Transcript for:
Fantasy Football Training Camp Rankings Summary

we have training camp news going fast and furious and I just did a major update to my rankings which you can get either on flock or with our draft guide both are linked Down Below in the description but today I'm going to be breaking down six players that are skyrocketing up my rankings and guys that I'm just overall a lot higher on than the fantasy market and we're not going to waste any time we're going to get right into this we're going to start with lad makoni of the Los Angeles Chargers he is currently my wide receiver 34 up a couple spots from where he was before wide receiver 42 on the underdog and combined ECR market right now so a combination of those sharp leagues that are going on on Underdog as well as home League ADP fantasy pros expert consensus rankings with lad makoni we talked at nauseum about how great his film was as a prospect but I think perhaps the most sticky and relevant stat that encapsulates his fit inness offense is first downs per route run and for those of you guys that don't know Ryan Heath the guest that I had on about a week and a half ago has broken down how fantasy relevant and fantasy predictive the first downs per route run metric has been the best three wide receivers in this receiver class were Marvin Harrison Jr Malik neighbors and lad makoni he was right up there with those guys and guess what he's going to be asked to do for the Los Angeles Chargers replace Keenan Allen be the guy that moves the chains in the offense and has this offense staying on schedule and Keenan Allen by the way at 32 years old last year was the wide receiver three in points per game so lad makoni is stepping into a very very fantasy relevant role getting reps with the first team right from jump all the way back in OTAs we heard reports in the beginning of May that he was already running with the first team that checks one box he's been running with the first team the last couple days of training camp the usage will be there and we know that Justin Herbert is a great quarterback obviously the pass volume of this offense is going to go down it won't be nearly as pass happy as it's been but you have Justin Herbert saying things like he's picked up the offense so easily he's impressed with how much work he putting in there's tons of great Buzz coming out from Chargers Camp about lad makoni all of the beat reporters seem in sync that he's running with the first team more than any other receiver Joshua Palmer uh DJ CH Quinton Johnson he is the guy him and Palmer mainly are the guys leading the clubhouse in terms of pecking order the writing will be on the wall if this guy has a monster breakout season this year I taking the higher on his 725 and a half receiving yards right now and as I go through this video I'm going to be highlighting a couple of Underdog fantasies NFL SE seon long pick thems and of course you can tail Me by hitting the link in the description down below and as I mentioned at the top to get our rankings for free you can get our draft guide by signing up on Underdog fantasy using just a $10 deposit and the promo code fsse so next guy we're going to talk about here Jackson Smith and jiga wide receiver 38 in my rankings wide receiver 45 on the consensus market right now the camp Buzz has been very strong for him as well jsn in this new offense he will not be used like Rond Del Moore like he was last year Ryan grub coming from the Washington Huskies will come in and deploy a downfield passing attack for Gino Smith for DK meaf and more importantly for Jackson Smith and jiga get that average dep the target check down Charlie stuff out of here this year is The Changing of the Guard in my opinion from the wide receiver core that we've known previously in Seattle which was the DK meaf and Tyler Lockett show to the DK meaf and Jackson Smith and jig bash show Tyler Lockett is a declining player had a really big down tick in terms of his overall efficiency in production last year and hell I believe wholeheartedly that in PPR leagues Jackson Smith and jiga could be the most valuable wide receiver in this offense because he is the over the-middle Target he is the guy that's going to help move the chains and if this offense is uptempo passing the ball a lot stretching the ball down field meaf is going to open up the box for jsn he's going to be the guy that gets all of the PPR targets similar to the way that Jameson Williams opens up the Box in Detroit for a mon R st Brown he profiles like I said as the guy that Gino is going to love everyone everywhere in this building has been saying look out for jsn because he's about to explode the general manager says it anytime he gets behind a Mike the coaches say it anytime they get behind a Mike other players Gino Smith everybody is on team jsn breakout this year to me when a drum beat is that uniform throughout the entire building we need to pay attention to it he didn't look like the clear number one wide receiver in the 2023 draft class like we thought he was right tank Dell had a better rookie season Jordan Jord Addison had a better rookie season Jaden Reed had a better rookie season of course puka AA had a much better rookie season but year two will be huge with a downfield passing attack installed by Ryan grub and jsn was a lot better in isolation than he may have seemed when you look at his reception perception profile from his rookie season he cleared a lot of important benchmarks 70% success rate against man 80% success rate against Zone and on a pure route basis he was good at the routes he should be good at which is the Dig routes the out routes The Comeback routes the curl routes that is how jsn wins it's how he won at Ohio State it is how he will win in the NFL I like him to go higher than his 775 yardage total he's also currently my second highest drafted wide receiver in Underdog fantasy drafts this year moving on to T Higgins wide receiver of the Cincinnati Bengals he is my wide receiver 22 right now he is wide receiver 29 on the market Higgins is just such an easy bounceback candidate to bet on in my opinion his only bare case and somebody's probably already going to the comments right now to yell at me saying don't you know T Higgins gets banged up all the time don't you know he's always injured but guess what you're injured until you're not what if he