ends a while to develop. So being that young and showing that much promise at LSU, and then getting a lead draft capital in second round, and then going to a team that's just been desperate for a tight end since Dustin Keller, I believe, since they've really had an impact player there. And I've seen a little bit of Buzz probably over-hyping some practice clips. But to me, it's hard to look past the pedigree as well. Uh, when you had those blood lines that he has, and then what he was able

Starting point is 00:07:30 to do as a 20 year old, uh, I think was impressive. So I think he's a guy that has a ton of upside. So he moved up about 17 spots for me, uh, since the draft and he's the guy that I've gotten shares of wait, second round early third round. Yeah. I've actually got Taylor right now as my tight end four in the class just behind. I mean, well behind obviously Loveland and Warren and then it's Fanon for me and then it's Taylor. And I think one of the things that we talk a lot about in the context of redraft, maybe not so much in dynasty is that the way that we find these undrafted or late drafted tight ends that matter for fantasy

Starting point is 00:08:08 in a given year is because, oh, well, they're second on their team and targets. Right now, the wide receiver two battle for the Jets is between Josh Reynolds and Alan Lazard. So there's certainly some target opportunity there. It's just whether Taylor at his very young age is ready to make that contribution early or you're gonna be waiting. I think you're probably going to

Starting point is 00:08:28 be waiting, but he might splash just a little bit in his rookie campaign and give you some hope for the future. Let's take our first break and then we'll talk about some other rookies that may or may not have changed their value over the last couple of months. I'll say it again, I've said it before, love, love, love that we're close enough to football season to where we're advertising football games. It's not that far away. Can't wait. Let's get into the questions about the 2025 rookies. Let's start with the quarterback position. I didn't even put a specific name here because as I go through my rankings, not much has changed for me at the quarterback position. Jackson Dart's pretty much right where I thought he was going to be getting a little bit of positive buzz, but clearly behind Russell Wilson for as long as that team can even pretend like they're competitive. Tyler Shuck maybe had got the best news with the Derek Carr retirement, but I'm still not entirely sure that he's going to win that job outright as a rookie.

Starting point is 00:09:22 We basically, I mean, other than the fact that she Doris Sanders has had some problems with speeding and gotten a little bit of positive camp buzz. I haven't heard enough between him and Dylan Gabriel to really change my opinion there. So with saying all that, has anything at all changed for you at the quarterback position since the draft? I think you hit the nail on the head. Not much has changed for me, pretty much exactly what we expected. Shuck's the only one that's moved up because of car's retirement,

Starting point is 00:09:50 and then they didn't sign Aaron Rodgers or someone to come in there, and like you said, act like they can compete. But to me, I liked Rower's film better, so I think he's going to probably win the job. I don't have any shares myself, but if I did have shares, I would say, try and take this opportunity to sell them for, you know, right. If somebody thinks that he's all of a sudden become a rookie starter, it would be a good time to sell based on that news.

Starting point is 00:10:19 I would agree with that. Um, I didn't, I, I didn't even have him. I didn't even move them up after that news. he's still kind of sitting in the same spot. So I understand why some people gave him a little boost. If the boost was big, then I would certainly be selling. Let's move to a position that's definitely had at least a little bit more news. And R.J. Harvey's Broncos added J.K. Dobbins to the mix

Starting point is 00:10:41 since we first started ranking him. And I know if you look at the redraft world, it's had a pretty significant impact on Harvey's ADP. There were some people who thought that Harvey had a chance to come in and be a feature back for the Broncos right away. I wasn't really one of those people. So my adjustment wasn't quite as big. I changed some of the young other guys, the Audric Estimé, the you little McLaughlin and gave those touches to Dobbins, but my expectations for Harvey are relatively the same, but does it change his dynasty value at all with the

Starting point is 00:11:13 Dobbins signing in Denver? I think slightly. Um, it's hard to look past the fact that he's 24 years old as a rookie and then he's going to have some, uh, some, uh, runs. Some real competition for touches. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think it moves him that much. I think it moves him down to where I kind of had him because I, I had him more as the early second round pick and he was going, you know, 108, 109 and a bunch of draft styles in. And I think it's moving him back just slightly to kind of where I already had him.

Starting point is 00:11:47 I was able to get one chair and that's because he felt like two or three or two or four in a draft. And that's kind of where I have him valued. I don't think he's going to be a bell cow. I think he's going to be electric running back. I really love this tape. He's really good in space.

