Fantasy Football Today - WR Tiers: How Late Can You Find Upside at WR? (07/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Bid on Draft-A-Thon items here! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tiltify.com/@cbs-sports/fft-draftathon-2025⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Vote for Fantasy Football Today in the "Sports..." category: https://podcastawards.com/app/signup We begin the show with a discussion about running backs vs. wide receivers in the late rounds (6:35). Is there an advantage at either position, and should this shape your draft strategy? We've also got news and notes (11:15) on Terry McLaurin and Colston Loveland before we get to Jamey's first two WR tiers (14:25)! Does Amon-Ra St. Brown belong in Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3!? ... We reveal Tiers 3 and 4 (18:30) for Jamey. Why is Brian Thomas Jr. in Tier 3 instead of Tier 2? At what point in Tier 3 do we start questioning these WRs? Then we move on to Tier 5 (25:15) which takes us to the 2/3 turn in drafts. Should Jaxon Smith-Njigba be in a higher tier? Meanwhile, Tier 6 (30:50) is a big tier with a mix of young talent and proven veterans, but should these WRs be drafted ahead of the stud quarterbacks? ... Tier 7 (39:30) is littered with WRs who could be great if things break right, but also have some downside. We're talking about Jerry Jeudy, Zay Flowers, Jameson Williams, DeVonta Smith and more. Tier 8 (44:15) has one player who seems to stand out above the rest. Tiers 9 (47:50) and 10 (56:10) also feature players with upside, but they are less proven. Within these tiers we discuss the 49ers, Packers and Colts WRs, among others. And stay tuned for the rest of the tiers and WRs you could take with your last pick ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com 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 Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  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 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

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:30 This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays at his feet. This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.
Starting point is 00:00:50 What's up everybody? Heath's getting a big old drink of coffee. Is the coffee you got there? Yeah, it is coffee. All right. Get your boarding started the right way. Well, for you it's like the afternoon. It's 10 o'clock, 10, 12 a.m. Eastern here on Wednesday. And we are talking wide receiver tiers tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:01:06 Tight end tiers Friday, mail back. Still mail back questions to be purchased on our Draftathon page, which I'll tell you about in a little bit. Got a comment in the chat. Bro, look at this controversial one. Says, morning boys. But then his next one,
Starting point is 00:01:19 Amanra St. Brown falling out of the top tier is criminal. Jamie, he wants to put you in jail because you do not have Amanra Saint Brown in tier one. You have him in tier two. Heath, you probably have Saint Brown in tier eight. I have him in tier three. Okay. I don't think it's criminal at all.
Starting point is 00:01:38 He shouldn't be in tier one. Depends how big tier one is. For Jamie, it's three players. So we'll look at Jamie's tiers. Heath will compare and contrast. How you guys doing? Doing good. Doing great.
Starting point is 00:01:50 Woke up 6 a.m. for some reason today and already knocked out the first story from our pick by pick series, which was a fun draft yesterday. It was. I did a draft. We're going to be writing this pick by pick series. So that's where each of us drafts two teams in a 12 team league and we write about how the team
Starting point is 00:02:08 came together and what we liked and what we didn't like and so on and so forth, different strategies to different spots in the draft. I took a team where I, not intentionally, I drafted four different positions with my first four picks which was fun so I had, I don't remember the running back and the receiver but I had, oh it was McCaffrey McCaffrey, AJ Brown, Josh Allen, George Kittle. Just kind of an interesting way to start. So we'll, we'll talk about that. Hey, Jamie, what was the most interesting way you started in,
Starting point is 00:02:35 in one of your teams yesterday? Interesting way that I started. I mean, team, team, I had the first pick in the seventh pick, the seventh pick was more interesting just because Jameer Gibbs fell to seven, which is not something that happens all the time. And I was, so you and I picked back to back on both teams and it felt like you were using my rankings, which I hate. No, I wasn't using, I was using the consensus rankings. Thomas was using mine, I was cursing him the entire time.
Starting point is 00:03:02 Yeah, when you took Cortland Sutton, like in the pick 47, I just know that because I wrote pick one. So you took it with the second to last pick in round four. That pissed me off. And then I was happy when you decided to pass on Isaac Garendo. Don't even bring that up. Don't even bring that up. I was just waiting like, oh man, I want a Garendo.
Starting point is 00:03:23 He's going to take a Garendo. Then you took Kyle Williams. I was like, oh, this is a I want a Garendo. He's gonna take a Garendo. Then you took Kyle Williams. I was like, oh, this is a gift. Yeah, that's a big mistake. In fact, I almost asked for the pick back, but then you took Garendo and I was like, I can't do it now.
Starting point is 00:03:35 It was like, I should have taken Garendo there. And then you took it and I was like, I can't ask for it back. He's mostly- The funny thing about that draft is I was actually gonna suggest like, because we're not competing for anything. We're trying to help people.
Starting point is 00:03:46 Like if anybody wants any picks back, like they should just say it. I know, but it was after you took a rendo or I would've. I wouldn't have cared. I just felt dirty. Heath, what was the most interesting thing you noticed in the pick by pick yesterday? One of the problems I've had this summer
Starting point is 00:03:58 is I keep drafting three running backs my first four or five picks. And so I decided with one of my teams, I wasn't going to do that and didn't take a running back in the first four or five picks. And so I decided with one of my teams, I wasn't going to do that and didn't take a running back in the first four rounds. And instead started with Malik neighbors, Brock Bowers, Lamar Jackson and Jackson Smith and Jigba. First time I think I've seen JSN fall to round four.
Starting point is 00:04:16 Yeah. And so that was, that was a fun start. And of course I took Deandre Swift because I always do, but yeah, it was, I think the other team I took running back with three of my first four picks. So yeah, HN Taylor McLaurin Hubbard, I gotta ask you about that McLaurin pick after he expressed his frustration yesterday, if that's
Starting point is 00:04:33 a mid round three regret for you. He's not gonna he's not gonna sit out. So I was having this conversation with some NFL people yesterday, like, have we seen a holdout recently hold in hold out, perform at the level that they were the previous year or better? At Jamar Chase last year, right?
Starting point is 00:04:53 Didn't he, was it? I don't think he ever sat. And Terry is not, technically he said that he's not going to training camp yet, right? He hasn't decided, but wants to be- Well, I think all of these guys are going to be hold ins now like Joanne Jennings is going to take the brand and IU corrupt of showing up and not participating.
Starting point is 00:05:10 Let's see. I got an article from September 4. Jamar Chase. This is from last year. Yeah, Jamar Chase is back in just in time for the season. I don't think I'm allowed to read this verbatim si.com. The article is Jamar Chase returns to Bengals practice after a long contract holdout. But there were there this verbatim si.com. The article is Jamar Chase returns to Bengals practice after a long contract holdout. But there were three guys who held out last year, if I recall.
Starting point is 00:05:30 It was Chase, Lam and Iyuk. And correct me if I'm wrong. And they all got off to slow starts. Chase did end up having an amazing year, but even he got off to slow starts, to a slow start. That's the way I remember it. And look, to be fair, Lam lost his quarterback eight weeks into the season
Starting point is 00:05:47 and Ayuk lost his knees six weeks into the season. So. Your first two weeks were not good for Jamar Chase. All right, anyway, we'll get to wide receiver tiers. So I'm looking at some research from my running back and wide receiver Bibles that I put together. And one takeaway that I have is that it is much more common to find a wide receiver that finishes top 12 in round seven or later.
