WR & TE Rookie Preview + Dynasty Itch, Bad Peanuts - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/6

On today's episode, we are talking about rookie wide receivers who are coming into the league. Which guys do we like? Which guys does Jason not really care for you? You will find out. And we talk a little bit about tight ends as well. Subscribe to this channel. Leave us comments about your favorite wide receivers and enjoy the show. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in.

The fantasy footballers, Thursday, April 6th. Welcome in one and all. Mike, right, Jason, more Andy Holloway. Back at it. More rookies. More chitter-chatter about the rookies. All of those about the rookies. Not a lot of news to cover, so we'll be able to dive in. Wide receivers, tight ends today. I want to let everybody know that I'm in a good mood. I want to let... I want to let everyone here know. Thank God. Yeah, I know. I am so happy to hear that, Jason. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. I'm happy to share it. I just want to get that out of the way. Is it because you're sending a different message physically? No, it's because I think the rest of the show is going to be like, man, what is wrong with Jason? I've got a lot of negativity on today's show. I mean, we're going to talk about a lot of prospects I don't like. Okay. That's a preview I didn't expect. Yeah.

Like, yeah. Is that because they're not named Bijon? Yeah. Wait, he's not on this episode? Just got done with the first Dynasty podcast episode yesterday. And you mean that because like the recordings might still be going on. Yeah, that is the Dynasty running back podcast, right? Yes. It's running back every week. Is that what you're covering or? Did you actually get through them? We could cover them every week. We got through a ton. We went much, much deeper than we did on the last main episode here. So if you want to hear about far more of the prospects, you can, you know, just search for the fantasy footballer's dynasty show. And that's where we cover it. But it was an 80-minute episode. So check that out, Fantasy Footballers Dynasty, Spotify, Apple. It's a delight, I will add. It truly is. And so it scratches your dynasty itch.

Or, you know, that's what they say. To come up with another way to put it. My dynasty has been itching. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, you might want to go to a doctor. Do they have a cream for that? No, they got a podcast. They have a podcast. They have a podcast. Listen to two of these and call me in the morning. It's pretty good. Yeah. What else is going on? Twitter at the FFBallers. The community is over at join the foot.com. Get an extra show over there, the footcast, which we'll be recording this afternoon and lots of good stuff going on. We have a quick question, and I was thrilled to see this one in here before the show because I just want to talk about this player, but Andrew and British Columbia writes in. He says, I haven't heard.

A lot of talk about Rashad White this offseason. With Lenny gone, what do you think the range of outcomes are for White? Where does he rank among running backs in redraft? I have been kind of dying to talk about Rashad White. I don't know where you two stand in the kind of talent evaluation category. Last year, you definitely saw some games that were, I think, a sign of what could be to come for Rashad White. There's a third round draft pick last year. Leonard Fournett will not be the running back in Tampa Bay. And so there's going to be an opportunity here for Rashad White. And, you know, we're going to, is it next week, Brooks, we're going over our top 20 running backs, like early rankings? Yes, sir. So, you know, I saw him in that list. And, you know, he's a player that I put on that category of maybe.

You know, this could be a top 24 guy. This could be a top 15 guy if things went the right way. And I think a lot of that has to do with his ability to do it all. Yeah, obviously his success last year came in the receiving game. He was not very effective or efficient. He was very disappointing to me because when you talk about the talent evaluation of Rashad White, I thought he was an explosive athlete who would do better on the ground. Was it the 3.7 yards per attempt that he averaged on the ground? The 3.7 yards per attempt were pretty not great. And then he made up for it by, you know, look, he caught 50 passes. He had 58 targets. That's great. And obviously he was a limited player as far as snaps because Leonard Fournett was there. So now with Leonard Fournett gone, there is clearly an opportunity here for him to step up. I am a little bit more.

