Lineup Fantasy Football Show - 5 Training Camp Battles with HUGE Fantasy Implications | Dynasty Fantasy Football

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Today we're discussing the biggest NFL training camp battles for Dynasty Fantasy Football and Redraft Fantasy Football. We identify who could quickly become Buys, Sells & Trade Targets! We break down 5 positional battles to watch heading into 2026. Whether you're playing dynasty fantasy football or redraft, these are the players to watch to keep a leg up on your leaguemates 0:00 - NFL Training Camp Battles for Fantasy Football 1:00 - Tua Tagovailoa vs Michael Penix Jr. 7:07 - Parker Washington vs Brian Thomas Jr. 13:22 - Rachaad White vs Jacory Croskey-Merritt 19:46 - Luther Burden III vs Rome Odunze 24:31 - Chuba Hubbard vs Jonathon Brooks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The biggest fantasy football gems come from the most ambiguous situations. Let's break down five training camp battles that will have huge fantasy football implications, including one that could produce a true league winner. Let's go. Welcome into the lineup fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, when people think summer camp, they think toasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories. But when we think summer camp, we are thinking about our favorite players reporting back and kicking off the true fancy football season. So let's break down some positional battles here

between players ranked very closely together in ADP and point out who has the most upside and who has the most to lose. I'll let you kick it off first with, I think this is one of the most important, just like the ramifications of this training camp battle. Yeah, I'm starting off with really what I think is the biggest quarterback battle or the most ambiguous where it doesn't feel like there's a true leader

or a true favorite. And that's out of Atlanta. We have Tuatunga Lola and Michael Penix. Yep. A true 50-50 in my mind, just a coin flip of who's going to end up starting. Much like all of Tua's passes, a true 50-50 of which team's going to get it. The color jersey who's going to come up with it? Yeah, 100%.

And things haven't been great for Michael Pennix, which is why here we are in year three with him, even in a competition. So it might be the lesser of two evils. But with that said, there are a lot of implications. The first being probably the least exciting, but the most obvious, which is which one of these guys could be rosterable in your fantasy league. Obviously, whoever doesn't get this job is just going to be off the radar in most formats. But to be honest, even the winner, I'm not really going to be drafting outside of maybe some Superflex leagues. So I don't really care that much who wins this battle in terms of who I want at quarterback in fantasy. It's really the weapons.

The weapons are going to be greatly impacted by this decision because there are really great weapons on this offense. So let's start with those guys. First off, Bejan Robinson. Yeah. I think will be much better if Tua gets the job. I've been kind of teetering back and forth all winter and spring and now here in the summer, just teetering back and forth between Bejohn and Gibbs for who I think should be the first running back off the board. I've changed my mind on the matter about as many times as Tua turned the ball over,

last year, which was a lot, like we mentioned earlier. But despite those turnovers and how much we like to clown on Tua, I do think he's the best thing for Bijon. And I think if he's named the starter, I would give Bijon the edge over Gibbs as the first running back off the board. Yeah, I feel like that's weirdly bold to say right now, but I'm actually with you. I think there's so much Gibbs hype that Bijon's getting slept on, especially if he has Tua throwing him the ball. If Tua is throwing him the ball, I would lean that way because you look at the way A-chan and Miami got used. in the passing game with 2 over the last couple years and how drastically two is A dot has fallen in the last couple years

and you compound that with the fact that Bijon is already an exceptional pass catcher and he's already proven that and he can be a high volume pass catcher out of the backfield all of a sudden too is the starter and you're projecting a billion targets for Bijon in 26 give or take a few maybe only like 900 million but you get what I'm saying and on the contrary I think London bodes better with Penix, who he's already produced elite numbers with. I've gone through these numbers on the show before, so I won't bore all of you with it again. I'll just give you the spark notes. Basically, Drake London has been dramatically better with Penix at quarterback than he was with cousins,

