Fantasy Football Today - Wild Card Winner and Losers! Loveland, Jacobs, Coker, Hurts, & More! (01/12 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

What an amazing weekend of football! We give our thoughts on the games and tell you how historically great Wild Card Weekend has been. Then we've got your news and notes (5:45) as we react to George Kittle's injury, other big injuries from the weekend and the latest coaching news on Mike McDaniel and some offensive coordinators ... Winners from Wild Card Weekend! Colston Loveland (18:50) just became TE3 in drafts while Romeo Doubs and Jordan Love (25:10) also gave us a lot to think about. Do we like Khalil Shakir and Jalen Coker (27:15) going into next season? And how about the Jaguars passing game (34:10)!? ... Our losers include Rome Odunze (39:30), Josh Jacobs (43:35), Brian Thomas Jr. (46:50), Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown (50:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What a play! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. What's up, everybody? Oh, stumbled there. All right, what's up, everybody? Welcome to the show.

It's Fantasy Football Today presented by BenMGM. Make it legendary. Like Wild Card Weekend. Jimmy, I'm going to read you the scores from Wild Card. weekend last year. Houston 32, Chargers 12. Buffalo 31, Denver 7.

Baltimore, 28, Pittsburgh 14. Philadelphia 22, Green Bay 10. That was a pretty good game. Even though a 12-point game. Minnesota, 279 Rams over the Vikings, and then we had one, one-score

game. Do you remember who it was? The one-score game last year? Uh-huh. I don't. Washington 23, Tampa Bay 20. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh.

This is incredible. Here are some notes from our CBS Sports Research team. We've had so far in five games over two days, 12 fourth quarter lead changes, which is the most in a single postseason of all time. We have had four game-winning touchdowns in the final three minutes, most in a single postseason of all time. We've had four comeback wins

in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter, which is basically the same thing as four game-winning touchdowns, although I guess it means they weren't tie games. And we've had two games with four go-ahead touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Okay, two games, think about this, two games with four go-ahead touchdowns

in the fourth quarter. There had been two, is this possible? Oh, two of those types of games in the rest of playoff history. So we've already matched that. It's pretty unbelievable weekend, huh? I mean, I would say, you know, you want to throw in the Hurricanes game. Like outside of really the Patriots game and the Indiana game, we've had pretty good football for college football and NFL the last, what is that, six days now?

Yeah, let's see, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, only four days. Four days. That's crazy. Yeah, amazing. Pretty great stuff. And surprises. My Super Bowl champion's out. I have the Eagles.

Yeah, I don't think you were alone in that. I was a little nervous because I had Rams Bills in the Super Bowl, and obviously that got pretty close. Bills was the one that made me the most nervous. Rams game obviously was a little nerve-wracking watching it. But yeah, I think the sentiment across the board, anybody that covers the league or certainly fans of the league thought this was a pretty wide-open playoff race.

And it seems like that's going to be the case. You know, I think it, I'm pretty sure Dave said, I wasn't far off from him, but he thought that the Eagles would blow out the Niners. Clearly, that did not happen. And kudos to San Francisco with another major injury. My God, that's unfortunate for George Kittle. But surviving that. And then, you know, seeing just how the Bears rallied from what looked like was going to be a blowout in the first half, how the Packers were playing in that game.

Those were two that I didn't expect to happen. I thought Green Bay would win. And I thought the Eagles would win also. So it's really, you tell me right now, Seattle, Denver, the two-one seats, okay, yeah, great. We'll see what happens Monday night. Like, this is still so wide open right now. One more note from our research team. The Buffalo Bills are the only team left in the field that ranked top seven in preseason Super Bowl odds.

That's crazy. That's amazing. All right, let's get to the news and notes. We've got some winners and losers also from the weekend, from Wildcar weekend. We're thinking Dave will be on soon. Fingers crossed there. And just some, we got a lot of great other podcasts. Our cover three podcasts is fantastic college football talk.

So you got to listen to that. Fantasy baseball ramping up. They're doing mock drafts reacting to the Alex Breggman News, reacting to everything. Go to CBSports.com slash podcast. We have so many shows. CBSports.com slash podcast. What a night that was for Chicago fans, by the way. That signing came through during the game.

Did it really? Yeah. That's cool. There's a lot of like, maybe Bregman could score a fourth quarter touchdown. How about that fourth down throw to O'Donze? Man. I mean,

he makes some of the most ridiculous throws and some of the most mind-numbing throws that you'll see. Yeah. He's fun. They're a fun team. Okay, news and notes. Oh, sorry.

Did you say something? I said very fun. Yeah. Okay. George Kittle, torn Achilles, in January. Oh, man, just stinks. Obviously, his status for week one will be in question, status for 2026 will be in question.

What do you make of this right now as you evaluate ranking Brock Purdy? Everything kind of in flux for the 49ers right now. Everything is in flux for the 49ers right now. I mean, you don't know what Brandon Ayuk is going to do or what they're going to do with him. Joanne Jennings is a free agent. Ricky Pearsall can't stay healthy. So we have to see what Purdy has at his disposal. I mean, it's hard to trust him fully if he doesn't have probably two of those guys available.

I hope this is not the end of Kittle. I'd be surprised if it is, but he's 32, you know, so he's not young. You know, hopefully he comes back and can, you know, still have some productive years. I'd be surprised if he retired, like I said, but, you know, can he still be an elite fantasy option? This is really a devastating injury for somebody at his age. So my guess is, you know, if he's ready for the. start of the season, we're talking late round flyer, especially if you have an IR spot because, you know, you have most likely a populous situation coming. You know, they've been very cautious

with injured, injured guys in the past, despite what Kyle Shanhan says at times. So Jake Tongass is somebody that's going to be very interesting. He's a restricted free Asian, I believe. And he's filled in very nicely for Kittle in the past. But as we sit here right now, I feel like, did I have Purdy in my top 12? I think like just in there. I don't know that I would do that again. He won't be now. Right.

