Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early WR Rankings, Fantasy News & Mailbag

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That's good stuff. All right. Look, big surprise at the top, guys. You know, a lot of people think maybe Jerry Rice, maybe... Get ready for a hot take, America. Lynn Swan. No, it's Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown is the number one in our consensus rankings. And like I said, we'll go as far as we can. But Brown, you know, the big debate for Brown isn't, is he worthy of the number one spot in the wide receiver rankings? It's, is he worthy of the number one spot in the overall rankings? He is...

ridiculously consistent. He offers, so a lot of the times wide receivers offer you different things. They offer you a long play, right? Like a guy that can get deep. Martavis Bryant makes a lot of big plays. Or they offer you volume. You know, you've got like Golden Tate.

you know, Jarvis Landry, a player like that caliber. Edelman, PPR guys. Yeah, lower yards per catch average, but they catch a lot of balls. They offer you touchdowns. You know, you got Calvin Benjamin, I'm going to get in the end zone. Des Bryant, I'm going to get in the end zone. Or all of the above. Or you can take all the above with Antonio Brown. I mean, you have multiple double-digit touchdown seasons from Antonio Brown. You have 1,800 yard that for one guy, you know, you hear that number. And maybe Julio's, I think Julio's in that category too.

because they were both that high. You know, they can do it again. Those guys are, you don't look at it and go, boy, that was a crazy outlier for a antenna. Well, he missed Big Ben for part of the year, and he put up 1834 yards. So we had a, we had an awesome conversation with a Foot Clan member who has this, I mean, we've talked about it before, but that debate of who do I take, and in his situation it was keep first in the draft.

for their first round pick, Antonio Brown or Levy on Bell. And that's a conversation you usually can't have. So I think Mike and I went Antonio Brown, Andy, you went Levy on Bell. But the fact that you can have that conversation says what he can do. This past year, he led the league in the percentage of team receptions.

in games that he started with 34.8%. That is monstrous. That is, if you don't know... Target share is ridiculous. Yeah, if you don't know the frame of reference for that, it's just, it's absurd. And now with Martavis Bryant going out, you have the questions every time the wider receiver 2 goes out. Well, does it help? Does it hurt? Sometimes you hear both arguments. Well, last year we saw. We saw what happened when Martavis Bryant was out. And the truth is, when you've got a guy like Antonio Brown,

He's already getting the best coverage that the defense can do. They're not not trying to take Antonio Brown out. And now Big Ben is just looking at him more and more. Antonio Brown, to me, is my number one pick in the draft, certainly my number one wide receiver in all formats. The crazy part about Brown is there was that those couple games, the Michael Vick games, where Brown lost his streak, the five for 50. His pace with Ben Rothlessberger, in which

That's highly questionable, Ben Rothesberger, playing all 16 games. Granted. However, his pace with Rothusberger would have set single season records in targets, receptions, and receiving yards with almost 160 catches for over 2,100 yards. That's pretty good. That's almost exactly what Julio would have done with Roszberger. Here's what I will say. Antonio Brown did not hit his ceiling with over 1,800 yards. He didn't hit it. Yeah, I mean, I'm not a big fan of the...

The extrapolations of those sites. But the argument is compelling enough. I mean, he, I think, can be expected to put a unconscionable season out there again without it being weird. You know, he's done two years in a row that way. What I like about Brown is you don't seem to see the same...

negative arguments about the coverage he's facing or the dbs he's facing that you hear about hulio you know you saw he had one good game with norman one bad game with norman brown is just brown um i have brown is my number one in standard i have um he's basically tied with hulio and ppr leagues for me so he belongs there he is antonio brown and he's very worthy of you know the guy we talked to this morning i don't know if you mentioned it just now because i don't remember but he

He had the decision to make between Brown and Lev Bell, but he had Gurley in the third as a keeper. Right. So it kind of made it a no-brainer to go with Brown and lock down that position. So number two is Julio Jones in our consensus rankings. Do any of us have him outside of the top two in their own ranking? I do. Three? Do you have that three? I have him three in standard. In standard leagues, and it's not because of Julio.

Love me some Julio, but I am huge on Odell back in this year. Where do you have him in half point? Half point is he is two. He's still two. Okay. So what I'm in is you don't have them outside of. Nope. We're one and two across the board in our half point PPR format. So just like Antonio Brown, he had 136 receptions last year. He had more yards, 1871. His big issue is touchdown consistency. Oh, no. Oh, no. Breaking news. Really? Yeah, this stinks.

Andy, you're going to need to play the drop for this. There's so many different drops I can play for this, but we'll start here. Breaking news. Apparently, trade talks for calling Kaepernick have been called off. No! Eat it! No! I will serve thy pie. Thy humble pie. Eat it. Wow, that stinks. Bunch of knuckleheads. Hey, is there still time to train him?

Could it come back to life? I will not, until game one, I'm not hopping off of this. I was worried it was going to go the other direction. I had no idea what text that was going to be. Where were we here? Here's the thing for Julio Jones, you know, monster season. My biggest question mark for him is Matt Ryan. Everyone feels like the feeling is Matt Ryan had a horrible statistical season. You know, he couldn't handle the new Kyle Shanahan offense, which.

There's some truth to that. However, he was essentially right in the average of his career, or of his career for attempts, yards, receptions, everything except touchdowns. This was the lowest touchdown year of his career except his rookie year. He had 21 touchdowns. That can go up to me with learning the system. Being used in the red zone a little bit more? So it just...

