Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Top 20 WR's, Kevin from The League, Fantasy News

Oh, no, I'm sorry, Abdullah is Barry Sanders. Well, according to Todd Bowles. Man, we're going to have so many Abdullah-Joyk Bell discussions this year because it's going to roll one direction. Yeah, it could run my direction. Roll right down the middle. That's true. To the end zone. Julio Jones, 156 targets last year. He had the third best...

deep ball catch rate behind D Jax and Des. He is moving into a Kyle Shanahan offense that has been pretty much wide receiver one dominant. Yes. Andre Johnson had his best years ever under Kyle Shanahan when he finished first and second in fantasy production in 08 and 09. Pierre Garcin, who we've seen kind of fall off the map since Colts, yep. Yeah.

He led the league in receptions under Shanahan, and neither of those, I mean, Andre Johnson maybe at his peak, but I mean, you're talking the same type of talent with Julio Jones. I think the most important Julio stat to me was of the guys who were the top five in yardage, Antonio Brown, Demerius Thomas, Jordi, Emmanuel, and Julio. Julio had about a thousand, or 150 less snaps than those guys.

So if that has the potential to increase, his fantasy production will increase. Correct. A plus B equals draft Julio Jones. Yeah. I want to remind everybody, too, because a lot of people have been tweeting and emailing with questions of who we would take, you know, Des or Julio, Calvin or Antonio Brown. All of our rankings.

individually are on the website at the fantasy footballers.com. You just click the rankings button. You can see each of our rankings next to each other. You can also download those in Excel. And if you wanted to print them out or keep them on you, we try to update those a lot. Put it on like a plaque. Put it on a plaque. That way you can remember all of the wrong choices. We want you to forget that. Yeah. After you're done with the drafts, burn the list. No. Number two. Number two is Antonio Brown.

Even in a standard. Even in a standard. Of course. Yeah. No, I'm just pointing that out because some people feel like his value is PPR. But he is, he's worthy of being the number one, even in a standard league, just because his floor is just, it's...

Atop the Empire State building. His floor is five catches for 50 yards. Yeah, that's what he's going to do. 13 touchdowns last year, just under 1,700 yards on 178 targets. I think the number that could adjust down would be the touchdown number. It's possible. It's especially with Martavis Bryant in the mix there. If you watched Bryant on preseason game one, I was telling this to Jason yesterday, there are a couple players in my life that I've watched that when they beat someone deep,

They beat them by 12 yards. Martavis Bryant beats people by 12 yards. You know, Randy Moss used to beat people by 12 yards down the field. It's impressive. He had a touchdown catch. And it doesn't hurt Antonio Brown to have a deep threat on the other side, but it could hurt the touchdown numbers a little bit. Do you agree? Yeah, I would agree. But I'm not worried about Antonio Brown at all. No, that offense is dynamic. So at number three, Calvin Johnson. Are we in the minority having him this high?

I haven't looked around lately, but...

There's no reason to doubt Calvin Johnson. But he's old, Mike. Yeah, he is old. He's been hurt, Mike. Even with no reason to doubt Calvin, the reason that maybe other people have him outside is just because there is such a good group of top tier wide receiver ones. You know, the guys that we're going to be covering here, Julio and all the way down through A.J. Green, they're all great. So they could finish above Calvin. It's just a matter of whether you think he's still healthy and still...

Let me ask you this because people are going to stare down this choice. We have them ahead of Des Bryant and AJ Green right now, Jordy Nelson, those guys. In consensus. In consensus. In a, well, that's fine. But in a dynasty or keeper situation, how much are you ticking Calvin down? Or how many years do you think Calvin has left at elite production level? Is it enough to where you don't care about the youth? I mean, Julio, we have ahead of him already. But what do you think about that dynamic? If we're talking.

Dynasty Keeper, I have the other guys above Calvin, like Julio and Dez and Green. Yeah, I agree. I'd rather have them. Even if you think Calvin will be better this year. Yes. Yeah, because I don't think any one of these guys that we could predict right now is just going to be such a cut above this year. I mean, Calvin could. Yeah, the tears are the same. Exactly. That's a good point. Des Bryant comes in at number four.

I guess we didn't talk too much about Calvin's target numbers, but they're through the roof, obviously. He was on a pace for 182 targets last year. That's adjusting some numbers, but... Yeah, we do that to make the rankings work. Well, he had the two dummy games where he didn't do anything. Where he was a distraction. Yeah. Des Bryant comes in at number four. He has 56 touchdowns in the last five years, and you can just, if there was anybody I had to put...

you know, like a bet of my house down on getting double-digit touchdowns is Des Bryant. Yeah, absolutely. I would say if you're in touchdown leagues, I want Des Bryant. Yeah, he would be the number one clear wide receiver if you're in a touchdown-only league. Yeah, he's a dominant force. They lost Murray. They should pass around the goal line a little bit more just from necessity if guys can't get in the end zone the way Murray did. AJ Green comes in in number five. Hey, guys, gals.

Don't forget about AJ Green. I know. Seriously. He's great. It's sad. He's great. He's wonderful. And you cannot let... In a standard league, I have him at number three. And I have no problem with that. I think he's four for me. So...

There's a reason he's right here for us. And here's the best part about AJ Green is that he's being drafted as the eighth wide receiver. And this is a guy who could finish number one if, you know, everybody in this group, this first tier could finish as the number one. So to be able to get him, you know, later in the second round is like fantastic. And he's the guaranteed high floor. You know, he's never had less than a thousand and six. Even last year when he was injured, he put up big numbers. Yeah.