I think he probably has to leave the top 12 for now. I mean, I'm sure we could probably look at his games that he's played without Kittle. I'm guessing they've been pretty good because Tanja's been really good, but still, there's just so much working against him.

I had him 10th. Chicago, big win for them, but they lost a couple of important players. Offensive tackle, Ozzie Tripillo, and linebacker, T.J. Edwards. We're going to miss the rest of the season, however long that may go. The Patriots lost cornerback, Christian. This is a big one here.

He has a head injury. Hopefully he can come back for next week's game. But Christian Gonzalez for the Patriots cornerback, he's out. Matthew Stafford heard his finger. He had tests on it. The X-rays came back negative. They will be at, they will be. San Francisco is at Seattle, so it's the Rams are at Chicago next week.

Cam Scadaboo said training camp is his goal. I mean, it's great if he's ready for the start of training camp. I was hoping he'd be ready a little bit earlier than that, but Scadaboo is hoping to be ready by training camp. Rough news for the Panthers. Great game. They fought their hearts out, but they lost the game, and they also lost left tackle Iki Aquano,

a ruptured Pateller tendon in his knee. It could be a long recovery. Saw six to 12 months floated around just by ESPN or, you know, but not by the team. But ruptured. The same with the Bears left tackle, too. so we're looking at similar injuries. Oh, Chipillo? Oh, okay.

Yeah. And Rico Dowdell, you know, rough game for him. He is a free agent. He says he wants to wherever he goes. He wants to get the bulk of the carries. Oh, yeah, I think that's probably, a lot of running backs probably feel that way. He's one of your losers.

Chuba Hubbard played 61% of the snaps in this game, which was his highest since week three. The Falcons hired Matt Ryan as president of football operations. And we do have some coaching news, Jamie. This happened basically right after our show ended last week. The Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel. They then hired Green Bay Executive, former Green Bay Executive, John Eric Sullivan, to be their new GM.

But the Dolphins need a new head coach. Mike McDaniels out there as a head coach or coordinator candidate. The Bucks fired Josh Grasard, their offensive coordinator. And the commanders promoted quarterback's coach David Blow to offensive coordinator. So, um... Funny that we were talking about him as like a bi-week replacement at times in the last four years. Yeah. The David Blow. The David Blow year, yes, with the Lions.

So this coaching, I mean, especially with LaFleur, are there going to be a decision about LaFleur today? I mean, this is looking like kind of a loaded head coaching crop potentially. Harbaugh, McDaniel, Stefansky, maybe LaFleur. But your thoughts on what's going on right now? Well, I mean, the Dolphins timing speaks to a potential Harbaugh scenario. Now, probably by the time people are listening to this, Horrible, I believe Monday is supposed to have released or will release his interview schedule,

which will be a little telling on terms of where he is thinking. So, you know, you've heard Miami, you've heard the Giants, the Titans and the Falcons, I think, are the four teams that he's been somewhat associated with now. I wonder if he's considering Green Bay, if that's something that the Packers would be looking into. and I still wouldn't rule out if Buffalo loses this week if McDermott is in trouble because of, you know, lack of Super Bowl appearances in that team and clearly what they have going into a new stadium, et cetera.

So there's probably still some dominoes that could fall that may change some things. But I think what makes the most sense for McDaniel, if he doesn't get a head coaching job, he's also rumored to be a potential candidate for the Lions' offense coordinator job, which I think would be awesome. Yes.

Because of some of the concepts that he would bring to that team. Now, clearly not a mobile quarterback, but he's dealt with that with Tua as well. But, yeah, I think that would be fun. I saw somebody rank the job openings as Ravens Head Coach, one, Lions Offensive Coordinator 2, Giants and Dolphins and Titans, I think,

or Falcons, I forget the order was. But the funny part was the Lions Office Coordinator job too. So, yeah, so I think it'll be interesting to see where, you know, again, some of these guys end up. clearly for our perspective, McDaniel will be one to follow. Stefansky will be one to follow. Cliff Kingsbury will be one to follow.

Clint Kubiak, we've one to follow. The reason I bring those names up, those are the offensive guys, Mike McCarthy as well. So we'll see where they end up and how that changes the offensive landscapes for those teams. Yeah, I think you could argue that the Packers job would be even more appealing

than the Ravens job. I mean, they'd both be great jobs. I'd be surprised if they let LaFleur go, though. I hope they do as a giant. fan. I hope they do. I would love another great campaign. The guy's been so successful. I know you can nitpick and he blows fourth quarter

leads and whatever and they don't get as far as they should, but it's really, don't take it for granted. Don't take a successful head coach for granted. And he's great for fantasy. But for Jordan Love, who you had one as one of your winners, obviously runs a great offense. I mean, you think about the Jaden Reed

touchdown catch. It was such a well-designed play. LaFleur is just really great for fantasy. You get of an efficient offense. But the last two years, they've been so run heavy. They've been one of the most run heavy teams. Their pass rate in the last three seasons

since Jordan Love became the starting quarterback, 14th, 30th, 28th. So Love is still playing really well, but it's going to be hard for him. He's not a huge rusher, right? He's on pace for 233 rushing guards this year if he removed week 16, which he left early with an injury.

And no rushing touchdowns, by the way. Yeah, but he can't be on a team that's 30th or 28th in pass rate and be a must-start fantasy quarterback. He's on a team that's 14th in pass rate like he was three years ago before they got Josh Jacobs, then sure, we could have a great fantasy option. Totally agree. And you see who I have as one of the losers on this list is Josh Jacobs. And I wonder if we're starting to see the potential downturn of Josh Jacobs.

