Lineup Fantasy Football Show - NFL Star Austin Ekeler Gives His 2026 Fantasy My Guys

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

Austin Ekeler joins the show to give his My Guys for the 2026 Fantasy Football Season!Fantasy Royale Sports:https://fantasyroyalesports.com/ Play $5 and Get $50 in Bonus Entries on Underdog with code LINEUP: https://play.underdogsports.com/vgwg/p-lineup Use code LINEUP50 for 50% off Smash Accept Subscriptions for a limited time: https://www.smashacceptff.com/pricing Timestamps: 0:00 - Austin Ekeler & 2026 Fantasy Football My Guys0:51 - Christian McCaffrey4:24 - Derrick Henry8:08 - Parker Washington13:16 - David Montgomery16:06 - Kyler Murray21:10 - Brock Purdy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you watch one fantasy football video this summer, make it this one because we are joined by NFL superstar in 2022's RB1 overall in fantasy football. Austin Eccler. Welcome into the lineup fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mellow. And as I said, Mello, we are joined by a very, very, very, you're going to be the first person to get a fifth very. Very special guests today. We've got Austin Eccler here.

How you doing Austin? I'll take it. I'll take it. What's up, boys? I'm doing great, man. Looking forward to fantasy coming up here. Always a good time of the year. when football's back on TV, even though it's preseason when we're filming this,

it's still good to get a little taste of it, you know? Dude, Carson Beck and Haynes King just kicked things off perfectly. What I'm talking about, man. We're back. Football's back and, yeah, I kicked it off with a good Hall of Fame game, so you can't ask for much more than that to get it started. All right, well, let's get into this, guys. We have got six of our biggest players of the fantasy football season,

our my guys. Number one, I'm still going Christian. I know there's a lot of, there's a lot of people, and I saw there's like a rapport. He's got some tightness, but I'm like, look, the way they utilize this man in this offense is not unlike any other running back. I get the Jumeir Gibbs. I get the Bejohn, like 100 percent.

Those guys are going to be studs. But there's an outlier that Christian is getting just as many passes, if not more, than the receiver won on that team. And I play PPR. So for me, I'm going after a guy like Christian every single time, even though there's the risk factor. Yeah, I don't care. I'm trying to win.

It's either win or bust. And he's a guy that's going to put you over the edge. So that's who I'm taking number one and pretty much all my draft. I absolutely love that. Yeah, we saw the report come out today that he missed practice because of some tightness. But offensive coordinator came out about an hour later and was like, guys, it's nothing. I think it's this narrative. Everyone wants to freak out about the 49ers and the substation or whatever.

But that's a great illusion because I'm going to talk some 49ers as well later. Nice. Yeah. We've kind of joke on this show. Like, it's funny. We all admit if McCaffrey's healthy, he should be the first pick. but everyone's too much of a coward to actually pull the trigger and take him first over also. I'm glad you're brave enough.

Let me ask you this. You play fantasy to win. You win the whole thing, right? I'm not just trying to make playoff runs, you know, and things like that. I'm trying to win the dang thing. So for me, I want the highest upside guys that I can get. Christian's one of those guys. Yes, those other guys are going to be safe.

If you get there, you're not going to be disappointed, I'm sure. But who's going to be the guy that's going to get me 25 points per game can pop off into the 30s into the 40s sometimes because he's getting so many passes, he's getting all the goal line where he's, the man doesn't come off the field. So I'm going for the home run hitters. That's what my team's full of. So usually it's all or just bust for my team. I mean, you're getting the same result if you're in fourth place or 11th place. That's what I'm saying. As long as you're not last. As long as you're not last, you don't want to be an eye hop. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. But like we've mentioned this.

I mean, I know we're all excited because Gibbs shed David Montgomery this year and of course Robinson and shed Tyler Algier, and they're going to get that whole backfield to themselves. But look at Christian McAfri just last year. Those guys were out there 17 games, and McCaffrey still dominated the running back position. So I love this pick. I think people are concerned about the age or the history. I think you swing for the fences.