Starting point is 00:12:02 So I have no doubt that Sean Payton is going to be a magician getting him the ball in space, uh, kind of like Darren Sproles or Peter Thomas back in the day. Um, so I, I think it moves him down slightly in most people's eyes, but kind of where I had him in my, because obviously I understand the consensus a little bit. Clearly behind Gentie, Hampton, Henderson, Judkins and Johnson for you. Absolutely. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:12:30 How do you compare Harvey to, there's a trio of wide receivers and we'll talk about them here in just a moment, but there's, there's three wide receivers that I've kind of kept attached, but changed the order a few times, Matthew Golden, the Mecca Buka and Luther Burden. How do you compare Harvey to those three? I like a Mecca exponentially more. Um, Burden, I had them in the same area. Okay. And so, yeah, I kind of view him in the middle there.

Starting point is 00:12:59 Okay. Now I see a comment in the chat from Alyssa says Harvey went over Henderson and Judkins in my draft. I don't think that's abnormal. I saw that in a lot of my drafts. So I'm going to go 105 or 106 and a couple of one QB drafts. I don't think we would see that now. So maybe, maybe if you didn't, and I, and one of the reasons I wanted to do this is I have a rookie draft that starts in less than 48 hours and I've been. Not taunting everyone in the chat, but like, no one's talking about it or excited. And it might be because I have the first, the sixth, and the eighth pick that I'm the only person that's excited in that league. But I'm really ready to go. But I've got that and I've got, we've got three other rookie drafts that aren't scheduled yet. And at least one of those leagues, I'm wondering if it's getting ready to just fall apart.

Starting point is 00:13:45 But I know there are some people that really would prefer to do the rookie drafts in July or maybe even in August. And I already have those scheduled. And so I wanted to kind of give some updated thoughts on these rookies. There are a couple of low end round three, round four running backs, Jokowi Kroski-Merritt, Brichard Smith,

Starting point is 00:14:03 who received some positive buzz at camp. The coaches and players saying nice things about them. Are these the types of things, like, do they matter for either one of those guys or should we just be like, if you happen to draft them, great. Positive things are being said. I'm not changing where I rank them. Yeah. Merritt was a guy that I thought was okay. I don't think he's going to be any kind of starter or cornerstone on your dynasty team. I think he's a guy that's just going to be a solid pro, probably a perennial backup.

Starting point is 00:14:33 May have some weeks where he goes off, where he gets 20-plus carries. He was a little tight-hipped, didn't have a weak breakaway speed or anything like that. On the other hand, I'm pretty much all in on Smith as like a great yes I really like this film. You could see the inexperience being a converted wide receiver to running back in between the tackles with being patient when this box develop. So I'm hoping that's something that he

Starting point is 00:15:01 can refine in time but my gosh in space he is so electric. He had that breakaway speed and acceleration to eliminate angles. And then as a pass catching weapon, you see his wide receiver background, like going up and getting balls, like high pointing it, running routes. And me, like when he was paired up with Andy Reid,

Starting point is 00:15:22 I was just kind of a dream scenario. So I've gotten about four shares. So he's probably like my, in the second tier of like most owned players for me. And I think like anything good that gets said about him just highlights to me kind of what I'm expecting out of this chiefs backfield, which is mayhem. Yeah. I, I really think they might have a guy in Pacheco

Starting point is 00:15:45 who's the best rusher on most of the field and a guy like Smith who's the most electric. And then if you're in short yardage right now, I think most people would have to admit that giving the ball to Green Hunt might be the right answer. Cause he's, if you need two yards, Green Hunt gets you two yards. Now, if you need five, he might still get you two.

Starting point is 00:16:02 But he's a little bit better at hitting that hole than Pacheco is on the short yardage situations, which if that's the way it works out, it's just a complete disaster based on where Pacheco is being valued. But a real opportunity for Smith, as you say, if he can learn some of the early down stuff and some of the between the tackles stuff a little bit better, he certainly has a lot of upside if he's that pass catching back for Andy Reid. Let's move to the wide receivers. I want to contrast a couple of guys because you've talked about how Ibuka's been well ahead for you anyway, but we've gotten nothing but glowing reports about him in Tampa.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And like it may not matter if Chris Godwin's healthy, Ibuka may just have a big role in this offense regardless. They love him. I thought he was the most polished wide receiver coming into this draft and that's exactly what Tampa said. He's ready to play right now. On the flip side of that, somebody who for a lot of people was in the same tier, Luther Burden, is all upside and no floor and unfortunately missed OTAs with a soft tissue injury that no one's being very specific about. I think probably the burden missing matters more to me

