The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - Week 5 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1745)

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Chris Welsh, Pat Fitzmaurice, and Andrew Erickson are breaking down Week 5’s biggest wide receiver ranking differences, engaging in debates, and highlighting the expert consensus for Week 5. 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 - 0:00:00Accuracy Contest - 0:02:08Ja'Marr Chase Signed Jersey Giveaway Winner + Signed A.J. Brown Eagles Jersey Giveaway - 0:03:07WR1s - 0:04:16George Pickens - 0:04:44Ja'Marr Chase - 0:07:44Quentin Johnston - 0:13:54WR2s - 0:22:57Michael Pittman - 0:23:25Jaylen Waddle - 0:25:38Jakobi Meyers - 0:28:49A.J. Brown - 0:30:28Hard Rock Bet - 0:32:00WR3s - 0:33:30Wan'Dale Robinson - 0:33:48Jordan Addison - 0:36:41Chris Godwin - 0:39:09Sleepers - 0:41:31Malik Washington - 0:41:43Jerry Jeudy - 0:42:02 Helpful Links:Hard Rock Bet - All lines provided by 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 I-Heart 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. 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 are talking ranks. That's right. It's week five ranks. This is the wide receiver episode, and the gang is back together. We got Pat Fitzmorest, and the return of Andrew Erickson. He's back. The crowd roars. Ah, ah, ah. Erickson, how was Wedding season? Is it a lot of fun. How we doing? Yeah. Good to go to the West Coast. California, Temecula, wine country, for those that are unfamiliar.

It was a lot of fun. Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. My cousin got married. And you guys would think that this was the last wedding? No, I got another one coming up. So that would be a ton of fun. Nope. I have known you for a little bit of time now.

I know that it is never the end. I haven't been to a wedding in like 10 years, and you've been to 10 in the last year. So I know it is never the end. Erickson is a busy bee, Fitzy. Not a big going to weddings guy. I'm a big ranking and complaining about Joanne Jenny's guy. I don't know about you, Fetzy. Different stages of life.

Erickson is at this stage where, like, one of his friends is getting married every other weekend. I'm at more like the divorce stage where some of my friends, you know, been married a long time. Like, they're, yeah, we're sick of each other. We're going to end this. Yeah, the divorce stage where those guys are also getting a little bit more into fantasy football, too. That was kind of coincides sometimes. So, all right. Well, let's figure.

out. Who are we marrying? Who are we divorcing as far as wide receivers for week five? There's a bunch of decisions. Boy, there's a bunch of injuries. So we got a lot to cipher through here as we're going to be going through the top 36. We've got, we are trying to kind of figure out what some of the big questions might be, where we have some big rank differences. And that is what we are going to be tackling today. Speaking of ranks, of course, you can follow along at fantasy pros.com slash rankings. You can go and check out what the ECR is. And every single week, we've got our ranks contest. It goes all season long. And each week, we get number ones, twos and threes. Unfortunately, none of us were on the board. Fortunately, just want to point out, I was the highest

of our group, but it is nothing to get excited about. What there is to be excited about is Chris Raybon who finished number one in the ranks contest for week four. Chris Dell finishing two and Kev Wheeler. Let's all give them their flowers. They finish. one, two, and three in the ranks contest for this week. This is a tough week. I got Jalen Warren. I did not get to fix Jailen Warren. I've also figured out I might be the greatest tight-in ranker on the planet.

I ranked in the top 10. I'm five on the season. So if you need your tight-ins, come to me. Those guys, they'll get you with everything else. But Chris Raybron, Chris Dell, and Kev Wheeler, those are your top three in the ranks. And boys, we're going to pick it up this week. I feel good. I feel I got a premonition that Erickson's going to finish really high in the ranks.

I don't know why. I feel like it's going to be a little bit of Waller. There's going to be a wide receiver he's going to get down. I think Erickson's going to finish pretty high. So before we tackle this and get into the ranks, let's also talk about some wide receiver giveaways. We're not talking about the Jamar Chase giveaway anymore because we are going to give it. And then we've got a new prize for somebody.

So the winner of the signed Jamar Chase, Bengals Jersey giveaway is McCoy. The real McCoy. That's it. That's all it says on here is just McCoy. So we'll be contacting you to get you that prize. So stay on the lookout and congratulations on winning our friend McCoy. But we are not done. If you want a chance to win a sign AJ Brown Eagles jersey, we're doing more jerseys for free, courtesy of our friends over at pristineauction.com. All you've got to do is go to fantasypros.com slash contest. Complete the form. Then download Fantasy Pros app. You can leave a review for the podcast. Follow us on X. Instagram, TikTok, all of those are at Fantasy Pros.

And you can also do all of them. All of those give you entries where you could potentially win and we'll be announcing a winner right here on the podcast, just like I did. So if you're watching on YouTube, be sure to subscribe, turn on notification so you can be alerted of new episodes so you can claim your prize. Wide receiver jerseys for you, for you, for you. There you go. All right, fantasypros.com slash rankings.

