Press Coverage - 2026 Fantasy Football's Biggest Storylines

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1:10What has gone on everybody? Welcome on into another episode of Press Coverage. We help you get an edge in fancy football. I'm your host, always live bird alone. And today we're talking about some of the biggest storylines heading into the 2026 season. The season is here. I'm recording this on Tuesday of the first week of NFL season. Tomorrow there's a real NFL game for the regular season. The first one, I'm super excited. And I just want to talk about some of the things that I'm watching for in this season to really shape the NFL season in 2026 and the fancy football season and beyond. And I think the big thing that I want to start off with is the Jaguars Water Seevers. Because I think it's been one of the most talked about topics in fancy football this off season. Number one, we've got Parker Washington who's been kind of the bell of the ball after his great end to the 2025 season coming into the off season. It's just been all hype for him all the way up to the season. The drum beat has been consistent and nonstop for him coming out Jaguars camp.

2:12Sounds like we're going to get an extension for him at some point by the Jaguars. It's really exciting to see what he can do. He's just been ascending ever since he's been drafted by the Jaguars kind of culminating in that end of season run he had at the end of 2005 where he was easily the best water receiver. The Jaguars had and it wasn't particularly close. No one was putting up numbers close to him coming into the season. Can he keep that going? And then we've got Brian Times Jr. He has the incredible rookie season and then flops in year two. He had a lot of stuff going on. He dealt with dealing with some injuries. There's some off the field stuff. It seemed like maybe he wasn't quite fitting into where they thought he could be in a second year on the Mconon and the Jags offense. Try to make him into a little bit more of over the cross the middle of the field working into solid bit more. It wasn't really working out. You kind of put him back just straight outside working down the field mostly and that did really work for him. But he wasn't getting as much work in that role. There's a little bit more consistent, a little bit more boom bust.

3:15Is he going to be that? He's going to be his rookie season. Is he going to be somewhere in between? Got to be watching for that. Jacoby Myers. They trade for him mid 2025 season after Travis Hunter goes down. He's really productive for them once he gets there. Gets a contract extension in season. But then kind of takes a step back to Parker Washington at the end of the season. Coming into 2026, you know, just not really even talked about. Like you rarely even hear Jacoby Myers name. NFL circles or fancy football circles going to the season. And he should be coming. I mean, this is just kind of who he's been through his turn in a field career. And oh, it's ever really talking about him. He just kind of goes out there and gets the job done when he's called upon. How much will you get called upon in 2026, though, with these other water severs around it? And then of course, Travis Hunter. How much is he going to play on offense? You know, before he got his injury in 2025, he started to break out the game directly before his injury was his signature game goes for over a hundred yards as this great

4:17game. But then it gets injured. We don't see him again. And that's when we get the Jacoby Myers trade. We get Parker Washington ascending. And then, you know, going into this off scene, it seems like, well, Jaguars aren't hurt and for wide receiver help. They got plenty of talent there. So they don't really need Travis Hunter play on that side of the ball too much. But Travis Hunter wants to play on both sides of the ball. Jaguars want him to play on both sides of the ball. But how much on offense does he really play? Does he require an injury or two before he's really doing anything on offense? Or are they going to have a set amount of plays designed for him every game and he's actually going to be a factor? This is something that I'm really interested to see in 2026. The next topic I want to talk about is Colour Murray joining the Vikings and what's that going to look like in 2026? Because Colour Murray has been a quarterback who when he got to the NFL, it looked like he was going to be one of the next great quarterbacks in the NFL. His dual thread ability, despite his size, he had really good arm strength and some really good arm talent.

5:18And he was really good for rookie and directly after that, he was even better. But he didn't get any better than that. All the flaws that he had earlier his career, he still has. He still has trouble seeing over the middle of field. Some of that has to do with his height. There's no way around it. He's struggled to find a way to make it work across the middle of field. And being able to throw in the middle of field is really important, especially in today's NFL. So he still has some of these flaws that he's always had. And that's kind of made some people sour on Colour Murray a little bit. Like what is his ceiling really in the NFL? How good of a quarterback can he really be if he can't get past these things? But now he's with Minnesota where I would say it's the best situation of his career with what he's got around him plus coaching. Can he get back on track with the Vikings? Can he be what he was earlier in his career because that was better than what we've seen from him lately? Can he be better than that with Vikings? You know, if he could be even better, we're not just talking about like a really good NFL could be. We're talking about one of the better fantasy Cubes.

