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

Footclan, you got lots of draughts this weekend. It is go time. Time to set the foundation for your entire season by dominating your draft and making your league mates look like stupid dumb dumb idiots. Idients.

They're so stupid.

Ultimatedraftkit. 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. Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Mohr, and Mike Wright.

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.

Oh, okay.

I'm not changing my MVP.

You almost changed.

Well, I almost changed out of... I felt bullied. No, not bullied. Because that would blame you. Right.

I felt- I said no. Are you changing Kyle's MVP? Yes.

No, I'm changing our quick question of the day. Oh, 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 draughts. Our League of Record draft is Monday, and I'm going to try to piece together a season from the remnants and scraps of pics that I have left after my The taxman cometh for you. After my run to 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 Shanehan.

Yeah, I was living for the moment. Come on, you know. If you had a chance of back to back.

Oh, yeah. You swiped every credit card. You sold out trying. The can was kicked so far. Then you came into this year. We're not allowed to trade first-round picks in our league. You came in, obviously, with your first because you had to. Otherwise, you would have burned that. Then your next pick was the seventh round.

It was the seventh round. I've made some adjustments to my team. But yeah, my dead cap was the highest in our fantasy league.

History.

Yeah, you could put it that way. But yeah, big-time drafts coming this weekend. The Ultimate Draft Kit available right now, ultimatedraftkit. Com.

Go check it out. Including all the Megalable drafts, they start this weekend. So two draughts.

Megalable.

So if you want to play-I love you trying to talk.

And then you're like, I got to work a dragon in here. Or, I mean, a shark voice.

A dragon? Yeah. A dragon.

A monstrous voice.

A dragglable?

Get out of here. It's a megalodon. God, that's gracious. But yeah, if you want to play with us in the megalodon, you can go to... In the Megalable, go to meglable. Com. There are two draughts. There's a morning draft and an evening draft on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and then one last morning draft on Wednesday. There's plenty of slots for you to sign Sign up right now. Go to meglable. Com.

I think there's a draft going on right now because Al Borena hasn't looked up in a minute. I'm wondering if... I knew you were on the clock, Al. Who'd you just take in our draft? I haven't yet. I'm still looking. That is what I was doing already. I could tell you had your attention on the draft. That's what it's like right now. I'm pivoting. The quick question of the day. Sometimes, we've done this show for a long time. There are inside jokes. There are people that take some time to catch up on what's going on. But my favorite quick question of the day, It has to be this one from Instagram. Alchase25 writing 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. 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 This game?

The pants store, 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's 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 That you have touted.

You're ripping your pants off.

Yeah, because you're free. Yeah, you don't need pants.

You don't need the restriction of the work pant anymore.

No, life is better without pants.

Exactly. You're fancy. When you get home, you got- Take off your pants. You got your- Kick 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 going to keep wearing these things around my... No, wait. No, wait.

That's why I have changed all my jeans into Snap button on the sides so that I can rip them off. They're all like the warm-up pants in the NBA. Absolutely. They're all warm-up pants.

That has been a thing on Twitter for quite some time. I love that joke. I think it's very funny. Then that turned into writing a little ditty for the Arizona Cardinals drafting Marvin Jones. Marvin Harrison Jr. Wish we had Marvin Jones. It would have been way better. Now we have this.

You don't even need to go to the pants store because you are living life permanently without pants.

That's right. Running through the streets free.

Yeah. No. I'm I'm not going to ask about whether the underwear- No, I'm still street legal, man. Okay, good.

Not full Donald Duck.

No. 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 Reid, we got an update. He is starting to run routes, but then 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. To go back to what I talked about on yesterday's quick question of which player is probably going to make us look foolish and outproduce, I retract that statement about Jaden Reid. If he's really playing with a Jones fracture, it's not that guys can't do it, but imagine having a fracture on just near the outside of your foot, and you have to plant and cut every single week. It's going to be horrific, horrifically painful to play through. And then all year long, it's probably, Oh, Jaden Reid didn't practice. Jaden Reid didn't practice. Limited on Friday. Then he plays.

Yeah, his situation is awful for fantasy managers trying to play Jaden Reid. I don't I don't know if I view it that terribly for the offense and Jordan love, to be honest with you. I am a believer in Matthew Golden as their number one.

What do you think, Jeff? I've gotten to that place as well. I was not bullish on Matthew Golden as a first-round NFL draft pick. 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 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. To me, this news, and it is different for everybody, you got to know your own risk tolerance level. But Jaden Reid is 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. Oftentimes, it causes more issues. I believe after Julio Jones, and this news broke this morning, so 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.

Does Bryant struggle with this? We've seen a lot of wide receiver, Sammy Watkins, where 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. It'll be like, 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 people are running. You don't have your medical degrees like we all clearly do.

