Lineup Fantasy Football Show - The 6 Fantasy Football Players EVERYONE Should DRAFT Ft. FantasyPros Derek Brown

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Derek Brown from FantasyPros joins the show to break down the 6 must-draft fantasy football players you cannot afford to leave on the board in 2026. From Jaylen Waddle's fresh start in Denver to Malik Willis's rising stock and every name in between, this is your cheat sheet before your draft room opens. Timestamps: 0:00 - 6 Must-Draft Players for 2026 Fantasy Football 0:47 - Jaylen Waddle 5:44 - Jonathan Brooks 11:26 - Mike Evans 16:49 - Christian Watson 22:55 - Malik Willis 32:47 - David Montgomery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome into the line of fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello, we are joined by a very, very, very special guest today. We have Derek Brown from Fantasy Pros here to help us identify some early must-draft players for the fantasy football season. How's it going, Derek? What's going on, guys? It's a great time to be alive, great time to sit here and be talking football, man.

We are at the precipice of training camp and all things great. We're in that weird lull. We're going to be releasing this on July 1st, which in my brain is like New Year's Day. for fantasy football. That's when I think we really start kicking into gear. So I'm pumped to talk some names. They're going to be talking to six guys. We refuse to leave our drafts without in 2026.

And Derek, we would never start a show with a guest without letting you start. Oh, man. Well, how gracious have you, first of all. And second of all, I'm just going to preach the good word of Jalen Waddle, dude. I don't understand why everybody's kind of low on him. I feel like it's a lot of, I don't want to say recency bias, but narratives and crap just kind of fueling the last. of respect being put on his name. I mean, any format that you want to talk about,

he's so wide receiver two, hell, wide receiver three, and it doesn't make any sense. I mean, everything for Waddle, first of all, the talent is, is freaking fantastic. If you just pop open the hood, every single per route metrics he was top 12 in last year. Like everything I care about, guys, target per route run rate, yards per route, run, first downs per route run, everything. And on top of that, he bested Cortland Sutton in every single one of those metrics. So it's not even, are we dividing between, okay, well, is he the true wide receiver one? Is he not? He is. And he goes from an offense that was 29th neutral passing rate to one that was fourth. And all the Broncos fans have been in my mentions this off season and said, yeah, but I don't

know if they throw that much this year. And I'm like, defense was good last year. It's going to be good this year. Right. Sean Payton, last time I checked, was still the head coach. So what the hell are you talking about? They're going to be pass happy and Waddle is going to be a massive upgrade. Like, I think he's going to be a wide receiver one this year. And I don't think, like, that comes across as a hot take to a lot of different people. I don't understand why it's a hot take, but that's where I'm at. I think he will produce as a wide receiver one in BD clear number one option and the Denver Broncos passing attack. I love this because we're always trying to identify situational changes for these guys. And like, where can we find a guy if you want to see them take

the next step? Something needs to change, not just with them, but outside of themselves. And, you know, you talked about like he's top 12 in all these metrics last year. I look at a guy like Drake London, and everyone is all over the fact that Drake London could bust because he's playing with Tuotungo Vela. But no one will talk about the fact that maybe Jalen Waddle wasn't so great last year because of the quarterback play. And so like you said, better pass rate, better quarterback.

I feel like this is a slam dunk for Jalen Waddle. Agreed. I mean, I just don't see outside of we don't talk about the injury stuff like where he fails, but to debunk the injury narrative, outside of a rib injury, and he missed one game last year, he was healthy. But again, that doesn't make the conversation because then it doesn't fit into the nice little neat shade box that everyone wants to toss a Jill and Waddle.

Well, we love talking about the Mount Rushmore of Blue Tent players, which is the guy that always leaves in the middle of the game, goes to the blue tent and comes back. And he does go on that list, but he'll come back and produce once he's back on the field. Fair, fair. And Mount Rushmore still means he's pretty good or at least very notable? Absolutely.

