Fantasy Football Today - 2025 NFL Draft Wide Receiver Prospects Part 2: Jayden Higgins, Elic Ayomanor, Xavier Restrepo, & More! (04/18 Dynasty Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

Welcome back to the Rookie WR Preview – Part 2! This week, we’re joined by Derek Brown of FantasyPros to dive deep into some of the most intriguing wide receiver prospects in the 2025 draft class. Derek shares his WR evaluation process and gives us his elevator pitches on Elijhah Badger and Tory Horton. We're breaking down Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel, Elic Ayomanor, Jalen Royals, Jack Bech, and Xavier Restrepo! Like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments who your favorite sleeper WR is in this class! Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host Heath Cummings and it is time for the rookie wide receiver preview part two. We've got wide receiver seven through twelve in the consensus rankings today and we've got Derek Brown from Fantasy Pros here to break it all down with us. Heath, how you doing man? It's a good Friday to be here. and we've got Derek Brown from Fantasy Pros here to break it all down with us. Heath, how you doing, man? It's a good Friday to be here. We're right up at the precipice of the NFL draft.

It's peeking over the horizon. The silhouette is becoming more formed. So it's not just a it's it's maybe somewhere off in the distance. It's actually here, dude. Yeah. One day closer every single day. I love it. What all of you guys been doing in terms of draft prep content and where can people find it?

Oh, I've been diving into the weeds getting close like deeper and deeper into this class. Everything of course is at fantasy pros.com right now. We've had a ton of mock drafts drop on the YouTube space. Seth Wilcock and I are rocking it every single week for the NFL draft show for fantasy pros. I've got all my positional primers and what I'm still my labor of love that will be live Wednesday before the draft as

my top 100 skill players. So quarterback running back, wide receiver tight ends will all be written up and live on the site. Awesome. Awesome stuff guys. Go check that out on today's show. We will talk about Jayden Higgins, Jaylen Noel, Ellic Aomanner. I may have got that right or Derek may correct me later. Jaylen Royles, Jack Besh and Xavier Restrepo. We need to mention one name that we're not going to talk about on today's show and that

is Isaiah Bond. He wasn't on the one through six show. He's not going to be on the seven through 12 show. He is facing sexual assault allegations. He has countersuit and claims none of those are true. We're just going to have to see how the legal process plays out and how NFL teams react to this news. But again, not something we're going to talk about on this show. We will talk about those other six wide receivers, but we always start with three questions for our guests. And Derek, I like to ask this of people that are coming on to talk about rookies. What is the most important thing to you when it comes to rookie wide receiver evaluation? There's so much to dive through as far as like with wide receivers and

you know, what we can deem important. I think my biggest thing is I could tell you analytics, I could tell you the film. I mean, my biggest thing is just trying to marry the two. And I know that's not picking out just one thing, but really in my process, it's trying to bring those two together and paint the most complete picture of a player skill sets and what they can do and the areas that they have to improve and using data and the film to do so. Excellent. I think that's the best way to do it. Like if you're leaning too much on one or the other, you're going to miss some things. You've got to have the entire picture.

Now I talked about the wide receiver 7 through 12 that we're going to talk about like but like we did with Matt Waldman and the running backs, I want to give Derek a chance to talk about a couple of his guys. And so I asked him like, who are your favorite wide receivers that are not ranked one through 12? I've got a couple here. So question number two, what's your elevator pitch for Elijah Badger? Well, uh, maybe I'll start off with this with spitting fire here. Uh, Elijah Badger is actually inside my top 12.

So I have him at wide receiver 10, um, very enamored with his skill set. I don't think he's getting talked about near enough in the process. And for a player that we have seen over multiple collegiate seasons operate extremely well in very different roles. If you look at Arizona State 2022 to 2023, this is a guy that just ate up defenses in the underneath. Basically, it was put the ball in his hands and let him just go. Absolutely just bully people. He was third and seventh in those years and miss tackles force 13th and 2023 and Yak per reception. So proof of concept as an underneath threat, just get the ball in his hands and the guy could possibly debo some people. And then for final season, he goes to Florida and they said, well, you're really, really good at that.

But instead we're going to use you in a totally different role. And he becomes their field stretcher and he was the downfield threat. ADOT bumped up was the eighth highest amongst FPS wide receivers, at least 50 targets. And he crushed in that role as well. Heath, I mean, he was 14th in yards per route run, top 15 in every basically everything you look at as far as efficiency versus man coverage and it all goes points back to his film too like good route runner, strong at the catch point, very strong throughout his routes like you're not pushing him off his routes and I think if the medicals check out for Elijah Badger

and he did have a pretty significant back injury. Now again, diving through college injury reporting is always its own adventure in itself. Right. But the back injury in 2023, if the medicals come through, I think we're going to hear Badger's name called. He's going to be one of those guys that on late day to early day three gets his name called and everybody's like, um, Joe, well, looking up on their favorite site and saying, this guy's like, I'm supposedly going to be outside the top 200 players. Like why is his name called? But he's, he's very talented. Excellent. Excellent stuff. Put him down in your consideration for maybe round three of your rookie dress and

everybody's going to be like, why do you use your third round pick on him? And then they're going to find out what is your elevator pitch for Toryrey Horton? Very talented, physical X wide receiver type, um, smaller school prospect, but numerous years and unfortunately his, his final collegiate season was only six games because it was limited due to a knee injury, but popped in the efficiency metrics, 3.4 yards per route run. Previous years, he's checking a lot of boxes, whether it's.