And maybe that changes some things for the Packers. Now, I also wonder if Tucker Kraft that stayed healthy what this team looks like. And this is kind of why I think of the Packers. or being smart about it. Like you lost arguably your best playmaker in the passing game, especially at a time when you didn't have a healthy Christian Watson. And then you lost your best defensive player. Like is that Lafourth fault?

No, and the Parsons thing, would they lose six straight since they lost Parsons? Five. Five of straight. I mean, it's so obvious what the issue was there, right? So I think they should. And they went all in on a guy and he got hurt. And you can argue that if he stayed healthy, especially if Kraft stayed healthy, like they were one of the favorites.

Yeah. So they lose Parsons. They lost Kenny Clark in the trade for Parsons. And then they lost Devante Wyatt. So they were just so... And they lost Jenkins on the offensive line. I mean, like, they had some major injuries. Yeah, very thin up front.

Very thin. Okay. That's it for our news and notes. But it's not it for football. All right. It's still time for football at BetMGM. And when you register with BetMGM, you'll get instant access to a variety.

of parlay selection features, live betting options, boost tokens, and the best daily promotions in the business. Plus, when you huddle up with BetMGM at your fingertips, every pass, every catch, and every game matter more than ever. Football is back. Don't miss out on any of the hard-hitting action. Place your money line, prop and parlay bets with BetMGM today. I've got a segment called I'm an idiot,

but you guys are idiots for not correcting me when we come back. When Dave's here. Hello, idiot. What's up, fool? We'll be right back on fantasy football today. Okay, here's our segment. I'm an idiot, but you guys are also kind of idiots for not correcting me. So I went through my whole, here's my ideal fantasy league setup.

We're going to do no matchups in the first two rounds of the playoffs. We're going to start a week early so we can have a two-week championship. There's bi-weeks in week 14. We can't do it. We said that to you. Did you? Yeah. I don't remember you saying that.

They were saying in the chat, too. Like, I remember that. I don't remember seeing that. I would have corrected myself. It's the one drawback from the fishbow is that your playoffs start in week 14 and there. The same with our... Before then. With the FFT Open is kind of like that.

At least we get a bottom. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. The fishbowl has this very smart, you know, calculation where it takes your average points for the first 13 weeks. And it's not just like a normal playoff week. Right. Yeah, we can't do it. We can't do it. So it's flawed, but still no match.

We won't have a two-week championship. That's the only thing I can say. But we will have no matchups in the first two rounds, just too high as scoring teams advance. Okay, well, I'm still an idiot. Wildcard for, hey, Dave. You know, it would be nice if you had sent me an I am saying, idiot, you're late.

Get on the show already. Send you a text. Yeah, my phone is silenced. Oh, that is so not my fault. It's not, but if you wanted me to be, on the show you would have hit me with an I am now I see where I stand what I feel like a text we don't we don't need Dave I do man Joe Thomas texts us last night and you like the text I did I completely forgot yeah we are going to deflect and it's not really working out for me what do you

want to talk about from we're going an hour early today so Dave got a little good views with the time no big deal you skip not confused straight up forgot that we were going at nine instead of it's fine uh you missed Adam's all boring stuff yeah Now we'll go to the winners and losers. And Jamie had a whole long list of winners and losers. Winner number one is Colston Loveland. Three straight games with more than 20 PPR fantasy points. Three straight games with double-digit targets.

Eight catches, 137 yards on 15 targets in the game against Green Bay. And, you know, before this stretch, he had had a target share over 19% once. Now it's three straight games with a target share of 25.6% or higher. Okay, Jamie, are we going to, are we going to, like, do we look at the full season with Loveland? Do we just focus on these last three games? How do you evaluate this? We have at least one more game of Loveland. How do you evaluate this hot streak in the midst of it?

It wasn't like a great season for him. He was, I think, tight end 18 per game in PPR. So I'll just go back to the story that you can see on the site, which is our early top 12 tight ends. And basically, for the most part, everybody. has in a similar range, Fanon, Loveland, and Tyler Warren. Makes sense. They're coming off in some cases small sample

size of great games. In case of Warren, great first half, in the case of Fanon, great second half. Almost everybody had Fanon over Loveland except for me, and the way that I wrote it in there was, I want to see what the Browns do, a quarterback and coach, before

I potentially put Fanon back ahead of Loveland. I'm not doing that anymore. Loveland is ahead of Fanon. And the way that I wrote it in the story was, this was the guy in a loaded tight end class that went first to a coach that loves to use tight ends. And I think part of the problem why we didn't see this production was the shoulder injury that he was dealing with at the start of the season and finally got healthy,

finally got worked in. And now you're seeing the benefits of what he can provide and certainly the production that he can provide. And so we'll see what the bears do with DJ Moore. We'll see what this team looks like. Obviously, Romo Dunezay during the stretch has been non-existent with the foot injury and missing all this time since week three. But this kid is just unbelievable.

And what you're seeing right now, I think, could be one of the best tight ends in fantasy. Everybody's going to draft him as a top 10 guy. It's a matter of where you're taking him. For me right now, with Kittles injury, he's tied in three. That's wild. Do you think he will be... He was tied in four before that. I know.

I moved him up dramatically from one game. No, and it's three games. And like I said, on the preview, his target per route run rate had been very good. He just wasn't running enough routes. Now he's basically a full-time player, and he's still getting all these targets. And do you think, Dave, that Colson Loveland will be top two on his team in targets next season? Because once again, it's still very important. We did have a top four tight end.

Jake Ferguson finished his tight end four overall this year. He was third on his team in targets. But eight of the top ten tight ends this year were top two on their team in targets. It's still very important. Do you think he'll pull that off next year, Loveland? I think he might be top one. And it's because he's just such a dynamic player and he's not a typical tight end buying a stretch, but we knew that. I remember when I studied him before he was drafted, I compared him to Darren Waller, but as I watched him against Green Bay, another tight end came to mind and that was Brock Bowers.