Definitely notable. I think part of why some people are, so out on wall is it's like an emotional thing more than an actual like mental one it's oh I drafted him two years ago and he busted for me and I hate him now yeah and I think one of the other roadblocks in people's heads with him or a hesitation they have is how is he going to be used even if he does lead this team in target share Sean Payton typically he'll mix guys in that hasn't really had a true alpha receiver in any of his offenses since maybe Michael Thomas but to that I say and something I have to keep reminding myself, the draft capital they gave up to get him. You do not give up that

draft capital if you don't have a clear plan to make him a focal point of your offense. We've seen the talent historically. And I think the usage and the volume will definitely be there, be there because of the draft capital they gave up as well. Well, again, kind of debunking that, you know, not your narrative, but the narrative laid out by many and what could be fueling some of this is, we have seen an alpha in the Denver passing attack. His name is Cortland Sutton over the last year. years. They've rotated everybody around him. So if even if people want to throw that at it, they're wrong. Sudden has been that guy. It's been based off of coverages and matchups and what have you, where we've gotten the round robin of Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant, and Marvin Mims outside of Sutton,

but that hasn't been a Sutton problem. He's been a full-time player. And now I think this passing attack is going to condense around Jalen Waddle and Sutton. And then we're still getting at the parts and pieces that pop off every now and then based off of coverage and matchups and all that kind of stuff around those two. But they're going to be the clear one and two. Yeah, I do think that narrative comes a lot from the frustration of people who are projecting Troy Franklin to be more or wanted Pat Brian to make the next step. And it's like, they're mad that their wide receiver two, or Marvin Mims, their wide receiver two didn't step up. And meanwhile, Cortland Sutton's been an incredible fantasy producer the past few years. Agreed. Yeah. And I think one thing,

We have to keep reminding ourselves, despite recent frustrations, Jalen Waddle has historically been a very good player. We have seen it. So you're not betting on something hypothetical. We know the talent's there. I want to pose another guy for you here, though, that we haven't seen it yet. And this is much more hypothetical, but I still cannot stop drafting. Jonathan Brooks.

I've talked about him on this show before, but I have to do it again because I am making sure to get him in drafts. Now, I will preface all this with saying, his dynasty price is skyrocketing up right now. It's starting to look like a tech stock. It's getting to the point where I'm like, I don't know if I'm fully in anymore. You know, when his dynasty price.

Steve Carell, there's a bubble. Yeah. You don't want to buy the crypto? You don't want to buy the crypto anymore? Oh. That's where we're heading with Jonathan Bricks. But I will say, at least with where he's being ranked, where he's going in like best ball drafts right now,

I'm still okay with it. I'm still actively targeting him very aggressively because I love the upside. of Jonathan Brooks. He's going as the RB 46 right now, 10040th overall, according to Fantasy Bros consensus rankings. That's exactly where I cannot resist taking a shot on him. And it is admittedly a shot because the floor is close to zero. The floor is he's not really involved in this offense. But I'm just looking for upside in the 12th round of fantasy drafts, 13th round of fantasy drafts. If that's where he's going, give me that upside every day of the

week, because to me he's the last running back off the board who still has a legitimate chance of being a quality real-life starter without an injury in front of him. And no disrespect to Chuba Hubbard. I know he had the calf injury last year. He maybe wasn't playing at 100%. But he clearly doesn't have a true stronghold on this job if he wasn't able to hold onto it last year. We saw what Rico Dattled did as soon as he entered the Carolina running back room.

And keep in mind, Brooks was the highest drafted running back in that 2024 class. He probably would have been a first round pick if it weren't for the ACL tear in college. It unfortunately happened again, which is of course why. he's still not range very high wherever you look in dynasty or redraft or wherever else but now he's close to two years removed from that second ACL tear he has a chance to be a major part of this offense there's absolutely no competition in this running back room whatsoever outside of chuba hubbard and brooks has looked healthy so far in ota's dare i say maybe even explosive closer to his former self in college he has the versatility to play all three downs if he were

called upon to do so which is obviously super important especially in ppr at half point PPR formats where you want those receptions. And the double-digit rounds, it's totally worth the moonshot for me. Love this call. Absolutely love this call. I'm all in on Jonathan Brooks. Like, I've got him ranked in redraft circles. I've had him ranked for weeks.

I feel like rankings ADP, ECR is kind of catching up. I've had him at like anywhere from RB31 to RB33, and I'm just waiting for camp news that there, you know, any more positivity from camp that leaks out for me to bump them even higher because I think it's firmly in play here. And they, Carolina Panthers, like, the thing with teams is there are two clear points of the NFL calendar where teams kind of tell you what they truly think outside of all the bluster, the coach speak, and all the BS in between is in free agency and the NFL draft. They didn't add another running back of the draft.