2023 16th and Missed Ackles force 2022 is 22nd in yards per route run. And this is a large sample size against all FPS and FCS wide receivers, at least 50 targets. So pretty large sample there and Torrey Horton just jumps off the page, but. Big galloping X wide receiver, good through context, strong at the catch point. Like the guy that I kept going back to, and this is probably the high end of his range of outcomes

because probably draft capital is gonna be third, maybe fourth round for him depending. But as a guy that I think if you put him on the perimeter, ask him to win, ask him to stretch the field sometimes, he reminded me a lot of like a Michael Gallup, Marvin Jones, where I won't be surprised. Like I'm not projecting this is a player in future seasons. We're going to get 1200 receiving yards, 10 plus touchdowns.

But if he walks away with a few seasons of 900 plus seven to eight scores, it's going to be good enough for us in fantasy. Awesome, awesome stuff. Let's take a be good enough for us in fantasy. Awesome. Awesome stuff. Let's take a short break and then we will jump into wide receiver seven through 12, the consensus rookie wide receiver rankings. Looking for the ultimate online casino experience. Step into the bet MGM casino app where every deal spin and goal brings

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-8665-312-00 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. And if you're watching on YouTube and you've not watched all of 1923 yet, get that done. That's a fantastic series. I love basically everything in that universe in 1944. Cannot get here soon enough, but if what's here right now is wide receiver seven through 12 and the consensus rankings, we're going to start with Jaden Higgins out of Iowa State and the way we'll run through this Derek is I'm going to give you the open floor. Give your

email on the player and particularly whether you're higher or lower than what the ranking says at wide receiver seven. and then I got a couple questions for you as well. Oh absolutely Heath let's dive into it man. I mean Jayden Higgins let's just kick this off he's wide receiver seven in the consensus he's my wide receiver five in my rankings I have him over some notable names of Matthew Golden being one of those guys and this just comes down to I have a I wouldn't be surprised if he snuck into the first round of the NFL draft I think he's probably more appropriately going in the second round and I have a

high second round grade on him and a guy that I don't think we've seen yet the full potential of his game I mean is he an XY receiver? Yes. Is he physical? And can he get open on in breaking, out breaking routes? Um, I mean, my, my comp for him, my working comp for him is, I think he's developmental Michael Thomas. Like I want to see him go to Denver because if you can use this guy and it's not to say that he cannot win from the boundary. So I don't want people to get it twisted with how I'm framing his skillset, but you put them into a power slot role. You put them into a 50, 50 outside and inside type of role.

I think this guy is going to command a high end target share from day one. Now there are some drawbacks to his game. Um, he checks a lot of boxes, both analytically and on the film, I mean, 27th and 16th and yards per out run. And this is while playing alongside. And we also have to get context with this with guys that For all the LSU guys in the past Texas guys, but these Iowa State dudes They're for real this year and both of these guys are extremely talented. So playing alongside Jalen know last year

definitely needs to get brought up in the context to his numbers, but For a player that I think again you can put him out on the boundary. He does and he went out and he tested fantastically at the combine better than I even thought he was going to do like film. I probably put like a four or five speed on him. Now he goes out. He jumps well runs in the four fours. I think that if he would have gone and I'll say this, if he would have gone to an SEC school, if he would have gone to a more high profile school with his testing with his metrics, I think this guy would be getting first round buzz and I think people would be putting more respect on his name as a player that really, I really like and I and continue to pound the for, and he's part of the narrative that I believe in that I think this wide receiver class is better than people give it credit for.

So I think one interesting thing, you talk about that first round draft capital, we talk about the size at six, four to 15. Basically, I think a lot of people see that and think, man, he sounds kind of like Ted McMillan and you look at the consensus rankings and there's this wide gap between Ted and Higgins. Um, for, worth noting, I look at Matt Waldman's guide and he's got them back to back. So I guess for you, what's the biggest thing that separates these two bigger wide receivers? I think it's twofold for me.