And I wonder if he could reach that eye where he's the number one target getter every week. Adam, we talk about layups and long balls. He got a couple of easy throws in this game against Green Bay. but boy, did he get a lot of deep targets as well? He caught a bunch of them, big time player. And he was ahead of Kittle for me anyway because I kind of expected to step back for Kittle in 2026. Now obviously Kittles hurt.

It's easy to put Loveland ahead of him. I kind of want to see what happened. It's the opposite of what Jamie said, but it's still sort of the same. I want to see what happens in Cleveland before I move Fannin behind Loveland because it's not like Harold Fanon as a turtle. He can move really well too. And he could very easily lead Cleveland. Cleveland in targets himself.

So they're both awesome tight ends. These two are going to be the reason why you don't want to overreach to get Trey McBride or Brock Bowers in round one in your PPR drafts coming up this season. I'd be very surprised, though, if Cleveland gets the right leadership and quarterback in place, and in Indianapolis gets the right quarterback in place, if we're not looking at Loveland, Fanon, and Warren, and whatever, where do you like them in the first five rounds? So I don't think there's going to be a huge discount between those two tight ends, which are going to go probably end of round one, beginning of round two for McBride,

probably late round two, maybe early round three for Bowers, depending on that quarterback coach situation. Obviously, we think the quarterback is coming from Indiana. But with the way that Lovelland is finishing, with the way that Fanon will be ranked and hyped, and again, if Warren gets the right guy in place, I'd be very surprised if we're looking at guys going past round five. They'll be top 50 players for sure. someone says in the chat

Adrian says with Ben Johnson he can be the number one tight end next year Yeah could be Yeah but also with Ben Johnson And Luther Bird and Roma Dunzee And maybe DJ Moore you know what else Colson Loveland can be? He could be Sam Lipporta

He could be a guy where some weeks we go Yeah but Leporta was so touchdown dependent And does no way shape or form move the way this kid does No I know I'm just saying Leporta had a better rookie year overall than Loveland did And I'm just saying that we know Leporta's a great player In some other world on some other team. If he had the targets consistently, he could be a, you know, true game-changing tight end.

But some weeks, it's a Leporta week. Some weeks, it's a Jamo week. It's always a St. Brown week. That's my fear with Loveland is that there's just going to be some peaks and valleys. Yeah, but I think it could be a Loveland week and then some other weeks it'll be in Odunze week and some other weeks it'll be, or I'm sorry, the way you phrase it. Some weeks, it'll be a Burrne week. It will always be a Loveland week. I think that's where we're headed. Okay. Okay. Let's combine our next two winners from Jamie, Romeo Dobbs, eight catches, 124 yards, and a touchdown on 11 targets,

and Jordan Love scored 38 fantasy points through 46 passes in this game at Chicago. He really finished the season pretty strong, except the game at Denver, and then he left the first Chicago game early with an injury, but he played well down the stretch. Jamie, why did you put Love and Dobbs on your winners list? Well, Love, we kind of touched on already.

We'll see what happens with the head coaching situation there in Green Bay. But if you want to just tie it into Josh Jacobs, I wonder if, you know, Jacobs is starting to maybe break down a little bit and we see a little bit more of a pass friendly offense for the Packers. Like you listed the numbers, 14, 30, 28 in terms of their pass rate. We get maybe a little bit more closer to the middle of the pack, you know, get back to that 14 number.

And we'll see what they do with the receiving core. Dobbs is a free agent. I'm very curious to see where he's going to go. It was funny. I was at a baseball field on Sunday. And the guy I haven't seen in a while, he's like, oh, I can't get a point. parley right to save my life. This Romeo Dobbs, I can never figure him out. I'm like, well, let's see where he ends up next year because that'll be an interesting scenario. If he signs

with a team that can feature him a little bit more, I don't know if that will be the case, but clearly this is a wide receiver, needy league and if the right team does not get the right player in the draft, maybe Romeo Dobbs is a cheap alternative, let's say, to an Alec Pierce or maybe doesn't trade for an AJ Brown. Dobbs could be that next tier of guys that ends up on a team that we can maybe consistently trust him as a number three fantasy receiver. He could also just be a guy that's terrible because I don't know if he's a great player, but at times he has great production. So depending on where he ends up, I'd be very surprised he stays in Green Bay,

but depending on where he ends up, he could be a good mid-to-late-late-round pick in fantasy that can provide some good, if not potentially, borderline starting production. All right. We'll skip to the next. And love will be a good, you know, fallback option. a quarterback. You know, Dave gave you a great scenario of taking two guys with late round picks.

I think Jordan Love is an excellent late round pick. We'll be in that top 15 range. I'm sure none of us had them ranked in the top 12 with the six of us that gave the quarterback rankings. But when you start to get past that group of now probably where Purdy should belong, but, you know, Herbert, Lawrence, Caleb Williams, you know, those type of guys that aren't going to be drafted in the top five or six range. I think you get to that next group of guys.

Jordan Love becomes part of that next group of guys again, depending on who the coach is in Green Bay. All right, let's get to our next two here. I'll lump them together, a couple of wide receivers that had big games. Jalen Coker, nine catches, 134 yards, and a touchdown on 12 targets against the Rams. Coming off a six-catch, 47-yard touchdown performance, 47 yards and a touchdown performance against the Buccaneers. And Bryce Young threw 40 passes in the game against the Rams,

third most pass attempts of the season. So Coker. And then there's Khalil Shakir who caught, who Pokemon, caught all 12 of his targets, 82 yards, scored 20.2 fantasy points. That was after five straight games with no more than 11.5 fantasy points for Khalil Shakir. Jamie, who do you think you're going to, well, you know, I'll throw it to Dave. Dave, who would you right now? We're drafting right now.

