The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - The ONLY Wide Receivers You Need in Your 2026 Fantasy Football Drafts | Round-By-Round Targets (Ep. 1988)

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Join Ryan Wormeli, Andrew Erickson, and Jake Ciely as they highlight their favorite wide receiver targets in each round of 2026 fantasy football drafts! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 Justin Jefferson - 0:05:15 Chris Olave - 0:10:12 Tailgate Podcast - 0:14:04 Rashee Rice - 0:14:40 Davante Adams - 0:19:41 Hard Rock Bet - 0:24:05 Jaylen Waddle - 0:25:37 DJ Moore - 0:33:25 FantasyPros Discord - 0:38:25 Marvin Harrison Jr. - 0:38:53 Ricky Pearsall - 0:43:25 Wan’Dale Robinson - 0:47:08 Jayden Higgins - 0:49:36 Josh Downs - 0:52:56 Romeo Doubs - 0:55:01 Outro - 1:00:03 Helpful Links: Hard Rock Bet - All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet. Hard Rock Bet is giving out $25 Bonus Bets throughout the tournament if a team you bet to win or cover hits a buzzer beater. If you haven’t joined Hard Rock Bet yet, now’s the time to check in the game. New signups can double their winnings on their first ten bets – max fifty dollars. That means if you would’ve won a hundred bucks on your bet, now it’s two hundred. Head over to Hard Rock Bet, sign up and make your first deposit today. Payable in bonus bet(s). Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in FL. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital, LLC, in all other states. Must be 21+ and physically present in AZ, CO, FL, IL, IN, MI, NJ, OH, TN or VA to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling? In FL, call 1-833-PLAYWISE. In IN, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9-WITH-IT. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER (AZ, CO, IL, MI, NJ, OH, TN, VA). Follow us on Twitch - The team here at FantasyPros is taking questions all week, every week on Twitch. 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 Pros football podcast. I'm Ryan warmly, joined by Andrew Erickson and Jake Seeley from The Athletic. We are talking wide receivers to draft in every single round of your drafts. Taking an early look at one of the backbone positions of your fantasy teams. There was a running backs version of this episode last week. We're now doing the wide receiver version of it here this week. Jake, before you jump in, what do you got going on at the Athletic? Any draft stuff this time? year? It's been done. It's just that time of year where it's like, yeah, you sit back and

me like, man, this is, I just wait for the draft like everybody else. So, updated the biggest movers from free agency in the ranks, which is fun because we're actually talking about a lot of them on these shows when we did the running back show. But other than that, yeah, the smash up rookie comparisons that I love to do, even if nobody else does, has been out for a few weeks. I got done early this year. I gave myself too much leeway in this offseason, which is good because things like what Andrew wanted to talk about at the top of the show is I'm beyond excited about and I don't know what the hell you were doing that you weren't paying attention to this because I don't know how you missed it. I'm so glad that Andrew brought it up.

Yeah, yeah, I'll just let you take it away, Eric's. Worm, did you not grow up with video games in your life? Man? Like, no Legend of Zelda, never heard of what's the Star Fox? I mean, the fans have been clamoring for anything Star Fox related for years and years and years and years since they put out that atrocity, which was Star Fox Zero. Oh my God. Yeah, a total zero of a game.

That's what it was. So, yeah, come on. Come on. My only familiarity with Star Fox was in Super Smash Brothers. Yes. And you know, you could play at like the castle from Zelda was like a map you could play at. And like so in that point of view, like, you have zero Zelda experience?

I have played zero minutes of Zelda in my entire life. I had a Game Boy. I thought the Taco Bell and the other stuff were issues with you, but holy. I wasn't really allowed to do a lot of video games growing up just from my parents. They're very stereotypical. Like it's going to rot your brain, all that stuff. So I only ever played video games at Friends House. The one kind of game system I was allowed to have growing up was a Game Boy, but I was only, it's not that I was only allowed to.

I only wanted to play Pokemon. I was all in on like, Pokemon yellow version is the one I had. I loved playing that on the Game Boy would last for hours. I just never once even bothered to try Zelda or had it offered to me in any way. You do rectify this. Like, they are re-released,

arguably, I actually have a 1A, 1B. I link to the past is my favorite. Ocarina Time is like 1B to 1A. I know Ocarina Time is everybody's favorite. Like, I've just slightly different.

Again, generation when you grew up. But, dude, when this gets re-released, you just go play this so please like you i'm assuming you have a switch right like that's why like no you don't even have a switch don't i don't even know actually i didn't even play Pokemon outside of stadium but i played za i've actually been playing za so there you can reference on that one there

like for worm in his sheltered life i thought i was sheltered i wasn't allowed to watch he man growing up because the power of gray school like so i thought i was the sheltered one i did i did get to play sports video games. So like I had like backyard baseball 2001 is like maybe my most late computer game of all that's redeeming you a little bit. That that was the big one for me. I had like mad in 06 and 08. At that point I was getting to like middle school, high school. So yeah. But Ericson, you're excited about it. I logged so I logged so many hours in backyard baseball and I don't even know if I had the actual game. I got the game or a CD ROM with in a cereal box. Yeah. Where you got like a thousand free hours.

of backyard baseball and I just constantly played and I was like a thousand hours. That's basically like forever. Like when you're a kid like you see that number and you think this is infinite amount of time. So I never actually had the real game. The game of backyard baseball and we'll get to the show quickly here. The game of back year baseball that I had, you could do like little previews of like it was like put putt, putt travels through time and pajama Sam and these other ones. But it also had a little preview of backyard football, which was really fun.

But I could only play like a two. minute game over and over again. I couldn't actually do the whole game. So it's kind of like a sort of limitation there that they gave you and I never owned the full game. But yeah, backyard baseball. I had backyard basketball, backyard hockey. The backyard sports franchises like goaded. It's one of the I almost bought just for it would have been such a waste of money.

They came out with the bats for base backyard baseball. I almost bought the Pablo Sanchez bat and I'm just like, what am I going to do with this? Like it's $300. Like no, this is odd. That's so worth it. All right. Well, let's talk about steals. Let's try and identify some players here that we're going to find as good values in every round of your draft. We're looking at wide receivers, like I said. Thanks everybody for bearing with us at the beginning of the show. All of our 2026 consensus rankings and tears can be found at fantasy

pros.com slash rankings. Those are already getting updated for the season, even though it's still several months away. It moves quickly. We will be there in no time and talking, you know, actual drafts here very, very soon, much sooner than you think. So be checking out those rankings now as they update throughout the offseason. We're going to go round by round. You guys are going to alternate. have taken six rounds. So we're going to go through 12 total. We'll start off right at the very top in round one. Erickson, who is the wide receiver that you are targeting in round one?

Going with Justin Jefferson. He is the wide receiver six in terms of the ECR rank, 11th overall. I have him as my wide receiver five because I'm confident or more confident in the quarterback play for Minnesota this year than what we saw last year. Because I think that we all collectively need to do what happens in men in black, where you have the neuralizer, where you look at it, you completely forget what happened.