negative on my outlook towards him for two reasons. Oh, you already previewed that. Right. I gave people a heads up. I'm still a happy man. Um, but he's not happy to go around. He's not having Tom Brady throw the ball umpteen billion times and check it down to the running back all day long. So the past catching that saved him last year from his ineffective running, I think disappears and. they currently are one of the highest odd. That doesn't make any sense. Why would it disappear? Leonard Fournett caught 75 balls himself. But you're the one who's been talking about how Tom Brady was the reason that all those things were happening. But it's not, it doesn't go from like something to nothing at the run. If he's the starting running back on this team with past catching chops and mind you, ran better on the ground than Lenny did, we know what that offensive line was last year. It was a disaster. I certainly see the, the, the, the,

path towards great fantasy production. But the Vegas markets right now... I mean, you said disappear. That's what I took issue with, is the idea that he's not going to become the starter and somehow lose all of his receiving work. I think he can become the starter and lose... total receiving work. He can have lower receptions next year as the full-time starter than he had in the 47% of snaps he played this last year. That's my outlook with the quarterback change there. But also, this is a team that, I mean, we're a couple weeks away from the draft as of this recording, but they have pretty high odds to go after a running back.

in replacement of Leonard Fournett. So TBD to see who they add to the team, but I don't believe they'll go in with the depth chart as it stands now. No, I'm trying to pull it up. I mean, it's like, yeah, so you have Rashad White, who will be the leader. You have, wait, Chase Edmonds ended up on that team. Is that accurate? Yeah, I totally forgot about that. He's hanging out for camp. Okay, so that's, this is the depth chart. Chase Edmonds, Kishon Vaughn, still managing to hold on to that team. And then Patrick Laird from Miami fame. He's holding on there. They are 100% adding a body to that depth chart. How high up in the draft we shall see. I chuckled over here because Andy was like, well, he, you know, he ran better than Leonard Four Nett. I'm like, that's him. That's impossible. 37? Yeah, Leonard Ford was at 3.5.

That was a disaster. And I had missed we were doing this as our quick question, or I would have pulled it up. But it's like, has Baker Mayfield ever shown us that this is how he likes to play football of checking it down frequently to the running back position? Because Tom Brady, that's been his M.O. Essentially his entire career is this is what he did. Everything is really, really short. Occasionally they'll go over the top. But it's just such a specific Tom Brady trait to throw to the quarterback that much. To the running back. Yes, to the running back position that I would have my concerns there. And if he's getting 50 receptions again, but he's not adding it a bunch of carries on the ground, it won't be great. So I guess I'm more pessimistic. I just feel like he's in the same situation that Ramandre is in right now, where you lost your incumbent.

banger. And right now you don't have anybody else on the depth chart. But I believe Ramandre is good. I don't know if Rashad White is good. Okay. So I guess that's what it comes down to. If I didn't, on the field, it was fine. All right. So we, uh, you know, we'll go over it on Monday. We'll talk, or on Tuesday. We'll talk through the top 20. Um, Rashad won't be there. But he's one of those players that will have a starting opportunity next year as it sits right now. Ultimate draft kit.com. If you want to check out the Dynasty Pass, let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Not a lot, but we have music. They're back, baby. Welcome to Arizona. Dominating the offseason headlines with good stuff. I mean, we didn't really need to talk about this other than the opportunity to play the music, but yada, yada, yada.

Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell accused of cheating, accused of workplace misconduct of various sorts, which I mean, look, that fits the bill considering they had, well, let's see, they had a general manager who was suspended for extreme DUI. Yeah. They've had several issues with front office and coaching personnel being suspended, fired, and they're being sued by Steve Wilkes. actively right now, former head coach. Yep. So the big one that's going on right now, though, is said suspended GM, who former general manager Steve Kime was suspended, I think, five weeks or so. And it was a suspension of no contact with the team. Well, this former Cardinals employee is accusing Michael Bidwold saying that.

