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Hello friends and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football podcast. I'm Chris Welsh. I'm back and so are the ranks. First, big off season ranks conversation. We've got wide receiver ranks and joining me, of course is the one, the only Pat Fitzmaurice and my former awesome co host on Fantasy Pros from a couple years ago who I haven't done a show with a little bit. Tara Roberts is in the house. Both of two of my favorite people. First off, Fitzy, last time I saw you was in New Orleans. So it's a different conversation we're having now, but excited to get back into the ranks.
B
Excited to pull you back into the football sphere, Welch, after you've been so busy with baseball in recent months. But good to have you back. You're wearing your 49ers finery, so obviously you're getting into the football spirit. Great to have you back, buddy.
C
It is never gone for me. It's just a multisport. I never. No rest for the wicked, as they would say. And Tara, we did not purposely color match, but it's very appropriate as we used to do the live streams here. Are you ready, do you think like you're appropriately ready to jump in? And may I'd ask anybody this for like real proper ranking talking tiers. Is this like a really good time to if not be attached to your ranks but be having the conversation so we can start adjusting here in May?
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I think it's the perfect time. I mean one, we're right after the draft and we're going to about to get all of this rookie information flying at us. So yeah, perfect time to jump in there, update, get everything going and I think the people are ready because I mean one, we've been talking about rookies, but now it's time to focus on the veterans. Really.
C
Yeah. And where they're going to end up placing. So this is. And I and I pose that question because this is what's going to kind of be going on over the next couple months. Obviously we are going to be stepping into draft season here in the very, very near future. Some, whether it's dynasty are already going into that spot. But this conversation today is we're going to be talking about our wide receiver ranks and we're going to have a series of a couple of these that you guys can watch running backs and then a quarterback slash tight end. So if you watch in season, this is actually how we do those episodes. This is going to create the baseline for what we are going to be doing all off season long and we can see how these ranks are going to end up changing. So you guys can follow along. You can also comment in the comments section about your thoughts on how these ranks are going to go. And as more people start in the industry start putting up their ranks, the consensus ranks on Fantasy Pros will continue to change. And you guys can go and check it out@fantasypros.com rankings. Go check there. You can see whether it's redraft, it's half PPR standard full, whether you want to look at Dynasty, you can see what it looks like. And these are consensus ranks from not only us here at Fantasy Pros, but some of the best and most of the best in the industry that are ranking with us. And that will continue to change. So if you want to see what this aggregate rank looks like, fantasypros.com rankings, let's jump into the rankings and we're going to look at the big board. You guys can see exactly what it looks like right now with the rankers that have put it out there. The consensus ranks, not necessarily Pat's, not necessarily Tara's or mine. This is the consensus rank in the top 12 of wide receivers. At one we've got Jamar Chase. At two, Puka Nakua and three, Jackson, Smith and Jigba. That is tier one. That's it. Jumping into tier two, coming in at four you've got a Monroe, St Brown followed by CD Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Drake London, Rasheed Rice, Nico Collins. And then we go into a third tier of 10 through 12 which is Malik Nabors, George Pickens and AJ Brown. So there's some questions obviously that to be had here when you're looking at what the top 12 looks like and I think maybe one of the most prudent ones is is it Puka over jsn? Jamar Chase is just kind of owned that top spot. Obviously JSN was a monster. Puka was a monster last year. Sometimes that monster wasn't the good type of fun monster and I think maybe that is what carries over here for both of your ranks. There's some interesting stuff going on. Pat, you are JSN over Puka. We'll get to Tara here in a second, so talk to me real quick as JSN is number two on your board, Puka is number Three. So you have just inverse them versus what the consensus has.
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Yeah, no shade toward Puka. He'd a league high 129 catches, averaged a league high 107 receiving yards per game last season. Over three NFL seasons he's averaged 95.3 receiving yards a game, which currently stands as the best per game yardage average of all time. I think it's yards per route run for his career is over three, which is insane. Just like unbelievable number he destroys man, he destroys zone. Puka plays every down like it's his last. I mean he's just such a phenomenal football player. It is at least a wee bit concerning Welsh that Puka had some moments of strange behavior during the off season and wound up going into rehab. He's got that all out style that has led to some injuries. Like he's only missed seven games over three NFL seasons which really isn't that terrible. But he also missed some time in college. So the off field stuff, the injury risk, it may or may not be legitimate worries. Two slightly more tangible concerns actually. Three One hasn't been a super prolific touchdown scorer. He did have 10 last year, but he's scored 19 touchdowns over 44 career regular season games. Puka has to share targets with Devonte Adams, who's still pretty good even though he's in the late stages of his career. And Devonte does seem to be the preferred red zone end zone target for Matthew Stafford. Fourteen touchdowns last year, 12.3% of Devontae's targets last year resulted in touchdowns and three Rams head coach Sean Payton loves multiple tight end sets like he is setting the pace here. We saw the tight end palooza in the NFL draft on Day 2 this year. Like McVeigh led the league in 13 personnel usage last season, Rams tight ends combined for 150 targets, 103 catches, 17 touchdowns last year. The multiple tight end sets sometimes keep Puka off the field. Played only one one fewer game than JSN 102 fewer snaps. So JSN, you know absurd 35.8% target share last year, Puka way up there 28.6. But you know JSN like is the Seattle passing game whereas the Rams passing game is sort of multi pronged.
C
I'm very excited to see what Tara has to say. But real quick, do you think when you see the tier, do JSN and Puka just belong in the tier with Jamar Chase? Or if you're being a little bit more strict about it, is it Jamar chase always at one, there is no deviation and really this should be a 1B with a version of one of these two guys.
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Just quickly, I think there's even a case for Chase to be behind either Puka or jsn. I think it's the clear big three and they're pretty close.
C
Okay, that's perfect. So this is where things get interesting because Tara, you've got JSN at 3, so Puka's higher, but you've got Puka over Jamar Chase. So Puka is your number one wide receiver. So very awesome relevant conversation here. So probably a lot of the positives, sans a few of those negatives of what Pat said are going to help you lead to Puka being number one. But let's hear why you've got him as your top wideout.
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Yeah, I can, I can fully understand all of the concerns around Puka and his off the field antics and whatnot. And so if we were talking best ball like 100% inherent risk of you drafting right now not wanting to make that choice and saying for all we know something can happen and he will not be available to start the season. Right. But for redraft, I'm okay with going ahead and putting it him at number one, assuming that once we make it to actual redraft season, he is going to be good to go in preseason locked in and well behaving. So once we get to that point, what we saw from him last year, because I went into last year a little bit skeptical, I'm not going to lie, I ranked him down a little bit just because devonte Adams coming in the player that he is anticipating that the usage would be extremely high. And it was. And the result was is that instead of getting a lesser version of Pukinakua, we just got the greatest version of Matt Stafford, effectively using both of them. The hyper targeting in the red zone obviously can be a massive concern there. I mean the way that Matt Stafford was looking at Devonte Adams and the clip that he was hitting him at was just absolutely egregious and ridiculous. But at least it happened and we still got Puka wide receiver one overall. So that's the good thing there is that we've seen the worst of what it can be in terms of the of Devonte Adams and we still got the level of volume, 1700 yards and everything from Puka Nakua. So the touchdowns I think are still going to be the concern there for him. But the volume is just so incredible that even in half PPR and the advantage being even increased in full PPR. Yeah, as long as he's on the field, I'm 100% okay with him as the first guy I'm taking over the board. Especially when you're looking at yeah, all of this hinges on Matt Stafford. What happens if Matt Stafford gets injured? We have to figure out if Ty Simpson can quickly ascend and be the gu. But all of those receivers kind of had the same risk. I mean, Joe Burrow obviously has struggled to stay on the field. At least they've kind of solidified that backup quarterback situation. But as long as we've got Matt Stafford with Pukinakua, he can supply enough volume to where Puka is still going to be the guy that is putting out those ungodly 30 plus fantasy points in a given week.
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Puka, Nukua, Jamar, Chase, jsn Definitely curious your comments below. What direction are you going? And I'm not sure if it's that often that we see there's discrepancies on like who the number one to number three guy is. So it's a very interesting world here. Next guy up here is in tier two. I feel like for two straight years coming into this year, prior to this year, this has been a guy that has been like at the tippy top and then something happens that then makes him a big question. Then he overperforms and then he kind of comes back down. He's a roller coaster of value. But this year it seems like there's a little bit more stabilizing on what his value is going to look like because there's a big question around the quarterback play in the overall production, especially when there was lack of quarterback play last year with Justin Jefferson. So he comes in at six. He's ahead of Drake London. I think there is just a absolute clear five above him. That's not even. We don't even have to remotely have that question. But what ends up happening is like what and who is where should Justin Jefferson go? Fitz, you've got him at 5. Tara is slightly lower. You guys are actually the sandwich between what his consensus are. You guys create the consensus here. But Pat, are you a little bit more optimistic? I said there's a clear top five, but you put Justin Jefferson at five. So are you just a little bit more optimistic about what his production can look like this year?
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I am. Jefferson has averaged 2.48 yards per outrun and 9.7 yards per target over his career, which are just elite numbers. And that is despite Jefferson averaging A career low 1.88 yards per out run last season. Like I'm just going to go ahead and blame it on JJ McCarthy. I have no problem with that. Like Jefferson's best games last season, the only hundred yard games of the season he had before week 18 came with Carson Wentz at quarterback. And it's not like Carson Wentz is any star himself these days. So Kyler Murray is going to be a clear quarterback upgrade for Jefferson. Not that Kyler is an elite passer by any stretch, but he's much better than J.J. mcCarthy was. DeAndre Hopkins had 115 catches and 1400 yards when he played with Kyler in 2020. Like those are the types of numbers I'm expecting from Justin Jefferson this year. I think Jefferson should still be a first round pick and I think you're stealing if you can get him at the turn and 12 team drafts this year.
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Terry, do you feel a little bit more pessimistic or is the seven just relative to like a comfortability of a few of the guys above? I'm not sure who you have at six, which is one spot above, but is there a little bit more pessimism in what Pat said or do you actually think you can just kind of feel the same but you just have a little less investment as Jefferson is your wide receiver 7 I think I'm
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a little more inclined to agree with Pat because for me when I look at the top five or so the top four are the ones that I feel very solidified with and then once I get to number five is where I start to get a little bit shaky. I could argue for Jefferson in that position, but the only thing is that I got to see it from Kyler Murray on the field first because we know what he can be. We've seen it in terms of with DeAndre Hopkins, but it's been so long and my fear is that there might be a touchdown issue. And yeah, there can be enough volume theoretically, but we've also got, we've also got Jordan Addison there as well. Perhaps they get tight end a little bit more involved. Perhaps we see a decent amount of checkdowns to the running backs. So if we're relying only on volume, that's where my concern comes because the touchdown thing has it feels like, you know, was that an issue with Arizona and their offensive scheme, although we had multiple with Kyler or was that a Kyler Murray issue because we immediately saw Jacoby Brissette come in last year and suddenly turn the touchdowns on with Trey McBride out middle of nowhere when we were thinking that was just something that wasn't going to happen. So that's my only concern is that yeah, we can get volume and Kyler is definitely going to be an upgrade on JJ McCarthy, but I want to see it a little bit in action first to verify that that connection is legitimate. Because we discovered that Justin Jefferson is in fact not quarterback proof. There is a limit to which you can safely assume that we're going to get a certain level of production with him. So realistically, seven is my little safe space for him right now. Particularly we could see that flip if I feel good about Kyler Murray and his position there. And then we have George Pickens stay and that obviously marks things up for CD Lamb and I would probably adjust him down a little bit. So I think that's ranking is very reasonable because if anything I don't see Jefferson going down for me, I could see him going up as the off season progresses.
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One more in this top 1 through 12 at wide receiver this year that I want to ask, I'm going to kind of turn it into a little debate because the initial question was is Rasheed Rice too high? We obviously know the monster productive player that he can be. There seem to be a lot of things that follow him. There's a little bit of like oh my gosh, what could be next? You kind of worry about with him in general. And then there's another player that I was staring at in the only thing that really truly feels like what's holding him back clearly is the the questionableness of his injury and it's Malik Neighbors. Malik Nabors comes in at 10 at the top of tier 3. Obviously ridiculously, uberly talented player. Rasheed Rice major target. But the team does like to spread the ball around. Since we were asking questions about Rasheed Rice and I got Malik Neighbors in my head, let's do the who'd you rather Pat? You definitely can jump in if you want to solely focus on Rasheed Rice maybe being too high, if you think that's the question here. But Malik Neighbors versus Rasheed Rice a battle of the does the do they return at the proper time and is there any other drama that's going to follow? Rasheed Rice? What side would you invest in for this year?