And that's what we need to do with what we saw with Justin Jefferson playing with J.J. McCarthy last year. I want to erase it from my mind because I don't think there's a scenario or it's the last ditch effort for the Minnesota Vikings that we're going to see that scenario play out again

where McCarthy is the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. It's going to be Kyle Murray. And if Kyle Murray doesn't work out, well, they brought back Carson Wentz. And five games with Carson Wentz last year, Justin Jefferson averaged 95 receiving yards per game, but he scored zero touchdowns. So although the fantasy splits aren't super, super strong, the guardage is there.

That's more predictive of the talent of Justin Jefferson. He's still a top five guy, if not a top three player. He's never finished worse than Fantasy's wide receiver six in a full season despite the efforts from last year, right? That was the one year. Last year looks like such an outlier. When you look at Jefferson's collective body of work, an NFL wide receiver. And when he didn't have a veteran quarterback, that's when he suffered the most with basically

a glorified rookie in J.J. McCarthy last year in his 10th start. So I think that he is a round one layup where if you're picking at the end of round one, Justin Jefferson, I think is a absolute great pick. I wanted to ask specifically with Kyler, like, not that Marvin Harrison, Jr. is the player that Justin Jefferson is, but like we've seen like the prototypical ex-receiver, like not click very well with Kyler, given the way. Tyler plays the position. So I know, I know like in a vacuum, it's just like, hey, this, whoever this person is,

if it's not JJ McCarthy, this is just a massive step up from what Jefferson had last year. Do you have any concerns about Kyler being a good fit for Jefferson in fantasy and just the way he plays the position? I think there are some concerns with it, but it's also such a bigger improvement, I think, from McCarthy, where I'm willing to take on that risk. and Marvin Harrison, Jr. obviously didn't work out with Kyle Murray, but you know who did? DeAndre Hopkins. A established veteran who had put up big fantasy numbers before. So when you're making the comparison of who is Justin Jefferson more like? Is he more like a veteran DeAndre Hopkins still operating

at the peak of his powers? Or Marvin Harrison, Jr., who was entering the NFL as a rookie in second season, where the first year it was, Kyle Murray, what is he saying in the first thing after the first game Marvin Harveston Jr. played. It's not my job to get the ball to Marmarrison Jr. Kyle Murray said that. Do you think he's saying that in Minnesota? I think that he realizes my job is to get the ball to Johnson Jefferson because I want to get paid. I want to get a contract extension with another team if it's not Minnesota. So look, Tyler Murray's been humbled, I think, in terms of getting cut from the Arizona Cardinals, they got rid of him after they paid him. He has to show up in Minnesota. And I think that he's going to be put in a position to do so with the

weapons he has. And I think it's just simple as, hey, pitch and catch with Justin Jefferson. I think he can get it done. So that's why I like Jefferson as a end of round one pick. Jake, in this range at the end of round one, if you look at the overall, you know, updated rankings, Jefferson's the only wide receiver in amongst the last four picks in the first round. It's Jonathan Taylor, James Cook, Justin Jefferson, Devon, A. Chan. Do you like going with a receiver here? Or would you rather take one of these running backs if you're picking at the end of the first round? Both. Why not both? Giff?

Because it's funny. I actually have Jefferson at 12, the very last pick of the first round. I wouldn't mind if it ends up like maybe C.D. Lamb slides back and because people are concerned that Pickens had such a good year. Or maybe I'm trying to think who else might be there. Y receiver wise. But oh, my pick. You can reach if you want to make sure you get him in the second round when we talk about him. I don't mind going Y receiver, Y receiver, but I think you'll have the opportunity to be able to do both like a Jefferson, Gen D, Jefferson, A. Chan, something like that.

even Jefferson Hampton at the turn. I think you're setting yourself up with a very high-end wide-resc. They're both tier two, actually, the running backs that I'm bringing up, and Justin Jefferson is in tier two for me of the wide receivers because it's such a small tier one with Smith and Jigba, Pukunakua, and Jamar Chase. So you're getting two elite tier two options at the turn, and I wouldn't have a problem doing that. And I'm glad that Erickson brought up Hopkins because that was going to be my point.

He was top five in 2020 with Kyler Murray. And to be fair, more of a lot of it. Harrison is still top 30. It like wasn't miserable. I think a lot of it was the expectation of Marvin Harrison as a whole too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jake, you mentioned your player here in round two. Some of you might even be willing to reach for early in the round. Let's get to that player. Now, who are you taking in round two amongst the receivers? Yeah, I'm a top 20 overall. It's Chris Olive. And really, like Chris Alave, similar to a lot of high-estate-wide receivers, we kind of get caught in this. They're just so good. We get tired of them in college and then look for other options. Or we

see him in the NFL and they produce so well. It's just like, well, you know, it's cool. They're kind of boring or whatever it might be. But we were waiting for Chris Olavé to put the touchdowns to it. And if you look at it, with Tyler Shook took over in week eight, Chris Alavi, why was your five in fantasy points per game at 15.15.1? And that same time, he was top 10 in team target percentage. Top 10, when I bring this up, because it's a bad one, but he's top 10 in off target percentage and the fact that Shook was still off target. Like he was actually almost twice as much or actually twice as frequently off target than Spencer Rattler, but it's the way that Shook plays with Alavi. It's the downfield attempts. It's the yards per target. Touchdown percentage,

air yards, receptions of 20 plus. Every single stat that we want for fantasy purposes with our quarterbacks was markedly better than it was with Rattler. And if you look at Alave, the air yards per target kind of go back to his first two years. And then the offset of that of like, okay, well, he had that added on with Shook. And what was the big difference is the touchdowns added. I know they're talking about whether or not they're drafting a Y receiver because they're still a void really next to Alave. But Alave is so good that I'm not concerned about it. This is one of those arguments where you could see. It's kind of like the chicken and egg. Like, oh, a better talent next to him might take some of the targets away. And then you go, well, the better target next to him

might free him more. I don't care which way it goes. Chris Alave with Tyler Shuck is one of the better connections we saw in the second half of the season. And that was Shook's first attempt in the NFL playing. I know he's an old rookie, but first, he was still rookie, first attempt in the NFL for half of the season and the connections immediately there in the ways that we want to see it. So round two, sign me up for Alave all day long. Erickson, Alave, you know, late round two, like 23rd overall, watchiever 11. If draft, you know, kind of order were to hold exactly based on ECR right now, that would

mean pairing him with a first round pick of like, Jamir Gibbs. Do you like the idea of going with, you know, one of these elite running backs early in in round one and then Alave late in round two? Alave is not my favorite wide receiver in that range. There's a couple guys. I prefer a little bit more, so I'm a little bit lower than Olave compared to Jake and the ECR. Because I want to see how things shake out in Philly.

I think that you could make an argument, Devante Smith, without AJ Brown and Eagles' offense. I think I might prefer him over Olave. I also like Zayflowers. more than Chris Olavé. So I think that he's fine where he's priced, but I still think that Shuck, older prospect entering. I do have concerns about what his ceiling is.

