Fantasy Football - Early Top 15 WR Rankings + Jason FORE!!! - Podcast for 4/16

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thursday, April 16th, one week away from the NFL draft. It's the fantasy footballers podcast. Jason Moore, although this morning it was like Jason four. Oh, that's not nice. And honestly. We went golfing this morning. Well, you only yell four when you're like about to hit someone, right? Yeah. I mean, I think you just, it's something you can say before you even swing. Really? I think there's rules to this. If you'd know what they're going to do, no, you played fine. We just, I was a little disappointed because the last time I went out without Borland and we played some golf. He didn't finish the round. And it was really entertaining for us. It was frustrating for him. But today he was, he was fine. Yeah. I'm not going to say good.

well that's fine but he was fine yeah it was better than one guy which one guy was that oh don't oh oh i knew this was coming i knew as soon as he brought it up we're gonna get around to jeremy beat me by one stroke and let the record show i didn't mean to do this okay let the record show right now let it hundred dollars one-on-one any time you want you're playing next week aren't we yeah put some money on it all right oh yeah put some money on it hundred bucks oh $1,000. Hello, everybody. We don't play golf that often. I think this is like the second time in 15 years. We're a little competitive. Maybe this will be a thing now. Mike Wright is here. I think I only introduced Jason. That's all right. Four. What are, so the rules of golf for, no, the rules of, we don't have time. It's once you hit and you know that it's headed towards a person. I'm saying you're on a golf course. Someone, you hear that word. Yeah. Do you just.

you duck i heard it today duck and covered on the ninth hole yeah someone yelled for and me and i think it was jerry we were standing next each other we both just basically dropped to our knees and put our hands over our head like we're like gonna die by shooting yeah i mean it's it was uh what else do you do you don't know you're not gonna be like well let me turn around and inspect where the ball is coming from yeah it's just a quick warning a quick word i think that was uh baby jake who hit that ball um

But here we are. We've got far too much to cover on today's episode to talk any more about Jason and Jeremy's rivalry on the golf course. We have our top 15 early wide receiver rankings today to get into. We just did our running back rankings on the last episode, if you want to hear those. Some really good discussions, I think, about a ton of those players. I think in particular, what stood out to me is the way that you value players like Jacobs. Barkley, Henry versus taking upside of players like Hampton, Ken Walker. Anybody with a new scenario, a new situation, or hasn't done him before, but seems like they should be able to do it versus the kind of tried and true veterans. And it seems like consensus right now is that the younger hotness could be stars are drafted ahead. Yeah. And that is, that's a tough one. In fantasy, you.

You kind of know that, I mean, I think you brought it up with, I don't know if it was CMC or somebody else, but it was like, you know that the efficiency over time isn't going to get better. I don't think it was CMC. That was Barkley. It was Barkley. You know you're not really going to get a better season. And that's where that decision comes. It makes it very difficult. But we'll get into the wide receiver position today. I don't really know where our disagreements are here. I have my rankings. You guys did yours. We have the consensus today. We'll walk through it. Got a quick question as well.

Before we get into that, I want to invite you right now. You want to get in on the UDK pre-order, I promise. We have some special stuff coming up. We'll announce it next week, ahead of the draft, but it will be everybody that has the pre-order will be eligible for it. So there are two ways to make sure you have the UDK. You can go just purchase the UDK at Ultimate DraftKit.com, or you can go to join thefoot.com and become an ultimate footclan supporter. That is a year-round membership. You get access to all of our premium. tools, apps, resources, the draft kit, the end season tools, the lineup optimizer, everything that we come out with. Including all the dynasty stuff that drops right after the draft. So we have another big Dynasty Pass update. Our rankings are redone and a ton more comes out once we know where these players are. And that will be released shortly after the conclusion of the draft, which I got to tell you, like right now, it's turned a corner. I know you open the show and said we're one week from the draft. Yep. Yes.

it feels like the draft is tomorrow now and it hasn't felt like it it's like okay we are we are here i am ready i amped let's get this thing going ready to get that wide receiver to the browns that you've all been get it out of the way don't forget the jets and the dolphins i mean all of them yeah but um if you're hearing this and you're like oh i already bought the udk but i would like to be a foot clan member we've got something special for you sure all off season you can just use what you paid for the UDK as a pro-rated discount on the Ultimate Foot Clan membership. So if you go to join the foot.com and you had already bought the UDK, we'll just give you a full credit for that. That way you can become, it's automatic. As long as you're logged in. Dramatic. It is, uh, we can't sing the lyrics. I know, no, we can't sing the lyrics. What from famous kids musical? Greece? Where'd have been never heard of the, um, there you go.

