Fannin' the Breeze with Thor

Thor Nystrom guides us through the rookie tight end class, including Harold Fannin, who shattered the single-season FBS record for receptions and yards last year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
whatever stupid stuff they decide to drop into the show.
Now here's your host, Paul charge It.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hey everybody, it is Fantasy Football Weekly. Our draft prep
continues with Thorn and Eistrom. We've already hit in previous
shows running backs and two different shows wide Receivers last week,
and now tight ends will turn our attention to quarterbacks
next week. Hey, Thor, welcome back.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yoh, how you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh awesome? Got It's just you know, for those of
us in the industry, this is this is arguably and
by the industry. How about if we just say the
sports industry, what a great April's just the best. You
get the Masters, you get Final for More, you get
the start of baseball season, you get the foot NFL Draft,
you get hockey into the regular season in the playoffs,

(01:03):
you get basketball regular season into playoffs. It's just April.
To me, it's the single best month for sports fans.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
And of course leading that dance, it's draft season, you know,
I mean, that's that's number that's one one on the board.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
For me, it is, I mean, it's it is for me,
and it's uh, I think what I love about it
as much as anything else is that we spend months,
like you know, second guessing, evaluating, predicting, and then it
all just unravels in real time and you get to
find out you know, what you knew, what you didn't know,

(01:38):
what you'd expected, what didn't happen, you know, the things
that went to form. I just I love all the
drama of the draft thor.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
It's yeah, it's it's incredible, and then you have all
your theories for speaking to someone who does you know,
twenty mob drafts every process like it, you know, you
you think like heading in every time, it's like I
know how it's gonna go this time, and every then
it's a one team rose the big curve ball, and
then it's like what's that Ashton Kutcher but butterfly effect? Right,
Like it's like one thing changes now you know, someone's

(02:07):
on the board unexpectedly, and then everything else after that changes.
So yeah, it's it's a tremendous process and it's it's
it's just fabulous theater. Once once the Bell opens on
the last Thursday night of April.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah. The best butterfly effect movies. I I think you
could say Back to the Future was a but a
butterfly effect movie, right, Butleroid. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know,
Marty McFly goes back changes, you know, does not does
not have get romantic with his mom, which I think
was was pretty important. So you know that was that

(02:41):
was a big eiet and then you know, introduced rock
and roll and you know, did a bunch of other things.
And so I think that would count as a butterfly
effect movie for sure.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Would I I have another one I'd like, but yeah,
please and and and it's another one with multiple films
in the in the catalog, the final Destination in franchise.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
See I've never seen them because it looks well, I've
never seen him say, I'll look like it's a bunch
of people getting murdered. But what is the Tell me
about tell me about how those work?

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Well, the first one is a classic. You got to
see the first one. But they're they're gonna go on.
Uh it's like a school trip, but it's like you know,
Europe or something. And then but they don't end up
getting on the plane, and then the plane goes down,
and then the idea is like, oh the grim Reaper,
like you know, you got saved. So then it's like
they they're, they're, they're, they're going one by one kind of.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh got you got you okay, all right? And they
spend how many final destinations now like.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Four at this point, I think it's like like six
or seven.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Probably because God forbid, you just let something good rest.
A foreign movie that is sort of a classic in
this genre is called Run, Lola Run. It's a German movie.
It came out like two thousand maybe, and it's fantastic,
and it's a it's a woman who has to deliver
some money in twenty real time minutes, and they show

(04:04):
how just a slight change at the very beginning of
her effort to get this this to get this money
she's got, she she's not delivered. She's got to come
up with one hundred thousand She's got to come up
with one hundred thousand whatever Deutsche marks in twenty minutes.
And it tells the story three consecutive times if memory serves,

(04:26):
where you watch the twenty minutes of her in real
time trying to come up with one hundred thousand dollars
like thor I need you to come up with one
hundred thousand dollars right now. Now you've probably got that
in cash in your in your in your house right now.
But yeah, yeah, but Lola did not a really good
foreign movie for people that do not mind, you know either,
I don't know if it's dubbed to hope not, I

(04:47):
don't mind reading mine.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
We're going to the We're going to the blackjack table.
If I'm ever in that scenario.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I like that? Are you? Is that what you if
you if you suddenly had one hundred grandropped on you,
would you try to turn it into two hundred grand
at the blackjack table?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well?

Speaker 4 (04:58):
If if like if like I need it, if it
was a scenario like you got to come up with
this amount of time, yeah, like it's it's like, well
a short time. Let's see how many times we can
double this up?

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Roulette. I mean you get you know what you get
through done? Right, So you're like, all right, I'll just
step I hope to god I'll put on sixteen and
hope it works out.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Does Interstellar count as a butterfly effect movie?

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah? It does.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
Remember that part where he's like he's banging on the
thing and that, but then the guy can't hear from
the past or whatever, like I it is because it's
about decisions, and decisions change the future and you can't
go back.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
And this sort of a thing.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Interstellar is great, and the draft is very The draft
is very much like that, right, I mean, like you
look back and oh man, why do we do that?

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Why do we do?

Speaker 4 (05:41):
You just want to you know, shake the GM, like, bro,
don't do that, right, You're five years in the future.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Why did you know? Don't do that?

