The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Fantasy winners and losers from the 2025 NFL offseason

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

June is here, and with June comes all things summer. Sunshine, trips to the pool, cookouts...and fantasy football. That's right, fantasy football season is upon us, and we're celebrating that on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. Michael Beller sits in once again for the vacationing Robert Mays, and he's joined by Jake Ciely, The Athletic's senior fantasy writer, to dig into the biggest moves of the offseason from a fantasy perspective.Hosts: Robert Mays and Derrik KlassenWith: Michael Beller and Jake CielyExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...⁠Apple⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠YouTube⁠Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Beller on Bluesky: @mbeller.bsky.socialFollow Jake on Bluesky: @allinkid.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassFollow Jake on X: @allinkidTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I am not Robert Mays. I am Michael Beller, executive producer of the Athletic Football Show. Once again, guest hosting as Robert is on vacation. On today's show, I am joined by old friend, old podcast partner of mine, Jake Seeley, to take a look at all the moves that happened this off season and filter them through a fantasy football lens. We'll talk about Ashton Gentie getting drafted by the Raiders and what Jake expects to see from him. We'll talk through who we think our biggest winner was, our biggest loser, our favorite moves of the offseason from a fantasy perspective.

We had a lot of fun doing this. You're going to get plenty of fantasy football coverage on the athletic. It starts right here right now on the athletic football show. Okay. Michael Beller, Jake Seeley, here with you on the athletic football show. Robert May is returning from vacation. Next week, we will get back to our regularly scheduled TAFS programming then. But for the time being, you've got me, you've got the athletic senior fantasy football writer Jake Seale.

talking through how the offseason went and what that is going to mean in the fantasy football world. Jake, it's great to do this with you again, man. How are you doing? It is. I think there's been a couple years now, which is the crazy thing. Literally years. Three years probably. Literally. Yeah. You didn't even have a second kid at that point. Cudos on that. Thank you. Yeah. It's, it's, it has been a lot of change, a lot of different. But I feel like this is going to be like riding a bike. Jake and I used to do this together, what, three, four times a week at the athletic. Yeah. And, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a Athletic and now not so much. But we are going to, I think, have a lot of fun here on this episode of the Athletic Football Show talking through all the changes that we experienced in the NFL

world and how we think that affects the fantasy world going into the 2025 season. We're going to talk about our favorite moves. We think biggest winners are, biggest losers. We've got a few categories that we're going to work our way through here. Jake, let's start it right off the top with that favorite move. Out of all the fantasy relevant moves that we saw this offseason, which one was your favorite one. Yeah, I'm glad you preface that with fantasy relevant because you can make an argument. There were some better moves or favorite moves if we're just talking about teams overall. But for us in fantasy, Justin Fields going to the Jets, we're always looking for quarterbacks these days that can run and the excitement of Justin Fields being able to be back as a starting

quarterback and not have to worry about potentially losing his job or is he going to start this week? Are we going to go back and forth two bad weeks and then he gets replaced again? The Jets turning to Fields and they have some weapons for them. I think Garrett Wilson and Fields fit really well together. And if you talk about Fields, you know this as a Bears fan. DJ Moore's best season was with Justin Fields. And I think that similarity, I don't think DJ Moore to Garrett Wilson's a one for one. But I think there's a lot of similarities where I'm not pegging or not downturning Garrett Wilson down from being a wire receiver one, top 15 at least.

But Justin Fields being able to have those weapons, even if there's a question at Y receiver 2, there's enough there that he can still run for a thousand yards. You know this as much as anybody does. He's still somebody that finishes inside the top 10 with Daniel Jones like passing. So if we're talking fantasy purely, finding this spot for Justin Fields to be a full-time starter. I don't think there's much more we can say was the best fantasy only movement that we saw. Yeah, there was a Justin Field start last year when he was with Pittsburgh and in a super flex league where I'm playing two quarterbacks. I've got him going for me. And it was, it was ugly. There was, you know, all the all the hallmarks, excuse me, an ugly Justin Fields passing game.

Really late going through his reads, missing a lot of guys high, just what we've been used to seeing with Justin Field since he's been in the NFL, but he ran for three touchdowns. And this was right around the time that Russell Wilson was getting healthy. And I was like, man, this might be it, but it was a hell of a ride

while I had him in there. And it was it. The very next week was when Russell Wilson took over as the starter for Pittsburgh. So it is nice that he does have a what feels like a whole lot longer of a leash in New York than he had. in Pittsburgh last season. Looking around that team, you say Garrett Wilson is a guy who sticks

basically where he would have been for you with filling the blank quarterback there with the Jets. Breece Hall. Thoughts on Breece Hall with Justin Fields, now the quarterback there. Yeah, I don't think if it was only Bruce Hall, I would have a concern. The concern is it's not only Breece Hall anymore.

I still think if you look down this depth chart, Bruce Hall is the best talent, but we know what Braylin Allen can bring. We know Isaiah D. Davis was a sneaky value in the draft that people liked a lot, including myself. And I just think that you have options here where you started to see them pull off a at Brees Hall late. And for no other reason, which seems to be the general consensus of the NFL now is to how

many bell cow heavy 20 plus touch per game guys. I mean, we've even seen, and I know we're not talking about the Rams today, but Sean McVeigh, who's been very much of that. We're going to talk about them eventually. Oh, okay. There you go. We'll save that for later. But even so, the fact that he's been very much in that bell

how I used this guy only 90% of the time every single week. Even he's saying like, hey, you know, maybe we need to rethink this. So I think that Brice Holt is fine, but I think he's more of what he had been last year. It's an RB2. You're going to get some bad weeks. You're going to get some weeks where maybe Braylon Allen steals a few more touches, including a touchdown. And then, of course, the biggest thing, as we've seen with Fields and any kind of quarterback

of his ilk, is that if we do have somebody only 90% of the touches, we're okay. Like, that running back can survive. Derek Henry with Lamar Jackson can survive. But I think now we have to understand that Brice Hall is an RB2 despite his immense talent. All right. We're going to talk about the Rams right now, actually, Jake, because my favorite move of the offseason is Devante Adams to the Rams. So we're not talking about the Rams running back situation. We're not getting into Kyron Williams, but we are getting into Devante Adams going to the Rams.

My favorite move of the off season. It was a really bad situation, basically, all year long for Devante Adams. Whether it was the Raiders, whether it was the Jets, he was just not playing in good offenses last year. and he still caught 85 passes for a little more than 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns, the wide receiver 13 and half PPR scoring. So basically this guy does what he always does, maybe a half step down or a full step down production wise because of how bad the offenses were. Don't think that's going to be the case for him this season with the Rams.

10th and passing DVOA a season ago, 11th in total pass EPA, 11th and EPA per attempt. The Jets, the Raiders, outside the top 20 in all of those. Matthew Stafford, 517 pass attempts. That's a floor for him in a healthy season with Sean McVeigh as his head coach. So I think we can basically lock him in for 500 plus, 520 plus, even with that team, liking what they can do on the ground, even with them likely winning plenty of games this year. And we know what that does to game script. Still, I think everything lines up for DeVante Adams to have another great season. Of course, Pooka Naku is a complicating factor here.

