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Every Injured Player Is 'Ahead of Schedule' Right Now (Don't Believe It)

STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this video and kept the full transcript here for context.

1 hr 9 min

Duration

Estimated from transcript

Jul 23, 2026

Published

Thu, July 23, 2026

16

Player insights

15

Players mentioned

Topics

Tucker KraftAdrian PetersonChristian WatsonChuba HubbardGarrett WilsonGeorge KittleJ.K. DobbinsJavonte WilliamsJonathon BrooksPatrick MahomesQuinshon JudkinsRashee RiceTank DellTony Pollard

Player analysis

Player insights

16

Adrian Peterson

PositiveInjury11:38

Adrian Peterson is cited as a successful ACL recovery example, representing the positive end of the spectrum where modern medicine and improved rehabilitation protocols have enabled players to return to high performance levels post-injury. His case contrasts with cautionary examples like Malik Neighbors and JK Dobbins, illustrating that while ACL recovery outcomes have improved significantly, individual results vary.

Christian Watson

PositiveProjection10:09

Delivered impressive fantasy production in year one post-ACL tear despite not being drafted in many leagues and available on waivers. Ron Stewart cites Watson as a rare example of elite post-injury fantasy performance, comparable to Adrian Peterson's historic comeback season. Represents the positive end of the ACL recovery spectrum where modern medicine and improved rehabilitation protocols have enabled players to return to high performance levels post-injury.

Chuba Hubbard

PositiveRole31:45

Hubbard is positioned as the trusted early-season back for the Panthers despite being described as 'boring.' The source expects him to be heavily involved through weeks 1–5 or 6–7 because the coaching staff can trust him and give him touches, in contrast to Jonathan Brooks' uncertain role after his second ACL injury and limited NFL experience. The source would be shocked if Brooks steals the job immediately, making Hubbard the safer early-season option.

Garrett Wilson

PositiveInjury28:30

Wilson suffered a hyperextension injury (not an ACL tear) that appears mild based on available information. The Jets shut him down cautiously with Brady Cook at QB, but there is no rush to return. The source is drafting him as normal this offseason and expects him to be fine entering training camp and week one.

George Kittle

PositiveInjury34:40

Kittle's Achilles tear location—higher up in the calf rather than at the heel attachment point—is favorable for recovery outlook; tears at the heel require bone screws and result in power loss, whereas his placement avoids this complication. The source expects limited production in weeks 1–3 but projects potential for strong second-half performance, possibly reaching 80–90% of pre-injury function by year's end, which would exceed most tight end production. Early-season pairing with a late-round backup tight end is a viable draft strategy to weather his ramp-up period. Kittle's career 10 yards per target is among the highest of active players, exceeding even elite receivers like Tyreek Hill (9.7 career yards per target). This efficiency metric will decline post-injury but remains a strong foundation for late-round tight end value; drafting Kittle in the eighth round and pairing him with a free late-round option like Jawan Johnson provides a viable path to tight end production without early-round capital.

J.K. Dobbins

NegativeInjury12:00

JK Dobbins serves as a historical cautionary example of ACL recovery complications. Years ago, Dobbins experienced stiffness in his knee post-ACL surgery that required a second surgical procedure, illustrating that even with modern medicine and improved protocols, complications can still occur in individual cases despite general progress in ACL recovery outcomes.

Javonte Williams

NegativeInjury12:06

Javvante Williams exemplifies a multi-ligament injury scenario that complicates ACL recovery timelines. His injury involved damage to the LCL, ACL, and meniscus—not a clean single-ligament tear. When multiple ligaments and cartilage are damaged, recovery becomes more complex and requires a more conservative approach than the standard 9-month ACL-only timeline, extending the path to full performance.

Jonathon Brooks

NegativeInjury30:52

Brooks faces a complex return from his second ACL injury with mental toughness as a secondary concern beyond physical recovery. The source emphasizes that regaining confidence in the knee is difficult to measure in PT clinics and only proven on the field. While the source is not medically concerned about his short-term ability to return to 100% given a full season of conservative recovery, the Panthers' willingness to load him with 20 touches remains uncertain given his limited NFL experience and years away from play. The source expects Chuba Hubbard to be heavily involved through weeks 1–5 or 6–7, but believes Brooks could overtake Hubbard later in the season if he demonstrates full recovery and gains coaching staff trust. In dynasty formats, repeat ACL injuries raise long-term career durability concerns; the source would be surprised if Brooks plays into his 30s given accelerated arthritis rates in repeat ACL cases.

Patrick Mahomes

NegativeProjection23:12

Mahomes had ACL and LCL reconstruction and repair; for a quarterback this is not considered a major issue for return-to-play timeline. Ron Stewart expects him to have a decent chance to start early in the season, likely week two or three if not week one. However, his fantasy value will be significantly reduced this season due to the injury limiting his rushing ability. Last year much of Mahomes' fantasy value came as a runner, but Stewart expects little to no rushing production this year, treating him as a pure pocket passer only. This represents a material downgrade from his historical draft cost and production profile.

Quinshon Judkins

PositiveInjury7:06

Ankle injury (not tightrope procedure) occurred later in season than Barkley's week 8 injury; surgery completed just before Christmas, providing roughly two-thirds of offseason for recovery before week 1. Will start week one and play week one. Recovery of lateral side-to-side agility and explosiveness will take additional time beyond week one. Injury was less severe than Barkley's from a tissue damage standpoint, with no deltoid ligament involvement. Ron Stewart reports more optimism about Judkins' recovery trajectory compared to Barkley, with positive clips emerging from training. Initial injury appearance looked severe (Tank Dell-level) but proved less career-threatening than feared.

Rashee Rice

NegativeInjury25:50

Rice underwent a secondary cleanup procedure on his knee following a prior LCL and posterior lateral corner injury from a collision with Mahomes. The source expresses concern that the secondary procedure suggests lingering discomfort and stiffness, indicating the knee has been problematic for a year despite his strong fantasy performance upon return. Posterior lateral corner injuries are described as cumbersome with high recurrence risk and are not straightforward to recover from like standard ACL tears. Rice's fantasy value is heavily dependent on after-the-catch ability, which has been his primary production driver since returning to the NFL; the secondary knee cleanup procedure raises concerns about his lateral agility and rotational stability—the exact movements required for after-the-catch production. Drafted around 30.1 ADP on Underdog/ESPN; the source is not drafting him heavily due to macro concerns: the Chiefs offense hasn't been great since building around Rice post-Tyreek Hill, with potential role shrinkage and efficiency decline ahead.

Tank Dell

NegativeInjury7:32

Used as historical severity comparison for Judkins' ankle injury appearance. Initial replay of Judkins' injury looked similarly catastrophic to Dell's injury, but subsequent evaluation revealed less career-threatening prognosis.

Tony Pollard

NegativeInjury6:56

Underwent tightrope procedure (syndesmotic ankle repair) in week 17/playoffs (late-season timing). Despite pre-injury elite efficiency and long breakaway run production, post-surgery performance was significantly diminished; efficiency gains were 'completely zapped.' Ron Stewart expresses lingering skepticism about similar ankle injury recovery timelines based on Pollard's experience, suggesting that tightrope procedures carry real long-term effectiveness risks that early-season optimism may not account for.

Tucker Kraft

PositiveInjury19:12

Suffered an isolated ACL tear in November with only a small meniscus tear that did not require repair, making his injury profile significantly simpler than comparable cases. He was one of the most efficient receivers in the NFL last year, averaging over 10 yards after the catch per reception. The isolated ACL injury puts him on track for a standard 9-10 month recovery timeline. Ron Stewart assesses Craft as having a good chance to return on value compared to other injured receivers, anticipating a ramp-up period through the season. While not expected to be the same player in week one as week ten, Stewart believes Craft has a realistic chance to get back to his pre-injury level of play at some point during the year, making him an okay target for fantasy purposes.

PositiveValue36:36

Tucker Kraft is tracking alongside George Kittle as a monster efficiency tight end; both players excel in half-PPR leagues where talent-based production wins. Kraft's efficiency profile makes him a strong value proposition when drafted late, offering a path to win at the tight end position without early-round capital investment.

Tyrone Tracy

NegativeRole6:59

Positioned as a Giants running back option to offload work from Cam Saquon Barkley during the early part of the 2025 season as Barkley recovers from ankle fracture and dislocation. Giants have running back depth to distribute workload in the first third of the season while Barkley ramps back to full effectiveness.

Full transcript

Episode Transcript

720

0:00What's going on, man? Welcome back to the basement. Omron with training camp being right here at the end of July. It

0:09is the time of season where everybody is in the best shape of their life.

0:13Everybody is way ahead of their schedule in terms of their injury timeline. But as we know from being around this space

0:19for a while is that's not always the case. So today, I wanted to break down the key players in fantasy football,

0:27their injuries, their injury outlook, and how we should be treating them heading into the 2026 fantasy football season. And today to discuss the major

0:35injury storylines around the NFL, we have Matthew Betts, physical therapist, lead writer for the fantasy footballers.

0:42How is it going today, Matthew?

0:43>> It's going great, man. Appreciate me having me on and and uh big fan of what you're doing over there on YouTube, Ron.

0:47So, when you asked me to join, I was very excited. So, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate that. It's

0:52funny you you're right. I mean, every July we get to this point and training camp sneaks up on us and then you're

0:58you're right about what we're reminded about. It's every single tweet or video that you see players in the best shape of their life. They're always ahead of

1:05schedule. And so, it's very easy to see those headlines and be like, "All right, this guy's good to go. No worries." But,

1:11um, I'm here today to hopefully give a more realistic outlook on on some of that because we are going to get those

1:15headlines here in probably like a week or so.

