FantasyPros - 12 Draft Picks With MASSIVE UPSIDE You Should Be Targeting in 2025 (Ep. 1603)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Episode 1603 Title: FantasyPros - 12 Draft Picks With MASSIVE UPSIDE You Should Be Targeting in 2025
Release Date: July 5, 2025
Host/Authors: Joe Dolan, Pat Fitzmaurice, and Andrew Erickson from iHeartPodcasts and The Volume
Description: In this episode, the hosts delve into twelve fantasy football players poised for significant breakthroughs in the 2025 drafts. They analyze each player's potential, considering recent trades, injuries, and team dynamics to identify high-upside targets across various positions.

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1. Introduction to Massive Upside Draft Picks

Joe Dolan kicks off the discussion by highlighting the focus of the episode: identifying twelve players with substantial upside for the 2025 fantasy football drafts. He emphasizes the depth and range of the picks, ensuring listeners gain comprehensive insights into potential breakout candidates.

2. Early Ceiling Picks

a. Devon Achan (RB)

Andrew Erickson introduces Devon Achan as an expert consensus RB6, currently projected for the second round. With the departure of John Smith from the Miami Dolphins, Achan's role in the passing game is expected to surge.

“With John Smith gone, I think there's massive upside for Achan in the passing game.” [08:18]

Joe Dolan concurs, noting Achan's enhanced target share and potential for increased design targets.

“He is going to be a screen master in the second round of drafts.” [09:51]

Pat Fitzmaurice adds that Miami's offensive shift could further elevate Achan's value, especially if the team restores verticality to their passing game.

“...if Miami returns the verticality to their passing game... Achan's value gets a big boost.” [11:49]

b. T. Higgins (WR)

Pat Fitzmaurice pivots to T. Higgins, highlighting his vast upside despite being the second receiver on a high-powered Bengals offense.

“There are very few receivers with the sort of upside Higgins has.” [13:17]

He underscores Higgins' potential to outperform his current ranking, especially given the Bengals' projected offensive struggles and increased targets in high-scoring games.

“If I see a Bengals game with a Vegas Total below 50, I am auto betting the over.” [16:02]

Joe Dolan explores whether Higgins can leapfrog his number one receiver, Jamar Chase, emphasizing his consistent performance in Chase's absence.

“His final eight games, he had eight touchdowns... He's been productive when Chase was out.” [19:20]

3. Mid-Round Breakout Picks

a. Rasheed Rice (WR)

Andrew Erickson discusses Rasheed Rice as a high-upside player who had his suspension issues delayed, allowing him to return without immediate penalties.

“Rasheed Rice is the equivalent of wide receiver 12.” [21:25]

He believes Rice can capitalize on the Chiefs' offensive explosiveness, projecting him as a top-tier WR if he regains his form.

“He could be your wide receiver one with Patrick Mahomes.” [22:59]

Pat Fitzmaurice notes the potential competition for Rice with Xavier Worthy but remains optimistic about Rice's impact.

“Rice is going to be really impactful.” [23:38]

b. Ken Walker III (RB)

Pat Fitzmaurice presents Ken Walker III as a running back with significant upside, especially if he stays healthy and thrives in the Seahawks' newly optimized outside zone running scheme.

“Walker is plugged into a historically successful scheme that fits him best.” [25:19]

Joe Dolan and Andrew Erickson further discuss Walker's dual-threat capability as both a runner and a pass catcher, enhancing his fantasy value.

“He turned into a pretty prolific pass catcher with 46 catches last season.” [27:37]
“He could be your number one if you go wide receiver heavy early.” [28:34]

4. Deep Shots for League-Winning Plays

a. Isaiah Likely (TE)

Andrew Erickson highlights Isaiah Likely as a tight end with all-Pro potential, especially if Mark Andrews steps back due to age or injury.

“Mark Andrews has had some drops and fumbles, creating an opportunity for Likely.” [48:37]

Pat Fitzmaurice emphasizes Likely's role in the Ravens' offense, projecting him as a breakout candidate if Andrews' presence diminishes.

“Likely could absolutely be a league-winning type guy.” [51:34]

b. Luther Burden (WR)

Pat Fitzmaurice introduces Luther Burden as a rookie wide receiver poised to take on a significant role in the Broncos' offense alongside Cortland Sutton.

“Devon Vale is poised to be the starting slot receiver and could dramatically outkick his ADP.” [52:03]

Joe Dolan probes the potential scenarios that could elevate Burden's performance, considering the team's offensive dynamics.

“Does the new offensive staff design the same high percentage of targets?” [53:16]

5. Additional High-Upside Picks

a. Jordan Addison (WR)

Pat Fitzmaurice and Joe Dolan discuss Jordan Addison's underappreciated value, especially in relation to his consistency and performance under varying quarterbacks.

“Jordan Addison is way too underpriced for a wide receiver consistently producing alongside different QBs.” [33:24]

b. Javante Williams (RB)

Pat Fitzmaurice presents Javante Williams as a running back with breakout potential if he returns fully from his knee injuries and secures a leading role in Dallas.

“If we get the old Javante, he could give people a pretty huge return on investment.” [57:12]
“Javante is going to get the first crack at being the lead guy for Dallas this year.” [59:06]

6. Strategic Insights and Recommendations

The hosts provide strategic advice on drafting these high-upside players, emphasizing the importance of balancing risk with potential reward. They recommend targeting these players in specific rounds to maximize draft efficiency and team performance.

Pat Fitzmaurice advises keeping an eye on undervalued players and utilizing draft strategies that accommodate potential breakout performances.

“If there's some sort of role reduction or Andrews gets hurt, Likely could absolutely be a league-winning type guy.” [51:34]

7. Announcements and Promotions

Throughout the episode, the hosts make announcements about giveaways and promote their associated media channels for listeners to engage with additional content and opportunities to win prizes.

Joe Dolan announces the winner of the George Pickens dealer jersey giveaway and introduces a new giveaway for a signed James Cook Bills jersey.

“Congratulations Huff and Puff 2025. But we ain't done. We got a new one.” [19:51]

Andrew Erickson promotes the return of the Fantasy Football Morning show on SiriusXM, highlighting the show's schedule and content focus.

“Fantasy Football Morning presented by Fantasy Points will be back Monday through Friday, 7 to 8am Eastern on Sirius XM.” [12:11]

8. Conclusion and Resources

The episode concludes with reminders to listeners about the Fantasy Pros Draft Guide and encourages them to explore various resources available on their website to enhance their fantasy football strategies.

Pat Fitzmaurice encourages listeners to visit the Fantasy Pros website for comprehensive draft kits and positional primers.

“Go to fantasypros.com and check it out. ... I've got some positional primers where it's not just talking about some of the players.” [63:18]

Joe Dolan reiterates the importance of utilizing the expert consensus rankings and staying informed through their platforms.

“You can check out the rankings that we were referring to and talking to at fantasypros.com/rankings.” [63:38]

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Notable Quotes:

• Joe Dolan [08:18]: “He is going to be a screen master in the second round of drafts.”
• Pat Fitzmaurice [13:17]: “There are very few receivers with the sort of upside Higgins has.”
• Andrew Erickson [21:25]: “Rasheed Rice is the equivalent of wide receiver 12.”
• Pat Fitzmaurice [25:19]: “Walker is plugged into a historically successful scheme that fits him best.”
• Pat Fitzmaurice [51:34]: “Likely could absolutely be a league-winning type guy.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Fantasy Pros Draft Guide: A comprehensive resource with positional primers and tactical approaches.
• FantasyPros.com: For accessing expert consensus rankings and additional fantasy football tools.
• SiriusXM Fantasy Football Morning: Hosted by Andrew Erickson and Paul Kelly, offering daily fantasy insights.

