The Fumblerooski Podcast - Tomorrow's Playmakers -Ep 443 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Which running back prospects are the best in the 2026 NFL Draft? Which wide receiver prospects are currently flying under the radar? Adam Wright and CJ Medeiros discuss!

The NFL draft in 2026 is less than a week away, and we finish up our draft preview based on the positions, running backs, and wide receivers. I'm Adam Wright. You're listening to the Fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the staff sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both. sides. Welcome to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with

C.J. Medeiros. So the NFL draft is less than a week away as you guys are listening to this on Friday. And so it starts on Thursday, April 23rd and goes through the 25th. And it's in Pittsburgh this year, which is a bit unusual, but it's a nice little change of pace. It seems like it's almost always in either Chicago or Indianapolis or somewhere different. Now it's in Pittsburgh. But we are going to start off on going through two skill positions on the offensive side of the ball. What we're going to hit on is the running back position and wide receivers.

I would say both of these are intriguing as far as overall classes go. in their own ways. So the running back position, correct me if I'm wrong, C.J. It doesn't really, I would say, have very much depth, but it does have that one guy who's being picked way up there. As far as the wide receivers go, it's a bit of the opposite, right? You have a lot of depth, but there isn't that one guy who's just the best of all of them who's unequivocally the guy that is the consensus number one. There's a lot of guys who I like out of the wide receivers. And there are some pieces in the running back class, but CJ, give me your overall thoughts on

these two positions before we dive into them in a more precise level. So the running backs, this whole class is basically just one guy. It's Notre Dame's Jeremiah Love. He stands head and shoulders above the rest. It's kind of like Fernando Mendoza and the QB. class, which we talked about a few weeks ago, where it's just him and then everyone else. And I don't see another running back going in the first round. It's going to be love.

I mean, there are some whispers that maybe Judarian Price goes number 32 to Seattle, but I won't believe it until it happens personally. But this isn't a terrible running back class, honestly. You know, you got guys like, like I said, the aforementioned Daryon Price. There's Jonah Coleman, Mike Washington, Jr., Nicholas Singleton, but I don't really have day one grades on any of them. Price is probably going to go round two, but I don't see anyone else going until round three. As for the wide receivers, it's a little more evened out.

Obviously, you got the big three of Jordan Tyson, Carnel Tate, and Mackayah Lemon. Although in the final week of the draft, it's looking more like Carnell Tate is starting to pull away as the wide receiver won. as Tyson and especially Lemon, their draft stocks been slipping a bit. But even outside of them, there are other people that have had their name thrown in the first round, guys like Casey Concepciona at Texas A&M, Omar Cooper Jr. out of Indiana and Denzel Boston out of Washington. So yeah, this receiver class is actually better than I thought it was going to be going into the year.

But there aren't any elite, like, transcendent prospects. All right. So there you have it. There's our whole episode for today in four minutes. We've covered every single prospect of the entire draft. So we're all set. That's it. Of course, messing around. Looking for, okay, let's dive deep in depth about, I mean, let's cut out all the other guys and hit on a, tell me a little bit more in depth. about Jeremiah Love and then give me one sleeper player since it's really Jeremiah Love and everybody else. Give me one or two sleeper guys who you think could truly be elite players or even just strong starters in the NFL. Yeah. So Jeremiah Love at running back. He's got the pretty solid

running back bill that I feel like you would want, you know, six feet to 12. But what I love about Jeremiah Love is his 4-3-640. And I know, you know, we tend to overhype it a bit, but for a running back, that's huge. He has the home run speed that you want. He has outstanding balance. And on top of that, one of my favorite things about him, by far, is that he is a true bona fide dual threat back. He's not a running back who can catch. He is a running back that you have to respect coming out of the backfield. to catch the ball. He's got natural ball tracking ability as well.

We even seen him snagged some really nice contested catches during his time at Notre Dame. And get this. The ball security is immaculate. One career fumble across 433 career carries, and he didn't lose it either. So that's obviously something you're going to drool over if you're an OC. And on top of that, well, he's not the best. Pass protector, I do think that he at least is willing to step up and take on blitzers with some of his biggest growth actually coming in his past protection last season. And as far as running back to could go high up go, I don't quite put him in that same tier as I would put guys like Bejan Robinson and Saquan Barkley in their respective drafts, but he's a solid tier below.

