The Fantasy MVP Episode! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/4

But, I mean, I think we all acknowledge the drumbeat around Jamison, the end of the season, the comments from golf, Dan Campbell being, you know, somebody that switched to the play calling. I don't know, like Jamo Ammon Ra, both top ten, not impossible. Yep. I mean, was Jamo top ten last year? I mean, he was close, right? Yeah, I thought. Ten or eleven? Let me look that up.

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't consistent, but is that, that's the big question. I think it's probably 10, right? The question is, will we, nine? Will we get consistent? Can I get an eight? Will we get consistent Jameson Williams this year for the Detroit Lions? Going in the middle rounds. He's 58th pick off the board. I mean, he's the wide receiver 25 on the Lions after finishing as the wide receiver nine. No one wants, I love this pick. I've, I've,

completely turned around like early offseason. I don't like the style of player. But when you can have a real high variance player that's that, I mean, this is the fifth round, back of the fifth. This is like your wide receiver three. Let me make some notes here. Where's he going? That's how you win a league. Wide receiver 25 at the back of the fifth on sleeper. Okay. Back of fifth. All right. Jameson Williams. You like that in the back of the fifth. Just making some notes for later. Okay.

Well, we go from wide receiver 25 to currently the running back 25. We switch over to K. Borg, Kyle Borgannoni, host of the Dynasty Pod, the DFS and betting show. He is on there as well. And he is the king of unnecessary statistics. Let's see what he has to say. Foot Clan. For 2026 fantasy MVP, I'm going with Judarian Price, rookie running back for the Seattle Seahawks.

I looked at every single first round running back taken over the last decade. And the only ones who went later than Price's 69th overall draft price, nice, were Sony Michelle and Rashad Penny in redraft. He is being discarded and disrespected in drafts based on simply being behind Jeremiah Love in college and a lack of true pass-catching opportunities. But much like Ken Bone Walker coming out of college, the issue is not can he be a difference maker in the receiving game?

but his opportunities. Head coach Mike McDonald raved this offseason about the fact that no one on his championship winning defense has been able to cover him yet in practice, and beats have consistently talked about his receiving abilities and wheel routes out of camp. I felt like I was on an island on the Dynasty podcast, but I came away super impressed from his film, the contact balance, his initial burst, and his vision in the open field, especially as a kick returner. The George Halani Hive

though a small but mighty bunch. Can kindly shut the hell up. Zach Sharman is on IR and he will be slow played when he returns. Are we really going to overthink a talented first round rookie running back on a top tier offense going in the late 6th round on ESPN? Give me that value and a player who can be a fantasy MVP in 2026. Oh man. Kyle!

Kyle's, he does not stand for those Halani bros. You are a feisty man. Those Halani bros shove it. Sorry to the audience. I guess. Why is horse boy on the screen? There's a red alarm and a horse boy. We are falling apart. That's on me. That's on me. We have a process here in the show where if something goes wrong, the horse boy comes up on the screen.

As sort of, it's like the technical difficulties. It's the blue screen of death. Stand by. For our studio. That's on me. Give me a horse boy. Okay. Now, let's come back to Judarian Price. I also want to apologize to our listening audience. I set a precedent, an effective one a few weeks ago. And apparently it just opened the floodgates for Kyle's loose lips. Now, I will say I love everything. He said it is always nice to get when you're alone on a player to get another validating opinion. I love Price. I love the opportunity.

I still am not 100% sure how they are going to handle Price. Look, they should. Rational coaching says Jadarian Price should come in immediately as a first run pick and be a Belkow running back. To, in my opinion, to spend that draft capital and not use that player like that immediately is just it's malpractice and you should be removed from all decision-making ability.

I don't know what exactly they're going to do. And look, right now, right now the competition is Holani. It seems like that should be an easy, no problem. Charbonnet will be back at some point. And I think that you will have an interesting, there could be an interesting change. Like at that point has price been so good that they hold off and their love for Charbonnet, they have to, you know, they have to just eat it.

and let Judarian Price keep out there cooking. I think there's a lot of things that could go wrong for Judarian Price, but the ADP price point is at a point where, like, he's in the dead zone, but he's the type of dead zone running back that is still worth a bet with your, with your draft pick. I will say this. His current average draft position, I am very, very in on Judarian Price there. That is not where he is got.

You can't look at his ADP and think I'm getting him later in every league now that real drafts are happening. He is going much higher. When we did our mock draft yesterday, he went in the middle of the fourth round. His ADP is like almost sixth round. Our mock draft was crazy running back heavy. Yeah, and I think that's going to have it because when I look at the...

When I look at the ADP and I see where Price is, it's just delightful. I mean, he's behind Travo. He's behind, you know, guys that just, you know, Judkins and Bucky and David Montgomery and I think he's going ahead of a lot of them. Well, I certainly was the one that took him yesterday that high, so you guys know how I feel about him. I think in a lot of leagues, he'll still sneak further if you're drafting on a platform with the ADP printed. He's going to sneak through.

If you're in a Sharper League where people are looking for a starter, running backs go soon, you want to guarantee, I mean, you want to take Ramandre or you want to take Giudarian Price? Remandre is a tough one because I think that Ramandre is going to have just disgusting but really great production. Those other guys, though, it's like Judkins, Bucky. I don't mind taking the bet. David Montgomery. Yeah, oh, Montgomery, for sure. Come on now. And you're saying price over to those guys, yes. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

All right, one more of our friends before we get into our own. The three of us are Fantasy MVP's. Friend of the show, Mina Kimes, we were lucky enough to jump on her show, and she was kind enough to reciprocate that with her fantasy MVP. Mina Kimes from ESPN.

