WR Rankings + Mike Becomes a Real Boy!

week one. And what happened is training camps, OTAs came and you saw video of him on the field throwing a football and you're like, oh, he's already fine. And that's a world different. Being out there running, utilizing his legs, taking hits, things of that nature. So yeah, I mean, look, the Eagles offense right now as a whole is a little scary. You lose your offensive coordinator. You lose your quarterback's coach. You might not have your starting quarterback.

or your number one wide receiver. I think it gives a bump to Mike Wallace. I was going to say, I mean, even if, let's say Carson Wentz is ready, he's being drafted as what the fourth or fifth quarterback in fantasy drafts. And if his number one wide receiver starts the year on the pup, and Aguilar is still, you know, mysteriously. Right. Can Mike Wallace fill the void of Alshon Jeffrey? It was a couple shows ago, Jason. You talked about Mike Wallace game speed.

is still top end. He's still very fast, was fast last season. He still has it. And so you got Mike Wallace, who already projected to be a starting outside wide receiver. And now you have, you might have that second spot open to either Marcus Wheaton or last year rookie Mack Hollins. Okay, let's jump into Alfred Morris. He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers yesterday, like through his mouth.

What did I say? Jump into Alfred Morris. That was a, that was bad, Mike. Hey, I told you, I'm not a different person. I am who I am. Your verification checkmark will be gone by the end of the day. That would be, you would not exist. I'm going to go into his Twitter profile, change his handle. Oh, man. All right. So Alfred Morris signed by the 49ers, had Twitter buzzing for.

You know, I think it's more of a non-story than people are giving it credit for. The ideal situation, what they want is McKinnon, Berita, and the rest. And more what they want. Right. And right now, though, we still expect it to be McKinnon and Berita in week one. We expect them both to be healthy and active. This is an insurance policy to me. This is going out and finding a guy that, look, Albert Morris has found reps because of injury over the last two years. But that's the only reason he's found reps.

I'm not worried about it. Like I don't go out and sign Alfred Morris. I don't draft Alfred Morris. Right. I would sign him if I was in a dynasty league. You got a deep roster. And I will say this. So like the Rolling Stone said, you can't always get what you want. So you get what you need. And Alfred Morris, there's some history there with Kay Shy. So I think this was a great move by the 49ers, but it was a depth move. It does, however, make it.

You need to keep a close eye. Keep that eagle eye on McKinnon and Burita their status. Yeah. Sometimes when they sign depth, it says something about the way they're predicting or projecting their players' health, or at least that there's a percentage chance that burrito is not ready for week one. Or into the backup. And to the backups. I mean, the Joe Williams truthers out there running back, they signed or they drafted this past season. It speaks against him for me. Yeah.

That would have been the Twitter notification sound that came through when he saw the signing. Yeah, he can't be pleased. All right. I want to read the full quote by Buccaneers coach Dirk Cutter about Peyton Barber. The quote that circulated was Peyton is our starter. Right. The full quote is we're definitely going to use Ronald Jones and take advantage of what he's going to do. We have two veteran backs behind him. Again, we've got three more preseason games. Let's just let it sort out a little.

More. Right. On a live stream yesterday, I was asked about the Peyton Barber, Ronald Jones situation. Now, mind you, new information, you make adjustments, you make tweaks. Over the last week, I've adjusted Peyton Barber up a little bit, Ronald Jones down a little bit. Because Peyton Barber had a very nice preseason game, and he ran with the first team, the entirety, I think the first 10 plays, something like that. I still have been preaching this.

Wait a couple weeks, you know. Next week, if Ronald Jones busts 240-yard runs, people are going to overreact and swing the pendulum in the other direction. Some people are drafting right now, though, so they have to react today. Yes, they do. But if you have the opportunity to wait and see for two, three preseason games, great. If you don't, I think Ronald Jones, look, talent wins. I think by the middle of the season, I still think Ronald Jones is. So Peyton Barber is going to be the starter? No. To start the season, he will.

But talent-wise, Ronald Jones is much more talented than Pete and Barber. It's obvious. If Ronald Jones, to me, is a trade target for later in the draft, like I talked about a couple shows ago. How do you mean? As in, I'm not drafting Ronald Jones. I lean more with Jason on the side of Ronald Jones could be a bust for the NFL with his lack of ability in the passing game. But if he's splitting first and down work with...

a veteran of Peyton Barber, who is, I agree, Ronald Jones has more juice as an NFL player, but Peyton Barber is still an okay running back. And sometimes in the NFL, when you're a veteran, okay, gets the job done.

