Early WR Rankings: 11-24 + Andy's Stache, Buy/Sell - Fantasy Football Podcast

You had O'Dell Beckham. He had five of them. Here are his teammates. Demetrius Harris had four. Ricky Seals Jones had four. Damien Ratley had four targets inside the 10. He was mad. He was mad about it too, constantly. And Jarvis had 11 with like 11. That's the number I expect for O'Dell Beckham. And honestly, my analysis right now of O'Dell Beckham is like, it's a Welp. It's a Welp emoji.

Like, what happened? I don't know. I don't know what happened because I still believe that Odo Beckham is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. But it's, and I was diving into everything like on, on Baker Mayfield. I'm looking at, okay, how much time in the, in the pocket did, what did Baker have was how accurate was Baker when he was getting the ball out?

in two and a half seconds or if he was holding on to the ball. I was looking at all of these things and there just was there was nothing I could find to point me in a direction for the lack of production that we expected from Beckham. He still had 74 and 1,000 yards, but that's not what you were expecting. Well, and they're disappearing from week to week. I mean, he had four games in the, you know, where he was outside the top 12, but in that top 24, two games inside the top 12.

And then it was like you would have been better off starting Ratley. I mean, you just would have been in a better situation. Right. It was so, you know, polar extremes. I think that's what was so shocking is there were games when he would, you'd see them try to force him the ball to start the game. It'd be an end around or a screen. And then he'd be gone. And great players just don't disappear like that. Do you? Yeah. No, they don't.

And here's the problem is it. Did you say poop or coop? I said coop. Okay, because coop is, yeah, that makes sense. But here's the issue is great players don't just disappear. And there's another great player on this team in Jarvis Landry who has not finished outside the top 20 wide receiver in the last five years. His finishes are 10, 15, 8, 19, and 13 last year on the same team with the same baker with the same getting it out early or holding on to the ball late. So, you know, last year I was.

constantly making the joke that O'Dell Beckham is the wide receiver two for the Browns and Jarvis is the wide receiver one. It was a fact in fantasy by the end of the year. And when I look at the linear rankings, that's why I'm saying I can't wait to stat these guys out. Because when I look at linear rankings, I can't get myself to put Jarvis Landry up in this range. And I can't get myself to put Odell Beckham down. But at the same time, that seems statistically foolish.

Yeah, I mean, I think what you said is the main point with Beckham is there are only a handful of players that you won't be surprised if they somehow finished in the top three. And Beckham's one of those guys that he could do it. I mean, you wouldn't be shocked. No, no, you'd say, people would say, C, it's Odell Beckham Jr. But that can be so deceiving for fantasy owners. And now you have Austin Hooper coming into the equation too. Yeah, you don't want to buy it to the name. But yeah, you don't want to just get sold the name.

T.Y. Hilton comes in at number 12. We are hot and bothered for T. Y. I feel like I have somehow betrayed him suddenly. I have, we, the three of us are so much higher on T.Y. Hilton than the industry. Because I had him up at 16 and I thought I was going to get bias accusations because of the fact he's like one of my favorite players. He's on my dynasty team.

And you guys have them at 11 and 12. You have them in the top 12, and I am, I am tickled. I am enjoying that very, very much. So tell me why you are so bullish, even more bullish than I am. I mean, it's a simple case, right? You have a very talented wide receiver who we bodied last year and parts of the year before because of quarterback play. And that.

is what his issue was. He didn't have a quarterback that I felt could get him the ball with regularity, with consistency, but you still saw the flashes of his brilliance on the field. And so Philip River's coming over. Yeah, is Philip going to throw some interceptions? You're darn right he is. But at the same time, at the same time, that's my promise to you.

He can hyper target his wide receiver one. He made Keenan Allen, you know, a fantasy superstar for several years. And, and there's not another great option here. You've got, you know, okay, he's going to dump it off to the running backs and Jack Doyle's good. Maybe Paris Campbell will step up. But to me, there is such an enormous gap between all those players and T.Y. Hilton, that T.Y. Hilton will have an enormous market share from a competent quarterback with a really good offensive line and a smart.

head coach that's an offensive, you know, designer extraordinaire. So there's a lot to love here in Ty Hilton. He's not over any kind of age gap or issue where I think, oh, he's, you know, he's 33 years old and he's going to lose it. So to me, he's going to be a value in the draft. I was going to say, Mike, does that position Hilton is one of our very early wide receiver values? Yeah, 100%. And to me, this is last year for T.Y. Hilton, you have to.

Crumple that thing up and throw it in the garbage, man. Quarterback play that... Massive injuries. Wasn't enough. Massive injuries. Just men in black flash this thing away from your memory. T.Y. Hilton is still a good player. And it's... I have the same arguments as Jason. It comes down to Philip Rivers. And Philip Rivers, very accurate quarterback. Philip Rivers also willing to go down the field. He went down the field 4% more.

than Jacoby Brissette and his adjusted completion percentage down the field is about six percentage points higher than Jacoby. Rivers can still get it done. Despite Jason's laments of fantasy crushing him last year, Philip Rivers, I think, still has enough. And Ty Hilton will be the biggest benefactor of the wide receiver core for the Colts. Just to give you perspective on our rank compared to the consensus right now, the ADP for TY Hilton is.

The 21st wide receiver off the board. Debo Samuel, Calvin Ridley, DJ Charks, Stefan Diggs. These are all players going ahead. Debo? Debo, yes. Oh, people are hot and bothered for Debo for sure. But yeah, I mean, you're naming a bunch of people that you're not sure if they're the one other than Diggs on their team. T.Y. Hilton is the clear number one. All right. Alan Robinson comes in at 13 on our early consensus wide receiver rankings. Jason. Alan Robinson. 19, Jason.

