Speaker 1once i lost so badly in my fantasy football league that i had to eat an entire can of dog food covered in wasabi it was unpleasant but now i found the fantasy footballers element draft kit the days of dog food are gone as i dig into their breakouts values tiered rankings and much more if you want to join me in the winner's circle where you don't have to paint your butt cheeks like an elephant's face head over to www.elementdraftkit.com and prepare for your fantasy draft
Speaker 2welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts andy holloway jason moore and mike right
Speaker 3i realized i had to do a different intro because welcome into the fantasy footballers i'm the backup host for today but andy is here i'm just here so i don't get fined so i couldn't do
Speaker 4right the normal intro it's not a nasty boy show
Speaker 5i kind of panicked and i just said the word yo a lot now i know at least one person out there thinks that you're hosting because you you want because you want more more air time mike we saw
Speaker 3one of those we did see that in the youth so we did a mock draft yesterday youtube was elite yesterday we did a mock draft yesterday and it was very clear from the first um i don't know five seconds of andy talking that the voice is struggling the the the sickness is going around our building i'm doing my best and so the andy's like someone help me and i'm like i'm i'm the hero i can i can do this and then youtube was like well why did mike take over he must be upset that he
Speaker 4doesn't get to talk enough on the podcast the comment was spectacular it was like it was like uh you know the vibe is off today mike mike mike must have complained behind the scenes that he
Speaker 5doesn't get enough talking time there were quite a few wild comments on yesterday's podcast and i'm
Speaker 4yesterday's show but because if you have been around me do we have the it's just weird that it goes from andy to mike leading the mock feels like mike complained he doesn't get to talk as
Speaker 3much as the other guys say if you know anything about me i know that's so great you know that i complain that i don't get to talk enough my favorite thing yeah you are a talker especially
Speaker 4like elevators public spaces but for the time being i will be here at the end of the show and
Speaker 3as the like i said i will be the backup host welcome in it's september 4th it is friday it is mvp day a very special episode uh we go out to the industry we get some of our buddies out there because look we're we're kind of isolated we're our own thing we we're not out there you know it's it's not a disrespect to what other people's work we just we we want to have our opinions our projections and that's what they also do uh as well yeah i always enjoy
Speaker 5hearing them or when we get them in because we don't know who they're gonna pick and i i'm always like is it going to be someone i i like or someone i hate because you know it's just a different perspective it's nice to get um other uh people's fantasy mvp obviously our fantasy mvp is on the show as well that is probably the most important there's so much going andy wouldn't miss this show because it's like this is a big show it's a big day the megalobol drafts start today oh so there are people drafting today uh this whole weekend all the way through the very beginning of the next week we have megalobol drafts if you want to get in on it go to megalobol.com it's free if you're a foot clan member uh just go go and uh and and pick a five days worth of drafts five days worth of drafts get in it's a fun format a fun league and if you win which is difficult you get in the listener league for next year and you get a free uh foot clan for life ultimate membership
Speaker 3and the bragging rights of winning the largest fantasy football tournament that i plan to have at least uh also if you are if you just have your regular fantasy football drafts as well and you're like oh crap i jumped in late we have you covered ultimate draft kit.com that is our premium resource to get you ready for the draft our tiered rankings like if you're just you're trying to binge and get ready as i've talked to plenty of people there's casuals they realized uh-oh we got to get in there uh so ultimate draft kit.com it is still available it still will be updated uh throughout the weekend if there is breaking news i just realized this is the last
Speaker 5show yes we are recording before our league of record draft we won't be on air again before until we have finished our draft how exciting i've got a funny feeling my draft's gonna end up okay
Speaker 3like my final roster well you already drafted yeah you you've already drafted um you've already got all the guys yeah so that's cool i'm pretty excited yeah i'm very excited for you quick
Speaker 4do you like my deep voice you
Speaker 3sound like adam lefkoe lefkoe quick question of the day of the day from jay key in phoenix hey ballers do you guys have any tips so that i don't overreact after week one's performance trying to avoid another sammy watkins oh man the lizard king 42 points in week one sammy watkins in 2019 it was it was uh delightful and i can tell you sammy watkins in 2019 was on my radar my roster oh baby shout out to the lizard king was he in your lineup no or that week one matchup uh i don't think so probably that's four weeks that part i don't remember uh did i trade him no because i had done it guys i had i had patrick mahomes wide receiver one wow i did it i didn't even
Speaker 5remember which team that was for right that was the chiefs am i remembering this right it was
Speaker 4absolutely okay he did it twice he did it two different years yeah so i don't know which one that was yeah maybe i'm thinking of the wrong year here's my answer oh yeah chiefs versus the jaguars in week one impossible yeah oh yeah that's i kept what i actually i actually think the answer to this question what are tips so you don't overreact don't be a human being yeah otherwise
Speaker 3impossible if you can convert to robot you may be able to handle it and take your emotions out because especially if you thought so
Speaker 4something about the player if it's confirming your prior oh my gosh if blake quorum scores three
Speaker 5times in week one just take your lap take your lap you you are the champion and you know what i don't think i mean the truth is bringing up a question like this is enough of just making sure and after week one we'll talk about it again and again oh the 2024 isaiah likely jason oh yeah oh yes the beginning of the end of mark andrews was was dead and gone and it had changed the shift it to likely yeah there's there's all sorts of examples like that last year you know i i was high on justin herbert and justin herbert comes out in week one and scores like a bajillion points
Speaker 4it was like yes the only one that could the only one that you can control is if it is a a player that has done nothing ever and they have a crazy week one like a greg ogletree oh man then you might i mean he's still going to be the top waiver pickup yes yeah but you might be able to say to
Speaker 5let me have another week before i start them yeah i mean another week before you start them but you but you also have to move on week one the data on week one is it it is not like guaranteed that that's going to continue happening but the players that do break out kind of out of the blue like a puka nakua they they usually don't get started in week five um you know we talk about that in the waiver wire analytics is like the the hits in week one are pretty much just don't overreact don't make moves and trade based on that with waiver wire you have to make transactions um so go after those guys but um yeah we'll try to keep you grounded yeah
