← Footballguys Fantasy Football Show
Footballguys Fantasy Football Show
Post-Draft Risers and Fallers: Fantasy Values That Haven't Adjusted Yet
00:40:31
Loading summary
Transcript60 lines
- [00:00]
Commercial Announcer 1
Looking for the best place to shop this Mother's Day? Go with the brand. That makes it easy to send something thoughtful to everyone on your list. 1-800-flowers.com right now at 1-800-flowers. Order one dozen roses and get another dozen free. More flowers mean more smiles. All backed by the quality, attention to detail and trusted delivery experience that make 1-800-flowers my top choice to send something beautiful mom will love. Make Mom's Day at 1800-flowers.com podcast that's 1-800-flowers.com podcast. Not every sale happens at the register before AT&T Business Wireless, checking out customers on our mobile POS systems took too long. Basically a staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people will say during an awkward silence. Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold. That means I can focus on the task at hand and make an extra sale or two. Sometimes I do miss the bonding time.
- [00:54]
Commercial Announcer 2
Sometimes AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything
- [01:01]
David Montgomery
Foreign. The NFL draft ended last weekend and it created some massive fantasy winners. With those winners, it also created some landmines and today Joey Wright and I, we're going to discuss all of them. The winners, losers, risers, fallers, veterans, rookies. Joey, start us off. The biggest winner perhaps of the entire NFL draft is a guy that you have been pounding the table for for the last few months. Let's hear about Tyler Schuck.
- [01:34]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I I am going to fall more and more in love with Tyler Schuck. I am sorry Buccaneers fandom, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Last year, Chuck became the starter for the Saints in Week 8. He was the QB16 on the season, but it was Weeks 13 through 17. The end of the stretch of the season, no games below 17 fantasy points and was the QB8 to finish off the season. I like to say the best way to get fantasy points is to stay on the field and if you're winning games, you're going to stay on the field. He was 5 and 3 during that stretch for the Saints. So Tyler Schuck is the quarterback of the Saints future. I think we can all agree on that in the draft and this is what gets me really excited For Tyler Schuck. The Saints got some interior line strength. I'm burying the lead here big time. They brought in Jeremiah Wright and tight end Oscar Delp, so some good blocking to protect shuck. But what gets us excited is the wide receivers. They got Jordan Tyson and I cannot think of a better compliment from this draft class for Chris Olave than Jordan Tyson should take some of that double coverage away from Chris Olave. And you could say Chris Olavi was a riser for me. But I already had him up at wide receiver 10 because I was expecting the Saints to bring somebody in and they absolutely did with Jordan Tyson. But they also brought in Bryce Lance, one of the most, most athletic wide receivers from this draft class. They could put it together. They got quite the wide receiver room there in New Orleans. I moved chuck up from QB24 to QB19, which you might say is only five spots, but it was a whole tier for me. I got him alongside Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. He is one of those quarterbacks that I love drafting late now. Double digit round quarterbacks bring value every single year. Tyler Schuck is absolutely going to be somebody I draft and drafts this year.
- [03:18]
David Montgomery
Yeah, as you should be. And I don't even think you mentioned Barry and Brown. I mean he was a late day three pick but our comp in the rookie guide for him, Jeff Bell, Compton to Rashid Shahid who they just traded away last year. So he's kind of got that natural replacement as well. Last year was a disaster. Like throwing the ball to Devon Vale and Mason Tipton and Bub Means. Yes, these are real NFL players that Tyler Schuck was asked to throw the ball to. And is he the quarterback of the future? I don't know. Like, I don't know if he's going to be doing it three, four, five years from now. But what we've seen this offseason is that he is absolutely the quarterback for 2026. They saw enough flashes that they want to set him up for success. So I don't see how you can't be in on Tyler Schuck this year. Love that call out Joey. Love the way that the draft worked out for him. Before we talk about my first riser, just want to remind you if you are watching on YouTube to give us a thumbs up. Really helps the show grow. And if you're not subscribed for whatever reason, please subscribe. This is one of the best parts of the off season. The draft is behind us now. We get to work through everything. Stay, stay here and hang out with us over the next couple of months as we're going through team by team. We're talking about risers, fallers, we're going to be talking about different positions, rankings, draft strategy. This is a really fun few months here and we'd love if you would hang out with us. And if you want to leave a comment, that's a Great way to help this show grow, stick through to the end of the show and we've actually got a fun game that we're going to play with the comments here. But anyway, let's go ahead and talk about my first and I think this is one of the more obvious ones, but sometimes you got to take the low hanging fruit. Jaden Reed comes out of the draft a massive riser. When we were talking about draft needs a couple of weeks ago, Joey, I talked about wide receiver being a huge need for the Green Bay Packers. They lost Romeo Dubs in free agency. They traded away Don Tavian Wicks. I thought they might go back to the wide receiver. Well, as early as round one, they didn't draft a wide receiver at all. Instead, on day two, they gave Jaden Reed a three year, $50 million extension. So to me, you look at this wide receiver room right now and Christian Watson and Jaden Reed are clearly the two top guys. They have very complimentary skill sets where they can work with each other. Reed is that across the middle of the field, underneath working inside type of guy. Christian Watson is their field stretcher. They can play out wide. And then of course you got Tucker Craft doing Tucker Craft things when he comes back from his acl. But I thought that they would look to beef up this wide receiver room a little bit. They are happy with what they have. Jaden Reed is now a long term part of the plans with this extension. Joey, we got him in that NFFC draft that we did a couple of nights ago right after round one of the NFL draft. And when I look back at that draft board, that stands out as a massive, massive value for me.
