Early WR Rankings Part 2, Alphabet Soup

dub that over my picture. I mean, you said every single thing that I believe 100%. I couldn't agree anymore. He is true. Sounds lazy. It sounds lazy, but I was like, yeah, yes. Yeah, I mean, I was, I was like at your rally there just in complete agreement about everything across the board. He is the best wide receiver on the team. He is one of the best in the NFL. The cream will rise to the top. They can't always do what they want to do. I'm going to take.

his incredible talent. His wide receiver 7 finish wasn't on the back of 14 touchdowns. It was 9. That's fine. That's pretty good for a wide receiver 1, not double digits. It was on the back of 153 targets. It'd probably be in the 1 30 to 150 range again, right? Would any of us really believe that to be different? Sure. So I think there's a lot to like. And he will. Now, you have Diggs higher, Mike. That was one of the points that I wanted to bring up. You actually like Stefan Diggs a little more.

They're just back to back. Yeah, they're back to back and mine too, by the way. They're 14 and 15. It is, it's, yeah, I got digs higher. So what? You want to fight about it? Well, no, but you bring, by doing that, and I have it the same way, believe it or not, I have Thielen and Diggs back to back, or at least I think I do. And when that happens, for a fantasy owner drafting, you're looking at best value then, right? 100%. You're not looking at like, ooh, I got to get my guy. You're looking at them.

in your mind as I just want to get the guy that's the best value. You want a piece of the purple pie. I'm waiting at the back of the line. And I'm taking what's left. Well, that means that means I guarantee. That's little Jack Horner. Oh, is it a purple pie? It could be. If you're waiting at the back of the line and just getting the better value, it's the right thing to do here because it's going to be Adam Thielen in every league. Adam Thielen will go second.

average draft position he's four wide receivers behind step on digs right now and the the gap will just continue to get wider that's not if i have anything to say about i i agree but not if i uh stick my thumb into those purple pies and uh yeah it doesn't seem like it's going where are we going uh adam thielen 12 14 15 i think it'll be an interesting year we all want to see what happens with dalvin cook kirk cousins in year two i've i've taken the temperature

of purple Twitter. The Kirk Cousins' bitterness, frustration. It's palpable. There's a lot of vitriol. There's a lot of people replying to Kirk Cousin's tweets with, you know, when you make that kind of money, you bring it on yourself. There's no doubt about it. Did you see Bryce Harper got booed in game one for striking out? He is in Philadelphia, though, right? I understand that people are.

upset with Kurt Cousins. But really, go back and watch. Go back and watch what Cousins was able to do with the offensive line that he had in front of him. I think that Cousins played pretty well. All right. Number 14 on the list is. Amari Cooper. And I hate it. Amari Cooper is. I hate my ranking of Amari Cooper. I'm on the record. I hate this. When I was a kid, I went to a theme part.

And I was excited. We didn't go to many theme parks, didn't do a lot of big trips. Was this castles and coasters? Actually, I did this two times. But yes, one of them was a local theme park. And my dad, we were eating dinner, and he got me a hot dog, right? And I love hot dogs. Hot dogs are great. It tastes great. Except this one was clearly, there was a problem. And I returned it to the earth. It was, I spent most of the night throwing up after.

after I had the hot dog. And look, I didn't have a taste for hot dogs for years, in years and years. This is a big, long analogy about Amari Cooper to me. He's thrown up so many times all over fantasy owners that even though I know, even though Mike just says, I hate it, because he's ranking him. I mean, he's at 14 in our list. Jason and Mike have him at 13. I put him at 16 because of the hot dog factor. Now, I can't get over it.

Because he's really, he's got me. The history of a Marty Cooper hurts the present for me. Fix me, guys. I dress up this hot dog. Here's where he's ranked number 13 for me because when he got to Dallas, this was a middle of the season change. And generally speaking, changing teams in the off season, it's rough for guys to come in and produce. Middle of the season, he went to Dallas. And in those games, he was the wide receiver 11.