So let's jump in. Quick question of the day. Speaking of the draft, what team are you most excited to see make their picks in day one and two? I am most excited for the Seahawks because at 32 or 64, they're taking a running back. They've had a bunch of running backs in. They've got a need. There's no free agents out there. And it's the number one most enticing. landing spot. I mean, you could argue if you take high draft capital at seven, maybe the commanders are a better landing spot, but this is a Super Bowl winning team that wants to run the ball. And they have the perfect draft capital to spend, like the 30 second pick is perfect, is perfect to take the second running back ahead of where you expect them to take. But the 64th pick is still great. You're talking about a second round pick. That's high draft capital.

And I do believe that they'll take a running back in one of those two spots. If not, they'll take them in the third round. But if they take one in one of those two spots. I promise the first two picks, they will take one. But if they don't, there's just an expert. I said, I believe. And if they don't take one with the third, fourth pick for sure. But they will have another running back on this team. via draft, free agency. Six pick. The George Halani Hive will come for you, Jason. Here's what I think, Jay. Here's what the actual prediction is. I don't think it's 32. I think it's in the middle of the second round with a trade up. Okay, but let me ask you this. Which is another one of the many ways they can acquire a running trade. If they use one of the first two picks on a running back.

Would that running back basically automatically be the number two running back in behind Charbonnet? Yeah, no, no, no, no, rookie, Jeremiah Love. No, no, not at all. No, I think it will depend. My opinion might change really close to the season if Charbonnet's progression is really poor. But I mean, they did pick up Emmanuel Wilson. This is a team that just won the Super Bowl. I don't know if you hand over, you know, a workload that you're proud of to a rookie right out of the gate. They love Charbonate to the point where they demoralized Mike on a weekly basis for years. So efficiency is the most- We're going to find out. Efficiency has been proven to them by them that it is not the most important thing on their agenda. Because if it was, Ken Walker would have been playing more. They want somebody in there that does all the dirty work and does the stuff they need done. That would not give me the level of confidence. They need someone who's had 639 career touches and only one fumble. You know, that type of a rookie that could come in as I. Who's that?

Is that Coleman? Yeah. If it's 32, if it's picked 32, then I think maybe I have a different answer for you because it'll be a name I like. But I do think there's a difference between 32 and beyond. If it's Jonah Coleman, he'll probably be my number two. There you go. Because that's just all will be answered in seven days. Stop. Well, Jonah Coleman people. Really eight days. We need day two. Well, Jason needs all three of them. Well, right, because if they don't take a running back with the first three picks, then on the third day. Don't give me start on the 2027 options that have a running back. All right. For me, I'm going to throw out just basically the chiefs with draft capital. Yeah, that's fun. It's just kind of exciting to have a team that you, you know, we talk about how much we're like, oh, no, the Browns, oh, no, the Jets. How about a team that, like, you could paint some nicer?

pictures with like some exciting future stars yes kelsey's going to be back but he you know if they get another tight in you can start looking to the future three top 30 picks right i mean the you've seen mock drafts with tyson or one of the big three at number nine you've seen mock draft still with jeremiah love falling there you've seen mock drafts with them taking top 30 picks sorry about that with them taking uh sadik there's I mean, there are a lot of offensive weapons that could go to Patrick Mahomes, which is obviously exciting. Yeah, they had three wide receivers with top 30 visits and two picks in the first round. I'm excited for this Pittsburgh Steelers pick in 21. Like right now, the Arizona Cardinals are just that everyone has linked to them to Ty Simpson of either a trade-up or whatever. But they're the team.

to look out for to get Ty Simpson. And it's like the Steelers, we have a new regime. What, how, what are they going to do moving forward? Like, is McCarthy, are they in crew? Are they content of just being held hostage by Rogers, not knowing if he is or is not coming back, which they may have that information right now and we don't know it. But like this is a, there's no future for this team at quarterback. And they're just, there has it. I'm sorry. Will Howard people. Like, there just, there hasn't been a clear future for them for since, what, since Big Ben? I mean, to just like, which is a, that's so long ago for a problem is there. That keeps being a playoff type of a team to have no future is that's wild. That's the issue is the fact that like they, they didn't have a plan and it was Kenny Pickett and Kenny Pickett was the late, he was the, he was Ty Simpson.