- [05:48]
Joey Wright
And we got that before the news. So we were kind of like, you know what they call not soothsayer. What's like you can see the future. I don't know.
- [05:55]
David Montgomery
Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah.
- [05:57]
Joey Wright
Is it soothsayer? Okay, look at me. I know words. You know, Jaden Reed kind of follows a pattern. I think we're going to run into a lot with our risers today. And that's the team just buying in. Like you see team confidence in some of these players that have been there before and you have to look into that. You have to buy into it. You know, we're here fantasy analysts and we do a great job. When we see NFL teams just invest in a player and say, listen, you're our guy. Like, we pay attention to that. So I love the Jane Reed call out.
- [06:24]
David Montgomery
Yeah. And you talk about investing, I mean they quite literally invested $50.25 million. Like they bought in with actual hard earned American dollars. But Joey, we've got another one and we're going to stick it in the NFC North. For your next riser, let's hear about Kyle Manungai.
- [06:39]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I was surprised you didn't steal this one from me. But no, it's Kyle Manon Guy. Chicago Bears moved up a whole tier for me, actually 10 whole spots to RB28 from RB38. So I'm a little high on them. Chicago Bears had seven picks in this year's draft and they used five of them to address the defense. They did not tap running back. One time they did pick up an undrafted free agent in Coleman Bennett from Kennesaw State. But I'm not really concerned about him being competition there, man. Guy now kind of heads into the season as the Bears RB2 behind DeAndre Swift. And you could say DeAndre Swift's a riser and I would agree with you. Although I really wasn't kind of worried about him losing his job. I don't think he was in much jeopardy unless they traded up to get somebody like Jeremiah Love, which did not happen. Man. Guy is like was super hyper efficient last year, doing the best of what he was given. 187 total touches, 947 total yards and five touchdowns. What's most impressive though, for me, second among all of last year's rookies and Yarbs for rushing attempt and first in yards per reception among all rookies. And he was tied for 10th overall among all running backs. He's super efficient with what he does. Manungai is now like one of those things I love most in fantasy football. He's a running back with standing loan value and a supporting role. So God forbid anything happens. DeAndre Swift, we could be looking at a running back with top 10 upside. You should be able to get in round eight or nine. And that is the kind of player that I love targeting in drafts, especially maybe when I'm starting off wide receiver heavy.
- [08:06]
David Montgomery
So I do have a little bit of bad news for you, Joey.
- [08:09]
Joey Wright
Oh no.
- [08:10]
David Montgomery
Regarding Coleman Bennett. You talk about him, you know, just kind of brush him off as a udfa. Guess who my. You know, I did all of the running back scouting here for our rookie guide. My player comp for Coleman Bennett. Jamal Williams.
- [08:20]
Joey Wright
Jamal Williams, yeah.
- [08:22]
David Montgomery
And we saw Jamal Williams, what he did in a Ben Johnson offense. So I don't. And I'm kind of, you know, just giving you a hard time here.
- [08:28]
Joey Wright
Cold Water all on me, Dave.
- [08:30]
David Montgomery
Kyle Minogue was great as a rookie. I don't expect him to get replaced by a udfa. But Coleman Bennett, I mean, he does do a lot of the same things that Kyle Menungai does. But I think that getting out of the draft unscathed, I mean, I thought for sure that the Bears were gonna go after a running back when they traded up on day three, I thought that was gonna be Nick Singleton. He went to pick before them, which is of kind, kind of similar to what happened last year where they just kept getting sniped. So I think the intention was to get a running back, but the board didn't fall that way. And it's hard to look at Kyle Menungai as anything but a huge riser here. He is going to continue getting that valuable goal line work. And like you talk about the contingent upside as well, this guy's going to be falling in around 12, 13, 14 of your drafts. We can't project a full workload to him because of DeAndre Swift. But if DeAndre Swift has missed one game, you're looking at Kyle Menung guy, a guy you plug in for 20, 25 touches in an RB1 workload. So absolutely, Manungai walks out as a huge riser. Now real quickly, I mentioned the rookie guide. I did all the running backs there. Jeff Bell did the wide receivers, Mike Yeshuba did quarterbacks and tight ends. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but it goes behind a paywall on Wednesday. But we are way ahead of schedule right now. We already have all of the fantasy outlooks done. We've got all of the positional rankings updated and then we even have one quarterback and super flex rankings updated as well. So we're doing some quality control over the next couple of days, double checking these player comps, making sure everything's right before before it goes behind that paywall on Wednesday. But if you go to footballguys.com rookieguide right now, you can get live access as we are continuing to update this until Wednesday and truthfully, there's not much left to do. We're kind of ahead of the curve already. So get in there right now. Footballguys.com rookieguide for free for just about two more days. Now I want to talk about my next riser and Joey, there's a bit of a theme here. Some of the guys that we're talking about today are guys that we have talked about early in the off season and we're happy to see that the draft broke in their favor. I talked about Chase Brown as one of my favorite values in drafts. And I remember when I talked about Chase Brown you said, well, how would that change if they get Jeremiah Love? And I said that would drastically change things. And truthfully, if they got a running back on day two, I'd still be sweating a little bit. They did not draft a running back at all. They brought in a couple of UDFAs, Kentrell Bullock and Jamal Haynes, but they're running it back with a 31 year old Samajp Ryan, Taj Brooks, who had just 17 touches last year. To me it seems like they are all in on Chase Brown just being that workhorse running back for them. And these day three running backs, they often feel like a ticking time bomb. You're just waiting for the production and the usage to disappear. But they've expressed their faith in Chase Brown. We heard some rumors about a potential extension. I think now they tied up a bunch of money with Dexter Lawrence. That probably isn't going to happen. But the Bengals just went hardcore after defense this year. Besides some centers and a tight end on day three they went all defense in the draft. It's going to be Chase Brown's backfield we saw two years ago was the big breakout season where he was the per game RB14. We saw last year he was the per game RB7. But if you look at just what he did over the second half of the year when he and Joe Burrow were healthy together, he was giving us over 20 fantasy points per game. Joey, I've got him as my RB6 right now. I mean, the upside here is so high. And it's not just the upside, it's also the floor. There's almost no competition for him. Don't get me wrong, I know you like Samajp Ryan. I like Taj Brooks. Neither of them are going to impede on Chase Brown's workload.