Uh, I think Ted has a very, very strong, um, profile as far as what he can do after the catch. You see, you see that, I mean, immediately to jumps off tape. If you compare the two players, just stick them side by side. We're talking about Higgins. He's not a giant yak threat. Like, I'm not saying that he can't produce it, but that's where the divide really comes in for him versus Ted, where Ted collegiate career five point five yards after the catch per reception Higgins is

down at 4.5. And it also shows up in his ability to force missed tackles like over the last two years, Jane Higgins only has 25 missed tackles force, which is not a bad number, especially for an ex receiver, we can get into the quarterback play at Iowa State. But when you compare that to Ted, Ted aroma Macmillan, like again, going back to Jane Higgins, 25 missed tackles forced over the last two years. Ted Rowe Macmillan forced more missed tackles in just 2024 alone. Yeah, then Jane Higgins did over those final two seasons. And then it comes down to getting back to again, like if you put these guys in the perimeter, Ted has an incredibly impressive resume versus man and press where he's just been battle tested in that X receiver role to be the alpha, but it'd be on the outside.

Like over the last two years, Ted has accrued the third and tenth most man coverage targets amongst all FBS wide receivers and produced top 10 yards per outrun figures in both of those seasons where Higgins has been a little bit more up and down. Like he's shown that can he do it well? Sure. Like in 20 and this last season he was 20th in yards per outrun versus man coverage. But I think there's still something as far as in Higgins game, as far as the release packet package and consistently playing to his size and his athleticism when pressed off the line that he's got to improve.

Whereas, I think we've got more proof of concept than him winning in those ways. So I know you said you've got him at wide receiver five. He's wide receiver in the consensus range. Before we get to this range of wide receivers. How many running backs do you think should probably be off the board in the, in a rookie draft? I've got, um, let me see here. I've got four guys ahead of Jayden Higgins right now.

I've got Ashton Gentie, Caleb Johnson, Trevion Henderson, and Amarion Hampton. It's really, it's that bucket of guys that we think are going to either go in the first round or go at the top of the second round. And Caleb's the one guy where maybe he falls back, maybe he goes in the round three, but I'm kind of projecting the, this tiny little swath of running backs that I have above Jane Higgins as those are the guys that maybe get better draft capital or similar draft capital with really, really strong profiles to Jane Higgins. So I, I looking at a lot of the rookie mocks really strong profiles to Jane Higgins.

So I, looking at a lot of the rookie mocks, I think you see Higgins early in round two a lot of times and you see Tet at that one three, one four range a lot of times. So I think a decision, a lot of fantasy managers might be making and draft capital could change the math on this, but they might be looking at, you know, I need a running back and I need a wide receiver. So I can either go Tet with the three, four pick and then take RB seven or eight in this class early in round two, or I can take Hampton or Henderson or whichever those guys you prefer and then take Higgins early in round two. Which of those combinations sounds better to you right now?

Right now with what we're projecting, I would do the RB and then take Jayden Higgins only because I feel better and push back against if you feel different Heath, but like I feel better about Jayden Higgins projected projected draft capital than I mean, right now with the running backs, we're all wondering what that looks like what we're projecting. Like I think the only two guys that we feel pretty freaking good about going in the in the first round or at least in the top say 40 picks are a Marion and Ash and Gentie and after those guys. It's like what happens to the NFL draft is that second tier of D tackles, corners, offensive linemen, defensive edge guys? Is that going to push the running back position down where we don't get two, three guys going in the second round? Maybe we get one, only one, and the rest of them get pushed to day three, or, excuse me, round three and round four of the NFL draft. And I think that's going to be one of the determining factors of what shifts people's rankings is what happens in the second round. How many of those running backs go in the second round versus NFL teams saying, I mean, why do I got to draft a guy in the second round when I can pair two guys together in the fourth round and the fifth round and we complete our backfield that way. So I think the draft capital on the third tier or however people are dicing it up, but basically kind of RB five to 10, what does that look like as far as draft capital and what does that do for the wide receivers? I think that was all really well said. The only thing I would say is I think it seems like there's a pretty good consensus that both Gentian Hampton are worthy of a first

round grade. I'm really getting the feeling that we're getting the Bo Nicks special from Sean Payton and the Henderson whether Hampton's there or not is going to be a Denver Bronco. Just because he fits what Sean Payton wants out of his running backs so much. So I wouldn't, I think it's possible we get three running backs in round one and then you're right. What happens after that gets really, really, how do people view Caleb Johnson versus Quinshawn Judkins versus Scataboo versus Devin Neal? Like that's going to be really interesting, but that's enough on Jayden Higgins. We'll move to wide receiver eight and honestly, it's kind of fun because it's his teammates. It's Jaylen Noll, Iowa

State. What's your eval on him? I have loved this kid ever since I scouted him before we went to the senior bowl and I was pounding the table for him in late January. Like he just, he is, he's a fricking stud man. I got at watching his tape and then you see him go to mobile. And I think being at senior bowl boots on the grounds, there's definitely merit there and he just absolutely crushed it. Like it put him into the guys that,

that got some more positive energy and buzz coming out of, and he's crushed every part of the process. He's like, it's senior bowl. Nobody could guard him. He played on the outside, played on the inside, got pressed, got deep. Nobody could touch him. He just kept getting open at will.

