The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - High-Upside Fantasy Football Draft Picks | Wide Receiver Breakout Candidates (Ep. 1678)

Episode Date: August 30, 2025

Join Ryan Wormeli, Derek Brown, and Tom Strachan as they highlight 11 potential breakout wide receivers that you should be targeting in your remaining 2025 fantasy football drafts! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 Ricky Pearsall - 0:01:05 Xavier Worthy - 0:05:21 DraftKings BestBall - 0:09:52 Jalen Coker - 0:11:15 Emeka Egbuka - 0:17:07 Jaylen Waddle - 0:22:29 Joshua Palmer - 0:25:21 Darnell Mooney - 0:29:14 FantasyPros Draft Kit -  0:31:20 Zay Flowers - 0:32:01 George Pickens - 0:39:56 DeVonta Smith - 0:44:40 Travis Hunter - 0:48:45 Helpful Links: 👑 DraftKings Best Ball – Join in on the chance to win your share of $15M in prizes through DraftKings Best Ball Contest! No weekly roster management, set and forget lineups, season-long excitement and a chance at a cut of $15M in prizes! Entry Fee is only $20 and you get a bonus ticket when you sign up at:  Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 8778-HOPENY or text HOPENY at 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Eighteen plus in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. One per customer. Enter the Best Ball $15M headliner contest by 9/4/25 to get one bonus entry. Twenty dollar entry fee required. Reward expires in thirty days. See terms at draftkings.com/nfl-best-ball. Sponsored by DK. Draft Assistant - Get live support during your fantasy football draft with the Draft Assistant. Connect the Draft Assistant to your draft and get real-time suggestions based on expert rankings, team needs, and positional scarcity. Get the most value out of every pick in your fantasy football draft with the Draft Assistant. Learn more at fantasypros.com/assistant or download our Fantasy Football Draft Wizard app on Google Play or App Store. Draft Simulator - Master your draft strategy by testing it out in minutes using our Draft Simulator. The Draft Simulator allows you to practice quick and fun, realistic mock drafts based on your league settings in minutes. Sync your league for FREE and try it today at fantasypros.com/mock.  Follow us on Twitch - The team here at FantasyPros is taking questions all week, every week on Twitch. We've got exclusive live content there every single weekday. Follow us on Twitch at twitch.tv/fantasypros and never miss a stream! Discord – Join our FantasyPros Discord Community! Chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Come get your questions answered and BE ON THE SHOW at fantasypros.com/chat Leave a Review – If you enjoy our show and find our insight to be valuable, we’d love to hear from you! Your reviews fuel our passion and help us tailor content specifically for YOU. Head to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts and leave an honest review. Let’s make this show the ultimate destination for fantasy football enthusiasts like us. Thank you for watching and for showing your support – https://fantasypros.com/review/ BettingPros Podcast – For advice on the best picks and props across both the NFL and college football each and every week, check out the BettingPros Podcast at bettingpros.com/podcast, our BettingPros YouTube channel at youtube.com/bettingpros, or wherever you listen to podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Hello, everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pro's football podcast. I'm Ryan warmly. joined today by Derek Brown and by Tom Stracken. Guys, we are talking wide receiver breakout candidates. One of everybody's favorite topics every single season, because these are often guys that end up sort of defining the season. They are guys that end up winning you your league oftentimes are breakout candidates, particularly at wide receiver. It's very fun to hit on the right guy here when you can. So we've got a couple different categories here. I'm going to run through

about a dozen names. We've kind of designated these as second year guys. We're looking at breakout guys that are maybe currently behind an alpha that could, you know, really take a step forward in the right opportunity. And then we're kind of going to wrap with what we have designated league winners hiding in plain sight. So we're going to hit on all that throughout today's episode. As a reminder, all of our 2025 consensus rankings and tiers can be found. at fantasy pros.com slash rankings. Let's dive right in, guys. We're going to start with those second year guys.

D-Bro, who do you have for us? Man, the guy that I want to make sure I'm leaving almost every single draft with, and I've done to this point, is Ricky Pearsall. And people that have been tuning in for all these off-season shows, got to know where I'm going with this. I mean, Pearsall flashed in the final two weeks of last year, wide receiver 7, wide receiver 14, and weekly scoring. Crush had a 30% first read target share,

2.84 yards per route run. The big thing for Ricky that really submitted this for me was I went back and watched all of his all 22 from the preseason so far. And you see the growth in both he looks more explosive of the line, looks a crisper in and out of his brakes. And the rapport with Brock Purdy has grown leaps and bounds like based off of camp and the offseason workouts and stuff. I mean, there's one play that I keep going back to,

the Raiders, where you see Pearsall crossing, running across or going across the field, and he's going to get washed out in zone coverage. Purdy breaks open, and Pearsall just stops his route, sits down the middle of zone coverage, and was like, Purdy knew he was going to do it, and laces him for the perfect throw. And it's like, that's rapport. That is what offseason work looks like on an NFL field, the ability for both these guys to be on the same page, and now everything is coalescing around Pearsall in that offense. Like he's going to be the guy that is competing with George Kittle for the team leading targets.

Second year breakout is here, boys. His real-time ADP, which you can find on Fantasy Pros, is wide receiver 35. Where should he be ranked, D-Bro? I just moved him up yet again because I want to make sure that with real-time ADP, I'm staying ahead of consensus and not like ridiculously aggressively, but I have moved him up to wide receiver 26. Oh, okay. So that is significantly high. than ADP. Tom, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I agree with a lot of what Debrose saying, and

like, I definitely want to see this breakout. I'm not quite as aggressive because I didn't quite see as much last year as I wanted to, and obviously all this is caveat by saying, of course, he was recovering from an incredible sort of like freak accident injury, but he didn't really earn targets at an astronomical rate last year, you know, average 0.15 targets per route run. That was 77th among wide receivers in the time period that he came back from week seven to the end of the season. In that point, we did have games where like George Kittle missed out. There was no Brandon

Iyuk, and, you know, he had games where he was goose-egging and getting nothing. And the huge blow-up game in Week 17, which helped somebody win $2 million or whatever it was on Best Ball Mania on Underdog, that was against the Lions who allowed the second most fantasy points to wide receivers. So there's just little holes that I can poke in it,

but I do believe that he can take the leap this year, having a much cleaner off-season. And I think that any time that the nine has put third, round draft cap pull into a player. I've got to have some faith that there's a lot of talent there that they can really maximize. Almost identical real-time ADP for Ricky Pearsall and Chris Alave, Tom. Who would you prefer of those two?

I'd go Ricky Pearsall. I'm not in under Saints whatsoever. I'm assuming Deeroy, that's very easy for you. I wouldn't even ask, honestly. I know you're going Pearsall. I think the line is probably better. Ricky Pearsall or Jameson Williams, guys. I'm going Jame over.

