Fantasy Football 2018 - Alex Smith Traded! + Rookie Review: 2017 WRs & TEs

You're perceived number one in Kelvin Benjamin. So Devin Funches has to fill that role. But they need... Who did you say, Kael and Clay? Yeah. Yeah, he's a free agent, too. Yeah. That's what I mean. These guys under contract, Curtis Samuel is interesting to me next year. Right. And he just has to have the volume to make an impact. If you, and I don't want to be, you know, just... John, if you were in a dynasty league, would you rather have John Ross or Curtis Samuel? Curse.

Curtis Samuel probably. See, I would take John Ross. I would only want John Ross so I can trade him for Curtis Samuel plus because of the perceived value of John Ross. All right. I think the most impressive rookie of this class this year is the next guy that went it with the 30th pick in the second round out of USC. Juju Smith, Schuster. If Jason were here, he would say a star is born. And he had a consistency rank of 22.

He had almost 1,000 yards, 917 and 7 on 80 targets, 58 receptions. He had 14% good games, or great games, 43% good games, and showed the acumen as an NFL wide receiver and the kind of promise you, you know, you look back two years ago. He was a projected number one pick in the NFL draft. So this is not a player that, it shouldn't be a surprise that with the right level of focus, the right quarterback, the right offense.

we got what we got out of Juju. He's finally bucking the trend for USC wide receivers. Maybe we finally get a good one here. Hey, Nelson Aguilar came around. I think he's a good receiver. Yes, but generally speaking, it's not gone well. It's not a guarantee. It's not gone well for USC wide receivers at the pro level. For Jujer Smith's Schuster, two games without Antonio Brown. Average, eight and a half targets.

7.5 receptions, 101 yards, and a touchdown. And that does not include the game against the Patriots where Brown went out and Juju absolutely smashed it. But isn't that, that's a promising stat? Yes. And isn't that, though, the built-in cap for him is you need to be in a position where he can have that kind of opportunity? And that's why I think Juju will be overdrafted.

You do? Yes. Now, I think he established himself firmly ahead of Martavis and any promise of Martavis. Martavis is not going to go anywhere, though. Martavis Bryant is under contract for $705,000. You're not going to get rid of a player with that talent for that cheap. You're not going to bring him back in two years, but he will be on the field. So I think that the, do they bring, the target cap is limited for Smith Schuster. Okay.

All right. So you think he'll be overdrafted because he's so exciting? Yes. Okay. Yeah, so exciting to the tune of second best, yard after the catch. Oh, yeah, it certainly helps when you have a hundred yard reception. I will say that. Or whatever. You're telling me. Whatever that was in Detroit. Now, I think from a fantasy perspective. Was that the Colts? I don't remember. No wide out. Well, I guess in this scoring system he was just behind. But Cooper Cup came in at number 26 overall. Consistency rank of 28.

Now, he was a third round pick. He busted 40% of the time was good. 40% of the time. Had one great week. And overall, a very impressive rookie year for Cooper Cup, 62 receptions, five touchdowns, 95 target. Cooper. I mean, that's great. 95 targets. Cooper Cup is extremely intriguing because you saw, you can see a clear distinction in his playing time and his productions. Productions. He's making movies these things. He is. Hey, see the pictures.

Weeks 1 through 8, 66.8% of snaps, right? Second half of the year, games 9 through 15, that jumps up to 86.4. And in those games, he had 5 plus receptions or a touchdown in 6 of 7 games. Once they finally committed to Cooper Cup and a little bit, granted, a little bit of Robert Woods injury is mixed into those games. But once they went to him,

being on the field as a full-time receiver, he really started to make things happen. Do you believe that you see a second year jump from Cooper Cup in PPR leagues? Yes. And do you expect them to bring back Sammy Watkins and his 39 receptions on 70 targets? All this talk of bringing back Sammy Watkins, I think, is baffling to me. Because you can't franchise Sammy Watkins. You cannot pay.