and pretty much every major statistic backs that up. So we already know he's been very good with Michael Penix. And Pennix isn't afraid to push the ball downfield. That obviously bodes well for somebody like Drake London. So if Penix is named the starter, I'm excited for London. If Tua is, to be honest, with where London's currently being ranked and where he's currently going in drafts, I'm probably fading him. I just don't really trust Tua to support him. The really interesting one to me is Kyle Pitts, who Mitch, I know you got a little kindergarten crush on your boy, Kyle Pitts, even though I think he's a complete con artist, but we don't need to go there again. That's the one I'm most conflicted on. I don't really know how I'd change my view on him with this. I think I probably

prefer Tua just because we've already seen Kyle Pitz really struggle with consistency with Penix already. He was better probably with Kirk Cousins. So at least we know he's not, he's not been very good with Pennix and maybe there's upside with Tua, but I don't know. I'm open to your thoughts on that one because I'm very conflicted. I feel very strongly that it would be a better situation with Tua than it would be with Michael Penix. Like we've seen it the past few years. We saw it with Johnny Smith. Like Tua is going to target the type in position a lot. Um, so for me, it's a huge bump for Kyle Pitts. I think I'm high on Kyle Pitts, no matter who the quarterback is, which shouldn't come as a shock

to you. But I agree with you. I'm also the same thing with Bijan where it's like, okay, if it's Michael Penix, he's still Bejohn Robinson. I'm not that bothered by it. Drake London is the guy who gets affected. And I think is the most important and valuable fantasy football asset that's actually going to have their value determined by this training camp battle more so than even if you're in a

super flex league. fostering one of these guys. Like, it's Drake London that's getting affected the most here. And I think what we've seen with the deteriorating ADOT from two of the past few seasons, like you mentioned, like, it doesn't bode great for Drake London, whereas you've gone through it ad nauseum, like he performs extremely well with Michael Pennix. So Drake London feels like he's sitting on a razor's edge right now for how we should value him. And at the current moment, I'm staying away.

but if I start seeing that Michael Pennix is more healthy than we thought and that he's starting to win that training camp battle because I think a lot of people are leaning the two aside right now. I see that. I'm going to start scooping up Drake London before his value skyrockets. Yeah, I haven't really, I've just been kind of like treading lightly before I ever drafting London anywhere now because I'm scared. And I don't know who the starter is going to be like.

I think it's a true coin flip between two not very good lefty quarterbacks. And it's a shame. imagine if this offense had like even just a fringe top 10 quarterback under center these weapons would all be going in the first I mean they already are like they are going to mention here not as high on the list but somebody that we're pretty high on is like Zachariah branch like if we get two under center like get back Zachariah branch might lead the NFL and targets behind the line of scrimmage if yeah two lands up the starter solely behind the line of scrimmage yes 100% that being he didn't already. Man, all right, before I get into my first training camp battle, if you guys are enjoying

the content, please make sure to hit that subscribe button and also like the video. It helps us out so much. If you're listening to us on the player profiler feed, hit us up at the lineup fantasy football show. No, let's talk about my lord and savior Parker Washington. And the guy he's battling at camp with Brian Thomas Jr. I had to talk about this one and it made me so happy that we were going over guys that were so close in ADP. And I go and check. And they are two spots apart right now. Now, Brian Thomas Jr., wider receiver 31 and redraft, Parker Washington, the wire receiver 33. Their separation is a little bit different in Dynasty, the wider receiver 26 for BTJ, and 34 for Parker. And I got to say, trust tree here, this does not leave me, you, the comment section, anyone.

I kind of hate how propped up Parker's getting right now. Oh boy. Oh, no, Mitch. When I first started talking about him in January, he felt like our little secret here at the lineup. And now the hype's getting a little bit nuts. but I still think he's undervalued. I think the big story out of minicamp that we've seen this summer is how well Brian Thomas Jr. and Trevor Lawrence were connecting.