Like, can he get an extra gear with this in the Kalamore offense? So that's kind of where I get concerned. But I understand the thesis of the play of it. Yeah, stacking together your favorite wide receiver, whether it is Olave, again, I like flowers with a running back. I think makes a lot of sense. Do you like that pairing that? that pairing that I threw out, Jake,

in terms of like one of those elite running backs early in Alave? Or would you rather even be interested in something like, like if you took Puka early in round one and then pairing him with Alave, just getting two receivers off the bat? What kind of start would you prefer if you're getting a lave in round two? I mean, if we're talking video games

that we can put like the overlay on my eyes. I don't know if you saw it, but my eyes lit up with the sparkles. Like if you put the stars going through it, like 100,000 percent, I would be all over that. If I could get puka in Alave to start and start with my running back round three, by the way, when we did that show

and then throw in Derek Henry in round three, which is still absurd. Like, please, and Gibbs and M. Bejan in it, like, sign me up for that to start. Like, give me that start right now. Like, just give it to me, and I will take it all day long. We're talking ECR and personal fantasy rankings

on this show, but if you want real world discussions on the NFL, it's time to subscribe to the tailgate on YouTube or follow the tailgate podcast wherever you listen to pods. The tailgate isn't a fantasy channel. We'll go beyond the box score to cover the NFL draft. The roster moves that actually move the needle,

both on offense and defense and the big picture NFL stories that define the league. So come out of the fantasy war room and park it here on the tailgate for the news takes. And the real world football talk you won't hear on a fantasy show.

Just search Tailgate NFL channel on YouTube and hit subscribe or find the tailgate on your favorite podcast app. Let's go to round three here, guys. Erickson, what receiver are you looking at here? Looking at Rashi Rice. He is the wide receiver 12

in the ECR. I have him as wide receiver 10. and it's just kind of betting on the range of outcomes for Rashi Rice going in your favor, where there's a scenario where he doesn't get suspended. Patrick Mahomes looks better coming off of his torn ACL, and he drastically beats wide receiver 12 ECR, because last year he was a top five wide receiver and points per game during his truncated season. I mean, he was a red zone monster.

He was seventh overall in red zone targets, and he played eight games. So I understand why the Rice ranking is what it is, because there's concern about, well, when they get suspended? What's my home going to look like coming off of his ACL injury? Well, at least from the suspension perspective, I know that Drew Davenport does a lot of great work when it comes to the legalities of players and potential suspensions. And everything that he has suggested has said that it's probably going to be something

that it's 2027. And at that point, Russia Rice is going to be a free agent. And it's not going to be the chief's problem because he may not even be on the team. So Kansas City, I think, is going to try to push this, like, Basically, what happens with most of these players is everything gets pushed another year later. So I think that Rice right now is a value where he's going because if you look up in week one, Mahomes is starting, Rashi Rice is out there. He's not suspended.

Then I think he's going to drastically beat this ECR rank at wide receiver 12. Obviously, it does come with a ton of risks because there's a chance that doesn't work out. But in round three, I want to shoot for some upside here. And I think Rice has that, especially based on he's not coming off an injury anymore like he was last year. and I mean, top five and points per game. Jake, I feel like, I'm not going to blame anybody who just says, like, listen, round three, it's too much risk. I'm not going to be the guy to take that swing on Rice.

If he was like a round five or six player, then yeah, there's such clear upside. Like, of course you want to take a swing. But go, and he's 26th overall. So like very early in round three, if anybody just stares at that and says, I just, I need to let somebody else be the one to take that risk on him. I won't blame them. How do you feel about Rice, right now. Right now, completely different only because, I mean, you said 26 overall,

that's around where I have a wide receiver. Just because if I'm drafting today, like, I'll take Jalen Waddle even in Denver. I'll take Jameson, Terry McLaren, or Roman Dunes. Like, I just, I'll take people that I know are playing in week one, and I know their quarterback is playing in week one. I don't disagree with anything that Andrews said. It's just, we are talking now in March. We're way out from almost April, depending on when you're watching this. it's way off in the future of whether or not he is suspended, you know, multiple, so I know like it could be cleared. But, I mean, this is not the first time he's been in trouble? Is Patrick Mahomes healthy for week one?

Is Patrick Mahomes even 100% for week one? Just a lot of questions. If we knew both, he's not suspended and we knew Patrick Mohomes was even 90% for week one and 100% by the end of September, 100%. Andrew's right. He's a wide receiver one. It's just as of today, I wouldn't take that risk in March and April. Right now, I think I'd rather have Tederoa McMillan. who's also a round three pick in early ECR.

Do you agree with that, Jake? Or would you rather have Rice over the second year receiver? Oh, yeah. Tats like 12 spots in front of them. My next guy is in front of them. It's just, again, it's because we're talking today. It's nothing that Andrews said I disagree with, unlike some of the other things, like the Zayflowers take.

But this one, it's 100% as of today. Every time the three of us do a show, I feel like we always have to have an argument about Zayflowers. It's a given. Well, I did want to ask, Eric said because you mentioned his name earlier, he's obviously not in this ECR, not until round four.

Would you rather have Zay or Rishi Rice? Today. Today? Probably Zay Flowers then. I guess you have to express some type of conservative approach with Rice. I guess for me, it's kind of my best ball mind where I'm thinking just go bigger, go home.

Yeah. And Rice, every time you do a best ball draft or any of these draft, who's always at the top the Q and always falls is Rashi Rice, right? Every single time. So there are ways where you can get him where he does fall in a round four because there's just so much ambiguity. But I think by the time, I guess I'm just based on the information that we have now, I do think it's more likely that he isn't actually suspended and that Holmes does come back. I don't want to bet against Patrick Burham's. He is one of these players that super special athlete that I think that he's going to come back

and maybe not look 100%. But, The way that he attacks everything, the way that he's attacking his rehab, he's probably rehabbing right now, I'm just very confident that he's going to come back and at least be able to feature and fuel Rice to success. You would think if he's limited to that Rice is the type of player that would be really helpful to him coming back from the injury and can, you know, make plays after the catch and things like that. So would seem to be a good fit for what you would expect out of an early return from injury,

Patrick Mahomes. Let's go to round four. Jake, who's your receiver here? Yeah, this one is definitely as a. today too because as we were getting ready for this yesterday, our little rumor floated out that the team might be considering trading him, which was kind of weird to see, especially when they were originally going after wide receivers. But in any case, Devante Adams is a RAM as of today. Devante Adams for the Rams last year. By the way, through week 15, three more touchdowns than

any other player, wide receiver or tight end. Through week 16, three more. 17, three more. 18, three more. Why I say that is because week 15 is when he left and didn't play for the rest of season until the playoffs. And he's still finished with three more than anybody. But here's the best part about it. Only McBride and a mile around St. Brown had more red zone targets than him. Again, missed the final three games. He had 31. They had 32 and 34. But I want to take that a step further because he had 28 end zone targets. The next closest, again, despite missing those three games, is 18. He had 10 more than anybody else in three fewer games. That's Pickens of McBride. that had 18. He had 28 end zone targets. He is Matthew Stafford go-to in the red zone,

especially end zone. And as long as they're all back together next year, there's no reason he can't finish as a wide receiver one again. But the best part about that is you don't have to take that risk. You don't have to take them as a wide receiver two at the high end. You get them all the way in round four in the mid tier of Y receiver two's. I don't know, maybe that's the concern that we have some of these rankings that maybe we're done before we knew Stafford was 100% coming back maybe before we knew 100% that these rumors and the trade and all that type of stuff. But in any case, there's no reason that I see Devante Adams isn't a back-end Y receiver one with this team back together.