Gentlemen, let's kick up the big board. Let's look at the top 12 for week five. starts with Puka Nakua, Thursday night football, Amonara St. Brown, Jackson Smith, Injigba, Justin Jefferson, and Garrett Wilson. That's our top five. Nico Collins, Devonte Adams, Emeca Egbuka, Jamar Chase at 10, Debo Samuel, and Quentin Johnson at 12. Just like we all thought Week 5 was going to look like in the ranks, just when you all

knew that Garrett Wilson would be 5 and Quentin Johnson would be 12. So we got actually a couple things to talk about in the top 12. Let's start with George Pickens. George Pickens is ECR 8 this week. Both of you find gentlemen have him a little bit lower. I'm curious if there's anything with that. This is pretty minuscule, but you guys are lower than consensus where everybody's kind of putting a big week on him. What do you think about Pickens this week, Fidsey?

I underrank Pickens last week because I was worried that he would be miscast as an alpha receiver with C.D. Lamb out. You know, Pickens had been miscast as a lead receiver in Pittsburgh. I was bullish about Pickens during draft season and got him in a few drafts because I love the idea of George Pickens being able to be the number two receiver and just do his thing. And he was getting a big quarterback upgrade with Dak Prescott. Well, Pickens did really well as an alpha receiver last week. And it looked silly to have been worried about his ability to thrive as a lead receiver against a defense from Green Bay that most people consider one of the best in the league. I'm still a little nervous about ranking Pickens as a wide receiver one when he's probably going to be seeing a lot of Sauce Gardner this week.

And I don't know if it's possible for Dak Prescott to play as well as he did against the Packers. Like I'm guessing that if you asked Dak, he would tell you that last week's game was one of the two or three best games he's ever played at any level of football. So if Pickin Smashes again, I'm going to have to reassess how I feel about him. But yeah, I mean, obviously you're starting him and probably feeling pretty good about it after what we saw last week. Ericson, you're a little bit lower. Are you worried about the sauce for Pickens? I think that it's worth mentioning. And when you're trying to rank George Pickens, factoring in that because I don't think that the Green Bay Packers have cornerbacks are as good as Soss Garner is.

You look at the way that Soss Garner plays, I think that Pickens, they don't move around that much in the Dallas Cowboys formation. like he's strictly like a perimeter guy. Like they don't really move him a ton into the slot. And so you're going to see Gardner basically match up with Pickens all game long. And that's just not a matchup that, oh, where Dallas, like, let's attack Soss Gardner all day long. It doesn't make a lot of sense where the Jets just put or the Jets just lost their starting slot corner, Michael Carter, to a concussion last week on a short week. So if they find that Comante Turpin has all these really favorable matchups inside,

Jake Ferguson from the inside of the field, then I think that we see Dallas maybe attack more of the inside of the field of the Jets defense versus, okay, let's just attack the perimeter with these 50-50 balls. I don't know if they necessarily need to do that against the New York Jets. So that's kind of my take on it. Again, you're starting George Pickens because of what the ceiling he shouldn't show. But I don't think we're going to get a repeat sealing game from him against the New York Jets. And also, too, the Dallas Cowbers are going to be out with another offensive line injury. Tyler Guyton had a concussion as well.

So that's just another offensive. Now they're down three starters, like in the past two weeks. Like as great as Dak played to Fitz's point, I think it's going to come back down to earth just a tad. If there was, like, if you could go back in time about a month or so ago, do you think you would have ever and could have ever imagined a scenario where George Pickens would rank higher than Jamar Chase? That's kind of the big question. Now we are faced with, can we start Jamar Chase? It's a legitimate question that we are all facing because it is multiple weeks of what looks like the most, I affectionately say, piss poor, offense in the NFL. They cannot do anything. The Bengals are offensive line. Browning is not it.

Jamar Chase still, though, is a wide receiver one this week. He falls down to 10. Fitsy, you've got him at 9 and Erickson, you've got him at 6. You guys are still both above consensus. You're holding out hope. There is absolutely a mental side of this to like imagine benching Jamar Chase and he does go off. He is so crazy talented. But we are seeing weeks and weeks of this. not working. I think anybody that is asking the question, should I start pop, pop, pop, pop over Jamar Chase is justified. And I'm not sure that I fully buy in here, but maybe there's some matchup stuff that's in play here. Ericson, let's actually start with you because you are the high guy. You've got him at six this week. What is your level of,

I mean, you have him at six, so I know your level of worry isn't like crazy, but legitimately, how far off are we from having to put him in Brian Thomas territory into the 20s? Well, I'm not trying to overreact to two bad games from Jake Browning when the matchups had been terrible for him. He's played back-to-back road games against the Minnesota Vikings, Brian Flores defense, no Bueno, and at the Denver Broncos, on the road. So, do we all just forget about what happened the last time we saw Jake Browning play at home against the Jaguars? Oh, George Chase had a great game. Like, he was fine, and you just look at Jake Browning in his career as a backup. His record, at home, six and two, on the road.

one in six. I think that we are just burying Jake Browning after he just had two really bad matchups on the road. Like that's not his fault. Like the schedule just did not work in his favor. So after week three, or excuse me, after the game where Joe Burrow got hurt, it seemed like, okay, like we can be okay with Jake Browning. The Jacksonville game was fine for Jamar Chase. He had like 16 targets. And now we're just going to completely forget that ever happened and just write him off because of these two tougher matchups on the road. So that's why I'm buying the dip on Jamar Chase. Like, he's too talented I have a player to be kept down

for week after week And you look at the Lions They're down two of their starting quarterbacks DJ Reach got put on injured reserve Tarion Arnold is banged up again At home, the Bengals This is when you buy the dip on Jemar Chase So I'm starting him no matter what