doesn't get injured how does he project then because I don't know that th Higgins is going to suffer hamstring strain rib fracture hamstring strain and ankle sprain which have been the four injuries he suffered over the last couple years he's playing on the franchise tag he is fighting for a big contract his injuries over the last two years are nothing predictive they are simply unlucky injuries that happen as a result of playing football sometimes people blow their hamstrings sometimes people get rib fractures from taking a big hit it happens it's not something that is predictive it's not like he's torn his ACL or torn his Achilles or anything that we know has concrete data behind it and as we know from fantasy doctors you are injury-prone until you're not remember when Christian mcaffrey couldn't stay healthy do you remember when saquan Barkley would never stay healthy do you remember when Raheem moer could never stay on the field until you actually have a season where people see and you prove that you can stay healthy nobody's going to believe it so I'm trying to get ahead of that with t Higgins if he plays 15 plus games this year he is going to crush his late fourth round early fifth round ADP where he's going on ESPN sleeper and those kind of drafts right now his offensive environment is extremely pass heavy yeah Jamar Chase is going to command a big um you know volume ceiling here but we do have a lot of volume left over for T Higgins he can command targets the offense has an elite quarterback in Joe burrow with a high high ceiling for a 5,000 yard 40 touchdown season he has Red Zone usage he doesn't see number one cornerbacks because of Jamar Chase's presence he is a walking 15 plus Point per game projection in PPR leagues and he has upside for more than that because if Chase misses time if they just run hot as an offense he could really Crush that ADP over on Underdog I am taking the higher on his 875 a half receiving yards because in a 17 Game season he would only need 51 yards per game and that is 13 yards lower than his career average yards per game and that includes a bunch of games as we know with t Higgins where he ran like three routes so that's weighing down those career averages a little bit even if he only played 14 fully healthy games he would hit that total in my opinion because just the way the math works out definitely draft T Higgins especially if you're going running back heavy early like if you start your first three rounds of your draft with two running backs then you need some wide receiver talent to catch up I think T Higgins is the perfect you know double type of bet that you can hit right down the middle at the beginning of your draft there so James Cook next guy we're going to talk about running back of the Buffalo Bills currently running back 11 in my rankings running back 14 on the market in ADP right now to me he was one of the stars of The League winning running back video that I did a couple days ago and here's why because if you look at James Cook's Outlook and he can start to command a decent share of Red Zone work in this offense that's it that's all he's missing from his profile because with James Cook you look at a guy who's been an efficient third-year running back who's very young still has no injury issues to speak of really he plays in a great offense behind a good offensive line and more importantly he has 80 plus Target upside in an offense that is now desperate for pass catchers to emerge and establish themselves because with no Steph Von digs with no Gabriel Davis they're leading receivers over the last couple of years it's going to become who can produce at wide receiver who can produce at running back and at tight end and to me I think James Cook represents one of the best bets that if you still think Buffalo is going to be as good as they' always been because Josh Allen's that dude then James Cook is going to crush his ADP because last year when Joe Brady took over as the offensive coordinator he averaged 16.4 PPR points per game from that point forward and he had four targets per game he was heavily involved more so in the Red Zone than he usually is I was literally in attendance for the Buffalo and Dallas game when James Cook absolutely ran over the Dallas defense he is taking next steps as a player he's still a young dude he's still getting better to me he is an easy easy smash pick in the middle of the RB dead zone right now because this dude does not profile as a dead zone running back Dead Zone running backs are guys that are subpar talents in bad offenses who are just projected volume he is none of the following he's in a great offense he projects for the volume and we know he's a talented and efficient player right now getting him at 44 overall in his multi sight 80P between sleeper Underdog ESPN all those sites is absolutely a steal and again that is another one of the features of our draft guide the camp Buzz has been very positive for James Cook offensive coordinator Joe Brady is not concerned about his ability to command a big workload and I quote he's stronger he's more put together he looks up for this were his exact words basically that Joe Brady said so for me I'm taking the higher on his four and a half rushing touchdowns and I'm drafting him a lot of the time as an anchor running back for me I love starting my draft with three wide receivers or two wide receivers getting James Cook as my rb1 or rb2 there in round four sometimes even into round five especially on Underdog so R Andre Stevenson another guy that I'm very excited about this year running back 16 right now in my rankings running back 20 on the market he's like fantasy football broccoli I get it you look at ra Andre Stevenson you're like yeah he's probably going to get volume but the team's projected for like four wins it's probably going to be a bad offense his offensive Line's got a lot of moving pieces on it right now plus how good is this guy really how good is RA Andre Stevenson is Antonio Gibson going to eat into his workload I get all those concerns but guess what he's going in the seventh round you don't have to draft this guy in round three like he did last year by the way and he doesn't really project all that differently what if jacobe brassette looks as good as he did with the Cleveland Browns a couple of years ago during that stretch Nick chub his starting