They let RICO walk. What else do you need to see? I'm not worried about Trevor H.E.N. I'm not worried about AJ Dillon. Chuba Hubbard was bottom three in every single. single efficiency metric per touch. Yes, some of that could be injury related, but a lot of that because we've seen the volatility of Chuba Hubbard, even going back to his collegiate career of the efficiency just going rollercoastering year after year. And it's not like he's a spot

in the passing game, too. And the thing that I want to, I really want to bring up here and talk about too is the fact that the stuff around the two ACL repairs, the first one, if you remember, like, if everybody's be kind of rewind to when all of the next, news and we were all monitoring. It wasn't like he had like just this stellar recovery and everything is coming out positive about Jonathan Brooks when he had the first ACL surgery. It was kind of like, tepidness. Oh, that report's not great. Like from the jump, nothing was just over the moon positive about like he's recovering well. And that's what we hear a lot of with these ACL tears, unless it's more complicated. So I think the first surgery just, I'm not going to say it wasn't

done well, but it never was a success from the beginning. because his recovery always felt like he was trying to ice skate uphill with it. And then the other thing is he's 22 freaking years old. So yeah. That gets lost in the conversation. I was like, oh, the two ACL tears. It's not like he's 28 coming off of this and he's had this giant workload. He wasn't used a ton in college.

He's 22 freaking years old. And he's almost two years removed from something where we're like, well, I wonder if Tucker craft and whoever else can come back to be 100% eight months after a damn ACL repair. And we're talking about a guy that's had almost two years off. And we're like, well, I don't know. We'll see. Like, come on, man. It is crazy his age, too.

Like, he is the same age as some of the rookies in this draft loss. Yes. Yeah. And Mel, you brought up, like, there's a history of running backs who suffered injuries early on their careers and went on to be incredibly productive for fantasy. You look at Frank Gore. You look at Todd Gurley. Like, I think this is an absolutely fantastic opportunity to take a shot on a guy in that backfield that has, like, genuine high upside.

You actually made a lot of Panthers fans mad, which we love our Panthers fans. You know, we're Big Jalen Coker guys. But they were not happy when you were saying that he should get this job over Chuba Hubbard. And I think a lot of people are going to realize that as soon as training camp comes around that Jonathan Brooks has a lot more juice than they think. Yeah, he's hatched good of football. Just hopefully he's healthy and let him play, man. Let's keep it simple. He's good.

It's that easy sometimes. All right, let's move on. We're going to go from a guy who's 22 years old and then talk about one of my favorite Unks in the NFL, Mike Evans. Right now, the wide receiver 27, according to Fantasy Pro's consensus rankings. And I think my argument here is pretty simple. And it does come with a big if. If Mike Evans stays healthy, he's absolutely obliterating this ADP.

He's 32. Like I said, Unk, lost much of last year to injury. But as many people know, he had that insane. same 11 straight seasons of 100 yards. He has the opportunity now to be the number one receiving option in San Francisco with Kittles slowly returning from the injury, Jowan Jennings, the leading receiver last year going to Minnesota. Now we're getting news that they might move the practice facilities away from the electrical substation, which like everything's coming up, Mike Evans. I know I mentioned this before, but like the Joanne Jennings thing is huge to me, vacates 90 targets

and 19 red zone targets. Mike Evans was the wide receiver 76 last season due to the injury, but if you play the game that we played with Kelsey a while back, where you look at the 11 years prior, finish as the wide receiver 14, 7, 17, 9, 11, 15, 9, 17, 2, 22, 13, which is five wide receiver 1 finishes and all top 24 finishes. We're super high on Brock Purdy. Last year, he was number two in fantasy points per game among quarterbacks, average 32 in the fantasy playoffs. I think the sky's the limit for this duo.

I'd honestly package in that I'm high on Purdy, too. I love this call. I'm massive. See, and the thing about it is I don't think that anybody should like, like, we're not over the moon on Purdy. We're just putting actual respect on a guy that over the last three years has been a top 10 fantasy quarterback and fantasy points per game. And yet every time we get to this part of the NFL or fantasy calendar, everybody's like, yeah, Brock Purdy, that top 12 rankings is a little bit rich. Oh, you think so, huh? Well, go look at his production. It's not rich. I love the Evans call. I'm in on Evans too. I had a bold prediction show we did a few weeks. ago with fantasy pros where I said Mike Evans will be this year's DeBonte Adams. He will lead the NFL and receiving touchdowns. You look at Brock Purdy. Like I think at this point, we should just understand that like, like Russell Wilson of yesteryear and a bunch of all these other quarterbacks, kind of like Jordan Love and such. We're waiting for the passing touchdown rate regression. It's not coming. Some of these guys are just outliers and Purdy's one of them like three of his four seasons above a

seven percent, which is monstrous passing touchdown rate. And this bleeds, over to Mike Evans and people want to look at the age, they want to look at everything with Mike Evans. You look at over the last few, like, since 2020, he's played at least 14 games in every single freaking season. So even when the injury stuff gets discussed, it's not like we've lost like massive parts of seasons. Yes, the hamstring, but the collarbone was the issue, not the hamstring last year, so to speak. And you dive into deeper analytics. He was still really freaking good. Like, amongst 109 qualifying wide receiver. he was second second best in separation and route win rate.

