The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - Week 2 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1698)

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Chris Welsh, Pat Fitzmaurice, and Andrew Erickson are breaking down Week 2's biggest wide receiver ranking differences, engaging in debates, and highlighting the expert consensus for Week 2 Don't miss our deep-dive into this week's rankings, must-start options, and value plays to dominate your fantasy matchup! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 Week 1 Rankings Recap - 0:02:23 Signed Ja’Marr Chase Jersey Giveaway - 0:06:05 WRs 1-12 - 0:06:52 Nico Collins - 0:07:31 Garrett Wilson - 0:10:17 WRs 13-24 - 0:12:57 AJ Brown - 0:13:25 DK Metcalf - 0:17:14 Emeka Egbuka - 0:20:37 Ricky Pearsall - 0:23:23 Hard Rock Bet - 0:27:00 WRs 25-36 - 0:28:11 Jameson Williams - 0:28:36 Calvin Ridley - 0:31:33 WRs Not in Top 36 That Should Be - 0:34:44 Chris Olave - 0:34:57 Jaylen Waddle - 0:36:14 Outro - 0:38:07 Helpful Links:Hard Rock Bet - Sign up for Hard Rock Bet and make a $5 bet and you'll get $150 in bonus bets if you win. 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, NJ, OH, TN or VA to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling? In FL, call 1-888-ADMIT-IT. 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, NJ, OH, TN, VA) My Playbook - Sync your league instantly to My Playbook to get custom advice on how to manage your team throughout the season. See your league’s top available players, power rankings, and more for free! Check the “Are They Playing” tool each week to get the latest game-day availability odds for all injured players. If you’re premium – you unlock all kinds of helpful waiver, trade, lineup and league analysis tools. You can even auto-start your team’s optimal lineup each week with Auto-Pilot. Sync your league and dominate every week of the season with My Playbook at fantasypros.com/myplaybook or on the FantasyPros App 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. What's up, friends, and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. I'm Chris Welsh, and we have got ranks for week two, week one in the books. And joining me for the Week 2 Rank Show, of course, is Pat Fitzmore's, Andrew Erickson, both might be making appearances when we talk about the accuracy contest, because yes, we do have a weekly accuracy contest that we put out there every single week and into the season long stuff. We talked about it in the last episode, Fitsy, where you did quite good in, I believe it was drafts. No, I think it was in season.

You're always an in-season killer. You kind of did it again today, which we're going to talk about in just a second. So how are we feeling for week two? Good. I'm ready to overreact to a lot of things that happened in week one and just assume that it's all going to continue a pace and that everything is going to repeat. So let's go from there. No, I'm just kidding.

This is always kind of an important show, I think, because I'm trying to figure out what might be an overreaction and what, you know, we probably shouldn't underreact to. So, yeah, there are going to be some fiery takes coming. Erickson, if we weren't overreacting, did we really even have a weak one? You know what I'm saying? No, it's a good point to bring up because I think that a lot of what I've absorbed from the media is, you know, we're overreacting to this, we're overacting to that. Well, it's like we have to react to some things.

And now is it becoming advantageous to almost react too much? when maybe we're not reacting enough to some of these teams. And really what I'm most interested is, who is this year's New Orleans Saints, right? Where you saw them the first two weeks of last year's come out, is this the, like, the newest, the greatest show on turf with Derek Carr and Clint Kubiak in this offense? They killed the Panthers in week one,

and then they played Dallas and then killed Dallas in week two. Then obviously things just fell way out, things got way off the rails. So is there another team like that? Is that the Steelers? Is that the Jets? Like teams like this that really blew up in week one. is it here to stay?

And are the Miami Dolvens as bad as they looked in week one as well? We're going to all break it down. Yeah, well, the answer is yes to the last one. But in this episode, we're going to be breaking down our wide receiver ranks. We've got the three tiers wide receiver, one through 12, 13 through 24, you get it. We're going to be picking out some of the big names, a lot of wide receiver stuff from big names and some potential overreactions to some players vaulting up in value. Hopefully we'll be answering your week two questions as far as wide receiver goes. But first, let's do take a look at the accuracy rank contest.

In week one, give a shout out to the top three rankers out there. Matthew Muchler from Fantasy Sports Advice Network finished number one, I believe was like number one in quarterback and two in running back or flip it. Just really good in that area. That's really hard to do in the ranks contest. Nick Mariano from Roto Baller was number two and Kyle Senra from going for two was number three. Those are your top three. but gentlemen, you guys know where I'm going this.

The two guys here on the show, not me, finished killer this week. Fitz, you were top 10. You finished ninth in the ranks contest. Let's start with that. What do you think got you there? I mean, that's a ridiculous out-the-gates run finishing inside the top 10. As soon as I saw it, I was like, yeah, of course this happened. You killed it again, my friend.

