Early WR Rankings Part 2 + Deebo Drama, Party Time! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/21

The Carolina Panthers are going to be locked in to pick it. Baby hands, yeah. And his very small hands. And then a mock draft came out that, no, in fact, Atlanta is going to move up for Desmond Ritter. And then I saw one recently that the Saints used their firepower to move up and get Matt Corral in the top six. And it's like, it is.

as fun as like the off season has been for just how unpredictable these signings and trades have been. The draft is equaling that with the chaos. So just embrace the chaos. I've seen the Cardinals projected to draft six different wide receivers. Right. I mean, it's like that's another position that is going to have huge implications. And the teams with the most vacated targets are teams like the chiefs and the Packers who have huge opportunities with great quarterbacks. Right.

It's going to be so fun. All right, let's talk rankings. Wide receivers. I didn't miss anything there on Ultimate Draft Week. Did I, Brooksie? No, sir. Okay. I didn't know there was something else that was going on. Are you eligible for the glamour shot? No. You're not making any predictions? No. What if we all tie and then Brooks has to do it? Oh, my gosh. It's been said.

It's been said. I mean, nightmare zone. You just put Brooks into a pure multi-week panic. What do you mean you quit, Brooks? It's getting really warm over here. Oh, it's going to be, you know, be warmer in that fur jacket you wear for that glamour shot. All right, we just talked about the early wide receiver top 10 on the Tuesday show.

And that was Cooper Cup, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, Devante Adams, Stefan Diggs, Debo, A.J. Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, and then Tyree Kill and Mike Evans were tied to round out the top 10. So today we're going to get into the next group, which has, you know, less consensus agreement. But we'll begin with CD Lamb at 11. He's 23 years old. We're actually pretty similar on where we see CD.

Sure. Which is at the tail end of the wide receiver one zone. He was 79 for 11006 last year. No Amari Cooper. And in fact, 181 targets at the wide receiver position are gone. Amari Cooper is 19% target share, Cedric Wilson's 10%. Malik Turner had 3%. So there is the argument for Citi that there's opportunity for him to take the next step.

But then there are concerns about C.D. When he vanishes for stretches of time, when he hasn't yet made that jump, right? You haven't seen the Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase type of numbers from him. And so do you see a wide range of outcomes from C.D. Lamb as opposed to a lock here in the top 12. Yeah, I think that's why we all have him ranked around here because the projections are very wide for him. I mean, you have a.

He had a 31% bust rate, and that is not ideal from someone that last year was, he was supposed to take the jump. Like, do remember last offseason, the CD Lamb hype was everywhere. And this show included. We were very excited. He was an amazing prospect. It was supposed to be time. Coming into year two, we're seeing wide receivers make the jump more often in year two than year three.

And he was good. I mean, like, 79 for 1100 yards. That is, that's a good season. But when you disappear, as he did frequently, especially, you know, to finish the season, goodness gracious, talk about sputtering to the finish from week 14 on, never finished inside the top 30 at the position. I don't think I want C.D. Lamb as my one. Okay. Even though he's ranked here, the final season stats.

I haven't at 11, the hope, you know, early rankings. But I don't think I am targeting or would be content with him as my wide receiver one. It's a fair point, but the Amari Cooper leaving is like that's the big ticket where not often do we have these wide receivers in this scenario where you are projecting a real big jump.

And it doesn't happen. And then you feel like, oh, no, I got to double down the next year, even though nothing has changed for this wide receiver. But why do I feel safer that Dalton Schultz is going to be that guy? Oh, don't do it. The doctor is going to be so good. 44% of targets inside the 10 are vacated in Dallas. Yeah. I can't, I mean, not that CD can't take advantage of that too. But, man.

Dalton Schultz feels like he's going to soak them up. It's going to be great. But Amari Cooper's gone. Cedric Wilson is gone. Rick Turner is gone. Michael Gallup is the guy they brought back. He may be gone for the first few weeks. We don't know. Do you get panicky about C.D. if they invest one of those early draft picks? No. Okay. Because they need somebody else. And it might, I think it can help C.D. Lam. I mean, like, is he?

Is he going to go back and be a slot-wide receiver, which, again, there's nothing terribly wrong with being a slot-wide receiver. You need so much more volume. If that's your true position on the field, you need much more volume to overcome the lack of big plays. T. Higgins comes in at 12, which feels scary to me to put him there.

Sure. He finished at wide receiver 22, but the headline here, from week 9 on, he was the wide receiver 11. So he was right around this range from week 9 on when Joe Burrow kind of, you know, found himself recovering from the injury. He had a ton of 100-yard receiving games. And, you know, he finished with a higher target share and red zone target share than Jamar Chase. Sure. And so to me, this is that classic situation where Jamar Chase is going to get drafted ahead of T. Higgins everywhere.

And how far down will T. Higgins go and how much of a value will that end up be? Higgins will still go very high. I think he won't go ahead of several of these guys we have coming up. Okay. I mean, that's fair. I'm trying to look here, you know, what is the actual overlap of T. Higgins having a successful game and Jamar Chase having one? I don't think there's a lot of overlap. And I'm talking during the backstretch where.

