Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Rookie Review + Worrisome Wideouts - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/17

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Fantasy Football show for Feb 17, 2026. Who will take a step forward in their second season? A review of the 2025 rookie class on today’s podcast! Which players can turn into fantasy football superstars? Plus, Andy, Mike, and Jason pick wide receivers they are worried about for the 2026 season. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.(00:00) Intro(04:15) What WR are you most nervous about?(19:50) Rookie Review(20:15) Quarterbacks(29:25) Running Backs(34:55) Wide Receivers(44:35) Tight EndsConnect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin 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. Welcome in. Oh, man. Oh, man. It's going to be one of those shows. That's not mid-season or off-season? That's mid-season. No, that's the beginning of a season.

All right. We just began. We just began 2026, Mike. Just now. I mean, it was like a month and a half ago, but... No, no, no, no. Football. Yeah, we're gonna...

We have the Mayan calendar. Right. And the NFL calendar. That's how I live my life. Exactly. I think I saw somebody talking about how, like, we don't, like, we shouldn't do New years the way we do New Year's. Like, the New Year should be like when spring starts.

You know what I mean? Because, like, our New Year is, like, the dead of winter and people are stuck indoors. Like, it should be in association. with spring and newness. Well, I think we should rotate the calendar. Basically what you're saying is the final month of the year should be like March. Correct. But I mean, I don't know when spring starts because we don't have seasons in Arizona.

We have hot or less hot. Because the, I mean, the less hot's pretty nice, though. We have you have the reverse seasons down under. Yeah, I don't. They don't. They're not part of our world, Mike. By the way. I am sorry, Australia.

Do you see we had the hottest February in Arizona in history by a lot? I felt to out like it. It was like an average, our average temperature for those out there. There's people buried in snow, man. I want you to understand this. You got it all. Our average temperature this month was 69 degrees. That's not cold.

That's pretty nice. The highest previous was like 64 as a high average. Like we're our water is, our water is gone. This is not good for summer. We don't have snow runoff. We got no water. Don't worry snow people. We're about to get it. Yeah.

We are doomed. It's coming for us. I'll say it once. I've been saying it for a while. We need to get this state indoors. We need to build a home. We need to build a whole. I mean, I'm team dome on that. Yeah, team dome on the state of Arizona. Put the whole state inside of a dome. That'd take a while. I feel like. That's a pretty big project. Yeah. What is that city they're building over in the Middle They canceled it. The line? Yeah, it's done.

No, they're doing that. No, I just saw the thing I got canceled. Wait, fully canceled? Yeah, we're done. I think they built a couple houses. That's the one where they built. Also, because it was Dubai, right? Dubai would put a lid on it.

It was a ridiculous idea. Hmm. They canceled it fully? What if we put a giant mirror in the middle of the desert? Yeah. Nothing will go wrong. That actually really disappoints me. That was the first city that seemed like it would be from like cyberpunk or something.

You know what I mean? What is this show? What are we talk about normally? We're going to talk about rookies of last season and how they fared. Because this is a fantasy football podcast. Yes, it is.

And we are the host of that show. It is Tuesday, February 17th. Welcome in one and all. Ultimate Draft Kit pre-order available at Ultimate DraftCit.com. Order by March 1st. And you'll be entered to win a listener league spot to play with us. The listener league winner of this past year, sequentially beat myself, I think

then Mike and then Jason to win the title. He laid down on the tracks. I beat myself. In the championship. To be fair, I was in the championship. To be fair. Yeah, so the very worthy winner is what I'm saying, but you could win a spot. My team was awesome and it got beat. Yeah, yeah, I felt good about mine and it went down.

Lowest price of the year as well, Ultimate draftKit.com. Our quick question of the day kind of around wide receivers what wide receiver are you the most nervous for for next year there could be a lot of reasons why things that you saw over this past year free agency coaching changes and any reason

is fine but is there a receiver that comes to mind where you are a very nervous right here right now yeah I mean for me I don't think I need to really explain the reasons if you paid any attention to football last year that's right And that drop really hurt him. When Gronk came out and said,

Emeka Egbekbu. That was the turning point for Emeka Egbuka. He said that on a very large NFL pre-show. Yeah. Pre-Egbibu, okay, he was 89 yards per game, 18 fantasy points per game. We're talking overall wide receiver one territory. post-ig-Big-boo. To start the year, in his first five games,

it was the second-most fantasy points of all time to start a career. Exactly. Behind Pook and Akua, just in front of Malik neighbors. And then Ig-Big-Boo happened. And from that point on, 41 yards per game, six fantasy points a game. That is the obvious reason why I am nervous. This is a player who I loved in college,

made him a my guy going into last year. He is a good wide receiver. He was talked up through the entire camp process. Baker talked about this rookie is coming in. looks like a vet, does everything right, loves him as a man, just espoused as much as he could about this rookie, like telling people, hey, he is the real deal. You come out, first five weeks of the season.

