Transcription
The NFL draft has come and gone, and it just absolutely shook up fantasy football. Basically, everything has changed. So, in this video, I'm going to be breaking down the most important things you need to know.
We're going to talk about the five players who are currently skyrocketing up the fantasy rankings now that the NFL draft is over. And in my opinion, we have to start with Cam Scataboo and kind of veteran running backs as a whole, but specifically Cam Scataboo because he's walking away from the NFL draft a massive winner for this specific reason.
As you can see right here, this is the order of the first round. Fernando Mendoza number one, David Bailey number two, and number three was Jeremiah Love to the Arizona Cardinals. There was a lot of talk and a lot of connections and links to Jeremiah Love either landing at number four to the Titans most likely and possibly even the Giants at five. Now, maybe that didn't seem like the Giants he was ever going to get there. It probably didn't seem likely, but he went at three, which also didn't seem likely.
But the most important takeaway, if we pull up the team changes tracker, this quickly shows you the most important highlights on offense this offseason, additions and subtractions via free agency and trades. And then the NFL draft. This is the Giants right here. Most important news for Cam Scatteraboo. No new running back competition. Nobody in free agency. Just a fullback and Patrick Ricard. And in terms of the NFL draft, they didn't take anybody. Not only did Jeremiah Love not land there, the star running back in this year's NFL draft. Really the only star running back in this year's NFL draft. No other running back landed there, which if you fast forward just two months ago to March in free agency. There were rumors that the Giants wanted to try and get Kenneth Walker, Travis Eten, one of these bigname running backs, which wasn't going to be good news for Scatab. Obviously, that did not happen.
You could see the Giants draft right here. There's not a single running back on this board. The only skill position player was Malachi Fields, a third round bigbodied wide receiver out of Notre Dame, which is probably a solid pick for them, which means that Cam Scatteraboo is just going to run back the same competition as last year. As of right now, Devin Singleary is still with the team after restructuring his contract. Tyron Tracy enters his third year with the team as well, a former fifth round pick. and Cam Scataboo, who already jumped both of these guys last year when Scataboo was actually healthy hitting his stride. He's going to be the RB1 to start the season, assuming that he's healthy. He had a gruesome injury to his ankle, his fibula, all these things. He fractured it. It's a four to six month recovery. However, that ankle dislocation that he suffered in week eight and caused him to miss the second half of his rookie season. It looks like he should be good to go for training camp as or OTAA as you can see right here. Sports MD analysis over on Twitter, he's a good follow. He points out a couple of Giants injury news, Malik Neighbors. But for the purposes of this video and our conversation, Cam Scataboo will likely be ready for OTAAS. Data, the data favors a 20% dip in his first 12 months post this injury. So probably around mid-season, he'll be 100% again. But as of week one, he should be about 80 to 90% of his former self, which is pretty solid considering how bad that injury was.
But the good news from Scataboo doesn't stop there. If we pull up this team changes tracker in the fantasy blueprint, you can check it out right now at the lowest price all year at joinb blueprint.com. He also got a first round top 10 pick in Francis Mino offensive tackle, the second tackle off the board, one pick after Spencer Fono, who went to the Browns. A lot of people had Francis Minoa, excuse me, as the number one tackle in this class and for good reason. This is a guy who was very consistent. He can he started 42 consecutive games at Miami, a Miami program that went to the college football championship last year. The reason why that's important is because he was going up against the best competition as recent as last year in college football for most of the year. This is a monster of a man. He's 6'6", 329 lbs. He probably won't play tackle, at least in my opinion. And early reports are going to say that he's going to kick into guard right away, and that's great. I mean, this is a guy who only allowed two total sacks, 10 total pressures, can get it done in the run game as well. This is going to help Cam Scatteraboo, who last season was dealing with his own injuries. Of course, he only ended up running for 410 yards, uh, five scores across eight games, but again, that was just eight games, and he didn't start the season as the RB1. He started it as a later round fourth round pick rookie. last season in the games where Scataboo played at least 50% of the snaps. So, he was basically the starter in those six games. He averaged 96 total yards per game and 19.1 fantasy points per contest. He also has a brand new coaching staff with John Harbaugh coming over from the Ravens. He led the NFL in rushing yards and yards per carry since 2008. That is absolutely insane in both categories. So, that's an 18-year sample. Over those 18 years, which team led the NFL in yards per carry and rushing yards? John Harour and the Ravens. And it's not just because Dererick Henry was there the last few seasons. So everything in my opinion is lining up for Cam Scataboo to be a very strong fantasy pick this year depending on where you can get him as like maybe a third or fourth round pick coming off the injury, assuming all that starts to line up nicely.
