Fantasy Football WeeklyCharch and Thor talk through some of the biggest answers we're hoping to gain from the players at the NFL Combine.
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and whatever stupid stuff they decide to drop into the show. Now, here's your host, Paul Chargian.
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly.
It's a combine edition with Thor Nystrom.
Welcome back, my man. Hey, thanks so much. Yeah, we've reached Combine week. We've reached Combine week.
You're leaving in a matter of hours as we're taping this now.
For some people that hear this a little later, they'll you'll already be there, that's right. Yeah. So you just think of me as in Indianapolis right now as people are listening to this, what are the odds that you are at, Oh, what's the big steakhouse in India Say almost, say almost, yes, almost, pretty good. I will be there at least one time for sure. You can come on that. You have to have the shrimp cocktail at the cocktail sauce.
Not even the shrimp. I mean it's good, there's big shrimp. It's the cocktail sauce.
It's the cocktail sauce. Yeah, which is more like a fear factor type challenge. It really gets through that they have the horse Radish apparently, the grind it fresh every day. It is so hot, especially for someone who's taste buds were born and bread in Minnesota.
So right, this is it's out of our normal comfort zone for sure. The Saint Elmos, I think you can buy it. I think they have it. You can't at retail. You can buy it in retail. Yeah, Cocktail sauce yeah yeah.
And they say if if.
It's too spicy for you at Ketchup, which is like everything in Minnesota, right, ketchup is spicy in Minnesota. You because you can dial it down if you need to. There's the Sane Almos at the airport. That's usually we just yeah, yep. So a lot of times we'll just well, you're waiting for our planes, we'll hit that. Hit it there, Okay, yes, you can do that too. It's a I think Indianapolis is a pretty fun town. They've got. This is the combine is big. It's not even close to gen Con. Gen Con is in the same place. It's in that convention center. If you can imagine that convention center elbow to elbow with people, and there's like sixty thousand people in that convention center every day.
It's nuts. Can I ask what gen Con is?
It's a board gaming convention. It's the Comic Con of board games. Ok, yes, that is gen Con, which is right there.
Oh, have to check that out some all the time. Yeah, we've got.
We've got a I had my whiskey weekend last weekend, and some people have I was talking about it on the last show. Some people may be interested to know what won it was. Blanton's ended up winning. Now we've done this thing like fifteen years and nobody had ever brought it, and so it found its way up this year for the first time. As you know, you can ever bring a bottle whiskey. It's ever been there before. And the Blands is you know, it's kind of a it's extremely well regarded. It's hard to find in some states. Other states is easy, very hard in Minnesota.
But yeah, that was that was your unner. Wow, I ever had it. I have not had it. That's because you're in Minnesota. I've watched Joe Blanton pitch for the Ages.
I think he'd be happy to be part of that family. Yeah, no doubt all right, so let's let's dive into the combine. So here's here's where headed. I. I asked you for some of the key people you're gonna be watching at the Combine, and we'll run through a handful of notable people at this stage of the process. What you hope to see at the combine. For these guys, we'll do quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, tight.
Ends, and also some guys that aren't testing.
Me.
Let's just start there, some of the players who could really only go down by testing and draft stock. Let's start with Shadura Sanders. Not a big surprise here, but they'll be in attendance, but they're not gonna they're not gonna do any work.
Yeah, that's right. And the consternation over it, I'm kind of rolling my eyes at, Like he'll throw at his pro day, And I don't really care if either him or ward Ro. We have years of their tape where they are throwing outdoors and and under duress and and actually having to make decisions with the bullets flying. I don't really care about the throwing sessions, be them at the pro day or at the Combine. So to me, it's it's more of a non story. And and to your point, the reason that they're sitting out, it's because because you're sitting at a poker table and you have the most chips at it, why would they you don't. You don't you're not the most aggressive player at the table and you have the biggest stack. Right, So yeah, they're they're they're gonna sit it out, and it sounds like both of them will throw at their pro day. Uh.
And they by both, you also mean cam Ward, Yeah, I mean the other one came Ward.
Yeah, the consensus top two quarterbacks. Yeah, cam Ward sitting out as well, and that again as expected, the consensus QB one. So yeah, it looks like in Coral Gables later this process, well we'll see cam mored throw. But again that's a it's a non story. Uh, Ashton.
Now, I want to make sure I get the names right, and so if I butcher any names, go.
Ahead, and just interrupting, I'm an all time name butcher.
So this is remember you and I Alive on air last summer figured out that it was Kamani v Dell. Yeah, we've been saying it wrong like all spring into summer.
We're finally getting into like training camp. But I'm a bad defender at this guys.
Yeah, Ashton Genty, Genty, Yeah, Ashton Genty. It will not do anything. He's expected to go first half of the first round. I'm seeing him mocked his early as Raiders.
