Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Top 15 Wide Receivers, Fantasy Updates

goes in line with what you saw in that first preseason game. That, you know, in on first down, and on second down, and on third down, just really got the work. So hearing that from a head coach is great when you see it. It's a warm blanket. You wrap yourself in that blanket. Oh, and we've had so much up and down news about Latavius and his bell cow status. Right. And the way the coaches talk about him. So this is great.

To me and to my... And Tony the Tiger as well. And Tony the Tigers, so... I love Latavis Murray. And never forget that. And by the way, yeah, I look, Jason, I'm going to come out and I'm going to make sure that just because he's my fantasy MVP does not mean you don't get the credit. You know, I've liked him for a long time. But honestly, I'm going to throw the credit back to you because it was actually the year where he had the two carries for 107,000 yards in a game where you fell in love with him.

That really kind of- And let's keep in mind. It's a lot harder to make somebody else's pick your fantasy MVP. You have to humble yourself and you have to allow Jason to be right about something. And that's hard. Well, you're a humble man. Also, I will remind you and everybody that I am the champion in our league of record. You guys want to talk about wide receivers? Get to our top list of wide receivers? Certainly. Because I sure do. Before we do.

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All right. Let's do it. Let's do it. We're going to break down our top 15 wide receivers. A little bit of shuffling. I'll let you guys know when we get to the spot in this list where some names changed around. We're going to go with Antonio Brown at number one. Yeah. Spoiler and big shocker here, Antonio Brown, back-to-back world champion of the wide receivers. Just barely. Hey. Hey.

Wins a win. A wins a win. Look, you know about Antonio Brown, 195 targets. Caught 136 passes, 1834 yards and 10 touchdowns. He had a 33% target share, which is number one in the league. That's ridiculous. How much was he on the field? 100% of the time. That's a good number. That's a real good number. He also led the league in Red Zone receptions with 17.

at the wide receiver position. So they go to him anywhere between the one end zone and the other end zone. The one in the zero and the zero. The zero and the zero. They throw him the ball. Not a complicated guy to introduce. But Andy. Oh, yeah? With Martavis Bryant being gone, won't the coverage be harder on Antonio Brown? Yeah, that's what you never said that about Jerry Rice and you don't say that about Antonio Brown. It doesn't matter. And we have proof from last year. They tried it. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's all there is to it. Antonio Brown. He's our number one consensus wide receiver. Number two, Julio Jones. All he did was have the same amount of receptions as Antonio Brown. He had more targets, nine more targets, led the league in yards. Basically, 13 targets a game. You can draft the number one if you want. Absolutely. I think there's no problem with that.

Yep, I have absolutely no problem. And would have beat Antonio Brown if it were not for two less touchdowns. Yeah, and that's the thing. For Julio, he's never really been a huge touchdown scoring machine. Which is insane. Yeah, it really is. But with the second year.

for Matt Ryan, who we've talked about. You're talking about the second year in that offense. Yeah, for Kyle Shanahan's offense. And we talked about the numbers for Matt Ryan of how everything is spectacular, completions, yards, completion, percentage, yards per attempt. Everything was great except for touchdowns. So in the second year of that system, I expect that can, it can increase. We're not looking and saying, well, Julio's going to go down. It's very possible Julio Jones is over double digits this year.

There will be a positive regression for Mount Ryan in the touchdown totals. And the reality is if you looked at Ryan's numbers last year, I believe they were bottom five in terms of, you know, throwing the ball deep, throwing the ball downfield, which is an odd thing because they used to do it a lot with Roddy White. And for some reason, when you give him Julio Jones, who you can just throw the ball up to and he'll find a way to get it.

They didn't do it a lot last year. So I expect that to change this season. No reason he can't finish number one. I completely, I don't blame anybody in a Dynasty League for making him the number one pick. Let's go to number three. Odell Beckham Jr. I moved Eli Manning up in my rankings this morning. All right. Makes sense. Eli Manning is my number seven quarterback. Wow. I have no problem. I just really like that offense. Now, I agree at the end of the year, Eli will have great, great stats. Are you worried about having him as a weekly starter?

I think not. I think I'm okay with him as a weekly started. Otherwise, I wouldn't have, I don't think I would have made sure he's number seven there. You've got Shane Vereen out of the backfield and Rashad Jinnies. You got Sterling Shepard coming into the fold. You got two good tight ends and you got Odell Beckham Jr. And you got an offensive system that is, you know, quick hit, very accurate. I like everything there. You know, Odell Beckham Jr. showed me last year that, you know, there was no mirage to his performance. He could beat.

