Lineup Fantasy Football Show - 5 Dynasty Buys to MAKE NOW Before Training Camp Prices EXPLODE | Dynasty Fantasy Football

Episode Date: June 26, 2026

Training camp is coming and dynasty prices are about to spike. We break down our five best dynasty buy lows heading into training camp. These are the players whose ADP hasn't caught up with their upside yet and once camp news starts dropping, the window to buy slams shut fast. Whether you're in a dynasty fantasy football league or best ball, these are the trade targets or draft picks you need to be dialed in on. Timestamps: 0:00 - Dynasty Fantasy Football Buys Before Training Camp 0:34 - Rico Dowdle 3:52 - Zachariah Branch 6:27 - Malachi Fields 10:07 - Isaac Teslaa 12:52 - Kyler Murray Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the line of fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, it is almost July. Fantasy football is so back. We have a very, very special episode to kick off the true fantasy football season on July 1st that you will not want to miss. But right now, I want to talk some dynasty guys that you need to get some shares of before their prices skyrocket during training camp, including one must-buy player at the end that you got to stick around for. Mello, give me your first guy that you need to go grab before training camp. I'm bringing some new blood to this show. This is a lot of the show. guy I don't think we've really talked about at all, maybe at all, maybe a little bit, I don't know. But it is Rico Dowdell of the Steelers. Like I mentioned, haven't heard a lot of chatter about him in general beyond this show as well.

He is currently the running back 32 on the Fantasy Pros consensus dynasty rankings, running back 35 on Keep Trade Cut, behind Jalen Warren on both of those platforms as well, who is just about the same age. I think there's just a few months apart. So for all intents and purposes, the same age. So based on that, I think people view Warren as the guy. to have in this offense. But by the time camp rolls around, I would not be surprised at all to see things flip.

Because Mike McCarthy in this new regime went out and made sure to go get Rico Dattle for a reason. McCarthy coached Dattle in Dallas where he was a thousand-yard rusher. He clearly wanted him back considering they let Kenneth Gainwell walk in free agency just to give Dowell a bag. And we always say follow the money. And the Steelers actually gave Doudal more money in terms of average annual value than they did Jaylen Warren just a year ago. So Dowdell is the higher paid back in this backfield. I think a lot of the pro-Warren narrative comes from the fact that Mike McCarthy is going to run a pretty pass-heavy

offense and Warren profiles as more of a pass catcher. But I wouldn't be so sure that Warren is actually going to get all that work. When you look at the last couple of years, Warren only had one more reception than Daddle did last year. And Dowell actually had five more targets on the air. So he was targeted more heavily in the passing game in Carolina last year. And in 2020, when Dowell was a cowboy and he was playing for Mike McCarthy, he actually had more receptions in 2024 than Warren had that year. So it is something Dowell can do as well. I think he has a three-down skill set. I'm not saying Jalen Warren isn't a good player or he doesn't, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this coaching staff lean more heavily in favor of Dowdell. They sought him out. I think that's

going to become more clear in training camp once we see who's running with the starters more consistently. So now is it time to get him before that happens. This is one of the perfect archetypes of what this type of episode should be about. And something we've talked about all springs identifying ambiguous running back rooms. And this one's about as good as it gets. And I think you actually just provided a lot of stuff that people aren't talking about. One of them being that he's getting paid more than Jalen Warren. The other one being that he actually isn't that much worse, in fact, maybe even better of a receiving threat than Jalen Warren. And I, as much as I, as much as I, as he's getting paid more than