Now the next guy I want to talk about is actually a rookie running back who benefited from the NFL draft because Jadarian Price, the other running back out of Notre Dame, the 22-year-old, he ended up securing first round capital because the Seahawks, as it was rumored by a lot of teams, took him in the first round at pick 32. Now check out Adam Carter's tweet right here. which is pretty interesting when you uh look at it. Obviously, Jadarian Pricey played behind Jeremiah 11 College. He didn't have the biggest sample, but the only power four running backs drafted in the first one to two rounds since 2015. So, you're talking about the past 10 to 11 years, who have had a missed tackle rate above 20%, a passer rating when targeted above 140 and 14 yards or yards perception or better in college. So, basically to boil that down, they can break tackles, they can catch passes, and those passes are efficient. Jadarian Price, Christian McAffrey, Joe Mixon, James Cook. Pretty good company for Jadariian Price to be on. He is going to be a guy who is going to thrive as both just a workhorse running back in a Seattle deput chart that doesn't have a lot of guys right now, at least to start the season, and maybe even somebody that can get some checkdown passes in this offense. Judari Price in terms of his production these last two years, specifically while playing behind Jeremiah Love, the best running back in college football during that span, 746 rushing yards, 674, averaging over six yards per carry each season, 20 total touchdowns during that time.
Now, the downside that people will talk to is the very small sample size here. Like that stat I just showed you about 14 yards per reception. It's a small sample. Only six catches last year. In his entire college career, only 15 catches because Jeremiah Love was the guy getting those receptions out of the Notre Dame backfield. It doesn't mean Jaden Price can't catch passes like we've seen with guys like Kenneth Walker, who didn't catch passes in college and as recent as 2024 had these big reception seasons in the NFL. Well, I should say big relative to Kenneth Walker's expectations of a guy who only catches 20 to 30 balls a year. 2024 he had more there. Maybe we see something similar for Jerry Jarian Price in the same Seattle offense. And it's going to be very important in this backfield because when you look at it right now, what did the Seahawks do this offseason? Well, they didn't resign Kenneth Walker after he won the MVP. He was going to cost too much. He went to the uh Kansas City Chiefs and they only added Emanuel Wilson on a very cheap deal. He was a backup for the Packers last year. Had a couple of flashes here and there overall. Not like the most durable three down back I would say in the NFL. So, Emanuel Wilson not that experienced. Kenneth Walker gone and then they spent a first round pick on Jadarian Price. So this means that the backfield is going to be to start the year because Zack Charbanet to his ACL in the playoffs probably going to be out till at least November or December, maybe even the entire fantasy season. Looks like Jarian Price is the RB1 with some combination of George Helani and Emanuel Wilson as the RB2 and three. As of right now, we'll see if they add another running back by the time August comes and some teams cut some RBs and depth and veterans and all that.
Now, if you're curious about George Helani, since he did play in the NFC Championship game in the Super Bowl, some I mean, yeah, he played in those games out of necessity for the most part with Zack Sharbon going down with injury, but as you can see right here, just over 16 games in his NFL career, only 25 career regular season carries, not even 100 career rushing yards. So, obviously, similar to Emanuel Wilson, not much experience here. So, for the people who will point out, oh, Jaden Price is a rookie. He doesn't have an experience. I'm not going to trust him as a fourth or fifth round pick wherever he goes in fantasy drafts. Well, neither are any of the other running backs in this backfield. They're not experienced either. 25 carries in his career for George Helani is basically what Jadarian Price has coming into the NFL, only a handful of carries.