You cannot pay him whatever. You're going to have to pay him what, $6 million a year? You're going to have more. More. Sammy Watkins is going to be looking for more. He's 24. He will be looking for more than that on the open market. And the role that he played for your team, yes, was Sammy Watkins beneficial to the Rams? Absolutely. But not for the price that he is going to receive on the open market. So unless Sammy takes a look in the mirror and says maybe.

maybe my contract should match my actual production. Then he stays with the Rams. But if I'm Sammy, I'm going to go get paid. And I don't think that the Rams are going to offer him that paycheck. Okay. That's good perspective. All right. The next few wide outs off the board in the NFL draft were Taiwan Taylor in Tennessee, Ardarius Stewart in New York, who really didn't do anything this year. Carlos Henderson.

who was placed on IR, never had an opportunity. And then Chris Godwin, you brought him up yesterday and Kenny Gallad. Yes. Oh. So out of that five pack. So smooth. Do you like Kenny G's future or do you like Chris G's future? Man, that's a, that's a very interesting question because Kenny Golladay, I think he, he has to wait. Gallaudet projects to me more as a one. Yes. Than Godwin does. But.

Marvin Jones contract runs the exact same length as Chris God, or as Kenny Gawley's. I think Tate's is up a year earlier. But of course, Gawaday does not play the same role as Golden Tate. So I think it's going to be limited while I do see a world where the Buccaneers decide to move on from Deshaun Jackson. Maybe he loses a step in the next year or two. And then Chris Godwin emerges as the number two.

So long term, that's crazy. I've never thought about it long term. I would look for the 6-4-218 frame. Yeah. The flashes we saw from Goladay. I do not blame you. I wanted to bring up Tewan Taylor just really quick because Corey Davis and Richard Matthews, those are the only notable wide receivers on that team under contract as of right. Eric Decker is a free agent, Harry Douglas, free agent.

And what's this, what's it, uh, sharp. Taji Sharp. He's still, uh, still on the team. Wow. But like I said, the only wide receivers of note. So you just want people to be aware of the, his Tijuana third round pick. They, he had a couple plays where he flashed. But this is, this is why go with, do you have any confidence that Tijuana at the doubt chart situation? No, it's very little. When, when you have a guy.

They gave him an opportunity. There was so much buzz about Tewan Taylor that there was one of the, and I apologize, can't recall his name right now, but one of the trusted beat reporters for Tennessee came out and said he would not be surprised if Taylor had more receptions than Corey Davis. Before the season. Before the season started. Because of how he showed in preseason. In the first seven games, he was playing 37 and a half percent in the snaps. The final nine games, 15 percent. Yeah. So they said,

Enough of you, Kewan Taylor, but growth and everything. We'll see. We'll see. Is there a future for Chad Williams in Arizona? Third round pick. For Didi Westbrook, fourth round pick. Yeah, for Diti, certainly. So to lay it out for the Jacksonville situation, you have Alan Hearns, who is a about to be cut. Probably going to be cut. You have Alan Robinson's a free agent right now. And you have Marky Slee as a free agent.

Yeah, for people, just the context of Alan Hurons, why I think he will be cut? Because he has owed $7 million and he can be cut for zero against the cap. That's just, that looks like. If you were making $7 million, Mike, and I could cut you and it would be zero against the cap, I would probably do it. If you cut me and I bled $7 million, now you're just confusing me. All right. So D.D. Westbrook.

Keel and Cole, Alan Robinson. That's who I think the main three guys are in Jacksonville. I can agree with that. And I wouldn't be surprised if Westbrook has a more significant role than Cole does. Yes, I can also agree with that. The efficiency of D.D. Westbrook was left a lot to be desired. So in his time, he started on the IR, but he came back. He got 51 targets. That put him on a pace for 117. Let's say he was getting the volume that he got last year.