Jalen Koker or Khalil Shakir, who goes first? Shakir still goes first, even though I do anticipate Buffalo adding something at wide receiver to try and help them out to win on the perimeter. But the story on the season for Shakir is that whenever Buffalo's needed him, he's come through. and it's trying to predict how all games going to go for Buffalo. If it's a match of where you think James Cook is going to take off, well, Kalil Shakir probably isn't going to be somebody who's going to help you in fantasy. But if it's going to be a competitive game, maybe a high scoring game,

maybe one where Buffalo's trailing, yeah, Kalil Shakir is your man. And I would imagine it's going to continue to be that way next year, not necessarily a top 36 fantasy wide receiver, but kind of like what Jamie was talking about with Romeo Dob, someone that you'll draft soon after, who you'll use as a number three receiver at, times over the course of the season. And Coker can get to that part.

He can be a contributor at times in fantasy. I'm not ready to say that he's going to be a must-start fantasy receiver every single week. This was an awesome game. And it reminds me a little bit of last year. He finished last year strong two for Carolina. And he did the same this year. But if we're expecting McMillan to take a step forward, it's going to be really hard

to expect Coker to also take a step forward. And then that would mean Bryce Young. is putting up numbers and we're completely ignoring him. We're talking about this blob of quarterbacks after the top 12. Bryce Young's name, for me anyway, is not in that blob. And it's not going to be unless we really truly believe that both McMillan and Coker are going to end up being studs for their team and thus studs for fantasy week in and week out.

I don't see that happening. He's somebody that you're taking with a late round pick at best. I think in the case of Shakir, we're hoping Buffalo does something splashy this offseason. draft something of significance, trade probably more so, something of significance, free agent signing of significance. We thought that last off season also, and they did nothing. And Keon Coleman obviously took a huge step backwards from what we thought he was going to do going into his second year.

So Shakir could be an amazing value pick depending on what Buffalo does. Like if Buffalo goes into the draft again and it's a day two pick and it's like, okay, yeah, this guy's got some hope, some promise. he's going to be a big part of this Buffalo offense, I'm going to be very excited about Cleo Shakir again. To the level of what we're talking about. Dave, Dave, put it perfectly. You know, mid-round pick, you know,

not somebody I think that you consider a consistent starter, but is clearly capable of games like this. In the case of Coker, it's now four games of his last seven where he scored a touchdown and been more involved in the offense. And that was the hope going into the season. Remember, he had that big preseason game. And then it was like, wow, this could be a guy. Bryce Young taking a step forward.

McMillan, Coker, this is their receiving court. And then he didn't get on track until the end of the season. And as Dave said, it was last year, end of season where we started to say, okay, this kid as a rookie showed some promise, you know, could be their number two receiver after I drafted McMillan. I think now you see that. And so I do think this is a backfield that's definitely in flux. Rico Doudal probably gone.

Is Jonathan Brooks going to be a big part of this? If it's Chuba Hub, okay, they'll be fine. I think they'll be able to run the ball. But now their left tackle situation is once again, a problem, depending on the Patella injury and how long he's going to be out. I'm not going to pronounce the name because I'll butcher it. Iki Aquano. Iki Aquano.

So I think just in the case of Coker, like, he's an excellent late round pick because he'll give you games like this. And you may not know when to start him, but if you just have a guy, you know, he talks about this a lot. When you start to see production and it may be every other week, every three weeks, like by the end of the season, numbers would be good. you probably just keep him in that number three receiver spot, depending if the rest of your team is great,

because you're not going to spend a lot of capital off. Two things, two more things. This is on Coker. Number one, I believe he has 14 or more PPR points in four of his last six. That'll include the wild card game. That's not bad to keep in mind.

So maybe I'm underrating him a little bit. And what was the injury that he suffered? That like, he was a quarter. A quarter hamstring. Yeah, like I wonder if that played a, I wonder if that's the reason why he didn't meet expectations.

or at least the hopes that we had. Because when he came back, his numbers were terrible. I think we were hyping them up to be someone that we had off the waiver wire. And then it was like three or four weeks. He did nothing. And people were dropping. If you heard Dave Canales after the game, he was asked about it. Or maybe it was the post, the day after game press conference.

He basically crapped all over Xavier Legate. And, you know, this is a failed first round pick at this point. And so you got to go into next season. I think pretty comfortable if you're the Panthers, but, you know, knowing that these are your top two guys. And we'll see who's, you know, the third option. Maybe it's J.C. Horn, who knows? I feel bad for him on the drop that he had. Jimmy Horn.

In the case of Koker, like, there's just so much potential. There is. Okay. If they get a defense, if they get a defense, they're going to be lights out next year. I don't know about that. I don't think Bryce Young is. They can't get any pressure. Yeah, no, well, obviously they need a better defense, but Bryce Young is.

too inconsistent for me. I mean, sometimes he looks pretty good. Sometimes it looks like, oh, they need to move on from him. You know, he has to really be better. He's going to be one of these guys that needs everything perfect. Great offensive line,

great playmakers around him, great defense like to carry him. He's not going to be a guy that carries a franchise. It's a touchdown past. In that division, if their defense can do a big turnaround, they'll win the division again

and be much better than they were. I mean, they won the division sub-500. Yeah, but they won it with eight and nine. And that defense stinks. So just imagine if they could just get more pressure on the board. the same thing about the Bucks are a player or two away. Obviously, the Falcons are, you know, get their quarterback.

Yeah, the Falcons are definitely one of those teams too. All right, we got to wrap it up on this discussion here. By the way, Jalen Coker last six games, including the postseason, 36 targets. Tederole McMillan, 33 targets in those games. Rheondre Stevenson is a winner for Jamie, but we're going to skip that one. He's just been so much more involved in the passing game than Trayon-Henderson, not even close. So let's go to our next duo here, a couple of Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence, I don't remember if I said this out loud or just in my head.

He's done something that Josh Allen has never done. He has scored now 23 or more fantasy points in eight straight games. Josh Allen has never done it. Jalen Hertz has done it once. Patrick Mahomes has done it three times, but not since 2021. Trevor Lawrence ends the season on a heater. And, you know, so he looks great. That's a winner for him for James.