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Neighbors without question. I just think that let's not even bring the character thing with Rice into it. Let's just pretend he's a model citizen. Like what I'm curious about is if Rice is going to get the same sort of usage now that the Chiefs are clearly signaling that they want to run the ball more effectively spending money on and Kenneth Walker. Drafting Emmett Johnson like Rice has been an extension of their running game as the short area receiver with an average depth of target of under 5 yards. Like, I just don't think they want to operate that way anymore. Like he's still going to be heavily involved. I do expect him to have a lot of catches for the Chiefs, but maybe Xavier Worthy gets on track after a really down 2025 season. You know, maybe they find some other breakout from like this other group of young receivers. They have Tyqu Thornton and Jalen Royals. Maybe not. But maybe they get one more good twilight season out of Travis Kelsey. Like I still think he's going to be pretty heavily involved. I just, I don't know if Rashee Rice is going to continue to have the exact same role when they made this big upgrade to their running game this year. So whereas Neighbors, if he's healthy all season, like he's going to get 150 targets, I don't have any doubt about that. Like the clear number one receiver and they've got a legitimate quarterback now in Jackson Darth.
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Super interesting because they're a tier difference. I think that's for you also to say clear cut Malik Neighbors when the consensus ranks has them broken up into tier. But Tara, what say you? Rasheed Rice comes in at 8, Malik neighbors at 10. There's a tear break in here. Is there a definitiveness on which player do you think? It's super close. Where are you at Ron Rashee Rice vs Malik neighbors?
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You did find a hidden debate here. You asked wondered who my wide receiver six is. It's actually Rishi Rice on that one. Yeah.
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Oh, okay. There we go.
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Yeah. If he's on the field like that's like if we, you know, all things fair good for now. If he's on the field in August when I'm looking at him and yeah there could be concerns that maybe they want to emphasize the run game a little bit more. And I actually do feel positive about the run game now that we're going back to Eric B. Enemy because he was just he ran a far more effective Chiefs backfield than Matt Nagy did. But when it comes to Rasheed Rice, I actually think there might be maybe an uptick in usage because we're thinking about Patrick Mahomes coming off of this injury. You know, how quickly is he going to be up to speed? A massive part of his game last year was the level of contribution that he had on the ground. So perhaps the injury makes him a little bit more short area focused, right. And that's obviously like his safety area as well because of the lack of trust for the receivers and their success downfield and the reliability there. It was just very shaky all throughout last season. And Worthy feels like more of a role piece to me rather than a guy that can truly ascend as the wide receiver one. And then we've got Travis Kelce who is obviously going to get volume, but aging, how much volume can he handle? The touchdowns have definitely dwindled down. We've had just three the prior year, five last year. So at this point, from what I saw from Patrick Mahomes and Rasheed Rice last year, the volume was just so impressive and not really egregious. Right. He averaged nearly 10 targets per game in the games that he played. Touchdowns were flowing. He was a top 10 receiver in five of those eight games that he played. So I feel, I feel very positive about Rasheed Rice and if he's on the field when we're looking at that range, range of guys who won't be coming off of a major injury. Right. He ended the season because of injury, but not something massively significant there. So realistically when I'm looking at those guys, the quarterbacks that they have, the offensive situation in general, he's the only one that has all positives there. So I do think he has legitimate top five upside this season if he stays on the field for an entire 17 games.
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Tara sort of did a sneak attack there on my case from Malik Neighbors by mentioning the name Matt Nagy who is now the Giants play caller. So maybe, may, maybe I might have to concede this point.
C
I love it. Rasheed Rice versus Malik Neighbors again. Let's hear where you guys are at in the comments below. We got wide receiver twos coming up, but first, today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock BET Florida Sportsbook. We're talking football, but the second round of the NBA playoffs is here where the lights are brighter, the pressure's higher and every possession can change a series. And on Hard Rock Bet every night is your shot to score a major bucket with winter go home energy on the hardwood. We love building same game parlays. You might like the hot hand to drop 30, the big man to control the glass with a double double and the point guard to dish out five assists. However you draw it up, Hard Rock BET gives you tons of ways to stack your picks into same game parlays built for the playoffs. If you're ever late to tip off. Don't worry, Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all game long, from first bucket to final buzzer. You can try your first bet on Hard Rock Bet today and you can score 150 in bonus bets. If you win, just place a $5 bet and if it hits you, not only get your winnings, but also an extra $150 in bonus bets. But the welcome offer is just the tip. Hard Rock Bet has new promos daily, so open up the app right now and see what promos you've got today. And sure, Hard Rock Bet is Florida's only legal sportsbook, but you don't have to be in Florida to join the party. Hard Rock Bet is also with me here in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado, Michigan with more states on the way. Download the Hard Rock Bet app today and let's get the party started.
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Another podcast from some SNL late night
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comedy guy not quite on Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier this week. My guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group.
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The worst?
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Yeah, me.
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Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation to the group the Yardbirds? Right?
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That's the name.
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The Harvard Yard, but they're open.
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Do you have a name Suggestion.
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We're open. Since you guys are middle aged, one erection listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app,
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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. All right, let's go take a look at the big board for wide receiver twos. 13 through 24 is really what it is. We start with Chris Olave at 13, followed by T. Higgins, Tedro McMillan, DeVonta Smith. Then we go to a tier four 17 through 24, Garrett Wilson, Devonte Adams, Zay Flowers, Luther Burden, Lad McConkey, Jalen Waddle, Terry McLaurin and Ameka Igbuka. So we'll ask a few questions in this range and maybe one of the first parts here is to focus on that like ending of the wide receiver or tier threes of the wide receivers. And look at Teterroa McMillan, Tedoro McMillan at 15. Is he too low? According to Pat Fitzmaurice, that answer looks like yes because you've got him as a wide receiver one in fantasy at wide receiver 12. Pat so let's talk about the case from Tetero McMillan and maybe why he's ranking low right now.
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Yeah, why he ranks low. So I guess it's kind of in line with where he finished last year. He was wide receiver 16 in PPR. Fantasy scoring as a rookie went just over a thousand yards. I think it was 1014 tied for 13th in receiving yards among wide receivers. But just generally Teterom McMillan was every bit as good as advertised as a rookie, and there was some speculation in the run up to the draft that the Panthers might take a receiver or a tight end in the first round. A lot of mock drafts had them taking Kenyon Siddiq. A lot had them taking Omar Cooper Jr. Panthers didn't draft any tight ends. They completely skipped the tight end of Rama in the draft this year and the only receiver they drafted was Chris Brazil in the third round. Brazil Profiles is more of like a vertical field stretcher than someone who's going to pose any serious threat to McMillan's target load. I I don't love Bryce Young, but he's competent enough to support a single high end pass catcher for fantasy, and he kind of did that last year with Tedro McMillan, who had a 25.4% target share as a rookie. Like he was the guy right from the get go. Panthers don't really have a great running game. Chuba Hubbard plus whatever they can get from Jonathan Brooks coming off the knee problems McMillan once again is going to be the featured attraction in the Carolina offense this year. So back end, wide receiver one, high end, wide receiver two. Like, I think that's the spot for him. I think there's a little bit of value here with the ECR of wide
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receiver 15, Jonathan Brooks. I'm 100% healthy. Sure. Tara, is there any more hesitation with you? Is. Is maybe Bryce Young something that's holding you back and you're not like crazy low or anything like that. You're just one spot below consensus on Ted or McMillan. You have them outside the top 15. Do you think there's a bigger case against him maybe due to the offense and Bryce Young, or is it just like, yep, this is how he performed last year. You don't see like a ton of upside.
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Yeah, unfortunately it's Bryce Young, which I hate because I love Bryce Young. Like, I love Bryce Young. But the problem is, is that we're talking about a quarterback who had literally four games with just over 200 yards. And two of those games were massive outlier games in particular. So my fear here is that in theory, we've seen the progress. And I believe in, I believe in Bryce Young. But if we can't get Dave Canale pushing more volume and allowing Bryce Young to push more volume because he has been successful when he does it. So all things fair, if we get more volume from Bryce Young, I would feel super good about this and I would want to be more optimistic like Pac. But my fear is, is that they continue to run more of this balanced, conservative attack. They're pushing the defense forward. Clearly they want to play these games a little lower and closer here. And they don't want it to get into a shootout. They can if it gets into a shootout, but they don't want to. So if we have these games that are hovering around or even below 200, the amount of games in 100 passing yard range for him was just really rather disturbing. And that's how you end up with those games where we have Ted McMillan. He scores a touchdown because he's great and that's awesome. But it was also for like 40 yards. And so we've got this catch 22 where he's clearly wide receiver one. He's getting the touchdown opportunities and I expect more touchdown opportunities because of this offense clearly going to progress forward a little bit more. But then when you consider the fact that, hey, if they do add a little bit more, more volume, how, where is the volume going to go? Are they going to try and ease it in a little bit and do stuff that's shorter area more over the middle to a guy like Jalen Coker who I love. Strong finish to the end of the season, the fantastic playoff game. If we get more volume and they're pushing more looks at the slot, that's where it would go. So still the wide receiver one. I don't think that Chris Braswell was a big threat either. I just worry that a lot of our performances are going to be he had an okay game, he got us to double digit fantasy points but he can't get us to that. Not definitely not to that Pukinakua range, but even, you know, not to a T. Higgins point unfortunately.
C
Maybe speaking of wide receiver ones, this is a really fun one because this is if you were, you know, locked into last year and then you're locking into this new year and you're looking for where the big major difference is. It is eye opening to see the consensus rank on Luther Burton who they get rid of DJ Moore, favorite target of Caleb Williams Roma Dunes Take it takes a seat back obviously outside the tight end play. Like there's so much to be excited about with Luther Burton, but is there an over optimism potentially with his outlook for the season where he comes in at wide receiver 20 and one of the reasons I asked this is you guys are both kind of quite a bit lower on him. So much so that Pat, you've pushed him outside of a top wide receiver too. Top 24 wide receiver, you've got him at 26. Terry, you've got him at 23. So you guys are both significantly from a spot perspective lower on him. So path not even a wide receiver too here. Is there too much optimism in Luther Burden's potential production this year with the targets that are around? Obviously the tight end play was very significant. They did get rid of DJ Moore though. But it seems like you've got some hesitation to anoint Luther Burden this year in fantasy.
B
I hate being below consensus on this guy Welsh. Like I'm above consensus on him in Dynasty. But Burden is awesome. He's just so quick off the line of scrimmage that he is an absolute nightmare for defenders to deal with. I'm just disappointed that his ECR is much higher than I expected it to be, which means I'm probably not going to get him in that many drafts. It's great that DJ Moore is gone and the Bears target tree has been pruned a bit. It's a tidy little bonsai tree now and you know the targets are mostly going to be chopped up with Luther Burden, Roma Dunes and Colston Loveland and Burden and Loveland were just dynamite down the stretch last season. Probably shouldn't sleep on Odunze though, who got off to a really fast start last year, then had a stress fracture in his foot that slowed him down and eventually forced him to miss about a month late in the season. I just, I don't know how the targets are going to work out there. The Bears like to run the ball too. It's just like I feel like wide receiver 20 is just slightly ambitious for Burden. I'd feel much more comfortable with him like around where Tara and I have him ranked.
C
Sorry, Pat, how the Internet works is you officially hate Luther Burn. You can't do anything about it. You have met 26, so there's just as much as you want to make the case you hate him, Terry, you hate him a little bit less, but there's still a little bit of hate in there. Joking aside, top you have my 23s inside that range. Where are you at on Burden as far as like a fantasy target for this year and should there be more hesitation on like like if Roma dunes a healthy now kind of takes that step back up and all the weapons in the offense?
