July 8, 2025 • 41 mins
As training camp buzz kicks off, not every name in the headlines deserves a spot on your draft board. In this episode of Fantasy Football Gameplan, we’re breaking down the players we’re in on (no matter the noise), out on (even if the hype is loud), and interested in (those shiny camp stories that might be real… or total fool’s gold).
We’re digging into under-the-radar rookies, athletic profiles, coaching fits, and depth chart battles that matter—because fantasy football shouldn’t feel like a full-time job. You’ll leave this episode with a sharper eye and a better gameplan as the preseason unfolds.
🏈 Who made our "In" list? Why we’re not blinking on guys like Tre Harris, Kaleb Johnson, and Emeka Egbuka
🚩 Which names are fooling folks? Why we're not buying the Matthew Golden stock
👀 What camp battles have us curious? Late-round rookies and depth chart shake-ups you’ll want to watch
Plus: A quick Would You Rather fire-off to wrap it all up!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
Hey, welcome back to fantasyfootball game plan.
We've got a new name, a newseason, but the same fantasy obsession.
I'm Judy and I've got analystQuinton here to talk some rookies
today.
Yeah, I'm excited to get backinto it.
(00:21):
It's summer, it's been off themind but I'm in a couple dynasty
leagues.
It's a good excuse to diveinto these rookies and I think there's
a lot of exciting players soit should be fun getting into it.
Yeah, fair.
We're diving into players youmight need to know before your draft
day.
Spoiler alert.
Not every Wookie, not everyrookie is worth drafting.
(00:42):
I've been doing some best ballso I've been actually picking up
quite a few of the rookies.
I think I get a little moreexcited about their potential than
they may deliver.
But at least there's like hopeat this time of the season.
Yeah, rookies at least offerthe unknown.
They're the mystery box ofwhat are they going to be in the
NFL.
Who knows how they'll turn out.
(01:03):
We won't be talking about thetop end rookies.
We'll save those for thedivisional breakdowns but.
And we won't be talking aboutreally the seventh rounders or really
those outside shot but thosemid round guys is who will be breaking
down going into training camp.
Yeah, those guys that mightget their break and break it wide
open mid season and you'll beahead of the curve for the waiver
(01:26):
wire.
Yeah, at least we recognizethe name.
Yeah, exactly.
Because some of these guys Iwasn't recognizing the first ball
draft I did.
All right, before we getstarted, we are about to head into
training camp that should bestarting here in a couple weeks later
in July.
But before we get started, Ifound some articles, all of wide
(01:47):
receivers here in the pastfour or five years.
And I just kind of wanted toshow some cautionary tales of things
you might hear during thesetraining camp buzz that people are
in the best shape of theirlife, that this is their season,
this is their shot.
And we get so many puff piecesthat are just kind of garbage, just
fake news, just writers tryingto have something out there during
(02:10):
training camp.
So the first one I wanted tobring up was a quote of Leviska Chenault
and the coaches beinginterviewed that he's bigger, faster,
a better route runner than hewas in a rookie.
He's going to get constantbuzz during the off season.
He's ready for a breakout campaign.
Yeah, that didn't quite happen.
No.
(02:32):
We also have ridiculousstories like Jamar Chase, who was
a top 10 pick and he wasalways supposed to be great.
And then we get into trainingcamp and suddenly he doesn't know
how to catch a football in theNFL that it's not the white LSU ball
and he's dropping everythingand he's already being labeled by
a bus that he can't getseparation on routes.
(02:52):
And he turned out pretty good.
So he must have been a bargainthat year in drafts.
Yeah, exactly.
So if you can send thosearticles to your teammates that are
trying to avoid Ashton Genti,that maybe fumbled once in training
camp and now he's not going tobe the starter, go send that to the
rest of your league.
(03:13):
But something to weed through.
We also have some honestreports and there's some really good
reporters out there that putout good content that kind of clued
us into Puka Nakua a coupleyears ago.
So there's a couple reallygood Rams reporters that were constantly
going through and mentioningconstant buzz about Puka Nuku.
(03:34):
And that's what you're reallylooking for is that steady news you're
looking for who's playing withthe ones, who's playing with the
twos.
But yeah, this article fromJason d' Alessandro really highlighted
that due to Cooper Cup'sinjury, Puka stepping forward this
fifth round, rookie receiverthat no one thought would be a critical
role of that Rams team fromday one.
(03:55):
And then we can even see aslittle as last year.
Jalen Polk was all the buzzlabeled a breakout candidate and
he ended up fielding one ofthe worst rookie seasons from a second
round pick.
So a lot to sift through whilewe get into training camp, but at
least be aware of the names sothat when you do see it, you have
(04:18):
a prior perception to sift through.
All right, let's get into thisyear's rookies and who are you loving?
So yeah, these are the playerswhere you really can't sway me.
Even if I hear they arefumbling and having issues in training
camp.
I think they're going to begood pros.
All right, so you got toconvince me about this.
(04:40):
I know one on this list.
You can't.
There's nothing you can do toconvince me.
All right, I'm excited forthat argument.
I wanted to kick it off withone of my favorite wide receivers
in this draft.
He was taken in the second round.
He is currently wide receiver58 on ADP for fantasy drafts and
that is Trey Harris for the Chargers.
(05:02):
So one thing that stood outfor Trey Harris is that he is an
outlier when it comes to yardsper route run.
And yards per route run is ametric that captures how much they're
actually running routes andwhen they're actually on the field,
are they valuable?
Is the team looking to go tothem as their primary weapon?
And a good benchmark for yardsper route run is around 3 elite.
(05:26):
And what we see from ChasePuka neighbors the top end and he
was at 5.12 far and away thebest of this rookie class.
There is some kind ofqualifiers with that.
We do see these offenses thatreally have a tough time translating
(05:46):
to the NFL, primarily like OleMiss where Tre Harris went and Tennessee
where they're not going to beasked to run these college games.
So he's an outlier and he doeshave that potential.
But I think it's going toshine through and I think when he's
asked to do more in a largerrole than he could do, so.
So what's your feeling on Tre Harris?
(06:07):
I don't really feel likethere's room in the quite crowded
wide receiver locker room ofthe Chargers.
Why is he going to come in andsuddenly take work from McConkey
or Quinton Johnston who we sawcome on late in the season last year?
Why is Tre Harris going to translate?
(06:31):
Absolutely.
And I think Quinn Johnson isone of the bigger regrets of this
Chargers recent draft history.
He just hasn't produced like afirst round wide receiver and you
can see that they spent up fora second round pick to invest in
Trey Harris as that X receiverand so him and McConkey will play
completely different roles.
And I liken it to those oldChargers teams that had Keenan Allen
(06:55):
and Mike Williams.
Mike Williams is making returntoward to this team but they want
that true X wide receiver thatcan do it all.
And Justin Herbert's one ofthe best deep passing quarterbacks
in the league.
So I just really like thechemistry there.
And also I think that Harbaughis going to love this guy.
(07:16):
This guy is a football guythrough and through and I think he's
going to spotlight it as wecan see that in high school he, he
played with Malik Neighborsand neighbors went up to him like
every day and was like, man,I'm going to be an NFL wide receiver.
I need a quarterback.
I need you to be the quarterback.
We can't both be good wide receivers.
(07:37):
And he made him playquarterback in high school until
yeah.
And then Trey Harris went backto being a wide receiver in college,
went to a smaller school, thentransferred to Ole Miss and So I
think he's just a football guyand that's what Harbaugh loves and
he's going to be tough to keepoff the field.
I think Harbaugh got what hereally loves and that's a new running
(07:57):
new two new running backs.
So he they picked up NigHarris and then they drafted Omarion
Hampton and that's what I feellike Harbaugh truly loves are running
backs.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm excited for that entire offense.
But we did watch later in thatyear Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh
(08:17):
shift their thing to beinglike wow, okay we this is the best
one of the best quarterbacksin the league.
We're going to let them air itout and they had more success.
They had to continue.
Yeah that running backbackfield last year was lacking and
they made the most of it.
Yeah.
But all right, I'm on thefence on Trey Harris.
He's a high upside play buthe's more risky than some of the
(08:39):
than the next guy we're goingto be talking about.
So the next person we're goingto be talking about he's currently
being drafted as running back25 and he is the Steelers round three
Caleb Johnson.
Also just a quick reminder,the Steelers did not have a second
round pick so this is theirsecond pick of this draft.
And man I love this guy.
He is a bell cow and I thinkhe's just going to work perfectly
(09:04):
in what Arthur Smith wants todo and he was drafted specifically
for this role to be a lead back.
All right, you just said my concern.
You said author Smith.
This is Bijan all over again.
I think he's more of a TylerAlger where well.
(09:25):
Guess what he still hasCordell Patterson too so we can't
like forget about that.
