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Early Busts for 2026: Players to Avoid Next Season + Kirk Cousins signs with Raiders! (04/02 Fantasy Football Podcast)
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- [00:00]
Narrator/Advertiser
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- [01:00]
Heath Cummings
This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
- [01:04]
Dave Richard
What a play. Can you believe this?
- [01:07]
Heath Cummings
No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
- [01:11]
Advertiser Voice
Off to the races and he stays at his feet.
- [01:13]
Jamie Eisenberg
This is going to go the distance.
- [01:15]
Heath Cummings
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.
- [01:21]
Jamie Eisenberg
The Raiders have a new quarterback we're talking about bus for 2026 and once again, no Adam Mazer. Welcome to Fantasy Football today. I'm Jamie Eisen. That's Dave, Richard, that's Heath Cummings. Got a fun show for you today. It's April 2nd and just before the show starts we get the news that the Raiders. The Raiders have signed Kirk Cousins and after all the talk that we heard at the NFL owners meetings and some things leading up to the owner's meetings on the day after the Indiana pro day when the Raiders got a chance to see Fernando Mendoza throw, they decide to go get what might be their week one starter because it sounds like Clint Kubiak does not want to rush a rookie quarterback onto the field. So gentlemen, welcome to the show. How do we feel about the idea of Kirk Cousins handing off to Ashton Denty and throwing to Brock Bowers in week one? It's good.
- [02:16]
Dave Richard
Biggest news of the off season. Very, very happy.
- [02:20]
Heath Cummings
Some much needed stability. There's lots of other veterans they could have chosen for this role that would have done worse. I it's funny because like from the quarterback position in Redraft, I'm not sure how much it matters at all. We weren't drafting Mendoza really as anything close to a starter. We're not going to start Kirk Cousins in a super flex league. Now you have to roster both And I hopefully if Mendoza is good, it's gonna be like a month of Kirk Cousins starting.
- [02:51]
Dave Richard
Could it impact how defenses play Las Vegas with Cousins? Are they going to be less afraid of intermediate throws and longer throws and maybe stack the box a little bit more against Ashton Genti? And could we see more of similar types of struggles for Genty against defenses that are just so keyed in on him even with an improved offensive line until Mendoza gets under center and starts to attack the long range,
- [03:25]
Jamie Eisenberg
I mean we certainly could see that. I guess the question would be is it. Heath just said a month. So if we're talking about four games of Kirk Cousins and now I don't think that probably changes the Brock Bowers ranking because I think a lot of people still excited about Bowers no matter who the quarterback is and the fact that he's going to be hopefully healthy. Last year got off to a. A sluggish start because the knee injury in week one. But with Genti and where he is, I, I think we said yesterday as high as RB8, right.
- [03:56]
Dave Richard
Yeah.
- [03:56]
Jamie Eisenberg
Am I right in that we both that all three of us have him in, in that range? When you start to compare him to and, and I don't know if you guys feel this way. I know I do. Ken Walker in his new surroundings with Kansas City. Amari Hampton with his new coach and hopefully offensive line healthy. Trying to think anybody else that may creep into that range. Derrick Henry obviously still Jacobs. Like you may have some trepidation if it's Kirk Cousins for a month now. Bijan Robinson was great with Cousins in the starts that they had together last year. So that's, that's positive. I don't know. Like I'm, I'm a little worried just with the idea of, of this now potential topsy turvy situation of, of what it could be if you don't seem to be concerned.
- [04:49]
Heath Cummings
Not really. I mean and listen and Michael Pinnix and Mendoza are not the same exact person either. But like if you look at Bijan last year, I don't, I don't see some. He was 5 yards per carry weeks 1 through 11. He plays weeks 12 through 18 with Kirk Cousins and he's 5.4 yards per carry. Like it's not like we saw Bijan's rushing efficiency hurt by Kirk Cousins. If anything, I think having a veteran that is capable of seeing what the defense is doing and making the right call is a positive for this offense. I know Kirk Cousins is, isn't. He's not a good starting quarterback. But if you're talking about guys who could, our backup quarterbacks, who could be starting until Mendoza is ready, he's in the upper half of those guys.
- [05:41]
Dave Richard
I would say, Jamie, that you undersold Bijan when you said, yeah, he was really good with, with Kirk Cousins. It was the seven games that Heath just talked about, the efficiency was there. Rushing wise, it was 26.2 PPR points per game. That's insane. I, I worry a little bit about just assuming that Ashton Genti is as good as Bijan Robinson and that Ash and Genti will get the same type of receiving volume and that's because we can't, we can't call Genti that guy. I don't think we should have that kind of expectation. Does it mean that he'll be okay with Cousins, especially with the new offensive line? Yeah, maybe, but I just, I'm, I'd have a little bit of worry about it. I don't know if it's enough for me to put Genti behind Hampton because it might be four games, might be eight games, or it might be no games if Mendoza goes out in training camp and he's on fire. Raiders aren't gonna, I, I don't think that they'll fake a situation where we're gonna. Just gonna wait and take our time when they can try and win some games with Mendoza.
- [06:41]
Heath Cummings
It should, we should be really clear. We're not saying that Ashton Genti is going to be as good as Bijan Robinson was with Kirk Cousins. We're saying Bijan Robinson was not worse when Kirk Cousins took over. So I'm not sure there's any reason to downgrade expectations for Genti based on what they were before this signing.
- [06:59]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yes. And also the situation is probably worse for the Raiders than it was for the Falcons because of where they were as a team and everything that goes along with that. I just think it's, you know, not, it's not just the fact that his cousins. It's just that there's now the, the, the change that we could be seeing for better or for worse, whether Mendoza comes in and is better or just because the team is now awful at that point, when Mendoza decides that when they decide to start Mendoza. To your point, Dave, I think if Mendoza goes out and crushes it, does that change the philosophy of what they want to do, which sounds like not even give him the chance to start, just because they want him to sit and learn for a little bit. Who knows? You know, who knows how much of Kubiak is going to Stick to that is just rhetoric or it's going to actually play itself out and we see what happens in in training camp. But now Kirk Cousins, a member of the Raiders and again for now, we're still going to rank and draft the top two guys accordingly. Brock Bowers, most likely back end of round two, round three, early round three Ashton Genti, early to mid round two. Their receivers are what they are at this point. I don't think this is going to impact how you approach Jalen Naylor, Trey Tucker, Jack Bash, any of those guys. So we'll see how this all plays out. Some other news and notes that we'll get to before we get into the bus. I said we would do this yesterday. Things coming out of the owner's meetings, but also things that have happened in the last couple of days. There's nothing really to discuss about this situation aside from we hope that everything is okay. But Puga Nakua, according to his agent, checked into what's being called a luxury treatment center. Hopefully he gets whatever help he needs and we get one of the best receivers back on the field playing at a high level. So something to monitor throughout the rest of the off season. Again, something we'll keep you up to date on as we get more information as it unfolds. ESPN story came out from the Cardinals that they are expected to have a running back by committee. That's not a surprise to us. I think we expected that with James Connor and Tyler Algier. However, in that story, Algier said that when he signed with the Cardinals they really did not discuss what his role was going to be and how many touches he was going to get. So Heath, when you look at this, we spent some time talking about this, breaking down drafts etc. Tyler Algeria, I mentioned him as a sleeper on Monday. I know Dave's been in that, you know, you know, driving that, that bus as well. Does Tyler Algier, James Connor, Trey Benson situation scare you Heath? Like you just want to avoid it all together or you know, maybe take late round flyer on whoever's left. How do you approach the Cardinal backfill?
- [09:25]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I don't really feel very good about drafting a Cardinals running back in the first 10 rounds. So that's that I think that indicates scares me and it's partially the committee which we expect. It's partially Connor's health risk. Like he's the best of those backs in my opinion and the least likely to play a full season. It's partially uncertainty over the role, but also this could just be one of the five worst offenses in football. And that's okay if you have a running back who gets the vast majority of the touches or dominates all of the passing work and collects a bunch of garbage time points. That doesn't seem like the type of situation we're going to have here at all. I think there's still a mystery as to who's going to have the short yardage role in terms of touchdowns. Connor's been very good at that in the past. It's also kind of Tyler Algiers thing. There's a mystery as to who's going to be the third down back or the two minute drill guy. That was Trey Benson at the beginning of last year when Conor was the lead back. So this could be a three way split on a terrible offense that doesn't score very many touchdowns. I am not excited.
