Peter Schrager reveals Nos. 5-1 of his Top 10 breakout players of 2024 | 'GMFB'

that. That's memory lane. It's time to now unveil the top five of my 2024 list. If you're watching at home, it's an annual tradition we do here on the show. I like to think I've got pretty good accuracy. Let's go through six through ten, which we revealed on Wednesday. Starting off with boom number ten. Jaleel McLaughlin out of Denver. Punter. First time a punter has ever made the list. Tori Taylor, the Aussie for the bears. Khalil Shakir, the new number one in Buffalo. Malcolm Koonce You've never heard of him. He's going to have ten sacks. Put it in the books. And number six Deonte Banks, he is the Giants number one corner. Now let's go five through one. Here we go I talked to all the coaches all the GMs. Here's what we do. We start with number five who's number 32 on the Lions. That is their starting safety Brian Branch six feet 200 pounds out of Alabama. Second year in the league Brian Branch was all over the field last season. Played in 15 games, had 74 tackles, three interceptions. He led Detroit with 13 passes defended and he is going to be the man calling the shots from the middle for this talented and decorated young Lions defense. You're looking for a game breaker, Brian Branch in year number two. Remember last year they had all those rookies? Brian Branch is going to step up and I'm talking Pro Bowl season this year for this guy out of the safety spot. Flies all over the field. One of Nick Saban favorite players on defense that he ever had. And now branch is going to make Aaron Glenn's defense, seeing as he's the guy calling the shots from the back of the defensive backfield. Number four going to Tampa who's number zero on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That's. Yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea yea. Darby if you liked me yelling Puka Nacua all last season, I'm going to be saying yea yea Darby all this season he plays linebacker but he could also play d-end if you need him. Six three, 270 pounds. 25 years old out of Louisville. Friend of the show last year as he had a breakout rookie season third round pick. He had seven and a half sacks last year that led the Buccaneers. Now, what do you do this season? How do you go with this? Here's my bold take Yaya Darby is going to have 15 sacks this season. Wow 15. He might lead the league. Put it in the books put it in the books Yaya. My favorite players. Collegia Canty also a draft pick from last year working the inside, working the inside and of course I've got Yaya wearing number zero coming on the outside. I'm loving it. Yaya Diaby is a breakout player. Number three. Who is the Cardinals logo? Who is that? It's a Cardinals team. We don't talk much. Cardinals. We don't. And we don't talk much. Cardinals tight ends. That is Trey McBride okay. Trey McBride six foot four, 245 pounds. Entering his third season. Do you know that Trey McBride last year had 81 catches on a forgettable Cardinals team? Four wins that had four wins and didn't have Kyler for many games. And it was Josh Dobbs and it was some other dudes. Trey McBride is now entering the third year of his career. Trey McBride is going to have a breakout season. You're going to see his name atop the list of targets, receptions, receiving yards, this this new this new little Kyler Murray offense that is now really his second season in this offense. Now he's finally healthy. I'm hearing things out of Arizona. He loves that Marvin Harrison. He loves him. That's been unbelievable. He likes that Michael Wilson on the outside out of Stanford. But Trey McBride might be the dude that makes these big plays Colorado State we love Trey McBride's story. We've heard it and he is going to emerge in year number three, which leads to number two. Okay. Another guy that I've been very high on all summer long. You love this guy. I'm big on Kenneth Walker. Yeah, you are Kyle I'm big on Kenneth Walker. I think Kenneth Walker, entering his third year, is about to have a huge breakout season. We're talking workload. Give me the rock bell cow type year in Seattle. Okay Walker, this is a dude who has had over 1000 scrimmage yards in each of his first two seasons. So what is breakout? If he's already done that now I'm talking like top of the top of the top of the list on all these running back lists. I go back to 2021. Mike McDonald was a defensive coordinator at some school called Michigan. The running back for Michigan State that day was Kenneth Walker. Kenneth Walker went for 195 and five touchdowns. Do you know who the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks is right now? Mike McDonald. He was the DC of Michigan that day. He saw it up close and personal. And he knows what this guy can do if he could stay healthy. Look at those biceps. I mean he is a physical freak. He is a specimen and he is going to be the workload in this Seattle offense before we reveal number one, let me give a little, little build up a preamble. Kyler Murray's been number one on this list. Okay? CeeDee lamb has been number one on this list. Patrick Mahomes has been number one on this list. Number one on my list of breakout players for the 2024 season is