Fantasy Football - WR Rankings Countdown: 20-11 + Keenan's Back! - Podcast for 8/6

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The time for courage and world domination is now at Ultimate DraftKit.com. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Wednesday, August 6th, the Fantasy Footballers podcast. I'm... I'm looking at this desk in front of us, guys, and I'm seeing. What are you seeing? Who's that player you got over by you, Mike? Devonta Smith? Yeah, you got Devonta Smith over there. You got Patrick Mahomes over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The desk looks good. And then I'm like, then there's like Julio Jones. Julio Jones is over here. Hey, just hanging out. Respect Julio Jones. Yeah. I have to imagine that was put there because today is Kyle's day.

and an all-time favorite Julio Jones. Yeah, he's a Falcons guy. He's a Falcons guy, but he's also a Keenan. We don't have a Keenan figure? No, I don't know if they made any of those. I took all of them with me. Too many slots snaps. But yes, I just noticed the vintage out here today in Julio Jones. He was, he's very special for fantasy football. Do you remember how many weeks we'd be like? talking about him limping off the field. Oh, but then like, how many games do you play? Yeah, all of them. Yeah, I mean, if he played 16 games, then we talked about it about 16 times. It was like LaShawn McCoy, but the wide receiver version. Yeah, but then he will go back in and dominate. Yeah. Oh, man, I loved Julio. He was so good. He was so good.

We have a fun show for you today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for following the podcast and following along this season. Shout out to the foot clan, supporting us over at join the foot.com. We have a wide receiver rankings episode today. So we'll talk through probably about 10 of these guys as we count it down to our overall top 10 wide receivers. We've got news to talk about. Jason, you're in the double Navy over there. You're looking good. How are you doing? I'm feeling great. It's a great morning to talk football and so many exciting things happening in the news. Yeah, you talked about Keenan. Yeah, I think it really changes a lot for that team. It's so good from a maybe not. Keenan and I went back to the Chargers, everybody. Right. Yeah, we'll talk about it deeper. That team. But for the Chargers, I think it is.

Really great news. Fantasy might actually muddy some waters for most. Yeah, outside of your love or a growing love for maybe Justin Herbert. Yeah, Herbert Hampton, I think, get a little lift there, but obviously the wide receiver core, Ladd, huge, my love for Trey Harris and their other rookie is, but man, that offense is going to be hard to stop. That division is a very interesting one because I feel very similarly about Denver. Like I feel so positively about them and the Kansas City is just always there. And there's a quarterback in Las Vegas now. It'll be it'll be fun. So we're talking wide receivers for the main event on today's episode. We'll jump in the mailbag if we have some time. A reminder of the ultimate draft kit available with the new value scout tool, which is available to everybody, whether it's UDK, UDK, UDK Plus.

If you do have the UDK Plus, you get the draft analyzer as well. And a reminder, you can get everything. All the draft kit and all the in-season tools and resources. We launched the ultimate Foot Clan membership last year after 10 years of kind of separating products. We decided to create a singular easy way for you to get everything. So if you want to do that, that is jointhefoot.com, the ultimate membership, you get the UDK Plus as part of that. If you've already bought the UDK or the UDK Plus and you want to just take that and get a full credit towards an ultimate membership, we're doing that for you at Jointhefoot.com so you can check that out as well. Let's jump right into that news. News and notes from Around the League, presented by progressive insurance. Keenan Allen is back, reuniting.

with the charges a one-year deal worth up to $8.5 million. He is currently number 18 on the all-time receptions list. 96 catches behind being top 10. Wow. 96 catch. Okay. Yeah, I don't know if 96 is in the cards this year, but it's not impossible. It also doesn't matter. Like, he's going to get past. You know, when you finish at 10, it's neat to say like, when I retired, but you're not staying there. I would be very happy to say that, though. to get into that top team. He would have a good chance. I mean, he's going to be battling out with Hopkins. Hopkins is a couple spots. Oh, he's going to pass Hopkins. And he will surpass the other Hopkins. So, yeah, the second most receptions per game in NFL history, he joins a Chargers team that really, I feel like needed a Keenan Allen, a stabilizing force in the wide receiver room. We all love Ladd McConkey, but it's also a tall task to kind of like ask Ladd McConkey to be kind of,

