0:00Good morning, friends and enemies. We all know early picks in fantasy football, they're fun. They're a good time. By the time I get to like the
0:08fifth or sixth round, I don't want any of the players. They all stink. But the first five rounds, very, very fun.
0:13Unfortunately, if you brick on one of the first five picks in your draft, uh, you're playing catchup the whole year and unfortunately, you are mustered.
0:21We'll put it that way. That one just came off the dome there. Not great. Not a great way to start the video. You get
0:25what I'm saying, though? Those early picks are very, very, very important to hit because the opportunity cost is great. If you miss on one of your first
0:33two, three, four picks, you have to understand that your league mates in those slots that don't miss have players that are putting up 15, 17, 21 points
0:42per game. And there's just no chance that if your guys putting up eight points, nine points, 10 points, you're never catching up. Unfortunately, last
0:48year, a lot of the guys on the list that I'm going to be talking about today are those dudes that bricked for you.
0:54However, I think they have the strongest cases to bounce back in a major way this year. So, they may have scarred you.
1:00That is the game of fantasy football.
1:02You pick good players, they have bad years. You want to push them off forever. We're going to dive deep into six of last year's bricked picks that I
1:11think have the best chance of bouncing back. So, draft them with confidence in 2026. The first player on this list is
1:18Saquon Barkley, running back for Philadelphia 2024. ran for over 2,000 yards last year. Had trouble running for 20 yards. All right, it was a disaster
1:28of a 2025 for those of you that drafted Saquon early in the first round and he's one of the more obvious bounceback picks
1:34for this season. He's being drafted accordingly at the the one-two turn, which I think is super appropriately priced and I would be happy to get him
1:41there. Happy to get him as my RB1. I think there are a million things going in his favor this year. First of all,
1:46unlike going into 2025, he is not coming off of that massive workload, the massive touch count that wore down his body. He didn't go through the full
1:56playoff spectrum, you know, from wild card weekend down to the Super Bowl where he was still getting touches on touches on touches and didn't have any
2:04real rest to get into the following season. So, that's change number one.
2:08I'm not someone who like fully buys into the narrative like, "Oh, you got a million touches, no way you can be good
2:12again the next year." But again, we're making positive cases for this guy. That is one of them. But number one, the most
2:19important change to this Philadelphia offense is Kevin Patulo, their offensive coordinator, their play caller from last year being gone. Shawn Manion is coming
2:26in. And I, you know, at this point of the year, I try to stay super dialed in on the most reputable beat reporters out
2:33of each camp and try to see what they're saying. And there's going to be a lot of like, oh, he made a great play here.
2:38Look at this guy's in the best shape of his life. But I do think it's important to narrow down what are the two or three
2:44biggest installments of an offense in the upcoming year. Like what are the biggest changes that are being made to an offensive system and how that
2:51dictates how a player outlook could be different this year than it was last year. So we could read through this entire thing. You guys can pause and
2:57read through it if you want to. Shawn Manion's coming in as the play caller as the offensive coordinator. Very very Kyle Shanahan Shawn McVey influenced.
3:05There is a ton of under center, pre- snap motion, playa action, bootlegs, a greater emphasis on wide zone running.
3:12This is important because you now confuse the defense when you are using all of this pre- snap stuff. When you are moving left, moving right, faking
3:21handoffs and not going specifically out of the shotgun, which Jaylen Herz did all the time. It confuses the defense.
3:27The wide zone run scheme, if you look at the splits last year, the wide zone run scheme is under center. They are
3:33implementing a more underenter offense.
