Which One Is the 1? Finding Value When Nobody Can Read the Room

The murkiest running back, wide receiver, and tight end rooms offer big dynasty value, if you know how to read them. Knowing how to evaluate a room instead of just a player lets you find value where others see noise, and avoid the moves that dynasty managers regret every season. Brian Hartman of Too Much Fantasy Football joins Jeff Blaylock to walk through his framework for murky situations and then get into the rooms themselves, from Pittsburgh's backfield to the Rams' TE depth chart to Chicago's WR room, where nobody is sure who is The One.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Evaluating a room, not just an individual player, can change which dynasty assets look cheap and which look like traps.
• The Pittsburgh backfield is one of the murkiest in the league. Brian gives Rico Dowdle a slight edge over Jaylen Warren in dynasty because of his ceiling.
• The Seattle situation with Jadarian Price is a cautionary tale about spending first-round picks on short-term situations, not the player's long-term value.
• The Washington Commanders have five running backs. None of them are must-owns, but Rachaad White may be the most interesting piece to acquire cheaply.
• Looking at the Bears' WR room, Brian would rather sell whichever of Luther Burden or Rome Odunze he can get the most value for, but not keep both.
• If he misses out on the elite TE options, Brian's spending his startup capital elsewhere and taking advantage of rookie values later.
• Terrance Ferguson is a dynasty buy right now despite the crowded Rams' TE room. His path to volume is clearer than his ADP suggests.
• Know your league before anything else: the murky situations that hurt you in a vacuum might be exactly the bet your specific league rewards.

⏱️ Chapters/Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: Rooms, Not Players
06:16 – Pittsburgh: Warren vs. Dowdle
13:13 – Cleveland: Judkins, Sampson and the QB Problem
22:28 – Seattle: Should You Pay for Jadarian Price?
26:59 – Houston: The Texans' Run Game Doesn't Excite Anyone
29:58 – Washington: Five Running Backs, No Clear Answer
34:36 – Wide Receivers: The Tier 2.5 Problem
40:26 – Chicago: Burden vs. Odunze
49:01 – Buffalo: DJ Moore's Value with Josh Allen
53:53 – Tight Ends: Punt the Position or Pay Up?
01:03:37 – The Rams' TE Room: Buy Terrance Ferguson
01:18:28 – Quarterbacks: Cleveland's Unsolvable Problem
01:27:51 – Overarching Advice for Murky Situations

🔗 Links Mentioned on the Show

• Too Much Fantasy Football on YouTube
• Too Much Movie Night on YouTube 
• Follow Brian on Twitter/X 
• Jeff's Dynasty Rankings, exclusively on Footballguys 
• Follow Jeff on Twitter/X 
• Footballguys 

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Transcript

When there's a clear number one guy, whether it be an alpha wide receiver or a workhorse running back or a tight end who plays in a lot of 11 personnel, it's pretty easy to decide what to do with them, how much you wanna spend for them, and whether you want them on your team. Gets harder when the situations that they're in get a little murkier, when there isn't a clear one or 1A or not even a clear path at all.

Brian Hartman is joining me today, uh, to look at some of those situations and talk about how he evaluates them, not only as individual players, but as actual rooms, the running back room, the wide receiver room, et cetera. Because sometimes, sometimes you do have to run into the burning building, and we'll be doing that next on Dynasty Compass

[theme music]

Welcome to Dynasty Compass. I'm your host, Jeff Blalock, the other Jeff B from Footballguys. Thank you so much for tuning in, uh, to the show, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on Apple or Spotify or another of your favorite podcast platforms. Uh, you tuning in and commenting and, uh, liking, subscribing, all those things, uh, make sure this show grows, gets in front of more audiences, and enables me to bring on great guests like the one I have today.

We've got Brian Hartman here, uh, joining me. Brian, uh, thanks so much for stopping by, taking the time, and, uh, welcome to the show

Yeah, thank you so much, Jeff. Appreciate you having me on. I'm super excited, you know, getting to talk some fantasy football, of course, because, you know, we're only 15 Sundays away. This is the vital time. We have to have started up now

That's right. If you have not, and particularly in dynasty, if you've not been paying attention yet, then, uh, you should definitely get on that horse now

But it's probably likely that if you have not been paying attention to that yet, you are not watching this either. So this is really a show for folks who want that leg up in their dynasty leagues.

Uh, and so let's just jump on in here. Now, you were recently doing some drafts, uh, with Jake Ciely, who, uh, we've had on the show. Uh, and you did a different one with, uh, Andrew Cooper, who we've also had on the show, and Chuck Bass and some other guys, and I apologize to those guys for leaving their names out.

Maybe you could fill them in. Uh, but the thing about those that caught my attention, uh, was that you, you weren't drafting players. You were drafting rooms. Like instead of Jeremiyah Love, you would be drafting the Arizona Cardinals running back room. I only say that 'cause that's, Arizona's the first team.

It's the depth chart I have on the other screen over here. You probably didn't draft them if you were doing top teams. Uh, but, uh, you know, why did you have that kind of framing? Why are we looking at the room instead of just the individual players?

I, a lot of it was just l- like, you know, framing our, our out- or, you know, just the, the outlook that we have on these teams, on these players. We have so many drafts, so much content of the top 13, top 10, top 15 running backs. We know who those are. And is it exciting to do a draft of the, you know, running backs 16 through 30?

Not really, you know? That really just doesn't bring people in. So I was like, all right, let's mix it up a little bit and let's talk about the totality of these running back rooms. You may have Jahmyr Gibbs, who is one of the best running backs in the league, but when you stack up his room to some of these other rooms, his room looks pretty bleak, you know?

You got Isiah Pacheco back there. That's not exactly getting us excited, you know? That's, that's not somebody you're clamoring to have on your dynasty rosters anymore. So I was like, let's mix it up a little bit and let's see which overall teams. You know, as, as you have in redraft, you know, you, you have a, a defense and special team.

You have one slot devoted to the entire section. Well, let's, let's look at it that way. So that's, that's kind of how we tore it down. Uh, we did pass catchers to wide receivers and tight end rooms, and then the, the running backs as well in that other draft.

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, it's really easy for us as dynasty managers to look just at the individuals, uh, but not so much a cohesive room. And as we were getting into a world where, uh, sadly 11 personnel is not what's used almost exclusively, where you had three wide receivers, one tight end, one running back, everybody had a role, it was very easy.

Now we've got committees almost everywhere in almost every position. So when you're just looking at, you know, at Jahmyr Gibbs or at Jeremiyah Love or at just any particular player and not the rest of the talent around him, what are you missing as a dynasty manager when you're doing that?

I think it's all the variables that, like, we kind of take for granted. I- I- you know, when we're looking at tho- some of those things. Absolutely. Who wouldn't want Jahmyr Gibbs? Who wouldn't want Bijan Robinson on their team? You know, of course, you know, it's a staple there. But n- not everybody gets that. You know, only one team gets that player, and most teams don't have the, you know, the, the capital to go make a, a move for those types of players typically.

So, uh, how do you beat that? Omarion Hampton. I love Omarion Hampton. Would I... I'd kill to have Omarion Hampton on my team, for sure. Would I trade for Omarion Hampton? Probably not. There's too much hype. He's gonna be at that peak of that performance. But you know what I can trade for? For the s- a lot of the same reasons I like Omarion Hampton, it's the offense, it's the play caller, it's the team.

Well, I can go get Keaton Mitchell for a third. Now, am I guaranteeing the same output as Omarion Hampton? Absolutely not. But people get hurt all the time. Things happen all the time, and that's kind of where I look for my opportunities. Like, all right, I need some running back depth. Well, maybe I don't want to go shoot for a starter that's looking good.

Let me go find the next best situation, and I'll get the next guy up, somebody who's flashed it. And, you know, Keaton, Keaton Mitchell's just an example. I, I bought him with third-round picks quite a bit in my dynasty leagues this off-season, just for the what if. Why not?

Yeah, and especially if they're almost a plug and play, you know, he runs the same kinds of style, can be put in the same kinds of offensive plays, the same scheme. Maybe not to the same results 'cause the same talent's not

there, but you're not, you know, trying to then change your entire offense because your second running back has nothing to compare to your first running back.

So good things to kind of keep in mind there. Uh, so let's just get right into running backs room. I mean, when you're looking at the room as a whole, so all the running backs together on a team, what, what are you looking For What sort of defines whether that room is good or shaky or yuck?

E- we, we found ourselves in that draft kind of having to di- identify, all right, do we have an elite talent situation or do we have a multitude of talent? Because that's where it got kind of dicey. You know, there's teams where it's, it's a huge tier do- tier drop between, you know, running back one to the running back two, three, four on the team.

And then, like, you brought up Arizona. Arizona actually, weirdly enough, in both those drafts got taken in the top seven. Because why? They've got four capable running

They do

You know, they, they have, uh, Trey Benson still there, who everybody's still wondering, you know? That's the low man on the totem pole at that point.

That's not very, that's not bad for a fourth running back. You still have James Conner there. You, you brought in Tyler Allgeier, who they paid a decent amount of money in free agency. And then also you have Jeremiyah Love, who they took there in the top three of the NFL draft. So, like, that team was... jumped off the page for me when I was looking at it.

I was like, "Honestly, if one guy goes down, I'm still pretty happy with the running back room. If two guys go down, I don't hate it." You know? Like, worse situations, we saw them last year putting together, uh, Bam Knight and Michael Carter and, uh, Emari Demercado. That's, that's not the depth we're looking for in some of these running back rooms.

Yeah. Uh, exactly, man. I mean, it, it, it's, it's... So basically the situations that are most maddening for dynasty managers may make the, the best, Uh, rooms if you're looking at them in that, that kind of light

Yeah. Uh, Commanders is one that kind of jumps out. We have five, uh, I don't wanna say viable pieces on that team, but we have five running backs that could see decent touches this year. Who do we wanna bet on? I don't know. Do you know? Do you wanna go with the, the pass catcher, Rachaad White? Or do you wanna go with hopefully the, the touchdown thumper in, in Bill, in Jacory Croskey-Merritt?

So, uh, you're not really having to pay up for a lot of this. But do I look at this team as a top half team, a top, you know, third as far as offenses go? Do I like the offensive line? These are kind of the variables I start, like, pulling apart, feeling like, all right, where can I buy just a piece? You know, just a, just a, a part of that offense.

You know, whether it be, uh, one of those or Kaytron Allen was their rookie, I believe, that they took.

