The Lineup Show - Patriots vs Seahawks Fantasy Football Previews | We Predict The 2026 NFL Awards

0:00You know those pieces in your closet you find yourself wearing on repeat? Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy and that's what Quince does best. Because you know I love t-shirts and then I went to Quince and I found truly sturdy, truly comfortable t-shirts that look great. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere and marino wool. The styles are timeless, versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day. Everything at Quince is priced at 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories to cut out the middleman, so you pay for high quality, not brand markup. So find your next fall favorite at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash player. Get free shipping on your order in 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's q-u-i-n-c-e.com slash player. Now go to quince.com slash player.

1:01Welcome to the lineup fantasy football show I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. Mello I'm back. You're back. And thank God football is back. We have football tonight. I don't have words right now. I used to pray for times like this. This is inject football into my veins. I feel like the LeBron meme I'm smiling through it all. I can't believe this is my life. We've got some very fun stuff on the show today. We're going to talk our final predictions for awards markets, favorites for all the different awards as well as our dark horse candidates to win each of those offensive awards. And then we're going to wrap it up with some primetime previews giving you the starts, sits and bold predictions for the Patriots and Seahawks game as well as the Australia game down under between the 49ers and Rams. But Mello let's jump in with the most obviously prestigious award that everyone loves to talk about throughout the entire season. Give me your MVP pick. I thought about this one. I slept on it a little bit. Give me Justin Herbert. The way I've talked up this charger. I want I want I want I want I want

2:03Justin Herbert as my MVP. We've talked about it. Like we we have said this charger's offence with Mike McDaniel. If they can say healthy, it's going to be an incredible offense and Herbert obviously is going to be the biggest beneficiary of that. He has statistically and visually always been incredibly impressive. But something just always has seemed to gone wrong. Maybe not this year though. I'm feeling good about this year for Justin Herbert and the Chargers. I think it all comes together. I think this is the best season to date that this offense and Herbert have in one of the toughest divisions in football. You look at last year. He single-handedly willed this team to the playoffs. He got MVP chatter last year just because there was an MVP debate last year just with the way he did it. When you look at like truly not the best player but the most valuable. There's an argument. It was him the way he willed them to the playoffs. I don't think I'll have to do that this year. I think he has the right environment, the right pieces around him where he can thrive and flourish and build a better case for MVP. And not that

3:08should matter because I will be the first to tell you it should not matter at all. But you know it does matter when the home is already has an MVP and the mar has to and Josh Allen has one. If it's a remotely close MVP race and Herbert's in that race, they'll give it to him because he hasn't had one yet. Yeah, I will say like as much as people don't want narratives to play into these awards markets. It really does and we'll get into that a little bit when I talk about my dark horse guy, but I completely agree with you on that. I'm going to talk about another guy, though, that they might be willing to give the MVP a war to. That's Joe Burrow, who's the guy who's odds I really like the best as I look through everything. They've got the third easiest schedule in the NFL. He has the best wide receiver duo in the league and he seems to like football again. I'm like not even kidding why I say that. There seems to be a certain buzz. They keep talking about how it feels like 2021 again. So I think I don't talk about him as much as some of the other guys on our show, which is why I think like this might come as a surprise to people. But for me, it's like the cost and fantasy football like he's kind of going at like the quarterback three or four

4:13and he doesn't run a lot. So I kind of feel like he's perfectly priced for fantasy football. However, his stats in terms of the real life NFL lend themselves perfectly to be a guy who could win the MVP award. Last time he played 16 games in a season, he had 4,600 yards and 34 touchdowns. To me, his challenge will be winning games with this team, winning the division, the team's success side of the MVP award. It's the double edged sort of having an awful defense that provides you with the opportunity to put up otherworldly numbers, but the difficulty of having to keep pace with opposing offenses to win games. We've just seen over the past few years like you cannot win this award without winning your division. Yeah, I mean, I talked about Justin Herrup being the guy who isn't wanting it. Burrow seems like the true like next in line kind of guy like elite quarterback who should get it. You're right. The thing that has sort of like pushed me away is I've been super bullish on the Ravens here in 2026 and the Bengals defense has gotten better. I think on paper, but still isn't there. It's going to be hard to win that division, which you probably need

5:17it to win MVP. But then again, I mean, Stafford didn't win the NFC West last year and he's still one of those godly stats. And those are stats that Joe burrow could replicate if he can say healthy. The receivers can say healthy. If the defense still sucks enough that they have to throw the ball a ton, but it's good enough that they can win games. The recipe's there. Yeah, 100%. All right, give me your dark horse, Mella. My dark horse. I know you're going to love this one, Mitch. Is Jared Gough? My line shot dark horse. Who won MVP? I think we both like this one. The Lions have one of the best offenses in football. They're likely going to be in a lot of shootouts. And unlike last year, they have an incredibly easy schedule in 2026. Last year, they went through the absolute blender. They were facing every good team in the league. This year, one of the easiest schedules in the NFL, they could very easily reclaim their spot atop the NFC North. And Gough could lead the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns as they do it. Last year, he was second in both those stats.