Erickson, I feel like every summer I hear you talk about red zone targets when discussing receivers and fantasy more than anyone. Does that mean that you would agree here with Jake in being excited about Devante? By the way, technically in ECR is 36th overall. So right at the end of round three, you could call it at the top around four. It was 37 when I pulled it up. I know, I know. So I just wanted to throw it out there so people, if they went and looked at it.

I got in somebody's ear, apparently. Yes. But yeah, wide receiver 17, 36 overall technically right now, but was at the top of route for when we put this together. Erickson, what do you think? Yeah, I don't like Devante Adams next year. So this is where I very much disagree. I don't like touchdowns.

I don't like touchdowns. So here's my issue with Devante Adams. from the efficiency standpoint, he showed a lot of signs of decline. Career low catch rate. Career lowing guards out to the catch. He's turning 33. He also missed time. Again, he was still producing before that, but missed time to a lower body injury.

I don't think that that improves as a player gets older. So to me, especially with the rumors again, trade, what have you not. I think that he's still probably going to be on the Rams, but I think they're going to draft a wide receiver pretty high. You look at a lot of the mock drafts, it's Mackay Lemon. to the Rams. It's Jordan Tyson to the Rams. Okay, now you're adding in a third pass catcher to go along with the 12,000 tight ends that the Rams like to deploy. They're going to be introducing 14 personnel, which I didn't even know was a thing. They're going to have a million

tight ends on the field. And the thing with me of him replicating touchdowns, Adams has always been a touchdown guy, whether it was with Aaron Rogers in Green Bay or New York, and even with the Las Vegas Raiders, he's always been a super present force in the rest. Red Zone. Is Matthew Stafford going to throw as many touchdown he did last year when he won the MVP? I think that last year, McVeigh was making it a focal point. Like, we want to get Stafford the MVP. We're jamming targets to DeMonte Adams in the Red Zone to make sure he gets the MVP. I don't know if that's the case here where it's more about we just need to keep Matthew Stafford healthy throughout the season. And we know we can make a run at the Super Bowl. So I think that might cause a reduction. So if he goes

from 15 scores to eight touchdowns, again, it's still a good amount. But that's a good amount. But that's half of the touchdowns, basically he scored from a year prior. Now, also layering all the efficiency marks that fell off and maybe additional competition in the form of a new wide receiver. So he's probably, I mean, the reason he's so low in ECR is probably because of me, because I have him pretty buried. I'm not drafting Devante Adams because I have more concerns about him just not being on a replicate last year's production.

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Play-wise in Indiana. If you are someone you know as a gambling problem wants help, call 1-800-9 with it. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, 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. First people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special.

So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast. We could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, NL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Guys, we've had a lot of disagreements so far on the show. I love it. Very fun this time of year to already be arguing about players. Let's go to round of five, Erickson, who is your receiver? death tax is death taxes and me liking jaylon wattle in fantasy football we're going to run it back

one more time so waddle for me is my value here he is in the eCR wide receiver 24 i have him wide receiver 20 and when he first got traded to denver i kind of was not exactly sure how i felt about it whether it was like a major upgrade or major downgrade but then as i kind of like let my thoughts kind of fester a little bit more about how this is really good for Jay and LaWattle. It just comes to the point where, okay, he's in an offense that is going to throw the ball significantly more than they were doing in Miami last year and what Miami forecasts to do this season.

So even though he may not be as clear cut as the number one alpha wide receiver in Miami's offense versus the Broncos offense who just have a lot of mouths to feed Sean Payton loves to feature different players and have a limited route participation for some of these wide outs. I do think that just the fact that they throw so much more is actually going to benefit Jay and LaWattle. So I think that he could still see a good chunk of volume in the Broncos offense. And he wins with efficiency. Jaylon Waddle has been one of the most super efficient wide receivers in the NFL last year, despite the limited volume. He was still 13th and yards per route run, ninth and PFF receiving grade. He's only 27 years old, so still young. And he's out of the shadow of

Tyree Kill. I mean, part of the reason why he hasn't popped up more is because he's been competing for targets with an elite level player in Tyree Kill when he was healthy. So we've seen a pretty large sample size of Jaylon Waddle operate without Tyree Kill, just whether it's because Hill was limited. Obviously, he missed some games last year. And at the beginning of the year, when they were throwing the ball a little bit more before they just kind of really limited to as a passer, Waddle was averaging 68 receiving yards per game. He topped 82 yards in 5 to 11 games in 2025, average seven plus targets per game. And then I also came to the idea that I think Cortland's son is really starting to lose that alpha in his game.

Because last year we saw Troy Franklin see more usage than Cortland's son in this Denver Broncos offense. And Troy Franklin didn't take nearly as full advantage of it like he should have. You looked at targets. We were having conversations. I remember on the weekly rank show of, well, who is the Denver Broncos number one wide receiver? And when it just came to like raw volume, Troy Franklin was actually seeing a ton of more. volume than Cortland Sutton was at times. So if we're now shifting those types of usage to Jalen Waddle, who's superficient,

I think that you could really see him pop off here and have a top 15 type of finish. So where you're getting him as a wide receiver two for a player that we know is super talented, gets a quarterback upgrade, offensive environment upgrade, and there's concerns about, well, there's too many malice to feed. I like buying into him having a big season. So I really like Jailen Waddle where he's going as a value. You said a lot of really smart things there. It's a compelling case.

But at the same time, all I'm hearing is one of the more frustrating receivers in fantasy that you have gotten to the mat for multiple times, now paired with maybe the most frustrating play caller for fantasy managers. But he's not calling plays anymore. That's true. That's a great counter. So that can be our saving grace where it's Davis. You don't know what Webb's play conglary.

It's a great counter. But at first glance, what I hear is a Sean Payton offense at Jalen Waddle and a top 50 pick and it's just hard for me to feel confident in that. It's a good point about Faiton, that Colleg plays. Jake, you mentioned Waddle earlier when we were talking about Rishi Rice as like a comparison. Was that because you like Waddle or are using him as an example to show how much you dislike rice? It was more the rice side of things because like for everybody on the podcast, you're not, go check the video, but like I felt like doing that GIF where I'm that guy and just like

standing here behind the wall getting ready to jump in on this one because Erickson comes for Adams, and yet we want to argue for a quarterback that through 21 fewer touchdowns than Matthew Staffer. So even a Stafford takes a downtick. We're trying to get Bo Nix to uptick that far. By the way, Waddle's best season, year two in touchdowns receiving is what he wanted to give Devante Adams this year is eight, by the way. The next part about it, how about the fact that Waddle has only surpassed Devonte Adams' worst fancy points, worst fancy points per game season since he took over as a full-time starter in year three. He's only surpass that once. And you're talking about Devante Adams and being hurt with Jailow Waddle's hurt

every damn year. And it's soft tissue continually soft tissue. He's turning into Julio Jones where does he even finish the game or is he back on the sideline? All that being said, I don't hate it that much, Erickson, as I just came for you on that one. I have him in the next round and I would take him in the next round a lot of times alongside if my other option is already gone that I don't want to give away just yet. So I don't hate the pick. I just hate the fact that he just came for Devonte Adams and won't support Jalen Waddle this much. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, and I would say like even to the point about like Bo Nix and like how many more touchdowns behind Staffordy was like it's going to be an upgrade on the last couple of years of Tua for sure like at the very minimum even if. Oh, no question about it.