And Jalen Warren is theincumbent but Jalen Warren is not
a bell cow and they that beenthe consistent thing through pressers
and what Tomlin has said andwhat Arthur Smith has said they said
heavy workload.
(09:45):
We love this guy.
He can be in every down backand so he got.
I heard that all with authorSmith and Bijan and I can't do it
again.
I will never ever believe inauthor Smith again and that he wants
a bell cow or will likeactually use a bell cow.
(10:07):
He just loves to confuse usand make us scratch our heads on
why they can't do better.
I do think that this is thetype of runner that succeeded in
the Arthur Smith system andactually my like comps for him are
somewhere between NajeeHarris, Tyler Algier and Derrick
(10:29):
Henry and an amalgamation ofall those and you get Caleb Johnson
because they have, they allthree have this upright running style.
Really just the one cut likeBijan is very agile, he's very loose
and I think Arthur Smithcouldn't stand that.
Just hit the hole, make yourone read and get up the field.
(10:51):
And that's Caleb Johnson.
He got penalized in the draftand falling to the third round.
I think he was a second roundtalent but he had a really poor combine
and he had a slow 40 andthat's what kind of made his draft
stock fall before.
But when you watch hishighlights, it's not like he's not
fast.
He just wasn't a good sprinterwithout pads in a random empty field.
(11:15):
But you watch his highlightsand he has breakaway speed.
He was hitting 70, 80 yardruns and it reminds me of Derek Henry
where he's not that fast butas he's building up that speed you
just can't catch him.
And suddenly every defender istaking the wrong angle and he's shooting
past him and has thatbreakaway potential.
To give an idea of howeffective he was for Iowa, Iowa only
(11:39):
scored 3.1 touchdowns a gamelast season and he averaged two touchdowns
a game.
So he was almost their entireoffense that teams had a game plan
around.
He was still elite in college.
I think this highlights thatwe look at rookies a little bit different.
You clearly watch more collegeball than I do and the film and study
(12:03):
their stats and I dive alittle bit more into the situation
that they are walking into inthe NFL and because of that situation,
because of Arthur Smith andthen we can mention the other poison
on that team, Aaron Rodgers.
I, there's no way I'm going todraft this guy.
That's really the one I'mwatching out for is how many times
(12:23):
is Aaron Rodgers just going toignore the play call and do what
he wants.
Then it might get a little.
We saw that last year, Breecehall, we are, we were all drafting
him really high thinking thiswas going to be it.
And yeah, between AaronRodgers and Arthur Smith, I'm out
of out on any of the runningbacks for the Steelers.
(12:45):
I think to give some rangethere, Tyler Algier, his rookie year
went for about almost 1200scrimmage yards and four touchdowns.
And then Najee last year wasabout 3, 1300 yards and six touchdowns.
I think you're looking aboutthat range and I think he's going
to have a little bit moreflash than people think.
(13:08):
So excited for him.
Yeah, but I don't think I'veconvinced you.
You have not convinced me.
I remember screaming aboutBijan and getting burnt on the whole
Bijan situation with ArthurSmith and I can't do it.
So let's go on to a runningback that I do like the situation
that he's walking into andthat's Quinshon Judkins for the Cleveland
(13:33):
Browns.
The Browns, they had a. Iguess they earned a lot of draft
picks by not doing very well.
But Dudkins is coming in andhe's being handed the starting running
back role and behind him isJerome Ford.
So he is going into thisoffense and he's the guy, he's the
(13:54):
bell cow.
What do you think about him?
Do you love his style of running?
I. I think he is very explosive.
He has always been elite atgetting long rushes.
So throughout his care hiscareer he was first at Ole Miss and
then transferred to Ohio state.
But about 9% of his carrieswent for over 15 yards, which is
(14:18):
in a crazy explosive run rate.
And I don't really view it asa knock that he shared the backfield
with Trevion Henderson, one ofthe other rookie running backs for
Ohio State last year becauseit just showed that, yeah, I can
play with NFL talent, Ideserve to be a thing.
And they brought him in forthat role.
So I think he is going to bethe day one starter.
(14:40):
The only thing is the Brown situation.
How many times do we thinkthey're going to be in a red zone?
Hey, they got Joe Flacco.
He's going to get them in thered zone every drive, right?
It's going to be like a few.
Years ago if they stick with him.
Yeah, I like them.
So these two running backsthat we just talked about, Caleb
Johnson and Quinshawn Judkins,they're going RB24 and RB25.
(15:06):
You got to pick one.
Who you picking?
I think I like Caleb Johnson.
I do like the.
I just like his opportunityand I think they're going to give
him the backfield and I thinkthat offense should be a little bit
better than Cleveland.
I think Arthur Smith is goingto find a way to share that.
And in the red zone, give itto Cordell Patterson.
(15:29):
I was looking at ADP earlier though.
So between both of thoserookies or whichever your preference
is, the person right ahead ofhim is a veteran in Aaron Jones.
So are you the mystery box ofthe rookie or the proven veteran
in Aaron Jones for that tossup?
I like the mystery box.
(15:50):
Okay.
Yeah.
That's where I'm at, too.
And you will see these rookiesprobably continue to climb as people
become used to their names andpeople like the mystery box.
I do.
I think both those rookieswill have good opportunities, and
I'd put them above Aaron Jones.
I would, too, but I'm going totake Judge over Johnson for sure.
(16:13):
Yeah.
All right, let's move on toone more wide receiver that I think
I could just go by his jerseyright now.
Last year, Jayden Daniels wasmy guy and I ended up with his jersey.
Ameca Abuka.
I'm not loving his name, but Idon't know why I stumble on it or
think of weird ways to say it.
(16:35):
I think I create letters in it.
Anyhow, he's fun to watch.
He's exciting to watch.
He got injured his junior yearin college, but then returned to
Ohio State for his senior yearand set records.
I got questioned at a poolparty about Abuka, and they're like,
(16:55):
well, why do you think he'sgoing to do well?
Because Mike Evans is thereand they've got.
They kept Godwin, too, andthey're healthy.
And I'm like, no, no, youdidn't just say that.
You didn't just say thatGodwin and Evans were healthy because
we all know that's not how theseason's going to.
I don't really think thatGodwin's going to start the season.
My bigger worry isn't Evans orGodwin, but it's McMillan in Tampa
(17:20):
Bay.
But I think there's enough togo around for all of them.
And this kid's fun to watch.
Yeah, he absolutely is.
And I echo your statementthere of.
I think that's why we wantedto bring him up today is because
a lot of people look at thatsituation and think it's too crowded
for him to have Year one success.
Maybe he'll be good in the future.
(17:41):
But I think we both agree thatwe like his prospect this year.
I do.
I think Evans and Godwinwanted to stay in Tampa.
They took less.
They could have had more ifthey would have gone somewhere else
and put it out there.
But I think there's a littlesecret that they wanted to be in
Tampa Bay and they draftedthis wide receiver round one.
(18:04):
So maybe there's a little bitof concern of their health and who's
going.
To know the personnel betterand how they're progressing with
different injuries and whatthey think of McMillan rather than
the team.
And the team decided it was animportant enough need to go draft
Igbuka in the first round.
So they spent their firstround pick on a wide receiver and
(18:27):
I don't think he's just goingto ride the bench.
I don't think they're going toinvest their draft capital to not
have them see the field.
I don't think so either.
And they saw throughout thatseason wide receivers get injured.
It's a constant turnover oftheir the health of a wide receiver.
There's plenty to go aroundthere as well.
And that offense knows how toput up points.
(18:48):
Absolutely.
And if you talk about a guythat's I don't think there's anyone
better qualified to stick upfor his target share and make sure
that he's getting the ballbecause he's always dealt with a
contested wide receiver roomsince when he was in Ohio State.
Here were some of the widereceivers he played alongside with
Garrett Wilson, MarvinHarrison, Jackson Smith and Jigba.
(19:10):
Chris Olave and the new phenomof Jeremiah Smith.
And throughout that time hebecame OSU's most productive wide
receiver ever.
So I think he's fully equippedto make sure he's getting the ball
and produce.
Day one yeah, I think I'lljust go buy the jersey now.
(19:30):
He's my go to wide receiver.
I think later in rounds ofdrafts I like to watch him.
I noticed that there's onewide receiver that wasn't on your
list that we've talked alittle bit about and that's McMillan
for the Carolina Panthers.
Are you in or out on him?
(19:51):
So I'm very high on McMillan.
I was kind of saving him forthe Carolina episode because I think
he's going to be day onestarter and day one clear alpha of
that room.
But he really just has a do it all.
And I'm really impressed byfirst his target share.
He just dominated that ArizonaWildcat offense and he was the person
(20:13):
that always stuck out on film.
I think he is going to be agreat pro, but we'll dive into that
more on the Panthers episode.