- [10:33]
Jamie Eisenberg
Makes sense. And we'll see again how this plays out. We'll see what average draft position tells us as we get closer to August, but could just be again a waiting game. See what your fantasy roster needs if you want to wait out the James Connor potential injury. Take a chance on Algier. You want to take a chance on some good production while he's healthy. Maybe Connor's the guy to approach and they always take a late round flyer on Trey Benson. We'll see if he stays on the team. That would be a player I'd like to see traded at some point before the start of the season. Dave, I know you'll be excited about this. I think we all will. Colts general manager Chris Ballard says this quote in regards to Josh Downs. I think Josh Downs is freaking good. I think allowing him some more opportunities. We're going to see some of the special stuff you've seen in the past. But more so we know Michael Pittman no longer a member of the Colts. They sign Alec Pierce to the big deal. Is Josh Downs going to be somebody that we just see flying up, average draft position, draft boards, etc because of the chance that he could be a potential starting wide receiver in three receiver leagues right away.
- [11:29]
Dave Richard
Last year he averaged eight and a half PPR points per game on 5.5 targets per game. And there were points in the year where we all thought to ourselves man, he's really the odd man out. And Indianapolis and he was banged up a little bit too. Take it back to 2024, 7.6 targets per game, 13.1 PPR points per game. There was no Daniel Jones at that point either. There's also no Tyler Warren and Al Pierce wasn't a thing, but Michael Pittman was obviously on the team. I wonder if that's close to where Downs could get. Could Downs get to seven targets per game? I do agree that he's probably the big benefactor with Pittman leaving Pittman leaving behind 111 targets. Do almost half of them go to Josh Downs? That would pump up his target volume quite a bit. That makes him an interesting fantasy play. I I like him just after that range of wide receiver threes. He kind of is a wide receiver 3 in full PPR, but I don't think you have to draft them in the same group as Piersol and Dobs and DK Metcalf and Jaguars guys. I think he's behind there and I think he'll end up being good value.
- [12:33]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yep, I totally agree. I think it's going to be fun to see how this off season goes for him because they're probably not done adding to the receiver room, but Josh Downs. Huge, huge rocket ship emojis based on the Michael Pittman trade. All right, we'll take a quick break, come back with some more news and notes items, and then get to our bus for 2026.
- [12:53]
Advertiser Voice
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- [13:19]
Jamie Eisenberg
All right, welcome back to Fantasy Football today, Heath. I'm going to file this under does it matter in regards to two signings that the Titans made this week? They signed KJ Osborne and they signed Michael Carter. Does it matter?
- [13:31]
Heath Cummings
Nope.
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Jamie Eisenberg
There you go, d'. Amico. Ryan says that Tank Dell will be back, quote at some point this year. Dave, are you drafting Tank Dell?
- [13:40]
Dave Richard
Probably not. Late round Picket best.
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Jamie Eisenberg
What about if you have an IR spot? Would you stash them there?
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Dave Richard
Is he going to be IR eligible? Will he start the year on the PUP list? If if that sounds like that, I
- [13:51]
Jamie Eisenberg
might be more interesting a scenario.
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Dave Richard
Yeah, sure. In that scenario I might be a little bit more interested by the way they changed the PUP rules again where a player can open up his 21 day practice window after week two? I believe so. Players that begin the year on the PUP might not be on the PUP for very long.
- [14:10]
Jamie Eisenberg
Makes for some interesting roster decisions for fantasy managers, but we Hope to see Tank Dell back. He did not play in 2025 at all after getting hurt at the end of 2024. Heath Aaron Glenn says Mason Taylor should take a big step and have quote, a hell of a year. Are we looking at Mason Taylor as a potential starting fantasy tight end at some point this season?
- [14:29]
Heath Cummings
Sure. On a bye week when you need to stream somebody. I don't no disrespect meant at all to Aaron Glenn, but I I don't really put a lot into the things that he say that seem to have fantasy relevance. He speaks very optimistically about a lot of guys and they have not shown a good offensive plan at all and he's a defensive guy. So yeah, I think Mason Taylor like rostering him as one of two tight ends you draft late like Dave likes to do kind of makes some sense. If you get somebody like Travis kelsey in round 11 and then you want to take Mason Taylor in round 13 or 14 and maybe he is the second option in the passing game right now. I think Garrett Wilson and Adnai Mitchell could both be ahead of him in terms of targets and if you're the third option on a Geno Smith led Jets offense, I'm not super excited.
- [15:21]
Jamie Eisenberg
Makes some sense but did show some promising signs last year and really we didn't get to see Garrett Wilson Mason Taylor health at the same time and then obviously they had Adnai Mitchell at the trade deadline so we didn't see all three of those guys working together and I would guess this is a receiving core that's not done yet in terms of what it will look like for 2026. Dave the Athletic reports that Jordan James is the quote front runner to be the top backup for the San Francisco 49ers. Is he going to be somebody that you're drafting in every league if you get the chance with a pick in the double digit round.
- [15:50]
Dave Richard
I'm excited about this one. Yes. And if I've got Christian McCaffrey, if I take him with a round one pick, I need to make sure I get Jordan James just in case McCaffrey misses time. Not that I expect James to be anywhere near as good as McCaffrey, but he seems to be the first guy up. They they said in that article that James like became the better running back in practice and leapfrogged Iker Endo for that role. And so if that holds over the course of the rest of the off season, then this is absolutely a player that double digit rounds you've got to get him. If you've got McCaffrey. That's just to make you feel a little bit better about the investment that you'll make in a 30 year old running back coming off of 450 plus touches in a year.
- [16:32]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, I would want to get him if I don't have McCaffrey as well,
- [16:35]
Dave Richard
just because that's true.
- [16:36]
Jamie Eisenberg
McCaffrey will be 30 in June and last time he had over 400 total touches was 2024, 2023, excuse me, 2024. He played four games, so something to keep an eye on there. Now last year they also had James and Garendo and then they signed or traded for Brian Robinson Jr. Late. So just something to keep an eye on there as well. But if they stick with the current backfield of McCaffrey, James and Garendo, then James looks like the handcuff that we'll be targeting. Heath, this is probably more of a dynasty question than a redraft question, but Mike McCarthy, when asked about Caleb Johnson, excuse me, they're a rookie that they drafted last year that barely made an impact. He said that everybody's got a clean slate. So does Johnson still matter to you? Knowing that he was somebody that people in the first round of rookie drafts were selecting, was in the conversation to, you know, be the, you know, maybe third or fourth running back of the class did not materialize at all and now seems to be on the outs for fantasy managers and we'll see what it means for the Steelers after they had Rico Dowdle this offseason.
- [17:37]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, not drafting Caleb Johnson in redraft, not cutting Caleb Johnson in dynasty like we're getting to that point. We'll have the NFL draft people maybe have to cut some players to make room for rookies. He's one of the guys that I want to hold on to at least until we get to September.
- [17:55]
Jamie Eisenberg
Okay, so we'll see what happens in terms of the backfield there for the, for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Again, we hope to see Caleb Johnson do something under Mike McCarthy, but last year was just a disaster with Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell dominating touches for that backfield. Dave Broncos general manager George Payton says that J.K. dobbins is fully healthy. He suffered that foot injury in Week 10, missed the rest of the season. R.J. harvey was the lead running back for Denver. As of now, it's going to be Dobbins, who they brought back on a one year deal and Harvey again. How are you viewing the Broncos backfill for 2026?
- [18:27]
Dave Richard
I'm still drafting Harvey first. I feel like I should be more excited about RJ Harvey because here's a second year running back, scored a bunch of touchdowns, definitely flashed a number of times, but really just didn't have a lot of great consistency over the course of the of his rookie year. Could he take a step forward? There's no question he could and I think we would know we would. I don't know if no is the right word. We would expect a second year player to take that step forward rather than a guy entering his age 27 season who's been battling injuries his entire career to to be a big factor. I don't think either running back is a top 24 guy right now. Maybe on the cusp in the case of Harvey, he'd be the one that I'd rather have, but I just, I don't want to get too excited about him and I, and I don't wanna. I, I guess I would settle for J.K. dobbins to ride my bench to begin the year and then if he ends up just being that lead back for Denver again, all right, that's cool, I'll start him. But I don't expect a lot in the way of receptions and he's kind of a touchdown or bust type of guy.
- [19:32]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I think I actually view him as Dave said to ride your binge. I kind of view him as one of those Z row RB guys where you draft a couple of guys that maybe aren't starters yet but you think could be. And then I think I got dobbins in round 10 of our last mock draft and he's probably maybe a week one starter in that situation.
