Transcription
Good morning, friends and enemies. The week three preseason games are finished. All preseason games are finally in the books. Every Monday morning, I do a recap for y'all, updating the biggest ranking changes that happened based on things that we saw in the previous preseason game.
Now, it is Sunday. A lot of you guys have your drafts tonight over the next few days. And this week in particular, they wrapped up all the games prior to Sunday. So, I figured I'd get this out as quickly as possible to you. Who else is working on a Sunday? Me. NFL players working on Sundays. The in-depth preseason recap articles are in the draft guide right now. All of my rankings have been updated in the draft guide right now from everything that happened over the weekend. Again, that is the single best thing that you can do for your drafts. If you want to dominate, if you want to make your league mates be the idiot league mates I always talk about. Get the draft guide on bge.co. If you check out the partner offers page in the top right and you qualify for that, you will be able to get it for a very, very heavily discounted price of just $10. Edg.co. The link will be the first link in the show notes.
So, let us begin. We will start with Thursday's game. We have the Steelers. We have the Panthers. Panthers rested their starters. The Steelers did play a chunk of their starters without Aaron Rogers, without DK Mechaf, without some of their top weapons on offense. But, we did get some snaps out of the entire running back rotation, and it's becoming more and more clear that Jaylen Warren is very, very much going into the year as the starter, which is kind of unfortunate because I really liked Caleb Johnson. But if I'm being objective, if I want you guys to do as well as I want y'all to do in fantasy football, I will be moving Caleb Johnson down the rankings and I already have adjusted him. He's around my RB 30-31 right now. I believe we have Jaylen Warren seeing the majority of staffs as a starter and we are getting an uncomfortable amount of Kenneth Gainwell going into the game too sometimes prior to Caleb Johnson. Now they are very different backs obviously. I think Kenneth Gainwell is is like a legit replacement for Jaylen Warren. And I think all these backs have different skill sets, but right now Warren is logging, you know, north of 50%, Kenneth Gainwell getting around 30% and Caleb Johnson kind of getting scraps behind them. I do think that will change over the course of the season, but it's notable to start the year.
The other game played on Thursday was the Patriots and the Giants. Neither of these teams really played their starters, but we did see the first action of Cam Scatabo finally getting back onto the field after he missed, you know, the multiple weeks of the hamstring strain. So, good to see, but he did lose a ton of ground obviously to Tyrone Tracy. And I've been really, really high on Tyrone Tracy's a phenomenal value pick in like the seventh, eighth round of your draft if you need a running back two or three. Scatterball will definitely have a role, especially as the season progresses, but I think out of the gate, him missing that entire like chunk of August is a big deal right now. We also saw some some some more good snaps from Jackson Dart. He's really exciting if you're a Giants fan. I don't know how his game will actually translate to an NFL field when they're playing against starters, but he's doing a lot of exciting things. He's not afraid to chuck it downfield. He's scrambling. He's a very good athlete making plays on the run. He's a dude that like if I'm in a superflex league, I will for sure use one of my last picks on him and just stash him until he eventually gets onto the field.
On Friday, I don't think we have any like major major developments from the first three games. Eagles, Jets sat their guys, Cowboys, Falcons. It was cool to see Jaydon Blue get in there and get his first run. He did tweak his ankle, but it's a low ankle sprain. So, two weeks, you're you're fine to recover from that. They sat Javvante Williams. They also rested Miles Sanders, so I don't it doesn't seem like they're going to cut him right now, but very clearly Jamonte Williams going into the year as the RB1 for Dallas. Jaden Blue is definitely a guy who can see his role grow as the regular season starts to progress. For the Titans and the Vikings, the Vikings didn't play any of their starters, but we did see Cam Ward again go out there and play 17 snaps, and his his arm is just super live, man. Like, it's fun watching him play. He does not look overwhelmed. He's showing that same juice that he's got in his sling that he did in college. So, I'm, you know, I'm just seeing him play week in and week out. And I'm getting more and more confident in Calvin Ridley. Behind him, you have Tyler Locky playing a pure slot role. So, he's not fantasy relevant. But, Ella Mayor, their fourth round rookie pick and Van Jefferson are kind of like splitting every down snaps when Calvin Ridley is not out there. It's a little bit tough to tell who's going to be the wide receiver, too. I'm not drafting Van Jefferson. No way. Hey, I mayor is a dude that maybe you want to take a shot on very very late in drafts and he could have some upside as the season progresses if he takes over that wide receiver 2 role. I think he has a pretty good skill set to kind of mesh with Cam War. But overall, I don't want to overly invest in this passing offense obviously.
