Early WR Rankings Countdown: 20-11 + Target Power! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 4/18

hyper close conversation between those two guys. Alave wins down the field and Dalton didn't give him enough chances to do that. Correct. DK Metcalfe, the last name we'll talk about today comes in at 11. And, you know, in the context of what Jason talked about earlier with Tyler Lockett, Metcalfe's 25 years old. Mike and I have him the highest. Mike at 10, I have him at 11, Jason, 17. It's really, this is one of the harder situations for me because I know what he is. physically. I know what he's capable of. He's the kind of player where the more you throw him the football, I mean, you're going to have the byproduct of results automatically because he's physically dominant. You want to throw him in short area, red zone, down the field, throw him the ball more. Just throw him the ball more and more times, and he will always produce. Six touchdowns last year was low for what you would have hoped, especially when you lead the league in-zone targets. 24 in-zone targets, six.

Touchdowns. Wow, really? Yeah. He's actually led the NFL in that category over four years. And why do I know this implicitly? Because every time I played against him last year, I'd watch these games. I would want him to not do anything against me. And he was getting throwing the ball in the end zone and every play in the entire game, it felt like. There's nobody more like he's in the upper echelon. Who would you throw to if DK McHath were on your team? Yeah. So it really comes down to Like, I don't think he can bust. Let me put it that way. I don't think DeKMec F can bust. But the question is more like, is he worth the draft pick and can he give you a season that outperforms some of these names behind him, like an Oliva or a Higgins or St. Brown? Those would be the three that are most in question to me of this list. Yeah, D.K. is awesome. All three of us here completely agree that he is a great wide receiver.

And I would agree that he's bust proof. But last year he played every single game, had 140 plus targets, had the most targets in the red zone, you know, in zone targets in the NFL. And he finishes the wide receiver 18. So I do think we pumped the brakes a little bit here. Sure. I mean, obviously, if he ends up with 14 touchdowns because he's being targeted in the end zone so much, he will have monster production. But it's going to be based on the touchdowns, and those are not a sticky stat, not something I want to predict just because he's a big-bodied guy. I mean, Tyler Lockett outscored him in touchdowns, and he's a little itty-bitty-baby-wire receiver. I think he deserves Des Bryant touchdown credit, though, because he's been four years in the league. He's been double-jaded.

two times, like he's led the league in that staff for four years. Like if there's ever going to be a player you bank on it, I'm willing to say D.K. McCaff is that guy. I will most certainly have him projected for more touchdowns going into the season than I will Tyler Lockett, which is why he's going to finish ahead of him in my rankings. But, you know, as we brought up in the Tyler Lockett conversation, if I've got to draft this player in the third round and his teammate who outproduced him last year in the seventh round, I am not taking D.K. Metcalfe.

And I will let someone else bypass him, even though he certainly has the peak outcome ceiling case. It reminds me of Mike Evans rookie year, 12 touchdowns. The following year, Yard is, was it three? Yardage went up and it went down to three. And then when you take a look at the metrics, it was him and James just weren't clicking when it came to touchdowns. And then 2016 rolls around 12 touchdowns back for Mike Evans. So if. As long as the opportunities are rolling for D.K. Metcalfe, I mean, you just stack four touchdowns under what he did last year. Yeah, he's in the top 10. And he's at 10, and he's a top 10 wide receiver. Yeah, and Kyle is reminding us of the exponential power of certain types of targets. Whereas like a red zone target is one point seven times as valuable as a target between the 20s. And inside the 10 target, more than two times as valuable.

an end zone target of which he had 24 is 2.5 times more valuable than any other target between the 20s. So it's shocking to hear 24 end zone targets and the touchdowns that he came down with. That feels like an outlier. It's like what you said, he could have the outlier year where he goes 13, 14 touchdowns. That wouldn't even be unreasonable with 24 end zone targets. Right. But yeah, there's there's the balance to be had here with. Confidence that Gino Smith can come back under this contract and do it again. And then Tyler Lockett's involvement in the offense, Kenneth Walker's emergence, some different factors in this offense. And like I said, I think the best thing I can say is I don't think DK Metcalf can really bust. I really don't. I think you're going to be happy to have them on your team. It's just how price is it going to be. And do you want to give up your chance at a discount on Tyler Lockett to take him? Yeah, that's fair because giving up the discount on Tyler Lockett.

also means giving up on the upside of having a top three wide receiver crazy season. And, you know, there's a lot written that upside wins championship. It's funny, though, because I can almost feel the mailbag question coming in of, are you willing to have both those guys after what you saw last year in Seattle? Like there are a handful of teams. You're like, ah, Higgins and Chase, sure. Of course I would. Devante Smith, AJ Brown. Yep. What about Lockett and Metcalf? And I don't think so. We're all saying that. What were they? So Metcalfe was 18, Lockett was 17? Or no, he was a top 15 guy, right? Yeah. So you, it's two top 20 wide receivers. Why would you not want that? I mean, I haven't looked to see how their consistency kind of zippered together, but I do feel like, you know, like the consistency zipper. I did like that. That was nice. And even did the, for those listening, he put the hands together like a zipper.

But it's one of those. Hand zipper. Were there good games, you know, from Gino that, you know, they all come together. Yeah. Or is it inconsistent? Because, you know, he's, Gino's not thrown for 5,000 yards. Right. Right. Whereas Joe Burrow can, Herbert can. Hertz can provide enough value for both. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, I don't, I don't know. That's a great question as to whether you want both. I don't think I'd want both on the team, but yeah, I mean, oh, you don't want two good wide receivers? So just for some context here, Gino Smith last year, about 4,300 yards just shy. 4282. Yeah, yeah, okay. Somebody's looking at the stats recently. And 30 passing touchdowns. Jalen Hertz, I'll just go ahead and I'll average him out because he missed a handful of games.

His average would have been just under 4,200 passing yards and 25 passing touchdowns. Yeah, so Hertz just ran the ball to, oh yeah, to whip up on Gino. Just, just point out like the passing production was. Throwing some stats out there was higher right into your zipper. Oh, boy. Jason's lost in thought now. He's deciding one of two things. A? He would take Metcalf and Lockett together, or B, he would not take A.J. Brown and Devante Smith together. I got to go stand in front of a mirror and figure this out. For another day. Introspective. That'll do it for today's episode of the show. We'll count down the top 10 wide receivers on our next episode coming Thursday. Thank you for tuning in, supporting us. Appreciate it, and we'll be back very soon. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast.

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