- [19:51]
Jamie Eisenberg
You have two situations. I'll talk about this with the Bus in terms of the Patriots backfield and the Broncos backfill, where the guy that we don't want to necessarily draft first is the one that might be the better of to Dobbins in Denver and Ramandre Stevenson in New England because of how they Both performed in 2025 in conjunction with the guys that were expected to take their jobs. Last news item here, Heath. I know this one will not surprise you at all, but Bill's coach Joe Brady said that Dalton Kincaid, still dealing with knee injuries, may have his snaps managed all season. Is this just a guy we can't draft at this point and compare him maybe to Mason Taylor about a, you know, tight end two that you'll take with a late round pick?
- [20:27]
Heath Cummings
I think I'd probably still be more interested in drafting Dalton Kincaid just because of how efficient he's been when he's on the field and the fact that he has Josh Allen as a quarterback but he's, he's definitely not someone that we can view as a guy you draft as a starter.
- [20:43]
Jamie Eisenberg
Just frustrating. And now the addition of DJ Moore, we'll see what they continue to do to the rest of the receiving corps. They bring back Dawson Knox. So that's just another strike, I think against Kincaid's upside. But such a talented player that just unfortunately is dealing with knee injuries since he entered the NFL. Who knows we'll ever see the best of Dalton Kincaid, but you know, we'll get those stretches. Like Keith said, you know, when he's on the field and he's been getting opportunities he's, he's produced. It's just very frustrating and to his credit, he's played through those knee injuries but just hasn't, you know, been able to stay healthy so far.
- [21:13]
Dave Richard
Yes, Dave, Jamie, I've got one other note to pass along. I heard this on Sirius XM NFL Radio. Liam Cohen was being interviewed and he said that replacing Travis ETN is going to take a stable and so he didn't name any specific player. They didn't talk about Chris Rodriguez and what his role will be, your basal tune or anything like that. He just referred to that running back room as more of a stable. That sounds like committee that made that that puts some ice cubes down my shirt on on facial Tootin and how excited that I would be to draft him.
- [21:44]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, again, I don't think they're done would be my guess. You know, I know you said this yesterday that you you felt like they have their three guys.
- [21:51]
Dave Richard
Yeah.
- [21:52]
Jamie Eisenberg
It wouldn't shock me if they go out and get somebody else or you know, see what's on the mark. Remember last year it was at this point or found the draft when they drafted Tootin we didn't know if it was going to be ETN hn, if it was going to be Tootin, if it was going to be Tank Bixby who was coming off a strong 2024 and then they trade Bigsby and open the door for the two guys to be the lead options. And and obviously ETN at the time ran away with it. So we'll see what they do draft weekend and maybe even leading up to the start of the season. All right, let's get into our bus. Heath gets to go first today. So five guys that you listed as players based on you're you going off the Fantasy pros consensus rankings, right?
- [22:32]
Heath Cummings
I would, yeah. I, I think using ADP this time of year doesn't help us a whole lot, but this may predict where ADP is going.
- [22:39]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yep. So understandably so you're using some data points to sort of point you in the direction of players you're looking to. I don't know, I don't want to say the word avoid because I'm sure you would take these guys if the cost is right, but where they're being ranked or in some cases eventually maybe being drafted, they're going to scare you a little bit. So Trey McBride, Devonte Adams, Jameson Williams, Bucky Irving and Christian Watson. Let's start with Trey McBride. Is he still your number one tight end? Is this more of an overall selection versus where he's based on the position?
- [23:06]
Heath Cummings
Brock Bowers is my number one tight end. That's only part of the problem though. Another part of the problem is that as we've talked about a lot, we've got three second year tight ends that we are extremely excited about as breakouts. We all chose them as breakouts. We've got three, four, maybe more veteran tight ends that we're very excited about as better than just that 10 point per game guy, but somebody who could actually matter at the tight end position in Sam Laporta, Isaiah, likely Kyle Pitts and Tucker Kraft. Maybe one or two of those guys we don't all agree on. The point being that one of the reasons that we were taking tight ends so early is because the options later in the draft were so bad and that doesn't really seem to be the case anymore. Now maybe this will be a huge fool Jew when we get to October and tight end is just terrible again, but I don't think so. I think the position's much deeper than it used to be. And listen, that wouldn't matter if I thought Trey McBride was going to do what he did last year again and get 10 targets per game and score 11 touchdowns and then he's probably still worth a second round pick because he's as good as a top 10, top five wide receiver. I don't think we should expect that at all. First off, one of the reasons that Trey McBride was so good last year was because they threw the ball so much once Jacoby Brissette took over. I do not anticipate they're like they're going to have to throw it a lot still because they're going to be playing from behind and they're bad. I don't think they're going to lead the NFL and pass attempts as a team. I don't think they're going to be one of the most pass heavy teams in the NFL like they were in the second half last year. And, and while I don't think Trey McBride's going back to scoring one to three touchdowns, I think you probably look at somewhere in between that and the 11 that he scored last year. It's a new offensive system. The tight end centric offense is gone. That doesn't mean McBride's going way away. He may still lead all tight ends and targets, but it might be with eight targets per game instead of 10. I could see a big drop off in terms of his volume, a drop off in terms of his touchdowns, and a shrinking of the gap from tight end 2 through 8, 2 through 10, depending on which of those guys you like to where the, the 15 fantasy points per game he may give you this year isn't that special.
- [25:31]
Jamie Eisenberg
So when would you draft Bowers and when would you draft McBride?
- [25:36]
Heath Cummings
I'm probably going to have Bowers McBride both in round three.
- [25:40]
Jamie Eisenberg
Both in round three. So there's a chance you don't get either one.
- [25:44]
Heath Cummings
And I, and again, I was saying that I'm not sure I want to take Loveland in round four. There's a chance I don't get him. The pro. The, the great thing is this year there's seven other guys that I'm thrilled to have that I think might be within a point or two of the top guys.
- [26:01]
Jamie Eisenberg
I mean, look, it's a great argument obviously based on the depth of the position, which, you know, sometimes we fall into this draft unfortunately, that the depth of the position looks like it's going to be good and there's all these new guys and blah, blah, blah. And you know, we're not even factoring, you know, where Sadiq goes in the draft and he could be the next. You know, Warren Fanon loved one type of player in the right situation. I have a hard time passing on McBride though, just based on what he's done, what he's right.
- [26:27]
Heath Cummings
And, and I think like one of the things that kind of illustrates the point that I'm making in, in terms of volume we've talked about, especially Dave, the disappointment that Kyle Pitts has been early in his career. For his career, Kyle Pitts has averaged 7.9 yards per target. That's better than any year of Trey McBride's career. Like Pitt's career average has been more efficient on a per target basis than McBride's. They both had kind of the same touchdown issue last year. McBride scored a bunch of touchdowns last. Before last year. McBride scored a Bunch of touchdowns last year. Pitch just keeps going up by one every year. I, I don't. I'm just really afraid that Drew Petzing leaving hurts, that the volume decrease from the overall passing game hurts and touchdown regression hurts. And he just, he's really, really good. I was a huge Trey McBride guy last year and Brock Bowers both. I just drafted one or the other pretty much every draft but.
- [27:28]
Dave Richard
Or both.
- [27:29]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I drafted both of them. Yeah. And I think I made the playoffs in that draft.
- [27:34]
Dave Richard
You did.
- [27:35]
Heath Cummings
But no, I, I just, I don't think that they are quite as much of the differentiators. Partially because of them, partially because of the state of the position.
- [27:45]
Jamie Eisenberg
Dave, you agree?
- [27:47]
Dave Richard
I think the only thing I agree about is that there's a chance that McBride, the gap between McBride and the rest of the tight ends does shrink a little bit. I, I can't overlook what happened last year when Brissette went under center for Arizona and Trey McBride had 10.6 targets per game, 10 of his 11 touchdowns. He averaged 21.1 PPR points per game. If I see that in round three, I will attempt to do a backflip at 49 years of age and however much I weigh these days, but it's, it's. It's possible that the target volume goes down, but I don't think it's going to be because of Drew Petzing leaving that suddenly LaFleur, the new coach in Arizona just completely just IGNORES what Trey
- [28:34]
Heath Cummings
McBride is just ignores is that like I, as I said, he might lead the. He could lead the position in targets and lose two targets per game. The thing that I worry about with Petsing specifically, and a little bit with Harold Fannin too, is that it's not. It's those easy button tight end targets. A lot of times they're using tight end almost like the running back where they just dump the ball off to them in the flat. A lot of most offenses don't do that.