6:20And he was not being drafted that way at all. Even if he gets just back to like what we're kind of used to seeing in Arizona, like he was really undervalued this summer. I'm really interested see how he's able to fit in with the Vikings. And if he's able to correct any of the problems he's had in his past, if those problems persist, if it matters if they persist is Kevin O'Connell able to coach around those problems that Colour Murray has had because I think that's part of the equated year too is that Kevin O'Connell's been a very good coach but putting his players in a position to win. So is he going to play around Colour Murray's problems and kind of craft an offense to just highlight his strengths and then help Colour Murray succeed? You know, Murray's just there on one year deal. He's going to be looking for contract extension or moving on from the Vikings to get that bigger contract somewhere else. So he's surely going to be trying his best. You know, we like to say like, NFL players shouldn't need any motivation but sometimes they do need that little extra ball of competition and maybe that's it for Colour Murray this

7:24season by really interested to see how that's going to go. Third topic of the day is what's going to go on with the Raiders? How good are they going to be under Clint Kubiak now there as head coach? I don't think we can really say enough how much Clint Kubiak matters for a team. We really saw last year with the Seahawks what he can do for a NFL offense. So what can he do for the Raiders? You know, they're going to have Kirk Cousins starting the season but for an Inumin does this going to get in there. I think sooner rather than later wouldn't be surprised me if he's in within a couple games. Number one overall pick was a good prospect for the number one overall pick too. So like we're not surprised me at all if he's in pretty early. I would say in almost all other scenarios. He's definitely just starting week one. It's just a little bit of a unique situation with the Raiders with Tom Brady. Kind of run the show a bit there. He kind of wants the mentoring to happen. But you know, this is a team where Kirk Cousins isn't the best. You know, a stopgap in between him and Kirk Cousins.

8:27So I don't think Kirk Cousins are between him and Mendoza. So I think Cousins is going to be able to hold off Mendoza for too long. So I expect to see Mendoza early. Can Ash and Jettie get back on track to what we were hoping for from him coming out of college with this offensive line getting a little bit healthier, getting some additions with Clint Cougar's offense, you know, helping put them in a better situation. Can this offensive line get back on track and really help Jettie in the passing game? What will Brock Bowers do in year three after spending, spending a lot of year two injured, but still looking really good when every playing. You know, there's a lot of potential here in this offense, even if with the week wide receiver corner because of we've got a superstar tie down. We've got a really good running back. The quarterback was a good prospect. What can happen here with Clint Cougar at the home? There's a lot of potential. I'm really excited to see if they're able to create some fancy values for us and what

9:29they can be on offense and how they're going to send into 2027 beyond like, is this an offense? We're going to be looking at like a potential breakout offense in 2027. Are they a breakout offense in 2026? I'm really interested to see what they're going to do. But we're going to take a quick second to hear about the player rankings over on playerprofiler.com. When I come back, I've got some more storylines to talk about. You know, I get asked is AI ruining fantasy sports and the answer is absolutely not. We've had consensus rankings available for a long time, but people subscribe to the player rankings at playerprofiler.com for superflex, tight and premium, best ball, even like offensive line rankings. Of course, you're rookie rankings, you're dynasty rankings, those are all available in the ranking service for playerprofiler.com. Password protected so the bots can't get to it and you can maintain your edge and use code podfather for $5 off. Woo! It's a good deal. We are proudly supported by Nathan and sons, makers of underbrush remineralizing gum.

10:31The Nathan and sons folks sent me some of this gum and when you taste it, it's like, oh, this is what real flavor tastes like. It just didn't feel fake. It had a texture and a taste of what real gum should be because I've tried other natural gums and the flavor does not pop like it does with Nathan and sons and the flavor doesn't last. My favorite flavor is cinamastic. I also feel like my jaws in better shape, not doing as much clenching with my teeth and what's funny is it's made with hydroxyapatite. The same mineral your tooth and mammal is made from and the best part is a chewing gum that helps take care of your teeth in between brushing. And critically, there is no plastic in this gum. It's made from natural tree sap and if you want a simple daily upgrade for your teeth, head over to NathanandSons.com and check out Underbrush and get 30% off your first order. NathanandSons.com to get 30% off. Welcome back to press coverage where we're talking about some of the biggest storylines