Last year it was about can he beat the good coverage. He had the advantage of in his first season having people learn who he was over a five, six game period before he received the major coverage. So now last year he beat it all. He had 160 targets, 96 for 1450. He is a touchdown monster. He just finds the way into the end zone despite his size. And one thing people forget when they look at those numbers and they go, wow, he was right there with Antonio Brown and Julio Jones is that.

He played 15 games. He missed the whole game. I mean, what would his numbers? If he didn't miss that game, I think, you know, there'd be a lot more people taking Odell Beckham number one this year. Yeah, he probably would have been over. I mean, he would have been over 100 receptions, which would have made. That's the big difference, 136, 135 receptions for the top two guys. That's why I take them. But O'Dell Beckham Jr. comes in at number three. And to be clear, we get people asking us, who should I take number one? And.

Pick one of these three guys to me. For me personally, it's Antonio Brown, but if you are saying, hey, am I crazy? I want Beckham number one. I want Jones. That's not crazy at all. These guys are fantastic. If you're indifferent, trade down. Agreed. If you're at number one and you really are indifferent, you know, you can pick up a fourth round pick to go from one.

the first pick to the third pick, maybe. Possibly. If somebody really wants Antonio Brown. All right, AJ Green is our number four wide receiver on our consensus rankings. We're all huge AJ Green fan. To me, he represents almost a tier of his own. I don't think we have him specifically as a tier of his own in our tiers, but that's kind of how I mentally view it. I feel like there's the top three guys.

Then there's A.J. Green, and then there's a huge group of really good guys that could all finish, you know, in that top five. But I'm not sure what order. But A.J. Green stands apart because of his consistency, because of his situation. We already know that he's an extreme talent. He's never had less than 1,000 yards in his career. He's had double-digit touchdowns, three of five seasons. And now you lose Muhammad Sunu, and you lose Marvin Jones.

And I for a couple weeks. Yeah, I mean, he's going to get a ton of targets and he's as talented. He's as talented as any of those other three. I've wanted to, I have Julio in a lot of leagues. And if somebody really wanted Julio and they had AJ Green and they would throw in something else on top of AJ, I would look at that. Are you trying to facilitate a trade on the air? Brian, if you're listening, if you're listening.

Julio can be had for AJ Green. We all knew what you were doing. You might as well call him out my name. I'm telling the truth. I have Julio in a lot of leagues. And I'm willing to take AJ Green and something else. Hey, that's the insight you get from our show. You get genuine. What would we really do? Hit me up on Facebook, Brian. All right. Des Brian is our number five. He is back, baby. You saw it in preseason game one. He is a touchdown machine. I would not be.

afraid to bet a lot of money on him leading the league in touchdowns this year. Des Bryant is an absolute monster. Look, everything kind of fell apart last year with the foot injury with Romo out. The previous three seasons, this is a, that's a large sample, three entire seasons. He was, he has averaged 91 catches for over 1,300 yards and 13.5 touchdowns for three years in a row.

The guy is a proven monster. He is healthy. If you're seeing these snaps coming out of training camp, if you watch the preseason game, Des Bryant, look, please do not fade Des Bryant because of last year's mishaps. And he's hungry. The thing I love about the preseason game is the fact that. Look, I know hunger. The thing that I love about the preseason game is the fact that he talked himself into.

playing he wasn't supposed to play in that preseason game and he's like no i'm playing i want to get the reps i want to get out there he is i mean i love that version of des i worried in the off season that with the the time off for healing on the foot surgery maybe he'd come in out of shape he looks like a beast all right number six on our consensus rankings maybe this is where some people will be surprised maybe not shouldn't be brandon marshals number six finished number three in fantasy last year all he did was

Get faster, it seems, this offseason. Lost a little bit of weight, had 174 targets last year, but put up 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns. But Andy, he's 32 years old. That works for me. Yeah, it's not too old for a wide receiver. No, that's fine. Especially somebody who is just, his catch radius is the best in the league, in my opinion. He can manhandle people. He can still get down the sideline, and he's a go-to receiver.

and a red zone receiver. So check, check, check, check. And Ryan Fitzpatrick's back. Brandon Marshall has had under 1,000 yards twice in his 10-year career. That was the rookie season. And then 2014 when he was hurt the entire year. And the Bears thought, oh, we don't need Brandon Marshall anymore. So they trade him away for pennies, which is a mistake. Last year, Brandon Marshall extremely consistent. In 14 of 16 games, he either had 100 yards.