3:35Saquon Barkley last year under center 4.9 yards per carry. Saquon Barkley last year from the shotgun and from pistol snaps 3.5 yards per carry. Saquon's been
3:44on record talking about how he loves running under center because he gets to see the entire offensive line. He gets to see the play develop and pick his
3:52spots. So, I think the change to the offense is going to be massive. I think AJ Brown being gone obviously makes the
3:59offense a little bit less dangerous and probably a little bit less explosive, but I do think getting the toxicity out of the locker room will eventually be a
4:06good thing over the long run. Uh the defense for Philly is unbelievable. If you look at their depth chart, it is
4:11just names upon names upon playmakers upon playmakers upon studs that are young and entering their the defense is going to be unreal. They're obviously
4:18going to be an incredibly run first offense. And I also think last year, and this could definitely be more of a
4:23Jaylen Herz stat, one that gets him back from, you know, 78 touchdowns rushing to 12, 15, whatever. But we saw a pretty
4:31significant efficiency decline in their goal line carries in the tush push. And Dallas got scored like five or six touchdowns near the goal line, inside
4:39the 5yd line on those shuffle passes, which is obviously not going to be repeatable. And those touchdowns likely either go to Jaylen Herz or Saquon
4:46Barkley. And I also think, you know, number one is Kevin Matulo. Number two is offensive line injuries last year absolutely killed them and they have all
4:53five starters healthy going into training camp projected to be one of the best units in the NFL. So overall I I
5:00think Saquon had a down year last year.
5:03I think clearly his career has not been linear. It's not like I'm great. I'm getting better and better and better and
5:08better and better. It's just a matter of what's going on around him that allows him to elevate his game or not. And I
5:14think you're in a perfect situation for Saquon to get back to the Saquon that we know. and we love and should be a valid
5:20first round pick. Next player up, we've got Brock Bowers, tight end out of Las Vegas. And I have no problem with people
5:28kind of spewing this uh this popular take that's been going around the fantasy community all summer in that they think Brock Bowers could lead the
5:35NFL uh in targets and target share. It makes a ton of sense when you just look at it on paper. You have Clint Kubak who
5:42was the offensive coordinator in Seattle coming over to Las Vegas. He is now the head coach. And we saw what he just did
5:47with JSN. We saw the target share was one of the highest target shares in the history of the NFL for an individual
5:52player. And I think when you look at the makeup of the offense, obviously Seattle's roster was so much better. But when you look at the personnel on
5:59offense, JSN had very little if any target competition. Brock Bowers, same thing, man. Genti is going to get a lot of touches out of that backfield. But
6:07wide receiver depth on Las Vegas is there's nothing there besides Brock Bowers. It is they signed Jaylen Naylor from Minnesota. Uh it's Jack Bes. It's
6:16Trey Tucker. It's like there is nothing going on there outside of Brock.
6:19Obviously, Brock had the massive uh rookie year, most receptions all time by a rookie, not just a tight end. Week one
6:27last year, big game right out the gate, over 100 receiving yards, then has the PCL sprain that obviously derails his season, but we saw in glimpses when he
6:34was back on the field, the three touchdown game, like he is one of the higher ceiling fantasy tight ends that we've seen all time. They also just
6:41drafted Fernando Mendoza, number one overall. And I know people aren't like overly excited about Fernando Mendoza, but like even if he's a competent
6:49quarterback, which I think most people are not good at quarterback evaluations, there's a chance that he is just very, very good as well. He's a top, you know,
6:5614, 12, 10, eight quarterback in the NFL. Regardless, you have a massive quarterback upgrade. The offensive line gets Colton Miller back, who's their
7:04best tackle. They sign Tyler Linderbomb.
7:06They get Jackson Powers Johnson back.
7:08Him and Colton Miller both missed a significant amount of time last year.