Oh, thanks, Walsh. I really didn't pay that much attention to the. ranks this week. The one thing I was kind of dwelling on was the fact that I ranked A.J. Browna had a Pooka Nakua this week. And I kept thinking about that and thinking that I probably didn't have that good a week. But I must have, I don't know, maybe I got some other things right. But that felt like a pretty bad miss at the top of the wide receiver rankings. I'm like, Fitz, you were so amazing. What are all the good things? You're like, I don't know. I didn't pay attention. That's just how good you are. Okay. Erickson, you're not going to be left behind, though. You finished 13th. So we

had two top 15 finishes from the guys on this show. Erickson, did anything stand out as, you know, a player that maybe vaulted you into it that you would put really high that you hit or you could also say you didn't pay attention and you, you're only focused on a negative like the AJ Brown one. No, I wasn't as focused on the AJ Brown one because that was one that everybody essentially got wrong. I was really more focused on just the Jets and Steelers game.

Like, just that being like the total opposite of what I thought and continually moving Jets players down. Pretty sure I told someone on Reddit to start Jerome Ford over Brees Hall. So yeah, I did not feel great about that. So that wasn't the biggest negative and miss from my rankings. But Keenan Allen, he was a big hit. I mean, he was outside the top. He was like way buried in ECR rankings. We talked about him. This guy should be the top 36. And he finished, I believe, is a top 10 wide receiver on the week. I think he was wide receiver nine and a half PPR because he scored the touchdown. So I felt good about that. And I did have Daniel Jones pretty high up in the quarterback rankings

and I think that he was QB1 on the week. So it's like that was another one that we didn't talk about Daniel Jones is because you weren't playing him but in some of these two quarterback leads if you didn't look at my rankings like, hey like Daniel Jones ended up pulling out a massive win for you.

So those are the hits, but I'm definitely more, I was definitely thinking about the Jets, the Jets game and just being really wrong about that. And the thing with that particular game was, and they even talked about it, Fields, I was under the impression that the Steelers were no field. Like, hey, they know this quarterback. They're going to be able to stop him.

But Fields said in the production meeting, after like rewatching that game in the broadcast, they talked about it, how Fields knew the Steelers and what they were going to do. And when I think about it in retrospect, I'm like, man, this makes so much sense. Like, Rodgers knew what the Jets were going to do defensively because he knows that personnel. He shredded them. And that's why Justin Fields shredded the Jets. So, yeah, I just looked at it on the complete wrong angle. And it was a shootout waiting to happen. Quarterback Revenge Narratives.

Put that in the bucket and we'll come back to that at a different time. You guys want to check out the ranks weekly, vennesseepros.com slash rankings. We'll be referencing that in this show, but you want to go and check out how these two guys do. Make sure you're there and everybody else. Congrats to the people in the top three. Before we get to the wide receiver ranks, we got another wide receiver to talk about because this is your chance to win a sign Jemar Chase Bengals jersey for free, courtesy of our friends at pristine auction.com.

here's all you got to do. Go to fantasypros.com slash contest. There's a little form. Do that. And then either download the Fantasy Pros app, leave a review for the podcast. Follow us on X, Instagram or TikTok at Fantasy Pros. And guess what?

You do all those things, because the more actions you complete, the more entries you will receive. We'll be announcing a winner on the podcast near the beginning of next month. So if you're watching on YouTube, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you can be alerted when new episodes are up

and to claim that prize, the Jamar Chase autographed jersey. What a way to come out swinging. Let's come out swinging for week two. Here is our top 12 board gentlemen. It looks like, aforementioned, Jamar Chase coming in at number one this week in the consensus ECR ranks. CD Lamb at two, Justin Jefferson at three, Malik neighbors, Brian Thomas, that fills out your top five. Nico Collins, Pooka Nican, Pooka, Amanara St. Brown, Ladd-McCocky, Jackson Smith, Injigba, Garrett Wilson, and Marvin Harrison. Those are your wide receiver ones for the week. Your top I wanted to throw this one as a quick aside because I think in any ranks show that we do,

the top 12 kind of like, you know, like what's the conversation? They're all starters. We're not putting narratives out there, da, dot, dot. The rank differences are kind of fun. I just wanted to hit you guys with this. A lot of negative Nico Collins discourse out there. There's multiple wide receiver ones that failed this past week. Nico Collins, Brian Thomas, even Brian Thomas saving touchdown, obviously A.J. Brown.

