Fantasy Football - Early Top 15 WR Rankings + Team Draft Hype - Podcast for 4/17

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Thursday, April 17th, Mike the fantasy hitman, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers. Back with you. Top 15 wide receiver episode, early rankings. We'll take a look at the wide receiver position. We just covered running backs on Tuesday. We'll talk news. We'll talk draft, which is, I mean, it's a week away. It's a week away. So, you know, for those wondering, right after the draft, we're going to be digging in. I mean, that's our go time, all the statistical projections, every offensive player, every team going into the UDK.

forming our opinions based on, you know, the nitty gritty, all the numbers, digging in. Getting all the rookie rankings, the dynasty startup rankings, getting those up as soon as possible after the NFL draft concludes. That would be in the dynasty pass because we know as soon as the NFL draft is over, people want to do their rookie drafts. We know because that is us as well. We're doing it. If we're going to be honest with people, the real reason that we get right. to heavy lifting work after the NFL draft is because it's for ourselves. Yes. It's to have. Well, not me. I don't do rookie draft. I get it. I get it. Other people, they do those. I'm doing it, you know, just purely for the people. I mean, you're like, you're still, you're still in the draft. Like, you're hanging out. You just don't have picks. Well, I mean, I've got some big news. I'm trying to get my team a little younger. No. No, you're not. That is, that would be the first time in a decade.

Well, I mean, I just made a couple offers. And then I was informed. And I'm really excited about this. This is going to be great. I was informed that I could. If I made an appropriate offer, I could have a shot at Jonathan Brooks. Wow. Yeah, somebody said, running back. Somebody, somebody I know. Former. Double ACL tear. When push comes the show, I might have a shot at him. Because I need to get younger, I was told, by this individual who's sitting in the middle seat over there. Yeah, that sounds exactly like a Papa Josh thing. Yeah. And I know what Papa Josh is asking for for double torn ACL Jonathan Brooks. Everything. The price is full price healthy Jonathan Brooks. That's the price. I mean, you have a microphone, Josh. Do you want to weigh in? I feel like you want to defend yourself. I, this all started because you sent us a trade offer and I started looking at your team and your team is older than me.

And so we thought a young guy that maybe won't be playing this year. They might play again. Maybe, maybe has some value to a team that is ancient. Yeah, maybe. I don't think we're going to get anywhere on that one. But I appreciate it. I mean, you did engage. You engaged. I was coming after Roma Dunes A little bit. But no dice. No dice. Thought maybe. Yeah, he plays football. Right. So Josh isn't going to give that up. The first offer I was sending Sutton for Rome. The second offer was Kyler and Sutton for McCarthy in Rome. Okay. So those were the two offers. Sutton getting ready to sign a contract. Sutton and Rome, that's an interesting one because I think it's very interesting. Well, I bet on the surface if you say, hey, older Cortland Sutton for second year Rome with Dunes. A top 10 wide receiver pick, you'd be like, well, obviously it's Rome, but.

I don't know that it's obviously Rome. There are a lot of people that. I think it's obviously Rome. Yeah. I disagree that it's obvious. Well, that's one of those trades where Roma Dunesay, wide range of opinions on his future. I am in the camp. I set it on the show, which probably hurt the trade offer, that the Waldron list Roma Dunseh. They will blossom like JSN. I think it will be. Here the Waldron down. I think it will be. Mr. Gorbachev. Yeah. So, I mean. Nice. Anyways, we do have a lot coming with the draft. And we have the Ultimate Draft Kit, which is where you get the Dynasty Pass. There are two ways that you can get the UDK. You can go to Ultimate DraftKit.com and you can buy the UDK or UDK Plus, pre-order pricing, get it out of discount, help you during draft season.

The other way is to become an ultimate Foot Clan supporter that gets you access to not just the UDK, but everything we offer, all of our premium content. We have two apps for those that are new to the show. We have an in-season app with a lot of features like a lineup optimizer. And we also have our UDK app. And so you get access to all the premium content if you're an ultimate member, including every release of the UDK Dynasty Pass and all the premium in-season content. So those are. Both ways. You can go to join thefoot.com or ultimate draft kit.com to get access. We'll jump right into the quick question. It is related to the draft. It comes from YouTube. Britton writes in, in the NFL draft, which team are you most excited to see pick and why? So no teams have multiple firsts as of right now. There isn't, you know, necessarily.

