Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Top 10 WR Rankings + What Could Go Wrong? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/7

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Aug 7, 2025. Preseason is here! Top 10 wide receivers for the 2025 fantasy football season on today’s show! What could go wrong for the elite WRs? Would you rather pick Drake London or A.J. Brown in fantasy football drafts? Plus, what to watch for in preseason. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.2025 ULTIMATE DRAFT KIT + Draft Analyzer available now at UltimateDraftKit.com(00:00) Intro(02:37) Preseason Power-Up(12:50) NFL News(20:49) WR Rankings Countdown: 10-1(21:17) Drake London(25:38) A.J. Brown(29:37) Brian Thomas Jr.(34:25) Malik Nabers(38:05) Nico Collins(40:29) Amon-Ra St. Brown(43:47) Puka Nucua (48:51) Ceedee Lamb(52:12) Justin Jefferson(53:11) Ja’Marr ChaseConnect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord

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podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, welcome in. Not gonna do it. No, Jason. I just did it quiet. I did it quiet. Okay, that's fine. There's going to be some real players tonight.

Can you speak in lowercase? Is that possible? I think you did. Yeah, I definitely did. Is that a whisper? It wasn't really a whisper. It was more like this. I don't know what this is.

Is that similar to the voice of public opinion? You know, I think they're their own distinct thing, man. Okay. Well, we do have three lowercase football games tonight. Colts Ravens, Bengals, Eagles, Raiders, Seahawks. So that's fun. Yeah, yeah. You know what?

I'm going to be honest with you. I thought it was just Raiders Seahawks tonight. I just got more excited. Yeah. Would you have raised your voice, your little teeny voice to a higher level? It's football time. Okay. All right.

Well, thank you. That sounds like Gaffigan. High pocket. Which you've been, you've gotten the Gaffigan comps before. Yeah. You guys have similar senses of humor. Yeah. So.

Similar senses of humor. Similar builds, you know, there's some, some good, some bad. welcome in one and all wide receiver top 10 ranking show today news to talk about got some more preseason action going on tonight we've got Jason Moore over on X at Jason FFL you can follow Mike at FF Hitman I'm at Andy Holloway in the show account at the FF ballers a lot of good stuff getting posted lately are amazing writing staff putting up some path to wide receiver one

articles, so you can check those out at the FF Ballers over on X. The UDK is available right now at Ultimate DraftCid.com. Let's talk some preseason. Preseason power up. All right. Preseason kicks off tonight officially. No Hall of Fame game. That doesn't count.

But the question for today's preseason power up, quick question of the day. what are you watching for this preseason? We do see a trend right now. Teams at least coming out very quickly and saying they're going to play their starters for a certain amount of time. The Jets, they came out and said they're doing that. Justin Fields and the starters are going to play.

Bengals traditionally haven't. They're playing their guys. A lot of teams we're going to get to see a little bit, which is fun. You know, vanilla offense or not, you get to see players out there on the field, game speed, just like it was fun to watch Amarion Hampton in the preseason

or in the Hall of Fame game. what team situation are you most excited to see um i'll go first i'm looking forward to seeing the panthers um mostly because there are through this off season there have been a handful of times where i've really wanted to take a step forward like i like tetarola mcmillan quite a bit you know as a prospect his opportunity his draft out everything is great and i want to be pretty bullish on him but I hesitate because it's the Panthers is what Bryce Young, you know, we saw a little bit of Bryce Young where it's like, hey, hey, maybe he, maybe he is going to figure this out. Maybe he is going to be a good quarterback and turn this team around. I really like Jatavian Sanders. We saw flashes the rookie tied in last year who's coming into year two and I want to be like, hey, there's, there's a nice sleeper tight. And we talked about him on the nasty boys dynasty show that just came out. Thank you. You know, there's, there's Liget. Last year's. you know, first rounder. Adam Thielen was legitimately great for fantasy football the second half of last year. You don't remember it, but it happened. You've got a running game that matters,

but every time that I want to be like, I like this guy, I want to draft this guy. I go, the Panthers, I don't know if they've really figured it out yet or not. So I want to see more before the season, before drafts to hopefully determine like, okay, the vibes are, you know, the play is continuing from where we left off. I guess that, that, that, that, begs the question, like, you know, is it a couple good drives from the starters that make, that kind of solidifies things in the preseason? Because how much can you? Yeah, you're not going to be able to definitively know one way or

another, but what you can do is you can just see like he looks like he's controlling his placement, you know, he's accurate, he's leading passers. Because if you, if you think about how Bryce Young has played and the two versions we've seen, the bad version of Bryce Young, you don't need to be an NFL analyst. to be like, that dude sucks. He was so bad. I mean, he was so inaccurate with his passes, so flustered in the pocket. So it's like, I know he's going to be getting vanilla

defenses. And, you know, I just don't want to see bad Bryce. That's all. I just don't want to see him looking inaccurate and looking like rookie bright. That would really solidify doubts. Exactly. And concerns. I'll go with Jacksonville. I think their running back situation is very interesting. I mean, Tank Biggsby, Travis E.T. And I'm trying not to let the emotions of a frustrating Jacksonville offense outside of Brian Thomas, you know, really translate all the way into 2025 when you have Liam Cohen, somebody that did amazing things in Tampa Bay. And I want to see Travis Hunter on both sides of the ball.

I just want to see him out there, game speed. He's going to play. That came out this morning. Bigsby ETN, both listed as co-starters right now. I think Bigsby is the player that I'm kind of tantalized by the potential. If they really give him a lot of work, I know he's not going to catch the football, but But right now, where he's going in drafts, it could be a fairly, you know, a really nice depth piece you could add in your drafts. So I want to see what it looks like.

