Fantasy Football Today - FFT Dynasty - Updated Wide Receiver Rankings Revealed! (05/24 Dynasty Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty! In this episode, host Heath Cummings is joined by special guest Kate Magdziuk for an exciting and insightful discussion. They kick things off by diving into Kate's spicy tweet that De’Von Achane (1:05) is the most overpriced RB in dynasty leagues, sparking a lively debate. Heath then poses three thought-provoking questions to Kate: What's one rule or setting (6:40) that is non-negotiable for your dynasty league? Who is your favorite (8:40) rookie WR outside the consensus top 6? And which veteran (11:30) WR should contenders be targeting? Following this engaging Q&A, Heath reveals his WR rankings, breaking them down into three segments: WR Rankings (13:50) 1-12, WR Rankings (24:00) 13-24, and WR Rankings (36:15) 25-36. Tune in for expert analysis, valuable insights, and actionable advice to help you dominate your dynasty leagues Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection 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." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey.

No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches

start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings. We are unveiling wide receiver rankings today. I've got a special guest to do that with me. It's Kate Majuk. Kate, thank you for being here. Tell everybody where they can find your work. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk wide receivers. One of the most fun positions to talk about. You can find my work over at Pro Football Focus, Yahoo, and also on the Locked On Dynasty podcast.

I'm a little bit of everywhere these days. And yeah, talking a lot of wide receivers. So this was a perfect show to jump on. Excellent. So we are going to talk wide receivers. We're going to talk about some of Kate's favorites. I will lay out my rankings one through 36. And then I've got some guys that like really, really I struggled with. Should this guy be higher? Should this guy be higher? I'm going to let Kate answer that question for me. And it is a wide receiver show, but I think we have to start with a running back tweet because yesterday, and I love it when people do this for me, like I'm trying to plan out a show

and Kate goes, here you go. And just lobs this grenade out into the internet. Devon Achan is the most overpriced running back in dynasty. I'm sorry. I had to do it. So I, I, I love looking at consensus dynasty rankings. I love looking at ADP, a shout out dynasty league, football.com.

They have a fresh batch of ADP startup dynasty, ADP every month and month over month. I keep coming back to Devon H and I'm wondering what in the world am I missing? So I know he was one of the most efficient running backs in the NFL. So like, don't, don't come at me. I know ball. I know ball. I swear. But I have some concerns about investing in Achan as a top 12 dynasty running back right now. He's being drafted on average right around like rb8 to rb10 which means if you're in a dynasty startup draft you are drafting a chan as your rb1 theoretically

in this draft i don't understand the hype because everything we're seeing and everything we saw last year like remember coming out of a and m uh a ch HN's like kind of, his thing was speed, right? But he was undersized as a running back. And guess what was a big issue? Injuries, which that's kind of the whole, you know, issue with size and the fact that the running back position takes these aggressive hits is the durability concerns. Heath, what am I missing? Because year one showed me that the durability concerns. Heath, what am I missing? Because year one showed me that the durability concerns are real.

The Miami Dolphins follow that up with an extension for Raheem Mostert for the next two seasons, who actually has been relatively healthy over the past two years. And then they go and draft Jalen Wright in the fourth round, which I know fourth round running back, who cares?

But Jalen Wright has a very similar skill set to HN, except he's bigger and more durable. I don't get it. Well, and it's funny because the thing I love the most about this is last week, I had Ryan Heath on the show and one of his big, big takeaways was go by Devon HN. And I've kind of been more towards,

especially for redraft purposes, more towards where you are right now, just because they really only gave him volume last year in blowout wins. It was the Broncos game. It was two or three other games. It was not in close games. We got to the end of the year. They play the bills in a must win game and it's single digit touches for hn they go to

the playoffs and face the chiefs in terrible weather and it's very a lower usage again for hn and so i just didn't necessarily believe that the dolphins ever see hn as someone who can be a lead back now ryan's argument was that if you look at running backs who perform in terms of efficiency like he did as a rookie those guys pretty much always get more work the next year and quite often turn into superstar running backs and there have been guys that have gone that direction it's it's the thing is i think if he has a career that's four to five more years long and he doesn't have injuries he's got an excellent breakout chance but there's a significant risk especially when comparing him i just looked that the may adp has a chain at nine

my last rankings update i had him at 11 i think the guy that's really tough for me is somebody like rashad white and i talked to ryan about him who has all those volume things that we don't have with a chain like he gets all the carries. He's literally the opposite player of HN. But absolutely no efficiency. And so you worry about him losing his job, not because he can't stay healthy or because the team never gives him that work, but because they go find somebody better. And that's kind of like the enigma.

And this is why I kind of hate this round of running back. I either need a top five dynasty running back. I need a Brees Hall. I need a Brees Hall. I need a Bichon or I'm probably trying to avoid any of these, you know, tier two, tier three guys. And then I'm just going to keep taking shots down the list in terms of

these like late round values, because I do think that this range is a very gross and, and icky one, generally speaking. But I am more of a, and I think this kind of goes back to the original concept. Like, yes, touches are earned. And with the level of efficiency that we saw from A-Chan, he should theoretically earn touches.