A
Yeah, I think Pat nailed all the points. I feel like I'm even being I was surprised at ECR as well because I felt I was being a little generous with the wide receiver 23 ranking for him, especially considering we don't know for sure that he will in fact be the wide receiver one, let alone the first look in this offense. For all we know, there's a very good chance it could be Colson Loveland and we are drafting him in that way as well. When we're looking at it, I think Pat hit on one thing that's very critical. I think we underestimate how much the Bears run the ball. They were very aggressive. It didn't feel like it from a fantasy perspective because they split it up in a way that was, you know, kind of annoying for us. So you're looking at DeAndre Swift and Kyle Manangai and you're not seeing massive upside for either either one of them. But combined they ran a significant amount. Rares were top five in rush attempt last season. Right. And obviously some of that was Caleb Williams, but they're a very evenly split offense there. Caleb Williams doesn't hyper target anyone. He spreads the ball around very well. At the end of the day, I feel very confident that we're clearly going to have a nice Progression for forward for Luther Burden, I feel comfortable that he is going to be able to achieve low end wide receiver two numbers. I don't feel comfortable that it's going to be significantly higher than that. Especially if maybe the exit of DJ Moore allows for maybe more diverse usage of Roma Dunes and we're not just sitting sending him downfield and throwing bombs. So yeah, I feel like where we're drafting him at is probably closer to his ceiling and there's not a risk of him finishing a lot lower, but risk of him benefit of him finishing significantly higher might be overestimating that.
C
We could probably have like a two hour show just simply on like I think this range of wide receiver. The back end of this is we're finishing up this wide receiver 2 range. There are just names of guys that we have such bigger high expectations for. Lad McConkey is in there. You see a Mecca. Egbuca comes in at 24 but just thrown in there at 23. This is really interesting. One is Terry McLaurin. And Terry McLaurin, you can feel the still upside play there. Obviously you know he's built on big plays but you know, full healthy season with Jaden sitting in there. Is Terry McLaurin a value at this point? You guys both have him ranked higher so I think the answer is like pseudo. Yes, but Pat, just quickly on Terry McLaurin. What kind of a value is him based on his early consensus rank versus where you've got him?
B
I think there's value here. I mean McLaurin missed seven games last season. Jaden Daniels missed 10 games. But with better health, I think they can run it back to where they were in 2024 when McLaurin had 82 catches for 1096 yards and 13 touchdowns, a career high. McLaren was wide receiver 7 in PPR scoring two seasons ago. And the target competition is so light, Welsh like third round rookie Antonio Williams might be the commander's number two receiver. They, they might sign Brandon Iuk but I don't know what Ayuk is anymore at this point, honestly. And like I know what he is. Yeah, I just, I don't know if he's going to come in and put any sort of significant dent in McLaurin's target load. So like maybe if they sign Ayuk, I, I dropped McLaren like two spots but then I would imagine ECR drops a bit as well. So I'm probably going to be, you know, zeroing in on McLaurin in that area of drafts. What like fourth round?
C
Terry, what do you think you got the same you guys. I think this is like the consensus ranks you guys both have on him. So Terry McLaurin right now looks like a major target based on where the market is taking him and where you are valuing him.
A
Yeah, I'm right there with Pat. I don't think there's a lot of risk. He's the clear wide receiver one. Clearly I love Antonio Williams, but at the end of the day wide receiver two at best makes a lot of sense there. I don't think see him taking over and earning more of the target share there. I think what hurt McLaurin and it always hurts guys when you push that contract right up until the season, it just often doesn't work out. So combine that with injuries to Jaden Daniels, it was just a recipe for disaster. So feels like a good bounce back spot for him. If we get a healthy Jaden Daniels, him is the number one target. Yeah, we can see the original version that we had in rookie season for Jaden Daniels that made us feel like finally Terry McLaurin is the guy that he was always meant to be.
C
All right, wide receiver threes as we finish up our wide receiver rank conversation here. Looking at the big board, we are going to jump to 25 which is Jameson Williams, 26, Mike Evans, and then we finish it off with a Tier 5 of wide receivers which extends through this entire range. Christian Watson A27 followed by DJ Moore, Roma, Dunze, Carnell, Tate, Marvin Harrison, Alec Pierce, Cortland Sutton, Jordan, Tyson, DK Metcalf, Chris Godwin. So we've got a couple rookies in here which make this a really interesting discussion. But I've got to get a 49er question in here if I'm going to wear the hat. Friends. And Mike Evans. Mike Evans comes over to the San Francisco 49ers. What he is in this offense outside of what we've known of, Mike Evans is still kind of an interesting question. Potential missed time on George Kittle. There's a ton of touchdown equity. He comes in at 26. You guys are on opposite ends a little bit on this spectrum for Mike Evans. So Fitzy, what's your take on what Mike Evans is and can be in the San Francisco 49er offense this season?
B
Maybe I'm whistling past the graveyard with a receiver who's going into his age 33 season and has missed 12 games due to injury over the last two years. But man, Evans is going to be the number one receiver in a Kyle Shanahan offense with a pretty Good trigger man in Brock Purdy. And George Kittle is probably going to miss some time at the start of the season after the Achilles tear in the playoffs last year. So like now that Evans is no longer like the round two, round three turn guy he used to be a few years ago, like if he's considered a wide receiver three now. Count me in.
C
Yeah, that's kind of in the same space that I'm at. There's a lot of touchdown equity here. Injuries have to be a concern, but there's so many weapons Tara but you're on the opposite end. You've got him at 29 age probably creeping up a little bit more. Missed time is on the table. Weird. You know, circuit banks near the training facility. I don't know where you at. 29 Wide receiver Mike Evans.
A
Yeah, it's that I'm very torn on this one because I loved the signing. I thought this was the perfect move for them. He fits well. It will definitely help them get through the George Kittle portion that he's injured. My question here in terms of my rankings as I'm going through guys is like do I want a guy that can get me wide receiver two numbers for a full season or do I want wide receiver one Mike Evans numbers for like six or eight games. That's the debate there for me is how do I want to take that risk on my roster. Because at that age, once the hamstrings start calling and it's a multi year issue. It did it is what it is. Perhaps he can make it through the whole season and he would be insane value at that position. But it's just an injury and age risk situation for me.
C
It is interesting though if you've got the opportunity to get him. He feels a lot better as a wide receiver 3 than he does a wide receiver 2 in half PPR. If you're focusing a little bit more on touchdown equity than receptions, there's maybe a tiny bit more upside but there's just inherent risk. There's a lot of inherent risk that's floating out there. You do wish deserves more of a discount. I think he becomes an. Of course I'm weighing in on the 49er here but he becomes like much more of a draft target if he's closer to Tara's draft range than it is as like a wide receiver too, the final guy. And I know we could talk about tons of guys here. Carnel Tate is staring me in the face also Tyson, you know two rookies that are in this like wide receiver three Range, but there's kind of like a. I think maybe it might be the most boring name on this list, but it might be the sneakiest bit of conversation. And it's Alec Pierce. With Michael Pittman gone, Alec Pierce is put in a really interesting situation where he was such an incredible big deep ball threat. He has a chance to be vaulted up in the target range of what type of wide receiver he is. It actually has like a little bit of a reminder of like the Terry McLaurin stuff in here, but it's just boring. Alec Pierce comes in at wide receiver 32. But is there upside and spoiler alert based on the ranks you guys both are saying, yes, Fitzy, you've got him at wide receiver 28. Is it as optimistic as I'm selling or is he just a little bit underranked right now?
A
Now?
B
Oh, how can it be boring with the guy who went out and got the bag in free agency? Welsh. Yeah, no, I think it's pretty exciting. At first I wasn't excited when he resigned with the Colts, but when the the Colts turned around and just basically gave away Michael Pittman to the Steelers. Yeah, like nothing. A ham sandwich. And now Pierce, who in 64 career games has had five or more receptions and only six of them them averaged 5.6 targets a game last year and had an average depth of target, 18.9 yards. He was the designated lid lifter. I think the role has to change based on the contract they give him. I think he's going to run a more complete route tree. I think he's going to see a lot more targets and a lot more usage and we're still going to get big plays from a guy who's 6 foot 3 and runs like a gazelle. But now I think there's going to be like a big more of a floor with him where, you know, a guy who's getting 5, 6, 7 catches most weeks, maybe not all weeks, but it won't be as sporadic as it has been in years past with Alec Pierce.
C
Yeah, when I say boring too, I think it's just like the name recognition. When and when you look across the board, you're like Alec Pierce. But you forget week 10 on Alec Pierce was the 13th wide receiver scoring wise in half PPR last year. And you know, Tyler Warren is as much as he could. You could have the argument he could be like the number one wide receiver if you want to do that. He can play a lot of that short safety down stuff. And you know what Alec Pierce can do. You Know whether it's stretching the field or him becoming a more complete wide receiver, it's pretty fascinating. And Tara, you have to be in agreement here because you are even higher than Fitzy. So you get to own Alec Pierce here. You got him at wide receiver 26. What's your level of like value Alec Pierce looks like versus the market right now?
A
Now, yeah, I did not anticipate being the high man on Alec Pierce, but honestly I, I don't know if his ADP is going to creep up. I think you're correct that it's one name that people will continue to overlook. And as Pat was saying, you know, there is the possibility of us getting some more varied usage from him. Yeah, we can definitely and I think we will. I feel very good about Tyler Warren getting a boost in targets as well and a boost in touchdown opportunities, but some increased, varied usage for Pierce is the wide receiver one and the damage that he through the air downfield is absolutely insane. So if you're looking at this list of guys ranked ahead of him and saying like DJ Moore going into a very and to a Bills offense that nobody has, you know, over the past several years under Joe Brady been able to truly ascend to consistent wide receiver one numbers just because of the way that they don't push aggressive pass volume and spread the ball around. So you look at, you know, Marvin Harrison Jr. Is another one that's ranked ahead of him. Not even as proven, oddly enough as Alec Pierce. So I feel like he's getting a little bit of disrespect here for the level of upside that he has. Even if he were just to remain in the exact role and there was not that varied usage, I mean his upside was just so incredible. The ceiling is great. The only fear that I would have is just making sure that Daniel Jones is okay coming off the injury because perhaps, you know, Achilles, maybe it makes him struggle a little bit to get the ball downfield and then obviously that would be a big issue. But assuming that he's good to go and the deep balls are not an issue and we'll know that ahead of time as we're looking in training camp. Camp.
C
I feel very good about Al Pierce fantasypros.com rankings. You guys can go and check out the list and you can drop your favorite draft targets out of the top 36 and some that you're avoiding in the comments below. We love to hear from you guys. Go check out those rankings. You can start checking out the tools. You can get to mocking and truly it is never too early for your fantasy football season. That's why we're here for you. That's why we're prepping and that is why we are digging into the first edition of the preseason ranks. That's Wide Receivers in the book. Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast, whether it is the audio version or up on YouTube so you can get the rest of the shows because running backs and then the quarterback tight end one is coming up here in the near future with a bunch more content. For Pat Fitzmaurice and Tara Roberts, I'm Chris Welch. Thank you guys for hanging out with us and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.
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at fantasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasyprose. Sa. Foreign. What's up friends and welcome back to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. It's the early Ranks series. We did wide receivers today. We've got running back top 36 running backs. We're going to be talking all through. I'm Chris Welsh. I've got Pat Fitzmaurice and Tara Roberts with me. We are going to be going and looking at the tiers. We're going to be looking at targets. What are the values and really what does the consensus ranks look like? Those consensus ranks you can find@fantasypros.com rankings where it is our team, it is people around the industry, they're putting all these bad boys down. It creates a fun consensus ranks and throughout the next couple of months it's going to continue to change. So this conversation continues to go and maybe it'll even be driven. Some of the change might be driven by some of the conversations we are going to have here today. Tara roberts, Running backs always a great conversation around. Do I take wide receivers at the top and they're more chalky? Is it running backs? Running backs created definitely more of a floor last season. Do you think we're going to see more of a discrepancy especially? Well, discrepancy is maybe not the right word, but do you think we're going to see more of a variance this year that the top half of the first round is going to be weighted to a little bit more running backs than we've seen in the past or do you think the, you know, the, the. The. I guess the word chalk again, that floor of what wide receivers provide overall, even though it wasn't so much last year, is going to just take back over and people just can't help themselves. Anti running backs.
A
Yeah, I'm torn. I mean people love. People love their wide receivers and they love 0 RB. But I think we will see a little bit of a tilt to running back. Heavy, heavy. Based off of saw last year, obviously when something happens a trend and you have that reliability of those early round guys giving you such an edge that we might see it tilt a little bit. So yeah, I can see this being where we get these running backs with a little bit more preference than they had last year.