Speaker 1 (05:47):
And you know here, okay, last year's draft, you mentioned
how all it takes is one one team changes the
outcome of the whole draft, right, and that ends up
that ends up happening when one team does something kind
of nobody expects. Last year, that was Michael Pennix at eight,
and everybody's like, what you just signed Kirk Cousins of

(06:08):
you know, one hundred and fifty million dollars. It ended
up being absolutely the right move for them, as it
turned out, but that changed. You know, nobody's mock was
intact after pick number eight last year.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Yeah A percent, Yeah, I mean then you had the
rush up for the other quarterbacks. And then the other
thing is that's where we were expecting the first defender
to come off the board. But yeah, you have the
one change in that one decision, all of a sudden
you have the arms race to grab the rest of
that position. Then of course our receivers and tackles were
involved with that as well, And the first defender doesn't
go out the board until the Colts came on the

(06:40):
clock was a sixteen, So like we ended up breaking
the record for consecutive offensive players out the board to
begin a class, But that was because of terrible.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Terry Fontina and his machinations there.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Well lookie, but he got it right. I mean, you know,
they they had seen enough pre draft from Kirk that
they knew to be worried.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
And yeah, probably shouldn't have given him that money.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
No, they should not have given him that money, as
it turned out, and and Penix ended up being the
right and be in the right pick for them as
a as a although maybe it turns out thor Jj
McCarthy should have been the pick for Atlanta at eight.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
I'm so so happy that Terry Fino.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Made all right, let's dive into tight ends rookie titands.
I think we've managed to go seven minutes into this podcast,
and that's that is okay. And by the way, feel
free to tweet us. You've got other great butterfly effect
movies that we're not thinking of. Well, we'd gladly take
that at this time of year. At thorn Eystrom, at
thor K H. Rock Shuk and at Paul Chargion. Let's

(07:43):
dive into rookie tight ends. My man, it's you know,
we can't We're not going to get another brock Bauers.
I don't think. But I am seeing Tyler Warden Warren
mocked universally, you know, pretty early into the first round.
Talk to me just about the overall class for the
tight end position.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
It's it's very good, uh, Tyler Warren. It's it's one
of those few tight ends that have come out the
last twenty years. You can make a legitimate case that
that guy should be a top ten pick.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, you could, Like you don't need to have to
argue that one hard. Uh.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
And then Colson Lovelin is a surefire first round cross
and they're they're different kinds of guys. Colston is is
a big slot and then Warren's just a chess piece. Fella,
Warren is you you said we don't have a brock bars,
you know, like in this guy, I almost said, not
so fast, my friend, because it Tyler Warren.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
He it's it's sort of a similar skill set, but
he's bigger.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
He's two and a half inches taller than Bowers and
like twenty five pounds heavier. So like it's it's interesting there.
But yeah, even beyond that, you get into day two,
there's I would say four other super duper interesting names
that I know are going to go.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
On day two.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
So like that's you know that you would mention that
five to six number, that that's where we fall in there.
And there's even a couple guys later in that on
day three that I'm like, I like, if I had
to take the dart throw like that guy super intrigues me.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Let's talk about teams that could take a tight end
in day one or two and see you see if
you agree with me on this, Jets the best tight
end right now on Rosters Stone Smart, Jets need a
tight end. Jets need a tight end. Texans Dalton Schultz
just you know, he's not bad, but he also hasn't
been a game changer at the position. And you know,

(09:28):
the Texans with the with the Tank Dell injury, with
Stefan Diggs gone, you know, I can see where they
they could just use a really talented receiving tight end.
You with me on.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
Titands, they need another past another starting pass cutcher. Yeah,
like like you need so like whether that is in
the vein of a big slot tight end or whether
that is just a receiver. But yes, you must add
one more starting pass cutcher. I think at least to
feel good if you're the Texans.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
The Colts, even I have given up on john Woods.
It's killed me to do it. But even I at
this point, you know, like three years after banging the
drum for Johnny Wood since his rookie right, obviously, just
can't count on him. They are arguably the league's weakest
overall team at the position. How about the Titans. Chika
Konku just has not developed into a reliable target for

(10:20):
the Titans, and I could see them potentially of trying
to fill that void, not obviously with the first pick
of the draft, but later on in the.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Draft for sure.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, I would agree with those and as far as
the Colts go, the Colts they came out right to
being the off season. They're like, our biggest off season
goal is to improve the tight end position, and they
didn't do it in free agency.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Folks.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
They are telling you they will take one in the
first round if one of two guys gets there. If
Tyler Warren gets to the Colts pick, you will see
the fastest card seen. And if Tyler Warren is not
there but coltson Loveland is, I think you'll see the
fastest card turn in ever, cause it's like one of Now,
if both those guys are out the board, now, the
Colts are gonna have to figure out Yeah, and then

(11:04):
you're gonna be doing a day two. One of these
interesting guys will be talking about in a second. But yeah,
Colts desperately need one, and they know what's gonna help
rich than the most. It's getting those easy completions and
one of them two guys is going to provide that.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
I'm gonna give you three teams that could do some
succession planning at tight end, the Chiefs with Travis Kelcey,
the Eagles with Dallas Goddard, and the Commanders with zach
Ertz all all all teams that could get like one
more good year out of their tight ends, but then
beginning next year are likely looking to get to get
talent at the tight end position, young talent at the positions.