But if the offense doesn't think that he's capable of a full three down workload, just based on durability, we're not going to see that because they're going to want to keep him healthy. They're going to want to keep him fresh. So I understand both points. He's just one guy that I'm going to be okay missing out on. I'm sure I'm going to be eating crow in a year and I'm going to be on old takes exposed, but I'm okay with that because I think my approach to the running back position, I look at running backs as one to two year loners, which is why I love the wide receivers. I build my dynasty teams around the wide receiver position. Running backs are more of the afterthought unless I get a top tier stud. So I, yeah,

I'm just going to take some shots later in the draft and hope I don't look like an idiot. So that's, that sounds like a great plan. Let's, I do think investing in those cheaper running backs makes a lot more sense. Their value could actually go up. We do have three questions for Kate to start the show as we always do. And the first one is the question everyone gets, uh, Matt price ruined it for you, though. We have the qualifier back. So you're starting a new Dynasty League. What one rule or setting is non-negotiable? And you're not allowed to say super flex because too many people say that.

Okay, I'm actually going to go with tight end premium, which is a setting that I did not initially like because I thought it favored far too many. It favored the top two tight ends that, you know, we had Travis Kelsey every year. We had Gronk before that. And there was kind of just like these sticky tight ends. I actually think we're entering a spicy era in terms of youth at the tight end position. I think with the way tight ends are being utilized in a more versatile way, like there are teams that are like the Buffalo Bills who are willing to draft a smaller tight end like Dalton Kincaid and use them more so out of the slot as opposed to, you know, more of these hybrid blocking receiving tight ends. that we're in that I'm totally vibing with. And I do think that I have a lot more fun and

engagement trying to figure out that piece of the puzzle when I'm in a tight end premium league, as opposed to, you know, a standard tight end league where, okay, maybe you have one of these top five guys. And if you don't, I feel like you just kind of juggle and you don't really, it feels more stagnant. I think that is an underrated part of the tight end premium. It's not just that it lifts up all tight ends to make them closer to running backs and wide receivers. It does, but also it helps to differentiate between say tight end six and tight end 12,

because you're right in a regular PPR league and a half PPR league, I don't really care if I have tight end six or tight end 12, it might be a point and a half difference per game. If you add that tight end premium, it does make the mid range tight ends a little bit more valuable, not just relative to running backs and wide receivers, but also relative to their own position. Now where you said it was a spicy era for tight ends. Well, we're taking you into the wide receiver era. Cause it's all wide receiver stuff from this point forward. Who is your favorite rookie wide receiver outside of the consensus top six?

And I'm calling that. I just saw Keon Coleman go at wide receiver four. So it's not always these guys, but I'm calling that Marvin Harris and Malik neighbors, Roma Dunce, Xavier Worthy, Brian Thomas, Ladd McConkie. Outside of those six, who's your favorite rookie wide receiver? I'm going with Troy Franklin, who honestly, I was surprised fell to the fourth round. I think everybody was 1400 plus receiving yards, 14 touchdowns in his final season at Oregon. I think he's got a lot of growing to do. Uh, he's got the size he needs to put on muscle

play. Strength was definitely like on my notes for him, like underlined three times, lack of pace, play strength was a problem. Not the most nuanced route runner was kind of one dimensional, but he was incredibly productive with the role that they asked him to perform in at Oregon. Among power five wide receivers with 50 or more targets last season, he ranked fourth among all of them with 3.32 yards per route run that's behind, you know, who was in the top four Malik neighbors, Marvin Harrison jr. And one of his teammates, Tess Johnson ranked third and passer rating when targeted fourth and explosive plays.

So like, while there's a lot of room for growth in Troy Franklin's game, I do think that a, the athleticism is there. I also just love the fact that he was paired with his collegiate quarterback who I do too. This like, I think that's one of the most underrated narratives about Troy Franklin is that familiarity, that chemistry, that timing that they already have built into their game. And then guess what? Cortland Sutton right now, he's, he's vying

for a new contract. He's not showing up in voluntary workouts. Who's getting all those reps. It's him and Marvin Mims. And I think that's really one of the great questions because there's a lot of similarities between those two. And I, I can't, I think I have them back to back right now in my wide receiver rankings, both guys that Peyton brought in could see either one of them be the wide receiver one for this team this year.

Yeah. And I like I'm purely purely and I like from a prospect perspective, I like Marvin Mims a lot more coming out. Obviously, they're different types of football players. They're different size. You know, they bring a little bit of a different nuance. I think Marvin Mims, the better route runner overall, like a more polished guy. but it's really hard to negate the fact that like, yeah, Bo Nix, he could probably just toss a ball up in the air blindfolded. And he already knows that the timing of his wide receiver, which that connection I think could be really fruitful for fantasy managers in year one might not be the prettiest. It might not be, you know,

the best offense in the league, but I do think from a volume standpoint, he could be set up very nicely for a year one impact. Let's flip to the other end of the wide receiver spectrum. Who is your favorite veteran for contending teams? I've got a contending team. I'm going to be on the clock pretty soon with the 13th pick in my rookie draft. Who's your favorite veteran for contenders to target okay i am trying not to be like a homer here but i'm going to talk about deontay johnson who is he's gone now so you're not a homer for saying yeah like i i'm trying you know to get over my pain honestly i was super surprised when he was traded this off season now he's with the

carolina panthers but i do think he's coming off a pretty underrated season. He posted several career highs. He had a career high PFF receiving grade, yards per reception, yards per route run. Second best average in terms of yards after the catch per reception in his career. Second best passer rating when targeted. And we know that he can sustain a volume role in an offense. I know Adam Thielen kind of took that role last year. Deontay Johnson, he's going to play, I think the primary target in this offense. And I think if you give Deontay Johnson 120 plus

targets, which I have easily projected in the realm of possibilities, I can't see a world where Deontay Johnson isn't a top 24 wide receiver, and that's putting it on the absolute lowest end of low for me. I love that. Now, Deontay Johnson, Troy Franklin are not in my top 36 wide receivers, which we're going to unveil after the break. That's a good one. I had to shout them out now. I had to get it out of the system. I love it. I do think they both make pretty good trade partners. If I'm rebuilding,

I'd rather have Troy Franklin than Deontay Johnson. If I'm contending, I'd rather have Deontay Johnson than Troy Franklin. Let's take a quick break. We'll go through wide receiver one through 12, and then I've got maybe another pair of higher-end trade partners as well. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goal tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials.

Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. With Smartwater's pure, crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same

or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is, it's definitely not that. Don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart water is a simple one. Ah. Life's full of choices.. This is a good episode to be watching on YouTube. I know a lot of you guys just listen to the podcast.

That's great, too. But on YouTube, we're actually going to have a list of these rankings, and you won't have to remember which names I just said. 1 through 12. Wide receivers, 1 through 12. Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, CeeDee Lamb are the top three, and probably my first tier. Amon Ross St. st brown not far behind though

then marvin harrison then puka nakua then i kind of just throw my hands up i don't know what to do with these next few guys aj brown tyree kill malik neighbors garrett wilson jaylen wattle and chris olave again the top 12 jefferson chase lamb Lamb, St. Brown, Harrison, Nakua, Brown, Hill, Neighbors, Wilson, Waddle, Olave, Kate. I'm going to ask you on each slide here, who's your guy? Who's the guy I'm too low on? Who's your favorite on this list at cost? You're too low on Garrett Wilson at wide receiver 10. Now, he is my wide receiver 6 in Dynasty.

He has turned 24 this off season. He's had back-to-back seasons of a thousand plus receiving yards, despite the fact that his quarterback woes have been just absolutely atrocious. 66.9% catchable target rate per PFF. That ranked 95th among 108 qualifying wide receivers over the past two seasons. Like it literally can't get worse than it already has been for Garrett Wilson. Now I was a big believer in the skillset. I don't think he's done anything to kind of like limit that.

I think he's shown us everything and more that you could possibly ask for in that scenario. I'm going to take a guy like Garrett Wilson, who I think has already proven himself despite playing in the worst circumstances you could possibly ask for over a guy like AJ Brown, over an aging asset in Tyreek Hill, Malik neighbors, who also playing on an offense that I think has just as many question marks as this Jets team sharing a stadium, like all those, all those things in common here. Why so low on Garrett Wilson?

I, well, like I said, when I get to the AJ Brown range, I do kind of throw my hands up. I, I, there's a tier there for sure.

Now I can't get him. Do you have Wilson ahead of Nakua or ahead of Harrison? I had, so actually I are top five, uh, right in sync here. I have him right ahead of, uh,

Puka Nakua and then Puka Nakua, AJ Brown, uh, Malik neighbors, Tyree kill. So it, it really is like just Garrett Wilson, just sliding him up the list.

The rest of our rankings are pretty similar here in this first tier, but I can't, I can't let the talent of Garrett rankings are pretty similar here in this first tier but i can't i can't let the talent of garrett wilson fall as far as it is and i know the lack of touchdown production has been a problem in terms of him reaching fantasy upside i think we have learned this season or this past season more than ever that you you know, especially for dynasty, you know, betting on talented, talented players, uh, in, in youthful players is kind of the way to go because we've seen how frequently and how significantly the landscape can be shaken up with a trade. Look at Tyree kill and the way that he just shook up the rankings, uh, for the Texans wide receivers,

the shaking up the wide receiver room for the Buffalo bills. Like we're seeing stars being traded now more than ever. And I think that's just kind of a testament to the fact that like things can change so rapidly for an offense. You look at the bears, for instance, how quickly they've revitalized their entire receiving room. I, I'm just going with talent with Garrett Wilson because I think he's top-tier talent, and the situation is kind of secondary to me at this point.

Yeah, I am maybe just a little bit more skeptical that Aaron Rodgers is going to be good. I think that's fair. And it is a big leap. I still rank Garrett Wilson as a top 12 wide receiver in redraft this year, but I also probably factor in the risk a little bit more in my dynasty rankings that it's a pretty big leap from what Garrett Wilson has done to justifying a borderline round one ADP and being a top six dynasty wide receiver.

He could improve quite a bit this year and still disappoint based on what our expectations are for him this year. Now, like I said, I wouldn't argue strongly for seven, eight, nine or 10 in whatever order those four really, which kind of brings me to my second point. When you look at Tyree Kill and Malik neighbors, that seems like about the highest in, like I have them almost tied in kind of the formula I use for ranking these guys. But obviously if I'm a contender, I would strongly prefer Tyree kill to Malik neighbors. And if I'm a rebuilder, I would strong, this is the perfect trade pairing in the top 12 wide receivers, isn't it? Yeah, I definitely agree. And you know, I do think that even despite the fact that yes, the, the giants have a ton of question marks in their offense, but from a volume standpoint, you might actually see, you know, a, a pretty sizable

volume for neighbors, even if it's not the most efficient of roles. So like if you're in a full PPR format, I think, you know, neighbors could still finish as a potential top 12 wide receiver in his rookie season based on volume alone. But yeah, I'm going to take, that's why I have Malik neighbors over Tyree kill, because I do think if I'm swapping these guys one for one, I'll take the youth of Malik neighbors. But I do think, you know, as long as Tyree kill is in the national football league, he is going to be a top five to top 12 wide receiver. He's not losing a step. He's 30 years old and he still looks as bright and chummy as ever.