And, you know, does the offensive line hold up a little bit in the preseason? Liam Cohen, the creativity. Do you see any of that? Oh, wow, you really. I didn't even know when it started. You really accentuated the. Oh, that was an audio drop. That was straight from.

See? It's pretty much the same thing. So, Mike, what about you? I'm going with the Minnesota Vikings. I want to see J.J. McCarthy. I want to, and what I'm looking for is just do we get, does he look sharp? Do we get quick decisions from him and, you know, some accuracy as well? And then do they give us any hint on Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason?

That'll be, I think, harder to gleam from just the preseason. They might just play like two drives and maybe Aaron Jones gets one drive and then Jordan Mason gets another. drive, or do we see them actually mixing in and out, you know, depending on the situation of the down of the distance? So that, I'm fascinated for that. And then another thing I want to bring up, because we are, we're in wide receivers. And so we won't be talking about running backs, but I want to get your guys' take on something. As beat reporter for the, the Denver Broncos, Benjamin Albright, was being asked about the Denver backfield. Because, R.J. Harvey, second round pick, allegedly the, you know, like the chosen one, the golden child of Sean

Peyton when they could have in the first round, you know, taken one of the, the prolific guys, you know, the Ohio guys. I don't remember if Hampton was there. Yeah, Hampton was there. Like, they could have gone that direction. And instead, what we heard was they identified RJ Harvey and they really want to get him. Time passes, a bunch of time passes in football terms. They signed J.K. Dobbins, who's just out there chilling on the couch. And Albright... For a good amount of money. Yeah. And Albright was tweeting because people are like, we wanted to be R.J. Harvey and Albright's, ooh, I don't know, guys. Like, what I'm seeing right now is the split is like J.K. Dobbins, 70%. And specifically because R.J. Harvey doesn't have the tools for pass

protection and that is keeping them off the field. So I'm wondering what you guys are are making of that note because it seems like it should impact something. I brought the pass protection thing up. When you talk about Sean Payton, he's going to play the players that he thinks give them the best chance to win and it doesn't matter where they're

drafted. Reggie Bush was the number two overall pick. He had 155 carries in his rookie season for them. I mean, he was a valuable pass catcher, but I just think that we've seen the committee approach with Sean Payton. I think R.J. Harvey will prove himself to be the

best talent in the room in terms of making big plays. But that's not always what matters. I mean, Giovante Williams was inefficient, ineffective, and still used frequently. There's trust factors that go beyond your yards per carry

that go into pass protection like you said or just trust of the offense. So look, the nice thing is they put R.G Harvey at 5th on the depth chart so you know the depth chart doesn't matter. Yeah, because if you... Every single rookie is listed last on the Denver Broncos, on official death. Because that's how he rolls.

And so he's certainly going to give a lot of veteran preference to J.K. Dobbins. But we also saw Dobbins start strong and end poorly last year. So he's older. He's got some tread on the one leg. And I think over the course of the season, the rookie kind of that role should increase with trust. You've got to protect the football. you can't make these dumb mistakes. That's always at a risk for a situation like this

that R.J. Harvey goes out there. He makes a couple bad pass protection mistakes, fumbles the football, and, you know, it's more volatile. There's certainly not a, it's not like Gentie, it's not like Hampton, where you are locked in a huge role, in my opinion. I think Harvey has a lot of variance. So then based on that conversation of the belief, you know, like R.J. Harvey should improve over,

the course of the year totally makes sense then what do you do with the draft because right now you know on average so rj harvey on sleeper is the the 511 you know that's a pick that's pretty expensive that's right before uh tetaro macmillan it's just slightly ahead of isaiah pacheco it's in front of my beloved travion henderson you know that if if he is if it really starts daubins at 70% how long until Harvey is someone that you actually feel comfortable starting and you I mean because you just spent a starter pick on him when J.K. Dobbins might be the better pick right. I think J.K. Dobbins is the clear better value. Like J.K. Dobbins is a really good value in draft. He's going in the double digit rounds. He's not being drafted as a starter. He's

going to start the year as the starter. He'll score more fantasy points in the beginning. Now the expectation I think for most people, myself included, is that by the end of the year, the more valuable fantasy asset will be R.J. Harvey. But with that, like, that isn't a guarantee. J.K. Dobbins could, because he's going to start in that role, what if he just dominates? What if he's great? They're not going to go away from him, even if R.J. Harvey gets better and gets a little bit more involved. So I think the better approach right now is J.K. Dobbins in the double-digit rounds. I still think the more valuable asset will be R.J. Harvey. I don't even have a problem taking R.J. Harvey ahead of J.K. Dobbins. Well, you have to. Multiple rounds. Right. But I can't justify taking him in

the fifth round like that's where he's going right now i won't have a lot of r j harvey so where about probably like the seventh round is where i think his value should end up which means i'll end up with no no i remember when daubbins was signed and everyone's like don't worry about it rj harvey's fine that's not true it's just not the case like daubbins obviously a lot of uh preseason work the number one spot on the deb chart and then the you know benjamin albright somebody you can trust, it's a good question to bring up. And it's one that, again, with the preseason, we got a long way to go until we kicked the football off on September 4th. So let's talk some more news.

News and notes from Around the League. Presented by progressive insurance. Sean McDermott says he believes Khalil Shakir will be ready for week one. That's good. Did you guys adjust him very much with the injury, the high ankle sprain? I hadn't yet. I moved his risk meter up. I think that he'll be slightly less efficient week one. You're not usually at 100% the first week back, if that is his first week back, but it's, you know, you want him there for week one versus week four. Okay. All right. They'll be, it'll be tight for him to get back in time. T.J. Hawkinson, Justin Jefferson, they were some Vikings injury situations. Hawkinson return to practice, Jefferson still sidelined with the hamstring.

