Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Fantasy Time Machine + Rashee Rice Suspended! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/27

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Aug 27, 2025. Find out which players will surprise in 2025! Andy, Mike, and Jason jump into the Fantasy Time Machine! Which QB will breakout like Sam Darnold did? Who is this year’s Bucky Irving? Plus, reactions to the Rashee Rice suspension and what it means for fantasy football drafts. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.2025 ULTIMATE DRAFT KIT + Draft Analyzer available now at UltimateDraftKit.comCompete in the largest fantasy football league! Megalabowl.com(00:00) Intro(10:58) Script Flipping Players(16:55) NFL News(27:17) Fantasy Time Machine(28:00) 2025’s Terry McLaurin (34:30) 2025’s Bucky Irving(38:10) 2025’s Jonnu Smith(43:52) 2025’s Sam DarnoldConnect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord

Great Scott! If my calculations are correct, you are listening to this before your fantasy football drafts have taken place. I've been to the future, and those that followed the advice from the fantasy footballer's ultimate draft kit, had a spectacular season and with certain many victories. It's almost as if Biff had given each of them a copy of Grey's Sports Almanac, I'd highly recommend heading over to www.orgatrathcet.com without any further delay. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart.

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The fantasy footballers Wednesday, August 27th, Mike the fantasy hitman, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. Great Scott. We have. I like, okay, this is all correct. We've got a fantasy time machine.

Fantasy time machine. Oh, speaking of a time machine, I had an awful experience last night. Okay. Last night. With a time machine. It's Tuesday night and I realize. Oh, I like story time. We are two days away from hearing it's football time.

I was like, football's in two day after tomorrow. And then I quickly was like, wait, wait a minute, I'm a week early. Yeah, we're week zero, Jason. I know. There's literally no football. It's opposite of football time. It's football break. That's not fun.

I wish we could put you in a time machine and bring you forward a week and you could have football, but you have to wait. Yeah, then you'd miss the draft. That's true. Yeah. You guys would draft for me, though? No. You would wake up and have no players.

It is worse than the, uh, waking or the dream you're I'm at high school I didn't prepare for the test I got no clothes on yeah like no how about you your dream is you show up Thursday you didn't draft you have no players I got a I got to build a team off the wire yeah oh man that's way that's a nightmare oh my goodness so yeah our league of record draft coming up wait did I mention on the show that I unloaded Joe Mixing yeah I think we talked about it I'm feeling really good about that right now I'm feeling really good we got more more rumblings this morning that the general manager I think coming out and just saying like people were not trusting the vibes just

basically we'll see if he's back this season I mean some people saying that like uh let's see if I can find the exact quote because I want to give credit for it but John McLean was talking about uh I don't think many will be surprised if Joe Mixon does not play at all this season so much mystery about the injury rehab situation timetable never seen anything like it I mean it's getting to the point where you know I guess if you want to spend the final pick in your draft to put him on IR and then sign somebody that makes sense but I don't know

re-evaluated in four weeks you got to remember this guy has not been on a field yeah this is not like he was on the field and training camp and then he had a setback and got off the like he could not run at all and the feet I'm hearing big things about feet and running backs this year

and I think you need them yeah it's really sucky situation see Isaiah Pacheco we talked about Did you see him fly into the wall, by the way? Sorry, sorry. Yeah, yes.

In preseason. Yeah. That guy practices hard. Yeah, the general manager, Nick Casario, once we get through four weeks, we'll evaluate it at that time, asked if he anticipates him playing. We'll see. We'll take it one day at a time. So there you go. Did we get an official?

Is this breaking news? Yeah, it is. Breaking news. I didn't hit it because we are not into the news section. No, we do what we want, Mike. Okay. All right, we got there. It's from Pellisero.

Rashi Rice is accepting and will serve a six-game suspension to start the 2025 regular season. Why did I chuckle? I chuckled because moments ago. Oh, it's so good. Mike, the fantasy hitman, in our, we started up in office chopped league. So it's a guillotine-style league where the lowest score of the week gets chopped. And Mike was like, I'm going to just, I'm on a big brain this thing. Yeah.

I'm going to pick up some Rashi rice. Well, because you get the first four weeks before his trial. In the moment, it was, it was an elite play of I don't care. Swished. And I will get four weeks of rice production. Yeah. So you don't get chopped. Yeah, well.

So six games. Chopped. Look, this is out. You got chopped. I'm going to get chapsuied. We finally have an answer. It's been a long... Wake up!

Yeah, yeah, we got an answer. Six weeks. Rashi Rice, off the field. I mean, initial, immediate, in the moment reactions. How does that change your perspective on somebody like Travis Kelsey to start the year? On Xavier Worthy, who has looked outstanding. They have talked a lot. I mean, you know, who I also just bypassed.

Talk is... Like five minutes ago. But they've been talking about downfield passing. It's perfect for Xavier Worthy. I do believe. I mean, I've made this very clear that Travis Kelsey and Rushi Rice, they are fighting over those same area of the field first read targets, like where the play pre-snap, they go, okay, I see the coverage. They're going to get open. And just give them the little slant.

And Kelsey's going to get off to a much, much stronger start this year. He becomes someone that I think would be a much better pick, Mike, in a chop cleat. Yeah, yeah. No, he would. Overall, overall, overall, I think- He's tilting over here. Yeah, yeah. Passed on Xavier Worthy, drafted Rashi Rice.