Speaker 3yeah just tune in we will go over it the guys who explode in week one will give you at least our opinions on it and it's hard man it's really really difficult to sift through that of what is news and notes from around the league the athletics matt barrows i think it's borrows oh i don't know why are we talking about borrows at a time like this pizza time uh said he is sure 49ers tight end george kittle quote won't be on the field for his usual 95 of the offensive snaps
Speaker 5in week one this is thank you for yeah i mean that matt is it's it's obvious that he's not going to be out there for every snap you don't come back off of the achilles barely get to week one and then just because it's a game say okay do what you can't do the question is really if you draft george kittle he made the flight so as of now i presume he's going to be active yes i don't know
Speaker 3if you can start him the what the report that i want is i mr mr barrows or borrows say i'm hearing george kittle as soon as they're in the red zone george kittle will be on the field yeah because if that's the case then then you can still play george kittle like a george get a week one line of three for 17 with two touchdowns if he's playing in the red zone that's not impossible for
Speaker 4george there's just a chance for a little kiddo yes there's a chance for an itty bitty little
Speaker 3kid there is there is some major risk uh so hopefully we'll this is what i'm bringing to the show today yeah some good work over there ravens wide receivers zay flowers return to practice thursday that's good news yeah that was uh starting to get a little sweaty with the undisclosed injury patriots running back travion henderson with his ankle injury not spotted at thursday's practice he has not practiced since august 24 this has been a long time sitting out
Speaker 5obviously they are game planning for week one he's not practicing so this is a player that honestly if if he is active week one i don't you know if you put him out here i love this news because it bails me out of everything you know what i mean like genuinely they're not from the teams you already drafted him bro well no i know i still do think i mean i i do believe that by the second half of the year travion henderson is going to be the the primary running back and and great for fantasy that's the the shot i'm trying to call obviously anyone who is on that side thinking it's going to happen from week one is wrong i mean this before the injury everything was romandre is the lead guy romandre is doing everything better travion still hurting with with pass protection add in the injury there you know i i if i drafted travion henderson obviously depends on my roster but i would be looking for someone else to start and there are other there are other options that um you know some of these backups i mean i don't know if you go to like roshan johnson oh but i mean let's talk about the
Speaker 3news but it's just a reminder the patriots seahawks is wednesday so there's not even right like the extra oh thursday or maybe even the weekend and you're playing the super bowl champs i even if he's back henderson is going to be he'll be low in our rank he'll be a terrifying week one start opening day when he's struggling with pass protection there's and you're against do it yeah i i'm probably finding a different option uh and then late yesterday this one probably
Speaker 4popped through we do really good for my fantasy mvp yeah good for my bold prediction we we don't
Speaker 3have a ton of updates but here's what happened last night bears wide receiver roma dunzey and running back deandre swift left practice early on thursday we did i saw a report that rome was
Speaker 4expected to be fine you're gonna say i think we did get updates that were both very positive i
Speaker 5didn't see the swift one it was a cramp yeah i didn't see that okay i did i swift is fine i had looked when when out i didn't see the swift one i didn't see the swift one i didn't see the swift one a little while after the news broke it was basically the first uh update we got was that the rome thing was minor and it wasn't and they weren't saying anything about it wasn't a concern but that the swift one when he went down in practice was a lot of pain and it looked bad and
Speaker 4um but it was always but if it's a cramped section yeah that was the encouraging thing about the swift news it was not his leg it was like he's grabbing his midsection which
Speaker 5well that's that's that's great i mean i it seems like that means we Swift should be fine for week one. My Roshan, I hadn't seen that it was a cramp yet, and I hadn't gotten the update. Brother, you've got to start hydrating the day before. I'm pretty sure they stay. I think Swift is hydrating all the time.
Speaker 3Well, then you need the pickle juice.
Speaker 5There it is. That's the solution.
Speaker 4Butterfly stretch and pickle juice. I don't know why this is so hard. Seriously, why? It's really not that difficult. Why are NFL teams?
Speaker 3They're not coming to us. We have the answers. We know you're listening. We know that.
Speaker 4Just come to us. If you just go to butterflystretch.com, you will understand. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 3I forgot we did that.
Speaker 4By the way, currently active groinindex.com. Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, we're back. We're back. Oh, groinindex lives. Well, that is. Which is very, you might notice similarities between groinindex.com and butterflystretch.com.
Speaker 3You might, but that's the best news that I have heard all day.
Speaker 4Novelty domains are, are our expertise. Also, how does nobody own butterflystretch.com? Well, somebody does now. I mean, you can't make offers. I am willing to sell.
Speaker 3Before we jump into the fantasy MVP, we're going to take our first quick break.
Speaker 2Who's your fantasy MVP?
Speaker 3Andy has the buttons, but I am the host. That was incredible teamwork.
Speaker 4Yeah, I heard it. And then, you know. Then you thought about it.
Speaker 3And you were like. That's it. Oh, yeah, that's me. Reminder. So fantasy MVP, we reached out to our friends around the industry. And we said basically like, you know, this is, this is up to you. Is it your favorite value pick? Of the draft? Is it you're just your favorite pick? Is it you're, you're calling your shot on a breakout? So we kind of leave it open to the, the fantasy expert and they're just their insight, how they want to handle it. So we're going to start off here. Great friend of the show. Rich rebar at Lord Reeves from over at sharp football analysis. Absolutely legendary mind in the space. Let's hear what he has to say.
Speaker 6All right. Footballers this year. My fantasy MVP is Colston Loveland. He ended the season. With at least 15% of the team's targets in each of the final nine games was target on 24.7% of his routes for just under two yards per out run over that span. And over the final five games, he played on 81% of the team dropbacks receiving a target on 31% of his routes with 2.34 yards per out run. Even in a split season of work as a rookie, he showcased his weekly upside. He had four top three scoring weeks at the position. Only Trey McBride matched that and had more. And as Loveland came on to close the season, we saw Ben Johnson adopt more of that. 1213 personnel, they were sixth and 12 personnel, second and 13 personnel over that span. Chicago is elevating Luther burden into DJ Moore's role. This allows Loveland to remain a featured target in the offense and commit Cole commits presence. Let's Loveland move around the formation and arguably the de facto slot receiver. But as a rookie, he played everywhere. 57% snaps in line, 22% from the slot, 17% out wide, and he can win everywhere. Ben Johnson wants to score the most points in NFL history and Colson Loveland's going to score the most points. For any tight end this season. Oh, well, that ended with a fire take.