All right.
I'm not as in on how do I sayhis first name?
Do you know Tetra?
No.
Tetley Tetra McMillan for theCarolina Panthers.
(20:34):
You're high on him.
I'm taking a buka.
There's lots of rookie widereceivers out there.
I'm really excited about thebright running backs and the wide
receivers in this group this year.
It wasn't a great quarterbackclass but as far as the other skill
positions I like, even thetight ends are exciting to talk about
and I think could be year one starters.
(20:55):
And yeah, this is Aphenomenal, especially rookie running
back class.
But I think there's somestandout wide receivers.
All right, so who are you out on?
Who is going to be a disappointment?
You've got your crystal ball.
Predict us a disappointing rookie.
Yeah.
And it's not fun.
These are young guys that arejust getting their shot to say, hey,
(21:16):
yeah, he's going to be a bust.
So when we say we're out, it'snot that they're going to be a complete
bust.
It's just I don't see thatmystery box as a good bet.
That is one I'm turning downand someone else can take that chance.
That would be like Arthur Smith.
Yeah, sorry, who was that?
Matthew Golden.
So the packers wide receiver.
(21:37):
He was a Round 1 wide receiver.
Round 1 wide receiverstypically have a great hit rate,
but he falls into the classthat typically doesn't.
So he's a fun player to watch.
He stood out in the collegefootball playoffs.
He had a great combine, thefastest 40 of the entire year.
He ran a 4:2 and then he sawhis draft stock skyrocket.
(22:02):
So if we look back inDecember, who we were projecting
to be the top wide receiversof this class, he wasn't even a top
10 name.
He wasn't even top 14 orsomeone we were talking about.
We were actually talking moreabout his teammate Isaiah Bond, who's
had some off the field issues,but he wasn't even looked at as the
top wide receiver on his own team.
And then he stood out in thosegames, which I will, to his credit,
(22:25):
he stood out in the toughestgames against the toughest team defense.
So how is this bad?
He stood out against really ingood games against good defenses
and you don't like him becausehe stood out.
It's just that when we lookback at these types of players that
have key games or they havevery fast 40s that skyrocket their
(22:49):
draft capital, we kind of losesight of their entire career and
who they were and just thinkabout those moments.
And we have a collection ofthis type where in the past we've
seen Will Fuller, John Ross, D.J.
chark, Paris Campbell, TyquanThornton, all first or second round
picks that their primary thingwas their speed, their great 40 times
(23:14):
and they just didn't work outin the pros.
And the biggest red flag forgolden is he had such a low target
share.
So his target share was about18.1 of when he's running a route,
how often is he actuallythrowing the football?
How much is the quarterbacklooking his way or plays being drawn
(23:34):
up for him.
And he was only at 18.1, whichwas 41st percentile.
To give you an idea of some ofthe other Rookie wide receivers.
McMillan was at 30.9, Hunterwas at 25.9, Jaden Higgins was at
31.4 and Luther Burton was at 26.9.
So if he couldn't emerge as analpha in college and he got drafted
(23:58):
by the packers that have thatare looking for that alpha wide receiver.
If he couldn't do it incollege, why do I think he can do
it in the pros?
Sounds like he's just going tobe another packers wide receiver.
And every week we're going tobe scratching our heads.
Which packers wide receiver isit going to be this week?
Yeah, just like last year.
(24:19):
I do kind of like him a lotmore in best ball where you don't
have to make the decision tostart him and you can get explosive
plays.
He's a fun player to watch,but I don't think I'm going to draft
him for any redraft fantasy leagues.
All right.
I don't really have anyonethat I'm totally out on.
Maybe Shedeur Sanders.
I don't like that wholesituation, so I'll just stay out
(24:41):
of there.
I don't know.
Maybe they'll decide they wantto win, but I got a feeling they're
just going to play Joe Flaccoor Kenny Pickett.
And you think we're gonna.
Are they gonna let deseanWatson back in the training facility
or did they lock him out?
They've changed the codes.
Changed the codes, moved on.
(25:02):
Yeah, don't be the person todraft a sixth round rookie quarterback
just because he has Sanders asthe last name.
Yeah, he did a lot to fallfall in the draft as opposed to Matthew
golden who accelerated.
So they're on opposite ends,but we don't want either one of them.
All right, let's go throughinteresting situations and who do
(25:26):
you want to watch in training camp?
Who do you need moreinformation on?
Yeah, and this is almost thePuka Nukua category or maybe we'll
have an award after thetraining camp of who have we heard
the most positive news?
And these are some of thenames just to be aware of to look
for in headlines that is thisa pattern?
So one person I wanted tobring up was Dante Thornton, Raiders
(25:49):
fourth round wide receiver,elite athlete, but Tennessee just
did not utilize him that muchwhen he was on the field.
He was highly productive.
He just wasn't on the fieldthat much.
And like we were Alreadytalking about.
Tennessee has a really weirdcollege offense and it makes it really
hard to project how they'regoing to look in the pros.
But if he looks better thanexpected and reports are that he's
(26:11):
already practicing with theones in the OTAs.
So if that's a pattern and ifthat's sticky, then I think he has
the athletic profile to succeed.
All right, I can buy into that.
The whole Raiders offense I'mextremely interested in.
We've got Geno Smith upgradingthat quarterback situation and then
(26:31):
Ashton Genty coming in to runthe ball, which I'm super excited
about.
And then we got Brock Bowers,so there's definitely room for some
support there.
And the other roles are filledvery well.
So you could be a widereceiver three.
Yeah, absolutely.
I like these teams that aretrying to figure out their identity
(26:53):
still, and the Raiders have somany new pieces that there's opportunity.
I agree.
I like those two.
As opposed to Arizona thatdidn't draft any offensive players
for fantasy that were.
That we're talking about.
They didn't draft any.
Not that we're talking about.
They didn't draft any fantasy players.
So they're going with their what?
(27:14):
Yeah, they're running it back.
But I was talking aboutanother team that's seen a lot of
change.
Do you want to run us through?
What are your favorite tightends that you're interested in?
Yeah, the Jets.
Mason Taylor.
I'm excited to see what MasonTaylor has.
I'm excited to see the jets,but I'm concerned because it's the
jets.
But we have all new coaching,all new, not all new players.
(27:36):
I'm excited to see what Breecehall can do, what Garrett Wilson
can do now that we got AaronRodgers out of poisoning the locker
room.
And then they bring in MasonTaylor that can.
That they're going to give thestarting tight end job to.
He's going so low in drafts.
He's a steal.
Even in best ball, he's a steal.
I feel like.
(27:57):
Yeah.
And when you talk about rookietight ends that are going to be on
the field day one, he probablywill be on the field more than Colston
Loveland, even though he wastaken a little bit later in the draft.
But he is going to get the opportunity.
I think so, too.
And I'm excited to see whatthe jets can do.
I don't know.
That's kind of weird, rootingfor the Jets.
(28:18):
Yeah, me too.
I think Fields can bring somefantasy value.
I do, too.
It's going to be aninteresting year.
There But I did take them ontheir over.
I think they were what, likefive and a half games And I did take
the over on the Jets.
The next player I want tobring up is the head.
I'll say the hedge.
(28:39):
I'll bring up this entirerunning back room but want to focus
on the rookie is Bashal Tudin,the Jaguars round four running back.
And the reason why I think hehas a chance to actually cut out
a valuable role in thisbackfield is you have Travis Etienne
and you have Tank Bigsby therewho split carries last year.
(29:01):
Neither of them are a dominantclear running back.
And this is a new gm.
And this gm, this new headcoach chose Baye Shaw for for their
scheme.
And even before the draft,Liam Cohen, the new Jags head coach
was talking up Bashal Tutin.
If he could choose one playerthat he loved to fit in this game,
(29:22):
it'd be this person.
And he has high end speed.
So it's really just going tocome down to touches and what they're
going to trust him with as a rookie.
Important to keep an ear out of.
Is he running with the ones,the twos or at the threes.
I won't mind not doing awaiver wire episode this year where
(29:42):
I'm bringing up Tank Bigsbyagain and again, which is what I
felt like I did last year.
Now it's not just Tootin.
Yeah, hopefully it's not justTootin, but I love the coaching changes
here.
The GM changes, bringing inanother great rookie wide receiver
that we'll have to talk aboutwhen we talk about Jacksonville to
(30:02):
be on the opposite of BrianThomas Jr. That's going to be explosive
as well.
And a head coach that canprobably hopefully rework Trevor
Lawrence, who hasn't.
He hasn't had a great run inhis NFL career.
I don't know how many coacheshe's had, but I'd say five.
I'd guess five.
Yeah, I think he ran through acouple but hopefully he has some
(30:26):
stability now.