And he's Andy Dalton's favorite target. And Andy Dalton has more weapons at his disposal this year. So things should be better for that offense, which was already, I think, even though Dalton had one of the career worst years in certain metrics last year, they were like the eighth best offense. Yeah. And Jeremy Hill is only going to make them better, get more defense drawing in. Yeah, Marvin Jones is back. Tyler Eifford is healthy. Any thoughts on Green before we move on? He's great. All right.

I'll let him know. Number six is Jordy Nelson, a guy who very well could be getting not enough respect at number six. You know what I think about Jordan Nelson? He's great. He's great. This first tier is really easy to talk about. There was a lot of news this week about Green Bay coming out and saying they want to.

Play faster? Speed up the game, aka get more offensive plays for Aaron Rogers and those wide receivers. And they did. Crazy. Crazy. That offense just getting faster and more plays. Yeah. When you talk about consistency from a wide receiver, Jordy Nelson, you know, you have the Aaron Rogers effect. You know you have a good quarterback throwing him the ball. You don't have to guess on that. And since I think, you know, 120 targets a year average since 2013. That's pretty good. Not bad.

And he's very efficient, and Jordy Nelson can strike for a touchdown at any time. Yeah, that was really annoying every time I played you last year. That was the best. You know, oh, no, Jordy Nelson's being kept under wraps in this game. They're really focusing on him. And then he catches, you know, a back shoulder 40-yarder and just cuts it back across the field to the end zone. I mean, he had the primetime game against Minnesota where he had, I think, two catches, and he was still one of the top fantasy producers of the week.

Yeah, so it's hard to depend on that, but if there was a situation to depend on it, it's Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rogers in that combination. And he's a big guy. He's going to score touchdowns, and so he's reliable, and that's why he's number six. And number seven is Demarius Thomas. And we'll let Jason talk because Jason has him numeral uno. I do. I've got him very... Number one. Yeah, I've got him very high.

in a standard league. And the reason is because if you look back the last several years, he's finished in the absolute top three. He is very consistent. He's a great red zone target. And Julius Thomas, who was one of the most important tools for getting red zone touchdowns last year, is gone. So I think that you still got Peyton Manning, and he's still going to lead the team in targets, maybe even lead the league in targets, as he generally does or gets right near there. And so there's no reason

to expect anything but his numbers to go up a little bit and his red zone targets go up. You think his numbers can go up target-wise? Not target-wise, but I think that when it comes to red zone targets, I think those are going to go up. I think his targets are going to stay the same, which is basically the best of everyone. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. Well, I mean, you lose weapons on the offense. So I...

I feel like he's a lock this year. Now, if we're talking dynasty leagues, I'm a little bit more afraid because I don't know the future of his quarterback situation. But this year in a redraft, I love it. Don't you have a Brock Osweiler jersey? No, no, I don't. Yeah, I can't really argue with anything you said other than the fact that I think a season like 2012 and 2013 is more likely for him. 150 target range, 90 receptions, 1,500 yards, 10 touchdowns. No big deal.

No big deal. All right. Alshan Jeffrey is our consensus. Okay. So are we agreed that we're kind of getting out of the top tier. This is where, and I wanted to bring this up, Alshan Jeffrey is the beginning of tier two to me. However, there's one guy here that we haven't brought up. Oh, Del Beckham. Yeah, exactly. ODB, we haven't talked about it. You're still counting him. He's in your top tier? I think this is our muddy water tier because some of us have these guys this top tier, some don't. Because Jeffrey and ODB are both in my.

Top 10. Yeah, so he's in my top 10. I'm just talking top tier. I do think for me when it comes... They are both in my top tier. When it comes to drafting, when it comes to drafting...

Alshan Jeffrey, I have him finishing as a wide receiver one, but I see him as in my second tier of groups. I don't think he has, I don't think he has the ability to finish number one. I do think he has the ability to finish as a number one, but not the number one. Whereas all the other guys, I do, and obviously O'Dell Beckham also does. So I would put him up. You have him at eight.

Mike, you have them at 9 Jeffrey. I'm sorry, inverse that. But you guys have them in 8-9 range. I have Jeffrey at 5 right now. I don't think the Kevin White News is bad news for Al-Shan Jeffrey. No, it is not. And just from a target perspective, I mean, he was near the top of the league last year in targets. It's going to be the Al-Shaun Jeffrey show there. It's just a matter of how much do they pass comparatively to last year. What is the John Fox effect and how they hand the ball off how their defense plays?

Yeah, I just don't see the offense. I mean, that's really, he's going to be the number one, and he is super talented. I've got him as a wide receiver one. But I just don't see the offense being so prolific that they're going to be able to have the number one wide receiver. And this year, they have 11 of their 16 games against the top half of defenses. Only five games against the bottom half defenses. So he's going to have. Well, right now. Well, right. I mean, preseason, you know, judging who the good defenses are always changes.

It's always interesting because most of the guys we've talked about have done it, okay? They've all finished in that top tier. And so we know that somebody will probably be in that top tier that hasn't done it before. And for me, that's what makes Jeffrey the pick, right? I have to project forward on him. I don't necessarily disagree with you. I can't see him being the number one overall wide receiver. It's hard for me to see that. But I think he can be a top five guy, and that's why he's there for me. I agree.