WR Rankings Countdown: 20-11 - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/3

Preseason football is here. It's time to get ready for those fantasy football drafts. Head over to ultimate draft kit.com. Pick up your UDK. Our full projections, sleepers, breakouts, bust, values, and this thing will be updating all until the NFL kickoff on that big Thursday. Head there right now, ultimate draft kit.com. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's backup football time. Oh, no. You know what? I'm happy you did that. I can't give it the full one. That's because you don't want to lose that for actual kickoff, right? It doesn't deserve it. It's not actually. Just rolls off the tongue, though, right? Yeah. It's backup football time. It's kind of football time. Now, keep in mind, last year we saw Superstar Sensation.

Josh Jacobs dominate into the Hall of Fame game. I hear you loud and clear. Zach Wilson, move him up. That's what he said. Yeah, Zach Wilson starts tonight. That's good football. Or, I mean, good TV. Are you not rooting for him? Zach Wilson? No, no, no, no, no. Let me ask you this as we kick off today's episode. I root for 99% of players. Zach Wilson has just, he pushed himself into a 1% where I'm like, Nah. We do have football tonight. It is backup football. It is the Hall of Fame game. And we're so hungry for it that we'll probably watch it and then be reminded of how bad it is. We'll peek in. But, you know, it'll be fun to have football on the television. I was going to ask this because it's Jets Browns tonight. And we got a big show today, by the way. We've got news. We've got the wide receiver rankings countdown. We got best ball breakdown. And we'll be with you today, tomorrow.

every weekday through the end of the season. Let me ask you this about the Jets because, you know, we have been jovial about some of the habits of their new quarterback. Aaron Rogers, who, you know, I don't feel guilty about that because he puts himself out there in lots of different ways. He's a unique fella. And yet, I have been very impressed with Aaron Rogers. recently. In particular, his comments defending Nathaniel Hackett, who's considered his, you know, it's his favorite coach historically that he's ever worked with. Is that what he said? Yes. I believe he said one of his favorites. And he defended him because Sean Payton kind of broke the code and came out and openly criticized Nathaniel Hackett. And the comments that I saw from Rogers on that, I thought were leadership comments. And then

All the reports from camp, all the tape, very, very welcoming to Zach Wilson, very much working with him to, you know, he didn't get that from Brett Favre in Green Bay. Right. And there is a torch to be passed here, even though the joke. He didn't give it to join the love. Yeah. Correct. So what I'm saying is he's taking, he's turning over a new leaf in these gray beard days. that I think I'm impressed with. I think he's been a great leader for the Jets. And I am very optimistic about the Jets' chances this year. I really am. Yeah, I mean, the situation is just backwards. It's different. He's the replacement. He's coming in to replace who was the starter versus them drafting someone to replace him. Sure. So you would expect him to have a better attitude in this situation. Well, I would hope. Well, yeah. I mean, I'm just saying we would expect that of humanity. Like.

you would say, oh, he should come in and be a leader. And just to play devil's advocate here, because we're all bullish on the Jets, their prospects, their fantasy players, we're sure that a Nathaniel Hackett partially run team trading for a Hall of Fame level quarterback for a team that looked like they're a quarterback away. from making a super one. We're sure it's going to work this time. This would be a bit of a... Because we've been here. A bit of a Russell Wilson Broncos situation. Correct. Yeah, I feel... And a really good defense where you barely need anything out of the offense at all. And he's not the... Heck, it's not the head coach. I have more confidence in Sala, but...

There are many, many parallels to what is happening for the Jets that we went through with the Broncos. And what's really funny is one of my things to remember was that when quarterbacks have lost it, that's like players that have lost it, they don't get it back. You know, Russ didn't look great. And then it was like, oh, you know, I don't think he's going to get better necessarily. And Rogers wasn't that great last year. And I know, we blame the Devante Adams. But I blame the broken hand, too. I mean, that didn't help. Maybe he's... I mean, we'll see. Yeah, I've got my thoughts on them. I was not in on Denver for the record last year. So I have a right to be in on one of these. That is accurate. I made money betting against their win total last year. It was delightful. Like I said, wide receiver ranking show today. Mike mentioned it at the top. The ultimate draft kit available right now being updated every day. We made tweaks based off the Cooper Cup news recently. I...

