Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - The TRUTH: Top 10 Fantasy TEs + Wheel of Shame - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/5

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Fantasy Football show for Feb 5, 2026. The final TRUTH episode of the year! A deep dive look at the TE position! Consistency scores, boom/bust games, and tons more. Who will be a value pick in 2026 fantasy football drafts? Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.Connect 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. Oh, welcome in. It's big game time. Thursday, February 5th, we are recording in the morning, record release day. So we are, you know, it didn't come out at 2 a.m. or whatever it's been doing in the soft season. to the 2 a.m. crowd. Yeah. They're always very happy when they get the 2 a.m. update.

I don't know why they're awake. But we're here. They're working security. Yeah. Yeah, and it's quiet, and they just need a podcast to watch slash listen to. We have a great show for you today. We have our final truth episode talking about

the top 10 tight ends. I have a couple of things I want to ask you guys about them. That's good. We have the fantasy faceoff. Our last one. to say about him. So that's a problem. I mean, I don't always ask you a question. Sometimes you just say stuff. Okay. Um, we have the entire Ducer's Alley crew here in the building. No one currently in the restroom for, for the time being. Jeremy with his safety running shirt on just in case he's running at night. I did want to bring this. My goodness. I wanted

to bring this up. I like it here. Yeah. When he walked in, I saw him. And what, what I mean is he was a mile away. Yeah. But. Drivers sunglasses on, I hope. Like Jason, you, when, you, when you, when you, when you, when, you went from like fat to fit you can go fat to less fat I was trying to decide you you you are the gradient right like you

you always wore black shirts right then you moved into like dark navy navies and now you're looking some maroon but still darker hues oh absolutely and Al is very famously a black clothing guy I now I sounds like I'm calling well he was fat

what I'm saying is I really thought you were going to say he's famously fat I was like, oh, wow, oh wow. I can't tell you how much I didn't mean for this to happen. Oh, you walked right into that. Anyways, keep going. Talk about how fatty is. No, he wears, he goes from like all black outfits to like Jimmy Buffett all the time.

He's always got like a very like. You must have a cruise plane. No, I can tell you why this happened. I do. Yeah. Is that what it is? It started from a cruise for sure because this man, no matter what, even when he was in our collective big boy days, whenever he went on a cruise,

he would go and get the wildest, brightest. Complicated patterns? Complicated patterns. The most complicated? You have no idea how expensive. And he would wear those on the cruise ship. And I think one of the times he was on a cruise, he goes, I think I just look better in these, which you probably do.

And I'm proud of you. I like you. I love it. And when he plays pickleball, he's always got really cool shirts for pickleball as well. This was all meant to be complimentary, and it really walked into a fantastically fat joke, and that's not what it was. Famously fat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Please. Not fantastically. No, it wasn't fantastic. I did it again. Infamously. You fat? Oh, man. Welcome into the podcast.

I love my producers so much. Big day on. You really have to go with the big day? Oh, come on! Andy has sometimes the words come out faster than... Yeah, I've got coffee. Then his brain is like, I know exactly where this is going, but it's like the words are already out.

Yeah. And then you catch up. You're like, oh. You're darn right. You're darn right. Oh. But we're moving on. Well, this is our last show before the big game.

And the big game is our way. I mean, we have them put that on to celebrate the Ultimate Draft Kit pre-order day. So that'll be available. Ultimate draft kit.com on Sunday. If you're on the newsletter, you'll get an email about it. You can pay attention to social media. The Falcon will have stuff out there. You can start getting hyped on all these rookies.

If you get the UDK Plus, the Dynasty past the first release is on Super Bowl Sunday. So while you're waiting for football to happen, you can get in there, look at the team opportunity pages, look at the lay of the land on the rookies, our dynasty startup rankings, all that will be available. Super Bowl Sunday. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's going to be fun. UltimateDraftKit.com.

We've done a lot of work. There's new features coming, a fully refreshed, like visual on the app. And, yeah, it's going to be a blast. You can follow us on social media, by the way, on X at the FF Ballers, Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers.

I encourage you to do that. No quick question today, but we'll jump right into the news. News and notes from around the league. Uh-oh. Oh, no. I just realized. I realized what I got to do, guys.

The Giants, if you're watching on YouTube, the Giants hired. Ready? Former Chiefs Offensive Coordinator. Hey-ya! Matt Nagy. The bunch of magicians back, baby. Now here's what's... He's got a new job.

Mike just threw... I mean, he's not that he was gone, but he's really back now. Mike playing some 52 card pickup here in the studio. More like a maybe like a 23. So here's the deal. I want to let people know what happened. We have a company Slack. channel that shares the breaking news.

We have kind of a ridiculous policy. Like somebody is always, we're always eager to break the news. Everyone's paying attention to the whatever's going on on social media. And if you break the news and then you break the news to like you double up on the news. If you post anything in Slack that had already been

posted, you get body back. Yeah, that's like a shameful thing to do. Like, but what happened is, the other day we got a report. And Mike is incredibly into Jackson Dart. A believer, collecting all of his cards. My money is where my mouth this.

For good reason, right? Like we have a lot of expectations. Harbaugh, neighbors coming back, Scataboo. Jackson Dart was already a fantasy darling during the games he played, the majority of them. And so we get this news that Cliff Kingsbury is going to be the next OC of the Giants. And Mike is, he's riding high. He's riding away.

You got Kyler's rookie and sophomore season that was outstanding with Cliff Kingsbury, the mobile quarterback. Then he goes to Jaden Daniels, rocks the world with Jaden Daniels, his rookie season, mobile quarterback. Jackson Dart with Cliff. That is fantasy gold. That's NFL success. That's great. I believe Mike said, oh, baby. Yes.

It was in all caps. So it was more like an, oh, baby. But that was shared by a buffoon and was not true. Like, hey, if you're online and you are, like, you're in sports and you're trying to get into the breaking news game, have some sources. And your sources don't just be randos on the internet where you're like, oh, this is being reported. Well, I'm going to get out in front of it. Like, you should have people you talk to. So from a emotional perspective, Mike, Matt Nagy is the opposite of how you felt about Cliff Kingsbury?

