Fantasy Football - The Fantasy MVP Episode! - Podcast for 8/28

Foot Clan, you got lots of drafts this weekend. It is go time. Time to set the foundation for your entire season by dominating your draft and making your leaguemates look like stupid, dumb, dumb, idiots. Idiots. They're so stupid. Ultimate draft kid.com. Pick it up right now. Grab the app. Be prepared. Be set for your draft. You're so handsome. You're good looking. The fantasy footballer studio is sponsored by Walmart. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast. With your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers Thursday, August 28th, the MVP episode. I'm just doing a little live pivot in our show doc. Oh, please change your MVP. I'm not changing my MVP. Oh, you almost changed. Well, I almost changed out of, I felt bullied. Yeah. No, I'm not bullied.

Not bullied. Because that would blame you. Right. I felt, uh, no. Are you changing Kyle's MVP? Yes. Yes. No, I'm changing our quick question of the day. Oh. It's just more. We're doing it live. It's just more important to answer this question off of Instagram that I was just reading. So we'll get into that momentarily. But welcome in one and all. It is a big time draft weekend on the horizon, Labor Day weekend. Three days of drafts. Our league of record draft is Monday. Mm-hmm. and I'm going to try to piece together a season from the remnants and scraps of picks that I have left after my... The tax man coming through you. Yeah, after my run to the, try to win a back-to-back title. You were just swiping. Yeah, I was... He's the 2026 Saints. You're like, whatever, man. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. I was living for today. Okay, Kyle Shanahan. Yeah, I was living for the moment. Come on, you know. If you had a chance at back-to-back.

Oh yeah. You sold out credit card. You sold out trying. The can was kicked so far. And then you came into this year. We're not allowed to trade first round picks in our league. So you came in obviously with your first because you had to. Otherwise you would have burned that. And then your next pick was the seventh round. It was the seven round. I've made some adjustments to my team. But yeah, my dead cap was the highest in our fantasy league. History. Yeah. You can put it that way. But yeah, big time drafts coming. this weekend the ultimate draft kit available right now ultimate draft kit.com go check it out including all the megalable drafts they start this weekend so two drafts oh man me megalable uh so if you want to play i love you trying to talk there and then you're like i got to work a dragon in here or i mean a shark voice a dragon yeah a monsterous voice draggleable get out of here it's a megaladon goodness gracious but yeah if you want to play with us in the megalodon

You can go to the Meglabel. Go to Meglabel.com. And there are two drafts. There's a morning draft and an evening draft on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. And then one last morning draft on Wednesday. So there's plenty of slots for you to sign up right now. Go to Megalobole.com. I think there's a draft going on right now because Alborna hasn't looked up in a minute. And I'm wondering if I knew you were on the clock out. Who'd you just take in our draft? I haven't yet. I'm still looking. That is what I was doing. Yeah, I could tell you had your attention on the draft. That's what it's like right now. So I'm pivoting. The quick question of the day, sometimes, like we've done the show for a long time. There are inside jokes. There are people that, you know, take some time to catch up on what's going on. But my favorite quick question of the day has to be this one from Instagram.

Al Chase 25 riding in. It's very simple. He just wants an answer, Mike. What is the pants store? The pants store is. Please explain this for the layman. Well, I thought it was pretty self-explanatory. The pants store is where you buy pants. Oh. Yes. Okay. Yes. And so. That's all you would get from it. Do they sell shorts there? No, it's the pants store. And what's the significance of not needing to return to a pants store as your little, hit your little button? I will, oh, this game? The pants store is this is like a joke on top of a joke on top of a joke. So I understand if you are fresh to the show and fresh to fantasy football. The concept of no longer needing pants, it has been a part of the fantasy football world on Twitter for quite some time. It's like when something goes really, really well for your team or for a player.

that you have touted you're ripping your pants off yeah because you're free yeah you don't you don't need the restriction of the work no life is better without pants exactly your fancy i mean when you get home you got like take off your pants you get your shoes off your toy work pants your slacks your chinos no stretch no give when you get home you're not like yeah i'm just gonna keep wearing these things around now a lot of people don't know we were i have changed all my jeans into snap button on the sides so that I like the warm up. Absolutely. They're all warm up pants. So that has been a thing on Twitter for quite some time. And I love that joke. I think it is, it's very funny. And then that turned into writing a little ditty for the Arizona Cardinals drafting Marvin Jones or Marvin Harrison, Marvin Harrison Jr. Wish we had Marvin Jones. It went way better. So.