So yeah, I have Ricky Pearson All right above him. Williams is a little more than a full round higher in ADP. So there's like a little bit of a gap there. That one I think is interesting because you can paint kind of the upside picture for both of them if you want. I mean, I'm on team Pearsall for that one only because like as Tom was kind of talking about, we hear about all this stuff about JMO in the offseason and stuff like that.

Do we really think he's going to like take another step and become like a 24% target share kind of guy? I just don't know if I see that. So that's, you know, kind of where I'm splitting hairs here. There is a name that I'm going to ask you about this name against Pearsall, but it's a name that's going to come up later in the show. So I'm going to save it for when we get to that point because I think it's a really good head-to-head. Who would you prefer? But I think Pearsall is a great pick. Like, I want to get him in a lot of places.

Like the simple to put a bow on this conversation is you should invest in Ricky Pearsall. This is a bet worth making this year. Yep. Agreed. Tom, who's your first second-year player? It's Xavier Wharvey. Now obviously today we finally got the news that Rashi Rice is going to be suspended for six games of the season. But it should have been a case of before now that Zavia Worthy's ADP was going up.

We knew for a little while that this was the kind of length of suspension that we were looking at. And while Rashi Rys's ADP dipped a little bit, Xavier Wurthies was higher. And then when we got the news that Rashi Rys might not get suspended, it dipped and it's never really come back up. But I just think that he's primed because by the time that Rashi Rite's comes back, he'll have missed. the last 23 games, including the playoffs that the Chiefs have played. That's a huge amount of time for Xavier Worthy to be able to establish himself, develop a role for Andy Reid to learn how he can maximize him. And I think, you know, it's fair to say that we've plenty of fans out there of Andy Reid

and the way that he can maximize talent. Last year, the one kind of part of Xavier Worthy's profile that was missing was the downfield threat that we thought we could see. He had 17 passes sent his way of 20 plus yards last year and only caught three of them. but it was a 41% catchable target rate on those targets, which ranked 61st among wide receivers with 10 plus deep targets. All offseason Patrick Mahomes has been going on and on and on about how much of an emphasis he's put on developing the deep ball better.

Now obviously Matt Nagy has been a bit of a curse on Patrick Mahomes since he came back to the Chiefs and maybe it doesn't transpire, but I've got to believe that Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback, like that possibly ever, you know, definitely the best quarterback in pure football terms in the NFL right now, can get that going. And I just think that it doesn't necessarily need to be Xavier Worthy or Rashi Rice, but if the price that Xavier Worthy's app right now in redraft to get you off to a strong start,

then I'm very much buying. Debrough, you have been the low man on Worthy in our staff rankings. In ECR, he is, sorry, I's flipped off that page. Well, you have him at 36. Erickson 21 fits at 23. So that's significantly lower. I got it pulled up here. At ECR, he's wide receiver 26.

So you're about 10 spots lower than ECR on your ranking on worthy. What is it that you're not seeing here? So in real-time ADP, he's around with the boys who are ranking him, wide receiver 24. I just, to me, I don't see any meat on the bone where you're drafting him there. Like, I don't see him coming back and being, like, producing as the top 15 wide receiver. Does the Rishie Rice missing six games definitely help him? Yes. Helms him a ton because he's going to be in the Rishie Rice role.

And he hasn't seen, like, he hasn't. produced in anything but the Rishi Rice role. And manufacturer touches close to the line of scrimmage. I know Tom pointed to Patrick Mahom's struggles with the deep ball. I will echo that, but also add on top of it, when he's at, when Rishie Rice comes back, Xavier Worthy's not going to play in the Rishol rice role. He's going to play the field stretcher role. And if Mahomes doesn't bounce back, he can talk about it all he freaking wants to.

It's not going to make it any more accurate on the deep ball as much as he talks about it in the freaking media. Matt Nagy's not going anywhere. So, my homes, and I want to put this in context for people that are just now tuning back into shows, Mahomes has been a bottom 10 level deep ball throw over the last two years. So he could talk about it. I want to see it actually happen. And the part about Worthy that really gets me, man, is that we didn't see him separate as a downfield threat.

I mean, weeks 1 through 12 when he was the deep threat, 124 wide receivers. He was 96 in separation, 11th in route. win rate. And then in the Rishi Rice roll, he wasn't that much better. He was 75th in that, or at least if you zoom out overall, excuse me, if you zoom out overall and put all of this stuff together, 75th in separation, 86th them route win rate. So he's not getting schemed up targets, which he will get for six games. And that's why I bumped him up into the wide receiver three range. I just don't see where things, like I feel like we're looking at everything for worthy through rose-colored glasses. And if this wasn't the Kansas City Chiefs and he wasn't tied to Patrick

Bahomes that is writing a lot of checks for worthy that I don't know if he can catch because he doesn't have the size also to be a red zone threat outside of scheme touches. Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree he needs to play tough. But I just think like, you know, what we saw from him down the stretch last year, and this is part of my argument that like he's going to have established a role and maybe yes, he gets moved out of a rashy rice role. But he was averaging 15.6 p.pr points from week 11, which was the wide receiver 19 in that time. And he only saw three end zone targets in that time. If he can develop into more of a touchdown score, then that's how he truly becomes a great player in fantasy football. Get in the game. Bestball is live at Draft Kings.

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Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

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All right. we have another second year player here that you guys picked the same one because you couldn't come to any kind of agreement and split the baby you guys both had to have your guy de bro why is this your and by the way i will say tom got to the sheet first so really tom picked him first and the dbrose then he goes i i couldn't possibly be bothered to come up with another name so i'm going to steal this name i did here's the thing i didn't feel enough conviction in any other second year wide receiver to sit here and throw the names out here because I don't want to be disingenuous to our audience and I want to give people real players that I truly believe in. And in that point,

I'm going to let Tom kick this off because he, again, he got to the sheet first. This is his dude and I'm adding on top of that, although I will throw my hat in the ring for being amongst the OG Cokeheads in the room. Yeah, and I'll say like I was slow to Jalen Koker last year. He wasn't somebody that I was drafting everywhere. You know, I play a lot of best ball and I'm always looking at these late round dart throws. And this year I have been hammering Jalen Coker in the late rounds because the writing's been on the wall. It's been so obvious from the coach speak over the last few weeks.

Like you go back to, I pull this quote from the coach speak index, Discord, Dave Cunales, we're going to play the best guys, the guys that we can count on, the guys that make plays, the guys that make the catch. Jalen has really showed to be one of the more reliable guys that we have. He makes strong players on the ball and they want to get him out there. Like Jalen Coker is always going to be a little bit boom or buffering. the fantasy young the nature bit, the way that he wins, which is downfield.

