FantasyPros - Week 2 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1698) - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, friends, and welcome into Fantasy pros. This is
the Fantasy Football Podcast. I'm Chris Welsh, and we have
got ranks for week two. Week one in the books,
and joining me for the Week two ranks show, of course,
is Pat Fitzmorris Andrew Erickson. Both might be making appearances
when we talked about the accuracy contest, because yes, we
do have a weekly accuracy contest that we put out

(00:22):
there every single week and into the season long stuff.
We talked about it in the last episode, Fitzie, where
you did quite good in believe it was drafts, No,
it was in season. You're always an in season killer.
You kind of did it again today, which we're going
to talk about in just a second. So how are
we feel in for Week two?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I'm ready to overreact to a lot of things that
happen in Week one and just assume that it's all
going to continue apace and that everything is going to repeat,
So let's go from there.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
This is always kind of an important show, I think
because trying to figure out what might be an overreaction
and what you know, we probably shouldn't underreact to. So yeah,
there's gonna be some uh, fiery takes come in Erickson.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
If we weren't overreacting, did we really even have a
Week one? You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
No, It's a good point to bring up because I
think that a lot of what I've absorbed from the
media is, you know, we're overreacting to this, We're overacting
to that. Well, it's like we have to react to
some things, and now is it becoming advantageous to almost
react too much when maybe we're not reacting enough to
some of these teams? And really, what I'm most interested
is who is this year's New Orleans Saints right where

(01:31):
you saw them in the last the first two weeks
of last year's come out? Is this the like the newest,
the greatest show on turf with Derek Carr and Clint
Kobiac and this offense? They killed the Panthers in Week one,
and then they played Dallas and then killed Dallas in
week two. Then obviously things just fell way, things got
way off the rails. So is there another team like that?
Is that the Steelers? Is that the Jets? Like like

(01:53):
teams like this that really blew up in Week one?
Is here to stay and are the Miami Dolphins as
bad as they looked in Week one as well? We're
gonna break it down.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, the answer is yes to the last one. But
in this episode, we're gonna be breaking down our wide
receiver ranks. We've got the three tiers wide receiver one
through twelve, thirteen through twenty four. You get it. We're
going to be picking out some of the big names,
a lot of wide receiver stuff from big names, and
some potential overreactions to some players vaulting up in value.
Hopefully we'll be answering your Week two questions as far

(02:22):
as wide receiver goes. But first, let's do take a
look at the accuracy rank contest in week one. Give
a shout out to the top three rankers out there.
Matthew Musler from Fantasy Sports Advice Network finished number one.
I believe was like number one quarterback and two and
running back or flip it just really good in that area.
That's really hard to do in the ranks context contest.

(02:45):
Nick Mariano from Rodoballer was number two, and Kyle Senraf
I'm going for two was number three. Those are your
top three. But gentlemen, you guys know where I'm going this.
The two guys here on the show, not me finished
killer this week. Fits, you were top ten. You finished

(03:06):
ninth in the ranks contest, so let's start with that.
What do you think got you there? I mean, that's
a ridiculous out the gates run finishing inside the top ten.
As soon as I saw it, I was like, yeah,
of course this happened. You killed it again, my friend.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh thanks Walch.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
I really didn't pay that much attention to the ranks
this week. The one thing I was kind of dwelling
on was the fact that I ranked aj Brown. I
had a puka nikua this week, and I kept thinking
about that and thinking that I probably didn't have that
good a week, but I must have. I don't know,
maybe I got some other things right, but that felt
like a pretty bad miss at the top of the
wide receiver rankings.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I'm like, Fits, you were so amazing. What are all
the good things You're like?

Speaker 4 (03:44):
I do not.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
I didn't pay attention. That's just how good you are. Okay, Ericson,
You're not going to be left behind though you finished thirteenth.
So we had two top fifteen finishes from the guys
on this show ericson, did anything stand out as you
know that a player that maybe vaulted you into it
that you would really high that you hit or or
you could also say you didn't pay attention and you
you're only focused on a negative like the AJ Brown one.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
No, I wasn't as focus on the AJ Brown one
because that was the one that everybody essentially got wrong.
I was really more focused on just the Jets and
Steelers game, like just that being like the total opposite
of what I thought, and continually moving Jets players down
pretty sure. I told someone on Reddit to start your
own forward over Breze Hall, So uh yeah, I did
not feel great about that. So that was the biggest

(04:29):
negative and miss from my rankings. But Keenan Allen, he
was a big hit. I mean he was outside the
top six. He was like way buried in ECR rankings.
We talked about him, this guy should be the top
thirty six, and he finished. I believe he's a top
ten wide receiver on the week. I think it was
wide receiver nine and a half PPR because he scored
the touchdown. So talking about that, and I did have
Daniel Jones pretty high up in the quarterback rankings, and