Speaker 3I love it. Lord Reeves, Lord of the nerds, Reeves and his dad. I mean, he always brings incredible information.
Speaker 5Obviously you agree with this, Mike, since that is, yeah, no notes. That's one of your, my guys. So there is a lot of unanimous, um, opinion on Loveland here. We are kind of all in on Loveland.
Speaker 3Yeah. That one. I have a, I have no notes. All right. Ian. I heart it's of a Roto wire, absolute domination on Twitter at I heart it's. You can find him and he, I mean, he's always cracking me up over there, giving you good insights and good jokes. Let's see who his fantasy MVP is.
Speaker 7What's up? Fancy footballers. Ian heart. It's here from team Roto wire with my 2026 fancy football MVP. Give me dolphins wide receiver, Chris bell. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Get your laughing. Parker Washington or a chase Brown, like these other alleged fantasy football experts, man, the people's I give the people a true sleeper. They can get in the last round of your home league draft. And that is Mr. Chris bell. I dare you watch that game against Miami last season. And tell me this dude doesn't look like the second coming of Mr. AJ Brown without the knee injury. We were looking at a legit round one talent who's now recovered. We got out there in the preseason. We're off the pop list. We are ready to go for week one in an offense with nobody else to throw the football to look at this death chart. Malik. Washington, Caleb Douglas, Dajon, love Jalen Tolbert. You told me Chris bell is not going to rise to the top of that immediately. I know Ian, it's a dolphins. They're going to run the ball. Are they going to run the ball? That's a great thing to say in August. Not when you're down 28 at halftime in every single game, like we're expecting. What about Malik Willis? Could he be good or okay? You look at him over the last two years, small sample be damned. He ranks first in, um, everything we can possibly measure about a quarterback. Chris bell. Chris Bell is a young baller with a path to breeze past triple digit targets with the quarterback who might not suck. That's my pitch. Love you guys. He, uh, he snuck Dajon love.
Speaker 5Yeah, he did.
Speaker 3I said, he's, he's a jokester. Andy is applauding. Andy loves this.
Speaker 5You Andy is like, Oh, do you have any bets on dolphins to win the Superbowl? Not yet. Cause you're going to get some great numbers.
Speaker 4It would have been a perfect time to go to do Sir's alley for a dolphin, but the dolphins not there. So I'll have to go. Yeah. Josh, your best dolphin.
Speaker 5Oh, no, you bet your best dolphin. It's not bad for a guy who literally used to be a dolphin train.
Speaker 4That's that's a dolphin being killed.
Speaker 3Yeah. Uh, I think someone with a machine gun, we have a, we had a, a deucer who was like, Oh, Monday's labor day. I know he's what do you think? We don't know what you're, I called it vacation maxing.
Speaker 4Yeah. He knows he's got Monday off for labor day. So he's wrapping up. Yeah. It's not a busy time of year.
Speaker 3I think the biggest draft weekend, I think the calendar is going to include some extras. Extra no, no days. Oh my gosh. You ruined it for everyone, Matt. Hope you're happy.
Speaker 4One half decent dolphin. Yeah.
Speaker 3Imagine that. impersonation and he can get out of town chucks up the deuces i'm out of here so chris bell uh we know andy's in on it i'm i'm concerned about the early season here of missing so much training camp and really being able to go but that is my is my voice good enough to make a small compelling
Speaker 5yeah sure you're gonna have to do it for your mvp anyways i know so let's yeah do you want to
Speaker 3save it or you want to no i just ruin it on chris bell the point the funny thing is to me and i'm
Speaker 4just i'm gonna try not to be like dogmatic about this because it's certainly not a guarantee the dolphins are any good whatsoever the the thing that i think is so funny is it's like they were a terrible football team with mike mcdaniel and tuatunga bailoa okay i know you can go back two years and say their offense was humming and functioning they were not last year and well
Speaker 3i would just remind you they were seven and ten last year so they like
Speaker 4to call to say they're an awful team let me put it in the category of whatever gets you fired yes okay that's fine sub 500 and the offense struggled mike mcdaniel's fired we bring in not mike mcdaniel and we bring in not tuatunga bailoa and the default place for all fantasy analysts is worse and worse i just want the i want the possibility here when you have a head coaching change when you have a regime change when you have a quarterback change it can get worse it can get better some teams we have high expectations for and they don't show up and they're not the guy that we think they're going to be it's like the chargers every year or sometimes we're surprised and maybe bringing in a bunch of new coaches and a bunch of new training staff and a bunch of new systems and the numbers that hard it said about malik willis maybe maybe malik willis isn't the best at every single thing because of the small sample size but what if he's pretty darn good because sure he was drafted with draft capital that was i mean we've done this now 10 times with the sam darnolds right with the geno smiths baker mayfields development is under appreciated at the level and we discount and throw players away malik willis was not a good quarterback in tennessee that was a long time ago i love matt lafleur and green bay in their system i just want to leave the door cracked open for a middle tier offense and that will change the landscape for bell for willis for a chan and the team i think it's in reverse i think
Speaker 5it's they need they need bell or douglas they're two rookies to step up to become a middle tier offense like so it's it's one in the same if they are middle tier then then one of those two guys really really hit for me in the draft draft day this weekend i'm taking my shot on caleb douglas the rookie they drafted ahead of him who's been great at camp because my assumption is week one week two the first month of the season i think caleb douglas is going to be playing more than 75 of snaps and i think chris bell is going to be worked in slowly so the first opportunity to hit if i'm i don't want to hold on to chris bell for a month if he's playing 50 snaps while they while he's still working back from the injury i would be shocked if week one he's out there for 75 plus percent of the snaps after missing all training camp i know he got into a preseason game i think
Speaker 4you're right about the snaps but i think that there's a chance that after week one you you have a couple of massive plays it's not all going to be snap count it's going to be who makes the plays and i think chris bell could surprise people but i mean i'm obviously with hard it's on
Speaker 3this yeah i like the pick because it is this is a sleeper that that even in really intense leagues you can get chris bell late and he was projected to be a first round pick before the end and funny enough jason your your case that you laid out that's why i prefer malik washington like i want the vet who i uh will be a starter and like while the other guy while the rookies are working their way in i think that malik could be a serviceable ppr guy catching you know five or six passes you know what
Speaker 4this sounds like it sounds like three different names that that you guys that we're going with yeah malik gets to throw to all of these superstars all of these superstars that's
Speaker 3what i take your shots all right next on the list he's here every single year because he is truly one of our favorite people one of our just a good man good human and a spectacular fantasy
Speaker 5analyst what this isn't i thought this is jj wait who is it me yeah i'm talking about me oh you yeah you are a great man a spectacular analyst no it's jj but you said nice things i know because i'm all
