Speaker 1: Hi, Hello, and welcome to March nineteenth, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: You are watching FFPC Insider Access. My name is Eric Balkman.
Speaker 1: You can connect with me on x at Eric Balkman.
Speaker 2: You know me.
Speaker 1: You know me from the High Stakes Fantasy Football Hour,
Speaker 1: Extra Reps, the roada Is, High Stakes Lowdown, and of
Speaker 1: course the Fantasy Football Players Championship. At m y FFPC
Speaker 1: dot com. We've got a great show for you tonight,
Speaker 1: two full hours of NonStop fantasy football goodness with a
Speaker 1: heavy emphasis one the rookie class because we got an
Speaker 1: expert on it tonight, so it's gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, especially in the second hour before we get
Speaker 1: to that. Before I bring him on, I want to
Speaker 1: remind everybody too, if you are looking to parlay some
Speaker 1: of the advice and some of the thoughts player of
Speaker 1: owls and strategy that you'll hear on the show tonight,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to go to my FFPC dot com.
Speaker 1: Especially for you Dynasty players or if you're thinking about
Speaker 1: getting into Dynasty Fantasy football, now's a really good time
Speaker 1: to do it. We have a lot of orphans listed
Speaker 1: anywhere from one dollar up well, I mean the normal
Speaker 1: entry fee is seventy seven to five thousand dollars. Some
Speaker 1: of those are down to one dollar right now, so
Speaker 1: you're basically managing the team for free the first year
Speaker 1: and trying to get it into greatness. So check that
Speaker 1: out my ffpc dot com for all the Dynasty orphans
Speaker 1: we have available. We also have a pair of Bestball tournaments,
Speaker 1: the Never Too Early Best Ball Tournament and the Never
Speaker 1: Too Early Superflex Bestball Tournament, both live right now. Forty
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Speaker 1: And the Big Gorilla is back a million dollar grand prize,
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty dollars entry fee. Seven Bananas promo
Speaker 1: is live. The Early Rampage Promotion is live. I want
Speaker 1: a shout out to and I forgot who was Paul
Speaker 1: de Siegmann. I want to say, pointed that out on
Speaker 1: X that I was pronouncing rampage wrong. I kept calling
Speaker 1: it rampage. It is rampage. The Early Rampage Tournament going
Speaker 1: on right now, So it's two tournaments for the price
Speaker 1: of one entry fee if you enter the Big Gorilla
Speaker 1: now you're automatically in the Early Rampage tournament as well,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five bucks to enter the Baby
Speaker 1: Gorilla and one hundred thousand dollars grand prize there as well.
Speaker 1: Remember you can manage all those teams from the FFPC app.
Speaker 1: You can also purchase, load your account, register for leagues,
Speaker 1: perform waivers. Whatever you want to do, you can all
Speaker 1: do it from the comfort of your phone on the app,
Speaker 1: the mobile app, without further ado, Ladies and gentlemen, let's
Speaker 1: bring in our guests tonight. You know him, you love him.
Speaker 1: NFL Draft expert. He's probably got a seven round mock
Speaker 1: point somewhere listed on the internet right now for like
Speaker 1: the twenty forty two NFL Draft. That'd be my guess.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's just on twenty forty one. He loves the draft,
Speaker 1: he knows the prospects, and he's here to share some
Speaker 1: knowledge with us tonight. Longtime FFPC player and even longer
Speaker 1: time NFL draft guru, You know him on X Shane P. Hallum,
Speaker 1: the Hammer himself, Please welcome in from Draft Sharks. Shane Hallam, Shane.
Speaker 2: Good evening, sir, good evening. It's nice to be back
Speaker 2: with you. Eric. I feel like once a year we
Speaker 2: get to kind of cut it up here before the
Speaker 2: NFL Draft, and I'm excited to talk rookies and talk
Speaker 2: all the goings on. Always a blast with you, my friend.
Speaker 1: I did something a little bit different for your appearance
Speaker 1: this year, at least on my end. So normally I
Speaker 1: like to immerse myself in everything that you're putting out
Speaker 1: there via x or via draft Sharks. I've kind of
Speaker 1: stayed away from it so far this year because I
Speaker 1: feel like if I consume all that you kindt you
Speaker 1: have this way of persuading me. Because I'm easily persuaded.
Speaker 1: You have this way of persuading me. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go in. I'm gonna set these questions up cold. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna you know, we're gonna do everything cold. We're gonna
Speaker 1: focus on the veterans here in the first hour, but
Speaker 1: the second hour I'm gonna offer my opinions on these
Speaker 1: guys and hopefully we get some good disc going in.
Speaker 1: Rather than saying, Shane, you're a genius, I totally agree
Speaker 1: with you. You're the man. So I wanted to go
Speaker 1: in fresh and clean on this. We're gonna try it
Speaker 1: this year. I don't know if it's going to be
Speaker 1: any better, but we'll see. So that's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of fun before we get going at Shane P.
Speaker 1: Hallum on X, what are you focusing on right now
Speaker 1: over at Draft Sharks.
Speaker 2: Well, we just launched our Rookie Guide, so we'll be
Speaker 2: doing an update to it at the beginning of April,
Speaker 2: expanding from fifty skill position players to seventy five on
Speaker 2: our big board, both for superflex and for one quarterback.
Speaker 2: We have profiles on every player in there, comps for
Speaker 2: every player in there. So yeah, I'm working on today
Speaker 2: was Fernanda Mendoza. We're going to do a full article
Speaker 2: for him next week on Draft Sharks. But yeah, just
Speaker 2: get getting the rookie guy gets set, getting everything set
Speaker 2: for these rookies. And I started diving into some film
Speaker 2: on the backup Wyoming running back who ran like a
Speaker 2: four to four at his pro day. So trying to
Speaker 2: dig deep, and I'll probably have I've watched over five
Speaker 2: hundred and six hundred skilled players by the draft.
Speaker 1: That's insane. And I should ask you this too, because
Speaker 1: I was joking about you already having a seven round
Speaker 1: twenty forty two MOC and maybe that's not a joke.
Speaker 1: Maybe you might already have that. I don't know. At
Speaker 1: what point did you start kind of delving into this
Speaker 1: year's crop of rookies. Was it already prior to last
Speaker 1: college football season?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, yeah, I mean I think I've had a
Speaker 2: twenty six mock. I usually do two years in advance,
Speaker 2: So I have a twenty twenty eight MOC in May
Speaker 2: for you know, for that draft. And you know, I'm
Speaker 2: in debbie leagues, some very deep DeBie leagues. So I've
Speaker 2: drafted some of these players in high school. I drafted
Speaker 2: Nick Nicholas Singleton, the running back from Penn State, when
Speaker 2: he was a sophomore in high school. So you know,
Speaker 2: I've watched some of these players since they were you know,
Speaker 2: before they could drive. Even I've watched some of them.
Speaker 1: The The other thing I wanted to ask you because
Speaker 1: I feel like, and I was taking talking about this
Speaker 1: in the High Stakes Fantasy Footballer last night, there's a
Speaker 1: narrative out there that people should be selling their twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six rookie draft picks and trying to collect twenty
Speaker 1: twenty seven picks. Most of the people would say that
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty seven draft is better, but I don't
Speaker 1: think they know it. Most people, I don't think they
Speaker 1: know the twenty twenty seven class as good as you do.
Speaker 1: You play dynasty, Is that a practice that you would
Speaker 1: encourage people to do right now, which try is try
Speaker 1: to get rid of your first round twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: picks and try to get twenty twenty seven first rounders.
Speaker 2: I think it's a legitimate strategy one DEVI league or
Speaker 2: one Dynasty league that I'm in. Unfortunately, on the FFPC, though,
Speaker 2: I plan to do some startups this year and try this.
Speaker 2: I think I have ten of the twelve twenty twenty
Speaker 2: seven first so I'm going to make a run for
Speaker 2: the other two. And I think I'm going to do
Speaker 2: a couple f FPC startups and do the same thing.
Speaker 2: In the startup just move down, move down, click twenty
Speaker 2: twenty seven firsts, because I do think that class is
Speaker 2: going to be excellent, even if you have some guys
Speaker 2: go back to school, even if you have some guys
Speaker 2: drop off. You know, this twenty twenty six class I've
Speaker 2: kind of been preaching for a while it's not as strong,
Speaker 2: and I think some of the you know, we'll talk
Speaker 2: about it. Some of the receivers came through, but I'm
Speaker 2: still not as impressed as I want to be, Like
Speaker 2: I want to kind of buy in, and I just
Speaker 2: can't at this point. And you know, it's a lot
Speaker 2: of it was because hey, the quarterbacks went back to
Speaker 2: school and maybe had some extra guys go back to school.
Speaker 2: That means twenty twenty seven is going to be better.
Speaker 2: So I don't think you have to just sell them
Speaker 2: off for nothing. But you know, we have it reflected
Speaker 2: on Draft Sharks on our trade value chart for Dynasty
Speaker 2: that twenty twenty seven first is is more valuable than
Speaker 2: you know, the one O eight or one O nine
Speaker 2: and one quarterback this year.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's interesting. That's good to know. I have one
Speaker 1: of my leagues. I was actually super pumped last year.
Speaker 1: I know nobody cares about your fantasy league, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna share it anyway because it's my show. Next year,
Speaker 1: during rookie draft time, I ended up parlaying some extra
Speaker 1: tight end depth I had in order to acquire Colston
Speaker 1: Loveland and a twenty twenty six first rounder. So I
Speaker 1: was and it turned out to be the one of six.
Speaker 1: So I was like love and life. And then the
Speaker 1: more I looked at this class, I'm like, geez, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this is not the gold mine that I thought
Speaker 1: was going to be when I acquired that pick. But
Speaker 1: now I got to focus on trying to see what
Speaker 1: I can do for twenty twenty seven. That'll be the
Speaker 1: goal and we'll see what happens with that. We got
Speaker 1: a little bit a month or so to go until
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft, when we know where these players are
Speaker 1: going to be playing football in the NFL this year.
Speaker 1: So coming up on tonight show, like I said at
Speaker 1: the top, Shane and I are going to go around
Speaker 1: the NFL in the first segment. Second segment that will
Speaker 1: bring up will be a rookie pass catcher analysis from
Speaker 1: Shane Hallen. We'll get into the big three at wide receiver.
Speaker 1: I also want to talk about Casey Concepcion. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about the Indiana guys. We'll get into Chris Brazil as well, obviously,
Speaker 1: the two big tight ends. I want to get changed
Speaker 1: thoughts on those guys. And then the final segment we
Speaker 1: will look to the backfield, the running backs. Obviously, Jeremiah Love,
Speaker 1: But who's the number two? Is it? Jonah Coleman is
Speaker 1: a jendarian, Price, Emma Johnson, Mike Washington. We'll get into
Speaker 1: all those players, and then obviously Mendoza and Ty Simpson
Speaker 1: will touch on too as well. As long as I
Speaker 1: don't ramble too much and we leave enough time to
Speaker 1: talk quarterbacks on this program without further ado, Shane, let's
Speaker 1: talk about what's going on in the NFL. And my god,
Speaker 1: what a massive, massive deal that we saw earlier this
Speaker 1: week that kind of, quite frankly, came out of nowhere
Speaker 1: when you consider that the Miami Dolphins had said they
Speaker 1: were not looking to trade Jalen Waddle, and yet that's
Speaker 1: exactly what they did. Diana Rassini reported it that Denver
Speaker 1: acquired Jalen Waddle in exchange for twenty twenty six first
Speaker 1: third and a fourth round draft pick swap. The Dolphins
Speaker 1: now have a receiver room that's really bereft of any
Speaker 1: kind of talent. With apologies to two two at Well
Speaker 1: and Malik Washington, but let's talk about the Denver side.
Speaker 1: First twenty two catches sixteen hundred yards over the past
Speaker 1: two years for Wattle, who's obviously spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time in the training room. But now he joins a
Speaker 1: team that was fourth in the NFL and pass attempts
Speaker 1: eleventh in the league in passing yards last year. And
Speaker 1: you don't really think of Denver as this team that's
Speaker 1: slinging the ball all over the field, but they kind
Speaker 1: of were last year despite really only having Courtland Sutton
Speaker 1: and then the you know, the rotating number two turnstile
Speaker 1: of Marvin Mims, Pat Bryant, and Troy Franklin in no
Speaker 1: particular order. This is this is huge for Wattle, This
Speaker 1: is huge for the Broncos. This is really big for
Speaker 1: bo Nicks. What's the impact. What do you think of
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle's prospects now compared to what you were thinking
Speaker 1: of them before this trade when he was still in
Speaker 1: South Beach.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm excited for it. For Jaylen Wattle. I've
Speaker 2: been a Jayleen Wattle fan, you know, since he was
Speaker 2: in college, and I feel like he's always been underrated,
Speaker 2: definitely in real NFL terms, even in fantasy terms. Even
Speaker 2: when he's disappointed, it hasn't been as bad as it's
Speaker 2: else because his talent is so good. Miami, you know,
Speaker 2: outside of the one year when that offense was really humming,
Speaker 2: just didn't do much. I'm really interested in his fit
Speaker 2: in Sean Payton's system because because this is a system
Speaker 2: that typically you have your ex receiver, who is Courtland
Speaker 2: Sutton we saw last year doesn't leave the field as
Speaker 2: the number one guy, and then Peyton has always kind
Speaker 2: of rotated the other receivers, like you talked about, he
Speaker 2: had that rotating, you know, Mims be in for a play,
Speaker 2: Franklin to be in for a little bit. Injuries maybe
Speaker 2: forced you know, guys like Franklin and Pap Briant to
Speaker 2: play a little bit more. And I don't think he
Speaker 2: could take Jamealen Wattle off the field, especially after that
Speaker 2: compensation and the contract. So to me, this is good
Speaker 2: news even if Watta wasn't the quote unquote number one
Speaker 2: guy in Peyton's system and how he likes to work it.
Speaker 2: We saw Troy Franklin break out in a couple of games.
Speaker 2: I think Jaylen Watta could have done that to the extreme.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited. I have a plenty of Dynasty teams
Speaker 2: of Jamelen Watta. I think this is you know, maybe
Speaker 2: not best case scenario where he could have gone. But
Speaker 2: it's much better than what was gonna be the tanking
Speaker 2: Dolphins with Malik Willist just running around at quarterback back there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Q, all the memes of the dolphins swimming around
Speaker 1: in the big fish tank, right, because that's what we're
Speaker 1: going to see on X for sure going forward. I
Speaker 1: have to ask about Courtland Sutton here. What do you
Speaker 1: think it does now that Wattle is alongside Sutton. I
Speaker 1: think that you know, it'd be different chain if these
Speaker 1: guys kind of did the same things, that did the
Speaker 1: same had the same skill set. But I think they
Speaker 1: compliment each other really well. You get the big body,
Speaker 1: possession guy that's a threat in the red zone and
Speaker 1: the end zone with Sutton, and then you get a
Speaker 1: guy who not only could catch the stuff over the middle,
Speaker 1: do the intermediate stuff, but he's got the speed to
Speaker 1: be a field flipper as well. So I like the
Speaker 1: combination here with these two. That said, Sutton did not
Speaker 1: play next to a guy that's going to command as
Speaker 1: many targets as Wattle will this year, so it has
Speaker 1: to hurt him in a certain regard. How have you
Speaker 1: changed what you thought about Sutton as far as what
Speaker 1: his production's going to look like. Now.
Speaker 2: I wasn't super high coming into the year, just another
Speaker 2: year older, and even not having Jayla Wattle there, I
Speaker 2: felt like that rotation of receivers, you know, Pat Brian
Speaker 2: takes a step forward or Franklin takes a step forward,
Speaker 2: I think was gonna hurt someton anyway. So the plays
Speaker 2: aren't gonna be different. I don't think the reads are
Speaker 2: going to be different. Like, I don't think Sutton's role
Speaker 2: in this offense changes one bit. Like you said, they
Speaker 2: compliment each other. Well, what I think it does for
Speaker 2: Wattle that really helps him. I mean, if you watch
Speaker 2: the film and I two years ago so it would
Speaker 2: have been the twenty four season had a big film
Speaker 2: article and draft sharks about Jayla Wattle and just his
Speaker 2: role in the Micro Daniel offense was like doing the
Speaker 2: hard stuff. They were setting him down the field and
Speaker 2: making them run all these routes, and Tyreek Hill was
Speaker 2: the slot guy doing the easy stuff getting easy catches.
Speaker 2: To me, it's like Sean Payton's gonna Sutton's gonna do
Speaker 2: the hard stuff and this offense and Jayla Wattle is
Speaker 2: gonna finally for the first time in his career. I
Speaker 2: feel like, get to do some of the slot and
Speaker 2: easy work to just get them easy targets. So I think,
Speaker 2: you know someting maybe it hurts the target share for sure,
Speaker 2: but you know, I don't I wasn't super high on
Speaker 2: Courtland Sutton coming into the year to begin with Shane.