Starting point is 00:06:17 It just doesn't happen that often at running back. And it does. I mean, there are more wide receivers that get opportunities, right? You know, so on the field, just in the NFL. And unless there's an injury to a starting running back, it's unlikely to happen at running back. Chase Brown being an exception last year, but at wide receiver, it happens probably
Starting point is 00:06:41 a few times a year. So should that influence, this is not exactly a tiers discussion and we'll bring it up. I'll have some more concrete data for you when we do the wide receiver preview in a few weeks. But what I'd like for you to do is look if that's still true. If you just look at maybe weeks 10 through 18
Starting point is 00:07:00 or even the fantasy playoffs is too small of a sample. But, cause I do think we, like Bucky Irving may not have been a top 12 running back last year, but Bucky Irving was certainly a top 12 running back when it mattered. Yeah, but that's a hundred percent true. But you could say the same thing about Lad McConkey. I think he was wide receiver 13.
Starting point is 00:07:22 So he just missed, he and Bucky Irving just missed the top 12 Bucky Irving just missed the top 12. No, I get what you're saying. You might have to be a little bit more patient maybe with running backs, but wide receivers, you can find steals, especially in the round seven to nine range, you know?
Starting point is 00:07:38 And it's usually guys who get at least seven targets per game. That is a common theme. You want to draft a wide receiver late, look for a guy who can get at least seven targets per game and being on a common theme. You wanna draft a wide receiver late, look for a guy who can get at least seven targets per game and being on a good offense helps as well. Again, I do have like stats and percentages and all that. I'll put it together in a more concrete succinct way
Starting point is 00:07:54 but I don't know, does that influence, do you guys feel like I wanna save some picks in the late rounds for wide receivers or I wanna focus on them in round seven through nine and get my running backs before that. Does that influence you at all? I mean, depending on how you build your team, clearly, I don't think you want to limit it to just wide receivers
Starting point is 00:08:13 because there's going to be these, we talked about this yesterday, these handcuffed running backs that are going to have a chance, it may not be for the long stretch that you might get for wide receivers, but you might get the Isaac Arendo three or four week window. You might get the guy that steps up because of an injury that could be severely impactful for however long they're the starter there. But yes, you should hopefully get some of these wide receivers. And I think the way,
Starting point is 00:08:46 obviously, our drafts are going gonna be a little bit different, best ball drafts are gonna be different, industry drafts, whatever, where these guys, the wide receivers get pushed up in such a way like they'll be value for some of these receivers in these other drafts. I just think once we get to the running backs in say the round eight, and you've got you know Brian Robinson
Starting point is 00:09:07 you've got Jalen Warren in round nine. ETN's usually in round eight isn't he? ETN I've got him in round nine right now on Fantasy Pros Jordan Mason's in round nine then Tyrone Tracy's at the end of round nine. You might like the wide receivers better you might like Jacobi Myers, Ricky Pearsall, Matthew Golden, Khalil Shakir, Jaden Reed, Cooper Cup, better than them. But anyway, I think that's a topic for another show. We'll get into wide receiver tiers in a little bit. Draftathon, all right, so the two things,
Starting point is 00:09:35 FFT Open I keep telling you about, that's next Monday, 7 p.m. Eastern, the spots are available. The two things I wanna focus on right now on our draftathon page, tinyurl.com slash 2025 FFT, are the mailbag, which is, we have five mailbag questions left to be purchased for $50 each. We'll read them on Friday's mailbag show. So you have five left. Please go ahead and donate to St. Jude with $50 and ask your question. And the other thing is the listener mock draft, which
Starting point is 00:10:04 is next Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern. We're gonna do a live stream. So you're gonna be part of that live stream. You're not gonna be on it, but you're gonna be drafting and we're gonna be looking at your picks. And then, so this is with Jamie. I guess Jamie, you're gonna be participating in it. And we've already got one person who bought
Starting point is 00:10:19 the featured spot where we do a little recap of your team. But the rest of you, we need people to participate in this mock draft. Again, it is $50 and we have a lot of spots left, nine spots left. So just go to tinyurl.com slash 2025 FFT and purchase a spot for next Tuesday night's mock draft. We'd really appreciate it.
Starting point is 00:10:39 We'd love for you to be a part of it. News and notes. So Terry McLaurin, he doesn't sound like you're too concerned about Terry McLaurin, right? Just yet, he's very frustrated, lack of progress in his contract talks. He was very clear that he's not asking for a trade. He wants to be in Washington.
Starting point is 00:10:55 He doesn't understand why he can't get the money that he wants. But no, I'm not discounting Terry McLaurin yet. And part of the problem is, and we'll get to this when we get to tiers, Terry McLaurin falls into that group right after the 11 or 12 or 13, how many it is for each of us, that we really feel good about number one wide receivers or elite number twos. And then there's just so many guys that have, there's something else to worry about. They're either 32 years old or other problems.
Starting point is 00:11:27 So can I ask you a question here? So I'm looking at the team you drafted yesterday in the pick by pick team five, fifth overall pick, three receiver PPR league. And this was the team that you took three running backs with your first four picks. You went H. Anne, Taylor, McLaurin, Hubbard. I was surprised by the pick.
Starting point is 00:11:43 I didn't think you would consider McLaurin with the fifth pick of round three. Did you feel like you were backed into a corner because you already had two running backs? Did you, and the two tight ends were off the board. Did you consider maybe a quarterback there instead of McLaurin? I thought about it.
Starting point is 00:12:00 And I didn't end up taking a quarterback with that team until round 11. So my wide receivers are bad now. Can you imagine how bad they would be if I had taken a quarterback there? Um, like I, I just, I didn't, the way that team had started and there were still several running backs that like my favorite players at that point were still running backs, which has kind of been part of the problem for me drafting so far this summer. Um, so maybe I should have just taken another running back and then taken a wide receiver in round four.
Starting point is 00:12:28 But I, no, I didn't really consider, I mean, I thought about it, but I wasn't going to take a quarterback with that start. So you go H. Anne Taylor, McLaurin Hubbard. Do you think if you were picking from the fifth spot again and you got H. Anne, same, same players were available in the second round, would you maybe take a wide receiver instead of Jonathan Taylor? I don't think I would because I don't think any of the wide receivers who are available are going to score as many points as Jonathan Taylor.
Starting point is 00:12:55 Tyree kill. Okay. Let's go. Yes, I had to get his name in there. He was gone. No, no, he he was. Oh, he was gone. He was. No, no, no. He was there in. No, he was gone. He was, no, no, no. Yeah, he was there in the second round. Yeah. I thought you meant McClaren. No. Okay.
Starting point is 00:13:11 So Kansas City signed guard Trey Smith to a four year, $94 million extension. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk thinks that Quinchon Judkins could be placed on paid leave after he signs his contract. Russell Wilson wants to play five or more, more NFL seasons. This is a big one. Colston Loveland bears tight end set his shoulder feels 100% entering training camp and the Jets gave Sauce Gardner a four year, $120 million deal, highest
Starting point is 00:13:36 paid cornerback based on average annual salary. All right. Jamie's wide receiver tiers. Let's get to it. Tier one, Jamar Chase, CD Lam and Justin Jefferson. And you say clearly in your article, Chase should be the number one overall pick. That's in PPR. Do you think he should be the number one overall pick in half PPR? Yes. Non PPR?
Starting point is 00:14:01 No. Who should be? B-Jung. Okay. So tier one is Chase Jefferson and Lam. Tier two is Puka, Neighbors, Nico and Amanra St. Brown. No Brian Thomas Jr. in this group of two tiers. So it's your top seven wide receivers. Take us through it. How do you see it? These are the first round wide receivers. I think all these guys are going to be selected in round one.
