Fantasy Football - The TRUTH: Top 10 Fantasy TEs + Wheel of Shame - Podcast for 2/5

Yes. That's the problem with Kyle Pitts. Until he turns 30, you're going to make some argument for him. We can all be talked back into Kyle Pitts after this season. Did you know? Because he's only 25. That's always the reason. That an 11 years his senior, Travis Kelsey, was number three. Yeah, the tight end's top 10 is pretty weird. You think people are turning the show off? I think they're just waiting. No way, man. They're just waiting. Quick, look at this shirt. Avoid your eyes. Oh my goodness. Hey, family show. Yeah, come on. Don't take your clothes off. Man. Goodness. It's just his jacket. I know, but felt like he was showing us. His shirt. Dim shirts. Oh, man. Travis Kelsey. Out here in the Valley playing golf right about now. We're going to get a resignation letter here today.

Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey is. You look good, Al. You look good. Thanks. Kelsey is dropping weight like Bitcoin's dropping value. Yeah, that's true. It's good and bad. Kelsey's 36 years old. Somehow number three. Seventh in consistency in the first half, 14th in the second half, eighth overall. 18% great games is your number three overall tight in, which did I give those numbers for Kyle Pitts? 18% great games for Kyle Pitts. So just look at that. 44% from McBride to 18% for the next man up. 53% good games for both Kelsey and Pitts. You know, it was a stabilizing, he was a stabilizing tight-in for your team. You could put him out there and know that you're going to get production when you have 850 yards receiving and, you know, probably lower than expected numbers in terms of touchdowns. I mean, the career is winding down for Travis Kelsey. Do I think he's going to come back? I actually do.

I think he'll probably be back for another year. He's got a little far in him. Yeah, he might. At the end of the season, the way that he was speaking about the Mahomes injury, it felt like he wasn't going to come back right now. The vibes seem like, it's certainly at least 50-50. Do I want him to come back? Do you want the year of dealing with Kelsey decision-making? I do not want him to come back. I think that the opportunity for other pass catchers there would be great if he walks away. And I don't know, you know, he'll be playing at 36 this coming season. I still won't be confident in playing him. I know he's the tight end three, but it's very similar to Kyle Pitts. He played 17 games. You'd rather have. I'd rather have a ton of guys than if, if Travis Kelsey is back next year, he'll probably be around my tight end nine or 10, which, hey, that's a, that's a tight end one.

Oh! Hey! Hey! Get the water bottle out. No, but what I was actually going to say is you'd rather have the conversation about who's going to be the next man up for Mahomes than saying... Exactly. Then saying where does Kelsey fit into this puzzle that is still getting figured out? I want... Reminder, Patrick Mahomes, Torres left ACL in week 15. Lindsay Vaughn wouldn't care. Well... Did you see Lindsay Vaughn working out? Like on video? With the ruptured... She ruptured at her entire... And a meniscus. Yes. So either she is... Tell me rupture versus tear. I feel like it means there was an explosion. That's the only thing you can mean. There was some sort of explosion. One is like, imagine ripping, right? You rip a piece of paper. Yeah, now... Now rupture that piece of paper. Now imagine... Yeah, exactly. You, that's... You blew it up. You destroyed it with a gust of air that just exploded that paper. That's what happened. So her... Her ACLs in thousands... Her ACLs in thousands of pieces inside your name. Tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of... Thank you, Jason. Yeah.

And she's going to be in the Olympics, which, by the way, from what I've seen from skiing, and I'm just a layman, I've never really skied. But it seems your knees are involved. Yeah. I do believe they use the knees. Now, if she was one of those straight down and then you go and you go off the ramp and you launch for like a ski jump? A ski jumper. If you did that, I see no ACL being needed because it's a straight line. But it seems like the other skiers really use them. Yeah. I bet she's used them before. Apparently, she's already like, she's going to give it a go. Go watch the workout video. A week ago, she blew her knee up. And now she's like, it's wild. It's amazing. So for Travis Kelsey, what I want. How did we start talking about that? Because I was reminding people that Mahomes tore his ACL in week 15, which timeline means being ready for a week one will be sketchy. Now, with the way the NFL works, I would probably expect Mahomes to be there in week one. However, if he's not.

whatever week he shows up, I want it to be, like, they have to hide it. It's a full secret. It's like week three, hey, Mahomes starts. And then boom, Travis Kelsey just comes out the locker room with Patrick Mahomes. They should draft, what is it, Dylan Ryola to be able to be like the placeholder Mahomes for the first couple weeks. Oh, the guy who emulates everything he does. I think he's in college still. By the way, my rankings go, right now they go McBride. Then I would go Vaughn. Then I would move Vaughn to like Kittle or something. Dallas Goddard was number four. What is this show? That's what I'm saying. To be fair, Dallas Goddard. Look at this shirt again. This is more entertaining. Yeah. The tight ends. I'm sorry everyone. Titans suck. We really should be doing this in order of like points per game because these tight ends had a lot of injuries this year. Look at his headshot.

