2025's Biggest Surprises and Disappointments | Fantasy Focus 🏈

Summary

Fantasy Focus Football Podcast Summary

Episode: 2025’s Biggest Surprises and Disappointments
Date: December 31, 2025
Hosts: Field Yates, Daniel Dopp, Mike Clay

Overview

In this jam-packed end-of-season episode, the Fantasy Focus Football crew reflects on the 2025 fantasy football season—handing out “surprise” and “disappointment” awards, analyzing rookie impacts, previewing the 2026 draft class, and sharing their personal fantasy resolutions. The tone is equal parts playful banter and deep, statistical insight, making for an episode that’s both informative for serious players and welcoming to newcomers.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Week 17 Recap & League Results

[02:25–06:07]

• Mike Clay is crowned the Fantasy Focus League Champion, overcoming notable opposition in the championship game.
  • His season included a mid-season Amon-Ra St. Brown trade and playoff heroics from Bijan Robinson.
  • Mike describes his season as:

    "Kind of hanging around the wild card mix... I made a huge trade for Amon-Ra St. Brown. Then he got hurt, but then he came up strong down the stretch for me." (04:07)

• The league’s “Gridiron Gauntlet” champion is “Chef Dan Drake,” who rode smart trading and a core including Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Puka Nacua, and Chris Olave.

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2. 2025’s Biggest Surprises

[14:03–21:27]
Each host selects one player as their biggest surprise of the season.

Field Yates: Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JSN)

• JSN leaps from “good prospect” to “mega-stardom,” considered for 1st overall in 2026 drafts.
  • "16.2 fantasy points in 14 of his 16 games... JSN has altered his dynasty value tremendously." (14:14)
  • At 24, he’s the youngest in next year’s projected top-nine WRs.

Mike Clay: Trevor Lawrence

• Lawrence transitions from a fringe QB1 to “elite league-winner” in the second half.
  • "22.2 fantasy points per game since week five... he’s finally made that leap." (17:25)
  • Overcame league-leading 32 dropped passes, and a depleted supporting cast.

Daniel Dopp: Javonte Williams

• Signed for pennies, Williams outperformed ADP (drafted RB114, finishes top-10).
  • "You got a guy in the 10th, 11th, 12th round that became a basic must-start." (19:19)
  • Only non-QB drafted outside the top-100 to finish top-10 at his position.

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3. 2025’s Biggest Disappointments

[21:27–28:04]

Field Yates: Lamar Jackson

• Early season promise evaporated with under-15 fantasy points in five of his last six games.
  • "You can be a league loser... in weeks 10 through 17, and that's basically what Lamar has been." (22:30)

Mike Clay: Brian Thomas Jr.

• After being a top-five rookie WR in 2024, he slumps badly:
  • "Only two games over 12 fantasy points... fantasy points/game plummeted... he’s done [17+] just five times in 22 games with Trevor Lawrence." (23:19)

Daniel Dopp: Justin Jefferson

• Couldn’t bench him due to draft capital—but he rarely delivered.
  • "He just kept... you were beating your head against a wall week after week after week." (26:59)
  • Only one 20-point week; season derailed by poor QB play post-Kirk Cousins.

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4. Rookie Report Card: First-Year QBs & WRs

QBs [28:04–33:42] | WRs [36:14–41:11]

Quarterbacks

• Cam Ward: Graded around C/D – Not startable, but infrastructure was dysfunctional.
  • "I went in with zero expectations and I think he delivered on the zero expectations." (29:11)
• Jackson Dart: Solid A–/B. Once he started, he was a weekly top-10 upside play.
  • "He showed us all the things that he can do... a near top 10 QB when starting." (30:32)
  • 7 top-10 finishes; 9 rushing TDs as a rookie ([31:00]).

Wide Receivers

• Travis Hunter: Incomplete/Fail – Only one big fantasy week before injury; tough schedule, played out of position early.
• Tetairoa McMillan & Emeka Egbuka: B range – Showed flashes, mostly streaky.
• Matthew Golden: F/D – Never topped 13.2 points, never became “startable.”

Notable Quote (on Travis Hunter):

"He might have got an A from us had he finished the season because that last game… he had 86% of the snaps and 13 targets in that game." – Mike Clay ([39:34])

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5. 2026 Draft Class Prospects

WRs [42:52–44:36] | RBs [44:38–54:38]

• WRs: Field forecasts four high-end first-rounders (Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson, Makai Lemon, Denzel Boston); different styles, two with high-end WR1 upside.
  • "All four of those guys I think are true, like legitimate first-round WR talents." (43:57)
• RBs: Ashton Jeanty gets B minus/B grades—solid usage but never truly a game-changer on a bad team; Omarion Hampton also finished in the RB2 range post-injury.

On 2026 Rookie RB Jeremiah Love:

"There is a case for him as the best football player in the entire 2026 draft class… he is a special talent." – Field Yates ([53:04])

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6. Fantasy Resolutions for 2026

[55:16–62:43]

• Daniel: Transition all leagues to victory points format; add a second IR spot; never trust Packers WRs again.
• Mike: Same Packers WR distaste; notes historical pain of trusting Christian Watson and others.
  • "It's just an ongoing trend with Packers receivers. Can't get them right." (59:36)
• Field: Fix Minnesota's QB situation for Justin Jefferson; emphasize tier-based drafting over positional “must haves.”
  • "We can't have the greatness of Justin Jefferson... and it's all-time greatness... with this QB situation." (60:06)

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7. Mailbag (Quick Questions & Listener Shoutouts)

[64:05–64:31]

• Listeners thank the show for title-winning advice—one survived a nerve-wracking Monday night thanks to Kyle Pitts going under his projection.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On evaluating rookies:
  “...sometimes, you have to get worse first... and [the Titans] have a chance to get a step forward.” – Field Yates ([29:49])
• Reflecting on recency bias but season-long disappointment:
  “You can't be a league winner in weeks one through four. You can be a league loser though, in weeks 10 through 17.” – Field Yates ([22:30])
• On Christian McCaffrey’s 2026 draft value:
  “There’s no case against Christian McCaffrey going into next year other than the fact that he’s going to be 30 and he has an injury history.” – Field Yates ([52:17])
• On fantasy philosophy:
  “Let’s think in tiers next year when we get into the draft conversation a little more...” – Field Yates ([61:09])

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Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [02:25] – Fantasy Focus League Recap, Trophy Presentation to Mike Clay
• [06:07] – Chef Dan Drake, Gridiron Gauntlet Recap
• [14:03] – 2025’s Biggest Surprises
• [21:27] – 2025’s Biggest Disappointments
• [28:04] – Rookie QB Grades
• [36:14] – Rookie WR Grades
• [42:52] – 2026 Draft Wide Receivers Preview
• [44:38] – 2026 Draft Running Backs and RB Rookie Reviews
• [55:16] – Fantasy Resolutions and League Format Talk
• [64:05] – Audience Shoutouts and Mailbag
• [65:15] – Wrap-up / Upcoming Awards Show Tease

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a must-listen for fantasy managers preparing for 2026 and all who want honest, data-driven evaluation of rising stars and busts. The hosts blend sharp stats, league anecdotes, and an engaged, welcoming community focus so everyone—rookie or veteran—feels included and better equipped for next fantasy season.

Transcript

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Field Yates]

Let's drive.

[Daniel Doppelt]

You're in the whole 6010 Focus Fantasy Fantasy Focus what's good friends and welcome into Fantasy Focused Football. Two shows in a row, my friend.

[Field Yates]

Need me to burp you?

[Mike Clay]

You were totally fine.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I was good until we started to do this. Anyways, welcome into Fantasy Focused Football presented by Wingstop alongside Mike Clay and Phil Jates. My name is Daniel doppelganger. Week 17 is officially in the books. Most of your championships have been decided. If you're a sicko that plays into week 18, we'll talk with you in a little bit. However, very excited to be able to have you guys here. How you doing today?

[Field Yates]

Doing awesome. I am very excited for New year. Yes. Always lots of possibilities within the new year. I also just want to say thank you because you just alluded to those people correctly. If you are one of the sickos that's still listening or watching, shout out to you. And if you're one of those people that's watching not because you have fantasy matchups to be determined, all the more love to you because it takes a special kind of dedication to be with us right now. We absolutely are so grateful for that.

[Mike Clay]

These are going to be fun shows we have today and Friday and we're doing awards and talking about, you know, recapping a lot of the season, looking forward to next year. So this, you know, it's always sad when the season winds down. But also I'm, I'm excited. Like I already put out I told you guys before the show. Kind of a first initial run of ranks for next year, which is always a fun exercise. I have to tune these before we publish them in a few days. But it's always fun to kind of look ahead to the next season.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Always nice to be able to look ahead and see what we are going to be able to do in 2026. First and foremost though, I want to give a couple of quick shout outs to our friends over at trophy smack katanova trophy smack.com use the promo code focus10. If you need something for your league. Someone won a championship, you want to grab a belt, go out there and make that happen?

[Mike Clay]

I would love to have a belt like that.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Well, we'll talk about it in just a minute.

[Field Yates]

You have to do something.

[Daniel Doppelt]

You've got to do something good in order to make that happen, Mike. So that's. That's part of the problem.

[Field Yates]

I got to win a fantasy champion.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Speaking of being good, our buddy Eric Mo Moody back in chat after being gone for a couple days. So go hang out with our buddy Eric Moody. Follow him on social media at Eric and Moody. Ask him all of the questions. And guys, let's dive into a couple of things here because you did talk about championships. We do only play through week 17. There are some leagues that go through week 18, as we had discussed. However, our fantasy focus league goes through week 17. And it is with my reluctant hosting duties that I need to say that Mike Clay won the fantasy.