Yeah, we can go straight from pants store discussions into metastarsals.

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 John 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 what we said on the show yesterday. Jason was saying he believed in the injury being real.

Mvs, who was added. This could just be shifting the pieces around. But so San Francisco brought Valdes Scantling onto the team, but 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. Groin injury. Left Wednesday's practice with injury, didn't return. Groinindex. 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 draughts 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?

It could be Troy Franklin, and it could be Pat Bryant, 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 Shaqar returned to practice. Okay. So you need to just probably draft him like you would have drafted him. Yeah. He's been slipping.

I believe he's tough because he hasn't Eat your fantasy vegetables and draft Khalil Shaq. I agree with the fantasy vegetables overall about Shaqar, but he suffered the high ankle sprain on August first. Matthew Betts, he's on our staff. He does a lot of excellent injury work for a certified physical therapist. He talks about when guys miss 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. 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 Shaqir. I don't think he's fantasy. He's like fantasy quinoa. He's fantasy quinoa, where it's like-Fantasy Keenwa.

Yeah, where it's-100 targets. We throw that hundred targets away.

It's fantasy quinoa in the sense that quinoa is supposed to be this super healthy food. It's okay. It's a lot of carbs. You're getting a lot of carbs in there. It's going to turn into sugar. It's not great for you. It's not as good as you think it is. That's Kalil Shaker. Yeah, 100 targets. That's great.

Turned into not a bunch of usable games. Yeah, careers have arcs, though.

If you're in a full PPR, more- 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. Eighty-six receptions from Josh Allen. I'll take that all day, late in the draft. Panther's second-year wide receiver, Jalen Coker, 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 good to great player. He is a good to great player. I apologize. He's a good to great player.

I'll take that. He's a very good player.

He's a very good player. Thank you.

That's what good to great is.

Yeah, let's go with that. Jalen Coker, I think, is a better player than Xavier Laguette. You're going to have Tetero, who, by the way, let's just not forget, Tetero MacMillan is just now starting to practice again after tweaking, I believe it was his hamster. Yeah, he had a yoohoo.

He had a yoohoo. He did have a yoohoo.

Re-injury is a risk with MacMillan, unfortunately.

It is, but, goodness gracious, the lanes have opened up ahead of him for driving very fast. An Autobahn. Yes, exactly. He is on an Autobahn. This will be really interesting.

They love Jalen Coker.

They love him. They do. But Laguette is 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 Achan, Tyreek Hill on track to play week one for the Dolphins. It's been the quietest of offseasons for Tyreek Hill. It's either negative or neutral all off-season long. When you talk about the vibes, Mike, 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.

You can't shut the door on that.

He's a special player when he's right. And Jalen Wright had a minor procedure and will 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 Nabors 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. We'll take that as a little soft pat on the back, and we'll be encouraged to draft Malik Nabors. That was news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive. Com. Progressive Calgary 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 MVPs.

Who's your fantasy MVP?

All right, we have asked some friends in the industry to share their fantasy MVP pics with us, as well as we've got Matthew Betz, Kyle Borganoni 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 Perception, 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 Perception. My 2025 fantasy football MVP is Drake London of the Atlanta Falcons. Normally, I wouldn't want to with somebody that's a top pick in one of these types 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 in Michael Penix'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 perception, 38. 9% sample snaps in the slot, and 52. 7% snaps off the line of scrimage. Weaponized in motion, ran a career high dig routes in reception perception.

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 deep out routes. Michael Pennex can hit him there. I think this is a guy who's a dark horse to be the wide receiver one. Overall, lead the NFL in 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, Oh, I took Pukunakuwa over Jefferson in a league recently. And it was, Oh, my gosh, what are you doing? It's two pics later. I feel like Jake London's in that camp. If you took him over Seedy, if you took him over Amunra, if you took him over Puca, would that be appropriate?

It definitely could be. It's a matter of your belief, I think, in Michael Pennix. 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 example of that.

I mean, 35 plus % 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 pits 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, and that's our first MVP pick here from Matt Harmon. We'll move on to our second MVP pick, Rich Rebar at Lord Reeves over One X from sharp football analysis with his MVP pick. Since I'm hitting at mad and cursed level, since you guys introduced this segment, the player I'm going to curse this season is rookie wide receiver Teta Roa. Oh, no. Mcmillan. You look at Mcmillan as a 19 old freshman, eight touch downs, 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 6'4, 219 pound monster. He enters the NFL where that archetype is a little less prevalent than in previous areas, but this is a player that I don't believe offers linear production. He has some versatility to his game. Last season, he forced a mistack on 35% of his receptions. That was third in this class. He also did play in the slot for 21 1. 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 Thielen 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. When Bryce Young had Tate on the field this preseason, he targeted him on 36. 5% of his routes for 3. 91 yards per route run. I believe Ted's getting punished for what happened with Marvin Harrison Jr. Last year.

