Top 10 WR Rankings + Hungry For More - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/7
Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast- 219 views
- 7 Aug 2024
What could go wrong? Find out what separates the elite WRs on today’s fantasy football podcast! What’s Deebo Samuel’s upside? Which top WR is the riskiest? Plus, Hungry For More, injury updates, and more! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for August 7th, 2024.
2024 ULTIMATE DRAFT KIT is available now at UltimateDraftKit.com
(00:00) - Intro
(06:00) - Hungry For More
(06:45) - Malik Nabers
(12:45) - Diontae Johnson
(16:10) - Jaxon Smith-Njigba
(21:30) - NFL News
(30:15) - Top 10 Wide Receiver Rankings
(30:25) - Puka Nacua
(33:45) - Deebo Samuel
(37:30) - Davante Adams
(44:00) - Garrett Wilson
(48:25) - AJ Brown
(50:50) - Justin Jefferson
(55:20) - Ja’Marr Chase
(57:05) - Amon-Ra St. Brown
(59:50) - CeeDee Lamb
(01:01:35) - Tyreek Hill
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The time is coming swiftly. The middle rounds are no place for the unskilled. Yet here you are, unprepared, you foos. This season, you will find all kinds of foes, eager to watch your draughts crumbling with wasted pics. There can only be one ultimate draft kit. Only one that can bend them to its and it does not share power. You must wield the UDK and send your opponents back to the shadows. You shall not pass on this chance to send your reed mates into the deep. Fly, you foos, to autumdraftkit. Com.
Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.
Welcome in. Wednesday, August seventh. Mike, the fantasy hitman, right? Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, back with you, the fantasy footballers. Here we are, gentlemen.
Once again.
Once again. We've got the top 10 wide receiver rankings on today's show. We got some hungry for more and ever-breaking news to talk about on today's episode of the show, getting you ready to dominate your league in 2024. Every advantage possible to take out your league mates. And I'm excited. Jason, how are you today?
I am wonderful. I'm excited for this show. I'm excited to talk about some of the specific players, and it's just a good time of year. And I'm really getting excited for It's Football Time. I've got a shirt hanging in my closet put to the side.
For the day?
For the day. It's Football Time day.
What day is that? Is it tomorrow?
I don't think there's... Yeah. Is it tomorrow? Yeah, you're preseason tomorrow. The first preseason tomorrow? Okay, because I know there's games Saturday, there's games Sunday. Do we get a game tomorrow?
Mike, confirm. Mike, please confirm. I'll look it up. I'm pretty sure. Oh, man.
Yeah, tomorrow- My hands are shaking. We got Lions, Giants, and Panthers, Patriots tomorrow. Let's go, baby.
We also just want to invite you along for the entire season. Click that follow button, Spotify, Apple podcast, the subscribe button over on YouTube. Click that bell. We do Sunday Live. Every single Sunday morning, you get to witness, normally Mike, but sometimes it's Jason or myself, just tilting as we make start, sit decisions and help you out. The Start, Set tools on the website all season long as well to give you some guidance and pretty much just remove your own accountability. We want to give you some outs. If the week goes wrong.
We are your shield? Yeah, we are your-Shame shield. We are your meat shield. Yeah, no. Shame shield. That's a good one.
The tools all season long, you can become a part of the community at jointhefoot. Com. The ultimate draft kit's available right now at ultimatedraftkit. Com if you want to step up your game. All right.
Well, there's one. Are we moving on real quick?
We don't have to.
I just... Look.
This is your show.
Sometimes you have to wield the power and the influence. I mean, look, absolute dominance of the football space. We have huge influence here, especially over teams, over media, productions out there. Interesting. It's interesting. I don't know if you guys saw my tweet because it was fired off late last night. Tuned in to episode one of Hard Knocks, Chicago Bears.
Oh, it started?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it started. And the episode was okay. But here's the problem. Jason, your skin is going to rip off your body.
No, they did not.
No, they didn't change the music.
Okay, the horns are there.
They didn't change it. But there's this huge narration going on the entire time to the point of it got to the end of the intro, and I'm like, Wait, did they have the music on? What? It is an absolute travesty.
Oh, so you're stepping up and stepping out.
Yeah. Max, HBO, whoever is in charge of this, get that crap off of there. Get it out. Let that epic theme play untainted. I need it. That goes right in my vein. That's why I watch. It gets me pumped up for football.
You were just shocked.
I was really, really upset.
Did it change your enjoyment of the rest of the show?
Yeah, absolutely.
I was like- I imagine he turned it off. That's what I would have done.
I watched it. I'll give you a little bit of credit here. But yeah, I went in the UDK, bears have plummeted in my rankings.
Oh, all because of the intro?
Yeah, it's not their fault.
Wow.
So knock it off.
Thank Mike.
The narrator, go bye-bye. All right, here we go.
Welcome to Hungary For More, presented by Uber Eats.
All right, we are into hungry for more. We're each picking out players that are making some headlines. Mike, maybe you hit that hype train over there for these guys because- I don't know where anything is, man. The Offseason is- You see how many buttons there are? Yeah. Mike's in my seat today. I'm in Mike's seat today. There's the Hype train. He found it.
I'll hit what I can, but don't ask me for anything.
I am so very hungry for more Malik neighbors.
I get it.
It feels like you're supposed to, at least I feel the pressure, to come and just give you 35 data points as to why I am hungry for more Malik neighbors. But it's fundamentally, he's too good at football to be stopped. We are seeing the evidence present itself already in camp. My favorite quote is not from somebody associated with the Giants, but rather, head coach Dan Campbell of the Lions, who said, He is a mix of Chase and Jefferson, but has the mentality of OBJ. I would be shocked if he didn't win Offensive Rookey of the Year. That's some fire. Guns Mahoney, breaking out both guns with that quote.
That's a Worst jinks happening. I could smell that a mile away.
