The Ringer NFL Show - Our Top Targets for 2020

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

The Ringer’s Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck welcome you back to ‘The Ringer Fantasy Football Show’ to break down their top draft targets for the 2020 season.  Don’t forget to check out The Ringer Fantasy Football Draft Guide for top 150 rankings, expert mock drafts, auction values, top targets, and much more. -Allen Robinson (3:21) -Kenyan Drake (6:46) -Robert Woods (10:10) -Damien Williams (12:17) -Adam Thielen (17:36) -Tyler Lockett (19:14) -James Conner (21:23) -Mark Andrews (24:13) -Hayden Hurst (25:47) -Calvin Ridley (27:47) -A.J. Brown (28:40) -Josh Allen (31:21) -Matt Stafford (33:31) -George Kittle (35:23) Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer fantasy football show, a proud part of the Ringer podcast network. My name is Danny Hyfitz, and I'm joined by my co-host and co-danny, the hero we need and the analyst we deserve the Dark Knight himself. Danny Kelly. What is up, D.K.? Not too much, man. I am just trying to enjoy these dog days the summer. The season's just around the corner. We just found out yesterday that I don't think there's going to be a preseason anymore.

So that's going to change things a little bit. But yeah, just trying to enjoy these last few days of freedom in summer. How about you? Same. Yeah, no preseason. We'll find a way to go on. We're also joined by our co-host, Craig Horlebeck. How are you doing, Craig?

I'm doing good, guys, but there is something bigger than us afoot. There's something going on at the ringer.com that we must talk about. Huge. There's something of foot. Tell us. It's a big of foot. Big foot. The Ringer Fantasy Football draft guide is live.

We've poured our blood, sweat, tears at a lot of time into this. we are so proud to introduce. We have been in the rankings bunker. We have our top 150. We have a whole guide available for you at fantasy football. Dot the ringer.com. DK, what can people find there? Yeah, so we've got our top 150 rankings for PPR, half PPR and standard.

We got for every player. We have the upside, downside, the bottom line. We've got our list of top targets. This is just what we're going to dive into today. We have a mock draft, which was really fun to do. We did with industry experts like Matthew Berry from ESPN, establish the runs Evan Silva, a host of others. We've got a draft tracker mode, which is really cool. You can kind of notch guys off as they come off the board during the draft and kind of

keep updated with your rankings. It's really, really cool. You can star players you like and save them for later. It has a really, really cool user interface. It's basically if you've seen the NFL draft guide from the ring or the NBA draft guide, it's basically right in line with those. It's really, really cool, really easy to use, really just a beautiful product. So we're really, really excited about it. I can't wait for you guys to jump in and and dive into all over analysis. So yeah. Yeah, you're going to blink in an hour. It's going to go by. It's just gorgeously designs. The designers have such an amazing job, all the developers. And it's really cool. It's pretty much everything that you like about a fan. Every fantasy site that you've been on

all over the internet, I think it's all the best parts of that with that with ourselves. Yeah, we're immensely proud of this. We basically just want to do something different. Love it or hate it and you're going to love it. It's different. We promise you, you haven't seen anything that looks like this. So we're so thrilled. Fantasyf Football.orgher.com Please check it out on your phone. It works anywhere. Carrier Pigeon. Doesn't matter the venue.

It's going to be perfect. But today we're going to highlight, we've been doing rankings all summer, and there's just some people we love more than others. And these are the people, the core of your team, that over and over again, not sleepers, like, oh, this is a lottery ticket, but the people who over and over again,

the core of your team you're building, we're like, wow, we love these people at these prices, and we're going to go through, like, what we've been doing the whole summer, and basically the guys we've identified that are the freaking best. without any further ado, shall we dive in to our top targets for 2020? Let's do it.

So Craig and I actually had the same guy, so we're going to just kind of pair up on this one. Craig, go for it. So D.K. and I have had a crush on Alan Robinson since this offseason began. It's on the Bears, wide receiver. So Alan Robinson has been pretty much underrated his entire career. He's a top five talent,

top seven talent, whatever you want to say in the league. And last year he kind of proved it, and he's been proving it really every year. He's just had a terrible quarterback. Last year he was third. in the NFL on targets. He was the wide receiver seven overall. And now, I check this out. So they signed Nick Foles, who I, and I, there was a stat in this deep Reddit thread, some deep fancy football reddit thread I was looking at. He won a fucking Super Bowl. So that's his quarterback. Wow. That's his quarterback now. And it's not Blake Bortles. It's

not Christian Hackenberg. It's not Mitch Trubisky, which is going to be a huge upgrade for him. And at worst, we've seen what he does on the Bears, which is finished third on the league in targets and seventh in the league at wide receiver. So we love Alan Robinson this year. I like him more than DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans, O'Dell Beckham, D.K. What else you love about him? Yeah, I mean, like you said,

the wide receiver seven last year, and I feel like to me, that's kind of his floor going forward. If he's healthy and plays a full season, you know, if Mitchell Tribeschi somehow wins the job and the offense is somewhat similar to what it was last year,