Well, then again, this isn't like the greatest draft class. so maybe he's being inflated a tiny bit. But either way, he's very legit, and he is one of the only two true, like, blue-chip prospects in this draft. The other one being Caleb Downs, we talked about a few episodes ago. The only real weaknesses is I said he's not the best past protector. I mean, at least he's willing, but he still has a lot to grow there. And some people think he might need to put on a few more pounds of the NFL level.

I mentioned he's 212. some would like to see him be at minimum 220, but I'm sure once you get to the NFL, all that changes. So I don't think it's going to be quite the end of the world. But outside of that, that's pretty much it. He's one of the cleanest prospects in this entire draft, and he's understandably number one.

Yeah, and it seems like Jeremiah love, the closer that we get to the draft, the more momentum that builds up for this guy to really, be a top 10 pick and there's plenty of players uh rather plenty of teams out there that are looking for that top of running back i mean um what does washington have they have a top 10 pick in this draft i could easily see that team being a oh oh the commanders yeah they have a seven yeah i can easily see that team uh being one that that goes out and get and gets a jeremiah love and there's plenty others out there that would be a good,

good landing spot for him. And look, scarcity drives demand. So this is all great stuff for Jeremiah Love, who's just sitting, you know, he's sitting pretty and just looking for the team that wants them the most. And there's plenty of them.

Give me one prospect or two that you think out of this running back class has the highest chance of being a bust. Give me a couple that could be traps for a team that is looking for a running back. This isn't really the biggest, you know, or the deepest running back class, but honestly,

the one when you talk about bust, the screams bust to me, by far, is Emmett Johnson out of Nebraska. Don't get me wrong. I think he's a good prospect, but nothing about him blows me away. He's 510-202, a little undersized,

but I don't really think that matters all that much, but it's the way he tests. 45640 is a running batch, running badge plays him squarely in the 50th percentile, only in the 44th percentile with his 429-second shuttle drill, his 10-yard split being 1.5 seconds, which plays him in the 51st percentile. He's in the 10th percentile with a three-cone drill as well with a 7.3-second three-cone drill. So it's one of those things where I think he's a good college running back, emphasis on college.

I don't know if that's going to translate to the league, especially since he's not really a physical specimen. You know, he's not the most athletic guy. There's a ceiling to his game, as I'll say. Okay. So there's him. Cool. And I'm trying to bring in the other one that I'm kind of iffy on, but for some reason,

my computer is frozen. That's awesome. But all jokes aside, the other one that I'm not crazy about is Kentucky's Seth McGowan. So McGowan, you know, he's, he's, actually a good bill for running back six feet 223. It's just he's a solid running back, but I think his, a lot of people like him, but I think his ceiling of the league is a complimentary piece. If he's your RB1, I'm not really crazy about it. Even at the college level, and granted he was playing SEC ball, but he's just not.

I mean, forget what I said about Emmett Johnson there out of Nebraska, but McGowan is just not explosive. He has no wiggle. He has no twitch in his game like at all. There's just, I believe he only had like one run of 20 or more yards in the entire 25 season. And he had very few 10 plus carries also. And even worse, he had five fumbles over the past two college seasons. And that is a number that I think coaches are going to hate. And he, in this draft, is one of the worst rated pass blocking backs as well. So, yeah, I would, if I were a team, I'd steer clear McGowan, too. All right.

So it seems like there's a lot of prospects out there as far as the running backs go that could very easily be busts, but there's not really many out there that, you know, are slam dunks to pan out or even close, which, you know, this appears to be a bad year to need a running back. All right. We're going to step aside quick. And next, we're going to touch on the wide receiver group. That one's, I think this is a very deep class. A lot of different intriguing prospects.

A lot of them with the, I would say almost every one of the top. prospects, which there's a lot of them. With upside to be a wide receiver one, but it's a matter of which ones actually pan out. Because I don't think there's any slam dunks either. That's next. This is the Fumbaruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet,

but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fomberuski podcast as I just got done gulping some water. We are touching on the wide receivers now out of the 2026 class. There's a lot of intriguing ones.