Now we have this. So you don't even need to go to the pants or because you are living life permanently without pants. That's right. Running through the streets free. Yeah. No. And I'm not going to ask about whether the underwear are. No, I'm still street legal, man. Okay, good, good. Not full Donald Duck. Yeah. Come on. It's inappropriate. That's another level of fantasy production to accomplish that. All right. Let's jump into some news. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by Progressive Insurance. The important thing is that Mike doesn't win a title because I don't want to know what that situation is like. All right, Jaden Reed, we got an update. He is starting to run routes, but then, you know, the reports have been he had not been able to do that without pain. And now we're learning he is recovering from a Jones fracture, which normally requires surgery. Yeah, it's a lot of pain management. So to go back to what I talked about on yesterday's quick question of which player.

is probably going to out make us look foolish and outproduce. I retract that statement about Jaden Reed. If he's really playing with a Jones fracture, like, it's not that guys can't do it, but I mean, imagine having a fracture on the, just the outside of your, near the outside of your foot, and you have to plant and cut every single week. It's going to be horrific, like horrifically painful to play through, and then all year long it's probably, oh. jaden reed didn't practice jade read didn't practice limited on friday and then he plays yeah his his situation is awful for fantasy managers trying to play jaden reed i don't know if i view it that terribly for the offense and jordan love to be honest with you i i am a believer in matthew golden as their number one what do you think i i've gotten to that place as well i was not bullish on matthew golden as a first round NFL draft pick his

His disappearing act so often in college was just one of those things that's confusing. If you're really that good, and he's got the talent. But how does your team just have games where they don't need you? And they did. However, the Green Bay Packers are a good offense. Jordan Love is a good quarterback. They've got an awesome system around. And he is on the field in two wide receiver sets. Matthew Golden is going to be a week one starter. He doesn't cost what a lot of these other rookies cost. And to me, this news, and it is different for everybody.

you know, risk tolerance level, but Jaden reads off my board. There are players who have played through a Jones fracture. Julio Jones has done it. Julian Edelman has done it. There's a handful of players. And oftentimes, it causes more issues. I believe after Julio Jones, and this news broke this morning, so I don't, I haven't vetted. Done a deep dive. Yeah, a deep dive. This is off of memory, but I believe he played through a Jones fracture and then later needed surgery. on the foot. You know, does Bryant struggle with this? We've seen a lot of wide receivers, Sammy Watkins, where it's like, it doesn't feel like a forever solution to just be like, you know that broken thing in your foot? It's finally. Ignore it forever. It's finally going to make sense to not play him a lot in all the other sets. And Jones fracture, yeah, that makes sense. Jones fracture is a break in the fifth metatarsal bone located on the outside of the foot, just in case people are.

that is what you don't have your medical degrees like we all clearly do yeah we can go straight from pants store discussions into metatarsals oh yeah and then law yeah no big deal we do it all john lynch said the team is hopeful but not sure on week one when asked about juan jennings he also came out and said they're not trading him and he said hey he can want a new contract and have an injured calf both can be true it's kind of what we said on the show yesterday jason was saying he believed in the injury being real uh mvs who was added

This could just be, you know, shifting the pieces around it. So San Francisco brought Valde Scantling onto the team, but he's actually, he's on the practice squad as of right now. No, he's probably eyeballing Kendrick Bourne right about now. Yeah. Marvin Mims. Uh-oh. Gronin. Groninjury. Left Wednesday's practice with an injury, didn't return. Uh, grindindex.com. Their newest member Marvin Mims Jr. That's so sad for a player who looked. I mean, I've drafted him a lot in some later mocks and even in some live drafts where he looked like he was going to be two wide receiver sets on the field. And now there's just this if he's out. Who's that? I could be Troy Franklin and it could be Pat Bryan and it could be.