Starting point is 00:17:15 than the glowing of Buka stuff, other than it just confirms my prior, so I like it. Is that, do you have as much reservation as I do? And even Colston Loveland about pass catchers missing OTAs and missing summer work. Absolutely. Uh, I'm going to walk this up with you there. Um, exactly what we expected from Mabuka. Like you said, so polished, a pros pro team, first guy, coaches dream, like, and

Starting point is 00:17:40 he's just doing exactly what we,. Burton, on the other hand, he had those character concerns that came out. Who knows exactly what all went into that, but it certainly seemed to contribute to his drop in the draft. So that combined with an ambiguous soft tissue injury and Ben Johnson seemingly getting onto him a little bit, not happy about it. He's the guy that could get in the doghouse and you know,

Starting point is 00:18:10 basically have a borderline redshirt fresh rookie year. So I'm definitely more worried about burden with Loveland, not having those kinds of concerns. I'm not as, um, worried about him. And then also with burden, you got two really good wide receivers ahead of you that you have to work to get in front of. Whereas Loveland has Cole Comet, who's a solid tied in, but not a weed and didn't have the same kind of investment from the team. I felt like before the draft, it was a mixed consensus, but Warren

Starting point is 00:18:42 ahead of Loveland was the consensus. And then after the draft, it was mixed, but it was Loveland ahead of Warren. And now it seems when I go and look at rankings, a lot of times it's Warren one spot ahead of Loveland. Which one do you prefer? And is the fact that Tyler Warren was involved in everything that Colts did during OTAs

Starting point is 00:19:00 and Colts and Loveland wasn't there during OTAs enough to be a tiebreaker? The tiebreaker to me was, so I had in my film grade for them, it was like 0.03 or something like it was just completely neck and neck with my film grade. So with Loveland going to the wizard of Ben Johnson, who knows how to use a tight end scheme, guys open has a better or what looks like a better quarterback in Caleb Williams. We sure hope so. We hope so.

Starting point is 00:19:30 To me, that's the tiebreaker. So I bumped, I had Warren slightly ahead pre-draft, and then with landing spot with the coach and quarterback, I bumped Loveland just slightly ahead. So the OTA stuff hasn't really been a tiebreaker for me. I have them back to back in my reggae. It's just Loveland one spot ahead of Warren. Okay. Yeah. I still have Loveland ahead of Warren. I think I've shrunk the gap a little bit because I was Loveland above Warren

Starting point is 00:19:56 before the draft, the gap got bigger because of the draft and now just a little bit of concern. There's some talk that Colcomet's not completely going away this year and Loveland's not like maybe Colcomet would go completely away if Loveland was fully acclimated for the offense for week one, but it's kind of hard to believe. I'm not even 100% sure he's going to be a full go at the starting training camp. That's kind of where the timetable points towards, but I do think we'll see Loveland fall even a little bit more if he misses a week or two of training camp, and maybe even become a better value. Sticking with the wide receivers, the buzz hasn't been as positive for Trey Harris and Jack Besh. Harris, maybe more because the Chargers keep talking about Quentin Johnston still a starter there, and Jack Besh, it seems like just isn't quite getting what the Raiders want him to

Starting point is 00:20:44 do, and he may be duplicitous with Jacoby Myers and just kind of behind him for as long as Myers is there. Have you felt any of that negativity on either one of those two players? Have you considered moving either one down? I haven't really moved them down. I think they've been appropriately priced. I've been seeing them in the mid to wait second round. I have seen Harris go early second, which is too rich for me. I had them both a very similar film grade as well.

Starting point is 00:21:15 I think they're like one point off. I had them more as a flex option. I don't think they're a plug and play starter. I don't think they probably ever will be. I think they're just solid prospects. So I don't think it's a real opportunity to go buy them and expect them to, you know, anchor your wide receiver to spot on your dynasty roster. But if someone's freaking out enough, it's definitely worth putting out failures to see if you can buy low on them. Um, but I'm not too worried about both because I didn't have the highest

