Fantasy Football - The TRUTH: WRs Part 2 + Big Game Bonanza - Podcast for 2/3

And so going into next year with some of the young guys like Franklin, who was just 20 targets behind him, and for a large chunk of the season was leading Cortland Sutton and targets. Pat Bryant, the end of the year, started to get on the field more, little glimpses of a breakout coming. I don't think we're going to be excited about Cortland Sutton. I know he just put up basically identical seasons in back-to-back years. You know, wide receiver 13, 11 to 13, depending on your scoring format. Next year, maybe it'll be an age value if the offense gets better with a change of offensive coordinator. We do have news on their offensive coordinator. Davis Webb. Just happened. Oh, wow. Look at that for time. Not a surprise that Cortland Sutton News would happen immediately when Jason's talking about it. Breaking News. Yeah, Davis Webb. Kyle was trying to convince us. I mean, it's Sean Peyton. Kyle was trying to convince us in our Slack channel that Davis Mills.

We're just got the job of the OC. So while you were, I didn't hear a single thing you just said, Jay, because I'm like, what are you talking about? And I'm scouring the internet as looking for Davis Mills news. Davis Webb. Davis Webb, which that makes more sense. Way more sense. He's not a backup quarterback for an active NFL team. But Cortland Sutton, that's his story. He was okay. He was okay. It's not flashy. It's like. Bo Nix had 25 passing touchdowns. That's what you noticed the problem. Like at the end of last year with Bo Nix and the rookie season breakout, it was like every week was a sudden touchdown. Yes. And Bo Nix had 25 touchdowns and he had two games of four passing touchdowns. Oh man. When you say it like that. Yeah. Say it again. Disgusting. Eight of his past, eight of his 25 passing touchdowns came in two games. I mean, that's super cool if you played him that week.

But that's a lot of your production. So that would be eight of 25. So we had 17 of them in 15 weeks. Is that the math? Yeah. That's the math. Yeah. And that's why you weren't really thrilled with anyone on this offense. But also part of why you weren't thrilled with anyone on this offense is the opposite reason that you were so thrilled with the Dallas Cowboys. This is an elite defense, and it should be elite next year. So I don't think this is an offense we should be targeting. too heavily because they don't need to score a lot to win. Yeah. Number 12, T. Higgins. Oh, maybe. Oh, meet Higgins. Meet Higgins. What's new? I mean, another season with some blips on the attendance chart for T. Higgins, but this was a, when he was active and Joe Burrow was there, it's the same old T. Higgins. Second half consistency versus first half. First half, 25th. Welcome to the Bengals. You're going to see the same thing with Jamar Chase and Chase Brown.

Second half, though, fifth inconsistency. Played 15 games. 11 receiving touchdowns in only 15 games. Yeah, I mean, that is. 11 undocumented concussions. And seven documented. Yes. No, I mean, the story with T. Higgins is he's always very good when Joe Burrow is there. He is not going to put up 1,500 yards. He is not going to catch 100 passes. He is going to be very touchdown dependent. He seems to be very good at getting into the end zone. But 59 for 846 is whatever, right? If he had five touchdowns, we're not talking about T. Higgins today. 11 touchdowns, though, that's a difference maker in a year where not a lot of guys got the double digits. 13% great, 47% good, 27% bust. His games played. This is an improvement. Yeah. It's good for him. It was seven games. 12 and 2023, 11 last year, 15 this year. Okay.

The truth about T. Higgins is always the same. And this is why if Mike has been proven the year of Mike to be right, maybe you should be in on T. Higgins because every year it's, man, T. Higgins was great in this situation, which is usually just on the field. But we always had the asterisk because he would start the game. And then leave early. So he didn't play the game, so it ruined all the stats. But in reality, in games, he played the whole game, he's always awesome. Well, this year, we had the quarterback struggles for the first six weeks. If you take out those games and you just look, all the games he played with Joe Flacco or Burrow after Flacco, his wide receiver, would have been the number four wide receiver. He was really good. And so year after year after year, we're having the same conversation of he is so good.

but things go wrong. Yep. Where he is. They do, but he will be, he'll be a player that I'm guessing I'll be targeting him yet again for fantasy football. We love that the Bengals, at least as of right now, it looks like the Bengals, they're going to run it back. Well, they, yeah, they can do that on offense. That's fine. Their offense is fine. They cannot do that on defense. They cannot do that on defense. No, their defense is awesome. Luz Hendrickson. Get worse. Let's talk about the 13th ranked wide receiver with a first half consistency of 49 and basically non-existent and the sixth most consistent wide receiver in the second half of the season. At 25 years old, Michael Jerry Rice Wilson. Michael Wilson was the number six most consistent in the National Football League.