Obviously it was correct. So what in the freaking heck happened to make it to where you couldn't throw the ball to him? He had all uncatchable passes. When the ball went his way, he would drop it. I am really nervous. because I feel like I'm so invested in Ibuka on a number of levels that I feel like my normal default reaction would be to find a super clear path to tell you why he'll be fine.

Like that's how I feel like my default reaction would be in this situation. Like I feel biased towards his success. I'm rostering him and had him as a potential keeper. He won't be a keeper anymore. I just love what I saw in the field and the player and yet I can't get on this podcast and be like well I'm not worried about it at all it's totally fine like he'll be totally totally fine it's not a big deal

because I don't believe it because the path that you would describe happened for him when it all went wrong he got the opportunity to be the dude Mike Evans was injured Chris Godwin was gone it's like hey wow this great rookie step up and that's when he stepped down. So we don't know the status of Mike Evans, current free agent.

I don't think it's even... He got hurt, too, and there's a lot of talk ever since the hamstring injury for him. Not the same player. Yeah, I mean, I don't believe the situation around him really makes an impact. If Mike Evans is there, if Mike Evans is gone, Chris Godwin is fully healthy, if McMillan is a huge part of it. I think it's irrelevant. It's all about Big Buka.

Is it a mental thing? Was it a physical thing? Was it maybe a little bit of Baker in there too? Because Baker just had blinders on when he threw to Abuca. I believe it's going to work. If I have to, I will have to, when we start statting out the UDK, player by player, start at the team level, look at how many passing yards. I think Baker's going to have the percentages it goes.

I'm going to put a mecca as a player that I believe is going to. are in? My belief is in. I'm holding some chips back. Not all the chips. Yeah. Because I'm nervous. Look, I, uh, my player that I'm most nervous for a wide receiver, this is not going to be a surprise. I think a lot of people are annoyed, nervous, all of that. But I, for the first time this morning, I actually thought about maybe a, uh, an unfortunate comp. I, before you give the name, I think it's the, the, the connection here of being nervous about Emeka Abuka and being like

your guy, you're going to name. What you can name if you want. Okay, it's Mark. It's Marvin Harrison. I mean, this was, spoiler alert. You're going into years. Why would you do that?

I'm so sorry. But it's like, hey, year two. First round wide receiver. Ohio. This is wide receiver. You would, nothing. He will be just fine. And then Marv was not.

Oh, you're saying Abuka's one year. behind on that same path? Yes. Potentially. Look, here's the comp I started thinking about with Marvin and what people are going to have to reconcile. And the nervousness, it's across the board. Who's the quarterback? New head coach.

Michael Wilson's emergence. Trey McBride is the true number one and will remain the true number one. And if Michael Wilson gets more work, because I don't know, if I'm Mike LaFleur and I turn on the tape, I saw a lot from Michael Wilson. I didn't see much from Marvin Harrison. He had three weeks in his first. 29 games as a top 12 fantasy wide receiver. Mike, there is a player that plays for Pittsburgh who you begrudgingly kind of got on board

with at the very, very end, but mostly hated all offseason and his name is? Mike Caff. D.K. Mike Caff. I would like to file a motion. To remove your name from his name. Motion denied. There's a reality for Marvin Harrison where he never, ever, ever meets any of your expectations for superstardom, but settles into the worst version of D.K. Metcalf that you could

find. Yeah. That is, that's what I, when I watch Marvin Harrison, like, everything I saw for Michael Wilson was better than what I've seen from Marvin Harrison. Marvin Harrison has more often than not, not made the big play, not made the difficult play. He has made a handful in two years of plays where I was like, oh. And the rest have been very pedestrian, even the production, It plays any wide receiver should make. It's Michael Pittman, which is no, it's not disrespect to Michael Pittman,

but it's good wide receiver. It's like, dude. That's not who Marv was drafted to be. You spent too much draft capital to get Michael Pittman or the worst version of Metcalf. You were searching after his, his pop up. Yeah, you were searching after a world-class wide receiver.

I still, I still believe. I still believe, and there is enough on tape. I know you're saying that Michael Wilson, honestly, Michael Wilson on tape, definitely looked better than Marvin Harrison. Were you watching Ohio State tape? I remember the Ohio State tape. But, I mean, in the first nine weeks of the season before he got injured, 55% of his games, he was a wide receiver two or better. Like, that's a good clip for two? Wide receiver two?

Yeah. That's a real. Yeah. Okay. How about the same exact thing? So half the time he was a wide receiver two or better? I think you're making my point. I don't think you understand the percentage of, I mean, outside the top like four or five wide receivers who are up there 80 to 90% of the time, that's not a bad rate for a wide receiver at all.

But we want top 12. Okay. So you're telling, let me put it this way. 45% of the time he wasn't even a wide receiver too. Correct. On a week. Sure. Yes.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's these facts. Get out of here.