And I don't think as a franchise, they want to do that again. He was the first quarterback taken that year. I feel like this is a really interesting year for Pittsworth altogether because without Mike Tomlin, I feel like Mike Tomlin was doing the Spider-Man GIF of just holding this team at a good record, right? Like they couldn't fail to the degree that they needed to get another quarterback and to rebuild. He's always holding on to 8-9-9-8, I guess. Yeah, we call that the Jason Moore NBA Finals gift now. Yeah, yeah. I feel like it could be the year with like the Ravens. Are the Ravens better than the Steelers? Yes. Okay. Are the Bengals better than the Steelers? Yes. I don't know. Currently the Steelers don't have a quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be interesting. All right. Let's move on. Also Dallas and Cincinnati. Don't worry about defense.

No, this draft is, this draft is really anti-defense, right? You're in a hard position there, though. You want to, you want to keep the Bengals with this high-flying offense because they have to score 30 in order to have a chance of winning. Yeah, I do. But you want- Jeremy Lowe's not dropping to 10. I know, but I'm just saying you don't want them to draft a high running back for your chase brown. He's not dropping to 10. Probably won't. He won't. Tennessee at number four. Yes. All right. We have a lot of names to get into. Let's jump right in.

Wide receivers. All right, our early top 15 rankings at the wide receiver position here on recorded April 15th. It's April 16th when you're listening to it. What makes a top 15 fantasy wide receiver? Over the last five years, a top 15 fantasy wide receiver averaged 142 targets, 95 receptions, 1,270 yards, and 8.8 receiving touchdowns. I'm going to be honest. Reading those numbers? They all seem higher than I would have expected for top 15 average. Those seem like, to me, like top eight average or something like that. Well, I mean, you have the guys. That overwhelm. Yeah, the super tippy top always, they're really pulling the average up. So over the last five years, 77% of top 15 wide receivers average average at least 7.5 targets per game. They are traditionally the alphas of the offense. High target share. We love that.

64% of them have had at least eight receiving touchdowns. So, you know, touchdowns, they fluctuate a little bit, but the big dogs, they get in the end zone at least eight times. And then they were on teams that average 9.7 wins. Yeah, I mean, we talk about it all the time with running backs that you need to be on winning teams, especially if you're not the pass catching running back. But we don't feel that way as much about wide receivers because, oh, well, if you're down, you've got to throw the ball. But the truth is, the top ones... How they work for Minnesota. The top ones come from the best teams. You need wins. So it's kind of universal across fantasy. And it's one of those things that it's like, everybody knows it. We kind of know like, oh, of course, we'd rather have a better offense than a worse offense. It's a good team versus a bad team. But if you just kind of follow that a little bit more strict as a tiebreaker, you're going to help yourself more than you think. I do feel like the years where I...

had that as more of a draft a focal point, I've had more success. It's just too easy. I mean, let's just look briefly before we get into our names. I'm just going to look at the top 10 guys last year. Puka winning team, JSN winning team. Amun Rao, they were about 500, right? I think. Yeah, they were about 500. Jamar Chase, not so much. Elite offense, though. George Pickens. Same story. Not about 500. Chris Olavé, not about 500. Zay Flowers. They did it. Adams. Houston and Nico Collins. No. Oh, and yes. Sorry. Yes. And then Jameson Williams and Cortland Sutton were the next two on the list. So I was just curious. Yeah, lines were 9 and 8. Yeah. All right. Our number one by consensus, number one for both of you guys. I guess he's number two for me on my initial rankings. That's fine. I wouldn't probably.