That dude. How these guys keep getting jobs? I have no idea. Well, he's the offensive coordinator. So are you, are you nerfing your, your Jackson Dart excitement, or are you? I think that he can rise above.

You're trusting that head coach Matt Nagy was the real problem. No, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy is also a problem. Yeah, he wasn't that great. I mean, even if you look at the Patrick Mahomes days and some of the metrics of what Mahomes was already doing and then what he continued to do with Nagy, Nagy obviously.

Like, why is he not? still the OC in Kansas. Right? Right? Yeah. Because they were like, his contact was up. Yeah.

Why didn't they bring it back? We can't lose this guy. Because they had a chance to get the famous Eric B. Enemy back. I feel like that speaks loud. So maybe we don't have the, you know, we'll have our coaching changes episode and we'll talk about it.

But maybe we don't have the excitement we thought we were going to have. It was a bummer. The Jets hired former Panthers head coach Frank Reich as their offensive coordinator. future second half of the season head coach Frank Reich. Yeah. I mean, he was out of the NFL. He was at Stanford. He had a awful, awful year in Carolina. Now, it's like for 15 minutes and 15 games. So last year, it did not work out for Coach Glenn. I honestly, I would assume that Coach

Glenn is like a smart guy. I mean, you don't, you can't at least get these opportunities if you're just a complete dumb dumb. It didn't work out, him being a head coach. And he has to know, or he has to at least have the thought process when he's hiring these guys. Like, I might get fired halfway through this year. I know how the NFL works. And when you don't have, when you have the complete lack of success that I had in my first year,

if you start out that way in year two, often you see those guys fired. It's like, that's got to be a strange mental exercise. of when you're hiring an OC like Reich, who has head coaching experience. Like, oh boy, oh boy. To be honest with you, there's just no forward thinking needed. When you are playing for your job, you are playing for the next moment on the clock. And that's all he thinks about. I'm not saying avoid it.

I'm saying that the thought has to have crossed his mind. The Cardinals hired former Jets offensive coordinator and Nathaniel Hackett because the Cardinals would like multiple offensive coordinators of the Jets. What are we doing? Do you realize that's what we've done? Yes. We've hired two offices of coordinators from the Jets. Nathaniel Hackett will be the office of the coordinator, but in a wink-wink kind of way because Michael Thor will call all the place.

Yeah, I hate this as a Cardinals fan. This is another one like you're like they just keep getting jobs. Exactly. Hackett, Nagy. I mean, Hackett is, well, if you coached a Hall of Fame, a first ballot-ish Hall of Fame quarterback, you can ride that for so long. I mean. There's a lot of respect for players that we don't have respect for.

Right. And I'm, I don't know how to put properly into words that if Aaron Rogers were to be the Arizona Cardinals quarterback this next year. Oh, no. Because of the connection with Nathaniel Hackett. Peace. I am out. O-U-T-out. I will be doing a whole new search for a new team.

Are you going to put out like? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Wanted ads. Are you getting a recruiter? Like you would for a job. I'm going to go hardcore into this. I'm going to look at the ownership structure of all the franchises.

Because that's what I want. I don't want quarterback. I don't want head coach. I want ownership that is functional, competent, and quality. Can I put this out there into the universe? If you start looking for a new team, I want these new teams, the fans of these new teams to know one thing.

Jason doesn't know how to root for you. That is true. In general. So it might be a confusing situation. I am okay if the job of Nathaniel Hackett is LaFleur is like, here's the game plan. He's like, that's great coach. I love it. A yes man?

Yeah, he's like, oh, we want him to be a yes man. You know what this, hey, we just ran these two plays. I got these new, these next two in line. And he's like, that's incredible coach. Get them in there. You realize there were 21 offensive coordinator jobs this offseason? There are 32 teams. That's insane.

21 of them and 17 of the 21. have been filled. The Raiders, Bears, Rams, and Seahawks. Like, obviously, the Seahawks will need to fill after Kubiak goes to become the Raiders head coach. But, yeah, I mean, 21 of 32, it's almost like only one team wins the Super Bowl. Right. Hackett as the O.C. I, obviously, we didn't like him as a head coach. There's hope that maybe he's a better O.C. than a head coach. Okay, but

the nice thing here is that he is not the play caller. He's not, he is, hopefully just an offensive manager, assistant to the actual head coach, who is the offensive guru in Mike LaFleur. Well, we're going to jump right in, I think. We are through the news. We've got a big game coming up. We've got some rosters. I am going to get chained today.

So we might as well get into the truth. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. All right, we have talked about every other position. We are arriving at the truth of the tight end position.

Maybe the toughest pill to swallow for some fantasy managers. The truth of the tight end position is it's a hard truth. It really is. Jason's talked about it before. I believe a quote from Jason is, well, about the first five or six tight ends they matter, and none of the others matter, and they suck. Yeah, they suck. Once you get to, I mean, I remember years ago,

Tray Boo Boo. Oh, yeah. Trey Burton. I couldn't even remember his name. I just remember Trey Boo Boo. Trey Burton was a my guy. I'm glad you brought it up. That year when he was a my guy, he finished as the tight-in seven.

So you can hang your hat on that and be like, oh, baby, top seven. The dude sucked. The whole year, he was worthless and he finishes the tight end seven. That's a relative. The whole tight ends that finishes a tight-in one. We do this with the quarterbacks, right? Quarterbacks every year, there's like 40-something quarterbacks that finish a week as a tight-end one.

This year, there were 64 tight-ins that finished as a tight-in one on 32 teams. On any given week, 64 different tight-ins had a top 12 week, which meant that you had about 58 chances to be like, oh, maybe there'll be something. Yeah. Can we just change the verbiage of a tight-in one is a top six tight-end? That would help so much. It really would. If you're a tight end two, that means you're at seven or lower.

Here's one of the things I was going to ask you. I'm with you. Like if you're, if you finish there, that means that you had a couple spike weeks. We should really do that. Like, I don't confuse so many,

it will confuse us, but it will be more accurate. Here's the thing. I want to, I want to ask you your opinion on this. If there are 64 tight ends that finish inside the top 12. Yes, top 12.