Now, it is also important to point out that we just can't take the Seahawks offense that, depending on the stat you look at, was the number one rush offense in football last year and repeat that for this year because they lost their offensive coordinator, Clint Kubak, who's now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. So, this doesn't look like a situation that should probably improve for the Seahawks. If anything, a Super Bowl slump could be very apparent since they lost a lot of pieces of their coaching staff. Most likely both of their running backs aren't going to be playing for a big chunk this season with Kenneth Walker gone and Zack Charbanet hurt and now defenses are going to most likely adjust to Jackson Smith and Jigba and not let him have one of the best receiver seasons we've seen over the past one to two decades. So all of that is important to point out but at the exact same time the workload for the first 10 to 12 to maybe even the entire season until Dak Sharon comes back for Jay Rayan Price is going to be very strong easily skyrocketing up the rankings. Perfect situation with that first round draft capital on a depth chart. Really the only running back depth chart that looked very bare.
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All right, now let's stick with the running back position. Go back to now a secondear player in Quinnshan Junkins because look, this was a player who I completely get it. He had a very, very frustrating year last year. You look at the overall accounting stats for a rookie running back. 827 rushing yards. A guy who was, by the way, facing like potential suspension to start the year, right? Didn't get those first couple of games under his belt. 171 rushing yards. I mean, this is a player who last year basically totaled a thousand total yards in one of the worst offenses in football. The craziest part is he didn't play that first one to two weeks of the season, and he didn't play the rest of the season due to an injury. But if we just look at the sample when Junkkins was healthy and the starting running back of this team, according to Rotoiz from weeks 2 through 7 last year, he was averaging 15.3 fantasy points per game, over 18 carries per game, and 78 rushing yards per game, creating explosive plays, scoring touchdowns, looking very good in what was probably the worst offense in the NFL during that stretch.
Now the big concern would be the injury that he suffered, but as you could see right here, Quinch Junkkins is, this is as of February 24th, by the way, he's out of his boot and he will be good to go for training camp. Quinch Junkkins had a dislocated ankle according to Hayden Winks. Good news. Many with this injury play week one just not at their typical effectiveness. So it looks like by all accounts Jun, especially as he's a younger player entering year two, so his body should be able to heal quicker than a 30 plus year old running back with a lot more wear and tear on his tires. This should be a guy who's ready to go week one and back to full burst by like week three or four hopefully.
Now the big reason why he's a winner and the Browns didn't add any running back depth. So they're not concerned about this injury, it appears. And the only thing they really did was help him. a top 10 pick, the number one offensive tackle in the draft, Spencer Fono, a guy who's really good in both the ground game run blocking and pass protection. So, that's good to see. The overall offense should improve as well by adding first round receiver Casey Conception, second round wide receiver who could have been a first- round pick by all accounts in Denzel Boston. So, it looks like an offense that should be improving. They didn't add any running back depth. In fact, the Browns, according to the team changes tracker in the fantasy blueprint, check it out at joinblooprint.com. They only added or they only lost running back depth. Jerome Ford, the veteran running back, is gone. They didn't replace him in free agency. They haven't yet replaced him in the draft or they didn't replace him in the draft. All they did was add Spencer Fanu and they improved the offensive line by also getting Zion Johnson, trading for tackle Titus Howard, getting center Elen Jenkins who can play at any position on the offensive line. Jack Stole who will be a blocking tight end as well in some packages. So, this is an offensive line that is completely reworked with four to five new pieces on the offensive line, potentially four new starters right away on the offensive line and less running back competition with Jerome Ford gone. Only competition right now is Dylan Samson. Another secondyear player, a good pass catching running back. Will probably still play in the two-minute offense and passing downs. But this was the competition that Junkkins had last year when when he was healthy, like we showed you earlier, was averaging over 18 carries per game. Should be a better offense.