He should be a smashed wide receiver, too, and one of the best picks you can make at ADP at wide receiver this season.

All right, Tetero and Mcmillan. One thing he mentioned in the middle of that very Well-backed prediction.

Reeves always has the stats.

It's just a reminder. We just joked about Deontay Johnson and the amount of teams he's been on. There was a point in time last season, last season, where he was dominating 14 Eight targets, 8 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 the Deontay Johnson has been separated from five other teams was dominating in this offense.

There was also a time last year, and I brought it up a couple of times, and we just can't believe it was true, where Adam Thielen dominated on this offense with Bryce Young. Yeah, dude. Who's better? Teteroa McKmillan, 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 Ted Roe and McMillin, a couple of wide receivers so far. Nathan Janke 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 downback, 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'Knell 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 JJ McCarthy to be just as good, if not better, than those quarterbacks. T. J. Hawkinson should be healthier this season, and left tackle, Christian Dersa is back with his top six run block grade over the last two seasons. They also completely reworked 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 shutdowns.

Best of all, he works regardless of draft strategy. Zero running back, hero running back, or even after taking early backs, still draft Jordan Mason. Thanks for having me. All right. I appreciate that. Jordan Mason has come up quite a bit this offseason. 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. It's one of those things where it's like, it reminds me a little bit of Breese Hall and Breelen Allen situation where we're fatigued a little bit with the years and years of Aaron Jones and Breese Hall. 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 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, 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 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 pass catching work. Correct.

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 a- Probably not a lot. Wild amount. I don't know.

They'd add 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. You've got a goal line back and a talented between the tackles run.

The issue when you're looking at… Because Aaron Jones in the sixth. That by itself, stand-alone, you're like, Okay, he should be the… Maybe he's the early down guy. That remains to be seen. But they did. They gave him some money. He's going in the sixth, high-powered offense. But in the sixth round is also-Are you talking about Aaron Jones?

Aaron Jones.

Okay. Yeah, because in the sixth, if your target is Aaron Jones, but you go into the sixth, 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 bypassing those guys. And then Jordan Mason is in the ninth. So it's like you can get a piece of the Minnesota Vikings offense for cheaper and then be like, Oh, no, I want to bet on DeAndre Swift.

The hardest part is just to you- Which is wild. Would you put Jordan Mason out in your lineup in a flex spot in week one? I think that's the question people don't know how to answer.

No, I think you would not.

Oh, I'd be willing to do it. Yeah.

So there's where I've passed on Mason. But the opportunity is in front of him, and the team, if they give him more of the workload, it's a huge opportunity. All right, JJ Zachariezen is next, at Late Round, quarterback, host of the Late Round fantasy football podcast, Living the Stream. He has been a part of this show for quite some time. I am teasing He's amazing. Before I put this up, I just don't know what graphic he is.

That's what I was wanting. I was just like, we usually put his little kid picture.

I don't know what's-Let's find out.

Hello, you beautiful gentlemen. It's your good buddy JJ here to give you my fantasy MVP for this 2025 season.

I really tried to not go with this player because he's just cruising up draft boards at the moment.

It's like I'm just leaning into the hype, but I'm having a hard time not saying Trevian Henderson. Henderson looked great in the Zat model, and that's no surprise because his pass catching profile was awesome coming out of Ohio State. As a freshman, the dude caught 27 balls for 312 yards and four touch downs. That was on a team with Jackson Smith and Jigba, Garrett Wilson, Chris Alabe, Marvin Harrison Jr. And Ameca Igbuka. Now in New England, he's sharing a backfill with Ramondre Stevenson. Stevenson might steal a lot of that ground game work, but he's coming off a really poor season in yards per out run. I'm expecting Henderson to capture as high as a 15% target share in that offense. Maybe the rushing volume for him will be higher than we expect. It doesn't even have to be insane for him to hit in a PPR format. Since 2011, there have been just five instances where a running back hit between a 50% and 60% running back rush share and a 13% to target share. Those are both well within Henderson's range of outcomes. Those five running backs ranked 18th, 13th, 12th, eighth, and sixth in PPR points per game.

I'm in on Henderson because his floor is really solid, but he has room to grow for a really nice ceiling outcome, too. All right. I never even heard of that guy.

Which one? Henderson or JJ?

No, JJ. We're in a chopped League on Sleeper. I took Ramondre late because I know the train is coming. But it's like, if I'm going to get anything out of Ramondre, it's going to be the first couple of weeks when he gets the most work he's probably going to see all year. Henderson, he's not going to be every down, but he is going to be so efficient for this office.

