Fantasy Football 2018 - The Rookie Show Part 1: RB & WR

to do the right thing with Sutton, which is, I think, bring him along slowly and not, like, throw him in as their ex-receiver on day one. But I don't think it's quite a bit. I think there's a lot of opportunity there. So it's kind of somewhere in the middle. Yeah, I completely agree with you. When I look at him, and I like Sutton, I kind of see a, I believe, a better version of Laquan Treadwell, which...

You know, who knows if he went somewhere. I know that's not a comp you want. You know, like, oh, I could get me another Laquan Treadwell. But, you know, you just wonder if Treadwell went somewhere where he got the opportunity. Is it because he's not good enough to get the opportunity or did he not get the opportunity and, you know, it fell apart? But let's talk since, you know, I brought up a name that people don't like. Let me share an opinion that people.

Oh, are going to hate. Put on your fire suit. Yeah, you're going to want to lower the mask of your welding. Your welding mask because you're not going to like this. I know you like him. The guy I'm about to bring up. And honestly, I know everybody does. And when I watched the film, I know his stats are good, but when I watched the film, I didn't like anything I saw. Like, my notes are, they're just not kind. And I don't see how he wins in the NFL.

So I'm obviously the outlier. I will totally admit that. I am in the minority, and a lot of people will think I have no idea what I'm talking about. And I probably don't. On this, James Washington, why is he special? I feel like Mason Rudolph made him a good deep field receiver, but I just didn't see anything special about him. And he's, you know, some people's number one. Yeah, it's really funny that, like you say.

And this is what's fun about, like, watching film and analyzing football is that, you know, two people can watch the same thing and come away with vastly different takeaways. Because to me, when I watched Washington and charted out all of his routes, I really came away thinking that he made Mason Rudolph look like a much better deep pass. Chicken or the egg. Right. It's funny that way because to me, what I think makes Washington, what I don't know if this makes Washington a special player, but what I think is to...

really special translatable traits are that he wins in confined spaces and wins down the field. And that's really valuable. Those two things are, like I said, rare and valuable. That's good. You want that. I think he shows some potential to win on more routes than just...

deep patterns and just on contested throws. I do think he shows a little bit of nuance in his routes a little bit more at the line of scrimmage to release against press coverage. You know, not a big time conference. I wouldn't be surprised if he just ends up as a deep threat and a guy that just wins contested catches. But I think there's a little bit more there. But even if that's all he is, like, so what? Those are two really valuable traits to an NFL team. Like, if you think about Marvin Jones, that's pretty much...

Not all he did, but a lot of what he did this year was win contested catches and win vertically. Never been a guy who just is an elite separator from number one corners, but when he gets good footballs in the high-pointing situation, he can go up in windows even if they're down the field. So I think there's a role for James Washington in the NFL. If he goes to a team with a competent quarterback that is confident throwing in its tight windows, he could make some big play. I agree with what you're saying. I just, I think Marvin Jones is 6'2.

you know, ran a 4-4-6 and James Washington watches 5-11 runs a 4-5-4. If his specialty is deep, I don't think he's winning deep in the NFL. But to each their own and I will hopefully for the sake of most analysts be proven wrong. Well, speaking of a guy who can get down the field, the man set the combine 40 on fire. Mr. DJ Shark. Where are we going?

with DJ Matt, because last year, John Ross obviously came in and broke the record and then earned his way into a top 10 pick. And this was, was he misutilized? Was he just bad? We don't know. The jury is still out on John Ross. But DJ Chark ran a 434 is actually 6-3, which that's great. I mean, that's a great hype for a wide receiver. And you mix in the 4-3.

That's outstanding. How do you feel, though, he will translate into the NFL? Yeah, I think that he's, I don't know, I feel like I've gone, never really had like a strong take on DJ Chark. I think there are people that definitely like him more than me. And apparently the NFL is one of them. Well, the NFL is going to love him because he's fast. If you're fast, that's, that's all, that's everything.

Absolutely. I mean, you see Daniel Jeremiah mock him in like the first round of his NFL draft, and DJ consistently says that he does the mocks based on what he's hearing, not like what he thinks or what have you. So I think that when you look at Chark and reception perception, he has average or above average success rates on all the three deep routes, the post, the nine, and the corner, which is no surprise. But hardly many good scores beyond that, you know.

He's mostly below the average on short to intermediate routes, like the slant, the curl, the dig. I mean, I think there's a lot of work there to go beyond just being a deep threat. So to me, I think he's probably going to be your run-of-the-mill vertical threat in the NFL, you know, maybe in the poor man's Mike Wallace type of mold. Because Wallace has had some good years in the NFL, but when he's been in bad spots, there's just been nothing to see there. Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of what I saw in film, but you've got to love the athleticism there. The last guy I want to bring up.

This is my favorite wide receiver coming in this year after, you know, looking at all the wide receivers. Not necessarily the guy I think is going to have the best fantasy production because he'll, he's probably going to be a slot guy and, you know, it'll depend on where he lands. But I absolutely love, like I had so much fun watching Christian Kirk.

I just loved, like, he had this attitude about him on the field, how he caught the ball, how his routes were all the time. I just see him just destroy guys. But you get the All-22 film. You get to see a little bit more than us. What's your feeling on Christian Kirk?

