Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Explain Yourself! Debates + UDK RELEASE DAY! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 6/1

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

Fantasy Football show for June 1st, 2026. Rankings debates for 2026 fantasy football! Andy, Mike, and Jason are forced to defend a player ranking that stands out. Get a season outlook and range of outcomes for Rome Odunze, Alec Pierce, and Davante Adams. Plus, A.J. Brown trade watch, Myles Garrett breaking news, and a celebration of the Ultimate Draft Kit launch! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. Get the lowest price on the 2026 UDK at UltimateDraftKit.com Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Monday, June 1st. What? The Fantasy Footballers podcast. But we do shows on Tuesday. Oh, yeah, we're doing an early release. I don't know why Scooby Doo Showed up.

Yeah, I don't know what the voice is, man. I was just trying to ignore it. Jason's here. Mike is here. And the UDK is here. Yes, yes. And we decided we would, we do record the Tuesday show on Mondays, but we decided we'd record early and release it right away.

Got all this excitement and anticipation for the UDK, which is now available. So you can go check it out. And I know that we get to this time of year and there's so much excitement and people are in the app and on the website and you can check it out, ultimate draft kit.com. But then they kind of, they get in there and they're like, What do I do?

What's the first thing I utilize within the UDK is one of the most frequent questions that we actually get? So we'll do that as a quick question. But I am super excited for people to get in there. A couple of updates for you. We got, you know, everything is live. Sleepers, breakouts, bust values, all of our player profile videos, 100 of them. But also, you know, 130,000 words of original content. You shouldn't say that

Because to me that's a deterrent You know what I mean It's like oh what? 130,000 I ain't got time for that And not just that Oh my God Breaking news No moments into the show

No that's not possible That's what UDK Day is all about The Browns are finalizing A trade of Miles Garrett To the Rams No What? No

To the Rams Shut it down Oh get wrecked in NFL It's a trade for Jared verse, a first rounder, and more. What? Okay. Well, at least Jared verse is gone. Oh, no.

Well, but I'm saying if you add Garrett, I mean, you don't lose something. This is a great trade for Cleveland. Holy. Yes, it really is. Because Cleveland is not there yet. I think it's a good trade for all parties. But holy crap, this is.

I wanted to talk about the UDK. And now we get breaking news. And we may have more on this show because the A.J. Brown News is right around the corner. But Miles Garrett, I saw it this morning. The smoke started to rise from behind the mountains. And it was Eagles. This is very Tyree Kill.

I mean, there might be a trade. And he's traded immediately. This is a monster trade. Oh my gosh. A monster trait. They hate their first rounders in Los Angeles. Yeah. And you know what? This is how I do fantasy. I want the known commodity. You get the best defensive player that we've seen.

in a long time. They were very upset that the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. The best we've seen since, maybe Aaron Donald. Right. Son of a gun, he's going to the Rams. Oh, this is great news for

the bottom dwellers of the NFC West. I thought that the Eagles might be the ones to get him. They couldn't get him and AJ. Or they're trading they're trading the Patriots. Yeah, maybe. Well, there was talk of this AJ Brown trade, which is not as of this recording materialized, but it seems right now inevitable.

The situation for the Eagles, they talked about like a Ricky Williams-esque trade to get Miles Garrett. But he's a ram now, as of right now. So holy moly. You will not find a player profile for Miles Garrett in the UDK. I mean, look, verse. versus a great player. He's not Miles Garrett, so this is at least

somewhat of an upgrade for all those matchups against the Cleveland Browns. And Joe Burroughs is for sure doing like, okay, okay, I'll take that. All the Casey Concepcion, you know, one of the downsides of the Cleveland offense is their defense is so good. They might not need to do much.

This is helpful, but it makes sense for Cleveland. Jared versus a very good player. He's much younger. And then you add a first. This is a team that's building for the future, not for right now. And Miles Garrett gets to chase a ring, which he didn't even want originally to sign with the Browns because he wanted, he didn't feel like he could win there. And then they offered him so much money. He's like, okay. All right.

I'll lose. Winning's overrated. You paid enough. But yeah, I think this works for all parties. And it's great for our Arizona Cardinals because we're looking for that number one pick. Oh, my gosh. Miles Garrett will break several of our quarterbacks. Wow.

Unbelievable trade. There you go. Kicking it off. June 1st is here. there you go stole the show miles garrett stole the show from the ultimate draft kit release you can go check that out ultimate draft kit dot com right now the quick question was from and reno he says after about two and a half years of listening the pod he finally decided to check out the udk what are some of the first things i can check out when everything goes live on june

first like i said this is one of the biggest questions we get it's like you get paralyzed by how many different resources you have um do you guys have a good answer for Andrew. For me, it changes during different times of the year. The first thing that I would take a look at if it was me is the player profile videos. I'd go to the videos and just watch them all. It's basically like getting more of the podcast individual on a player. All three of us talk about a single player at a time for four to six minutes. And we're giving good information. And it really helps you remember who they are, what they did, what their outlook is, you know, the range of outcomes. And you've got time now. Like if it's, if this is late August and you're prepping for

your drafts, I'm marking players and I'm highlighting who I want to make sure I don't forget and using some of the other tools. Right now, it's more like research and entertainment and enjoyment and knowledge. And so I would start with the player profile videos personally. One of the things to remind you of is, you know, the mobile app, the web. You can, you can, You can mark players. So you can favorite players, you can set aside players that you want to pay attention to in your upcoming draft. It's a way to kind of keep a running list of the things you're paying attention to. One tool I wanted to remind people about is the value scout tool, which is part of the UDK,

which actually takes a look at our consensus rankings and compares it to the average app position that is currently in place and find some different players we believe in much more than ADP, less than ADP. It's a clear way to take a look at that, Mike. I would go If you're on the web You go to myUDK.com That'll give you a shortcut right to your UDK We have a