Top to really early in the draft where you have Carnell Tate and Jordan Tyson. And then there's also in the middle portion with Denzel Boston. I like Chris Brasel. That's a kid who the more I look at, the more I like. Casey Concepcion. A lot of intriguing prospects. I'm not quite sure which ones are going to pan out. Top to bottom.

They really all have their own sort of ups and downs. And any one of these guys could blow up and any one of them could also be massive busts. But CJ. give me your overall thoughts on, yeah, take me through them. So this wide receiver class, as mentioned, is pretty contentious for the top dog, but the ceiling is kind of iffy. I think the floor is solid for a lot of these guys, but the ceiling is not the highest.

So there's three names that everyone is looking out for. Ohio State's Carnell Tate, Arizona State's Jordan Tyson, and USC's Mackayle Lemon, with most people, myself included, having Carnell Tate as their number one of the three. Tate, I think he's got a good build at wide receiver. Maybe he's a little slender for some. He's 6-2-192. He's, but he runs a 4-5-340, and that, top-line speed really doesn't wow coaches, of course.

but what I like about him is the football IQ. His route running is crisp, and he always knows how to come down with the football. He effortlessly high points to football. He masses them, as it says, as the saying says. He knows how sets up his routes. He doesn't really suffer from concentration drops that much. And even though he's not the most athletic guy,

he always figures out how to make the big play. obviously for weaknesses, you know, the 40 time isn't ideal. But he did miss three games last season with a calf strain. So maybe that's something to watch out for. Although he is fine now, but it's still something that a lot of coaches might be a little squirrely about, especially for a wide receiver. Moving on to Arizona State's Jordan Tyson. You know, once again, kind of in the same.

neighborhood is Tate. 6-2-203. He's a human highlight reel. He snags in some of the most amazing catches that I've seen in college football. No matter what happens, he gets open. He is a 67% success rate, I believe, on contested catches. So what does that tell you? He knows how to win those 50-50 balls.

And he had three fourth quarter touchdowns last season as well, meaning he's got that dog in him. The only reason that he is not wide receiver one in this draft, injuries. He's had two really bad knee injuries, or two really bad injuries, period. One to his knee and one to his collarbone across his collegiate career. And to this day, as we speak right now, at least during the pre-draft process, he still allegedly has a lingering hamstring problem. And so team doc, and it literally says on NFL draft buzz, and I quote,

team doctors are going to earn their money with this one. In fact, he didn't go to the, or he skipped the combine and Arizona's Pro Day with the hamstring injury. So Jordan Tyson, I think, is some really good upside. He's one of those good highlight reel type receivers. But good God, he just, I don't know what it is. he cannot stay healthy. And then, of course, there's Mackay Lemon from USC. He's another one where he doesn't have the top flight speed that everybody would love. He has a 4-540, which that's just, that's just been a running theme across all three of the top receivers.

But the issue with him is that he's 511, 192, and many coaches see him solely as a slot guy. His hand size in the 21st percentile, his arm lengths in the 22nd, his wingspans in the 15th. Everything about his game, his build, his speed, his everything screams slot receiver. And look, his size is what it is, and his role is going to be what it is. He definitely has a ceiling. But I like that he doesn't let that hamper him. He has a savant level understanding of leverage. He works corners very well, and his hands are super reliable, and his cuts are crisp, his brakes are sharp.

He effortlessly finds soft spots in the zone. He knows the defense better than some of the defenders do. So he's got a high football IQ and elite route running, which he's going to need to, you know, make up for his obvious shortcomings in the physicality department. Yeah. And as far as as as as as far as McKay Lemon goes, I think what I think my biggest reservation is he is undersized. So he will be limited to being a slot receiver, even if he does pan out. But usually if you're undersized, you really have to make up for it in other areas. And if he has a 4-5-40, 4-5-flat, yes. Yes, that's a little lackluster.

And it scares me a little bit. Because, again, you should be able to make up for that lack of size in other areas. And there's only so much that just simply quickness can do, the explosiveness. Because then you're still going to get run down if you don't have that speed. So it doesn't have the speed. He doesn't have the size. If you remember that interview during the combine, I don't know if the guy's all there. I mean.