To me, I think Julio Jones can also go up a little bit. You add, you know, he only had eight, eight touchdowns for Julio. So you put three or four more on there, and then you're talking just another monster gear for Julio. Yeah, yeah, Julio is... Would anybody be crazy to say, I want to draft Julio Jones over Antonio Brown? Not at all. No, that's fine. I wouldn't do it, but...

It's not ludic. I was hoping one of you said yes. Because I lean. I'm just the type where, you know, even from a perspective of how many times, you had Julio all year last year, how many times was it frustrating to just watch him get semi-hurt and kind of a little gimpy? Obviously did not derail his season. He didn't have that issue for me last year. I mean, he's had.

He's had that in the past, but I think maybe in the beginning of the year a little bit. But he was, I mean, look at the numbers speak for themselves. And I know you guys are all about Antonio Brown and, okay, he was great without Martavis Bryant. I'm going to give you two narratives that you can follow that are possible. I think you will admit that they're possible. One, the team averaged seven points less per game with Martavis Bryant out of the lineup as a team. Two, Lev Bell did not play last year. Okay, Lev Bell comes in.

He clearly takes a number of targets. He takes a number of red zone opportunities. You got Ladarius Green and Lev Bell now involved in the red zone. You just make that argument. It doesn't mean Antonio Brown struggles or anything. It's just a variable there that, you know, Antonio Brown's not a big guy. He's not going to get a jump ball. He will probably still get the touchdowns that we project him for. But they're, you know, it should just be said. No, it's a worthy thought for sure. That's all to say.

Julio very well could be the number one this year. There's no, I mean, there were neck and neck all year last year. Very difficult for, how many years has it been since a wide receiver is actually repeated as the number one fantasy option? I think it's been. Calvin was the last one? Yeah, I believe so. That's a while, which says Antonio Brown, I mean, if history were to repeat itself, if that was something that, you know, he can do. Antonio Brown technically finished. Did he finish first in standard? Yeah. Oh, in standard? In standard? I believe Antonio Brown did finish first in standard. I'll, I'll,

Find that out right now. I know it sounds ridiculous not to know that off the top of your head, but... Well, he was like so close. It was so close. Yeah. So number three on our list is the aforementioned number two in standard for myself, my man crush of the coming year. Ruben Randall. O'Dell Beckham Jr. OBJ. Who is... Look, his... He...

put up numbers. You're flustered. Yeah. I'm like, I'm blushing because of my man crush for him. His numbers that he's put up in his first two years pretty much beat every wide receiver in the history of the NFL, except Randy Moss has him on a couple of categories. But, oh wait, O'Dow Beckham has missed five games in those first 32. He's missed five games, and he's done that. O'Dell Beckham is just an incredible. He's uncoverable.

You're not going to, you know, very similar to Antonio Brown in the sense that there's nothing you can do to just. Quickness is just too much. Yeah, his speed is, he can go long, he can go short. He got his yards per reception to over 15 last year. And I think that with McAdoo taking over as the head coach, the offense is going to be a power in New York. I like a lot of things for him. So.

Talk me off of him. I'm not going to talk you off of him, but I am going to ask you a dynasty question. He's 23 years old. Antonio Brown's 27 years old. Julio, I believe, is 27 or 26. Who would you rather have starting today in a dynasty league? Odell Beckham, without a shadow of a doubt to me. When we had that question... Because you know the next three or four years... So let's say the next three or four years, he finishes second or third. Right.

To those other guys. But then five, six, seven years. I mean, when we had that show after the show on YouTube, shout out to our exclusive YouTube shows. Shout out to yourself. Is that what you just did? To YouTube. To YouTube. To you two on YouTube. But we asked the question of if you had to start a guy for the next 10 years, who would it be? And I think O'Dell Beckham is one of those guys that is in the running for that role. Okay. Yeah, I mean, he had the fifth most...

yards in the league with 1450 and he didn't have over 100 receptions where you had like Julio and Antonio Brown with 136 each. You've got consistency in the offense, which you love. You certainly hope he doesn't get banged up repeatedly, but it's not a variable you don't have with Julio. It's not a variable you don't have with Des. Yeah, and his game is missed with suspension. Right. So Des Bryant.

This might be the first kind of, okay, I'm surprised this guy's here. He's number four in our consensus list. Now, who has them the very highest? Because I believe I have him at five? Yes, you and I both have him at five. Mike has him at number four. Okay, so there you go. He's number four. Des Bryant is just such a monster. Two years ago, Des Bryant had 16 touchdowns. That was the most touchdowns for a wide receiver since Calvin Johnson in 2011.

I will. My only argument against Des Bryant is the touchdowns and catches versus the other top elite guys. Des Bryant is not going to be a 120 catch guy. I don't think it will ever get to that point just with the offense that they run. Could he do it? Yeah, but that's not what they do down in Dallas. They want to run the ball a lot more. However, when you're looking at a wide receiver who you say, who's going to catch?

10 touchdowns, you have to put everything you own on a guy that'll catch 10 touchdowns. I'm going Des Bryant. Yeah, me too. Because they, as much as they're a running team, that little Zig-out route that they run on the goal line is nearly unstoppable for Des Bryant. So that's why he's up at number four for me is I know he'll get the double-digit touchdowns. I know he'll get around 90 perceptions and he's just...