11:32heading into the 2026 NFL season. If you haven't liked and subscribed yet, please do so. If you're listening to your favorite podcast platform, raise 5 stars, leave a comment everywhere. Let me know what you're thinking about these storylines or maybe some of the things that you're watching the most going into the season and what you're really looking for I'd love to hear from you. But the next thing I want to talk about is the Jonathan Brooks comeback or projected comeback now from two ACL tears in the same knee missed all of 2025. But going into the 2026 off season, you really seem like the Panthers moves were kind of showing us that they think that Jonathan Brooks was going to be a big part of their offense in 2026. You know, Rico Dattle has this really exciting period of time as their starter while Chubah Hubbard was struggling has multiple 200 yard games and let him walk in free agency. And to me, that meant they expect Jonathan Brooks back and they expect him to be a big part of their offense. And that's come true throughout the off season.

12:33They didn't make a big moves. There's kept Chubah Hubbard. Jonathan Brooks, basically at the helm expecting those two to have run this backfield. Chubah Hubbard spent some time on the sideline allowing Jonathan Brooks to get more snaps at the first team offense. They utilized him in the preseason game showing like this is what they're excited about. The drum beat has been very loud for Jonathan Brooks talking a lot about his past kitchens where he really separates himself from Chubah Hubbard where Chubah Hubbard is not a good past catcher. Jonathan Brooks, that was one of the hallmarks of his profile coming into the NFL. Additionally, Jonathan Brooks was someone who created a lot of explosive runs in college and we thought that that could transfer to the NFL. It's yet to be seen and we don't know how he'll be able to do that as well coming off the two ACL surgeries. But Chubah Hubbard, while he was a fast and explosive running back in college, has been completely unable to really create explosives in the NFL. He's had some but for the type of profile he was, he certainly is a creating enough and he's not creating enough for an NFL run game.

13:35Offense is really trying to find ways to create explosives and Chubah Hubbard isn't quite doing that. You can see why they're really hoping for Jonathan Brooks to break out. The question remains, how healthy is he? What does he look like compared to what he was coming into the NFL? How much of this backfield can he actually take from Chubah Hubbard? As much as I have praised Chubah Hubbard so far, he is a solid NFL running back and you could use him wherever, however, he is no slouch. He is a running back where you do actually have to take the opportunities from him. He's not just giving them away by being bad. Jonathan Brooks has to come in and impress and actually take some. I think to start the season, we're going to be looking at somewhat of a 50-50 split and it's up to Jonathan Brooks and how well he plays to decide where it goes from there. A lot of things are on the table. Jonathan Brooks could come out, look healthy, be explosive, be a good pass catcher and

14:36start taking more of the backfield opportunities and they start to become 60-40 split, leaning Brooks's way. But he could come out, look like a shell of his former self and maybe they go back to relying on Chubah Hubbard a little bit more because they know that they can get out of him and they don't want to count on Jonathan Brooks. A lot of things going to happen here in the backfield. I'm really interested to see which way it's going to go. Next I want to talk about second-year tight ends because we got a really good class in 2025 and I'm really interested to see what they're going to do in 2026. First, we've got Colson Loveland who went on this awesome run to end the 2026 season into the playoffs. The signature moment for me was in the playoffs against the Packers, tight game, they have to have a two-point conversion and the play they draw up is to isolate Colson Loveland and get the ball to him and he routes up his defender, catches the two-point conversion and they're able to go on and win that game.

15:38When all the chips were on the line, they said that's our guy. So I'm really excited to see what Colson Loveland can do in your two for the Bears, especially with the Bears kind of condensing the offense down a little bit this off season with letting DJ Morro go through via trade and not really placing him. They said, this is going to be Loveland, Burden, Adunes Aid, that's what we're working with, that's who we care about. I think Loveland could lead this team in targets, so it would not surprise me all. He is already, for some people in the conversation of being in the same tiers, Brock Powers and Tramick Bride. He's not quite there for me yet, but I think that he easily could be by the end of the season. It's really exciting for that. You've got Tyler Warren, who's on a tear through most of the season. And it wasn't even until the end of the season that Colson Loveland became the best candidate in this class. It was Tyler Warren for most of it until Daniel Jones got hurt, not offense-created, and Tyler Warren wasn't able to do much at the end of the season. But before that, he was having an amazing rookie season. And if Daniel Jones doesn't get hurt, we might be talking about him as being at same tier