Speaker 3about guys i'm i'm thrown off here i'm hosting a three-person show i don't know what i'm supposed
Speaker 5to do with my hands i mean i don't think you just love to talk look jj's a good guy sure and a good analyst okay uh i've seen his pick but it's great his hair oh yeah i don't know if you can really leave that up to the youtube youtube.com slash the fantasy football all right jj take it
Speaker 8away when i think about a fantasy football mvp i think about outliers i think about a player who just ends up being special and doing something special and sometimes you have to take a chance on those players and one guy i'm willing to take a chance on this year is luther burden there's a real chance that roma dunze is just a better traditional wide receiver than burden but i'm a believer that burden fits exactly what ben johnson wants to do scheme his guys open give them a lot of space to work with and let them do their thing with the ball in their hands burden excels at that back in college among all wide receivers my wide receiver zap model burden had a 98th percentile avoided tackles per reception rate and an 84th percentile yak per reception and when he got his opportunity last year he thrived he finished with the third best rookie season yards per outrun of any wide out since 2011 with 100 or more routes and he ran a route on more than half of chicago's dropbacks in each game from week 11 through the end of the fantasy season last year in those contests he was 10th in targets per outrun second in yards per outrun and fifth in ppr points per outrun i actually think burden's floor is actually okay given the environment in chicago but the ceiling case is definitely there that's why i'm making him my fantasy mvp this year and by the way even though i know you guys are going to use that picture of me with a bowl cut in your video for this i still love you
Speaker 5we changed the picture yeah we didn't use the picture we didn't use we didn't use the picture the boy grew up to be a man yeah that was the haircut he had as a boy placed on him as a man
Speaker 4i assume that's what he still has we might have given him some worst
Speaker 3uh no notes i love luther burden um the man what if the bears disappoint i so you know how i do on
Speaker 5the bold prediction show i always pick some hot new hot offense that i think is going to disappoint they were like on the the shortlist i couldn't do it of course you couldn't do it because i literally think ben johnson i think ben johnson's gonna get it done but everyone is in you know obviously we got a caleb uh my guy we've got a loveland my guy we have a bears big bold prediction now we've got a burden and loveland uh mvp come on don't let us down caleb historically bears bets are bad bets yes this this is really genuinely what's funny is like we're betting on all these people we're betting on the talent we're betting on ben johnson and burden and loveland none of it comes true if caleb doesn't
Speaker 3sure level up so good thing he's my guy yeah no i know come on caleb the thing so luther burden if you hadn't heard he is back at practice his the groin injury that is kind of like a he's not on groin index.com he's it's a bit of a blessing because luther burden's adp had reached a point where it was just what are we doing what are we doing here i love luther burden i love the the potential the upside but we're we're drafting him around wide receivers where i'm confident in who they are as players where luther is we we still don't know but now i'm seeing a sleeper adp of wide receiver 26 going in at the 601 that is that's great that's so fine that's so amazing i mean i got to draft him in our our mock draft for like the first time
Speaker 5of this off season he was being drafted in inside the top 20 in the fourth round um just like a month ago so yeah i think the groin actually did make him a viable option this year all right
Speaker 4groin makes me a viable option as well this is my contribution to the game
Speaker 3going to keep this train moving good friend of the show uh former nfl running back former nfl fantasy superstar i think he wants to i mean i think former is presumptive i think
Speaker 4there there's a chance he's trying to he could become current soon be i was i was a little hesitant but i went with a couple injuries happen i think you see this guy on a roster
Speaker 3it is austin eckler champion of workouts a like i said an absolute fantasy superstar for a while the fantasy community loves and adores eckler and he's just he's in it he's been on this he's a famous few times he is a fantasy guy so let's see who his mvp is austin eckler here in my fantasy mvp this year
Speaker 9is christian mccaffrey no one gets the volume that christian mccaffrey does no one is dependent on a running back like the 49ers are the upside for christian to have another massive year like he did last year is right there in his hands yes he has to stay healthy 100 but guess what in the years that he stayed somewhat healthy in the last four years three out of those years he's been a top three back come on uh yes there's some other great options out there but i think for the most potential point output christian mccaffrey is the go-to also i am running a free-to-play contest this year it's a fantasy league if you want to join my fantasy league this year check it out at fantasy rail sports if you think i don't know what i'm talking about with my pick come try and beat me i'll see you over there appreciate you guys have a good one austin
Speaker 3eckler doing his oh no he's going again i was like whoa he really psyched me out it was tough
Speaker 4because i was in the chat and i was telling al i go really nice presentation on this one you know throwing it on the back wall the picture and then and then you know the loop the loop was in there
Speaker 3and kept him humble so eckler but really nice doing his best fantasy hitman impression going all in on christian mccaffrey there's we don't really need to say much about mccaffrey if he's healthy he's healthy he's good if he's healthy he will be a league winning running back you know
Speaker 4what's really tough is you know what's really tough is what okay so there are guys like ken walker mike you like ken walker yeah omari and hampton jason okay if you had those guys walker and hampton you'd rather have cmc is that the answer yes because yeah i in your voice is exactly what i'm getting at because we i don't know what the compensation should be in a trade for that situation like if you have those guys there's part of me that's like i definitely want cmc more of course it could be number one and then there's part of me that goes would i really give up that much more than hampton or than walker or than you know name another james cook i mean i find myself in a weird place with cmc where it's like i know how good it can be but i don't like the san francisco vibes and i just i think part of it is in the back of my head cmc lost the like the volume's been there and that will it's going to get him through and he'll probably be there again but he did lose some of his time and he's
Speaker 5going to lose some of the explosiveness i don't know yeah it's tough i mean you can take him anywhere from the third pick to the you know you could pass on him to the to the end of the first round and i think that that's all reasonable obviously austin eckler he's saying i'm i'm buying in i'm not afraid of the injury and you know as a former slash current potentially uh
Speaker 3nfl running back he should know a thing or two which i did forget about this we got a blurb and james talking potential i mean like he lives in vegas now and he's he's putting the bat signal up i was like hey raiders well he's he's talking about some echoes that was probably during the
Speaker 5prayer circle injury oh virginity yeah he's talked on his socials quite a bit about like
Speaker 4waiting for the right situation and also at this stage of his career just being a great third down
