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Preseason Games Changed Our Draft Rankings, Once Again. · BDGE Fantasy Football

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good morning, friends and enemies.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: In today's video, as we've been doing for the last few Mondays, we will be recapping everything that's happened in training camp and or the preseason games over the last week or so.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are talking about injuries, we are talking about signings, we are talking about snap counts, routes, runs, formations, all the shit that you don't want to pay attention to.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are doing that for you.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as always, or at least recently as of always, these Monday videos I will be joined.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: By Mr. Michael O'Hara, who you guys have seemed to welcome and embrace with open arms, which is a beautiful thing to say, all right?
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to follow Michael, of course this stuff is linked down below, YouTube, Twitter, all that good stuff.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're covering everything that you need to know about going into your fantasy drafts this week, next week, before the season kicks off, biggest ranking changes, all of that stuff.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And just a quick reminder, all of our rankings are available on bdge.co.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you are a fantasy member, let's proceed.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Michael, welcome back.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are discussing what we can find from the week two of preseason games here.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll start again by what I did last week and just going through a quick rundown of the teams that did not play any of their offensive started for the most part.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you wonder why we don't cover anybody from them, this is why there are some
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: minor glimpses we can probably grab from a few of them, but Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Detroit, Buffalo, Minnesota, Indy, Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, the Rams, the Giants, the Saints, Sincene, New England, Philly, Dallas, Arizona, that is 17 teams that do not play any of their offensive starters.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that is more than half the league.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And me and Michael were kind of talking about this a little bit backstage, but there's this, you know, shift into moving away from players playing a
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Historically a little bit over the last half decade, decade or so.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think we're seeing this narrative kind of pop out with the joint practices being a huge reason why, you know, you have teams getting together with schedule joint practices where, you know, the Falcons will play against the Jaguars or whatever, and they'll have these like full on scrimmages.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think they do like heavy tackling or anything in them.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So they're not like full full contact, but it's a glimpse into like,
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: then playing real games and it's a much higher intensity level of a sort of practice or a scrimmage and you'd get in their own, you know, similar practices and a lot of coaches, you know, Michael Flore for one kind of pointed out some of the data on why they almost like these a little bit more than they like preseason game.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're seeing this swing.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think one other thing is like,
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the NFL is trying to move a little bit away from preseason games.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd imagine that they're going to move the schedule to an 18 games schedule eventually and then pull back on a preseason game as well and only have two of them.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: So all that's to say, a little bit of a tough week to pull stuff from.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think we're just seeing an overall trend where like preseason games are fun to kind of dig into from a fantasy perspective because we're making content.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We like to glean every little detail from it.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But these joint practices are kind of putting a wrench into things because you can't really get a lot of like numbers, statistics, playtime, anything like that from
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: My opinion is getting harder and harder to pull stuff from preseason games, but you let me know.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know we were struggling here.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is my fourth year doing fantasy content and reviewing preseason usage.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I've ever had a harder time pulling interesting nuggets or things that I actually find useful than this week.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: We still got stuff that.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We still got some things.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've found a couple of interesting ones and then we do have some news notes and unfortunately
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: plenty of items to discuss in the fantasy landscape and how things are rolling and I've made some ranking changes over the last handful of days and weeks and I'm sure it's the same for you so get rolling here with some news and notes.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah let's do it so we'll start with the injuries as you kind of brought up and it's it's the volume is so high for them this offseason so many skill players going down a lot of young exciting players as we've kind of touched on throughout the last few weeks and we'll try not to circle back to ones that we have talked about
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, a sophomore wide receiver, a second round pick for the Texans.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: People really excited about him coming in and being a nice compliment to Nico Collins.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He tears his ACL.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he's going to be out for his entire sophomore year.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that starts to open up the door for some of these other possible young receivers in the Texans receiver core.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, Nico will remain the alpha.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that really mattered from a Jaden Higgins standpoint.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it opens the door for like maybe this gets tanked out back onto the field more.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know if he saw his explosiveness.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jalen Noelle is obviously a really exciting younger player who's kind of pigeonholed into a slot only role.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then you have Xavier Hutchinson who's like the dude who just kind of never goes away.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's the dude who just takes a lot of snaps.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's the dude that you're never going to put into your fantasy line up.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the coaching staff trusts him.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the way I'm looking at it feels a little murky behind Nico Collins still and not
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: a passing offense.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like overly investing into if I'm going to take a shot on some guy here.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be jailing a well.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think the Higgins injury necessarily like bumps him up a huge amount, but I do think it kind of rises the tide for every player and they'll all see some sort of increase of, you know, somewhere between 10 and 15% of their snaps over the course of the entire season.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he probably has the best profiles that receive it right now and the most upside running, you know, valuable routes there from the slot.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: my first fantasy related thought when I heard that Higgins was going to be out for the years like oh my god do I have to watch Xavier Hutchinson run another 350 routes this year.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just it's gross.
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do think that there is something that we can comment on in this.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm with you that
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a typical redraft manager, I'm not drafting any of these guys outside of Nico Collins.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that you can bump up Collins.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think I moved him up one slot in my rankings, just because it is going to be so much more condensed.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only legitimate target competition for constant my eyes was Higgins.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So this could be like true top three alpha volume from that
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I will say that it would be logical for them to pivot to more multi-titan sets.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: That has been one of the storylines of the off-season teams leaning into heavy personnel.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: We see, again, Kade Stover is Monday.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kade Stover, Harlan Klein, Dalton Schultz.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a bunch of jags for the most part, but we saw them invest in the Titan room in the draft this year, and then they go out in pre-season and they run a bunch of multi-titan sets.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: CJ Stroud and the Starters got 10 plays.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: of them.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a small sample, but it's noteworthy nonetheless.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will also add another note there that basically every single relevant receiver on this roster was also out for this game.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he goes resting.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Higgins is obviously injured, tanked out and no well are both out with injury as well.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that could have had an impact on it.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I would not be shocking, given just the sheer lack of depth in the wide receiver room and the number of
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: viable tight ends that they have that this could be one of those teams that really heavily leans into the heavy personnel kind of trend that we've been seeing since that started up last year.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that makes sense, especially like I think they wanted to go that way anyway with the signing of Dave Montgomery, they want to be this like, you know, pounding ground around a pound team on that side of the ball and this only almost like forces them into the narrative that they wanted.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm with you.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I like New York Collins a little bit more here.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the target share probably bumps up a couple points there and he went from a guy that I was like, I don't really know if I want on my fantasy team, but he's now.
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and kind of like an end of the second round pick where I'm like cool.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I end up going like super heavy at running back early, I have one of those early picks and I grab a Gibbs or a or a B genre, even if I want to reach a little bit on like a guy that I like it.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: The C Mac a four or five and I can get Nico on the way back around.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm fine with him as my wife is either one there.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, I'm not really excited about anybody else in the passing game.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll take some late shots on Jalen Noel because I think he's probably the only one with a little bit of
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: meet left on the bone there, which we can, you know, say the same about tank tell, but who knows at this point what is like play time is going to be getting ramp back up and all that stuff doesn't move to Bree's Hall.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Bree's Hall, it was mid-ish August.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was like August 17th, 18th, he suffers a groin strain and he is projected to be out for, they said, you know, multiple weeks, which is kind of like the normal timeline for a minor muscle strain.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't seem to be overly concerning to anyone in Jets camp.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're obviously going to shut them down for the rest of the
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we don't really have to talk too much in depth about this.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you're not concerned about the injury, I haven't really moved him down my rankings much, not injury related.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the only reason I would have him a little bit subdued in my rankings is just overall set up.
• 8:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm not super, super sold on pre-solving in much of a different situation that he was last year, but injury concerns.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anything that kind of like scratches in his there for you?
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nope.
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not moving the needle for me.
• 8:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: He, if I'm targeting a running back in the third round, he is one of my priority guys.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's even viable to push him up into the second if you feel like structurally your team needs a running back and you're uncomfortable with some of those guys who won the fourth fifth round.