- [11:48]
Joey Wright
Now let me set the record straight. I like Samajp Ryan as a person, as a, as an avatar for just a good work ethic. I don't think he's cutting into Chase Brown at all. You know, we were talking over the weekend when we're on the clock and drafts this year and it's Devon HN and Chase Brown, which way are we going to go? And that's kind of the two players that I am just struggling to figure out which one I'd rather have. And listen, at this point I'm with the guy on the better offense. So I think I like Chase Brown more than Devon Achan at this Point,
- [12:17]
David Montgomery
I am completely with you. Yeah. I mean, for me, like it's Bijan Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, and then I could make an argument to have Chase Brown right there at RB5. But in that RB5, RB6 tier, I mean, and right now we know this every single year you get these risers and fallers coming out of the draft and the ADP moves a little bit. But people really do get like entrenched to that early off season adp. I think Chase Brown should be going at the end of round one. My guess is that he kind of settles into the top to the middle of the of round two. And assuming that's where his ADP is for the off season, Chase Brown easily going to be one of my most drafted running backs again in 2026.
- [12:57]
Joey Wright
Yeah. Real quick. I want to put you on the spot real quick. We did. I feel like dodge a bunch of bullets and backfields by Love going to the Cardinals. I know a lot of people are complaining about it, but it kind of worked out for a lot of running backs in different situations that we thought might have love coming in. But no, real quick on the spot. I know another running back you like a lot is Amarian Hampton. Chase Brown or Amarian Hampton.
- [13:20]
David Montgomery
I am going Chase Brown there. And, and, and, and a lot of this really comes down to maybe I'm putting too much weight into coach speak, but Mike McDonald talking about how he wants that thunder lightning approach really gassing up Keaton Mitchell. And then of course, we saw Kamani Vidal playing well last year as well. I think Brian Hampton is going to be the workhorse there, but we're, we're going to see a, you know, split with either a Keaton Mitchell or Kamani Vidal. We really only see the split in Cincinnati on past blocking snaps. And that's where Samaj P. Ryan comes in. He's not giving up targets. He's not giving up goal line work. Chase Brown's still going to get all that. So yeah, it's. It's Chase Brown for me.
- [13:57]
Joey Wright
Okay. I just, I hate to put you on the spot like that, but I needed to know.
- [14:03]
David Montgomery
Up next, Joey, let's hear about your big veteran riser.
- [14:06]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I feel bad because I. You and I both were the guys in on him last year's Devonte Adams. To think that I was even going to be down for a second on him. I was starting to trend that way. Last year's wide receiver, eight on the season, led the league in receiving touchdowns, first double digit TD season since 2022 and the seventh of his career and he was third in the league in red zone targets. So you're saying like Joey, why would you even think about being down on him other than his age? I guess that might be the obvious thing, but he did kind of have a rough finished to 2025. He only had double digit fantasy points in three of his final five games which is very Devonte Adams adjacent. That's not what we're excused to seeing from him, especially from a wide receiver, one that we draft that way. Only saw one game with over 75 yards and only one touchdown in the five game span and that includes the playoff games as well. I wondered if the dip in production was going to continue if this was just like a precursor for what's to come. I was wondering what are the Rams going to do? Are they going to bring in a successor? We heard a lot of rumors Jordan, Tyson, Makai, Lemon were players linked to the Rams there for a while. So I was like starting to wonder. I wanted the smoke to clear from the NFL draft before I really made a rash decision. And the only ride receiver they brought in was CJ Daniels and that was a six round selection. I don't really see him putting devonte Adams job in jeopardy. Now I will say the Rams did spend was it a second round pick on Max Claire who is kind of a red zone threat tight end. But The Rams run 13 personnel 31 of the time last year and two of their tight ends are most likely moving on after next year. I think the Max Claire landing spot was more of a detective of that than it is he's going to replace Devonte Adams. For me, Adams role is still safe in 2026. I've got him ranked as my wide receiver 13 despite his age, still one of the premier wide receivers in the league and the Rams decisions over the weekend kind of proved that for me.
