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The HARDEST Fantasy Football Decisions Right Now (Would You Rather?)
00:39:07
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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:51]
B
ADP gets set early in the offseason and people just blindly adhere to it for the rest of the season. And today Heath Cummings and I are going to look at some of these situations one by one, seeing if ADPs got it right or maybe wrong. So Keith, let's go ahead and jump in. Right off the top. We're going to start with the one and two that you see in almost every single draft this year. B John Robinson and Jameer Gibbs. We see them flip flopped in different platforms. Sometimes Bijan's going first, sometimes Jameer Gibbs is going first. Do you have a strong take here on who fantasy managers should be drafting?
- [01:23]
C
I don't. I mean, I have a take, but I don't think it's a strong take. I think if you told me that I was going to have the number one pick in six drafts, I'd probably take Gibbs in four of them and Bichon and two of them just to make sure that I wasn't completely overloaded. I think, listen, these guys, guys are both proven to be amongst the very best at their position. I think the, the one thing that you can say that is obviously different between them is one of them is in an offense that is very, very good. One of them's in an offense that we're not so sure. And so when I look at my projections, like the almost the entirety of the difference between my projections for Gibbs and Robinson is the fact that I have Gibbs projected to score six more touchdowns.
- [02:03]
B
Yeah. And I think that that is spot on. He is going to score a lot more touchdowns. Now over the last few years, we've seen that David Montgomery has been a frustrating thorn in the side of Jameer Gibbs managers. And same with Tyler Algier in Bijan Now I think you could make this argument kind of go in either way that like the Runway is cleared for the guys to both take off and have career years. But when you're looking at your projections, Isaiah Pacheco in that David Montgomery role, Brian Robinson in that Tyler Algier role, are you projecting them to have similar roles or maybe a little bit less and more volume going to Gibson?
- [02:33]
C
Bij I think maybe there's a little boost I, I have, I think a bigger boost for Gibbs relative to what he's been in the past than I do for Bijan. I think Brian Robinson Jr's a little closer to what Tyler Algier is. I'm not sure Isaiah Pacheco has much left at all. We'll find out. But it, it didn't look very good at the end there in Kansas City. So I'm not sure, like maybe early in the year they're putting Pacheco in that role. But even when the Chiefs were using Isaiah Pacheco as a, I should use air quotes, but lead running back, the one role after his rookie year they weren't really comfortable using him in was at the goal line. So I'm not sure that even if he does have a role, it's going to be the one that Montgomery had where he's scoring a bunch of touchdowns.
- [03:22]
B
And on top of that, we also saw Dan Campbell wasn't running the same backfield that Ben Johnson was. Where Ben Johnson did want to have this Jamal Williams, David Montgomery type of player. Dan Campbell just said, I'm going to give the ball to Jameer Gibbs. So I prefer Jameer Gibbs to be Jon Robinson. But definitely a tough discussion there. Now if you're watching on YouTube, do us a favor, give us a thumbs up. It's going to help this show grow. Leave us a comment. We reply to every single comment we get. And of course, if you're watching and you aren't subscribed already, please subscribe. We love subscribers coming back. We've got a long off season ahead of us. Great guests coming through here on the football guys fantasy football show. Keith the next situation we're going to talk about isn't just a this or that. A one to one. There is this cluster of three wide receivers. Jamar, Ch, Pukua, Jackson, Smith, Najigba. And this is another one that like no consensus has formed. Depending on where you are drafting, you see these guys go in different orders. I was just in a draft where I saw Puka go first. I've been in other drafts where I've seen JSN go first. How do you rank these three receivers?
- [04:21]
C
I'm going to go with Jamar Chase probably eight times out of 10 here. I he it is a pretty a stronger lean for me than the Bijan Robinson Jameer Gibbs situation and I think like Puka you could make the argument that he really should just be in this conversation now, but he still has kind of the same issue he's had for an elite number one wide receiver. He doesn't really score the touchdowns like a lot of those guys do. JSN I am worried there's a little bit of just like would have been regression anyway and then also Kubiak's gone and so can can they repeat that magic without him? I think we saw it with the Lions last year like they were still awesome as an offense. They were diff worse worse and different than they were the year before when they had been Johnson. So I think we'll see a little setback for that Seattle offense. Jamar Chase it's really just are Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow healthy and I haven't gotten to the point to where I'm expecting injuries for either of those guys and if those two are healthy I think it's possible Jamar Chase is a point per game better than other every other wide receiver in fantasy this year.