a rookie, and he's a rookie quarterback, but he's not the one everyone might expect. The number one breakout player for 2024 will be Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden. Let's go Daniels. Let's go roll the footage. This dude is made up of everything you would want in a franchise quarterback. And he is well ahead of schedule. If you want to question like well, you're just throwing it. I'll say it like it. I love Kliff Kingsbury. He's a good friend of mine. I love Dan Quinn, pal of mine. I love everything about what I'm hearing out of Washington this summer, and it's been a quiet buzz under the halo of the Caleb talk, which is fine. There's no hard knocks cameras. He's only played a few games. This one I didn't like. Get out of bounds. Jayden. What are we doing running the ball like this? Trying to make the number one on the list. He's my number one player. I think he's going to blow people away with just how far along he already is. And look at that size. Six foot four, 210 pounds. He can run, but he can also throw that deep pass. The Heisman Trophy winner from last year. This is hallowed ground here. I don't take this lightly. I like to think that I speak to just about every team and talk to a lot of coaches and GM's, and if I give you that number one player, I actually am not just saying it, I believe it. I think Jayden Daniels is going to be our offensive rookie of the year, and I think he might have one of those breakthrough rookie seasons that we saw, like C.J. Stroud had a year ago. Here's a look at my top ten breakout players from the 2024 season in one list. Digest it all, take it in. You got your fantasy drafts this weekend. Go big on all these guys if you want. If you believe me. And I think Jayden Daniels is going to shock some folks with just how far along he is as a rookie quarterback, we're talking Cam Newton breakout season as a rookie. We're talking C.J. Stroud type stuff where it's oh my gosh, Jayden's already there. That's what I'm thinking. Akbar. We go back to you in the studio in Los Angeles. A lot of work put into this. Yeah I love to surprise you guys with it. I don't think you had the list beforehand, so nope. Akbar what do you say? Especially Jayden Daniels, number one on the list. Well, you know how much I love Jayden Daniels. So I was really, really happy to see that he made number one. I thought you was going to forget about my boy. I don't know him, but I thought you were going to forget about him. So well done. But you went deep and you really educated me on the West African freak. Yes Yaya Diallo I hadn't I wasn't really familiar with him, but now I was starting to look him up. I'm going, oh, I see what you're going. I see where you're going with this one. He could really elevate the bucks defense. I see you going with the Yaya. I'm not going to go Yaya but I'm going to go Kenneth Walker the third. And that's not only because I'm from Seattle, but mainly because of the mainly because of the standpoint this dude is nasty, okay? He is shifty. He's able to catch the rock out of the backfield. He's able to get downhill and make somebody miss in a phone booth. And he has a defensive head coach. We know if we know anything about defensive head coaches is they value the possession of the ball and they want to make sure that their defense is on the field. The least amount is possible. Peter, I know everyone is on the Lions bandwagon at this point. It is firmly secured that they are going to have a great season after what they did last year. But like Peter putting Jahmyr Gibbs on the list last year and then Brian Branch on it this year at number five, like Brian Branch. Peter, I remember last year in the season opener when I think he picked off Mahomes, didn't he, in the first game of his career as a rookie. Pick six. Of course you have Brian Branch on there. I like it. First of all, a couple of thing. What I admire about this list is that it would be very easy to make a list that is Marvin Harrison Jr. And Bijan Robinson, like people don't have Malcolm Koonce on their breakout list. They don't have Yaya Diaby. And Peter, you mentioned how we like to kind of call out names over the years, like Singsongy, like, I know everyone on this show needs to watch the Will Ferrell movie Eurovision in which the anthem of the whole a whole movie is Yaya Ding dong. So every time Yaya Diaby makes a play, we're going to quote Eurovision. Beautiful. That's the plan. My last thing. We always end up with the T up here for you Peter. We like Jayden Daniels as much as anybody. Why the pick of him instead of Caleb Williams who he was drafted behind? Great question. It's more about what what I'm feeling as far as how far along that Jayden already is in the Kliff offense, I think that he's going to be spectacular. I think both guys are going to be really successful. But just like last year, where the number two pick was C.J. Stroud and he actually won Offensive Rookie of the year, I think that's what we might be looking at this year with Jayden over Caleb. It's just, hey, preference for me right now. I'm going Jayden over Caleb. But what do I know? We shall see my top ten one more time. If you're looking at home and you want to see