I really like that My biggest worry would be That offensive line is so bad That Aiden Hutchinson's going to turn Browning into a huggy pillow Like that, it looks really, really bad And because of that, you've seen a lot of like tied-in, you know, dump-off stuff

But it doesn't take away, like this situation, Jamar Chase is insanely talented, Fitz. So I think this is a bit that you're going to get a million questions about this, but the matchup definitely lines up that this is still a great spot for Chase. It's probably not the week to get cute about it, even though it has been bad. But people are asking some pretty hard questions, Fitsy. And you've got them at nine, though, and you've got them a little bit, you're on one spot above consensus right now. Yeah, and after I posted my rankings on Tuesday morning, someone on Twitter asked me

why was still ranking Jamar Chase as a top 10 receiver. And this Twitter follower didn't identify himself as a Jamar Chase stakeholder, but it was pretty obvious that he was. And no doubt he was completely distraught by what he had just seen from Jake Browning and the Cincinnati offense, Monday night against the Broncos. I totally understand the frustration. And I completely understand that some Chase investors might be thinking about benching Chase after a game in which he had five catches for 23 yards. So what I told this person when he asked me about why I'm continuing to rank Chase so highly is that Jamar Chase is insanely good at football. And like I wasn't trying to be a smart Alec and I know that's an overly simplistic answer. But when Joe Burrow had

the season ending injury in 2003 and Jake Browning had to make a bunch of starts late in the year, Chase had some good games. Like he had four catches for 81 yards and the first of those starts. Chase had 11 catches for 149 yards and a touchdown and Browning's second start that year. But then again, Jamar Chase averaged 3.5 catches and 38.3 receiving yards over the last four games he played with Jake Browning in 2023. So it's not all rosy here. Like I'm not trying to sugarcoat things for the Jamar Chase investors. Like the situation is kind of bleak. Chase is not finishing as the overall wide receiver won this year. But I don't think. it's crazy to rank this undeniably great player as a mid-range or low-end wide receiver one in a

week where there are four teams unbuying a bunch of good receivers hurt do we think this is just a quick like we don't have to go into a crazy analysis of this if he bombs again this week are we going to see the week six plummet of jimar chase we will in the rankings because people are knee-jerk I do want to bring up one last thing if you're like you're looking at your weekly matchup right and your opponent has Jamar Chase, are you, is a side relief if you see Jamar Chase on their bench? Or do you want to face chase this week?

Well, I mean, that, I think that ultimately is what we're going to figure out after this. For me, I don't know what the answer is. I just think you can't put that upside on the bench, especially with bi-weeks. I think that's my case. I think you're indifferent about it. I think you're indifferent.

I think the answer is you're indifferent. If you see that, you're just like, all right, this could go either way. Like, he could absolutely destroy me, or this, you know, he could be worth less than Josh Downs. Like, I think you're just completely indifferent where usually you would have seen Jamar Chase and you're like, here we go. You know, like, here we go.

It's going to be a problem. You're very indifferent right now and that's a space. But I don't want to say like this is the be all end all. But if he bombs out this week, three straight weeks with a good matchup, I think this is where you're going to see guys like you to have him ranked below the consensus moving forward if he bombs out. All right. So let's strap in and let's have.

We're going to talk about another top 12 wide receiver, but let's have a bigger conversation around this guy that we need to have. This is a family conversation about the Chargers wide receivers. Quentin Johnston is number 12. Fidsey, I think I might have said on this show last week that I think Quentin Johnston deserved to be the top guy on that list. But that was still me loving Ladd McConkey. I'm breaking up with Ladd McConkey. I'm done. I still think he is talented.

He doesn't work as an elite. wide receiver in this offense anymore because there are too many good options. There's too many good options for Herbert. That's the thing that was different from last year. It was just like, oh, bad, bad, bad, go to lad, lad saves. Now Herbert can go to first read. Bam, he's up a full percentage point on his first reads than he was last year. You've got Hampton as a great receiver. That's what's creating this mix. So there's a lad conversation to have. There's a Kenan Allen conversation to have. But I think the biggest change that everyone has come to terms with after this week, hoping they don't regret it is that Quentin Johnson now needs to be looked at as the number

one in this offense. And the consensus ranks obviously tell that story of him going up to 12. You guys don't agree, though. You guys both have him as wide receiver 20. Now, that actually doesn't mean you don't have them above the other guys. You just don't have him singularly as high. So, Fittsie, let's start with you. Your thoughts on Quentin Johnston. You're way lower than the rest. And how do you sparse out this grouping of wide receivers now? I was on a show with my friend Kevin Tompkins earlier this week. And Kevin and I were talking about whether we need to adjust our priors on the Chargers, wide receivers, based on what we've seen so far.