I don't think I don't think anybody's going to argue that. I think people are a little bit nervous about his statement was he's going to like maybe retire after 2025. Right. Maybe maybe he does. I don't know if he keeps playing this high quality of football. I feel like I doubt it, but. Right. But if you give me two years of a top three wide receiver, I'm fine.

Like that's fine. It's two years of, of being 50 points better than all the rest. There are 70 other guys on this list, and that's perfectly fine. Let's go to the very next tier was where my biggest rankings dilemma was amongst the top 12, and it is Jalen Waddell versus Chris Olave. I talked quite a bit on a prior show

about how Waddell last year, when he was healthy, was basically the same guy he was in 2022. Essentially, the 15.6 PPR fantasy points per game. He just left way too many games early. Olave kind of like Garrett Wilson in that we keep thinking that Garrett, Chris Olave is going to produce a much better season than he has so far. The difference is his quarterback still Derek Carr.

So Jalen Waddle or Chris Olave, who would you rather have in dynasty? I'm actually going to go Olave. Apparently I'm just all in on the former OSU wide receivers in this podcast. But I'm just going to give him the age. So he's got, he's just about to turn 24 years old. Waddell turned 26 this season. There's no doubt that Jalen Waddell has been the more efficient wide receiver. And I think like nobody would expect anything different just considering the offensive scheme that he's playing in the quarterback upgrade. Like he's got a lot of things in his quarter, but I, you know, I think generally speaking, we're going to look at a lobby as the primary receiving target on his team and give him that edge in terms of volume. I'm going to give him the edge in terms

of youth, but these two are extremely, extremely close. You look at Chris Alave. He finished with over the past two seasons, 45.2% of his games with 15 or more fantasy points in full PPR. Surprisingly, Jalen Waddell at 38.7. I do think health has been a huge factor in that. Percentage of games, Chris Alave has had one fewer game with fewer than 10 fantasy points than Jalen Waddell. So from a ceiling perspective, yeah, that top tier ceiling definitely belongs to Jalen Waddell. I still think Chris Alave from a volume perspective just gets a little bit safer for me. And he is, you know, I think just as talented a wide receiver. But again, like former teammate Garrett Wilson, kind of limited in terms of his situation right now.

But Derek Carr also dealt with some health issues. I'm not a Derek Carr fan. I've long been an anti-Derek Carr person. And if you followed me on Twitter for a while, you've probably known that. But we also know that Derek Carr can produce a fantasy relevant wide receiver. He did it. He's done it in the past. Yeah, I'm just going to go with Chris Olave. He just feels a little bit safer to me. He's a little bit younger.

But again, these are two guys that I feel like you flip a coin, and I'm probably going to be really happy with the result either way. Right. And so Robert says in the chat, and I saw a couple of people said this as well, London will be ahead of Olave. I don't remember a time where we had three consensus breakout picks from the year before. Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Drake London, and just everybody is all the way back in on them being breakout candidates again. We're just going to ignore the fact that they didn't do what we said they were going to do last year, and we're just going to say same things again this year. I'm part of that too. I'm not criticizing anybody else,

but it's three wide receivers that we believe in the talent, and we're just doing our best to cover our eyes, forget about what we've seen, and expect the same thing again this year. Let's move on to wide receiver 13 through 24, which is where we will find Drake London, Devontae Smith, Drake London, Zay Flowers, Tank Dell, George Pick London, Devante Smith, Drake London, Zay Flowers, Tank Dell,

George Pickens, Michael Pittman, DK Metcalf, Jordan Addison, T. Higgins, Brandon Ayuk, Rome Odunze, Nico Collins. Again, that's Smith London Flowers, Dell Pickens, Pittman, Metcalf, Addison Higgins, Ayuk Odunze, and Nico Collins rounds out the top 24. All right, who's your guy here, Kate? This is actually kind of a really hard one, and I wrote down two guys. I won't overwhelm you with the info. I do think Bro Madunze, too low for my taste. I still have him at wide receiver 13. I know Chicago is a crowded situation right now, but we're looking at Keenan Allen on a one-year deal. And I just think he's the best wide receiver on that team, day one, stepping onto the field. So Roma didn't say I'll, I'll save that. But I do think the biggest discrepancy for me is the gap between Nico Collins and tank Dell, who let's be clear.

I loved tank Dell coming out. He was one of my favorite sleepers. I have him in almost every single one of my dynasty leagues. And I drafted him in the third or later round. Like his, his, you know, everybody was sleeping on Tank Dell, except for me. Um, but I do think the gap between Tank Dell and Nico Collins here was probably the most surprising aspect of your rankings here in the 10 games Tank Dell and Nico Collins here was probably the most surprising aspect of your rankings here. In the 10 games they played together, Collins was targeted on a higher percentage of his routes run, averaged more yards per route run, almost doubled yards after the catch per reception production, lower drop rate than Tank Dell, had more plays of 20

plus receiving yards, 15 misforced tackles on receptions compared to tank Dell's three. And among Texans players, Collins actually led all of these, these players with a 0.9, 0.69 expected points per drop back compared to, uh, tank Dell 0.36 on those targets from, from CJ Stroud. He had a lower percentage target, uh, that were tight window throws per NFL next gen stats, average more yards of separation, like across the board, Nico Collins did outperform. Oh yeah. And when you look at their size and just the prototype wide receiver, I do think that Nico Collins is generally like the safer of the two. Probably has a safer floor. You know, we saw a high percentage of Tankdale's targets coming down the field.