Bidwell instructed him to get a burner phone to Steve Kine so that they could remain in contact but keep it off of the books. The reason we're talking about it, again, to just to crap on the Cardinals, but two, if this moves forward and there is some proof of this, this will be draft picks, or a draft pick or draft picks taken away from the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what's going to come of this overall. I mean, it's early days. I think unless a bunch of other people come forward right now, there's probably not a lot to worry about. But who knows, just more dysfunction in an organization that was 10 and 2 and being talked about as a Super Bowl contender. And from that moment on, has been a catastrophic off the cliff train wreck. It's all right, guys. I think we have the highest odds of getting the number one pick this year. That's pretty sweet. As long as they hold on to it. Assuming it's not taken away. Just remember.

It was after the Green Bay game, you know, a couple years back. That's when Al Borland just, I mean, posterized us. He just dunked all over us. Ever since that moment, that's when everything really fell apart. Yeah. So do you take credit for the demise of the Arizona Cardinals, Al Borland? I take no credit. How about the demise of the Packers? Yeah. I take no credit for that either. All right. And then the Patriots have been shopping Mac Jones. Yeah, that's been reported by Mike Florio. It's been disputed by the Patriots. But obviously, I think in the end, it's the Patriots aren't sitting there thinking Mack Jones is the, is going to be the quarterback that leads them to success on a big second contract. Yeah, and that'd be a huge problem for them to commit to him then, because they, if he's good enough, but not great, then you feel back to into a corner. That's the worst spot to be in. Rather, zap, zap.

Right. Or make a trade or I don't know. Lamar Jackson's there. You know if anybody wants him. Maybe go get him. Yeah. Anything else, Brooksie? No, sir. Okay. All right. It is time. Let's jump into those rookies. Hi, rookie. Welcome to the NFL. All right. We just covered the running back position, the quarterback position on Tuesday's episode. We're overviewing the wide receivers and tight-ins today. If you want that deep dive, you can go into the Dynasty show. 80 minutes are running backs. Yes. It'll fix the edge. Yeah, it will do that. Wide receivers is next week. Yeah. Correct. And we do mean all next week. It'll be recording starting Monday morning and the show will end Friday afternoon. No, the wide receiver position, let's dig in.

And I'm really, you know, I was excited about this show until I knew that these negative bombs were going to come dropping out of the sky from Jason. Oh, I'm sorry. But now I just, I just want to know who sucks. Well, we'll get to them. Look, we're going to start with a couple guys I really like. So we'll bring some, uh, positive sugar in here. Okay. Is there negative sugar? Positive sugar? Is it some positivity, some sweetness, some, uh, syrup, some sugar, all those things. Some ionized sugar. Awesome. Electrons? Electrons? You mean electrolytes? Some electrons, some neutrons. Maybe a proton or two. Protons are positive, right? Yes. Yeah, that's where I was going. There we go. That's right. You said positive. I was trying to get into the science. Science? I talk football for a living. I mean, this is, I got close enough. Those are all part of an atom or something, right? Yeah. Okay. Nailed it. All right. A reminder, and I'll say this at the top.

We are talking about our rookie rankings in as much as how they affect fantasy football. You know, this is a time when draft pundits are out there communicating about the talent and ability of all these wide receivers. Everything that they're talking about is in relation to where they might, you know, stack up from a talent perspective. We are looking at it through the lens of fantasy football. And those things are often directly aligned, but not always. And you saw that last episode talking about Anthony Richardson at quarterback. Saw some people thinking we were. making him our number one prospect in terms of NFL quarterback potential.

No, we were talking about fantasy upside because he can run the football. There are a lot of guys who have been great for their NFL teams who do not affect, you know, Tavon Austin in fantasy circles is just a worthless player. He has not been worthless to certain NFL franchises through his career. There's plenty of players where they make an impact on the field on a couple of big plays, on special teams, and in a number of important ways that help get Ws. that do not matter for fantasy football and we don't care about them. So our rookie rankings begin with Jackson Smith and Jigba. Wide receiver out of Ohio State. And Jason, you said it. We're starting with some guys that you really like. What's not to like about J.S.N? I mean, you want a faster 40? Yeah, right. You want him to play on the outside a little bit more? Maybe those are like the two knocks that you hear. But when I watch his game,

