Top 10 TE Rankings + Fantasy Nosedives - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/17

Maybe they are values, but there's a reason they're going where they are going in fantasy drafts. And when you're talking about, last year coming into the season, Houston Texans, you're thinking of a prop bet of, well, they might score the most points in the NFL. They are an elite offense to now, I have no idea what to think about this offense. I'm in. All jokes aside, I actually, I'm going to believe in Deshaun Watson in the.

in the board. Who's the value then? Brandon Cooks. Oh, maybe, maybe. Maybe. Let's get into some news. News and notes from around the league. All right. Washington football team activated Alex Smith from the active PUP list. Unbelievable. Look, throwing this out there for dynasty owners. He's on dynasty waivers. I got him in both of our main dynasty leagues and it didn't cost me anything.

Free to pick up. I had a player I could move to my IR. Just check your league and see if you can pick him up because he could win that job. All right. Carry on Johnson was spotted in a knee brace at training camp. Carry on. That's a nice pivot. We have a new. That is a nice pivot. We have a new carry on drop. Nothing really matters. You are right. Well, and then they signed running back Jonathan Williams.

Oh, I remember him. Remember that week? That was awesome. It probably says something about that carry-on recovery. He was that exciting Buffalo Bill backup, right? Oh, you're forgetting the Colts. A cult superstar. Yeah, I mean, everywhere. Two weeks? Yeah, a week or two. A week or two. And he looked good. But Carillon Johnson hurt again. And the team has really not come out. And it'd be nice if that happened and the team came out and said DeAndre Swift is like our future, he's going to be our guy. But they've pretty much.

You know, Swift came out a month ago said, I've been guaranteed nothing. The team says still to be determined. Right now, I would consider DeAndre Swift a third downback. Really? Yeah, because I don't know what's going to go beyond that. I don't know if they're going to do a shared. Bo Scarborough is going to be involved in the offense. Weather carry-ons back. Swift is third down right now is the way I'm looking at. At least he's talented. Yeah, Swift is the best running back on the team.

If you're going, you know, the cream rises. Yeah. Then I'm still fine. I'm still okay taking a shot on Swift. Adam Gaze said Denzel Mims, injured hamstring, no timetable to return. They also lost Vincent Smith, so they went out and signed Chris Hogan. Mediocre signing of the wig. Oh, Chris Hogan. Do you think he still has his my guy metal up in his room? Oh, the mighty have fallen. But basically, the jets have.

Let's transition to hype here. One, Jameson Crowder is standing out as by far the best wide receiver in camp. We knew that. Yeah. Yeah, we saw the depth chart. We thought maybe Denzel Mims would, you know, do something, but he's hurt. And Chris Herndon. Chris Herndon, big expectations from Adam Gaze. Oh, we're back. He's come out and said he's our starting tight end. We're back. Chris Herndon on the field is extremely fantasy relevant to me.

I've been very excited about him coming back. He's probably going to be on more of my teams than any other tight in because he's not being drafted or he's being drafted very late. And he could be the number one or number two target on the team. Yeah, that's the thing that's exciting about him. If you punt the position, he's completely free. Like I like Johnny Smith a lot this year. He's a guy that I think could break out. But when I compare him to Chris Herndon, who I could get after my draft off of waivers or just pick with my last pick if I wanted.

he could legitimately become the 1B as far as target in this offense, which is exciting upside. I know that we would not normally prescribe like two tight ends on your team, but I don't have a problem. Let's say you have your last two picks and you went Hernd and Jarwin to see who breaks out week one. Sure. I mean, do you want to do that or do you want to pay half your fab in week one for the tight end that breaks out trying to grab the next kiddle Andrews, whatever the case may be?

Yeah, if there's nobody really appealing at running back or wide receiver in your last round, I see that point. Mike's lips curled upwards at the thought of someone else drafting Blake Jarwin right there. It's not happening. He was actually, you were just talking to Mike. I just meant like in other leagues. Oh, no, it's happening. Well, you mentioned, you know, do you want to have to spend half of your fab on the next George Kittle? And I'm like, no, just draft Blake Jarwin.

If he's not a my guy this week, our my guy episode is Thursday. That's a big announcement. That's a big deal. Listen in. Tell your friends. Let's see if Blake makes the list. Kyle Shanahan said first round rookie running back, Brandon Ayuk, is further ahead than a lot of rookies. Did you call him a running back? Did I hear you? Did I don't know. Wide receiver. Brooks? Brooks? Whatever. Brooks isn't listening. I told you he's in hibernation. He's done. He's spent. How do you feel about the megal bowl, Brooks?

Oh, yeah. That was a recording. He just played back his recording. He can't, he doesn't have the energy to put that out fresh. He's a ride receiver, Mike. Yeah. And further ahead than a lot of rookies. It matters a little bit to me coming from Kyle Shanhan, specifically, who's been traditionally very hard on all of his wide receivers. Dante. The guy who put Pettis in a body bag? Yeah. Yeah.