It's Rob Kelly's motto. The first three games are against tough opponents. The first three games, they do not have their starting quarterback, James Winston. Could be tough sledding. So the people who spend that fifth round or even fourth round pick on Ronald Jones, by the end of week three, I think they're going to be panicked. And then if you believe in Ronald Jones, that's when I would try to acquire. I can get behind that for sure.

One other piece of news had people freaked out yesterday, but Sequin Barclay. Is it a hamstring? A mild strain? Leg. A leg injury. So they're going to take it easy on Sequin before the season. I don't know if you're going to see him again. I would imagine you don't. I hope not. I mean, with a hamstring or any kind of, you know, soft tissue issue in the legs. People were big fans of that phrase yesterday, Judge. Yeah. It is a hamstring. Just rest them.

They're going to be smart. Pat Shermer said they're going to be smart with their star. It looks like, you know, he'll be ready for week one. There you go. I want to talk about wide receivers. We're going to do that. We're going to do the wide receiver breakdown. We're going to get through as many more names yesterday. We had the top 10 wide receivers by our consensus rankings. And so we're going to continue that today. Before we do, I want to thank Fanduel. It's been a long offseason without Fanduel, but Fanduel has spent it getting into the best shape of their lives. They're hitting that bench.

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All right, let's jump right into the wide receiver rankings, part two. Number 11 in our consensus rankings. It's Amari Cooper. Yes. Oh, he's so popular as a breakout candidate each and every year. I have him at 10. Mike, you got him at 11. Jason 12. We all agree. You must have recently bumped to Murray Cooper up. I did recently bump him up. Because I liked my 11 ranking and I was.

King of the Mountain. I was king of the Amari Cooper rankings. I made some adjustments. I did. I'm moving him to nine. Last year I had 96 targets. That only turned into 48 receptions. It was a terrible year for him. Let's not talk about last year. Let's not do it. Let's talk about this year. No, you got to talk about last year before you talk about this year. So 31% of his season total receiving yards came in week seven.

31% last year. Was that a good week, though? The Chiefs game? I believe so. His contested catch conversion rate, according to Matt Harmon from Reception Perception. He's in the UDK. You can figure this out. This is not good. It's the lowest ever recorded. Yeah. It was a bad year for Amari Cooper. Quarterback for the Raiders, Derek Carr, has said on a few occasions that Amari Cooper was hurt.

far worse than he let on and that people were told about. I want to believe that because Amari Cooper is in such a good situation. John Gruden, if he brings back the offense that he ran whenever he was a coach in the NFL about 20 years ago, it was a very long time, but.

His wide receiver ones and his running back ones, they always came through with huge fantasy production. Amari Cooper is talented. That is not a question. He is a physically gifted NFL wide receiver. His hands questionable to bring, when you have the lowest contest, the catch rate of all time in the reception, your hands have to be questioned. The touchdown upside. He's just got to open them. He's keeping them closed.

They're more like this. It's really impressive when he does catch the ball with no fingers. He has said it's too easy. Football is too easy. So I'm going to try and just catch with no fingers. The reality for Cooper, like you said, he's a physical talent. 4-4-2 speed at 211 pounds. His weight adjusted speed is fantastic. That's why he was drafted so high in the NFL draft. Rookie season, he comes out. He's great. He's the 22nd best.

wide receiver in fantasy football. Then his sophomore year, he's the 13th best, almost a wide receiver won. So sky's the limit. And then last year had a down year. But like you said, he was injured. Carr was dealing with injury all year. The entire Raiders offense fell apart.

Michael Crabtree was the one. Now you... And Michael Crabtree is gone now. Michael Crabtree is gone. Cooper and Carr are healthy. The offense, you know, the coach comes in and says, we're going to center this around Mari Cooper, a 24-year-old.

Physical freak. If he doesn't get it done this year, I would be super surprised. If it was just Cooper last year and Carr had a great season and Crabtree had a great season, I brought it up. Crabtree had like seven metrics that plummeted last year. This was an offensive problem through and through. I want to say, I believe in Derek Carr.

I'm the only one of this group that hasn't ranked anywhere outside the top 25, but I got him at 15 because I think he's going to matter again this year and is going to be on the back of Amari Cooper, Jordy Nelson and Company. I think, look, that's not a top 12. That's not a draftable quarterback, but you're going to care about Derek Carr at different times this year, the way you did two years ago. I will say it is troubling to me on a personal level how much I believe in Amari Cooper and Marshaun Lynch this year.