Now, in terms of the names that they could bring in, there's really nobody right now available in free agency. Maybe a team will cut a running back as we get closer to the season, uh, when the cutdowns happen closer to August. But, as you can see right here, like these are the youngest running backs, 26-year-old running backs. Zamir White, Antonio Gibson, a nearly 28-y old running back. Naji Harris off a serious Achilles injury, a 28-y old running back. After that, you're getting into like the 30-year-old running backs in Austin Eckler, Nick Chub, like there's nobody currently available in the running back landscape that if the Browns sign them closer to the season that I would be concerned for Judkins.
Okay, next up, I want to talk about Chris Ave. And not because he's skyrocketing up the rankings, because I actually think he's a slight loser here. And I wanted to make sure that we talked about him for a couple of reasons. All right, the biggest reason why he's a slight loser, pretty obvious if you watch the NFL draft in the first round with the number eight overall pick. The New Orleans Saints selected Jordan Tyson out of Arizona State. He had a workout before the draft a couple of days before to show that he was healthy over his hamstring issues. So, they took a shot on him. And look, this is a stud wide receiver when healthy. He was injured three of his four years in college, but in 2024 when he actually stayed relatively healthy, 12 games, 75 catches, over 1100 yards. He was a a two-time all-American, two-time first team all Big 12, 10 touchdowns in that breakout season as well with a 30% target share. He's just been fantastic. Like, this is not a developmental rookie. This is, if he's healthy, a plug-and-play guy who right away can go out there and earn maybe 100 plus targets.
Now, that hurts Chris Ave because Chris was a player who, especially once Rasheed Shahed was traded before the trade deadline last year, just had no target competition. Like Jawan Johnson, a former wide receiver, now tight end, was a number two option on the Saints team. That's why Lave had 156 targets, 100 catches. Those 156 targets ranked top five in the NFL, nearly 10 per game last year. If Jordan Tyson is healthy in this wide receiver room, you're probably Whoops. You're probably not seeing 156 targets once again for Chris Olive. It's probably going to drop somewhere between 20 maybe 30 targets overall. And that has to hurt a guy who was going in the second round of fantasy drafts in my opinion just can't go there anymore when a legitimate target earner maybe a guy who's even better than him is entering his wide receiver room in Jordan Tyson.
Now the positives that are still going way he obviously dominated last year when he's been healthy he's looked really good. Jordan Tyson does have an injury history even though he's healthy right now. He does have a history of having uh concerns with injuries missing time every single year. And also Spencer Shock Shuck showed at the end or Spencer Shock Tyler Shuck I was getting him confused with the other quarterback Spencer Rattler but Tyler Shuck showed at the end of last year that he could be a legit quarterback in the NFL and he has that established connection with Chris Ave over the final three games of last year. Tyler Shuck ended up targeting Chris Ave 36 times. Alave caught 24 of those 352 yards four touchdowns. They were a very clear instinct connection last year to the end of the year. So that's another benefit that Lave has that just Jordan Tyson doesn't. So Lave is a slight loser.
