Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Early WR Rankings Part 2

I love him. I love Crabtree. I think he's, I think he still has, he has juice left. I think it's all about the red zone targets. When you've got a guy who is, who has a rapport. Has a good quarterback. Has a good quarterback. But it's the guy he looks to in the red zone. It's the guy he trusts. And that's the thing about, you know, Eric Decker. What Eric Decker had with Ryan Fitzpatrick, you just went down in the red zone. And Decker was, I mean, he looks to Decker a lot.

And I say if you're concerned about Marshon, Latavius Murray had 12 rushing touchdowns last year, and Michael Crabtree was still able to do what he did. All right. I know we need to move on to number 16 here because I think we're going to spend some time. Jason, do you have all of our rankings up individually? Can you tell us where we're at with Devante Adams, our number 16 consensus wide receiver? I sure can. Because I have a hunch that you guys are the one pulling up this ranking. Your hunch is incorrect.

Oh, because Andy, you and I, you and I are tied. Oh, we both have him as our wide receiver 21. Okay. And, uh, so it's Mike has him at 13, which I, I do not blame him for. It's all about the touchdown. This is the face I make when I draft. And that's, that's fine. We were, we had a, we were having. That's the sound of the face. An interesting discussion with the writers, the fantasy football writers. We're talking about Adams.

And some of those guys are, you know, well, Adams is a schmuck. I'm not necessarily going to argue against that. What I will say is. I am Devonte Adams. It is Aaron Rogers is his quarterback. Aaron Rogers can sustain two high-level wide receivers. Three. Sometimes even three. But since 2011, that's when Jordan Nelson became the alpha for Green Bay.

This stat that you're about to drop melted my face. When Jordy Nelson is the one, and this is including a year when Jordy only played 12 games. So I can qualify it with that. When Jordy Nelson plays at least 12 games. Sure. Aaron Rogers averages 40 and a half touchdowns. Wow. Now, you kind of forget about that because there's the year without Jordy where the Green Bay offense fell apart. And there was the year where Aaron Rogers.

got hurt and missed basically 50% of the season. So those are warts when you're looking back at the historical data of Aaron Rogers. But last year, Jordie Nelson in a half point, wide receiver 1, Devante Adams, the wide receiver 8th. And you can look through the backlog of when Jordy was the alpha. So 2011, Jordy number three, Jennings, wide receiver 17. And that year, Jennings only played 13 games. The next year, that's when Jordy only played 12.

Both Randall Cobb and James Jones, wide receiver 2, 2013, Rodgers hurt, 2014, Jordy, wide receiver 3, Cobb, wide receiver 7. He just, he has the history that he can elevate these guys who, yes, you think he's a schmuck, yes, lots of people who play fantasy football think Devante Adams is a schmuck. Are you sure it's Adams? As opposed to Cobb? Or as opposed, yeah, or as opposed to like, you know, Martel's Bennett plus Cobb plus.

Adams they kind of share that and like where did you have Adams you said we both have at 31 we both have them at 21 in half point now in standard you have 13 is that what you said I think that's what Jason said he has him at 13 in standard leagues to me he goes way up he is he is just I think he's my 13 in standard leagues because he's a touchdown machine and I think what you're saying about 12 touchdowns last year just under a thousand yards

Yeah, look back at one of those great Jordy years where Jordy got seven touchdowns and Randall Cobb got eight. Eight touchdowns, he got one more than Jordy that year. Oh, and also there were 14 touchdowns to James Jones that year. There are touchdowns to go to the wide receivers even in maybe not 1,100 yards and 88 receptions. I don't see that for Devante. Are you taking Adams in the third over Crabtree and the 4th? I would.

No, I mean, if I knew I could get Crabtree in the fourth round later, I would go there. The thing about Adams, if you've, for Green Bay receivers, and I guess you would, you feel this when you own Green Bay running backs, when they're inside the five and other teams you think, I have an automatic free touchdown here for my running back, Green Bay doesn't do that.