There's a projections area Inside of that has Mike's 2026 projections That's where I would start Yeah Yeah yeah Mike's been known for perfect projections for years now Champ champ, champ

Can't hear you Okay And I choose not to hear you Let's get into some news. News and notes from around the league. One piece of... Super duper champ. I'm going to say one piece of news is that it's just as painful today as it was the day you won both titles.

No, I really need to get one. It feels good, man. Feels good. Well, we talked all through the insane Miles Garrett news, which I'm sure more and more details of that trade will be breaking over the next 24 hours. But here we are June 1st. Jeremy Fowler reporting that the Patriots remain confident they'll acquire A.J. Brown. A bunch of reports. reporters talking about that. The reason why it's taken so long is because the dead cap for

AJ Brown before June 1st was $43 million at $16 million after June 1st. And so pretty big deal to wait. The talk is a first round pick from New England, which I don't know, man. That's a tough one for me. I've seen a first. I've seen a 28 first. I've seen a, you know, a second and a fourth. We don't know yet. I'm guessing by the time this, you know, is released shortly after the deal is made. Everyone knows what it is. And A.J. Brown is a patriot. And then we'll, you know, talk about the details of what that means for Devante Smith,

Mackay Lemon. I'll talk about him right now because I think this trade is going to happen. I think one, Devante Smith is a certifiable one. I think he can produce like a one in that offense every time that AJ Brown's been off the field. He's been able to be a one. And, you know, these next up options for them, Dallas God are still under contract. So I'd love to be, you know, all over Eli St. hours as a rookie, but I can't do it yet.

Mackay Limin, it's super talented player. Passing volume is, they're one of the lowest passing volume teams in the league, statistically. So it's not that I don't like McKay Lemon, it's just that I'm a little nervous about what the distribution will be like. You know, I want to know that he's going to be the guaranteed second option. I don't know if I feel

that way. Do we have that new snake graphic? Did that come in? Not yet. He's doing it tonight. What a loser. I'll bet. You know, our team is letting us down. Hey, Brian. Thanks for nothing. Yeah. So we were going to give you a really cool graphic there. We can't. So the show is inferior because of that. Oh my gosh. But on the other side, I mean, like, AJ Brown is still playing at a level where he should dominate in New England.

He should. I mean, Drake May is my number two overall fantasy quarterback. He's up. He's a 4,000 plus yard passer. And Stefan Diggs and all those targets are gone. I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be 130. plus targets easy for AJ Brown. Oh, for sure. I mean, he will. Probably a lot more than that. He is, he's coming here as the alpha. They're going to trade enough draft capital, probably give him some money on the contract,

and they need him. I mean, they really do. I know they went all the way to the Super Bowl, and so you can be like, well, do they really need them? Yeah, they do. They don't have a stud alpha one. Sorry, Mike, Romeo Dobbs is not quite there. But no, and AJ Brown will demand them.

I mean, that's his issue with Philly as he wasn't getting the ball enough. And so whether that's good for the Patriots, I don't know. It's good for Fantasy. It's good for A.J. Brown. I think A.J. Brown goes over to the Patriots and dominates for fantasy this year. He's older. If you're in a Dynasty League and you wanted to take advantage of this news and trade A.J. Brown right now because he's going to be playing at 29 years old, try to get a hall, get a young prospect of wide receiver plus a first, you know, 27 first and a young wide receiver. I'm fine making that move.

But if you're a contender, you know, I think you're going to have two. years of top 12 fantasy points from AJ Brown left. Last year, Philadelphia was the 24th ranked offense, 23rd ranked passing offense. New England was the fifth ranked offense, the fourth ranked passing offense. 4,459 passing yards for New England. 3,400 passing yards for Philadelphia last year. It's a huge upgrade for AJ Brown in that offense. If it happens, would I give up a first if I was New England?

I would not. I would not. No. I think that's too much. for the time period. If AJ Brown was 27, of course. He already got traded for it first. Philly did it right.

Yeah, the numbers on players like this, at this age being traded for a one and then having long-term impact on the team, the numbers are very bad. But you're going for it. You feel like no one else is probably as available as AJ Brown. But it's, you better win. A couple other bits of news.