everything for your for your offense and then depend upon cuge and a couple of rookies with tray harris and and you know you've got lambert smith and then you have you know you got disley and conklin like they're just a well-rounded offense where you know i have such a trust in herbert and finding the right guy and last year keenan ellen was very good in chicago that's surprisingly good in chicago with caleb williams who had a disappointing season and the year prior when he was a charger he was you know unbelievably good. For fantasy, he was great with Herbert. He's obviously got that rapport. The question is going to be who's in the slot. You know, Keenan played a little bit more outside last year than what you would imagine. Ladd has been predominantly slot, but when Keenan was a charger, he was predominantly slot. So I think they can move pieces around, but they have, I mean, Keenan is where you want him to be. We'll catch what you throw him in the ball, just like Ladd McConkey. It's just reliable pass catchers here. And then Quentin Johnston.

who is not a reliable pass catcher, but he can certainly run down the field while the defense worries about their two good wide receivers. Yeah, it's exciting for Herbert, for sure. He did move up in my rankings quite a bit. Keenan Allen? Keenan moved up quite a bit. He was very low in my rankings, having no team. But yeah, I think Keenan Allen, I have him down for the second most targets on the team. I think he's going to be a relevant fantasy asset this year. Jordan Addison officially suspended three games. It was the expectation. Two or three games, we got the official word. We still don't have the official word on Rashi Rice. But it shows that it's coming soon, this time of year. Do you want to make a Rashi Rice prediction here on the show? Okay, six for you. Mike, do you have a prediction for Rashi Rice? Yeah, I'm going to go with six. I think it might start eight and then go to six. I think by the time we get around to the season, it'll be six. I think it might start.

50 and go to 8. It's starting at 8 and it's going to 12. I'm going to say, how dare you try and fight this suspension? I want to see an appeal go up. Yeah, you know what? You were right. We were wrong. We didn't do enough. Yeah, like if you appeal certain things that you definitely admitted to doing, that's like nodded. That's like going to the parole board and being like, I'm innocent. Dude, we were trying to be nice. Yeah. How dare you? All right. What else? Oh, look, more and more Matthew Stafford. News. It's loud enough now for you to be attention. Look, he's dealing with an aggravated disc in his back. He had to receive an epidural and that is not good. He has been managing it. They say he is going to be back for week one. They say this is all management, right? Like that's the message going out there. But this is a really significant situation.

What the camera just you were you were talking you were having a great eloquent point about Matthew Stafford's back and then the stupid deucers put Jason on the all of a sudden I'm on the camera and I was like what the hell am I I I 100% fat fingered that button and I was like Andy's riffing man I'm so gonna just let him do this and this is why this is why George Kittle is right yeah George Kittle George Kittles very upset right now and we have some smelling salts in the building and I'm going to toss one over to Josh because we got to get on board here. Let me just. So the NFL came out. The NFL came out and actually banned smelling salts. Which I got Papa Josh. I saw it and I was like what NFL? What are we doing? Go ahead. There were.

Oh, Josh is. Oh, wow. Oh, my gosh. I deserve that man. Holy moly. If you go to YouTube, that's why they banned it. You went hardcore after that thing. Your eyes are going to bleed out of your ears. Kiddle would be right. The lightning brother. There was more. There was more follow up on it. And they were talking about. I mean, some other concerns, but also they were saying, at least hiding it under. Is it concussion related? Oh, that makes perfect sense. Being able to mask a concussion because you snap out of it. And as one, I'm very pro-brain health and people keeping their brains as healthy as we possibly can with this gladiator sport that they play. Big brain. I was like, okay, NFL, you win this time. So George Kittle said he.