(04:51):
I think that he was QB one on the week.
So it's like that was another one that we didn't
talk about. Daniel Jones is because you weren't playing him.
But in some of these two quarterback LEAs, if you'd
look at my rankings, like, hey, like Daniel Jones ended
up pulling out a massive win for you. So those
are the hits, But I'm definitely more I was definitely
thinking about the Jets the Jets game and just being
really wrong about that. And the thing with that particular

(05:13):
game was, and they even talked about it Fields. I
was under the impression that the Steelers would know Fields, like, hey,
they know this quarterback, They're gonna be able to stop him.
But Fields said in the production meeting after like rewatching
that game in the broadcast, they talked about it how
Fields knew the Steelers and what they were going to do.
And when I think about it in retrospect, I'm like, man,

(05:33):
this makes so much sense. Like Rogers do with the Jets,
We're going to do defensively because he knows that personnel.
He shredded them, and that's why just the Fields shredded
the Jets. So yeah, I just looked at it in
complete wrong angle and it was a shootout waiting to.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Happen quarterback revenge narratives. Put that in the bucket and
we'll come back to that at a different time. You
guys want to check out the ranks weekly benisupros dot
com slash rankings. You can. We'll be referencing that in
this show, but you want to go and check out
how these two guys do. Make sure you're there and
everybody else. Congrats to the people in the top three.
Before we get to the wide receiver ranks, we got
another wide receiver to talk about. Because this is your

(06:08):
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free courtesy of our friends at Pristineauction dot com. Here's
all you gotta do. Go to Fantasypros dot com slash contest.
There's a little form. Do that and then either download
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follow us on x Instagram or TikTok at Fantasy Pros

(06:28):
and guess what you do all those things because the
more actions you complete, the more entries you will receive.
We'll be announcing a winner on the podcast near the
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claim that prize the Jamar Chase autograph, Jersey, what a
way to come out swinging. Let's come out swinging. For

(06:51):
week two. Here is our top twelve board, gentlemen. It
looks like aforementioned Jamar Chase coming in at number one
this week in the consensus ranks, CD lamb Att two,
Justin Jefferson at three, Molik Neighbors, Brian Thomas. That fills
out your top five. Nico Collins, Puka Nakua, Amna Saint Brown,
Lad McCaughey, Jackson Smith and Jigba Garrett Wilson and Marvin Harrison.

(07:12):
Those are your wide receiver ones for the week, your
top twelve. I wanted to throw this one as a
quick aside because I think in any ranks show that
we do the top twelve kind of like, you know, like,
what's the conversation. They're all starters. We're not putting narratives
out there, Da da da. The rank differences are kind
of fun. I just wanted to hit you guys with
this a lot of negative Nico Collins discourse out there.

(07:34):
There's multiple wide receiver ones that failed this past week,
Nico Collins, Brian tom even Brian Thomas saving touchdown obviously
AJ Brown. There seemed to be something really negative in
the streets about Nico Collins of people wanting to kind
of come off of him. In the ranks. ECR six,
both of you guys are higher on him this week,

(07:54):
so fits just you don't have to go crazy into
this because obviously like people are going to be starting
Nico Collins, but just curious, like your level of worry.
I know it's relatively minimal because you have him higher,
but just talk to us about Nico Collins and the
people that are fear mongering him.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
I'm putting this one in the stuff happens category, Like
no concerns about Nico's target share or his talent. My
only real concern with the Houston passing game is the
offensive line. But the Texans had that problem last year too,
and Nico smashed whenever he was healthy. Maybe people are
a little alarmed because like what's kind of wild about

(08:30):
that game for Nico is that the Rams were sometimes
covering him with Emmanuel Forbes, the former first round pick
of the Washington Commanders who did not pan out at
all for the Commanders. So maybe that's a little worrysome
but in the grand scheme of things, I'm not concerned.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Ericson, you know, seem to be you got him three,
you got him really high this week, so you think
this is a bounce back. I almost kind of wanted
to ask you, and I know at the end of
the day it's probably going to be like neither. But
if you were more worried about Nico or Brian Thomas
after the week, and that is probably answered neither. But
Nico definitely are not worried about this week, as he
is three on your wide receiver ranks.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, I think that this is a good bounce spot
for him. They're playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We know
that this is a classic pass final defense. And again,
when Nick Chubb is your RB one, you're gonna have
to attack the Buccaneers defense through the air. We saw
the Falcons with Bijon Robinson have the league the week's
worst rushing success rate among all running backs. B Jon
Robinson the one oh one and almost all of our

(09:27):
fantasy drafts. He was the worst running back on a
per rush basis from a success rate against the the
Buccaneers defense. So they're gonna have to sling it Nigo
Collins against this blitz heavy Todd Bowles defense. What does
that mean? Big plays? Because if they sell out for
the blitz, he's on man and man coverage. He's a
monster after the catch. And c J Stroud again, he's
always under pressure, but he still shows it. He stands

