Top 10 WR Rankings + Josh $tallion, Spring Chickens - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/9

Yeah, I was going to bring this up when we were talking about the good news with Justin Jefferson, Julio Jones, minor injuries, not worried. Every team's going to say whatever they want because you don't have to report the truth about any injuries right now. So we have no idea. And the Raiders don't have to tell us anything. But it's worth monitoring and noting that he has been, you know, gone for a week.

Well, Lutz could miss time to start the season. He's one of the best fantasy kickers. So be aware that they're trying out other kickers right now. He may have a core muscle injury. That could cost him time surgery. We don't know. Falcon signed Deontay Foreman, who is back in the league. Oh, man. Loved that dude. Wow, I didn't know this. This is breaking to me. Cardinals signed Edo Smith. Yes, we did. Oh, my word. You excited, Jason?

That's the grossest thing I've ever heard. You follow up this great news of Deonti Foreman signing with an NFL team and then you've got to tell me that the Cardinals. Oh, that's gross. Well, Deonti Foreman recovering from an Achilles injury never really was the same. And Edo Smith playing as though he already had an Achilles injury. Two of them, yeah. All right, that was today's news and notes brought to you by Sleeper.

Sleeper is currently by far the largest dynasty platform, extremely customizable. We love Dynasty because you play all year long. You get that communication with your league mates. So definitely check that out. Today's a wide receiver show. Unless I'm missing other news, are we ready to move forward? We ready to get into it? Let's go. Wide receivers. All right.

Today is our top 10 wide receiver rankings show. We'll be getting into all the position groups over the course of the week, five days a week. And we're looking at our half PPR rankings. And in truth, these top 10 shows, I mean, there are things that we already know about these players, right? They're there for a reason. You're familiar with them. These are the elites of the elites. It's hard to, you know, at this point, we are splitting hairs over a number of these players.

So take it with a grain of salt when we say something negative about them because at the end of this episode, they're all still in our top ten. Fair, right? Yeah, and really there's, I mean, all the pluses of these players should be widely known. That's why they're, you know, so highly ranked. So we're going to talk about maybe the question marks and where to think about where to think about the bad. Well, and the truth is despite their rankings over the last.

five years, there is a 44% bust rate. So that would be any of these players finishing outside the top 15, not up to expectations. However, 55% of those were due to injury. And you just can't, we know this, we can't predict injury. So that's just the luck of the draw in fantasy. Yep, you were just trying to mitigate risk with your picks. You're trying to get the best level of guarantee possible in fantasy, which is only a certain level, right? You can't guarantee against injury.

But you can take a look at the whole situation. Devante Adams number one. Not a surprise here. There was doubt. There were question marks. There were problems brewing with Aaron Rogers. But at this point in time, we know that Rogers is back. And we know that Devante Adams is the best. 148 targets and only 14 games last year. 13174 yards, 18 touchdowns.

And that's with, like I said, missing half a week three, weeks four and five, scored 10 plus touchdowns in four or five seasons. Yeah, I mean, missing those games, he was on pace for 1668 yards and 22 touchdowns. The guy's a touchdown machine. You can't stop them at the goal line. They, with Aaron Rogers, they choose to go to that play as often as they run it. Obviously, this is an offense that's going to,

This is an offense that's going to score a lot of points, even if they regress closer to, you know, a high-end NFL average, which they will, that's still going to be a great offense. And so when you have that level of target volume, that level of consistency, if you have, if you're on Join the Foot, if you're a Footland supporter, you go to his profile on our website and you could see the game log highlighted. It's just.

unbeatable. I mean, having Devante Adams when he's got Aaron Rogers is a true unfair advantage. So I think the question is where are you willing to actually pull the trigger and avoid a running back and take that first round wide receiver? Right. Over the last 10 years or so, wide receivers drafted number one have been more stable than the quarterbacks and running backs. So that is the question. Like, where do you fault anybody for pulling the trigger on him as high as, let's say, number three?

Number three overall? Yeah. I personally would not do that. But, like, to me, I'm looking at the running backs, you know, McCaffrey Cook, Camara, Henry. Those guys, for sure, I'm taking over him. Then it, Zeke, I would as well. Aaron Jones. Interesting enough, I mean, Sequin Barkley might be that, that tear break for me, just of the concerns the beginning of the season. But then you also.