And I think we probably do. But I think it's less about Ladd-McConkey than it is about Quentin Johnston and Keenan Allen, and especially Quentin Johnston. Like QJ was talented enough to be a first-round pick in 2023. He was drafted 21st overall. He was the second wide receiver taken in that draft. Jackson Smith and Jigba went one spot ahead of him at 20th overall. And Quentin Johnston's hands were obviously a major issue early in his career,

so much so that it seemed like his problem with drops might be career threatening. And I don't know what Quentin Johnston and Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers coaches did to fix those problems. But QJ looks like a totally new guy, supremely confident catching. the ball right now, and we are seeing the version of Quentin Johnston that the Chargers thought they were getting when they drafted him, this big, fast playmaker who's an absolute monster after the catch and a physical mismatch for pretty much every defender who tries to cover him. And he's like quietly second in the league in air yards right now behind only Malik neighbors. So then you've got Keenan Allen, who's obviously aging, like fine wine.

Like he's still the Picasso of route runners. But I don't want to bury Ladd McConkey in the rankings because of the slow start. I just don't believe that Ladd McConkey is going to finish wide receiver 56, which is where he is currently ranked in half-point PPR fantasy scoring behind Luke McCaffrey, Hunter Renfro, and DeAndre Hopkins. But what if he finishes his wide receiver 35? I mean, he might, but I'm still, I think the show that Ladd-McConkey put on in 2024 was pretty convincing.

And I don't think he's playing well right now, but I don't think it's going to be like this all season. But see, I think part of the problem is I don't think it's that he's not playing well. It's that the ball is not getting to him at the same clip as before. Again, like in week four, Ladd had a 20% first read percentage. Quinn Johnson was almost 40%. He's also the Air Yards guy. Herbert doesn't need to check down at the level that he did before.

Maybe it's even the checkdown percentage that was down a full percent as well. Like, he has got his big target. So what I'm curious about... Let me add one more thing here. Also, give your rank after. Give your rank of those three wide receivers. Okay. Yeah.

So one of the reasons, like this is kind of specific to this week, the Chargers look very unlikely to have Joe Alt, who was carted off with an ankle injury. Luckily not super serious, it seems, and he's not going to miss extended time. But he's probably not going to play this week. And maybe without Alt, their top offensive tackle, and they'd already lost Rishan Slater, their other starting

offensive tackle to a torn Patel or tendon in training camp. Maybe that necessitates the need for some more quick throws, which seems like it's more up Lads Alley and up Keenan Allen's alley than Quentin Johnston, who again second the league in Air Yards right now. I don't know if Justin Herbert is going to get the time to wait for that, you know, those deeper routes to develop this week. So maybe that's one. How do you sparse those three out?

Yeah, I've got QJ, wide receiver 20, Ladd 22, Keenan Allen, 23. Okay. Erickson, let's get you take. It's all the same stuff that we built out here. I'm kind of done. Not that Lad isn't super talented. It's just his usage in the offense, I think, makes him a questionable starter. He'll have a couple games that blow up.

Quentin Johnson is the constant. Talk to us about the lower rank of Quentin Johnson this week, and then how do you sparse out those three charts? or wide receivers. Yeah, I think that fits did a good job of hitting on the ascension of Quentin Johnson, so I don't necessarily need to rehash that because I agree with all the points that he made. I really want to focus more on McConkey. And if you just look at this season, this is per next-gen stats, no receivers have faced more double coverage than Keenan Allen and La McConkey this year. So that's like part of one of the reasons why Johnson has been so productive, not gun. He's taken a

massive talent jump in how they've used him. But he's gotten a lot of favorable looks. Like the opportunities have been there for him, and unlike past years where he's kind of blown those opportunities being attached to Justin Herbert, this year he's really capitalizing on it and why he's been so productive. So I don't think the production is just going to way. But eventually, like, the ebbs and flows are going to kind of shift a little bit where you're not going to just see McConkey just never produce ever again. Like, I don't think he's going to be wider Cere 56th rest of season. In fact, if you go back to last year, the only guy that has faced double coverage more than Lamacanke is Jamar Chase since the beginning of 2024. So teams have been rolling

coverage towards McConkey. To be like, no, we're not letting this guy beat us. And then Quinn Johnson has been absolutely feasting. So eventually you're going to see teams, all right, well, now we have to pay more attention to this third year breakout because he's absolutely killing us. We can let up a little bit on La Maconke. And I think this particular matchup against the commanders, this is a spot where I think Lad can finally bounce back because they're one of the worst defenses of the NFL this year

against slot receivers. They're dead last in yards per target to the slot. The leader in slot routes for the Chargers is Laid McConkey. So although they're mixing in, Keenan Allen a little bit, even Quentin Johnson to an effect in the slot, it's interesting because even though McConkey is running in most of his routes from the slot, he's been the least productive slot received for the Chargers. I believe Johnson and Allen both have like more yards, more catches and have been just more productive with those opportunities, whereas, well, at McConkey, he hasn't played great.

Like, that's the other thing too. Like part of it is on him. The usage again hasn't been ideal, but he's also dropped more passes than we're occasionally used to him seeing, hasn't been winning these 50-50 balls and obviously hasn't scored any touchdowns. I think that changes because of the matchup this weekend's the commander's where I slot funnel defense. Thirdmost targets, fourth-most points allowed to slot receivers

this season, like I mentioned before, league high yards per target 10.1 to pass catchers aligned in the slot this season. I don't think that it's going to go unnoticed when the charters are putting together their game plans. It's like, oh wow, like we can really get Ladd going this particular week. So I don't think this is the week to bench Lamacon. I think, yes, he's more of that wide receiver too, just because I don't think the other guys completely go away.