1:18Yeah, that's what I wanted to bring you on because if if I don't have somebody level-headed here, I'll just kind of

1:24take it at face value. I'll say, you know what, the beat reporter with 5,000 followers over at the uh Giants training

1:31camp knows what's going on. But I do want to lead with that. Let's actually start with the Giants because really why

1:37I want to talk about the Giants as Cam Scatabo over the weekend as he does the backflip at the Fanatics Fest. Uh and

1:44that's now twice. I know this is like crazy to say as like real hard-hitting analysis, but we've now seen Scatabo do

1:49this dumb backflip twice. Um, let's just start with Scatabone and what our expectations are here because he's been so tricky for me as somebody I loved him

1:58as a rookie. I was drafting him everywhere. It was very simple. He has the skill set of a true bellcow where he

2:03could be the goal lineback, he can catch all the passes and then seven weeks in we have that ripped away from us. his

2:08ankle like pretty nasty injury where it's pointed sideways and now he's a fourth round pick. He is ahead of schedule. He's going to play week one.

2:16He's doing back flips at these events.

2:19Uh how are you handling this uh in terms of these I'll call it an ankle injury, but there's all kinds of different

2:24mechanisms going on.

2:25>> Yeah, funny funny moment there with the uh the backflip this past weekend.

2:29Actually, uh Jason and Mike from the footballers were at Fanatics Fest and they got to interview Cam Scout and they asked him about it. like, "Dude, what's

2:36going on with these back flips, man?"

2:38And just gave him a hard time. So, I thought that was >> perfect timing for the show today. But, um, yeah, obviously if he's doing back

2:44flips, like the ankle's in a a pretty sound place, right? That's like the quick takeaway of like, okay, like we're not behind schedule. This isn't a huge

2:51red flag or anything like that. And he also was competing uh in some limited capacity at OTAAS and mini camp, mostly

2:58running routes and and things like that.

2:59Uh, from limited video looked okay to me. The problem with what we're looking at here with Cam Scataboo is that he did

3:06have the ankle fracture and the dislocation, which in and of itself carries a pretty significant uh degree of ligament damage when that injury

3:14happens. His injury, we'll talk about Judkins today, too. I'm sure his injury is a touch different in that his was actually an open fracture. So, uh, bone

3:22piercing skin, which means we have more tissue that needs to heal. And he also had an injury to what's called his

3:27deltoid ligament. It sits on the inside of the ankle. That did not happen with Judkin. So, when you're comparing those two guys, they are a little bit

3:34different. As far as Scataboo's injury and recovery timeline, I have minimal concerns he'll be ready for week one. I think he plays week one. The big

3:41question for me on his outlook is how long does it take back to get back to 100%. In the videos that we've seen with

3:47the backflip and some of the routes, not a lot of like dynamic left to right, you know, start stop type stuff that we've

3:53seen quite yet. It takes time for these players to get that back when they come off of this major surgery. So, like I

3:58said, I think he plays week one. the question is like, you know, is it week four, is it week five, is it week six

4:03before he's like actually kind of back to full go or is it even later in the season? So, all in all, um I would say

4:10I'm not too optimistic or pessimistic yet on Scataboo. I think we kind of need to see what's going on in training camp

4:16to get more of an idea of like where he'll be at when we enter the season.

4:19They do have Tyron Tracy. They've got some options at at running back to kind of offload work uh in the early part of

4:24the season. But as far as long-term outlook like late in the season and then beyond into next year, very very minimal

4:30concerns. It's just more of that like first third of the season. How effective can he be? I did want to ask

4:36specifically about Scatabo because really the biggest holdup for me is I'm still burned from Tony Pard, right? He gets the uh tightroppe procedure. I

4:45think that he did it maybe in a playoff game or like week 17 like super late in that season and that was one that I just

4:50brushed under the rug and I was like you know what like cuz it was just too good to pass up. Tony Pard finally gone

4:56explosive playmaker and then all the stuff where he was winning on efficiency and long breakaway runs it got completely zapped. Now of course late

5:04season Scott is going to have more runway. Uh but I guess what's your thoughts on the tyro procedure? I think that we saw maybe from Godwin last year

5:11as well. Uh, and I my assumption is that Scatterbo got something similar uh done to his ankle. I'm just curious if

5:17there's any insights uh with that specifically.

5:19>> Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the timeline, too, cuz that is one thing that really does matter a lot. Like in

5:24fantasy football world, there's so many headlines about week one, like is this guy ready for week one? Yes or no? And

5:29we all want like a black and white answer. And for a player, let's say that had a major season ending surgery in

5:35December, it's going to look way different than the player that had it in October, you know, for example. And Scott's injury did happen week eight.

5:41So, if you're comparing it to somebody like Tony Pard, I I can't remember off the top of my head, but you're right. It

5:45was in January. It was like week 17 or or playoffs, whatever it was, but very different timeline there. Um, like I

5:51said, the the biggest change from Scataboo's injury to other players is that he did have that open fracture and then also that deltoid ligament repair,

5:58which is definitely different than some other players. So it's a I mean this is a major surgery like immediately had to

6:04have it that night in Philadelphia like significantly you know high medical degree of of concern when it first happened. So like I said I think it's

6:12going to take time for him to get that efficiency back. The the nice thing though about him is like he does catch

6:18passes in a way where in full PPR type formats and stuff like that. It's like okay can the pass catching work

6:23especially if Neighbors is on the shelf for four to six weeks. like can he mask some of these inefficiencies and be

6:29totally fine in fantasy football until he's himself. I think it's possible, but like I said, I'm not there yet on being

6:35like, you know, he's a draft target or he's in a void. I think we kind of want to wait to see how things are going in

6:40training camp, but my expectation is that it does take quite a bit of time to get back to being that 100% explosive

6:46athlete, you know, in the back half of the year.

6:48>> I like that call. I think it's important with the training camp stuff is as much as we love the beat reporter, you know,

6:54what they're saying dialogue-wise, I think guys like you actually watching I I feel like someone we're going to be looking for is them doing drills,

7:02cutting, looking dynamic. Uh, and it's a good thing you touched on with Scatabo is >> he's been so tricky for me to get

7:08behind. Again, I love the player. I I even love his mindset. He's a hilarious player. Uh, but he's also not known for

7:14like explosive. He's like a 46 guy, you So, if the efficiency isn't there, the role is so good that yes, you can dock

7:20the efficiency, you can dock for injury, but it's kind of baked in where he's going. Uh, I will shift that over to

7:26Quinshan Judkins now where he, you correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like he didn't have the tight rope procedure, but did have a similar ankle

7:34injury that happened a little bit later in the year. Uh, but he there's a lot more optimism about Judkins and where

7:40he's at in his recovery. Uh, I'm curious what you've been seeing with Judkins. I think that he's had some clips come out

7:45that have looked decent uh and your expectations there and I guess like what the key difference is between him uh and

7:52Scatabas cuz I I will say when that injury happened live for Judkins I thought like I I thought it was like

7:57tank Dell bad like it looked it looked really bad. Um, and then it it was like, all right, it's just kind of just an

8:02ankle, which sucks, but it's not uh like careerthreatening like kind of the the initial replay was.

8:07>> Yeah, for sure. And and we just mentioned like that timeline aspect of some things like when the injury happens, when the players have surgery,

8:14uh, you know, affects how much recovery time they have in the offseason obviously. And, uh, and his procedure happened just before Christmas was was

8:21Quinshaw Judkins. So, he'll have, you know, roughly, you know, twothirds of the year to kind of get back to uh, week

8:28one. That's a good thing for this type of recovery, but much like some of the other guys we've discussed, Pard and uh

8:34you know, Scataboo, like it'll take some time for him to get that explosiveness back. The good news is, like you said,

8:40he was participating in a limited capacity in OTAA. So, by all accounts, recovery has gone according to plan, but it's really that lateral kind of side to

8:47side agility type stuff that these guys need to get back that takes some time.

8:50So, like I said, he'll start week one, he'll play week one. I have no questions about that. It's more just along the

8:55lines of the recovery and and how long it takes to get that explosiveness back.

8:58Relative to Cam Scaboo, his injury was not quite as severe from a tissue damage standpoint. Uh Scaboo, like I said, you

9:06know, had that deltoid ligament, which is that kind of extra uh extra layer of complexity here. That was not the case

9:13with Judkins. So, if you're kind of comparing these two, I would say Judkins injury was by all accounts less severe than Scataboo. But, but in totality,

9:21like both of these guys injuries are very severe. So, I don't want people to hear that and be like, "Oh, he's fine.

9:25No big deal." Uh, but relative to Scataboo, a little bit less tissue damage there.

9:30>> Yeah. I I I feel like some of these injuries, it's like, oh, it's like it's an ankle. But it's like, no, it's pretty

9:36it's pretty. Uh, >> yeah. So, I think that that's a good transition into kind of your more well-known injuries of like the ACL

9:45tear. And this is something I wanted to touch on at the top, but then I thought of the scatabo thing, but we're in a

9:50weird spot with the ACL tears or Achilles. I feel like ACL and Achilles are almost like hand in hand now is like

9:54okay these guys got these are season enders but the timeline to return and play well has gotten much better over what feels like kind of the last like 5

10:02to 10 years. So I guess before we zoom in on like Malik Neighbors and talk about his ACL tear, uh I will say and

10:09something like this I think would have been a good video to have last year. I I I don't think I drafted Christian Watson

10:15really at all and then he just kind I mean he was somebody you could grab off of waiverss in a lot of leagues like he

10:19wasn't even drafted in a lot of places but uh the year that he had off the ACL tear I thought was super impressive. You

10:25think back to like the only other name I could think of that came off an injury and was just like out of his mind is

10:29like >> the Adrien Peterson year I'm probably forgetting one or two of a guy coming off an injury and just being alienike.

10:35But uh of course that was further down the history line uh than what happened with Christian Watson last year. I'm curious, what do you think happened in

10:43Christian Watson's specific case? And do you think uh Medicine's getting to a spot now where we can kind of bank on

10:50fantasy production year one post ACL tear?