He's very, very talented.

Man, 15% target share.

If he hit 15%, goodness gracious, he's going to be incredible.

I agree with JJ. That is something that could happen. The New England Patriots, we've talked about them a good amount of their win total is much higher than you expect. And the wide receiver is Stefan Diggs. And then you got pop Douglas. Okay, that's a fine slot player. But who's the wide receiver three? No idea. Henderson might absorb a lot of targets.

All right, We on Henderson, Jordan Mason, two runningbacks in a row. We've got Kyle Borganoni, his MVP pick, coming up right now. What's up, Footcland? For the 2025 season, my pick for MVP is Colts rookie tight-end Tyler Warren. If home league are essentially a vicious street fight against your league mates, I want someone on my team who is a certifiable dog. From the Wildcat formations at Penn State to being an absolute terror in man-to-man coverage, Warren is simply a match-up night nightmare in the NFL. Ignore your platform's ADP and be willing to take Warren a round or two ahead of the rest of the Jibronis in your league who are waiting on tight in late. The Jibronis and the Borganonis. Look, my guy, I've been reaching on him everywhere. Sometimes I've missed because somebody else has done it.

Do not play the ADP game with Tyler Warren. If you want him and you're Well, according to his ADP, he might be at my next pick.

What are we talking? Sixth round?

Let me look at whatever the last league I've been in.

Tyler Warren went sixth round in a 2QB because his ADP- No, he went sixth Yeah, he went six round. He went ahead of- His ADP is late eighth.

So seventh round in- He went ahead of Ingram? Our League of Shadows were playing with Eisen. I think seventh round is where you're going to have to take him.

Yeah, and that's fine. That's the other part of the equation to me. I'd do it. I would try to do it.

At that point, I talk about the lack of wanting to take a fifth round tight end, even though they're presumably better, because in the fifth round, there are really good runningbacks and wider shears. But when I look at what you're taking Tyler Warren over Javante Williams and Tyrone Tracy, and it's like, those guys could work out, but you're in a spot where it's like, take a shot at a huge... Javante Williams is not going to win you your fantasy lead. There's no world where that happens this year. Clip that. But Tyler Warren could.

He would need to take some drugs. All right, Matthew Betz, our injury expert, one of the hosts of the DFS and the Betting Dinopod. Or the DFS and Betting and the Dinopod. There you go. I was just throwing words out there with his fantasy MVP pick.

What's going on, Footclan? In the middle rounds of my drafts, I like to harness the mentality of someone like Ricky Bobby. If you ain't first, you're last.

After we've locked up our starting runningbacks wide receivers with projectable volume with our first few picks, we should be shooting for massive upside in the middle rounds of our drafts, not drafting for safety. And this year's ADP landscape presents a unique opportunity to draft a wide receiver with true league-winning potential. You're 2025 fantasy MVP is none other than Travis Hunter. Sure, he could play more corner than we realized, and it might be tough to play both ways in the NFL, but this dude is different. And if we knew we were getting a full-time wide receiver in this scheme with this draft capital, he'd be going way earlier in drafts. Liam Cohen has already suggested Hunter will play around 80% of the snaps on offense, and that should be plenty of opportunity for Hunter to crush this ADP. Currently going off the board in the sixth or seventh round, depending on your platform, Hunter is an awesome target as your wide receiver three in draughts this weekend.

Good luck, Footclan. Let's bring home those #FootclanTitles.

Do-ball. Travis Hunter, I do not feel, has gotten enough love on this show or in the fantasy community because he plays If we were able to just vary in a linear way- I'm thinking because he's also the number two.

When Brian Thomas Jr is on the team, you don't imagine Travis Hunter's walking in. Like Ted McDonald, you're like, he's the dude right away.

It's fair, but our analysis, it's not clean. If he was, let's say Travis Hunter was just the best wide receiver in college football and drafted a number two, if Malik Nabors landed on that team, I think we'd have We've talked about him more, is my point. A little bit. I agree with what you're saying, that's the Brian Thomas thing. It's very easy for us. We go to Teter Road, McKmillon, it's like, You're the dude. Travis Hunter, is there a possibility he's just the dude? I don't know if we can get there.

I think it's both. It's the fact that he's going to be playing cornerback, and he is. He's absolutely going to be playing both ways. Exciting to see how that works, but the talent is there. He has the potential to be the wide receiver rookie of the year.

Mike Evans has been a one his entire career, right? Yeah. Okay. We've had Chris Godwin be a dominant fantasy for us a lot in a Liam Cohen offense, he was on a roll. So it's one A, one B potential, I guess, is what I'm saying.

Yeah, there is the potential for that, of course.