That's fine. And, okay, so that's 24, or 25 more than the quarterback position, which is already a streaming position for a lot of people. Is it fair to say that like outside of the top five or six names, this is maybe more similar to picking a kicker than anything else? Yeah, for sure. I mean, there are good arguments that I've seen to get rid of the tight end position. I don't like that. But tight ends still matter.

tight ends are a difference maker at the top. You know, when you've got those Trey McBride and George Kittle, RIP. Yeah, the injuries really derailed the position. There's a lot of fun draft strategy around the position. But the truth is, as we joke about 64 tight ends finishing, you know, in the top 12, it is also true that so many of those. Like when we talk about it with the quarterback, when you finish in the top, top 12 at quarterback, you legit had a good week. You had a good fantasy finish. So many of these

64, like, oh, they finished tight-in 10 on the week and they scored what, seven points, six points. They caught a five-yard touchdown and they're in the top. This entire discussion, to me, at least personally, is not to make the tight-in position seem less exciting or important or fun. I think the tight-end position has been incredibly fun for going on three years of rookies making breakout performances from LaPorta to Bowers to this year with Loveland and Warren and Fanon. It's exciting and it's fun. It's just to say, let us all make a vow here on the show when we are trying to prove our

point to one another and seem right. That if we decide to throw out, he was a top 12 tied end. It will no longer be accepted. It will no longer be accepted and you will have to, you know. You'll be shamed. You'll be called out. A man of honor and we should call each other out on such nonsense. Yeah.

And we will definitely say it. Oh, for sure. at some point in time when I need... Probably this episode. When I need to prove something to you. Probably this episode. I'm going to do it on purpose to see if either of you catch me. Okay.

We might be too used to it. We have seen 12 personnel sets increase over the last four seasons from 17 to 19 to 20 to 22 percent, which is... It's how they're changing. It's how they're counteracting the new defensive schemes. I mean, this is what the NFL does. is someone figures something out. Tip for tat.

Everyone starts copying it because it works incredibly. And then the defenses have to adjust. And then we'll eventually find a new meta. Total fantasy points scored by the tight-in position because of that, in part. Higher than ever before in 2025. Mike, you just shared a ridiculous Trey McBride number. That's who we're going to start with today. By the way, our metrics for great games when we look at consistency,

great games are going to be 15 or more points for the tight-in position. Good games, eight or more points. Jason and then bus games fewer than five and a half points. Yep. But we'll start with Tray McBride. Tram McBride is a very good football player. Yes, he is. Number one.

Number one in consistency. Number one in the first half. Number one in the second half. The gap between Tray McBride and the rest. Is this the most that you can remember since the great Kelsey year's type of situation? Yeah, for sure. Because in part because like the number two tight ends got injured this year, you know, George Kittle who was fire when he was on the field, but wasn't on the field for a lot of it.

This, he lapped the competition. Tray McBride, according to, this is a Jared Smola tweet. Shout out to Jared. Tray McBride ran 118 more routes than any other tight end last season. That is a bigger gap than the number two and number nine tight end. In routes run. In routes run. Yeah, I think the, I really wanted to make sure that that got brought.

up because the truth about Tray McBride is actually difficult because the truth is he's elite. He is possibly the best pass catching tight end in the NFL. He's one of the highest paid. He might be the highest paid still. I don't remember. And he dominated if you had him on your team. He really carried you. But Jason, like your argument when we're talking about Michael Wilson, you have to.

Yeah. You can't just be like, oh, my. my gosh, tight end one, one, three, three. He's like, this dude just carrying me. 118 more routes because the Arizona Cardinals were throwing the ball on every down. They had no sense, no semblance of a running game. So not that Tray McBride draft him as the number one tied end next year. But I bet that this is going to put him into the first round.

And people are going to be like, I got to get him. It's like the new Kelsey where he outscores, Kyle just shared. He outscored the tight end two by more than five points a game. Like that is a difference maker who is worthy of the first round. If you were actually going to get that. But will you get that level of separation again? That seems unlikely. Well, double digit touchdowns, 11 touchdowns on top of the fact that you had those extra routes and targets.

Not only 11 touchdowns, but if you look at the year prior in 2024, in the red zone, Trey McBride had 20. targets. 21 targets. It turned into one touchdown. These are Murray targets. They were Murray targets, but this year 33 turned into 11 touchdowns. This is like, there is some meat in the middle that's going to come and we don't know who the quarterback is. Higgins? Elijah? Oh, meat. No. We, we, uh, we, uh, we, uh, we, uh, we, uh, we're, uh, I love it. I missed it. It was so good. Uh, but to, to, to just illustrate. kind of the passing volume. When Jacoby Verset came in, the defense was decimated and they threw the ball basically every play. Jacoby Brissette and his starts was on pace for 700 passing attempts.

That is, that's not happening. That would be, you know, over 41 passing attempts a game on average. If you look at like super offensive teams, the Rams this year, 35 passing attempts on average. Detroit, 34. Like, it's going to come down. The routes run will come down. The touchdowns will come down. Well, you don't break all-time records. It was the most routes for a tight end of all-time. And it's all-time record for targets, all-time record for receptions.

So he broke a bunch of records. But he's really, really good. Yes. And even when those numbers come down, the pure volume numbers, he still has enough to stand alone as the number one again next year. Sure. It's just your draft cost. I mean, 41% great games is insane.

41% of the time, 15 or more points. 88% good games. That's insane. And it wasn't only against bad defenses. The Cardinals played all sorts of teams, obviously, and he had the same production against all of them. So he does stand alone. Another point would be that Marvin missed a lot of time

in the back half of the season on top of it. A lot went right for Trey McBride, who, again, I can't imagine he's not my number one tight end going into next season. But he's not a first rounder for you. But to draft him in the first rounder for you. to draft him in the first round so much has to go right.