I'm going to need some practice here, Justin. Yeah, we got some time. We'll talk about him on today's show. I don't like seeing this. Malik neighbor is not at practice once again with the toe situation. They came out and basically said it's part of the process that he has to follow. This toe injury has followed him for years. Forever, right?

Yeah, it's going back to LSU. Just saw it off. Just, yeah, Malik, just You got to do what you got to do. Just get that, you know, like, you got the loose tooth. Sometimes I don't know if you can do that with a toe. Sometimes you feel the tooth, you know, the kid asks, like, ow, dad is, is my tooth ready? You go, ah.

I can make it ready. I can get it out of there. It's going to hurt, but maybe that's the answer. Maybe the toe's not ready to. It just depends on which toe. Not a doctor, but. Yeah, it may not be ready to come off right now, but in the long run, just get it out of there. Eventually, it's going to come off.

Eventually, it's coming off. It's falling up. falling off. Yeah. I mean, he played with this all last year. It's not... You give me tooth PTSD over here. It's not something you want to see.

You'd hope that he's healthy. But this scares me not a lot, to be honest. Simply because he's managed it. The fact that he's not practicing right now and it's part of the process just means they're aware of it. I would, I want them to not overwork him right now this time. I want him to be overworked in real NFL season games, not right now. Didn't it bother him during the season last year?

Yeah. I'm telling you one good, you know, put dental floss on there? I don't know if it's right at the door. Yeah, you got it. I don't know if it works that way. Okay. If the dental floss is tight enough. Yeah.

Then yeah. Just real tight. Leave it on there for a couple days. Yeah, we don't need. Then slam the door is right on. We don't need Matthew Betts at all. We got this medical stuff handled. He'd probably say it's a bad idea.

Colcom back practicing for the Bears. Jaden Reed, not practicing. on Thursday, Marshawn Lloyd doing rehab work. The only kind of work he does. Third on the depth chart, by the way, behind Wilson. The Lloyd career is so

frustrating and sad for him right now. Are we mentioning the Breece Hall the Time Will Tell tweet? We just did, or you just literally mentioned it. There's nothing else other than that. That was the entirety of it. He tweeted, Time will tell.

It was, it's a very. Yes, it will, Breece. It's a very passive aggressive tweet from Breece Hall. Generally, this type of tweet, you know, per the rules of Danny Carter, this is a wide receiver tweet. I don't know what Brie Saul is doing. Well, he's been more of a wide receiver than a running back. Okay, maybe that's it.

Or lately anyway, so he can tweet how he wants. I think he's very frustrated with what his workload is going to be. He is, in my opinion, being overdrafted right now. It seems like it's going to be a very big committee. when you're saying time will tell he he first comes out and says i'm not their guy he literally said this at a press conference said i'm not their guy he didn't follow it up with like so i know i need to prove it sure yeah but but i mean he's feeling that if you're willing to sit there and say like hey i need to prove it i'm not their guy they didn't draft me and then you come out and you're

like time will tell what's the timeline he's thinking here is this like my next contract you're going to see i'm really good i think this is yeah this is like the rest of this year is an opportunity to prove himself and get out of town. I mean, even before those comments, Jay, he was, you know, he kept saying, I look at myself as a three down back. I don't know how the team sees me. I look at myself this way. And like you said, the frustration of like, hey, you know, maybe, maybe my role is committee back on this team. So how are we feeling about a 13th round Braille and Allen? Great. Feel great. I think I got to pump him up. God, got dynasty rejected on a trade for him yesterday. I just did

a startup over the past couple days and got Braylon Allen in like, I don't know, the 16th or something? Like people are not Brailin Allen or Ramandre Stevenson in a dynasty? Oh, Braylin Allen. Oh, man. That's gross. One of those guys

is for sure not very good and fumbles all the time. The other one is 21. Romandre Stevenson is not a bad football player. Remandre Stevenson is not. You are not very good. It's also under contract. I'm pretty sure he's under contract where this year and next year he's pretty much going to be part of their offense. And this could be an offense with the Patriots

if Drake May is that dude that could actually be good, whereas the Jets offense probably won't be. So I don't know. I think it's closer than you think. Just because obviously Braylon Allen's younger. Romandre next year is a 3.2 dead. I'm pretty sure. I'm looking at the Romandre game log. When he played like any significant amount of snaps, like he had like four out of five weeks in the top nine at the position last year to start the year. I mean, you're not wrong about any of the stuff about protecting the football, but there was a reason he got, like, paid a bunch of money. He had a really great top 12 season.

I think it's a really good question between those, too. I think he has some photographs. Oh, my gosh. I think this is because of your Travian Henderson. Yeah, it is. You're speaking. Well, no, it's two years in a row because last year is all about Antonio Gibson. so Romandre sucks. This year it's Trayvion, so Ramandre sucks.

He's a, he stands in the way. It's why he hates Zach Gertz. He stands in the way of Ben's Senate. Was Ramandre one of the players that lost weight? I think so. Okay. Because that, like, some players, that's really important. Yes. He's one of them. In his career, it has been an issue. Yeah. That's like Eddie Lacey, you know, he didn't do it. I think Brise Hall is such a, such a terrible pick in fantasy. Yeah, for where he's going right now. Yeah, absolutely.

We constantly, like, his name comes up all the time around other players in the third round, and I'm just like, no, I would not do that. Mm-hmm. Right now. I mean, he's going ahead of Hampton, right? Yes, he is. Yeah, I mean, no thanks. When the real drafts are happening, I can't imagine that happens.