And you look at the other things about him earning volume, a 30.6% first read share, 0.116 first downs per route run. There's a top 15 metrics. The problem with Mike Evans wasn't even a freaking Mike Evans problem. It was Baker Mayfield. Because of his health and stuff, Evans had only a 70.9% catchable target rate. And for everybody at home that's not aware of like keeping up with catchable target rates,

out of those 109 wide receivers that I just talked about, that was 84th. You know, no big deal. Just almost every target thrown in his direction wasn't catchable. But sure, let me just talk about how Mike Evans is absolutely washed and he's terrible. He's still got it. And I'm glad you brought up the situation last year in Tampa because we've talked about it in the show in relation to Abuka. Abuka, yeah.

And Godwin and some of these other past catchers. And you compare that with the situation this year. We've talked up pretty already. And this is a Kyle Shanahan offense where he is the clear alpha. There are not a lot of other proven assets in this receiver. I'm Ricky Piersall will see if he can pull it together. They just invested the 33rd pick on DeJohn Stribling, who probably isn't going to be a huge impact in year one.

George Kittle, you mentioned, coming back from the Killies, we don't know where that health will be. They've talked. We don't know if this will actually be the case, but they've talked about lessening McCaffrey's load. That could be in the passing game, could be down by the goal line with Mike Evans. I don't know if I believe that wholeheartedly,

but I had to see that to believe that. I don't believe. I'll just straight up saying, I don't believe it at all. We haven't seen it and I don't think we're going to see it. I don't either. Shann's going to run him into the ground if it's up to him. At this point, we've gotten that narrative, like what, like almost every single off season and then the lights come on and they're like, well, CFC is really difficult to take off the field.

Oh, well. We could just give him the ball 35 times. I know we said we weren't, but we might. Not to deter, but like, do you remember? What was it right before week one when he came out with, like, the injury designation that Shanahan put out and then he just goes out and puts up like the most insane fantasy season. Like, I don't trust anything from them. You never know what you're getting with Shanahan. But with that said, I do trust regardless of McHapry's usage, whether he's, you know, getting

goal line work, whether he's catching a lot of passes. Mike Evans is going to be a huge part of this offense regardless. Agreed. He's going to be the Red Zone guy. 100%. So the next guy that I got here, and I know, again, going with, I guess maybe I'm just a sadist, like I pick players that I love that have. talent and people are like, oh no, it burned too many seasons to believe in him. Christopher Watson, dude. Like, I just, let's go.

I understand that people have been burned by the injuries. I understand he's never had a thousand-eard season and all those other kind of crap. I get that. The Green Bay Packers tasked this guy coming off of a torn ACL last year with being the focal point, the number one wide receiver of their offense, and he answered the bell. And he got paid. Again, going back to when teens actually tell us what they think, he got paid this offseason. with the big contract because he did answer the bell and he is their number one wide receiver.

And weeks 8 through 18 last year, wide receiver 21 and fantasy points per game. He did this while only having a 68% route share, which was 56 out of 109 qualifying wide receivers. So we want to talk about what is the upside, what is the talent with Watson. He produces a wide receiver 2 with otherworldly efficiency. I'm not saying that he keeps doing that with 2.67 yards per route run, 0.122 first downs per route run. Those are astronomical numbers. I think they come down just a little bit. But LaFleur, again, going back to offensive designers and teams that were just like,

okay, I've talked about Jordan Love earlier. Some of these play callers just, we need to expect elite, elite efficiency year after year after year because, oh, they're good at calling plays and designing plays and putting players in good spots to succeed. And this all leads us back to Watson. If he can be a full-time player, and I think he's going to be, see that route share coming off the injury and then going into this year creep up from that 68% to 78, 80, 85% plus because LaFleur has loved doing this money ball, white receiver by committee crap over the

last few different years. He doesn't have the bodies to do that this year. Dantadian Wicks is gone. Robbia Dobbs is gone. They paid Watson. They paid Reed. They have Matthew Golden. I think we're finally going to see the targets consolidate around these three guys,

especially around Watson as their number one alpha wide receiver. And if that happens, dude, he's going to put up, talk about like when Will Fuller finally hit that type of season or a Terry McLaren when he finally got Jane Daniels. I think we're going to see that type of season out of Christian Watson where he can flirt with being a wide receiver one in fantasy. And yet you don't have to pay that type of price tag for him anywhere close to it in any way, shape, form, or fashion,