He caught 17 of 18 targets in joint practices from Daniel Jones, was quoted as borderline Unstoppable. I am a monster Malik Nabors fan. And the question, when you say hungry for more, I'm not really going to qualify it by his ADP because I'm just hungry to see more Malik Nabors play football. But two years ago, we had a surprise season from the Giants. I do trust in Brian Dable. I don't trust Daniel Jones, but I also... What they had last year in place of Daniel Jones wasn't a solution. And with Brian Dable and Daniel Jones, the year prior, you have big plays from Darius Slayton. I'm trying to remember the name, Kyle, you might remember. Who was the breakout? Isiah Hodgens, right? Oh, yes. So we've had some fantasy relevance in New York.
Yeah, you've had flashes.
Malik Nabors is outrageously good at football. There were people at the draft that liked him more than Marvin Harrison. This is the level of talent. Just because two were drafted in the same year doesn't mean you ignore the second guy off the board. So I'm hungry for more. I want to see the draft price. It's not going...
The ADP is not going down.
But it's pretty high already. Right now, is it wide receiver 24?
Yeah, it ranges That's fine. From platform to platform, he's got a pretty wide range, 20 to 30.
If I am 20 or beyond, pick 20 and beyond, he's an autodraft for me.
Okay. I'm having a really hard time putting all the puzzle pieces together for Malik Nabors because I agree. I was one of those people up there that Nabors and Marvin Harrison Jr. Are both truly elite 8 difference-making players. That ADP is... It's just there is so much risk for it to me because it's... Yeah, he's the wider receiver at 24, but it's in the fourth round. And looking at Daniel Jones. This is where it's hard to put the pieces together. Yeah, we had a surprise year from the New York Giants two years ago when the team was much better than we thought they could be. And that was 3,200 passing yards and 15 passing touch downs from Daniel Jones. Chicken or egg, of course. He hasn't had a player like Malik Nabors, but we have 3,000 passing yards, 2,900, 2,400, injury-shortened season, 32 200. It's so hard to get there with Daniel Jones.
If he goes where he's going now, you're talking about Zé flowers versus Malik Nabors.
You're talking about- You got Tankdell.
He's right next to him. Yeah, you got Tankdell right there, too.
And that's an easy Nabors for you?
Yeah.
That one is hard because I love Tankdale, but I am on Nabors as well.
I like Tankdell. It's just Nabors is clear path. The runway has been cleared. There is no competition. This This is your team. The team, they moved on from Saquon, and the identity is Malik Nabors. That's my hunger for more today.
Where do you think Daniel Jones can get in total passing yards? Yards. And then where can Malik Nabors get? Because the example of- Malik Nabors can catch- Let's say he gets to 3,500 yards or whatever, and then does Nabors get up over 1,200 yards?
Yeah, he can get to 1,300, 1,400 yards. That's possible.
That amount of the yardage to one guy is just... Man, it's hard to reconcile for me.
Yes, the percentage would be... I have Daniel Jones plotted for 3,500 yards right now. Okay. 3,545. But again, it's not necessarily how we're going to project the probability of the season to go. It's the fact that there is a ceiling for neighbors that, in my opinion, does not exist for even Tankdell or Zee flowers or Amari Cooper.
What about D-K Metcalf, Cooper Cup, both going after Malik Nabors right now.
Team structure.
Yeah, that depends on the platform.
I'm looking at Sleepers ADP right now.
All right. It's tough. It is tough. You have to call your shot, and that's what you're doing, Andy. You're saying, I'm taking the talent, I'm taking the explosive athlete, and you're going to light the dynamite and hope that it works.
Yeah, this is just- Boom goes the dynamite. An incredible player that I have a lot of faith in. Mike, you're hungry for more.
I am, and this is a player who has not been talked about a ton on this show because he was sent to Siberia, the fantasy Siberia of this year. Well, really last year, too. But the Carolina Panthers, they picked up Deontay Johnson, and he is going on sleeper right now as the wide receiver 42. Our consensus is at 35, so he looks like a draft value for our projections. Because he went to Carolina, it was like this. You put up the mental gate of, I'm not going to allow myself to even think about the opportunities for it. And as you look, okay, those immediate emotional reactions are now gone. Let's look at this with not emotion. Let's look at it with facts and everything. Deontay Johnson, number one, is a very good wide receiver. He is always open. There's an ESPN open score, 109 wide receivers graded in it. Deontay Johnson was 11th last year because he is that a wide receiver. Bryce Young, at least in the beginning of the season, he hyper-focused on Adam Thielen. Adam Thielen fell off. I didn't watch every single snap of him. I'm assuming that is related to What?
Thank you.
I couldn't interrupt myself.
Did you say my name?
Yes, I did. Adam, you may go back to rest.
I'm going to take a nap.
So he fell off. Look, he's older. That's not an uncommon thing to happen to the elder veterans in the NFL season. But Deontay Johnson, he has Dave Canales now. And what happened last year for the ex-wide receiver for Dave Canales, Mike Evans had himself a Fantastic year. Got a ton of production up there in Seattle as well. So it's just, is there a world where Deontay Johnson finishes as a top 24 wide receiver? And I think we need to be more open to that just because of target volume and the fact that he is a good wide receiver, a proven wide receiver. While his ceiling isn't elite, it doesn't really matter. You're going to get a player who can help you each and every Now, just to make sure I'm hearing this correctly, the problem with Malik Nabors and his awesome talent is Daniel Jones. Is ADP.
But the solution- No, I heard some Daniel Jones in there. But then, Bryce Young is not an issue.
Did you hear wide receiver 42?
I heard you say that he could finish as a top 24 wide receiver. Yeah, he could. He couldn't. I agree he couldn't. I agree with you. With yourself? I agree with myself that he couldn't finish as a top 24 wide receiver. It's now a more crowded room.
It's not a crowded room. Who's crowding him? What?
You woke me up. My hungry for more last week was League at, and it's unfortunate, man. Yeah.
Part of the crowding was him.
Haven't you heard how great Mingo's been?
I have. Second round pick of last year, Jonathan Mingo has been making waves in camp. We'll see.
All right. Well, let's talk about a first round pick from last year who is viewed as an overwhelming bust, and that is JSN. Is that the view? I think last year was a That's wrong words. Massive disappointment.
He's going after Deontay Johnson on Sleeper right now.
This is ridiculous. Is it, though? Yes, and here's why. Jsn is a very, very- So this is your hungry for more? This is my hungry Hoping for more. Jsn- Hoping for more.