Starting point is 00:14:26 Niko may be the one that slips out of round one based on average apposition, but let's just say they're going to be top 14 or 15 overall picks. The upside is amazing for all of these guys and you know if you want to throw Brian Thomas in the conversation I'm not going to fight you based on what he did last year in the addition of Liam Cohen with the healthy Trevor Lawrence. But for me, it's it's chase, you know, Jefferson lamb, however, you want to rank those guys. And then the next four guys are in tier two, because I think they're back half around one options. But I think all of these guys have the chance to compete to be the number one wide receiver this year, I just think a little
Starting point is 00:15:00 bit of a separation between the top three and the next four. Heath, your thoughts. So tier one is Chase Jefferson Lamb, tier two for Jamie Pucca, neighbors, Nico St. Brown. So I mean, we've talked way too much about how, yes, I'm lower on, I'm on Ross St. Brown. And I'm higher on Thomas and AJ Brown, but I mostly agree with this. I would have Chase and Lamb. I mean, really, it almost feels like Chase should be in his own tier. If you put together tiers with one or two players too often, then it starts looking goofy. Um, so Jeff is my third wide receiver. I don't have him as close to Lam and Chase in my projections as I do the other guys.
Starting point is 00:15:42 So I'd probably just say it's a two man tier at the top. But, um, I mean, these guys are all going to be in that late round one, early round two, in terms of the tier two guys. And I will say just, uh, for clerical purposes, um, I, I screwed with Thomas on an accident this morning because I did change my rankings to put lamb ahead of Jefferson, which was like something I've been on the fence off for weeks. So I did change my rankings to put Lam ahead of Jefferson, which was like something I've been on the fence off for weeks. So I did it this morning. Sorry, Tom. So am I to interpret a tier if I'm going here, what's the point of a tier where it's justifiable to take any player in that tier in any order? Because in that case, we don't want to get too granular, I guess. Chase would be in his own tier, because I think we all say definitively he should be number one. After that, there's more
Starting point is 00:16:33 debate. But is that the general rule of thumb? Like tier two, Puka, neighbors, Nico, St. Brown, you want to take them in any order for Jamie? That he has no qualms. Is that fair? Yes. Okay. me that he has no qualms. Is that fair? Yes. Okay. The way the way that I view it with the receivers at least is the guys in tier one or top five overall picks and then tier two is like it could be the last four picks in round one. Would it be crazy for me to say tier one is Jamar Chase tier two is the next six guys. That's fair. I think you have a hard time making an argument for some of the tier two guys over CD or I wouldn't be able to make an argument for some of the tier two guys
Starting point is 00:17:16 over CD lamb. Okay. Um, I think, but yeah, I mean, it's if Dak and lamb play 17 games, I don't think any of those guys are going to be really close to him. Over the last three seasons, CD lamb with a healthy Dak Prescott has averaged at least 18 and a half, 18 and a half PPR fantasy points per game, uh, with a healthy Dak and much more than that in 2023. However, of course, he never had George Pickens. So you were going to you at home are going to
Starting point is 00:17:50 have to decide how much the Pickens things weigh weighs on you. It doesn't really weigh on on Heath and Jamie, I suppose. All right. So those are tiers one and two. Let's go to tiers three and four. And I guess my first question is why is Brian Thomas Jr. Not in tier two, he is in tier three with AJ Brown and Drake London tier three is Thomas Jr. Brown in London. Again, for this, I sort of separated it by how I would draft these guys. And so I put the tier two guys as the players that I think are going to be drafted in around one, I have Brian Thomas just at the start of round two. So again,
Starting point is 00:18:23 it's you know, we're nitpicking here about where he should go I think he's certainly in the in the category of those other guys that are just ahead of him and the same for AJ Brown You know, let's not discount what AJ Brown has done in his time with the Eagles I know was a little bit of a down season last year from his overall production because he missed some time He actually has his best points per game in his tenure with the Eagles last season, so I just think that there are just a slight notch behind those guys. So again, if you want to make it a bigger tier two and put Thomas and Brown in there,
Starting point is 00:18:56 and then we put London at the start of tier three with Higgins and McConkie as the guys I think are definitely going to go in the back half of round two. You know, it's just a matter I think where you draw the line. So just to clarify something here, because I think you may have said it both ways. You say the guys you expect to be in round one are in tiers two and one and two or the guys that I have ranked. Okay. Okay. So you have Brian Thomas just outside round one. Correct. Okay. Again, tier three is Brian Thomas, Jr. AJ Brown, Drake, London. Tier four is Higgins, McConkey, Tyreek Hill, Rishi Rice and Devante Adams. Again, Higgins, McConkey, Tyreek Hill, Rishi Rice, Devante Adams, they are in tier four.
Starting point is 00:19:45 It's just so fun and so fascinating to think where do the tight ends factor in here? Are they in between tiers three and four? Are they within tier three or for Bowers, depending on which analysts you ask? Where do guys like Bucky Irving and Chase Brown rank? But again, I think that's a topic for another show. Heath, how do you see- I think just from a reading purpose, you're going to see in the pick by pick how this all unfolds. Yeah. And what I did this year a little bit different than what we'd usually do last year is actually made a landing page for this. So you can see the
Starting point is 00:20:17 whole draft. Oh nice. As opposed to just every column, you know, trying to piece it together so you can see the way the whole puzzle fits. So that'll be along with the 12 stories. So it'll be 13 stories on this. Obviously, we do a lot of mock drafts. You're going to see that we have another mock draft today, half PPR. We already did a 12 team mock draft, PPR mock draft last week. And just to tie in something that you asked earlier, because I thought Dave did an interesting job with this. He drafted three receivers early in his team for PPR and then took like 25 running backs, even though it's a 14 round draft, but his last like three or four picks
Starting point is 00:20:49 were like these dart throw receivers. And, you know, kind of to your point about taking some of these, you know, it wasn't around seven through nine, but it was like rounds 12, 13, 14, I think he did it. So you could see the way Dave built his team that way as well. Okay, I totally forgot about a commercial break.
Starting point is 00:21:03 So we're gonna do that. And then we're gonna get a Heath's reaction to tiers three and four after this on Fantasy Football Today. Now streaming. When people go missing, I get hired to help find them. When lives are on the line. Coulter, please find my daughter. He is the man for the job.
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Starting point is 00:21:28 Justin Hartley stars. I made a promise, I would never stop looking. In Tracker, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus and returning CBS Fall. Apologies to the YouTube audience for my repetition here, but again, I know for the audio audience, you're not looking at these, probably not able to remember all eight names. So Heath, Jamie's third tier is Thomas Jr., AJ Brown and Drake London. Fourth tier is Higgins, McConkie, Tyreek,
Starting point is 00:21:56 Rashi Rice, Devante Adams. Your thoughts? So I was more inclusive with my second tier. Two thirds of Jamie's third tier is in my second tier. So, um, we get a little wonky talking about that, but I've got London, Higgins, Tyreke and Ladd in their own tier. And it's kind of the last of the wide receiver ones. And there's more than 12 there, I think, but you get the point. And there's more than 12 there, I think, but you get the point. And then I'm a little bit lower on both Rice and Adams. Again, I think you question Tyreke's like that bridge between the guys that we really
Starting point is 00:22:37 don't have any questions about. Like these guys are going to be star wide receivers in fantasy. And then after them, there's plenty of things to question about. Rashi Rice. There's plenty of, I mean, there's one thing to question about, I guess, two and Devonte Adams, one he changed teams to is 32 years old. Wait, so are you including T Higgins and McConkey and the, we have no questions are going to be stars group? Yes.
Starting point is 00:23:01 Oh, wow. I, but are you not worried about just being just being in such a run heavy offense for McConkie? I'm not worried about his talents or anything like that, but. I think you can be a star in a run heavy offense when there's basically no other competition for targets. Okay. Like there's a, somebody will get targets there also, but there's nobody that's impacting Lad McConkie. Okay.
