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

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Tuesday, April 19th, the fantasy footballers. Mike Wright is here. Yep. I'm Andy Holloway, and we are joined from the stat house. We're joined by Jason Moore. Jason is, Jason's with us. Welcome in, Jason. I'm happy to be back even though it's virtual. Didn't do his hair. No, didn't do my hair. Not going to do that for you guys. Little raspy.

You're sounding raspy. Yeah, it's almost like I had, you know, I don't know, some kind of, some kind of sickness. Yeah, but we're excited you're feeling better and you're back on the show and you're here for a wide receiver rankings episode. And I'm sure you have incredible insights or things of that nature for us today. Oh, fever dream conversations about these wide receivers forthcoming. Yeah, your dreams are generally very accurate, right?

Yes, usually when I dream something, it's going to, it's going to come true. So, uh, Jason, if you could say like, this is the show that was the best watch of my quarantine or the one I watched the most. Like, what's, what was the go to show? Uh, it would have been the new Vikings, Vikings Valhalla. Okay. Okay. Yeah, you are, our sponsor, but you are more of a, um,

Like, of all the people I know that would go stir crazy, the fastest, you're at the top of that list. How's it been? Have you survived? I'm going insane. Yeah. I'm going insane. I'm a different person now already. You're an introvert now? I know what it's like to be locked in jail. Oh, yeah. With Netflix and a computer. Do you get Netflix in jail?

I do it. I do in my jail. In a real luxurious bed. All right. Yeah. We got the crew back. This is terrible. Nobody else is sick. We're doing okay, right? We're back. We're back. We're back in business. We have early top 10 wide receiver rankings on today's show, some NFL news that we haven't covered yet. A reminder, ultimate draft kit.com, if you want to get instant access to the Dynasty Pass.

We'll have another update after the NFL draft here in a couple weeks. Because it's going to be, it's next week. Yeah, it's go time. Very exciting. Ultimate draftkid.com to check that out. The community is joined the foot.com. Quick question of the day. I'll toss it to Jason first. Which player had the quietest offseason so far? Who is somebody fantasy managers might be forgetting about?

Well, I thought this one made a lot of sense because when we were putting our rankings together four wide receivers, I'm like, I just, I'm completely forgetting about Michael Thomas. Like, who is, who is Michael Thomas? You know what I mean? Like, he's not, I don't think he was in my top 30, but then that's insane. You know, I take a step back and go, well, he is still a good wide receiver. And I know they lost Drew Brees. They're going to have, you know, a.

coming off of injury Winston, but he's going to have a target market share that will be up there with the best wide receivers in the league just because they don't really have many other options. I expect them to grab a rookie wide receiver, probably a first round rookie wide receiver, but still he should have a lot of volume. You haven't heard much of anything from him. He should be fine and healthy recovery-wise. I know he's a little bit older.

But it's like, I don't know, he's just kind of disappeared from fantasy football for so long that mentally he's not, he's not in conversations. He's not someone we talk about or consider or want to draft. But in the end, I think he's probably going to be a pretty valuable piece in fantasy football in 2022. I think there's a lot of fantasy players, myself included, who just don't, they're not up for that headache this year.

They're not up for the adventure. Maybe they don't feel like, like sometimes the headache can be worth it if it's Christian McCaffrey headache, right? It's the headache that comes with maybe you're the number one overall running back. And it's harder for me with Michael Thomas because what is the best case scenario for accepting the burden of that decision? I think that is the concern. I think it would be a wide receiver 10. You know, someone that's, you know, a wide receiver 1.

Even top 10, but not a star. He's not going to be a 15 touchdown, probably not even a 10 touchdown guy with Winston there. So I think that's kind of his high volume, his way to a low end wide receiver 1. That's his ceiling. And he's 29. We haven't seen Michael Thomas do anything since 2019. You had the 2020 season, which was very shortened because of injury. But even in that time,

You know, he was okay statistically for a six-game run, but wide receiver 16 was as high as finish in that time period. It's just been so, on top of him missing last year, it's just been so long since we've had really relevant number one Michael Thomas. I went with another 29-year-old wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins. Arizona.

It's not been a pretty off season for Arizona, and we will get into more of that in the news. But DeAndre Hopkins was on pace for 15 touchdowns with Kyla Murray last year before the injury. But you get the combination of what I'll call elite fatigue. Sometimes certain players play at a certain level for a long enough time. People grow tired of it, and they want to move on.

to somebody else, somebody younger. He's 29. Same age as Devante Adams, who's making a transition to a new team. But Hopkins didn't end the year playing. So that was step one. The Cardinals ended the year in disaster, step two. The offseason has been filled with nothing but losing pieces and or Kyler Murray drama. And so I think Hopkins is left in this place where, I mean, he's being drafted behind.

