Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - WR's 21-40, Fantasy News, Injuries, Listener Questions

If you want to draft and practice drafting, see where you need to take, guys. Go to fantasy draftwizard.com. It's the exact same site that the three of us use. It's what we use on our mock draft drafts. I probably do one or two of those fantasy drafts every single day. Even if it's a keeper league, you can import your players and it's completely free. So sign up. It's great tool. Fantasy draft wizard.com. You got it. Let's get into the wide receivers. Wide receivers.

All right, let's go. 21 through 40, obviously a very deep position. I thought this was kind of the most important position to go as deep as we can in because ultimately, you know, we prescribe drafting running backs early, which means that you're looking for value at wide receiver if you don't have those top guys, and there's a lot of it. So 21 is a guy that I, he's one of my guys. Yeah, be careful. I'm afraid of saying that right now. I know. He's already been banged up a little bit this offseason. He's back. Jeremy Macklin's our number 21.

I'm very high on Alex Smith and very high on the Chiefs in general, and I think Jeremy Macklin is just a great, great wide receiver in the NFL. And there's been reports in Chiefs camp that he has been, I mean, he's had a tremendous camp, not that we should expect less. He got a big deal moving over to Kansas City. So let's talk about Jeremy Macklin. I get the feeling, Mike, that you're coming around him a little bit. I have... Is that the right? Yeah, a little bit. I've moved, obviously he's up to 21.

bumped him up. Yeah, because you would have killed my ranking. Yeah, absolutely. And here is my concern with Jeremy Macklin. He's played four years under Andy Reed, and he has never put up over 1,000 yards. He did have one year with 10 touchdowns, but he averaged 65, 863 yards, and seven touchdowns under Andy Reed. And that's with Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick is your QB. I just do not buy into that logic.

And I know Jason probably does. So I'll explain why not. Because the numbers that you're quoting end in 2012. And he was a different player than. He wasn't the number one option on your team. He became a number one. He's healthy. And it's three years removed. He's got signed as a number one receiver. I just think the talent is superior to the history there. It's one of those things where, I mean, we just talked about Matt Ryan with, was it Harris? Yep. No, no, no.

You're teasing a future show. What do you mean? What's JJ? Oh, you're right. You're right. But we've been talking about Matt Ryan. I mean, his history says he's a 7, 8, 9 quarterback. We're projecting three. I could just recite his numbers in the past four years. And so for me, it's not that way with Macklin. He was a number one last year. He got signed as number one. He is a dominant route runner, a dominant deep threat. And so for me, that's the argument is, okay, Andy Reid coached him in 2012. Well, it's three years ago.

Yeah. He's a talented guy. And what you just need to be careful of going into drafts is that you don't care about his name too much because he's got a great name. Jeremy Macklin has been a good name, a good guy to draft, and he's not worth what his name was last year. And that's my main concern. He is a talented guy, but he's going to a team and a position that doesn't benefit wide receivers. And so you just need to be careful of not thinking that he is what he was last year. He's nowhere near that. He's got a five-syllable name. I'll tell you.

All he has to do is catch one touchdown, and the wide receiver touchdowns from the Chiefs jumps up 100%. That is true. 100%. Hey, one touchdown. I'm not worried about it. Week one. Do you want to make that bet? No. Oh, what? You don't want to make a week one touchdown bet with Andy? No, it can happen. All right. I don't see you not. 22 is a surprising name for me from a consensus ranking. Yeah, me too. Tori Smith? Tori Smith.

That must be you, Mike. I'm going back to check my rankings right now. There's no way I have that high. So going to San Francisco, obviously they need a top option there. Bolden is solid and tried and true, but he's not a deep threat anymore. Okay, you might want to check the rankings. I'm looking. Because I am by far the lowest on him. Well, I am 23. You must have adjusted then. Jason has him 18. So Jason, defend yourself.

Let me look at the numbers here because... Jason? That says Andy. No? Oh, then I got it backwards. Oh, no, you're right. I have them. I have to defend my... Okay, yeah, I don't like him there. That'll be adjusted. Thank you. That'll be adjusted. That'll be adjusted. Yeah. So it's my fault. It's my fault. You know, it's probably a... It was a Kaepernick. It was a Kaepernick connection thing where a Kaepernick's projected at a certain price. What? I got to know every single guy? No, it's just hilarious. You're like, Mike, how do you have toys? Dude, I'm surprised.

No, I don't like him more than Keenan Allen, who I have behind him right now. Okay, so here's the thing about Tori Smith. Tremendous player, tremendous talent, but has been so boom-bust in the past. And he had Joe Flacco last year, who was a much better deep ball thrower, in my opinion, than Colin Kaepern. They both have strong arms. Yes, but Joe Flacco has better accuracy. Anybody can, not anybody, but anyone with a strong arm can line up and just heave it.

But that doesn't mean it's going to get to the receiver. But there is just so many holes on that offense with players leaving. Crabtree is gone. Crabtree is actually a decent receiver people. But Tori Smith now needs to help carry this offense. Anquan Bolton is another year older. And the defense has taken some losses with retirement. And I just think they're going to have to score points. And Tori Smith is going to have to help.

Yeah, and he will. And I think if you look at where Tori Smith has finished the past two years, it's been 22 and 22, like back-to-back years. So he's going to have his, I mean, he's like a D-Jax type of boom-buss guy only with, he's a little bit more consistent, slightly more consistent. And he should be more consistent in San Francisco as the number one option there.