Starting point is 00:23:21 All right. And so that I think with, with Rice and with Adams and with several more guys we're going to see in tier five for Jamie, there's just more question marks. I've said it several times this summer. If we get to the first week of training camp and Rushie Rice has no restrictions and there's still been nothing said about a potential court date for him, then he will move up probably into this tier for me. But I'm waiting. Okay.
Starting point is 00:23:50 So these guys are, I asked this about running backs yesterday. Are you fine with all of these as your sort of anchor wide receiver, as your first wide receiver on your team? All the way to Ladd for sure and probably Tyreek yes okay all right let's see the separation between guys like Higgins McConkey Tyreek Rishi Rice and Devante Adams and who's in tier five for Jamie that would be JSN Garrett Wilson Terry
Starting point is 00:24:21 McLaurin and Marvin Harrison jr and in my mind, we're moving through round three, kind of two to three, four turn. And that's probably where most of these guys are gonna go. Just checking some quick ADP here. Yeah, I'd say that's fair in a 12-team league. So tier five is JSN, Garrett Wilson, Terry McLaurin, Marvin Harrison Jr. Tier six is a big one.
Starting point is 00:24:43 We'll come to tier six in a minute here. Do you feel OK with these guys being your number one? Because if you are picking late in a 12 team league, if you have picked 10 through 12 and you take Ashton Genti and Brock Bowers because you're a Raiders fan, or you take Christian McCaffrey and whoever, you know. Tyree Kill because you're're at a mazer. Yeah. Yeah. Whoever it is to, to non wide receivers, then you, um, could be looking at this group,
Starting point is 00:25:13 JSN, Garrett Wilson, Terry McLaurin, Marvin Harrison as your wide receiver one, Jamie, how would you feel about that? I think you have to know how your league is going to sort of play this out. If there's going to be quarterbacks mixed into those first three Four rounds, you know and and knowing what's going to be available to you So I would not want to have this as my first wide receiver but you know if you're talking about McCaffrey and Gentie or McCaffrey and a Chan or a Chan and Gentie, you know If you like, you know two of those three guys because I think that's what's going to be available to you at the end of
Starting point is 00:25:41 the first round based on ADP Then this is what you're looking at So if you want to go to those running backs and then these two wide receivers, obviously you're getting such a positional advantage in theory at the running back spot. But you know, I'll just reference the last two drafts that I've seen, which is the PPR draft that we do where I picked 12th and I took Gentie and St. Brown and the pick by pick where Dan Schneier had the 12th pick and he took St. Brown. And the pick by pick word, Dan Schneier had the 12th pick and he took St. Brown and Nico Collins. And so like to me, that's a better way to go because the running
Starting point is 00:26:12 backs that should be there at the three, four turn are a little bit better than these wide receivers, for example, just based on how you can build your team. Just a huge point right there that we're going to keep underlying, I think. And he I would love to know if you agree the running backs that you should get to keep underlying, I think. And he, I would love to know if you agree the running backs that you should get at the three, four turn are better a little bit better as Jamie said, then the wide receivers doesn't mean you
Starting point is 00:26:31 can't take a wide receiver here. But that's kind of how Jamie sees it. I second that. Do you feel the same way? Are we talking about industry ADP, best ball AD ADP, or CBS ADP. Cause I think those are different. I keep jumping around at different ADPs, but. Well, and I say that because like, I'm going to be on fantasy pros podcast this afternoon. And they asked me to go through,
Starting point is 00:26:56 they sent me a link to a list. I go through and pick out your favorite player in the top 12, your favorite player in the next 12, and so on and so forth. And using the list they sent me, like the first six rounds, my favorite player was the top 12, your favorite player in the next 12 and so on and so forth. And using the list they sent me, like the first six rounds, my favorite player was a running back because it was, I think, probably more influenced by some of the best ball ADP or expert analysts. And so like who are the, who are the players you're talking about?
Starting point is 00:27:22 I don't think it's going to be the same. Let me give you three running backs that I repeatedly see in available late, you know, at near the three, four turn, um, in different ADPs, James Cook, Ken Walker, Alvin Camara, uh, versus the wide receivers we're looking at here. JSN. Yeah, I don't know. JSN ADP is a little bit earlier than this, but McLaurin, Marvin Harrison for sure. Garrett Wilson's kind of earlier too. I wish there was a more scientific approach to this. I'm sorry, cause different ADPs are all over the place. But I just, I don't think,
Starting point is 00:27:57 that was kind of my pushback, I guess I would say, is I don't know that the, if we're talking about best ball ADP, which is really well established right now, then I think the running backs available at the end of round three are much better than the wide receivers that are available. I would agree with what you said exactly. I, I don't know that the people that are listening, that are preparing for their redraft league are going to be able to know that going into their draft.
Starting point is 00:28:21 And that's, that that's 100% accurate. I did a best ball draft yesterday where I started at the 11 spot and took McCaffrey and HN to be a little different because everything is generally skewed wide receivers there. So my first receiver was Devon Adams. And you just said you'd be okay with that he's in your fourth tier. So tier five is JSN. But to Heath's point, like Kyron Williams and James Cook were on the board. Yeah, Kyron Williams is another guy. Like his ADP is usually mid round three, but he might be
Starting point is 00:28:52 there at the end of round three. I guess I'm a little surprised JSN is not in the fourth tier. He's the first guy listed in tier five for you. So I go back and forth with him a lot based on a how he finished last year, which I think is a huge positive, you know, the two games without DK Metcalf. Uh, but just really his, his overall finish to the season was fantastic. Uh, versus the quarterback change, which could be better, could be significantly worse. I mean, you know, how much do you value the one year of Sam Darnold in this great system versus what his career has been?
Starting point is 00:29:25 And then just sort of the push and pull of does Cooper Cup have a significant role? How much are the other guys going to be a factor? The run game taking into account and how much they want to maybe make that a little bit more of a focus. So I think sure, could he be in the tier above? Absolutely. 100%. But I think if Cooper Cubs healthy for the majority of the season is it's going to be a problem for him. Okay. That's JSN. Tier six is, are we looking at like solid number two wide receivers here?
Starting point is 00:29:52 DK Metcalf, Cortland Sutton, DJ Moore, Mike Evans, Xavier Worthy, Travis Hunter. One more time it's Metcalf, Sutton, DJ Moore, Evans, Xavier Worthy, Travis Hunter. I think, you know, now with McLaurinaurin's situation, depending on how this plays itself out, but I think from McLaurin in the middle of round, tier five through the end of tier six, there's just a lot of questions. So a lot of upside, hopefully minimal downside. I mean, look, McLaurin's contract, notwithstanding, he gets an extension. It's easy to draft him as high as Heath took him in round three.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Marvin Harrison, again, disappointing rookie campaign, but can he bounce back and perform better in year two? Again, no guarantees that's going to be the case. Metcalfe, new team, disappointing finish last year. Where is he at in his career? Cortland-Sutton, additional competition now for the Broncos, maybe a more run-based team, you know, after what they did. DJ Moore, all the questions with the Bears receivers. Mike Evans, 32, you know, stop me when you want to. But Xavier Worthy, you know, with Rashi Rice back, Travis Hunter, what position is he going to play?
Starting point is 00:30:55 Like you can see questions everywhere with these guys, but you also see again, can Marvin Harrison be better in his sophomore season? Can Metcalf be that Aaron Rodgers guy, you know, again and again and again. So I think this is where you start to get a little bit of, OK, am I taking these guys in round four because I need a receiver? I like the upside. Am I going to play it out and see who's available to me
Starting point is 00:31:15 in round five, potentially around six? And this is where the blob is for me. You know, so I'm hoping the tier five guys are a little bit more secure. Again, you know, Harrison can maybe push back into tier six if you're worried about his sophomore season. But this is where I think the blob starts to start. It's basically wide receiver 20.