Maybe the best receiver, at least like relative to where DeVante is in his career. you go all the way back to the Green Bay years. This is probably the best receiver he's played alongside, the one who can challenge him the most for being the number one receiver on his own team. Jordy Nelson's in there too. But I just think that everything lines up for Devante Adams to once again be in the wide receiver one mix, something that we just didn't get from him a season ago. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

Actually, my early rankings, the first wide receiver two, as in on a teams two, is T. Higgins, that I have ranked and then Devante Ames is right behind him. Devante Adams and T. Higgins and my rankings are alongside like Ladd McConkey and Terry McLaren as in pushing the top 15. I think this was great for Stafford and everybody involved in that we saw even I think at this point Cooper Cups not even 95% of what he was. We were kind of hoping that he has 80, 85% left at this point. But even that, my point being is even that with Stafford and Nakua, we saw flashes of at least

wide receiver three. I think there's a lot like you said. I think there's more in the tank left. with Devante Adams. And now if you're asking him to kind of go alongside of somebody like a 1A, one B situation where it's not just only him getting all the targets, but also all the attention, you know, 170 targets isn't coming anymore. But if he gets 130 plus and now on the Rams with Stafford and that office that's just going to free him up, I'm with you. Honestly, I don't, I wouldn't call it, Beller, but I think there is a non-zero chance where we get to

December and it's all of a sudden, wow, Devante Adams has more fancy points as Pooka Nakua. I don't think that's a non, like definitively can't happen. Always been one of the best Red Zone receivers, one of the best inside the 10 receivers, inside the five receivers. So the touchdown numbers feel like they should be there for him once again this year. I'm going to ask you the same question here as I did with the Jets, with Justin Fields, with Breece Hall. Did the signing of Devante Adams affect your ranking of Pooka Nakua at all?

No. Honestly, I kept the Kuwa's because of the workload that he saw, the targets that being with Cooper Cop with DeSille, he became the one. Like we were all like, oh, how much are they going to share? It was like, NKua was the one. I would say that if you're talking about risk ranking, there's a little bit more. You have to acknowledge it. I just said there's a non-zero chance to the Vante Adams ends up the better wide receiver.

And I'm not even talking about injury for Nakua. So there is the potential. And then you say, okay, Nakua could have been in tier one. He could have been up there with Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson. If their number two wide receiver was just an also-ran kind of guy, like maybe they brought back Brandon Cooks or something. Then I've been like, okay, Dukua is just going to see 160 targets and he should be in that top tier. So basically, I already had him in that second tier, expecting the Rams to do something in free agency or the draft. And this just kind of kept

him there. But I do acknowledge that I would say there's a little bit more risk, the fact that it is a talent of Adams and not just some other Y receiver four out there. Yeah, I'm going to want some investment in the Rams this season. And as things start to line up as we start our early draft prep, Devante Adams is going to be one of those early ways. that I feel like is going to be the most cost-efficient way to get in on this Rams offense. Another one of my favorite moves of the off-season that is obviously going to draw bigger headlines from a real-life football world, but still has plenty of effect in the fantasy world, was Ben Johnson going to the Bears.

And that transitions us to the next category, the biggest winner of the off-season movement. I say it transitions us to the next category because you threw a bunch of names at me as we were going back and forth on what our answers are going to be on this. And I feel as though these names have in common the fact that what came to their teams is what makes them a big winner, not because them going somewhere new. So you've got Trevor Lawrence up top here and then a few other names. Let's start with Trevor, though. Why is he your biggest winner? Yeah, I think Trevor Lawrence.

This was a tough one for me. Bo Nix, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, all quarterbacks. We're going to talk about it all, including Caleb Williams. And I actually have the article coming out on The Athletic. It is the breakout quarterbacks for this season and fantasy. And three to the four are named. I think that if you look at Trevor Lawrence, at this point, it's not only just being a winner. Let's be honest, the article is going to say the same thing.

It's kind of almost like, this is it, buddy. I don't know how many more excuses we have to give you. You were the quarterback of the highest rated in the past decade, as hopefully I talk over, the people deciding to do the lawn right outside my window for everybody that hears that in the background. I will acknowledge that. We hear mostly you. It's like 80, 20, you versus the lawnmower.

Okay. Well, that's pretty good. 8020 me. That's 8020 right in fantasy. See, like, I'm going to get the 20% wrong. The Trevor Lawrence thing is there's so many factors, and I think that's why. Like, you can say Ben Johnson with Caleb Williams, but it's Trevor Lawrence as well in the same situation is now you have Liam Cohen.

And I think that Ben Johnson is trying to tie in and Caleb Williams to kind of jump ahead for you here, but like Ben Johnson's making his first foray into like what is he going to do on his own? We've already got inklings of Liam Cohen doing this. And we've seen what he's been able to resurrect Baker Mayfield's career. career and now go to do this with Trevor Lawrence. So there's a little bit, like if you gave me Ben Johnson versus Liam Cohen minds, I would actually take Ben Johnson. But if we have a little bit more of an, you know, a proof in the NFL, I think there's a slight edge for Cohen at this point.

And so now you go to Trevor Lawrence and you say, hey, he already had Brian Thomas, who was one of the best rookie wide receivers last year. You draft Travis Hunter, which as of today, we're assuming he's primarily a wide receiver. This could change, of course, and that's the risk with the situation. But Travis Hunter, if I knew, and I think a lot of people agree with me, but if we, I'll say we then, if we knew he was primarily wide receiver, there's a big case for him to be the best wide receiver in this draft class that we just saw ahead of McMillan. And I'm of that ilk. So I think that Hunter, if he is the number two wide receiver, even if he's only out there 80% of the time, you know how Brian Thomas and Hunter, which is better than anything they rolled out last year. And you have the offense that's now designed for Trevor Lawrence. And the one thing I saw it, and this is the other comparison I'll bring into Caleb Williams,

is Trevor Lawrence hasn't been comfortable in the NFL. Like there's a lot of throws he didn't make at Clemson. There's a lot of running opportunities he didn't take, but he did while he was at Clemson. And there was times last year before the injury where you started to see flashes, especially that last two or three games, you're like, okay, he's finally getting there. He's getting comfortable. Brian Thomas is obviously healthy. And it's like, hey, that's that Trevor Lawrence I remember seeing at times and included some running.

And I think the comparison that I'll make to Caleb Williams to Price Young to all three is the running in the NFL comes when you're comfortable because you see it. You're not panicking. You're not trying to make the throw before everything breaks apart. It's like, okay, first read was blown up. Second read's not there. I'm just going to take off. I'm going to take off for eight yards. As bad as Daniel Jones was, Daniel Jones did that pretty well.