Oh, man. Dallas Goddard? I'm feeling spicy this morning. Listen, if you told me, hey, you want to make a boring show, you'd be like, let's talk about Goddard Kelsey and Pitts. Give me turkey leg. He is a little Neanderthalic. Yeah. Wow. Nice hair. This is what we have to talk about a man's physical appearance to make this show compelling. That's what, look at this shirt. I mean, that's a little. The whole show started that way, man. That is true. This is a big show. Do you care if I start blitzing these a little bit? Not at all. Dallas Goddard was number four with a consistency of four. So you did the job, Dallas. Yeah, he really did. He was good this season on the back of touchdowns, 11 touchdowns, which was a career high for a player who really wasn't known as a touchdown. His career high had been five, and that was in year two, 2019. He hadn't scored pre-pandemic. Five touchdowns since pre-pandemic, and then he comes out with 11.

Never expected. It took too long for fantasy managers to actually accept it. And what's ironic is his stretch of great games where it was just like touchdown every single week. Weeks three through eight were like, you're not believing that. We're in. And then as soon as you get in, he's back from the bye week. It sucks for a month. And then you're like, ah, we knew it. And then you bench him. And then the next two weeks he's good again. It's like it was a terrible process. And going into next year, uh, You know, he'll be playing into his 32nd year. We don't know how this offense is going to run. New offensive coordinator. Is he a free agent? I am not going to. Is he? Yeah, he's a free agent. So Pitts and Goddard, two and four. And he had four more touchdowns in AJ Brown. So that's enough to make you pull your hair out like he clearly has. And then Goddard had seven previous years of evidence based, you know, like 11 touchdowns. That's just.

And also it was very difficult for Goddard. He had career lows in yards per route run, yards per reception, yards after catch per reception on eight contested catch opportunities. He caught zero of them. He just. The truth of Dallas Goddard is he got a bunch of touchdowns. And if you played him, you were happy. If you didn't, you weren't in those touchdown weeks. And he's not that great. And he's not going to be great for fantasy next year. Moving on. Thank you. Yeah, he's a new Kyle Rudolph season type of situation. Oh, yeah. Remember old Kyle Rudolph? I was going to see what is like touchdown. But Kyle Rudolph was touchdowns a lot. Like he never got double digits actually. Well, double digits versus four. I'll bet he had a lot of seasons with more than four. Yeah. Six, seven, eight, nine.

Don't okay. Okay. Where's the water bottle? We have a spray bottle for this reason. Jason hit the spray bottle. I took it home. My children are using it getting ready in the mornings. Here's a good bad one to talk about, but it's much more fun. Tyler Warren is number five, which is awesome. As a rookie, awesome. Probably if Daniel Jones doesn't go down. We're talking about him as up there with McBride. I think we're talking about him at number two. You're saying next year would you rather have McBride with his regression or, I mean. Oh, not even close. McBride by a million miles. But my point is as a rookie coming into his second year, if he finished the entire season as he started, we wouldn't like Loveland right now. Is the darling? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The question feels like, oh, would you rather have Loveland or?

or Tyler Warren, that would never have been, even if Loveland did what he did, it would never have been a question if Tyler Warren kept going. It just didn't lose Daniel Jones. No, yeah. I was going to say when the Achilles tour for Daniel Jones, it took Tyler Warren's fantasy production with him. Yes, it did. Last five weeks of the season, he was irrelevant. Didn't help your fantasy playoffs. So you're exactly right. I mean, the perception of Warren right now is like, darn. You know what I mean? It ended that way. Now, he was really good with. with Daniel Jones. He was number eight in consistency, so he wasn't McBride-level setting the world on fire, but you saw the ascension as a rookie and you knew where it could be headed. And we thought maybe this would be another season where another rookie titan could get in a number one spot. So to give you an example of how important that injury was, we look at first half versus second half, but if we just look at the entire season, because Daniel Jones didn't get injured until week 14.