I mean, he's still got a really high floor as like a mid-range wide receiver one. If Foles takes over and is able to unlock this offense, get kind of that offense that we the wide open really explosive offense that I think a lot of people I expected under Matt Nagy if he's able to do that with that offense that makes Robinson ceiling like top three I think and especially if he's going to get 154 targets again which there's not a lot of competition for targets in that offense he's the he's the number one guy by far so I just think he's he's got a really high floor and a really high ceiling he's a really

really good player you don't always want to bet on on talent and fantasy, but I think, you know, Alan Robinson is definitely a guy who's just, he's so good. The talent is kind of- He's talent and volume. Yeah. So this isn't, this is not the offseason where I'm usually going to say a receiver with a new quarterback is safe, but Alan Robinson's an exception to me because Mitchell Trubisky's offense last year, it was so bad. It was so get worse. And I don't say that to like drag on Trubisky, bless his heart, you know what, he's gone through enough. But I can't explain how bad the bears were last year. They were 30 first heart is so demeaning.

It is the meanest thing you can say. It's true, man. Nobody, look. I think on the last episode, you said bless Malcolm Brown's heart. Look, you know what? I'm sorry if it hurt, but you know what? The words did come out of my mouth. Like, the bears were tied for 31st in yards per play with the Steelers,

who were starting Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges. That's what they were at. They were Mitchell Chubisky's average net yards per attempt, which is basically the most advanced quarterbacks that we really have, was basically just in line with Kyle Allen and Ryan Fitzpatrick and 22-year-old Dwayne Haskins. He was basically one of the four worst quarterbacks

in the NFL in a year where backup quarterbacks were playing a ton. And now, I don't care what you think of Nick Foles. This offense will get so much better with, I hate to say this, a real quarterback. It's like, again, Trubisky was, this is from Rich Rebar. Tribiske was last in the league

in yards per pass attempt from a clean pocket and second last in yards per pass attempt under pressure. So Alan Robinson is nowhere to go but up. My first player, since that one kind of counted as me and Craig's first player. Well, there's no scorecard here. It's just a general enthusiasm meter.

Right, right. I'm going to move right to Kenyon Drake for the Cardinals, running back for Arizona. He is R in the ringer rankings for half PVR. We have him at the RV8. He's currently the RB12 in Fantasy Pro's PPR ADP. So we are a little bit higher on him, I think, than even consensus. And I think the way that I think, the way that I think, think about him, he's a little bit of a bigger risk than maybe some of these other like first

round type players. But I think the payoff is going to be incredible if he really hits like what we think he's going to hit. The reason I'm confident in him is because I think the Cardinals really are going to scheme up fantasy points. The way that they run their offense, the way they spread the field, the way that they basically force opposing teams to lighten the box and defend the pass. I think that all is really, really advantageous for Drake, who, by the way, is also a good player. He's explosive, he's shifty. He fits that offense really well.

After being traded to Arizona last year, or last year from week nine on, Drake finished sixth in rushing yards, second in rushing touchdowns, eight, and third among all running backs and PBR points per game. So I don't know if he's going to be a top three running back this year, but I think that's certainly

in the cards. If he can play a full year, be healthy, in that offense, there's definitely probably some chance for touchdown regression because he he got lucky he had like four touchdowns in one game so that's you know that's not something you can necessarily rely on but I do think he's actually going to have more volume and more opportunities to be a huge fantasy factor I just I just love Drake I think he's going to be on a lot of my team just because of that upside DK we always talk about wanting to nail your first round pick because you can't win your draft in the first round you can lose it

what is Drake's downside what is the what is the fear here the Cardinals are going to to be like a past first team. He might not get some of the volume that some of those other first round guys are going to get. But he's just been so efficient. You know, so efficient. He's used in the passing game. So that certainly helps a lot too.

At least right now in July, it looks like he is going to be, you know, their easy three-down back. Like Chase Edmonds is involved. They did draft, you know, Benjamin and seventh round. But Kenyon Drake is the guy. He was the guy for them all of the second half of last year. David Johnson is gone. I just think he's going to get the lion's share of their offense this year.