Boom, suspended. Yeah. Whoops to doozles. Overall, I think that this, for fantasy players, this is better. It's not the shadow monster way just to come and take rice off of your roster. It's if you draft him, you know what, if you, now, if you draft him, you know what you're getting into, which is these first six games. Where does that put him in the draft in your mind? If you're missing six weeks, you know what it is.

You don't get to put him on IR. You lose a bench spot. It's a bench deletion that you're drafting. I'm still good with him in like the six or the seventh because I think he will be so good. Jason had a reaction. Yeah, I would not be taking him in the six or so personally. And I believe that he has the true impact potential. Six weeks is a long time to miss.

Let me go, let me go make sure. Let me go look at names. So when does playoff start? playoffs would be 14 15 16 17 so week 15 okay so you would get minus a buy week in there you'd get rashi rice from weeks 7 to 14 correct so six weeks right but you if you start oh and six is going to be tough sledden I don't think you're going to start oh and six but my point is if you're taking him as one of your primary starting spots and then clogging a bench spot additionally it's going to be tough sledding. I'd probably be more eighth and ninth round. Yeah, that's exactly.

Maybe later than that. I'm looking right now, sixth, sixth no, because you got George is, George and Jameson are in the, and Travis Hunter. Where's worthy going right now? Fifth? Let me double check.

Because he's got to be the pickover. He's at the back of the fifth. People need to understand, Rashi Rice is great. I'm not, I'm not saying he's not a great player, but the little sample size of excitement was three games last year, and it was really one big game.

Sure, but that was just last year. I mean, you saw it the year before, too. Like the end of the season, Rice was really showing up. Let me finish the thought here. Xavier Worthy was a brand new rookie who came on in a huge way over the back half of the season. Hollywood Brown was not healthy or active on this roster either. Sure. I'm just saying, like, let's not solidify him into the Hall of Fame of producers.

Let me put that to the test then. And I'm going to go down and say, would you take this wide receiver over Rushie Rice and then we'll know where we land round wise? All right, Mike, you and I. go. Would you rather have Chris Olavi or Rashi Rice? I'll take Olave. That's already really close to me. I would take Olave as well. Um, because we're talking seventh round. That would be in the seventh. Yeah. Uh, there, there's a world where I take rice over Olavee, but what about Calvin Ridley? I'll take Ridley. Same. I get like, when we're at this point, like, okay, let's go deeper. Let's go deeper and see. Would you rather have Debo Samuel? No. For sure not. Andy? Yes.

Yeah, I would as well. So you and I are locked step right now. Mike, Mike looking at Rice with more league winning potential in mind. Ricky Pearsall. Oh, Pierceaw. Okay. I like Pirac. Ironically, he is later than all those other guys that I, that I name Matthew Golden, Rookie. I'll take Richie. Golden. I think I'm still on the golden side there. Ibuka, he'll be higher than this in your draft, but I'd definitely go to Bupa. Name somebody where I I can choose right. What about Khalil Shakir? I think it's Shakir. See, that's where I would go, right? Because I don't think Shakir's a difference maker for your roster. I'm fine missing out on a Khalil Shakir. So for me, it's, it looks like for Mike, it's seventh round. For me, it's ninth round. For you, it's even later. Ninth or 10th, yeah. All right, we'll have all these

updates into the ultimate draft kit immediately after the show. Tier-based rankings, premium stat projections, 100 plus player profile videos, including some updates. We're going to add a Tyler Warren video. Custom cheat sheets, sleepers breakouts, bus, values, and all of the new features this year, like the Value Scout, custom player marking. If you're drafting this weekend, you need the UDK. I've been getting a lot of the screenshots of the teams that people have been drafting with the UDK lately from friends and family. It's working out. So you want to check that out, Ultimate DraftKit.com. And one of your final invitations to the Meglabel as well, which is our 20,000 plus person

league. It's very, all the details are at megalobole.com, but it's going to be very, very fun this year. Draft times are coming up soon. All right. I'm going to detour us into a quick question and then we'll head back to some other news. Okay. But I've been wanting to ask this question because

we talk about staying water about reacting to what's in front of you, not just your preconceived notions and ideas about players and situations. You need to sometimes you do need to have a quick trigger right you got to you got to adjust maybe maybe that's javanti williams for example in Dallas where it's like jaden blues banged up and miles Sanders is nothing and you just have to accept here's a starter whatever what player right now that everybody

else is really down on so you're talking about a consensus negative opinion about a player has the best chance in your mind to just completely flip the script just be the opposite of what everybody expects. I think I've been more and more realizing that Jalen Waddle is a good pick. He's fallen down from a disappointing year last year, wide receiver 46. Oh, he sucked. No, he didn't. He really, I mean, it's shocking, but he really didn't suck.