- [05:28]
B
I am in complete agreement with you on everything you said about all three players. I think if Devonte Adams were to retire or been released which we heard some murmurs about earlier, it looks like he's coming back now, then I might be willing to move Puka Nukua up there. But they just run that goal line fade that is just unstoppable with Devonte Adams and he takes so many touchdowns from Puka. So again I think that's the same order. I have him in Chase, Nakua and JSN for all the reasons you said. Now you kind of get to this tier 2 of receivers a little bit later. Sometimes it's in late round one, sometimes it's the top of round two and these were guys CD Lamb and Justin Jefferson that were both top scoring in their position just over the last few years. But now we're starting to get some question marks. You know George Pickens is in Dallas and he took a sizable workload last year. Justin Jefferson, my goodness, we all saw the splits without JJ McCarthy and know what it looks like with and with McCarthy. So there's hope that Justin Jefferson can return to the player he was with Kyler Murray. There's also hope That a healthy Ceedee Lamb can return to the player that he was before George Pickens was there. But when I'm looking at these two guys, I have no idea how to draft them. I want them both on my team, but trying to rank them one ahead of the other just feels like a fool's errand at this point.
- [06:39]
C
So I, I just did a mock draft before we recorded this and Justin Jefferson went before me and I had to put 12th pick in the draft. So he was around one pick in that draft. CD Lamb went right after me. I didn't draft either one of them. Oh, I, I, I have both of these guys kind of as second round picks. Lamb earlier than Jefferson and again, it's kind of like the Gibbs RO and discussion. I feel a lot better about the Dallas Cowboys pass offense than I do the Minnesota Vikings. Kyler Murray should be better than JJ McCarthy was last year. Or if McCarthy wins the job, I think McCarthy would be better, better than he was last year. But I don't think that we see what we saw early in the Kevin o' Connell run there in Minnesota, where it was a high volume pass offense. I think especially if Kyler's the quarterback, he's probably going to run seven or eight times a game that's going to cut into those pass attempts. And so even with George Pickens there, I have CD Lamb projected for five more targets than Justin Jefferson. And I think the passing game is so much better that he's also more efficient. So it's a, it's a little gap there like Lamb and Jefferson and they are still both second round picks for me, but I pretty strongly prefer them.
- [07:50]
B
And you know, it feels like Jordan Addison just gets lost in this discussion all the time. Like he has dealt with some injuries over the last couple of seasons and hasn't put together a full year since his rookie season. But this is a guy too that can really cut into the Justin Jefferson projections the way that George Pickens did last year with CD Lamb. And I don't think people have really taken note of that yet. So I prefer CD Lam to Justin Jefferson as well. But this is one of the tougher ones there and I think this is one too. Like, if I'm drafting multiple teams on one platform, this is one where I might just leave it up to adp. Like whatever ADP prefers, I will take that choice there and then not have to worry about, you know, not having the, the diversification that we want among a bunch of different teams. Let's keep moving down here and I think these two players I'm lumping together because, one, they have similar ADPs, like everybody we're talking about, but they're also two young running backs in what we probably deem to be questionable offenses, Ashton Jinty and Devon Achan. We cannot possibly doubt the talent level for these guys, but how do we draft these guys? Because we know that, like, it's probably going to come down to touchdowns. If they score touchdowns, they're going to be good in fantasy. If they don't, we're probably going to be a little bit frustrated here. So when you're sitting kind of at that 1, 2 turn, early round 2, Ashton Jensen and Devon Achan are on the board. Who do you prefer? Heath?
- [09:09]
C
I still prefer hn. This one is probably, like, not necessarily the closest one for me, but Achan's been one of the most difficult players for me to project and evaluate going into 2026, because, like, if you look at what happened last year, there's really no reason they should be in the same conversation. Scored six more fantasy points per game. And so it really comes down to how much better do we think Genti is? How much worse do we think Achan? I think both of those things are going to happen. You said it comes down to touchdowns. I think it. For me, it probably comes down to receptions specifically for Devon Hn, because this is on the one hand, a team that doesn't really have anybody else to catch the football. They. Their. Their top veteran wide receivers are Malik Washington and Jalen Tolbert. And I think maybe is Terrace Marshall on this team or somebody in that same ilk?
- [10:04]
B
Like, it's bad enough that people are gassing up Greg Dulcich, that that's where the Miami Dolphins offense is.
- [10:09]
C
But on the other hand, their new quarterback, Malik Willis is a guy like Kyler Murray that's going to probably run the ball eight to 10 times per game. And in the very, and I get a very, very, very limited sample size that we have of Malik Willis, it hasn't been a guy who really targets running backs in the passing game at all, which is pretty common for young running quarterbacks. So Achan caught 67 pass. I think if he's north of 50, then he pretty much pretty clearly clears Genti because I still think he's going to be more efficient, but it could be really bad in terms of the target volume. And so as of right now, I've got a fairly strong lean towards Achan, but it seems like every time I update my projections, I lower his reception total just a little bit. And if, if Genty really breaks out and if this offensive line is as improved as we're hoping it is in Las Vegas, then I wouldn't be that surprised if Genti was better.
