The hosts of the Ring of Fantasy football show, Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck, kick off the 2026 season by identifying their favorite fantasy targets and sleepers. They introduce a "turning the key" segment where all three must unanimously agree on a player they consider a potential season-defining pick, ranging from early-round stars to late-round fliers. For running backs, they endorse Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, and Derrick Henry as solid second-round values, praising their workloads and offensive situations. DeAndre Swift is highlighted as a mid-round steal due to Ben Johnson’s run-heavy scheme, while Jonathan Brooks is a platform-dependent sleeper with high upside. Late-round picks like Jonah Coleman and Chris Rodriguez are recommended as cheap starters with breakout potential. At wide receiver, they back Amecca Buka and Mike Evans despite injury concerns, and Luther Burden as a breakout candidate in Chicago. Quentin Johnson is a favorite due to his role in the Chargers’ offense, while they pass on AJ Brown and Devontis Smith due to quarterback and team uncertainty. The hosts emphasize value relative to draft position, often preferring proven players over hyped rookies. They conclude with speculative adds like Cyrus Allen for very late picks, stressing that cost and league context matter. Overall, the episode provides a comprehensive draft strategy, balancing high-floor targets with high-ceiling sleepers to maximize fantasy success.
Welcome to the Ring of Fantasy football show. My name is Danny Heifax and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Chris Rolbeck and today we are turning our keys on the top targets and sleepers for 2026. Our favorite players yeah, we're yeah, yeah, favorite players, yeah, yeah, a couple things before that. First of all, Netflix, we're doing the Ring of Fantasy football show, sorry, Ring of Fantasy football league is back. So we're going to have Bill Simmons, cousin Sal Van Liefen, Sean Fennesy, Chris Ryan, Mallory Ruben, Dave Chang is in the league this year. Oh, yeah. Tate Frazier, I'm forgetting someone that I forgot to say Joe House is in the league. We have everyone from the ringer and we're going to be live drafting the ringer league at 11 Am Pacific or as they call it, these coast two PM or 1 PM Central on Friday, August 28th live on Netflix. So check that out on Sunday, August 28th live, baby. And the day before that, August 27th, the three of us will be doing a live show in Los Angeles, Thursday, the 27th at the fond of theater in Hollywood, famous theater that has seen acts like the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, and also is the opening for fucking jaws. And it jaws premiered at this theater and that's where we're for some reason, the three of us get to do a show. So we'll be there. So come join us. There are some tickets still available. You can go to the link in the description of this episode by tickets. Come see us. Say hi. It'll be a good time in Hollywood. Craig, we're going to need a bigger boat. There you go. You've seen it. Oh. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. No. Thanks. Jaws dies. Spoiler. I mean, now get them. They get them. They get them. Not before he takes some of some people out though, Craig. True. Yeah. He got his licks in. Chomps him. All right. We're going to get to our favorite players. But first, we're going to take a quick break. This episode is presented by Verizon. Let me tell you all about Verizon's new simplicity plan. You get one plan, one price, just $30 a line per month, even for a single line. So while everyone is running for trade analyzers before offering a backup tight end, Verizon said one plan, one price. Sometimes the simplest move is the best one, like the simplicity plan. Head to Verizon.com today. For new customers, $30 per line includes auto pay and switch discount. No taxes, fees, and terms apply. Unlimited data is restricted to on device smartphone usage, domestic data roaming at 2G. Okay. We're going to go over our top targets and sleepers for 2026. And we say top targets and sleepers because these are our favorite players based on everywhere. So it could be a first rounder. It could be a 14th rounder. The point is, in every given season, there's like somewhere between 20, 25 players that are true difference makers in drafts, like over the course. Maybe less. It's honestly, it's maybe even closer to like 10 to 15 that are true, kind of like the storyline of the fantasy season. These guys changed my entire year and brought me to the playoffs. And what it really comes down to is guys that get just having them on your team looking at Yahoo's data or ESPN data or whatever platform you're on, certain players can double or triple your odds of making the playoffs or winning your championship just by having them. So with that person, we're twice as likely to make the playoffs. And so what this is going to be is we're going to try to identify those huge swing home run players based on where they're going. So obviously a 14th rounder is different than a second rounder. With that said, we're going to do it like Seinfeld style, which is the George Costanza trying to break up with his girlfriend in Seinfeld. And it's like nuclear submarine and she's like, we both have to turn our key to break up. And he's like, turn your key, Moira. Turn your key. No matter what, right from from breaking bad. It is an a gun from breaking bad and Brian Princeton is also a break. Oh, yeah. He did that. He's a dentist, right? Oh, he's the best. Is he the end? Who's the anti-dentite? Brian, would Jerry's the anti-dentite? Allegiant, right? I got to tell you guys a story about that one day. We'll save that for one day. I'll tell you a story. Well, yeah. So so these players will range from like the reason it's top targets and sleepers is because we're going to name guys who are going to go in the third round. Not a sleeper. We're also going to name guys who go 140th overall. Or a sleeper. But it's more of like Jackson Smith and Jigba was a guy that last year you would say completely change your fantasy season. But he was going in like the third or fourth round and then there are other guys who came out of nowhere last year taking outside the top 150 that also changed your season. So we're trying to basically put all of those possibilities under one umbrella in one episode. Something we're going to try to get through a lot of players here. So what we're going to do is we're all we're going to ask each other whether we're turning our key. And if we're all three of us turn our key in a player, they're officially like a top target of the overall show. And it's not going to be like, I'm like, come on, DK, turn your key for this guy. You don't like it. And you're like, all right. No, we are all going to do it. We can try to convince each other. But unless we believe with the conviction, we're not turning our keys. Willie Nilly here. No pressure. If all three of us immediately agree to turn the key, we're not going to talk or harp on the player. Like if all three of us are just like, yeah, we're turning our key on Dijon Stripling. The work he received for the 49ers. That's it. We're like, all right. You should go get him and we'll move on. So. Yeah, we're going to get through a ton of guys. You all like him, write it down and we're going to move on. So with that said, we're going to go through and I want to start DK. We're going to start. We're going to go by position. So running back DK, start us off. Give us a running back that you want to turn your key on as one of our top targets for the show for this year. I'm going to go with running back Chase Brown from the Bangles, who I think, and I understand why he's maybe priced where he is. He's just not as famous, not as sexy as some of the other guys just right now. Oh, you think he's priced low? I think he's priced too. Do you want to say what that price is for theoretically? No, no. I'll say this. I think he's one of my favorite mid to late second round picks. So if you are in a draft and you've got one of the top three or four picks in your draft, that means you're going to come back in and around in the second, the late part of the second round. I think he's a great late second round pick. And maybe the best second round pick you can make just based on some of the other guys that we have here with more question marks like Justin Jefferson. What's he going to be in that offense? What's the offense going to be? What's going to look like? With Walker, who I do like, but I think Brown has a little higher floor. We got Drake London. God knows what's happening with that quarterback, Tremac Bride, who I think is great, but he's going to regress off of what he did last year, Karen Williams. There's a little bit of a competition there with Corum, Jeremiah Love, Hurt. So there's some other guys around him, Josh Jacobs, who has potential to maybe be, he's Hurt. And I think he has potential to be suspended. So to me, Chase Brown has a great combination. He's tough reliable and he has basically no competition for what his job is. I think he has potential to score a ton of points. Ton of touchdowns is very highly used in the passing game. He's in a good offense and the Bengals have a light schedule this year. So if you want to bet on the Bengals offense, Chase Brown is going to be a massive part of it. He's just not famous. He doesn't have like a sexy name that gets people going. So I think that's why he's falling a little bit further than he should. I think that's right. To piggyback off of that a little bit, he closed 2025 with eight straight games with Joe Burrow. Over that stretch, he was the number two running back in fantasy. So when he plays with Burrow, he is that good. He's just not famous and he doesn't have a cool name. He's probably the first guy that you will draft. That isn't famous. Like the 15, 16 guys ahead of him are all super hyped, cool, sexy, high college prospects. Already been famous in the NFL. He's kind of the first one where it's like, oh, I don't really have a thought on Chase Brown. And he's not a household name. Chase Brown was named. I'm just making this up. But like, Ashton, Hampton or O'Marian, Gen T, like I bet they can actually be, you know, pretty high. I'm turning my key in Chase Brown. I think this is a no brainer. I agree. DK. All right. Craig. I agree as well. I don't think he's like a screaming value, I guess I would say, but however, because he's going like mid-second round. But I do think it's possible that he finishes. That's like a top five running back. And I do think that would be a narrative kind of game changer to your season if you had him. You took him in like the mid-late second round. He just, he just feels like a guy who's going to print money this year for you, just based on offense that he's in, lack of competition, schedule. I think overall skillset. I mean, he's good in the run game. He's good on, in the passing game as well. What are you saying? Of all the stupid phrases in fantasy football, the one that I find hardest to argue with is he's going to print money for you. He's going to come up with a way. That sounds great. I love global inflation. Yeah. I actually really like fishing with money. Yeah. Sprit. Yeah. Chase Brown. Fishing a barrel. There we go. Yeah. I think Chase turning key. So Craig, you said turn key, but you had did it on like a downtown turn key. Okay. Turn key. Turn the key. All right. Craig, we'll give us someone you want to turn to Keon. Right. So I want to know. This is a guy we've not talked about at all. This is probably one of the more fake. This is the Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker who's now on the chiefs who I feel like we've barely discussed this year. He's going in the first two rounds of drafts. If you don't think about it that much, I like it and then if I think about it a lot, I still like it. And so I'm kind of like, I don't know why we haven't talked about that. I didn't know where you're going. Kenneth Walker. Well, like, I think on the surface, you can just go like, wow, the chief signed a star running back. The chiefs never have a star running back. The chiefs gave a bunch of money to a running back. This is what we've been talking. We're like, who can we put on the chiefs that would be cool? Well, it happened. It's Kenneth Walker. And then you kind of dig in a little bit. You look at last year, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you like three or four stats that sound slightly redundant, but I really want to hammer home.