That's my philosophy. It doesn't have to be your philosophy, but that's how I play. No, it is how you should play too, though, because you look at McCaffrey and just how good he's been when healthy since 2018, which is surprisingly quite some time ago now. the only two running backs to outscore Christian McCaffrey in a season and full point PFR in his season where he was actually healthy, Sequin Barclay and some guy named Austin Echler. Very late company, it doesn't happen very often.

So as long as he says healthy, at worst, he's going to be the RB2, and more often than not, he's the RB one overall. It's just the way they utilize him in that offense, he's just bound to be. You know, like, they don't care. If they're not running the ball that day, they're throwing four-yard passes to Christian. Right? They're going to get him the ball no matter what. I'd have to double check the stab,

but I think he might have literally been a wide receiver one last year if he took away all of the rushing work, which is outrageous. Yeah, he had over 100 catches, all that. And a lot of the wide receiver runs aren't even hitting 100 yet that I'm seeing out here. So I don't think, look, there's an argument to be against it, sure, but that's my number one so far.

I love that. What a way to kick it off. Yeah, do not plan to you at all. And since we talk McCaffrey and since we have Echler on the show, I think I need to talk about one of the other most dominant running backs of the 2020 so far, and that is Derek Henry. I'm officially crowning the king as one of my my guys this season. He's going in the late second round, so I'm not going too too deep in my bag here yet, but I just had to make a my guy because when you look at last year, the nightmare situation that the

Ravens had. Lamar Jackson had a litany of injuries that forced him to miss time. He wasn't nearly his normal self, even when he was playing because of those injuries. I think Cooper rushed at the game of football back 25 years with the way he played when he was forced into action. The defense was super disappointing compared to the preseason expectations. Henry himself had some fumbling issues early on in the year that were pretty fluky. He hadn't done that before. John Harbaugh gets fired at the end of the year, which seemed impossible going into the season. And despite all of this, I mean, this just sounds like a disaster movie.

Despite all of it, Derek Henry was still the eighths running back in points per game among all running backs. Like I said, eighth. eighth in points per game. That's the worst scenario, the nightmare scenario, is he still the RB8 points per game. And he looked at the part while playing, while doing it too. He was second in yards per carry across the entire NFL among running backs with at least 75 carries. He was third and 15 plus yard runs. He was second in breakaway yardage. He was third in first down runs. So everything was there for Derek Henry last year when you actually look at the stat sheet. And now you get Lamar back fully healthy.

Now you bring in Jesse Mentor as head coach, who's one of the best defensive minds in the game. He's going to keep these game scripts positive. You bring in Declan Doyle as offensive coordinator who comes from this Ben Johnson coaching tree that makes running the ball look so damn sexy. And all of a sudden, you're having flashbacks to just two years ago when Derek Henry averaged 19.8 fantasy points per game was the RB4 overall. I think we're going to be back there, to be honest, here in 2026. I don't buy the narrative that he's hit this cliff.

the numbers simply do not support it at all. He continues to be the exception to the rule around drafting older running backs. And now you can get him at the end of the second round as the RB12 off the board. We're essentially saying that we think he'll be significantly worse in 2026 than he was last season, which that makes no sense whatsoever. There's no evidence to support that that will be the case. I personally have him as my RB8 overall. And to be honest, I fear I'm too low.

I think I am not even taking my own advice here enough. that's the type of upside I think Derek Henry has here going into 2026. And the one last thing I'll note too, if you're worried about the usage slipping at all, the Ravens did absolutely nothing this offseason to suggest that Derek Henry won't be the true workhorse of this offense. They let Key Medieval Walk and they didn't really do anything else. So all indications are we're still going to see elite usage and we're still going to see the elite same King Henry here.

I mean, well said. I don't think there was anything else to say on that point. That's everything. No doubt. I agree. I 100% agree. I think he's someone who is. stood against time so far, right?

The man, I think he's going to be 33 years old here going into the season, which is crazy to me as a 31-year-old. I'm like, dang, two more years. Woo! So good for him. He's definitely anomaly. Yeah, he reminds me of Brady where it's just like every matchup against Father time.