running back was rb5 in fantasy he averaged 19 points per game and I get it he's way better than ra Andre Stevenson but it just points to the fact that brassette was moving the offense helping the offense score points what if brassette plays well at the beginning of the Season or what if Drake May when he comes in is just everything we thought he was as a prospect which is we thought he was the next Justin Herbert the next Trevor Lawrence or at least I did when I scouted him what if he takes this offense to the next level right now you're getting Rand re Stevenson on the basis that the Patriots will be the worst offense in the league and maybe they will be but if they're not raand re Stevenson has a chance to really really return on his fantasy value he goes from fantasy football broccoli to Fantasy Football broccoli with shake and bake and melted cheese on it and if you haven't tried that trust me it's unreal he projects no differently really than he did last year like I said we were taking him in round three last year with ma Jones as a starting quarterback and no real inclination that that offense had any pass catching weapons to get better this year they've invested in wide receiver they've invested in the quarterback position in the offensive line I think this offense will be a lot better than people think especially knowing that raand re Stevenson wasn't really healthy last year too he looked a lot better in 2022 looked like he could be the guy carry the workload and he has a lot more touchdown upside if this offense takes step forward he scored six touchdowns in 2022 when he was a League winner last healthy I love the Patriots to surprise people this year and if that happens give me RA Andre Stevenson to go more than four and a half touchdowns on the ground and the final guy before we get out of here in this video is George KD tight end five right now in my rankings tight end seven tight end eight on the market now I love Kyle pittz to break out this year I love dton King K to break out this year I love Brock Bowers I think Evan Ingram is a safe option all of those guys should not going ahead of George KD though because George KD has been unbelievably consistent over the years not necessarily week to week we know that about George KD but over the years he's been unbelievably a consistent dominant tight end in the NFL they are not as talented all the guys that I just mentioned as George KD he is one of the best tight ends in the league and he plays for the best offense in the NFL and he has been a top six tight end every year since 2018 he is a dude that has been a top four tight end five of the last six years in points per games he is a slam dunk to have big weeks to score touchdowns and make you feel so good that you invested in this offense because it makes your Sundays better watching players on the San Francisco 49ers it feels like every single Target that they get is going for six points it feels like every single Target that they get is a 20-yard gain especially when you're as talented as KD Debo iuk and mcaffrey are that's how well they complement each other as a full status offense and Pie just has to sit back there and distribute the football so yeah I get it getting caught up in the semantics of George KD saying well he's not going to get that many targets he's not going to be you know 140 Target tight end like some Kyle pittz or dton King Cade could be this year I'm telling you right now it is much better to bet on proven solidified talents like George KD than it is to project guys forward and again I feel great about those guys but not as good as I feel about George KD again getting tied up with semantics is not going to help just bet on the elite player bet on the elite offense five and a half receiving touchdowns is his higher or lower right now to me it is a very very easy hire he has hit this total in three straight years and that's despite never playing 17 games as well as the fact that he didn't have really anybody go down with injury like Debo stayed healthy auk stayed healthy mcaffrey stayed healthy if anything runs hot for him let's say auk misses some time Debo misses some time whatever KD has a higher ceiling than you might think he scored 11 touchdowns with Jimmy gropo just two years ago and he runs hotter than most tight ends when he's right when George KD is fully healthy and he has a chance to go off for a big game he can win people fantasy Championship so definitely pay attention to George K in your fantasy drafts one of the best values right now round six round seven when you can kind of Punt off tight end fill out your wide receiver core get a running back or two maybe even deviate for an elite quarterback and still get a guy that has elite elite upside at the tight end position again if you enjoyed this video it was a little bit shorter this time leave a like down below subscribe to the channel if you are new this was six players who are skyrocketing up my ranking six players that I'm definitely higher on than the fantasy Market as well as a couple picks that you guys can tail if you want to head on over to Underdog fantasy and do some of these season long pickups do some beste ball drafts sharpen up for your home League drafts and make sure when you sign up to use the promo code FSE when you sign up with the promo code FSE you'll get $250 in bonus cash if you put in 50 bucks you'll get 100 on the site to play with up to $250 you get a special bonus pick them which you guys can see on the screen right now as well well as our draft guides Dynasty rookie Dynasty film breakdowns for free as well as our redraft rankings Manifesto which has all of the stuff I reference Fantasy Football news blurbs that are up toate by team as well as our fantasy rankings as well as our risk ratings our contextualized game logs everything you'll need to dominate your buffoon League Mates is in our redraft guide and you get it for free by signing up with just $10 on Underdog fantasy using our promo code and if you already have an underdog account or you cannot play Underdog where you live you can also get our redraft guide on flock fantasy.com promo code FSE for 30% off and a 7-Day free trial over there so if either of those things interest you they will be linked Down Below in the description or in the pin comment but with that being said peace out and we'll talk to you soon