Top 10 WR Rankings + Jason Takes a Dive - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/11

Anyways, so I go back to the... Just to be clear, you landed on your feet or you landed on your knees? One knee, one foot. So you went down. I went down. Okay. Sack of potatoes down. And... Did it look like the superhero landing? No. No, those are cool. Um, so I run back to the couch where my wife is and she's word. I'm worried. I'm like, I think a rat just came in. Anyways, we spend about 45 seconds trying to get the...

I literally was standing on my couch at this point. Anyways, I finally worked my way back over to the garage door to try to look and see what happens. It was a rapper. It was a rapper that was left on the ground in my garage. And when I opened the door, it blew in. It was an M&M ice cream cookie wrapper from one of my children.

So I injured myself and made a fool of myself because of a rapper. That is excellent and also reminds me. You got to spray for those rappers. Yeah. So we have another podcast called the Spit Bar's podcast, and we often do funny drafts. And we were drafting fighting items from a pet store. And I took rats.

Yes. And I was mocked relentlessly by Jason. Yes, you were. And apparently it took one rat to send him to the couch. It was a rapper. I'm not afraid of rats. I'm afraid of rappers. Rap. Well, you never cease to surprise us, Jason. I mean, you are very special. It was embarrassing. It was an Eminem ice cream rapper. Okay. Well, I hope you recover. I hope you can get back to true form.

Like Alvin. The knees hewing up. That's good. Just don't sit anywhere and you'll be fine. Wide receivers. All right. Top 10 wide receiver episode looking at our consensus. Wide receiver rankings. And right at the top, tip of top. Big surprise here. Shocker. Michael Thomas. All of our number one overall wide receiver after he broke the NFL reception record 149 for 1725 and 9 on 185 targets.

So he was thrown to twice per play. That's what that equates to for me. But just obviously an incredible player. And any reason for us to think that not more of the same for Michael Thomas in 2020? I think so. And don't hear what I'm not saying. He's my number one wide receiver as well. But I don't feel.

Like, you know, we talked about what's the percentage chance that CMC is the running back one. What's the percentage chance that Michael Thomas is the wide receiver one at the end of the year? I put it to like 11%. Yeah, I'd say maybe about a quarter probably. 15% for me. Yeah, I mean, Michael Thomas came into the league and was great. Rookie year was a top 10 wide receiver. He's been phenomenal breaking catch percentage records every year. He is one of if not the best wide receiver in the national football league. He's locked in.

Last year, his number one finish was absurd. I mean, the amount of targets that he got, you look at most players in the league. Like Andy said, he broke the single season of reception record. Yes. You say, okay, this guy's a dominant one, so he's going to get 140 plus targets, right? Like Michael Thomas got the two previous seasons, 149, 147. Last year he had 185 targets.

Now they add Emmanuel Sanders. I don't think he is going to repeat at a number up there. I think it's going to be far more closer to 150 targets, which, again, that's awesome. I would love that. And he's, you know how many he's going to catch from 150 targets? 151. Somehow he will catch more than the amount of times the ball has been thrown to him. But I don't think that we'll see the level of wide receiver one tier that he was last season. He, by the way.

Kind of a crazy stat for how good he was last year. Never finished number one on any given week. He was just, you know, two, three, mind-blowingly consistent. When Marvin Harrison broke the receiving record, he did it on 205 targets, dropped down to 142 the next year. Wasn't any less Marvin Harrison. And Michael Thomas won't be any less Michael Thomas. The targets will probably come down. You always have a chance in an offense this good to put up...

better touchdown totals. I mean, nine touchdowns is not some outlandish number. It wasn't the backbone of his fantasy season. So he could easily do that or end up in the 11-12 range. Yeah, I mean, the real question with Michael Thomas is more related to when you're in the draft and you're deciding between the very difficult to find consistent running back options or going with the Michael Thomas.

Is he priced right now in a place where he has to repeat to get the value? Yeah, I mean, right now he's in consideration that the four is often picked at the five or six. All of those spots, I'm taking a running back personally. You know, it might change if I'm in a three wide receiver full PPR league, then obviously the depth is going to matter and the range of wide receivers that I'll start will shift. But in your normal leagues, I'm going running back probably for the first.

seven or something. I wanted to test that for you. So running back or Michael Thomas, Kenyon Drake or Thomas. Yeah, I knew you were going to go right to that name. I thought that was an easy you would take Drake. I was trying to warm up to the line. No, I think the line is. Bullseye. So I think the line is too earlier than that. I would take Michael Thomas over Kenyon Drake and Miles Sanders. But if it comes to the big three, Alvin Camara, Dalvin Cook, and Clyde Edwards Allaire.

I will draft them all over Michael Thomas. Devante Adams comes in at number two on our top 10 wide receiver list. He's three on my rankings and Jason's two on mics. In 12 games last year, 83 for 997 and 5 on 127 targets. And again, that's only in 12 games played, including a couple games where he was kind of beat up. So coming into the season, I think the biggest question mark is the identity of the Green Bay Packers.