- [11:06]
B
And I think that's the perfect way to talk about this, like opening up by saying that there was a six point per game gap between these players. But we have the Las Vegas offense very clearly trending up. They have a quarterback, a better offensive line. We trust in Clint Kubiak. But then when you look at the Dolphins, it's not even they're necessarily trending down. We just don't know. And I think the point that you make about the receptions is probably the biggest takeaway here because Tua Tuga Bailoa does not rush the ball. He wants to get the ball. It's to going quickly out of his hand as he can. Which is why we saw those checkdowns to Devon A Chan and that would really hurt his value if he's not getting those receptions. Another thing is like early in the year last year Eshin Ginsey wasn't catching a lot of passes, but we saw it start to trend into more pass casting usage late in the year. So we don't know exactly how Clint Kubiak is going to do that. This is another tough one. I think this is it crazy to say that Jinty might be the safer pick and Devon HN has a higher ceiling but also a lower floor. Or is that just, you know, fantasy football jargon? That doesn't mean much.
- [12:05]
C
You know, it just, it's, it's hard to call Genty the safer pick with what we just saw a year ago. Like, has the situation changed that much to where Hn because. Because I also think that like Achan's probably not going to have a good rushing average is what you'd think in this offense, except for the fact that he's playing with Malik Willis and if they're running the right style of running plays, maybe he will. So I'm still gonna say I think HN has the higher ceiling and the floor for now. I am just terrified of what Malik Willis might do to his passing production.
- [12:37]
B
So I opened up the show kind of jokingly saying that we just get like cemented into adp. But there's one flip flop that I have noticed. When I started doing drafts a month ago, Trey McBride was going ahead of Brock Bowers in every single draft. Now I'm starting to see Brock Bowers go ahead of Trey McBride. Now I believe that Brock Bowers Is the better player to target between these two. Just you look at, you know, how we are projecting passes to go. There's nobody else in Las Vegas like he might see 180 targets this year. I prefer Brock Bowers. It seems like ADP is trending in that direction. Do you also prefer Brock Bowers ahead of Trey McBride? Heath?
- [13:14]
C
I do. I think I'm actually lower than ADP on both of these guys. I've got, I could, I could talk for an entire show about my views on the tight end position this year, but I think the best way to frame it is I've, I've been the Trey McBride guy for the last couple of years. I was the Harold Fanon guy last year. And a big part of that is the fact that when I do projections, I do look at offensive coordinator tendencies and specifically when it comes to the tight end position. And two coordinators from the same system, Kevin Stefansky and Drew Petig were the, were the guys running or, I mean, Stefanski was the head coach, but running the offenses for Fanon and McBride, it was two of the most tight end centric offenses in the NFL. Both of those guys have left and it's been a big boost in my projections for Sam Laporta and Kyle Pitts. Part of the reason I'm not as excited about taking a tight end in round two, but also part of the reason that I am very concerned about Trey McBride at cost. I think McBride's a very good player. I'm not sure that he's ever going to give us like an elite efficiency season. He did have the 11 touchdown season last year, but you look at it on a per target basis, 7.8, 7.8, 7.3 the last three seasons. It's good. The, the key was he gets 10 targets per game, so he's awesome. I'm not sure with Petsigli leaving that there's quite as many of those designed kind. They're almost like running back flare screens or like they just, they just dump the ball off to the tight end. He's the outlet when nobody's open downfield. They have a couple of decent wide receivers there in Arizona. They've got a new offensive system. I don't think they throw the ball as much as they did last year if they can help it. So yeah, I'm, I'm a little bit worried about Trey McBride in round two and I don't feel great about him early in round three.