Hoping for some.
I'm famous.
I'm starving. Hungary for something.
We didn't get a whole lot. I could see that. In fact, here's an example of how- Perished from hunger. How starving everyone is. He is the only first-round wide receiver over the last decade who had 50 receptions as a rookie.
Oh, no, he did not. That's a lie.
On 93 targets.
And is drafted outside the top 36 in his sophomore It doesn't happen often because one of the cheat codes and fantasy is second-year wide receivers. They take a leap forward. And if they were decent as a rookie, then you know that they have the ability and the chance to take a leap forward. Jsn, it's like this time last year, we were talking about JSN the way we're talking about Malik Nabors, how talented he was. Now, Malik Nabors went to a team with Jack Squatt. He's the one. He's the alpha. That wasn't the situation for JSN. Listen, he went to a team that had D. K. Metcalf and Tyler Locket. And yeah, they're still there. Oh, yeah.
The guys that are still there.
He was a rookie. That was his first chance. And then he broke his arm. Remember, it's like we forget how it happened. His usage last year was so bad. It's cynically awful. I mean, he had 29 total receptions behind the line of scrimmage. That's the most among rookies. Only Ron Dale Moore in 2021 had more in the PFF era. His His usage was dumb. If you think about his usage, it's not his fault. He's not choosing to stay behind the line of scrimmage for that pass. Go deep, Jason. No.
Not this time.
Look, I'm open five yards behind the line of scrimmage. Not this time. Here was Jason's comment. I know you guys know this, but as a reminder from the Super Bowl week when a bears reporter was asking Jason about their new offensive coordinator. This is him talking to the local people, trying to hype up the, Hey, what should we expect from Shane Waldron coming to Chicago? And his answer was, and this is a quote, This is live? Good luck to you all. I mean, he's a great person. Do you want me to get bodied? This was his utilization was so bad. Jsn on Ryan Grubbs, new offense coming in from the University of Washington, When I see the playbook, my eyes get wide. He is excited. Head Coach Mike McDaniel, this was yesterday. He was just talking about he's got this fluid explosiveness about him. He can run the entire route tree. Incredible ways to track the ball, body control, explosive in and out of his cuts. The mentality of what we want, he has that. Jason is a really good wide receiver. That's the thing that we're forgetting, is he's a really good wide receiver going into year two.
Yes, he's still in a crowded wide receiver room, but he is not being drafted what his talent and outcome could be.
Can you say the coach's name again real quick?
Mike McDonald.
Thank you. Jsn averaged 36 yards a game last year, which puts You expect it, even if the play calls are bad, to see more things that made you excited. That's all I'm going to say. For sure.
This is why I'm hungry for more.
We're all hungry for more. Yeah, JSN has the potential to to step up, but the dependence... You like DK Metcab, Locket is still there.
I'm not hungry for more pouca.
Right. No, you were full. He fed me.
That was a great rookie season. He fed me. I'm stuffed. We both ate. I had dinner butter. My belly is full. Jsn, really, really hungry for more.
All right. So Deontay, Mike? Yeah. Jsn, I've got my League neighbors. Mine will be the most delicious meal if it works out.
Yes. If all three hit their ceiling, I agree, neighbors- Yours would be a gourmet meal.
Mine's like a- No, yours is sustenance.
Yeah. That's what Dylan was last year, by the way. He was sustenance for the first half of the year.
Yeah, mine would be a super affordable. This is just a value meal.
I mean, I'm- Sit down or drive through?
This is sit down. It's just a great deal. All right. That was hungry. I came on a Tuesday. That was a Tuesday deal? Yeah, it was happy hour on Tuesday. Just so cheap.
All right. That was hungry for more presented by Uber Eats. Get game day deals all season long, only on Uber Eats. Official on demand food delivery partner in the NFL order now. Let's take a quick break, and then we'll jump into the news, man.
News and notes from Around the League, presented by USAA Insurance.
All right. I mean, we could talk a lot of 49ers, I guess, because we got the Brandon and I U stuff to talk about.
Wait a minute. Hold on. Did I say Mike McDaniel?
That's why I had you say it again.
Because I see in Slack, Kyle thinks I said Mike McDaniel.
I wasn't 100% sure.
These guys' names in my brain. I cannot keep- McDonald, McDaniel, McDaniels. Mcdonald, McDaniel, McDaniels, Michael. I just like- Let's call him Coach Mike. I'm just going to call him Coach of the Dolphins, Coach of the Seahawks. That's my new nickname for these guys. I will never say their names again because my brain don't work that way. Michael Matthew McDaniels, Donald.
Remember when you played that cool sound clip from Old McDonald?
Yes. I just started calling him McDonald's on the dynasty podcast today because it was easier.
Mcdonald's? Yeah. There it goes with the value meal.
Well, yeah, but no, McDonald's. You would think that would be the head coach of the Seahawks, but that's how I was referring to the head coach of the Dolphins.
I see.
He's very helpful. I've seen a pro.
Oh, no.
All right, Christian McCaffery is going to miss the preseason with a calf strain.
It was a preemptive, Oh, no, from Mike. This is really scary. I definitely moved his wrist risk rating up in the UDK.
Are you taking him number one?
I don't think I am. I am. Okay. I like it. To me, Tyree Kill is so valuable. I don't lose anything there. I don't have any risk. If I know this guy is dealing with a calf injury, we saw Joe Burrow last year get shut down for a couple of weeks around the same time with a calf injury. Come back and He's still at one for me right now, risk rating going up and trying not to overreact, but I don't mind.
I think the fear because of McCabri's injuries in the past are reasonable.
Yeah, and I'm not dropping him in my rankings. He's in the same tier. He's my number one running back.
It's just that choice at the top.
It's just the choice of, I think Tyree Kill is just as valuable. Okay, so 102. Yeah, I would take him 102. I'm not off of McAfree.
The backfield, Mitchell, strained ham string, Isaac Garindo, missing time with a ham string injury. They had to sign Matt Breta to come in and Breta 2.0 there in San Francisco, and then Jordan Mason.
Pontius.
I mean, what?
Pontes. We discovered this on- That's the nickname? No, no.