C
Pat. It'd be fascinating if, you know, if you break the first round, 12 picks, if we ever start to see again the weight of like seven running backs and five wide receivers, you know where it would be. More wide receivers ruin the day. I do find it interesting, you know, we're going to get the big board up here in a second. But like, I don't recall a year where the tier one of running backs was five deep, Pat. And it is that. And what that tells me is that, you know, there is not only a great weight of the those top guys, but all of them perform in such a level that it's like I think people are going to want them more than ever, that these guys are all safe. It's at tier one when it was like two or three guys that everybody is attacking, but you have five players in there and then the top of the next round, people are going to feel like they're losing out a little bit with all these running back committees that are going on and the performance we had at rbs last year.
B
Yeah, sort of. But you know, Welch, after that first tier, like there's still some pretty attractive running backs. And when you actually get into like the early teens at the respective positions, running backs and wide receivers, I actually think I feel better about the running backs in the early teens than the wide receivers.
C
Very well. We're going to talk about them. We're going to get through those players. You guys want to follow along? Go to fantasypros.com rankings wings. You can do so. And let's get the big board up here as we kick this running back ranks episode off. And we start with our tier one is five players. As I mentioned, you have got Bijan Robinson at the top. Dang it. Sorry. Hold on. My. Okay, sorry. My Sheet completely froze and I was trying to scroll it and it wasn't moving. I'm like, oh, no worries. And then it scrolled and froze right when I started that. Okay, so I'll re kick that in three, two, one. All right, well, let's look at the big board. We've got the top 12 running backs in half PPR we're using here. Up on Fantasy pros. Coming in with your top five, Tier one starts with Bijan Robinson at the top, Jameer Gibbs at 2, Christian McCaffrey at 3, Jonathan Taylor at 4 and James Cook at 5. So those were the running backs that we were talking about that kind of own that top tier, the next tier where there's still plenty of value. Ashton Genti comes in at six for tier two, followed by Devon H and Chase Brown, Saquon Barkley, A, Marian Hampton, Ken Walker, and then Our lone tier 3 player is our dear friend Derrick Henry, who comes in at 12. So that's your top 12 RBs for this season with the biggest tier I've ever seen of tier one for rb. A lot of questions in here, but I think at the tippy top, just like we did with wide receivers, is is there a conversation about who the back should be be? We've got Bijan Robinson at 1, Jameer Gibbs at 2, and both of you are in agreement. So I think a pseudo answer to this is there really isn't a discussion. Maybe Bijan deserves his, you know, top spot here. But Tara, let's start with you for this one. What do you think? Is Jameer Gibbs closer to Bijan Robinson than being given credit for? Or does Bijan maybe belong in his own little mini tier because he is the top dog talk.
A
I think Gibbs is close. You know, I mean, there's always the possibility that Isaiah Pacheco becomes David Montgomery, but even then. So the change that we saw as the season went on, where he had a little bit of a start of erasure of David Montgomery, I feel like that was less about any kind of issues with Monty and more about the fact that they just wanted to truly feature Gibbs. And when we look at how their offense was last year, the fact that they've clearly identified that the change at offensive coordinator was needed, I think there could be a bounce back coming if he's the featured back. Knowing the level of upside that he has in terms of receptions as well, you could argue that he can be put into that same tier of mini tier of greatness with Bijan. My only problem in terms of why they're separated is that we finally might be getting that elusive, special every single game situation for Bijan. Because for everything that I can't stand about Kevin Stefanski, the one thing that he has never been is a bad coach for running backs. And what we've had to deal with Bijan over the years here is especially last year, is the integration of a guy like Tyler Algier at the goal line and the usage. And I feel like with the change in coaching staff and obviously the exit of Tyler Algier and we do have Brian Robinson in there who could obviously fulfill that role. But this is the time for Bijan to be Bijan and get all of those receptions, all of the usage on the ground and all of the goal line touches that he deserves. So we're looking at a guy who has been a top five back consistently despite the fact that he's been held back from a touchdown perspective. So perhaps this is the season that we finally get it unlocked. And I think that's the difference maker. Knowing that we've got a safe baseline with Bijan that could really be upgraded to just a insanely elite level that we have not yet been able to tap into now with the addition of more touchdowns.
C
So, Fitzy, really the question is simple. Is there a debate at the top end of running back? I know who you have at number one, it is Bijan. But is there a debate to be had or, you know, can we move on? You know, can we not have that discussion?
B
No, I think there's a debate and I'm not super entrenched in this if I'm presented with the decision, the choice between Bijan and Gibbs three times, I'll probably take B. John twice and Gibbs once. Like Bijan hit almost 2,300 yards from scrimmage last season, fell 2 yards short and was just hugely impactful as a pass catcher. His best receiving season, 79 catches, 820 yards, 4 TD catches. Tara brought it up with Stefanski. Like he's going to feed his Bell cow back Nick Chubb at a 300 carry season when Stefanski was in Cleveland. And last year, Quinton Judkins averaged 16.4 carries after missing training camp and just being thrown into the fray right off the bat. Like Bijan is going to eat this year. So it's close for me. Gibbs is awesome. He's been the more prolific touchdown scorer, 49 touchdowns in 49 career regular season games. He has been a better touchdown score than Bijan, But Bijan had 44 more carries than Gibbs last year. He was a little more productive as a pass catcher. It's really close. It's Bijan by a nose for me.
C
All right, well, if you guys are having those discussions in there, it's a. It's a really good year for the top end of running back, especially if you're making that decision. But is there any fool's gold? Is Jonathan Taylor too high? You guys have a little bit of a discrepancy in here. He comes in at 4. Maybe it's still the same tier. But, Tara, let's start with you. You've got him at 4. You're at consensus. Obviously, Jonath Taylor did some absolutely disgusting stuff last year. Do you anticipate a repeat? I would guess so based on the rank. But you tell us your thoughts on Jonathan Taylor drafting in the first round.
A
Yeah, I was avid Jonathan Taylor manager last season, and you reap the benefits and then you reaped all the negatives that came with it in the second half. It was a tale of two seasons, sadly. But you can make the argument that we know exactly why it was a tale of two seasons. One, the Daniel Jones injury was a massive issue. What it did to the entire team was very clear. Wasn't just an issue of suddenly there was, you know, lack of opportunity or lack of efficiency from Jonathan Taylor. Everybody suffered, unfortunately, him and the pass catchers. So it's a very clear. But also, I feel like we would look at the season very differently if it wasn't for the fact that their schedule was so insanely lopsided. So it felt a lot worse than what it was because the overall season as a whole was fantastic. When you look at the stats, you feel great about it, but when you felt the actual fantasy production in your lineup, it was very frustrating because you got the end to the end of the season and you didn't have the Jonathan Taylor that you had at the beginning of the season, because unfortunately, most of the easier run defenses were scheduled in the first half of the season, and the tougher ones were unfortunately stacked in the second half. So you combine that with the injury to Daniel Jones and it really just was a recipe for mediocrity for a guy where the season would have felt a lot different if the schedule was just a little bit more mixed. So I honestly think it was just a weird situation where it felt like we were riding high and then crashed and it was just an. An anomaly. And unless we end up with the same lopsidedness this season as well, we're going to get the same version of Jonathan Taylor that we have seen over and over and over again. And we will have the benefit of Daniel Jones even if the injury holds him back a tiny bit. At least just being on the field and stabilizing that offense is going to be a benefit for us. So I feel very good about him because you can make arguments about the guys behind him as well. But I know I'm getting a certain level of volume and touchdown opportunities out of Jonathan Taylor.
C
50. Do you feel good about him? Your rank isn't crazy lower than consensus. But and I'm curious where you're at on this. He could be out of your tier one. We have five players in the consensus that are top five. You've got him at six. Two spots isn't ridiculous or anything like that. But it means enough when you're talking about the top 10 out of position. Is he in the tier one? And do you have any hesitation with Jonathan Taylor drafting him in the first round this year?
B
He is tier one and yet I do have some hesitation and it pains me as a badger to fade the University of Wisconsin guy. But. But so it's what Tara talked about. And just the fall off we saw late in the season, I know part of it was related to the defenses, but like the clear marker where he fell off was the Daniel Jones injury. So playing with Daniel Jones for the first 12 games of the season, Taylor averaged 106.8 rushing yards per game and 5.7 yards per carry. And then Jones goes down early in the Colts 13th game. From that game through the end of the season, Taylor averaged 60.6 rushing yards per game and 3.1 yards per carry. Just a complete collapse in his production. And I'm just, I'm worried that Taylor's success is so closely tied to the health of a quarterback who's now coming back from a major injury.
C
Understandable. Where are you guys at on Jonathan Taylor? That one is the one that kind of jumped out to me as well when you look at like that top tier bunch of other fascinating names. But we're going to do a player debate, a little bit of a debate on here because there was this question that was posed on our sheet off air sheet what we were doing where Fitzy was throwing out Chase Brown. Is there maybe a Chase Brown is being valued a little bit too high? He comes in at number eight. And I think the kind of pseudo answer to that is a little bit of a yes based on both of where you guys are. But comparing him against another player, that that is a first Rounder. There's a lot of potential upside, especially with what we know this offense can be, even though it went kind of pass heavy early on in Omarion Hampton. So we're going to do Omarion Hampton vs Chase Brown. This is the 8 vs 10 on the consensus ranks. And Tara, you have got these players next to each other, but it aligns a little bit more closer to what the consensus ranks has where it is Chase Brown over Marion Hampton. So you've got got Brown at 11 and Hampton at 12. So obviously Brown is over. But how close is this one to you and what case are you making on Chase Brown?
A
Yeah, I'll defend Chase Brown a little bit on that one. I do think that his consensus ranking is warranted in general. My only issue is that I know that he can perform at that level, but I also know that he has no top five potential. So that's why I've got him a little bit further back. But in terms of him versus Amari and Hampton, I mean Trace bound is an extremely safe pick. We got the fear that there was going to be some kind of investment, especially with Chase Brown into a contract year. So that was kind of interesting that we didn't have any investment into running back and we're going to be running it back with the same room that we know. Chase Brown is the clear RB one. His competition is Samaj P Ride. He offers us this incredibly safe floor with the checkdowns and yardage that he gets from receptions. And on top of that, the running back that he was, as long as there was a competent quarterback was fine. The only issue that we had in the overall season was the portion that we had, Jake Browning. After that, everything was good. The thing about Chase Brown is that, and what keeps him kind of out of that top five potential is that you're never going to have the amount of touchdowns on the ground that you need by nature because of Joe Burrow, ja', Marr, Chase and T. Higgins. There's just going to be so many through the air to those guys, but you're going to be very safe in terms of knowing what you can get on a week to week basis. He's never going to be a bust for you. The volume is there. It's a very, it's a nice option that you can have and say, hey, I just want to get wide receiver early, then grab my RB one that I know is going to come through on a weekly basis and Chase Brown is that guy. So I think there's that level of safety that he has over Amarian Hampton in a newer coaching situation with a change in offensive coordinator which could be a for a positive for what it's worth. But also the addition of Keaton Mitchell who we all love but obviously he's a smaller speedy back. That could be exactly what Mike McDaniel loves. And then of course we did have some concerning usage from Kamahi Val when Amari and Hampton did come back at the end of last season. So if all things were equal and he is 100% three down back, no issues, just small change of pace, we're going to get a great season from Amarian Hampton that'll pay off for his current ranking in ecr. But there is the risk that his job is not to the safety volume level that Chase Brown has.
C
I think it's interesting too that you said, I mean you were toeing around like the idea that he's just a floor player. Chase Brown is a not just a floor but Chase Brown is a great floor player. You know what you're getting hitting. Maybe the upside isn't there, but you know what you're going to avoid. And Fitzy, is that the argument? But on the opposite end that you want to play the ceiling player of a Marion Hampton because you've got Chase Brown quite a bit lower at 12 than what the consensus rank is. But you've also got Hampton quite a bit higher. You've got him at 7. So that reads a little bit more like is this a player that you want to plant a flag on that the ceiling is really high and unlike Chase Brown where he maybe doesn't have a top five potential potential upside that Hampton does.
B
Fitzy, that's exactly it. I think Tara and I totally see eye to eye on Chase Brown. Just like sort of back end running back, one solid usage outlook and a team with a really excellent offense. I'm I'm just intrigued by the potential Hampton has in an offense coordinated by Mike McDaniel who turned Devon HN into an absolute monster in my even though there were other running backs factoring in. So that makes me worry a little bit less about Keaton Mitchell or Kamani Vidal. And you know, on a team coach by Jim Harbaugh who clearly values a strong running game. I mean at Michigan they did a pretty good job of hiding JJ McCarthy for a couple of years and still having a lot of success. I just, I think the Chargers have a better offensive line than the Bengals, especially now that they're getting both of their tackles back. The broken ankle early last season kind of kept us from getting the full on Omarion Hampton experience in year one. I think we might get it in year two. And like this is a guy they dropped a first round pick on last year. I think they're going to ride this guy pretty hard in 2026.