(11:39):
So Chiefs, Eagles commanders with me on those.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
I am and can I had a couple?

Speaker 1 (11:44):
No? Please?

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Heck yeah, go the Chargers.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Tyler's not the answer.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Yeah, And and Harbaugh obviously loves his twelve personnel offense,
and he loves throwing to the tight end.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
And if Colton Lovelin gets to the charters.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
Pick don Yeah, we're good. Have a quick card turn
in there. And then the other one that I was thinking, Oh,
the Jaguars. I think that the Jaguars are you know,
obviously they caught Evan Ingram, you know, and we talked
about the Brenton Stranger on the previous one. But if
they can get a dude that can advance the ball
for them and make completions easy, I think they'll be

(12:20):
very interested in that.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I'm going to give you two more. The Bears. Cole Comette,
that fifty million dollar contract looks.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
What are you doing right? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (12:28):
I mean yeah, they reached on him. In the draft
and then they did. It's like col Comette's not it.
I could have told you coming out of college.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Come on.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah. And then Saints. You know, Taysom Hill's thirty four
years old. Juwan Johnson and Foster Moreau are rotational guys.
I think the Saints could be in play here for
a time.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Saints.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah, Saints are great, and I think sometimes the reason
people don't give them one in the mocks it's like, oh,
they have so many holes and so you know you
have to take one of the more important positions. But
having all those holes it opens the board up for you.
It's the same as having an awesome roster as having
the depleted roster, because it opens you up for BPA
and the new coach they have there, the offensive minded

(13:04):
head coach. He's going to be looking to get a
guy who can manufacture offense for him in year one
because they don't just don't have a lot of talent there.
So if you can get the free yardage, I think
that's something that they're going to be very interested in.
So Tyler Warren gets to nine, I think you might
see the Saints heavily sniffing.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Around Tyler Warren.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
All right, all right, well let's go to Tyler Warren.
He's your number one, and he's most people's number one
overall tight end. Here, your comp is Jeremy Shockey, which
I loved. I love this camp because I'm old enough
to remember two thousand and two when Jeremy Shockey was
a rookie and got targeted one hundred and twenty eight
times as a rookie. Back then, I don't know that was.

(13:45):
You know, he had almost fine. I've got the numbers
in front of me, nine hundred yards receiving as a
rookie tight end. Back then he finished second in Offensive
Rookie of the Year voting Jeremy Shockey back then. Love
Tyler Warden Warren because in heart, dude is nasty and violent,
and I you don't always get that out of today's

(14:06):
fluid past catching tight ends. This kid is special, Tyler Warren,
I'll let you go from here.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, he sure is.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
And it's it's not really instructive to think of him
as a tight end. He's just, uh, you know, whether
you want to say the offensive weapon, whether you want
to see chess piece, whether you just the guy that
advanced at the ball, but he is incredible at it,
and you have those are the similarities with brought Fowers
where you saw the specialized usage where Georgia would get
him into the backfield, they would hand him the ball,

(14:34):
they would do the ender rounds, they would do all
the different manufactured souff. That's what Penn State started doing
with Tyler Warren and he went absolutely berserk. But to
your point, with the ball in his heads, that kid
runs hard and and there it's not a coincidence. His
hero growing up and he still is here if you
ask him John Riggins. Yeah, Tyler Warren and his father

(14:57):
loved John Riggins. Why did Tyler Horn were the number
forty four at Penn State? Because he remains obsessed with John.
He runs like John Riggins if John Riggins was six
foot six, and.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
You just think of that.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
This kid is not afraid of contact. He will seek
it out and he will put you on your back.
There is not a ton of nuance when he has
the ball. It is it's like in was it an
inception where they had that huge vehicle and it was
going through the streets and hitting you know, the cart.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
And everybody's just flying aside.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Yes, yes, that is Tyler Warren with the ball in
his hands, and they you know, again you just manufactured
the touches for him. So whether it's the slot, you
put him in the boundary, shift him into the backfield,
and then all the cool concepts you can do with him.
One of the Penn State like to take three yards
by they could get the defense off by by having
Tyler Warren, do you know routes intermediate or deep, And

(15:51):
then they would do one where he's in line and
they would start out the concept. He would delay for
one second, like half of a beat, and then he
just goes down the way and like right behind the
center quarterback just flick them the ball and now it's
like you're you're running, but you have a little bit
of a push from the offensive line in front of
you and you're just running between the tackles at that point.