7:11So, I don't think this is going to be like a plus+ offensive line by any means, but they won't be the disaster
7:15that they were last year where Gino Smith had zero time to ever throw the ball. So, I think the quarterbacks will
7:19be in a better situation. Kurt Cousins will very likely start the year in week one as the starter, but that dude, his
7:26arm is dehydrated at this point, so he won't last very long. I think you'll see that right away. He can't really make
7:31downfield throws. He can't really put any zip on his balls anymore. But if you look back to last year, like the one
7:37dude that benefited from Kirk Cousins coming in, especially down the stretch, was Kyle Pitts. Kurt Cousins always used his tight end super heavily. Washington
7:44days, Minnesota days, Atlanta days. Kyle Pitts put up [ __ ] 45 points in the fantasy playoffs last year. So, no doubt
7:50that whoever's under center is going to be an upgrade for the tight end position, but more importantly, just an upgrade in throwing the ball. They get
7:57Tennessee and Arizona in weeks 16 and 17, your fantasy playoffs, which is phenomenal. Overall, Brock is just awesome. There's no debate on that. The
8:05scheme is going to be awesome with Clint Kubi. I can't like emphasize enough how big of a difference that's obviously going to make. Uh it's going to run
8:12through Brock. I think they're still probably likely a year away from like seeing this thing through and like competing for a playoff spot. But I I
8:20think the offensive scheme upgrade, the quarterback upgrade, getting the offensive line back healthy, plus adding, you know, some depth up the
8:25middle with Tyler Linderbomb, uh the the the drastic difference between having just the worst interior play to to uh that actually being like an asset for
8:34them is going to be a world of difference for everybody involved in this offense and Brock Bowers is just like it's it's Brock Bowers as a pass
8:41catcher in terms of talent and then everybody else in the Las Vegas Raiders is YouTube would have to go into uh
8:46vertical format for you to see where my hand would go down there uh in terms of talent. So, honestly, the onetwo turn if
8:52you went like Saquon Brock Bowers would not be mad at you at all. Moving to player number three and uh just a quick
8:59reminder uh within our draft guide within the rankings, we have a bunch of tags that are labeled. So, if you want
9:06to see all the bounceback players that I think are eligible this year, we also have our mustdraft players, our sleepers, our breakouts, the best value
9:12picks, bounceback, high floor players, players to avoid, injured players with up-to-date injury information, uh risky players, boom bus, all that kind of
9:19stuff. They are tagged in the rankings for you to just easily consume, all part of the draft guide, which is available
9:25right now on bdgeg.co.
9:28It's everything you need for your fantasy football drafts. We actually have the uh draft assistant draft sync live right now for those of y'all in
9:36sleeper leagues and ESPN leagues. Yahoo leagues being added quickly. And what that does is basically sync your league up. You just, you know, attach it to our
9:43website bdge.co. And when you are drafting, it will automatically take players off the rankings for you as they are taken. You can compare players in
9:50real time. You can see their Vegas lines. You can see their schedules. You can see their offensive line rank.
9:55Trying to make that decision for who to draft as easy as possible when you are on the clock. It'll also populate the
10:00ADP of the platform you're using. And you'll be able to see right there which guys I have significantly higher or lower based on the ADP of your platform.
10:07So it helps you kind of like strategize like, all right, I'm on ESPN and this guy is like a huge value. I can wait on
10:12him, etc. So again, available on bdge.co. Cheapest way to get it is by going to our partner website, MGM. Link will be down below. If you're a new
10:20user, deposit $10 or more with code BDGE. New user, new user, new user. When you do so, play any slip on there and
10:27they're going to hit you with a promo code to give you three months free of the fantasy membership on our website.
10:34MGM new users code BDGE $10 slip. That is it. Moving to player number three, we've got Jaden Daniels, the Washington quarterback. Obviously, last year was a
10:43disaster. Cliff Kingsbury stinks. Jaden Daniels just had a million injuries. All right, but we are a year removed from Jaden Daniels's offensive rookie of the
10:52year explosion. All right. He came in and took the league by storm. He had a nearly 4500 yard, 31 total touchdown
11:00season. Almost ran for 900 yards and he led a scoring offense that was top five.
11:06And he did this with a receiving group at the time that was pretty much just as poor as it is going into this year. And
11:11I think that would be my biggest pullback is like I'm a little bit nervous about the the weapons in this group for sure. But again, he did this
11:17pretty much with the same group that he did back then. I just think Jaden Daniels is a superstar. I am also
11:24extremely optimistic about David Blau coming in as their offensive coordinator. Like I I've never really been a fan of Cliff Kingsbury. I don't
11:30think he's creative. I think his scheme works in year one and then you see it deteriorate. It feels like he never
11:34progresses his scheme. It feels like he does not use his players in any sort of like creative way. Similar to how I
11:40mentioned for Saquon, a lot of David Blau's change, which I I try to tap into the beat reporters and see what their
11:46biggest like takeaways of okay, what is being installed in the offense? what are like the two three principles that are really really being keyed in on by the
11:54offensive coordinators and the head coaches. They're going to be moving Jayen Daniels under center all the time.