C
Upside versus Floor the great debate always in how you're going to build your fantasy team. We're going to go to running back twos, but you can continue the conversation with us always by joining our Fantasy Pros Discord community. You can chat with other Fans, get exclusive AMAs that end up becoming podcasts. Andrew Erickson and I do a weekly in season Discord show that you can be in live and then you can it gets onto the podcast feed. You can hang out. We've got a schedule currently going on right now if you want to join. You got worm and Fitz 5pm Eastern on the first Tuesday of every month and then you've got Bogman and Fitz 5pm Eastern on the third Tuesday of every month. You get lots of fits. You want more fits? Go and join the Discord. Discord. Come and get your questions answered and be not just around the show, but be on the show when we're doing them over@ fantasypros.com chat joinupfantasyprose.com chat all right, RB2s these are the RB's ranked 13 through 24. Coming in hot at 13 is Jeremiah Love. We've got Josh Jacobs at 14, followed by Javante Williams, Kyron Williams, Travis Etienne, Breece Hall, Bucky Irving, a Tier 4 of Cam Scatterboo, Trevion Henderson, David Montgomery, DeAndre Swift and Quinshon Judson Kins. Oh, we got to talk about Jeremiah Love in this messy Cardinals. I mean maybe it's not going to be that messy. It's just, you know, you just have all these options and then you throw in a top pick in Jeremiah Love. And that is obviously why Jeremiah Love comes in at 13. It's a not a high valuation for what you would expect out of him. I think this is pretty common for like the top fantasy rookie running back, but the situation just really screams weirdness here, here. And you guys though the ranks aren't super far. There's a differentiation between one of you seeing him as a RB1 and one seeing him as an RB2. And Tara, you are the RB2 here. You've got him at 14 versus his consensus 13. Are you worried at all about the usage with bringing in Algier? Do you think it none of this is going to matter and this is going to be Jeremiah Love city. What's your take on Jeremiah Love and him ranking 13?
A
No, no, negative. I wish I could be higher on him. It's just that I can't just justified putting him ahead of some of those other veterans. So I know exactly what I'm get getting out of them. But I, I actually I'm pro Jeremiah Love in Arizona oddly enough. So maybe I'll creep up at some point because when I look at the Cardinals run game last year, obviously it was. It was a mess in terms of the guys that they were rolling out on a weekly basis. Very sad, very sad. And the offensive line was not spectacular but for what it's worth they were better at run blocking. The Cardinals backs is messy and practice squ as they were. They were right on league average in terms of yards per carry. They were not successful in terms of touchdowns because we had a hyper usage because of their lack of success and probably lack of trust as well. Hyper usage of Jacoby Brissette throwing inside the 20 at a clip that if he played a full season would have been the highest in the league by far, which was unusual. And I think that's going to come down with Jeremiah Love because they'll get into the red zone and have a running bet that they actually so I actually do feel positive about him. I don't hate the landing spot. I just, I just. I don't know if I can rank Derek Henry or something. Like, you know, there's a lot of guys that I think that I would just prefer to draft from a safety perspective over him.
C
Pat, you've got him at top 10. You've got him above Chase Brown, who we were talking about before. Is 10 the tippy top that you think we can be drafting Jeremiah Love and he has got to have a pretty big season for return or do you think there is still some valued upside? This guy really can be a top five regardless. Like is this the tippy top of where he should and can be drafted or do you think he's going to creep up a little bit more and then obviously your season take on Jeremiah
B
Love, I think it's the tippy top for me. Unless we get to training camp and we're getting reports that like no one can lay a finger on this guy. He's a unicorn. And maybe this is kind of an ambitious aspirational ranking for Love, but I may be baking in a little bit of that unicorn possibility. Like if I draft Jeremiah Love RB10 and he finishes RB15, I can live with that. But, you know, if I draft him RB10 and he finishes RB2, that's a huge win for me. And they have to give him ample usage. They. They took him third overall. Like, they have to justify that usage, especially when they passed on guys like Arvel Reese and. And Sonny Stiles who could like, fix the defense. And just the history of running backs Getting drafted top 12 since 2016, you know, Bijan Gibbs, Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, Ezekiel Elliott, Genty last year didn't really pan out, but that was, you know, maybe circumstances beyond Genti's control. Leonard Fournette, you know, like, if that's the biggest miss from that group still, pretty spectacular group. Like, I think he's a pretty good bet at RB10. It's a risk worth taking.
C
Actually a really. It's not a debate here, but this is the next player we're talking about. A really interesting player you can compare against is the guy that's right below him. And another state of is this guy being ranked too low? And Josh Jacobs just. Jacobs has a ec. That's his consensus RB spot here. You both are higher on Josh Jacobs. Josh Jacobs from week one through 10 last year was RB5. So for the first 10 weeks he was a top five RB. This, I mean, your rank does state that this is like, you know, a little bit too low. But Tara, you've got Josh Jacobs at 9. So you're taking Josh Jacobs over Jeremiah Love. And you kind of alluded to some saying, like there are some veterans you'd have a hard time making that push against. And Josh Jacobs seems to be one of those.
A
He is. He is one of those guys. I know this is not homerism on the pat on the point of me and pat there, but I just, I feel like there is a bias going on based on the stats overall that he had last season that are making it look like his overall usage was down. And the problem is is that you have to contextualize it the. Because he played in games that he should not have. The packers were making a playoff push and so he got injured and tried to push through it. And there were games where trying to push through it meant that he had about like four carries. Like, it was just not a good situation when you're accounting for his overall stats and ignoring the fact that there are multiple games in there, quite a few games in there where he played significantly low snaps. So naturally it looks bad. When he was healthy before the injury, the touchdowns were flowing. That's his specialty. You know, every single game you're getting one from Josh Jacobs. He was the lead back and he will be the lead back moving forward. I know there was a lot of concern based off of last year that we would see maybe an investment in running back on day two or something because the backup running backs there's. They lost Emmanuel Wilson. Maybe there's a lack of trust there, particularly with the fact that we haven't seen Marshawn Lloyd make it through a season healthy. But at the end of the day, these are backup running backs. We know for a fact that Josh Jacobs is the RB one. He is going to have have significant usage on the ground, touchdown opportunities and a bounce back opportunity him for him because of the lower usage overall, he's going to come in fresher and healthy this season.
C
Fitzy, you've got Jacobs one spot below what we just talked about with Jeremiah Love. So I'm definitely curious at like the balance between those two players and you know, is it more of a rock safety net to take a Josh Jacobs? You play an upside on a Jeremiah Love because you know, you asked the question is Josh Jacobs too low? So what do you think? Is he too low?
B
Two different profiles. Yeah, I think Love is more, a little more swing for the fences and Jacobs just kind of the safe floor. And I love that Tara kind of mentioned, you know, how they Jacobs is such a warrior. He did try to play hurt last year and they kind of loosen lightened his load a bit in those games. And yet even with the reduced usage in a few of those games games in two years with the packers, he's averaged 16 points, 16.7 carries a game and he has scored 30 touchdowns in 32 regular season games for the Packers. Like Matt LaFleur does not mess around. He's giving Jacobs the ball. And when the packers get close to the goal line like they're handing it to Josh Jacobs, who is still one of the best inside runners in the league. And while he's not like a prolific pass cat catcher, he said at least 33 receptions in six straight seasons. Like he's not a zero in the passing game either. So I just think the floor is so safe with him and like you're gonna get touchdowns out of this guy if he's healthy.
C
Another really fascinating running back comes in at 19 in Bucky Irving, Rashad White leaves and you're like, okay, here we could go, nope, bring in Kenny Gainwell to be as annoying as Rashad White to be a nice force and catching the ball. But we know who Bucky Irving can be any missed time takes that away a little bit. But is Bucky Irving value coming in at 19? You guys are a little bit torn on this, maybe more in the state that Tara, you seem to just be at cost on Bucky Irving. So is Gainwell going to be as annoying for Rashad White? Is there a upside taken away from Bucky Irving? What's your take on drafting him this year inside the top 20?
A
Yeah, I feel I'm on consensus. I wish I could drop it a little bit lower. Unfortunately, you get into that range where you've got guys kind of in unknown situations or committees are coming off of injuries. So he's getting that default. Yeah, we got to rank him above the guys that are coming off of injury season. Right. But my problem with Bucky Irving is that, yeah, Kenneth Gainwell is an upgraded version of Rashad White. He's just better across the board in general than Rashad White. We still have the Bucs retained Sean Tucker, who had seven touchdowns last season. Now, some of that was when he was out, was when Bucky was out. So it's a little bit exaggerated. But even when Bucky returned, we still saw Sean Tucker sniping Bucky at the goal line. And then my biggest problem that we have in this situation is that we know Bucky is objectively better than those running backs. Right? Right. But what I talked about when we were talking about Bijan and the sniping that we had of Tyler Algier at the goal line, his offensive coordinator was Zach Robinson, who just so happens to now be the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay. That's a major issue for me. So if you were doing that with Bijan Robinson, what would ever make me think that you were going to be giving an aggressive workload to Bucky Irving, who is objectively not Bijan Robinson? So that's my only fear there is that we've got the change in coordinator. I do feel positively about the offense turning back to a better direction than the subpar offense that we saw particularly in the back half of last season for the Bucks. But overall I've got concerns that we're going to be seeing the same thing where we've got this integrating usage of these other running backs. And if we get any sniping at the goal line, it's just going to be frustrating. It will make him a safe low end RB2, but unfortunately cap the RB1 upside for him.
C
Fitzy, your rank kind of states maybe like a little bit less worry, but I think it's fair what Terror said said that you throwing out Gainwell's a better back. Sean Tucker was kind of annoying. I. I'm annoyed by the situation because I think Bucky's just too talented. Bucky is a. To me, just, like, please unload the clip and just let him go, because you want to talk about a guy that's going outside the top 15, that's got, like, potential top five upside. To me, it's a guy like Bucky Irving who can catch the ball out of the backfield and is a touchdown magnet. But what. What say you, Fitzy, on this situation? You are high. You've got him at RB16, so you're higher than conveyor consensus. But does your rank represent some of the, like, aggressive feelings on maybe wanting to take him, or is it just hesitation?
B
No hesitation. I'm gonna have so much Bucky Irving this year, it's gonna be ridiculous. There is this idea that Bucky's workload is under siege. You know, Kenneth Gainwell replacing Rashad White, like, Gainwall is, like, seen as this existential threat to Bucky's work. He averaged 6.7 carries a game last year. Gainwell did, and that was a career high. And, like, yeah, they do use Sean Tucker at the goal line. Maybe they will again. But, like, that's kind of the extent of his threat. Bucky averaged 20.3 touches a game last season. And we in fantasy always complain about the extinction of the workhorse running back. And we've got a workhorse running back right in front of us who were trying to fade. And I know the efficiency nosedive last year. Like, the breakaway run percentage went from, like, 34.9% in 2024 to, like, 13% last year. And yards after contact per attempt were way down. But, like, it was also offensive line. The Bucks had ranked second in adjusted line yards, and that was 2024, when Bucky had the great season. And last year, they were 22nd in adjusted line yards, and their pff. Run blocking grade plummeted from 2024 to 2025. Like, to my eye, Bucky was kind of the same guy he was last year. Like, running super hard, making guys miss when he can. But he just. The lanes weren't there for him last year. The big runs just weren't there. Like, man, if people want to fade this guy, I am totally buying.
C
You and me. Lockstep, brother. All right, running back threes. These are RB's 25 through 36. Our last batch here at 25, we kick it off with Bashel Tutin, Jadarian Price at 26, Chiba Hubbard, Jalen Warren, RJ Harvey and then we go to a Tier 5 which finishes out the rest of the ranks here. Rico Dowdle now in Pittsburgh at 30. Ramandre Stevenson, Tony Pollard, Kalmanangai, Blake Corum, J.K. dobbins and Jakori Kroski Merit our boy Bill. Looking at a debate here, I really like this one and I think Pat, you might even put this together here is Bishop Tootin versus Jadarium Price. So 25 versus 26 on this list, Pat. You have it exactly in that range. You have the same valuation Tara, but you've got Bashtun quite a bit higher. So Tutin comes in as a in Almost a top 20, 21 for you. So inside is an RBT2 and price is kind of kicked out there. Bogman's favorite player, Jadarian Price. So Tara, talk to us about the differences in the draft value. Any concerns on Price? Tutin unleashed. What do you have on these two guys and how they are against each other for fantasy?