what Kenneth Walker did last year in the playoffs. We all remember it. He had 417 yards and four touchdowns and three games. He was a Super Bowl MVP. When he plays a certain amount of snaps, he produces in the playoffs. He was only playing 65% of the snaps. When he plays over 60% of snaps in games, he's done that 26 times. He averages 17 1/2 fantasy points a game. Last year, he only had 20 touches in a game five times, including the playoffs. Week four, week 17, and a three playoff games. He had more than 20 touches. In those games, he averaged 132 yards from Scrimmage. And so I look now at his situation in Seattle versus now his situation in KC. And I'm like, Kenneth Walker faced one of the higher rates of heavy boxes at the running back position in the league. Very little light box is coming out of the Seattle situation. Now he goes to Kansas City, where he's not splitting time with a guy like Zach Sharp. But he is the lead guy. In the Patrick Mahomes era, Kansas City running backs have the league's best light box rate in the lowest heavy box rate in the league. So you can factor in the explosive play rate, which the chiefs have never had at the running back position. Kenneth Walker had the third most missed tackles last year. And the chiefs had the least missed tackles coming from the running back position. I'm kind of just like, I don't know, you may not be that into the chiefs. You may think they're going to be mediocre. Mahomes is coming back from the ACL. Do they have any good receivers? But I'm kind of just like, should we not overthink it and the chiefs now have a really awesome running back. And this is still the chiefs with Mahomes and Andy Reed. I love this. I almost put him as one of my guys too, just, but I kind of wanted to veer away from it since I'm such a Kenneth Walker sort of just like Homer or whatever. But I love Kenneth Walker. I think he's an awesome running back. I also think he's going to get used in the passing game way more than people think in the Andy Reed screen game. I think he's going to be amazing. He's really good in the open field. He creates explosive plays. He's much more competent in the passing game, and I mean competent as like a high compliment. Then I think people think just because he's sort of has this reputation as being an early down guy only and all that. But I think he has a chance to be like Kreme Hunt from a couple of years ago where he's just like one of the highest scoring running backs in the league. He just needs to play more. And that's, I think what he has a chance to do here. I mean, the main guy he's competing with for snaps, a Murray D Mercado, Rashard Smith, Emmett Johnson, who's a rookie fifth rounder. I think he's going to get the lion's share that the carries. Obviously, no one gets like a ton of ton of carries anymore, hardly. But I think he's going to get a ton of work in this offense. And yeah, I really, really like this. I'm an auto turn key on on Ken Walker here. I agree with everything I said. I have Ken Walker ranked higher than you guys. We have him 17th overall. I have Ken Walker 14. I think you could take Ken Walker as high as 11. And I have no problem with this. A turn my key in Ken Walker. This is great because like the two guys I'm like looking for in drafts when I want to, if you can't get Bijon and Gibbs, these are the two guys. Chase Brown and Ken Walker. I really want to get the chiefs were pumping out. Isaiah Pacheco was the RB 15 in 2023. You know what I mean? Now they have Ken Walker. I get it. The team's a little different now, but like still lasted explosive runs for chiefs the last two years and get dead last and just like touchdowns from outside the red zone by running back. So again, third guy in the second round running back, which I think it's important to start here. Sarah Kenry. And I just think it's Aegean. Aegean was real. It exists. Yeah. Sarah Kenry. I, again, he had 1600 yards last year and people have him behind him. I'm hearing Hampton and Genty. I know he doesn't catch passes and, you know, Ash and Genty is a good receiver. But like the Ravens are, I think the Ravens might start nine in one. The Ravens might win their first 10 games because they're going to be favorite probably because they don't play a team that made the playoffs for the first two months. And then Sarah Kenry gets better as the season goes on. So I think it's extra important that the Ravens are winning because Sarah Kenry is basically twice as good when the Ravens win game. Games compared to when they lose. Exactly. And that's why I like Derek Kenry. You could convince me Derek Kenry should go over Jonathan Taylor this year for that reason that if the Colts win six games, the Jonathan Taylor is going to six good game scripts. The Ravens have a shot at having 14 good game scripts. And, you know, people make fun of them for blowing leads. But they have the lead a lot. Derek Kenry gets the ball. So it turned key for me. I know I've been talking about him all year, but he hasn't lost a step. And people are overriding and being 30, 31 ages different in sports now. He hasn't lost it. That's all that matters. Hi Fitz. I just put Derek last night. Derek Kenry above Jonathan Taylor in my rankings for the reasons. Okay. Jonathan, or Derek Kenry last year, like 1700 total yards and 16 touchdowns. If Ashden Jendi did that, that's like the best possible scenario for Ashden Jendi this year. And Derek Kenry just does that every year. He's just like eight years older and that kind of sucks. I'm turning my key. And I think depending on your platform, you might be able to get Derek Kenry in the end of the second round. So I've been anyway. Are you turning your key, Craig? Is that a formal? Absolutely. A formal key turn from Craig, DK? I think the only thing I'm worried about is the center position for the Ravens. I think Lamar is going to have a big bounce back. I think this offense is going to be good. But you know, in the run game, obviously, center is important. And it just feels like that's a huge issue for them. That being said, love the addition of Vega, you want to the guard out of Penn State in the draft. And I just think Lamar being healthy, Lamar being able to like contribute in the run game a little bit more and hold that defensive end because he, I'm like, read option type stuff and just being able to kind of freeze guys. I think it's huge for Derek Kenry. So I'm going to turn the key on this. We're three for three guys. Well, and now we're moving out of, so I think one mini trend that I've noticed just going through this exercise is that we kind of like the second round at running back. And so go ahead. Well, I want to ask, do we want to stick in the second round of running back for a second? Yeah, sure. You have another one? I want to ask, you guys sent me your list and then we're doing it now, and I just looking, and none of us had Ash and Jenny or Mary and Hampton. And I feel like we have them in the second round along with Ken Walker, Chase Brown and Derek Kenry. But we're not actually like saying it with the top with our chests. Right. So is that for that? Well, I don't think so. I think we have them in the early second round, but I think ADP has, has Ash and Jenny 10th overall in the Mary and Hampton 12th. That's the only difference is those guys are going late in the first round. I still like them, but in terms of like becoming a narrative of your season, the guy who's drafted 10th, kind of needs to be incredible to be at like a narrative game changing. He kind of needs to be like the RB 1 or 2. Right. And so that's my question for you guys is, Ash and Jenny or Mary and Hampton, if you were going to turn your cam, one of them, which is it? Because I think for genty, better received, we're probably going to play more than Hampton. But not necessarily going to play as much as people want, but the Raiders are probably going to win if you were at games than the Chargers. And you generally want a running back to been a winning team generally. And then Hampton, it's like Mike McDaniel, Chargers, more talent on that offensive line, more injuries to the offensive line, picking a charger because they'll stay healthy as kind of stupid. Maybe a free man backfield. If you had to pick Hampton or genty as a key turn decay, which would it be? Hmm. Oh, man. I think my heart-- We're talking about accost, like, are they going at the same spot? You're talking about like, it's, you have the 12th pick in the draft and you can take one or the other? Yeah. I mean, genty. Yes. But I think at cost, I would take Hampton. I agree. But there is no at cost because there's no position where you're going to be able to, like, you're not going to be able to get both, you know what I mean? Unless you're picking both of them at the turn, you're picking one of them with like the 12th or 13th pick. I don't know. If you have the 10th pick in the draft, like, you're going to have picked 10 and 14 or something like that, like, you could absolutely get the two of them. Okay. I guess that's fair. I guess you would say get both. You could do a receiver and then come back around with Hampton or whatever in the second round. Yes. Would you rather have Justin Jefferson and O'Marion Hampton or Ashton Gentie and AJ Brown? Hmm. Yeah. Those are the questions you're going to have to answer. I just, my gut feeling and when you're asking me this question is I need to move Hampton up a little bit because I was looking at the stats. I think this was in Matthew Berry's column, the 100 facts column and it was basically when Joe Woll and Roshan Slater are playing Hampton's like yards before contact for Carrie is like way higher. I mean, this kind of obvious idea is like the offensive line is massive. I hate that stat though because all that is just from the, I'm almost positive. It's just the Giants Chargers game. You hate that because you're shiny in the league. I just think it's pretty obvious that having two good tackles, two top tier tackles is sure to be massively, massively important for Hampton. It could make a huge difference, especially for a guy like him who I do think needs a little bit of a runway to get going. He's kind of in that Derek Henry mold of running back where he's not super shifty in the short area, but if he gets a step or two, he's going downhill. I mean, there was a video this week of him running over a 49ers player at camp. It just gets me excited about what he could do with a couple of steps momentum. Yeah. I also think that Hampton has, would you guys say Hampton is better buzzed right now than Gen T? Yes, but I also think the charges lost Tyler Bayotish, the center, which is a huge issue for them. Also, we keep talking about Richon Slater and Joe, well, Richon Slater hasn't practiced in a week and a half. Like he's supposed to come back this weekend, but he is injured and like that, I don't know, that is one fear I have. And it is. And it is. Two chargers. Or two of your keys in them. I guess not. These two teams probably have the most significant play collar changes this season. I would say the Raiders and Chargers with Kubiac and McDaniel. I think Gen T is going to get the ball more and catch the ball more. I guess are my two things. But I don't disagree with you. If it's that the charge probably can just be better and the Raiders might not be that good. My fear is that we're afraid because we haven't seen it yet, but that if we're talking about who are the players that could like define the season and be like the most important picks, historically, these kind of second year high first round pick running backs in their second year with coaching changes are like the first guys you take. Or Ash and Gen T, you know, Mary and Hampton, which is why they're going really high in the draft. That's my only fear. But we're a little afraid because we haven't seen it. That's the truth. There's still really good picks. Like we're saying, we kind of like Walker or Chase Brown and even Derek Henry Moore because we've seen it. And you can probably get them a tick later. I think what this is.
is telling me is like, I kind of want to late pick this year. Like if I have picked 91011, the fact that I can get Derek Henry and Gentie, Derek Henry and Hampton, Chase Brown and Gentie is really nice way to begin your draft. If I can't get one of the first two picks that you're mere games in Beigeon Robinson, then yeah, I don't mind having a later pick in the first round again. I want two of the top 11 running backs, really. Yeah, with my Hampton. Yeah. My second running backs, Gentie, Hampton, Chase Brown. Ken Walker, I feel incredible. All right, let's move down the board a little bit at running back. I want to talk about Deandre Swift, who I liked even before Kyle Menungai got hurt. Menungai is like the other running back in his backfield. He's weak to weak with a knee-hyper extension, multi-week injury. So definitely significant, something to consider. But Deandre Swift's going in round six. He's like the RB25 coming off the board, which is pretty deep at the running back position. We have him a little bit higher than that. We have him as our 19th running back. If you look at last year, this is what I'm basically, I'm betting on Ben Johnson as like the next Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan. Like really as the next guy to challenge the two of them as one of the elite playcars in the NFL, specifically running the ball. Last year, the Bears, it was a rocky start. Ben Johnson has a complicated offense. It took a while to get going, even with the running game. Ben Johnson, you know, I feel like a lot of these gurus, you think about them as passing game coordinators. Ben Johnson is a guru running the damn football. When you look at what the Bears did in the second half of the season, and even they had such a good second half of the season running the ball, even their overall, like rushing stats look great. They were second in rushing success rate last year behind the Rams, the Bears. Their running backs were six than yards per rush and second in success rate. And Deandre Swift, from a talent perspective, might be closer to like middle of the pack. But dude, he had 1400 yards and 10 touchdowns last year very quietly. He was the RB16 and points per game, which was ahead of Genty and Kenneth Walker. And I'm basically just betting. Bears are going to be good again. Bears are probably going to be even better. This is year 200, Ben Johnson. They were Deandre Swift was first in EPA per run in 2025. He's 27 years old. Menunga I heard or not heard. I kind of just want to bet on the Bears running game with Ben Johnson. And Swift is good enough. I'll turn my key on that. If Jamir Gibbs is great goose, then Deandre Swift is like Vladimir vodka. But like I do like, I mean, just the Ben Johnson of it all. But I agree. I just the star. I think the Bears are going to have to score a ton of points. Deandre Swift is not a traditional runner, but I think this is a great one. I totally agree. Yeah. I think can we like to find what we're turning the key on because I feel good about Deandre Swift. I think he's a good value. But are am I turning the key that I think he's going to be one of the most important players in fantasy? I'm not. It's relative. There's doesn't every player we mention on this list. It doesn't mean they're going to finish just like a top 10. It's like, yeah, if he's being taken as the RB 25, could he finish this the RB nine and you can't be polite about it. I think I turn the key on on Swift. He was another guy thought about putting in here. So I don't want to get like to could you be five weeks into the season and you're like, Holy shit. Deandre Swift is is my favorite player on my team and is changing my season because of how good he's been. I can see it. If he catches more passes this year, which I think is in his bag, that's really where he could get unlocked and I don't think DK. I don't know if he really feels it. I think you know, I do talk to yourself into it. That's not I agree. I feel like talking to yourself. You guys, how about you let me make my own decisions, assholes. There's no peer pressure here. I'm I'm turning my key on him. I told you I almost put him down. I'm just curious. I wanted to just define what we're turning the key on. And I think he's going to be he's going to vastly outplay where he's going in particular. It's like when we do the the fantasy rewatchables in the awards at the end of the year, could he be one of the guys where we go, man, one of the biggest winners of the year, Deandre Swift. Yeah. I just want to be a part of Ben Johnson's offense, honestly. It was it was really remarkable what they did last year on the ground. Like when you look at some of the numbers, it's they're like top five in every category running the ball last year. DK, who's a running back that you want to turn your key on? So this isn't a deeper sleeper type player. Jonathan Brooks of the Panthers. And I think the the analysis here is pretty simple. He's like the latest starting running back you can get in fantasy drafts. Like he might not end up being he could end up being in a time share that could happen. Obviously, like that's why he's going so late. We don't have a long track record. In fact, he only has like nine carries in his career. But everything you're hearing out of hit Panthers camp is they he's looking great. They love him. Chuba Hubbard is weak to weak with a hammy, I believe. And that could really potentially impact longer term going into the season. Basically, this year's Rico