[Mike Clay]

What? I did.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Let's go.

[Field Yates]

Way to go, Michael.

[Mike Clay]

No way. I'm not prepared. I didn't bring notes. I had no idea. So wait, you really don't surprise to me.

[Daniel Doppelt]

This belt is going to be yours.

[Mike Clay]

I think I manage my teams.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That's the. That is yours, Michael.

[Mike Clay]

Go ahead. Oh, I can actually keep this?

[Daniel Doppelt]

Sure.

[Field Yates]

I mean, is that the 2025? You owned it.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

[Daniel Doppelt]

ESPN fantasy vocals champion. That's it. This is our.

[Mike Clay]

I'll take it.

[Field Yates]

I'm not.

[Mike Clay]

Thank you very much. Shout out.

[Field Yates]

Trophy smack. Tell us about the team, Mike. Let's hear about it. You took down Jamar Magedon, who is.

[Daniel Doppelt]

You're not going to be able to do that.

[Field Yates]

That's our producer, Tyler. Right.

[Mike Clay]

Jamargeddon.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That is Zach.

[Field Yates]

Producer Zach. My apologies there. And it really seems like this one came down to, well, I was going to say the two receivers on Zach's team that kind of just forgot to show up. DJ Moore and Jalen Waddle Waddle got hurt, of course. But Mike, you got yourself. I got some old time day for Bijan Robinson in a week in which Taysom Hill, Cameron Dicker, the kicker lad McConkey and Michael Carter combined for about 13 total points.

[Mike Clay]

Wow. No doubt about it. I had a pretty good hold on it going into. It was basically a toss up or it was close. And I had Bijan, he had Kyron Williams going into Monday Night Football. So I basically just need Bijan outscore Kyron and that's exactly what happened. But he, you're right, he put up some big point total and offset. I put up a big point total and offset some duds from the week. But yeah, this was one of those where, you know, sometimes you have a team and it's just really strong all year long. This was not that. I was kind of hanging around the wild card mix all season long. I made a huge trade, we talked about it on the show for a Monroe. A Monroe St. Brown. And then he got hurt the very last game.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

But then he came up strong down the stretch for me and that deal worked out. So yeah, that was one of them.

[Field Yates]

Again, do you recall who you traded away?

[Mike Clay]

I traded Bucky in that deal. Jacobe Myers and. And Tet.

[Field Yates]

Oh, Tet.

[Mike Clay]

And I got back RJ Harvey which worked out, and someone else that I. I think it was probably. No, no, no. It was like a borderline. Sorry, I can't remember who it was.

[Daniel Doppelt]

But getting RJ Harvey and Aman Ross St. Brown, they both helped you down the stretch a little bit.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, came together well. But yeah, I streamed quarterback all year, Caleb Jackson dart. I was just, you know, was kind as you saw. Tight end was always a work in progress. I went taste mill and he did not cost me in this one. He did cost me in another big league with the FF now league which I'm still. Had I not started him, I would have won that one. So I'm still kicking myself for that. But worked out in this one. So you know, it feels good to just kind of have to keep working waivers.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Absolutely.

[Mike Clay]

And get there and get to the championship and then get it done. So proud of this.

[Field Yates]

I don't know if maybe Tyler. Sorry to. If I'm. If I'm breaking news on your behalf a little bit too soon. My apologies here. But I don't know if Tyler has already told you that as a result of winning the fantasy Focus league, you get the entire next season off. Oh, wow.

[Mike Clay]

No way. That's awesome. You don't have paid leave or unpaid leave?

[Field Yates]

Oh, this will be unpaid.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, unpaid.

[Field Yates]

America's preference is what we're describing it as.

[Mike Clay]

I get that. I mean that's worth a year's salary.

[Daniel Doppelt]

It seems like it. Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

It was a great week to be able to have Caleb Williams as your quarterback as well. Our buddy Mackenzie Kramer had him in a league that he did pretty well in. So shout out to that guy as well.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

But Mike Clay wasn't the only winner this weekend. Shout out to Chef Dan Drake. He was on winning the gridiron Gauntlet League. Unbelievable. Let's check out this. That's right. Very first one. This is who Chef Drake had on their squad in order to win the Gridiron Gauntlet championship. Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, James Cook with Jackson Smith and Jigba, Chris Olave, Trey McBride and Puka Nakua.

[Field Yates]

Wow.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Seahawks defense. Eddie Pinero is the kicker. And then on their bench, Trevor Lawrence, who was hot down the stretch. Both Trevor Lawrence and Brock Purdy. There was no wrong answer in the playoffs. Bo Nicks and Baker Mayfield, plus DJ Moore, Jacobe Myers and Chris Rodriguez. They traded to get Puka Nukua. We found out earlier in this. Looking at the league they had originally Roma Dun and Drake London. Traded those two for Pukakunukua. Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Drafted incredibly well. Good trade. Shout out to Chef Drake. Everything is coming up Drake these days. Actually, I can't speak to the rapper and what he's up to of late, but between Chef Drake and Drake May.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That's right.

[Mike Clay]

All things are coming right now.

[Field Yates]

If you guys had to cast your vote and none of us are one of the voters, would you. Do you think it's okay? Did you have a vote? If you were to vote Matthew Stafford or Drake May, who would you give the edge to?

[Daniel Doppelt]

I would vote for Drake May.

[Field Yates]

Okay. Drake May for you.

[Mike Clay]

I'm going to. It's so hard.

[Field Yates]

It's so hard.

[Mike Clay]

I will. Every time I see Drake May, I know they had a light schedule this year, but every time I see him, I'm just like, the guy's just has it. He's so cool under pressure. I think I would give a slight edge that direction, but maybe a little bit of recency bias there because Stafford's been lights out.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Sure.

[Field Yates]

I don't think anybody cares. I don't think anybody should care this much about having a vote that goes one way or the other. For this reason, it's so obvious that not one of them is leaps and bounds ahead of the other one. This is a close call. So I just. If anybody is listening or watching this, listening to or watching this right now and you get super frustrated because these votes are made public. Right. If somebody votes for Drake May and you think it's Matthew Stafford and votes for Matthew Stafford and you think it's Drake May, that's fine. It's the defensible vote this year, as a matter of fact. Like Christian McCaffrey could pique my interest a little bit as a potential MVP Candidate. So this is not one of those years where Peyton manning throws for 55 passing touchdowns and he walks away. And it's close to a unanimous vote. Like, it's a close call this year. Two very deserving quarterbacks field just ask.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Us to plant our flag and then not give a vote himself.

[Field Yates]

That would just happen. I mean, I would lean towards Drake May myself. I think we're all leaning there. That being said, like, lean towards Drake May is different than, like, it's absolutely, unequivocally, Drake May.

[Mike Clay]

By the way, if May had, like, a disappointing year, we'd be like, can we get this guy some targets? Come on. Like, Matt Collins, K Sean Booty, like, fond digs off an acl. Like, get this guy some actual weapons out there. This isn't fair. It's a. You know, he'd be. He'd be great. But he doesn't have the targets because that's what we do with Guy. Like, we'll do that with Cam Ward all off season. Get the guy some targets so we know if he's the real deal. Drake May overcame a lot. I mean, he. I know again, I know the schedule was light, but he came up in big spots. He beat the Bills and that, you know, that first meeting, he did it all. And again, they went to beat the.

[Field Yates]

Bucks when the Bucks were good. Like, I know right now the schedule looks different than at the time, but there were some legit wins there for the Patriots. Dude's 23, insane. He is insane a la Chef Drake. So, by the way, Chef Drake, over the past four weeks, 730.6 points scored. That's a huge. Do the math. That's over 180 per week. 182.5.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Unbelievable shout out to Chef Drake. And the first, as you said, inaugural gridiron gauntlet league. Can't wait to be able to see what we do for that in 2026 as well. All right, let's move on. The fantasy Focus Playoffs might be over, but if you're still fighting for a W in week 18, you're one of those sickos that plays into week 18. We got one more playoff stash for you. Presented by Wingstop Field minister Yates.

[Field Yates]

I gotta say, we actually had a pretty good run on these Wingstop playoff stash. We did just try to finish it off in style. And one thing that's different about week 18 this week and we could get more information later in the week that adjusts my stance on this statement is we don't have like, half of the Playoff teams resting guys.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right.

[Field Yates]

We've only got a couple of teams that seem to be leaning towards rest right now. Those teams include the Packers.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yep.

[Field Yates]

And the Chargers.

[Mike Clay]

Yep.

[Field Yates]

Maybe the Eagles. We'll see from there. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, that's right. We'll see. But the Bills still have a. The problem is the Bills and the Chargers and the Texans all have a pathway to the fifth seed, right? Oh wow. You want the five seed in the AFC because that's either Pittsburgh or Baltimore as opposed to New England, Denver or Jacksonville. I digress. Let's talk about the defense that I have my eyes on this week. It's the Vikings and sorry Daniel, we watched them on Christmas. They are nasty defensively. They had 22 fantasy points. That was the most of any defense. In week 17 did the Vikings and they play the packers who are going to be resting some starters. I don't know if that includes Jordan Love. I don't know if that means it's the Malik Willis show which is scarier than most backup quarterbacks, but it could be Malik Willis throwing to like Bo Melton and Malik Heath. I think Heath might be playing for the Falcons now, but the point stands. It could be a very run heavy get out of this game with no further injuries effort from the Packers. And by the way, the Vikings are available in 57% of leagues, by the way.