10:53>> Yeah, the other guy that comes to mind was Cooper Cup. Remember he had the ACL tear and actually came back and was

10:58awesome the following year. So yeah, in general like it does happen. It happens way more now than it used to >> uh with the ACL. The wild thing is, man,

11:07like, and I can talk about this with the Achilles, too, but like even in ACL surgeries years and years ago, like they

11:12would put uh patients in a cast immediately after the surgery. And now in hindsight, we know like that was so so bad for you because your knee gets

11:20insanely stiff. Your muscles are so weak and you're just behind the eight-ball from the get-go. Now patients are coming into PT and starting rehab literally

11:28within like two or three days of the surgery, getting moving, starting to use things like electrical stimulation, blood flow restriction training, what

11:35have you, to get things going right away. So like years ago, we were just doing the completely wrong things. Now medicine has progressed to a point where

11:43there's been enough research, we understand what works and these players are getting the best care in the world, right? So you add that on top of the

11:50progressing uh technology and modalities that you can use and it's not too surprising to see this this all working out in a positive way. Um I will say we

11:58need to be careful though because while there is an Adrien Peterson there is a Cooper Cup. You know for every one or

12:04two of those guys there's the Lake Neighbor situation that's happening right now or you know I remember a handful of years ago JK Dobbins right he

12:12had the stiffness in his knee had to have the second surgery like it does happen. So, even though in general things are progressing nicely in the

12:19post ACL world, it's not the necessarily the expectation for every player, I'll say. And and just like we talked about with the the ankle fractures, the

12:28recovery timeline here means a lot. Um, most of my research that I've looked at for these guys when they come back into

12:33playing, typically for running backs and wide receivers, there's a roughly a six to eight week kind of ramp up period.

12:39Sometimes it's down to like four games, but roughly like four to eight weeks where just because they're on the field doesn't mean they're running the full

12:45number of routes, seeing the same number of touches out of the back field, etc.

12:48And so even though players will will look at Malik Neighbors or look at somebody else coming off an ACL and be

12:52like, "Okay, maybe he's back in week three. I'll just plug him in my lineup."

12:55It's like, okay, well maybe, but he's probably not going to be Malik Neighbors until like week eight, week nine, right?

13:01If that's the case when he comes back.

13:02So, you always need to kind of add in that extra ramp up period because these players that spend the entire summer not

13:09with the team, not doing the stuff that they'd be doing as a normal football player. They're in the weight room, they're rehabbing, they're doing all

13:14those things, it takes time to get back into the football shape off of not I mean just not playing football, but also

13:20off of an ACL recovery, off a major injury. So, it takes longer than most people think to reach uh return to

13:27performance. it's not as long to return to play and return to play and not and return to performance generally are not

13:33the same thing. So that's one thing that I would keep in mind for these players is I'm usually buying in the second

13:37season off the ACL for the most part instead of the first season.

13:43>> Yeah, that seems fair. I I guess that's where uh you're probably heading with the league neighbors here. That that's what I wanted to ask is I feel like his

13:51was a bit more complicated than a clean tear. It seemed like a clean tear at first uh and then I guess you could kind

13:57of go into it. He tears his ACL in week four and then it feels like he waited a bit to do the surgery and then he gets

14:03knee stiffness and he does another surgery and there's swelling and things are ugly and then there's a softball game where he's limping around the the

14:10bases. I guess what what happened with this timeline? Like why is there so many complications? I I feel like there's a

14:17lot more cleaner tears uh that I can think of where usually it's like you know we're in 2026 now guys just get the

14:23surgery and then uh they they come play.

14:26That's a huge factor too in this in this first season outlook is the degree of the injury. So, you know, no two ACL

14:31injuries are the exact same. There's some players who only tear the ACL and that's the only tissue that's damaged.

14:36So, you have to just repair the one ligament and that recovery is generally more straightforward, very reliable, roughly 9month timeline. Guys can come

14:43back in year one and perform pretty well. Then you have other situations where it's like a Javvante Williams type situation where it's, you know, the LCL

14:51plus the ACL plus some meniscus damage.

14:53I you're looking at Malik Neighbors. He had the ACL, MCL, and meniscus. And sometimes players will wait to do surgery. Not sometimes, most of the time

15:02they'll wait about a month. U research is actually showing that if you do, they call it prehab, like before you know

15:08your your surgery. If you rehab for, you know, roughly a month, get your quad strength back, get the uh swelling down,

15:15get the range of motion back, then have surgery, your outcomes in the short and long term are actually a lot better. So,

15:20it's not uncommon for players to, you know, tear it in week four and then they don't have surgery till like week nine,

15:25something like that. So, that's pretty normal. But, as far as neighbors, he did have to have his meniscus repaired. When that happens, you can't progress the

15:32normal ACL timeline as quickly. You have to be a little more conservative, a little bit slower with the recovery. So, that's why it's taken so long for

15:39neighbors to really kind of get going here. And then, like you said, he did have that second procedure to address stiffness in the knee. Um, I'm not super

15:48super concerned about that as far as its own thing. It's a very quick in-n-out procedure. Um, you know, it's not this

15:54like cumbersome recovery. It actually helps the athlete get the knee moving again. So, it's beneficial for a short-term outlook. But the problem is

16:00it's it's another roadblock in the the recovery from, you know, start to finish. So, I'm pretty pessimistic on Neighbors if I'm being honest. Um it's I

16:09think a little bit of a different conversation if you're in these like super topheavy best tournaments and you're like hey could could neighbors be

16:16be the guy you need in you know week 12 on like yeah it's possible for sure but expecting Malik Neighbors to be anything

16:22close to what we know of him as a player anytime before mid November I I would be pretty shocked if I'm being honest. I do

16:31think he starts the not just training camp but also regular season on PUP. Um because if you kind of look at this from

16:37their perspective, this is the franchise player, right? You're you're not going to risk this, compromise this, speed this up more than it has to for a team

16:45that, you know, has long-term goals with this player instead of winning week one.

16:49So I would be shocked if if Neighbors anywhere close to 100% anytime before, you know, the holidays. So for me, like

16:56I was saying, I'm more into Neighbors long term. I'm not into Neighbors this year. And I and I think the name is so

17:03appealing and it's so tricky to to pass on him where he goes. But I do think this is one of those where, you know,

17:08you kind of catch the falling knife, so to speak. Yeah, it's a bummer cuz he he's so good when he plays, but you're

17:15taking him on underdog, he's going at pick 38. The funny part is you say, and I agree, he's more useful in a baseball

17:21tournament, but even on and say whatever you want about like ESPN ADP, but I'm just sort of showing a home league ADP.

17:26He's going 29th on ESPN. Maybe that falls a ton between now and like late August, but that's still a really rough

17:33range. Now, somebody I want to shift over to is Tucker Craft where I feel like he has had so much optimism here.

17:40Uh I've heard him kind of compare it to just being a football sicko where he is attacking this rehab super hard. He's I

17:49I've seen him I've seen clips like things will even make their way onto my timeline where I see him like running on

17:53the the slanted treadmill. Uh, where are you at on Tucker Craft? It's such a shame with someone like him because we

18:00just talked about with Scatabo, right, where coming off the injury, it's like, all right, he he's going to have the role. You can't really expect the

18:06efficiency. The thing with Tucker Craft is he was maybe the most efficient receiver across wide receivers and tight ends. Last year, he averaged like over

18:1410 yards after the catch per reception, and it's why he was so efficient on like a 5yard AOT. Uh, so he's doing a lot on

18:21his own with the ball in his hand. And I think that that's going to, you know, that's not what you want to hear for a

18:26guy coming off an ACL tear. So I'm curious of where's your optimism at with him. He's he's a tricky guy because like

18:33you said, just naturally there was probably some regression coming for him with that absurd after the catch efficiency, which was so fun. But that

18:40naturally was going to come down and now it's almost certainly going to come down off of the ACL. Um the difference

18:47between him and Neighbors primarily is the degree of the injury. So for Craft, he did have a small uh tear in the

18:52meniscus, but he did not need a repair on that. So no surgery on the secondary structure. So it was just his ACL. And

18:59as I was kind of talking about, just like in the ACL general recovery, if it's just an ACL, it's generally speaking pretty straightforward. So

19:06that's what we're looking at here with Tucker Craft, which is why you've seen so many positive reports for him and almost no positive reports so far for

19:12neighbors. The two are not the same. So, if there is one guy that I would say, hey, he has a good chance to return on,

19:18you know, value just based off injury for me it would be Craft over Neighbors.

19:22Um, that said, you know, we kind of need to to see how this goes in camp. It will be he had surgery in November, so it

19:28will be um not quite a full year as we get into the season. That's generally pretty on par with ACL's. You know,

19:35somewhere in that 9 to 10 month window is pretty normal off of an isolated ACL.

19:39But like I said, I anticipate some sort of ramp up. So, is he going to be the same player in week one that he'll be in

19:44week 10? Certainly not. But, I think there is a chance that Tucker Craft could be one of those guys that does get

19:49back to his pre-injury level of play at some point this year. With Neighbors, I don't think that's necessarily possible, or I should say likely. Um, so yeah, I

19:56think Tucker Craft is an okay target because of the fact that it is just an ACL and doesn't have this secondary

20:01damage to it. I >> I will ask on the topic of some ACL's here. Charban is an interesting one. I I

20:08wanted to pick your brain on Charbanet because I've been drafting a lot of Jaren Price. I like Jadariian Price. I get to I have to hear all the talk about

20:16George Helani and uh Emanuel Wilson or whatever. But really in my head, Jaden Price is this puzzle because rookies usually backload their production, but

20:26we have Charbanet coming around the corner where price would be taking off, per se. Uh, I've seen a lot of optimism

20:34that Charban is going to return way earlier than expected and he's like an absolute monster. Uh, he's somebody who tore his ACL super super late. Uh, so

20:42what is your like baseline expectations for him and at what point does he get into the rotation and start to take

20:47stuff away uh from Price? I think that that's like the biggest point is not when he's like, you know, he he'll get

20:52some snaps here and there, but u at what point would you start to expect like if Sharp was going to be the lead back down

20:59the stretch? At what point would you think that takes place?

21:02>> Yeah, it's it's so funny, man. I've never seen uh so many George Hani truthers. They've all they've all No, it's not this off season. It's

21:09hilarious. But yeah, Sharon's injury obviously happened super late. It was in the actual NFL playoff. So, when you're thinking about his surgery, remember I

21:17mentioned a little bit at the start of the ACL uh discussion here, these guys generally have about a month where they

21:23rehabed first. Starbet did that. So, his surgery didn't happen until February 20th is what I have down here. And so, obviously, it's not surprising that to

21:31this point he's done very, very little in OTAAS and mini camp. I would expect him to do very little in training camp

21:37with the team. So, you're looking at a player who spent the entirety of the summer and offseason not doing football drills. It's going to take a lot of time

21:46for him to get back into football shape.