Dattle is what I see Jonathan Brooks potential. I think the Panthers won around the ball. They want to be balanced. They want to really be a physical team. And I think that starts the run game. They're not going to lean on, you know, they're not going to try and ask their quarterback to throw the ball like 3040 times a game. So to me, it's just a matter of style and where you're getting him right now. He's the RB 40 124th overall. Every running back that he's going around right now is either a backup or a pure change of pace guy or a straight up handcuff like hope the guy in front of him gets hurt. Jonathan Brooks could be a starter this year. And he could just win that job and then hang on to it going forward. And curiosity, what list is that where he's 140 in ADP? Okay. I think he probably it's probably you enough to take him earlier than that. He's probably like I think he's a top 100 player anywhere. You're probably going to draft, right? Just depends on who's depends on how the little type of league I suppose is how sharp everyone is. But yeah, I think now, yes, I think I think Jonathan Brooks has now become one of the premier sleepers of the fantasy season. I do agree with you DK. Like I he is a guy that late in draft. You want to take a shot at, but I he's no secret anymore. I guess is my point. I think it's weird because at one hand the case makes total sense where he's an amazing prospect and the panthers have a sneaky big offensive line and that panthers going to run the ball. The question is just the nine carries in two years and again, just hasn't played that much football in the last five years. And if fantasy is about volume and how much they're touching the ball, are the panthers going to just give this guy 20 touches in a game where there's going to be some kind of snap count for him where him playing half the snaps would be like quite the achievement after barely playing. And the panthers can both love him and be obsessed with him, but also like cap his that's the thing I keep wondering about is the moment the season starts and we're going to be like, Oh, yeah, why do we expect it to play that much? But yeah, if he exploded, it'd be really cool. That's my fear. But I get it to your point, DK. If it's like the 10th rounds, you're like, there's no higher upside player. I get that. Yeah. Like best ball is going like in the 80s. You know, he's going like Tony Paul, around Tony Pollard, Jordan Mason, JK Dobbins, Jaylin Warren, Giderian Price. Out of those guys, I probably would take Jonathan Brooks. I mean, Greg Godaddle led the league in rushing for like a month last year and multiple 200 yard games. I do think the offense is capable of and and canalist is a guy who leans on a hot hand. Like he will give somebody 20 plus carries a game if they're playing well. It just it just starts to become about price. Like how high is he going to get? This is a platform thing. This is a good example. So if you're drafting on Yahoo, Jonathan Brooks is ranked 76th. But if you're drafting on sleeper, Jonathan Brooks is ranked 117th. Wow. So I think that that is the weird thing. It's like, I think on, if you're drafting on sleeper, and you get Jonathan Brooks in like round 10, I think he's absolutely a key turn. If it's like to your point, if it's Yahoo, and it's like you have to pick between Jonathan Brooks and, you know, some of these other guys. But even then, it's like him or Brian Thomas, like it's a high upside player. He's 20 months past ACL tear. It's not like he did a second one. Right. Same, same knee. Three times the charm. 20 months past it is. I'll turn my key. I know. I will too because I agree with this. But this is lame. We're all in agreement. All right. Fuck it. I won't turn my key. You're not going to do it. Just for content. What are you feeling? You should do it if you feel it. I think I know it's lame to talk about the platform thing. But I'm like, if you're in sleeper, he's a key turn. But if you're on like, he's 50. When you open your draft room, he's 50 spots lower on one platform the other. That's well in a tentingly that's five rounds. I'm like, it had that context has the matter. Can we can we have a can he be a caveat key turn? A platform key turn. I think he is a platform key turn. I think on sleeper, he's and he's maybe the best person we've discussed so far. And on Yahoo, it's more like, okay, well, maybe. All right. That's fair. Okay. Next guy. Camp Scataboo. What say you guys? Top 10 running back when he played healthy with Jackson Dart last year. Automatic key turn. Nothing to talk about. I love him. He's already playing like he broke. It's like he's playing. He's healthy. He's just fully playing already. He's nuts. I think this is over. He's going to get all the go line touches. He's going to catch the passes. The giant sign, Naji Harris. But that's because I think Tyrone Tracy missed the block. I don't think Naji's going to play over Scataboo. I think Scataboo is the guy. He was he was on pace last year. He played six healthy games. He was on pace to be fourth, among all running backs in receiving yards. He's on pace for 500 receiving yards last year. And Tyrone Tracy just blew a block that almost killed Jackson Dart. I can't turn my key on. Oh, sorry. I just I don't trust. I don't trust him to say healthy. I think he the style in which he plays. It reminds to be so much. Do you guys remember Thomas Rawls from back in the days? Yeah. He walks running back. He just freaking maniac. But he just couldn't say healthy because he would just try to run through everyone's face constantly. And I think that's Scataboo. I just don't want to put. I don't want to put the fate of my team on Scataboo's shoulders. So if it doesn't get hurt though, what do you like? Let's just say you didn't get hurt for a second. I still think they're going to be. I don't think the giants are going to many good is the problem. I think he has kind of the same
This is like what we've been talking about forever. Hi, so they don't score enough touchdowns. The giants are like last and touchdowns of the last like six or seven years, but with them and the jets. - You don't trust John Harboh, - Oh yeah, we're talking about Daniel Jones five years ago. We got a new situation now. - I don't trust Dart. I don't trust anybody on the Giants really. I do think the Giants have a good offensive line and could have a good offensive line. - So you're not turning and can't sca- - No, he's not turning. - I'm not gonna turn my key on Scataboo, but that doesn't mean I am completely avoiding him to be clear, like I do think he has that upside. You guys were talking about, but I just don't feel a confidence that you do that he's going to be the guy in that offense that does all the carries and gets like the vast majority of the workload. - Okay. - And I just don't trust anybody. - I honestly crushed. - That's okay, you can still take him. - I will. - I will. - I'm just gonna keep giving you the add. You know what? Should I do once again that you will have more fantasy points this year, camscat port per game Scataboo at Ashton Gentie. Just keep doing that every year for DK. - Yes. - Sure. - In no universe is Scataboo better than Gentie, by the way. I just want that to be clear. - It still is. - He's absolutely not. - It's fine. - Not even actually in the same stratosphere. - The next person I want to ask you guys about for key turns is David Montgomery. Shout out to Scott Barrett, who had a great article of fantasy points about his draft strategy this year. And he talked actually a lot about these last three guys. Jonathan Brooks, camscataboo, David Montgomery. David Montgomery is a guy that we truly have not discussed at all. Like I know you said that but Ken Walker Craig, but Montgomery, we haven't mentioned it at all. He's the lion's traded David Montgomery to Houston for a bunch of picks. And I feel like Montgomery is just a lead guy on a team that's gonna have an elite defense and is like the epitome of a boring player on a boring offense. But I don't know. I kind of think David Montgomery has a chance, not quite this year's Javonte Williams, but I think he has more yards and he's better than the receiving game that people think. And I kind of love David Montgomery and that like at the end of the weird range of once all the good receivers are gone. And you have to start looking at like more of a nervous engineer. I kind of love David Montgomery. - Montgomery is the new mixin. And that's what Scott said that on one of his shows recently basically that he has sources in Houston. He lived in Houston for a long time. That said the team is gonna feed him like Joe Mixin. It's like basically all the passing game work, the vast majority of the run game work. What he marks did not really do that much to impress last year in my opinion. I think he was more of a pass catching back. He's not a good runner. And I don't think he's the type of player that you're gonna like take David Montgomery off the field to try and get him more touches. I think they signed David Montgomery to be the engine of their run game. The run game hasn't worked for years. They drafted Keel and Ruchilage in the first round to be their center. And I think they're gonna make a huge focus on running the ball. So I turn my key on this tentatively just because I think the history of the Texans run game is pretty horrible, but this is a pure volume play for me. - Two years ago on the Texans, Joe Mixin, that I believe like the same age that David Montgomery is now pretty close was the RB9. He had about 1,000 yards rushing 11 touchdowns, 35 catches, 300 yards. That's kind of what we're looking at, right? Around 1,000 yards, 10, 12 touchdowns, 35 catches, right? - Something like that. - Maybe a few more catches, doesn't get you going. - I don't know if I'm like, I think he could be a productive player that outperforms his average job position, but I don't know if I'm like. - He'll be a story of this. - David Montgomery was one of the best fantasy picks of 2026. - That's fine. I get that. I'd rather scatter blue. I'd feel strongly about it. Like who could just be like a superstar in fantasy? I think scatter was a way higher chance. I get that. - I like, I think Montgomery is like high floor. I don't wanna say low ceiling, but like more dependable than he is a potential explosion. So I don't know if I'll turn the key, although I think he's a solid pick. - So no Montgomery then. Can I give you two other running backs? Unless do you guys have any other running backs? You wanna talk about key turn? So far, we've turned our keys on Chase Brown, Ken Walker, Henry, Swift, Jonathan Brooks. - So we didn't do, we did Brooks. - We did Brooks. - Okay. - Brooks with an asterisk. - Right. Platform key turn. - Do you guys have any others? 'Cause I have two more that I wanna ask you about. - I don't think this speaks to the overall running back strategy, which is for the most part, we call it barbell, which is like in the beginning and at the end, and not so much in the middle. - Yeah. - The one I wanna ask you about, Jonah Coleman running back for the Broncos. He's a rookie. We've talked about a lot. The thinking man's came scatabo. The side, under drafted, 'cause it isn't at least speed, but he's the size to be a goal lineback, the hands and blocking to be a pass catcher, and a third down, and I just think Jacob is at some point will go down with an injury, and then Jonah Coleman will be a star, and I think that I just think he's going to play, and he's dirt-shaped. You might not get drafted in an illegal end, so you can take him truly right before you take a defensive kicker, and I just think he's a perfect player to hold for the beginning of the season. - Can I ethically turn my key after everything I've said about Sean Payton over the last few years, because I love Jonah Coleman. - With your last pick, you know? - I'm gonna turn my key on it because number one, I wanna turn over a new leaf here. I'm gonna stop with my insane bias over Sean Payton. By the way, he's not even calling plays, at least for the first week. And I just really love Jonah Coleman. I think when you watch him in that game, I said this on the last show, it's just such a perfect encapsulation of why he's good. The tempo of what you ran, the balance, sort of the vision, you can tell he's a professional runner. I just really like the style which he runs. He breaks tackles. I think he could be really good in the passing game. And not that this really matters, but it does kind of affect me late in drafts. - What Sean Payton said after the game, they took him out after like 13 years. - I've seen enough, he's like, I've seen enough. I don't need to see any more based on what he's shown me in practice. That's why we took him out at that point in the game. So I like this actually. Yeah, I'm turning my key on Jonah Coleman. I think he's a great last round pick. - It's hard not to like agree. I mean, we're so late in the drafts. And there's not, I wouldn't say there are a bunch of other people around him. Like the guys going around him are like Kenyan Sadeek. And like Chiga Conquo, Jalen Kocher, I guess I like Camera, Jalen McMillan is a solid pick. Upside it has to be Jonah Coleman. I did it's funny. We'll have to talk about RJ Harvey one day this month because he is a name that is not the name. - No, it's simple in this part. - I think RJ, people want RJ Harvey to be like Alvin Camera. And I just think he's much closer to Darren Sprouls. Sean Payton sees RJ Harvey as like a Darren Sprouls ask player who can throw. - The funny thing is every time Craig, he protects us the other day, how many touchdowns is RJ Harvey score less than a year, like 12? - Yep, I can't remember any of them. Like I know that he did that, I checked. I went and confirmed it. Sure enough, he did score 12 touchdowns. But it's like, he's kind of in that Drake London hold early career Drake London world. Like I can't remember a goddamn play he made. - It's just, yeah, I'm sure he made some good plays. But like. - Yeah, 900 yards and 12 touchdowns is lucky. We're totally overlooking him. - Well, it's just not as linear. It's they have different roles. Like a total of Dobbins gets hurt. Coleman's gonna take Jackie Dobbins and then it's Harvey be playing the whole time. The other player I want to mention that we haven't talked about at all. And DK, you said Jonathan Brooks might be the cheapest running back in fantasy this year disagree. The cheapest starting running back is Chris Rodriguez, the running back for the Jaguars, who had foot surgery, so Travis ETN, Travis HN, left the Jaguars in free agency. And it left them with liquid talent juniors like a special teams blocking guy. - It's a third down back. - Pass it, third down back. He's hurt for trading camp. And then it's Basial Tutan who's like fast as the wind and the Chris Rodriguez who's like a journeyman, early down guy that played for Liam Cohen in college at Kentucky. And he had foot surgery in April and everyone wants to Chris Rodriguez to just like walk into the sea. So Basial Tutan can be the coolest sexiest player ever. I have a question for you guys. Basial Tutan is going in the 60th pick basically. It's like a top 60 player. Chris Rodriguez is outside the top 120. It's going 60 spots later. - I think there's a chance that Basial Tutan is the highest drafted running back in the history of fantasy football who slated to be the weak one kick returner for his team. I can't off the dome remember and I'm going to try to look this up this week, but I do not think there's anybody that's going to be the kick returner that's going six rounds ahead of the other running back. And I know that's not fun, but I think it's a version of the Ramondri Stevenson, Trivian Henderson thing, where I'm not saying Chris Rodriguez is stealing is as high as Basial Tutan's ceiling because Basial Tutan is like runs a 42740 yard dash and is so explosive. But I kind of think you should take two running backs in the first three rounds and you may be a middle guy, but your last pick if you can't get you on a coma, I think it should be Chris Rodriguez because this is a chance you just get it starting running back in like the 13th round. - I like this. This is a guy with a relationship with Liam Cohen. They played Liam Cohen coached him in college. Chris Rodriguez is one of those running backs where I remember him coming into the NFL and whatever fucking advanced stat you'd sort, Broke Attackles, Mistakles Forest, yards after contact. It's like, why is Chris Rodriguez keep fucking showing up on all of these, you know what I mean? Like he just is really, he's a tough, tough, tackle breaking runner in the old school mode where he's just going downhill. - There is always. - There is always a Chris Rodriguez to a Basial Tutan fantasy. Like maybe two years ago it was David Montgomery to Jumir Gants, but there is always the guy that everyone wants to get out of the fucking way but that he will be the guy getting the carries in the red zone. - Yeah. - He gets, it's third one who's getting the ball. Who is the old reliable? And that might be Chris Rodriguez in this offense which might be a very good offense. - But to finish my thought real quick, it's the same deal. Every stat, every positive stat you can find with Basial Tutan from last year going into the season is like, ooh, that's kind of interesting success rate in the red zone, blah, blah, blah. But fucking Chris Rodriguez is right there or ahead of him but all of them too. So it's like you have to make this.