[Mike Clay]

Speak. Sorry. Speaking of resting, if you look at the bridge actions, if you're still playing, they're baked in there for the Packers. So I have, I do have Malik Willis in there as a quarterback for now. It might not even be him. So but for now he's in there and I kind of rolled back all the starters so you'll notice a little projections for them. And then same thing with the Chargers. I have them a little bit more aggressive in terms of like maybe we get a quarter or a half out of like someone like lad McConkey or those guys. But Herbert's out and the other starter, Marion Hampton, you'll see buried. So those are the only teams that are affected by that so far. But I'll be monitoring throughout the week.

[Daniel Doppelt]

So maybe Matthew golden gets a full run in this one. Since all the starters are sitting, they.

[Mike Clay]

Might rest him too. Who knows? I don't know.

[Field Yates]

Oh my God.

[Mike Clay]

We'll see.

[Daniel Doppelt]

We'll talk about that. That's a very good one though. Vikings are a great playoff stash in case you need someone here for week eight.

[Field Yates]

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[Daniel Doppelt]

All right, let's move ahead. We want to talk about some of the biggest surprises that happened here in 2025. Michael, Lester, Clay Jr. Field, Minister Yates and I all brought someone to the table Field, I'm going to start with you.

[Field Yates]

My biggest surprise from 2025 was Jaxton Smith and Jigba taking the leap into mega stardom. We all knew he was a good player. We all thought he had a good outlook for this upcoming season. With no TK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett was released. I don't think anybody had Jics, Jackson, Smith and Jigba evolving into a player that and we're going to have more content on 2026 soon enough. Is at least on the radar for the number one pick in all of fantasy football. JSN had 16.2 fantasy points in 14 of his 16 games this year. So a super high floor for JSM with a gigantic ceiling as well A target vacuum. He was awesome. There was no answer for them. There were even some weeks in which Sam Darnold wasn't great and JSN still found a way. There were weeks in the playoffs in which it started really slow for JSN and he still found a way. I'm thinking most notably about that game against the Rams two weeks ago. But JSN has been unbelievable. And if you're talking about players that have altered their dynasty value the most this year, I think JSN is probably on the very short list. He has become. If we're talking about best wide receivers 25 and under in the NFL, I got to check exactly how Jamar Chase is and Puka Nuku is, but it's probably Jar Chase, Puka Nukua, jsn. Justin Jefferson's older than that. But you know, those are the kind of players that we're talking about alongside jsn.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, it's funny you say that because I was just glancing at my initial like top 10 receivers next year and actually let's just say the top nine for the sake of this conversation. And JSN is the youngest in that.

[Field Yates]

Group because he got very young in the NFL.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, he did. But his week one age and I already, I like reset it to week one of next year. So just, you know, for the point, the purpose of ranking these guys ahead. JSN 24, Puka 25, Chase and St. Brown 26. Jefferson in London. Sorry. Lamb and Jefferson 27, London's 25, Nico 27, Rice 26 the next it's the reason I cut it off is because Malik neighbors 23. So okay. But of that group, of that top nine, Jason's the youngest as well. So. And he might be the best of the group.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Unbelievable.

[Field Yates]

Awesome.

[Daniel Doppelt]

We saw him be really good last year too. Like he was I think finish as like wide, maybe a top 10 wide receiver 9. But I don't think even without DK or Tyler Lockett of us saw the ascension that you're talking about. Like we knew he was good, but I didn't know he was going to be this good.

[Field Yates]

The other thing about last year was season long totals can at times be misleading. They sure can. He had some very much volatile weeks last year, whereas I remember, I think it was week two last year they played the Patriots and he had like 13 catches after having like two targets or something ridiculous in week one. So it was much more up and down this year. So consistent, so steady this season.

[Mike Clay]

He's going to be fascinating too because you would expect maybe an improved supporting cast which hurts his target share a little bit. Whereas someone like Pukinakua, if Devonte Adams is retired or gone suddenly, that could he could be just the show like.

[Field Yates]

It'S a Teflon man. I feel like Puka might be the surest thing going into next year.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah. So it's but again that's why it makes a ranking. You know we're going to put them in tears here. We rank these guys exactly. The offseason is going to tell a lot about where these guys settle in.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Who was your biggest surprise at 2025?

[Mike Clay]

Mike My biggest surprise was Trevor Lawrence ascending from where he's been as kind fringe QB1 to any elite league winner in the second half of this season since week five. 22.2 fantasy points per game. He had 17 plus fantasy points in 10 of the 12 games. The exceptions guys, the Texans and The Chargers. The two best teams against quarterbacks this season. Otherwise 17 plus in every game last year when he was healthy averaged 16.1. So it's a six, about six points per game in this hot stretch of the season. It's also up from 2020 and 2023. He just made a big leap this season. He's 6 in fantasy points per game. This will be his first top 10 on a points per game basis in his career.

[Daniel Doppelt]

So he's been.

[Mike Clay]

He's kind of hung around top 10 in attempts and carries. So maybe we should have thought that maybe he can make this leap based on how he uses his legs and his arm. But he finally got over the top and he's dealt with the most drops this year too. Lee Guy, 32 drops. He's overcome that. So I think the Jacoby Myers trade was helpful to get them to. But you know, he did this without having Travis Hunter too. And also Brenton Strange was hurt for a period.

[Field Yates]

DTJ was non factor.

[Mike Clay]

Exactly right. So it's been really impressive to see him finally make that leap. There's always that question like is this just a mediocre player, not that elite level guy that was drafted first overall? Because when he came into the league the expectation was this is the next, you know, superstar in the NFL and he hasn't been there yet. He did show that in the second half and we'll see what they do in the playoffs. But future looks bright as well. Liam Cohen obviously did a great job after what he did with Baker Mayfield. You have Myers under contract. Brian Thomas I don't think is going anywhere. You would hope he'll bounce back next year. Travis Hunter will be healthy next year. Brenton Strange, the running back duo. We'll see if ETN's back, but he'll probably be back along with too next year. So the current looks great. They could surprise him win the super bowl this year and then obviously the future looks good as well.

[Daniel Doppelt]

They looked fantastic this year, especially down the stretch, man. Yeah, Trevor Lawrence was unbelievable as a quarterback on the stretch. My biggest surprise in 2025 was Javante Williams coming on with everything that he did. Javante Williams eight games with 15 or more fantasy points. He started out super hot. Four of his first five games, 19 or more fantasy points. And I know he kind of cooled off down the stretch, but he didn't cool off and become unusable by any chance. Like he was still always an RB2 every time that you looked at him. The reason why he's my biggest surprise is because he was drafted as player 114. He's going to finish as a top 10 running back. He was drafted behind Cooper Cup, Caleb Johnson, Austin Eckler and Jaqui Crosby Merritt. After being drafted as player 114 he will finish total as player 29. So hugely outperforming his ADP and everything that he did. We were all in and we had talked about how we thought that this Cowboys passing game was going to be huge and I think we were all in on that. More of the Dak Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens side of things. We all left Javante Williams mostly on the board and where you were able to get him. You got a guy in the 10th, 11th, 12th round that became a basic must start for you every single week at the running back spot. So Javante Williams I was thrilled with and his first as well top 10 finish at the position.

[Field Yates]

Dude, by the way, we were out. The entire NFL was out. Everyone was one year $3 million contract. So the Cowboys deserve a ton of credit there. It's funny looking back on this Cowboys off season. There was one thing that you guys might remember involves Micah Parsons getting traded to Green Bay and that was like kind of weird and like probably stupid. Everything else they did or not, I mean a lot of things they did besides that were really really solid. George Bacon straight Jake Ferguson extension, the Javonte Williams signing. Some sharp moves there.

[Daniel Doppelt]

One thing that I thought was really cool is he is the only player who was drafted outside the top 100 that finished top 10 at their position. So Javante Williams, wow.

[Mike Clay]

Shout out to be outside the top what?

[Daniel Doppelt]

Top 100 drafted outside the top 100 period. No, no, no, no. Player.

[Mike Clay]

Trevor Lawrence.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right.

[Mike Clay]

Like, I mean, there's other.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. Not quarterback. Because there are guys at quarterback that had done that. Yes.

[Mike Clay]

Gotcha. Gotcha.

[Daniel Doppelt]

But running back, wide receiver. That's like those two positions that had not happened. So, biggest disappointment in 2025.

[Field Yates]

I wonder if my pick was one that you guys had figured out.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I had three names.

[Field Yates]

Okay.

[Daniel Doppelt]

How many do you have? A couple of names you were choosing between, or was it obvious to you?

[Mike Clay]

I thought one really jumped out to me.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Me?

[Field Yates]

Yeah. To me it's Lamar Jackson.

[Mike Clay]

Okay. Okay.

[Field Yates]

But you could have. I guess Mike has somebody.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I guess we'll find out.

[Field Yates]

They're going to as well. And we've. So this has been discussed in prior episodes before. I think that for guys that are drafted with a different level. Well, okay, so let me. Let me rephrase this. If you're a guy who's like, kind of on the borderline of being startable or not entering drafts and, like, we're not quite sure, but you're hoping for the upside, it's much more valuable to get that upside early than to get that upside late.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Because if you get the upside late, there's a chance you've already cut ties with that play. Right. If you're a guy that we're drafting that we expect to be excellent start to finish.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yep.