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This episode provides valuable insights for fantasy football enthusiasts aiming to secure players with significant upside in their 2025 drafts. By analyzing player performance, team dynamics, and potential breakout scenarios, the hosts equip listeners with the knowledge to make informed drafting decisions.

Transcript

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

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[Joe Dolan]

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[Joe Dolan]

What's up, friends? And welcome in to Fantasy Pros. This is the fantasy football podcast and today we have got massive upside. That's right, we have got 12 players, your fantasy football drafts that you need to be targeting that have got all the upside in the world. And joining me on the podcast today, of course we've got the the great and powerful Pat Fitz Morris. And joining us on the show is Mr. Joe Dolan, owner and editor in chief over at Fantasy Points, host of Football Game Day over on Sirius XM. Mr. Joe Dolan, how are you, my friend?

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm doing well, guys, how about you? They're currently, we're maybe pressing our luck a little bit here. They started demolishing my master bathroom today. I've had a leak for like three months. Just a massive undertaking and a massive amount out of my wallet. So hopefully the podcast or hopefully the takes I have on this podcast are gonna help pay me back at best ball later.

[Joe Dolan]

There's always that like universal thing where if like you are giving a take on an upside guy and then all of a sudden we hear like, maybe that'll be like a warning sign that maybe that's not the guy we wanted. Well, we'll take that for either. Yeah, we'll go on either one. Pat. Getting and locking in these upside players. Did you find it difficult? Because we're going to be going through kind of the gambit of higher end upside guys. We're going to get some deep plays. This almost toes the line of the like, what's a sleeper and what's a breakout and what's an upside? What is your just real quick approach when you were tackling these massive upside players that we're going to talk about?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I mean, there are a few guys I've kind of felt this way about for the entirety of the off season and a few of these guys have kind of evolved into sort of new favorites of mine where just the last month or so I've had kind of a rethink on these guys and maybe like them a little more or a lot more than I did two months ago.

[Joe Dolan]

So we might have lost some upside over the last 48 hours in a big trade that happened in football where John Smith, who upside play whatever, you know, huge season, but his new destination with the Pittsburgh Steelers has really chopped off, at least most of us think, a ton of his fantasy value. Well, the Dolphins are out there in the market looking for a tight end. We've all started to speculate who could they bring in because there's a potential upside. If you look at what John who did in the Dolphins offense, who could come in who could bring that big upside? Ladies and gentlemen, apparently it's Darren Waller and we got that weird trade that just went down just as we're recording this. Darren Waller coming out of retirement and being traded by the Giants is the tight end that goes to the Dolphins. So a weird place to bring this in, talking about Darren Waller of all guys with upside, but just to touch on it because this is fresh and new. There's going to be the big positive takes and the big negative takes. Mr. Joe Dolan, let's start with you. Is there any actual fantasy relevance? Is there any upside? I'm not talking massive upside. Is there any upside with Darren Waller returning and coming back with someone that he had worked with with a couple years where he had been very fantasy relev to this Dolphins offense? Is there any smoke to this fire?

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, my first thought when this trade broke was he foolishly fumbled the Kelsey plumbag with their divorce and needs some money. That's why he's coming back. There was a clip that Grant Barfield from Fantasy Points was throwing around on Twitter essentially of Darren Waller saying that he knew he was going to retire in October of 2023 because the Giants had him run. Blocking and lining up at fullback maybe a year off has helped his body. Obviously he's had a lot of injuries, but I just do not see anything that's going to appeal to me here. It feels like to me and Guy Pat and you guys can say this if you disagree. It just feels like to me that this is going to be a guy in Darren Waller who other people are going to click in your draft and they're going to think that they're pulling a fast one on the entire draft and ultimately I just don't think it's going to matter. We did, we ran our projections at fantasy points immediately after the trade and he came out as tight end third 33. That somebody who is barely draftable in a best ball 18 round, you know, kind of underdog style draft you know, your tight end premiums like ffpc sure take a shot. I put in some claims in my dynasty leagues as well because the high end outcome is maybe he produces in the first half of the season and I can flip him for an asset. I'm just not expecting that to happen.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Pat.

[Joe Dolan]

Our resident sicko Andrew Erickson put out a poll right as this happened and said, who would you rather this season, Darren Waller or Kyle Pitts? What do you say? Pat, where are you at on the Darren Waller stuff? And how sick is it to click Kyle Pitts is picking someone over another tight end.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I mean, I have not totally quit on Kyle Pitts just yet because he had his last decent season more recently than Darren Waller did. Like, this Darren Waller thing to me feels a lot like the Josh Gordon thing where people were like chasing the ghost for five years after his best season or like his, his last really good season. Darren Waller's last really good season was, I believe, 2020. So now he's 33. You know, I don't know where he's going to rank in that target pecking order in Miami, obviously behind Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle, Devon Hn, possibly Malik Washington or Nick Westbrook. Akine also. So I'm just like not interested in going there. When I plugged him into the rankings this morning, I think it was a tight end 40. So I'm kind of glad to hear that Joe and the fantasy points guys are in the same general ballpark. I think I had them between like Tyler Higby and Ben Sennett.

[Joe Dolan]

Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

I mean, it's funny that when we were going through the projections, Chris Wecht, who runs the projections for us, initially had him tight end 40. So it's funny you mentioned that. And he bumped up his value a little bit just to be like, all right, let's, let's, let's say if this does work out on some level and we still only got him to tight end 33. Look, here's the thing. I know absence makes the heart grow fonder, but I was out on Darren Waller when he was traded to the Giants two years ago. Why would I be in on him now? With the exception that he's just significantly cheaper or is perceived to be significantly cheaper.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah.

[Joe Dolan]

And I'd say ask yourself, would you rather draft Darren Waller or put one of his rap songs on a loop on YouTube for one hour? Which decision? And when you say the rap song, I think that tells you, can I.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Explain what you're dealing with? Can I get my toenails pulled out.

[Joe Dolan]

You can if you want. I mean still going to take that over Waller. So that's where we're at here. But you guys can decide in the comments below. Are you drafting Darren Waller this season? Are you going to jump into that pool? So making Kyle Pitts seem a lot better. All right, we're going to talk about real upside. That's fake upside. We've got real upside. 12 players with massive upside and we are going to be kind of covering the gambit of different spots. As I mentioned, we've got a couple players in each. Each one of these fine gentlemen have picked six. So we've got 12 total. And if you guys want to check out the ranks it be referring to, you can go to fantasypros.com ranks and you can check out. We're using half PPR on this one. You can check out all the great stuff that we've got on the ranks from full to super flex to dynasty to half to standard. Those are the references with all of the amazing rankers out there creating the expert consensus ranks. Gentlemen, let's jump into this. We are starting. These are our early ceiling picks. Top 75 overall. You each have got two players that we're going to be talking about. Joe, we are going to start with you. Massive. Massive upside. On whom? Which player are you picking for the first? Massive upside.

[Andrew Erickson]

So I don't want this to become a Dolphin centric show because I actually could have gone with two Dolphins here and I also don't want this to misrepresent my actual feelings of the Miami Dolphins this year. I don't know what their plan is. I locked in a five unit bet under eight and a half wins a couple of months ago and I don't even. I'm more thrilled about that after this series of trades. But I really like Devon Asian. I gotta tell you, he is the expert consensus RB6. He's going in the second round. But with Johnnu Smith gone, I think there's massive upside for Achan in the passing game. One of the things that we chart at fantasy points data is is designed targets. Devon Hn was one of the leaders in the NFL in design targets last year before John Smith had a significant role in the offense. Last year he, he basically garnered 40% of the dolphins targets behind the line of scrimmage. So we have Devon Achan who had a massive role in the passing game last year on design targets. Now with a design target hound and John Smith gone, Devon achan has had 36 targets designed specifically for him. Last year that was 42.4% of his targets. I wouldn't be shocked if he goes over 40 design targets this year. He is going to be a screen master and in the second round of drafts, especially if I get a running back in the first, Devon HN is an easy click for me and Pat.

[Joe Dolan]

One thing I really love too is like as mentioned here with the the with John Smith leaving we've seen and a lot of people are putting it out here. You've seen the usage numbers. The usage numbers pop when John who is out and Devon H and being like a 22% target share I believe was the number that I saw. With John who out, it's huge. He comes in at ECR 6 as far as running backs and half point PPR. Do you think you're going to be I don't know where you have him relative to this, but I'm curious about the massive upside that Joe just mentioned just as a quick take here and do you think we're going to see him move up in rank a little bit as rankers start to put updates in because of John O being gone?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I think we will. I moved him up a spot I think in my ranks after the John who trade and I don't know if I moved him up far enough. And so I too am confused about the Miami offense and what it's going to look like this year and I too bet the under on Miami's win total. Glad to hear Joe was on that. I, you know tried to talk my wife into, you know, just shoving in the whole college fund. I'm so confident in that one. But yeah, like what I want to see is if Miami returns the verticality to their passing game because tuatanga Vailoa Average 5.7 Intended air yards per pass attempt last year. He was at 9.5 two years ago. And is is that going to come back like they had this to a preservation plan in place after he came back from his concussion last year where so many of the throws we're going to Johnu and Achan behind ATS close to the line of scrimmage. I'd like to think they're going to bring some of the verticality back and there's going to be more for Tyrique and Jalen Waddle this year. But at the same time if it's really only Achan getting those near the line of scrimmage, behind the line of scrimmage targets and not Janu anymore, like yeah, that is a big boost for a Chan's value and want to mention.

[Joe Dolan]

As well, Joe talked about some of the great stuff over at Fantasy Points. We love Fantasy Points over here at Fantasy Pro, so make sure you check out because it is incredible the stuff they've got. But Mr. Joe Dolan also does a ton on the podcast radio side and we were talking beforehand. I forgot to mention this a little bit ago here, but Joe isn't there a little bit of breaking news on the radio side?

[Andrew Erickson]

So I'm not 100% certain when this podcast is being released, but by the time you listen to it, you might actually already have an opportunity to go click on your Sirius XM app and Fantasy Football Morning presented by Fantasy Points will be back on Monday, July 7th from 7 to 8am I know the people were sad to see us go after the Super Bowl. Well, they brought us back. So not only will I be hosting on the weekends with Paul Kelly, or at least that's in the plan on Sundays during the NFL sleep, but also myself, Paul Kelly, Tom Brawley will be back Monday through Friday, 7 to 8am Eastern on Sirius XM fantasy sports radio radio, which is SiriusXM channel 87. So I hope y' all tune in. It's, it's, it's coming back. And that means football season's here, guys.

[Joe Dolan]

That's massive and a perfect, you know, just move from Devon Achan and the massive upside to the massive upside of what you guys are going to provide over at Sirius XM in that show. All right, let's jump into number two on the list. This is Pat Fitzmaurice's first player and this is a wide receiver. I think you and I have talked about some, but you think there is a lot more upside versus his wide receiver 13 ECR.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, it's T. Higgins and I had kind of a T. Higgins epiphany a few weeks ago when I was sprucing up my wide receiver rankings. It just sort of dawned on me that there are very few receivers with the sort of upside Higgins has. He's currently what, wide receiver 13. As you just mentioned, Welsh 29 overall. I had him ranked as sort of a mid range wide receiver too for most of the offseason. But now I've got him ranked as a low end wide receiver. 1. He's my wide receiver. 12 number 24 overall. I think the hesitation some people have with Higgins is sort of, well, two pronged. One, they don't like spending such an early pick on someone who isn't even the top receiver on his own team. Obviously on the Bengals, that honor belongs to Jamar Chase. 2. Higgins has missed five games each of the last two years. He's had some hamstring issues over his career, but here's why T. Higgins has such vast upside and why I think he should proactively draft him. The Cincinnati passing game is a machine. Like, the lowest yardage total for Joe Burrow in any of his full seasons is 4475 yards. Fewest passing touchdowns for Joe Burrow in any full season. 34. Now consider that the Bengals defense is going to be just wretched this year. The one spot where Cincinnati might have above average defensive personnel is on the edge. But the Bengals somehow find a way to repel their most talented defensive players. They've got these contract standoffs with Trey Hendrickson, their star pass rusher, Shemar Stewart, the pass rusher they drafted in the first round. The Bengals basically bumble through their relationships with edge rushers the way I bumble through my relationships with girls in high school and college. So the Bengals are probably going to have to win games 38 to 35 this year. Like they're going to be in shootouts on a weekly basis. If I see a Bengals game with a Vegas Total below 50, I am auto betting the over. Like, I fully expect Joe Burrow to be top three in pass attempts. And I hope I don't have to sell anyone on T. Higgins being good at football. Like 9 yards per target for his career, almost 2 yards per route run 10 touchdowns in 12 games last year. Like, I won't waste any more time making that case. The people consuming this show actually watch football. So. And one last point. A healthy T. Higgins is going to put up big numbers this season, even with Jamar Chase around. But if Chase were to miss any time over the last three years, in the five games Jamar Chase has missed, T. Higgins has had 31 catches for 511 yards and three touchdowns. That's 20 PPR points per game. So let me ask the two of you, are you taking LAD McConkey over T. Higgins this year? Like right now I've LAD ranked just ahead of T. But I'm starting to wonder if T might not be the better pick.

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm taking McConkey. I really like McConkey. I think he's a borderline first rounder. He's kind of in the. He's in the Brian Thomas Drake London pocket for me. But I'm kind of with you, Pat, and I don't want to step on Welsh's toes here. We have we have Joe Burrow projected to lead the NFL in pass attempts at fantasy points. And Joe Burrow is. What do we love about him? He throws the ball to his good receivers. You know, he's not Sean Payton getting little Jordan Humphrey involved. You know, he is throwing the ball to Higgins, he's throwing the ball to Chase, and occasionally Gasecki and Yoshivas every now and again will make a big play. But I like Higgins in this back end of the second, early third round, he's my most clicked receiver in that range. But I do still have him behind McConkey.

[Joe Dolan]

I do have. I'm. I'm like, I'm a crybaby. If I don't get McConkey, like in the second round, I just cry. I did it in the mock. I cry about it. I love McConkey's route running ability. I think he's going to get all the targets. He showed off some deep play stuff. The Tea Higgins thing is really interesting because that was kind of what I was asked. I don't spend too much more time on this, but like, you kind of. You brought up the first thing I think that a lot of people ask about and then we didn't. We kind of glossed over it. It's like, can a number two on a team have a massive, massive upside when there is someone blocking regardless of how much the team throws? It's not to say, can he be good? Like, we know he can be good. He's massively talented. But can he have the huge, huge upside where he can keep going further? And I think that's kind of open for debate. I will say that, you know, it's interesting. His final eight games, he had eight touchdowns. Over those eight games that he did have 3 and 112 games played, he had six times where he had 10 targets or more. I mean, that's what you're looking for. So I guess just the only thing I want to throw out, even though, you know, you praised him a little bit, Joe is like, do you think a number two at the end of the day, not can be good and not can be massively valuable. But do you think he can have the upside to jump over number ones? You know, we threw out lad. You want lad over him, but you start to throw out those other names that T. Higgins I think is already priced, I think at a really appropriate range. Can he jump London? Can he jump Nico Collins? Can he jump a Monroe St. Brown? Can that happen with a number two?

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, I mean, I think it's a viable Question. Right. I think that's why he's priced where he is. But I have all of those guys ranked ahead of him because they are number ones. But again, not all number twos are created equal. Not just in terms of talent, which T. Higgins has, where he might be the number one on half the teams in the NFL at this point. Point. But, but also opportunity. Again, Pat hit on all the defensive issues. For the, for the Bengals, we have Joe Burrow projected to lead the NFL in pass attempts. So if the, if the Chargers play big dumb Jim Harbaugh football the way Jim. Jim Harbaugh wants to run the football. They drafted a Marian Hampton in the first round. They issued offensive playmakers in last year's draft to take Joe Alt. So obviously this is a team that is built a certain way. And would I be shocked if, if T. Higgins as a number two has more production than lad McConkey is a number one. No, I wouldn't. You know, Drake London, we have a good sample of him. A small sample, but a good sample of him with Michael Penck. Well, what if Michael Penck's small sample, not to make a phallic joke here, but what if his small sample is really small and it ends up being. And it ends up being kind of fool's gold. So there are some questions there. We know what Joe Burrow and T. Higgins can do.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, just to piggyback on Joe's point there, that that would be my possible case for T. Higgins. And again, right now I still have LAD Ahead of T. Higgins, but there's no question Lad is going to have a bigger target share percentage than T. Higgins will. But it's just the percentage of what size pie. With T. Higgins, I think we're talking about a big Costco sized pie that can feed a family of 10. And with, you know, lad McConkey and the way they want to run, it might be like one of those McDonald's hot apple pies you get in a little sleeve.

[Joe Dolan]

So got a lot of innuendo here and a lot of examples. I like it. All right, we got, we got one more each from these guys in this kind of like higher tier. But we have been talking about giveaways. We've always got the giveaways for you guys. We're actually going to announce a winner and a brand new giveaway. So we've had the George Pickens dealer jersey giveaway. It is time to announce the winner of said jersey. Is Huff in puff 2025. Yes. Huff dash n dash puff dash 2025. So, my friend, please get in touch with our customer support [e-mail] with your mailing address and proof of your subscription to The Fantasy Pros YouTube channel and we will get that shipped out to you again. The Winner, Huff and Puff 2025. Congratulations. But we ain't done. We got a new one. So this month, now in July, if you want a chance to win a signed James Cook bill's jersey for free, courtesy of our friends [e-mail] all you've got to do, just like Huff and Puff 2025 did. Subscribe to the Fantasy Pros YouTube channel right now. Drop a comment below on any video, by the way. And that's it. We'll be announcing a winner just like we did right here on the channel. So make sure to turn on notifications so you know when new videos are up and you can claim your prize at James Cook autograph Bills Jersey. Very awesome. All right, player number three, massive upside. We are going back to the wide receivers. This is ECR wide receiver 19 according to fantasy pros and half PPR Mr. Joe Dolan. Who is your massive upside player?

[Andrew Erickson]

It's Rasheed Rice. And look, he was a guy we were pounding the table for at Fantasy points last year because the evidence at that point showed that Rasheed Rice wasn't going to be suspended for 2024. A lot of that coming from my friend Drew Davenport, who also does phenomenal work as a, as a lawyer. And he's always analyzing these NFL legal situations. Part of our job that we wish we didn't have to do. But unfortunately we do. And his analysis is it looks like at this point, Rasheed Rice's criminal case is going to be pushed to the end of the 2025 season, if not into 2026. And the NFL is not going to suspend him until we get answers from that case. And now if Rasheed Rice is coming back from that injury, a serious injury, he would have been honestly one of the, if not the league winning pick last year if he didn't get hurt. Now, the injury is a big deal, there's no doubt about that. But in 13 games in his career in which he's played or run a route on 60% or more of the Chiefs passing plays, he is the equivalent of wide receiver 12. You're already getting a discount in ADP. You're getting a discount in expert consensus ranking. I think he's got an opportunity to finish as a real wide receiver one with Patrick Mahomes this year. And I think that Chiefs offense is going to be more explosive this year than it has been in recent years. I think he's got a huge opportunity here to buck the trend ever since Patrick Mahomes has taken over a starter and I think even before then it's like a 10 year run of either Travis Kelsey or Tyreek Hill leading the Chiefs and targets. I think that changes this year. I think Rasheed Rice gets it done.

[Joe Dolan]

And it's really weird because the team, you know, the volume kind of moves around and they get to a lot of players. And the only reason I'm bringing this up because I think Rasheed Rice kind of kind of bucks that trend like he is that new volume player. But what did we do all season, Pat? We talked about Xavier Worthy in the Rasheed Rice role. So Xavier Worthy maybe kind of opens this up. Do you think Worthy at all caps some of this or do you think Rasheed Rice can just jump back into that role that we've seen before, which is probably going to be a higher end wide receiver 1 if he gets that type of volume or do you think Worthy maybe caps him a tiny bit?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I've wrestled with this. I, I so when Worthy was smashing late last year and, and smashing, I mean he had 50 catches over the Chiefs last eight games, playoffs included. So that's a 100 catch pace. But yes, that was because he was into that Rasheed Rice role, which no doubt Rasheed Rice is going to have back now. And it's going to be Xavier Worthy running routes deeper downfield. But he's going to get the get targeted on some of those routes. Like Xavier Worthy has shown he's, he's pretty good. So I do feel like we're not going to get the same Rasheed Rice who was just crushing it and was the wide receiver one or two and PPR scoring through three weeks last year. Like I don't, I don't think he's getting that sort of target volume now that the Xavier Worthy genie is out of the bottle. But I do still feel like Rice is going to be really impactful. So I just don't know where and you know, if, if he, a lot of people are talking him up and he's going to go in the second round of some drafts and I don't know if I want him in the second round but I do want some Rasheed Rice exposure this year. So it's going to be kind of a hard tightrope for me to walk.

[Joe Dolan]

I definitely want some exposure to Rasheed Rice. Because if we do get that volume back, I mean, nine targets in two of the first three games last season. You know, first, give me some first catch bets on a first drive to Rasheed R. Just get him the ball. And I, I like seven to eight catches per game. I actually really like this play. But I think Worthy is somebody that is floating out there that is going to make some people think, all right, player number four, we're going back to running backs. We've got ECR, RB15 for you, Pat. Who's your upside play?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

It's Kenneth Walker III. And yeah, his ECR 41st overall. I think that ranking sort of factors in what most people would consider to be a higher than average injury risk for Kenneth Walker. He missed six games last year. He missed two games the year before that. I have Walker ranked RB 1436 overall. So I'm not way above consensus, but I don't know right now. I have Kenneth Walker ranked right below Bree Hall, a fellow member of that 2022 draft class. And I'm wondering if I should maybe have Walker ranked higher. So what is it that has to go right for Kenneth Walker to return? A nice profit on his mid fourth round cost, obviously. Stay healthy, give us 16 or 17 games. If he does that, I think he's going to finish as a top 12 running back. And it's great that we have Joe here because I'm going to spotlight some of the great work that people can find it at Joe's outfit. Fantasy points Joe's colleague Ryan Heath wrote a really insightful article last month on rushing scheme fits, and Ryan pointed out that the Seahawks are switching to primarily an outside zone running scheme under new offensive coordinator Clint Kubiak. And Kenneth Walker has thrived on outside zone runs throughout his career. He averages 4.54 yards per carry on such runs, which is 13% better than he averages on other types of runs. And in addition to Clint Kubiak, the Seahawks also hired Rick Denison as the running game coordinator. Dennison used to work with Clint Kubiak's dad Gary in Denver back in the 90s and 2000s. And the Broncos had some incredible rushing seasons back then with Terrell Davis and Clinton Portis. Yes, those guys were great backs, but the Broncos also got big rushing seasons out of dudes like Reuben Drones, Mike Anderson, Tatum Bell, back when Gary Kubiak and Rick Dennison were working together. So. And when Clint Kubiak was the Vikings OC in 2021, Dalvin Cook had almost 1200 rushing yards in 13 games. The scheme just works. So Walker is getting plugged into a historically successful scheme that really fits what he does best, get to the edge and make people miss. And oh by the way, Walker also turned into a pretty prolific pass catcher last season with a career high 46 catches and only 11 games. So yeah, I think Walker is big time upside this year.

[Joe Dolan]

It's a really compelling argument too just because I think Walker has fallen for a lot of people in just to this territory of like disinterest because like Charbonnet is there but this idea of more outside zone running that literally plays to Ken Walker. So what do you think about this one, Joe?

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, he already, he already took all the fantasy points data stuff that I was going to reference. So let me throw out, let me build on a point that Pat made there, his improvement as a receiver. Did you know that Kenneth Walker was fifth in target share among running backs last year? The only guys who were ahead of him were Alvin Camara. All right, Christian McCaffrey, Devon H and who we just talked about. And Breeze. All those are the only four running backs ahead of him in target share last year. So I see a potential Bell Cow profile getting drafted in like the fifth, sixth round. He is my most drafted running back on Underdog. He is going to continue to be my most drafted running back on Underdog. He could be your number one if you go wide receiver heavy early and have kind of a modified ISH 0 RB. I know there, I know there's a big debate about what actually constitutes zero rb, but I think he could be a borderline hero RB that you can get for borderline zero RB price. I love Kenneth Walker this year. This is the only one. By the way, Pat sent the names that he was considering before the podcast. He said if there's any overlap, let me know. This was the guy I was going to have. So I pivoted a little bit to Rasheed Rice. But I love this Kenneth Walker one.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

I'm really so I stole from Joe but I have to send Ryan Heath a royalty check for that.

[Andrew Erickson]

That. That's the, that's the trade off fun.

[Joe Dolan]

Fact in this as well. Ken walker in full PPR is also 15 at RB so there's no bump up. So maybe even a little bit more value. We're talking about target share in the passing game. There might be even more upside, massive upside in full. We're looking at half PPR when we're doing this, but just a full look here before we jump into the next territory where we're talking about mid round, massive upside breakouts. Let's talk about our friends over at DraftKings because nothing beats relaxing on a hot summer day and watching baseball. Especially for me. And the simplest way to get in on the action is to download the Pick Six app from DraftKings. It's crazy simple. Just pick more or less on the stats for two or more of your favorite players and boom, you're in the mix for big cash prizes. No gimmicks, no weird rules. Just ball. Nail your picks and you're heating up. Pick Six brings upside with payouts up to 500 times. Pick Six is live in a ton of states as well, like Texas, California, Georgia, Missouri and a lot more. Don't settle for a smaller payout. Switch to Pick six right now. New customers can take advantage of a special sign up offer. Pick six from DraftKings is the most fun way to play fantasy sports. So download the DraftKings pick six app now and use that offer code fantasypros. That's code fantasy pros for new customers to get a special sign up. Offer better payouts, bigger wins only with pick six from DraftKings, the crown is yours.

[Andrew Erickson]

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[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut must be 18 and over.

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[Joe Dolan]

We are going to player number five now moving to our mid breakout. So we're kind of moving down the ECR ranks here on the overall and Joe, we're going to start with you. You've got a wide receiver. He is ECR wide receiver 35. Hit us with him.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, so this is like a breakout category but apparently the experts and ADP expects this guy to break back in because Jordan Addison is way underpriced to me over the last two combined seasons in half PPR and underdog. He's the wide receiver 20. He's wide receiver 35 by expert consensus ranking. And look, obviously the concern is that J.J. mcCarthy isn't good. Well, what did we know before last season? We knew Sam Darnold wasn't good. Or at least that's what we thought we knew. And then Jordan Addison comes out and has a fantastic year. Kevin o' Connell seems to be a quarterback whisperer. We've got great seasons from Jordan Addison with both, with both Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold. We have great seasons or great games from him with the likes of Nick Mullins. You know, you remember Nick Mullins just airing the ball. It Looks like he's throwing a water balloon out there, you know, like it's just, it's just barely moving and he's thrown for 400 yards. I just think this Kevin O' Connell offense is so well designed that it's essentially quarterback proof. It is the offense I would pick to go into if I were a quarterback trying to recoup my value on the free agent market. I think JJ McCarthy is set up very well and I just think Jordan Addison is way too underpriced. The 35th in the ranking for a guy who's been the 20th wide receiver over the last two years. Even easy, easy, easy click for me. And an easy stack with J.J. mcCarthy.

[Joe Dolan]

You know, it kind of reminds me of, you know, that conversation we'll have where you see like two wide receivers, like wide receivers ranked 18 and a wide receiver ranked 23, but then the quarterback is like ranked 25 and we're like, hey, by the way, how does the quarterback value not kind of match up with there. There's a similar thing going on where most people are talking about Justin Jefferson and he's number two overall player, number two wide receiver, maybe in some respects number one. We're going to be okay, but Jordan Addison is not getting that same respect. It's only Justin Jefferson right now. And that's. It's a really compelling argument that Joe's making as far as the rank goes, and we're giving the benefit of the doubt to Jefferson, but we're not at all to Jordan Addison.

[Andrew Erickson]

You know, he, Addison can step back significantly and still be worth his adp. So, like, when you consider that, like he can have the worst season of his career and still pay off this ADP. So I agree with you and that's why JJ McCarthy. Additionally, if you want to just throw a little extra analysis in here, it's going to be one of my most drafted quarterbacks because he also has the benefit of being able to run pat.

[Joe Dolan]

Do you have any take on the Jordan Addison, like kind of bringing up that same thing where it's like Justin Jefferson? I mean, I guess you could also argue like he's a little quarterback proof, but. But you see a pretty big gap between those guys from what he was scoring to where he's sitting now under JJ McCarthy and just it really, there's a little bit of oddness to it. What do you think about that?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, I mean, I, I think it's similar to the T. Higgins thing where people do sort of have this aversion to taking the number twos in an offense. One is a great receiver but like Jordan Addison is, is phenomenal in his own right like a first round pick. And I know like his final college season when he transferred to USC wasn't great but as a sophomore at Pitt I had to look this up while Joe was talking. 100 catches, 14 games for Addison as a sophomore at Pitt. 100 catches, 1583 yards, 17 touchdowns. Like this guy was a college star and like he has continued to produce at the NFL level and I have no doubt he'll eventually get decoupled from Justin Jefferson and be an alpha receiver somewhere else. Where like he's going to be a number one at some point but still he can give you good numbers as a number two receiver.

[Joe Dolan]

Well we're going to stick with receivers. This is number six on the upside players that you've got to target. Wide receiver ECR 43 for you Pat. Let's hear it.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Stefan Diggs. And I've got him at wide receiver 37. The overall is where there's a bigger difference I think in ECR he's one on one overall I've got him at 79. And I guess there's a recurring theme with the first few guys on my high upside list. They're all perceived injury risks. So Diggs is obviously coming off the torn ACL. But Dr. Deepak Chona, friend of the show and a well regarded injury expert, he thinks there's a 2/3 chance that Diggs is going to be good to go for week one. And he thinks Diggs will be at 90% of full capacity about a month into the season. So full capacity. Stefan Diggs has been pretty amazing like six straight thousand yard seasons before he got hurt midway through 2024. Four straight 100 catch seasons before last year. An average of just under 10 touchdowns per season over the last three years up until 2024. If we get 90% of that sort of production and we can get it in the ninth round of drafts like.

[Joe Dolan]

Sign me up especially yeah the ninth round that's a big important thing. You could take him as your fourth or fifth receiver potentially off the board and could end up working by week six as your wide receiver two or three there's some inherent risk with the injury. Does that shy you away from there being a lot of upside Joe, or are you all in on this?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I haven't really clicked Stefon Diggs name a whole lot. My favorite Patriot receiver to draft has actually been Hunter Henry, the tight end. But this is one where maybe I need to see through my own biases here because because the Patriots receivers have screwed us for so long since Brady left. But is that if Drake may takes the leap that we're expecting, somebody's going to have to come through, right? And I guess other people have said Kyle Williams is that guy demario Douglas, my guy. Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald says Kyle Williams at this point is way behind demario Douglas on the food chain. So are there other names out there besides Stefan Diggs? I mean, I could see Pat's point here. He just hasn't been a name I've been terribly excited to draft to this point.

[Joe Dolan]

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[Andrew Erickson]

So there is a receiver who's going at the 1, 2 turn who averaged just basically 6 yards per receiving per game more than his own teammate who was going at essentially round 10, round 11. The first receivers Drake London. The second is Darnell Mooney. Darnell Mooney averaged 62 yards per game last year in games that Drake London played. London averaged just in that, in that same time frame. So we're really expecting Drake London to take a huge leap forward with Michael Penix the what he showed at the end of last year and Darnell Mooney who was the wide receiver 35 last year to take a significant step backwards. And I'm not sure that should be the case. I actually like both of these guys. London London at the 1, 2 turn. Well, I've been preferring Brian Thomas to Nico Collins, but I see why people like Drake London there. But I just think Darnell Mooney is too cheap and because of that cost I have been drafting him a lot. You mentioned wide receiver four, wide receiver five. Man, if he's my wide receiver five in a best ball draft guys, I might just shoe wide receiver until the last two or three rounds and take some dart throws because I feel like I'm going to have a really good foundation there.

[Joe Dolan]

So Pat, you know we didn't see Darnell Mooney get some of that target share early on once Pennix was there like you know, he was getting before. But we've just seen huge, big playability. We saw some early touchdown equity and going to be comfortable with throwing the ball more and getting the ball in the air. Obviously Bijan and Drake London are going to get their targets and I guess you're kind of a Kyle Pitts guy but I just, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Darnell Mooney is going to have like that sneaky wide receiver 3 upside here and he's going as like a wide receiver five. But that's a little bit of my take. What do you think on Darnell Mooney?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

It's a skinny target tree in Atlanta so you know there is room for London, Pitts and Mooney to all return a profit I think at their current prices. And if you hate Pitts like a lot of people do, then you should really like Mooney. I think what I like most about Mooney, he had a 92.9% Snapchat last year. Like he is on the field all the time and like who have the Falcons added at wide receiver in the off season? It's going to be like Ray. Ray McLeod is the number three again, maybe Nick Nash, an undrafted free agent who I kind of like. But he's not going to threaten Mooney's snapshare and like I really like Penix and Penix is great at throwing to the boundaries. Like he is already above average compared to all other starting quarterbacks at throwing outside and like that's where Mooney does some of his best work. So yes, I I love this call.

[Joe Dolan]

So you are going to be pairing as we move into player number eight where just before we get to our deep shots, Pat, you're going to be pairing your Stefan Diggs with a quarterback. This is, I think our first quarterback that's in play here. You think there's massive upside with Drake May? I'm stealing it a little bit because I kind of already gave that away, but QB16 pretty low on the list, you think? And we've done a show or two before where you've talked kind of about Drake May. But you think there's massive upside at QB16 with Drake May?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yes, I'm going for the Patriots stack here. I've been beating the Drake May drum like John Bonham all off season. And look, I know that some of our viewers and listeners are just coming out of their fantasy hibernations. A lot of people don't really come out of their caves for fantasy until right after right around the Fourth of July. So for those people, I want to reiterate the case for Drake May and why I consider him to have such vast upside. I have him at QB8 and that is really aggressive. But the quarterbacks with sky high fantasy upside are almost always the guys who run. So the thing is that most of the running quarterbacks are really expensive. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jaden Daniels, Jalen Hurts. I think Drake May might have as much or almost as much rushing upside as those guys have and you can get him so much cheaper. McMay started 12 games as a rookie, but if we exclude Week 18 when he only played one series before he was pulled, May average 38.3 rushing yards a game over a full season. That projects to 651 rushing yards. I think May could get to 800 rushing yards based on how aggressively he ran in college. So it was a sophomore at North Carolina. May had 698 rushing yards in 14 games. And let's not forget the college quarterbacks have their sack yardage deducted from their rushing yardage. May lost about 200 yards in sacks that year, so he was really closer to 850 rushing yards in 14 games. May had only two rushing touchdowns last year. In two seasons as a college starter, he had 16 runs for touchdowns in 26 games. I just think there's big time rushing upside with Drake May and he was surprisingly good as a passer last year despite having a terrible offensive line and terrible wide receivers. The Patriots have upgraded both of those areas in the off season, so I think Drake May is going to give us a QB1 fantasy finish this year.

[Joe Dolan]

Joe, it's interesting that there's, there's like a quarterback. Everybody's got a quarterback that's inside the top 10 that is a running guy. If it's not Drake May, Justin Fields is the popular 1 ECR quarterback 15. Caleb Williams would be another one of those that he's QB12. We've seen some in the top 10. I'm not surprised that Pat did this. Pat, you are the highest ranker in the world on ECR of Drake May. You are number one in the rankings, but there are people that are behind you. What do you think about Drake Mageau and what do you also think about making that bet on any of these running quarterbacks? Like if you're not a big May guy, have you translated or moved it to maybe Justin Fields is your guy or one of these guys with high rushing equity?

[Andrew Erickson]

I've had my fair share of a good bit of these guys. May has just been one of those guys I'm in on, but I haven't really had the opportunity to click his name as much as I would like. J.J. mcCarthy As I had mentioned, has been more that kind of rushing upside middle round guy. But here's another reason for optimism. Pat mentioned his legs, but I have numbers on that. So let's look at Drake May in his in his games last year he led. He was second to only Jaden Daniels. He was even ahead of Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson in rushing yards on scrambles per game. So meaning non designed rush attempts. He was at 31.3 rushing yards per game on scrambles. He had virtually no role as a designed runner. We had him charted as averaging point one fantasy points per game on design runs. Essentially one yard per game on design runs when he played. That is minuscule. I already mentioned my friend Andrew Callahan from the Boston Herald. I talked to him last week. He told me designed Runs are going to be a part of what the Patriots do with Drake May. There's significant untapped potential there.

