Rookie Review + 2nd Year Star Potential? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/18

We basically saw no Marshal Lloyd all year. And Josh Jacobs was awesome. And Jalen Wright, who, you know, explosive blew up the combine, made us kind of optimistic about his potential, definitely ran at times ahead of Rahim Mosterd, who was banged up all year. You know, when you look at that group right there of those five names, you didn't see a ton of them on the field. And then the next man up in the fourth round was Bucky Irving. He was the star of the rookie class. 207 for 1122 and 8 as a rookie with 52 targets, 47 catches, a pretty stable offensive situation. I mean, he is the bell of the ball. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he's the only rookie that did finish inside the top 24 at the running back 15. The second half of the year, he was one of the best assets in fantasy football. And that was while Rashad White was.

playing. Rashad White didn't miss any games. It just became Bucky's team, and Rashad White spells him a little bit more. And his, you know, his quick burst was really on display this year. Every time that he had a little opening, he'd be five yards down the field before anyone could catch him. And despite being a small back, broke tackles, it's great. Usually I am pounding the table based on historical... analysis that fourth round and later draft picks at running back when they have a great rookie season, they get worse the next year. That is like 82% true. So this is not like a small data sample. This always happens. Bucky will be fine. Bucky passed all tests. The team is invested in him. I don't think there's going to be a Damien Pierce situation.

They don't need to do it. Like Rashad White is still on the team for a year. And Rashad White has a role. Like you don't need to replace that yet where you don't have the concerns of them spending a pick on a running back who ends up being way better than maybe they drafted him to be. Kind of like, Bucky taking the job from Rashad White. I want to go back real quick to Jalen Wright. Because it was overall, it was a really disappointing year for rookie running backs. Jalen Wright might be the most disappointing to me of The Miami Dolphins, they traded a 2025 third to move up to go get Jalen right. He has the build, the speed, everything that the Miami Dolphins would want. He ends up with the fewest total yards from scrimmage of any rookie running back with 70 or more touches over the last decade. It's not like he didn't have any touches. 68 attempts on the ground. And then add on top of that. Look, yeah, H.N. is the starter. H.N. is not getting it done on the ground.

And then the other guys Rahim Mostered. How was Jalen Wright not pulling a Bucky Irving and moving up the depth chart? That one was... Talent? Yeah. I mean, we... Sorry. But you wouldn't say A-chan's incapable either. I think... It's not that he's incapable, but he was really struggling on the ground, and the Miami Dolphins, to me, look like, let's try something. Let's get a game of Jalen Wright. Let's see if we can get him going. But clearly the coaching staff saw him for, just they didn't think that he had the chance to do it. I believe his higher carry games did coincide with the departure of a quarterback. So we know how dysfunctional they were without Tua. So, you know, I'm just bringing it up because it's like if H.N struggled too. Look, I think it's fair. You should have seen more explosive plays from him even if he wasn't great on every touch. And you had the, we had such a pump fake.

of week five. He's 13 for 86 on the ground. Like incredibly efficient. That's 6.6 yards per carry. And then they go into the buy week. And it's like, oh, the rookie running back got on the field, got opportunities. We're going into the buy week. Here we go. He's going to get a roll. And then nope. And, yeah, Moser's not getting any younger. So this team may need to pick another one up, which could be a problem. Impressive. Players beyond that, though, I mean, outside of Bucky, Tyrone Tracy, Ray Davis, undrafted for fantasy, you know, fourth round pick for the bills. And then Isaac Garindo had some opportunities this year. But those three names, you know, in that low percentage category of, you know, being good, you know, Tracy seems like he'll have an opportunity in the future as a fifth round pick. He does. You know, Tyrone Tracy is more the Damien Pierce to me, where it's like he looked very good.

The team could say to themselves, hey, our running back, you know, for this year is kind of solved. We're okay. And not worry about it. I think they will do that. But so did the, you know, the Houston Texans did the same thing. They didn't go, they got Joe Mix in the year after. So like you had Damien Pierce's rookie season. And then there was a lot of excitement for Damian Pierce in his sophomore season. But when it didn't go right for Damian Pierce, the team is not invested. They're not committed. They're going to just keep trying to figure it out.

