WR Rankings Countdown: 20-11 + Puka Panic - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/6

All right, before we start today's show, a reminder, in case you didn't know, it is draft season, which means the 2024 fantasy football draft kit, the UDK, it's out. It's got our tier base rankings, premium staff projections, 100 plus player profile videos. And don't forget about the custom cheat sheets where you can print them, you can integrate them with your league. You can mark players. You've got sleepers, breakouts, busts, and values. You've got custom scoring support, consistency charts, and so much more. The most trusted resource to win at your draft, available now at Ultimate DraftKit.com. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. That's, uh, you know. That the anesthesia? I guess. I felt fine. I don't know what that was. It sounded fine. It's a really good start. Did you hit your mute button along the way? Um, possible on this side of the desk. Um, welcome in to the fantasy footballers. I, you know, I heard that it was hotter. than the devil's butt crack in here yesterday. It certainly was. I just noped out. Nature's pocket. I can't believe that you get to miss one show and it was when the AC goes out. Yeah. I was fighting. Thought about giving it a go yesterday. Just got done with some dental surgery because that's my life now. And then I was like, you know, I probably shouldn't do that. And then all of a sudden these slack messages come in and it's.

the air conditioning's not working and then our team scurrying onto the roof saving the day you know and then my expectations immediately anytime I miss a show it goes I knew I knew we had a new segment which was awesome the ready to roll segment talking about the red zone opportunities you know the change in defenses down there really enjoyable then I knew we had news to talk about and then I knew you guys you know it's a mock draft episode Yeah. And left to your own devices, I expected three, four, five hour show. Yeah. So you did pretty good. And then I get in here today. I'm like, you know, I'm going to keep it tight. We got way too much to do today. This is a massive show today. The fact that we're trying to get through as many wide receivers. We've got as much news as we have. And we're going to be talking dynasty waivers. It's a big episode. I feel like I could talk news for the whole show. Like all that's going on with Brandon Ayyuk will be brought up, discussed. And now that we're every day.

I mean, we'll probably have news during the show. We could. And we could have it after the show, but we get to talk about all the rumors and implications. And I think the one thing not being talked about at all, Brock Purdy. And how this affects Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense at Brandon Ayuk departs, which is looking more and more likely. So, yeah, Jason mentioned it. We've got wide receiver rankings countdown on the show today, 20 through 11 on our consensus rankings, and then 10 through 1 tomorrow. The NFL news we just mentioned, and we've got a WaverWire Dynasty edition today to get into. I mentioned it at the top, the ultimate draft kit. You can get in there right now. Lots of updates over the last week. A lot of players to be thinking about as these initial depth charts come out for some teams that matters. For some teams, you hope it doesn't matter. Jason mentioned today. Bo Nix. Quarterback three. Behind Zach Wilson on the depth chart.

Listen to that again. Behind Zach Wilson. Yeah. That one, that one makes 100% with the coach. Yeah, I know. I know. So it's like very. Oh, to earn it. He's going to earn it. You like, he did. Didn't I tell you. You did earn it. You drafted him in the first round. Have I been, is this all private where I tell you Sean Peyton sucks? Or is that, has it been public? I think that's been mostly private. I don't think you've said that on the show. And I, and I, you and I have. a vast disagreement on that, but you, you don't like that dude. I just think he, I think he's Dennis Allen with a ring. You know what I mean? I think he sucks. I think when you get- And on Netflix movie. That's, even that existing tells me what that man thinks about his career. The dude was overseeing a team that people on his coaching step, maybe Peyton was not involved.

But people under his coaching staff were offering money to players to hurt other NFL players. He gets suspended for a year. For a year. And then they're like, hey, let's turn this into a feel good movie here. And cast it very interestingly. I mean, why isn't he coaching the NFL? Don't worry about that. He's helping out a bunch of rag tag kids right now. I know people like Sean Payton. I do. But Drew Breeze is, in my opinion, the reason Sean Peyton is so heralded. And Sean Peyton has, you know, some people sniff their own farts. He's got a fart room, dude. He saves them for years. He goes in there nightly to take a whiff. It's airtight. Nothing escapes that room. It's pressurized because he just keeps adding to it. Sean Payton goes in that room, adds a little bit of air. Yeah, no, Sean Payton was the Saints head coach from 2006 through 2021.