• 8:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is a guy.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: We talked about it on the show last week.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe he is one of those guys.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: talent versus cost.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's just depressed to a pretty significant degree because of the concerns about the environment that you talked about.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: This guy has it all explosive playmaking ability receiving jobs.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not getting off of him because of an injury where he's being held out because it seems to be precautionary.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just it's not moving the needle.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, great.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think the injury is like something to overly concern yourself about.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, if we get reports that are differing, obviously, we'll kind of change our tune and move our rankings.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for now, no major concern, but I do have a concern for the next guy on this list that I want to talk about and that's Mike Evans.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was someone that I've been high on most of the summer.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had a quad strain a few weeks ago and missed a decent amount of time at practice, which was fine.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: came back and he practiced for a couple days and all the sudden needed to go off to the sidelines started having his like ankle iced up, but then we heard that it actually was the quad again.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the problem with that is like re-aggravations of the same muscle strain end up causing players to miss significant time.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, there hasn't actually been anything coming out of San Francisco camp or from any of the coaches or anything like that.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: that are saying that this is severe or saying that this is something that might push into the regular season, but anytime I hear re-aggravation of the injury, like that kind of sounds the alarm bell, so I will say as someone who was high on my heavens, I moved them down my rankings a little bit at this point, because the injury spooking me a little bit.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know he's had the injury history over the last few years, but the re-aggravation, I mean, listen, if we go for the next couple of weeks and
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no update in news and there's nothing like bad coming out and he returns a practice right before the season.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like cool.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll push him back up.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for right now, I'm a little spooked with the reactivation.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's completely understandable.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will say a beat reporter Matt Myaco.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He said it's largely precautionary and he's not expecting him to practice until right up ahead of this season.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like you were just talking about.
• 10:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's kind of what I think we should expect to see.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously things can change.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's fair to bump him down the rankings.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: For me though, I'm still going to have him ahead of where he's taken on most platforms.
• 10:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has a consensus ADP right around pick 60 end of the fifth round.
• 10:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to have him as a clear cut fifth round pick ESPN.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: He goes even later.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that largely though, this is something that
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: We should have already been baking into what we're expecting from Mike Evans.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has a track record of soft tissue injuries over the last few years.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And this guy is well past the age of 30.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: We know that injury risk is significantly larger for guys at this age, and especially considering he has that track record.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's reasonable to move him down a few slots.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to get them down to where ADP has them at the end of the fifth round early sixth or even later.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think this is just a situation of monitor.
• 11:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: If there is more buzz about this being anything other than precautionary, I think I would react and adapt a little bit more heavily.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But for the time being, I am going to be ahead of the market on Mike Evans because like I was saying, this is something that I've known was a possibility in Mike Evans
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a risk that you take on, but where he's currently priced, I'm comfortable with that risk given the upside.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and to be clear, I'm still pretty significantly ahead of market, even had, yeah, I was just very, very high on him.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had him around like the three four turn in terms of a guy that I think could have been the, you know, the clear one in a very high powered off.
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I moved him down to like,
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: around the four or five turn.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm still probably like, almost a full round ahead of where an ADP is, but I just wanted to like throw out on the record that where I had them really high, I've kind of pushed him down to still being high on him, but a little less aggressive.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: So for people following my rankings in their draft, like, they'll see that he was moved down.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to address that a little bit.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now,
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: another concerning injury that affects another like fantasy relevant player.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's Alvin Kamara.
• 12:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he sprained his MCL and he's projected to be out for at least the next month.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: They said, and that was semi-recently.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was less than a week ago.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Kamara was going to be a guy that I think had a role in this offense.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it was ETN's backfield to pretty much dominate for the most part.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Come on.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think could have been annoying in specific instances.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he could have capped ETNs receiving upside.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think they could have like a knowingly used.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Come on on the goal line here and there because I think he had been a pretty good goal line back for a while in New Orleans with this injury lingering into the beginning of the season.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is starting to make me really high on ETA.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because I think if you're starting to monopolize the backfield touches in this Saints offense, which I think is going to have a really good offensive line.
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're obviously just going to run a ton of plays with Kellin Moore there.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've moved Travis ETN up to my 36 overall players.
• 13:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's the top 15 running back for me.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's at the end of the third round.
• 13:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: and I think in a lot of drafts that I've seen recently, he was kind of like a mid to back in fourth round pick, which I thought was great value, but with the Quara injury, like, maybe this is a little bit too aggressive, giving Quara will be back at some point and you're probably gonna have to deal with that, running back by committee, second half of the year, but for right now, like, I don't know.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love this news for Travis ETN.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's definitely bullish.
• 13:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're on the same page in the sense that Alvin, Kamera, in my opinion, he's nothing more than a potential annoyance.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: He, his name value and his track record as a really high-end fantasy producer could see him getting drafted in some leagues where people just aren't sure where to go and some of the final rounds come up.
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: This guy is done, he's toast.
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was reports and rummlings all off season about whether or not he'd even be on the team because the front office understands that at what his previous contract was, he's just not a value for this roster.
• 14:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: He comes back on a sweetheart, restructured deal.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But his rushing efficiency has been declining for years.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was terrible in the passing game last year, just not efficient and a liability in past protection.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: He could be nothing more than a throw in the side of E.T.N.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm still expecting this to be E.T.N.'
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: 's backfield pretty clear cut.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not he's not going to be like the Jonathan Taylor or Christian McCaffrey who's playing 85% of this snap every week, but somewhere around 70% I think is a pretty reasonable expectation.
• 15:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've got him as an early fourth round pick, so I think we're you're a little bit ahead of me, but I don't think the gap is particularly meaningful.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've just got a little received
• 15:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're largely on the same page on how we view this backfield playing out and just our optimism for the Saints offense, the Jordan Tyson injury was obviously ended up being devastating for how I was planning to approach drafts and
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: in the middle rounds.
• 15:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: But ETN here, I think he can be the beneficiary of an ascending offense.
• 15:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I really like Kellin Moore as a play caller.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tyler Schuch shows some nice things.
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Chris O'Lave is still clearly a top tier, wide receiver one, from a real life perspective.
• 15:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So...
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is one where he's going to get most of the work in my opinion, and it's a nice environment.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think he is a nice RB2 to add.
• 15:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not like true smash top six running back upside.
• 15:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think for ETN, but finishing as an obvious RB1, some guy that you're happy to start every single week.
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think is certainly possible for Travis ETN this year.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think we're relatively aligned.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do.
• 16:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I see a little bit more upside.
• 16:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I do think we could see a case where in the first month or so he is playing near that 80% snap rate, but I did that's not going to hold over the course of the season.
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like you want to weigh that into, you know, the factor of cool very, very strong start probably a committee at some point throughout the rest of the season.
• 16:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get to another torn ACL, the Chargers Offensive Line.
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: What else is new here?
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got Tyler Beatish, they just signed them from Washington over in free agency, was supposed to be a major upgrade in the interior of their offensive line.
• 16:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is torn as ACL.
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He will be out for the 2026 season, should also note that Rachel and Slater had missed a bunch of time over the previous couple weeks, but is expected to be back a practice within the next couple days.
• 16:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, not overly concerned about that, but the interior of the offensive line, you know, drink.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: gets another injury here with the chargers.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just think it should be noted.
• 17:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's going to like drastically change anything.
• 17:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think obviously their offensive line is anchored by the studs that they have at tackle.
• 17:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for the interior, could make a difference when it comes to running up the middle, Martin Hampton.
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was such a a week point of theirs last year blocking at the center position.
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, just thought it'd be something that we should know we should bring up so that you guys are kind of on top of things with that.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have moved them down the offensive line rankings on our site from around the top six or seven offensive line down to around ten.