Yeah yeah, I mean, he absolutely has a shot at the top ten. I would imagine the floor is going to be the Cowboys at twelve. He doesn't need to test either. He has some of the best tape that you'll ever see for a running back prospect, and right now there is distance between him and RB two. I think the interesting thing will be Ken o'mari and Hampton, Traveon Henderson, Caleb Johnson. Can any of those guys test well enough to put any heat on Genty to incentivize Genty to do the athletic testing at Boise States Pro Day If there is still that enormous gap coming out of the combine, I would expect Genty not to athletically tested all this process because why would you have to write It's same story, right, It's all you can do is go back. For instance, Marvin Harrison last process, Marvin Harrison Junior, there was zero testing and he obviously went in the top five anyway, uh Quinn, youwers is gonna throw? I he is gonna throw, Okay, all right, so we have confirmation on him. We have confirmation on mill Roe Dart, and I believe Riley Leonard has come out as well to say that he will throw. But yeah, yours and Youwers has to viewers needs to get involved with any of the draft process that he can. He is coming off a step back of a of a last season at Texas. In my opinion, he should have entered the transfer portal and taken the bag, the nil bag. Yeah, but yeah, he decided to Claire, he certainly wasn't going to go back to Texas and be the starting quarterback next year because that is Arch Manning's job, no doubt. So that that's why he isn't. Why yours in the draft right now? And but yeah, like yours, he's good throwing intermediate. I don't think the arm is as good as as people thought coming in. You know, when he was being compared to Matthew Stafford coming out of high school both sidewinding Texans there and he's not very good under duress either yours and then going through the progression line like down to the third Ford progression. He's good at running your system for you. He does have some arm talent, so there's gonna be interested. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see his throwing session.
All right, look, well, let's transition to some other quarterbacks. Let's go Jackson Dart from Ole, Miss See. I saw this is somewhere in his senior year of high school, he scored seventy nine touchdowns.
Yeah, is that possible? Yeah, he was playing in Utah high school football, so maybe that helped. I don't care, but yeah, no, he transferred his last year he'd Interestingly enough, Jackson Dart had very little high school recruiting interest up until he transferred during the COVID season because Utah continued high school football. There was a lot of states that cancel that, and Jackson Dart transferred to one of the bigger, sort of blue blood high school programs in Utah the last year. That's when he ripped it up. There was a end coach that happened to be watching one of the televised games that Jackson Dart did early on in that season in September, because the Pac twelve hadn't started their season yet. So this guy was home. He sees this kid just ripping it up on TV and DMed him right after the game. That is how us he got involved with Jackson Dart. That's where he started. Transferred out because Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley showed up in Los Angeles. That's offseason, yeah, so that the journey, yeah.
Because there's no way Caleb Williams wasn't going to start, that's right, So he had to go somewhere else, goes and meets up with Lankiff and at Ole Miss reached twelve thousand total yards.
A ton of yards. The stats are ridiculous, and not just that, like they're not, you know, not necessarily empty calorie stats. Because the Bill Parcells, you know that list of seven the checklists that Bill Parcells has, Jackson Dart hits every single one of them. And he has the talent, he has the pedigree. He was the five star recruit. He started three years at Ole Mess and he put up he put up those ridiculous stats. He's athletic, he's in a decent package. He has pretty good arm talent, so that like the package is first round for sure. But my concern with him is you ran the Mickey Mouse Lane Kiffin system while you were predominantly going to your first read. Watching his tape was crazy because Jackson Dart really would lock onto that first read and he would make some insane trick shot throws as opposed to looking to the other side of the field where there could be more advantageous more advantageous coverage situation. But he was attempting harder throws because of this. That's the one thing. Can he in a pro style system when when you're away from just locking onto that pre snap reaed, are you able to read the defenses with the bullets flying. He has all the physical ability and I do think he is going to impress at the combine. I think his throwing session is going to be good, and if he athletically tests, I think he's going to test decently. But yeah, the question with his evaluation, it's about going down the progression line. So this is Jackson Dart.
Do you worry how much do you worry about players who get a lot of shotgun work and very little work under center you? Is that is that much of a factor. In the past, I've been that's been something that's made me nervous about a quarterback's overall projection, and I'm trying to like, like Drew Locke had that problem early on, there were a lot of players that I feel like that that was an ultimately hindrance for them.
Does that worry you at all? I want to match players with systems. I want system fits, and so maybe yes and no. I would say, like with Dart, I want more RPOs in his offensive system at the next level, which are out of shotgun, and I want the field spread for him. That's just what he is the most comfortable at. He has really quick hands in the RPO game and it's a convincing play action as well. He's good with the bootlegs stuff like that. But I would match him with something like that as opposed to trying to take him out of his comfort zone.
And we're gonna drill down more on these players later. That's not for this show, but we'll we'll talk a lot of Jackson Dart. I think as the sure as as the draft gets closer, let's go to Jalen Milroe from Alabama. He reminds me a little bit of Dante Culpepper, physically dominating big and fast, and then these questions about his hand size eight and three quarter inch hands, and he's fumbled twenty four times in twenty seven games that you know, we saw it here in Minnesota. There's a point at which you're such a bad fumbler that your career is in jeopardy. Tell me about Jalen Milroe.