16:41as Brock Powers and Tramick Bride. Now in this second season, Michael Pittman's moved on. Josh Downs is still there. Alex Pierce gets the big contract, but he's coming back from being injured. Another situation where the targets are probably going to contend to those three, and would it be a surprise if Tyler Warren leads them in targets? I don't think so. Then we've got Harold Fandon, who came in immediately pushed David and Joker to the side, became the starting tie to end for the Browns, and had a really great season. He was held down a little bit by the Browns bad offense and bad QB play, but he still went on to have a really good rookie season. It's kind of just more the same going into year two, like he's obviously really talented. He's obviously a good targeter and amazing after the catch and all those things, but he's all this bad Browns offense with the bad QB play. Will that continue to hold him down? Can he continue to ascend through it? Then also the addition of Casey Concepcion and Denzel Bossen? How much of the offense do they take? Will they take from Harold Fandon?

17:43I think there's a possibility that those three are just again. They're the main people in the offense and the targets can condense around them. I think they could all coexist because there's plenty of useless targets that we're going to other players that can now go to Casey Concepcion and Denzel Bossen and Hal Fank had continued to be a 22 to 25% target share player. I think there's plenty of success available to him in 2026. We've got Ronda Gatsden who had one of the best four game sample sizes that happened in the 2025 season among the rookie tight ends. He went on a tear there for a minute, but that's his kind of problem is that he is essentially just a big wide receiver. So he's not going to play as many snaps as those other guys. There's a lot changing around him going into the 1026 season with Mike Badenio coming over as offensive coordinator and then they sign Charlie Corollar to a nice contract. They pick up David and Joe who later in the off season to a okay contract enough that

18:45makes you think that he's going to at least be involved somewhat and they bring in a full back. This is a team that likes to run multiple tight ends though. So it's like basically there's a lot of players who are going to expect to play relevant snaps on this team. Ronda Gatsden continue to have some receiving role in the offense. I think the addition of Charlie Corollar limited the overall ceiling for Gatsden just because it showed that the charters have a plan to make sure that he is still a rotational tight ends. Is he the rotating tight end who gets the majority of the opportunities for that room or not and how inconsistent will it be? I kind of stood by that thought around a Gatsden was still a pretty good best ball pick throughout the off season as his ADP to continue to get higher and higher and higher and he fell in drafts. I thought there was a possibility that he could still end up being a good pick at the new prices even with the new information of how much we expect Charlie Corollar to play. He's a little bit tougher and redraft where it's hard to really put him in your starting

19:48lineup. But I'm really interested to see what his opportunities and his snaps look like for the chargers in 2016. We've got Terrence Ferguson who had a very unique role for a tight end in 2025 where he was essentially the Rams deep threat out of heavy personnel. He had a very high A dot. He averaged over 18 yards of reception. It's a role we don't see for tight ends ever. That's really fascinating and really interesting going into the next season because that's not his profile coming into the NFL. He's more of like a ball on hand after the catch tight end in college. We know we can do that other stuff but then he showed us that you can do this down the field stuff that most other tight ends can't do. So it kind of makes me feel like all the possibilities are endless for Terrence Ferguson but we've also still got other tight ends there. We still got Pukinakua to want to add them. So what's his role in the offense really going to be? How much of it can it be? The Rams have been talking like he's essentially their wide receiver three and part of the

20:51tight end rotation. So there's a possibility Terrence Ferguson has a really unique role in the offense and does enough that we're thinking about starting win redraft every week. In basketball I thought he was a fantastic pick because of this potential in a really high scoring offense and because he's going to be getting some high leverage opportunities in the offense. So really excited for that. And then lastly I want to talk about here for these second year tight ends is Gunner Helm who a little bit of under the radar rookie season for the Titans mostly because the Titans offense was so bad and Cam Ward was a good and Gunner Helm I think people don't realize how good of a prospect he was coming in the NFL because he had basically botched the Combine testing because he twisted his ankle on his very first 40 yard dash attempt and then continue doing all the drills anyways. So all his testing was pretty bad even though he's a better athlete than that. And really what it's about for Gunner Helm is there's a path to opportunity there with the Titans. Colonel Tate and Wondell Robinson who expect to be the top two targets in the team but