Like I want Derek Henry because he's going to truck right through him. Like Melo, you mentioned it last year, 5.3 yards of carry. I'm so excited about Declan Doyle in this offense. And I don't know if it's like the how much dynasty everybody plays now. and I think people are sooner to get out, almost the Belichick way of trying to get out two years early on guys rather than just looking at them for what they are. And what he is is a guy who was incredibly efficient last year

going into a better system here in 2026. So I'm all in on King Henry too. Tell you, let's ride, boys. All right, let's go a little bit deeper in the back here. We're going to talk about a guy. This should come as a massive, massive shock to our audience. I'm talking about Parker Washington here, the man on my wall, that jersey hanging up,

as my number one player in fantasy football at cost this year. If you are new, I have been driving the Parker Washington bandwagon since our very first episode after the regular season ended back in January. At the beginning of the season, we were drafting Brian Thomas in the second round. And we were drafting the next Shohei Otani, Travis Hunter, in what, seventh round? And then all of a sudden we trade for Jacoby Myers, and now Jacobi Myers is mixing into the Jaguar's offense. None of those guys led the team in receiving yards.

Parker Washington did. I think Parker Washington is in a fantastic spot. But look, there's a lot of buzz right now, and I'll get into that. But I want to first go back in time and look at the numbers from last year and tell you why he is actually one of the best possible values at cost. The concern I hear so much is that it's a little bit rich to be drafting Parker Washington as soon to be the Jaguar's number one receiver as he flips Brian Thomas in ADP, and that we're projecting him to take that job just based off of a breakout at the end of last year.

And part of that is right. he did break out in the back half of last year. From week 9 on, he was the wide receiver 16, and he was the wide receiver 6 through the fantasy playoffs. But truthfully, the entire season was a breakout. When you look at the Jaguars offense, this new explosive Liam Cullen-led offense with Trevor Lawrence unlocked. Parker Washington ranks first in targets, receptions,

yards after the catch, yards per outrun, and targets per outrun. He finishes in the entire NFL in 11 for PFF's receiving grade, fourth in player profiler's explosive rating. and also he's 24 years old. This is the exact age you want to target for a guy who is going to have a full-on breakout. Contract here too. Absolutely. And I think we as a community tend to have this issue where we refuse to accept how talented a player is because of low draft capital, which is also going to apply to my next guy later. But I don't want to be a year late on Parker Washington, who to me feels eerily similar to Amin-Ross St. Brown a few years ago, where we just didn't want to believe it because of the draft capital, when his production and everything that the team and everything

that the coach is saying supports the fact that he is going to be one of the most valuable assets in the league this year. Yeah, I think something that I like to look into when I'm looking at guys is just from a football player's standpoint, my perspective, when guys are on the rise, kind of coming through their years, they're still young on the first contract, going to the contract year, or just got on a new team with a new contract. I love those types of combinations with my players. So I think that's the same thing what's going on here with Parker Washington. So I like that take for sure yeah and credit to you Mitch I know you've been on the bandwagon since day one I think like 10% of it has been a bit but the other 90s percent has been so wholehearted and genuine how much

you love him and people are catching on now like the whole world is catching up to how good Parker Washington is it seems like he will if there is going to be a true number one receiver in Jacksonville seems like it's going to be him you hear these stories like in camp I know it's cliche but it's like he's the first guy in the last guy out nobody's out working him like nobody wants it more than him. And the talent is there. We saw it at the end of the last year. Nah, you can't play into that, man.

You can't play into that. That's all media hype. Media hype. You got to be careful on the media hype because especially, I don't know what you're listening to, but it's all good, fluffy things coming out. So, I mean, I take no credit in that stuff when it comes to, you be a dirt bag, but go out there and ball out. You're going to help the fantasy team.

So I just, I just, be careful with the media claims, you know. We got nothing out there right now to really talk about. So sure, let's talk about some character and stuff like that. I'm just saying be careful. I'm not saying it doesn't mean anything, you know. I'm just saying eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, yeah. What do we really evaluate? Do I care about how he treats people in the locker room

or do I care about his fantasy right now? Maybe both. Maybe you, maybe one of those people that, oh, I only want people that I know are good people just in general. I don't know. Anyway, I'll just throw my two cents in there. I do plan time arrived at the facility points per game league, so it's going to be coming up huge for me this season.