decision, are you going to, you know, kind of go for the gusto and take basal to it and where he's going, which is kind of expensive based on the history of what he is, or very expensive based on his history, or do you want to just go with a really cheap guy? The only thing I will say here is he's going to have to score a lot of touchdowns probably to be fantasy relevant because he does not catch passes. He has six total catches in his career, almost 200 carries, those six catches. So that's the only difference here, just kind of maybe depends on the thing, but I'm 100% on board this because I think he's a very good runner, and this is a very uncertain backfield, and you might as well take the super cheap guy and just kind of hope it turns out. That's the thing. It's just the Jaguars is supposed to be a good team. I think he's a perfect striker. He's like a cheaper version of Jordan Mason. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Again, sleeper, he's 140. I think he has to be at he's like 140 eighths, and I'm like, that's just starting running back. I'll turn my case off. Yeah, I will. And again, if he sucks, you cut him, but like it's for, I just think it's a mistake. Okay, wide receivers, this one's hard. There's a lot of receivers this year. Craig, they're all ready to turn our key on it. Again, we're trying to focus on guys that can deliver such a huge value, relatively, and take them that DK's right. They are all injured. However, I'm going to talk about a mecca, a buka who I've talked about a ton this off season, so I'll be quick. He has a toe injury. We don't know if it's turf toe. He appears to be out for a little bit. If it's turf toe, changes my opinion. If it's not turf toe, I feel a little bit better about it. We kind of just just straight up don't know what's going on. However, if he were to play week one, and he is healthy, I think he is one of the best bets to be the, the JSN of this year, except he's playing the Cooper Cup role. Like I think him on Tampa Bay with this new offense, and there's Acrobaton with a healthy bicker may field. He has the chance to truly be a, like, a defining character in fantasy this year. You look at what he did in the first five weeks of last year as a rookie, was like all time numbers, like Randy Moss and then a mecca, a buka in terms of how good he was in the first five weeks of the season. Mike Evans is gone. I'll tell you. I'm still going in like the sixth round of drafts, which I think is late. It might be to related, but I think that's late. I'm a key turn on this. I'm a big believer, I think, in this year's bucks offense because of the offensive line. I think your offensive line could be elite. And we've seen how that spills over into fantasy scoring so much. Like think about some of the old days with like the Cowboys offense, where everybody's eating because the offense fine is just so fucking good. And I think they have the potential to do that if they can stay healthy. Obviously, the question is, is this foot hurt? We don't really know like how, I guess how hurt is it? We don't really know at this point in time. So I'm still turning the key on a mecca, buka. I love him. I think he's a really good, I think he's a really really good player and he's going to have a better role for that suits his skill set this year than he did last year. I think Baker Bayfield's going to be a lot better than he was last year. So I think we could see this team turn back into a really high scoring sort of fantasy juggernaut. And I don't think Jalen, Jalen McMillan, I believe coming off of a back injury. Who knows what's going to happen? Nick injury. Nick injury. Godwin is older. I think he's going to play a role, but he's not going to be the focal point of this offense. I think a mecca. Buka is the focal point of this offense. Hi, this is going to say no because of the toe. No, because the only question. I don't, I disagree. The problem is I don't know if we're going to find out for a draft. That's the question I'm going to ask you guys. And that's a factor. There's a toe sprain. So it's weird because a turf toe is also kind of like a toe sprain to a ligament. And it's like a square rectangle thing where I think all turf toe is a toe sprain, but not all toe sprains are turf toe. And the problem is we know he is a toe sprain. And if it's the regular toe sprain turn key. And if it's turf toe, I don't think any of us would turn the key, but I also don't think we're going to know before people draft because realistically, because the season starts Wednesday, I think that you would actually be able to find out if he pro, if Emeca Buka practices the Wednesday before week one, he's probably does not have turf toe. But if Emeca Buka misses the Wednesday practice before week one, he probably does have turf toe. And I don't think Todd Bolson's going to tell us before. So that's the only question I want to throw out at you guys. The crazy thing about you're like, yeah, you might have turf toe. Am I not? It's a leap of faith. The crazy thing about receiver this year is it's a huge leap of faith with so many of these guys. If anything, he got hurt already, which is good because there's time. Got that out of the way. The healthy receivers would get hurt later. I'm going to turn my key because I think a book is that good. Also, he's already hurt. So people can't get mad at us when we tout a player and then he gets hurt. I got turf toe in February and I'm still dealing with it. Oh no. Well, then why the fuck did you turn your key? Cool. Because I mean, I'm not first of all, I don't have the same, you know, medical abilities that Emeca Buka has probably on a daily basis. I'm also not a premier athlete in the NFL. And he might not have it. I'll turn my key in a Buka. But there's the easy, I'm sure a lot of people are yelling, if you'd like so many receivers, why would you take one of the hurt ones? Because I think this guy, I think he legitimately, like if he played 17 games, I think he'd be a top 10. Yeah, I do agree with that. And that's the point. DK, who's a receiver you want to turn your key on this year is whatever. Speaking of scary injury people, Mike Evans for the 49ers, we obviously talked about the substation plenty. We don't have to do that more. But he's already missed time in training camp. I think I lean that this is more just like taking care of a veteran and precautionary let him hang out on the sideline rather than trying to push him through like a rigorous training camp. Hopefully, that's what the 49ers doing here. But I still think Evans has it. Like he's still a very good player. And crucially, he's the number one option in this offense other than Christian McCabe. So he left, yeah, he left Tampa Bay. I know we just told him about Tampa Bay. He's in San Francisco. It's worth. Right. He's a 49er now. And I just number one, the 49ers offense is going to score a lot of points. I think that's kind of a given. In fact, they could be a sneaky shootout team that has not as good of defenses as we thought. Or as kind of like we consider their defense because of previous years, like their defense was just not good last year largely because of injuries. But this could be a sneaky shootout team. Mike Evans to me is he's like a T Higgins type of player T Higgins plus where he could score a bunch of touchdowns like basically a touchdown a game. If if everything kind of falls right for me, stays healthy, stays on the field. I mean, he has over the last three seasons, the fourth amount of end-zone targets in the NFL receivers. The only guys with more Tevantay Adams who is basically a goal line back at this point, CDLAM and Kotlin's courtless out of all people. And I believe in Purdy, I believe in Shanahan. And I think he's going to score a lot of touchdowns. He might not have as high of a target rate as some of the some of these other elite receivers. But I think he's going to really pay off in the important part of the field. This is a full key turn for me. I think unless he gets hurt in the future, I think now this is more maintenance. This is the latest you've ever been able to draft Mike Evans. You can get him in like the sixth round. How many touchdowns would he have to score this year? Or you'd be like shocked? Like what would 15 shock you? No? Like would 17? Like maybe 17 to be like, damn, he's still got it. Yeah, probably be like surprised. Yeah. 16th shock. But even 14 doesn't really phase me. Yeah. Tevantay Adams at 14 last year. And that's a sense of what we're banking on Mike Evans being this year. Brock Purdy is one of the best end-zone throwing quarterbacks in the league. I think if he's on the field, he's going to score automatic double-digit touchdowns. And also that's it's like Tevantay, you can't do like I was going to say Tevantay Adams is his floor last year. That really hits that role as similar in that Tevantay's getting open evidence is going to just be the jump all guy that's open even when he's covered. But he also might just have it still like downfield in a way that Tevantay doesn't necessarily. So I think there might be fewer touchdowns but more fewer as in like 10 but more yardage. I yeah, I'm turning my Ken Evans. That's fine. I think this is a no-brainer. Because Mike Evans, there's a world you, Mike Evans, is your third or fourth receiver, which is unbelievable. I turned key. Okay. So we're turning key to Booc Evans, AJ Brown. I for those who haven't heard me rant about this all off season, I think AJ Brown's George Pickens this year had case on a new team, something to prove, better passer, better coordinator, New England than he had in England, not saying trick me is so much better than Chillinghurts, but as a pure passer, absolutely. Josh McDonald's better than what the Eagles had last year coordinator is motivated. I'm all in an AJ Brown this year and I won't be offended if you guys don't turn your key, but I am. I am turning my key. DK, I don't know if you are, huh? I don't think I'm going to. I just think you're making a few assumptions that I'm not quite ready to get there with in terms of what happened to him last year. You're making the assumption he just decided he didn't want to play. Is that an assumption? Yeah. I think there's also this realistic possibility. He's not giving up on Rousey. Oh, he's just not as fucking good as he used to be. It's not a physical issue. You just start jogging. Oh, I think it is a physical issue. That's a problem. There's a chance it's a physical issue. Maybe he does come back and he's just like incredible. But I just don't know if I'm ready to quite get there, especially where he's going, he's going, he's like, he's a very expensive receiver. And so I'm just like, I don't know if I want to like, stake my season on him again after kind of what happened last year. I know it's a totally different offense. I know he's probably, he's got way more upside potential in this offense. So when AJ Brown tweeted, if you're not welcome, not listen to quietly withdraw, don't make a scene. You think his knees tweeted that? I think quietly withdraw. I think both things can be true. Also, I don't want a guy who's going to fucking give up. Like, that's fine. I get that. That is total. Like always. You have some fucking like hard times. Let's just give up. Like that's that's great. You know, who knows a little bit about that? Mike variable. He's not giving up in hard times. Either they get brown. Yeah, maybe they'll roll off on AJ match made in heaven. I this is again, this is to be clear. It's not like I dislike AJ Brown this year. I'm just not quite ready to turn my key as like, this is the guy I want to see. I get it. And to be clear, AJ Brown does have the issues. I just think it's more about how he'll, like the Rams didn't trade for AJ Brown because he has the issues. I think that's more about giving him a fourth contract than it is like the next four years than like this year.
So I get it, but I am all I love AJ Brown. I haven't had an echo Collins. I haven't been had Drake London. It's the rule we said at the beginning of the year. Hope say the whole guy's team. I'll take AJ Brown with Drake May and Josh McDaniel's over Drake London with two of Tongue by Lowe and Kevin Stafansky or Ducal Collins and CJ Stroud and Ekeli. I'm taking AJ Brown. But I get if you don't speak in of AJ Brown though, the other guy was Devontis Smith for the Eagles crack. We were talking about him and I'm curious. Are you turning your kid into Vontis Smith? I like Devontis Smith. I've decided that I'm in on this situation. Basically, the question is if the Eagles offense is even just above average again, Devontis Smith has to be a huge winner and want to be one of the best picks in fantasy. If you look at basically every time Devontis Smith plays without AJ Brown, he's a top 10 receiver in fantasy. The Eagles this year are the second easiest passing schedule for 2026, according to Sharp football. I'm kind of just like that's kind of where my mind stops. I'm like, okay, if the offense is just back to normal-ish, there's no AJ Brown anymore. I don't feel threatened by any other wide receiver on the team. Don't overthink it. Shield or esteemed colleague. Shield had this great step the other day since 2022. Devontis Smith has around 252 routes. So roughly nine games with AJ Brown off the field. So he's averaged 2.6 yards per out run on those in those games, nine games, which is 99 percent of the only receivers better than that last year were Pukinakua and Chei said. But do you think that continues with Jalen Hurts because that includes a data set from when the offense was absolutely humming like three or four years ago? Sure. And so I think it's just more that he's a very good receiver. And if things break right for the Eagles, that could really translate to fantasy points. Less than I think he's going to be the third best receiver in the NFL. I just think that shows that he's really good. I don't know if I'm going to turn my key because everything makes sense about this. And again, if you who actually has narratively, the most in common Jackson Smith and Jigba this year from last year, it's Devontis Smith, where AJ Brown's traded and then Devontis Smith steps up and he's like an unquestionably talented guy. The question to me is just a ref, it's just a referendum on if you think Jalen Hurts will be good this year at the show on Manion offense. And I think if you're a person that's like, yeah, the Eagles offensive line will be healthier. Hurts, like this will work. Then Devontis Smith's it. My question for you, Craig is if the first, if we get to halftime of week one and Jalen Hurts is like three completions for 18 yards, I want to jump off the bridge. Yeah, I'll give that to my fear. He's like, if I'm being like, and again, I know a lot of people think I'm down on Jalen Hurts. And so if you think that I'm wrong about that, then you should take Devontis Smith. But I'm a little worried. I'm lying to myself and I'm forcing myself to believe this. But if I'm being honest, my heart is not in this, but my head is totally fair. I totally get it. I surprised myself betting on Jalen Hurts after what I experienced with AJ Brown last year. But I, I'm trying to be rational. I'm trying to not let my heart influence me and be like, look, look, what am I looking at here? And this is a quarterback who I believe is good. This is a wide receiver who I know is good. And this is an offense that should be much better than the disaster with Kevin Patuil last year. I'm like, and AJ Brown's gone, I'm like, don't overthink that. But also the second I let a motion creep in. I'm like, bail, run, scramble. This is a mess. Don't do it. Maybe see, the more I think about it, the more I do think that just moving Devonti around the formation everywhere, I'm like, they'll be able to get him the ball. DK, where are you at? I like him. I think I, I've loved him ever since he was coming out of college. And I think he's just an amazing talent. And even though the Eagles don't throw very much, is that's kind of one of my worries. But I just think they're efficient, they should be efficient enough where it doesn't really matter. I mean, if you look at the Cux, they had the Cux last year had the literal lowest pass rate in the NFL. And JSN did what he did. Not that I'm saying I think Hertz can do what Darnell did, necessarily from a passing point of view. But I just think focal point of the offense really good player. I want to bet on that. I want to bet on the breakout with AJ Brown on. I just, I saw the staff this morning that Jalen Hertz, I mean, I found this step at Jalen Hertz from shotgun. It's 3,000 dropbacks in his career. And under center, Jalen Hertz has 150 dropbacks. Oh, sorry. He's just throwing interceptions left and right. I guess he can't. But like, yeah, so I get it. Your heart's on it. I don't get it. Yeah. The feature get on their social media. You see that. Oh, I did. The defensive is set to them. And then I just throw up. I'll do it. You get them to hurt. Yeah. I think what is the rule of your heart's not there? Yeah. What do we do if I'm like every intellectual argument I can make is like, this is great. But my heart is like, if I had one team, and I'm like, do I want to want to Smith to fall to me in the third round? I'm lying. I don't, I don't want that to have. All right. Not a key turn. Totally fair. Okay. I feel like I betrayed you. DK, another receiver, turn key nomination. I'm going with Stefan Diggs commanders. I think he's, this is another bet on year after the year after type of deal with the ACL injury. Like he came off of an ACL tear last year at 32 years old. He was still one of the top receivers in the NFL in a lot of like advanced categories. The targets per round round. One of them. He had 102 targets. 85 catches over a thousand yards and four touchdowns last year. And again, this is a 32 year old coming off of an ACL. Like now that he is healthy, fully healthy, theoretically, and kind of back up to speed in an offense. I think it's going to be concentrated between two pass catchers. It's, you know, tear McLaren and Stefan Diggs. Basically, everybody else is going to be a very much a role player in this offense. You got Antonio Williams, the rookie who has not really done a whole lot in camp yet. I mean, I think he's flashed, but he was playing really deep into the, into the first preseason game. Usually that means he's not going to be like a huge part of the offense early on. I think Traylon Berks is going to be sort of a role player. You got Chica Conco, role player. I think it's going to be Diggs and McLaren. And if you're buying that the commanders can make a big upgrade from what they did last year, which I do think they're not going to be what they were 2024 necessarily. But I do think there'll be a lot better than they were last year. And I think there's meat on the bone there for fantasy production. I think Diggs is going to get a lot of it. There's also a world in which Diggs outscores McLaren who's just way more expensive. Yeah, I'm turning my key in Diggs for all those who I agree with Diggs. What about you, Craig? I don't think I can get there. Just too old or what is it like you just don't trust the offense? Yeah, to be honest, the commander's offensive line is like falling apart. I don't know. I don't know if the vibes in Washington are great. Stefan Diggs would be 33 in November. I don't know. For some reason, I can't get there. There are other guys going around him. I ran pick 100 that I think I'd be a little bit more interested in a couple of them will come up later in the show. But yeah, I don't know if I can fully get that with Diggs. Okay. Well, that's the answer. Who are you in on? Another turnkey receiver nomination. Can we just go quickly through Luther Burton? Is the answer yes or no for you guys? Where is he getting? Where are you drafting him right now? Where is he getting drafted? I'll take him fifth overall. Like third round. Fourth round? Yeah, his ADP is like fourth round. What is he doing now now? Because again, him being banged up might actually help because he has this groin thing. He's going, I mean, look, best ball he's going 55th now. If you look at fantasy pros ADP, he's going like 43rd. So like fourth fifth round, fifth sixth round. I have him as a fourth rounder. Look, I just think he has the potential to be a monoraw St. Brown, but like twitchier. And he's the definition of upside. Ben Johnson loves him. He has a groin injury. With that said, he heard his groin like 32 days before their first game. And they said that if they expect him to be ready, it almost seems like it's slightly precautionary. So I don't want to overthink that like you just hear the word injury in your out like I think the abuca toe injury is much more worrisome than the Luther Burton groin injury to me. I'm turning the key. I think there's a world in which we look back halfway through the season and we're like, man, I'm glad he got hurt in the preseason and his, you know, ADP drop by around or two. I think he is like, if abuca were healthy, I would put him in this category as well. But like week one, he has eight catches for 120 yards in a touchdown. And you're like, well, yeah, I just think there is a world in which Luther Burton, I'm pretty sure there's a strong chance Luther Burton is one of the stories of the season. Yeah, I'll turn my key on Luther Burton for that reason as well. It's not hard to picture. I also think in addition to everything we said of the bears offense and everything, well, the bears, the bears are one of those teams to me that not just say they want to run the ball, but actually philosophically do want to run the ball the same way like the Eagles want to do it. The difference to me is, I think the bears might actually be a Bengals or Cowboys team this year or closer to that because I think there's a chance the Bengals the bears defense is so bad that they are constantly throwing. And I know that kind of happened last year, but I think it might happen again because I just, the bears front seven is terrible. It's probably the worst of any team that might make the playoffs. And the secondary is very banged up for August 20th, and it's very thin. And I kind of don't think the bears are going to be able to stop anyone at defense. And I think that there's going to be a lot of passing and Luther Burton will be a big part of it. So if the bears options, I think burn and yes. And then I think the lovelin at tight end. And I think a dune says the odd man out, right? I wanted to ask you guys about a dune say because he's now getting to the point where he's like a seventh eighth round pick. Before a dune say got hurt last year, he was the water sheet for three overall. I had five touchdowns in four weeks and he was kind of cooking. And I can't tell if I just like them all. I might just like all the question is, are we going to double down? This is really what we need to talk about. Are we turning key on the bears as a whole? Because there's almost swift burden, a dune say, or we're going against the Madden curse. We have to just call the spades.