(16:12):
But you manufacture and touches like that, and certainly the
end around things.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
The Wildcat quarterback he.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Did a ton of that stuff and he was incredible
last season. Eight point four yards per carry as a runner.
That's five of them, five point zero came after contact.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
This guy ever three point four yards before a contact,
five after so he don't care.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
He broke eleven tackles on twenty five rushing attempts, so
he's going to throw you off of them. And then
you know, as the receiver, he also wins downfield. The
one quirk with his dimensions he has strangely short arms
for being as big eas as he is. But I'll
tell you this, there was one area of his game
where it absolutely manifest and I'll talk about that in
a second. Down the field. I never saw it. I

(16:53):
never saw as a receiver, the quote unquote lack of
length coming to play because he's so good with his body, right, like,
he has that enormous frame, but he will pinion to
his bag. It's really hard to get around him, right.
It's like like at the catch point for a safety.
It's like trying to get around a cruise ship, right like,
you're not you're not You're not getting around it, and
you're not getting higher in the air than him. So

(17:15):
it doesn't matter that his you know, his arms are
a little bit short than that you think with that,
where it matters is where fantasy owners don't care. It's
it's a lack of reach as a blocker, and it's
one of the reasons he gives effort. He again, he
is happy to bang right like I like contact stuff
like that, and he will come after.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
You as a blocker.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
But he lacks the reach and so when he's in
line that he always has the shortest arms, which means
the other guy gets to dictate the dance every time
he gets a the Tyler Warren. The other dude is
always getting his hands on Tyler Warren first and then
the technique after that. Like he's not great with the
way he uses his hands, and so a lot of
times he sees his chest and and he can get
shucked aside.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
But that's the one sort of nippick you can do
with his game.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
As far as what fantasy owners actually care about, he
is incredible that you put him up with any of
these guys that come out in last ten years. You
could think of him sort of as a hybrid of
Jeremy Shockey and Brock Bowers. But it's Shocky down the field,
intermediate and down the field. It looks just like Shocky,
but the manufacturer touched off the running stuff, the wildcat stuff,

(18:17):
you know, all that sort of different stuff.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
That's what evolts for you. Brock Bowers and last thing charged.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
Tyler Warren came into college as a dual threat quarterback,
an enormous left handed dual threat quarterback, you know, out
of Virginia. Initially he was going to go to Virginia Tech,
and then James Franklin happened to watch his tape and
this is it's interesting, sliding doors. We were talking about
sliding doors. They had a quarterback on the roster at

(18:45):
Penn State at the time that they used in this
very specific way of the short yardage running. They would
have this kid come in off the bench for their
starter at the time, Sean Clifford. That quarterback's name was
Will Levis, and James Franklin knew Sean Clifford's coming back
next year, Will Levis. The time is probably short with
Will Levis, he probably going to transfer out of here
because we're going to start this other So James Franklin,

(19:07):
he was looking around for the big du a threat
quarterback where he could do the you know, the short
yardage stuff that the Blake Bell back in the day
at Oklahoma, the belldoz you know, stuff like that. So
that's why they initially looked at Warren. But he looked
at his movement. Franklin did, and he was like, this
kid's a really good athlete. They requested his basketball tape
and when Franklin saw that, He's like offered the skull.

(19:28):
Get this kid in here. Yeah, this kid is an
amazing athlete. And I think he was on campus for
one day before the coaches said Tyler, he ain't a
quarterback anymore.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
My man, we are about to build you it to
a tight end. And boy did that. I mean it
took a couple of years.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
And so people, you know, there's a lot of people
out there, the analytics community, they do the breakout age
and there are circumstances where that points you at the truth.
There's also circumstances where it points you away from the truth.
And keep in mind with Tyler Warren, tight end is
a slow developing position. Anyway, he went to college having
never played it before. So I just want to give
that contextual benefit of the debt or.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Having caught passes, right, I mean, he was a dual
threat quarterback, so he wasn't even catching that and let
alone trying to block for all the comps from Tyler Warren,
and we spent a ton of time on, but you know,
you didn't mention Gronk, and I just feel like the
part of it that reminds me of Gronk is just
the willingness, the physical play and the willingness to attack tacklers,
which you just don't see from all that many tight ends,

(20:23):
even though it's a physical position, weren't. I think's on
a different level from that. And so I, you know,
I hesitate to compare anybody to Gronk because he's just
so special, but he's, you know, like Gronk. You know,
Gronk was too big for safeties to cover him, and
he was too shifty and fast for linebackers to cover him.
And I feel like that's Tyler Warren's got some of

(20:44):
that in him.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
It's it's a great car as far as the physical
dimensions and as far as the athletic profile in those
physical dimensions, and then the way they look both catching
them all down the field and then as the berserker runners,
those things all scream Gronk and I actually, I I
did flirt with that as a comp The reason I
couldn't do that is Gronk's one of the better blocking
tight ends from the inline position that you'll ever see,

(21:06):
and it's what made them just next next level because
you had that stuff with the ball and then you
had the blocking as well. Warren, that's where he fell
a little bit short. So that's why I ended up
getting off that comp. But yeah, just as far as
with the ball, in those facets in the frame and
the athleticism, absolutely a lot of stuff of Bolk's Gronk.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Let's go to your number two tight end. We've already
mentioned Jim Harbaugh Watts his tight end at Michigan. Colston
Loveland is your number two overall. You've got as comp
as Mark Anders and you've got him going in the
first round.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, yeah, Colson Love.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
It's a very different kind of a tight end than
Tyler Warren. Colson Loveland is your your big slot in
a twelve personnel offense. So this in offense, you already
have your peer blocking in line tight end and then
Colton Loveland is going to take over your slot. But
you can also line them up on the boundary. Michigan
did that I think twenty percent of his snaps, and
you can put him in line just a little bit.

