Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - WR Rankings Countdown: 20-11 - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/3

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

The countdown begins! We dive into WR rankings on today’s fantasy football podcast! Who is the biggest risk/reward player of the 2023 season? Find out which players Andy, Mike, and Jason disagree on the most! Plus, NFL News and a new edition of Best Ball Breakdown! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for August 3rd, 2023. Dive into the 2023 Ultimate Draft Kit + Draft Analyzer! UltimateDraftKit.com Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. Visit https://underdogfantasy.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's backup football time. Oh, no. You know what? I'm happy you did that. I can't give it the full one. Because you don't want to lose that for actual kickoff, right?

It doesn't deserve it. It's not actually. Just rolls off the tongue, though, right? Yeah. It's backup football time. It's kind of football time. Now, keep in mind, last year we saw superstar sensation Josh Jacobs dominate lead into the Hall of Fame game.

I hear you loud and clear. Zach Wilson, move him up. That's what he said. Yeah, Zach Wilson starts tonight. That's good football. Or, I mean, good TV. Are you not rooting for him? Zach Wilson? No, no, no, no, no. Let me ask you this as we,

as we kick off today's episode, I root for 99% of players. Zach Wilson has just, he pushed himself into a 1% where I'm like, nah, we do have football tonight. It is backup football. It is the hall of fame game. And we're so hungry for it that we'll probably watch it and then be reminded of how bad it is. We'll peek in. But, you know, it'll be fun to have football on the television. I was going to ask this because it's Jets-Browns tonight. And we've got a big show today, by the way. We've got news.

We've got the wide receiver rankings countdown. We've got best ball breakdown. And we'll be with you today tomorrow every weekday through the end of the season let me ask you this about the jets because um you know we we have been uh jovial about some of the habits of their new quarterback aaron rogers whogers, who I don't feel guilty about that because he puts himself out there in lots of different ways. He's a unique fella. And yet, I have been very impressed with Aaron Rodgers recently.

In particular, his comments defending Nathaniel Hackett, who's considered his favorite coach historically that he's ever worked with. Is that what he said? Yes. I believe he said one of his favorites. One of, okay. And he defended him because Sean Payton kind of broke the code and came out and openly criticized Nathaniel Hackett. And the comments that I saw from Rodgers on that i thought were leadership comments and then all the reports from camp all the tape very very um welcoming

to zach wilson very very much working with him to you know he didn't get that from brett farve in green bay right and there is a torch to be passed here, even though the Joe— He didn't give it to Jordan Love. Yeah. Correct. So what I'm saying is he's turning over a new leaf in these gray beard days that I think I'm impressed with. I think he's been a great leader for the Jets,

and I am very optimistic about the Jets' chances this year. I really am. Yeah. I mean, the situation is just backwards. It's different. He's the replacement. He's coming in to replace who was the starter versus them drafting someone to replace him.

So you would expect him to have a better attitude in this situation. Well, I would hope. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm just saying we would expect that of humanity. Like, you would say, oh, he should come in and be a leader. And just to play devil's advocate here, because we're all bullish on the Jets, their prospects, their fantasy players, we're sure that a Nathaniel Hackett partially run team

trading for a Hall of Fame-level quarterback for a team that looked like they're a quarterback away from making a Super 1. We're sure it's going to work this time. This would be a bit of a... Because we've been here. A bit of a Russell Wilson-Broncos situation. Correct.

Yeah, I feel feel man a really good and a really good defense where you barely need anything out of the offense at all and he's not the heck it's not the head coach i have more confidence in in sala but there are many many parallels to what is happening for the jets that we went through with the broncos and what's really funny is one of my things to remember was that when quarterbacks have lost it, players that have lost it, they don't get it back. Russ didn't look great, and then it was like,

I don't think he's going to get better necessarily. And Rodgers wasn't that great last year. And I know we blame the Devonta Adams. I blame the broken hand, too. I mean, that didn't help. Maybe he's, I mean, we'll see. Yeah. I've got my thoughts on them.

I was not in on Denver for the record last year. So I have a right to be in on one of these. That is accurate. I made money betting against their wind total last year. It was delightful. Like I said, wide receiver ranking show today. Mike mentioned it at the top, the ultimate draft kit available right now being updated every day. We made tweaks based off the Cooper Cup news recently.

I tweeted something very early this morning. I've been up way too long today. But sometimes there are things you do in your life that you do just because you got to do them. And they don't bring you joy. You got to pay your taxes. You got to do them. And they don't bring you joy. You got to pay your taxes, right? You got to do the chores around the house. Well, Wesley Snipes disagrees, but... That's true.

And Richard Hatch. It's a good old tax fraud joke. Yeah, really. It goes with the computer jokes. But the third one is if I... That doesn't bring me joy, but you have to do it sometimes. It's bumping up Najee Harris

and Alexander Madison in my rankings. Well, well, well. And this morning, Najee Harris got a little bump. All right. Just out of researching the Steelers camp, dependency on the run, just giving them a little bit more volume, maybe a little more effectiveness. Not something I enjoy doing, but I'm willing to do it.

Okay. For the good of the foot clan. That's a. Okay. For the good of the foot clan. That's a big man. The foot big man over here. Just saying the tweaks are happening every single day. Uh, the community is joined the foot.com that gets you access to our premium discord server where you can find foot can't foot clan leagues,

uh, to join. This is the time to jump into leagues. People always looking for new players. And then if you, uh, are starting the league and you're looking for someone to join, that's a great place to go. You can find an extra episode

of the show every week and a lot of premium perks that will go on to the regular season. That's all at jointhefoot.com as well. Let's jump into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. All right. Jets-Browns tonight. Few pieces of news or hype or speculation we can talk about. Another reiteration by John Harbaugh. He doesn't know when J.K. Dobbins is going to return to the team.