And so then they stopped using Damian Pearson. And then in the off season, they're like, let's go get Joe Mixing. So this is one of those things where Tyrone Tracy, if weeks one through four of the 2025 season, he is out there just making great plays, breaking tackles, looking awesome, great. He'll continue to get work. But as soon as it goes poorly for him, the team's just going to try to figure out something. And I think the whole franchise will look very different this off season. Yeah, they could use one of those ball throwers. Mm-hmm. The behind center. I believe Aaron Rogers is available. Yeah, yeah, they could. Yeah, he's already in the area. Yeah. All right. Wide receivers, do you guys want to move on and talk about a brief overview here? Marvin Harrison was the number one off the board in the NFL draft. Had such a disappointing fantasy football season. Really did.

crushed it. It was a brutal, yeah, I mean, this was a guy who was often drafted in the first round of, you know, redraft leagues. And while he finished as the wide receiver 28 and had okay stats, 885 yards, eight touchdowns, it wasn't a complete dud of a rookie wide receiver season, but based on expectations and fantasy football draft capital, an absolute disaster. Lack of consistency was a killer for him. Seven games with a touchdown where he averaged. 16.9 fantasy points per game in those. 10 games that he didn't score, 4.7 fancy points per game. Yeah, that ain't it. And I mean, we watched the tape a lot and it's always hard to really determine this. Whose fault is it? Yeah, I mean, you know, is it the play calling? Because there were a lot of dumb routes where he'd run forever before Kyler ever had a chance to throw the ball. He's not even turning around. But there were also too many plays throughout the course of the season.

that I just saw a flat out lack of effort. I mean, it just seemed like come back to the ball a little harder. Like it just seemed like he was like the urgency was not there. Playing at 80%. There was this was one of those players where you felt like you saw not getting them involved early in the game coming back to haunt you. If you look at the number, 69% of his receptions came 10 plus yards down the field where the players we still have explosive rookie seasons. Malik neighbors, Brian Thomas Jr. Those were all 43, 48%. You didn't get Harrison those easy catches to keep him involved in the game. You can put the blame on him too. Obviously, you should be given effort on every play. But we know how wide receivers are. If you're not really a part of the game plan, if you seem like if every week the coach and the offensive coordinator in the press conference have to explain why you weren't involved again.

There's a breakdown. Yeah. Like this is the guy you brought in to be your dominator and you're not throwing him an easy slant route or a screen pass or getting him involved so that you don't have games without a touchdown being 4.7 fantasy points per game. That's what we saw on a weekly basis. And that was depressing. So from a fantasy forecast perspective, it's really, really hard to have the same kind of dynasty excitement for Harrison Jr. as you would. Neighbors and Brian Thomas. Yeah, that makes it so much worse. Even Xavier Worthy. Or Ladd McConkey. Right. Next year it'll be really interesting to see where Marvin Harrison Jr. goes. I believe that. I'm looking at a best ball right now. Wide receiver 18 at the end of the third. There's upside there. There is upside. As a reminder, Marvin Harrison senior 64 catches in his rookie season. Marvin Harrison Jr., 63 catches. Marvin Harrison Senior 836 yards.

Marvin Harrison Jr., 885 yards, and Marvin Harrison Sr. 8 touchdowns, Jr., 8 touchdowns. So they had almost identical stats. Check this one out, though. Marvin Harrison Jr., 62 for 8, 85, and 8. Malik Neighbors, 109 for 120 4 and 7 on 170 targets. 170 targets as a rook. Wow. But Malik Neighbors will need to navigate new quarterback. He was quick to... give Matthew Stafford his flowers over the Super Bowl weekend and talk about the kind of quarterback he wants to bring into New York. And, you know, New York is talking to Shadour Sanders. And how great is Brian Thomas Jr.? I only say that because you talk about the quarterback play of Malik Neighbors. It was bad. But Brian Thomas Jr. played his best ball with Mack Jones. It's not like it's that much different than Daniel Jones. Malik Neighbors would have loved Mac Jones.

He had Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones is better than Mack Jones. My league neighbors with Daniel Jones. I mean... Was slightly better? Number three, number five, and number six on the week to start the year. I guess that's, I mean, 18, 12, and 15 targets. And then the wheels fell off and Daniel Jones was gone. So when you look at that little stretch... I mean, he had a three-game stretch. He would have been on pace for 255 targets. Yeah, well, the 170 targets, you compare that to Brian Thomas only had 133 targets, but Brian Thomas finished ahead of him as the wide receiver four. So, I mean, both these players are great. I think people might just be not high enough on Brian Thomas Jr. Because he was drafted behind him, Malik neighbors, you know, they... I would...