Yep, that's correct. Yeah, I've actually got five guys in that room ranked in my dynasty rankings, which is unusual f- to have that many running backs. But none of them are above 39. So Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Bill is my RB39. Rachaad White is 52. Kaytron's 42-- 43. Uh, Jerome Ford is 94. Uh, and Robert Henry is 97.

He probably won't make the team and will, will disappear, uh, soon enough. But that-- Yes, that is a, that is-- If you just are, are taking whatever running back is out there at any given moment and getting points for it, I think that's a great kind of setup because that's, that, that's a great committee. If you're looking for just one of them, however, yeah, that could be kind of complicated.

Uh, and, and we'll, we'll get into that here, uh, here in a little bit with some of these, uh, these murky rooms. Uh, but I know that from, uh, those other couple shows, and you've mentioned a couple times, you, you sort of put tiers not only within the room, but the rooms against each other. Can you, uh, talk a little bit about how you were dividing the different rooms apart to have ones that were better and ones that weren't?

Yeah, that was the, the hard part with some of these teams that are very, I don't want to say fragile, top-heavy, but like s- you know, for the wide receiver position for instance, uh, Seattle. You know, you got JSN. Guy lit the, you know, just lit the world on fire. Went out there and just, you know, made a lot of money.

He's looking great. But what are we looking at with wide receiver two, wide receiver three, wide receiver four? There is a huge tier break. Now, would you rather have a, a JSN and Rashid Shaheed and, and Cooper Kupp? Or would you rather have like the Buccaneers, where maybe they don't have an elite guy, but they have an ascending Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin, who's no slouch, and hopefully he's still got at least one more year in him.

Uh, you've got Jalen McMillan. You have Ted Hurst. You have, uh, Tez

Tez Johnson.

Yeah. So many different options there. So like, y- you kind of have to weigh, you know, how, how much does depth play into those situations? So that's kind of where we had to tier it out. I had a, a handful of those tiers where, all right, you guys have depth and great talent.

That's gonna be my tier one. My tier on- twos was usually a lot of those, those high-end talents that with zero depth. And then the tier three guys, uh, seemed to trend more for, um, overall depth, but they didn't have that superstar. They didn't have that guy that's pushing you over the edge. Um, but then you have teams like, um...

Oh my gosh, I'm, I'm drawing a blank. I, I wish I could... I need to pull up the list to just see what we had. It got b- it got like a little crazy there. Some feelings got hurt, and there were some teams that may have been a little higher than they should have.

you know? We, we plant flags on the ground and occasionally that flag goes through somebody else and they, uh, they scream about it.

Yeah, we like to say we're not emotional here. We're, uh, just playing this game. It's all analytics. It's all what we're seeing with our... No, no, no, no. We're, we're playing on, tugging on the heartstrings when we play this game

Yeah, everybody is somebody's mother, right? I mean, you, you can't talk-- you talk badly about somebody, you can just see, see a parent or two of theirs just shaking their head at you like, "No, no, no, no. That's not our kid."

100%.

So let's, let's kind of look at some of these sort of situations where, you know, we, we don't have the luxury of being able to take all of the Arizona Cardinals running backs, for example, as a block and that they count however they distribute themselves. We have to actually start picking individual guys, whether it's to be an RB1 or two, or as you say, like a Keaton Mitchell type, that they're, they're on our bench and they come in if, uh, if somebody gets hurt ahead of them.

So just kind of start wherever on the map you, you'd like on here, and let's kind of talk through some of these, uh, running back rooms. We'll get to the other positions in a little bit. Uh, and let's just see if we can get some guidance for dynasty managers who are looking at, at these and going, "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I, I think none more so than, uh, than Pittsburgh right now. Um, you know, you, you've got Jaylen Warren, you have Rico Dowdle, um, you got Heidenreich, kind of the, the Navy, the midshipman that got drafted. And, and that's the fun tweet going around. He has the highest draft capital as a seventh round pick.

The other two guys are UDFAs. It- obviously we're not gonna use draft capital here as a deciding factor on what we want, but we know we've got an old, old quarterback there behind center. What do they do? They like to check it down. So, like, you try and look at the two and like, all right, well, Jaylen, Jaylen Warren, that fits his mold.

Well, over the last two years, Rico Dowdle actually has more receptions than Jaylen Warren. So just to muddy up more. You know, you can't even look at it like you got your thumper and you got your receiving back. It should be how it lays out. But it's Pittsburgh, so I don't know. Like, as a dynasty manager, I have a good chunk of, of Rico Dowdle just, it kind of fell into my, some of my rosters, and I am struggling to figure out how to lean on these players, you know?

Like, you can't really hope... You can hope for higher than an RB3 put- output, but I think these guys just have to be locked in as those, like, flex play RB3s

Yeah, I've got Warren at, at, uh, RB29 in my dynasty rankings and Dowdle at RB36, so I- I'm right there. They're RB3-type guys. Uh, Warren is listed first right now because he's first on their depth chart, but we know that doesn't really mean anything. Uh, and then we did me- not mention a guy a second ago who is at least still on the roster, and that's Kaleb Johnson, who I know a lot of dynasty managers

Yeah, you forgot

a lot of folks have forgotten about him by this point. Uh, but there were a number of people, myself included, who thought he was, uh, he, he was at least gonna be decent, uh, drafted him, and then watched him go straight into the doghouse from which he is yet to emerge. Perhaps with the new coaching staff, uh, he gets a, a fresh start with his old team.

Uh, so that's a fourth guy, uh, who's there as well. And then they also picked up Travis Homer, uh, as a depth piece. Uh, that's another guy that sort of muddies up this third down role out there. So how do you, how do you really see this usage shaking out with this, with this room, with these now five guys that we've mentioned?

I, un- uh, as far as projections go, I'm leaning into majority 80% of the work going to, uh, Rico and Warren. Right now I do kind of have it looking more as Rico is the, the bruising back. You get there in the first couple downs. Jaylen Warren comes in there at third down. Uh, we did get a lot of reports from Aaron Rodgers wanting to get the ball more to Jaylen Warren last year in the dump-offs.

Obviously we saw Gainwell leading the team in receptions, and he kind of slid into that. So I'm hoping that maybe there is that natural chemistry. Aaron Rodgers, what he wants, he kind of gets in the way of, like, player personnel. Um, he is being reunited with McCarthy. McCarthy's got, you know, he's got that, uh, played with Rico just a couple seasons ago in Dallas and was successful.

And, you know, say what you will against the, the talent that he played in those two games, he looked incredible in those back-to-back games last year where he breaking 200 all-purpose yards in both of them. So i- it's hard for me to navigate away from it. But both of these, I, I don't want to, at least in the redraft sense, I don't want to invest a lot of capital in.

But I want to, I want a taste. I want a little bit. I want, like, could this offense be better? They, I don't know. Maybe we're just post-Tomlin era. Like, maybe we can finally break the mold, but watch, they're finally gonna finish below 500 just to just to really cause problems for us.

Yeah, there we go. A, a nice, a nice solid eight and nine season that, uh, is, is really nothing in either direction. That'd be perfect. It'd be fitting. Um, yeah, I'm with you. I'm kind of leaning a little more toward Dowdle even though I've got Warren ranked higher. In dynasty we're not just looking at a single season, we are looking out several years.

Warren's a little bit younger, uh, as I recall. A- and so that to me's got a little bit longer term stability, the tails kind of being the difference there. But Dowdle is unquestionably talented. As a Cowboys fan, I watched him, uh, for several seasons doing very well. You, you mentioned that historic run of a couple weeks he had last year.

I got to the privilege of facing him both weeks lots of times, so I I, I was on the, on the receiving end of that, uh, in, in a number of leagues. That was, uh, that was a lot of fun. So y- if you had to pick between one, well, you had to choose one or the other for dynasty, who would you take?

I think I'm taking Dowdle. I think I can get him a little cheaper. Like you said, there's gonna be the age bias on him. And I think he- he's got a higher upside. Do you know, I, I don't ever s- you know, if something puts one of bo- one or both of those guys in the position, I think Dowdle could give us a top 12 finish.

With, you know, the work, the, the productive team with the touchdowns and stuff like that, I don't know if Warren ever actually can... Like, his chances of that ceiling hitting, I think are a lot lower than Dowdle's would be

And even if Aaron Rodgers makes a concerted effort to get the ball to Warren, uh, in, in dump-offs this year, this would be the only year that that's likely to happen because the new quarterback coming in, whether they're already on the roster, they're drafted, or they're signed later, uh, may have a completely different outlook on how they wanna proceed and may have less power over, uh, the purse strings and the, uh, play calling that the, and the ownership that, uh, Aaron Rodgers seems to have there in Pittsburgh.

Uh, who, who's next? Where, where do you wanna go next on our map?

Oh, man. Uh, let's talk the Brown- let's talk about the Browns. Uh, because this one I, I've statted out the team, but I g- every time I open up my projections, I look straight at this one 'cause I don't know what I wanna do. Um, honestly, I've got Deshaun Watson doing four games. I've got Shedeur doing like seven games.

I've got Gabriel... 'Cause I, uh, like w-

Right

we don't know, and it's almost, I feel like, insulting to try and predict it, especially because, like, I found such a huge difference between Deshaun Watson, his liking and tendencies to wide receivers versus Shedeur's and his tendencies with Fannin, the tight end. So I'm like, does that play into it?

We've got new coaching, new scheme. F- Fannin has evolved. The wide receiver's now young. You know, so I, I don't know what to do. And this running back room is really just staring at me. 'Cause I, I kind of faded Judkins a good amount last year, which based on the talent was wrongdoing, but my reason behind it was because this is going to be a subpar team.

This is not gonna be a team putting them in position to score a lot, and that's where Judkins is going to excel. You know, he's not gonna be that huge pass-catching guy. He's not gonna have the ceiling with those numbers. He needs the touchdowns to really push himself into that elevated category. And I, I, I see a similar situation.

I don't see this offense being great. And they just shipped off their best player, so now the defense just took a step back, too, which means controlling the clock, these one-score games where they can run the ball out a little bit, they might be wai- you know, waning a little bit. So I, I do... And I like Sampson quite a bit as far as just a, in, like, redraft this year, just to start off hot.

You know, Judkins, I, I thought he was gonna have a slow start. We're already getting camp hype videos, so maybe we're gonna have to back that down a little bit. But I just, I don't find myself wanting to invest in this, and if you're a dynasty player that's already invested in Judkins, you kind of have to sit in it.