All of the language around this is kind of, it almost feels like John Harbaugh, obviously, he's not involved in the broad negotiations. So it's like they're just talking. You can tell he's disappointed. Mike, you tweeted yesterday about Gus Edwards. Yeah, we need to be paying attention. We're starting to get into that time.

I know Melvin Gordon is there. I think Melvin Gordon is kind of past his moment. And yeah, there was certainly Gus Edwards' hope and hype last year. I think it worked out for a game. But Gus Edwards was also recovering from his own injury, just like J.K. Davids. Beep, beep. But Gus Edwards looks like he's healthy. he looks like he's ready to go and to me how many legs does he have he's got two working legs got it

as far as i can tell all right but to me it seems like if jk is to actually take this to the next level gus edwards would be the next person up. And the excitement for the Ravens, it would carry over to Gus Edwards. So I think that he is someone who, if you're in a deeper league, he should be on your radar as just a stash on a big bench. We also talked yesterday, Jason, you brought up the fact that, historically, you're not buying injury dips in players. And Matthew Best talked about the fact that players that get injured in camp, they don't generally meet their ADP value.

And Mike also tweeted yesterday about the tight end situation, which has been very valuable historically in Dallas with the schoonman. Yeah. Who we all want to see succeed. He's hurt. Yes. And, you know, when you look at opportunities there maybe you need to pay more attention to jake ferguson and deeper leagues um dalton schultz was not a name we knew

until we knew it right the involvement uh dac throwing to that position very important yeah and ferguson's been pretty good in camp uh last i saw the last practice report i read he had two touchdowns uh ferguson did so yeah it's definitely a name if you're uh playing on underdog you know where you're rolling three tight ends deep i've got ferguson on a lot of leagues espn uh more speculation around the baltimore wide receivers just just the dumbest speculation yeah i'm not i it's just mike brought up zay flowers yesterday said flowers and beckham are solidifying themselves but bateman's still in the pup so yeah but i mean it's still true

right you still you get more reps more playing time you we just talked about injuries in the preseason yeah there was you know it there was some puff pieces coming about uh out about nelson agalor so it was like yeah he was just kind of floating there in the mist of like, oh, I love Zay Flowers, but what happens if all of a sudden Aguilar is the starting wide receiver with Odell Beckham? As of right now, it does not seem that way. And then the last piece of news, and I didn't get to see the clip,

but Commander's head coach Ron Rivera himself said, don't sleep on Jacoby Brissett when asking about the team's quarterback competition. It seems like a weird comment. I didn't get to see it, like I said. The pre-concession. Yeah. So when he puts Brissett in, he's just, I told you. I mean, I told you not to sleep on this guy.

What do you want to happen? Oh, that's easy. I want Sam Howell to be the starter and start 17 games. But I want to own a football team as well. So there's a lot of things in life that you really want, and you're just not going to get them. But I like Sam Howell. I really liked some of what he did in college and i'm happy he's

going to get the opportunity i'm sad that his opportunity is coming without uh investment in him and the obligation to let him play through bad moments because i think i think he could develop into a good quarterback if he was given the rope but I mean this is just proof right here like he has no rope none we don't play well don't sleep on Jacoby it's it's gonna I mean there's no chance that both of these quarterbacks don't play this year well and I think he infers here that Jacoby Reset may win the job from the onset that's yes what he's saying and so Jacoby's good I think I'm at the point now with Terry McLaurin where I want I want a known commodity that I don't have to say in my head what if he gets somebody better than this

because he's never gotten it so to me I think I'm rooting for Jacoby because of what he provided for um Amari Cooper last year which was great Like Amari Cooper was a big surprise. Nobody expected the kind of season from him, and Jacoby was the fuel to that. So I think I might be rooting for the – because Sam Hill could go the other direction. Oh, for sure. You could wash out four weeks of the season, Terry McClure not producing, and then you're like, oh, now we're going to make the switch.

So you're just saying you want the first half of the year to to be better and not the second half of the year i guess yes that is what i am saying because there will be a change i i am getting news from coach rivera saying don't sleep on jake from really yeah they're just they're covering all aspects of the quarterback position yeah because jake Jake Fromm is apparently the third-string quarterback for the Commanders. Right, which you can go from third to first pretty quick there. That was today's News and Notes brought to you by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

It is time, gentlemen, to jump in to our rankings episodes. Wide receivers. All right. Today we begin the wide receiver rankings countdown. And we begin at number 20 with DJ more, a reminder, all the tiered rankings, customizable scoring,

printable cheat sheets, the mobile app, all the changes to the rankings. You can find them all at ultimatedraftkit.com. DJ Moore, here we are again. He is a mainstay on the 11 through 20 episode of the wide receiver rankings. Yeah, he lives here. 26 years old, a brand new member of the wide receiver rankings yeah he lives here 26 years old a brand new

member of the chicago bears i believe i read recently that uh justin fields in terms of the mvp betting market has more money placed down on him to win mv I believe Allen and Mahomes and Hurts combined it it makes sense because his his odds are going to be they're a much much larger payout and it's like that it's it's Lamar the Lamar Jackson effect of like seeing what he could do rushing wise and if the passing takes the next step like freaky stuff happens I would say it's the Jalen Hurts. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, last year, more money was placed on Hurts. So the reason I brought it up is simply, Jason, that the expectation is there publicly for a big step forward for Justin Fields.

We spent an offseason, you telling me Jalen Hurts is going to throw the ball more, us looking historical. Historical wasn't prescriptive for Jalen Hurts. What was prescriptive was the addition of a huge wide receiver to that offense that changed what they were capable of doing this offense has DJ Moore now so are could could people be sleeping on a top 12 wide receiver and DJ Moore this season yeah I think that is possible I've risen on DJ Moore this season. Yeah, I think that is possible. I've risen on DJ Moore and you're right to bring up Fields. Fields is the entirety of whether or not DJ Moore has a good

season. And it's not a matter of, will they let him throw more? It's just, is he going to level up? Do you believe that Justin Fields is a good thrower of the football? Because that's what's going to matter for DJ Moore. And I have started to believe, yeah, I mean, we've seen it, right? We've seen it several times here. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, these guys who have that dual threat ability who level up their passing to a level that's like, oh, yeah, this is really good for their fantasy assets.

