Fantasy Football - WR & TE Rookie Preview + Best Landing Spots - Podcast for 4/2

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Thursday, April 2nd, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers, back with you once again, part two of our rookie preview episodes, diving into the wide receiver position today and a couple tight-ins. Actually, how many tight-ins are we going to talk about? Okay, just two. I thought you held up one finger. I was like, that's... Nope. Be careful with that. I think we could go, I mean, on today's episode, we're going to talk about two, but there's, I think there's a handful of interesting tight ends in this class. There are, there's, but there's two guys who will be drafted. Yes, there's, yeah, there's two important fantasy impact potential tight ends that are obvious.

We will get into some NFL news as well, some mailbag if we have time for it. We want to put the call out first. We are doing our annual shoutout, searching for new writers to join the fantasy footballers writing staff. Please submit a writing sample at footclanhelp.com. We will only mention it here right now. Yep, this is it. This is the one time we mention it. Even when we mention it just once, we normally receive anywhere from 500 to 1,000 applications. So be patient with our team when it comes to responding. Kyle wants to make sure everybody knows. Kyle's our editor-in-chief, the board Gogan. Everyone will receive an email back to their application to become a staff writer for the fantasy footballers. More information can be found at footclanhelp.com. And we just want people with their own voice, their own...

passion for the game of fantasy football to come and join the writing team. It is an awesome group of writers. We're so thankful to have the people that we do. And Kyle and Julia head that up for our editorial team. So we have great people and we want to add a couple more great people to it. Yep. And know that if you email in and you're like, oh, guys, I missed the thing. What was the address? We take your IP. Mm-hmm. And you're blocked. You're blocked. You can't even get to our website at that point. So please don't do it. And we know, because look, our writers genuinely are great. Our writers are great. And we know if you do that, you're not great. You therefore cannot be one of our writers. Oh, and then the band. That is a prerequisite for writing for us is that you're great. It's tough, but it's fair.

All right, no quick question of the day. We're going to jump right into some news. News and notes from around the league. Well, the quotes are coming hot and heavy from head coach Aaron Glenn in New York. First, he said, and we didn't get to talk about it, but Gino Smith's going to lead them to, quote, the promised land. And then now we have a quote from Aaron Glenn saying he expects meowson Taylor himself to make a big step up and anticipates, quote, a hell of a year. Okay, is that I still like Mason Taylor. You guys know this. I like the bit, but I like Mason Taylor. I think he's an actually talented. I have no problem with it. I do. He's, he has a talented player. Not every tight end is a dog. Like, and not every good productive tight end is a dog. I, we just prefer it that way. Yeah. You want someone to, to mow someone over, not meow someone on the ground. Not, not. So a big ear.

Like a broken tackle? The team has a glaring lack of targets. And Gino Smith will throw the football more than Justin Fields was throwing the football. So from a PPR, Dennis Pitta, one hip quitta. That's what I'm expecting for Johnson Taylor. Just catch the football when it's thrown to you. Talk about the PPR scam. Dennis Pitta back in the day. Shout out to the old timers on that one. Joe Brady also said Dalton Kincaid may need to be managed throughout the 2026. What is wrong with your body? Jason famously said that about CMC once in a one time. What is wrong with your body? But Dalton Kincaid, enough years have gone by where he is just always hurt. Always. He's either 10 out of 10 hurt or 5 out of 10 hurts. The quotes are coming out saying.

Yeah, we know next year he's going to be banged. We haven't started playing this. He's like, yeah, we're going to have to manage him next year. We know by week three. We know. We picked up the fifth year option, but we're going to really take it easy. Yeah, it's not great. I mean, you want somebody to be able to be utilized more often. This is the third time I've seen news about Jordan James. If you don't know who that is, it's a running back for the San Francisco 49ers. i don't know who hasn't been dynasty but i when you what a flex no legit when you picked him up i was like hmm i didn't realize he was out there well i he's only he was only out there mike because i had drafted him and dropped you had cut him um but this is jordan james running back for the san francisco 49ers he was hurt last year didn't have an opportunity to contribute he appears to be the front runner to be the backup in 2026 which is a fun phrase to be he appears to be a front runner

for the backup. Yes. Which is normally a role heavily utilized in San Francisco. Yeah. You want to pay attention to whoever the clear backup is. I mean, it was, we're just, you know, a couple years removed from when you thought it was going to be Elijah Mitchell. And that if you paid attention to, I think Mitchell also got hurt, but like even before his injury, there was this, these blurbs like this coming out of like, the team has really gotten more and more secure with Jordan Mason. being their guy, he was on waiver wire, he was on ours. They like a good Jordan. On our dynasty waiver wire. And then when McCaffrey wasn't playing, Jordan Mason was great for San Francisco. So this is, this is important. It's more of like, okay, it's probably not Isaac Garindo, who I think up in, you know, with Brian Robinson leaving, you thought maybe it goes back to being Garendo. So.