Because I do see a higher ceiling. I see the value rising over the next six, 18, 24 months. But I, I'm not g- I'm not gonna dare lose out on that. I'm not gonna get scared and, you know, move on from something that could be great in a couple of seasons

I think I'm with you on that, that if you, if you've got Judkins and you have managed through, uh, your initial acquisition, there was a chance he wasn't even going to sign his rookie contract last year. There's a chance he wouldn't be able to, uh, to be playing last year, at least early on. He, he was able to do both of those things.

So if you were able to handle that, then I think you're in a good position to just sit on, on Judkins For now. Sampson, though, I find interesting. You know, I have him as my running back 47, so right at the bottom of RB4 range in dynasty, specifically because of, of some of the murkiness that you're talking about.

But I also just liked what Sampson brings the table, uh, a- you know, a- as a more versatile-- I wouldn't say necessarily more versatile than Judkins, but more versatile than your typical second running back is going to be in the NFL. So, you know, Judkins, I think, is at a price point I wouldn't acquire, uh, uh, now.

And of course, I also have a, a generally a no knuckleheads policy, so I'm, I'm not, not inclined to pick him up anyway. Um, but, but I will give some grace there. Sampson, however, seems like, uh, almost, I don't know about an ideal pickup, but surely cheap enough probably that this is somebody you could, you could put on your, your roster.

Why-- What would be your thoughts on that, and, and what, what would be kind of the, the price you're willing to pay to get Sampson on your team?

Uh, I mean, I really wouldn't wanna pay much more than a third. If you're doing a third and another player, maybe two-thirds. If it's a second in this '26 class, sure. I've been tr- I've-- The things that I have traded 2026 seconds for, it, it, the varying array is some of, "Wow, I can't believe I pulled this off," to, "Wow, I might as well just, like, drop that, that pick."

You know, it's, it's incredible just the value seen across leagues. But, like, Sampson is still, at this day, only 21 years old. So, like, y- you've got the young. The, the prime of those years, he's just opening into that, and does he ultimately have a ceiling that, like, Judkins goes down? Do I think that he has the same ceiling of, as, like, we were just talking with Rico Dowdle?

Absolutely not. They're different players, different backs. This guy's barely 200 pounds. He's five eight. But what he can do on a team that's probably gonna be pretty bad, that's gonna be behind, that's gonna have to play some catch-up, that has some rookie receivers, I, I like his pass-catching. I like the role that he's coming off of.

The Browns have Judkins. He's coming off a major injury. There's no reason they should run him into the ground this season. They should make sure it's a nice 65, 35, 60, 40 spl- you know, some sort of split where they're, they're getting some work out of Sampson. Because Sampson, like, they took him at the top of day f- of the fourth round, which most years we kind of scoff at, but last year's draft, that was right there by Cam Skattebo, right by Tuten.

Those are other players that we have high... You know, we're, we're marking high. So i- if you're just looking at draft capital on this one, I, I, think that's kind of a poor way to look at it, because this guy, I, I do think he has a ceiling. We saw flashes of it last year with, uh, uh, first game, eight catches.

Eight, you know, eight targets, eight catches for 64 yards. That's-- Receivers can't pull that off sometimes. That's, that's for sure.

Uh, where, where to next, man?

Oh, man. I, mind, I need help with this one too. The Seattle.

Seattle, Yeah. This is, This

is a fascinating one for me too, and, and for dynasty managers who are dealing with how high in the first round are they willing to spend a pick for Jadarian Price

And the, the cautionary tale that I, I feel-- I've been playing Dynasty I think seven-ish seasons. It, it took me a little bit before I finally found a league and splurged and came into it, and the consensus that you usually hear is like you, you draft for value and you, you trade for priority kind of a thing, or, you know, trade for, for need.

You don't draft a running back just because you need a running back. And I, I heard the rule, I didn't follow the rule. I-- it came back and bit me. So I, I, I us- I'm pretty good about taking value here, but this year it seems pretty consensus with like in single quarterback drafts, people are like, "Yeah, 105, 106, take whoever you want.

Just take whoever you want. It's, it's no big deal." And it's hard, hard to say, you know, the 106 and the 112 are the same value because they're not, but they kind of are because it's a crapshoot at this point. So I, I don't know. I have zero Price. Um, I, I, I don't know what to do. When we talk-- when we did this episode ranking the running back rooms, Seattle got brought up as the worst running back room, and this was post NFL draft.

And we got-- we brought them up as like this might be the worst running back room in the league. Uh, so I, I... Best ball, I've taken Emanuel Wilson. That's really the only running back I've taken so far 'cause I don't know what to do

Yeah

I, I'm with you. Actually, you know, if I'm sitting there at 105, 106, 107, and I can't move that pick because nobody else wants to move into that position, which is what happens, uh, I actually in Superflex find myself taking Ty Simpson because why not? Why not? Uh, I don't want to spend dynasty capital on a running back who may have a path to lots of touches one time, which is kind of where Price is right now given just the, the, the health of Zach Charbonnet.

He's basically walking into the ability to have 200 touches this year if he can do something with the first 50 that he gets. I love, I love Wilson as kind of a, uh, a stash, uh, someone you can bring in because I d- I don't see Price being an 80/20 kind of guy. So there's gonna have to be somebody else, and Holani to me is, is unfortunately probably your goal line wrecker, so he's gonna vulture the touchdowns from these other two, uh, in short yard situations.

But, but I like, I like Wilson, uh, a lot, and, uh, but apparently not very much because he's my running back 79. So we may have to take a, we may have to take another look at that, uh, in the context of this year. But of course, you say I'm looking out several years. Uh, and Price I have up reasonably high. He's my running back 22, and that is just because I tend to weight this year, uh, about 44% of total value, and at least at this point this year looks like he is, he's a running back kind of guy.

And if you're a, uh, if you're a contender and you've got a late first pick and Jadarian Price is sitting there, I think he's someone to pick up because he's got that volume at least this year

Yeah, it feels like it's some- one of those, like, you could do a lot worse in that situation than, than do that. It, it just... You have to understand what you're doing. If you're taking him and hoping he is your RB2 and he's gonna help be a linchpin in your season, I- that's dangerous. That's where you need to start dropping, you know, picking up all these Keaton Mitchells and these third-round guys just because you're gonna need some plug-and-play action.

Um, we, we might get some sustainability out of the Seahawks running back room, but I am putting no faith in getting consistent work from them, despite the Super Bowl champ, great defense, probably falling in the Klint Kubiak ways of multiple running backs. I- call me crazy, I just, I don't know if I wanna mess with it this year

Yeah I mean, they were so successful at it last year, of course they'll be successful at it this year, even though they've got different people because they lost Walker and Charbonnet is on the shelf. So of course two new people will come in and do exactly what they did last year, Right, I mean, that's

of course. Yeah. I mean, these OCs, they're just a dime a dozen. They just swap out so seamlessly.

Well, that is actually seems to be true in the NFL, Uh, lately, but sometimes it's just because they, they, they think better of where a situation should move on, uh, or get the head coaching gig, uh, and, and so forth. But, uh, anyone else, Aaron, running back land you wanna get to? Any other teams

Uh, I guess the last one I, uh, that's really giving me issues is the Texans. Uh, they, they made the move for David Montgomery. They traded for him, brought him in. They still have Woody Marks. Uh, I, I think we saw and we know what Woody Marks is. He enjoys his time in the medical tent, and he's a pass-catching running back, you know?

The... I, I don't ever think... I think it's a similar kind of vein as far as the, the Dylan Sampson. If the number one goes down, which that happened last year, I don't think that you can guarantee yourself a top 12, you know, like, a, a points per game basis or anything like that. Like, he is going to struggle.

Could he do it? Absolutely, he could do it for a few games here and there, but the sustainability is just not something I wanna bet on. So, uh, a piece I liked, you got him late, so hopefully you can either flip him for something or he's a nice plug-in player for you. But David Montgomery, man, I just don't want anything to do with it.

I know this offensive line has improved. It's kind of hard for it not to improve over the last two years. So I, I find myself a little bit more pessimistic. I, I am a Colts fan, so maybe that's what it is too. I'm just like, "Come on, they got a little hot too long," and I'm trying to cool them down a little bit.

This whole division's trying to get hot while we're still trying to figure out our thing, so, um, it's just... Texas' run game doesn't excite me this year at all

Yeah, same. I, you know, I-- Montgomery to me, if I can have him in redraft as my RB2, I'm probably pretty satisfied with that. But in dynasty, there's-- I don't see a lot of at least long-term upside, and I'm not sure what to make of this offense either. I mean, you-- right now I've got Nico as their undisputed number one.

I don't know if we're gonna get to their wide receivers later or not. Jayden Higgins and Tank Dell at two and three, and Dell is not, hasn't played in a year and a half, uh, and we don't know what he's gonna look like. I don't know if Higgins can handle being a, a number two full-time. Uh, I'm not impressed with the tight ends, even though Dalton Schultz had what was more or less a career year last year.

Uh, and then, and then on top of all

that, we have C.J. Stroud, uh, who has performed very well when his offensive line has been good. It is better than it was last year, but I would not call it good. I don't think you would either

And the hard thing is too, that defense is elite. They're probably should be elite again this year, so he doesn't have to do much. And ideally you would think game plan-wise they wanna lean on the running game, but I just, I don't know if they're gonna be able to

Yeah

I think that makes the case for me for Montgomery for, you know, his redraft is specifically, you know, because of that. I mean, you, you figure they're gonna wanna lean on the run game. He's that guy. But at dynasty, I really don't want any part of, uh, of any of that running game, really. Uh, if I've got Woody Marks, I'm probably hanging on to him.

Uh, he saw some flashes of brilliance, and then we saw some reasons why he was the late-round pick he was. So we'll see how that goes, and I don't know what you'd be able to get for him right now unless you have the Montgomery manager who needs to plug and play, and perhaps you can extract some extra value there.

Uh, before we leave running backs, 'cause we did mention them, let's go back to Washington for a second and see if we can make any sense out of Bill Merritt, Bill Croskey-Merritt, Rachaad White, Kaytron Allen, Jerome Ford. So essentially, other than Jeremy McNichols and Bill Croskey-Merritt the Commanders completely, uh, revamped the rest of that running back room.

Uh, and it's been a process beginning last year when they dealt with Chris Rodriguez, let Austin Ekeler go, and brought in White, Allen, and Ford. Um, what are you making of this from a dynasty standpoint? Is there any piece of this you're interested in, or is this a running back room that you are running out of the burning building for?

Yeah, I grabbed the dogs and I'm, I'm halfway out the building. I am sprinting right now. Uh, it's an interesting situation. Do I like Jacory Croskey-Merritt going into the season? Sure, absolutely. In the dynasty sense, yeah. Because where you got him last year, you, you, you have him cheap. It's a, it's a free piece.