You know, Diggs is great and great. And AJ Brown is great. So can DJ more actually succeed to a level he hasn't yet? Absolutely. I believe that that really can happen, but it is entirely on the basis of whether or not fields can level up pre NFL draft. I believed fields was a very good passer. And so I, I've, I think I need to put my money where my mouth is with regards to DJ Moore and believe that it will be good for him we've had and it's something to be said about how good DJ Moore really is I mean we've had Diggs moving teams successful Hopkins moving teams successful Tyreek Hill last year more yards more receptions than ever in Kansas City switching teams.

Confidence in Tua wasn't there. Confidence in Josh Allen wasn't there. A.J. Brown, switching teams, very successful. So is D.J. Moore on that level? His fantasy finishes the last four years, 18-22, 19-22. This is the guy that gets the middle management job, and then they're like, do you want a promotion? He's like, I'm good. I'm good 18-22.

Yeah, he's always been very inconsistent and we've we've desired him to get a better quarterback we've blamed the quarterback uh but we're gonna find out I think this year whether it's just this is who DJ Moore is and he disappears sometimes he's a C in our consistency grade about 40 percent of the time giving you a really good fantasy game and that's not going to get it done so even though he finishes as a wide receiver two every year you've been really unhappy with how it comes about it's not like a consistent producer on your on your roster even though he finishes as a wide receiver two you want to hear just a tiny little perhaps serendipitous situation here. Currently, DJ Moore is the wide receiver 23.

In the year 2020, when Stephon Diggs changed teams to the Buffalo Bills, he was in fact ADP, the wide receiver 23. Okay, and this is the Mike Wright redemption tour with with madison and more and gibson and just saying like stefan digs p ryan stefan digs was because of josh allen which like at the time absolutely made sense because you didn't see josh allen taking a historic bump up as a as a passer but stefan digs the the adp was the was the risk was baked into the ADP, and the risk is baked in here for DJ Moore. Wide receiver, 23, fifth-round pick.

I would take him there. I think the upside is worth it. I think DJ Moore is an elite wide receiver. I really believe that. It's been opportunity in quarterback play. I think I would be saying the same thing about Terry McLaurin having a new opportunity someplace else. So is it scary? Oh, yeah. I mean, very scary. They had two total games where a wide receiver was over 12 fantasy points last year. So that's not great. No, that's not great, but they also had no wide receivers last year.

They lost Mooney, and they didn't have other talent on the roster. When did they lose Mooney, though? Felt like really early. I mean, he played 12 weeks. So I think it's still notable that poor Mooney couldn't even get over 12 fantasy points. But you're right. I I mean it is a risk if they don't pass more we will be disappointed yeah but at the very least if they don't pass

more you know he's going to be the number one read he's going to have a high target share and so the I think the floor here is basically what you've had the last few years which is okay it's not you know I said you've been disappointed with DJ Moore because you wanted more and got less, but it's, you know, you're still going to end up with a wide receiver too. I don't think there's a world where he ends up outside the top 24 wide receivers. Well, what about this guy? Number 19, Calvin Ridley, wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars going ahead of DJ Moore right now.

The wide receiver 19 off the board. The average draft position, late fourth round. I got him at 17, Mike at 21, Jason at 24. This isn't fair. I was the first believer in Calvin Ridley, and now you guys have jumped my rankings. You jumped ship. I just haven't moved.

I've left him where he's been forever. Yeah, man, get with the program. Times change, dude. I'd rather be last than first in these rankings. All right, he hasn't played in the NFL in 700 days. There's that. He's got a cleat problem. I think that one's going to be under control.

But, look, Calvin Ridley seems like a huge risk-reward selection in this year's draft. I don't know if wide receiver... Do you think wide receiver 19 is the feasible outcome, or do you think this is going to be a he's much higher or much lower situation? Yeah, no, I would say that. I believe he is either going to be closer to wide receiver 1, or it's going to be a really balanced offense

where the target market share isn't there and Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram and Zay Jones are all involved and he's more like an inconsistent low-end wide receiver two. And so you're taking that gamble when you draft him as the wide receiver 19 in the fourth round and and part of that is what do you believe in Trevor Lawrence do you think he's going to level up to an MVP caliber player their division is very winnable they pretty much I feel like uh you know odds wise Vegas wise you know they've got a ticket to the playoffs right now.

So that only happens with Trevor Lawrence leveling up. Well, and he's got potential for 4,700 to 5,000 yards passing, which is something that the previous – like Justin Fields is not doing that. He's not touching that number. They also have a bunch of good players. Christian Kirk's good. Evan Ingram's good.

Zay Jones is good. But Calvin Ridley has the potential to be great. He has the potential to be, you know, it's like the routes we're watching in the preseason or in the training camp where you're like, you're a different speed than other people. You do different things with your body. You're a player that, and he's finished four overall before.

Yeah, I was going to run through that. As a rookie, wide receiver 20. Then he was the wide receiver 25 in only 13 of 16 games. Then he was the wide receiver four. Then Julio Jones leaves. And then, of course, Calvin Ridley deals with all of his mental health issues compounded then by the year-long suspension for gambling. So this is such an interesting experiment of, like, this is a player who has done it

before at an elite level, and yet we haven't seen him play football in basically two years. So does he still have it? I mean, probably. He probably does. And we have the proof that Trevor Lawrence can support a wide receiver one. Christian Kirk was that. It was kind of all like it felt it was stronger in the first half for Kirk. And then some more players started to get involved.