Let me read you, D.K. McCaff's fantasy finishes in his career. 32, 7, 12, 18, 16, 31, 26. I hope that's not what we're reading off in five years. That's all I'm saying about Marv. Do I want him to succeed, of course? But his play is so inconsistent right now, whether those numbers are, you know,

those numbers notwithstanding. his play on a play to play basis is inconsistent. The great ones don't do that. The great ones, they don't go ping ponging between what are you doing on that play and, oh, that was nice. You know, that's my point. And I'm really nervous. I'm really nervous because who's playing quarterback for Arizona? Yeah, I mean, how long is the journey going to be from here to relevance?

The quarterback issue is probably the biggest issue with Mark. I think it's Kyler my guy that I'm nervous about it is another first round wide receiver another top 10 wide receiver is Romo Dunze of the Chicago Bears and the

like a Buka the first month it's such a good name the first month of the season was great for fantasy because Mr. Rome put up five times touchdowns in four games.

Five touchdowns and four games will absolutely keep you afloat. But so he, Rome appeared in, you know, he got hurt at the end of the year. He missed five of the regular season games, but he played two games of the playoffs. So you're talking 15, or I'm sorry, 14 games. He was over, like, do you guys know the average to get to a thousand yards now with 17 games? It's like 59 yards. Yeah. He was, in which that's, for fantasy, definitely.

Garbage. If you're telling me you're averaging 59 yards a week, like, that's not going to get it done. And even that mark, he hit it five times. Five? Five. I'm counting the playoff games too, which maybe you're like, hey, I'm not going to count the playoff games because he was coming off the injury. I'm going to count him because the issue is Colston Loveland, Mr. Loveland, Luther Burden. Like, DJ Moore is already not even in the equation anymore, at least in my opinion, for fantasy of who can be. fantasy correct. In the financial equation, he's very much. He's a Chicago bear. I'm saying he won't, like, we aren't worried about DJ Moore or saying, hey, guys, I think the number one target for Chicago, it still might be DJ Moore. I think that that is not happening, but you have two other guys

who are top contenders to be that for the Chicago Bears. Mr. Loveland was not even really, he wasn't part of the equation when Rome was having the good games at the beginning of the year. I'm very concerned for him, especially considering like the investment into Rome. It's like Marv, where Abuca kind of fell a little bit in rookie drafts compared to how a first round wide receiver normally. But people were in on Rome. People were very in on Rome. And I'm just like, I don't know that there is a path for him to ever become anything close to what he was drafted to be. These three names, I think at one point if you threw them all on a dynasty roster, you'd be,

oh, my gosh, if you had, maybe like three weeks into last year. I've got the future of the national football league on my roster. I'm going, I will have a dynasty in our dynasty league. Yeah. And now you're hoping, like, oh, tell me one of them works out. So put them in order of nerves for you, Jason. Like most nervous to least nervous about because it sounds like Marv is your least nervous, probably. Yeah, I think I'm most nervous.

about Rome, not based on what I've seen from him specifically, more based on what I saw from Loveland and even Luther Burden. The fact that the bears, I think, are going to be able to spread the ball around. And Rome, to me, profiles now as a touchdown dependent player. He is not going to be the alpha. But he can be good at that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. He could have a season where he, you know, only has 60 receptions, but has over a thousand yards. and, you know, nine touchdowns and is really good for fantasy. That's, you know, that's fine. But his pathway, like if the touchdowns don't come,

he might be the third wide receiver on his team. Can we just spread the production from Caleb Williams into all the quarters of the game, please? So we can just see normalcy. I'm probably the most nervous about Abuca in that bunch. Sure. And I probably, I would probably be, I'd probably be the least nervous about Marv to.

of those three, I think that's my, because he is the, Abuca could be the one, two, three, four, or five pass catching option. Rome could be three or four. Marv, it's going to be two or three. My list would be, I'm most nervous about Rome. Second would be Marv, I'm least concerned about Ibuka. Yeah, okay. Well, that makes me happy, Mike.

Persuade me. No, not now. Oh, just like I, throughout the entire off season, just persuasion. just persuade me, keep saying nice teams. He's going to need a constant drip of positivity. That's it. I mean, Mike Evans is the first shoe that has to drop. Yes, off the team and into the Hall of Fame.

Oh, that's do it. Let's do it. Fourth ballot, Hall of Fame. Yeah. Wide receiver. I am curious about current best ball ADP on these three players. Oh, yeah. If you haven't seen it, what order do you think they're being drafted in?

Oh, this is awesome. Wow. Are we, we're in basketball? I'm going to guess. Okay, upside. I'm going to guess that Adunze is going ahead of Marv. And I'm going to guess that Abuka is going behind both. Okay.

You're correct on one, incorrect on another. I'll tell you in a second. We're playing mastermind right now. Okay, yeah. Crap. Okay, I think the first person would be... That's impossible. There's only three names.

Yeah, you just got to say it. I'll go... Shoot your shot. I'll go Marv... Marv Abuka Rome. It is Marv last. Yeah. As the wide receiver 33.

Yeah. Two years. Rome wide receiver 28 and Ibuka is still being drafted pretty hot and heavy. Wide receiver 23. Okay. Okay. Okay. Luther Burden.