(09:49):
in the pocket, he delivers throws. So yeah, Stroud, strap in, baby.
It's gonna be a long day at the office. You're
gonna take some hits. But I think Stroud is a warrior.
In the last time Stroud played a Todd Bowles defense
rookie guys, he threw for four hundred and seventy yards
and five touchdowns. I say rookie. So he's been able
to have massive games against this defense. It's very boom

(10:10):
or bust. We know Niko Collins can have monster, big games.
I think that he bounces back in a big way
in Week two.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Another wide receiver. You were mentioning the Jets and your
fear ericson and you said, let's do it again. Let's
not get him in there. Garrett Wilson is ECR wide
receiver eleven, so that's a starting wide receiver. Fitzy, you're
like slightly down. You don't really even count in this.
You're like team Garrett Wilson. You get to own him
because you have him. At twelve, you have miss wide

(10:37):
receiver one. Erickson was like, man, the Jets players, they
all were just so good even though I thought they'd
be bad. Let's do that again. Fifteen. You are not
like out necessarily on Garrett Wilson, but you're not close
to consensus on the rank. So what's going to change
this week for you? And is it just still like
the same fears on fields that like last week was

(10:57):
more of a mirage and things are going to come
back down to earth this week.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
I think that maybe they'll come back to earth a
little bit. I mean, I'm not out again. I'm only
a couple spots of ECR. And really it's just because
I'm expecting players like I've t Higgins ran ahead of
Garrett Wilson. I just don't think that the T Higgins
things is just going to bomb for two weeks. And
I don't think the Bengals offense is going to bomb
for two weeks in because they're not playing the Cleveland Browns,
so just because some of the other guys around him.
But again, it moved him up significantly from where he

(11:23):
was ranked last week for me, which was obviously way
too low. So again, I think it's a plus matchup
here against Buffalo. Their secondary is really banged up. We
obviously saw the Ravens take full advantage of that, and
Garrett Wilson is the alpha in the Jets passing game.
So again, the only thing that I would say is
the Jets can't sneak up on the Bills like maybe
they did with the Steelers with their offense. Now at
least Buffalo Okay, at least they kind of know what

(11:45):
is coming a little bit more. So, maybe it's not
as an explosive effort from this fields in passing game
against the Bills. But I liked what I saw with
Garrett Wilson, and he's definitely someone there you're going to
be starting fits.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
You got him as wide receiver one with what you
saw out of fields and is it just giving you
just a little bit more breathing room and feeling like
that Garrett Wilson can tap into his upside.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I mean, I don't know that Week one really changed
my draft season stance on Wilson. Just a good receiver
who is going to have a huge target share in
a low volume passing attack. And you know, we saw
just in Fields have twenty two pass attempts and nine
targets for Garrett Wilson forty one percent target share, so
you know, and occasionally, because he is so much better

(12:28):
than any other pass catcher on this roster, like the Jets'
second best receiver is probably the fifth best receiver on
most other rosters. Occasionally, Garrett Wilson is going to draw
shadow coverage from top cornerbacks. So it might be kind
of a boomer bust profile. And he boomed in week one,
maybe booms again in week two. Jets might need to
throw more than twenty two times to keep up with

(12:50):
the Bills. So yeah, back end wide receiver.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
One, second best pass catcher is a running back, not
even a wide receiver. So all right, let's go take
a look at your wide receiver.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
Two.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
These are wide receivers thirteen through twenty four, and this
is the meat of the episode. Friends. We start with
Drake London at thirteen. Probably a lot built around that
shoulder right now. AJ Brown drops to fourteen. T Higgins,
Mike Evans, Cortland, Sutton, DK metcalf at eighteen, DeVante Adams
at nineteen, A Mecca Egbuka at twenty, Z Flowers, Teteroa, McMillan,
Terry McLaurin, and Ricky Pirosol at twenty four. So we

(13:23):
got a lot of guys to cover in here. So
let's get to AJ Brown, kind of the elephant in
the room here ECR fourteen, and you guys are both
back in. You've got him higher, FITZI, why don't we
let you kick it off here? You're the highest. You
put him at wide receiver nine this week, so the
expectation is a big bounce back. Erickson has got him
at eleven. So you guys both pushed him as wide

(13:43):
receiver ones. Let's hear the jump back into as wide
receiver one after a huge disappointing Week one.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
There's a user in the Fantasy Pros discord who asked
me about a trade offer he received. He was offered
to AJ Brown and Bucky Irving for Jamar Chase, and
we both agreed he should take it like AJ Brown
had almost fifteen hundred yards and eleven touchdowns in twenty
twenty two. You know, one hundred and six catches and
almost fifteen one hundred yards and seven touchdowns in twenty

(14:11):
twenty three, and last year he had one thy fifty
six yards and seven touchdowns in thirteen games for the
run heaviest team in the league. There is not that
big a production gap between Jamar Chase and A J. Brown,
and a legitimate RB one like Bucky Irving more than
bridges that gap. So yeah, it was weird that AJ
Brown had one target in Week one. Jalen Hurts did