- [29:00]
Dave Richard
A lot of them don't. But a handful of quarterbacks do. And over the course of Jacoby Brissette's career, that's exactly what he's done and it's exactly what he did last year that they can try and coach it out of him. And they've got two receivers that they could do that with with Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. But I listen, dude, last 10 games of 20, 23, 15 PPR points per game. That's as low as it got for him. 20, 24, 15.6 PPR points per game last year, total was 18.6. I already told you that. With Brissette, who's still in Arizona, it was north of 20 PPR points per game. I cannot leave a player at any position with that type of upside on the board when I get to the 20th pick overall in a fantasy draft in PPR this year. So I, I like McBride as closer to a top 15 pick, not a first rounder. I think that's a little too close to the sun, but I, I can't help but think that Trey McBride's going to continue to crush it in Arizona.
- [29:58]
Jamie Eisenberg
And also to lafleur's credit, he may not have the Stefanski petsing background, but also he comes from the San Francisco tree, which has been very tight end friendly as well. So the easy button last year and
- [30:12]
Dave Richard
they used 17 different tight ends, but
- [30:15]
Jamie Eisenberg
also the, the yak potential, you know, for what. Right, those guys have done. Yeah, it's, it looks, it's, it's understandably hard to pass up on Trey McBride. But your argument, I think for the depth of the position and taking some of these guys later, you know, does make some sense, especially if one of those guys hits likely becomes the, the type of player we've seen in Baltimore times with the Giants. You know, Pitts continues to have this, this run now with Stefanski again, one of the younger tight ends in the, still in the top five ish range or laporta takes that step forward or, or like it's, it's, it's fun. It's going to be a fun position. So we'll see how taking McBride or Bowers early impacts the rest of the field. All right, next guy you have is devonte Adams, who last year had a very touchdown friendly season, missed some time due to hamstring injury, is another year older. There was some talk Sean McVeigh apparently went to Devonte Adams and said we may consider trading you and then I guess backed off on that. You know, maybe the offers weren't there or just wanting to run it back with Matthew Stafford. Another player that's got, you know, hall of Fame credentials in Devonte Adams. Is this, is this a guy you just, you know, knowing how you approach older players, are you going to avoid devonte Adams altogether or is this just, you know, waiting to see where he ends up based on his average opposition?
- [31:30]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I mean his, his consensus rank right now is 35th overall. He is closer to 35th at wide receiver for me than he is to 35th overall. Oh, so I, I won't be anywhere close to where he's projected to be drafted. He had, he had 60 catches for 789 yards last year. Like, yeah, he only played 14 games. He missed a couple. But like, the only thing that could really change this for me is if this Pukinakua situation turns into something that's going to affect the season. But as long as Puka is there, and we've talked about this a lot with Sean McVeigh, he's probably one of the best coordinators in, in the world at this. Remember the Tyler Higby stretch? Like he just does things for a season or a half of a season and then the league kind of figures it out and he goes and does something different. I don't think we can count on Devonte Adams having more targets inside the five yard line than most players have inside the 20. Like it was just. That was the kind of the thing that they did last year. It worked. But devonte Adams was a shell of his former self in every other regard. 56 yards per game, his lowest mark since 2015. 6.9 yards per target, his lowest mark since 2015. He's now going to be 30. He's 33 years old already. Like I, I do not want to draft him as a top 24 wide receiver.
- [33:04]
Jamie Eisenberg
So touchdown dependent. It was, you know, frustrating. He only had three games last year where he didn't score a touchdown, where he had double digits in, in PPR points and only one of those was over. Excuse me, two of those were over 12. So it was touchdown or bust essentially. And you know, when you didn't get that, you weren't getting much from him. Plus this is now, I, I think, I mean certainly last year, obviously, you know, dealing with soft tissue injuries, that sometimes becomes a problem where these guys, as they age, you know, they train differently and it could be something that carries over. You don't want to see that, but just something to consider. So Dave, are you with Heath on this? Is this a player that you're not going to target at his cost?
- [33:43]
Dave Richard
Not as a third round pick. 37.7 of his PPR points last year came off of his 14 touchdowns. And so any regression there is going to sink that ship. So I think he's as a fourth rounder, as a settle for wide receiver too. I'm with it. But the draft could change that and send him even further south.
- [34:05]
Jamie Eisenberg
Jameson Williams, next guy you have on your bus list. Teeth. And this is a player I, I'm gonna guess tied to the new offense coordinator. And your investment in Sam Laporta at the tight end spot because of how things may go there. So Jamo has been, you know, certainly a guy that we've been excited about at times the last couple of years and last year specifically when Dan Campbell took over play calling duties. Things looked good for him but we may not see the best of him with the the addition of Sam Pets and calling plays now for the Detroit lines.
- [34:35]
Heath Cummings
I I think you could tie a line between McBride and Jameson Williams as busts the the Drew Petsing line but you don't have to. Last year there were 391 snaps when that's quite a few when a Monroe St. Brown, Sam Laporta and Jameson Williams were all on the field together. Those 391 snaps it was a 33% target share for St. Brown, a 21 target share for LaPorta, a 15% target share for Jameson Williams. The running backs combined for 20% of the target share. They saw more targets in the offense than Jameson Williams. Now they've brought in an offensive coordinator who likes to smash those easy button targets to tight ends. I don't think a Monroe St. Brown is going to see a big drop in targets. That would seem to be pretty dumb. And so I think we see JMO still be a very good Boom bust number three wide receiver. We talked about those guys yesterday with those guys that are going to win you maybe half the weeks with great performances. But as long as St. Brown and laporta are healthy and Dan Campbell doesn't take the play calling duties away from the guy he just hired I I don't think Jameson Williams deserves to be he's currently 41st overall. I don't think he deserves to be a pick in the first four rounds.
- [35:53]
Jamie Eisenberg
Foreign Dave, you agree?
- [35:57]
Dave Richard
Yeah, he's a guilty pleasure for me but he's still a fifth round pick and if, if we could get a crown that says King of Boom bus number 3 wide receivers I think Jama would wear it. And you know the deal with him. Like he can make one huge play. It'll be worth 11 fantasy points on its own and then you'll go ahead and get a few other catches from over the course of a game and you'll be thrilled that you started jmo. I, I do have a question for either. I wonder how many of those plays that St. Brown, LaPorta and Jamo were all in on together happened after the buy and what the target share looked like then. But I, I don't even I don't feel like you should answer that because it's not going to be a big enough sample. We just don't know. And there were times even in 2024 where it was really hard to expect a good game from Williams and laporta. It was usually one or the other and I'm going to guess it's going to be more of the same this year. So boom, bus number three wide receiver. It's what he seems to be right now. If he does manage to get an opportunity to be more than that, we're all going to look foolish because he is a very, very talented player who on another team would be a number one wide receiver for that team and maybe even for fantasy if he got the volume to go along with it.
- [37:12]
Heath Cummings
I, I will say that like Williams is six or seven spots behind Devonte Adams in those rankings. I have Williams two spots ahead of Devonte Adams in my projections. So I do like Williams better than Adams, but just neither one at that cost.
- [37:28]
Jamie Eisenberg
Two more guys for you. We'll stick with the wide receiver here. So the next guy you have is Christian Watson, another king of the number three wide receiver.
- [37:38]
Dave Richard
He has a golden crutch, not a crown.
- [37:40]
Jamie Eisenberg
What makes you nervous about him?
- [37:42]
Heath Cummings
Well first off, the entire history of the Green Bay packers under their current coaching staff where they just don't throw the ball enough to one wide receiver to make them a must start guy. We got a small sample of Christian Watson being that guy last year, but we pretty much only have small samples of Christian Watson because of also his inability so far in his career to stay healthy. I, I, I, I'd really like him if we could be talking like around six or seven pick but at pick 50th overall, that's a round four or five pick and I, I don't think it's that seems like it's not the ceiling because I do think Watson's talented enough that if they would change their philosophy and he would stay healthy that he could possibly be better than this. But we just have so much evidence of those two things. Both his inability to stay healthy and, and the packers offensive philosophy of not throwing the ball a lot to one guy that I don't, I can't make a pick at pick 50 based on both of those things changing.