Yeah, he has those small hands. The last one that we had in the process was Kenny Pickett with some nine inch hands, And so there is gonna be some shatter about that, in particular with Milroe because of the fumbles, and that is something like it's not a nothing burger because a huge part of his utility is running right, and so you have to have the ball security. He's a really interesting ball of clay because, first of all, he's gonna dominate the combine. He is freak, right, Yeah, he is an absolute freak. He's gonna run in the four threes at two hundred and twenty plus pounds, and I think we're gonna get a forty inch vertical out of him as well. So you're gonna see sort of the Anthony Richardson show out of Milroe. And then he again he's already confirmed that he gonna do the throwing session and this guy needs to he needs to. But this guy has a twitchy, elastic shot put shotgun like type arm, slingshot type arm. It reminds you of Michael Vick, who, interestingly enough, Michael Vick had tiny hands. Oh right, but he didn't know that he had that slingshot going downfield. Yeah, Michael Vick, I believe was eight and a half inches, So it was like the smallest pair of hands going back like thirty forty years in the NFL. As far as somebody who started at quarterback.
It never dawned on me that I could beat Michael Vick in thumb wrestling.
You can till now. You absolutely could have. Yeah I could have. Yeah, I'm gonna move along before I make an inappropriate joke. But but yeah, no, I Millroe. He's going to impress with the athletic tests, and he's going to impress in the throwing session. The reason he didn't at the senior boat there's more intermediate stuff there. That's the stuff that he badly struggled with in college, whereas the deep stuff he was tremendous so over the last two years. So that's you know, you start in the whole time last two years at Alabama, Milroe on throws twenty plus air yards downfield thirty six to four td I and T rate and if you want more advanced stats on it, forty two big time throws against only one turnover worthy play on one hundred and twenty three such attempts. Wow, it sounds great. It sounds great, and he's he could be one of the best scramblers in NFL history. So if you have a nice starter kit. However, he had get this within nineteen yards of the line of scrimmage td I and T rate over the last two years of thirteen to thirteen. That's terrible. It is horrid. And at the senior ball, that's the easy stuff, that's the that's easy stot zero to nineteen yards. This is the guy who it's like Happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore crushed the ball out of the tee and no one can hit drives like Happy Gilmore. He can't putt. The NFL needs to teach Jalen Milroe how to putt. We got to get him one of the putters that is like a hockey stick, you know, like happy dat. But that's the problem. And this was the frustration last year with Kaylen Debor and Alabama, and I think it's part of the reason why Milroe went into the tank. Down the stretch, he had a ten to one td I and T rate. At the end of September he ripped up Georgia. Last game of September, he had almost five hundred total yards. Last nine games, Milroe had a six to ten td I and T ratio. Alabama goes five and four. Totally went into the tank because Debor wanted to keep him inside the pocket. And that's Milroe wants to be able to use his legs and and and those sorts of things, and the timing concepts he has not gotten down yet. He wants to see the guy wide open before he throws that that that is invariably gonna make him late. He is also errant on some of those throws as well.
All right, we'll be watching Jalen Milroll's throwing at the combine and see if we can get any better clarity on that. Let's move to the running back position. Is there a drill that you think is most indicative of fantasy success that you want to watch for running backs? Like Christian McCaffrey had one of the great three cone drills of all time? Is there is there a Is there a drill that you think for combine viewers at home, if you're watching a running back like we're gonna talk about Caleb Johnson a second, So is there one thing, one drill that you particularly like to watch?
There is, And I'm gonna split the group at two under and ten pounds. You get around threshold sides. The guys under that, the airbacks, they need to be good in the three cone and then the forty Okay, right, So those are the two ones you're looking at for the smaller backs, the bigger backs above two hundred ten pounds, the forty core is still important, but the broad jump is more important for those guys. You're talking about the acceleration, the explosion speed to power conversion with those guys, and then win your max speed, you know, indicative of that forty. So those are the tests I look for for the running backs. The Gophers played Iowa earlier this year.
Yeah, and mid game, I've told this story by the publicly, I'm texting you, going, Holy shoot this Caleb Johnson, this guy's got NFL skills. Yeah, and this I love this guy. So I've seen your comp is Le'Veon Bell to Caleb Johnson, tell us what you like about Caleb Johnson.
Caleb sees such a good zone back, you know, going to the Le'Veon Bell thing, you'll see it will evoke that for you on the out side stretch wide zone concepts.
Where which he was Lean Bell's like one of the best at all, one of the best as a stretch round.
Yeah, it's the patients and the vision. But he was also so good at forcing the linebackers to declare the door they were going to walk through before he did. That's the whole cat and mouse game, right If the linebackers have to declare their gaps first, all of a sudden, you can just pick another door and they're stuck in purgatory. They're in there on the wrong line human mesh. Yeah, like that. They can't get out of it. Now you're running downfield. That's what Caleb Johnson has. He has that same kind of vision, patients and instincts for it to force to manipulate those linebackers into coming up and now you're stuck. He also very good on the inside zone stuff. That's more the charging ahead stuff. He was one of the best backs that we have in this class in yards per carry between the two guards, he was over six yards at that over heavy volume in the Iowa offense. And then what was added to the Iowa rushing offenses past season was the mid zone. So you had all three concepts. It evoked with the forty nine ers run, with the Packers run. That's Tim Lester came from there, the new offensive coordinator with Iowa so and the Rams as well, so their rushing schemes. That's what Caleb Johnson was in last year when he went absolutely ballistic. I think the thing that people are crazy sleeping on Caleb Johnson right now is his speed. They see him at two hundred and twenty five pounds, they think he's four sixes. They think he's high four fives. They think he's a plotter. He's going to run in the four fours, and I think he's gonna run a low four fours. So I think he's going to be a huge riser coming out of this week.