And I have to admit, it gave me that little glimmer back in my eye thinking about the same BTJ that was wide receiver 4 just two years ago. It feels like eons ago in his rookie season. And it's all kind of reminded me the potential's there. Obviously last season was catastrophic, both from a statistical perspective. He finished as the wide receiver 44 and you probably drafted him in the second round. but also from an optics perspective, we had the bad drops, we had the bad body language. And so it's made it all the more difficult for Brian Thomas Jr. manager, seeing Parker Washington

kind of explode onto the scene last season and all of a sudden start getting all this traction this offseason as everyone's fantasy darling. Like last season, I feel like people thought Parker Washington was just kind of good in the last few weeks. He was the wide receiver 16 from week nine on after their by week. He has also, I've mentioned this a million times. He led the team with 114 targets. He finished ninth in the entire NFL and pro football focuses receiving grade. And so now the question is, who's the real wide receiver one in this high power Liam Cohen led Jaguar's offense? I can tell you one thing. If we knew who the true wide receiver one was, we would not be

drafting them as the wide receiver 33 and 31 off the board. They would be going a hell of a lot higher. So that is what we are trying to look for here in this battle. and I think a lot of people right now are speculating that the Brian Thomas Jr. hype that came out of mini camp was fluffed to raise his trade value or a negotiating tactic against Parker Washington as he looks to get an extension. But to me, I think we're not really going to know the truth until that first day of training camp truly hits and we start to get a clearer picture of who Trevor Lawrence is actually connecting with and who his favorite target is.

Once we do, I think you're going to start seeing these guys separate a little bit more. if it really does lean Parker Washington, you're going to see this flip, and you're going to finally see Parker Washington being drafted as the wire receiver one. But if this Brian Thomas Jr. hype starts growing and it's actually becoming more and more of a real thing getting closer to preseason, you're going to see that separation build, and all of a sudden Parker Washington might be a value again. Brian Thomas might start getting propped up again, and everyone who had him last year is going to get terrified. I think my takeaway from all of this has been to just draft Jacoby Myers.

I know I mentioned that I'm on a recent episode. Meyers, Sam. Early, early, I'm talking like early offseason when I was a sicko monitoring, you know, ECR and ADP. He was actually higher than both of those two guys. He's lower than both now in most places you look, not everywhere. You know what's really interesting? A result of this that I didn't even consider is that both of these guys get insane hype

out of camp and no one's talking about Jacoby Myers and Jacoby Myers becomes an insane steal later on in the summer. I think he will be. He's just always the same. I just think his role in this offense is the safest. But with that said, I don't think he has a path to a top 12 finish that I think Brian Thomas does because he's done it. And to be honest, I do think Parker Washington can do it. I know you love him.

Okay, I was like you better say that. I think it is totally possible. What I'm most interested to see in camp is who's out there in two wide receiver sets consistently. Because we know all three are going to be on the field in three wide receiver sets. Travis Hunter probably will get mixed in two, but predominantly will be those other three guys we mentioned. And why I think that could be really important to monitor especially, as we've seen in recent years, I think Sean McVeigh kind of led the charge. Sean McVeigh was always a three-wide receiver guy. And now he's the two-tight end two-receiver guy.

And the league's kind of like pig-tailed off that. And you even saw this year in the draft, James Gladstone, that's a GM, right, James Gladstone? Yeah, James Gladstone. He talked about it. They drafted a blocking tight end in the second round, and people were surprised by it. And he answered very candidly saying, we're seeing this trend like going into heavier, packages on the field, more tight ends on the field. We want to be equipped for that. If the jags start shifting to more heavy personnel and you're only going to have two receivers on the

field at a time more often than we saw last year, it's really important who's on the field and no set. So that is something to really watch in camp. Yeah, 100%. I love how we call it a copycat league when really it's just a copy Sean McVeigh league. Yeah, it's copy Sean McVeigh. Who, by the way, little aside, absolutely yoked. I don't know if we've addressed that yet on this show, but if we haven't, it needs to be mentioned. I feel like that's not even new news, but yes, I do know the picture you're talking about in these genitals. Oh my God. He looks like white Aaron Donald. Just to wrap that all on a bow, though, watch the Parker, Washington and Brian Thomas stuff. A side quest here, if you want to is try to monitor what's going on with Travis Hunter. I mean,