(22:00):
But if you are counting on him to tango with
war daddy defensive ends in the NFL. He is going
to get ragged gulp by that. It's just not his game.
He's a big skyscraper and there is some finesse. He
gives effort as a blocker, and by the way, he's
a very good space blocker. He just overwhelms you with
his length and his effort. But you know, it's sort
of one caveat with that. But as far as the

(22:21):
sort of move tight end the big slot in that
twelve personnel offense, it's hard to do better than this kid.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
He runs all the route tree, all of it. He
runs a full receiver's route tree.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
That is why you can interchangeably switch in between the
slot and the boundary. He knows what he's doing, understands leverage,
understands angles, understands setting defenders up by miming actions that
were done earlier in the game and then playing off
their suppositions of where he's going. Right, So like you
get some of that cool stuff. He creates separation like

(22:53):
the rest of us breathe there. It was like ninety
fifth percentile separation rate during his career. And not only that,
you have this crazy we've been talking about catcher aises.
But this kid's got a crazy one. It's six sex
and then he has the stretch armstrong arms, and he
doesn't drop literally anything, and and there's this is not
an apocryphal story. This is a true story. Colson Loveland's

(23:17):
background will remind you of Roy Hobbs from the natural
Roy Hobbs. He's out there on the family farm and
he's drawn you know, the little square on the side
of the red farm.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
And that's how he's doing his accuracy and stuff like this.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Colson Loveland grew up on a family farm out in
the fields of Idaho, Idaho, and his job Colson Loveland
as a kid, him and his brother, they send him
out to the fields to pick out the big rocks
before the machines got out there.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
To tell wow, the rocks that would chew up the machines. Right,
So Coltson and his brother would go out there huge rocks.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
We're not talking that skipping keebble. We're talking about boulders.
So that that is how that kid developed his hands, right,
I mean, like you want to about callous strong hands
pick up rocks in the field to idahol your entire life.
That that is where that kid came from. So I mean,
it's absolutely ridiculous. And by the way, those callous rock
hard and hands from the fields idle ten ten inches

(24:13):
on that, So I mean he has meek believer baseball
glove sized hands as well, and he doesn't drop anything.
So you have that crazy catch radius, you have the
ability to create separation, and then you have the thing
of strong safety on him or the outside linebacker, the
regular nickel or whatever. You have matchup problems no matter
who you toss at him, especially because he wins down

(24:35):
the field so well, So that that is what he
is bringing to an offense.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Colson Loveland, if he's there for Harbaugh and the Chargers
pick in the first round, they're picking like twenty where
are they they are picking twenty twenty two? That's does it?
Is it automatic? Is it feels automatic?

Speaker 3 (24:52):
It's to me, it feels pretty close. Now.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
One complicating factor is if Kenneth Grant is there as well,
a defensive tackle who Jim Harby brought to Michigan, and
one's called a gift from the football gods. But Jim Jim,
his twenty twenty three team was so good. There's a
couple guys Jim's like, can I get my former player
back right to twenty two? But yeah, if Colson Loveland
gets there, I do not see Jim taking a wide
receiver in the first round. I know people have that

(25:16):
up there as a need, but that's not really hardball's ethos.
But he loves players like this and he'll develop him
at Michigan.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
All right, Just one last thing on Loveland that I
want to hit you with. Sometimes, if a player is
so good at separation, we don't really have a read
on how that player is and going to contested catch
situations because they separated so well that you didn't get
a lot of tape of that player in in contested
catch situations. And I can see where somebody that at

(25:46):
a ninety five percent separation, right, like you're talking about
maybe that's an open question mark on Colson Loveland.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yeah, And it's it's the one part that you can nipick,
especially down the field. His numbers career were not great.
Ten of twenty five career in contesting catch situations. Now
the number is lower because he creates separation so well. Right,
So it's like, you know, sort of the two ends
of it. But he wants to he wants to get
a step or two on you and then finish the

(26:16):
job with that enormous catch radius. Right, it's like the catcher.
It's like a fisherman's net in the ocean kind of
a thing, like just drop it anywhere in here and
I'm coming down with it. And his ability to contort
as well with the body in addition to that. But yeah,
the thing where if the defender happens to be on
the doorstep there and is able to contest that catchpoint,

(26:37):
that is where we have seen some struggles with Colson
Lovelin because he's that big skyscraper and there is sort
of that finesse element.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
He's a tough kid.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
So I don't mean to say that it's just the
way he's winning. It's with movement, it's with that catch radius,
and it's with nohow at the catch point. But when
there's guys in this, for instance, not a tight end
but a wide receiver Tedoroa McMillan is he he wants
you around him at the catchpoint and he doesn't care
if you want to jostle. In fact, he loves it.

(27:06):
You try to come through his back, no problem, You're
not going to break his concentration. You're you're not going
to break his process. Colson Lovelin's different, different like that.
And one way you can if you can stay with
him up to the point of the catchpoint. Easier said
than done, but jostling with him there and then and
then trying to get it to the point where then
the ref one and throw the flight, but your your
jarring a little bit. That's one way that you can

(27:28):
try to take the pull out of the middle of
the circus ten at the catchpoint.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
When we come back from our break, we're gonna find
out why the player who shattered the single season FBS
records for both tight end receptions and tight end receiving
yards is not tight end number three yet. And we'll
find out more about him when we come back to
Fantasy Football Weekly. Welcome back segment number two Fantasy Football Weekly.