But you know that Trevorrence is a good passer could upgrade can support a wide receiver one so if this is i don't know is it what i don't know that's what it's gonna say you guys are a little bit behind his adp rankings because you are paying like a lot of the upside is baked into the cost right now i like him as a wide receiver too i would take him there in the late fourth round because the explosiveness, not being my number one wide receiver, I'd be happy with that. But is he on the cusp of being too expensive

with all the excitement? Yes, because you are, this projection here in the ADP, the market is saying, we know without a doubt, Kyle, can you pull up Christian Kirk's ADP for me? The ADP says that Christian Kirk is the two and that Calvin Ridley is the one.

Yeah, 6-12. So you have two full rounds here saying that Calvin Ridley is definitely the one. And we expect that, but you can't say for sure right now. So this is an extremely risky pick, but you can't say for sure right now. This is an extremely risky pick, but the reward we want high ceiling players. That's how you win. That's how you win a fantasy football championship.

I love him in basketball. I think that the risk of the back of the fourth is probably worth it. We're going to take a quick break. The first two wide receivers they're going to take their first snaps with a brand new team. The next guy we talk about might not have the quarterback he's used to. Back in a sec.

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All right, we're moving to number 18 in the wide receiver rankings. This is a player going in the late sixth round. Too low, in my opinion. This is a player drafted as the wide receiver 29, but he won't have his guy behind center. We're talking about Hollywood Brown. I have, I got to confess something to you. He has been a must pick for me in a lot of mock drafts this off season.

He is moving into maybe not a must pick category anymore. Oh, really? Yes. There is cold water being thrown on the once-magnificent fire that was Hollywood Brown. I know the talent of Hollywood Brown is there. I saw what he did without DeAndre Hopkins last year. But I also think he may play four, six, eight weeks

with some combination of Clayton Toon. Yeah, that's a player. Yeah, I heard sounds from Deuce or Sally. I'm pretty sure that Clayton Toon was like PFF's number one ranked passer last year. Thank you. Thank you. I think. Also, Colt McCoy, who Colt McCoy just celebrated.

Congratulations, his 50th birthday. And playing great at that age. Don't both of those sound like made-up names? Colt McCoy and Clayton Shue, like a quarterback on a TV show. Yeah, they were actually Wild West. Yeah, that is definitely a Western. This town ain't big enough for the both of us. No, why don't you both get out and let Kyler Murray play football?

But I don't think – I'm to the point where we were speculating on kyler status for a long time we're like i think he could be back week one i think he could be back week one i don't think he's back with one like i've i've made that decision now mentally and so because of that i i what am i getting out of the gate you know you want to start strong in fantasy am i am i running a risk you've got a bunch of other players involved there yeah no i mean you're you're you're not wrong the Kyler news we are in Arizona here I think that we would all say we're pretty confident Kyler is not going to be there week one earlier in the offseason the the trajectory and him even saying like he's trying to get ready for week one it seemed far more

possible and Marquise Hollywood Brown will be the number one target in the offense without Kyler so it's not going to be completely worthless if you look at for sure he had four games last year at the end of the season where he didn't have Kyler one of of those games, he was good. The other three, he was bad. That being said, then you have Hopkins to contend with as well, and you're not the one. So I think if you take the risk on Hollywood, it could pay off. I'm not out on Hollywood at his ADP. His ADP kind of has it baked in that Kyler is going to miss that time.

Yeah, wide receiver 29, that's way below. We all have him ahead of that. Yeah, I mean, let's say Kyler was healthy, okay? Let's just play the hypothetical game. Kyler never got injured. He's coming into this season. They did still trade Hopkins. What would Hollywood's outcome be like as though clear de

facto one for kyler murray where would he be drafted adp uh wide receiver 15 yeah 16 so if kyler comes back in week four and you have let's say the rest of the season, the wide receiver 15, and you're drafting about the wide receiver 30, is it worth taking a couple weeks of still a usable asset? It's not like you wouldn't be able to play Hollywood through those first couple weeks. Let me put some more context in here for you because fantasy football very often,

it's about how you start. That's how you then feel about players. So here's the Cardinals' opening schedule. It's not good. At Washington. With a not-Tyler. Yeah. I'm going to go all four of these games.

Let's say it's Colt McCoy. At Washington, it's not the worst. Not the best. The New York Giants. They were a playoff team. Their secondary, though, is beatable. But then is Dallas and on the road against San Francisco. Those are not, like, that's not a string of four games

where you're super pumped to have your wide receiver one against those teams. I'm nervous. I'm just more nervous than I was earlier. We've said, Jason, you've said you're staying away from Carolina wide receivers because you got a rookie quarterback there. You got worse than a rookie in Arizona. I mean, potentially. Bryce Young is going to be a better option, I think, than those two guys for the first four weeks. So it just makes me nervous.

It's a bumpier ride than we thought it would be, and I don't know if I want to go on the ride unless it's super, super cheap. You get into the seventh round, maybe he's just a depth piece, and you're waiting for Kyler to return, and that's okay. Yeah, if he's a bench piece, I think you're right. But looking, I pulled up the ADP just to see,

like, push comes to shove. I'm, you know know on the clock and there's guys behind him that I would rather have you know I would rather have Tyler Lockett being drafted behind him I agree so I won't be taking Hollywood over him uh Andy I know you like Mike Evans going behind him um and Deontay Johnson or uh Jordan Addison Jahan Dotson. There's some higher upside guys that you don't have the opening worries about. All right, at 17, we have the first wide receiver we're talking about today. That same team, same quarterback to start the season. Super good.