They call him- That's his middle name. Pontes? Pontes. Yeah. He's not haunching. He's out there throwing Pontes, man. His nickname is JP. I'm like, How is his nickname JP when his name is Jordan Mason? Where's the P coming from? Pontes.
Wow. Well, he's the only man left with a punch right now.
He He was really, really good last year on a per-touch basis. A lot of the Beat reporters were always talking about, Why is he not getting run over Elijah Mitchell? Now this offseason, you've seen Shanehan talk up about the trust that he has in Jordan Mason. The runningbacks' coach has been talking about how he's coming into the meeting rooms as a different man. Jordan Mason has made Elijah Mitchell, to me, at the very least, not a locked-in handcuff.
Pukenakua Update. Should be good to go for week one. According to McVeigh, had a Bursa sack. A quote, a little bit of a Bursa sack. He burst it, McVeigh said.
A Joey Bursa sack?
He said he's going to be weak.
Or a nick Give us a sec.
I'm unsure. Oh, my gosh.
Switch.
Your jokes sound just as dumb from this side of the table. Week to week, nothing serious, nothing structural. Should be ready to go for Detroit, according to McVeigh. That's good news. That is the fluid-filled sac under tendons at joints that help reduce the strain on the muscle.
Thanks, doctor.
According to Matthew Betz. Josh Downs had to be helped off the field after a great camp. He is not putting weight on his lower leg, waiting for a report Downs was outperforming Adani Mitchell and looked-He was the wide receiver, too, in terms of fantasy value for the Colts. Then Rondale Moore this morning, breaking news, air cast.
Don't use that word.
I don't know. Air cast on his right leg. Rondale Moore, wide receiver for the Falcons, taking to a Baptist Health Medical Facility. Practice was called after the injury. Yeah, that's not great. This looks maybe season ending for Ron Delmore.
The news here was there was already a camp battle going on between Ron Delmore and Ray Ray McCloud to be the slot wide receiver. In your dynasty Leagues, he could be a nasty boy. Talking about Ray Ray McCloud that you could just throw on to the end of the bench and see what happens. Don't expect anything from him. But look, if Kirk Cousins in this offense gets rolling, who knows?
It does. Darnell Mooney is a name just to remember.
That name is just not only on this show, where we haven't even talked about him anywhere. Have you guys seen a single peep about Darnell Mooney?
No, I have not seen one Beat reporter talking about him. I haven't heard any news, but bad or good, really, on Mooney, personally. But I know he is a good enough wide receiver to be a wide receiver, too, in an offense that now really, really needs Kyle's there in Atlanta.
So, Kyle, what's the Mooney report? We'll go to Kyle for the- He's my most drafted player in best ball.
He is your most drafted player in best ball.
Yeah, that says nothing about him, though.
Thanks, Kyle, from the boots on the ground in Atlanta.
All right. And then we need- But wait, back to the question.
Have you heard anything about him, good or bad? That's the question, Kyle.
He's a starting wide receiver in three wide receiver sets. That's basically been it. He has no information.
Just say, No, I haven't heard anything.
Here we go. From August fifth, Cousins was 9 of 10, finding wide receiver, Darnell Mooney, four different times as most active receiver of the day.
There you go.
Okay, so active. Yeah. It's something.
The latest on Brandon Ayuk. Steelers are back in, according to Adam Schefter. The Patriots are moving on. Yeah, they are. That's the last report. But then we had Ricky Pearsall aggravated shoulder injury. I mean, the 49ers went down hard yesterday. Yes. But Brandon Ayuk, it just seems like he's going to be traded.
The situation is more than my heart can handle at this moment.
You've got to be just spinning like a top.
It's absolutely insane. If you're a Sanfran, Cisco fan, you're knee-deep in this. If you got them, if you have any investment in Brandon A. Duke, you are all about this. The reports were initially, well, the Patriots have decided to step away. Then you were getting more beat reporters saying, Well, actually, the Patriots offered him the bag.
More than 30 million.
The report was, yes, a 30. That is elite top-tier money. And according to them, Brandon Ayuk said, No, I don't want to go to the Patriots. And then the Patriots said, Well, we didn't want you in the first place. So it's not just money that Brandon Ayouk wants, because if it was just money, he would have gone to the Patriots. So he's trying to find a balance of, Give me that money, but I also want stats and a chance to win. Where's he going to go? I don't know.
Perfect situation. We'll keep an eye on it. And I know the deucers over there are paying attention to the news all morning long. So we'll We'll jump back into the wide receiver countdown.
Wide Receivers.
All right. Yesterday, we went 20 to 11 on our consensus wide receiver rankings countdown. And so today, we've got the top 10.
Number 10.
Puukunakuwa. Sitting at 10 right now. He's seven on Jason's list. 12 for me, 14 for Mike.
Yeah, I've moved him down.
Broke the Jamard chase.
Is this because of the knee?
It's just a little part of that. It's partly the knee. It's partly the getting more reports from boots on the ground saying that the offense goes through Cooper Cup again. No, Puka is great. 14 is still extremely high. I'm just I'm lower on him than the ADP is.
If competition is on the field in the form of Cooper Cup, and we saw Robinson step up last year, DeMarcus, not Allen. Demarcus, not Allen. No, Allen doesn't step up, steps down. So sitting at 10, finished as the wide receiver 4, that seems like an okay place to be.
Yeah. I don't think that Jason sitting here with no doubt in his mind.
Oh, no, I'm not. I think at one point in time, maybe there was no doubt. I think maybe now there's just room to go down for Pukunakuwa and still be amazing.
Yeah. I mean, obviously, last year, he benefited from a lot of missing Cooper Cup. When Cooper Cup was out there, he was still very, very good. But a lot of his dominant games, you remember the beginning of the season when he was the wide receiver, 9, 5, 4, 11. Like, unbelievable start out of nowhere just became a revelation. That was when Cooper Cup was missing some time. So it is hard. Now, he is also a second-year wide receiver, where it's like you usually take a step up. You get more integrated into the offense. Obviously, you can't really get more integrated than he was, considering he broke pretty much every rookie wide receiver record.
105 for 1486 and 6.
105?