Jamie and Parker, I don't know how to wrap my head around this Parker Washington stuff. This is what three. They love him. Three of his last four games over 100 yards, four straight games with 19 or more PPR fantasy points and nine or more targets. Amazing, Jamie. Great stuff. Yeah, this is one of the more fascinating off seasons to watch from a team perspective,

because what is Jacksonville going to do with two premier players, two first round picks? Is Brian Thomas going to remain on the roster? Because you're going to hear some trade rumors for him, understandably so, because he was so good as a rookie, really fell off in his second year, and it was the first year with Liam Cohen and this coaching staff. And so will they want to keep him around if they could still maximize his draft capital? And the other is obviously Travis Hunter. And so will he come back at 100% and be a full-time wide receiver? I think you're hearing potentially full-time

DB, which, you know, with some, I shouldn't say full-time DB, but primarily a defensive back with some offensive plays built in to whatever he can provide. So if you're looking at it right now, Washington's under contract, Jacoby-Myers under contract, and then whoever that third guy is going to be. My guess is Brian Thomas stays, but you know, you're looking at Washington right now as a go-to guy for a quarterback that's ending the season or end of the season on a very high note. And the draft capital, I still think will be relatively cheap for Washington, not necessarily somebody you're going to have to draft with a high pick. But, I mean, again, Shakir, Coker, like if this is what we're talking about, you know, Romeo Dobbs, this type of range, I probably

would lean Parker, Washington ahead of all of them if the receiving course stays the same for Jacksonville. if they move on from somebody, meaning Brian Thomas, you bump him up a little bit more. Like this is going to be a very good number three receiver right now. So can he be this? No, I don't think you should expect four straight games over 19 PPR points. Can he be in the Shakir range consistently, you know, 11 to 12 ppr points when Shakir's going right?

I think so. You know, so Parker Washington is going to be a pretty good fine next year. If things stay the same. He went in round 10 in our mock last week. He went behind Romeo Dobbs, behind Xavier Worthy, behind Khalil Shakir, behind Matthew Golden. I'll out myself. He went behind Jonathan Brooks.

I took Jonathan Brooks ahead of Parker Washington. I feel like an idiot for it. I don't know how you guys felt when you were watching the game. When he was out, remember he was like getting checked out for a concussion. I felt like Trevor Lawrence was lost. And then as soon as Parker Washington came back in, Trevor Lawrence was like, good to go again.

And he was just hammering Parker Washington with targets. I think he could be that steadying guy in this past. offense moving forward. He's really, really interesting and exactly the type of receiver that I want to go target with a mid-round pick. Pretty sad moment in my house when they lost. My son. Oh, right. Your kids love the Jaguar. My son does. Yeah. He just, he had his Lawrence jersey on. And he just, he did find like as soon as he threw the interception, he goes, oh, they lost. And then five seconds later, I look over and he's in tears. It was so sad.

He was so sad. And it's like, oh, another generation. It's going to be torn apart by sports. So sad. At least you're not forcing him to be a fan of your team. You're giving him the opportunity to choose. Yeah, if the Giants were good,

I feel like he'd be all in. But yeah, he loves the Jaguar. Loves that logo. Loves those colors. That mascot. He's fun. All right. We'll be back with the losers from Wild Card Weekend.

Josh Jacobs showing up on. Jamie's losers list. How come? We'll talk about that when we come back. On to the losers. All right, Jamie's list starts with Romo Dunez. Came back, finally. Six targets with Caleb Williams throwing, I believe, 48 passes in the game.

So six targets, not very good in that respect. Two catches for 44 yards. Yeah, what did you think about O'Donzee? You don't want to judge him fully on the first game back after extended absence, but it's more about what has changed since he went down, even the couple of games before he went down. And it was the emergence of Colston Loveland, the emergence of Luther Bird and the potential still of DJ Moore staying.

And I think just the expectation of what Romo Dunzee is compared to where he was when he first got hurt. We were talking about him as a must-start fantasy option. I think he's going to get drafted as a low end number two, high-end number three receiver in that range. You know, again, when you look at rank lists and you see a guy, let's say, around 30, I think to me that's still a number two receiver,

which is probably where he'll end up in that late 20, early 30 number. But I don't know if I could draft him. I will not draft him ahead of Loveland, and I probably will not draft him ahead of Burton at this point. And so I just think you look at where he's sort of ended up by the end of the season, unless he has a monster playoff game next week or playoff finish. I don't think he's top three in terms of bears targets, at least for me, in terms of fantasy drafts.

Dave, which Bears wide receiver goes first for you? Burden. I think, you know, burden, this was the first game with everyone back, and Burden really didn't have a lot of targets either. I think he also had six. I'll double check on that. What was his route rate? I don't think it was particularly high either.

You know, so since he's, he had seven targets. Three catches, 42 yards on seven targets. Now, seven targets, again, is usually pretty good. But when Caleb Williams throws 48 passes, seven targets isn't that great. You had 15 going to Colson Lovewin. That was the big thing there. But yeah, for Burden, let me see. I have it here, the routes for the Chicago receivers, I believe.

Maybe, oh, yeah. Colston Loveland, route participation. Colson Loveland, 91% of the routes, DJ Moore, 85%, Romo Dunes, A 72%, Luther Burden, 64%, which is pretty normal. I think he's just going to stay in that role. Slot guy, not going to play all the time. That's not great. Reminds me of Jaden Reed.

a lot of potential there, but not on the field enough. I hope that changes, but didn't change in this game. It's been pretty consistent about 64% of the routes for burden. Right. All right. I think it could come down to, first of all, there's a whole offseason to play out, and if this bear's offense does move toward the younger receivers, then I can't imagine it's going to be a big role,

if any role on this team for DJ Moore. That would open things up for Loveland O'Don, Zay and Burden, obviously to dominate targets. Based on the way that we're thinking about Loveland, or at least the way I'm thinking about Loveland, it's going to be a battle each week between O'Donzee and Burden for who's going to be top two and targets from week to week. And that just makes me interested in drafting them at a good price. I don't want to reach for them.