There's nothing on film I don't like. He's always open. He's got great hands. He's got great body control. He's an excellent route runner. He's quick and explosive. He's productive. He's young. To me, he is a locked in guaranteed prospect of success. That doesn't mean he's Jamar Chase and he's going to be Justin Jefferson and be a superstar for fantasy. But I see him as an extremely safe prospect. But I do see upside. I do see upside of him being, you know, a top six NFL fantasy wide receiver in the future. That's not necessarily where I project him at, but I think he is a rock, solid prospect. As a sophomore, just absolutely dominant, because that was in 2021, 2002 season completely lost two injuries. So we have to go back to 2021, where he had.

95 catches over 1,600 yards, nine touchdowns. And this was playing on the field alongside first round wide receivers, Garrett Wilson, and Chris Olive. And yet they, not all three of them played every single game. So some production came, you know, when those guys weren't on the field. Some came when just one of them were on the field. But you cannot deny those numbers. I mean, those are absolutely electric. And you have, you have Garrett Wilson and Chris Alave both when asked of, Who was the best wide receiver on that team? They both say it's Jackson Smith in Jigba. The knock is the slot snaps. How will that translate? Because in that breakout campaign, he was in the slot 90% of the time. 90% of his snaps were there. Now, the name Justin Jefferson, that's the big hope because his huge year, his final year of college production.

Justin Jefferson was in the slot nearly 99% of his snaps. And that's, I think, why he fell in the draft compared, you know, to the other big wide receivers who got drafted that year. But things are changing. So, you know, Jefferson's number at 99. Jalen Waddle was a 68% slot wide receiver back when he had his really big year in college. So that's your hope. Your hope is that JSN turns into a Justin Jefferson type because everything like, physically speaking, they aren't that different of size and stature. And the way they move is somewhat similar. I don't know if you guys, when you scouted which games you looked at, but there was a Nebraska game and there was a specific play, a toe tap touchdown.

It is one of the best catches I've ever seen in my life. The ball was thrown basically out of the back of the end zone, and he goes and he jumps out of the end zone. I mean, he's nowhere near the paint. It's like the announcers are like, oh, incomplete. The two refs right next to him, they wave it off. Incomplete. And then you look at the replay. And he go, go gadget stretched one foot back into the bounds right before his body hit the, it was unbelievable body control. He can do some really special things. And while, you know, we can't just say he's going to be Justin Jefferson and be able to move to the outside and dominate there, this NFL, you got Cooper Cup, who might be better than Justin Jefferson in fantasy, who's in the slot. You got Amundrae St. Brown who's dominating from the slot. Keenan Allen, I'm not worried about the slot thing. He's a great talent.

Hopefully, you know, the ceiling is limitless, but his floor is pretty high to me. Is there any chance he's not the first wide receiver off the board? In the NFL draft? A chance, sure. Okay. Because there's, I think that mostly comes down to Quentin Johnston from TCU because he's more prototype NFL wide receiver to a lot of these GMs. Bigger player, you know, just a size speed freak and played on the outside. That's the only way I see it happening. I just remember scouting Garrett Wilson and Crystal Lave, but having your eyeballs drawn to JSN throughout that scouting process. And that's kind of what you had to do because last year was a lost season. That's one thing I haven't seen brought up almost at all. Like I think it's being conceded almost, at least in the circles that I've been reading articles about and listening to people. Is there no concern about injury? Is there no concern about the lost season?

Or is everybody just viewing this through the lens of kind of like what we saw with Jamar Chase where he didn't play football for a long time and it didn't matter. Yeah, I mean, Jamar Chase took the year off. That was the COVID time. This was different because it was injury and so you can worry about injury. And honestly, there were worries about injury. He was going into pre-combine, you know, sports books. He was the third to be drafted at the wide receiver, odds-wise. But then the combine came. And he destroyed it with his explosiveness. And you went, oh, he's fully healthy. I mean, he was like 98th percentile on some of his explosion stuff. So the combine wasn't even around after he got done with it. That's how he just burned it up. Cones were everywhere in the streets. So it was a lost season. It wasn't a good 2022. That's why going into this early, you know, January.