- [38:42]
Jamie Eisenberg
I am curious to see. There was the report from ESPN that Dontavian Wicks is being shopped and we know they just move on from Romeo Dobbs who left as a free agent and if they don't do anything to necessarily replace those guys so we're talking about Watson and Golden and maybe Savion Williams and you know, something else of a smaller addition with Kraft coming back and maybe less than 100. Like do we finally get that type of season from Watson where the targets spike a little bit? Obviously playing time increases and now you get to see what this kid is fully capable of. I'm sure if all these things, you know, sort of fall in place, you'll, you'll change your opinion. But I agree the cost right now is just way too high for somebody that has a little bit of these uncertainties. Like we said this last week, at some point, like we're all excited about Christian Watson to a degree, but not at this cost. I think you said it best. Round six is kind of the, the spot. I think we start to entertain what Christian Watson is, is capable of doing or where you want to buy into it. Last guy for you is Bucky Irving, who, you know, got some interesting company this off season with the addition of Kenneth Gainwell, but also got a offense coordinator at least in his first stints calling plays as the full time guy in Atlanta was very good for the running back there. Now again, we're not going to make comparisons to anybody to Bijan Robinson, but Bucky Irving just too expensive or, or is this something where you're just out on the player?
- [40:06]
Heath Cummings
Well, part of this is I wanted to put a running back in my busts and it was really hard. Like I'm, I'm much more closely aligned with consensus on the running backs than I am the other positions, it seems. But I am about 5 spots lower on Bucky Irving at running back and probably a round lower than what his round four cost is. I think when you like if you look at what they did last year in Atlanta with the running backs, Bijan was still really, really involved in the passing game because Tyler Algier didn't do that at all. Kenneth Gainwell, like the one thing that he did really well was in the passing game and I the fact that Sean Tucker is going to be there too. When he was the guy that took short yardage away.
- [40:50]
Dave Richard
Yeah, he is.
- [40:50]
Heath Cummings
I think he came back, he got. They didn't tender him and then they, they brought. Yeah, that's what I thought. I could have been wrong. I think there's a, he's a got a real chance, real possibility of not being the guy who leads the running backs and targets on his team and not being the guy who leads the running backs and carries inside the five on his own team. And whether it Was injury or not, he was not a good rusher last year. So I, I'm, I'm very concerned about the like, big bust potential from Bucky Irving and think he's being overvalued even at my projection.
- [41:25]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, certainly if Tucker's there, that's, that's a bad scenario with, with Gainesville there. I didn't see Tucker coming back, so I apologize. Dave, you out on, on Bucky as well?
- [41:36]
Dave Richard
I don't know if I'm out on Bucky. I think I, if I draft Bucky, it's gonna have to be at a sweetheart price. So I agree with Heath in the context of how we're talking about bus today, that a lot of these guys just too rich for, for my blood based on where the consensus ranking is. And look, last year, first four games, no one was complaining about Bucky Irving. He was averaging over 18 PPR points per game, but he was also getting 22 and a half touches per game. And I just don't see that happening again. I don't think they're going to overwork him. I don't think they have to. We could, we could see Tucker earn a little bit more of a role than just the goal line guy. And Kenneth Gainwell might just slide right into what Rashad White was doing. All that being said, it is a new play caller and he might design the roles for these running backs a little bit differently. I think there's a lot up for grabs with Bucky Irving. I'm a little nervous taking him as a third round pick.
- [42:33]
Jamie Eisenberg
We'll see how these guys get used in Tampa Bay. And Bucky Irving just tough to invest early in him with a crowded backfield now in Tampa Bay. All right, Tom's gonna get mad at me, but we're gonna take a break right now. I apologize for waiting a little bit too long on that. We come back with Dave's bus, my bus, and wrapping up the show after the break.
- [42:52]
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- [43:22]
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- [43:50]
Jamie Eisenberg
All right, we're back talking busts for 2026. Dave, I'm going to skip over the first suggestion you gave of late round quarterbacks because I think everybody understands we don't like to draft quarterbacks early and early round quarterbacks. Huh?
- [44:04]
Dave Richard
Early round quarterbacks early on.
- [44:06]
Jamie Eisenberg
Excuse me. Right, we like to wait on quarterbacks. So we're going to skip over that one as one of your suggestions. Let's get to the next one though, which I think is very interesting that you say you think that both Cowboys wide receivers, C.D. lamb and George Pickens are being drafted and ranked too soon.
- [44:19]
Dave Richard
I see CD Lamb as the seventh player off the board. George Pickens is the 16th player off the board. I don't have them that high. Were coming off of a year where when they were together the numbers were not bad for, for CD Lamb, it was 16.6 PPR points per game. That's 12 games. Everything except week three. He left that game pretty early in, had 9.7 targets per game. That's still really good. That's. That's like borderline round one good when you consider the context of the targets and the PPR points that he got. But there were only three games last year. We're both Lamb and Pickens had each 15 plus PPR points and another two where they had at least 13 each. Which means there were eight games when one of them did not. And it was usually Pickens that didn't and not CD Lamb. So I have Lamb ranked higher ahead of Pickens. He seems to be a safer bet to get high target share and has worked with Dak Prescott quite a bit over the course of his career. Basically his entire career. Duh. I, I just, I'm worried about overhyping both of these guys based on very small sample sizes of when they were hogging targets. And in the case of Pickens, it was when he was hogging targets in two games without CD Lamb. When Pickens played, there were two games without Lamb where he had at least 30 PPR points. That's pretty crazy. But in the 12 games he was at 16.1. That's pretty good. Like, I'm not complaining about that. I just don't want to take that in the middle of round two as an example. I'd rather have Trey McBride than George Pickens on my fantasy team. So. I like these guys, Jamie. I just don't want to take them as early as people are suggesting that they should go.
- [45:57]
Heath Cummings
I think part of the reason they're going so early is because of the thing that we've noticed in our drafts. When we get to round six and we look at the wide receivers, we're like, man, these guys are terrible. And we look at the tight ends and like, oh, I kind of like some of these guys. And so I, I have them back to back right now. Lamb at wide receiver 7, Pickens at wide receiver 8. So I think I'm a little lower on where Lamb is because Lamb was a first round pick in consensus rankings. But I, I take both of them in round two.
- [46:28]
Jamie Eisenberg
I don't think Lamb gets to round two. That's the unfortunate list. And Pickens, I always, in the drafts we've done, I always felt like he's going a little bit too soon. You know, look, you, you see the upside. You know, you finally see him in an offense that, you know, to whatever degree you want to say, featured him. Featured him, obviously, so. And he looks like the superstar that, you know, I think a lot of people thought he could be at Georgia before injuries and some of the behavior stuff. But like Dave said, you know, a lot of his spike games came when, you know, I think there was three games actually where CD Lamb left early and then, you know, missed two. So you had those big performances from him. I think it's, it's, it's obviously looking at what this team has now become, where the defense is now being rebuilt, and we'll see to what degree that's being rebuilt. The run game. You know, I, I think we all looked at Javonte Williams last year and said, okay, maybe he's got an opportunity and he excelled in that role. But is it a good run game? You know, and, and that's one. I think we, we at least for me, you know, still have some trepidation, like, can they have success, you know, being a power running team? I don't think that's the, the guy do it behind. So it's Dak Prescott's offense and in Dak Prescott's offense. These two guys are have the chance to be awesome especially if CD Lamps touchdowns bounce back because that was the thing that was missing the most from his game last year. So you know, it's a matter of do you want to invest heavily in both of these guys? And as we talked about, you know, Dax had a hard time staying healthy we talked about this last week. Dax had a hard time staying healthy back to back years. If he goes down, the ship goes down, you know, essentially. And you invest heavily in the Bengals, which is a guy Dave's going to talk about next one of their receivers. So I've been avoiding them. Not because of their cost necessarily or because I don't think they're bad. It's just it feels like there's a little bit too much of of these two guys taking away from each other. Now you know how I feel about holdouts. If George Pickens is a holdout, I'm all the way in on CD Lamb and I'll probably be all the way out on picking. So this is something to keep an eye on after giving him the franchise tag. So we'll see how this all plays itself out. Jerry Jones saying that they want to work out a long term deal with with George Pickens. Hopefully that's the case and he is back to being the type of player we saw last year. All right, Dave T. Higgins, another bust for you. What concerns you about the number two wide receiver for Cincinnati?