Last year, he comes out week one. He's five for 109 with Tua, and then Tua gets injured. And then when Tua gets back, he's got like five games together with him before Waddle gets injured. And in those five games, he's on pace for 1,300. yards. It was like, he didn't suck. It just, Tua got injured. The injuries were a catastrophe for the dolphins and for Waddle, but he's a good player. And honestly, another year older, another, you know, Tyree Kill, maybe he's back to his old self. Probably not. Maybe he's even

worse. And I think at the end of this year, it will be clear that Jalen Waddle is the number one wide receiver for Tua. And if you look, even dynasty-wise, I just talked about this on the dynasty show. Contract-wise, like, they can get out of Tyreek at the end of this year. Even if the whole regime changes, coaches, you know, if the, if the dolphins collapse and it's all new, Waddle is under contract, big boy contract for many years. So I think he's the wide receiver one going forward. I have said that monologue into the mirror. Yeah, you're not allowed. So many times, you know, Jalen Wado was the my guy. And I'm like, it wasn't that bad. It wasn't as bad. There is, uh, from what I understand, when

Ken Walker miss his time for Seattle. First person he calls to see if they're available to hang out. Jalen Waddle. They are the mirror of each other. None of us on the planet doubt the extra special ability of either player. Availability has not been an ability either of them have had. But when they're on the field, they're elite. I mean, Waddle mixes his unavailability with also limping off the field regularly.

Waddle plays in the games. He just leaves each game 12 times. How many games did he play in? He played him 15. He only missed two games. No, he didn't. Liar. Exactly. He put the jersey on for him. 15, 14, 17, and 16.

And I believe the 16 was a full season. What are the snap counts? Don't worry about whether he was on the field. No, that's a good pick. Miami needs a plan. Just like they need the rest plan. Right. Oh, a plan.

Yeah, like Ken Walker. Because that's working for Ken Bone. They've never had a plan until this year, Jason. We'll find out. I'm going to say Breeze Hall. I think Brees Hall is the answer to the question. And you can subvert a lot of negativity. You can work around a lot of opportunity issues, team issues, by just catching the ball a bunch.

Like, you just catch the ball a ton of times on a bad team, even if they are bad. And it works out. I mean, that is Brees Hall's the secret weapon. That's where Brees Hall has been relevant with bad quarterbacks for his entire career when he's had them. So when I look at an easy way to flip the script, you know, it's not like people weren't talking about Braylin Allen last year. They were. They were excited about him. Brainlin Allen came out, had a couple splash games, then kind of faded away.

So if you want to say, look, everybody in the world, which I know, nobody wants to draft Brise Hall. He drops in every draft until somebody finally goes, oh, I guess I got to do it. But there's a world where Brise Hall just catches a bunch of passes. We joke about the fact Garrett Wilson will have a million targets and there's no one around him, right? So, you know, what happens when you have abandoned targets at wide receiver? A lot of the times I go to the running back position. Historically, that's been the case. So, you know, he's one of a very few select running backs that have average five plus targets

and 13 plus rush attempts per game. It might be gross. You know, you might hold your nose when you make the pick. But I can see that flipping to the point where somebody's like, oh, gosh, shoot, Why do we do that? Yeah, I just need him to drop a little bit. I'm going to go with a late ninth round pick. Jaden Reed of the Green Bay Packers, who is good.

Yeah. He is a good player. Produces when he's on the field, generally speaking, but the team decides to keep him off of the field when they go into two wide receiver sets. And it's just, you know, Matthew Golden, very exciting first round rookie pick but do we make anything of the you know the meetings that jane reed

had with the brass of like hey I'm still the number one wide receiver for this team and just you know I like jordan love and the passing attack to rebound from what it was last year and there's a chance that jane reed in the ninth we're all just we're all so upset by how it started

compared to how it finished like a nuclear beginning here two of the first four weeks he was over 23 points and just saying, you know, maybe I'll leave a little space for him being to, or for him to be truly the number one guy and actually get more snaps. It makes sense. I mean, I do love that offense.

Like you said, bouncing back, Josh Jacobs is the muscle, but they're going to get the passing game going. All right, let's circle back into some news. News and notes from Around the League, presented by progressive insurance. In case you skip. ahead to this news segment. We did talk about the entire Rashi Rice suspension at the top of the show

if you want to listen to the analysis there. Here we go. We got it. Adam Thielen, we tried hard, we worked hard. Purple. The background was purple, Mike. I'm going home. Adam Thielen traded to the Vikings from the Panthers. We did it. The Panthers also cut Hunter infros so their situation, I think

Jalen Coker. Please, please, please pay attention to Jalen Coker. It was interesting that they cut Renfro yesterday only to do the Adam Feele and trade today. I wonder if they like... We're slimming down. Well, I mean, it's possible they do the whole waiver process and then they bring Renfro

back. But yes, as of right now, Jalen Koker, for deep leagues, is someone to pay attention to. I think he is a better player than Xavier Legat. He could be. And I think... Would you draft him over Liget? I would absolutely draft Cocoa. Because that just happened in one of my leagues. I would also draft him over like Cedric Tillman.

Like people like Cedric Tillman this year. with a couple other wide receiver situations there. I think Jalen Coker is very interesting. If you like Bryce Young, I mean, and it's also like wheels up for Teteroa McMillan. Yes. Not that we weren't already all in, but you take a target hog like Adam Phelan off a roster?

It sounds funny to say, but Adam Thielen was probably my biggest worry in the receiving core for- You said it all off-season. For Teteroic McMillan, they had a really good sink between Adam Thielen and Bryce Young. You saw it in the second half of last year and it's one of those things where it's just like, I don't want that to be the first read. I want it to be Tett.