He wanted to, he considered retirement when this came through because he uses smelling salts before every single drive. That can't be good for you. No, it cannot. Did you just see Papa Josh and what happened in his brain? Have you seen interviews with George Kittle? He does seem like a man that is on something. He seems like a man who's had a lot of smelling salts. All right. And he's a good time. Papa Josh is awake and we never need him more away. What? Can I circle back here? Yeah, yeah, please. Before the camera went off of me mid-Matthew-Stafford conversation. Aggravated disc, management issue, the risk rating is very high. And I, you know, I expected big things from the Rams offense with Matthew Stafford. It gets really, really difficult if you take him off the field for Pooka Nakuha and Devante Adams because both of those guys are.

Target monsters. Both of those guys are go-to receivers. And you put them both in an offense that's led by Jimmy Garoppolo. Let me give you a hype. Let's say you run a simulation. And let's say you put Jimmy Garapolo as Devante Adams quarterback. Okay. Try to run the simulation. I'm trying to picture how that could look. Yeah, just try to picture maybe. I'm going to go back to a sample. Go to like, uh, let's just put them on a team randomly, like the Raiders. Yeah. How did that go? Uh, there is a. very particular clip of Devante Adams on the sideline using words, not safe for word. Yeah. Work words and saying, I need to get out of here. And then you add because of the murder because I'm getting destroyed on every play. Yeah, there, there is an execution of the offense that Stafford can do that Jimmy Grappler won't be able to do in my opinion. Now, he, you might be fine, but I'm okay with Jimmy for a game or two, but this is just, this is now at the point where in Matthew Stafford.

He has proven it time and time again. He'll play through pain. He is very, very tough and will, and we'll. Wonder how the smelling salts. Matthew Stafford were working together. Yeah, he's going to find him in the blue tent. But it's, this is really troubling that you might have a ticking time bomb for, and Pooka's, what, Puga's the first round. Puka is a head of Ammon Ra, neighbors, Collins, Brian Thomas, London, A.J. Brown. I would not want him over those guys if I had the fear. I love Puka so much. And I like Puka with Stafford more than those players. But today I actually moved. You know, usually I just do the risk rating and make sure that you know what you're getting into. Right. But I actually artificially moved Puka down a few spots. I wanted him be behind Malik Neighbors and Nico Collins because I do think he carries risk that isn't his fault.

But if I was sitting there and I can choose Malik neighbors, like if Malik neighbor's quarterback goes down, he might get better. If James comes in, great. Who is the number two, by the way? Jackson Dart, the number three on the unofficial dub chart. So, yeah, I mean, there's worry. Stafford playing 17 this year feels like a tall task. Not that it can't happen, not that Stafford won't be there week one, you know, baby ready with his epidural. But. You know, I was trying to figure out what you meant. But now I get it. That's the only time I've ever seen someone getting an epidural. That's to have a baby. And I will tell you what you can't do after you have an epidural. Oh, yeah. That would be play football. Walk. Like, I don't know. Look, it's, it is concerning. He has played through pain. And this could be one of those things where, look, if he's, if he's healthy and active, you get a deal on Puka or Devante Adams. But it's just not what you want to hear this time of year. Speaking of 17 games being.

Unlikely Kenneth Walker. How dare you? Return to practice. I told you he was resting. Three days. He is rested up and ready to practice. How many games do you think he'll rest this year? I think he will rest two to three games. I love it. I love it. When you are number one enforced mistackles and your offensive line has made you like almost dead last in yards before contact. You got to take a few rests. I'm going to say for a three. It's exhausting. For a 3.7 yards per carry with that many broken tackles, he's doing so much running for so little yard. It is. He is a fascinating case because I've gone complete 180 on him. I came into this offseason ready to be so, so in on Kenneth Walker and take the chance, take the risk this year because when he's out there, he is a phenomenal.

fantasy player, a phenomenal running back. He's, he is really good. And I have gotten to the point where I'm like, I'm letting other people. Okay. Well, then I will happily scoop him up. You will scoop him up right behind me. The offensive line for Seattle has at least some improvements. And I think that the, the, the, the, the, the Cubs running system really helps an offensive line that maybe not be the strongest. Get that scheme going. Maybe. Schemes make dreams. Um, Is that what they say, Jake? Yeah, that's what Goof says. Tyreek Hill absent from today's practice due to an undisclosed injury. So there you go. Darren Waller's still a week away from practicing. Good Lord, Darren Waller. What was he doing? He's ramping up. He's ramping up for a month. They said they're eager to see him. Yeah, exactly. At first, it was he has stayed in such great shape. No, he has not. And then it's like, he can't play football.