Deontay Johnson in drafts. What? He's being, yeah, he's being ranked behind Deontay Johnson in consensus ranking. No, go, go away. So there is this place where Hopkins is just ignored. And so I felt like he fit the bill pretty good for this question. All right. I want to bring up someone who he got in the headlines, but it was, I think it was dismissed quicker than it should.

It deserved some, it deserved its time. Like the community didn't gauge it properly. Nice. I like what you did there. Russell Gage, who is coming hot off of signing his new contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, three year, 30 million with 20 guaranteed. So, like, this isn't just a chump change contract. The gang is all back. Tom Brady is going to be the quarterback.

From week 7 on, which is after the buy week for the Atlanta Falcons, Russell Gage was the wide receiver 18 in total points. In that time stretch, he had more points per game than C.D. Lamb. Then CD Lamb, people, the guy who, like, we are projecting and drafting as a top 10 wide receiver, Russell Gage here, who's going to be playing with Tom Brady, is just a complete afterthought. And on top of that, Chris Godwin.

When's he going to be ready to go? You could be six weeks in before you really see Chris Godwin. The pup is an option for him as we move forward. Russell Gage had as many top 12 weeks on the season as Stefan Diggs. Like Russell Gage is a much better wide receiver than I believe he is given credit for publicly and by the fantasy community. He was in a really, really bad spot last year. I'm not saying Gage is a true number one wide receiver.

but he is a good complimentary wide receiver who I think can have quite a few spike weeks throughout the season. There was a report of at least one Russell Gage, Tampa Bay Jersey being sold from the team shop, and we do know who bought it. Mama Gage? Yeah. No, it was Mike. But, yeah, I mean, it's, I told you, Mike, about an hour ago, I was leaning towards, and I haven't said it yet, but leaning towards the.

Tom Brady bust call for this year, who was my guy for last year. But part of it does have to do with the situation with Chris Godwin. Gage may be able to fill in a little bit, but he's certainly not Chris Godwin. And so I wonder without Bruce Ariens, I know they have stability elsewhere. Should be very interesting. And Gage will have an opportunity.

Yeah, he will. I don't think they brought him in to be a Chris Godwin replacement. I think he's brought in to be an Antonio Brown replacement. When they had all three wide receivers going at the same time, that's when they were humming like nobody's business. And I think that, you know, the antics of Antonio Brown taking them off the field, they said, hey, let's go get a capable third wide receiver. So I don't know that he'll.

I have a hard time seeing a lot of fantasy relevance for Gage, but I think he's going to help Tom Brady. I'm pretty surprised by your bearish Tom Brady. Well, I mean, it really comes down to missing two-thirds of what you had. That made you great. You know, no Antonio Brown, no Chris Godwin.

And no Bruce Ariens. So Gronk is TBD. I expect him to be back. And no Gronk potentially. But there is a chance that he's not back. And he said he's not ready to commit to football. So there's, yeah, there's three of your four options. And he is getting older. And it will happen at some point in time if he keeps saying yes to playing. So, yeah, I'm leaning that way. I don't know. Feels like I turn my back on my guy. But that's how you got to do it in fantasy.

News and Notes from Around the League. In a mesmerizing turn of events, the kind that I would have paid a lot of money to have happened. Sammy Watkins has signed a one-year deal with the Green Bay Packers worth up to $4 million, meaning of course. Of course. That the Lizard King and the Lizard King have combined forces. Oh, the lizard people. They're taking over. The lizard folks.

In Green Bay, the lizards can make up for Devante Adams' absence, right? Last time Watkins was the top 36 fantasy wide receiver is 2015. And this podcast was being recorded in what equated to a small bedroom. We'll see. Can the cold-blooded king, can he thrive up in the cold? Not that it will matter because more pieces will be added, but just for the fun of it. Because I did ask this to our Packer fan here, Al Borland.

If you had to pick between Watkins or Lazard, who do you pick? I'd go Lizard. Oh, Lizard for sure. I mean, it's easy. Yeah, you've got to gain the trust of Aaron Rogers. It usually takes years for wide receivers to really get that. And Lazard has it. The lizard does not. And I doubt he ever gets it. A.J. Brown, Devo, Samuel, set to skip voluntary workouts. They want contracts. Wide receivers getting paid this offseason, they want some of the money.

Terry McLaren's also in that camp, but we'll report, according to the athletic. All three were draft selections in 2019, final year of their rookie deal. Trade McLaurin, you cowards. So what do you think is going to happen in these situations? I think they're all going to get paid. Yeah, that's what I would put the bet on. I'd parlay it. Yeah. Okay.