Jeremy Fowler also. It's funny because... It's like Miles Garrett's older than A.J. Brown. Right. It's like trading a first and Jared verse. I know right now he is more dominant at his position than A.J. Brown is at his position. But it is funny to think like he's near the end. And you're saying if you get two years of dominance totally worth a first and Jared verse,

great move Rams. But Patriots are like maybe not worth the first. I think it probably is. One of them is a superhero. Yeah, one of them is... One is Asian Brown. One is playing peak. I don't think AJ Brown is playing peak AJ Brown right now.

I think Miles Garrett's playing Peak Miles Garrett. I think Miles Garrett is a weird way to put it. He's going to be okay for a while. One is a Hall of Famer. Is that what you said, man? Oh, yes. Easy. Jeremy Fowler also talking about Deshawn Watson, quote,

has a leg up on the competition for the starting role. But I mean, I don't know. There's no good news. We're going to go back and forth for the next couple months. We're going to hear great reports about Shadour. We're going to hear great reports about Watson. We have to ignore it until a decision is made. The great news for everyone is it doesn't matter.

If it's Watson, okay. If it's Sanders, I mean, I'm not going into my Brown's targets. And I'm like, oh, baby. Deshaun Watson is back. Yeah, no. We hope we get better quarterback play from whoever. But the Giants signed Odell Beckham Jr. And Braxton Barrios.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Oh. Mediocre signing of the week. Eat it. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Why do you do that to him? OBJ has been mediocre for so long.

But Malik neighbors, we watched him run around the bases at a softball game. Did we? You called that running? We saw him limp around the bases. It was like a man who just been shot. He was not moving well. Camp Scataboo did hit backflip. He looked much better.

The Camp Scataboo news from this weekend was a backflip and a $50,000 grill. Oh, I didn't see that. Yes. Yeah, see, he did some work on the teeth. On the teeth. I literally thought you were talking like he had this backyard barbecue. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He riced his teeth.

Iced his teeth. He iced his teeth. And then someone tried to take Ramandre Stevenson out. Yeah, that was. That was a comedian. He was... Split into second base. Matt Rife.

Well, be funnier and get Romandre out of my life. Oh my gosh, Mike. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Alvin Camara updates? Do we have Alvin Camara updates? The update is that there's no timetable

to figuring out the Alvin Camara situation? Underhill was reporting that. There's rumors that he still could get cut to save cap space. It's a really... unique situation. His contract is pretty wild. It's TBD. There is, there is still, there is still, there is still the chance he gets cut.

That's basically the problem is, Alvin Camara is a saint forever. He is a hero for the football team and he is no longer worth the money. And you, when you have players like this, you come to a crossroads, you're like, what do we, what's worse? like just carrying them on the team or taking the PR that we have gotten rid of people's favorite. I feel like they're already heading down that road. I think that's where they're headed too. When you sign. It's hard.

Travis A. Chan Jr., it's saying we've moved on. And honestly, it's brutal. It's the unfun part of business. But you just go back to the run of the Patriots. Bill Belichick did not care what you have done for him in the past. It was like, we're just going to make the best decision. And if you're done, I'm moving on from you. I don't care.

My job is to make this football team the best this year, every year. And Alvin Camarra does not make the Saints better. Just doesn't. All right, we'll take a break. And then today's episode, I didn't even mention it yet, is a fun one. It's the Explain yourself. Explain yourself. Episode where we will each have a chance to defend a ranking that is very different from the other two.

All right. Before we jump in to explain yourself, any other hot trades now going through? We got anything on AJ Brown? I'll keep you posted if we see anything, but nothing yet. All right, you never know. A little early release and we get surprised. I'm glad it broke while we were doing the show. Worked out.

It just reminded me of the time that you live on the show. Cortland Sutton, yes. One time Jason was like, did you say like he's not getting a contract? And then the second that I finished, I was do-do do-do-do-do-do-courland-sons monster contract. Unbelievable. It was pretty great. Let's do it. Quite well.

Thank you. No. Clearly you are not. No rational person would do as you have done. Explain yourself. Okay, we just did all of our projections. We've got our 2026 UDK projections into the app, and there's differences of opinion. Yeah.

There's the right opinion, some of mine, and then there's your guys as a piece. Well, let's talk about one of yours, Andrew Holloway. There is a player you have at wide receiver 17. Mike and I have near the 30s. And this is a player. This is a player sure. This is a player who has never, he's played four years in the NFL and has never had 50 receptions. Last year, he had over 23 yards per reception and barely squeaked in as a wide receiver two in fantasy.

We looked up this stat, wide receivers who have not hit 50 receptions through the first four years to go. up to hit, say, 70 receptions, a bet you and I made. Only one player has ever done it in the history of the NFL. That is Mike Williams, Big Mike, who was drafted as a top 10 pick, had multiple times with nine or more touchdowns, and still only hit wide receiver 17 or better once in his career. You have Alec Pierce as your wide receiver 17, Andy. Explain yourself. It was a fun year.

Last year for Alec Pierce, I mean, certainly fun for him. This is a player that basically capitalized on the opportunity, and that turned into a four-year, $15 million contract, $47 for $1,006, for Alec Pierce to finish as the wide receiver 23. He did miss two games due to a concussion. Sometimes we do this show and we get the things set up and, you know, I have my ranking the way it is and I start to dig into it. And I really want to, I want to dig in deep.