(14:32):
a lot of scrambling and a lot of checking down
to Dallas Goddard. But I'm not terribly worried. This week
the Eagles go up against the Chiefs, who have a
top run defense. We saw the Chargers go really pass
heavy against Kansas City in Week one. I guess the
only slight concern I have with AJ Brown is this, like,
what if new Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patillo is a

(14:55):
major downgrade from Kellen Moore, who was the Eagles OC
last year before he left to take the Saints head
coaching job. If that's the case. Maybe we get disappointing
seasons from some of the Eagles skill players, but I'm
not worrying about that after one week.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, and Erickson, when you look at the rank, AJ
Brown didn't move to a spot where anyone's going to
probably find justifiable benches, you know what I mean, Like
when you start to get to wide receiver like eighteen
nineteen twenty, I think you start to get clumped where
someone might be like, you know, should I do this
or this? Like the confidence is still there, so it's
a little bit of a side. You guys are just
committing to being higher than what the expert consensus, what

(15:32):
the you know, the talk around town is for AJ Brown,
you just feel confident he can get back to where
he was before.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
Yeah. I think that AJ Brown is probably set up
for a bounce back effort here again, he has really
nowhere else to go but up after basically only seeing
one target. I do echo some of the concerns that
Fits brought up with the potential downgrade with the offensive
play caller, and I think against the Kansas City Chiefs,
I wouldn't actually be surprised if DeVante Smith actually has
the bigger bounce back game between the two those wide

(16:00):
receivers you look at. Historically, Smith has cooked the Kansas
City Chiefs defense. I remember writing about this in some
of the betting primers we did for the Super Bowl
this past year. Davante Smith had a big game in
the Super Bowl sixty nine receiving yards. Four career games
against the Chiefs defense. Davante Smith ninety nine yards, one
hundred yards, one hundred and twenty two yards in sixty

(16:20):
nine yards in this past Super Bowl. So Smith actually
might have the bigger game again. He was also not
coming off a monster game himself, not as involved as
Dallas Scottard even the running backs Saquon Barkley in the
passing game. So yes, I think Brown can improve here.
But as I'm looking at this rank, I know we
mentioned Garrett Wilson before. I think I probably need to
make some adjustments moving Wilson ahead of AJ Brown just because, Hey,

(16:43):
I think there may be is just some slight concerns
with Hey, a brand new play caller coming out and
doesn't target his alpha wide receiver one. And you have
to remember ag Brown missed so much time in the
offseason with this hamstring injury. Now, this kind of happened
last year with Mark Andrews, where we had this injury
that wasn't really reported or talked about, and then we
saw him just be a ghost for almost half the

(17:03):
season before turning on the second half. So if AJ
Brown starts out again and maybe takes a bat seat
to Devonte Smith against this Chiefs defense, and maybe I
wouldn't be super super surprised.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
DK Metcalf returns to Seattle. So we have got some
we got some revenge game narrative going on here. And
he's also ECR wide receiver number eighteen. You two are
both lower fits you particularly are lower, so he comes
in as like a mid wide receiver two. You have
him outside of a wide receiver two. You have met
number twenty five, So seven spots difference. Ericson's got him

(17:38):
a little bit higher, but just the general statement as
you guys both have him lower. So what's got you
down on DK Metcalf return into Seattle.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, I mean I sort of understand the appeal with him.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Like DK had a pretty good game against the Jets
in Week one, four catches for eighty three out in
a touchdown on seven targets, even at a big game
on a big gain on a wide receiver screen, which
is kind of cool. We haven't seen a lot of
that type of U usage for Metcalf in the past.
And DK does have the revenge narrative going for him
this week against the Seahawks. But Seattle's cornerbacks are pretty good.

(18:09):
They've got Devon Witherspoon and reek Wood Woolen. And look,
we thought Drake London was going to be a wash
in targets two years ago when Arthur Smith was the
Falcons head coach and Drake London was the only good
receiver on the Atlanta roster. London averaged six point nine
targets a game that year and finished with nine hundred
and five yards and two touchdowns. I think a lot

(18:31):
of people are betting on safe target volume for DK
Metcalf this year.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
I'm not so sure that's a safe bet.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
I don't know of any passing game with the Steelers
feel safe. So I don't disagree with you, Erickson. What
do you think You're higher than fits? You're lower than consensus.
But you do have him as a wide receiver too.
I think he was like the number two yards after
the catch wide receiver in Week one a bunch of
plays off of his legs and Rogers did find some
level of comfort here. What do you think about DK
Metcalf this week?