I haven't thought too much about RICO Doudal this offseason, I've actually thought a lot about Jalen Warren being overpriced. I think if you look like right now, our best redraft rankings are looking into best ball for now before we see things actually start shaking out in August. And every time I look at Jalen Warren, there's not a shot in the world I would click the button because there's so many more talented players around him. And so I really do think there's great odds that this is going to flip. And if you've got conviction about RICO Dowdil, this is probably the cheapest price you're going to get between now and at the very least the end of the year. I think it probably is. And I like what you said about ambiguous backfields. Even if you don't

believe in Rico Dowdell, you have to believe that it's an ambiguous backfield. And Dowdell is the cheaper one. Exactly. For pure value, Dowdell is the one to go after. 1,000%. Melo, let us transition into my first guy. I know you were bringing in some new blood, but I'm actually going to bring in a guy that we talked about slash you talked about in our rookie sleepers episode. And that is Zachariah Branch, the wide receiver 69 in Dynasty, and one receiver is 73 and redraft, 22 years old, playing with Checkdown Merchant to Tunga Loa. That might have been the best fits since Cinderella Slipper, if Cinderella had been bottom five in A-DOT among starting quarterbacks in the past two seasons. She was top five in A-DOT. Give her some

respect. Put some respect to our name. It was the ugly stepsisters that were bottom five, along with Jake Browning. But Mello, you clearly have had an impression on me because I feel like the last few episodes have been bringing up a lot of guys that you talked about as being values early on in the offseason. Branch was one of your favorite values you were hoping he was going to land in a great situation. I'm not sure if he could have ended up in a better situation right now than Atlanta because yes, you're competing with Bijjan and Pitts outside of your wide receiver room for targets, but you look at that receiver room and he's like pretty lock solid to me, the wide receiver too. His biggest competition

right now is Jahan Dotson and Olmead Zekeas, the tax collector. And as much as I love Drake London, who better to play with Tua than the guy who had the fourth most yards after the catch in all of college football last year? He honestly is size pretty close to Jalen Waddle, and like it kind of reminds me of the type of system that they ran in Miami if like Tua just gets really comfortable dropping it off to branch. Like he's such an electric playmaker. I think that he could have an unbelievable season.

So yes, he's slightly undersized, but he's a guy with juice that. I think is worth taking a swing on at wide receiver 69 and Dynasty. Tua is going to love throwing this guy the ball. He's going to love it. He's going to be like watering out the mouth before he even snaps the ball, knowing he's just going to throw it immediately to Zachariah Branch on like a little screen. Tua's going to be more excited to throw it to Branch than he is the other team, which is saying something. Yeah, because he gets really excited to throw it to the other team too.

He's like, no, just throw it to Zachariah Branch 0.3 seconds after the snap. And, you know, people say he's gimmicky. and I'm like, sure, he is. I don't care. Like, they're going to use him for gimmicks, and he's going to get all those PPR points, and he's going to turn him into yards. And he's a really good candidate for this episode, too,

because he is so explosive and flashy that, that, like, that first crazy juke move is going to hit your Twitter timeline, and everyone's going to be talking about him. Yeah. So go get him before that. I had that note down that he is, like, the top candidate for the training camp hype train that's led entirely on videos that hit your Twitter timeline.

Well, I might play a little bit of copycat here because I also have a rookie here. I think it just makes sense to talk rookies in an episode like this because we love, we love to elevate rookies during training camp. So I'm going to talk about Malachi Fields. Mitch, I think one of my biggest regrets in life, not in fantasy, just in life, is not more aggressively targeting Malachi Fields and rookie drafts this year. I really wish... I know.

I think about it sometimes. And part of the reason... is just with rickies in general like I mentioned. We elevate them, the training camp hype. Just think of last year alone, guys who had their ADPs in redraft absolutely skyrocket in August like Emeka Abuka and Amari and Hampton and Trayvian Henderson. Who could forget to Cory Crosby Merritt? The legend of Bill is like a folklore at this point. So it only makes sense we're talking about rookies like you do with Branch and I am here with Fields. And a big part of the reason I like Fields over some of the other guys is I think he's one

the most well positioned to improve his value and make an impact during training camp. That's a great point. The Giants are a big market team. There's no shortage of media attention. You're going to hear all sorts of media out of the Giants out of New York. And Malik neighbors will maybe be ready for week one, maybe. But even if he is, he's probably not going to be super involved in camp. He's probably not going to be doing a whole lot because they're trying to get him healthy.

So that leaves the New York wider super room with underwhelming afterthought veterans. like Juju Smith Schuster and Darius Slayton and Darnel Mooney and O'Dell Beckham, who's so old at this point, I'm calling him O'Dell Buckham Senior. I can't put Junior in his name anymore. He's so damn old.