But yeah, I'm in on live this week. Yeah, and I'm not going to make a big argument about like this week and how you want to approach. I think it's the bigger piece of this is like when you guys make the argument that, hey, he's not going to be wide receiver 56. That's not necessarily telling. Like, because again, if he's wide receiver 38 or 36 or 35 or something like that, well, guess what? He's super inconsistent. And that's my problem with him, knowing when to start him.

So you want to see consistency. Hopefully this is the start of it. he's way too talented to not be used, but I do feel he's kind of a hard, hard start in general. But you guys are kind of seeing that with Quinton Johnson. So do you have it ranked Johnston, Ladd, and Keenan Allen like fits? I have it Ladd, Johnston, and then Keenan Allen. Because you have Ladd above everybody. Okay. I just believe in the matchup this week. Like, this is Ladd's spot to have a productive game like he had his rookie year. And yes, I think he's one spot ahead of Quinn Johnson for him

because I don't expect Johnson due to lay an egg in any capacity. I mean, Marshal on Lattimore. is, I mean, he's turning to like a turn-style type of cornerback where I kind of hope that they put Latimore on Johnson one-on-one and just kind of see how that goes. And that's obviously a matchup that Johnson should win. But I think that this slot matchup for Latam Konki is ideal for him to get going. All right, let's move to the wider. It's a lot of conversation we had on the wide receiver ones, but there are some good things we need to do in there. Let's go to wide receiver twos this week. We've got 13 through 24 starting with Cortland Sutton, followed by Zay Flowers, Teteroa McMillan, Michael Pittman, A.J. Brown, Jalen, Jalen, Waddle, Xavier Worthy,

Keenan Allen, Jacoby Myers, Marvin Harrison, Brian Thomas, and Olavay. So there you go. That tells you right there. We got Keenan Allen as far as ECR as the number two. So Ladd has dropped down there. A couple points to hit on here. Let's start with Michael Pittman. ECR 16. You guys are both lower. Fidsey at 19. Erickson at 24, even lower. Let's get a quick hit. Erickson. Why don't we start with you? Michael Pittman. This is probably the highest he's, ranked this season. You guys are a little bit lower, but you still are in starting range. What are your thoughts on Michael Pittman for this week as a starter? Yeah, I had to move him up a little bit since I first put my rankings in and just kind of a peek behind the curtain. For one, we're doing

these, we do our initial ranks and then Fitz will take out certain players that we think are most debatable to talk about. But then as I'm kind of prepping for the show, I'll go back in and kind of update things based on stark differences. And Michael Pittman, to me, was one of the players that I kind of looked again at and thought, now I think I am too low on him, because you Just look at what he's done this year. He's been a top 22 finisher in all the games that he played except against the Broncos, which we all know is, okay, this is the Patrick's Sertainton matchup. Nobody ever plays really well against him, so it's okay that he was wide receiver's

that week. So he's been locked and loaded as the top 22 guy, and the Raiders have allowed the third most fanies points to wide receivers. So I moved him up much closer to the ECR rank. Fincy, you on the buy-in, I mean, like I said, as Erickson said, Pittman has been finishing high. He has not ranked high, really, whatsoever. But now this is the first week that everybody is just kind of in as it goes up against the Raiders,

which is one of the few in this wide receiver two range four-star matchups, according to Fantasy Pros. If you check out on the ranks page, you can go and see all of that. And it is also given an A rating. What do you think about Pittman? Yeah. As Erickson said, this is a really attractive matchup with the Raiders having a lot of the fourth-most receiving yards and fourth-most receptions to wide receivers.

And Pittman's been pretty consistent as far as volume. I mean, it has at least four catches in every game. But I do think maybe the ECR is just a little bit of an overreaction to the touchdown output for Michael Pittman so far. He's had three touchdown catches. But he's only at one red zone target this entire season. Like his touchdowns have come from outside the 20-yard line. And I think Tyler Warren is kind of clearly Daniel Jones go-to guy close to the end zone.

So maybe he's just a little over-influx. as far as where ECR has him. Unfortunately, Tyree Kill had the dislocated knee. Might be career threatening. He's definitely out for this season. That's what we know. But what it has unlocked is Jalen Waddle, Sisson, Erickson. The smile comes because he knows what was coming,

where we can just freely get back to betting overs on Jalen Waddle. That's all that we really want in this world. He is ECR 18. Both of you have got him higher. Fitsy at 15. Erickson's at 14. 50. Let's start with you real quick.

he becomes the de facto number one. I think that puts him in a good spot. I think some people might argue he would want to go even higher. I can already feel in like the Sunday chat we're going to get like Waddle or Jammar Chase. I feel like that's like a question that's going to start popping up. But how excited should we be? You guys are higher than ECR. This is a pretty good rank on Waddle here.