- [15:58]
David Montgomery
Yeah, I mean we just saw like it kind of came at the expense of Kyron Williams, but we saw Devonte Adams kind of that goal line running back if you will. I mean we saw the same thing during his entire career in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers. You just look at what Devonte Adams can do on that goal line fade. It's unguardable. So like why send Kyron Williams into a sea of 20 bodies where he's going to have to pick his way apart when you could just throw it up and let Devonte Adams make a play on the ball. The it's kind of scary if you look at the usage because the target share has trended down each of the last three seasons. I mean, we used to look at Devonte Adams as like a 33% target share type of guy. Last year did fall to 24%, but that was offset by the huge spike in efficiency with all the touchdowns that he caught. So, and I think that's why you're going to get that discount here. And truthfully, it's not a bet that I like to make, but I think that you can bet on those outliers and devonte Adams can release off the line of scrimmage quicker than anybody else in the NFL. He, he's unguardable on that goal line fade. So yeah, he might not be the guy who's getting you 1500, 1600 yards a season, but if he can get you 15 or 16 touchdowns, I'm more than happy with that. So I do like that call out. And we expected too, like we talked about a first round receiver potentially going there to set up for life beyond devonte Adams. And they didn't do that. They're just going to run it back with the duo that they had. So we've got one more veteran riser. Then we're going to talk about some veteran or, I'm sorry, some rookie risers. And then we're going to talk about some fallers, both veterans and rookies. But let me go ahead and wrap up here. My final riser that I want to talk about, David Montgomery. Now this is another running back who made it through the draft unscathed. And that's kind of what we were hoping for. A lot of running backs made it through the draft unscathed. I mean, we only saw three running backs go inside the top three rounds and then a bunch of day three guys. But when you look at the competition for Dave Montgomery, Woody Marks, who was not good last year, he was 140th among all running backs in rushing EPA. He was kind of forced the ball because Nick Chubb just didn't have it in him anymore. But we have seen how this Houston Texans offense wants to operate. They want to trade for these aging veteran running backs, get them for as cheap as possible and just run them into the ground. We saw with Joe Mixon, we saw with Nick Chubb, and now I think we're going to see it with David Montgomery. The difference is David Montgomery is a little bit younger than Mixon and Chubb were when they came to, when they came to Houston. And because he's been splitting touches with Jameer Gibbs for the last Couple of years. He doesn't have that same wear and tear on his body that some of these other running backs did. In the draft, we saw them bring in two guards and then a raw tight end. So they did a little bit to beef up the protection which was much needed. That was three of the first four picks were on guards and tight ends. So they knew what they needed to do. They needed to address the offensive line. They did just that. I think they're going to roll into Montgomery with the top guy in this workload. We might see a little dash of Woody Marks here and there, but you know, when I see a team go out and trade for a veteran running back, a guy who's been capable of handling a three down workload before, I think that's exactly what they intend to do with David Montgomery. He has been a big riser for me. You know, when I was doing drafts a little bit ago, before the NFL draft, he was kind of hanging out there in round five and was just an auto click for me. Even if he creeps up into round four, maybe even the back end of round three, I'd still be in at that cost.
- [19:12]
Joey Wright
Yeah. One of the things about getting to do this for like a living that's really fun is that we get to have takes and they get to be bad or wrong, but we get to look at them. And I, a few weeks ago on the show was saying like, I don't like David Montgomery in Houston. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think they could bring somebody in through the draft and I was pretty much expecting that. And listen, the Texans are confident in them. Like we said earlier, like that's going to be a common theme for a lot of these risers. It's just team confidence. And so looking at Dave Montgomery, I could absolutely see him being a solid RB2 next season for drafters. So.
- [19:46]
David Montgomery
And I totally understand he does have the vibes of a dead zone running back, you know, 28 years old on a new offense. I understand it and I think that fear is going to keep him pushed down in rankings. But I've got him inside my top 20, Joey. And I mean barely inside my top 20, but I feel like that's where he belongs. And I've got him ahead of DeAndre Swift, Travion Henderson, Jalen Warren, Jadarian Price, J.K. dobbins. So just to get you an idea of some of the guys that I would be drafting David Montgomery ahead of, maybe I'm a little bit over my skis here But I just see both the floor and ceiling so high in this Houston offense.
- [20:20]
Joey Wright
You ran through those names there and I think there was like a common theme. Is Dave Montgomery the last running back in this, I don't want to say draft class, but heading into this year's draft that he's the last workhorse in a way because everybody mentioned after him is in a timeshare to some degree.
- [20:35]
David Montgomery
Yeah. And I think that's it and I think that's why so many times we do that. And that's kind of like the, the calling card of a dead zone running back. Right. Is a guy that like we don't feel great about, but you project the volume on him and then you say, ah, he could lose the volume at some point in the season. I don't think there's any world where David Montgomery is getting outplayed by Woody Marks that they have to say we need to go to Woody Marks. I think David Montgomery is a very good running back and also you look at the way that they kind of coach there, like d', Ameco. Ryan's wants these hard hitting, aggressive after contact sort of running backs and that's exactly what David Montgomery does. So I think that he's going to fit right in with his offense.
- [21:11]
Commercial Announcer 2
We have the tech to get food delivered in 15 minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The Game Time app gives fans the advantage. Get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fees are included, so what you see is what you pay. And the Game Time guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to concerts, sports, comedy and more with GameTime. Download the GameTime app and create an account for $20 off your first purchase terms apply.