Yeah, that's another problem, too. He apparently really bombed his pre-draft interviews. Like, coaches were not impressed with it at all. We don't know what was said. We don't know what happened. Both reports are to be believed. Apparently, he just doesn't interview well. I mean, he bombed his public interviews.

If you just watch him. That guy did not look like he was. was all there. And I mean, it seems like it's all name recognition right now, the media. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is the type of player that could slide. He could fall a little bit in this draft. The more I look at Carnell Tate, the more I really like him, though. And I know he doesn't have the best of speed. But again, every other piece of it, he is elite at. And the speed, what does he run a 4-5, 4-6?

453 specifically. Right. You know who else ran a 4-5? Jackson Smith and Jigba. So I just don't think you'd need it that badly. I know I just got done trashing Mackay Lemon over it, But it's still important. It's kind of important. And at least Carnell Tate is elite at everything else. That's my point. With Carnell Tate, if he runs a four, five, 40, but he can do everything else on an elite level, I think we have a wide receiver one.

He kind of reminds me a little bit of names escaping me from last year, Teteroa McMillan, guy who we weren't high. on because of the lack of speed, but everything else he did very well. And he turned into a wide receiver one, at least this year. He looks pretty good. So maybe we're seeing a bit of a trend where players who have the size, who are great at everything else, but not quite have the speed, you know, pan out a little more than we thought. I know that Keon Coleman didn't. but we saw it from McMillan. We saw it from the Quentin Johnson somewhat. So I don't know.

Maybe there's a bit of a trend where we don't need speed quite as much as we once did out of wide receivers. And Jordan Tyson, I think, is the safest bet. I know his injury issues are there. but he is young so he does have time to figure it out. And if the only thing that's keeping him from being the number one receiver is injuries, that's something that can very, very easily with professional training and strength and conditioning could very easily be fixed. I'm not saying it will, but if that's the only issue with him for a young kid,

I don't know. I think that's something that can be fixed. So tell me a little bit about, because I really like Chris Brasel, and I'll give you my analysis, and then I can bounce that off of you. Great size, elite speed, elite separation. The only two issues that he has overall is injury concerns. he does have a tendency to be he is a little as far as his frame goes i like his height but his frame it's a little slender and he has some he has some uh he has a tendency to have some concentration

drops i think the the concentration drops can be coached out of him i think with with better training and conditioning he can really uh build up his frame and he won't be as much of an injury issue I like Chris Brasel. I think he's the most underrated player in this draft, but you tell me a little bit. Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. I will tell you, though, I don't understand why he's not a first round prospect. If it's really the weight and the concentration drops are a problem, and I guess like maybe the shoulder injury too, then why is that hurting Jordan Tyson as much?

Because consider this. He's 6-4-198. That's a bit of, those are some interesting proportions. Like I said, he can bulk up at the next level. Players do that all the time. Another thing coaches don't like, apparently, is his 9-inch hand size, which puts him squarely in the 31st percentile. But they said the same thing about Jamar Chase, and he turned out okay. But what I do like is his 80-inch wingspan, which puts him, I believe, in the 88th percentile as well for receivers.

And that 43740 just is great. He's got the speed. He's got the quickness. He has the ability to high point the ball. has an insane catch radius. He gets off his routes fast. His sideline catches are things of beauty. He has insane body control. So outside of the concentration drops, I think we're looking at a pretty polished receiver. But part of me feels like maybe if he was playing for like Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, not like Tennessee, he probably might be a little bit higher on a lot of people's

boards. Yeah. And, I mean, like I said, I think the injuries aren't an issue for me with Jordan Tyson. But it certainly has hit Chris Brassel a little bit. And yeah, maybe it is a bit of a school bias. You know, wide receivers that come out of specific schools, they have, if they're elite, they have a better chance of going higher up in drafts, right? Roma Dunezay went to Washington. And Marvin Harrison Jr. went to Ohio State.