[Field Yates]

There's much more value in being great in the finish, at the finish than being great to begin the year. Because if you're Lamar Jackson and you start strong, that's awesome. But you can't be a league winner in weeks one through four. You can be a league loser, though, in weeks 10 through 17, and that's basically what Lamar has been. He missed four games due to injury. That's obviously a factor as well. But over the past six games that he's played under 15 fantasy points in five of those last six. So I understand there's a bit of recency bias here. I think Mike might be taking the player that I also considered. I feel like I just been hammering him too much.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

But Lamar Jackson, to me, on the list for most disappointing players, he wears a purple uniform. Mike. Could that be a common thread amongst disappointments?

[Mike Clay]

No.

[Field Yates]

Wow.

[Mike Clay]

Not purple.

[Field Yates]

Okay.

[Mike Clay]

No. I thought. I thought you were actually going to go with this guy, because I know that it was a guy you drafted quite a bit of. Lamar was. Had like a third round ADP this year, maybe fourth. This guy had a second round ADP Brian Thomas Jr. All right. Yeah. Again, this guy was a top five, five fantasy receiver as a rookie. Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Wow.

[Mike Clay]

And he plummeted this year. Second round pick in fantasy guys. He had two games over. 12 fantasy points this season. Two for a second round pick. A guy we expected today can take another leap. Fantasy points per game fall from 16.7 to 10.1. Only two touchdowns this season. Target share dropped from 25 to 19%. Catch rate plummeted from 66 to 52%. And here's something that's very concerning as we look into next year. He's now played 22 career full games with Trevor Lawrence. 22 guys. He's averaging 11.9 fantasy points per game. 22 games with Trevor Lawrence. 17 plus, which is a good number. You feel like a guy of that caliber. Right. Top viewer pick. You get 17. That's kind of what you want, right?

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yes.

[Mike Clay]

He's done that five times in 22 games with Trevor Lawrence. Wow. Not good. I mean, he had that, that Mac Jones run. It hasn't been very good. It hasn't been very good otherwise. So I don't know what to make of that. I don't know if they would consider moving him in the off season or what the relationship is internally, but they do. They resigned Jacoby Myers. They like Parker Washington. You have Travis Hunter coming back. Yeah. You have straight. I mentioned all the good things. Maybe. Maybe it's a surprise.

[Field Yates]

So I wouldn't even call it a surprise at this point because if you could, you could field a roster, a competitive roster if your top three wide receivers are Travis Hunter, Jacoby Myers and Parker Washington.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah. Right.

[Field Yates]

New York Strange was a quality tight end as well.

[Commercial Narrator]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

BTJ and this is a team that obviously is bereft of their first round pick which they traded away last year. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if the team entertains offers for Brian Thomas Jr. Who I do think has a lot of talent and value. Might just need a change of.

[Mike Clay]

Maybe The Eagles trade A.J. brown and then acquire Thomas. I don't think it'd be a one for one, but maybe they maneuver a little bit.

[Daniel Doppelt]

So just so they can not throw the ball to Brian Thomas Jr. We don't want that, Mike.

[Mike Clay]

AJ Brown has been top 10 in targets every year he's with Eagles. That's the argument. I don't understand what they do. He is heavily targeted.

[Field Yates]

Foot there. We can all agree at the very least, Daniel, you're up and you're going to take the player that we probably.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Could I have the Purple people leader that you are speaking of and it is Justin Jefferson. The reason I thought about Brian Thomas Jr. But the reason why I went with Justin Jefferson is because I feel like when you have a first round draft pick, you draft that guy to be the cornerstone of your squad. He is going to be the set it and forget it. They will never come out of your lineup, period. And they will carry you when other guys on their squad have bad weeks. That's who Justin Jefferson has been throughout his career and we drafted him to be that same guy this year. It just didn't work out. We've gone through and I'm not going to say all the numbers because we've talked about it so much on the show unfortunately. But Justin Jefferson was impacted in a major way by his quarterback. The difference for me between Justin Jefferson And Brian Thomas Jr. Is we eventually got to the point that we were okay not starting Brian Thomas Jr. He was on my bench, he wasn't in my starting lineup. We had him ranked outside the top 30 for a number of weeks. We never got to that point with Justin Jefferson because we kept saying we still feel like with who this guy is and he had a couple of really nice matchups down the stretch that we wanted to keep trying to take advantage of and it still never felt like it came to fruition. And so it felt like you just kept. You were beating your head against a wall week after week after week because you're like how do I bench this guy? How do I put Justin Jefferson anywhere other than in my starting lineup? And when you draft a guy 4th overall I just feel like with. Even though we had a couple of nice weeks, he still had a few weeks in there. He wasn't a total dud but it wasn't a lot.

[Field Yates]

Honestly he was.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Let me see what was the best.

[Field Yates]

Wild because I remember I'm like it feels bad thinking about it. His only game with 20 fantasy points was week four against the Steelers. Maybe he's better internationally this year. That was a game played in I think Ireland very Kyle Pitts like that was.

[Mike Clay]

Yes, yes.

[Field Yates]

He had those back to back games with Carson Weds under center where he had over 120 receiving yards. But his last. Let me read this. Ready. Week 10 on 7.7, 11.1, 8.8, 2.4, 4.2, 14.5 and 7.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That's just not Justin Jefferson.

[Mike Clay]

He's going to be a fascinating off season player. If they go into next year with JJ McCarthy. It's going to be like, how do we. Where do we take him? Do we assume it's going to be bad again for him? But also, I don't think Kevin o' Connell and Jefferson and everyone's going to be content going into next year thinking that's going to happen again.

[Daniel Doppelt]

No.

[Mike Clay]

Like they have to have a backup plan or they have to upgrade. They got to. They have to figure it out. You can't have another. Jefferson's going to demand out of there. You just can't. You can't do that.

[Field Yates]

A million percent more to come on that a little bit later on here in the show.

[Daniel Doppelt]

All right, let's dive into a new segment we're going to call Move Over Rook. Talking about some of the rookies that we had, the expectations we had coming into the season and how they turned out. We're looking at first rounders here, specifically those guys. So we'll start at the quarterback spot. We had a couple of them and that was Cam Ward and Jackson Dart. We got a full screen. We're going to throw up and we're going to talk about why we each graded these guys. Interesting to see where everyone else is at. So let's start with Cam Ward, I had a grade of a C. Field had a D. Mike had a C. And then with Jackson Dart, I had an A minus. Field had an A minus and Mike.

[Mike Clay]

Had a B. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like to get an A you have to kind of like play out the whole year and be. That's why I didn't go there. But I feel like I was more optimistic about him than you guys most weeks. Ranking, Ranking and projection wise.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Well, that's true. You do our projection wise.

[Mike Clay]

But I, I mean, I was giving it just like a full outlook. He didn't, you know, start week one and yeah, he missed a lot of time.

[Field Yates]

So we can make Cam quick. Cam did finish strong. Er, he had 17 plus fantasy points in three of his last six games. I went with a D only because, like, the truth is he was just not usable in fantasy at all. So I didn't expect him to be usable coming into the season.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That's why I gave him a C. I went in with zero expectations and I think he delivered on the zero expectations.

[Field Yates]

Totally justifiable there. So, I mean, yeah, we can leave it there. And I have a bright. I have a bright outlook for Cam, though, as a player.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I hope so.

[Field Yates]

Oh, yeah, he's going to be. I think he's going to be a really.

[Mike Clay]

So. Yeah.

[Field Yates]

And you got to they got to get him. Some guys to Mike's point earlier showing they will. But there's some just some really cool special stuff. I thought he played really well against New Orleans this past week. It's just really a dysfunctional infrastructure on the roster right now. Which they knew when they took over last year.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right.

[Field Yates]

They hired a new GM and Mike Borgonzi. It wasn't like he walked into this roster with the expectation that they're going to win like 12 games right away.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right.

[Field Yates]

In order to get better, you probably have to get worse first. Worse first. And the Titans took that step back this year and they have a chance between their cap space and their draft capital this year to get a step forward.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah. Third and pass attempt. So a lot of experience. So one thing that concerns me from a fantasy perspective is he's not running the ball and I don't know if he's going to make a giant leap there. He only had a what it was at 100, 148 yards, one rushing touchdown. Maybe that improves as they can extend drives, he gets more scoring opportunities. But I don't know if he's ever going to move the needle. So if he makes a leap next year, is it enough to be a QB one or is it enough to be okay? He's a competent QB2 now. You know how does he get to.

[Field Yates]

That level more There is where I.

[Mike Clay]

Would lead the QB2. Yeah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

So nice streaming option maybe depending on matchups and whatnot.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, I'll be a good late round flyer next year.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I thought Jackson Dart. I gave him an A minus because once he got the start he showed us all the things that he can do. I mean he's unbelievable with his legs. Obviously we had a problem with him being able to stay on the field and you want him to be able to be healthy. But I had very little expectations coming into the season on what Jackson Dart was going to do. And even though he wasn't a full season guy to me, what you got, what you were able to grab off of waivers and then start on an almost weekly basis once he became the starting quarterback, was a almost top 10 quarterback every year.

[Field Yates]

It was awesome. He had nine rushing touchdowns as well. He went through that streak where he set the record for most consecutive games with a rushing touchdown by a rookie quarterback. We can talk about this game now Mike, because your Eagles are all good. Mike and I went to the game where he kind of took off against the Eagles back at MetLife Stadium in October. Maybe that was early November, but yeah, I Mean, I think this is a player that we view as a guy who coming into next year will probably be in the top 10 ish of quarterbacks, right?