- [15:05]
B
So Trey McBride, I think he's a better player and a better prospect than TJ Hawkinson, but we saw TJ Hawkinson doing that for years where it wasn't that he was like, you know, just a world beating tight end. He was just kind of a function of the offense where he was just that check down that was just sitting there like eight yards off the line of scrimmage, just always in zone coverage waiting to catch the ball. And he was kind of that safety valve. And that's kind of what Trey McBride did. And we see now when TJ Hawkinson isn't the focal point of the offense and there are two other target earners on that team, he kind of falls by the wayside. So I don't think Trey McBride is ever going to be like that. You know, Trey McBride or TJ Hawkinson, right now we're not even looking at him in the top 15 tight ends. I think Trey McBride is going to maintain a bit more relevance than that. But you make a good point about him being the function of the offense. So if I could just totally put you on the spot here. Now you talk about play callers that utilize tight ends. You know, I'm okay using Brock Bowers because I think that there is that out that he can kind of be the primary receiver like we saw from JSN and Justin Jefferson and Brandon Iuk and other receivers in Clint Kubiak offenses. But the one play caller I've seen consistently drawing plays up for tight ends that has better opportunity to catch the ball. Now Tyler Warren is the guy that I just cannot stop drafting. I think we already saw a good season last year. Now with Michael Pittman out of the picture, I think he just operates even more across the middle of the field where he can get more targets. I don't know how you feel about Tyler Warren or if there's another guy that you're specifically targeting, but I find myself overlooking these early guys knowing that I can get Colson Loveland, Tyler Warren, young ascending players with play callers who like to target the tight ends.
- [16:40]
C
So yeah, in the last draft I did, I think, I think McBride, Bowers and Loveland all went in round three. Loveland's kind of like sometimes you see him late in round four. But if you're in the draft with the Colson Loveland guy, then he's not getting out of round three. Yeah, for me it is more leaporta and Pitts because I have them very close to Tyler Warren and they go a couple of rounds later in the drafts that I've been in. But, but I do think like just to kind of wrap up the two things we're talking about. There was a seven and a half point per game difference between McBride and Warren last year in my projections. Right now I have one point per game separating them. So yes, Yeah, I think I, I'd. I definitely like Warren. More is cost than McBride.
- [17:27]
B
So just, you know, I've been drafted a lot of Kyle Pitts as well. Sam Laporta is the one that I find myself just overlooking a little bit. But I'm going to revisit this a little bit. You make a really good point about Petzig and kind of how he draws plays up for the tight end. So I will definitely take a look at that. Let's talk about some other young players here. These guys are all kind of clustered together in round two. We've got Malik Neighbors obviously coming off the ACL tear, Rashi Rice, who's dealing with an ACL tear to his quarterback, who looks like he could be ready for week one, but we'll, we'll. We'll see about that. And then Drake London, who had his big breakout last year but just struggled so much with staying healthy down the stretch that it kind of clouds the judgment of fantasy managers. So when you're looking at these three guys, Heath, Malik, Neighbors, Rashi Rice, Drake London, you could make a strong argument that all of these guys should be atop the list. Who do you prefer?
- [18:13]
C
I basically it's a coin flip for me between Rice and London and I have neighbors significantly behind them for now. I think going into the off off season, like you could have had some questions about Drake London and who's his quarterback going to be. And you had some questions about Rashi Rice and what's his legal situation going to be. And then you had the questions about Neighbors and his injury. And it feels like the Rice situation's kind of been settled and the London situation, like whatever you think of Tua Tungavallo, if that's the floor for Drake London's quarterback play, then I feel pretty good about that situation. The neighbor's injury situation I'm just a little bit concerned about just because it seems like nobody ever really wants to fully commit to when he's going to be healthy and he did have the delay and when he had the surgery. I'm not sure that he's going to be 100% at the start of the season and I'm not sure exactly what this offense is going to look like in terms of the way they distribute targets. Like when he has been healthy so far. Nobody else matters well, they went and got Isaiah likely to be reunited with his former head coach that they. I think they added Darnell Mooney. I like Malachi Fields a lot. They made a strong effort to go draft him. So I think that there's a chance that his target volume just isn't quite as high as Rice in London. I, I slightly favor Rashi Rice right now. If for some reason we get to training camp and it turns out no, we don't think Patrick Mahomes is going to be healthy for the start of the year, then it's definitely London. But for now I'm expecting a healthy Mahomes. And so Rice who still has. Like this is. Here's a question for you. Can we put Rushy Rice on our breakout list even though he's kind of already done it three times, but never for more than eight games at a time?
- [20:02]
B
Dude, people just find reasons to, to, to write off Rashi Rice every single year. And I think the one this year that does have some weight to it is that I do think Rashi Rice is very much so a product of a Patrick Mahomes led offense. Like he's just an extension of the run game. They get him so quickly and allow him to create after the catch. So I know you are extra plugged in with the Chiefs. Does it, do you think, like if you had to, you know, just stake a claim right now, do you think Patrick Mahomes is going to be on the field week one? Because I think that is really the biggest kind of inflection point with Rashi Rice. If he's playing with Patrick Mahomes, he's a top five receiver. If he's not playing with Patrick Mahomes, that's where I start to have some concerns.