Starting point is 00:31:32 So it's what we say a lot. Twenty to 40 is like you could see a number of guys. Yeah. If not more than 20, being top 20 caliber wide receivers. And if you don't love this group, Metcalf, Sutton, DJ Moore, Mike Evans, Xavier Worthy, Travis Hunter, you know, you could maybe take Kittle in this range.
Starting point is 00:31:50 You could maybe look at quarterback if you want to get the end of the top five. I don't think you're going to get Jackson or, I think you're probably going to Hertz or Burrow and Ken Walker, maybe James Cook, Alvin- Those guys should all be gone before these guys. Not Walker, Walker's Cook. Alvin. Okay, should all be gone before these guys. Not Walker, Walker's ADP is low.
Starting point is 00:32:10 Chuba Hubbard available, Ontario Hampton. If Thomas wants to pull up the pick by pick as a reference, you know, this was, so I had pick 48, last pick around four for the first overall selection. You took Cortland Sutton at 47 overall. DJ Moore was there at 48. At that point, all the guys in tier 5 were gone. Madcap was gone. And just to what you were talking about, I took DJ Moore at 48 and Alvin Kamara at 49. Like three picks before, like right
Starting point is 00:32:41 before you picked Sutton was Joe Burrow went off the board, you know, so You see how it how it unfolded there, you know So Joe burrow was after Joe burrow was the last of the top five quarterbacks hurts Yeah went a little bit sooner Thomas scroll a little bit to the right because take a look at this starting with the DK Metcalf Or that's just yeah starting with like the DK Metcalf pick. It goes Metcalf hurts Chuba Hubbard a Marion Hamptonpton, Joe Burrow, Cortland Sutton, DJ Moore. So within Jamie's sixth tier, which features Metcalfe, Sutton, and DJ Moore, we also have George Kittle going right before Metcalfe.
Starting point is 00:33:16 We have Hertz, we have Chuba Hubbard, we have Amarian Hampton. So it's an interesting stretch there, right? It's like, you know, elite quarterback, number three, tight end. And then you've got this, you know, close to wide receiver 20, close to RB 20, just kind of an interesting group. And you can see just based on how this is, you know, my tier is unfolding from my draft.
Starting point is 00:33:41 DK Metcalf, middle of round four. Coraline Sutton, who I wanted, end of round four. DJ Moore, who I sort of settledcalf middle of round four, Corlyn Sutton who I wanted, end of round four, DJ Moore who I sort of settled for, end of round four, you know, and then going into round five, I struggled with the choice of Kamara versus Worthy and Judy and Hunter. You know, I have a Hunter, Judy, but those three guys are next year receivers off the board for me. And so I just took the sort of swing for the fence at Camaro and hopefully he's going to be, you know, what he's has been in, in age 30 season, but that's kind of just exactly playing out, you know, the way that I wrote it.
Starting point is 00:34:17 Do you guys look at that stretch of Kittle, Metcalfe, Hertz, Hubbard, Hampton, a lot of H's, Kittle, Metcalfe, Hertz, Hubbard, Hampton, a lot of H's, Burrow, Sutton, DJ Moore, and think some of these stand out amongst the rest? As positives or negatives or both? Yeah, because in my, I think the two quarterbacks are probably the best picks and then like Hampton and Kittle maybe, but it's all in the eye of the beholder here.
Starting point is 00:34:44 I don't really want the wide receivers over Hertz or Burrow. And this is six point for passing Sashdown League, by the way, that we're looking at this draft. And I don't want Metcalf, Sutton, and Moore over Hertz and Burrow. I'd take Kittle before them and Hampton, I love that pick. But that's just me. I don't know how you guys feel.
Starting point is 00:35:08 I mean, you can obviously make a case for all of them to be worth drafting here. Um, sorry, Heath, my worst pick was the least, the least pick, the pick I liked the least is Hubbard. Um, but I, I could see the upside for Hampton. If you tell me there's, you know, nausea is not having a big role. Yeah. The quarterbacks are fantastic value, you know, given what they showed last year of their careers. I also think this is where it comes down to knowing your league, right?
Starting point is 00:35:30 And who you're drafting with. And clearly we know all the people in this draft and how they're going to go. He's mentioned it. He got his quarterback. That's the pretty team you're talking about. Yep. Purdy and Caleb Williams in 12, 13 or 11, 12. You knew you're going to get a good quarterback value late.
Starting point is 00:35:43 I knew I was going to get good quarterback. late. I knew I was gonna get good quarterback. Like I ended up with Dak Prescott in round 10, Bo Nix in round 10 or round 11, excuse me, round 12. So that's not gonna happen in most drafts. And so it's like, yes, the value for Burrow and Hertz is even great. But I knew that the quarterback's gonna fall.
Starting point is 00:36:04 I think he's probably played it out the same way. Yeah, I can feel that. All right, so I'm just gonna read, gonna throw up the tier five and six graphics again. Tiers, sorry Thomas, I'm waiting, there it is. Thank you very much. Sorry for throwing you under the bus there. Tier five, JSN, Garrett Wilson, Terry McLaurin,
Starting point is 00:36:24 and Marvin Harrison Jr. And tier six, Metcalf, JSN, Garrett Wilson, Terry McLaurin, and Marvin Harrison Jr. and Tier 6, Metcalfe, Sutton, DJ Moore, Evans, Worthy, Hunter. Get Heath's take on this and we'll get into Tier 7 and 8 after this break. It won't take long to tell you Neutral's ingredients. Vodka. Soda, natural flavors. So what should we talk about? No sugar added. Neutral, refreshingly simple.
Starting point is 00:37:06 Heath, was there anything you wanted to add before we moved on? I don't think so. I would just say that JSN will, like I'm lower on Harrison Evans, Worthy and Hunter. Um, I kind of have most of the rest of these guys and Rice and Adams, and of course, Jerry Judy in one tier. And then we get to my mega tier tier which wouldn't fit on the screen because there's 20 wide receiver 20 basically 20 wide receivers within within one fantasy point per game in my projections that's your starts with who and ends with who it starts give me sorry give me the first three and the last three.
Starting point is 00:37:50 Godwin, Harris and Evans, Waddle, Tett and Ridley. All right. It's a, yeah, grab a couple of them if you want. All right, let's go to tiers seven and eight for Jamie. And we are looking at a pretty big tier seven. Jerry Judy, Chris Godwin, Jameson Williams, Devante Smith, Zay Flowers, Teteroa McMillan, Jaylen Waddle, and Jordan Addison. That's tier seven. Judy, Chris Godwin, Jameson Williams, Devante Smith, Zay Flowers, Teteroa McMillan, Jaylen
Starting point is 00:38:24 Waddle, Jordan Addison, question marks here, right? Abound. And just, you know, for you know, I know, I know, not something you mentioned in News and Notes. Yesterday was supposed to be Jordan Addison's jury trial. Apparently, it was pushed back to Thursday. So we won't know any circumstances there surrounding a potential suspension, but just something to keep an eye on. Yeah, like kind of what Heath was saying, like this is where the blob starts to come in for me.
Starting point is 00:38:55 This is probably the tier that will have a lot of the most moving parts, you know, not just the Addison situation, you know, does Waddle come to camp fully healthy, getting a better opportunity? Does McMillan have the chance to be one of these elite, you know, rookie wide receivers? Jerry Judy can obviously have a huge season if we're guaranteed a majority of Joe Flacco starting. Chris Godwin healthy can, you know, there's just so many different things that can change here. The one guy that I think
Starting point is 00:39:20 could probably take, not the biggest leap, but a big leap for me right now is just sort of reevaluating it is Calvin Ridley. His opportunity is huge. I think it was Dan, if you want to pull up the draft again, Tom. Dan took him a little bit sooner than I expected in our pick by pick. And I was like, oh, that's not a bad spot for him
Starting point is 00:39:39 looking at the other receivers that were around him. So he's just somebody that kind of stood out to me a little bit after doing the draft and kind of just to reiterate what we've said a few times in the last couple of weeks, like why are rankings changing when nothing happening? It's it's again this process of doing these drafts and seeing where these players go. So yeah, so he took Ridley just before Cooper Cup, Jalen Waddle and Ricky Pearsall. It was a bold pick. But yeah, certainly you can understand it.