And then he goes to the combine and he crushed every and he did almost everything. Did almost everything. He jumps out the gym. He runs a four three nine and it's like I mean people talk about the size always five ten. Does that really matter Heath when he's jumping to forty one inches and he's got the vert that's going to put him in the rarefied air of maybe a six foot receiver with only a decent

vert like that's the catch radius that we're talking about for Jaylen Null. So I don't care about the size. Um, I think he is a player that yes, he was locked into the slot a lot at Iowa state 72% slot usage, but I truly think this is a guy that can play 50, 50 inside outside. If you wanted to put him to the boundary that I think he can win out there and I think that's the big differentiator between him and some of these other slot guys like Jalen all has the proof of concept that he can win on the outside he's an

impressive route runner and he plays bigger than his size it's not just the testing stuff I love it when we see these guys that the testing you see it show up consistently on their film like with the body control this dude sky into crowded or muddy catch points and coming down with the ball with two guys in his face and I've seen discussed about Jalen all and I think it's just a bad narrative because he was a slot white receiver is that and I think some of this debunked it a little bit with the testing and the speed at the combine. But the fact that people some people talk about it that he can't get deep and I'm like, what were you looking at? Like, this guy went out last year and he was 23rd in the nation and deep targets and that's not the big eye popping thing that I want to bring up here, but he was second second in all

FPS wide receivers in deep receiving arts is a dot jump from 7.7 to 12.2. So there is justified verticality in his game that we can latch onto. And I just think this is if you want to latch onto the guy that jumps out of this class, that we're looking back in hindsight and two to three years from now and we're like, why didn't we put more respect on this guy? He is a high end to low end, maybe wide receiver one and an NFL offense. I just absolutely emphatically love Jim and Noel. That's awesome stuff.

And so you're the perfect guy to make this next case. Because when I, when I look at that, like five, 10, five, 11, blazing speed, 190, 195 pounds. It's like, man, that sounds a lot like Matthew Golden, but again, there's a pretty good gap in the consensus rankings between these two wide receivers. And in Noel's favor, he was much more productive than golden was what, what he is there anything that separates these two? I mean, again, going back to my rankings, I have Jalen Noel at wide receiver four and

I have Matthew Golden at wide receiver six. Okay. So this is not me hating on Matthew Golden, but the differentiator in, and there's two guys in this class, Matthew Golden's one of them and Luther Burden is the other one. And I know you all have already discussed him on previous episodes, but I think Jalen all is categorically better than both of those players and Golden specifically Jalen all prove that, that he's a better after the catch player, both physicality.

And I think we can say it's a wash with route running. Both of these guys are extremely good at route running and people will say Golden play on the outside. No one can do that. We've already discussed that. But I think it's also, it's the play strength at the catch point that I think is the big differentiator for the two of them. Whereas Golden has a 40% contested catch rate in two of the last three seasons. And you have Null that has proven over 50% contested catch rate. And it's all over his film that he is, he's a my ball winner. I don't care about the size. When that dude goes up for above the rim kind of targets, he's coming down with it.

What? So, you know, I think it's interesting because everybody's kind of already talking about goldenness because he ran so fast and there was even a little bit beforehand that he was going to sneak into round one, what type of draft capital right now are you expecting for Noel? Second round somewhere in the second round. I think honestly, I I'm not going to be surprised if a team loves him just as much as I do. And we see him go at the top of the second round. That won't, that won't shock me at all.

Excellent. Excellent stuff. Let's move on to wide receiver nine. It is Ellic IOManner out of Stanford. What's your email on him? I mean, again, another guy that in everybody, the first thing that people talk about with Ellic is what he did to Travis Hunter and destroyed him when he faced him in coverage. So I'm not going to belabor that too much. I mean really with. Ellic you see a guy that can play X he can he was really asked over

the last two seasons to stretch the field. I mean for a player that we're looking at top 60 amongst FPS wide receivers in a dot 14.1 14.2 quarterback play wasn't great over the last two years. So I think that gives some context but very detailed route runner. He can win at the catch point and adds a lot of nuance to his routes. And I think he's I'm not gonna say he's a really exactly clean projection, but you know what you're getting with him.

A guy that can be physical a guy that can win on the outside can X, can get deep. There's some drawbacks to his game. Like I think he's got some footwork issues to clean up. He definitely telegraphs his routes at the top of his stem at times. We could talk about the drop rate, which was 8.7% over the last two seasons. So as a player that I like him, I don't love him as maybe some other people in the space and where they're ranking him. Um, I currently have him at wide receiver eight Heath. So I think it's interesting because you, you hit on it there. I've seen a wide range of opinions on this guy.

We've got people who think he's a top six wide receiver, maybe. And we've got people who aren't sure that he's a top 18 wide receiver. Is there anything specifically about his game or his stats that make him so polarizing? I think it comes back to how we opened this show and discussing in people's process. I think you're going to see film grinders and people that were film is the, the onus of how they're evaluating prospects.