So this is great news for Tett. All right, Tim Patrick, jettisoned away from the Lions for a six-round pick. He heads to Jacksonville. And that means that Isaac. I'm never going back to the past store. Mike is. Oh, oh, Tesla.

Isaac Tisla. We got a new, that's, that is electrical. I'm going to be honest. That's on part with the train, the original train. Oh, did that start? The volume levels? It was a little bit loud. Let me check it again.

Whoa, that's so loud. That's way too. I love it. Brooks said I thought my computer was freaking out. Don't you touch a thing. That is, yeah, if you're in the car, you thought like an EMP just hit or something. Isaac Tesla is ready to rumble for the lions. And the big thing there, too, is if an injury were to happen.

Amenrah's been banged up before. Jameson Williams has been suspended before. If something happens and there's one more, that's what I think it is to me. One shoe drops, right? Laporta, or Gibbs, or Aminra, or Jameson. One of those guys goes down,

Tuslaw is not just kind of relevant. He might be really good. Right. Both of these pieces of news, like my confidence in J.J.M. Still scared of that sound effect, man. What, this one? It's in my head.

It's in my brain. I talked about J.J. McCarthy. I made a bold proclamation about him yesterday. The Adam Thieland News just makes me a little bit more confident and secure of that crazy thing happening. And this is great news for Jared Goff. Tim Patrick, aka Fireball Jones. I think he's back to being, like, he's a fine wide receiver three. Solid, yeah.

Tesla is like upside. Yep. Yeah, no. and can really, you know, win at the goal line, deep passes, competitive catches, you love it. Spencer Rattler was named the week one starter. Go ahead. Go ahead, Al. Just hit me with another sound effect on our funky DJ radio DJ morning. I got a snake, man. Spencer Rattler is the week one starter. Tyler Shuck. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, really? You can't. I mean, if you played that many years of college and you

come in and can't beat Spencer Rattler. Really? They are playing for that number one pick. Maybe I'll change my Trisolaave choice with Rashi Rice. I don't know. Devon A. Chan, we'll be ready for week one against the Colts. Took a shot on him in a late second round yesterday.

Just betting that he'd be back. I kind of felt like, you know. You brought it up on the show earlier that there was reports going on that he might miss the first three weeks, but it was literally just one person's really opinion. It wasn't an insider with specific knowledge, and so that was overblown a little bit.

And I just give massive credit to that guy, because I assume he's drafting A-chan everywhere. You know what I mean? I got to start this method. Little market manipulation. Yes, yeah. All right, the Chargers get. There's no regulation here, the Wild West. Yeah, the SEC ain't coming after you.

Najee Harris, activated from the reserve non-football injury list. The team waived Kamani Vidal Sassoon. Oh, yeah. I noted Vidal Sassoon and Audrick Estimate Lodder both cut this weekend. They got shaved. Okay, all right, yeah. Estime, did you guys see the little blurb on Estimate of? Is he practice squad?

No, they're saying he's not expected. He will not be expected to be back to Denver. Like this isn't the cut. It's he, I'm not saying he's a special player, but he could go wreck a couple situations. Like he could go to Dallas. Yeah. As terms of like a goal line.

Like he could go to Dallas. He could go to Chicago and make things a little messy. I believe. So I don't think estimate, you always liked Estimate more than I did. I didn't love his college film. But I will say that some of the reports from never, basically he was like pouting. You know, like his workload, his opportunity, he was just kind of a bad attitude about it. Right.

More than just he's so untalented that we won't even bring him back to the practice squad. And so, yeah, maybe he does find a. another spot and vulturesome goal lines. Isaiah likely avoided opening the season on IR. That doesn't mean he'll play week one, but it means he doesn't have to miss four weeks. It's like Godwin. Yeah, exactly.

Darnel Mooney also avoided the starting the season on IR. That's like likely. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, we're going to have more of those, aren't we? Chris Godwin avoided being on.

Oh, just like Mooney. Hey, this is news right here. Kate Otten's going to miss time with a leg injury after we had the discussion about him. They are hurting. Yeah. You know, Godwin, Otten, McMillan, not going to be available to this team.

I don't know how you feel about Baker to start the season, but it gives me some hesitation. I think he needs another piece back because I think the team can succeed running the football. And I think there's going to be a heavy dose of Bucky Irving, maybe even in the passing game. I loved what I saw in the preseason from Bucky in the passing game. training camp. That's the magic way that Bucky

becomes a top five running back. Like that's the path, is he becomes a pass catcher. Do you have any interest in Tess Johnson? I mean, at this point, Tess Johnson's looked pretty good as, you know. He will have a role to start the season. No question. You know what I did not. I did not know this until like a week or so ago, which apparently Tess Johnson says a lot of people are unaware of this in his. Did you know he is Bo Nix's brother. Yes, I did actually.

He is Bo Nix's brother. They adopted him. Their family adopted Tess Johnson, I think when he was 14 or or so, and so they grew up together. I did not know that. His younger adopted brother. Fun fact.

