8 Riskiest Players + Late-Round Tight Ends, Injury Updates & More! (08/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no-like game. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. A big weekend of fantasy drafts is coming up, and I just realized I need some team names. I just am not feeling my team name game right now, so happy to hear some suggestions. We'll definitely get Team Name Tuesday back in the mix at some point. Welcome to the show! I got a good one from last night. What was it? One of my team names in one of the leagues we do is going to be Go to the 500 section. The last hour of our draft-a-thon just really got away from me. Really got away. The last 40 minutes when Nando came on. Really, Nando. What a day. What a shocker. If the two young men who came on the show last night that randomly came on the show last night at Universal Studios, I hope they're having a great time. I hope they got to see Scott Fish again. That was one of the most incredible things ever. It was so cool. We should do more of that. You never know how it's going to happen, but it was basically, for those of you who missed it, we had our three-hour draft-a-thon show yesterday. I'm going to talk about some of the things that some of the other analysts from around the industry, industry said, but we had Scott Fish joining us live from Universal Studios where he was vacationing, and he just started, I was like, we were like, let's get some man on the street stuff, so he just started shouting out, hey, Christian McCaffrey or Amon Ross St. Brown? Nobody paid attention. Christian McCaffrey or Amon Ross St. Brown? They finally found these two guys who, he was like, you guys know Jamie Heisenberg? You guys know Mike Florio? They're like, yeah, yeah. They came on and asked some questions. It was very cool, but that was last night. Today is today. Thank you all for donating. Thank you all for watching. Today, we're going to try to help you get ready for your draft, telling you about risky players like Christian McCaffrey and Ashton Gentry and Jeremiah Love, when to take them, giving you news updates, giving you some takeaways from the draft-a-thon. One of the biggest risers, I think it's pretty clear at this point, is Bucky Irving, whether the industry is going to be right about him or not. I mean, I saw him going at the 3-4 turn in one of the FFT Open Leagues yesterday. I want to talk about Bucky Irving, a little bit of do not draft list, and offensive line. We're going to talk about some offensive lines. Apparently, the commanders, offensive lines struggled mightily in joint practices, and who else is worrying us right now? Let's start with drafting risky players. Christian McCaffrey is blank in your rankings. Jamie? 11th. Dave? 8th. Okay. Me, he's more like 5. I don't really, I just kind of, whenever I feel it, whenever I'm feeling it, let's just go with that. Sounds like you're feeling it. This guy has averaged 23.8 or more PPR fantasy points four times in a row. Four times in his career, four full seasons in his career, at least 16 games. And I'll remind you, in 2022, Christian McCaffrey had 381 touches. He played three postseason games. They probably went to the Super Bowl that year. It was a long run. Maybe it was the NFC Championship game. And he came back the next year, played 16 games, an average 24.7 points per game. So no, he didn't have 400 touches, but he had 381. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not crazy. Who would you? I mean, you're not crazy. Look, he's amazing. We all want him to be amazing. We all want him to be the same guy that he was last year and the same guy that he's been every year of his career when he's been healthy. However, two times he's been over 400 total touches and two times he has failed to play a full season the next year. So it's tough to say it's safe. And you referenced what year? 23. Well, 2022, 381 touches, including. No, I don't think that's right. I think it's, I think it's 2023. No, it's 2022. Oh, okay. Maybe it's 23. It was the year he got traded to the Niners. Oh, I see. 2022. Okay. So it is the first full year with San Francisco. 2024. He missed time. Yeah. So 2022, 300, 381 touches. It did not go to the Superbowl. That was the year where Purdy got hurt in the playoffs. They lost Philadelphia. Okay. He lost the NFC championship game, three postseason games though. And then he, then he played a full season basically. And he averaged over 24 points per game the year after, but he didn't hit 400 touches. I get it. Yeah. Three years ago. So he's 30 now. Young 30, whatever this, this missed mysterious absence was all part of the plan. Jamie, you're not paying all part of the plan that, that his coach either lied about, or he wasn't forthcoming about, or just, Hey, I'm, I'm good. Look, listen, nobody wants to be more wrong than me. I want to be wrong on this. It's the same thing I said about Barkley last year. I want him to be awesome. I have McCaffrey in my longest running dynasty league. I have McCaffrey in a league that I drafted the other day because he fell to 11 and it was too hard to pass up at that point. So I think if you're comfortable drafting him, you're, you've been the only person that I've seen in draft that I've done that has taken him fifth overall. I thought Mike Florio said it best on our stream last night. He wants other people to take him. I feel the same way. I want somebody else to take him and I want them to be rewarded by, by doing so. But at the same time, like I'm drafting a lot of Kalen black. I want to see who's going to be the number two running back there because we've been down this path before. So I'm nervous. That's the only way I could frame it is I'm nervous about McCaffrey staying healthy for a full season. Yeah. Let me tack on one other thing, Adam. Look at what the Niners did this off season. They brought in Mike Evans. They brought back Debo Samuel. They drafted Dijon Stribling. He's going to be a thing. George Kittle's healthy. They are not going to be, or at least they don't want to be as reliant through the air on McCaffrey as they were last year. 7.1 targets per game for McCaffrey was a high. That's the highest average. He had since he went to San Francisco, it's the second highest of his career. It's the highest he's had in San Francisco by 1.7 targets per game. So if we knock that down and it makes sense to knock that down, given everybody that they've added in San Francisco, that's fewer catches that lowers the PPR threshold that lowers what the upside is. And I think the addition of Kalen black and Jordan James getting healthy, I think they're there to take some of those lesser important carries off of McCaffrey. And that just, that just opens the door for him having just a little bit less. And I talked about it on the draft of that. I think there is a world where he averages somewhere between 16 and 18 PPR points per game and make that look like 12 to 14 non PPR points per game, something in that range where he's still worth the first round pick, but not a top six pick. And there's obvious downside. We've talked about it. Jamie just talked about it. It's real. And it makes me nervous to take them anywhere close to where, where you're taking him at him. That's fine. I understand. I understand. I'm looking at eight different FFT open leagues. I'm going to tell you, he went 11th. Uh, he went 11th, seventh, sixth, eighth, fourth. I saw him go third in one league, seventh in this league, eighth in this league. I may have repeated one fifth in this league. So he's all over the place. Next up, next up, risky player, Puka Nakua may be suspended. Still has in practice. He's got a groin injury for Puka. Is it? Yes. Yeah. Would you rather have Puka Nakua or Jackson Smith and Jigba? Today? It's Puka, but we're getting closer to that point where if he's not back at practice soon, you've got to imagine that this injury could limit