I don't necessarily believe they're top 50 guys. Just kind of wait a little bit, but I feel like Burden is a little bit more exciting, a little bit more flashy, a little bit more versatile. and he could certainly bring in deep balls. We've seen that this year. And also rake in short catches from Caleb Williams. All right. Next loser is Josh Jacobs.

Jacobs had 19 carries. He scored only 6.8 fantasy points at Chicago. Now, for this season, Jamie, Jacobs finishes as RB12 or 13, depending on the format. RB 8 or 9 per game, depending on the format. His last two games are really bad. Last two games of the regular season. One of them he was playing hurt, got benched. Second one, he left with an injury.

But in weeks one through 15, he averaged 17.8 PPR fantasy points per game. Really, really good. Why is he on your losers list? Based on where I think the expectation is for him still. And I'm basing that off of where we all have him ranks, so our collective group having him for the most part in the top 10. And so is he still a top 10? fantasy running back.

And so you start to compare him to some of the younger guys, specifically, you know, the second year guys. So I think we probably all at this point would take on Martin Hampton over him if the offensive line is right for the Chargers. Then you start to look at where Gentie is. You look at where J. Harvey is. You look at where Trevion Henderson is.

I think it's easy to take Jacobs over Henderson at this point. But is the sliding scale continuing to fall back a little bit? And then again, you look at what the coaching situation could be. I just wonder, like, as I said earlier, like, are we starting to see maybe the downturn for Jacobs? You know, body's starting to maybe break down a little bit, age becoming a factor. How much of it does he need to be on a team with a great offensive line? Because the Packers prior to losing Jenkins and the offensive line banged up a little bit, Zach Tom, not being there, you know, so just some questions.

I still think you're taking Jacobs in the first three rounds. It'd be very surprising if he gets past round three. We'll see what they do again with their coach. We'll see obviously what happens with the rest of the backfield. Marshall and Lloyd can never stay healthy. So is it Emmanuel Wilson again as a backup? I just think Jacobs may end up being a great value pick. I just don't know if you somebody want to reach for once again.

It's fair. Dave, did you know that Chase Brown averaged more PPR fantasy points than Josh Jacobs this year? And who would you take? I did. Who did you take next year? Chase Brown. Provided that the Bengals don't take a young running back and pair them with Chase Brown. You know, you don't want anything to threaten Chase Brown's role.

Obviously, if that happens, then the door. is open for Jacobs to be better. But Jamie's right, 28 years old going into next season. I kind of hate this because Jacobs has been pretty good for fantasy throughout his entire career, but his PPR average dropped from 2024 to 2025. The injury certainly played a role late in the year, and it probably played a role in this game as well. The Packers are 10 million over the cap as of right now, and they've got huge contracts that

they're not going to be able to get out of from Jordan Love, Michael Parsons, and Zach Tom is one of the three guys. And so someone's going to get cut from Rishon, Gary, Xavier McKinney, Aaron Banks, and Jacobs has a high cap number two. They can save some cash if they restructure him at minimum. So that's, it's like a dark war situation.

I'd be a little surprised if they moved on from Josh Jacobs. But he is somebody who they probably are going to have to turn to and say, listen, man, we need some cap space. Let's rework your deal. And Jacobs might be cool. with it, he might not be, we'll see, but it's just something to keep in the back of your mind in the next couple of months. The thing is with his PPR, his PPR fantasy points per game went from 17.6 last year to

16.1. This is Josh Jacobs were talking about in case anyone's lost. But again, before the last two games of the year, it was 17.7. So he was having a very strong season, same exact point per game as last year, basically. And then the last two games where he just barely played in those two games, they really sunk his averages. All right. Rico Dowdell, I think, is an obvious loser.

He'll go into free agency on a down note. Just got passed by Chuba Hubbard. Brian Thomas Jr. is another one on this list. He had two catches for 21 yards and a touchdown on two targets against Buffalo. And he had three catches for 49 yards the week before. Against Tennessee. That was a blowout win.

So, look, he just had such a disappointing season. One of the biggest busts in fans. Oh, the super. superlatives. I totally, we're going to reveal those on Wednesday. Sorry, thank you for voting for those. They're still up on Facebook if you want to vote on our superlatives. But he's up there for biggest bust. Anywho, Dave, Luther Burden or Brian Thomas Jr. next year. Give me the names again? Luther Burden or Brian Thomas Jr. I do have burden ahead of BTJ as of now.

You really must not have been listening. There's only two names. Yeah, I wasn't. That's why I asked you. too. Jamie Burden or BTJ? Bird. Oh, man. All right. It's crazy, right?

Because a year ago, we were, we loved how Brian Thomas Jr. finished the season. Looked like he was a surefire number one guy. And there were, there were like little signs during the preseason that we just kind of, at least I brushed him off. And it was like, all right, he'll be himself. He'll be good. And then he wasn't.

And now I'm sitting here talking about how Parker Washington, is like a big part of the passing game in Jacksonville. And Jamie's talking about how the Jaguars might try and move on from BTJ. So all kinds of stuff that has changed over the course of the last year. And you can't, I don't know if we can pinpoint it on wrist injuries or anything else, learning a new offense. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just weird how it all happened. And I, I don't know where to go with it in fantasy.