There seemed to be something. really negative in the streets about Nico Collins of people wanting to kind of come off of him. In the ranks, ECR6, both of you guys are higher on him this week. So Fitz, just a, you don't have to go crazy into this because obviously, like, people are going to be starting Nico Collins. But just curious, like your level of worry, I know it's relatively minimal because you have him higher, but just talk to us about Nico Collins and the people that are fearmongering him. I'm putting this one in the stuff happens category. Like no concerns about Nico's target. share his talent. My only real concern with the Houston passing game is the offensive line,

but the Texans had that problem last year too, and Nico smashed whenever he was healthy. Maybe people are a little alarmed because what's kind of wild about that game for Nico is that the Rams were sometimes covering him with Emmanuel Forbes, the former first round pick of the Washington commanders who did not pan out at all for the commanders. So maybe that's a little worry some, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm not concerned. Erickson, you don't seem to be, you got them three. You got them really high this week. So you think this is a bounceback. I almost kind of wanted to ask you, and I know at the end of the day, it's probably going to be like neither. But if you were more worried about Nico or Brian

Thomas after the week, and that is probably answer neither, but Nico definitely you're not worried about this week as he is three on your wide receiver ranks. Yeah, I think that this is a good bounce spot for him. They're playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We know that this is a classic pass funnel defense. And again, when Nick Chub is your RB1, you're going to have to attack the Buccaneers defense through the air. We saw the Falcons with Bajon Robinson have the week's worst rushing success rate among all running backs, Bajon Robinson, the 101 in almost all of our fantasy drafts. He was the worst running back on a per rush basis from a success rate against the the Buccaneers defense. So they're going to have to sling it. Nico Collins against this

blitz heavy Todd Bulls defense. What does that mean? Big plays. Because if they sell out for the blitz, he's on man-to-man coverage. He's a monster after the catch. And C.J. Stroud, again, he's always under pressure, but he still shows that he stands in the pocket and delivers throws. So, yeah, Stroud, strap in, baby. It's going to be a long day at the office. You're going to take some hits,

but I think Stroud is a warrior. And the last time, Stroud played a Todd Bulls defense as a rookie. Guys, he threw for 470 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. So he's been able to have massive games against this defense. It's very boom or bust. We know Nico Collins can have. monster big games. I think that he bounces back in a big way in week two.

Another wide receiver. You were mentioning the Jets and your fear, Erickson, and you said, let's do it again. Let's not get him in there. Garrett Wilson is ECR wide receiver 11, so that's a starting wide receiver. Fitsy, you're like slightly down.

You don't really even count in this. You're like team Garrett Wilson. You get to own him because you have them at 12. You have him as wide receiver one. Erickson was like, man, the Jets players, they all were just so good, even though I thought they'd be bad. Let's do that again.

15, you are not like out necessarily on Garrett Wilson, but you're not close to consensus on the rank. So what's going to change this week for you? And is it just still like the same fears on fields? Like last week was more of a mirage and things are going to come back down to Earth this week. I think that maybe they'll come back to Earth a little bit. I mean, I'm not out. Again, I'm only a couple spots of ECR.

And really it's just because I'm expecting players like I have T. Higgins ran ahead of Garrett Wilson. I just don't think that the T. Higgins thing is just going to bomb for two weeks in a row. I don't think the Bengals office is going to bomb for two weeks in a row because they're not playing the Cleveland Brown. So just because some of the other guys around him, but again, I moved him up significantly from where he was ranked last week for me, which is obviously way too low. So again, I think it's a plus matchup here against Buffalo. Their secondary is really banged up. We obviously saw the Ravens take full advantage of that. And Garrett Wilson is the Alpha and the Jets passing game.

So again, the only thing that I would say is the Jets can't sneak up on the bills. like maybe they did with the Steelers with their offense. Now at least Buffalo, okay, at least they kind of know what is coming a little bit more. So maybe it's not as an explosive effort from this field in passing game against the bills. But I like what I saw with Garrett Wilson and he's definitely someone you're going to be starting. Fitz, you got a wide receiver one. With what you saw out of fields in week one, is it just giving you just a little bit more breathing room and feeling like that Garrett Wilson can tap into his upside?

I mean, I don't know that week one really changed my draft season stance on Wilson. just a good receiver who is going to have a huge target share and a low-volume passing attack. And, you know, we saw Justin Fields at 22 pass attempts and nine targets for Garrett Wilson, 41% target share. So, you know, and occasionally because he is so much better than any other pass catcher on this roster, like the Jets' second best receiver is probably the fifth best receiver on most other rosters. Occasionally, Garrett Wilson is going to draw shadow coverage from top cornerbacks. So it might be kind of a boom or bust profile and he boomed in week one. Maybe he booms again in week two. Jets might need to throw more than 22 times to keep up with the

bills. So yeah, back end wide receiver one. Second best pass catcher is a running back, not even a wide receiver. So all right, let's go take a look at your wide receiver twos. These are wide receivers 13 through 24 and this is the meat of the episode, friends. We start with Drake London at 13. Probably a lot built around that shoulder right now. AJ Brown drops to 14. T. Higgins, Mike Evans, Cortland Sutton, D.K. Metcalf at 18, Devante Adams at 19. Ameca, Egbuka at 20, Zayflowers, Teteroa McMillan, Terry McLaren, and Ricky Pirasol at 24. So we got a lot of guys to cover in here. So let's get to A.J. Brown, kind of the elephant in the room here.