I want to be like, yes, I believe what I believe. And that's what happened. And that's what happened here. I am all the more convicted that this, that the community at large has Alec Pierce far, far too low. Look, I know, I know all the numbers are in it, and you highlighted that it's rare for a player to go through, you know, the first four years and then the reception totals go up.

And that hasn't been, like, Alec Pierce's recipe for success in the NFL is, The big play. He has had six plus touchdowns and 20 plus yards per catch in back-to-back seasons. His average depth of target, 19 yards down the field. That's spicy. This one was crazy. 87% of his receptions were first downs. 87%.

That's number one in the league with more than 75 targets. This is something you might not know about Alec Pierce as well, but he was tied for number one with the lowest. drop rate in the NFL last year, 1.2%, lowest in the league, over 75 targets. But the case for Alec Pierce, look, there was a time, and it's, you know, it's not perfect apples to apples, but there was a time that we saw James Cook have high efficiency performance numbers in Buffalo and get paid like a true bona fide number one running back. We're all like, is he that?

And then he went out and he basically delivered on what the team. investment was. This was a monstrous contract that Indianapolis chose to give to a guy with under 50 catches on the season. But I watched almost every single one of the connections between him and Daniel Jones. I had him on my fantasy team last year. And this is a player that's been great at the NFL level for a long period of time. Why will 2026 be different? Number one, the setup for Alec Pierce dramatically better. Michael Pittman, he's gone. He leaves behind 80 catches, 784 yards and seven touchdowns. Will there be other beneficiaries of his departure?

Of course. But with him traded away and the team investing, I mean, let's not, this was not just like, we want to keep you around. This is a paying you to be one of the highest paid receivers in the game of football contract, $150 million. They paid him like a true number one, not just a deep threat, like one of the top receivers.

I think there's a chance I'm not bullish enough with my projections of Alec Pierce. I think that there's a chance that, you know, he had a thousand, yards on 84 targets. That's a number that most top-tier receivers will take 120, 1, 30, 150 to get to a thousand yards. He missed two games, by the way. I mean, his numbers are a little bit. He's a perfect candidate for that.

Like, you played well, but you missed a couple games, so your fantasy finish was a little bit lower. Like, that just makes you a sneaky candidate to begin with. He doesn't have to become 120 catch guy to dominate for fantasy. He needs to add two to three short to intermediate targets per game, which are all being a abandoned my Michael Pittman. And so to me, the difference is in our rankings. I'm looking at this.

You guys have targets at about 90, 94, 16% target share. I've got him at 105, 20% target share, seven touchdowns. Nothing about my projection is out of bounds. He can grow into a 20 to 21% target share. He just has to change the player he's been for the first four years of his career. Would you agree with that? I would say that they have to utilize him in more ways than they've used them in the first four years. not just being a deep, because he has basically spent his entire career just being a deep threat.

That is true, although there are, I mean, that's the stats in whole. Like you summarize his career. But when you go watch the games one by one, you also see him getting targets where, look, your yards per catch number is a reflection, not just of air yards. There were in-routes. There were slant routes. There were plays that they were turning to him for first downs where he caught the ball and he ran with it.

They weren't all isolated, you know, even though the averages were there. And that's what he's been as a majority. What I saw in film was a player able to prove that he could. do other things. And to me, the numbers say that everybody else believes that. You know, if you only believe he's a deep threat, you do not pay him this money, ever. You just can't do it. And so to me, he is like, I asked these guys before, I'm like, where is he actually sitting in terms of ADP? And it's wide receiver 40. Yeah, he's in the eighth round. For a player.

That doesn't cost you anything. He already, I don't mind that at all. No, no, no. I mean, look, wide receiver 40s outrageous to me. The efficiency numbers were probably outrageous last year, but they're pretty close. to what you could do. His yards per catch is going to come down. His targets are going to go up. He's going to score six to seven times, if not more, in this offense, and he's going to outpace the wide receiver of 40. I just feel like that's a guarantee when you take the season that he had, the money who was paid, the departure of Pittman, the only thing that can really detour this in a significant way is Daniel Jones not being

himself. If Daniel Jones is not there, you got a problem with Tyler Warren, you got a problem with Josh Downs. And guess what? Jonathan Taylor, you got a problem too, because this offense is not going to function without Daniel Jones. That's where I'm at with Alec Pierce. I feel like he's a low investment capital-wise, high reward with upside.

To play into the contract. I do not in, I don't have my projection for Alec Pierce statted like you do. I really don't. I think he's going to continue to play the role that he has played so well. He's so good at stretching the field, opening things up, getting deep passes.

So I think they'll keep him there. However, when you are in the eighth round the back of the eighth, he's like on the eight nine turn right now in ADP, the wide receiver 40, it costs you nothing. And there is clearly an avenue and a money and an investment path towards he is like, he's their alpha one. That's maybe what they want to do. I have zero problem.

Like I love trying to dunk on you here and be like, you're so stupid. But that's fun. But the draft cost is like, I will be taking a lot of Alec Pierce if he stays that low in drafts. mediocre signing of the wig Oh, oh Juju Smith Schuster has been added to the Giants roster is giants.