Starting point is 00:21:50 expectations. I expected them to be like in a third options on the team. I, yeah, I kind of had it as Jayden Higgins was that bridge between the Ibuka, Bird and Golden group and these two guys with Kyle Williams in there somewhere. It hasn't been a great, I mean, it sounds like he's got some work to do to pass up Matt Collins on the depth charts. So it's not like it's been fantastic news for him either. I slightly preferred Besh just because I was more confident that he could do more things and NFL wide receivers going to be asked to do. I think Trey Harris probably has a little bit more upside,

Starting point is 00:22:25 but Besh is more likely to be able to get onto the field. Whereas I just don't, I need more proof, I think, proof of concept with Trey Harris. We had a couple more guys we wanted to talk about, and I don't, I'm hoping you have an answer to this, cause I don't really, I'm almost frustrated by it, but have we learned anything at all about Travis Hunter's snap shares on offense and defense,

Starting point is 00:22:48 I think one, I think it's the way you set the Jags trolled everyone by announcing his contact as a quarterback. Um, but to me, I, I think what they done reaffirms my feelings. They started them out and OTAs on offense and doing offense only. And then they slowly started to work them in on defense. Um, so to me, I think that tells you he's going to be offense first and defense second. So to me, I'm not worried about it.

Starting point is 00:23:12 If people are getting, they're freaking out, um, take advantage, please. Because I think he's just too elite of a wide receiver prospect in my eyes. And you would draft him ahead of chat, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'll be out wide receiver warning the class. I remember he was for you guys early on. So, uh, you, you already mentioned Gadsden, the Chargers, tight end who's

Starting point is 00:23:34 it was getting some positive buzz. Um, but still is more of a developmental prospect, right? Absolutely. Um, I love this film and you know, graded him out and ranked him based on him being a developmental guy. He's just really fluid in and out of his breaks. For a big guy, he needs to add more bulk. So I'm not looking to get much from him this season, but what you've heard out of camp is exactly what I wanted to hear. Uh, the, the tight end coach that coach Darren Lawler, comping him to, to Waller and as another guy that converted from a wide receiver to a tight end. Um, I think it's going to be more of a long play and he's priced appropriately

Starting point is 00:24:15 for that, um, but he's a guy, like you said earlier, grab him if you can. If he's still on waivers, get him ASAP, put him on your taxi squad, and it hopefully reap the benefits a couple years from now. I mentioned my rookie draft where I have three of the top eight picks. And yeah, I'm going to talk about that a lot over the next couple of weeks, guys. Sorry. But it is a tight end premium league, double premium. So two catches per reception for tight end and you're required to start two tight ends. So tight ends go crazy in this league. I've got those three first, then I have one third round pick and that format is the third too early for a Getson or is that, is that about where he, cause I know he's probably a fourth or later in a normal,

Starting point is 00:25:01 even probably a 1.5 tight end premium. But if you have double tight end premium, you start two tight ends, I'm being really selfish, asking questions for myself. Is he worth a third round pick in that format, you think? Absolutely, I think so, yeah. I had him wait third, kind of after this news. So with starting two tight ends and two points per reception for a tight end, absolutely. I, let's hope nobody else in the league is last listening to this

Starting point is 00:25:29 show. Let's take our second break. And then I want to dive into the 2026 draft class specifically guys that you should watch this fall. So I don't try to make any illusions about how much college football I watched during the NFL football season. I watch more film of college football in January, February, and March than I do during the actual college football season. But there are times on a Saturday where I don't have stuff that I need to make up to my wife for the fact that I work too much the rest of the week that I catch a game or two.

Starting point is 00:25:58 And I definitely follow the news. So I wanted to, for people who are like me and are just kind of casually following college football, I'd kind of like to get into some of the names that we need to keep an eye on this year to determine. Cause it seems like, and maybe let's just start with this question. When I asked you about the 25, 26, 27 class, you talked about how excited we are for 2027

Starting point is 00:26:22 and how good the running backs are in 2025. And you didn't mention 2026. And I don't know, I've heard two different things. One that it's a down year to that people who do this and follow this feel like they have no idea what to expect from rookie drafts a year from now. Yeah, that's good. The exact same kind of feeling I get. I'm like you where I don't follow college football in the season I'm into developmental Debbie leads where you draft guys that are underclassmen or high school

Starting point is 00:26:53 so I get into a little bit during the offseason here and But my two co-hosts Matt Jackson and Matt Cooper are like deep into this and my feeling is it's there's some really good guys at the top end, but it's really to be determined how how good the draft is going to be overall. Let's start with the quarterback position, who are you kind of paying attention to or hopeful for in 2026? I'll just name a couple of the top names and then one specific that I'm looking at Looks like Cape club Nick from Clemson is the consensus QB one at this point when our sellers is Yeah, probably the highest upside guy for fantasy purposes with his rushing upside. I watched some of his film