him a little bit early on in the year. And maybe it lingers on and you might feel better taking JSN, Jamie Puka or JSN. Uh, it would be, uh, St. Brown for me if I have to choose another receiver, but it would probably be both of them going to move Puka down. So I think just looking at it, that, um, his ceiling is wide receiver one. We saw that last year. His floor is probably wide receiver 10. Uh, I think at minimum, um, as long as he's healthy. So hopefully there's, you know, reason to buy into him still being that guy. And as of now, I agree with Dave. I'm not moving him down. Yeah. It's just that the only two players who averaged more than 22 points per game last year, other than quarterbacks were Puka Nakua and Christian McCaffrey. And it's a shame where we have questions about both of them going in. Um, I want to show a graphic here because we got an email, great email from Bob. It said, is anyone slightly concerned with Puka's 2026 volume, given how stout the Rams defense is projected to be? Doesn't it seem more likely for JSN to finish with more points? So I did some numbers here. I want you to look, this is Puka Nakua. Now he usually has every year of his career has had 10 to 12 carries. What I did was. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I just used his receiving stats. Didn't put any carries in there at all. Fantasy points per game last year, just on receiving stats for Puka Nakua was 22.5. The Rams ranked fifth per fit. They rank fifth and pass attempts. The rest of this is hypotheticals. Um, sorry. It says 2023 and 2024 and the fantasy points per game. That's actually my mistake. That's not what those numbers are. So you can ignore that. If you're looking at the graphic, this, these numbers are, let's just say the Rams, were 16th in pass attempts last year. How many points would Puka have averaged based on his yards per catch yards, per target catch rate, touchdown rate over the last two seasons and his target share. If they had been 16th in pass attempts per game, Puka would have averaged 20.1 points per game, uh, on 167 targets last year. If they had been 28th, I think worst case scenario, fifth fewest pass attempts in the NFL, he would have averaged 17.4. fantasy points per game. And that's bad. That's bad for a guy who's going in the top five that's like a second round pick or maybe a one two turn kind of player but that's if the rams had been 28th in past attempts i don't see that happening they're usually middle of the pack and past attempts last year they were fifth um they're usually middle of the pack and pass rate so i think maybe you look at that if they had been 16th in past attempts he still would have had 167 targets he's had a 30 percent target share when he's been on the field each of the last two seasons and he played three games last year three healthy games where the rams allowed less than 14 points and he had 8 11 and 11 targets in those three games hope that helps a little bit next risky player is ashton genti since seeing him a lot in the middle of round two sometimes all the way to the middle of round three would you rather have ashton genti or davante smith uh still genti right now but that's close they're almost back to back for me almost back to back for me too i've got smith two spots higher josh jacobs there was a a note yes there's a little almost alarmist um that they talked about the jacobs suspension in a press conference that they said they are they have plans in place in case josh jacobs gets suspended but they didn't say they expected it or anything like that this was the gm for the packers would you rather have josh jacobs or a preseason riser travis achan jacobs still jacobs for now okay so close jamie you see the breaking news on alec pierce here yes oh he's off the pup list that's great that's really good okay um and josh downs has a calf injury we're going to talk about him soon all right so jacobs you're taking him ahead of achan how about jacobs or kyron williams jacob oh trev you said achan and immediately my mind went to uh devon achan i would rather have devon achan than josh jacobs who did you ask now which williams i'd rather have jacob i'd rather have jacobs than kyron and javante williams is so it's jacob's top 30 player for you yes no okay where is he dave 26th all right he was rb9 last year and he was even better than that before he kind of played the last few games of the year um injured up and he had three games where he played fewer than 40 percent of the snaps take away those three games his healthy games josh jacobs averaged 19 ppr fantasy points per game i mean that is a first round player so it's very appealing but you know hasn't been practicing i think he's is he back he just got back right to practice i don't know if he's gone through any full team drills yet but he has been back at practice i think he has i think he just just did 11 on 11 for the first time this week in a long time josh jacobs which is fine especially for running backs like you don't want them getting all beat up during camp and let him let him take it easy as long as they're practicing in full you know week and a half two weeks before the start of the season we're good all right uh next up jeremiah love or t higgins jeremiah love being one of those risky players t higgins probably one of the safer players uh higgins for me t i think yeah i think it's getting kind of crazy with jeremiah love i mean he's a he's a fourth round pick in a lot of leagues right now and why why such a downgrade that's like a full round and he could be back for week one where would you draft rb 16. round three mid round mid to late round three mid to late exactly where i have love that's that's what genti was last season and that's and there was an email i can't remember who it was but it's one of the best emails we got all year i think for me anyway said we we had gent we had um love ranked somewhere around 13 14 you know before his high ankle sprain um and he said genti was rb 15 or 16 last year per game that's the worst thing i've ever seen in my life i've ever seen in my worst outcome that we've seen from any any running back drafted in the top 10 you know over the last 10 years or so zeke fournette even mcafree in full pbr mcafree didn't have a great rookie season he's caught a ton of passes mcafree jameer uh not jameer but bijan robinson um yeah anyway like it seems like we were drafting love at his floor before the ankle injury now he's going around later am i not reading now he has an ankle injury yeah he does that's why but it was a preseason all right i get it i mean look it's a good sign that he was back in practice yesterday you know doing some rehab stuff visibly you know so people can see you know that he's moving around i i think the concern comes in that he's injured on a bad team with a rough schedule with competition in his backfield of one specific scenario that hurts his upside and that's the touchdowns because if tyler alger does what tyler alger is capable of doing and probably the role that he's going to play that's where jeremiah love's going to lose look he looked awesome in that game against the raiders before he got hurt he has the ability to be awesome again i don't think this is someone that you necessarily run away from but what has changed on top of his ankle injury is travis a chance competition is also hurt and so i would rather take the chance on him over jeremiah love just given the circumstances deandre swift's competition is hurt i'd rather take the chance on swift over love that's just two players that i dropped him behind he was already in that mix which i don't know how many of you are aware of but i'd rather take the chance on swift over love than travis a chance of winning the game against the raiders because he's already in that mix so i'd rather take the chance on swift over love which i don't know how many of you are aware of but i'd rather