ECR 14, and you guys are both back in. You've got him higher. Fitsy, why don't we let you kick it off here? You're the highest. You put him at wide receiver 9 this week. So the expectation is a big bounce back. Erickson has got him at 11. So you guys both pushed him as wide receiver ones. Let's hear the jump back into his wide receiver one after a huge disappointing week one. There's a user in the Fantasy Pros Discord who asked me about a trade offer he received.

He was offered to AJ Brown and Bucky Irving for Jamar Chase. And we both agreed he should take it. Like, AJ Brown had almost 1,500 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2022. He had 106 catches. almost 1,500 yards and seven touchdowns in 2023. And last year he had 1,056 yards and seven touchdowns in 13 games for the run-heavyest team in the league. There is not that big a production gap between Jamar Chase and AJ Brown and a legitimate RB1 like Bucky Irving more than bridges that gap. So yeah, it was weird that AJ Brown had one target in week one.

Jalen Hertz did a lot of scrambling and a lot of checking down to Dallas. got her. But I'm not terribly worried. This week, the Eagles go up against the Chiefs, who have a top run defense. We saw the Chargers go really pass heavy against Kansas City in week one. I guess the only slight

concern I have with A.J. Brown is this. What if new Eagles offensive coordinator, Kevin Patillo, is a major downgrade from Callan Moore, who was the Eagles OC last year before he left to take the Saints head coaching job? If that's the case, maybe we get disappointing seasons.

from some of the Eagles skill players, but I'm not worrying about that after one week. Yeah, and Erickson, when you look at the rank, A.J. Brown didn't move to a spot where anyone's going to probably find justifiable benches. You know what I mean? Like when you start to get to wide receiver like 18, 19, 20, I think you start to get clumped where someone might be like, you know, should I do this or this? Like the confidence is still there. So it's a little bit of a side. You guys are just committing to being higher than what the expert consensus, what the, you know, the talk around town is for AJ Brown. You just feel confident he can get back to where he was before.

Yeah, I think that AJ Brown is probably set up for a bounceback effort here. Again, he has really nowhere else to go but up after basically only seeing one target. I do echo some of the concerns that Fitz brought up with the potential downgrade with the offensive play caller. And I think against the Kansas City Chiefs, I wouldn't actually be surprised if Devonte Smith actually has the bigger bounce back game between the two Eagles wide receivers. You look at historically, Smith, has cooked the Kansas City Chief's defense. I remember writing about this in some of the

betting primers we did for the Super Bowl this past year. DeVonte Smith had a big game in the Super Bowl, 69 receiving yards, four career games against the Chief's defense. Devante Smith, 99 yards, 100 yards, 122 yards, and 69 yards in this past Super Bowl. So Smith actually might have the bigger game again. He was also not coming off a monster game himself, not as involved as Dallas Godd or even the running backs, Saquo and Barclay in the past. game. So yes, I think Brown can improve here, but as I'm looking at this rank, I know we mentioned Garrett Wilson before. I think I probably need to make some adjustments moving Wilson ahead of AJ Brown just because, hey, I think there maybe is just some slight concerns with, hey, a brand

new play caller coming out and doesn't target his alpha wide receiver one. And you have to remember, AJ Brown missed so much time in the off season with this hamstring injury. Now, this kind of happened last year with Mark Andrews, where we had this injury that wasn't really reported or talked about. And then we saw him just be a ghost. for almost half the season before turning on the second half. So if A.J. Brown starts out again and maybe takes a bat seat to Devante Smith against this Chief's defense, maybe I wouldn't be super, super surprised. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, new? 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. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra. special. So how do 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 and... Well, 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, where people could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad Hey Jonas and offered it up was 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 Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

help an a cappella band with their between songs, 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. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing.

That man, hell get the flying. man, he running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, I. Zahed, you figure it out real quick. Oh, yeah. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. D.K. Metcalf returns to Seattle. So we have got some, uh, we got some revenge game narrative going on here. And he's also ECR wide receiver number 18. You two are both lower. Fitz, you particularly are lower.