- [48:41]
Dave Richard
It's the track record when he's not in a contract year. Just the fact that he's right around 15 PPR points working again. Very good. I'm happy to take I'm just not taking him on the just pat early round three. Let's call it early round three, which is where the consensus rankings have him. Last year was 14.1 ppr points per game but 10.2 non I I actually like him a lot better in non because of the touchdowns he said double digit touchdowns each of the last years. But he's failed to have 75 catches or a thousand yards each of the last three years. That's concerning. That makes me a little bit worried back on injury concerns with him. He's missed at least two games each of the last three years. Burrow he's missed time each the last couple of years and it just makes me a little nervous to invest too heavily into Higgins when there are other receivers, especially in full PPR that I think will have the same type of volume. Probably maybe even a Little bit more because Higgins was around six and a half last year. So yeah, more volume, certainly. More catches, certainly more yards. More touchdowns, probably not. But that's the difference between PPR and non PPR when it comes to T. Higgins. Give me both the Cowboys receivers, that's an easy one. But also Olave, Garrett, Wilson in full ppr Abuka who I'm high on. AJ Brown's a close one. For now, I think I would take Brown over T. Higgins. I just think he's going at the wrong end of round three.
- [50:09]
Heath Cummings
I. The only thing is I. It kind of sounds like we're double counting the injury concerns for T. Higgins and Joe Burrow. Because when you cite per game numbers for the full season over the last couple of years, you have to take into context how much of that is T. Higgins leaving games early or Joe Burrow not being there when T. Higgins, Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase have all been healthy. T. Higgins has been a high end wide receiver too. You look at it, last year, There were only 291 snaps where they all three played, which is a big problem. And I wouldn't want to discount 231. I'm sorry, but it was a 28 target share for Chase, a 24 target share for T. Higgins. If he has a 24 target share on this Bengals team that might throw 700 passes. I, I'm all the way in, in round three on that.
- [51:02]
Jamie Eisenberg
And I do think, for what it's worth, Joe Flacco being there, not that it's Joe Burrow, but it's not Jake Browning. It's not Jake Browning. You know, the, the parachute is, is a little bit better you know, if you, if, if in fact Burrow misses time again and you know, please stop playing flag football. But you know, at T. Higgins, you know, he's got to stay healthy also as well. And this factors in. You know, Dave just made the, the case for what Pickens did when Lamb is there. We haven't seen a lot of games where Jamar Chase misses. If Jamar Chase misses, time is in the top three conversation.
- [51:37]
Dave Richard
Oh, yeah. But I don't think we should draft him for that reason.
- [51:42]
Jamie Eisenberg
No, no, no, no. You're drafting t. Higgins for 24 target share on a team that's going to throw the ball 600 plus times. And what he's done on his resume. You're right, Dave. He certainly had a spike season in, in a contract year. That's not abnormal for players, as we're well aware. But he's still a Pretty good player himself. You know, I, I get not wanting to draft him at his cost because there are some other, you know, pretty solid receivers around him. I'm more inclined to draft him just based on what his, his, you know, potential is and his resume. But I get, you know, anybody that's been burned by T. Higgins, I'm not saying you have, but anybody's burned by T. Higgins because of his injuries and because of Burrows injuries, have, you know, probably had enough at this point saying, okay, I, I, I'll take A.J. brown or I'll take, you know, the upside of a book or maybe a Luther Burn, you know, younger, younger wide receiver. So I got it. Next guy is DK Metcalf for you. Is he, is he still somebody that you think fantasy managers are going to target, or is this a guy that you don't even like where he's being ranked?
- [52:42]
Dave Richard
I don't like where he's being ranked. I don't think he should be targeted. I don't like the situation. The, the only hope that you can have with, with DK Metcalf is that Mike McCarthy insists on fast pace, heavy pass volume, offense, like he did for pretty much every year in Dallas and for plenty of the years in Green Bay when he was with Aaron Rodgers. I, I just, I don't know if that's what we're going to get. Because Rogers is older, he's definitely sensitive to pass rush pressure. He wants to get that ball out quick. I don't think the Steelers offensive line is going to be particularly amazing. And they just added Michael Pittman, who's going to take targets away from DK Metcalf. Last year, Metcalf had the, obviously the highest target share on the team. It still wasn't even 20. The next highest was Kenny Gainwell. Okay, he's gone, but now it's going to be Michael Pittman. He'll earn more than the 10 and a half percent that Calvin Austin had last year. And I just, I can't, I, I certainly expect them to add another receiver in the draft. And I just, I can't get behind DK Metcalf being any better than a low end, number three wide receiver, which is kind of what he was last year. Maybe it was a little bit better than that. He averaged 12 PBR points per game. I'm not excited about that. I'm, I'm gonna let somebody else take DK Metcalf.
- [53:58]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I think I talk. He was wide receiver 23 per game last year, so that I don't think
- [54:04]
Dave Richard
this tells you about how bad receiver was last year though, right?
- [54:06]
Heath Cummings
I don't think he'll be quite that good. I think I have him at wide receiver 27 though. I think he's, I think he's. I just think he's better than Michael Pittman. Like Michael Pittman is a much better wide receiver too than they had. But I'm probably more encouraged by the fact that Arthur Smith isn't going to be there designing 40 of their past attempts to go to tight ends and backup running backs and think that there were just going to be a lot more wide receiver targets available than there were last year. So maybe it's 110 to 20 for both Metcalf and Michael Pittman. I think Metcalf's likely to score a lot more touchdowns than Pittman.
- [54:43]
Jamie Eisenberg
I, I'm, I'm kind of curious to see where he's going to settle in terms of adp. I know like where I have him ranked. I'm guessing we're all someone in a similar range. I almost feel like it's going to be a bargain once we get to that point. Like right now. Too high. Agree. Don't want to draft him where he's being.
- [54:58]
Heath Cummings
I didn't even see. Where is he right now
- [55:02]
Dave Richard
in the consensus rankings. Yeah, around six, seven turn.
- [55:07]
Heath Cummings
Pretty okay with that.
- [55:08]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah, seven for sure. Seven for sure.
- [55:14]
Heath Cummings
I think we had a good question. Metcalfe or Sutton?
- [55:18]
Dave Richard
I'd go Sutton.
- [55:20]
Heath Cummings
I'll take my cuff.
- [55:22]
Jamie Eisenberg
I'll probably go Sutton still. But it's close. It's close. I mean, look, you're. You're banking on Rogers at his age still being able to have success. If in fact it is right. It's not Rogers, then. No, for sure. If it's Will Howard, for example. All right, last bus for you, Dave, is. Is Tucker Kraft and surprising.
- [55:41]
Dave Richard
There's a reason for it.
- [55:43]
Jamie Eisenberg
We talked about these guys quite a bit. Sure. The tight end position and the, the second and third tier depending on where you want to put, you know, craft. Why is he a bus for you?
- [55:52]
Dave Richard
He's tight end three in the consensus rankings. It's the only reason cost is too high. Obviously if he's healthy and ready to go, definite potential. You're going to draft him to be a starter. He's going to be a top six tight end on draft day. But top three? I really going to take Tucker Kraft in Green Bay's offense coming off of an ACL over one, two or all three of the second year tight end phenoms that we seem to love. I don't know if I'm ready to do that yet. I think he's certainly going to be a must start fantasy tight end, no question. But I think I'm going to lean toward Loveland, Warren and Fanon until it is just crystal clear that A he's back to his old self and B he's A, he's going to see maybe even more than the five and a half targets per game that he had last year in green bay.
- [56:39]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, 100 agree. And I would not want to draft him at tight end. Four or five either.
- [56:44]
Advertiser Voice
Right.
- [56:45]
Jamie Eisenberg
What's the earliest you would take tight end?
- [56:49]
Dave Richard
Six. What round would that be? That probably is round six.
- [56:52]
Heath Cummings
Round six for me.
- [56:55]
Jamie Eisenberg
I just. That group.
- [56:58]
Heath Cummings
Yeah.
- [56:58]
Jamie Eisenberg
Once you get past the, the three young guys the, the three second year tight ends of Loveland, Warren and Fannin with. I didn't want to put laporta in there but I think he just, you know, it's easy to separate him.
- [57:11]
Dave Richard
Fault by default. Who else are you going to put in there?
- [57:14]
Jamie Eisenberg
No, no, but what I'm saying is like I, I, I like laporta with those three guys but I think you know, it's just easy to separate the three sophomores, you know, because of their, their, their classification. So then you get La Porta and Kraft and Pitts and likely Kelsey Kittle. Like that's the, to me that's where the draft starts at tight end. Like you know, which of those guys is going to go first? Which of those guys is going to be good? Which of those guys is going to disappoint us? You know, I mean it's going to be multiple I'm sure but on both ends, like which of those guys are going to, you know, sort of define the position because this, if we're talking, what would you say both of you, rounds six through eight, where those guys
- [57:55]
Heath Cummings
go, that's what, that's where they usually go in our drifts.