11:58They're going to be letting him thrive in play action rollouts, bootlegs, which I think complements his skill set significantly more. And listen, I know
12:05there's going to be a lot of offense coordinators that are like hyped up for sure. There's a lot of those openings
12:10every year. Uh, and not everyone's going to be the next Ben Johnson or Liam Cohen, but I will say Blau's one of
12:16those dudes. The more I listen to him, the more I hear him talk, I feel more and more comfortable with him being one
12:22of the higher possibility dudes of landing into that category of of one of the next better-minded offensive coaches. With the weapons group as well,
12:30I I think Washington has been, you know, and we're getting into August now, so like eventually we got to see something
12:36happen here. I think there's a very good chance that Stefon Diggs signs with Washington. And at as their number two, I kind of like that. And now all of a
12:43sudden, you have Terry McLaren as the one. You got Stefon Diggs as the two.
12:46You got Antonio Williams, the exciting slot receiver. You got Chiggy at tight end. You know, before you know it, you can talk yourself into it. Like you can
12:54squint a little bit and see like not a bad weapons group. And I also think given the weapons group, they're they're
12:58very likely going to lean much heavier into the two tight end set craze that's happening in the NFL. And this defense,
13:03while you know, kind of improved, they add some pieces in the draft, etc. I think they're still going to be pretty
13:08bad and that will require the offense to score a lot. So, I think anytime you can grab a guy that can rush for a thousand
13:14yards at QB, and this is not a Justin Fields type player because Jaden Daniels, I mean, the arm is explosive.
13:19He's very accurate downfield, he's a much more accurate passer than Justin Fields is. So, it's like taking the rushing upside of a Justin Fields, but
13:26pairing it with a dude who can throw for 25 passing touchdowns and can throw for 3,800 yards. So, I just think the upside
13:33and the floor of of of a dude with this sort of rushing capability is like a no-brainer in the fifth or sixth round
13:39or wherever he's going. Moving to player number four, we've got Lad McConn, the wide receiver of the Los Angeles Chargers. I just think getting Mike
13:47McDaniel over as the offensive coordinator is going to be so awesome for Lad. And the more I listen to interviews of people that are at
13:54training camp kind of watching what the Chargers are doing. One of the big key points of Mike McDaniels making sure that Justin Herbert gets the ball out of
14:00his hands very very quickly. They don't want him taking shots from defensive players. They want the ball out in 2.4.
14:06This is the number I keep hearing from people at camp. 2.4 seconds or less. Get the ball out. So I think the dudes in
14:13Los Angeles are going to get a ton of these quick hitting line of scrimmage type plays. So like PPR scams and then
14:22go make plays after the fact. Similar to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Jaylen Wadd was like get the ball in their hands quickly
14:28and and let them make plays. That first cut, that first break, you kind of have a system set up where like that is when
14:33you hit him. It's timing, it's anticipation, it's do it. We all know Lad had a, you know, a phenomenal rookie year and I wanted to look at like the
14:40offensive system that's coming in for Mike McDaniel in terms of what's happening before the snap because I do think things like pre- snap motion and
14:47that sort of utilization opens up so much easy separation and so much just like layup cheap free PPR production. I went back last year and lad Maconi was
14:58put in motion on 8.2% of his plays. That was 68th among wide receivers last year as a team. The Los Angeles Chargers
15:06ranked 26th in overall pre- snap motion rate. Mike McDaniel's offenses obviously, if you watched Miami, they are moving around before the snap on
15:15basically every play. Over the last four seasons, which were his four seasons as the head coach in Miami, they have ranked first, first, second, and fourth
15:23in pre- snap motion rate. Last year, before getting hurt, Tyreek Hill ranked 11th in pre- snap motion rate overall among all qualified wide receivers. I
15:31think it's great for both Lad and Quint Johnson. Like, stop asking Quint Johnson to be an ex- receiver. Stop asking him
15:36to win downfield like DeAndre Hopkins or Mike Williams. That's not the sort of player he is, but he's an explosive athlete. Get him the ball in his hands
15:42around the line of scrimmage. Let him make plays. I think Vlad Makanki could be a phenomenal Yak guy as well. He's
15:48quick. He's shifty. To me, it's a match made in heaven. And that all goes to say like the offensive line of course is
15:54much healthier. They're going to be a much more high-powered, structured offense that's able to move the ball and move the chains. And Keenan Allen no
16:02longer there. He led the team in targets. He led the Los Angeles Chargers in targets last year. So your biggest your biggest target op is now gone. Huge
16:10bounceback for Vladimi this year. So that was a bunch of young players in a row. But you know what? I'm old. I have
16:16appreciation for the out there, which is why I love me some Mike Evans for the first time in his Hall of Fame career.