That's one of the positives you could say about him. And I think you saw that with Lawrence and now you have this offense with Cohen. Of course, there's the risk. He's changing offense. and that's always a risk in the NFL. Remember, Eli Manning took 10 games to get comfortable in his new offense back in the day. But I think that the biggest winner, because you have a wide receiver, because you have the offense, and because you have now multiple options behind them in the backfield where if one

falls off, ETN bombs again, that you have an entire backfield that's going to be customized for Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence. And I think that you can make the case for any of them, but I would take Trevor Lawrence by hair. Even some of the smaller moves, right? Obviously, Liam Cohen, Travis Hunter, that's going to grab the headlines as it should. But getting Deamy Brown in here, right? That's just a nice move to round out what this wide receiver group is. Getting Robert Hainesie and Patrick McCarie, these aren't guys who are

going to rank anywhere toward the top of their position groups, but these are competent, starting offensive linemen, interior offensive linemen as well, hopefully keeping the pressure off of coming right up into Trevor Lawrence's face. So it's just, it is all the moves that this team made to make Trevor Lawrence more comfortable, as you have said, and just give him every single chance he has to succeed to reach what, you know, we all think is still a little bit, or at least most of us think. I think there's been a lot of pushback against Trevor Lawrence. But what most of us think is still a little bit more there for Trevor Lawrence.

I'm with you. I think he was one of the biggest winners as well. Before I get to mind, I do want to ask you about some of the other guys. So you say Bo Nix, you say Caleb Williams, you say, Bryce Young and Caleb Williams, that one's pretty obvious. the case that makes itself. Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos, as we're here in this part of the summer

where everything is now behind us of the offseason and we're getting ready for training camp a month or six weeks from now and in the middle of OTAs, Denver's getting a lot of attention for everything they did on their team, not just the fantasy relevant stuff, but for everything that they did this offseason, one of the more popular off seasons in the football talking world. What do you like about what this team did around Bo Nix?

So I like that this fact, the team is turning into a Sean Payton team. And this is going to take some time. You can't do it in one off season a lot of times. But Peyton has now made this his new Saints. And it comes down to everybody who's going Gaga and fantasy, good for reason for RJ Harvey. And he's the new Alvin Camara. And even, you know, I joked about after the draft, I was like, he is. But let's call him like 90% Alvin Camara.

I don't think Harvey as as good. But he's that similar player. He brings in Evan Ingram to that quote unquote Joker role, sneak preview. we're talking about him later in the show too, but not as positively. But I think one of the more underrated ones is everybody's like Marvin Mims and Troy Franklin and all these other names. I wasn't super high on Pat Bryant coming into the draft, but this is something I said after it.

And this is why I like what they're doing for Bo Nix because it's Sean Payton. So we go back all the way to Michael Thomas when he was drafted by the Saints. Somebody I was pretty high on versus consensus. And I said, I love this fit, especially after the draft. I was like, this is an amazing fit. This is Michael Thomas, that big slot. type of option that he uses all the time. You've seen the Colston's before him.

Even Jimmy Graham was kind of hybrid in that role. And it was just a perfect fit. Pat Bryant, for what he does, is the new Marquis Colston, the new Michael Thomas. I'm not saying he's as good as either one of them. He's not going to put up 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns. But I actually think he could immediately leap past Marvin Mims. And why I say all that to say is R.J. Harvey, Pat Bryant, the moves that they made that you said also we don't even talk about fantasy, everything up and down the line.

Sean Payton's making this team his, seemingly like what we hope that Leon Cohen does, that we hope Ben Johnson does. He's now done it. And that's why you say Bo Nex surprised a lot of people, myself included for what he did as a rookie. I think if you look at it too and you want to say, how does he build off that? And maybe not just, oh, he took everybody by surprise and surprise and has a sophomore slump. Sean Payton made this team for success for Bo Nix for his plan. League feels like it's in pretty good hands at the quarterback position.

We've seen these resurgent guys over the last few years. Baker Mayfield, Gino Smith. We've seen these rookies step into the league, guys who we maybe expected, like Jaden Daniels, to immediately take a leap, but guys like Bo Nix who also came in as rookies and boom right away were useful, successful, competent, and now can be fantasy relevant quarterbacks as well.

Sam Darnold, another one of those guys. How many people thought Sam Darnold was going to be QB6 last year? I would say that that comes firmly in at zero. Sam Darnold is not my biggest one. It's J.J. McCarthy. J.J. McCarthy goes down as my biggest winner of the off season in the fantasy world. I love everything about what is going on in Minnesota. First of all, the offensive line additions that this team made. Now we got Will Fries as the starting right guard. We've got Ryan Kelly at center using the first round pick on Donovan Jackson to be the starting left guard.

We know what Christian Derisaw is when he's healthy. You put him and Brian O'Neill together. That's among the best tackle duos in the league. This was a weakness for Minnesota last year. We saw that in the playoff game when they flamed out in the wild card round. This is no longer going to be a weakness for this team this season with those five guys along the line. More often, more than that, clearly, clearly the starter in Minnesota. They could have bar back Sam Darnold if they wanted. They said, no thanks. Sam's gone. They maybe flirted with Aaron Rogers. They're not making that move. This is JJ McCarthy's team very clearly. Sam Howell in as the backup. That is an obvious backup to J.J. McCarthy. This is the best infrastructure in the league. At least you can make an argument that this is

the best infrastructure in the league. And I think everyone would agree it's basically a top three infrastructure with Kevin O'Connell, who got a new deal with Guizio do Fomenta, who just got a new deal, the guy who made the move up to get J.J. McCarthy. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hawkinson, Aaron Jones, and Jordan Mason, another great addition that this team made in the offseason. This is perfectly set up for a quarterback to succeed. And we just saw one year ago, what this team can do with a quarterback who has plenty of questions about his level to perform in the NFL quarterback six in the fantasy world for Sam Darnold. I love it.

Obviously, you're not going to be drafting J.J. McCarthy as your starting quarterback when you are sitting down to draft in August or whatever, but I think he can play up to that level eventually this season because of everything that is around him. And what I would say is the best situation in the league. It's hard to disagree with much anything you said. And honestly, for somebody, and I'm going to preface this with, I wasn't the biggest Jay and McCarthy fan. One of the profiles, so a couple of years ago, like, actually, I think it was the second

or third years with the athletic. I said, I'm going to stop profiling rookies as a whole because we have Dean Bruegler is doing that. I'm just echoing a lot of things. They're like, you know what? So I'm going to, instead, I pivoted and kind of said, here's the fancy expectation. Like, if I told you player for player, what's the output? it. And this, I'm bringing this up to say, because the comparison about to make is not a one for one for McCarthy, and people will understand that, is fantasy output wise, I said the current NFL version of Trevor Lawrence. So, okay, 4,000-ish yards, 23 to 25 touchdowns, 3 to 400 yards on the ground. But that's actually kind of like a pretty lofty expectation for somebody who's about to make his first season. So I'm with you in that. If somebody's going to do it, you flip Trevor Lawrence and J.J. McCarthy, I would actually even have higher expectations.

expectations for Trevor Lawrence than with the Jags because what you said, it's the environment, it's the team, it's everything around them, the weapons, the offense, the style. I mean, Kevin O'Connell has proven to be one of the best hires when they made it and he's changed this organization as a whole. So I'm with you. I think that if I was going to include, so my breakout, I don't do players who haven't played yet. That's just my definition is I don't do rookies because you can't break out from nothing. You can have a great debut. So J.J. McCarthy would have a great debut because he never had his rookie season. If I was going to put him in there, he probably would make the top five of

breakouts. And that's coming. And I say that all to say is I'm still not the biggest McCarthy fan, but I can love the team. I can love the situation. I can love the upside for what's here. All right. We got plenty more coming your way.