But now another winner who's skyrocketing up the rankings is Rashi Rice, the Kansas City Chiefs number one wide receiver because man, this guy is a roller coaster of an offseason. But the most positive news for him is the Chiefs were linked to a first round wide receiver. Maybe Carnell Tate, maybe Jordan Tyson, but instead they traded up to the number six overall pick in the draft. I thought they were going to take Jordan Tyson. They take Mansour Delane instead, the quarterback out of LSU. And in fact, they don't take a wide receiver with their other first round pick, with their second round pick, with their fourth round pick, with their first fifth round pick. instead their second fifth round pick, the 36th pick in the fifth round, so basically a sixth round pick, wide receiver Cyrus Allen out of Cincinnati. That is the only wide receiver competition that was brought in via the NFL draft for Rashi Rice. That's no competition at all in my opinion of late fifth round wide receiver. But it gets even better because when you look at the team changes tracker here in terms of free agency, no wide receivers added. And actually, if anything, Maris Brown, a wide receiver, was gone from this team. So, it's going to be the exact same competition for the most part minus minus Maris Brown last year. It'll be Xavier Worthy, Jaylen Royals, uh Travis Kelce signed a contract to come back. Maybe he's going to play one more year. We'll see what he ends up doing with that new contract. So, it's basically rinse and repeat. Hopefully, Patrick Mahomes are saying he's trending to return week one. If that's the case, well, then you're going to get Mahomes, Rashi Rice back together. This combination over the last two years went healthy. Rashi Rice is averaging 18 fantasy points per game. Hard to ignore. Also worth mentioning, if you haven't seen already, the NFL concluded today that Chiefs wide receiver has not engaged in contact that violates the personal contact policy. So, he is not going to miss any time this year for another off the- field issue that he had. So, this was as of early April. As of right now, he's going to be playing week one. Mahomes is trending to play week one. With no new target competition for Rashi Rice, who is not coming off of any type of injury like he was multiple years ago, he has to be rising up the rankings as a first or second round fantasy pick this year.
Now, before we get into the next player rising up the rankings after the NFL draft, I just want to let you know about this right here. This is blueprintdrop.com. I'll link it down below, all one word, blueprint.com. Basically, if you just enter your email here, it's totally free. you'll go on the exclusive weight list to be notified of when the blueprint drops. It's going to be dropping June 1st, but if you are on this wait list a couple of days before, I'll be sending out a couple of emails that allow you to get the blueprint for a discounted price. The cheapest price it will be all offseason, all summer. So, if you know you're going to get the fantasy blueprint again or you have FOMO because you didn't get it last year and we won the Flock League with it and 10,000 people won their leagues as well with it, you can check it out. Link down below, blueprint.com. Just enter your email. Totally free to get on this list. It's the only way that you can get the blueprint at the lowest price it'll be all offseason.
All right, the next player skyrocketing up the rankings. It has to be the secondyear quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, their former number one overall pick out of Miami, Cam Ward. Because I mean, first of all, he got his number one receiver. He got multiple receivers this offseason, but in terms of the NFL draft with the fourth overall pick out of Ohio State, they ended up securing Carnell Tate. Later in the draft, they get a playmaking running back in Nicholas Singleton, who had one of the best college football seasons back in 2024 of any running back over the last couple of seasons. But more importantly, Carnell Tate. This is the perfect wide receiver. 6'2, 192 pounds to pair with Cam Ward's skill set. Elite hands, elite body control. He's a polished route runner, contested catch machine. Uh he ended up having 86% of his contested catches caught last year at Ohio State against tough competition. I mean, this is the perfect downfield receiver who can also win based on his route running in the middle of the field for a big armed quarterback in Cam Ward.