So he comes in as like a mid-wide receiver two. You have him outside of wide receiver two. You have number 25. So seven spots different. Erickson's got him a little bit higher, but just the general statement is you guys both have them lower. So what's got you down on D.K. Metcalf return into Seattle? Yeah, I mean, I sort of understand the appeal with him. Like, DK had a pretty good game against the Jets in week one, four catches for 83 hours and a touchdown on seven targets.

even at a big game on a big gain on a wide receiver screen, which was kind of cool. We haven't seen a lot of that type of usage for Metcalf in the past. And D.K. does have the revenge narrative going for him this week against the Seahawks. But Seattle's cornerbacks are pretty good. They've got Devon Witherspoon and Rick Wollin. And look, we thought Drake London was going to be a wash in targets two years ago when Arthur Smith was the Falcons head coach. and Drake London was the only good receiver on the Atlanta roster. London averaged 6.9 targets a game that year and finished with 905 yards and two touchdowns.

I think a lot of people are betting on safe target volume for DK. Metcalfe this year. I'm not so sure that's a safe bet. Yeah, I don't know of any passing game with the Steelers feels safe, so I don't disagree with you. Erickson, what do you think? You're higher than fits, you're lower than consensus, but you do have them as a wide receiver too. I think he was like the number two yards after the catch wide. receiver in week one, a bunch of plays off of his legs, and Rogers did find some level of comfort

here. What do you think about DK Metcalf this week? Yeah, Metcalf, that was a fun sweat, betting the under on his receptions, because it cashed. He did finish under four and a half, but he went for over 80 receiving guards, which is not something, but we talk about this on the betting show where it's like, hey, do you want to bet the yards? You want to bet the catches. And this one ended up working out betting the under on the receptions, although he did have a drop in this game. I think that the usage for him being more of an underneath type of target was very different from what we've seen from him in Seattle, where he was really used as a down the field, big X receiver. And I think that makes him really interesting in this matchup. And I'm bringing up a

point that I made earlier with the Jets and how some of their players, the offensive players knew the defense. Metcalfe knows about this defense. So am I going to fade the revenge game narrative when we just saw it work out for this exact team with the quarterback and Aaron Rogers? I don't think so. So I, that's why I moved Metcap off in my rankings. Originally, I had him closer to where I had him ranked last week, which was outside the top 30. I'm more optimistic about him now as a wide receiver 2 net, not as high as ECR closer to ECR.

But I think that the narrative is going to be like, hey, we want to get D.K. McF. a touchdown. I mean, Aaron Rogers threw four touchdowns last week and none went to D.K., which was kind of weird because that's where you assume that's where he would see his biggest role. So the fact that he spent last year with Seattle, I think that's going to help the Steelers passing game. he can provide some intel for Rogers for Arthur Smith to scheme up a game plan that's going to be effective against some of these corners.

So yes, they are talented, but so is DK MeccaF. And he's a monster with the ball in his hands. And if they're doing that, giving him layup touches and targets close to the line of scrimmage, like you could see him running for a lot of yards and a homecoming. Another really talented wide receiver, especially out of week one, was a Mecca egg buca. He looked awesome. And shout out to Debrough. Debrough was really high ranked on him.

We were doing the Sunday stream. and people are asking questions and just all in. And it looks like we kind of might need to be considering to be all in. He is wide receiver 20 this week. I mean, four spots off from Mike Evans. The ranks are pretty interesting. Erickson, you are right on consensus. Fitz, you're a little bit lower.

We'll go to you in a second. But talk to us about the positive narrative, Erickson, on Emeka, Buka, this week again and why he can continue to thrive. Well, I think the thing with Houston, and I noticed this, was they were having Derek Stingley, match up a lot with Devante Adams in that first matchup. So when you look at, okay, we have a perimeter cornerback, who are we going to match him up against with Tampa Bay? It's probably Mike Evans.

Like, this is what Mike Evans usually does. He always draws the opponent's number one cornerback. And what does that mean for Mick Agbuka? The dude is just going to eat again. Like, that's just what he's going to do. He's just going to feast. He's going to get favorable looks against the lesser cornerbacks on the Houston, Texas.

It doesn't mean that he's never going to draw any type of coverage from Stingley. But Stingley's legit. And if Baker Mayfield knows that, yes, Mike Evans will get his opportunities, but Mike Evans is entering this matchup with a more boomer-bruss profile, where Egbuka, again, as good as he was last week, he only had six targets. Like, there's room for that to grow, especially when you leave the team in routes run. I mean, he's an absolute stud. He lines up all over the field.

He lines up at Wight, he lines up at slot. And Baker Mayfield loves him. Everyone in the Buccaneers loves him. So you just got to keep starting him. So, Fitz, you have a little bit less optimism, at least as far as your rank goes here. If, you know, you're doing like a two-wide receiver league, your ranks are pretty much being like he's not a starter this week where the ECR would have him. I kind of agree with the like Stingley idea here, but again, I don't want to paint it like

you hate him or anything like that. But what's got the like negative rank? Is it more about you just the love of these other players or the uncertainty of the week-to-week role? Yeah, I mean, I love the player. Egbuka is going to be a really good NFL receiver. I think we know that. I'm just not quite ready to put him in the top 20. Really nice debut with the two touchdowns.