A
Yeah, I'll start off with Price because I think it's very simple. It can either be a situation of him going in there and you know, unfortunately Seattle has said it's not going to be the case but you know, well, the off season speak is what it is from coaches. But there's a scenario in which Price immediately is the RB one three down back. That's what he's capable of. But there's also the scenario where Emmanuel Wilson is a big guy and can in fact be the Zach Charbonnet to Price's Kenneth Walker. So that is my fear is that despite the fact that Zach Charbonnet is injured that they are just going to create another Zach Charbonnet and run the same situation with Bashal Tutin. We have the same theoretical concern. The only difference is is that Chris Rodriguez probably isn't the same level of back in terms of three down opportunity. It was a good upgraded little season from him with Washington last season, but I just think it's very interesting how we went from swearing that it was Basal Tutin season pushing Travis ETN out of the way and now all of a sudden it's not Basil Tutin season. We've got Chris Rodriguez that is going to be the lead back there there. My only concern with BAAL Tutin is that pass catching as a whole. We know that he can in theory. He did have a couple of touchdown receptions but the usage of him as a three down back and pass blocking would be a slight concern and we don't know if they trust him at that level. So that's the only issue there that would stop me from truly feeling like he's the solidified unquestioned RB1. But he was clearly trusted at the goal line in short yardage yardage last year. So the reality of him operating as the lead back over Chris Rodriguez with maybe a little bit of passing down work from another back like Laquin Allen Jr. Maybe that makes more sense to me. So I like him in that RB 20 to 24 range as a nice little safe area where you can draft someone with potential to be a lead back at, not a massive risk.
C
So, Fidzit, let me ask you something then. Great points by Tara, especially breaking down on Tootin here. If you're looking at RB 25 through 26 from a basic strategy standpoint, when you're in this range of RB, do you think you it is you're more likely RB25 plus to be targeting stable players or upside players?
B
Kind of depends on question. Kind of depends on the build. For me, I mean, I want probably stability because I tend to be a little wide receiver heavy in the early rounds. So I'm like, I'm going to need, need my wide. If I'm drafting a guy in this range, it's probably going to be my RB2 and I need him to play.
C
Okay, that, that's, that's perfect there because that would make sense. And I think that aligns to where you're going because I guess what I'm getting at is like, who do you think has more upside here? Is it Tootin in that situation where you're looking at Allen, you're looking at Rodriguez or you're looking at. I mean, obviously you, you and Bogman have that clip out on Social where Bogman is just waxing Pokemon. And I think you're kind of there as well on Jadarian Price. And what could be if I'm, if I'm at least, you know, you're aligned to what you're putting together here. My point would be, is like I kind of feel like Price might be the upside play here. And if you're looking for stability is does Tootin provide the proper stability that you're looking for in that case? Or is the upside if the upside to you is greater on Price? So I kind of threw a couple things at you. I was trying to, you know, kind of create a little piece here together of upside versus stability and what your drafting habits are. So I guess I'll just throw it Back. What do you think Tootin versus Price here? Based on the stuff I'm, I'm trying to lead you into, I am gonna
B
come back with the totally unsatisfying response of, I don't know, like I, I am so conflicted on these two players. Like with Price, right, right now I've got Tutin one spot higher than Price. I've got, I'm right in line with DCR, RB25 Tutin RB26 price and but like I could easily flip line those with Price. Yes, you've got the Runway early in the season with Charbonnet missing time because of the injury. You've got one of the run heaviest teams in the league with a great defense that's going to continue to give the offense run friendly game scripts. And Price is probably a good fit for a team that's going to most likely continue to run a lot of outside zone, which I think Price should thrive in. At the same time, I'm not totally sold on Price's prospect Pettico degree and like Charbonnet could come back at exactly the worst time in the season during the most important weeks of, of the fantasy season to kind of spoil the Jadarian Price party. Like that's worrisome. And then with Tutin, Tara laid it out really well. I mean you've got Chris Rodriguez as maybe the preferred early down back, a guy who played for Liam Cohen at the University of Kentucky. And and then like that would be fine if Tootin was going to be the sole pass catcher because we know Chris Rodriguez cannot catch worth a lick. But like Laquin Allen is there and might even be the better pass blocker also. So it's possible he's like the third down back and you've got this terrible limbo for Tootin where he gets some usage but he's not the goal line guy and he's not the third down back. It's just so messy for both of these guys.
C
Feels like there's a lot of messiness in this general vicinity. You know, you're talking about some of the like teams running backs that you really like. I don't know if there's a whole lot of like in this territory. I, I could make a kind of like a blanket question. You can, you know the, you have a Jalen Warren versus Rico Dowdle now. You've got the, the New England situation. You got a lot of just situations are out there. Is there a situation though with the final guy we're going to talk about in RJ Harvey and Is that situation just less than ideal? He's coming in at a pretty rough, robust 29. You guys both have him lower. Terry, you've got him at 30, relatively on consensus. Do you think RJ Harvey is maybe the counter to all these weird questions we have on these running backs or is he just in that stable and maybe a little bit less trustworthy?
A
No, he's not the counter. Oh God. And I hate that because I want him to be the counter. You know, based off what we did see at the end of last season. But I do think that the, that the joelman Jonah Coleman draft pick might have been the writing on the wall. Because with Harvey we're inevitably waiting. We're saying, ok, we know that it's going to be a split with J.K. dobbins and R.J. harvey. J.K. dobbins early down and you know, goal line touchdown opportunities. He can maybe get you one J.K. dobbins or sorry, J.K. dobbins. And then with RJ Harvey, you know, you've got the pass catching upside, the explosive plays, right? And good red zone usage for him as well. So he gives you those boom games but the consistency isn't there for him. There's going to be a lot of dud games unfortunately. So a very boom bust player that you have to live with and you're waiting for J.K. dobbins to potentially go down with an injury. But now that we've got Jonah Coleman, you wonder, okay, is, is the weight never going to come? Will Jonah Coleman just ascend into the J.K. dobbins role? Because that role would fit his actual usage. So I, I fear that it's a permanent committee is my only issue and I won't rank him a lot lower just because I don't want to overreact from a rookie being drafted who's going to be the third option and thinking that he is going to ascend. But the possibility exists enough for me to say it's a no go for me. I'm to going just not super comfortable with the situation.
C
Yeah, it's funny about this too. Maybe the better question would have been highlighted more around Chuba Hubbard. Because you're looking at all these guys and you're just like, all right, you see, you see the same team name with the same player. You see Dobbins and Harvey in the 36. You're seeing obviously, you know, Ramon Dre and Travion, the Jacksonville situation. You just see all these like split committees and then it's just like Chuba Hubbard lost Rico and that creates maybe a little bit more of an open okay, let me ask bit a little like this Fitz, do you think RJ Harvey and Chuba Hubbard should even be in the same tier or close to each other?
B
I mean, I'd rather have Chuba. I think even though it's possible Brooks winds up as the lead guy there, it's just you're going to get something out of R.J. harvey. I just don't know if it's going to be starter worthy because like McVeigh or not McVeigh, Payton. Sean Payton always uses a committee and there's usually a lot of pass catching value to Sean Payton's running back backs. But man chopped up three ways with J.K. dobbins and like I don't want to have to count on a Dobbins injury. And even if Dobbins does get hurt, I think the Broncos still have Julia McLaughlin and Tyler bidet on the roster. So it's probably like working those guys into the mix too. It was just that RJ Harvey was so disappointing. I think after Dobbins went down and just kind of failed to pick up the torch and give them really anything in the running game when they were, they were like a legitimate super bowl contender. So I just, I think that was sort of the impetus for the drafting of Jonah Coleman.
C
Disappointing might be kind of what this RB3 25 through 36 looks like. It also is very representative of very early draft season ranking. It is may as we're recording this, we're doing the first iteration of this. Lots of ranks still have to be put on and there's sometimes a hand being thrown up of like we just don't 100% that know what is going to materialize in this situation and it makes it messy. So you know in any early best balls and drafts that people are putting together, this is like a little bit less of an ideal spot to be picking especially RB2s like Fitzy was talking about. You might be more wide receiver heavy. Maybe you don't want to be. Maybe you're looking for stability. This isn't really the true stability range. But what say you? Who do you feel comfortable with, especially on these RB3s? Put it in the comments below and join the conversation. Going to fantasypros.com ranger rankings, you can check out what consensus is saying and then you can figure out where that makes sense for you. Plus we've got all the great tools on fantasy pros to help you out. Whether you're mock drafting you start syncing your Leagues, you're getting the best advice. We got you hooked up. Powered by all these amazing people. Powered by Pat Fitzmaurice and Tara Roberts. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with us. For the RB ranks, I'm Chris Welsh and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros. All right. Oh, two down, last one, Shorter one. Okay, so hopefully this shouldn't be more than 20 minutes.
A
All right.
B
Yeah, my notes are much shorter on this one than.
A
Right.
C
Excellent, excellent. Yeah, I'm going right in for 30 minutes until I gotta jump back with Joey and then I gotta live stream with Joey. This is my marathon. This is my marathon today. Oops.
A
You're a pro.
C
Trying a fantasy pro. All right. All right, last one. Are you guys ready? Yep.
B
Yes, sir.
C
All right, here we go. Coming down in three, two, one. What's up, friendos? And welcome into Fantasy Pros, the fantasy football podcast. With the rank series, very early ranks, where we are looking at the fantasy pros, ranks, tiers, valuations, we're talking strategy. We're already looking at what our team constructs can be and doing so with me is Mr. Pat Fitzmores and Tara Roberts, both rankers on the fantasy pros platform. We've gone through wide receivers, we've gone through running backs. You can go back and watch those videos. Today we're going to be looking at two different positions. We're going to be looking at the top 12 quarterbacks and the big board on Fantasy pros and the tight ends both in the top 12. What our strategies are going to look like, whether it is late quarterback season, season, whether we are highly invested in tight end, which is, I think, always a big question. And Fitzy, you have definitely been. You and Bachmann kind of have your tight end whisperness to you. Do you think you're going to be just as this is a blanket statement, just jumping ahead, do you think you're going to be early investment on tight end this year or do you think the position is kind of chock full of value, that you're going to wait on it?
B
I'm going to be an early investor, I think, in most leagues.
C
Okay, early investment. Tara, going over to quarterbacks, I'm going to ask you kind of a similar question. Question. Do you think the higher end of quarterback. I know people get dicey about wanting to invest in quarterbacks early on, but do you think the high end is valuable enough to avoid what the questions are later? Or do you think when you stare at dak Prescott at 11 and Brock Purdy at 12 and you just see some of the value later. This is a good year to wait and sit on quarterback to the later rounds.
A
It's a good year to wait. I mean, we've talked about the fact that the running backs and wide receivers, there's a point at which all of them get a little bit shaky and you know, investing early and maybe passing up on one of those early quarterbacks is probably the better route. But I, I will say, I always say that. And then the quarterback drops and I'm like, ooh, maybe I do want Justin Herbert or something like that. So, you know, hypocrisy sometimes that I'm,
C
I totally vibe with you on that because that happens to me. And I'm like, I'm not gonna touch him. It's not gonna happen. And then it's like Joe Burrow keeps going or Jaden Daniels and I'm like, well, well, I don't really like the running backs that are here and wide receiver is still pretty chalky. I could have Jaden Daniels and I think I go down that route. So that that is 100% a thing that ends up happening to me. So wherever you're at early or late quarterback or tight end, we're going to be talking about what the top 12 looks like, the players that you're going to invest in, maybe avoid. We'll look at consensus ranks and then we will also compare it against both of Tara and Pat's ranks as we do. So if you guys want to follow along, go to fantasypros.com rank rankings. That is where the consensus ranks on Fantasy Pros Live. They are going to be changing throughout the season as our rankers adjust, more rankers start going to the platform. That's what's so cool about it. So you guys can follow along and feel free to comment below in the comments as we do this. So let's start with quarterbacks and let's get the big board up here. Our top 12 around fantasy pros. Tier one is the first three quarterbacks. It is Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Pat Fitz. Morris own Dream May that is your top three and that is your tier one. Four through eight is tier two where we've got Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert and Jackson Dart. There's some pretty good value in there if we're being honest. And tier three at nine is Caleb Williams with Trevor Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott and Brock Purdy. So let's outside of Josh Allen being number one and maybe deserving his own kind of like pseudo tier here? Are there Questions about what Quarterback 2 should look like and how close is this? Pat, let's start with you. Lamar comes in at 2, Drake May comes in at 3 and honestly, you guys both have the exact same tiering. But is this a situation we actually talked about this in running backs where think you said if you were doing three drafts, two of them you would take Bijan, one you would take Jameer Gibbs. Is this kind of like the same thing where you would have some diversity in it that it's just like I don't know if I can pass up what Drake May's value can be and I I don't want to be fully invested in one guy. Do you think those two super, super close or no?