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So a very good unit based on like very elite personnel at other positions on the offensive line, but anything anything major there that, you know, matters to you and the rankings.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will say you were kind of workshopping a take when we recorded two weeks ago about scheme and play colors, mattering a lot more or to a significant degree as opposed to talent.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mike McDaniel, one of the best run game designers and schemers in the NFL.
• 17:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: He continues to get praise from coaches across the NFL, media people.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So this is something that I think Mike McDaniel can work around.
• 17:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's all I had there.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: So absolutely not detrimental to how this rushing attack
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good luck this year.
• 18:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, super valed point.
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, one other injury I just wanted to throw out there quickly and I don't think I even sent it to you, but Bella give me worth noting.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ty Johnson, Buffalo Bills, like back up running back past catcher running back, has been out of practice for a while now with like a mystery lower body injury.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: There have been a video surfacing him of like him on the field at practice, not practicing at all, but like hanging out with his teammates.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not gonna be like a season ending injury or anything.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But there's a chance that it's like a great to hamstring or something like that that goes into the season.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's been a lot of talk about, you know, James Cook seeing an increased workload in terms of the past catching stuff with P. Carmichael, their O.C.
• 18:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: coming over, whatever.
• 18:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's just something to monitor, you know, nothing actionable right now, but I would keep a tab on Thai Johnson because he's like one of the underrated injuries where if that actually lingers into the season, James Cook would see a much more significant workload in the passing aim, I think, and really solidify him as a top fan as you're running back this year.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say Nick, you're not reacting to this enough.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to bring this up on a show a couple of weeks ago.
• 19:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: We never got to it.
• 19:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was never able to get to him.
• 19:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Glad we finally are.
• 19:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is huge for James Cook in my opinion.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The reasons that I've had a hard time with him this year is because of the presence of Ty Johnson.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: There had been all of those rumblings about James Cook potentially expanding his role as a past catcher.
• 19:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: But with Ty Johnson still there and the same coaching staff still in place, I know there's been some talk about Pete Carmichael and his tendency to involve running backs in the passing game.
• 19:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's be real here.
• 19:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Joe Brady's offense.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's calling the shots here.
• 19:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what Joe Brady has done over a couple of years is lean on Ty Johnson on third downs.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the presence of Ty Johnson has captained.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: James Cook's ability to rack up receiving volume.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ty Johnson played over 70% of third-down snaps last year.
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he really kept James Cook from running routes and earning targets.
• 19:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was pretty middle of the pack was James Cook in terms of total routes and route rate last year.
• 19:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that was because of the presence of Johnson.
• 20:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if Ty Johnson does miss significant time, it's going to be James Cook running a ton more routes.
• 20:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's
• 20:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: a lot more reasonable beyond the speculation.
• 20:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's like legitimate reasons believe that that receiving role can change.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that in my opinion is what Cap has capped James Cook's ceiling in the last handful of years.
• 20:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's been a fantastic fantasy asset 17 18 points per game.
• 20:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: over the last few years, but he doesn't get the receiving volume, and if Ty Johnson misses a meaningful stretch and potentially James Cook shows what he can do as a past catcher, that changes his outlook and his ceiling and its entirety in my opinion.
• 20:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, this is one that it's sneaky, but it's potentially massive because of how James Cook could change his role as a past catcher.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 100%.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if we hear news, they're like, all right, you know, Ty Johnson's actually starting on the publicity server, James Cook, you know, if there's no there's no real restriction to where you can move them up in your rankings at that point, because he's going to operate as the bell cow.
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's going to have such a high floor in the passing game, because he'll run significantly more routes.
• 21:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I also think we should probably expect the bills to pass a little bit more this year overall.
• 21:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But let's move into some of the signings that
• 21:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: have occurred over the last week or so that will affect other fancy players will start off in Indianapolis with Keenan Allen.
• 21:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: He signs a one year $3.3 million deal in Indianapolis, obviously that receiver room and just past catching room is dealing with like so many injuries.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: We had Josh Downs who was dealing with the strain.
• 21:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's back at practice.
• 21:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Tyler Warren is now dealing with.
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: something that's going to keep him out for probably the next couple of weeks and probably the rest of the the preseason as far as I know you've out here still returning from the ankle injury they still seem to say that they're super confident he's going to be out there week one keen and Allen you know we saw something similar play out last year last off season where the chargers sign keen and Allen late and then people kind of wrote him off but he was
• 21:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sort of a fit in that offense.
• 21:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was very familiar with how that offense already ran.
• 21:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was very familiar with Herbert and that up being a problem for a guy like lad McConkey led the team in targets.
• 21:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Although his underlying numbers and like yards perception, everything of kind of tanked and he just became a volume dude there when I'm looking at
• 22:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Keenan with Indy.
• 22:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, okay, if Pierce misses time, I think it's probably a no-brainer that downs in Keenan are the two-wider sievers pretty much on the outside.
• 22:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think Keenan will probably play like a muted slot roll when Pierce's back.
• 22:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pierce will be the one, obviously.
• 22:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think downs will most likely play on the outside.
• 22:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Keenan in the slot.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do get a little bit concerned when they go into two wide receiver sets, when Pierce is back, like I think it'll be down for the most part, but I do think they'll have Keenan out there.
• 22:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's like just one of those dudes at coaching staffs, trust so much as a veteran, and him and Shane Steichen obviously have a history with the chargers.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think they had like a seven year span where they were together there from like 2014 to 2020.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So very, very familiar with the player, not that good of a player anymore, but
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: probably a little bit of an annoyance to a guy like Josh Downs who won't have as pure of a run out pre-signing Keenan Allen here.
• 22:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So what's at you?
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is where we're going to disagree.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think at least in my, in how I'm evaluating it and thinking through things, I'm worried about Keenan Allen from a target earning perspective.
• 23:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: when they're all three on the field together, Pierce, Allen and Downs, because Tina Allen's not entirely dust.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: When he's actually on the fields, he can earn targets last year, seven targets per game, just a shade under seven and a 26% target rate.
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, from that area, he's still a legitimate talent.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still can make an impact on the field from a volume perspective.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not concerned
• 23:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you were already of the belief and you were buying into the buzz, that downs was going to get snaps into receiver sets and he was going to play on the outside in those snaps.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you should be shifting.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fantasy points data charted Allen with just two routes out of 12 and 13 personnel last year.
• 23:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He just wasn't on the field for those snaps with the charges last year and I know it's a different offense, but I just think that Allen is purely a rotational wide receiver at this point.
• 23:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: He runs 66% of the routes last year.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think Downs is talented enough and the team has indicated that they want to use him in the two receiver sets.
• 24:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just don't think that the arrival of Keenan changes things from a route perspective.
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that you can dock Downs because of Allen's presence as someone who can earn targets.
• 24:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think it's going to get me too far down on Downs.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I already had him, maybe 20 picks ahead of the market.
• 24:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd bump them down, maybe one or two slots.
• 24:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is someone I'm still going to be grabbing a ton of and redraft leagues because I just think the price is flat out wrong.
• 24:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where do you have downs right now?
• 24:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have him at 81, mid early 80s.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I haven't like 78 wide receiver third.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 24:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I have really close.
• 24:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it wasn't.
• 24:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was also very high on him prior to the Keenan Allen signing and it wasn't necessarily like I think he's going to take a ton of routes from him, but it just overall mutties the situation a bit, right?
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, it's
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just one of those annoying players where downs was so intriguing because it felt like it was a perfect storm Like it was a perfect run out where no matter what even if downs isn't as good as everyone thinks he is He's just gonna be out there for so many routes and there's no one else to actually throw the ball to so I think we're mostly in line We're like he and Allen's gonna be annoying and take away enough targets is he gonna run more than like 50% of the routes on the entirety of the year
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, probably not.
• 25:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It depends how much like 11 personnel they use.
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: But again, it matters about, I guess, Alec Pearson, whether or not he's on the field, because if Alec Pearson not on the field for the beginning of the season, then down's will be in every, every down player and it won't really affect that much.
• 25:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think anyways.