I think Collins might be the safer pick. And there's lots of people questioning like this. I knew when we got to the second slide and especially when we get to the third slide, this is where like the top 12, everybody's really like, yeah, it's basically the same. Maybe this guy's three spots too low. You get to wide receiver 13 through 24 and the chat just goes absolutely insane. And so I appreciate it, Ben. He says perfect rankings wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you very much because everybody else hates me now and disagrees with you um i'm putting some weight into a couple of things when it comes to tank dell and nico collins and the age is very close if somebody said that in the chat it's true um there's some things that nico collins did last year that if anyone did them we would say that you can't do that again like he's not going to produce the same amount of Yak with that type of ADOT. No one ever has. His yards per target was almost the same as if you combined his first two years together. I think last year was a bit of an efficiency outlier for Niko. When you look at the actual production, when Tank was fully healthy, when Niko was fully healthy with CJ Stroud, it was pretty close. And I just assume

that the first year player has more growing to do than the third year player also. And I've mentioned this in the show several times. It, it goes in line with your Bo Nix, Troy Franklin point. CJ Stroud loves tank deal. He asked the team to draft tank deal. I don't know if you saw the video of him about a month ago when he was playing together. Like his perfect offense and Tank Dell was on the field and Nico Collins was not. And Nico's a free agent coming up pretty soon. So I'm not sure that Nico is quite, if Nico goes out and has a 900 yard season this year, I'm not sure any team in free agency views him as a number one wide receiver.

But I think more people agree with you than they do with me. Let's talk about something I know we'd agree on because you didn't say his name, George Pickens. That was one of the comments in the chat. I'm too high on George Pickens. You're the Steelers expert. I think you tweeted earlier this week that he could be a top 12 wide receiver if they don't go add somebody else. And I think you're right. Yeah, I think we tweeted earlier this week that he could be a top 12 wide receiver if they don't go add somebody else. And I think you're right. Yeah, I think we're very much undervaluing what George Pickens might do, especially with the upgraded quarterback, right? Like George Pickens, there are some plays that just leave you so frustrated as a fan, because he's not a guy that I trust in an every down situation, but guess what? If they don't

add another receiver into this room, he is going to be in an every down situation. And George Pickens in his four games without Deontay Johnson last year, 20.4 yards per reception, 7.4 yards after the catch per reception, 2.76 yards per route run. And he earned just under a 26% target share on his routes run. Like, I think we're very much underestimating this. I think we're underestimating the fit of Russell Wilson. Like, yeah, Russell Wilson, not the Superbowl quarterback of yesteryear, but still an above average quarterback who I think has gotten way too much flack, uh, based on last his performance last season. I don't understand the hate for Russell Wilson in the 2023 season. He was average. He just wasn't the Russell Wilson of, of, you know,

a few years ago. So, you know, I take that for what it is, but he can throw a very pretty deep ball. And guess what? George Pickens, very good in such scenarios. The upside is tremendous. Now I think he needs to become more consistent on an every down basis in order to truly be viewed as his teams, like number one possession, every down, like down like you know when you're in the most crucial of down situations he's the guy you trust more than anyone i don't know that he has earned that level of trust yet but like this is dynasty and i mean george pickens maybe prior to that tourney cl at georgia we were looking at him as an easy first round prospect

based on his skill set we were there was a period of time where we were looking at him as an easy first round prospect based on his skill set. We were, there was a period of time where we were discussing, you know, prior to him coming out, that like, he might be the number one wide receiver in this draft class, just based on a pure skill set. Like, yeah, we're probably underrating George Pickens quite a bit. And I'm trying not to be a homer. Well, I'm not talking about the steelers too because i just feel like i feel like a homer i think the consensus would probably come closer to swapping where nico and pickens are that seems yeah that that's and so i think i maybe i need to swap nico and pitman but i'm not moving george pickens down right now somebody said in the chat we need to study the 180

heath did on pickens and i'm just gonna say i think that's kind of what we should do when a guy does what he did with that opportunity then gets what i think even if justin fields were to go win the job one way or another george pickens is playing with the best quarterback he's ever played with this year and it's probably not that close and the target hog deontay johnson is no longer there like i i just think it's it's set up for a massive massive opportunity for him let's talk about my biggest rankings dilemma in this range it's a couple of guys that we may not know who they're going to be playing for in 2025 t higgins and brandon iuk one of the comments from the chat was that Ayuk should be up behind AJ Brown and in the top 12, but he was not the guy you thought I was too low on. So Higgins versus Ayuk, where do you come out on this one?

I'm going to lean Brandon Ayuk. I just think in terms of consistency, pure ability as a route runner, I'm going to give Brandon Ayuk that edge every single time. I mean, there's not many, many like statistical measures that I can find that Brandon Ayuk doesn't squash Tee Higgins in. He's been, you know, first of all, more available to his team, respectively, which, you know, availability kind of key. I need you to be running a route as often as possible if you're going to be scoring fantasy points, because you're not going to catch a ball if you're not running a route.