Yeah. All right. Kristen Watson is on the reserve PUP list, as was Marshawn Lloyd. Goodness gracious, because he lives there. He has a whole setup. He's get the couch, the chair. Brandon Ayuk also on the pup

and MVS was released by the Seahawks. Red Alert, Tori Horton has won the wide receiver three job and only has the aged Cooper Cup to compete with. So MBS is gone, which was kind of a big deal. Tori Horton been a nasty boy in the Dynasty show but also mentioned here. And MBS ends up signing with the depleted 49. who literally have nobody but

Pearsall and Skymore right now. So MBS joins the 49ers. So CMC, George Kittle probably going to be pretty good to start the year. This is like really exciting for both of their opportunities and really scary for both of their workloads

because they will be inundated with targets. I made the joke on X the other day that people don't know but they want, they want Christian McCaffrey to be the RB5. that's what you really want. That's what you want because that means he's not overworked and injured.

If you have, if he'd go out and he's got 30 plus touches in week one, you may be singing in the streets, Mike, but I know in the back of your head, you know what that's going to mean. No, we want the running back one. We want him overworked and uninjured. It can happen. It's very low odds. Any play.

Any play. I would say it's about 40% odds. That's what I would put it at. Yeah. Two of the last five years. No. Two of the last five years he's been good. Yeah.

Oh, okay. I thought you were saying to get hurt because that would be 60%. No, I'm a glass half full kind of guy. I'm curious. I wonder if Brian Robinson sees more time. I'd be blown away at this age with that history that Christian McCaffrey is getting the workload that he used to get. But we'll find out very soon. But not this week, Jason.

That was news and note sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com. casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers not available in all states or situations coverage subject to policy terms limits and conditions we're taking a break and we're jumping in the time machine all right it's time Marty, you've got to come back with me. Where? Back to the future.

All right. Welcome in one and all. We're entering the time machine. We're looking to travel forward in time and talk about who we think will be. this year's version of a player we saw on the field last year. So we are starting with journeying to find the 2025 Terry McLaren. Obviously, Terry McLaren was a revelation. He was drafted after the top 30 wideouts last year,

finished at wide receiver 5 on the back of 13 touchdowns. So we are traveling forward in time looking to find an older wide receiver drafted later who could have an outlier season thanks to a new offensive system or quarterback what do you got i'll go first because this to me seems so similar you have a brand new top of the NFL draft quarterback rookie coming in and we've talked about over the years a rookie quarterback doesn't usually support a ton of touchdowns and high-end fantasy finishes but also over the more recent history things have been changing with that These rookies are coming in better, and Cam Ward, the number one overall pick in the NFL draft, could just very well make Calvin Ridley a great fantasy asset.

Calvin Ridley hasn't really lost anything. I mean, he was disappointing last year, but he had over a thousand yards. He just had Will Levis targets. You know, he had really, really bad. He had 24% target share. A stank targets. But it's like how much of that was catchable. Right now, we still have him projected for a 24% market share, which is a great. great number, but you're going from Will Levis targets up to Cam Ward targets. And he's looked really good through camp, through preseason. I think Cam Ward will work. And so to me, Calvin Ridley, he's an older guy being drafted outside the wide receiver. You know, he's right now the wide receiver 32. That's exactly where McCloran was drafted last year, the exact same wide receiver number. Yeah, they're both good wide receivers who dealt with bad quarterback play, who are

alone. Like last year, the biggest target competition for Terry McLaren, was like Zach Ertz. And, yeah, Calvin Ridley, the Titans drafted a biggillion, you know, rookie wide receivers. Right. Mr. Trepo. Goodbye. But Calvin Ridley is the clear primary target in this offense.

So if Cam Ward comes out and has a good season and throws enough touchdowns as a rookie, it will be Calvin Ridley having a great fantasy finish. All right. This year's Terry McLaurin, Mike. who do you have so i will start by i missed our note of change of offensive system or quarterback i just want it with an older wide receiver who i think could finally have that year you know and things are stacked against him right now because of the calf injury but the adp is going down and juan jennings they just signed mvs i mean like that they signed mvs

that tells you where the san francisco 49ers are currently with their wide receiver room. We did get news that the Patriots have let Kendrick Bourne go. So I am curious if he ends up back with the 49ers. That would certainly put a damper in this. But Juan Jennings, he's older. He's 28. But among wide receivers with 75 or more targets, he was 12th in yards per route run, and 14th in fantasy points per route run. What's your face? What's your face? What's your face? What? I'm sitting here so excited for Andy's. answer, and he just goes and deletes it in the dock. He just removes it and changes it.

I saw you. I saw you change, you coward. But that's fine. That's fine. I was like, I'm like, John Jennings is just like a 10th 11th round pick. What are we so upset about over here? I just made a decision between two names, which is my right. Yes, you're right.

Just a bad call. Go on. Go on, Mike. Hey, Mike was talking. Joanne Jennings, hate the calf injury, but as things kick off, I think there's a chance that he still has to be very important to the wide receiver room. All right, Eddie, which answer are you going with? Look, I'll go with two, but what's great is Kyle, so my originally answer was Keenan Allen. Because I do wonder, like, I find myself passing on Ladd McConkey a little bit because what Keenan does great, what they replaced Keenan with was Ladd McConkey.