If you look at weeks... Man, that was a long five weeks for... I know. Was it really week 14? Yeah, it felt like it was earlier, but it wasn't. So week 14, he gets injured. Up until that point, weeks 1 through 13, Tyler Warren would have had the consistency score of tight-end 4. He was basically as he was a true Titan 1 for fantasy, very good, a difference maker. If you look at from 14 through 18, he would have had the consistency score of 53. He was, I mean, 53. What? Just absurdly irrelevant. So it was all the quarterback. Just a small correction. He tore it in week 13, not 14. Oh, he missed. His first miss. His first miss. In week 13. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, you know, this is, this is the exciting part for fantasy football is you get up and coming tight ends that are 23 years old.

that obviously have proven that they belong in the league and they can be a primary pass catcher. It's just going to be a quarterback issue for the Colts and Tyler Warren, which is a big deal. They have to figure it out. That's why I like Loveland more. It's just because I already know what I... You see the end of the season. I know what I'm getting with Caleb Williams and Loveland's the best pass catcher there. Now, if Daniel Jones is back, I mean, where does Warren go? Three at the position? Four? I don't know. That's going to be... something for us to figure out later this this summer but we know that since the year 2000 only four rookie tight ends have caught 70 receptions or more and go for over 800 yards it's jeremy sam lapporte of brock bowers and tyler warren yeah it was uh he did everything he could possibly do as a rookie to impress us he just was a victim of some circumstance over the back half and still wasn't the best rookie tight end well

We'll take a break. We'll talk about another rookie. The big game is almost here, and there's no better way to cash in. during America's biggest sporting event than prize picks, where it always feels good to be right. And right now on prize picks, you can find your community with the new social feeds feature. You can share prize picks with your friends, copy lineups from winners with a single click. You can copy lineups you like or use them as an inspiration for your own picks. You can even follow prize picks partners like us and tail or fade our picks with just one click. We have been loving the prize picks app all you long on the fantasy football.

I mean, truly before this year as well, but more or less. It's just it's so simple. It's so connected with fantasy football. We're talking, you know, passing yards, receiving touchdowns, targets, things that we already know and we understand. And honestly, if we know fantasy football, we're pretty good at projecting those things. So make sure you check it out. Download the prize picks app today and use code ballers to get $50 in lineups. after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code ballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. This week, prize picks has a special max discount for the big game live in the app. Now, Drake May needs just one passing yard for the max discount to win. Just add another player to your lineup. And if your pick hits, you can cash in. Prize Picks. It's good to be right. From Tyler Warren to number six on the list, Harold Fanon Jr. Just 21.

years old. The best rookie tight end. Consistency rank of six. Consistency rank of five in the second half. Fanon was 56% good games, 19% great. It was done in spite of quarterback carousel situation, right? I mean, we just kind of said Warren had to deal with the change, but Fanon had to deal with bad, bad. I mean, pro bowlers. Two pro bowl. Two Pro Bowl quarterbacks, that's right. Oh, because Flacco? Yeah. Oh, right. Flacco started, so. He also had to, he also had to do with. So, so this, I would, says it all. Two Pro Bowl QBs for Harold Fanon Jr. Look, Harold Fanon Jr. comes in as a. This is what you have done with the Proble. This is what, this is how you have shifted the conversation. It's idiocy. I'd be more entertained watching a computer simulation of the best players.

playing tackle football than i would be with our current pro ball yeah oh like if you just put like a madden if you just did a yes like a digital on screen simulation that i could bet on versus the flag football oh man with shadur and yeah random guys i mean so throwing it out there we have the technology a i could do that in 15 minutes harold fanning 21 and a half years old was drafted in the third round wasn't one of these top ten picks like lovelin like warren and makes sense and online oh that's good shout out to the spitballers on monday make sure you tune in for that one we have a great draft of ice cream me but uh he he got in with bad quarterback play he also was the backup tight-in to start the year david nojoku was there

And David Ojoku got injured in week 14, missed weeks 15 through 18. I think he's an avoided contract year for this upcoming season. So coming to next year, you're trying to build this franchise. You're trying to build the Browns. What pieces do I have? Oh, I got Miles Garrett. Great. I don't have a quarterback. I have Harold Fanon. This is a key piece. What are you telling me you're like, okay, we're paying. They'll say to themselves, okay, we're paying a lot for Jerry Judy. That's what they're going to say. They're not going to say, oh, good, we can build around Jerry Judy. They're going to build around Harold Fanon. The dude is awesome. No, Fanon's incredible. Now, you're going to have question marks around. Is it Deshaun Watson at some point? Is it Chador Sanders? You've got a new head coach and Todd Monkin who will see. It's been a long time waiting for him to be a head coach and he finally got the big job everyone wants the Brown's job. But Fanon was incredible.