Iowa's GPS system had Caleb Johnson pegged at twenty two miles prov Yeah for a back.
His size is crazy, yeah, and he had one of the highest breakaway rates in the NCAA as well. So I don't get what people are missing. I think it's just because the true breakout was the last year, but they forget the contact with him that before that. You're stuck for your first two years in purgatory of one of the worst offenses that we have seen in the FBS, certainly the Power four level over the last twenty years. Yeah, at Iowa, very impressive, very impressive.
Okay, let's transition over to Arizona States. Cam Scatabow. He's one of the most exciting fun players to watch. My comp is like a slightly smaller Mike Alstott. He is the most physical running back I've seen after the draft in years. Yeah, I see there is a guy who just five just looking for players to mow down. I love watching him. I don't know that it works at the NFL level or not. So talk to me about him and especially concerns going into the combine, like is the is the body size is gonna support the way he plays at the next level?
Yeah, that the question is with the frame. Now, he has an all time bowling ball frame because he's like five to seven and a half and he's two hundred and twenty five pounds. It's twenty pounds and somewhere in there, so you you have that. Like I my comparison for him is shorter David Montgomery. David Montgomery at his combine out of Iowa State five ten two, twenty two, and people might forget this because he's had a good career, David Montgomery ran a four to six three that was twenty six percent and I'll shock even I did not remember that at all. His vertical jump David Montgomery was first percentile the month per neural. The bottom twenty eight point five was his vertical jump. I could do that. I think we could hit thirty. So yeah, I mean David Montgomery did not test well. I don't expect Scataboo to test very well either. The forty is where in particular will he run it? I I don't know that he will. The agility scores, I think he is gonna do better. I would like to think that he would outjump mister Montgomery as well, because uh, Scataboo does have bursts, but the long speed is the thing that's lacking. There will be interesting to see if he tests. What do you what do you think he's going to test at in the forty I think you would probably set over under like four five am. That's what I'm thinking, like something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he doesn't have that second gear. He wins down field by tossing aside a cornerback.
He's an awesome he like outside of gent was of course to tackle breaking god, he had one hundred and fifty one last year, Scataboo was number two in the NPS with one oh two. So yeah, I mean that's that's what he does. He has really good feet. He can change the angle like at the launch point for the linebacker and then you're not taking him down with an off angle attempt, an arm tackle at timp. He's a fighter, and again everything is just packed in with him. So he just has all the muscle and the bulk right there, just packed in.
Let's talk about Damian Martinez next from Miami. Had a higher EPA than Nashon genty, higher success rate than Nation genty three straight years of six yards per attempt or more.
But Miami if rarely gave him the ball. It was. It reminds me of Damian Pierce at Florida.
Yeah, where you know, like every time, every time you're looking at him, You're like, what he got the He looks great?
Why didn't they give him the ball? What do they know that we don't know for sure. Yeah, I love that you evoked that because it is similar where peer Scott slept On and Martinez is absolutely getting slept on and you know the last So the first couple of years he was at Oregon State and it was more the physical downhill uh type, you know, running scheme there, and he was great at that. And then he transferred to Miami. He goes into Shannon Dawson air raid, so you have the thinner boxes, but you know, it was a different sort of a scheme there. You have less people blocking as well. But he acquitted himself tremendously well despite the fact that this team is throwing, throwing, throwing, right, you have Cam Whady, have Restrepoh, you have Royo, I mean George, you get going on and on and on. And then they had a backfield committee. I think that was a what that coaching staff prefers is to have the two different guys. But between those two things, the carries go down. But if you just look at the perk carry, they match up really well with the awesome numbers he was putting up before that. PFF rushing grade last year ninety one point one. Dang, PFF running grade ninety four point three. It's one of the high, the highest in the class. He can he can catch a little bit. He can certainly pass a block. So it's a guy that you know was underutilized. It I think is being slept on right now. I love his feet and I love his aggression. Right you have the power thing with the feet. Yeah, that sort of a dichotomy. You get the broken tackles from that. He has very good vision as well. A big fan of Damien Martinez.
Okay, So at the combine is here's weight going to be something people are to be watching to see.
You know, he runs like a power back up. But I think people.
Think he's heavier than he may actually turn out to be. Yeah, are people going to be looking to watching the scale for Damien Martinez when he when he weighs in, they.
Might be surprised if they weren't paying attention, Like at the Senior Bowl, because Martinez at Oregon State they listened him at two forty one. At Miami, I believe it was two thirty six. And so it's not that big. I don't think. No, he's not. He weighed into the Senior Bowl at two twenty six and when oh, okay, I when realize they weighed in there. Yeah, And when I was talking to Martinez down there, I was setting up this question for him basically of like, did you lose weight so that you could go into the air raid? Was that a part of it? And then you know, you know, sort of talk through the progression of being the bigger back at Oregon State and you know at Miami you lose six pounds or whatever. So I was setting that up. I was like, you know, you're two forty one at Oregon State and to thirty six. And he stops me and he goes, dude, I've never played a game over two hundred and thirty pounds. And I was like, what, that's crazy. And they were by like sixteen pounds or something, so they would never you know, scandalous. But yeah, no, he's he is more like your high to two twenties. You know, he's gonna be two twenty six to twenty eight, so somewhere in there. But yeah, the game fits really really well. And the footwork again in conjunction with with that power. Uh, Damian Martinez being slept on right now?