These guys played together in college, and it was Malik Neighbors was the star, and Brian Thomas Jr. was the question mark number two. He was the T. Higgins to the Jamar Chase. Neighbors is a better player. I agree. Neighbors is. So I would rather have him. I think they're so, so close, though. Roman Dunezay didn't have as many opportunities as both of those players, but he did have over 100 targets. 734 and 3? Okay. You know, this is going to come down to, is Caleb Williams going to be the guy? Has Ben Johnson going to fix that? And will there be enough volume for Roma Dunesay with D.J. Moore is the one there. I mean, Brian Thomas, he's the one. Neighbors, the one. Harrison, the one. Yeah. So that is, look, I think Caleb Williams loves Roma Dunez. I think that is a go-to type of receiver for him. But you're going to need to do more.

I mean, when you say he didn't have quite as much opportunity, I take a little bit of issue with that, only because you had Brian Thomas Jr. play 79% of the snaps on the season. You had Roma Dunesay play 84% of the snaps on the season. He was playing ball. Now, he didn't get as many opportunities to catch it, but we talk about all the time. Targets are an earned stat. He earned 100 targets. And some of that's going to be on Caleb Williams, on Shane Waldron, on the, you know, the whole, you know, the other wide receiver options. But he was out there as much as all these rookies. So I feel like his disappointing season might be the realist. You know what I'm saying? I think I'll be in on Roman Dunez's a later round pick. Mike, where is he going in best ball drafts right now? I will find it. That's, I'm going to guess before you. Yeah, let's try to guess. I got it.

I'm going to say wide receiver 31. I started thinking 38, but I think it's going to be higher. I think 28. Okay. You're both. Way too low. Wide receiver 26 at the end of the fourth right now. Okay. Okay. I mean, look, young. I don't think I'm going to be in. This is best ball where wide receivers go very early. Where's DJ Moore? I mean, if you're talking about a fourth rounder for wide receiver 17 at the back of the third. Okay. I'd rather have DJ more than the third than Odun's. Oh, yes. I agree with that. If they're that close, yeah, but I don't think they'll be that close in redraft at all. No, I agree with that. Home leagues, Rome will go later, but the... Rome is a physical force, and I think it's going to come down to Caleb, but I actually like him. Savior Worthy had the great finish to the season, 59 for 638 and 6th and the regular season. You know, they used him in...

an evolving role. Yeah, he started cooking at the end. He was the 28th pick in the draft, so it's a first round wide receiver. Ricky Pearsall, we saw a little bit. Xavier Legat, we kept trying to start as a flex player when opportunities were there. He ended up with under 500 yards receiving as a rookie. Keon Coleman, you know, for the 33rd pick in the draft, it was just 29 receptions. Woof. But for 556 yards and four touchdowns. Yeah. Ladd-McConkey was 82 for 1149. What is that? Coleman and Legate are, those numbers are very concerning. We've had on the Dynasty podcast, we've had the Jalen McMillan versus Keon Coleman debate. Obviously the draft capital of Keon Coleman is great. But the breakout at the end of the year of Jailen McMillan makes you go, okay, could he actually be the better?

rookie wide receiver this year because he really had a dud from Coleman. I think I would still be the Coleman side. Coleman missed some time injured. They brought in Amari Cooper who was irrelevant. You kind of have some journeymen there right now, right? Mac Hollins, catching passes, Curtis Samuel. There seems like, it seems like Keon Coleman's sophomore season will have at least a puncher's chance of being a breakout season. Yeah, for sure he's got a puncher's chance. But they, I mean, I mean like a 10, I would say like. thousand and ten seems doable as his ceiling thousand and ten would be a great year for him i think i'll be curious where we end up ranking him and the redraft and the buffalo bills me do what do they do at the wide receiver position i think they will even though they just spent a second on on coleman i think they got to do something else too yeah i mean you you saw it with the chiefs they would spend every year it's like they're they're trying to take their shot whether it was um you know getting

trading for bringing in Cadarious Tony or getting Sky Moore. It's like they just kept then Rushie Rice, then Xavier Worthy. But Xavier Worthy is the name we really need to bring up because that one is interesting. He is he is going to go very high, I think, in next year's draft based on what he did in the playoffs, based on being a chief. I mean, this is a young kid who has always produced at every level, drafted in the first round, ended the season, you know, really. important to the offense. And so some people will be very excited for a leap forward. They're hoping he's the next Tyree kill, right? He has that speed. He has that connection, a great offensive mind and quarterback. Can he develop into that? Can he become, you know, of all these guys, like Keonan Coleman's not going to become a fantasy superstar. I don't see that happening. Jalen McMillan's not going to become a fantasy superstar. There is a route, a path at least for Xavier Worthy to become to level up to become one of those, you know, wide receiver ones.