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, no doubt. And to put some perspective on his season, he averaged 20.1 fantasy points per game. If you look at rookie quarterbacks over the last decade. Yeah, only games he started.

[Field Yates]

So if you see the 17.0 on our full screen, there are some games he came in.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, not counting those. But if you look at rookie quarterbacks over the last decade, he's fourth. It's just Watson, Herbert and Daniels the only ones at him. So he's actually better than like Bo Nix who was a top 10 score last year. He was outstanding. And by the way, Jaden last year. Think about how good Jaden was last year. One of the best, maybe the best rookie season we've ever seen from a quarterback. He averaged 20.9 fantasy points per game. I just said Dart was at 20.1 which is 0.8 difference. Also, if you ignore the Minnesota game again, Minnesota's defense right now is red hot and Dart had a dud. It was terrible. Maybe we'll go down. Probably is the worst game of his career, honestly.

[Field Yates]

They all snap at him. They just tried not to throw the football net.

[Mike Clay]

But if you cross that out, he jumps to 22.1. So I mean, he was exceptional. When in normal circumstances this year. I know. But again, but I'm looking at. He wasn't. There's a lot of circumstances where you cannot start him this year. That's why. And by the way, all that and he played one partial game with Malik. Neighbors.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Neighbors.

[Mike Clay]

He targeted the league neighbors three times as a rookie. That's it.

[Daniel Doppelt]

With his legs, man, I will be.

[Mike Clay]

I'm curious to see where his ADP falls, but I think I'll be pretty high on him next year. I'm hoping people are just like, he's.

[Field Yates]

Going to get hurt.

[Mike Clay]

He's going to get hurt. But he'll be. When he plays though, he's going to be. He'll be a lineup.

[Field Yates]

We have a high draft pick coming their way.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Did you. Did you say how many top tens he had?

[Field Yates]

Just.

[Mike Clay]

I did not. But it was a lot.

[Daniel Doppelt]

7. Seven top 10 finishes at the quarterback spot, which is pretty great field you're doing. Obviously we check out first draft every time it comes out, but we have the mock draft that you put out a couple of first quarterbacks as well here.

[Field Yates]

Yes. Ended up with three. One snuck in late, but Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore from Indiana and Oregon who if you watch the College Football Playoff over the next couple of days, you'll see those two plus Ty Simpson from Alabama. But Mendoza and Moore will go very, very, very high. Simpson may return to school for Alabama. I think I would lean towards him returning as opposed to declaring. Mendoza is an excellent passer. He reminds me a little bit of Sam Darnold. Kind of like best at his, like a play action and like big, powerful arm, functional mobility, but not really a runner, so to speak.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Okay.

[Field Yates]

And Dante Moore, better athlete, but not some supercharged runner. I think if you're looking at which player has a higher fantasy ceiling, it's probably more because while he's not a dynamic scrambler, a Lamar Jackson, Jaden Daniels Jackson Dart, he definitely is a better overall athlete than Mendoza. I'm not sure either one of them, especially assuming they get drafted to teams like the Raiders and the Jets.

[Daniel Doppelt]

The jets, yeah.

[Field Yates]

Anywhere close to the fantasy radar coming into next pre season. But two really, really solid prospects. Again, Ty Simpson probably lands back at Alabama if I had to guess right now. Good athlete, but not the same level of prospect, in my opinion as those first two.

[Daniel Doppelt]

When you had the Rams taking him, was that just to have a year under Matthew Stafford?

[Field Yates]

Did you have Matthew Stafford? Yeah. He's an older prospect. He needs another year and it would kind of be the perfect have your cake and eat it too scenario for the Rams where they already have an extra first round pick from Atlanta. Although not as exciting of a pick as it was like four weeks ago.

[Mike Clay]

Yes.

[Field Yates]

That being said, the Rams looking towards the future, Ty Simpson getting to learn from, I would argue the best quarterback situation you could be in. Sean McVeigh is your coach with Matthew Stafford as your mentor.

[Mike Clay]

Are we sure Stafford's returning?

[Field Yates]

Don't know that, no. Yeah, but I don't think so. Dude, if he wins the mvp, like, you're going to walk out. Maybe.

[Daniel Doppelt]

What if they win the Super Bowl?

[Field Yates]

Super bowl, maybe it's like, I'm good.

[Mike Clay]

And then in five years he could come back on The Rams need a bridge quarterback. Yeah. The late season, I mean, I'm at.

[Field Yates]

The point now where I'm like, what if the Colts call Rivers and we're like, we want you to come back to begin the year next year.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Daniel Jones, coming off an Achilles.

[Mike Clay]

What do you say? If you're feeling that occurred to me, I was wondering if you might give it a shot.

[Field Yates]

I'll sign a six game contract.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, maybe.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Dude, that would be.

[Mike Clay]

That's going to sound. Doesn't sound like it, but maybe. Hi there.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Surprise.

[Field Yates]

30 for 30 presents. Booyah. Can I get a witness from the congregation? You can't stop authenticity. Boo.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

Stewart was exactly like you saw him on camera. Off camera.

[Daniel Doppelt]

He dialed it up 10%.

[Field Yates]

Can you imagine the impact of young black boys and girls looking at that.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Going, I feel seen.

[Field Yates]

He changed the culture.

[Daniel Doppelt]

He changed sports.

[Field Yates]

Stream.

[Mike Clay]

Booyah.

[Field Yates]

Presented by Modelo. Right now on the ESPN app.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Talk about stepping up. It's time to level up your game. Introducing the AllNew ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments. The electricity is palpable. Step up your game. With no annual contract required. It's the ultimate fan experience.

[Mike Clay]

Level up.

[Daniel Doppelt]

For more on the ESPN app or at stream espn.com Sign up now. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about some of the rookie wide receivers that we had this year. Travis Hunter, Tetro McMillan, Emeka Abuca, and Matthew Golden.

[Field Yates]

Mike. Yeah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

For Travis Hunter across the board. For our audio listeners, it was an F, an F and an incomplete from Mike Clay.

[Mike Clay]

That's a fair thing.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah. Tedro McMillan. We had a B, a B minus, and a B for the three of us. Emeka Abuka, a B minus, a B plus and a B. So we're all seeing this pretty similarly. And Matthew Golden, I had an F minus field and an F and Clay had a D. Seems like we saw all this pretty similarly, my friends.

[Field Yates]

We did. Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

We did.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Not to just to give you a couple numbers to support those grades there, I gave Travis Hunter an f. He had one game with 20 plus fantasy points. That was the final game before he got hurt. Matthew golden, we can do him as well. He did not have more than 13.2 fantasy points in any game this season. So total dud there. T Mac and Emeka Abuka, we were all in the B range. I gave T. Mac a B minus. He only had five games with 15 or more fantasy points. Abuka goes back to the theory that I was discussing earlier, which is he did have a really, really bad finish. 10 duds in his last 11 games. But those first five weeks were good enough to push him into that B plus range. He had three games of 20 plus in his first five, so dynasty. I don't know. The outlook is particularly. I mean, especially compared to where we were last year with Malik Neighbors.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

And I think even Roma Dunes Dynasty outlook coming out of last year was rosier than either of these guys. But there's no crown jewel a la Neighbors compared to where we were last season.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, I agree. A couple observations here. You mentioned Travis Hunter. I feel like he didn't get a great opportunity offensively the first month and then they gave him one. And he was terrific. Career Heisen snaps, targets and catches in that last game. Yards, fantasy points, you name it. But I wanted to point this out. This is a list of the defenses that Travis Hunter faced before he got hurt. The Panthers, who are pretty good against receivers this season. The Bengals, who are one of the best against receivers this season. They were terrible against running backs and tight ends, but they bottom five and fantasy points allowed to receivers. The Texans, the 49ers, which was maybe one of the easiest ones. The Chiefs, the Seahawks, and the Rams. That's the defenses that Hunter dealt with before he went out for the season. And. And by the way, the Rams were the easiest actually in terms of fantasy points a lot. And that was a game where he went off. He had a huge game against him. So I think that's something to think about as well. He wasn't playing a ton on offense and the defense. He played a brutal stretch of defenses there.

[Field Yates]

I think also that the Jaguars success this year, I expect that to embolden them to kind of plant him at one spot or the other.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, yeah.

[Field Yates]

We're a good enough roster that we don't need you to play both ways to legitimately compete. Let's decide what the best spot is for you. I think it's probably receiver with a dash of corner. Hey, third and long. Third and gotta have it. Game on the line type of play as you play cornerback, but a lot more receiver than corner going forward.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I was the idea that he only had one finish inside the top 40 at the wide receiver position. Did you feel like he played as much offense as you? I mean, I know it was only a truncated seven games.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I mean, do you feel like there was any way for us to even.

[Field Yates]

That there'd be more designed opportunities as a receiver?

[Daniel Doppelt]

That's what it felt like to me.

[Mike Clay]

I thought that.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I thought I would see more of that.

[Mike Clay]

Remember too, there was that Jerrion Jones got hurt and then there was like he only played in a handful of games. So they started off taking it slow and playing a little bit on both sides. Then Jones got hurt, so he played like full time defense and barely played offense. And then they started to ramp him up. He had two games where he played a ton of snaps and then he got hurt. So he might, he. He might have got an A from us had he Finished the season because that last game we saw him, he played 86% of the snaps and had 13 targets in that game. And then after they got through that stretch of defenses, that's when Trevor Lawrence just went off the rest of the year. I mean, it could have been a huge season for him. That's why I cannot give him a negative grade. I gave him an incomplete because I just didn't think it was fair to. To give him a. I guess you.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Didn'T draft him then because if you drafted him, you'd have given him a negative grade.

