Transcription
George Pickkins, Jackson Smith, and Jigba, Chris Alav, Javvante Williams. These were breakouts last year in fantasy football. And if you drafted them, your chances of winning a championship drastically increased.
In today's video, I'm bringing seven names that I project will be breakouts in 2026. Guys that you need to be drafting because they could potentially help you win that championship.
All right, starting off with Cam, the Kool-Aid Man, Scataboo. Oh man, I get so fired up when I talk about Cam Scabibu. Love this guy coming out of Arizona State. Look, he might be a second-round pick this year if he wasn't injured last year. Remember guys, last year, week one was the only week for this offense where he wasn't the clear-cut RB1. Then in week eight, that's when he suffered the season-ending injury. So, if you remove those two weeks, weeks one and week eight, what was Cam to your fantasy teams as a rookie? The answer, an absolute superstar, averaging over 19 points per game in that span. Uh, absolute dominant through the air on the ground. He was the focal point of that offense really in New York from week 2 to 7. In that same span, he was a better fantasy asset than James Cook, Ashton Genty, Omaran Hampton, those two guys who were rookies drafted way higher than him. However, obviously, he got injured. We weren't able to see what he was capable of for the rest of the year. So, instead of being a round two pick or somewhere in that range, he's very reasonably priced in drafts this year, right? Compare him to those other guys he was out producing in 2025 when he was healthy. He's priced in the fourth round. A lot of those guys first and second round picks and he has a legitimate shot in my opinion to finish top 10, yet he's being nowhere drafted near that price tag.
We have a predictor tool on the flock site that shows the closest age 23 running back seasons to Cam Scataboo last year and how they performed in the next year. Some incredibly promising comps here historically, by the way, like the Bree Halls, the Dvin Cook who went from 13 to 20 points per game. Fornette who went from 15 to 17, Maurice Jones drew from 17 to 20. Josh Jacobs from 15 to 19. Devon Achan from 17 to 20. Shout out to Noan Moreno if anybody remembers the tier uh that was recorded once.
But what is stopping Cam Scataboo from being an absolute breakout this year? We know that it's not what's not stopping him is competition or volume. Okay, Tyrone Tracy was a complete afterthought in this offense from week two to seven when Cam Scatteraboo took over as as a starter. I mean, he had literally just barely any role. It was just like, "Hey, Scabiboo needs a a breath here. Let's get Tyrone Tracy in for a couple plays. All right, get your ass back on the bench. Let's get Cam Scaboo back in." So, we know it's not that. We know that it's not the new coaching staff. The new coaching staff, I would be shocked if they prefer Tyrone Tracy. Schematically, the changes far by far favor Cam Scataboo in this offense with this new coaching staff. And Scott Barrett over on Twitter did a fantastic job of explaining this. Right. So last year, Cam Scataboo ranked 36 out of 49 qualifying running backs and success rate on zone concept runs, but he improved to eighth best on man/gap concept runs. Over the last two seasons, Tyrone Tracy basically swapped. Right. Okay. He's third worst on those man and gap uh concepts, excuse me. Right now, Brian Dable's Giants last year ranked top 10 in that zone run rate. However, Greg Roman, who's the new offensive coordinator in New York, last year his offense with the Chargers deployed the zone concept run at the fifth lowest rate over the last two years, aka this is a really good fit for Cam Scataboo.
Now, the main concern before we go on to another player here is the injury. And I know you're screaming, you're probably yelling at the TV, at your iPad, at your iPhone saying, "Zack, talk about the injury." We have heard absolutely nothing but positive reports about his recovery process from both himself, the staff, the uh coaching, the the GM, the front office. In fact, in recent interviews, John Harbaugh spoke incredibly glowing about him. Check this out.
>> How many guys can make yards when they're not supposed to make yards on their own? Seems to me like he's he was that kind of guy at Arizona State. Exact same guy that I saw on tape last year. You guys know better, even you watched him up close and personal. So, he's a he's a he's a top tier back and uh, you know, he's planning on playing that way this year.
>> I don't know about y'all, but that sounds like a coach who is ready to feature Cam Scataboo in his offense. And with football just under 90 days until kickoff, Scaboo looks like he could be in a game right now today and carry the workload. I mean, he looks sprry. He looks really healthy, ready to go.
Next name on the list is Slick Ricky Pearaw. Before you bury me in the comment section, give me a second to tell you why I think you could break out this year. But first, I have a really audacious goal uh on the channel this year. I would love if you want to kind of help build that success with me. I have a goal to reach a 100,000 subscribers before week one of the NFL season. We're nearing in on 80 right now. Would really appreciate, you know, if if you want to help, but don't subscribe unless I earn your sub throughout this video. Okay? And you can hit the like button as well.