you know, one team that's going to ammo up completely, but they have higher picks. And what are the names of some of the teams you're most interested in? Yeah. I've got a three pack of teams. It's really just the running back destinations to me. I really want to know Chicago, Dallas, and Denver, those spots seem like teams that are very interested in adding a running back. They seem valuable for that landing spot. You can throw the Raiders in there as well. I think right now that is like a kind of penciled in Genti destination. Yeah. Like, oh, at six they're going to take Genti and then the rest of the running backs we're going to find out. But obviously if they don't, I think a lot of people's predictions and draft boards and expectations, everything is going to shuffle around a lot. So I'll throw them. I'm just wanting to know where these running backs land. We have about a dozen really talented human beings at that position this year.

there are not that many spots for a dozen to come in and be top 25 running backs. Like that just can't happen no matter how talented they are. So where they land and which teams decide on which guys is going to completely change our rankings. Like when we get to work after the NFL draft, our rookie rankings will look very, very different than they do today. Mike? I was going to say, Andy, which team? Yeah, I mean, he just took my team. Oh, I didn't see it. He just took my team. Oh, there you go. Tell us more about the pick six. For me, it was the Raiders because it is Gentie. I'm excited. There's a rebrand happening in Las Vegas. There is a coming back from under the rock of irrelevance. There is Brock Bowers, who everyone loves watching play. You got Gino Smith in the backfield. You have bubble gum Pete Carroll on the sidelines. You got Tom Brady up in the top. Yeah. There's a rebirth happening in Las Vegas. And I think.

I think if they pick Gentie and you have these players that we're excited for for fantasy and could actually perform on the field, there's just, it's a renewal for that city. It's a renewal for that team. And I think that's exciting. I think it's fun. I want to care about them again. And the pieces are in place. You're hoping they take Gentie? I am. Yeah, because I just think it's perfect. You're going to be putting your team in such a strong position to have elite. talent at two-thirds of the offensive, you know, and Gino Smith. I mean, very capable. Signed to a contract extension. There's just competence there. And we've watched a lot of games over the last two years with rotating quarterback shuffle and an unhappy Devante Adams. And, you know, we got this amazing Brock Bowers performance last year. So it's time for the Raiders to return to relevance for both fantasy and the NFL. I can't wait for the Giants to Genti.

Oh my gosh. Take their next sequel. Speaking of the Giants, that is the team that I'm most excited to watch because I think that's where the Shaduar Sanders watch really begins. I think Cam will go one and I think that the Browns will go probably Travis Hunter. And so now we're open. The Giants need a quarterback and the saga of Sanders being locked in. He's easily the number two overall pick. Oh, he could fall in the first round. It's like the opinions are so all over the place. So it will be very fascinating for me to see what happens there. Does that trigger a fall because the Giants don't take him? No one moves up. And I mean, guy just got his jersey retired for all the great seasons. And in Colorado, let's see if he gets to be a number three overall pick. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are.

A lot of possibilities in the draft. That should be pretty interesting. News and notes from around the league. We have been peppered with ambiguous Mark Andrews related sound bites. This is full Shanahan. So the Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosa came out and said, quote, I never know what's going to happen when asked if he expects Mark Andrews to be with the team. We don't even know if we're going to be alive on Sunday. I mean, the implication, right. The implication is. Maybe they're shopping Mark Andrews. Maybe. And it wasn't, I mean, there was in free agency period, we were worried about the return of Mark Andrews. Yeah, I mean, they had a bonus date, right? Yeah, they had a date. His contract kicked in a lot of money. So I think the expectation is for him to be on the roster. And this is just the GM saying, you know, the press release type of verbiage where.

I will tell you nothing. But I don't know, maybe he's trade bait. Look, when a player's been this integral to your team, they probably expect to hear something better than this. That's fair, yeah. So at least it could be the beginning of the end. I said, is this the last year in Baltimore. I think this is definitely the last year in Baltimore. I think if he plays, this will be it. Cortland Sutton? Let's say real quick. Yeah, go ahead. If you were a GM, how would, how could you not just at this point of the year? troll the pants off of every medium member. I would be, I would be leaking the stupidest crap, like things like this about, you're like, Mark Andrews, is it going to be on the team? Oh, I don't, I don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea. And just like, what, why not? That would be, that would be the most fun of your job. Uh, Cortland Sutton said extension talks at the Browns, or sorry, the Broncos.