It's just something to pay attention to. Right now, the most smoke is in favor of Jordan James. And a spectacular quote from head coach Mike McCarthy of the Steelers. This one on Caleb Johnson, quote, I am aware of their past experiences, but this is like a Catholic operation. You say three Hail Marys and everybody has a clean slate and let's go to work. I do find it haunting that he says he's aware of their past experiences as though the team has. like overt experience with Caleb but he put the tape on he saw the couple snaps yeah yeah so there you go do you like the uh three hell merry approach to you want to my guy this dude uh no i literally don't know who this is i do oh okay i am all right i never heard of this never heard of k jonson deep depth cleb club yeah yeah i think you're saying it wrong cleb um yonson yeah

Say more than three Hail Marys, Caleb. That's going to take more than that. That is it by way of news. A reminder of the NFL draft coming up later this month. We are into April. We're going to do some fun stuff around the draft by way of giveaways. I think maybe some of those fantasy footballers signed card sets may make an appearance. We've got autographed jerseys we're going to give away this month and some draft related stuff going on. Obviously, all of the Dynasty Pass and Ultimate Draft Kit stuff can be found at Ultimate DraftKit.com. You want to dive in there and get prepped up. That's what this week is all about, getting you ready for the draft. Let's get into the rookies. Hi, rookie. Welcome to the NFL. Well, we talk quarterback and running backs on Tuesday's episode. There's people out there that like Ty Simpson. Yeah, we did talk about Ty Simpson as well. We talked through a handful of running backs.

including Jardians or whatever you call him. Jardians. And today it's exciting. We got to talk about the wide receiver position this year, which of all the groups I think we're most excited about. Yeah, I mean, this is every year you come into the draft and you get told for us that aren't, you know, we're not grinding college tape during the college season. We come to this afterwards and we always, it is clear and obvious going into each new cycle. position or positions where the you know where the fruit is in this class and this is a wide receiver heavy class there are three theoretical studs up top and kind of not necessarily an s tier like a jimar chase but but really high quality immediate fantasy impact players and then there are a whole lot of quality

NFL wide receivers. Now the question as to whether or not that type of player really makes an impact in fantasy or whether it's just great for the NFL and, you know, being able to have some capable receivers that'll be to be determined. And we have all like on the last episode we mentioned it, we're not going through with some consensus ranking today, right? No, the order of the operations of today. The list of players will come from NFL mock draft database, which is, we'll give them another shout out. It's a great site. You keep track of, it's kind of like a, what's the word, not conglomerate. What am I thinking of? Rhinoceros. Don't help them. Is it rhinoceros?

It's an elephant of a site. There it is. Man, you did lead him here. I helped him. You did. Aggregator. Aggregator. I thought it was right now. Where they get all the mock drafts in. And it's like it is important information to see how people are trending. Like do guys come out of nowhere? Because frequently when a player comes out of nowhere, they stay there. Like they become something for a moment. You're like, oh, there's a reason you came out of nowhere because you didn't belong to be here. He didn't belong to be here, as they say. I'm going to mention some wide receiver needy opportunities, teams with picks and the chance that they could go after some of the big names. I just want to get your quick reaction to some of the potential destinations, because we're going to start putting, you know, these mock drafts, they put names to teams. And, you know, obviously, we know Mendoza is going to the Raiders. They have Bowers and Gentie.