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yeah, Metcalf, that was a fun sweat betting the under
on his receptions because it cashed. He did finish under
four and a half when he went for over eighty
receiving yards, which is not something But we talked about
this on the betting show where it's like, hey, do
you want to bet the yards? You want to bet
the catches? And this one ended up working out betting
the under on the receptions. Although he did have a
drop in this game, I think that the usage for
him being more of an underneath type of target was

(19:20):
very different from what we've seen from him in Seattle,
where he was really used as a down the field
big X receiver, and I think that makes him really
interesting in this matchup. And I'm bringing up a point
that I made earlier with the Jets and how some
of their players, the offensive players, knew the defense. Metcalf
knows about this defense. So am I going to fade

(19:42):
the revenge game narrative when we just saw it work
out for this exact team. With the quarterback and Aaron Rodgers,
I don't think so. So that's why I moved Metcap
off in my rankings. Originally I had him close true
to where I had him ranked last week, which was
outside the top thirty. I'm more optimistic about him now
as a wide receiver to net not as high as ECR,

(20:02):
closer to ECR, but I think that the narrative is
going to be, like, hey, we want to get DKMF
a touchdown. I mean, Aaron Rodgers through four touchdowns last
week and none went to DK, which was kind of
weird because that's where you assume that's where he would
see his biggest role. So the fact that he spent
last year with Seattle, I think that's going to help
the Steelers passing game. He can provide some intel for Rogers,
for Arthur Smith to scheme up a game plan. It's

(20:23):
going to be effective against some of these corners. So, yes,
they are talented, but so is DK MECAF and he's
a monster. Put the ball in his hands, and if
they're doing that, giving him layup touches and targets close
to the line of scrimmage, like you could see him
running for a lot of yards and homecoming.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Another really talented wide receiver, especially out of Week one
was a Mecca Agbuka. He looked awesome and shout out
to Deebro. Debro was really high ranked on him. We
were doing the Sunday stream and people were asking questions
and just all in, and it looks like we kind
of might need to be considering to be all in.
He is wide receiver twenty this week, I mean four
spots off from Mike Evans. The ranks are pretty interesting. Ericson,

(21:01):
you are right on consensus. Fitz, you're a little bit lower.
We'll go to you in a second, but talk to
us about the positive narrative. Ericson on a mechag Buka
this week again and why he can continue to thrive.

Speaker 6 (21:12):
Well.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
I think the thing with Houston and I noticed this
was they were having Derek Stingley matchup a lot with
DeVante Adams in that first matchup. So when you look
at Okay, we have a perimeter cornerback, who are we
going to match him up against with Tampa Bay, It's
probably Mike Evans. Like this is what Mike Evans usually does.
He always draws the opponent's number one cornerback. And what
does that mean for mikeg Buka that you're just gonna

(21:33):
eat again? Like that just what he's gonna do. He's
just gonna feast. He's gonna get favorable looks against the
lesser cornerbacks on the Houston textas. It doesn't mean that
he's never going to draw any type of coverage from Stingley,
but Stingley's legit. And if Baker Mayfield knows that, yes,
Mike Evans will get his opportunities. But Mike Evans is
entering this matchup with a more boomer brush profile. Where
Agbuka again as good as he was last week, he

(21:55):
only had six targets, Like there's room for that to grow,
especially when you leave the team and routes run. I mean,
he's an absolute stud. He lines up all over the field,
he lines up why he lines up a slot and
Baker Mayfield loves him. Everyone of the Buccaneers loves him.
So you just got to keep starting him.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
So, I Fitz, you have a little bit less less
optimism at least as far as your rank goes here.
If you know you're like a two wide receiver league,
your ranks are pretty much being like he's not a
starter this week where the ECR would have him. I
kind of agree with the like stingley idea here, But again,
I don't want to paint it like you hate him
or anything like that. But what what's got the like
negative rank? Is it more about you just the love

(22:29):
of these other players or the uncertainty of the week
to week role?

Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean I love the player. Buka is going
to be a really good NFL receiver. I think we
know that. I'm just not quite ready to put him
in the top twenty. Really nice debut with the two touchdowns,
but you know, as Ericson pointed out, only six targets,
the target volume was just okay, eighteen point eight percent
target chair. So you know, like if he had fired
out with like fourteen targets, I might feel a little

(22:54):
bit more strongly. So I want to be a little
cautious for now. By the way, just for the record,
that Seahawks steal game is in Pittsburgh, so DK does
not get to go back to Pike Place Market before
the game.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
But that might be good. He won't get fish slim
on his hands.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh did I say returns to Seattle?