Yeah, how much interactions they're having with the media team. Yep. There we go. I like that guy. Let me draft him. No, you're absolutely right, though. I do want the fantasy points, and as much as I would love my guys to be just the best guys in the world, as I'm sure Mitch pictures Parker Washington to be.

I still have very high hopes for the production as well. Hopefully, everything he's doing in camp translates on game day once we hit the regular season. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, though, and maybe that makes me a sucker for the media hype. Like you said, Austin, you got to be careful with how to navigate the media. Yeah, not yet. As a general fan, you got nothing else to go off us, so I don't blame you. What's going on, guys? We are officially partnered with Underdog here in August for fantasy football draft season.

If you've never used Underdog before and you want to do some fantasy drafts with me and Mello, you can actually sign up right now with a brand new promo using the code lineup, L-I-N-E-U-P. Basically, just deposit and play with $5, and Underdog is going to give you $50 in bonus entries that you can use on picks, drafts, or anything in the Underdog app. So you can either go into the description, hit the card above, or just download the Underdog app and use the code lineup. Deposit and play $5 and you will get $50 in bonus entries from Underdog. But guys, let's get back to the video. Yeah, someone I'm high on who's kind of going lower.

I like the David Montgomery opportunity. Hell yeah. I like the David Montgomery opportunity. He's broken up with Jemir Gibbs, obviously, over in the Lions. Going into a team that had an early playoff exit last year, they're looking to bounce back with the Texans. I think he's going to have the opportunity to have the volume to get the 15 to 20 touches a game over there with the Texans. Again, I just told you a little bit ago, I like guys on new teams with new contracts. Energy's got to be high.

I got to prove everything again. I'm the man. I'm getting that spot. I like the energy coming into that. He's a little bit lower. I think he's on like 19 or 20 range right now running back off the board. So if you're looking for a running back and maybe, hey, you're getting down to that area and you're like, what do I like? I like David Montgomery in that spot.

Another guy that I was going to talk about is Kenneth Walker, but he'll probably be gone by the time you get down to that point. But David Montgomery is my kind of sleeper this year, going into a situation where it's his to lose. This is your room until you prove us wrong, and we've got to get you some help. But I think he's finally getting that time to shine in his own spot without Jemir Gibbs.

I think it's going to be great. So I love to hear what you guys think about it. I love this one. We've talked about him a ton. And one of the things that I think is keeping and suppressing down David Montgomery's price is the last thing we saw of him is sharing a backfield with Jumear Gibbs. And obviously everyone wants Gibbs. He's the hot name right now in fantasy.

And the other thing we saw was a Houston Texans team that struggled mightily against the Patriots and in somewhat of a tough to watch game. And so I think people don't want to draft Texans. Meanwhile, they're a team with a nine and a half game win total. They go out and invest in the offensive line. They spend a first round pick on Kalin Rutledge. They pay Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller and Free Agency. And then they go and pay David Montgomery.

And besides, like you said, Woody Marks, I don't know if there's a ton of competition for carries for him. And I think you're going to see a guy be a genuine bell cow who has shown that he can be unbelievably efficient when he's getting enough carries to sustain that workload. No doubt. No doubt. Yeah. And I love how you talk about too, like a little bit later in the career, but new contract, new

team. It's deja vu. We saw this two years ago with Joe Mixon. And Joe Mixon was phenomenal. in his one year with the Texans before he got hurt. I think we could see a very similar season out of David Montgomery here. So, yeah, you're speaking our language with this one, awesome. We're big David Montgomery.

We're looking at this year, right? The snapshot of this year. Like, I know, hey, I think it's like 29 right now or somewhere in there. Like, still got some juice on there, but 29 this year. Maybe not next year. Maybe we're 30, maybe plus. I don't know. Who knows?