And we just watched Liam Cohenhave tremendous success with a later
round rookie running back andBucky Irving.
So if we get anything close tothat, we'd be tremendously happy.
I would love to be talkingabout Tuton and I don't know, maybe
I shouldn't have just said that.
What do you think of theCowboys backfield?
(30:48):
So Jaden Blue, their rookie?
I'm very interested to seewhat training camp brings for him
because I'm not buying intoJavante Williams or Miles Sanders
in that backfield that areahead of Jaden Blue so what do you
think they brought Blue in to do?
So Jaden Blue, he's out of Texas.
They brought him down the roadto play for the Cowboys and he has
(31:11):
elite speed in playmaking buthe's a smaller back.
So I'm worried what hisworkload and whether they're actually
going to trust him.
I think it's going to be didyou learn your lesson?
And the Cowboys have shown usin the past they've not like we've
let Zeke get the primarytouches when we had Tony Pollard
be the quicker, more athleticback and then even last year we had
(31:33):
Zeke again the return visitand they refused to give their more
explosive running backs a shot.
So I think it's the oneadvantage we have of the season is
both Javante and Miles Sandersare new to the system.
It's not like they're anincumbent back.
It's not like they've been inthe system before.
So hopefully they learn theirlesson and they do give Jaden Blue
(31:55):
more of a shot and I think hewill be highly efficient in his carries.
We do have a whole coachingchange there and now they have Brian
Schottenheimer as their headcoach so hopefully will take a little
bit of a different approachthan what we've seen in the years
past with Dallas.
(32:15):
Yeah.
So he is definitely a name tokeep an eye out for.
Of what is his workload goingto look like?
I've only got one more andthat's Jackson Dart quarterback for
we haven't talked much aboutquarterbacks that were drafted.
Like you said they weren'tsuper exciting.
But he's going to the Giantsand I don't believe in Russell Wilson
(32:41):
and while I really hope that Iget to see at least a game of Jameis
Winston tossing the ball downthe field to Malik Neighbors I don't
know that you know his hisinterceptions are going to get to
him and maybe we see JacksonDart later in the season.
I think there'll be some ofthe more fun preseason games to watch
of actually just cluing in ofhow does he look on the pros even
(33:04):
if it's backups and stuff likewe were talking earlier that Ole
Miss offense is hard toproject project to the next level.
So if he's looked great duringthose preseason games like I would
buy it or if he looks terribleI would buy that too.
But the Giants have one of thehardest strength of schedules and
that coach and that GM aretheir performance this season is
(33:27):
their job and they're on thehot seat.
They know it.
If they don't get results,they're going to be out.
And the quickest way to gethope on your team is a rookie quarterback
and that especially a rookiequarterback that can lead you to
a couple wins.
Yeah, very true.
Although it's still going tobe fun if we get to watch Winston.
Yeah, he's fine.
Give a show.
(33:48):
Let Malik neighbors go for1800 yards.
Just don't kill him this time.
Throw it down the field.
That would be awesome.
You got anyone else?
So the last one I'll bring upis not as fun of a situation as some
of the other ones we've talkedabout, but a ton of opportunity,
I think.
And that is basically theentire Titans training camp.
This team is going to besearching for an identity.
(34:11):
They have a new quarterbackwith Cam Ward at the helm and they
have so many rookie weaponsthat I think there's just opportunity
for some of these names to popup out of nowhere.
And they have Elek AyomaManor, wide receiver from Stanford,
and then they also draftedanother wide receiver that I wasn't
(34:34):
as familiar with.
Kymari Decay, I think.
And then they have anundrafted free agent that played
with Cam Ward with Xavier Restrepo.
And so it's like, all right,you have so many rookie wide receivers.
It's interesting to see howthat's going to shake out.
And then I am interested insome of their other guys too.
So they took a shot withKhalil Mullings, a running back out
(34:58):
of Michigan, and he's reallyinteresting to me because he was
a converted linebacker thatjust took the job from a five star
recruit, like running back.
And he took the job.
That is interesting was theirprimary job and it was only a second
season playing running back.
So I think there's justopportunity with the unknown.
(35:21):
There's a lot of unknown in Tennessee.
I like that it's going to be fun.
But you're right, we.
That's definitely a situation.
I did not realize how many ofthe wide receivers were rookies,
that there are three rookies.
And then if you look at who'salso new, they brought in Tyler Lockett,
who I was actually hearingreports that he may not even make
(35:42):
the team.
That's really going to elevatethose rookies.
Somebody's going to have tostep up.
Van Jefferson could definitelystep into a bigger role in that rookie
situation or in that widereceiver room there.
If they get into training campand they go, wow, this guy's a lot
better than we thought.
I do not.
(36:02):
I don't think they'll be shy.
Just handing over and makingthem a starter.
Cutting out a bigger role for them.
Definitely not.
We don't have anyone here witha lot of history that can.
That's going to get priority.
There's no Mike Evans here.
Yeah, well, that's fun.
All right, so we've got lotsof people to watch.
(36:23):
I have one more game for youto play.
We're going to do three minutefire off.
Who would you rather?
And so these are players thatare all being drafted relatively
about the same for their position.
And you have to tell me whichone you want to pick or the ones
that you don't want to pick.
All right, we're going tostart off with tight ends Kyle Pitts,
(36:47):
Mason Taylor or Hunter Henry.
So I don't think the rookie isgoing to be my pick in this one.
I think I still just like KylePitts and I'll take the ups and downs,
but I don't know why.
It's just, hey, he's got a newquarterback at the helm.
Who knows, Maybe this is theKyle Pitts year.
(37:08):
It's always going to be.
It's training camp.
Yeah.
This is the Kyle Pitts time.
It's training camp.
This is where I go with theshiny new box and the shiny new toy.
Or I go Hunter Henry.
But I can't.
I can't do what hasn't been working.
Yeah.
So because it's summer andbecause we're not actually playing
NFL games, I'm going KylePitts and then probably Mason Taylor
(37:30):
and then Hunter Henry.
All right.
Right before we kick off, Imight bring these three comparisons
back out again and see if it'schanged your mind or not.
So the second one, IsaiahPacheco, Caleb Johnson or Jalen Warren,
his teammate, they're goinglike right next to each other in
drafts right now because Ithink nobody knows who's Arthur Smith
(37:53):
gonna give it to or is it justa committee and they're both going
about that range where it iscommittees already.
Yeah.
And Caleb Johnson, no runningback room is a full.
Like we're gonna give evenDerrick Henry justice.
Hill gets some snaps.
Even Saquon is basically oneof the only examples where you don't
have that second reliever back.
(38:14):
So I'm not too worried aboutJalen Warren.
I am gonna go Caleb Johnson here.
I'm very excited for how he'sgoing to fit into that scheme.
If I don't think he has theceiling of a Derrick Henry.
But I think he can immediately produce.
When Najee Harris was givingin that same exact offense.
Yeah, I, I want to believe that.
I don't know.
It's hard for me to believe inthat offense with Aaron Rodgers.
(38:37):
I know I go back to the same ball.
You got your grudges, I've gotmy grudges.
Last one, Keon Coleman, AmecaAbuka or Jaden Higgins.
So yeah, we didn't really geta touch on the Houston wide receiver
duo.
We'll break them down later.
But I think in this one I'mgoing Igbuka.
(38:59):
I think that he is just goingto have a larger role than people
think.
Then I would go Keon Colemanand then Jaden Higgins.
That's just upside.
I think if I was doingredraft, maybe I would take Jaden
Higgins above.
Keon Coleman because we nevergot what we wanted out of Keon Coleman
last year.
We'd see like a game or acatch and then we would be disappointed.
(39:24):
So I think we're all hopingagain that he proves us wrong, that
we if we give up on him too early.
Yeah, but Josh Allen puttogether one of the best seasons
we ever saw and he was like hehad the opportunity.
They didn't have a lot ofother wide receivers and he still
couldn't get done.
So I think for the that reasonI'll put Egbuka, then Higgins, then
(39:47):
Coleman.
All right, makes sense to me.
Any last thoughts?
No.
I am excited to break down thedivisions later this summer.
We'll get into some of therookies we didn't cover.
We don't.
You don't need another personto tell you that Ashton Genty is
good.
Maybe we'll fight over alittle bit of McMillan and what he's
(40:08):
going to look like and projectlike for the Panthers.
But so if there's any rookiesthat weren't covered in this show,
stay tuned for other episodesand I'm sure we'll cover those in
more detail.
Yeah, drop us a comment andlet us know who you're excited to
watch this year, who you thinkis maybe got the best situation that
they're walking into andwasn't maybe drafted that high.
(40:29):
So drop us a comment.
Let us know if any of thewomen out there are looking to join
an all women football loving community.
Please joinus@fangirlfootball.com the links
in our description.
It's free to join.