Like he had the 12 highest catch rate on passes 15 plus yards downfield among wide receivers with 10 or more targets. That's a really impressive return. What I would like to see is him developing a bit more and getting some easier stuff. And maybe we see that because for the second player in a row, we're talking about a guy who had significant news today with Adam Field and being traded to the Vikings. The fact that the Panthers who are desperately trying to surround Bryce Young with more talent with more players who can play to a strong ability, felt comfortable doing that, speaks

volumes to what they've got from him. I think overall we're going to see a huge uptick in this offense because of Teteroa. That's going to be infinitely better than what the situation was last year. And I just think that Jalen Koker is a better player than Xavier Legerter. A better yards per route run. He was consistently better separator and he turned targets into production at a better rate than Xavier Legat did. He's also basically free looking at.

real-time ADP. He's wide receiver 763rd overall. That's what, like a 14th or 15th round pick. Some of the names with similar, again, not ADP that you'll see in your draft room. Real-time ADP when drafts are actually happening within the last day and the last week. His ADP is amongst other names that receiver like Tyler Lockett, Pat Bryant, Quentin Johnston, Darius Slate, Jalen McMillan, who is going to be injured for a large chunk of the season, has a similar ADP to him. Jack Bash who is not impressed

Michael Wilson I mean like So a little upside there Yeah So what is the upside for Coker D bro? Like what is like Hey this actually does really hit What's the upside?

So I moved him up He is my wide receiver 52 right now I have been the 120s right now And The upside is that First of all He is going to be from the word go And I'm not being hyperbolic about this

He is the Carolina Panthers Wide Receiver 2 I emphatically agree with Tom on this. He out-targeted Xavier Ligate last year. He's going to do it again this year because nothing has changed if anything Coker's gotten even better. And the upside is what we saw last year. Like in the six games he played with Bryce Young at least 68% of the snaps. He had three games where he was a top 36 score in PPR points on the week. He earned an 18% target share. He had 1.89 yards per route run and almost a 24% first read share. The upside for Jalen Coker is to be a weekly wide

3. And I think that's possible. So looking at where the, the bucket of players that I moved them into, it's all these guys that are borderline wide receiver 3 slash 4s. Now, I know I have him at wide receiver 52. And is a long tier of guys that all, depending on how many passes they catch or touchdown luck and things like that, they could all be separated by a grand total of like three points per game and fantasy on a weekly basis. And Coker is the guy. Again, we go back to this. We, we, we, we, We bank on talented rookies, and we bank on those guys in the second year for sophomore breakouts. Jalen Coker is the one where you're making that bet for basically free. And if Bryce Young can be the guy we saw in weeks 12 through 18 last year,

and you truly believe in Dave Canellas, and Ted Roaming Millen can open up other parts of this offense, both downfield and otherwise that we haven't seen yet, Jalen Coker can easily be a wide receiver 3 in your lineup on a weekly basis. When we're talking about guys this deep, it's not going to apply to every league from the get-go. You are going to wait for the buy weeks, but it's the kind of the performance where what we're projecting is probably similar to guys like Quentin Johnson or Rashar Bateman last year. That kind of those guys who are around about wide receiver 40 who might not sound attractive now. But by the time you get to buy weeks, by the time you get to injuries and you need somebody reliable, I'd rather bet on Jalen Koke than a whole host of names down there.

I got a perfect comparison. Tell me, what's the difference in the setup between him and him and Darnell Mooney. What's the difference? Come on. He's the clear number two in the offense. Yeah. Yeah. It's exactly like the Spider-Man gift. It's except one of them's healthy and one of them's not right now. Let's go to the breakout guys who are maybe like behind an alpha or, you know, need some sort of situational change or a difference in circumstance to maybe take that full step forward. But we think that is on the table. And Debrough, your first guy here is in Mecca, Buka. And I, I mentioned him for you because he's the one that I think him versus Ricky. I knew this is where you're going to go.

I mean, they're basically back to back in real-time ADP right now. They are two of, you know, most of the fantasy community's favorite, you know, potential breakouts here in that range, that back end wide receiver three range. So I want to hear your general thoughts on Ibuka, of course, but I am also curious, who would you prefer Pearsall or Rigbuka? I mean, so for me, it's Pearsall. And I understand if people want to go, I mean, we are, we are splitting razor thin hairs here. And like right now my rankings, I've got Pierceall or wide receiver 26.

I got a Bucca. I just moved them up a gig in today because real time ADP, he's wide receiver 33. And he is, I want to say if not, I'm updating this live. He is the second highest gaining a wide receiver in ADP, 7.5 spots over the last week in real time ADP. So it's like, I'm trying to stay above consensus. So people are still getting access to them or they're still getting them in a ton of drafts. and the fantasy community is like, all right, bet, bet, hold my beer. I got this.

And I'm like, okay, I'm just going to keep moving them up. But everything has been, like we're talking about these breakout second wide receivers than these offenses. I mean, dude, he is the guy that where he is the poster child for this. Like everything has come up as aces for Egbuka. It's like Chris Godwin, we got like, okay, health reports aren't great. The more we've gone through the offseason, health reports are pretty damning. They're horrible.

I don't know when we see a healthy version of Chris Godwin this year if we do. And so it's like, okay, check. Jailman Millen goes out in the preseason and he gets hurt. And I don't want to see a player to get hurt. But now it's like, when do we see him? I mean, there's talk of the biweek or even further. Like, you know, it's hard to gauge. And I mean, like, I'm sorry.

Like when I hear neck injuries and neck injuries that could sideline you until maybe week nine or further, we have no clue, man. Like, we have no clue if that could be even career threatening right now. All we're going off is the. reports that we have, which, I mean, come on, how much we got to take all this injury stuff with a grain of salt from teams just in general, too. So Bucca, like, the runway has been cleared, man. It's no Godwin for maybe most of the season, no Jail and then they'll in for most of the season, maybe all of it. And then we're talking about a guy with first round pedigree, as well as

the prospect profile to back it up, like two of the last final three seasons in college. He was top 40 in yards per route run, top 20 in receiving grade and yards out of the catch. And we know, know the role that he's going to play in this offense? Yeah, like, I just keep moving him up. Just keep moving them up, Worm. I actually think I would prefer Buka to Pure Salaic if I could only have one of my team, but it's like ridiculously close. Yeah, it's close. The real answer here is just draft both.

Yes, there's no reason. You know, Tom, I'm still waiting to hear a good case against Bucca. Like, I just like there's not a... Well, I mean, I think if you wanted to play that case, you could say, okay, well, this team loves Chris Godwin. They knew the severity of the injury that he had the fractured fibula as well as the fractured ankle or whatever, but they still chose to pay him. I mean, you could say they're absolutely going to give him his job back when he comes back.

