Fantasy Football - Top 10 TE Rankings + Most Improved Offenses - Podcast for 8/5

He's a human. And while he's unbelievable, he's 33 years. He's a dog. He's a dog. He's 33 years. He's a man. He's not a human. He's a man. Old for a football player coming off of a very difficult injury. And I know it was a better version. Like the, you know, we keep hearing like, oh, it's.

the Achilles tore at the right spot. It's like, well, there's no good spot for the Achilles to tear. There's worse spots. There are worse spots, but he still tore his Achilles and is coming back. The last video that I saw him, he's out on the sideline, he's working, but he looks to me like he's ways away. So I'm a little bit more skeptical that you will like holding on to him for the first half of the year. All right, we'll take a break and come back with our top four and some sleeper picks.

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Fastest is based on analysis by Ucla of speed test intelligence data of national speed score results for the second half of 2025. The best mobile network in the U.S. is based on analysis by Ucla of speed test intelligence data, second half of 2025. All right, I do have that information for you before we move on to our top four, which we'll probably get through them pretty quick. You guys know the names. Top three tight-ins over the last five years, six of 15 were sub-500 teams.

It does lower your odds, certainly. You want to be around the end zone, right? I was curious about that. Bowers McBride twice. Some of that's tough because like Travis Kelsey is every year, you know, pretty much over the last decade, been in the top three and he's always going to be on a winning team prior to this year? I think it's like you're either a dominant player at the tight end position, which there's very few of those if you're talking.

guys who are getting it done in the passing game the guys who can rise are that's the offense is going to carry him yep makes sense number four Tyler Warren comes in at number four Jason just talked extensively about Tyler Warren on our fire and ice episode but the TLDR of that is great it was a great rookie season when Daniel Jones was healthy focal point of the offense you lose Michael Pittman

beneficiary of those low, you know, the intermediate targets that Pittman was great at. And, you know, Alec Pierce, Josh Downs on the outside, you know, Downs is unproven out there. They want to try him out, give him more opportunities. Pierce got paid all that money, but he's been a deep threat most of his career. Warren's going to soak up the middle of the field. Benefit from Jonathan Taylor pulling up defenses. So I think we're all very comfortable with Tyler Warren. Jason's got him at three. Mike and I have four. That's the only difference.

Jason has him ahead of Loveland and we have him behind, meaning number three. Number three. Mr. Loveland. Mr. Loveland. It is Mr. Loveland. 22 years old, Mike and I have him at three, Jason and four, finished 11 last year, came on like gangbusters at the end of the season. A chess piece for Ben Johnson in line 56% of the time, but then in the slot, 22% of the time, out wide, completely 18% of the time.

You know, the debates around Burden, Adun, say, how valuable are they? We know Loveland is going to be a focal point. Yeah, but the quote that we have gotten recently, and I don't have this. Well, it's from an ESPN article. Okay, from ESPN was that Loveland is the son of the bear's solar system of receivers. And that feels like kind of how we anticipate this going.

We have the fight of I love Rome, you love burden. And I've certainly warmed more and more on burden. I still don't like his draft price. But we universally come to the same agreement that is the best weapon on this team. And I think the, I personally have it now as the target leader for this team is Colson Loveland. The issue is that there are other really good targets. So if Caleb is throwing.

for sub 4,000 yards, and you have three really good options. Is the consistency going to be there for Loveland if, oh, Luther Burton went off for these four games and Rome went off for these three games or whatever? Will we be disappointed in the price of Loveland because of those weapons? That's my only concern because I think the tape showed and the playoffs showed.

that he can be a dominant top end force. Yeah, I think the interesting thing is looking at the final three weeks of the year in the playoffs when he was really a part of the offense. Seeing that playoff target share at 28% in an offense that had DJ Moore at 17% at the time, I feel like there will be plenty of weekly upside combined with, I think, a good floor for Colston Love, and that's why I have him ahead of war, and I just like that offensive system better.