They are probably going to be higher on ELEC than the analytics community. Like people running models are probably going to be higher on Elec than the analytics community. Like people running models are probably going to be lower on him because if you just look at the per route efficiency over the last years, like Heath, are you getting super excited for a player that amongst all FBS wide receivers at least 50 targets was 137th and 78th in yards per route runner the last two years? No, but if you turn on the film, he's a better player. And we also have to give

context to numbers with quarterback play and maybe some yards left on the field. So I think that's the biggest thing and also kind of how much the people weigh drops as far as when they're looking at wide receiver prospects. So a player that I think I'm kind of in line with consensus, like, where's he at in the consensus again? He's nine. So you're, I'm hand holding basically with consensus then.

So he is the youngest wide receiver we're going to talk about today. He's still just 21 years old. Does that earn him a bonus in your eyes? And how do you evaluate 21 year olds versus 23 or 24 year olds? It doesn't. Now, I will say my process has kind of evolved. I think we all used to be like heavy into breakout ages and domino ratings and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think two things have changed the flavor that Kool-Aid for me over the last few years. One, we are still dealing with the tailwinds of the pandemic and guys staying in college because of that transfers. The other part of this is NIL

was changing the flavor of the coffee here. Like guys staying in college longer and coming out as older prospects. Now, can we still point to the common sense, which it does bear out in the analytics of, if you're good when you're younger, then obviously then you're more talented, you earn more volume, things like that.

It's just common sense. So I'm not gonna weigh him that much more heavily because he is 21 versus some guys that are 23, 24. Part of this is just the changing landscape of college football. But also too Heath, like we always discuss in dynasty too. Wide receivers have an incredibly long shelf life. If you're good, then we're saying,

okay, you're probably good for six to eight years. So do I really care if you're 21 versus being 23, if you're good for six to eight years, if you're good, you're good.? If you're good, you're good. And if you're not, you're not. That's really what it comes down to me. Yeah. I don't care so much about 21 versus 23. It bothers me more if the 23 year old wasn't really good until he turned 22 or 23. Somebody's good as a 20 year old. That is a big difference in terms of being a year or two older than most of the guys you're playing against.

Let's take our second break. Then we will get to wide receiver 10 through 12, the consensus rookie rankings. At wide receiver 10, we've got another smaller school guy. It's Jalen Royals of Utah state. Derek, what do you think about this guy? I love Jalen Royals. He's another guy that was a love lister for me. Um, as soon as I started breaking down his tape at the senior bowl and just fascinating story,

collegiate path and stuff as a guy that came out as a no star prospect, went to Georgia Military Academy, transfers to Utah State. He's ripping it up in his final season in college. My wide receiver 11 in my ranks currently. That's that's if you're including Travis Hunter, if we're not including Travis Hunter, he is my wide receiver 10. So again, the guy that I'm hand holding with consensus. So final collegiate season. I mean, this guy was just putting up video game numbers across his final four collegiate games. He was averaging 166.5 receiving yards per game. And everybody's big question about Jalen Royals,

which I understand it, is the player that in his final year that ranked 30th in yards per outrun against all FCS and FBS guys with 50 targets, is he that good? Was it just the lower level of competition that allowed him to excel? I think he is really that good.

And part of what was proof of concept for that, for me, was again, going to Mobile and seeing him against better competition consistently that week. And another point of context for people that in that final season in college, his season was cut short with a foot injury and seeing him in Mobile, he was not 100%. Now, I want to be very clear when I mentioned this, it was not the foot injury that was keeping him

or holding him back. It was a soft tissue injury. But with Jalen Royals, he still went out there and competed. And he not only competed, he won consistently in the one on ones and doing that when he's less than 100% and you could tell that he wasn't. If you watch the film just even as highlight cut ups and I'm not asking everybody to go dive into like seven games all 22 like I'm doing on a weekly basis for players. But if you even go watch the highlights and then you turn on anything from the senior ball, you're like, where's the speed? Where's this blazing speed? This run after the catch ability that really just shines for Jalen Royals, you didn't see it, but his ability to win, despite being less than a hundred percent being dinged up, he proved in that forum against better competition that he could win consistently while less than while having less tools in the belt from raw attributes of his speed off the line.