But I don't believe that's going to happen for all the reasons the D-Brow saying, like that injury to Godwin is severe. And you could have all kinds of complications around cartilage and stuff like that. Like, I've been on the wrong side of injuries too many times and been too optimistic. I think that Eggbuka can play inside outside, but his strongest role is going to be in the slot. We know Gobwin can also play outside, so maybe there's some kind of rotational element there.

But I just look at Egg Buker, and I wouldn't be surprised if he leads to Bucks in catches this year. And I wouldn't be surprised if he leads them in yards as well, because, look, Mike Evans, people don't want to talk about it, but at the end of last season, frankly, it was quite embarrassing the way that the books went out of the way to get him to 1,000 yards. He feels like he's starting to lose a step.

And some of the reports around the books this offseason have been that Mike Evans is treating things as year to year now. I just, I'm not saying Mike Evans is going to bust, but if I'm putting any faith in anyone in this offense, it's like Buka, and I'm just surprised that we're not paying higher prices for him already. I won't push back on anybody that's ranking him as a top 24 wide receiver. I really won't.

We talked, I think it was last week, Tom. Maybe it was on a recent episode about how this is just a really good example of like, don't overreact to landing spots. Like, on draft day, it's like, well, oh, we hate Egbuka. now because the bucks have all, it's like opportunity will open up if you're good enough. And we all believe Dukuku was good enough. Yeah, it's just a classic thing. And I think it's, you know, probably more prevalent in dynasty communities than it is

by the time that we get to redraft. Because look at this, the situation has changed dramatically in the last three months. But ultimately, talent tends to win out more often than not. And yeah, Egbuka, a couple of months back, you were getting discounting on him in dynasty circles. And if you traded for him cheaply because you thought you were, you know, but you trade him away cheaply because you thought you were a contender and just wanted some production right now, then you might be kicking yourself. Yeah, and I'll say the other side of the coin is we have also lived in a world where we

saw rookie seasons from Roma Dunzee and JSN fall flat because of the competition. So, like, it has been an absolutely pure runout for Eggbuka as well. Yeah. Tom, who is your first guy in this category? Yeah, well, obviously, most shows I do with Andrew when we're talking best, ball and it's hard for me to get a word in edgeways about Jalen Waddled, but I would say I'm just as high on Jalen Waddle as Andrew, like, and it's so easy for me to make this argument. Like, look, the Miami Dolphins were bad last year, and they're likely going to be bad, and at the heart of it is how bad

their defense could be. Their secondary looks like it's going to be one of the worst in the league. They traded away Jailen Ramsey for anybody just tuning in at this point in the offseason and wondering why he's not involved in that conversation. And this can lead to the dolphins having to pass more, which will lead to them putting up more points. More pass attempts is good. Last year, Tua ranked third in pass attempts per game at 36.3. He led the league with 26 completions per game. Now, some of this is obviously checkdowns.

There's two of it we're talking about, and Johnny Smith and Devin a Chan were huge, like, volume hogs because of that. But when Jalen Waddle wasn't playing with Tua, the difference was so stark, like in week three, Tim Boyle and Skyler Thompson combined for 20 completions. Week 5, Tyler Huntley, 18 completions. Week 7. Huntley and Boyle combining for 15 completion.

So it's like the drop-off in completed passes per game was massive. Waddle averaged 4.79 more PPR points per game with Tua than without. And Waddle led the team in yards per target, yards per reception. He just needed the ball more often and he needed Tewa out there. And lastly, the vibes around Tyreek Hill, they are just not good, whereas it sounds like Waddle and Tua have spent a lot of time together this offseason. Debrough, where are you at on Waddle? I have Waddle ranked ahead of Tyree Kill.

I have Waddle at wide receiver 22. I am out on Tyree Kill. You cannot force me to draft him. I'm not doing it. I think there is a non-zero chance. Tyree Kill goes full A, B, and by week seven, when they're one in six or two and four, something like that, he's ripping off the jersey and saying, forget you guys, I'm out of here. So, Jalen Waddle, like, I'm totally in on him.

The other part about this is the way that I looked at this offense and as soon as his Johnny was gone, I feel like everybody went to Devon A-chan and they said, oh, he's going to catch more passes. Oh, he's going to catch more passes. Like, did he almost catch 90? He almost caught 90 passes last year. What do you think? He's going to catch 115? Like, come on. So, like, for me, I think Devon A-chan's going to catch a ton of passes. That's not crazy to say. But in the Johnnew Smith role in the underneath low A dot role, I think that could go to a Jalen Waddle. I think we could see him revisit the role that he had in his rookie season and he catches 100 passes. passes this year and he is the low A dot guy that's running more out of the slot where it's like,

everybody's like, oh, well, is it Tyreek? Is it Waddle? Is it, uh, you know, Darren Waller? Like, I think the answer in all aspects is Jalen Waddle. Let's go to another breakout guy here, Debrough, who you got. I'm going to go further down the list here. And I know that people are going to say they're to do some squinting with this, but in a wide open passing attack that where you don't have, have this Uber Alpha that's commanding a 28% target share, it's more of a committee, I think there's a really big lane and opportunity for Joshua Palmer this year. For all of the parts of pieces that the Buffalo Bills already had in this room, and they go out and they add quickly in the offseason, somebody like Joshua Palmer, his role in this offense is so easy to see. For a guy that's

honestly really, really underrated as a route runner and a separator, last year amongst 112 qualifying wide receivers, 16th in separation, 12th in route win rate. And I really believe in this type of data that we get from fantasy points data. Like, looking at those numbers, this would have put you on somebody like a Rashad Bateman last year and other players in that ilk where they were breakout players that we hadn't seen a lot of these things before. And we've seen flashes from Joshua Palmer when Keenan Allen was out of the lineup. Mikeette Williams was out of the lineup for the charges. Now, did it come to fruition last year? No. Does that mean that it can't this year in a new opportunity? Absolutely. Like, I think that it can happen because if you look at the role that they drafted Keon Coleman to play last year, it was against man coverage.

He was supposed to be the man coverage beater guy. He had a 27% target per route run rate versus man, 14% versus zone. He could not separate versus zone. He was middle of the road versus man. Whereas Joshua Palmer against man coverage last year was fifth in separation and route win rate against man coverage. And this all goes back to this. I know I'm getting deep in the weeds, people, but the Buffalo Bills know. that they have to solve this problem.

Over the last three seasons, they have faced top four man coverage rates every single year, fourth most, third most, and last year the most man coverage in the NFL. So you're talking about trust, rapport, a guy that could separate, and a passing attack where, who is the alpha?

Who is the guy you worried about? Oh, is it Khalil Shakir? Dude, he wasn't even commanding like a 25% target share even after his role grew in the second half of last season. So you're going to give me a perimeter guy that can separate with tied to freaking Josh Allen all day. Let's go. This is, you know, speaking of Andrew Erickson, one of his favorites, like just talking about, you know, those these 50-year breakout guys. He's been all over this.