All right, let's go to our final running back Ali Gordon from Oklahoma State.
Yeah. I don't know a lot about this kid. What do I need to know? Yeah? So what are you looking for at the combine? Well, with him, it's the testing because we're we are we are interested to see where does Allie Gordon test? The athleticism is is the thing with him. He's a big back and he is multi skilled too. He caught a whole bunch of balls in college. He can pass block a little bit, but where where is that athletic profile? In twenty twenty three, he put up an enormous season Ollie Gordon twenty twenty four, his stats were basically Cleveland half despite the fact he was, you know, getting almost as much usage. Show was like, why was that? I think it was because of the supporting cast that his quarterback play was not very good. The offensive line wasn't good. Oklahoma State likes to spread the field. Quarterback couldn't throw down the field, So all of a sudden you had stack box's against you know, your minimal protection five to five offensive lineman. Maybe they would have one other guy back there to block. Alli Gordon got ganged up on last year. Was the whole sum and substance of it. I think this guy is a context dependent type back and a usage usage specific type back. When you look at him towards the NFL, basically, I think you're looking at a poor man's Andre Harris. It's a very similar type physical package. I think you're gonna get similar testing there and in the same way Ali Gordon. He's gonna catch the ball for you, be reliable, not going to give you the explosive plays he is lacking in the long speed. He has build up speed that he was able to access in twenty twenty three more with the better blocking last year, you didn't see that. That's why the stats ended up getting cleve. But just curious to see how he ends up testing. All right, Le's take a break. When we come back, let's go to the wide receivers. Who are the people that you are most looking forward to seeing at the combine? What do you want to see from them at the combine? Paul Charchi and Thorneistrom with you. Fantasy Football Weekly continues in a moment Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. All right, so here's here's the first big challenge. Everybody calls him Teed McMillan, but I feel.
Like I at least got to give it a go. TETAROA McMillan. That's pretty good? Pretty is that pretty good?
Okay? Good? Arizona.
He's I think he entered the season as the probable first overall receiver, and they start hearing his name at the very beginning of the college season as an elite prospect, and then he went on to have a fantastic season, and I think it feels like he's going to be the first wide receiver taken in the draft, not counting Travis Hunter if you count him as a wide receiver.
For sure, and his McMillan's game has been nippicked a little bit, but he is wide receiver one if you don't count Hunters as a wide receiver. McMillan six foot five, he's just south at two hundred and fifteen pounds. He reminds me a lot of a taller Drake London. It's the same kind of a thing that the ball skills, the use of the body, the body control. McMillan I think is a bit better of a route runner than he has given credit for. You know, people get skittish with the guy where it's like, oh, he's led by his ball skills, and McMillan's ball skills aren't saying he has this crazy catch radius so like, but like he also is a decent route runner, like I said, Like, there's smoothness and fluidity to the way that he runs his route, so he is able to create a little bit of separation the intermediate range and you put anything around him, it's like a fisherman's net. With his catch radius. He is coming down with that ball and he can go low for it to catch it outside of his frame. Like I said, very very smooth. Tom McMillan's going to be the top wide receiver. Curious as far as that goes. Will he do the agility stuff? I think for sure you're going to see him run the forty Some of these taller, bigger receivers we've seen come out last five I have six seven years. They have ducked the agility drills. So and some of them who haven't, they wish they did. DK metcalf, I'm looking at you so well, will McMillan do the agilities. Curious on that, but yeah.
What do you think you know, he's not a burner ted being built. This is you know, what do you think he comes in at the forty What are you expecting four?
Five or five? Yeah, something like that. And you know what, that's fine for his first style of play. That is absolutely gonna wine down field. Ye, you can get off the line just fine, and you're gonna need a couple guys downfield with him to box him out, yeah, to try to knock that ball down.
That's right, All right, let's transition to Luther Burton from Miszoo pretty much. It seems to me if I think I'm seeing pretty universally the wide receiver two in this draft class.
Yeah, although heading into the combine now we're we're starting to it's starting like some negative pub for him. I saw like Kuiper's recent mock draft. I don't believe he was in round one or Jeremiah's I'm pretty sure. Okay, So, yeah, Burden coming off a poor season. We were gonna give him the contextual benefit of the debt for that, but they did not have good quarterback play. He is going to test really well. My sheets from I have the NFL's at least their numbers on him from over the over the off season, they had them between four to three eight I think was the estimated on him, and potential low four threes as well. So you have a very explosive player issue with Burden, and I think this is why he is getting nit picked. Unless there is a character thing that that I don't know about, will find out and doing on that. But he is he certainly is a slot. Uh, he is a slot only is a smaller receiver. But you also have to manufacture that touches for him a little bit. It's it's within ten yards of the line of scrimmage. He's magic with the ball in his hands. You just have to get the ball in his hands. I think that there's a lot of Deebo Samuel and Luther Burton. The way that he plays the game.