6:21He was second just last year in passing touchdowns and passing yards. I don't think it's crazy to think he could be number one this year. It is a lot of trouble. Vegas is literally projecting it that he will be the number one in passing yards and passing touchdowns right now. There you go. He is projected to do it. They could be the number one seed in the NFC. It's totally employee. He could win MVP. Do I hear my dark horse candidate? Let's hear it. It's a guy by the name of Jared Gough. There we go. Something you didn't mention in there that I wanted to come back to as we were talking about Herbert narratives is that Jared Gough's biggest mountain acclimed to win MVP is that he's Jared Gough. And everyone finds him boring and everyone finds him a product of his weapons. It has nothing to do with his stats or anything. People will not want to give Jared Gough the award. That being said, I think it is in the range of outcomes that Jared Gough is so unbelievably good this season that people couldn't possibly deny him the award. And I think that's what makes his odds so long, but so realistic. And so I've put MVP bets on Jared Gough. I have a

7:26lot of conviction that he's going to be at the very least in the running at the end of the season. Am I closing line values going to be wild? Yeah. I mean, you know, you didn't have to convince me, but you're right about the narrative. Like people are just like a Jared Gough. But the narrative can flip real quick. If he throws 49 touchdowns and they're the one seed in the NFC, people can be like good for Jared. Like Jared deserves this. Yeah. You know, so totally in play. You want me to give you my offensive player the year to start things off? Please do. I'm going to go with his teammate, Jemeer Gibbs. And I'm sorry for the chalk to start things out, but I just think there's a chance we see this guy score like 20, 25 touchdowns and like 2000 all purpose yards and no one's going to blink an eye. It's like the obvious stuff you've heard all summer. No David Montgomery, the single easiest schedule against running backs this season, the Lions and an obvious bounce back spot. I get that's shocked, but it's shock for a reason. And if he's healthy, I don't think anyone's going to come even remotely close to him. Yeah, I think that is 1 billion percent in the cards. There's a reason we're taking him first in fantasy.

8:29There's a reason he's projected to hit all these career highs and potentially break some records along the way. I think that is probably like you said, the chalkiest pick, but for good reason, like it should be a chalky pick. I'm going to go in a little bit different of the direction. And I'm going to go Pukinakua with my offensive player of the year. I don't think I've talked enough on the show about how much I love Pukinakua probably because he goes too high in fantasy. You probably haven't talked about it enough. I have it. I think it's truly because he's like too good that it's not cool to be like draft Pukinakua. Everyone of course wants Pukinakua. I want it on record. I love Pukinakua. He is one of my favorite players in the entire NFL. And I personally think you could make a very strong argument. He should have one offensive player of the year last year. I think this year he very well could though. He was the wide receiver one in fantasy on a team that had a different wide receiver lead the league and receiving touchdowns last year. That is so crazy when you take his that back and think about that for a second.

9:31Some of those touchdowns, I think very easily could shift and go Pukinakua in 2026. He could have a generational 2026 campaign on a team that is the Super Bowl favorites. And I think definitely should be the Super Bowl favorites. So I'm in on Pukinakua. I don't think it's crazy at all. We just had our homelike draft and Pukin went second off the board and like you see that and you're like oh my god, that's insane. They didn't take Bijon and then you think about it and you're like yeah, the upside is absolutely crazy for this guy. It wouldn't shock me at all. If it wasn't Gibbs. Yeah, if I'm going to pick a wide receiver, I agree. Pukinakua. But let me get into my dark course. A guy that you mentioned a while back that I guess I'm just riding your coattails on this one. But Derek Henry, if I had to pick someone and I need someone with longer odds when the offensive player of the year, I'm going with King Henry. You talk about this a lot, but if Sequan hadn't gone nuclear in 2024 with the 2000 rushing yards, I think a lot more people will talk about how Henry had 1900 and 16 touchdowns on the ground. And even last year, he had 1616 without