- [20:41]
C
I'm not sure, like when you say Patrick Mahomes, I think somebody's going to be out there week one in a Patrick Mahomes jersey. So I think like he will. I'm not sure it's going to be the guy we've come to know as Patrick Mahomes. And I think that kind of works both ways. The Chiefs have been pretty clear with their intention to run the ball more. Eric B. Enemy is going to help that they're going to run the ball more successfully because of him. They went out and speak spent big money on Ken Walker, but we've also seen Patrick Mahomes run for 300 yards basically every year of his career. I do not think there's any chance he's going to run as much as he has in the past coming off of the injury. And so you probably see if like when you talk about him Rashi Rice being extension of the run game, I think you maybe Walker hurts his target total, but the fact that Mahomes isn't running as much helps his target total. So and if Mahomes isn't quite right, you probably want to have more of those quicker area targets and not him holding onto the ball and trying to create downfield which also benefits Rashi Rice.
- [21:43]
B
Complete agreement with you there and then we did kind of just gloss over Drake London in this discussion. He's actually who I prefer of the bunch ever so slightly to Rashi Rice. Just an ascending player who, you know, 30% plus target share almost every single year should see some better quarterback play. This year he's been one of my favorite targets. I'm taking him as early as 13th overall. So the guy that I prefer here but Rashi Rice, as we get better news about Patrick Mahomes will will continue to creep up those rankings as we get closer to kickoff.
- [22:13]
D
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- [22:40]
E
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- [22:52]
D
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- [22:56]
B
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- [23:00]
D
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- [23:11]
B
Next one we want to talk about and these guys are also it just kind of worked out like this is why as I started doing drafts I said I want to do a show on this because there are these clusters of guys that are very similar and right now we have Trayvon Henderson, Cam Scadboo and Quinshon Judkins all year, two running backs all clustered together. Treveon Henderson was probably the most disappointing of the bunch, but he comes into 2026 with a relatively Clean bill of health, which we can't say about Scatterboo and Judkins. So. So when you're looking at these three, do you have one that you prefer? Frankly, Heath, I hate to say this, but when I'm in drafts and these three guys are all kind of on the board, I find myself looking at tight ends, quarterbacks and wide receivers more than I do these running backs.
- [23:50]
C
So I. I might be making the mistake. And it's so early in the spring that I think it's maybe it almost late in the spring. Maybe it's still okay to make.
- [24:00]
B
We got snow out here in Colorado yesterday, so I don't know what it is.
- [24:04]
C
Definitely early in the spring if there's snow on the ground. I. I'm extremely excited about Quinton Judkins. I was encouraged by the fact that he's doing. He's at least present in Cleveland and wearing a jersey, doing some type of exercise. So I, I'm. I'm really expecting him to be fully healthy. If he's not during training camp, then I will downgrade him. But I'm. I'm pretty optimistic. Optimistic about Todd Monkin and the effect that he will have on that offense. I think that while they're not going to have a good offensive line, they've made great efforts to make it a better offensive line. I think he's a very good rusher. Now, what he does in the passing game and the answer to this question might come down to are you playing in a half PPR or a full PPR league? Because I don't think Judge can catches a lot of passes. But I do think that there's a possibility, if he's healthy to start the season, that he's one of the top three or four running backs in terms of rush attempts next year. I could see Todd Monken really leaning on him. It's a bad team, but it's a great defense. And how do you stay in games? Just run the clock down with your offense and play defense.
- [25:11]
B
It feels like we're having the Nick Chubb conversation all over again. Right? Like a really good running back, maybe one of the best. It's only a matter of time before we start hearing Quinchon Judkins, you know, the best pure rusher in the NFL. But it's that lack of pass catching upside down really is a problem here. And we've seen in Monken offenses, they don't target the running backs all that much either. So, yeah, this is one where I think Judkins, the player you know, checked every box we want to see as a rookie, but the dislocated ankle is a tough injury to come back from and everybody heals a little bit differently. Luckily, he has youth on his size, so we hope that or on his side, so we hope that he can come back soon. But we've seen, you know, Chris Godwin just really struggled to come back from this one last year, so we'll see how this shakes out. Let's talk about our first quarterback duo here. It seems like we have one player trending in one direction, one player trending in another direction. Jaden Daniels and Jaden Hertz, two NFC east quarterbacks that are getting drafted right next to each other in drafts. Heath, who do you prefer here?