that you're drafting in the first or second round in the future because he's dominating on the field. How do I simultaneously disagree and agree? I mean, that's what Xavier Worthy is, because I disagree with what I said, but I see the path. I don't see the path to that kind of a ceiling, but I see the path to him being the number one receiver for the chiefs, even with the return of Rush, you guys. I see a world where Xavier Worthy is scoring the most fancy points of any pass catcher on the team. because of the fact that they can use him in so many different ways. And unfortunately, I see a path where Rice comes back and Worthy is unworthy and consequential. I don't see that anymore with Worthy. I still do. The numbers, I know they took the shots, so maybe if a few of those the big time downfield throws actually hit this past season, you'd feel different. It's like what happened in the Super Bowl?

Was that his first big catch? No. But, I mean, he was on, he was, his longest catch of the season. 54 yards? Would have 54 yards. And other than that, though, it's like 20. 35. But consistently in, in his game logs, it's 19 yards, 19, 14, 12, 1921, when they, when he was really involved there at the end and he was making money for fantasy, long of 12, long of 19. These are not huge. But those are the areas where Rashi Rice is going to be very good on the interior part of the offense. I think Xavier Worthy, what you saw in the last six games of the season, you know, he was on 142 target pace. It was a lot of short area stuff, but the targets just kept going up and up. I think you can use him in different ways when Rashi is out on the field. And, you know, Kelsey's, he's going to disappear from this offense. Yeah. And Worthy was too good as a rookie.

Man, worthy is. So maybe we'll just. It's so strange to be to, I don't disagree that he could become great, but to have such a wide range of outcomes where you can go, you could be a top 15 fantasy wide receiver or you could be nothing, which is how I view him is, that's very difficult to handle. Yeah, you know who's not going to be nothing? Ladd McConkey. Oh, that's so good. I mean, he finished as the wide receiver 12. So, such a good route runner. Reliable hands, great quarterback. I still kind of am pessimistic that he will not be the one for this team. Like they still are looking for their wide receiver one. Their alpha, you know, to steal a Josh Jacobs line here. Like he's a good receiver, but I think they want a proven alpha wide receiver one. But I just wanted to give another shout out to Ladd because he was so talented.

Lad deserves it. He had a great season. You know, you could see an offense if it's predicated on a great running game and some other peripheral wide receiver options where he could still be the fantasy leader for the team. I think that's possible there. I mean, Keenan Allen with Herbert for the last couple years was just, it's just the guy who's always in the right spot. He's like, you're going to create separation and catch it when I laser beam you the ball. That's what Keenan Allen did over and over and over. And that's what Ladd did. So maybe it will stick.

14. What was almond raw's yards per catch? Let me go find you. Because I mean, you talk about what Keenan Allen did. Allen's last three seasons with the Chargers with Justin Herbert, 10.7, 11.4, 11.5. Lad's at 14. And Amon Ra was at 11. A lot of that was yards after the catch stuff. But I mean, he also interior parts of the field was not afraid to go over the middle. No, which he maybe should be a little bit more afraid. He was limping a lot. He was beat up a lot. That's the only knock I have against McConkey is he's 185 pounds. Yeah, Ammon Ra is 200 pounds. Fearless. And I think he should have a little more fear. Yeah. Let's take another. Creotene. Take a quick break. And we'll be back.

Okay, so tight-in-wise, Brock Bauer is pretty decent. Yeah. You guys like what he did as a rookie? Halfway through the season and maybe after one week of the season, you were like, he's the best past catching tight-end in the national football league. He was everything that you expected him to do, everything he was for multiple years in college. You can't give enough flowers to how talented he is. He will be the number one. tight-in drafted this year. He'll be the number one tight-in in Dynasty. I believe he is worth as high as the fourth overall pick in startup drafts for Dynasty, a difference maker for a long time period. And so goodness gracious, I mean, he is that guy. I think I just finished talking about the rookie tight ends. Yeah. From what we saw in the field, opportunity-wise,

because tight-ins generally take a while to get cooking. You do have a second round tied-in and Ben. I am the Senate. Senate. The Senator, baby. Who second round tied in. You saw the tight-in position succeed for Washington. Zach Ertz is a free agent and ancient. A free ancient. Oh, a free ancient. He's a free ancient. That's nice. And we need him to just, Zach Ertz, your career has been incredible. Like, he's not a Hall of Fame guy, but a truly incredible career. Yeah, don't solely our memories. And look, live for your family, man. Just be around and let the senator go to work. Mike would like nothing more in this life than Ben Senate to take over next year in Washington. You already know the quarterback's in good shape. We had.