Just be happy with it. Would you love to be able to flip it for more value? Absolutely. But in most senses, like, just, just be happy you've got an RB3 you might be able to plug and play. Things could fall his way. If this team comes out and looks good like they did two years ago, he could fall into 12 to 14 touchdowns pretty easily, and like, that's, that's enough to propel him, uh, for what you need.

I think really the only one that has me intrigued right now is Rachaad White. I've never been a huge Rachaad White guy, but this seems like the year that I'd be willing to take the shot. And honestly, it's 'cause it seems like they kind of dropped the ball when it came to just the skill players alone.

Like, what did they do? They brought in Chig Okonkwo, sure. Love to be able to see them take a chance on an athletic tight end. I love

Yep.

But that's not your priority. That's not where the priority should be. And them and the Giants, they did the same thing. They prioritized bringing a tight end in, but then the wide receivers, what'd we do?

We got a day three guy in Antonio Williams. Sure, love that. Don't love that he has to be the number two target, or at least their receiver right now for the room. So unless Stefon Diggs comes b- you know, to town, uh, Brandon Aiyuk, I know those rumors have been hot and bothered. It's, it's June 2nd. They're 49ers.

Let's, let's go. Let's make this happen. Um, or, you know, maybe a Deebo Samuel comes back. But if that doesn't happen, I am really worried about the concentrated targets that would have to run through Terry McLaurin and Chig Okonkwo, which leaves Rachaad White in a decent situation. So do I really wanna pay for the guy?

Not, not in so many s- you know, so much of the sense. But if you're making a trade and that teammate that you're trading has Rachaad White, "Hey, why don't you toss that in? Why don't you go ahead and toss that in? I'll give you an extra third." Big bang, boom. You know, just kind of play it out. But I'm not exactly projecting high, high for anything in this room

Yeah, I love that, that approach to it. I think folks who have White and have been sort of stuck with him and maybe are not happy he left Tampa Bay, uh, might be willing to part with him pretty easily. He is probably -- I've mentioned this before, and certainly have said it in my rankings, he's probably the unsexiest RB2 that has ever walked the earth, and yet he's the only one who's consistently been in the top 24 since he entered the league.

Uh, you do say 12 to 14 touchdowns for Bill Mer- Croskey-Merritt. I'm worried that Rachaad White gets seven or eight of those, uh, because that was sort of the role that he played in Tampa Bay. I'm not saying that's what he's gonna be doing in Washington, but he has that skill set there that I, I do worry about the vulturing. Uh, a- and then there's still Kaytron Allen and Jerome Ford kicking around, and they spent not much draft capital on Kaytron Allen, but they did draft him. How do you see him fitting in? Do you see him fitting in, first of all, a- and if so how?

Uh, not so much. I, I think he's going to need some things to happen to this roster to kind of put himself, 'cause what was he? He was a sixth-round pick, I believe. Um, uh, I don't know. He wasn't exactly one of the, the... I mean, none of these running backs were we excited about, you know, if we're being honest.

You know, after outside of love, um, I, I liked Emmett Johnson, I liked Adam Randall, but that's just because we have to find somebody to say that we like in these classes, you know? I, I don't think anybody was truly set up for success. Uh, so Kaytron Allen, if you have him, I, I think it's a, a great lottery ticket.

That's what you're holding onto. Uh, if you get some guys that some surprise retiring, 'cause I'm, um, we're not hoping for injury here. But, you know, maybe, maybe we're taking some time off and it opens it him up. I, I think that's all you're, you're waiting for. Oh my gosh, it's week eight and three guys are hurt.

Kaytron Allen's getting a start. Bam. You either plug him and play him or you put him on the, the trade block to see if you can get a third back in return or whatever you spent on him

And we've seen Washington already once trade a running back in season that they were using rather heavily. So I that could also, uh, be an avenue for Kaytron Allen.

All right, let's, uh, let's head over to wide receiverville here, uh, and again, start kind of the macro picture. What are you looking for in the wide receiver room when you're evaluating it as a, as a whole piece?

This one, as you kind of, you brought up there at the top of the show, as we're seeing 11 personnel kind of, uh, dissipate, it's, uh, gotten a lot harder because that lovely case of like, all right, do you go heavy wide receiver early, you know, grab some running backs later? Or is it heavy running back and you get, get some wide receiver twos?

Well, it seems like the wide receiver twos have kind of disappeared. Like, there is now a hefty tier break between the elite wide receivers and then the next guys. Um, and these next guys, it's not necessarily do you get consistency as like, do I get enough that I'm not having to drop these players and re-pick them up, or at least in like the redraft sense of it.

Um, it, it's, it's a struggle, I'm not gonna lie. Because I, I think once you get to, like, wide receiver 14 to I think wide receiver 32, at least in my redraft rankings this year, I don't care where you put them. I, I like, you know? Like, I think it's so easily just swapped out. You're gonna have hot spurts from each guys.

You know, there's so much plays into it, whether it be the scheduling, how the team's playing. You- we had 22 offensive coordinator changes this year. Like, there's gonna be some growing pains I bet that first week, especially with less preseason and now these guys are spending so much time traveling for all these international games.

I don't, I don't know what's happening with that. So it's, uh, the, the wide receiver twos, it's an interesting situation trying to pick out guys that are my favorites and that are decent bets, and it's more so the touchdown-dependent ones. I'm like, all right, what can I make a bet on that I think this guy could actually propel himself as a viable piece?

Yeah, for dynasty purposes, I've got Odunze at wide receiver 15 and Burden at wide receiver 20, uh, which is, is the way that I've got them right now. I think I could swap them and make an argument to keep them right where they are. But I'm with you in that if I'm not holding either one of them, I'm not really wild about acquiring them Right

now because we're not sure which is the one and which is the two.

Uh, and when you have a running back situation where there is a 1A and a 1B and they split 55/45, you really don't want either one of them, and I think that's kind of where I have landed with the Chicago wide receiver room. If I have them, great, I'll ride it. Uh, if somebody wants to give me, you know, a 2027 first for one of them, I'm yes, here you go.

I may, I may very well do that, uh, because, uh, that, that gives me a lot more flexibility than wondering how this is gonna play out in Chicago, uh, and whether this evolving offense can actually support the two of them, uh, in a way that, that gets them into my starting lineups as a wide receiver one or wide receiver two on a week-to-week basis.

Yeah. I actually just acquired an orphan about a month and a half ago. The orphan of, of course, has Luther Burden and Rome Odunze. And I haven't started the process of trying to move one yet because it's a very delicate situation. I really don't care who I keep. I want to sell whoever I can get more for.

So, like, personally, like I'm, I'm willing to take the shot on either one of them 'cause I already have them acquired. It's like, all right, who's gonna pay me the most for which player? And it's do I put them both on the trade block at once? Do I put one in, try and s- you know, like, 'cause the league mates, everybody's gonna try and galaxy brain this thing and try and figure out, all right, what does Brian know?

Does he know something? Why? And it's like, no, I just don't want them both. I can compete this year, but I need to split that group up to make sure that I can compete. So, uh, it's, it's a tricky situation people are dealing with in Dynasty. I, I don't think you're gonna lose value though. If you hold them both, if you hold both these players, I think they're only gonna go up.

Caleb Williams is kind of bad in some metrics last year. Like, I, I'm gonna leave room for that to continue to improve. Second year with the OC, with the head coach O slash OC. But, like, w- we talk about that all the time, how much improvement there is from year one to year two. So I, I, I'm not scared off of this room.

I just don't know exactly how to definitively evaluate it.

All right, there, and this is completely off of where we were going, but I'm just curious, when you're looking at Odunze and Burden, I mean, who are-- who might be other wide receivers that are ranked ri- right around them, uh, or valued right around them, even in a best ball sense that, that you would rather take the chance on than either one of those guys?

I take Terry McLaurin over both of those. And in 2026, you know, I'm not doing a, a dynasty trade outright, you know, Terry for one of those two fellows. But I, I, I like the condensed targets of what it should be going to Terry McLaurin.

I like David Blough coming in here. I like Jayden Daniels taking that step. Um, Ladd McConkey, man. I... Right now I've got QJ way higher in my ranks than I want to, but, like, someone's going to benefit from this offense, and it, it could just be spread across so much that we're incredibly frustrated. But, like, Ladd McConkey's somebody I wanna take a shot on this year.

Just, uh, someone's gonna be on the field and it could be Ladd. He's a little fella, but he still walked away with seven and eight touchdowns across his two, first two seasons. That's... The, the, like, he would fall in that category for Zay Flowers with me. I l- love the player, I think he's great. I, I'd rather him not be on my team, though.

You know, just because three touchdowns, four touchdowns, he's maxed out. Ladd might be a little different. And if he's down there operating that way in this offense, we could see, you know, some magic happen. Um, I'm trying to think of who else. Honestly, Brian Thomas Jr., Marvin Harrison, I'll take a swing at those in the same range as I will the Chicago wide receivers this year

Yeah, uh, McConkey's somebody I've got my eye on. I've, I actually have a team called Breaking Ladd. Uh, those of you who know I'm from Albuquerque and Breaking Bad, we got Ladd on there. So he's untouchable for a trade because then I'd have to change the name of the team, so we're not gonna do that. Uh, but I do have-- I will have a, uh, a, a breakdown of Ladd McConkey coming up in Footballguys in the coming weeks, so be watching out for that.

Uh, but I'm with you. I, I see him as the primary beneficiary of this new, uh, not only, uh, you know, the, the departure of Keenan Allen, assuming that that remains a departure, uh, which is not clear at this moment, uh, but also, you know, the new offensive coordinator, the healthier offensive line, healthier Justin Herbert, uh, a- and just the-- a- and the rise of and the usage of multi tight end sets is gonna take some of the other receivers off the board, uh, including potentially someone like a Quentin Johnston.