tweeted something very early this morning. I've been up way too long today. But sometimes there are things you do in your life that you do just because you've got to do them. And they don't bring you joy. You've got to pay your taxes, right? You've got to do the chores around the house. Well, Wesley Snipes disagrees. That's true. And Richard Hatch. It's a good old tax fraud joke. Yeah, really. It goes with the computer jokes. But the third one is if I, that doesn't bring me joy, but you have to do it sometimes. It's, bumping up Naji Harris and Alexander Madison in my rankings. Well, well. And this morning, Naji Harris got a little bump. All right. Just out of researching the Steelers camp, dependency on the run, you know, just giving them a little bit more volume, maybe a little more effectiveness. Not something I enjoy doing, but I'm willing to do it. Okay. For the good of the foot claim. That's a big man. Big man over here. Just saying. The tweaks are happening every single day.

The community is Jointhefoot.com that gets you access to our premium Discord server where you can find Foot Clan leagues to join. This is the time to jump into leagues. People always looking for new players. And then if you are starting the league and you're looking for someone to join, that's a great place to go. You can find an extra episode of the show every week and a lot of premium perks that will go on to the regular season. That's all at Jointhefoot.com as well. Let's jump into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. All right. Jets Browns tonight. Few pieces of news or hype or speculation we can talk about. Another reiteration by John Harbaugh, he doesn't know when JK Dobbins is going to return to the team. All of the language around this is kind of, it almost feels like John Harbaugh, obviously, like he's not involved in the broad negotiations. So it's like they're just talking.

You can tell he's disappointed. Mike, you tweeted yesterday about Gus Edwards. Yeah. We need to be paying attention. We're starting to get into that time. I know Melvin Gordon is there. I think Melvin Gordon is kind of past his moment. And yeah, there was certainly Gus Edwards hope and hype last year. I think it worked out for a game. But Gus Edwards was also recovering from his own injury. You know, just like J.K. Dobbins. But like Gus Edwards looks like he's healthy. Like he looks like he's ready to go. And to me, how many legs does he have? He's got two working legs. Got it. As far as I can tell. All right. But to me, it seems like if JK is to actually take this to the next level, Gus Edwards would be the next person up. And the excitement for the Ravens, it would carry over to Gus Edwards. So I think that he is someone who.

Like if you're in a deeper league, he should be on your radar as just a stash on a big bench. We also talked yesterday, Jason, you brought up the fact that, you know, historically you're not buying injury dips in players. And Matthew Best talked about the fact that players that get injured in camp, they don't generally meet their ADP value. And Mike also tweeted yesterday about the tight-in situation, which has been very valuable historically in Dallas with the schoon man. But we all want to see succeed. He's hurt. Yes. And, you know, when you look at opportunities, there may be you need to pay more attention to Jake Ferguson. 100%. Dalton Schultz was not a name we knew until we knew it, right? The involvement, DAC throwing to that position, very important.

Yeah, and Ferguson's been pretty good in camp. Last I saw the last practice report I read, he had two touchdowns Ferguson did. So, yeah, it's definitely a name if you're playing on an underdog, you know, where you're rolling three tight ends deep. I've got Ferguson on a lot of leagues. ESPN, more speculation around the Baltimore wide receivers. Just the dumbest speculation. Yeah, I'm not. It's just. Mike brought up Zay Flowers yesterday, said Flowers and Beckham are solidifying themselves, but Bateman's still in the pup. But, I mean, it's still true, right? You still, you get more reps, more playing time. We just talked about injuries in the preseason. Yeah, there was, you know, there was some puff pieces coming out about Nelson Agilor. So it was like, he was just kind of floating there in the midst of like, oh, I love Zay Flowers, but what happens if all of a sudden Agloor is the starting wide receiver with O'Dell Beckham?