Super good. Super good quarterback. Super good quarterback. 24 years old. Last year's wide receiver, or sorry, this year, wide receiver 14 in ADP. Super good. Super good quarterback. Super good quarterback. 24 years old. Last year's wide receiver, or sorry, this year, wide receiver 14 in ADP, Devontae Smith, who helped Jason to a championship last year with his second half of the season ascension. Right now, I seem to still have a problem with wide receiver twos

based on my rankings because you guys have them at 13 and 15. I got them at 22 right now. I need to take a closer look at that where that relates to T. Higgins after our conversations yesterday. But you brought it up. If you want to find a reason why Devontae Smith might not be as effective, a healthy Dallas Goddard led to some lower outputs from him. Obviously, A.J. Brown is the alpha in the equation.

You're going to have some pass catchers in the backfield that they didn't have, DeAndre Swift. But I think the moral of the story is Devontae Smith is probably really his floor where he's ending up. I mean, 14 to 17, it seems hard to see him lower than that. As far as finishing the season? Yeah, as a fantasy finish outside of injury or some massive problem. I just don't like an injury that hurts or him.

I think he's around his floor. Well, the case against him is that a lot of his production came and it leveled up when Dallas Goddard was gone. And so the question is, is that the new normal? Is he going to receive that level of targets with Dallas Goddard healthy and on the field? He's obviously going into year three. He should just be getting better. positive uh narrative here is the eagles can't possibly cannot possibly play as few of snaps you know without trailing they were just always in the lead last year um i i don't have the tweet

in front of me but i know rich rebar showed the first half points from devonta smith versus the second half points and he was basically a top 10 wide receiver in the first half of games because he was just, they're throwing the ball. If the Eagles don't have as easy a time this season, and probably they won't just because everything changes year after year, I think Devonta Smith could be a top 12 wide receiver this season. Yeah, they have a turnover in offensive and defensive coordinator this year in Philadelphia.

They're going to play a tougher schedule, so maybe they're in more of those games. But Devonta Smith is just an elite player, and he's going to have lots of opportunities. So, Mike, what is the true – what's the peak finish for Devontae Smith? He was the widest year of five over the last – from week 10 on, but it's a smaller stretch. Sure.

Like, absolute ceiling, I'm in agreement with Jason, that I think A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith could both be top 12 wide receivers. They could be the pair that ends up there over the Cincinnati Bengals, having the two in the top 12. It was an interesting season of, like I said, how things start affects how you think about players so strongly, and it could not have started worse for Devonta Smith last year because he had, let me check my notes, zero points in week one against the Detroit Lions in a high-scoring game.

He had four targets, no catches. And I think that was a product of they got A.J. Brown and they were trying to figure things out because it bounced back in a really big way. And then you can look through just the box score. His down games, they tend to make sense. It's like against Houston. Yeah, that was a problem.

Wide receivers didn't do anything against Houston because they did not need to do anything. And he's an excellent player. We're heading into year three. I think that the Eagles have figured out how to use both of these wide receivers. So I don't have Smith ranked in my top 12 because I think that's the ceiling. I have him more of an average type of a finish. But I think he is a really solid addition despite the fact that he is the two on his team.

16, a player opposite in proportions in every way, shape, and form when compared to Devonta Smith. Seahawks wide receiver, 25 years old, third-round draft pick, D.K. Metcalf. D.K. Metcalf, we have quite a range in our individual rankings. He comes in at 15 for us, or I'm sorry, 16 for us, DK Metcalf. DK Metcalf, we have quite a range in our individual rankings. He comes in at 15 for us, or I'm sorry, 16 for us, but I am at 10, Jason at 15, Mike at 25. Yeah, I'm probably a bit low, but I'm more of the bear case, clearly. He's actually standing outside.

The bear? No. DK Metcalf heard about the ranking. Well, I would say be better. He couldn't get through that. Oh, man, say it to his face. I will. Say it to his face. I want to see it through a plexiglass.

He'll walk right through that. He'll blow it down. DK Metcalf, I've risen a lot on him. Andy has made strong arguments for him. The positive touchdown regression that should come for him um with the amount of red zone and end zone targets that he receives year after year after year and the fact that he usually has double digit touchdowns and then there's also the case that you know the start of seasons really really for players. You just brought it up with the bad start last year for Devonta Smith.

Do you guys know who the Seahawks play the first two weeks? Rams? The Rams? Okay, that's great. That's great. Maybe as good as it gets. Although there's probably one better, the Lions, which is the next week. So, obviously, that affects Tyler Lockett and JSN and Geno Smith.

I love Michael Keaton. Yeah, but DK Metcalf is someone who has that wide receiver one overall possibility. Yeah, you could see going into week three, and he's got four touchdowns on the stat sheet already. Could happen. Entering year five, prime territory for that alpha season. The touchdowns will come back to DK Metcalf. I want to be there when they do. I went back and watched, and I give credit to whoever posted it,

but somebody, it might have been Kyle, I don't remember, somebody posted every single one of the red zone targets from last year. And so it was fun to watch through those and say like, okay, that one he should have caught. Like he had some drops in there and then there were other, you know, bad passes or just, it just didn't quite work out. And if like three or four of those had, we wouldn't even be, he wouldn't be here.

That was, that was Kyle that posted it. I saw it as well. And I just did the counting I was like which one of those you know one of them he stepped on you added him up I mean mentally I just yeah oh he just stepped on the line he caught the ball but he was just like oh he's ruled out or whatever this one just a weird unusual drop in the end zone these weren't these were like he should have absolutely had four or five more touchdowns and you're right he wouldn't be drafted where he is right now if those had come last year uh at kyle underscore borg oh okay on twitter it's a

good follow so will the adp hold here and are you willing to draft him wider zero 15 where you have him ranked jason yeah third when when uh when i'm on the clock there, the only consideration where I don't sometimes take the shot on DK is I think the value is better on Tyler Lockett. And I will never draft both of those guys. So it kind of removes for me that seventh round layup pick. That's the only thing that's... But do you not... Let me put it this way. If Jackson Smith and Jigba is it what i mean and and let's

say lockett or metcalf are negatively impacted i've always kind of gone to the default and i guess adp has too that it would be lockett that would be suffering from that breakout obviously i'm saying if he's it like if JSN comes out and he's the number, he's like the one target. He's the guy getting a ton of PPR opportunities. Have you entertained the Lockett downside or is there none because the price is just so cheap? Yeah. You talk, okay, we're always looking at risk versus reward. You're not risking much. So it's reward versus very little risk, and it's worth taking. I don't see a world where JSN overtakes either one of the other two wide receivers positionally. So he's going to play the slot.