- [21:42]
Commercial Announcer 3
Dreaming of buying your first car or new home? Knowing your FICO score is the first step to making it real. With MyFico, you can check your score for free and it won't hurt your credit. You'll get your FICO score, full credit reports and real time alerts all in one simple app. Your credit score is more than just numbers. It's the key to building the future you've been working toward. Visit myfico.com free or download the MyFico app and take the mystery out of your FICO score.
- [22:12]
David Montgomery
I'm back with Joey Wright and we just talked about all of our veteran risers coming out of the NFL draft. But we've got some rookie risers to talk about as well as some of the weekend's biggest fallers. Joey, for you who was the biggest rookie riser coming out of this draft weekend?
- [22:26]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I went a little deep on this one because you know you're going to hear like okay, Jordan Tyson, you moved up a spot, you know, but I wanted to kind of look for somebody and Skyler Bell, he was someone that really wasn't even on my radar. Kind of a testament to landing spot can shift your entire narrative for a player. The Bill struggle with wide receivers pretty well documented this last year. Clue Shakir and Keon Coleman, neither of them really stood up to be the wide receiver one that Josh Allen deserves. So the Bills went and traded their second round pick this year and got DJ Moore with the Bears. And DJ Moore is going to the alpha here. There's no question about that. This is DJ Moore's time to be a wide receiver one for the Bills. But Skyler Bill can really kind of fit in wherever he needs to be with the Bills at any moment. Quick and explosive, short intermediate areas and can also work vertically. The thing I like the most, he can handle the volume needed to be a good slot wide receiver which if I had to have a hope, that's where I hope the Bills kind of stick them at 101 receptions last season for UConn. I'm kind of hanging my affection for Bell on upside and potential, but his versatility on the field leads me to believe he's a better chance for success. I'm not alone. Our own Jeff Bell, same last name, no relation, has Skyler Bell as his rookie wide receiver 8. So I was, I was a little nervous to have this take, but then my good buddy Jeff Bell. Side note, I'm so excited for Jeff when this happened because he can now get a Bills.
- [23:48]
David Montgomery
He's been wishcasting for weeks. Yeah, he's wanted that one for a long time. I'm not quite there. I've got him at wide receiver 16. But I do understand the upside case. And you talk about Skylar Bell playing out of the slot. I think that's what a lot of people have expected. But when you look at this wide receiver room in Buffalo Joey, it does seem like they just have like three guys that are cut from a similar cloth. DJ Moore, Khalil Shkir, Skyler Bell, they are all tiny but mighty receivers who can create after the catch, just aggressive at the catch point. So I wonder how much we're just going to see keeping defenses guessing where like, you know, they'll break out of the huddle and you don't know who's going where. Of course we got Keon Coleman kind of the wild card in this mix, former first round pick that we hope can put it together with a different archetype and a different skill set than these other guys. But I look back at what Joe Brady did when he was in Carolina, where you would see this mix where it was Curtis Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, all kind of rotating all over the place, taking snaps out of the backfield, Chris McCaffrey going out wide and in the slot. Now I'm not saying that DJ Moore is a Christian McCaffrey type of player, but we saw him getting running back usage during his time in Chicago. So I think we could see some very similar creative usage here that we saw to what Joe Brady was doing when he was in Carolina. So I love this landing spot. I think it is a very fun one and I'm glad that you talked about it because he was a big pre draft riser for me. And then getting the good draft capital, getting the landing spot, absolutely a riser coming out of the draft as well. I'm going to take the low hanging fruit here. I feel like we have to talk about Dijon Stribling as one of the biggest Rangers risers. He was a very athletic and productive wide receiver at Ole Miss, and that truthfully hasn't been the best thing to target lately. I mean, you look at Trey Harris, Jonathan Mingo, we're still holding on to hope, but it hasn't been so good for these guys coming out of Ole Miss over the last couple of years. So much of what they do is predicated on just getting the ball to that X receiver. And Stripling absolutely thrived in that role. But the 49ers liked what they saw. Missed round one draft capital by one pick. He was the first, first pick of round two. And a lot of this just comes down to how disappointing the rest of this class is, where almost all of the other rookies are falling. Dejean Stribling is one of the few risers in this class. So I think there's allure here as him potentially being the wide receiver too in San Francisco. But he could also kind of redshirt this rookie season, sit behind Christian Kirk for a year, kind of get his feet wet in the NFL. It's kind of tough to say, you know, that this guy just automatically deserves to be the wide receiver four, the wide receiver five and rookie drafts because you have to put an asterisk next to that draft capital because the 49ers, they just go out and get their guys, they Couldn't care less about mock drafts or consensus big boards or anything like that. But at the end of the day, this was serious draft capital invested in a guy on a team that desperately needs wide receivers. So at this point, Stribling is now kind of on the radar as a late round dart throw in your dynasty, and I'm sorry, in your fantasy and best ball drafts and. And in dynasty, as crazy as it might sounds, he might be the 111, a guy who kind of sneaks into that 12 turn in a class where a lot of guys that we were hopeful for just really disappointed this weekend.