What are you doing, baby? Beckham. I mean, this is, now the red flags can fire off into the sky around the league neighbors. I'll tell you what, man. Antonio Brown is somewhere. Like, he is doing the, the, uh, Michael Keaton Batman gift right now. Obie J and Mooney. Juju, Obu J.

and Mooney. This is not. I mean, that's not going to be the roster come start of the season. Look, Malachi Fields doesn't have to compete with much. Oh, my God. Darius Slayton is there. This is the vibes. The vibes are bad. But so back to what do you think about Alex Pierce? No, I'm, I just, while you're talking, I went in, I bounted him up a little bit. Oh, that's the highest compliment you can pay me. It's, I'm moving them down. You're to affect our consensus rankings? It's, you know, it's, you know, it's, you. He's a difficult player because you look just, you know, based off of career, projecting when huge jumps are going to happen, it can be difficult, especially when a player is this established.

But we're in weird territory of, like, historically all the comps, the Mike Williams stat. Yes, all of that exists, but also he just got that contract. So it's, you know, an NFL team screw up contracts. You want to know who had 33 and 37 receptions his first two years in the NFL? It's not three years, but it's two. What about four years? Nico Collins. Nico Collins didn't do anything.

Oh, I like that counterpoint. I mean, there are players. Robert Woods is another one where you just kind of, you're hiding in plain sight in the offensive system. I don't know. I've never seen a greater endorsement of a true wide receiver one than what they did this offseason. They shipped off the guy that was supposed to be their one and then paid him $150 million. I think the only problem with that is that when they shipped off Pittman, I know that they paid Pierce

and so their actions definitely said this is a giant part of our team but the GM and the head coach they were just talking so much about Josh Downs and how he's the one that's going to step up, he's going to earn more targets and of course you got Tyler Warren there who I still think that's their number one receiving option this year.

It's just 84 million guaranteed. Yeah. To give a player that and then give him 16, another 17% target share or so I will say this. would be a criminal misuse of your resources. I believe, Kyle, I'm pretty sure this is right.

He was an unrestricted free agent, right? He was like the bell of the ball on the free agent market. Yes, he was. So he's going to get a big contract. Right. He's going to. If you look at the Colts who, you know, just traded the future. Why is he going to get a big contract?

Because there were no wide receivers on the market. Oh, that's why. The free agent market for wide receivers was just garbage. Darnell Mooney's a deep threat. He didn't get $115 million. But my point is. you couldn't lose this player. If you're the Colts and you already traded Pittman,

you can't lose Alec Pierce. I don't believe that was the order it happened. Yeah, it was the opposite order. They traded it. They paid before they had traded Pittman? Yes. Okay. Yeah, it,

I'm going to lean into the contract. I mean, that's the highest paid free agent in the history of the NFL. Yeah, that'll, that'll affect things. That wide receiver? It, I mean, and that's what you got to lean on, honestly, is the fact that they, will change things. They will get that target share up. He seems like

a player that should thrive. If you can utilize him properly, he can take, I think he can have a higher target share and be a big piece of the offense. All right. That's it for me and Alec Pierce, Mike. I think you get a set Jason up here. All right. Jason

Moore over here. Dumbum. Oh, I love this. I love this. You're the perfect guy to set this up. Absolutely dumb, dumb, because Jason's a cool setup. Well, because look, Jason's over. here. He's just like at any moment, Kevin White. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Not Kevin

White. He's like, he's like Michael Floyd. Oh, no, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, everyone. I'll get it right. Uh, Corey Davis. Oh, just at any moment, any moment, Roma Dunzee, we're the top 10 pick. Cool. Cool. Roma Dunzee is already being destroyed by his depth chart. Colston Levin, White,

Luther Burd is. I mean, it is. Those are literally the only, in the history of what we've done, those are the only people he can come up with who are drafted that high, who weren't great for fantasy. Darrys-Haidward Bay. Devonthe-Parker. Devante Parker?

Yes, he was. No, you just said Darius Hayward Bay. Oh, he was a top 10 pick. Was he really? Yeah, brother. You should pick up a history book because NFL players busts all the time in the first round. I'm just saying there's already better players on this team right now.

The coach, Ben Johnson has already said, I am quote, I am buying Luther Burden stock right now. Last year, Roma Dunzee ran 120 routes with Luther Burden on the field. In those routes, Roma Dunzee was putting up a spectacular

0.81 yards per route run. And if you want context for that, that's what Tyler Lockett was putting up on the Raiders. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, before you go and check, Tyler Lockett was in fact on the Raiders last year for part of this season out producing Roma Dunzee. Adam Thieland

on the Steelers. I'll produce. That was the one I I was like, he was on the Steelers. Yeah, you don't have to look. He was there putting up more production than Romaduzzi on a per route basis. Jason, sway yourself. That was quite the introduction. This is so easy to explain. First of all, the yards per route run when they were on the field together.

The beginning of the year, Luther Burden didn't play that much. It was towards the end of the year when Luther Burton got on the field more because he was a rookie. That makes sense. It was also during the end of the year that Romaduzzi was injured. He was very injured. He literally, didn't play the last like five weeks of the season after trying to tough it out. I went back week by week by week.