are working in the right direction. And so there have been pretty positive talks about him signing a longer term deal with Denver. He's in a really good position because I feel like last year they saw that they're a team that needs to build for the future. He's an older veteran. Probably doesn't make sense to have a long-term extension. And then they hit on a rookie quarterback contract that says, okay, well. Now let's maybe let's just lock in the next two years while we can afford a wide receiver. It's a two year window, Cortland Sutton, stable for your team. Because what they haven't hit on is, you know, Franklin and Mims being like, they're not at Sutton's level. They're not a game changer, a first down guy, a red zone guy. Yeah. I mean, Franklin is clearly on his way. Ever. I got to play him when I can, man. There's not a lot of career left.

Oh, no. Dolph is general manager Chris Greer also said the team is not currently considering trading Tyreek Hill, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. Want to talk whiteouts? What was this verbiage? Not currently considering. That's what I would be doing. Yeah. We're not currently considering trading Lamar Jackson. Right. We're not currently considering trading Jermere Gibbs. I would maybe go a little lighter than that. Like, I don't think we're. Considering considering. You know what, Papa Josh? I'm not currently considering trading you, Cortland Sutton anymore. Good. I'm not currently considering firing him. Josh? Yeah. Okay. That's good. Not currently. Not currently. I'm currently considering whether to fire Josh. So, I mean, we'll figure this out. All right. Let's talk wide outs. Wide receivers.

All right, we just did this with running backs going through our consensus early rankings before we get into all of our deep team projections post draft. We did put together a list, each of us, probably the top 40 or so whiteouts. And we grabbed our consensus top 15. We're going to share those with you today. We talked about what makes a top 15 running back on the Tuesday show for a top 15 wide receiver. Here's the averages. 97 receptions, 1,200 yards, 9 touchdowns, 144 targets, 14 and a half fantasy points per game. So over the last four years, 82% of top 15 wideouts have averaged at least 7.5 targets a game. So they're generally, that's a high number. 67% of them had at least 8 receiving touchdowns. We'll be talking about Terry McLaren today. Yeah.

And so another number just related to wins and losses. The top 15 wide receivers were on NFL teams that average 9.7 wins. It's the same number as the top 15 running backs. I like how Jason put it. It's the same way I view it in the draft. If you are really close on a player, maybe they're both in the same tier, if you need a difference maker, pick the team you think is going to be better, going to win more games. It's just going to help you. So let's take a look here. At number one, it's not a surprise. Jamar Chase, number one for all of us. Certainly lapped the field last year. Finally did it, right? We've been coming into drafts. It all came together. Had been coming into drafts for years just saying what was true. They know, Jamar Chase has as good a chance as anybody to finish as the wide receiver one overall. Now, crazy to it took four years. Yeah.

Yeah, he was 20 fantasy points a game. Jefferson was 15.6. That's the largest gap between wide receiver 1 and 2 in 7 years. Another stat that I found, he was targeted 17 times on passes inside the 10. That's dreamy. Yeah. No, it's sensational of the way that they utilize them and going back, you know, the Cincinnati Bengals running back discussion. If they keep Chase Brown, you know, like Brown is not the gigantic quadid up running back that, hey, when we get inside the five, that's the plan. They know we're going to three downs, we're just going to run this ball. That's not who the Bengals are. The Bengals offense is all of the money is Jamar, Burrow, and T. Higgins, and they're going to keep throwing. Their defense is going to be porous. It, it, guys, it's, the situation is beautiful.

It's so great. Yeah, I mean, we talked, one of the reasons I liked Evans and we liked Godwin and we liked Baker was stability last year for Tampa's offense. You've just got stability in Cincinnati with even higher upside players at every position. So Burrow, Chase, T. Higgins getting the extension. There's no real concern here at this juncture. No. What quarterback? Like forget who the wide receiver is. What quarterback would you pick of the entire league right now to throw to your number one wide receiver for fantasy points? Like you don't want a mobile quarterback quite as much. They're not going to throw as much. You want someone who's a touchdown machine in passing touchdowns. Yeah, other than maybe Josh Allen, I mean, I feel like. Yeah, I mean, even then it's like Josh Allen's going to get a lot of those rushing touchdowns probably. You know, it's like this might be the best quarterback to pick.