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Next signing, we have Najee Harris signing with the New York Giants.
• 25:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: A one year, $1.2 million deal, no guaranteed money.
• 25:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's also coming off of the Achilles' tear.
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is, it's a weird spot.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: week.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: After the preseason week one usage, that was rotational him and Tracy and Devon Singletary, it's it's it's weird.
• 25:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would be lying if I said all the shifting parts weren't a little bit spooky as someone who's very high on camscadaboo.
• 26:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: What I'll say is the Najihar signing to me.
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think almost has no direct.
• 26:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: correlation of how they think about cam, but I do think it will, in essence, impact him eventually, where like, I think the outcome of, or the reasoning behind signing Najihar, so I think I could list about four or five things before it has any impact on like, okay, we're doing this because we don't trust cam, scatbo, Devon single Terry, they could just think Najihar is a better running back three on their roster than Devon, than Devon single Terry.
• 26:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Tyron Tracy obviously missed that huge block and they're like, Najihar is probably a better pass blocker than Tyron Tracy, so maybe
• 26:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm Tracy was also playing on kickoff return in their next preseason game, which should tell you about, you know, where he's currently sitting in the mind of a harbour over there.
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's it's like annoying and the reports coming out like not sure is going to play a big role in this backfield like I think he's just as likely to not actually make the team.
• 26:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: as he is to have a huge role in this backfield this off season.
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, or this upcoming season.
• 27:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, all the changing moves also should point out that in preseason week two, single-terry started, Jackson Dart was implying.
• 27:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, it wasn't the start of James Winston, Camp Scaddle rested while single-terry and Tracy both played, Naziarra still ramping up.
• 27:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if Naziarra's going to be ready for the regular season.
• 27:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, a lot of hype for something that we have no idea if it's even going to happen here.
• 27:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where have you landed on the Giants Backfield?
• 27:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is it still similar to what we were thinking last
• 27:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: So as soon as that news dropped, my first thought was, man, does this say something about what they think about Kam Skataboo's health and ability to handle a large workload?
• 27:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then about 10 seconds later, I thought to myself, no, I'm not going to let post a killie's Najji Harris get me off of Kam Skataboo.
• 27:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not going to happen.
• 27:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not how I'm going to play this game.
• 27:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is fantasy football.
• 27:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will say though, at this point, Najji Harris is a
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: combined with everything else that's been happening with this backfield.
• 27:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tyrone Tracy is borderline undraftable.
• 27:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I really can't see myself getting to Tracy.
• 28:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've nuked him in my ranks.
• 28:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's basically at a rank where most teams are done drafting.
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mostly he's are done drafting.
• 28:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then the usage kind of backs that up.
• 28:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scataboo rests in this one.
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: You said, Naji doesn't play.
• 28:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's single Terry who gets the start ahead of Tracy, single Terry plays the first drive.
• 28:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tracy's in on the second and third drive.
• 28:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the third drive ends with a Tyrone Tracy fumble.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: He like just completely mishandles the ball.
• 28:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: He just coughs it up before he even gets going.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's all pretty disastrous.
• 28:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not gonna say I know how it plays out one way or another, but I do think that,
• 28:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be pretty damn messy behind Cam's Scataboo.
• 28:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's just with no clarity or certainty about how the backfield looks.
• 28:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: If Scataboo does miss any time or how they're going to spell Cam's Scataboo in games, who's going to play the complimentary running back snaps, there's really no clarity.
• 28:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you talk out, there are real concerns about how this offense actually looks.
• 28:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just at this point,
• 28:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have no interest in investing in anyone who's behind Cam Scadaboo and then Scadaboo himself.
• 29:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't really move him down my ranks.
• 29:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it makes me a little bit more hesitant to take him as early as I had him previously.
• 29:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think this is kind of the case in best practice with any handcuff is like if you don't actually know with confidence that this next guy up is the handcuff, just kind of stay away from that backfield because it's going to get messy regardless and I think that's the case.
• 29:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see what happens with Najihar.
• 29:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like I said, I mean, he's not even back on the practice field yet.
• 29:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: No guaranteed money there.
• 29:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know how close he is to like being ready or, you know, what his physical look like, any of that stuff.
• 29:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, just a weird situation in the Giants backfield.
• 29:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's move to
• 29:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of our takeaways for this week, you know, I think we covered a lot of the juicy stuff, but let's get under the hood here.
• 29:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's pop the hood and talk about some backups, some routes, some snaps.
• 29:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you got for us, I got a few interesting ones.
• 29:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, it was pretty brutal out there this week.
• 30:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: No one was really playing, but there are still a few good ones.
• 30:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, one that I noticed while watching the game, it was the Carolina Panthers game, Bryce Young, and the starters do get some work.
• 30:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see it on the field that Tetero and McMillan is getting some work in the slot, and then it's backed up in the numbers.
• 30:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jack Miller of Estalus to run tweeted this out, so shout out to him.
• 30:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last year, Tetero and McMillan played in the slot on 15.3% of his routes.
• 30:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: This year, in the preseason, it has been 22 snaps, but it's been almost 41%.
• 30:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: 40.9% that is a significant boost.
• 30:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we're going to see 40% slot snaps for Teteromic Millen this year, but if you can get to like 25, 30% that's incredibly bullish for his outlook and can help him take that year to leap because last year, like I was saying 15.3% of his snaps in the slots.
• 30:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was basically running big boy routes on the outside, functioning as the X receiver last year, and he was a monster, cracks a thousand yards, 23% target share, 119 total targets, and nearly two yards per route run, and he was doing that on hard mode.
• 31:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was trying to wind down field, beat press coverage, do all that stuff as a legitimate X receiver.
• 31:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you can do the like move around, kind of line up a little bit everywhere and get some of those like lay up easy button targets that you tend to get out of the slot, some of those scheme looks this is a 140 target season loading for Tedro and make Melon easy easy this guy is an alpha.
• 31:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: This guy's an alpha where we've seen it last year and he did it as a rookie.
• 31:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can individually just improve as well.
• 31:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've seen some people kind of throw out the Drake London comp just from like a usage perspective, getting a little bit of work in the slot and then obviously stylistically, they're just big receivers, big body guys who can bully you physically.
• 31:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if
• 31:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Teteromic Millen heat can individually improve his usage becomes a little bit more fantasy friendly and then to a degree you could buy into a Bryce Young Improvement Offensive Improvement This is a guy who I've talked about the guys in the three four turn.
• 32:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's a few of those guys who will become tier jumpers.
• 32:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: They will
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: move into the top 10 receivers this year.
• 32:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we get at least one or two of them.
• 32:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: McMillan, if he gets more diversified alignment, a better route tree, more fantasy-friendly role, he could easily be one of those guys, even if there are still some real concerns about what this offense looks like.
• 32:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, McMillan's one of those guys where I don't, I don't have a super strong take on.
• 32:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's not like a fate or a target for me.
• 32:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I have them probably early, early to mid, fourth round.
• 32:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like if he falls to me at a good value, I'm like happy to take him, but I probably won't be the guy and my league jumping over for him just because I don't really want to attach myself to him, Bryce Young and that Carolina passing offense.
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I will say to what you brought up a Drake London.
• 32:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was like when Arthur Smith came in, Drake London was running, I think it was, I remember,
• 32:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: researching this because I wanted to see the alignment of like where I think Drake London might be playing from this year with Kevin Stephansky instead of Zach Robinson, but he was playing around 8 to 9% of his snaps in the slot under Arthur Smith.
• 33:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Soon as Zach Robinson came in, that number jumped up to around 35, 36% and obviously that accumulated to him having his first like 100 catch seasons and that's kind of been his pace.
• 33:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, is that more of like an uptick and just overall passing versus Arthur Smith's offense
• 33:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: either way for Tettaro and McMillan.
• 33:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I will point out a couple of other things from that game.
• 33:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Him and Jalen Coker have just been playing on every single snap together.