And I looked at the injury report and I watched the film and I remember having them. Let me remind people. Now, yes, you can talk about the busts at the top 10 drafted in the NFL. But there are also really good players drafted in the top 10 at wide receiver for a reason. We never really laid out what you're explaining just in the sense that Jason has him at 19. I have... Mike has him at 31. You do have to explain what you're explaining. Yeah, I'm explaining why I have...

We have them 10 spots ahead of Mike. 10 spots ahead of Mike, 10 spots ahead of ADP. Right now, he's being drafted as the wide receiver 30 in the 7th round. Luther Burden is being drafted as the wide receiver 17 in the 4th round. So you're spinning up a lot to know that burden is better. But I want to remind people, and especially you might, what happened last year? because when Burden started the season not involved and Rome was healthy. Right.

Rome was the wide receiver three through the first month of the season. And it wasn't all touchdowns. We're talking 153 target pace. He was awesome. He got injured after week eight. So half the season is over. During that time, he was already on pace for 136 targets, 1148 yards, 12 touchdowns. He was really awesome.

How awesome? Because, you know, bus. is what you're throwing out that he's not good. Except he was the wide receiver seven in points per game through the first half of the year. That's not a bust. That's a top 10 drafted pick who was Alpha Man, who was doing everything for fantasy you wanted. And then he got injured. What happened after that?

Well, he never had a full practice week the rest of the season, including once he came back into the playoffs. He was resting every Wednesday, resting every Thursday, barely practicing on Friday, going out there and playing like trash. I mean, after he was injured, 38% catch rate. He was on pace for 639 yards and three touchdowns. He also didn't play as many snaps. He was usually out there for 93% of the snaps when he was healthy. And then all of a sudden, they're trying to monitor him,

trying to relax this heel foot injury, and he's playing 70% of the snaps. Yeah, he wasn't that good because he was injured. Now, if he's healthy, if you're telling me, I have to take a bet on whether, Roma Dunezay, who they did spin the number nine pick in the draft four, and for a reason. Everybody believed that this was a guy who was a top 10 NFL draft pick. It wasn't like they reached.

It wasn't a shock in the draft where we're like, oh my God. Darius Hayward Bay, that was like, oh, he's the fast speedster guy that got overdrafted. John Ross. Exactly. Rome was expected to be a great wide receiver. My Felix score that, you know, I've talked about a lot and that has been. So far, looking really good for judging prospects, has Rome as a 90- UDK, by the way.

Part of the UDK, now it's in there, has Rome as a 90th percentile prospect. He's not a bad prospect. He's not a bus player. And what he did in his sophomore year was dominate for fantasy until he injured his foot. And then he sucked. And then you get excited about other people. If you're telling me in the seventh round, I get to take a guy who's being drafted at wide receiver 30, who has the ability to come out and truly dominate,

I know Rome's going to be on the field. Two wide receiver sets, he's going to be on the field. He is their alpha one. Now, I'm not saying anything against Luther Burden that he's not good. I love the film. He moves different. He's great. He is not as good a complete wide receiver as Rome right now.

They're still talking about how, like, in that comment, you know, oh, I'm buying stock. That's great. Except if you listen to the whole thing, he's talking about how it's really worked on his route tree. and we're starting to see some routes that we can add to it. That's great. But he's got to do that. They don't talk about that with Rome because he has a complete route tree. First of all, a few comments.

That's really assuming a lot. One, one comment. If you started the year with Rome and Abuca last year, they're very similar. There was a major injury to Abuca that moved him around the field and the Evans injury, and then the Odunzei injury gets underplay. Two, I am pretty sure Mike. only is allowing himself like 10 units of love for the bears and he has to move them from

somebody. That is true. He has to move them from Adun's a two burden. His amount of love of burden is so high. There's not enough room for anybody else. And the truth is with all three of the bears prospects, you have to choose. You just have to. Here's what I promise can't happen.

Loveland can't be the wide receiver or the tight end three while burden is the wide receiver eight and Rome is the wide receiver 12. Like there's just not enough for all three to hit. Unless Caleb is the quarterback one. Right. So you are taking a bet. Right now most people are betting on Luther Burden. I am betting on Rome. ADDP says that they are. Yes,

that's what I mean. I genuinely believe that at the end of the year, I am so confident that Rome will have far more targets, far more touchdowns. On a per... You guys should bet that. Touch base. Sure. I will happily bet just season finish, Rome versus Burton. Fantasy finish?

Fantasy finish. Oh, yeah, I'll take Luther. Beautiful. Yeah, put it on the board. Betta-da-da-da. There it is. Waterbed. Because, I mean, you said a lot of words, but all I heard was Romo Dunezay is soft.

Soft. Because he hurt his foot? Yeah. Oh, okay. Soft. Can't play. Can't play through injury. His foot was a burden to him.

Hey, oh, got him. Can I just take Loveland out of this deal? I know. All three else are in on. I'm in on Rome. more end on Rome with Jason because of the draft pricing because I believe the same things. I believe that Rome is a true alpha. You didn't even bring up the fact that, you know, they got rid of another one of their top tier receivers, right?