Speaker 6 (23:09):
Yeah? I think I.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Saw him coming. Yeah, I may have said like he
returns to him. I meant has he played Seattle, but you.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
Can will not be the homecoming queen.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
All right, This guy, this last guy in this range
here is I think it's probably one of the most
polarizing players this week because there's a lot of narrative
built around him. It's Ricky pirosol E CR wide receiver
twenty four, and there's a lot of reasons behind it. Obviously,
the quarterback play will rock Purty play or not, not
even sure if that matters as much. And not that
mac Jones is good, but he'll slang it. We saw

(23:43):
what he did with Brian Thomas last year. Jawan Jennings.
That is a bigger question that can put him out there.
So you compare those and you know, fits and I
and Offline had kind of talked about, like, you know,
whether those two play could really be dependent on the rank.
But then on the other side of it, you have
a perfectly bad Saints team and you've got a projection
got in Ricky Piersaw Ricky Pearsall is number three receiving

(24:06):
on PFFS projections for the week. So you've got all
these things that are coinciding. There's a lot of questions.
There's a lot of thought after optimism, except when it
comes to you too, wide receiver twenty four. Fitz has
got him at thirty one, Ericson, you've got him at
thirty three. I get the concerns fits. Why don't we
start with you? There's a lot of stuff. There's tons
of questions about Pearsaw. So if you want to lay

(24:28):
it out, here's where he is. If this happens and
that happens, feel free to it. But what do you
think about Pearsall this week?

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (24:34):
I mean this is just sort of a placeholder ranking,
and I guess I'm tentatively ranking him as if brock
Perty will not play.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
This week, although maybe I shouldn't.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
I gif the forty nine ers have to start mac
Jones at quarterback like Brian Thomas Junior thrived with mac
Jones and Jacksonville last year, and the target volume should
be pretty good for Pearsall with no George Kittle he
is the hamstring injury. Probably no Juwan Jennings, who's one
of about forty seven wide receivers. He picked up a
shoulder injury in Week one, So yeah, I may have

(25:07):
to come up a little from wide receiver thirty one.
I think you're probably playing Ricky Pierce all under almost
any circumstances this week.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, I think he is. Like, if you want to
tie it to something, I think it's more tied personally
to Juwan Jennings being out there because Mac is going
to sling the ball. That's not a good team that
they're playing. Christian mccafferrey is going to go. But as
you mentioned, there's no Kittle, There's none of that. That's
the narrative. I'm painting ericson you hate him thirty three
barely startable, let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
I think that I'm just wrong because of like looking
at my notes, trying to make paint the picture for
why he should be outside the top thirty, and I'm
just drawing blanks because I can't really think of a
good reason. So this is something that I'm gonna have
to adjust. I think Fitz brings up a good point
where we do have some ambiguity with well, who the
other receivers are going to be playing in this game?
Who's the quarterback going to be? And I can't get

(25:54):
out of my mind that if Mac Jones starts this
game again. They just gave the big contract a rocker.
Did the forty nine ers really want to go out
and make mac Jones look really, really good. I like,
that's just about keeping the back of my mind, and
I don't think that they want to do that. And
we all know the Shanahan system. It's like, he could
probably go out there and throw for three touchdowns and
three into passing yards and then they'd be like, well,

(26:15):
why they give the contract to brought perty Like I
could see them trying to avoid that. It's like, we're
just gonna fe McCaffrey, like, that's what we're gonna do.
He's gonna score all the touchdowns. We're not gonna pad
mac Jownes stats whatsoever. So I'm definitely big braining a
little bit here, But it wouldn't shock me if they
just don't have this massive passing output against the Saints.
I think that Cooler mckintree is kind of an underrated cornerback,

(26:37):
to be honest, I think that he got to look
pretty good in some of his matchups. When he's going
up against Marvin Harrison Junior in Week one, I think
that he's gonna draw coverage with Ricky Pearsall, so I
think that's something to kind of monitor. But that being said,
outside the top thirty, with just the optics and the targets,
the opportunity he could see, especially just after a breakout
game in Week one, picking up where he left off
at the end of last year, so he's definitely going

(26:58):
to be moving up the ranks.

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Speaker 1 (28:11):
Gentlemen, our final wide receivers. These are wide receivers twenty
five through thirty six. We start with DJ Moore going
up against Detroit DeVante Smith, Tyreek Hill. All the way
down at twenty seven, Travis Hunter, George Pickens, Jacoby Myers,
Jamison Williams, Debo, Hollywood Brown, Romadoonze, Jerry Judy, and Calvin Ridley.
Some interesting ones in here. Maybe some guys undeserved. Tyreek

(28:32):
Hill really falls. DJ Moore kind of tumbles down a bit.
But let's talk about Jamison Williams ECR thirty one. Some
big expectations last week. Not quite there. You guys both
have bigger expectations this week. Erickson, you are the highest
wide receiver twenty one to ten wide receiver spot difference.
That is pretty dramatic. So talk to us about Jamison
Williams and why you are bullish on him.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Well, the lines are playing at Ford Field, which is
the course field of the NFL, and they're going to
score points this week. Guys. I think the Lions aren't
as bad as what we saw in Week one against
the Green Bay Packers on the road their home in
the Dome. I think that you're going to get a
bounced back performance, something that lines overle You just look
at the total in that game, you look at the
implied team totals. Lions are number two on the week,

