The TRUTH: Top 10 Fantasy WRs + Goober Alert! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/30

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in the fantasy footballers, Jason Moore, Mike the fantasy hitman. I'm Andy Holloway. You know we're recording over here, Jay. Oh, I know, I know, but over here on your phone. I'm, uh, look, are you researching. Candy Crush? Yes, look, I'm just playing a little kid. No, I'm, you know, we've got our pick six lineup today. Okay. You know, and I just wanted to, you know, go ahead and. Are you going to lock it in? I'm locking it in. I'm putting it where my mouth is, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's a smart thing to do, Mr. King. Oh, yeah. I hope that, uh, you put one in on yours as well, Mr. King. Yes, yes, I did.

It's always nice when Mike loses it's something. He's been on such a hot streak. He needed that giant head to become giant. A little, yeah, just regular giant. It's just half, half loss. I know. It's a half loss, half weight. You're not a full. Nothing. I thought you won, too, because you lost on Josh Allen not getting a rushing touchdown, which he did, but they actually stopped him. Right. Welcome into the show Thursday, January 30th. The truth about the wide receiver position as we continue our truth series episodes, NFL news to talk about. Got a big, big Pro Bowl primer. No, we don't. No, we don't. Oh, man. We were looking through some of the... If Russell Wilson makes the Pro Bowl, I don't have a primer episode. It is so... The Pro Bowl in the NFL is so broken. It's not broken. It's just stupid.

It's just worthless and dumb. The only purpose that it serves is to hit like bonuses on contracts. Right. I make the Pro Bowl. I get this. They should literally just go down the list and be like, who's got a Pro Bowl bonus? Give it to that guy so that he can get his contract because no one's watching. Well, you only get the bonus if you are alternate. It doesn't give you the bonus. Oh, really? Yeah. So Tyler Huntley got nothing? No. Well, I mean, he got to put Pro Bowl on his resume. Put all the bonuses in one of those big Scrooge McDuck.

things and then bring all the pro bowlers there and they all dive in and claim their bonuses. Like a Hunger Games, the piggy bank? I'd watch that. I mean, would you rather watch the Pro Bowl or the Hall of Fame game? I would rather watch probably the Pro Bowl. And I do, please don't hear what I'm not saying. I do not want to watch the Pro Bowl. The energy around the Hall of Fame game, even if the players aren't out there, is better because the season's about to start. I'm more excited during that time of the year than during Pro Bowl weekend. But I just feel like, I think if the three of us were to be given the keys to how to fix it, we could do it. We could come up with the events that we enjoy watching. They were like, I want to see who's got the strongest. Like way back in the day, they did that. Yeah, they did. They had like, let's get far, throwing it deep. Yeah, it's like, let's, I want to see Josh Allen and Anthony Richardson get.

next, you know, getting that little lineup and you can't move past this line. Who can throw it further? That's awesome. Bring that back. Yeah, I'm interested in that. But a lot of the games they have now, they're just goofy and dumb. And, uh, hey, hey, NFL, you can afford to incentivize these guys to go. Right, because everybody turns it down. Yeah. I'm a little injured or I just don't want to go or I was playing late into the season. So you don't get Lamar Jackson. You don't get Josh Allen. You also don't get even get Bo Nix. You don't get anybody from the Super Bowl.

now with how it's positioned. No matter what, which kind of seems the best players in the league, except for the best players in the league. Like they make, I think they increase revenue by billions every year. At least I'm looking at a, in 20, 23, the NFL generated $20 billion, which is up $2 billion from the previous year. You can figure out how to get your superstars to this event. Other words, let's just stop it. Let's just do a slam dunk contest. Oh, see, that would be fun. See? Oh, NFL players? Yes. Well, that's not what this show is about, though. So we have the fantasy face off on today's episode as well, but let's start with some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Back on the phone. I'm doing the same thing, mine. Cliff Kingsbury will stay in Washington, not interview for the Saints head coaching job, which is also true of Mike McCarthy, who will focus on the 2026.

I see, the 2026 hiring cycle. I really liked the, at least how it was reported. And again, this is alleged. This has been reported that basically how it went was the Saints didn't really seem interested in Mike McCarthy. So he pulled out. It's like, you can't. Right. I break up with you. You're, I bring it up with you. Once all the teams turn him down, he's going to focus on the next year. The, it also is. Like, I don't know if that's how Mike McCarthy said or if that's just the way it's being reported. But, I mean, the coaches, I have to imagine, being a head coach, there's a bit of a fraternity, a bit of a union of like, you're doing a job that very few other people have done. And if you're like Mike McCarthy, you're like, I'm going to focus on next year because some of y'all are getting fired. And I'm going to be there when you get fired. And I'm going to take that job. Well, it's.

