Transcription
What's going on, man? Welcome back to the basement. I'm Ron, and every Monday, I make sure to sit down and update my fantasy rankings based on the preseason games that just happened. We also had injury news and suspension updates and potential trade candidates as well. So, today we are going to talk about the 11 players skyrocketing up my rankings since we did this video last week. As always, if you enjoy, leave a like, subscribe if you're new, and let's get right into our first risers here.
Now, I will say not all of this is going to be based off of preseason usage. We did that last week. This isn't going to be me going down every single preseason game and telling you what stood out because a lot of these things are nothing burgers. I am not going to spend any time on these airwaves talking about Brock Bower's routes or how Michael Mayer ran x amount of routes. I am just not worried about that at all. I'm just talking about the stuff that stuck out to me in terms of injuries, some preseason usage, all of that good stuff.
Now, how we are going to do this video is yes, we will talk about players skyrocketing. We'll talk about some players that are falling. And here is the format. You see, Puka Nakua has risen five spots in my rankings. Kairen Williams has risen six spots in my rankings. I think it's risen, right? He has gone up six spots in my rankings. And if you want access to my rankings, which are fresh off the press, I will be using them tonight in a high stakes managed league. We stream these every single night. I use my rankings. You can get them at patreon.com/ronstewart. My top 200 is fresh off the press with my tiers, my target rounds, targets, fades, all of that good stuff that you can check off as you go in your own draft coming up here. This is one of the biggest weekends for fantasy drafts. And I want to make sure you guys are up to date.
So, we have big news. Matthew Stafford returned to practice today. He was a full go. He was out there. I was even looking at clips on the Rams account where they were doing like a padded scrimmage where he was out there throwing balls with the first team, not just kind of doing individuals by himself to the side. He was very much in there. So, I think now you move up Puka Nakua to the middle of the first, I have him as like my 108. You move up Kairen to the middle to early third. You can move up Devonte as well. I've just always been not lower than Consensus, but I've had him just in this fourth round area. He like moved up maybe a spot or two for me as well. But all of these Rams you move up. Matthew Stafford is in pads. He's good to go. There was legitimate downside of season ending surgery, uh Andrew Luck style out of nowhere retirement, but he's all good to go. There's definitely inseason reagravation risk. But the deeper we go into this off season, the more guys have these risks, right?
We've already talked about Malik Neighbors banged up shoulder toe. We also now have Devon Achan dealing with an injury. I moved him down five spots in the rankings from my 108 now down to my 2011 because he has a calf injury. Here's what we know so far. Mike McDaniel said Dolphins running back Devon Achan is dealing with a calf injury and likely will not practice this week. McDaniel said this is preventative in nature. Then we have Jeff Mueller coming over the top. I don't really trust anything Mike McDaniel says when it's injury related, but technically holding Devon Achan out is preventative since it will prevent worsening the calf strain and allow healing to prevent an Achilles injury. Would be wise to hold them out two to three weeks. I mean, if we're investing first round picks into running backs, we need them to handle volume. Devon Han has had injury issues in the past and now he has a tweaked calf, lower body injury in August. Any way you spin it, that's just not good. He's now somebody that I'm taking in the early second. I've moved Ashton Genty ahead of him just because of the RB scarcity there at the turn. And for me, I am a little bit spooked about HN. And I'm not taking him higher than the second round of your drafts.
Then we have the Commanders backfield. And this is one of the craziest offseason risers I can remember. But it does feel a lot like rookie year Isaiah Pacheco where Pacheco was this out of nowhere rookie where he came on and flew up draft boards towards the end of August into early September. Same deal with James Robinson as well. I think ETN tears his ACL or tears his whatever he hurts and then James Robinson gets all this steam. Jockery Kroski Merritt or Bill Crosky Merritt, whatever you want to call him, is having a rise unlike I've ever really seen. And I think the first instinct for a lot of people is to be stubborn and say this seventh round pick, Krosky Merritt is nothing. I'm not going to move him up draft boards. You really kind of have to at this point where the buzz is so real with this guy that we are getting reports out of camp Ben Standig shares a hot take that running back Brian Robinson won't be on the week one roster. I'm going to guess Brian Robinson is not on the week one roster. I have no insight into that. If Krosky Merritt's on this team, I just don't know how you're sitting him. And on top of that, we now have him getting sat out tonight where he mutually agrees. So, we have one last preseason game tonight, I believe, Washington versus Cincinnati. And they are mutually agreeing Brian Robinson and the Commanders to not play in preseason game amidst trade speculation. So, this has now gone from like a fun seventhrounder hype story to now legitimately JCM is pushing Brian Robinson Jr. out of this team's backfield, which is pretty nuts.