And T. Higgins has had, obviously, this year in particular, a ton of health concerns, but health has been a problem. He's seen a higher percentage of targets shares. He's averaged more yards per route run, more yards per target, a higher rate of first downs per route run, EPA per route run, EPA per target. Like, there's not much that I don't think points to Brandon Ayuk just being the better overall wide receiver. And I don't think we even know necessarily that either of these players is going to be playing for their respective teams in 2024 like and that's i think the most difficult thing to the most difficult thing to separate is how much of iuk's efficiency is san francisco is kyle shanahan and how much of t higgins production is playing with joe burrow like it's you i think about you put these guys in the same situation and there might just be a situation that's better for Higgins and a situation that's better for IUK.

I think Higgins is one year younger. It's it's said it's difficult. And that's why I said, I don't really know. So you thought that I had neither Nico too high or tank too low. Would you have IUK or Higgins ahead of Nicoico or would you put these put nico ahead of both these guys i will put brandon a yuk ahead i'm i need to pull up my rankings here i believe i had brandon a yuk somewhere closer to wide receiver 17 ish right right around there um and again roma dunze a guy that i have in like much much much higher. So this is actually where our rankings

start to shake up quite a bit, but I think Brandon, you give me, give me that edge and I'll take Brandon over, over Collins. And, uh, you know, so maybe I should have talked about Brandon here as the biggest discrepancy here at 22. And I, again, like this, this debate between the two, because you don't know the situation and everything's up in the air. I do think this is one of these rare instances in dynasty where you can just purely evaluate the player and, and who you think is the more talented player. Obviously they are very different types of players. You know, Brandon,

you guys a little bit more nuanced. It was route running and, you know, a better, better separator. Like T Higgins has, you know, that size physicality component,

like pick your poison. I feel like you could just pick the guy that you like the best. And you think is the most talented. And for me, that's Brandon. Though. I really love, you know, T Higg talented. And for me, that's Brandon Ayuk. Though I really love T. Higgins, and I've been making the argument that T. Higgins,

going to be a wide receiver one on more than half the offenses in the NFL, just been kind of unfortunate that he's been stuck with the best wide receiver in the NFL. Yeah. And if you thought the discrepancies got bad in 13 through 24, stuck with the best wide receiver in the NFL. Yeah. And that's like, if you thought the discrepancies got bad in 13 through 24, just wait until we get to 25 through 36. We'll do that right after this break. Enough of the pumpkin spice latte, the cinnamony pumpkin-flavored legend, or the new iced apple crisp non-dairy chai. So silky, so smooth.

How about the new pecan crunch oat latte? Nutty, buttery deliciousness and crunchy pecan flavor. Trick question, of course. It's the last call for fall, so don't miss out on your fall faves. Next stop, Starbucks. Mama, look at me. Vroom, vroom. I'm going really fast.

I just got my license. Can I borrow the car, please, Mom? Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time. You'll be relieved they have 24-7 roadside assistance with Intact Insurance. Mom, can we go to Nana's house tomorrow? I want to go to Jack's place today. I'll just take the car. Don't wait up, okay?

Kids go from zero to 18 in no time, don't they? At Intact Insurance, we insure your car so you can enjoy the ride. Visit Intact.ca or talk to your broker. Conditions apply. This is where it gets fun. Wide receiver 25 through 36. We've got three rookies at the top. Brian Thomas, Xavier Worthy, Ladd McConkie, then

Debo Samuel, then Jackson Smith and Jigma. Please tell me that this same thing's not going to happen to Roma Dunze. Then Roma Dunze's teammate, DJ Moore, Rasheed Rice, who's probably the biggest faller of the offseason, Jaden Reed, Chris Godwin, Keon Coleman, Terry McLaurin,

and Christian Watson. Again, wide receivers 25 through 36. That's Thomas, Worthy, McConkie, Debo, JSN, DJ Moore, Rice, Reed, Godwin, Coleman, McLaurin, and Watson. Who's your guy here, Kate? It's Jaden Reed, who from weeks 10 through 18 last year, that is the whole second half of the season, Jaden Reed was the wide receiver 10 in the league in fantasy points per game, 17.4 fantasy points per game in full PPR formats.

He has second-round draft capital, and he did truly emerge as the primary receiving target for his rising star quarterback, Jordan Love. This is an ascending offense. And I can't get over, I think, the mispriced evaluation of Jaden Reed. I think he's going to be the primary receiving target. Obviously, Christian Watson, there's still a lot to unpack with Christian Watson. I don't know if you saw the report today. His legs are the same size now. Yeah. That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard. So I've had like body scans before where they like measure muscle mass of each of your limbs because it's supposed to be even. One of his legs was 20% bigger than the other. Like that, I, my trainer, I had like a 7% mismatch between my

legs and my trainer was like, Oh, we've got to work on your left leg. Like this should be, this should be like close to dead. Even how did Christian Watson have his one leg 20% big? I don't know, but that's just like the weirdest thing ever to me. Um, you know, not that I'm like a fitness expert, but I've had these tests done and they to me. Um, you know, not that I'm like a fitness expert, but I've had these tests done and they're like, yeah, it should like your goal is to be even. So how he got to 20% uneven, I don't know, but apparently that is a contributor for his nagging hamstring injury. So hopefully we're getting closer there, but like, generally speaking, I think Jane Reed is the better wide receiver than Christian Watson.