take the chance on swift over love because he's already in that mix which i don't know how many of you are aware of but i'd rather take the chance on swift over love than travis a chance on swift over love which i don't know how many of you are aware of but i'd rather take the chance on swift over love than travis a chance on swift over love which i don't know how many of you are aware of but you guys rather have loveland or love but love oh a loveland for jamie and a love for dave all right we're gonna take a break i got abuka versus garrett wilson mike what'd you say with a little loveland we're the little loveland mike evans versus christian watson josh downs versus dejon stribling we'll be right back to talk about more risky players then give you some draftathon takeaways a couple a couple uh or three late round tight ends you could target and much more football today i'm gonna talk to you right now about omaha steaks and this is a perfect time for me to do it because just last night i cooked four omaha steaks for my family and they were awesome and we completely devoured them and tonight omaha steaks burgers and hot dogs for the family they also have seafood and side dishes they have so many things at omaha steaks if you want affordable easy to make delicious food omaha steaks is honestly a no-brainer this is like having a trusted butcher and gourmet shop in your kitchen and let me tell you about the burgers incredible deal here try a burger perfection flight for just 79.99 this is what you're getting 20 premium steak burgers crafted from five distinct cuts of steak each with its own unique flavor profile and texture again incredible value so try the burger perfection flight from omahasteaks.com today that's 20 premium steaks and hot dogs for the family and burgers for just 79.99 plus get 35 off with the promo code fft that's omahasteaks.com promo code fft for 35 off at checkout terms apply see site for details all right i'm gonna move on to a mecca abuka here but i forgot to have played the worst sound bite thing ever when we were i thought you did that on purpose there we go uh a mecca abuka or garrett wilson who do you like better now garrett wilson g dub what a shame it is yeah wilson or i mean abuka or ted rowe mcmillan they're back to back and i've got ted a spot higher i think the the thing about the the players you keep bringing up is if you're in to drafting them you're going to get them at great value now i know like think about this luther burden comes back to practice yesterday right he all love luther burden before he got hurt the entire industry loved luther burden before he got hurt and now you got him in round five potentially well would you rather have abuka or burden uh i still have abuka ranked one spot ahead of him but if abuka remains out through the weekend and into the part next week i'll move burden head i have abuka higher considerably mike evans who plans to play week one even though he has a groin injury according to jeremy fowler or christian watson watson double checking my rankings i have watson higher yeah we had adam ronis on yesterday during the draft-a-thon he's from fantasy life and he's got an fft open league and he's terrific analyst and i asked him for some breakouts he mentioned christian watson um and it's just i want to you know it's been a while since we've really broken down these players but i want to remind everybody christian watson is a yards per target standout he has been second in yards per target two straight seasons behind alec pierce both times high adot guys usually are great at that but he was also starting to get a you know a lower adot like came back first three games last year at a 26 yard adot from weeks 11 through 18 15.5 yard adot which is high but it's not that high for christian watson and a 23.5 percent target share 28.3 percent target per route run rate from weeks 11 through 7 11 through 18 or 17 i can't remember um for christian watson exciting stuff but no tucker craft during that stretch didn't really have a healthy jayden reed matthew golden you know but okay you guys are taking christian watson over mike evans that was just are you yet Um, uh, I think Christian Watson is such a good player, but I, I do worry about the targets, you know? Yeah. I worry about the volatility. I'm still taking Evans reluctantly. I'm worried about his volatility too. I mean, we're talking about two players that have some injury concerns, but at least one of them is a little bit younger and isn't hurt now. And that's Watson. And I, I feel better taking the chance on Watson, seeing an uptick in targets. He averaged five and a half last year. If we're thinning the receiving core in green Bay with no more Dobbs and no more wicks, then maybe he can get to 6.3 targets per game. And that can bump up his PPR points per game to maybe closer to 14. I think it's going to be a rollercoaster though. I've looked at so many metrics with him and there's just like, it's less than 50% of the time, less than 50% of the time. He was good when he had a 70% plus route rate over the past two years. Christian Watson. This is Christian Watson, eight games, including the post-season where he had 70% of the routes run last year, 18 plus PPR and three of them 12.6 or fewer in the other five. He is, he's a good, good enough to be a low end. Number two, wide receiver, not worth reaching for, but there's that point in the draft. You get to late round five, early round six, and you look at what's left and you might get a little nervous. At least you're taking a guy who does profile as the number one wide receiver on what should be, what should honestly be a good green Bay offense. And maybe that defense isn't as good. And it forces a lot of pass heavy game scripts. That's it. You have a lot of guys in that range. They're very similar profile. You have Jameson Williams, you have Marvin Harrison, you have Mike Evans, Christian Watson, like there for the most part, volatile players, somewhat touchdown dependent may or may not lead their team in targets. Brian Thomas jr. Like, you know, all these, these type of guys. So like the, the pivots, if you need a receiver in that range, uh, I've moved Chris Godwin into the top 30. I think he's, you know, worth taking in this range at this point, late round five, early round six, Parker Washington, another one, you know, that has that type of upside as well. So, you know, if you just don't want to deal with the inconsistencies, but targeting guys that are targets, like you can move to a couple of different wide receivers there. Okay. Uh, let's go on to, uh, by the way, the Packers have been 30th and 27th and pass attempts the last two years. Just get me closer to 20. And then, you know, we won't have to worry so much about the target crunch. Uh, let's go to the last one that I have here on this risky players. As we've, we've liked Josh downs all off season. Would you rather have Josh downs is now dealing with what's being called a minor calf injury or Dijon stribbling. I'll take that. Downs for Dave's dribbling for Jamie. Okay. I mean, didn't get a ton of consensus on this one. We did with a Buka versus Garrett Wilson. We did. Oh, is that, is that with the Higgins and, um, love? I think. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Um, what about Gentry or Devante Smith? I forgot. What'd you guys say there? I said, Smith. Uh, I said Gentry for now. Okay. All right. Well, there you go. Let's, uh, tell you what you need to know in terms of content. We have there, our must draft seg, our must draft, uh, destination on the fantasy site, cbssports.com slash FFT must draft. We love that you listen to the podcast, but if you want our must draft players, you want a little writeup on them. You can go to that URL, cbssports.com slash FFT must draft. This is a brand new feature that we have exclusive picks from the FFT crew organized by where we target these players throughout the draft. So as you move through the draft, you can see which players we think you should be targeting in each range. We have a lot of players that we're going to be targeting in each range. We're going to be targeting in each range. Again, it's brand new. Be one of the first to check it out. cbssports.com slash FFT must draft. And today CBS sports network. What time are you guys on noon? Yes. Noon Eastern CBS sports network. If you miss it, you can see the replay at youtube.com slash fantasy football today. The guys will be talking about their do not draft list. And we'll have a little preview of that later on in today's show draft a thon takeaways. So there was a, you know, decent amount of buzz about Bucky Irving. And him moving up. And I wonder if we're overreacting a little bit from pew to report, just speculating that Sean Tucker might not make the roster. And now we're just maybe thinking, Oh, well, he's not a factor anymore. Dave, you mentioned on the show last night, you saw Sean Tucker not working with the starters. But to me, that's not a huge surprise because his role, he's not a starter. He's just maybe a goal line back. But one way or another, Bucky Irving seems to be on the rise right now. Dave, do you feel that? Do you think it's act? Do you think it's justified? And where are you on Bucky? I'm not ready to move them up my rankings, but I also never really sent him too far south in my rankings. He's a top 50 player. He remains a top 50 player, uh, would take him ahead of running backs like Judkins, Scadaboo price and Montgomery. And it's on the hunch that maybe this worry about Tucker does go away a little bit. And Bucky is best suited to handle most of that work near the goal line. But he's also, he looks great. Put on a little bit of muscle. He looks great. He looks a little bit bigger than I remember him being. And they're going to run a scheme that's going to be favorable to him. A lot of outside runs, letting him win the edge on the outside. I think he can do that against plenty of defenses. The offensive line for now is healthy. They were under siege on the first day of their joint practice against Jacksonville, but that was in past protection more so than, than run. And you worry a little bit about just how many targets he gets because last year he definitely got a bunch, certainly early on in the year, 4.8 targets per game in his first year. So I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good four games before he got hurt. I think that goes down because Gainwell's there, but he stands out as somebody who could get well north of 1,000 total yards and still catch in the neighborhood of 35 passes, let's call it. It comes down to just how many touchdowns he gets. He had no carries inside the five last year, but Sean Tucker had nine, Rashad White had eight. If those guys aren't there, that means that those carries are up for grabs. I'd be surprised if they went to, if Tucker's not on the team, then Josh Williams. I'd be surprised if Gainwell got a lot of those. I think Bucky would be in line, and so getting him at that four or five turn range, I'm good with. I'm hopeful for more than 35 catches from Bucky Irving. I keep giving this stat, but the first four games of the year, he was on pace for 81 catches, did not have a single target on third down in those four games. I don't think 81 is even close to possible, but 50, I think, could be just because Baker Mayfield has had a history with Tampa Bay of throwing to his running backs on first and second. Second down. Gainwell's definitely going to play on first and second down, but Bucky will play a little bit on third down, I think, but anyway, yeah, so four or five turn, we're still thinking for Bucky. That's where I've got him. Jamie? He's in round four for me. I think just part of the reason that I moved him up was really more about the guys in front of him with Scadaboo and this whole mess of what the Giants backfield could look like. I'd rather take Bucky Judkins and the offense that he's going to be on and just the struggle. So I just feel like when we get to that point of past the group that I mentioned, you know, Javante and Kyron and Jacobs and Jeremiah Love, HN, Swift, Brees Hall, like he's the next running back. Yes. Okay. What else from last night? So there were some late round tight ends that were talked about. Ben Gretsch and Dan Schneier both talked up Terrence Ferguson. Jacob talked up Jawan Johnson and Dalton Schultz. Jamie, how would you rank Jawan Johnson, Terrence Ferguson and Dalton Schultz? And who's, you know, when you talk about the highest guy, where is he in your rankings? Those guys are all back to back to back 15, 16 and 17. So Andrews is tight end 13 as the first number two tight end in my rankings. Kincaid is 14, 15 is Schultz just with the Higgins absence. And, you know, I think he'll be over a hundred. He had over a hundred targets last year. Prior to that, he was basically 88 targets in each of the first two years in Houston. Jawan Johnson right after him, you know, the longer Jordan Tyson is out, I think the better that is for Johnson who should be second on the team and targets. And then Terrence Ferguson is the highest Ferguson in my rankings ahead of Jake Ferguson. That could change once we get some clarification on Puka's scenario of health plus suspension, because I think that's the guy who wins the most. If there is no Puka for any missed games, but they still need a third pass catcher. And by all accounts, he's going to be the third pass catcher there unless you're factoring Kyron. So we'll see. But, um, I think just looking at upside the two veterans and the second year guy for me better than Brenton strange, better than I had Chico Conco there for majority of the off season prior to the Stefan dig signing. Um, I'm trying to get any other veteran guys. They're the, the also ran tight ends. Like, you know, I think that's the guy who wins the most. I think that's the guy who wins the most. And Schultz and Johnson, I did not expect to be in this type of scenario, but injuries have opened the door for them to be very relevant once again. And Schultz had 106 targets last year. I didn't remember that. He didn't really do that much with them. Right, that's part of the problem. Well, he actually did do a lot with them in PPR at the second half of the season. He was a guy we kept saying, he should be added, he should be started, he should be started, he should be started, he should be started. He was a guy for C.J. Stroud, and I think that's going to be the case once again. And the same thing with Jawan Johnson. afterthoughts that could be very relevant to your fantasy team probably going to be a little frustrating but dalton schultz did have a nine game stretch mid-season you know mid to late where he averaged 11.9 ppr fantasy points per game he had some huge games in there juan johnson got off to a great start then slumped then got pretty good but then like the last four games of the year devon vele did not play in any of them chris olave missed week 18 and he still juan johnson only had a 17.5 target share but he did average 11.7 points per game in nine games with tyler shuck just wasn't very consistent but uh yeah i mean if you're sitting there going man my tight end stink uh juan johnson dalton schultz uh i don't like those guys you'd be okay throwing your lineup week one right it's more for ferguson it's more of a let's wait and see kind of deal i would assume sure the other two guys as starters you can't draft ferguson as a starter right exactly okay unless puka's out week one doesn't make the trip to australia i don't i don't think that anybody wants to start ferguson yet you you can if you're stuck you know like that's the it's got to be with that qualifier right so if if you miss on tight end then you go with a combination of schultz and ferguson or kincaid and ferguson or