Well. Yeah. Unfortunately, we'll steam Hampton up. Will we? That was today's. Yeah, I think so. That was today's news and note sponsored by Progressive Insurance, quote today at progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, affiliates, and third-party insurers, not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We'll go ahead and take a break and we'll get into our top 10 wide receiver countdown unless you have something. You're stopping me from talking.

I'm stopping you from talking because I'm just proud of us as a whole, as all fantasy community. Breece Hall is now going behind Kyron and Chase Brown, which for the longest time, he was being drafted ahead of those two guys. It sucks to be proud of everyone, but also to not be able to take advantage of foolish decisions. Like, I wish Brees Hall was still going ahead of those guys. He was going ahead of them? Yeah.

Oh, wow. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. All right. We'll take a break. Be back in a minute. on yesterday's show we counted it down from number 20 in our consensus wide receiver rankings down to 11 today we'll get down to number one and we'll start with number 10 oh wait I got one of these number 10 thank you Drake London please say the number before every time

you hit the drop oh that'd be good huh that'd be good Drake London coming in at number 10 number nine and number nine for me and Jason Mike's got him at 11 was the wide receiver six last year you know this this is you know it's a bet on Michael Pennix Jr. being competent

which I think is fine you know like we had a very very small sample size of them playing together last year was very good for Drake London but it's also target consolidation in the offense like you know Drake London's going to be the show like he's their wide receiver and he deserves to be one

and number two probably and you know what is a bet against drake london it's a bet on kyle pitts what's a bet against drake london it's a bet on ray ray mccloud i mean a bet against michael pinnox but yeah yeah but i still think i mean our bar of of success there it's like if if justin feels was the quarterback of atlanta did you feel good about drake london yeah okay i mean that's as low as it gets on the quarterback meter? No, I agree. This is really just a target play. He had 157 targets last year. And if you look at the very small sample size, but the three games with Michael Pinnock's eight targets, 13 targets, 18 targets. He's not afraid that I don't know how great the targets are going to be. He's

afraid. He's afraid of throwing at anyone else. Right. He's not afraid at just hyper-targeting his wide receiver one. It's probably what has to happen. This team is not projected to be a 10-win team. you know they're going to be throwing the ball a lot. And Drake London is entering his prime. He's 24 years old. He looked like an alpha last year. He was already, I mean, last year, he was the wide receiver six in fantasy. He's being drafted behind that.

His situation is hopefully better. I mean, he did have Kirk Cousins for the majority of the year. So that could be the big negative change. If you have to pick a type of wide receiver, an archetype, to be more conducive to a quarter. change or somebody acclimating, you pick the bigger body contested catch receivers. They're the ones that make it a lot easier on quarterbacks. I mean, you got that from DeAndre Hopkins when he had a whole hodgepodge in Houston.

Brandon Marshall was like that when he switched teams. To me, it's just, I mean, that's a bigger catch radius. That's a bigger opportunity. And nobody was targeted, I guess, Puka, but other than Puka, nobody else was targeted on a higher percentage of his man coverage routes. He wins in man coverage and he's bigger, stronger, faster than the other guys. Can he finish top three? Yes, it would take Michael Pinnock's being worthy of where he was picked in last year's NFL draft or the previous season.

Top three, I really was hoping you'd say five, because I might get in. Top five is felt too easy. Yeah, because he was six last year. That's a good point. I do think he could be. Top four? I don't know. I, you know, do we anticipate him next year being in that conversation with the elite of the elite.

not. Presumably that will be because he's not going to have double-digit touchdowns. That's all that needs to change. His targets will be there. His receptions will be there and his yards will be there. So if he ends up with 10 touchdowns, he'll be drafted in the top six, seven picks and fantasy next year. I don't think he's being drafted currently at his ceiling, which is great.

And that's hard to find when you're in those first few rounds. He also was one of those players when we did the truth series. He only had 6% of his games be great games, right? He finished at 6 through stat accumulation over the year, but he only had two weekly finishes at or above that number. He was much more consistent. It would be nice to see those boom games. Maybe Michael Pinnock, Jr. can air it out.

We went through the whole Kirk Cousins experience last year. So, yeah, it's a player that I think is very safe. for fantasy. I'm whatever. I'm two ranking spots behind, but I think his... You hate him, is what you're saying. I think his ADP is fine. All right, moving on.

Number nine. Look at that. I remember to push the button. I'm a little disappointed. They didn't know what number we're on if I had just said it. A.J. Brown comes in at number nine. He's one of my more surprising rankings. I got him up at seven. You guys both have them at 10.

I think he's missing a little time right now he pivoted off the field Devante Smith's back on the field with I think a hamstring last year was a disappointment I mean he had finished as the wide receiver 7 in Philly in 2023 wide receiver 5 in Philly

in 2022 it was a disappointment because the Eagles were too freaking good and I guess I was going to point out they were too freaking good but he also missed time points per game wise he was the same guy. I mean, he was a 0.2 points per game better than in 2023, despite the fact that they depended on Saquan Barkley so much and they didn't throw it that much. So to me, I'm

just so confident that AJ Brown is prime for a bounceback and you find they get him at a value that is like probably the floor to me at wide receiver 10 in the second round. So I feel really good about him. Yeah, he's, he's interesting because the how good the Eagles defense is, how good their offensive line and running game are. It's one of situations where A.J. Brown could be way better than what he did last year. But he could also just be not that needed, not very consistent, have games where, oh, DeVante Smith had his game, this game, and they didn't need much more in the second half. And so A.J. Brown did it. So, like,

when you compare him and Drake London, and I will say this, since this is the top 10 show, there is a massive break to me. Like, I don't know if you guys have the exact same top 10 guys, but to me there are 10 great wide receivers that I'm happy with as like even my wide receiver won and then it's a huge break to the next like T. Higgins, I think it finished our previous episode. That's like a

big tier break for me between Drake London, yeah Drake London and A.J. Brown but I think I would rather have Drake London over A.J. Brown for just volume, for consistency, for hopeful step up. I'm on the A.J. Brown side.

again like he was I feel like I feel like last year was as bad as you can get from a passing percentage standpoint and the defense was so good and Sequin and he was still better points for game than his wide receiver seven years so I lean the brown side I think both are great picks

if they're close does the hamstring issue even come into your mind no not right now it might later yeah if he's still ask me later Mike where do you stand on AJ Brown and maybe the...