• 33:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think Coker's like obviously one of the easier late round picks in your draft.
• 33:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to try to capture a little bit of upside in some late round wide receivers, also good to see Jonathan Brooks pretty much another like Belkow game.
• 33:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you could tell he's like getting a little bit more and more confident getting his feedback on under him with like each drive and getting a little bit better.
• 33:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: He hasn't really put anything on film that I think has looked like amazing at this point.
• 33:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: But he has had
• 33:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: basically two years off of football, but it was good to see him, you know, operating that bell cow roll.
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's very clear that if Chubo misses time, he is going to be in a 75 to 80 percent snap guy.
• 33:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each animal probably take a little bit of the pass catching roll, but he was in on the goal line.
• 34:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He scored a touchdown.
• 34:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had a couple explosive plays in this one.
• 34:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Carolina feels like a very condensed offense at this point.
• 34:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is Tet.
• 34:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is Jalen Koker.
• 34:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it is one of the running backs.
• 34:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: If one is healthy and not the other one.
• 34:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, on Brooks, that was all I was going to note.
• 34:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: It gets all the snaps from inside the 10 and inside the five super great to see super great to
• 34:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Moving along here, though, there are two running backs that I think we saw some things.
• 34:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not necessarily in terms of snap counts or usage, but it was encouraging to say the least.
• 34:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Starting with Keaton Mitchell.
• 34:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I guess we do get an encouraging note on Keaton Mitchell from a snap count perspective.
• 34:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: The starters, which includes our mind Hampton, they get one quick three-play drive from there though, Hampton leaves the field, and it's Keaton Mitchell who gets the second and third drive in its entirety, so we don't get really any insight on how these backs might rotate in an actual game, but it's once again being solidified that Keaton Mitchell is the clear cut RB2 on this roster.
• 34:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The one thing that's really exciting that we saw in this game is that Keaton Mitchell is getting some awesome usage as a receiver.
• 35:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: We see him just catch a dump off.
• 35:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: He gets motioned on the play and then catches a dump off.
• 35:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then he falls in a wheel route from tray lands.
• 35:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: The play does get called back due to penalty.
• 35:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he's getting like legitimate.
• 35:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's running real routes and he's getting legitimate, downfield targets.
• 35:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's also been some clips surfacing and practice of the same thing about him being utilized as a receiver.
• 35:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you get a lot of exciting things coming together here.
• 35:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's keen Mitchell individually.
• 35:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are on a what this guy is.
• 35:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's a speed demon who on a limited sample has been one of the most efficient running backs as a runner in recent memory.
• 35:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then you get Mike McDaniel.
• 35:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: who is one of the offensive geniuses, offensive masterminds in the NFL these days.
• 35:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he put literally a wanted poster on the Chargers GM's wall for Keith and Mitchell's saying he wanted this guy.
• 35:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: People will have like call them Devon H and Light.
• 35:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about all that.
• 36:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's interesting nonetheless that Mike McDaniel wants him and he is the one guy in the NFL who we know can get the most out of the special talents and then you get the receiving usage because that has never been keyton Mitchell's game in the NFL.
• 36:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has never been used as a receiver.
• 36:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's just been strictly the change of pace of runner during his time with the Baltimore Ravens.
• 36:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 36:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's all pretty interesting to me because he is stone cold free.
• 36:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if this guy is going to hit it.
• 36:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bet seems pretty thin, but you can just scoop him up in the last ground of your drafts and just take a unique profile in a unique situation and see what happens.
• 36:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: See how this backfield is split.
• 36:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would say just on the Mike McDaniel point, like it's clear from his history of the last, you know, five years or so in the league, like he does not care what your sizes.
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like he most of his teams have like the smallest players on the field at all times.
• 36:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: He cares about speed, not necessarily size in anything that he does on the field.
• 36:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So very clear path to like he mentioned being a significant part of this offense.
• 36:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: All of kind of two questions here.
• 36:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where do you currently have a more in Hampton ranked and then two would you be okay drafting both of them on the same team?
• 37:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hampton and key in Mitchell.
• 37:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have Omarian Hampton ranked early second round.
• 37:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've even ranked 16th overall right now, behind like Kenneth Walker and Chase Brown right in that kind of cluster of running backs.
• 37:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then yes, I would absolutely be okay drafting both of them just because Michel is Stone Cold free.
• 37:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that this is gonna be the 2023 dolphins.
• 37:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's just kind of an outlier season.
• 37:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think they had like 30 rushing touchdowns, but
• 37:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have seen Mike McDaniel put together an offense that has sustained to high end fantasy options at the running back position.
• 37:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not really expecting this to be a run-hean mustard divine a chance situation, but there's a lot of ways that this back feel could play out and this could be a potent enough offense that.
• 37:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: you're you're you're excited to get Omar and Hampton and Keaton Mitchell into your lineup.
• 37:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you have Omar and Hampton, I think you're making your bet you're betting that Hampton consolidates the work and he's good enough.
• 38:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I typically wouldn't want to add the second running back in the back field, but at his price.
• 38:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think he's like in consensus 80P he's a 15th round pick is Keaton Mitchell.
• 38:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think just.
• 38:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: What I was saying earlier, just taking a stab on a special player and what could be a special offense, it's perfectly reasonable when the price is nothing.
• 38:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: A lot.
• 38:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, moving along here, then the next one is another committee running back.
• 38:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is RJ Harvey who once again, I got really fired up about how he was deployed as a receiver.
• 38:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was really awesome.
• 38:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the the backfield split in general in this game, Dobbins doesn't play.
• 38:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Harvey gets the first drive and then Jonah Coleman gets the second drive on that first drive with Bonyx.
• 38:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: RJ Harvey, Nick's audible is to a screen.
• 38:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Harvey grabs it.
• 38:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He gets barely caught from behind and it's like a four or five yard gain.
• 38:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then the very big play, RJ Harvey catches a 21 yard touchdown on a wheel route.
• 39:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is one where I can't help but think about what could be.
• 39:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And price is so palatable.
• 39:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can get him in the 80s, 90s.
• 39:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's a bench running back for you on most team builds.
• 39:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: RJ Harvey is a really special receiving prospect.
• 39:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was arguably the best receiving back coming out of the draft last year.
• 39:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then he shows real receiving chops in his rookie season.
• 39:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: He ranks eighth in targets and receptions at the running back position last year.
• 39:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He has 58 total targets which he does benefit from JK Dobbins injury last year.
• 39:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he was still pacing for 49 targets in games that Dobbins played.
• 39:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then he shows real juice in the receiving game as well.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: He creates some explosive plays as a pass catcher.
• 39:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: his talent as a receiver is spoken for, and then you get the system and the scheme that he is in.
• 39:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sean Peyton, over the course of his NFL career as a head coach, we know this guy loves throwing to the running backs.
• 39:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alvin Kamara obviously is the first one that comes to mind for those who have been playing fantasy football as of late.
• 40:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're just looking at some of the numbers, ranked top seven and running back targets for each of the last three
• 40:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: years.
• 40:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then this is just a past happy offense in general Broncos ranked top 10 in past rate over expectation each of the last few years in since Bowenix became the starter and next led the league in Dropback's last year.
• 40:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what I'm kind of getting at here is that realistically we don't know how this back
• 40:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: field is going to play out.
• 40:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that Dobbins is favored to kind of hold onto the role we saw last year, where he is the early down grinder.
• 40:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if this team chooses to lean into RJ Harvey in an Alvin Kamera-esque high volume receiver role, where he also gets some of the rushing work,
• 40:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It could be really, really awesome because I do think that he is an awesome talent as a past catching running back.
• 40:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you also, it's not just pulling that out of thin air either.
• 40:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see what he's done with Camara in the past.
• 41:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've seen the past volume over the last few years.
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've seen the tendencies to throw to the running back.
• 41:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: So taking the discount on Harvey from where he was going last year,
• 41:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: and just understanding that there are paths to this guy being one of the top five running backs in terms of targets and receiving volumes.