Travis Hunter is the pick. We'll move on. We got a great friend of the show, Jamie Eisenberg, fantasy football NFL analyst for CBS Sports.

It's Jamie Eisenberg from CBS Sports. My fantasy MVP for the 2025 season is Christian McCaffrey. He's a top five overall player for me. I'm taking him as the number three running back behind only Bajon Robinson and Jamir Gibbs. And by the time we get to week one, I might like him better than both those guys. There's just so much upside with McAfree. You know what he's capable of when healthy. He scores like a quarterback, over 24 PPR points per game in 2023. 2024 was a disaster, as we're all aware. Only playing four games. Killy's injury, knee injury. It was a Greek tragedy. But I think Macafre will be back and hopefully better than ever. Look, everything around him is falling apart. The backup running backs are decimated. They had to go trade for Brian Robinson. The receiving core is a mess. He's going to be involved in the passing game, maybe to a higher level than we saw in that 2023 campaign. As long as he stays healthy, he's going to be in contention to be the best player at his position, one of the best players in all of fantasy, and I want him on my fantasy team.

If I get a pick in the top five, and have those other four guys in front of him, again, Bajon Robinson, Jameer Gibbs, I'll take two receivers over him as well for now in Jamar Chase and CeeDee Lamb. I just think McAfree's got maybe more upside than anybody we've seen. So hopefully, he stays healthy for the entire season. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we're talking about Christian McAfree leading a lot of people to fantasy championships.

Well, Mike liked that. I heard three hopefulies in there, and that is the story of McAfree.

It is.

There's a handful of players where there's not really a lot to analyze. If he's on the field, he's great. He's not always on the field, so you're just playing a little bit because some people love slot machines, okay? And that's what this is. It's put the money in and maybe you hit the jackpot. Some people do win money there. Yeah.

All right, we have one more before we share our MVP selections for 2025. It's Rich Eisen, of the Rich Eisen Show and everywhere else. Rich Eisen, legend of the industry. Here we go.

My fantasy football MVP for 2025 is going to be Jamir Gibbs. I have a feeling. I don't know what it is. I just I feel he's going to get the ball a lot more, and I feel like his home run ability from the last couple of years is just going to get more tape measure. So I'm looking at you, Detroit. I'm looking at you to get the ball to Jamir Gibbs. And I understand he might get vultured by knuckles, but I think Sonic is going to go crush it. My two cents.

Iso has got the vibes, the Gibbs vibes.

Yeah, and he also drafted Gibbs in our- He did. League of Shadows.

I almost took Gibbs there because I was one pick ahead of Eisen, and we had this video in, so I knew that was his guy. I was like, If I don't take Gibbs there. But I couldn't take him over Barkley, personally, so I took Barkley, and he got his Gibbs.

So Jameer Gibbs, I mean, I've said it. I believe he could be the number one overall running back very easily this year. I don't think people are given that enough potential.

I was thinking about this this morning knowing we were going to talk about Gibbs, and I've had a slight bear case for him with the workload of David Montgomery and how high he's being drafted. I've really cooled on that. Gibbs is too talented. He is probably the best offensive weapon, including Amunra St. Brown on the Lions, which is a great offense. And so the idea of not getting him more and more involved as his career gets more and more into his prime would be foolish. Obviously, David Montgomery is there. He's going to score plenty of goals goal-line touch downs, but Gibbs is just too good. He's just too talented to be stupid and make a bear case against him.

All right, we have three more to reveal our own fantasy football MVPs for 2025. Let's take a break and come back with some league winners. All right, to run it back, Rich Eisen had Jamir Gibbs as his MVP, Jamie Eisenberg with CMC, Matthew Betz Travis Hunter, Kyle Borganoni with Tyler Warren. Love that. Jj Zachariezen with Trevian Henderson, Nathan Jahnke with Jordan Mason, Rich Rebar with Tedaroa McMillan, and Matt Harmon with Drake London. Jason, who is your fantasy football MVP for 2025?

My fantasy football MVP for 2025 is rookie running back for the Pittsburgh Stealers, Caleb Johnson. This is a player I adored the film on, and not everybody did. There were disagreements on whether or not he truly an elite college prospect or not because he's a patient running style with explosive afterburners once he gets going. We've seen that already in the preseason. There's been tons of reports from camp. He was named offensive rookie for them. Caleb Johnson has been very good so far, I think, early on. He's had some reports of not the best pass protection. Look, that really is overblown. I know he's a rookie, and you want to get on the field. Being good at pass protection is great. But for fantasy football purposes, you go back and look at who is PFF's lower graded pass protectors. A lot of times, it's the guy's getting dump offs. Go figure. So Caleb Johnson, first of all, ignore the depth chart. He's a rookie. I know you got Arthur Smith there, but for what it's worth, Devon Achan started third on Miami depth chart at this point in time. Look at what he did in college production profile-wise and how that translates to the NFL.