Speaker 1: If you were in a twenty man FFPC style league,
Speaker 1: where and maybe this is redraft. You know, you could
Speaker 1: talk about a redraft or dynasty and maybe it's a
Speaker 1: different answer for either of them. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'll let you expound on it. Is there a third
Speaker 1: wide receiver on this team that you would want at
Speaker 1: the back end of your roster or are all those
Speaker 1: guys nobody sets themselves apart and you're spending your final
Speaker 1: few roster spots on other receivers other than Pat Bryant,
Speaker 1: Marvin Ben's and Troy Franklin.
Speaker 2: I actually, like you know, from a redraft perspective, I'm
Speaker 2: interested to see where the ADPs kind of settle for them.
Speaker 2: If it's super low, then I start getting interested because,
Speaker 2: like you talked about, I mean, Waddells certainly had his
Speaker 2: injury issues. I do think we saw enough of Troy
Speaker 2: Franklin to say, this is the player that can have
Speaker 2: a spike game. So we're talking best ball, then, you know,
Speaker 2: I would like to take a shot on Franklin to
Speaker 2: fill in that role. I think Pat Bryant, you know
Speaker 2: they drafted in top one hundred last year, is kind
Speaker 2: of the backup to Courtland Sutton, right, and so you know,
Speaker 2: I think when you start looking at number three, number
Speaker 2: four receivers on teams. You gave the stats of the
Speaker 2: passing numbers for Denver last year, I feel like it's
Speaker 2: kind of underrated. People don't expect this to be a
Speaker 2: passing volume team, but an injury to one of those
Speaker 2: top two I think Bryant and Franklin I like sticking
Speaker 2: on the end of rosters, and I'll certainly hold maybe
Speaker 2: even trade for in Dynasty if the price gets super cheap,
Speaker 2: I can, you know, move a third round rookie pick
Speaker 2: for one of those guys, A guy who was I.
Speaker 1: Think mostly a first round back then in the first round,
Speaker 1: early second round rookie pick last year. Who's been in
Speaker 1: the news is Cam Scattabout On the Rich Eisen Show
Speaker 1: this past week, Shane, he said he's fully back to
Speaker 1: one hundred percent or he will be fully back to
Speaker 1: one hundred percent in just over a month, so he
Speaker 1: should be participating in OTAs he said. This past Wednesday
Speaker 1: is when he finally started resuming running after that nasty,
Speaker 1: nasty ankle injury last year. He said his speed is
Speaker 1: at about seventy five percent as of you know, mid
Speaker 1: March is what we're looking at right now. He has
Speaker 1: not really exploded when he's been running yet, but he's
Speaker 1: focusing on jogging. He's focusing on striding right now, which
Speaker 1: I guess is kind of what you have to do
Speaker 1: and you're coming off a serious ankle injury. Here's what
Speaker 1: I want to do. I want to pick your brain
Speaker 1: on whether I'm reading too much inside the lines. Cam
Speaker 1: Scataboo and Tyrone Tracy were a pretty good tandem last year.
Speaker 1: In fact, Skataboo looked like he was a pretty good
Speaker 1: like potential bellcop on this team last year for a
Speaker 1: few weeks. Then he gets hurt, and yet we hear
Speaker 1: that the Giants are poking around the Kenneth Walker market
Speaker 1: before he ultimately signed with the Chiefs, which caught me
Speaker 1: off guard. And now I'm hearing, not hearing, I'm not
Speaker 1: an insider, but I'm reading other people who are insiders
Speaker 1: and hearing from them that they might be in the
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Love business at the number five pick. Now, maybe
Speaker 1: Love doesn't get picked there by the Giants, and maybe
Speaker 1: obviously Walker is going to be in Kansas City. But
Speaker 1: the fact that not only is are the Giants looking
Speaker 1: to free agency as well as the draft to potentially
Speaker 1: get a big time running back. Does this give you
Speaker 1: pause on how the recovery? How you think the Giants
Speaker 1: are treating this recovery and maybe it's not going as
Speaker 1: well as we perhaps wanted to and that's why there
Speaker 1: in the market here. Or is this simply the Giants
Speaker 1: doing their due diligence, doing some homework and trying to
Speaker 1: add talented players onto their offense. I haven't made up
Speaker 1: my mind on this, but I am skeptical about this
Speaker 1: Scatabow injury.
Speaker 2: As a result, I think you got to be concerned
Speaker 2: and things kind of pile up here. Matt Schalf, you know,
Speaker 2: my coworkover at Draft Sharks had a really great article
Speaker 2: last year highlighting how these third day running backs, fourth round,
Speaker 2: fifth round picks that kind of break out as rookies
Speaker 2: like Scataboo did, like we s solid Tyron, Tracy, Bucky
Speaker 2: Irving two years ago, how they almost always disappoint year two.
Speaker 2: We saw with Tracy, we saw with Bucky Irving. Right,
Speaker 2: it just happened last year, and I think I think
Speaker 2: Skataboo was already at that point where it's like we
Speaker 2: should be skeptical as fantasy players. I think one thing
Speaker 2: we underrate as fantasy players is that coaching change and
Speaker 2: the power structure of NFL teams. John Harbaugh's now in charge.
Speaker 2: He has personnel decisions. He has no tie to camp Scattaboo.
Speaker 2: He's going to walk into a guy that is had
Speaker 2: a major, you know, leg injury. Maybe camp Scattaboo gets
Speaker 2: up to up the stuff. He has no ties to
Speaker 2: either of these players. So we may have looked at
Speaker 2: Scatum and so, wow, this guy's good. You know, the
Speaker 2: combo was great, and John Harbaugh is going to come
Speaker 2: in and say, when we've really had an dynamic offense
Speaker 2: in Baltimore, we had Derrick Henry. I want Derrick Henry,
Speaker 2: right like, I want that kind of player, And that
Speaker 2: seems to be the way. And I think looking at
Speaker 2: how these free agent contracts lined up. You mentioned Walker
Speaker 2: to the Chiefs, Travis Etn signs with the Saints. It
Speaker 2: looks to me like those are two teams that were
Speaker 2: in that Jeremiah Love market that signed big time running
Speaker 2: backs because they knew Jeremiah Love wasn't gonna be there.
Speaker 2: So that to me, that says he's going four to
Speaker 2: the Titans or five to the Giants. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: that's where he's gonna go, maybe worst case to the Commanders.
Speaker 2: So uh, you know, I think we really is time
Speaker 2: and dynasty to try to move scat of it before
Speaker 2: something happens. There's so many possibilities of bad things that
Speaker 2: can happen. Report that he's set back with the injury,
Speaker 2: or they draft Love, or they draft a running back
Speaker 2: even Day two or even another fourth round run. You know,
Speaker 2: any of that, he's gonna lose value. You almost have
Speaker 2: to sell out now. And I'd be really skeptical to
Speaker 2: take Scatubu and redraft until we know what this situation
Speaker 2: looks like.
Speaker 1: If I was to ask you to put it on
Speaker 1: wax right now here on March nineteenth, Jeremiah loves destination.
Speaker 1: If I narrow it down to the three teams you
Speaker 1: just brought up Titans, Giants, Commanders. What do you think
Speaker 1: the percentage chance is in your mind that he ends
Speaker 1: up with, you know, each of those teams.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say I'll leave. Let's say I'll say thirty
Speaker 2: percent Titans, thirty percent Giants, and let's say twenty five,
Speaker 2: maybe twenty percent Commanders will leave twenty percent for someone
Speaker 2: to trade up, something.
Speaker 1: Else to happen, right, Yeah, I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 1: You mentioned it too, when when Walker went to the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: when eight Chan went to the Saints, when you had
Speaker 1: you know, the commanders kind of didn't do anything, but
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, they just started collecting all
Speaker 1: these running backs with you know, Jerome Ford, Rashad White,
Speaker 1: and I feel like there's another one I'm missing. I
Speaker 1: feel like they got like three or four guys in
Speaker 1: there right now, which to me, and they let Chris
Speaker 1: Rodriguez go too, So to me, that was kind of
Speaker 1: like the commanders. I think can see the writing on
Speaker 1: the wall a little bit as well, that Listen Love
Speaker 1: is probably going for. I thought I was saying Titans
Speaker 1: this whole time, but now with this Giant stuff, I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe there's a decent chance that the Giants
Speaker 1: take him there, And you know what better way to
Speaker 1: have your offense going in the right direction with Likely
Speaker 1: and Theo Johnson at tight end, with Malik Neighbors on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, with Jackson Dart under center, and with Jeremiah
Speaker 1: Love and your backfield, if you can make it happen. Now,
Speaker 1: the next thing I want to lead into on this
Speaker 1: is Malik Neighbors. Here's how I want to frame it.
Speaker 1: Darnell Mooney signs a one year, ten million dollar deal
Speaker 1: with the Giants. They also signed Calvin Austin. They also
Speaker 1: they let Wandelle Robinson go to the Titans, but they
Speaker 1: also extended Darius Slayton to keep him under contract for
Speaker 1: another two years. Now, I know they need pass catchers, right,
Speaker 1: which makes perfect sense that you would add these guys.
Speaker 1: But the skeptic in me also wonders, we're not hearing
Speaker 1: super positive praise and reporting coming out about Malik neighbors
Speaker 1: knee injury recovery. I'm a little bit nervous about that.
Speaker 1: And then when I see the Giants in all these
Speaker 1: pass catchers, including Isaiah Likely, my spider sense kind of
Speaker 1: goes up a little bit and Shane. I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is something where you take ninety cents on
Speaker 1: the dollar for neighbors, but definitely in redraft leagues. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of thinking, you know, with all the talent where
Speaker 1: neighbors is going in drafts right now, maybe I'm better
Speaker 1: off picking somebody else. I think Matt Schoff was actually
Speaker 1: talking about this on the last Draft Sharks podcast, where like,
Speaker 1: it kind of makes sense to it, kind of makes
Speaker 1: sense to fade neighbors a little bit, and Jared Smaller
Speaker 1: might have been saying the same thing, makes sense to
Speaker 1: fade neighbors a little bit considering where he's going and
Speaker 1: who else is going around him in redraft leagues because
Speaker 1: we just don't know about this, and it's been very
Speaker 1: nebulous stuff, you know, reporting from the Giants beat writers
Speaker 1: coming out or lack of reporting coming out from Giants
Speaker 1: beat writers about how this recovery is going for neighbors.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I'm getting a little bit nervous
Speaker 1: about neighbors for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: I'm nervous too. I'm with Matt, and there's no reason
Speaker 2: to take that risk with where the ADP's at right
Speaker 2: now and draft Sharks. We have the league Neighbors wide
Speaker 2: receiver thirteen in PPR and he's going top ten. Still,
Speaker 2: just the players around him that Drake London's, the Nico
Speaker 2: Collins just feel like they have similar upsides with not
Speaker 2: the long term injury downside that could be happening to Neighbors.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't make sense until, you know, until we
Speaker 2: have maybe another report and that ADP drops more. You know,
Speaker 2: But like this, this offense for the Giants to me,
Speaker 2: looks like Harbaugh's offense in Baltimore. Right, you got the
Speaker 2: one receiver. If they draft an elite running back, they
Speaker 2: have the rushing quarterback, and then a bunch of you know,
Speaker 2: pieces like Mooney and Austin Slayton, deep guys and kind
Speaker 2: of you know, these these guys on the on the periphery.
Speaker 2: But it wouldn't surprise me. There's just no reason to
Speaker 2: rush Neighbors back if there's any issue. I'm not touching
Speaker 2: him in redraft at this moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm not saying I'm totally often because there's
Speaker 1: a chance that he could come down to a price
Speaker 1: where I'm comfortable taking a chance because of the upside.
Speaker 1: But right now, as I look at Fantasymojo dot com.
Speaker 1: Darren URMANI who puts together the processus Joe's competition every year.
Speaker 1: This is his website at Fantasy Mojo on x. If
Speaker 1: you're playing in the FFPC, not only should you have
Speaker 1: a Draft Shark subscription, should have a subscription of Fantasy
Speaker 1: Mojo as well. As I look at the Never Too
Speaker 1: Early Best Ball Tournament ADP, Neighbors has fallen Shane. He's
Speaker 1: going at the two ten right now. This is over
Speaker 1: the course of the last week for the ADP that
Speaker 1: I'm looking at, so more than a half dozen drafts
Speaker 1: here in the books. Neighbors Wide Receiver eight, he's fallen
Speaker 1: behind Ceedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, and Drake London. He is
Speaker 1: still going ahead of Nico Collins, George Pickens, Rashie Rice,
Speaker 1: and Chris o'lobby, and quite frankly, there's some warts on
Speaker 1: all four of those guys as well. But I do
Speaker 1: think that that's we're getting sorted to an area right
Speaker 1: now where I still think I'm I'm picking those other guys,
Speaker 1: but I think you can make a much stronger case
Speaker 1: for taking Neighbors over those four rather than Neighbors over
Speaker 1: you know, London Lamb and whoever.
Speaker 2: The other one is justin Jefferson. Yeah, yeah, he's.
Speaker 1: Calling a little bit not quite there yet.
Speaker 2: For me though, No, not quite there yet. I'm with you.
Speaker 2: I would take Pickens, Rice Lave, maybe even bet On
Speaker 2: an AJ Brown and just the upside of a new
Speaker 2: situation for him over neighbors, you know, factoring in that risk.
Speaker 2: I think the ceiling for neighbors is a top five
Speaker 2: receiver in the league. But there's no reason to take
Speaker 2: that chance, especially on an offense that I don't think
Speaker 2: the Giants are gonna suddenly turn into a top five
Speaker 2: NFL passing you know, fantasy passing game. I don't think
Speaker 2: that's gonna happen. So there's still enough downside for me
Speaker 2: to take those other players.
Speaker 1: If I were to ask you, well, let's let's do this.
Speaker 1: Let's see how far you'd fade them. You tell me,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm just gonna go right down the ADP
Speaker 1: list here. Tell me if you take neighbors over these guys,
Speaker 1: Teoroa McMillan, neighbors are McMullen.
Speaker 2: I'd take neighbors.
Speaker 1: Neighbors. We already talked about a J. Brown neighbors or
Speaker 1: T Higgins.
Speaker 2: That's close. I lean T Higgins, but it's it's neck and.
Speaker 1: Neck for me, and then neighbors. Garrett Wilson, I'll.
Speaker 2: Take neighbors over whatever the Jets are thrown on the field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we get into the McCarthy's, the Flowers and the Davanta's.
Speaker 1: DeVonta Smith is is actually interesting. I don't think I'd
Speaker 1: do it, because you could. You could get Neighbors and
Speaker 1: Smith if you wanted. But the great thing about drafting
Speaker 1: Smith right now, and I've been saying this the last
Speaker 1: few weeks, the great thing about drafting him is if
Speaker 1: you draft him in the fifth round, which is where
Speaker 1: he's going in the Never Too Early Best Ball Tournament
Speaker 1: at wide receiver nineteen, great, he's gonna pay that off.
Speaker 1: But if Brown gets moved and the Eagles sign, you know,
Speaker 1: a lesser player to take his place, and are trotting
Speaker 1: out a three wide receiver set of DeVonta Smith, whatever
Speaker 1: receiver they're gonna get, you know, like Diggs or Juwan
Speaker 1: Jennings or somebody like that, and then Hollywood, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Smith looks a lot better than a fifth
Speaker 1: round pick. So that's a great thing about drafting Devon
Speaker 1: to Smith right now, all right, I want to move
Speaker 1: on here, unless you had another point.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I know we're good.
Speaker 1: Let's go down to Tampa, Shane, because Tampa has had
Speaker 1: a bunch of busy little bees going on in their backfield.
Speaker 1: They let Rashon White go, who ultimately signed with Washington.
Speaker 1: Kenneth Gainwell is now a part of the team, and
Speaker 1: they also chose to bring back Sean Tucker after it
Speaker 1: was reported earlier that they weren't going to tender him.
Speaker 1: They ended up tendering him, so he's part of that
Speaker 1: backfield as well. Gainwell gets a two year, fourteen million
Speaker 1: dollar contract. This is coming off a year where he
Speaker 1: caught seventy plus passes for just under five hundred yards
Speaker 1: and got in the end zone three times via the
Speaker 1: air as well. I look at Gainwell and what he
Speaker 1: does in the passing game, and I can't help but
Speaker 1: think that that is a hit to Bucky Irving. I
Speaker 1: look at and you could probably tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit better the prospect that Sean Tucker would have been
Speaker 1: had they not found this heart condition or whatever at
Speaker 1: the combine when he went undrafted. This is a player
Speaker 1: that had the chops coming out of Syracuse if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, and now he's in the backfield. All this considered,
Speaker 1: you know, this is not really Bucky Irving's doing, but
Speaker 1: because of what they have in the backfield and the
Speaker 1: fact that they're paying game well seven million a year now,
Speaker 1: I don't know, man like for what you have to
Speaker 1: pay to get Bucky Irving. I'm looking up his ADP
Speaker 1: right now. He is going as running back. He's falling
Speaker 1: the running back eighteen. So he's in the fourth round.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's a little bit more patable palatable. He's
Speaker 1: actually going right ahead of Skataboo right now. But I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit down on Irving, maybe not as much
Speaker 1: as I thought I was now that he's a fourth
Speaker 1: round pick. But I don't know what your take is
Speaker 1: on this backfield, specifically the impact of Gainwell and Tucker
Speaker 1: on Bucky Irving this year.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because Bucky Irving, if you look at some
Speaker 2: of the advanced receivers metrics, was actually pretty efficient as
Speaker 2: a receiver, did well as a receiver, and so to
Speaker 2: add a guy like Kenneth Gainwell, who you know, when
Speaker 2: he was in Philly, Kenneth Ganell was a prospect. I
Speaker 2: was like, this is a really good pass catching running back,
Speaker 2: and then Philly drafts him. They don't use him in
Speaker 2: the passing game whatsoever, and I'm like, oh, that's a problem.