And maybe what happens is the Seahawks surprise us and run more 11 personnel. And they are in three wide receiver sets far more than they were last year and jsn just happens to become that first read and if that happens it's going to negatively affect both of the players not it's not going to like he's not going to overtake lockett or overtake metcalf and replace one of them yeah i mean lockett's a big play guy. Metcalf is a touchdown guy. So, yeah, I could see that. Number 15, it's T. Higgins. He's going, and I mentioned it yesterday. In fact, I'll shut up here in a second because I made a long,

drawn-out case to him being overvalued. I'm at 21. The ADP is the top of the third at wide receiver 12. I think it's too expensive. If you want to hear everything I said as to why, you can listen to Ice and Fire episode from yesterday. I just think everything has to go right for him to hit this ADP, and the odds of that are very low.

You guys gave rebuttals. I mean, you talked about the fact that a couple of his games he was injured, didn't play a lot of snaps, and you projected the other games. That's tough because you don't know if those two games that he came out injured and he's healthy in them, you don't know if they were duds or studs. And he has a lot of both. He has a lot of games where he wasn't that good. He has a lot of games where he was.

So it's hard to know what that outcome would have been. But, you know, he's going very going very very high he's going at wide receiver 12 he's going ahead of the guys we've talked to he's going ahead of Devante Smith yeah when when I like Devante Smith better but whenever you're looking at these wide receiver twos for their teams that are very very talented that are playing with good quarterbacks on good offenses, you basically are saying, I'm betting on a young, talented player with a great quarterback who's got a great offense. And that's usually a wise bet to make. So are you drafting him near his ceiling?

Potentially, yes. Now, not at all. If he has the baked in upside of should something happen to Jamar Chase, he could go nuclear. He would be the number one read for Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow is going to throw 4,535. So he does have a ceiling case as injury protection insurance for Jamar Chase, who has missed games already.

I mean, we brought up last year, oh, some of Higgins' big games were when Jamar Chase missed. Yeah, that could still happen again. And when they were both on the field, he was actually pretty consistent there too. So I don't have a problem just betting on Joe Burrow and the talent of T. Higgins. Clearly, no one has that problem

based on where he's being drafted. Right. I'm with Jason. It's a bet on the player, which I think Tee Higgins, on pretty much most other teams, would be the number one wide receiver. They just happen to have Jamar Chase, who's top three wide receiver in the NFL already. And it's a bet on the Cincinnati Bengals continuing to do what they did last year,

which was they let Joe Burrow go and cook and actually be the team. It was no longer the scared Zach Taylor, we're going to run, run, run, run, Joe Burrow bail us out type of an offense so he's just he is an extremely difficult player because I want him on my teams yeah he's very safe I'm not this is nothing about T Higgins being bad I just wish he was the wide receiver 18 and ADP that's it yes 18 I'd be I'd be cool with that I just I'm a little nervous about the price let's totally agree let's talk about a player now that has been rarely talked

about this offseason. We've had big debates on certain players, but this guy's ranked ahead of everybody we've talked about so far, and it's number 14, Omari Cooper. Still hanging with Mr. Cooper here. I've got him at 13, Jason at 17, Mike at 17 mike at 17

this is perfect ranking this is another thank you there's another example i like yours too 406 wide receiver 18 off the board a round and a half later than t higgins if deshaun watson is back to the form where he finished at what what, number five, three, four years in a row. Sure. It's a big if. It's a little if. It's a pretty big if. I think it's a little if.

Really? I do. I actually think it's a very little if. Just watching him play last year, I don't know if – I shared it with the company Slack, but Warren Sharp did a tweet thread of all of Deshaun Watson's longest throws, like air yard throws. Oh, man.

The touch and the decision-making was not even close. It was like he hadn't played football in a while. Right. Look, to me, it's a lower if because this is an established, extremely talented individual. His decline did come with age. He played a couple of really tough matchups, and he hadn't played in a year and a half.

He's got a whole offseason, and I have more confidence in him. I know nobody wants him to succeed. I understand that. But if he does, Amari Cooper may be undervalued at the wide receiver, 18 in ADPs. That's fair. In ADP. We all have him higher than that because he is the go-to receiver for this

roster, and he still is. Like, I like Elijah Moore. I think he'll be involved. I like David Njoku. He'll be involved. It's Amari Cooper's wide receiver. Yeah, it is. I mean, when you look at last year, it's hard to separate that, you know, he was so good

with Jacoby Brissett and he was so bad with Deshaun Watson. And the if question about whether Watson gets together or not, to me, I think that there is some, it's not just rust and it's not just time not playing football. It's also the public pressure pressure pressure that he has gone through the the the human element of you know like when Tiger Woods uh had his fall from grace it it affected his play for a long time and I know there were injuries there as well um but it's like he's a human being and the whole world wants him to fail and so um I think so I think it affects performance on the field. Now, maybe that's a silly way to look at it, but that's kind of how I'm making the bet. That's why I see it as a big if.

And Amari Cooper has always been a player who is really good, but it always comes inconsistently. He'll always have half the season that's good and half the season that's bad. We're going into his ninth season. We know what Amari Cooper is. He's a really solid NFL wide receiver who, for fantasy purposes, will finish the year strongly and be inconsistent on the path to get there. Where he's being drafted, I feel like there are players I'm more excited about in the fourth round. That's where I talked about Keenan Allen yesterday. Like, I would rather, if I'm going to bet on, I'd rather bet on Joe Burrow and Herbert than on Voldemort.