- [57:57]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean that's still pretty heavy investment for what could be outside the top 10.
- [58:06]
Heath Cummings
I do love the fact and I think I've done it in the last couple of mocks. I love the fact that you can draft your starting running backs and starting wide receivers and your flex and still get a tight end that you see that has top five upside and then draft a good quarterback.
- [58:23]
Jamie Eisenberg
Especially if you like the next group which is, you know, Dallas Goddard and Ferguson and Breton Strange and you know, around a Gaston like there's, there's still some guys that have upside Chickokonko you know, take two of those guys and.
- [58:37]
Dave Richard
Right.
- [58:39]
Jamie Eisenberg
You know, and see how it plays out. All right, I'm gonna run through my bus quickly because some of them are, are the, the case is relatively easy. Maybe not the first guy, but.
- [58:47]
Dave Richard
Yeah, the first guy. I, I want to hear what you have to say.
- [58:50]
Jamie Eisenberg
Well, it's, it's really just, you know, he's talked about the Cardinals offense being awful. I mean, this Dolphins offense could be absolutely miserable and this team could be absolutely miserable. And now you're taking Mike McDaniel away from HN and we'll see, you know, what the new coaching staff has, which we know has some names on it that we don't necessarily love. You know, Petullo's part of the staff and you know, former offense coordinator for the Texans on. His name's escaping me right now, you know, as the, as their play caller. Right. He was on their staff last year. Like this could be bad, especially if we lose the receptions for Devon Hn and that's what we saw when Tua was benched last year. In his final four games he had three catches or less in. I'm sorry, it's final five games he had three catches or less in four of them. In two of them he had one catch or less. So if we lose the receptions, we lose the high end potential for him. Now, I don't know if that's necessarily going to happen, but you have a running quarterback now in Malik Willis, so we know how that typically goes. Will he throw the ball to him enough to get him in that 70 catch range, which I think is what he needs to be in the first round conversation. So when they trade Waddle, it kind of was like, okay, this team's going to be awful. And I like the fact that they came out and said, you know, he's one of their pillars and they're going to not trade him and they're going to build around him, which makes sense because if you get him on a cheap enough deal, then why would you not want to keep him? And obviously give the fan base some hope. But we know this team, what they're doing. They have a two year window of trying to rebuild their roster when Tua's money comes off the books. They signed Malik Willis essentially to a two year deal. I still think Devon HN's talent will shine through. I still think he's going to be a very good fantasy running back. I just can't see myself right now drafting him in round one and that's very difficult. To do because of what the other running backs behind him don't have. His don't have the same upside. You know, James Cook is awesome, but he can't do what HN does in their current systems and schemes based on how the teams use them. Derek Henry is older. Ken Walker I don't think is there yet. I'm not ready to say Ashton Genti's there yet. But I would take these guys over him at this. I mean I Henry but I would take these guys over him. At least that's the way I'm leaning right now. I love him in round two. I hope we're gonna see him in round two. I still think we're gonna see him get drafted in round one and that's what scares me.
- [61:03]
Dave Richard
I believe he's pretty low in the consensus rankings. Maybe he was around 2. Yeah. So you're not alone in this sentiment at all, James.
- [61:12]
Heath Cummings
It's. Yeah, it's, it's. The Dolphins are very scary. I'll feel a lot better if they have some wide receivers on the team at some point.
- [61:20]
Dave Richard
Yeah, like you could say, well the Dolphins haven't been great to begin with but they have had many moments with Mike McDaniel where they've put up a ton of points on the scoreboard. You can always point to that game against Denver when they scored 70.
- [61:34]
Jamie Eisenberg
But it's what he said about the Browns. They've been one of the better bad teams, you know because the Browns sure them in games. The Dolphins offense has kept them in games, you know, when their defense has been bad. So again you're losing the play caller, you're losing. You know what has helped.
- [61:49]
Dave Richard
Sure, sure.
- [61:50]
Jamie Eisenberg
You know, easy manufactured touches and now we're just relying on him to be potentially a runner which again he's gonna be involved in the passing game. I don't know what you haven't projected for Heath but like is it going to be north of 50 and I don't know if that's the case.
- [62:04]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I'm still adjusting but I do have him north of 50 for now.
- [62:08]
Dave Richard
But what did he have last year? Didn't he have like 80 catches last year or something? Or 85 targets, 67 catches? Yeah, I don't think it gets quite that high this year. Just between Willis, his tendencies Slowik and his tendencies in Houston, they neither one were big time throwers to running backs out of the the backfield. I think you could use the same argument that he used for McBride for a Chan and that is to say that there should be A volume drop and there's certainly going to be a touchdown drop. But it doesn't mean that he's going to be a bad player. He can still be really good for fantasy. He averaged 20 fantasy points per game last year. Okay, if that comes down to 17, that's still not bad. And by the way, what if we're wrong on this and HN just is a house of fire? He's a really good player. That offensive line isn't terrible.
- [62:55]
Heath Cummings
Maybe getting back up there like the tendencies are all there for them. Throwing the ball to running backs a lot less.
- [63:02]
Dave Richard
Yes.
- [63:02]
Heath Cummings
The problem is they have nobody else like Jalen Tolbert. You're Malik Washington, Greg Dulcich. Those I think are their top three options in the passing game right now.
- [63:17]
Dave Richard
Is Dulcich a late round tight end sleeper?
- [63:21]
Heath Cummings
They're gonna have to throw it to somebody, right?
- [63:25]
Jamie Eisenberg
All right, next two guys we can combine, Trevion Henderson and RJ Harvey. You know, I kind of earlier just how. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to call them, I don't wanna, I don't want to say that they're in this category, but we saw how this played out last year. Harvey at the beginning of the season when J.K. dobbins was healthy, was miserable, you know, and had a couple of spike games because of touchdowns and, and reception totals. But clearly how the season unfolded at the end of the year, he was so touchdown dependent and getting fed that you didn't get to see. I think maybe what he's capable of doing. But I don't know if Sean Payton likes what he's capable of doing because doesn't necessarily run well between tackles. And I think with the Dobbins resigning kind of gives you an indication of what his role is going to be. So the, the positive for RJ Harvey is that JK Dobbins can't stay healthy. You know, I saw some stuff in the chat earlier when we were discussing Dobbins about, you know, how we're just waiting for the inevitable injury, which, which sucks because he's, you know, proven to be a good running back when, when on the field. And that's the benefit to Harvey. I also don't know if they're done with what their backfill is going to look like. I keep waiting for, hey, I know that guy in New Orleans might not be part of your roster anymore. Does Alvin Kamara want to come play for me in, in, in Denver? That would obviously change things about this entire backfield. I don't mind drafting Harvey and I think you're right. Heath, you draft Harvey first. I also think you're right in what you said. You can take J.K. dobbins at his cost and get good, if not great, production out of him to start the season. The only thing missing for him last year from Dobbins being a much better fantasy option was the touchdowns. And so if he gets back to scoring like he did in 2024 with the Chargers, then we're talking about a guy that could be a very solid fantasy option. Now, Harvey was great at the end of the year, no question about it, when he was getting those opportunities. I just don't see him getting those opportunities until there's an injury. So you may have to deal with a slow, sluggish start for RJ Harvey as a fantasy option. And then if Dobbins misses time, you have a potential. I don't say league winner, but certainly a potential starter. And he helped a lot of people win leagues last year. It's just a matter of can he, you know, get the production when Dobbins is there? And then for Trevion Henderson, my God, the upside is amazing. We saw what he could do when there was no Stevenson in those two games. We saw what he can do when he breaks these big runs, and he's capable of that on almost every touch. However, when we got to the playoff run for the Patriots and the end of the season for the Patriots, it was the Ramondre Stevenson show. And so are we going to see the best of Treveon Henderson and where these two guys are being? You know, going back to the consensus rankings, you want to put that up there? Thomas Henderson ahead of Harvey. At this point, I just find a hard. I find it hard to buy into both of these guys at where they're going to be drafted from what we've seen in our drafts, and certainly where they're being ranked right now, it just feels like it's too expensive for what their roles are going to be, barring injuries to their respective backfields.
- [66:12]
Dave Richard
Yeah, I get where you're coming from. And here's the worst part, at least as it pertains to Henderson. Do you remember how much hype there was about him last summer out of training camp?