As of right now, it does not seem that way. And then the last piece of news, and I didn't get to see the clip, but Commander's head coach Ron Rivera himself said, don't sleep on Jacoby Brissette when asking about the team's quarterback competition. It seems like a weird comment. I didn't get to see it. Like I said, I mean, the pre-concession. Yeah. So, Kobe Brissette. When he puts Brissette in, he's just, I told you. I mean, I told you not to sleep on this guy. What do you want to happen? Oh, that's easy. I want Sam Howell to be the starter and start 17 games. But I want to own a football team as well. So, like, there's a lot of things in life that you really want and you're just not going to get them. But I like Sam Howell. I really liked.

you know, some of what he did in college, and I'm happy he's going to get the opportunity. I'm sad that his opportunity is coming without investment in him and the obligation to let him play through bad moments. Because I think he could develop into a good quarterback if he was given the rope. But, I mean, this is just proof right here. Like, he has no rope. None. You don't play well. Don't sleep on Jacobi. It's going to, I mean, there's no chance that both of these quarterbacks don't play this year. Well, and I think he infers here that Jacoby Reset may win the job from the onset. That's what he's saying. And so, Jacobi's good. I think I'm at the point now with Terry McLaurin where I want a known commodity that I don't have to say in my head, what if he gets somebody better than this? Because he's never gotten it.

So to me, I think I'm rooting for Jacoby because of what he provided for Amari Cooper last year, which was great. Like, Amari Cooper was a big surprise. Nobody expected the kind of season from him, and Jacobi was the fuel to that. So I think I might be rooting for the – because Sam Hell, it could go the other direction. Oh, for sure. You could wash out four weeks of the season, Terry McClure not producing, and then you're like, oh, now we're going to make the switch. So you're just saying you want the first half of the year to –

to be better and not the second half of the year. I guess, yes. That is what I am saying, because there will be a change. I am getting news from Coach Rivera saying don't sleep on Jake Fromm. Really? Yeah. They're just, they're covering all aspects of the quarterback position. Because Jake Frum is apparently the third strength quarterback for the commanders. Right, which you can go from third to first pretty quick there. That was today's news and notes brought to you by. USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. It is time, gentlemen, to jump in to our rankings episodes. Wide receivers. All right, today we begin the wide receiver rankings countdown. And we begin at number 20 with DJ Moore. A reminder, all the tiered rankings, customizable scoring, printable cheat sheets, the mobile app, all the changes.

to the rankings. You can find them all at Ultimate DraftKit.com. DJ Moore, here we are again. He is a mainstay on the 11 through 20 episode of the wide receiver rankings. Yeah, he lives here. 26 years old, a brand new member of the Chicago Bears. I believe I read recently that Justin Fields in terms of the... MVP betting market has more money placed down on him to win MVP than I believe Allen and Mahomes and Hertz combined. It makes sense because his odds are going to be a much, much larger payout. And it's like it's the Lamar Jackson effect of like seeing what he could do rushing wise. And if the passing takes the next step.

Like freaky stuff happens. I would say it's the Jalen Hertz. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, last year, more money was placed on Hertz. So what I, the reason I brought it up is simply, Jason, that the expectation is there publicly for a big step forward for Justin Fields. We spent an off season, you telling me, Jailen Hertz is going to throw the ball more, us looking historical. Historical wasn't prescriptive for Jalen Hertz. What was prescriptive was the addition of a huge wide receiver to that offense that changed. what they were capable of doing. This offense has DJ Moore now. So could people be sleeping on a top 12 wide receiver and DJ Moore this season? Yeah, I think that is possible. I've risen on DJ Moore. And you're right to bring up Fields. Fields is the entirety of whether or not DJ Moore has a good season. And it's not a matter of will they let him throw them? It's just...