andrews for you know even if you want to go to you know as high as kittle kelsey goddard the last three guys that are typically rounding out the top 12 like you're not comfortable with whoever their matchup is maybe early in the season or in the case of hey i'm going to take kittle and and that's your end then easily you're starting him if there is no puka but i don't think you want to go into the season with starting ferguson like that's the type of guy that by the middle of the year if he's heavily involved puka or not you'll be really thrilled that you have him on your team and just talking about late round flyers if you're desperate i think it was it was the draft-a-thon league that we did yesterday i just kept taking running backs i just really liked the value i have like five good running backs the way to do it but i only but it's a three receiver ppr league so you can start four receivers i only think i have four receivers on my roster uh no i have five but devon vele is a guy i want to mention as someone who if you're in that kind of format where you have to where you could start three or four wide receivers and you know and he might he might be good he might be okay for you at the beginning of the year i don't know if he got drafted in this league remember jamie vele i don't remember i'm sorry he didn't get drafted in this i feel like i could name five other at least five maybe even like 15 other receivers i'd rather have i'll tell you what i have khalil shakir on my team he was one of my last picks that's one guy i'd rather have i don't know i would all right trey tucker booty now that he's in houston uh dobbs is going with a late check i would have taken for sure he was off the way off the board i would take flyers on both the dolphins rookies ahead of him too yeah yeah all right wait a minute when you oh yeah both the dolphins you're talking about you're talking about bench players and i because i don't think vele has any real upside but i think he could be you know 10 ish points per game in ppr right like get you four catches a game or something like that but i feel like we can why are you drafting those players right i'm sorry i didn't draft them i don't know but that profile like why would you draft that profile right you may not have a choice i'm saying he could how many what round are we in if you don't have that choice adam around 18 13 14 no you can find better than that half the people listening don't even know who chris bell is chris bell is a rookie wide receiver on the dolphins who had just got taken off of the the nfi list he's coming back from an acl he's ramping up i would much rather take the chance on him or his rookie teammate jamie just talked about these guys caleb douglas in miami they're going to get fast tracked into the starting lineup you draft players that have upside that might be able to hit within the first three weeks of the season yes i don't think vele has that i don't think i do not think chris bell is going to hit within the first three weeks of the season i might not wait but vele was solid last year i mean i don't think chris bell is going to hit within the as i recall tell me what solid is okay let's look he scored 6.7 23.3 7 and 11.9 fantasy points in his last four games before so one game great one game i would say as solid as the 11 point game and then two games where he did not help you whatsoever he had he had seven eight five and six targets in those four games you think chris bell is going to average six or more targets per game not at the no chance but but so i i think the you're both coming at it from the right perspective but just different approaches so i think adam is trying to get somebody that if you're stuck early in the season you can get some production from yes but there's very limited upside i think what dave's talking about is which is where i would side is that i would rather put players on my bench that hopefully by the middle to the end of the season are going to be in that starting because they're good i completely agree we don't have to get into this more i completely agree with you there might be a scenario where you're in a league that you can start four receivers and oh two of your guys are hurt or something like that and you're desperate devon vele might get off to a better start than those high upside guys it's all i wanted to say it's that's fair a very specific waiver wire very specific scenario all right um let's give me a real quick we'll take another break in a second here but give me a quick preview of your do not draft list and give me one on cbs sports network today dave richard breeze hall gonna stay on this hill i'll die on it if i have to very worried about how effective the jets will be worried about how frank reich will utilize him and not maximize it don't like the fact that he had a groin injury in training camp hopefully he'll start practicing a week or two week before the season starts and that'll be out of our heads i know he's a good running back i know he's talented and i know he had a lot of work last year still averaged 13 ppr points per game i don't think he's a third rounder do you think he's a fourth rounder i think he's a fourth rounder and a late fourth rounder jamie do not draft list we talked about a lot of them already so i i mean i'm gonna bring up more arguments against genti and love and mcafree i don't think we need to talk devon hn again about why i would not be drafting him uh the other guy on the list is really more of an adp thing and that's josh allen so um 19th overall when every other quarterback basically is around four or later i just don't understand he's not going to be able to do that he's going to be able to do that much better than the field so do not take josh allen around too i haven't drafted any josh allen and uh i haven't drafted any travion henderson either that was the guy i gave last week uh on on cbs sports hq uh just curious to see today let's see just over the last two days an nfc now that travion henderson is hurt where is he going he's going 67th overall that's already basically tied with remandre stevenson i don't get it i don't get it i wonder if we're going to be a minute you should get it people love upside they want to draft a player that's got crazy good upside he has as much upside as as anybody i think as it's true but a previous episode adam like rank the or somebody asked us the question like rank the backup running backs it's hard not to put him first but it just is not what's reality right now and the fact that you just gave a date range that factors in his injuries or injury um yeah which we don't think is a big deal right no but as now it's it's usually something that moves the needle and he's still 66th on our site as well and remandre 79th like that's not i don't understand that yeah me neither and also again if you want to if you want a player who has big upside if the starter gets hurt why take travion henderson in round six when you could take blake quorum kyle menongai two or three rounds later we know like even tige spears probably has no decent not travion henderson upside but he's gonna be worth using i think if pollard's out and he goes super late no okay fine fine no all right hashtag titans well then don't draft tony pollard i'm trying not to all right i've drafted a decent amount it's only pollard but i'm sorry yeah it might not be great um all right we're gonna take a break and we'll come back with your news and notes on omarian hampton ken walker luther burden and more and we will finish with some offensive line talk and maybe see if we have time for your emails on fantasy football today we'll be right back i will send ice cream to the office for either one of you if you can name without looking the four games that are on tonight oh i don't know no clue oh wait preseason games yeah yeah i literally looked this morning and now i can't i looked five