The TRUTH About Fantasy WRs in 2020, Part 2 - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/4

for the team. Do you think Herbert said back to him, he said, but. But you know, it's been working, right? And I'm breaking every record that's ever been made for quarterbacks. I'm with, and you have, you have the variable, uh, Unter Henry may not be back with the chargers. Use the free agents. That's, that's a whole target share that will be available. Yeah. And then you have the variable that this will, is a great defense on paper that lost most of its.

great players, and they won't be in as many shootouts. Now, that's not to say that they can't put up a ton of points, right? The defense for the Kansas City Chiefs got better, and Pat Mahomes still can, you know, put up 35 without breaking a sweat. So Herbert will be better. Keenan is absolutely locked in as a top 15 wide receiver to me. We'll try and just do a quick name game here, because you're saying top 10, Andy. Keenan Allen or D.K. Metcalfe. Yeah, I'll take Keenan.

Alan Robinson. Probably Keenan. Let's see. Those are almost going to be identical to me. Yeah. Those two players. And so to me that kind of puts him in that 8 to 10 range. This is the cliff. That was that player right there, Keenan Allen, number 14 finish. That's where I believe the cliff of, you know, top tier wide receivers is. Because at 15, by complete shock. What? By complete awe. By five.

by five games, five games inside the top 24. Five. This isn't. Out of 16. Jason brings it up all the time. This is a perfect example of it. All wide receivers are inconsistent, so anybody can finish a 15, anybody at all. But our man here came through with a week 17 number one overall performance that vaulted him to this spot. You were talking about Brandon Cooks? Yeah. Now, Brandon Cooks finished at 15. Now, the first thing that jumps off the page to me is like, is that Brandon Cooks finished at 15? Well, that.

But where's Will Fuller? Did he not meet the games qualification? Yeah. Because that seems insane to me. I will look. Because he's definitely not in our list. And that seems like a player that belonged in our list. Oh, Brooks says he's in. But he missed the last six games. So that's going to affect that fantasy finish tremendously. Anyways, we get to talk about Brandon Cooks. So 15th at the position, 21st inconsistency.

40% of the time a good game, 27% busts, 20% great. Like I said, I see five games inside the top 24. 28. Finished at 28? Yeah. What was this consistency since you throw out? That, I don't know. Do you have that, Jason? I can get it. I would love to know that because Fuller was the guy until he was goodbye. Yes. So, all right. Okay, you get to talk about Brandon Cooks. He's not going to likely have, he may have a new team for all we know.

Doesn't he get traded every offseason? Yeah, I mean, that is the, that is the annual event is what's brand new team will Brandon Cook's play for. I don't think they trade him, though. Will Fuller's consistency rank was wide receiver five.

Those numbers seem juiced up, Jason. Oh, I see what you did there. Again, the consistency is just when they're on the field. So obviously the suspension hurt you in fantasy. You lost him at the end of the year. But the point is that while he was out there, he was really, really great, very consistent, especially compared to the other wide receivers. Fuller was, yes. I thought we were back on Brandon Cooks. Did we watch the same guy? Well, the truth is, is.

Will Fuller had a great season, but Brandon Cooks ended up yet again with 1,100 yards, 6 touchdowns, 81 receptions. Kind of just guaranteed to happen, no matter where he is. So he deserves a lot of credit. Always been very streaky. Weeks 1 through 4, he was the wide receiver 82. Weeks 5 through 9, he was the wide receiver 8. Weeks 10 through 15, he was the wide receiver 44. We retired him. Yeah, that was weeks 5 through 9 when we retired him. He said, no, I'm not.

And then when we forgot about it, he went back to 44. But this is not going to be. Here's the deal. I would like to say this because I think that it is, I think the right analysis here. We obviously don't know if Deshaun Watson will be back. If Will Fuller could or would be back.

But if this team were to stay as it is now and bring in another rookie wide receiver or a mid-level free agent acquisition at wide receiver, I actually think Brandon Cooks would be phenomenal. We can make all the jokes we want. Obviously, he wasn't that great when Will Fuller was there. He only had three games without Will Fuller at the end of the season because he missed the first game that Will Fuller.

was gone with a suspension, and he scored nine points, 23 points, and 34 points in fantasy. If he is the clear one, he's always been good. He always just gets the job done. Sean Watson. Deshaun Watson is the magic formula. Absolutely. I'm saying if the, 100%, that's out the window if Deshaun Watson isn't back. But I'm saying if Watson is there, which right now, that's what the head coach is saying is that Watson, you know, they're committed to him. He's going to be the quarterback. I am with you. If Watson is still there,

And Brandon Cook's is the guy and Will Fuller does not come back. Yeah, absolutely. No question. I'll probably dig that draft. No disagreements there. And he was the wide receiver 35 this year in ADP and finished at 15 with the consistency of 21. I don't know if I could have known when to play him ever. No. Other than the last three games of the year, which I would have happily played him. And he was the number one fantasy. This is perfect for Brandon Cook.

The best fantasy wide receiver in all of fantasy during week 17 when no one. Yeah. Just as a reminder, remember he was injured last year with the Rams and had a poor fantasy finish. But here's his fantasy finishes. He's wide receiver 15, 13, 12, 9, and 14. He's just always the top 15 wide receiver. But would you rather, let me give you a scenario. Would you rather have had nobody or Brandon Cooks this year?

That is tough. That is tough. And I see your point. And it's a good one. I mean, it's kind of like Tyler Lockett. He finished as the wide receiver 9, but didn't always help your fantasy team. But these are guys that can win you a week. And not every wide receiver out there can just flat out win. Look, I had Tyler Lockett on my team. I was putting up a ton of points. I loved it because he could go out there and beat any opponent for me.