And Keenan was still great last year. Now, he's 33 years old, which to some, is old. Now, to Kyle, his quote was he's entering his Jesus year, which is a different perspective on 33. But I do think Keenan, Laddmanke, Keenan entirely undrafted, not cared about, wide receiver, whatever, wherever he was, where was he? Where's his current ADP? 56. But the other name I wanted to throw out that fits the mold is a player on the same exact team being drafted in the same exact spot as last year's Terry McLaren, so that's why I was going to pivot to Debo Samuel. Now we've talked about him. You know I believe in him, but he's the wide receiver 36 off the board. He's playing for the same quarterback that did it for Terry McClorin last

year, and I don't think he's lost a step. So those would be two answers. I think Keenan is definitely worth a flyer. We've talked about that. I just wonder how much he does negatively impact Ladd-McConkie. I think people just want to just want to say, well, McConkey's good so he can't impact him. I just don't find that to be true. I don't think that that makes sense to me. The amount of targets and the fact that Ladd-McConkie had to be there everything for the entire year, I don't know if he has to be that anymore. Harbaugh is a good coach who wins NFL football games.

He is not exactly the guy that you want necessarily for fantasy purposes because he's going to want the ball spread around. He's going to want to run it well. He's going to want to play good defense. So I think Keenan will be very relevant. And I love Keenan as a pick. He's being. Oh, it's why it was my pick.

I totally... He's just so absurdly late, and the ADP can't really update quick enough for him because he spent the whole offseason not on a roster. So where are you going to take him? Because the ADP won't update. He is going to be a wild card that there's going to be a handful of people in the league who have starred Keenan Allen and realize I have to, if I want Keenan, I have to find my place where I just take him. And it's no matter when you take him, it will be multiple rounds ahead of 80p. So are you like the 9th, the 10th? I'm looking, so

this is a super flex league, but I just took him in an expert's league in the 12th. Okay. And he got there. I was thrilled. That's interesting. What do we do with finding the 2025 version of Bucky Irving? He was

undrafted last year. He finished his RB 15. So we're looking for a day three running back. So, Bucky was a late draft pick as well, a day three running back that could overtake an inefficient incumbent starting running back. The names will not sound good because Bucky did not sound good last year. Anybody but Mike? Well, Bucky was talented.

I think that the issues were obviously first and foremost is draft capital, right? When you're a day three pick, you just pretty much presume failure from a fantasy football perspective. but he was a talented player in Oregon and that's what I'm focused on here I'm focused on who's the most talented day three running back and to me that's Cam Scadaboo. We brought him up through the offseason

he's outstanding. Fourth round pick went a 105th overall he's in third in yards after contact behind only Gentie and Omarian Hampton in this draft class and this is an excellent draft class. The only running back's drafted with 50 plus target and 1.75 yards per route run in their final collegiate season over the last decade.

This is Curtis Samuel, Sequin Barclay, Cam Scadaboo, Jemir Gibbs, Tony Pollard. The list of these guys is really, really good players. I believe Cam Scataboo is talented enough to just come onto the scene and say, wow, I can catch the ball, I can break tackles, I can do this in the NFL. I hope he says that actually. Like, wow, I can catch the ball. I think he's got to look in the mirror and hype himself up. Wow.

Because nobody believes it. All right. I'm going to go with Jaden Blue. Dallas Cowboy running back. You know, he was very productive in terms of efficiency at Texas, Big 12, SEC football. Can catch the football? I do think we're going to get stuck in the similar Zeke-Dowell situation in Dallas, where you kind of persist with Giovante.

They keep playing the worst option until half a while. through for a little while until you give in and say, wow, I would like some juice versus no juice. And like Dowdell compared to Zeke looks like Adrian Peterson. So I think Giovante is not far off of that comparison. I think

Jaden Blue is somebody to pay attention to. You could tuck them on your bench. You could just wait in the waiver wire to see what, you know, if you get a bad week from Giovante, start to circle Jane Blue on the waiver wire. I went the opposite direction.

You win, Jason, because you went, like, you went best day three running back. I went, I just want to bet against D'Andre Swift. Right. Worst starting running back. Whenever I can bet against Swift, I'm going to do it. So I will take Kyle Monong guy, or as Jason calls him, Manana guy. Manana guy. He was a seventh rounder.

We, like, Bears head coach, Ben Johnson, quote, I'm very pleased. with where he's at. I think he's a guy we're going to be able to trust this fall. He had, or Monongai had back-to-back, 1,200 plus rushing yards at Rutgers. The same school as Pacheco. Oh, seventh rounder. Seventh rounder. If these trends continue, like I said, this literally is not a bet on Monongai. This is a bet on Ben Johnson and the Bears and a bet against D'Andre Swift. And, uh, I rest my case.

Okay. What about finding 2025's John. new Smith. So basically undrafted last year, ends up tight-in four, seven top five finishes. Basically a tight-end left for dead. It's not, Andy, you can pivot your pick. I've seen you do it already. No. Yeah, I can't. I can't do what I want. But I'm not pivoting here. Tight-end left for dead. Who could be top five? That's a high bar. It is a high bar. You got to get up into top five. I think all three of ours actually could happen. Don Kincaid is my pick, a guy who is so, I mean, this you want to talk about a disappointment um there was so much excitement for second year dalton kinkade they needed him so bad his opportunity was great and in truth he just didn't

look that good like to me i i talked about it throughout the season last year i don't think he's got it however there were reports of injuries and all these things that hampered him his opportunity is still there you know tight ends take several years sometimes to develop so he's a young guy entering year three, the former first round pick, and he's still on a team where, okay, Keon Coleman, maybe he steps up. But if he doesn't, Kalil Shakir, you know, who's really going to take over? There's no one. So the ball's going to spread around unless someone steps up, levels up. And I think that his opportunity to do so still exists. You want a guy on a good offense who has touchdown scoring opportunities. So Dalton Kikade, I mean, right now he's on