B
I like Lamar pretty clearly better. Welsh like a healthy Lamar is just such a force and clearly he was not healthy last season. Like he was QB16 and fantasy points per game, the running production just wasn't there. But QB1 in fantasy points per game in 2024, QB3 in fantasy points per game in 2023 just a tick behind Hertz. So like I think Lamar's going to be right back to where he was. They feathered his nest a little bit in the draft with Elijah Surrat and Jacoby Lane, a couple of receivers. Like I love Drake May, but it was a really strange season for him last year. And I by the way, I think Drake May has still left some meat on the bone as far as rushing. Like I don't think he's at his best running season yet, but absolute cakewalk of a schedule last year and he was just dicing up defenses with his arm. He is a fantastic, fantastic passer, maybe the best pure passer to come to the league in a few years since Joe Burrow. But man, then he hits this absolute brick wall in the playoffs when he runs into maybe the three best past defenses in the league and the Texans, the Broncos and the Seahawks, and he just couldn't get anything done. And he's not going to have a cakewalk of a schedule this year after the Patriots won the AFC East. It's not going to be the murders Roe faced in the playoffs last year, but it's going to be tougher. So I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't quite as efficient a passer this year as he was last year. Still think he's really good. Still think he deserves to be QB3, but I'd rather have Lamar just as
C
a quick follow up here. You're at the Back end of the third round. He's like 31, I think, in our overall. So you're just right on the back end, maybe a couple picks in front of you. You. Are you taking Lamar Jackson in the late third round?
B
Hmm.
C
And. Or if Drake may. If both of them are there and then Drake May comes back in the fourth round. Are you taking Drake May in the fourth round?
B
Probably not. In either case, I think I'm probably. I'm more inclined to go early tight end, wait on a quarterback and just, you know, if I really didn't like the wide receiver and running back selections, maybe I'd consider Lamar late in the third. But I'm. I'm pretty committed to waiting on quarterback until I get your situation where that name like Jane Daniels keeps sliding or something, and I just can't resist.
C
Maybe that means that's the most important thing we're talking about here. It's fun to talk about. Like, is it Lamar? Is it Drake May? But if you're passing on them at value or even a little bit lower than value, I think that tells you kind of a bigger story. Tara, same thing across the board. Lamar vs Drake May and then that exact same scenario. Both guys are available in the back end of the third round. Are you pulling the trigger on Lamar Jackson? Are you not? And then he gets taken and Drake Mays in the fourth. Are you pulling the trigger there?
A
Oh, yeah. I mean, Pat nailed it in terms of Lamar Jackson, and I think there's a separation there between Lamar and Drake May. For me, a healthy Lamar Jackson is literally the best. Like we. We saw it last year. Even with the fact that early on, the Ravens were still quite a mess. It was just a mess of a season. Right? Right. But despite that, through the first three games of the season, he was top five before the injury. And you know, that wasn't against layup teams as a whole. Right. So we know what he is. We feel confident. If he's on the field and healthy, we know exactly what we're getting. Pat is right that, you know, there is concern. What if that level of efficiency that he. That Drake May was operating off of last year goes away? We would have to see an increase in pass volume. Is j. Is Josh Daniel McDaniels going to allow that increase in pass volume? I can make the argument that I feel a little bit safer if we do get that inevitable AJ Brown trade and then we've got the clearly upgraded room. We got the addition of Romeo Dobbs, but the addition of a A.J. brown would just really put it over the edge there. So that would probably increase my comfort level. But to me, there's a clear separation between the jb where, yeah, I can make that argument of Lamar in third and picking it and feeling okay about it. But I would hesitate on Drake May. I think he's appropriately ranked. He's my QB3. But in terms of the value that he offers versus the guys after him, you might wait on that one and try and invest in other higher end positions earlier.
C
All right. A quarterback that is always at odds for me, someone I don't want to invest in, the passer that he is, is only distracted by the great runner that he is. But I think, I don't know, things kind of came to a head this year. It's Jalen hurts. Jalen hurts. Last year, weeks 10 through 17, if we want to take away the final week, was quarterback 10. He was a little bit lower. When you do 18 across the board, there's some messy stuff that was going on there. But he's quarterback six again this year. Obviously, we know the rushing upside. What he can do is tremendous. Saquon maybe taking some of that rushing upside. Or really he kind of took away from Saquon. Really the question here is, is are we doing this again? Are we doing this with Jalen Hurts? Is he too high? I think he is. I'm not taking him as a 6 quarterback. He's definitely not the quarterback that I'm like, hey, I didn't take Lamar Jackson. I didn't take Drake May. Oh, I can get Jalen Hurts later. I'm a little bit out on that. Pat, I think you're in agreement with me. You've got him at quarterback 10, so I mean, if you get him at quarterback 10, that's great. But consensus is saying that ain't happening, brother. So where are you at on Jalen Hurts?
B
Yeah, you said he's a great runner. Give me one second. Sorry. All right, three seconds. Three, two, one. You said he's a great runner. Welsh, is he a. Is he a great runner? So421 rushing yards last year, the lowest in any of his five seasons that he's been a season long story starter he had after four seasons of double digit touchdown runs. He only had eight last year and I believe four of them came in the first three games. So the rushing production really kind of dried up. The towards the end of the season, the Dallas Goddard shovel pass sort of replaced the tush push as the preferred short yardage touchdown delivery mechanism for the Eagles. And. And Like, I don't know if we can count on a bevy of tush push touchdowns anymore. Like what, what if the league actually decides to start calling the Eagles for false starts on these things? Like they do pretty much on every tush push they ever run. So like the passing game production we know isn't really going to be elite. He was like barely over 3,000 yards last year. Maybe things improve a little bit. Although it's hard to I even though they're adding Makai Lemon and Eli Stock, I don't know if you're going to get a big spike in rushing production if you're losing A.J. brown. Plus he's getting his umpteenth new play caller. Just. Yeah, this is not a bet I really want to make now.
C
Tara, are you making this bet? You're actually higher than consensus. You got him at five. This is great. We should have some discrepancy. We should have some conversation around it. Me and Pat are kind of out on Jalen Hurts, but at five looks like you might still be buying.
A
Yeah, I'm sure chat will be coming at me a little bit on this one. I am a Jalen hurts defender. I know, I'm sorry. But the thing is, is that when I'm comparing him to the quarterbacks where they're going after him in consensus, that's, that's where my concern is. Like, how far can we push him down and feel comfortable? Obviously I trust Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Drake, May, Joe Burrow, and that's where I start to get that weird cutoff of we're going to have to see a healthy version of James Daniels get back to that rookie level. Are we going to be able to see that right off the bat or is that going to take some time? Are we going to see a little bit less of him on the ground? Then you've got Justin Herbert. Do we see increased usage on the ground from him? Jackson Dart, We've got Matt Nagy, Caleb Williams. They run aggressively with the run game there. There's, there's lots of arguments for or why the guys behind him will definitely have potentially higher upside because of their pass volume, but maybe not as safe of an option. And when we look at Jalen Hurts, I know exactly what I'm getting out of him on a week to week basis and that week to week security is the thing that makes me give him that push over some of those other guys there. Last year in average fantasy points per game, for what it was worth, it wasn't as bad as. As it seemed it was QB7 on the season the previous year. With the outrageous volume that Saquon had, I think that's very critical. He was still QB6 in average fantasy points per game on the season. For me it's the trust in terms of the overall usage for him, the touchdown upside that he does have in general that makes him the safer pick on a week to week basis there for me. A.J. brown again exiting could be a hindrance, but it also might be a positive in terms of the change in offensive coordinator and allowing for a new version of this Eagles offense. We're going to get some changes in terms of how they utilize Jalen Hurts, some a different version of passing and a lot of that volume is going to creep over to Devonte Smith and he can handle it. Makai Lemon can be the clear wide receiver too. Multiple talented tight ends there. So I think the core is still perfectly fine also with Saquon Barkley so. So I do give him that preferential treatment there in terms of a guy that is going to be on the field 15 plus games and I know for sure what I am getting out of him.
C
You know what I I mean this is a negative but like the thing about Jalen Hurts because I agree with what you said like the guys below him. I mean I have I like Jayn Daniels over him but if you look at the other guys below like do you really, really trust like Herbert or Darter whatever above him? I think you can make that argument. But I would use, I use Jalen Hurts as a bridge gap where I go oh, Jalen Hurts is now the top guy. Cool. I'm waiting. Yeah, don't trust the rest of the guys. Like he's the example of the reason why I now go later quarterback because it's like I don't want to invest in him. I don't agree. I don't really trust the guys below him. Maybe Hertz does have the greatest upside from a overall perspective, but it's like it's not going to invest. I'm not going to be the investment on it. So he is the bridge gap to me being the late quarterback guy and thinking about investing on the top end. He's going to be very divisive this year. The final quarterback we're going to talk about in this is Caleb Williams. He is the top of tier 3 and is there more upside on him? And this is a situation I do find this interesting. Pat, you are team Caleb Williams over Jalen Hurts you. You've got Caleb at 7 so I think you Are saying that he is a little bit low. Tara's got right at nine at consensus. So Pat, talk to us about Caleb over Jalen hurts this year.
B
I just think he's so talented and it's not like me as a Packers fan to be throwing bouquets at members of the Chicago Bears. But Caleb averaged 275 passing yards over his last six games including playoffs and finished the year with two touchdown passes in seven straight games. He did run a little bit less as a rookie, but had almost 500 rush or ran a little bit less as a sophomore. Had almost 500 rushing yards as a rookie. Only a There's like still nits to pick here. Only had a 58.1 completion rate last year and this guy is like the slowest starter in the world. He comes out ice cold for every game and then just gets hotter as the game goes on. But like after taking A League high 68 sacks as a rookie cut it down to 24 last year passing yards per attempt went up to 6.9. Still not great but clear progress over 6.3 as a rookie. Like Ben Johnson is making him into a really good quarterback and the talent is just through the roof. Like I just think the needle is still moving up on Caleb Williams and we haven't seen anything close to the peak at Tara.
C
When you see him as the top of tier three, do you think over the next couple months, whether it's you know, it's coach speak, it's going to be preseason, it's more analysis, whatever, do you think there's room for Caleb Williams to jump into another tier and or let's say that you consider him the bottom of tier two? Do you think there is any growth room for him to potentially jump above a guys like Herbert or Dart or is it just very appropriately ranked where
A
he's at and valued he should jump over Dart. I do have him over Dart for what it's worth. I, I think that even with coach speaking everything that we know and beautiful highlight videos that we will get of the amazing pass catchers that they have, it's probably going to stay right there. Maybe it scoots up one bit but we're going to get more hype out of the Justin Herbert and all of that camp. So I, I think it'll stay where it is and I think it's a fine ranking for him. I think Pat nailed one of the things is that you know Ben Johnson is an excellent head coach. He does not want Caleb Williams out there running for his life. So I think that reduction in rushing upside that he clearly has, I think it's here to stay. And because he is such an excellent coach, I mean we talked about it when we were talking about Luther Bird and Roma Dunes in the previous show. They're a run heavy team. They run a lot and they're very balanced attack. They know how to fix, figure things out situationally. When they do need to push aggressive volume because they can because Caleb has that capability to turn it on whenever he needs to and when they don't have to because it's not necessary and I think that results in overall he's going to be fine. He's going to give you a clear top 10 end of season stat line but on a week to week basis it's going to potentially look like QB1 one week because they needed him to be that QB1 overall and then QB20 another week because they didn't need him to do that. So I think there's more volatility to his game and no issue with, no problem with him, no problem with the coaching, just that they're such a very effective offense that you don't have to push it so aggressively sometimes. So that's why he's kind of like right there at me where I feel good about him. But I don't know that on a week to week basis I would want to invest that higher level draft draft pick into him.