minutes ago and i forgot uh it's been it's been honestly the worst preseason ever why they're all bad no this has been awful like nobody plays i feel like uh yeah i feel like the first week we got a good amount of people playing me and it was a little scary jeremiah love injury yeah right i think that spooked a lot of people well also last third like i just assumed last week there weren't going to be a lot of starters playing because all these teams had joint practices and then last thursday a lot of the starters played i was like this is weird but then friday and saturday they did not at all but basically which was honestly great because i don't want to overreact from like one series um all right tonight's pittsburgh buffalo sam fran las vegas new england at cleveland and the rams are at the chargers but now let's get into the news and notes brought to you by stitch fix and if you're like me and clothes shopping isn't really your thing stitch fix has you covered get 20 off your first order at stitch fix.com football stitch fix.com football omari and hampton uh dave i thought you said something maybe said something last i don't know if it was you about hampton and just a glowing report about him and yes then we saw mcdaniel say something glowing about him what's the deal here lots of glowing stuff about him daniel popper from the athletic who is around the chargers quite a bit says don't overthink it it's a no-brainer omar and hampton is the lead back here and then mike mcdaniel took to the press and compared omar and hampton to terrell davis yeah that's lofty stuff that's uh that might be a little much for omar and hampton that's a coach maybe given a little too much lip service but it certainly he wouldn't say these things if he didn't believe in omar and hampton to be a capable lead running back for his team chargers offensive line is mostly healthy losing beatish stinks but they've got their tackles they'll be able to solve the problem on the interior of their offensive line and i think hampton is now set up for a much much better year than he had last year and last year was pretty good nine games 15.1 ppr points per game i have him as a top 15 running back over top yeah i'm sorry top 15 overall of course it's a top 15 running back goodness gracious so you could take both but if you had a late first round pick would you take hampton cd lamb or justin jefferson lamb lamb would be the pick jamie uh lamb jefferson hampton but they're all very close kenneth walker had some swelling in his foot it was caused by his shoe i don't think this is a big deal it's been there man yeah have we no i'm joking luther burden participated in practice he's trending toward a week one return same with miami wide receiver chris bell and he could play week one dave was just talking about him alec pierce is off the pup list jayden daniels has had a great off season according to the athletic but we're going to talk about their offensive line very soon tyler warren may not practice this week as the colts are playing it safe trying to get warren ready for week one jacksonville used chris rodriguez over basil tootin in the two-minute drill in yesterday's practice with lequinn allen still out dave right and allen would normally have that role so this shouldn't be something that makes you nervous about tootin nor excited about chris rodriguez unless the allen injury does bleed into the regular season but who do you think is going to be the goal line back there rodriguez i'm afraid it's going to be rodriguez and that's unfortunate however tootin did well and he's going to be the goal line back there at the goal line last year and he had a better rate inside the five than rodriguez did in washington in 2025 it honestly wouldn't surprise me if rodriguez began the year in that role and if he can't connect on a couple the jaguars go right back to tootin i mean if you don't think he's we know he's not gonna be the third down back that's gonna be either of these guys are gonna be the third yeah and he and if we don't think he's gonna be the goal line back then why is basil tootin not one of the worst picks in fantasy late round five well there's uncertainty with what's going to happen i mean you know we we could say this he could be that guy or he cannot be that guy i mean it's not like chris rodriguez's resume is that fantastic the fact that he has a history with liam cohen is something that i think may have got a little overblown or is being overreacted to um he's already been banged up in in camp so we'll see if he can hold up and you know share the role i think if you listen to liam cohen and everything that's kind of happened this offseason like they want to be their guy to what extent and to what roles he'll play if we'll play all the role is what we just don't know until we see it unfold so i think when you get into that range of running backs you know again to go back to the the players that we we discussed what we were talking about bucky irving so irving judkins scadaboo montgomery then there's two guys and you have one uh on the on the list here to discuss engineering price like price and tootin there's a lot of questions about them there's a lot of upsides for both of them you know price could be awesome if zach charbonnet is out for two months to start the season price could be a disaster if charbonnet comes back by october and we don't know how that will all unfold you know will price still be featured will charbonnet be healthy enough to do more than than is expected and for tootin it's all the things we just discussed so those two are very risky but there's so much reward if they hit all right so let's talk about jadarian price then just a few other quick news items here james connor questionable for week one with an ankle injury he could still factor in for arizona mckay lemon's been used a lot in motion and a lot on short area throws for philadelphia it's mckay lemon uh rashad bateman's been very good with zay flowers out i wonder if he's going to be enough of a factor fingers crossed here to uh hurt jay flowers this season but then yeah pete priscoe very high on jadarian price and um he likes him better than love wow that is bonkers to me uh like as a player or just this year i think as a player i don't want to speak for him but i i know he was very high on price coming out of the draft going into draft excuse me all right so i want you to talk about price and i want you to talk about cam scataboo and john harbaugh saying that there's been an ongoing pecking order at running back um i'll be back in about 30 seconds so you know don't don't talk about me while i'm gone wow you know adam's brother was really and i'll talk about him either all right fine so i the thing that you worry about with scataboo is that he shares too much and that the naji harris signing is is a legit threat to that workload that we're hoping for from scataboo do i think he's the best option at the goal line for the giants jamie yes i think he is and i think the giants will use him there but i'm a little bit worried about just how many touches and catches he'll get game to game and i don't think it's going to look like last year unless it's game the giants are just winning big there could be they they could legitimately have four running backs that they rotate into some degree every single game and scataboo will be at the top of that list but i worry about him being this amazing workload monster like we saw for six games last year and in the case of price i think again it comes down to when charbonnet will be healthy because the longer he's out the better price can be assuming he's able to handle being a featured type of player so this is a different offense coordinator so we'll see if the kubiak rotation holds under is it a kubiak rotation or a shanahan rotation i mean it's if it's a shanahan rotation then you got to feel good about price because shanahan