He was a top 12 guy. But here's the problem. 55% of his points came into games. Oh, no, hot dogs. 36 or fewer yards in four of his nine games with the Dallas Cowboys. That's the vomit. That's the green hot dog. But at the end of the season, I think he will be ranked as a top 15 guy. But I have, as of right now,

I will not be drafting Amari Cooper. It's not happening. I'm not falling for it. Jason's looking at me like he's... So wouldn't you adjust your ranking to reflect that for your own fans, for your own list, for the listeners? He's going to finish there. I know. Yeah, I mean he really is. Does that mean you would, you would like him better in best ball and hopes that you get the giant weeks ago? Those will happen. The three games will be awesome. Week 14.

44 and a half fantasy points. Week 12, 34 fantasy points. Week 4, 23 fantasy points, even in Oakland. I mean, the reality is when you're wide receiver 54 with the Raiders and wide receiver 7 with the Cowboys, you have to say that he's going to be better this year than without. He's got another offseason with Dak. He's 24 years old right now. I know that seems insane that he's only 24 years old, but he's still growing boy. Everybody's 24. That's all I've learned on these shows.

Mike Evans is 25. But then he's not 24. Cooper will be 25 when the season starts. That is true. No. Look, I think that there is a realistic outcome. Just say no kids. I think there's a realistic outcome that Amari Cooper is a very good fantasy asset this year. I lean on the side of caution when I'm up.

on the clock, and I'm deciding between great options, you know, average draft position between Amari Cooper and Stefan Diggs. You know, Diggs, you worry about injury history, but when you're injured, I don't start you and get the goose egg. So I think I leaned towards Diggs. Yeah, I mean, he was, he busted 53% of the time last year. Just say no. That's a 50-50 shot on that hot dog going down easy.

Let's go to the judge. Judge Giovanni Brooks. Resident Cowboy. You are a Cowboys fan. How do you feel about my propaganda over here to just say no to Omar Cooper? What do you got? At that draft price, I'm probably with you. Thank you. It's not going to end well. Also, I'd love this is, I don't have time for like a diatribe here. But I'd love to know how many players have been foolishly believed in in fantasy because they're still young.

Like there has to be some like It is our Achilles heel. There has to be some like line in the sand between like, because we brought it up with Sammy Watkins. Oh, he's still a young man that's played on three different teams and been hurt three thousand times. Yeah, but sometimes you get a Devante Adams. Yeah. Who stinks, he stinks. Guys, he's still young. Yeah, but maybe the key is they got to stay home. They got to stay on that team. Perhaps. All right. Stefan Diggs at 15. We just talked about that offense at length. Jason, you got him at 17.

Is this just to kind of illustrate the fact that you love Adam Thielen? It was to put a little gap between Thielen and Diggs to make sure that it is clear. You stay back there. That I believe Adam Thielen will be the more valuable fantasy asset to have. Obviously, if you just look at the back half of the season, it was Stefan Diggs, but we don't play in just the back half of the season. And honestly, if you have to pick one that you would prefer a player to have a great beginning half or second half, what the heck's going on back here?

There may have been a spill back this way. Did you spill something all over the computers? Who was it? Was it Brooks or was it Borland? It was me. Okay. It was Brooks. Wow. All right. But Borland's cleaning it up. What a guy. Of the two, I do believe that Diggs has the higher touchdown upside. I thought you were going to be talking between Brooks and Al Borland. Which one was getting rid of? I don't know if everybody knows who Al Borland is.

Oh, Al Borland is our producer from the Spitballers podcast and helps out here at the fantasy footballers HQ. Cleaning spills. Cleaning up spills. He's baby Brooks. So look, digs, I like digs. He hasn't been able to stay consistently healthy and consistent on the field. He's a game breaker, nine touchdowns last year, 102 receptions. There is the factor here where on any given week it could be digs, it could be feeling.