drafted. He's the tight end 14. We have bailed. Like, oh yeah. This was every eject button on Dalton Kincaid was pressed. You want to know why? Kyle Pitts. We, we, because some people didn't eject after after year two. They were like, is an unkind set up to my answer. Yeah. Anyways, go on, Andy. Who's your guy that's definitely going to be a top five tight end? It's Kyle Pitts. Hey. Do you realize he was five or seven weeks? in the top 12 last year to start the year before the quarterback changes happened? I did not. Five of seven weeks. He was actually relevant last year.

Wait, the quarterback changes? Like, oh, he got the quarterback that he's going to play with all year now? No. Oh. No. Because, I mean, obviously, Kurt Cousins started, he changed, right? He changed to Kirk Cousins' RIP version. Right.

And so Kyle Pitts, they don't have options there. You just picked him. See, you're attacking me. And yesterday's show you picked him as a top 10 tie-in. I actually genuinely. You're like, don't remember that. No, no, no. I am wanting to dunk on you or Mike or anyone I can whenever I can.

And it's not popular. But I actually do think Kyle Pitts is going to be very involved this year and has as good a chance to be a top 10 tight end as anyone. Does this help if I say, hey, that's Kyle Pitts Sr. His dad's plan? He, well, he had a baby. So now he is Kyle Pitt Senior. And I'll just say, has he grown up? Well, he's looked like Kyle Pitts, Sr. for a couple years.

I'm going to be honest. Is he still like 20 years old? Yeah, yeah. He's 24 years old right now. The problem, by the way, you brought out Dalton Kincaid. What's the problem with Donald Kincaid? Two touchdowns each year. I mean, that is not going to get it done.

Kyle Pitts, you need red zone touchdowns. You need that to change. But you do have the opportunity for that to happen. And to build that report that he's been building with Michael Penn. He should get five touchdowns this year. If I'm looking at his career, you know, one touchdown rookie season two sophomore three the next year

four the next year he plays a decade Kincaid was the tight end 11 with two touchdowns in his rookie season Kyle Pitts was the tight in seven with one touchdown in his rookie season they really are parallel to one another but you look at talent

like athleticism snap count like both of those guys if they get if things go the right way I could see being you know a surprise to show up. I mean, Johnny Smith, late in his career, got it done. Mike, your answer? I'm going with the tight end who just got paid a

big bag of money. A four-year... No, recently. Oh, okay. Four-year, $50 million extension, $28 million guaranteed. The sixth highest average salary among the tight-end position is Jake Ferguson of the

Dallas Cowboys, and he is, like, he's being drafted as the tight-in-16. He is being completely left off of people's boards and got to remember what happened last year. Week one, he comes out, he gets hurt. He misses week two.

And then after that, he only has six games with Dak Prescott, which he is, he hits the 10-point threshold in three of those six games, all without a touchdown. He literally had zero touchdowns last year. And I'm saying that as a good thing of, if you can get 10 points

in a half-point scoring format at the tight-end position without a touchdown? That's great. It means that, like, you're primed. Dak Prescott historically loves throwing seam routes to the tight-end position. Jake Ferguson is a good player. He was rewarded, and he is being completely forgotten by people.

If we get a full season of DAC, it would shock me if Jake is not in the top 10. Not always the most helpful position to have, you know, tight-in 8 through 10. He needs somebody, though. But he will, to me, he easily beats his ADP. All right, let's take another quick break, and we'll come back and find 2025 Sam Darnold.

All right, hopping into the time machine. We're looking at discovering the 2025 version of Sam Darnold. What are we talking about? A player undrafted, new offense, could finish inside the top 10. I will say this. Sam Darnock qualifies. Yeah, it could be Sam. It could be, this year, Sam Darnold could, that might be the best answer, legit.

Like, I think this year, Sam Darnock could be last year, Sam Darno. Do you want to know why it could be the best answer is because last year, the answer would never have been, like, we didn't want Sam Donald. We didn't believe in Sam Darnold because he's Sam Darnold. And this year, none of us took him as the answer. He's like, no way. You know what? I'm pivoting to Sam Darnal. Are you really?

Yeah, I am. I think it's Sam Darnal. I think Sam Darnal is the answer. You have a team that people don't know for sure if this offensive line's going to hold up. You like the running game. Tori Horton, Cooper Cup, Jackson Smith and Jigba. That could be a very powerful wide receiver room. Could be. You've got Arroyo and you've got AJ Barner at Tide in and then he's looked good. So I think this year Sam Darnold's going to be also last year Sam Darnold. He will definitely need to be efficient. 4,300 and 35 last year. People

He was excellent. People are. He was really good. That system was great and also Justin Jefferson was pretty good. It's weird that we like, we expect Gino to leave Seattle and be great in Las Vegas. But we don't expect Donald to leave Minnesota and be able to be great in Seattle. I think we expect Gino to continue being what Gino was. But that is an upgrade for Las Vegas. And he's back with Pete. Yeah, he's back with Pete.