You used to just. Yeah. Like it's. If it was the Broncos no Sutton a hundred percent like two rounds earlier. But and I actually, that's one where I do agree with Erickson is I think that Sutton is kind of passing the point of being that clear he is the number one. I argued that Jalen Waddle saw an uptick. For that column I was talking about the biggest 10 risers in my ranks, Jailen Waddle was one of them because I'd actually prefer him as the 1B to Sutton or the 1A.

Like they're going to share very closely throughout the entire year. I prefer him in this situation than Malik Willis and hopefully being able to do something throwing only to Waddle and nobody else. And I know people will argue for the targets there. I just think it's going to be coming better from this offense with Bo Nix. So I do agree with Erickson in some ways. I'm just not going to go to, like, as you referenced, to go to the mat. I'm not going to go to the mat for somebody who can't stay from messing up his legs every single year at this point.

It's so frustrating. I actually hope he's right. And finally, we get the Waddle we saw in year two of his career. And just confirming based on what you guys have said, like Sutton is the 63 overall player. You would rather have Waddle at 50 than Sutton at 63. I have them back to back. Oh, you have back to back. I think, I think Erickson's got a bigger gap than I do, but I have them back to back.

Yeah. I would rather have Waddle. I have concerns about the way that the offense operated last year where Sutton wasn't dominating as the alpha. Like there were times where he would come back and have productive games, but a little bit more touchdown dependent. And to the point with Waddle in terms of his touchdown upside last year, the Broncos had two receivers ranked inside the top 12 and Red So Franklin and Cortin's line were both top 12 guys. So part of Jalen and Waddle and why he hasn't scored touchdowns, look at his red zone targets. they're non-existent in Miami. He never has been a red zone guy.

Does that shift, especially with, okay, I'm not really concerned about Troy Franklin having a big role in this offense. If Waddle can take on those red zone targets, those two-point conversion attempts, then I could see him having a career year in terms of touchdown receptions. My biggest issue with this, sorry, Warren, I was going to say my biggest issue in this round is I would just take Abuka all day long around five. That's all, that's really what it comes down to as well. Yeah, Buka is a wide receiver 27. I liked the Bucca.

This was probably, again, to layer another thing when talking about round five, I liked a lot of the wide receivers here. There are a lot. There are a lot. Tougher one, whether it's, so Demonte Smith, Egbuka, like Jake said, Mike Evans, I think is going to be productive till his hamstring falls off the bone, Christian Watts. Like, like there are a lot of good wide receiver options here.

So if you're waiting on wide receiver a little bit, round five is a good area to strike. Yeah. Yeah. So around six, Jake. And you could do it around six, too, because there's a lot of options. And then one of my favorites, and this is going to change. I feel like I said, a lot of people might haven't updated their rankings since the trade happened.

But DJ Moore, around six is criminal. And I feel like this is going to be one of the ones where I don't, I haven't gone to the mat that much. I used to be the JJ Moore hater at the beginning of his career because I would always rank him right around where I receiver 18 because it's like he's going to finish as a top 10 wide receiver or 37th every single week. Like, just don't try to predict him, rank him as a wide receiver two, and that's okay, back when he was with the Panthers. And then everybody called me the hater, but like, I'm out. I've come full around because he's going to the bills.

He's going to the bills, by the way, coming from two years ago with Justin Fields and Tyson Badgant, by the way, he was wide receiver seven and fantasy points per game at 14.1. He had 1300 plus yards and eight touchdowns. He would have been wide receiver seven in fantasy points per game last year. That's how wide receivers kind of fell off last year and that we had that real. top tier and that a lot of that mix of inconsistency. But the biggest part about it is that he's going to a team that has needed the number one, hasn't seen Josh Allen throw over 100 targets, hasn't happened since he has Stefan Diggs and 2023 when he threw to him 160 times.

And I don't need him throw him to Stefan Diggs or Stefan Diggs to DJ Moore to see the 160 targets. Just treated as his number one. Diggs that year had 28 plus-ish team percentage of the targets, 29.4, by the way, for DJ Moore last year, despite the fact that he saw all that share. And that's what I like also is that we saw DJ Moore last year used more in the slot than we had previously. It's where Stefan Diggs was used almost the exact same percentage back in 2023 with the bills and that role that he's going to fill in the highest air yards per target since the Panthers is actually surprisingly

last year from that role for DJ Moore, which is what he's going to be able to replicate for the bills. We've been wanting the bills to do this for how long since they've lost Stefan Diggs, basically the past two years. What are they trying to do? Make Josh Allen rise the talent of or raise the talent of all the wide receivers. They just got their number one. And I know everybody hates D.J. Moore at this point and they're frustrated with the bears and everything. But no, DJ Moore in the Bills is a completely different wide receiver just like we saw two years ago or with the Panthers or what did Stefan Diggs with the bills. So round six, again, criminal.

He should be round four by the time we're drafting. I really do like a lot of these receivers in round six. If rankings were to hold between now and August, I can guarantee I'll be a drafting receiver in this range. DJ Moore, you know, Roma Dunesay I quite like in round six. Even D.K. Metcalf. Cardinal Tate, like the guy who's probably going to be a top 10 pick as a rookie, you know, receiver. Those guys tend to outperform expectation. Like, we'll see what the landing spot is for him.

But, like, there's just a lot of names that I really like here in round six. Erickson, what do you think about DJ Moore? Who's played for Joe Brady before when he was in Carolina? He has him. I think he's the textbook version of draft A Value, DJ Moore. We have some agreement. That's exactly how I feel about him. He's a great real-life fit with what Josh Allen does well as a passer.

He's a real great fit with what the bills need offensively like Jake laid out. So I understand with more people get bored last year was a disaster. But we kind of saw it coming a little bit where Ben Johnson immediately drafts to pass catchers with his first two picks, and I am the king now. I'm moving on from DJ Moore. And Moore still had games where when O'Don's a missed time, DJ Moore still came up big. So I don't think that DJ Moore doesn't have anything left in the tank. So I'm not really going to hold last year against him when the coaching staff was trying to get these young guys on the field. We knew the writing was on the wall that DJ Moore is not long term in Chicago. So we weren't

surprised when he got traded. The Buffalo Bills was probably one of the best landing spots for him. the Stefan Diggs comparisons. Well, Diggs also in his final elite season with Buffalo before things kind of fell off the rails in the second half of his last year. He was 29 years old, same as DJ Moore, and that was his last elite season with the Buffalo bills. He knows Joe Brady's offense. So look, six of seven seasons, he's been wide receiver 22 or better.

Six of seven. That's a really strong hit rate. And where is he going? Wide receiver 32. Right? He was wide receiver 32 last year in this worst case scenario, and he's going the same place here despite being a better situation. Yeah. So I always try to look at players sometimes from the exercise of, will this guy beat his ADP or beat his ECR ranking?