Yeah.
1400 yards. I mean, it's just unbelievable. I don't want to take away the fact that he was so great, and maybe he doesn't repeat Heet being that great. But I don't want to take away what he did from who he is because that is the wide receiver that is so unbelievably talented with a great offense, a great offensive mind. And yeah, okay, he benefited from Cooper Cup going down, and I don't want to assume this, but Cooper Cup has not been the healthiest player and is a little bit older now. I still don't mind betting on the... I think the value is more on Cooper Cup's side, obviously. I think they both could finish as the number one wide receiver for this team if both play 17 games. I still give my edge to Puka, so the value is with gut, but I don't mind taking Puka first, betting on the younger prospect here.
Yeah, it's almost a, not exactly apples to apples, but the Amun Ra Saint-Brown situation of the breakout as a rookie, and then we spent the offseason of, Well, is Was he that good, or was it because everyone on the Detroit lines got hurt? And it turned out-He was that good. He was just that good.
Number nine.
All right, from Puka to Debo. Debo Samuel comes in at nine. We know a lot about Debo at this point in time, and we know how great he can be when- Now you're a man. We know that, too. He was the wide receiver 12 Last year with two missing games. Had the disappointing 2022 where he missed four games and finished at 37, but then was the wide receiver two the year before. Brandon Iyuk hanging in the balance, right? This wide receiver on the other side of the field.
It definitely seems like he's not going to be on the 49ers field. No, it doesn't. It doesn't seem that way. Obviously, the ADP is going to change drastically once that happens. But if you are drafting now-Well, where do you think Debo going right now?
Do you know off the top of your head? Because I have it right here.
I think he's going in the third round.
Yeah, middle of the third, wide receiver, 16. We all have him ranked higher than that already.
If Ayuk leaves, and I did bump up a little bit of Debo's numbers preemptively, assuming an Iuk departure. But if it becomes official, I will bump him up even further. I would be so confident to take Debo at wide receiver seven, ahead of Puka, who we just talked about. Debo, he's been the wide receiver two before. He's on a great offense. If he has the consolidation, of more targets and more involvement on a per-touch basis. He's just a man.
Yeah, you get the rushing yardage in there.
You have to get that. You have to get those rushing touch downs, which he has in basically every single year of his career. What's wild for Debo, because look, I'm stuck in San Francisco mode of Brandon Ayuk, Debo. And it was more just of a shock, I guess. It's one of the things you know. But when you really think about it, Debo has been good for fantasy a season long, just two times, two out of five years. When he's on the field and you have him two years, you get good games here and there. But it was just like, wow, he's only been-Health? He's only been fantastic and healthy two years. Brandon Ayuk has had more total yardage in three or four years than Debo Samuel.
He's had-Receiving yardage.
No, total yardage. He's had more touch downs, because health is a factor, too. I'm not saying it's on a per game basis. Then two of the four years, Ayuk has had more total touch downs than him. It I have him very high as well, but that was an interesting thing for me to really look at.
He's only played two games without Ayouk in the last several years. Both of those, he was top 10 in those weeks. Yes.
If Ayouk has gone, Debo is going to be incredible.
Five rushing touch downs last year.
He's had- Sixteen rushing touch downs in the last three seasons.
Well, and now you got everybody, all the runningbacks are hurt again. Yeah. So Debo has been the Yack leader of 2019, '23, '22, '21, '20. I don't know why I said it in that order. Oh, man. That was the order of the yards after catch per reception. So congratulations. All right, moving on.
Number 8.
All right, Devante Adams comes in at 8. Yeah, this is just I mean, last year was an uncomfortable wide receiver 11. Amazing in Championship Week. The targets were outrageous. I'll be honest, I'm just tired of talking about Devante Adams.
Yeah, there is definitely fatigue.
We're all just like, we're as annoyed as he was being on that team last year. But we don't have a winner at quarterback, so we don't even know if it's Minchou or Aiden O'Neill.
Because there can't be.
There's no winners. No.
No one can establish that job. Someone will de facto receive it at the end, and then we'll be replaced halfway through the year.
He ended up the wide receiver 11 with 63% of his targets as catchable. You can go back and watch the tape. You can go watch Jimmy Garoppolo miss him, wide open on bomb touch downs. The big playability of Devante Adams is going to be there. But yeah, this is not the sexiest pick you've ever made. I have him the highest. I think he ends up accumulating his way to wide receiver, top 10 wide receiver numbers.
I do not. I've got him as the wide receiver 12. I think his talent is incredible. Last year, he finished as the wide receiver 11. He was a consistency score of C. Half of his games were brutal and not games like what you're used to seeing where a bad game is like, well, he got 10 points. He had games of 1.6 points, 0.2 Nine points, just crushing awful games. And part of the reason for that is the quarterback play, which hasn't changed.
It has changed, though.
You think it's not poor quarterback play this year? Because that's what I'm referring to. Poor quarterback play last year Poor quarterback play this year.
I'm holding out. I brought this up before. We loved Michael Pitman last year with Garner-Minshuh for the entire season. And Aiden O'Neill managed to hyper-target Devante Adams to the tune of good numbers at the end of the year. I think Jimmy Garoppolo hurt him really bad last year. I think the head coaching change hurt him bad last year, or hurt him bad last year. I'm just leaving the door a little bit more ajar because he got onto a 190 target pace over the back half of the year, and that's good enough. I mean, that's good enough to be... Can Devante Adams finish, Mike, in the top five? I think he still can't.
It has to be Garner. I do not think that if It's Aiden O'Neill for the entire season that he can finish in the top five. I don't see O'Neill, even in another year, elevating to that level where we need him to get.
He was 13 fancy points per game with Aiden O'Neill last year. Targeted 30% of the time, target per route run. Yeah. 30% target per route run.
But that includes games of... Hold on, I'm just double-checking. Aiden O'Neill was really week nine on, and it's like week 9 was 5.4 points, and you have some good games, then 9-8. Huge games. But also the chance that in the semifinals, he puts up one reception for four yards It's also the ADP.
That was the Sneed-Kansas City game, by the way. Yeah. Guys disappear. Wide receivers disappear. I guess I am just- An apologist? Flaming apologist for Devante Adams.