19. I've got him at 10. Mike has him at 11. Jason has him at 19. Last year he finished at wide receiver 11. And this is in many ways a similar argument to the Hilton argument. He is the bona fide certifiable target monster once again for these bears. And last year, 98 receptions, 1147 yards, seven touchdowns on 154 targets. And I don't really see that.

part of the offense changing. So Nick Foles, he may be the quarterback, more power to him. Alan Robinson, to me, is a top 10 wide receiver. Again, we've highlighted it. Linear rankings are tough. I mean, you're having to make a decision between multiple players. They're not 19 tough. In the same tier. But Jason, Mike has taken issue with your ranking. He's shaking his head at you. He is, I think he's grimacing a little bit.

I can barely contain myself right now. You're going to throw Alan Robinson almost out of the top 20. Yeah, I mean, look, I think Alan Robinson's great. It's no secret. I think the quarterback play there is terrible. Obviously, you had the quarterback play last year and finished well. But remember, there were so many games where the Bears wide receiver core, the tight ends were demolished. Taylor Gabriel was gone. And in those games, Alan Robbins had stepped up and just had a monster number of targets. Is Taylor Gabriel gone?

Yeah, Taylor Gabriel's gone, but Ridley is. Ridley's coming into year two. We'll see what they do in the draft. Trey Burton is healthy. So, yeah. Wait, did you just make a Trey Burton argument?

Yeah, well, look, they had no tight ends and they want to pass the ball to tight ends. Look, you just brought up the people who got red zone targets right in, you know, for the Browns. Those people still get targets that take it away from Alan Robinson. I think what you saw last year was peak Alan Robinson at 11 because he was exactly what you hoped for, 154 targets. If that comes down.

You know, and then midway through the season, there's quarterback controversy, and Nick Foles comes in. Is he do the same targeting? I think there's risk here. And so to me, I think Alan Robinson's a great talent. I don't love the offense, and I think his targets were inflated last year. So that's why I've got him at 19. Mike, are you comfortable with Alan Robinson? Is your wide receiver one if you went running back early? Yes. Yeah, assuming that I made those decisions earlier, yeah, I would.

I mean, I don't think Alan Robinson has top five because of the quarterback play, but I think he will make it into the wide receiver one category because he is a great wide receiver. Last year, the third highest targets here for all wide receivers. I don't think that's going away. 13 of the 16 games, he had five or more reception, so he was giving you a safe PPR baseline with the opportunity to explode. I'm assuming, and this is just me, I'm assuming that Nick Foles will be the quarterback.

for the Chicago Bears. And I also believe that's an upgrade over Trubisky. I'm not going to say it's a leaps and bounds better, but we have seen Nick Foles have electric seasons. So if a Nick Foles electric season hits on, and Alan Robinson is still the number one, then I guess top five is in the realm of possibilities. But he feels just like a safe. He feels very, very safe to be a top 12 guy to me.

Yeah, this isn't an anti-Allen Robinson take. I'd be super happy. I would be super happy to have him as my wide receiver two on a team. I don't want him as a wide receiver one. I just don't think the offense is going to be prolific enough to make him stand out. You know, you've got Anthony Miller. They paid a lot of money to Jimmy Graham as well. I know that we scoff at that, but they obviously don't. They want him involved and they think is an important part of the Packers.

And I scoffed then. Yeah. Well, and he got a lot of targets. So, you know, he shouldn't have. All right. Juju Smith-Schuster comes in at 14. Yeah. With, you know, a cloud, a cloud over Juju and this offense right now. We all have him about the same spot. It was, it was not good.

I do not feel as though, you know, we've discussed this quite a bit. I can hear the grimaces. You can, or the deep size. I didn't think you were going to get a great year out of Juju last year without Antonio Brown. That viewpoint, that opinion, did not have an opportunity to be validated due to the quarterback play. Or at least I don't think it did. I'm welcome. It did not. Okay.

Just in case you wanted to give it to me, I was just going to take it. But between the quarterback play and, you know, the struggles that we saw his injuries, that being said, we still haven't seen Juju Smith-Schuster go put up a monster season without Antonio Brown. That fact remains. We haven't seen it. He's young. Last year, only played 12 games. Wasn't pretty. I'm not willing to give him the complete, you know, throw the whole season away, but pretty close to it.

for an opportunity at that age when he had 166 targets in 2018, finishes the wide receiver 9. I feel so comfortable with him at 14. That feels like the right number for juju. Yeah, it does. I mean, I've got him at 13. I hate it because I think he's got the talent to be, you know, certainly a top 10 wide receiver in the league. But while I agree with you, Andy, you throw last season away. I mean, you lose Big Ben and the backups weren't serviceable. The backups were horrific. They, you know, they went to the backup of the backup.

because the backup was that bad. And then they went to the backup, but then, and then they had to go back to the backup to the backup. Yeah. It was, it was a, it was a mess situation that you throw out. But here's the parts of it that you can't, you know, you've got the strainer on the bathtub that's not letting everything go away. You drain most of it out, but left in that strainer is an older, rubber ducky, injured big bin.

with still no backup quarterback behind him. And that's risk that has to be factored in because here's what I'm confident in. If Big Ben goes down, Juju sucks because that's what happened. That is a fact, my friend. Yeah. So I, look, if Big Ben's out there, he's slinging the ball, I think Juju's going to be a great.