Wide receiver 22. Yeah. That's right, baby. Oh, man. That feels. That feels dumb. Just another on the year with Mike that came on at the end. Luther burden.

I don't know if we can actually hit. it, but he is so good. See, Luther Bird. Here's the thing, both Luther Burton and Roma Dunesay, I think they're both super talented, and they share the exact same problem, which is... Colston Love him. Yeah. There was a switch in the NFL headquarters that said, what is happening, and Mike turned it

to what I want to happen. That is literally, click. But Luther Burton is going to siphon off both these guys, and then each one of those two, they'll take turns. They'll be like, oh, Luther is so good. Look, oh, Rome sucks. And then Rome will get two touchdowns in a row. You'd be like, ah, Luther's done now.

Rome's stepping up. It's just going to be like that forever. All right, we're going to take a break. We're skipping news. We're pre-recording this show by a couple of days. And we're jumping into a rookie review. All right, here we go. Rookie review.

All right, we're going to take a little walk through the positional groups for the rookies. in 2025 and compare them historically. And we're going to start with the quarterback position. So we want to see how this quarterback rookie class compared to previous years. Over the last decade, we only had four years where multiple rookie quarterbacks average 17 plus fantasy points per game in their starts. Hard to do for rookie quarterbacks.

So four times in 10 years or about as many times as Marv is a wide receiver too. And 17 points per game, the reason we're using. that metric. That's basically what the quarterback 12 is on average over any given season. So this year there were multiple. There were two rookie quarterbacks who hit that mark and

Ham Ward. Nope. Oh, no, no, no. It's Jackson Dart and Tyler Shuck. Now what's interesting is neither of them really had this like it wasn't like the whole season. Right? Tyler Shuck came on at the end. Jackson Dart had a nice run, injury.

What's going on? Good run. Injury. Yeah, so. Nice individual run, injury. Yeah, so it's interesting. Jackson Dart, Tyler Shuck, I mean, they were the most exciting rookie quarterbacks, both from an NFL and a fantasy perspective. It wasn't Cam Ward, although he played better over the second half of the year. He did.

Probably had the least total at his disposal, I would say, in terms of weapons, offensive line. For sure? For sure. Yes. Yeah. I would say for sure. I mean, I know Chris, I love Chris Olav.

but there was not much else to work with. Chris Olivae is a great player. Joanne Johnson is a serviceable tight end. I think if you switch the quarterbacks, if you switch the quarterbacks, you'd be saying Calvin Ridley still had it. And you had Epic Isle Manor, and you had Chigo Concoe.

I would disagree. Watching them, it was, they were not good. And then I'm also including that coaching. Sure, coaching. it's dart is the ceiling play. He is the far scarier player who keeps running headfirst into the ground and into defenders

and sometimes his offensive line. And I am a little bit nervous about Matt Nagy being the mastermind of the offense for the Giants. You know, we talked about the Callahan stuff. He's the what, the passing game coordinator. It's not as, he's not as high on the level as Nagy is who.

Nagy has like two years of success and those were with Mahomes and then he had years of not being great with Mahomes and then he had his own team and it was awful. And they didn't, you know, he's not taking a better role. Right. Somewhere else.

And then so, but Dart is the player who he runs. So for fantasy football that's what we want. Tyler Shuck might end up being the guy because he can make all the throws. He does run enough or you know to to boost the floor and his coach his coach gives his like kellen more i mean we get hot and bothered by a lot of of different coaches and people might be like i'm tired of

hearing about it wherever kellen more has gone there has been fantasy goodness because of how he runs his offense you know specifically fast-paced when you are playing multiple when you get multiple snaps more per game over the course of the season it really, really adds up. So while Dart is the he's the one I prefer, you know, no risk it, no biscuit, no biscuit.

I think you could easily end up being Tyler Schuck who's just this real steady top eight, you know, like top six to eight quarterback for fantasy. I think one of the best things Callen Moore did was entrust Tyler Shuck to throw the football and make bigger plays. Yes. And give

him responsibility. Like sometimes he's offensive coordinators can just try to do too much protecting of the young player and then you don't get to see enough. I think they protected him in the right way, which was via Spencer Rattler. They gave him time to not just... Just by comparison, Spencer Rattler. Look how good Shuck is. But having Spencer Rattler win the job start in week one and letting Shuck have the time on

the bench, that could have been helpful for him, even though he played 20 years of So fantasy-wise, looking at, I mean, those are two guys over 17 fantasy points per game in their starts. And Jackson Dart, by the way, fifth best among rookie quarterbacks ever averaging 41 rushing yards per game in those starts. But among the quarterbacks that have done that have gone over 17 fantasy points per game in year one, 50% of them were a top five quarterback within the next two years. That's wild. So shoot your shot, right? I mean, year two jumps for Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Kyla Murray, for fantasy-wise. I agree with Mike.