But, you know, as Erickson pointed out, only six targets. The target volume was just a. okay, 18.8% target share. So, you know, like if he had fired out with like 14 targets, I might feel a little bit more strongly. So I want to be a little cautious for now. By the way, just for the record, that Seahawks Steelers game is in Pittsburgh. So D.K. does not get to go back to Pike Place Market before the game. But that might be good. He won't get fish slime on his hands. Oh, yeah, did I say returns to Seattle? Yeah, I think I. Who did? I said home coming. Yeah, I may have said like he returns to

I meant has he played Seattle, but you can be the one wrong. Med Calf will not be the homecoming queen this year. All right. This guy, this last guy in this range here is, I think it's probably one of most polarizing players this week because there's a lot of narrative built around him. It's Ricky Pyrrissau. ECR wide receiver 24.

And there's a lot of reasons behind it. Obviously the quarterback play. Will Brock Purdy play or not? I'm not even sure if that matters as much. And not that Mack Jones is good, but he'll slang it. We saw what he did with Brian Thomas last year. Juan Jennings. That is a bigger question that can put them out there.

So you compare those, and Fitz and I in offline had kind of talked about, like, you know, whether those two play could really be dependent on the rank. But then on the other side of it, you have a horrifically bad Saints team. And you've got a projection god in Ricky Pearson. Ricky Pearson was number three receiving on PFS projections for the week. So you've got all these things that are coinciding. There's a lot of questions. There's a lot of thought after optimism, except when it comes.

to you two. Wide receiver 24. Fitz has got him at 31. Erickson, you've got him at 33. I get the concerns. Fitz. Why don't we start with you? There's a lot of stuff. There's tons of questions about Pearsall. So if you want to lay it out, here's where he is. If this happens and that happens, feel free to it. But what do you think about Pearsall this week? Yeah, I mean, this is just sort of a placeholder ranking. And I guess I'm tentatively ranking him as if Brock Purdy will not play this week. although maybe I shouldn't. Like if the 49ers have to start Mac Jones at quarterback, like Brian Thomas Jr. thrived with Mack Jones in Jacksonville last year.

And the target volume should be pretty good for Pearsall with no George Kittle. He is the hamstring injury, probably no Joanne Jennings, who's one of about 47 wide receivers who picked up a shoulder injury in week one. So, yeah, I may have to come up a little from wide receiver 31. I think you're probably playing Ricky Pearceol under almost any circumstances this week. Yeah, I think he's a, like, if you want to tie it to something, I think it's more tied personally to Juan Jennings being out there because Mac is going to sling the ball. That's not a good team that they're playing. Christian McCaffery is going to go.

But as you mentioned, there's no kiddle. There's none of that. That's the narrative I'm painting. Erickson, you hate him. 33, barely startable. Let's hear it. I think that I'm just wrong. I think, because I'm like looking at my notes, trying to paint the picture for why he.

He should be outside the top 30. And I'm just drawing blanks because I can't really think of a good reason. So this is something that I'm going to have to adjust. I think Fitz brings up a good point where we do have some ambiguity with, well, who the other receivers are going to be playing in this game? Who's the quarterback going to be? And I can't get out of my mind that if Mack Jones starts this game, again, they just gave the big contract to Brock Perry.

Do the 49ers really want to go out and make Mac Jones look really, really good? That's just about keeping the back of my mind. And I don't think that they want. to do that. And we all know the Shanahan system. It's like, he could probably go out there and throw for three touchdowns and three interpassing yards. And then they'd be like, well, why did they give the contract to Brock Purdy? Like, I could see them trying to avoid that. It's like, we're just going to feed McCaffrey. Like, that's what we're going to score all the touchdowns. We're not going to pad Mack Jones stats whatsoever. So I'm definitely big-braining a little bit here, but

it wouldn't shock me if they just don't have this massive passing output against the Saints. I think that Kulay McIntyree is kind of an underrated cornerback, to be honest. I think that he got to look pretty good in some of his matchups when he was going up against Marvin Harrison, Jr. in week one, I think that he's going to draw coverage with Ricky Pearson. So I think that's something to kind of monitor. But that being said, outside the top 30, with just the optics and the targets, the opportunity he could see, especially just after a breakout game in week one, picking up where he left off at the end of last year. So he's definitely going to be moving up the ranks. We are extremely excited to announce our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock,

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Travis Hunter, George Pickens, Jacoby Myers, James, Debo, Hollywood Brown, Romadunze, Jerry Judy, and Calvin Ridley. Some interesting ones in here, maybe some guys undeserved it. Tyree Kill really falls. DJ Moore kind of tumbles down a bit. But let's talk about Jameson Williams. ECR 31, some big expectations last week. Not quite there. You guys both have bigger expectations.