didn't really rotate his running backs he did when he didn't have the guy it took him until he had a guy to not rotate the run well i mean you know you say that but most dirt was a featured guy for him mason was a featured guy for him until he got hurt like when he when he has somebody that he trusts he typically has leaned on that guy i mean they had a different leading rusher for five years in a row mostly because of injuries not necessarily because they were sharing right before they got to mccaffrey i i think the case jadarian price is really how much you buy into charbonnet and his return so if you're looking for a great start and you're comparing you know tootin and figuring out that mess or scataboo figuring out that mess or montgomery now with some offensive line concerns and you just want to say okay i'm going to take the seattle running back because that's probably just a good bet you take price yeah yeah one of the most run heavy teams in the nfl last year but if jadarian price faces new england in week one which could be tough they have a great run defense when they're healthy then arizona and washington i know washington tried to beef up on the interior whatever but those two teams are horrible against running backs i won't go through the whole schedule there's some good matchups some good bad match batch some bad ones but if jadrian price gets off to a good start like i could see zach charbonnet coming back and being the goal line back but zach charbonnet is he's not a great rusher and he's coming off a torn acl that he suffered in january so i feel like i've been that maybe just not open-minded enough to do that so i'm going to take the seattle running back about price just just like being a steal when do you want to take him yeah like round six but i i just i can't sit here and say that i should take basil tootin over him except for whatever reason i'm more excited about tootin's potential because he's so fast like i don't know how good price is i think he i think he may have been overdrafted in the nfl draft um but but tootin was a fourth round pick like what am i doing here yeah i agree sense it doesn't make sense i still take tootin over price but it doesn't make any you know what forget it i think i'm just gonna start taking price over tootin there you go and that's what you should be doing i just not that excited about price but i but he's got fewer obstacles in my opinion than basil tootin right like this we're talking this out it makes more sense to take price over tootin doesn't it i i think you just have to put in your mind when you're looking at those two guys is when do i anticipate because we don't know zach charbonnet returning and then when charbonnet does return you you said this when you were talking about stashing him in an ir spot like if he just comes back and is the goal line guy that's a pretty prominent role for this team because it's not like they throw lots they're running backs they're enough but it's not like the receiving totals are going to save price no so is if he loses 50 of his touchdowns 60 of his touchdowns like that could be a huge problem whereas tootin so who would you who would you rather have just based on what they accomplished last year travis achan or ken walker from last year right now achan for sure and so that's liam cohen's running back versus mike mcdonald's running back or jackson's running back versus seattle's running back like which of the the two scenarios are better and pros and cons are both i mean easily you can make the case like there's 400 vacated touches in the seattle backfield with sharpening out like that's huge for jadarian price who was a first round pick now we've talked a lot about late first round pick running backs and how bad they've been and the history is not great for those guys but also if you look at when seattle takes a skill player in the first round john schneider's had a pretty good track record with that so i think there's there's potential here for price to be very good you want to take him over to and that's fine you want to take to and over him like i have a question for you who do you think which team do you think averaged more running back fantasy points per game in ppr last year seattle or jacksonville seattle seattle seattle they were 11th jacksonville was 16th they've averaged about a one one and a half more fantasy point one point four and a half more fantasy points per game in ppr last year seattle they were 11th jacksonville was 16th they've averaged about a one one and a half more fantasy points per game in ppr last year seattle six more ppr fantasy points per game so that might be a better way to look at it i mean obviously it doesn't mean it's going to repeat this year but um that might that's another way to look at it it's another way to look at it there's more roadblocks for tootin than there are for price i mean we can worry we can worry about charbonnet being a factor in handling his role like he had last year and i think the coaches would love to give it to him but there's also the potential that charbonnet doesn't heal so soon from all right he still suffered in january i gotta run after this but let's just put it simply like this charbonnet is back october 1st when you're taking to tootin versus price you know right now he's coming back october 1st that's still price over tootin they're both late round five for me i guess price yeah if it's october 1st i'm taking tootin okay all right any other news here let's see tucker craft participated in yesterday's joint practice against the cardinals later jamie to a tongue of ilo is going to start tomorrow at the dolphins michael pennix jr will not play we've been saying the reports are that you know it's basically pennix's opportunity to steal that job from tua he's been so bad uh ruben bain first round pick for the bucks having a pretty good preseason and good camp but he hurt his shoulder should be ready for week one defensive he seemed fine after practice on tuesday i talked to him for a minute and he seemed a-okay remember shortest arms of like you could you couldn't even really tell when you when you look at him up close it's he didn't look like a you know a t-rex or whatever there's basically been no great defensive ends with arms shorter than ruben well there's about to be yeah as long as the shoulder's okay it looks like he might have been a steal um and the pro bowl oh it's the cedric tillman was released by the browns and the pro bowl was released by the nfl the pro bowl has been eliminated thank you very much to stitch fix for sponsoring today's news and notes stitch fix takes the hassle out of clothes shopping just take a quick style quiz share your size share your vibe and your budget and you'll be matched with a real human a real human stylist who will be your best friend for the rest of your life we'll send you a first fix with clothes that fit and make sense for your life stop shopping and get styled today at stiff stitch fix dot com slash football to get twenty dollars off your first order that is stitch fix dot com slash football all right dave let's talk about these offensive lines that are worrying us what did you make of the comment from uh nikki javala who covers the commander's offense in years inoperable offensive line yeah not good and it's especially problematic when you think about what could happen if there's just a ton of pressure on jayden daniels from game to game and whether or not he can survive the whole season we've already seen him beat up and miss time and this is an offensive line they lost their best tackle laramie tonsil their best offensive lineman and now center nick allegretti's on the shelf so that's two-fifths of the starting offensive line the other three players on the line are okay and they're not going to be able to pay uh yet you've got to be you've got to be concerned about what this line will look like and