The TRUTH About Fantasy WRs in 2018, Part 1

the first half of the season. The second half of the season, he was the 28th ranked wide receiver behind Muhammad Sanoo, Larry Fitzgerald, and Zay Jones. Oh, no, Zay Jones! Zay Jones was actually... Yeah, I know. The wide receiver 23. Yeah, he's going to be interesting next year. All right, Mike Evans. Mike, you wanted to talk about him. We talked about him a little bit last week. 19% busts. I mean, that's a lot. That's a high percentage.

Week 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, all single digits. But, I mean, this was really kind of a resilient year for him. 86 for 15, 24, and 8. Bruce Ariens, welcome to town. Yeah. Mike Evans specializes in manhandling DBs, and he is somebody you can target at all times, which and a wide catch radius, which is what you need for James Winston.

Chuck in the Rock. So vertical passing game with Bruce Ariens. There's a lot to like about Mike Evans heading into next year. Home Road splits about the same. Defenses, you know, he's a little bit better against top 16Ds. What do you guys think about Mike Evans? Is he somebody that can climb back into top five next year? Yeah, I really like Mike Evans because this was not necessarily his ceiling. And there are...

reasons for it to be improved. You know, if Deshaun Jackson leaves and Godwin steps up, there'll be enough from Godwin to take defense away, but Mike Evans will still be used as the deep threat. He had 17.7 yards per reception. His highest of his career, Mike Evans did this year. Now you bring in Bruce Ariens a dedication to one quarterback. I mean, they're not going to do the back and forth. And granted, you could argue that Mike Evans was even better.

with Fitzpatrick. But I think Mike Evans, his ceiling is well over 10 touchdowns. And he only had eight touchdowns. He's had 12 touchdowns twice in his career. And you look at the division, right? I mean, it's a tough division. You're playing some difficult offenses. I don't know if I expect Tampa to be in a much different position than they are this year in terms of coming back, needing to air it out. There's a lot to like about Mike Evans for where you'll get to draft him.

I love everyone in that division because you have four great offenses with some okay defenses. I mean, it's hard to run on the Saints, but you can throw on them. And if you've got eight games a year, half of your season, where it's usually a high-scoring affair, that's just great for fantasy. I really wonder what the difference in Bruce Ariens will make.

Because it's not like Dirk Cutter wasn't airing the ball out. Mike Evans averaged up the target number one in the league, 15.7 yards. Like he's already catching the ball further from the line of scrimmage than any other receiver. So that's as vertical as it gets for him. I'm curious what happens with Godwin with Bruce Ariens. Does he take on, does he get moved inside at all run the kind of Larry Fitzgerald type role? I know what's going to happen with Godman. You want to know? I do. I would love to know the future. That sounds great. Yes.

I've looked into my crystal ball, and it's not pretty. You want to know why? Because D. Jax will come back, and we won't know where to rank both those guys. That's what's going to. And then O.J. Howard will be back, too. And we're going to be looking at Mike Evans plus, what do I do? That's my fear. That's my true fear of the offseason, because I think D. Jackson will return, and we'll be going. Like, even, let me pretend he's back right now. Who do you draft? Between D. Jax and Godwin? Yeah. Godwin.

By mile. Even though if D.JX comes back, he'll be the outside starter. Yes. Chris Godwin will be the starter. Did you say Stefan Dix? Is that who you're taking over D.Shawn Jackson? I am taking Chris Godwin over Deshawn Jackson. Yeah. It's tough. I don't think, I don't think. That would be a demotion. Wait, you're telling me that a D.JX doesn't come back. You'll take Godwin? I'm saying both ways I'm taking Godwin. No, because D.J. I mean, Chris Godwin was the starter. He was playing far more than.

D-Jex was beat up. And when he was in there and he was healthy and Fitzpatrick was in there, he was by far the better play. He was the play that you could actually count on for a while. Adam Humphreys was probably the best play. There you go. The wide receiver 13 over the second half of the year. Yeah. Juju Smith-Schuster, number nine, finished it number nine this year. What a year for Juju. He had 111 receptions, 1426 yards, seven touchdowns.

on 166 targets. I don't know how many of those seven. I don't have the data in front of me. How many of those seven were like 97-yard touchdowns? But he makes the big, big plays. But he didn't, you know, he scored half as many touchdowns as his counterpart, Antonio Brown. And part of that, I think, is just the role he was playing in this office. Well, you can't score if Antonio Brown is scoring. Well, sure. And he was moving inside a lot. The underneath guy, the play extending, you found him.

Get this. When they played against top defenses, I mean, this seems hard to believe. Minus 9.26 fantasy points per game against top 16 defenses. That's not good. Coincidence? Also, minus 6.34 at home. What? So if he was on the road against bad teams, he ate him up. It was juju on the road and Antonio Brown at home. Yes, that was we, by the halfway point in the season, we could see that that was a.

a constant thread in whatever the offense game plan was. But I, look, I do think that Juju's utilization shows that he can go up. And that's including Antonio Brown still on the roster. You're talking about a guy who had 26 red zone targets on the season, 10 targets inside the 10 for Juju. They believe in him.