Speaker 2: Right Then last year we see maybe what the upside is.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's as bad of a pass catcher
Speaker 2: as he was in Philly. I don't think he's as
Speaker 2: good as we saw in Pittsburgh. But I do like
Speaker 2: Gainwell in that Rashad White role. And I think Gainwell
Speaker 2: is a better rusher than Rashad White was, So you
Speaker 2: have more leeway to have Gainwell on the field, you know,
Speaker 2: be a pass blocker, be able to take some carries,
Speaker 2: be able to take some of these catches. So I agree.
Speaker 2: I think for me, Bucky Irving RB eighteen is fine.
Speaker 2: Probably maybe I still probably wouldn't take him. There is
Speaker 2: still probably some running backs that I you know, I'll
Speaker 2: take the DeAndre Swifts and Karen Williams and Javonte's those
Speaker 2: kind of guys over Bucky. But it's probably around the wheelhouse.
Speaker 2: You just can't expect a Bell Cow role. I'm not
Speaker 2: a Sean Tucker guy. I got cut a lot of
Speaker 2: flak last year after his big game. I put out
Speaker 2: an article on Draft Sharks going over his film, and
Speaker 2: you know just that he really wasn't as great as
Speaker 2: the numbers indicated. But you know he's still gonna get
Speaker 2: on the field. He's talented enough, like you said, having
Speaker 2: that the hard issue coming out of college made him
Speaker 2: fall in the draft. He probably would have been around
Speaker 2: for pick had he not had that issue, maybe snuck
Speaker 2: in around three. I certainly had some of the explosive tendencies,
Speaker 2: has some of the acceleration that works for him when
Speaker 2: the blocking's there. He's gonna get on the field too.
Speaker 2: And I think we're seeing a lot of run games
Speaker 2: that are gonna be kind of three different players, and
Speaker 2: that you know that hurts everyone. It hurts us for fantasy.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Bucky a little down on him. I think
Speaker 2: Gainwell I'm interested to see where he kind of settles.
Speaker 2: He might be the one that's worth targeting in this
Speaker 2: backfield for the value.
Speaker 1: So I'll just tell you right now, as far as
Speaker 1: Gainwell's value goes in the Never Too Early Best Ball Tournament,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Kenneth Gainwell as a Oh why can
Speaker 1: I find him. Here we go running back thirty six
Speaker 1: at the nine to ten turn. This is Blake Krum JK. Dobbins,
Speaker 1: joan of Coleman Territory. That's where Gainwell's going, curiously. One
Speaker 1: final point on Irving going not right underneath him, but
Speaker 1: fairly close to him. Both of the Ohio State rookies
Speaker 1: from last year, Quinn, Shawn Judkins, Trevian Henderson. Would you
Speaker 1: take either of those guys over Irving right now, Shane.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. I think I think it's close. I think
Speaker 2: the upside of Henderson is probably higher than Bucky Irving,
Speaker 2: but just the reminder Stevenson effect we saw late in
Speaker 2: the year, I think the downside is too much for me.
Speaker 2: I think Judkins on with a revamped worst offensive line
Speaker 2: that just doesn't interest me as he's not catching passes.
Speaker 2: I think at least Irving will have a little bit
Speaker 2: of an effect there. But I'll take Irving over those two.
Speaker 1: I want to move on and talk about Romeo Dobbs,
Speaker 1: who inked a four year, seventy million dollars deal with
Speaker 1: the defending AFC champion New England Patriots. Chad Graff, who
Speaker 1: covers the Patriots for the Athletics stated that he's largely
Speaker 1: going to take over the role that Stefan Diggs played
Speaker 1: last year for this Patriots team. Diggs didley in New
Speaker 1: England in target share last year with twenty percent, did
Speaker 1: get over a thousand yards receiving, and he got into
Speaker 1: the end zone four times. Graft said, quote, Dobbs can
Speaker 1: play on the outside. He can make up for a
Speaker 1: lot of the production over the middle that Stefan Diggs
Speaker 1: brought last season. He should help the offense's red zone woes.
Speaker 1: He can pull down deep balls, which may thrives at now.
Speaker 1: If you go back to last season when Dobbs was
Speaker 1: with the Packers, five N zone targets, seventeen inside the
Speaker 1: twenty targets, I do remember, as a Packers fan, a
Speaker 1: Packers honk, that he was a guy that Jordan Love
Speaker 1: looked to quite a bit inside the ten, inside the five,
Speaker 1: and I would imagine that that would be the case
Speaker 1: with Dobbs again. If New England stands pat which is
Speaker 1: the million dollar question, Shane, certainly, I think New England
Speaker 1: is more than willing to go to battle with what
Speaker 1: they have in that wide receiver room right now. But
Speaker 1: I got to believe the wheels are turning h that
Speaker 1: they're they're that they're still working on this Aj Brown trade.
Speaker 1: You still have Deebo Samuel Juwan Jennings out there in
Speaker 1: free agency if they want to add another piece there,
Speaker 1: or they could simply draft a receiver in the second
Speaker 1: round too, or maybe even the late first round. I
Speaker 1: don't know what they're what what they're thinking is, but
Speaker 1: this all reflects on you know, all these kind of
Speaker 1: like question marks with a lot of people, a lot
Speaker 1: of pundits believing the wide receiver room in New England
Speaker 1: is still a work in process. So how do we
Speaker 1: handle Romeo Dobbs right now? Would you consider if you
Speaker 1: want to invest in him in the Never too Early
Speaker 1: best FFPC Bestball Tournament? It is an eleventh round pick,
Speaker 1: He's going as wide receiver forty seven. Does that seem
Speaker 1: palatable to you? Does that seem like a target for you? Shane?
Speaker 1: How do we handle Romeo Dobbs knowing that his role
Speaker 1: as it stands in mid March could be very different
Speaker 1: than what it is in early September.
Speaker 2: I think the ADP is palatable to me, Like you said,
Speaker 2: I think the eleventh round is not enough risk that
Speaker 2: if they do the Pagriots do trade for AJ Brown
Speaker 2: or draft another receiver that you're you're losing out. You know,
Speaker 2: you could probably tell me Bulky if you agree. But
Speaker 2: you know, watching Romeo Dobbs, I think, I think he's
Speaker 2: a really good NFL player, But I don't see a
Speaker 2: target hog that's going to be, you know, the number
Speaker 2: one for a team and turn into this, you know,
Speaker 2: top guy that's going to get a ton of targets.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, you can target him in the red
Speaker 2: zone or to help you get down the field. I
Speaker 2: think I think he's good at those jump balls, could
Speaker 2: test the catches. But when I watch Dobbs, I don't
Speaker 2: see a player that's gaining separation every play and and
Speaker 2: running all these different you know, route combinations. It feels
Speaker 2: a lot like Green Bay, where there's gonna be a
Speaker 2: lot of options for the Patriots even if they don't,
Speaker 2: you know, just add a free agent instead of trading
Speaker 2: for ay J. Brown that Drake May's gonna spread the
Speaker 2: ball around. Kishon Boudi is still gonna get his. They're
Speaker 2: still gonna want to filter in Kyle Williams onto the
Speaker 2: field and have some deep shots. You know, Dobbas I
Speaker 2: think will be a fine best ball selection in the
Speaker 2: eleventh round, but if he starts creeping up higher than
Speaker 2: I'm probably out. And can we please not let the
Speaker 2: Patriots draft the receiver anymore? Can we just like ban
Speaker 2: them from drafting just to just check bus next to
Speaker 2: the name if if they do it, like trade for
Speaker 2: a J. Brown please so you know that you have
Speaker 2: a guy that can play.
Speaker 1: I think Bill Belichick even said as much. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's said it like actually out loud, but
Speaker 1: he said something to the fact of, like, we really
Speaker 1: struggle to evaluate rookie wider series, so it's just easier
Speaker 1: for us to you know, sign Stefan Diggs or trade
Speaker 1: for Randy Moss or whatever it was. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: that worked out pretty nicely for him. Over the years,
Speaker 1: they have not had a whole lot of hits there,
Speaker 1: with Jalen Polk and Nikhil Harry coming to mind, and
Speaker 1: got it feel like I got to scrape off my
Speaker 1: tongue after saying those just awful stuff. Yeah, so, Dobbs,
Speaker 1: I think for me, he's almost a target in the
Speaker 1: eleventh round because the value is so good and the upside.
Speaker 1: It's not like traditional fantasy upside. I look at the
Speaker 1: upside that you have with Dobbs is if they don't
Speaker 1: sign anybody else. This is a guy that's gonna threaten
Speaker 1: to get a thousand yards like Diggs did last year.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that I think does a lot of
Speaker 1: things very well.
Speaker 2: I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's ever the type of guy that's
Speaker 1: gonna get like one hundred and thirty targets and just
Speaker 1: be the alpha for a team. I know Washington was
Speaker 1: looking at him being the one b to Terry McLaurin,
Speaker 1: and ultimately New England paid more money for Dobbs, so
Speaker 1: and I think we follow the money there a little bit.
Speaker 1: I do think we see a spike in production from
Speaker 1: Dobbs based on what he was doing with Green Bays,
Speaker 1: fighting for targets from Watson and Tucker Craft. You know,
Speaker 1: two dynamic players there, and I don't I know, he's
Speaker 1: still fighting for competent tiger competition in New England, but
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as fears. So I do think
Speaker 1: we see a step up for him and the eleventh round, man,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, like this, this is this is the
Speaker 1: spot where you probably gotta grab him. Speaking of the Commanders,
Speaker 1: Bucky Eccually not Bucky Irving. Rashad White has left Bucky
Speaker 1: Irving in Tampa to sign with the Washington Commanders. It
Speaker 1: is a one year deal. I think it was only
Speaker 1: for like two million bucks or something like that. It
Speaker 1: was not a significant investment. We all talk, not we all,
Speaker 1: but plenty of people have been talking about potentially Brandon
Speaker 1: Iuk and Jaden Daniels reuniting in our nation's capital because
Speaker 1: they were teammates with Arizona for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Well,
Speaker 1: Rashad White was a teammate of Jaden Daniels in Arizona
Speaker 1: State as well, and now they are back together again.
Speaker 1: Forty two carries eight catches in twenty twenty for Arizona State,
Speaker 1: and then certainly in twenty twenty one took a massive
Speaker 1: step forward both rushing and catching the ball. One hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty two carries forty three catches. The Commanders are
Speaker 1: collecting running backs. I mentioned your own fordger Cory Krofsky
Speaker 1: merrit Obviously they're still as well. I don't know if
Speaker 1: if this is a situation, Shane, where we should target
Speaker 1: White because he's probably the biggest fish in a small
Speaker 1: pond there, right, Or do we just kind of fade
Speaker 1: the Commanders in general, because this is gonna be crazy,
Speaker 1: mash them ups, mix them ups with the depth chart
Speaker 1: on a week to week basis, and we're never going
Speaker 1: to know the right guy to go with. Certainly, you
Speaker 1: don't have to pay up for any of these guys,
Speaker 1: but if you could let me know who the Commander's
Speaker 1: running back is to have on your fantasy team this year,
Speaker 1: I certainly welcome that knowledge.
Speaker 2: Like I think it's easy, right, Jane Daniels's that's the
Speaker 2: running back for the Commanders I want on my team, right?
Speaker 2: I mean I don't know, that's what it says to me,
Speaker 2: Like he's Jane Daniels is going to be the RB
Speaker 2: one and everyone else gets to pick up the scraps.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I traded for a lot of Rashad White in Dynasty
Speaker 2: because I thought the NFL would really like his pass blocking.
Speaker 2: I think he's one of the best pass blocking backs
Speaker 2: in the league and one of the best pass catching backs.
Speaker 2: He can't run worth a lick, but you know, those
Speaker 2: those two things are enough to get you on the
Speaker 2: field on those third downs and those key situations. So
Speaker 2: I think White is probably the biggest target for me,
Speaker 2: you know, if I have to pick one of these
Speaker 2: guys out of a hat. Yeah, the Commanders still could
Speaker 2: add a running back. We talked about love, but even
Speaker 2: day two, I think they have a shot to draft one.
Speaker 2: You know, the Jerome Ford contract, the Rashad White contract
Speaker 2: are not guys they have to lock in. Jakoy Krofsky.
Speaker 2: Merritt probably is the big winner from this free agency
Speaker 2: that they we didn't get Travis a Chan which I
Speaker 2: said incorrectly last time. It was my first time trying
Speaker 2: that since since the announcement, But you know, because he
Speaker 2: didn't get that eb Jacory Krasky, Merrick gets another shot
Speaker 2: to be kind of the lead, you know, first two
Speaker 2: down running back if they don't draft another one. But
Speaker 2: I like Rashad White in PPR leagues just from a
Speaker 2: past catching perspective. I think for Jane Daniels, you have
Speaker 2: the experience with him, you know he's gonna block well
Speaker 2: for you. I think that veteran kind of leadership to
Speaker 2: have on the field, even if White's a little bit
Speaker 2: inefficient as a runner, might win out and despite the contract.
Speaker 1: You know, the other guy said at the top that
Speaker 1: there was one other running back I'm forgetting that they signed.
Speaker 1: They resigned Jeremy McNichols, who I believe is the rare
Speaker 1: running back in Washington that just has a permanent locker
Speaker 1: in that locker room. I don't think they like even
Speaker 1: when they release him or he's a free agent, he's
Speaker 1: free to sign with anybody else, they just keep his
Speaker 1: locker there. So McNichols is there as well, or perhaps
Speaker 1: sham they gave McNichols the locker that used to belong
Speaker 1: to Chris Rodriguez Junior, who is taking his talents from
Speaker 1: DC to duvall As. Liam Cohen would say, point two
Speaker 1: million dollars in fully guaranteed money on this contract. Now,
Speaker 1: let's unpack this a little bit. Four million dollars signing ponents.
Speaker 1: So obviously you know that that he's not just going
Speaker 1: to be a guy on this team. They want to
Speaker 1: be able to utilize him. When I found out that
Speaker 1: a Chan had moved from Jacksonville over to New Orleans,
Speaker 1: immediately wheels up bashall toot. They believe in Tuton they
Speaker 1: want to let him go this year. He was hyped up,
Speaker 1: talked about by a lot of pundits last year as
Speaker 1: a guy that maybe could even have taken the backfield
Speaker 1: away from a Chan and twenty twenty five that now
Speaker 1: that didn't happen, but there's a lot of people at
Speaker 1: least allowing for the possibility for that. So now obviously
Speaker 1: that a Chan moves on and you have Tuton here,
Speaker 1: we should be doing everything in our power. And I'm
Speaker 1: saying we as in me, this is my reaction, we
Speaker 1: should be doing everything in our power. I'm going through
Speaker 1: my dynasty league, Shane. I'm saying, Okay, which leagues do
Speaker 1: I have Tuton on? This is great. It's like a
Speaker 1: free running back. It's like a free starting running back.
Speaker 1: And then I started thinking about it more rationally. Chris
Speaker 1: rod rea Is played college football at Kentucky when Liam
Speaker 1: Cohen was there. Rodriguez left a situation in Washington where
Speaker 1: they were bereft and he could have been the lead
Speaker 1: guy there potentially, and maybe they didn't want him back.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he leaves to go sign with Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: James Gladstone quote from him, the GM from Jacksonville. What
Speaker 1: he'll able to, what he'll be able to do is
Speaker 1: provide the complimentary skill set, in particular when it comes
Speaker 1: to the inside running, the hidden yards that come with
Speaker 1: his style of play. You know, the tough demeanor. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a real thing, and when given a higher workload,
Speaker 1: it can wear out those that have to stop it
Speaker 1: from going forward. He also mentioned something about Rodriguez having
Speaker 1: superpowers or being a superhero. I don't know what they're
Speaker 1: doing in Jacksonville, but some of the press conferences with
Speaker 1: Gladstone and Cohen have been nothing short of amazing. But Rodriguez, now, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this. I'm almost thinking like I might
Speaker 1: be going one to eighty. Like I think Rodriguez might
Speaker 1: be the guy I want at least a redraft this year.