It is one of those because of what we talked about the tight end position. It's an advantage that is marked every week between you and your opponent because it's not just the gap between him and the other tight ends. It's also just like the difference maker on a regular

basis for your team to know that you have the guaranteed production coming there to take chances on higher end players at other positions. There are, I mean, we've seen it. There are a lot of advantages when the Grunkowski's dominate when the Kelsey's dominate and you've got them on your team. And at the end of the day, regardless of those numbers, when an Arizona quarterback of any kind, whether it's Malik Willis, whether it's cousins or Rogers or Kyler's back, when they drop

back to pass, the best decision that they can make is Tray McBride over Michael Wilson or Marvin Harrison Jr. But there will be more balance. There will be more balance to an offense that finally gets a running back into the backfield. It feels like in the second round is where he should belong whether or not he whether or not he ends there because even if he doesn't lap the field like this year you know you're not whiffing on a pick

he's not going to bust anybody can get injured but he's not going to you know running back some wide receivers I think are easy to just have a bad year where you know Sequan's you know not great for the pick Justin Jefferson's quarterback play is bad or whatever but Trey McBride at that position he doesn't even have to be as good as he is to still be

as good as it was this last year, to be a very good pick. I will be, it's so early. I will be so curious to see where he goes, because I think questions like Jefferson versus McBride are going to be the question or neighbors and those players. And I don't think very many of us are actually going to pick that wide receiver change. No, I wouldn't. I know.

Yeah. That'll be crazy. All right, he stands alone atop the tight-in position. So we will. You can't wait to hear who number two was. So we will take a break and reveal number two. didn't realize it until just now. Yeah.

Yeah, we did it, guys. It's Kyle. Year 5 breakout. It's Kyle Pitts. Now, this is what a truth episode. Year 5, couple week breakout. Tide in two, young, stud, free agent on the open market, drafted top 10 in the NFL. He's going to finish number two.

And he does. This is why we do truth episodes. Because Kyle Pitts came in a number two, but his consistency rank was seven. And it was 11 and 10 for the first and second half. He had a really nice week 15. He had so many points that week. In fact, he had the most points of any tight-in in the history of fantasy football in a single week.

And that really skews his season-long ranking. I think even skewing his season-long ranking, I think it's important to look at points per game, which are equally skewed by that single game. but points per game add back in the other guys that were injured that might not be in this list in order like Tucker Kraft, George Kittl, Brock Bowers. They were better. They just didn't finish number two because they lost games.

Yeah, Pitts, what do you think happens? I think he gets a bag. I think he gets a big bag of money. Does that make him a focal point on a new roster? Yes, probably. I don't think someone's going to bring him in and pay him a lot of money unless they're saying that they have a plan to integrate him into an offense. This is an exceptionally weak free agent class for wide receivers.

And I think if you're a general manager and you're saying, we need a wide receiver too, that's the type of team. And that's what actually excites me about him going to the free agent market is the fact that... He could still get franchised. Sure. He could be franchised. He could also sign back with the Falcons. That's a team that needs a wide receiver too if he's gone. I was going to say they're a team that I can't imagine you want to put Michael Pinnock's in a position to have less or have fewer weapons.

Right. Than he had last year. But, I mean, he's going to, he will be an important passing option for whatever team he lands on. However, he was an important passing option on the team he was currently on. And, you know, he was okay at best. He was good when Drake London was gone. So like week one, he had 9.4 points. Week four was a good week.

That was 15. But then the other games that are good are Drake London was out. Like week eight. Guess who showed up again, Kyle Pitts. Then weeks tall through 15. That was Kyle Pitts time. Now, week 16 was also good against Arizona, but I mean, that's Drake London's first game back after the injury.

He is, he is terrifying for fantasy football. Always. Always has been, always will be. And I think that this. You can make the argument for him. Yes. That's the problem with Kyle Pitts. Until he turns 30, you're going to make some argument for him.

We can all be talked back into Kyle Pitts after this season. Did you know? Because he's only 25. That's always the reason. That an 11, 11 years his senior, Travis Kelsey, was number three. Yeah, the tight end top 10 is pretty weird. You think people are turning the show off? I think they're just waiting.

No way, man. They're just waiting. Quick, look at this shirt. Yeah. Ah! Avoid your eyes. Oh, my goodness. Hey, family show.

Yeah, come on. Don't take your clothes off. Man. Goodness. It's just his jacket. I know, but felt like he was showing us. His shirt. Dim shirts.

Oh, man. Travis Kelsey. Out here in the Valley playing golf right about now. We're going to get a resignation letter here today. Travis Kelsey. You look good, Al. You look good, Al. You look good. Thanks.

Kelsey at three is dropping weight like Bitcoin's dropping value. Yeah, that's true. It's good and bad. Kelsey's 36 years old. Somehow number three. Seventh in consistency in the first half, 14th in the second half, eighth overall. 18% great games is your number

three overall tight in, which did I give those numbers for Kyle Pitts? 18% great games for Kyle Pitts. So just look at that. 44% from McBride to 18% for the next man up. 53% good games for both Kelsey and Pitts. You know, it was a

stabilizing, he was a stabilizing tight in for your team. You could put him out there and know that you're going to get production when you have 850 yards receiving and, you know, probably lower than expected numbers in terms of touchdowns. I mean, the career is winding down for Travis Kelsey. Do I think he's going to come back?

I actually do. I think he'll probably be back for another year. He's got a little farve in him. Yeah, he might. At the end of the season, the way that he was speaking about the Mahomes injury, it felt like he wasn't going to come back right now. The vibes seem like, it's certainly at least 50-50. Do I want him to come back?

Do you want the year of dealing with Kelsey decision-making? I do not want him to come back. I think that the opportunity for other pass catchers there would be great if he walks away. And I don't know, you know, he'll be playing at 36 this coming season. I still won't be confident in playing him. I know he's the tight end three, but it's very similar to Kyle Pitts. He played 17 games. You'd rather have.

So he accumulated more. I'd rather have a ton of guys than if, if Travis Kelsey is back. next year, he'll probably be around my tight end nine or ten, which, hey, that's a, that's a tight in one. Oh. Hey. Hey. Get the water bottle out.

