Early Top 10 WR Rankings + Goodish Ambitions, Forgotten Players - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/19

for a wide receiver in the first two years of the NFL. So that passed O'Dell Beckham Jr.'s first two years by 261 yards. Most air yards in the NFL, which means the distance between where the ball was thrown and where he catches it. And so he's just been dominant. And so he's the go-to option in Minnesota. Jason, any reason to doubt Justin Jefferson.

No, none whatsoever. You've got Kevin O'Connell, the new head coach that's coming over from the ramp. So maybe this is the new Cooper Cup. You know, I think Stafford is better than cousins. But you've already seen, I mean, the connection is there. The offense is pretty much the same as it's been the last two years. He's coming in, it's kind of crazy to think like he's coming into year three. And you don't think of a player.

who's done what he's done as still like maybe getting better, still figuring out, you know, how to be a better wide receiver, but he certainly is. So, you know, Justice Jefferson is, you know, when you talk Chase and Justin Jefferson, there's a great argument to be had of ceiling versus floor. I think that Chase's ceiling is probably higher than Justice Jefferson, but Justice Jefferson feels as safe as anyone not named Cooper Cup.

That's why I've got him at number two. I just can't imagine him not having a top 10 season. Jamar Chase at number three. Mike has him at two. Jason and I at three. He's 22 years old last year. 13 touchdowns finishes the wide receiver 5.81 for 1455. I will say the. Okay. All right. The second half of the year.

You know, you look at the consistency during that time of the year, and you can go back to the truth episodes to talk about it, but you did have him disappear. When you talk about preference of the type of wide receiver, that's why Eileen Justin Jefferson to Jamar Chase. Chase is very capable of giving you 203 on any given week. We saw the Kansas City Chiefs forget to defend him for a game, and he just destroyed them.

but only three games inside the top 24 from week seven. I mean, from week seven on, three games in the top 24. That's a little shocking, but obviously still developing and had the second most fantasy points by a rookie wide receiver only behind Randy Moss's 1998 season. So Splash plays is the name of the game, Mike. You'd take Jamar over Jefferson. Why did you go that route? Why do you hate Jefferson and why do you love Chase? Please tell me.

It's, I mean, this is just a razor-thin margin here between those two wide receivers. And it was, for me, a bet on Jemar Chase heading into his second year. Age is not a factor between these two guys, but for Chase to put up 1,413 as a rookie with T. Higgins, who was a good wide receiver across from him,

That's such an outrageous level of production for a rookie that I think that the consistency will level up next year. And it's just, there aren't, there are so few wide receivers that can actually hit that line of, oh, they hit a 200-yard game. Like that number is so unrealistic for wide receivers, but that's like, that's done. When Jamar Chase.

Does something like that. The week is done. The rest of your team can be garbage and you've won a week. Jason, do you think he will become more consistent or will you get boom and bust? I think he'll become more consistent. You know, he was just a rookie last year. This, this reminds me a lot of some of the questions that we were talking about last year was Stafford and Cup and McVeigh and being like, are we going to look back and just say,

Man, we really should have seen this coming. Like get McVeigh a good quarterback and this whole offense is awesome. We were saying that before the season last year. This year it's one of those like, oh, shouldn't we have seen Jamar Chase's clear wide receiver one season coming because he was only a rookie and he put up 1,455 and 13 touchdowns? Joe Burroughs getting better. Like,

If they level up and allow him to really be the center of the team versus Mixing, I mean, shouldn't Jamar Chase have the ability and opportunity to get nearer to 100 catches?

1,600 yards and 16 touchdowns. I mean, so it's, it's funny. The reason I prefer Jefferson over Chase is because the floor, we, we haven't seen as much, and he was more of an 80 reception, not 100 reception guy. So you've got to project next year in one of the two directions, but I could see Jamar Chase easily. I mean,

You know, I took my lumps because I did not think he was the otherworldly rookie prospect that most people did. And obviously I was an idiot. But watching enough NFL filming, you just can't once this guy has the ball in his hands, you can't always.

get there fast enough. He just turns on the Jets and then the game is over. It's kind of like Mike said, he's going to win you weeks. And I think that when he fills in the other aspects of being an NFL wide receiver and more possession based and that type of stuff, you're not going to lose the breakaway monster play ability. I think he just gets the ball in his hands more of this next year. So if you wanted to take Jamar Chase as the number one wide receiver, I don't think that's crazy.

Maybe the template is Jefferson, from year one to year two, added 20 receptions, 200 yards, and three touchdowns. So it can go up. Number four, Devante Adams on our consensus wide receiver rankings, 29 years old. Jason and Mike happen at 5, I've him at 4, was the wide receiver 3 last year on 169 targets. Consistency has been his game. He's average 11 targets, 93 receiving yards.

and almost a touchdown every game for the last four years. And the big question mark for people is you are now moving from Aaron Rogers to Derek Carr, his buddy. And I think there's a lot of doubt. And I think that there are people that are going to get a steal with Devante Adams if he ends up being able to deliver on his new team. Or there will be people that have made the right decision to kind of move away from thinking of him in the same tier that he used to be.