And if that offense works like I think it's going to work, it's going to pay off huge. Now, there is, I think, you know, like I said, he's a little bit more risky than maybe some of these other guys. But I think the risk is worth the payoff. So, DK, for all of us who may not be extremely well versed in the air raid, what is the running back's receiving role in that air raid offense? because obviously even if the Cardinals aren't going to be running the ball the most in the NFL, if he's catching a lot of passes, that's still good. Well, I mean, you know, from a very, very basic point of view, if you're forcing the defense to defend you vertically,

which the air raid does, especially like the forwards thing, like you're stressing the defense vertically, that tends to stress the, you know, that tends to open up stuff underneath. And that's exactly where Drake has, you know, thrived. He's very explosive, elusive. He can do things in space. And so, yeah, I think just that

the way that offense works spreads the defense thin and that creates space for Drake and he's able to take advantage. All right, Craig, give us someone else you love for this year. All right, it's Robert Woods, receiver on the Rams.

So last year... Bobby Trees! Bobby Trees. So last year, Robert Woods, Cooper Cup, and Todd Gurley were like the three step sisters in Cinderella. Except Todd Gurley was Anastasia and Cooper Cup,

who is the golden child of the Rams, was Drizella. Yeah, I looked this up. And Woods is Cinderella. Let's just focus on Woods and Cup, though. So they basically had the exact same season last year. They pretty much had the same amount of target. They pretty much had the same many yards

and pretty much had the same amount of catches. Except last year, Golden Child Cooper Cup was the fourth highest scoring wide receiver in PPR and Cinderella was the 14th. And why is that? So let's think of the end zone on the Rams offense here, like we do the Royal Ball in the Cinderella family story. You are going all out with this metaphor.

Oh my God, this is elaborate. it. Cooper Cup got all dressed up, went to the ball 10 times, and Robert Woods was left scrubbing the floors and snuck in twice. And it doesn't make any sense. It's not the whole story. Cup isn't just better than Robert Woods. Like we thought Drizella was prettier than Cinderella. That's not true. Before last year, Robert Woods and Cooper Cup caught the same amount of touchdowns in the Goughf McVeigh era, 11. And this year, Brandon Cooks, who I'm not really sure who he is in this story, but him and Todd Gurley are gone. Woods is going to play more snaps than Cup, which he already did last year, but he'll probably play even more this year

because they're going to run a lot more two-tide-in sets because Everett and Higbier are both really talented, which hurts the slot receiver the most, which is the Golden Child Cooper Cup, which means Woods is going to be on the field a little bit more. So I truly believe that Robert Woods could have a better season than somebody like Amari Cooper. All of his numbers pretty much are exactly the same as his already.

He just doesn't catch the touchdowns. This is the year I think that's going to change. Robert Woods is invited to the ball. Woods is ready for his Cinderella story. Let's just say that. I love this so much. So Sean McVeigh, Prince Charming. I'm not sure who Sean McVeigh is.

He could be the evil stepmother, but he's like the good stepmother. I'm not sure. Maybe that's Jared Gough, who, by the way, threw the ball more than any other quarterback in the NFL last year, who I also think could have a big bounce back here.

Yeah, so in half-PPR, average draft position on fantasy pros, Robert Woods is 52nd overall. We've got them on the ringer fantasy rankings. We've got him at 37th. So we're big on Bobby Tree. Honestly, Bobby Trees is like the Leonard Four-Net for this year. You're right. Maybe he is. I truly believe that Robert Woods could finish as a

wide receiver one and you can draft them as a wide receiver two. Oh, I, wow, Cinderella story itself. I got, I don't have like an entire elaborate fairy tale. Maybe I should have. Maybe I could do like Hans and Gretel or something. Oh, I just messed that up. What, the breadcrumb people, whoever. That's kind of, my breadcrumb trail has led me. Hansel and Gretel. My breadcrum trail has led me to Damien Williams on the Chiefs because I feel like, my breadcrum trail has led me to Damien Williams on the Chiefs. because I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Like, I have just heard so much about Clyde Edwards-Hillair and how the chiefs drafted him in the first round.

It's the first time Andy Reid's drafted a running back in the first round in like thousands of years, and he's going to be the starter, and he's basically going to be like Kareem Hunt in 2017. That's all I'm hearing. Completely ignoring the fact that Damien Williams exists. Damien Williams is being drafted. He's being drafted on average as like the 32nd running back.

Do people know he had? six touchdowns in three playoff games in the playoffs. He's actually been like an elite running back for Kansas City. Mike Clay at ESPN had this unbelievable stat that Damien Williams, since he joined the Chiefs in 2018, has played 16 games where he had more than half of the Chief snaps. So that's perfect. 16's a whole season. In those 16 games, he has 268 touches for more than 1,500 total yards and 21 touchdowns,

which is 340 fantasy points, which would have been second to Christian McCaffrey last year. Damien Williams is basically the RB2 when he's with the Chiefs. Now, I'm not saying like he's going to have dominate and like completely over make Clyde Edwards O'Lear go away. But Andy Reid, when they drafted Clyde Edwards or Lair, said, quote, you can't do it with just one guy in today's football. So we've got a whole lot of these guys now. I don't know where this idea came that Clyde Edwards or Lair is going to just completely be the starter and Damien Williams will get sidelined.