Last year, it was found in Aaron Jones in the running game, and you had, you know, disappearing acts in the passing offense at times. You also don't have a lot of help for Devante Adams. Correct. On the other side of the field, you can be enthusiastic about Alan Lazard. He looks like he's going to be the two. They lost Evan Funches. They had picked him up as an offseason acquisition. He opted out. And they didn't invest draft capital. They went with the old quarterback in the first round routine. And another running back. And another running back in the second instead of, you know.

More weapons for Aaron Rogers. So, you know, Devante Adams is going to be a target monster. What are you looking at when you look at this season, the ceiling and the floor for Devante Adams? He hasn't played a full season since 2016. Sure. He has some risk. I mean, if you remember, a couple years ago, you had that devastating head injury when he was playing against the Chicago Bears. So Adams does carry risk.

But I love Devante Adams. He is a truly elite wide receiver, which is amazing that we are here calling Devante Adams elite compared to where he started in the NFL. It looked like he was going to be just an absolute bust. But he found his way. He's elite. He's a great route runner. He finds himself open. He's a target hog. In games played last year, you're talking 30 plus percent of the targets. Those are...

Elite. Those are Michael Thomas. Those are DeAndre Hopkins type of a target share. Almost hit a thousand yards despite the 12 games. And the story for Devante Adams last year, which she was still good when he was playing was it was the touchdowns. You know, in 12 games, only five touchdowns. He was coming off of three straight years with double digit touchdown receptions, which I expect him to be back to. He's one of those guys where you can make the easy bet.

of should Will Adams over under nine and a half touchdowns? No, oh, I'm going to take the over. So that's why I like him. That's why he's my number two. I thought an interesting stat on Devante Adams over the last two seasons is from Pro Football Focus. 12% of his targets have been contested. It just tells you how open Devonte Adams is. Any concerns with the snap percentage dip last year?

He was at the 84, 74, 89% and dropped to 63%. Playing through injury. Playing hurt. Yeah. I mean, he is truly, he's a guy that's going to be up in the 170 plus target range. There's not many. And it's coming from a Hall of Famer who trusts no one else on the field. You've got the red zone prowess, the fact that he was the, you know, he was the wide receiver three two years ago. Last year he was great when he was playing. Fifth in points per game last year.

So I'm all about the Devonti Adams life. Yeah. And hopefully he can stay healthy for a full season and just turn in that 170 plus targets. Julio Jones comes in at number three. He's number two on my board. Four for Jason, three for Mike. Right now being drafted in the second round as the wide receiver five off the board. So we all actually have him higher at the wide receiver position than others.

A pillar of consistency throughout his entire career. Fantasy finishes since 2014. Eighth, second, sixth, fifth, fifth, third. Mm-hmm. And I know. I didn't hear any number ones. No, you didn't. What a loser. What's crazy is you kind of look at it and I know that we have the meme in our heads of Julio Jones limping off the field. Yeah. 15, 16, 14, 16, 16, 16, 15 games played.

He is, you know, snap percentages staying similar. He is just as automatic as it gets at the wide receiver position. If you talk about gambling in the, you know, second round on a running back that you think has upside or you stare down Julio Jones and you know the output for Julio Jones will be. Right. What it's been? What do you do as, you know, Jason, you're a risk-averse, you know, first, second, third round type of player.

You want to guarantee what you got in those spots because you miss in the first second round. You really set your team back. Then you got a hit at the lower probability rounds. How do you view Julio Jones? Are you ending up with him in any? I am ending up with him often if I am at the top of the first round and the first few picks because I'm running back heavy usually in those first couple rounds. We talked about this yesterday. I don't want those.

round three, four, five running backs, and I do want those wide receivers. So usually I end up with running back, running back. But when I'm near the top of the draft and I've got a stud running back and Julio falls to me at the back of the second, which I've had happened plenty of times. He's older, you know, he's, he's ever been the number of fatigue too. Yeah, it's exactly what I was going to say. It's just more people are used to seeing him there and you've got.

other players that are a little bit more exciting. And it's one of those things because he's not the touchdown machine that, you know, Demonte Adams. Julio Touchdown Jones was a good dude. It was a fun short stretch, Julio Touchdown Jones. You know, he's not one of those guys that I would say is going to be the number one, like as we've seen over the career. But he is, his floor is so high. If you're in any kind of PPR league, he just dominates week in and week out. And that's who I want as my wide receiver one.

I'm going to go on record. This is the year. That he gets number one? Double-digit touchdowns for Julio Jones. Well, then he's the, if Julio Jones... He's been wanting to try that since 2011. If he hits 10 touchdowns, Julio Jones is the number one wide receiver. I would agree with that. It's time. It's time. I would like that very much, Julio. Hey, before we move on to the rest of the list, want to thank today's sponsor, Princeton auction.

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Tyree Kill is number four. Last season, injuries slowed him down considerably coming off of the number one overall fantasy finish in 2018, a number four finish in 2017. He is being drafted as the wide receiver three right now. So he's getting all of the respect due, a world champion. So I have a little bit of a game to play, though, with Tyree Kill that I think you will find... I like games. Intriguing. Okay.