(28:00):
I'll Charting and thorwn Eistrom with you. Thanks for listening today.
Next week we'll break down the quarterback position, cam Ward
and others. How many how many quarterbacks do you do
you you've got two quarterbacks in the first round, right,
I don't think your MOC has got three in the
first round, correct, Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:15):
Yeah, I'm at too, Jackson.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Derek could go at the end of the first but yeah,
I you know, early second rounder for me, Jackson.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, we'll do the deep dive on that next week.
Let's go to your number three ranked, number ten, number
three ranked tight end, Terrence Ferguson from or Again. Your
comp here is Kate Aughton. Tell me more about Terrence Ferguson.
I'm gonna be honest, this is not a guy that
I've that I've seen a lot on. So I need
you to get me up to speed here. I I yeah,

(28:42):
get me up to speed on Terrence Ferguson. Help me out.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Yeah, I'm I'm definitely a little bit higher on Terrence
Ferguson than I think the rest of the industry. He
probably closer to tight end five in the consensus, but
I just really like his game because it is fully
fleshed out and the versatility is there as well.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
But six five to have two forty seven.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
He plays a little bit above two fifty and then
a fabulous athlete. I mean he was the best test
an athlete that we had the NFL combine four six
three forty one five to five ten yards split high
high end thirty nine inch vertical was incredible.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Over ten inch that's crazy guy, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
And then you have the really long wingspan with him
to over eighty one of the longest wingspans in this
tight end class, and it's one of the few guys
that has true can absolutely play the in line. And
then he's super comfortable in the slot as well, So
you have versatility, whether it's the eleven personal offense, whether
it's a twelve personal offense, and then where is he deployed.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Not a ton of tight end tight ends in the
class you can.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
Say that about. You can absolutely say it about Ferguson.
He gives you effort as a blocker, not a crushing
blocker or anything, but you can rely on him in line.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
And then I like his hands.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Five percent drop rate over one hundred and eighty three
career targets really good. Saw him quite a bit spearing
the ball outside of his frame. He's good at positioning
his body and then for those air and throw sort
of fishing them all. So he becomes the quarterback's best
friend with that. But yeah, it's you know, I think
maybe it's just there's a lack of sex appeal there
because some of the other guys had higher numbers than him,

(30:12):
or they were talked about more these different things, and
it's like Terrence Ferguson is just sort of lurking. I
think he's gonna go higher than people think once we
get to the end of April.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, but you don't have him going in the first round.
You've got Warren Lovelin going in the first round, but
not Ferguson. Do you feel like there's he is a
day he is a round two tight end.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
I think he'll go in round two, yes, and if
he doesn't, he is gonna go very quickly when round
three opens.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Okay, I've seen him mocked all over the second round
to a bunch of different teams when we've already highlighted
some of the different landing spots. Thanks, let's go to
one of the players that has the most amazing possible
pedigree to enter to enter the NFL as you could
ever ask. Now if I remember this correctly, because it's
been a while, Fame linebacker Jason Taylor married the sister

(31:04):
of Hall of Fame defensive end Zach Thomas. Am I
do remember that correct and they had a baby. Mason
Taylor is that right.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Well, Mason, he's he's Jason's son.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
He's Jason's son, right and and uncle is Zach is
uncle Zach? So didn't okay, right, So didn't Jason marry
Zach's sister? Then? If I got this correct, I think I.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Did, was you know I or else it was Zach
with his sister, But that part I don't know.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
That's I think. Yeah, all right, So regardless, he's the
son of Jason Taylor and the nephew of Zach Thomas,
which you know, both amazing players. Uh. Here's the one
of the stats I got from that I'm stealing directly
from your article at fantasylife dot com. One drop on
seventy nine targets last year for Mason Taylor.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Very good hands obviously, very very good hand, big hands
as well, and and he's got the frame as well,
you know, I mean like it came from the DNA.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Game from absolutely incredible. And it's funny. He he looks
strikingly like his father.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
You know, we were down there in Mobile and Jason
Taylor was probably on the sidelines all week, and then
after practice, you know, we got to walk on the
field and you'd walk by the two and it's it
was started the spit and image thing. So so he
he was Mason was blessed with with a very similar
frame and similar athleticism. He's a ninety second percentile athlete
with the test that that he has already put in.

(32:32):
So so that stuff's all good. And and you know
we mentioned the hands as well. It's a it's an
interesting profile on the field, and it's there's some stuff
that it was hard for me to kind of put
my finger on the in line. He's he's an acceptable
and up blocker there that that he can play in
line in the NFL. And the thing he's the best
at Mason and and maybe this comes just from being

(32:55):
around the game as long as he was, you know,
it's like, uh, you know, it's like when you're a kid,
you're out there, you're the ball boy and then you're
running rouse for it, you know whatever. But like he
was really good when LSU, they would go down the
field and then you start getting the defense and moving
back a little bit and then they do like a
play action concept and boot out and Garrett Neusmyer their quarterback.
The timing that he had with Mason Taylor on those