This week, Erickson, you are the highest wide receiver 21, a 10 wide receiver spot difference. That is pretty dramatic. So talk to us about James and why you are bullish on him. Well, the lions are playing at Ford Field, which is the course field of the NFL, and they're going to score points this week, guys. I think the lines aren't as bad as what we saw in week. one against the Green Bay Packers on the road.

They're home in the dome. I think that you're going to get a bounce back performance of the Lions overall. You just look at the total in that game. You look at the implied team totals. Lions are number two on the week. So Vegas is expecting them to score points. I'm expecting them to score points here. And how do they do that with their number one or number two most explosive playmaker

and Jameson Williams? The thing with Williams is he can win you your week. And I want to have that offensive firepower in my lineup as a wide receiver three. Again, I'm making him as a wide receiver two because I just don't think you should bench him. Like, you need to have his upside in your lineup because of the weak winning upside he can deliver. Again, I don't think that taking away what the Lions offense looked like in week one is necessarily going to help us because the Packers were selling up to stop all explosive plays. That's why Jamir Gibbs had 10 targets. That's why Dave Montgomery was seeing multiple targets

in the passing game. They were doing everything in their power to make sure that, no, there's going to be no explosive downfield plays from this offense. I don't think that the Bears will have as much success with that with the lines playing at home where they can, I think, dictate pace a little bit more offensively. So I'm going to buy the dip on J-mo. Fancy, you're there with it. You got him right at the end of your wide receiver twos. You're buying big weeks ahead. Yeah, I love Erickson's Coors Field comparison. So like what does that make Lambeau Field? Well, you're a baseball guy. What are the big pitchers? Seattle. Paul over. Yeah, great American ballpark. No, it'd be like the Reds. Great American Ballpark. Okay. Yeah. So that's that's Lambo Field. And we saw the Lions

offense just have a shipwreck game against the Packers in Green Bay. Nothing worked. There were no big plays. The Packers' D.B.s kept everything in front of them, and the pass rush was getting to Jared Gough quickly. The Green Bay defense might end up being one of the best in the league. The sort of matchup that has us downgrading Packers' opponents in our rankings all season. I expect the Lions' offense to get well this week at home against the Bears. Chicago's D played well for half of the Monday night game against the Vikings, then kind of fell apart in the second half. Bear's cornerback Jalen Johnson didn't play in that game.

He's been out with a groin injury that caused him to miss most of training camp. And Jalen Johnson is by far Chicago's best cornerback. If he's out, Gough is going to have a big day and JMO is going to be part of it. Kind of back to what we said at the beginning of the show. You know, overreactions, they come in all different forms. And sometimes it can be like, I had this great guy that I drafted and he didn't have a great week. And now I don't know if I want to get him out there. And it's like, that might be just too close to the overreaction.

trained for a guy like Jameson Williams. Calvin Ridley comes in at ECR 36. Erickson, you were pretty vocal about your concerns and you hit a bet on the under. Thank you to his crucial and critical awful drop that definitely got you there. But yeah, ooh, ECR 36. You guys are both higher on him. Fitts will start with you. You've got him at wide receiver 30. So you got him as like a mid wide receiver. Erickson's even a little bit more bullish again. So Fitsy, why don't you hit us with some Calvin Ridley? real quick. Yeah, Ridley just had that brutal match up against the Broncos with

the best pass rush in the league in Denver and also Patrick Sertane Jr., just a lockdown corner who was on Ridley for most of the game. I just think a wide receiver 36 ranking in ECR is an overreaction. I drafted Calvin Ridley in a lot of leagues

and just kept him on the bench last week in leagues where I could afford to knowing it probably wasn't going to be a very good week. I two won a little bit of money, betting the under on his receiving yardage, but I'm starting Ridley everywhere this week, his matchup against the Rams. Like, not easy, but also not the skull and crossbones matchup that Ridley had last week

against Denver. Yeah, Erickson, you've got him at wide receiver 26. I like A Manor looked like good, they look really good, like a lot of good underlying stuff, but, you know, a decent amount of that was about Ridley being taken out of the game. You think he's going to bounce back in the world of big rank jumps. This is a 10 wide receiver jump between barely being a startable wide receiver. to him almost being a two for you. So you think we're going to have a complete turnaround for Ridley this week.

Yeah, because this is kind of where I was ranking him during draft season. I think this is kind of the area he was in. I just knew week one, it's like, guys, like week one's not going to be good. Like, you have to keep this in mind when you draft Calvin Ridley. And we even talked about it in offseason shows where it's like Calvin Ridley, the best buy low after week one. So if we don't draft them, you just go trade for him for week two because he's going to bomb in week one. And that's exactly what we saw.

