We have reached the dog days of summer, which coincide with Fantasy Draft Silly Season. It's the time of year when your favorite (and not-so-favorite) fantasy analysts are running out of takes. We've dug through as many advanced stats from last season as one possibly can. We've seen more slow-motion highlights than any person should reasonably ingest. We've parsed beat reporter and athlete tweets down to the letter, trying to find anything resembling a clue as to roles and usage. Simply put, we're jonesing for actual football so we can give you actual analysis.
Alas, the Quest for Knowledge rolls on. Which brings us to another edition of fantasy football's favorite game show -- Hype Train or Smokescreen?! We ask the question: "Does this story have any fantasy relevance? Or are we chasing our tails?"
The real answer: We should watch the games and see how it plays out. But that's no fun, is it? Instead, let's dive into a few headlines, match them up with what we've seen and read and find some signal inside the noise.
Hype train
1) Ben Johnson praises "locked in" Caleb Williams after preseason outing.
I will admit to a bit of confirmation bias here. I've been an unabashed proponent of the Bears offense this offseason. Yes, I've seen the reports of Williams looking uneven in camp. And I've seen the video of Williams missing the net. I remain undaunted. After all, isn't that what training camp and the preseason are for, especially when you're learning a new offensive system?
There will still be some bumps in the road for this offense in the early part of the season. Johnson is experimenting with moving his receivers around. They'll also try to integrate a couple of new pieces in rookies Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland. The key piece of the puzzle is a quarterback who feels confident in the pocket and knows where to go with the ball.
That's what we saw -- albeit in limited action -- last weekend against the Bills. We know that the talent is there. The next step is refining it within the context of the offensive scheme. I still believe this is the year the Bears have their first 4,000-yard passer. We just need to see Williams be more consistent.
2) Sean Payton on Troy Franklin making Year 2 jump: "It's happening, and I'm excited."
Last season in fantasy circles, there was some hope that Franklin could be a deep sleeper. The story went "blah blah ... college teammates with Bo Nix ... blah blah." That didn't work out so well. Franklin appeared in 16 games last season but made only six starts and played 37 percent of Denver's offensive snaps. That translated to 28 catches for 263 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Franklin's prospects seemed to dim further in April when the Broncos spent a third-round pick on Illinois receiver Pat Bryant. It added one more player to an already-crowded receiver room. That's not great. But things might not be as bleak as they seem. While the Broncos are sorting through a number of wideouts, few roles are locked down outside of Courtland Sutton's.
That's reason enough to hope that Franklin can stand out among the crowd. It's encouraging that his head coach is talking him up. Then again, Payton said similar things about Marvin Mims Jr. last year and then proceeded to play him on less than 30 percent of the offensive snaps. There's also the part about Payton not liking our fantasy teams. In this instance, I'm choosing to take the coach at his word and consider this a glass-half-full situation.
3) Lions GM Brad Holmes heaps praise on rookie WR Isaac TeSlaa.
When fantasy folks started talking about their favorite picks from the NFL draft, it was only the true draftniks that mentioned TeSlaa. It wasn't an obvious choice. He was the No. 3 target in a mediocre Arkansas passing offense last fall. But when the Lions spent a third-round pick on him, the buzz started to grow. The positive reports about TeSlaa during training camp just added more fuel to the fire.
Holmes has stoked the flames even more, lauding TeSlaa for "playing wide receiver like how we like our guys to play." It doesn't hurt that the rookie grew up in Michigan as a Lions fan.
But before you go all in on spending a late-round pick on TeSlaa, it's worth noting that a large part of Holmes' praise had to do with the wideout's blocking skills -- going so far as to compare that part of his game to Amon-Ra St. Brown. There are a lot of pass-catchers in the Lions' offense, so multiple things would need to happen for the rookie to be viable. But if his ability to contribute in the run game helps him get on the field, he should be worth monitoring in the event of an injury in Detroit.
Smoke screen
1) DeMeco Ryans encouraged by RB Nick Chubb's "physical" play in preseason debut with Texans.
Chubb was arguably the NFL's best pure running back at his peak. Sadly, we were robbed of seeing how high that peak could go because of a pair of severe knee injuries. The last time we saw Chubb on the field, he was a far cry from the power runner we had come to know. It was with a whimper that Chubb's time ended in Cleveland.
Two years removed from a devastating knee injury, Chubb has resurfaced in Houston, but even the most fervent fans have reason to approach this comeback with skepticism. He is approaching his 30th birthday -- already a precarious time for running backs -- and has played in just 10 games in the past two seasons.
As a football fan, it's great to hear and see that Chubb is running better than he was earlier in camp. As a fantasy manager, it's still not enough to get me back on board even as the mystery about Joe Mixon's foot injury deepens. The Texans were in the bottom half of the league in run play percentage last year. They also used a fourth-round pick on USC rusher Woody Marks in the draft. It's likely that Chubb gets the lead opportunity if Mixon misses time, but there's still too much uncertainty with both player and team to feel really comfortable.
2) Bengals' Zac Taylor on WR Mitchell Tinsley after two-TD night: "Baller."
It's always a cool story when an undrafted free agent finds his way into an NFL roster spot. The Bengals are hoping that's the case with Tinsley, who spent the past two seasons in the Commanders organization, mostly on the practice squad. Now with Cincinnati, he got a little bit of revenge in last week's preseason game.
Tinsley had five catches for 73 yards and two touchdowns against his former squad. That was more than enough for Taylor to call him a "baller." Before you start doing too much research, it's worth noting that much of Taylor's postgame quote about Tinsley was heavy on coachspeak:
- "He's become a guy that everybody really respects in the locker room."
- "He just goes out there and just works."
- "He created the opportunities for himself."
Nice, but not tremendously insightful about the player. The other thing working against Tinsley is a wide receiver room filled with obstacles. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins sit atop Joe Burrow's trust tree. Behind them sit Andrei Iosivas, Jermaine Burton, and Charlie Jones. Tinsley might have earned a spot on the Bengals roster, but he's miles away from fantasy relevance just yet.
3) Kyle Shanahan confident in kicker Jake Moody after bounce-back performance.
Marcas, are you really writing about a kicker? I am. Please don't go. I promise this will be worthwhile.
Do you have a 49ers fan in your life? Ask them how they feel about Moody. The response will likely be NSFW. The expectations have been high since Shanahan and John Lynch used a third-round pick on Moody in 2023. His rookie season went well enough. His sophomore campaign? Not so much.
Moody tied for ninth in field goals attempted last year. He was also near the bottom of the list in field goal percentage. At times this summer, it seemed like Moody was kicking for his job. At others, it seemed like the front office would back him no matter what. After last week's 5-of-6 performance against the Raiders, it looks like we're in for another year of Mood swings.
That's important because the Niners attempted the third-most field goals in the league last year. That means Moody had plenty of chances to be impactful for fantasy managers. (By the way, if you still have kickers in your league, I salute you. Stay strong.) With San Francisco being one more receiver injury away from holding a fan raffle to earn snaps, more three-pointers could be possible early in the season. Moody could be a tempting option based on potential volume. Just ask yourself if you have the stomach to watch.
Marcas Grant is a fantasy analyst for NFL.com and a man who wishes he knew a little more about HVAC repair. Send him your heating and cooling tips or fantasy football questions on Bluesky @marcasg.bsky.social or TikTok at marcasgrant.