If you're drafting Barclay and realize it's going to take some time for him to really get going. But after at least a month at the longest, you should have real Sequin Barclay back. And then you have an advantage of a three-down running back. I'm still taking Travis Kelsey over Devante Adams because there's only one, there's only one Travis Kelsey. And even though Devante Adams projects out to be the best wide receiver for us, there's still, you know, five, at least five guys where you'd be.

You'd be super happy to take them as the first wide receiver off the board. Yeah, I love Devante Adams. I can't sing his praises high enough. And yet, when I draft him, you know, if I'm near the, you know, the eight spot or something like that, and I pull the trigger on him, I usually don't like my team as much as when I can have the first round stud running back because I...

You've been able to stack wide receivers. Yeah, those middle round wide receivers are just phenomenal. So it's really difficult. This is a question for you while you're playing while you're getting ready for your drafts. Go to sleep or do a mock draft. And draft them. See if you like your team grabbing Devante Adams or this next guy, Tyree Kill. It does seem like if you take Adams early, you are boxed into running back round two, which is the last position you want to be in.

Or at least it seems like you might be. See, and for me, it's even scarier in round three or round four because let's say you go to round three and you did go running back round two. Now I feel like I'm boxed into my second running, unless I want to go. What about a three wide receiver league? Certainly. Would you take Adams? Yes. Is it worthwhile taking him even one overall in a league like that? Would you ever take him there? I wouldn't take him one overall because Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, those guys are just two.

They score too many points in one position. Would you go to 103? Yeah, I think I would be willing. Probably not my personal strategy, but I wouldn't fall. If you're a three wide receiver full PPR, wide receivers become far more important. All right. Tyree Kill is number two on the list. There is consensus agreement with these two players at the top of the board. 1276 yards, 15 touchdowns last year. Two rushing touchdowns finished at number two at the position.

He has matured into kind of, you know, the days of former Tyreek Hill being explosive and not consistent are gone, 135 targets. He is the kind of player that can completely win you a week and a half, right? I mean, he had a game with two, what was it, 13 for 269 and 3 last year. Yeah, and most of that was in the first half. Yeah, so he's very fun to have on your fantasy roster.

But again, you're going to have to spend up on him. His average draft position is the eighth pick in the first round. And Mike, if you're heads up with Tyreek and his teammate, Travis Kelsey, you're going Kelsey. I am going Kelsey, yes. Since 2017, he's tied with Devante Adams for the most multi-touchdown games. So those are the weak winning type of games. The one kind of interesting caveat to Tyreek is he has been dominant on the road. 17 fantasy points a game on the road.

for Tyree Kill. He's the best road wide receiver ever. Yeah. He loves hotel living. I mean, who doesn't? Yeah, that's pretty good. Room service. The one negative I would bring up with Tyree Kill and just a slight bit of caution, you brought this up a second ago, Andy, in the fact that he was, it seems like he put the consistency problems away, right? Last season, extremely consistent.

However, I've brought this up several times. Consistency is not a very consistent metric. It goes back and forth. Volume is a better indicator. And when you're talking about 130 targets versus Devante Adams, who could be 170 targets, you're more likely to have that come in spurts. And I don't view Tyreek as a super consistent player, despite him doing it this year. Remember 2018, he was the wide receiver one.

He was the best wide receiver in fantasy football, and he had seven games outside the top 24. The variance can come at the very least. Was there any temptation to put him ahead of Adams once he knew Rogers was coming back? Or was that definitive? Like Adams was going to be at the one spot. Adams was definitely the one for me. If this is a Dynasty League, I think Tyreek is my number one overall player in Dynasty. Yeah, there are question marks about the future of Adams in Green Bay as well as Rogers.

Whereas Mahomes is in, what, a 40, 50-year contract? Is that what it was? Oh, yeah. Yeah, minimum. Okay. Adams has never played one year. He's played a full season. He's always banged up for a couple games. That's crazy. Yeah. So those two guys at the very tippy top of the wide receiver rankings, you know you're going to get production. Yep. And before we get to number three, you want to think, hello fresh. Hello.

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A disparity on our rankings. We did it. I buried them. Stefan Diggs comes in at number three, but way, way, way, way, way down at four for Jason. Now, I didn't realize you had him at three, Mike. Is this a recent change or do I not pay attention to you enough? You don't pay attention. Okay. Last year, 166 targets. So piggybacking on what you said about the volume being an indicator of future success.