I mean, that, sure. I don't think Kirk Cousins is out there to set somebody up for fantasy glory. He's out there to perform, and both of these guys can make a big catch. 1A, 1B, really, they really are. Brandon Cook's at 16. Jason and I were, we're happy with Brandon Cooks. We got him at 15. Mike's dumb. Mike is apparently dumb, strong words. Maybe. Mike has him at 20. Yeah. Last year, 80 receptions. I should just flip-flop him and Amari Cooper.

1,200 yards? I already have a note to move Cooper down. Like, I just did these rankings. And I'm talking through these guys, I'm like, Cooper's way too high. You're right. I'm moving him down. Cooper or a Cook's? Cooper. Okay. Last year, the wide receiver 13, Brandon Cooks, he had a good year. He does what he always does. Every year. He's good for 1,100 yards, guys.

That's just what he does. Sure. And just print it. Speaking of, you know, just what he does, if you look at the last four seasons where he's had 1,000 yards, he's been the wider receiver 14, the wider receiver 9, the wider receiver 12, the wider receiver 13. He's done it for different teams, different quarterbacks. He is, look, he's pretty much the, you know, you talk about Minnesota having the 1A1B. You kind of got the 1ABC.

for the Rams. But he's the A. And he is the A. I think he's the A. As much as I love Robert Woods and let it be known, I do. Brandon Cooks is the A. And so if you believe in the offense, which I think everybody does, look McVeigh's offenses have been great, not just for the Rams. I mean, obviously we know that. But you go back and look at McVeigh-led offenses as an offensive coordinator. He's top five in most stats. And he's just, he's better than the other.

coordinators and designers of offensive play calling right now. So I want the number one wide receiver for that offense. And I want the number two and three. Cooks and Woods, by the way, are 16 and 17 in our rankings. I do like hooks more. I think it's a rare thing in fantasy football to be able to look at a consistency chart like the one we have in the UDK and see four straight years of being in the top 15. Look, he's not going to finish number one at the position. He's not going to finish in the top five.

But you could kind of pencil in your brain and Cook season. Like, when you talk about actual best wide receiver 2s that I could possibly choose, it's Brandon Cooks to me. He's kind of like T.Y. Hilton Light, where the yardage is probably going to be there. I love him. It's very possible. I dropped him down to 20. I'm still feeling the pain of last season. I had Cooks in our league of record. And...

He did not help me down the stretch and crushed me during the playoffs. So you got a little burn. So maybe I got a little personal bias and I'm still burned. Oh, that's a great thing, though, for fantasy because a lot of people have that. If you look at where he's going right now, he's going in the fifth pick of the fourth round. And if you can grab him as your second wide receiver, along with two other running backs in those first three rounds, that's, that's. Where is he going right now?

The fourth round, fifth pick on the fourth round. Perfect. Perfect. That is exactly. I mean, you look at the guys in the fourth round. He's going right next to Kenny Galladay. Who do you want as your wide receiver, too? Brandon Cooks for sure. And that's no disrespect to Kenny Galladay who got up on the ball. I got to move him. Who are about to talk to. So Woods is right after. We're going to talk to Kenny Gallaudet? Fantastic. Did I say talk to him? I was going to talk to his jersey on the wall. Oh, all right. It probably won't talk back.

Was that your... That was Goladay talking. Yeah, that's what he sounds like. You never seen an interview? Oh, we're still going. Okay. You know, I got a massage yesterday, and if this song had been playing through the whole hour, it would have been pretty annoying. Robert Woods. Okay. Kenny Goladay at 17 and 18. Jason, you said you love Robert Woods. Look, last season? Great season. What else can you say?

What else you can say is, I mean, what else you could say is the year before last in the 12 games he played, he was very good in those games. And going back to Buffalo, I mean, he always passed our eye test, right? When he was in a bad offense that wasn't passing the ball much, Tyrod Taylor is not one to support good wide receivers. Andy, you and I, we always said, like, Robert Woods is just a good wide receiver. He's just solid. And now he's on a great offense. Yeah, I've always loved.