Friday night we had the Bears and the Chiefs and we got a lot of play out of both of the starting offenses. So, we'll start on the Bear side. Caleb Williams played 28 snaps into the second quarter. All that Roma Dunes and DJ Moore both played basically every single snap with him. No surprise here. They're going to be the two top receivers. They're going to play every single snap. So, if you believe in Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, you should be buying those two. Now, I know Luther Burden was a guy that everyone in Dynasty love that people like taking as a sleeper, but it's becoming more and more obvious by the day that Olmita Zakias is actually taking that wide receiver three spot and he's playing far and away and above Luther Bird. He's not playing at all with the ones. And I think, you know, maybe an injury pops up and he becomes a little bit more attached in this offense, but it's very clear that he is not going to enter the year as a starter here. At tight end, we have seen like a pure split between Coulson Lovelin and Cole KT. I still think Lovelin is a an okay borderline tight end one pick in fantasy right now, but I have moving him down below Tyler Warren. Like very concretely. Tyler Warren is in every snap player. I think he's going to be a big time player in the Colts offense. And Coulson Lovelin will definitely have plays that are schemed up for him in this Ben Johnson offense. And I think he's, you know, he's a plus pass catcher, but Kimett is simply just like too solid of an NFL player for you to sit him for 75% of the snap. So those two are going to be in somewhat of a a split, you know, 50/50, 6040, and there are a lot of players in this offense that that need to get the ball. So Lovelin, I'm I'm cooling a little bit on. He's not someone I want to go into the year with as my, you know, starting tight end one. He's someone that, you know, if you grab a Jooku or Tucker Craft and you want to double back down two rounds later on Lovelin, totally fine with that.
In the backfield, it's a little bit of a tricky situation. We saw DeAndre Swift kind of dominate snaps here. 20 of 28 with Caleb Williams, which would be great if we were confident that that's how it's going to play out during the year, but Roshan Johnson, uh, Kongai, and Travis Homer all did not play in this one. All dealing with like very minor ailments. So, like I do expect DeAndre Swift to be the high floor running back in this offense and get the majority of touches at least out the gate. I'm a little bit more confident in seeing him play. He looked good. He looked spry. He was playing a lot with the the starters obviously because the other running backs were out. I just don't know like what this committee kind of shapes up to be by halfway through the season. You know, is someone else playing the third downs? Is Roshan Johnson in on the goal line? I think Swift is like a high floor RB3 flex piece that I would be okay drafting in like the sixth, seventh round if I really needed running back help, but I think his projection is is is a little bit volatile right now.
For the Chiefs, Mahomes played 21 snaps. And I will say, you know, just watching the film, this is literally the most aggressive I've seen Patrick Mahomes in like two years. Every play he was looking to make some home run happen. He was looking downfield. They ran a few mesh concepts where the guys are kind of just like running across over the middle like very shallow and they were wide open. I saw Kelsey wide open four, five, six yards in front of the line of scrimmage and Mahomes didn't even blink twice. Didn't even look his way. He was he was looking downfield. So, I'm wondering if Mahomes is really going into the year with a chip on his shoulder and he wants to, you know, cement himself back as that the best playmaker in all of the NFL. Extremely anecdotal take, extremely subjective, but he he looked really good in this one. He he connected with Taekquin Thornton on like a 55 yard pass downfield. Xavier Worthy and Rashi Rice were playing basically every snap with Mahomes. Unsurprisingly, we don't have any word on Rashi Rice's suspension. So, for right now, we're still waiting on that September 28th date with the NFL for their discipline to come down. Could happen before then, but we don't really know. Juju Smith Schustster was working as the primary slot wide receiver. I'm not really taking shots on him, but you know, it's Xavier Worthy, it's Travis Kelce, and in the back field, that's also worth dissecting with Mahomes playing 21 snaps, Pacheco played 12 snaps, Cream Hunt played seven, and Bashard Smith played two. Now, there's a little bit to unpack here. Pacheco, I will say without a doubt, watching any of the film this offseason, he is 1,000% back to pre-injjury form. He is running angry. He is [ __ ] stomping the earth like he's mad at the core. He is explosive. He looks exactly like he did prior to the injury last year. That being said, they're not