(33:17):
things like Mason would do, like the hard ship. You're
pretending your run bocking, but then you get out and
it's like five years upfield. You cut the clean corner
out and then you turn around. And the ball was
always on his hands like they just had a really
good sort of chemistry, and he never dropped the ball.
So that's why why my you know, kept throwing it
to him. But the interesting thing about the profile as
a receiver was LSU rarely sent.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Him down the field. And that's what you can see
it both. You can see it two ways.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
Is it they didn't trust him to do that or
is it that their receivers were really good going down
the field. I mean, we know the receivers that he
played with, so we know that. The second, it's certainly true.
And is that the reason they didn't send it down
the field because they already had guys that could do that.
So it's one interesting thing to keep in mind. The
other one is for a whose usage was what it was.
You know, his A dot was on the lower end

(34:04):
for this class. I mentioned the way that they predominantly
use him off of that hiss uh the A dot you.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Know, I can't pull it up real quick here.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
But but anyway, for a guy with that usage, the
yards after the catch was not what you would think
it would be. I was a little bit disappointed by that.
It was a little bit stationed to station with that.
But I was looking at the Senior Bowl. You're the
running after the catch. That's not something that you're going
to see much there because the way the practices are.
But you got to see a lot of the downfield

(34:34):
stuff because the one on ones.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
He looked good down the field and we didn't get.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
To see it as much on his LSU tape, So
that was something again actively monitoring. And he made some
nice contests to catches down the field at the Senior Bowl.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
So it's not something in his value, as you say,
can't do it.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
They just didn't use him like that at LSU, and
we did get to see a little bit at the
Senier Bowl for whatever it's worth, but you get at
least the efficiency as a receiver and a guy in
a timing concept off defense that is going to be
super reliable. He's always going to be at the spot
the exact millisecond that that the concept calls for, and
he's not going to drop the ball for you, and

(35:10):
then you get the the inline frame, you get a
guy who can do a little bit of blocking for you.
I just think the ceiling probably isn't quite as high
as maybe you know, between the name and between where
he's coming from, the pedigree, the athletic profile. I don't
think it's quite as high as that stuff suggests. But
this guy is going to be a reliable starter for.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
A long time.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
What round do you have Mason Taylor going in?

Speaker 3 (35:30):
To me, it would be laid second, early third for Mason.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Okay, all right, that's uh, that's that's mostly where I
see him getting mocked, including potentially two to the Seahawks.
So does a team we didn't really talk about, they've
got NOA Fan. Do you think the teams are ready?
Do you think Seahawks might be ready? We're finally thrown
in the towel on Noah Fan. Is that possible?

Speaker 3 (35:50):
They they should? Yeah, they should, definite.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
I mean it hurts my heart to say, is a
guy who graduated from from Iowa be yeah, I'm I'm
I'm sorry out I know if I was, I was,
I was a little bit lower on No.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
A Fan his draft class.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
But for them, they have a J Barner as that
crushing sort of blockers, so you can take care of
in line. The Seahawks would be a team that they
would be on the short list for one of these
other slot only guys and maybe the next guy we're
going to talk about. There's not every team could take him.
If Seahawks could absolutely consider it. If you're looking to

(36:21):
a Jack fan.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
All right, So here's the answer on on Mason Taylor
and his father. So I've got I've got it all.
I got it all figured out. Now. It's taken me
a little bit to get here, but we're here. Jason
Taylor did in fact, Mary Zach Zach Thomas's sister, and
her name was Katina. You didn't need to know that,
but you do. They had three kids together. Unfortunately they

(36:45):
ended up divorced in twenty fifteen. Taylor has since remarried,
by the way, and they've got they've had they got
a baby boy in August of twenty twenty one. And
I will.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Almost assuredly evaluate him.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, exactly. And then Taylor's sister is the former news
anchor on The Herd with Colin Coward on Fox Sports One.
Who knew?

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Oh wait, Joy Taylor.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, Joy Taylor. I had no idea Joy Taylor in
the family, all the family. Yes. The next one up
for you is Isaiah Taylor is playing college football at
Arizona according to Wikipedia here, So you may end up
breaking him down at some point.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Well, we got all the tailors in the pipeline.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Absolutely, Okay, let's go to your fifth rank to a
tight end and this will be our last one for
this show. Harold Fannon played for Bowling Green and that
ends up changing the entire conversation that we're going to
have about him. Insane productivity. As I mentioned going into
the break, he set the single season FBS record at
the tight end position in receptions and receiving yards one

(37:56):
hundred and seventeen receptions last year, fifteen hundred receiving yards,
and he set three different pff ERA records yards after contact,
miss tackles, force, and receiving grade overall. And so help
me understand why Harold Fannin is not tight end one
in this class.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
Because he's not gonna he's not gonna block for you
in line, or you probably should never play him in line.
You're gonna have to yank the slot receiver out there.
It's a you know, a twelve personnel offense type thing.
You have your inline guy, yeah, and then Fannin is
gonna you're gonna take over the slot thing, but you're
gonna play them all over the place.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
You're gonna shift them all over the place.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
He's the guy that's gonna give you the tell before
the snap of if the defense is a manner and zone,
you know, depending on if they're trailing them and that
sort of stuff. And then you shift them around too
to get to get him into advantageous matchups. Right, I mean,
that's that's what you're looking to do with Harold Fannin.
It's he's a shadeover six threes two forty one, and
of course he's undersize, but just about the exact same
dimensions as Evan Evan Ingram, so you know, just for

(38:54):
for some context there.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
But very skilled receiver Harrold fann and he can win
down the field.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
He's got to tracking the ball over his shoulders, extremely
reliable hands.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
I mean, he doesn't he doesn't drop the ball whatsoever.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Over his career, only dropped two point two percent of
his catchuble targets.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
So you have that going for you.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
And then as far as the content, you know, of
course it's bowling Green, you know, so he gets dinged
for that, and he gets dinged for being a little
bit smaller. But the thing I'll tell you, especially last
year Church, you know, they're in another human being on
his plant watch more Max than I and Hail mash
and and watching Bawling Green was super fun because it's
just get the ball to Harrold, get the ball to well.