21:48I think there's a really good chance he's starting the season on PUP. And then from there, it's like, okay, how do

21:53they acclimate him back into the offense? And honestly, some of that might depend on how the Seahawks season is going. Like if they're rolling with

22:01Jadian Price and they have contributions from Helani and Manuel Wilson or whoever else and they're doing all right, they probably don't need to rush Charbanet

22:08back if they can kind of get him ready for late December into the postseason.

22:11For fantasy, I haven't taken him at all at this point just because it's such a thin needle to thread. You need this

22:17player to come back at the right time and be himself. And for a player who had such a late ACL injury, it's just

22:23unlikely. So, I mean, outliers happen.

22:25Sure, it's it's possible, but looking at the timeline of the injury, I would say this is a player I would be buying in

22:312027.

22:32>> It's just a matter of when does he come back? When does he start to to eat into Jaren Price's workload? And that's just

22:39kind of a weird dichotomy in itself, but you're getting the first round pick on a Super Bowl winner in like the sixth

22:45round, which I I don't know, from like a macro perspective, it feels like a value. Uh, and then the kind of the last

22:50ACL I wanted to touch on was Momes. He feels like as well one of these guys that is an alien that is going to

22:57recover very fast. I even know uh I think it was a golf swing video which is so funny with these injury things where

23:03it's like oh he's golfing or he's uh doing a charity baseball game and you're just looking at all the angles possible.

23:09Uh what's your take on Mahomes here?

23:12Does he play week one? And I think honestly with the quarterbacks the big deal is not so much return to play but

23:17kind of as you were saying is uh return to being themselves. I can't think of what you were saying at the top, but

23:22return to play versus like return of uh efficiency or whatever.

23:26>> Yeah. So, Mahomes is he's tricky because you know if it like Mahomes is one of those guys who can do

23:34superhuman things on a football field, right? Like remember he came off of the high ankle sprain which was a pretty severe injury

23:40>> and everybody's like, man, there's no way he's going to be able to play. He can make so many offplatform throws that

23:45like he can kind of do the weird threequarters sidearm type stuff to like mask some of his mobility issues which is a superhuman trait in and of itself.

23:53Um so I wanted to point that out at the start. I think he has a decent chance to start sometime early in the season. It

23:59might not be week one. It's probably week two or week three if it's not week one. You know I don't see this lingering

24:04into the season very much. Uh even though he did have his ACL and LCL uh reconstructed and repaired for a quarterback, it's not a huge deal. If

24:15this was a wide receiver, running back, tight end, we would be talking about this as like a major issue looking forward to the season. But because he's

24:21a quarterback, he can stand in the pocket, he can drop back, and he can pass. The only thing I'll say is that

24:26last year so much Mahomes fantasy value came as a runner, I don't think we're getting that back much, if at all, this

24:33year. So, that's one thing to consider with Mahomes as far as his draft cost.

24:36You know, I'm treating him almost like a a a true pure pocket passer and and nothing more than that this year. That's

24:42the only thing on Mahomes, but like I said, um I wouldn't be shocked if they sit in week one or week two just to be

24:47conservative, feed Chem Walker, you know, kind of let him take his time, but at the same time, he's going to be

24:52itching to go and it's going to be hard to keep him off the field. So, I don't anticipate it being a PUP situation or

24:57lingering into late September or anything like that, but there's a chance he can miss a game or two. Otherwise, you know, he's got a good chance to play

25:03week one.

25:04>> I do want to clarify for the viewer, the PUP is physically unable to perform and I believe if you stay on that list, you

25:12have to miss four games, right?

25:13>> Yeah. So, it's just like you'd like to not be on the PUP before the season because then you're you're missing

25:18games. It's a big deal. Uh and there's going to be a couple of guys where it's kind of like PUP watch of will they make

25:24it on, will they make it off? Um, somebody who I don't think has any PUP concerns, but maybe a little bit, uh, is

25:30Rashi Rice, his chief teammate. This one is weird. Uh, I don't remember a reported, uh, torn ACL, torn MCL or anything. I just kind of remember

25:40hearing he's having a knee surgery in the offseason that took place weeks before he went to jail. But, uh, I'm sure you can smooth that over because it

25:49seems like he was kind of catered to there where he was getting actual rehab in while in jail. Uh just I don't know

25:55the Rashi Rice thing is just insane. Uh so I'm curious what digging you've done on like what his treatment plan even

26:02looked like um behind bars which is just absurd to say.

26:06>> Honestly, I I don't know. Um I I wish I did.

26:09>> Yeah, I'm sure none of us really did.

26:11>> I wish I did. I I don't have any specific insight to that. I will say on the knee itself, this goes back to when

26:17he had the season ending injury a couple years ago. Remember when he and Mahomes collided on the sideline? He had the

26:22full LCL injury and the it's called the posterior lateral corner. Big fancy term for basically a bunch of tissues and ligaments on the back corner of the knee

26:31on the outside.

26:32>> Um that structure is super important for rotational stability in the knee and some lateral agility movement back and forth. So obviously we saw him come back

26:41last year. He had the suspension early on which I think in some ways kind of helped him just more time rehabbing and

26:46kind of getting back to 100%. But when he came back I mean he hit the ground running. he was one of the most valuable

26:51players in fantasy. Um, and then unfortunately now we have this kind of secondary cleanup procedure which at least just puts some doubt in the back

26:58of my mind that this knee has been bugging him for a year. You know, he came back and he performed. But at the

27:04same time, these poster lateral corner injuries can be really really cumbersome and be really tricky in that they kind of have a high not recurrence rate. Like

27:13I'm not saying he's going to retar the same ligaments, but just it's not as straightforward as like, hey, you tore your CL. The first year might be a

27:19little tricky, but after that you're fine. It's not necessarily in that bucket is what I would say about it. So the fact that he had this second cleanup

27:26procedure suggests he had some discomfort, maybe a little bit of stiffness in the knee, which doesn't make me feel great about a player who

27:32relies so much on after the catch ability. And that's basically what he's done since the end of the NFL is that.

27:38So now you add in the jail sentence and what did the first phase of the rehab look like? No idea. So I'm on Rashi Rice

27:45watch with the rest of of us um as we enter training camp just to see where he's at and what he's doing. But um

27:51there's no doubt when he's on the field.

27:52I mean he's been one of the most valuable players in fantasy.

27:55>> Yeah, he he's one of these guys where it's not cheap. It's similar to Neighbors and that you're drafting him 301 on underdog. I'm looking at ESPN

28:02like similar idea. 301 uh and somebody that is having a knee issue when he relies on short area quickness and then

28:09also you can kind of have the macro view of like this offense hasn't been great since they built it out of Rashi Rice

28:15where they just have kind of funneled everything through him. Uh it's been good for fantasy. It's been good for him in fantasy, but it's just not this

28:21hasn't been the Chiefs offense post Tyreek Hill that we all have kind of expected. So I think we could see his

28:26role shrink a little bit. I think that we could see his efficiency come down a little bit. So he's not someone I'm

28:30drafting a ton of uh either. I will say somebody I'm drafting a lot of that also has a knee issue uh is Garrett Wilson.

28:36It it was kind of like quiet. It I think he maybe it was a little uh cautionary in terms of shutting him down for the

28:43entire season. You know, when you see a knee injury and he's out for the season, you're like ACL. Uh it seems like it

28:48wasn't an ACL tear. It was more uh I would just call it a knee injury. I don't even really have the specifics of

28:53it. That's why, you know, I have Matthew Betts here to tell me what it because he's one of my favorite players. He's on

28:58the Jets. But I just remember he goes down with a knee issue and then it seems they just kind of shut him down. It's

29:01like, all right, we're rolling Brady Cook out here. There's no reason to to rush Garrett Wilson back. Uh, I guess what happened last year and is there any

29:07concern heading into uh 26?

29:09>> Yeah. So, with Wilson, he he had a bit of a hyperextension injury, which can range from very mild sprain to complete

29:16ligament damage. Everything that I've seen on Wilson from that has been more on the more mild side. And my understanding is like given the state of

29:24the Jets last year and what has been going on for years really, but what's been going on there over the back half

29:29of the year, it was one of those like why rush back situations. So, I've been drafting him as normal this offseason. I

29:36think he'll be fine and I think he'll be good to go entering training camp, entering week one.

29:41>> Yeah, that's good to hear. Just a matter of um you know, I would love if they keep the I don't know where you the

29:46grass versus turf stuff, but just let me have grass and MetLife.

29:49>> Hey, they had it for the World Cup. the the yeah, they had it for the World Cup.

29:53I'll I'll give some credit to them is like you I think you'd have to tear it up anyways. I think that it's like

29:57special grass that they do out there where they got the sprinklers going and everything. We can't quite play on that, but uh they're playing on concrete at

30:04Metife.

30:05>> Um I did want to bring up, so this is somebody that I think actually might fall into your bucket of these guys who

30:11tear their ACL or have a gruesome injury, the next year not great, and then the year after that, uh they kind

30:16of bounce back. And we are definitely bouncing all over the place here. But I think John Brooks is good to bring up as

30:20we're talking about ACL tears and ACL recovery timelines. He is a brutal one where he uh tears his or tears his ACL

30:28in college, falls in the draft because of it uh late in his college season that was uh kind of like a red shirt first

30:35year and then tears the exact same ACL.

30:38How does it work when you tear a surgically repaired ligament? Uh that just sounds like a nightmare to me. Uh what are your expectations for John

30:46Brooks? like how were you looking at it out of college and then he tears the same one. I heard maybe it's even like a

30:52Bosch surgery which like I hope he lawyers up if that's the case. Um what do you got on John Brooks?

30:58>> Yeah, I mean it's it's definitely a tricky situation just because there is this kind of secondary factor of the mental side of it where it's like

31:05you you rehab your knee. Okay, I'm in the clear. I'm in the NFL. I'll be good.

31:09And then literally what like a handful of carries in, you retire the same injury, same knee, >> and you have to have another surgery. It

31:17takes a lot of like mental toughness to come back from that because you have to regain your confidence in the knee. And

31:22that's something that not any like nobody talks about that with these guys.