Come on over and join yourteam chats and we're getting women
to talk to other fans of theirteams and putting together fantasy
(40:52):
football leagues too.
Yeah.
And if that's you or a loved one.
Those team channels are agreat way to stay up to date with
those training camp newsthat's going to be hitting here soon.
Encourage everyone to go findtheir community over there.
All right, thanks.
We'll see you in the next show.
Good to be back.
Yeah, I'm excited.
(41:13):
We almost have football.
It's July.
Foreign.
Hey, welcome back to fantasyfootball game plan.
We've got a new name, a newseason, but the same fantasy obsession.
I'm Judy and I've got analystQuinton here to talk some rookies
today.
Yeah, I'm excited to get backinto it.
(00:21):
It's summer, it's been off themind but I'm in a couple dynasty
leagues.
It's a good excuse to diveinto these rookies and I think there's
a lot of exciting players soit should be fun getting into it.
Yeah, fair.
We're diving into players youmight need to know before your draft
day.
Spoiler alert.
Not every Wookie, not everyrookie is worth drafting.
(00:42):
I've been doing some best ballso I've been actually picking up
quite a few of the rookies.
I think I get a little moreexcited about their potential than
they may deliver.
But at least there's like hopeat this time of the season.
Yeah, rookies at least offerthe unknown.
They're the mystery box ofwhat are they going to be in the
NFL.
Who knows how they'll turn out.
(01:03):
We won't be talking about thetop end rookies.
We'll save those for thedivisional breakdowns but.
And we won't be talking aboutreally the seventh rounders or really
those outside shot but thosemid round guys is who will be breaking
down going into training camp.
Yeah, those guys that mightget their break and break it wide
open mid season and you'll beahead of the curve for the waiver
(01:26):
wire.
Yeah, at least we recognizethe name.
Yeah, exactly.
Because some of these guys Iwasn't recognizing the first ball
draft I did.
All right, before we getstarted, we are about to head into
training camp that should bestarting here in a couple weeks later
in July.
But before we get started, Ifound some articles, all of wide
(01:47):
receivers here in the pastfour or five years.
And I just kind of wanted toshow some cautionary tales of things
you might hear during thesetraining camp buzz that people are
in the best shape of theirlife, that this is their season,
this is their shot.
And we get so many puff piecesthat are just kind of garbage, just
fake news, just writers tryingto have something out there during
(02:10):
training camp.
So the first one I wanted tobring up was a quote of Leviska Chenault
and the coaches beinginterviewed that he's bigger, faster,
a better route runner than hewas in a rookie.
He's going to get constantbuzz during the off season.
He's ready for a breakout campaign.
Yeah, that didn't quite happen.
No.
(02:32):
We also have ridiculousstories like Jamar Chase, who was
a top 10 pick and he wasalways supposed to be great.
And then we get into trainingcamp and suddenly he doesn't know
how to catch a football in theNFL that it's not the white LSU ball
and he's dropping everythingand he's already being labeled by
a bus that he can't getseparation on routes.
(02:52):
And he turned out pretty good.
So he must have been a bargainthat year in drafts.
Yeah, exactly.
So if you can send thosearticles to your teammates that are
trying to avoid Ashton Genti,that maybe fumbled once in training
camp and now he's not going tobe the starter, go send that to the
rest of your league.
(03:13):
But something to weed through.
We also have some honestreports and there's some really good
reporters out there that putout good content that kind of clued
us into Puka Nakua a coupleyears ago.
So there's a couple reallygood Rams reporters that were constantly
going through and mentioningconstant buzz about Puka Nuku.
(03:34):
And that's what you're reallylooking for is that steady news you're
looking for who's playing withthe ones, who's playing with the
twos.
But yeah, this article fromJason d' Alessandro really highlighted
that due to Cooper Cup'sinjury, Puka stepping forward this
fifth round, rookie receiverthat no one thought would be a critical
role of that Rams team fromday one.
(03:55):
And then we can even see aslittle as last year.
Jalen Polk was all the buzzlabeled a breakout candidate and
he ended up fielding one ofthe worst rookie seasons from a second
round pick.
So a lot to sift through whilewe get into training camp, but at
least be aware of the names sothat when you do see it, you have
(04:18):
a prior perception to sift through.
All right, let's get into thisyear's rookies and who are you loving?
So yeah, these are the playerswhere you really can't sway me.
Even if I hear they arefumbling and having issues in training
camp.
I think they're going to begood pros.
All right, so you got toconvince me about this.
(04:40):
I know one on this list.
You can't.
There's nothing you can do toconvince me.
All right, I'm excited forthat argument.
I wanted to kick it off withone of my favorite wide receivers
in this draft.
He was taken in the second round.
He is currently wide receiver58 on ADP for fantasy drafts and
that is Trey Harris for the Chargers.
(05:02):
So one thing that stood outfor Trey Harris is that he is an
outlier when it comes to yardsper route run.
And yards per route run is ametric that captures how much they're
actually running routes andwhen they're actually on the field,
are they valuable?
Is the team looking to go tothem as their primary weapon?
And a good benchmark for yardsper route run is around 3 elite.
(05:26):
And what we see from ChasePuka neighbors the top end and he
was at 5.12 far and away thebest of this rookie class.
There is some kind ofqualifiers with that.
We do see these offenses thatreally have a tough time translating
(05:46):
to the NFL, primarily like OleMiss where Tre Harris went and Tennessee
where they're not going to beasked to run these college games.
So he's an outlier and he doeshave that potential.
But I think it's going toshine through and I think when he's
asked to do more in a largerrole than he could do, so.
So what's your feeling on Tre Harris?
(06:07):
I don't really feel likethere's room in the quite crowded
wide receiver locker room ofthe Chargers.
Why is he going to come in andsuddenly take work from McConkey
or Quinton Johnston who we sawcome on late in the season last year?
Why is Tre Harris going to translate?
(06:31):
Absolutely.
And I think Quinn Johnson isone of the bigger regrets of this
Chargers recent draft history.
He just hasn't produced like afirst round wide receiver and you
can see that they spent up fora second round pick to invest in
Trey Harris as that X receiverand so him and McConkey will play
completely different roles.
And I liken it to those oldChargers teams that had Keenan Allen
(06:55):
and Mike Williams.
Mike Williams is making returntoward to this team but they want
that true X wide receiver thatcan do it all.
And Justin Herbert's one ofthe best deep passing quarterbacks
in the league.
So I just really like thechemistry there.
And also I think that Harbaughis going to love this guy.
(07:16):
This guy is a football guythrough and through and I think he's
going to spotlight it as wecan see that in high school he, he
played with Malik Neighborsand neighbors went up to him like
every day and was like, man,I'm going to be an NFL wide receiver.
I need a quarterback.
I need you to be the quarterback.
We can't both be good wide receivers.
(07:37):
And he made him playquarterback in high school until
yeah.
And then Trey Harris went backto being a wide receiver in college,
went to a smaller school, thentransferred to Ole Miss and So I
think he's just a football guyand that's what Harbaugh loves and
he's going to be tough to keepoff the field.
I think Harbaugh got what hereally loves and that's a new running
(07:57):
new two new running backs.
So he they picked up NigHarris and then they drafted Omarion
Hampton and that's what I feellike Harbaugh truly loves are running
backs.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm excited for that entire offense.
But we did watch later in thatyear Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh
(08:17):
shift their thing to beinglike wow, okay we this is the best
one of the best quarterbacksin the league.
We're going to let them air itout and they had more success.
They had to continue.
Yeah that running backbackfield last year was lacking and
they made the most of it.
Yeah.
But all right, I'm on thefence on Trey Harris.
He's a high upside play buthe's more risky than some of the
(08:39):
than the next guy we're goingto be talking about.
So the next person we're goingto be talking about he's currently
being drafted as running back25 and he is the Steelers round three
Caleb Johnson.
Also just a quick reminder,the Steelers did not have a second
round pick so this is theirsecond pick of this draft.
And man I love this guy.
He is a bell cow and I thinkhe's just going to work perfectly
(09:04):
in what Arthur Smith wants todo and he was drafted specifically
for this role to be a lead back.
All right, you just said my concern.
You said author Smith.
This is Bijan all over again.
I think he's more of a TylerAlger where well.
(09:25):
Guess what he still hasCordell Patterson too so we can't
like forget about that.
And Jalen Warren is theincumbent but Jalen Warren is not
a bell cow and they that beenthe consistent thing through pressers
and what Tomlin has said andwhat Arthur Smith has said they said
heavy workload.
(09:45):
We love this guy.
He can be in every down backand so he got.
I heard that all with authorSmith and Bijan and I can't do it
again.
I will never ever believe inauthor Smith again and that he wants
a bell cow or will likeactually use a bell cow.