It might be a little bit of both. A little bit of both. I think both of those guys are so interesting at the top of the season for big plays. And Troy Franklin could have a handful of them. They are limited at wide receiver right now. Khalil Shakir turned to practice. Okay. So you need to just kind of probably draft him like you would have drafted him. Yeah. He's been slipping. I believe he's tough because he hasn't. He hasn't practiced. Eat your fantasy vegetables and draft Kalishu. I agree with the fantasy vegetables overall about Shakir. But he suffered the high ankle sprain on August 1st. And the, I mean, Matthew Betts are, he's on our staff. He does a lot of excellent injury work for his certified physical therapist. He talks about when guys miss that, you know, multiple weeks in training camp with an injury.

the probability hit rate on them is bad. I will say this. The timeline, we'll say this a bunch through the season, but if you remember, a high ankle sprain, you usually miss zero or three weeks. And so he's got a month after that injury to recover, plus he's got about another week and a half. I believe he will be okay from the injury. I will draft him like I would have drafted him prior to the injury, which is I'm not drafting him. Because prior to the injury, I just don't care about Khalil Shakur. he's i don't think he's fantasy he's like he's he's fantasy keen wall where it's like it's fantasy keen wall where it's targets we throw that hundred targets away it's fantasy keen wall in the sense that keenwall is like supposed to be the super healthy food is it's okay is not you know it's a lot of carbs you're getting a lot of carbs in there it's gonna turn to sugar it's not great for you it's not as good as you think it is and that's that's uh that's a little skir yeah 100 targets that's great turned into

I mean, you do not a bunch of usable games. Yeah, careers have arcs though. If you're in a full PPR, he got paid. He sure did. I don't know if you know this. Every single player playing has been paid. He was on pace for 113. He missed two games last year. He's been double paid. 86 receptions from Josh Allen. I'll take that all day late in the draft. Panther second year wide receiver, Jalen Koker will be stepping into the slot role in Carolina. I'm telling you he is a great. He is a good player. He is a great player. Oh.

He is a good to great player. I apologize. He's a good to great player. He's a very good player. He's a very good player. That's what good to great is. Yeah, let's go with that. Jalen Coker, I think, is a better player than Xavier Leggett. You're going to have Tetero. Who, by the way, I mean, let's just not forget. Tetero McMillan is just now starting to practice again after tweaking. I believe it was his hamstring. Yeah, he had a yoohoo. He had a yoohoo. He did have a yoohoo. So, you know, re-injury is a risk. with McMillan, unfortunately. It is, but goodness gracious. The lanes have opened up ahead of him for driving very fast. An auto bond. Yes, exactly. He is on an auto bond. And this will be really interesting. They love Jalen Coker. They love him. They do. But Legat's going to be on the field in two wide receiver sets, whereas Coker will probably be more of the slot guy. I don't know. I don't know if that will happen all the time. Okay.

Devon A. Chan, Tyreek Hill, on track to play week one for the Dolphins. It's been the quietest of off seasons for Tyreek Hill. It's either negative or neutral all offseason long. I haven't, you know, when you talk about the vibes, Mike. Yeah. And when to pay attention. Follow the vibes. And when not to. The vibes are not positive on Tyreek Hill. And yet there remains a chance that he is awesome. I mean, he can't shut the door on that. He's a special player when he's right. And Jalen Wright. had a minor procedure and we'll be out. And the goal to return is one of my favorite quotes ever. It's September-ish. Yeah. You always want your expected returns to have an ish. Malik Neighbors said Wednesday that the back injury that sidelined him the last few weeks was a minor thing and shouldn't be an issue moving forward. So we'll take that as a little soft pat on the back and we'll be encouraged to draft Malik Neighbors.

That was news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance Quote Today at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers. Not available in all states or situations coverage subject to policy terms, limits and conditions. All right. Without further ado, it is time. The season is upon us. Let's pick some MVP. Who's your fantasy MVP? All right. We have asked some friends in the industry to share. their fantasy MVP picks with us, as well as we've got Matthew Betts, Kyle Borgannoni from the Dynasty podcast sharing theirs, and we'll share ours at the end. We'll start with Matt Harmon, good friend of the show, one of the very, very only few guests in that old school upstairs studio that we had years and years ago, football writer and analyst for Yahoo, creator of reception, which was featured in the UDK for a handful of years. Here we go, Matt.