and any type of fantasy that you were playing. None. First of all, you saying Will Fuller's name, I just instantly started watching Will Fuller highlights in my brain. But this actually feels like the DeWade LeBron meme, and we're just Alley, you dunking on Mello right now because we were arguing about this a few episodes ago. And I'm very pro-Christian Watson,

and our audience has heard my whole spiel. I couldn't agree more. Mello, I want to hear your rebuttal to this, though. Mello, are you not? Are you anti-Christian Watson? I'm coming around. I'm not fully there yet. This is also this is a redraft conversation. We talked dynasty outlook long term. Yes, and I will say even in Dynasty, I'm coming around. I was actively trying to trade him in one of my most passionate Dynasty leagues. I've officially made him a hold at this point. I just, I see the upside. And I'll say this. I think early off season I was really skeptical because of some of the volatility we've seen throughout his career, largely injury induced. But even from a productivity standpoint, like you mentioned with Chuba Hubbard, it's kind of been up and down. I think that's similar to Watson in a lot of ways. And a lot of my fears were, like you mentioned, like you mentioned, like,

this receiver room by committee, kind of moneyball tactic like you mentioned, that scared me. And, you know, could we see Matthew Golden become a bigger part of this offense? Could we see Jaden Reed return to something closer to what we saw his rookie year when people thought he was the new Christian Watson of this offense? But like you said, we have seen what this team thinks about Christian Watson and they haven't just said it. They've showed it with their actions, not only paying him that big contract, but letting Romeo Dobbs walk. And I think it's actually not getting talked about enough trading Don Tavian Wicks too without replacing him or Dobbs in any way. That does speak volumes.

And that's why I'm starting to come around and I'm definitely more open to the idea of Christian Watson being a hold or even a buy at this point. Well, the other guys in that passing attack, too, we have questions about everybody outside of Christian Watson and Tucker Kraft. Tucker Kraft, I'm just like, I'm hopping over the torn ACL, the recovery stuff. But like, we don't have any questions about the talent. Right. So I have questions.

Is Jaden Reed actually? going to play in two wide receiver sets. Because if that's not a thing, he's kiboshed. He's just Green Bay's Josh Downs. He's not a full-time player. He's good, but he's never going to be great. And then Matthew Golden, failure to launch a rookie season. That's never really a good sign.

Like, can players overcome that with draft capital, talent, what have you? Sure. But there's no way shape, form, or fashion. We can frame that as being a positive to know that Matthew Golden is really good, even if you want to go back to his collegiate production profile, which it wasn't exactly amazing, his blazing 40 time, which I don't want to get into 40 gate and how that could also be kind of false too. But going back to it, it's not like his collegiate production profile was amazing. So we have questions in this passing attack outside of Kraft and Watson.

Okay? Shouldn't that lead us to even more Kraft and Watson? Yeah. First of all, I'm a huge Tucker Craft truther. It's something I brought up on the show. We love Tucker Kraft here. We love Tucker Kraft. One thing we talked about is his reign as, you know, tied in one last year up until the ACL tear, was directly, or I guess wasn't related at all to Christian Watson's breakout in the sense that Watson came back after Kraft's injury.

So that is something that concerns me a little bit too. But with that said, with a consolidation of targets in Green Bay, like you mentioned, because of the limited proven receivers, if there is a true wide receiver, I'm betting on it is Christian Watson. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer.

Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming, plus that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. All right, well, here's, I got someone for you here, too, that I think is also going to be controversial. And it's actually a former teammate of Christian Watson. And that is Malik Willis.

We've talked about him on this show before. He is somebody on drafting all the time in any sort of redraft, best ball drafts. And I know what you're thinking. A horrible Dolphins team with no past catchers. You really want this team's quarterback. And you're a goddamn right. I want this quarterback. I really, really do want this quarterback.