But I see a way more equal split, especially in the beginning. It's like the Chief's week one starter is going to be Damien Williams. and he's being drafted outside the top 50, outside the top 70 in some places. What am I missing? Why is this not someone who should be going just as high as Clyde Edwards-Alaire? I disagree.

I think Damien Williams might have some value early on in the season, but I think Clyde Edwards-Layer is going to overtake him after a few games, and then Williams is just going to be an afterthought. I think at best, at best, he's going to be the secondary option in a committee. Maybe that makes him like a value at where he's, is now. But I don't share your enthusiasm, Danny, unfortunately, with just really targeting Williams.

I think that Clyde Edwards-Clair, it's a first-round pick. And I know that everything you just said, but like first-round picks really, really historically get heavy workloads. I understand what Andy Reid said, but I just, this is the history of the position. This is history of first-round picks getting that heavy, heavy workload. I think that eventually, you know, maybe after a couple of games, I think Clyde Edwards player is going to be that guy. So I disagree. I'm definitely not targeting Damian Williams. I can see it he might be of value at where he's being taken,

but I don't have high hopes for him being like a major fantasy factor. I mean, I guess I'm happy to disagree because this Chief's offense is so good that there's so much room for the ball to go around. There's so many second running backs being taken with the bet that they're going to get work. Kareem Hunt, James White. I mean, even Philip Lindsay is kind of going into top 100. But then meanwhile, you've got Damien Williams, who was the start. on the league's best offense, there was more pie for him and Clyde Edwards-Alear to share

than anywhere else. And I guess just even if you get six weeks of Damien Williams getting the lion's share before there's a, that's six weeks of him maybe being an RB1 and then falling down to kind of where he is now. So I think there's a lot of value there. But I also understand he's not a first round pick. So I get that. He's going after Sony Michelle in like fantasy pros ADP, which is insane.

I'm not saying he's going to be top 10, but he's top 30. Let's play that name game. because I think I actually would take him. I would agree with you. I'd take him over Sonia Michelle probably. Would you take him over Darius Geis? I think I probably would take Geist, just because I think he is really, really good,

and he's going to be the starter there, but he's got that injury history. That's so concerning. So that one's closer to me, but I would go Geis there. DeAndre Swift? Oh, I like Swift. I think Swift is being really underdrafted.

I think there's the carry-on Johnson question, which I think is valid, but I think Swift is a really talented player who's also going to be used in the passing game so that gives him more value as a PPR type player. Okay, last one. Would you have them over either Tampa Bay Bucks running back? I would definitely go Damian Williams over Kishon Vaughn.

I'm like one of these Ronald Jones truthers which is this whole other subject, but I think that's another close one, but I probably go Jones over Damien Williams. All right, so you have them right around the RB 32-ish, right where the ADP has them on. I think that's exactly kind of what my point was. I think he feels appropriately priced.

To me, Clydewater was a layer is priced a lot closer to his ceiling. And David Williams is priced near his floor because I think he's going to have a role. And any role in that offense is going to be valuable. But let's go somewhere we have much closer, aligning opinions. Adam Thielen, a king for this year. Tell us about a Viking for this year. Stefan Diggs, gone. He's in Buffalo.

Now it's just Thielen and Kirk Cousins. How do you guys feel about Thielen this year? I think recency bias is working against Thielen a little bit right now. People are kind of forgetting how dominant he could be. Go back two years. He was the wide receiver 7 in 2018. He was wide receiver 8 in 2017 in PVR. Stefan Diggs, like you said, is now gone.

He is the unquestioned leader in that past catching group, obviously. Justin Jefferson, you know, he's going to come in. I think he's going to take some targets away from Thielen. But you can't discount like the mind-meld connection that Thielen has with Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins absolutely trust him. If Thielen can stay healthy, I think he has mid-range wide receiver one value. And you can get him right now, you know, 28th, 29th overall. He's the wide receiver 11th and half PPR ADP per fantasy pros.

We have him ranked at the wide receiver 11th as well. But I think he's going to outplay that. I think there's the risk is baked into that a little bit because he's suffered, you know, some hamstring injuries and those worry me a little bit. But, man, he's just going to have so many targets in that offense. And he's going to be so efficient. he's such a good route runner, has that connection with Kirk Cousins. So I think he's, you know, he's one of my favorite guys to target this year.

I think he's just going to go off. Agree. He's my wide receiver nine. How do you, so you mentioned the word mind meld, and I think that's interesting because with all the continuity issues this year, we're sorry, the continuity being more important this year because of the pandemic and having sole at much little practice time, those mind meld guys are very appealing to me. And another mind meld guy we talked about in the last episode, is Tyler Lockett and Russell Wilson probably the best mind meld in football, Kirk Cousins and Adam Thieland.