February, I think people were down on JSN, but the more that we've gone back and remembered that. The combine fixed it. When we left last year, we were as a group talking already about, well, we know next year there's this Bijon guy and there's Jackson Smith and Jigba. Yeah. That was a year ago and nothing has changed from their talent. Yeah, I think there was definitely a point in time where Jason was probably going to be the number one pit in rookie drafts after, you know, he was going back. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back with number two on our list. All right, number two on our rookie rankings. Recently, a move to number two on my personal rankings. Ah, you've joined us. Are you both there? Yep. So Jordan Addison out of USC is now number two, I guess, on all three of our rankings at the wide receiver position. I think the draft capital will be very good for Jordan Addison.

part of the focus, I think. And just smaller player, hyper-skilled, movement skills off the chart. Why do you have him at number two? And have you wavered there with the likes of Quentin Johnston or others? He's been locked into my number two spot. The only time that I wavered was when he literally stepped on a scale and was 173 pounds. He wavered. Because there was a slight breeze. Right. He was a wafer on the scale. And so that is the big knock, right? You don't usually have guys with his height and weight be super, uber successful. But you also don't usually have guys his height and weight drafted in the first round.

You don't have guys his height and weight who are the Blitnikov Award winner for being the best wide receiver, which not this past year, but the year prior he was. Reminds a lot of people of Devontas Smith in that way. You know, everyone was talking about his BMI won't work because historically, people with that BMI, they are terrible and they suck. Well, again, historically, people with that BMI... They're not drafted high, and they don't do in college what he did. He is a special wide receiver, and so I kind of have had to wash my hands of the weight when it comes to him. Mike, one of your things to remember on the things to remember episode was that wide receiver weight is changing a lot over the last four or five years. Lighter, faster wide receivers are getting more regular play in this modern NFL, and I think that it fits the skill set of Jordan Addison. The reason I've got him.

up high. Not only is he extremely productive two years ago at Pitt, 100 receptions, 1,593 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns, but it's the way he moves. He's an unbelievably good explosive route runner who just gets open and has a good feel for the game. I'm trying to think of first round wide receivers over the last 10 years or so that we're in this size. did have success. You brought up Devante Smith. Was Hollywood a first round pitch? Yes, he was. And Hollywood was very undersized, but high draft capital. I think the not just a pure burner category is probably an important, I mean, I'm just kind of thinking through this, because you have had the John Ross's and the Henry Ruggs and some of those lighter frame but just burner type of, you know, combine.

40 guys. Yeah. But Hollywood's another example of somebody that wasn't necessarily prototypical that has made a mark and made a mark as a rookie right away. And he was undervalued if you think about the way fantasy drafts went. Jehan Dodson last year was undervalued. You know, you'd get him in the second round of your rookie drafts when he was a first round NFL draft pick. And then what did he do? Just got a bunch of touchdowns. It was really good on the field. Yeah. And you hope you don't. I mean, there have been some. whiffs in that category. And you brought one up already today, unbeknownst to you, but Tavon Austin. I mean, Tavon Austin was a first round pick that not a great fantasy impact. But Jordan Addison is a, I think he's an elite wide receiver. He has elite ball skills. He can get separation. And I think we still don't measure separation well enough, I think, in the scouting process. And you see players that get to the NFL level and surprise people.

Yeah, there's players that are just smarter than people, and that's a very difficult thing to get on an analytic spreadsheet for us nerds of like, well, how are you really that much smarter? And because when you're Jordan Addison and you're working with a 10th percentile height-adjusted speed score, that's not great. Like, if he truly is drafting the first, which by all accounts, he should be, it will be. A pretty wild thing that a wide receiver of his stature who doesn't have elite athleticism. A team is going to trust their future end up with a first round pick. It's pretty wild. But the production is off the charts over the past two years, you know, almost three yards per route run, which for that stat.