16:22Will not be playing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Signs with the San Francisco 49ers. Three years, $42 million. And uh I think they have every every bit of a
16:32plan to use him as their number one wide receiver. He's considered a bounceback obviously cuz last year was the first year in which he finished with under
16:391,000 receiving yards. He finished with under 400 receiving yards. Plagued by hamstring injuries, broke his collar bone. And I will say there's obviously
16:46risk with Mike Evans. He is old, 33 years old this season. You have three straight seasons now in which he's dealt
16:52with hamstring injuries. He missed three games last year because of it. Missed three games in 2024. didn't actually miss any time in 2023. So maybe we don't
17:00want to hold that against him. But as you get older and you start piling up these injuries, especially the hamstring injuries, it does get a little bit
17:06worrisome. That being said, and I will say I wrote this up prior to the Ricky Paw injury. If you had any doubt of who
17:13was going to be the wide receiver one now, it is guaranteed and assuredly so going to be Mike Evans. I loved him at
17:19his price prior to the Ricky P injury.
17:22Now, he's going to be shooting up draft boards, but if you're not really paying attention to training camp news right now, Ricky Pierce uh aggravated the PCL
17:28sprain that kept him out a lot of last year and has been placed on season ending IR. So, Ricky P will not be seen
17:34on an NFL football field until 2027. You also have George KD coming back from an Achilles tear that happened in January.
17:42All right, he's another one very old coming back from a very serious injury.
17:46This offense though is always going to be great cuz Kyle Shanahan runs it. The scheme is great. So, it's almost just
17:51like cogs in there, man. It doesn't really matter who's on the field. And right now, Mike Evans is like the only
17:56sure thing to be on on the field. They brought in Christian Kirk on like a one-year, $6 million deal. They have
18:01Deson Stribbling, who is their early second round rookie who's getting a lot of steam, a lot of hype, and he's obviously going to shoot up the depth
18:08chart with the injury to uh Ricky Pier, and I think, you know, rightfully so, but we have no idea what he's going to
18:13do as a rookie. He'll obviously take some targets and I'm sure he'll operate over the middle of the field and be a
18:17decent PPR play, but you know, Mike Evans's target share is going to be extremely high in this offense. Brock Pury perennially underrated. Every year
18:26he goes in and Vegas has his lines among some of the strongest passing lines for quarterbacks. Very high in passing yards, very high in passing touchdowns.
18:35His passing touchdown rate is always really, really high amongst the league leaders because they're so efficient in the red zone. are so efficient inside
18:42the 10 yard line. And that's like what Mike Evans was put on planet Earth to do was to dominate in the red zone. So, I
18:49could see a world where Mike Evans easily hits double-digit touchdowns and and might even like fight for the the league lead in in receiving touchdowns
18:57this year. Also, totally forgot to mention Debo Samuel signed back with the San Francisco 49ers. So, I think he will be a legitimate weapon. I think I'm
19:03actually like sort of intrigued by Debo Samuel here. uh not not like not seriously, but I do think he'll probably be uh a little bit more used than most
19:12people will probably give him credit for. You know, when when things go south between a team and a player, it's not
19:16always like, "Oh, we think he's terrible," or, "Oh, we don't like him anymore." Sometimes the numbers just don't make sense. Like Debo got paid, I
19:22think it was like $18 million that year uh in Washington. And maybe they just didn't have the cap to give that to a
19:27dude that they thought was on the decline. But now that he's back for a much cheaper price, like he knows the
19:31system really well, you could plug him in right away and he'll probably be a better receiver than Christian Kirk right away. But regardless, Debo, I
19:37don't think eats into Mike Evans whatsoever. They are two completely different players on the field. Don't overlap in any spectrum of earth. So,
19:44Mike Evans I have moved so far up my rankings right now. I think I have Mike Evans. Let me check the draft rankings
19:50right now, which again available on bdge.co.
19:54He is my wide receiver 15. That is 14 spots ahead of what Yahoo has him at, which is wide receiver 29. that is 16
20:03spots ahead of ESPN ADP, which is, you know, just a [ __ ] travesty. And even on underdog, he's wide receiver 24,
20:10which is a lot sharper, but I'm still nine spots ahead. I think most people are going to catch up to me rather than
20:15me going backwards to try to catch up to them, but I am very high on Mike Evans.