So why do you like Thielin more than Tyler Lockett? Well, I think Lockett has to contend with D.K. Metcalfe, which worries me slightly because I think D. K. McCaff is on track to be a star with Diggs now gone. So like, obviously, we remember last year, you have to kind of worry about Diggs and Thieland eating into each other's value, eating into each other's target, like rate. And I'm a little bit worried about that with Lockett. That being said, I still really love Lockett. I think he is, you know, like he said, he's one of the most efficient receivers in the NFL, like his catch rate is outstanding.

The mind meld, the connection with Russell Wilson is one of the best, I think, in the NFL in terms of receiver and quarterback relationship. I mean, those guys are just absolutely on the same page. Some of the connections they make are absurd. The completion rate over expectation with those two is ridiculous. I just think that connection is really, really strong. the volume is a question mark. I think the volume is a question mark for the Vikings' offense as well, but particularly with the Seahawks who are so run heavy,

and you have to disperse targets between Lockett and DK. Matt Calf. I'd say that's what worries me slightly. But remember, Lockett was, he was on track to being a high-end wide receiver one last year before he had this weird leg injury that kind of derailed the season. He had compartment syndrome in his leg that, I don't know if it actually forced him to miss any games,

but it certainly slowed him down. during the last part of the season, they kind of took him, you know, they made him a secondary part of that offense and, you know, while he was healing, he was basically a decoy for the second part of the season. But through 10 weeks, he was the wide receiver 5 in both PPR and half PPR. So wide receiver 5. I mean, I think, I feel like people really forget how good he was through the 10 weeks last season. I just really like lock it for his pride. Right now, he's the wide receiver 20 and half PPR. And again, he was the Y receiver 5 through 10 weeks last year. So, that looks like to me he's being drafted at his floor and, you know, he has a lot of upside.

Craig, who's another top target for you this year? Really like James Connor running back on the Steelers. One of the biggest trends in fantasy football every year is recency bias. And a lot of guys, especially maybe the more inexperienced drafters in your league, the dorks that you just invite in just because they're an easy hunter bucks and you know they're going to get ninth. those dudes just Googled 2019 stats and they look at James Connor and they go ugh but it doesn't make any sense last year the Steelers were unrecognizable and I essentially think it just doesn't count this is how I view it if you're five seven if you're five foot seven feet tall and you borrow your friends golf clubs who's six four and you play

like shit are you going to factor that into your skill as a golfer no you're not any worse as a golfer once you get your clubs back you'll go back to being who you were and James Connor was the most common player on 2018 ESPN standard fantasy playoff teams. The way I see it is for all the Indiana Jones fans out there, which is my favorite movie franchise. 2018, James Connor was Raiders of the Los Arc, 2019, Temple of Doom. And what is 2020? My favorite of all of them, the Last Crusade. My takeaway from that is that you're terrible at golf and you're trying to justify why. Oh, I'm good at golf. Shut of 90. It's not that good. No, but I mean, you're right. Connor was incredible, but look, they've drafted Benny Snell. They've drafted, they have Jalen Samuels.

They just added Anthony McFarlane. So one, are you worried at all about whether the Steelers have a time share or if he wholly gets the job? And then two, he hasn't been able to stay healthy. I mean, the health thing is definitely a factor. But the other running backs don't really bother me. I mean, Benny Snell and Jalen Samuels have not really done, I don't think, enough to impress the coaching staff that much. There's always been backup running backs behind Connor and even Levyon Bell that have had similar skills to those guys. And I think the Steelers like using one guy to play three downs. And Conner's a really capable receiver. And they drafted McFarlane in the fourth round, at the end of the fourth round. I think he's like a scatback. I don't, I don't think

he is going to be a threat to Connor. I like the word you use for the Steelers, unrecognizable, because they had so many injuries that affected their identity. Obviously, Rothesburg right at the beginning of the season. But, I mean, honestly, maybe my favorite stat from last year is that the 49ers had more rushing yards before contact than the Steelers had rushing yards total, which is absolutely bizarre and just this consequence. It just crumbled the 2019 Steelers up and toss up in trash.

Yeah. I mean, he was hurt a lot last year, too, which obviously affects his performance. If he can stay healthy, and he wasn't that bad when he was healthy last year. Yeah. He was pretty good. Dude, he was a first round pick last year for a lot of people.

So now you can get him in, you know, you can get him 44th around at 80. That's his half PVR. So it's good value, I think. I like the strategy. Craig, well, you're a Steelers fan. We probably should have noted that, but it's all right. But staying in the AFC North for a second, anyone else?

I just love Mark Andrews. There's this, a stat that was going around that I just think is really indicative of how his season could go. So last year, Mark Andrews played 41% of the Ravens' offensive snaps, which in high school, that is an F. He got an F in snaps. That was so frustrating. Oh, my God.