Yeah. It's just the way it works. Yeah. But it's just said, like the wording is. Well, he was at the, he also got a little bit, unfortunately timed with the way the Cowboys handled the, all the negotiations are still going. The Cowboys did that? So here's the deal to me. The leading frontrunner to become the head coach for the Saints appears to be Callen Moore, who is the Eagles offensive coordinator right now. And we have had success. Shane Steichen, failure with the next offensive coordinator, bringing up what they had, success with Kellen Moore. And so that would be the headline to me, right, in part. Is the Eagles losing Kellemore? And then Kellemore brings, you know, ingenuity to the offense. So maybe the Saints can do something. But, yeah, McCarthy said he was supposed to interview on Friday. But he decided 2026 is his year.

Okay. The Saints are over the cap by $50 million. So that is number one in the league. Not always the best spot to be in for a head coach coming in. Maybe that factored in as well. The Lions have hired Broncos passing game coordinator John Morton to be their new offensive coordinator. He is 55 years old. He's primarily been an assistant offensive guy or a wide receiver. coach. I believe he was a wide receiver in the NFL back in the day. But the, this hire was because back in 2022 with this regime, with Dan Campbell, he was part of the Detroit Lions as a senior offensive assistant. So they know him. They've worked with them. Obviously, they believe in him as they're bringing him in. This will be the first time he has been an OC, you know, play caller. It's going to be a pretty big change going from Ben Johnson.

All right. And then we did get one report that tight end Eric All Jr. expected to miss all of 2025 due to complications from his ACL surgery. That stinks. It's a bummer. He was, I mean, it wasn't like a full breakout, but like he was putting up enough noise of like, hey, this is a player that we need to pay attention to. That was today's news and notes, presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. It's time for the truth. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. You know, with your current hairstyle, Jay, if you go down to more of like a goatee, I think John Morton is in the Halloween. Yeah, if he can pull that off. I think he needs, he really needs to elevate his name. Right now I'd be kind of aiming down. So Morton, let's, you know, maybe. You don't like Morton. If you're talking the salt.

Morton's salt is just fine. I'm just saying, you know, he doesn't really... That's his salt. Well, then now we're talking. Why is he working? Just for the love of the game. Yeah, I, you know, I think a lot of people are hearing John Morton's name for the first time. And going, that dude is 80,000 years old. Morton sounds like the oldest name to me. It's his last name. Yeah, I was going to say it doesn't matter. There has to be a Morton Morton out there, though. I don't think there has to be. I don't think this show's dumb. All right, the truth of the wide receiver position. We have had the opportunity to talk through quarterbacks, talk through the running back position. I encourage everybody who did not hear those episodes. Scroll down on your podcast player. Take a listen if you want. Some general trends for the wide receiver position, not the wide end. That's a new. That's a different position. I think the interesting thing for me or for the landscape of the NFL, we've been doing the show for a long time.

We have seen a movement recently to a lot of plays behind the line of scrimmage. We have a high percentage of targets in that 10 to 19 yard range, or maybe more prominently, we have the lowest percentage of 20-plus yard targets that we have seen since before 2018 over the past year, the fewest percentage of targets 20-plus air yards downfield that we've ever had. Which makes me sad. Yeah, it is unfortunate. There was all, it coincided with more rushing attempts this year. It feels like as the NFL has, you know, five, six years ago. Yeah, are we getting this? Are we getting the swing back? Yeah, it feels like we're swinging because you got, you know, more, more safeties deep and you've got smaller, lighter defenders who are quicker to guard these smaller lighter wide receivers. So it's like, hey, you're mad.

Remember when we had those running backs that were just awesome and really valuable? You know, now this season you saw that happen to great success. Yeah, there's always the punch, counter punch, offense, defense in the NFL. So yeah, you could be right. We're seeing more of those short area targets of late. We saw 24 total receiving touchdowns on behind the line of scrimmage targets, which is more than the last two years combined. Kind of interesting. Thanks, Josh Allen. Well, yeah, I mean, it does work. It's been working. Xavier Worthy caught a lot of passes in that area of the field. So we are looking at the truth of the wide receiver position. General reminder for everybody out there, we calculate the truth looking at the 17 games of fantasy football relevance. We look at their consistency, the player's consistency based on how many great games, what percentage of those.