I'm more on your side, Andy. I think AJ Brown is... I'm really happy with him as my wide receiver won. The... Projecting the Eagles defense, I mean, if you look around, many places are going to list them as, yeah, they're going to be the best defense,

more than likely in football. But part of being the best defense also includes being the luckiest in terms of injuries. They just, they happen. And one key injury changes everything for how a defense functions and all of a sudden

that they can be more exploitative now the offense has to kick it into gear so while they there is a chance that they just dominate yet again I'm still good with A.J. Brown because he was so dominant and he just was basically took second halfs off.

Last year just for I think this is kind of interesting to look at when we talk through the top 10 last year AJ Brown was the wide receiver six off the board and Drake London was the wide receiver 11 off the board going into the 2024 season. This year, London is being drafted as the wide receiver 9. A.J. Brown is the wide receiver 10 on sleeper. But both of them true alphas. At 8,

it's Brian Thomas Jr. He finished as wide receiver. Number eight. Four, there it is. There it is. Oh, man. Oh, man. Hosting is hard. You know what? it was. It was yesterday. I actually went looking for numbers. And then I remember we don't got, like, we don't got the budget for numbers

20, 19, 18. Right. Well, come on. Anything above 10, we can't afford that. So I got really used to just cruising. And thank you, Al, for I got you. For taking care of that. That's going to happen more and more the rest of this show. I was talking about Brian

Thomas Jr. You know, he's not even 23 years old. It was an incredible rookie season. I am the lowest of the three of us. I don't know why exactly. I mean, it's how the stats ended up, right? Like part of the process, if you're new to the show,

if you're coming back for, you know, the first time in a while, we talk about this. We go out, we project players. And sometimes the stats surprise you and players end up differently than where you thought they'd be or where you would have wanted them to be in terms of the rankings. And that's why we have risk ratings and upside ratings because players have to go in a certain order,

but, you know, when you're drafting, maybe you're looking for an upside player because you've got a safe player. Maybe you're looking for risk aversion because you've got a risky player already. So those things have to differentiate for you. For some reason, when I looked at Jacksonville, I just didn't get to where he finished last year. He was very, very productive in a time when Trevor Lawrence wasn't on the field, in a time when Kirk and Ingram were not available for them. I don't, oh, I'm not trying to over-emphasize that.

I think Travis Hunter is going to play a ton of offensive snaps. I think the latest number from Liam Cohen that he kind of threw out there to Rich Eisen was 80% of the offensive snaps. I mean, Brian Thomas is an alpha. Brian Thomas is dominant. Liam Cohen, somebody that you should be able to trust. Yeah. I just thought he really, like, it has happened before where that rookie season is kind of like the peak. Or the biggest, you know, your kind of most boomed season.

And 10 touchdowns, it's a lot. When I'm looking at Brian Thomas, you know, I think there's a couple narratives of which direction are you going to go with him as a player, not on the field. Like, watch him play. He, he's that dude. But the, you know, like the couple guys being missing at the end of the year, I don't want to Ammon Ra this situation of when you see talent truly on the field. But I think, Andy, where your feelings can really come into play is the first, you know, the first nine weeks, that's true. Trevor Lawrence. And in that time, Brian Thomas is good. Like he was, he were all like massively outplayed his ADP. You know, he gave you three top 10 games in that time. But it's a 20%

target share in that time with Trevor Lawrence. And then Mac Jones comes in and it goes up to 32. This is not a, oh, hey, Mac Jones is just, was feeding the number one guy a little bit more than Trevor Lawrence. That is a substantial difference between the two of them. So will it... Mac Jones figured out how to look like a good quarterback. Yeah. It just throw to Brian Thomas. Exactly. So can Trevor Lawrence actually look like a good quarterback? Trevor Lawrence is the only issue that I have here with Brian Thomas Jr. But I don't think Trevor Lawrence is so bad as a quarterback that he can't support Brian Thomas being a true alpha. He was a late transition to wide receiver in his...

NFL career. That was like why, you know, he only had one big breakout year in college and people were worried, you know, does he have the skills? When you watched this guy last year, sometimes we just forget how good he was. He was great at the line of scrimmage. The screen game, unbelievable. Middle of the field, just outstanding. So much separation. Deep bombs, like all three levels of the field, he was awesome. And Red Zone. Yeah. So I feel like this is a young guy, obviously. Maybe he, maybe the wide receiver four finished with double digit touchdowns as a rookie. Maybe that's the highest he ever finishes.

Regardless, he finished as the wide receiver four as a rookie. They did get rid of Christian Kurt. I don't want to take anything away from him. I would say that I just didn't end up as high as I thought he would. Of the top 10 wide receivers who are the 10 we're talking about today in my personal rankings, he is the scariest. I could see how it goes

wrong if Trevor Lawrence isn't that great or if Travis Hunter really eats into it. But I'm not going to overthink a young, unbelievably talented wide receiver who just looked special on every row, on every play. Watching him and Neighbors play last year was amazing. Speaking of which number seven. Uh-huh, got it. Malik Neighbors comes in at number seven, which is where he finished last year in just 15 games played. He was the entire Giants passing offense, 170 targets, despite missing the two games. The previous rookie record was 147. So it was, it was like From the jump, we're just going to throw it to that guy on every single play.