He's not ready. It is definitely, there's a difference between being an excellent shape and being in football shape. But this is, this feels like a really long time for a player. And then they were bringing in Noah Fant. Like after they, you know, traded for Darren Waller. It's like, we should take a look at Noah Fent too. At Colcomet, left practice early on Tuesday, but avoided serious injury. And we did get some preseason information on starter situation. Shador Sanders is going to start for the Browns. Anthony Richardson. Which I read a comment that said he's starting week one despite not having reps with the ones. Wonderful. Like that is, has that ever happened? Is he playing with other ones in that game? I don't know. Or is it just a bunch of the people he's been playing with?

That's just, that's a wild situation. Cam Ward will, uh, Cam Ward and the starters will play in every preseason game. That's smart, I think. The, the news on preseason and starters being involved is, it's great. We've been, you know, the way it used to be was get your, get your starters the heck out of preseason. We don't want an injury for a meaningless football game, but we have. I think we've now have enough data of the last few years of, like, of offenses starting so slow. See the Bengals. Yeah, the Bengals are going to play some of their starters at least for a series or two. And the Cardinals said that they were going to play some starters. The Raiders said they were going to play starters. You can get hurt. Like we have all the clips. We watch training camp. Yeah. Like players are flying around. You watch the family night games, the offensive defensive matchups. They're flying around, tackling each other. Going up, you know, players are going to get hurt.

I would rather practice a little bit out there on the field and get games beat up. I've changed over. I want some preseason. We might actually enjoy week one a little bit more, too. I think it does depend on the team. You know, like if you've got, you know, Matthew Stafford should not play. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, a 17 year vet who's worked in the system has a Super Bowl under that system. You know what I mean? Like Mahomes, they don't need to put them out there. I mean, I'm not saying whether they will or won't. But, you know, if you've got the like the Bengals who.

every single year start so slow they don't play any other starters in the preseason and then they start you know oh and two two and four every year it's like maybe maybe maybe just act like the preseason is season and then start oh and two in the preseason and then when when the season starts now obviously we'll completely take back everything we said of anybody important first injury gets hurt it all goes what a bunch of idiots anthony richards starting the first preseason game daniel jones will start the second preseason game okay so that's the plan for the colts and that is the rest of the news and notes sponsored by progressive insurance quote today at progressive dot com progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers

Not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We'll take a break and we'll start counting down the whiteouts. All right. We are looking at the wide receiver 20 down to probably 11 today. We'll see where we get. And then we'll jump into the top 10 tomorrow. These are more interesting sometimes because more debate, more variance in rankings as opposed to more consensus with the top guys. Looking at the half. uh ppr rankings today it's probably a good time jason to remind people about the tiered rankings and the importance of tier based drafting because you know there there are gaps between groups of wide receivers that really matter when you're drafting yeah for sure when we when we do our rankings it sometimes it's um

as simple as if you ended up giving someone a half touchdown more, they go up four or five spots. They're really in a group of players that all have a similar range of outcomes. But when you draft just based on rankings, you can get really wrong conclusions. When you lose value. Yeah, when you need to take a player at a certain position. So if you've got the ultimate draft kit, we break everything down into tiers within each position. So you know like, Okay, we feel like, you know, these two players. Sorry, I was just going to say like the gap between like wider tier 20 and 21 last year was over two points for game. There are gaps like that that we believe, you know, you want to be drafting a guy towards the back of a tier, not necessarily starting the next group. Yeah, you don't want to take the second guy out of a tier. Yeah, when you start a tier, you're just not getting the value there. Because if you were to grab one a round or two later,