You know, a lot of targets are gone. Crabtree, Stevie Johnson, Brandon Lloyd. So we'll see. We'll see what he has. Larry Fitzgerald at 23, which puts him...

consensus-wise, as a wide receiver, too. Yes. And his value there is incredible, because he is right now the 37th wide receiver off the board in average drafts. So if you're talking about a guy that we truly believe, and we're local here, we end up seeing a lot of film on fits. I think we're going to get down to the practice next week and watch them go. But...

If you think that he's going to finish where we think he's going to finish. If you look at how he played with Carson Palmer last year, he was an absolute great wide receiver with Palmer. Palmer goes out, and we have the worst quarterbacks of history.

Behind him, throwing the ball, and he still only, didn't he only drop like one pass last year? His catch percentage is incredible. People are riding Fitzgerald off, and they shouldn't. There's no reason to. His draft position is just a thing of gold. Give us 16-game pace last year with Palmer. We know Palmer only played six games, five full, but last year's pace with Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald was on pace for 109 targets, 85 catches, almost 1,300 yards, and five touchdowns.

To me, those early numbers are easily attainable for Larry Fitzgerald. And I think the touchdowns can even go up. Well, and we have to remind people that Michael Floyd has been hurt this preseason as well, and so he's going to be coming back in the early part of the year. Just like most guys, I mean, his production is going to be tied to his quarterback.

You know, if his quarterback can't play or is injured, I mean, last year we saw a lost year for him, and he's had a couple lost years with quarterback play. So I don't think he's too old. He just re-signed in Arizona. People forget about him because he used to be with Andre Johnson at the top of draft boards. He doesn't have that elite field-stretching ability anymore, but he doesn't need it. He's still a touchdown guy, so.

We just talked about him. Looking at 24, 25, 26 on our rankings was Kelvin Benjamin, Alan Robinson, and Charles Johnson. So Benjamin, if he's healthy, we all kind of thought he'd take a step back a little bit this year, but still a guy that's going to score touchdowns because of his size. Yes. Any thoughts on Benjamin? Oh, I didn't know you were passing it. So Benjamin had 145 targets last year. That puts him top five in targets.

All the top five target monsters in the league had over 1,500 yards, except for Kelvin Benjamin, who barely had 1,000. And that's because his catch percentage is so low. He drops a bunch of passes. He's just, he is a, he is not an elite wide receiver. Well, he's mixed with the quarterback. He's not very accurate, either. Yes, that is true. So he might have been targeted a lot, and his catch percentage is low, and then you have a number of targets that don't even.

reach the mark. He had 11 drops. So those are catchable passes that he drops. He was one of those regression candidates for me already. And now with the bum knee, we definitely have to move him down from being, I think right now we are down on him, being 24. Almost a wide receiver 3. Yeah.

And so I think that's lower than the general fantasy populace. And I would like him lower than he is now with that knee. It's one of those things where we can't react too soon. But once we know, we have to act quickly. What about these other two guys I mentioned? Alan Robinson at 25. Ra! Charles Johnson at 26. Those were the shrieks of a target monster. They are. So Alan Robinson, we've...

I've been talking about him all offseason because he is a target monster. In 10 games, he had 81 targets. That puts him on pace for 130 targets, and that's including a week one where he did nothing. He did nothing in week one. So nine games, really, he had 81 targets. So prior to the injury, Alan Roberts had had nine straight games of four catches, 35 yards. Wow, that doesn't seem that impressive. The only other receiver with any kind of consistency level like that,

was Antonio Brown. I'm not saying Alan Robinson is Antonio Brown, but when you're talking about a guy you can get later in the draft, who's going to get a bunch of targets, who's going to be consistent, especially in a PPR format, you've got to like Alan Robinson. So one guy I really want you two to talk about is Charles Johnson. Because I look at our rankings. I am a believer...

in Mike Wallace, and I believe he's going to be the wide receiver to have there. When I look at the rankings of the three of us, I see that I am the lone man there. You know, I've got Mike Wallace up at 22, whereas you guys have him 45 and 43. And Charles Johnson is very high for you guys, clearly because I've got Mike Wallace there. He's not for me, just because I believe it's going to go the other way. So why Charles Johnson? Well, really, Mike should speak to that because I have Charles Johnson just under 30.

Okay. So I think Mike, you're the highest. It's ironic. I have Mike Wallace 22. You have Charles Johnson 22. We're just literally picking the different guy. So from week 11 on in Minnesota, we're talking about after the buy week from Minnesota, Charles Johnson was the 26th wide receiver with 415 yards and two touchdowns. He's a guy who Norv Turner loves. He snuck him away from the Browns after the Browns.

for some reason, cut him. They had to bring prior in as a wide receiver. That's why they got rid of. Yeah, they had too much talent, so they got rid of Charles Johnson. And Norv Turner loves him. He's in the position on the field that's going to get peppered with targets and deep targets. And we have seen Teddy Bridgewater this preseason. He looks sharp, very sharp. Here's my question for you, and you know Minnesota, that's kind of one of the teams you grew up rooting for.

What I've seen in preseason, I just wonder if it's going to be, like, you guys both have different guys at 22, and I think that might be appropriate because I think it's going to change week to week. Juris, right? It's got a bunch of catches in the preseason. Mike Wallace is going to be involved in screen game, Charles Johnson. You've got Rudolph. You've got AP. I just don't know if anybody can emerge as a... I mean, you said he was 26. Last year. The ad Mike Wallace, how does he get to 22? How does he get to be a... Because Mike Wallace to me isn't...

isn't the Mike Wallace of the past, and he's coming to a new team. You have to factor that in that he has to learn a brand new offense. And Mike Wallace last year, his entire production came from Red Zone touchdowns, which is not his game historically, and I think he was a touchdown mirage last year. So the guy I want in Minnesota is Charles Johnson. Yeah, but...