Fantasy Football 2017 - WR Rankings Pt. 2 + BIG Zeke News

Last week. I'm sorry. Last season he had five separate weeks where he was inside the top seven on that week's fantasy scoring. So he can deliver the boom. Yeah. But he's going in the back of the second round in PPR leagues. He's finally getting the respect. I know. We waited for it for years. But now I'm.

Now I'm a little uncomfortable. Now that we've, now that we're finally respecting him, you're not respecting him. You're right. The headline, it's like the pendulum is swung. The headline thing for me, though, last year, despite finishing the season as the 10th best fantasy wide receiver, which here, let's, congratulations to Baldwin. 31% of the time he was a wide receiver one or two. That's not a good number. No, that's really bad. So.

I say all that. He's 13 on my list. That's, that's respect. That's not a one. I'm not giving him the one respect, but number 11 on our list. What do you guys think about Doug Baldwin? Yeah, I mean, he gets this, because he's not, you know, a super flashy player and he, he ends the year with a good amount of receptions. He gets the incorrect.

you know, idea that he's consistent. He's a very inconsistent receiver over the last few years. He's put his touchdowns together in the same games, you know, so often where he'll, when he, when he hits, he's on fire. And that's why he goes up those rankings. I do have hope that he has a true, like his best year still could be this year. It would make sense because of what we saw last year from the health.

of Russell Wilson in the first half. So if he comes out this year and has a career year and is unbelievably great, I'm not going to be shocked. I've always, of the three of us, been the biggest believer in Doug Baldwin. I think he is a really talented wide receiver and his rapport with Russell Wilson is as good as any connection in the league. But I do worry about, I would never want Doug Baldwin ever.

to be my wide receiver won on a team. That's where I was going to go. People ask the question all the time, like, what running back are you, like, what's the last running back you're most comfortable with as you're one? Doug Baldwin is not in the equation for me. For the wide receiver. For my wide receiver one that I just, I don't think you're going to win that way. I think we're going to get a lot of pushback on Baldwin because when we did our last mock draft, I think we passed on him and.

A lot of the response was, how in the world did you not take Baldwin there? I've seen Baldwin go ahead of Des in a lot of drafts. What? Oh, come on. Look, I want to take the time to say the good. I mean, 94 receptions. We had that. Remember yesterday we talked about Michael Thomas and that catch percentage? Baldwin's right with him. He's 75%. I mean, he's incredible when it comes to Russell Wilson gets out of the pocket. He finds his guy. I'm very enthusiastic, though, about...

Paul Richardson making a contribution about Jimmy Graham and about pro-size. Those guys can all contribute in the passing game. So I'm with Jason. You took the words out of my mouth, apparently out of Mike's mouth. If he's my two, I'm just super excited. I love him as my two. So the way that a draft would fall, let's say you're number two overall, you got Levi-on-Bell. On your way back, you grab another running back.

So you're saying you would not be looking to take Doug Baldwin on that short turn? At that point, I would go. Probably not. Yeah, at that point, if I'm looking for my one, I would rather have like Sammy Watkins or even Demarius Thomas. So you would reach for Watkins and that? Yeah, and that's a good example of, you know, sometimes when you look at just rankings and you say,

You don't always draft exactly according to ranking because of roster construction. And those things better. I'm looking for someone that is a consistent one. Let's talk about Demarius Thomas. He's number 12 on our rankings. One of the more interesting things about Thomas is he's 90 receptions last year. He's always been consistent when it comes to being on the field, having a high reception total. It's been a while since he's had those double-digit touchdown numbers. Here's something that

is interesting to me. He only gained 20 or more yards on 10 of those 90 receptions. That's really low. That's 35th out of 39 qualifying wide receivers. That's 11% of the time. So Demarius was reliable, but Demarius wasn't flashy the way he has been in the past. So, Jason, you said you'd take him over Baldwin to be your one. What are some of the things to look for from Demarius Thomas?

this year as he comes in as the last of our wide receiver ones here in the rankings well you've got a situation where first off demaris thomas has been you know he's the longest running you know receiver right now with over a thousand yards five straight years in consecutive seasons so he he always gets barely he barely got over this year but last year he had trevor simeon as a first year you know teammate and

This year coming in, I think it will be clear by the end of the preseason that Trevor Simeon will be the quarterback. That's kind of my projection for the Broncos. And I think going into year two, the offensive line being improved this season, I believe what you saw last year from Demarius Thomas was his floor. And nobody was, you know, Demarius Thomas wasn't exciting last year. Nobody feels like, you know, they put.

You know, D.T put him on their back and took him to a championship. But if that's his floor, and I know his ceiling is much higher, we've seen it forever with him. I believe that's just the type of player I look for as by one. You know, Simeon is Alex Smith. He might be a lot like Alex Smith for fantasy production. It's kind of crazy because if you look at the other guys that are that low in the 20 plus yards receiving, you know, catch percentage.