My man. I love it because he's going right now. Fantasy Pro's consensus rankings have him 128 overall as the quarterback 21. 21. And in a lot of one quarterback leagues, to be honest, I think he's going later than 128. Yeah. True one quarterback leagues. He's been undrafted in a lot of leagues probably. And my pro-Maleek Willis take here is really a philosophical one. And my philosophy in general in drafts is if you miss out on Josh Allen, punt quarterback until the end of the draft unless someone unexpectedly falls well below ADP, you can get a good discount. Sure, I'm fine with that. But aside from that, I'm waiting on quarterback till late. And then my other philosophy is to target

mobile quarterbacks aggressively. Yeah. The problem is most mobile quarterbacks don't make it to the end of draft, so it's hard to accomplish both of those philosophies unless your name is Malik Willis, I guess, because he is going that late and he is mobile. Eight of the top 12 quarterbacks in points per game last year, averaged at least 20 rushing yards per game, which is pretty low for Malik Willis's standards. I think he can easily hit that on a per game basis. And that side is really just a statistical way of demonstrating what we already know, which is mobility is the easiest path to fantasy success for quarterbacks. And his one start last year, Willis had 90 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. The prior week when Jordan Love went down, exited the game early, Willis came in relief,

ran for 44 yards. And in a very limited sample, he's been good as a passer too. It's not just the rushing. He was pro football focuses third to highest graded passer last season. I'm definitely more excited about the rushing upside and the actual floor that that provides in fantasy. But it's not like he can't throw the ball. We've seen him do it in a limited sample. So I don't expect the dolphins to be a very good team, but I think Willis is good enough, particularly on the ground, to give you quarterback one numbers at an extremely discounted price that I'm taking the shot on in every single draft I can.

I don't understand this price point. I don't, I don't understand the hate from Malik Willis. I just, I don't, he's my KB15 and redraft rankings right now. And I mean, I honestly could just put him in the top 12 because I think we're making the same bet that we did with without proof of concept. But like with, I mean, we really do have proof of concept. I'll get to that in here at a second. But like that that previous year, Justin Fields, when Darno Mooney and Cole Komet were his only receiving weapons. And Justin Fields, it didn't really matter.

He ran. He ran. He ran. If Malik Willis, it's as simple as that. If Malik Willis stays healthy and he runs like we've seen him do before and he runs. runs like we think he's going to. He will be a top 12 fantasy quarterback this year. Like, I don't think that, like that's insane, but you don't see him ranked like that. We just talked about his ADP. And to throw some numbers on top of all of this, over the last two

years, he's at 118 dropbacks. In those 118 dropbacks, 5.6% big time throw rate 10.9 yards per attempt. If you just look at last year, all the quarterbacks released 110 dropbacks. So again, trying to extrapolate talent out of small sample. here. That big time throw rate would have been eighth best right ahead of Caleb Williams. That yards per attempt were to lead the entire damn NFL. In the six career games he has started, he has averaged 44.8 rushing yards per game. Over the last three years amongst quarterbacks, oh, no big deal. That would have just ranked first, fourth, and third. So top four. So, and then we get to all the skill players, the pendulum has swung too far. I understand that my

the roster and all this kind of stuff. If the defense freaking sucks, he's going to be chucking it. He's going to be running. They're going to be playing catch up. He's going to be the mobile version of Jacoby Brissette. And I'm not saying from a passing race standpoint, but as far as game scripts and always trailing, that's what we're going to see. But to the other side of this is if any of these guys can outperform anybody's expectations,

and I think it's just it's the popular thing to do to just heap crap on the freaking Miami dolphins right now, that it's like, gotten honestly ridiculous. There are parts and pieces on their offensive line to really, really like, as well as there are offensive linemen that they have that are really freaking good. Patrick Paul can take another step and be one of the best left tackles in the entire freaking NFL. Austin Jackson, if he stays healthy, they just secured Aaron Brewer services with a contract extension. He's really damn good. And then with the pass catchers, Greg Dolesich last year was top 12 in every per route metric.

freaking care about. So he's a talented player who dealt with injuries, got kicked out of Denver, and now he's landed with the Dolphins and couldn't find his second life with Miami. They have a good play caller and Bobby Sloick, who I think C.J. Stroud's poor play gave him like way too mud on his resume. And you want to go further down the depth chart. Dude, I think Kevin, and this is not, we're not going super deep dives here, but I think Kevin Coleman Jr. was absolutely disrespected in the entire process. I think he's one of my favorite players that I think is going to break out this year and be Jaden Reed of Green Bay South that nobody sees coming, but he is really damn talented. And I think he's going to show people this year. Yeah, I think you put it, first of all, you put so perfectly,

I was going to bring up the Justin Fields thing too. And then just this disrespect around Miami that's just suppressing the prices because of like stinky vibes there. Like, I feel like I'm in the middle of a best ball draft. I'm like 45 minutes in before I'm even passing by like Greg Dolsich or Malik Willis. And you're able to get these stacks, like, literally build them from start to finish in, like, the last few rounds of your draft. And then when we're talking redraft, like, Mel, you're saying it's like, he's basically in a one QB league going undrafted.