So, now I've moved Brian Robinson down another round and a half. He's now somebody I'm not really trying to draft because he was already in this hyper specific role of early down grinder, goal line back, and a good rushing offense. But now if JCM is squeezing for that role, he now has no receiving upside because of Eckler and his between the tackles touches aren't enough to start him on a weekly basis. Now, is there some upside he gets traded? Yes, but I wouldn't really call it upside. I think the only spot that would be great is Dallas, but I don't think that they're going to make that trade within their own division. So then you have like Chicago, which isn't great with DeAndre Swift and kind of that backfield. You have I don't know. You have some names where where maybe it looks decent, but for me, I now have him as like somebody I'm not taking until like the 10th round as just kind of like a running back depth piece on my teams. And now I have JCM moved up 30 spots since last week. I have him as like a 10 11th round pick. I have him ranked right now as 120th. When again when they when a rookie makes this much noise and now we have real material change where they are sitting out Brian Robinson, you just have to listen up. This is going to be a running back who's potentially the between the tackles grinder in essentially the Brian Robinson role on a really good offense. And if Brian Robinson does get traded, I would even move him up higher than that into like the eighth ninth round where Brian Robinson was going previously. It's essentially the same bet as Brian Robinson. Brian Robinson. So for now, I'm just trying to keep ahead of where the market is going with JCM because again, I just think that it pays to be with the current instead of fighting against the current with these kinds of situations.
Then we have the Rashi Rice situation. And this one, we talked about it in my uh wide receivers with league winning upside or 20 plus point per game upside video last week. And now we have more news that apparently the NFL wanted to get Rashi Rice to a 10 plus game suspension. Then Rashi Rice and his team didn't want to do that. So now they're taking it to the Sue Robinson uh judge for the middle of the year. So now the the range is super wide. I moved him down nine spots since last week. We could get four to six games. We could get no games served in 2024 or 2025 and then he serves them in 2026. We could get a 10 game suspension where it takes him from middle of the season into the fantasy playoffs and he serves it so that he doesn't have to miss any of the NFL playoffs. There's a very wide range, but for me I'm thinking him in the sixth round. Once we get past the Courtland Sutton, Calvin Ridley, Jameson Williams, Devonte Smith type of area and we start getting into Chris Ave Roma Dunay. I love achuka. I love Matthew Golden. But in home leagues, those guys are going to fall. And once you get into the sixth round, you can take Rashi Rice. I think it makes sense to swing on the upside. This is still one of the clearest paths to top 12 point per game upside at wide receiver. You're going to get to start strong where he plays really well and then you just kind of take whatever the NFL gives him from the rest of the season and you just swing for maximum upside in round six where you can kind of afford. There's a lot of downside here, but in round six, he's not going to tank your team. And then again, I think that there's better options in home leagues at wide receiver later in the draft so that you can afford the swing on Rashi Rice. But again, still moving him down. For me, I think if you have him on the board anytime in the sixth round that he is absolutely a fine pick there.