• 41:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can see that it playing out in that manner.
• 41:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I was already thinking these things ahead of time ahead of this game, but then he gets the design screen.
• 41:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: He catches a touchdown on a wheel route.
• 41:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just further firing me up and thinking about what this could be.
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, honestly, super fun player to watch.
• 41:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: My issue with Harvey is that, like, I think who he is as a player, like limits his ceilings so significantly, I think it's very clearly a champagne just not does not.
• 41:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to trust him in an early-down role.
• 41:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I think they've resigned JK Dobbins to be that guy.
• 41:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: They drafted on a comment who's looked good to and will take that role if JK Dobbins gets hurt.
• 41:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when I think about Harvey, I don't really see that much of a different opportunity or skill set.
• 42:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Probably a more refined pass catcher than like Keaton Mitchell, who we just talked about.
• 42:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: like both attach to get offences, both will probably play around, I don't know, maybe 30% of the snaps here.
• 42:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that makes me a little bit nervous for RJ Harvey, because I think when you look at Alvin Camara, one of the reasons he had so much upside is because he had such a strong goal line roll, and he was a very high scoring touchdown guy.
• 42:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I also think a lot of the receptions probably, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'd imagine most of them were not like,
• 42:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're past catching roll receptions.
• 42:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of them happen to be because he is one of the better runner.
• 42:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he's on the field on first and second down often.
• 42:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've no doubt that Sean Payton loves RJ Harvey and they'll have a ton of design to place for him.
• 42:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I just have so much trouble looking at him as a as a running back like I don't think he's a good runner on first and second down.
• 42:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's a good in between the tackle.
• 42:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: runner and I don't think he's a particularly good pass block or either shown by most of the numbers.
• 42:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like his role and what he does well.
• 42:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's so good at, but I think it limits him to like playing in specific roles, packages and and doing specific things at Sean Peyton might.
• 43:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's Sean Peyton's a weird dude, right?
• 43:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like he's obsessed with Jason Hill.
• 43:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like there are there are players that he will build like
• 43:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: a weird subset of his entire offense around, and that definitely could be RJ Harvey.
• 43:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's just not a player that I find myself wanting to invest in, because I think the upside is quite limited because they added Jonah Coleman.
• 43:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like the upside was great last year because Dobbins got hurt and there was no one else to give it to, but I do think if they find themselves in that situation again this year, it'll be like Jonah Coleman getting the early downwork, RJ Harvey.
• 43:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, we'll see a significant increase in like snaps, it'll probably be like a 50, 50, and he'll be a good fantasy player for sure, but I don't know, Harvey's been a tough click for me.
• 43:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think for me where we kind of are paths diverge is that I think that there's a lot more uncertainty in this backfield than it seems like you do.
• 43:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just not entirely sure how the roles are dived up.
• 43:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I'm in line with you that the baseline expectation, it's like Harvey, and this kind of specialized passing role, and Dobbins as the primary grinder,
• 43:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not entirely confident that that's how it plays out over the course of a 17-18-week season, so that's kind of where I'm willing to lean into the uncertainty because if Dobbins is kind of trailing off from an efficiency perspective, if he misses time, if Sean Payton decides that
• 44:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jonah Coleman just doesn't have a real role in this backfield or even if Harvey individually improves as a russia and either pushes Dobbins or if Dobbins misses time just ice his Jonah Coleman and becomes like a 65 to 70% snap share guy and takes on the well-rounded role I just kind of want to bet on that uncertainty because if RJ Harvey hits I think he hits
• 44:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: in an enormous, enormous way, because of what he can do as a receiver and what the past volume might look like for him.
• 44:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then if you add in, if you does hit, you add in that rushing work.
• 44:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we know that Harvey during his time in college was an explosive Russia as well.
• 44:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So there's just a lot to like.
• 44:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you, you just kind of think that
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: through the ceiling outcomes in my opinion, it's pretty tantalizing to me, but there's certainly worlds where that does not panic.
• 45:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's the most likely outcome, but when you can get them as a bench piece, it's appealing to me.
• 45:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, listen, you're getting him in like the eighth, ninth round when you have to spend up for Trayvon Henderson at like the four or five turn, which is crazy.
• 45:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, all right, I'd rather just take the discount on Harvey, you put up similar numbers last year, as a rookie, both explosive, both have deficiencies in the ground game, both have deficiencies in past blocking duties right now.
• 45:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I hear you probably won't end up on my team, but we'll see.
• 45:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll have to revisit this week's 17.
• 45:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: The next one that I thought was actually fantasy relevant, it's a guy who is pretty buried deep down the board, but he's someone that I have been targeting on teams where I am punching times H.I.G.O.
• 45:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Conquau.
• 45:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I am not making a meaningful investment at the Titan position,
• 45:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: O'Conquau, along with guys like Terrence Ferguson and Kenyan Sadik, are some of the guys that I do have circled on my board as someone you can scoop up really, really late.
• 46:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Chigo, Conquau, people have been fired up about him in the past.
• 46:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where you were after that 2022 rookie season.
• 46:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: He posts ridiculous efficiency numbers in a limited role and everyone was buzzing about him being a late-round sleeper.
• 46:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was too a degree aboard that hype train that year, but he never really pans out.
• 46:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And largely, it's driven by the fact it's two, it's two reasons.
• 46:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's in a part-time role.
• 46:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: This has been a guy who's basically been 60% of the routes over the last handful of years, not a full-time player.
• 46:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you can talk about the quality of the Tennessee Titans offense in recent years, which is the horrific coaching and quarterback play.
• 46:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I do think that those two things could meaningfully change this year.
• 46:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: He moves to the Washington Commanders, which I do think is going to be a quality offensive led by Jayden Daniels, and it could favor the passing attack because the defense in my opinion is going to be pretty poor, leading to some past heavy game scripts.
• 47:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then last night in the preseason, we seemingly get confirmation that Chigo Conquo could be in a full-time role.
• 47:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: He plays the first two drives and he gets 12 of 14 snaps.
• 47:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if that holds up into the regular season, that really raises his floor because when I'm punching tight ends, I like to take a stab on a guy who I think could be a special talent.
• 47:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then I like to take a stab on a guy who I think has a floor driven by their snap total and their route toll.
• 47:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's now looking like that O'Conco could be both for
• 47:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: and I was already excited about him.
• 47:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: If he plays a full-time role, that raises his floor.
• 47:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: He could be someone that you're just leaning on because they are going to be out the field out on the field all the time, draw a 5-6 target to gain, provide some sort of a floor.
• 47:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then I just can't get off of Chigo Compo and what he can do as a yak threat in the open field.
• 47:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When he has the ball in his hands in space, he can make defenders miss, make linebackers, and defensive backs look really silly.
• 48:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's just one of those fake tight end guys.
• 48:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not lining up in line.
• 48:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're using him more so as a receiver.
• 48:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So all that coming together, I'm just further solidified that Chigo Kakuo is going to be one of my favorite punt tight end options this year.
• 48:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know that was a long, long spiel on a guy who's going like pick 140 or whatever, but it was
• 48:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I got terrible news for you, because I also have a Ben Senat.
• 48:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm fucking fine, sure.
• 48:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are you talking about the Washington Commanders fullback?
• 48:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the day like all they do is fill these fucking packs with backup, backup, tight ends, and then give me those packs, it's insane right now.
• 48:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jiggy?
• 48:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it takes a super fun click, I think, just because of his athletic profile.
• 48:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was like, you know, the worst kept secret as a sleeper early on in the summer and spring as like the breakout candidate at tight end and fantasy prior to the dig signing.
• 48:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then dig signed, and obviously, I think that
• 49:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: The target share a little bit and Diggs is not going to be much of a down-feel player, so I think it's probably a little bit of an overlap of where they run their routes.
• 49:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: But, yeah, I'm aligned with you there.