He had a 52% Dominator rating in his final year at Iowa. That's a wild stat. The most predictive stat from College to the Pros is rushing touch downs for running mechs. He had 21 rushing touch downs his final year. This was a team where he was the yards per team play, it was Caleb Johnson. The defense knew who to stop. It was Caleb Johnson. Here are the round one through three NFL draft pick. So a day two pick or earlier, who had a 40% Dominator score and a two plus yards per team play. It's Levyon Bell, Derrick Henry, Christian McAfree, Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook, Breese Hall, Achan, and Caleb Johnson. He is a really good running back. A lot of people in this preseason have complained about a lack of explosiveness because he is that patient run style. He hit 22 miles per hour in college. He is fast. Forget the 40 time. Only 4% of running back attempts go for 15 plus yards. But when you get that break, can you take it to the house? I promise you, Caleb Johnson can. You will see a 40 plus yard rushing countdown this year from Caleb Johnson.

He had eight forced miss tackles this preseason that led the whole preseason. He only had 24 total attempts. Just for context there, only three running backs all last season had eight forced miss tackles on 24 or fewer attempts in a game. James Conner, Henry, and Mixon. He's a good back. And you look at the situation. That's the final thing I want to say is his situation, I think, is really nice for fantasy, for being a good draft pick. You've got Ashton Genti being drafted in the first round. You got to get lucky to even get him. Amari and Hampton, I looked at the ADP across all platforms, and I took each rookie's top because they're probably all going to go ahead of what their ADP is right now. Amari and Hampton was 304 ADP. Trevianne Henderson is 407 ADP. The highest ADP on Caleb is the 611. He's at that 6,7 turn. And on some platforms, he's in the ninth round. He's got to compete with Jalen Warren. Okay, Jalen Warren is a starter. He's going to start the year as the starter. But Jalen Warren has never had 150 carries in his career. And at the goal line, do you think Jalen Warren is a starter?

He is not. He had four carries inside the five last year. You've got a team that, obviously, you've Arthur Smith there. I don't like that. But Arthur Smith was there last year when Najee Harris, a slow, plotting Najee Harris, had 300 plus opportunities, and Jalen Warren was the helpful back. I think Caleb Johnson is too good to stay off the field by the end of the year. I think he has a chance to be a workhorse back here, a league-winning back, and he doesn't cost the farm. He can be a non-starter week one. He can go in your flex for where you can get him in draft. So I think he's my fantasy MVP. I I love the talent, and I expect him to be a very good player this season.

Mike, thoughts on Caleb Johnson?

I'm not as hot and bothered as Jason is, but I do like the draft cost of getting... He was third-round NFL pick, Jason?

He was pick 83 overall.

Which was their second pick. They didn't have a second rounder.

Yeah, and they really needed him. They chose Warren over Najee. That for sure happened. I don't know if this was part of the plan of they said, Okay, we're going to let Najee go because in this draft class, we can find the bigger body player for that type, that archetype for our offense. Where he's going in the drafts, I think it is a fine upside pick.

I'm a little worried that people will end up taking the pick and getting nothing for a while and then feeling like- I do think it starts slow. And feeling like, Well, what do I do now with this dude on my bench? Am I actually just waiting for an injury? I'm not as comfortable the player or situation as Jason is. Jason has been strongly convicted. I remember him having the same convictions around Breese Hall and then Breese Hall working out.

One of my favorite things about Caleb Johnson is that it is not universal. Who doesn't love Trevian Henderson? Well, now- Everybody- It's true, even of the NFL GMs, because R.

J. Harvey, Quinchawn Judkins, Trevian Henderson, these are all players that went ahead of Caleb Johnson on teams that needed running backs.

Exactly. So I don't think me making him my fantasy MVP steaming him up right now. I don't think he's going to go super high in your drafts. So that's what I love about him. He actually could be a value.

It's crazy because I think you were so close. You know the guys on the beach that bring out the metal detectors, and they We'll go searching. We'll go searching. You had the metal detector out, and you were so close, and you started digging, and you accidentally got a tin can. But if you had gone a little bit down the beach, same team, you would have found the true fantasy MVP.

Oh, okay. I heard the beep, but it was for this guy.

You heard the beep. It was actually He's coming a little bit down the way. D. K. Metcamp will be your fantasy football MVP for 2025. Metcamp, he's a perfect match for Aaron Rodgers in this offense. Unrelated to this debate and discussion and bringing MVP forward. I literally... We were going through our UDK rankings the other day. I look at Jason, and I'll just pull it up right now. I'm going, Is this really the depth A chart at wide receiver in Pittsburgh? Is this actually what they're going into the season with?