Starting point is 00:40:12 Go ahead. That seems about right. I was gonna ask you, you said you could see yourself moving Ridley up, he was in the next tier, tier eight. Of the guys in tier seven, which is a big tier. Who do you think could move up from that tier? So that tier again is Judy Godwin, Jameson Williams,
Starting point is 00:40:33 Devontae Smith, Zay Flowers, Tedarola McMillan, Jalen Waddle, and Jordan Addison. It seems like the two guys at the top could get training camp news that makes them more attractive. If Chris Godwin's fully healthy, if Joe Flacco is named the starter I feel like those guys are both more attractive. Yep Hmm. Yeah, I could see a lot of movement here
Starting point is 00:40:54 I mean, I wonder if people are gonna come around on waddle now that John New Smith is gone Because he's if he could just do what he did these first three years of his career He's gonna wildly could just do what he did his first three years of his career, he's going to wildly outperform his ADP. Is that I know that's definitely true for the second year of his career. I think it's true for the third year of his career. If you live in a Azerstat world. No, even in the even in he was wide receiver 22 per game in 2023. And that's not azerstading anything. He left
Starting point is 00:41:28 two games early. He went over 1000 yards. He had four touchdowns and 14 games. He was wide receiver 22 with 1000. Yeah, per game because he only played 14 games. I'll double check because it didn't feel right to me either. But so this is 2023 Jalen waddle. Yeah, I got him at 22 per game. He averaged 14.2 fantasy points per game in kind of a bad year for him
Starting point is 00:41:53 because he wasn't on the field that much. That's why I was so excited about him last year. But that was a horrible call by me. But again- Everybody, I mean everybody like one. Yeah, he wasn't even a top 50 wide receiver per game last year the first three years of his career. He was 14th per game, 14th per game and 22nd per game in full PPR and 23rd, 10th and 20th per game and in non PPR. So again, I mean, if Waddle can just get back to what he was the first two years, he is going to crush his ADP.
Starting point is 00:42:28 But Dave always points this out appropriately, when A-chan has been on the field, Waddle has not been the same player because A-chan wasn't there the first two years of his career and then A-chan was played, what, six, seven healthy games in that 2023 season. So that's an X factor that's kind of hard to to account for. All right. Tier eight is Olavi Pickens Ridley Odunze. Olavi Pickens Ridley Odunze. Heath, what are your thoughts on Tier eight?
Starting point is 00:42:58 I think Ridley is the clear best player in this tier for me. Um, and would be probably a tier higher. Um, and I have more hope for Roma Dunze than I do for the other two guys. For a lot of interesting. I can understand the lobby, but Pickens, I'm surprised. I'm terrified about Chris O'Lave and I don't think I've drafted him yet. Um, probably the worst offense in football, probably the worst quarterback room in football. And he also has pretty glaring injury concern.
Starting point is 00:43:34 So I don't really, I mean, I've come around a little bit on Pickens and I don't have him too far behind Roma Dunze. But, but I just kind of think that we know who he is and the second fiddle behind 10 targets a game, CD Lam and Jake Ferguson is not just going to go away. Jake Ferguson's a pretty high target tight end. I just don't know that the volumes there, I think he's a great, great, great best ball pick. the volumes there. I think he's a great, great, great best ball pick. You got to show Johnny's comment. I was just about to say Johnny airport needs to like just put them on the show already. Azerstading is life. I recently Azerstaded my Tinder profile and now I sound like a stud. It's so good. Yeah, that's good. Swipe right. I'm trying to compare Olavi with,
Starting point is 00:44:25 and I think you can even go with Calvin Ridley here. Guy that comes to mind is Amari Cooper, 2022, with Jacoby Brissett as his quarterback until the last six games of the year. The Saints would kill for Jacoby Brissett. But at the time, Jacoby Brissett was so bad. I called him, I remember calling him fantasy poison. That's how bad he was for fantasy at that point.
Starting point is 00:44:49 And Cooper was, I think, a pretty late pick, and he ended up scoring 14.6 points per game, pardon me, as wide receiver, 19 per game. And he had 132 targets in 17 games. Remember, if you start to get to this range, we're almost, we're approaching round seven now. You want seven or more targets per game. Almost every wide receiver who has finished top 24 over the last seven or eight years in round seven through nine has averaged seven or more targets per game.
Starting point is 00:45:16 I think that's 119 targets per season. So that's what you're looking for. Okay. It just feels like we're asking Chris Olave for a breakout with the worst situation he's ever been in. Not to justify this. Like, I think he could do this and kind of just be what he's been with the worst situation he's ever had.
Starting point is 00:45:37 But to be a great pick. To him to be right for him to really pay off. He's going to have to have the best year of his career with the worst quarterback plays ever. I had actually that choice to make in the pick by pick when I took, it was the round six, seven turn and I took Pickens who I have as you see ranked right behind him because I had already taken Camaro. I was like, I'm not taking both Saints. There's no way.
Starting point is 00:46:02 Yeah, that would have been a bad idea. All right, let's go to tiers nine and 10. After Olavi, Pickens, Ridley and Odunze. We've got, wait, no, oh, there we go. We've got San Francisco 49ers wide receivers bookending this. Pearsall, Cooper Cup, Khalil Shakir, Darnell Mooney, Stefan Diggs, Debo Samuel,
Starting point is 00:46:25 Jacoby Myers, Joann Jennings. That's tier nine. Pearsall, Cup, Shakir, Mooney, Diggs, Debo Samuel, Jacoby Myers, Joann Jennings. This is, this is, this is Heath's tier. This is the, the Heath's tier. This is some of my, my, my favorite picks at wide receiver after I've taken three running backs in the first four rounds and have an elite quarterback and tight end is Cooper cup, Devo Samuel, Jacobi Myers and Juan Jennings. Not Pearsall. I'm not, I think this, I have Jennings just a little ahead of Pearsall, so I don't get
Starting point is 00:47:02 Pearsall. Okay. Fair. Jennings just a little ahead of Pearsall, so I don't get Pearsall. Okay, fair. So I've adjusted my view of the 49ers receivers with the Jennings news. I haven't adjusted the commander's receivers yet. And I mean, we talked about this, I think it was on Monday that I just moved Pearsall ahead of Jennings. These guys are very close.
Starting point is 00:47:18 I think I'm almost this is like a whole round for me in my rankings with no other positions mixed in. So yeah, I love a lot of the players in this tier, like this, this is like, if you take your three receivers early, and you want to get your fourth receiver in this spot, it's a great place to live. I would, this is something I did this morning, last night. And this morning, I watched some to all 22 of the 49ers late in the season, a few games at Brock Purdy, Ricky Pearsall and Joanne Jennings.
Starting point is 00:47:50 I got nothing bad to say about Joanne Jennings. He, I think he's a good player. To me, Ricky Pearsall moves differently. I don't know if that's going to translate on the field, but just look at at their 40 times. One guy moves like he ran a four, four, one, one guy moves like he ran a 4-7-2. And that was why Jawan Jennings was a seventh round pick. And he's really made the most of it. He's a good player.