for your wide receiver in the entire league. And then you go, okay, well, take the quarterback away. Who's the best wide receiver that you'd pick out of all of them? Oh, certainly. Maybe Justin Jefferson. Maybe Chase. It's probably between those two, but it's like they've got each other. It's not fair. It feels a lot like Stafford and Calvin Johnson. And the fact you got the rapport, you've got the history. They played together in college. It's just perfect. CD Lamb comes in at number two on our early wide receiver rankings. I have them at three. I've got Jefferson ahead of him. That's fine. Jason and Mike have him at two. So C.D. Lamb, I think when you look at Dallas's offense, he's the piece you like. Right? It's not something where you feel incredibly confident everywhere else. In the backfield, okay, we'll see what we're going to get. Dak should be very good. Has provided a number one season for C.D. Lamb. But beyond that combo, you don't feel great about the rest of the offensive.

pieces, but that's fine. That's good. You can argue that that is a feather in the cap. I mean, if T. Higgins comes out and ends up with 14 or 15 touchdowns, you know, receiving this year, that just unfortunately might come at the expense of Jamar Chase. C.D. Lamb is alone there. And he was excellent last year. He missed a game. He was still the wide receiver eight. And he was playing without his quarterback and without his shoulder. So, you know, you might feel like it was a down year because he was the wide receiver one. prior to that, but I think you've got to wash a lot of that injury away, whether it's Dax injury or C.D. Lam's injury. It was a pretty big point per game differential. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 19.7 down to 14.2, and that was touchdowns. I mean, your touchdowns were in half from the year before. But there are a lot of reasons why, you know, he kind of did the best he could do. We watched him game after game.

play really well in the first half until the inevitable hit that, you know, every, every single game, it was like around halftime, third quarter, he would take some amazing catch and fall to the ground and that shoulder would be re-agravated. I don't know why they kept letting him play. I would have shut him down to make sure that your superstar wide receiver's great. They did. He was, he only played 15 games last year. He, yeah, but there were games that you were just like, yeah. Why are you out there? Yes, very much. Maybe he was embellishing. Who knows? I got to look like a warrior. By the way, he broke more tackles than any other wide receiver in football last year. Number one in tackle breaking. So always a big play threat. You guys got them at two. My number two is our consensus number three. It's Justin Jefferson. These three guys, we know what you're getting in fantasy football.

I don't think you have a ton of discussion with all these three guys. We can nitpick. Obviously, Justin Jefferson's, the reason he's three versus two is because the quarterback situation, you know, I like JJ McCarthy, but we don't know how he'll throw touchdowns. Just more question marks there versus we know what CD can do with DAC. All three guys are great. All three guys are tier one wide receivers. These are foundational pieces for fantasy championships, and you expect them to be great. What? Jeff Jefferson just did with Sam Darnold, a career washout until this last year, proved that like, okay, I'm not too afraid of McCarthy. Yeah, he's averaged the most receiving yards per game in the history of the NFL. That's pretty good. He has the most receiving yards through the first five years of his career. And it's by a lot, by the way. He averages 96.5 yards a game the next highest in history, Calvin Johnson, at 86.1. So pretty wild.

He could, apparently he could average under 40 yards a game or just above 40 yards a game. And he'd still be number one all time. If he did that all season long, he would still be above Calvin Johnson. All right, we'll take a break and we'll get to some more interesting names. Yeah, that's the easy ones. Those guys were easy. Back in a minute. All right. Well, at number four in our early wide receiver rankings, you guys both have them at four. I haven't at five. It's Puka Nakua. So. What's the story with Puka from last year? No more Cooper Cup going into this year. He only trailed chase and neighbors in receptions per game last year. What case is there for moving him down on this list? Where's your confidence come from keeping him here? The only reason to move him down to me, I think some people can make an argument that Devante Adams is worse than Cooper Cup was for him. I don't.

I do not see it that way. I don't necessarily see that as an upgrade either. He had Cooper Cup for his career so far. He's taking a great receiver that's gone and putting another great receiver there. I just see it as like it's even. So his injury history this last year and dating back to college combined with Matthew Stafford's age and injury history, I think those are the reasons if you want to get negative on Puka. But what we have seen is a guy who when he is on the field. and he played his entire rookie year and, you know, got banged up a little bit this time, has just been world class. You know, on a points per game basis, you're talking about a top three wide receiver, and he's going into year three. He's young. He dominates everywhere on the field. So I don't think there's a lot to criticize personally with Puka at all. Yeah, his role should be safe production.