So he, he would make me continually nervous. But he-- I've been... I'm a TCU guy, so I wanna see him do really well, but I... Even I was like, "Yeah, no," when I had the opportunity to draft him or pick him up. He, he's got some mechanical issues that persist, uh, to this day. Uh, and he, the scheme may not, uh, may not support him as well as we would need him to be supported without him falling into the end zone several times more often than he, he has

That's the hard thing. I think he's what? One of four guys to have eight touchdowns over the last three seasons. That's not a fun stat because I don't want to be boosting up QJ as far as my fantasy football concerns go

Uh, uh, Yeah, so just to close the book on that, I've got McConkie as my wide receiver 13 in dynasty and Quentin Johnston at wide receiver 38, which, uh, makes me a little nervous. And then I have Tre Harris at wide receiver 66. Um, that really, I like the talent, I just don't-- I, I'm to a point where I'm really struggling with wide receiver threes on a team that runs multi tight ends because he may be doing a lot of cheering from the sidelines this year

Yeah, Tre Harris was a dynasty buy for me back in January. You know, it was one of those like, "Hey, we're gonna go pick up what we can for scraps and hope that the value kind of, um, rolls into something more." And it, it did at first when we were Mike McDaniel. Woo-hoo, I was excited. And then, and then Kolar shows up, and, and then Njoku shows up, and then Alec Ingold the fullback shows up.

And, and then Keenan Allen says, "Hey, I'll make my decision late July, so I could just really, really mess this up." So, uh, yeah, Tre Harris is ... it's a little heartbreaking for me

Yeah. I still see him as a buy even if Keenan Allen comes back because whoever has him is dumping him. He might actually just drop him. You maybe will pick him up off the waiver wire at that point. Uh, but I would take a chance that, you know, he dangle a fourth round pick, see if I can get him, especially, you know, 27 fourth might be worth quite a bit more than a typical one.

Tre Harris to me is still a pickup. It's just have a longer view of him than what we're seeing this year because I expect this year absent an injury, uh, which we of course don't want, I just see him having a- another kind of lackluster season where he- he's not out there very much.

Yeah, unfortunately

Where to next in among the wide receivers?

Let's talk Buffalo. Let's talk Buffalo a little bit. Um, DJ

Trigger warning for all the Buffalo fans watching or listening. Here we go. You can

And Buffalo, Buffalo fans, come here. I, I'm on your team here. I, I think I have said more mean things about Brandon Beane this off-season than I, I've said about any- and I, I don't like Zac Taylor. I, I have fun every off-season being able to talk, uh, bad about Zac Taylor, and Brandon Beane has been my boy this off-season, just to be highlighted.

Uh, yeah, cool. You went and spent a second for D.J. Moore to just see what else got pulled off as far as these wide receiver trades. Uh, but either way, we're, we're stuck with the situation we have. We, we've got D.J. Moore there, uh, Mecole Hardman is on the team, uh, Keon Coleman, Josh Palmer, um, Shavers, who we got flashes of last year.

Shakir.

Oh, yes, of course, Shakir. Cannot forget the PPR wide receiver four. I don't want any of it. I don't want any of it. Like, could D.J. Moore... I, I think best ball is the only format I really want D.J. Moore in. Could he pop off and give us decent enough games where he finds himself in the top 30? Sure. Would I- would that absolutely surprise me?

Not at all. But do you know which weeks that you're starting him? Are you happy on starting him three-quarters of the season? Probably not. Probably not. And, like, that's just how it's worked with Josh Allen, between the, the touchdown share that has leaned heavily on Cook. We know Josh Allen's good for, you know, a handful of rushing touchdowns as well.

Uh, the, the two tight ends that are Dalton Kincaid, who still has not come around, Dawson Knox, who continues to annoy us with his touchdown catches. Like, I, I just, I don't wanna mess with it. And this team has been so close to regressing the last three seasons. We get through part of the season, I'm like, "Well, maybe the Bills don't have it.

Maybe this is the year." And they pull it together, they figure it out. But I just don't find myself wanting to mess with this wide receiver room. Like, Josh Allen just doesn't hold up eli- you know, unless it's an elite wide receiver like Stefon Diggs

Yep. I, I-- with you. I find it kind of shocking that this team can't pair its Hall of Fame MVP quarterback with a receiver that, at least one receiver that can really be a difference maker. I don't see that in any of these guys. Uh, I've got D.J. Moore as my wide receiver, 30, uh, in Dy-Dynasty, which feels generous, but he does have an MVP caliber quarterback, and he is the guy.

Uh, Shakir at 44, which also feels generous. Keon Coleman at, uh, wide receiver 90, which feels a little punitive, but I've been burned twice now, and so I'm not really that interested in, in pursuing a third time. A third year breakout happens. Um, J.J. Zachariason's found some guys to do that, but it, it's just not something I wanna bet on.

I think with me, with Moore and, uh, and with Shakir, it depends on the starting lineup format For me. If, if I'm in a league where I have to start three or four wide receivers week in and week out, I, I'm interested. I, I, I want a piece of this, and I'll take either one that I could get, probably just preferring Moore, uh, in the shorter term if I'm contending, uh, and then either of them if I'm kind of in the middle.

Uh, none of them if I'm a rebuilder. I don't wanna rebuild around either of these guys. Uh, but if I'm looking at only needing to start two and I've got lots of flex space, then I'm with you. I don't want any part of this wide receiver room. I still don't want any part of this wide receiver room. This would be year three-- year two or three of not wanting any piece of it

Yeah. Despite K- Khalil Shakir always making content videos, especially in the best ball community, oh, he's a great start. He gives you s- he hasn't finished... He's never finished in the side of the top, uh, 35. I think he's got a 36 finish in PPR. That's not good. Like, that's just not good, especially when you look at a points per b- uh, points per game basis.

Makes it... It's just that much worse. So like we kind of talked about, when I'm betting on something in these ambiguous situations, I'm betting on an outlier. I'm betting on touchdowns. Kl- 'cause Shakir's not my guy. DJ Moore would be the one. So like you said, if I am gonna take a swing, it would be DJ Moore.

Uh, the last four years, six, six, eight, and seven touchdowns. Granted, completely different teams, completely just different situations, but the guy knows how to find the end zone. He, he can give us some of those big plays. And Josh Allen, he makes magic happen. DJ Moore doesn't even have to be good to get free down the end zone.

All they have to do is think that Josh Allen's being sacked by the five players that are hanging on his back, and he flings that rocket down the field. And that's, that's all it's gonna take for DJ Moore to have a few of those, but do I wanna guess that game? Play that guessing game? No. So yeah, three wide receiver, two flex, something like that lineup.

Sure, I absolutely love playing him in there, but two wide receiver, two flex, eh, I'm gonna see if I can move on from him

Speaking of moving on, where, where else would you like to go? Nice segue, by the way. Uh, where else would you like to go, uh, in wide receiver ville or are you ready to move on to tight end city?

Oh, man. Let's go to tight end city. Let's go to tight end city. Good place to be, especially this year of 2026 where we play 12, 13, and 14 personnel.

And, uh, and Sean McVay might play 05 personnel for the first time in NFL history. You just never know.

hope he does.

yeah, that'd be So awesome, wouldn't it? Uh, uh, we... I, assume we're gonna look at the Rams here in a little bit, but what, what are you looking at for a team's tight end room when you're trying to sort of weigh it against others, uh, and decide which ones are the better ones, which ones are not?

What, what are you really looking at?

So I, I'm looking at usually two things, and one of this, them completely negates, uh, my take when we get to the Rams. But I, I'm looking for concentrated target share as far as just how many ti- tight ends are actually viable to go out there, y- you know, and go, and go catch some stuff. Is it a situation where, you know, like the Ravens last year where you have Mark Andrews and Likely, it can get a little muddy?

Or is it a s- a situation like, um, in sh- oh my gosh, Atlanta, where you got Kyle Pitts and there's nothing behind it, you know? So that's usually what I'm looking for. I'm looking for athletic freaks, somebody who can do something with the ball, make some magic. Uh, Tucker Kraft, why he's been so great, he's been leading the league or nearly leading the leads in yards after catch.

That's not stuff that you get from these just kind of, these great blocking tight ends. You know the guys that are out there doing a lot of blocking. Every now and then they'll catch a ball, but, um, outside of your George Kittles, of course. So I, I, I'm looking for the athletic freaks. I'm looking for the, the concentrated rooms.

And s- yeah. Yeah, it's a little harder. It's a little harder now, especially with these, uh, high draft capital going to these tight ends, and then you have to dissect, all right, was this high draft capital going towards the team and the scheme, or is this actually because this is a good round two tight end?

So it's a, a lot to dissect when it comes to the tight end position now. And that

And

we had Andrew Cooper on that episode 'cause I'm like, "Look, I need a little help here with the tight ends, man."

He, he is an, he is a definitely a tight end whisperer. You know, is the, is the increasing use of multi-tight end personnel, is that changing the way that you're, you're addressing the position as you are drafting it or building around it for fantasy purposes? Does it make you more interested in them or less interested in them?

Both, I guess. I think it's one, uh, something I don't wanna overreact to because what we've seen despite this change, after tight end six, I don't care. I don't care. And honestly, when it comes to drafting tight ends, after tight end three, I don't care. Because if they're not a top three guy, I don't want them.

I don't want to draft them. Because when you take that tight end five, tight end seven, tight end nine, you feel obligated to play them. You feel stuck to have to use that, at least in the, the redraft sense. Like, if I'm spending up on a tight end, I don't wanna take a second one necessarily, 'cause it's, you know, a roster spot I'm clogging up.

Well, I'm just gonna roll with the punches a little bit. He gave me decent points. Let me just kinda ride it out. Oh, Oronde Gadsden's blowing up this, this week. Should I pick him up? No, I've, I've still got my guy. I'm g- And I hate playing that game, absolutely hate playing that game. So if I'm not getting Brock Bowers this year, Colston Loveland's flirting with that territory for me, but if I don't get Brock Bowers, I'm out.

I am absolutely cool with the tight end 12 through 30. I, I have no problem streaming 'em. I have no problem making up the points. I think there are some absolute studs i- as far as what you're gonna get, get in return. 'Cause when it comes to tight end, I need, like, eight points. That's all I need. Sometimes you're just shooting for the touchdown.

Sometimes you got the guy that's getting three or four points. But I, I think the way that I'm trying to look at it now is how do I evolve as the NFL is evolving? Maybe I don't need to evolve in how my roster construction is, but maybe I need to evolve in f- as far as how my team and how my leagues. Now, it's way harder in dynasty.

You can't just be changing rules willy-nilly. You need to put one, two, three year cap on it. Everybody needs to talk about it so they can plan for it. But like in redraft? Yeah, absolutely. I'm pretty sure we're gonna be adding either a quarter or a half point to, uh, tight end first downs this year. Um, I, I don't wanna go crazy with it and turn it into a tight end premium where you're adding all these receptions, because then it kinda outweighs what you're really looking at.

But I think it's just challenging myself to let me make sure that I'm keeping up with the times and keeping up with fantasy football. 'Cause for a while, I don't know if people know this, receivers didn't get points for catches. They just didn't. Wes Welker, he was no point. You don't want Wes Welker, because what is he doing?