- [26:09]
C
I I like both of these guys at cost. I think they're both undervalued. I lean slightly towards Jaden Daniels even though Jalen hurt. I am probably the biggest Jalen hurts defender and so he and he's proven it much more. But I I think it's more likely that Daniel's situation is a little bit better. And I'm already expecting that A.J. brown's not going on to be on the team. So I think yet another new offensive coordinator. Listen, it's not going to be a downgrade from the offensive system they were running last year. I think it's probably a plus. But it's still another new offensive coordinator. It's a downgrade from A.J. brown to Makai Lemon. Dallas Goddard's another year older. Again, these guys are very, for me, actually, they're very, very close to Drake May and Joe Burrow. And like, I think they're all in contention for QB3 right now. I had Daniels at 4hz 6 slight lean towards Daniels.
- [27:06]
B
So you're making the assumption that A.J. brown is not going to be in Philadelphia. Are you also making the assumption that Brandon Ayuk will be in Washington? Because that is another one where like if Brandon Iuk lands in Washington right now, we know Terry McLaurin's there, not much else. Sure, I could talk myself into Luke McCaffrey and Antonio Williams and Chic conquo but given him a true secondary wide receiver, a Brandon Ayuk, that to me would move him like right into that QB3 spot.
- [27:33]
C
If again, it's kind of like what I said about Patrick Mahomes is like, is it Brandon Iuk or is it Brandon Iuk? Like what who I I don't know. We haven't seen him play football in a long time. We haven't even he hasn't even been at a football practice. Apparently he was never Even at the 49ers facility, like, I don't know, driving
- [27:53]
B
by and videotaping it apparently.
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C
I'm not sure if Brandon Ayuk still exists. So yes, if, if we get into training camp and we're getting reports that looks like Brandon Ayuk again, he's in shape, he's healthy, then yes, I think 100. No, I'm not assuming that one, because I don't know if the commanders are going to make that move. I 49ers might just spite hold on to him until it's too late and then two, I don't know if they do make that move if he's still Brandon Iuk. But I think think like Chigo conquo is pretty interesting to me just because I think he can do what Zach Ertz did and then maybe do something besides fall down after he catches the ball. I think Rashad White is a pretty big benefit in the passing game. He's not, not a super explosive guy, doesn't make a ton of people miss, but what he does do is catch 90 of the balls that are thrown to him. So I think that'll be a nice outlet for Jaden Daniels. And then didn't really seem to me like last year we ever had Jaden Daniels at full strength and Terry McLaurin at full strength on the field together. And I think we get that going into this year.
- [28:57]
B
So you talk about Chicaconkwo doing a lot of the Zachary stuff and I think he can do some of that, but also he could do a lot of the Debo Samuel stuff, you know, the, the end arounds and the pot passes and the screens. So yeah, but that's where we're at. Like if Chicaconkwa was the number two weapon on this offense, you got to hope that Jaden Daniels is going to rush a ton or just have another very efficient season like he had his rookie year. So. So I prefer Jaden Daniels here as well. But another tough one like all of the ones that we're talking about today and the next one, when you look at veteran wide receivers going to a new team, this can break one of two ways. Like we've seen Brandon Marshall 15 touchdowns with the New York Jets a while back we saw Devonte Adams just have a complete rewind the clock year last year with the Rams looking at DJ Moore and Mike Evans, Mike Evans with the San Francisco 49ers, DJ Moore with the Buffalo Bills and we saw DJ Moore, his first year in Chicago had a huge breakout year after switching teams. So. So between these two guys getting drafted, similarly, do you have a lean either way or is this another where you just kind of might let other people in your draft? Look at these guys.
- [29:56]
C
I have not drafted either one of these guys for the entirety of 2026.
- [30:01]
B
All right?
- [30:02]
C
I, DJ Moore is the guy that I would favor just because I, I think that. Listen, he's got Josh. Listen, I don't know that Josh Allen's necessarily better than the combination of Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy. But in San FRANCISCO There's Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, whoever else is there. It doesn't they. This is a team that throws about half of their passes to non wide receivers. We even when we talked about Brandon Iuk just a moment ago, we were always wishing that Brandon Iuk go somewhere where he could see a bunch of targets. And Mike Evans is going to be 33 years old and Mike Evans has been hurt each of the last two years and Mike Evans wasn't very good when he was on the field last year. So I, I am really a lot more concerned about Mike Evans than I am DJ Moore. I think Moore is a fine high end wide receiver. 3.
- [30:53]
B
Yeah, I think the hope with Mike Evans is that he does the Devonte Adams, he can get double digit touchdowns. That's kind of his out to fantasy relevance. DJ Moore is one. I'm a little bit more bullish on Heath and it's one I this is one where like you know, normally I, I see it my way and I only see it my way with DJ Moore. I see the upside and I see the downside. The downside. This guy who has been trending down for the last last few seasons. The upside is that his kind of off script style of football works well with Josh Allen and we see him have a 1400 yard season like he did with Justin Fields who also loves doing the off script sort of stuff. So I see the ceiling and the floor here. I have chosen to draft DJ Moore this year but I realized that this could end up being one of the worst picks as well. But you know, chasing that upside in round four, round five is something that I like to do. The next one I had on the list was Harold Fanning or Tyler Warren, but we already discussed that one. We both prefer Tyler Warren here. So let's just go right Heath, I just want to make sure I'm not putting words in your mouth.