with fantasy finishes of 2, 9, 2, 19, 22, 10, and 6 over the back half of the year, 12% great, 35% good, 47% bust. It doesn't feel fair to look at it in totality because the season just wasn't, it wasn't something consistent for Arizona, right? They lost Kyla Murray, Jacobi Brissette takes over, and Marvin Harrison gets hurt. Yeah, he had his breakout in week 11. And so if you look at from week 11 on, which is, that's a large chunk. He had the second most points behind Pooka Nakua. He had more than JSN. There you go. He had more than Amin Ra, more than George Pickens, every, everybody. Only Pooka and Akua outscored him from his breakout on. Right. Which we felt every week he was awesome. On film, he looked great. He was open. He was fast. He was physical. He did everything you want. 50-50 when it was contested and he'd come down with it.

He came down with, I mean, across the board was great. I hope that we do not as a community overreact to it because I've brought this up in the past. But what happened towards the end of the year when Kyler came out and the defense, I mean, a lot's been made about the injuries to the 49ers and how far they went. The Cardinals were right there with them with total injuries, especially on the defensive side, as far as lost games from starters. And Jacoby Brissette was on pace. to throw the ball 700 times. So, yeah, if the market share, even if he stays at the market share that he had, you're not throwing the ball 700 times. Marvin Harrison missed five of the seven weeks that Michael Wilson was awesome. So this was not a precedent for the future, but not exactly Travis Folgham either. Kyle, it's not going to be a, Michael Wilson is not going to be deleted.

after a break out like this. I wonder where he's going an underdog right now. So Kyle, give me that. That is so... It won't be high. Okay. Well, I mean, it's one of those things that is... It's so funny because this is a player that it's all about value to me. I believe he is a very good wide receiver. He's going 77th. Wait, no, that's wrong. That's wrong. He's going at positional rank 30. So he's going at wide receiver 30, right around pick 70 overall, an ADP. Yeah, that's not the highlight, though. And he is going... Three wide receiver spots in front of Marvin Harrison Jr. Oh, baby. Get wrecked. Get wrecked, Marvin. Oh my gosh. Spread them. Spread them. I got a kick for you. Get out of here. Oh, I hope. Oh, I hope that happens next year when draft season. How do you? I mean, Marvin has never shown any sort of.

sealing like these seven games. Oh, man. That's the problem. That's unbelievable. He is. I got you good. For three spots ahead of Marvin Harrison. Yeah. For the record, our Slack Channel apparently has an automatic gift that presents itself. If you write, if you write spread them, which Kyle chose to write. And it is perfect. Just a kick in the nards. Just a kick. Look, would you, would you draft? well here's the here's the weird thing help me with the i would rather i would rather have mark help me with the intellectual inconsistency of that though okay okay here's the argument this is because i understand exactly everyone's gonna say that i'd rather have mark and you want to know why you don't know why you're gonna say it you're gonna say it because man he's got the potential

to put up half a season like Michael Wilson just did. We've never seen it. Michael Wilson did the ceiling. He might do that. Michael Wilson didn't go out and give you Cortland Sutton wide receiver 15, 16, 17, sometimes scored. He went out and did more than Harrison would ever be able to do. If Michael Wilson had done what he did in the second half, he's the number two fantasy wide receiver? If Marv was on the field for when he did that, then absolutely that would be insane to think that he could do that. But why would Marr be able to do it with Michael Wilson on the field? You don't ask that. My point is that I don't think Michael Wilson will do that with Marvin Harrison on the field because I think Marvin Harrison will be the wide receiver won in targets. It's a real question. Why? Why should he be? Draft capital, expectations, pedigree. All those things are real. They are real. Yeah, but this is new coach. Yeah, new coach is coming in. They were real for a lot of first round wide receivers that haven't. Keon Coleman.