Yeah, I liked Christian Kirk the more time I spent with this film. The more I went over it, the more games I logged, the more I liked him. Because I think it's just about what do you expect out of a player. And I agree with you. I think he's going to be a really good long-term slot receiver. You know, and you look at reception for reception, definitely below average against man coverage, not great scores against press. But he was mostly beating zone coverage in the middle of the field. And when he was asked to do that.

He was great at it. His 86.4% success rate versus coverage against zone cleared the 96th percentile to the second best score in this class versus zone coverage against Calvin Ridley. And, you know, having to get the chance to meet Christian Kirk and actually talk to him about his preparation. I asked him specifically. So, hey, when I went in and charted your game film, I see you're really good at beating zone coverage. What goes into that? And he talked about just constant preparation, you know.

watching not only just mastering your own assignments, but your entire offense, what your quarterback does, and not eventually played with multiple quarterbacks too. So there's even more that goes into that. And also just mastering every single defense that are going to go against each particular team. Then I think that was my biggest takeaway from meeting him and getting a chance to talk to him was this is just really, he's very professional. He's just a total.

uh total he sold out to like be a great football player and i just was really impressed with that preparation aspect that we got to talk about so i i agree with you he's not like the sexiest prospect or anything but he's definitely going to be a really good like long-term productive player so if he goes to a a good spot like a big time passing game for fantasy owners i think then he could be a value in incoming draft yeah he's he's just a really good wide receiver he's only 21 years old and i also love

what happened on special teams. I don't know if you watch those, because obviously those aren't in reception, but, you know, he had five-plus punt return touchdowns, kickoff return touchdown, played good in the biggest game. So I, yeah, I'm all in. I push my chips in on Christian Kirk. Please, Patriots, draft him. Oh!

He has some like an absurd, I'm trying to look it up right now on the fly, but like he has an absurdly high like punt return average or something. Yeah, I think it's like 22 yards. He was so good when I watched him there. And I know that there's been some studies done that show the correlation between those special teams, you know, success with correlating to what works in the NFL when you get in the open field. So that's another.

Yeah, he averaged 22 yards of punt return. Boo-ya. In his career, 24, 21, 19 over the past three years. That's, like, stupid. It's ludicrous, man. Unbelievable. I know that I'm sure, like, a bunch of listeners, like, what are you talking about? I don't know. But, like, that is absurdly high for a punt return average. And against, like, good competition, too, in the SEC. And then one more guy I want to talk about here. You did the reception article on Equanimia St. Brown.

Sensational sophomore year, almost 1,000 yards, just under 10 touchdowns, saw his numbers cut nearly in half in yards and touchdowns. Not necessarily all his fault, but St. Brown is tall, and he's very fast. How do you see him projecting in the NFL? Yeah, I really like equanimity of St. Brown. He's kind of, like, to me,

I said this really, really early on, that, like, he reminded me of how I felt about Chris Godwin last year. Not that I liked Godwin more or whatever, but, like, after watching both of those guys, I was like, I don't understand why these aren't, like, clear-cut top-five receivers in this draft, in their respective draft classes. Like, I went in and just saw Equanimated St. Brown creating separation all over the field, whether it was deep, whether it was intermediate, whether it was short. And I think you mentioned that lost production. A lot of that comes down to just bad quarterback play in an offense that was...

Running the ball well because they have a great offensive line with a lot of prospects that are going to be drafted high this year. But not good quarterback play. I think I saw Pat Thorman from Pro Football Focus actually tweet out that only 50% of his targets were actually catchable.

So pretty disgusting there. But yeah, St. Brown kind of checks all the boxes. I mean, he's not like a super refined, crisp, sexy route runner, but he definitely gets good separation because he's very talented physically. Also really good after the catch. You can make plays with the ball in his hand. He can win some 50-50 passes too. I have been comparing him to kind of like the good parts of Martavis Bryant.

um in earlier articles and i actually was tweeting back and forth with somebody yesterday a follower i can't sorry i can't remember i i'm not going to give credit here but they don't add him don't out yeah but if you are like please remind me because they said that they would really compare him to like tyro williams i was like dang actually that's perfect because martavis is so freaky and tyro williams is kind of he's built very very similar to equanimia st brown like kind of tall and lanky but very

smooth after the catch and creates a lot of separation despite the fact that he's not a great route runner just again because he is such a freaky player. So I think St. Brown is somebody that he's a good sleeper. I think he has a really high ceiling. And if he goes to a good spot, I think not only can he help a team be as a vertical threat, but I think he could develop into like a full field starter. All right. We're going to give you one wild card here. This is Harmon's choice of a guy that we haven't talked about. Maybe Michael Gallup, Anthony Miller.

Jordan Lasley. Is there one wide receiver you think that should be highlighted that our listeners can be watching for maybe he's a day two or day three pick, that you're excited about his potential? Yeah, Gallup and Miller are really good ones to mention, especially Miller, who I think is, I think he's a top five receiver in this class. But I'll say Deshaun Hamilton, another Penn Statewide receiver that I really like. You know, he's just a lot like Chris Godwin. They couldn't be like more different players.

In terms of how they were deployed, Godwin was like almost strictly a perimeter receiver his final year in college, whereas Deshaun Hamilton was almost strictly a slot receiver at his final year of college. But both of those guys, while they're very different in that way, they're very similar in the way they run routes and score well in reception. Deshawn Hamilton has the best success rate versus man coverage in this class. He has the best success rate versus press coverage in this class. And he actually saw a pretty decent amount of press attempts, despite the fact that he lined up inside.