So now you have Malachi Fields. He's so much more juice than any of those guys. He's a high third round pick, six four athletic specimen. Not super fast, which I think is probably why he fell to the early third. And I'll admit he's probably more of a project than I'm letting on. He's not the most

day one NFL ready guy, but all of the talent and the physical attributes are there. And you know as soon as he moses some undrafted free agent in training camp and it hits your Twitter timeline, it's going to be full steam ahead with the hype train. Everyone's going to be talking

about it. And he's going to have those opportunities because there's no one else there in New York. So I like his long-term upside legitimately as a player, but just from a philosophical like market, valuation perspective, I like the idea of buying him now before that hype happens in training camp because he's in this situation where I think his value will increase before he even plays an NFL sap. Yeah, and I almost feel like that's a kind of a guarantee. It's almost like when we talk about

these guys that are still waiting to get signed, like the Stefan Diggs and the Debo Samuels, where it's like their values just no matter where they go, it's going to go up. This is also a team that couldn't be more desperate for a positive storyline. And so if there's anything to hype up, they're going to be hyping the hell out of it. And like you said, the media capital of the country. That was also so disrespectful to Odo Beckham Jr. But I like this pick a lot. I'm like, you're not going to get me to say a bad thing about an offense that I've been so fired up about.

I love neighbors. I love DART. I love likely. Like, I want to see this passing offense succeed. And I think it will. And I think there's a very, very good chance he's going to become a part of it. And like you said, like we don't even know what's going to happen during the season. I agree by the end of training camp, his practice.

is going to be higher no matter what. He's like an early August, one-handed catch in the back of the end zone away from being everybody's favorite best ball stack with Malik Neighbors and Jackson Dart. That's really what it is. A million percent. Before we get into our fourth player, make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to be notified every time we drop a brand new episode. Also, if you're on audio, please hit it with a five-star review on Spotify and Apple.

But let's talk some Isaac Tesla, 24 years old, wide receiver 66 in Dynasty, wide receiver 69 in redraft. This is a guy that it's a little bit of a combination of what we saw last year, what we've been seeing so far in OTAs, and some of the coach speak, honestly, that's been coming out, because Dan Campbell has continually talked about his growth, specifically in the back half of his rookie season. Calvin Johnson actually just mentioned the other day that Tesla reminds him of himself, which, boom. That should have just rose his price astronomically, but instead his price is actually falling right now in both formats. Just two years ago, the Lions reached on a guy who had a 90,

seventh percentile physical profile in the draft class and a ninth percentile production profile, which kind of aligns exactly with what we saw in his rookie season. Insane efficiency and production on very little opportunity, and mellow a stat you've provided to support that he was tied for fourth in red zone touchdowns among all wide receivers, despite being 40th in targets. And then if you look at the opportunities he got, that ticked up in the back half, kind of going with that Dan Campbell said. And another stat from you here, he averaged 15 snaps per game in his first six games,

and then 44 in his last six. The usage increased substantially, and I think there's a huge opportunity for him to break out. But unfortunately for redraft, I do think the cat's going to be out of the bag the minute he starts lighting up training camp. Another mellow guy you go with here. I know.

I'm obsessed right now. I'm rubbing off on you, pause, but I'm glad I'm having such a positive impact on you. Maybe negative impact. I don't know. That's neither here nor there. You're certainly a negative influence. Very negative. but very positive on Isaac Tesla because you're right all the physical tools are there

really the only issue is just it's a crowded offense with a lot of really good you know offensive skill players only one ball but he's going to be more involved he already got more involved toward the end of his rookie year they're going to use him down by the goal line down by the red zone you're going to get those crazy highlight reels in training camp like we talked about with all these other guys and people are going to start catching on yeah i think we all know we all know how many different weapons there are in the lion's offense, but I feel like that's priced in and more for Tesla. Yeah. I feel like we're kind of all acting like specifically at Dynasty. We're acting like there's like no ceiling for this guy. What if he just lights it up and the next thing we know,