(29:14):
so Vegas expecting them to score points. I'm expecting the
score points here and how do they do that with
their number one or number two most explosive playmaker and
Jamison Williams. The thing with Williams is. He can win
you your week, and I want to have that offensive
firepower in my lineup as a wide receiver three. Again,
I'm my game as a wide receiver two because I
just don't think you should bench him like you need

(29:35):
to have his upside in your lineup because of the
week winning upside he can deliver. Again, I don't think
that taking away what the Lions offense looked like in
Week one is necessarily going to help us because the
Packers were selling up to stop all explosive plays. It's
why Jamier Gibbs had ten targets, It's why Dave Montgomery
was seeing multiple targets in the passing game. They were
doing everything in their power to make sure that no,

(29:56):
there's going to be no explosive downfield plays from this offense.
I don't think that the Bears will have as much
success with that with the lines playing at home where
they can I think dictate pace a little bit more offensively.
So I'm gonna buy the dip on Jamo fits.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
A year there with it. You got him right at
the end of your wide receiver twos, you're buying big
weeks ahead.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Yeah, I love Ericson's corps Field comparison, So like, what
does that make lambeau Field. Well, you're a baseball guy.
What are the big Pitchers Park?

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Seattle?

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Great American Ballpark. Now I'd be like the Reds Great
American Ballpark.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, So that's lambeau Field.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
And we saw the Lions offense just have a shipwreck
game against the Packers in green Bay.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Nothing worked, there were no big plays.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
The Packers dbs kept everything in front of them, and
the pass rush was getting to Jared Goff quickly. The
Green Bay defense might end up being one of the
best in the league, like the sort of matchup that
has us downgrading Packers opponents in our rankings all season.
I expect the Lions offense to get well this week
at home against the Bear. Chicago's d played well for

(30:56):
half of the Monday night game against the Vikings, then
kind of fell apart the second half. Bear's cornerback Jalen
Johnson didn't play in that game. He's been out with
a groin injury that caused him to miss most of
training camp, and Jalen Johnson is by far Chicago's best cornerback.
If he's out, Goff is gonna have a big day
and Jamo is going to be part of it.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Kind of back to what we said at the beginning
of the show. You know, overreactions they come in all
different forms, and sometimes it can be like I had
this great guy that I drafted and he didn't have
a great week, and now I don't know if I
want to get him out there, and it's like that
might be just too close to the overreaction train for
a guy like Jamison Williams. Calvin Ridley comes in at
ECR thirty six. Ericson, you were pretty vocal about your

(31:39):
concerns and you hit a bet on the under Thank
you to his crucial and critical, awful drop that definitely
got you there. But yeah, ECR thirty six, you guys
are both higher on him. Fitz will start with you. You've
got him at wide receiver thirty, so you got him
as like a mid wide receiver. Erickson's even a little
bit more bullish again, So FITZI, why don't you hit

(31:59):
us with some Calvin Ridley real quick?

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Really just had that brutal matchup against the Broncos with
the best pass rush in the league in Denver, and
also Patrick certain junior, just a lockdown corner who was
on Ridley for most of the game. I just think
a wide receiver thirty six ranking in ECRs an overreaction.
I drafted Calvin Ridley in a lot of leagues and
just kept him on the bench last week in leagues

(32:24):
where I could afford to, knowing it probably wasn't going
to be a very good week. I to won a
little bit of money betting the under on his receiving yardage.
But I'm starting Ridley everywhere this week. His matchup against
the Rams like not easy, but also not the skull
and crossbones matchup that Ridley had last week against Denver.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, Erickson, you've got him at wide receiver twenty six.
I like, amnor looked like good, like really good, like
a lot of good underlying stuff. But you know, decent
amount of that was about Redley being taken out of
the game. You think it's in a bounce back. In
the world of big rank jumps, this is a ten
wide receiver jump between barely being a startable wide receiver
three to him almost being a two for you. So

(33:02):
you think we're gonna have a complete turnaround for Ridley
this week?

Speaker 4 (33:05):
Yeah, because this is kind of where I was ranking
him during draft season. I think this is kind of
the area he was in and just knew week one.
It's like, guys, like week one's not gonna be good,
Like you have to keep this in mind when you
draft Calvin Ridley. And we even talked about it in
offseason shows where it's like Calvin Ridley the best buy
low after week one. So if we don't draft him,
you just go trade for him for a week two
because he's gonna bomb in week one. And that's exactly

(33:26):
what we saw and too again to his discard, I
would say he didn't help himself. I mean he helped
me make money with the unders on the props, but
him driving passes and basically making cam Ward's dad you
know almost like oh no, Like what's going on with
this guy that was a cam Mood's dad. They panned
him in the stadium when Calvin Ridley dropped the ball
and man was like so defeated. It's like, come on, you.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Got to help went out to the stairs hew the
railing was like, ah huh, that would.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Hurt classic disappointed dad, just like, oh, man, so we
should get a better effort from Ridley. Yes, the Rams
do have a fierce pass rush like we saw against
the Houston tex However, I think the Titans offensive line,
even though they're dealing with a JC Leatham injury, still
probably better than the Houston Texans. And look, Camwore's not
afraid to just sling it into stand in that pocket
and just rip it, and I think that's going to