But first we are going to take our first break of the episode. Michael Bell or Jake Sealy back with you on the athletic football show talking through the fantasy aspects of the off season and how we expect that to affect what we are doing when we are drafting our teams and getting ready for the fantasy football world. Let's go into our next category here, Jake, addition by subtraction. What we mean by that is a guy who stock increased because his team lost someone. And so now he finds himself in a better position. What do you got for this one? Yeah, originally I wanted to go with Jackson Smith and Jakeba. That felt like a layup. That felt obvious. So I'm going to go a little bit different direction. And I'm going to say the 49ers

as a whole, no Debo, Samuel. And we've seen the numbers with him with D-Bah. We've seen the numbers with and without Brandon Iyuk for George Kiddell. And I kind of wanted to bring them up as a whole because there's been a lot of talk, especially on like early fantasy podcast I've been doing of like, is it Joanne Jennings going to build off last year? What if Iyuk is back at the beginning of the season? What if it's a few weeks? And then Jennings steps aside because they play the similar position and that Pearsall steps up and has a big season. And I'm like, hey, look, I'm a Pearsall guy. I love Pearsall. I think there's a chance that if Iyuk plays even half the season that Pearsall ends up being the most valuable wide receiver because again, you're kind

of replicating Jennings and IUC. That being said, I'm also a huge fan of Jennings from the waiver call last year. But I wanted to bring them all up to say is, I brought this up on a podcast lately and I said, we're trying to play this wide receiver of who it is, who it is, who it is, who it is, what if the real winner here by subtraction is just George Kittle? George Kittle, who has never had a tight end one finish, but has been two and three, oh, because of that Travis Kelsey guy, him every single chance he could get. But has seasons where just last year, he was actually, that being, Kittled, number one in fantasy points per game.

He's had multiple seasons of over 14 points per game, which would put you as the wide receiver one, almost every single season if Travis Kelsey wasn't around. And we've, again, we go to the numbers of Kittle with and without a wide receiver when it's just one other wide receiver and Kittle on the field at being like a primary wide receiver of talents and targets. it's, Kittles been putting up top five numbers week in and week out. Like he never falls back to like, oh, it was a bad week for Kittle. And I know people are talking about Christian McCaffrey being back.

And that's another factor in this offense. But I think if you look at this, I think Jennings and Pearson are winners. But I think the one that might get overlooked because everybody's trying to figure out the wide receivers is that now is the time. And because we're primarily focused on fantasy for this podcast today is that stop saying, I'm taking Brock Bowers in the second round, maybe at the end of the first, to McBride in the second third. Just wait until the fourth or fifth round and get George Kittle, who probably puts up very equitable numbers to those two guys two or three rounds later.

It's such a fascinating team, I think, this year, because of everything we've come to expect from the 49ers, everything we've come to expect from Kyle Shanahan. The fact that we've seen Shanahan adjust on the fly, we've seen him make the most out of basically every situation that he's been in. But this is just a very different Niners team than what we're used to seeing with Shanahan as the head coach, they're paying the quarterback. First time that they're paying the quarterback like this.

And so what's that going to do downstream is a question that we need to face eventually. And now we got Christian McCaffrey, how healthy is he going to be this season? Brandon, now you coming back from the injury, Debo Samuel, gone. This was a team that at its best a couple of years ago was very clearly a team made up of superstars that still somehow, you know, maybe superstars is a stretch for everyone but McCaffrey. But made up of very good players across the way, I'd kill like us too. You know what I'm saying. made up of very good players with some with superstars moments, uh,

is how I'll say it, that still found a way to be greater than the sum of its parts. Yeah. And that's a hallmark of Kyle Shanahan. And now we can, we can expect that I think this year. And it is going to be interesting to see how they piece that all together with just a very different look across the board.

And I, I think that's the play here too. I, if I'm going to try to find the biggest winner in San Francisco, go because of the past catcher changes, I do think that Kittle is the one who is likely to see his role remain what it has been and potentially be a little bit enhanced because of just his entire familiarity with what they do. And let's be honest, the explosiveness that he brings to the passing game. Yeah. And that's the biggest thing is like no matter what, you have a matchup problem here. And again, I can go to the comfort level. You see the sum of the parts that you can go to the quarterback. Brock Purdy on

25 other teams is not going to be the Brock Purdy, we know. And that's just part of the equation here. So I think if you're looking at the values here, I mean, they're all, we're talking fancy specifically, they're all values right now because Jennings and Pearsler not even being drafted as top 35 wide receivers. But I think the biggest one is that

the constant to go back to Lost fans there, the constant is George Kittal. It's the one we know. Oh, God. I wish I could, I was reaching for it. I watched Lost. But I didn't have it. I would see Desmond, right?

It was Desmond was the, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See in another life. There we go. All right. There we go.

We're trying to forget those last few episodes like Game of Thrones. So like these. Aren't we all? Aren't we all. I'm trying. I knew I had to talk my way through it there. I'm going to take the layup here. You can shame me all you want,

but I'm going to take the lay up and say Jackson Smith and Jake. But for what it's worth, I had the rest of the Niners guys written down also. But being that you're the more, more of the guest on the athletic football show than I am. I will let you take that one and I'll take JSN. 2024 was a breakout season, 100 grabs, 1130 yards, six touchdowns. He was still contending with DK Metcalf, DK, now in Pittsburgh, Cooper Cup is here, yes.

But JSN is clearly, very clearly the number one receiver in a way that he wasn't going into last year. Maybe by time we got halfway through the season in Seattle, he was becoming that guy and did become that guy. But it never fully felt like he was the number one in the way that he will be the, number one this year. Obviously, we've got the quarterback change going from Gino to Sam Darnold. So that is something that's just going to take a little bit of figuring out like the Clint Kubiak move for this team also. But you just look at what JSN did already last year, what he comes into this season with who is now gone from there. And I think it's also important to note that Cooper Cup, you look at the contract on paper, the way it gets reported. Three years, 45 million. But there's an out for him after this year. There's an out for Seattle.

This is really a one-year contract. He's guaranteed 17 and a half million. clearly the Seahawks are all in on JSN as the number one receiver. I think we should be looking at him as a top 10, top 12 receiver. I couldn't agree more. Like I said, and I'm not going to fault you for taking the layup here. I think there's a chance that everybody seems to love Drake London now with the fact that Peddick's targeted him eight billion times over the last few games. And they're like, oh, I mean, if you're going to give any Y receiver these ilks a 40 plus percent

target share, it's going to be hard not to be top 10. but I would be shocked if they're right neck and neck for the entire season. The only concern we have, and to go back to Sam Darnold, the only concern we have is the offensive line for the Seahawks and the fact that we did see Sam Darnold show those flashes of seeing ghosts when the pressure came. But the interesting thing was, and I'm sure you've seen this too, is I went back and looked and I was like, who was actually struggling under pressure? And I expected to see Sam Darnold at the bottom.