like he goes and signs elsewhere if they feel like they don't need him or they move on from other pieces and becomes a bigger part of the offense in a few years? I just think he is such a goodbye right now. Yeah. Talent always wins out and he's got plenty of it. So there's plenty of room for growth. 100%. All right, Melo, let's get into our biggest buy of the episode. I'm going to let you kick this off, but let me just intro a guy that we cannot stop talking about, whether it's him or his past catchers or the entire offense. Kyler Murray, going to be 29 years old by kickoff going as the QB 24 in Dynasty and the quarterback 17 in redrafts. I'll let you start here. I love talking, Kyler. You can't stop us. You cannot stop us from talking Kyler Murray here. He is the perfect. candidate for this episode. Like, how can we not talk Kyler Murray when we're talking about guys whose values are going to skyrocket come training at time? Because I'm so confident that

that's exactly what will happen to Kyler come August. He will by that point officially be announced as the starter, put it into any concerns that he won't be, which I don't even know why there are concerns really. We know he's going to be the starter. I will not hear any argument that there's a true competition. There is not a true competition. But once we hear Kevin O'Connell say it, that alone will skyrocket his value. Yeah. People will wake up. People will realize that he's been a quarterback won in points per game every single year of his career up until last year. People will realize that he's playing in this Kevin O'Connell offense with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and T.J. Hawkinson at his disposal. And people will realize it's a perfect situation

for a guy who's been such a great fantasy asset with mobility, which we talk about matters so much for these quarterbacks. Now is the time to get him. It's inevitable. His value is going to go up substantially in dynasty. A year from now, it might go, it might be through the roof if he ends up signing another contract with the Vikings. So now is the time to get him, I think. Yeah, that's such a good caveat. Like, if he signs a second contract with the Vikings, there's just no universe that

this isn't like the best price of all quarterbacks right now. As a self-proclaimed Parker Washington enthusiast, you'd have to check the tape, but I think I've talked about Kyler Murray even more this offseason. I think so. honestly. We're talking about a quarterback who has never finished worse than the quarterback one in any season where he's played 12 or more games. He's got a rare rushing floor that we expect to see more out of with how long removed he is

from the injury, the torn ACL a few years back. And the fact that honestly, just to put it in blunt terms, like Kyler Murray's playing for his life here in the NFL, if he needs to take off and scamper around like a Hasbula video, like he's going to do it. And now you pair him with the king of quarterback reclamation projects in KOC. And then like you said, the best weapons of his career in J.J. Addison, Hawkinson, he just feels like he's too big to fail, which reminds me I should check on my Lehman's brother's stock. But I don't see a world where you get a healthy season out of Kyler Murray,

and he doesn't finish with a quarterback one finish. And I just don't think his price is anywhere near that. And I think to put it to your point and to kind of wrap this in a bow, I think there's going to be more of a realization with that as soon as he's named as the official start. and as soon as we're starting to see how well he's connecting with Jefferson, how well he's connecting with Addison, how much he's getting hyped up on socials. I think all of that stuff that the surrounding noise is going to bring his price to where it needs to be, and I think there's value in grabbing him now, even though it seems like all that value's gone.

Yeah, it's just going to keep creeping up. Like, I'm disappointed from a redraft perspective. I know by the time I'm drafting in my home league, like, he's going to be much more reason. priced because I mean we've got him at the quarterback 17 in redraft like that price is a little less outrageous he's probably going to creep up to the 13 14 I would say yeah and it's it's already happening and it's it's going to keep happening uh also I like how you said too big to fail I think you're the first person to ever call kail murray too big I didn't even think about that Kyleor Murray is too small to fail.

Too small to fail. He's kind of like Wondell Robinson. I'm going to watch him as Bula videos after this, I think. I'll watch some Tyler Murray highlights. We'll be watching the same thing. And those are five players to buy before their prices explode, heading into training camp.

If there's anyone that wasn't on this list that you think should be included, let us know down below. If you disagree with any of these picks specifically, also let us know down below. We love chopping it up, talking about our different player takes. And Mello, do we miss anything?

Nothing for me. All right. We'll catch you guys next episode. episode.