I'm just to Erickson's burner, by the way. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, Palmer's such an interesting one. Tom, what do you think about him? Yeah, I really like the stats for Debrose quoted. I must have referenced them that Debrose quoted them and his tweets with them. in a whole bunch of articles this off season talking about late round wide receivers who could be worth it. Because with Josh Palmer, it's always like we've had little glimpses, but yes, he's played behind guys like Keenan Allen and Mike Williams.

There isn't anyone in Buffalo who I think are as good as those guys when they were good, at least, and when they were healthy and when they were on the field. The way the bills play, it's really unpredictable and really difficult. And quite honestly, it's not something I've been zeroing in a lot. I don't mind Josh Palmer in best ball. really taking him in redraft so far. But it's not hard for me to imagine that when all is said and done, he is the most valuable part of this passing attack, and particularly at the cost you're getting. Like, he's earned solid red zone targets across his career.

Like, he was obviously playing behind Keenan Allen, who was very good in the red zone. But he always did fine in those numbers. And then when you look at the bills, I don't think there's anybody in particular who's particularly good in the red zone. Khalil Shakir definitely not necessarily got the build for it. Dalton Kincaid has been taken off the field frequently in the red zone. So if Josh Palmer can become the red zone weapon for Josh Allen, then I think that would be huge for his fantasy value.

Let's go to your next breakout guy, Tom, and this is somebody that Debrough alluded to earlier when talking about Jalen Coker. Yeah, it's Dad Al-Muni last year's Wide Receiver 27, and I think the prolonged injury this summer has obviously given us a bit of a dip, and generally I don't like to bet on those kind of guys. But now it's to the point where you're getting him at such a discount, that I'm okay saying I can wait a while I can wait he can be my wide receiver four my wide receiver five depending on how I'm building my team and last year he averaged 12.1 ppr

points per game had five games where he scored 70 or more ppr points as well as that massive 30 point game in week five wide receiver three finished that week now some people when you talk about Donald munich they go okay well did he really do anything with Michael panics because everybody just remembers drake london getting absolutely peppered with targets which, by the way, is something we love to see. But when they played together in week 16 and 17, Mooney combined for seven of his 11 targets for 119 yards, which is completely fine.

There was no reason to worry about that production. We know the Falcons are going to play three wide receiver sets at one of the highest rates across the league. And last year, the only wide receiver were higher snapshares than Danel Mooney was Garrett Wilson, DJ Moore, and Justin Jefferson. He's going to be out there, he's going to get lots of targets, and I think the Falcons are going to pass plenty, and I'm more than happy to accept that it might be a slow start for him.

Debrough, you obviously, like, kind of touched on Mooney a little when talking about Coker, but are you interested in Mooney at cost? Yeah, I'm interested in Mooney at cost. I mean, my biggest thing about him right now is just the health. I mean, so I'll take shots on him depending on the composition of my rosters and stuff like that because everything that Tom laid out is perfectly right, man. It's a consolidated passing attack. It's Drake London and Darno Mooney at the top.

No, there's not any Kyle Pitts. I don't even know if he's going to be a full-time player in that offense. So are you really worried about Ray Ray McLeod stealing targets away? No. So the other thing about it with Darno Mooney is we did see the field stretching aspect with Kirk Cousins, but dude at a wet noodle for an arm. Like with Michael Panics, we're going to see that even more this year because he could chuck it down the freaking field. And if Darno Mooney could separate down the field, injury or not, he's going to have big spike weeks, man.

Remember winning your fantasy league starts before drafts. Day and the Fantasy Pro's draft kit gives you the knowledge to do it right. There are wide receiver gems to be found all throughout the middle and late rounds. Our draft kit is your one-stop shop for expert rankings, sleepers, breakouts, wide receivers, draft strategies, and more. Don't walk into draft day guessing. Read up, lock in, win your league. Go to Fantasypros.com slash kit. Get access to all the premium content in our kit by claiming your three-day free trial of Fantasy pros premium at Fantasypros.com slash premium. All right, guys, we've got some league winners hiding in plain sight,

Debrot, who is your first name in our final category? I know you're going to bury me, and I know all the smoke you got coming from me because I'm bringing up a rave. Oh, Tom and I are ready. I know. Dude, I just want, please, please, Baltimore. All I'm asking,

feature your best players, and I know Lamar is good. I know Derek Henry and Mark Andrews are good. Dude, save flowers. If he was on any other, freaking team would be ranked higher, have a better role than he has in this offense. Just feature the man. That's all I'm asking.

Because on a per round basis, he is amazing. Last year, Zayflowers amongst 85 qualifying wide receivers. 14th to target share, 17th and yards per route run, 18th and first read share, 20th and first downs per route run. Just check, check, check. And even when you pull open the hood, it's even better on a per route basis when you look at separation scores. This guy was fifth in separation, ninth in route win rate overall. You go to man coverage, and this is the secret sauce where you look for the extra ceiling.

Guys that can win versus man coverage, they're usually the top of the pile, the elite guys. Zay Flowers last year versus man coverage. First in separation. fourth and route win rate. Give him freaking red zone targets Baltimore. If you give him to him, he's going to convert. If you give him volume, he's going to make things happen. I can't help the fact that he's had nine receiving touchdowns over the last two years.

He's had 22 total red zone targets of the last two years, 28th and 59th in that category amongst wide receivers. If you feature this guy, good things will happen. I just don't know if Baltimore will do it. But I'm asking, I'm pleading. please do it. Tom, do you want to take this or do you want me to? Yeah, I'm happy to say this because I don't think I'm as low on Zay as you are,

where I'm still expecting that there's another level and it's to do with the stuff for Debrough mentioned because like last year alone, seven end zone targets, but only two touchdowns from those targets. Now only four touchdowns in total. That just, like, I can't believe there isn't a case for positive regression there. People aren't high on Andrews. Likely's injured. Nobody's talking Bateman up.

and it just all leads back to Zay Flowers for me. I think it's quite obvious when you've, if you've watched Lamar for a long time, particularly in detail, when it gets to the red zone, a lot of it comes back to trust him. For so long, Mark Andrews has been that guy,

but last year, Mark Andrews had 11 end zone touchdowns on 15 end zone targets. He ran so incredibly pure. I'm not sure that he can run that pure again. Last year we saw, guys like Charlie Kohler and Isaiah likely popping up for these end zone touchdowns.

And sooner or later, I think that it's very hard for a guy like Zayflowers to not experience some positive touchdown regression because of all the great starts at D-Bro mentioned about separation. The hardest part for me about drafting Zayflowers is that he comes in that range with Jalen Waddle, Calvin Ridley, James, Teraroa. But that's why I want a double-dip in this range.