He actually was top 10 in passer rating when under pressure with the Vikings. Now, granted, does that translate when we get to the Seahawks? But I don't think it's as bad as people realize. We just have that, again, it's the lost. It's the Game of Thrones. It's the late season, bad taste that was left in your mouth. And that's what you remember the most. And hopefully the confidence that he gained from being in Minnesota last year is something that can

translate. And like I said, Clint Kubiak coming over from New Orleans, there's something to be excited about and see it. Even with all the changes that make this feel like a completely different team, I mean, it is, right? D.K. is gone. Tyler Lockett. gone. Gino Smith has gone. It feels like a totally different regime in Seattle because it is.

I think there's a lot of reason to be excited about it. The other one I just want to float out a test balloon here. This is what I was initially going to go with actually. But then I was like, I'm kind of cheating because I was going to factor in some additions. But C.J. Stroud with Stefan Diggs gone, with Bobby Slowick gone, bringing in Christian Kirk, bringing in Nick Cayley. It just feels like the pieces fit better than they did a season ago. It felt like cheating because I needed the additions to be part of this too. So it's like addition by subtraction, but then also some addition. But I do think that even with the major offensive line questions, Houston has, there's reason to be more excited about C.J. Stroud in that passing game than it

seems like there would be after what we watched last season. I'm grinning because the entire rundown, I was trying to find a spot to put Jaden Higgins in because I love the drafting of Higgins here. And the situation is I just thought, like a lot of people compared him to Nico Collins, including Bruegler. I was a little bit different. I forget my exact comparison now at this point because I've been so fancy folks at this point. But I can see numbers similar in Nico Collins. And when you have those is the one, two.

And you can say, hey, Christian Kirk should be our three. And even if not, you know, Jalen Noel maybe takes his place because Christian Kirk doesn't stay healthy. But when on the field been productive, I'm with you. Like, if you're looking for a rebound candidate, like rebound player of the year, comeback player of the year, whatever you want to call it. I'm with you on C.J. Stroud. You talked about playing Superflex earlier on in the show,

and I think C.J. Stroud is going to end up being my QB, too, in a lot of leagues just based off the fact that, like, he's prime set for that rebound season. I want to say he was being drafted as, like, QB5 last year, somewhere in there. If it wasn't five, it was five, it was six. It was whatever. It was right in there. KB18, right now in the consensus rankings on Fantasy Pros. Five, maybe was too high.

I think 18 is certainly too low. So I think that this is a gut, right? This is someone who, who I think is primed for a rebound season. Let's just please, please Houston, figure out the protections. Please figure out the protections. It's going to be harder without Laramie Tunsell,

but please figure it out for him because this is a guy who deserves better than what he got from his offensive line last year. The biggest loser is the category that we move on to next. Now, Jake, you threw two names of me for this one. And I got to be honest, both of them feel a little bit, I know where you're going with it,

but both of them felt a little bit surprising to me. I'm not going to spoil it. you give us the names and the reasoning. Yeah, I figured you'd really be upset with the one in the parentheses too. My biggest one and close behind, and I think it's just potential losers here. The biggest actually, I guess the first is, we'll just say his name Zave Flowers. I think the first is perception because I'm still seeing Zay Flowers and people treating him in fantasy as this mid to high end Y receiver too.

That's not even close to what he was last year. And that's before you add in DeAndre Hopkins. I don't think DeAndre Hopkins is some big, huge threat anymore. This isn't DeAndre Hopkins that we knew five, six, seven years ago. But he's just another piece in this offense that includes Mark Andrews, Isaiah likely, Rashad Bateman, who won't go away. I mean, even last year we saw Nelson Aguilar pop off one or two times just because there's so many options. And let's go back to last season.

40 plus touchdowns from Laura Jackson and Zayflower still couldn't even get to be in a top 25 wide receiver. So I don't, I say this to say. I don't think he's the biggest loser as in DeAndre Hopkins came in, he's a loser. I think he's a loser in fantasy because people still don't see the truth. And that's just, let's be honest. Zave Flowers is a great talent on a great team, but just like we've seen so many times before with the Ravens, that just doesn't equate to be in a top 20 wide receiver. So stop treating him as such.

Just understand that. So he's a loser in perspective. The second one, I think, is a potential loser only because I'm trying to figure out your bears. And I'm trying to figure out, and I'm saying, like, I love Luther. burden. Maybe that's just part of the fact that, like, I'm a big burden guy. I had him as one of my top three-tier-wide receivers in with Hunter and McMillan, depending on landing spots. Those were my three best talents, in my opinion, in this draft. And I was like, how do you not use burden?

And the biggest thing here is, where is burden really do a lot of damage? What has Ben Johnson like is that a Maura St. Brown rule? Well, the two options for that are Burden and O'Donze, which, of course, you would say, well, if Burden gets that role, that hurts a Dunezay. But what Doonese showed us last year is that he's not ready, and there's a lot of factors to come around, and he could be. I still had him as a top three talent wide receiver last year with Malik Neighbors and Marvin Harrison. So I think if you're looking here is that if O'Donzee doesn't bust, like if he isn't as as bad as he was last year and clearly becomes the number three behind even Burden.

And it's O'Donzee and Burden and DJ Moore, you just go back to almost the Ravens type of situation is they can't all eat. They can't all be putting up 1,200 jars. They can't all be having an amazing top 20 wide receiver seasons. And I think this comes down to almost like a fantasy strategy type of situation is when you have one like this, there's two things. You'll remember one of the things I always used to say, buy the cake, not the icing. The cake would be Caleb Williams. The icing is the players.

We're trying to figure out Loveland and commit at tight end. There's just so many options. So stop trying to figure that out. Just take the cake. Take Caleb Williams. But the other part of it here is that because of this, and I just brought up the Ravens type of situation, well, I'm also going to take the cheapest wide receivers. D.J. Moore, he deserved talent-wise and what we even just saw last year. Sure, top 20, but I'm not going to bet on top 20 potentially from any of them. And I think just because of the style of Ben Johnson and these wide receivers, if the on man out from what works best is here, it just, DJ Moore screaming me in the face, like the potential most lost value from last year. And that just makes him kind of a potential fantasy loser. I'd still love them as a wide receiver three, just not a wide receiver two because of the risk. Well, I'd receiver 20 right now in fantasy pros consensus rankings.

I'm going to throw some names at you that are right around him. Give me one word answer who you take, who you would go with. DJ Moore versus Marvin Harrison Jr. Marvin, I have him one spot in front of him, Marvin Harrison Jr. DJ Moore,

these guys are all behind him. DJ Moore versus Cortland Sutton. Oh, I'd still take more in that situation. How about DJ Moore versus D.K. Metcalfe. DJ Moore versus Devante Smith. Devonte. Smith barely. I'll give you one more.

DJ Moore versus Jameson Williams. DJ Moore. All right. So you're still in as him as him like a wide receiver two ranking. Yeah. High and three. Yeah. High end three.