Yeah, I would expect the bears just to outscore the Colts. I mean, when we were preparing for the show and going through our UDK stats and we were looking because free rankings kind of disagreed with the UDK rankings because one is done by stat projections, one is just done by linear rank, and we took a look at these two guys, Loveland and Warren. I don't even know if you know this, Andy, because it was Mike and I looking at it. I probably don't then. We were almost identical. I mean, the points between Loveland and Warren,

for all three of us are like flip a coin as far as total fantasy value. I do think it's a one round difference. Yeah, I mean, that's why I like Warren more. It's cheaper. And I think his floor might be higher. But when we're trying to win his championship, the ceiling is higher on Lovlin. 100%. Like if both of these guys go off this year, Lovland will be the winner. I think about it the exact same way. I think Warren is probably a safer.

pick for a like this is going to be a top five tight end it's just if if loveland hits the way that the all the chatter is from this from training camp of the off season he was the number 10 overall pick you know we have the the anecdotes of phones were ringing off the hook during the NFL draft Colston lovelin gets drafted by the bears which was a little bit of a surprise per the mock drafters

And then all of a sudden the phone stopped ringing. Because people were trying to move up to go get Loveland. He is, I think he will be the focal part of the Bears' offense. And the ceiling is. He's a more athletically gifted player than Warren is. And Warren's very good. It's just, Loveland is just much more of them. If you want to break away touchdown, that's not going to be Warren. Warren's going to break some tackles and get you 20 yards on a cool catch. Loveland's going to take it to the house. Right behind the back. The chance of.

Loveland usurping Brock Bowers as the number one tight end at the end of this season, to me, is much higher than Warren. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. Number two. Nope, no more. Let's go to the next floor. Trey McBride. Did you, if you want to. I could talk Loveland all day if you want. I was just going to bring up the negative quote of the fact that he's been seen as a dynamic pass catcher, but he is rapidly improving as a blocker.

Is that scary for fantasy? No. Because you know who's a great blocker? George Kittle. I think there is some value to, we love our tight ends that aren't, you know, the Jimmy Grams. They don't actually play the tight end position. They play wide receiver. But there is definitely value of the, I'm in line. I'm looking like I'm going to block, but I'm just a chip and then I leak out for the play action and then hit a big play. Number two. You sound like strong bad.

Check it out to emails. Oh. Houtawena. Is that a home stock? Trey McBride comes in at number two. Is that disrespectful? This was the first tight end in history to have 100 plus catches in back-to-back seasons. He has Jacoby Brissette, fresh off of that sweet $15 million check. They're writing him completely dominant last year with Brissette, number one overall fantasy tight-in, and yet he comes in at two at our consensus rankings.

That is not an insult to Trey McBride. That is simply a belief in Brock Bowers. Trey McBride, the only negative thing you could possibly say about his outlook is that it is somewhat probable that during the fantasy playoffs he has a third round rookie quarterback slinging him the ball. That's the only fear I have. I mean, Trey McBride is the leader of this offense. You know, the questions of Will, is Marv good?

Did the Michael Wilson? All that's irrelevant. Those guys are so far behind in the pecking order of McBride. The offense runs through him. He will be awesome again. Much better play caller. You know, you talk about the situation for Arizona. I would trust LaFlorida do more with his best player. Arizona had a ton of yards last year because the defense was bad and the defense is just as bad this year.

But they didn't score a lot of points when you look at like total team scoring when we were, you know, looking at who's going to take that jump? They have room to really grow and you add love, you know, in the backfield. Yeah. Is that a positive or a negative? I think it's a positive. I think having a better offense is always just good. They just, they had nothing at the running back position last year. That's why they, their pass rate was so extremely high. And.

Like there were running so many plays. We brought up the stat earlier of like he essentially ran multiple games, multiple games worth more of snaps. Kyle, correct me if I'm wrong, I think the most snaps or most routes run for a tight end ever in the history of the NFL is just those things. Jacobi Berset was on pace for 685 passes. Yeah, that's not happening. Which is an outrageous number that has to come down.

Number one. It is Rock Bowers coming in at number one, the most talented tight end up there in football with the fact that he's the clear number one target with Clint Kubiak, who called him a football robot from heaven. What's better? Being the son of the solar system. Well, heaven is much better. Or a football, but you're a robot. But you're from heaven. You know, heaven is above the...

Sun and the Stars. So, I mean, it's clearly, clearly Brock Powers is better here. You want, you want to know something? Remember we were having the debate about Gandalf versus, uh, Dumbledore? Dumbledore? Mm-hmm. I didn't, I talked to somebody with knowledge of the Lord of the Rings universe. Oh. Gandalf is part angel. I am unaware of this. This is what they told me. This is, if I'm quoting it, they said from, I think it's in the Colbert on the phone. The similary on, you know, that book?

talks about that. I think he's... Interesting. It was spitballers. We were talking about this on spitballers. But when you said, having it reminded me, I wanted to let you guys know I'd done some research. Yeah, well, that's... That's important research. We appreciate that. You know, we're looking at these top four elite tight ends. And, you know, my argument for Warren is that Downs and Alec Pierce are not as good as the weapons there. You know, all of these other three guys have at least capable receivers.