ESPN just dropped one of the more delightful offseason features of the summer: a full rundown of NFL players and the ridiculous slippers, slides and recovery mules they wear around team facilities. Bear claws, $900 fuzzy slides, Hot Wheels cleat covers, the works. It reads like a lifestyle piece, but buried in there is legitimate fantasy football information about three names you're staring at on your cheat sheet right now: Brian Thomas Jr, Kyle Pitts Sr and AJ Barner.
The premise is simple. Feet take a beating in an NFL season, and teams have started treating foot care like a performance investment instead of a punchline. Jaguars VP of player health Jeff Ferguson told ESPN that foot health runs up the entire kinematic chain, meaning sloppy foot recovery can eventually show up in your knees and hips. That's why guys are walking around the locker room in gel toe separators and orthopedic mules instead of flip-flops. It's not vanity. It's load management for your feet.
Thomas Jr is the funniest case study. He bought Incredible Hulk slippers after seeing them on Instagram during training camp and wore them constantly early in the season, along with a bear claw pair that reportedly got him some grief from his coaching staff when he wore them to an indoor walkthrough. Eventually he moved into sneakers with real support as the year wore on. That arc, goofy slippers to structured support, mirrors where his fantasy stock has gone. He was the PPR WR4 as a rookie in 2024, then crashed to WR42 in 2025 and got tagged as one of the biggest ADP busts of last season. Now he's sitting around WR61 in early ADP data, a Round 6 or 7 flier competing with Jakobi Meyers and Parker Washington for targets in Jacksonville. The slipper swap to something with actual support is a decent metaphor for the buy-low case here: talent's obviously real, he just needs a more stable setup around him.
Pitts is the more interesting fantasy angle. He initially blew off the Oofos recovery slippers his mom recommended before finally trying a pair at a mall store, and he now credits them with helping him through a career-high 88 catches, 928 yards and 5 touchdowns last season. Whether the slides deserve the assist or not, the underlying stat line is real, and it lines up with a tight end who's being drafted as low as TE7 or TE8 despite finishing as the TE2 in PPR scoring behind only Trey McBride. The catch is target competition. Splits from last season show Pitts averaging 19.1 PPR points per game in stretches without Drake London on the field, versus just 9.6 when London played. That's the entire fantasy profile in two numbers: a Round 6 tight end with legitimate top-5 upside the moment London misses time, and touchdown-dependent TE2 numbers the rest of the way.
Barner's mention is smaller but still worth knowing. He's in the ESPN piece for using YogaToes, medical-grade gel toe separators, to loosen his feet up after a day in cleats. On the field, he quietly finished with 519 receiving yards, 6 receiving touchdowns and a rushing score last season, good for 147.3 PPR points, and he's projected to open outside the top 12 tight ends despite being just three targets away from being Seattle's second-most-targeted receiver. Elijah Arroyo is the name to watch as a potential complication for snaps, but Barner remains Sam Darnold's clear red-zone tight end for now, which keeps him a solid streaming option even if the target volume stays modest.
The rest of the piece is mostly color, but good color. Seahawks corner Devon Witherspoon preached full-body maintenance, saying everything from your feet to your shins to your hamstrings matters, while Commanders lineman Javontae Jean-Baptiste rotates through purple, brown and blue bear claw mules from a brand called Bravest Studios that run $115 a pair. Panthers linebacker Nic Scourton has been rocking $900 fuzzy orange slides since college, Vikings corner Isaiah Rodgers wears Hot Wheels-themed cleat covers, and Patriots receiver Mack Hollins just skips shoes entirely, arguing barefoot strengthens his lower body. None of that moves fantasy needles, but it's the kind of detail that makes training camp season fun before the depth charts actually matter.
For draft prep purposes, treat this less as a novelty story and more as a reminder to track recovery and health notes all summer. Pitts is the clearest value play here given his ADP sitting behind five or six tight ends he outscored last season, and any hint of a Drake London absence should push him up your board fast. Thomas Jr is a name to monitor in camp reports for target share signals rather than draft on name value alone. Barner's a fine streamer with spike-week upside near the goal line. None of that has anything to do with slippers, but Barner, Pitts and Thomas Jr all being in the same ESPN piece isn't a bad excuse to double-check where each one actually sits on your board before draft day.