I want to pull one of those guys up around the head of ADP so that I can come back and get another guy because while Zayflowers will be a little boom or bust sometimes because there will be those weeks where the Ravens spread it around are incredibly efficient or there'll be those weeks where Derek Henry

gets two Russian touchdowns just as Hill gets one. I'm still willing to take the upside of him. Zayflowers... Okay, so I am out on Zayflowers this year. Part of it is the cost. First of all, he's a good player in real life.

Like, love having him on the Ravens. I've said this a bunch. Like, very good player. I'm not at all pushing back on anything Debris said about Zayflowers, the player. I do not see a path to him ever getting

significant red zone usage as the offense is currently constructed. The priorities for the Ravens, when they are close to scoring, are run the ball with Derek Henry, throw to Mark Andrews, throw to Isaiah likely. I think this year it might be throwed at DeAndre Hopkins. It's going to be run with Lamar, like further down that list. But like, they just don't say, hey, Zay, you're a guy that we're going to design plays for in the red zone. I do not expect that to change.

And I think the fact that the offense is as run heavy as it is, is going to limit his targets enough that it won't make up for the difference in what I expect to be a lack of red zone, you know, usage. And I don't understand, just because we want that to change, I don't understand how it actually is going to. So to me, that significantly caps the ceiling. I do think he's a pretty good floor because I think he's a really good player, but I don't think there's real, like, ceiling breakout, like, going to be a guy that really makes a difference

for you in your league type of a player here. And, you know, I look at like, again, like, he had one top 10 finish in half PPR scoring in any week all of last season. Like, it's not even like you're getting like, well, so the boom weeks are at least going to win you the week. He had that one week against Denver where he had two long touchdowns. He was the number two wide receiver that year. His next best finish last season in year two was wide receiver 11. That's not a league winning week. So I, like, and to cap my point here, like what you said, Tom, about where he is going, the real time ADP is inside the top.

65 picks. I just like a lot of other names there instead, and I'm going to have very little, and maybe even zero Zayflowers this year, because I don't think the cost aligns with the ceiling. To your point worm, go ahead, Tom, go ahead. I was just going to say, I think that this has been one of the most interesting debates for me this off season, because there's so many really smart people on both sides of it, and I think that it's, I've gone back and forth because you can build a case for it, and both of you guys have built really good. cases. And that's what kind of leads me back to taking him a little bit more, that it just feels like, you know, there's opportunity in ambiguity. If we can build a downside case for him, but we can

also build this massive upside case for him, then does he have the potential that he ends up turning into an undervalued kind of league winner? And that's why I'll still draft him. And I won't go crazy. I won't have him in every league, but there's definitely leagues where I will want him? Yeah. And I want to be very clear. If people have been consuming my content and fantasy pros, will you find Save Flowers and my players to avoid article? Yes, because he was priced as a white receiver two. I don't want to pray a white receiver two price tag for him. If I get him as a wide receiver three,

and really this all comes down to like, we're talking about wide receivers that have a path, or at least a conceivable path. And when I go down with Flowers is, dude, sometimes we got to bet on the talent of these guys. And the talent can dictate a lot of different things, because as the season goes along, injuries do happen.

DeAndre Hopkins being another year older, what does he have left in the tank? Also, it's not like he's been a picture of health. Mark Andrews over the last two years has not been a picture of health. If one of those, like, if one of those obstacles gets cleared or heck, both them get wiped out the board,

Isaiah likely is not fully healthy. I don't even know if we see a version of that in this season. Then it's like, well, it's wheels up. It's Zay and it's Bateman, and he's going to get fed. And I'm not forecasting injuries and saying I want to,

those things to happen, but this all comes back to, is there a guy in that range where I could say the talent is, if the star is aligned and things happen in that offense, does he have the talent to do it? He absolutely has the talent to do it. He's got talent. Love the player. You will not hear me say a bad word about Zayflower as a player, just Zayflower is the fantasy investment. No, I get it. And that's why I would be crystal clear about this take where I'm at on him the fact of where he's at in my other content, I'm going to be very clear about how I'm framing this and the bet that people are drafting him and the path it would take to do this. Tom, let's go to your league winner hiding in plain sight.

This is beautiful. Just going to sit back and listen. Go ahead. No notes. It's George Pickens. And like, look, I haven't been in on George Pickens over the last couple of years. Like, look, disclaimer, obviously, I'm a Ravens fan. So there was plenty of reasons to want George Pickens to fail.

But Pickens has had nine games over 16 PPR points the last two years, which has been great. But he's also had 16 as wide receiver 43 or worse. And now the reason why I'm so high on him is because now he's going to Dallas, which isn't going to be this miserable passing offense which he's been in. Dallas were top three in passes per game last year. Pittsburgh were fourth bottom. 2023 when DAC was healthy. Dallas led the league.

Pittsburgh ranked 27th. Last time the DAC was fully healthy in 2023. he played the full season there. They led the league in points per game. Pittsburgh were 28th. And that's the Steelers way isn't about scoring lots of points. They don't want that. But the Cowboys, it's more ingrained in their bones.

They want to entertain. They want to, even when they're bad, there's something entertaining about the way that they can play. Among 31 wide receivers were 100 plus targets last year. He ranked 6th in yards after contact per reception. We know he is a dog. We know that when he's got the ball in his hands, he's going to fight for every single yard.

He was third in yards per reception, which is impressive. We know that he's going to be used downfield. We know how valuable those touches can be. But I also think that Dallas are going to use him more creatively, because I don't think that's something which Arthur Smith designs a good running game. He designs some interesting stuff, but I don't think he designs a good passing game. I don't think that Russell Wilson or Justin Fields were getting the best out of him. And people have spent a lot of time talking about the benefit to C.D. Lam that George Pickens is going to bring.

he's going to clear things out across the closer of the line of scrimmage to make it easier on him. But the benefit of C.D. Lamb to George Pickens is massive as well. And I think it's just going to be a very, very entertaining season for George Pickens. And I think we'll be sitting back in a few months time, wondering why George Pickens wasn't going higher. D. Bro, you obviously agree with this one.

I have George Pickens ranked as a top 15 wide receiver. I think that he is the NFC version of T. Higgins. I think that you look at this offense, Dak Prescott, C.D. Lamb, and George Pickens are going to be the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFC. I think Pickens is going to be awesome this year. And for all of the other parts of pieces that Tom laid out, which was a wonderful argument for Pickens, before the hamstring injury last year, he was top 20 in almost every metric that you could pull up.