been here. Any other team, madden cover, you'd be a little nervous. Suddenly, we're in a madden commercial, and now we're like, this madden team is going to be fine. Are we, are we, are we, are we, are we, get into one madden commercial? And you can't shut up about the bears. Um, I'm half kidding, but I'm like, if they, if the
, if the maddened bears have a season from hell, we're like, Oh, right. Caleb's in the cover of madden. But that's all I got. I don't really believe in a curse. I don't believe in curses. I don't know. I just, I'm looking at, I, I agree with Craig. I want, I want every piece of this offence. I think returning key on burden. Are we, are you turning key on a dnsc decay in the eighth round? Yes. Okay. Are you? Wait, did you officially, officially turn your key on burden? Yes. Okay. So now I just, now we're two out of three on a dnsc. How are you feeling about that? I do craic to kind of echo what you said. I'll turn my key on a dnsc because Scott Baron has a great stat that I think a dnsc, if you look at what is, it's yards per target, per out run. Yeah. Yards, it's, he's the least efficient receiver. He's high variance. It's the throws that Caleb has struggled the most with. The bet on the bet, the bet is that like, the bears want to fucking explode. They want haymakers and Roma Dunes is going to be the guy who might benefit the most from that if they're good at that. Like if Caleb Williams improves his game with like deep crossers in the deep ball and explosive plays, it's going to be Roma Dunes is the biggest beneficiary of that. The offense ran through him early in the year last year. I just want to mall. I think I think loved ones the only one who's like really expensive. I mean, Luther Burton's pretty expensive too. But Roma Dunes is the cheapest way to get involved in this offense. I guess I would say. But he's not, it's high as there. We're turning our key on a guy with the chronic foot injury. Well, he's, he, he's not hurt right now. He's playing fine. I'm giving you a burden. I'm not giving you a dnsc. My heart is not in it. All right. We turned our key on a, a buka who has a foot injury. Bitch. I mean, I'm just saying. You didn't have Roma Dunes say in the ringer league down the stretch trying to win playoff last year with his, I love that. Roma Dunes is fully practicing every day and high fits like the foot injury. No thanks. A buka is out for a month. And he's like with this groin. Fine. I'll pull my, I'll pull my key on a buka. Is that what you want? I talk to you. I don't care. I'll still take him. You know, this is making this for the listeners. Yeah. To know that who we all endorse. Burden is the straw that starts the drink for the offense or hope is what we're thinking. And that's why I want to take him. Yeah. Okay. Craig, I think last year you phrased it in in this same show. You were basically like, this is, these are the players who, if you recommend them to a friend and they still don't work out, you don't feel bad about it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, I think Burden absolutely fits that because he could be. I'm happy to go down with the bird and ship eight receiver or something like that. Because I just so believe in the talent in the scheme. And it's speaking of which a perfect, one of the guys you mentioned was Josh Downes, receiver for the Colts. I think it's a perfect exercise for this. And I'm curious, are you turning your key on them? Because we haven't, we haven't talked about him a lot. It's a good time to mention that the Colts just signed Keenan Allen. Yeah. Keenan Allen. Tyler Warren, the tight end is out for at least a week with a groin injury. He's going to miss a week of practice. Yeah. It sounds like the Warren injury is not super serious. It's from the early indications. They just can be out. While we're at Alec Pierce, the receiver's not practicing still from an ankle injury. He had a surgery headed March. So sorry. So go down. People are going to be a little, I think people could be scared off of Josh Downes because of Keenan Allen. And I think what we saw last year where he affected the target rate for Lad Maconkey and and Quentin Johnson. I think that is a valid point. But Josh Downes, the key with him is just, is he going to be playing in two receiver sets? Is he going to play enough? Is the big question? And it sounds like the Colts have him in their plans as a guy who's playing on the outside in two receiver sets. He's getting me on the field way more than he was last year. The problem was last year. He was just only on the field when they had three receiver sets. He played in the slot 75% of the time. And I think what he's done in his career, he's shown he's a good player. If you look at the numbers, just when he was playing outside last year, he had 22% target for route run rate, which is a really solid number for an outside receiver, even though he's only 59, like 175 or something like that. But he's just one of those guys that really good route runner, really tough. Great hands can run after the catch. I think he's just underrated for how good he is. And you can get him really late, obviously. So the wide receiver 44 right now, according to ADP, so you can get him late. But I do think if the equation here, the calculus here is, can he play more, will he play more? And if he does, I think he's going to go off. I don't get the Josh Downs thing. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not turning my key. And I think he's, it's nothing against you. I think he's the most popular player among fantasy analysts that I don't get. I imagine it's how people look at me with Jaden Reed. He's like the new Elijah Moore. Yeah, you know how many, you know how many times Josh Downs had 70 yards last year? He played the entire season. Sorry, 16 games. How many times he broke 70 yards? No, I have no zero. Okay. And I'm like, that's that's the low number. Yeah. But it's just one of those where I'm like, I want to come out and be like better than the greatest show on turf rams. They did that. He didn't have 70 yards in the game one time. I know. That's why I already explained it. He's not playing enough. I know. This is the equation. Why do you think he's ranked 44th? I know. And I get it because he's talented and he's young and I get it. I just like, I don't get it. I would turn my, I won't turn my key on it. I am in support of it. But it has to be this year. If it's going to happen, it has to be this year for Josh Downs. I think he, I hate that Keenan Allen's there. He's like a bad cold for fantasy white receivers, dude. He was on the bearers two years ago. The the charges last day. He's just like ruined shit for fantasy upside. But no Michael Pittman and Alec Pierce is hurt. Josh Downs. I'm willing to, I'm willing to pick that guy outside of the top 100. No Alec Pierce, no Michael Pittman. Sure. Yeah. I just, he's just not going to be on new my teams. And if he's the skeleton, he's a dollar. He's a dollar in auction leaks. Okay. Throw it, throw a buck on him. If he's a dollar, sure. But he usually goes higher. Well, I think, I think I did an auction draft this weekend. I went for a dollar. It could be wrong. Well, yeah, go ahead. Make me feel like one or two dollars. It's a dollar. This one could be short. Christian Watson receiver Packers. I'm turning my key. Big yes for me. DK in her out. I am out. Oh, really? Just not a player. I'm confident in. He's probably, he's probably really good. I mean, he's just one of those things where I don't trust him to say, is this out of spite? Cause Hi, if it's didn't hear and just can't, I think it is. Not at all. You need to be objective. Shocked. This is just like how you didn't like Kingpin. I went into this completely unbiased. Okay. I just still can't get behind the Christian Watson thing for whatever reason. In 13 games, he's played above 75% of the routes. He are of the snaps. He is the Y to see for six. Overall, when the man plays, he delivers. Yeah. I got to tell you, there is no player that when I do mock-jaffes in any platform, I am more consistently on my team than Christian Watson. Don Taving Wix is gone, Romeo Dubs is gone. It is now going to be Watson, Jayden Reed, and the second year guy, Matthew Golden, and this in the tight end Tucker Kraft, who's going to be on a bit of a pitch count. It depends on your platform too. ESPN, I think Christian Watson is like the best value on the entire platform. Christian Watson somehow is behind Alec Pierce and ESPN's rankings and I'm curious this isn't practiced yet. He's higher on other platforms, but I just. All right, TK. I think he's a talented, talented player. He's nice, but he. Yeah, he's a nice guy. It's just like hurt too much. I don't know, it's just one of those. He's highly volatile is what scares me off with him. All right, let me hit you with this. Quentin Johnson, Chargers, is a massive turnkey guy for me. I think there is a small chance that he just outscores Lad Maconkey on the Chargers. He fits very well with Mike McKinnell. He's still going outside the top 100. I think he's going to score the most touchdowns. Catch the most touchdowns in the Chargers this year. He is one of my favorite late-round wide receiver picks because he's getting better every year. What do we think? I'm turning my key on that just because of what you say. He's out to the top 100 and I just. The Chargers might be Daniel. Like Quentin Johnson that I've rather than Josh Downs because I think there's so much better chance Quentin Johnson's up as a top 10 receiver with Herbert and McDaniel than Josh Downs does with Daniel Jones. Quentin, I mean, just last year alone. If you take away the injured games, Quentin Johnson's the wide receiver 19. He was 11th in Red Zone targets. I think he has a little bit of stink on him because of the slow start to his career. Quentin Johnson is not a name that jumps off the board. No, no, no, we're in a draft. Yeah. I keep. Whenever I pick up a picture of the Quentin Johnson thing, you know, they're seen from Anchor Man where he's like, "The guy can't even talk and he did it and he got a comeback in." The guy who can't even talk said something. I just like, "The guy who can't catch, that's the one you want, the receiver?" No, I'm absolutely all in on this too. I think he's been beat up way more than he should be based on like his alligator arm catching style. He's. He in this offense could be the run-off to catch guy. They're gonna scheme up ways to get him the football. I think he's gonna score a lot of touchdowns. I think he's an awesome sleeper. So I think it's the guy who can't think said something. Even the guy who can't think said something. Brick. Westman Tooth. Westman Tooth. All-time. All-time. Westman Tooth. Mrs. Man Tooth. Next one. DG Moore, receiver for the bills. A guy that's pretty. The rare player that's not loved in real life or in fantasy completely separately. I'm turning my key. I just think it's actually like overlapping bias. It's just really cheap for someone that's going to be the clear number one receiver on a team that the bills are expected to be top three and points. And that's really rare to just have a number one receiver around a bunch of number four receivers. Not that's mean to clear. But the clear focal point of the offense passing game on a team that's and it's supposed to start.