Yeah. And he was the fourth overall tight end in point. which is an A plus in stats. So he got an F in snaps and an A in stats. And that's going to change this year. And the Ravens are going to throw up more because no one ran more than them last year. And Haydenhurst is gone.

And I just think it's only going up for Mark Andrews. I think I agree. They didn't use him hardly at all. It was so frustrating as a fantasy manager that had him last year because on one hand he was just so efficient in such a big part, like such a huge, target for Lamar Jackson. But at the same time, he was just not on the field enough and they didn't use him

enough in the passing game. He was their de facto number one receiver. And like he said, he only played 41% of the snap. So I think this whole Ravens' offense is really intriguing because number one, they ran the ball so much last year. I don't know if they'll do, I don't know if they'll get more passively this year. But you got Mark Andrews, you got Marquise Brown. They were so young in their receiver core last year.

I feel like their passing game has the ability to really. really improve as these guys get more experience and just get better and, you know, get on, get on the same page with Lamar Jackson more. So it's going to be very, very interesting to watch that offense, you know, kind of evolve. I don't have any issue with Mark Andrews, but I guess isn't the whole point when it comes to tight end to either get George Killer, Travis Kelsey, or find the next Mark Andrews, as in someone going outside the top 100, top 120, or 130, who could crack the top five because instead of paying a huge price for Mark Andrews, there are so many tight-end sleeper candidates this year.

I mean, the guy that I love is Hayden Hurst on the Falcons because, again, Austin Hooper was the number one tight end through 10 weeks. Hayden Hurst is replacing him. Obviously, they have to get some chemistry with Matt Ryan, but there's a lot of gap between where Hayden Hurst is being drafted, somewhere around like 90 overall and being the number one tight end. So why not go get a Haydenhurst or even a deeper sleeper, like an Ian Thomas on Carolina or someone,

then just trying to pay sticker price for Mark Andrews when you might be able to get the same thing a lot later. I got no problem with that. It's just drafting philosophy. Some people like a little bit safer bets at tight end. And I think that Mark Andrews, if he's drafted as the third, fourth, or fifth tight end, has a really likely chance of returning that

and maybe even creeping into number two or something. Danny, this is something that we've talked about in the past. It's when you're targeting tight ends early, you don't want that tight end to be the third or fourth option in an offense. He's just not going to get the bottom. Like the reason we love Kelsey, the reason we love Kittle is because if they're not leading the team in targets, they're second, a close second.

And I think Mark Andrews has the potential to lead the Ravens and targets. I mean, their offense runs through the tight end position. Like that passing game runs through the tight end position. So Andrews has a chance to emerge as, you know,

if he hasn't already, to emerge as Lamar Jackson's number one target. So I think that's what makes him more interesting than a guy like curse, who has to contend with Ridley and Julio. You know, I think Hurst is, going to be a great pick this year. I really high on him, but he's not their number one target.

True. Well, I mean, well, you mentioned Ridley. Speaking of, I guess part of what I'm also saying here is there is a difference in the amount of passing because, yeah, the Ravens passed the least last year. The Falcons are probably going to pass a little more, but I actually don't think the Falcons are going to have a drop off in passing, even though they led the league last year. Their offensive coordinator, Dirk Cutter has been like top four in pass attempts like five times in the last seven years. They have a lot of strong offenses. They're going to be played. laying. They're going to be in a lot of shootouts. And that's one reason. To me, I,

Calvin Ridley is also such a huge candidate this year. Like, I love Calvin Ridley so much. I think he's going to be a number one receiver the same way that Chris Godwin was last year. Not that there are similar players, but that Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were both top five. I would not be shocked if Julio and Calvin Ridley were both like top eight receivers, even though they're on the same team. I think the question is how much Hayden Hurst carves out of that. but I get what you guys are saying where having a number one option even on a lower threshold team

is going to be preferable to having a tertiary option even on a high volume offense. DK, who else you got for a top target this year? Well, I'm going with AJ Brown for the Titans, which I feel like it's a little bit counter to what we typically would preach and you're looking for a guy on a team with a lot of volume.

You're looking for a guy that is going to get a ton of targets. AJ Brown is on the Titans offense. He's their clear number one for sure, but their offense last year was very much run through, you know, Derek Henry was very run heavy, didn't pass a lot, especially as we saw in the playoffs, like the passing game basically disappeared in the playoffs. But I'm not sure they're going to be able to play that style,

specifically a ball all throughout this whole season. I just don't know if they'll be able to be as efficient. I think if AJ Brown can go out and get, say, 115, 120 targets, which I think is in the realm of possibility. He had 84 targets last year, and he finished as the wide receiver 21. He finished as the wide receiver 21, by the way, only playing full or like, you know,

close to a full-time role, about half of the season. After he started playing that full-time role as he emerged and he evolved and turned into the receiver one for them, he was putting up top five numbers in every scoring format. So I think his ceiling is a lot higher than that.