happen in the draft, but that's where I have it right now. It's tough. Jamar Chase, he's pretty good. He had 182 targets. That's nice. It's the most since Cooper Cup had 191 in 2021. Yeah. I mean, there's three guys at the top in ADP and in most people's hearts, which I believe you've got Puka 1, Chase, and then JSN last year's wide receiver 1. You can make your arguments for them in any order. I think the best athlete. is Jamar Chase the most explosive plays, those huge weak winning fantasy production. That comes from Jamar Chase more often than the other two. And then the tiebreaker for me, which I don't know if it's a complete tie enough to need a tiebreaker, but I do like the fact that Joe Flacco is there. Sure. Should something happen? I mean, we've seen this with, I mean, we saw this with Jamar Chase last year when their quarterback goes down and all of a sudden it's like, oh.

you're not good anymore if the backup can't come in and, you know, throw enough. He doesn't have 182 targets last year without Joe Fleco. Joe Flacco, what was it, 23 targets in Week 7? That was crazy. That's tied for the third most ever in a game. I mean, you don't have to say a lot of things about Jamar Chase. Everybody knows who he is, what he's about, and how dominant he can be in fantasy. Number two is Puka Nakua. I do have him ranked number one. The Rams are going to be awesome. I mean, the Rams are going to be great again. You know, I guess the storyline of Matthew Stafford's health is kind of fading away at this point where he's just, they've just managed him well in the off season now. And so at the beginning of that, it kind of felt like, oh, we're worried about that management. Now it's like this is the plan to get him to play 17. This time last year, and not this time, but even further in, like getting close to draft day, it seemed like scary.

The idea that Matthew Stafford would play a whole season seemed like I would have bet a dollar against it. And then all of a sudden now, now it's, I'm saying if I have to bet one way or the other, that's the side I would have put it on. You had a risked a dollar. I don't want to risk. You're putting more on a golf game. Yeah, I know I can beat. Is that a thousand dollar bet? Is that what that was? I think Jason's out of thousand. I don't think Jeremy's there. Yeah, exactly. A hundred for me. Okay, I'll win a thousand if I win and you win a hundred. If you win, I agree.

Yeah, I don't know what we're talking about. Pooka. Dude, as soon as you got the goal, as soon as you said golf, oh, you started seeing red. I saw red. Yeah. I mean, my, I'm, I can tell you this before Wednesday, I will be playing golf again before we play next Wednesday. Yeah, we know that because you're in a very and I'm going to top golf every day. Yeah, you spent way too much money in the last week on golf equipment. Jason's not helping. To not be playing more golf. I thought these clubs were going to help. No good. Jason showed up to work one day out of the blue. What is this? This might be last week. This is out of nowhere. He's like, oh yeah, you did blah, blah, blah. What did you do? I'm signed up for this golf tournament here. Hold on. Wait, what? A golf tournament? You're signed up for a golf tournament, a charity golf tournament? Yeah.

And he's like, yeah, I need some clubs. Yeah. I was like, Jay, you could borrow my clubs. Ah, I'll just go. Yeah. I got this big turn. Oh, oh, look at that. He's out on the links. Okay, good now. I feel good. Um, this is where I'm at home. Well, no, here, scoot over to the left. Scoot over to the left just a little bit. Hmm. Just a little bit over. This guy's been in the sand more to David Haslehuff. Um, we were talking about, uh, not your golf game, but Pooka Nakua. We were talking about Matthew Stafford's health. Obviously, it is a big issue. I just brought up Joe Flacco. I believe Stetson Bennett is currently the backup on the roster for the Rams. And that would be a travesty. I mean, that would be taking Puka from potentially the number one wide receiver in fantasy to you would hope maybe target volume his way to be top 10, but probably not.

I mean, we saw that with Justin Jefferson. And so the Matthew Stafford health matters. But I agree with you, Andy. They seem like they have a plan in place. And we shouldn't be afraid during the offseason when Stafford is resting, when he's not, you know, out there for some of these scrimmages, clearly not going to be playing preseason. At least in the, if you're like in a half point league that I'm looking at on our site, even with missing a game, Puka was the number one. by our scoring system that we have here on the website for last year. I mean, it is splitting hairs with the big names. I want the target insanity that is Pukua, 166 targets last year. Both of these guys are outstanding. I'll be a little bit curious if my, I mean, my opinion is probably going to change if they go out and they grab. I was going to say, Mackay Lemon. In the first round, what if they had a wide receiver? Yeah, I mean, it'll just probably put Puka at two. Probably at two. So the, the.