C
And I think you answered the you did answer the question I was going to kind of throw at you. When you see Pat having Caleb over Jaylen hurts. The gap between Caleb hurts, Caleb Williams and Jalen hurts for you. And I think you answered it in saying that you believe the cap on the rushing upside of Caleb is here to stay and that that would probably be the answer. Correct?
A
Yep, that is it.
B
Yeah.
C
There you go. Quarterbacks. What do you guys think? Feel free to drop the comments below on the top 12. There's plenty more over on the ranking side we are going to talk about tight ends but first let's talk about how you're going to draft those quarterbacks with Draft the simulator. The draft simulator lets you crush full mocks in minutes with absolutely no waiting between picks. So guess what? If you want to be the hypocrite like me and Tara are when we don't want to take the high quarterbacks but we just cannot help ourselves and we've got to go and draft a Lamar Jackson or we got to invest in maybe a Joe Burrow. You can see what your draft looks like or if you want to Stay committed to saying I'm going to go late quarterbacks. I love Lamar Jackson but you know what? I'm to going. I'm a fit Stan and I can't even take him where he's being drafted. I got to go. Later you can experiment and see what those teams look like with the draft simulator. You can customize every setting to match your league's exact format. And for our MVP and Hall of Fame subscribers, you can even test trade scenarios by mocking with your actual traded draft picks, which is very cool. Not at that tier yet. Well guess what, you can go and grab a three day free trial of a premium subscription right now. Now@ fantasypros.com Dynasty 26 or Dynasty People fantasypros.com Dynasty 26 prepare for Rookie drafts and Dynasty startup drafts all in one place. Go to fantasypros.com simulator to be the most prepared person on draft day. Tight End Ranks Friends, let's get the big board for the top 12. Number one in our tier one has three tight ends. We've got Trey McBride followed by Brock Bowers. No big shockers there, but Coulson Loveland is joining at number three in the top top one tier. Going to tier two, this is Titans four through eight. We've got Tyler Warren, Tucker Kraft, Harold Fannin Jr. Sam Laporta and Kyle Pitts. And then rounding it out in Tier 3 is 9 through 12 Aranda Gadsden, Dalton Kincaid, Travis Kelsey and Isaiah Likely. So is there debate on the top end of our tight ends? Is there a close debate? And and I'm going to kind of change the question just a tiny, tiny bit. Tara, we're going to start with you simply because there is a debate with you two on who the number one is. So that makes it really cool. But I want to throw like Colson Loveland in there. Like does he belong in the discussion? So for this experiment, Tara, you are with consensus. You've got McBride at one, you've got Bowers at two. I'd love for your take on those. But do you think Colson Loveland belongs in this discussion as well?
A
He does 100% and quite frankly he could be the preferred target for me because of him having the potential. Exact same upside as Trey McBride and Brock Bowers but a little bit of a discount there in terms of adp. So I think he belongs there. I think it's an appropriate tier and he could legitimately be the first look in that Bears offense there. So I, I, I think he belongs because we've got a nice group here with McBride and Bowers and Colson Loveland here of guys, guys that are either the first look or potentially the first look. I think that's the key there that maybe separates him is, you know, do we know for sure? Like, we know that Trey McBride is going to be the target hog despite all the talent around him in that offense. We know that Brock Bowers is the first look with the lack of clear addition that they made in terms of investing at a wide receiver one. So maybe that's the gap there that gives McBride and Bowers a little bit of an edge over Cole's and Loveland.
C
What is the separator for you that put McBride over Bowers? Again, that is a consensus rank, very, very close. You made the case on them over Loveland, but what is the separator that gets McBride over Bowers? For you?
A
It's Jacoby Brissette. Jacoby Brissette is the separator. Oh, God. It was. It was a glorious 2025 with Jacoby Brisbane, especially in DFS. It was just the volume and the stack with him. And then Michael Wilson. My God, it was just incredible. I missed those days. If they did not draft Carson Beck, I would just be pro. Let's take Trey McBride in the first round. Let's do it. Let's go all in. But there is the fear that at some point they do make that quarterback change holding me back there. But yeah, Jacoby Brissette and what he was able to do in terms of providing that volume, throwing 40 plus times a game with ease and then the touchdown opportunities to Trey McBride, we might have like a little bit of regression because we have the additional of Jeremiah Love who can obviously contribute in the red zone, but really the defense is not great. They're just going to be chasing points and running from behind. We know we can push volume. So yeah, thank you, Jacoby Brissette and the volume that you finally unlocked for Trey McBride in terms of touchdowns, that's it.
C
Now 50, you are the flip. You went Brock Bowers as your tight end one. So that is off of consensus. McBride is number two. You're welcome to talk about the level and stuff. I think we hit it though. But I'm really curious, what is your separator of Bowers over McBride?
B
Cardinals have the highest passing rate in the league last year, but they just drafted Jeremiah Love third overall. Like they're. They're not going to have the highest passing rate in the league this year and they might not be top 10. Even though the defense is bad and they might be forced to point chase a little bit more than they like. So there's that that they're going to pass less. They also want to get Marvin Harrison Jr. Going, which might cut into Trey McBride's target load. And they found that they had a pretty good receiver in Michael Wilson last year. So I just, I'd be pretty surprised if Trey McBride was able to match the 126 catches and 1239 yards he had last year. Whereas I think Bowers could hit those numbers easily this year. Like Bowers had 112 catches and just under 1200 yards is run a rookie. And you know, last year just a huge nightmare. He, he got hurt. The offense was kind of a train wreck with just the quarterback situation, the coaching situation. But Bowers gets a huge play caller upgrade with Clint Kubiak. Eventually he'll get a quarterback upgrade with Fernando Mendoza and hopefully Kirk Cousins won't be terrible when he sits in for the first few weeks. And as of now, Jalen Naylor is the Raiders best receiver. Like Bowers is going to get an all you can eat target smorgasbord this season.
C
Buffet. Buffet time at tight ends. An interesting one here versus consensus. We were going to do kind of a debate, but let's just focus on this player where you've got Laporta comes in at 7, Kyle Pitts at 8, but both of you have Kyle Pitts at 7. So you're both Pitts over Sam Laporta. Are we fine finally cross our fingers here. Are we finally comfortable with Kyle Pitts? Tara, you've got him at 7. Pitts over Laporta doesn't need to be the discussion. But your level of comfort finally with Kyle Pitts as a starting tight end.
A
Yeah, it is. I mean Kevin Stefanski and drives me absolutely crazy. But the one thing that he does, very proven at this point through all throughout his entire tenure at Cleveland was throwing at one of the highest clips in the NFL to the tight end position. And you could look back and say, oh well, I mean if you, if you had Harold Vanna Jr. You would throw it that much to him too. No, he was doing it with anybody and everybody. So at one point it was Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant. He loves a system that targets tight ends rapidly and now he has got Kyle Pitts. Why would you not just send targets this way? So I do think that the, the king who was promised is finally going to get the workload that he deserves there and the value that we are getting for him because there's a Stop point at which he can't go past in terms of his ADP just because of the priority that other guys have over him. Very understandably there, the trust level issues that we have at the quarterback issues in Atlanta. But at the end of the day, targets are heading his way and I think tight end seven is a very good spot for him. So that's, that's the little sweet spot for him. I'm, I'm very much so cautiously optimistic in on Kyle Pitts because of that coaching staff change there.
C
Fitz, is Kyle Pitts the prince that was promised or will he be an nice king? What do you think?
B
Prince that was promised? That's still pretty good, right? I mean I'm.
C
Yeah, it's Game of Thrones references. I just was doing the iteration here. King, prince, doesn't matter. You trust Kyle Pitts.
B
Yeah. Tara nailed this. Like Kevin Stefanski is a friend of tight ends everywhere. And Pitts averaged 6.9 targets a game last year that could actually go up this year. Like I don't, I don't necessarily think that Pitts top what, 88 catches and 928 yards last year. Like I think he could hit 1,000 if things break right for him. Whereas Sam Laporte has averaged 5.3 targets over the last two years. Like that's, you know, he's a really good player. He can still turn that into mid range tight end one value. I think that sort of target load, but I just don't think the target outlook is as bright for Laporte as it is is for Pets.
C
Okay, one more, one last one. We're gonna do a quick hitter, Travis Kelce. Travis Kelce comes in at 11. Are we investing in Travis Kelce this year? Tara. Tara.
A
I fought so hard to move Travis Kelce further down in rankings and I couldn't justify it because of the guys that are behind him just not having even anywhere near the volume that even the old, very elderly version of Travis Kelce is going to get. He's still going to more than likely be the second look in the that offense. The receptions are going to be there. You know, we've got two years in a row now that we've had, you know, just over 800 yards, three to five touchdowns. But the receptions are pulling him through. So from a tight end perspective, it does make him a safer pick than a lot of those guys that are sitting behind him and are potentially the third or maybe even fourth look on their team there. So that that gives him the level of security but quite Frankly, I mean it's just, it's, it's a safe pick. You're not really getting a massive upside again because I don't to want think the touchdowns are really going to be there. So I prefer to invest a little bit earlier in one of the higher upside players rather than get to that point.
C
Fitzy, you said the same thing. You want to have your higher end, tight end. So is Travis Kelce someone that you are going to even consider investing in if you miss out on some of the top guys?
B
Look, I really want Brock Bowers this year. If I can't get him, I really want Colston Loveland. If not, I'll try to get Tyler Warren as a fallback. If not Kyle, Kyle Pitts. But if I can't get any of those four, I might consider Travis Kelsey. If he, we know he's going to slip later in drafts and the efficiency has nose dived. I don't know if like there's any chance of anything close to double digit touchdowns this year but who knows, maybe there's like one last touch on spike for old Travis. So you know, if, if things don't work out with my high end tight end targets like Travis Kelce is a viable fallback.
C
I think that's interesting how you were saying that. I was like, oh, this is a no Travis Kelsey whatsoever. You're just like, I want this guy, I want this guy, I want this guy. But you would potentially invest in Travis Kelce. But would you guys, what's your quarterback? What's your tight end range? Some of your favorite players? You guys can be a part of the conversation. Going to fantasypros.com rankings again, you can check out what they look like, how they adjust throughout the offseason, and there's a good reference point for the next set of episodes we'll do with ranks because that's something we'll be talking about a whole bunch in this draft season. Make sure you guys are subscribed to the audio podcast and the YouTube. You don't want to miss any of the action. And thank you guys so much for hanging out with us. For Terry Roberts and Pat Fitzmaurice, I'm Chris Welsh. Thanks and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros. Bye. Bye.
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Date: May 8, 2026
Host: Chris Welsh
Guests: Pat Fitzmaurice, Tara Roberts
This episode kicks off FantasyPros’ early positional tier series for 2026 fantasy football drafts, focusing on wide receiver rankings and the key veteran vs. rookie debates. Chris Welsh is joined by fantasy experts Pat Fitzmaurice and Tara Roberts for deep analysis of the top-36 wide receivers, including tier breakdowns, must-have targets, busts, and strategic draft considerations as offseason ADP and consensus shifts. They compare their personal ranks to the industry consensus, debate key player outlooks, and offer practical advice to help managers secure value at the WR spot.
See full list and tiers at fantasypros.com/rankings.
Tee Higgins, Tetairoa McMillan, and Volume Questions
Luther Burden’s Bears Role
Terry McLaurin Value
Mike Evans in San Francisco
Alec Pierce’s Opportunity
| Segment | Key Players Discussed | Main Takeaway | Timestamp | |---------|-----------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|-----------| | Tier 1 | Chase, Puka, JSN | All have real WR1 cases; risk tolerance matters | 04:21–09:39 | | Jeff. | Justin Jefferson | High upside, but new QB (Kyler) could limit TDs | 10:58–12:18 | | Risk | Rashee Rice, Malik Nabers | Nabers for upside, Rice for safety | 14:04–19:12 | | Value | Tetairoa McMillan, Burden | Volume questions; upside if QBs deliver | 23:19–27:18 | | Bounce | Terry McLaurin | Clear WR1, major bounce-back value | 32:26–34:19 | | Wr3s | Mike Evans, Alec Pierce | Overlooked floor/ceiling in late rounds | 35:19–41:38 |
For further analysis and to ask your own questions, join the discussion in the comments or at fantasypros.com/chat. Stay tuned for the next positional tier episodes!
For full rankings, check: fantasypros.com/rankings