Yeah. Yeah, that's one of our biggest disagreements on the show this year is how we see that playing out for the Cleveland Browns. I think that they are going to be a really good team. You guys are not bullish on Deshaun Watson's output. They're going to start the season at home against Cincinnati, then play the Steelers, the Titans, and the Ravens. Their three out of the four games are going to be at home to start the season.

That's a tough four-pack. And we'll get to see it. We'll get to see it on display. And, you know, Marty Cooper had a really good start to it last year. Last year, he was one of the best picks in the draft through the first 12 weeks, and then it obviously fell off. Chris Olave comes in at 13. Wide receiver 13 off the board.

ADP of 306. Mike's the highest at 13 I'm at 15 Jason at 18 just 23 years old get ready for year two of this budding superstar um I wish the I wish the draft price was a little lower I do wish that uh other people were somehow blind to his talent but that's this is where we are with fantasy football it's it the the crowd is getting better at the game and the like people are catching on of oh i should be targeting second year wide receivers who had great rookie seasons because more often than not it turns those are the players that take the the jetpack into superstardom. I love Chris Olave. He wins everywhere on the field.

The upgrade from Andy Dalton to Derek Carr, especially when it comes to deep passes, I think is a substantial upgrade. I don't want to overvalue what Derek Carr does versus Andy Dalton, but it's enough. It is absolutely enough for me to take Chris Olave at his ADP. I am in agreement, Andy, that I wish it wasn't there because the risk is you're taking Chris Olave at,

like there's a small margin for error should something go awry. Like if Chris Olave is the wide receiver 15 at the end of the year and you spent a third-round pick on him, it feels like you didn't get a return on your draft pick. So that's the concern. But I think that this guy who outproduced Garrett Wilson, who is going many spots ahead of Chris Olave, who also Aaron Rodgers is an older quarterback.

We're not 100% sure that he's got it. But this Chris Olave is going, in my opinion, will outproduce his ADP, and by next year, he's going to be looked at as one of those top-tier superstars. I saw, I think it was Local Saints Radio, talking about their schedule this year. Oh, yes. And then asking to name the top quarterbacks in the NFL.

Oh, they don't play any of them. Yeah, I mean, they play in order. Tannehill, Bryce Young, Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Mac Jones, CJ Stroud, presumably. Then you face Lawrence, finally. Pretty good quarterback. Anthony Richardson, Justin Fields, Kirk CousJ. Stroud, presumably. Then you face Lawrence, finally. Pretty good quarterback. Anthony Richardson, Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins. Then you face the Falcons twice with Desmond Ritter.

Bryce Young again. Jared Goff. I mean, they don't play any of the – their schedule's nice. Yeah, but what you just said was pro-Kendray Miller and the running game and winning ball games. Well, pro defense too. Yeah, absolutely. Like they may not need to air it out as much.

They may not need to, but looking at the strength of schedule, this is last year's, of course, if you're applying what happened last year. Tennessee. The building next door, if you hear it coming through the microphone, they're bulldozing, apparently bulldozing the neighborhood. We're going to be the last one. The best matchup for wide to be the last one. The best matchup for wide receivers was the Tennessee Titans.

That's who they opened against. The fourth best was the Carolina Panthers. Week four, seventh best. Week five, tenth. They have, by far, on paper, the best strength of schedule for the wide receiver position. And it's not just like, oh, they have some tough ones at the beginning, then they get into it. No, it's exciting.

We start hot. We close hot. Hot to hot. Yeah. At 12, speaking of hot, this was Jason's fire player on yesterday's episode. Keenan Allen of the Chargers, 31 years old. Mike has him at 10. I got him at 14.

Jason at 19. Jason, the question that i think we all have is why do you hate him uh i made my case for why i love him yesterday my rankings stand where they do but um i you don't have a much safer option out there um every player can get injured i'm not worried about like that's the argument against him right if he's out there players to the higher propensity for that to happen we saw Thielen break down that way if he's out there playing the role that he has played you know you know his entire career and he's out there for 17 games you're not going to be disappointed with him especially drafting him

as a wide receiver too where you're not paying wide receiver one prices in the draft are you happy in full ppr to have him as your wide receiver one um if the draft goes away you want to spend on a onesie position if i was in full ppr i would imagine in that situation that means i've got two great running backs and a quarterback already i grabbed or andrews and kelsey yeah or andrews and kelsey and then a full PPR. I go Keenan as my one. I'd be happy with that, yeah. Yeah, we're excited about the offense there. If you want to hear more about our discussions

on Keenan Allen, they were verbose yesterday. We got a chance to get into it. At 11, last wide receiver on today's countdown before breast ball breakdown, it's Jalen Waddell. Jalen Waddell of the Miami Dolphins, 24 years old.

I think I brought it up earlier this offseason. It is a weird thing to have a player that outpaced Tyreek Hill in average yards per reception, and that's what Jalen Waddell did. He is as close to Tyreek Hill as you get, and they play on the same football team. Finished at wide receiver seven last year. It was incredible. Managed to do it with Tua in and out of the lineup. Like, I'm so excited about both Waddle and Tyreek Hill in particular.

Like, someone on Twitter was like, oh, can I take Tyreek at number three? I'm like, yeah, of course you can. Tyreek Hill's going to be great, and I think Jalen Waddle will be as well. So is 11 the right spot for him? I got him at nine, Jason 11, Mike 12. We all are in that range.