Burrow was fully back from the injury. Jamar Chase is full Joe. Yeah, like everything is clicking for the Bengals as they were out to make their playoff run. And you have week 14. Jamar was the wide receiver four with Higgins as the wide receiver 21. And then week 16 against Baltimore when Higgins went nuclear. That was the 37 and a half fantasy point. That was the 12 for 194 and two.

And Jamar, so he was the number one guy. And Jamar Chase was still the wide receiver 14 on that particular week. So it's not that these guys can't have success. We don't have a complete, you know, Venn diagram of no overlapping. So he's just, he is so scary here because I feel like we know who T. Higgins is where Jamar Chase coming in doing that as a rookie, you don't know what the true ceiling is.

for him, where T. Higgins having a nice year of 74,000 yards. 1100 yards, essentially, and six touchdowns. Like, that's a good season. And he missed a bunch of games on top of that. Yeah, and it was the back half of the year that gives you more confidence that he can slide in and they could have two top 12 whiteouts. But maybe it's more of an indictment that we haven't ranked here on these guys later down in the list. And this can be debated. Keenan Allen at 13, 30 years old now.

and if there was ever a you know what you're getting situation, it's Keenan Allen, right? I have him the lowest. He finished his wide receiver 14 last year. I have him at 17. Jason at 13, Mike, you have him coming up a little bit. I think he missed the game. But you get consistency. You don't get explosive games as often. And you don't get a bunch of touchdowns. He had six last year, 1,100 yards on 100 catches. So there's...

It's not a knock against Keenan Allen. It's an acceptance of what he is. Sure. And so you bring back Mike Williams. There's rumors about them drafting somebody. Austin Echler is a big focal point of the offense, and Keenan will be as well. But do you feel, let me ask you this, do you feel more comfortable with C.D. or Keenan as your one? Oh, goodness gracious. Because they're so different. They are so different. For Keenan Allen, historically speaking, since 2017, you can essentially just.

Just lock in 1,100 yards and six touchdowns. That's what you're going to get from Keenan Allen. As we're reminded of, don't sit me, don't sit me, gate. But, like, that's a, and that's, that's solid. I want that on my team. But to feel like at this point of his career, you know, eight years in for Keenan Allen, he's great. But his, even with Justin Herbert being,

You know, one of the new franchise quarterbacks, a new faces of the NFL, I mean, I don't know how you, in good conscience, predict or project, the guy is going to score more than eight touchdowns because he literally never has. He also has finished, and this is both a compliment, but a reality check. He's finished 14 at the position for two consecutive years. The year before was 8, the year before was 12.

So he has one career year inside the top eight. So I think it's, you know, he's the perfect two. Like if he slipped down in the draft and he ends up being your wide receiver two, that's the kind of stability I like at that position where you can go. Maybe it's Tyreek. Maybe you end up with Tyreek and Keenan Allen. Sure. And that would be all right. Yeah. So do you feel like Keenan Allen is one of those guys that you are, you're targeting more if.

you like if you don't take the running back in the first because you're like you're just okay the team makeup of this is I'm going to have multiple great wide receivers and then figure out the running back position a little bit later I mean he's a lot like digs light to me right where I think digs has a little bit more of the potential for double digit touchdowns but realistically both guys give you consistent weeks heavily targeted go to third down receivers

But we'll move on here. 14 is Jalen Waddle. Mike, you have my 14. Yeah. On the dot, I have him at 12, Jason at 15. I mean, the question, this is tough. The question that I get peppered with the most based on initial rankings is how on earth would you have Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle inside your top 15 and not have two of there? Sure. Because how does that happen? How does Jalen Waddle manufacture?

Enough. He had 1,000 yards, six touchdowns last year, finished at 16, so 14, you know, taking a step forward. He's in his C.D. Lamb year, so to speak, right, where he's coming into year two. Most receptions ever for a rookie wide receiver. Is that true? Yep. Most ever. 104. Does he get to 100 this year? I think so. With Tyreek Hill arriving. I think so. You have Tyreek there, but you have a completely different offensive philosophy.

So I think that that can overcome the fact that he will be the two. And let me ask you this. Okay. Is there any chance? I'll let you ask you this. Is there not any chance? That's hyperbolic. Percentage chance, Jalen Waddle outproduces Tyree Kill for Fantasy Football. Wow. Wow, that is what format? Half.

Come on, man. Okay. Half PPR. I'm just delaying. The scoring format of champions. I think 20%. Okay. Do you have it higher than that? No, I would not. I would not. There's the chance, but you're just talking about so many big plays from Tyreek. They're going to happen whether or not two is a great deep ball thrower. They're still going to happen because Tyreek can take anything to the house. And it's so strange of spending a...

that high a pick on a wide receiver who is lightning fast. He only sees 10 deep targets over the course of the year. And what you need to factor in is just like the other wide receivers for Tyreeks' former team, the chiefs. If Tyreek houses a 50-yard touchdown, that's a lot of fantasy points and opportunity that Jalen Waddled now will no longer have the opportunity.

Yeah. Double opportunity, whatever. But if Tyreek scores quickly, then that hurts Waddle. Yeah, and he's going to pick defenses apart on some shorter routes. And that's how he'll be used. And Mike McDaniel's a good head coach. So you hope that he puts him in a position where if the big plays go to Tyreek, then the volume goes to Waddle. And, you know, percentage chance the Waddle has more total receptions than Tyreek. What do you think? High. Very high, right? Yeah.