So why would I reach for a player? where I'm just super unsure about what the ceiling is compared to where the floor is and I know where the floor is, we just experienced that. This is one of the worst sophomore seasons from a guy who had a great rookie season, maybe ever. He averaged 9.9 ppr fantasy points,

wide receiver 47 per game. Let's say 46 per game. If you eliminate some guy who played Ronnie Bell who had one game. You know, he had his many, I asked Luther Burtain or Brian Thomas Jr. He had as many PPR fantasy points per game as DJ Moore. He was worse than Troy Franklin.

He was barely better than Ricky Pearsall. Worse than Romeo Dobbs. Just a horrible season. And, yeah, a tough evaluation. We're going to finish with a pair of eagles here. Jalen Hertz and A.J. Brown, Jamie. They're on your losers list. Jalen Hertz finishes as the number seven quarterback per game

in both four point and six point for passing touchdown leagues. I really feel like he had at least two games, including this playoff game with bad weather. You know, the Bears game, really windy. And he struggled there. He scored in that game, he scored. I actually scored 20.3 fantasy points, but it was a struggle.

And this game against the Niners, tough conditions, 14.1 fantasy points. But nothing, I think the Eagles offense is such a flop this year, 21st in scoring. How is that possible? And your thoughts on Brown and Hertz? I saw this, Dan Rolovsky from ESPN tweeted this. The number of times that Jalen Hertz had design runs in 2024, he had 96 of them.

In 2025, he had 41. And that's terrible for what this offense needs. It's terrible for his fantasy production. Clearly, this is a team that's going to evaluate its entire coaching staff. So if Siriani returns, there's no way that their offense coordinator can come back. It just has to change in some capacity. So that's a big part of all of this when you look at Hertz and clearly AJ Brown. And, you know, you keep saying jokingly but could be serious that AJ Brown could be on the bills.

It would not be surprising if AJ Brown is no longer a member of the Philadelphia Eagles and how you feel about Hertz if it's Devante Smith, Dall Scottert and rookie Jahan Dotson, you know, somebody that's not elite. And AJ Brown, I still think is elite. So it's just a matter of where AJ Brown goes. And part of the reason why I put AJ Brown here was because, you know, you. You and I were the only ones who had AJ Brown ranked as a top 24 player, Adam, of the six of us who did the rankings. And I drafted him in the second round last week when we did our first PPR mock draft. I don't know if I could do that anymore. So depending on where he ends up, round three is probably still a good spot for him.

And if he's with the right quarterback, you know, Josh Allen, for example, then I think round two is probably where he'll probably get drafted. But, I mean, this was not a good season overall for AJ Brown. worst season as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles despite finishing in the top 12, clearly a downturn for Jalen Hertz as well. So frustrating across the board for both these guys, especially the way that it ended. And Dave, I just think that they're probably going to fire their offensive coordinator. They hopefully can keep their line healthy. Their line so banged up all year.

Lane Johnson didn't play in this game against San Francisco. If they can keep A.J. Brown, if they do want to keep A.J. Brown, I still feel like there's a potential for a big bounce back here. That design runs stat was very interesting. Because if you look at Jalen Hertz, 7.1 yards per attempts, basically exactly the same as what he did in 2022 and 2023. Four yards per carry. That's the same as the last two years.

It's just the pass volume has been lower and the carries are now lower. But I still think the tools, the pieces are there for this offense to be great. You still feel that's possible for the, how possible for the Eagles? I'd be a little more worried about it than normal because I do think that they have a lot of players that are older. And when a team tries to run it back with older players after a down year, I don't have the evidence to say that it never works out. But sometimes it doesn't work out because players are older and you hang on a year too long. And that would be a concern that I would have for Philadelphia. Changing offensive coordinators is just the start, but just trying to get.

Jalen Hertz. What were his passing metrics otherwise besides yards per attempt this year compared to last year? They couldn't have been as good. So he had a down year throwing the football, even though he had the same receivers around him. Does that sound right? Okay. Well, let me tell you his 17 game pace compared to last year. Last year his 17 game pace, I'll just round up and down. Right. 3,500 yards, 22 touchdowns, six interceptions. This year, 3,000. 3, 3,000. 430 yards, 27 touchdown, six interceptions. So very, very similar, actually. He did average three more pass attempts per game. Last year was 8.1 yards per attempt, which was great. But the two years before that, 7.0, 7.3, then 8.1 yards per temp. Then this year, 7.1 yards per attempt. So back to where it normally is, he was on pace for five more passing touchdowns this year than it was last year.

The biggest difference is the rushing. Last year, he was on pace for 715 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. This year, Jalen Hertz was on pace for 447, so not quite 300 fewer, but almost 300 fewer rushing yards and eight fewer rushing touchdowns. That's the big difference. And they didn't run nearly as many plays. I think they said on the broadcast yesterday they had the most three-in-outs in the NFL, or the highest three-in-out rate.

they went from since AJ Brown got there this is where the Eagles of ranked and scoring second, seventh, sixth, and 21st. It just was a horrible Their offense was broken.

Yeah, they needed a new coordinator and they still have great players. I think they could be great. I will say this about AJ Brown, a little bit reactionary, I guess on my part to say that he,

you know, loser, but did finish the season his last six games in the regular season, averaging 19.8 p.p.r. That's the elite. All right.

Was that since the Twitch stream where he said Drop me in fantasy or something like that? I mean, it probably coincides with that. He had four of those six games with 16 or more points. We do have to run unfortunately. We're just sorry,

Dave, to cut you off. We're pressing. Okay, I was just going to say the efficiency for Jalen Hertz did drop from, I mean, it's pretty obvious.

And then of those design runs, how many of them were tush pushes this past year? That's probably going away anyway. We said that last year and it didn't. Yeah, I think it's true. gone. I feel more confident in that than A.J. Brown going to the bills, which I feel very confident in. Okay, we have to go. We have to wrap it up. Thank you very much for watching and

listening, everybody. We have an episode of FFT Express coming up. If you want to hear that, I think that'll be in your feed on Tuesday. And we'll be back on Wednesday with another episode of fantasy football today. See you later.