10:32Lamar or at least Lamar hobbled for most of the year or out. And so I think you look at a new offensive coordinator, a new system. You get Lamar back healthy. This team should take a step back in the right direction. I think Derek Henry is in a position of smash whether he wins this award or not. No, no, you know me. I mean, I made Derek Henry a guy. I've been in all off season. I think there is a very good chance he could win offensive player of the year. My dark course though, I will go a different direction with a different running back and talk about James Cook of the Buffalo Bills. He has already led the NFL in touchdowns. He has already led the NFL and rushing yards. He is on one of the best offenses in football who's projected to be a very serious Super Bowl contender. All the ingredients are there for James Cook, who I think could catch more passes this year. That's really been the issue. You bring in Pete Carmichael. That's great for him. This could really be the breakout season for James Cook. I feel like we just picked each other's guys. Yeah. I love that.

11:35I mean, obviously I'm in on that pick too. Let's finish it off before we get into our prime time previews with the offensive rookie of the year picks. But if you haven't yet, make sure to hit that subscribe button. We've got episodes coming three times a week all season long. We are here to help you win your championship. You can ask us any questions you want in the comments or as always in the description. You can subscribe to smash accept with code lineup 25 for 25% off. You'll get direct access to mellow and I for roster reviews, questions about starts and sits and anything in between for dynasty and redraft. But mellow, give me your offensive rookie of the year pick. I know it's boring, but I'm going to share my love. And I know it's obvious. So boring. But I mean, he's in my opinion by far the most talented offensive skill player in this draft class. And I know the ankle sprain a little bit scary. I personally moved him down and fantasy quite a bit. But for real life football, I think what he's going to put on tape by the end of the season, I have to pick him for my offensive rookie of the year pick. The cardinal suck. I know that's another problem. But love is going to be one of their few bright spots. I think they'll have a

12:40beijon Robinson ask rookie year, or it's like not a great team. But just what he puts on film and what he does statistically is so impressive that he's going to accumulate enough buzz and enough stats where you kind of got to give him offensive rookie of the year. Yeah, and it's really interesting because you can actually get that price at a discount right now when you look at the awards markets, because people are so afraid of the high ankle. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I sided with carnal Tate on this one who's my guy and I like look, I would feel so much safer taking love had it not been for the high ankle sprain. But I just think between that and the offensive concerns like I have to sigh with my favorite wide receiver of this draft class who is in an offense that I expect to take a step forward with a quarterback that I like to take a step forward, pair him with the new offensive coordinator and Brian Dayball who we've seen spamming number one options over and over and over again in his career. And I think carnal Tate similar to what you were saying about love like might not come out the gates firing. But I think by the end of the year, he is going to be in that conversation of like the top 15 wide receivers.

13:43You know those pieces in your closet you find yourself wearing on repeat. Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy and that's what quince does best because you know I love T-shirts and then I went to quince and I found truly sturdy, truly comfortable T-shirts that look great. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere and marino wool. The styles are timeless, versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day. Everything at quince is priced at 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories to cut out the middlemen so you pay for high quality, not brand markup. So find your next fall favorite at quince. Download the quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash player. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. That's q-u-i-n-c-e.com slash player. Now go to quince.com slash player. Yeah, I mean I'm a big car and I'll take I think just there's

14:48a talent gap between him and love but shockingly despite being on the Titans I think has a little bit better of a situation. I think most people have a talent gap with Jeremiah love. Yeah. I wish there were people in this world that had a talent gap with me at literally anything. That would make me feel really good about myself but I don't hate the car and I'll take pick it all. I have a different receiver as my dark horse offensive rookie of the year and if you know me at all you know I got to take my boy Dejonce tripling. I know I have just enamored with he is my dark horse with all of the injuries the 49ers perpetually endure. There is a real world where tripling leads this team in receiving yards and if something happens to McCaffrey which half of America I think is convinced something will happen to McCaffrey he could lead this team in scrimmage yards. That is not out of the question. I'm not saying it's likely but it is not out of the question. He has looked the part. He has looked legit. I know he's not the front runner nor should he be

15:48but it's totally in his range of outcomes to win this award. I completely agree and he's a guy that we've been seeing rising up in odds over the past few weeks. Mellow I had actually seen that you picked Dejonce tripling slash like I kind of assumed you were going to otherwise I would have done it. So I decided I want to get spicy. I want to get really spicy with my last dark horse and what is spicier than a lemon? You know we're certified lemon heads so I had to go with my guy McCoy lemon. I think all the talk has been about the hamstring and the slow start but I have always been a believer in the talent and once he was drafted the target share he could assume in this offense specifically later on in the season as he kind of carves out that role. We were comping this guy to Amon Ra like a couple of months ago and now everybody's acting like he's just trash and I think he's the type of guy that can be a real safety blanket for quarterbacks and we believe we'll see an Eagles bounce back in the coast Kevin Petula era. So to me part of that bounce back involves giving hurts a safety blanket outside of just targeting Devantesmith on like 70% of drop