• 49:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm kind of in line with ADP on Jake.
• 49:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I have him at like Titan 18.
• 49:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Definitely not a guy I'm going to like rely on.
• 49:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, as in every week, Titan 1 definitely want to pair him with someone else.
• 49:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like another high-upside guy.
• 49:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you mentioned Terrence Ferguson.
• 49:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think AJ Barners interesting.
• 49:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Any of those high-upside guys that, you know, one of them hits, and you probably have yourself a top 12 guy.
• 49:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's almost definitely going to end up finishing higher than that.
• 49:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is it high enough to be a dude that you want your lineup all the time?
• 49:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is really where like the Delta begins and, you know, you got to figure that out.
• 49:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: But he's definitely interesting based on the amount of routes he's going to run, the upside of what the offense can be and his overall, you know, playmaking ability with the ball and his hands afterwards.
• 49:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 49:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, just just a guy that I would keep an eye on if you're waiting at Titan last two here two quick updates on the depth pieces in some backfields that we talked about last week like you were talking about you want to target
• 50:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: guys who are solidified as the backup running back and you're just no doubt about it.
• 50:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're going to consolidate the rushing work.
• 50:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I also do think it is worth while to keep an eye on offenses that we think are going to be super high powered.
• 50:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I've got the cowboys and the chiefs noted here.
• 50:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: We do see the water's muddy on both backfields and based on what we talked about last week.
• 50:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Dallas, it is Jayden Blue and Malik Davis splitting the snaps.
• 50:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is something that you expressed concerned about.
• 50:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is Jayden Blue plays 17 snaps with the second unit and Malik Davis gets 14 snaps.
• 50:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Neither really seeds the backfield, blue does make some explosive plays, but there has been a lot of positive buzz about Malik Davis.
• 50:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's one to keep an eye on.
• 50:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm still more willing to bet on the explosive playmaking ability and talent that is Jaden Blue.
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there's no doubt that I should have listened to you a little bit more.
• 51:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last week when you you expect express some concern about his ability to consolidate the work and just function as the clear cut RB2 and then in Kansas City, it's a pretty big diversion from what we saw last week out of the back fields last week.
• 51:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: after Kenneth Walker leaves after a handful of snaps, and then it's Emmett Johnson who follows, they both kind of get meaningful work.
• 51:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of more of a split situation.
• 51:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: DeMar Cotto gets some passing down work, but I don't think it is as clear cut as I did last week.
• 51:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: with Emmett Johnson being the priority handcuff option here.
• 51:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm still, once again, willing to bet on him, I think Demar Cotto is kind of that specialized past catcher guy, and I really do flat out, think he's just a jag.
• 51:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not a special talent whatsoever, and with Emmett Johnson having the well-rounded past-catching profile as well as the Russian work.
• 52:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Emmett Johnson does have some nice plays as well in this game.
• 52:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Once again, still waters have definitely been muddied.
• 52:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: game.
• 52:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's so difficult to project these backfields that have like four or five running backs on the roster right now with small samples.
• 52:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you have, I mean, we did get some Kenneth Walker action, but like when the starters aren't playing, it's so hard to decipher what coaches are thinking and like how they're trying to understand what guys they want to play.
• 52:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like they could be playing a Maridimar Cotto because they're like, you know, we want to keep them on the team.
• 52:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: as like a special teamer, but like we need to make sure that if he goes in the game, you can get carries.
• 52:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
• 52:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you never know what they're really thinking, and it's such a small sample size that it's so tough to decipher.
• 52:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do want to talk about Mike Washington though, you know, because these are money backfields, but like we got to clear our B2 emerging in Vegas, they're behind Gentie.
• 52:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's a respected
• 52:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Beat reporter out in Vegas who tweeted out, you know, not a report, not like a really like a guess or an estimate, but he said, I wouldn't be surprised if Gentine Washington emerged into a legitimate one to punch.
• 53:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Take that for what it is.
• 53:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: It seems like the coaching staff trusts Mike Washington a lot.
• 53:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's pretty fucking awesome.
• 53:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: The dude just gets on the field and just makes plays every time.
• 53:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's like such an explosive playmaker.
• 53:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's a, I wish he went to a back field that didn't have the number six overall pick in front of him because I think he would be making a ton of noise and pushing himself really far up rankings right now.
• 53:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: My whole thing on Mike Washington, and it hasn't really changed in the wake of these big explosive runs in the preseason.
• 53:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to sit here and say that he's looked bad and I'm completely overlooking what he's done.
• 53:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's my relevant as it as it as it pertains to fantasy for sure.
• 53:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just see a little we should just show him some love.
• 53:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely absolutely, but I don't think it is irrelevant because there are some people who are saying like he is one of the priority handcuffs now, so he is definitely garnering some buzz and I think also just the people who who see the the highlights on Twitter or are just kind of checking the box squares that they'll see that Mike Washington did have to back to back big games and could be more interested in him.
• 54:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: My optimism for the Raiders' offense, taking a step forward in 2026, obviously Clink Kubeyak plays a big role on that, but it's largely driven by the mere presence of Brock Bowers and Ashton Gentie.
• 54:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: What does an Ashton Gentilist Raiders' offense look like?
• 54:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's
• 54:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: pretty poor at that point because if you take genty out of the equation you've got Kirk Cousinserman, Dosa, Bowers, and a bunch of nobody's tray-tucker, Jalen Nailer at Wilder Severe Michael Merr is also a fact here.
• 54:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just really ugly.
• 54:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you tell yourself the story that the Raiders take a significant step forward in 2026, it's probably because Ashton Genty has like 1,800 yards from Scrinnage.
• 54:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is the reason why.
• 54:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is this outlook?
• 54:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: What can we expect from this offense if he is not on the field?
• 55:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is just a pretty pissed poor group and Mike Washington is just going to be one of those compilers who's going like 18 carries for 62 yards and you're hoping that they fall in the end zone those weeks.
• 55:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I just don't think this is an offensive environment that I want to invest in with the assumption that Ashton Gentie is not on the field.
• 55:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's really just one of those situations where, okay, if Jentys not on the field, we do, it does feel like we know who the guy is who's going to become the, you know, the bell count.
• 55:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that seems to be Mike Washington.
• 55:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, one of the way they could be way improved is not just Jentys having a big year, but like if Fernando Mendoza ends up being a very good NFL quarterback, like that would be the thing that gets them to the next level as well.
• 55:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just a funny random story about Mike Washington, gut, who works at PDGE.
• 55:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: make some content in the offseason.
• 55:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: He played college ball at running back and he does like film breakdowns of running back throughout the the offseason for like dinosaur stuff and he was super high on Mike Washington.
• 56:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he had him as like maybe as like his RB3, but he made a video about it, talked about it, and this was like pre-combine.
• 56:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it was like a little bit of a hot take at the time.
• 56:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: The combine happened, then the video blew up and got a ton of views because people, you know, started to
• 56:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the video, he was talking through like Mike Washington's age and he's like, I can't find his like data birth anywhere.
• 56:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I can't figure out how old this dude is.
• 56:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And after the combat video, Mike Washington's mom commented on God's video, verifying what his data birth was.
• 56:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was bad funny.
• 56:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So she might be coming at you.
• 56:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So just be careful with with what you say about Mike, Mike, he does.
• 56:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll get by.
• 56:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I won't speak too bad on his name, but I feel like I probably saw that because I remember all this stuff about no one knows how old this guy is So I probably came up for us that clip or that video.
• 56:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will say Nick we we forgot one key segment here
• 56:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I was not going to let this video go to the end without us going to the fucking to the club.
• 57:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: We got to get back to the strip club.
• 57:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: We got to get back to the strip.
• 57:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't.
• 57:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't not talk about this guy.
• 57:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's it's ridiculous.
• 57:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, uh, Dejawn's dribbling balls out once again.
• 57:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty gets the start here.
• 57:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's alongside a a makeshift group of starters.