You're darn shooting.

I mean, Robert Woods?

Yeah.

Calvin Austin, and Roman Wilson, and Bin Scalonic somewhere?

Bin Scalonic.

I mean, D. K. Metcab, even if you don't believe in him, which I do, I think the money says the league believes in him, and he is a true alpha, he has the capability to be a top five receiver receiver, no question. But even if you just look at the sheer mathematics, the math equation, the targets, it's almost impossible to not be a super relevant fantasy football wide receiver with the targets that think D. K. Metcab will get in this offense. Over the last five years, 74 wide receivers have hit 130 plus targets, which seems like a shoe-in. I doubt any of us have them for fewer than 130 targets. 92% of those are top 24, 89% are top 20, 65% are Top 12. He runs all the routes. He is physical on the goal line. He is going to be targeted a record-breaking amount of times for his career. I'll look it up real quick. His career high in targets is 141. I'll be shocked if he doesn't get in the 160s, 170s in this offense. Same problem with Arthur Smith. I understand it. I just don't know what you do on offense. I literally don't.

They brought him in there intentionally and jettisoned George Pickens, who you love this year in Dallas, obviously. This is DK Metcab show, and this is a late fourth-round pick. I got him at a steal yesterday in a draft to be my wide receiver one. If you go running back heavy and you're trying to identify which guy you want to lock in as a potential later wide receiver one, to me, he is that guy.

All right. You know I agree. He was my value pick. I think that he is mispriced in fantasy, and because he's going into his seventh year, it's not going to change. People aren't going to become excited overnight. He's just a valuable pick for where he's going in drafts.

All right, Mike, do you want me to get the tape from last year? Are you going to do it fresh?

No, we're running it back, ladies and gentlemen. We are talking about the great Kenneth Walker, Ken Bone Walker. I'm going to back him again here. Where's the... I can boo myself. That's fine. I'll allow it. He booed himself. I was doing it for you.

Oh, thanks, man.

It's a man of honor.

I mean, it's cool. You just don't like 14. 4 points per game, which is what Kenneth Walker did last year. The story is he played 11 games. He let you down in that aspect. He was not available. To talk to that-I will stay super positive, Mike.

I'm not going to I go against you on this. I fully acknowledge, I think Ken Walker could be a game-breaker if things go the right way for him, which is not just the injury thing. It's everything. It's the big picture. It's the scheme, everything that's setting up. We talked about Darnal. Darnal was my pick for-To be the new Sam Darnal.

To be the new Sam Darnal.

I think he'll do the same thing in Seattle. They'll be more successful. They will be in the running for the division. And so that comes on the back of Ken Walker. I'll be positive for you today.

Ken Walker, year one and year two, he played in 15 games. And of course, I want that to be 17. But runningbacks, for them to miss one to two games a year, that is not uncommon, especially when you are utilized as a workhorse runningback, which that's how Ken Walker has been used. In 41 career games played, he has seen, and you can see this on thefantasyfootbars. Com, we call it the workhorse rating, which is a percentage of total team rushing attempts and targets. He's seen 31% of the total rush attempts and the targets over his career. Anything over 30% is elite. Just for that stat, over the last three years, only four runningbacks have averaged 13 or more PPR points, plus a 30% workhorse rating each year. That's Barkley, Henry Mixon, and Kenneth Walker. The question of coming out of the draft, can he catch? Well, his first couple of years, a 7% target share and 8% target share. Last year was 14 %. They relied on him as a pass catching running back.

Do you think that happens again in a new office?

I don't think it gets to 14 %, but I'm just saying the team saw it, that they can use him. They can check it down to Ken Walker. You don't have to go to your spare running backs as Seattle has done. They did back in the past. The injuries in training camp are not great. I totally accept that. And Charbonney, The talk is he's looked better. In preseason, Charbonne has looked great. But what really stood out to me was the blocking scheme. The Kuba system, the Kuba system coming into Seattle is very fascinating to me. I mentioned this yesterday that the team on their 53-man roster kept four tight ends and two fullbacks. This is a team that last year, they won 10 games. They went 10-7, and they fired their offensive coordinator coordinator.

He had to change quarterbacks.

Because they-Jettison two wide receivers. Right. This wasn't the system that... They had success, but it wasn't the system that they wanted to run. While Tarbes is fine, if he gets the opportunity, I think he will have some success. Kenneth Walker is a different level of talent. The mistackle we brought this up of he's essentially number one, and just forcing mistackles- He's very good at the individual statistics on a per game basis. He's very good at those. Install an actual, real professional blocking scheme and let Ken Walker do what he can do with his talent. He's being drafted in the fourth round. The level of work, like the workhorse rating that he's had over his career, generally speaking, that would be a second-round pick. If you didn't have to worry about the training camp injury stuff, I think he would be going way higher, but it's there. He is practicing right now. The plan, ladies and gentlemen, the plan-They have a plan.