The question is, what do you believe about Devante Adams? Yeah, it's, well, he's elite. He's, you know, whatever. Top three wide receiver in the NFL. The hardest part is the changing of teams. You got, you have to like that him and Derek Carr, our friends have already played together. So there's a natural chemistry that will, that will come back, I think rather quickly. But we've seen.

Wide receivers when they change teams, a lot of times it doesn't work out. We had Matt DeSorbo, one of our writers. He's looking into these things and wide receivers changing teams. We've seen them on average score 21% fewer points in their first year with that team. So it's, no, I know that that was the bet that like I've made recently on, you know, like Stefan Diggs, going to the bills.

Could it really, yeah, these changing teams, got an inaccurate quarterback, and then boom, Stefan Diggs was a league winning wide receiver. Hopkins. DeAndre Hopkins went from his situation in Houston where he was seeing guaranteed 30 plus percent of the targets goes to Arizona. Will he really see that target share? And yep, he did. And Hopkins was fantastic. So we've, wow, you know, on average the wide receiver's numbers goes down.

This is simply a bet on Devante Adams himself being a top three wide receiver and will command 30 plus percent of Derek Carr's targets. Now, these targets aren't the same as Roger's targets, but enough that we've got him still ranked in our top five. The crazy thing about Adams is that you have an offense in Las Vegas that was 29th in terms of a wide receiver target percentage last year.

and he's going to come in there. Now they were seventh in total pass attempts, like percentage of, in their highest percentage of pass versus run. So they were willing to throw the football.

Just not to any wide receivers. Well, you know, the Walleris and Josh Jacobs got a bunch of targets. So, Jason, do you foresee any troubles for Devante Adams in Las Vegas? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I think that he's still going to be great. He's my, you know, what is he my wide receiver five? I thought he would be lower in my rankings, but the reality is he is phenomenal. He is going to be the clear one here. But.

You look at last year where he had 169 targets and you think, okay, well, who else was he really dividing targets with? The next highest target getter from the Packers was a running back. There was nobody else to throw the ball to. Whereas Darren Waller, you know, he was on a 140 plus target pace last year. He had over 140 targets the year prior. And Hunter Renfro is clearly a possession guy. So I do think the targets come down a little bit.

and the touchdowns come down. So I don't think he's going to be that number one fantasy wide receiver in the league, the way that he's been over the last several years with Aaron Rogers and the situation he found himself in. You're going to have fewer touchdowns, fewer targets, but he's still great, and he's going to be the wide receiver five type. I'm going to surface the question now because we've gone through four names, and it's pretty much can they finish at one? Adam still meets that.

I think Adams can still finish at one. And part of that comes from Josh McDaniels being the new head coach, the fact that there's a chance that Derek Carr just comes out and throws it to his guy over and over and over again. Because that is something we've seen Carr willing to do, right? He's been willing to force the ball, just was to Darren Waller. And back in the Michael Crabtree days. So do we all think Adams can? I do. I think he can, yeah. Okay. Diggs at five.

Stefan Diggs, 28 years old, just got paid again. Last year was a little bit strange. Yeah. He had 10 touchdowns, 103 for 12, 25, and 10, and there's really nothing to be upset about with that final line. Finish says the wide receiver 7 didn't win you a lot of weeks. In fact, he only had four games where he ended up inside the top 10 on a weekly finish. And so I think he's about as safe as they get, though. And I think Diggs may be one of those players that you can get a

a steal on. You guys do have them at four, so you both have them ahead of Adam, so you feel very comfortable there. Yeah, go ahead, Jay. Yeah, I think Diggs is in such a good situation. The first half of last year, Emmanuel Sanders had something left to give and really kind of had his games at the expense of Diggs. And then if you get rid of that.

first chunk, you know, those first five weeks, Manuel Sanders kind of disappeared, and that's when Diggs was pretty consistent the rest of the way. They just paid him a ton of money. They have lost Cole Beasley. They have lost Emmanuel Sanders. They are saying, like, this is our one for the foreseeable future. I think the fact that people are weirdly disappointed in last year just because he didn't have any monster, you know, win you the week type regularity to his season last year.

I think he's a discount right now. Like he should be someone you're trying to target in dynasty leagues because he's a little bit older. People are disappointed with this last season. But he just got paid. And I think he's going to have a great year this year and the next year and the next year. Can I give you a weird Stefan Digstatt? Yeah. Oh, I've got a weird one too. So. Oh, I mean, as well, I will get one last. He had.

Only 118 of his 165 targets deemed catchable, which is incredible. That's 74th amongst wide receivers, which means that Hunter Renfro had the exact same amount of receptions as Diggs on 37 fewer targets. So, you know, it's odd because Josh Allen was at an MVP level, but something didn't quite click on every one of those targets. And that something was the intermediate game.