Speaker 1: If I could share with you, Chris Rodriguez running back
Speaker 1: fifty three at the fifteen to oh four Bacial Tuton
Speaker 1: right now is going as running back twenty four at
Speaker 1: the five h nine. To me, it's not close. If
Speaker 1: I have to pick the better value of those two,
Speaker 1: it's unequivocally Rodriguez unless I'm missing something.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I think value wise, right now, Rodriguez
Speaker 2: is the guy that you want, because that contract locks
Speaker 2: him into a roster spot, He's gonna get some work.
Speaker 2: I you know, I was a big Basil Tuton fan
Speaker 2: last year. I think we talked about him thoroughly on
Speaker 2: the show last year. I think in this this rookie class,
Speaker 2: he'd be a top five running back pretty easily, maybe
Speaker 2: even top three running back in this rookie class.
Speaker 1: Do you think, Shane, do you think he'd be the defect? Like,
Speaker 1: would he be like the the the number two running
Speaker 1: back in this class? Like, do you think that's how
Speaker 1: people would be treating him?
Speaker 2: I think it'd be.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think he'd be right there with you Darien Price, like,
Speaker 2: I think they're probably the top, you know, and Jonah Coleman.
Speaker 2: I probably lean Tooton over Coleman and maybe Price over Tuton.
Speaker 2: Like I think as a prospect, the probably close. So
Speaker 2: and you know, in Gladstone talked him up before you
Speaker 2: even got the job, right, That's part of his interview was, Hey,
Speaker 2: Basil Tuten's the guy want to draft. So But I
Speaker 2: think the positive for Tutin out of this is the
Speaker 2: Jaguars can't draft a running back to make the roster, right.
Speaker 2: Roriguez isn't getting cut Tuton's not getting cut and I
Speaker 2: don't think you can put la Quinn Allen on a
Speaker 2: practice squad without him getting picked up. I think they
Speaker 2: like his past catching skills. Like I think this is
Speaker 2: the unit and it's going to be a three headed monster.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, I think value wise, like I'll take
Speaker 2: the shot on Rodriguez that late RB fifty three all day.
Speaker 2: It could be a touchdown thing. With his experience with Cohen,
Speaker 2: he knows the offense. I think all that works out.
Speaker 2: It's just hard for me to see a player who
Speaker 2: was inactive on the Commanders who they're terrible running back room.
Speaker 2: I mean, couldn't crack it until injuries happened. Now is
Speaker 2: there's a lead back, and like that jump to me
Speaker 2: is a lot just the explosion. Isn't there for Rodriguez
Speaker 2: to be. I think a consistent three down running back.
Speaker 2: You know he breaks tackles well, But when you're you know,
Speaker 2: smacking into the defenders every time, you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 2: break some tackles. You know you're you're a big guy.
Speaker 2: So I think Tutan's gonna be the lead back. I
Speaker 2: think Rodriguez will get a lot of the short yardage work,
Speaker 2: maybe get Snake those touchdowns and us to managers will
Speaker 2: all get mad. I think Luken Allen will do some
Speaker 2: of the past catching work and we'll be frustrated by
Speaker 2: the backfield for sure.
Speaker 1: So the Rodriguez signing, does that have you shying away
Speaker 1: from Tuton in the late fifth round?
Speaker 2: Now, I'm still interested. I think if Tutan would get higher, no,
Speaker 2: but right now before the draft, I'm interested because I
Speaker 2: do think Tuton's value will increase when they don't draft
Speaker 2: another running back. I think people start to creep them
Speaker 2: into the fourth and see the upside. You know how
Speaker 2: that goes. Sometimes I think you're still little trepidation, and
Speaker 2: I think the contract in situation means like these are
Speaker 2: the three And if that's the case, then I still
Speaker 2: like Tutin. If he, you know, shows that full hour,
Speaker 2: well rounded skill set, I think it'll be tough to
Speaker 2: take him off the field.
Speaker 1: I know I'll be watching with Ernest to see, not
Speaker 1: necessarily what the Jaguars are going to do in the draft,
Speaker 1: because I'm with you, I don't think they draft anybody.
Speaker 1: Free agency has been pick clean. What I'll be watching
Speaker 1: for is how this ADP shakes out. In early May.
Speaker 1: Once we kind of know, like unequivvocally, this is how
Speaker 1: it's going to be. And if you want to get
Speaker 1: ahead of it right now, take advantage of drafting too,
Speaker 1: and take advantage of drafting Rodriguez right now in the
Speaker 1: FFPC never two early Best Ball Tournament viewers. That's a
Speaker 1: shameless plug. The Minnesota Vikings have inked Kyler Murray to
Speaker 1: a one year deal. Tom Pellisero from the NFL Network
Speaker 1: has reported that the Arizona Cardinals are paying thirty I believe,
Speaker 1: what was it, thirty five million, and then one point
Speaker 1: eight million is being paid by the Vikings. So what's
Speaker 1: wild to me is is the hate for Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: Shane every I mean, everybody and their mother is just
Speaker 1: like that this guy is. I mean, it's like like
Speaker 1: Will Levis stuff, Like we're we're saying stuff about Will
Speaker 1: Will Levis, Like these these slurs that we are being
Speaker 1: hurled at Kyler Murray right now, we're the same stuff
Speaker 1: that people were saying about Levis and some of the
Speaker 1: and Josh Rosen and I don't think he's at that level.
Speaker 1: And now he gets into a situation in Minnesota where
Speaker 1: he's throwing to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ. Hockins, and
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones and and certainly we'll see what they do
Speaker 1: in the draft. They gotta replace Jalen Naylor. I think
Speaker 1: this is a good situation for Murray. And you do have,
Speaker 1: I believe, a pretty talented coach there who has worked
Speaker 1: wonders with sort of rehabbing these these veteran young veteran
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and and and squeezing more goodness out of them.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it with McCarthy, but I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: hold that against him, given what he's been able to
Speaker 1: do with, you know, Donald and some of these other
Speaker 1: guys that had no been Nick Mullins and these other
Speaker 1: guys that had no business being under center in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of in on Kyler Murray when you consider
Speaker 1: that he still has his legs under him, he's still fresh,
Speaker 1: he's still young. He's going to use those two his advantage.
Speaker 1: I think Minnesota's offensive line has gotten a little bit
Speaker 1: better here this year, at least healthier for twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think Murray is, as Matthew Berry
Speaker 1: would say, the hate has gone too far. On him.
Speaker 1: I think people need to start waking up and understanding
Speaker 1: that Murray might be maybe not the greatest NFL quarterback,
Speaker 1: but there's some fantasy goodness to mine here.
Speaker 2: It's just funny to me because if he was a
Speaker 2: late first round pick instead of the number one overall pick,
Speaker 2: I think people would love Kyler Murray right like they
Speaker 2: have people be like, wow, you know so much better
Speaker 2: than we thought. I'm on board. Draft Sharks is on board.
Speaker 2: We have his QB fifteen. I think he's a potential
Speaker 2: league win. I think his potential league winner. This is
Speaker 2: the guy outside of last season, was the top ten
Speaker 2: fantasy quarterback points per game every single year of his
Speaker 2: career except last last year. And like you said, weapons
Speaker 2: are better best he's had, you know, just about a
Speaker 2: system best he's had. If he wins that job, I
Speaker 2: think that's the only downside is you think, well, maybe
Speaker 2: they stick with JJ McCarthy. I don't think they would
Speaker 2: have made this signing out of the Carson Wentz is
Speaker 2: winning the job, Like yeah, this is kind of a
Speaker 2: Russell Wilson Steelers situation where you don't have to pay
Speaker 2: him anything, but you're getting you know, the quarterback that
Speaker 2: you plan on starting for for almost nothing, and you
Speaker 2: can let McCarthy sit. I'm in the rushing for fantasy
Speaker 2: is just is so good. I think he's gonna be
Speaker 2: able to get the ball Justin Jefferson a lot better
Speaker 2: than we saw JJ McCarthy last year. I'm in a
Speaker 2: Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: There is a glut of quarterbacks going from quarterbacks seventeen
Speaker 1: to quarterback twenty one, including Murray. In this I'm gonna
Speaker 1: read off the other quarterbacks in here. You tell me
Speaker 1: if you would draft any of these guys over Murray.
Speaker 1: And those four quarterbacks are Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Tyler Shuk,
Speaker 1: and Malik Willis, who actually mister bakes a lot just
Speaker 1: chiming in saying he'd rather have Willis than Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: But would you draft Shane any of those four quarterbacks
Speaker 1: over Murray, Willis, Shook, Mayfield, Love.
Speaker 2: No, No, not a question to me, like I'm more
Speaker 2: do I want?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And obviously value wise, I'm gonna wait and take Murray?
Speaker 2: But do I want Jared Goff? You know? I think
Speaker 2: I mean Kyler Murray offers similar upsides. So mister bakes
Speaker 2: lock and hate and I'll draft Kyler Murray and if
Speaker 2: he starts, I'm gonna have a top ten Fantasy quarterback
Speaker 2: and you probably won't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly that there's a chance of that. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: wants he wants all those guys over Murray. I wonder
Speaker 1: like if we if we have to get down to
Speaker 1: like the Jacoby Brissettes and Goss and Aaron Rodgers of
Speaker 1: the world, and then see what Bakes wants to do
Speaker 1: with Murray compared to those guys. Last point I want
Speaker 1: to do before we take a break. We touched on
Speaker 1: the Eagle situation before. Philadelphia is trying to solve this
Speaker 1: situation with their third wide receiver and maybe they've finally
Speaker 1: done it here with Hollywood Brown. It's one year, it's
Speaker 1: six and a half million. Jordan Schultz, NFL Insider Jordan
Speaker 1: Schultz reporting on this Chane, Is there anything here with
Speaker 1: Hollywood Brown in bestball leagues? Is this a player that
Speaker 1: we want to be in business with or have we
Speaker 1: just sort of seen like kind of what he is
Speaker 1: and what he's going to be for the remainder of
Speaker 1: his career. He gets another year older every single year.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that you know, at least a half
Speaker 1: a step. Probably that's what you lose over the course
Speaker 1: of a year year a year to year basis. Now
Speaker 1: at his age in the league, I'm not terribly excited
Speaker 1: about I think the only thing that would get me
Speaker 1: excited is if Smith or Brown were to go down,
Speaker 1: or if Brown gets traded, then I think we might
Speaker 1: have something there. But as it stands right now, I
Speaker 1: don't have a whole lot of excitement over this signing,
Speaker 1: even though it was formerly a big name in fantasy football,
Speaker 1: going to an offense that should rebound this year.
Speaker 2: I'm not super excited. I would having a little best
Speaker 2: ball of Brown. Like I said, if they do trade
Speaker 2: AJ Brown or Devant Smith gets hurt. We saw two
Speaker 2: years ago Hollywood Brown have a couple of spike games
Speaker 2: with the Chiefs. I think that could happen, But the
Speaker 2: Eagles are never gonna be as pass heavy as the
Speaker 2: Chiefs were, So I think even if Hollywood Brown gets
Speaker 2: you know, eighty percent of snaps because Major Brown gets
Speaker 2: moved or there's an injury, I don't think you're gonna
Speaker 2: see huge production. So I'm pretty much out, but I'll
Speaker 2: probably sprinkle a little bit in a couple of my
Speaker 2: basketball teams just in case.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the the old FOMO they are a pick, which
Speaker 1: I'll probably do in Best Ball as well. Okay, this
Speaker 1: was great stuff here. What I want to do, Shane,
Speaker 1: is we're gonna take a break. We'll be out for
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes or two or three minutes or so.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do some live reads here. So if you
Speaker 1: need to get a drink or hit the head whatever,
Speaker 1: feel free. But when we come back, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: hard on these rookies, okay, and we're gonna lead things
Speaker 1: off with the wide receiver. I have a thought on
Speaker 1: which of the big three receivers is standing out most
Speaker 1: to me, and it might be different for you, So
Speaker 1: I definitely want to get into that. We'll get into
Speaker 1: the tight end conversation as well. Shane P. Hallum on
Speaker 1: X he writes for Draft Sharks. You can hear him
Speaker 1: on several of the Draft Sharks podcasts there as well.
Speaker 1: You are watching f FPC Insider Access, Eric Walkman, Shane
Speaker 1: hallm coming back right after this, don't go anywhere. We've
Speaker 1: got a baller second hour of the show coming up
Speaker 1: of FPC Insider Access this evening. We will be right back.
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Speaker 1: y f f pc dot com getting an early start
Speaker 1: on our number two for FFPC insider access. My name
Speaker 1: is Eric Balkman. He is Shane Hallam from Draft Sharks
Speaker 1: at Shane P. Hallum on the X as well. Let's
Speaker 1: get into the rookies. This is, by the way, Shane,
Speaker 1: what kind of attracted to you, because you've been such
Speaker 1: a draft guru for I mean years now, probably decades
Speaker 1: might be more accurate. What originally attracted to you? What
Speaker 1: is it about these rookies every single year that has
Speaker 1: you hooked and wanting to do so much work and
Speaker 1: critique on their games as well as how it translates
Speaker 1: to fantasy football.
Speaker 2: My first year scouting was two thousand and four, so
Speaker 2: you know, back back then, I mean there was not
Speaker 2: much coverage, you know, ESPN and mel Kiper and a
Speaker 2: magazine or two, and I was like, you know, this
Speaker 2: would be I was like being a big fish in
Speaker 2: small ponds. So I was on a bunch of fantasy
Speaker 2: football like forums. No one was talking rookies till after
Speaker 2: the draft is like, I'll be that guy. You know,
Speaker 2: I like to do that type of stuff. And so
Speaker 2: it's always been, you know, been a thing that I've
Speaker 2: enjoyed and I've always said, you know, I can, I
Speaker 2: really do it. But with volume, I'm the first to
Speaker 2: have seven round mock drafts every single year for two
Speaker 2: years in advance, three years in advance, and you know,
Speaker 2: I'll just continue trying to be the first to watch
Speaker 2: these guys and do it.
Speaker 1: Do you spend a lot of time on Saturdays in
Speaker 1: the fall watching college football or are you more of
Speaker 1: a tape grinder at your convenience?
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. Since my daughter's two and a half, So
Speaker 2: since having her, it's been at my convenience, Saturdays are
Speaker 2: a little more full than they used to be. But
Speaker 2: you know, YouTube TV is an awesome thing where I
Speaker 2: can record literally every game and be able to watch it.
Speaker 2: And then you know, once the L twenty two gets uploaded,
Speaker 2: usually Tuesday or Wednesday, then I can start digging in,
Speaker 2: which is always fun, and then it's fun to go back.
Speaker 2: And that's what I'm doing now, is going back and
Speaker 2: watching things already have notes on to see you know,
Speaker 2: what changes, what I missed and see if I agree
Speaker 2: with consensus, if things are different than what I say.
Speaker 1: Given that this is your twenty third year of doing this,
Speaker 1: is is there a hit that you have had over
Speaker 1: the course of two decades plus that you're most proud of,
Speaker 1: Like a guy that maybe not a lot of people
Speaker 1: were on, but you were pounding the table for him.
Speaker 1: You like this, I remember, and he wasn't alone. And
Speaker 1: quite frankly, you might have been one of these guys too,
Speaker 1: But I know Derek Brown was the guy that kind
Speaker 1: of turned me on to Pukinnakua when he came out.
Speaker 1: I think that that is one of the hat hagars
Speaker 1: for him. Do you have a hat hagar for a
Speaker 1: hit for a player that you were really telling everybody, listen,
Speaker 1: this guy is gonna be awesome. I don't care what
Speaker 1: you say, and you were proved right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll give you one that it was a short
Speaker 2: term hit, but it was an undrafted player that hit
Speaker 2: that I was talking up for months and drafting in
Speaker 2: FFPC Best Pall Leagues, And that's James Robinson who running
Speaker 2: back for the Jaguars. Right. I had an article when
Speaker 2: I worked with Draft Countdown and ran that on hidden
Speaker 2: and just like that, this guy's really good. And then
Speaker 2: he didn't get drafted a like, wow, I look awful,
Speaker 2: drafted a ton of bestball leagues and early best ball
Speaker 2: leagues and then uh that that rookie year man he
Speaker 2: hit and and the injuries ended up doing them in.
Speaker 2: But that's always one that I know. It's not like
Speaker 2: a Puka Nakua who's gonna be this like ever lasting player.
Speaker 2: But you know, he didn't even get drafted and hit
Speaker 2: as a rookie.
Speaker 1: Robinson. I remember I was doing a I was covering
Speaker 1: the draft the year that Lawrence and a Chan went
Speaker 1: in the first round to Jacksonville, and I was I
Speaker 1: was doing a live radio show covering the draft, and
Speaker 1: it was everything was falling into place with my Dynasty guys,
Speaker 1: and and I just figured there's no way that Jacksonville
Speaker 1: would take a quarterback and a running back in the
Speaker 1: first round. And I when when a Chan got drafted,
Speaker 1: I saw it up on the screen. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: you know, this ruins James Robbins. I was so ticked up. Again,
Speaker 1: if if I remember correctly, I think a Chan had
Speaker 1: like a knee problem like a that knocked him out,
Speaker 1: So you got another bonus year or at least bonus
Speaker 1: part of the year with James Robinson until as you said,
Speaker 1: injuries ultimately did him in. But certainly you saw something
Speaker 1: in Robinson and and you were proved right. What was
Speaker 1: it about him? Was he Illinois State Robinson? I remember?