You want to talk about volume, he's going to get it. You want to talk about talent, he's got it. You're going to talk about also he's playing in a contract year, baby. So if nothing else, money talks. I, yeah, I mean, this is like, I'm not quite there in terms of like talking about like a top 15 receiver the way I'm going to rank him. But yes, like the case, for me, like the interesting with Pickens is that like, you know, the reputation I think is as a boom bust receiver. Similar to Zay Flowers, he doesn't actually have that many boom weeks really on his resume. I think in his entire career, he's at like three games with over 20 fantasy points and half PPR scoring in the game or something like that.

I forget the exact stat. something along those lines. But it feels like with the situation change and everything, like, yeah, I'm very in on the Cowboys offense in general this year in terms of fantasy production. We were talking on an earlier show, Debrough, that I think will actually come out later than this one. But the way I put it is, I think the Cowboys are the Poor Man's Bengals and the Panthers are the Poor Man's Cowboys.

But they all kind of fit that same archetype, right, of these like Fantasy Circus teams we're looking at. And I think that the Cowboys are just a great investment, really all over the place for that reason. So we can go out to the next one. Oh, go ahead. Well, I wanted to do this really fast because there's three wide receivers that I am adamantly opposed to that are right above George Pickens, but I want to get y'all's thoughts on this. We're going to do, would you rather, really, really quickly. Barvin Arson Jr. or George Pickens? It's George Pickens. Okay. Tyree Kiel or George Pickens? Oh, it's George Pickens. All right. How about Garrett Wilson or

George Pickens? I think I'd probably still take Garrett Wilson, but I wouldn't like it. DK-Metka for George Pickens. The man that got out of an orther Smith offense versus the man in it. But again, those are three wide receivers that are all ranked in that bucket of 15 through 20 above George Pickens. And it's like, why? Marvin Harrison, Jr., I'm just kind of like personally, I'm opting out of the Marvin Harrison Jr. Oh, same. Let's just see what it looks like this year.

It's Drew Betzing and Kyler problem. I can't weigh in on this anymore. Yeah. Garrett Wilson, I do still like. But yeah, Tyreek and D.K. McCaff, easily I would take Pickett. there. I'm with you on that. Yep. All right, Debrough, give me your next league winner. Dude, this comes down to just, again, talent, opportunity, and can the, can the realistic realm of, like, appear if anything were to happen to A.J. Brown?

And that leads me to DeVant Smith, a guy that has been disrespectful because he's been so freaking good. He has lulled people to sleep. He has been dropping as a wide receiver three in some drafts and rankings. Yes, I see you all in ECR ranking him as a wide receiver three. It's blasphemous. Devontas Smith has been a wide receiver two over each of the last three seasons, wide receiver 15, 20, and 14 in fantasy points per game. And again, the way where he is a league winner in plain sight, you want to play the card of, in some spots you're drafting him in some places,

his ADP is a wide receiver three. Okay, that's ridiculous. So he's going to pay off even if AJ Brown stays healthy, because that's what he's done. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to throw more than they did last year. That is just simple regression. I'm not telling you how much they're going to throw him. It's going to be more because it was so legendarily low last year that is going to change.

And then we want to talk about AJ Brown. I love AJ Brown. But AJ Brown, there are risks when we hear reports of last year. Dude, they were draining his knee on multiple times, multiple occasions during the week. And he's another year older and more. hits absorbed. I'm not forecasting. I do not want to see A.J. Brown hurt or missing time. But if it happens, we've already seen what that looks like, people. Devante Smith last year and in one of these two games, and I know we're dealing with the small sample size, one of these two games,

Devonta Smith didn't even play the entirety of the game. But in the two games, he was on the field without A.J. Brown. Devante Smith had a 29.4% target share. He had 58% of the air yards. He had a 39% first read share and he scored 17.8 ppr points per game, which if he would have done that for the entirety of the season and I get it's a two game sample, sorry, I can't manufacture other games that AJ Brown didn't miss because he didn't miss any other games. So with this sample, 17.8 ppr points per game, people that would have qualified and equaled as the wide receiver eight last year. So I don't know how much more league winner we got to talk about, but that's it. Bit of a forgotten man. Like we talked earlier, Dibra, about how Corlund Sutton is

somebody that hasn't really come up on shows that much this year. I feel like Smith is also in that bucket where he's just like, yeah, he's ranked in the early 20s at receiver and everybody kind of knows he's number two in the offense and he's a good player in the offense and yada, yada, yada. And it's like, I just feel like there hasn't really been much conversation about him. So I'm happy to hear you kind of highlighting that like, no, he's not just like a known commodity. He is a real upside swing too if the circumstances, you know, really present himself that way, Tom.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I didn't write too much down for Devonda Smith because I just feel like it's always a very easy argument to write. Look, D-Brow said it. People don't appreciate how good he is. Huge contingent value of A.J. Brown misses time. But it's also Dallas Goddard, who has played 12 games, 14 games, and 10 games over the last three seasons.

So it feels like you get a spike out of whichever of the top three in this passing for all you, it is. Because it is very concentrated in Philadelphia. Like, why receive a three? It just doesn't matter. You don't need to worry yourself. about Jahan Dotton or whoever it is at the minute. And then in each of the last two seasons,

he's had seven games over 15 PPR points in both of them. To put that into further context, last year you look at, like, the top 26 QBs were all scoring over 15 points on average. Like, that's like basement replacement level for your QB2 in Superflex, a lot of the time, QB3 on a bad week.

That's what Devonter Smith gives you. It's just a really high ceiling, really good floor. And I don't care. about the arguments about the Eagles won't pass that much. Like, I just like having good players on my team sometimes. Tom, give me... Yeah, Tom, give me your last league winner hiding in plain sight.

So this is the one which a lot of people will find a difficult one, because some people, some people are afraid to take risks, and some people are afraid to have fun, and it's Travis Hunter. Like, look, there's no denying that this is an upside swing, and I get that it's not going to be for everybody. but like, particularly in home leagues, like, look, I've played a lot of fantasy contests. I've won some good money playing fantasy contests in big competitions. I've not won my home league in the last six, seven years.

I want to take swings. I need to shoot for upside. And Travis Hunter represents exactly the kind of guy who can do this. Everyone wants to get worried about, okay, well, he's going to play on defense, blah, blah, blah. Right. Trevor Lawrence's touchdown line is set at 22.5 this year. Now if Trevor Lawrence is out there struggling to score touchdowns, do we think that they're going to put the second best wide receiver on this team out there? I don't think that's why they brought Tim Patrick to the Jags.

I think that Liam Cohen is absolutely going to maximise what you get from Travis Hunter. Why? Because Liam Cohen is an offensive-minded coach. He came there. He drafted Travis Hunter. He gave up draft capital knowing that it's going to make his job harder in future years to do so. And I think he's going to put an emphasis on the screen game, which was so huge for the books last year. They were second with 91 screens. That's an easy way to top fantasy value. And when I watch Travis Sunderner, it's very similar to Devontersmith.