like be top free and points is just like you can get him in the sixth or seventh round. I did the thing six seven. So I'm turning I'm turning my key. I just think it's too much to teach you more by us. It's a thumbs up from me, Doug. D.K. I watch three plays in the Bill's preseason game and I'm all in. Alright. And then he heard his ankle. Then he got rolled up on to Sean Stribling. Rookie receiver for the nighters. He's going. It depends on outside the top 100. I think this is easy. I am buying the hype. I'm fine as a fire. Yeah. I don't want to get like. Yeah. It's late. Later on key. I mean, he could be the number two receiver in the state. I'll turn the key. Yeah. Since we're talking, if you have to type it into your app, it's D apostrophe Z-h-a-u-n, which sometimes Stribling would be like sometimes you can't find them if you don't type it in. Last one I want to ask you about Cyrus Allen, the receiver for the chiefs who again, we're talking about the last pick. There will be kickers and defenses taken before him. But if you talk about if you had to make me pick a receiver at sleep, like, it's hard to find late, late, late round receivers in the draft. I would love Jaden Higgins. There's a chance to be Cyrus Allen's real. And I basically, it's like the last pick is kind of getting ahead of waivers in week one. Yeah. I don't think this will happen, but a Cyrus Allen is starting for the chiefs in week one, which I don't think is going to happen, but I could see him being better. If he plays a lot in pops in week one, that's the kind of player you want on your team already. That's not on waivers. I've seen enough from Cyrus Allen where I think it might be possible because they need juice. And so I'm actually, I'm endorsing him as like a Jonah Coleman-esque. Just have him on your team and wait two weeks into the season and see what happens. It's hard for me to be like, no, for a guy who's going outside of the top 200 right now. It has to be for if you would do it on your teams, not just you think it makes sense for my team. Would you do that on your team? Last pick in the draft, I would totally take him. But like, here's what I'll say. If you have a draft in a week in your league is like full of guys who really pay attention, and he's going for like 10 bucks, or he's going like the 12th round, I would probably say no to that. If he becomes like kind of a hot commodity, he's like, how many how many how many dollars? Seven eight bucks or something. If people don't know, he's one doubt. No, he's the last spot in your bench. I feel like he didn't listen to anything else just saying. I'm saying if you are in a league, look my league, my high school league, Cyrus Allen's not going to go for a dollar. He's probably going to go for like four or five because somebody wants to get in on that and not just let like the end of the draft, you can just get him for free. Someone's going to like upbid him. The question is, would you upbid somebody for Cyrus Allen? That's the question. No, and that's you're right. That's the right question. And no, probably not. Like it's one of those like one, two, sure. What you're right that the number is four? What's the point? If it's three, if it's four, if it's five, it's six, like are you doing that? No, I would it's he's the guy that I'm hoping Cyrus Allen, we need a word for this. It's the guy that you nominate for one dollar and you're just sitting there hoping that all 27 stick off and no one hits the button. That's what he is. See, I didn't he's the the moment someone hits on him, I'm like, shit, I don't think he'll go for a dollar. Depending on your league, I don't think he'll go for a dollar, but we'll see. That's time it. So what is what where we land? Is that a turnkey on? I think it's not last round. Okay. I think it's a one dollar turnkey. Sure. So let's just, you know, put him in that category where it's like depends. I mean, to be clear, he's not rich, like ESPN, he's not right. I know, but that's 300. I don't really, I don't buy some of this stuff. Like because it's like the people who are paying attention to Cyrus Allen is all over social media. If you are in a league where people are following the league, he's going to get drafted. Hey, I understand. So that's what I think it's not a turnkey. I think that's the answer. Sorry. I feel like now it sounds like I'm angry, but I know I get it because it's a wide variety of leagues. I'm not offended. Oh, I'm offended by Christian Wallace. So that bothered me. Before the football season begins, every team is undefeated. Every fan believes this could be the year. The year their team wins the division makes the playoffs lifts the trophy. And with Fandall, you can bet on any of it from who will win it all and division winners to season win totals and playoff futures. Fandall has all the ways to bet on the season before it even begins. Easiest bet, the Broncos are 20 to one that win the Super Bowl. I don't really understand that because the Broncos made the AFC championship game last year should have won, but Bonaix got injured and then kept the entire team and now they're 20 to one. That doesn't really make any sense to me because the Broncos probably are going to have the second best defense in the AFC. How do the Broncos have the same Superblods as the Packers? That doesn't make any sense. Like, the Packers would be really weird if they made the Super Bowl or at least surprising. The Broncos that would be super normal. So the Broncos of 20 to one, it just feels mispriced. So get your football future bets in today on Fandall. Visit fandall.com/ringerphanacy to get started. 21 plus select states or 18 plus DC or Wyoming, gambling problem, call 1-800-Gamber, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. Let's do quarterback. I need to say no to Maliquilus and Kyler Murray. Let's go. Let me tell you why that's stupid. This is a different time. Do you want to start with Kyler and Maliquilus? No, because it's, to me, this is pick one. Also, I'm just Kyler Murray. Maybe I'll say yes. I don't know. Lay in the draft, pick one of Kyler Murray or Maliquilus. Don't leave a draft without Kyler Murray or Maliquilus. Here's why. This is the deep, and this is specific, by the way, to one quarterback leagues. I'm not talking about superflex. That's a different conversation. One quarterback leagues, there is zero downside to taking either Kyler Murray or Maliquilus late in your draft. This is one of the deepest years we've had at quarterback. There's a million guys that you could feel fine about if we go one or two weeks and Kyler Murray and Maliquilus suck or one of them gets benched. You can, you can stream quarterbacks the rest of the year, be totally fine. Jared Goff, Matt Safford, Jordan Love, whoever you want, Tyoshuck. You can be totally fine with those guys, but you want to chase the upside of Maliquilus and Kyler Murray because they run. High fits bitches about the running thing constantly. It's always bitching about it. What? No, he's always bitching about it. He's always trying to change the rules of the sport we love. So I'm just trying to protect the rules, but it's fun. I'll start with Murray. Matthew Berry had some really basic, but actually super compelling stats in his 100 facts column at fantasy life this week. Since 2020, the top four quarterbacks in fantasy points per game are Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, the Mar Jackson and Kyler Murray. Dating back to 2019, there's four quarterbacks with 15 plus fantasy points every single season, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, the Mar Jackson and Kyler Murray. Just looking at the points scored. Like if Kyler's playing, he's going to be scoring points because he runs around. He scrambles a lot. This is a good offense, Kevin O'Connell. I trust him. He has Justin Jefferson. I mean, basically every other offense that Kevin O'Connell has been playing for, every other quarterback, other than JJ McCarthy, it's been awesome. So I think there's really no downside in taking Murray, even if you think he sucks. This is famous for talking about. I agree with every word you said, DK. I'm turning my key and Kyler and Maliquilus, and I'm surprised that you're not Greg. I'm curious why. I think it's like not really true that when you're like, oh, you could just stream Tyler Schuck or Matt Stafford. I don't think that's right. I think people draft two quarterbacks, even if you start one and all those guys are going to be on the bench. And so I don't necessarily think that it's like if Kyler doesn't work out, you can just get someone great. Don't buy that. I don't know. I'm skeptical about Kyler Murray. I think he's also creeping up like 80 best ball. He's like the QB 12 right now going in drafts. That's a little high. Is it? I think that's perfect. That's exactly where I have in my rankings is 12. I think if you're drafting Kyler Murray, you're going to have to draft another quarterback, like a Jackson Dart to like have insurance. And you're then giving up like, I don't know, Roma Dunez is going right next to Kyler Murray. What is the problem with that? Parker Washington. But a year ago, on this episode, I believe you're talking about how Drake May is a great guy, and we were saying Drake May was high at 12 and we were like, fuck it, put him at nine because of the rushing. Kyler Murray, what's the difference between Kyler and Drake May? And I know that sounds crazy, but I'm like Kyler ran for 550 yards like two years ago. I'm much less confident in Kyler Murray than Drake May to be honest. That's fair. And again, I understand in real life, I'd rather have Drake May. I guess my question is that Kyler and Willis, and I think this is your point, DK, they're the last quarterbacks that could have massive rushing seasons, right? Everyone after them is like not really, it's like Jordan Love, who's quietly not a rusher. It's Matt Stafford. It's my homes put off in ACL, so we don't know how much he's going to run. And so I think DK's point is there, it doesn't matter who they are. It's just that the last guys left that could run for hundreds and hundreds of yards and half a dozen touchdowns. And everyone else that that Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, Jordan Love, Tyler Schuck is like indistinguishable. And I think it's a supply-demand thing. So that's why I agree with DK. I get that they might not work, but it's like I read your Goff and param with him. Here's my problem. They're the prototypes for late-round quarterbacks. Sure, but the Malik Willis thing, I don't like having to be like, well, maybe Justin Fields could be the QB5. I don't like doing that. That's not a fun experiment to me, drafting a guy who I don't think is good. Kyler Murray, I also just have question marks about. I don't know. I think I'd rather just like get Trevor Lawrence two rounds earlier and live my life. Have you had the same lived experiences, Craig, where he's not buying that you could stream quarterback? It's a really good question because that's not really been my experience, to be honest. I think when we do this ring or league draft, where's the single QB in a week? Tyler Schuck is not going to be on the waiver wire, I promise. Matt Stafford is not going to be on the waiver. No, Stafford, I agree with Craig in that. I do think, not just our show, but I think most fantasy analysts underrate everybody rosters two quarterbacks. Unless you have like five benches, is like most people roster back there.
- Back up quarterback. - It's like psychological. - It's not really been my experience at all. - You only had Patrick Mahomes. - Things are gonna get drafted this year? - Of course, I'm thinking about Bill Simmons. - Bill Simmons, until two years ago, when we bullied him out of it, we'd have four, sometimes five quarterbacks and a one quarterback league. Like people like quarterbacks. - But we have Mahomes as our 16th rank quarterback or something, like that implies that he might not get drafted. Like there's no way. - No, I think Craig's just right on this because I'm in a bunch of redraft leagues and I think DK probably scrolling through every, like a sicko, everybody's teams. - The quarterbacks you will be able to add is like Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, maybe Sam Darnal, those are going to be the types of guys you can add. - I think that's true. Having said that, I still think DK's point is valid in that the point, but Craig, I think you're right about that, but I think it makes DK's point more important because the point being, there's not a huge difference between streaming in Rodgers and streaming Darnal. Like if you everyone has two quarterbacks, then you get two quarterbacks and they should probably both be mobile. And I think that's the point. Is you have Trevor Lawrence and Kyler. If you have Trevor Lawrence and Malik Willis, the odds that you have like a great quarterback, it's just higher because the replacement level is like, it's not a huge difference in Jacob and Sam Darnal on a given week. - Yeah, I'm probably more willing to draft Kyler than I would be Malik Willis, but I would still rather just have like Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence, a DAC maybe even a rounder too earlier than those guys. And then I can just draft like Tyler Shocklater rather than have to spend two kind of like mid-round picks on Jackson Dart and Kyler Murray. One I could be taking guys like Quentin Johnston and Parker Washington's and Roma Dunes' and DJ Morris in that range. - Okay, so can I blow your mind though? What platform are you drafting with your friends? - Yahoo and sleeper. - So Yahoo and sleeper will answer when then eight picks of each other and believe it or not, Tyler Shock is going, I mean, on sleeper Malik Willis. And again, I know the draft room, when you open the room, Tyler Shock's 170 and Malik Willis is 193 or 193. - That's all well and good. My lived experience is like, the leagues I'm in, and again, this is not everybody, but like the people I play with are pretty up to date on stuff. Like, just because they see Malik Willis where he is, he's not mean he's going to go where he is, same with Kyler Murray. Like, people understand who is hyped up but who's not, they have their own lists. It's like, I'm not going to fight you on Malik Willis, he's a, I think he's a Patsy. He's like going to be the full guy for his own. - This is hilarious. Are you not allowing me to not turn my key on Kyler Murray? - No, well, no, it's interesting. I think when we talk it out, the people listening, I think gets it like decide where they fall on it. I don't think it's, I'm not trying to change your mind. I think it's, the daylight's important. - I think the difference is like, to me, and Craig, I'm gonna allow, I will allow you to not turn around. - Thank you. - I'm going to let you do that. But I think the difference is the way that you're saying, you don't want to spend a pick on Dart and Malik Willis or Kyler Murray is that I'm saying don't do that. I'm saying just take Kyler Murray or Malik Willis late. And then you get another guy like, you were saying like the Roman doons days of the world, get one of those guys earlier in draft, stream Kyler or Malik, and then, or sorry, not stream, but start Kyler or Malik, if they suck, you can drop 'em. And sure, maybe I was being over-eager with Shuck, even though Shuck is like the QB20 and ADP right now, like go with CJ Stroud, go with Sam Darnold. That makes me incredibly nervous. If I think Kyler Murray in the ninth round, and then he's just not good, it's like Kyler Murray's a mess, and now the rest of my season, I'm crossing my fingers that Tyler Shuck works out, and that sounds like that. - This is the late round quarterback life. You got to like it. - I don't like it. - This first or near the first of last. - That's the answer. - Craig just doesn't want to do that. - No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think, I don't know if Kyler, you know what I know is good? I think Dak Prescott and the Cowboys are good, and I feel that's dependable. And if I can take Dak Prescott instead of Kyler Murray, I'd probably just do that. Even if the ceiling's not as high, I feel more confident that Dak Prescott could be like the QB6, most likely, if he plays, then Kyler Murray. I think Kyler Murray could be a disaster. I don't think Dak Prescott could be a disaster. So I'm fine with late round quarterback. I don't need to take Josh Allen, but I'd probably rather have Dak Prescott, Brock Perty, Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams, than I would Kyler. That's still to me is later around. - If you take Dak, would you take a backup quarterback? - Yeah, sure, but I would like wait. I would take Dak who, guys, I feel like stays healthy, I feel confident about his game, and then I would take whatever, Tyler Shock or something as like an insurance pick. - And I'm not telling you-- - I'll make sure you're mine. The way I think of it is Dak is like a scramble in golf. Dak is kind of like your first drives on the fairway. And you're like, okay, like we're gonna take that ball. So the second drive, it's like free money. So then it's like Malik Willis. And you're like, yeah, I might hook this into the woods, but just in case I hit it 300, you know what I mean? That's the way I look at it. But yeah, I think the key to me is that the people listening, just know how you feel about this going into your draft. That's why we talk about doing mock drafts and having tiers. Is it's like, if you're not comfortable having Kyler as your starter, then do what Greg's saying. I think that's the important part. - I don't know. - Just like know what you want. - Dak Breast got to be on top five QB in the last three years. So I'm kind of like, and I'm confident that that offense will be good. - All right, so to be clear on my putty, so you are or are or not a turn key, I can't tell Kyler. Who do you want? Who do you want to turn your key on, Craig? - I will respectfully pass on Kyler, although I'm not saying that it won't work out. I'm just saying, I don't feel enough to turn my keen, officially recommended to somebody else. I mentioned Trevor Lawrence a bunch. I would like to highlight Trevor Lawrence. Now I feel, let's flush what just happened and try to come into this objectively, just 'cause I'm pitching it, you know? Try to pretend this is coming from a stranger. - Tell me a joke or something. - Well, make me laugh. - That will be exciting of it. - How is that? Okay, Trevor Lawrence going around QB9 in drafts. DK, can you remember how many games the Jags won last year? - 13 or 14? - Yeah, they won 13. - 13? - Year before that they won four. So Liam Cohen showed up and they went from four to 13. - Yeah. - I'm a big believer in year two with play callers. This is year two with Liam Cohen. Trevor Lawrence last year in the fantasy playoffs of the greatest fantasy playoffs in the history of quarterbacks. He averaged, he scored 99 points in three games in the fantasy playoffs. He was the QB6 last year straight up. Once they traded for Jacobi Myers in week 10, the Jaguars were a completely different team. They went nine and one. They were a league best plus 153 point differential. They scored the third most points in the league and Trevor Lawrence was the QB2 after they traded for Jacobi Myers. I think they have like the deepest past catching group in the league. Like I'm like Brian Thomas Parker Washington, Jacobi Myers, Travis Hunters, their Widers here for four, Britain Strange is a good tight end. Year two with Liam Cohen. Trevor Lawrence ran for nine touchdowns last year. You could say that is something that's gonna regress. I see it as something they're willing to do and that he's capable of doing. And I'm kind of just like, fuck man, if this guy's the ninth quarterback going off the board, I think he won the MVP. This team could win 13, 14 games again. The offense is deep year two in the system. I like it. - I wanted to give that stat with the nine rushing touchdowns is like a negative and I do think there's a problem. It's probable that he will regress from that. But I will say from the designed rush point of view, Trevor Lawrence was fourth among quarterbacks in designed rushes, which is not nothing. I mean, he's just like. - League Cohen, quarterbacks usually run. - Yeah. - It's not like there's like some say-quan Barkley running back that's gonna take specialty carries away. It's like Trevor Lawrence is the biggest running back on the team. - Lawrence had more rush designed rush attempts and more scrambles than Bo-Nicks. - Trevor's an automatic turnkey for me on this. I think Trevor Lawrence is, I think in some ways my best case scenario is Trevor Lawrence falling to me as like the 11th quarterback in a draft. It's 'cause no matter who it is, the 11th guy is gonna be better than you think. I totally agree, Greg. I'm completely in on Lawrence. Greg, do you like Lawrence or Dacmore? 'Cause I think aren't they kind of going in the same area? - I like, the Lawrence more. - I'll turn my key on this. I'm gonna turn my key on the confidence and being in Liam Cohen's offense. I think Trevor Lawrence, like Greg said, you're two, the offense just growing and being better with more talent at a receiver and kind of- - I have Lawrence in my fifth quarterback. - I'm extremely high. - I think I like this. Even though we had this big argument about sort of like strategy in draft, I do really like Lawrence this year. - Yeah, I mean, I love Lawrence. And to be clear, I'm not, I think we're actually on a similar page, 'cause I think big picture of what we're talking about is a great quarterback is gonna go as the 10th quarterback, like if Joe Burr, if top six guys are like you know, Burrero hurts and up, Justin Herbert Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams, Jackson Dart, Dac, or Kyler. One of those will be the, you know, 11th or 12th quarterbacks available. - Yeah. - And that's just the way I look at Kyler. I'm like, yeah, I'll just wait for him to fall. - Totally, yeah. - Trevor Lawrence falls, I'm like, well, God damn. I feel like the Caleb Williams too. - My recommendation is like lay, where on quarterback is a good strategy. You just pick the light around quarterback, you personally like the most. - Yeah, and I will say everything is about Lawrence the second year. I do feel that way about Caleb Williams too. I'm a little afraid of recommending a quarterback in Chicago when the fantasy playoffs in December, but I just think Caleb is also like Lawrence super mobile and just, they've been marinating in an amazing system for the offseason while everyone else is learning new systems. And I just, I think Lawrence and Caleb are like gonna take a real life leap. - Yeah. - I like that. On that note, though, also Herbert. I would like to nominate Justin Herbert as a key turn. It's not complicated. Justin Herbert is the best quarterback who's ever played in the Kyle Shanahan McVeigh-esque system that Mike Daniels implementing. And what is special about it and players love about it is how much it simplifies the game for everybody and allows people to play faster.