Speaker 1: What was it about him that you really liked? Was
Speaker 1: it tackle breaking ability, contact balance? What was it?
Speaker 2: As really really like smoothness like his hips, just the
Speaker 2: transition in cutting and moving to me, was was NFL
Speaker 2: like top tier NFL type of talent And I think
Speaker 2: I think that sometimes translates better than the raw athleticism,
Speaker 2: especially at running back sometimes and we'll get into it
Speaker 2: a little bit uh with some players this year, but
Speaker 2: I mean that just like smoothness, You know when you
Speaker 2: watch some of those players and they just look like
Speaker 2: like they're not moving or they're you know, they're moving
Speaker 2: with the wind, like James Robinson was that type of player,
Speaker 2: and I think that's what really made him successful early
Speaker 2: in his NFL career.
Speaker 1: All Right, So we'll get into the running backs at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour, but right now, let's off
Speaker 1: with the wide receivers. Now I listed these guys you know,
Speaker 1: on on their own particular line. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: the three, the three big ones that that most people
Speaker 1: are are people are most excited about. But Kyle Lemon,
Speaker 1: Carnel Tate and Jordan Tyson I have now, granted, I
Speaker 1: don't have these guys like I don't have one of
Speaker 1: them pulling away significantly than the others. I have my
Speaker 1: favorite out of the three, but I could probably be
Speaker 1: convinced to go a different way. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: reveal who it is. But if you are assessing this,
Speaker 1: and I know you put on a bunch of stuff
Speaker 1: on X and with draft Sharks about this. If you're
Speaker 1: assessing this, how are you assessing these three in relation
Speaker 1: to each other? Obviously landing spot is going to be huge.
Speaker 1: But as it stands right now, Shane, do you have
Speaker 1: one of these guys separating more so than the other two?
Speaker 1: And how would you rank them right now?
Speaker 2: As well? I think it's close. And I'll say about
Speaker 2: these three as a whole. And you look at mock
Speaker 2: drafts and you're seeing some going, you know, Cornell take
Speaker 2: going in the top ten or whatever. I've had this
Speaker 2: feeling and it's been hesitant to kind of say it.
Speaker 2: Dane Bruler or the Athletic articulated it as well, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know, I mean, I don't think there's
Speaker 2: a wide receiver one in this class. It's not like
Speaker 2: a number one wide receiver for an NFL team. I
Speaker 2: think a Lemon, Tate Tyson all really good number two options.
Speaker 2: So I want to put that out there first because
Speaker 2: I think sometimes you see the draft capital it's a
Speaker 2: week class as a whole, the entire class, not just
Speaker 2: the fantasy guys, so they're getting propped up a little bit.
Speaker 2: My favorite, I think it's close. I think they all
Speaker 2: do different things well, aren't going to fit different systems. Well,
Speaker 2: mkaile Lemon is my favorite receiver of the three. I
Speaker 2: think he will be the third one drafted, maybe even
Speaker 2: fourth receiver. I could even see him falling further because
Speaker 2: mackay Lemon is an elite slot wide receiver, and we
Speaker 2: saw last year the trend really kick up was already
Speaker 2: trending that way of less teams using the slot wide receiver,
Speaker 2: more twelve personnel tight ends. So it's going to be
Speaker 2: a specific system that's going to want McKay Lemon. Whereas Cornel,
Speaker 2: Tat and Jordan Tyson, I think will fit more teams,
Speaker 2: so there'll be more teams that have them on their boards.
Speaker 2: I think McKay lemon, to me, you know, flashed them
Speaker 2: outside ability in twenty twenty four. Really the slot stuff
Speaker 2: is what worked for him in twenty twenty five, but
Speaker 2: really reminds me of Ceedee Lamb as a prospect. You
Speaker 2: remember Ceedee Lamb fell further than most people thought because
Speaker 2: it was a slot wide receiver. Mike McCarthy ends up
Speaker 2: drafting him, who needs needs a slot receiver as well,
Speaker 2: again for Pittsburgh. But I think Lemon, you know, is
Speaker 2: an elite after the catch, really hard to bring down,
Speaker 2: really savviot, looking not just at the guy in front
Speaker 2: of him, kind of the old Barry Sanders of looking
Speaker 2: at the next level and knowing, how can I beat
Speaker 2: that guy? I'll beat this one. And I think McKay
Speaker 2: lemon does that so well after the catch, you know,
Speaker 2: really quick off the snap and his footwork's so sharp.
Speaker 2: But he's not you know, he's a four or five
Speaker 2: speed player that's on the smaller side and a slot receiver.
Speaker 2: But I think the shiftiness, you know, I think mclemon's
Speaker 2: going to be more of the target hog of these three,
Speaker 2: whereas I think like Tate, I think talent wise, you
Speaker 2: could argue he's the most talented and probably why he'll
Speaker 2: be the first one off the board. You know, he's big,
Speaker 2: he's tough, he's these long, he makes those tough catches.
Speaker 2: You know, he has kind of the power after the
Speaker 2: catch that that makes them hard to bring down. Is
Speaker 2: gonna pick up extra yardage, But I just fear the
Speaker 2: fantasy upside. I don't see him as a player who
Speaker 2: you know, he has like a good slant. He can
Speaker 2: get some separation, but it's not always consistent. I think
Speaker 2: Tate's an elite, you know, downfield kind of contested catcher
Speaker 2: George Pickens like which we've seen some of the upside
Speaker 2: for Pickens. I think that that was my compent in
Speaker 2: the draft, Sharks rookie guy for Tate, you know. But
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a lot of deeper throws to Tate
Speaker 2: that I think he's gonna win. I think that can
Speaker 2: have some big games and some disappearing games, and and
Speaker 2: then Tyson is probably the hardest for me to peg like.
Speaker 2: I think his upside and downside are a lot more
Speaker 2: extreme than the other two. There are some incredible plays.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you watch Jordan tyson highlight film, you
Speaker 2: will think Jordan Tyson is like to be a top
Speaker 2: five pick in this draft. Like the highlights are that good,
Speaker 2: but the separation is so inconsistent. I mean, there are
Speaker 2: halves of games where Jordan Tyson isn't getting open, isn't
Speaker 2: getting you know, a target that he's able to break
Speaker 2: away and make make a good catch on, where the
Speaker 2: defenders getting you know, disrupting him. So I worry about
Speaker 2: some early struggles for Tyson. I think he's gonna need
Speaker 2: some manufacturer touches. I think the screen stuff, some of
Speaker 2: the the you know, sideline work is really good, but
Speaker 2: it's gonna take the right system. You know, he dropped
Speaker 2: a lot of passes, especially two years ago. He's a
Speaker 2: little his footwork's a little bit messy. You can get
Speaker 2: too impatient and waste some movement. Like I just think
Speaker 2: there's some refinement that Tyson needs that Tat and Lemon don't.
Speaker 2: And that combined with the injury issues. He's never played
Speaker 2: a full college season, you know, hamstring issues last year,
Speaker 2: fracture claviical two years ago, a c O M c
Speaker 2: l PCL three years ago, you know, in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, So I think Tyson has that downside that
Speaker 2: scared me off a little more.
Speaker 1: All right, So you ended your assessment with my favorite
Speaker 1: guy and that and that is Tyson. Like you, I
Speaker 1: think these three are very very close for me and
Speaker 1: part of and I think you you kind of made it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to put words in your mouth. Maybe
Speaker 1: you did, but I think when you say, like, the
Speaker 1: extremes for Tyson are much higher and much lower than
Speaker 1: the other two guys, that's sort of what attracts him
Speaker 1: to me or what attracts me to him. Because I
Speaker 1: think you're right. I think these guys, by and large
Speaker 1: are all number two guys. I don't think there's an
Speaker 1: alpha among them, at least in the NFL level. But
Speaker 1: I'm willing to say that if there is one out
Speaker 1: of these three, I think it's Tyson. I think he
Speaker 1: has the biggest upside. And because I feel like if
Speaker 1: I if I whiff on Tyson, at least I went
Speaker 1: big Tate, I think it was a fine polished receiver.
Speaker 1: Same thing with Lemon. Polish is another good thing to
Speaker 1: bring up because I think Lemon and Tate are more polished,
Speaker 1: and Tyson well can't get the right coaching and the
Speaker 1: right seasoning to get there right. At least that's that's
Speaker 1: what I believe, and I'm sure you would agree that
Speaker 1: certainly that's in the realm of possibilities. And then the
Speaker 1: injury thing, I think people are really I think that's
Speaker 1: usually you brought it up last, but I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people bring up Tyson's injury history first, and
Speaker 1: I look at it and I'm like, Okay, well, it
Speaker 1: was the shredded knee which happened four years ago, that
Speaker 1: could happen to anyone. The fractured collar bone, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think that's a I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of a freak thing as well. And then the
Speaker 1: hamstring issues I do. I mean, that is bad, and
Speaker 1: he missed basically the second half of his last year,
Speaker 1: But I'm also willing to say that's the only injury
Speaker 1: I'm necessarily concerned about over the course of his career,
Speaker 1: and if it's just a half season, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: willing to look the other way when I see the
Speaker 1: upside is as high as it is now. Brett Whitefield
Speaker 1: from Fantasy Points brought this up like a month or
Speaker 1: so ago about Tyson, and I didn't crunch the film,
Speaker 1: you could probably speak to this as well. He said
Speaker 1: that Tyson was being schemed open so much like they
Speaker 1: would design all these plays for him and he would
Speaker 1: catch the ball and there would just be nobody around
Speaker 1: him because everybody or they wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: Tyson had as much space to operate in as possible,
Speaker 1: which you're probably not going to get at the next level.
Speaker 1: Is that something that you noticed on film too, when
Speaker 1: you watch Tyson?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the offense for Arizona State does make
Speaker 2: Tyson a lot harder to evaluate, Like you know, the
Speaker 2: High State offense we've been able to evaluate receivers fairly
Speaker 2: well from there is pretty you know, pro ready style scheme,
Speaker 2: Like you know what Carl State's going to be. Like
Speaker 2: you said, Tyson, the offense at Arizona State, I mean
Speaker 2: that's literally what they had. He was the weapon that
Speaker 2: they had the past two years, and so it was
Speaker 2: about getting him. You know a lot of screen stuff,
Speaker 2: a lot of mid screens from him, so you know,
Speaker 2: you have to man him up, you have to have
Speaker 2: a corner. There a lot of times you're shading his
Speaker 2: safety over and if he runs a mid screen, now
Speaker 2: those two dbs are out of the play. You have
Speaker 2: blockers for.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It was just really built for him to get those touches.
Speaker 2: And that's why, you know, I think could that happen
Speaker 2: at the NFL level? It could, And that's why I
Speaker 2: worry about if you know it is gonna be about team,
Speaker 2: just a team put him in a position to be
Speaker 2: that guy, or are you gonna draft him and say, okay,
Speaker 2: now you got you got to learn and catch up
Speaker 2: on everything and be a real NFL receiver and run
Speaker 2: a full route tree and do all this. You know,
Speaker 2: I think that's a really hard thing to get right
Speaker 2: off the bat. So yeah, I think all three are good.
Speaker 2: Like I'm happy getting any of the three in a
Speaker 2: rookie draft. I'd rather have the you know one oh
Speaker 2: five than the the or the one O four and
Speaker 2: said than the one of two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tyson could be one of those guys, now that
Speaker 1: you explain it that way, You could be one of
Speaker 1: those guys where you don't draft him, but then you
Speaker 1: go to the Tyson owner in twenty twenty seven and say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, like maybe maybe you want to get rid
Speaker 1: of Tyson here. Certainly it didn't pan out the way
Speaker 1: that Lemon and Tape did, and then you could, you know,
Speaker 1: and he makes that sophomoret leapt there's a possibility of
Speaker 1: that as well. Okay, I want to move on and
Speaker 1: talk about Casey Conceptsione here. I think it was Pat Forman.
Speaker 1: I could be wrong on this, but he posted something
Speaker 1: on X about this knee up scope that Conceptsion had.
Speaker 1: Earlier this week, Mike Garafalo said he's expected to be
Speaker 1: one hundred percent for rookie camp. The report was that
Speaker 1: this was a routine and preventative surgery, and I think
Speaker 1: it was Pat that said, there's nothing anytime you have
Speaker 1: surgery on your knee, it's not routine and it's not preventative.
Speaker 1: So I think that he had his eyebrows raised on that.
Speaker 1: Do you have your eyebrows raised not only in the
Speaker 1: surgery but Conceptsion in general, as it seems like he's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be like a coin flip whether he goes
Speaker 1: in the first round or early second round. Shane, your
Speaker 1: thoughts on Casey Conceptsion as it pertains to the knee
Speaker 1: surgery and sort of what he's going to be at
Speaker 1: the next level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not too worried about the ES scope. I
Speaker 2: think I think the ES scopes happen a lot more
Speaker 2: than we find out about. I think this happens for
Speaker 2: a lot more players than we think. Right, if you have,
Speaker 2: you know, some some tissue built up there, you have
Speaker 2: an injury that's kind of lingered, like it's an easy
Speaker 2: way to just kind of clean out, and you know,
Speaker 2: and usually we don't find out about it, and then
Speaker 2: someone you know, leaked it, so that that I think
Speaker 2: that's a lot of the case, especially for college guys.
Speaker 2: Uh exception, that's tough for me. I think he's going
Speaker 2: to be a better NFL player than fantasy player, which
Speaker 2: feels so pass to say, I guess about a prospect,
Speaker 2: but it's my compent. In our Rookie Guide was Percy
Speaker 2: Harvin as kind of an upside comp where where you're
Speaker 2: gonna use him in a ton of different ways, you know, concepts.
Speaker 2: He owns so athletic, so fast that you're you're gonna
Speaker 2: want to run, get the ball in his hands and
Speaker 2: and do you know, do a bunch of different stuff
Speaker 2: with him, do reversus, do you know, do some of
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. I mean, watching Concepts, he is
Speaker 2: always open because he is so fast and quick. If
Speaker 2: you try to man him up, he's he's really good
Speaker 2: at getting open. But he's small. I mean, there's not
Speaker 2: much strength there. Teams kind of figured out that if
Speaker 2: they had a bigger slot, they could knock him off
Speaker 2: a route early and that timing would be off. So
Speaker 2: if you see some of the bad games or poor
Speaker 2: production from concept in some games, that was kind of
Speaker 2: what was happening. A lot of drops on his hands
Speaker 2: are among the worst, you know, among the receivers that
Speaker 2: were probably the worst of the receivers that will talk
Speaker 2: about on the show. You know, So I to me,
Speaker 2: it's hard to see a position even in today's NFL
Speaker 2: where Conceptsion you know, gets one hundred plus targets in
Speaker 2: a season. Uh, but I think you could have some
Speaker 2: big games, big runs, you know, the rushing upside, you know,
Speaker 2: it can be a little bit helpful, but again it's
Speaker 2: you know, it's another number two that that's that's to me,
Speaker 2: just just not going to get the volume that you want.
Speaker 1: You know, you got a wonder too with regards to
Speaker 1: Concepts poor hands I don't know if it would have
Speaker 1: happened in high school or maybe in college, where they're like, boy,
Speaker 1: he's so good when he's got the ball in his hands,
Speaker 1: but he just can't catch it. Maybe that's where this
Speaker 1: whole handoff started. We're like, let's just start handing the
Speaker 1: ball off to him.
Speaker 2: He came and the rounds every game. You know, here
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 1: The trade that Miami made with Denver I think is
Speaker 1: interesting for a lot of reasons, but interesting in the
Speaker 1: fact that Miami now owns the thirty pick of the draft,
Speaker 1: and right around there they could take a guy like Concepcion,
Speaker 1: They could take a guy like this person I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring up right now, Denzel Boston, who declared for the
Speaker 1: draft out of Washington. Obviously, Washington has had some pretty
Speaker 1: good receivers come out of there over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. Fifty six catches, seven hundred and fifty five
Speaker 1: yards and ten touchdowns two point four to four yards
Speaker 1: per route run in the twenty twenty five season. Boston
Speaker 1: has the size I think field Yates was saying that
Speaker 1: he could be a big slot type guy in the NFL,
Speaker 1: which I think is exciting when you I think that's
Speaker 1: another reason I like Tyson too, where he can play inside,
Speaker 1: he can play outside. Maybe Boston is the type of
Speaker 1: player that could do that, could do that as well.