But what he's doing right now in the situation he's in right now, I think there's a lot more upside than what he's going to get. I think he can be one of those guys that can maybe sniff. into the top 10 this year. Totally. I think that's 100% in this range of outcomes. Well, I'm going to pivot now to our first quarterback of the day, and I'm going pretty deep in my bag when you look at ADP, and that is Kyler Murray. I've been saying all offseason, and I'm going to say it again now. Kyler Murray is the best value in fantasy at cost at the

quarterback position. Mitch, I think you might have someone after this that you might disagree a little bit. Yeah, I just took that personally. But I'm rolling with Kyler here. I want to throw out last for both Kyler Murray and the Vikings. Murray played poorly. There's no question, no doubt about it last year. But the organization was in ruins. Kyler was playing her. And then as for the Vikings, I will give you nine reasons why everyone from Justin Jefferson

that Kevin O'Connell deserves a pass on last season. So let's just throw it all out. Let's throw out the tape. And now let's look at the present. Let's look at this glorious situation we have at hand. In 2022, Kurt Cousins, that was his final season with the Vikings, where he was healthy. he was the quarterback six overall, despite only rushing for 97 yards. In 2024, now Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold, was the quarterback nine overall,

despite only rushing for 212 rushing yards with these Vikings. Now enter Kyler Murray, who has the same head coach, the same elite wide receiver one as those two other guys. In fact, you could argue he has an even better supporting Casp when you account for Jordan Addison and now Joanne Jennings, who's in Minnesota. And the big difference between him and those other guys is he's had at least 400 Russian yards in each and every single one of his five seasons where he's played at least 11 games. And of course, that translates so well to fantasy. He's been a top 10 quarterback in all

five seasons that he's played at least 14 games. And now all of a sudden he's going as the quarterback 17 with the best situation of his entire career. And I was getting excited about Kyler early, early off season. But I assume by the time we hit August, his ADP would creep up to like the quarterback 12, quarterback 13. And it just still hasn't happened. It hasn't happened yet. despite every report out of Minnesota being that he's looked great, he's established himself as a leader of this team, he is going to be the starter even if he hasn't officially been named it yet. I think everyone, including J.J. McCarthy himself, knows that Kyler will be under center, week one, or maybe in the shotgun, because he doesn't like under center very much.

But that's neither here nor there. The point is he is going to be the quarterback of this offense. He's basically free at the end of drafts in one quarterback format. It's just a slam dunk to me. Somebody I'm targetingly in every single draft, if I'm waiting on quarterback. to load up at running back and receiver earlier. Love the take. Yeah, awesome.

I'd love to hear your opinion, not just on Kyler, but the quarterbacks in general this year. I think we've thought it, and I think a lot of other fantasy analysts are saying that it feels like a very deep year at quarterback. Well, I think there's a few quarterbacks that are just outliers to everyone else. Right.

It hurts, right? With the tourist push at the goal line, you're going to steal some touchdowns there. You have obviously Josh Allen, who's going to be running over all over the place. He'd dive in and stuff like that, reckless of his body. Same thing with Lamar.

He's a little bit better. Even Jade and Daniels is a guy like that. There's the guys that are more dynamic. You got, you know, Patrick Mahomes who's running around. You got a lot of guys that can use their legs that's upside and fantasy. We'll actually be in a scramble, get some touchdowns down in there. And then you have some great pocket pass at the same time. Kyle Lerner, you just brought that one up.

But yeah, some of these pocket passers that we have, Justin Herbert, you know, Trevor Lawrence, like some of these guys that are Drake May. Like some of these, man, yeah. I think the NFL quarterback situation right now is pretty solid across the board. obviously you have some situations that are kind of still getting played out. Like even what's going on in Miami right now with Willis, like that guy, he lets a run out there. So like that's another opportunity.

Who knows, it's a little more of a wild card than the other ones. But yeah, I would agree that the quarterback position, take your pick. What kind of a quarterback do you like? You know, you want some touchdown upside?

You want some just made me passing, you know, like where do you want to have a preference? You kind of get your pick of the draw here. So I agree that as well said. Yeah, that's actually such a great point. I think there's never been a better time to pick a quarterback in fantasy who's just archetype you like for how they score points.

There are guys that can do it on the ground. There are guys who are a hybrid who are more pocket passers, and it feels like there's a good option for all of them. 100%. Yeah, it makes it interesting, you know. I'll admit, as a huge Kyler Murray guy, to the point both of you have been making, there are so many interesting good quarterbacks right now

that even if you're not a Kylie Murray guy, there's so many guys you can congratulate, whether it's a dual thread or a pocket passer. There's so many good options I feel like this year compared to most. So it is kind of the era of getting your, guy later in drafts here. For sure. That was where I was about to go.