Starting point is 00:27:42 in our film room and I Liked what I saw I saw him going through progressions, which I wasn't expecting to, especially in the red zone, working from the right all the way back to his backside and finding guys open for a touchdown. He took off running quite a bit, but I did also see times where he would start to take off the run. He keeps his head up, sees a guy open,

Starting point is 00:28:03 resets his feet and delivers a strike. So there's definitely some encouraging things to see there from sellers. The guy I'm really interested to watch is Garrett Nussmeyer. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly from LSU. The last two years I've watched a ton of wide receiver film for LSU. And I've really liked every time I've come away, like impressed with Garrett. Does he have the greatest physical traits? No, he's six foot two, a little over 200 pounds. Does he have a rifle of arm?

Starting point is 00:28:37 No, but to me he's accurate, plays with anticipation. You see him at times making adjustments at the line of scrimmage, which is encouraging to me. His dad's an offensive coordinator, so I think he's gonna be a guy that's gonna be pro ready and looks like a player that could really succeed in a West Coast offense or a Shanahan style offense. Do you have any hope that the 2026 quarterback class is better than the 2025 quarterback class?

Starting point is 00:29:08 I think it will be for sure. 2025 was definitely a down year. So I think next year's class is gonna be better for sure. Let's talk about a position where next year's class will definitely not be better. And that's the running back position. Are there any running backs left in college that are any good? They just all come out this year.

Starting point is 00:29:29 Oh, such a good point. Uh, I think we need to set expectations. We're probably not going to see a running back class like this year for another 10 years or so of just incredible depth and the guy I'm going to be watching, like everyone knows Jeremiah Love, gonna be the RB one, probably pretty much for locked and loaded. A guy that could have come out this year and went back,

Starting point is 00:29:52 Nick Singleton of Penn State, I watched some of his tape before he decided to go back, which I was a little surprised by, but also get him looking at the class, like so low down, may get buried down, pass the playground, like another, like, may get buried down past the playground. Like another, like a lot of other really talented running backs.

Starting point is 00:30:10 So I'm really intrigued to see how this gamble of his plays out. He's six foot, almost 230 pounds and he has some blazing speed, like just a wet trick with the ball in his hands. But he also has another really good running back in Katron Allen to deal with at Penn State. So may he have a trivia on Henderson situation where he

Starting point is 00:30:32 loses all these touches to Juckins and isn't at the top of the consensus this year. So to me, that was a gamble that's really going to be interesting to see if it pays off. But I really liked what I've seen from him. Okay. And then at wide receiver, this was kind of a down year, although if Travis Hunter is as good as you and I think he's going to be, then maybe not because Ted Rowe and MacMillian

Starting point is 00:30:56 could be really good. Abou could be really good. And maybe the wide receiver class was a little bit undersold this year. But what does 2026? I know 2027 is what we're all dreaming about it wide receiver. Is there anybody that's going to help us in 2026? Yeah, I think there's definitely some guys it's definitely disappointing after 2024 rookies and then what we had to look forward to in 2027. But there's some guys at the top that

Starting point is 00:31:22 look really promising. Jordan Tyson from Arizona State Kind of looks like Ted McMillan to me when I watch him and another big guy that's that's fluid Really knows how to high point the ball and box out Athletic has really good body control a guy. I'm gonna be really watching. It's Cornell Tate from Ohio State Had to sit behind a buucca and Jeremiah Smith, right? He was highly recruited coming out really fluid athlete at six foot three, but what along the slender side at like one 93, I think it's what he's listed at. Um,

Starting point is 00:31:56 but he still had 700 yards last year with M. Bucca and Jeremiah, Smith on his team. So I'm really looking for him to break out and shoot up the wider receiver board this year. Well, that's kind of what we do at Ohio State, right? Is we get really excited about the guy we got and then we say, who's next? And there's always two or three guys

Starting point is 00:32:15 that are next at that school. Finally, are there any tight ends that are excited to get excited about in 2026? There's definitely some, Eric Stoes from Vanderbilt looks like an elite athlete. Um, seeing some crazy comps, the Brock Bowers, which I think we should just never, ever comp anybody. Right. I think he's one on one as a prospect, but, uh, so he looks like a guy that could be the,