[Mike Clay]

I did a little bit, but again, a little bit. If it was. If he had the reverse of a booka, we would have given him a higher grade than. Absolutely. A book. Had that.

[Field Yates]

Totally.

[Mike Clay]

I broke a book that we kept starting for like four to six weeks because he had so many targets and he was just putting up single digits every week.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah, I feel like he. He became unstart. Just a mecca abuka. He was like just unstartable.

[Mike Clay]

Basically.

[Daniel Doppelt]

After week 10, it got to a point where I don't think we were even considering him. Mike Evans came back and you're seeing Chris Godwin come back.

[Mike Clay]

It's kind of wild. He averaged 20 and a half fantasy points per game his first five games and then was under 10 and a half and 10 of his next 11 games.

[Field Yates]

Unbelievable.

[Mike Clay]

Unbelievable. That's hard to do. Honestly.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Pedro McMillan was tough too, because I know how much he was hampered by Bryce Young. You obviously clearly saw the talent. You know what he can do. That's another one where I'm interested to see. Are the Panthers just going to stick with Bryce Young? Is there a quarterback decision they have to make?

[Mike Clay]

It just feels like a little bit, a little bit of Garrett Wilson, a little bit of that. Like where it's like the talents there. This guy could be the real deal. But is he just going to be hamstrung by his situation for years? I hope not. But I'm worried about Carolina ends up.

[Field Yates]

Here this upcoming offseason. They have to decide on the fifth year option for Bryce Young, which is now fully guaranteed if you pick it up. I think they pick up the fifth. I think they declined the fifth year option and they kind of put the, you know, they put their thumb on the scale and say, listen, Bryce, like, this is a. The good thing they have going for them is that Daniel Jones recently had his fifth year option declined. He played his tail off and he got a huge deal from the Giants. So the Panthers can say, hey, this is a Positive for you. Now, if you play this year, you're getting paid more than you would have gotten paid on that fifth year option. Meanwhile, for the team, it protects him. If he doesn't play well, then they don't have to pay him 27, $28 million guaranteed in the 2027 year. But a huge decision for Carolina looms. They're just, you know, they might win their division, they might make the playoffs, and it's a very weak quarterback draft that they may not have another obvious option to replace Bryce Young.

[Mike Clay]

I think you're right, though. It feels kind of like, I don't want to say an easy call, but fairly easy call, like, decline it. Like, the hard part is he hasn't shown that he's the franchise quarterback.

[Field Yates]

Oh, I agree. The hard part is just that, like, that's a difficult conversation to have with a kid that in different regime to a degree. But some of the power players that are now in Carolina weren't the ones that were like, we're going to trade DJ Moore plus two first round picks to move up and take you number one overall. And we're doing so when CJ Stroud is also on the board. And that draft. I know that it's easy to say this now that, like, you should have taken CJ Stroud, but there was at least a debate at the time. Are you taking CJ Stroud or are you taking Bryce Young?

[Mike Clay]

Sure was.

[Field Yates]

All right, let's get to the draft upcoming draft class, because I do think there is some optimism here looking ahead.

[Mike Clay]

All right, we need that. Yeah, let's.

[Field Yates]

Wide receiver class. I think there are four that kind of fall into a category of their own. And then a fifth who this mock draft dropped before news that Chris Bell very unfortunately tore his acl. So he will not go in the first round.

[Mike Clay]

The NASCAR driver or the NFL prize.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, he will not go in the first round. But. But Carnell Tate, Jordan, Tyson, Makai Lemon and Denzel Boston all went in the first 25 picks of my mock draft. I think if I were doing my top 25 players in this year's draft class, the lowest that any of them will be ranked would be 20th overall. It's different shapes, it's different sizes here. Carnell Tate from Ohio State. It's an annual tradition, right?

[Mike Clay]

You got to have a state round goes to Cleveland. That's nice.

[Field Yates]

The real deal. Jordan Tyson, very explosive player, very explosive athlete. His brother's actually a first round pick in the NBA like a year ago. So they're just ridiculous. Ridiculously athletic people in that family.

[Mike Clay]

The Giants, we're going to give them neighbors. Tyson and Wanda.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I was just going to say I appreciate your GM here because you've given all the teams that I want to have wide receivers a wide receiver in this mock.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

So it would be fun to see Titans though. Titans, yeah. They, they picked a defensive player. It was only a first round mock, but all three of these, all four of those guys I think are true, like legitimate first round wide receiver talents. I'm not. I think that the first two and Jordan, Tyson and Cardinal Tate have a chance to become wide receiver ones that you can kind of build a passing game around. I like that the next two are sort of like supercharged top end wide receiver twos in an offense, which has a lot of value in the end.

[Mike Clay]

Love that. No doubt.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

But a lot long ways to go in this process. There are other names that could sneak into the first round conversation at the back end of it, but those first four guys, I would be very surprised if they don't get taken in the first round.

[Mike Clay]

Okay. Like it. I love that. Yeah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

All right, let's dive into some running backs then. We had two running backs that were drafted in the first round this year that we talk about. Ashton Genty and Omarion Hampton. I gave Ashton Genty a B minus, Field gave him a B minus, Mike gave him a B. So we all saw that pretty similarly for Omarion Hampton. I gave him a B, Field gave him a C minus and Mike gave him a B minus.

[Field Yates]

So we saw that a little bit.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Differently, but also still not that far apart there for Amari and Hampton. Mike, I'm going to start with you. How'd you feel about Ashton Genty?

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, I think I'm a little bit more optimistic on him. I think. I, I, I did that exercise, which we all did, which is a hard thing to do. Like picking the MVP is like picking the offensive rookie of the year. It's a tricky exercise.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Sure.

[Field Yates]

Shook.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of options. Harold Fannin, obviously we talked about some of the receivers. I think they're. Ashton Genti is a stronger case for it than he's being credited for. Even if you look at is this.

[Field Yates]

Real offensive rookie of the year.

[Mike Clay]

I think both, I mean, probably more so fantasy, but even in, in real life, like Genti is like minus like or plus 5,50,000. Like he's not even in the conversation to win that award. Really bad, really bad situation.

[Field Yates]

I mean, really bad. Situation the worst of any player in the league regardless of position.

[Mike Clay]

And still like look, he did not live up to his adp, I understand that. But he was fairly usable. He is a top 25 scorer in 10 of 16 weeks. So he burned you a couple times. You could say that about a lot of running backs, but he played almost 80% of the snaps, handled almost 80% of their carries after the slow start at 15% of their targets which was a big number, top 10 at running back and carries, routes, targets, receptions, receiving yards, touches. So it was counting stats. The efficiency wasn't great, but he scored 10 touchdowns. You know he built the counting stats enough and had a few big weeks to week winning weeks. And I will also point out one more thing and this kind of moves the needle a little bit for me. He averaged 3.7 yards per carry. Okay, that's not good. It's not horrific, but it's not good. 4.1 ish is the average running back, but he averaged 2.5 yards after contact. That is seventh best at running back. Guys, he averaged 1.2 yards before contact. That is second worst among like 90 qualified running backs. Yeah, the circumstances for him were horrific, but he still was healthy for the most part, was on the field, was building up them, counting stats and that's, you know, that's how you get fantasy points. So sure, when all, when it comes down to looking at his fantasy production for the season, his fantasy value, he might have been more of a fine RB2 than the RB1 we wanted, but at least he was serviceable. And that's not the case for a lot of the competition. These guys, even a Trevian Henderson, more efficient for sure, had more probably the same number of splash games. But it was like can I start him? Can I not start him? It was unusable the first month and half of the season and he was hurt as well. So I think when all is said and done, I think that he deserves a little more respect than he's kind of getting is like oh he's just a disappointment bust Raiders thing. Like he did his thing, he did his thing best he could.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Emotionally, if you had him, you feel something different because throughout the season you remember those weeks where he just maybe didn't give you what you want. But at the end of the year to finish as running back 13, given all of the negatives that you just talked about, the idea he was able to overcome so much of that. By the way, he had more fantasy points than Saquon Barkley this year.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, right.

[Field Yates]

Seven games with 15 plus fantasy points. He was fine. Fine.

[Daniel Doppelt]

He was fine.

[Field Yates]

We all kind of land on fine.

[Daniel Doppelt]

We had higher expectations because we just wanted. Because we know how good he can be. But this team.

[Mike Clay]

Team absolutely under put him on 25 different teams. I think he has. I think we're giving him an A.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I think I agree with you.

[Field Yates]

It's easy to hammer the Raiders for drafting him 6 overall now given that was all the needs.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

And I still think they're, you know, it's a. It's a. I think there is some criticism that is fair given all the needs they could have addressed elsewhere. I also think like a year from now we might be talking about that pick much differently.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Because I don't care who's the head coach there. This upcoming, next. This upcoming season. They're going to spend so much money and pour so many resources into offensive line this upcoming year, period. They have to. It's going to be a quarterback with a top. Well, I hope top two pick.

[Mike Clay]

Yes.

[Field Yates]

Hopefully number one pick. The Raiders have to lose on Sunday to guarantee the number one pick. It's going to be a quarterback and then all offensive line for them all off season.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Talk to me about Maureen Hampton though. Field. How did you feel about that?