Let's talk about Slick Ricky. Now, last year, yes, it was another injury-riddled season, and I can already imagine there's going to be people commenting saying, "There's no way I'm drafting Ricky. He's there's no way he can stay healthy, and you know, he's a bum." All right, I know people are going to do that, but there are so many promising signs for a year three breakout. Firstly, the number one job of a wide receiver outside of catching the ball is to create separation and get open. All right? Uh, aka Keon Coleman, there's a reason why you're not thriving in the NFL. And Pearsaw, I mean, Keon doesn't deserve a, you know, me throwing darts at him right now. Uh, but Persaw is growing into an incredible route runner. He really is uh really developing nicely in the NFL uh getting open. He had a high success rate on a multitude of different routes in 2025. Matt Harmon of Reception Perception notes that he had a 71.6% 6% success rate versus man, a 79.3% success rate versus zone, and a 77.3% success rate versus press coverage, which was actually 83rd percentile. Matt also goes on to say in his breakdown, by the way, reception perception does great work. Shout out to Matt Harmon over there. Uh, and Matt says in his breakdown, with just a few more tweaks to his game, Piersaw can grow into becoming one of the best route runners in the NFL. That's the type of technically sound and explosive player we're talking about with Pearsaw.
He then goes on to mention that Mike Evans will play the X this year. We all know that, right? But that is leaving Ricky Pearaw to play a more more natural position to suit his skill set. Right? Then he goes on in that report and discusses that 2025 Persaw's two closest comparable seasons in his reception perception comparison tool are that of Adam Thelen back in 2020 and 2019. And the reason I even mention this is because I believe that is a perfect upside case for Ricky Pieraw in this 49ers offense, right? When you look at what Adam Thelm was able to do over in Minnesota in some of his best years, it's that wide receiver that goes in and out of the slot, plays a ton of Z, a ton of flanker where he's also in motion before the snap. Adding Mike Evans gives Ricky Pearaw the chance if he can stay healthy, I know that's an if, to really flourish in that role.
Now, when Ricky Pearaw was healthy last year, he showed he could be a crucial part of this offense. That was weeks one to three when he was healthy. And granted, I understand guys that injuries are a concern here. It's a very small sample size. If you remember week four versus the Jags, he suffered a PCL sprain that held him out six games. And he really wasn't even healthy when he came back. He dealt with that injury the entire year. But from weeks one to three before that injury occurred, he was averaging 14.6 6 points per game, eight targets per game, almost a 23% target share, over 90 receiving yards per game. I don't want to hear none of this like Pieraw sucks. He's a bum. All right, as you're sitting on your couch watching these guys play football. That's just nonsense. Okay, I mean the reality is we have no idea what our opinion would be of him today if he was able to stay healthy. And that is not predictable. You cannot predict injuries. He tried to come back from that PCL injury at the end of the year, flashed a couple really nice games in week 15 and 17, but he just wasn't healthy. If he can stay healthy and you're willing to draft him, you could have a serious breakout on your hands. I have him projected at an 18% target share and just over a thousand yards. In my opinion, that is conservative if he's healthy. You'll see my pro uh my projections there. By the way, all my projections for any player, for any team is available in version one of my 2026 draft guide. I believe it's the coolest thing that we've ever released. You can definitely go check it out on the site. Uh, we've also got my cheat sheet here. So, if you're going to jump into drafts this year, whatever platform you're on, uh, you've got my help right there, right beside you. Whatever format you're in, the strategy changes uh depending on what format you're in, what platform you're on. You can mark off players as they're selected. You can select players on your own as you're drafting. It gives you strategies. Uh, we've also, like I said, got my projections on there. We've got the vacated targets tool. I mean, I personally think that this is probably the best draft guide the industry has seen. I'm a little bit biased, but you can get it right now by purchasing the 2026 season pass with the code with code land. Uh, just $34 for the entire year. Seasonl long access. It's about 20 cents per day if you purchase today. Get the draft guide. And of course, I'll help answer your fantasy questions here in 2026 on our live streams.