For wide receivers, that's 20 or more points. Half PPR. Good games, 12 and a half or more points. Bust games, fewer than seven and a half points is how we are breaking down consistency. Not as surprise as we kick things off, but number one, Jamar Chase, number one in fantasy finish, number one in consistency. First half was number four. Second half was number one overall and was drafted as the wide receiver four off the board. But finally, finally delivered on the, the reasoning of why you always took him where you took him. Yeah, I mean, he had an all-time season. This was a triple crown winner. Right. So Jerry Rice, Sterling Sharp, Steve Smith, and Cooper Cutback at 2021, only other guys who have led the league in all three of the major wide receiver categories. 17 plus touchdowns. That's only the third time in the last 30 years. Randy Moss.

Devante Adams, the only other two guys to do. I guess Randy Moss has done it three times by himself. That's why they call it Moss and dudes because he's his own thing. But that's what Jamar Chase was this year. He was, you know, defenses couldn't stop him. You double team him. It doesn't matter. And T. Higgins being on the field is good for Jamar Chase. 31% great games. So 20 or more points, 31% of the time. 75% good games. 6% bust. So he had really one bust game during the entire year. It was eight points better against bottom 16 passing defenses. It's pretty even. Home road splits, actually a little bit better on the road. And like you said, led to league in receptions, receiving yards, touchdowns. It was a monster gap between the gap is huge. Between the wide receiver one and the wide receiver two. So yes, he finished at one.

But having Chase and having Jefferson, there was a difference. To give you an example of how large a difference Jamar Chase is. So Jamar Chase in half PPR averaged 20 fantasy points per game. Number two was Justin Jefferson who averaged 15.6. That's the largest gap between wide receiver one and wide receiver two since 2018. But the gap between Jamar Chase at 20 and Amari Cooper at 7.2 fantasy points per game? Yeah. It is the biggest gap that anyone has ever seen in a trade in the League of Record, which I will never let die again. I was so trying to figure out why Amari Cooper's name was. Amari Cooper for Javier. It wasn't fair. Okay. Would you rather have 7.2 fancy points per game or 20? No, sometimes you move a guy right before they become useless in the NFL. Foot Clan.

trade on news trade away on news we've said that for years i just wanted to prove it to you yeah hype news where it's like what could be if you got a guy with all the hype could be a boat might be a boat trade him for a boat because that's what you did the day that he was you know amari cooper was traded the bills hard to remember now how excited people were Oh, I was very excited when that happened. Considering how bad he used to have Amari Cooper to the pills. Oh, people were very excited about Amari Cooper had like an up and down start to the year, finished last year, super strong. And, you know, I had sent some trade offers chasing some picks for Cooper. Got them, I got them completely rejected multiple times. I tried to craft all these different deals. And then the news happened. It just timed up miraculously. The news happened and the same deal comes back to me. And that's, you know, people.

were grasping for Josh Allen to have his Stefan Diggs. And it's not like we didn't. We hadn't seen that in Buffalo before where one guy puts up prolific numbers. What's crazy is Alan, who we talked about on the truth episode with quarterbacks, still had prolific numbers. It just didn't go to one guy. And Marty Cooper might be toast. Great news for Jamar Chase of like we've already had these four years now including this like truly elite season. And dude is not 25 yet. Are you serious? Man, I'm going to keep him for a while, Jay. Yeah. Yeah, you should. And if you're in a dynasty league, never let him go. I won't. I was really saying that thing, that, the age, that was, that was me looking in the mirror going, oh no. You did great work, Mike. It's so good. It's so good. It's so good. You lost, Mike. I was just thinking that about the League of Record with you. I was like, snakes. So happy you lost. We're two of the only people on the planet with Jamar Chase that didn't win our title games.