That's a pretty pretty special cop. Yeah, there are many guys like Deebo Samuel.
Yeah, and and maybe you know what we'll say, Disco on Debo, we'll do that thinglo Reid well believe it for too is base that. Yeah, it's it's not Malachi Corley. We're not gonna go that far. But uh, Yeah, that's the thing with him. So if your offense is in need of something like that, that you're gonna be attracting him. If not, you're not. But like, for instance, the Arizona Cardinals, I think are would be a tremendous fit for burn team that needs a slot receiver where you have the boundary and the tight end already taken care of. And is he is Luther Burton specifically a slot receiver. He has like a slot Okay, all right, yeah in college as well, very very little on the boundary. Jalen Royals from Utah State.
We don't get it, you know, Utah and Utah State popping up, you know in ways that they never used to.
Yeah, Jalen Royals.
Now it was Mountain West competition, but caught a lot of things.
I believe.
He is thought to be not particularly fast, but very productive. So what are you looking for at the combine from Jalen Royals.
Yeah, Utah, Utah, Los Jackson, dart to Los Angeles and then to Mississippi. But they got back Jalen Royals from Georgia. Okay, Jalen Royals was totally he went from Georgia. He was totally overlooked in the recruiting process. He actually went to Georgia at Military Institute coming out of high school, Okay, and that's when he ended up transferring to Utah State after that. He obviously was a good athlete. He played basketball as well. The thing he's going to do really good at is the jumps. You're gonna see some explosive jumps for Jalen Royals, assuming that his foot is good to go now. I think it will be because a month ago at the Senior but he was out there, he was competing, He wanted to be out there, but he had the season ending injury at the end of October in college football that knocked him out for the season. We weren't sure if we were going to see him at the Senior, but we did. He did confirm to us that he was not one hundred percent there. Like I said, hope that he has been one hundred percent long enough to have trained for these things where he'll be comfortable going out and doing the full game at a test thing. But he's a really interesting receiver five foot eleven, two hundred and ten pounds, so he's like your bowling ball build for a wide receiver. I talked to him doubt when I asked him about what the NFL was talking to him about as far as usage for the next level. He played the boundary, he has played the slot. He said early on last year was seventy eight percent was on the outside. He said early on, teams were talking to him about being a big, bigger slot, like the bigger forty five coup a slot, and being more the efficiency guy. You get off the line really quick with Royals. He is a good route runner. He is very precise that deep speed. I hope he runs because I would be curious to see where he ends up running. But yeah, I think that's what you're looking at at the next level.
As a quick aside, look at how much, especially Cooper Cup has changed for slot receivers. Yep, you know, Khalil Khalil Shakir just signed a sixty million dollar extension. As the teams go to receiver running from the slot. And I think teams are now, you know, third receivers are on the field like eighty percent of the plays. They're now you know, they are now really ready to build passing offenses around great slot receivers.
Yeah they're Yeah, they're there. Are starters, and they're valued starters. Yeah. Back in the day, if you were a slot only, oh you're you know right, Yeah, you'd start to get pushed on draft boards. But yeah, it's a valuable part of offense. And now for sure, all right, saveon Williams and DC guy is fascinating.
Yeah, now, I know you've got some skepticism here, but he is. He's crazy fast, you know, but cheap speed has never been one of has always been a red flag trade for you. So talk to me about Savion Williams and especially what could he do to change your mind at the combine.
It's gonna be tough for him because the couple things that I have the concerns about you aren't able to test for there occasionally for him, and that is we're out running in ball skills. But what you have here is an incredible physical package and people are going to be drooling over him. In Indianapolis, he was listed by TCU six foot five, two hundred and twenty five pounds. They clocked him on five twenty five. They clocked him on their GPS twenty two point five miles per hour, which is utterly ridiculous. Bruce Feldman reported last offseason, Williams had a ten to six broad jump and a forty inch vertical in addition to all that. And then you look at like last year, sixty catches, six hundred eleven yeards, six touchdowns, three one hundred and thirty two rushing yards in addition to that six more touchdowns, and he was a former high school quarterback who also completed all three trick pass plays that he did. Okay, so it's like you look at it from it's like, oh, he's got the versatility the NFL likes. He's in this perfect physical package. He's an athletic freak. You can do all these different things with them. But the inability to run the routes and just some metrics for you on this charge. Twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, those were the first two years that he was the starter of. TCU tried to use Williams as a traditional boundary receiver. He had a dots over eleven and a half yards both those seasons. But in those two seasons, according to PFF, Williams was fifty first and thirty fifth percentile in separation percentage against single coverage. He wasn't gaining separation on the boundary and then he the drop seas. The ball skills are wildly inconsistent with Williams, so this year they radically change his usage, which leads to the big break Aull year, and he basically became your cord Aero Patterson, your laviska chanall your Rondell Moore manufactured touchdow Dude. You got the carries out of him, you got the short passes. I've seen people be like, oh, but he went eight for nine last season and contested catch situation. Sure, five of those came within nine yards of the line of the line of scrimmage. Five of his drops I think he had eight drops, Yeah, five of them were within nine yards of the line of scrimmage, so almost all of his work was coming there. He had very few catches. I think it was nine catches he had that it was more than nine yards downfield, So almost all the production coming in close. I think that's what he is at the end of the bad sign. It's a bad sign, but you know the NFL will start dreaming on him when he goes there. He's gonna be you know, six four two twenty five, and he's gonna run like a deer and everyone's gonna be like, oh gosh, look at this kid. He's gonna be a star. And I don't. I don't think he's gonna be a star. I think he's gonna be a utility, manufactured touch guy at the next level, no matter how well he tests. So if you hear this after he tests and oh guy, that guy ten rounds, yeah, exactly, just keep in mind what he is.