Breeze played for the Saints from 2006 to 2020. Huh. So, you know. So I guess Peyton on blast today. Yeah. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done it. Like if I'm Sean Peyton. Oh, your guy lost my whole dream quarterback. You get out. Oh, guys. It's just, it's rough. I need a break. I need a break. I'll be back. I don't know. I don't like him. Hey, it's opinions. You know what I mean? Let's jump into our new segment today. to the waiver wire presented by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. Well, we're kicking off the waiver wire segment early here in August before kickoff because it's still open. It really is. And leading up to kickoff, you've got a lot of battles in training camp, you've got a lot of dynasty decisions to make. In fact, I am often annoyed at the astuteness of, of course, Al Borland in our dynasty league.

to constantly be making little tweaks and little pickups all of his own devices. And by that you mean Kyle. Yes. His co-manager leads the way. Yeah. Yeah, this is interesting. We're going to be talking about a lot of the today, specifically some of the running backs you should pay attention to in dynasty leagues that still might be on the waivers. Also, we have our dynasty show that comes out on Wednesdays. We're going to be talking about. The nasty boys of summer on tomorrow's episode. So if you want more of this, you'll get that tomorrow. But today we're specifically looking about the insurance running back options out there in Dynasty League. Last year, if you don't remember, Kyron Williams, he was the backup. That's a backup, yeah. Yeah, you know, it was Cam Acres. It was Cam Acres who was the guy and Kyron is, you know, nothing. And then in week one, Cam Acres.

saw 22 opportunities. So it was like, yeah, this is Cam Acres. And then he never, never saw another snap. Kyron became a revelation. And so, yeah. So can we find this year's Kyron Williams? Yeah, players that have carved out roles in training camp and have an opportunity there. And so we're looking at from a waiver wire perspective, insurance running back changes. I had no memory of Acres getting that much work. Yeah. Because week one, Kyron was awesome for fantasy football. But yeah, Cammakers said 22 attempts for 29 yards. He's 1.3 yards of carry. Kyle, you should dig up Cammakers' ADP last year because he was. Oh, he was a, I think he was a dead zone running back. Yeah. So like four to six or so. But I mean, there was a period of time of great excitement for Cammakers and the potential because you know what the system does. But there are other situations out there worth paying attention to.

And so we're going to bring up a handful of running back names, Jason. You want to kick us off with one of them? Yeah, well. The waiver wire segment. Yeah. If you were watching the hard knocks New York Giants, they have a little segment on Tyrone Tracy Jr., rookie running back for the Giants. Really? Hit that the Giants. Oh, that's the end of his name? That sounded like his class in school. Yeah. He's a junior for the New York Giants. A junior? He was a fifth round pick, 166th overall, and he's an older prospect. They talked about this on that episode. They discussed the fact that they saw that almost as a positive because they knew he would go later in the draft. He's got more experience. He played six seasons in college. Not many players get to say that. He was a former wide receiver.

turned into a running back. So some of these things that were... We like that usually. We do. I mean, that's Antonio Gibson was a wide receiver turned. It was also a DJ. David, wasn't David Johnson a wide receiver turned running back. So this is the type of depth chart where last, last episode, I took Devin Singletary because it was like, there's, there's no one there. Like it has to be Devin Singletary. But also, that means if Devin Singletary gets injured or... He's just not that good. Or Tracy just carves out a third down roll. That's what I see here is it's like Singletary's history. You know, we can say how well he played at the end of last year. He did not start the season as a starter. He's been beaten out by Zach Moss in Buffalo to be a starter. And, you know, what? I was just left on. I was on solo camp for a long time all your time. I'm like, why is the camera on me? You know, I got a season form back there.

Put Ducer's Alley on there and raise your hand if your name is Papa Josh. You don't hit that button because they won't do it. All right. There you go. That one's on Papa Josh. Yeah. The podcast listeners are fine. He's probably putting in a waiver claim right now. Yeah. He's distracted. But no, I mean, Tracy has the opportunity to carve out a role. And honestly, if he took third downs away from Singletary, that would impact your hopes and dreams for Singletary. But there's a couple other names worth mentioning as well, Dineric Prince, Mike. Yeah. Kansas City running back. There's no Jared McKinnon in the picture right now. And Dinerick Prince was a former undrafted free agent. He sure was. He's a speedster. Yeah, 4-4-1. But he ran that at like he's 6 foot, 216 pounds in which like 215, honestly to me, that's the running back weight. Like if you get an elite player at that weight, it just seems to be the perfect match. And.