Speaker 3back yeah the pass catching which i bet he could still be great at that one oh for sure yeah all right we're going to take our second quick break and come back with the rest of our fantasy mvps next on the list it's our guy matthew betts at the fantasy pt he is our injury expert a certified pt he helps host on the dynasty pod and our fantasy footballers dfs and betting show one of our head writers let's see who betsy's got is his mvp all right foot planet it's time for my
Speaker 10fantasy MVP and like most people out there i love the lions offense this year unfortunately if you don't have the first pick you're not getting jameer gibbs if you don't have a pick somewhere in the middle part of the first round you're probably not getting amanara st brown so if that's you and you can't get those guys i think jameson williams is an awesome awesome pick in the middle rounds of your draft getting him as your wide receiver two or wide receiver three i just want pieces of this offense on paper they project to be one of the best in football they are third in average implied team total favored in 14 of 17 games and that's all with the lions defense specifically the secondary projected to struggle this year especially early on as they deal with so many injuries in the secondary they could be one of these shootout teams similar to the cowboys to the bangles over the last couple years and if that happens i think all pieces of the offense are going to eat this year so give me jameson williams who transformed into a completely different player in the back half of the year last year when dan campbell took over basically with john morton he was just a deep ball type guy high variance low usage type of receiver guns mahoney said no no no we need jameson williams for this offense to work i think that this self-scouting from dan campbell and the staff they just know how important he is to the offense so i am buying a player who in my opinion is still on the ascension as far as a talent in the nfl look you know jamo has been a guy we've kind of heard about off and on for various reasons early in his career usually not the best reasons it's been radio silent out of detroit for jameson williams which is actually in my opinion a good thing like he's learning to become a pro learning how to beat the ball and he's learning how to beat the ball and he's learning how to beat the ball an nfl wide receiver and the area was still pointing up for a guy that is average two plus yards per outrun in back-to-back seasons over 11 yards per target two years in a row so give me jameson williams in the middle round of your draft take him as your wide receiver two or your wide receiver three and let's go win some foot clan titles i had no idea this was his pick i didn't
Speaker 3either i'm a little sad it wasn't christian watson well i mean look i can't go back to the well and
Speaker 4my guy jamo another year i would never you want to i would never double up on a lion back to back right the lessons learned but um i mean i think we all acknowledge the drumbeat around jameson the end of the season the comments from golf dan campbell being you know somebody that switched to the play calling i i don't know like jamo
Speaker 3amon raw both top 10 not impossible yep i mean jamo was was jamo top 10 last year i mean he was
Speaker 4close right yeah i thought 10 or 11 uh let me see i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't
Speaker 3know let me look that up yeah i mean it wasn't consistent but is is that that's the big question probably 10 right the question is will nine nine will we get consistent can i get an eight will we get consistent jameson williams this year for the detroit lions going in the middle rounds
Speaker 5he's 58th pick off the board i mean he's the wide receiver 25 on the lions after finishing as the wide receiver nine no one wants i i love this pick i've i've completely turned around like early offseason i i don't like the style of player but when you can have a real high variance player that's that i mean this is the fifth round back of the fifth this is like your wide receiver make
Speaker 3some notes here where that's how you win a league wide receiver 25 at the back of the fifth on
Speaker 4sleeper back of fifth all right jameson williams you like that in the back of the fifth just make
Speaker 3some notes for later okay go on well we go from wide receiver 25 to currently the running back 25 we switch over to k borg kyle borgannoni host of the dynasty pod the dfs and betting show he is on there as well and he is the king of unnecessary statistics let's see what he has to say foot clan
Speaker 11for 2026 fantasy mvp i'm going with jadarian price rookie running back for the seattle seahawks i looked at every single first round running back taken over the last decade and the only ones who went later than prices 60 ninth overall draft price nice we're sony michelle and rashad penny in redraft he is being discarded and disrespected in drafts based on simply being behind jeremiah love in college and a lack of true pass catching opportunities but much like ken bone walker coming out of college the issue is not can he be a difference maker in the receiving game but his opportunities head coach mike mcdonald raved this offseason about the fact that no one on his championship winning defense has been able to cover him yet in practice and beats have consistently talked about his receiving abilities and wheel routes out of camp i felt like i was on an island on the dynasty podcast but i came away super impressed from his film the contact balance his initial burst and his vision in the open field especially as a kick returner the george halani hive though a small but mighty bunch can kindly shut the hell up zach sharp is on ir and he will be slow played when he returns are we really going to overthink a talented first round rookie running back on a top tier offense going in the late sixth round on espn give me that value and a player who can be a fantasy mvp in 2026 oh
Speaker 3man kyle kyle's he does not stand for those halani you are he's a feisty man halani bros
Speaker 4shove it sorry to the audience i guess why is horse boy on the screen there's a red alarm and a horse that's on me that's on me that's on me i don't we have a process here in the show where if something goes wrong the horse boy comes up on the screen as sort of it's like the technical difficulty it's the blue screen of death standby for our studio that's on me give me a horse boy okay now let's come back i also want to apologize to our listening audience i set a precedent an effective one a few weeks ago and apparently it just opened the floodgates for kyle's loose lips now i will say i love everything he said it is all about you always nice to get uh when when you're alone on a player to get um another validating opinion i
Speaker 3love price i love the opportunity the i i still i'm not 100 sure how they are going to handle price look they they should rational coaching says jadarian jadarian price should come in immediately as a first-round pick and be a bell cow running back to in my opinion to spend that draft capital and not use that a player like that immediately is just, it's malpractice and you should be removed moved from all decision-making ability i don't know what exactly they're going to do uh and look right now right now the competition is holani it seems like he should that should be an easy no problem charbonnet will be back at some point and i think that you will have an interesting there could be an interesting change like at that point has price been so good that they they hold off and their their love for charbonnet they have to you know they have to just eat it and let jadarian price keep out their cooking i think there's there's a lot of of things that could go wrong for jadarian price but the the adp price point is at a point where like he's in the dead zone but he's the type of dead zone running back that is still worth a bet with your with your