High end three for DJ. I mean, I understand. I think that I think that Ben Johnson, the, the lift that the Bears offense gets in everything that Ben Johnson likely brings to the table. As you referenced earlier in the show, it's a much different world being the head coach versus being the offensive coordinator and you got to prove you can do the whole big job and not just what you were doing previously. But, you know, Ben Johnson's given us every reason to believe that he's at least checked every box you want a guy to check and checked it emphatically on his way to

where he is in Chicago now. What's the saying high tide raises? What's the saying? High tide tide raises all ships or raises. I think he is that high tide for the bears. So I'm a little bit higher on DJ more than you. I do follow. You know, lifts all ship. It lifts all ships. But either way, I think he is that high tide for the bears. So I'm a little bit higher on DJ more than you. I do your logic. And I follow it on Zayflowers too. Should I Yogi Berri it? When the tide goes out, the ships come in to fly at the airport or something. Yeah. Wide receiver 34 for Zayflowers and points per game last year. And so with everything that went right for Baltimore, I think that is something worth noting. And a good thing to keep in mind as you start getting yourself ready for what you're going to be doing in your fantasy leagues this season. For me, look, I am not saying to not

take these guys. I promise you. I am not saying. to not take these guys. But it's the reverse of what we're talking about with that Ben Johnson high tide. Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery, man, I'm, I am the tiniest bit worried as to what you can't be worried for what this team is and what these kinds of players are because Ben Johnson is the architect of that. Ben Johnson is the architect of that offense and of that diverse, explosive, fun, productive run game.

He is gone. And a lot of the DNA is still there. They did a very good job by keeping Hank Fraley in town, gave him that little bump with the run game coordinator. That makes a ton of sense. John Morton at least has been here in Detroit, not with this group of guys, but still has familiarity of the building. There's plenty of reason to believe that they can still keep those two guys as what they were. But now we're talking about some interior offensive line changes too. Frank Rag now retiring.

He's gone. You just look at all these changes that are in Detroit. And it is hard to maintain year over year when you are dealing with these kinds of. changes. And so I worry a little bit about the Detroit Lions run game producing to the level that it has. I already know that I've got the ninth overall pick in a Superflex draft of mine. If Jamir Gibbs is sitting there at number nine, which in Superflex is a decent chance he will be, I'm not going to really have any problem putting his name up on the board, depending on who else is there. But I do think there is reason to consider the downsides of this Detroit

offense, which we haven't really considered over the last couple of years because of all the changes that have gone on there. I think it's a worthy concern in the fact that I would still, I don't a lot of people want to put Bijon at number one. And let's talk about that as a whole. It's like Bijon was well behind Gibbs and points per game and also well behind Barclay. And people are wanting to make that leap for Barclay and Bejohn over Gibbs for that. And I can see even, you know, depending on where you're drafting and what wide receivers are

there, if you want to go wide receiver and come back around and say, you know what, maybe I don't take that risk with Gibbs. Maybe I do a wide receiver first and come back and get another year of Derek. Henry or something like I think that's warranted but I think the bigger concern is even the second part of that what you said it was a lot of focus was on Gibbs but let's talk Montgomery too Montgomery has been beyond efficient on his scoring for us in fantasy because of the touchdowns and for his usage which on the guy goes into that Bo Nix thing is like you put him on so many other teams and he's not the quarter of Brock Purdy who I said at the time put him on 25 other teams

25 other teams or David Montgomery we've seen David Montgomery and other teams this is not the same David Montgomery that he is on this offense. So I think pulling away, Ben Johnson, you brought about it. There's a lot of continuity still, but the continuity doesn't always breed success just because you're not making a lot of changes. You still have the mind that is gone. And I'm

with you. I think there's a warranted concern to say like, hey, maybe just a half of a peg, but we're still drafting them. Lions led to the league last year, 70 touchdowns. In 2023, they were third in the league with 58 touchdowns. I mean, this is a team that

has just done a whole lot of scoring. And that's what we care about in the fantasy world. What if that 70 comes back? What if the 70 comes down to 58, right? Which is still A, very high, and B, a reasonable dip for a team to take from 70 touchdowns that they scored a season ago. What if David Montgomery? Yeah.

What if David Montgomery was three of them? Yeah. Well, every running back that scored at least 10 plus touches on the ground running ball had at least 60 more carries, minimum. 60 more carries than Dave Montgomery did. There is plenty of room for this team to still be very good. For these two players to still be very productive and for them to both take a noticeable step back in fantasy with both how high things have been for them the last couple of years and all the changes that have gone into Detroit. I said it with the Rams at the top.

The Lions are another team. I'm going to want to find investment in. There's just there's too much talent on this team. This is too well run of an organization. And Dan Campbell showed us previously that he knows how to hire coach. right? He went out and he made the move. He elevated Ben Johnson from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator, got rid of Anthony Lynn. He made the move for Aaron Glenn. This is an important trait in a head coach, especially a CEO type head coach like Dan Campbell. He's proved to us he can do it before.

We should trust that he can do it again, but he does have to do it again and we can't know it until we actually see it. So something to think about when you are looking at the Detroit Lions. We're going to take one more break here and then we'll be back with a few more categories. All right, Jake, we have not had a ton of rookie talk so far. Of course, we've had a little bit, but the draft, always one of the biggest things that happens in the offseason, always one of the biggest drivers of what we end up doing in the fantasy world. And the biggest driver of that is, of course, going to be Ashton Genty. So let's just big picture, what do you thinking for Ashton Genty's rookie year?

Where do you have them in your running back rankings? And how comfortable do you feel about placing him as high as you're going to place him? Yeah, I'll start with the where do I have them? I have them at six, which I bring it up first to say one thing is that's only a running back is that's actually behind consensus as of today. Most have them at four. And I get it. This is the same as Ezekieli.

This is the same as Sequin Barclay. This is the same as any running back of this talent going to a situation where they are going to step into 300 plus touches. There's no question about that. Bejan Robinson a couple years ago. Yeah. So that's a good one is that's where I was going to go with this. If you remember, and I'm sure you do, in the fantasy world, you're ready.

reference like where people were going last year in CJ Stroud. Well, let's talk about where Bijan was going for his rookie season. A lot of people are like, oh, he's the RB2 or three. And that was everywhere. And I'm not saying this to victory lap of being like, oh, I wouldn't take him there and I even argued against it there. I was like the end of the first. That's where I would consider Gentie too because of similar situations, but a little bit different. The one thing with Bijan was there was more opportunity for lost touches with Alger. And there's not that with Gentie. Like Gentie is getting 300 plus touches. The concern is the offense being one. I know Gino's there now, but there's a lot of moving parts in that aspect.

The offensive line still has some questions. But the biggest thing here is, too, is strength of schedule as a whole means nothing. Strength of opponent. And when I say opponent is then positional, running backs facing tough run defenses, wide receivers facing tough past defenses, quarterbacks. So you look at it, and I don't like projecting out the entire season because we've seen, I referenced that year all the time. I think it was 2017, 18, somewhere around there.