He won with the finer points of wide receiver play and that's releases. That's his route running and he consistently won on in breakers. He won up the seam at the senior bowl. So a player that I think we've already seen proof of concept that he is better than just mossing guys in D2D3 and FCS level. I think he's the real deal and he proved that immobile for me and a player that I'm very, he's one of the guys I'm very curious where he goes in the NFL draft. I've seen him in the second round in some mocks. I think that's a little bit rich considering the context of this draft

class, I would be surprised because again, he hasn't been able to because of the health. Even when he went out to the combine, I talked to him at the combine. He still wasn't a hundred percent. So he didn't do all the testing and even though the fact that he ran a four four at the combine, I'm taking that with a grain of salt because I think fully healthy. Maybe he would have run better than that and generate a more buzz in the process than his body was allowing him to. So I think he probably goes in round three of the NFL draft Heath and that's

fine. I mean, then we're talking about landing spot and what is, what does it look like as far as target competition around him? And to that point, he played in the mountain West. He played a couple of games. He played again, a game against a big 10 school in USC. That sounds strange to say. And he had six catches for 47 yards. He played against a big 12 school in Utah. That sounds strange to say. And he had seven catches, four catches for

44 yards. Now he also had 211 yards against Boise state. So there was a pretty big split between his conference production and his non conference, especially power five production. So those, those, there's a reason those questions come in, but it's good to hear that you saw him against that top competition and he looked like he belonged. Are we at this point now at wide receiver 10? And I think you said you had Royals at 11. Are we at this point now at wide receiver 10? And I think you said you had Royals at 11. Are we firmly in day three territory or and round three territory of rookie dress now?

I think we are looking at these guys like I've got Jalen Royals. Again, we're having my ranks. I've got him as my 28th overall player on my board right now in my rankings on fantasy pros. Yeah. So yeah, I think even with draft capital, that's probably where he's gonna be. He's probably gonna be like, cause some of these running backs,

if they get a really good spot and things like that, like maybe a tight end or two could pop it. So I think you're looking at early round three in rookie drafts. Let's get to wide receiver 11. It's Jack Bash. And if you have just kind of tried not really read a lot, but you've just kind of followed along on social media, you've definitely seen this name because he has a lot of very enthusiastic fans of his game. Yeah. And for good reason, man. I mean his story again, we go back to, you know, just diving through not only these players and their skills and where they've gone their

collegiate story as players, but all the off-the-field stuff is it's tough for Jack Besh and I always say like you want to talk about a guy that the resolve the grit all those types of things we can discuss with wide receivers or just NFL players in general. Jack has all of that. And I think you look at not only the things that he's gone through in his personal life, still going through the process, as well as just his journey as a player, like he transferred, he started his collegiate career at LSU and he was excelling at LSU as a freaking tight end Heath and then he drops weight.

He transfers to TCU. He turns into being a slot wide receiver and then he has another metamorphosis in his final year at TCU and he turns and he jumps to the perimeter and he wins there. Like in his final year at TCU, he was 17th and receiving grade 22nd and missed tackles forced. And I think we're still seeing a player that I'll say the, the, what I was able to see from him and what he was able to do in mobile, the fact that yeah, he won the awards at mobile caught the game winning touchdown, all that kind of stuff. I mean, it was just the cherry on top of a fantastic week for Jack Besh in mobile where he won from the slot. He won on in breakers, out breakers. He won on the perimeter as well. A player that you're not going to

see blazing speed out of Jack Besh, but I'd say overall with wide receivers in general, the 40 times get grossly. I mean, we can say in fantasy, we're trying out to double count speed, the NFL double count speed all the freaking time. You know, guys run fast and we're saying, okay, we already knew he was fast. And then he'll tell us saying, oh, mouthwatering. We can't drive this guy fast enough. And with Jack Bash, he's not going to check that box. He's not a guy that's going to blaze a 40 like running 4443 whatever, probably a high four or five

guy, maybe a low four six guy, but the guy you're talking about that he wins with the finer points of wide receiver play with his ability with releases his route running can play inside outside. I think he definitely proved that even more immobile where there were a number of balls like Jalen Milro is probably best pass of the week went to Jack Besh on a perimeter route. I think he ran like a double move or a go route up the the sideline and came down with the back shoulder ball with it was contested and just looked awesome doing it. So a player that I don't think we've seen the best football yet to be played. I think it's still in front of him Heath for Jack Besh and just the evolution of his game. I think that we could still see another level to his game just as he gets more

and more and more comfortable playing wide receiver, playing from the perimeter. We could see more for him in the NFL. Um, I've got like a round three grade on him, but if a team were to take him at the back end of round two, I honestly wouldn't be that surprised. So you mentioned it, like he played all over the place in college and he showed an ability at the senior bowl to do that as well. Do you think that he could line up anywhere in the NFL or do you think he's primarily going to be a slot in the NFL?

I think he can play 50-50. I don't want to see him probably like an 80-90 percent perimeter guy. Like I think he can operate in that way and especially with the NFL going to, I mean, every single NFL defense is 50 percent zone a lot. Most of them, almost all of them are 54, 55% zone on a weekly basis, at least. And you're talking about winning versus off coverage on the outside. Can he do that? Yes. I think the best in terms of fantasy ceiling and him actualizing the highest ceiling possible for his skills at the NFL, as far as drawing targets. I think the best role for him is either as a power slot or playing 50-50 and getting slot exposure. So I think he can win from the outside,

but it's not a role, I don't want him locked into a perimeter only or a perimeter dominant role. Right, like for if he plays in two wide receiver sets, but when they go to three, he's the guy that goes inside. Yes, yes. That makes a lot of sense. Or he's the guy that goes inside. Yes. Yes.

