Fantasy Football - The TRUTH: Top 10 Fantasy WRs + Phony Finishes - Podcast for 1/29

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Thursday, January 29th. Welcome into the fantasy footballers podcast. Mike Wright is here. Jason Moore is here. The deucer's up to some funny business? Yeah, the deuces are up to something. We were just, Matt asked me to turn his headphones down. That was it. Oh, is that all it was? Yeah.

I see, I never know what to expect from you guys. Never know when a gag or a goof is just on the way. You don't know what happened is like, I think yesterday in the office as we were sitting there and Jason was signing cards for the rest of his natural life. Hand is so sore. Sold out, by the way. Thank you. Thank you very much for the support. That was very fast and excited to get them in your hands out of Jason's hands. But Jason walked over. In the next year. And he like said something to Owl. like real quiet and maybe it was related to wheel of shame is that what it was that's what it was yeah i didn't know if it was some plot i at any moment somebody could elect themselves into the ballers hall of fame ring of honor whatever it is that kid there is a very thorough process it just doesn't seem like i just have completed it twice right no mike has completed the thorough process two times welcome into the show guess nothing weird's going on

January 29th, we have the truth about the wide receiver position on today's show. We got news, more news, more coaching news to talk about. Yeah, a lot of fun stuff. And we'll sneak into an abridged version of fantasy faceoff, share some early thoughts on the Super Bowl. There's a lot going on. If you don't remember, Super Bowl Sunday is the day in which the UDK pre-orders go live. And there will be stuff to access immediately in the Dynasty Pass. The ultimate draft kit, pre-order day, always Super Bowl Sunday. I'm pretty sure they remember that. I mean, if you don't remember, there's also football on that day. Yeah. But Super Bowl Sunday is really for the UDK pre-orders, the Dynasty Pass first drop, all of that. But also, they play a game. The Seahawks will be playing against the Patriots later that day. Yeah, they just picked two random teams.

from the preseason time, and it was these two teams, and then they ended up in the Super Bowl. So the scouting has begun for the Dynasty Pass, and not just for that, but to know the rookies and all these things. Guys, I mean... You already got some favorites? I've already got... I got a guy who I think, I'm like, oh, this is a third rounder and I'm going to be all about it. Third round is not too far back. I'm sorry, no, day three. Oh, big difference. No, third rounder is incredible. I love a third round running back. That's not nasty enough. No, this is. Running back? Yes. Okay. And I'm pretty excited. I don't want to get ahead of it because I don't want to tamper any opinions that you have not formed on these players. Sure. Yeah, no, we're forming them. But I can't wait to find out who.

Mike will select to be probably on a Hall of Fame trajectory at this point. If not for all of his injuries. Because that's his type. Yes. They burn hot. They burn too hot. Too hot for them muscles. And ligaments and meat, as Jason would say. 10 days until the Super Bowl and the UDK pre-orders. A reminder, you can watch the show. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Click the bell. You'll be alerted to all of our newest episodes. We appreciate it. All your comments, we do read through them. Some are just plain crazy. Just some crazy stuff, y'all say. But most of them are pretty cool. Spotify, leave us a five-star review, Apple as well, and the communities over at Jointhefoot.com. We'll kick it off with some news. News and notes from around the league. What do you guys want to start? Do you want to start with these? We can start with Arthur. We'll start with the ketchup. It was older.

Yeah, we should have brought it up on Tuesday, but, you know, I think it was just relief. We could finally put it out of our heads. Arthur Smith is. It's not really. He's going to college. Not fully NFL news. It's NFL adjacent. So you're kind of gone. He's gone, everyone. Arthur Smith can no longer hurt your primary running back and your primary wide receiver. Did you hear the news next to it, though? What? What? They gave Johnny Smith another year of eligibility. Oh, yeah. He's going to Ohio State. Actually, on the Dynasty podcast today, Betts brought up this great point because we're talking about rookies. We're looking at an overview of the rookies that are coming in this year. We realize, you know, wide receiver you, Ohio State, like Jeremiah Smith is.

the next JSA. He's the guy that years ahead while all these great wide receivers are coming out, Jeremiah Smith is like wait until he hits the NFL. He's actually the best one amongst them. But that's now the number one wide receiver for Arthur Smith. So when he has a bad, when he has a down season at Ohio State this year, just know it's Arthur's fault and buy the dip. Okay. So someone to blame when we don't have another great player. Yeah, so Arthur Smith leaving the NFL. Steelers, former offensive coordinator, Falcons, head coach. See you later. Heading to Ohio State. So we also got news. More teams found their head coach. The Bills decided to go with Joe Brady, their offensive coordinator. He will call plays for the Bills. He had been calling plays for the Bills. What a change they needed. I mean, this one just, it doesn't make sense to me. I think we were kind of debating it in the office.