Speaker 1: He might be a late first round pick. I did
Speaker 1: draft him late in some best balls already, and obviously,
Speaker 1: if I'm doing that, Shane, I'm of the belief that
Speaker 1: he's going to contribute to whoever drafts him right away
Speaker 1: year one. Do you see it the same way for
Speaker 1: Denzel Boston? And what kind of a dynasty asset is
Speaker 1: this gonna Is this guy gonna be over the course
Speaker 1: of the first few years in the league.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely intrigued because of some of the versatility that
Speaker 2: he has. I think you watched Denzel Boston, you see
Speaker 2: a player who knows how to use his size to
Speaker 2: his advantage. When he would play, you know, an X
Speaker 2: role and he would get pressed. It was something that
Speaker 2: he knew how to keep the defender off of him,
Speaker 2: uses that length to his advantage, and then can get
Speaker 2: open on a number of routes after that press, and
Speaker 2: so the team started playing back on him. But then
Speaker 2: you know, Boston developed a really nice slant route, a
Speaker 2: really nice en route, really nice out route. You know,
Speaker 2: I think he has a lot more route versatility than
Speaker 2: even even some of the top three wide receivers in
Speaker 2: the class. He's just good hands, you know, really good
Speaker 2: catch technique, has a little later breakout than some of
Speaker 2: these others, Like you said, because he was behind guys
Speaker 2: that got drafted in the NFL and Washington, including another
Speaker 2: receiver in this class, Jeremy Bernard from who transferred to Alabama,
Speaker 2: you know, Boston was behind him. So you know, that's
Speaker 2: always tough to to kind of parse out why. But
Speaker 2: I do think that the downside for Boston, he's not
Speaker 2: gonna do much after the catch. Even with his size,
Speaker 2: he gets tackled pretty easily. So I think you're looking
Speaker 2: at a guy that you know, maybe can command a
Speaker 2: little more target targets from that big slot. I think
Speaker 2: I think the right team that has pass a pass
Speaker 2: first offense, I think we could see Boston have a
Speaker 2: pretty good impact. So, you know, dynasty wise, I mean
Speaker 2: this wide receiver class these five, to me, is is
Speaker 2: the one O two through the one of six. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think you're you're drafting these receivers and maybe the
Speaker 2: next guy that we talk about right in that right
Speaker 2: in that range before any running back and you know,
Speaker 2: maybe in the FFPC you're going to take the top
Speaker 2: tight end over some of them.
Speaker 1: And who is that top tight end. We'll get into
Speaker 1: that in a little bit before we keep keep going
Speaker 1: Shane when because I hear people talk about the depth
Speaker 1: of wide receiver in this class, the depth is really good,
Speaker 1: and to me, when I hear that over and over again,
Speaker 1: it makes me think that the talent is kind of
Speaker 1: flat in in this class. Do you see it as
Speaker 1: sort of like a flat like like this is not
Speaker 1: this does not start way up here with the elites
Speaker 1: and then and then have a sharp decline down to
Speaker 1: the rest of the guys. Do you see more of
Speaker 1: as like a smooth kind of flat curve when when
Speaker 1: we talk about the guys that are going to be
Speaker 1: going in the mid first round of the guys that
Speaker 1: are going in the mid second round.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I I tweeted a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: like I'm watching this receiver class and it's it's so deep,
Speaker 2: and I like want to like them, and I just don't,
Speaker 2: like I think that curve is just this is just
Speaker 2: so smooth down that and it starts lower that it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, none, none of them. You know, there's a
Speaker 2: couple guys that like, you know, I'll swing the bat
Speaker 2: for right like you'll you'll pound a table for and
Speaker 2: think have that upside that couple are gonna work out.
Speaker 2: But there's there's just so many. I don't say negatives
Speaker 2: because I don't think that the negative list is is
Speaker 2: that good? Just like you don't watch most of these
Speaker 2: receivers and think, wow, you know this, this guy could
Speaker 2: be a star if this is correct or this is fixed.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of them are capped out, you know.
Speaker 2: And it's it's I think part of the NFL draft today,
Speaker 2: we're getting guys that have been in college four, five,
Speaker 2: six years coming out. We know, I think we know
Speaker 2: who most of these players are already, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean how many you know. We don't have too many
Speaker 2: early declares here, three year declares here. So that that's
Speaker 2: the tough part I think about watching them, is it
Speaker 2: feel like there's not a lot of room for growth
Speaker 2: for a lot of these players. Outside of I think
Speaker 2: like Tyson and Lemon and and and the next guy
Speaker 2: that we'll talk about, I think those are really the
Speaker 2: only ones that I feel like, are gonna grow and
Speaker 2: get better. And to me, you know, a second round,
Speaker 2: third round pick that doesn't get better is gonna be
Speaker 2: really hard to make a fantasy impact right away.
Speaker 1: Do you in your last mock draft that you did,
Speaker 1: do you did you have five receivers or six receivers
Speaker 1: going in the first round?
Speaker 2: I had five, and and I I might not know
Speaker 2: who those five are, but that feels like a good number.
Speaker 2: And you know, when we again the running backs, I'll
Speaker 2: mention it too, but I'll keep saying it. This whole
Speaker 2: class is not great. Like it's not just the skill guys.
Speaker 2: You know, like like there's there's positions edge, linebacker, you know, safety,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, it's pretty good, but like as
Speaker 2: a whole. And so when you see a guy go sixth,
Speaker 2: a wide receiver go sixth in this draft, it is
Speaker 2: not sixth then every other draft. And I think you
Speaker 2: got to keep that in mind. Sometimes we just say
Speaker 2: draft capitals, draft capital like this is you know, we
Speaker 2: put that bucket out, and I think this bucket this year,
Speaker 2: to me, is a lot different than a lot of years.
Speaker 1: Omar Cooper Junior, We've been teasing. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: Indiana guys a lot of speed here. Obviously championship pedigree played,
Speaker 1: although I will say he was and I can't remember
Speaker 1: the other guy. You probably know who's the guy who
Speaker 1: really came on for Indiana, younger guy. He's not in
Speaker 1: the draft this year.
Speaker 2: He Charlie Becker.
Speaker 1: Charlie Becker, Yes, that guy along with Cooper and Sarat
Speaker 1: I think it was it was with Mendoza quarterback. It
Speaker 1: was such an awesome attack that they had. But Cooper
Speaker 1: seems to be picking up steam a bunch amongst a
Speaker 1: bunch of a pundits right now in draft circles, and
Speaker 1: I think it is because of his speed. He's a
Speaker 1: guy that could sneak into the first round as well.
Speaker 1: But Cooper, besides speed, Shane, what else does he offer
Speaker 1: us that we should care about for how good it's
Speaker 1: going to make him as a fantasy asset.
Speaker 2: I think he is a really smooth mover, Like that
Speaker 2: first step is so explosive, and he transitions into the
Speaker 2: route and into his cuts so smoothly that it's really
Speaker 2: hard to cover in man coverage. And I think even
Speaker 2: in zone he really knows how to find that hole
Speaker 2: in the zone or gets lost kind of behind that
Speaker 2: second level or third level sometimes because you're not expecting
Speaker 2: him to move as quick as he is. You know,
Speaker 2: I think Cooper still is a little more athlete than
Speaker 2: football player. Like I think there's some refinement there. And
Speaker 2: so that's why I said, I think he's one of
Speaker 2: those players that I look at him and go, there's
Speaker 2: improvement that could be made here for already a pretty
Speaker 2: good player. So he's still raw. He's not very physical.
Speaker 2: I think that's when he would get into trouble was
Speaker 2: when he had, you know, corners or it was up
Speaker 2: against linebackers that could get physical with him. But I'm
Speaker 2: a fan of Omark Cooper and I didn't expect him
Speaker 2: to be talked about as a first round pick. I thought,
Speaker 2: you know, some of the some of the role combinations were,
Speaker 2: it's not a ton there that he's probably going to
Speaker 2: be more slot only. I don't think he'll play outside.
Speaker 2: I thought, Okay, it's probably a round two guy that
Speaker 2: I like. And now it's like he might go top twenty,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, that feels too expensive, you know. It's
Speaker 2: it's almost like I want this guy to go Day
Speaker 2: two because that will be better. But I'm a Nomark
Speaker 2: Cooper fan. Uh, certainly, And you know, I could see
Speaker 2: him ending up in rookie drafts as you know, the
Speaker 2: one oh five to one oh six when we get there.
Speaker 1: Does he ever top out in the NFL as a
Speaker 1: top twenty wide receiver fantasy wise in his career?
Speaker 2: I think he has that upside if if we see
Speaker 2: a refinement of his route running so to where he
Speaker 2: you know, isn't just running kind of in and out routes,
Speaker 2: if you know, if the coaching gets there, Like I
Speaker 2: think Cooper has the athleticism and the you know, the
Speaker 2: loose hips and the you know, the loose joints to
Speaker 2: really be dangerous to cover. Uh. And like I said,
Speaker 2: I think being as good as he is against zone coverage,
Speaker 2: which I think it was almost seventy percent of NFL
Speaker 2: plays last year defensive plays for zone against pass plays,
Speaker 2: I mean it was a ridiculous number. I think that
Speaker 2: really bodes well for someone like Cooper.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see what happened. And obviously, I mean you
Speaker 1: could say about any of these prospects, landing spot will
Speaker 1: be key. Elijah Surat is a guy who had this
Speaker 1: incredible touchdown streak his final year at Indiana. Didn't score
Speaker 1: in the national title game, but he did end the
Speaker 1: season with sixty five catches, eight hundred and thirty yards
Speaker 1: and fifteen count of fifteen touchdowns, which where career highs.
Speaker 1: This guy's story was pretty incredible, as you know, the
Speaker 1: way he made his way from high school to now
Speaker 1: being a national champion, to now being a potential Day
Speaker 1: two pick in the NFL draft. I worry about the
Speaker 1: athleticism not being enough at this next level, but perhaps
Speaker 1: shade with how crafty he is, with how powerful he is,
Speaker 1: with how big he is, maybe athletics, maybe he ages
Speaker 1: pretty well in the NFL and becomes a nice little
Speaker 1: possession receiver for whoever drafts him. Your thoughts on sarat.
Speaker 2: He's you know, he's interesting because I think that's how
Speaker 2: he's gonna win. If he's gonna work out, it's going
Speaker 2: to be with the the kind of the power, the physicality.
Speaker 2: I think he's one of the better contested catchers in
Speaker 2: the draft, which is not an archetype I love to
Speaker 2: bet on in fantasy. You know, we certainly have guys
Speaker 2: that can hit like that, and when they do that,
Speaker 2: you know they have top receiver potential. But that's where
Speaker 2: we also get a lot of busts, you know that
Speaker 2: that come out. I always think of it the Keem
Speaker 2: Butler love that that happened when he got drafted, right,
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, he's such a good contested catcher. Well
Speaker 2: he can't get open, you know, That's why he had
Speaker 2: to catch everything contested. I think Elijah Serat's kind of
Speaker 2: the same way, Like he doesn't get open, but he
Speaker 2: sure he knows how to he knows positioning, he knows
Speaker 2: how to box you out. He knows how to do that.
Speaker 2: Just doesn't really pass the eye test. His hips are
Speaker 2: pretty tight, but like good hands, good power, enough explosion
Speaker 2: off the line that you can't really press him. I
Speaker 2: think there's upside there. I get why people like him.
Speaker 2: He's probably not gonna be someone in a lot of
Speaker 2: my teams.
Speaker 1: Chris Brazzl is a player who had kind of similar
Speaker 1: numbers to Surat last year sixty two. He did get
Speaker 1: over a thousand yards and he only got nine touchdowns
Speaker 1: sixteen point four yards per catch. Last year was a
Speaker 1: big time breakout season for Brasel. One of the things
Speaker 1: I hear and I don't think we've ever talked about
Speaker 1: this Shane. One of the things I hear from a
Speaker 1: lot of draftnicks is that they struggle to evaluate Tennessee
Speaker 1: volunteer wide receivers that play in Josh Heipel's offense there
Speaker 1: do you also struggle with that? Why do you think
Speaker 1: people struggle with trying to figure out how these Tennessee
Speaker 1: receivers are going to turn out once they get to
Speaker 1: the next level? And specifically Brasel, how is he figuring
Speaker 1: in to your rookie rankings for receivers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the reason why Tennessee is so hard to evaluate,
Speaker 2: the hash marks for college are different than the NFL.
Speaker 2: So in college there's kind of less there's more space
Speaker 2: on the wings potentially, and so Tennessee uses that they
Speaker 2: use a wide formation, so the receivers are almost stacked
Speaker 2: on the sideline all the time, and that's just not
Speaker 2: something you can do in the NFL. With where the
Speaker 2: ball's placed, you know it's gonna be much harder to
Speaker 2: hit those passes than well a ten kind of builds
Speaker 2: are often so you know it's someone's gonna get open, Like,
Speaker 2: it's really hard to cover three guys in a stack
Speaker 2: all the way against the sideline. I got my three corners,
Speaker 2: I'll button up against each other. You know, how do
Speaker 2: you really cover that? And so when you have a
Speaker 2: really good athlete we saw Doante Thornton last year, I
Speaker 2: think Chris brasles a similar class of this kind of big, long,
Speaker 2: fast athlete who is really hard to cover when you're
Speaker 2: working through traffic as a dB. That makes it really tough.
Speaker 2: That's why that production came. I think brass a little
Speaker 2: more refined than Thornton. It wasn't just like run straight
Speaker 2: and well, you know, we'll get the ball to you.
Speaker 2: Brazil could do a lot of different things. They did
Speaker 2: a lot of screens with him. They had some middle
Speaker 2: of the field stuff for him. But it's definitely tough
Speaker 2: to know if a player has a good feel for
Speaker 2: the receiver position, and if they've played in that system
Speaker 2: for a number of years, it's hard to trust that
Speaker 2: they have a good feel for the position. You know,
Speaker 2: you're not learning NFL style offenses and talent any know
Speaker 2: who knows. Maybe roles change in ten twenty years and
Speaker 2: we get something similar in the NFL. But for now,
Speaker 2: I like Brazil, but I think he's he's not someone
Speaker 2: I would draft in a redraft, right you know, I
Speaker 2: don't think it's going to be a year one hit,
Speaker 2: but he could be a player down the line that
Speaker 2: finds a role because of that athleticism, size, speed, stride
Speaker 2: is all really good.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the tight ends here, with apologies to
Speaker 1: the Bells, we will not get to Chris or Skyler tonight.
Speaker 1: Kenyan Sadik leads off at tight end and and I
Speaker 1: guess there's and we'll get into this with jeremih Love.
Speaker 1: There's been so many people speaking effusively in praising Sadik
Speaker 1: in Love, I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: potential warning signs, potential red flags, because with the f
Speaker 1: FPC tight end premium scoring, there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: people falling all over themselves the draft sidique in the
Speaker 1: early to middle part of the first round of Brookie
Speaker 1: drafts coming up in a little over a month. This
Speaker 1: dude put on a show at the combine. And I
Speaker 1: think part of the reason that his agility at his
Speaker 1: speed was so good compared to previous tight ends was
Speaker 1: because there's not as much Kenyan Sadik as there was
Speaker 1: say a Michael Mayer or a Rob Gronkowski. This is
Speaker 1: not a large tight end now, We saw that that
Speaker 1: kind of worked out for Aronde against in the second
Speaker 1: last year with Los Angeles, and perhaps it can work
Speaker 1: out for Sadiq this year, but or over the course
Speaker 1: of his career, I should say, but in regards to Sadik,
Speaker 1: do we need to prep ourselves now that if we
Speaker 1: draft him, we have to understand that this guy may
Speaker 1: not be in every down tight end at the next level.
Speaker 1: He may not be the type of guy that can
Speaker 1: get out there and run block when he needs. I
Speaker 1: know he's a good blocker, but when he's blocking these other, bigger,
Speaker 1: more physical athletes in the NFL than what he was
Speaker 1: facing in the Big Ten, I do think that there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a learning curve here, and maybe
Speaker 1: a learning curve that his body just will never be
Speaker 1: built for. I don't question the fact that he could
Speaker 1: be successful at the next level. What I do question
Speaker 1: is him being able to do it and being on
Speaker 1: the field as much as we would like him to
Speaker 1: be given his expected draft capital in FFPC rookie drafts.
Speaker 1: How oft am I or how on am I? In
Speaker 1: regards to the Sadik size and perhaps some other warning
Speaker 1: signs about him, Shane.
Speaker 2: I think it's a fair point, and it's why to me,
Speaker 2: Sidiq is much more. It's much important what the situation
Speaker 2: looks like. You know, if he's drafted to a place
Speaker 2: that has a tight end established, as he goes to
Speaker 2: San Francisco and George Kittle's there short term, then you
Speaker 2: know he's not probably not going to get on the field.
Speaker 2: You know you're going to play him in the slot.