- [26:54]
Joey Wright
Yeah, we were kind of looking at the San Francisco offense a couple weeks ago and I think when the Mike Evans trade happened, everyone's like, oh my God, look how dominant this offense for the 49ers is going to be. That is true. And they've got George Kittle and they got Christian McCaffrey. But outside of Mike Evans, a wide receiver, like, what do they have? But more importantly, what do they have for the future? And I think Stribling kind of answers that question of what they could have for the future. But I agree with you about the red shirting of his, like, freshman year in the rookie year in the NFL behind Christian Kirk and learning from Mike Evans. I think that's a really solid point. So he's the kind of guy like, if you're going to draft, you might have to sit on him for a year. Use that. What are the. What do they call the extra spots?
- [27:30]
David Montgomery
The Taxi squad.
- [27:31]
Joey Wright
That. Why did I forget the name of that? I love the TV show Taxi too.
- [27:35]
David Montgomery
I tweeted it a couple days ago, but I think Nick Singleton is actually the perfect Taxi squad player. Taj Spears, Tony Pollard, both under contract. He's coming back from that foot injury draft. Nick Singleton put him on your Taxi squad and then Pollard and Spears both hit free agency next year. But Joey, I don't know if you saw during the draft, I don't know for anybody that's unaware. We were all together this weekend. Joey and Jeff Bell came out to Colorado. So we were watching it in person. I don't know if you were in the room or not after the Stribling pick, but then they pulled up in infograph showing like, who's going to stop this 49ers offense. Ricky Piersoll didn't even make the cut. It was Chris McCaffrey, George Kittle, Mike Evans, Christian Kirk and Dijon Stribling. So I'm still holding on to hope for Ricky Pearsall. But doesn't seem like the big NFL is at this point.
- [28:20]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I love Pearsall, like coming out of Florida, being a Gator fan but.
- [28:24]
David Montgomery
Well, we've talked about all the risers now for the and honestly like we, Joey, you and I, we were talking on the way to the airport and we said, you know, we're gonna do a show with some, some risers and fallers and quickly realized there are a lot more fallers than there are risers. We want to talk about the risers but we also want to talk about the fallers. But let's go through. We each brought and there are more but we each have a veteran faller and a rookie faller and really you can just kind of say the rookie fallers, basically everybody. But we'll go through with some of our favorites. Joey, talk to me about your first veteran faller.
- [28:56]
Joey Wright
Hey, somebody that I was really high on. Just a month ago it seemed like the Cardinals were kind of set and committed Jacoby Brissette and so is Joey Wright. He was all in on Jacoby Brissette last year. His name their starter in week six and then it was the QB7 from then on with the season. Trey McBride was the number one tight end. Michael Wilson had absolute breakout and a lot of it kind of attributed to Jacoby Brissette. So things look good there. And then one week before the draft Brissette's like, ah, I'm just gonna hold out. I wanna, I want a real contract. And that's just disappointing to see. It's currently he's only signed to the team until the end of 2026, set to make 4.8 million before bonuses. This amounts to the 29th quarterback starting quarterback in the league. Yes, even Davis Mills will make more money than Jacoby Brissette next year. It does sound like the Cardinals are willing to work on a deal, but that's not even set in stone. I wanted to see what the Cardinals reaction would be and they went out and drafted Carson Beck out of Miami, who a lot of people think is the most pro ready quarterback outside of Mendoza in this draft class. Played at Miami, played at Georgia, has been in pro style offenses. So now we have a QB competition in Arizona, something I was not expecting, that I was not hoping for. So between the holdout and incoming rookie, I'm kind of fading away from using Jacoby reset somebody. I had as high as QB 15
- [30:12]
David Montgomery
at one point and this is another one of those like we're going to look at draft capital and say Carson Beck was a round three pick but he was drafted so early in round three. It's kind of like the same thing I was saying with John Stribling, like just barely missing like this. Carson Beck is very close to being around two quarterback and we see these guys get an opportunity to start. So yeah, I think this was very much so a message to Jacoby Brissette like, hey, you know, we're not going to negotiate here and truthfully they shouldn't. Jacoby Brissette, yeah, it was fun for fantasy football. It was not good for winning football. The Cardinals lost a lot of games, Jacoby Brissette last year and I can promise you the coaching staff is insane. We need to get this guy out there because he's throwing touchdowns to Trey McBride and helping people in fantasy football, they want to win games. And Carson Beck, yeah, he's dealing with the arm injury. He is, you know, a super, super, super senior during his time in college. But like you said, he played in pro style offenses. He's somebody who can step up and at least be that kind of short term bridge. Our Mike Khashuba, I think said it perfectly like that. He is an Aiden o' Connell type of bridge. Just like the Raiders did where they brought o' Connell in for a year, got him for cheap in the draft, went for a year with Aiden oconnell. They could very much so do Carson Beck. So not only would that be bad for people who have been going after Jacoby Brissette, it would also be bad for all of the Trey McBride, Marvin Harrison, Michael Wilson managers out there and of course Jeremiah Love. We like the talent, but not crazy about him running behind the 30th ranked offensive line according to our Matt Patonti, my big follower Joey and I guess the Cardinals, we didn't plan it this way, but hoo boy, Tyler Algier, this guy was getting steamed up in like round five, round six of rookie drafts. And with Jeremiah Lovingtown, that's it, he falls way down draft boards. We're not looking at him as anything but an injury away running back. And Joey, like I don't even know if he's the injury away running back to target like James Conner could be the guy. Trey Benson could be the guy. I think it is pretty tight here in Arizona, so I think that a lot of people are just going to continue drafting Tyler Algier, you know, a couple rounds cheaper than he was going. But this is going to be the Jeremiah Love show. And if Jeremiah Love has a missed time, my guess is that there is going to be some sort of split committee here. So Tyler Algier, I don't want to say he's completely off my draft board, but I mean, like, we'd have to be looking like round 14, 15, 16 before I'd even think about clicking on Tyler Algier at this point.