giving him the role that he went into last year with very obviously. As soon as they got down inside the 5 yardd line, they were at the four yard line. Their first carry went to Kareem Hunts. Now, he gained three yards, got stopped at the one, then they gave that ball to BCO. He got in for the score. It's just a little bit confused. like we don't know who's going to get those carries, who's going to get those plays within the 5 yardd line. Bashard Smith, he's a guy out of SMU that I've kind of been touting most of the summer at least of the dynasty front of things. Bashard Smith was a wide receiver, converted running back, a weapon in this backfield. That reminds me of like how they use Jerick McKinnon. Now, he only played two snaps with the starters in this one, but both of those were schemed up running back targets to him. On one play, he ran a deep route just straight out of the back field. Mahomes zipped it over to him. He ended up dropping the pass. It was a great play. He ran a great route. It was just a tough ball to come down with that he did not. And then the second time he went out there, he ran a little angle route in which he caught the ball, exploded, got tackled at the four, and that's when Kareem Hunt came in. So, they're experimenting with Bashard Smith, and I I genuinely think he's going to get, you know, 10 snaps a game and probably get a couple targets per game. Now, he's not someone that I think you really need to take seriously right now in a reddraft because his role is probably going to start so minimally, but he's very explosive. He's very different than what they have in this backfield right now and I could see his role starting to grow a little bit cuz he was a workhorse running back in college as well despite being, you know, looked at as more of a pass catching weapon. So, the split here feels real. And I also think the other thing to consider with Kareem Hunt, like obviously he's pretty old and pretty dusty. And looking back at last year, you know, Pacheco was coming back from that leg injury and it's like, of course, he didn't look good down the stretch. I would also give a little bit of leeway to Kareem Hunt, too. He was signed out of nowhere just like off of his couch and then was asked to take all these carries. Now he's also had like the full off seasonason to prepare for the NFL season. So I wouldn't be surprised if he looks a little bit better and that's the reason why he's getting as much run with Pacheco. Like Pacheco I fully expect to be the starter. I expect him to get more short yardage and more goal line work than Kareem Hunt. But I do think he's going to be a little bit of wrench in the plans. And like whereas at the beginning of last year, Pacheco kind of came in as the bellcow. He was probably going to get 80% of the touches in this backfield. I think it's probably more of like 60% Pacheco, 30% Hunt, and then like 10% Rashard Smith or something like that, which is still really good for Pacheco. He's moved into my top 25 running backs, maybe top 24. I don't know. You'll have to check the the draft guide in my rankings. He's up there. Like, he's moved up a little bit just seeing him play, getting that confidence back to the to the point where it's like, yeah, he's the same guy. The injury is not something that's lingering into his current game, but the the role in the committee there feels very real right now.
Moving to Saturday, I don't want to touch on every backup. I I really want to stick to like the relevant fantasy stories for you guys. And I think one of the most relevant right now in the Ravens Commander game is not who played and who started, it's really who did not. And I just don't know how much higher this dude Jakori Kroski Morett Mr. Bill uh can get in rank. I moved him up. I think he's a top 30 running back for me right now. Brian Robinson Jr. gets traded to the 49ers for a sixth round pick. And I don't know that I touched on this topic yet. I might have done it in the Q&A I put up a couple days ago, which that video I will link in the show notes as well. Bro goes over there sixth round. If if I'm looking at the situation, it's like the Ner's entire backfield is is hurt and banged up right now. Uh Gendo had the multi-week shoulder injury. This to me just feels like Kyle Shanahan needs to have one functional good running back in the back field if Christian McAffrey gets hurt. This does not feel like, oh, Brian Robinson's the goal line guy now. Brian Robinson's going to make this a committee. If CMA's healthy, CMAC's the guy. I just think Shanahan's been through enough trauma in that backfield that he needs to make sure he has a reliable NFL caliber running back back there if things go south again, which continues to happen in that backfield. So, I'm nothing in my rankings moved in the San Francisco backfield outside of Isaac now dropping down because now we don't have a clear handcuff behind Christian McCaffrey. It'll be probably some sort of split committee.