I think that's really him being drafted as floor, especially if his targets go up, and I think they will go up this year. There's no question his ceiling's higher but are you at all worried about like the week to week uncertainty of like

again like what was that wild card round game with the Titans and the Patriots where Ryan Tanniel had like 87 passing yards total like is there a week to week variance with AJ Brown in addition to his season long one?

Yeah I think and that's I think baked into his price a little bit you know because if he was going to be if he was going to get a really high volume he's going to he would be like a first round player I think

but that worry that concern of low volume of maybe some volatility there. I think that's baked into his ADP. You're buying him at his floor, I think. And so that's why I'm really excited about getting him this year because I think he has such a high upside. If this Titans offense manages to, or not manages,

if it's forced to pass a little bit more this season because they maybe can't do that style of ball that they did in the playoffs where they're just basically playing keep away. They're just running the ball. I don't know if they'll be able to do that quite as effectively this year. So I think there is the concern. He's not going to be quite as, absurdly efficient. But I think if his volume goes up, then that makes him, you know, a sneaky

Y receiver one. Craig, you got another top target for us? Yeah, you know those, you know just gut guys that you love or just guys you kind of want in your team because it's fun. I do think that there is a part of fantasy where sometimes like you got to factor a little bit of fun into it. And maybe if you're between two guys and you like the personality, one guy more and you're kind of split on them, maybe just draft the fun one. I love Josh Allen this year. I really genuinely love Josh Allen this year. Bill's quarterback. Is there anybody more fun to watch in football? No. The guy literally never checks it down. He does not check it down at like a historical rate. He just chucks the ball deep, even though he sucks at it. But he runs all over the place. He has the most rushing touchdowns

of any quarterback in the last two years. The second most rushing yards behind only Lamar Jackson. He had nine rushing touchdowns last year. And as we all know, rushing quarterbacks is the hot-hip trend this year. It's in vogue. 50 rushing yards and one touchdown for a quarterback. Is he equivalent to 175 passing yards in a touchdown. Yeah. I know they have Zach Moss, their rookie running back, who is a bit of a bruiser, but the way I see it, they had Frank Gore last year who had 20-something carries inside the red zone. Allen still had 11 inside the 10, and singletary only had two.

I just think with Stefan Diggs there, it's only good to improve his passing. It's his third year. I'm in. Let's do it. I think the thing that's very fun and interesting about Josh Allen is they're not using him as like a read option running back. It's not like he's Lamar Jackson where they're designing a run scheme around him. It's like he's scrambling. Well, he kind of does a little bit of both because they do have some, like in the red zone, they do give him designed runs or have these little sweeps

to the right or left or whatever. Or he'll have a QB draw, maybe in the middle of the field. But you're right, he does both. And usually quarterbacks kind of go one way or the other. But he's just doing whatever he wants. So he's a guy that I think going into last season, I was doubtful that he could recreate his rushing touchdown upside is rushing touchdown total and he absolutely you know out did what I thought he was going to do and I'm not doubting him again this year I think he's such a he's such a he's such a dangerous red zone threat what you can do with his legs in the red zone it just changes everything for a defense it makes it such a pain in the ass to defend so I'm with you he could have an absolutely average passing season which he maybe will and he could

still be a really high-end, you know, a quarterback in fantasy. So, you know, I think, I think you're right on. Deke, do you have any other quarterbacks you think are underrated? Yeah, I'm excited about Matt Stafford this season. I think, you know, we saw what he was able to do for half a season in the Darryl Beville offense. It's, you know, I think it's pretty similar to what we're seeing the Seahawks run with Russell Wilson, where it's very heavily play action-oriented. So they're running on early downs. They're trying to get the defense sucked up into the, you know, towards the line of scrimmage, then they're throwing the ball deep.

Stafford last year in his eight games, he threw deep, so 20 plus yards, 19% of his throws, which was easily tops in the league. So they were just, they were just airing it out all the year, like the whole time that he was under center.

He was on pace to finish with 38 touchdowns, which would have been like third, I think, in the NFL if he'd hit that pace and played this whole season. Obviously, the back injury is a little bit of a concern because back injuries don't just go away.

but I think if he can stay healthy and he can keep thriving that offense, I think he will because he has a perfect skill set for that offense at Darrell Bevel offense. I think he's got a lot of upside. You can get him really cheap right now. I mean, he's outside the top 12 quarterbacks. He's a QB 13 in half PPR, ADP, 106 overall. So you can get him pretty late.