How would you not want to take that kind of upside versus some of your other options? Like, just squint real fast, guys. Like, what if we fast forward to week 11, this offensive line is above league average. So let's just call it like a top 15 offensive line. Greg Dulc is playing some of the best football of his career. Chris Bell is on the field and he looks like the guy that Miami thought they were drafting. And Kevin Coleman Jr. is doing the things that I'm forecasting that he can do. And then you have Devon A. Chan in the backfield.

Is everybody still like or is anybody starting to pull out the spoon and eat all those horrible takes that they had the offseason about how the dolphins were just going to absolutely just be terrible? I think it's, I'm not going to say it's even possible. I think it's probable that we see that. I'm ready to ship the crows to them to eat. We got a whole box of crows ready for him. Yeah. Leave it out of the sun and then press mail.

The one thing I don't understand is even the people who are in or don't believe, I don't understand how you can not at least acknowledge there is a path or there is upside. Yeah. And with where he's going in drafts basically free, why take the low volume pocket pastor like Jordan Love or C.J. Stroud When you could at least give yourself a chance at that shot. you know, give yourself a chance of someone who could rush for 60 yards a game and and be a true difference maker at the quarterback position. That's so well put in like, yeah, exactly what you said about the philosophy of like,

if I miss out on those first like three, four quarterbacks, like, I don't really feel like like shooting my shot on a guy in the middle when you could just punt and load up at other positions and then grab a guy like this with top 12 upside towards like the literal end of the draft. Yeah, I don't disagree at all. And I think the problem when we look at, you know, ADP at this point and we look at, you know, just a lot of people forecasting and ranking and what have you and just trying to, you know, build this consensus of what the industry thinks, there is still way too much baked into all of that.

And just from top down, top down. There is way too much consensus baked into all of the stuff, ADP, E, C, Ranking, stuff like that, expecting so much of last year to repeat. And then, but then everybody's so surprised when we're at week six

of a new NFL season and everybody's like, oh my God, I didn't see that coming. I, holy crap. I mean, there's a new tight end one

in fantasy. There's a new RB1. There's a new QB one, a new wide receiver one. But we didn't rank any of these guys as such, even though we all have played fantasy long enough that we should understand that the volatility

that, expecting last year's results to happen again. When we talk about this from a practical and common sense standpoint, everybody's like, yes, I agree. It'll all be different. But then it's like people go to do the rankings and they're like, well, let me see. Who was QB2

last year? Ah, he's QB2 this year. Who was tied in one last year? He's tied in one. Meanwhile, we're all like, who's the next JSN while we're doing that exact exact thing. Yeah. Yes. It's like they want to have their cake and eat it too. It's like, well, things are

definitely going to change. Then why do you have the same number one at every position that finished number one last year? Well, I mean, other things will change. Not those things. Those, I mean, you know, because you're, you're absolutely insane if you think somebody else will be the RB1 over Seguan of previous year. Oh, Christian McAfree can't come back healthy. Oh, oh. Trey McBride can't be that guy and take over. It's got to be Brock Bowers. Oh, oh. It's every year we see this, though, guys. I completely agree. Yeah, so funny.

All right, let's move on to our final player. I'm bringing it back to the unction. Let's talk about David Montgomery, the new leadback for the Houston Texans, currently the running back 20 off the board, according to the fantasy pros consensus rankings. All signs right now pointing to DeMont being the not just the lead back, the Belcow in Houston, a team that has a nine and a half game win total, team that just went out and invested in the offensive line. They spent a first round pick on Kalin Rutledge, go out and pay Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller and free agency.

I think David Montgomery, to me, is the type of guy that gets overlooked because everyone sees him as the second fiddle to Jemir Gibbs rather than an incredible running back. In games with 20 plus carries that David Montgomery has played between 2023 and 2025, he went for 88 yards, 105 yards in a touchdown, 121 yards and three touchdowns and then 74 yards in a touchdown.

When he's given the opportunity, David Montgomery is an incredible running back. And so I think we've had so much conversation around him and dynasty over the off season and the worry about how many years you'll get out of him. But it's redraft season. And we're looking at 2026 and we're focusing on what can he do this year. And I honestly am having a hard time outside of health and injuries. Finding a path where he doesn't finish better than the RB20. And honestly, the whole situation reminds me of Joe Mixing.

back in 2024 when he went to Houston and he finished his eighth in fantasy points per game. I'm also, I just have to say it, Melo, you know I'm going to say it. I'm not worried about Woody Marks, and you could not pay me to be worried about Woody Marks. I couldn't agree. I'm just shaking my head, yes, the entire time. We actually did an RB value show over on Fantasy Pros,

which by the time you're listening to this is already going to be live. I emphatically agree with you. I said he's one of the best RB values on the board. I made the exact Joe Mixing Corollary, and then to that point, right when the Houston signed David Montgomery, I went out there and like I looked at compared Montgomery to Woody Marks' metrics and I went down the board. He's better than Woody Marks and every single per touch metric I care about. And it's not just like a tiny bit better.