Amari Cooper comes in at 16, but had a consistency rank of 9 in a very distorted season. Yeah. Still had 63% good games, 13% great, didn't see a lot of ceiling there, 25% bust. That's a pretty good number for somebody who finished at 16. Weeks 1 through 6, he was the wide receiver 7. Seemed like he was going to survive Dak going down. Week 7 on, he was the wide receiver 30 in points per game. But what's the truth? I mean, this was a...

This is kind of a throwaway year for that offense. Yeah, it's gauging the truth of the Dallas Cowboys is tough because the same exact thing happened to Zeke. You look at Zeke's first five weeks, and he was on track to be an easy running back one. A player you were very happy that was on your team. Amari Cooper, he started the year, wide receiver 24, 2430, and wide receiver 2. In that time span, he was the wide receiver 5 in points per game.

the guys quarterback is a really important position i think we are coming to that's what the truth is that what we're learning are we learning is that the quarterback play is really important right the truth about wide receivers is who's their quarterback um yeah i mean look amari cooper was the clear number one for this team even with michael gallop even with c d lamb being great he was the clear number one now the number one for this team post d

that valuable because the offense wasn't that good. Now, next year, there will be tons of debate between, I think, C.D. Lamb and Amari Cooper, whether you want to take, who should be still the one in Cooper, or if you're afraid of C.D. Lamb eating into that workload, which I would be, whether you want to take the value, I would imagine C.D. Lamb is drafted well behind Amari Cooper. And Lamb was at 20 this year. Yeah. Just to throw it out there. I mean, like, that gap.

They were both affected by the same quarterback problem. Lamb finished at 20. Does he belong ahead of Amari Cooper in draft? No. So I would rather have C.D. Lamb than Amari Cooper. But I don't, I really. In a redraft? I really don't want to have to draft him ahead. So if we can do our part to stop that from happening. Well, we just did. Mike just endorsed Amari Cooper on this show.

Oh, Mike's man crush. Mike just said he loves Amari Cooper. Probably a 2021 my guy. Probably a 2021 my guy. I hate you guys. That's Amari. All right. Well, that was fun. Omari Cooper, though, volume was there. 92 receptions in a tough year, 1,100 yards and upside for next season.

Marvin Jones, a free agent, came in at 17 with the consistency rank of 44, but really turned it on at the end of the year. In fact, from week eight on, he was the wide receiver four. So, you know, Stafford, no, Gawley. Marvin Jones can still ball. Yeah, he's, Jared Goff. Well, no, Marvin Jones is gone. Yeah, I mean, he could still resign with the Lions. Obviously, they're going to desperately need wide receivers there. Marvin Jones is a legitimately good.

wide receiver 2 for an NFL team. And so it's just a matter of we can't really extrapolate anything from this season other than to say he's not washed. He looks good on the field. He could still catch down field passes. We have to see where he lands. Juju at 18. Consistency of 17. Now, ironically, the fantasy finishes of his counterparts. Claypool was 19. Deonti Johnson was 23. All three guys just right around that range of not as good as you hope, probably.

Not as bad as they could have been. Yeah, there's upside and downside when you get 350,000 passes to you, but it's two yards from the line of scrimmage because that was the offense for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now it looks like Big Ben is probably going to be back. He's saying that, you know, he'll play for whatever money the Steelers need him to. Juju's not back. Like that's, you know, Marvin Jones could be back, but I will be blown away. We've known for years that the Steelers have.

as an organization operated in a way that showed that they were going to be moving on from Juju. That's why they have Claypool. That's why they have Deontay Johnson. They have James Washington and they have options. Yeah, they don't need to pay big money to Juju. So he's going to be gone. I genuinely think that makes, well, Claypool, he was 38th inconsistency. I'm going to throw all the Pittsburgh Steelers together real quick. And Deontay was 24th inconsistency. But with Jujer leaving.

Deonti just jumps off the page as a breakout season next year. If he can hold on to the football. But he already had 88 receptions this year. You know Big Ben loves to throw him the ball. I think he's the most interesting. He was drafted as the wide receiver 38, supposed to break out this year. Kind of did. Kind of didn't. Finish the 23. They're both super interesting to me. I think both players, you know, it's like addition by subtraction for your fantasy roster. Get rid of Juju's short area targets.

refactor the backfield, find a running back that's not James Connor, maybe in the draft. We talked about it with the great wide receivers. When your pie is split between two options, it's great. So if Juju's gone and all the targets for the most part are going to Claypool and Deontay Johnson, they'll both be valuable. Yeah. The end of the season there for Claypool, it reminded me a lot of, I can't, it was two or two.

two or three years ago of Marvin Jones, who we just talked about, where the 50-50 ball, it just kept missing. You know, like it would get to the hands. Something would happen. He would crash to the ground and he wouldn't be able to hold on. The defender would barely get there. Claypool, they were still taking the shots to him. I mean, Claypool is just an absolute freak of a human being, MapleTron. So he is.

Very, very interesting to me. I think he was just a fraction away from a much larger breakout this year. The one question I'll throw out there, though, is...

We saw it with Drew Breeze and Peyton Manning and now Big Ben and the reason they built the offense, maybe they were just missing because maybe Big Ben's just missing now downfield. So that would be the one thing that gives me a little bit of fear. Now they were creative. They gave him into rounds and other things and he's going to mature and he's going to get more involved in short area targets because of his route tree developing. But Big Ben was also, there was the question, is Big Ben going to be ready week one? Because of the.