No, but what I was actually going to say is you'd rather have the conversation about who's going to be the next man up for Mahomes than saying. Exactly. Then saying, where does Kelsey fit into this puzzle that is still getting figured out? I want, a reminder, Patrick Mahomes, Torres left ACL in week 15. Lindsay Vaughn wouldn't care. Well, yeah. Did you see Lindsay Vaughn working out?

Like on video? With the ruptured. She ruptured at her entire. Anna meniscus. Yes. So either she is. Tell me rupture versus tear. I feel like it means there was an explosion.

That's the only thing you can mean. There was some sort of explosion. One is like imagine ripping, right? You rip a piece of paper. Yeah. Now rupture that piece of paper. Now imagine. Yeah, exactly.

You, that's, you blew it up. You destroyed it with a gust of air that just exploded that paper. That's what happened. So her, her, her. Her ACLs in thousands. Her ACLs in thousands of pieces inside her name. Tens of thousands. Tens of thousands.

Thank you, Jason. Yeah. And she's going to be in the Olympics, which, by the way, from what I've seen from skiing, and I'm just a layman. I've never really skied. But it seems your knees are involved. Yeah. I do believe they use the knees.

Now, if she was one of those straight down and then you go and you go off the ramp and you launch for like ski jump? A ski jumper? If you did that, I see no ACL being needed. because it's a straight line. But it seems like the other skiers really use them. Yeah. I bet she's used them before.

Apparently she will. She's going to give it a go. Go watch the workout video. A week ago, she blew her knee up. And now she's like, it's wild. It's amazing. So for Travis Kelsey, what I want. How did we start talking about that?

Because I was reminding people that my home's tour is ACL in week 15, which timeline means being ready for a week one will be sketchy. Now, with the way the NFL works, I would probably. expect Mahomes to be there in week one. However, if he's not, whatever week he shows up, I want it to be, like, they have to hide it. It's a full secret.

It's like week three, hey, Mahomes starts. And then, boom! Travis Kelsey just comes out the locker room with Patrick Mahomes. They should draft, what is it, Dylan Ryola to be able to be, like, the placeholder Mahomes for the first couple weeks. Oh, the guy who emulates everything he does.

I think he's in college still. By the way, my rankings go, right now they go McBride, then I would go Vaughn, then I would move Vaughn to like Kittal or something. Dallas Goddard was number four. What is this show? That's what I'm saying. To be fair, Dallas Goddard. Look at this shirt again. This is more entertaining.

Yeah. The tight ends, I mean, I said all the time. Titans suck. We really should be doing this in order of like points per game because these tight ends had a lot of injuries this year. Look at his headshot. Oh, man. Dallas got Gauter. I'm feeling spicy this morning. Listen, if you told me

Hey, you want to make a boring show, you'd be like, let's talk about Goddard, Kelsey and Pitts. Give me turkey leg. That's what He is a little neanderthalic. Yeah. Wow. Nice hair. This is what we have to talk about a man's physical appearance to make this show compelling. That's what, look at this shirt.

I mean, that's a little. The whole show started that way, man. That is true. This is a big show. Do you care if I start blitzing these a little bit? Not at all. Dallas Goddard was number four with a consistency of four. So you did the job, Dallas. Yeah, he really did. He was good this season on the back of touchdowns, 11 touchdowns,

which was a career high for a player who really wasn't known as a touchdown. His career high had been five, and that was in year two, 2019. He hadn't scored pre-pandemic. Five touchdowns since pre-pandemic. and then he comes out with 11. It was never expected. It took too long for fantasy managers to actually accept it. And what's ironic is his stretch of great games where it was just like touchdown every single week.

Weeks three through eight were like, you're not believing that. We're in. And then as soon as you get in, he's back from the bye week. He sucks for a month. And then you're like, ah, we knew it. And then you bench him. And then the next two weeks he's good again. It's like it was a terrible process.

And going into next year. year. You know, he'll be playing into his 30 second year. We don't know how this offense is going to run. New offensive coordinator. I am not going to. Is he a free agent? Is he? Yeah, he's a free agent. So Pitts and Goddard, two and four. And he had four more touchdowns in AJ Brown. So that's enough to make you pull your hair out like he clearly has. And then Goddard had seven previous years of evidence based, you know, like 11, touchdowns, that's just... Very difficult. For Goddard, he

had career lows in yards per route, run, yards per reception, yards after catch per reception, on eight contested catch opportunities. He caught zero of them. He just The truth of Dallas Goddard is he got a bunch of touchdowns, and if you played him, you were happy. If you didn't, you weren't

in those touchdown weeks, and he's not that great, and he's not going to be great for fantasy next year. Moving on. Thank you. Yeah, he's a new Kyle Rudolph season type of situation. Oh, yeah. Remember old Kyle Rudolph? I was going to see what is like touchdown.

But Kyle Rudolph was touchdowns a lot. He never got double digits, actually. Well, double digits versus four. I'll bet he had a lot of seasons with more than four. Yeah, six, seven, eight, nine. Don't, okay. Okay. Where's the water bottle?

We have a spray bottle for this reason. I got rid of you. Jason hit the spray bottle. I took it home. My children are using it getting ready in the morning. Here's a good, bad one to talk about, but it's much more fun. Tyler Warren is number five, which is awesome. As a rookie, awesome.

Probably if Daniel Jones doesn't go down. We're talking about him as up there with McBride. I think we're talking about him at number two. You're saying next year, would you rather have McBride with his regression? Oh, not even close. McBride by a million miles. But my point is, as a rookie coming into his second year, if he finished the entire season, as he started, we wouldn't. Like Loveland right now.

The question. Is the darling? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The question feels like, oh, would you rather have Loveland or Tyler Warren? That would never have been, even if Loveland did what he did, it would never have been a question if Tyler Warren kept going. It just didn't lose Daniel Jones. No, yeah.

I was going to say when the Achilles tour for Daniel Jones, it took Tyler Warren's fantasy production with him. Yes, it did. Last five weeks of the season, he was irrelevant. Didn't help your fantasy playoff? So you're exactly right. I mean, the perception of Warren right now is like, darn. You know what I mean? It ended that way.