All right, the MVP show March is on as we welcome in an award-winning journalist and NFL analyst and the host of the Mina Kimes show, appropriately. It is Mina Kimes joining us today. And Mina, we are excited to have you with us. And fantasy managers out there are trying to find the diamond in the rough, trying to find the player that's going to take them over the top.

Who better to ask than the one that only mean of Kimes? Who do you have as your fantasy football MVP for 2026? Yeah, so the way I interpreted this, and I just want to make sure I understand, is kind of obviously it's not Bejohn Robinson or Jemir Gibbs. That is correct. You got it. Yeah. I was thinking back to my first year, ESPN has this thing called the War Room League where it's like all the ESPN talent are in it. And my very first year that I got the invitation, which was quite an honor, I won.

Because I had Amon Ross St. Brown. And it was, I believe, the 22 season where in the second half, he just went crazy. The rookie year when he became the playoff king. Right, before he was Amman Ross St. Brown. And I think I got him in like the third round or something. I really liked him. And I also, but I don't want to be like two hipstering pick like a crazy sleeper. So I try to thread the needle here of like a guy. Okay, good. I understand it. That I think is going to be on a lot of winning teams, a guy that I desperately want.

On my own teams, hopefully no one in ESPN War Room Leagues listening to this. I want every piece of Amarian Hampton this year. Yes. You and Jason both. That is one of my three my guys this year. So we are in sync. Tell me your reasons why. Oh, man. First of all, the fantasy name, Hampton Inn. I want it for a few weeks. Hampton in! You get it when he scores. Hampton in.

Aside from that lovely free breakfast hotel chain, there's a lot I like about him. So first of all, I think he's really good. Just purely from a film watching tapehead went last year, horrible circumstances, hit by in line of scrimmage constantly. But when he was healthy, he was not only like kind of shockingly productive, I think it was really good in a way that's going to really translate in the Mike McDaniel offense. So we know from Miami, Mike McDaniel can basically...

Gin up a run game out of nothing, right? The dolphins were extremely good at, despite the fact that nobody respected the passing game at the end. That run game is all about running outside the tackles. McDaniel uses all kinds of big bodies, some of which he brought with him. I call Alec Ingold, his emotional support fullback, to Los Angeles. But we know that he wants to get his backs outside the tackles in space, uses a lot of creative shenanigans to create those opportunities. Morion Hampton, even though last year...

He wasn't, you know, he was obviously injured, but it was in a terrible circumstance. When he ran outside the tackles, I just pulled this up, 5.5 yards per carry. He actually tied DeAndre Swift first in the NFL, league-wide, EPA per carry outside the tackle. So I just feel it's like a dream match between the running back and the play caller. And like, even if he's not Devon A. Chan, I still think he's going to be amazing. Yeah, I mean.

Big fan of Hampton over here and Jason. We all have him pretty high in our ranks. And the other thing standing out right now is like how healthy is Keaton Mitchell going into the season where you're going to see the past catching downs and things like that. Right. Yeah, you won't get any argument for me on that. I mean, it was basically the exact same argument, the matchup of the offensive coordinator and then the offensive line getting better. I'm all in on the Chargers, but that always feels like a, well, fool me again this year. Yeah, the Chargers are the ultimate.

Oh, what was your excuse this year? There's no excuses this year. It's going to work.

I mean, they've, well, they already lost it. They already lost alignment for the end. Yeah, we say that. Everyone are like, this is it. Justin Herbert, no more Mr. If. And then they lose the center. And then, like, the guard is some guy you've never heard of. And Trey Pipkins is suddenly back in the conversation. Yeah, I think Daniel's really good at covering up for that, though. And the other thing, you mentioned Keaton Mitchell. I have him in Dynasty. God rest my soul. Which was amazing. I felt really smart, like brilliant, honestly, his rookie season.

I know people are a little bit freaked out about that, but I'm sure you guys have talked about this in death. Mike McNeill is kind of a liar, right? Like I know. Yes, he is. Okay, okay. So we are on the same page here. He got to run the hell out of Hampton. Like Devon 18 had 238 carries last year, right? Like, so I just don't think. Also, Hampton himself is a very underrated pass catcher. I feel like that's another thing where he could produce a lot. But yeah, I'm not too scared. I'm not planning on starting Keaton Mitchell in my Dynasty League. Right. I think that is influencing my Hampton love.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the lying Mike McDaniel. We've seen the, he'll get between zero and 30 carries or whatever comment he had last year for some of his players. You heard it here first. Yep. Fantasy football MVP for Mina Kimes is Amaran, Hampton, and Jason's a happy man. There you have it. Mina Kimes is going with. What a voice that host had on that little clip. Yeah, that third voice. I barely even recognize it. Jason, do you have any notes? No notes. Great job. I am in on Hampton, and I love the pairing with.

McDaniel. All right. It's time for our three. Jason, we are going to start with you. Who is your fantasy MVP? My fantasy MVP this year is A.J. Brown. I am, you know, I truly believe the difference between, you know, a my guy and a fantasy MVP to me, and I think it might be different to all of us, is someone that is.

a true just absolutely winner, just could be met. I think in the range of outcomes, AJ Brown could be the number one wide receiver in fantasy football, but also where he's going, I find, I just, I love it because in the beginning of drafts, when you get, if you are near the end of the first round, that is where usually over the course of this offseason, you're drafting either Justin Jefferson or Drake London, if you go wide receiver. But I really like the running backs that are available there.