If you have to call your shot on one of these guys being top five, which is a real fantasy asset, it's Jackson. It's got to be Jackson Dart with the incredible amount of rushing that he does. He did all that without Malik. Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about the worst receiving core. Wondale and I think Wondale's good. No, Wondale's good, but I'm saying that's that's his best. He's not as good as Chris Olavay. Agreed.

So maybe Dart. I mean, all three of these guys did not have a ton to work with. There you go. So, you know, look at those other quarterbacks who hit 17 plus fancy points per game. There was some regression in year two. Baker Mayfield, C.J. Stroud, Bow, Nicks. Those are players that their fancy points per game decreased by three fancy points per game. we might have been having that conversation about Jaden Daniels

had he gotten more of the season too. Jason brought up frequently how nice their schedule was in his rookie season. Year two we didn't see when we did the True Series and we talked about Jaden for a minute. We just didn't see the peak games and the, you know, in the few that he got. But yeah, and we'll see where Cam Ward falls in next year with, I mean, maybe an extremely talented wide receiver being added to the roster and some offensive line improvements.

They got to do something. And spending a lot of that capital, new head coach, new offense coordinator, Brian Dable. Like there is a lot of reasons. I mean, being drafted at the one-on-one by some time. I mean, Bryce Young is still playing because if Bryce Young was drafted in the second round, he would have been moved on from already. And that's where Cam Ward can compete with Tyler Shuck and Dart from not so much Darb. Shuck, you know, if things go wrong, the rug can get pulled.

If things go wrong for Cam Ward, it won't get pulled. But I would still definitely bet on both Dart and Shuck over Cam Ward. Do you realize, I mean, when you look behind the scenes, I know the fantasy numbers weren't prolific or anything, and again, his weapon sucked. But I'm looking at Cam Ward's game log right here, right? He started the year, and he threw four touchdowns and what looks like, one, two, three, four, five, six interceptions. Okay?

you come out of the by week and I know we said that coaching change happened but also the by week and getting into the speed of the league you realize from the by week on he threw 24, 6, 8, 10 touchdowns and one pick I didn't realize the interceptions. He threw one interception

from week 10 on. If the entire season on a team that was constantly losing ball games and had to throw the football I think that that is what you we all said well he looks better I think that was a big part of the equation was like you're now running the offense. They were coming back in some of these games.

So, I mean, I didn't know that either. I didn't know the touchdown interception ratio was that good in the second half of the year. But I don't think people should be out on Cam Ward. He needs to have some time to develop, have competent coaches around him. It's just the, he's more of a pocket passer. You know what those, after the by week, he had right out the gate two games with 30 plus rushing yards.

Okay. That's like we would definitely take that. That's really solid. But then the remaining, what, six games? He surpassed 10 rushing, or he hit and surpassed 10 rushing yards twice. Like, so it's just, it doesn't, it won't be there for fantasy because he'll be a pocket passer. So even if. What pick do they have?

Four or five? Yeah, around there. I mean, they're probably the top, at least one of the highly highly mocked teams to go, Jordan Tyson, Mackay Lemon, Carnal Tate. If they get one of those guys, that'll be exciting.

They need to give him one of those guys. As the archetype of the pocket passer, he'll have, he'll just fluctuate. Oh, for sure. For sure. So the, you know, dart and shuck, because they're running more, it's just better for our game. All right, let's look at the running back position.

Over the last decade, on average, we have had three rookies finish as top 24 running backs, either looking at points per game or total points. So rookie running backs, at least three on average. So you look at this year, and this is perfect timing because we just on the Thursday show last week, talked about how there were five rookie running backs that finished in the top 24 in fancy points per game. And that's, I mean, we've only seen that in 2020. But only points per game because they didn't play all their games, basically. This is a weird season.

Trayvion, Hampton, Harvey, Judkins. But we also talked about how they were the literal five lowest efficiency running backs as well. So from a yards per carry standpoint, I thought that that was kind of interesting. But we got five. We got five of those names, but I don't necessarily think that any of them felt like that. Bucky Irving level team addition because of the injuries, because of the inconsistency of when you knew you were going to get it from them. I think Trayvion had his nice window for sure and Gentie did too at the end of the season. Judkins seemed really impressive. Yeah,

I think all these rookies showed enough in their rookie season in bursts and stretches for extreme excitement for most all of them going forward. TBD on the Judkins injury. recovery process outside of that, then it's really... Harvey's at the bottom of my list of those five. Is he at the bottom of the list for you guys? Probably at the bottom of the list. I fully expect J.K. Dobbins to resign

and be back with the Broncos, and that'll be a full-time share. You're hoping that there is a year to leap in workload and trust for, you know, now he's somewhat of a veteran running back. Hampton, they shouldn't have Nagy there anymore. I think Hampton is very, very exciting going forward. He showed enough and will be the guy from day one.