Now, he was really good with Daniel Jones. He was number eight in consistency. So he wasn't McBride-level setting the world on fire, but you saw the ascension as a rookie and you knew where it could be headed. And we thought maybe this would be another season where another rookie titan could get in a number one spot. So to give you an example of how important that injury was, we look at first half versus second half. But if we just look at the entire season, because Daniel Jones didn't get injured until week 14. If you look at weeks...

Man, that was a long five weeks for... I know. Was it really week 14? Yeah, it felt like it was earlier, but it wasn't. So week 14, he gets injured. Up until that point, weeks 1 through 13, Tyler Warren would have had the consistency score of tight-end four. He was basically as he was a true tight-in one for fantasy, very good, a difference maker.

If you look at from 14 through 18, he would have had the consistency score of 53. He was, I mean, 53. What? Just absurdly irrelevant. So it was all the quarterback. Just a small correction. He tore it in week 13, not 14. He missed.

His first missed. The tear was in- In week 13. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, you know, this is the exciting part for fantasy football as you get up and coming tight ends that are 23 years old that obviously have proven that they belong in the league and they can be a primary pass catcher. It's just going to be a quarterback issue for the Colts

and Tyler Warren, which is a big deal. They have to figure it out. That's why I like Loveland more. It's just because I already know what I... Right. You see the end of the season. I know what I'm getting with Caleb Williams and Loveland's the best pass catcher there. Now, if Daniel Jones is back, I mean, where does Warren go? Three at the position? Four? I don't know. That's going to be something for us to figure out later this this summer. But we know that since the year 2000, only four rookie tight ends have caught 70

receptions or more and go for over 800 yards. It's Jeremy Shockey, Sam Laporte of Brock Bowers, and Tyler Warren. Yeah, it was, he did everything he could possibly do as a rookie to impress us. He just was a victim of some circumstance over the back half.

And still wasn't the best rookie tight end. Well, we'll take a break. We'll talk about another rookie. From Tyler Warren to number six on the list, Harold Fanon Jr. Just 21 years old. The best rookie tight end. Consistency rank of six. Consistency rank of five in the second half. Fanon was 56% good games, 19% great. It was done in spite of quarterback carousel situation, right? I mean, we just kind of said,

Warren had to deal with the change, but Fanon had to deal with bad, bad. Yeah. I mean, pro bowlers. Two Pro Bowl. Two Pro Bowl quarterbacks. That's right. Oh, because Flacco? Yeah.

Oh, right. Flacco started. He also had to, he also had to deal with. So this, I would say it says it all. The end. Yeah. Two Pro Bowl QBs for Harold Fanon Jr. Look, Harold Fanon Jr. comes in as a.

This is what you have done. With the Pro Bowl. This is what, this is how you have shifted the conversation. It's idiocy. I'd be more entertained watching a computer simulation of the best players playing tackle football

than I would be with our current Pro Bowl. Oh, like, just do it like a Madden? If you just did a, yes, like a digital on-screen simulation that I could bet on

versus the flag football with Charduer and random guys? I mean, just throwing it out there. We have the technology. I could do that in 15 minutes. Harold Fanon,

21 and a half years old, was drafted in the third round, wasn't one of these top ten picks like Loveland, like Warren. Makes sense. And unlike, oh, that's good.

Shout out to the spitballers on Monday. Make sure you tune in for that one. We have a great draft of ice cream. Mix him. But he got in with bad quarterback play. He also was the backup. in to start the year. David Najoku was there, and David Nojoku got injured in week 14, missed weeks 15 through 18. I think he's an avoided contract year for this upcoming season.

So coming to next year, you're trying to build this franchise. You're trying to build the Browns. What pieces do I have? Oh, I got Miles Garrett. Great. I don't have a quarterback. I have Harold Phamon. This is a key piece. What are you telling me you're like, okay, we're, they'll say to themselves. Okay, we're paying a lot for Jerry Judy. That's what they're going to say. They're not going to say, oh, good, we can build around Jerry Judy. They're going to build around Harold Fanon. The dude is awesome. No,

Fanon's incredible. Now, you're going to have question marks around, is it Deshawn Watson at some point? Is it Chador Sanders? You got a new head coach and Todd Monkin who will see. It's been a long time waiting for him to be a head coach, and he finally got the big job everyone wants.

The Brown's job. But Fanon was incredible. Fanon. Fanon is in amazing athlete. He's versatile. He can catch short area targets. He can go compete for contested catches. He makes people miss. He is. He is. Fifty. Like a 21-year-old.

He can outrun guys duck-footed. I mean, that's incredible. 14 forced missed tackles. That was second most at the position. So, yeah, Fanon is going to be a really interesting. This is where the impossible to answer Loveland, Fanon, Warren, Dynasty question is. it is impossible. That's why if I had a Warren or a Loveland, they are way more valued than Fanon. Where you would go get Fanon Plus? Exactly right.

Oh, that's not a bad move. I would go get Fanon and a pick. I don't have a problem with that. I think Fanon is as good or to me he is in the exact same tier as those other two guys as players. That's how I see. Which that's fine. If you told me to bet on. Jason, you were the one on this show. I was like, it's the Cleveland Browns. Yeah. It's the Cleveland Browns. The Cleveland Browns. The Cleveland Browns will always Browns. That's 100% true. But that's talking about wins and losses.

That's not talking about whether or not they'll have fantasy production from a player. But wins and losses, I mean, it's all correlated to your quarterback and screwing up decisions. That one, the three of those guys, that one's, it's easily loved one for me because of stability of quarterback and head coach. And you don't have to, to Mike's point, you don't have to watch the Browns if you don't draft any of their players. That is the hardest part of having. Like with Fannin, who's great, he will, he'll be a top, he'll be a tight end one. We don't even get to talk about the real number two tight end yet for a while. Right.