And I'm very confident Malik Neighbors was disappointed that he only had 170 targets. I guess I'd be curious where you guys have him projected target-wise, not percentage, but totals, for 2025. Let's pull that up. So he was at 170 last year. I've got him at 168 this year. Really? I have him at 168 targets this year. I still got, I got him more.

I got him 176. Because he did that in, what, 15 games? Correct. So, again, this is a very similar situation to Brian Thomas, a little bit of trepidation around quarterback, offense performance, but trying not to overthink the skill and the talent and the fact that this was one of the most dominant rookie performances in history.

He was out wide, 73% of the time, 27% of the time in the slot. We like that. I like a split. You got to move it around. You got to move your star around, give them opportunities. Cardinals, please, please give the ball to Marvin. The Giants were trailing or tied on 90% of every route that Malik neighbors ran. That's nice.

I brought it up. I do think that the, like if the season goes well for the Giants, it's on the back of a defense that is playing really well in a running game that can slow down the pace of play. So that would be my only, you know, And do we get Russ for a while, Winston for a while, DART for a while? Those things are really subject to team record a lot of the times, right? Like, how are you playing?

They have a brutal start to the season. Yeah, to remind everyone, we open on the road against Washington, then on the road against Dallas. Oh, both on the road. Very nice. Then Kansas City and then the Chargers. I mean, perhaps Dallas is as stinky, Andy, as you feel like they could be. but this is looking very much like an 0-and-4 start for the Giants. Yeah, they're...

Bring me, James. Yeah, maybe they win... Bring him to me! Maybe they win the Dallas game. Their defense is very good. Their front four is very good. Oh, if they're 0-N-4, Jamis, week five, at New Orleans, revenge game, oh, baby. Jason, you might as well get a James tattoo the way you love that guy.

You haven't seen my back. Thank goodness for that. So, yeah, it's a tough schedule. It'd be hard not to think a quarterback change could happen at some point in the first six, eight weeks of the season. I mean, heck, you could have a head coaching change if it went wrong. But again, I think they're building this team to be a dominant defense. I don't see how he fails, barring injury. The toe is a concern.

I think if the Giants surprise and are better, you know, then he got. more touchdowns than we expect. Maybe not quite the volume. If they have to keep up with, you know, losing games, he's going to be a target share that, you know, he's going to be approaching 200 targets. There's no one else to throw the ball. Can he finish top three? Absolutely. Okay. Can he finish number one? I doubt it. No. Number six. Nico Collins comes in at number six. Last year, it was tough in Houston with C.J. Stroud kind of regressing a little bit. The team having injuries. Nikko missed five games. But if you look at that breakout campaign in 2023 and you look at last year, it's the same Nico call. It's same points per game.

And torching guys on a regular basis. Had some big place called back, I remember. Yep. And he was, he was on fire. 19 fancy points a game through the first month last year. You know, Nico's that dude. I mean, he's a bona fide number one. I think he could finish as I think you can finish number one, absolutely. It's just a quarterback issue for Malik neighbors. In order to be the one, you have to usually lap the field. You're a couple points higher. The touchdowns came, and they could come here with C.J. Stroud.

Yeah, and you don't have digs. You don't have Tank Dell. Right now, the depth chart shows Jaden Higgins is the wide receiver, too, as a starter. Who we like is a sleeper. We do, but I think, you know, it's very obvious that, like, Nico is that dude for this team, and he's being drafted right in between. Malik neighbors in Brian Thomas right now, like in

on Sleeper. So, you know, you got to look at him as a you know, wide receiver 7 feels fine as a draft price to me. We all got him a spot or two higher. Mike, you've got him the highest. Yeah, I just, I love me some Nico Collins. You know, he, the dig route seems

just unstoppable. You know, I mean, he is, he's on this archetype of a later breakout then. than Mike Evans. Evans was immediate, but it's like they remind me of playstyle of each other. Obviously, Nico, I'm talking about the younger version of Mike Evans. And so he, if things are rolling, he can be in a truly unstoppable force and he will be force-fed targets. I think the Christian Kirk being on this team is that it's, it's good. It's good for the Houston Texans.

Christian Kirk is a valuable wide receiver. He may, we may be past the times of Kirk bringing up. us fantasy relevance, but he certainly helps Houston, which is going to help our guy, Nico, get those touchdowns. All right, we will take a quick break here, and then we will count down our top five. All right, one of the best ways to count down the top five is by saying the number. Number five.

And there it is, number five. Amun Rau St. Brown. You get to these top tier. guys there's not a lot to say about them unless you want to listen to a show where guys just say these guys he plays good football but amin rae mike i mean i guess one of the surprises is you have him uh at eight buried yeah he he is truly fluctuating around uh my rankings right now he it's just like you for andy for for brian thomas like man i gave amman rah the numbers and he just ended up a little bit lower than than i wanted to but

but Amunrah is a dog. Things have improved for him pretty much every year. You know, when he started out, he was a slot merchant and that the percentage of slot routes and fully out wide, like that number just keeps getting more and more balanced. We talked about Jamison Williams of what could go wrong for him, and it's all the defense is really healthy this year, where they weren't over the second half.