The Titans plan this offseason has been obvious. Surround Cam Ward, your number one overall pick with talent. They get Carnell Tate in the draft like we just talked about. They also signed Juan Bell Robinson who comes over with his former head coach, offensive coordinator, Brian Dable who's now with the Titans, Daniel Bellinger. Uh you scroll down, KJ Osbourne as a depth wide receiver, some offensive linemen as well. So now Cam Ward, last year he was throwing to guys like Tamir DK who was his probably number one receiver for the second half of that season with Calvin Ridley hurt. And now Tamir DK is probably the number four receiver on this team. Wanda Robinson they signed, he'll be the slot wide receiver. The starting wide receivers on the outside are going to be Calvin Ridley and most likely Cardinal Tate. They have a depth wide receiver in his second year in Alec Aimanor who actually led the rookie wide receivers on this team last year in receiving yards. So overall, you go from a situation last year where Tamir DK was your number one wide receiver and this year at best he's your number three, maybe your number four. The overall environment has definitely improved for Cam Ward entering year two. That was their goal. I think the Titans accomplished that goal. They also have a new coaching staff, Robert Salah. He just brings in adults in the room. And honestly, if you know if you know Dana White, you follow the UFC at all, looks like a much skinnier Dana White here, which is I'm just seeing that. Uh anyways, Brian Dable, offensive coordinator coming over as well. Last year with the Dines, didn't go as planned, but in terms of like fantasy production, at least last year, these last two years, I mean, Malik Neighbors targeted him a ton. Last year when Jackson Dart was actually healthy and out there and Brian Dable wasn't fired, Jackson Dart was great. Cam Scataboo was great. Wanda Robinson was great. So, Brian Brian Dable, he might not be great in real life in all of his situations like he was with the Giants. They didn't get to the playoffs, anything like that. But in terms of fantasy, he does create fantasy friendly environments. And it makes sense that they want to surround Cam Ward with as much talent as possible because the environment was awful last year. Cam Ward himself didn't look terrible, but when you're in such a bad environment with bad coaching, it's going to look bad. I mean, 37th in yards per attempt. His efficiency was awful. 33rd in true passer rating, 50th in EPA for quarterbacks. These things have to improve. They've done everything in their power, in my opinion, to try and make this improve heading into year two for Cam Ward. So, he's rising up the rankings.
Now, I do want to mention a couple of honorable mentions here. The first one's got to be Gino Smith. I mean, he's over on the Jets now. He had already Garrett Wilson there. He had Breeze Hall as playmakers. Now, he gets the best tight end in the draft and Kenyan Sadi in the first round. And then they trade back up and get Omar Cooper, one of the best playmaker yards after the catch players in the draft as well. So Gino Smith now is going to come into an offense where last year with the Raiders, he basically had an injured Brock Bowers. They traded away Jacobe Myers. Now he gets Garrett Wilson, he gets Adani Mitchell, he gets Omar Cooper, and he also gets Oh, let's pull it up here. Kenyan Sadique. Not to mention Mason Taylor, a second round pick last year, a tight end who was also good. He gets Bree Hall. So there's a lot of playmakers on this offense. Assuming the offensive line can hold up and just allow Gino Smith some time to throw with these improved playmakers, he's probably not going to be as bad as last year in that terrible Raiders environment, I think Gino Smith can actually be a quality starter this year. He's rising up the rankings and so is Josh DS. We'll get more in depth on Josh Downs in a future video, but he has to be rising up the rankings because the Indianapolis Colts, despite having all these draft picks that you see on the screen right now, did not take a wide receiver until the final like five picks of the draft in Deion Burks out of Oklahoma, a late seventh round pick, which means that there's basically no new competition here. In fact, there's much less competition for Josh Downs this year. All the Colts did was add Nick Westbrook in free agency and that seventh round receiver in Dion Burks. They actually traded away and lost Michael Pitman, who's now on the Pittsburgh Steelers, which means that this wide receiver room as of right now heading into year two with Daniel Jones and this offense is going to be Alec Pierce, who just got a big bag, although he just had surgery, so he's going to be out three months. We'll see how that affects him. And then Josh, it's already been reported, the GM has talked about it, that Josh Downs is going to get more opportunities to play on the outside this year. That makes a lot of sense considering the other wide receivers on this team are like Anthony Gould, Ashton Genty, uh who else? Laquan Treadwell, right? The seventh round pick Deion Burke. So Josh DS has to be rising up the rankings because last year he goes from a guy who's not on the field at all times just playing the slot, third, fourth option on that team when you factor in Tyler Warren to now being the number two wide receiver, maybe even heck some weeks a number one if Alec Pierce is taken out of the game. So these are the players who are skyrocketing up the rankings after the NFL draft. I appreciate you all tuning in. Hit the subscribe button before you go and I'll see you in the next.