what it means and what adjustments the offense will have does this takes away time for jayden daniels to throw 10 15 20 yards downfield who would he be throwing to that's going to be tara mclaurin it means he's going to have to speed up his throws short throws who does that benefit it can benefit the running backs it can benefit the tight end but it really could benefit stefan diggs if they lower his route depth and obviously if if he's pressured and he's feeling panicked daniels will run and that's a double-edged sword for fantasy on the plus side he'll get a bunch of fantasy points running the ball on the downside if he gets hit could be curtains and and it's risk i haven't moved him down in my rankings much i doubt i'm going to move him past any other quarterbacks he's been qb6 for me all along but it it i think it does hurt the upside of all these players if the commanders can't fix it now i'll add this there's still two weeks before the season starts this was an eye-opening experience for the commanders i'm sure the commander's coaching staff saw what nicky saw and therefore we'll try and do everything they can to help salvage the offensive line and make it better signing dj humphries i don't know if that's really anything that's going to make me feel better about where their offensive line is they uh they're probably going to be in the neighborhood you see it here on the football insights consensus rankings for offensive line they're bottom six or seven they're now going to be bottom four i bet if we we much lower than they are here don't washington here you're saying that's washington yeah and that's right this is washington ranked i believe with tonsil yeah so imagine how bad they're going to be without tonsil that's that's a bottom five bottom three type of offensive line now 2024 jane daniels rookie season he was so good espn uh when you know uh run block pass block win rate had washington as one of the best offensive lines in the nfl but pro football focus yeah pff they had them as one of the worst so offensive line ratings are so subjective and difficult i think and what you're looking at here is a kind of a compilation of industry rankings of offensive lines and which teams are the best and which teams are the worst with the browns and the titans and the texans and the packers and dolphins which is we thought the dolphins had a good yeah i disagree with this dolphins ranking but the browns and the titans i don't know that we really and the texans i mean those are worrisome but you know keep in mind like last year looking at espn's pass block win rate some of the worst teams were detroit detroit was 31st the chargers were 32nd which makes sense um the colts were 27th let's see the bangles were 28th it's possible to have a bad line and still produce but it's but it's not great the saints were 29th and this is past you just named three you just named four offensive lines that are top 12 in the consensus rankings saints lions chargers colts right um you never know who's going to get injured i see that the broncos up at the top that's no surprise i think they can be better than they were last year and the eagles that's a big one for me it's like the eagles were so beat up last year lane johnson missed time uh i forget one of their oh dickerson dickerson or dickerson was um playing hurt all year or most of the year they're gonna bounce back i think from an offensive standpoint and have one of the best in football again which is why i'm pretty excited about barkley and and davante smith um but yeah i mean the the browns like the thing with judkins dude is like judkins is a great running back i think but one he's coming off this major injury and two he just like genti last year he was a victim of terrible offensive line play what's gonna change this year dave i'm hoping that the offensive line is better than this ranking and you have to give it to cleveland for overhauling the entire offensive line rookie left tackle first round pick spencer fano zion johnson elton jenkins tevin jenkins is just okay at guard and then titus howard came over from houston to play right tackle it ain't great but at least it's a step in the right direction for no especially as a step in the right direction i don't think they're going to be middle of the pack but they should still be that may be more closer to like bottom eight than bottom three okay and i feel the same i feel i feel a lot better about the dolphins offensive line they should be middle of the pack anything else any other teams you want to talk about that could be impacted heavily by their line i i think jacksonville's offensive line is a little underrated after what i saw they drafted a rookie named pregnant who uh i think it might be a little raw but they're gonna roll with him anyway at guard and i think he can be good uh you see the in the bottom half i think they're better than that one of the most insane ones on this consensus rank is carolina uh four for four has him third has the panthers third best roto i don't know if that's roto world or roto wire has them 29th best so they are all over the map on the panthers it might come down to when the ranking was made for them because when they're when they're healthy and their tackles are healthy you can make the case for carolina to be a top 10 offensive line but with their tackles their top two tackles out and their guards were missing for a chunk of the training camp they're back now you could have made the case that they were one of the worst offensive lines so putting them in the middle is probably the right thing to do because we don't know when their tackles are going to be healthy whether or not their backup tackles will play better whether the guards can stay healthy a lot of questions up in the air i would err on the side of caution with the panthers offensive line and say that they're not going to be one of the top units in the league and that's bad news for everybody there in carolina because bryce young depression not great jonathan brooks probably needs a little help from the offensive line in order to hit his potential it's definitely a concern in carolina a couple of other ones at hand out. I think Dallas' offensive line is a little underrated. I think Minnesota's offensive line, they're already top 12 on this list. I think Minnesota's offensive line is a little underrated as well. That could be a top 10 offensive line. I hope the 49ers are really ninth best. That's where they are, consensus. I don't know that it really played out that way. No, it did not. It's surprising. It's a lot of faith being put onto Trent Williams. Did you hear that thunder? No. I'm probably going to lose power soon. Do you want to wrap it up? Let's get out of here. It's fine if you have anything else that you wanted to talk about. I'm good. We hit on a lot of touch points today. We're going to do a mock draft tomorrow? Yes, I think that's what we're going to end up doing. We'll have everybody ready for drafts this weekend. Chargers O-line is screwed. I don't agree. They lost their center, Tyler Biotis. That's a guy who the commanders released with a year left on his contract, so it's not like they lost an all-pro center. Mm-hmm. They've got Jake Slaughter. It was the second-round pick. He was my favorite center in the draft. I think he's NFL-ready. He'll be good to go. Cole Strange is a little bit of a risky guard pick, along with Wosika at guard. I think I'm pronouncing that right. He played with Detroit last year. Yeah, those guard spots are a little spotty, but the tackles are going to be what I think carries the offensive line more than anything. All right. We're going to talk to you tomorrow and at noon Eastern today with CBS Sports Network. Thanks to Dave and Jamie. Good show today, and we'll do a mock draft tomorrow to get you ready for a big weekend. Thanks a lot. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.