So that's where Let me ask you this That's where I am Laporta obviously double-digit touchdowns as a rookie Jameson Williams You talked about him yesterday I like him as a breakout

You got two talented You know running backs One that's basically a wide receiver Mm-hmm Do you look at Do you see this offense Like if Jameson Williams had a breakout season

Does it come at Yes The cost of Alman Raw in any regard I believe so yes It definitely would because James and Williams' type of a breakout season are drive-enders. You know what I mean? Those are he has a 60-yard touchdown.

He has a 50-yard touchdown. He's a handful of games. He has a 70-yard touchdown. Yeah, I could do this forever. But those are drive-enders. They put the team up and with their running game and their two running backs. You know, that would definitely come at the expense. You're not going to have Amin-Raw be the wide receiver three for the third year in a row

while James and Williams has a breakout. I don't think that would be true. One thing that has been wonderful about Mr. Alman Ross St. Brown, 6% Bustery, which was tied for the best among all wide receivers. You put them out there. You get production. You can feel really safe.

He moves the chains. The offense is good. So safe. You feel so safe. He's 70% of his games at half PPR over the 10.5 point threshold. He's just as reliable as it comes. when you're talking about a guy who is going to catch over a hundred passes, almost guaranteed,

there's really no risk here. And now around the red zone, his red zone usage has been great, back-to-back, double-digit touchdown years. He's just, you know, can he be the wide receiver one? I don't think so. Probably not. And it feels like people have been slow to accept them as their one on a fantasy team. I think that's happened year over year.

Like he has been that guy, he's been completely worthy of it. But every step of the way, even his draft capital for the NFL, it's like, We're going to doubt that this guy can go out there and dominate to the level that he does, but he's just, it's kind of a force of, you know, his will on the field. It's outstanding. All right. This one's more scary right now. Number four. Pooka Nakua comes in at number four. He's in that wide receiver prime, 24 years old. 23, 24, 25. Those are the prime years for wide receiver production in fantasy. We've got him at four. He finished at four in 2023 as a rookie, which was unbelievable. Last year, the injuries held him back, but his points per game, they were better.

He was so good. I think injuries are a little bit of the story with Puganakua. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing. Like, if it was just a blip on the radar. Well, he's had him going back like his entire career. Ironically, his rookie season, he played all 17 games, but he tends to come out. His play style is he's too much dog in him. I mean like

I've got to turn it down a little bit here turn it down a little he will lay out for any ball he will crush into people he is he plays fearless and I just wish maybe have a little bit of fear yeah you talked about it

in um you know last year it was that busted bursa yeah the bursa sack the bursa sack yeah cost him six games but you you talked about 2023 the rookie year he had knee swelling shoulder bruise sprained shoulder

hip soreness on injury reports for all four of those things. Never missed a game. Yeah, 17 play. But he puts his body on the line for sure, which And then you have the risk of Matthew Staff. Yes. That is probably the bigger injury risk to me. So, you know, if Matthew Stafford's there and he plays 17, you're talking about a guy that could

absolutely finish number one overall. He's right in that prime range to do so. It's rare to have you know, the same guy repeat at wide receiver year after year. So Pooka's in that category. I can tell you, having had him on a roster for most of the last two years, it is a great time. This is a player who is not only consistent like Amin Rae St. Brown, but can actually go out there and have, you know,

weak winning performances where, you know, he's just got so many targets, so consistent. I love every single thing about him. And when you've got a quarterback like Matthew Stafford, when he's out there and he's healthy, he is not afraid to go. and, I mean, he made Cooper Cup the triple crown. He is fine to go out and take his guy.

And even though you've got Devante Adams here, Puka is the number one target. Puka is Stafford's guy. How do we get Puka more touchdowns? Yeah, I would say that's the one thing that stands out to me is the touchdowns. It's like if the volume wasn't to the- Nine touchdowns in 28 games? No problem. That doesn't bother me at all.

Touchdowns, I mean. Fathers me a little. I mean, with Devante Adams, who is a touchdown savant. My point is we've seen. two years of this NFL wide receiver. At the end of his eight year, nine, ten year career, whatever it is, you're

going to have double digit touchdown seasons from this good of a player. You always have that. Even these guys who don't score a bunch of touchdowns throughout, you're saying Julio didn't have double digit touchdown seasons? I'm saying Julio, that was the story every single year of his career. We were sitting there going like, why does Matt Ryan not find

Julio Jones? Right. No, it was very, very frustrating. But he had a double digit touchdown season. He had seasons with eight eight eight three times so four four different seasons he had this is the guy that you're bringing up double digit touchdowns one time in 12 years though i was just saying that was the refrain with hulio is that sometimes players he's a hall of fame don't do that hall of fame wide receiver is one one time and that was the frustration year in and year out it's not that puka can't i'm not saying he can't i'm saying sometimes it just doesn't come to certain wide receivers and if i wanted

to predict a situation where it would be harder for it to come it would be a situation where Kyron is that good on the goal line, and Devante Adams is double-digit every year for the last five years. My point being, if Stafford misses time and you don't get the volume to Puka, you're not going to get the touchdowns from Grapolo to Pooca. And so then that's the negative case. Now, staring down the Stafford decision, what I wanted to ask you is if you were actually in a draft and you're looking at Puka and Nico Collins, even though you have them Puka ranked higher right now this moment, if you had to draft today, you don't get more information on Stafford. are you pulling the trigger on Puka for the upside or are you just going to go away from the risk? I think right this second with what we know

and with Stafford being currently not available to play, I would take Nico Collins and Alman Ross St. Brown over Pucca. Something we didn't bring up for Nico. Four years in the league, four years, not playing a complete season for Nico Collins. 14 games, rookie year, 10, the next, 15, 12. It's worth mentioning. So, I mean, like, where...