The question for Puka will be he was sensational and contested catches. He caught truly sensational. 71% of them. Like that is a, that's a strong rate. Will he go back to around 50%? Because that will matter. But we're just trying to find a poke holes right now. I mean, the only holes to poke, I think, are the health of the quarterback. You know, obviously there's been. off-field things, but those aren't actually leaking into games, you know, or actual NFL drama right now from a fantasy standpoint. So that's about it. And then obviously, JSN is the only other guy I think that's in this tier. Yeah, it's funny to think that Burrow, in my mind, is more injury-prone than Stafford. For sure. Like, I'm more... Because he might be. If I had to place the bet on who misses games next year, I'd place it on Burrough. Like a whole dollar?

Like a whole dollar. I put it on Burrow. I put it on the Stafford side. Yeah, I mean, Burrow is... Obviously, he's been dealing with injuries. Burroughs like 50%. So we got six seasons for Burrow. Year one was the... Was that the ACL? And then he played 16, 16. Then you played 10 games in 23, a full season, and then half the season last year. All right, we've got to take a quick break, and we'll come back and talk about that third big name. Which... For Joe Burrow, just following up on that. How about an offensive lineman? There you go. Number 10? They don't do that in Cincinnati. They should. Big time. Just be boring. JSN is number three on our consensus rankings. Number two for Mike. Number three for Jason and myself. He led the league with 1793 receiving yards last year. He had 12 different top 12 performances. He dominated.

every quarter of every game pretty much last year. I mean, this was truly a special season for him. They had lost, not only their quarterback, but they lost D.K. Metcalf in the offseason last year. They bring in Sam Darnold, and some people looked at that as neutral. Some people looked at it as a downgrade. And they won the Super Bowl. But from a consistency standpoint, it was unbelievable. 163 targets, 11913 yards, and 10 touchdowns. I would expect Jason to be entering this period of his career where he is doing, you know, maybe not those exact numbers, but something similar for a handful of years in a row. Yeah, his first read targets were outlandish. He is clearly the focal point of that passing game. It does scare me just a smidge in the sense that if they were to use draft capital, maybe trade up and get one of these.

higher end wide receivers. I think that's why when we look at the Rams, they're often mocked Lemon because they can pull the trigger on him. And I don't think that the Seahawks can probably get one of those top three guys. However, they're clearly looking for that. They need someone else here. Cooper Cup is old. Yeah, I mean, the death chart is nobody. I like Torrey Horton a lot. I mean, I like Arroyo. I don't know if they will spin high capital. And to be honest with you, even if they added Mackay Lemon, I'm not downgrading JSN. I'm not. That's like taking, he's in the tier with Jefferson and Chase where I don't care. Yeah, I don't care. I'm not downgrading the three of them in any major ways. But if you were to say who loses more target share from last year, I would say JSN has the most to lose. Do you have any concerns about the changing of the offense? Because you have Coobes is gone.

I mean, honestly. You still have the Shanahan system in place. You don't have the running game necessarily that you may have had last year. It does feel like you might need to throw the ball more here. Their success, like I don't have that particular number in front of me right now, but just having watched the games, like downfield and intermediate, Sam Donald to JSN was near perfection for a season. And even the best of the best, you don't. keep doing that every single year yeah i haven't met too just you know we're trying to find some questions find some ways where i mean the biggest argument against jason versus the other two is that jason has one MVP level elite year and the other guys have done it for more than one year i mean that's that's what i feel um number four okay this is where it gets interested jason tried to keep him away from number four i sure did mike and i have him doesn't belong in four no

His name's Justin Jefferson. Oh, I'm looking at number five. Sorry. Okay. No, Justin Jefferson, Mike and I have him at number four. I do not have Jefferson at five. Jason's got him at seven. I, you know. This one's a little, the collar's a little tight. Agreed. Last year was, was really, really rough. This is the wide receiver 22 last year. Is Kyler actually going to work? We've seen. That's the question. We've seen the Hopkins years. Everything for Justin Jefferson is, do you believe that Kyler works? If you do, then Justin Jefferson can finish as the number one overall wide receiver. If Kyler doesn't, like if he's average and you're... Did Sam Donald work? Did Sam Donald work in Minnesota? Yes. He worked, right? I mean, yes, they didn't make that run, but they had an amazing season. I think it works enough. I think it works enough because...