Then we can talk about the Browns. And what we got here is Quinn Sean Judkins will not face any charges. There's still no deal though between him and the Browns. So there's a lot of uncertainty, but me moving up 43 spots is actually me moving him to like round nine where once you're getting to the spot of like Cam Scatabo, Basil Tutin, uh Jaden Blue, guys who I like drafting, Quinnon Judkins to me is a much clearer bet. He was drafted 36 overall. If he gets on the field, he will be the workhorse for this team. And at a certain point, you're just buying volume for a young player. And I think round nine, round 10 sounds about right. Obviously, we move down Samson, we move down Jerome Ford because now this backfield is a lot murkier. Maybe those guys are a little bit better early season than they are late season. We'll see how this thing shakes out. But going from a two-headed backfield to a three-headed backfield where the guy in Judkins has the most capital invested in him makes things a lot shakier. But of course, we still need to avoid a suspension for Judkins. We need him to actually sign a contract. But I think all of that's baked into a round nine, round 10 price tag here.
Then we have the Texans backfield where I continue to move Joe Mixon down. We're getting no positive updates here when it comes to his I think it's a foot injury. It's a foot, ankle, lower body injury where a slight update happens here from Andrew Wilkinson. Uh I believe he starts the season on the non-football injury list which would sideline him for week one in LA which is brutal. Like now the week one is up in jeopardy. Uh Jeff Mueller says here if Joe Mixon plays this year I do believe it'll be a pain tolerance ordeal and it'll likely negatively impact his production. It sounds like the current thought is that it seems like a long shot that he will play. Also what he's dealing with does not heal well. The vibes are all the way off. These consensus sites are still drafting him or putting him on their consensus rankings as like a sixth, seventh round pick. I have him right now uh honestly kind of in that Judkins range as like a ninth round pick. I I want to have him in a range where I'm just not drafting him. Uh I moved up all the other backs. Nick Chub we already had pretty high, but I moved up Woody Marks, moved up Damen Pierce. I want to take stabs at this backfield. I will say Nick Chub ran with the ones in the preseason game, so I have him the highest out of the bunch. But I think they're all good upside swings where Woody Marks is a fun pass catching running back, uh rookie for them that they took in the fourth round, but they traded a future third to go get him. And then Damen Pierce, who was really strong as a rookie, and then Slo comes in with a new offensive scheme that doesn't really fit Pierce's play style. This new scheme that the Rams are bringing in with Nick Kaye or just like the Rams philosophy fits Damen Pierce much more. So, I think that that will be interesting for Pierce where he actually has upside to thrive in this new system.
Then we can talk about Zack Charbanet and this one is more of a preseason moving up ranking. And I'm not moving down Kenneth Walker. I want that to be clear. I've been talking about Kenneth Walker for the last few weeks. I still love Kenneth Walker, but I also just love this rushing offense and I want pieces of it. If I don't draft Kenneth Walker on a team, I want to be targeting Charbanet because this Kubiaak rushing offense is really interesting. This is a tweet from Ian Harditz here where yes, this is preseason, but his running scheme is already looking really good where Seahawks running back rushing yards before contact per carry was 30th last year and now fourth in the preseason. Again, just preseason, but it's a good sign. Their running game looked really good in the preseason game where Charbanet had five carries, 45 yards, and a touchdown. Even their like third and fourth stringers of George Hani and Damen Martinez have looked good in the running game. I think their uh interior offensive lineman rookie Gray Zable has looked really good as well. So, I am starting to come around that this rushing offense is just going to be really good. We've seen Charbanet eat without Walker in the past. He's a little bit of like an expensive handcuff, but there is some upside that maybe he beats out Walker. I would be shocked. But again, I just want pieces of this run game.
Then we get to Tyler Warren, who I keep moving up. I've now moved him up 24 spots since last week, so two full rounds. And I now have them bunched together in that tier. So like after you go uh Hawinson, Kelsey, Andrews, and whatever order, you get to like Evan Ingram, David, and Jooku, I now have Tyler Warren square in that mix where if you look at what his preseason usage has been so far, 34 of 35 snaps with the starters is absolutely nuts. That is really, really good usage. And he's going to have upside to be Sam Laaporta or Brock Bowers. We'll see how good he is. He was somebody that was an absolute monster last year for Penn State. I think that he's somebody like I've been saying where you grab him and then you pair him later with a Zack Z, Hunter Henry and you kind of have the rookie upside with the veteran high floor if you whiff on you know getting a McBride Bowowers KD early on in your draft.