You know, he's got Brock Bowers. If you really believe JSN is going to become elite, that's helpful. I'll just throw up real quick for that because you were talking about the run game, Andy. and Seattle, like everyone's cutting down, excuse me, everyone's cutting down to the 53. This team has four tight ends and two fullbacks. This team is going to be running the ball. So, like, Darnel could do it.

You'll have to do it through efficiency because the volume, I think, goes the other way. But just, like, if you're not in a walker, you really should be drafting Charbonnet. Okay, right. That's my answer. Sam Donald is the answer for the Sam Darnold. Jason, 2025 Sam Darnold will be? I think it could be Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence, sophomore year comes out, was already a top 10 fantasy quarterback so we know he could do it, had a down year and then got injured last year. Gets the change at coordinator, gets the added piece of Travis Hunter, has year to Brian Thomas. I think the weapons there.

Tim Patrick. Yeah, I mean, Tim Patrick's a nice wide receiver three. He's probably five. I mean, Diami Brown and Parker, Washington will be above him. Sure. My point is he's not one of the top two wide receivers because you have two kind of stud wide receiving options here. And this is a guy, you know, this is surprising. Fourth most passing touchdowns over the last three seasons that traveled more than 20 yards in the air.

And you put, you know, Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. with a good, you know, hopeful upgrade at coordinator and the system. I think they have a lot of weapons there. And if you look at Jacksonville as one of those teams that could take that leap forward, offensively speaking, Warren Sharp's sixth easiest ranked strength of schedule for 2025, you could see how like it won't be shocking if the Jaguars come out and put up a boatload of points. Yeah, I think the story Trevor Lawrence is. always been can you become you know can you go from j cutler to something

consistent and reliable and week to week because he's flashed he's had big games he can you know he's got talented receivers but can you suddenly you know can you go baker can you resurrect can you be be a big time passer without the turnovers every week it's funny because you know obviously he got injured missed a chunk of this last season um but if you compare his consistency to like mahomes you know who ranks like F inconsistency. He's a C inconsistency. He hasn't been great, but he's, he's shown enough where I, I do think he can do it. Yeah. It's a passing grade, Mike. So you say Trevor Lawrence, I'll raise you even nastier. I'm going. It's Daniel Jones. It's Daniel Jones,

the new starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. He has averaged 31 rushing yards per per game in his career which is actually the seventh most of any quarterback since 2000 and this is a tweet from Scott Barrett who said Daniel Jones offensive line rank by year 32nd 30th 30th

28 32nd 31st and now 7th and the weapons while you're not like oh my gosh it's just an abundance of riches but he has players that by next year like by next year

Tyler Warren could jump into being drafted as a top three tight end. Josh Downs, I think, could be draft, he can make a jump to be a top 24 drafted wide receiver. And, of course, checking it down to Johnny Taylor. Okay, go ahead. Legit philosophical question here for both of you. If you are the quarterback, you are a professional quarterback, would you rather have Malik neighbors and nothing? Forget the other situation.

Just as a wide receiver core, would you rather have a Malik neighbors, with no other great options to throw the ball to? Or would you rather have a pitman, a downs, a Tyler Warren? I lean that. I lean the way of having multiple good weapons over one just elite players. Can I pick the offensive line? And then throw in the offensive line. No, the offensive line is average in both situations.

I'll go to the neighbor's side because I think Slayton, Wondale are probably, you know, fine alongside Millie. I would definitely go the neighbor's way because I'm going to be one read and get the ball out every time. So my second, if I'm the quarterback, we saw what happened. They did that last year with neighbors and then neighbors was gone. Yeah. I will murder neighbors with my inaccuracy. It's disgusting, but I honestly believe it will not shock me if in week two, we're like, hey, stream of the week guys, Daniel Jones, he's still running and the Colts offense is a little bit better than we thought.

It will be interesting to watch in any. Indianapolis because that team could be surprising. They have the talent. They've got a division that they could win? Sure. Yeah, the matchups. Or it could just go or Richardson is starting by week four. Yeah, yeah, it could go downhill fast. So there you go. That's the fantasy time machine

for 2025. And we've got football in like a week and a day. So that's pretty exciting. we have fantasy MVP episode tomorrow is that right is that tomorrow that is tomorrow the fantasy MVP show so not only will we bring our fantasy MVP picks to the table but we will have i think seven special guests on the show tomorrow is that the right number mike seven uh nine or anywhere from one to 15 we will have several special guests on the show tomorrow sharing their fantasy MVP picks and their perspective on how they're going to get it done. So that's tomorrow.

We'll do another mock draft, the final mock draft before a big draft weekend so that you guys can see the lay of the land before you go and draft Saturday, Sunday, Monday as we head into the 2025 fantasy football season. So head over to Ultimate DraftKit.com. If you still need the UDK, make sure you use the draft analyzer. If you've already drafted, use the draft analyzer.

We grade your team and the rest of your league mates and their teams. we give you perspective on where you can improve on your team things to watch for, pay attention to, and give you basically a game plan to go into the season with because you don't win your league at the draft. You set the foundation and then you head into the season and you've got to continue to make improvements and moves which, you know, that's why we give you the tools

to do that throughout this season to equip you to make the best decisions for your league. So ultimate draft kit.com to check that out. Otherwise, we will catch you tomorrow on the fantasy MVP. episode. Take care, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join the foot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers.