FantasyPros - Projecting the First Round | The Top 12 Fantasy Football Players in 2026 (Ep. 1939)

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: FantasyPros - Projecting the First Round | The Top 12 Fantasy Football Players in 2026

The Herd with Colin Cowherd | January 17, 2026 | Ep. 1939
Guests: Jake Seeley (The Athletic), Andrew Erickson (FantasyPros), Host: Joey P. Zappia

---

Overview

In this episode, the FantasyPros crew (Joey P. Zappia, Jake Seeley, and Andrew Erickson) engage in their annual tradition: an early, speculative exercise to project the first round of 2026 Fantasy Football drafts. Drawing on their own early rankings, fresh takes from the 2025 postmortem, and debates about player values, team situations, and looming coaching changes, the hosts debate and defend their top 12 picks. Expect strong opinions, plenty of data-driven analysis, amusing banter, and disagreement—especially around controversial players like Christian McCaffrey, the running back age cliff, and unproven situations.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Purpose of the Exercise

• Projections in January are intentionally speculative; circumstances will change a lot by August (01:22)
• The hosts stress that knowledge of depth charts, trends, and coaching changes helps drafters pivot quickly once new information arrives.

---

Approach & Philosophy

• Jake Seeley: Opens with a running back (Bijan Robinson) then pivots to a run on high-target, high-ceiling wide receivers; forms his tiers by position, not alternating RB/WR.
• Andrew Erickson: Pushes running backs slightly higher than consensus, citing recent trends; emphasizes player roles and usage over team situations.
• Joey P. Zappia: Leans receiver-heavy, preferring the predictability and perceived safety, but leaves room for exception based on coaching, usage, and team changes.

---

Detailed Round 1 Projections & Rationale

Picks 1-4 (03:42)

Jake Seeley

• 1. Bijan Robinson (RB): “His is the safest of the question marks we have at running back... I don’t know that we’ve seen the ceiling yet.” (04:45)
• 2. Puka Nacua (WR): “If Stafford’s back, there’s no combo better. His target share is unaffected by talent around him.” (04:39)
• 3. Jackson Smith-Njigba (WR): High volume, dominant target share; system questions if OC changes.
• 4. Jamar Chase (WR): “If you want Chase 1, I’m not yelling... but his 2024 was the outlier.” (06:34)

Andrew Erickson

• 1. Bijan Robinson (RB): Greater upside if Tyler Allgeier leaves in free agency—could become a CMC-level bell cow (08:05)
• 2. Jameer Gibbs (RB): “Past season—top 4 non-QB scorers were all RBs. I’m starting to push running backs up more.” (08:05)
• 3. Jamar Chase (WR): Highest ceiling with a healthy Burrow, prefers him over Nacua due to red zone/TD potential.
• 4. James Cook (RB): “He’s in his prime, the NFL’s leading rusher, and the Bills’ offense runs through him.” (09:26)

Joey P. Zappia

• 1. Jackson Smith-Njigba (WR): “Everything goes to him; Darnold is healthy and building confidence.” (11:38)
• 2. Jamar Chase (WR): “When healthy, him and Burrow are the best.”
• 3. Bijan Robinson (RB): Needs to see who coaches Atlanta before locking him as #1.
• 4. Puka Nacua (WR): Lower due to worries about Stafford’s health/retirement.

---

Selections 5-8 (18:59, 29:39, 35:11)

Jake Seeley

• 5. Jameer Gibbs (RB): Would push to 1.01 if Mike McDaniel became Lions OC.
• 6. Christian McCaffrey (RB): Acknowledges arguments on both sides: “You lop 20% off his production, he’s still RB5.” (26:22)
• 7. Jonathan Taylor (RB): Capable of being higher if Colts’ QB/coaching situation resolves positively; was RB1-caliber with Daniel Jones.
• 8. Devon Achane (RB): High explosive upside; “awful Dolphins season and still 18.1 PPG.” (26:22)

Andrew Erickson

• 5. Jackson Smith-Njigba (WR): OC change could impact value.
• 6. Puka Nacua (WR): Uncertainty about Stafford’s future.
• 7. Jonathan Taylor (RB): “Top 4 finisher despite tanking second half.”
• 8. CeeDee Lamb (WR): Could move if George Pickens returns to Dallas.

Joey P. Zappia

• 5. Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR): “Second most productive fantasy WR over last 3 years… we don’t deserve him.” (38:50)
• 6. Jameer Gibbs (RB): “Love Jameer—terrific upside, but St. Brown deserves top 5 love.”
• 7. CeeDee Lamb (WR): Monitoring Dallas’ WR room re: Pickens.
• 8. Drake London (WR): Needs clarity on ATL coaching/QB, but has superstar potential.

---

Controversial Debates: Running Backs & Age (25:25, 29:39)

• Christian McCaffrey (CMC) Debate:
  • Arguments on both sides about the “curse” of RBs with >400 touches and the age 30 falloff.
  • Only one of the last 13 RBs with 400+ touches finished top 5 the following year (29:43, Erickson).
  • Last year, CMC proved doubters wrong, but 2026 risk is higher.
  • “Not even in my top 8.” (29:53, Erickson)
• Data & context:
  • The NFL game is different now with split backfields and less durability.
  • RBs who led league in touches after age 27 never finished top 5 the next year (32:24, Erickson).

---

Picks 9-12 (45:57, 52:50, 54:44)

Jake Seeley

• 9. James Cook (RB)
• 10. Rashee Rice (WR): “He’s Drake London on the Chiefs... if Mahomes is healthy, he’s a target monster.” (46:50)
• 11. Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR)
• 12. Amarian Hampton (RB): “If he gets bell-cow work and healthy OL, could rival CMC’s upside.”

Andrew Erickson

• 9. Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR)
• 10. Devon Achane (RB): Pending playcaller/QB stability.
• 11. Saquon Barkley (RB): “Could be 2025’s Jonathan Taylor—a value in 2nd round poised to bounce back.” (53:01)
• 12. Christian McCaffrey (RB): Only cracks round 1 at the turn.

Joey P. Zappia

• 9. Justin Jefferson (WR): “Extraordinary talent; still a first-rounder, even after last year’s disaster.” (55:23)
• 10. Jonathan Taylor (RB)
• 11. James Cook (RB)
• 12. Christian McCaffrey (RB): “Can’t get there earlier; likely won’t have much CMC next year.”

---

Players Just Missing the First Round

• Trey McBride (TE): Great talent, but depth at TE and lack of WR ceiling keeps him out.
• Nico Collins, Chris Olave, Malike Neighbors: On the watchlist; Neighbors could jump if healthy in preseason.
• Ashton Jeanty: Needs Raiders’ offense to improve and OL to get healthy.
• Rookies: General consensus—no rookie likely cracks the 1st round, barring a generational talent like Jeremiah Love landing in the perfect spot (66:44, Seeley).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bijan Robinson’s Safety:
  “He’s the safest of the question marks we have at running back... and honestly, I don’t know that we’ve seen the ceiling.” — Jake Seeley (04:45)
• On Christian McCaffrey’s Risk:
  “Last 13 RBs with 400+ touches, only one has been a top five RB the next season... This specific player, it’s happened to.” — Andrew Erickson (29:43) “You lop 20% off CMC’s production, he’s still RB5.” — Jake Seeley (26:22)
• On Amon-Ra St. Brown:
  “We don’t deserve Amon-Ra... every year, overlooked for the flashy new thing.” — Joey P. Zappia (38:50)
• On Rashee Rice:
  “He’s Drake London on the Chiefs… If Mahomes is healthy, he’s a target monster.” — Jake Seeley (46:50)
• On Justin Jefferson’s Value:
  “He’s still a first-round talent. One of these things—a new QB, McCarthy develops, or Jefferson is traded—will unlock him.” — Joey P. Zappia (55:23)
• On Rookies Cracking Round 1:
  “Hard no—not with this class. But Jeremiah Love could sneak in with the right landing spot.” — Panel consensus (66:23–67:25)

---

Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• 01:22 — Introduction: Why early projections matter/approach to process
• 03:42 — Jake’s 1-4 picks and reasoning
• 08:05 — Erickson’s 1-4 picks, trend toward RBs, James Cook debate
• 11:38 — Joey’s 1-4 picks, WR lean, concerns about team situations
• 18:59 — Picks 5-8, pivot to debating CMC, Taylor, Gibbs, Achane
• 25:25 — CMC historical comps, risk stats, running back age debate
• 32:24 — Erickson’s stats: RBs over 27 never repeat top 5 after usage spike
• 38:50 — Joey’s Amon-Ra St. Brown rant
• 45:57 — Seeley’s controversial inclusion of Rashee Rice + finish of top 12
• 52:50 — Erickson’s 9–12: Achane, Barkley, CMC in at the turn
• 54:44 — Joey’s 9–12: Justin Jefferson’s talent gamble
• 66:23 — Rookie RBs: Unlikely to crack round 1 in 2026
• 67:25 — Panel’s closing thoughts, early takeaways, value at the turn

---

Wrap-Up & Takeaways

• Expect significant shuffling throughout the offseason, with coaching hires, free agency, and injuries set to move many values.
• The top of round 1 is full of debate on: RB workload vs. decline, team situations, and coaching impacts.
• Early second round is seen as “the turn” with massive value due to depth at skill positions—especially if a true WR1 like Jefferson slips.
• Rookie RBs are unlikely to be first-round picks—unless a unique combination of talent and landing spot emerges.
• Bonus Advice: Use tiers and stay flexible, as rigid early rankings are traps before summer news hits.

---

For the full rankings and additional discussion, check out FantasyPros on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. Drop your own projected 1-12 in the comments!

---

Transcript

[Joey P. Zappia]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Louisiana Hot Sauce Sponsor]

Everything tastes better after your team wins. So just imagine how truly tasty something would taste if it was doused in the original Louisiana hot sauce after your team wins. That's Louisiana Hot. Buy you some.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the fantasy football podcast. It is me, Joey P, Joe P. Zappia, and today we're gonna have a fun exercise we'll probably do, I don't know, about 1,001 times between and Labor Day. My friends Jake Seeley from the Athletic and Andrew Erickson. For Fantasy Pros here, we're gonna try our best to throw out what our first round might look like in 2026. We just had a great show with Jake and Pat Fitzmores. We were talking about kind of the post mortem from 2025, what we can learn about in 2026. So if you missed that, go watch it on our YouTube channel. Subscribe to our YouTube channel right now. Fantasy Pros and wherever you get your podcast. But we're gonna try to take some of that discussion here and put it into the first round and see if we can make that knowledge work for us. Jake, since that conversation, I actually changed my first round because this is what it is, right? It's constantly moving, it's constantly taking shape. And I think these kind of conversations here were a couple of us who, you know, do this day in, day out, all year round, having these conversations, talking it out is how you get the best product.

[Jake Seeley]

At the end of the day, I would 100% agree. Because also, you know this as well as anybody who's been around me is our drafts in July don't look like our drafts at the end of August. And it's not just because of ADP and other people shifting. It's we learn more things, people get hurt, things adjust. And we have to adjust to the drafts and what we expected. So, yeah, drafting today should look nothing like your drafts come August, but the exercise, because then you can pivot on the spot because you know these names, you know the information.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah. And look, it's tough because you got guys like Malik, neighbors, right? Big time talents coming off injuries. Do we want to put him in the first round? I gotta say, Erickson, after last night catching that IHOP commercial that he was in, that was hilarious. It made me. Was that the first time you saw it? I hadn't seen it. I don't know why I hadn't seen it. I watch a ton of Red Zone, so I never see that. And then like the standalone games, I tend to DVR stuff, so I'm blowing through commercials. But last night was watching it live on a Monday night and laugh my ass off. Hilarious. Brilliant. Take a little joke at yourself, Andrew Erickson. We were talking about Stefon Diggs returning from the acl and he hit the ground running. Like, maybe it's not such a bad thing for him in terms of like potentially returning and being a first round pick by the time we get to August.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I think that there's a buying opportunity when it comes to Malik Neighbors because it just takes that one game where, oh, he's back and then he's valued as that top five, top five wide receiver that we were drafting him to be last season and looked like he was on the way to be super productive in his second year. And that was when we didn't even know about the quarterback. But we feel, or at least I feel that Jackson dart, hey, he can be a franchise quarterback. He can feel fantasy success. We saw that with Wanda Robinson. Have another monster. And Wanda Robinson is also a free agent. So we could go back to Malik neighbors. 170 targets. Love that.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah. All right. So obviously this is very early. Coaches need to be put in place, coordinators need to be put in place, draft picks need to be made. So this is fun but also kind of the best we can do right now with the data that we've been given and that's what we're trying to do for today. Make sure you again, subscribe to the channels. That's what we want you to do. Hang out with us all the time. And let's start here with Jake Seeley. We're going to go through the first four picks here in the first round for each of us. Jake, why don't you kick things off with your picks number one through number four.

[Jake Seeley]

I start with a running back and you know I love my running backs, Joe, but the next three after that are not. I actually go Bijon Robinson and then my next three are all wide receivers with Puka Nakua, Jackson Smith and Jigba and Jamar Chase. I don't know if you want additional information or are we going to go through our four and then come back around or are you going to you host you tell me.

[Joey P. Zappia]

You know what, Jake, I'm going to let you walk through your first four because I think one thing I love about you and you and I have been friends for over a decade now and we, we've done hours. Believe me, I'm part of my therapy. Bill. It's really for you and all that just damage of working with you all these years. But I think once Jake Seeley gets rolling in a monologue, it's good time. So I want you to go and kick off year one through four and your thought process because I know there's a reason to the grouping and I think it's not just like, okay, this guy's my number one. Who's your number one? That's not as good conceptually as when Jake Seeley breaks down the reason behind the 1 through 4.

[Jake Seeley]

So Evan Ingram is.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Nobody here is going to go back that far.

[Jake Seeley]

Andrew has no idea what's happening right now. I want to get running backs, but Bijan Robinson is the only one I would consider even coming off somebody who was champion. Taking Christian McCaffrey in the middle of the first round which by the way he'll be there around the same this year again. But there's risk associated Bijan Robinson, the age what he did at the end of the season. I just think when you're going to get that advantage when you're looking for a Christian McCaffrey type a Jonathan Taylor, what he did for most of the season until they had the quarterback issues, Bijan Gibbs fell off at the end. But like if you're looking for the one who was consistent really without warts, quote unquote, even in the games where Charlie Algier did his thing, Bijan Robinson is the one. And honestly I don't know that we've seen the ceiling. Like you could argue that's what it was. But I think there's still another step up. As you mentioned, we're talking about coordinators, coaching changes and all the source. We don't even know necessarily what the quarterback might be if it is Penix next year. So it remains to be seen. But I feel like his is the safest of the question marks we have at running back. And then that's why I turned her wide receiver. I go with Puka Nakua. I have a feeling I'm going to sneak preview for everybody out there. Erickson's ranks. I can't imagine that he's down that low except for the fact that every single game I'm like, oh my God, is Puka Nakua hurt? Is he hurt? Is he hurt? Is he hurt every game? But I get and I get that but that would be my only argument against him not being the first wide receiver off the board because I guess the other one would be if Matthew Stafford's done. But we played that game this year as Matthew Stafford and Puka Nakua are arguably the best combination we've seen this year and I don't see why that changes next year whether or not Devonte Adams is back. You talk about target share, his is in affected by whether it's an elite talent or a subpar talent next to him on the field. So that's why I guess the slight edge for me over Jackson, Smith and Jigba. We talked about it actually Erickson and I just talked it on yesterday's show for the recap after I talked about you on that show. A lot of Jackson, I'm getting a lot of Jackson, Smith and Jake Bow praise and I missed some things but the biggest thing that I looked at was the target share volume. Sam Darnold being a come in and do what he did with the Vikings with the Seahawks. But there's a question there is Kubiak going to be gone? Is there going to be a question void at number two wide receiver? Is he still going to get that 35% target share? And I love Smith and Jigo, but to call him number two I think isn't slighting him. But this what you said, the diatribe here is that Chase at 3. If you want Chase 1, I'm not going to yell at you. I have these three wide receivers. It's Nakua, Smith and Jigba Chase. If I was doing a tier it'd be that three done at wide receiver, it's those three. If you want to argue for any of them, the only reason Chase comes in the third is because if you actually look at his career last season, 2024 is the outlier. He's actually been more in these 16, 17 point per game seasons versus 20. I'm not saying it can't happen again, but with or without Joe Burrow, he's been more in that range. And when Joe Burrow came back, like even if you take out the beginning of the season before Burrow got hurt, if you take just when Burrow came back, he was still only 15 or 16 fantasy points per game. So he's not even on the level of Nukua unless he gets back to 2024. So that's why he's third for me. I'm not saying you can't argue he's first, but that's why he's third of the three.

[Joey P. Zappia]

See, I knew when Jake Seeley gets going with a good monologue that things are going to go well. See and I love it. All right, Andrew Erickson, let's walk through your 1 through 4 here because you also agree with Jake, you are also starting with Bijan Robinson.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes, going with Bijan Robinson. And to add more fuel to the fire of Bijan as the 101, Tyler Algier is a free agent, so there's a chance that he might not be back. And we get closer to 90 snapshare Bijan Robinson in a full blown Christian McCaffrey of yesteryear where he's seeing every single snap in that backfield. Now, I would expect them, even if Algier walks in free agency, they'll probably add somebody else's. A lot of decent free agent running backs that could draft somebody. But and the coaching change does matter. But I think if Zach Robinson is still hanging around Atlanta, whether he's upgraded to head coach, whether he stays as the offensive play caller, I mean the thing that they kept telling us over and over and over again was B John Robinson is the best fans or the best football player on the planet and we want to feed him as much as humanly possible. That was both Raheem Morris and Zach Robinson saying that. So again, he's in his uber prime. And that's how I feel about Jameer Gibbs too. So he's my number two player and I guess I'm open to taking some of these running backs a little bit earlier than some of these wide receivers. And you just look at just the past season top four scorers that weren't quarterbacks. Running back, running back, running back, running back, a lot of running backs. And if you look over the last couple years, so since 2022 fewer wide receivers have finished inside the top 12 than running backs for four straight seasons. And but before that we were seeing more of the wide receivers finish ahead of the running back. So I'm starting to push running backs up a little bit more now. This will probably change a little bit based on what the second round looks like in terms of running back versus wide receivers. So if you're kind of going for that combination, this can change. But for now, that's why I have more running backs inside my top four than wide receivers. My number one wide receiver is Jamar Chase. I just don't want to overthink it. When he has Joe Burrow, he can be the highest scoring fantasy wide receiver and we've seen it through season after season. And I guess maybe I shouldn't be more concerned about Joe Matthew Stafford missing time or Joe Burrow missing time because Joe Burrow is also constantly hurt. So that's always a big question. Mark whether he's going to play a full season. But I just, I guess I would push back. When Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are playing at a high level. I don't think anyone can beat them as a combination versus Matthew Stafford and Puka Nukua. So I would push my chips in on Chase and Burrow. But again, the injury withstanding when it comes to Joe Burrow being healthy for a 16, 17 game season and then my last running back here, who I believe I'm the lone wolf on here in the top four, is James Cook, running back for the Buffalo Bills, the NFL's leading rusher. He's in his prime. I think that he is a prime time running back. And Joe, give credit to you. Again, this wasn't on the Bull prediction show as I told you so, but you should have brought it up as I told you so because James Cook, everyone was, I was fading James Cook, like there's no way he can be as good as he was last year. And then he was, he was better because he rushed for a lot more yards. Again, the touchdowns came down a little bit. But I mean, you were so happy that you drafted James Cook. We talked about it on the AFC east takeaway show where we don't trust any of these pass catchers on Buffalo, whether they're wide receivers or tight ends. Who is the offense? It's Josh Allen and James Cook. Like this is what makes his offense function at such a high level. And yeah, I get that the pass catching's not been there for him and there's not a chance that still doesn't change. But it's not like he doesn't have the skill set to do it Coming out of Georgia, that was he was praised for was this guy's so great at catching passes out of the backfield. So although it hasn't really been fully unlocked by Joe Brady in this offense, Josh Allen's obviously a running quarterback, so that's going to take pass attempts out of James Cook for targets. But in a scenario where this pass catching group continues to struggle, maybe they face Ty Johnson out and they're like, no, we're playing James Cook on third downs. Now. I could see him being a top three finisher again. So James Cook for me is number four.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Look, I love hearing the praise for James Cook and I don't know if anybody was as high on James Cook coming into this year as me. And it was for what Erickson laid out. There was just nobody else in this offense. Now I don't think that's going to be the case in 2026. So I'm projecting in my mind that they're going to be in on A.J. brown, they're going to be in on other wide receivers, maybe via draft or via trade. So I just think that they, they have to learn the lesson here. You can't keep going this direction. Two years in a row here, three years in a row where Stefon Diggs leaves and you haven't replaced that productivity of receiver, you need to replace it with somebody. Keon Coleman ain't that guy. So I do imagine when that happens, maybe that Cook productivity comes out a little bit. But to your point, Andrew, maybe it doesn't. Maybe this is exactly what they think they can do and just kind of run it back again. So Jake has Bijon Puka, JSN and Jamar Chase. Erickson has Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, Jamar Chase and James Cook. I at the top of my list. And you're going to see I'm a little bit more heavy on the wide receiver room despite the fact it was a good year for the Bell cows. There's no doubt about that. I'm not going to live in the past. I'm going to continue to be Mr. Wide Receiver. So one thing that I know, I don't think much is going to change in Seattle. Jackson, Smith and Jigba is still going to be the guy and I am going to put him right at the top of the board. I just see them running it back exactly how it is, especially if they win this round in the playoffs. We'll see how that goes for them. But when you've had that much success, yeah, maybe you'll add a little bit more. Maybe some of the young kids you drafted, you know, take a little step forward. Maybe Torrey Horton comes up a little bit too and starts to play a little bit more. But I think for me, it's Jackson, Smith and Jigba who is going to have a huge total because everything just goes to him. You have a quarterback who is healthy. You have a quarterback who is, you know, finally gaining his momentum and his confidence the last two years with Minnesota and then with Seattle and Sam Darnold. I like Jake. I'm not going to argue if you want Jamar Chase at one because he's my number two. And when healthy, as Andrew said, there's nobody better than Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. When those two are locked in, healthy and ready to go. The problem is, in the last three years, there's been a lot of time where that wasn't the case and that's been very frustrating. B John Robinson is my three. If you want to argue him as one, I'm cool with that in half ppr. Maybe I would go with him as my one two and I understand that. I I just want to see who the head coach is first. I want to see how that shows up there because depending on what kind of offensive or defensive mind or what kind of coordinator they bring in, I just want to see how that unfolds first before I put Bijan at number one. So I think the other two situations we have continuity with the coaching staff, we have continuity with the offense, we know who it's going to be. Nothing's going to really change there unless Kubiak gets a job, which he very well might. But even so, I think the concept stays the same and then my four is Pukinakua, which is only because style of play as Jake alluded to. But also I don't think Stafford comes back next year. I think this is Matthew Stafford swan song because he couldn't get up off the table in the training room to start the year and he had a great season. I think Matthew Stafford realizes only so many times we're going to go through this and even if he gets to a Super bowl, doesn't get to a Super bowl, wins a Super Bowl, I think Matthew Stafford here is at the end of the rope and if he's not, it's another year older. And I love Puka, but to be the number one, I'm just trying to shade away as many possible variables as I can get. And I think Puka just brings up between the injuries and Stafford and even Stafford's potential health, a lot of problems there where I just can't put him in the top three. So those are our picks for the top four. Of course you can throw your comments below in the YouTube and of course don't forget that we have got our sponsor Hard Rock bet, the only legal sportsbook in the state of Florida. They are the official sports betting partner of the Jags, the Bucs, the Heat, the Magic in the Panthers and NFL continues to roll on whether it's the college football playoffs you're into, whether it is the NFL playoffs or maybe you like a little bit of NBA. Hard Rock BET has it all and now they got the same game parlays you can do as well. And of course you can even do multiple sports over multiple bets and parlays. Have some fun with that. And if you miss this show you know the first time around, you're catching it later. Don't worry. Every single day there's new stuff on Hard Rock Bet that they're going to drop on you. So check out all of the fun boosts that they do there. And of course they have in game live betting as well. And when you bet 5 bucks at Hard Rock Bet, you get 150 in bonus bets. When you first bet hits and wins, you get your winnings and 150 in bonus bets, but only when you download the app. So download Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook app today. Payable and Bonus bets Not a cash offer Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida Offered by the Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC and other states must be 21 plus in physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia. Play terms and conditions apply. Concern about gambling in Florida, call 1-833-PLAY-WISE in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem wants help, call 1-800-9 with it gambling problem call 1-800- gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey.

[Louisiana Hot Sauce Sponsor]

Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, everything tastes better after your team wins. Wings, nachos, celery. Seriously, everything. Similarly, everything also tastes better once you've baptized it with a simple handcrafted flavor of the original Louisiana brand hot sauce. So just imagine how truly tasty something would taste if it was doused in the original Louisiana hot sauce after your team wins. It almost sounds too tasty.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Almost.

[Louisiana Hot Sauce Sponsor]

So come Saturday, Sunday, or any day football's played, head down to wherever you buy things to eat and grab some of the perfectly balanced heat. The original Louisiana hot sauce. That's Louisiana Hot Bayou.

[Nav Green]

Some this show contains information subject to but not limited to personal takes, rumors not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man? This your boy Nav Green from the Broken Play podcast? Look, it's the end of the season. The playoffs are here. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Another team who ain't going to the playoff? The Chiefs.

[Andrew Erickson]

What's a wrap?

[Nav Green]

It's time to rebuild. Who your MVP right now.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Then Drake May up there. Josh Allen up there still. Oh, my boy Matthew Stafford. Where did Bo Nicks at? He ain't too far behind. He did all this talking. Hey, what Matthew Stafford is doing statistically, bro is crazy.

[Nav Green]

Bro, you know I ain't no Josh Allen fan, but Matthew Stafford got better weapon. Caleb Williams.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Hey, he should be in that conversation.

[Jake Seeley]

In what conversation he should be in it.

[Nav Green]

Listen to Broken Play with Nav Greenfield from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jake Seeley]

And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is.

[Andrew Erickson]

You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the Year by voting at iHeartPodcastAwards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartPodcastAwards dot com Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Expanded Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts and originals all in one easy app. Audible.

[Joey P. Zappia]

There's more to imagine when you listen.

[Andrew Erickson]

Sign up for a free [e-mail] all.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Right, Celie, we got through the top of the list. Let's get picks five through eight. Walk us through. Starting with number five on your list, Jameer Gibbs.

[Jake Seeley]

I don't get to ask a follow up after all that.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Oh yeah, sit and wait. By all means. I I want to. Being this quiet so long. I know.

[Jake Seeley]

That was way too long. You got to give me credit like I kept my mouth shut.

[Joey P. Zappia]

The very good. You are a very good boy. You're a very good boy.

[Jake Seeley]

You get a cookie after the show.

[Andrew Erickson]

Thank you.

[Jake Seeley]

Thank you.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Who's the father, me or Erickson?

[Jake Seeley]

It's both. Because it's the Jamar Chase conversation. Like I you answered the Nakua one because my pushback was going to be nakua was almost 2 points per game more than JSN and I love JSN, but you brought it up. It's the staffer thing, which is that's why I said it's fine. The Jamar Chase 1 I wanted to come back to because Erickson said like, you know, with a healthy Joe Burrow and this is my pushback is that again, the 20 point season was the anomaly. The other three seasons with Joe Burrow went healthy. And I'm throwing out the fourth season where it was half Jake Browning, which Jake Browning actually played well that season. I'm throwing that one out the window. But the three seasons this year when Burrow came back, in his other two seasons he's averaged 16.2, 16.3 fantasy points per game, which is what he exactly averaged when he came back with Joe Burrow this year or Joe Burrow came back. So that's my question to you guys is it's 16.2 or 3 for Chase, which is amazing, but it's not even JSN and it's hell far from Pukinakua. So like the question would be are you expecting him to get back to the anomaly season or that that. And that's where I'm presenting it.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I'm expecting the offensive line to get massive improvements because they cannot go out there again. I think that leads to potential more upside games. And look, I think when you have good offensive line play you can have some of those bigger splash games like puka had a 200 yard game. Like guess what, when you have that many points in one game it adds to your points per game average. You so Jamar Chase didn't really have those opportunity. He was playing with Joe Flacco a bunch. He was playing with Jake Browning this year who was not good burrow obviously you know up and down at certain times this year. But to me it it is all matter that I what I like about Chase is the consistency and the rapport and that is something you can just lock in. So yeah, I mean these guys are playing together since they were in college. So I think there's a certain special vibe between the two of them that makes me feel good about my investment because it more than just like being the big splash guy. I also don't want to be wrong with my top four picks and I think that there's very little that you know, I feel like well that investment going wrong compared to Apuka Nakua where the Stafford age, the Stafford retirement, the the Puka to KUA style of play. You know who, who does take over for Matthew Stafford potentially if he's not there for injury if he does come back because he is another year older. So a lot of that, that what if, what if. I think there's more what ifs with Puka than Jamar Chase. But I understand Puka over Chase completely because Puka is the offense, right. You want everything to roll through him. There's no doubt who it rolls through. It rolls through Puka. Andrew, do you agree with that sentiment? Where are you at with that?

[Andrew Erickson]

It rolls through Puka till they get to the red zone sometimes and then it's Devonte Adams and His he had 27 end zone targets this year.

[Joey P. Zappia]

That's a lot.

[Andrew Erickson]

Just an absolute ludicrous number. Now we'll see what Adam again he's getting older but I would say from an argument of usage Jamar Chase has had a much better red zone role than Puka Dukua has had. I mean that was the reason why I was on Chase as the wide receiver one entering last year was because this guy is leading the NFL on red zone targets per game. And if you look at the most common theme between number one finishers at the position, it's usually tied to who has the most red zone targets. So I do like Chase because I think he does have a little bit more touchdown equity. Not to say that Puka can't score touchdowns. Like I don't want to say that. Especially if Devonte. Devonte is gone from the offense. But devonte's got to be gone. Stafford's got to be back. Is he going to throw for 40 plus touchdowns next year too? Maybe not. So whereas Joe Burrow, more likely, I think wouldn't. Wouldn't blink twice if Joe Burrow throws 45 touchdowns next year if he is healthy. And that means Chase is going to catch 15, 16, maybe 20 touchdowns, which I think gives him a little bit of an edge.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Important follow up. Good on Jake Seeley for asking the follow up question. Let's get to Jameer Gibbs at pick number five. Walk us through picks five through eight and your thought process.

[Jake Seeley]

Yeah, I go Jameer. This is where the running backs come into play. There's a long list before we get to wide receiver hand to hand, by the way. So all four of this are running backs at Jameer Gibbs, which by the way, I'll come back to it. Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Devon Achan. So Gibbs, what I was about to say is that we know Dave Montgomery might not be back, which is already a plus in the column. And we already saw what that was like with Dave Montgomery essentially was getting phased out for most of the season, especially when we saw Dan Campbell take over Morton over there. The thing I was going to say is if the rumors are true and this is where Mike McDaniel goes to be the OC. Jameer Gibbs 101. Like leapfrogs Bijan Robinson, I will put Gibbs 101 if Mike McDaniel ends up in Detroit. That's how big of an impact we're talking about these offensive coordinators. I think it would be huge. And I think that if Mike McDaniel somehow with whatever happens in Atlanta, ends up going there and Zach Robinson's out the door, that just even locks in Bijan, more like. That's the impact where we're talking about these coordinators. But we saw Gibbs. The only downside to Gibbs is what happened at the end of the season that left a sour taste in everybody's mouth who had him on their teams because it was two bad games and one good game at the end of the season. And Everybody forgot what happened for the entire year just because that was what is recent memory could have knocked you out of the playoffs. But Gibbs was amazing outside that. Gibbs is one of the top three running backs that I would consider the third being Christian McCaffrey and I already know what the push bash for everybody's going to be and there's no convincing you, Joe, Andrew or the people that are on your side. And there's no convincing the people who are on my side. And Andrew's shaking his head and I had this list and I didn't bring it up yesterday but all the pushback lists that everybody keeps throwing out, here's mine for you. How about the fact that Larry Johnson did in a back to back seasons. How about the fact that Ricky Williams did it in three straight seasons? This is the 370 plus number. How about Ladanian Thomason seven straight seasons finished as a top five running back with those touches. Chris Johnson did it in two straight seasons. TIKI freaking Barber did it in five straight seasons finishing everywhere from RB6 to RB1, somehow finishing in front of Ladanian Thomas in one year because that's inexplicable. Clinton Portis did it twice in two separate years of 2004 to 2005, 2007 to 2008. Aaron Foster did it three straight years. Yes, there's an argument and there's an argument for it. There's also an argument against it. I'm just not going to play the game of Christian McCaffrey because here's where I go with it. Let's throw all those out. All the names that Joe listed which he's right about. All the names I listed which I'm right about.

[Joey P. Zappia]

For that full list by the way, you can go find my Twitter post about it or watch our video. We had a short form funny video about it on Fantasy Pros and the shorts. Or go listen to that show with Pat where I rattled through all the hall of famers who had 400 plus carries was carries more, not even touches, just carries and when they all and the ones that did not the next year finish even as an RB one. So I'm not going to go through that list again. But it's a long list and it's got littered with hall of famers to Jake's point. But Jake, my question back to you with all this real quick too because as you're listing those names, how many of those guys were 30 when it happened?

[Jake Seeley]

Tiki Barber was all the way aged through 31 the second time around. Clinton Portis was right there. Aaron Foster was.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I think that's the other thing about McCaffrey. It's not just now the total.

[Jake Seeley]

No.

[Joey P. Zappia]

So that's why I was 30 year old number standing us in the face too.

[Jake Seeley]

Which my point was. So let's take this because my joke in saying those names is what I started with. I'm not convincing you. You're not convincing me. This is.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah, sure, let's.

[Jake Seeley]

Let's throw this out. And here's where I look at it. Let's say 20% is a pretty damn aggressive number in my opinion. You take 20% off with Christian McCaffrey just did. He still RB5. And I could understand it. Like again, I'm not going to convince anybody because you're. You're right. I am concerned enough that Christian McCaffrey is not my RB1. Christian McCaffrey is not my Rb2. He's not a top four pick. So you could argue that he should still be the one. Because if he plays 17 games, if he stays healthy, he has nearly or has 100 receptions again. He's going to be the RB one again. But we are factoring that risk. I factor in the risk enough to push him down to six. I see the argument to push him down further. But as my point of chopping off 20% of his production, that still puts him at RB5. Still puts him at 18.5 fantasy points per game, which is a ridiculous number. So I get all the arguments and this is where I'm going with the next one. Jonathan Taylor is how quickly everybody forgot that Jonathan Taylor was dominating as the RB one even with Christian McCaffrey until Daniel Jones got hurt. The reason he's at 7 is because is Daniel Jones the quarterback next year? What do the Colts look like next year? They have it. They're in flux. I could see an argument for Jonathan Taylor being higher and I could see an argument for Achan being higher depending on who their offensive coordinator and their offense is. Because we've seen Achan just knock on that door actually had 18.1 fantasy points per game. It was arguably an awful Dolphin season and he was still 18.1. So that's why they're all here. My biggest takeaway I want everybody to know of these four is just like the. What? No, just like the wide receivers. You argue for any of those four, I'm not going to be like, you're stupid. They would be in a tier and there's another name that's in this tier now.

[Joey P. Zappia]

What am I going to Do Andrew, I will save.

[Jake Seeley]

There's a fifth name that's in the tier, but he's the pick number nine. There's a fifth name that you want to make an argument for any of these five running backs will save who the fifth is. I'm okay with it. It's just this is the order I'd go in.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I think my only pushback with McCaffrey to. Well, besides all the, Besides all the massive data from the last 25 years of guys who had 400 plus carries in the season or touches in the season and the next year, not finishing as an RB1 or even finishing the season is also the age of 30. But on top of that, it's something that you actually said and I think you said it almost like as a, as a, as a caveat of positivity, which is even if you took away how many games was it you said if he over you took 20%, 20% of his touches, 20% of his touches. But what if you're taking away 20% of the touches because he's missing 20% of the games? And then when do those games happen? Do they happen in the playoffs? Because he doesn't get you? Like he might get you there, but he's not there at the end of the year because he has an injury and something happens. It's that. That worries me. That to me, as a top five pick, I can't get there with McCaffrey. But all the things you're saying out there. Look, I was wrong about McCaffrey going into this year. He scared the heck out of me with good reason. I was very much into him at the 10th overall pick last year. That's where he started. This time last year it was like 10, 11, 12 was like, ooh, right at the turn. Okay, I'm in on McCaffrey. But then it got to like five or six and I just could not get there. Turned out it was wrong. Turned out he was the best guy you could have. Andrew Erickson, who's the best guy you could have at the fifth overall pick. Walk us through picks five through eight. Cause I'm sure there's going to be some overlap with some of the names here that we've already discussed and some guys that Jake just discussed.

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, before I get to my pick, number five, I want to share my Christian McCaffrey stats.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Oh, okay.

[Jake Seeley]

I have.

[Andrew Erickson]

Let's all share them because we're all kind of just unloading here on cmc whether pro. CMC negative.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I don't want to Blow your CMC ranking this early, though.

[Andrew Erickson]

I mean, he's not in my top eight. Okay. He barely stuck into my first round. He's. He's number 12 spoiler. So for me, the stats that I'm looking at. So mine are just specifically to touches, not even necessarily carries. But last 13 running backs with 400 plus touches, only one of them has been a top five running back the next season. So, you know, some of those guys.

[Joey P. Zappia]

That Jake mentioned, you know, like the LTS, like. Lt is such anomaly. Lt is the reason we have the third round.

[Andrew Erickson]

He did it when he was 24 years old.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Right. And. Lt was an Uber prime again, special offense around him.

[Jake Seeley]

Years.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, Aran Foster, again, he was a blip on the radar for a couple years. Larry Johnson, same thing. Blip on the radar, but it's a very different game than it is now. You don't see running backs used the same way. And you don't see also the size, speed, combination now that you're getting in the NFL. Some of the players on defense that you were getting back then, there was some big boys, there were some. Some quick guys. But the combination of the violence of what you see now, I feel like, I'm not saying those guys that hit harder, they did because the rules were different, but I feel like it's just a very different game from the Tiki Barber era around, you know, the year 2000.

[Jake Seeley]

Yeah.

[Joey P. Zappia]

But I think to what it is.

[Jake Seeley]

Now in 2025, there's an argument that you can spin any of this. And that's why I said there's no convincing anybody on this. Because you should say arguing back then, it was, you take Arby's in the first two, even three rounds because everybody. And to not finish five and only finish nine back there was actually, you're still top three this year because of how different the game is. There's no argument for that kind of workload. I mean, look at how many running backs back then were 300 plus touches. And then what if the cutoff's 360 and then you start throwing other names who did do it? What if the cutoff is 390? Like, and I'm not saying, like, you know, Ericsson said top five. Well, what if you go to top seven? So, like, the point being is I just. My biggest takeaway is you guys are on the same side, I'm on a different side. But, like, we're not convincing each other. Like, I just, I was throwing the numbers out to say this is why I have them here. If you disagree with me, I'm okay with it. But like it's funny you said that Joe is because I had him as fifth overall last year and that was still too low as like to the point being it's like so I associated risk as not as much as anybody but as factored in as well.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I think the best thing about this is like none of us ever talk about you're wrong or right. This is the whole point. It's the process of debate so that everybody else can get out there and make these decisions as they start to put in their brain what the Unless.

[Jake Seeley]

You don't like Evan Ingram, then you're.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Still like Evan Ingram. Got to love the inside joke there. All right, so Erickson, walk us through your five, three, eight picks here. Tell me the reasoning why I didn't.

[Andrew Erickson]

Get to share my stats. You guys just took I thought we.

[Jake Seeley]

All thought you were done.

[Joey P. Zappia]

You thought he had a stat.

[Andrew Erickson]

I said one. No, I said one thing and then you guys immediately took back way too long on that.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah, you got to work harder in the room.

[Andrew Erickson]

I'll be quick with the last couple one.

[Jake Seeley]

No, don't be quick at all.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I thought that was your stat, the one you threw out there.

[Andrew Erickson]

So no, I'm going because I we're running out of time to get to my my top four or picks five through eight so running backs 27 older led the NFL in touches, happened six times, zero top five finishes the following season. CMC we've already done this dance before with he led the NFL in touches a couple years ago. He came back, had the calf thing and was a disaster for fantasy football purposes. So this specific player it's happened to and then something that's note of recent George Kittle towards Achilles probably going to miss most of next season I would bet because it's usually a 9 to 12 month injury. His rushing yards this year Christian McCaffrey without George Kittle lineup he went under his rushing prop in six of the seven games George Kittle didn't play in.

[Joey P. Zappia]

That's a good stat.

[Andrew Erickson]

So that's another big thing when you come to McCaffrey has that receiving with him that is always going to be boosting up him versus other running backs. But the rushing fell off substantially. He looked much more like not the same type of explosive running back he has in years past and that is a big concern. So even from an efficiency standpoint I think that's something to be concerned about because there was a massive fall off in how effective he was as a Rusher as a breakaway runner and it just wasn't the same.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I think the visual, right, Andrew, that goes the other way. Like McCaffrey running between the tackles just didn't look like the same guy when you get him out in space catching the football.

[Jake Seeley]

I'll agree with that.

[Joey P. Zappia]

But between two years ago, CMC is two years ago, different guy between the tackles.

[Jake Seeley]

No, no. Two years ago, George Kittle, when he was healthy for 16 games, Christian McCaffrey actually had a downtick in the receiving game. So it could go both ways, too.

[Joey P. Zappia]

What I'm just saying. No, but I'm saying is like his rush game this year, just visually, he didn't have the same burst. Nobody does at this age. Typically, even Derrick Henry's not quite the same. Like, he'll have those glimpses, but he's not always the same. It's not what he was three, four years ago. And I think with cmc, it's visible. And to Andrew's data point, the rushing props, he fell short quite a bit.

[Jake Seeley]

Well, maybe Vegas is too aggressive. Let's talk about why he hates Pukinakua. Let's go back.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah, let's talk about why Andrew.

[Andrew Erickson]

Now we can finally unveil picks five through eight after our long conversation.

[Joey P. Zappia]

All right, that'll do it for us, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to the show. We really appreciate you hanging out the Christian McCaffrey Show. But you know what? That's going to be the thing that I think at the end of the day, you will see ranking big side gap of Christian McCaffrey. People though, people, standard edition on them. People will be people who'll be mid level and people will be too low, too hot. Like, it's going to be all over the map. It's going to be really interesting to see who's right and wrong when it's all settled. Go ahead, Andrew. We'll all shut up now.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, Christian McCaffrey is not even in this tier for me, which is really ironic. So, yeah, I got Jackson Smith and Jigba Puka Nakua, Jonathan Taylor and CD Lamb rounding out picks five through eight. So JSN for me, my only again, I have him as my wide receiver, too. So I guess I'm lower than him compared to you guys. Just, I think Clint Kubiak's gone. I don't think that he's going to stick around. I think he's going to become a head coach. And look, coordinator changes.

[Jake Seeley]

There's another opening right now. Mike Tomlin's gone from the Steelers, but we're doing this.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Whoa. Gone. Define gone. Like I'm leaving.

[Jake Seeley]

He said he's stepping down.

[Joey P. Zappia]

They're mutually parting ways is what that is. So he. Maybe he's going to tv. Maybe he's taking a year off to find himself going to back.

[Jake Seeley]

There was actually a big rumor about that that he would potentially be interested in that.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, it's a much easier gig. You know, he has so much more talk. Was getting very ungainly when you get.

[Jake Seeley]

Him outside of the press conference room because the Hampton Roads Youth foundation that he does here and I've talked to him locally, like in that kind of setting. So much more like open and talkative and like then he gets in those press conferences. It'd be really interesting to see him. Yeah.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, what do you say? If my aunt had uncle parts, she'd be my uncle. What the hell do you say?

[Jake Seeley]

That was. That was one day I dropped the F bomb on the other show. I said if I had wheels, I'd be an effing bike.

[Joey P. Zappia]

That's right. Oh my God.

[Jake Seeley]

Wow.

[Andrew Erickson]

So yeah, lives could be the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

[Jake Seeley]

Well, that's why I brought it up.

[Andrew Erickson]

Possibly in play. I mean, I'm never gonna get to my picks. Five, three. I mean, at this point, Joe, you should just list off your pick because there's no point me even trying to do these. So jsn, yet the coach, Puka Nakua, Matthew Stafford potential. Does he walk off into the sunset if the Rams win the super bowl, does he come back for another year? Or does he just say, hey, I'm done. I want another Super Bowl, I'm going to win mvp. I mean it's kind of the perfect run out. I got out before my back got worse essentially for Matthew Stafford because back as we know, as anyone that has a bad back, they don't just go away. It flares up here and there. Hasn't flared up all year. But maybe next year's little red light therapy. Jonathan Taylor, to Jake's point, dude, this guy finished top four despite basically tanking the second half of the season. Like he was so out in such a massive league winner at the start of the year with Daniel Jones that I want to go right back to him. I just have faith in Shane Steichen to figure this out with whatever quarterback again. Basically, as long as it's not Anthony Richardson. It seems like we can get this offense to function with a Daniel Jones level S quarterback. I think they can find somebody. Whether it is Jones coming off of his Injury or they, they sign somebody, there's a bunch of free agent quarterbacks, I think they can find the right move. And then CD Lamb again, this is kind of a placeholder giving credit to CD Lamb as a top five fantasy wide receiver when Dak Prescott is healthy. But I do think that George Pickens coming back to Dallas would probably impact this for me a little bit. And there is also a thing in the back of my mind. Again, not a lot of data driven here, but Dak Prescott tends to kind of go up and down in his odd even seasons. It's really actually kind of funny when you look at his career game logs where, oh, this is your past year odd season deck. Prescott got top five fantasy quarterback. Even seasons have been really, really bad for Dak Prescott and I think that's part of just due to the fact that he's not a mobile quarterback. You see touchdown regression from year to year. So that would be something that I would look at when it comes to Ceedee Lamb. So he's someone that is probably going to move in my rankings. But for now I have him at 8.

[Jake Seeley]

If you knew Pickens was coming back, would you keep lamb at 8?

[Andrew Erickson]

No. Okay, I probably move him down.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah, that's a good caveat. All right, Andrew, is there anything else you want to say? Because I feel like we've been unfair to you.

[Andrew Erickson]

Love you guys. Let's go to your picks.

[Joey P. Zappia]

We love you. All right, I feel bad now. I thought. Andrew, see what happens when I'm quiet? For two people talking, can I just blame Jake? He's the worst. All right. For me, first of all, you guys are both drunk because this is where you're wrong. Amon Rossane Brown is not in your top five picks and you guys are out of your gourd, like just completely out of your gourd over the last three years. He's the second most productive fantasy wide receiver. He shows up every game. He balls out every game. He is the main cog. He is the PPR God. He is the sun God. He has touchdown equity. Jameson Williams is still a head case. He's still not somebody you can count on. Jameer Gibbs is still all world cool. He's still going to play in that general offense. There's going to be some changes, obviously. Again, offensive coordinator wise and leaving with a change this year. He was still awesome. We don't deserve Almond Ross St. Brown, okay? We don't. Every single year we overlook him for the flashy new thing or the other guy like, and typically he'll go somewhere between picks 5 and 10. Somewhere someone just gets I'm on Ross ain't brown. I'll take him. And next year in the black book, I can assure you I'm going to be hyping him up because I think the slander has gone too far that there's not enough respect on his name. Again, the base that he gives you every week as a floor of points is terrific. The upside he has for big splash games that win you a week is terrific. He's always taken good care of himself. He is always very reliable. The catch rates off the charts for him. He's one of the hardest workers in the NFL and he doesn't get enough credit. The fact that neither of you yokels have him in the top five is very obstacles. I just want to put.

[Andrew Erickson]

You don't have Gibbs in your top five. That's why.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, Jameer Gibbs is next at number six for me. So you're. You're.

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, apparently you're drunk too because you don't have Gibbs as a top five player fantasy.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, I can't have him and Amon Ra. I want to give Amon Ra some love here. But then again, Jameer Gibbs thing to that point as well. I love Jameer off the charts. Terrific. There's a chance too if Matthew Stafford retires. What I would do is I put. I would drop Puka down. I would have Amon Ra go to four and Jameer Gibbs go to five. So Puka's at four holding steady right now for me. But that's going to change dramatically without Stafford. If that is the case, if we get to that point, CD Lamb for me is still pick number seven because I still do believe in CD Lamb. We'll see what the picking situation is and how that works itself out. There's still time. Yes. Do I need to adjust off that if it does happen, if he does return? Sure. I think Pickens will return. But we'll see what happens with that. One thing at a time. Drake London is my pick, number eight. Another one too. Where I want to see where the head coach is coming from, what that looks like, what that offense is going to run like. But we were really close to the big like the Drake London. Here I am. I'm a fantasy superstar season and injuries kind of derailed it. But we were right on the precipice of it. And let's see what happens. Is it Pennix? Is it somebody else is a complete reworking a lot of that. Again, the fluctuation here of pick 7 and 8 for me are real. But as of right now, today, that's my confidence level. Lamb and London in that group, but Jameer Gibbs definitely over those other two wide receivers. That's my feeling. Erickson, why don't you pick apart what I've just done and laid out there too? Go ahead. I want you to have some more time.

[Andrew Erickson]

I don't have Drake London in my round one because I am more bearish about who's the head coach, who's the quarterback going to be. If it is Michael Penix, when is he going to come back? How is he going to look like when he comes back? I mean, this is the fifth time this guy's torn his acl, right? So how many times are we just going to go back to okay, Michael Penix? Now, to your credit and to your point about Drake London, yeah, like, he was the wide receiver 3 in points per game before Michael Penix went down. So those are the reasons why I just have a little bit of hesitance putting Drake London in round one. Because, I mean, this is. This is higher than he was going in drafts last year. And we knew Michael Penix was healthy entering the season and again, it was a smaller sample size. But three games with Pennix at the end of his rookie year, Drake London and him were reviving and clicking. I would say, too, I could move Drake London up as well if Kyle Pitts just leaves in free agency. And that cements Drake London as, like, there's really no target competition. I mean, like Darnell Mooney, I feel like he's going to be someone that is going to just be buried in rankings. But I think we need to remember that. I'm pretty sure he was injured the entire season. Like, he was probably never healthy and he's probably much better than what the tape was from this past season, which was absolutely atrocious. So that's something I kind of want to keep in mind. But, yeah, definitely some movement for London. He's someone that I have high in round two.

[Joey P. Zappia]

All right, so obviously this is where we really start kind of deviating from each other. Thank you very much for feeding me the word, Jake. But yeah, that's. And. And this is good because I think again, a lot of this is going to evolve over time and, and I think it's a good discussion. I. I will stand fast though, that Amon Raw is a top five guy. I don't care what the combination is.

[Jake Seeley]

Here's the difference.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Stand by that. I want to lock that dude in. He is in his prime. He is good every week. He shows up every week. He's an ironman. He's a PPR monster. Go ahead, Celia.

[Jake Seeley]

I mean I was with you like we were we. I was one of the highest on Amaran St. Brown last year. Like I said on the show yesterday with Erickson, a lot of people saying thank you for this. Here's how my draft started. A lot of people were Amalran St. Brown, Jackson Smith and Jigman Puka Nakua double starts, double taps to start when we're talking about how we would do these type of things. So I was with you on that. The difference comes down to and I don't know if anybody saw on the video I was counting you have him as wide receiver four, Erickson and I have him wide receiver five. Like it comes down to your process in the first round. Like if we had our wide receivers higher, he would be pick five or six at worst for us. And I think that's just what it comes down to. So it's not that we're so much different than you. I'm on Ron St. Brown, but it also comes down to me and I'm not coming for anybody when I say this. It's just I have a very more when you see my overall rankings, like I like drafting by positions. I always say if you look at my overall rank is you see mine more in groups like mine don't often usually go rb, wide receiver, wide receiver, rb, rb. Like I'm like four or five guys. Four or five guys, same position because they're tiered. They're in the same.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Right.

[Jake Seeley]

That's how you value your tears.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah.

[Jake Seeley]

So like if I really want to nitpick and split it up, I could argue a little bit higher. But that's why so James Cook is at number nine for me. He's the fifth of those running backs. Gibbs, McCaffrey, Taylor, H.N. cook, you can make argument for any of those. I was going to give you your flowers to go back to that when I was saving it for now that I was one of the people that was arguing like even if you split Cook's touchdowns in half, he would still be top 10. And I still wasn't as high as you were on that. And that was still the wrong approach because he did have more money.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Everybody just kept focusing on the same thing, which is a touchdown regression, which yes, of course, but the yards went up. That was the big right. But the my pole point I kept waking making last August was what did they do to give Josh Allen more help and tell me how this offense is going to run through anybody else besides Allen and Cook. And nobody could give me an answer on that. But everybody just hated on James Cook.

[Jake Seeley]

So you should have been in the discussion yesterday because a big theme Erickson knows this. Of those shows when we're recapping the NFC was there was three different teams. I'm like pay attention to what the team was telling you. The Cowboys were telling us Javonte Williams was the guy the Bears were telling us DeAndre Swift was the guy. The Bengals were telling us Chase Brown was the like pay attention to what the teams are telling. To your point, they told us, hey, we're confident in James Cook. So anyway that's why he's in the same group for me. And then I come back to wide receiver Rasheed Rice. Iman Ron St. Brown is my double tap here. If you look at wide receiver how flat it gets after those top three or four, these two are right around that 15, 16 fantasy points per game. The only reason I don't have them a little bit higher and in that tier one is because the same argument that we're making for all these other teams is there's a big question mark like does Dan Campbell bring somebody in? Mike McDaniel, I will push Amaran Saint Brown, Saint Brown up. Does he bring somebody in? That's going to be a Johnny Morton type of lackey kind of situation where it's like, hey, I'm still kind of calling the play calls. My Ross St. Brown is still going to be good. He's just not going to get to that upper crust of the tier.

[Joey P. Zappia]

How do you have Rice at nine? Jake that's the thing that I don't understand. Between the Mahomes injury, the turnover in that organization potentially like of just, you know, the cap problems they have, like all of it just seems like wretched. Not to mention Rushy Rice's myriad of issues. Like how can I can understand certain.

[Jake Seeley]

Because he's Drake London on the Chiefs.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. It's like London on the similar Holmes.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Isn'T throwing the football. Like I mean Mahomes is not back in September.

[Jake Seeley]

We don't, we don't know that there's a chance he could play Week one.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, okay, there's a chance I can go hair back on my head, but I didn't book that trip to Turkey.

[Jake Seeley]

There's. I'm just telling Twitter doctors and I put that in quotes because they're the and there's some good ones in the fantasies landscape but like people we trust. But I'm just telling you like the opinions out there range and there's opinions out there where I've seen people talking about more positively Patrick Mahomes than more positively Malik Neighbors, which is crazy to me. I'm not a doctor so I don't know Jack Diddley, but I just and that's why Malik Neighbors doesn't make my round one is because what's the question there so you're valid argument but if Patrick Mahomes isn't this is with Patrick Mahomes in play because like I said you're talking about eight plus star eight to 12 to 13 targets every single game 20 fantasy points more often than not that's really what it comes down to the Rasheed Rice if it's Patrick if it's not Patrick Mahomes Week 1 Even if you Joe to push back on this if I'll push back on myself if you said Patrick Mahomes Week 5 Rasheed Rice is out of the first round done. I'm okay with that. And that's coming with the argument that Rasheed Rice started with a suspension and still was super valuable. Well that's a different ballgame because it also might not be Patrick Mahomes 100% until week eight. What if we go down the Chris Godwin situation with Patrick Mahomes the quarterback. So all that being said, that's why he's right there with Amanrize Sam Brown and then I finish it out with a Marion Hampton. I know everybody's just got that one touch in that game but that was also missed practices, missed practices, missed practices. We should have kind of seen that coming. But a Marion Hampton when the lead oh by the way, guess who else is gone. Greg Roman. We might get Bell Calamarian Hampton and when we saw Bell Cal Marian Hampton to the point that Andrew made way earlier in the show about the running backs and the drop off of these guys scoring 16, 17, 18 fancy points at the running back position versus what's happening at wide receiver. Marin Hampton was in the 18 points per game range when he was the Bell Cow and he'll have both his tackles hopefully back and we potentially could just walk into a situation where we get the Marion Hampton. We want us as a rookie which is better than Ashton Genty because of the teams that they play for and Amarian Hampton is why he closes out my round one because that potential to get 18 plus fantasy points per game. Honestly Joe, I think there's A conversation to be had where if we knew that their offensive line was healthy and we knew that Hampton was going to get bell cow work. I put that in quotes. You could argue versus Christian McCaffrey for me because now you're talking about youth and bell cow versus the upside and with the floor from before.

[Joey P. Zappia]

As wrong as I think you are about Rice is as right as I think you are about Hampton. That, that's, that's not. Honestly that. That's. That's my take on it. And, and I just, I'm not gonna put a top 10 grade or even a top first round grade on Rushy Rice. I can't do it going into next year. Too many uncertainties for me. But with Hampton, I think you're spot on. Like, I, I think Harbaugh is just itching to turn this team into a. Let's play deep. The defense is good. Oh, you know, we saw, we saw it on display in the playoffs again. Defense is there. It's good. The health of the offensive line was so bad last year where they. I felt bad because I felt like it was embarrassing on the, on the pre game, you know, when they show all the names of the players and they were showing the PFF grades and also was like, this guard is 77, 37 of 38. And I was just like, oh my God, what are we doing here? Why are we doing this? Poor guys don't put the grades if they're that bad. We don't want to do that to these poor guys. They're trying their best. But if you get all healthy, you get Slater healthy and, and you have a little bit better luck. I do agree with you. Like the best thing about Hampton is you don't have to draft him in the top 10. But I think he is going to finish. I think the 2027 first round is going to have him well in the top 10. So I am with you on that. Ericsson, what do you think about Hampton and Rice too? Those are the controversial picks here, but I kind of. I like one of them. What are your thoughts?

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, I think the way that you phrased that last section was who are going to be drafting at the top of 2027. Fantasy drafts, I think is a really smart way to try to find the league winners. Right. If we'd had that conversation last year at this time, Jake would have been like, we're going to be drafting JSN as a top five guy in 2026. And then obviously if that happens, well, they were going to end up being a good pick when they come in rounds two and three and three. Because I really feel like yes, the first round can be really chalky, but it's like these like early second round picks. You know, Jonathan Taylor last year, he wasn't a consensus first round pick. Like he was kind of hanging on the, that early second round, mid second round pick and he ended up being like one of the best picks that you could make to start the year. So I think this is the area again outside the top eight where it seems things like you got to pick your flavor. You kind of shoot your shot here. So I love the call on Amir and Hampton. Again, Harbaugh compared this guy to Walter Payton. Okay, like, like it's like, it's like really good that your head coach is.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Historically known for saying some stupid things.

[Jake Seeley]

Like nobody's entire draft to take him in a trade.

[Andrew Erickson]

He's not, he's not calling Kamani Vidal Walter Payton.

[Joey P. Zappia]

So no one should be called Walter Payton.

[Jake Seeley]

He's one of one.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Well, okay, get away with that because most people are like, like, you know, they, they're too young to know and have seen Walter Payton. I am not. I am an old fart. And I saw Walter Payton at the end. I saw Walter Payton and Walter Payton at the end was still something to behold. That was a special talent.

[Andrew Erickson]

But anyway, all I get to see is Omarion Hampton. That, that's my closest thing to see.

[Joey P. Zappia]

That's all you get. All right, Andrew, finally you're showing some love to Amon Ross. St. Brown at pick number nine. Walk us through. Number nine through 12 here for you.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah. Despite how the show has gone, I did actually have picks to talk about here. So pick nine, I'm Amara St. Brown. Pick 10, Devon Achan. Pick 11 is Saquon Barkley. So this is another lone wolf.

[Jake Seeley]

The first guy he started watching when he started watching football.

[Andrew Erickson]

And then pick 12, Mr. Christian McCaffrey. So he did sneak into my round one, but at 12, you know, probably not going to get him again. Don't need to delve divulge more into cmc. But the guy I want to talk about here again, St. Brown again, I could probably flip flop him with CD Lamb. So eight and nine, he's my still my wide receiver. Five like Jake talked about a Chan. I do want to see how this shakes out with who the quarterback is, who is the offensive play caller. But I can't discount a Chan out of the round one because of how good he is. And he's got a three down skill set And I wouldn't say Miami has been this culture for or winning and we love this so much. And he's been fantastic since his rookie season, just been an absolute baller. And if he goes to an offense just that feeds him touches especially in the passing game, I mean his targets have been off the charts, especially when two has been the quarterback. So that's why he's my pick 10 and then Saquon, I'm the only one that has him here in my top in my round one. And Jake has talked about this in some of the takeaway shows where I mean the Eagles offense entirely was bad this year. They had, they had second halves where they didn't get first downs or do anything that, that looked like a functional offense. So if they can get back to 2024, not the fact that Obarc is going to get back to 2,000 rushing yards, but go back to Lane Johnson being healthy, the offensive line having cohesion, there's a chance that they have a lot of turnover at the skill positions. Dallas Goddard's a free agent. A.J. brown is gone. Like he is not coming back to the Philadelphia Eagles. So you have Devontae Smith stepping in as a wide receiver. One Saquon Barkley, does he see more of a evolved role in the pass catching game? Like he still had 50 targets this past season. He actually had more receptions this year than he did during his 2024 season. And we know that it's in his repertoire where he has a diverse skill set of catching passes out of the backfield. So I think that Saquon Barkley, again I was didn't draft him on any team last year was very strongly fading Saquon Barkley. But after being disappointment for a lot of fantasy managers, could he be 2025's Jonathan Taylor where Jonathan Taylor was kind of a disappointment. 2024 falls to the middle of second round. But is Saquon Barkley so different? I. I'm not so convinced. So I like Barkley as a, a buy low option this year.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I like him as a by low too. I like him in this early second round a lot next year depending on again health of offensive line. What we're looking at and, and what the reshape of the offense looks like and who the new play caller is because you know you're getting a new place.

[Jake Seeley]

I was just about to ask him is this assuming that Kevin Batulo is gone?

[Joey P. Zappia]

I think we can all assume that's that look, A.J. brown's gone, Petula's gone. Like I think that's pretty easy.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah.

[Jake Seeley]

Before we get one concern.

[Andrew Erickson]

Okay.

[Jake Seeley]

I was gonna say my one concern is that Lane Johnson isn't back. I mean, he's now going to be 35.

[Joey P. Zappia]

In a couple weeks, too.

[Jake Seeley]

And I was like, maybe we underrated the loss of Kelse. Much of an anchor he was for that offensive line between him and Lane Johnson and just the impact. Like, it's.

[Joey P. Zappia]

To be honest, he wasn't there last year when Barkley almost went for 2,000 yards. So I don't think that is the issue.

[Jake Seeley]

But maybe like the two of them together.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

Also, too. I'm pretty sure they're going to get rid of, like, the tush push. I. I think that they're going. I. I think the NFL is sick of it, and they don't like Josh.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Allen going 10 yards.

[Jake Seeley]

Going 10 yards was fine.

[Andrew Erickson]

I don't. I. I don't. I mean, the NFL tried to ban it last year. It didn't pass. I think if they ban it, then, okay, now you have an opportunity.

[Jake Seeley]

Yeah, but that was one of the.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Teams that was against it, and it.

[Jake Seeley]

Just worked so well for them this year. So, like, did the Bills change?

[Andrew Erickson]

It wasn't actually that great for the. It also wasn't that great for the Eagles compared to it.

[Jake Seeley]

Actually, it was.

[Joey P. Zappia]

It was the.

[Jake Seeley]

It was the option play to Gallus Goddard that they kept running off.

[Andrew Erickson]

Right? Yeah, the option. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Dallas got her 11 touchdowns this past year. He had like 10, like, combined, like the same. His. His. His entire NFL career. Never gets red zone touches immediately. Just has like 11 and randomly. So.

[Joey P. Zappia]

All right, I got four more players left for my first round. And remember, everybody, BP Premium is here for you. So download the betting pros app today. If you have not, use the promo code FP1 month and you'll get a month free of the premium tool. So make sure you do that right away here, because this is that time with the NFL playoffs. You got NBA, got everything going on, and we can help you get into those cashing areas. So that's what you want to do. You want to make some bets. You want to win some money. Don't be a tool. Use the tools at betting pros. All right, here we go. Not on anyone's list here except mine. Justin Jefferson. Why? Because he's an extraordinary talent and I have seen the DeAndre Hopkins of the world and some extraordinary talents make do with lesser quarterback play. I understand this year was a complete S show for the Minnesota Vikings. I get it. I understand. J.J. mcCarthy it felt like at times just didn't even know that Justin Jefferson was alive. I get it. I understand all of that. That is not going to be what happens in 2026. I'm sorry, I just don't. Whether it be somebody else, a quarterback, or whether it be JJ McCarthy working his rear end off or Justin Jefferson asking to be somewhere else, one of these things are going to happen. And Justin Jefferson is still a first round talent, still a first round pick. And I think no matter what happens, that situation is only going to improve. And even last year it was funny because I can't tell you how many questions we kept taking, should I play Justin Jefferson this week in round one of the playoffs? Should I take Justin Jefferson in my lineup for week two of the playoffs? So clearly these Justin Jefferson rosters were still making playoffs. Okay, so I get it. It was brutal. It wasn't nearly a top three pick, a top five pick, a top ten pick, a first round pick. Okay? But at the end of the day, Justin Jefferson is extraordinarily talented and I don't want to throw him out of the first round quite yet. I want to see what they do with the quarterback position. I want to see what sort of concepts they have or I want to see if Justin Jefferson makes some noise and be like, you know what, this was fun. I don't think it's going to be a good spot for me going forward. We'll see. Jonathan Taylor does sneak into my top 10 to the point the boys made earlier. Jonathan Taylor was running like crazy, man. He was MVP caliber before everything went down. Now the problem is with Daniel Jones returning, what does that look like? Does he return? Do we get somebody else at quarterback? I don't know. So some question marks there. That's why he is at 10, James Cook at 11 for me because again, I do just believe that Buffalo can't do this again. They cannot go into 2026 without some sort of wide receiver, one that you can count on. Who that is, I don't know. But it's going to be somebody and it's not somebody on the roster currently. And that is going to have some sort of impact, I do believe on James Cook, but still very close to a first round pick. And then at 12 for me, I've been going back and forth. I had him at 10, I had him at 11. Cmc, I'm just listening to my heart here and I'm listening to the data of the last 25 years. He's a 30 year old running back coming off and he's advancing another round in the playoffs. Okay. He wasn't one in them the playoffs. He's going to play again against Seattle this coming week here. I can't get there. I can't do it at the turn. Okay, you're forcing my hand. I'm going to roll the dice, which means I'm probably not going to have a lot of CMC next year. Which brings us to the guys that missed our first round. So no Trey McBride for any of us. And I think that goes to the conversation we had yesterday, which was there's so much good young talent besides McBride, where you have Warren, you have Bowers, you have Pitts who look good last year, but you also have guys like Harold Fannin Jr. You have Tucker Craft returning from injury, you have Colston Loveland. There's a lot of talent at tight end where you just don't have to do it. Therefore, I'm not. So he didn't make my top up first round. Nico Collins, again, situational. We'll see what happens with him this offseason. Chris Olave was terrific this year. Just missed it. Devon Hn for me, missed it. But again, I could see myself taking Achan over CMC potentially just depending on what's going on with the head coach. I want to see what coach and what system comes in there before I put HR in the first round. Ash and Genti, I think, is another guy in that conversation for me. And Malik Neighbors with a good August, if he looks good and he says, I'm feeling good, I'm ready to go the way Stefon Diggs looked to me going into the season. And I was like, this guy looks terrific. Look at how he's cutting. Malik Neighbors is a guy that I would definitely take in the top 10 for me personally, if he looks good in August and he gives you the big thumbs up and he looks as sharp as Diggs did going into this past season. Jake, who are the guys that just missed for you that you want to bring up?