16:52backs. I think we are going to see by the end of the season McCoy lemon really working more heavily in and so yeah no I don't love him for the first few weeks and I would probably leave him on your bench but for God's sake do not trade this guy during your fantasy football season if you drafted him be in for the long haul because I think you could see him having one of those charts in the offensive rookie of the year odds that just do this right at the end. Yeah like an AJ Brown type of rookie season or like Brandon IU and I know those guys that went offensive rookie of the year but like that kind of like arc his rookie or I think is totally in the cards. Yeah people like to overreact I mean I'm probably guilty of it sometimes but people are acting like he's never going to play an NFL down he's been so disappointing in camp which is just far from the truth like don't have you in wicks isn't going to keep McCoy lemon off the field by week five like grow up. Couldn't have put it better myself. All right, Mellon we have not done this in a while we haven't done a real variety show like this but let's kick it to the prime time preview. We are going to break down the first two games of the NFL season. Let's first talk about the Patriots Seahawks

17:56game kicking off tonight. Give me your initial thoughts on the game. I feel like we're hitting our stride here Mitch we're talking about real football now. Real football. I know who would have thought. I could cry tears of joy right now and we're talking about the Pats in the Seahawks the Superbowl rematch. My heart can't take it as a Patriots fan the inaugural game of the 2026 season being a rematch of that Superbowl. There are some very notable roster changes though from a fantasy perspective the most notable being Patriots going from Stefan Diggs to AJ Brown. Then on the other side you go from Ken Walker to Jadarian Price at Running Pack for the Seahawks. I think this is going to be a much more competitive game than what we saw in the Superbowl just based on some of the changes to these rosters. I also just think it'll be a fun fantasy game to kick off the season. There are multiple assets on both sides I'm really excited about so I think this will be a really fun matchup. Yeah that was actually the exact note I had. It's like this is just a super fun game to start the fantasy football season. You've got two players drafted in the first two rounds. You've

18:57got JSN. It was the YRC for two last year and then AJ Brown that people are picking as a dark horse to finish top three and we spent so long this summer in the saga of Will AJB go to New England and then it's like how will he be with Drake May and then the start of cap seemed shaky and then he was dominant and now we finally just get to put on the pads and see a real game and see how AJ Brown cooks with Drake May so give me your starts for this game for fantasy football. Yeah let's just knock out the easy ones. Yes and obviously AJ Brown obviously Drake May matchup is tough but obviously the draft capital you had to spend to take Drake May you're starting him. The trickiest and most interesting one to me is Jadarian Price because I generally don't trust rookie running backs week one unless they had like top 10 draft capital which Jadarian Price was a borderline first round pick in a terrible draft class so that makes it tough. Then you talk about heavy dose of George Hullani it's like oh my god are we gonna have this BSC battle backfield split again where like it's just super annoying for fantasy but then you look

19:58at what Ken Walker did in the Super Bowl and how badly he gouge to this defense if they can use Jadarian Price in any sort of similar role I'm not necessarily averse to starting him. Yeah this feels like the wrong way of going about it mentally but like I just kind of think if you drafted Jadarian Price here and you've got these weeks without Charbonne to have him as the starter I'm probably putting him in my lineup and hoping you can eke out a solid RB2 finish but like part of me is a little bit scared of the fact that New England is probably gonna prep to really stop the run here and like you said like I don't normally have a lot of confidence in rookie running backs in week one when they're not an action gentie or a Jeremiah love kind of prospect and so I think I'd have question marks starting Jadarian Price but it wouldn't keep him out of my lineup who are you actually sitting this week benching any ancillary pieces on either side as well Romeo dobs or Shichi he the tight ends on both sides I'm not starting any of them I think I slightly disagree on dobs especially in PPR I think you can get away with him as a flex I'd