Fanon. Vanon is an amazing athlete. He's versatile. He can catch short area targets. He can go compete for contested catches. He makes people miss. He is. He is 50, like a 21-year-old. Special. He can outrun guys duck-footed. I mean, that's incredible. 14 forced missed tackles. That was second most at the position. So, yeah, Fanon is going to be a really interesting. This is where the impossible to answer Loveland Fanon. Warren dynasty question is. It is impossible. That's why if I had a Warren or a Loveland, they are way more valued than Fanon. Where you would go get Fanon Plus? Exactly right. That's not a bad move. I would go get Fanon at a pick. I don't have a problem with that. I think Fanon is as good.

Or, to me, he is in the exact same tier as those other two guys as players. That's how I see it. Which that's fine. If you told me to bet on. Jason, you are the one on this show. I was like, it's the Cleveland Browns. Yeah. It's the Cleveland Browns. The Cleveland Browns will always Browns. That's a hundred percent true. But that's talking about wins and losses. That's not talking about whether or not they'll have fantasy production from a player. But wins and losses. I mean, it's all, it's correlated to your quarterback and screwing up decisions. All right. that one the three of those guys that one's it's easily loved one for me because of stability of quarterback and head coach and you don't have to to mike's point you don't have to watch the browns if you don't draft any of their players that is the hardest part of having to be like with fanning who's great he will he'll be a top he'll be he'll be a tight end one we don't go that way we don't even get to talk about the real number two tight end yet for a while right that's the season we're happy well i think with harold fanning there's going to be a lot of chasing the dragon

as the Cleveland Browns continue to screw up. I'll chase the dragon at the right point. We can blitz a lot of these guys that are going to be pretty irrelevant for the draft next year. I'm going to say the name. Okay. Then you say some stuff about the player. Okay. Then we don't talk about them again. That sounds good. I'll take the first one. You take the first one. Hunter Henry, seventh overall, consistency of 14. Go. He is a very good veteran tight end for the Patriots. For fantasy football, he will have games with touchdowns. next year. Mike, number eight is Jake Ferguson. Consistency of nine, really dropped off in the second half. 16th inconsistency in the second half of the season, including a murderous playoff run for fantasy managers. 12% great, 53% good, 29% bust. Go. I will say Ferguson recently signed a four-year extension, and it all comes down to what happens with George Pickens. If there is a...

If it's C.D. Lamb and George Pickens on this roster, then Ferguson's going to be the guy that you're just waiting on. He's like an insurance running back or insurance tight end, I guess. If one of those guys misses time, like week two through seven, tight end four, four, five, two, ten, four. And then C.D. Lamb comes back. Yeah, I was going to say C.D. Lamb was gone for weeks three, four, five, six. So yeah, if he's the second option for this offense, he's awesome. If he's the third option for this offense, Between Lamb and Pickens, there's not enough to go around. But George Pickens will likely be franchised, but will he be franchise traded? So there's a lot to play out for that. Brock Bowers comes in at nine, consistency of five. There we go. We know who Brock Bowers is. He's a dude that missed a ton of games this year. Got banged up. Yeah, he missed five total games, three at a crucial part of the beginning of the season. Then he was pretty dominant.

Then they said we would like the first pick. And so he didn't play anymore. Remember, he got banged up early before he left. It was in week one. Yes. So week one, he was the tight end one. He was the dog. He was Brock Bowers. We're like, oh, man, everyone who picked him first, they were right. They were right. They were right. They beat New England. And they have the number one pick. That is super funny. Well, that's because they had a healthy Brock Bowers in part. And again, 15.8 fantasy points and half PPR was awesome. Got hurt. The next three weeks played through it poorly, kind of stunk, wasn't even a tight end one. And we know how easy it is to be a tight in one. And I'm talking about, he's got to be top six. I'm actually talking tight in two then. He wasn't even a tight in two for those next three weeks. Then they rest him. They keep him out until the bye week comes back and he's that dude again. So to me, Brock Bowers, if he's drafted significantly behind.