(34:11):
give rid the opportunities. And again, the Rams cornerbacks I
think are still not that great. Even that pass rush
I think hides some of their vulnerabilities in the secondary.
They didn't get exposed against the Texans, who really only
had Nicocollins. But I think that really's going to see
enough volume. And again, he had a twenty eight percent
target share, he played all the snaps, and he's a
top thirty receiver in the projection, so even just median projections,

(34:34):
I think that he's being undervalued outside the top thirty
in ECR.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
All right, top thirty six wide receivers in the books.
Those are the names. You guys can check them out
over at finniscros dot com slash rankings. But that leads
us to our final thing. Who's a wide receiver that
did not hit this that absolutely should have. It makes
you sick to your stomach or you just think they're
going to finish a little bit higher fits. We'll start
with you. Which wide receiver do we not talk about
that was on the list that should have been?

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Chris O.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Lave is just outside the top thirty six in ECR.
I've got him just inside, like I'm not that far
above consensus, but I'll probably be above consensus on him
most of the year. Like I think A lava is underrated.
The reason he fell in drafts is mostly because of
the concussion fears. Well, he's healthy now or mostly healthy.
DIDs spend some time in the medical tent in that

(35:18):
Saints Cardinals game. But LaVey had thirteen targets, caught seven
of them for fifty four yards, and I think that's
kind of indicative of what we're going to see this year.
Heavy target volume all year, and while he's probably not
going to be super efficient with those targets since they're
coming from Spencer Rattler, I think the sheer target volume
and catch volume Chris olave has is going to make

(35:41):
him a wide receiver three, a playable wide receiver three
all year long.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
A lot of it looks like he's got like a
timeshare built in that tent.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
It's it's well, Spencer Rattler's not helping when he throws
hospital balls.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I'm sure it's all going to be a lot better
this week with the ford Anders pass rush in their corners.
I'm sure it's going to be a lot better.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
Spencer Raler is going to do he put through the blender.
The Roberts Solimn blenders coming.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Not gonna be good.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Take out all the frustrations, all the players that are injured.
They're going to take it out on them, all right,
ericson your wide receiver three, he didn't make it. Of course,
this is the name. Of course, this is the guy.
Let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
Just one bad week and we're all out. I mean,
I'm going right back to the well here with Jalen Waddle.
I still think that he can be a top thirty
six receiver. And it has to do with the matchup.
The Patriots secondary was absolutely destroyed by Gino Smith. Of
all the quarterbacks, Gino Smith, Jacobe Meyers, Trey Tucker, everyone
was making plays, especially downfield explosive plays. The Patriots are

(36:36):
missing Christian Gonzales and he makes a big difference in
their secondary. So when he's not out there, this past
defense was one of the worst that we saw in
Week one. The Dolphins, their defense is still a mess.
I think their offense can bounce back just a little
bit here playing at home, and I think the thing
to point out too, part of the reason why they're
all the offense was so terrible in Week one didn't

(36:57):
have a lot of volume. They only ran forty six
offensive plays because the Colts scored, i think on every
single possession that they had, so the Dolphins didn't really
have the ball that much to go along with all
the turnovers. But they averaged sixty three plays per game
last season, so that's almost seventeen less plays, and the
lowest plays per game last year among all NFL teams
was fifty eight. So just an increase and just play

(37:20):
volume from the Dolphins offense, you're going to see more
targets for Jalen Walla, for Tyreek Hill, and it's a
plus matchup. Jalen Walla historical is also just cooked the Patriots.
You look at some of the game walks he's done
against this team. He's very, very productive, a considering the Patriot.
They're playing at home, so I think that has the defense.
I think is still a mess for Miami, but I
think their offense doesn't play nearly as bad as it
did in Week one.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Hopefully, through our conversations here we answered your guys's questions,
your big wide receiver questions for week two. If we
did not, don't want you guys to forget. We've got
our weekly start and Sit live stream on our YouTube
channel where you guys can come and ask whatever type
of start and sit questions wide receivers, other positions. We're
here every Thursday, three pm Eastern, So for those listening
on the pod, go to YouTube dot com slash fantasypro subscribe,

(38:02):
click the bell, get notified so you don't miss win
those live streams go live.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
We're here for you.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
That's gonna do it. Thank you guys so much. You
guys rock that wide receiver ranks and the books. Go
to fantasypros dot com slash rankings for more. Good luck
in week two. We'll talk to you next time right
here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 5 (38:18):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast.
If you love the show, the best freeway. To support
us is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcasts
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FantasyPros - Week 2 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1698)

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