
Ian Hartitz takes fan questions in this fantasy football mailbag, featuring inquiries on Cam Ward, Matthew Golden, Keon Coleman, draft strategy, and more.

Last week I asked the lovely fantasy football diehards on Twitter to send me questions on anything and everything.
*Law and Order music*
These are their stories.
xEP Network | Projections & Analytics: Which WR has a sneaky shot of being a TD demon this season?
So the 2025 version of TD Jesus Nick Westbrook-Ikhine? Love it—here are my top-three candidates with a current ADP outside of the top-50 options at the position to fulfill the "sneaky" part of the question:
Kelly Regan: In auction drafts do you go with a balanced approach or a stars and scrubs approach?
I conveniently just published an auction article highlighting some tips and tricks for the format! You can check that out here.
That said: I generally prefer a more balanced approach. You won't see me coughing up twice as much cheddar for someone like Ja'Marr Chase ($66 in our Auction Values) when it's possible to get two of guys like Nico Collins, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Drake London, A.J. Brown, and Ladd McConkey for the same price. A similar sentiment is true at RB; I feel like the STEEP dropoff in price from the upper-elite tier to the next batch of ballers is a bit unwarranted.
Of course, this depends on the draft; a more mindful and cautious room could have me chasing Chase (ha!) if the price point winds up being something closer to $45, but more times than not I try to stick to a plan around modest price points and accordingly don't make a habit of getting into bidding wars.
Jeremy - r/fantasyfootball mod: If you could start an 8-man league with 1 NFL player and 6 non-Fantasy Life analysts, who are you including?
The player would have to be Cordarrelle Patterson. After all, I am unofficially the official President of the Cordarrelle Patterson fan club. Either way: Getting to play with the NFL's GOAT kick returner (not punts, chill out Bears fans) and overall baller playmaker would be an honor and a privilege.
As for the non-Fantasy Life analysts:
John Byrne: Following Darren Waller’s shock return, which retired running back could come back and be an RB1? Probably a college’s all-time leading rusher, if I had to guess myself.
People forget the great Duke Johnson is The U's all-time leading rusher!
You know who doesn't forget? The guy with the Underdog/Sleeper/Fast Draft handles "FREEDUKEJOHNSON".
Mike Sanda: With LAC and JAC adding intriguing immediate-starter rookie WRs and both also likely having improved run games …
You can make the argument that pretty much any top-12 WR or RB is being drafted near their ceiling, but in BTJ and Ladd's cases we actually saw both exceed these current ADPs during later portions of last season:
I wouldn't necessarily confuse early WR ADP with the potential to smash win totals, although I did happen to take the over for both the Chargers and Jaguars in my team preview series, so "Bolt up" and "Duuuvall"!
DCam: I have the 5th pick coming up and my heart just says no one can break fantasy like CMC. Yes, history of injuries, etc, but how exactly do you project the likelihood of past injuries to future injuries in your rankings? We did the same thing with Saquon last year & you know …
CMC does lead all RBs and WRs in PPR points per game … ever … so I would say your heart is on to something!
As for the injury history: I agree that it's generally a bit overstated for certain players. While most would have to admit McCaffrey is at more injury risk than the average back, we shouldn't exactly treat this idea as a binary "you either are or aren't injury prone." Note that Jonathan Taylor (16) has actually missed more games than McCaffrey (14) over the past three seasons.
I appreciate the work that Draft Sharks does in giving each player a specific chance of injury–CMC's 63.6% mark is indeed higher than guys like Bijan Robinson (41.9%) and Jahmyr Gibbs (62.6%), but is that discrepancy really enough to fade the aforementioned reality that the longtime stud boasts more fantasy upside than pretty much anyone else on the planet? Ultimately, learned doctors believe McCaffrey is fully healthy ahead of 2025 and are willing to bet on him. I am, too!
Alex Parham: Cam Ward final rookie season numbers, does Tyjae Spears take on more of the share with Tony Pollard, and what do we think about Matthew Golden? Not a Titans fan, just have a questionable few players on the team. #GoPackGo
First up: No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. Fantasy Life Projections have Ward passing for 3,493 yards and 20.4 TDs. While these seem like modest enough numbers, they would rank 18th and 19th in NFL history among rookie QBs. While the future certainly looks bright for the Titans' gunslinger, I'll settle with 3,620 yards and 21 TDs inside an offense with very little firepower outside of Calvin Ridley.
As for Spears and Pollard: It's tough to be completely sure of the split considering both dealt with various injuries throughout the year. Accordingly, the first four games of the season are probably our best bet when searching for a good sample, albeit even this stretch isn't perfect due to Spears playing through an ankle issue.
Either way: Both Pollard (94% snaps in Week 12) and to a lesser extent Spears (65% in Week 17 before being ruled out with a concussion) are an injury to the other away from assuming a legit every-down workhorse role. This makes their respective RB3/RB4 price tags pretty enticing considering the FLEX-with-benefits upside to both. I've preferred Spears (RB41) to Pollard (RB27) due to the latter back going around guys with similar volume in better offenses like Isiah Pacheco and Brian Robinson, but both generally profile as the sort of zero-RB targets managers should be looking to target in the mid-to-late rounds.
And finally Packers rookie WR Matthew Golden: Mr. 4.29 should earn a starting spot sooner rather than later inside a room that figures to be missing Christian Watson (knee) for the first half (or more) of the year, although we shouldn't completely count out the other involved parties. Personally, I have been drafting Jayden Reed a bit more often at their similar ADPs, but both are talented enough inside a perennially good-to-great offense to warrant exposure at their affordable WR4 price tags.
Wetkittybandit: f*ck it … QB stats: Bortles vs. Trubisky and Levis vs. Lock
Now we're getting somewhere!
The Blake Bortles and Mitchell Trubisky efficiency numbers are eerily similar. This makes me feel even better about calling Trubisky "Midwest Bortles" over the years.
As for Will Levis and Drew Lock: I prefer to look at PFF's big-time throw and turnover-worthy play rate metrics to get an accurate play-style portrait of these two gunslingers. Neither should be confused with a "good" NFL QB, but each has supplied plenty of entertainment over the years for better and (more often) worse. You know you're doing something right … and wrong … when you're this close to Jameis Winston on pretty much any chart.
Jordan Harmelink: Which TEs are off the board before you say, "welp....guess I'm streaming TE every week"
Let's go down the list of current Underdog ADP:
Overall, I'd draw the line at consistently feeling GREAT about your TE after Kittle, while the streaming line for me is after Engram and Njoku, whom I personally actually have ranked ahead of Kelce, Andrews, and Warren.