Break it down. This better be a wide receiver. What's going on, everybody? Matt Harmon here, host of the Yahoo Fantasy Forecast and, of course, creator of reception, my 2025 fantasy football MVP is Drake London of the Atlanta Falcons. Normally wouldn't want to go with somebody that's a top pick in one of these type of segments, but I think the upside this year is absolutely massive for Drake London. First of all, this is a guy who's a proven target earner, 29.3% target share last year, third most in the NFL among wide receivers. Owned an outrageous 38.9% target share. And Michael Pennix's three starts, that's not necessarily going to carry over to 2025. But this was the second time in his career where London's pushed north of 29% or been right around that number. Target hog, who also got a big boost in his layup targets due to a flip in his role.

He played just Boundary X receiver in his first two years under Arthur Smith. Last year, career high in reception, 38.9% sample snaps in the slot and 52.7% snaps off the line of scrimmage. Weaponized in motion, ran a career high dig routes in reception, the guy that's been a proven man-press beater in his three years in the NFL now weaponized with this role. He's been one of the best receivers I've charted over the last three years on the... deep out routes. Michael Pennix can hit him there. I think this is the guy who's a dark horse to be the wide receiver one overall lead the NFL on targets and maybe even push for the triple crown. So big value. Who has him in Dynasty? Drake London. We look at Drake London. Could he be the wide receiver one? He's talked about triple crown. Could he be the wide receiver one in fantasy? It's always comedic when people put.

You get so used to how players are being drafted, and then one player goes slightly out of order, and everybody's eyes are like, whoa. Like, I took Puka Nakua over Jefferson in a league recently. And it was, oh, my gosh, what are you doing? And it's two picks later. I feel like Drake London's in that camp. Like, if you took them over CD, if you took them over Amun Ra, if you took them over Puka, would that be appropriate? It definitely could be. It's a matter of your belief, I think, in Michael Pennix, right? If he's going to have the Triple Crown and be in the running for wide receiver one overall numbers, obviously he's got to have a good quarterback. You're not going to ever have someone as the wide receiver one with a bad quarterback. At least I can't think of a possible...

I mean, an example of that. 35 plus percent target share can help you get there. Yeah, and he could be there because they really need him. The reason that we have talked recently, positively about Kyle Pitts is because there's not a lot of people to throw the ball to. And it's Drake London, Drake London and Drake London. Yeah, yeah. And that's our first MVP pick here from Matt Harmon. We'll move on to our second MVP pick, Rich Rebar, at Lord Rebes over on X from Sharp. football analysis with his MVP pick. Since I'm hitting at Madden cursed level, since you guys introduced this segment, the player I'm going to curse this season as rookie wide receiver, Tedaroa. Oh, no. Millen.

You look at McMillan as a 19-year-old freshman, eight touchdowns, 18 yards per catch, carried that through the rest of his collegiate career. He closed second in this draft class in yards per team pass attempt last year. He was seventh in yards per outrun. This is a six-foot-four, two-19-pound monster. He enters the NFL where that archetype is a little less prevalent than in previous eras. But this is a player that I don't believe offers linear production. He has some versatility to his game. Last season, he forced them his tackle on 35 percent of his receptions. That was third in this class.

He also did play in the slot for 21.6% of his snaps to ravage 4.48 yards per route run. Now he enters a Carolina offense held by Dave Canales, who has funneled his offenses through his wide receiver ones, whether it be Mike Evans two years ago, Deontay Johnson for the open of last year, then Adam Thiel and to close last year. We'll see if Thielen remains on the team through this last week of the offseason or even through the trade deadline. And when Bryce Young had on the field this preseason, he targeted him on 36.5% of his routes for 3.9%. 1 yards per route run. I believe Ted's getting punished for what happened with Marvin Harrison Jr. last year. He should be a smash wide receiver 2 and one of the best picks you can make at ADP at wide receiver this season. All right, Tederoa McMillan. One thing he mentioned in the middle of that very well-backed prediction. Reeves always has the stats. It's just the reminder. We just joked about Deonté Johnson.

and the amount of teams he's been on. Yeah. There was a point in time last season. Last season where he was dominating. 14 targets, eight receptions, 13 targets, 7 receptions, wide receiver 4, 10, 12 with Dave Canales, with this offense. It feels like that was 40 years ago. It wasn't. It was last year that Deonti Johnson has been separated from five other teams was dominating in this offense. There was also a time last year, and I know it's brought it up a couple times a week. just can't believe it was true where Adam Thielen dominated on this offense with Bryce Young. Yeah, dude. So, I mean, this is, who's better? Tetaroa McMillan, top 10 NFL draft pick or 34-year-old Adam Thielen or poisonous Deontay Johnson. Poisonous, that's a good word. Yeah, it's definitely wheels up for Tet like we were talking about with the Jalen Coker conversation. That's our second MVP pick. We'll take a break and jump into some more.