Starting point is 00:48:13 But I just think Pearsall with that speed, and I watched him, you know, I watched all of his targets of 20 or more air yards, he can run by people. I think he's ready. And I think we're gonna look back and go, why didn't we take the guy that they made a first round pick? Obviously he was gonna break out.
Starting point is 00:48:34 I think he's got the talent. I think everybody is though, based on all the ADP we've seen. I think he's going too, I don't think he's going too late. I think he's a great pick where he is. He's the one I'm most excited about by far. This is not my show, I'm sorry. But looking at tier nine for you, Pearsall Cup, Shakir, Mooney, Diggs,
Starting point is 00:48:49 Samuel, Myers, Jennings. I love Pearsall. I'm like so pumped to get him ahead of the other guys. You've got those guys that you're just like, yeah, I'm fired up about. That's my guy right now. I would, yeah. And I think that the things you say about the potential upside for
Starting point is 00:49:08 Pierce hall, I think the, like Jacob Gibbs talked about this a lot in the middle of last year, the per route data for Joanne Jennings had always been pretty spectacular. Yep. And even last year you look at the per route data and Joanne Jennings looks like one of the top 10 wide receivers in the NFL and Ricky Pierce all is like 65th. But he was a rookie and obviously had some very unfortunate circumstances that caused him to get off to a late start to the season.
Starting point is 00:49:37 I wish we had just a little larger sample size of him showing an ability to earn targets because he had several like eight games of playing between 50 and 80% of the snaps where he was seeing zero, one, two, four targets a game. And then the last two games he gets 18 targets and looks like the guy that should have been drafted in round one. You're just so hard to say like where he was from a game plan standpoint, what they were giving him, allowing him to do.
Starting point is 00:50:11 And I mean, it wasn't pretty hurt in a couple of those games too. We had the snow game, right? You had the snow game, you had pretty missed leaving, leaving late in week 17, missing week 18. Jennings was better. Which is one of Pearsall's best games. Yeah, but you know, it's funny about that game
Starting point is 00:50:29 is Pearsall didn't really do anything until Jawan Jennings got ejected. Jennings was better than Pearsall, but let's look at per route data, right? Cause Ricky Pearsall's yards per route run was 1.32. Not very good, nothing special. Jawan Jennings was 2.29, but you know what it was? The first three years of his career, 1.41, 1.37, 1.17, right in line with where Ricky
Starting point is 00:50:54 Pearsall was last year. So I'm really putting nothing into that. Nothing? Well, it's other than the fact that- Jennings was good. Right. Right. Well, it's other than the fact that Jennings was good. Right, right. No. And the fact that you don't necessarily by playing 10 games become the 2.3 guy next year.
Starting point is 00:51:12 Absolutely. Nothing's for granted with Ricky. But again, if you're, if you're playing this out based on how it could go, cause we have a, a, a game plan that was laid out for Jennings based on what I did. Like don't do anything camp and sign whenever you get your contract, which could be late in the, in the process. And then I was terrible. So it doesn't mean that Jen is going to be terrible, but this could be the exact opportunity that Pierce all needs to just soak up targets.
Starting point is 00:51:43 Right. What about, I think that that's exactly right. And there's a lot, you guys have done a really good job of highlighting the upside for Ricky Pearsall. I'm just trying to highlight the thing you have to overcome. There's basically nine games that they played together. And it started with, with Pearsall's third game. So it's not including any of the time that he missed.
Starting point is 00:52:01 It's not including his first two games. It's including actually his third best game of the year, which was Pierce, the game that Jennings came back. They played nine games together at the end of the time that he missed. It's not including his first two games. It's including actually his third best game of the year, which was Pierce, the game that Jennings came back. They played nine games together at the end of the year. Joanne Jennings had more than twice the number of targets. What do you think about that? I don't, I don't think there's anything to say that's going to dispute the fact that he Jennings was better last year and should have been better last
Starting point is 00:52:24 year based on the circumstances. It's to me, because now you have Debo gone, you have McCaffrey back, it's almost like the way I'm viewing it and we don't know when he's going to be back. It's like a reset button. And if you told me right now Jennings signs his deal, I'll probably go back to the way they had it, which was Jennings slightly ahead of Pearsall.
Starting point is 00:52:48 Because I do think that there's an opportunity here for Jennings to be sort of the go-to guy. Whether Pearsall has more upside or not, I think Jennings would get more opportunities. And I'll just say what I've said at the beginning of this whole thing about the four-and-eight. You want one of these two guys, you can get them. Because there's so much potential here. If I was going to miss four games, six games, games we don't know like these guys are going to get like think of in this faction kill like how excited do we always get when one guy was missing well can I ask you
Starting point is 00:53:14 this because if you can pull it off in rounds eight and nine maybe it's a little harder in seven and eight to justify it but if you can do it in rounds eight and nine, would you take both Pearsall and Jennings? Yes. Yes. Is there anyone else that you guys really love in this group? You find drafting a lot tier nine of Pearsall, Cupp, Shakir, Mooney, Diggs, Debo, Jacoby Myers and Jennings. I gave my list. You said, you said Myers, Debo, who else?
Starting point is 00:53:41 And Jennings and who? On Cupp. I'm probably, and this is not not I think where he will be drafted because I think he's going to be drafted after these guys. I'm probably going to have the most exposure on all of my teams to Darnal Mooney. Michael says Adam be leery of Ricky Pierce all soft tissue injuries. Yep, I agree. It's a concern.
Starting point is 00:54:01 Is he currently healthy? They both technically are hurt. I think the Jennings injury may have been a precursor to missing OTAs leading into missing camp or hold in for camp. So I don't know how much of that was predetermined. I don't want to speak on that. I thought they were both expected to be ready for the start of training camp, just in terms of their.
Starting point is 00:54:25 And I agree with what Jamie said about Mooney. I think usually I see him going a couple of rounds after all the other guys in this tier. Fair. Yeah. Yeah. And it's too cheap. It's such an easy stack for best ball to take London early, Mooney late and Pennex late as your second quarterback. It's such
Starting point is 00:54:45 an easy stack. I would encourage everyone if you can try to find some Josh Downs film to go ahead and watch it because Josh Downs gets open as well as just about anyone in football. In fact, ESPN had him, I think, fourth in their open metric. I understand all the buzz around Josh Downs. He kills cornerbacks. It is really exciting to watch, but he's got some obstacles and that's why he's all the way down in tier 10 with, and this one is bookended by Colts. Tier 10 is Josh Downs, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Keon Coleman, Christian Kirk, and Michael Pittman.
Starting point is 00:55:18 I didn't realize I did that. Yeah. About that. Josh Downs, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Keon Coleman, Christian Kirk and Michael Pittman. What's your excitement level for drafting wide receivers in this tier? I think in the case of the Colts, if Daniel Jones is starting, which is such a crazy thing to say, like there's more potential for them to be better fantasy options. The same could be the case with Anthony Richardson, if the work that he
Starting point is 00:55:43 did with Josh Allen's throwing coach pays off and he's just a better passer, at least to, oh my God, Daniel Jones level. But it's a big ask and then you're throwing Tyler Warren in the mix of quarterback questions and a run first team with a lot of mouths to feed. Imagine if they could get, imagine if they got Aaron Rodgers. Like, you know, if that was the quarterback they got, as opposed to, as opposed to, as Scott White, if it's our Scott White suggesting
Starting point is 00:56:17 in the chat, just kept Joe Flacco. So it's just hard to get excited about those guys, right? That's the problem. And I think I was, I was really surprised and irritated with you, Adam, yesterday when you took Matthew Golden, because I didn't think that you were as excited about him. I expect Golden to be one of my most rostered wide receivers. He endows are for me about 20 picks ahead of anybody else in this range.