- [32:38]
Joey Wright
Yeah, no interest him at all. I mean, I do think it'd be funny if his identity to his NFL career was I was the guy that you were mad because you had the real RB1 on your team. You know, that could very much be Tyler Algiers, you know, identity. But, yeah, I don't want to.
- [32:52]
David Montgomery
1,000 yards as a rookie. All this excitement going for him into year two. Then they draft Bijan Robinson, then he goes to Arizona and we say finally, like he's going to get his opportunity. They go out and they draft Jeremiah Love. So poor Tyler Alger, man. Just a casualty of two of the best running backs coming into the NFL through drafts over the last few years. All right, Joey, we're going to talk about some rookies here, some rookie followers, but before we do that, if you made it this far into the show, I mean, we're already past the 30 minute mark. A lot of people just kind of skim through. If you're watching right now, that means you are one of our most loyal listeners. And we've got a special giveaway for you, Joey. Go ahead and take it.
- [33:32]
Joey Wright
Yeah, Scott Fishbowl is coming up. If you don't know what the Scott Fishbowl is, go to scottfishbowl.com read up on it. But it's the, you know, world's largest charity tournament. Over 5000 fantasy football managers all, all get together in the name of charity to play fantasy football. There's fun divisions. I think this year's theme is video games. So we have a spot to give away. We want you to go to the YouTube comments because we love when you leave those YouTube comments. Use the word riser. The most creative use of the word riser. We're going to give away a Scott Fishbowl spot. So get in there. Leave your comment. Use riser. Get creative. We want to reward you for listening with a spot.
- [34:07]
David Montgomery
And if you end up getting one of these entries that are in the Colorado area and you want to come to the Denver Live Draft, I can facilitate that and get you in that Denver Live Draft as well. Just a really, really fun event. My wife and I host the Denver Live Draft out here and I think we're raising it to six drafts this year. I mean the event just grows by the year. Such a fun organization and charity and tournament and thing to be a part of. So absolutely use the word riser in a comment and we will pick our favorite to get you into Scott Fishbowl. I'm sure we'll have fun going through these. But Joey, let's talk about a couple rookie fallers here. Who's the first one you want to discuss?
- [34:46]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I was, I was just really bummed Taylor Green going to the Browns. Just his athleticism and raw talent. I just really thought could transition to the league quickly. He was my QB2 based on I thought he was gonna have a good landing spot. I thought he maybe he'd go to Arizona and sit a year behind Jacoby Brissett. This was the dream that I was having leading into draft week. As we covered earlier though, Arizona went with Carson Beck and Green fell to the first pick of the sixth round to the Cleveland Browns who listen, the Browns have assembled themselves quite an impressive room of question marks. Shador Sanders, Dylan Gabriel and yeah, Desean Watson is still there. If Tylen Green starts in 2026, it's gonna have to be that he won a QB camp battle which I don't really see as likely, or injuries to one, if not two of the quarterbacks in front of him. The silver lining though with Green, like I'm, I'm really out on him, but there is a silver lining if he does happen to get that job. Casey Concepcion and Denzel Boston are now in Cleveland alongside Harold Fannin. It's kind of a really interesting receiver room of targets that I think any quarterback that kind of pops into this offense might actually find some success. And I think we're gonna actually start talking about it because it's just the talent there that is around him is really impressive. But as far as Tyler Green goes, I just, I do not see it happening in year one for him.
- [36:09]
David Montgomery
Yeah, and, and that's tough. I mean it's really tough to get on the field when you're in that sort of deep quarterback room. All indications are that it's going to be desean Watson to start week one. And I do say like you know I like Todd Monken and we have seen what Todd Monken built in Baltimore with this run first pass attack that was predicated off of play action and getting the ball to these move tight ends and they have the personnel there in Cleveland to install a pretty similar offense. So you know, we'll probably get. My guess is that sometime in training camp desean Watson is going to officially be named the starter and he'll probably move into that like top 15 range. But you can get them right now for way cheaper than that. And if the Cards break in that direction, you know you can get a huge edge on drafters in these early leagues. But even if it's Chadur Sanders, if it's Taylor Green, I think whatever quarterback you put in this offense, there are fun pieces around here. I mean, I talked about it. I did my draft grades article yesterday. I gave the Cleveland Browns an A plus on their draft and I said that this is a franchise altering draft. I think, you know, they did a good job of getting the early draft capital. They hit on those picks and then they just kept scooping up good value late. I mean they had themselves a really, really good draft that could potentially change the trajectory of this Cleveland Browns offense. All right, time for my rookie faller and it is all the running backs that I've spent the last three months just grinding on. You know, I've 48 wide running backs deep in our rookie guide. I had high expectations for some of these guys, was hoping that maybe some would sneak into day two, but we got absolutely nothing here. The one guy I'll call out specifically though, Mike Washington Jr. Just absolutely brutal run for him, falls to day three buried behind Ash and Ginty on the depth chart. I mean at this point I don't even know if you could say he's like the injury away guy. If Ashton Ginsey were to miss time, we're probably looking at a split backfield here. I mean this is just Caleb Black fallen as the RB3 in this draft class. Joey, it was just, you know, we knew this wasn't the best running back class and we knew the NFL wasn't going to value it that much. But I don't think anybody expected him to fall the way they actually did.