- [66:24]
Jamie Eisenberg
And I was as guilty as anybody, dude.
- [66:26]
Dave Richard
And I saw him practice against the Commanders. He was one of the best players on the field. So it's just.
- [66:32]
Jamie Eisenberg
There's no questioning the talent for, I think, either of them.
- [66:35]
Dave Richard
Right. But if we see him super talented and he looks good and everything's great, and then The Patriots just drag their feet on giving him opportunities. It's going to be really hard to buy into him. Like, what. What would it take other than Ramon Ray Stevenson having a terrible camp or getting hurt, for people to say, all right, now it's Travion Anderson time.
- [67:01]
Heath Cummings
It doesn't take anything. They're young. They're young guys who make huge plays, who we get excited about irrationally. But at the same time, like round five for Travion Henderson, I'm probably okay with that if he lasts that long, because they're young guys we get excited about irrationally.
- [67:22]
Jamie Eisenberg
I think if you. If you go about building your team the right way in. In the case of both of these guys where you don't have to draft them as starters or you're comfortable enough, if you're just looking at the screen here, Trevion Henderson and then coming back to back with DeAndre Swift, you know, so, you know, you have your fallback option or Cam scatter boot, you have your fallback option or if you even want to take it a step further, David Montgomery, you know, so you know that, okay, Henderson is a luxury pick. If he hits and he's good and gets those workload, my gosh, I have a potential steal here. Same thing with Harvey when the. The Dobbins injury hits. But, you know, that's now saying you probably built your team with hero RB approach. You have a running back in one of your first two picks. You load up on wide receiver. You almost, you know, take the. The approach that he mentioned with tight end or quarterback. You know, where you're just taking running backs, wide receivers, your first four or five rounds and then it's okay. I have my number one running back, I have my three receivers now. We get to round five, I'm taking Henderson. We get to round six, I'm taking, you know, Swift, and I'm good across the board. I don't mind that at all. But I think if you're taking Henderson as a. Oh, I. I want him as a starter to open the season. I just don't like that approach necessarily right now. Unless, of course, the cost is just, you know, great. But like, you see the guys, they're going after him. I don't know how you guys feel, but, like, I like Swift better, I like Judkins better. I like Scattered but better, you know, so I would take those guys over him at this point.
- [68:45]
Dave Richard
With you on Swift, not sure I'm with you on Judkins.
- [68:53]
Jamie Eisenberg
All right, Next guy for me is Jalen Waddle. We spent some time talking about this. I don't know if we've gotten to a full discussion where Dave was on a show. I think Adam's cut Dave off a few times talking about Jalen Waddle, but Waddle going to Denver. I like the addition. Obviously from Denver standpoint. I think Waddle will be the best wide receiver for the Broncos based on the cost that they spent to go get him. I just don't love Jalen Waddle as a guaranteed must start fantasy wide receiver. To me, he's on the cusp of a wide receiver two wide receiver three. I know, Dave, you said once you reevaluated it you wouldn't have taken him in round three. I do not want to see Jalen Wall get drafted in round three. Right. To me it's questionable even in round four. I would prefer him in round five. Dave, just where do you come out on Dale Model now that you had a few weeks to, you know, sort
- [69:38]
Dave Richard
of it it's round four, especially if it's full ppr Because I do expect him to be the top target getter in Denver. I don't think that they acquired him just for him to split evenly with with Cortland Sutton. I think he's a different type of receiver than Cortland Sutton and somebody who can mesh well with the strengths of Bo Nicks, make plays after the catch in the short area and then also make some plays deep. I think he's absolutely going to be not a phenom in Denver, but I think he'll be. I think he'll be good. I think he'll be worth around four pick in full PPR
- [70:10]
Heath Cummings
four or five turn.
- [70:11]
Dave Richard
Yeah, yeah, I'm ahead of you guys on them.
- [70:14]
Jamie Eisenberg
I just think you look at the way Bo Nix has operated with Sutton and Sutton still being there, the fact that it was 124 targets and 135 targets each of the last two years with the second guy one year being 70 targets and the other guy being 102 targets. I still think they're going to spread the ball around a little bit and a little bit being too much for Waddle and Sutton to both coexist because I just don't think Sutton goes away. I think he's still going to be a significant part of this offense and makes sense. I mean you now have two good wide receivers that you could focus on and feature and while Waddle leads them in targets and should be better, I just don't know if there's a huge gap between what he does and what Sutton does, especially from a touchdown standpoint. So, you know, Heath, you asked the question earlier. Or maybe Dave was Sutton or. Sorry, with somebody in chat. Sutton or Metcalfe, who's better? Like, it wouldn't shock me if Sutton is still in that 8 to 10 touchdown range, just with a decreased amount of targets and Bo Nicks just still giving Jalen Waddle those opportunities where we have seen him the last two years really take a downturn in production when he's had somebody else on the field. It was prior to Tyreek Hill really joining the Dolphins when we saw the best of what Jalen Waddle can do from a reception total and obviously being featured in the offense. So I don't want to say that Cortland Sutton is Tyree Kill, because that's not fair. Don't.
- [71:32]
Dave Richard
Yeah, don't do that.
- [71:33]
Jamie Eisenberg
But it's still somebody else that's going to command targets. And if they're both around 110 targets, maybe even at best 120 targets, I just don't know if Jalen Waddle takes that huge leap forward. Plus, he's had a hard time staying healthy. And Dave, you've pointed this out that when the run game has been successful for the team that he's been on, he hasn't exactly been very successful as well. So just makes me a little bit concerned about Jalen Waddle. I don't want to draft him as a top 20 wide receiver. And you see here and you're watching on this on, on YouTube, wide receiver 22, just a little bit ahead of where I have him. So I would prefer to wait a little bit on where Jalen Waddle is. Last guy for me is George Kittle. I'm probably out just based on the injury. I know right now he's tight end 12 in the consensus rankings. I don't think that's going to necessarily be the norm as we just got a report that he may be ready for the start of the season. Who doesn't love George Kittle? We all love George Kittle. We want to see George Kittle back playing at 100%, but coming off this Achilles injury, I probably will not draft him as a starter. I think he's a good number two tight end to draft to see what you get. But now you have Mike Evans there, you have Christian Kirk there. They retooled this entire passing game. I think it's gonna be a slow start for Kittle and then who knows if he bounces back to the level that he was at prior to this injury, 32 years old, not necessarily something that I like to invest in. Older players coming off significant injuries. So rooting for George Kittle, hope to see him back playing at a high level. I just don't know if the fantasy production will be there for him. So somebody that I would rather take with a late round pick as opposed to reaching four as a number one fantasy tight end for the season.
- [72:56]
Dave Richard
Are you in round 10, round 11 later?
- [73:00]
Jamie Eisenberg
If I don't have a tight end at that point, then I'll probably be looking at, let's say Kittle and Gadsden or Kittle and, you know, depending on who's still on the board. We've seen likely fall to this range. We've seen obviously Kelsey fall to this range. So I'm not opposed to doing that if I like my roster and then knowing who I'm drafting with, you know, can I still get a Mason Taylor off waivers or Gunner Helm or one of these guys, you know, Chigo Conko type of player. But you could even if you want to, you know, pair Kittle and Tanjas and see how this all plays out, you know, in San Francisco to start the season because Ton just was good last year, as we know, when Kittle was out. But I just don't want to invest heavily in in George Kittle based on, again, the injuries that he's dealing with and his age. All right, we'll get into more fantasy football conversation next week when Adam is back. I don't know what we're talking about yet, so I can't give the topics, but. But I'm sure it'll be fun. Adam will come back with some vacation stories which are always good to make fun of. And this has been our bus episode for 2026, our early bus. We'll obviously talk a lot more about bus as the off season unfolds. Heath, what's coming up on FFT Dynasty?
- [74:01]
Heath Cummings
Jacob Gibbs is on tomorrow. It's the tight end, rookie tight end preview.
- [74:05]
Jamie Eisenberg
Awesome. Can't wait to hear that. I'm sure you guys will spend a lot of time on Sadiq. Who's number two? Who's number two today?
- [74:10]
Heath Cummings
You know, there's debate about that, but probably stores.
- [74:12]
Jamie Eisenberg
Okay. So fun stuff there as we break down the NFL draft. He's doing a great job with that on FMT Dynasty. Check it out. Check out beyond the box four as well. And hopefully you enjoy today's episode of fantasy football today for Keith Cummings. Dave Richard, Thomas Schaefer. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.
- [74:38]
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