31:25Like we all think, all right, they're robots. Like when they're good, they're good. But recovering and getting that confidence in your knee is really hard

31:32to measure. like in the PT clinics and PT world like you can give questionnaires and talk to people and see what they're thinking but until you

31:38get on the field and like do it you don't actually know and you don't actually trust yourself. So that's one thing that I think is important to to

31:45track here with Brooks given the limited experience he has in the NFL and then the second injury as far as how the knee

31:51itself is. You know in the short term like I'm not super super concerned about his ability to regain being 100% because

31:58he had the entire season off. They clearly were super conservative with him kind of understanding the second round pick investment and understanding where

32:05he was at in his recoveries. So, I'm not really that worried about that right now. I will say the only question I have

32:10is like do the Panthers think that they can actually load him up with 20 touches in a game, you know, because it's been a

32:18couple years and he barely has played.

32:19And, you know, as as boring as Chib is, like at least the coaching coaching staff can trust him and give him some

32:24touches. So, I would say as you enter week one into like week five, six, seven, something like that, like I would

32:30be shocked if Jonathan Brooks just steals the job right away. But I do think it's possible like if he shows them that he's back and he gains the

32:37trust of the coaching staff and things are going smoothly that he could overtake Chuba when it matters most. I think that's totally possible. But like

32:44I said, I just think entering week one, we should expect Chuba to be heavily involved just because it's been such a

32:49long process. But yeah, short-term, not too many uh medical concerns. I will say when you have these repeat ACL injuries, the big concern is more like dynasty

32:58league format where you're thinking about a player's career archetype. How long could he play in the NFL? That type of stuff, the rate of arthritis

33:04generally speaking speeds up in these types of guys. So, you know, Derrick Henry still doing Derrick Henry things all this time. I would be totally

33:12shocked if we're talking about Jonathan Brooks when he's in the league at, you know, 33 years old, something like that.

33:16So, that's the only thing if you're in a Din League and you want to consider like four years out, what could this look

33:20like? Other than that though, for this year, I think he'll be healthy and uh and hopefully, you know, be able be able

33:25to stay on the field.

33:26>> I will say you bring up the mental aspect or aspect and something that's funny is uh I'm not obviously I'm not

33:32that old, but uh as I play basketball and stuff, I I definitely in the back of my head you think of like the Jason

33:37Tatums you uh Achilles tear where you go off the back foot to drive in. Like that's something that's look as a

33:4425-year-old man, if I tore my Achilles, it would be it it would just be it would be it's all over. like I can't be

33:51getting a torn Achilles surgery and rehab as like a non-professional athlete. Uh so I can't imagine doing that and then trying to return to play

33:59in six months uh like George KD is trying to do here or maybe not six months. Maybe I'm I'm fluffing that

34:05timeline a little bit. But uh these guys like raring to come back, especially as a positional player. I we'll talk about

34:11Daniel Jones here in a second. We saw with Kirk Cousin, we saw with Aaron Rogers, like I don't know, like quarterbacks, they're a different

34:16athlete class. But KD, this explosive quick tit twitch athlete, 33, uh is like pushing to play as fast as possible. Uh

34:25how how are you treating this George KD stuff?

34:27>> Yeah, so he had his surgery on January 14th, had the injury in the Eagles playoff game this past uh past

34:33postseason. Um I would say in general there's there's a couple things to consider with KD. The first is the age.

34:40uh we know that generally speaking younger is better for this type of recovery. The other thing however that is working in his favor is you know he

34:48tal he talked about it a little bit he was like oh you know the injury was up higher in my calf it wasn't down at the

34:52heel and actually was very helpful to hear that because when you just think Achilles you think they're all the same.

34:57When you have an Achilles tear it can be a degree of you know think about a spectrum of like 0% is a fully healthy

35:03tendon 100% is a thing is completely torn. you can have something in the degree of 70 80% whatever it is in that

35:10window and knowing that is really helpful. So knowing that he had his higher up and not lower down at the attachment point of the heel is actually

35:17really good for his short and long-term outlook. When you have it down at the the heel, they actually have to screw

35:22into the bone. The recovery is a little more cumbersome. You lose power in the tendon so you're not as explosive when

35:28you come off that injury. You know, I'm kind of getting in the weeds here, but basically what he had is better than

35:32than not. I would say all that to say we should not expect George KD to be George KD in week one or week two or week

35:38three. That would be shocking to me. But I think he's got a chance to play. The only thing that I'll say about week one

35:43for him is uh they do have the I think it's the kickoff game. If it's not the kickoff, it's one of the first ones

35:48that's overseas. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're like, "Hey, stay back at home. Yeah, we'll get you back in week two or week three, whatever,

35:54whatever it may be." But I think he's got a good chance to play early in the season if it's not week one. Um, I would

35:59say he's likely to be more of a limited player in the first handful of games back, but I think possibly like he could

36:06be one of those guys that kind of surprises us in the second half of the year. So, again, really uh rewarding

36:11when you compare him with somebody early in the draft to kind of get you through the first six, seven, eight weeks. Um,

36:16so early season production definitely going to take a hit, but it's possible later in the year he could um he could

36:21return to at least some level of of pre, you know, injury function. I don't think we'll see the George KD this year, but I

36:28think you could see 80% 90% George KD and that's better than than most tight ends if we're being honest.

36:36>> Yeah, him and Tucker Craft are so like just kind of tracking back to the monster efficiency guys where you know

36:42these guys aren't like these guys are better in half PPR style leagues uh which means you're kind of winning on your talent. His career 10 yards per

36:50target is absurd. It's like among active players, it's like the highest even among the receivers. Like Tyreek Kill's career uh yards per target's like 9.7.

36:59Uh so that's going to come down. But at the end of the day, it if you draft George KD and like down the stretches

37:05like the tight end for he's probably a win. Like these these tight ends are going so late that it's not the same

37:10dichotomy of like can I take Cam Scatabo in the fourth round, you know, like KD, okay, eighth round tight end, we'll pair

37:15him with a boring guy like Jawan Johnson for free, uh, and likely be just fine.

37:21Uh, now I did want to ask as well, I guess kind of a piggyback on the George KD stuff. He's coming back so quick. Uh,

37:26I I hate to put you on the spot here.

37:28This is a crazy thing to ask, but are these guys like taking peptides and stuff? like what are they you hear about

37:33guys going down to like South America or getting stem cells shot up and things.

37:37What's going on here? Like what is even under the scope of the peed uh thing?

37:42Because it seems like these guys are definitely like I think McAffrey maybe went to like Germany or something uh last year for his calf strains and

37:49stuff. What is going on with like the alternative medicine in football? Uh and it feels like it's all happening under the table. Yeah, I mean it's some of

37:55it's the legality of what you can and can't do in the US and there's a lot of things that you can do out of state, but

38:01they don't they don't practice it in in the US. Um, so like PL plateletri plasma uh for example is something that

38:07Christian McAffrey has done. I don't know if KD is one of those guys who's experimented with this type of stuff.

38:13But what I'll say is like you know thinking about some of this recovery like I said with the ACL recovery, the

38:18Achilles recoveries have gotten a lot more favorable and it's still taking time. Like rarely are players coming back in week one and they're fine. But

38:24comparatively to what it what used to be six years ago when it's like oh you had an Achilles your career is probably done

38:30or it's going to take several years to get back to anything close to what it used to be. I would say those things are

38:34working in their favor. But I don't know specifically how much George Kill is doing outside of uh you know his his

38:39normal PT. I will say he was at >> World Cup final, you know, drinking some beers yesterday. So he seems to be in

38:44good spirits and doing great. Uh we'll see where he's at in training camp. I think he'll be limited for most of

38:48training camp if I'm being honest, but like I said, I think he's got a chance to play week one and then just kind of

38:52ramp up from there and and hopefully you get KD to be close to what he was in the back half of the year.

38:59>> Yeah, he's absolutely out and about. And you you're you're giving me flashbacks here with the modalities because uh you know as a tortured Jets fan I would be

39:07tuning in to the Aaron Rogers on Pat McAfee show every week just to see what my quarterback is saying and he would

39:12just say you know we're going me and Neil elatra or whatever going through all these different modalities I'm going to that was when he was saying he was

39:18going to come back for a playoff run or whatever >> and that's who did that's who did kill surgery same surgeon

39:24>> that's what I I heard I heard he he's like or >> I don't know if it's a he or she but

39:28Elatra is the the high for uh the Achilles tear. So I assume that that's like a a good thing and I think it's

39:35actually a good segue. I think Daniel Jones is dating his daughter, Neil Elatro's daughter. I I swear that's a thing that's happening right now. Um as

39:44he is rehabbing back from his own Achilles tear. Uh and then on top of that, you have the Alec Pier stuff

39:49happening with the Colts. So I guess like what is your overall view on the Colts? Don Jones coming back. Uh I

39:55always get it confused on like which Achilles I think that he has the bad one where it's like his pushoff leg. Uh so

40:01talk through that and then also we have kind of a mysterious Alec Pierce thing happening. Both of these players signing big deals this off seasonason with the

40:07Colts. Uh and they're both like big injury question marks right now.

40:10>> Sure. Yeah. The Colts just feel shaky because of these two injuries where it's like your quarterback's coming off major procedure, your newly high paid in

40:17theory wide receiver one is coming off of a major procedure. Um, yeah, for for Daniel Jones Achilles injury late in the

40:23season, like you said, it is his right leg. Um, and for a right-handed quarterback, the reason that matters just because when you think about like a

40:30three step three-step drop, when you hit that back foot and then you come forward to throw the ball down field, that

40:35power, that kind of bounce, that push off at the back of the the drop off is tends to be reduced. So, when I think

40:41about Daniel Jones and I think about kind of where he'll exceed expectation this year, I think it'll be in that short intermediate passing game. Josh

40:48DS, Tyler Warren, Josh Jonathan Taylor out of the backfield. I'd be surprised if we're getting like Dana Jones velocity and huge downfield attempts.

40:57What we've seen with Alec Pierce, you know, I'd be surprised we get that in the first half of the year. Um, not even

41:02because of A Pierce, mostly because of the Daniel Jones recovery.