Moore is DJ Moore is now a member of the bills. And by the way, struggling with the playbook over there. Yeah. I heard that. I'm not out on Rome. No, you can't come back. You're not allowed in. You're out.

I locked the door, Mike. Okay, that's fine. Dead bold. He's like, whatever, let's fine. I'm out on Rome. He's like, no, that's cool. I was going to say, the ADP of Rome, I don't think that makes sense either, either. The disparity's too big.

I don't think the ADP of either of those guys make sense. Like, I'm excited for burden. Burton does, because this is what people do. Spending a fourth round pick on the hope and chance. That feels hopium. The hopeium is, I can tell, I'll speak for Mike. Amun Ra. Yes.

It's the Amun Ra argument. It's the, it's the, this dude is going to function. that role in this offense and be that good in this offense for years to come. That's wide receiver. I think just because Ben Johnson had Amman Raan comes over, people are saying Aman Ra. It's not the same type of player to me. This is more of like a Percy Harvin, like get the ball on his hands on screens and just let him.

Just trying to like, I mean, he's awesome with the ball on his hands. He is awesome. But Amman Ra is awesome in routes and like, you know, he's just always in the right spot. I remember us having these conversations. Is almond raw actually good? Yes. This will be a fun one. Luther Bird actually good.

This will be a fun one. Rome, maybe. We'll take a break and then we'll see what Mike can do as we enter the geriatric portion of this show. Yes. And there it is, the geriatric portion of the show. Deucers Alley. Just Josh. Josh, it's you.

Yeah, don't you? Josh, it's you. Just out of nowhere. All right. Mike's player that we're talking about today is Devante Adams, all 33.4 years old, Devante Adams. I've got him at 32. I think that's probably a little bit too low after we did his player profile.

He has him at 23, yes. Jason has him at 27. You have aged him too low. Mike has him ranked at number 17. Yeah. This is the final year of his contract in Los Angeles. out of all of the top 24 fantasy seasons on a point per game basis since 2010, only 5.5% have been achieved by receivers who are 33 years or older.

So the biggest challenge here for Devante Adams is father time. He's old. That's for sure. And he was also just ridiculously efficient last year around the goal line. Now when we started talking through this team, look, I think the team was willing to move on from Devante Adams this off season. Seemed like it. It seems like they were willing to invest in a wide receiver, but they chose Ty Simpson over Mackay Lemon.

So here we are. We end up with the Devante Adams default. We'll call it that. But Mike, you have them the highest among the three of us, so explain yourself. So obviously last year, Devante Adams, the goal line wide receiver, he ends the year with 14 touchdowns

despite missing weeks 16 through 18 with the hamstring injury. basically it was the best season inside the five-yard ever for a wide receiver 27 end-zone targets yes he is old but we always have our Hall of Fame outliers Devante Adams is a first ballot Hall of Fame type of wide receiver to me Jason always like that I don't yeah he'll be a he'll probably he'll probably be second ballot because of how difficult it is for but okay let me let me change the phrasing Devante Adams is guaranteed to end up in the Hall of Can you agree with that, Jason?

I think that is probable, yeah. He's got a championship, right? Yes. Yeah, he got one with the Packers, right? Packer boy, or was that too soon? Or was that before? Actually, I don't think he has one. I don't think he's a guaranteed, but I mean, the point you're making is he's an

all-timer, he's great. He's an Alzheimer. I think he's a guaranteed Hall of Fame type of wide receiver, and those types of guys end up being able to play longer than your average. No titles. No Super Bowl. He was there right before it happened, or after it happened, I guess. Can't even get to a thousand yards.

It's gone. And so here's what I want to bring up is the touchdowns is the story of Devante Adams season. But what we're not looking at is his catch rate for a player of his caliber just does not make sense. It does not make sense at all to me that Devante Adams, who has his career, even including last year, a 63% catch rate. That's fine. That's not crazy. That's not. he's catching everything that's not. He's, you know, down catching, what, less than half of his balls like Roma Dunezay?

Devante Adams was playing with the MVP of football, and yet he only caught 53% of his passes last year. Take a look at the rest of the team. Colby Park, and these are so catchable targets. 68.5% of Devante Adams' targets were catchable. That's ridiculously low. Parkinson, 93%, Davis-Ole, 91%. makes sense. Tight ends. What's Pooka? Jordan Winnington, 88%. Puka, with 163 targets,

86% of his targets were catchable. You think Stafford was just assuming he was faster and threw the ball out ahead of him? This is a, we are not completely on the same page until we close in on the field. The fact that you can go in inside the five and catch half of your targets, turning them into touchdowns,

and then only 68% of your targets on the year are catchable. That seems like a number to me that will regress. That really does sound like he's overthrowing. It sounds like he's like, you should be further. Last year, Adams was 10th in wide receivers for air yards and eighth for unrealized air yards, as in he's just the targets are going and they're not catchable. And it's not even, it's not even Adams's just a misconnection between Devante Adams, a great wide receiver, and Matthew Stafford, last year's MVP.