You had a good counterpoint, but my thought process is this is a team with a Superman quarterback, right? Josh Allen has single-handedly made this team good every year. And while obviously the coaching staff plays along, they've hit a wall that they can't get over. That's why they fired Sean McDermott. But then they just were like, we need change. But let's keep it exactly the same. Let's keep our offensive guy that we had. Like this was an opportunity, in my opinion, to go out and get, like this was one of the most desirable jobs. You could go and get someone that could take Josh Allen and not have Josh Allen carry the offensive mind, but have an offensive mind come in here and get the most out of Josh Allen. So I don't know. You can make the argument that Andy made, which is.

the problem had been their defense. Yeah, the offense was kind of cruising. This is good for James Cook. From a schematic standpoint, it's really good for James Cook. It's not as good for Alan from consistency, but not necessarily like, if you want to see them go back to the Stefan Diggs days. And, I mean, they were the number one running team. They had the leagues leading Russia and James Cook. They'll probably do a lot of the same things. But they grew tired of the kind of, you know, clearly McDermott had a problem with Bean. about personnel. McDermott's a defensive minded head coach who really wasn't given a full deck of cards to go out and, you know, play the best defensive football he could play. He complained about it. It is a little weird. It feels a little bit more personal than it feels like strategic. I think in some regards. And we'll see what happens. I mean, I do feel like there were probably outcomes that would have been.

a little more unpredictable for us in fantasy than Joe Brady saying. Certainly. From a fantasy football standpoint, now it's predictable. We know that they're going to run the same offense and all of that. So we don't have to worry about wholesale change here. So from that standpoint, it's good. But we would have been bullish on Josh Allen, no matter who they brought in. Yeah, part of it was Brady leaving too. There was the potential for Brady as a head coaching candidate and candidate for other jobs. I just like, I like, I don't ever trust. Good OCs with Hall of Fame quarterbacks. I just don't trust them. That brings me to my point. So front of the show, Pat Thorman tweeted this out. He was highlighting that since Joe Brady has started coaching on the offensive side, his teams have ranked in points. Okay, ready? Fourth, third, first. Awesome, awesome, awesome. 24th, 29th. Not good. Second, fourth, third, and fifth. Awesome, awesome. Now, in that timeline, I'm going to see if you could spot where things may have gone right. So his quarterbacks in that time.

Drew Brees. All the Famer. Joe Burrow at LSU with Jamar and Justice Jefferson. Josh Allen. And then there's a year with Teddy Bridgewater and the year was Sam Darnold in there. Yeah. It's like, what do you? Look, I don't know what you do with that information because we know this. Head coaches who have, I mean, we will, we can walk into another piece of news here as the greatest head coach of all time. Oh, my. Goodness. Is not a first ballot Hall of Famer for whatever reason. But it would be indicted nature. Talk of Bill Belichick. And some things have been brought up. But like people are like, one of the arguments is, well, Tom Brady made Bill Belichick. Because Tom Brady left and he'd won a Super Bowl. Bill Belichick without Tom Brady, not a good head coach for the New England Patriots. Or before Brady. Yeah. Well, he was okay in Cleveland.

So the point is like, what do you do with guys like Joe Brady where they have, you have elite offensive numbers when you have an elite quarterback? But also you have elite offensive numbers when you have an elite quarterback, which he has. So it's just hard to know what's corollary. There's so many moving pieces. That's what I mean, like how much credit should Joe Brady get? The same amount that every single coach always gets when your team wins. It's just what it is. It's a mask for all of it. This is where like a Mike McDaniel. would have made me excited. Like he, he got a lot out of first. He got a lot out of Tua. You know what I mean? And I love guys that can schematically overcome poor quarterback play or average quarterback play and get the most out of them. And I just wanted to see that with Josh Allen. That would have been cool. Todd Monkin is the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns. This was the Ravens offensive coordinator. And it also is a bummer in the sense that we thought maybe.