That's fine.
I watched him last year, and I just felt bad for him.
It's about this is a market value. This is an ADP thing because I talked about Jalen Waddle yesterday of, he'll be inconsistent, but I want a player who can win me weeks. I don't know that I want to spend my second-round pick on a player that will win me weeks, but then we'll have times where he just absolutely vanishes. Do you want the upside of Devante Adams or Or do you want the upside of Chris Olave or Devon Achan?
Because that's the price you're... That's what you're choosing.
Yes. Maybe that choice could be taken away from you in a second, but that's right now, ADP-wise, what you're looking at.
Yeah, Devante Adams is still a great wide receiver. Yes, he is. He didn't look like he lost anything last year. He's 31 years old, which for your normal receiver is where that age cliff comes. For some of these greats, Larry Fitzgerald, no problem.
Adam Adams is an outlier to me. I'm not worried about his age.
But at the same time, you have a long history of great wide receivers. It's over eventually. Julio Jones was great until one year, it wasn't. I think it was his age 32.
But are you going on record saying this is it for Adams?
I am absolutely not. But what I'm saying is that there is that risk of a downside, that when you draft a 32, he'll turn 32 this season. When you draft a player at that age on a bad offense, there is the chance It's that you are the one holding the bag when the bill is due and everyone else has left. It's yours to pay. That's just a risk I don't want for an upside that I don't think is there in a consistency that is hard to swallow. You had him, Brock Power. He was. Someone you really, really love. I do. To take a few more targets. I mean, he needs these 180 targets to be like- That's part of why I like him is because I don't think he can be worse than last year on offense, and he still pieced it together.
Under Aiden O'Kanaugh, I was just curious. I pulled up our weekly consistency and subdivided the year. He was the 12th most consistent wide receiver under Aiden O'Kanaugh.
You said he scored 13 points per game with O'Kanaugh Last year, for reference, that would have been last year's wide receiver 15.
Which you're paying too high. Which is fine, but yes, it's too much for what the price is.
It's too much for that.
All right. This is why I don't like talking about Devante Adam. There's too many angles to take. But I think you end with a draft price that is extremely high. Yes. And there's some more exciting names that maybe... It feels like you settle for Adams a little bit.
If you talk about who could finish as the wide receiver one between that guy or the guy we're going to talk about next? We know the answer.
Yeah.
Number seven.
Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson is 24 years old, comes in at 7. I've got him the lowest right now. Mike's the highest. We're all waiting. We're all waiting to see what can happen here. What does Aaron Rodgers have left? The Jets are just a trepidacious situation to have optimism in, to put too many words together there. But most ever targets through two years at the wide receiver position, he always seemed like he was open. You talk about guys you felt for on the field. Adams and Gary Wilson belong in a tandem here.
Wow. You want to talk about how bad the Jets' offense was that he was trying to go through. I'm reading this stat for the first time. He has had 310 career targets. He's had six targets that have occurred inside the five-yard line. During the time he's been playing, players with more targets inside the five-yard line. Tommy Trimble, Logan Thomas, the Ghost of Allen Robinson, has had more. That is how bad. I was looking at... I forget who tweeted out if there was a chart of the average depth from the opponent's end zone where the running back got the ball. And it was somewhere around five, six, seven. Most of the league was all the same. And then there was the Jets at 25 yards away from the opponent's end zone. They're His offense was unbelievably bad.
You hope that you've got the new Devante Adams situation for Aaron Rodgers, which was great, efficient, throwing touch downs in the red zone, go to your number one receiver. That's the hope and expectation for Garrett Wilson. But just like you said, age 32, Devante Adams carries inherent risk, so does this stage of Aaron Rodgers.
Yes, absolutely.
But there you go. Adams. Garrett Wilson sitting at seven in our rankings. His price, it's expensive. He's a wide receiver, eight off the board. We're back to the expectations of, can Garrett Wilson finish top five?
Yes. I think so. That's the real argument here because the price is difficult to get behind because of the amount of risk. But top five is in the range of outcomes. If Aaron Rodgers is 85, 90% of his MVP years, overall number one is in range of outcomes to me. I think Gary Wilson is that good.
Since 2000, 97 wideouts have had 160 targets in a season, which is what he had last year. Out of that group, he was 96th in fantasy points, 97th in first downs, and 94th in yards per game out of- Leave Garrett alone.out of 97. That was almost the historically worst season in history with 160 targets.
Now, should we be giving more blame upon him? I know the quarterback play was horrible, and the offense as a whole was horrible. The offensive line was terrible.
I think he pressed a little bit. I do. I think over the back half of the year, he pressed a little bit, but not much blame. No, like a small, tiny cup of blame.
Yeah, you watch him and he moves in a special way. He moves like Justin Jefferson moves as far as just his body control and ability to set people up.
He's got legs and he knows how to move.
I have a really hard time at this ADP simply because I don't personally believe Aaron Rodgers as the MVP Aaron Rodgers we saw a couple of years ago at this age coming off of Achilles. I don't get a lot of Garrett Wilson, but it is clear and obvious with his talent that if Aaron Rodgers can move this offense and is just... I mean, even the quarterback 15 in the NFL, like the 15th best quarterback. If he's a top half quarterback, Garrett Wilson should dominate.
Only wide receiver in the last decade to remain a first-round player ADP-wise a year after finishing outside the top 30. So this is 100% being banked. That's right. Good work, community. It's all being banked on the Aaron Rodgers. We blame eat it, Zack. To fix it all.
Eat it, Zack.
All right, quick break. Back with the top six. All right, we are back into the wide receiver countdown.
Number six.
A. J. Brown.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, A. J. Brown is drafted as the wide receiver 6 right now in ADP.
It's too low.
Jason has him at 4, Mike at 6, I'm at 5, so we got him at as a group. He's pretty impenetrable. I think that's a good word for A. J. Brown right here. Great offense, quarterback, pedigree history, impenetrable. I don't think he can let you down. And there's very few players like that. In fact, I think it's a little unfair that he's not generally in the grouping of wide receivers at the very top of the draft.
Okay. So Tyreek, Seedy, Jamar.