But for Washington in this game, we had Chris Rodriguez come out and start with Sam Hartman at quarterback, which is interesting because last week it was Jaden Daniels who was a starter at quarterback. Obviously, they were playing their guys and Chris Rodriguez was a starter with him and he played really well. Jakori Kroski Morett came in with the second string, but this week Chris Rodriguez started with the backups and JCM got the starter resting treatment along with Austin Eckler. So, it's not concrete, but this does give a path to him being the early down guy, possibly the goal line guy there. I think it'll be a committee. Again, like JCM's a late round pick. He's a rookie. Rodriguez, Jeremy McNichols even have been in this backfield for a little while now. Like they're veterans. They know the system. They know the scheme. They can be trusted by the coaches. So, I don't think it's going to be like a 70% split here to JCM, but like the signs are are are screaming at us right now. I've seen some drafts where he's going really really early. JCM's probably like a ninth round pick if I can guess off the top of my head. Like, I'm I'm still very much looking at guys like Tyrone Tracy before him. And when I think of the receivers in that area, like 1,000% I'm still going Josh DS. I'm going any of those exciting rookies like Golden Ibuka obviously Jawan Jennings even Jaden Reed like all those guys are guys that I'm taking over. Jakoy Kroski Morett.
We can move to the Rams and the Browns. Shawn McVey continues to rest every starter there in LA. Cleveland, we obviously got Joe Flacco announced as the starting quarterback. He played 17 snaps in this one. There are a few intriguing takeaways here. Nothing really at the wide receiver position, but the backfield of course with Quinchan Judkins still unsigned. No idea when he's going to get back on the field. This basically leaves this entire backfield to just Jerome Ford and Dylan Samson. Dylan Samson actually started in this one. Y'all know how much I love Dylan Samson. Good pass catcher, really explosive. He started, Jerome Ford outs snapped him six to five over the first two drives and then once those two days were done, then Pierre Strong came in and got some snaps with Joe Flacco and then played into the uh the backups and the second stringers drives. So, I I just think this is going to be a split where both guys get a ton of playing time as long as Judkins is out. It's just a situation overall where it's like again you don't want to attach yourself or or spend too heavily on the Browns offense which is you know they're projected to win four and a half games. They don't have a good offensive line. They're not projected to score a lot of points. I will say like the one very clear upside piece of this is Joe Flacco under center. He's a dude where as he's gotten older and older he is becoming more and more cognizant of his checkown lanes. Like he is always dumping off to running backs. I remember like when he was with the Jets for a little while, Bruce Hall, Michael Carter were catching seven balls a game. It's just been something that he has become really good at as he's gotten older and he's super fine dubbing the ball off. So, I could see both Ford and Samson having real value in PPR leagues. Ford will probably be the starter and the guy I would expect to get more touches than Samson, but my subjective take, I just really like Sam Samson as a prospect, as a runner, and I would draft him over Jerome Ford. I don't know that I would legitimately suggest you guys do that, but if you want to ride with me, let's [ __ ] go Samstein until it's backwards.
The tight end room's a little interesting, too. Like David Jooku is obviously the guy. He's obviously the starter. But there have been a lot of like trade speculation and rumors about them possibly moving him before the trade deadline at some point in the season, which is like kind of a crazy rumor to start right now to say like, oh, in two months we're going to do that. But regardless, like the rumors are there because of how high they are on their rookie third rounder, Harold Fannon Jr., who if you remember coming out this year led the entire country, not just tight ends, receivers too in receiving yards at the tight end position. Went to Bowling Green, phenomenal pass catcher, looked really good in this one. Caught the touchdown pass from Joe Flacco. Like he's getting a lot of snaps with the first team. So, he's someone that like you can't really draft and play a backup tight end in fantasy football, right? Like Isaiah likely is the closest thing to being able to do that and he's usually just rotting on your bench all year unless Andrews gets hurt. So, Moku goes down. Harold Fanny Jr. is going to have a massive role, but like that's what you're waiting on. If that doesn't happen, you have a zero and a dud and and a wasted roster spot. He's just probably someone to keep an eye on when it comes to the waiver wire.