[Joe Dolan]

Huge, huge. So huge upside potential there. Especially as people are going to be pushing up guys again. I'm coming back to Justin Fields. You know our boy Dibro loves Justin Fields. He gets pushed up into the top 10 as season goes on. That's where even more value starts to be created with a guy like Dre May, Drake May, where others are starting to get that push. And those quarterbacks I mentioned all had higher ECRs than Drake May. So I like it a lot. All right, we are now into our deep shots. These are kind of league winning plays because they're so far out. We love the upside here. And number nine on the list, Joe, you've picked a tight end, ECR21. This guy is currently. So let's hear it.

[Andrew Erickson]

It's Isaiah Likely. And look, we just saw Mark Andrews come off a really inconsistent season. Yes, he had 11 touchdown receptions, but everybody's going to remember what happened in the playoffs. You know, with the drop on the two point conversion. He had some fumbles, he had some drops during the regular season. And we have a really interesting comment from John Harbaugh this offseason. Here it is. This is, this is from, from Pro Football Talk, which is probably aggregating it from somewhere else, but nonetheless, Harbaugh, I want to see him be an all pro on Isaiah Likely. That'd be my goal for him. He's capable of it. Now look how many tight ends getting drafted around tight end 21 have their coach saying they're capable of being an all Pro. Maybe some lip service for some of the rookies like a Mason Taylor or a Terrence Ferguson. But not somebody like Isaiah Likely who we have seen flash that potential. Remember he had the nine catches with for 111 yards and a touchdown in the opener last year again. And then of course was a massive waiver wire pickup and then didn't really do anything the rest of the season. But what if that potential shows up a little bit more and then you get the advantage of Isaiah Likely in this offense with a two time MVP and Lamar Jackson. Maybe you got Mark Andrews taking a step back as he ages. There still isn't the alpha number one receiver here. I like Rashad Bateman a lot. I actually like Zay Flowers a lot at cost this year simply because they're cheap. But I like Likely at his price way more than I like Mark Andrews. And I could see him taking a step forward into being a 60 catch tight end who if you can get him in the last round of your draft and you get a weekly starter out of that position. I'm going to take the gamble that Mark Andrews maybe takes a little bit of a step back. Give me Isaiah likely at his price.

[Joe Dolan]

These are the, this is the tight end that you go with. Not like I'm sneaky and I'm going to take Darren Waller now because we're he's with the Dolphins. Go to Isaiah like that. Huge, huge upside.

[Andrew Erickson]

And I think a lot of people maybe, maybe I'm just underestimating the average fantasy player but I think like people are going to be like I'm going to take Darren Waller before Isaiah likely. Now I'm not doing that.

[Joe Dolan]

That's why I said it. I think you're going to start having comparisons of even John ooh versus like the Waller stuff is going to get pretty high up there. I jokingly kind of say it. But Pat, I know if you, if you want to comment on the Waller versus likely but just overall what do you think about taking likely last later in drafts?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, likely by a mile. We just need to get Mark Andrews out of the way. Ryan Wormley and I were talking about this the other day because if you look at the games where Mark Andrews hasn't played likely's numbers in those games like prorated projected over a full season workout to like 850 yards and 11 touchdowns. So yes, we just need to get Mark Andrews out of the way and you know, maybe there's room for likely to be impactful even with Andrews there. But if there's some sort of role reduction or Andrews gets hurt. Yeah, likely could absolutely be a league winning type guy.

[Joe Dolan]

Mark Andrews, pride of my high school by the way. All right, we have gone this entire upside conversation without a rookie. How did we do it? How did we talk about massive upside? Part of the reason is because the rookie prices they're not super friendly to upside sometimes. But this guy you are saying is Mr. Pat Fitz Morris wide receiver ECR 53 is number 10 on the upside plays on our first rookie of the show, Luther Burden.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

So I've got him wide receiver 50 but I've got him about a round and a half ahead of ECR overall. My question is what if Luther Burden plays the Amon Ross St. Brown role in Ben Johnson's offense like D.J. moore and Roma Dunesay are going to be primarily outside and I would hope that Luther Burden can beat out Alamede Zacchaeus for the slot roll Burton is just, he is so quick and explosive, absolutely electric after the catch and he is surprisingly good contact balance for a smaller receiver. He didn't have a great season for Missouri last year, but that was largely because Missouri quarterback Brady Cook was hurt pretty much all year, wasn't himself. When Byrne was a 19 year old sophomore, he had 83 catches, 1200 yards and 9 touchdowns in 13 games, playing in the toughest conference in the country. The SEC if Luther Burden is the Bears primary slot man and things start to click for Caleb Williams, like Burden could dramatically outkick his adp Joe, do.

[Joe Dolan]

You think it's ifs and buts that require Luther Burden to be a big upside play? Or do you think there's a floor for what this offense could create with those other wide receivers? That there's upside regardless, or do you think ifs and buts have to be involved?

[Andrew Erickson]

I mean, I think there's upside regardless with him, but I will throw in an if and a but here. DJ Moore was just staggeringly productive on design targets last year, and that's notable because this is a new offensive staff. Do they design the same high percentage of targets? Do they open it up more? Obviously, I think a lot of that was the coaching staff last year needed to get easy throws out there for Caleb Williams. So does Ben Johnson with the with developing Caleb Williams Moore, does he unlock DJ Moore to go downfield a little bit more work outside the way Pat mentioned? And in a twist of irony, does that mean DJ Moore isn't as productive for fantasy? He's been a guy. I haven't really been clicking his name as good as I think DJ Moore is. I felt like he's a little bit overpriced and I've been pivoting to somebody like Burden who might take some more of those design targets as DJ Moore as the veteran, they trust him to run more difficult routes?

[Joe Dolan]

Well, you're about to throw us the deepest of deep names on this list with upside ECR wide receiver 82 number 11 on our list, Joe Dolan, this is your last one, so hit us with the deepest of deep upside names.

[Andrew Erickson]

Now everybody thinks the the drafting and I agree, the drafting of Pat Bryant out of Illinois signals that Sean Payton still loves that big slot receiver. Matter of fact, I think he brought up Marcus Colston's name and Michael Thomas's name when he talked about Pat Bryant. But what if Pat Bryant doesn't have that role right away? There's a second year player out of Utah who I think might have that role from the offset. His name is Devon Vale. Now here's the problem with Devon Valley. He's in his second year in the NFL, but he's going to be 28 this season. So so even though he's in his second year, I'm not telling you this is some like great, dynamite dynasty asset. And if he is, you might want to trade him as soon as he breaks out. But over the last two years, these are the only rookies we've charted as having a higher first downs per route run than Devon Vale. From rookies Puka nakua, Rasheed Rice, Lad McConkey, Tank Dell, Dontavian Wicks, Malik Neighbors and Brian Thomas. All right, five of those names are going inside the first two rounds of fantasy drafts. One of them is not going to play this year in Tank Dell and the other is Dontavian Wicks, who might be one of the best receivers in football if he could actually catch the ball, which he is can't do. Devon Vale has great hands. He's been drawing absolute rave reviews from Broncos camp. Longtime beat writer Troy Rank. Troy Rank this June he said he's turning heads in OTA is one of my least favorite phrases, but nonetheless, let's just, let's just give it he says he appears poised for a breakout season. Him Cody Rourke, who covers the Broncos for Mile High Report Devon Valley looks like he'll be a pillar player at wide receiver alongside Cortland Sutton. Noticeably more muscle mass to him this offseason compared to last year. And the key he's free. He's an 18th round pick on underdog. People are taking Pat Brian ahead of him. This is I just think Devon Vale is poised to be the starting slot receiver for the Broncos and I wouldn't be shocked if he has a Juwan Jennings ish season for them.