So Fancy, what's your take? Yeah, no matter how eternal my Jalen Waddle optimism, I'm never going to be able to outflank Erickson on Jalen Waddle. That's just a given. You know, and I just don't want to stop batting on a former top 10 draft pick who began his career with three straight thousand-yard seasons. And, you know, now with Tua healthy and Tyreek Hill no longer around you would have to imagine that Jalen Waddle is going to get at least some additional targets. I think we're going to talk about Malik Washington a little bit later. I think he's a super sneaky option as well as a big deep threat. I think maybe a worry Erickson could be that just like this passing offense has already kind of,

you know, there's some stinkiness to it that the stink can continue on and it's just one less target. But like, Waddle's a guy that finds himself open. You've got him at 14. How did you not just get him as a wide receiver 12? Like, just do it. Just do the thing and get him as a 12. But let's, let's hear optimism on Waddle right now. Well, we have a four game sample size, including the last game that we saw with Waddle and Terry Kill where Hill has played less than 50% of the snaps in the Dolphins offense. And in those games, Waddle has averaged over eight targets per game, 76 receiving yards per game. So look, drafted Jalen Waddle.

He's on all my teams and I'm not going to bench him in the first game that Tyree Kills not playing. Again, this was never the idea behind the play that Hill would suffer an injury like he did. Again, there was always a chance that I thought, okay, maybe Tyree Koehl does get traded. And then you get Waddle with like this opportunity to be the wide receiver one. And now we're getting that opportunity here with with Hill's injury. So I think you got to start him. I mean, it's going to be disappointing if it's not the exact.

boom game that we expected. Maybe in his first outing, it's the Carolina Panthers who are a team that we know a lot of teams mostly attack through the ground game and don't necessarily need to throw the ball over. But this is just a bad defense overall, top to bottom. It's not a matchup to be feared in any capacity. And Waddle has been pretty good this year. He's actually PFF's 20th highest graded wide receiver this season through four games. Hasn't had the massive volume numbers, but it's been efficient and you're expecting the volume to uptick without Terry Kill in the lineup. And I think, Welsh when you mentioned, like, you felt good about me doing well this week in the rankings. I think it was a subtle nod at, hey, the Jaylon Waddle call. You got to be above consensus on

Jayland Waddle because he's going to deliver a smash week. Yeah, it was just a, it's just a feeling that grew in me. That's all that it was. I didn't even like have any logic to it. There you go. It might be all about Waddle. One more in this range. Chikobi Myers, ECR 21 this week. Erickson, you got him at 23, so you're a little bit lower than consensus. So this is one of the situations where you guys are on opposite ends. Fidsey, you got him quite a bit higher. You've got him at 16. That's actually the ECR Michael Pitman range. So Fitsy, why don't you spit some positive? And maybe Erickson's got a little bit of negative. Yeah, I mean, Jacoby Myers had kind of a quiet game last week, four catches, 30 yards. But he had a team high seven targets in a game where

Gino Smith only attempted 21 passes for the Raiders. So Myers has a 26.8 percent target share on the season. He ranks 25th in the league in air yards and sixth in the league in yards after the catch. So that's a pretty nice combination. And I don't hate the matchup against the Colts, who have allowed the second most receptions and the fifth most receiving yards to wide receivers this season. Yeah, Erickson, the Colts cornerbacks, definitely PFF grades are relatively bad kind of across the board. So if they get back to, you know, air rating a little bit with the Raiders, Jacoby Myers is going to get some targets. You're a little bit more pessimistic, though. You got them at 23.

I did move him up a few spots. Thought more about the Colts and their defense, how they don't have Kenny Moore, who was their best cornerback. and he was a guy that was manning the slot, well, that's where Jacobi Myers runs the majority of his routes is from the slot. So I think that this is a bounceback game for Jacoby Myers. And he's in this tier of receiver where it's him versus, how many receivers can I rank ahead of AJ Brown this week? And Jacobi Myers now falls into that category.

So I'm now starting Jacoby Myers over AJ Brown, starting Chargers wide receivers over AJ Brown, just because, yeah, that's the AJ Brown experience that we're all going through right now. I'm glad you brought that up. We didn't really talk about him. 17. Where do you have him ranked, A.J. Brown? I have him at 23. And I think that if you can make a compelling case to start somebody over him, I would. He's not, it's not to the extent where I think you should just pick someone off off the waiver wire and start that player over A.J. Brown,

just because he does have a projection every week. No, Trey Tucker over A.J. Brown, you're saying. Not doing Trey Tucker over A.J. Brown type of analysis. But again, like Jameson Williams over A.J. Brown? Yeah, sure. Just because I think we can all agree that AJ Brown's ceiling is not high in this matchup or in this offense. Bitsy, do you, where do you have AJ Brown just real quick? I've got him at wide receiver of 14, but I'm going to have to move him down. I mean, Patrick Sartan and just like, yeah, the total reluctance of the Eagles to, like, throw

the ball when they're not down multiple scores. I don't get it. Like the Eagles, man, 4 and O and flying high, but I think they've been. out gained in all four their games so far. Like the passing game, they've got to get it going because, like, there's just no indication that they are going to be able to, I don't know. I guess they did play from behind against the Rams, but, you know, it took a miracle with the blocked kick at the end of that game to save them.

But, man, like, the Eagles passing offense is just bleak right now. There's some dude out there that, like, somehow got Chase Brown and neighbors, and they just were, like, celebrating in the preseason, and they're just in shambles right now. So shout out to that guy. Let us know who you are. All right, we got wide receiver three is coming up. But first, today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. The Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook app is top rated, probably because there's so many promos and so much to bet.