Christian Watson offers a great combination of size, speed, and athleticism. But generally speaking, I don't think he's played consistently enough over his first two seasons to develop in all of the areas that I thought he needed to develop as a wide receiver. Coming out of North Dakota State, my biggest gripe with him was that I felt like he was more of an athlete than a nuanced route runner, than a nuanced wide receiver. And he had the physical tools to do that. And which I think you see reflected in all the flashes that we see with Christian Watson when he's healthy and on the field. But Jaden Reed, I think has the potential to be the true number one target for this offense. And if you're telling me I can get the number one target for this offense, you know, somewhere

around, you know, in, in the wide receiver 30 range, like I think we're mispricing him tremendously. I haven't met wide receiver 27. So maybe not as big a gap as it feels like to me. It just feels like we're so undervaluing this guy that, yeah, I want the primary target in ascending offense. Here's part of the problem with the Packers in general. One of the first comments we get after this slide goes up, worthy over Wicks, I'm out. Like we might have an argument over Jaden Reed versus Christian Watson, but there's a Romeo Dobbs guy out there somewhere. And there's a Dontavian Wicks guy out there somewhere. And there's somebody who thinks – Dontavian Wicks has been exploding on social media lately.

Like the Dontavian Wicks believers are coming out in full force. And I get it. I get it. I just like Jaden Reed the best. I didn't think we would get a Dontavian Wicks week during the offseason, but that is absolutely what we're having now. We've had a couple weeks of Rishi Rice talk, but it's not been near as popular or positive. Although I have, from a strictly fantasy football perspective, seen a lot of people talking about buying Rishi Rice. I don't know how anybody has a good read on this situation or how it's all going to end up. I have none at all right now in terms of projections.

I'm kind of projecting there's going to be a four to six game absence, but in dynasty, we're obviously dealing with more long-term risk than that. How are you handling rice and dynasty? Is this just a hold and nothing more? I'm buying. And maybe that doesn't help your case. I hope it does. So, looking at Rashi Rice, obviously, there are a ton of red flags here. First of all, the good news is that this secondary incident, the camera person, whatever that was at a nightclub, that got dropped. So, that's no longer a part of the picture. But I do think the red flag is still there, that there was this incident at any point

following this initial car crash that was a very serious incident. All of the red flags are there. But I also think, generally speaking, I'm not one to necessarily make any sort of rankings decisions based on possible suspension. We also don't even know if he's going to be suspended. It sounds like this year, I mean. Right. Because they might let the legal situation play out. And if so, that could extend into, you know, 2025. Like if Rashi Rice plays a full season, I don't think anybody's going to doubt that. Um, it's probably Rashi Rice and Travis Kelsey there

for the top target chair and Xavier worthy, a guy who I love that, you know, the dynamicism that he brings to the chiefs offense, the nuance and speed that he, he brings in pretty much every level of the field. Like he brings a lot of versatility to Patrick Mahomes and I think he's going to open things wide up, but Rashi Rice is a guy that I think really plays very similarly to Travis Kelsey and that his ability to find a soft spot in zone coverage is just, it's so innate, like to the wider, he just feels like he has this incredible understanding and incredible connection with Patrick Mahomes. Uh, when he was coming out of TCU, my, one of my top notes for Rashi rice was very quarterback friendly guy.

Like it just felt like every time there was like a scramble drill or the play breaks down, he had this innate ability to figure out where to be. And that is like the perfect wide receiver for Patrick Mahomes. So I'm going to kind of close my eyes right now. And I'm going to wish the best for Rashi Rice and that he gets it together. Cause there's no doubt he's got all the opportunity in the world. He's paired with the best for Rashi Rice and that he gets it together because there's no doubt he's got all the opportunity in the world. He's paired with the best quarterback in the world. And I do think, again, he is the best wide receiver in that offense. Marquise Brown, he's on a one-year deal. We can't like factor him into the decision-making. Xavier Worthy, like I think if

anything only kind of helps. We've already seen Rashi Rice's ability after the catch having a true uh you know speed threat that can play short intermediate and deep passing game like that will open up the offense for for pretty much everybody and I think their skill set is diverse enough that like they help each other rather than the kind of push pull dynamic. I think my question, and I don't know that we'll get this answered, but when we get to week seven or week eight and Worthy's finally comfortable in the offense, hopefully by then it might take until 2025, is the plan that we're going to have Worthy and Marquise Brown on the field together. I'd get pretty worried about target share for everybody if we're going to have Worthy, Rice, and Brown out there in three wide receiver sets, but Travis Kelsey is the only tight end.

That is very much a lot of mouths to feed. Now, if we're going to see, like we'll give Marquise Brown six weeks to see if he can be who we thought he was. And if he's not, then that's worthy of his job. Then I've probably got worthy a little bit too high if he has to wait things out. It's just, it's going to be really interesting. I will say that my rankings discrepancy here,

or dilemma, not discrepancy, was JSN versus DJ Moore. And I mentioned Roma Dunze when i said his name the first time doesn't look like tyler lockett's going anywhere dk metcalf obviously still there jsn entering year two now as i we have no reason to think he's anything other than the third option in this offense dj moore has always been my guy, but just finally had his breakout year. And what does the team do but draft a wide receiver in the top 10 and go add Keenan Allen and free agency? How do you parse between these two?