The injury differential. Pooka, the guy who were like, man, this guy gets hurt. He has a, his rookie year played every game. Yeah, I wonder. Yeah, that's a good point. I would take, I would take Nico, but I already have Nico ranked higher.

All right. Let's get to the big guys. Number three. You can just list them all real quick. Yeah. Well, no, I actually have a, I think it's a conversation about C.D. Lamb. Okay.

because we know how good it can be because he was the number one overall wide receiver he was averaging almost 20 points a game the year before 14.6 finished at wide receiver 6 last year 14.2, DAC missed time but you know the truth is when DAC played and we brought this up on the quarterback show like the most recent sample we have of DAC and CD

wasn't as good as it was in 2023 the line wasn't as not as good as that ending correct well yeah i mean almost the whole year i think it was week four in that year that they turned it on but what i'm saying is is like dac wasn't that good in that six seven games he was active fantasy wise cd was a disappointment i remember this i had him he was a keeper for me last year i had him to start the year i was disappointed big time i mean you started off he came off a number one overall year and you ended up you know wide receiver 24 15 51 he had a good week 41 24 that was not when you draft the guy number one overall which

is what C.D. Lamb was worthy of being picked. I was a little bum. So, you know, I don't think that the 2023 should be the, like, the standard, 19.7 points for game. No, that seems like a very special year. That's pretty outrageous. But we've all got them at three. We know what this guy's. No, no, we don't. Oh, Jason has a bit two. Thank you. Okay. Yep. Just wanted to mention. No, I, I mean, I think C.D. Lamb has as high a chance as

anyone to be the wide receiver one overall. He is a dominant alpha wide receiver for a team in the Cowboys that, especially if they don't have Micah Parsons, please go away, Micah Parsons. They're going to have to throw the ball more. They can't run the ball. And Pickens doesn't scare me taking coverage away. CEDES, you know, target market share is going to be tremendously high. And so, yeah, I mean, I recognize that at the beginning of last year, it was a slower start

for C.D. Lamb and for Dak Prescott when Dak was healthy, but the previous year. C.D. is still in A. Yeah. Over that time and he had to play with Cooper Rush from week 10 out, which he still had multiple double digit points scored and remember his

like the shoulder or I remember if it's called him his shoulder, but every single time C.D. Lamb hit the ground. He would lay there momentarily and get up and you can see that this guy is not okay. and if Dak gets injured, he gets a quarterback upgrade.

Oh, my gosh. Joe Milton's that dude. No, Joe Milton, the third. No. He's that dude. No. No. I will not.

No. Not on this show. I don't know what drop to hit. No. I got you. There's a loser drop. No. There's only one.

No. He's got him in dynasty, Mike. He hasn't a dynasty. Okay. That all makes sense now. Why do I have? Joe Milton is an exciting quarterback. He tried to get me to trade him a remandre for Joe Milton.

He would be, so he's not, okay, if you're trying to get crap remandre for this great quarterback, you don't actually believe that. No, no. Get out of here. He's fluffing. I do not. Number two. Justin Jefferson comes in at number two.

Number one. Jamar Chase comes in at number one. Is there a storyline here to talk about? I mean, Justin Jefferson. And certainly, I mean, currently dealing with a hamstring, you've got a change at quarterback coming in with, you know, McCarthy. Is he going to be good enough to support? And I mean, that's the story. The story was answered with those type of questions minus the hamstring issue last year. It's like, oh, Sam Darnold coming in. I didn't believe Sam Darnold was going to be good enough. Does that mean we're, are we putting a reverse jinx here? Because we're so out on Darnold and now we're in on J.J. McCarthy. It's possible. It's possible.

Well, I mean, based on the last refresh of my Twitter feed, McCarthy has been released by the Vikings for poor performance. Wait, hold on. Let me refresh again. Big, great pass. Oh, dominating. Yeah. Jamar Chase finished at number one last year. I am having Kyle dig into the last time we got a repeat number one overall. It was probably Antonio Brown.

It doesn't happen very often. So, you know, it's the reality. reality, Jamar Chase is the best bet to do it. That's why you draft him where you draft him. But I think Jefferson is in that category too. It's just a borough confidence versus a McCarthy confidence. And last year, you know, it would

Tyreek was the number one pick. Yep. And I bring that up for, you're like, hey, could, like, what could go wrong here for Jamar Chase? Well, Tyreek Hill was already older. And like, Jamar Chase, we listed the ages of the prime to be a fantasy football superstar, and Jamar Chase is right in it.

So maybe it's not number one for Jamar Chase, but your best chance of having a top three fantasy wide receiver is Jamar Chase. Yeah, the last repeat was 2014, 2015, Antonio Brown. So it's been a minute. Been 10 years, yeah. One thing I did want to mention, too, is I think we talked out before.

Man, I'm looking at this. Like, C.D. Lamb, they go on the road to play the Philly defense. Then they play the Giants defense. then they play on the road against Chicago's defense then they play Green Bay's defense so that first four weeks if it's slow we know a slow start does not stop CD from dominating

from DAC or DAC from dominating either but both of those guys could look a little if CD gets off to a really bad first month I will be trading for him everywhere I can yeah I mean and it kind of like you said it happened last year it started slow for CD he was a wide receiver 11

through the first four weeks then through the first nine he ends up as the wider receiver four in that over that span so uh we've got a mock draft episode tomorrow we got rb rankings episodes on the horizon top 10 tips and tricks jason's trying to figure out is my guys yeah i've got a couple locked in it's a couple are you locked i got at least one locked in oh man do you know are you sweating at all uh i unlocked them i have the key so So my guy's episode comes up next week as well. So very, very exciting.

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That'll do it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. us. Preseason football? Preseason football? Yeah. Tonight should be fun. I'll be watching. Goodbye.

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