All right, Let's go to the tight end position. Tyler Warren Penn State. Let's I know he's one of the that you want to you want to follow. Tell me more about Tyler Warren. Honestly, I don't have anything on him.
Yeah, I don't know if Tyler Warren ends up testing because he is tight end one right now. And it's not Harold Fannin. No, no, fann In probably three I would, yeah, but Warren in this enormous physical package. He is six sixty five six two hundred and sixty pounds, and man, can that guy move. This past season he broke out, they got a new offensive coordinator there, and then THEO Johnson was was, you know, off to the NFL and they started manufacturing all he's touching for Tyler Warren, he had a bunch of runs. It was like brock Bowers type usage. Even scored a touchdown a trick play where he started out as the center, everybody lined up to his right and he was an eligible receiver. He snapped the shotgun snap, then ran a fly route, and then the quarterback just chucked it up to him and he went and mossed some poor safety in the back of the end zone. So Tyler Warren, he can do all these these different kinds of things in terms of the physical package with the athleticism. That's where he gets a vote to Gronk. The difference I would tell people is Gronk was one of the great tight end blockers that we've ever seen in line. Warren is just to get you by kind of a blocker. But that doesn't people don't care anymore. In fantasy. This guy's gonna get you what you want, Okay, Tyler Warren will watch you. What do you want to see at the combine from him? I want to see him test period because since he is the tight end one, I'm expecting sort of a late pullout of that. But I would love it if he went out because he's an athletic free So I would love it if you went out there and just put on a show. Colston Loveland from Michigan, this guy is the most skilled receiver of the tight ends like that. You know, Warren is the bigger package. He is a better athlete and you can do some more stuff with him, But just in terms of the pure mechanics of receiving, Loveland is the most skilled, tremendous route runner, tremendous ball skills. We saw that in twenty twenty three for the national champion Michigan Wolverines when he was working with JJ McCarthy. This past season, Michigan's quarterback play was horrible, so you didn't get to see it quite as much. But yeah, he is a very very skilled receiver and the NFL is very very high on him. They're watching the tape from previous to this past season. And of course Colson Loveland's college coach is coaching in the NFL right now, and you're a team that could use that tight end a guy just like him. So keep an eye on the Chargers. Okay, we'll watch it. What round is Colson Loveland? You going to go in the first? Both? Okay, so all charmers will be picking. What do they pick like the twenty second? I believe second. Yeah, something to keep an eye on. I think I think he Loveland could get stolen from Harbaugh two picks ahead of them by mister Sean Payton. That yeah, and they want the joker guy. That is what Colson Loveland is. Well, unless you believe this Gronk report. Oh, Grenk's gonna come out and flavor yeah for the Broncos. Yeah. Yeah.
There's an acquaintance and a name that many are familiar with in the fantasy community. Ce Salami, who's been working with football guys, but his primary job is Denver Sports Radio, and he reported that Gronk wants to come play for Sean Payton, was considering playing for Sean Payton.
That's wow, that's yeah, that would be a while, That would be would be incredible kidding.
All right, Let's go to Harold fannin Bowling Green set the single season FBS record for tight ends and receptions and receiving yards and set three different pff ERA records yards have to catch, forced miss tackles, and receiving grade.
Yeah, that's Harold Fannon.
Why wouldn't he be going First, is it just because he played at Bowling Green, well, because he's he's six foot three, two thirty.
Eight, and then yes, and then problem well, internal short, you're not going to have him in line, so he's gonna be the slot and he's going to be the the move around type type guy as well. So is he and Isaiah Likely? I asked him, You're gonna love this, I asked. I ask all the players Senior Bowl combine, I asked them for their own color. And usually they're absolutely ludicrous, you know Kronk, Yeah, like a small small airback saying Le'Veon bell. You know, they always go to the very top. Harold Fannon had the most realistic self comp I've ever heard. He said, Ija Likely all right. I was like, oh my gosh, you have self awareness. It was like, that is exactly what you are and that and then yeah, I think you know, you could get the utility out of him in the backfield doing ender rounds with him. He's actually a decent lead blocker. He just you can't put him against the ward Daddy edge rushers in the NFL in line, but he does give effort as a blocker, but the receiving utility is what you're you're going for there, over heavy, heavy targets in college two point two percent drop rate career. That's incredible. Over over the volume that that he had. This kid can do a whole lot of stuff, and I think he is going to wow with his testing and impress and surprise. People down in Mobile were kind of grumbling like, oh, that's Harold Fannom, Like he's not moving, you know, around as well as I as I thought he would. But then we got the metrics back from the GPS system, the Zebra system that they have down there in Mobile. Fannin had the fourth highest max feed of any tight end going back to win that system. The GPS system was introduced in twenty eighteen at the Senior Bowl. So of all those tight ends, fourth highest max speed and then eighties sports Travis May he had some called on field athleticism score where he can bind your max speed and then the other athletic metrics that we get from the GPS down and mobile max decceleration max acceleration being two of them. He sort of puts them all together and then has an equation. Fannin tested or was the most athletic tight end with the by the GPS data that has been at the Senior Bowl since twenty eighteen, according to Travis Mays Metrics, So he was moving around really well. It's like your eyes are lying to you a little bit. He's again he's on the smaller side. He's a bit of an unorthodox mover, sort of like Caleb Johnson in some ways where people think he's slow because Caleb Johnson doesn't really move his arms when he's running. You could balance a tea cup on the top of his helmet for the last thirty yards of his touchdown runs. Wow, Fannin's a bit unorthodox too, and I think that explains why he gets separation as well. He moves better. He's snappier than you would think, certainly more fluid, and I think he has more long speed than people are giving him credit for. So I think he's gonna open some eyes in Indianapolis. Harold fan into.