(39:34):
The defense knew that their entire game plan was get
the ball to Harrold. So when they were playing the
mac opponents, of course it's not you know a lot
of times non NFL.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Defenders, but he was double team every play.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
Yeah, all right, So like against those opponents, and then
the times when they got to step up in competition,
Harrold Fann and lit up Texas A and m Harrol
Fann and lit up Penn State.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Those defenses were about as good as we.

Speaker 4 (39:55):
Had in college football, and Harrold fan lit them, bolted up,
and they knew what was coming to This kid has
beaten NFL defenders when he has gotten to play them consistently.
So I mean those numbers, you know, they they speak
for themselves. It's a guy who's really good against zone.
The overall yards per run was nearly three. He also
does the contested catch things. He's good at using his body.

(40:18):
The thing of you know, with the frame and the
boxing out extends to the ball again, doesn't drop it.
You can do a lot of things with him as
a receiver, but you have to have the creative staff
and you have to know his limitations. You don't want
to put him in this in line and have him
go against a ward daddy power end. I will say, though,
that doesn't mean he can't block. His kid's actually a
good blocker. Okay, it's just he can't do it in

(40:41):
line against the power because it's he's gonna get Trump carded.
But it's a guy who gives you fabulous effort and
so like as the space guy, when he's out in
the slot, you do not have.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
To worry about that. He will take care of the nickel.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
And then when they shift him into the backfield because
they love doing that too, then he becomes the lead blocker.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
He's good at that too.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
It's just you can't put him in in line at
the NFL level just because of the power discrepancy.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
But yeah, this is.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
A player that I really really like, and I think,
you know, he finds the right situation, he's gonna catch.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
A lot of balls.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Harold Fannin When I when I watch him, I I
feel like I'm watching a large wide receiver more than
a small tight end. Do you feel like that's fair?

Speaker 4 (41:20):
I do, because he can he can do so much.
It's it's not just the peer. Oh, you have to
manufacture the touch for him.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Again.

Speaker 4 (41:26):
He can win intermediate with the route running and the
ball skills, and he can win down the field too.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
You can throw a lollipops up to him.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
And they do interesting things with his routes too, you know,
like some times they would do like a delayed sort
of like a wheel route to get him down the
sideline where they knew it would be the one on
one covers. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, you're dialing it up
at that point. You were tossing it up to Harold
fan and one on one and again those ball scales play.
It's it's impressive for me with the tight ends in
college when you see over the shoulder thing and the

(41:54):
guys that are natural at that, because that's it's a
rare trade for college tight ends he's got it.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
So, like you know, some of the I get the trepidation.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
About the profile, and I acknowledge the limitations of it.
But for a creative offensive staff and you run the
twelve personnel offense, you're gonna be able to do a
whole lot of things with that kid.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Yeah, I'm trying to. I'm just trying to find the
downside here in Harold Fannin And so I just get
the feeling if he drops into the right spot latter
part of round two, where there's some really good teams
at the obviously the bottom of the at the at
the bottom of the round, and I just get the feeling,
this kid's gonna be productive with somebody if he gets
into the right thing.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Yeah, I mean the Seahawks would make a lot of sense,
you know, like we're just talking about an offensive type
that he would be awesome. And I don't know that
they can take him because they lack picks.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
But our local Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Now, if you have Hawkinson and then they signed Rondell
Moore as well, so you have some sort of supervolous
things there. But that's the sort of offense, sort of
the creative mind that you want to go in and
it guy with the twelve personnel leanings there. You know,
they have Josh Oliver and then they have him sometimes,
but they use the big slot in that offense what TJ.
Hawkinson is, but hero Fantom would be. That's the sort

(43:05):
of offense that he should be playing in.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
You know, if if things don't drop for Jim Harbaugh
right in the right way for him to get love
him right. So now eight pick eighty six Chargers that
could be Harold fannin.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
One hundred percent. Yeah, and they signed our boy Gronklin,
but like short term and and and yeah, I mean
like fan and again yeah for for a guy in
Harbad that likes to create the mismatches out of this slot.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
With a guy like that fan and can get it.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
N It's not the same thing as with with Lovelan
with the catch the enormous catch raids. Yet Fanny you
can do the different stuff with him.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Thor awesome as always. Thanks so much for your time
and getting us a lot smarter and tight ends. And
next week let's stop quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Let's do it all.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Right, can't wait. Thanks my man, Thank you for listening, everybody.
We'll be back next week For more Fantasy Football Weekly.
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