And I think it's just simple as that with DJ Moore. Maybe he doesn't finish top five because Joe Brady refuses to have a wide receiver one. I could see that negative argument against DJ Moore, but, oh, no, he only finished as wide receiver 15. and I got him outside the top 30 receivers. You're going to feel good about that, especially getting him in rounds. Even if he's not a league winner, I find it very hard to believe he's not going to outperform this value. That's like the simplest way to put it. I want to let everybody know that they can join our Fantasy Pro's Discord community,

chat with other fans to get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Our current schedule looks like this. Myself and Fitz at Five Eastern on the first Tuesday of every month. Then Bogman and Fitz at Five Eastern on the third Tuesday of every month, talking about a dynasty on those AMAs. Come get your questions answered and be on the show at Fantasyprose.com slash chat. All right, guys, we're halfway through. We'll go a little quicker in the back half here.

Round seven, Erickson, what do you have for us? I'll go a little quicker, but not on this guy because I think this player deserves a long conversation. Marvin Harrison, Jr., he is wide receiver 33, and I didn't think I was going to be coming to the mat for MHJ. But I believe Jake thought that he was very undervalued as well. So, correct me if I'm wrong, Jake. 100% agree with this one. And we said that on an earlier show earlier this off season. And I got to thinking about it more and I started moving him up my rankings little by little.

And then as I looked more at it, man, wide receiver 33 is just way too cheap for this player entering his third season. Last year, Marvin Harrison Jr. was a big disappointment. Also a big disappointment in his rookie year. But now he's the cheapest he's ever been going in round seven. And I think a lot of what last year was because of the injuries. This guy got hit with everything. that you could imagine when it comes to injuries. Concussion in week 6.

Appendectomy in November. Heal injury in week 13. Foot injury in week 17. So he never got the benefit of the Jacoby percent 60 dropbacks per game because he was constantly banged up. And I can't ignore the facts that Michael Wilson, yes, turned into Jerry Rice when Marvin Harrison Jr. was out of the lineup. But he also turned into Casper when Marvin Harrison Jr. was playing in those games.

He had a 29% target rate per out run. when Marvin Harrison Jr. was not playing six. He basically missed a total of six games. I know one of the games he played a couple snaps and then left the game. But when he played with Marvin Harrison Jr., 12% target rate per route run, basically a non-factor. So I'm not convinced that Michael Wilson really is a thorn on the side of Marvin Harrison Jr. I think that Harrison Jr. is the better wide receiver. I think that under a new coaching staff, we should be open to the idea that they can use Marvin Harrison Jr. in a better way where they can take advantage of what he does well and put him in a position to succeed. The Michael Wilson numbers kind of paint a picture of,

okay, what's the upside of a number one wide receiver in a Cardinals offense led by Jacoby Burset? Okay, it's top five fantasy numbers. So I think Harrison Jr. has a really high ceiling based on the talent profile. Your three breakouts still happen. Quentin Johnson last year, Kishon Booty, year three breakout. Like this still happens. And I, I think that Marvin Harrison Jr. We can't write him off after the injury plagues last year because there's a multiverse where he does stay healthy last year. And he has Michael Wilson S. games and he's a round four pick as a result.

But because he missed all those games with injuries, we never got that opportunity. And he did start to come on down the stretch. Last five healthy games. He averaged nearly 13 points per game, which is right around low end fantasy wide receiver one numbers. So I didn't know if I was even going to include Marvin Harrison, Jr., on my list of values here. At first I put Alec Pierce because I thought he was kind of interesting, but then thought about the Daniel Jones situation, about our conversation about being lower on Colts players. And just looking at Marvin Harrison Jr., I think if he's healthy, this is his

floor rather than anywhere near what his ceiling and potential is as a former top five pick. So Marvin Harrison Jr., 24 years old, showing that he can command high value of air yards, red zone targets, end zone targets, the things be loved for fantasy football. So, yeah, I'm in. I totally agree. And the one thing I would add, I don't really have much to say on top of what you said is you said like if he had the Michael Wilson finish when he stayed healthy last year he'd be like as high as round four. I think he'd be like a late round two pick honestly. Like like it just given the hype around him as a prospect, the desire people have had to see him like take that step forward and break out.

And how great Michael Wilson was. If that was Marvin Harrison Jr. At the end of last year, I don't think he's getting out of round two this year. Like I think people want to be very hyped about him. So I totally agree on this one. and it's not a Jake like you agree to. And I was going to say the only thing I would add is I actually do disagree with one thing Erickson said.

If we did see weeks 9, 10, and 13, because this is something I brought up multiple times that would Brissette looked to Marvin Harrison as the one. He targeted him 29 times in those games, 18 to Michael Wilson. He was treated as the one. He was Marvin Harrison actually a thorn in Michael Wilson's side when he came back and then came back again. So I'm not saying that like that's definitively the case here, but this is why. I agree so much with Erickson on this one is because I actually think there's a world where we might see Marvin Harrison top 20 next year and Michael Wilson's not in the top 20 with him.

He's more of a wide receiver three because Trey McBride is going to be a factor of one of the two. Let's go to your round eight selection here, Jake. Yeah, speaking of tight ends, we have a tight end that might not be healthy for week one, might not be healthy for athletes. There's no talk that George Kittle is going to be aggressive and all that type of stuff. but his aggressiveness is what kind of caused a problem to his injury last year as he tried to play through all these things and then aggravated other things and hurt other things. So maybe take a chill and like not take the aggressive route at this point of your career and this age. Like they said he's going the aggressive route to be ready for week one. No, I just want healthy George Kittle like chill out, dude.

But even if he's healthy and I know the additions and the moves that they made, but I just like Ricky Pearson for what he does when healthy. That's the biggest question. But at this point of the draft, where we're talking about these middle rounds, we've seen Ricky Pearsall when healthy and what he does in this offense and that he brings something that George Kittl or anybody else really, whether it was Ayuk when he was playing with this team and now he's gone. But whatever they do on their team this year is Ricky Pearsall is filling a void that, like he doesn't need to worry about what they did at wide receiver.

He doesn't need to worry about George Kittle being healthy or not. He just worries staying on the field himself. And if he's on the field himself, Brock Pertie is going to have. his three, including Christian McCaffray at the backfield. But if there's the downside to anything here for the other players is that the health to the other players like George Kittal brings Pearson into the conversation of kind of like the Buccaneers, what we saw is worst case, Pearson is probably a Y-Receiver 3. He's going to be frustrating. But you're getting him as Y-Receiver 4 that you can plug into your wire receiver 3. If Kittl's not back and healthy, then we're talking about the potential

top 25 that we saw briefly at times last year. And that's what I really like about Pierce. I think he's great to have somebody alongside of them and not be the one, which is what they've done. And I think that if Kittles not ready, you have potential top 25 worst case scenario. He's a Y receiver 3. So in this range, I feel like you're getting them at the perfect value if everybody is somehow healthy, but so much more room to improve if, again, he stays healthy, but somebody else doesn't. This is the one of all the names on the list today that I most feel confident is going to

be going higher than this by the time we get to August. I feel like this is going to look low. in hindsight. I mean, it's great pick for right now, obviously, because this is where he's ranked. But I feel like the hype machine will be there for Pearsall in the next several months. And especially as we continue to get updates and some of these injury situations play out in San Francisco that he's going to look. I think they just wanted the riskiest collection of receivers possible between Mike Evans, Christian. Christian Kirk's not playing the full season. George Kittl, who knows.