and Herbert is the best ever at that. And he's the perfect mix of fast processor, arm talent, and also Herbert's way faster than people think. I'm worried about betting on the charges of lending up melt, but I love Herbert this year. Totally agree, full key turn, love it. Yeah, okay. I think Herbert Lawrence or definitely targets in that area for me. All right, I was gonna ask about Jackson Tart but DK made his feelings known. So no Tart, the last one I wanna ask about is Jalen Hertz as the sixth quarterback for a simple reason. For the past, we have talked about Jalen Hertz as the best mix of high floor, high ceiling on a weekly basis a quarterback ever to play fantasy football. Well, he doesn't play, but for us. Like basically if Josh Allen's the best quarterback since COVID sees it long, 'cause he's always first or second, Hertz was basically, there was a stat, I think he had more games over 30 points than under 16. So my question is Jalen Hertz at six. Do you guys wanna turn your key or not as the sixth quarterback? My brain says yes, my heart says no. It's like the Devante Smith thing for you where I'm like, I just had such a bad time last year, but I agree. I mean, he was the QB seven last year and it was a, and it was a miserable reason. Turn them over twice in one play. So it's hard not to say I agree with you because the numbers bear it out every single year. So I guess I have to like, separate my heart and my brain and go out my brain. So I guess I'll say yes, but I'm like slightly doing it against my will. - I think I'm gonna say no because I prefer waiting a couple rounds and just drafting a quarterback later. - I agree, DK. - I think he's like one of those guys where I agree with everything you guys are saying in terms of if he's probably gonna outplay his ADP by a couple spots, I don't know if he'll be the QB one, but I think he's like, guaranteed to score a bunch of rushing touchdowns and he's gonna give you that floor. - I know, I just think like, I would rather draft another player where you're getting Jalen Hertz. I feel that way in theory makes sense, but if you look at the players around him, I keep thinking about Taco from the league who doesn't know anything. It doesn't follow football that much and then wins every year in the league. And I just keep looking at Basiel Tutten who again is going to return kicks for the Jaguars is going 10 picks before Jalen Hertz who's like been one of the best fantasy quarterbacks ever and then had it down year and now it's like, (laughing) - I don't know, I keep looking back at like, if you could pick one player that's the market is completely wrong on, I keep staring at Hertz. - If the draft went exactly according to like the ADP that we're looking at here, like I do kind of agree with you. There's a lot of guys. So I guess here's your question, if it's for you, not that you have to make this decision, but like, Christian Watson's going a couple spots away from Jalen Hertz. Like, who would you rather have on here? - So that's an example, if, that's a great example. If Christian Watson's still there, I'm taking Christian Watson 'cause I'd rather have Christian Watson and wait on quarterback. - Christian Watson, I will say in your defense is by far the best player in this like round eight. - But if he's gone and it's Marvin Harrison Jr., I'm like, at that point, just take Jalen Hertz. And I feel that way about Tucker Kraft to tie down, rather of Jalen Hertz. - I feel that way about him. - I'll read off some of these ADPs. Just this is based on the Yahoo, I think. It's on the fantasy pro, sorry. Jane Daniels starts off the list. Harold Fanon, Ramanjray, Roma Dunesay, Rico Doudel, Christian Watson, engineering price Hertz, Karnel Tate, Paulard Kraft, Parker Washington, Mongeye, Michael Wilson, Brian Thomas, Corlan Sutton, Jakey Dobbins, like yikes. Actually, I maybe do want Hertz right there. - The only guys I want over him that you just said, are Parker Washington, you could convince me on Gdarian Price, the running back for the Seahawks, and then I don't want the Steelers running backs. I don't want Jalen Warren or Rico Doudel over Jalen Hertz. I'm like, you could convince me on, maybe Ramanjray Stevenson, but realistically, it's the receivers. - Like returned on investment for all those guys, I think Hertz is probably gonna be the best. - It's just gonna be so hard when Hertz is sitting there in like the seventh round. And I'm like, I'm gonna tell myself, this is a smart pick. You should draft Jalen Hertz, and I'm gonna, I'm so not gonna want to. And then I'm gonna do it, and then they're gonna suck week one. I'm gonna be mad. - There's a weird range where not, I don't like any of the players in like the 80s. And I just want them all to go away so that I can make picks later. And that's kind of where I want to take a cooler back. And the Hertz is right around that range. - Yeah, I do. - I think I'm changing. I'm going to do a turnkey after looking about Morra ADP here. Is that cool? Can I do that? - Sure. - All right, but Craig's still out. So it's okay. - No, no, I didn't say that. - I think Craig was there. - We turned King on Hertz. - Wow. - I said my brain says yes. - He's hot, and we turned the key on him. - Fuck it, yeah. - Is he the hottest quarterback? Yeah, it's the hottest. We got him to do the hot quarterback. Come on, we got him to do it. - So our quarterbacks this year are Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hertz. - I like that. - Yeah, I don't mind it. - Three of the hottest guys. All right, tight end. Brock Barris for the Raiders. He's a high pick. I have him right after the top 11 running backs go. So right after Chase Brown can walk at the running backs we talked about the top of the show are gone. I like Brock Barris ahead of the next year of receivers. Basically, it's the 17th player because I just think he could explode at tight end in a way that makes me okay with him being really bad and embarrassing me. If you guys aren't on board, I get it. But he's the only tight end I want to spend a high pick on from being honest. - I'm on board. - I am too. Even though he was like one of my guys last year, he got hurt. That didn't help. That's why he's available even. - Yeah, I want Brock Barris on every team. - He's not gonna be cheap. - No, he's not cheap. - He's a second round pick. But if you fell to the third, I'm like, oh my God. There's a world where if you get to mere Gibbs, it's not crazy to think Brock Barris can just fall to you. And there's a world where you can start with to mere Gibbs, Brock Barris is another player. And I'm like, I would do that 100 times out of 100. The question I have for you guys is Tyler Warren of the Colts who I is the only Colt. I'm really excited to have this year, but he just has a growing injury and it's out of week. And they sign Keenan Allen between when I wrote him down. And so I don't know what to do with Tyler Warren anymore 'cause Keenan Allen there is overlap between what Keenan Allen's gonna do in the field and Warren. I think Warren's so good. And I think Tyler Warren's closer to Colts to the Loveland than people think. And but I'm a little worried about him being hurt and they sign Keenan Allen at the same two days. - Fuck should we not turn the Keenan, Tyler Warren then? - He's so good though. The thing that makes me want to say yes to the key turn is Michael Pittman's not there. - Yeah. - Like I know it's Daniel Jones and the Achilles and it's like it's the offense gonna be good again and all this stuff, Keenan Allen. I'm like dude, the guy who got the most targets on the team has gone and the other guy who got the second most targets on the team has hurt. And now it's time for-- - Yeah, I'll pierce his up practicing yet. - So I feel pretty good about Tyler Warren as long as he's healthy, obviously. - He has been until literally two days ago, one of my top targets in terms of, I absolutely want Tyler Warren on as many teams as possible. I think the price is pretty good, relative to what you can expect from him. And obviously-- - I'm good. - Yeah. - What happened to, what happened to late-round Tydead? What happened to, now we're recommending two of the top four Tydeads. - So these are, no, it's barbellists. These, if Brock Barr was false to you or Tyler Warren false to you, I liked them. I liked them more than the others. I don't love Trey McBride 'cause I don't want a bet on the first. - Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This exercise is not if they fall to you, take them. - Well, let me, let me rephrase, ecstatic if we filled them in. Like, if Brock Barr was fouled in me in the third round, I would have to do the DK Metcalf, take my shirt off. - Okay, cool, would you take them 15th overall? 'Cause that's probably where someone else is gonna take them. - I haven't, well, I haven't ranked 16th. - This kind of-- - Behind the top running backs we just talked about. - This conversation is like, would you slightly reach for this player? - It's really what we're saying. - Yeah, yeah, okay. - I mean, I think I'm higher on Bower's than any platform you're gonna draft on. - The way, I think the easiest way is like, your top targets. Like, who are you going into drafts looking to? - Who are you targeting? - Yeah, Bower's. - Yeah. - I want Bower's, I want Tyler Warren. - Yeah. - Those are like the two tight ends I really want. - But I'm not trying to take Colson Lovelin over Ibuka or Devante Smith. - Tony's guys, you know what I mean? So like, I'm not, and Sam Laporta, I was already thought was high, now he's a hip injury. I'm not trying, I don't love Sam Laporta with the hip. I think he's very touch-down-dependent. And then like, the other tight ends, I don't want Harold fan, I'm done with Kyle Pitts, he's toxic as DK, you know? And I don't want Harold's, like, I don't really want any of these tight ends. I'm okay to wait in tight ends. - Tight ends? - It's just hours of Warren. - Yeah, I don't remember what we said in previous episodes, but I'm saying it now. Tight end kind of sucks this year. I don't really want any of these guys. That's why I want Bower's in Warren. - And I like the top four. And they're all gonna be expensive. I think Trayn McBride is a guy who might fall by the wayside in drafts because the vibes are so bad. I think that Trayn McBride is like sitting there to start the fourth round. Just because people are like, eh, Trayn McBride, Cardinals, no offense. - Cardinals. - Probably just takes a few. - You could convince me that Trayn McBride should go right there with Bower's for the same logic that Trayn McBride could have a better season than EcoCon straight up and playing tight end. I just feel less excited about it 'cause the Cardinals are so goddamn bad. I was so, are we turning our can't tell our Warren or not? I am, I am. - I am. - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, all right, so we are. Next up then, I want to ask George Kittle. I'm doing it, I know he's got the Achilles, but that's priced in. He's not going to go to Australia. It's just something he's talking about. I think he will play in week two. I think Kittle will play in week two, Bower's setback. He's not going to make the trip to Australia amid his recovery. But I think when week two on, you're going to get George Kittle and on a nine years team that with all the injuries they already have, I know it's like you're daring to substation, but I'm like, George Kittle is going to be going around to Josh Downs or Blake Corum or Chuba Hubbard off a hamstring injury. And I'm like, everything we said about tight end, I'd rather have George Kittle and just like figure out a week one tight end and have George Kittle. I'm not going to do it. I get it. All right, well, it's like one of those things where I feel dumb betting against George Kittle, but he tore his fucking Achilles in February. Yeah, I agree, I'm not doing it, either. He's like, he's in his thirties and he's six months from Achilles. All right, I say it likely for the two of us.