It'll be interesting. You want to see the efficiency get better for all of them, but here's the numbers behind the numbers here. Among the running backs who were top 24 in year one, so there's five of those guys this year, 79% 79% of them were top 12 the next year

Yes it is a incredibly good bet to make but it's like so the example is you know McCaffrey Camara Jamir Gibbs pass catchers you have to be a pass catcher

to get into the top 12 unless you're Derek Henry and you're getting 12 plus touchdowns sort of feels like Judkins is the only one not in that category of these five which is not fair to Judkins. Like, Judkins had, Judkins can catch.

You know, like, in college, he caught, at least my memory. Can he like Ken Walker catch? I mean, it's just, can you, can you be reliable in that part of the game? And it's like, like, Judkins, you know, his

last two years in college, twenty-two receptions in both of them. It feels like he's part of his profile. There's using him wrong. Yeah, and it's also what else do you have around? Like, Trayvion is going to be... Yeah, I know, the Cleveland Browns, exactly. What else do they have around them? I mean, Della Samson was a very capable pass catcher for them.

Sure. I'm just saying, like, Harvey's the pass catcher. Trayvion's the past catcher. Jentis's the pass catcher. No, Trayvion should be the passcatcher. Unfortunately, Romandre caught a ton of passes. That's true. Yeah, that's true. But... Trayvion is the most interesting

to me, because what he showed is that when he was all alone, was a dominant force that made the offense better. Right. Gentie was already alone. And then when Ramandre came back, they still said, Ramandre is our starter. Remandre, and then you go into the playoffs and you had teams, they still will.

Him and Harvey feel the same, Mish, except for more explosive for Trayvion. I agree. I mean. Yeah, what's the ADP? Like, I see, Genties at 11. Hampton's at 15 or 16. Where is, where are the other names? like you're going to have Scataboo coming back who we don't get to talk about, but really.

Scataboo is being drafted in front of Hendo Harvey and Judkins. And that's the order, Hindo Harvey Judkins? Yeah, yes. I think we do. That's a tough one. We will need health information on Scataboo and Judkins before we know where we should be drafting them. I mean, if I knew Cam Scatabu was fully healthy, he'd be right up there with Hampton to me. There were big time flops in that same category, only 33% of them.

but in year two, losing about 2.6 fantasy points per game, Damien Pierce, Javante Williams, Bucky Irving, Clyde Edwards-A-Lare, who was a top 25 back as a rookie. By the way, that was the other five running back here. You ready for the names? So 2020. John the Taylor? Yes.

Yeah, you're still good. James Robinson. Oh, yeah. Antonio. Draft Capital Matters. Gibson. Yep. DeAndre Swift.

Hanging around. And then C.E.H. whoops so let's take a break and we'll talk wide outs and tight ends all right let's look at the wide receiver position since 2019 did you have something you wanted to add uh in a later why did you raise your hand then well no

I'm just I'm excited to say something at the end of the show call on me in about hold on stop to show three to five minutes I need to say something in about Well, I can essentially lay this out, since we're between running back and wide receivers, I think it is worth looking at the overarching view of how the draft class was expected to play out versus how it did play out and how that compares from 2025 to this incoming class of 2026, because they are inverse.

Last year was a running back heavy draft class where everyone was like, man, it's so deep. There are so many great running backs. There's super high-end talent. And then the next tier are guys that can be real difference makers. Wide receivers, there's like a guy or two we like, and then it's pretty weak. And that totally played out. It was just true. And we'll talk about that in a second when we look at what usually happens with wide receivers versus what actually happened with wide receivers.

But this year, the expectation going in is the exact opposite. It's a very deep wide receiver draft class. There isn't a definite Malik neighbors. Jamar Chase. Yeah, I know. But it's... You don't feel that way? I love Tyson.

I think he is... Is he your... He's my number one. He is currently right now. Yeah, right now he is both? Yeah, right now he is. I didn't know he was your one. Yeah.

I love it. But the wide receivers, there's a lot. There could be five or six wide receivers drafted in the first round this year. That's great. Running backs, yeah, you've got Love, who you'll, you'll, if you don't know the rookies yet, you know, you'll know him. And then, okay, there's a guy or two you can like it. It's pretty weak, man.

So I expect this year to play out opposite of last year. I think you want to invest in rookie wide receivers and probably avoid the middle-tier rookie running backs. Probably, yeah, definitely a good thing to mention as we get towards this next crop of, you know, you're in the dynasty past, you're looking at where we have our pre-draft rookie rank. you know, it changes, ebbs and flows year to year. And a lot of, you know, we were talking about this with the NIL and with the collegiate level, a lot of players are going back.

You know, we had some quarterbacks we thought we're coming out. They're not going to come out. You might have a one or two year delay until you start getting maybe even better draft classes than ever before because you've stayed in college for a couple more years. It's just you've got to catch up to that if guys are going back and taking the NIL money, right? Yeah. It is worth noting. I mean, we don't know how many guys are going to go back to college in 2028, but

right now. I know it's early, but you know for the dynasty players out there, 2027 draft class looks really good. All right, wide receivers. Since 2019, we've had at least four rookie wide receivers finish inside the top 36 every single year.