41:05>> Um, I don't think we'll see a ton of mobility in the first half of the year from him outside of the pocket. Um,

41:10we've seen other quarterbacks struggle with that, but I want to be careful with making the same straight line comparison to to Aaron Rogers and Kirk Cousins

41:17because those guys from an age standpoint are obviously well beyond where Daniel Jones is. So, I think Daniel Jones is like fine where he goes,

41:25but you know, expecting the Colts to do the magical things they did last year with Daniel Jones off the Achilles, I'm

41:30just a little weary on that. Um, as far as Pierce goes, yeah, like you said, it was a little bit of a mystery cuz he

41:36played the whole season. no major reports of anything going on in season, but he did try in the spring. He talked

41:43about actually trying pllet rich plasma injections, PRP, and that did not work.

41:47So, the the team and he decided, all right, let's do the surgery. I don't have the specific details on what his

41:52surgery was. So, I'm kind of waiting and hoping that we might get that information, but there was video of him at I think it was OTA's had a big sleeve

42:00on that left calf, walking kind of gingerly, ankle looked pretty stiff. So, all things considered, like I think Pierce will get back to form at some

42:08point this year, but because of the limited OTAAS and mini camp and presumably limited time in training camp, it's going to take a lot of time

42:16for him to ramp up and be that explosive athlete down the field. So, I I just think when you kind of match the two

42:21together, a quarterback coming off a right leg Achilles, probably going to have some issues pushing the ball downfield and the receiver who's going

42:27to be on the receiving end of those downfield opportunities also coming off of an ankle procedure. I've been a little bit lower on the Colts pass game

42:35for those two pieces as a result.

42:37>> Yeah, I think that's a good point, especially with Alec Pierce when we think to uh what we're actually trying to look at what's going on in these

42:44training camp practices. I think a big one is I mean we're talking about Scatabo and Judkins and all these guys who are going to be practicing. They're

42:50going to play week one. They might not be as effective, but it's a big deal when these guys can't ra ramp up in

42:55practice and get the reps in. I think we saw uh last year was like Terry McLaren where he was like this weird hold out

43:00and then he doesn't play and then he gets hurt and it's like these guys need the you know I know that preseason's

43:05been a big uh talking point or whatever but these guys need practice like as crazy as it is like practice does matter

43:11they're pro uh NFL athletes that's a big one is like who's uh not practicing sitting out I will give you one like

43:17offthe-wall um uh I I didn't list this on the sheet uh but what do you think about there's some like rookies I think

43:26Mai Lemon's been sort of at least in like the rookie mini camp. Uh same deal with like Jordan Tyson. We're seeing

43:32some of these rookies and that's a big one too is cuz like Alec Pierce, he knows the offense. He has uh rapport

43:37with Daniel Jones. These guys are coming into a brand new spot and if you're not practicing uh it's a big deal. So I'm

43:42curious if any of these stick out. I think some of them are precautionary. Uh just guy like rookies that you want to

43:47see. Let's get on the field and practice sooner than later.

43:49>> Yeah, for sure. Yeah, those two are interesting to monitor. Uh for sure. Um, Mai Lemon did deal with the hamstring

43:54injury at I think it was like rookie mini camp, maybe the start of OTAAS and then he kind of just sat out mini camp

44:00and obviously we haven't seen him since as training camps get here. Um, and then Jordan Tyson, my understanding of the situation, this was all part of the plan

44:07when they drafted him. Obviously, he dealt with the hamstring issues late in his college career and so it wasn't a new setback or a brand new injury.

44:15Basically, it was just like, hey, this guy has dealt with a soft tissue injury for a very long time. Let's not mess

44:20this up before training camp. is my understanding of it. So, I think they've just been conservative with him uh versus trying to be aggressive and and

44:27ramp him up. So, we'll see how he does when we get to training camp, but it's a good thing to talk through in general.

44:32You will see a lot of players in the first roughly two weeks deal with soft tissue injuries. And it's because these

44:39guys, even though they're doing agility work and strength training, all those things in the offseason, it's just different when you get into into camp

44:45and get on a football field and you're doing things that you haven't been doing for months and you're doing it every

44:49single day back to back to back to back.

44:52Um, in the rehab world, we just call it acclamation injuries where you're just getting back into what you used to do

44:56and it takes some time. Your body's not ready. So, you tweak a hamstring and then guys don't want to let this linger

45:01into the season, so they'll set them out for a week and then they'll put them back out there and get them going again.

45:05So, all that to say is you will see hamstring injuries in the first week of camp, it's it's almost a guarantee. Uh,

45:10but for these two players specifically, yeah, my understanding on on Tyson was more precautionary. And then for Mai Lemon, kind of same deal, like let's not

45:17make this a bigger issue than it needs to be. We have plenty of time for week one. Let's not rush him.

45:23>> I like that call. It's just it's precautionary. Let's see what happens.

45:26The I think the rookies are kind of they're really the biggest talking points of the training camp. You know, we're going to see a catch. we're going

45:31to see somebody skyrocket uh for like a long run in a preseason game. Uh somebody I'll just kind of bounce around

45:37to is Sam Laora. Uh he's one that sticks out to me with the back surgery because I'll be honest like I I see a guy in his

45:4520s just kind of like call it quits mid-season and get a back surgery.

45:50I don't know. Whenever I hear like, you know, my mom is getting older now and I hear one of her friends had a back

45:55surgery or something like that, like those guys are out of commission, man.

45:57And like once you start getting a once you start opening up the back and doing stuff, uh, I start getting really scared

46:03about it, you know, like you you might not be the same. Now, of course, Laora has access to all the, uh,

46:08top-of-the-line health stuff. He's getting stuff from the top, but that was crazy. I can't remember. Maybe um, because it's so tough these injuries in

46:16season. That's why I can't name you the exact knee tear that Garrett Wilson has cuz everyone's getting hurt every week.

46:21We're trying to stay on top of it. Who's the handcuff? You got a roster. Uh so I don't remember Leaporta like having any

46:27issues before this. It just kind of seemed like out of nowhere like oh I'm just going to get back surgery here. Um

46:32and see you guys next year. So how did you kind of make you know terms of what even Leaporta decided to do and what

46:41that recovery looks like?

46:41>> Yeah, he came out uh in January. It was like locker cleanout day when the season was over and he was in the locker room,

46:47talked to reporters. They asked him about it and he said, "Yeah, you know, I dealt with uh a little bit of an issue

46:52in my back for a couple weeks leading up to the end of the season that he had."

46:55And then he he said he took a hit in the Commander game. I think it was week 10 off the top of my head and he was like,

46:59"From that point on, I just, you know, I thought it was going to be a couple weeks. I thought I'd be back." Uh, and

47:04it just wasn't getting better. And so he and the team decided to have what's called a microisctomy where they take out a little piece of a herniated disc

47:11that's either impinging on a nerve or causing repeated irritation and pain and essentially try to just kind of get this thing good to go for the next season

47:19which obviously is is now. So as far as what's going on with him, that's the procedure. His surgery happened in November. I have very very very little

47:27concern. He's ready to go week one.

47:28They've kind of slow played it for mini camp and uh OTAAS, but you know, you think about today's training camp, they're not hitting the way they used to

47:37be, you know, in the 90s and early 2000s. So, I'd be very surprised if Leaport is limited much, if at all, in

47:42training camp. I think they'll be fine.

47:43The only thing I'll say about this is that there's kind of a wide range of outcomes. Some patients that have this,

47:49they have the procedure, they're good to go, and you never hear about your back again until later in life. But like for

47:54our purposes, in the next handful years, Leaporta could be totally fine. We hear nothing about this. The other end of the

47:59spectrum is that just because you have this procedure where you take out that piece of the disc does not guarantee that he won't have future back

48:06recurrence issues. Um, and one guy that comes to mind when we talk about this ironically at tight end is Gronk.

48:12Remember Gronk had these kind of back issues >> off and on, but when he was on the field like dude was dominant. He had the same

48:18procedure as Laporta, ironically, also in November and the same year back the following year, his first season. I think he finishes like the tight end

48:25three or four or whatever it was. Like, he still was awesome. So, I'm not really worried about Leaporta this year necessarily, but I do think there's a

48:32chance this is the last not the last time we've ever heard about this with Leaporta.

48:38Yeah, and that's what gives me pause. It just seems like back issues are always reoccurring. It's why like I don't even

48:42mess around. Like, I won't even deadlift, man. Like, I know some guys are in the gym like trying to deadlift and stuff. But I think unless you're

48:47competing, man, just uh there's no need.

48:50Uh that's a a whole other uh conversation. I do want to bring up this Roma Dunes thing as we talk about things

48:56that are kind of lingering. He has a quote that everyone's kind of run with of new normal, which is frightening to

49:02hear. He has a foot injury and he's like, "Yeah, I think this is maybe just how it's always going to be." Uh which

49:08is pretty rough. Uh what's your take on what happened with Roman? It seems like he had an injury and then he played

49:14through it. Um, I don't know if any like official surgery happened from it. Seems like it's kind of just a rest thing. Uh,

49:20what were your thoughts when you said new normal uh, and kind of like the public perception of that?

49:25>> Yeah, those are always tricky because you don't want to read too much into a player's words when they don't have a

49:30lot of specific things that can describe what's going on, right? So, I don't want to like theor like make a theory about

49:37what it could or couldn't be. My understanding though is that this the injury that he had was a stress fracture in his foot. And the only healing, you

49:46know, modality for that, the only thing you can do is rest. You can't keep loading it. You got to let it heal. And

49:50if you come back too soon, then you risk further injury and a a bigger uh fracture. And so that's kind of why they

49:56had to shut him down for a handful of weeks there and then kind of slowly bring him back in the playoffs. And

50:00obviously, it didn't go great. And then he talks this offseason about, you know, this is my new normal. I've got to adapt

50:05to it. reading between the lines like my understanding is kind of maybe he was having conversations with the training staff and the medical staff of saying

50:12hey you know if you keep uh doing what you used to do this will be a problem in the future you have to adapt to either

50:20how you're training maybe putting something in the shoe like an orthotic or something like that to kind of help offload that area of the foot things of

50:27that nature. So when I saw the report that he said that I was like oh you know this this is probably a really bad bad

50:32thing. the more that I kind of think about it and dig through some of these uh little details, I think people are

50:37probably overreacting to some degree, not to say that we won't ever hear about this foot issue again in the future, but

50:43I think people saw that quote and they were like, "Not a chance. I'm never drafting him again. No, no way." And I

50:48think that'd be a little bit, you know, too uh too aggressive. So, for me, I'm not necessarily docking him a ton. I

50:54will say the fact that he's talking about what he has to do to stay on the field does make him one of those guys

50:59that I'm I'm monitoring pretty closely in camp.