I just don't see a world where on this team, he's not still in the mid-20s. I'm not out of control of my projection. I got him at 24% of the targets. He was 25% last year. I just have him catching more of them, which seems like an absolute no-brainer to me. The fact that they passed on McKaylam, and with everything, like, oh, they were going to get rid of Adams. They didn't. They didn't add anybody.

It's Devante Adams. It's Pooka. These are going to be the main two guys. And they're going to keep running their 12 sets out there. what will be just the two wide receivers and the consolidation of targets. And to me, there's no way this year that the connection of Matthew Stafford and Devante Adams results in Devante catching 53% of his passes again. Well, I would pay a lot of money for breaking news right now that AJ Brown was paid to the Rams.

I would pay a lot for that. I would change my argument. But I think the hardest part for me is those arguments all make a lot of sense to me if if Devante Adams is not in the decline of his career in terms of, oh, they'll fix what was broken. It's hard to lay at the feet of Matthew Stafford, the problems last year of connecting with Devante Adams. It's easier for me to lay that at the 33-year-old Adams feet

and say the MVP of football, who won the MVP, could connect with everybody but you. To me, there's a problem there. And I also don't like for fantasy. And Terrence Ferguson, by the way. And Terrence Ferguson, okay. Well, that says a lot. 60% of Ferguson's targets were catchable.

The problem to me is like you get another year, you get another year of injury exposure and problems for Devante Adams. You get another year of like, hey, does he catch enough touchdowns to make up for the inefficiencies elsewhere? Or does he become more efficient elsewhere? That's tough for me to try to figure out. And with the injury thing on top of it. And it's just hard to project the older you get, the more it gets fixed.

Yeah. That's the part that is the challenge for me. but it is also very hard to look at the roster as it stands today, the depth chart as it stands today, what you expect from Stafford from a stat sheet standpoint and not say Adams ends up with a ton of it. Because unless someone else emerges in the offense, it's really hard not to give him those counting stats.

I mean, you can, yes, he is older than the Raiders years, but, you know, the Raiders years would have been what him at 30 and 31, if I'm doing the math right. Those years he caught 56% and 59. From those Raiders quarterbacks, he had a higher catch rate than he did from Matthew Stafford. I'm not saying it's one person's fault or the other. I agree with, yeah, it's probably more on Adams than it would be on Stafford. But I think they fix it. Fix it. And he doesn't have to be outrageous. Get him up to below his career average at 60%. And he will be awesome for fantasy. This is the first environment that Devante Adams has ever had to adjust to where you are not the dude.

you are not the dude at all. And when I look at go-to-wide receivers, when that ball is snapped, target one, two, and three is Puka, and then Adams is this, I just think adjusting to that may have been more difficult for Adams. Could have been. Jason has him somewhat more on the lower side? Yeah, I mean. Are you, do you look like a man with no strong opinion here?

I think that it's very difficult to bank on a 34-year-old wide receiver. You know, the stat you brought up earlier, 5.5% of all top 24 finishes. And that's not a, that's top 24, not top 12 are for players over that age. Now, he is one of those that's like, hey, maybe he could go a long time. But I believe that if he does crack the top 24, it's going to be touchdowns again. You know, it's going to be, oh, he got, he got double digit touchdowns. And that could absolutely happen. I do think between the 20s, he's going to be unreliable.

So probably not a very. consistent. Where is he being drafted? ADP-wise. I don't expect him to repeat what he did last year. And that's, so if it gets worse than that, I think you're thinking of it. I'm seeing wide receiver 19. That's, yeah, he's still up there. I will say this.

I mean, first thoughts. I mean, it just happened. Rams defense. I mean, you just brought it up. One of the reasons that Cleveland, you know, they don't have to do a lot. Miles Garrett on the defensive side of the ball. Are you seeing, do you have any initial expectations for that offense to be less productive? No, I don't.

Does the game's in hand? And Tyson is getting some token stamps? Not even that. It's just their defense, the Rams defense is always good. And yeah, like, you have an impact player who probably ends up with more sacks now. So a couple drives ended here. But on the season, I'm not going to look at the acquisition of Garrett and change my financial, or my financial, my offensive output. Or your financial output.

You're not going to change any of your investment profile. Listen, before we close it out, as we've each defended ourselves, and I think, you know, we're on edge here, very defensive. Field D.8 just tweeted this out. I just want to read it to you. Rams first round pick since 2016. You ready? In 2016, Jared Gough, who was traded for Stafford. None, none, none, none, none, none, none, none, none. 2024, Jared Verse, who was traded eventually for Miles Garrett, none in 2025, and then Ty Simpson in 2026. So they've had none. It sounds like my dynasty team for the first 10 years.

But they've basically had none. Or they've traded the ones that they've had for established players. You can win, but it feels like the creditors will catch you. Pour one out. They'll find you. Everybody out there say a little prayer for one man. One man only. His name is Jared Verse.

Jared, you were one drive away from the Super Bowl. Yeah. And you're going to be watching it next year from home. Sorry, buddy. Catch you on the next episode. Enjoy the UDK, everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com

and follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.