Last year, it was BTJ and Neighbors and McConkey and Marv and Xavierworthy. In 2025, we had two. Exactly. And one of them... And they weren't big fantasy.

Like one was the rookie of the year. Tetero-McMillan, and his fantasy finished was 17. And the other was a Meccaabuka. And he finished at 20. So... And then Luther Burden is sitting there, and he didn't contribute over a long enough period of time to matter.

He was heard at the beginning. And it's exciting. But yeah, it was definitely... I mean, Brian Thomas was the number four wide receiver last year. Malik Nibers was seven. Mokonki was 12. We had three top 12. This year we had two top 20,

and they were... were barely in there. This was the fewest receiving yards of any wide receiver rookie class since 2018. So, to your point. What we thought was going to happen, happened. And I know that there was more excitement when the Packers stupidly took Matthew Golden in the first round because it's like, oh, good, another first round wide receiver. But the expectation, did he end up not doing much? He didn't do first round caliber. I think, think he did exactly what most people thought you would do but not the packers you mean scoring the

playoffs yeah for the first time that was that was too funny um yeah i mean fewest wide receiver uh yards many classes 2018 so you know Travis hunter it seemed like there was an emergence about to happen there was like one game right yeah uh it was it was that big game and now and now all of a sudden because the emergence of the other wide receivers Parker Washington looking good. Yeah, he had the 14 targets, eight catches 101, and a touchdown, and then it's like,

went into the buy, we can got hurt over the buy. Yeah, and, and, but now it's, there's talk about maybe they focus him more on cornerback since they kind of don't need him at wide receiver. Which, yeah, yeah, that could delete. Yeah, you just delete a player.

And Jaden Higgins, you know, he had his moments, but he's mixed in with Jalen Noel and some of it was injury to Nico Collins, hated, Jayden Higgins was a name I thought about talking about for our opening segment, but it's like, he doesn't have the...

Not important enough. Yeah, he doesn't carry the weight with the name. The fact that as games got more important, the rookies played less for the Houston Texans was very concerning. That is the complete opposite of what should happen if a team is confident that this... Can I make a counter? Can I make a counter argument to that?

Yes. In 15 minutes. Yeah. Talk to me later. I'm preparing it right now. What Higgins did when he was on the field was very good. He wasn't on the field as much. And I think that that is more coaching rather than him not stepping up and just taking it over.

Right. But the question is. But going in the next year, he's not a rookie anymore. And I think the coaches are going to say, okay, now is the time to trust and blah, blah, blah. I guess my only counter-counter point would be that I, I didn't, I saw a solid receiver play from Higgins, but not, not the stuff I saw from Tett or Abuka at his peak. Oh, so much.

So he just seemed like, is this guy going to be kind of locked into like wide receiver to three territory? Receivers should get stronger as the season goes. You should not see less playing time. That's a red flag. Maybe it goes away because Higgins was an interesting prospect of what a second round pick. I'm okay with the play. but hate the ending.

I think you're more likely to see one of these names emerge than Jaden Higgins as a fantasy value in the next three years, which is, I'm going to give you some names, you pick your favorite. Just give me your favorite. They're all Mike's favorite. Literally they actually might all be his favorite. Kyle Williams, Isaac to Slaw, Pat Bryant, Jalen K, Jalen Raleigh, D.K. Do not forget, for goodness sakes, about Torrey Horton.

Sure. Because Cooper Cups' time, it's ending. and Torrey Horton was flashing five touchdowns and then forgotten about because he had a Super Bowl champ. He had 13 receptions and five touchdowns. And then Tess Johnson kind of opportunistically. But is there a name in there that you think like if you had to bet on one of those guys being a wide receiver two perennially, is there a name?

The one I would expect to be the most productive next year is Pat Bryant. But it's a because of the. the opportunity. Like, the way I saw it anyways playing out was that Pat Bryant was kind of solidifying himself as the, as the number two guy behind Cortland Sutton. But then he just got hurt like every single game. You know, Williams, it's tough. He had 10 catches.

He had three touchdowns. He showed the big playability. I don't know what Vrabel's plan will be for Kyle Williams. Well, he just continued to be that type of a. a field-stretching gadget player, and then Tesla is, oh, gosh, if we ever got to unleash Tesla, it would be incredibly fun, but Amon Ross St. Brown and Jameson Williams in front of you. And Sam Leporta. And Leporta.

It's like, you, he needs the runway to clear before he even gets a chance. Better make your big plays. Yes. Horton is the one that I think is going to be, it's pretty interesting to me and maybe more forgotten about. Yeah, and I would throw Tim Radeeke out there as interesting because he probably did the most this year of all of these. wide receivers that you just named. And then if you look at how good he was on special

teams, it just showed when he was on the NFL field against NFL defenders. Yeah, he belongs. He is good. He is electric. And so if he gets more involved as a wide receiver, obviously the new coaching staff and all that, he showed enough to break out. And then I will not stand for, despite him playing every game and doing nothing for the entire season. I still love Troy Harris. Oh, dude, I'm in. I'm in on Troy Harris. Is a perfect. sleeper candidate. You're going to have Mike, Mick, Dan, Yoll.