(10:07):
He just loves to confuse usand make us scratch our heads on
why they can't do better.
I do think that this is thetype of runner that succeeded in
the Arthur Smith system andactually my like comps for him are
somewhere between NajeeHarris, Tyler Algier and Derrick
(10:29):
Henry and an amalgamation ofall those and you get Caleb Johnson
because they have, they allthree have this upright running style.
Really just the one cut likeBijan is very agile, he's very loose
and I think Arthur Smithcouldn't stand that.
Just hit the hole, make yourone read and get up the field.
(10:51):
And that's Caleb Johnson.
He got penalized in the draftand falling to the third round.
I think he was a second roundtalent but he had a really poor combine
and he had a slow 40 andthat's what kind of made his draft
stock fall before.
But when you watch hishighlights, it's not like he's not
fast.
He just wasn't a good sprinterwithout pads in a random empty field.
(11:15):
But you watch his highlightsand he has breakaway speed.
He was hitting 70, 80 yardruns and it reminds me of Derek Henry
where he's not that fast butas he's building up that speed you
just can't catch him.
And suddenly every defender istaking the wrong angle and he's shooting
past him and has thatbreakaway potential.
To give an idea of howeffective he was for Iowa, Iowa only
(11:39):
scored 3.1 touchdowns a gamelast season and he averaged two touchdowns
a game.
So he was almost their entireoffense that teams had a game plan
around.
He was still elite in college.
I think this highlights thatwe look at rookies a little bit different.
You clearly watch more collegeball than I do and the film and study
(12:03):
their stats and I dive alittle bit more into the situation
that they are walking into inthe NFL and because of that situation,
because of Arthur Smith andthen we can mention the other poison
on that team, Aaron Rodgers.
I, there's no way I'm going todraft this guy.
That's really the one I'mwatching out for is how many times
(12:23):
is Aaron Rodgers just going toignore the play call and do what
he wants.
Then it might get a little.
We saw that last year, Breecehall, we are, we were all drafting
him really high thinking thiswas going to be it.
And yeah, between AaronRodgers and Arthur Smith, I'm out
of out on any of the runningbacks for the Steelers.
(12:45):
I think to give some rangethere, Tyler Algier, his rookie year
went for about almost 1200scrimmage yards and four touchdowns.
And then Najee last year wasabout 3, 1300 yards and six touchdowns.
I think you're looking aboutthat range and I think he's going
to have a little bit moreflash than people think.
(13:08):
So excited for him.
Yeah, but I don't think I'veconvinced you.
You have not convinced me.
I remember screaming aboutBijan and getting burnt on the whole
Bijan situation with ArthurSmith and I can't do it.
So let's go on to a runningback that I do like the situation
that he's walking into andthat's Quinshon Judkins for the Cleveland
(13:33):
Browns.
The Browns, they had a. Iguess they earned a lot of draft
picks by not doing very well.
But Dudkins is coming in andhe's being handed the starting running
back role and behind him isJerome Ford.
So he is going into thisoffense and he's the guy, he's the
(13:54):
bell cow.
What do you think about him?
Do you love his style of running?
I. I think he is very explosive.
He has always been elite atgetting long rushes.
So throughout his care hiscareer he was first at Ole Miss and
then transferred to Ohio state.
But about 9% of his carrieswent for over 15 yards, which is
(14:18):
in a crazy explosive run rate.
And I don't really view it asa knock that he shared the backfield
with Trevion Henderson, one ofthe other rookie running backs for
Ohio State last year becauseit just showed that, yeah, I can
play with NFL talent, Ideserve to be a thing.
And they brought him in forthat role.
So I think he is going to bethe day one starter.
(14:40):
The only thing is the Brown situation.
How many times do we thinkthey're going to be in a red zone?
Hey, they got Joe Flacco.
He's going to get them in thered zone every drive, right?
It's going to be like a few.
Years ago if they stick with him.
Yeah, I like them.
So these two running backsthat we just talked about, Caleb
Johnson and Quinshawn Judkins,they're going RB24 and RB25.
(15:06):
You got to pick one.
Who you picking?
I think I like Caleb Johnson.
I do like the.
I just like his opportunityand I think they're going to give
him the backfield and I thinkthat offense should be a little bit
better than Cleveland.
I think Arthur Smith is goingto find a way to share that.
And in the red zone, give itto Cordell Patterson.
(15:29):
I was looking at ADP earlier though.
So between both of thoserookies or whichever your preference
is, the person right ahead ofhim is a veteran in Aaron Jones.
So are you the mystery box ofthe rookie or the proven veteran
in Aaron Jones for that tossup?
I like the mystery box.
(15:50):
Okay.
Yeah.
That's where I'm at, too.
And you will see these rookiesprobably continue to climb as people
become used to their names andpeople like the mystery box.
I do.
I think both those rookieswill have good opportunities, and
I'd put them above Aaron Jones.
I would, too, but I'm going totake Judge over Johnson for sure.
(16:13):
Yeah.
All right, let's move on toone more wide receiver that I think
I could just go by his jerseyright now.
Last year, Jayden Daniels wasmy guy and I ended up with his jersey.
Ameca Abuka.
I'm not loving his name, but Idon't know why I stumble on it or
think of weird ways to say it.
(16:35):
I think I create letters in it.
Anyhow, he's fun to watch.
He's exciting to watch.
He got injured his junior yearin college, but then returned to
Ohio State for his senior yearand set records.
I got questioned at a poolparty about Abuka, and they're like,
(16:55):
well, why do you think he'sgoing to do well?
Because Mike Evans is thereand they've got.
They kept Godwin, too, andthey're healthy.
And I'm like, no, no, youdidn't just say that.
You didn't just say thatGodwin and Evans were healthy because
we all know that's not how theseason's going to.
I don't really think thatGodwin's going to start the season.
My bigger worry isn't Evans orGodwin, but it's McMillan in Tampa
(17:20):
Bay.
But I think there's enough togo around for all of them.
And this kid's fun to watch.
Yeah, he absolutely is.
And I echo your statementthere of.
I think that's why we wantedto bring him up today is because
a lot of people look at thatsituation and think it's too crowded
for him to have Year one success.
Maybe he'll be good in the future.
(17:41):
But I think we both agree thatwe like his prospect this year.
I do.
I think Evans and Godwinwanted to stay in Tampa.
They took less.
They could have had more ifthey would have gone somewhere else
and put it out there.
But I think there's a littlesecret that they wanted to be in
Tampa Bay and they draftedthis wide receiver round one.
(18:04):
So maybe there's a little bitof concern of their health and who's
going.
To know the personnel betterand how they're progressing with
different injuries and whatthey think of McMillan rather than
the team.
And the team decided it was animportant enough need to go draft
Igbuka in the first round.
So they spent their firstround pick on a wide receiver and
(18:27):
I don't think he's just goingto ride the bench.
I don't think they're going toinvest their draft capital to not
have them see the field.
I don't think so either.
And they saw throughout thatseason wide receivers get injured.
It's a constant turnover oftheir the health of a wide receiver.
There's plenty to go aroundthere as well.
And that offense knows how toput up points.
(18:48):
Absolutely.
And if you talk about a guythat's I don't think there's anyone
better qualified to stick upfor his target share and make sure
that he's getting the ballbecause he's always dealt with a
contested wide receiver roomsince when he was in Ohio State.
Here were some of the widereceivers he played alongside with
Garrett Wilson, MarvinHarrison, Jackson Smith and Jigba.
(19:10):
Chris Olave and the new phenomof Jeremiah Smith.
And throughout that time hebecame OSU's most productive wide
receiver ever.
So I think he's fully equippedto make sure he's getting the ball
and produce.
Day one yeah, I think I'lljust go buy the jersey now.
(19:30):
He's my go to wide receiver.
I think later in rounds ofdrafts I like to watch him.
I noticed that there's onewide receiver that wasn't on your
list that we've talked alittle bit about and that's McMillan
for the Carolina Panthers.
Are you in or out on him?
(19:51):
So I'm very high on McMillan.
I was kind of saving him forthe Carolina episode because I think
he's going to be day onestarter and day one clear alpha of
that room.
But he really just has a do it all.
And I'm really impressed byfirst his target share.
He just dominated that ArizonaWildcat offense and he was the person
(20:13):
that always stuck out on film.
I think he is going to be agreat pro, but we'll dive into that
more on the Panthers episode.
All right.
I'm not as in on how do I sayhis first name?
Do you know Tetra?
No.
Tetley Tetra McMillan for theCarolina Panthers.
(20:34):
You're high on him.
I'm taking a buka.
There's lots of rookie widereceivers out there.
I'm really excited about thebright running backs and the wide
receivers in this group this year.
It wasn't a great quarterbackclass but as far as the other skill
positions I like, even thetight ends are exciting to talk about
and I think could be year one starters.