He has been running. Clyde Edwards O'Lear came back, former first round pick, and it was the presumption would be, well, okay, well, Clyde will come back. He will be Pacheco's backup. That has not been the case, at least so far in training camp. It has been Prince, and Clyde Edwards O'Leary has been running with the second team where Prince is getting run with the ones. So he looks like he will be the backup. I think Pacheco is going to be. a true workhorse running back. I do too. So this is strictly an insurance policy, but this is a big time. You need an insurance policy on someone that runs the way that Isaiah Pacheco runs. I mean, he is. Sometimes the ground pushes back. He is the cartoon into the wall. He's a brutal runner. And he's seen that. I mean, he shoulder labrum tear in 2022, a hand finger fracture in 23, another shoulder injury, missed two games.

in 23 a head cranial concussion grade one like you know this it's what i'm just i'm just reading head cranial come on man just say concussion i was just read man i'm ron bergandy um here here's the thing about kansas city which is one of the reasons we love andy reed is because he will play the best players isaiah pacheco is not you know there i think there were other teams that if andy reed's not the head coach clyde gets a lot longer run because of the draft capital invested. So they made the decision at one point in time to say, hey, Pacheco, you're going to, you're just going to usurp this guy that we spent a first round draft pick that, you know, that Patrick Mahomes loved. And so that's not to say that I think Prince would usurp Pacheco. It's just to say that it's not a surprise to me on this roster that he's going to have more opportunities than he would on another roster despite Clyde being there. And then- People need to take this approach more. Like-

Play the better players. Play the better. Like, look at Brock Purdy. You know what I mean? Brock Purdy was the last pick in the draft where they had spent a ton of capital on Trey Lance and they're just like, yeah, but he's better. That guy's better. I mean, Kirk Cousins back in the day, you know, getting to obviously an injury to RG3 started it, but then it was like, he's good. He's a good quarterback. Like, if you're a good player and you're showing out in camp, like, just be allowed to start. This is the most, like, basic common sense type of. Yeah, but it's, it's, I will, just the other side is it's not as easy as that because you, the criticism that you will get by going with, like if that player doesn't, it's some cost fouls. If they don't have immediate success, which Brock Purdy had immediate success, so it's an easier transition. But, like, if you're seeing things in practice that.

oh, this is the player who should go out, but this is the player who was picked to go out. There's a lot of public stuff out there that it is. Some coaches can handle it. And some coaches are just like their seat at the table is not secure enough that it's hard to. Like if you go to the owner and say, well, we evaluated the process in this seventh round pick is going to be the guy to go win. Your owner can get real big mad at you. And I want to, I'm going to close this out real quick, just throwing two names. Jordan Mason, pay attention to Jordan Mason in San Francisco just because, you know, they've been so committed to Elijah Mitchell as the backup. But recently, Kyle Shanahan's talked about the fact that there's, you know, even though there's no falloff in Elijah, JP's running at a high level. We know Elijah Mitchell gets hurt all the time. And that is a high value running game. And then Isaac Garindo is really out of the picture at this point in time due to injury and the depth chart. In fact, I...

I spent a decent amount of off-season fab securing Isaac Garindo. And, you know, it's just depending on your roster and what's out there on the waiver wire. I am sitting there in the sunk-cost fallacy with Garando going, well, I spent some off-season fab. But this guy is easily fourth on the debt chart. And it's not a debt chart that I'm, you know, expecting to get, I don't know. It's just a tough one. It's just a tough one. And then Trey Serman, former 49er running back. Who I spent a lot of capital. Yeah, a long time ago. But Trace Herman in Indianapolis looks like the backup to Jonathan Taylor, who's dealt with injury concerns. Yeah, he's the clear number two there. They lost Zach Moss, who obviously had great success last year. They didn't go out and draft running backs. They didn't really replace anybody. And Trace Sherman has that job. So when you're in a dynasty league,

Those guys shouldn't be on waivers. The backup running backs shouldn't be on waivers because when an injury happens, you should be looking at which roster was smart. And it's usually Brooks. Brooks? With the backup running backs. He hoards the backup running backs. Yes. Every time it's like, oh, yes, let me go to the waiver wire of this injury. And then it's title after title after title after title. For you and I, but no, Brooks has zero. Thanks again to NFL Sunday ticket. On YouTube TV, watch every game every Sunday when you bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. Sign up today at YouTube.com slash fantasy footballers, local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games. Excludes digital-only games. Device and content restrictions apply. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by USAA Insurance. All right. Are you not entertained? Here we go. If you're not.