Houston and Detroit, both of them really rested their starters. We did see some Woody Marks in this one. He got in, looked fine, but again, against backups, Nick Chub continues to get rested. He is like the clear starter for as long as Joe Mixon is out. So, Chub is, you know, very little explosiveness, but we'll get enough goal line work that, you know, he could be flexed until Mixon gets back if you're pretty desperate there. For Detroit, Isaac Tesla just continues to make plays. I think he'll eventually, if not kind of at the start of the season, be the wide receiver three here in Detroit. But it's hard to see him carving out like anything really meaningful in fantasy because they have so many incredible high-end options in the receiving room between Jameson, Aman Ra, Sam Laora, Jir Gibbs. Like I don't know, the the fifth best target in an offense I'm I'm probably not getting too excited about.
We've got the Broncos and the Saints. We got starter play out of both sides, which I would say is really cool, but the Saints unfortunately are one side of that equation. So, not not great. We'll start with Denver here. Bo Knicks, 21 snaps. Quillin Sutton obviously playing every snap with B Knicks. Uh they are like Marvin Mims is is going to be a thing this year, at least in terms of running routes and play time. He played every single snap with B Knicks, which has pretty much been part for the course this entire preseason. And it looks like with Devon moving over to New Orleans in that trade, the starting wide receiver trio is Sutton, Mims, and Troy Franklin will come in when they're running 11 personnel. Very clear like watching any of these games. I mean, if you watched any of the second half of last year, the entire season, plus any of the games this preseason, it's like every time Bo Nixon needs a big play, every time he's under pressure, every time they're in an intense spot, red zone, third down, whatever, the target is going to Courtland Sutton. It is like he ran 15 routes in this one and got seven targets. very very bullish on Sutton as a mid-round pick. With Mims, I mean, I voiced my concerns with Mims. I just don't think he's a real receiver. You know, when he was coming out and everyone was in love with him coming out of Oklahoma, was not a fan of his game whatsoever. I thought he was able to run basically two routes deep and around the line of scrimmage, you know, screens or just like a sprint mesh across the across the field, and I think that has pretty much played out flawlessly. We know Shawn Peyton like pretends to love Marvin Mims and they're going to try to make it happen this year. I just like think they're going to get to a point where they're going to give Courtland Sutton such a high target share and be like, "We need something else out of these receivers." And maybe it's Troy Franklin. Like maybe he was just overwhelmed as a rookie. Him and Bo Knicks obviously go back together in college and maybe he has a nice like secondyear leap. I think Pat Bryant is going to crack this lineup sooner rather than later as well. So I'm going to put Marvin Mims or I have put Marvin Mims in the rankings because like this is an offense that I think is going to be good and he's running every single route out there. So, he's going to get opportunities, but I just think he's going to be used similar to how he was used last year as a gadget player, either taking shots down the field or around the line of scrimmage and screens, and I don't think that's really reliable.
The backfield is where things continue to get interesting here. So, the Broncos gave JK Dobbins the starter treatment again this week. They rested him in this preseason game. Same thing they did last week. A lot of you guys probably follow Benjamin Albbright on Twitter. He's like one of the most probably tapped in Denver Broncos beat reporters out there. seems to have his hand on the pulse with almost everything. Someone tweeted at him and said, "Hey, is there any chance that JK Dobbins gets cut here, which, you know, is a pretty dumb question, but he said JK Dobbins is the starting running back here." That aligns with how things look right now, how Dobbins is being rested. RJ Harvey is playing, you know, uh, pass catching role. Him and Tyler Batty pretty much split snaps evenly here. And he thinks it's because of R.J. Harvey's lack of pass blocking ability, which is, you know, super evident. like he was not a good pass blocker in college, which is like a little bit concerning when you're 24 years old. You know, I voiced my concern about R.J. Harvey all summer, so I won't get too deep into it. I just think that like again the difference between him and JK Dobbins where RJ Harvey, he'll get schemed touches for sure and he will get carries and he'll be very involved in this offense cuz Shawn Peyton handpicked him in the second round, but the fifth round ADP that he had at the beginning of the summer is like way too pricey. The gap between him and JK Dobbins, way too pricey. I'm likely letting R.J. Harvey fall to someone else in my league. Unless he drops you a good value and it's a full PPR league.