Is he going to level up? Do you believe that Justin Fields is a good thrower of the football? Because that's what's going to matter for DJ Moore. And I have started to believe, yeah, I mean, we've seen it, right? We've seen it several times here. Lamar Jackson, uh, Josh Allen, Jalen Hertz, these guys who have that dual threat ability who level up their passing. to a level that's like, oh, yeah, this is really good for their fantasy assets. You know, Diggs is great and A.J. Brown is great. So can D.J. Moore actually succeed to a level he hasn't yet? Absolutely. I believe that that really can happen, but it is entirely on the basis of whether or not Fields can level up. Pre-NFL draft, I believed Fields was a very good passer. And so I think I need to put my money where my mouth is with regards to D.J. Moore and believe.

that it will be good for him. We've had, and it's something to be said about how good DJ Moore really is. I mean, we've had Diggs moving teams successful, Hopkins moving teams successful. Tyreek Hill last year, more yards, more receptions than ever in Kansas City switching teams, switching teams, switching teams, very successful. So is DJ Moore on that level? His fantasy finishes the last four years, 18, 22, 1922. This is the guy that gets the middle management job. And then they're like, do you want a promotion? He's like, I'm good. I'm good 18 to 22. Yeah, he's always been very inconsistent. And we've, we've desired him to get a better quarterback. We've blamed the quarterback. But we're going to find out, I think, this year, whether it's just this is who DJ Moore is and he disappears sometimes. He's a C in our consistency grade, about 40% of the time giving you a really good fantasy game. And that's not going to get it done.

even though he finishes as a wide receiver two every year, you've been really unhappy with how it comes about. It's not like a consistent producer on your roster, even though he finishes as a wide receiver too. You want to hear just a tiny little perhaps serendipitous situation here. Currently, DJ Moore is the wide receiver 23. In the year 2020, when Stefan Diggs changed teams to the Buffalo Bills, he was in fact ADP, the wide receiver 23. Okay. And this is the Mike Wright Redemption tour with Madison and Moore and Gibson. Just saying like Stefan Diggs. P. Rine. Stefan Diggs was because of Josh Allen, which like at the time absolutely made sense because you didn't see Josh Allen taking a historic bump up as a passer. But Stefan Diggs, the ADP was the risk was baked into the ADP.

And the risk is baked in here for DJ Moore. Wide receiver 23, fifth round pick. I would take him there. I think the upside is worth it. I think DJ Moore is an elite wide receiver. I really believe that. It's been opportunity in quarterback play. I think, you know, I would be saying the same thing about Terry McClure and having a new opportunity someplace else. So is it scary? Oh, yeah. I mean, very scary. They had. two total games where a wide receiver was over 12 fantasy points last year. So that's not great. No. That's not great, but they also had no wide receivers last year. They lost, you know, Mooney and they didn't have other talent on the roster. So, um, you know, they lose Mooney though. Felt like really early. I mean, he played, he played 12 weeks. So I think it's still notable that poor, poor Mooney couldn't even get over 12 fantasy points.

But you're right. I mean, it is a risk. If they don't pass more, we will be disappointed. Yeah, but at the very least, if they don't pass more, you know he's going to be the number one read. He's going to have a high target share. And so I think the floor here is basically what you've had the last few years, which is okay. It's not, you know, I said you've been disappointed with DJ Moore because you wanted more and got less. But it's, you know, you're still going to end up with a wide receiver two. I don't think there's a world where he ends up.

outside the top 24 wide receivers. Well, what about this guy? Number 19, Calvin Ridley wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars going ahead of DJ Moore right now, the wide receiver 19 off the board. The average draft position, late fourth round. I got him at 17, Mike at 21, Jason, at 20. This isn't fair. I was the first believer in Calvin Ridley, and now you guys have jumped my rankings. You jumped ship. I just haven't moved. I left him where he's been forever. Yeah, man. Get with the program. Times changed, dude. I'd rather be last than first on these rankings. All right. He hasn't played in the NFL in 700 days. There's that. He's got a cleat problem. I think that one's going to be under control. But Calvin Ridley,

seems like a huge risk-reward selection in this year's. Very. I don't know if wide receiver, do you think wide receiver 19 is like the feasible outcome, or do you think this is going to be a, he's much higher or much lower situation? Yeah, no, I would say that. I believe he is either going to be closer to a wide receiver one or it's going to be a really balanced offense where. The target market share isn't there, and Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram and Zay Jones are all involved, and he's more like an inconsistent, low-end wide receiver 2. And so you're taking that gamble when you draft him as the wide receiver 19 in the fourth round. And part of that is, what do you believe in Trevor Lawrence? Do you think he's going to level up to an MVP caliber player? Their division is very winnable.