Because of that, I'm not even thinking about quarterback. Like, we'll get someone that can put up some points. But I do like your take that you took on Kyle Murray. I think this is, yeah, probably one of the best situations he's had in a minute. Are you a Vikings fan or what? No, just a big Justin Jefferson fan. Justin Jefferson fantasy manager. For him, for his sake, I hope he's getting someone who can get him the ball.

Definitely. That's the real goal of all of this. How does Justin Jefferson get the ball more again? For sure. All right, awesome. Let's jump into our final my guy of this episode. But we're going to be doing some more my guys in a future episode. So make sure to hit that subscribe button if you haven't.

And also make sure to check out Fantasy Royale Sports in the description right now, Austin's website, which will be breaking down a little bit more after our next guy. But let's talk about another 49er and who I think is the best value at quarterback this year. And that's Brock Purdy. And I feel like I'm in that always sunny episode with Charlie in front of the cork board, where I'm just a madman trying to figure out why everyone wants to discount. about Brock Purdy so much. But now we have this extra dip going on with all of the injuries and the substation memes like we were talking about. And even today, we got that report about Christian McCaffrey.

That doesn't seem like a big deal. But because of the injury history, you get worried. I just think Brock Purdy has been continually disrespected in fancy conversations as well as NFL conversations for the same thing I said about Parker Washington. I think because of the late draft capital being, of course, as late as it possibly could be as the last pick of the seventh round, But last season, after the injuries and everything, he was last year's quarterback two in points per game. He had 32 points per game in the fantasy playoffs where he definitely won a ton of people their championships. He was graded as Pro Football Focus's seventh highest grade passer last season. And I already thought he was going to be such an incredible steal. And now he's dropping even

further all the way down to the quarterback 14, which Mello, like you said, if you're in a one quarterback league, that's basically free. And I get that there's been a ton of injuries and the situation out of San Francisco feels weird, but Brock Purdy in the seasons he started for the 49ers has finished in points per game as the quarterback 8, 9, and 2. All of those afloor well above the quarterback 14. So if you look at this pass-catching situation for what it is and not for what the narratives telling you, I understand it's a fragile depth chart and that the three main guys here have had injury history and Christian McCaffrey, Kittle, and Mike Evans. But I'm not going to pass up on a quarterback this talented, with pass-catchers this talented and dynamic because of a narrative that they could

get hurt. Just to bring this all back to what Austin said earlier, I'm swinging for the fences and I'm playing to win, and Brock Purdy has the most insane upside here and probably right at the end of your drafts. Yeah, I'll say this about the kind of the underdog's stories, because it was the same with me too. You know, when you come into a position, when you come into the league in a situation where a lot of people don't know your name, like Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant, it's every year you have to prove that you can be the guy because people are like, oh, who is this guy? He don't deserve the moment, all that stuff. Like you were just non-stop walking up the stairs. You know, if you get drafted the first, second, third round, you kind of get the elevator, right? Everything below that,

you got to take the stairs, right? You got to take the long way. And so I think Purdy hasn't necessarily got the respect that he's been granted. Man was playing in the Super Bowl, right? Like, like, what else do you need to be doing to actually gain some respect? I think at this point, I would say he has from a player standpoint and how we see him in the league 100%, but from a media and maybe the fantasy world hasn't necessarily got there yet. But I think that's a great take. And when you got someone like Christian that you can throw 200 times and he's going to both make stuff happen, that's great.

Obviously, we'll see what happens with Mike Evans too. So I'm excited for that quarterback as well. But going back to the quarterback conversation, a lot of great quarterbacks. So again, it's good. It's a good situation, I feel like in fantasy. Because now we can really dial in on some of these skill positions knowing that you can get a good quarterback late. And so I think this is two great takes with Kyler and Purdy.

Good stuff. Especially with how quickly, I mean, we're seeing running backs go off the board so fast this year. It's like ludicrous. We haven't seen this in years. Well, you have to think of where the biggest falloff is. You know, I think you can see this in the pay. Go look at the pay schedule and you'll be able to see, okay, if I look at the running backs, this thing is like exponentially down, right?