Okay, let's jump into a quarterback. Again, this might be controversial, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel with Tyler Shuck. Oh, the 26-year-old rookie. Yes, that guy. Okay, Tyler Shuck was great last year objectively. It took him a second to get settled, but man, he really started to take off for fantasy football and it caught me off guard how good he was as a rookie. From weeks 9 to 12, those were his first three starts. So, let's give him a break. Everybody deserves a chance to really get adjusted to the NFL. But from week 13 to 18 on the right side of your screen, that is his last six starts. He averages 19.6 points per game. Uh top six in that span. I mean, some of these numbers are ridiculous. By the way, a over 70% completion percentage, which only Drake May had a higher number in that span. Uh, he was top 10 in passing yards as well. Oh, and by the way, this won't be shown on the screen, but I did some more research. He took care of the ball as well. He had just a 2% turnover worthy play percentage on PFF, which ranked fourth best out of 43 quarterbacks last year for the entire year who had at least 150 dropbacks. In that same span, by the way, from week 13 onwards, he was a better fantasy quarterback than Caleb Williams, Justin Herbert, Jackson Dart. From week 11 onwards on intermediate throws, he was superstar status. Okay, Jake over there on Twitter did a great job of showing us this. From week 11 to 18 after the Saints buy, right? He was number one in EPA on intermediate throws, number one in success rate, number one in completion percentage, fifth in explosive plays, uh top three in yards. He had a five to zero turnover uh touchdown to interception ratio. And the best part about Tyler Shuck is he wins games. Now, some people are going to look at the schedule and say it's a bunch of terrible teams. Yeah, but he couldn't control that. And he won games as a starting quarterback for this team. And by the way, did all of that in fantasy with a supporting cast of of basically Chris Alav. Like that's basically all he had. The good news is he's already got a superior supporting cast this year than what he had last year. They added Jordan Tyson. They added Travis Etnen. I think that Shuck has legitimate top 10 potential in 2026 and he'll be marked as a value in my ultra cheat sheet uh this year when you are drafting.
All right, let's jump into Luther Burton. Now, I think Luther Burden is going to be everyone's favorite breakout, but I'm going to tell you why I'm standing by it 10 toes down. I love them as a rookie coming out of Missouri. I'm getting major JSN vibes from Luther Burden's 2025 in his rookie year. Like, I think their rookie years are very comparable. Firstly, the target competition they both face as rookies. For JSN, it was Tyler Lockett, DK Metaf. For JSN, he actually had to compete with maybe more talent, right? Because you had a Dunes and DJ Moore O. Just throw on a first-round tight end in Coulson Lovelin. From a production perspective, they had similar outcomes as a rookie. JSN obviously, you know, has the higher points per game, 17% target share versus a 13% target share. But Burden, on the other hand, was ridiculously efficient every touch he got. Stupid high yards per target, stupid high yards per route run. And I've personally been selling Roma Dunay in a lot of leagues that I have him in. I love them as a prospect, but there's a lot of red flags right now heading into 2026. I could be overreacting, but we saw this report from Dan Wider, who's a Chicago beat reporter. Uh, someone asked Roma about the foot injury he had last year, which really hampered his season. And this is Rome's quote. He said, "This is my new normal, and it's not from a standpoint that I'm always in pain, but the way my foot broke, there's calluses in there that create a different type of foot structure with those bones, different types of things that go shifting around. Uh, my new normal is kind of what I'm going going into." That's concerning to me. All right. With a serious foot injury that he suffered last year, uh, Dr. Jesse Morris over on Twitter had Allen Robinson replied to report that he when he talked about this, Alan Robinson had the same injury in year nine and he was never the same. Now, to be fair, year nine versus where Adun is now, Adun is younger. He then actually provided more context. He replied again to Alan Robinson and said, "Ironically, I suffered another one on a different foot in his rookie year and he had no issues with it." So, you know, there is kind of this up and down with the Doomsday, but meanwhile with Luther Burton, you do not have to worry about the vibes. You not do not have to worry about what the coaching staff thinks about what his teammates thinks. I mean, the a vibes are astronomically high, especially with the one guy it matters with the most, Ben Johnson. On April 6, Ben Johnson says, "We need to continue to get the ball in the hands of Luther Burden as much as we possibly can." Okay. Then just last week from the podium, Ben Johnson just lavishes lavishes Burden with praise. Check out what he had to say about him last week.
>> Yeah, I'm buying Luther Burton stock right now. Just how he's approached his off season. It's been uh, it's been electric.
>> The behind the scenes numbers are also incredibly promising. I mean, he was seventh amongst uh 80 receivers with 50 targets last year in yards per out run. He was top 10 in catch percentage. Yak per reception, he was fourth. Uh, Miss Tless Force, he was top 10 despite ranking 50th amongst wide receivers and targets. Had a high quarterback rating when targeted. I actually made uh Claude formulate the miss tackles force per attempt number for us amongst all wide receivers last year to see where he would rank. He ranked third in the NFL with 0.19 missed tackles force per attempt and his role just really started to grow towards the end of the year. I know that there were some injuries that this team was dealing with, but Luther Burden from weeks 1 to 11 versus weeks 12 to 18. They really started to deploy him more in that second half of the year. A 21% target share, almost 13 points per game. Everything is lining up for this guy to break out. Okay. I would tr truly like I would be shocked if this guy is not a 15, 16, 17 point per game scorer this year. Like that's how confident I am in Luther Burden.
