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

All right, D.K. McCaff at 15, another wide receiver with some trade rumors in the off season. And started probably by him. Started by D.K. McCaff. 24 years old, do a contract. I'm 15. Jason and Mike at 17. It was a disastrous week 10 on for D.K. last year. You can blame Russell Wilson's bad hand on the return. You can blame a lot of things. But ultimately,

a tale of two halves, which was what happened in 2020 as well. It's a pretty Seattle thing to do because it's not just D.K. Metcalfe, Russell Wilson loves to do it. Tyler Lockett. Now, do you think Drew Lock will bring the kind of consistency to the table that we've been missing for D.K. Metcalfe? No, but Gino Smith has been re-signed to the Seattle Seahawks. Oh, no.

is one of the chances that Drew Locke can beat out Gino Smith to be the starter. Like, D.K. had some success there in the middle of the year where, where Gino Smith was the guy because Russell was hurt with the hand. His current basketball ADP, speaking of DK. Mackap, is the wide receiver 11. So we have him below that spot.

But for a player with the prolific ability, the touchdown ability that he had, which he saved his season with 12 touchdowns, because he was under 1,000 yards, he was under 80 receptions. But he only had one game inside the top 7 on a given week. So he had the third most deep targets, but the most unrealized air yards. So lots of opportunities down the field that just you saw these games where they didn't connect.

Yeah. And so they were strange. So they said, you know what? They're not connecting. Let's get rid of the problem, Russell Wilson. Right. Of course. So week six through eight, D.K. Metcalf, that was the games where Gino Smith played 100% of the snaps for the quarterback position. At Pittsburgh, DK was the wide receiver 36 at 6 for 58. Not what you're hoping for, but you would get it. And then the wide receiver 9 in two straight games against the Saints and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

on the back of touchdowns. But I think that that should give you at least some hope. The red flags are very clear and very apparent. I mean, on top of those, the offensive philosophy of Pete Carroll is not going to change. Like they were willing to trade Russell Wilson because they believe so much in establishing it.

And they think that that's the way to get it done. Okay. So I am very concerned about DK being terrible for fantasy or making us look stupid because he's fantastic. Well, tied at 16 on our initial wide receiver rankings, Deontay Johnson and Cortland Sutton. Now, some big disparities in our individual rankings here. Mike and I have Deontay at 14 and 15. Jason down at 24. Not here to defend himself. I'm not surprised.

And his best ball ADP is 15. So that's kind of where he's going. Jason has him. I can tell. I'll make the Jason argument. Oh, yeah, I can make it. It's called Mr. Biscuit. Yes, it is. So the truth is, is Deonti Johnson, there are players in which a transition to a different quarterback is very easy to see them having success still. And Deontes is one of those players, where it's high volume.

intermediate routes, short routes. He's a good rat runner, so he's always open. Yeah, 169 targets, right? Right. And I'm not looking at this offense and saying, well, they're going to stop throwing the football. They have to throw the football. They have to throw the football to keep up in that division, which is going to be brutal. They're going to have to throw the football because their offensive line is still a work in progress. And part of bringing in Mitch Trubisky was mobility. It was the ability to do everything that Big Ben couldn't do, which was evade the pocket.

Look, maybe he throws some interceptions, but he's still going to throw the ball a lot. So Deonti has to be on the other end of that. It's not going to be fixed by Chase Claypool putting up a high volume season, right? Correct. And remember back when Mitch was a starting quarterback, he had Alan Robinson back. Remember the good old days when Alan Robinson was good for fantasy football? That's a good point. So both of the years where Robinson was a top 12 wide receiver in 2019 and 2020,

That was Mitchell Trubisky. Alan Robinson had 150 or more targets in both of those seasons. Yes, Mitchell missed some games in 2020, but if you look at the actual splits, Robinson was better in the games where Trubisky was the quarterback. So we've seen him, we've seen Trubisky be willing to do the hyper-targeting that we want so much from our quarterbacks.

Deontay Johnson is going to be a great friend to Trubisky because of the way that he plays where Claypool is a good wide receiver, but that's contested catch is going down the field. That won't be the high volume. It'll still be Deontay. I agree. And you just get separation on a consistent basis, which is great. I don't think I'd feel comfortable with him as my one, despite the fact he finished as my one last year. That's why he's ranked.

Yeah, I agree with that. And then Cortland Sutton, I'm the outlier here, right? Now, he is 14 on Jason's list, 16 on your list. I have him at 23. And this is something where I, you know, part of me wanted to say, well, I'm just too low. But I'm also, I need to see it.

because it's been a really, really long time. And I know there have been injuries. I know there have been quarterback struggles. But in the career, which is now four seasons long, we haven't seen Cortland Sutton finish a season providing better than wide receiver 19 fantasy value for the whole year. And so do I think he's super talented? Yes. Do I think Jerry Judy's going to be involved? Of course. Tim Patrick, yes. The tight ends, the running game.

So 23 could end up being too low on Cortland Sutton. I will freely admit that it could end up being too low. But that's where I have him slotted in right now because I'm just not. I think you guys are actually higher. I think that's the way it is because his consensus ranking elsewhere is about 28. I got him at 23. And so there's different options there. I trust Russell.

Right. It's just which guy's going to do it on which week. And I think Tim Patrick is so capable. Jerry Judy is so capable. I'm not sure which guy it's going to be. Yeah. For me, it's Nathaniel Hackett's coming in, you know, bringing that very pass friendly system. And Russell Wilson, who looking back at the consistency of fantasy wide receivers, even though I should say consistent end of year finish. So they definitely go hot and cold. But.