That's the season we're happening. Well, I think with Harold Fannan, there's going to be a lot of chasing the dragon as the Cleveland Browns continue to screw up. I'll chase. I'll chase the dragon at the right point. We can blitz a lot of these guys that are going to be pretty irrelevant for the draft next year. I'm going to say the name. Okay. Then you say some stuff about the player.

Okay. And then we don't talk about them again. That sounds good. I'll take the first one. You take the first one. Hunter Henry, seventh overall, consistency of 14. Go. He is a very good veteran tight end for the Patriots for fantasy football.

He will have games with touchdowns next year. Mike, number eight is Jake Ferguson. Consistency of nine really dropped off in the second half. 16th inconsistency in the second half of the season, including a murderous playoff run for fantasy. managers 12% great, 53% good, 29% bust, go. I will say Ferguson recently signed a four-year extension, and it all comes down to what happens with George Pickens.

If there is a, if it's C.D. Lamb and George Pickens on this roster, then Ferguson's going to be the guy that you're just waiting on. He's like an insurance running back, or insurance tight end, I guess. If one of those guys misses time, like week two through seven, tied in four, four, five, two, ten, four. And then C.D. Lamb comes back. Yeah, I was going to say C.D. Lam was gone for weeks three, four, five, six. So, yeah, if he's the second option for this offense, he's awesome. If he's the third option for this offense,

between Lamb and Pickens, there's not enough to go around. But George Pickens will likely be franchised, but will he be franchiseed? So there's a lot to play out for that. Brock Bowers comes in at nine, consistency of five. We know who Brock Bowers is. He's a dude that missed a ton of games this year. Got banged up. Yeah, he missed five total games, three at a crucial part of the beginning of the season.

Then he was pretty dominant. Then they said we would like the first pick. And so he didn't play anymore. Remember, he got banged up early before he left. It was in week one. Yes. So week one, he was the tight end one. He was the dog.

He was Brock Bowers. We're like, oh, man, everyone who picked him first, They won that game against New England, by the way. They beat New England. And they have the number one pick. That is super funny. Well, that's because they had a healthy Brock Bowers in part. And again, 15.8 fantasy points and half PPR was awesome.

Got hurt. The next three weeks played through it poorly. Kind of stunk. Wasn't even a tight end one. And we know how easy it is to be a tight end one. And I'm talking about... He's got to be top six. I'm actually talking tight in two then.

He wasn't even a tight in two for those next three weeks. then they rest him, they keep him out until the buy week, comes back and he's that dude again. So to me, Brock Bowers, if he's drafted significantly behind Trey McBride, that's the better value next. It'll be around. If I can say, because when you're at the top of the draft.

It'll be Mendoza and obviously in Arizona we don't know. So if it's McBride Bowers, which I think we would all agree it is at the top of the tight end list, regardless of round, just in order. Just right now here in the. middle of or the beginning of February. Are the other three rookie guys from this year, the next three names?

They very well might be with Kittle. Is it whatever order of Loveland? I would say it's Loveland Warren. It's probably Loveland Warren. The Warren quarterback situation, it's a big problem. But then it's like I mean beyond those names. If Tucker Kraft Yeah, Tucker Kraft is ready.

That's a big one. His ACL tear was in week nine. Yeah, that's a big one. It's possible that he's bad. If Tucker craft is like the news is all, oh, no, he's in training camp, he will be good to go. I would take Kraft before I take Fianna. Kittle was 13. I'm just going to talk about a couple other names. Kittle was 13.

Third inconsistency. Second in the second half. So good. But now it's an Achilles injury. And despite being under contract for four more years, you're going to see next year mostly deleted. And then you may see another year. Like, Kittle might be able to come back and contribute in a meaningful way for the 49ers.

The question will be how. they've built that team by the time he's back. Like part of his greatness this year was an absence of other pass catching options. Piercel, banged up all year long. You didn't have IUC. So you compound that with the injury and you say, hey, this team's going to have to add an offensive group of guys for two years maybe before Kittles a contributor.

I mean, this sucks so much. It just sucks. It does. Jordan, I don't think anyone is more beloved than George. Kittle. Just as he he's like, did we always get asked the question and I don't think we ever answer it properly of like, who would you just want to hang out with from the NFL?

You're right. It should always be George Kittal. Like, should be, awesome. You could just be able to shoot from the hip that answer. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's on, he's selling pizzas, riding on a deer. He's golfing with that torn Achilles. If he, if you see this? I did not.

He's on, he's on a golf court. Oh, yes. And he's got one of the clubs. that has the auto firing piston inside the end of it, and he's out there. I mean, if he's back, let's say week one. Let's say they get him back week one. Wait, what?

Let's say if he's ready by if he. Wait, who? George Kittle. He rehabs hard in the offseason program. For this week one or the next year? Next year. Well, this coming year. 2026. 2026.

If they say, we think he'll make it. because he's got that dog in him. Are you willing to draft him? And at what draft cost? Late, late, late, late, late, sure. But I, man, that's a... But I'll probably be drafting two tight ends.

Yeah, so... I feel like that is fairy tale level. Yeah, it is. Tucker Kraft, let's not forget Tucker Kraft. This is part of the truth episode. That's dog. He was the number two most consistent tight end in fantasy football this year. It was a full-on breakout campaign.

You know, you talk about the Packers, all the injuries they had. It's easily arguable that they lost their best offensive weapon and their best defensive player and still made the playoffs despite missing those guys. Everybody has injuries. I'm not saying anything you don't know. It's just Kraft was the difference maker for the offense. He's what made Jordan love more viable on a week-to-week basis. You needed him in the mix.

He had his breakout 32-point week eight, and then he goes down the next week. So right after the kind of crown gets put on his head as the next. great tight end. The ACL gets torn in the world. It was like a, it was to me like the scataboo injury. It's an emotionally devastating one because he's fun. George Kittle was the tight end three on a points per game at 12.1 fantasy points per game. We just espouse how awesome he was. 12.7 points per game for Tucker Kraft. He was even better. And this is an injury that more players come back from versus the Achilles for Kittle. He has more time. It happened earlier in the season. Tucker craft will be in consideration mixed in with those 2025 rookie tight ends.