[Field Yates]

Minus. And I think that. And so he at the beginning of the season was borderline not playable. Right. He had a really tough start to Omari and Hampton and the reason why I didn't go high for Hampton.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Amari Hampton had two top 10 finishes in his first four games.

[Field Yates]

Wasn't it like hold on, give me the weeks again. Because remember it was like.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, I know you're. Yeah. Well he had. He was very limited in two games. He had three duds with 13 plus fantasy points in the other six games. 20 plus in three of those games.

[Field Yates]

This is the first 14.

[Mike Clay]

He did come out. He did because he found the end zone. Right. So he had a couple.

[Field Yates]

It was like he got saved by touchdowns.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That's absolutely what it was.

[Field Yates]

So give me the.

[Daniel Doppelt]

I'm pulling it up right now.

[Field Yates]

I'll ditch it for you. I've got it right here.

[Mike Clay]

Najee was not going to play with one.

[Daniel Doppelt]

And then first two games were real bad.

[Field Yates]

First two games he was unplayable. 8.1, 3.5. Right. Then he goes back to back weeks with 24.9 or more. Awesome right there. Right. The problem was the reason why I went lower is not only was he out, but he was out with zero level of insight as to when he's going to return. That's not his fault. That's not. And it's nobody's. It's someone's fault per se. But like if you had known when he got hurt, hey, we expect him to miss 10 weeks or whatever it was, you could at least make an informed decision, do I hold or do I move on?

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right.

[Field Yates]

All we knew was it was going to be four games minimum. And that left you in this weird holding pattern of all right, if I'm a struggling team, I might have to trade him for whatever I can get. If I'm a great team, then I'm just holding and expecting him to come back and come back with a vengeance whenever he is back. So some of this is out of his control. So that's why I went C minus.

[Mike Clay]

If you're making. And I give him, I give him a little boost because into the B category because when he played, he was effective again, averaging over 15 fantasy points per game. He averaged almost four and a half yards per carry, caught all but three of his 35 targets. In fact, this the off Harbaugh and Roman offenses do not target the running back. But he had a decent target chairman. He played. They wanted to get the ball in his hands.

[Field Yates]

He did.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

And also, I mean, if you're thinking early, like, okay, who's your top, top two or three breakout players for next season? Like, he's going to be a headliner on all them lists. I mean, think about it right off the top of your head. Do you think you're going to rank him top 10 next year @ running.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Back? There's going to be close. He has.

[Mike Clay]

A. He's a darn good close for.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That. Hit travy on Henderson and ideally he gets both of his left tackles back because he was playing this entire season without Rashawn.

[Mike Clay]

Slater.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah. And Joe Alt unfortunately got banged up as well. To me, it was the. I gave him a B as well because you saw what he could do in the beginning of the season. I know it started slow. Also just a weird running back situation altogether this year because we didn't know what was happening with Najee Harris for like the entirety of the off season. How much is he going to factor in? And then you see Amarian Hampton take over in that third and fourth week and he crushes it. Then like you said field, he disappears for an unknown amount of time that we can't really like plan for. That's the part that really crushed you. But once he came back, 14.7, 16.5, 20 fantasy points in three of those four.

[Mike Clay]

Games. Very limited in two of.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Those. Yes, very limited. Found the end zone in three of those four games. Was a top 18 running back in three of those four games. So if you were able to hold on to him, you were able to see not only what he could do, you know, by the way, I talked about this last week. 6 catches, 5 catches. 6 catches his final three games before getting hurt. We love being able to see that passing game work. So I think you're right. It'll be fun to see where he's going to be next.

[Mike Clay]

Year. It's going to be fascinating next year with like thinking about like him and Treveon Henderson against like Saquon.

[Field Yates]

Barkley. You know what I.

[Mike Clay]

Mean? Like 30 year old running.

[Field Yates]

Back. My.

[Mike Clay]

Brains. Yes. McCaffrey is getting up there is age 30 season after off of another massive workload. Like we running back is going to be very.

[Field Yates]

Very. People need to save the energy though on the CMC debates. It's like he's going to be probably a little bit lower in some people's rankings than in others and it's going to be a bit of a hedge. There's no case against Christian McCaffrey going into next year other than the fact that he's going to be 30 and he has an injury.

[Daniel Doppelt]

History.

[Field Yates]

Right. That's it. And so if you're going to take the risk and say I'm going to have him number one overall, you have to acknowledge that that could blow up on you. Whereas if you put him sixth overall, that's not to say you don't believe in Christian McCaffrey. You're just doing the slightest of hedges there. Good news. If you're looking for a running back in your dynasty league this upcoming season and you finish dfl, you've got an absolute blue chipper in Jeremiah Love, running back from Notre Dame who has already declared for the draft. And that's disgusting. The tackling.

[Mike Clay]

Dummy.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Wow. Yeah. Pick 32.1. The focus there's drafted focus team drafted the Bahama Bahamar tackling.

[Field Yates]

Dummy. Interesting. It's cute. You guys think it's funny. It actually that was not my idea. Great. In my mock draft the chief still had picked number 14. Took Jeremiah Love. I know they're going to be some fans that say the last time I took a first round running back it did not work out at all. That was Clyde.

[Mike Clay]

Edwards. He's still on the.

[Field Yates]

Team. So he's back on the team. What I will say for Jeremiah Love, listen, he is a special football player. There is a case for him as the best football player in the entire 2026 draft class. He will not be the number one ranked on my board. I believe in positional value too much to do that for any running back. He is a special talent though. He's awesome as a receiver. He's a great, great runner. Now Clyde Edwards Elaire had an amazing college career. He had a thousand plus rushing yards and 500 plus receiving yards during his final season. It had been a long time since we saw an SEC player do that. I think the Jeremiah Love is a superior runner and a superior receiver compared to where Ceh was coming out of LSU and why Love might not only be drafted higher but also be a safer player than Ashton Genti is. He's a better receiving back than Ashton Genti is. Genti is definitely capable. Jeremiah Love is one of those. He's. There's going to be some Reggie Bush comparisons, there's going to be some Bijan Robinson comparisons in terms of the versatility he brings to the table as a receiver. So wouldn't surprise me based off where he lands if we talk about him as a top 10 option, like top 10 player in all fantasy football next.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Year. Right now you have them going to the Kansas City Chiefs. Like we need to give that team any more weapons to reholster.

[Field Yates]

Themselves. But they could have like you could have just an example of a team that might go well, we'll pick in the top 10 that needs running back help. If you go to the commanders and Jaden Daniels is healthy, you could be saying to yourself, wait, a healthy commander's offense could be lead. This guy could be the number one back in this team. On this team that could be a top 10 or 12 running back or not just running back, but top 10 or 12 non quarterback in all of.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Fantasy. Dude, that would be.

[Mike Clay]

Sick. Be sweet. I would love.

[Field Yates]

That. Very.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Cool. All right, let's talk about some fantasy resolutions, my.

[Mike Clay]

Friends. Let's do it.

[Field Yates]

Yes. We are just. My math is correct. 13 hours and 9 minutes away from the.

[Mike Clay]

Year.

[Field Yates]

Yes. Which means we're about nine hours and nine minutes away from my.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Bedtime. I'm going to try to make it to.

[Mike Clay]

Midnight. I'll make.

[Daniel Doppelt]

It. I'm going to try to make.

[Field Yates]

It. I, I will.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Not. Did you make it last year? Is this like a. Is it now that you've had kids, are you just like. Who cares about staying up till.

[Field Yates]

Midnight? I will watch the end of the game tonight. Okay. 7:30 start and then I'll go to.

[Mike Clay]

Bed. I like.

[Field Yates]

It. All.

[Mike Clay]

Right. I like.

[Daniel Doppelt]

It. You're a party animal. We all know.

[Mike Clay]

My. I'm going. I'm on a little one night.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Vacation.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Miami for one night is a long way.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah. Not going to Miami. We're going to the coast of Connecticut as. As one.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Does. Oh, yeah.

[Mike Clay]

Okay. We'll see. We're gonna have a nice little.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Dinner and little savvy.

[Mike Clay]

Bee. Yeah, a little savvy bee. You get.

[Daniel Doppelt]

It? Like.

[Mike Clay]

It. Cocktail. We'll see. All.

[Field Yates]

Right. Cocktail of choice. What is.

[Mike Clay]

It? Margarita for sure. I make. I make a mean pomegranate margaritas. You guys.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Know?

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Had a nice hangover the next.

[Mike Clay]

Day. Yeah, I bet you did. Yeah, they're.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Strong. I want to see a golden marg. I didn't have a golden marg when I was over at the house. I need to make sure that.

[Mike Clay]

We have to get out. We don't have the gold, but we just had the pomegranate margarita. That's my go to.

[Daniel Doppelt]

So. All right. Well, we each have a couple of fantasy resolutions. I actually brought three to the table, even though I think we're only supposed to bring.

[Field Yates]

One. Oh.

[Mike Clay]

Wow. His resolution is to have more.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Resolutions. But I'm going to start if you guys are all right with.

[Mike Clay]

That. Yeah, do.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Them. My resolution, the first one is I want to. And I've already done about half of my leagues, but I want to transition every single league that I have to be a victory points league. I love playing with victory.

[Mike Clay]

Points.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Top. In case you don't know what that means, the top scoring half of the league gets a win. The bottom scoring half of the league gets a loss. So you get two wins or two losses or a win and a loss during a week. What it does is just help be able to kind of factor out the good teams versus the bad teams that get lucky.