The fact Jefferson's in that conversation and A. J. Brown is not there is not fair.
I didn't say Jefferson.
No, but he's talking just ADP.
Jefferson went before Béjian in your mock draft, so I'm counting Jefferson in that group.
So Jefferson Is the ADP on Jefferson higher?
I believe it is.
The ADP on Jefferson is the wide receiver three off the board.
Okay. I believe that A. J. Brown should be right there. I agree.
We talked about it on the ready to roll segment earlier this week, but the utilization as a first read target inside the red zone, where fantasy value is so high, it was a dominant lead for A. J. Brown within this team. Now, obviously, Kelen Moore is coming over, new coordinator, so you could see that shift. But what won't change is his physical ability to dominate NFL defenders. He was paid more. He's the one for this team. He's 27 years old, going into a season where you should be near peak in your total fantasy production.
1456 yards last year. Yeah. Down year for the offense.
He crazy run at the beginning of the year. What broke the record for most?
125-yard games, I believe it was.
Absolutely dominant. The Kelen Moore discussion of, Is he good for the NFL? That is something I just... I don't care. I care about fantasy football, and Kelenmore for fantasy football for his alphas has been sensational.
Second half was rough. It's fair to say that. The offense was rough, and they made their changes, but he's a physical force.
Number 5.
Jefferson comes in at 5, so we got him back to back in our consensus rankings. I actually have him a spot behind A. J. Brown.
As do I.
But we know that he's This one's tough, man. We know how good of a player he is.
I mean, 98 yards a game for his whole career. This is not Devante Adams with Garner or AOC. This is the best wide receiver in football with Sam Darnold. For a bit. I'm saying, yeah, and then probably JJ McCarthy. But I'm saying it's a 32-year-old elite player or a 25-year-old, the best wide receiver in football. That's where it is so difficult to gage where Jefferson can succeed? Where can he succeed, too, with the quarterbacks that he has?
He makes it very easy on the quarterback. He had top six games with nick Mullen two times, but he also had some duds with the bad performances. The schedule sucks. When I'm staring down the A. J. Brown and the Jefferson decision, and I want to get off to a hot start, I'm just worried about... I've seen so much eternal optimism around Sam Darnold, and I don't understand where it comes from.
Well, maybe this time it could work for us.
That's how it feels because we've got what? Jets, Panthers, 49ers so far. Team 4 is normally where it hits, right? When you got to go into New York.
He's on the Geno Smith path.
Right. No, it's definitely going to work against- Very normal. In New York against the Giants, then against the 49ers, Texans, Packers, and Jets, and then there's a bye week, which is, you might as well say, bye, bye, Sam Darnold, because the sacrificial baby will be- Thrown out with the bathwater. Yeah.
We just need Sam to understand, throw the ball at Jefferson. Yeah. I don't... Two defenders? It doesn't matter. Kyle- Just chuck it up there, man.
There was a Hopkins year where he was ruthlessly targeted by bad quarterbacks.
Or is this the bad Hopkins year?
No, this is a good Hopkins here. I think Hopkins had a pretty good year.
Just saying there was where Hopkins was, as a sophomore, DeAndre Hopkins, wide receiver 14,4, down to wide receiver 30 in a full season, under 10 points a game.
Okay, so I might have been looking for the opposite of what we found.
Yeah, you saw it with Larry Fitzgerald as well, who was a great, when you have a bad quarterback, it can affect you more than you think. Now, Andy, you brought this up, but it bears repeating again. He scored 30 fantasy points in a game with nick Mullen. He scored 23 fantasy points. He can do it, but I don't think he can do it consistently. When he had Kirk Cousins before the injury, he played a month with him. He was never not a wide receiver 1. It was the wide receiver 8, 12, 5, 5. You're not getting that consistency out of him. And I think that there's a little bit of golden name. He's Justin freaking Jefferson. He's the guy who was in debate for the number one pick in drafts last year that is just making you go. Like you said, Mike, you can make the argument he is the best wide receiver in the NFL. It's an easy argument to make.
Yeah, Hopkins was the wide receiver 4. Then he got Brock Osweiler and Tom Savage, and he became the wide receiver 30. And then the following four years, which I believe was- Those were the Watson years. Watson, 1, 2, 5, 5. So it can happen. And we to be realistic and remove the golden name.
The two years before the Barack Osweiler was, the leading passer would have been Fitzpatrick and in 2015, Hoyer.
Yeah. I'm just saying- He's still at five, right? Yeah.
This is why I think A. J. Brown... I mean, really, it's A. J. Brown and Justin Jefferson. I couldn't imagine personally taking Justin Jefferson ahead of A. J. Brown this year with the quarterback situations of both those guys.
The wide receiver can't be- But what feels sexier on your team to look at before the games are played?
Maybe Justin Jefferson.
I mean, that's what makes it hard for people.
Number 4.
Jamar Chase comes in at 4. We know Jamar Chase is a fantasy difference maker. This is not about the resume when you get to this point. This is just the order we concluded. He said 20 plus fantasy points and 33% of career games. That's 45 career games. 20 plus fancy points of wide receiver is going to win you your week more often than not. And that is a third of the time for Jamar Chase. That is what you're buying.
The only people over the last three years with a higher percentage of those type of games are Tyree Kill, Justin Jefferson, and Cooper Cupp. I mean, he is a weak winner, and he is a league winner. He is an absolute league winner, so long as him and Burrow stay healthy together for the season.
Can we get that, please?
Yeah. I mean, we just haven't seen it.
Can we have-Hungry for more health? Yeah.
I mean, just his rookie year, I get he was- Just do it. Rookie year, he was the wider receiver five, but then it's just we haven't got a complete in totality, fulfillment of the promise of Jamar Chase.
I mean, his sophomore year, he was a wide receiver one. The last one, he was the wide receiver 12 in 12 games. He was unbelievable.
16.6 points a game.
His targets have still gone up three consecutive years.
Yeah, he used to be one of those guys where it was like, you think you're going to get 70 receptions for just a ton of efficiency. And he has become more of the every down, the high target, high volume, alpha wide receiver. It's just to me, if Joe Burrow is healthy and Jamal Chase is healthy, there's no question you want Jamal Chase on your team, and you don't want him on your opponent's team every single week.