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And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Wide Receiver 3s, gentlemen, that's where Ladd McConkey comes in. at 25, followed by Jameson Williams, Devante Smith, Wondell Robinson, Jordan Addison, Stefan Diggs, Juan Jennings, though I think he will come off because I don't think he's in a play at 31. T. Higgins, Khalil Shakir, Chris Godwin, Keon Coleman, and Trey Tucker. Gentlemen, we got to talk about Wondell Robinson, the new number one in New York. Is that a good thing? ECR 28, 50, you've got him at 32. Erickson, you've got him at 29. We got Jackson Dart running the offense. Maybe Slayton gets a bump up. I don't know. But Wondale has been a

he's been able to be a target monster and now he is the guy on this team. Is it worth anything? Erickson, let's start with you. Wide Receiver 29. You're just about at consensus, but you guys are still just a tiny bit lower. You're not stoked about Wondale? I mean, he's a top 30 receiver attached to a rookie quarterback. I think that you can't just copy and paste.

Well, what we thought when League neighbors would do, you should do that to Wondell Robinson. I think that the talent levels are completely different. that's not to say that Wando can't, you know, suck up a lot of volume in this offense from Jackson Dart. I've got stuff with the case we saw it last year with Wanda Robinson. He saw a lot of targets in the games that Lake Namers missed last year, but so did Darius Slayton. So I don't know that we necessarily need to hone in on it's just going to be dart to Wanda Robinson this entire matchup. But it is a game where you're expecting to at least be close and not a scenario where the Giants

are getting blown out or blowing out the Saints. It's more back and forth. So I think that the pass volume should be pretty steady throughout the context. test, and I think that he's a solid start this week. I think he's even better in a full PPR. And Jackson Dart moves around so much in the offense. I think Wondell's a guy that is going to be able to find. I think they're going to use Slatting in some of that deeper stuff, and Wondale's going

to be a safety net. So I actually like him a bit more. Fidsey, you're going to get inundated with Wondell questions this week. I have no doubt about it as the new number one here. But your 32 rank, I don't know. To me, that kind of says, like, you just are very disinterested. You'd rather play higher up. So you're pretty disinterested in him in the preseason as well.

Now he's the number one. but there still isn't a lot of love for him. Yeah, I mean, there was that kind of surprise early in the season with his usage with Russell Wilson, where he was running much deeper routes. I mean, last year, Wondell Robinson's average depth of target was 4.8 yards. This year, it's at 10 yards, which is really unexpected. I don't know if it's going to stay that way. I think they might need him to go back to being that short area wide receiver,

in which case, you know, get ready for more of the usual Wondale Robinson's 6 for 33. stat lines, which don't really help that much. I mean, they'll keep you afloat in a PPR league. But, you know, I mean, last year this guy had, what, 93 catches for 699 yards. And there just wasn't a lot of impact there. So I kind of worry we're going to go back to that sort of usage with Wando Robinson. I think the passing numbers for Jackson Dart are going to be probably pretty bleak. And so I just can't get super excited about him.

And yet at the same time, I think you're probably starting Wondell Robinson if you have him considering all the buys and the injuries. And I got a couple shares of him. Jordan Addison, this is a situation where you guys are both lower, but you guys seem to be on a much bigger spectrum of him. He is ECR 29 for this week. He's going up against Cleveland, tougher defense fits. You've got him at 31. Erickson, you got him at 40. So kind of burying him down there.

He really didn't do much until the big giant play. That's what really brought him into the offense. Wins definitely likes that shorter inside stuff. I've talked about it a bunch with like the tight ends. Addison can kind of play that role, but Jefferson is playing a lot more of it. But Erickson, you got him at 40. So we're in like no start territory.

Very disinterested in Addison. Let's hear your breakdown. Yeah, because without the 81-yard catch, he went three for 33 last week with Carson Wentz as the quarterback. I don't like the... Is this game going to be a shootout between Dylan Gabriel and Carson Wentz? In London? No.

I really don't think so. So I don't think this is going to be a fun game where we can start ancillary pieces because the game is popping off. We're seeing points. I think the total is 35 and a half now, the lowest on the week by far. Again, we had preseason games with higher totals than 35 and a half points is Vikings and Browns. So I think this game is just going to be a slog on both sides potentially. And I'm trying to avoid starting players in this game if I can.

And that includes during Madison. Cue up my Jutkins, Rushetton. That again, Fitsy. All right, Fis, what do you think about Addison? You're a little bit closer to consensus. He's a tough start. But you have him one spot higher than Wondale as well. The total's really down at 35 and a half, huh?

That's like an Iowa-Wisconsin game. I think it's somewhere in that range. That was before they announced Gabriel as a starter. So I'm sure that'd be unders have been heavy hitting that. Yeah. So I know Addison is the second banana behind Justin Jefferson. And I know Carson Wentz doesn't inspire great confidence in the Minnesota passing game. But Addison is a terrific player whose usage in his first game back from suspension was pretty reassuring.