Speaker 2: It's almost the Kyle Pitt's type of situation where we
Speaker 2: know what the talent is, we know what he can
Speaker 2: do as a receiver and as an athlete, but playing
Speaker 2: Sadek in line is almost malpractice because you know, one
Speaker 2: on block NFL edge rushers and uh the edge rushers
Speaker 2: aren't gonna buy that he's blocking them. So, you know,
Speaker 2: I think Sidiq has that ability more so than an
Speaker 2: Ronde Gadsden, for example, as a player that could place
Speaker 2: them in line, that could do some blocking. I think
Speaker 2: the techniques there, you know, but sideiq is is best
Speaker 2: in the red zone. I'm not even one hundred percent
Speaker 2: sure he was the best tight end on his team,
Speaker 2: which is a question. So twenty twenty seven Jamary Johnson,
Speaker 2: but you know who it was two fifty seven, and
Speaker 2: you know, has the tight end profile, and Oregon kind
Speaker 2: of was leaning on him a little bit more later
Speaker 2: in the season when they needed someone on the field
Speaker 2: for the run game. So, you know, I think sidiq
Speaker 2: is could be a boon for fantasy because that it's
Speaker 2: a nice thing about these top two tight ends, Like
Speaker 2: if you are drafting them as a team, you're drafting
Speaker 2: them to catch the football and so that's at least
Speaker 2: what we can get with Sadik. But I do think
Speaker 2: there should be some trepidation over playing time as a
Speaker 2: rookie if the situation offers another tight end that that's
Speaker 2: going to block. The nice thing that we have seen
Speaker 2: the past two years is teams moving to more twelve
Speaker 2: or thirteen personnel teams, Like you know, they are figuring
Speaker 2: out that having a tight end in the slot works well,
Speaker 2: and that might be a benefit now than it was
Speaker 2: three four years ago. You know, when Pitts was a rookie,
Speaker 2: even though we had such a good rookie year, but
Speaker 2: we saw him get off the field. I think Sadik
Speaker 2: at least could is more than likely going to go
Speaker 2: to a team that's willing to use two tight ends
Speaker 2: and Sadeqk's going to be the one catching passes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no questioning his athleticism and how good, how
Speaker 1: agile he is. In fact, if we were to look
Speaker 1: at his impressive combine performance and compare it to other
Speaker 1: great combine performances, we'd have to go all the way
Speaker 1: back to twenty twenty six to see what Eli Stowers did.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievable as well. In fact, some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that Sadik did, Stowars did even better. And I
Speaker 1: think they're roughly the same weight. I think Stowars has
Speaker 1: like what three inches maybe on him, three four inches
Speaker 1: on Sadiq. But this is a guy and I've been
Speaker 1: hearing this more and more over the course of the
Speaker 1: last month. And again maybe this is people, you know,
Speaker 1: just because we don't have a whole lot going on
Speaker 1: right now and we're trying to come up with new narratives.
Speaker 1: But I have heard people say that they like Star
Speaker 1: Wars better at the next level than Kenyan Sneak, which
Speaker 1: could prove to be true. But there are some red
Speaker 1: flags with Stours as well. What are some of those
Speaker 1: and who do you think is more successful at the
Speaker 1: next level? Shane, would you have Stours as your number
Speaker 1: one tight end over Kenya Seek.
Speaker 2: I'm try and go quite that far, but I'm definitely
Speaker 2: a Stours fan. You know, this is a four star
Speaker 2: quarterback coming into college football who ended up moving to
Speaker 2: tight end, transferring way down, ends up settling at Vanderbilt
Speaker 2: the last two years. We have a profile coming out
Speaker 2: on him either tomorrow or early next week. And I
Speaker 2: did the film study and Diego Pavia was this quarterback
Speaker 2: runner up in the Heisman. I was amazed at how
Speaker 2: much Diego Pavia could not hit Eli Stone, like Eli
Speaker 2: Stowers was making these crazy catches in the open field
Speaker 2: that it shouldn't have happened, you know. So like from
Speaker 2: a a perspective of value, like I'm probably gonna draft
Speaker 2: more Stours in rookie drafts, right instead of spending a
Speaker 2: top five FFPC rookie pick on Sadik, I can move
Speaker 2: down to the late first and take Stours. I don't
Speaker 2: think the difference is enough for fantasy. I do think
Speaker 2: Sidik is more polished, certainly as a blocker. I think
Speaker 2: Sidik is more polished as in terms of a mover
Speaker 2: and the different routes that he has, especially in the
Speaker 2: red zone. But I think Stowars has that potential and
Speaker 2: because of you know, the QB conversion situation is still
Speaker 2: a little bit wrong when we talk about room to grow,
Speaker 2: I think Stowers has that room to grow. I think Sadiq,
Speaker 2: you know, could we kind of know what he is
Speaker 2: and has that elite potential. But I think Stowers could
Speaker 2: turn into an elite pass catcher in and Rondez Gasden
Speaker 2: type of role. That's what you're gonna have stours do.
Speaker 1: The wide receiver and tight end portion of Shane Hallum's
Speaker 1: analysis tonight is now complete, but we're not going to
Speaker 1: let Shane go gently into that good night quite yet,
Speaker 1: because we do have to pick his brain on Jeremiah Love,
Speaker 1: who the who his number two running back is in
Speaker 1: this class, plus so much more. He's Shane Hallum, draft
Speaker 1: expert from Draft sharks dot Com at Shane P.
Speaker 2: Hallum on X.
Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, because when we come back, we'll not
Speaker 1: only be talking about those players, but we'll get into
Speaker 1: Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson as well. You are watching
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Speaker 1: We are coming into the home stretch of the final
Speaker 1: portion of the FFPC Insider Access Show this evening. Shane
Speaker 1: hallin from Draft Sharks joining me Eric Baltman here talking
Speaker 1: FFPC rookie drafts NFL rookies. And I think if there's
Speaker 1: one name, Shane that has come up over and over
Speaker 1: and over again with this year's rookie class, it is
Speaker 1: the Notre Dame Rushier, Jeremiah Love. We don't have to
Speaker 1: spend a whole lot of time talking about him, because
Speaker 1: what can we say that hasn't already been said? What
Speaker 1: I will post to you is this, If Love is
Speaker 1: to bust at the NFL, why is it? What would
Speaker 1: cause him to bust? If he does have any red flags?
Speaker 1: What are they? What don't you like about Jeremiah Love?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing, and we highlighted this and
Speaker 2: the profile up at Draft Sharks, you know when I
Speaker 2: did the film, part portion of that was his vision's
Speaker 2: just slightly inconsistent. And I think if there's one thing
Speaker 2: that's going to cause him to be a bust. I
Speaker 2: don't think it will happen. Would be he goes to
Speaker 2: a place with a subpar offensive line and Love's vision
Speaker 2: isn't enough to overcome that. You know a lot of
Speaker 2: there are a lot of plays where he is running
Speaker 2: to where you know he's if it's an off tackle play,
Speaker 2: he's running off tackle. He's not looking for that cutback lane,
Speaker 2: he's not hitting it, or you know, he's just going
Speaker 2: where the play is supposed to go and missing maybe
Speaker 2: bigger plays there. I think in the NFL, if you
Speaker 2: have a week offensive line, I think we saw with
Speaker 2: Ashton gent last year at times, you know a week
Speaker 2: offensive line and you have some of those vision limitations.
Speaker 2: That's like the one thing it can sometimes be tough
Speaker 2: to overcome that blocking. Whereas you know Adrian Peterson, one
Speaker 2: of the best running backs of all timer I had
Speaker 2: great vision and he could overcome a bad offensive line
Speaker 2: because he'd always find wherever there was a whole, he
Speaker 2: could find it and get there. I don't think Jeremiah
Speaker 2: Love has that type of ability.
Speaker 1: All the teams you mentioned in the first hour, Titans
Speaker 1: Commander's Giant. If you had the one on one chain
Speaker 1: and you were dead set on taking Love, which team
Speaker 1: would you want him to go to out of those
Speaker 1: three that would maximize his fantasy potential?
Speaker 2: I think I think I'll have a little bit of downside.
Speaker 2: I kind of lean Titans because you know, I always
Speaker 2: worry about a running back with a rushing quarterback. I
Speaker 2: think Jackson Dart and Jane Daniels are probably more rushing
Speaker 2: quarterbacks than Kim Ward is, though he is a little
Speaker 2: bit too, But you know, I think there's more downside
Speaker 2: for that offense as a whole. You know, Washington's probably
Speaker 2: the safest bet, you know, but I don't think. I
Speaker 2: don't think landing spot matters for Love. Someone's taking him
Speaker 2: in the top ten. He's He's the one on one
Speaker 2: in every format for me, even at super Flex. Yes,
Speaker 2: though you can make an argument depending on your team,
Speaker 2: to take Mendoza over Love. I'm taking Love one on
Speaker 2: one in the super Flex League.
Speaker 1: If you're if your three quarterbacks were cam Ward, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: and Justin Fields and you have the one on one,
Speaker 1: would you take Doza over Love?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Yeah, you know, I think it depends on really
Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven. You know, like like that league where
Speaker 2: have a bunch of twenty twenty seven picks. I'm going
Speaker 2: to take Love one on one, and my quarterbacks will
Speaker 2: still stink. And you know I'll worry about that in
Speaker 2: a year.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that's that's a problem for future you right right.
Speaker 1: The list of potential number two running backs in this
Speaker 1: draft goes on and on. Shane, I've heard Washington, I've
Speaker 1: heard Johnson, I've heard Price, I've heard Coleman. There was
Speaker 1: a time I'm old enough to remember when it was
Speaker 1: Nick Singleton was the number two in this class too.
Speaker 1: As a DeBie player, you probably know even better than me.
Speaker 1: Who is your number two running back right now in
Speaker 1: this class?
Speaker 2: It's Genarian Price, the other Notre Dame running back Jeremi
Speaker 2: Loves teammate. I think being Jeremi Love's teammate does have
Speaker 2: some red flags to it. Where Jerring Price, he wasn't
Speaker 2: used as a receiver at all. And this is where
Speaker 2: I think, you know, film and then even the work
Speaker 2: at the combine, the drills are important. Jenerium Price looks
Speaker 2: like a natural pass catcher. I'm sure, Bulky you remember
Speaker 2: Jonathan Taylor and the narratives around his past catching and
Speaker 2: then the combine. I was like, he looks like one
Speaker 2: of the best pass catchers in this draft, and he
Speaker 2: was right, but that's what knocked him. I think Price
Speaker 2: has that. You know, it's such a smooth mover. He's tough,
Speaker 2: really low pad level, has some home run ability, even
Speaker 2: though you know Love's not. He's a four or five
Speaker 2: speed player. He's not maybe the quickest, so he's doesn't
Speaker 2: have this elite athleticism like a Mike Washington. But I
Speaker 2: think Price has that combination that can work. We've now
Speaker 2: seen two big time mock draft smel Kiper and Daniel
Speaker 2: Jeremiah with jeneriing Price in round one. Again, to me,
Speaker 2: he tells you how bad the twenty twenty six classes
Speaker 2: as a whole. Jenering Price is getting into the first
Speaker 2: round of the NFL draft, but that's not out of
Speaker 2: their own possibility.
Speaker 1: Do you have do you in your mock draft? Do
Speaker 1: you just have Love in the first round?
Speaker 2: Yeah? It just love for me. I think Price will
Speaker 2: be a top fifty pick and I We'll see where
Speaker 2: these other running backs land after that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how many running backs do you think if Love
Speaker 1: is the only one on day one. How many running
Speaker 1: backs get drafted on day two?
Speaker 2: I I mean, I'll probably I would probably bet on four.
Speaker 2: My gut tells me three. Uh and I but I
Speaker 2: like the Penn State guys enough that I want to
Speaker 2: believe there's a chance, But I feel like it'll be
Speaker 2: less than we want.
Speaker 1: We were talking about Washington Huskies before. I think Joan
Speaker 1: of Coleman played in Arizona right before transferring to Washington.
Speaker 1: Am I making that up? Or did that happen?
Speaker 2: Correct?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, good, I'm not losing it. Coleman is
Speaker 1: a guy that you do not put in front of Price.
Speaker 1: You have in front of Coleman. But certainly Coleman, with
Speaker 1: his size and his chops in the backfield, there there
Speaker 1: is there are some some really good traits to like
Speaker 1: with Coleman, and ultimately I think he could be really
Speaker 1: successful at the next level if he is paired in
Speaker 1: the right sort of tandem. I don't think he'll ever
Speaker 1: be a Bellkow. But perhaps you think that there is
Speaker 1: that ceiling for Coleman.
Speaker 2: I think that ceiling exists short term. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't think he's ever gonna I don't think Jonah Coleman's
Speaker 2: ever going to be a top five NFL running back
Speaker 2: that you're like, Wow, this guy's you know, on that
Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley level. Like Jonah Coleman. You go back to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and watch this film and I think
Speaker 2: you see a player that's more explosive, that's a little
Speaker 2: you know, a little more athletic in short space, and
Speaker 2: like last year was just just a touch slower a touch.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure why, and that's that's kind of my
Speaker 2: big question. But still, you know, the size, the cutting ability.
Speaker 2: You know, he doesn't fumble, he does everything right, the
Speaker 2: technique's good, the vision solid. Like he's an NFL contributing
Speaker 2: He's a one bee that is going to get a
Speaker 2: good amount of carries and I think produced with those carries.
Speaker 2: He just needs that chance. So I like Coleman. I
Speaker 2: think situation is more important for him than maybe the
Speaker 2: other backs in this range.
Speaker 1: The decision by Emma Johnson to do everything at the combine.
Speaker 1: I think he was the only who did the three
Speaker 1: cone the only running back right that did the three
Speaker 1: cone drop. And he was being lauded by a lot
Speaker 1: of people in the fantasy football industry that he was,
Speaker 1: that they were happy to see him go out there.
Speaker 1: It shows that he wants to compete, that he was
Speaker 1: doing everything, which I think is kind of nice in
Speaker 1: a vacuum. But ultimately, if I'm looking at these guys,
Speaker 1: I just assume they have that killer instinct. I just
Speaker 1: assume that all these guys want to compete. And if
Speaker 1: I'm Emma Johnson and I know doing the three cone
Speaker 1: and the forty is gonna hurt me, I ain't doing it,
Speaker 1: and I'll let teams figure it out themselves. So I
Speaker 1: was kind of disappointed. I guess maybe I was more
Speaker 1: dis pointed, not in his decision to do all these
Speaker 1: but the actual execution of it, which turned out bad.
Speaker 1: Because I was kind of high on Emma Johnson until
Speaker 1: I saw what he did at the Combine, and now
Speaker 1: I'm not nearly as high. And some of these, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of the other guys Coleman and Price will
Speaker 1: talk about Washington in a second. I actually like a
Speaker 1: little bit more. Johnson looked pretty good in the Big
Speaker 1: Tent last year, and now I'm wondering if he does
Speaker 1: have the chops to succeed on the next level. Shane,
Speaker 1: where do you have Emma Johnson among your running backs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think for me, he kind of
Speaker 2: sits in that RB four A range. I have him
Speaker 2: above Washington, And you know, I think Johnson is an
Speaker 2: elite pass catcher, and I think NFL teams now have
Speaker 2: a lot more tools at their disposal. So you know,
Speaker 2: if you remember gunner Helm last year at the combine,
Speaker 2: was injured and did everything anyway, and like you look
Speaker 2: at his RADS score and it's deep red and it's
Speaker 2: like this guy stinks. Right, But teams now you know
Speaker 2: you have film, you have GPS tracking on that film,
Speaker 2: Like there's a lot of things you can do to
Speaker 2: check the numbers and see what you want to do.
Speaker 2: I think Emma Johnson, you know, I think competing is
Speaker 2: good for him. But he is small and he is
Speaker 2: slow for that size. But everything else to me is
Speaker 2: like really good. This is probably the best catching, pass
Speaker 2: catching running back in the class. He's a really good
Speaker 2: just rhythm runner, Like the patter of his feet moved
Speaker 2: to kind of a style where he can make that
Speaker 2: shift and it's a lot more consistent. He's not like
Speaker 2: this herky, jerky, you know, an open space guy, and
Speaker 2: it makes some really tough to bring down and get
Speaker 2: a clean hit on him, which I always like. Knows
Speaker 2: how to kind of set up the second level. Takes
Speaker 2: good angles watching his film like this could be the
Speaker 2: RB two in the class if he was a little
Speaker 2: bit more athletic, you know, if we saw this for
Speaker 2: multiple years. So it definitely holds me back. I think
Speaker 2: Emma Johnson, I like for fantasy more than reality. Even
Speaker 2: because of the pass catching, I just think he's gonna
Speaker 2: be hard to keep off the field. I think you're
Speaker 2: at least gonna get some receiving out of him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is great. We love that. We love pass
Speaker 1: catching run. I'm willing to look the other way on
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff when it comes to pass catching.
Speaker 1: Running backs. Mike Washington Junior was probably the biggest winner
Speaker 1: at the running back position at the Combine athletically. I mean,
Speaker 1: his speed score was unbelievable. What he was able to
Speaker 1: do at his weight and getting that body that size
Speaker 1: to move that fast was pretty awesome. I know he's
Speaker 1: dealt with some injuries before. I saw some people Shane
Speaker 1: moving him up to their running back two in the class.
Speaker 1: Now we know you didn't do that, but at the
Speaker 1: same time. Where was he? Was he a Day three
Speaker 1: pick for you prior to the Combine and it's now
Speaker 1: day two? Or did you not bump him up as much.