Nothing. What did we do? We evolved. We got half point. We got full point. So it's, it's just making sure that I'm, I'm staying up with things, staying, making sure that, uh, those rules evolve as well as the, the NFL

Yeah, it's an important point because, you know, we've seen the rise of tight end premium leagues going even over and above that point, and for the most part I find those to be red herrings because when it comes to deciding who to start, I'm with you, like tight end nine to tight end 24, it's who fell into the end zone this week, and your guess is as good as mine as to who that's gonna be.

There are weeks that I've played Mark Andrews thinking he is in a smash spot. I watch him get-- watch him run a bunch of cardio, get two targets, drop one of them, catch the other one for nine yards, and that half point extra in PPR give me nothing. So, kind of with you, uh, on that. Uh, unfortunately in dynasty we do not have the luxury of streaming the position.

Every potentially viable tight end's already on somebody's roster, so you, you do need to have several of them. But I, I'm with you in that if, if it's not

gonna be one of the top guys, uh, then I'm probably holding. If I'm in a startup draft, I'm probably holding on that position and drafting it like I would draft it in redraft because I-- at, at this point it's interchangeable.

Just know what you need from the position. If all-- if you have-- if you only have to play one tight end and you got 11 other people on your team, that's, that's a pretty small contribution to your overall score. And if, if six points, eight points will help you, great, and if you can afford a zero there because they didn't catch anything that particular week or they had to block the whole game and couldn't run patterns, so be it.

Uh, but I do find that, I do find that tight end premium tends to overinflate the value in most people's minds in a way that really doesn't do much for you

Yeah, you shouldn't have some, some of these guys that are carrying the weight of these championship teams at the tight end position. Like, no, no, no, no. We got a, we got a scoring issue to fix there. Uh, but like, I, I love startup drafts, punting on tight end altogether, and then just cleaning up at the end.

I'm taking four to six players. But like guys like Isaiah Likely, Hunter Henry, Chig Okonkwo, Brenton Strange, Juwan Johnson, AJ Barner, gems that I was getting in double-digit rounds plus last year in startups, and now I'm looking at those teams, like coming into my rebuilding. I'm like, "All right, I think I'm ready to compete."

Well, I've got three-ish guys that I'm s- semi-streaming and then another two I could probably sell for, you know, accumulated value in some way. So yeah, punt it. Because if you don't have one of the top three guys, it doesn't really matter. Um, somebody I ... Jake Tonges, I have got ... Somebody I'm just tossing thirds at everywhere to pick him up as much as I can.

Look, George Kittle, generational talent. He's amazing. He's great. Is he really coming back from a torn Achilles at the 30-plus age that he is when he ... Like, it just doesn't make sense. He's a superhuman, so if he does it, I wouldn't be that surprised. But like, Jake Tonges was an amazing plug-and-play f- last year for us.

So I, I got him everywhere. I've got him everywhere, all formats

I, I do too. Got a lot of shares of him. Uh, he was a player I featured way back early last season a- as a dynasty waiver wire future, go ahead, get him now when no one's paying attention, uh, because he actually has, has the talent. He fits right in. He's not George Kittle, but he could play George Kittle's role to about 70% of that, and that's better than most tight ends.

Um, let's... A- and I, uh, to address one quick thing, I, I, I'm gonna have someone say, "Wait a minute, you were just telling us on the draft show how much you were loving these tight ends in this class, and now you're saying ignore tight ends." We were just talking about startup drafts. In startup drafts, I'm ignoring tight ends.

In the 2026 rookie draft, tight end is, like, where the value is, uh, after about, I don't know, pick 6. Uh, but certainly after pick 14, uh, you, you wanna think to really clean up on tight ends with your third and fourth round picks and whatever lower picks you may have because, you know, why not? They, they-- If you can find a difference maker at the position, you've got an advantage, and if you spend a fourth round pick on a tight end that didn't pan out, you know, oh well, uh, your, your other guy wouldn't have panned out either who you could have picked in there

Yeah. And I think even in startups taking, you know, if you're drafting rookies within the startups, I- that's some of the best value you're gonna have because you're looking at so many players. And at that point in the draft, not only are the rookies gonna be suppressed because there's all those other players, but, like, would you rather have Tank Bigsby or one of these rookie tight ends?

Absolutely give me the rookie tight ends. Unless I need Tank Bigsby, unless I'm start, you know, doing that startup and I'm going into, like, a I'm gonna compete this year, I need running back depth. No, absolutely sprinkle in those tight ends all over the place because whether it be, uh, Depth, um, Joly, uh, the guy that went to the Patriots.

Oh my gosh, drawing a blank. There you go.

Eli Raridon

uh, there's some stuff out there. I like it. I'd much rather have these day two tight ends than a shot in the dark at all these wide receivers and running backs at day three

Just be mindful that some of those day two tight ends are only going to block, so be, be aware of that

player. I don't want him.

Yeah, do not date-- Yeah, I, I love Nate Boerkircher, but not in fa- fantasy. Uh, he is not somebody I, I would go after, so don't let's let the draft capital, uh, convince you that this is the tight end to go get.

There's definitely some differences there.

But let's dive in, and I don't know where you want to start, but we mentioned the Rams, and that's the one everybody's gonna be interested in. So let's talk about Sean McVay's favorite toys

Look, it kind of goes against 50% of what I was saying. Concentrated target share. I don't want a lot of mouths to feed. Um, but as far as 2026, I have Terrance Ferguson inside my top 15 right now, which it's hard to gauge what that I- what I'm actually saying there because he's outside of the top six. Does he really matter?

No. But when you look at his ADP, he's going as like tight end 26 in best ball draft. So like, very bullish on him this year. And even in dynasty, I think he's a slam dunk grab right now. I know, they just got Max Klare in the second round. Yikes. Uh, it's not really that big of a deal, folks. We know they run multiple tight ends.

Uh, Higbee, Parkinson, and Allen, I believe will all be

Davis Allen

I think all three of them will be off the Rams going into 2027, leaving Max Klare and, and Ferguson as the only two. They run multiple tight ends. I don't care which one, you know. But I really like the pro- the, the prospect that we got, Terrance Ferguson coming out of Ohi- or Oregon.

Um, sorry, Klare's coming out of Ohio State. Um, but yeah, I, I really like Ferguson. I thought he was a, a fun thing. We got quite a bit of him as a rookie too. You know, we, we got those flashes that, you know, traditionally it takes three, four years for tight ends to, to really shine. We got to see that from him and in this situation of Davante Adams, they tried to trade him this off-season.

He's probably done or they can't go into next year banking on him being the number two target. That opens it up. You know, they just traded away first-round picks. Uh, Ty Simpson is now the only first-round picks that the Rams have taken on this team for, what, 15 years? I think it's gonna span by the time they get their first picks back.

So I, uh, yeah, Terrance Ferguson, huge, huge buy for me this year, especially in dynasty

I think we've gotten spoiled by all of the instant success that some of the top tight ends have had recently that we were expecting something like that from Ferguson unnecessarily and, and unfairly because the situation wouldn't allow that

even if he has that level of talent and ability when you're, when you've got guys who've been a features of this offense for years, and Sean McVay for years.

They-- it's gonna take a while to get him in. So I'm with you. I have Ferguson as my tight end 21, Klare at 33, and then I've got Colby Parkinson at 36, Higbee at 49, and Davis Allen at 79 because all five of them catch touchdowns. I need to rank all of them.

You've got 80 tight ends ranked? That's amazing. I

I think I got, I think I got more than 90. I'll have to-- I'm, I'm re- I'm, I'm working on some tight end stuff today with, uh, adding comments to my, my dynasty rankings over at Footballguys, so we'll see how many exactly I have, but it's at least 89,

That's

and I, I don't think Davis Allen's the last one.

But, uh, yeah, so we, we, we go, we go deep at, uh, we go deep here. Uh, I-- yeah, I don't want really any part of this from a playing now standpoint, but I love the idea of Ferguson, uh, and the lesser expensive Klare, uh, 'cause you can pick Klare up probably o- off the waiver wire even a- if you've had a five, six-round rookie draft, Klare sometimes doesn't go.

Uh, think they're good values to have. They're lottery tickets in some respects, but Ferguson does have the talent, too. If, if Sean McVay ever decided to go back to his 11 personnel roots, uh, then we, we could see a lot more work for Ferguson than we're seeing right now. I just don't know that

I'd put any of these guys in my starting lineup unless I had to at, at this moment

That's, that's the hard thing. Yeah, I, I have him ranked up there at 15, but that is is by no means I'm drafting him and starting him in, you know, in, in certain leagues.

Yep. Uh, where, where to next for tight ends?

Ooh, let's talk

I mean, Pittsburgh, is it finally time? Is Pat Freiermuth, like, is it fi- like, he's moving pa- I mean, Darnell Washington was trying to break out last year, the, uh, the Jonnu Smith days are over. We have, uh, no more Arthur Smith there

Thank goodness

You got some old guys that are catching the balls as far as wide receiver.

I guess DK's not necessarily old, but I, I like, I like Pat Freiermuth, and it just seems like kind of an unsexy buy right now in Dynasty. He seems like he could easily be fighting for second or third on that target list just, you know, for this team

I think certainly this year that may be the case. I, I'm not real high on Freiermuth myself. He's my tight end 34 For dynasty. Uh, I just, I'm not confident in the situation there in Pittsburgh at all once Aaron Rodgers leaves, what the next offense looks like. You know, you've got DK Metcalf, you've got Michael Pittman, you drafted Germie Bernard, Roman Wilson's still kicking around there somewhere.

Uh, you've got now Warren and Dowdle. Y- th- there's a lot, there's a lot to feed there, whether Darnell Washington vultures eight touchdowns away from that or not. Um, so certainly, you know, if my choice is between throwing to a 5'8" slot guy or a 7'9" tight end like, uh, Darnell Washington... He's not really that tall.

Uh, but a big tight end like Darnell Washington, I, I would do that in, in a heartbeat. So I worry a little bit about longer term. But I do think if you were just gonna-- if, if you had that sort of second tight end desire on particularly redraft, but, but even in dynasty these days, there's, there's nothing wrong with Pat Freiermuth in terms of having him on your roster potentially.

He's startable. I just wouldn't call him bankable in any sense of that word

And I think that's the, the most annoying thing about Washington is like, no, dude, ideally you are the best second tight end to have because you are a sixth lineman. And yet they are using him w- with some of the athletic prowess that he has, which it ultimately cuts into that big pie that I'm hoping Pat Freiermuth has because that, it's, you know, that's like I talked about.