They throw in the red zone more than anyone else. Yeah, he doesn't throw picks. That's the thing. Rogers doesn't throw red zone picks. For Martell's Bennett, that's inconsequential. I mean, it's been countless years since a tight end has done anything of relevance. Jared Cook was supposed to be their big acquisition last year. Now, I know he wasn't healthy for the entire season. It's just Bennett, to me, will not siphon enough to stop Devante Adams from having that eight-plus touchdown year again.

Alshan Jeffrey comes in at number 17 following up Devante Adams. Jeffrey starting a new, starting on a new roster this year. Got a new life. Got a new life for Philadelphia. I don't know if it's going to be a magic carpet ride for Alshan Jeffrey in Philadelphia. The last two years have been just not good. I mean, played nine games. Not playing has been tough. Yeah, not playing is an issue. It's also been bad two years for Keenan Allen, Mike. Yeah.

Wait, are you making that point? I am making the point that when guys don't. No, no, no, I'm agreeing with you. When guys don't play, that's really not helpful for fantasy football. I mean, my point is, look, you've got to go to 2014 before you're happy with what you got from Alston and Jeffrey on that for draft position. I mean, it's not like he wasn't drafted high in 2015 and 2016. So you take two years of injury, mix in a little bit of a new roster, a second year quarterback, a one-year deal.

What do you end up with? What is the brew? What is the Alshan Jeffrey brew? Are you drinking it? I'm not. Jason is not. I am. And this is just where do I have Jeffrey compared to you to? Sure. I'll tell you. So Alshan Jeffrey right now in half point PPR formats. Andy, you have them 16. Yeah. Which I think is about where most people do. Mike, you have them at 10. And I'm going to upset some people. I have them at 30. So you are calling to me.

You are calling. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. You're calling Allison Jeffrey will not play six. No, no, no, no. That's actually not with him missing games. I have him down right now for 75 receptions, 950 yards, and six touchdowns. That just ranks him a little lower. When you've got a second year quarterback, first year of rapport with him, who is.

You know, he didn't throw a ton of touchdowns rookie, and he didn't have good weapons, so I don't blame that. I think Carson Wins could step forward. I see the narrative where Alshan Jeffrey gives Carson Wins what he needed. Carson Wins is a great future quarterback, and he blows up, and he is that 10. I don't think it's going to happen. I made an ugly face when you said 30, but then I remembered DeAndre Hopkins and all the expectations for him and him ending up around that 30 range. So you're just kind of projecting a season where you're just not.

Too happy with the week-to-week production. He can't find him enough. Alshan Jeffries had one season in his career where he had 10 touchdowns. But his other seasons, three touchdowns, seven, four, two. So if he finishes the year with five or six touchdowns, you're not going to be happy and he's not going to be, I mean, maybe he's a low-end wide receiver two. He did not find the big deal this offseason. So there's somebody else in the NFL that believes that about Al-Shon Jeffrey. Is it?

Maybe Jason is telling us it's time to pump the brakes on Alshan Jeffrey hype for one of these off seasons, for goodness sake. Yeah, I think you just pump the breaks on the name. You know, sometimes we just get too much name recognition. And because he had a couple of seasons entering into the draft, the fantasy draft season as like, you know, in top 10 consideration, we just see that value where he is a top 10 guy. And he has the skill set to be. I think he's a good wide receiver.

You know, but I think it's more gloss on the name than it is fantasy production. And you have other weapons there too. I mean, you've still got Jordan Matthews. You've still got Zach Ertz. They brought in Tori Smith for a reason. So, you know, I just can't see Alshan Jeffrey getting 10 touchdowns. I like the, what I like is the way that offense is trending. They got him weapons and the past attempts were so high for wins last year. Fifth most in the league. So I like the volume. And I don't like Jordan Matthews. So.