He's like crushing him in multiple metrics. And I think people look at the age and they're like, hey, he's old. Like I love how you went Unction Junction here. of like the fact that of his age is what is giving you this value of Montgomery, but he hasn't shown like what I care more about is not the what the odometer says, but how does the car ride? And the car still pretty freaking good, man. No check engine light. No, no check engine light. It's not backfiring.

There's lots of tread left on the tires for a player that last year amongst all qualifying running backs at least 100 carries was 12 in yards up to contact per attempt, 20 second in yards. per route run and 12th and first downs per route run. So we've already seen Montgomery operate in a three-down role in Chicago and crush it. And now that he's back into this role in Houston, and we've seen what Houston wants to do, they want to, I mean, even look back to Liberty Marks last year. He wasn't good. And they kept rolling him out there every single freaking week as the clear and unquestioned workhorse. And if he would have scored any freaking touch He would have been a weekly RB2, but because he wasn't good, the offensive wasn't great, and he didn't score enough touchdowns. He was just a weekly RB3, and you were like, please, please, 17 touches, please just get in the damn end zone and you're an RB2.

And he never did it. Well, the alternative was the corpse of Nick Chubb. Fair, fair. Top situation for the Texas. But you're absolutely right. And I'm glad Mitch, too, you brought up Joe Mixon, because there's so many parallels there for me, like late career running back. people are just kind of sick of. There's like some name fatigue maybe. Yeah, and I was actively looking up where he finished in points per game in 2024 right when you said it, running back

eight. I think we could see the same exact thing from David Montgomery. This defense is still really good. They're probably going to be running the ball a lot late. David Montgomery, unlike Woody Mark's very good down by the goal line. So I'm super excited for the opportunities he's going to have in Houston. Now, I think he's the top 15 back with RB1 upside. Unquestioned. And anybody else can come fight me on it. It's fine. I'm right by your side. I'm ready to fight you. Yeah, we got your back.

Let's go. We're right there with you. Well, those were our six must draft players heading into the 2026 fantasy football season. First of all, thank you everyone for tuning in. An even bigger thank you to Derek for being here and being a part of the show. This was absolutely awesome, man. Thank you. Oh, truly appreciate the time, guys.

Awesome time talking ball with you. Make sure follow Derek on Twitter at Dbro underscore FFB. You can also catch him everywhere all over fantasy pros. Derek, you have anything else to plug before we get out. out of here. I could give you a laundry list of things. I mean, go check all the content out at Fantasy Pros, betting pros. We got our new venture, The Tailgate, which we're talking just NFL general stuff, trying really hard to build that channel and grow that show and stuff. As far as the redraft content, a perfect draft article is already live on the site. That will be a living,

breathing document. It's updated throughout the entirety of draft season. I walk you through every single round of drafts, give you late round targets, everything. I think I've got 75 plus players written up in that one article. So literally I wanted to create an article where if you just wanted one article to bring to your freaking drafts, I got you. And so that article, I'm going to continue to add players more as we get through training camp and stuff

and maybe some delineation and some late round guys. As well as my top targets article is live, which is a more condensed version of like who I'm really, really going to be overweight on this year. And before the bell rings for week one of the NFL season during the heat of draft season when it's crunch time and everybody's got drafts flying off multiple day. I will have my top 200 live on fantasy pros.com and that is legit exactly what it sounds like between quarterback, running back, wide receiver tight in.

And yes, kicker in defense. I will have 200 players, defenses, kickers, all of that. It will be 200 plus fantasy options all written up again, trying to give people a mountain of content and saying, I'm going to my draft with this one thing, whether that's my perfect draft article or the top 200, I want you to have that at your disposal. So you're not like, well, let me go siphon through all these notes and look at this and this and this and this and this and this. You need on all that.

Just pick one. Pick one of those items of content that I'm putting out there for you. That's all you need. You have me convinced. I know. I'm in. I'm in. Fantasy football season is officially here.

Mello before we get out of here. Do we miss anything? Nothing for me. All right, we'll catch you guys next episode. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

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