Like I didn't know how much he was going to play last week. He played 96% of the offensive snaps, got eight targets. So that was, you know, and I know the 81-yard catch kind of made his day. But for that kind of usage with a pretty good player. and I think even though it hasn't really been the case so far, I do think the Browns are going to be kind of a pass funnel because they're just really hard to run against. So yeah, I think Addison's kind of in starter territory this week. Chris Godwin, I think, well, his targets defied where he was ranked. Unfortunately, he couldn't catch any of them.

That was a discussion that Fitsy and I had last week. He is ECR 34 this week. You guys are on a little bit of split. Fitsy, you are on the negative. Erickson's a little bit on the positive. what's got you on the negative? It's clearly not the target share, but it definitely was, you know, maybe the legs, and I think there's some quarterback playing discussion here.

So you barely have, I mean, you have Chris Godwin under Jordan Addison. You have him under Juan Dale. He had the 10 targets but couldn't pull him down. So what's your concerns with Chris Godwin this week? Mainly matchup. Seattle's defense is number one in DVOA. They have one of the best defensive backfields in the league, and they've given up the second fewest receiving yards to opposing wide receivers.

But again, Godwin, kind of like Addison, where the usage was better than I expected in his first game back. Like 86% snap share for Godwin, 10 targets, 146 air yards, which was kind of a shocker in his first game back from that gruesome ankle injury last year. Only three catches for 26 yards. But yeah, the usage was encouraging with Mike Evans out and maybe Bucky Irving out too. Like Godwin should be pretty heavily involved again. I will be moving him up if Bucky Irving has ruled out. Erickson is the usage from last week the reason we should have more optimism on Godwin? Yeah, he was number three in expected fantasy points among all wide receivers last week.

So for him to finish with under, what, under 30 receiving yards was very, very underwhelming. But this is the stuff that we look at one week and identifies by low players the following week. He checked off all those types of boxes. And you expect that, hey, maybe a little rusty coming in his first game, you know, all of the preseason wasn't active. So I think that it's okay to look at, hey, it wasn't necessarily squeezing the football, not making great plays, but a lot of that was against when Quinna Mitchell was covering him, Cooper DeGine was covering him, like these really talented second-year players

were going to match him one-on-one with Chris Godwin. And, you know, sometimes he's not going to win those types of battles. So I believe in Baker Mayfield to create some magic. Chris Godwin is going to be heavily involved like we saw last week. I think that he can be better improving in this next week back from his injury and with a full playing time role. So that, for those reasons, that's why I'm a little bit more optimistic about Chris Godman. That's your top 36.

That goes through the numbers. But we always take a look. Who's a wide receiver that is not in the top 36 that should be? Fitsy, we mentioned this guy's name a little bit earlier. But this is your highlighted deeper play this week. Malik Washington. He is going to have an enhanced role with Tyreek Hill out and maybe not just in the passing game. Like Malik Washington has eight rushing attempts this season.

And this is a dude who had 110. catches for over 1,400 yards in his final college season at Virginia. Malik Washington can play. Erickson, you're picking a guy that literally just dropped the ball every time it was thrown to him and he's got a balmy 36.5 over total is actually the number here. So who's your post-36 wide receiver? So he was in my top 36 before Dylan Gabriel was announced as the star, so I did move him down a couple spots.

I do think that he'll be somewhere when I finally settle in on the rankings, probably in that wide receiver 36 fringe. It's Jerry Judy. And it's really just based on Cedric Tillman not playing. Because when Cedric Tome missed games last year, Jerry Judy's numbers doubled, essentially. They were so much better than they were

when Cedric Toulm was playing. Because every time Tillan plays, he outproduces Jerry Judy. Like, that has been a constant since last year. Jerry Judy, I think that we all agree. He's kind of like a fake alpha in every way. He usually drops a lot of the opportunities. But he does get a lot of volumes.

still. If the Browns are scheming up plays for their rookie receiver or their rookie quarterback, what do we see a lot with rookie quarterbacks? Is they hone it on their number one guy? Like, they don't necessarily go through all their reads. If Jerry Judy is the number one read on a lot of these plays, well, then he's going to get volume in this spot. So he's wide receiver. So he's wide receiver 28 and expect the fantasy points per game. And I don't know why, but the coaching staff still loves him. You know, after the game, the head coach is still saying, Jerry Judy, he's our guy, he's our best wide receiver. So whether that's because Jerry Judy's got dirt on him or not, I'm not exactly sure, but the fact that there are still some positives to look at when it comes to Judy

in this particular matchup, even against the Vikings. And again, he's not a ceiling play. He is a floor play where I think that he will see at least enough volume to probably maybe crack in the top 36, but probably not be better than like a top 30 receiver when the dust settles. If we didn't get to a big question that was in your brain based off of these ranks, don't forget that we've got our weekly start and sit live stream on our YouTube channel where you guys can come and ask any of your specific start and sit questions, especially wide receiver ones. We'll be here every Thursday, 3 p.m. Eastern. Those on the podcast, YouTube.com slash Fantasy Pros, subscribe, click, get notified, and they can get your questions answered.

That's going to do it for the week five wide receiver ranks for Pat Fitzmores and Mr. Andrew Erickson. I'm Chris Welsh. Good luck, and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros, fantasy football podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by, leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at Fantasypros.com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash Fantasy Pros.

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