Starting point is 00:56:45 And when I get to taking of anybody else in this range. And when I get to taking the other guys in this range, I usually just take one of the rookies, either Emeka Ibuka or Luther Burden and just hope for the upside. But I love Golden, I love Downs. I don't even remember taking Matthew Golden, but I just did a control F in the document. And you're right, I did take Matthew Golden.
Starting point is 00:57:04 It was a moment for me. That team has such bad wide receivers, but he's my third, that's horrible. But the rest of my team is pretty good. Okay. All right, Downs, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Keon Coleman, Christian Kirk, Michael Pittman. Would you say we've got still upside in this tier?
Starting point is 00:57:25 Of course. Yeah, right? It's pretty good. All right, let's go to tier 11. Hacker throw more it's gonna be great for you know, reading golden. However you view those guys in whatever order. Obviously Christian Kirk has been sort of more of a I think closer to like a Khalil Shakir type of player fantasy wise, you know, just not a huge ceiling but sort of low end number three production, which is fine to get in this range. And then Keon Coleman could clearly take a huge step forward if he's that guy for Josh Allen.
Starting point is 00:57:55 Jody airport crushing it in the chat. All right. Tears 11 and 12. Cedric Tillman, Luther Burden, Emeka Abouka, Brandon Ayyouk, Jack Besh, Trey Harris, Rashid Shahid. Thank you, Jamie. Rashid Shahid is in tier 11. So it's Tillman, Burden, Abouka, Ayyouk, Besh, Trey Harris, Rashid Shahid, and then tier 12 is, Jay has a lot of names. Jaylen McMillan, Jayden Higgins, Kyle Williams, Marquise Brown. What are we looking at in tiers 11 and 12?
Starting point is 00:58:32 Upside, strictly upside. He's just said it about Ibuka and Burden. I mean, look, they're going to be in what we hope to be for the Bears and what we expect to be for the Bucks, very prolific passing attacks. So if they get prominent roles and it's not hard to see them getting that based on the circumstances, then they could be top 30 caliber wide receivers. If Godwin's not ready to go and misses any more time, Ibuka's the slot receiver for
Starting point is 00:58:56 Baker Mayfield, that's huge. Burden if he's the big mystery box of who's going to be the best receiver for the Bears, if he's better than DJ more in Rome Oh doon say you get any steel at the spot So it's it's not hard to see them those two guys and then for me tillman I just think it's more of a curiosity like those three games that we saw without a Mark Cooper You know if he can be that guy for the majority of the season because he played he had four five games After Cooper was traded
Starting point is 00:59:23 The fifth one he suffered a concussion so he didn't get to finish. So we had three games with Jamis Winston and two of them were elite. I got a great comment here from Rad. It's a little mean, but still it's good. Whoever put these tiers together are crazy. Grammar there.
Starting point is 00:59:43 Brandon Ayuk was around two, round three pick last year. How the hell do you put him in tier 11 this year? I think Brandon Ayuk was actually going more like round four last year because he was holding out like really late. So, but it, you know, it is a good question to see Brandon Ayuk in this group with Tillman Bird and Abouka. Yeah, I think it's important to remember he tore his ACL. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:08 He had a knee surgery and PCL. And we, somebody asked me at the Scott Fishbowl Live, like what's the word on Brandon Iyuk? And I said, it seems like some people are close, they're playing a little bit close to the vest, but my current expectation is I don't expect anything from him week one. And I don't really expect him to be brand and IU until the middle of the season. If he's another guy who could move way up, if he's healthier than we think he is. He also before getting injured last year had one game with double digits and PPR.
Starting point is 01:00:41 Right. But we know he's better than that. I mean, right. Oh, I'm not saying he's not, but it's not like he was returning any value of significance before the injury. And again, you got to hit the reset button. There's no Diba, which should be a plus for IUC. There is potentially no Jennings at some point.
Starting point is 01:00:59 If this is a holdout, a true holdout, again, I don't think so, but that's on the table. And you have basically a rebuilt receiving core where I use is the clear. I don't know, maybe clear is the right word because Jennings has been there a long time, but like he's the he's the proven commodity. So there's a lot to like about a situation. I just don't expect them to play until week five at the earliest. Yep. Expected with we the most likely to end up on the public submissive, at least the first four games, tier 12, Jalen McMillan, Jayden Higgins, Kyle Williams, and Marquise Brown.
Starting point is 01:01:35 Interesting tier here. Um, you could argue that Kyle Williams has the best path to fantasy relevance of McMillan. But if you can beat Mac Collins. Yeah. I think that that is a point with Kyle Williams that Jamie had digs higher than I do. But if digs has looked pretty ready in what we've seen so far, And if digs is healthy, they've been very clear that DeMario Douglas is their slot wide receiver. So Kyle Williams has got to find first snaps and then it might actually not be that easy to get.
Starting point is 01:02:16 Like Hunter Henry, we know is going to have a significant role. They're going to throw their running backs a lot. And if Stefan digs is healthy and De and Mario Douglas is taking those short targets, there may not actually be as much room for Kyle Williams as maybe we thought. When was the last time the Patriots drafted a good wide receiver? I don't think drafted. Yeah, I don't think that happened. Uh, did they draft your copy?
Starting point is 01:02:42 I was going to say, did they draft Edelman? Yeah, they drafted Myers. Edelman was a quarterback when they drafted him. They did draft Edelman in the seventh round. Jacobi Myers was a solid pick. Jacobi Myers was undrafted. Okay, well, I'll give them credit though. I'll give them credit for citing him.
Starting point is 01:03:00 Yeah, they have a bad track record, man. All right, let's see. So that's all we have for graphics. Tier 13 is Demario Douglas, Wondale Robinson, Marvin... Xavier Liggett. I'm snoring, it's boring. I'm just kidding. Romeo Dobbs, Josh Palmer, Adam Thielen, Rashad Bateman. I don't know how much further you want to go here. You've gone past that point. Well, so, you know, are these guys?
Starting point is 01:03:31 There's over a hundred guys in the tier story, by the way. Are these players being drafted in 14 team leagues or it has to be even deeper than that? DiMario Douglas won. We just drafted these guys yesterday. Yeah, why'd you do 14 rounds? Because it's fun. It's not fun to draft some of these guys.
Starting point is 01:03:47 Sure it is. But no, the Mara Douglas, what did Chachie PT say about Wanda Robinson? Oh yeah. Chachie PT said he was going to be what? Top 20 or something or I forget. I think that there's a, um, you have to make a choice here. It depends on how strong your wide receiver room is. Like Dobbs is probably a little bit underrated,
Starting point is 01:04:05 but just because we don't really think he has any upside. DeMario Douglas in terms of his floor might be a little bit underrated, but because we don't know that he has any upside. Like there are some guys that you can plug in on bi-weeks as wide receiver threes if you have a week wide receiver room. And then there's some guys that you can hope
Starting point is 01:04:22 actually have upside. Okay, so I think it's, yeah, And then there's some guys that you can hope actually have upside. Okay. So I think it's, yeah, it's a, it's somewhat of an underrated tier there. Douglas Rob, Wondale, Mims people are excited a little bit about him. He flash late in the year, legal Dobbs Palmer, Adam Thielen, Josh Palmer. That is Adam Thielen and Rashad Bateman. Okay. I'm not going to read tier 14 or 15 and Xavier was strep.
Starting point is 01:04:47 I was in tier 15. Great stuff. Okay. We will talk to you tomorrow with tight end tiers and then mail back. Remember, go to tiny URL.com slash 20, 25 FFT, purchase a mail bag question. It all goes to St. Jude and vote for us on on PodcastAwards.com. Sports category, fancy football. Today is the name of our show. And we'll talk to you tomorrow. See ya. Paramount Podcasts. Now streaming.
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