21:01just be shocked to see them not try to get him involved here in week one especially like in a matchup the Pats are three and a half point dogs I think we'll see Drake may throw it up a little bit more but for the most part I agree I think there's a very condensed group of guys in this game that you want to play and the warning I'll give you that I have fallen victim to so much because I just love football and I love fancy don't fall into the trap of playing guys just because you're excited to get action in game one yeah because you're not going to believe this but there will not be any point in the season where there's more football left to be played afterwards so don't pull your load all in game one but now give your bold prediction for this game save the rest of the load for four days from Wednesday yeah my bias bold prediction is the Patriots done the NFL win this game and AJ Brown erupts for 120 receiving yards I love it I didn't want to go with a game pick here but I actually did go with AJ Brown just because I think he's the biggest eyes on guy in this game I'm gonna say he finds the end zone twice and he becomes one of the biggest trade value spikes

22:03of week one maybe one of the biggest movers as people just go crazy trying to acquire him but let's go down under mellow let's head to Australia and let's talk about the 49ers and Rams rumor has it shahmic vase not even here yet but give me your initial thoughts on this game that's where my brain immediately goes like I cannot make up my mind for which teams travel plans are better 49ers have been in Australia for a full week trying to adjust to the time change so they're not lethargic and suffering from jet lag the Rams flying in literally the day before to avoid it all together maybe his 3d chess maybe they're gonna feel like they're in the shadow realm for the entirety of the game I have no idea that is like the most interesting narrative of this game but travel aside it's another phenomenal prime time game both as an NFL fan and a fantasy player talk about the fantasy assets on both sides this is a fun one yeah all I ask is please

23:04can this just be a fun fantasy football environment like we just talked about doing on Seattle where we're so iffy on all the pieces outside of a jb and jsn or or like obviously Drake may but we have question marks about the matchup then you go down under here and we got pukka davant a kair and cmc Mike Evans your boy's struggling and like even the qb's honestly if you want to get into that conversation super flexing so 48 and a half point total I think we should get some serious fireworks in this one let's get off to our starts though and mellow can you guess what player has shown up the most in our comments and mentions on if you should start them or not in your flex oh boy how is it to john's tripling no actually that is defonte atoms really which to me it feels insane but I think it comes from this narrative all summer of we should see defonte atoms regress yes he'll likely regress but what was the like the wide receiver seven like yeah of course you're going to regress a little bit but he is still an obvious start I would say he's a great start as a wide receiver to

24:06he's definitely a great start as a flex yeah as the guy who has been like yelling into the microphone or I guess was bringing into the microphone so I don't hurt your ears like defonte atoms is going to regress start to vaude atoms you're still starting defonte atoms here and we want unless you are hilariously deep at wide receiver running back and you can afford to flex other players he's a star all the obvious guy I mean pretty much you riled them off earlier all the obvious guys that you're you would think should start they should 100% on to our sits though I have been saying this for a while and now I'm even more confident in it do not start 32 year old George Kittle who tours a kill these less than eight months ago of course if you have a better option but like we just went over our top 24 tight ends he's at 16 for us I just have to assume there's a better option if there isn't then I guess fire him up but Dejon's tripling is a tough one for me because if I'm being honest you may have had to reach on him with all the late summer rookie hype this off season and I'm not 100% sure if you do have better options at your flex but I think unless your team has a deep starting line

25:11up with like three flexes I'm probably waiting and seeing on him which is conveniently usually the same approach as Kyle Shanahan yeah I I agree I'm right there with you as the guy who's the biggest Dejon's tripling guy I'm like the leader of the Dejon's tripling fan club we go every Tuesdays my wife makes lemon squares it's a great time I'm still not starting Dejon's tripling it is a weight and see thing for me I love him dynasty and redraft for the rest of the season but I'm not doing this in week one all right give me your final bowl prediction before we get out of here I'm gonna say that Mike Evans finds the end zone not once but twice Mitch that was mine I'm not even kidding that was mine but for the sake of our viewers I'm gonna give you my other one which is that Kyron Williams goes for two touchdowns as well you could probably parlay those you could figure something out with Mike for two and Kyron Williams for two for the Australia picks but those were our award winners and Dark Horse award candidates for the 2026 NFL season along with

26:13our primetime game previews heading into our first Sunday but mellow before we get out of here did we miss anything football football we'll catch you guys next episode you know those pieces in your closet you find yourself wearing on repeat those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy and that's what quince does best because you know I love t-shirts and then I went to quince and I found truly sturdy truly comfortable t-shirts that look great quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere and marino wool the styles are timeless versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for a day after day everything at quince is priced at 50 to 80% less than similar brands they work directly with ethical factories to cut out the middlemen so you pay for high quality not brand markup so find your next fall favorite at quince download the quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash player get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK

27:19too that's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash player now go to quince dot com slash player