They pretty much, I feel like, you know, odds-wise, Vegas-wise, you know, they've got to take it to the playoffs right now. So that only happens with Trevor Lawrence leveling up. Well, and he's got potential over 4,700 to 5,000 yards passing, which is something that, you know, the previous, like Justin Fields is not doing that. He's not touching that number. They also have a bunch of good players. Christian Kirk's good. Evan Ingram's good. Zay Jones is good. But they, you know, Calvin Ridley has the potential to be great. He has the potential to be, you know, it's like the routes we're watching in the preseason or in the training camp where you're like, you're a different speed than other people. You do different things with your body. You're a player. And he's finished four overall before. Yeah, I was going to run through that as a rookie, wide receiver 20. Then he was the wide receiver 25 in only 13 of 16 games. Then he was the wide receiver four.

Then Julio Jones leaves, and then, of course, Calvin Ridley deals with all of his mental health issues, compounded then by the year-long suspension for gambling. So this is such an interesting experiment of, like, this is a player who has done it before at an elite level, and yet we haven't seen him play football in basically two years. So does he still have it? Probably, he probably does. And we have the proof of the, you know, the proof that Trevor Lawrence can support a wide receiver one. Christian Kirk was that. It was kind of all, like, it felt it was stronger in the first half for Kirk. And then some more players started to get to get involved. But you know that Trevor Lawrence is a good passer, could upgrade, can support a wide receiver one. So if this is, I don't know. Is it too expensive? That's what it's going to say. You guys are a little bit behind.

his ADP in your rankings because you are paying, like a lot of the upside is baked into the cost right now. I like him as a wide receiver too. I would take him there in the late fourth round because the explosiveness not being my number one wide receiver. I'd be happy with that. But is he on the cusp of being too expensive with all the excitement? Yes, because you are this projection here in the ADP, the market is saying, we know without a doubt, Kyle, can you pull up Christian Kirk's ADP for me? The ADP says that Christian Kirk is the two and that Calvin Ridley is the one. Yeah, 612. So I mean, yeah, so you have two full rounds here saying that Calvin Ridley is definitely the one. And we expect that, but you can't say for sure right now. So it is, this is a extremely risky pick, but the reward, we want high ceiling players. That's how you win. That's how you win a fantasy football championship.

I love him in basketball. I really do. I think that the risk of the back of the fourth is probably worth it. We're going to take a quick break. The first two wide receivers, they're going to take their first snaps with the brand new team. The next guy we talk about, might not have the quarterback he's used to. Back in a second. All right, we're moving to number 18 in the wide receiver rankings. This is a player going in the late sixth round. Too low, in my opinion. This is a player drafted as the wide receiver 29. But he won't have his guy behind Sinner. We're talking about Hollywood Brown. I have, I got to confess something to you. He has been a must pick for me in a lot of mock drafts this off season. He is moving into maybe not a must pick category anymore. Oh, really? Yes. There is some cold water being thrown on the once magnificent fire that was.

Hollywood Brown. I know the talent of Hollywood Brown is there. I saw what he did without DeAndre Hopkins last year. But I also think he may play four, six, eight weeks with some combination of Clayton Toon. Yeah, that's a player. Yeah, I heard sounds from Deucer's Alley. I'm pretty sure that Clayton Toon was like PFF's number one ranked passer last year. Thank you. Thank you. Also, Colt McCoy. who Cole McCoy just celebrated, congratulations, his 50th birthday. And playing great at that age. Don't both those sound like made-up names. Cole McCoy and TV show. Like a quarterback on a TV show. Yeah, they were actually Wild West. Yeah, that is definitely a Western. This town ain't big enough for the both of us. No, why don't you both get out and let Kyler Murray play football? But, um...

I don't think, I'm to the point where we were speculating on Kyler status for a long time. We're like, I think he could be back week one. I think he could be back week one. I don't think he's back week one. Like I've made that decision now mentally. And so because of that, I, I, what am I getting out of the gate? You know, you want to start strong in fantasy. Am I running a risk? You've got a bunch of other players involved there. Yeah, no, I mean, you're, you're not wrong. The Kyler News, we are in Arizona here. I think that we would all say,