It's Beasley, Larry Fitzgerald, and Anquan Bolden. All three of those, you expect to be in the dink and dunk universe. And suddenly, look, I said it. He's like a tall Jarvis Landry right now. That's the way Demarius Thomas is coming across to me. Like, the way I used to think about putting Jarvis in my lineup is the way I think about putting Demeris in my lineup. It's nice that he can make an impact in the red zone and surprise you with touchdowns. He's like a seatbelt. I mean,

You should put your seatbelt on and you should draft DeMaris Thomas because he's safe. And while... 144 targets. I mean, I think that last season may have been his floor, but I think it's pretty close to his ceiling. Demarius Thomas is one of the hardest guys to evaluate because you look at his history and what he has done. But then you have to realize he did that with Peyton Manning, who was putting up historic.

touchdown numbers, except for, of course, Peyton Manning's last year. And I'm with Jason. I think that Trevor Simeon is the quarterback. But Demerius Thomas is very safe to me. I think that he is a 90 plus reception, 1,000 plus yards. But those touchdowns with that team wanting to be a run first team, we'll see if they can do it with Anderson and the crew. But I think that the touchdowns are just going to be in that 5 to 7 range for Thomas, which is that won't be.

high level 1 numbers, but it's going to be a nice wide receiver 2. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about Sammy Watkins. Sammy Watkins had a very good game last night. However you want to look at it, he was the go-to guy for Tyrod Taylor. I believe he had caught four or five passes last night, looked good on the field. And I think he might be the first guy in this wide receiver ranking show that we kind of, you know.

maybe debate a little bit more because he's across the board in our ranks. He's 13 here on our consensus, but that's because of Jason. Jason's got him at 11. I have him at 16. Mike, you have him at 21. I have him too low. Okay. I have him too low. And right now, his average draft position, he's the 15th wide receiver off the board. So consensus, we're higher. We're higher than, you know, what people usually see in Sammy. And I am the highest. If Mike moves him up, he's going to move up.

possibly even more in our ranks. The thing about Sammy Watkins is you kind of have to make a decision as an analyst and how you rank players. When do you start bumping up a guy because you have more confidence in his health? Because the payoff for Sammy Watkins could be incredible. It could be a guy that... Top five potential. Right, right. And he's always been a player that can get separation pretty much whenever he wants it. He also is a guy that...

It's like there's a magnet when he goes deep and Tyrod throws that ball up. Tyrod throws a good deep ball. So even if you don't have, you know, 90 or 100 receptions, you have big play capabilities with a guy like Sammy Watkins. Number 13, that feels about right with big time upside. It's like Des Bryant. I mean, that's what you're getting with Sammy Watkins. You're not expecting a high volume of receptions. It's efficient targets. It's big plays.

and it's touchdowns. And Sammy Watkins was one of the guys that I've been waiting to go all in on. You often will see a discrepancy in our rankings where Jason's got the full confidence in Sammy Watkins already. Mine has been growing, you know, as the reports are still positive about him, seeing him actually get out there, seeing him get targeted. My confidence in him will grow. So he will not be 21 for much longer in my rankings because...

And we've, Jason has also brought up the, of his foot where we've, we've seen time and time again when players deal with his foot injury, it often takes that second surgery. Bryant, Edelman, before they are ready to. Julio Jones. Yeah, before they're ready to be back. Yeah, that's, that's had it. And he's a contract year player. Yeah, not just a normal contract year player. He's a contract year player. They denied. With a giant chip on his shoulder because they didn't pick up his fifth year.

Buffalo, what are you doing? I don't know, man. Yeah, I mean, that is one thing I want to bring up. Last year when you listened to the show, we talked about the fact that the foot problem he was having is so common to be reagravated and need a second surgery. So watch out. But we also said, and this was, you know, a year ago, if he gets a second surgery, it's pretty doggone reliable. All those players who have done it.

came out after the second surgery, and they've been fine and they've been fantasy superstars. The talent for Sammy Watkins, I think people are starting to forget how talented. He's not a good wide receiver. Okay, in the historic 2014 draft class where O'Dell Beckham coming out of college was this unfathomable superstar, and Kelvin Benjamin was this monster, Mike Evans. I mean, just all of these guys.

They went after Sammy Watkins in the draft for a reason. They gave up a first round pick to move up a couple spots for Sammy Walker. And the absolute truth is, I believe wholeheartedly that if the Buffalo Bills didn't take them, every single one of those teams that took a different wide receiver, they probably had Sammy Watkins higher on their draft board than they had Odell Beckham. And they did that for a reason. And he's shown it in the NFL. He's shown his flashes of unbelievable ability except.

He's been injured. And I believe this is the year. Second half of 2015, he was the wide receiver 7 in points per game. So that's a whole half of a season. Showed the ability. You believe it's his year. I do. I made the call in my article. I thought he'd play 16 games. I want to see it. You talk about things on my list of want to see in fantasy football this season. I want to see a healthy Sammy Walker. I want to see what the possible ceiling really is. Now, before we, what were we going to say? I just, you know, I don't want us to paint. I do believe he.

He will not re-injure that foot. I don't want to paint a picture, though, for listeners that he doesn't carry risk. He certainly does. He's been injury prone. You have to weigh that at the draft. Yeah, and you're semi-protected. If you do get him in the fourth round somehow, that's the golden place to be. So before we talk about 14 and 15 on our wide receiver ranking list, I want to thank the sponsors of today's show and their good ones, Foot Clan. They're great. If you know anything about us,

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