51:03Yeah, I think that he'll be an interesting one if he's taking time away for like foot discomfort and just kind of keeping track uh of what's going on

51:10there. I I do want to bounce around some team situations here. We do have some teams that just it seems like everyone's

51:15coming back from injury. Uh I I want to start with the Buccaneers. Uh as we kind of talk about guys bouncing back,

51:21expectations for this year. Uh I don't want to put words in your mouth, but at least what I'm doing here is just kind

51:27of wiping it all clean. And there's like pictures coming around like Baker Mayfield's arm looking purple, Ibuka hamstring, Evans uh collarbone and all

51:34of his issues. Godwin off of the stuff we just talked about with Judkins and Scatabo. Uh their offensive line head injuries. Um I I do want to highlight

51:41because I think like the one guy that sticks out as a real injury here is Bucky Irving. Bucky Irving, it's a funny

51:47situation because I I assume week to week you're also looking at the injury is when this guy's going to return to

51:53play. And it felt like with Bucky it was like maybe a six week stretch where it's like he's coming. I'm telling you guys,

51:57he's coming. There's no like he's gonna he's gonna heal up and, you know, trade for Bucky Urban because in week eight,

52:02he's gonna play. And then week eight comes and uh Bucky is like nowhere to be found. He had a foot injury, a shoulder

52:08issue. There were also some like cryptic Instagram posts as well that's kind of outside the realm of the medical stuff, but uh where you at on Bucky Irving and

52:18then I I guess just where your optimism is at in terms of the health of the Buccaneers in 2026.

52:22>> Yeah, top down. I mean they were the one of the most injuryaffected teams in the league offensively. You mentioned Baker

52:27played through stuff. The offensive line was shuffling for most of the year.

52:30Obviously Bucky and then you had Mike Evans and Ibuka and Chris Gama was never himself and got reinjured in season. So

52:36like top down they're one of the most obvious I think bounceback candidates from an injury perspective that there is in the NFL. So I'm glad you brought that

52:43up. Um, on Bucky himself, the foot injury is pretty much a non-issue for me. That healed in season last year and

52:51he was able to come back at a later point than we wanted, but um, that was not what kept him out. In my

52:56understanding, it was the shoulder. Um, he had a partial dislocation of the shoulder and did have to have a procedure to help stabilize the the

53:05shoulder. So, those outcomes generally in generally speaking in football are favorable. They go in, they repair some of the tissue that helps keep that ball

53:13and socket joint in place. Generally, that's a pretty good outlook. Recovery is generally pretty straightforward. So, I'm not that worried about Bucky,

53:20honestly, entering this season. I think his injury situation is so unique because it was such a heavily publicized like, all right, four weeks he'll be

53:28back, and then all of a sudden it was six weeks, and then it was eight weeks, and then it was 10 weeks, and we're

53:31like, when the heck is this dude coming back? And then we learned there's some off the- field, you know, mental health

53:36type stuff. And who knows what degree and obviously we don't want to speculate there, but um yeah, the fact that he was

53:41out there in a very limited capacity late in OTAAS tells me he'll be ready for week one. I will say don't be

53:48surprised if you see him on the field in a non-cont jersey, at least in the first couple of weeks of training camp. With

53:54the labor room pair, they try to minimize hits and just, you know, avoid risk on the shoulder when it's not necessary. So don't be surprised if

54:01that's the case. But yeah, I think Buckyy's got a really good chance to be cleared for week one. I know Todd BS

54:05made everybody worry when he gave that, you know, he'll be ready in summer or fall. It was just like, a week later,

54:12he's at OTAA's practicing. So, it's like, okay. So, yeah, you don't want to read every headline and think it's it's fact. Uh there's some coach speak here,

54:18but in general, I think Bucky will be fine for this season and for week one.

54:22And um he's a really interesting player just because we know what he can do and now there's some some discounts in ADP

54:28because of the the injury fears.

54:31Yeah, he he is people don't like him. I uh did a bounceback candidate video Saturday, I think, and I listed Bucky

54:39Irving. Nobody nobody wants to buy back in. Uh I I do want to mention R.J.

54:44Harvey and kind of the Broncos in general. RJ Harvey, uh he also had the same or maybe not the same, but

54:49something with the shoulder labum. Uh and it seems like me included, we've all just kind of swept it under the rug. You

54:54know, the the surgery happened a while ago. It's no big deal. Uh, I guess my question is, is it actually no big deal?

55:00And then of course you have the Bon Knicks ankle injury in the playoffs. You have JK Dobbins uh dealing with injuries

55:07as always. Uh, how are you viewing RJ Harvey and then kind of the other pieces on this offense?

55:11>> Yeah, the Harvey injury happened in the playoffs. So, obviously he'll have a later surgery date when he comes back off that lab repair. I'm treating him

55:19almost the same as Bucky Irving if I'm being honest, just because uh Buckyy's surgery didn't happen until late January/ early February. I couldn't

55:27track down the exact date, but that's when Buckies was and R.J. Harvey's was right around the same timeline. And so, just like uh Bucky, I think there's a

55:35good chance he'll play week one. I think like uh Bucky, there is a very good chance he's at a non-cont jersey at some

55:42point in training camp and then eventually he'll shed that and he'll be good to go for the season. Um so, yeah,

55:46I'm not that worried about RJ Harvey from that injury perspective. on JK Dobbins coming off the Liz Frank. Um I know there was some discussion like,

55:54"Oh, he could play in the Super Bowl if they make it there." Yeah, but what is that, right? Like is that like three

55:59carries, you know, that kind of thing?

56:00Like people saw that and were like, "Oh, he's fine." And it's like, "Well, no, not not yet. It's going to take some

56:04time for him." Um I do think he is one of those guys that >> will probably be less efficient this year off of the Liz Frank procedure.

56:12Generally speaking, we see a dip in the efficiency for these running backs. Um the tricky thing is that he does have a

56:19lot of time. You know, this is an injury that happened um in November is when he had his surgery. So if you're thinking

56:24about, okay, this is kind of one of those injuries where it'll take about 10 months, sometimes up to a year depending

56:31on the severity of this injury. It'll take some time, but he's had the full off seasonason. He'll have training camp. He'll have the early part of the

56:37season. So I think Dobbins, and you never want to say this, but assuming health otherwise will be able to get back to his efficiency. But like the

56:45other running backs we talked about in this show, the early part of the season is where I would expect to see

56:49potentially a dip in that efficiency.

56:52>> Yeah, that makes sense. Dobbins, it's just been such a tough road for him with the ACL, the Achilles, now Liz Frank. Uh

56:59I will say he has continued to kind of beat the odds in terms of returning and then being efficient. Like 5.1 yards per

57:05carry last year, 46 the one before that.

57:08Um of course though, six yards per carry when he was a rookie uh with a clean slate where he's always been good. It

57:13was just a matter of staying healthy. Um I I did want to pick your brain on uh Bon Knicks. What's the difference

57:18between Bon Knick's ankle injury versus Scott and Judkins there? Because it seems like his is much less of a of a

57:24big deal.

57:24>> Yeah, the other two had a a dislocation to go along with the fracture. My understanding on Bo Knicks is that just

57:30this dates back to an issue that he had in college and the team was aware of it when they drafted him and he's kind of

57:34had this lingering ankle issue off and on for years and then finally kind of had that last insult to injury there and

57:40ended having the surgery. Uh but by no means it the same degree as the other guys. So yeah, I'm not worried about Bon

57:46Knicks um whatsoever for the totality of the season. You may see a little bit of a dip in the rushing early on, but for

57:53the most part, Nicks will be able to function in the offense the way that he always does. I have two more situations

57:57I want to break down. We have the uh well, I guess we'll kind of bunch them together. Tank Dell and Tyreek Hill. Uh

58:03dislocated knee, of course. Tyreek Hill, much older. Uh honestly, I don't really even care to talk much about Tyreek Hill. I'm I'll see what you say about

58:12it, but I would be shocked if he does anything uh anytime soon. But Tangel is the one. That one was so heartbreaking.

58:19Uh they have him in like blocking uh on a goal line play and his knee just gets completely lost in the shuffle. Uh but

58:27he was such a promising player as a rookie. One of the best like point- per game rookie seasons uh that you can kind

58:34of look at in the modern era. He was over like 15 plus points per game.

58:38Second season was pretty shaky. wasn't great. Uh it was like him, Diggs, and Nico Collins, and it was just kind of

58:44the CJ Strad slump here. And then you hate to see Tank Del to go out the way he did. Didn't play all of last year. Uh

58:51but I when we talk about clips, it's not training camp clips. We're seeing clips come in. Uh I'm I'm sure you're for you

58:58algorithm on Twitter just like feeds you these guys of like, oh, this guy's this guy's don't good at basketball. This guy's out of his cast or whatever. Um so

59:06I'm going to assume you saw the Tank Dell videos. Uh if you did, let me know, I guess, like what you saw, like what

59:12you can really take away from a guy running against air or doing routes like that. But it seemed positive.

59:17>> Definitely is positive, which is really fun. The question for me on that is what does that really mean for us in our game

59:24for fantasy? You know, he came off of a major major injury, like one that sometimes ruins players careers. Um the degree of his knee injury was not just

59:34normal multi- ligament, like he dislocated his knee. And so when you have that happen, you essentially are dealing with damage to all, not all,

59:43most of the ligaments around the knee, the cartilage inside the knee. You know, there's this structure called the capsule around the knee. Like everything

59:49is recovering. And so that's why I didn't play a single snap last year. And generally speaking, players off of this specific insane type of uh of injury,

60:00it's taking multiple years to get back to being anything close to what they used to be. I think for the Texans and

60:05for Tank Dell, like it's a win if he can be a rotational piece of the offense.