And I am thrilled about it. Because you're talking dynasty time. All right. Jefferson came in at two. You just mentioned him. He was actually number two in consistency as well. So the top two, no big surprises there. There were some bumps in the road. 13% bust games, 19% great. So didn't have as many high-end games. 75% good, though. That matches Jamar Chase. Yeah, in the second half of the season. He was still very good, you know, had big games. Was the number one wide receiver, you know, in round two of the playoffs. for the week, but he also had a handful of worst games. I don't know if that is all Sam Darnold or, you know, what it was. I'm going to take a huge L on Justin Jefferson personally in the draft season. Now, I still had him at the back of the first. I'm not like not drafting him in the first, but I said I did not think he had the ability with, you know, with Sam Donald. And really at the time during the draft season for a long time, it was J.J. McCarthy to be able to score enough touchdowns to be.

Top five. Like he was guaranteed to be top 12 because he might be the best wide receiver in the league. He just showed that he can elevate the quarterback play. At his age, also 25, Mike, you know, this is a player who is just looks like he's quarterback proof. The last two years with our truth metrics, 53%, 40% great games this year down to 19%. It's actually the lowest of his career and yet had the highest percentage of games that met that good or better standard of 12 and a half points. So look, if I had to pick a year, I'd pick a different year than this year personally. Yeah. But consistency-wise, he didn't end up being Justin Jefferson. He was better at home, pretty even against both types of, you know, top-end, bottom-end defenses. And look, we don't have to tell you. He's going to be really good and dropped it very high for a very, very, very long time.

Amon Ross St. Brown was drafted as the wide receiver 5, finishes at wide receiver 3, consistency rank of 4. First half, it was 8, second half it was 4, 63% good games, 6% bust, 19% great, and part of the best offense in football. Yeah, I mean, he had the lowest bust rate in the league tied with Jamar Chase at 6%. That's really what, when you draft Amman Ross St. Brown, You're drafting a player for the best floor out there. He's just, you know, he's the clear one. You can't stop his type of routes. Like, Jamar Chase has had games where he really disappears in the past. Not so much this season, but he has had games where the opposing defenses, they just really key in on him, take him out of the game, make it come elsewhere. I don't know the types of routes that Amon Ross St. Brown is running that you can really, you just can't, you know, you're not going to be double teaming the slot.

on a little in-breaking route, you just can't get another guy there quick enough. A little bit of a baby, seedy situation where you're moving all over the field. Always going to be a go-to guy in the red zone and go-to guy on first down. Scored 12 times, 115 catches. This was a really spectacular year. I don't want the performances of Chase, you know, in Jefferson to somehow take away from how good Aman Ra is on a weekly basis. you know, 115 catches is outrageously good. And he will not be someone that I have concerns about the OC change. Like, no. I think they're, they're very valid and fair questions to be like, how good will Goughby? Jameson Williams, the breakout. We got a new, like, Ammon Ra, though, I won't, I won't have any, I won't need to give any discount in ADP just at that price. Yeah, sometimes.

players, it's them and sometimes it's scheme. Sometimes it's both. For instance, on the Dynasty show a couple weeks ago, I was talking about Jalen McMillan, you know, a second half rookie breakout and maybe you call your shot and try to get him now. And when we looked at the tape, I didn't think he was bad by any means. But it wasn't him toasting guys. It was just these schemes that just kept getting him open. It was the second wide receiver across from Mike Evans for this Liam Cohen system. Liam Cohen leaving. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oakland, if you have not seen. You have to. If you haven't seen, then you're just not on social media. Oh, we'll get it. Seriously, we got to put that on the soundboard. If we can take it. If we can handle it. Can we? The board might explode. I cringe into my body. Yes. When Liam Cohen is saying his Duval. What a goober, man. What an absolute.

I've never seen a goober like this before. You had the pew, pew, pew, from John Gannon a couple years ago, and you're like, oh, that guy's a nerd. That guy's a superhero, awesome, Marine. I mean, John Gannon is, that's a man's man. That's a man's man. I can't believe all. Like, I'll be honest. I never sat there and watched interviews with Liam Cohen. Almost does Riz face. You know, you see, you see a press coverage here there, but I didn't know Liam Cohen's personality. You can watch one word. I know too much now. One word from this man and you know his personality. And it's like, how did he get hired as a head coach? Anyways, I was saying something else. Don't remember. But can we get a podcast of him and Russ? Oh, man. Oh, that would be. Would that be the end of the world? I think people would have to listen to it with their fingers in their ears. You know what I mean? How you watch like a movie that's embarrassing through your fingers. Like a scary movie? Yeah, exactly.