Do you have any nervousness around this guy? My nervousness comes because of Tyreek Hill. When a player is a true superstar wide receiver, you're going to have games where the other people on the field just disappear and that happened multiple times to to Jalen Waddle like when when it cratered it was real bad and I know I'm not cross-referencing these with uh with non-TUA games, but wide receiver 60, 75, 98, 68. So that's the struggle with Jalen Waddell having to deal with Tyreek Hill on the other side of the field. It makes things easier a lot of the time,

but sometimes it's so easy because you just don't have to do anything to help the team, and Tyreek Hill handles it. Much better defense in Miami this year? Yeah, once they get – Ramsey. The fact that Jalen Ramsey is going to miss time, that's a pretty big deal. He should only miss a handful of weeks. I don't think he's going to –

I think he'll be here for the majority of the season, which will be very helpful. I don't know if that's changed now. What's the latest on that? The last thing I saw was that it was like a... He did a full repair. Yeah. It was going to be a couple months, and then he said...

Was it the meniscus? It was a full meniscus. ...he promises to beat the timeline by a month. That's who we want to listen to. No, yeah, for sure. Yeah, hearing meniscus freaks me out because this is like, hey, Irv Smith, remember when he had his meniscus repaired

and then he didn't play? He missed the whole year. Yeah, I guess the last thing I had seen was second half of the year. But regardless, like Bradley Chubb gets to be there from day one, dominant force in the D-line. They've made other improvements.

So just bringing it up as one of those things where they had to get in six touchdown shootouts last year with Baltimore to win ballgames, I wondered if that defensive prowess might impact their upside. Yeah, I mean, Waddell's great. He's obviously being drafted very high. He finished last year as the wide receiver seven in half ppr he has electric speed he can win you a week because he can take an 80 yard touchdown and and it's a worthy pick for drafting a very very talented player but i want to make the anti waddle case here okay because

as we've gone through this show obviously i think a lot of people group the Waddle, Higgins, Devonta Smith group together. Yeah, appropriately. Yeah, they're young wide receiver twos for their team with superstars on the other side. And I'm sitting here looking at Waddle and saying, he can win me weeks for sure, but he's probably going to be less consistent than Devonta Smith.

More boom bust. He has a worse quarterback. I mean, even if Tua is good, and the best part of Tua last year is what we see for the entirety of this season, I don't think he's Jalen Hurts. I don't think he's Joe Burrow. So for a player right now that is in a similar situation as those other two guys, but the situation seems a little worse, a little inconsistent. I'm questioning my own ranking here of saying,

would I really want Waddle more than Devontae Smith for the price? I think it's a good question to ask, and it might come down to the type of team you build up to the point where you're taking Jalen Waddle. At that point, you've drafted one player. He's in the second round. Maybe the team you plan to build. You have to accept the boom-bust part of Jalen Waddle.

Waddle feels a little bit more like what Tyreek Hill felt like in previous years. Sure. Waddle, or Waddle, Hill became a very consistent 119 receptions last year type of guy. But in the beginning of his career, it was much more like,

am I getting the number two, number three finish or am I not? So I think that is something worth thinking about. If you are taking a risk someplace else, maybe you don't take the risk with Waddle and you go with somebody more steady. Tomorrow we're going to have our top 10 wide receiver countdown. Before we close out, we've got some best ball. Best Ball Breakdown, presented by Underdog Fantasy.

Yeah, Brooks makes a good point. Maybe if you do spend that second-round pick on Jalen Waddle, maybe you're coming back with Keenan Allen in the fourth. Sure, there you go. Steady that ship. Yeah. All right, best ball breakdown. Every week we're looking at some tips, tricks, insights, thoughts

regarding best ball and underdog fantasy. Sat down last night in my cozy chair. Jumped in a 30-second per pick. Oh, okay. Best ball mania draft last evening. Had a great time. How'd you do? Did you win it?

Are you going to win the best ball mania? I'm going to be winning it, yes. That's so much money. It is a lot of money. I wish I was winning. The 30 second per pick. That's a bummer to know already who won. It's my team

because I have DJ Shark on it. Dude, dude, dude. I just want you to know, like, the 30 second per pick, great fun. Bad father during that time. Yeah, yeah. All right, today's topic, Kyle,

threw some thoughts in here for us when looking at essentially remembering to look at opportunities as they relate to best ball. So he gave an example of like Debo Samuel right now is being drafted as the average draft position of 18 at the wide receiver position. And he went back and there's an article coming out with more details about this, but he went back and looked at what the average amount of opportunities are for the wide receiver 18.

Well, it's 117 opportunities. Then you go and look at our rankings. We put in player projections, right, in the UDK. We tell you every single opportunity we think a player is going to have. And, you know, when you look at Debo Samuel in our rankings, he's projected for 168 opportunities. And so kind of taking a look at the fact that opportunity is king in fantasy football, and you have the advantage of having the UDK, you have the advantage of looking at what our projected opportunities are and not undervaluing them.

So Debo was that example of, look, a player that we have projected for 168 opportunities is being drafted at a place where the expectation is 117. And on the other end of the spectrum is a guy like Jamison Williams who is going to be really hard to get that payoff because right now his average draft position is the 50th pick overall. We've got him for 60 targets. 100th overall, wide receiver 50. Sorry, yes. We have him for, yeah, the wide receiver 50, 100th overall.

We have him projected for just 60 targets, but over the last 10 years, that spot normally gets 78 targets. And so looking at that gap between opportunity, ADP, paying attention to the UDK and the opportunities and seeing where you might be able to get a value, merely looking at how many chances this player gets to make an impact on the field. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, and, and, and it's kind of illustrating what we have available to you.

Not just in the UDK, but in the DFS pass as well. So take a look at that. That was Best Ball Breakdown presented by Underdog Fantasy. Get your first deposit matched up to $100 using the code BALLERS. Like I said, back tomorrow with the Top 10 Wide Receiver episode. You don't want to miss it. And check out the UDK Ultimate Draft Kit.com. Goodbye.

Oh, it's football time. Kind of. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.