Speaker 5draft pick i i will say this his current average draft position i am very very in on jadarian price there that is not where he is like you can't look at his adp and think i'm getting him later in every league now that real drafts are happening he is going much higher when we did our mock draft yesterday he went in the middle of the fourth round his adp is like almost
Speaker 3sixth round our mock draft was crazy running back heavy yeah and i i i think that's gonna
Speaker 5have it because when i look at the when i look at the adp and i see where price is it's just delightful i mean he's behind trevo he's behind um you know guys that just you know judkins and um bucky and david montgomery and i think i think he's
Speaker 4going to be going ahead of a lot of them well i i certainly was the one that took him yesterday that high so you guys know how i feel about him i think in a lot of leagues he'll still sneak further if you're drafting on a platform with the adp printed he's gonna sneak through if you're in looking for a starter running backs go soon you want to guarantee i mean you want to take
Speaker 3romandre you want to take jazarian price price romandre is a tough one because i think that romandre is going to have just disgusting but really great production those other guys though it's like judkins bucky i i don't mind taking the the bet david montgomery yeah oh montgomery for
Speaker 5sure come on and you're you're saying your price over to those guys yes yes yes yes absolutely
Speaker 3all right one more of our friends before we get into our own the three of us are fantasy mvps friend of the show mina kimes we were lucky enough to jump on her show and she was kind enough to reciprocate that with her fantasy mvp mina kimes from espn all right the mvp show
Speaker 4marches on as we welcome in an award-winning journalist and nfl analyst and the host of the mina kimes show appropriately it is mina kimes joining us today and uh we're going to uh mina we are excited to have you with us and fantasy managers out there are trying to find the diamond in the rough trying to find the player that's going to take them over the top and uh who better to ask than uh the one the only mina kimes who do you have as your fantasy football mvp for
Speaker 122026 yeah so the way i interpreted this and i just want to make sure i understand it's kind of obviously it's not bijon robertson or jameer gibson that is correct okay you got it yeah i was thinking back to my first year espn has this thing called the war room league where it's like all the espn talent are in it and my very first year that i got the invitation which was quite an honor i won because i had amon ross saint brown and it was i believe the 2022 season where in the second half he just went crazy the rookie year when he became the playoff king right before he was amon ross saint brown and i think i got him in like the third round or something i really liked him but so and i also but i don't want to be like too hipster and pick like a crazy sleeper so i'm trying to thread the needle here of like a guy okay good i understand it that i think is going to be on a lot of winning teams a guy that i desperately want on my own teams hopefully no one in espn war room league's listening to this i want every piece of a marion hampton this year okay yeah you and jason both that is one of my
Speaker 5three my guys this year so we are in sync tell me your reasons why oh man first of all the fantasy
Speaker 12name hampton in i want it for a few weeks uh hampton in you get it um aside from that lovely free breakfast hotel chain i there's a lot i like about him so first of all i think he's really good i just purely from a film watching tape had went last year horrible circumstances hit by in line of scrimmage constantly but when he was healthy he was not only like kind of shockingly productive i think it was really good in a way that's going to really translate in the mike mcdaniel offense so we know from miami mike mcdaniel can basically gin up a run game out of nothing right they're right dolphins were extremely good at despite the fact that nobody respected the passing game at the end that run game is all about running outside the tackles mcdaniel uses all kinds of big bodies some of which he brought with him i call alec ingold his emotional support fullback to los angeles but we know that he wants to get his backs outside the tackles in space uses a lot of creative shenanigans to create those opportunities marion hampton even though last year he wasn't you know he was obviously injured but it was in terrible circumstance when he ran outside the tackles i just pulled this up 5.5 yards per carry he actually tied deandre swith first in the nfl league wide epa per carry outside the tackle so i just feel it's like a dream match between the running back and the play caller and like i even if he's not devon a chan i still think
Speaker 4he's going to be amazing yeah i mean big fan of hampton over here and jason we all have him pretty high in our ranks and the other thing standing out right now is like how healthy is he going to be is keaton mitchell going into the season where you're going to see the pass catching downs and
Speaker 5things like that right yeah you won't get any argument from me on that i mean it was basically the exact same argument the matchup of the uh offensive coordinator and then the offensive line getting better i i'm all in on the chargers but uh that always feels like a well fool me again
Speaker 3this year yeah the chargers are the ultimate oh what was your excuse this year why like they just keep there's no excuses this year it's gonna work i mean they've well they already lost they already lost alignment for for the season
Speaker 12yeah we say that everyone like this is it justin herbert no more mr if and then they lose the center and then like the guard is some guy you've never heard of and trey pipkins is suddenly back in the conversation um yeah i i think daniel's really good at covering up for that though um and the other thing you mentioned keaton mitchell i have him in dynasty god rest my soul and which was amazing his i felt really smart like brilliant honestly his rookie season i know people are a little bit freaked out about that but i'm sure you guys uh have talked about this in depth mike mike is kind of a liar right like i know yes he is okay okay so we are on the same page here he gotta run the hell out of hampton like devon ha had 238 carries last year right like so i just don't think also hampton himself is a very underrated pass catcher i feel like that's another thing where he could produce a lot but yeah i'm not too scared i'm not planning on starting keaton mitchell in my dynasty league and i think that
Speaker 4is influencing my hampton love yeah absolutely yeah the uh the lying mike mcdaniel we've seen the he'll get between zero and 30 carries or whatever comment he had last year for some of his players um you heard it here first yep fantasy football mvp for mina kimes is a marion hampton and jason's a happy man there you have it mina kimes is going with what a voice that uh the host
Speaker 3had on that little clip yeah that third voice i don't even i barely even recognize it jason do
Speaker 5you have any notes no notes uh great job i am in on hampton and i love the pairing with mcdaniel
Speaker 3all right it's time for our three jason we are going to start with you who is your favorite player in the fantasy football league and who is your favorite player in the fantasy