This job would go to somebody else, and Todd Munkin would join Harbaugh in New York. That would have made me feel pretty excited about Dart and Scataboo and neighbors, not that they can't replace it. We have the list of coaches, which we will have a... Greg Roman coming there? We will have a full list or a full episode where we're going to talk about head coaches and the impact that they have. But we have a list... of over the last 25 years, we have seven first-time head coaches who were 55 or older when they got their first gig. It's not good. I mean, shocking stuff. It's not shocking to me of I think. Ariens had to have been one of them. There's no way Bruce Arias was like the oldest first-time head coach. So like for the most part, it is just not good of these guys who've never been able to work their way up to the top of the ladder.

at that age to me is like, no. I'm cool with Todd Monkid calling an offense. I don't know about him being a head coach. Well, I'm fine with it. You know it's not going to work. It's just like whoever the Cardinals sign, it's not going to work. It doesn't work at those franchises. I would love to see this has seven first time head coaches over the last 25 years who were 55 or older. I want you give me the seven last first time head coaches of the Cleveland Browns and their average wins on a yearly basis. There's also that. Look, you didn't have an offense. You do have a defense. Well, I mean, Stefansky had some success there. Did you see the reports? So they basically, the Browns have a great defense, and they've got Jim Schwartz under contract as their defensive coordinator. And apparently, we kept hearing all these coaches are pulling out of the Browns head coaching search because the Browns were adamant that Jim Schwartz is your DC. And then. Yes.

And so people were like, I don't want to bring my own person in there. Yeah. And they're like, no, we need Jim Schwartz here. But Monkin is like, okay. And then as soon as they hire him, Schwartz is like, I am pissed that I'm not the head coach. I'm out of here. Yeah. It's the most Browns. The most Browns hire ever. Oh, man. Cardinals still looking. They're interviewing Clint Kubiak for a second time. They've interviewed Mike LaFleur two times. And we'll see. Any Kubiak. Any LeFleur. Cardinals are the last team without a head coach. No, Raiders. Yeah, two left. But I actually have some hope as an Arizona fan that they're going to get either Kubiak or LaFleur. I do too. I think LaFleur makes a lot of sense. It feels like the winds are blowing that. I'd rather have Kubiak. I agree. I think, I think he is. Yeah, I don't care. I just want one of those last names. LaFleur is, he could be good, but it's all McVeigh.

right, that calls the offense there in Los Angeles, whereas Kubiak is the manufacturer of everything good that's happened in Seattle because their head coach is a defensive-minded guy. LaFleur did call the offense in his previous spot and then came to work under McVeigh, which is not a not too bad a path. I'm happy with either of them. Again, like I just said, sometimes when franchises are kind of rotten from the top, it doesn't usually matter. You need to really strike gold for that to matter. And when I'm... That's what I'm saying about Monkin and the Browns. It's like, okay, whatever. They're still going to be the Browns. You're still going to be mismanaged and misorganized. And then what's going on with the Jets is hysterical to me. It is so outrageously funny. It is so, I mean, the Browns are going to brown and the Jets are going to jet because Aaron Glenn has fired everyone.

everyone I mean it he's standing there like well see your linebacker coach gone your widercy assistant passing coordinator you're OC your DC you're just just man what terrible hire everyone here's like getting rid of getting rid of bed bug bed bugs you got it didn't you just hire all these people and now guess who's gonna hire the next set Eric Glenn but it's gonna get it right this time oh it's gonna be so much harder this time who would want that job you I know Gruden doesn't. They're trying to go to Gruden. You're literally going into a job where you guarantee you're fired next year. I feel like you're going into a job where you guarantee that you have a shot to be an interim head coach. That, okay, that's fair. That's the sell. That would be for me. But is that the sell from Aaron Glenn? It's like, guys, I'm not going to make it through next year. You got a chance. Now, you're right in the fact that the odds are with the fact that that staff would all be gone with Aaron Glenn. Yeah.

So you don't get the pick of the litter. It's going to be all people that move from passing game coordinator to O.C. And, you know, defensive backs goes to D.C. That's what he's got to find. The Titans, this is kind of interesting. They're hiring Brian Dable to be their offensive coordinator. I think this is still contingent on Dable not getting a head coaching job, which could come. in Las Vegas. There's been a lot of contingents. I mean, it's the smartest way to do it ever. I mean, it's how you lock a Mike McDaniel in there. And I mean, let these guys, rather than wait to see what's going to happen, negotiate a set deal for them, and then let them go out and see if they get the head coaching job. But what do you do if they get the head coaching job? Well, then you've got to hire somebody else. But I mean, you're going to be.