Which makes some kind of light round tight end endorsement for St. Donald's, we just don't take getting. - I think likely, the thing that I would say about likely is if he plays more awesome pick. So maybe I will turn the key on him, but that is a big question. I don't feel, I do think that in the way that I said earlier, where Craig was like, if you end up, if you tell your friend or recommend to your friend this person and then they don't work out, you don't feel that bad about it because I do think the equation here with likely is, if he plays more and he definitely might, he's gonna go off. So I think I am willing to do the likely thing even though I think it's pretty risky. - Yeah, candidly, I don't have a tight end in this category. I didn't list the top target because I don't really feel that strongly about any of them. However, if I had to pick a guy going outside the top 10 of tight end, it would be likely. - I get it. It's not a top target as much as whoever falls to you is fun. - The top sleeps really how we feel. - Yeah. - I get it. That's fair. - I'll turn my key on him. - I will turn my key too because if somebody asked me which tight end outside the top 10 would you recommend, I would recommend likely. - I will say the beginning, the early returns on how they split up tight end usage for the giants in the first preseason game is not very good for likely. - We don't have to, we're using, you see the guy that we most want to fall to us or are you trying to take him really hard over Dallas Goddard? I feel like it doesn't matter to us, which is not the point. - Yeah, I'm not reaching for him. - All right. - I think he's a really good sleeper and that's what I'm turning the key on. - Are there any other guys? - I would say I would put good Dalton Concade in almost the exact same category as likely as a talented pass catcher who just needs to play more. I think Dalton Concade's issue has been injuries mainly. Over the last couple of years, last year he was battling the lingering effects of a PCL injury at a couple other injuries. Everything you heard the bills talk about with him this year is we want him to play more. We want him to be on the field more. We're a better offense when he's on the field. I think Brandon Bean said something about they score seven points more per game when he's playing or something like that. I don't know what the exact metric was, but pointing out that basically they're better offense when he's on the field. And so again, if he plays more, I think he's gonna score a lot of points. There's a strong chance he just doesn't though because he's been so hurt over the years and because he's not much of a blocker. But I think where you're getting him 100th overall ish, I think it's an okay bet to make. I like it and agree with it. I don't know if I'd put him on my official key turn list. But I was the same as you though Craig. I was like, I don't really have like a tie-down that I feel be super passionately about. - I agree. I mean, the only other guy is like a sleeper from his Terrence Ferguson for the Rams. That you probably don't even need to draft. I just look at him as I feel like Terrence Ferguson is the best chance of being like the number one tie-down on our waivers ads after week one and like you have him as nothing. But even then, if you're not a 12 team league, you don't need a roster him. It's just like what if he's the number three option for the Rams, but I agree. So maybe, so it's just powers and warren. I'm fine with that. That represents that we feel. - I agree. - We do not do it with likely. - I don't know if I would. - I'm going to have to turn him because I feel like what we're saying is we prefer he falls to us, but we're not, he's not a top target. - Yeah. - So the list overall, we have at running back, we have Chase Brown, Ken Walker, Derek Henry, or a top targets. We have Deandra Swift. Is that really how we feel? Now that we've done the rest of these. - I might revoke my tee turn. I feel like he's not a top target of mine. What the fuck, all right. - The missiles are in the air, pal. We can turn them around. - I thought about that. It's about, it's not about that. - You've got to send another missile of a shoot down that missile. - Here's why. Here's why I'm going to make you pick. Here's why Craig on Yahoo. - Okay. - 'Cause I'm trying to be consistent here. Five guys we've talked about are back-to-back-to-back. Swift is back-to-back with a buka, Mick Lauren, Luther Birdon, Cam Skatibu, Tyler Warren, and DJ Moore. We talked about all those guys. I don't want to take Deandra Swift over a buka, Birdon, Skatibu, or Tyler Warren, or DJ Moore. I would take him behind all those guys, and therefore I have to revoke it because clearly he's not a turnkey guy for me. - And therefore, I have to revoke it. - That's fine. I mean, what am I going to say to that? I think he's right there with Skatibu to me. They're in the same tier. I'd rather have over McClaren, but it's a guy I want. But I look at him. - I'm using your people against you. It's just a cluster of people we like. But he's last in the group. I'd rather have a receiver in that part, because if we get to running backs early, I'm hunting for receivers here. - That's upsetting. - That's upsetting, man. - Okay, so Swift's off the list. So we have Brown, Walker, Henry. - Chase, Brown, Ken, Walker, Derek, Henry. - Cool, we have three second rounders. - All right, then we have John. I think it's representative. And then Jonathan Brooks, are we putting the asterisk that it's sleeper, where he's 120th, but not necessarily Yahoo, where he's 75th? - Yep. - Which I think is just like essentially not a key turn. - All right. - Are we invoking that too? I mean, he's played nine carries in three years. - I think the key turns should be guys that we all really strongly feel good about. And there was definitely some hesitation. - I'm strongly curious about Jonathan Brooks. - Sure, I don't feel, I'm very, yeah. - Scataboo, I wish, man. - I know. - So you can't shot that down quick. - I know. - So we have Jonah Coleman and Chris Rodriguez, but it's really those Brown, Walker, Henry, and then 100 picks later, it's Coleman and Rodriguez. - But I think that feels representative, which we're saying get who running backs early and then backfill it later. That's kind of along the way. But the guys we like are early. Giderrin Price, we didn't even talk about him. All right, that's all right. Receiver, we like the middle round guys. Receiver, the guys that we key turned are Omega Bucke, Mike Evans, Luther Birden, Quentin Johnson, TG Moore to Sean Stribbley. - I like that list. - But not H.I. Brown, no Watson, no digs. - Wait, did we see you as a davante Smith? - No, I pulled it as a davante Smith because I was like, I realized I was like lying where I'm with my head, isn't it? - No Smith, no Watson, are the showers. - If I hit draft, I'm upset. - Right, so to Bucke, it's Evans, it's Birden, it's Quentin Johnson, it's TG Moore, it's Stribbley. - Quarterbacks, we went with Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hertz. - Yep, solid. - And tight ends, it's just Bowers and Warren. - We're breaking new ground here, guys. - Well, so I mean, the lesson here is, you start your draft with two running backs. - Two, yeah. - You draft a bunch of receivers between rounds, like three to seven. One of those rounds, you dedicate to a quarterback. And yeah, receivers lose. Like it's really like, we're like, get two running backs and then make sure, we're basically saying, get one of the top four tight ends as well. It's really what we're saying. We're basically saying, punt on wide receiver. We're like, you need to, we want you to, no, I think essential to it is. - Well, if you have to punt one of the categories, it's kind of receiver. - Well, I guess I don't like the term punt 'cause I think what we're saying is, let's say you start running back, running back. What we're saying is, you kind of need five of your next seven picks need to be wide receiver. - But the other two are getting a guy like Lawrence Herbert or Hertz or like Loveland or Warren or Bowers, I guess, but it's kind of what we're saying. - Yes, but I think, I don't think I'd endorse doing but all those things. If you go running back, running back, and then you get, like Loveland, I would be really hesitant if you end up, if your receiver's ended up being like DJ Moore and then like Josh Downs and stuff, I think that's really bad. Like you know what I mean? Like you don't want to punt on receiver. Like I think if you go running back, like let's say you get James Cook and Derek Henry in the first round and the second round. I don't think you necessarily, they tie the wrong doesn't fall to you, that's fine. I wouldn't get angry. - I would get, the goal for me is to get Ibuka and Mike Evans and Christian Watson. And then if DJ Moore isn't there, then like, oh, and Roma Dunesay, like you want five of the top 30 receivers. - I would think the thing to punt on is tie that. Like I would much rather just go get like a Mecca Ibuka or Mike Evans or something, then like reach for Tyler Warren. If those guys are there, definitely take them, but I would much rather focus on bulking up I'd receiver in the middle rounds. Else you can't get everything you want. - I know it's not good. - You don't want to sacrifice receiver depth, although we're sacrificing receiver top and quality. And we're trying to just hope, but I think you need to make multiple bets at receiver 'cause there's so many guys we like. And I do think you need like a bunch of guys in the middle rounds. Okay. - Yeah. - Do you guys want to hit a couple of other things it is? - What's so funny, DK? - I was just thinking about just the arguments, the name arguments. - It's fun, it's good stuff. - We're all offended at each other for not turning the key. - Also, please keep emailing those punishments to bring your fantasy football league. We got some good ones. Can I run by a few? We talked to, I talked to cousin Sal today and I think we have to talk to him about the punishments. - Yeah, okay. - He's kind of the punishment guru. - Strongly thinks we need to up the game on the punishments. - Of course he does. - People are like, "I won't do that." He was like, "You don't listen to them." He was like, "You just listen to when they're like, "I won't do that." He's like, "You want only punishments "where people react that way." - They just won't do them though, but yeah, okay. - That's what Sal said, and so that's what I said, and Sal was like, "Bring me in. "Sal wants to talk to you guys." - He's gonna be the enforcer. - Sal said he will be the enforcer and he'd public shame campaigns if people refuse. - Okay. - So email is more punishments and Sal's gonna have us enforce it. So email more punishments to ring your fantasy football gmail.com. Okay. Thank you, DK, thank you, Craig. Thank you, Cam, thank you, Austin, thank you, Nick Kill. Thank you, Abou. Thank you, Emma, for listening. Thank you to Nuclear Submarines for this premise and side-filled. Thank you, Lord! Lord! - I'm up, colonial bangers. - Let's hear it. - Not a pop song, not a rap song. This is from 2004.
This is for the Elder Millennials. This is a rock song that came on the other day where I was out and I was like this song Absolutely rocks Every time it's on I'm like I love this song. I sing along to it. It is taking me out by Franz Ferdinand. Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, bang or dude. I need to hear it. Throw it on Yeah, yeah, yeah, so good take me out a white person party anthem or bar. Yeah, it's like in the mr. Brightside kind of categories for white people bangers I am who I am It's so good Scottish I didn't really Franz Ferdinand was Scottish. I don't think It's a good song. I thought Franz Ferdinand was Austrian. Who? Our hey, oh my god. Yeah. Wow. Is that what that song's called holy shit? Yeah, I was like kind of like what is this song and then the chorus hit? I'm like, oh my god So good. Yeah, so if you lonely that's kind of a one second like the second this comes on I know it I feel like this is a song I've heard in a bunch of TV shows But they kind of like have it really low and then they start with the core the chorus drops and they're kind of and I'm yeah Yeah, I thought that was the beginning of the song. I say you don't know Don't you know? Yeah, dude, so it's a good song. No nothing about this band. No nothing about any other song they've ever made, but this song rocks Yeah, that song's pretty sick. Yeah, yeah, I want to mix it up, you know, I like that. Should we do touch tunes? Are we doing Millennial bangers? Are we switching to like is this more touch tunes? We got to get to the end of the month We're doing Millennial bangers summer September where we can change. Okay, touch tunes September I go Rolls off the tongue. Just slows Touch tunes fall. All right friends It's I you know when you Google something and then you're like of course that didn't work I googled France for it and yeah, I don't know why I thought the band would come up Yeah, I'm just like you ever think about how just different the world is now because Like they France for a man took a wrong turn is that the all-time sliding doors like the guy I tried to kill them white literally the all-time leading I think it's probably one of the top ever sliding doors. Can you explain it for the people don't know basically They try to kill one story, but basically this assassin tried to kill for France Ferdinand the Archduke whatever botched up in Sarajevo, I want to say and He'd met he couldn't get to him or whatever like the guy took a different route than he was expecting so he What this assassin went to go just like have a coffee? ejected in at this random spot on a street and then France Ferdinand's driver took a wrong turn turned around came down the street This assassin saw him and shot him started World War one and like million hundreds like I don't know hundreds of millions of people Like chain reaction later being killed in both World War one and World War two I mean because World War two was essentially a collateral from World War one You know like Hitler was World War one vet and he was really upset about how Germany got the shaft in the tree I think Versailles or whatever and then that's why he started what he was doing. It's just like a fucking crazy sliding doors thing I was trying to make sure of the world is like this one guy took a wrong turn I was trying to make sure that there was no reference to like Take me out and France is like kill me or something like France Ferdinand singing a song called take me out But I don't believe there's any connection there But he did there is a line. I'm just a shot away from you. Mm-hmm. I think that's a little reference. You think? And history buffs. I'm sorry if I messed up the story slightly, but that I think the kind of the gist that yeah Crazy France Ferdinand Take me out. There we go. Great song Goodbye everyone You Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus and present in DC Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem call 1-800 gambler or 1-800 my reset call 1-8-88-7-89-77-77 or visit ccp g.org/chat and Connecticut or visit md gamblinghelp.org in Maryland Hope is here visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800 327 5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8-77-8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 1-8-77-77-07-867
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The hosts introduce the 2026 fantasy football season, highlighting top targets and sleepers, and promote an upcoming live draft and show.
They define "turning the key" as unanimous agreement on a player who could be a season-defining pick, regardless of draft round.
Running back targets include Chase Brown (Bengals), Kenneth Walker (Chiefs), Derrick Henry (Ravens), DeAndre Swift (Bears), and Jonathan Brooks (Panthers), with discussion on value and role.
Sleeper running backs like Jonah Coleman (Broncos) and Chris Rodriguez (Jaguars) are endorsed as late-round picks with upside.
Wide receiver targets include Amecca Buka (Buccaneers), Mike Evans (49ers), Luther Burden (Bears), and Quentin Johnson (Chargers), with debates on injuries and team situations.
The hosts reject or caveat picks like AJ Brown (Rams), Devontis Smith (Eagles), and Stefan Diggs (Commanders) due to uncertainty or value concerns.
Late-round options like Cyrus Allen (Chiefs) are discussed as speculative adds, contingent on league cost.
Summary:
The hosts of the Ring of Fantasy football show, Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck, kick off the 2026 season by identifying their favorite fantasy targets and sleepers. They introduce a "turning the key" segment where all three must unanimously agree on a player they consider a potential season-defining pick, ranging from early-round stars to late-round fliers. For running backs, they endorse Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, and Derrick Henry as solid second-round values, praising their workloads and offensive situations.
DeAndre Swift is highlighted as a mid-round steal due to Ben Johnson’s run-heavy scheme, while Jonathan Brooks is a platform-dependent sleeper with high upside. Late-round picks like Jonah Coleman and Chris Rodriguez are recommended as cheap starters with breakout potential. At wide receiver, they back Amecca Buka and Mike Evans despite injury concerns, and Luther Burden as a breakout candidate in Chicago.
Quentin Johnson is a favorite due to his role in the Chargers’ offense, while they pass on AJ Brown and Devontis Smith due to quarterback and team uncertainty. The hosts emphasize value relative to draft position, often preferring proven players over hyped rookies. They conclude with speculative adds like Cyrus Allen for very late picks, stressing that cost and league context matter.
Overall, the episode provides a comprehensive draft strategy, balancing high-floor targets with high-ceiling sleepers to maximize fantasy success.
FAQs
The Ring of Fantasy football league includes Bill Simmons, cousin Sal, Sean Fennesy, Chris Ryan, Mallory Ruben, Dave Chang, Tate Frazier, and Joe House. The live draft is on Friday, August 28th at 11 AM Pacific (2 PM Eastern, 1 PM Central) on Netflix.
The hosts turned their keys on Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, Derrick Henry, Deandre Swift, and Jonathan Brooks (with a platform caveat). They also discussed Cam Scataboo, David Montgomery, and others as potential value picks.
Chase Brown is a great late second-round pick because he has no competition for his job, is heavily used in the passing game, plays in a good offense, and closed 2025 with eight straight games as the number two fantasy running back when Joe Burrow was playing.
The hosts nominate players and each must decide to 'turn their key' if they believe the player is a top target or sleeper. If all three turn their keys, the player is officially endorsed as a top target for the season.
Kenneth Walker is a top target because he's the lead running back for the Chiefs, faces lighter boxes than in Seattle, and has shown elite production when given over 20 touches, averaging 132 scrimmage yards in those games.
The hosts recommend taking high-upside late-round running backs like Jonathan Brooks, Jonah Coleman, and Chris Rodriguez, who could become starters due to injuries or unclear backfields, offering massive value at low draft cost.
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