That's what we're looking for, a tight end room that's very defined to one player. Uh, one that is defined to one player down in Tampa, Cade Otton. Great situation, right? Eh, no. This, I don't know why we get hyped about Cade Otton every week nine through week 15. I get it. Tight end's rough. It's, you're looking for someone.

Dude was terrible. I think he had one week inside the top 13 last week. No, no, no, no. Everybody was hurt. He had ample opportunity last year. We've seen it every year. The guy is athletic enough that he, he runs a lot, but like, he's, he's not the athletic freak that I'm looking for. This is just ... I, I, I can't see how anybody still owns this guy in dynasty.

It's, it boggles my mind

He had what I would consider to be four or five smash week opportunities last year and didn't hit in any of them. He did have some good weeks against shockingly tougher competition, um, but I think that had more to do with the injuries everywhere else and Baker Mayfield operating on half of his body than it did, uh, Cade Otton's talent.

He is my wide receiver 29-- uh, wide receiver, tight end 29. So he's, he's, uh, down there in the, in Pat Freiermuth land. Just to close one thing on Freiermuth, though, we do have Mike McCarthy here. We, we were kind of looking at Darnell Washington from his Arthur Smith days. McCarthy's not been known as a two tight end set guy historically.

He's run a lot of 11. I don't know that he would still do that, but you've got some players they drafted certainly like they might be thinking that way.

Darnell Washington tush push. They're gonna put him down there in the goal line. Let me see a tush push from this fella. Like, he

Yeah, I do

just, hike it and just reach over the line. That's all he's gotta do

Yeah, exactly. I, I don't-- Yeah, I'm with you. If, if Mar- if Mark Andrews can do

a tush push, then Darnell Washington should be the only guy you use on any down and one.

Yeah, he doesn't even need to center. Let him s- hike it to himself. Like, he's got this.

So if that happened and you are in a point per first down league, uh, then Darnell Washington might be your lottery ticket.

So, uh, just keep that name in mind. Uh, where, where else, uh, where else here in tight end land do you wanna, wanna look?

Oh, where to look? Uh, Philadelphia is, is one that's intriguing me more now that we've got the A.J. Brown trade that's been pulled off. Uh, it's now looking like it's DeVonta Smith, it's Makai Lemon. It is the biggest group of wide rec- wide receiver fours ever coming in behind that. And they brought Dallas Goedert back, who had a career year, uh, led by a lot of touchdowns, and they also took Eli Stowers there in the second round.

Obviously, you know, Goedert isn't the future. He's never been an elite tight end like what we got to see from him last year. So I, I don't know what to, to bank on this whole situation. We have a, a new first-year play caller, uh, Sean Mannion, right? Yeah. I keep getting Mannion and Blough mixed up from, you know, just the Eagles commanders, where they're, they're just

Blough in Washington. Yeah. Mannion, Mannion,

Um, so, so we've got a, a new play caller. They've been doing this every other thing where ev- you know, the, the even years they seem to find somebody who's good. But, like, what does that mean for Dallas Goedert? D- does that mean I want to play that game? Am I banking on touchdowns? Because we, we said that's dumb.

If you're gonna make a claim, I, I do do it from time to time, but I'm also not a Dallas Goedert guy. I li- I like making fun of him every week when I do my streaming show . So it's, it's, it's a hard situation for me to figure out how I want this because how concentrated is the passing? Like, is this a reduced pie, as we've seen with a lot of Jalen Hurts teams?

Um, and they got Saquon Barkley. You know, they, they should lean on that

I hope here for Jalen Hurts and this offense is that Sean Mannion is a quarterback, so perhaps there, there will be some effort to open that game up. For me, this is actually not a complex decision in dynasty. Th- this is Eli Stowers all the way. This is the one I'm investing in. He stands to be the heir apparent to Goedert, and if even if Goedert stays around, Goedert and Zach Ertz were-- could support dynasty managers and fantasy managers as a duo, uh, in a different play caller, different situation.

But nonetheless, I'm actually-- This is one of those rooms that I'm okay for with either one of them playing with me in, in, say, redraft this year because they're both gonna get some work. But for, for dynasty purposes, Stowers is my tight end 10. Dallas Goedert is my tight end 19 because somebody has to be.

Uh, I think after about seven, 16, 17, 18 tight ends, the next 30 are kind of in a jumble together and, and, uh, Goedert's sort of the lead of that right now because I think he's gonna have a great year this year. I don't know what happens after that. I do know he, he structured his contract in a way that was very friendly for Philadelphia to come back this year.

I don't know if that means he can do that again, uh, or if, if he tests the free agent market. Either way, uh, Stowers to me is the, is the choice if you're a dynasty manager.

Yeah, and it seems like you're kind of stuck with Goedert then. He's age 31. Everybody knows the situation. His future will be on another team most likely going forward. So, uh, what does that ultimately open up? Do you buy into the 11 touchdowns you saw last year? 'Cause he had 12 touchdowns in the previous four years combined before that.

So, you know, if you got him, you gotta play him. But, uh, you're kind of stuck with him, I think.

He, to me also is in, in a no man's land from a dynasty standpoint because as a contending team, I can't really rely on him to be my starting tight end. That would have to be because my Trey McBride or someone similar to that, in that caliber went down for an injury or it's a bye week and I have to plug somebody in.

Uh, but then he's also too old and in too precarious a position to invest in as a rebuilder. So he's sort of the perfect tight end for a team that doesn't know where it's going because you're not locked into him long term. Uh, and he'll deliver results now, and that's really kind of about it. So I, I actually probably have him ranked too high for that reason.

I may have to revisit that later today. Uh, this is being recorded on June 2nd. Later today as I evaluate some dynasty rankings. But Goedert, yeah, uh, I don't know. You-- we don't really do best ball here much, but because I've got a best ball expert here, how-- and, and we're doing Scott Fish Ball here pretty soon.

How, how are you, how are you handling Goedert? Where do you, where do you... Is, is that touchdown dependency the only thing? And if so, it sounds like you're not in on it

I've got zero exposure to Goedert so far this year. Um, like Isaiah Likely goes right around him. With the, the uncertainty around Malik Nabers, I'd rather take the swing on Isaiah Likely. Hunter Henry goes, uh, what? Almost two rounds behind Dallas Goedert. Give me Hunter Henry. Give me Hunter Henry. I- he's not gonna be...

He's not fighting for all the targets. That's what A.J. Brown's gonna be doing. But Hunter Henry could way... He, he could easily outscore Goedert in the touchdown department. Uh, Chig Okonkwo's going way after that. Sure, I'll take a shot. We talked about just what those pass catchers look like. Um, Juwan Johnson is being just...

I, I don't know what he did, whose mom he pushed down on a curb or something like that, but the guy's down at tight end 21, and it's just insane. He's been on the last three Best Ball Mania winner, winning teams. Like, the, the team that won the millions of dollars, he's been on the last three. Why, why, why, why can't we draft him?

Why do we not want him? Juwan, I want you, buddy. I want you on my teams. Um, yeah, A.J. Barner, I'll take a swing at that. Pat Freiermuth, Gunner Helm, these are all players that I'd take over, over, um, Goedert this year

Juwan Johnson, if you're a contender, that's the guy, that's a guy you want because he, he-- New Orleans is, is a system that's just sort of built For him. Uh, Hunter Henry in New England, I think the, the addition of Raridon, although I don't think Raridon's gonna see much of the playing field this year from a fantasy standpoint anyway.

Um, Henry was either the leading receiver in New England or second in targets, routes, catches, yards, all of it. Uh, so that's, uh, that's something that may not repeat now that A.J. Brown is officially finally a Patriot and our long national nightmare there is over. Uh, but, uh, you know, Hunter Henry, yeah, I, I do like him over Goedert in, in best of all kinds of formats for redraft and even in dynasty, even though I know that that's a very short-term investment.

That's, that's why to me in dynasty, if you look at my rankings, there's this whole block of old guys that's kind of in this range, and that's, that's where Goedert is, that's where Henry is, where a lot of these guys who are short-term rentals live. They're productive, but for how long?

Sounds like a t- uh, tight end two and a half tier right there.

It sounds like a tight end two and a half tier. I have my own two and a

half tier problem, buddy. I have my own problem there. Uh, any other tight ends you wanna shake down here before we spend one minute on quarterbacks?

I was gonna say, ah, nobody else jumping off the page at me at this point. I feel like I've kinda shared the, shared the love to most of the ones that I'm, I'm eyeballing this year

All right. Well, there's not a whole lot of quarterback controversy other than the one train wreck that happens to be on Lake Erie. Uh, but you know, a lot of the starters are pretty well set. Backups, uh, I think that's where sort of your, your murkiness might really lie is in who's gonna be the, the number two and who may still not play at all this year.

Um, do you wanna, do you wanna try to crack, uh, Cleveland's nut here?

I don't know what to do. I, I really don't. In like super flex leagues, I glom onto quarterbacks. Any quarterback that I can get off the waiver wire, I can get cheap, I just wanna grab onto him 'cause most likely the value goes up at some point. It's just do you pull it off? I, I really have no interest in, in messing with this.

Like, there's a team that's completely, in one of my dynasty leagues, like they're completely tearing it down. It's time. They're renewing, and they're trying to get rid of Deshaun Watson. They're literally looking. They're like, "Guys, I'll take anything. I'll take FAAB at this point." And like nobody's pulled the trigger.

Like, that is a starting quarterback for X amount of games. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Like, uh, w- done are the days that we do content talking about do you want a, a quarterback that finished top five three years in a row? Yeah, th- that was, that was a different decade

man

That was, it was, yeah, exactly. It's been a long time. Uh, I- Deshaun Watson obviously, uh, is on the wrong side of my no knucklehead policy, so he's not one I've ever really invested in. That said, I've got him in several dynasty super flex leagues solely because dude is, at the moment, a starting quarterback in the NFL and there's only 32 of those, and I have to play two quarterbacks.

And while I will hold my nose and put him in my lineup when I need to, he's, he's worth more than nothing. How much more, I'm not sure. But if you are a super flex team and you need a starting quarterback as your QB2, ugh, I hate I'm gonna say this. There are worse options than Deshaun Watson.