we're getting more reports now that the him playing mainly defense is going to be the standard moving forward, but also watch that Jacoby Myers price because not only, Lee Mello, do we know what his role is going to be in Jacksonville? Because we know what his role is going to be, there's not going to be all that much hype around him and no one's going to be talking about Jacoby Myers. And that's the exact type of guy that kind of just slips in your drafts and you end up getting at a steal. Yeah, he'll be going to go ahead of 40 in drafts and finishes the wide receiver 19. And it's like, he's not like a crazy Lee winner, but he's a guy who's absolutely going to return on that value on that ADP. We got to do another boring players episode and just talk about Jacoby Myers for like an hour. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's the kid. He's. He's the kid. He's. He's the. He's the. He's king of the boring players. All right, well, we've gone through quarterbacks here. We've gone through receivers. I got a running back battle for you. Let's go.

Really eager to see how it shakes out. And that is Rashad White and Jacori Kroski Merritt, aka Bill. And we can throw in Ketron Allen to the rookie. I'm not as convinced he's really part of this competition, but we'll throw his name in there. This competition is super interesting to me because this is an offense that I think a lot of people, especially you and me Mitch. We're really projecting a bounce back. We're projecting this offense to be closer to the 2024 version of itself

than the version last year, especially if Jaden Daniels can stay healthy. So the running back on this offense could end up being a really nice piece, one that could really help your fantasy team. And both of these guys, White and Bill, are both super cheap right now. They have a fantasy pros, ECR of running back 38 and 39, respectively.

Very similar range in ADP as well. Yep. late 30s, early 40s. So very affordable, Ketran Allen running back 67, so he's like dirt cheap. And I'll start up by saying, I think this is likely going to be some sort of committee. I agree. And I use that lightly. Like, I don't know, it's kind of ambiguous what counts as a committee, what counts as a starter versus, you know, a change of pays back.

But I'd be pretty surprised to see anyone be a true bell cow, I guess is what I'm trying to say. With that said, I think it'll be critical to monitor how these backs are being used in camp. because I've been all aboard the Rashad White bandwagon. I've been drafted on a ton. I've been talking very positively about what he can do in this offense. Some haters of Rashad White have been quick to point out the fact that he looks slow, which to a certain extent is fair, but to be honest,

I think at this point has gotten a bit out of control. People are acting like he's me out there trying to play dizzy bat after 12 bloodlights. It's not that bad. Like, he's put some good stuff on tape. He was actually PFF's 12th highest graded running back last season without any qualifiers or anything like that. So, So many people just commented they're like, yeah, but you're forgetting Rashad White's bad.

And it's like, well, the metrics don't back that up at all. Especially with Bucky Hurt last year early in the year. Like, Rashad White was winning people fantasy weeks. Like, he was productive. But, I mean, I get to a certain extent. Like, I'm not, I just admitted I don't think he'll be a bell cow. And I do think his skill set lends itself more to being a past catching third downback, definitely more so than Jacori-Kroski Merritt.

Yeah. But I will admit. his value will be severely limited if that is all he does. Because I don't think Jaden Daniels is going to be checking the ball down a ton. It's just not something he really does. He pushes the ball down field. He takes off and he runs. We love that mobility.

So, Rashad White's probably going to have to get a good portion of the early down work to really return on ADP. But I definitely think it's possible. And we'll learn more once we go in the camp. because if Rashad White is consistently working with the ones, I will be putting a hole in my phone screen from spamming the Rashad White button in all my drafts.

Like, I'm going to need like seven new phone to week. Do they still exist? I don't know. Does Best Buy still exist? I don't know, man. I'm not. I don't like going shopping. It gives me anxiety.