I remember what I was saying. Unlimited. Yeah, you're close. I think what you were looking for was. Unlimited diarrhea. Anyways, so when Liam Cohen leaves, I worry a little bit more about McMillan because it was a scheme thing. With Amon-Ross-St. Brown, the offensive coordinator changed. The in-sync go-to quick targets that are between Goff and Ammoner-Ross St. Brown, I'm not worried about it all. Those are your top three. We'll take a break. We'll get into the rest of the names. Incredibly, Brian Thomas Jr. comes in at number four, and this was an ascension over the course of the year. His consistency rank, number eight. Still insanely. From a rookie? Amazing from a rookie. That's fantastic. But finishes at four overall while being drafted as the wide receiver 47 off the board. 63% good, 25% great, 25% bust. Which means that from rookie.

Brian Thomas Jr., you got a higher percentage of his games as great. 20, what is it? 20, what's our threshold for great? I'm sorry. 20 points. 20 points. I didn't know if it was over that. But you had a higher percentage from Brian Thomas than on Monroe than Justin Jefferson. And you see wide receivers get better as the season goes on when they are a rookie. Obviously he started looking, passing the eye test, playing well. But it was towards the midpoint of the season. Some injuries happen both to Trevor Lawrence and to Krisha Kirk. And Gabe Davis and Gavin Ingraham. But the shift happened where it was like, okay, this is our primary offensive weapon. In the passing and receiving, like it doesn't even matter. It's quarterback, running back, wide receiver tied in. Brian Thomas Jr. is our primary weapon. They had a week 12 by week, okay?

From that point forward, week 13 on, and this is including week 18 just because I have the data and I want to maximize the amount of total games, his consistency rank would have been the number one wide receiver during that time. He was that good. And that was with Mack Jones. Double digit targets every week after the by week. So I do believe he has, he established at the end of this year that he is their offensive leader. So next year, speaking of Liam Cohen, he comes in as the new Jaguars' head coach. And, oh, man. Oh, it just makes me cringe because when you do it, here's the problem. Here's the real problem. Sometimes there are like in a horror movie, there is a picture or, you know, the ring and you see that girl.

Uh-huh. You see that scary face. When you say Duvall, I see the outline of this dude's weird comical face, and I am a little hebie-jebied by it. So you say it in a mirror three times. Oh, don't do it. He'll show up. Now, he is, he was a great play caller. It was awesome. He did a great job. That people respect, so we'll reserve some judgment, some. I hope he's awesome. But here's the deal is Brian Thomas Jr. also can move all over the formation. He can also come into the. slot and run routes and be put into a position where he can make an impact. We saw this a little bit this year from him in terms of just you're not going to hold him down the entire game. You might have a quarter where you don't think he's doing something like a C.D. Lamb, he figures it out. Yeah, I mean, one of my favorite things about his rookie season, which is similar to Malik neighbors, is that they used him everywhere and that they used him not just everywhere in the formation, but in the field.

They'd go screen to him. They'll use him in the middle range. Get the ball in his hand. 10 to 15 yards. They'll take deep shots. He was absolutely everywhere. So it makes it really hard to guard players like that. That's what Justin Jefferson can do. He can go anywhere on the field so you can't plan for him the same. He was in the 85th percentile for targets per route run, 97th percentile for yards per route run, 92nd percentile for target percentage compared to all the rookies in the last decade. 99th percentile in zone coverage yards per outrun. He was definitely a dominator. I don't think it's going to stop with the return of a Christian Kirk or Gabe Davis here and there. But could it stop with the return of Trevor Lawrence? The upgraded quarterback. Probably not in a way that will matter for how you draft him. Obviously won't be of value the way he was this past year. I guess the question I have too, and it kind of dovetails into Dynasty talk, but like,

From what you saw from Brian Thomas and what you know you're getting with Liam Cohen and Trevor Moore. Oh, there. We got the real one. We got it. All right. Hold on it. Okay. Play it again. Do ball. Yeah, it's bad. I thought it's a little bit better. You need the head. Just hearing the audio, it's a little bit better. Yeah. It's a little bit better. With the smile. It was the face and the smile. And I don't want to, you know. I was like, oh, why would you hire him as head coach? Mostly from just a vibes thing. I think he could be a very good head coach. So Jags fans don't, don't be upset. I think hopefully you got a great hire, but be upset. But like, be weirded out is all I'm saying. You don't have to, football wise, he might be great. Just be a little weirded out. Yeah, no, that's fair. Would you rather Brian Thomas Jr.?