And to, again, to his discredit, I would say, he didn't help himself. I mean, he helped me make money with the unders on the props, but him dropping passes and basically making Cam Ward's dad, you know, almost like, oh, no, like what's going on with this guy? That was a, yeah, Cam Ward's dad, they panned him in the stadium. When Calvin really dropped the ball, and man, it was like so defeated. It's like, come on, you got to help. Went out to the stairs, held the railing, was like, oh, that would hurt.

Classic disappointed dad. Just like, oh, man. So we should get better effort from Ridley. Yes, the Rams do have a fierce pass rush like we saw against the Houston Texans. I think the Titans offensive line, even though they're dealing with a J.C. Latham injury, still probably better than the Houston Texans. And look, Cammore's not afraid to just sling it and just stand in that pocket and just rip it. And I think it's going to give rid the opportunities.

And again, the Rams cornerbacks, I think are still not that great. Even that pass rush, I think hides some of their vulnerabilities in the secondary. They didn't get exposed against the Texans who really only had Nico Collins. But I think that really is going to see enough volume. And again, he had a 28% target share. He played all the snaps. And he's a top 30 receiver in the projections. So even just median projections, I think that he's being undervalued outside the top 30 in ECR.

All right. Top 36 wide receivers in the books. Those are the names. You guys can check them out over at fantasy pros.com slash rankings. But that leads us to our final thing. Who's a wide receiver that did not hit this? That absolutely should have. It makes you sick to your stomach.

Or you just think they're going to finish a little bit higher. Fitz will start with you. Which wide receiver do we not talk about that was on the list that should have been? Chris Olavet is just outside the top 36. in ECR. I've got him just inside. Like, I'm not that far above consensus, but I'll probably be above consensus on him most of the year. Like, I think

Olave is underrated. The reason he found drafts is mostly because of the concussion fears. Well, he's healthy now, or mostly healthy. Did spend some time in the medical tent in that Saints Cardinals game, but Olave had 13 targets, caught seven of them for

54 yards, and I think that's kind of indicative of what we're going to see this year. Heavy target volume all year. And while he's probably not going to be super efficient with those targets, since they're coming from Spencer Rattler, I think the sheer target volume and catch volume Chris Alave has is going to make him a wide receiver three, a playable wide receiver three all year long.

Alave looks like he's got like a timeshare built in that tent. It's brutal. Well, Spencer Rattler's not helping when he throws hospital walls to Chris Alave. I'm sure it's all going to be a lot better this week with the 4-9ers pass rush in their corners. I'm sure it's going to be a lot better. Spencer Rattler's going to be put there. the blender. The Robert Salam blender's coming. It's not going to be good. Take out all the frustrations.

All the players that are injured, they're going to take it out on them. All right. Erickson, your wide receiver three. He didn't make it. Of course this is the name. Of course this is the guy. Let's hear it. Just one bad week and we're all out. I mean, I'm going right back to the well here with Jaylon Waddle. I still think that he can be a top 36 receiver and it has to do with the matchup. The Patriot Secondary was absolutely destroyed by Gino Smith. Of all the quarterbacks, Gino Smith, Jacoby Myers, Trey Tucker, everyone was making plays, especially downfield explosive plays. The Patriots are missing Christian Gonzalez, and he makes a big difference in their secondary. So when he's not out there, this past defense was one of the worst that we saw in week one.

The Dolphins, their defense is still a mess. I think their offense can bounce back just a little bit here playing at home. And I think the thing to point out to part of the reason why the offense was so terrible in week one didn't have a lot of volume. They only ran 46 offensive plays because the Colts scored, I think, on every single possession that they had. So the Dolphins just didn't really have the ball that much to go along with all the turnovers. But they averaged 63 plays per game last season. So that's 17 less plays. And the lowest plays per game last year among all NFL teams was 58.

So just an increase in just play volume from the Dolphins offense, you're going to see more targets for Jalen Wattle for Tyree Kill. And it's a plus matchup. Jalen Wattle historically has also just cooked the Patriots. look at some of the game logs he's done against this team. He's very, very productive against the New England Patriots. They're playing at home. So I think that as the defense, I think, is still a mess for Miami, but I think their offense doesn't play nearly as bad as it did in week one. Hopefully, through our conversations here, we answered your guys as questions, your big wide receiver questions for week two. If we did not, don't want you guys to forget. We've got our weekly

start and sit live stream on our YouTube channel where you guys can come and ask whatever type of start and sit questions, wide receivers, other positions. We're here every Thursday, three p.m. Eastern. So for those listening on the podcast, go to YouTube.com slash fantasy pros, subscribe. Click the bell, get notified so you don't miss win those live streams. Go live. We're here for you. That's going to do it. Thank you guys so much. You guys rock that. Wide receiver ranks in the books. Go to Fantasypros.com slash rankings for more. Good luck in week two. We'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pro's Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcast at Fantasypros.com

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