Marvin Harrison Jr. was drafted fourth overall a few picks ahead because Ohio State and also was at the time considered a generational wide receiver prospect who there's a lot to be desired there. And Roma Dunezay, so far from what I have seen, I think he's been a little better than Marvin Harrison Jr. And I wonder if the players were swapped, would we be seeing the same results if one was on a different, on the other school? Right. And Marvin Harrison Jr., his name is Marvin Harrison Jr., right? So there's that. He's the son of a Hall of Fame player. but I'm not quite sure how much that alone is going to make a difference

because we've been seeing a little nepotism that has not really come to fruition as far as being drafted high. Yeah. Specifically last season with a certain player. You know, so I'm not quite sure. I definitely think there is a little bit of a school bias. I think that's the point that I'm making there. Yeah.

There is one more thing, though, that I think we need to talk about as far as school bias goes. Tennessee wide receivers are starting to get the same reputation as Ohio State quarterbacks, especially when the two most notable Tennessee wide receivers in recent vintage were Cedric Tillman and Jalen Hyatt. So they're kind of starting to fall into that group of, oh, this school, you know, they pump them out, but it's really more so quantity over quality. Yeah. And you have play, every year it seems like there's somebody who's a top prospect

out of that school, and it seems like every single year they end up being a bust. So not quite sure how that's going to get sorted out. I think wide receiver is a little wide receiver is a little more independent of the school as far as results go. Just because when you're a quarterback, there's a lot of different systemic offensive scheme things that go on. Whereas if you're a wide receiver, it's a little more independent and it has more to do with yourself. That's why a lot of wide receivers tend to be selfish. It's more so about their stats.

When they're getting the ball, what happens? You run your routes. You obviously have your offensive system that you're part of, right? But it's not quite, you're not the centerpiece of the entire offense like the quarterback is. So, you know, you have Ohio State. That's a more developmental issue with quarterbacks, whereas if you're a wide receiver, not quite the same thing. Yeah, absolutely.

I agree with you 110%. All right. I think we've covered most of the real top prospects, but do you have any other thoughts before the end of the show? Not really. I mean, I could just go through my top 10 at each position real quick if you want, just like fire them off just because. Sure, why not?

For running backs, obviously, number one is Jeremiah Love out of Notre Dame. My number two is The Robin 2 is Batman from Notre Dame, Judarian Price. But number three is Jonah Coleman from Washington. Number four, Nicholas Singleton from Penn State. Number five, Mike Washington, Jr. from Arkansas. Number six, Ketron Allen from Penn State. Number nine, Demand Claiborne, or number eight, sorry. It is Clayburn, or Demand Claiborne from Lake Forest.

Then number nine is Emmett Johnson from Nebraska. And number 10 is Jamari Taylor from Virginia. Wide receivers. Number one is Carnell Tate from Ohio State. Number two is Jordan Tyson from Arizona State. Number three, Mackay Lemon from USC. Number four, Casey Concepcion from Texas A&M. This might be a little spicy.

But number five is Chris Brasel II from Tennessee. Six, Omar Cooper Jr. from Indiana. seven, Denzel Boston from Washington, eight, Zachariah Branch from Georgia, number nine, Chris Bell from Louisville, and then my number 10 is Jeremy Bernard from Alabama. I like the poll with Chris Bell, and I feel like that's a player who's knocking at the door at 10,

or at the top five, if he didn't get injured. Absolutely. And another player who's really between, the statistics, between his size and frame, his speed, all of those things really were first round worthy. And I wonder if that's a player who's even going to go round two. It's very possible, late round two. Late round two, even three. That's a player with, that's a player worth taking a flyer on. and a player who I really liked before he tore up his knee.

Yeah, understandably so. Absolutely. All right. Any other thoughts before we on the show tonight? No, no. I'm all good over here. We got our mock draft next episode, though. That's going to be fun.

Yeah, absolutely. Be sure to tune into our mock draft episode. We've done that every year where we give you exactly, how the order of the first round is going to go. It goes exactly how you would expect for every single mock draft that's ever been created in the history of mock drafts between podcasters and so-called experts. As you know, the NFL draft is a bit of a crapshoot, but we're going to give it our best shot and give you exactly who we think is going to go in the first round and the exact order

of how it's going to happen. But that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have all our episodes on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, IHeard Radio, Google Podcast, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram at Fumble Ruski underscore podcast to keep up with our coverage in the latest on the NFL. Be sure to follow our YouTube channel as well, Fumble Ruski podcast. Otherwise, we'll see you next week over and out.