For the Saints, Spencer Rattler got the start here. They still have not announced who's going to be the week one starter, but it does feel like it's probably pointing towards Spencer Rattler as he played with all the starters in this one. Alive, Rashic, Joan Johnson, every down starters. I never really understand like Alvin Kamara played the very first snap and this one started and then they just rested him for the rest of the game. Like why even make him suit up? Why even put him in the game? I don't really get it. But that left Kendra Miller to get basically every snap behind Alvin Kamar in this one. So he looks like the direct replacement. Although like I'm probably not rostering him.
Moving down the games, Jacksonville at Miami. The only real takeaway here is on the Miami side of things. Tyreek killed him playing this one. Devon Chan is obviously still sitting out resting from that calf injury, which listen, everything I'm hearing is it feels like it's preventative more than it is something like overly serious that they're concerned about. But we got news today, I think this morning, that Jaylen Wright is weak to with whatever injury he suffered. Jaylen Wright was he's played horribly this summer and now he's weak to going into the season late in August. Like he's completely off my board and I think Ali Gordon has played well enough to be the RB2 and be the handcuff to Devon Achan. I think his skill set and his style of running more punishing is so much of a better complement to Devon Achan's game. So Wright's off my he's off my rankings. Ali Gordon will move in there into that like handcuff tier. Unfortunately, we have not seen Darren Waller suit up since like unretiring and getting back to Miami. So, I don't really know if he's going to be ready for week one. He was someone that I was actually interested in. Probably not drafting, but he was like tight end 23 maybe in my rankings, but he's kind of moved off that now that, you know, we haven't gotten really any update about him being active for week one.
Malik Washington played really really well in this game. He was another guy that there was a lot of hype coming out and I didn't think he was like a great route runner or anything, but they used him kind of perfectly and sparked the light bulb. The way that they're using him, line of scrimmage, making plays, screen game, he's electric in the open field. It's like, oh, we've talked all summer about how Johnny Smith leaving opens up so many of those like fake gadget targets. I'm like, it could be Malik. Don Wild could play the same role he did last year. Malik Washington's kind of playing obviously not Jonnu Smith role because he's a tight end, but similar type of targets. I think he's kind of earned that in this offense. So, we'll see between him and Nick Westbrook A who they signed. Uh, they're kind of battling for the widers here. Three spot, very, very different players in terms of skill set. Nick Westerkin is kind of like outside field stretcher. Malik is a like a dbo type of player.
Chargers ners nothing there. They rested their starters. Contre Lambert Smith did play a lot which kind of suggests that he is probably beneath Makoni, Quint Johnson, Keenan Allen and and Trey Harris who also sat on the depth chart. So probably not looking to grab him unless I'm in a deeper league. San Francisco nothing there. We did see Isaac Rendle get back onto the field so we do know he's he's healthy now.
Last game of the evening, last game of the preseason, Raiders Cardinals. Cardinals didn't play anybody. The Raiders gave Gino Smith two drives, 10 snaps. And once again, it is the same three wide receivers on every single starter snap. It is Jacobe Myers, it is Trey Tucker, and it is Deontay Thornton Jr. And again, Deontay Thornton Jr. Balled out. Looked great in this one. He is a legitimate breakout sleeper for me this year. He has moved up my rankings. He is catching tough balls over the middle. He's catching back shoulder fades in the end zone. Like, he's good. He's a good player. I'm not worried about Brock Bowers's snap share with Michael Mayer. Get the [ __ ] out of here. All right. Gino Smith coming in raises the floor. It raises the ceiling of every player in this offense. Get real. And if you want to get a really good draft grade, that was fire. In your upcoming drafts, go to bdgeg.co. First link in the description. It'll take you right to our partners offers page. If you qualify, draft guy is just 10 bucks. Otherwise, you can get a full price, but I I promise you worth the value. All right, bg.co. If you enjoyed the video, hit the button that looks like this. Subscribe to the channel. We will be covering you throughout the entire season with videos just like this. All right, I love y'all. Smoochies.