That's awesome. Yeah, it's, there's a handful of those guys. I'm like, I'd just really rather... Give me Jacoby Brissett. Let me, let me give that a shot, you know? There's so many, um, I, I think just a wide range of possibilities for most of these quarterbacks that are out, you know, outside of top 15, top 20

I will say in rookie drafts this year in late rounds, I have been taking Taylen Green as a super flex lottery ticket just on, on sheer athletic ability and talent, and the fact that the guys in front of him on the depth chart, none of them really should be starting quarterbacks in the NFL after this season.

Not that Taylen Green should be either. He, he has too much Anthony Richardson in him for my taste, but Anthony Richardson is a league winner at times, a week winner at times because of his running ability. Yeah, Green's kind of my favorite quarterback out of this group, but I, I wouldn't go out of my way to get him unless it's super flex and I'm just taking a lottery ticket

Yeah, I, I got a lot of him and then was it Cole Payton, the North Dakota State kid that went to, uh, the Eagles? I- both of those two in Superflex leagues I've taken everywhere I could just because I don't even know if they're gonna be good or not. I don't think it matters if I think they're gonna be good.

All it takes is a couple of plays, a couple... Like, Jalen Milroe. I had somebody trade me Jalen Milroe for a first round, a 2026 first, uh, in August. Before, you know, before Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks took their... But he was calling a shot. He's like, "Yeah, give me the athletic guy, third, fourth round quarterback."

He give it a, "Sure. Go, go ahead. I, I have no reason to hold onto him. Let me just take the, the value at hand." And I sat there and laughed at him as I sat there and took Ty Simpson with the 107, the pick that he gave up for Jalen Milroe. You know? I'm like, "Ha." But,

[technical difficulties music cue]

Dude, sorry about that. Just everything went black all of a sudden, uh

All good, all good. At first I was like, "Oh crap, my internet. Oh no, what are we doing?"

Yeah, wasn't yours. It was not yours. That was, that was mine. So, uh, wow. Okay. I think, I think we may still be recording, which is good

Yeah, it says it is. I was, I was filling in, in the blank space for a little bit, and then you just got me rambling for a while.

That's all right. So no, no worries. We'll, we'll see, we'll see what that looks like, but I appreciate that. I do, I do live shows occasionally, not this one, but other people's have had this happen before where theirs has gone out as the host and I've sat there and talked for 10 straight minutes, you know, about whatever I could think of, uh, until the host got back.

Right. All good. All good

Uh, so sorry. All right. We'll, we'll, we'll pick this up. I think we were talking about Ty Simpson, right? Isn't that, that we're... The last word out of my mouth? Yeah. All right

Oh yeah, that's right, that's right. Um, but yeah, yeah, Ty Simpson, I'm, I'm pretty excited. Like, uh, fun- after the Jared Verse trade, they won't have a single first round pick on the roster since before Jared Goff, you know? So you, you have to... There, there's confidence there clearly. They, they took him in the top 13.

Uh, they, they... This is their predecessor. I, I know they extended Matt Stafford, but Matt Stafford, they could win the Super Bowl this year and he could wa- ride off into the sunset. Like, I, I... That doesn't play it into, into me, like, at all. Like, would I rather have Ty Simpson now or to keep waiting to find out if the Jets finally find their quarterback?

Because you know they're gonna take another one in the top three. How many times do we have to get that wrong before I'm like, maybe, maybe I just tie my horse, my, I tie my horse to, you know, uh, the, the head coach that seems to do a pretty good job with, with Sean McVay, that, that knows how to evolve a- an offense, how to win a Super Bowl, how to be one of the best play callers in the league.

So I, I'm very, I'm, I'm pretty bullish on him. I've taken him probably three... I've got eight dynasty leagues. I think I took him in three of them. I didn't have a lot of first round picks, but the, the few I did post 106, sure. Sure. Like, I, I, I'm in the position, I've got three decent, or, you know, two good quarterbacks, a third decent one.

Give me one more. You know, give me one more. I've got some aging vets that are gonna be out of there. Give me something I can look forward to for 2027, 2028. And I think the most important, or the, the thing I really focused on most at the, the picks from 107 to 112, I think he has the lowest chance of his value going down.

What's gonna happen? Like, at this point, Matt Stafford's already signed the extension. He's not getting younger. There's no way that you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, Ty Simpson. Yikes, it doesn't look good." No, nothing's gonna look worse. Uh, Puka's gonna sign an extension. That, that, that bodes well for him. Uh, the team wins the Super Bowl, that kind of bodes well for him too.

Like, there's all of these things, like... But when you look at all the other picks that you're taking at that point, Jadarian Price, you know, that could fall off. Uh, the, the number of wide receiver, KC Concepcion, Omar Cooper. We just talked about bad franchises. Do we really wanna t- Like, I'm not saying you can't take them, but as far as the, the likelihood that these guys could spike in value versus what could plummet, Ty Simpson seems to be one of the safest picks there in the first round.

But in the back half of the first round

Y- yep. Yeah, you, you talk about, uh, talk about thinking the Jets might actually get it right next year. You know, we, we know that objectively, subjectively, consensus-based, this, this is one of the worst classes for skill positions in, in a long time. And the Jets and the Browns each spent two first-round draft picks on the worst draft class for skill positions in as long as anyone can remember.

Thank you. I'll take Ty Simpson. Whoever they draft with the first-round pick next year, I will not take. I will take any other quarterback around them. Even if they take my QB1, I have zero confidence in those two franchises to do anything with the quarterbacks they draft next year. There's always the possibility that those quarterbacks shine somewhere else.

Uh, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold, uh, have both had pretty good careers after they got out from under their drafting franchise. Um, so I am completely with you. I, I-- Ty Simpson to me is, in Superflex, somebody I, I want highly because he's going to be a starting quarterback. Is he gonna be a good one? I don't know.

But he's gonna have his chance. I mean, he's not gonna get two games, get pulled. I mean, this is someone who, who will be starting if, uh, Matthew Stafford's back acts up or something happens to him. He will be starting. He could be in the Super Bowl, uh, as a quarterback this year. Of course, we don't want injuries to happen, but he, he was clearly a better option now than anyone they had on their roster and is the future.

So I-- to me, he is-- I would take him over just about anybody in the back half of round one. I think the only exception I would make would be, uh, Eli Stowers, who I like a lot. I would, I would take him, uh, potentially over Simpson unless I knew I needed a quarterback. And in Superflex, I kind of always need one, so...

For sure. Yeah, I think betting on the franchise there might be the, the, just the way to go. Look at Brock Purdy. Nobody wanted him as far as the NFL goes, and he went to a good franchise, went to a good coach, and it's turned out pretty well. So yeah, I, I think maybe we are discounting, uh, not betting on those situations or...

'Cause some of the best prospects, Marvin Harrison, whether you still think he's good or not, but, like, one of the best prospects we've ever seen come out as wide receiver, and it's not quite happening where it is, and it's going to a franchise that, uh, historically has issues. So yeah.

Yeah. Another non-serious franchise. Well, Brian, this has been a lot of fun. Apologies again for my power outage, uh, in the middle of this, but, uh, thank you for hanging with me u- until I could get back online. Uh, before we go, uh... Well, first of all, any, any sort of overarching thought for dynasty managers when it comes to looking at some of these cloudier situations where we're just not sure which guy, if we have to take one, who we wanna take?

What would be kind of your, your overarching advice for that?

Fortunately, I feel like I answer a lot of dynasty questions starting off with this, but folks, I cannot overempha- overemphasize it enough. Know your league. Know how your league functions. Know how the other players in your leagues function. Know what they... I mean, I, I, I've been in some leagues where running backs are widely, wildly taken, you know, just so much earlier in drafts, and others, people know, "No, I'm gonna wait.

I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna take them appropriate where they are." So understand what your league is, how it functions, and then from there, take your shots. Take your shots on am- ambiguity. You're looking for some of these situations we talked about, the running back, the wide receiver rooms, 'cause you're not gonna go out and go grab three guys that are ranked in the top 15 at running back.

That's just, that's not gonna happen. Most teams don't have the capital to go pull that off. So what do you do? You wanna go piece it together. Go, go back. I, I like looking at old playoffs in dynasty. Go look at the, the final four teams in a playoff push. Go look at what they're starting. It's crap. It looks so bad.

It's not gonna be the prettiest of lineups, but you just need to set yourself up for the prettiest of situations. And maybe that's a scrub player, but he's got a great matchup those last few... You know, whatever that is. So take shots. You have to take your shots. Otherwise, you're continually rebuilding forever, and you're just paying dues at that point and giving somebody else that opportunity.

So, uh, take your shots, kn- know your leagues, and if you're afraid to do both of those things, that's why you join multiple leagues. That's why you have multiple dynasty leagues. At any given... Like, I've, I talked about it. I got about eight leagues. I've got four that are hardcore contending. I've got two that are full-on rebuild, and two, eh, I gotta figure something out in the next month.

So, uh, give yourselves an opportunity to kind of lean in and play different ways, take different strategies, take different swings, uh, but don't overdo it. Don't overdo it. Once you get in over a dozen, then you gotta figure out how to shed those leagues, and that's, that's sometimes a problem

All right. Great advice, man. 

Uh, Brian, thanks so much for joining me today. Before you go, uh, let the people know where they can find you and your excellent work

Jeff, I can't thank you enough for, for having me on. This was, uh, this was so much fun. I appreciate, uh, you know, just being on the show with you talking ball. This was great. Uh, if you're looking for more of me, it's @TooMuch_Brian on Twitter. Most of my stuff's running up through there. I do have, uh, my, my show Too Much Fantasy Football.

You can find us there on Twitter again, uh, the podcast or also the, the YouTube feed. And look, folks, football, it's a long sport. It's a 12-month-a-year sport. Sometimes you need a little break. I got Too Much Movie Night over there where we do some fun drafts and movie checkouts as well. So, uh, yeah, when Over The Top's not enough, you get Too Much Brian

I don't think there is such a thing as too much Brian, uh, so I, I do appreciate that. But I do appreciate also someone who is, is knowledgeable enough about themselves that they can call themselves too much Brian and, uh, and be very, very comfortable with that. So, uh, so thank you Brian, for being here, and thank you all for watching or listening, especially if you've held on this long, it means you are diehard Dynasty fans or you really also don't think there's too much Brian.

Uh, in which case, please do, uh, do me the favor of, uh, liking and subscribing. If you're on YouTube, click the like, click the, uh, little bell there so you get updated when a new episode drops. Uh, if you're on Apple, the best thing you could do to help this show grow is leave a, uh, five-star rating and a nice review for us.

Uh, your other platforms have similar sorts of things. Uh, helping us there would be really helpful. And we will be back next week with another outstanding guest on Dynasty Compass.

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