[Mike Clay]

Right. So if we had that in the FF now league, I probably would have got the first round by and then I could have still made the same mistake in the.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Finals. I love.

[Mike Clay]

It. That's good. That one's going to take me a long time to get over to.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Feel. Yeah. Every once in a while there's a championship that's like that that really hurts for a long time. My second one is I am out on all packers wide receivers regardless of what fancy numbers Mike Clay dangles in front of me. I'm just not going to draft them anymore. And lastly, and also, seriously, I think every league needs to have at least two ice R spots moving forward, not just one IR spot because we've just seen injuries happen more and more often and one of the things that's so frustrating is when you have a guy get hurt and it's a guy that you're like, I can't drop this person. What do I do with them? I'm just carrying a dead roster spot that I can't do anything with. We just have enough injuries that happen in today's game that I think having two IR spots for everyone's league is really.

[Mike Clay]

Valuable. I don't think you want to punish teams that have a lot of injured players. I mean it's hard enough for them to keep up and then you have to waste that. You have to burn bench spots on her players and then pick up players to fill in as opposed to like if you have a healthy team. Oh you get, you're lucky. You get to stash like high end insurance running backs. That's not fair. And, and look some people in your leagues and I'm totally, I'm not going to say guilty of it because it's fine. Will take advantage of that and stash.

[Field Yates]

Guys.

[Mike Clay]

Yes. Like go and add a player, put them on ir, pick someone else up. But good for them. I mean if any way you can get an edge you should take advantage of, I totally do that. So I'm fine with that. It's not like we're giving out eight IR spots.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right?

[Mike Clay]

Correct. I think two or three or depending on how deep the bench is that could determine it. But I agree. Minimum two, minimum of.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Two. So those are my two big ones. Honestly, it's victory points and an extra IR spot so that we don't.

[Field Yates]

Have to punish players packers receive or the.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Residual. That's the third.

[Mike Clay]

One. I'll go next then because mine is to stop trusting packers which I about on FF now on Sunday obviously Christian Watson was a guy I loved as a breakup player. He burnt me years ago and then naturally this year when no one has him, he goes off, he'll.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Finally. You were just too early.

[Mike Clay]

Mike. Exactly right. And maybe we'll say that about Matthew golden someday because he's a player.

[Field Yates]

Man. He just needs to be.

[Mike Clay]

Utilized. Yeah, big man. And all that hype in the off season too. It was like it almost seemed like the reports from the beat reporters and comments from the players. It's like they're trying to keep it a little quiet. But this guy's gonna have a big rookie year and it just never happened. It started to. He had three straight games with double digit fantasy points. You started to see it and then it just went away. He got hurt and then they just stopped playing him and he hasn't had one since. So very disappointing. I made the joke on Sunday too. I was famously on under on Max McGee and Super Bowl 1. You know, he scored two touchdowns. I, you know, I didn't have my DFS.

[Field Yates]

Lineup. That.

[Mike Clay]

Hurts. But, you know, it's just an ongoing trend with packers receivers. Can't get them.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Right. Who did you give the packers in your mock draft.

[Field Yates]

Field? They don't have a first round.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Pick. Oh, that's right. They don't have a first round.

[Mike Clay]

Pick. They got Micah.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Parsons. That's.

[Field Yates]

Right.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah. They can't mess it.

[Field Yates]

Up. Micah Parsons, year two for Green Bay. My resolution was actually I said this on fantasy football now, but just to reiterate it, I have lots of personal influence in this matter, so I thought it was worth regurgitating. We got to get the quarterback situation fixed in Minnesota.

[Mike Clay]

Guys. Oh, we got to do it big.

[Field Yates]

Way. We got to get it fixed. And whether that's internal development for J.J. mcCarthy, which I would handicap as the most likely outcome right now, or drafting a quarterback, signing a veteran. I wrote a poem writing for somebody. Yeah, you did. It was a great poem too. That, to me, is what needs to happen. Guys, like, we can't have the greatness of Justin Jefferson and it's all time greatness. He has more receiving yards through six seasons than any player in league history. We need Justin Jefferson's quarterback situation fixed. If I were to speak more like personal and into like the fantasy world, I would say one would be one. That, and I know that I talk about this often, is just like, let's think tears next year when we get into the draft conversation a little bit more. Guys, like, we've already, as we're thinking about the number one pick, I can already envision the emails and the texts and the calls from people. I got the number one pick of my fantasy team. Who should I take? A lot of good options here. We have so much time that can change things, obviously, but a lot of good options off the top of our head. We've already mentioned Puka Jamar Chase, JSN, Christian McCaffrey, Bijon Robinson. I think my gut tells me if I'm just picking one, Jameer Gibbs, by the way, as well, if I'm just picking one, it's probably Bijan just because of positional value and age. But that being said, like, you know, JSN could have another monster year. Jamar Chase could win the Triple crown again. So I'm not going to agonize too much over, like, you have to take this player or you have ruined the beginning of your.

[Mike Clay]

Draft. By the way, I think there's going to be a lot of like, I don't want the first pick this year, pick six, I want later pick. But the thing is, if you're picking one, then you come around at, let's say 20 and 21, and you look at like, who's right around that range and you'll be like, oh, no, I'm going to get like, I'm going to start with say Bijan and then I'm going to come around with like Hampton and Malik neighbors or something. Like, you're still going to be in a great spot rates early. That's might have a tough decision at one, but you're going to come around the turn with like some unbelievable options, like the top 20. And I didn't even look at Trey McBride. Like, he's in there too. I mean, you're going to have.

[Field Yates]

The biggest argument against having the first pick, to me, is not the fact that you have to wait longer and you might get worse players with your second or third round pick. Like, it's just the simple concept that if you're picking five, you don't have the capacity to make the error of maybe taking Bijan over Jamar Chase because one or both of them is already off the.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Board.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. If you're picking one, it feels like if I don't get this perfectly right, I was the only one that screwed up. Where the reality is, like, if there's six guys you're considering and you pick one of the best three once the season has played out, that's still the good job by.

[Mike Clay]

You. Yes.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yes. There is something about the idea though, that I'm picking sixth and I've got six guys that I like and I can't mess this up because, well, I would have taken one of the other five guys. I'm just taking the next one that was.

[Field Yates]

Available. By the way, this year we liked five guys above the rest. Coming into the season, those five players, Jamar Chase, Bijon Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, and then Justin Jefferson, Saquon.

[Mike Clay]

Barkley.

[Field Yates]

Yep. So, like, you know.

[Mike Clay]

It'S. There's very much a luck slash lottery aspect to it. Imperfect science. You have to. And people use it as like a negative to the game. But honestly, like, if you just accept that and then, you know, apply it and like accept that, that's like a common thing with like betting you have to just, like, understand you're not going to win every bet. If you try to bet in a way where you're going to get everything right, you're going to lose all your money. You can't. You can't think that way. So you just have to have a complete.

[Field Yates]

Draft.

[Mike Clay]

Yep. And then work waivers, make trades. It's a whole project. You're never just going to. It's very rare that you're going to just nail the draft and be.

[Field Yates]

Done. So weird waking up this morning and be like, wait, wait, none of my waiver claims worked because I didn't put any.

[Mike Clay]

In.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Oh. Cause there are no. Yeah. That's so tough. Well, if there is a waiver claim you're gonna put in, it would be the Vikings defense this week, just in case you were looking for one here in week 18. All right, let's take a couple of questions really quickly before we close this thing out. Yeah, real fast. We got a couple of things from our YouTube chat. Just this from Russell. This says, just popping in to say thanks for all the help this season. Needed pits to go under four and a half to hang on to the title. Thought I was cooked. Talk about a Monday night.

[Field Yates]

Miracle. That is.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Awesome. What is a Monday night miracle From Pitts.

[Field Yates]

There. Oh.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Beautiful. That is unbelievable. Shout out to you, Russell. Thank you for that. TheCarter901 says it was my first year playing fantasy, and thanks to the show and a lot of research and waiver pickups, I won a.

[Field Yates]

Championship. That's so great.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Carter. Wouldn't have done it without you guys. Thank you for the advice from the chat as well. Chat is.

[Field Yates]

Great. That's so.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Chatting. I love them being in there hanging out with.

[Field Yates]

Everyone. Been here to chat. Yeah, I've been here to.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Audience. Gonna be a great.

[Mike Clay]

Time. We're back on Friday.

[Daniel Doppelt]

And. That's right. We're coming back on Friday to do even more. Here we have our big awards show. We're gonna give out all the awards for 20, 25. Really excited about it. It. I'll wear.

[Field Yates]

Something. We'll determine.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. All right. Have an appointment that morning. That would be awkward to show up in, like, a suit and tie.

[Daniel Doppelt]

In, but that'll be fun. I can't wait to know what it's going to.

[Field Yates]

Be. Yeah, they're getting physical therapy and they're like.

[Mike Clay]

Yes.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah. You really like rest of the ninth.

[Mike Clay]

Field. Love.

[Daniel Doppelt]

That. All right, that's going to do it for us today. Today's show was presented by Wingstop. Have so much fun the rest of this week. Even though it's week 18. Even if you don't have anything to play for, football's still fun to watch in week 18, guys. We got some killer Saturday games on the slate as.

[Mike Clay]

Well. We're fun.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Yeah. Yes, we will. Don't forget to love each other and be kind to yourself. You guys. You deserve it. Come back and see us on Friday for our awards.

[Mike Clay]

Show. We'll see you then. Happy New.

[Daniel Doppelt]

Year.