Speaker 5mvp my fantasy mvp this year is a.j brown i uh i am you know i i truly believe the difference between you know a my guy and and a fancy mvp to me and i think it might be different to all of us is someone that is a true just absolute league winner just could be smat i i think in the range of outcomes a.j brown could be the number one wide receiver in in fantasy football but also where he's going i find i think he's going to be the number one wide receiver in fantasy football i just i love it because in the beginning of drafts when you get if you are near the end of the first round that is where usually over the course of this offseason you're drafting either justin jefferson or drake london if you go wide receiver but i really like the running backs that are available there personally i've got a.j brown ahead of those two wide receivers and i can get him in the second round so i feel like it's this really nice combination of where he's going is totally acceptable and here's the case for why i think he's actually like a good player this year the whole the whole thing against a.j brown is just did does he lose it you know if it's gone it's gone he's an older player um you know his numbers weren't quite as great last year so maybe we saw the beginning of the end and if so then he's going to be a terrible pick but i don't think that that's the case at all we saw through camp he dominated he dominated the total targets through training camp in in targets and receptions there were certain matchups when they were playing against uh uh the the seahawks in practices those inner team practices where the beat reporters are just saying he he just dominated like he's they've never seen someone dominate especially around the red zone he was the wide receiver 10 last year and he missed two games and also um he was on a team that threw for 3 400 yards now he goes to a team that last year threw for 4 400 yards add another thousand yards in there, you also get a much better pass. quarterback. I love Jalen Hurts. I think he's a good quarterback. He is not the same passing quarterback that Drake May is. Drake May and Brown is an elite stack. May threw 10 plus yards down the field at the fifth highest rate. And on those throws, he led the quarterbacks in completion rate, success rate, and passer rating. You lose Stephon Diggs, A.J. Brown comes in, he's going to get all the targets for a great quarterback. And if you go, okay, well, he's old and he's switching teams, and so I'm out. There are a tier of wide receivers, a real special, like these guys aren't just a good wide receiver. These guys are one of the best in the league, which A.J. Brown over the last, you know, seven years has been one of the best wide receivers in the league. You've got enough examples, like Randy Moss when he went to the Patriots. Obviously, he's first-ball Hall of Famer. Yeah, that worked out. But, I mean, he set the NFL touchdown record with 23 touchdowns, 1,500 yards. Devontae Adams, when he went to the Raiders at 29, 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns. Brandon Marshall at age 31, 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns. Terrell Owens at 30, 1,214 and only 14 games.
Speaker 4Did you mention that Moss was 30 as well?
Speaker 5I don't know if I gave his age. He was 30 when he went to New England. Exactly. A.J. Brown is... 29. You know, he's going to a perfect environment with a quarterback that fits him so well. This was like the argument for George Pickens and Dak Prescott last year. What Drake May does great, A.J. Brown does great. They need him. They've got vacated targets. He's going to be loud. It all lines up to me where it's either he's lost it and he's not good anymore and he's a terrible pick, or if he's still A.J. freaking Brown, he's going to go out there, and have 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns. That's very much in his range of outcomes. So he's my fantasy MVP. I'm in on him. I am bullish on him not having lost it.
Speaker 4I mean, I like A.J. Brown. Yeah, I'm all in. I get it. I've been there. I know that there is... I think the offense altogether has some regression coming, potentially, efficiency-wise. But, you know, the biggest argument of that extra 1,000 yards passing offense, I mean, it's hard to... I think it just does come down to, is he the same guy? Right. That's it. And you want me to go next, Mike? Sure. So we talked about Jamison Williams earlier, who I think is a discount in drafts. Wide receiver, 25 in the back of the fifth round. The way I view the fantasy MVP pick is somebody that you can always draft that is going to be a complete game-changer for your team over the back half of the year. This guy is the highest-paid free agent receiver in the history of the National Football League when he signed. He is going in the eighth and ninth round. Both of them? Yeah, eight. Wow. I mean, yes. The answer is yes, based on the league. Sleeper and ESPN. It is Alec Pierce of the Indianapolis Colts. I have been in the Alec Pierce camp. I don't really... I have a hard time understanding why people are not on board with Alec Pierce. This is a team that... Like, he went out last year. His game's with... Basically, he had a concussion in the beginning of the year. When he came back from the concussion, this was like 1250-yard pace, despite the fact he lost Daniel Jones for part of the year. Then the team lets Michael Pittman depart. Then the team pays him $114 million. This is not a nine... Even though he's led the league in yards per reception, you go look at his routes last year, 55% of them... I mean, I watched so much Alec Pierce last year during the season. He was on my teams. He ran 55% digs, ins, crossings, go routes. I mean, he does more than people understand that he can do. And then you get rid of the intermediate guy, and you say, well, Josh Downs is just going to step in and fix that. Keenan Allen's going to step in and fix that. No, their number one wide receiver is Alec Pierce. If you look at Detroit, Detroit has Amon Ross, St. Brown, Jameer Gibbs in the passing game, and Sam Laporta. Go compete with Jamison Williams for those targets. That's why you get more variability there. I think Alec Pierce is going to wake people up to the type of player he is in a fantasy environment. We looked at every 1,000-yard receiver and where they went the next year in drafts historically. Over the last five years, the only 1,000-yard receiver drafted later than Pierce, we saw a 34-year-old Adam Thielen and a 32-year-old DeAndre Hopkins. Oh, Adam! You've been gone for so long! And then we saw a 33-year-old Stephon Diggs. Thank you for remembering me. And a traded Wanda Robinson, because Wanda had 1,000 last year, and he's not going high this year. Otherwise, Pierce is literally, statistically, the cheapest 1,000-yard receiver. And he's not 33, 32, 34 years old. He's going into the prime of his career. And so I don't think, I mean, this is the wide receiver 23 being drafted in the ninth round right now. Last start, I don't know. Is Daniel Jones an MVP? He was for the first seven weeks last year, and then he was injured. So there are questions, but there's margin for all error for this pick to still be a home run for your fantasy team. I think Alec Pierce belongs in the Jamison Williams category area of drafts, but he's being drafted in the eighth or ninth round. And let me give you a little spoiler alert. That's where he'll go this weekend. Guaranteed. Yeah. He's not going. He's not going anywhere else. No. I've been wanting, you know, the injury slowed up my ability to really get behind him because we just didn't know how available he'd be. To me, this is just crazy. Last year with Michael Pittman, he was a B in consistency. So this whole talk of like, he only does one thing. No, he wasn't doing one thing. He exceeded 10 and a half fantasy points 53% of the time. That beat Devontae Smith. That beat Jefferson. That beat Jalen Waddle last year. There's a reason they paid him $114 million. And if the Colts didn't do it, he was getting it somewhere else. He was going to be the best free agent on the market. So to me, this was a commitment to him. And I look at that depth chart and I say, well, who else is catching the ball in high value, important plays? I mean, he's proven he can score touchdowns. Last year, his pace, 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns with Michael Pittman. I don't know. I'm all in.