He also said that Debo has a chance of being available week one against Arizona. He's not counting on it, but has a chance. Okay, well, I'm going to take the not counting on it part. Debo is still your highest ranked wide receiver for the 49ers, I assume? He is for me, yes. Okay. And then help me wade through this. Brian Edwards, third round rookie wide receiver from Las Vegas, getting first team reps ahead of Henry Ruggs.

A lot of the, you know, conjecture and hype, Derek Carr coming out. Oh, he's like Devante Adams. You can give him the 50-50 ball. Athletic freak. First team reps. But a lot of their first team wasn't getting an opportunity in practice. Aguilar, Zay Jones, Devante Booker, or starters here. What do you think about Brian Edwards? Is he sneaky? Does he enter the conversation for you like Rager, Judy?

Lamb, late round, Jefferson, late round rookie wide receivers? I'll speak first because I know Mike is a little bit more hot and bothered. I am not in on any Las Vegas receiver. The cost for Darren Waller, who I love, who is great, he is the walrus. We'll talk about him today. It's difficult because they added so, they added Nelson Aguilar, they added Henry Ruggs, they added Brian Edwards. These guys are all good. It's still Derek.

car throwing in the ball. They are still rookies. I just feel like, you know, if they're all kind of really good and they're going to bring this offense to the next step, but they're all eaten into each other's targets and opportunities and it's still their car, I just don't know what the ceiling is for those guys. In redraft, you know, obviously in Dynasty, those prospects look really, really promising. I will say Brian Edwards, he would have been a much higher draft pick, but he got hurt.

during the draft process. And we see this happen all the time that someone, if they're hurt in that process, they just fall in the draft. It's what happens if you're not Hollywood Marquis Brown and then you're still a first round pick. He's, he is an excellent, excellent wide receiver. I really like him. And look, would you draft him over Henry Rush? I like taking shots at Derek Carr whenever I can. But.

Derek Carr did sustain Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper once upon a time. Now, Darren Waller changes things a lot if he's going to be the number one target. But we've seen wide receivers be perfectly fine. In fact, very good for fantasy purposes while Derek Carr is the quarterback of the team. I'm still taking Rager and Jerry Judy over Brian Edwards. What about Ruggs specifically?

Are you taking rugs or edwards? I think that's the bigger question if you're going to spend on the chance. I'm still going to take rugs. I'm going to take the guy they took early in the first round over Brian Edwards. Who's one of the fastest guys in the NFL. And we, I shared this.

this weekend, but if you haven't watched him play basketball. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I saw him jump over a skyscraper. It's fun. It's fun to watch this 5-11 guy just dunk it on fools. Yeah. It's not fair. It isn't fair. And it's not fair that I didn't get that body because I love basketball. And I would love to do that just once, just once in my life. Is that what you'd say to him if you walked out? It's unfair that I didn't get your body. Yes, that's what I plan to say if I meet Henry Ruggs. Oh, dude.

Sweet body. I wish I had that. Can I have it? Sweet body. Look, bro, your body. It's pretty sweet. Whoa, you're athletic. All right. On a bigger, better, brighter note, as he dunks all over me. It's tight in time. Look, Fookland, you've got to check out Underdog Fantasy. We've been talking about in the last couple of weeks. Underdog Fantasy, yep, they are up in our studio. They are on our phones. Download the app. If you're playing best ball, if you want to get prepared for your drafts,

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You get free shipping in a 60-day risk-free trial. Nothing to lose. SimplySafe.com slash footballers. Tight-ins. All right. I'd like to dedicate this episode to Matt Nagy. He loves him some tight-ins. Dubbed the tight-in collector by Kyle the Borgogan. Or maybe that was Brooks. I'm not sure. Let's talk about tight-in strategy for a second before we get into our top 10 tight-ins.

On today's episode, we've been doing these rankings breakdowns over the last week. This is our kind of final episode of those. But one of the things that is very tempting as a fantasy football player, and I will admit, I'm tempted by it even as a player of 15 years of playing fantasy football, when you're in the middle of a draft and you see your roster on the right side of the screen and you start to fill in spots and it looks so beautiful.

Wonderful. Do I want to really get this guy who's going to go on my bench? Yeah. I still haven't started my tight end yet, you know. And so we're tempted to grab that tight in no matter what. Just fill that starting roster. Don't do it. Yeah. I mean, here's the reality. Those top end tight ends, and we all know who there are. There's two tiers. Two tiers of two guys. You got the Kittle Kelsey. Great.

Grab them. They're going to be fantastic. They're going to help your team. And you've got the tier two, the Mark Andrews, Zacherts. We'll get to those guys. But if you miss out on one of them, there are plenty of other tight ends out there who are better, more assured of production, and will be higher ranked in our rankings than the later round guys. But the gap.

is the Grand Canyon when you're talking about from the top tier tight ends to the streaming options. And even if you get one of those next tier guys, you're wasting out on a running back or wide receiver pick that is important in that fifth, sixth, seventh round. You know, to me, it's pretty simple. I look for value on one of those top four guys to drop. If I can grab them, great. If not, I am.