Little bit of opportunity for Jetavian Sanders and Theo Johnson this year. They showed flashes. There was a little stretch for the Carolina Panthers, tight end, Jatavian Sanders. More interested in Sanders than Theo. Well, Theo was looking good, but he went on IR, got injured. I mean, none of it. It was just like the truth of tight end episode. Okay, the truth of tight end episode was there are very, very few elite guys. Get one. Or just wait because the rest all suck? I guess before Theo went down for injury, things were trending up for him. I want to, I am struggling to find the drop. Here we go. I know we're running low on time, but I want to circle back to wide receivers. Okay. Because there are so many names at wide receiver. I have like five more minutes on Ben Sinit. I'm sorry. We are back at wide receivers. I'm going to read you a name.

And you're going to tell me if they ever have a fantasy relevant season. This is the game. Okay. All right. This is fun. So. Fantasy relevant being like water super 36 or better, right? Top 40. Okay. Do they ever have a top 40 is relevant? Yeah. Do they ever have a top 40 season for their entire careers? Okay. Okay. Are you guys ready? Yeah. Just say the name. No, no, no. I'm going to ease you in a little bit. All right. Xavier Legat. No. I guess I didn't ease you in at all. I'm going to go. So you said no. Okay. Ricky Pearson. Yes. Yes. Okay. Jalen Polk. No, no, no. Second round wide receiver Adonai Mitchell. No. Third round wide receiver Malachi Corley. No. No. Third round wide receiver Jermaine Burton. You had the world in your hands, dude. Oh, man. It was there. And then.

And he punted it off the bridge. He just peed. Is that a no? That's a no. All the way. Third round, third round wide receiver, Roman Wilson of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I want to say yes. I want to say yes. Hey, back your guys. It's fine. I think he will. I think he'll be a relevant Christian Kirk type player someday. I'll say no. Luke McCaffrey for Washington. I will say. Probably not, no. Fourth round wide receivers, I'll give you the names real quick. Troy Franklin? Yeah, baby, of course. You're darn right, he will. Now, is that a real answer? You want to know why? Because it's Franklin. You have the button. Yeah, you're done right. Do I really believe he'll be a top 40 wide receiver? No, I do not. Mike? I think you, I think so, yeah. Oh, I'm back in. Javon Baker. Yeah, Mike is the Franklin truther. Javon Baker? No. Mm-mm. Okay.

Malik Washington in the sixth round for Miami? Yes. I'm going to say no. There's at least one more name that I like Malik. Could be a top 40 this coming season, I think. What's that name? Jordan Whittington for the Los Angeles Rams with the 22 Atwell. My dino team likes hearing that. Cooper Cup. You see why I wanted to circle back. There's a lot. I mean, the wide receiver. list, it's long. Yeah, and to give... And a lot of those guys I read, I mean, that was all third, second, third, and fourth round picks. Yeah, to give the foot clearing kind of an early heads up, we'll have all sorts of rookie preview, not review shows, talking about the incoming draft class. But this really does seem like the pendulum swinging completely the other way. So far, it's very, very early. We don't know draft capital. And I haven't even finished scouting all the wide receivers.

But the running back draft class seems very strong. I think there might be six guys in this class that I like better than my favorite of last year. The top is very good in this year's draft class. And so far on wide receivers, I am very me. I mean, you got one stud that seems like a, you know, a layup. And then T-MAC. Yeah, T-MAC looks great. And then the rest have their questions. Yeah, Kyle just said there's only right now for mock drafts. Right now it's four wide receivers in the first round, which is, that's low. So that's with, uh, so probably burden, the third in the first round. Oh, yeah, Luther will be a first round. And then, um, what a villain. Amika. Luther. Burden? He's a, like, you got Lex Luther. You got the, he's a burden. And then it's like, he's generationally. Yeah. LB3. Yeah. Oh.