There's about 10 guys at the top that are getting paid big money because they are big impact players on the team. You go to the receivers, a lot longer list of guys making over, you know, 15 million. You know, same with the quarterbacks. A lot of guys in that $40, $30-plus million range. So the contracts would tell you where that real impact is and where it falls off really fast. So when you see that talent really falling off in the running back spot, that's why you're going to see these guys go off the board quick because the top guys are really that much more efficient than the guys that might be in a committee,

you know, it might be down in some other situation. And if you're not a top guy, you're going to have a committee. You're not going to get all the touches because there's a lot of different skills that you're going to try to supplement. with other backs if you can't do it all. And so that's kind of how I see it and why I think the running backs go off the board quicker than any other position.

Great call. That's actually a really interesting point. It makes me think of something that I think most fantasy managers know but they lose sight of, which is just follow the money. Like we get so cut up in these crazy advanced metrics. Sometimes it is just as easy, and this also is related to Austin to what you were saying around new guys, new teams, new contracts.

Go to where the money is and that's probably going to be the guy who's going to get high usage and high production. 100%. Again, guys going into a contract year, guys just got in a new contract year. Like that, I love that. I love that window because it's like, as a player, I feel that. I feel that I got, this is my year. Like, this is going to set me up generation. Or if I just got paid, now I got to go show why they paid me, right? That window, there's like, there's two years right there. Then you can kind of get into the contract. You can still have good years, but I love the energy as a player from a player's side that you get from those two years.

Well, thank you guys so much for tuning in. Those are our official My Guys for the 2026 NFL season. Of course, be sure to check out Fantasy Royale sports. And Austin, just break it down for us. What are you guys doing this season? Because it is awesome. Absolutely. So the way we play fantasy is all in our little groups.

And so I decided, hey, let's break down the groups a little bit and let's have a tournament with everybody. So I started a league that every single person can join. And we're going to find out who the best fantasy sports players are in the world. It's not traditional fantasy. How we do it with our league is you play in a few. different types of contest, some Survivor, some pickums, and you get points every single week for playing in those, and then you get put onto the leaderboard. So we're going to find out who

the best in the nation are. Also, we have a few different leaderboards. We're going to find out if you're a fan of a team, you join that fan base. We're going to see who's the best in that fan base. And we have prizes from signed players from those teams. And then whoever's the number one overall player gets two of my signed game jerseys. So fantasy royals sports, I'm starting a big Fantasy League is what it is basically. So you can check it out. It's all free to play. We're really just trying to have fun and just have the most competitive environment that we can possibly have across the nation. I'm so pumped. I'll be playing. Mello will be playing. Of course, I'll be winning. Well, here's this. Let me also throw this in here. So I thought of that. You know, a lot of people

like to compete. Well, how can I compete with my boys? So I started a squad event. So you can join as an individual or you can join our squads where you pair up with four people. And then your combined score goes towards your weekly score. So it's your score versus other squad scores. So play as an individual. Obviously you want to be the best in the nation or you can have the best squad in the nation too. We have a ton of prizes, fantasy rings, stuff like that. But if you check it out, Fantasy Royals sports, all the details are there and you'll be able to kind of digest everything that we got going on. Dude, it's going to be awesome. Make sure to check out in the description or in the card above. But Mello, before we get out of here, do we miss anything?

Just one last super special thank you to awesome for being here. This is super cool. awesome having a player and somebody who's been so pro fantasy football throughout your career. It's really cool to have you here, man. It's awesome. Yeah, man. I know how the content grind is. I'm glad I could do it for you boys. Best of luck. Hit the content. Also, best of luck on Fantasy Roy. I expect to see you guys at the top with those takes. I like the takes, so I'm expecting a lot from you guys. I'm going to be in there at 5 a.m. every morning just like Parker Washington. Well, so one of my favorite competitions that we have is called the touchdown Survivor. So each week get to pick three players

One of them has a score touchdown for you to go to the next week So I'm curious to see how you guys would do on these takes Because it's a different mindset With some of these types of Survivor type of contest So I'm excited to see you guys in there And looking forward to having you. I'm fired up. Let us know down below if you join And we'll make sure to try to figure out something to do with you guys

But thank you so much, Austin And we'll catch you guys next episode