No way. There's like, I don't know what the 49ers are doing. when it comes to health, though. Really rolling the dice, be like, come on. Eric, see, where are you out on? These receivers hamstrings is going to hold on the longest. It's like, roll the dice. Erickson, where you add on him?

I love Pearsall, especially in round eight. I couldn't believe when I looked up this stat, but he led the 49ers in receiving yards per game last year. Yeah, thank you. At 59. I know, I think Christopher was right behind him because of how much involvement he has at a receiver, but he has flashed weekly upside.

He had four games with 85 plus percent. receiving yards. You know how many games Mike Evans had with 85 plus receiving yards last year? One. Now, he did miss half the season. So that's the caveat there when again, I can make stats say whatever they want. That being said, both guys have shown a high weekly ceiling. And I think Pure Saul, as a year three player, year three breakouts still happen. We don't know if he can stay healthy or not. But if he does, dramatically will outpace this round eight, ADP. Mike Evans, is he a bet to stay healthy all year long. Probably not. So considering the price, I think that this is a great pay by Jake. Erickson, round nine, who'd you have? Wondell Robinson, he's going as the wide receiver

44, despite the fact that he is one of only five ride receivers to have recorded at least 130 or more targets in each of the last two seasons. The other four players are Jamar Chase, Amonrae St. Brown, Jackson, the jigba, Justin Jefferson, who I believe are all going in round one. So I think that Wondell Robinson, right now he slotted in as the Titans number one wide receiver. We'll see what they do in the draft. But even if they add somebody, I don't think that they would necessarily overlap with Wondell's going to be our slot guy. And we've seen him operate as a volume hog in Brian Daybell's offense. That's who's calling the shots with Cam Ward entering his second season.

I think Cam Ward is a good enough quarterback to fuel a wide receiver to success. And Wanda Robinson, what's encouraging about what his usage was last year, in the fact that he improved significantly. Two years ago, he saw a bunch of targets and I think put up one of the worst yardage total. He failed to get over 700 yards despite having 130 targets, which is Deonté Johnson levels of bad yards per target, essentially. Just comical.

But then surpassed over 1,000 yards last year. I think he's improving as a player who dealt with some injuries as he first entered the NFL, a former second round pick. I think Wondale just, I mean, wide receiver 44 going back to our conversation, but DJ Moore, how does he not beat this ADP when he has over 100, what does he have over 92 catches second straight years, 30% target share last year, eighth highest mark in the NFL. I just think that the ECR is asleep at the wheel here with Wandole. He's exactly 100th overall, Jake. Do you feel like there's more of a floor play from Erickson or do you see a ceiling with Wondale?

I think the ceiling is last year, but last year he was a top 20 wide receiver and he would need to lose almost two. and a half points per game to B. Y receiver 44 and points per game, which is why I agree with Andrew on this one, mostly because if this was 31 other teams he signed with, I'd be more hesitant. But Brian Dable is the offensive coordinator who peppers the living hell of Wendell in his offenses. And what is he going to ask Cam Ward to do? Throw 140 plus targets his way, whether or not Calvin Ridley is surprisingly back with this team. And Agu Manor is a nice outside, but he's outside kind of Darius Slighton on this team, their version of him.

And it kind of kills D.K., unfortunately. But Wando's going to be their top target option because Dable's calling the shots. Jake, let's go to round 10. Yeah, so speaking of loving people, I was a big fan and loved Jaden Higgins, but you know somebody who actually loves them more than I do, surprisingly?

And if you're taking people's opinion, I'm pretty sure you're going to take this guy's opinion over mine when it comes to anybody in the NFL. Steve Smith's Signore, by the way. He said he's not a sleeper, year because I've watched so much of them. Saw all the same things I did, the route running, the separation, the physicality of the point of catch.

Like, he gushed about him. And he gushed about him late in the year when he finally started getting opportunities. And he finally started getting his opportunities when Domeca Ryan woke up and said, hey, the buy's over. They're not rookies anymore. And then we finally see that it could be, he was only a Y-Rceiver for the rest of the season, but we see the upside for next year of being able to step in and be the consistent number two.

I said he's a lot like Marvin Jones in the NFL with Marvin Jones. thousand yards, six, seven, eight touchdowns. He can be a wide receiver three, maybe creep into the wide receiver two range. Tank Dell at this point, and we just wanted to play in the NFL. Who knows if he even comes back from that gruesome injury and plays.

Jalen Noel is a really nice talent as well, but he's filling the Christian Kirk roll, which is going to be three wide out of the slot, sometimes outside, but the true number two for ability is Jaden Higgins. And could he bust? Obviously, 100%. But at this point of the draft,

to get somebody who has top 35 upside, also relying on the fact that C.J. Stroud can bounce back to look anything like he did his rookie season. It's almost like a free gamble. Like, why not take the chance in somebody that's going to be a potential top 30, 35 wide receiver versus just another Christian Kirk who's going to get hurt anyway. Yeah, Erickson, what I like about NICO, or not, Nico, what I like about Jaden Higgins is. Well, I was going to say, it's not just that I think he can be very good with NICO on the field. Nico has missed games. He's missed multiple games in every year of his career. It's not that he's missed like half the season all the time. but he's played in 14, 10, 15, 12, 15 games. So he has not reached 16 games in his season.

Those games when he's out, I think Higgins, especially in year two, have he been in the offense already? Like, I will be really excited about him in any games that Niko's out. Yeah, that was what was going to follow up with Jake. How much of this is baking in as Nico Collins wide receiver handcuff insurance where, okay, Higgins alone can offer this type of value in round 10 if Nico Collins plays all the games. But if he misses, okay, well, now he's stepping into that Nico Collins.

role. I know that the Texans comped Higgins to Nico Collins. So they're obviously confident that he can take on it because they know Nico Collins does get banged up. So yeah, Higgins, I wasn't really sure how I felt about him because I also like Noel as well, but someone that I probably need to move up. So I'm glad that Jake included. Yeah, my argument for him as a rookie is that if something happens to Nico Higgins stays on the field, the Kirk is the Noel. So Noel, if Nico gets hurt, yeah, he'd see an uptick next year. But like last year, it was only going to be if something happened to Kirk, which it did. So yeah, that's why I think there's even more upside.

I wasn't even back factoring that in is how much I like him. I might be less interested if he was going higher, but like 118th overall wide to shoot the 48 that that's really. Also, it's a bench player, right? You don't need to start him. You can kind of see how things shake out. Is C.J. Strout still seeing ghosts or no, like his office line looks way better. See your trout looks like a rookie.

He really is the wider cipher version of those of those running backs that we have every year in this range who are like, this is going to be a value even if the guy ahead of him doesn't get hurt. And then if the guy ahead of him does get hurt, then the value is insane. And this feels like the wide receiver version of that. Erickson, last player from you, round 11. Who do you have? Going with Josh Downs.

I did talk about how I thought Alk Pierce might be a pretty good value where he's going, but I think I'm just going to go farther down the Colts wide receiver room to a cheaper player. Josh Downs, he is going as the wide receiver 52. He has played three NFL seasons. He has never finished worse than wide receiver 48. So even if he just sticks in the crappy role of the Colts I've put him in where he's only playing three wide receiver sets, he's still probably going to finish as a top 50 wide receiver. And that's because I just believe that Josh Downs is a good wide receiver last year. PFF's 20th highest graded wide receiver for this second straight year.