Following the saga of Brandon Ayuk on Twitter, well, welcome to the saga because this, this is a fun time. Well, the teams, they are circling. Brandon Ayuk has been given permission to negotiate new contracts. There are frameworks already agreed upon. This is all official reports that Brandon Ayuk has, or rather the 49ers. The teams have agreed on compensation. Yes, the 49ers have a framework of the compensation for a trade. with both the Patriots and Browns, which is wild, Cleveland's deal, if Ayyuk were to agree to a contract with Cleveland, would likely send Amari Cooper. It feels like it has to, just. To San Francisco. Just cap-wise. And here, why I've been so much on the side of, I don't think they trade Brandon Ayuk, is because it doesn't make sense of.

If this team loses Brandon Ayyuk, not that they don't have weapons. Oh, it's damaging. It's like your offense takes a huge hit and you're trying to win the Super Bowl this year. So why, like you control Brandon Ayuk's future. Why would you just trade him away? But if you're, if you're making a move and you're getting Amari Cooper back, which his, Kylie pull up his contract because Cooper did just get a little bit more money. But his. Contract will be far more manageable than Brandon Ayu. He didn't get more years. He just got more money. Okay, more money. And like Cooper, I think Brandon Ayuk at this point is a better wide receiver. But it's still, if you get Amari Cooper and Debo, you're still in a very good place. So this trade makes total sense to me. Should Brandon Ayuk green light, whatever contract Cleveland's offering? Since for the 49ers, I can't imagine being a team.

Like if I'm the Browns that I say, I'm not talking about the Brown. I'm talking about the 40. If I want to bring Ayuk in, I'm like, oh, dude, we've got, we've got Amari Cooper and Najoku. If we bring Brandon Ayuk in, we can really have a rock solid offense. But it's like trading. I don't think that Brandon Ayuk is so much better than Amari Cooper that it's also worth compensation because you're getting rid of draft picks to do this deal, more money. And then you're just replacing your wide receiver one with maybe a better wide receiver one. Obviously a more.

youthful long-term water shooter one, but this isn't a long-term move if you're giving away draft picks. On that side, it makes no sense. Oh, wait. Well, I mean, Cooper, Cooper would be gone. Yeah, Cooper is a free agent next year. To me, I'd rather have Brandon Ayukton and Mari Cooper if I'm the Browns. Yes. And it's an investment in your long-term alpha. They spent the off-season money on Judy, who they believe in. There's been a lot of, you want to talk about dynasty waiver, buzz. I mean, Cedric Tillman has been the star of camp. Sure. I think they feel okay.

about that room. But, you know, you talk about other teams commanders with Jane Daniels. You've seen those calls and the rumors with Brandon Ayuk. The Steelers have been involved. We don't have word that there's trade packages figured out there for compensation. But Brandon Ayuk will dictate some of this because he's going to tell these teams what kind of contract he's going to agree with. New England would be sending Kendrick Bourne, whatever. New England is the, I think the place that is a little bit terrifying. Sure. For Mike. Yeah. I feel like Mike has single-handedly been responsible for IUC's trade not being completed yet. Because every time... Because they're offering me crap. You offering you. Yeah. Me personally, my Dynasty squad. I feel like Mike is the ghost in Ayukes' head, just not letting him feel comfortable with any of these trade destinations. Because you just invested in IUC in Dynasty. And when you hear those four team names, if you are out there and you're thinking about...

You know, Brandon Ayuk long term. Where does the terror begin? I mean, if he goes to, if he goes to Pittsburgh. Sure, let's run through him. If he goes to Pittsburgh. I'm off the show. That's terrible. I don't think so. You don't think that's terrible? I'm deceased. Well, it's not good. There's, there is, there is not enough in Pittsburgh to go around with, like, I think George Pickens is good. I think Brandon Ayuk is better, but. with what that team will want to be. I don't know that there's enough to have both of them come through. It'd be really good for the Justin Fields as the starter world. Oh, yeah. Because if he has Pickens and Iuke and Friamuth and Jalen Warren and then he's running the football, I mean, like if Justin Fields, we have not talked about this enough.