Or he's getting like half of the pie as far as the slot stuff. I think people will rightly or wrongly look at Bish as kind of this crafty technician. And but really one for last guy off the practice field, he you know, all the narratives. Yes. Yes. If Bill Belichick was still in New England, we just all mock him there. But like, I think it's a, it's a worthwhile question cause you mentioned it. He doesn't have the elite speed and those technical skills are fantastic to have.

And we've got players in this draft that might get drafted ahead of him that are behind him in those areas, but there's also a certain baseline of athleticism that no matter how good your skills are, you have to be at least this athletic to win against NFL cornerbacks. Do you think he possesses that type of athleticism? I do. Um, and, and he showed that now wisely, and I would say this to every prospect coming out, like if you haven't, if you know, your 40 is not great, or you know, your testing isn't great in certain areas, don't do it. Just, just don't do it. And if your agent is telling you to

do it, you need to look for a new agent. So I think it's very wise that Jack Besh did the things that he did at the combine and the testing. Like he went out, his vert wasn't great. You can watch the film and I'm not going to tell you that Jack Bech's vert was going to be great. But look at the broad jump. He was not a 93rd percentile as well as the the the three cone drill. He was 85th percentile. So I think the parts of his game, he didn't run the 40, which was wise, because I think we've had enough guys come out in previous years. I mean, come on, Heath. I'm old enough to remember that Pooka

Nakua was slow. He wasn't fast enough. Cooper cup wasn't fast enough. All these other guys, we can go down laundry list of players where the NFL or at least the consortium before the draft said these guys are not fast enough. And yet it doesn't matter. So I think Jack Bash is definitely athletic enough. And I think he was wise to do the testing that he did and that he didn't do.

Awesome, awesome stuff on Jack Besh, the wide receiver out of TCU. We are coming to wide receiver 12 in the rookie class and it's Xavier Restrepo out of Miami. I should have had Adam Azer come on here or Dave get excited about their hurricane. This is a South Florida kid through and through. He went to high school down here. I believe he was born down here. What's your eval on him? Man, I was so much higher on Restrepo before he went out to the combine and then ran and somewhere he this is why you tell Jack Besh not to run the 40 dude. Exactly. Exactly. Like if you're banged up or you're dinged up, just don't run the 40 man like and this comes down to like if you're banged up or you're dinged up, just don't run the 40 man like

And this comes down to like if you're gonna run the 40 at a four seven or a four eight basically Xavier Restrepo is I mean he's he's running the 40 of a slow uh at a slow tight end but he's a he's a a 510 slot wide receiver and he's built like a running back. Like if you were to just take away the names and you put both these guys and just body composition next to each other. I mean, Xavier Restrepo looks like Cody Schrader, except he's playing slot wide receiver. I, I don't understand why Restrepo ran the 40.

I mean, even if like, like, look, like you got to know your times, you got to know your time speed. And he was like, Oh, I was hurt. Well, if you're hurt, then why the heck are you running anyway, man? Like, why? I don't get it. So for Restrepo, I was higher on him. Like I had him in that wide receiver, 15 to 18 kind of bucket before the forties and stuff like that. But really like now, I mean, I've dropped him all the way to wide receiver. I think the 40s and stuff like that.

But really like now, I mean, I've dropped him all the way to wide receiver. I think the conversation for him starts at like wide receiver 18. I've got a wide receiver 21 right now. So it's kind of a good thing that Dave and everybody are not on this because I'm not saying great things about Restrepo. But I mean, honestly Heath, like you look at it, like you

look at the 40 time that's damning. I mean, it's it's absolutely damning his 40 time. So we're looking at a player and this all goes back to like players helping or hurting their possible draft capital by the testing they're doing or they're not doing. He didn't help himself as a player. They're like, in the best case of scenarios, you're probably hoping Xavier restrepo goes in round four, the NFL draft after running that 40 being a slot confined player, what are we talking about Heath?

I mean, probably like around five guy now. And I mean, do you project them to go higher than that? No, I think it could fall worse than that. Same. I won't be surprised if he goes round six. And then, so we're talking about, he's a slot player. He's limited athletically. Like there are good things to point to on his analytical profile. But again, there are also a lot of bad things, both with the athletic testing, his role and the role we project in the NFL, because he is definitively a slot only player. Like I don't think that he has obviously the juice to stretch the field. Um, he's, he's again, we're Jalen all I'm talking about a player that

plays bigger than his size. The catch radius is bigger. I don't think that's the case for Xavier Restrepo. Like do can't run a fast 40 daddy's jumping out the gym doubt. That's the case. So. I mean, definitively it's a very confined role. The draft capital is not going to be there.