Starting point is 00:32:42 the top tight end at the, tight end in the draft next year. Wook, I don't know how to pronounce his last name, Haas, he was at Arkansas, transferred to Ole Miss to be with Lane Kiffin and their system. I saw him pop for me on tape, scouting Andrew Armstrong from Arkansas last year and they just dealt with some rough quarterback play. But he's the guy who flashed for me watching their film. So I'm really interested to see how he shoots up this year getting to play with

Starting point is 00:33:20 Lane Kiffin and some better quarterback play. Very good stuff. I got a little bit extra time here. So I'm going to ask you some questions that I didn't prepare you for. So don't feel bad if you don't have an easy answer. But I think one of the things people look at when they're going through their rookie drafts is what, and I know a lot of you still have those to do. Well, what, who's the worst or maybe what, at what point in your rookie draft or rookie rankings are you like, okay, I'll take a random 20, 26 first over this player.

Starting point is 00:33:48 I think by the point for me probably came scataboo, like in the mid second is the point like after him, I would take a random 20, 26 first. So that's a little later than I usually hear. That kind of indicates maybe the 2026 class not going to be as enticing as the 2025 class. A lot of times in given years, you get to pick 11, pick 12. And you're like, well, I'd rather see if maybe I can get a better pick in the future year. This year that extends into the, I assume Scott, if it was around 16, 17, 18 for you. Yep. So it extends into the middle of round one looking at it the opposite direction. And I don't know how you feel about this in dynasty.

Starting point is 00:34:32 I know there's mixed emotions. I'm generally a I'm going for it. Or I'm tanking kind of guy. And if I'm going for it, I'm constantly thinking, okay, who's who's the vet that I can get for a 2026 first and that I don't feel bad giving up that 2026 first. So how far down in the rankings, like when we're looking at guys, maybe some of these veteran running backs like Joe Mixon or Alvin Kamara that we may only have one, the true win now players or Devante Adams or David, those types of players. What type of range do you get in where you're like, I'm fine giving up a 20, 26 first for this guy.

Starting point is 00:35:14 Ooh, good question. And I can just throw some names out. Somebody, somebody offers you, you're a true contender. Somebody offers you Joe Mixon for a 20, 26 first. Are you, are you taking that deal? I don't think I would. Uh, okay. Devante Adams is probably my favorite contender by, but I don't know if I

Starting point is 00:35:34 could give up a first for him. What about a David Montgomery? Guy might have another year left, but probably not as high end as those guys this year. Yeah. I think I could cause he's only 27. So he could still have a couple more years left in them. Somebody in the chat says I gave up a 20, 26 first and Ramon Dre for Christian McCaffrey.

Starting point is 00:35:58 I love that personally. Uh, but I might be the biggest Christian McCaffrey fan here. Um, I, I, he's biggest Christian McCaffrey fan here. Um, I, he's just 30 points a game when he's healthy. So take the chance if you're a contender, uh, especially if there's someone that's rebuilding. And I don't really care if I'm giving up Ramondre Stevenson to be honest, it's because I'm pretty high on Trevion Henderson. And I realized Ramondre could have some value this year, but that's, that's just a throw in that I'm willing to make.

Starting point is 00:36:25 And yeah, I've got Christian McCaffrey at RB 16. He's higher than the other guys that I asked about. I'd be fine doing that, especially if I thought I was a contender and I'm giving up picks nine through 12 in it. And that makes it just a little bit easier. We have some people in the chat who don't like that as much, but Matthew, awesome, awesome stuff today, helping us out with the rookies and those 20, 26 prospects, tell everybody one more time where they can find your work. chat. We don't like that as much. But Matthew, awesome, awesome stuff today helping us out with the rookies and those

Starting point is 00:36:46 2026 prospects. Tell everybody one more time where they can find your work and what you got coming up. Yeah. So our podcast is CouchCounts and our websites couchcounts.com. So it should be real easy. You can go to our website, check us out. We have a free Discord, Wings on there, Wings store packages, and things like that. We're on all the YouTube, Spotify, Apple Play, or iTunes and Android. And anywhere you can get podcasts, right?

Starting point is 00:37:15 Thank you very much for joining us today, Matthew. Thank you to Harry as always for making everything work. Thank you, you guys who were active in the chat. We will talk to you next Tuesday.

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Fantasy Football Today - What Changed with the Rookies Since the Draft + What to Look Forward to in 2026 (Fantasy Football Dynasty Podcast)

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