When Allison Jeffries played 16 games, he's a wide receiver one. So if he plays 16 games, to me, it's an impossibility that he's not at least. Just like Percy Harvin. When Percy Harvin gives you 16. Fair. And that's fair. That I'm saying that's, to me, the only argument that I think can hold up against Alston is will he play 16 games? Just like I said with Lynch, it's a more a matter of can you play for effectiveness. It's dependent on injury to you for Jeffrey as opposed to.

scale or talent or opportunity. And the thing with Alshan, current ADP, top of the fourth round, I mean, that's great for me. I will take a guy in the fourth round who I think has that top 10 upside. All right, let's talk about Jarvis Landry, our number 18 consensus wide receiver, a player that you see a divergence in draft position based on standard versus PPR leagues because he's not a touchdown monster. Last year, he did have 94 catches.

for 1,136 yards and four touchdowns on 131 targets. I argue that that target number is a little low for Jarvis Landry. Yeah, it came down drastically, 20%. First year with Adam Gase. Yes. Right? And, you know, number 13. And is that a standard league rank or a half point rank? Half point. Half point rank, he finished 13th, 14th, and 2016. Just so everybody is aware, he finished 16th, which is pretty good in standard leagues. Yeah. Right.

And last year was interesting for Jarvis Landry because you're expecting a PPR machine 166 targets two years ago. It dropped down to 131. Six games for Jarvis under five receptions. And he had those a couple weeks where he essentially saved his entire fantasy production with just an inhumane.

Inhumane, huh? This is like the Geneva Convention has to get in here. If you saw what he did at the defense, that's what you would think because it was absolutely ridiculous. But second year with Adam Gase, I'm not sure what to do with Jarvis Landry, never been over five touchdowns in his career. Yeah. I will say this. So, you know, I look at Jarvis Landry as a guy.

that I really like. I like those consistent guys. And when I was going through, I realized he is a PPR. He's a PPR type of player, certainly, and this was in standard leagues. But in the standard, when I was comparing him to everyone else in standard, I was blown away that Jarvis Landry was pretty much one of the lowest players on consistency. He only had four games in standard leagues where he was over, where he got to 10 points. And that's just not going to get it done. And then if you break into, you know, year two.

Adam Gays, I believe in that. But who is that going to benefit the most? Jarvis Landry, who's already getting all these targets and already involved, or could it benefit more towards, you know, Parker or Stills? Parker or Stills or even Julius Thomas, yeah. And then I look at his game logs and I see that in the first four games of the season, Jarvis Landry, and all four of those were double-digit targets. He had four out of four. The rest of the year, he only had two games where he got 10 targets.

You know, I think they're going to spread the ball around a little bit more. I still like Landry. He's not, I'm not crushing him. I think he's a really good player. I think he's going to be good for fantasy. And usually he's undervalued in drafts. The first four games? The first four games. And when did JJ become the starter? That was right around week four or five, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'll look that up to be. No, there's some concerns there. I mean, you had.

It's ironic now because I actually want to bring Percy Harvin up. But when he was the only option, he was just peppered and peppered with targets in Minnesota. Look, that's what it was like for Landry. I mean, there was just nobody else to throw the ball to. That offense, where Tanna Hill was at, the weapons and the options, and the offensive coordination. It wasn't there. Very uncoordinated. The office coordination. Actually, Mike, you might be on to something here because.

You might be under something. You might be on to something. I got one. It was after those first four weeks, week five is where Ajai came in with 25 carries and really took that over. I give Mike a 0.5% chance of being right. Where's my right, right, right, right, right. Right, right. So yeah, I mean, if Ajai is the guy and they've found, you know, that type of an offense, that could have an effect.

Number 19, Keenan Allen. Mike, I got some bad news for you on Keenan Allen, finished 171st last year. What? Yeah. Oh, man. Didn't help fantasy owners that rolled him out there every week. That is really disappointing. Bad decisions by those owners. He did only play a half of football for the entirety of the season. A half of the year? No, no, no, no, a half of a game. Coming off of...