That's tied for the 15th most targets at the wide receiver position. But D.D. was 27 for 339 and 1 on 51 targets. Keel and Cole undrafted 42 for 748 and 3 on 81 targets. Big play guy. Keel and Cole. The problem with. I mean, the targets were there, though, 81. That's what I'm saying. But he would, so he was, like I said, he would have been on pace for 15th the most targets at the wide receiver position. But only.

25th in receptions of 33rd in yards. So not the kind of numbers that you're hoping for for D.D. Westbrook, another year of growth. We'll see. So I still believe. Is there another name to throw out there at the wide receiver position? Yeah. I'll throw Trent Taylor's name out there. Fifth round pick. He had 43 receptions on 60 targets. I think that with what Jimmy Garoppel is doing there, there's an opportunity for Trent Taylor to carve out.

a role in a PPR landscape. Yeah, there's definitely a role, but I looked up his splits and he was basically one PPR point better with Jimmy Hansom. So there was not a noticeable difference last year. Sure, sure. As far, I do want to bring up Chad Williams because of how disappointing it was that a third round pick plays six games. He's three for 31. That's just called the John Ross treatment.

Oh, yes. But here's the deal for Arizona. And while I want Kirk Cousins, just trust me, the pheromones are at, they're peaking right now. Kirk, if you can smell me. Do you want to make a little pitch? Oh, do you want to make a little pitch to? Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go. Kirk Cousins, this is your number one super fan. Mike right here. I'm from the fantasy footballers. You probably don't know who I am. But I have a.

I have a situation, Kirk. My cardinals. If Larry Fitzgerald retires, you know who's under contract, a wide receiver for us? No, this is not part of the pitch. Don't tell him that. I'm a desperate man. Chad Williams and J.J. Nelson. That's why this pitch is actually, I'm roundabout in this. Larry Fitzgerald. Come on back. No, no, no. Larry Fitzgerald. I'm looking at the camera. Larry Fitzgerald, you have an obligation in a duty.

You go get Kirk Cousins. You tell him you're going to play another five years. I don't care if you're lying to his face. You do what you have to do to get Kurt Cousins here. All right. Thank you. But that's the legit situation. Great. We have nothing to offer you, Kirk. Come to Arizona. We'll send the first part of that to Kirk and the second part of Larry. I was going to say if Peyton Manning said no to Arizona with an in prime Larry Fitzgerald. If Larry Fitzgerald does not come back, right now under contract.

your starters for Arizona, Chad Williams, and J.J. Nelson. Because John Brown is a free agent. Geron Brown is a free agent. All right. Well, thanks for that, Mike. I'm just trying to lighten the mood. So Chad Williams is the number one receiver. That's what you're saying. Yep. Yep. All right. We have to touch on the tight ends. The truth about the tight end rookies. Interesting year. O.J. Howard went first. David Njoku was another of the first round tight ends.

10 picks later. And then the one that made the biggest impact, Evan Ingram. Just, oh, he was, obviously he was a first round pick as well. Yes. They went 23, 26, 32 in the first round. Evan Ingram was the fifth rank tied in. Where do you see the future for Ingram? And where do you see the future for Howard and Injoku? That trifecta, a very talented first round tight-in. So I talked about this a little bit on the tight-end truth show, but you were in a...

out of office that day. So I want to hear your Evan Engram's on my dynasty team. I'm very excited that he is there. But tight ends with over 100 targets this past season. There were six of them. The lowest catch rate of those guys was Rob Grunkowski, 65.7% of the targets he caught them, except for Evan Engram.

who caught 55.7% of those passes. Now, he is the first tight end, I say the only tight end, since 1992 besides Jeremy Shockey, a rookie tight end to receive 100 plus targets. And with Odell Beckham, he was really only about a half target fewer per game. So there wasn't a huge difference. We say, oh, Beckham went down, everything went to Angram. But with a catch percentage like that.