When he's on the field is safe. I would say he's still getting, he is still to this day getting like anti-draft capital. So he's getting, is it a Rams thing? Because Kyran has that problem too. Well, I think it's a NFL draft prospect time. He was not supposed to be great. He just really wasn't. Yeah. So some people were waiting for the shoe to drop. Hopefully that part of them is gone. But you also have, I mean, on this offense, you need to be the alpha. He's probably the alpha. But. From a personality standpoint, Cooper Cup is far less vocal and demanding than maybe Devante Adams would be. Whether that's red zone opportunities. Not that, again, I'm not discounting that because nobody was better in the red zone than Cooper Cup, whether he was louder about it or not. I just think of how Devante Adams views himself. What happened to Garrett Wilson when Devante Adams arrived? Those would just be back of the mind things. But he should be coming into...

this Rams organization with the expectation that Puka is their majority wide receiver, you would think. But again, that's a variable. Yeah, I think that if Puka had been drafted in the first round of the NFL draft, everybody would have him at three. What he's done on the field? At three over who? Well, we've got him at three. But I think. You haven't met four. We have him at four. Or, yeah, I'm sorry, at four. I've seen him in a lot of drafts and in other ADPs drop several spots. People are concerned with Puka and I just don't think they should be. I don't think he has ever given a single reason to be concerned with him. So last year, 16.1.4 game average in the games he was active. High target volume player. The touchdowns weren't there.

That would be something to, I mean, three touchdowns on the year in those games. But like you said, 16.1 fantasy points per game on average in those games that he played. Last year, Justin Jefferson was 15.6. So if, you know, you think about like how, okay, Jamar Chase was 20, but that's not normal. He lapped the field. It's just like he is, you know, he's great. Like Nico Collins last year, 14.7 points per game. He's great. 16.1 for Pooka and it's like, I don't know. The Stafford is confusing to me of he's a great quarterback and you know his first year in Los Angeles he threw 4,800 yards and 41 touchdowns but the three years since that were the the touchdown percentages are very pedestrian and it's like how did you have you know seasons with Puka and Cooper Cup and you're just the and the touchdowns aren't there.

I feel it's a Kyron thing. Yeah, it could definitely be that. So you guys have the full confidence still in Stafford? Like, can we get more than how? Where did the touchdowns? Can we get more? Last year was 20 touchdowns in 16 games. Well, we know we can get more than that because. But the year before that, it was 24. I mean, you have three years in a row here with the Rams where his average touchdown percent is at four. So it's under league average. That's very confusing. Amon Rae St. Brown is number five. He is number four for me. Jason's got him at five, Mike at six. Amman Ra is such a, he's been such a strange player since coming into the league because he definitely has that dog in him. Oh, he is the dog. And one of the things when you look at him and the role he plays in the offense, sometimes it's easy to dismiss players like that as though they are not as.

relevant in the red zone or in the end zone, the touchdown numbers. I was looking this up. He has the most red zone receptions of anybody in football, even more than Jamar Chase. So when they get down into that area of the field, you don't need to worry or think that they're going to target somebody else. Like, you know, you have bigger body players like Hawkinson, even Jameson, and yet Amman Ra is kind of a go-to player that finds space in the defense. in the red zone, maybe more like how Julian Edelman executed the offense with Tom Brady in New England, where Edelman wasn't prototypical from a touchdown perspective, but he was a go-to guy. So, you know, he is a very, very dynamic player. He was a majority slot percentage player early in his career. It has changed a lot. Last year was his highest percentage out wide, basically 50, 50 out wide and in the slot.

Yeah, and for Amon Ra losing Ben Johnson, you have to assume they will be running the offense as close to what they had as before. But we've seen teams before where a new guy comes in and they're saying, okay, this is the system and they mismanage it. So if you're talking downsides of Amman Ra, that's what it would be. The nice thing is he's really established himself as like the leader of that offense. He is. you know, at least a passing game. Obviously, the offensive line and running game is a big portion of the lions. But there's a great offense with a ton of continuity everywhere but coaching. He's a guy that's always going to have more than 140 targets. And him and Jared Gough, the way that they play, you know, this is not a guy who's going to catch 66% of his passes. It's just such high floor PPR. And then the fact that he has utilized the last two years in the Reds on the way he has been.