that are in that same tier and then instead with that first pick have gone to the last guy at a running back you know tier that is about to dry up you just end up with a far stronger roster i was told i didn't hit this button wide receivers oh thank god thank you i also recognized that i didn't hit that button i wasn't just told i also knew that well it sometimes you totally did it on purpose all right number 20 honor rankings jamison williams It is certainly my ranking that is pulling them up into our top 20. Me and Jay are not, I mean, I guess you're above ADP. But we are not that far behind the rank of 20. No, I think a good thing to do. People have heard me talk about James this off season. They know I'm a fan. I think it might be important as I lay some of these things out just to get specifically an opinion from you guys on what might go wrong for Jameson Williams this year because.

You know, I'm very excited the potential, the 24-year-old speedster in this offense that has kind of committed to being more of a downfield offense this year. And you ask yourself, well, you know, Jared Goff didn't do that. He was the third lowest percentage of attempts 20 plus yards down the field. What does that mean? Well, he was good when he did it. That was the thing. He was third in fantasy points per dropback when he did. throw it down the field. I can think of a couple years ago when I made Mike Evans a my guy. Part of that was on the basis of the success rate of Baker Mayfield throwing the ball down the field. He was very effective. Speaking of Jared Goff, when he did do that, they've talked about James and the fact that basically they've locked him in to a couple of spots, which has allowed him to establish a better route tree.

and become more integrated into the offense. And we have spent offseason after off season after off season of more critical comments from the head coach and offensive coordinators. Those are not present anymore. And so I think a breakout is in store. But talk to me a little bit about maybe the opposite perspective, a devil's advocate approach. Sure. I would start with, I've mentioned some of the ADP studies I've been working on of, you know, part of my concern with JSN is guys that break out in year two. We steam their ADP up, and then they actually become like a 50-50 of, well, will they return value on their, where you took them, the expectation for them to score? Meanwhile, guys that breakout in year three, they have them at ADP returning value to you. It's a really, really high hit rate. And I think that's a feather in the Jameson Williams cap. Exactly. So that's where I wanted to start.

And point that out of the journey of Jameson Williams is interesting. I mean, you had, he was coming into the draft hurt. You know, he had the torn ACL. He ends up only playing six games. It's a tough season. Then you have the next year and you have the gambling suspension. And, and then year three, he finishes as a top 20 wide receiver. So based off his draft, his draft pedigree. and the ADP study, he becomes very, very interesting to me, and I'm in. But if you want me to play devil's advocate, that would be, I think it's pretty easy to do of the variables are here. Number one, Ben Johnson is gone, the offensive coordinator. That is, we've seen that be huge hits for teams. You know, sometimes it doesn't matter, and they just continue rolling on, but we've also seen times where the offense becomes, see the Philadelphia Eagles.

They changed off. They had to change off as some coordinators. They did not keep rolling. And that offensive coordinator did not stick around to Philadelphia for very long. Then on top of that, their defense was just so beat up and depleted that they had to score more points. And this is a high T team. And then combine that with, you know, while the reviews on Jameson over the over camp and everything had been glowing, there was weird buzz around the draft of. Is James and Williams going to get traded? Then they spend not only a third round pick on... Tesla. On Isaac Tesla. They traded two future thirds to go spend a third round on a player who would be a same archetype of downfield, stretch the field and take the top off. That would be what could go wrong for James and Williams to me. Yeah.

There are definite ways it can go wrong, but I'm in on Jameson Williams. This is a guy who is being drafted as the wide receiver 27. He finished last year as the wide receiver 18, and he missed two games. So this is, I think right now you're drafting him at what his floor is, but he is one of the players that does have breakout potential. He's, you know, one of those drafted to be great guys coming out of college was supposed to be. a superstar and we had a lot of reports even kind of behind the scenes of him being a little bit of a knucklehead maybe worried about work ethic and then those those came through in those first few years they did so it all matched and at that point it seemed like I don't know that this very talented players ever going to get it together but it seems like he's got it together and the fact that the coaching staff is saying good things and they're locking them in and they figured out how to use them