Now, before we get into this ninth section here, where I will say the title is like 11 player skyrocketing. It's really just more like 11 changes I've made to my rankings, but I do want to let you guys know, uh, I hate to do this, but about half of you guys are not subscribed to the channel. If you enjoy this video, if you enjoy all the videos I do, check down below. Make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you leave a like. It helps us a ton during this August season where this is it, man. This is where we're trying to grow the channel, grow the views, get this thing blown up here. So, make sure you subscribe. It should be really more like 7030 here, fellas. Let's get let's get to 7030. Let's be a little bit more. Let's let's have a little respect uh and subscribe if you're watching and enjoying.
But let's talk about the Tampa Bay pass catchers here. I moved up Mike Evans five spots, achuka seven spots, Chris Godwin down eight spots. I just keep moving Chris Godwin down. I just don't want to draft him. Uh now at this point the Bucks beat reporters are saying that they would be shocked if Chris Godwin avoided the pup list. And if you start the season on the pup list, you are now missing minimum four games. So you're drafting a wide receiver who's going to miss four games most likely and then potentially ramping up from there. So it's not like he's going to miss four and then you can start in week five. It's more like all right, let's see what he does in week five. Let's see what he does on week six. Let's see what he does in week seven. And that's a pretty brutal way to play it. And I'm so high on a mechuka. I just think Amecha Ibuka is going to be a monster out the gate and might honestly just make it so this is a team that has playoff aspirations and Super Bowl aspirations. What if Ebuka is so good that it kind of is just like, "All right, Godwin, we're just going to focus on getting you right for the playoffs." Like, I think that there is truly that in his range of outcomes. And on top of that, we also have a Jaylen McMillan injury where he ended up with a in a neck brace after the preseason game. His status is up in the air for week one. So, we're now in a spot where I think Mike Evans gets a boost. I think a mechuka gives a boost. And these guys are I mean I think Mike Evans will be a top 15 option in week one. I think Achuka will be a top 36 option at worst in week one uh as someone you can genuinely start out the gates of the season which wasn't the expectation early on for achuka.
Then we have Trevian Henderson continuing to move up the rankings. I moved him up four spots. I'm just going to keep on moving up with where the market puts him. It's not really because he scored a touchdown in the preseason. It's just because I don't want to miss out on a league winning running back profile. This is from Establish the Runs main event draft they did the other day. They posted on their YouTube channel. It's a really uh great video, but just shows them taking him at 403. He's now where there's big money on the line. He's now firmly in that tier of James Cook, Kenneth Walker, Bree Hall, Trevian Henderson. So, I keep on moving Trevian Henderson up in my own rankings. So, that you guys, we don't want to be cute. All right. I know a lot of these consensus ADPs and sites have him as like a fifth round pick. As soon as it's a fourth round and Kenneth Walker's gone, James Cook is gone, I am smashing Trevon Henderson every single time.
And then our final player, this is just like a very small mover, but somebody that if you're uh in the last round of your draft looking for a handcuff, I think DJ Diddens makes a lot of sense. He was a very fun prospect this off season. And now Tyler Goodson for the Colts went down with a serious shoulder injury from Jacob Sanderson here, which now means pretty much the RB2 competition is over. It's DJ Giddens as the direct handcuff to Jonathan Taylor, which to me in an offense that's going to run the ball a lot, I think that that is a worthwhile profile to be targeting in the final round of your draft.
Now, again, that is going to do it for us today. As always, my rankings are fresh off the press, updated for all of this, updated for even more than this as well. As I do more drafts on these streams and get a feel for how I like the value pockets of every draft, I am dialing in these rankings even more so you guys go out there and crush your homlies. Again, patreon.com/ronstewart and you can find my top 200 rankings there along with the tiers, the targets, fades. You can check off the players as you go. You can then also stay with us into the season where you get my weekly rankings, my rest of season rankings for trades. You get my weekly waiver wire article where I recommend how much fab I'm bidding on every single waiver wire option. All of that good stuff and more. patreon.com/ronstewart. But if you can support there, just leave a like, subscribe if you're new, and I will see y'all in the next one. [Music] stones like this froze ice cold