- [31:48]
C
I don't like saying it out loud because Again, I am the Harold Fannin guy. But yeah, I think. I think Warren's situation got better. Fannin situation probably got worse.
- [31:57]
B
Absolutely. Let's talk about another one here. And this is one. I mean, I am shocked we're seeing them start to creep up a little bit now in drafts, but we did a football guys mock draft about a month ago and we saw Marvin Harrison Jr. And Brian Thomas Jr. Falling around some 8 and 9 of that mock draft. They're starting to creep up a little bit now, but there's no way around it. These guys have been very disappointing. But there's also this thing where fantasy managers have gotten very impatient. Like it feels like just yesterday we would get so excited about the potential for year three breakouts. These are two guys drafted in round one who have shown signs of life throughout their early NFL careers, now are going into year three where they should be primed for a breakout and fantasy managers just want to completely overlook them. I understand why. But Heath, do you think we've overreacted a little bit with pushing these guys down to where they're falling?
- [32:44]
C
Probably so, in fact, but I think the answer is probably that we've overreacted to one of them and I don't have a great deal of confidence which one it is. I slightly lean Harrison here. I may still just be on the pedigree of what I thought Marvin Harrison Jr. Was coming into the league. I'm hopeful that a new offensive coordinator hit from him is going to release more of the skills that I think that has. I do think that like when you look at target competition, Trey McBride and Michael Wilson's quite a bit also Jacoby Myers, Parker, Washington, Britain. Strange is quite a bit for Brian Thomas Jr. I wouldn't be that surprised if either one of these guys breaks out and is a top 18 wide receiver, but I don't. There's just not that much to look at and say, yeah, here's why it's going to happen. Especially after the way last year ended for both of them.
- [33:37]
B
And it's so weird when you're in these drafts because like if you told me a few months ago that I'd be able to get Marvin Harrison Jr. In round seven of my drafts, I'd tell you that I'd have him on 100% of my rosters. But then when I actually get to drafting and I'm looking at the other players going in that range, you never really feel good drafting either of them. I think the hope with Brian Thomas Jr. Is that he gets traded. But yeah, this is one like I have a slight lean towards Marvin Harrison Jr. But don't feel great about either of these guys. Let's talk about some of the rookies in this class. We've got Carnell Tate and Jordan Tyson both drafte inside the top 10. Cardinal Tate probably is less target competition, but I think that Jordan Tyson is probably in a better offensive environment. Cardinal Tate is going just a few picks ahead of Jordan Tyson. These guys are very, very tight in drafts right now. Do you think ADP is this one right where Carnell Tate is going first?
- [34:26]
C
Yeah, I have Carnell Tate one spot ahead of Jordan Tyson in my wide receiver ranking. So I pretty much view this one exactly like drafters have so far. I think that the clear difference is one of them top competition for targets is Wandale Robinson. The other one's Chris Olave and Chris Olave is a lot better. I'm also not as certain that the quarterback situation is going to be a lot better for Tyson. We're going to talk about Cam Ward here in just a moment. Tyler Shuck was much better than Cam Ward last year. Going into last year there wasn't, I don't think a person in America that thought Tyler Shuck was a better quarterback prospect than Cam Ward. Maybe there was one or two. There was probably one or two. I apologize for whoever that was but.
- [35:04]
B
And they'll let us know in the YouTube comments. It was me. I was the guy.
- [35:07]
C
Yes, but. But I was like it was a disappointing year for Cam Ward last year but it was an awful, awful situation for him and so I'm hopeful that he can take a step and take can be his number one wide receiver and be even better than the number three wide receiver. I have him ranked us Also when
- [35:25]
B
you look at the style of quarterback that Cam Ward is, first of all, he also looked good the final month of the season, which I know a lot of people were watching the Titans in the final month of the season when they drafted Cam Ward and they were eliminated from fantasy football and the Titans were out of playoff contention. But he did look good the final month of the season. But then also you look at the style of quarterback he is. You know, you can't say he's a one to one replacement for Jackson Dart or Josh Allen, but cut from a similar cloth. So do you get excited about this coaching change now that maybe Brian Dable knows how to bring the best out of Cam Ward?