But if we go into Camp and Bill's getting the early down work, if he's getting it in August, there's a good chance he's getting it in September 2. which, by the way, I will admit as somebody who's out on Bill, it would be very funny if he ends up being a league winner the year after. We all thought he was going to break fantasy leagues and solve world hunger and do all these great things. But we'll see in camp. Like, camp is going to be very telling not only who looks good, but who's actually getting used in certain personnel packages. And then who knows, like we talk about these two and then K. Tron Allen, who I keep talking about as sort of this distant third piece.

I have my doubts about him severely, but he could just go sicko mode in camp and all of a sudden his draft stock goes through the roof. So let's pay attention to all that. For me, it's one of the most important and interesting camp battles to watch. I'm going to say this. I might regret saying this,

but like I kind of feel like no matter what hype comes out about Ketron Allen, I think I'm just out. I just don't think that there's a path to him having like meaningful fantasy value. He could be Bill. Yeah, right. 100%. It's this depth chart that is on the surface fragile and everyone gets excited because you can

grab a running back super late, which we've had so many conversations about this when we're drafting best ball together of like, there truly is a running back cliff this year. And I think we're all trying to convince ourselves that like, oh, well, maybe I could get something out of Nicholas Singleton or Ketron Allen or, I mean, we're talking DeMond Claybourne and we'll always stick by our guy Demand. But like, in a lot of ways, I think we're all kind of kidding ourselves into thinking that some of these guys are going to come in and or Emmett Johnson even like. are going to get meaningful work, where I think this battle is truly between

Rashad White and Jacori-Kroski-Mirrit. And you bring up a good point. I think a lot of people are emotionally burned by Bill, and so they want to completely write him off. And that's me playing the devil's advocate as someone who loves Rashad White and thinks that he is going to be the guy and the worthwhile fantasy asset here.

I just want to go into this with a clear mind and try to avoid the biases as much as I can and just say, like, yeah, I think this is completely up for grabs. And I agree with you. If we start seeing that Rashad White is really just working in on third downs, I'm probably staying away at a running back, what, 38 price tag right now? It's a little rich for my blood.

Yeah, same. As someone who's drafting a ton of him, same. If he's only working in on third downs, it's like, all right, well, that won't be a very valuable role in a Jaden Daniels offense. But I agree. If he's out there all the time, then I want every possible share of him at this price. If he's getting the majority, not even all, but the majority of the early down work, he is going to be such a steal and a league winner. I need to keep in mind, you raise a good point

to like, I don't want to have my biases because I want Rashad White because I've been drafting him. We need the men in black little thing. Yes. Yes. Flash and you forget. I need that in my grill right before I watch Commander's camp and then I can make a good decision. 1,000%. I need the men in black flash before I watch any training camp stuff. And there's no better segue into a guy I've had priors about that I now need to be completely unbiased going into watching. And that's Roma Dunezay as he battles it out with Luther Burden at the Chicago Bears training camp. Luther Burton, right now the Y-Recever 21 in redraft, Rydercever 17 in Dynasty. Roma Dunezay, the Y-R receiver 30 in redraft and the wide receiver 20 in Dynasty.

It's been a minute since we talked about these guys, Mello. I think the last time, was during our Dynasty Sells episode with Corey from Fantasy Stock Exchange, where we discussed that we were all out on Luther Burden at cost. I was extremely high on Roma Dunesay based on the fact that he was the wide receiver three overall through four weeks before sustaining a stress fracture in his foot, ends up playing through most of the season hurt, multiple wide receiver one finishes with that stress fracture,

and then ends up taking off the end of the year from weeks 14 to 18, plus the fact that Luther Burden had finished outside of the top 24 receivers in all but two games last year. and finish as the wide receiver 48. All that being said, Mello, a lot of things have changed since the last time we talked about these guys. And I would like, the elephant in the room would like to be addressed. And there's two elephants in the room. The first one is Romodunze, who came out recently and said about that foot with a stress fracture,

quote, this is my new normal. And it's not from a standpoint that I'm always in pain, but the way my foot broke, there's calluses in there, and they create a different type of foot structure with those bones. that's always good. Different types of things that kind of shift things around. So my new normal

is kind of what I am going into. Not good. Don't love that. Not good. Anytime I'm talking about a new normal with my body is very bad. It's like the first time