Speaker 2: After the Senior Bowl had him as a Day two
Speaker 2: pick in round three? And so this maybe his athleticisms
Speaker 2: was better than I expected. I mean, how could it
Speaker 2: not have been? But I gin guess we expected something
Speaker 2: pretty good. So I could see Washington being the third
Speaker 2: running back off the board after Love and Price, you know,
Speaker 2: but you know, I went back. I tweeted kind of
Speaker 2: a threat about this when I was working on the
Speaker 2: film article for draft shirts for what Mike Washington went
Speaker 2: back to his new Mexico State tape and watched him
Speaker 2: and it's like it's like a completely different player, you know,
Speaker 2: two years ago, and no idea what he's looking for
Speaker 2: in a hole, no idea you know how to how
Speaker 2: to kind of shift and make a cut behind the
Speaker 2: line to get the most out of that explosion. He'd
Speaker 2: slow down a lot to make a cut. Well, you know,
Speaker 2: in the fumbles have carried on through this year. And
Speaker 2: then you watch him in Arkansas against the SEC, and
Speaker 2: you see a player that clearly got much better coaching
Speaker 2: at the running back position and what to look for
Speaker 2: and how to make a cut and what the what
Speaker 2: your feet are supposed to do. So to me, that
Speaker 2: bodes well. I mean you see the improvement from him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's older, he's only had one year of development. I
Speaker 2: think it's a red flag. I think you got to
Speaker 2: be worried. You know, he is a receiver in high school.
Speaker 2: I think the receiving chops come out despite the size.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot to like that power and
Speaker 2: smooth movement. I think the upside is, you know, a
Speaker 2: lead running back is an elite running back. I think
Speaker 2: the downside is a player that can't you'll get on
Speaker 2: the field that that's more athlete than running back. So
Speaker 2: probably the biggest boom or bust of this running back
Speaker 2: class are those.
Speaker 1: The four guys that we just discussed Coleman, Price, Johnson, Washington.
Speaker 1: Are those the four guys if they if you were
Speaker 1: to say four running backs are gonna go on day two?
Speaker 1: Are those of the four that go on day two?
Speaker 2: Yes? I think Johnson's on the border and I think
Speaker 2: he could fall out of there, you know why, Like
Speaker 2: kind of my guts is three. But those are the
Speaker 2: four that I envision.
Speaker 1: All Right, we have to talk We talked about the
Speaker 1: Notre Dame guys. We have to talk about the Penn
Speaker 1: State guys here too, because Penn State was such a
Speaker 1: wild story this year where Drew Aller comes back, Singleton's
Speaker 1: coming back. You know, they had all these this talent
Speaker 1: and they were under they were undefeated. Who do they
Speaker 1: lose to? Is it Indiana? Was that the first loss
Speaker 1: that they had this season? And things just fell apart.
Speaker 1: James Franklin gets fired. Now he's at Virginia Tech before
Speaker 1: the college season even ends. As faris Bieler would say,
Speaker 1: things move pretty fast around here. Nick Singleton, you've known
Speaker 1: for years, uh to owning him in Debi what happened
Speaker 1: to him at Penn State to to lose so much
Speaker 1: of his prospect shine to the point where now a
Speaker 1: lot of people would even put k Tron Allen above
Speaker 1: him and Shane. The fact that he's got he's dealing
Speaker 1: with a broken foot right now. Is somebody going to
Speaker 1: find a nice little value on him. Some team gonna
Speaker 1: find a nice value on him when it comes to
Speaker 1: be the NFL Draft. Knowing that, you know, we don't
Speaker 1: know how far along the foot is to being healed,
Speaker 1: and we missed out on a lot of stuff at
Speaker 1: the combine and workouts and stuff after he fractured his
Speaker 1: foot at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think that hurts, but I think
Speaker 2: the NFL and US know he's an elite athlete, is
Speaker 2: one of the best athletes of the position. Singleton and
Speaker 2: Kate Troan Allen couldn't be more different. Singleton was this
Speaker 2: elite athlete, super explosive, the deep speed was there, of
Speaker 2: the home run threats there, just never could get the
Speaker 2: running back position down with you know, the division was
Speaker 2: so poor early in his career and he saw like
Speaker 2: slight improvements every year. But I was just waiting for
Speaker 2: the blow up the year that Nick Singleton would become,
Speaker 2: you know, a fully well rounded running back. You know,
Speaker 2: in a Penn State system that has some of the
Speaker 2: best training staff in college football. You know, we see
Speaker 2: the elite athletes out of Penn State every year, like,
Speaker 2: how do you not develop as a runner? And that's
Speaker 2: what gets me, like, I think I'll have a lot
Speaker 2: of Nick Singleton and rookie drafts because I'll bet on
Speaker 2: the upside and he's gonna come to me we'll see
Speaker 2: what the situations are. But cheaper than a Mike Washington,
Speaker 2: cheaper than you know, Jonah Coleman, And I think the
Speaker 2: upside is above those players. But I never saw an
Speaker 2: NFL running back in terms of the little things, the vision,
Speaker 2: the footwork, the ability to make guys miss just never
Speaker 2: came around. Whereas Kate ron Allen is like the perfect
Speaker 2: technique running back who you know knows knows how to
Speaker 2: how to get low through the hole and knows how
Speaker 2: to take contact and uh, you know, knows how to
Speaker 2: how to what cutback lanes to look for, how to
Speaker 2: follow zone blocks that Nick Singleton just ignores. But Alan
Speaker 2: just isn't explosive, Like he is so slow off the
Speaker 2: snap that you're like, I don't think this can work
Speaker 2: in the NFL. And it's why I still see both
Speaker 2: his Day three picks, like, I think a team in
Speaker 2: this weak or twenty twenty six class could take a
Speaker 2: shot on either one in round three, but uh, I
Speaker 2: think both just have these glaring holes out there that
Speaker 2: makes it tough to really see either one as a
Speaker 2: day you know, Day one player contributor in the NFL.
Speaker 1: If only you could combine those and make a Nick
Speaker 1: Allen or a k Trot Singleton. You'd have somebody competing
Speaker 1: with Jeremiah Love to be the number one running back
Speaker 1: drafted this year. Alas we don't have that. We have
Speaker 1: two separate players. If you were to take a shot
Speaker 1: on one of these guys at the next level right now, Shane,
Speaker 1: not knowing where they end up, would you rather put
Speaker 1: your chips on Singleton or Alan?
Speaker 2: Yeah, give me Singleton. I mean I think Alan could
Speaker 2: be fine, could you know, be a nice bench running
Speaker 2: back for you. But like at this point, I mean
Speaker 2: I would swing for the fences and give me a
Speaker 2: Nick Singleton if he goes to a good situation, gets
Speaker 2: the playing time, gets the coaching that he could be
Speaker 2: the best running back to come out of this class,
Speaker 2: which is saying something when you have Jeremiah Love out there.
Speaker 1: The last running back I want to talk about is
Speaker 1: Demon Claiborne, the Wake Forest product, a guy that I
Speaker 1: was I was drafting in this Super Sunday draft in Louisville,
Speaker 1: Super Bowl weekend with a redraft manage league is not
Speaker 1: even best ball, and I did see Claiborne go off
Speaker 1: the board in a handful of drafts towards the end,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering what you think of him as a pro.
Speaker 1: Is he big enough, is he strong enough? Do enough
Speaker 1: people like him, as Stuart Smalley would say, to be
Speaker 1: a successful NFL running back. How much of a sleeper
Speaker 1: is Claiborne in this year class shame?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's intriguing. I mean, he's a really
Speaker 2: good athlete who had the rib injury this year I
Speaker 2: think kind of capped him. The wake Forest offense wasn't
Speaker 2: as good two years ago. You see that kind of
Speaker 2: speed demon shiftiness in the open field that can have
Speaker 2: a role in the NFL. I mean, I think Claiborne
Speaker 2: is probably gonna make his bones as a return guy.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be kind of the first thing, and then
Speaker 2: he can be kind of a third down running back.
Speaker 2: He gets tackled too easily. He's you know a little
Speaker 2: more always trying to make the big play and sometimes
Speaker 2: gets some caught and because he can't really break a tackle,
Speaker 2: it goes poorly for him. So I definitely see him
Speaker 2: as more of a number two running back in the league.
Speaker 2: But he could have you know, big run and it's
Speaker 2: seventy yard touchdown here and there. That makes you say, oh,
Speaker 2: he's a guy should have, you know, on the bench.
Speaker 1: Moving on to quarterbacks, as we wrap up the running
Speaker 1: back conversation, Bernanda Mendoz is an interesting player because a
Speaker 1: not interesting player. Well, he is an interesting player, but
Speaker 1: the whole thing about the situation is very interesting and
Speaker 1: interesting in a good way. He's probably gonna be selected
Speaker 1: number one. He's gonna go to the Raiders. They have
Speaker 1: Clint Kubiak, who I think is a really smart offensive
Speaker 1: guy who knows how to scheme his players up to
Speaker 1: play to their strengths, which I think is a feather
Speaker 1: in Mendoza's cap. He's gonna have genty behind him. He's
Speaker 1: gonna have an improved and healthier offensive line in front
Speaker 1: of him. Rock Bauers obviously on this team. Jalen Naylor's
Speaker 1: there as well. We'll see what Jack Besh does in
Speaker 1: his second year, so he's got some things to work
Speaker 1: with there in Las Vegas. I think what's interesting is,
Speaker 1: at least the reporting that I'm seeing is that the
Speaker 1: Raiders don't want to start him week one. They want
Speaker 1: some veteran to kind of start over him and then
Speaker 1: ease Mendoza, in which I think is the right way
Speaker 1: to do it. My question for you is, even though
Speaker 1: he is going to be the number one overall pick
Speaker 1: and he won the Heisman and he was the National
Speaker 1: Championship quarterback and all these things, how good of a
Speaker 1: pro is he going to be? Like? What? What's his
Speaker 1: ceiling at the next level. I've heard a lot of
Speaker 1: Jared Goff comparisons, which I think is fine, but at
Speaker 1: the one on one I would I would hope for more,
Speaker 1: something more dynamic than that. At the peak of his
Speaker 1: powers in the NFL shape, what's Mendoza going to be?
Speaker 1: Uh So?
Speaker 2: So my compent a rookie guide, I think is it
Speaker 2: was Eli Manning with some rush rushing ability, you know,
Speaker 2: tossed in some scrambling ability tossed in which I think
Speaker 2: is better than Jared Goff, but still probably more than
Speaker 2: more than you want with with the one on one right,
Speaker 2: And I think that's what Mendoz is going to be. Like,
Speaker 2: I think I'm with you. I think a situation's perfect
Speaker 2: Kubiak offense allows a quarterback to to really be in timing,
Speaker 2: you know, be able to get those throws out, and
Speaker 2: Mendoz is accurate enough to I think to hit that
Speaker 2: and do that. He's going to have the offensive line upgrade.
Speaker 2: He's gonna have brock Bowers, he's gonna have Ashton Gent
Speaker 2: to lean on. That run game. Kubiak is always going
Speaker 2: to be run first. I think all this works. I
Speaker 2: think where Mendoza falters is under pressure, and there just
Speaker 2: wasn't a ton of that because of the RPOs and
Speaker 2: the timing rounds that they had in Indiana. But when
Speaker 2: he did get pressured in the Big Ten Championship against
Speaker 2: Ohio State, for example, you know that that's where he struggled.
Speaker 2: And there's times he put on the Superman cape and
Speaker 2: and and made a great throw under pressure and it worked.
Speaker 2: And so I think you see those flashes, but I
Speaker 2: think it's going to take some time for him to
Speaker 2: do that. It's great to want to start a veteran.
Speaker 2: There's not a veteran on the market I think is
Speaker 2: going to compete with Mendoza in camp and and the
Speaker 2: whole team's gonna say, you gotta, you gotta start this year.
Speaker 2: They gotta start Mendoza, like he's so much better. Right,
Speaker 2: you know you're gonna lose the team if you don't
Speaker 2: start the best quarterback so I think he'll be good.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to be great.
Speaker 1: Oh do we lose Shane. We may have lost Shane,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's me.
Speaker 2: He's still hearing you go out there, we go, You're back,
Speaker 2: You're back, We're we're both turning there.
Speaker 1: All right. Sorry, good, not great, is what I'm hearing
Speaker 1: from you, Shane, And for at least from fantasy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's a capped up side with Mendoza. You know,
Speaker 1: people trying to call the Joe Burrow. I mean, Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow was elite in that season at LSU. I mean,
Speaker 1: under pressure, every throw was incredible. Like Mendoza is not that.
Speaker 1: But I think he has the traits to be, you know,
Speaker 1: to be in the Brock Purty tier of quarterback where
Speaker 1: he could be a top twelve quarter fantasy quarterback. But
Speaker 1: you just you're not gonna get the number one scorer.
Speaker 2: Ever.
Speaker 1: The only other quarterback I'll bring up is Ty Simpson.
Speaker 1: I'm very concerned about his lack of collegiate experience and
Speaker 1: now when he gets to the next level, I hope
Speaker 1: he doesn't land with a team that's gonna throw him
Speaker 1: into the fire right away. This is what I would
Speaker 1: have loved if the Rams would have kept that extra
Speaker 1: first round pick to draft him and let him marinate
Speaker 1: behind Matthew Stafford. And now I just fear like this
Speaker 1: guy is not going to be given a proper chance
Speaker 1: at the next level. If he was, and if he did,
Speaker 1: certainly I think there's some upside there. I just I
Speaker 1: guess I don't know how much. How would you rate
Speaker 1: Ty Simpson as far as how well, how good of
Speaker 1: a pro career you think he's going to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm concerned over the last ten years,
Speaker 2: first round quarterbacks with fifteen or fewer starts, Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 2: Mitch Trubisky, Dwayne Haskins. That's the list that's not good.
Speaker 2: That's not a good list to be on right now.
Speaker 2: I think Tysons is very different from saying Anthony Richardson
Speaker 2: or one of those type of players, Like what ty
Speaker 2: Simpson's good at. His dad is the head coach at
Speaker 2: UC Davis for twenty years. Like tysubs has probably had
Speaker 2: a QB coach when he was four. You know, his technique,
Speaker 2: I mean, his footwork is excellent. He but just the
Speaker 2: decision making and the arm strength isn't there, you know,
Speaker 2: and so when to me, like you look at a
Speaker 2: guy like Cole Payton from North Dakota State, a quarterback
Speaker 2: in this class who is footwork's all over the place,
Speaker 2: but his arm is stronger than Simpson. If I clean
Speaker 2: up that footwork, that arm gets a little bit stronger.
Speaker 2: I think Simpson's capped out in a lot of those places.
Speaker 2: He doesn't have the experience I think to make the
Speaker 2: right decisions and get the ball in the right place.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of fear. I think if it's
Speaker 2: better for Simpson to go in around two, you know,
Speaker 2: to get that and I don't think I haven't rated
Speaker 2: currently as a late second round pick. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: obviously going to go higher than that, but I certainly
Speaker 2: don't like him going in the first round than what
Speaker 2: that means for his future.
Speaker 1: Shane, this has been awesome having you tonight talking all
Speaker 1: these rookies, and for anybody who's watching or listening and
Speaker 1: they want to get more. The Draft Sharks Rookie Guide
Speaker 1: available at Draft sharks dot com. Top fifty prospects, trade values,
Speaker 1: model scores, production metrics, player comps as you've been saying tonight.
Speaker 1: Combined results available at draft sharks dot com. How many
Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars is this going to set people back? Shane,
Speaker 1: It's free.
Speaker 2: All you have to do is give us your email.
Speaker 2: It's free. So there you go.
Speaker 1: The Rookie Draft Guide available now at draft sharks dot com.
Speaker 1: It's free. Get enter your email, they will send you
Speaker 1: the guide. It's a fantastic Shane P. Hallim on X
Speaker 1: keep up the great work. And final question for you,
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft is in your backyard this year? Are
Speaker 1: you going to be attending.
Speaker 2: The draft?
Speaker 1: Sharks?
Speaker 2: Were actually going to Savannah, Georgia. We meet up for
Speaker 2: the draft every year, so I will actually not be
Speaker 2: in Pittsburgh, which is crazy. I didn't apply for credential
Speaker 2: just to see if they'll give me one. But yeah,
Speaker 2: kind of funny.
Speaker 1: Did you do you guys go to Georgia every year?
Speaker 1: Is it at a different spot every year?
Speaker 2: Different different kind of Southwest spot every year?
Speaker 1: We did?
Speaker 2: We did Savannah last year, We're doing it again this year,
Speaker 2: so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Fantastic stuff. We'll enjoy yourself. Say hi to to to Lenny,
Speaker 1: to Jared, to Matt, to Kevin, to Alex, everybody there
Speaker 1: always appreciate the great work that you guys do there.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for carving out some time with
Speaker 1: me tonight, and we will have to do this again
Speaker 1: very soon and obviously enjoy the draft. Shane.
Speaker 2: Oh thanks Eric, you too, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that's Shane Hallam, Ladies and gentlemen. That's gonna wrap
Speaker 1: up tonight's show of FFPC insider Access. I want to
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