(20:55):
And yeah, this is Aphenomenal, especially rookie running
back class.
But I think there's somestandout wide receivers.
All right, so who are you out on?
Who is going to be a disappointment?
You've got your crystal ball.
Predict us a disappointing rookie.
Yeah.
And it's not fun.
These are young guys that arejust getting their shot to say, hey,
(21:16):
yeah, he's going to be a bust.
So when we say we're out, it'snot that they're going to be a complete
bust.
It's just I don't see thatmystery box as a good bet.
That is one I'm turning downand someone else can take that chance.
That would be like Arthur Smith.
Yeah, sorry, who was that?
Matthew Golden.
So the packers wide receiver.
(21:37):
He was a Round 1 wide receiver.
Round 1 wide receiverstypically have a great hit rate,
but he falls into the classthat typically doesn't.
So he's a fun player to watch.
He stood out in the collegefootball playoffs.
He had a great combine, thefastest 40 of the entire year.
He ran a 4:2 and then he sawhis draft stock skyrocket.
(22:02):
So if we look back inDecember, who we were projecting
to be the top wide receiversof this class, he wasn't even a top
10 name.
He wasn't even top 14 orsomeone we were talking about.
We were actually talking moreabout his teammate Isaiah Bond, who's
had some off the field issues,but he wasn't even looked at as the
top wide receiver on his own team.
And then he stood out in thosegames, which I will, to his credit,
(22:25):
he stood out in the toughestgames against the toughest team defense.
So how is this bad?
He stood out against really ingood games against good defenses
and you don't like him becausehe stood out.
It's just that when we lookback at these types of players that
have key games or they havevery fast 40s that skyrocket their
(22:49):
draft capital, we kind of losesight of their entire career and
who they were and just thinkabout those moments.
And we have a collection ofthis type where in the past we've
seen Will Fuller, John Ross, D.J.
chark, Paris Campbell, TyquanThornton, all first or second round
picks that their primary thingwas their speed, their great 40 times
(23:14):
and they just didn't work outin the pros.
And the biggest red flag forgolden is he had such a low target
share.
So his target share was about18.1 of when he's running a route,
how often is he actuallythrowing the football?
How much is the quarterbacklooking his way or plays being drawn
(23:34):
up for him.
And he was only at 18.1, whichwas 41st percentile.
To give you an idea of some ofthe other Rookie wide receivers.
McMillan was at 30.9, Hunterwas at 25.9, Jaden Higgins was at
31.4 and Luther Burton was at 26.9.
So if he couldn't emerge as analpha in college and he got drafted
(23:58):
by the packers that have thatare looking for that alpha wide receiver.
If he couldn't do it incollege, why do I think he can do
it in the pros?
Sounds like he's just going tobe another packers wide receiver.
And every week we're going tobe scratching our heads.
Which packers wide receiver isit going to be this week?
Yeah, just like last year.
(24:19):
I do kind of like him a lotmore in best ball where you don't
have to make the decision tostart him and you can get explosive
plays.
He's a fun player to watch,but I don't think I'm going to draft
him for any redraft fantasy leagues.
All right.
I don't really have anyonethat I'm totally out on.
Maybe Shedeur Sanders.
I don't like that wholesituation, so I'll just stay out
(24:41):
of there.
I don't know.
Maybe they'll decide they wantto win, but I got a feeling they're
just going to play Joe Flaccoor Kenny Pickett.
And you think we're gonna.
Are they gonna let deseanWatson back in the training facility
or did they lock him out?
They've changed the codes.
Changed the codes, moved on.
(25:02):
Yeah, don't be the person todraft a sixth round rookie quarterback
just because he has Sanders asthe last name.
Yeah, he did a lot to fallfall in the draft as opposed to Matthew
golden who accelerated.
So they're on opposite ends,but we don't want either one of them.
All right, let's go throughinteresting situations and who do
(25:26):
you want to watch in training camp?
Who do you need moreinformation on?
Yeah, and this is almost thePuka Nukua category or maybe we'll
have an award after thetraining camp of who have we heard
the most positive news?
And these are some of thenames just to be aware of to look
for in headlines that is thisa pattern?
So one person I wanted tobring up was Dante Thornton, Raiders
(25:49):
fourth round wide receiver,elite athlete, but Tennessee just
did not utilize him that muchwhen he was on the field.
He was highly productive.
He just wasn't on the fieldthat much.
And like we were Alreadytalking about.
Tennessee has a really weirdcollege offense and it makes it really
hard to project how they'regoing to look in the pros.
But if he looks better thanexpected and reports are that he's
(26:11):
already practicing with theones in the OTAs.
So if that's a pattern and ifthat's sticky, then I think he has
the athletic profile to succeed.
All right, I can buy into that.
The whole Raiders offense I'mextremely interested in.
We've got Geno Smith upgradingthat quarterback situation and then
(26:31):
Ashton Genty coming in to runthe ball, which I'm super excited
about.
And then we got Brock Bowers,so there's definitely room for some
support there.
And the other roles are filledvery well.
So you could be a widereceiver three.
Yeah, absolutely.
I like these teams that aretrying to figure out their identity
(26:53):
still, and the Raiders have somany new pieces that there's opportunity.
I agree.
I like those two.
As opposed to Arizona thatdidn't draft any offensive players
for fantasy that were.
That we're talking about.
They didn't draft any.
Not that we're talking about.
They didn't draft any fantasy players.
So they're going with their what?
(27:14):
Yeah, they're running it back.
But I was talking aboutanother team that's seen a lot of
change.
Do you want to run us through?
What are your favorite tightends that you're interested in?
Yeah, the Jets.
Mason Taylor.
I'm excited to see what MasonTaylor has.
I'm excited to see the jets,but I'm concerned because it's the
jets.
But we have all new coaching,all new, not all new players.
(27:36):
I'm excited to see what Breecehall can do, what Garrett Wilson
can do now that we got AaronRodgers out of poisoning the locker
room.
And then they bring in MasonTaylor that can.
That they're going to give thestarting tight end job to.
He's going so low in drafts.
He's a steal.
Even in best ball, he's a steal.
I feel like.
(27:57):
Yeah.
And when you talk about rookietight ends that are going to be on
the field day one, he probablywill be on the field more than Colston
Loveland, even though he wastaken a little bit later in the draft.
But he is going to get the opportunity.
I think so, too.
And I'm excited to see whatthe jets can do.
I don't know.
That's kind of weird, rootingfor the Jets.
(28:18):
Yeah, me too.
I think Fields can bring somefantasy value.
I do, too.
It's going to be aninteresting year.
There But I did take them ontheir over.
I think they were what, likefive and a half games And I did take
the over on the Jets.
The next player I want tobring up is the head.
I'll say the hedge.
(28:39):
I'll bring up this entirerunning back room but want to focus
on the rookie is Bashal Tudin,the Jaguars round four running back.
And the reason why I think hehas a chance to actually cut out
a valuable role in thisbackfield is you have Travis Etienne
and you have Tank Bigsby therewho split carries last year.
(29:01):
Neither of them are a dominantclear running back.
And this is a new gm.
And this gm, this new headcoach chose Baye Shaw for for their
scheme.
And even before the draft,Liam Cohen, the new Jags head coach
was talking up Bashal Tutin.
If he could choose one playerthat he loved to fit in this game,
(29:22):
it'd be this person.
And he has high end speed.
So it's really just going tocome down to touches and what they're
going to trust him with as a rookie.
Important to keep an ear out of.
Is he running with the ones,the twos or at the threes.
I won't mind not doing awaiver wire episode this year where
(29:42):
I'm bringing up Tank Bigsbyagain and again, which is what I
felt like I did last year.
Now it's not just Tootin.
Yeah, hopefully it's not justTootin, but I love the coaching changes
here.
The GM changes, bringing inanother great rookie wide receiver
that we'll have to talk aboutwhen we talk about Jacksonville to
(30:02):
be on the opposite of BrianThomas Jr. That's going to be explosive
as well.
And a head coach that canprobably hopefully rework Trevor
Lawrence, who hasn't.
He hasn't had a great run inhis NFL career.
I don't know how many coacheshe's had, but I'd say five.
I'd guess five.
Yeah, I think he ran through acouple but hopefully he has some
(30:26):
stability now.
And we just watched Liam Cohenhave tremendous success with a later
round rookie running back andBucky Irving.
So if we get anything close tothat, we'd be tremendously happy.
I would love to be talkingabout Tuton and I don't know, maybe
I shouldn't have just said that.
What do you think of theCowboys backfield?
(30:48):
So Jaden Blue, their rookie?
I'm very interested to seewhat training camp brings for him
because I'm not buying intoJavante Williams or Miles Sanders
in that backfield that areahead of Jaden Blue so what do you
think they brought Blue in to do?