It's, it's hard for me to really get excited about a player like Xavier Restrepo, where it's like, if you even wanted to look at that archetype of player Heath, like, can you just make a better case for Tess Johnson, even going further down the board, maybe somebody like Isaac Tesla who tested better and he's a big slot, that's where it's like, I just have a hard time getting excited for Restrepo despite what he did do from accounting stat and some of the things on his analytical profile in college. I'll make sure I share this with Acer and Dave.

And so they get, uh, get to hear all this. I'm sure they'll be excited. Oh dear. No, no, get to hear all this. I'm sure they'll be excited. Oh dear. No, in all seriousness, that was fantastic. We had done just a little bit earlier. So I got to, I'm going to throw a couple of questions at you that I didn't prepare you for, but on earlier this week, we talked about wide receiver one through six in the class with the couch scouts. And I've, I've had a lot of people on the talk about Travis Hunter and it's sound like it just keeps edging more and more. It seems towards him being predominantly a wide receiver.

Maybe they're actually gonna let him do both, but it sure sounds like he's going to be a wide receiver. Is he the number one wide receiver in this class for you? If he's a full-time wide receiver, he is not. Okay. And people are going to think that I am just a Travis Hunter hater with the way that I'm gonna talk about him.

But if you stack up his numbers versus Teterrow and Macmillan, they're not comparable. And I understand a lot of context is needed with that. I understand that Hunter played both ways, playing cornerback and having a split focus is definitely going to lead to the fact of that he has got things to clean up in his game for Travis Hunter. For a player that over the last two years ranked 38th and

86th amongst FPS wide receivers, at least 50 targets and yards per route run, are those the analytical numbers that we would point to and say, this is the clear wide receiver one? And no, I couldn't. But it's not even just the analytical stuff, Heath. It's also the fact of, you look on his film, and there are a lot of parts of his film where there are things that Travis Hunter has to get better at, film where there are things that Travis Hunter has to get better at to be a productive, a very productive and to live up to the hype that he's getting as a wide receiver prospect. And again, I'm not shading the guy. If I knew he was a full time wide receiver, that was his role and only his role going into the NFL. Travis Hunter would be my wide receiver

to have this class based off of projection and upside, but I cannot in any way, shape, form or fashion rank him as the wide receiver one of this class when he's not better analytically than Ted Arroyo McMillan. He's not better on the film than Ted Arroyo McMillan. I talked about Ted earlier and the difference between him and Jayden Higgins being a proven winner versus man press. That's one of the things even if we're not talking about the footwork for Travis Hunter, where if you go on social media and everybody was kind of clowning him a little bit for the Colorado Pro Day Tick Tock route stuff where it's just wasted footwork and inefficiency, where it's like, dude,

you don't have to try to juke out the ghost or the person that are the air that's there to get open. That stuff is also on his film in games where double moves. He has to be more efficient shoulders throw into a spot. Travis Hunter doesn't get there because he's too busy trying to juke a guy out in the middle of a route where it's like, dude, use one step used to use a jab step be efficient because you don't have the makeup speed where like he has really good speed, but he doesn't have elite speed.

He doesn't, nobody will tell you that Travis Hunter has four, three elite speed. So there are parts as a route technician that he has to clean up and physical corners can get into his body. They could push him off his routes. And you tell me this Heath, have you heard any of that discussed just off the off the cuff when people bring Travis Hunter up in conversation? I feel like the conversation centers around. He's a perfect prospect.

He's amazing. He's otherworldly and I'm not saying the kid isn't crazy talented and he couldn't be when we look back on this class the wide receiver one of this class, but looking at where he is as a player currently, I can't rank him here. And just for further context, last year amongst 268 qualifying wide receivers, he was 40th in yards per route run against zone coverage strong. Yeah. You look at what he did versus man coverage. And again, going back to my concerns about him as a route runner. And if a team takes him and puts him in a traditional X role on the perimeter and says,

go beat man, beat press, do that. I think he could have some hiccups starting out. He was only 78 and yards per out run against man coverage. So it's not just on the film, but it's also in the analytics of there are things he has to do and clean up in his game. And I don't think that's ever part of the conversation when people talk about Travis Hunter, but correct me if I'm wrong here, Heath. No, I, you know what? I'm just so glad I asked the question.

We try to get as many different opinions from as many different people. And we want to kind of touch all sides of things. I thought you did a great job there. A great job on today's show. Tell everybody one more time, like what you have coming up for the net in the next week for the draft and where they can find it. Oh man. Uh, one, thank you for having me on there.

Um, it's, it's been a fantastic time chopping it up with you and, um, everything could be found at fantasy pros.com. Um, again, all my positional primers are already live. So quarterback running back wide receiver tight end, my top 100 skill players will be live on the site and written up before the NFL draft, round one, ding, ding, ding, kicks off. So that's coming as well as all of those primers will be updated post-NFL draft.

And please everybody check out the Fantasy Pros NFL Giraffe Show. Thank you, Derek. Thank you, Thomas, for making everything work. Thank you to everybody who was active in the chat. We will talk to you next Tuesday with the tight end preview. ["Paramount Podcasts"]