- [35:55]
C
I would be more. Yes, I think so. I would be more excited for Carnell Tate. The head about the offensive coordinator, if he hadn't brought Wanda Robinson with him and didn't insist on throwing the ball 140 times to Wanda Robinson the last two seasons. But yes, I, I do think it. When you, like, the situation's pretty much still the same in Carolina or we've moved on to the Cam Ward and Bryce Young discussion, I was just gonna
- [36:21]
B
say, yeah, we're, we're kind of working our way down, so let's just do that. Cam Ward or Bryce Young, the next kind of. Would you rather here, you know, to two former number one overall picks. Who do you prefer here? Because these guys are also, you know, side by side in adp.
- [36:35]
C
I think the, the two arguments for Cam Warden, that's, that's who I prefer is one, last year was just his rookie year. Hopefully he learned how to play quarterback in the NFL. And that last month we saw as what he is and we kind of, I don't have a lot of hope that Bryce Young still is still going to turn into something better. And then two, the system is really pretty similar for Bryce Young. The setup's really pretty similar to what it last was last year. Cam Ward, we have a lot of things that have changed. He has better weapons, he has a better offensive coordinator. Hopefully all of that works together to make him a better fantasy football quarterback.
- [37:11]
B
And we've also seen Dave Canales doesn't want to throw the ball unless he absolutely has to. Like, they could be down two scores in the third quarter and he's still trying to establish the run. That's not great for the fantasy pass catchers and throwers in the Carolina Panthers. And the last one we're going to talk about here, Heath, and if you just want to say none, I totally understand. Like, these guys have dead zone running back all over them. We're looking at aging veterans with young, talented players behind them. Chuba Hubbard obviously is dealing with Jonathan Brooks coming back from injury this year. Ramadre Stevenson is dealing with year two of Trayvon Henderson. And then Tony Pollard has Tajie Spears who's kind of been involved. But they also also drafted Nick Singleton this year. So when you're looking at Chuba Hubbard, Ramadre Stevenson, Tony Pollard, do you like any of these guys and how would you rank them if you do?
- [37:57]
C
Pollard is the one that I find myself drafting on occasion. I think the guys in New England and Carolina are more talented than the, than Singleton and Spears, who Pollard has to compete with. I kind of view Singleton as a maybe in 2027 kind of guy or maybe If Tony Pollard gets hurt hurt kind of guy, I don't think they have any reason to believe that Taije Spears can be more than an 8 to 10 touch per game guy. And so I, I think Tony Pollard could be one of those sneaky RB2s that you find in the RB3 range. It's hard to get excited about drafting a running back on the Titans that's going to share touches to some extent, but he is the one I'm most, most most likely to draft.
- [38:39]
B
You know, we talked about how Cam Ward kind of turned it on at the end of the season last year. So did Tony Pollard, and it was a very rough start to the season. I talk about early season bias all the time. Like people are super plugged in in that first month of the season, meticulously analyzing everything, and then they kind of kick their feet up as the season goes on. So I think there's memories that Tony Pollard was bad because they drafted him, they put him in their lineup and he was bad. And when a lot of those teams were eliminated late in the season, then Tony Pollard was good and I think a lot of people just missed that. So I like Tony Pollard here as well. But Heath, this is fun. You know, this is that time of year where the sausage is still being made and you get to see it. The viewers you, you know, we're still shaking out ADP and discussing some of these situations. We'll get to more of a consensus and some stronger takes throughout the off season. But Heath, let everyone know where they can find all of your work. Podcasts, YouTube shows, articles, all that good stuff.
- [39:32]
C
Yeah, CBSSports.com fantasy is where you can find all of my articles. You can find me on Fantasy Football Today or FFT Dynasty, wherever you can find podcasts. And over on YouTube sometimes you'll find Dave on my Dynasty show, which we record on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:30 Eastern.
- [39:51]
B
And I believe you just had Jeff Bell on recently as well. So there's a lot of Heath, a former football guy yourself. There's a lot of still strong connections here between what you're doing with CBS and what we're doing over here at Football Guys.
- [40:02]
C
I do have to make a bit of an effort because I enjoy talking to all of you guys so much to make sure I don't just have like six football guys per month on the show. But no, lots, lots of former football guys. Lots of current football guys have had Matt Waldman, Sigmund Bloom, you, Jeff Bell, like the whole crew.
- [40:19]
B
Well, thank you so much for doing that, Heath. And thank you so much for the time today. To everybody who took the time to hang out and listen to this episode, thank you as well. I'll be back Monday with Joey Wright, Wednesday with Jeff Bell, and then we always have this rotating spot on Fridays. We got a great guest lined up for next week. So thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you soon.
- [40:49]
E
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