So Jaden Blue, he's out of Texas.
They brought him down the roadto play for the Cowboys and he has
(31:11):
elite speed in playmaking buthe's a smaller back.
So I'm worried what hisworkload and whether they're actually
going to trust him.
I think it's going to be didyou learn your lesson?
And the Cowboys have shown usin the past they've not like we've
let Zeke get the primarytouches when we had Tony Pollard
be the quicker, more athleticback and then even last year we had
(31:33):
Zeke again the return visitand they refused to give their more
explosive running backs a shot.
So I think it's the oneadvantage we have of the season is
both Javante and Miles Sandersare new to the system.
It's not like they're anincumbent back.
It's not like they've been inthe system before.
So hopefully they learn theirlesson and they do give Jaden Blue
(31:55):
more of a shot and I think hewill be highly efficient in his carries.
We do have a whole coachingchange there and now they have Brian
Schottenheimer as their headcoach so hopefully will take a little
bit of a different approachthan what we've seen in the years
past with Dallas.
(32:15):
Yeah.
So he is definitely a name tokeep an eye out for.
Of what is his workload goingto look like?
I've only got one more andthat's Jackson Dart quarterback for
we haven't talked much aboutquarterbacks that were drafted.
Like you said they weren'tsuper exciting.
But he's going to the Giantsand I don't believe in Russell Wilson
(32:41):
and while I really hope that Iget to see at least a game of Jameis
Winston tossing the ball downthe field to Malik Neighbors I don't
know that you know his hisinterceptions are going to get to
him and maybe we see JacksonDart later in the season.
I think there'll be some ofthe more fun preseason games to watch
of actually just cluing in ofhow does he look on the pros even
(33:04):
if it's backups and stuff likewe were talking earlier that Ole
Miss offense is hard toproject project to the next level.
So if he's looked great duringthose preseason games like I would
buy it or if he looks terribleI would buy that too.
But the Giants have one of thehardest strength of schedules and
that coach and that GM aretheir performance this season is
(33:27):
their job and they're on thehot seat.
They know it.
If they don't get results,they're going to be out.
And the quickest way to gethope on your team is a rookie quarterback
and that especially a rookiequarterback that can lead you to
a couple wins.
Yeah, very true.
Although it's still going tobe fun if we get to watch Winston.
Yeah, he's fine.
Give a show.
(33:48):
Let Malik neighbors go for1800 yards.
Just don't kill him this time.
Throw it down the field.
That would be awesome.
You got anyone else?
So the last one I'll bring upis not as fun of a situation as some
of the other ones we've talkedabout, but a ton of opportunity,
I think.
And that is basically theentire Titans training camp.
This team is going to besearching for an identity.
(34:11):
They have a new quarterbackwith Cam Ward at the helm and they
have so many rookie weaponsthat I think there's just opportunity
for some of these names to popup out of nowhere.
And they have Elek AyomaManor, wide receiver from Stanford,
and then they also draftedanother wide receiver that I wasn't
(34:34):
as familiar with.
Kymari Decay, I think.
And then they have anundrafted free agent that played
with Cam Ward with Xavier Restrepo.
And so it's like, all right,you have so many rookie wide receivers.
It's interesting to see howthat's going to shake out.
And then I am interested insome of their other guys too.
So they took a shot withKhalil Mullings, a running back out
(34:58):
of Michigan, and he's reallyinteresting to me because he was
a converted linebacker thatjust took the job from a five star
recruit, like running back.
And he took the job.
That is interesting was theirprimary job and it was only a second
season playing running back.
So I think there's justopportunity with the unknown.
(35:21):
There's a lot of unknown in Tennessee.
I like that it's going to be fun.
But you're right, we.
That's definitely a situation.
I did not realize how many ofthe wide receivers were rookies,
that there are three rookies.
And then if you look at who'salso new, they brought in Tyler Lockett,
who I was actually hearingreports that he may not even make
(35:42):
the team.
That's really going to elevatethose rookies.
Somebody's going to have tostep up.
Van Jefferson could definitelystep into a bigger role in that rookie
situation or in that widereceiver room there.
If they get into training campand they go, wow, this guy's a lot
better than we thought.
I do not.
(36:02):
I don't think they'll be shy.
Just handing over and makingthem a starter.
Cutting out a bigger role for them.
Definitely not.
We don't have anyone here witha lot of history that can.
That's going to get priority.
There's no Mike Evans here.
Yeah, well, that's fun.
All right, so we've got lotsof people to watch.
(36:23):
I have one more game for youto play.
We're going to do three minutefire off.
Who would you rather?
And so these are players thatare all being drafted relatively
about the same for their position.
And you have to tell me whichone you want to pick or the ones
that you don't want to pick.
All right, we're going tostart off with tight ends Kyle Pitts,
(36:47):
Mason Taylor or Hunter Henry.
So I don't think the rookie isgoing to be my pick in this one.
I think I still just like KylePitts and I'll take the ups and downs,
but I don't know why.
It's just, hey, he's got a newquarterback at the helm.
Who knows, Maybe this is theKyle Pitts year.
(37:08):
It's always going to be.
It's training camp.
Yeah.
This is the Kyle Pitts time.
It's training camp.
This is where I go with theshiny new box and the shiny new toy.
Or I go Hunter Henry.
But I can't.
I can't do what hasn't been working.
Yeah.
So because it's summer andbecause we're not actually playing
NFL games, I'm going KylePitts and then probably Mason Taylor
(37:30):
and then Hunter Henry.
All right.
Right before we kick off, Imight bring these three comparisons
back out again and see if it'schanged your mind or not.
So the second one, IsaiahPacheco, Caleb Johnson or Jalen Warren,
his teammate, they're goinglike right next to each other in
drafts right now because Ithink nobody knows who's Arthur Smith
(37:53):
gonna give it to or is it justa committee and they're both going
about that range where it iscommittees already.
Yeah.
And Caleb Johnson, no runningback room is a full.
Like we're gonna give evenDerrick Henry justice.
Hill gets some snaps.
Even Saquon is basically oneof the only examples where you don't
have that second reliever back.
(38:14):
So I'm not too worried aboutJalen Warren.
I am gonna go Caleb Johnson here.
I'm very excited for how he'sgoing to fit into that scheme.
If I don't think he has theceiling of a Derrick Henry.
But I think he can immediately produce.
When Najee Harris was givingin that same exact offense.
Yeah, I, I want to believe that.
I don't know.
It's hard for me to believe inthat offense with Aaron Rodgers.
(38:37):
I know I go back to the same ball.
You got your grudges, I've gotmy grudges.
Last one, Keon Coleman, AmecaAbuka or Jaden Higgins.
So yeah, we didn't really geta touch on the Houston wide receiver
duo.
We'll break them down later.
But I think in this one I'mgoing Igbuka.
(38:59):
I think that he is just goingto have a larger role than people
think.
Then I would go Keon Colemanand then Jaden Higgins.
That's just upside.
I think if I was doingredraft, maybe I would take Jaden
Higgins above.
Keon Coleman because we nevergot what we wanted out of Keon Coleman
last year.
We'd see like a game or acatch and then we would be disappointed.
(39:24):
So I think we're all hopingagain that he proves us wrong, that
we if we give up on him too early.
Yeah, but Josh Allen puttogether one of the best seasons
we ever saw and he was like hehad the opportunity.
They didn't have a lot ofother wide receivers and he still
couldn't get done.
So I think for the that reasonI'll put Egbuka, then Higgins, then
(39:47):
Coleman.
All right, makes sense to me.
Any last thoughts?
No.
I am excited to break down thedivisions later this summer.
We'll get into some of therookies we didn't cover.
We don't.
You don't need another personto tell you that Ashton Genty is
good.
Maybe we'll fight over alittle bit of McMillan and what he's
(40:08):
going to look like and projectlike for the Panthers.
But so if there's any rookiesthat weren't covered in this show,
stay tuned for other episodesand I'm sure we'll cover those in
more detail.
Yeah, drop us a comment andlet us know who you're excited to
watch this year, who you thinkis maybe got the best situation that
they're walking into andwasn't maybe drafted that high.
(40:29):
So drop us a comment.
Let us know if any of thewomen out there are looking to join
an all women football loving community.
Please joinus@fangirlfootball.com the links
in our description.
It's free to join.
Come on over and join yourteam chats and we're getting women
to talk to other fans of theirteams and putting together fantasy
(40:52):
football leagues too.
Yeah.
And if that's you or a loved one.
Those team channels are agreat way to stay up to date with
those training camp newsthat's going to be hitting here soon.
Encourage everyone to go findtheir community over there.
All right, thanks.
We'll see you in the next show.
Good to be back.
Yeah, I'm excited.
(41:13):
We almost have football.
It's July.
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