Now it's double contingent. It's if this, then that. It's if McDaniel gets a head coaching job, you're my OC. I'm fourth on the list, guys. I just need these three guys to get a head coach job. Cam Ward. I mean, Cam Ward, uh, it's, it's nice. It looked better at the end of the year. Yes. Brian Daybowl is an offensive mind that, you know, I have some confidence that, you know, what he did for Jackson Dart to begin his career was positive. The right direction, I think. Sela and Dable's a good one-two punch, I think. Yeah. And the Jets officially, like you said, they fired their OC to complete the set of firings. The Broncos fired their OC. Of course they did because, you know, Sean Peyton, you should have helped me in the snow with that backup. Should have called the better plan on fourth and one. To be fair.

all season. We were saying the issue with the Broncos was their offense. Their defense was great. And Sean Peyton's calling the place. So you're going to blame the other guy. Well, he's not going to blame himself. You should have told me to call a better play. It's so Sean Peyton. And then Bill Belichick is not a first ballot Hall of Famer. Unbelievable. And the, oh man, this is so wild that he's not a first ballot hall of famer. Don't worry, guys. Pollian is getting in? Yeah, Bill. Yeah, I mean, they're. They debated all the rumors. Why? They were. Have you seen? What are we doing here? I mean, you don't think SpyGate should have an impact? No, it already did. Yeah, I mean. Well, I mean, it had an impact on his career. Yeah, but I'm just playing devil's advocate here because, you know, this is like steroid era in baseball to a degree where like, yeah, some of these guys got in, but they don't get to be first ballot hall of famers when you cheat. There was an article. So, um, I think it was the, the, the.

famous Miami Dolphins. Oh man, they're going to all think I'm like super anti-patriots by being devil's advocate. I'm realizing what's coming in the comments, but I'm just asking the question because obviously 10 people decided that that was the case. Yeah. So it's so funny. If you, if you haven't been like plugged in here and reading the articles and it's seeing all the tweets from player Jimmy Johnson, that dude's pissed. He is he is dropping expletives online. Um, and, uh, so the, the. The presentation was made for Bill Belichick. And in that room, it is rumored that Bill Pollian basically, you know, said that this was an issue. And for SpyGate, you shouldn't be able to get it. And then Bill Pullian has come out and said he didn't. Unequivocally, that is not what happened. And he said he voted for Bill Belichick. No, he said that. And then he said later, I can't remember if I did or did not. Other people who were in that room.

my guy very confidently saying this dude was the reason if you can't remember I was shocked to learn bill didn't get in polling said he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame yeah well he'll be there just not first ballot that's the quote you cannot remember if you voted for Bill Belichick to be in the Hall of Fame or not you should not be voting this isn't the this isn't the excuse you think it is like Done. You don't get to vote anymore. If you can't remember who you vote for? Yeah. Like you, what? Are you serious? He remembers. But it's, it's bad press right now to say that. But even after SpyGate, if you just look at after that. Remember when the Colts were pumping in noise into their stadium? Yeah. Well, Bill Polion was working there. So many coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher, they've come out and said like SpyGate, everybody was, everybody was trying to do what they did. Everyone was trying to steal signs. Like they got caught and they got punished. But.

After SpyGate, he won three Super Bowls, won like more games than John Mann. It was like his resume, if you go only after SpikeGate, it was better than most coaches all time. It's insane. I will say Jason, though, with this, I do have more doubts that Mike Evans will get in on his first ballot. Yeah, I wanted to know how you felt about first ballot. If the coach with the most Super Bowls of all time can't get in the first time, I don't know if Mike Evans could do it. It'll depend if he's Dating a 20-year-old at the time. The cool part. See, I wondered if that. I genuinely was like, are people just like upset because it's like, you know, the vibes? The reputation is not what it once was. There were 10 guys in that room. They tried to send the same DMs and only Bill got the reply. You know, what's funny is so I've seen a bunch of clips from his coaching since this news has come out. And the famous play on the Super Bowl where they, they. Malcolm Butler. Yes. The interception against Seahawks when they should have given him Marshall and Lynch.