They've got the 36 pick in the second round, so really high pick in the second round. They've got a third round pick beyond that. They need a wide receiver. The Jets drafting at 2 and 16, 33 and 44. It seems like one of these wide receivers is going there. Terribly scary and whoever is, whoever you don't like. Like the Jets and the Browns are the two teams that desperately need wide receivers, have a ton of capital and will take a wide receiver. You're just hoping it's the prospect you don't like. Yeah, well, the Jets. The Browns and then Miami, those are teams. Miami now having lost Tyree Kill and Jalen Wattle and Darren Waller. They have 11, 30, 43, and four third rounders. Miami's going to have multiple new wide receivers on this team. And then other teams to watch out for. What do the Saints do? They've had to deal with Oliva's injuries over the year. They definitely need somebody beyond him. They have picks eight and 42. Eight is a prime spot for maybe one of the big names. Washington at seven.

Baltimore at 14 and 45, maybe less of an option there. And then do the Giants try to add somebody? You know, you talked about their, we talked about the running backs and the Giants probably not drafting a running back. We don't think they'll draft a running back. But five could be a prime spot or a place to trade down a little bit and grab a big name. Could be. Mike, did you have a team or two that you think, like are you super afraid of any of these? I mean, I think the... The Jets, it's going to be the usual suspects. It's the Jets and the Browns. I think the, if I'm trying to spin a tail of glass half full for the Jets, it would be if your guy goes to the Jets, just know next year it will be a completely clean house in terms of the coaching staff. They'll probably have a top pick in a very quarterback friendly draft. So maybe you're going to have to wait some time if one of the studs goes there.

There is a chance that gets better in two years. Now do the Browns. Oh. This year right now. I can tell you that as of right now, the only quarterback putting in the work is Shadur. I believe he changed his number. He did. He went back to number two. So we're good. Did you know, there was a report from that Munkin has connected with Watson. They've talked a little bit. Should do her. He's here every day he's working, and Dylan Gabriel is not here. What a small little blip that career is going to have. This guy, because he knows. He's like, I'm not wasting my time. I'm just going to collect this check for the next couple of years and then I will be gone. As of right now on the NFL mock draft database, the rhinoceros site, there are six wide receivers currently slated in the first round. Six. Oh, we're not getting six.

You could. I mean, right now, I mean, obviously when people are putting out their mock drafts, sometimes the skill position players get bumped up in there that they don't in the NFL. But that's the point of like when looking at this year, I think the running back three are guaranteed. And then I would say probably four or five, at least one more after the big three. Let's start there. Carnell Tate, junior from Ohio State is the first name we're going to talk about. 6-2-192. Five-star recruit coming out of high school. Dynamic playmaker. You know, when you look at him and like Mackay Lemon, you know, he has the size advantage over Mackay Lemon. Carnell Tate is number three on Jason's pre-draft rookie rankings at wide receiver. Number two on Mike and I's. They're flipping all over the place. Honestly, these three guys for me have just... And Carnell Tate...

This one's pretty easy. He's from Ohio State. They have just been blessing the NFL with very talented wide receivers. Even the ones where you're like, hey, Marvin Harrison Jr., it feels like catastrophe. His rookie year, he had 800 yards and eight touchdowns. It hasn't worked for our purposes, but for the NFL, Ohio is giving out awesome players. He will be the fifth consecutive Buckeye wide receiver drafted in round one. And that will continue again. next year. So he is a he is a tremendous player. The thing that's hard to reconcile for fantasy football is he wasn't a true target dominator. The way that we have like JSN's year before he got hurt. We want to see those types of things. For a production profile threshold for the wide receiver position, we want to see.

For a player who's going to truly dominate in the NFL, you want to see about 31% of that team's receptions go to that player, or more, of course. And Tate was down at 21% for a player who's going to go as early as he will. I think that Tate will, he will be the number, he'll be the first wide receiver that goes in this draft. I don't know that he's the best for fantasy football purposes. You have a concern that he'll come in and be. not a dominator at the NFL level, but just a solid wide receiver? When you're looking at these three players, which they're all pretty different. So it's kind of like you can kind of pick your type, your arc type of player that you like, because the way that Carnell Tate plays and McCoy Lemon plays, they're very different. But, you know, when you're trying to, when you're picking at the top of your rookie draft and you're trying to make a decision other than destination, because all three of these guys are going to have a very early first round draft capital.