He was hyper-targeted when on the field, 24% target rate per route run. That led all Colts wide receivers and tight ends last year over Tyler Warren, over Alec Pierce, over Michael Pittman Jr. So when Josh Towns is on the field, he gets open. and gets targets. Fantasy points data, 20th and average separation score. So, yes, the usage is the thing that's really frustrating with Josh Downs, but could that change without Michael Pittman in the fold? Yeah, I think that it is possible. And where you're getting him outside the top 50, I think it's a good bet to make. So Josh Downs for me, worst case scenario, okay, he ends up just being a wide receiver four that maybe can pop off if somebody misses time in the Colts offense. But the upside case is,

hey, good wide receiver, expanded role. Maybe Daniel Jones does come back and is able to function at a high level. Okay, I feel good about this pick here. Jake, Josh Downs is 126 overall wide receiver 52, as Erickson mentioned. Is that too high, too low, or just right for you? It's a bit too low. And just because the opportunity with no Michael Pittman and I'm a Josh Downs fan as well. It really just comes down to what is the quarterback situation.

There's a lot of assumptions. And I'm assuming the team when they threw that contract, it's assuming that Daniel Jones can be 100% by week one. but I think that's a major question. And they're talking about trading Anthony Richardson. So the backup plan, I just, I don't know how much trust Leonard or the rest of their options there. So I like Josh Downs. It's just where does this offense go in 2006 is the bigger question.

Let's wrap things up here. Round 12, Jake, who do you have? I have somebody that I not only think is egregious to be down here. I would take over my previous two, as in I would take him over Higgins and I would take him over Ricky Pearson. Because I don't know if people are just assuming the Patriots are drafting a round one wide receiver or what's going on. But they sign Romeo Dobbs.

You want to find a metric. Go find one. Drake May is top 10, if not top five in deep bowl throwing. He's first in EPA and dropback of 20 plus yards downfield. He's second in total yards despite only having 70 attempts, which was fifth in the league. He's third and on target percentage. I can keep going down the line. He's a great deep bowl thrower.

Patriots were top five in taking attempts downfield. And he did it with a bunch of dudes that like Keshon Booty and Williams and the corpse of Stefan Diggs at this point and 15 tight ends. And now you bring in somebody who's averaged over 13 yards per reception in the past two years and has room for more because what does Dobbs do? Gets downfield and makes some big plays. Overshadowed a little bit by a finally healthy Christian Watson last year. And then they need to do as much as before when there is no Christian Watson in the field.

But that's the appeal there. is you've seen it from Dobbs and you've seen that he can do this. They sign him. Should he be a number one in the NFL as a number one wide receiver for teams? No, but as of right now, he is definitively the number one for the Patriots with one of the best ball, best deep bowl throwers in the league. My only concern at this point, and I actually have Romeo Dobbs as a wide receiver three.

Like maybe they bring somebody in a shock us. Maybe they make the A.J. Brown trade. And of course, this is going to not be the same after that. But Drake may shave his head this year. So, like, I'm worried that, like, legit just happened this morning. I don't know if he's going the Samson route and all of a sudden his powers are going to go out the window. I'm a little bit concerned there.

But all that being said, Romeo Dobbs should be ahead of guys we've already talked about. I mean, he was a wide receiver three last year. Last year he finished his wide receiver 36 in total fantasy points. And now he has this great runway for targets. He's playing with a better, I mean, not that Jordan Love is bad. I like Jordan Love, but a better quarterback now.

I really like Dobbs. I totally agree with you. We were talking about him on the Dynasty show a few weeks ago. It was after he had signed with New England, and he was still like wide receiver 60 or something in Dynasty. He's 25 years old, paired with his great quarterback now. They're going to add other receivers eventually, but they don't have them right now. I thought that was way too low. And Fitz and Bogman actually pushed back on me on that.

And I feel like I was taking crazy pill. So I'm happy here that I'm not, according to you, Jake, that he is definitely way too low here. Erickson, as the resident Patriots fan, I'm wondering what you think about Dobbs. Yeah, I think that Dobbs, if he had gotten a ton of steam and everybody loved this, everybody was, okay, we got to draft him in round five. It'd be like, whoa, we got to pump the brakes. Like, he's not that good. But when you look up and see, oh, he's round 12 type of value when he should be the,

there's always a receiver like this that always signs it free agency that we just don't, or the consensus doesn't get super excited about having with Christian Kirk when he went to Jacksonville. It's like, this guy's going to be the number one and nobody wants this guy. Jacob Myers when he first went to the Raiders. It's, hey, same thing. Like, they paid him to be their number one receiver and he's good. So even though Dobbs, I don't think is this. elite, great, super talented wideout, he does the little things well.

He went downfield and he's a red zone presence. He scored three touchdowns in one game last year. He had a monster performance. That was half his touchdowns of the season though. Right. But the two comparisons he made are really good comparisons for what we're talking about. Oh, totally. But what he can showcase in a week-to-week basis where, yeah, the Patriots don't necessarily

feature one guy, but Dobbs can be the one that stands out the most from a conglomerative players where, again, if he can just be his. Diggs from last year, then you feel, I mean, Diggs was kind of going in this range last year, too, as the number one, I was more concerned because he was coming off an ACL injury. Dobbs is not. And unless you're just freaking about his concussions or something like that, that's more of a dynasty concern. I think for redraft, he makes a ton of sense as a great value in round 12, especially in leagues where you have to start multiple flexes. I mean, you can try it out Robboe O'Dobbs as your second flex or a wide receiver four spot. I'm in, I'm in leagues of dynasty with

I have to start a million wide receivers. And I've had some really. sad weeks where I would have loved to have Romeo Dobbs as an option to slide in as a wide receiver three or four. I mean, we talked about this on a few different players today, but like, there's just no world where he's healthy and he's not outperforming wide receiver 54 in the current construction of this offense. There's just no way. Like, even if you don't, even if you don't view him as a guy who's like the upside to go,

like finish top 12 or something, like he's going to outperform wide receiver 54. I think that's the argument against him is the rankers are having, oh, well, this guy is more upside. This guy is more upside. Like, Dobbs has never been a top 20 wide receiver ever. So, okay, I guess I can get that, but he's never played with Drake May. But you know what's really helpful? One wide receiver on his team.

You know, it's really helpful in a league where you have to start three receivers and there's 12 teams and there's multiple flexes, which is a lot of the leagues that we play in. Having a guy like Dobbs to just fill in that back spot. To your point, Erickson. So like, yeah, I totally agree with this one. I think it's a great call. All right. Just quickly run through the names we listed here.

Justin Jefferson. Chris Alave, Rashie Rice, Devanti Adams, Jalen Waddle, DJ Moore, Marvin Harrison, Jr., Ricky Pierce, Saul, Wondale, Robinson, Jaden, Higgins, Josh Downs, and Romeo Dobbs. Those are our favorite wide receiver targets in every round of your draft, although there was some fun disagreement today, so maybe not a consensus list there, but these guys combined lists will say. For Erickson and Jake, I'm Ryan Wormwood. Thanks everybody so much for tuning in. We'll see you again next time.

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