Okay, a little bit of a sneaky one here. You might hate this, but give me a second to tell you why I think Chica Conquo might be a really good breakout. I mean, I really thought the commanders would do more to give Daniels weapons in 2026. Clearly, Chig was a huge part of that in their minds because their top two target earners from 2025 are no longer in town. Debo Samuel, Zack Herz, Zack Herz, who by the way in his time with Jaden Daniels, demanded a 20 and 18% target share in the two years that he was there. The Commanders currently have the third most vacated targets amongst the entire NFL. They rank second in vacated targets to the tight end position. And this whole idea where I can already imagine people commenting saying, "Chig's a bum. Chick's never produced. What has he ever done before?" I mean, can we be so for real for a second? Who the hell has produced in Tennessee during his time in Tennessee? All right. 2025 alone was a season from hell through the air in Tennessee. The Titans were bottom three in completion percentage, passing yards per game. They were dead last in passing touchdowns per game. And before that, years before that, the Titans have still been bottom third, like bottom 10th percentile uh passing yards per game as an NFL team. So, can we please not pretend like we know what Chig is capable of as a pass catcher, as a fantasy weapon? I mean, ask yourself for a second, what would AJ Brown's career have looked like if he never left Tennessee?
Okay, a little bit of a more sneaky one here as well. Uh, the last player I have for you guys after this is very controversial, but let's start off with Jaden Higgins here as we get closer to the end of the video. Jaden Higgins, I think, is really sneaky as a great flex play in 2026. We saw big leaps for him as a rookie as the season progressed. No, he wasn't a superstar, but from weeks 1 to seven, really had to earn his stripes, only 2.1 targets per game. But from weeks 8 to 18, a huge span, those targets more than double. His target share goes to almost 12%. Uh, and you know, he started to look like a really big part of that offense. Keep in mind that while he didn't shine for fantasy football, he was also in one of the most mid passing attacks in the entire NFL. I mean, look at this Texans team last year through the year. Were they top 10 in a single category? I mean, yeah, they were. Interceptions per game and sacks per game. Okay. Now, thankfully, they have taken steps to address that truly horrific offensive line they had last year. In free agency, they added Wyatt Teller. They added Smith. They added Brown. They added some players in free agency in in the draft. They also went uh guard h with their first pick in the draft. It's impossible to have a effective passing attack when your running game can't get anything going. When every time you drop back, CJ Strad is, you know, the walls are closing in on him. Last year they had the 27th ranked offensive line. I believe that they are going to be a better offense this year and I think Jaden Higgins has a big chance to be a a fantasy producer.
Okay, let's end on a controversial take. I want to play both sides. I'll I'll have the, you know, little angel on the shoulder, the little devil on the shoulder here for Bashulude because there is a case to be made that he could be a breakout in 2026. I still love Chris Rodriguez. That's why I have a hard time being completely like fully on board. But to be honest, both of these guys are priced in a way in drafts today where it's a no-brainer to to draft both of them in a lot of different leagues, right? If Toutton is the guy and he's he's got an ADP of round six, I mean, that's a huge value. If Rodriguez and Toutin split, then neither of them at their current ADP, Rodriguez and 11th rounder, Tootin a sixrounder are going to kill your teams right now.
Let's start with the bull case for Bashield tootin this year. The bull case is the entire backfield is up for grabs in 2026. Really right 60% in the snaps Travis ETN had last year from this running back room. He also had 60% of the design rushing attempts. He had a 10% target share and he had 39% of the rushing attempts inside the 5yd line. Uh, again, to add onto this, you know, really bullish case, Liam Cohen is the uh play caller here, right? He completely transformed that passing attack in Jacksonville last year. You can see from 2024 to 2025, their rushing attempts go from 26th to 8th. Their rushing yards per game go up by almost 15 rushing yards per game. Their rushing touchdowns go from 21st in the league to fourth. And points scored as an offense in 2024 26 before Cohen. After Cohen, they were top six in points scored. If there is a running back in this room and it's Toutin, let's say, who sees 65% of the opportunities, uh, you know, like like Etian had last year, right? That's a running back that can definitely help you win your league.
Okay, let's play the bare case. Okay, let's play bad cop here for a second. Uh, Bashel Tuton as a player was very up and down in limited action last year. Okay. Out of 65 running backs with 50 rushing attempts, I mean, he was 58th in in PFF run grade, 38th in yards per carry, uh 61st in breakaway percentage. He didn't have a lot of explosive plays. What he was good at was creating for himself and missed tackles force per attempt, elusive rating, yards after contact per attempt. These numbers were you create for yourself. Now, look, he wasn't exactly like nipping at the heels of Travis Etien to take his starting job last year either. I mean Travis ETN was by far the superior player and also Chris Harder I don't believe is some scrub. I think he will have an important role. So what do you think? That's what I want to ask. What do you think of Bashel Toutton? Do you think it's his job? Do you think he's going to be the be next best fantasy running back? I'd love to hear from you.
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