- [38:15]
Joey Wright
No, we were just waiting. Like we said, we were watching the draft together. Just like it seemed like the running backs were just never coming off the board and then they, I guess they did towards day three. But just you hate to see it from Mike Washington after his combine, had such a great combine, to think he's going to land somewhere and just. It just didn't happen.
- [38:34]
David Montgomery
Let's go through some honorable mentions here, Joey. I'm just going to read off a list of other risers that we talked about that we kind of got excited about that aren't going to make the the meat of the show, but I want you to pick out one of these and Just talk about one of the guys that you're most excited for as a riser. So here's who we came up with. James Cook, you know, another running back who made it unscathed, Jonathan Brooks. No additions there in Carolina and they beefed up the offensive line with Monroe Freeling in round one. Jaguars running backs also we expected to add there and they didn't. So it's going to be Bashal Toon and Chris Rodriguez leading that bunch. Tyrone Tracy. You know, we were afraid that maybe Jeremiah Love would go top five that didn't have or go five to the Giants and that didn't happen. But they also didn't address running back anywhere else. Jadarian Price sneaking into round one. He could be the Week one starter for the Seattle Seahawks. Already mentioned the quarterback for the Browns. Whether that's desean Watson, Shador Sanders, Taylor Green, that guy is a big riser. Whoever it may be. Lamar Jackson, also a big riser. They added some fun pieces to that Ravens offense. Looking in Indianapolis, I've got both Tyler Warren and Alec Pierce as risers. They didn't really add any pass catchers there, so setting them up to have what they already have. We could sneak Josh Downs in as a riser as well. And then Jalen Naylor, who all expectations were that the Raiders would spend early draft capital on wide receiver. They did not a very odd draft for them, but Jaylen Naylor walks out as the wide receiver one. So Joey, of all of those risers that I listed, is there one that stands out to you in particular that you'd like to discuss a little bit?
- [40:02]
Joey Wright
Tyrone Tracy, we saw him have kind of a good finish to the season there, but I wasn't exactly exuding with confidence from Malachi Fields that the Giants brought in Malachi Fields and I think he's gonna be a competent wide receiver. But I was worried that whoever they bring in might take away some passing down work. But I think Tyrone Tracy is kind of that little hybrid running back wide receiver option that the Giants could really scheme some claims up for like they have in the past. So yeah, glad to see that his value is not completely gone.
- [40:31]
David Montgomery
And I have some concerns about Scatter Boo coming back from that ankle injury, foot injury or whatever they they deemed it. So that's why I'm kind on Tyrone Tracy. And you talk about the Malachi Fields selection. Malachi Fields played at Notre Dame last year, didn't have the gaudiest production, but he is known as kind of that do it all type of wide receiver like he can kind of play as an extension of a tight end, like lining up out wide, but still getting out there as a blocker. So I think the Malachi Field just helps the run game. The one other guy I'll talk about from this list Jadarian Price. I did not have a Round one grade on Jadarian Price, but the Seattle Seahawks clearly did. We know Zach Charbonnet, that very late injury didn't even get the surgery on his knee until after the Super Bowl. He is not going to be ready for Week one. Could end up missing a big chunk of the season. We were looking at a George Holani Emmanuel Wilson mess to start the season. I think they're probably going to lean on Jadarian Price now. The fear of course is that Price gets off to a hot start, Charbonnet comes back late in the year and does what Charbonnet does. Takes all of the high value touches. But you can't not move Jadarian Price way up the rankings after he went in Round one and all the other running backs fell. So Joey, absolutely crazy weekend. I don't think this draft went the way anybody expected or the way that we've seen many drafts go in in previous years, but here we are out of the NFL draft. We've got a fun couple of months going through discussing all of this, putting together the pieces of the puzzle and getting ready for the season. And just about three months away. Man, it's going to be here before we realize it.
- [41:57]
Joey Wright
Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. We'll be in Vegas drafting NFFC teams before we know
- [42:04]
David Montgomery
all happens. Really, really quick. And you know, we hope you the audience will take the time to hang out with us during that time. But want to thank you so much for taking the time today to hang out. Remember, you can get that free entry into Scott Fishbowl with a comment riser. So let us know what you got there. But thank you so much for hanging out. We will see you soon. Warning the following ZipRecruiter radio spot you are about to hear is going to
- [42:36]
Commercial Announcer 2
be filled with F words when you're hiring.
- [42:38]
ZipRecruiter Announcer
We at ZipRecruiter know you can feel frustrated, forlorn, even, like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. Fortunately, ZipRecruiter figured out how to fix all that and right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com Zip with ZipRecruiter you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite F word. In fact, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day.
- [43:14]
David Montgomery
Fantastic.
- [43:16]
ZipRecruiter Announcer
So whether you need to hire four, 40 or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com to try ZipRecruiter for free. Don't forget that ZipRecruiter.com Zip finally that ZipRecruiter.com zip Ryan Reynolds here from Mint
- [43:33]
Ryan Reynolds
Mobile with a message for everyone Paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
- [43:54]
Commercial Announcer 1
of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com.