[Jake Seeley]

Well, I'll throw Justin Jefferson into the list, but I considered it just missed. And for me, he didn't just miss for me. We'll talk.

[Joey P. Zappia]

We'll talk about only the most extraordinary wide receiver talent in the league. And you just go away. JJ, yes. Nobody cares about you anymore because wide.

[Jake Seeley]

Receiver, 35 and fancy points per game, that matters a lot. So again, your argument is valid, but your arguments also, like, we're kind of like we're making our arguments well, what if this happens? What if that happens? Let's see who the OC is. Let's see what this is. What if the Vikings run things back to see if they have anything in J.J. mcCarthy? So like yeah, you're shaking your head no because we're all like no.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I think even if they do, I don't think it can be as bad. I think this is the anomaly.

[Jake Seeley]

Oh really set up.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Oh absolutely. What? What in Justin Jefferson the last couple years playing with Sam Darnold and Josh Johnson and then Kirk Cousins and all these other guys.

[Jake Seeley]

Like we'll be fine with J.J. mcCarthy. He didn't play with J.J. mcCarthy and that's a big factor. J.J. mcCarthy. The only reason he actually even was wide receiver 35 in fantasy points per game is because of 1R and Wentz. If it wasn't for Warmar wins, he'd be outside the top 45. That's how bad it was. So I understand your argument. I'm just saying I'll talk about him. I'm going to. I'm not going to have any Justin Jefferson until that situation changes and by that point it might be too late because I'm not even considering round two. The people who just missed Drake London, which is again this is what we're doing. Like you know you want to make your arguments who's the quarterback, who's the oc. There's just a lot of questions with the Falcons where again this reason why I go back to B John Robinson is because no matter what happens at quarterback, no matter what happens with oc, Bichon's going to be Bijan. It comes down to what are those pieces look like. So Drake London could get his way back into the first round. Both Cowboys, just because I played the actually think that Pickens gets franchised and if anything he's back and then Pickens and Lamb are both just outside the first round early second round for me you want to make argument from the first round, I have no problem with it but I actually think there's an argument that you can make for Pickens over Lamb if he's back just because of the touchdown equities point that Erickson made earlier. So anyway those are why those are both there at running back it really just comes down to I guess the biggest name missing is going to be the one that Erickson brings up. I don't see speaking another situation that it should be better. Question mark. I don't know how much better it can get to get Ashton Genti into the first round. Like we already had him at the end of the first round this year. Like, I don't know how you can get it back into the first, but I'll let Ericson, because we cut him off so many times, talk more about why no Ashton Gentian to the first round.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, so Genti, to me, it's, look, if the situation can just get better. Right. That's the only thing. Because he did everything else that we wanted to do. He caught passes, he played on all three downs. He basically was seeing 90 snapshare. Raheem Oster is a free agent, so. And he looked explosive and he was breaking tackles. So really it was all about just the Raiders in 2025 being so terrible. That really held Ash and Jetty back and still put over 1300 yards from scrimmage. Like, objectively a really good rookie season. But the fact that he was drafted in the first round of fantasy drafts made him kind of like a bust, which was just unfortunate. So we'll see what the Raiders can do. I could see a scenario where, however they address the quarterback position, just. I mean, if they can just get the offensive line figured out a little bit here, getting Colton Miller back in healthy, if they can do those types of things, you could see this go from a weakness to a strength. Their interior offensive line, because we know that Ashan Genti, he's going to get touches. He was six in touches this past season as a rookie. Like, he can handle a full workload and he's really explosive. So I could see him moving up, but obviously that depends on what the Raiders do on their offseason. Again, I agree with Jake where right now you got to take Hampton over Gentee. And it's similar type of bet, except we're way more confident that the Chargers already have the guys that are good on the offensive line. They just have to come back and get healthy. The Raiders theoretically need to get these players somehow, some way, whether it's through the draft or, you know, free agency, making trades. So Hampton to me, I think definitely is the guy that I want to move up the most. After we kind of talked about the first round, which is good. Another great exercise, you know, picking your guys's brains and figuring out, well, maybe I'm a little bit too low on. I'm on right side Brown. I guess I could push him ahead of cdlm. So I'm already kind of making some updates here because now my rankings are already coming into form here on January 13th. I will definitely never change at any point.

[Joey P. Zappia]

You know, I want to. One thing that I've learned, though, from this to process. I want to pick at the turn in every draft. I want to start Ashton Genti, Malik Neighbors. I want to start James Cook and you know, and Jonathan Taylor, if I can or whatever ends up getting that like that. I think the turn is where the massive value is going into 2026 because this is a very deep group and you know, you know, or Justin Jefferson, who was even these guys, right. I said, oh, you're giving to me in the second round. The beginning of the second round. Okay, cool, like. And you know, there's a lot of people that will take Trey McBride first round or late first round, early second round. And guess what? That's another guy that will bump some other talent into that back the. The front end of the second round, too. There will be huge values, potentially. Omari and Hampton being one of those guys too, like the sweet spot. 10, 11, 12, I think in 2026. Last question. Then we get out of here because we went long today because we're having a good conversation. Will any rookies crack the first round in 2026? In our fantasy drafts, I say hard. No, not with this class. Andrew, what do you say?

[Andrew Erickson]

I don't think after what Ashton Genti did last year that people are going to be like, all right, let's put this other rookie running back here in the first round. I think that. And I don't think that that's like the right reason to do it. To the point about Genti. It was about him just being on the Raiders. That was the reason he was a bus, not because he was a rookie, per se. So. But I would also agree with you that it's a no for me, Jake.

[Jake Seeley]

Yeah. And that's where I say that it could possibly be a yes because we have another Genti talent level in Jeremiah Love. So Jeremiah Love ends up on the Chiefs, the Cowboys, as they go away from Javonte Williams. Again, like, again, we're talking about landing spots, but, you know, if Love goes to the Saints in the first round, then no, like, it really just comes down to it. So that's where I'm not going to definitively. I'm definitely not definitively saying no. I'm also not definitively saying yes because it's going to depend on where Love goes. But Love would be the only name I think can enter this conversation because he is of the ilk of an Ashta, Genti, a Saquon, Barclay, and down the list of all these names, talent wise, if he hits in the right spot.

[Joey P. Zappia]

I don't know. I feel like New Orleans isn't a bad spot, to be honest with you.

[Andrew Erickson]

Rico Daddles going there.

[Joey P. Zappia]

All right, so I'm sure nothing will change with this show from now until September 1st, but would you repost it August? Where would you see, where would you take all the above players here? What's your first round? Drop your first round, your 1 through 12 in the YouTube comments. I want to see them there because I think this is a fun conversation and hopefully we all had some food for thought here. Some of the players were too high on, too low on, so let us know. Subscribe to the channel and of course where we get your podcasts as well. That'll do it for us. But the story of the game goes on. For Andrew Erickson and Jake Seeley from the Athletic, I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time, kids.

[Andrew Erickson]

Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.

[Joey P. Zappia]

If you love the show, the best.

[Jake Seeley]

Free way to support us is by.

[Andrew Erickson]

Leaving a positive review on apple [e-mail].

[Jake Seeley]

Review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.

[Louisiana Hot Sauce Sponsor]

Everything tastes better after your team wins. So just imagine how truly tasty something would taste if it was doused in the original Louisiana hot sauce after your team wins. That's Louisiana Hot Bayou.

[Nav Green]

Some this show contains information subject to, but not limited to, personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up man? It's your boy Nab Green for the the Broken Play Podcast. Look, it's the end of the season. The playoffs are here. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoffs. The Chief it's time to rebuild. Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Jake Seeley]

And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is.

[Andrew Erickson]

You can decide who takes home the 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards podcast at the year by voting@iheartpodcast awards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iheartpodcastawards.com Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts.

[Joey P. Zappia]

And originals all in one easy app.

[Andrew Erickson]

Audible.

[Joey P. Zappia]

There's more to imagine when you Listen.

[Andrew Erickson]

Sign up for a free [e-mail] this.

[Jake Seeley]

Is an iHeart podcast.

[Joey P. Zappia]

Guaranteed human.