The Giants and Saints flip. The Giants were like, you don't want to. to face him at the beginning of the year. And then all of a sudden it was like, stack everybody you can against the Giants. And the opposite happened with the Saints. And I always referenced that year to say, you don't know necessarily once we get to December, our defense is going to be defenses. That being said, the Raiders, the Chiefs alone twice a year. I mean, they have one of the worst potential running back matchups on paper for the season. I say on paper because it could change. But it's enough to say a rookie coming into a situation that's not one of the best offenses in the

league that has questions, has a brutal defensive schedule for the running back, says he can be volume-based, and then I'll carry him just like Joe Mixing got carried for years on his volume. But if the touchdowns aren't there, he's a mid-back end RB1. And that's amazing for a rookie. But we do have to take that into context as I would still take Derek Henry. I would still consider Josh Jacobs and Chase Brown. And if we have healthy reports from now until August, there's no question of my mind. as we know he's healthy in day one, I'm taking Christian McCaffrey over Ashton Gentie at this point.

Yeah. Derek Henry right behind him in the consensus rankings, Devon A-chan, Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Bucking Irving, Kyron Williams, Chase Brown. That takes you all the way down to RB12 in the consensus rankings right now. So you got to believe. And maybe he lives up to it. But you absolutely have to believe Chip Kelly here as the offensive coordinator. Any thoughts on Chip Kelly and how that affects Ashton Jentty?

Not so much the fact of what it affects as Genti as more as the office as a whole. One of the concerns was did Chip Kelly learn from his first go-around and then basically bringing his career back when he back to college to get to the second chance now as coordinator. I'm hoping that things are a little bit different this time around because it was hellish the first time. We've seen it so many times, though, with guys who get head coaching jobs and it's just a bit much. just talking about how, you know, Ben Johnson's got to prove it before we can fully buy that he can be that guy. We just saw it last year with Cliff Kingsbury. It wasn't great as a head coach. Goes back to school, comes back to the NFL as an OC and an OC only.

And look at what happens for him. Yeah. Right. Look at Washington totally takes off. He gets some head coaching interviews. I mean, that's just a different job. And so Chip Kelly maybe can follow that same blueprint that we just saw from Cliff Kingsbury a year ago. Of course, Ashton Gentie, not only the not the.

only rookie that we're going to be talking about in the fantasy world. Who's your favorite rookie not including Ashton Gentie? I'm so glad we're talking about this because you know it was a loaded running back draft class. And I feel like after Gentie, there's two wide receivers too. I feel like there's a big five. Like there's a lot that I still like. I mean, there's a lot. This is probably the highest I've ranked a lot of rookie running backs in a long time. But a lot of people like Quinn John Jenkins in his situation. I'm kind of like that's dragging him down just a little bit. I talked Travis Hunter earlier with the Jaguars. I think Tederoa McMillan's in a great spot for volume, but let's talk about the risk of that.

You know, you hope Rice Young could build off of last year. We hope McMillan can, you know, fix some of the concerns we saw on his final year of college. RJ Harvey brought up earlier with the Broncos that he's going to be in a great spot getting the usage like Alvin Camarra. But I go back to Trayvion Henderson or Tray Henderson as he was at the Combine. I don't know if he's deciding to switch his name or what it might be. Yeah, where'd that come from? Yeah, he has nameplate in front of him at the Combine. He was just like, hey, I'm Trey Henderson.

I'm like, wait. Trayvian Henderson for his entire college career. And now suddenly it's Tray. I know. I don't know. Whatever he wants to be called. I will, the guy gets to decide what we call him.

If that's what he wants, I can get on board with Trey. You can't do it like Travis Kelsey and wait 10 years and be like, oh, by the way, my last name is actually Kels, not Kelsey. Like you can't, you can't pull that,

which probably was a joke anyway, but you get my point. Yeah. I think Henderson, despite the fact I don't think to use the Bell Cal term from earlier in the show, I don't think he's a 20 touch per game guy. But the one thing I love about Henderson, and you'll know this too, especially like the Big Ten and everything, is like go back to years. Well, what was the Big Ten? As you go back years. And like Henderson, three, two years ago was like, oh my God, this guy might be a top ten pick. And he had some injuries. But one thing on a per touch basis. And I made the joke when we did the podcast around the draft. And I said, you remember those little shotgun car things, the Hot Wheels, we would pull back and then Spring would make that noise and then you just let it go? That's true. Kirby on Henderson.

Like, he gets the ball and shotgun goodbye. And you put him in this offense as the lead, and it just has to be 15 touches on average per game. And I think he's going to be a top 20-ish running back. I have one spot in front of Judkins, who I think actually might get more touches. But actually crazy, like would actually like the Patriots situation more than the Brown situation, especially if you're coming into a split backfield. And I don't think Henderson is not without being able to play all three downs.

I think that world is open to him. I just don't think they'll give him that from day one. Maybe see if there's anything left with Stevenson after his drop off last year. And of course, Gibson, but I think that Henderson's in a great spot. Again, there's a big five. They're in a tight group, Henderson, Jenkins, Hunter McMillan, and Harvey, but I give Henderson the slight edge. Yeah, I like Henderson. So first of all, the Henderson, one pick before the Bears, that broke my heart on draft

nights. All the talks are going to, you know, running back and really felt like that was going to be a good fit that goes one pick before them. They take Luther Burton. So there you go. The landing spot, I think works, though. And I'm totally, like, I give me, regardless of what you, the volume, and I do think that there's reason to believe Quinchan Judkins is going to get more touches than Trayvian

Henderson. Give me, give me the guy next to Drake May all day versus the guy next to Joe Flacco and maybe Shitter Sanders and maybe Dylan Gabriel and who knows. Like, you play next to four different quarterbacks this year. Give me the guy who's going to play next to Drake May, even if it means he's getting, you know, three and a half touches. fewer per game. Yeah.

100. That's an easy one for me. Yeah, that's the, that's the thing. It's like you go back to and I'm not calling him Jamir Gibbs. I'm just saying like if you could say Jemir Gibbs 14 to 16 touches or Dave Montgomery on his work like you're going to take Gibbs over Montgomery every single time. And I think that's the comparison of the talent standpoint in that backfield. I am a little surprised that you, these five guys being your top five non-genty,

that that's fine. I'm surprised that it is cut off there and it does not include all. Marion Hampton because I think Omerian Hampton is someone who we should be getting excited about. Obviously, the Chargers go out. They make him a first round pick. They also bring in Najee Harris, so it's not like he's going to be alone back there. But we know what this team. And we know what Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman are going to want to do. They're going to run the ball. There's going to be plenty to go around. We just saw J.K. Dobbins turn in 13 games of RB17 production in points per game a season ago. I think we got the potential for a top flight offensive line with

Rishon Slater and Joe All to tackle. They bring in Mackay Beckton to be the starting right guard. So I think you could get a very, very strong offensive line play out of this team. They were 10th and run rate last year. I think everything does line up quite nicely for O'Marion Hampton to be an RB2. I, you know, like I say this a lot in the fantasy world. If a guy's going to be, if a guy's going to have a level of production higher than what we have seen from him, it's going to happen before where Najee Harris is in his career. Najee Harris, he's going to, he's going to get his touches. He's going to play. He's probably going to annoy O'Marion Hampton fantasy managers. That's going to happen. But it's not like we're suddenly going to get top 10 production out of Najee Harris. I think