It's you look and go, man, why, why wasn't he commanding more receptions? This would be the lowest target per route run percentage over the last decade for a top 10 pick if he goes in the top 10. And he's, he's very polished. He is a great player. Yeah. So I'm not trying to cast any shade or doubt upon him and his career for the NFL. We're trying to find an advantage of these three players. Yeah. I've got him as my third of the big three. Um, currently pre NFL draft, obviously that, you know, can get shuffled around later, but it's not, it's not saying he's not very good. I love Ladd McConkey coming out despite him having a bad production profile because you said, well, he was playing with Brock Bowers. Right. This is that situation. He's playing with, you know, we say, we say that we say that this year doesn't have a Jamar Chase, doesn't have one of those like the elite of the elite.

next year does. Yes. And he's currently playing on Carnal's team. So you forgive some of that production. Yeah, one of the high-end comps that Kyle jotted down was the ball skills of T. Higgins, the route running of Calvin Ridley. The big question is, can he be that alpha in the NFL? Is there a best fit from those teams that named earlier in your mind where you would get excited about Carnell Tate arriving in camp? What if it was New Orleans? Let's put it that way. I'd be pretty excited. Eight for Tate? Seems great. Nice. That's right. I liked it. Yeah, I think the same section, that could work out where Olave is, you know, can dominate some intermediate stuff and have Tate come in. And for, at least for the team wise, it's like, you, you had Rashid Jeh, replace that type of a player. You want him, but as you, you want him to be better than Rashid Shaheed for fantasy football when you're spending the.

102 to 104 on him. He is met with Tennessee, Washington, Cleveland so far. Washington definitely needs another pass-catching option. Yes. So then seven is interesting. That would be the most exciting spot. For me, he is most commonly mocked to the Browns at 6, which I don't know if that'll happen or not, but that would stink. Well, we're going to take a quick break and come back, talk more rookie wide receivers. All right. All right, time to get into another rookie wide receiver. Let's talk. Mackay Lemon coming out of USC, a junior. He is. The snake. Oh, is it you talking about the press conference? Mackay Lemon, 511, guys, 511. He fits the smaller wide receiver profile that we've seen have more and more success at the NFL level. Talk about Jason's height? No, we're not. 511? No. Yeah, we are.

I'm so glad you brought that. I thought we locked this thing in. He may never, he's done. He's done. That was on the main show, right? That was on the main. I am five. It was a height fight. All right. So listen, guys, we went to. Oh, my gosh. This is nonsense. We went, Al. Al, you were there. You were there with a tape measure. Shoes off. So here's the wall. Here's what we had to happen. If you, if you missed it. I'm out of. We were having the conversation. I can feel it about, you know, guys that are six feet are taller. And then guys who were 5. 11.

frequently if you're 511 you'll just i'm six feet which i don't do because yes and jason was declaring how proud he was to be in the crew he's like no i am legit 511 but i don't round up i tell people on 511 and then we just kept going i went wait jay are you actually 511 or is this just a ruse jason has been getting us for years with this whole I am I take the noble approach of not being six foot immediately when you're like well let's measure you did I hesitate no you did not no you had no confidence great shoes off let's go because I'm 511 we measured and it came up five 10 and a half a little bit under a half yeah it were like 510 and a quarter no it was 510 and 3 8s 3 it's okay come on you

We can give them the half. But that's, I mean, no. Yeah, we can round up to the half. He has to round down. Oh, man. This is ridiculous. I mean, if you reshape your entire life with a 5-10 mentality, how does that go? I'm shrinking. I'm shrinking. You know what you were five? I was 5-11. I'm shrinking. Okay. They're not making tape measures like they used to. Or you're not marking the wall spot appropriately. Justing regulation or what? We used it square. You can still move that up and down. It was, we got one of those things on the wall where we mark it every year, but over the last couple of years, it's gone down. Well, Jason. Anyways, handshake, Mackay Lemon, yeah. I have 11. He was the bulletinikoff winner. Massive production, 1156 yards, 11 touchdowns in his junior season. He's awesome. He is absolutely awesome. Dog mentality. I like Mikey Lemon and I just.

I'm all in, man. I think he is going to be great. Production Dominator at USC, we love to see that. Across the board, Resards, receptions, yards, touchdowns, dominator rating. And he's not just, he's not just a slot wide receiver. He can be, he can play on the outside. He's just, he's not a prototypical X, but I think in today's NFL, he can, work very, very well. He's very well rounded, good route runner, great hands, tough as nails. He's one of the, I feel like it's a much more rare trait to watch wide receivers that are hard to tackle. You know, that's not even a skill set you need at wide receiver anymore. Most of the time when you're hard to tackle, it's because you're a gigantic. Right. You're D.K. Metcalfe or AJ Brown where it's like, yeah, it's hard to tackle those guys. How's Mike Evans yards after catch? Yeah, but that's not.