Yeah, you'll just have to decide about the ACL and what progress looks like. And the Packers have to make themselves a decision as well. Romeo Dobbs, who, like, opinions on him are all over, but, like, he's solid. We'll just say Romeo Dobbs is a solid way. He's an NFL wide receiver. Romeo Dobbs is a, he plays in the national football league. Is solid. And with a giant helmet.

He's not liquid. Thank you. Yeah. But he's a free agent. So it's like the Packers will have to decide do they compete money-wise to bring him back or do they, like where else do they cover that list targets? That was late.

That was delayed. That was really late. Dobbs is just, he's just bad enough. You can't, you can't do that bad. He's just good enough to want to bring him back to Green Bay and he's just bad enough to not get a big enough contract elsewhere. He's the perfect guy to re-sign. Romeo Dobbs is he'll get money this year.

We got to do this. Fantasy face off, presented by prize picks. I don't like how eager the Falcon is over there to get me whatever shame I'm about to figure out. He's just doing his job. Yeah. What? Wheel of shame. We're spinning the wheel.

Okay, it's already spinning. It's spinning. It's, she said, it's Bob the loser. Bob the loser Bob the loser Yeah he's not a builder He's a loser Bob the builder

Has a gel Why this one of Jeremy's shirts? Wow that is the exact Same color You should go to the Dusers cam on That is literally Did you do this on purpose

Jeremy? I did find it ironic As he talked about The color of my shirt I suck at fantasy Yeah Oh it says I suck at fantasy Yeah it's facts

It is a fact Look at this loser Dude I could get some work done I need those goggles on before the hard hat. Okay. You're right. Yeah. Order of operations matter.

Process over results. Okay. Looking good. Don't forget your toolbox. You're going to... You got to build. Yeah. Do I need to go inside the toolbox?

I would if I were you. I don't know what's in there, though. Probably tools. Plastic tools. This is the dumbest thing you guys have ever done. Just a little baby. All right. Why don't you build a lineup for us?

Let's drill down here. My quarterback is going to be... Drake May, and I'm going, this is my green goblin. I'm going more than 0.5 passing touchdowns. Okay. I'm going Drake May. I've got two lineups. One is more than 0.5 passing yards.

Oh, yeah, okay. People need to know that that's out there. We're not doing that. My actual Drake May is less than 220 and a half passing yards. I know he was able to get in a full practice. He's saying the shoulder's not an issue, but I think this could be a defensive game. on the platform right now on prize picks.

You can basically get, oh, no, there's a, there's a headlight. What are you? You got a work light on that hat. There is a, I got to put my hat down. There is a gimmy for the Super Bowl of Drake Bay over half a passing yards. You can basically get a free square. I'm looking through my lineup, guys, realizing.

You don't have a quarterback? I don't have, no, I don't have a green goblin. Oh, fantastic. So, whoops, riding a little dirty here. Quarterback, though, I do have Sam Darnold. His projections, 22. 29 and a half passing yards. I'm going more. Sammy D. We're going to believe.

Super Bowl MVP? I mean, if he hits his projection, unless you know, Ken Walker rips off 250-yard tutties. Is it back to me? Yes, sir. Let's keep building this lineup. You heard me talk about it last week. The Christian Gonzalez J.S.N. Matchup is going to be one of the more interesting

ones for the Super Bowl. I'm going to take Cooper Cup making his contributions as I blast Mike with my work light here. 32.5 receiving yards. I'm taking the more. You're doing that as essentially you think JSN will have a difficult time with Christian Gonzalez. I just think that there will be opportunities for other receivers and Cup has been stepping up in recent weeks anyways. So 32 and a half seems like something you can get more yards.

Well, we had a similar thought process. I have JSN, 91.5 receiving yards. I'm going less with the Christian Gonzalez coverage. I have Mr. Stefan Diggs. His projection is at 4.5. realizing I should have taken the green goblin at three and a half. But here we are. It's too late.

Four and a half receptions. I'm taking the more for who is that? Stefan Diggs. All right. I'm going to go. You do all you're measuring. A.J. Barner, 22 and a half. Measure twice.

Cut once. Receiving yards. I'm taking less. AJ Barner's not going to be new. Do your measuring tape. Got you the, got me the answer. Okay.

Let me just wrap this up. Nice. I'm going to go. It doesn't even have a crank. That's funny. My, wait, we went to tight end. My tight end is Hunter Henry. His projection is five receiving targets.

And I'm going less than that. I think that that line was interesting that it wasn't a half. I don't see him getting to six. He hasn't got to six on a long time. I went with Hunter Henry, but we're going Band-Aid. Seven and a half yards on first reception. We're going less. Whoa.

What? That comes with a weapons. Utility knife? And a saw? All right. Saw out your running back. I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The people hated that one. Yeah. I did too. I'm staying with the people. You guys know how I'm going to roll.

You probably see what I saw. What? Romandre Stevenson, 50 and a half rushing yards. I'm taking the more. Oh. He is all. Also, for those out there that care, he would be my first touchdown pick. Okay.

I will say you forgot what- These are fogging up. You forgot what year it is because Ramandre is not Mike's dude. Travion is Mike's dude. And the other Mike's dude to finish out Mike's year at the Super Bowl is Ken Bone Walker. Who is in my lineup? I have him receiving targets, three and a half. more than that. With Charbonne out, he's going to have at least four targets.

As Andy goes through the construction, Kenneth Walker, his projections at 74.5 rushing yards. I thought that was, that's a little bit too high for how much. Wait, are you betting against yourself? I'm just in rushing yards. Oh, my goodness. Just in rushing yards. Less than 74.5 rushing yards.

I feel like you guys are getting punished by me. All right. It's going to be fun this week. And that was Fantasy Face Off presented by Price Picks. Check out special max discounts for the big game like Drake May needing one passing yard to win. Use code footballers and get $50. I think he can do it. In lineups when you play $5.

Al? We are twins. That's right. Dressing a like today. And enjoy the weekend, everybody. Have a good time. Enjoy the game. Stay safe.

Ultimate draft game Sunday. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.