No question.
It's just a matter of health to me.
Say healthy, buddy.
Number three.
Amun Ra Saint-Brown comes in at three. What is there left to prove?
I think I might be along with people that are still a bit skeptical that he will continue scoring touch downs at the rate he does, considering the type of player he is, his size, his utilization in the slot, those things that don't usually- He went up from 6 to 10 last year.
Ten is probably too much.
And that's where it's like, if he's a 10-touchdown guy on the reg, then he deserves 100% to be the wide receiver three here without question, because his consistency every game, he is their passing offense, and they have a good passing offense.
You could make the argument that their wide receiver room has gotten worse. Their number two receiver is gone. Right now, Josh Reynolds is gone, and that was their number two guy.
Here's a great question. Would you rather have Amun Ross-St. Brown's consistency or Jamar Chase's explosiveness? That's a game theory.
Which can you get less of later in the draft? That's how I'm viewing that. I think explosiveness. I feel like that's what I fit into.
I think you can probably find more more explosiveness, the very infrequence. There's going to be guys who will give you four spike weeks for a season.
Yeah, but you can't play them or know when to play them. That might happen in best ball.
Yeah, I can agree that you don't know. I'm just saying the consistency of Amun Ra is, I don't think you find that nearly anywhere else.
It might be different in, obviously, a full PPR versus- Sure.
We had a Things to Remember episode. I believe it was a couple of years ago. It wasn't this last year. It was after we did the Truth series, and digging deep into the numbers and seeing the research on what helps you win championships, my thing to remember was that most all wide receivers are in consistent. The ones that you win championships with are the highest ceiling players, the ones that can put up the monstrous crazy points. And not that Amun Ra can't have a good weekly output and score two touch downs in a game. He can. But I'm seeing this on my rankings that I've got Amun Ra ahead of Jamal Chase, and I'm questioning, if I'm on the clock, who would I really rather have? And I think it's Chase.
Okay.
Number 2.
It's a pretty decent year for this guy. Ceed Lamb of the Dallas Cowboys, who's now put on the NFI list, right? Yeah. Is that the name of the right list? No, it was a not report. Whatever the one is where he's not doing anything right now because he wants money. Give the man his money. Which has been super. How are you doing with these dynasty guys? You've got them all paid?
I can't do anything.
No, you haven't accomplished a darn thing. No. Ceed Lamb, how's that deal? It's not there. Chase got money?
Chase is a little different.
You're going to get fired.
If I were- You're going to get fired. Honestly, Chase, go practice.
Come on. Come on, buddy. You got enough contract left. Yeah, exactly. Hey, but you know what he's not doing? You know what none of your guys are doing? What's that? Getting injured.
Hey, Yeah. Who's doing great things right now?
Okay. Who's doing great things right now? Yeah, I got to see him see some extra money, and look at that.
Yeah, but you know who's going to get injured at the start of the season? These guys who haven't been practicing.
Oh, the fat Thors of the world. Yeah. Ceed Lambs coming in at number 2. Jason's got him at one, Mike and I at number two.
Do I really? Well, no. I mean, the stats bear out, but I view- You're in control of your life. I still view Tyreek as the player I would take- I feel like you've been talking about Tyreek. Over CeeD. They're They're so close to each other. I would put CeeD Lamb in that Tyreek and CMC category. Those are the first three picks in every draft, right? I think so. Is there any draft that you've seen that those aren't the first three?
No. 23.9 fancy points per game for him after the buy. The next closest was 17 by Tyreek and Almonra. It was outrageous.
That's an unsustentable heater, though.
That obviously means- Number one. Tyreek Hill is sitting there, 30 years old. Just got some more extra guaranteed money.
30 years young. What did he tweet out? He was 6% body fat at 30?
He's unbelievable.
It's really not a fair thing.
I'm 60% body fat.
He is the most-I'm not 60% body fat.
For those not on YouTube going, Whoa, I know he jokes about being overweight, but this guy's- Imagine, if you never watch on YouTube, you never see you before, and you say that, what mental transformation happened in their mind on what they thought you were? I became a South Park character. Yeah, you did.
You exploded. No, you got to be like 52%.
Yeah, I'm under 60 now.
Sixty %.
Under 60 %.
Tye-rick is Unstoppable. He's unguardable. The offense runs through him. He's everything you want. Can Consistency-wise, 1,800 receiving yards. You can't even stop him from having kids. No. You can't stop him from doing anything.
I love me some CD Lam. Obviously, the numbers are bearing out that he has a finish ahead of Tyreek, but Tyreek physically is truly unstoppable. I don't think you can scheme for him. I don't think there's a thing a defense can do. You can't double cover him. He has an elite trait that is unreplicatable. Good word. His ability to just burst out of a cannon in any direction at any point in time, there's just nothing you can do to really stop Tyreek.
Yeah, safe. Very safe. That's why you said you- I feel like he is safer.
Despite the age, he's safer than CeeD Lam to me.
And apparently, CMC to you right now.
Yeah, right now with a calf problem for CMC.
Okay. All right, we did it. We counted them down. You can see All of the rankings and the projections associated with the rankings at the Ultimate Draft Kit or in the Ultimate Draft Kit at ultimatedraftkit. Com. What do we got coming up?
Anybody?
Running Back Rankings on Thursday, 23/11.
We got our tips and tricks episode next week, and next week- The My Guys. The My Guys are happening.
Yeah, I'm going to knock one out of the park again. I got another Mike Evans on the way.
I got two locked.
I mean, not Mike Evans. It's this year's Mike Evans.
So you have two locked?
I got two locked.
I got two and a half locked.
I don't think that's a lock, Andy.
I got two locked.
I'm locked at two as well. Okay, all right.
We can trade I think I am going to mention for the first time a couple of finalists before I reveal the Mai guys this year.
Okay, I like that.
I think a couple- Just get a little credit. A little credit, none of the blame, baby. There you go. All right. That'll do it for today's episode of the show. Thank you for joining us. It's going to be a fun couple of weeks, and football time is here. So thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. We love you, Footclan. See you later.
Goodbye.
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