Me feels like just base, I don't he wasn't watching Bowling Green football.
You know, I was maction baby Max.
It yeah, it just if what you're saying is true, it just feels like he's gonna be one of these guys he just gets dinged for being at Bowling Green, He's gonna if he finds himself in the right offense, that will be way more productive than his draft slot's gonna end up being.
For sure in terms of the numbers. For sure. That's why a team is drafting him is to advance the ball forward right and the shifting stuff you make the defense tip off to the zone or the man in advance. You get him isolated on some slow footed strong safety or middle lineback or whatever that he can rip up and coverage. You get him on a team where he doesn't have to be the top option. Obviously Bowling Green was just every single time they were thrown to him. I bet where he's more like the third option, whatever fourth option. That's that's where he is really going to excel because you'll be able to isolate him on guys that are pouring coverage, slow footed people, and he's gonna he's gonna lick him in the NFL right like it's it's not a situation where you're gonna be rolling all your coverage resources. Two herold fannin and and receiving is the thing that he does. And he's really good with the ball after the catch as well. So yeah, he is a very intriguing fantasy guy. It's not gonna go super early. Someone to keep an eye on for people later on. All right, love it, great job, thor thank you.
As the as we get closer to the draft, you and I'm gonna be talking many times, can't We'll do deep dives on each position. The problem, the problem we're gonna have there's too many running backs for one show. We might have to break we might have to do running backs into two different groups.
There's like literally like forty different guys in this class that are like super interesting running back class. I can't wait. We've been we've been.
You know, wide receivers have been great for like three straight years. That's correcting this year. Running backs it's been thin for a lot of years.
You know, I'm I'm excited about the year we get our market credit. It's like the bonanza in one year. And it's funny. Yeah, some of these running back class we've had in the last year's running back class was terrible. There's so many running backs in this class. If they just come out last year, right, would have gone so much higher. But yeah, like Donovan Edwards is a great example. Donovan Edwards actually from Michigan. He actually could go undrafted in this class. He might have been a Day two pick last year. Wow. Yeah, So it's it's just kind of wild the way that difference is in those two.
Based today it's combined week so we're way in advance of the draft. Still pick your spot for Ashton Gendy. Where is he gonna where you think he will go, not where he should go. Where you think he's gonna go.
I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go twelve with the Cowboys. I know. It's like, it can't get past twelve, right, it can't get past twelve. No, they'll they'll take him if he's there. But and again, you have the threats to take him above there. You brought up Raiders. You have the Raiders, you have the Bears potentially, I mean they have DeAndre Swift under contract. You you have the big back and Rochean behind him. But you also have a new coach coming in who they shocked the world with the Lions taking Jamior Gibbs at twelve. You're sitting here in exactly Ashton GenZ is a better prospect than Jamier Gibbs was, right, one of the best. What's the let's go back draft classes.
Yeah, which running back would have been thought of more highly at this stage of the process than Genty is this year.
Barkley, all right, you gotta go back five. Some people put him, you know, him and Bijon. I have Genzy a bit above, a little bit above the for me, you have to go back to Saquon. Wowe impressive. He's crazy. He's great, especially because the kid didn't even discover start playing football till seventh grade in Italy. Yeah, in Italy, Yeah, I mean he he was in Italy up through ninth grade. They they won like the European Division two uh some some something or other football you know, championship or whatever. They had to go on like ten hour bus bus rides. Some of their home games were played in the middle of a dormant volcano. In this one that doesn't even make sense. The football stadium that was on the campus of this this air force base. Because Genty's dad was a you know, naval officer or whatever, they did not have lights, so they had to play at a field where they had lights. And there was this park locally that's inside of a dormant volcano that had lights. So they played a couple of jenz has literally played games inside dormant volcanoes in Italy. Well, that's not gonna ever happen again. The time we'll ever.
Talk about a draft process of all a guy playing in bo only time. Yeah, that's amazing, that's amazing, great stuff, Thor appreciate it. Thank you very much. We'll be back next week for more Fantasy Football Weekly.
Talk to you then, everybody.
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