Nice. First try. I thought we were going to Mickey D's. Oh. You don't want to put the D's on there. But it's like a wholesome. You know. Anyways. Well, yeah, Trey Harris is definitely interesting. At the tight end position looking at the Rookie Review.

And we're getting a photo of the old school Michael McDonald's. I'm not in love anymore. Oh, yeah. Dude, Michael McDonald Rips. Yacht Rock? Dude, he rips, man.

Hot rock. Yeah, even if that was called. It makes so much sense. Apparently, Brooks was hoping you'd do an impression of Michael McDonald. It's rock for uppity rich people. We were definitely jamming on that in the office at one point. I remember that. I mean, it's regulators, dude.

That's how much it rips. Warren G was like, dude, Michael McDonald rips. Let's go. Oh, my goodness. All right, tight-in position as we close out our rookie review. Thank you. I was hoping. 2025 gave us the most targets, receptions,

receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns by rookie tight-ins ever. Makes sense. Targets, receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns. Loveland, Fanon, Warren. Let's go. Yeah, and I believe it's bright futures for all three of them. And then there are still behind those three excellent wide receivers. There are still guys that could, I mean, I don't think Terrence Ferguson is, is done.

They use, Meowson Taylor. Oh, I thought you were saying Ferguson is. Sorry, no, no, no. Oh, I was just saying another rookie. But my favorite of all the tight ends behind is Orande Gadsden, Gadsden, who looked outstanding in stretches this season. What a great tight-end draft class. This year, not a very deep tight-in.

Not very deep, but you could still have, I mean, Sadiq is going to go very, very high. Sadiq will be interesting. And then some people are more, I mean, more in on, what, Stowers? Yeah, there's some. Claire? Yeah, there's some names. And if you want to hear more about the rookie tight-end class,

we kind of previewed the guys at the top on this week, or last week's Dynasty Pod. and I dropped I already got it's not going to surprise you Andy there's already a tight end who I really really like oh my gosh Benson it's brothers in this class yeah Mike has a tight

he wants a big tight end that just mows people downish punish people be like what what crime am I guilty of I am bigger than you that is the crime and you will be punished and that's why he did not like meowson Taylor

correct um still wait to break a tackle? Is that what we're... Oh, we are still waiting. Although... Can we get rid of the old refrain that rookie tight ends take a while to develop, considering the last four years, three years?

Yes, they didn't need to develop anymore? I think that the only thing that you still hold on to is you don't assume that when a rookie tight end doesn't have a breakout season, that it can't still happen. I hear what you're saying. That's a Gadsden. No, no. No, the new started for Washington.

three. Oh, yeah. Break out. I'm not going to doubt, Mike, until this year is definitively over with something horrible happening to one of his predictions. Unleashed the senator. We're not in love anymore. We got to get this show over so we can just blast some Michael McDonald.

That's, that is correct. But yeah, Loveland, Warren, you talked about some of the other names. I think Ferguson's interesting. Yes. So you two, as is Gunner Helm? Oh, Gunner Helm is sneaky, dude. Literally. Everyone, everyone,

very sneaky. Everyone, Loveland, Warren, Ferguson, Arroyo. Not so much. Okay, not all of them. Maybe. There's two, Arroyo and Mason Taylor.

I am not very interested in. Because you're a Barner man. Everyone else has a place on a dynasty roster. And I know we've talked about the trifecta several times already this off season. But I just want to confirm for fantasy purposes, you guys, do you both have Loveland as the one you would draft first? Of the three?

Yeah, yeah. And I have fan. I won't have to draft him, though. You know what I mean? Yeah. He'll already be on my team. Right. Because it'll be a keeper.

Yeah. For my future title team. Right. I just want to remind the list of that our keeper situation is you're not keeping them out of a pick. You're keeping your best three players. So he will be one of your keepers? Yeah.

Okay, cool. So it's like drafted him in the first three rounds. Would you do that? He's trying to make this bad for me? Sir. He's trying to make this bad? Loveland's not going to the first three. Speaking of the first three rounds, how many picks do you have in the first three rounds?

You can't let go of your hatred of Loveland. No. I don't hate Loveland. Yes, you do. I'm mocking, keeping him. He's not going to go in the top three rounds. Where would he go? Fourth round?

I think Loveland will be a fourth or fifth rounder, yeah. He won't be in the fifth. Our situation is positional. We force positional diversity as well. So it's not like we just keep our best players. We have some like rule sets in there. But I like you trying to shame my picks. It's what I would do if I didn't have any picks.

I would try to make other people's players seem worse. We'll say more again. Keep again. Hit it. Hit that button. All right. We're going to say goodbye. Yeah, we're out of here.

Mock draft first round next episode. Don't miss it. Ultimate draft kid.com. if you just need more good rookie chat. Check it out. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com.

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