And he to me has sort of this mid-range QB-1 upside where you're really getting good value for him. So I'm excited about grabbing him late. He's one of the quarterbacks I'm typically targeting later in. drafts. Would you rather have him or Josh Allen? That's a good question because you got to get you got to grab Allen about 30 40 picks earlier. So I think I would lean Stafford, but that doesn't mean I'm out on Josh Allen. It just kind of depends on how your draft goes. Like if you and if you're in a two quarterback league that obviously changes everything. But if you're in a one quarterback league,

I'm typically going to be waiting on quarterback till the 10th 11th round and grabbing Stafford over grabbing Josh Allen. Big mistake. Any other top targets got left for us, DK? One more guy that I want to talk about that, you know, he doesn't really need a big introduction because everyone knows about him. George Kittle of 49ers. I just think Kittle has a chance to be the tight end this year, the number one tight end.

Especially with Debo Samuel suffering the Jones fracture. We're unsure exactly when he'll be back. I think that just opens things up further for George Kittle. He could see triple digit targets, go over 1,000 yards. It would not surprise me. And the big thing about, Kittle is he's just primed for positive touchdown aggression. He's he's been basically underperforming expectation in the touchdown department the last two

seasons. Rich Rebar Rebar had a great look at his underperformance in the red zone over at sharp fantasy or sharp football stats, which I think is really really compelling. After scoring, this is per rich, after scoring 14 and a half points below red zone expectation in 2018, Kittle was 12.6 points below his expected output last year. Kittle had just two touchdowns on 16 red zone targets and was two of nine from inside the 10-yard line. I think the way that Rich put it is like the dam is about to break with this guy. And he's just going to, and he, if you remember last year, he had two touchdowns come back to penalty in the same game. I mean, I just think he's finally going to kind of like,

the 49ers office is going to figure it out and he's going to regress to the mean in a positive manner and he's going to have, you know, the potential to have those 10 touchdowns this year finally that we've been like waiting for. I just think he's he's the number one guy in that offense. He's only getting better. He's going into his prime. So yeah, I just love Kittle. You know, he's, he's not like a secret.

He's going high, but he's a guy that I'm absolutely all over in drafts this year. So why not rank him over Kelsey? I might, honestly. I, you know, it's just, I think he has that much outside. It's very hard to go against the Chief's offense, though. Like the Chief's offense, the ceiling is just absurd. So that's kind of, I think, why Kelsey maybe gets the slight nod. But I wouldn't, like, I wouldn't disparage you if he decided to go kiddle over Kelsey.

I think the Debo injury really is important because Debo had that foot injury, even if he returns by week one. It seems unlikely he's going to be 100% early in the season. And the 49 hours have a lot of inexperienced receivers behind Debo Samuel. I mean, they have a lot of rookies or second year or, you know, some third year guys. But most of those receivers are 25 or 100. under. And George Kettle is kind of almost in a way where Zach Ertz was a couple of years ago, where he's clearly the number one option behind a lot of very herd or very inexperienced receivers like back with Philadelphia. And it's almost underrated how big the gap could be between him and everyone else on that team because they had Emmanuel Sanders for the final stretch there last year. But Dick, I want to do a quick, I want to go out with a quick name game with you. Let's just say you're doing a draft. Let's say it's a 10 team league. Let's say your first pick, you get Dalvin Cook. or Alvin Kamara, whoever, you get a running back. And then you're coming around, you're in the middle of the second round,

and you can pick between Kittle and Kenyon, Duranke, who do you want? I think I'm going Kittal there. I think getting that, you get that elite running back in round one. You get the elite elite tight end in round two, and that really puts you in a good position. I will say I would never be playing in a 10-person league, though. That's ridiculous. I wouldn't be cut dead in a 10-person league.

longest running argument on this podcast is me try to get D.K. to acknowledge 10 team leagues exist. I'm just not going to do it. All right. Well, we'll have to hash that out another day. Those are our top targets for 2020. We're really, we love all these guys. So to recap, that's Alan Robinson on the Bears.

We have him at receiver 5. We got Kenyon Drake running back for the Cardinals. Robert Woods for the Rams. Bobby Trees, Cinderella himself. I love Damien Williams for the Chiefs. D.K. thinks I'm an idiot. I will prove him wrong. Adam Thielen on the Vikings.

Kings. Tyler Lockett with the Seahawks. James Connor with the Steelers, Mark Andrews with the Ravens, Calvin Ridley and Haydenhurst on the Falcons. Well, that's more me than them. A.J. Brown on the Titans. Josh Allen and the Bills with Craig. Josh Allen's a bless his heart guy. Matt Stafford of the Lions and George Kittle with the Niners. Guys, are you pumped for this? Hell yes. Go check out the Ringer Football.com. Yes, that's fantasy football.org.com. Please check it out. So many people worked so hard on it. Thank you to everyone who worked. their butts off on it and we promise it's going to be something like you haven't seen before. Thank you to everyone for listening.

Please check that out and we'll see you guys next week.