Trey McBride, that's the better value next. It'll be significant. Around. If I can say, because when you're at the top of the draft. It'll be Mendoza and obviously in Arizona, we don't know. So, yeah. So if it's McBride Bowers, which I think we would all agree it is at the top of the tight end list, regardless of round, just in order, just right now here in the middle of or the beginning of February. Are the other three rookie guys from this year, the next three names? They very well might be. Is it whatever order of Loveland? I would say it's Loveland Warren. It's probably Loveland Warren. The Warren quarterback situation, it's a big problem. But then it's like, I mean, beyond those names. Yeah, Tucker Kraft. Yeah, that's a big one. That's a big one. Because his ACL tear was in week nine. Yeah, that's a big one. It's possible that he's bad. If Tucker Kraft is like the news is all, oh, no, he's in training camp. He's, he will be good to go. I would take Kraft before I take Fane. Um, Kittle was 13. I'm just going to.

talk about a couple other names. Kiddle was 13, third inconsistency, second in the second half. So good. But now it's an Achilles injury, and despite being under contract for four more years, you're going to see next year mostly deleted. And then you may see another year. Like, Kittle might be able to come back and contribute in a meaningful way for the 49ers. The question will be how they've built that team by the time he's back. Like part of his greatness this year was in absence of other past catching options. Pierceall banged up all year long. You didn't have IUC. So you compound that with the injury and you say, hey, this team's going to have to add an offensive group of guys for two years maybe before Kittles a contributor. Man, this sucks so much. It just sucks. It does. Jordan, I don't think anyone is more beloved than George Kittle. Just as he.

He's like, did we always get asked the question? And I don't think we ever answer it properly of like, who would you just want to hang out with from the NFL? You should always be George Kittle. Like should be awesome. You could just be able to shoot from the hip that answer. Yeah, exactly. Who? Yeah. I mean, he's on, he's selling pizzas, riding on a deer. He's golfing with that torn Achilles. If he, if you see this, I did not. He's on, he's on a golf court. And he's got one of the clubs that has the auto firing. piston inside the end of it and he's out there. I mean, if he's back, let's say week one. Let's say they get him back week one. Wait, what? Let's say if he's ready by if if he who George Kittle. He rehabs hard in the offseason program. For this week one or the next year? Next year. Well, this coming year. 2026. If they say, uh, we think he'll make it because he's got that dog in him.

Are you willing to draft him? And at what draft cost? Late, late, late, late, late. Late, sure. But I, man, that's a... But I'll probably be drafting two tight ends. Yeah, so... I feel like that is fairy tale level. Yeah, it is. Tucker Kraft, let's not forget Tucker Kraft. This is part of the truth episode. That's dog. He was the number two most consistent tight end in fantasy football this year. It was a full-on breakout campaign. You know, you talk about the Packers, all the injuries they had. It's easily arguable that they lost their best offensive weapon and their best defensive player and still, you know, made the playoffs despite missing those guys. Everybody has injuries. I'm not, you know, saying anything you don't know. It's just Kraft was the difference maker for the offense. He's what made Jordan Love more viable on a week-to-week basis. You needed him in the mix. He had his breakout 32-point week-8, and then he goes down the next week. So right after the kind of...

Crown gets put on his head as the next great tight end. The ACL gets torn in the world. It was like a, it was to me like the scataboo injury. It felt very similar. It's an emotionally devastating one because he's fun. George Kittle was the tight end three on a points per game at 12.1 fantasy points per game. We just espouse how awesome he was. 12.7 points per game for Tucker Kraft. He was even better. And this is an injury that more players come back from versus the Achilles for Kittle. He has more time. It happened earlier in the season.

Tucker Kraft will be in consideration mixed in with those 2025 rookie tight ends. Yeah, you'll just have to decide about the ACL and what progress looks like. And the Packers have to make themselves a decision as well. Or Romeo Dobbs, who opinions on him are all over, but like he's solid. We'll just say Romeo Dobbs is a solid way. He's an NFL wide receiver. Romeo Dobbs is. He plays in the national football league. With a giant helmet. He's not liquid. Thank you. Yeah. But he's a free agent. So it's like the Packers will have to decide do they compete money-wise to bring him back or do they like where else do they cover that those targets? That was that for the way. That was delayed. That was really late. Dobbs is just he's just bad enough. You can't. You can't do that. He's just good enough to want to bring him back to Green Bay and he's just bad enough to not get a big enough contract elsewhere. He's the perfect guy to resign. Romeo Dobbs is.

he'll get money this year um we got to do this fantasy face off presented by prize picks i don't like how eager the falcon is over there to get me whatever shame i'm just doing his job yeah what wheel of shame we're spinning okay it's already spinning it's spinning it's spinning it's been and it's cheesehead it's bob the loser Bob the loser Bob the loser. Yeah, he's not a builder. He's a loser. Bob the builder has one of Jeremy's shirts? Wow, that is the exact same color. You should go to the deusers cam on. That is literally your did you do this on purpose Jeremy? I did find it ironic as he talked about the color of my shirt. I suck at fantasy. Oh, it says I suck at. Yeah, it's facts. It is a fact.