Going all the way back down to 2015, he's had at least one top 15 wide receiver. I'm talking about Russell Wilson. In 2020, he had two top 10 guys frequently has supports a wide receiver one. And Cortland Sutton is great. He is a great player who has been put in a very difficult situation. So I'm betting on the offense and the quarterback and the talent of the wide receiver here. And I think that he comes through with a monster year.

Now, you're still two questions to follow up on Sutton before he move on. One of them, it is a projection to say he will be the bona fide one. Yes. So there is that possible. That's a little bit of the risk built in with Coral and Sutton is that from that offense that finishes higher than him. The way I project it is more of a Sutton is a 1A, Judy is 1B. I love Fireball Jones. I think he is the distant third or will become the distant third option. That's all people have ever thought about him.

Yeah. I mean, it's true. It's because his name's Tim Patrick. It's not Jerry Judy. There's no alliteration with Tim Patrick. Jerry Judy's a good name. Yeah. Tim Patrick's a dentist. Right? Yeah. I mean, Dr. Patrick? That's why we're calling Fireball. Yeah, we need to. Does it change the ranking? I don't know. No. What is the actual range of outcomes for Sutton, though, in your mind then? So how high can he actually go if he, if we're right, if he's the one?

Can it be top 10? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that his floor with Russell Wilson is actually very safe. It would shock me to see Cortland Sutton play the majority of the year and not be a top 24 guy. Number 18. We forgot about the graphic on that one. Oh, baby. Michael Pittman, Pity City. You're still hot and bothered by Mr. Michael Pittman? I am very excited.

We're excited for the addition by subtraction of the Indianapolis Colts. We haven't at 18. Now, unfortunately, Mike, he is, Jason's my guy because Jason has him in 16. You haven't been 18. That's all right. The people know. 24 years old finished us. The wide receiver 15 last year. So we're all, our consensus ranking is below where he finished. He's the number one guy for the Colts. And they have another quarterback, of course, every year.

It must be hard on Michael Pittman, right? First three years in the league, just getting three different quarterbacks? Yeah, but now he's got, I think, a good one. Well, he started last year. Weeks 1 through 9 is the wide receiver 9. But if you stuck with him and said, well, we've done it. He's graduated. He has a 1. You got the wide receiver 30 over the back half of the year. Yeah, only two more decent weeks in that time, unless you played week 18.

Now, some might argue Matt Ryan, you know, you're going to get a top tier wide receiver because Matt Ryan has always supported that. Sure. Roddy White and Julio Jones were the two guys. I mean, it's still difficult not to put a little bit of that. And Calvin Ridley. Okay. That's when Julio was still there, right? In 2020, yeah, I think he was. But the fact that it's three wide receivers that Matt Ryan has elevated to be.

a fantasy superstar. That's very encouraging. I'm not, we've got him ranked at 18. I'm not ready to rip the shirt off and proclaim that Michael Pittman is the next Roddy White or the next Calvin Ridley. But he is a really good player. And the, the bet on Michael Pittman is, in a way, it is a bet on Matt Ryan. And I think.

The Colts are right. I think Matt Ryan still has a couple years left where he can be a very productive player. What I think is interesting is I actually would be excited about Michael Pittman ending up my wide receiver 2. Sure. Because making that bet at that wide receiver 2, consistency has been a problem. On the website, the fantasy footballers.com, we have player profiles. On those profiles, we have a consistency score.

He's been a C, right? 47% of the time he exceeds what we consider to be a usable benchmark at the wide receiver position of 10.5 points. So that's less than half the time. So that is the hump he has to get over. And that's going to come with a quarterback that is more consistent than Carson Wentz, more consistent than what they've had there in the past. I think it will also help Michael Pittman for the evolution of his game. Coming into this.

season, you know, was he, did the Colts view him as the guy? Because T.Y. Hilton was still there. I know that T.Y. Hilton missed a bunch of games in the beginning of the season because he was hurt, but you're saying in the process, was the plan for the Colts, Hilton is still our featured guy, and then Michael Pittman's going to be a strong number two, and now he's the dude. Coming into this year, I think they knew.

Because of how strong he started. But yeah, you're right. I mean, it's more cemented. I'll give you the cement. Because you have, you have Ashton Doolin, Paris Campbell, if he can ever stay on the field. And they would not surprise me at all. Is that the current depth chart? Yes. They didn't add some peripheral option this offseason? I'm looking at our lads. And if maybe there's something I'm not remembering. Is Zach Pascal still there?

Not according to our lads. I think he might have been trade or he might have signed with somebody. Philly. Yeah, he signed with Philly. Yeah, yeah. But so they're going to draft somebody. It just depends on, you know, what's, what round can they actually use a pick on a wide receiver? Um, okay. All right. Let's move on. DJ Moore at 19. Gosh. Guess what he finished last year, Mike? 19. Yeah.

I don't even like talking about DJ more anymore. It just makes me sad. Is that what you're trying not to say? I was trying not to. No more, more. Instead of finding a different word, I just stopped talking. Less more. I just trailed off. Less is more, Mike. Less is more. I mean, what can you say? 163 targets, 1100 yards. You can say sadness. Four touchdowns because four is his required amount. It's ridiculous. And.