60:09Like, you know, I would love to be wrong about that. I really hope I am. Uh because as a rookie, he was so fun. He

60:15was electric.

60:16>> I don't know that we're ever getting that back at least in the next couple years. Um so, probably for me, like best

60:22case in fantasy is like maybe he can be the wide receiver three to four and rotate in for some snaps and give him a

60:28couple weeks here and there. I don't know that he's going to be one of those guys like in managed leagues where

60:32you're like, "Oh, like he's on the waver wire and I can plug him in as a wide receiver, too." I'd be very very

60:37surprised by that. So, yeah. I mean, I would love to be wrong, but it's it's a very serious injury.

60:43>> Yeah, you're really just hoping for in best baseball he's out there in four wide receiver sets and catches like four

60:49touchdowns. I think that that would be like a big win. You know, when we talk about Denell, uh it just sucks. It just

60:54sucks. There was so much optimism. Uh, I do want to bring up our last team situation here as the Jaguars. Um, I

61:02really bring them up for two reasons.

61:03One being Chris Rodriguez where uh, at first it was like two vers Rodriguez and then uh, they're kind of cryptic about

61:10like what his injury actually is and then one of the I think it maybe was Shipley. He does really good work for

61:16the Jaguars. Somebody reported like, "All right, he has a real foot injury.

61:20He's not doing anything. Like Tutin's kind of running away with his job here."

61:23Uh, and then I guess like a little bit uh more of for selfish reasons of do you buy that Brian Thomas had a wrist injury

61:31that actually screwed up his year last year? Uh, and then what's our outlook for Travis Hunter, which you know the Travis Hunter playing offense debates

61:39like a whole other thing, but I guess like just him being effective as a corner receiver. Uh, he didn't tear his

61:46ACL, but it was it was a weird one where it was like they he did it on his bye-week, which me, right? like he has

61:51the monster game against the Rams. He's proved everybody wrong that he can play receiver and I'm sure you know someone's going to comment, oh well he did it in

61:57garbage time or whatever. Like he looked awesome. Bye-bye was going to happen. He was going to play full-time receiver. Uh and the whole thing just derailed. So

62:04you know Chris Rodriguez first and foremost is like the actual important one. Like I think him vers two is going to be one of the uh not storylines of

62:10the season, but I think honestly like one of the keys to winning leagues this year. Uh and then you can kind of talk

62:15about the receiver. Yeah, that's such a fun fun backfield to look at because on one hand it's like dude Tutin is was

62:21staring us in the face obviously underpriced as a year two guy competing with Chris Rodriguez. Are you kidding me? Why are you not drafting that guy?

62:27Then there's this other world where it's like oh like Cohen actually does love Chris Rodriguez and it's a full-time share and Tuton just wasn't that good.

62:33Um I lean on the former side of that like I'm I'm in on Tuton just for the upside case. But yeah, looking at Chris

62:39Rodriguez, I don't know the specifics of the foot surgery that he had because there, you know, it's the time of the

62:44year where they don't have to actually give you the details and it happened away from like, you know, in training camp, people didn't see him go down.

62:51They didn't see him go down in an actual NFL game. So, there wasn't a reporting on like the actual injury, but yeah,

62:55he's done nothing this offseason because it was an early offseason foot injury that ended up having to have a procedure. So, I think there's a really

63:02good chance when we get into training camp for the first couple weeks like it's going to be Toutin running with the

63:07ones or at least getting the vast majority of the reps with the ones because of the foot injury to Chris Rodriguez. So, not to say that that will

63:14always be the case, but I do think Toutin has a leg up just because he's been the one out there and it will take

63:18some time for Chris Rodriguez to get back to being, you know, what he was before the injury or at least healthy

63:24enough to kind of steal some touches away.

63:28>> Yeah, that makes sense. And then I'll uh push it over to the receivers there of uh Brian Thomas.

63:34>> Like I said, there was like wrist, but then I I remember there was like some other stuff that it just seemed like he

63:39was picking up all these bumps and bruises. Uh and then the Travis Hunter knee injury. I guess you you know, we

63:45don't have to speculate on like how many routes Travis Hunter is going to run, but I guess first and foremost, like

63:48Brian Thomas, I don't know. I I want to believe that he just wasn't right last year and it's why he kind of had that

63:54big sophomore slump. But there's also a chance that he was just used in a different way, more downfield and he's not this he was also like shying away

64:01from contact at points. Maybe that could point to an injury him not being himself. Uh so how are you making sense

64:06of the Brian Thomas stuff is what I'll say.

64:08>> Yeah. The the tricky thing on the wrist injury is that there was never really actually reporting on that and there was

64:12no, you know, consistency with it. It was just like Liam Cohen at a press conference was like, "Ah, you're dealing with the wrist thing." I was like,

64:18"Wait, what?" So, I I truthfully don't know on that. Um, it is worth pointing out though, Brian Thomas did have a high

64:24ankle sprain in week nine last year in the Raiders game. Yep.

64:27>> He ended up missing weeks 10 through 12 and then was kind of eased back in for week 13. So, generally speaking, these

64:34guys that kind of have that short recovery somewhere in the 3 to four week window. I did I did a study on this a

64:41couple years ago. They tend to underperform as the year goes on versus the players who for us in fantasy we hate because we want them available. But

64:48if you're sitting out for 6 weeks, you actually can feel pretty good that when that player comes back, he is 100% and

64:53he is good to go. There's been studies that kind of show like the longer you sit out for high ankle sprain, the

64:58better in your your production when you come back. So Brian Thomas, hard to say because he was disappointed before that, but then when he came back, he was

65:05certainly disappointing again. So, all that to say is, you know, he talked about uh it doesn't hurt to run anymore.

65:10I attribute that to coming off that high ankle sprain, which for players that have this kind of down the field type

65:16role, you know, it really hurts like when you land on that ankle after that ankle sprain, it really hurts. So, I

65:22believe him when he says that, all vibes have been good so far. We'll see if that continues, but yeah, he was dealing with

65:27that last year. And then on Travis Hunter, he had an LCL injury, so the ligament on the outside of the knee that

65:32needed season ending surgery. that recovery because it's an isolated injury is generally pretty good, pretty straightforward. So, I have zero concerns on Travis Hunter's health

65:41entering training camp or week one.

65:44>> All right, that's exciting. And then, uh, as we're getting out here, we're, you know, kind of signing off here. Uh,

65:50we put you on the spot a little bit of you kind of mentioned the idea that you you wait for the guy that tears ACL, you

65:56say, "All right, everyone else kind of draft this guy and then we'll we'll hop back on the next year." Uh, who sticks

66:00out this year as a guy that maybe like wasn't that great off an injury? Uh, and now you're like fully in on you think,

66:06okay, now it's like, all right, two years off the injury, he's gonna be fully healthy, even if it was like an

66:09injury in 2023, um, of a guy that you think can bounce back to, you know, not even have to be like an injury-prone

66:15player, but somebody you think bounces back in a big way this year.

66:18>> Yeah, I I don't know if this totally qualifies in this aspect of things, but I'm going to go with Brock Bowers. Um,

66:26he dealt with the injury in season last year. He did come back at some point, uh, but there was a lot of frustration

66:32because he was, you know, limited routes, not healthy, playing with the knee brace, all those things. Um, so he is a guy that I think will enter the

66:40year fully healthy and be ready to go.

66:42It's not a discount, like you're not getting a discount on Brock Bowers, obviously, but I think there is definitely a world where he like laps,

66:48you know, the first couple tight ends in scoring this year. Obviously, he's just that good and I think he'll remind us of

66:53that now that he's fully healthy. So, he's a guy I'm definitely buying off of an injured uh injury plague 2025.

67:00He's uh in the same video with Bucky of guys I think he'll bounce back. So I'm all in on Brock Bowers as well. Uh and

67:06that's another one of those injuries I was going to pick your brain on, but I think that that's kind of I I put it out

67:10on the Discord like if you have any questions for Matthew, let me know. Uh one of the ones was kind of the PCL

67:15injuries of it felt like Pawol, Bowers, and London. And we talked about the ankle injuries where we all know ACL, we

67:20all know Achilles, but it's like oh PCL like he's fine. He comes back and plays.

67:24And those guys all had their 2025s like snatched, you know, where uh I think London was at like 19 points per game.

67:31He gets the PCL and it kind of just derails his season. So that's one of those ones, right? Like where I I feel

67:36like maybe five years ago was like, "Oh, you hear high ankle sprain." Like that's not just an ankle sprain. They're going

67:39to be out four weeks. When you hear PCL, when you hear uh tibia, fibia, like these are these are real real deal

67:46injuries. So um I appreciate you touching on that. appreciate you coming on the channel, giving us some time here, giving me some injury insights

67:52heading into training camp. Uh let people know where they can find you, what work you have going on. I'll make sure to link your article. You have kind

67:58of a uh preview for all of the teams heading into training camp. A lot of injury analysis in there as well. Uh but

68:04let everyone know where they can find you uh this summer, this reddraft season.

68:08>> Yeah, for sure, man. I appreciate you having me on, Ron. This was great. Um yeah, all my work is with the Pennies

68:12Footballers. So, if you have the ultimate draft kit, I have a full injury uh report section in there that kind of

68:17details each of these guys has their surgical date, my expectations, what to what to expect from a recovery standpoint. All that's in there. Um but

68:23then otherwise as the content side, uh some articles, and then hosting the DFS and betting podcast, we still go all offseason because we do a bunch of best

68:31ball and betting content and then in season it's weekly DFS. And then I also host uh with Kyle and one of the ballers

68:38the Dynasty podcast as well. and that goes once a week throughout the season as well.

68:44>> Love to hear it. I'll make sure uh I'll have Matthew's links all in the description in the comment section down

68:48below. I appreciate everyone that checked out this video and watched. As always, leave a like, subscribe if you're new, and I will see you guys in

68:55the next one.

69:03Oh yeah.

69:07Stones like this froze ice.

69:13I surround my body.

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