• 57:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: CMC, Kittle, and Mike Evans are all out in this game.
• 57:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a
• 57:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do think it is semi-notable that Stribling gets five of 10 snaps alongside Perti.
• 57:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: They open the game in two receiver sets for five straight plays.
• 57:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is Damarkis Robinson and Debo Samuel as the wider severs in those two receiver sets.
• 57:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: After five plays though, Stribling comes onto the field in 11 personnel and does get some two receiver snaps.
• 57:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: alongside the starters.
• 57:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not, I'm not really looking into that too heavily.
• 57:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is something that I did want, I did want to note there.
• 57:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He runs three routes alongside the starters, earns three targets.
• 57:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: He plays two total drives, runs seven routes, earns five targets in total.
• 57:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: He hauled in a nice in-breaker, a ball over the middle, like it's kind of contested and crowded in traffic.
• 58:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he nearly hauled in a touchdown down the sideline.
• 58:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's like a 30-yard play.
• 58:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he would have just gone straight to the moon, man.
• 58:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Straight to the moon.
• 58:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where are you getting to on this guy?
• 58:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, where are you calling top?
• 58:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where's the ceiling?
• 58:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, dude, his hands are so strong.
• 58:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not worried about this snapperly whatsoever.
• 58:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm totally expecting it to be like Debo and Mike Evans to start the year.
• 58:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Your bet on dribbling is that like, he's just much better than Debo Samuel is at this point in his career and he gets up to like, in 80%.
• 58:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: player and a lot of those are going to be valuable route in the slot in a Kyle Shan and offense, Striplings at top 100 picked for me for sure, and I'm having trouble not moving them up further.
• 58:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's like 96 overall right now.
• 58:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's totally viable taking in the ninth round right now.
• 58:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to take him a little bit earlier than that, I don't really have a problem either.
• 58:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is hard to watch him and be like,
• 58:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's just got it, man.
• 58:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's like, he just fits the offense really well.
• 58:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's a very well-rounded player.
• 58:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: He does what Shanna Han needs in the offense.
• 59:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like he comes down with the contested catches.
• 59:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's a great run blocker.
• 59:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you could see, he just puts bodies on the floor too.
• 59:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it's like a coach's dream, man.
• 59:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think they nailed that draft with what they were trying to get with dribbling.
• 59:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, attaching to this offense, a guy who's gonna get a ton of opportunity, I think, right out the gate.
• 59:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Will I go higher than,
• 59:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: like the eighth round probably not that feels like a little bit spicy for me, but it's weird because if you step back and you just try to put yourself outside of the way like the dynasty hive worked throughout this off season and just assume that you didn't hear what other people were saying dribbling is like draft capital is situation.
• 59:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: What he's been doing this preseason if this was another player who got the same thing like a second round there to everybody else like was doing what's your bling would do.
• 59:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He'd be like a fifth or six round pick right now.
• 59:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it still feels like you're getting a little bit of discount relative to what's happening in reality.
• 59:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty wild, man.
• 59:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty wild.
• 59:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm still ripping some best ball drafts and I did see him going in the eighth round in those.
• 59:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The steam it'll never slow down.
• 59:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: as long as he keeps making these plays, it's kind of ridiculous.
• 1:00:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting him into that same range.
• 1:00:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've got him in that group.
• 1:00:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like Matthew Golden, Xavier Worthy, McCuylemon, Chris Godwin, that that's kind of where I'm around him late 90s is where I'm right now.
• 1:00:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do still think there is room for me to bump him up.
• 1:00:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: If he sits with the starters and we'll stream, he's about to say, just wait, he's gonna rest with the starters next week and it's fucking over.
• 1:00:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's over, bro.
• 1:00:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's over.
• 1:00:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's over.
• 1:00:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, every aggregator is going to report the John Stribling sits alongside Brock Purdy Christian McCaffrey.
• 1:00:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: All these guys.
• 1:00:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's yeah, I am prepared for this to not be the ceiling whatsoever.
• 1:00:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Staying in a standing in San Francisco though.
• 1:00:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will I will add that
• 1:00:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to finally kind of get some intel on how the running back to situation is playing out.
• 1:00:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I do think that this one is valuable as well because we know Chris McCaffrey's age in injury history and we have time and time again, seeing Kyle Shanahan turn relatively unknown running backs into fantasy studs, whether the Elijah Mitchell, Isaac Garendo, Jordan Mason.
• 1:01:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm probably missing one or two guys on that list as well.
• 1:01:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So this is one where I want to not only
• 1:01:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Keep an eye on who's emerging as the RB2, but who is confirmed to be the RB2.
• 1:01:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think it settled just yet.
• 1:01:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: We do see Kaylin black return from injury in this game.
• 1:01:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: He does kind of control the snaps alongside the starters, gets eight of 10 snaps with Brock Party.
• 1:01:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: He looks good.
• 1:01:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Two consecutive runs of eight yards and nine runs.
• 1:01:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: He shows real contact balance, mowing down defenders on the plays.
• 1:01:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hayden Winks of Yahoo noted that he had a couple of really good
• 1:01:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: some trust.
• 1:01:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think this is done for yet.
• 1:01:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jordan James, the other guy who's really in the run for the RB2 job, returns to practice this weekend after he misses this game.
• 1:01:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the competition's really starting to get going now.
• 1:01:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is one where I will have my eyes glued to the reporting for all the reasons that we talked about earlier, just the value of this offense and who Christian McAfrey is as a player.
• 1:02:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anything to add there?
• 1:02:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just want to keep an eye on.
• 1:02:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, you know, I think you got it.
• 1:02:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, like Caleb Black is in the driver's seat right now mainly because Jordan James has basically been out of practice for a while just returned.
• 1:02:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I do think it kind of gets a little bit spicy.
• 1:02:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think we have a clear read, but I do think Shanahan likes to work with one running back.
• 1:02:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to be important to know who that guy is.
• 1:02:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's like a good part about drafting McAfrey, where there's a lot of people are spooked by him.
• 1:02:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you take him five or six overall, like if you take the handcuff and both of these guys are so unknown that it's not like you have to pay March on Lloyd or tank bigty prices for the handcuff here.
• 1:02:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you're going to be able to get these guys as the last pick in your draft.
• 1:02:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to supplement what you have with Christian McAfrey.
• 1:02:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: So
• 1:02:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, that's another reason why I like investing it to the San Francisco backfield because it does become pretty clear cut like who the next guy up is going to be and they're going to get a huge workload.
• 1:02:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like even if C. Mac goes down, if it's black or James, like they're probably getting 18 touches a game.
• 1:02:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're probably catching five or six passes a game because their offense is designed around throwing to the running back and just like so many high value touches.
• 1:03:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't have a clear like Alfon, who I think the guy is right now, but luckily we sell like two weeks until kickoff.
• 1:03:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think we'll get a lot more info within that time.
• 1:03:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think even if we don't get true clarity, I'm just gonna take a stab on one of these guys.
• 1:03:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: There.
• 1:03:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just they're both stone-free in redraft leagues right now.
• 1:03:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for all the reasons we were already talking about, this is a backfield where I want to have one of the potential handcuff options, even if it's not free.
• 1:03:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 1:03:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you've got a deep bench, you're rolling like 16, 17 rounds in your redraft lead draft, consider grabbing either of them and just keeping an eye to see if someone is either solidified in the job or seems to have an edge.
• 1:03:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, agreed.
• 1:03:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 1:03:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we can wrap up there.
• 1:03:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we missed anything else.
• 1:03:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: We went through the injuries, the signings take away some preseason week two.
• 1:03:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to imagine we're going to have even fewer when it comes to week 3, but we will be back on Monday, a week from today.
• 1:03:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you guys still have drafts remaining, we will cover you with all of our biggest ranking changes.
• 1:04:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: What happens in next week's preseason games and the injuries that occur throughout practice and he new signings that we might end up seeing throughout the transaction