Should be. First round draft pick. No, Keon was first. No, he was. He was the first pick of the second round. Okay. Did you? How dare you, Mike? Did you just get a fact? You check and your response was, okay. Yeah, you shamed the truth. That was awful. That's so stupid. The truth. Who is, who's the Minnesota top 10 pick? Treadwell. Treadwell. Yeah. I mean, how about Kevin White? Who's his dad? His dad doesn't matter. It does, man. No, his dad hurt him at this point. It hurt our pick. I'm on Andy's side of, especially when you factor it, this is a new coach that will come in and sure he'll be excited. They're like, oh, Marv was drafted number four. He was drafted number four two years ago. He still has done nothing. But on my team, I got a, I got a tight end and I've maybe the best tight in all football. And then I got this guy over the second half who was.

a top five wide receiver. This is, look, I understand, I'm arguing for the sake of arguing. I understand everything that you're saying. It's just, I don't think that there's a real logical pathway that it makes more sense for Marv to do what he's never done than it does for Wilson to do what he has done. It's all I'm saying. For a long period of time. The logical path is simply the fact that in the first 10 weeks when they all played together, Michael Wilson was on pace for 70 targets versus 114 for Marv, who was the one. Now, Marv might not be better than Michael Wilson. Michael Wilson maybe should usurp Marv in the pecking order of targets. And maybe that will absolutely happen. New coach comes in. They'll probably finish 30 and 33. Yeah, I mean, right where they're being drafted. That's probably what's going to happen. Seventh most first read targets among all wide receivers for Michael, wide receivers for Michael Wilson.

won't see that run again as long as people are healthy and the number one target is Tray McBride. We'll take a break. We'll talk more whiteouts. The big game is almost here and there's no better way to cash in. during America's biggest sporting event than prize picks, where it always feels good to be right. And right now on prize picks, you can find your community with the new social feeds feature. You can share prize picks with your friends, copy lineups from winners with a single click. You can copy lineups you like or use them as an inspiration for your own picks. You can even follow prize picks partners like us and tail or fade our picks with just one click. We have been loving the prize picks app all you long on the fantasy football.

I mean, truly before this year as well, but more or less. It's just it's so simple. It's so connected with fantasy football. We're talking, you know, passing yards, receiving touchdowns, targets, things that we already know and we understand. And honestly, if we know fantasy football, we're pretty good at projecting those things. So make sure you check it out. Download the prize picks app today and use code ballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code ballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. This week, PrizePix has a special max discount for the big game live in the app. Now, Drake May needs just one passing yard.

for the max discount to win. Just add another player to your lineup. And if your pick hits, you can cash in prize picks. It's good to be right. All right. Let's have the conversation. Oh, man. AJ Brown came in at 14, Devante Smith at 21, E-A-G-L-E-S, A-J-Brown consistency of 14, Devante Smith, consistency of 39. Honestly, this was a, this is, This is a bad year for Devante Smith. It was a bad year for the Eagles offense. Seguan, hurts. They basically, just for context, A.J. Brown and Devonzi Smith put up the exact same numbers. That's basically almost identical numbers. AJ Brown had three touchdowns more than Devonte. And also games played is different. You're right. Yep. I mean, he missed, AJ Brown missed a couple games. But from a fantasy truth perspective, consistency in the first half, 28 for Devonte Smith, 36 for AJ Brown. That hurt.

everybody in fantasy with those guys being outside the top 25 inconsistency. Second half, AJ Brown, we had talked about it on the show as a trade four target. He ends up at eight. Yeah, because he talked enough where they started throwing him the ball and losing games. I mean, down the stretch, they went three and four in their last seven games when AJ Brown started becoming the wider receiver five, one, 12, 17. You know, more. Not causation, more correlation, but it's still a funny thing to look at and just be like, they want a lot more games when AJ Brown was not the focal point of their offense. Great games for Brown were 20%. Devante Smith great games? 6%. Yeah. Good games 40% for Brown, 29% for Smith. Bust games. 59% for DeVante Smith. You're talking about under 7.5 points killed you.

type of games. What do you make of that? Man, what I what we need to discuss is really what happened with Dallas Goddard, how he became such an important passing target that hadn't been really prior. That feels like they messed something up. Yeah, I mean, well, obviously they fired the offensive staff. They brought in genius superstar quarterback Sean Mannion. And so I don't know what he's going to do. You ever put the wrong pieces together on an IKEA furniture and you end up with something different than you wanted to do? All of a sudden, you pull out the drawer and there's a Dallas Goddard right there. And you meant it to be an AJ Brown. We've all been there. I don't know what that analogy even was. The, um, Goddard had 11 receiving touchdown. Good night. Just to remind people. Good night. They couldn't run the ball. They couldn't play action the same way. I mean, yeah, I mean, the question is, is was it system?