I mean, that tells Have to have a plan. That tells you everything you need to know. Their head coach had to establish a unique, different plan to try to stop him from being hurt all the time. Jason, thoughts on Kim Walker?

He is one of those players where I feel like where he's going in drafts, I will always take someone else because there's other guys I like in that range. Every time I go, Man, I hope I'm not... I'm not confident that I'm not watching- Mike has a type, though, doesn't he? Oh, Mike has a type. They're great when they're on the field. You just don't know if they'll be out there. It's a real boom, bust. T.

Higgins, Christian McCaffrey, Ken Walker. When they're out there, they're the best ever.

You play for first. Mike really does play for first.

What is the statistical, though?

There's no one I have ever played fantasy football with more than Mike, who has never finished between like, 10th and third. Every year, you're either...

Because I love biscuits, baby.

You're in it and you're near that championship game, or you are in danger of the punishment. You are playing with Dynamo.

All right, let me- And you have a lot of titles. Let's play a game here. Percentage chance that Christian McCaffrey plays 16 or more games.

Give me the percentage. 16 or more.

Yeah, I'm giving him a game. I'm letting him miss a game.

Yeah.

I'm sorry, not 16. Yeah, 16.

I mean, 16 is like, that's what I'd say for almost all runningbacks. When a runningback makes it two, 17 games or 16, they only miss one.

That's a great season. Okay, 15.

Okay, thank you. Just say, Oh, he missed one game.

I think you understand the point of my question. Whatever you define healthy as, if you define it as 16 games, I just want I want to know the percentage chance. I want to do some math here. Okay. Percentage chance of McCaffee playing a full season, by your definition.

Is this for everybody or just Mike?

It's just for Mike. Okay. I just want to see.

Let's go at 15 games. I will put it I mean, that's like a 50-50 shot, probably.

Okay, 50%. Same question, Ken Walker.

I'll go under that. Let's go 40%. 40%.

And then, for the sake of argument and historical analysis, T. Higgins.

T. Higgins to appear in 15 games? Yeah. 3%?

3%. I guess I was just... I think what's coming through about the type is-You multiply those times each other, right? That's what I was like, You're a gambling man, but what odds do you like? Because do you need all three of those guys to play 15 to win a title? Is that the math equation, or would you not stack these on a roster?

No, I'm willing to stack them.

I'm willing to go after. Okay, that math. I don't know if anybody out there is a mathematician, but 50%, 40%, 3%.

Yeah, you just multiply those.

That's all you got to do? I'm pretty sure. Why didn't you do it then?

You could have been helping. I thought that's what you were doing. This was your bit. Why am I being held accountable for your bit?

Okay. I guess I wanted to figure out what the odds were that all three could be-Well, are we sticking with 3% because that's not a realistic number? Yeah, I don't know the actual percentage of them hitting.

They have a high percentage chance of getting hurt. I I would say. But it's like, if Walker plays 15, he will be a top 10 running back. If we gave T.

Higgins a 40% chance, then there's an 8% chance.

That all three stay healthy? Okay, that's what I was looking for.

Never tell me the odds.

Never tell him the odds. So Ken Walker, you said if he's healthy, he's a top 10 running back. Is that what you said?

If he plays 15 games, he'll be a top 10 running back.

So you're not threatened by Charbonet as much, even though- No. See, I think the team love Charbonet.

I think the team loves Charbonet. I think you can love him. Charbonne. I think he's great for the system. I think he'll get a lot of snaps. I think he will get a lot of snaps. I am equally unafraid of Charbonet from a standpoint of, will Kenneth Walker be great for fantasy?

He's probably part of the plan. Charbonet is probably part of the Walker plane.

Yeah. No, I agree. I think Charbonne will get more work this season when Walker is healthy than he has in the past.

Double-digit touch downs, Mike. Do you see double-digit touch downs for Ken Walker?

Absolutely. I can see all of that. Again, I pass him in most draughts that I am in because where he's going, I still really like the other players on the board, and I hold my breath. I guess at that point, I'm almost hoping that he's injured because if he's not, I have to play against him, and he's going to be good.

All right, we have a final mock draft episode tomorrow before the weekend. That'll be fun. No show on Labor Day. Then week one, we'll be here. We'll bring you our Super Bowl pick. Starts of the week, matchup breakdowns. Yep, week one stuff starts next week. Week. Do not miss a chance to get in on the ultimate draft kit right now for the week in ultimatedraftkit. Com, and come play with us in the Megalabole, megalabole. Com.

Goodbye.

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