I tried to eat a whole domino's pizza post college and I had to tap out after like five slices. And I'll be honest here, you never really get back to eight and it's my new normal. So I'm terrified

about Roma Junete's outlook right now. Meanwhile, Ben Johnson's coming out and he's saying he's buying Luther Burden's stock for the year. And this could always be coach-speak trying to fire up a young guy that he wants more out of. But I think the fact that he's saying that about Luther Burden and none of these other guys in this offense, it tells me a lot. And like, I don't think Ben Johnson's fully a guy that just talks out of his ass. So to break all that down, what are we actually watching for here at camp? First off, I want to see what Roma Dunes-A actually looks like running. How is he getting out of his breaks? Does he seem like he's up

the speed or does there actually seem like there's something hampering him? And then I also want to see if the Luther Burton coach speak is translating into him getting real opportunities and making plays out there or if this is all just internet Twitter hype that we're doing in the middle of June and July. The fantasy community, just hyping up players irrationally? When have we ever done that, Mitch? I know. It's a new thing we're trying this offseason. I think, I'm glad I know we're like way past to do with those Ben Johnson comments, but I'm glad we're finally talking about them because it's certainly not a bad thing for Luther Burden that Ben Johnson is saying that. Of course not. It's definitely not bad, but I do think it's been blown out of proportion. Like, Ben Johnson's brain

doesn't think about fantasy rankings and where guys are being drafted in the fact that Luther Burden is going above Roma Dunesay. He doesn't give a shit. He's thinking about the fact that you have the second year that was playing behind Alameda Zakias for the vast majority of his rookie year. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh, he's going to have a big role in this offense. Like, we're going to need him to step up and do more than a couple of of boom games down the final few weeks of the season. Like, that's the lens that Ben Johnson is talking about. And of course, he's not going to say he's not excited about his second year guy.

Are we entirely sure that Ben Johnson doesn't have Luther Burden on his dynasty team and he's trying to prop up his stock? There's always a chance that you see the, who is the play caller recently? Who is the play caller recently who said he's playing a lot of Madden to prep for his offensive play calling duties? You never know what these guys are doing. You never know. He's gonna be so confused

when someone doesn't like run through the defender like literally glitched through them. He's like that usually works. Yeah, like what the hell is that? Why hasn't fourverts worked yet this game? I want somebody to actually I think they invented this. I'm getting off the rails here.

I think they invented like a fan vote play calling league that didn't work at last of the one season. Comment, if you remember it, comment what that league was called. Yeah. I want to know what that league is called. Long story short, though, I still like the value of Rome.

His foot terrifies me, and Camp will hopefully give us a lot of answers. That's a classic Rex Ryan quote, a feet terrifying him. I think Rex Ryan has said the opposite. Actually, he hasn't found a foot he hasn't liked. Bunyan's in all. All right. We ready for our favorite battle here, Mitch? Yeah, that's a great transition from Bunyan's into these two guys.

Bunyan's into the running back competition in Carolina between Chuba Hubbard and Jonathan Brooks. Oh, I love this one. This one gets me so hot. I'm ready to run through a freaking wallmits. Just talking about this battle here. As a Jonathan Brooks believer, I may start doing victory laps as soon as Brooks even gets a single sap with the starters in camp. Like the first rep he gets. Yeah, stop the count.

It's over. This one's really interesting to pay attention to, though, because just a few months ago, Chuba was the clear starter. And Brooks was just at best like a sneaky sleeper dark course to keep an eye on, which is when I started really being interested in thinking he had a chance to surprise a lot of people. But now all of a sudden, this is being treated as a true competition where Chuba is still the favorite for sure. But people are acknowledging the fact that Jonathan Brooks could have a real shot at this job. And I want to level set and just like manage expectations here by clarifying.