21:55I could see him being the third option on the offense as a team that's probably been playing for behind. So they might have to pass more than they plan to. If anything happens to Colonel Tate or Wondell Robinson I imagine he'd have to step it into a bigger role. So he's someone that I've been watching and thinking like I think there could be something here. You know three Titan builds in best ball this off season I was really interested going into redraft season. He's not really draftable but someone who's like I'm kind of already thinking about watching seeing what happens in an offense. How much of a role he has because like there's at least a possibility that we're thinking about screaming Gunner Helm in 2026. And then my last topic for the day before I'm out of here is I want to talk about the year two QBs. As we've had an up and down class from that perspective I would say I think this class was better than expected but not in the ways that Mollod people thought it was going to be. As Jackson Dart second QB off the board and he ended up having a pretty darn good rookie season.

22:56He was running a lot which we love for fantasy football. I think he showed more as a pastor than people were expecting. He still has a lot of work to do and we'd like him not spending so much time in the blue tent but he's got some really good physical tools and with how little he had to work with in 2025 is a rookie because it didn't have a link neighbor since neighbors was hurt. I think the sky's kind of limit for Jackson Dart really so I'm really excited to see what happens there. Tyler Schuck impressed basically everybody. No one really saw the rookie season he had coming because he was so old coming into the NFL after spending a lot of time in college when those type of players and NFL even though we had some good physical tools the fear is that those players have already reached their ceiling because they're already so old coming into the NFL and I think he showed us more than we really expected during this time during his rookie season that once he got his opportunity to get in there and start I showed more as a runner I think especially than people were expecting and in the color more offense another one of these really good offensive play callers like run a high pace.

23:58He was producing at a high level fantasy so he could continue to do that in 2026 potentially even without even being that good of an NFL quarterback. I mean Saints were so losing games last year right like how good are they going to be how good is he going to be but with this kind of more offense and the running that we saw from Tyler Schuck he might actually be a pretty darn good fantasy QB who is a popular pick for breakouts for a lot of fancy analysts the soft season I was very excited about what he could do in your two very interested to see what happens there and lastly the first quarterback that was drafted in 2025 cam ward really rough really rough rookie season but awful surroundings so it was a little bit like yeah you know what what can you really expect from him and there were some flashes where you see the arm telling you're like okay I can tell myself the story here of how things can come together in 2026 if they do enough around him he could progress a little bit next thing you know we're like oh there's the number one overall pick and I do like a lot of the moves the Titans made to help things around him the preseason kind of made us think about last season how he played his rookie

25:04just a lot of bonehead plays I guess you can call him holding on the ball a little bit too long making some throws that he probably shouldn't and you'd like to see those things get worked out of him a little bit and you know start to take some of the I need to just throw the ball out of bounds here I just need to you know check the ball down here like we just need cam ward to progress a little bit I'm worried that he got broken as a rookie we've seen this with the quarterbacks before we're in there to bad situation they kind of just get broken by the awful surroundings around them and they're hard to ever come back from that I'm hoping cam ward can because to get some exciting players on offense and I'm really excited to see what they can all do there but I'll be honest I'm a little bit worried about what cam ward's going to be able to do in 2026 but that's going to do it for this episode of press coverage I appreciate all of you for joining me if you'd like to follow me to Twitter you can do so at YB underscore ff please like it subscribe if you haven't yet leave that comment rate is five stars all those things I

26:08appreciate all of you we'll see you next time you know it's important to me that all of our media be free but it is you the premium subscriber with access to data analysis rankings dynasty deluxe DFS dominator the world famous draft kit you get that content and you make all of this possible the free podcasts articles NFL draft content so I must give a special thanks to all of our premium subscribers you make all of this possible we are proudly supported by Nathan and sons makers of underbrush remineralizing gum the Nathan and sons folks sent me some of this gum and when you taste it it's like oh this is what real flavor tastes like it just didn't feel fake it had a texture and a taste of what real gum should be because I've tried other natural gums in the flavor does not pop like it does with

27:12Nathan and sons and the flavor doesn't last my favorite flavor is cinemastic also feel like my jaws in better shape not doing as much clenching with my teeth and was funny as it's made with hydroxyapatite the same mineral your tooth and mammal is made from and the best part is a chewing gum that helps take care of your teeth in between brushing and critically there is no plastic in this gum it's made from natural tree sap and if you want a simple daily upgrade for your teeth head over to Nathan and sons dot com and check out underbrush and get 30% off your first order Nathan and sons dot com to get 30% off