This is kind of a tricky one. I'm actually going to go ahead and is this really the third former OSU wide receiver I'm going to be siding with here? Okay. So again, OSU, go wide receivers. I'm going to go with Jackson Smith and Jigba. And this comes not based on an evaluation of his rookie season. There were a lot of ups and downs there. Never really carved out a role. You mentioned the presence of Tyler Lockett, who I do think we saw some decline from this past season. And there is going to be some room for potential growth in that regard. Jackson Smith

and Jigba, I do think they need to get him to play on the outside a little bit more as opposed to being like primary slot. I think he can do both been kind of pigeonholed to the slot, but I want to see him try to get them on the outside. And I do think, you know, as Tyler Lockett continues to age and they're probably going to work him into these situations a little bit more. DK Metcalf, I think is a very interesting name to mention in this offense, too, in terms of what is his position in this offense. Because as a Steelers fan, obviously, I've been monitoring the trade market very closely for the wide receiver position. And reports indicate that DK Metcalf was one of the wide receivers that the Steelers inquired about. And per the reports, it doesn't sound like

he's off the table. Like a trade would not be a no-go. The consensus was, well, he would have to be a post-June 1 trade just because of the financial aspect that the Seahawks could save a much, you know, very significant chunk of money by trading him after June 1st as opposed to before. So the fact that they didn't rule out a trade for trading away DK Metcalf, I found very surprising because I didn't think that that was going to be an even realm of possibility. And there are still some teams that, you know, might be interested besides the Steelers, but point blank, I'm looking at Jackson Smith and Jigba and I'm saying there was a moment that he Garrett Wilson and Chris Alave were all on the football field at

the same time. And he was the best player on the field. And that just comes down to my evaluation of Jackson Smith and Jigba. Again, I'm going to write off the rookie season. It wasn't ideal circumstances. We saw this offense take a step back. We saw Geno Smith take a step back in terms of what he did in 2022. But I still believe in the talent of the wide receiver. I think if Metcalf got traded, I'd probably be with you and just willing to ignore it. I see a lot, and I don't know if I've moved him a lot more than anybody else has.

29 seems low to me, but it also seems like about where everybody has him just outside of the top 24 wide receivers in dynasty. I have real concern about what JSN's value is going to be if even the first month of 2024 looks like 2023. Yeah, I could see him just being like it was not going to take very many games at all for even the true believers to start getting pretty nervous. So hopefully one of those trades does happen. I do want to give you time here before we go, who is the best wide receiver that I didn't rank in my top 36? Probably got to be Christian Kirk, which might not be like a sexy answer, but I do think Christian Kirk is probably one of the most underrated fantasy assets, especially in a full PPR scoring format. Like I get it. There's, you know, Brian Thomas jr. Who will make his way into this offense. Um, again, Brian Thomas jr. Like an ideal ideal sort of combination of size, speed, athleticism,

going to play on the outside. But Christian Kirk, I think, does project more for an every down volume role that we're going to see. Christian Kirk was an integral part of this offense here. And I think all of the assets that they brought in this offseason between Gabe Davis, Brian Thomas Jr., I think they have a skill set that's much different than that of Christian Kirk. It's not like a duplicative skill set. So I think kind of like Rashi Rice and Xavier Worthy, I think this was actually kind of a pretty good fit in terms of

what they needed in their offense. I'm not saying the addition is going to, to subtract anything from Christian Kirk's upside, but he's a young wide receiver. Who's probably going to lead his team in targets yet again, he's got a good rapport, uh, with, you know, Trevor Lawrence, this offense is going to be healthier. I think the health of Trevor Lawrence in particular played a big part in some of the disappointment we saw in 2023. I think this could be like just a really good offense that we're kind of down on because there were a lot of injuries in 2023. Even Christian Kirk missed, uh, you know, the, the back portion of the year here with an injury.

I think that's kind of why he's almost like out of sight, out of mind. But yeah, if he averaged like seven targets per game, would you be surprised? No, that's pretty much my expectation. He's actually my wide receiver 38. So he's like right on the fringe here. Right on the cusp. What I would say, I think what probably hurts him is he's not old, but he's also not young. And he has wide receiver two upside for sure, but probably not wide receiver one upside. And so you don't have the long runway for those types of teams that are going to value him. And he doesn't necessarily have the league winning upside, but a very solid part of your roster and probably someone,

if you're a contender, that's good to trade for and just have him, you probably trade for him, make him your wide receiver three and get wide receiver to production out of Christian Kirk this year. I think that was a very good answer. It was a lot of fun talking to you today, Kate one,

one more time, just tell everybody like what you've got coming up and where they can find your work. Yeah, absolutely. I got a couple of articles per week coming out on pro football focus, do lots in the Twitter sphere. So give me a follow there at Kate Majuk.

That's M A G D Z I U K. It's Polish. It's got lots of extra letters in there, but you know, yeah, follow my work. I post episodes of the lockdown dynasty podcast five days a week. So you can find me over there., yeah, follow my work. I post episodes of the Locked On Dynasty podcast five days a week. So you can find me over there.

But yeah, come talk to me on Twitter. Tell me where my wide receiver rankings are lacking here. Did I hit the trifecta with all the OSU wide receivers? Or am I apparently just a huge OSU fan? Like, give me all of the feedback. And thank you so much for having me because this was a blast. Really a dangerous game to be asking for feedback on Twitter,

but we really appreciate you being here today, Kate. I'm a solider, man. Thank you for this. Thank you to everybody who was active in the chat. You guys were awesome today. Everybody listening on the podcast. On Tuesday, we will have Dave Klug and we will talk running back rankings. We will talk to podcast on Tuesday we will have Dave Klug and we will talk running back rankings

we will talk to you on Tuesday