barring injuries, Chuba Hubbard is going to get the vast majority of the work with the starters in camp. Now, whether that carries into the season, I don't know. In camp, Chuba is going to be working with the starters a ton. It's basically a lock. So let's go over what we really should be looking for in Panthers camp. One is how much is Brooks worked in with the starters? If it's just a little bit, then Chuba may have a pretty strong grip on this job. but if Brooks is working in a lot, even if it's less than 50%,

all of a sudden, to me, that indicates the staff is telling us that Chuba doesn't really have a clear, easy path to being the Belkow of this offense, and his grip is weakening substantially on this job. Yeah. The second thing I'm looking for is how healthy and explosive does Brooks look. Obviously, it's the 20 ACLs that have derailed his career. All went well in OTAs, but we need to see. see how everything looks once they rev up in camp and the pads are fully on? Is he cutting well? Is

his burst fully back? Does he look good in shorts? Those are all the important questions us analysts need answers to in order to know if he's fully back. And then the last thing, of course, is how does Chuba look? Because he's been painfully inconsistent throughout his career. Part of that maybe because of injuries, like the calf last year, which allegedly is the reason he wasn't very good. If he looks great in camp, maybe last year was just like an entry fluke. And maybe he is a really good back and worthy of this starting gig. But if he just kind of looks mad, maybe he doesn't really have it. And maybe the door is wide open for Brooke.

So those are all the things I'm going to be paying attention to because they're all going to be baked into my final valuations before I'm drafting for serious leagues in August. Yeah, this one is so interesting to me. I think it's the perfect battle for our top spot because I think we are just going to gleam so much information from this. I think we need so much information on what these two guys look like. looking at two guys who are coming off of injury, if you don't think that what happened to Chuba last year was because of injury,

then you're basically just saying you don't think he's very good. Right. So we've got Brooks, who's got the high draft capital, potentially the best running back in his class when he got drafted, but we haven't seen him play at the NFL level because of the injuries. But he's 23 years old. And I think that's the thing that keeps standing out to me. And then there's Chuba who I personally was incredibly high on last year.

He was probably one of my biggest misses of the year, if I'm being transparent. And like you said, he's been painfully inconsistent. But to his defense, he was hurt a lot of last year. And so when things are good, they're good with Chuba. That being said, do you feel like there's a little part of Canales and this whole coaching staff that's like, hmm, Rico Doudal was kind of really, really good when he was in this offense last year.

And even when Chuba's been healthy, he hasn't been that good. so there has to be some level of them that no matter what they've been saying in the media is willing to let Jonathan Brooks get a handle on this job if he looks good enough in camp and so I think this is a very genuine battle more than a lot of people want to admit and I think things could turn very, very quickly

on the onset of training camp if we're seeing Brooks look really good and getting the majority of the work. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the fact that Dattles out of town too and Derek Brown brought this up when he was on like teams will tell you without telling you the way they view players and they let Rico Daddle go and honestly he didn't even get paid that much I mean he got a nice little bag but he didn't like the Steelers didn't have to reach super deep in their pockets the Panthers probably

could have afforded to bring them back and you know what the Panthers did do to bring a new talent basically nothing like they brought in the ghost of Quadzilla A.J. Dillon that's that's it like that tells me that they have confidence if nothing else and Jonathan Brooks being a part of this offense. Now, whether it's the major part of this backfield or not, that remains to be seen. Yeah, at his price earlier on the summer, it was the type of thing where you could take a shot on him

and just pick at this price, it's fine if he's the RB2 and he just gets a decent amount of work. And now he's gotten into the territory where it's like, you're kind of picking one or the other here, and one of these guys is going to have to get a lot of work to make it worth the price. I still am a Brooks guy, but I'm sad to admit. He's no longer one of my favorite values because he is shooting up everybody's draft boards. right now. Those were our five biggest training camp battles to watch for fantasy football here in

2026. If there are any other positional battles that you think we need to talk about in the future before the season starts, let us know down below. If there are any guys you are super excited about that you want to talk about on the show, also leave it down below. Mello, before we get out of here, do we miss anything? Nothing for me. All right, we'll catch you guys next episode.