People start going, oh, okay, well, he's quite slim. Is he going to hold up? Maybe he will struggle a little bit on defense. But this guy won the Belintikov Award for Best Receiver in college. I've got every faith in him being fun for fantasy and a good fantasy football pick in 2025. I am one of those people who have been playing scared for most of the summer when it comes to Travis. One doesn't like fun.

It's official people. Well, here's the other thing. And we didn't name this player, and I think we could have, but a guy who could have been on this list as a league winner hiding in plain sight is his fellow top 10 rookie pick in Tetaroa McMillan. We've talked about him a lot. So I'm okay with us not including him. I have put a lot of my high-end rookie receiver investment, you know, hope and optimism and enthusiasm into McMillan instead of Hunter. There's room to do both, of course. But that is one reason why I've like not shied away, but like have just been less, you know, involved in Hunter.

But I think Hunter is actually like maybe the perfect answer for this question in terms of literally how we're defining it. Like could be a league winner. Like, again, number two overall pick, Uber talented, like opportunity, all that stuff. Hiding in plain sight. You are given cover by the fact that there is this uncertainty with the defensive usage and just like what he is going to look like in the NFL. That is keeping the ADP obviously lower than it would be if he was strictly an offensive player. Like, then there was never even any hint of any of the defensive stuff. And that is an opportunity to take a swing.

Like you laid out, Tom, and really like, like, again, you're not trying to finish fourth in your league, right? You're trying to finish first. Travis Hunter is a guy who, if it works, can do that. Yeah, and just also to just go further with it, it's like you can make an argument that, okay, like I love Brian Thomas. I thought it was phenomenal last year.

But his best play came with Mack Jones. Trevor Lawrence, like, he has been a bit conservative as a quarterback, and maybe Liam Cohen unlocks him. But what Liam Cohen also was really good at, sorry, what Trevor Lawrence has been reliable with was like peppering Christian Kirk over the last few years. If we see him latch on to Travis Hunter in that kind of role, then that could be massive for him. Maybe it doesn't happen quite like that, but I'm absolutely willing to lose my league taking a swing on Travis Hunter. Debra, where do you actually have Hunter ranked?

I have my wide receiver 25. I have him at 52nd overall right now in real-time ADP. He is wide receiver 31 and 74th overall. I am aggressively ahead because I am with everything that Tom laid out here. And the thing that goes down, ma'am, the Jacksonville Jaguars make this trade. You think they make that aggressive trade up for a freaking cornerback? No. That move is for a wide receiver. And for everybody that says, Travis Hunter's going to play so much corner this year.

All right, let's walk the schedule people. Tell me what helps this team more. A full-time wide receiver adding to an offense where outside of Brian Thomas Jr., Are you worried about Tim Patrick, Diami Brown, Parker, Washington, Brenton Strange? None of these guys are going to command over a 15 to 18% target share,

even in the best of circumstances. But you walk this schedule. What's helping them the most? A part-time wide receiver, part-time cornerback, or adding one cornerback to this defense, when you play the Cincinnati Bengals, you play Houston,

you play the 49ers, the Chiefs, the Rams, Houston again, the Chargers, the Cardinals, Denver, you play all of those different teams. Is a part-time cornerback going to help them stop teams from scoring enough? Or do you think they need a full-time wide receiver to the offense to outscore teams? They need a wide receiver. They need firepower.

You make the move up the board aggressively because you believe he's a wide receiver, you believe he's a difference maker, and you need the. that for your offense. So I'm with Tom on all the parts of pieces here. Travis Hunter or Zay Flowers? I mean, I have Travis Hunter ranked ahead as A-Flowers, so Travis Hunter. I'm just say Flowers, but it's very close. It's like literally back-to-back. We're going to do a little bit of a mailbag here. Just a quick short one. I solicited some questions from folks on Twitter of their own wide receiver breakout, so we'll see what they say

and what we think about those answers. These questions came from Twitter, but if you want faster replies for your questions, you can head to our Discord to chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Our current schedule looks like this. Myself and Fitz at 5 Eastern on the first Tuesday of every month. Bogman and Fits at 5 Eastern on the third Tuesday of every month and Welsh and Erickson Thursdays at 2 Eastern. Come get your questions answered and be on the show at Fantasyprose.com slash chat. And guys, I know what I just read about like, oh, we're going to see what these people say. Every single submission. We didn't get that many.

this time of year, you know, people are busy. Every single submission was a name we talked about on the show. It was George Bickens. It was Emeka Akbuka. It was Ricky Piersall. It was Travis Hunter. So the folks are agreeing with us. We don't need to weigh in necessarily on those submissions because obviously we already did.

I did get a mailback question DM to me that I want to bring up here. This comes from Jack. He was wondering what we're doing with players like Cedric Tillman, who, as he defines it, pure hype players, but who I've had limited results. far. So those guys like Cedric Tillman, Dibro, what are you doing with him in drafts? I'm out on Cedric Tillman. I am so far out on Cedure Tillman. The counting stats in the raw box score filling was all because Cleveland ran so many freaking plays. Like in that stint where he was awesome, they ranked third in passing attempts and second in passing rate.

So all of that, all of that wonderful volume perfume is covering. up for a guy that in that stretch had 1.71 yards per route run 0.078 first downs per route run. He was 80 second in separation 90th and route win rate. It was just a perfect storm for Cedric Tillman. So I am out. And what I do with a lot of those guys, it comes down to like, this goes back to process and how I break down guys. And when I'm writing them up and looking at their analytics and stuff like that. That's where it helps to clarify things. So when I was writing up the top 250,

players like Keon Coleman, fully out. Cedric Tillman, I am out. Marquis, Hollywood, Brown. Again, all of these guys that are like back of the, you know, final round picks for people, count me out on all of them because all of the metrics are horrible. Tom?

So I'm currently more interested in Tillman than I'm in Judy. and it kind of links back to a lot of what Debrough was saying that I think the period when people are holding up Judy's ADP is to a period which we're not necessarily going to see. I think that people are expecting too much from Joe Flacco. Like Joe Flacco was bad enough last year that he got benched for the Colts and people seemed to forget that he didn't play in week 17. It was Anthony Richardson.

He was averaging three sacks per game, 1.2 interceptions per game. That's stuff that kills drives, that's the stuff that gets you benched. Now, I think that there's enough there that Tillman, I'm okay taking the shot because Tillman is so much cheaper than Jerry Judy. But on the whole, yeah, I've been avoiding the Cleveland wide receivers in general. All right, we'll go ahead and wrap things up there. Thanks everybody for checking out our wide receiver breakout candidates for Debrough. And Tom, I'm Ryan Wormley. Thanks for tuning in.

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