20:20You're able to get him in the fourth, fifth round right now. We'll see how long that lasts, but I mean, you get him
20:24as your three, like the number one target in a Kyle Shanahan offense. Like, come on now. And then the last player on
20:29this list is someone that I have spoken very not highly of. Very not highly andor lowly the last few years. That
20:36would be Kyler Murray. Going to be the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings here. It can't get much worse uh for for Kyler than what we saw last year
20:43in Arizona. Yet you get benched for Jacobe Brassette, but very willing to bet on a fantasy bounceback for him in in Kevin Oonnell's offense in Minnesota
20:51with the weapons group that he has. I'm trying not to let the recency bias of what happened last year really like
20:56cloud our judgment of what a Kevin Oonnell offense can do for quarterbacks for the most part. I mean, we've seen a
21:01laundry list of of subpar QBs just put up monster games and monster performances and monster stretches of fantasy production under Kevin Oonnell.
21:09Jay McCarthy's the odd man out. So, what's more likely? He was just lucky with all those shitty QBs or JJ McCarthy
21:15is just that bad? And I think when you watch him play, I think we know the answer to that. So, do I think Kyler
21:19Murray is going to be like a top 10 real life quarterback? No. But he's one of the easier quarterback two clicks in all
21:24of Superflex this year. Like he's going to be motivated for whatever that means.
21:28Uh he's just going to be in a great scheme with great weapons. And realistically, he's pretty much an annual like top 12 fantasy quarterback
21:34because the rushing floor gets him there on a weekly basis. And obviously, you have the ceiling in a Kevin Oonnell offense, which like they got Jordan
21:41Mason and Aaron Jones in the back field.
21:42How productive is that running game really going to be? Are they really going to lean on the on the ground game?
21:46Like you're you're seeing some hype for Jordan Mason. like they do want to give him a lot of carries, but I don't think
21:51that's going to dictate a productive offense there. I think they will end up having to lean on Kyler Murray quite a
21:55bit this year. We saw the upside very early in his career, like he's not that player in fantasy anymore where he can
22:00be a top, you know, three, four, five fantasy quarterback, I don't think at least. But if he doesn't play the majority of the season, I would be
22:07shocked if he doesn't finish as like a top 13 12 fantasy quarterback. And you're getting him as a mid quarterback, too. So, you know, I I don't know that I
22:15want to go ahead and draft him as my QB1 in a one quarterback league, but if you are in a superflex league, a two
22:21quarterback league, and he's going off the board as quarterback 15, 16, 17, 18, which is around what his ADP is now, he
22:27to me is one of the easier picks in all of fantasy drafts right now. He just doesn't need to be a real life good
22:32quarterback to to have an extremely high floor and a high week-toeek ceiling on this Minnesota offense with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and Jawan
22:42Jennings and a pretty good offensive line and TJ Hawinson and Kevin Oonnell.
22:47All right, they play in a dome. We love domes. We love getting dome. We love when our players play inside domes. I
22:54love you. I'm going to end the video there because I'm not sure where the next words out of my mouth are going to
22:58take us. So, those are my six favorite bounceback players for 2026 fantasy football. They've scarred you before.
23:06They won't scar you again, at least not in 2026. So, draft them accordingly.
23:11Draft them early. I'm not going to lie, if my first five rounds were the first five guys I talked about in this video,
23:16if it was like Saquon and Brock Bowers, and then Lad Mcconi, Mike Evans, and then Jaden Daniels, I think you have a
23:22pretty damn good fantasy football team going into this year. If you want to see all my bounceback players, if you want
23:26to see all my rankings, superflex, quarterback, PPR, half PPR, mustdraft players, avoid players, they are available in our draft guide right now
23:35on bdge.co.
23:37Sign up for the fantasy membership.
23:38Again, the cheapest way to get it three months free is just by going to MGM. If you are a new user, use code BDGE,
23:44deposit 10 bucks, play any slip on there, $10 or more, and you will get a promo code for three months. All right,
23:50that that gets you into October in the season. So, you get all of our inseason tools as well. All right, I love y'all.
23:55I'm out of here. Smoochies.