All right, let's turn the page here. We've got Drake London. We've got Tetaro and McMillan a couple of wide receivers so far. Nathan Yonke from PFF, lead fantasy analyst over there with his MVP pick. My fantasy MVP this year is Jordan Mason, the new running back of the Minnesota Vikings. He averages 5.3 yards per carry and was sixth in fantasy points through five weeks last season. Reports suggest a 50-50 split with Aaron Jones, but the roles matter. Mason has the early Donback, which typically scores more fantasy points, and Jones on passing downs. Mason is also the more explosive of the two, with 15 plus yards on 8% of his career carries versus 4% for Jones each of the last two seasons. Kevin O'Connell keeps his running back usage fluid, so if Mason is playing better, then he should earn more playing time. I also expect an improved Vikings offense. Minnesota has elevated quarterbacks like Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold.

I expect J.J. McCarthy to be just as good, if not better, than those quarterbacks. T.J. Hawkinson should be healthier this season, and left tackle Christian Derisaw is back with his top six run block raid over the last two seasons. They also completely rework the interior of the offensive line, so I expect the Vikings' offense to be better in several areas this season. The team should be among the league leaders and points scored, and I expect Mason as their goal line running back to be scoring a lot of those touchdowns. Best of all, he works regardless of draft draft draft strategy. Zero running back, hero running back, or even after taking early backs, still draft Jordan Mason. Thanks for having me. All right. Appreciate that. Jordan Mason has come up quite a bit this offseason. I...

I've had the hardest time when I see Aaron Jones dropping in drafts. When I see Jordan Mason. I have had a hard time with Aaron Jones too. You know, it's one of those things where it's like, reminds me a little bit of Breece Hall and Braylon Allen's situation where we're kind of fatigued a little bit with, you know, the years and years of Aaron Jones and Breece Hall. And here's Jordan Mason who had some games in San Francisco last year, got obviously brought over with a purpose. But I've had a hard time kind of figuring out where to pull the trigger. Do you take Aaron Jones if he drops late? He seems to be one of the starters dropping the latest. Yeah, I would definitely take Aaron Jones ahead of Jordan Mason. But hopefully, I mean, on average draft position, he is going well ahead. It's really when Aaron Jones goes where he should be going in drafts. And then late in drafts, Jordan Mason's sitting there. He is of real value. He could be one of those flex with benefits that Mike talks about where...

a starter on a regular basis but then should something happen to the elder statesman incumbent starter then he's wildly involved my only issue with jordan mason every time i go to pull the trigger is just this lack of existing past catching work correct you know and they don't need him to be that there no no they don't so my only hope is that if aaron jones were to go down and jordan mason gets an opportunity to have the whole workload would he add pass catching to that? A little bit. I don't think it's a, probably not a wild amount. Yeah, I don't, I don't, he had the opportunity. They'd have another committee back. Yeah, I think when Christian McAffer went down, a great pass catcher, it wasn't like Jordan Mason came in and caught passes. So you've got a goal line back and a talented between the tackles runner. The issue when you're looking at, because Aaron Jones is the sixth, like that by itself, standalone, you're like, okay. He's, he should be the, you know, maybe he's the early down guy that that remains to be seen, but.

They did. They gave him, you know, some money. It's going on in the sixth, high powered offense. But in the sixth round is also, you know. Were you talking about Aaron Jones or are you talking about? Aaron Jones. Okay. Yeah, because in the six, if you're, if your target is Aaron Jones, but you go into the six, you got George Pickens in that round. You got DeAndre Swift. You got Tony Pollard going in that area of the draft. So you're, you're bypassing those guys. And then, you know, Jordan Mason's in the ninth. So you, it's like you can get a.