If Justin Fields wins this job, which is becoming, you know, Russell can't play right now. If he wins this job, because there's a report right now from Brooke Pryor from ESPN talking about it being more of a competition than initially appeared, if he wins that job, I just want to make it so incredibly clear that Justin Fields goes from being an irrelevant player on draft day to potentially. More relevant than, in my opinion, even Anthony Richardson. Oh, to a league winner. To an absolutely leader. To an absolutely quarterback. I mean, you know, we've talked about how, you know, Anthony Richardson and the fifth, Kyler Murray in the seventh, 10th round, Jaden Daniels. I mean, you add in the mobility of Justin Fields. And this is, again, why I think fantasy scoring is broken and it's stupid that.

Someone like Justin Fields who might be able to beat this version of Russell Wilson, probably not, but maybe he's got a shot since Russell Wilson's got a calf strain could come out and just win everybody fantasy football leagues because he runs so well and has some weapons. 43% of his fantasy points. Talking about Justin Fields. 43% have in his career have come from rushing. But the, and the truth is, and he outscores almost everybody. He has absolute. Top five, I mean, he could be the number one quarterback. I don't think that that is impossible. I really don't. Not with big play guys like Ayuk and Pickens who made, you know, they made plays with really bad quarterback play already last year. Yeah, so did DJ Moore with really bad quarterback play from Justin Fields. So. So to lay it out for fantasy, honestly, let's say, and I'm going to take Justin Fields out of the equation, just this year, if he goes to Cleveland and Amari Cooper goes back,

I think that Brandon Ayyuk will still be good. Like if you believed in Amari Cooper for fantasy this year, you should believe at least equally in Brandon Ayuk if he's the only guy in Cleveland. I think that he will be a top, he'll still be a top 20 guy with a chance that with the investment of picks and money, they go all in and he becomes a true target dominator. Going to New England, that really, really sucks for this year. Long term, if Drake May hits, that could turn into a huge win, but this year it would be terrible. And then Steelers is, I think even long term is not great. All right. We'll be paying attention with bated breath. And if Cooper doesn't go back to San Francisco, it doesn't help Brock Purdy. It might help your George Kittle like you guys were talking about, but it's not going to.

You know, Purdy, you want the weapons. It's really funny. I'm glad you brought that up because I've thought a lot about Debo to the moon and George Kittle, even above Kincaid, definitely being in those top. I would say the further one is the stars. The stars, yeah. The moon's pretty close. Kittled to the moon. All right. I think that's fair. Kittled to the satellites. Like Starlink? I don't know. That's less low orbit, man. Yeah, we got to get out the outer orbit. The high, high orbit, old school. The asteroid belt at least. Where's the Tesla? Isn't there a Tesla in orbit? Which orbits that? Oh, you're talking about a car. Yeah, they did do that. They did do that at wind space. It's an orbit right now. But to bring it back home, I've been excited. I've been excited about. Bring it back to Earth. Yes. What a random poll. Debo?

and Kittle are so exciting if the targets go away from Brandon Ayuk. The numbers, when Debo's on the field without Ayuk, they're outlandish. His yards per outrun and stuff is just mind-boggling. But it's a real hit. It is a very big downgrade for Brock Purdy, who's a pocket passer if you don't have the extra deep threat, the big play touchdowns available as readily. And then go ahead. George Kittle has averaged nearly eight targets a game when Iyuk is out. All right. We also have a quick Jordan Addison update. We won't linger too long, but he's been charged with two misdemeanors for his July. DUI arrest. Three game suspension is the NFL standard DUI policy. It could end up more. He has a hearing on October 7th. And it'll be very up in the air. Does that get pushed? Does he get a mid-season suspension? But expect.

At some point this year or next year, Jordan Addison will get at least a three-game suspension. All right, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break and come back with our wide receiver rankings countdown. All right, just checking in, we don't have more Brandon Ayuk news yet, right? Nothing yet. No more rumors. Is I. Are you like tantalizing anything on? What's the social media status of iukes? Yeah. Has he been switching any of his pictures? Yeah. Is he wearing another jersey? Yeah. What's the colors of his most recent picture? I'm on it. Yeah. Take a deep research here. In the meantime, let's begin. Wide receivers. All right. It is time to look at our half PPR rankings at the wide receiver position.