Speaker 5I think the cost is wonderful. The ankle injury that's kept him off. I mean, this is buying the injury dip, which I don't usually, I don't usually like, but the statistically, when we talk about that, we're talking about the higher drafted players that drop a round or two. When you're this low and you're in the eighth or ninth round, I'm looking at ADP and some of the guys who's going around. Cortland Sutton. No, like what is the upside case, right? Because when you're drafting this late, that's the only thing you need to worry about. If it doesn't work out for, for Cortland Sutton or Alec Pierce or anyone in that range, it doesn't matter. It didn't cost you that much. You're just drafting. Like, what if it does work out? And obviously the best case scenario for Alec Pierce would be that he, you know, really does become the possession guy, the number one for a good offense. And that's in his range of outcomes. So, you know, I was not having a lot of love for Alec Pierce most of the off season. I assumed he would be back healthier earlier, be higher in ADP. You're right, Andy, this weekend, he's going to stay right where he's at behind tons of other players. This episode isn't going to move him quick enough. And yeah, he's definitely worth taking a shot there.
Speaker 3Looking at mine and Andy's fantasy MVP. I think what we did was we took my guys that we just were like, ah, yeah, there's just, there's just a little bit too much going on for me to go full my guy with this player. But I love them because we think they are difference makers. I'm going with the running back from Jacksonville, Bay Shaw, tootin going as the running back 26. And I've been the, I've been the, the bull case for Bay Shaw to know the show. And yet even if you guys, you aren't where I am, we're still above market with, with where we are with Bay Shaw to, and I'm seeing a running back 26 ADP on sleeper. Our consensus has him as the running back 21. I love Liam Cohen. I love the Jaguars offense. I took them in. There are our top 12 offenses draft. I think they're going to be extremely, extremely high powered. I will start it with the, I am accepting the risk when I'm, when you draft tootin you it's, it's an ambiguous backfield for, for a reason. You don't a hundred percent know how things are going to shake out. What I do know is that we have, you know, essentially two, two strong years of Liam Cohen data when he was the OC for Tampa Bay, where Bucky Irving had over 200 carries and 52 targets. And I can say, you know what else happened on that team? Rashad white had 144 carries and 57 targets. Now the Jags are not, it's a different offense in the box. The Jags are, are just dripping with, with wide receiver depth. But my point is there's a lot to go around in a Liam Cohen offense. Like while Bucky, we looked at him, he was the clear leader. Rashad white was still getting plenty of opportunity. And I'm bringing that up of the, the base all tootin versus crowd who is going to be the, the guy. I don't know a hundred percent, but I'm putting my bet on tooting the guy who was there.
Speaker 4You're betting on the talent of the,
Speaker 3player absolutely and the guy who was last there last year and i bring that up because like bucky irving that you know two years ago that's workhorse numbers travis hn jr was a true workhorse for uh for for jacksonville last year so if tootin can get that he's going to be incredible like the the early down roll i think that's easy that's for tootin it comes down to the goal line and the pass catching opportunities which we have laquint allen reportedly gonna work in on some third downs but he has been banged up in bashal tootin's profile and virginia tech 12 percent of virginia tech's receptions and the threshold we want from our rb1s from college to pro is 11 we saw that from tootin his athletic measuring is is truly off the charts and if he gets goal line which you're like that makes sense to think okay well it's going to be crud bashal tootin was awesome at it last last year 25 percent of tootin care tootin's carries were short yardage where you needed three or fewer yards for a first down or you're trying to get a touchdown that led to destroying his yards per carry down at 3.7 but i've brought this up before he was fifth in among all running backs in rush success rate meaning whatever the yards that they need on that down he was coming through he was getting them even if it's not you know over four a carry he's getting exactly what the team needs last year seven five zone carries turned into five zone uh touchdowns five of them like he was extremely good at it him and crud were both good at it weren't they yes yeah where hn jr last year was he was not good at the at the goal line tootin was high powered offense it's ambiguous i don't i really don't mind people taking shots at crud i took him in the mock draft yesterday of just sometimes you got a hedge but i really really do think that it's going to end up being bashal tootin as the main guy and uh and the speed that i mentioned like this is a player who can you can rip off 60 yard touchdowns when you are bashal tootin fast so i i love him i love jacksonville i love this offense and i want to i want to take some gambles on ending up with their starting running back so what are we doing for the rest of the show guys are we we're wrapping things up all right that is going to do it that was that was a very open discussion about the progress of the show there well i well i look at it and i'm like oh my god i'm going to do it
Speaker 4we had we had another segment i was hoping jason because i sound like this i was hoping jason was going to jump in for a second and talk about bashal as was i but then he just left you well look my
Speaker 5bold prediction is that the jaguar picks are going to that's true so you're just gonna be you didn't want to poop on it yeah i don't look i get the upside case everything you laid out right it's there if he hits he could be in that league winner type of category a lot of mouths to feed in jacksonville so hopefully um liam cohen can consolidate and may make it just parker washington
Speaker 3and and tootin do that for us so that's going to do it for today's episode hey if you're in the comments go ahead leave your fantasy mvp try and claim some glory for yourself no show on monday it is labor day but then next week ladies and gentlemen it's go time we will see you then goodbye
Speaker 2thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on join the foot.com and follow us on twitter at the ff ballers
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