Or was it quarterback? Because there are the debates. People say that the system has to be dumbed down for Jalen Hertz. The Jalen Hertz can't run these complex motion systems. It doesn't jive with his skill set. And we've heard this multiple times. That's one argument. On the other argument, on the other side is he's gotten to the Super Bowl twice. He's looked great. He's put up great passing numbers, great rushing yardage. When he's got, you know, Kellynne Moore, when he's got an offensive coordinator that gets it done. All of a sudden, the offense is chugging, and Sequin Barclay's the number one running back in all the football. So there was also the Lane Johnson very important injury for that stretch of lost games. That's probably much more on lane than it is on AJ Brown. Goddard's a free agent. If you're the Eagles, if you're the Eagles, do you just, I know they're not a patient franchise, but do you just chalk that up to our offense just got out of sync? Let's run this thing back. Because all last year we got talk of AJ Brown leaving.

and being unhappy. Like you know going into this season is Philadelphia, you have two choices. You can build your offense to be more around AJ Brown so he's happy, or you can have a mad AJ Brown in the locker room. Those are your two choices. I think they will look to move AJ Brown. Does that, that's where the Devante Smith, AJ Brown dynasty question gets interesting to me. It's because I look at that ranking and I say, I don't think AJ Brown's, he's either on this team for one more year or no more years. I could also see AJ Brown pulling a Brandon Marshall though.

and going and dominating at an older age for another team. When he goes somewhere, he's going to be that squeaky wheel demanding the ball. And, you know, if he gets a gunslinger. He's still just, I mean, he's 28. He's on the older side, but not that old. But Smith is 27. He's going to say it's only a one-year age gap there. Oh, man, you don't think that because Smith is so small. And like you're small. He's still growing, right? And then you grow up and you become an AJ Brown. Right? Yeah, I mean, what's the years played difference? So Smith has played five. Wondale Robinson's only like 15 years old. So Brown has played seven years. Darnel, Darnel, Washington. Of the two, I'm still going to prefer A.J. Brown. He could still take over a game where I feel like things just kind of have to break right for Smith on the way that the game is unfolding. Well, we did talk about the,

the lack of the big play. And Devante Smith, that's a big part of him being valuable for your fantasy team. Not a lot of teams could get that done. Teteroa McMillan comes in at 15. Consistency rank of 20. Somehow, 20, despite a 27 in the first half, 23 in the second half. I mean, this is probably going to be a rookie of the year. Teteroa McMillan, the totals, 70 for 10, 14, and 7. Not as much opportunities you would have liked him to have. Correct. but pretty much showed his physicality and ability to dominate whenever he had those opportunities. So I think you look at this season. What was the numbers for, give me Marv's rookie year. Marv was like 700. I thought he was like 808. I just wanted to see the differentials between those two because he had more touchdowns than Tetaro did. Tederoa and McMillan, the year, having him on your fantasy squads, I don't think he didn't feel.

Fantastic. He came through with enough spike games that it was definitely worth it. I mean, you put up. Did he meet your expectations? I would say he slightly below. Marv maybe a little bit below. Marv was 885 and 8 in his rookie season. There's not that many rookie wide receivers to hit 1,000 yards. This was a really good rookie season from Tet. What it wasn't was it wasn't the... Sensational breakout. Brian Thomas, neighbors, Pooka, Jefferson. It's all the really good one. The breakout superstars. Yeah. You take, I mean, there's just not that many of those guys. This is more of the Drake London plan. Yeah, is what it felt like. Because I think you guys love Drake London's tape instantly. Didn't get the numbers accumulating, but it's come over time as the team in the offense has gotten better. That's a great, that's a great comp. But if you want to look deeper into that, Drake London rookie year.

866 yards and four touchdowns. So Teterrault had a much better, much better rookie season than Drake London, who we know is a great player. Tataroa showed to me he's a great wide receiver. He is what we hoped. He is what the Panthers hoped. I think this could be as much a Bryce Young problem as it is a Teteroa problem. And so I'm going to bet on the talent of a position that can be so rewarding. I'm very in on Teteroa. 70, wait, what was he? Like 70, 1007 or so? I mean, to do that with, with that offense and Bryce Young, especially when you had, you know, spots of the season where, like, the team was like, no, it's Rico Dowdell. I mean, the Rico Dowdle weeks, what did, what did McMillan even doing those? Right. I missed remember. Maybe McMillan had an okay game, but, like, you have two games where, where,

where Rico Dattle's rushing for like 200 yards a game. Yeah, that was week's five and six. So week, so week five, he still put up 10 points. And then week six, he put up 16 points. He had two touchdowns. It was not a huge output day, but he, he had the tutties. Wondale at 16. Another surprise. Wondale at 16. Oh, man. This, this is like, this is why I'm excited for Darton neighbors next year. 29th inconsistency, or sorry, 21st inconsistency. Sorry, Mike, go ahead. I'll say, Dart, DART carried Wondale Robinson to being a top 20 fantasy wide receiver. Like, this is very exciting. 92 for 10, 14, and 4. Neighbors out early in the season. 13% great, 38% good, 44% bus games. Wondale's.