Mackay Lemon, Mackay Lemon is 511 under 200 pounds and he's still just like he's hitting people. He's a dog. He's definitely a dog. Not everybody is Alman Ra. Not everybody is Golden Tate. That would be the hopeful comparisons. Yes, it is. The one thing that kind of stands out to me that maybe has a little bit of concern. You look at breakout age. It's something we pay attention to. His was a little bit older. Which sucks. For wide receivers, that is a. Yeah, you don't want to hear what I'm going to. Yeah, I mean, the first round wide receiver since 2015 that have later breakout ages than lemon is not a lot of them because his was pretty late. But it's Cadarius, Tony, okay, not great. Hey, for a minute. First round wide receiver, right? Gabriel Legat. Oh, these are all first round. First round. Oh, Kelvin, Benjamin, Henry Ruggs. That's the stat. The best two were Waddle and Ayuk.

But Legat, Benjamin, Ruggs, and Tony were the others. Kelvin Benjamin had a great rookie year. It's not a death knell of a stat. But it is, breakout age is extremely important for wide receivers. When they break out later, it is usually a red flag. However, even when we were scouting these players, like Cadarius Tony, when he was drafted in the first round, I was like, what are you doing? He's not a first round talent. Xavier Leggett. His late breakout age, he was 48 years old after going to school for 20 years. That was another one that's like what? Mackay Lemon is better than those players coming out of college. Yeah, I don't know what to believe. Again, it's going to come down to these. You know, you take the talent and the output of these players at the collegiate level, what teams believe about them, and then do you have a shot with some of these quarterbacks at the top of the draft? You know, Mackay Lemon could be one of those guys. I think that...

maybe slips a little bit further than some of these teams were most afraid of. There were. I think he might go in front of Tyson. Oh, he'll go. I think he will go in front of Tyson. Well, yeah, we'll get into Tyson. People have concerns about injuries with Jordan Tyson. It was funny when the combine was happening and the interviews were going on if you don't remember or didn't see, Mackay Lemon. had the weirdest interviews, the weirdest press conference, just looked weird, acted weird. It was bath salt level. Yeah, I mean, super weird. And then it starts. Okay, maybe that's too much. And then it, I don't think it's that much too much. No, he wasn't running nude down the streets of Miami. But yet, the, there were reports coming out that some of the team interviews were, like he bombed his interviews and that teams were like taking them off their board. So I don't know how.

truthful that is or moving him up the board so yeah i know it's like oh he bombed to my interview i would never draft him you should never draft him what do you pick it what's bond to the points i'm making though is like so most recent mock draft that i'm seeing right now has carnell take going as the highest guy and it's it's it's cleveland right it's always it's a lazy and but but then like what i'm saying about my kylem and dipping is like okay 11 to miami I really like that destination. Miami, whoever is drafted by them and they can take the pick, they're walking in as the alpha. They just come in the front door as the alpha. So 11 to Miami would be great. In this case, they had Jordan Tyson at 13 to the Rams. But if you flip-flop those, let's say Miami fell in love of Jordan Tyson, and then Mikhailimon's a ram. Like, you're talking about a bright future. If you go to one of those teams that's not at the bottom. The Rams are where I've got him currently kind of penciled in. 16.

The Jets have the pick at 16 too, which, you know, that might be their first offensive pick. If one of those three guys is at 16, they're gone. That's an interesting philosophical question of, okay, so let's say Lemon goes to the Rams and Tyson goes to Miami. You're like, do you want immediate target share? Or eventual domination? Or do you want someone who is, is the wide receiver three at best for the entirety of the year unless. Devante Adams gets hurt. Yeah, I mean, that's a brutal one because Puka is going to sign a long-term deal, barring bath salts for Pooca. But I'm saying, like, this year, it will be Puka and Adams. Like, Adams won't. Adams isn't long for the team. Did you guys see the note they, they were pretty open and honest with him? They were like, well, they might have traded him last year. They thought about it. And then they changed their minds. About trading who? Adams. What? Yeah.