Omering Hampton is the leader of this backfield. And I want someone who is leading this team's offense in the backfield playing alongside Justin Herbert. I really like Omerian Hampton this year. I do too. And let's be honest, I had Amir in Hampton as my clear, far and away number two. and I actually brought up this comparison that the Bejan Robeson Jemar Gibbs draft as I think the gap between Genty and Hampton needs to be more like that than it does to what seems to be the consensus

of its Genty than a huge tier, Hampton, than a huge tier. No, I think it's closer than that. If we were talking 2006, Hampton's an RB1, a back-end RB1. I would take them over some, I would take him over Joe Mixon. My only concern is that I know it's a one-year deal,

and that's why I say 2006. It's just I don't know if this is a split backfield the entire season and even like a 55-45 of what Najee Harris just was in. Granted, now he's on the short side of the stick of that. I do think that Hampton's going. I have Hampton ranked ahead of Najee Harris. I just don't know that looking at the usage even with Dobbins last year and Gus Edwards and all the rest and even try and Camani Vidal. And I feel like Harbaugh might be Steelers like in the fact of Harris and Warren. and we might just see Hampton and Harris now flip that what we wanted,

we wanted Jalen Warren to be the lead for the Steelers for Fantasy. I think we might see that, but the split will be so great that it's going to, as you said, it's going to frustrate fantasy managers. I think Hampton's a great RB3 with the potential for top 10, especially if something happened to Harris, or maybe he just falls on his face in the first four weeks. And then Hampton completely takes over. It's just that little bit of risk where I know the roles of these other five,

where when does Ham, I guess that's the bigger question, when does Hampton take over? Because I think he will. I just don't know how long that might take. Four big wide receiver trades this off season that we got to talk about. Debo Samuel goes to the commanders, George Pickens to the Cowboys, D.K. Metcalf to the Steelers and Christian Kirk to the Texans. We're not going to take each of these one by one. Which one of these is your favorite? Which one of these do you think is not quite going to have the juice if there is one that it would at least appear to have on paper?

So it's funny that if you asked this a month ago, my favorite would have been Debo Samuel for what it does to Jade Daniels and even opens up Terry McLarenmore. But now that we have Pickens gone, my answer is now D.K. Metcalf, not even knowing if it's Kirk Cousins, Aaron Rogers, or whoever the quarterback might be, a Dek-McCaf being back to his own as the clear one, clear target volume. I think we saw with the Seahawks once Jackson Smith and Jigua, who we talked about on this show started to become more involved than you had a talent that could push him as. kind of became the one A to MECAF being the one B, even potentially a clear two, now being that clear number one again, I think that's going to help D.K. Metcalf, where if he was there with Pickens, I actually had Metcalf down in the mid-20s and Pickens in the mid-30s before this trade for Pickens leaving. And I moved Metcalf back up pushing the top 20, and Pickens got back inside the top 30 because of these opportunities. The one that I think might not become anything,

and it's nothing more than what the options are there. And at this point of his career is Christian Kirk. I think if Christian Kirk was there and clearly the number two and they didn't draft Higgins and Noel, I'd be like, okay, Christian Kirk, let's get on board. Maybe he can just play 12 games and we're super excited. But I don't even know that he doesn't get pushed from day one. And then all of a sudden we're like, oh, Christian Kirk is the wide receiver four on this team.

I think he should be the three from day one. But I think the three is even kind of saying that Higgins is going to be the two, as we talked about earlier. It's totally fair. I'm a little higher on it than you are, but we've got one of the best receivers in the league there in Nico Collins. They go out. They made two day two picks for wide receivers with the Iowa State guys,

excuse me, going to Houston. So I like, as I said, when we were talking about Stroud earlier, it's a move I love in real life because of just the way the pieces all fit together for Houston now, but I can see it having a little bit less of an impact in the fantasy world.

This worked out nicely because my favorite move actually ends being George Pickens. This is just super fun. It's like, talk about everything like we're, this is a team desperate for a legitimate second option for deck Prescott for a while now. George Pickens gives them that. He does what he does. C.D. Lamb is now free to do everything that he does line up all over the field. George Pickens is going to be outside the numbers doing what he does down the field. Dak now has a few different ways to distribute the ball. I just really like what it does for the entire offense. And frankly, I like what it does for George Pickens going to this situation.

as well. I can't get there on DKMackaf, man. Unless, unless they change the quarterback in Pittsburgh, I just, I, if we're talking about Mason Rudolph starting 15 games for this team, I can't do it. I can't do it. I will say this. It's funny that you say that because I was really tempted to put my biggest winner as just kind of like a, hey, I'm going to shock everybody. I almost said Dak Prescott. Like just to like really only not let that he's my biggest winner. But yeah, but like I think the attention needs to be brought that like, well, remember Dak Prescott as a top five fantasy quarterback. And granted, the vast majority of that is from being a thrower, not a runner. But if you have a healthy CD-Lam and George Pickens now is the number two versus trying to throw anybody they could.

Brandon washed cooks. Jalen Tolbert never became a thing. Cavant to Turpin. That's funny that we both went to Turpin on that one. I was like, now you have Pickens as the number two. If you're looking for that, now I think Ferguson, you go back to addition, or, subtraction by addition. I think Ferguson's kind of a loser here is that, but all that being said is that I think Dak Prescott is like similar to CJ Stroud and I'm going to take a

quarterback in that 20 range that is going to have supreme value potentially. I think Dak deserves to be in that group. Jake, this was awesome doing this again with you. I know. It's been too long. Bring the athletic fantasy football show to the athletic football show. Great to talk to you, man. Just give our listeners where and what they can find. from you as we start to turn the fantasy spigot on here. Yeah, if you had to fantasy football, basically everything. I'm almost done with the customizable rejection sheet that people seem to love, and I did that so you can say, hey, Jake, I think you're dumb and stupid on this one.

I'm going to change the numbers, and you can see how it does. Automatically updates the rankings for you and for your scoring system. And the current just finishing up the breakout quarterbacks, which will be breakout quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends for next year. And then before you know it, July is here and the draft kit is out. So it's right around the corner. And when you say that people can change that what you're talking about is to use an example that we were just talking about the show.

Someone out there thinks these guys don't know what they're talking about. Christian Kirk's going to be second on targets in Houston. So they can change Christian Kirk's target share to fit what they think is going to happen and see what that does to your projections. 100%. And it's a lot of fun. And I think that people keep telling me this is how I won the league. I was like, hopefully it's on the numbers I got you to start with.

And then you tweak the little bit, not too much. because if you tweak like 50%, then maybe I don't know, I shouldn't have my job. Hey, it's your IP, no matter what. So it rests on that. Jake Sealy, thanks so much for being with us on the athletic football show. And thank you to all of you out there for listening to us on the athletic football show. We got one more show for you this week. Derek Classen will be back joined by old friend Deonté Lee from the ringer to talk through breakout defensive players that they expect to see in this 2025 season.

And then, as I said, at the top of the show, Robert Mays, back from vacation. back with us next week. We get back to our standard four episode per week schedule then. Until then, thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to you soon.