You know, it's one of those things where, like Tyree Kill, we talked early in the offseason about he doesn't get enough volume. But you know what? His talent is so good that he can be efficient on, he could take anything to the house. That's where Juju is. No, Juju's not as fast as Tyree Kill, but Juju is just a big, strong young man who can, you know, take defenders on his back, shove him off. And, you know, when I watch him play, he looks like a special.

talent the way that not a lot of other wide receivers look. And he's so young. I mean, he's going into his third year, but he's the age of incoming rookies. Juju is wonderful. Now, the question marks that will be around Antonio Brown. Be around Mike Tomlin, be around Big Ben. But if Brown leaves. Because right now, if you had to project it, you'd say Brown leaves, James Washington steps up. Juju's the lead man. I mean, how, I mean.

Where do you take him? You have to take him in the top 10 for sure. Oh, well, at the receiver position. Yes, at the receiver. I mean, but do you take him? Come on. Come on. He already finished it. No, he already finished in number nine. But do you, do you look at him above Thielen? Yes. You, you want to insult Michael Thomas. If Antonio Brown is gone, I would take Juju Smith-Schuster. I would take Jujus Smith-Schuster over both Mike Evans and Adam Thielen. What about Michael Thomas? Oh, I love Michael.

Yeah, I think I would. What about O'Dell Beckham Jr.? No, I would not over O'Dell Beckham Jr. But I would over Michael Thomas. Well, see, that's where the rubber me's road. It's hard because you go Adams, Hopkins, Tyreek. You take them over Tyreek? No. Okay. Those three, Adams Hopkins, Tyreek, Beckham. Julio? That's five right there. Right. So I'd probably take him right after that. Michael Thomas?

No, I would take juju over Michael Thomas. Yeah. See, I think I would too. That'll be the interesting thing if Antonio leaves. All right, we got time to get through one more. Wide receiver. Next year's best value in the draft. This guy? This guy. Probably. Every year's best value. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Robert Woods, 86 for 1219 and 6 on 130 targets, 19 for 157 on the ground and a touchdown on the ground. That is essentially the stat line of Tyreek Hill.

So he runs as many jet sweeps and end-arounds and has as much success as Tyreek does. On the ground, yeah. On the ground. And according to Troy Aikman, he's the best wide receiver. What did he say? I believe he said he's the best all-around wide receiver in the game. Okay, Troy. It's high price. Okay, Troy.

But look, I mean, 40 years. Back when he was on Buffalo, Andy, you and me, especially you. Dude, I've been the biggest Robert Woods fan in a long time. Pass the eyeball test. Now he's on a great offense. Sure. He's a reliable. Reliable option. But because there's a three-headed monster there of wide receivers when Cooper Cup comes back, I don't think Robert Woods is going to be drafted where he should be. This is the best season Robert Woods will ever have. This is his greatest outline that you're going to see. Maybe.

That's what I believe. I think he can improve on the six touchdowns. I think he'll be right around this stat line for next year. Well, look, 13% of his games robust. That's not a lot. 56% of good games, but only 13% of his games were great. And that is Robert Woods for you. Yeah, he's not. He is a good wide receiver. If you can somehow maneuver your team to where you've got him as your wide receiver too, you've got the best wide receiver corn football. He will be every, anybody that drafts him.

The highest he will be is their wide receiver two. Because everybody behind him is going to go ahead of him. Yes. I mean, he will be drafted in some situations as your wide receiver three on your roster. And that's, I mean, he's just, he's very consistent. He was a top 12 guy from a consistency standpoint. Yeah. You know, we have him in, in our joint dynasty league. And he, you know, we were able to ride him oftentimes in those hard weeks because, you know, a lot of flex plays. And you just, you never.

You never look at your roster with Robert Woods and go, oh, yeah, Robert Woods. And that's why he's going to fall. Some Kool-Aid? No, and that's why he's going to fall in drafts. Oh, yeah. He's the third wide receiver on a team. Who wants that? But he's going to be great. He's going to do what he did this year next year. I firmly believe that. The thing is, is you are in a different tier. You really are with Robert Woods. And last year, previous career highs, 65.

receptions, 781 yards, five touchdowns. If you wanted me to, you know, give a stateline for next year, 76 for a thousand and five. I mean, that's about where I'd have him, which is good. But you're going to have other players flex up above that. Yeah, there's so many players we haven't talked about that will be easily and obviously drafted ahead of Robert Woods next year. I mean, Amari Cooper and. Yeah, but any of them make you say, any of them make you say.

Oh, yeah. Right. And that's why it's not that I would take Robert Woods over Keenan Allen. I wouldn't. But I'm going to target where Robert Woods will be in the draft and say at that round, I want him on my team. Fair enough. Fair enough. He was the 12th most consistent wide receiver this year based on the metrics we laid out before. We'll get into a number of maybe even more interesting wide receivers.

on the Thursday show because you start to get into guys that have a lot more debate about them and what they've done. And maybe, you know, you're going to find some gyms that you didn't know where out there. So we're going to get into that on Thursday. What did you think of that, Jay? I love it. It's already hooked in my head. And that's like the first time I've heard it on the podcast. All right, the pristine deal of the day. Ty Hilton signed Colts jersey just sold yesterday.

For $58.50. Wow. Someone bought right after the playoff loss. Nice work. Go sign up. Check out the hundreds of daily deals just like that one at pristineauction.com. All right. Great show, guys. Thank you. Just a superb effort by both of you. Good work, Brooks. Thank you. We'll talk to you Thursday. We'll see you on Thursday. Goodbye.

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