And I saw a clip I had never seen before of, because it's pretty crazy that he didn't call a timeout there. In that situation on the goal line, the Patriots were down. They needed to get the ball back and score and the clock was about to run out. A few timeouts left. Pete Carroll really bailed them out. And he didn't call the time out, but there is a clip if you have not seen it, where all the coaches, they all are talking about this and they clip up all the moments, all the players, all the coaching staff. You want to talk about.

unfathomable brilliance in coaching and his choice to not call that where they like the clips are them saying call time out yes people are saying do you want to time out and he's so intently watching and he's seeing that the seahawks are having struggle and they're kind of unsure what they're doing right now and their personnel and then all the coaching i'll find it i'll share it online it was like this isn't just tom brady that dude was brilliant and then you know he'll be a second ballot all All right, we'll take a break and come back with the truth of the wide receiver position. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. My last thing is, why even have a first ballot? Why? Why? Don't do it. Well, I mean, I don't think they're doing it or not doing it, right? It's just of like, if he can't get in on the first one, then just don't even talk about it. Just be like, hey, you're eligible. You were a finalist. We'll see you next year.

We are into the truth of the top 10 wide receivers. We've done this with the quarterback position so far, the running back position. Little overview at the top. Wide receiver scoring was down across the board in 2025. Second fewest total receptions and receiving yards by wide receivers over the last decade. I mean, we talked about the power of the running back this year, right? So I'll be curious how in draft season. if you have some, you know, what the swing is. Because I think it's very justifiable to go running back to start your draft. But I think this year in particular, I think Jamar Chase and Pook and Nakua belong in the 101 conversation personally. Oh, yeah. Whereas I don't know if we've had multiples in that conversation at wide receiver lately. But those two guys, to me, I'm not going to argue with anybody, even if they want to take them over Bijon, right? Like if you didn't feel, I mean, you do have a new head coach, offensive coordinator in Atlanta.

No JSN in there? I had JASN too. Yeah, Jason and Puka were really well matched. No, no, that's, it's very fair. I think all those guys, obviously, if a staffer doesn't come back or something. No Zay flowers? No Zay flour. Hey, why you got to do that? We got to, I was at a good year. Yeah, okay. You want to guess how many receiving touchdowns we had this year versus last year in terms of the differential? Oh, wow, I do not know. Do you know this no? I have no idea. I know it was down. It is down. 67 fewer touchdowns. Wow. By wide receivers in 2025. So, for example, we had 10 wide receivers with eight or more touchdowns this year. We had 17 last year with eight or more touchdowns. This year's leader was Devante Adams. You only had four other double digits. That's Amanra, Higgins, Puka, and JSN. And then good old Olivae, Pickens, Juan Jennings, Jamar Chase, and Quentin Johnston.

are the others with eight or was that last one quentin johnston quentin johnston is making sure people are hearing that name i didn't hear zay flowers though um well we'll talk about him on today's episode oh my gosh zay flowers is a top ten zay flours is a champ a league of record champ a league of record i was like he did he didn't make the playoffs no but yes he was more it was it was you're melvin gordon and the chiefs is that who he was well how so I just not really. Remember when Melvin Gordon was waving his chiefs ringing around? Like Melvin Gordon's a Super Bowl champ with the Chiefs. Yes, I understand that. And you probably didn't remember that he was ever on the Chiefs. All right. Number one overall, Pooka and Akua, 24 years old. Number one at the wide receiver position. Number one.

inconsistency. We take a look at the consistency of every player. That's what the truth is built on. It's not just where they finished in fantasy. It's how consistent were they week to week for your team? We look at their entire game log. We break it down into great games of 20 or more points for wide receivers, good games of 12 and a half or more, and bust games fewer than seven points. Puka, we know the story, but the numbers tell you 38% great, 81% good, 6% bust games for Puka Nakua. That number is down from 18% last year. Machine-like. He is, you look at his career and has one of the best rookie seasons literally all time and was so good top 10 in our consistency rank metric. And then the following season, even though he missed some games, he was so much better than he was that rookie season, getting up to 73% of his games being good. And then this last year,

Even better. I mean, you can't ask for much more. He had one bust game on the entire season. He doesn't even score a ton of touchdowns. So it's possible we have not seen the best Puka. Like if they start involving him around, I mean, if Puka comes out one year and scores 12 touchdowns, because you know he's going to get the PPR work, I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of his career he had a 12 touchdown season. He's fully capable. He's such a funny player. And if you look at it in the isolated redraft single season, like I just, I just feel like he's the number one pick in the draft. I really do. I feel like Puka Nakua is the number one pick in all fantasy drafts. We'll see what my opinion is come, you know, June, July, August. That's how I feel right now. And now the Stafford thing, it's a ticking time bomb, right? Like,