[Joe Dolan]

Oh you know that just sparked me up where you Pat, you knew as soon as you heard Juwan Jennings and me I just got jumped up a little bit. I love Vale. The the Broncos offense maddens me though because they they're like a lower volume Chiefs where it's just like Sean man. Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

And you got to get the you try to got to hit the cheap Sean Payton guy. Alvin Camara was great when he was a rookie because he was like an 11th round pick. So I'm going to take the cheap Sean Payton guy because he's always out there trying to prove to you how smart.

[Joe Dolan]

Pat, what do you what would be your strategy to a guy like Vale who's so low ranked? Is it watch early in is it your draft at the end of your draft? Is he a best ball only type of guy? Is he a guy to put on the radar as soon as the season goes? Like, how would you approach someone with, you know, ECR 80?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Well, in my typical 12 man league with 16 or 18 player rosters, you know, he's probably on the, the speed dial for, for waiver wire. But I do play in some leagues that are like, like 16 teams, 20 rounds where we draft everyone. And like Vale is an interesting dart throwback then because, yeah, like I wonder about Pat Bryant. I mean there are some, probably some offensive linemen in the NFL who run faster than Pat Bryant does and Vale is a legit like 4, 47 guy. I want to say now, like Marvin Mims has kind of been my favorite under the radar Broncos pass catcher guy, but I, I'm also resigned to the possibility that Marvin Mims is just a designated gadget guy. Punt return.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, they're different receivers.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, totally. Right?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, yeah, like that. That's the thing with Vale. You know, you mentioned Vale. Well, he was a seventh round pick last year. Well, the reason he was the seventh round pick is because he was 27 years old. If he was 22, he's probably a day two pick.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

And Vale I think had bigger snapshares than Marvin Mims. Like Marvin Mims, even when he was like kicking butt at the end of last season and making all these big plays, he was getting snapchares under 50% and I think Vale was probably over 50%.

[Joe Dolan]

So Vale definitely showed up a couple times on the betting pros prop show that Erickson and I did. Picked Vale a couple times. He was a fun player to get with those low lows. I mean you're playing with fire a little bit, right?

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Thirteen and a half yards though, some of those lines and you know, if you, sometimes those are the right lines to target.

[Joe Dolan]

I know. Give me, give me beginning of the season right now. Maybe that's a little betting marker. Give me a low line for Vale to start the season and let's have Joe Dolan be right and just absolutely break out with Vale. All right, Pat, you're going to take us home with a former Bronco, not someone I thought we'd see on this list. But hey, you know what, the usage is potentially going to be there. This is ECR RB36, but low in the overall number 12 is WHO.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

So it's Javante Williams and I am actually slightly behind ECR on Javante. I have MrB 39, but I. I do want some exposure to Javante this season because the upside case for him is pretty simple. Like, what if he still wasn't 100% last year after that gnarly knee injury in 2022? Torn ACL, torn MCL, and he's finally 100% this year. Like, 2021 does seem like a long time ago. So it's easy to forget just how exciting Javante Williams was as a rookie that year. Twelve hundred yards from scrimmage and seven touchdowns, even though he was splitting work 5050 with Melvin Gordon. And Javante averaged almost three and a half yards after contact per carry that season. He had 43 receptions. Some pretty compelling stuff from him that year. He just wasn't the same guy in 2023 or 2024 post injury. But Javante is still only 25 years old, and it seems like he's going to get the first crack at being the lead guy for Dallas this year. So if we get the old Javante, he could give people a pretty, pretty huge return on investment.

[Joe Dolan]

It's interesting, I was gonna say real quick, guys, that he's coming from the school of Todd Gurley. He seems like Javante Williams, the school of Todd Gurley in that, you know, he feels like he's 32 years old and he's only 25. But I thought this name was going to be Jaden Blue when I saw Cowboys running back in here for the upside, not Javante Williams. So what do you think, Joe, about.

[Andrew Erickson]

Oh, by the way, I actually believe Todd girl is younger than Derrick Henry, like, in real life. Like, which is, like, it's kind of amazing. I don't have really much to add to what Pat said because obviously this could be a valuable role if Javante Williams runs away with it. But I just. The thing that sucks about Javante Williams is that we have to talk about him like he's this scrub, you know? But Pat brought it up. Remember the war crimes of Nathaniel Hackett when Melvin Gordon was fumbling every time he touched the ball and he still couldn't get Javante Williams on the field. And then Javante blew his knee out and they cut Gordon after that. Just like there, there is. There is a world where Javante Williams right now an alternate universe where we're talking about him being drafted in, like, the B. John Robinson range, you know, like. And I don't know if. Well, I mean, if I thought we were going to see that, I'd have a lot more Javante Williams than I do now. But sometimes fate is just really cruel to these players.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

It is hard to speak ill of Melvin Gordon. I mean, I'm wearing a Wisconsin Badger T shirt here, but like, yeah, remember how anxious everyone was for Melvin Gordon to get the heck out of the way so Javante could have that backfield to himself and then gets hurt early the next season.

[Andrew Erickson]

It was very the, the, the Broncos have a great history of, of Wisconsin running backs. You know, Monty ball. I was, I was in on Monty Ball those years ago, man.

[Joe Dolan]

Overall Monty Ball, you mean? Oh, we all remember 12, 12 draft picks with massive upside just running through them again. Devon Achan, T. Higgins, Rasheed Rice, Ken Walker, Jordan Addison, Stefan Diggs, Darnell Mooney, Drake May, Isaiah Likely, Luther Burden, Devon Vale and Javante Williams. Those are your 12 that these guys have picked out that you got to be making sure you're locking into drafts. One of the best in the business, Joe Doyle with one of the greatest places. I mean, Fantasy Points is, is an absolute staple of Fantasy Pros. Owner and editor in chief, also Sirius xm, why don't you, Joe, remind everybody again the new news on the Sirius XM show.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah. SiriusXM fantasy football morning presented by Fantasy Points will be back back with myself and Paul Kelly Monday through Friday, 7 to 8am Eastern on Sirius XM fantasy sports radio, SiriusXM channel 87. I'll host Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with Paul. Tom Brawley will host with Paul on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So with me you'll get the more fantasy kind of impact up and Tom is a degenerate better. So you'll get that angle as well on the show. So we're looking forward to being back.

[Joe Dolan]

And you can follow him. You can follow Joe at fgdolan if you want to follow on the X. Mr. Pat Fitzmaurice, you just knocked out a ton of stuff on the draft guide. So do you want to remind everybody what's going on? We got the Fantasy Pros Draft guide that is live and we got a crazy amount of stuff on there and you are at the center of it.

[Pat Fitzmaurice]

Yeah, the Fantasy Pros Redrive Kit. Now go to fantasypros.com and check it out. And yeah, you know, I've got some positional primers where it's not just talking about some of the players, although there's some of that too, but just kind of a tactical approach to every position. Lots of other great stuff from our other writers too. So hope people check that out.

[Joe Dolan]

Check it out and you can follow Fitzytsff. You guys want to check out the rankings that we were referring to and talking to. Go to fantasypros.com rankings, check out all the different formats, check out where the rankers and how many people we got on the ecr. It's a ton of fun. You can just peruse through it and make your fantasy football season even better. You can find me on Twitter Izzeth Welsh thank you guys so much for hanging out with us and good luck on all your massive TR draft picks for the season. We'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros. It's the Football Podcast. Goodbye for now.

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