The weirdest because some days he just looks like he could dominate. Well, it was against bad teams as well. I mean, the bottom 16. Yep. In his six games there, he averaged 16.45 fantasy points per game against the top half defenses. It was seven fantasy points a game. Wide disparity that he obviously benefited from neighbors being done. He showed that he can do it. I'm going to give this credit. I'm going to give it all to one deal. I'm not going to give beneficiaries anywhere else. He's done it two years in a row. There's only three wide receivers of the 140 targets and 90 receptions in each of the last two years. Jamar Chase, Alman Ross, St. Brown, and Wondale. I'm just giving the credit to Wondale Robinson. I'm with you. He's a baller. If you do it two years in a row, and every year we have to be like he only did it because of, I mean, he's just going to find a way to, that's like Alman Ra's story. Can I ask you from his rookie year? What you think his consistency grade is on this season? Oh, it's got to be.

I mean, it's got to be Giants level. That's got to be a D. You're right. It's a D. He helped you 35% of his game. So he is an accumulator, and I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the little guy. Yeah, I mean, when did DART takeover? We had Russ this year. We started with Russ. We also had somebody else. But also one of his big games was with Russ. Had some James. Yeah, look, you're trying to take away from a guy. I'm proud of the little guy. And what he's done? I'm proud of him. And I'm just telling you he did it two years in a row. He did big boy stuff. Oh my gosh. Two years in a row. That's why I'm so proud. T. Higgins would never play this many games in a row. No, that's true. He's got bad meat. He had more top 12 finishes just like Devanta Smith. He had more top 12 finishes than T. Higgins, more than Cortland Sutton. Wondale is good.

Yeah. Wondale is a good player. Wondale is good. He has. It's why he plays in the NFL. He also has had some people calling plays for him in the past where they're, they had clearly pigeonholed him into a role, and they felt like he couldn't do something else. Like go downfield? Right. And then this year, I feel like it happened. just multiple times like, oh, holy crap. Second rounder Jason. That's Wondale Robinson. Wondell Robinson. I'm going to be honest here because the jokes of just being proud of this little guy because he's 5-8-185. Yeah, it's got Andy Isabella in the back of your mind. Go on. He's, he is good. You know, when they started using him in the middle areas of the field, you know, it's like either for so long it was either just like go run and do nothing or get a screen behind the line of scrimmage. Giants expected to resign him to.

Yeah, I think Mike is excited about Dart appropriately if neighbors and Scataboo can come back healthy. This is an offense. I'd love Wanda to be back. So how I'm talking about he was used incorrectly. Do you understand how staggeringly crazy similar his numbers are from this year and last year? This year, last year, 140 targets apiece. This year 92 catches last year 93. He caught 66% of his passes. both seasons. Yeah, give me his yards last year. 600 something? 699. Yeah, I knew it. Seven and a half yards per completion. This year, 1,000 and 11 yards. Because they let him go down the field. I mean, that's, he's way better. That's egregiously bad coach. Yeah. Run Dale. Rundale Robinson. Also, let's go. Also, while I, while I, you know, give props to the little guy, just, you do.

He is tough as nails, man. That's such a back. I know, I know. It really is. I'm just coming from a big guy. I'm just having fun here. The actual compliment here is he took some shots across the middle, down the field. Didn't get tuckered out? No, he didn't. Yeah, it's fun, isn't it? It's fun. We got to blitz some of these. Drake London. Drake London, his season was marred by injury. This is a perfect truth show player. 17th in fantasy finish is what you're going to see. When you come back to fantasy football or you're reacclimating to the fantasy finish, his consistency was nine. Drake London is a top 10 guy. Absolutely. He was good with cousins. He was good with Pinnix. You're fine. Drake London is a great player. He's the clear number one for a team without a number two. And he won't go late in drafts, but he might go a few picks too late because it wasn't a continuous.