FantasyPros - Week 5 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1745) - 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 are
talking ranks. That's right, it's Week five ranks. This is
the wide Receiver episode and the gang is back together.
We got Pat Fitzmorris and the return of Andrew Rickson.
He's back. The crowd roars ericson. How was a wedding season? Season?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Lot?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Are we doing?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good to go to the West coast, California, Temecula Wine Country.
For those that are unfamiliar, it was a lot of
It was a lot of fun. Congratulations to the new
mister and missus. My cousin got married and uh, you
guys would think that this was the last wedding. Now
I got another one coming out, so that would be fun.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
No, I have known you for a little bit of time.
Now I know that it is never the end. I
haven't been to a wedding in like ten years, and
you've been to ten in the last year, so I
know it is never the end. Ericson is a is
a busy bee, Fitzie, not a big not a big
going to weddings guy. I'm a big rank and complaining
about Juwan Jennings, guy, I don't know about.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
If it's stages of life. Ericson is at this stage
where like one of his friends is getting married every
other weekend. I met more like the divorce stage where
some of my friends you know, been married a long time,
like they're, yeah, we're sick of each other.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
We're gonna have this.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, the divorce stage where they're getting where those guys
are also getting a little bit more into fantasy football too.
Those kind of coincid sometimes. So all right, well let's uh,
let's figure out who are we marrying, who are we divorcing.
As far as wide receivers for Week five, there's a
bunch of decisions. Boy, there's a bunch of injuries. So
we got a lot to cipher through here. As we're

(01:38):
gonna be going through the top thirty six we've got,
we are trying to kind of figure out what some
of the big questions might be where we have some
big rank differences, and that is what we are going
to be tackling today. Speaking of ranks, of course, you
can follow along at fantasypros dot com slash rankings. You
can go and check out what the ECR is and
every single week we've got our rank contest. It goes

(02:01):
all season long, and each week we get number ones, twos,
and threes. Unfortunately, none of us were on the board. Fortunately,
just want to point out I was the highest of
our group. But it is nothing to get excited about.
What there is to be excited about is Chris Raybon,
who finished number one in the Ranks Contest for week four,
Chris Dell finishing two, and keV Wheeler. Let's all give

(02:23):
them their flowers. They finish one, two, and three in
the Ranks Contest for this week. This is a tough week.
I got Jalen warrens I did not get to fix
Jalen Warren. I've also figured out I might be the
greatest tight end ranker on the planet. I ranked in
the top ten. I'm five on the season. So if
you need your tight ends, come to me. Those guys
they'll get you with everything else. But Chris Raybron, Chris Dell,

(02:46):
and keV Wheeler, those are your top three in the
ranks and boys, we're gonna we're gonna pick it up
this week. I feel good. I feel I got a
premonition that Ericson's gonna finish really high in the ranks.
I don't know why. I feel like it's gonna be
a little bit of Waller. There's gonna be a wide receiver.
He's gonna get down. I think Ericson's gonna finish pretty high.
So before we tackle this and get into the ranks,

(03:07):
let's also talk about some wide receiver giveaways. We're not
talking about the Jamar Chase giveaway anymore because we are
going to give it and then we've got a new
prize for somebody. So the winner of the sign Jamar
Chase Bengals jersey giveaway is McCoy, the real McCoy. That's it.
That's all it says on here is just McCoy. So
we'll be contacting you to get you that prize. So

(03:28):
stay on the lookout and congratulations on winning our friend McCoy.
But we are not done. If you want a chance
to win a sign AJ Brown Eagles jersey, we're doing
more jerseys for free courtesy of our friends over at
Pristine auction dot com. All you've got to do is
go to fantasypros dot com slash contest, complete the form,
then download Fantasy Pros app. You can leave a review

(03:50):
for the podcast, follow us on ex Instagram, TikTok. All
of those are at Fantasy Pros and you can also
do all of them. All of those give you entries
where you could potentially win, and we'll be announcing a
winner right here on the podcast, just like I did.
So if you're watching on YouTube, be sure to subscribe,
turn on notifications so you can be alerted of new
episodes so you can claim your prize wide receive for jerseys.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
For you, for you, for you.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
All right, fencepros dot Com Slash Rankings, gentlemen, Let's kick
up the big board. Let's look at the top twelve
for week five. Starts with Puka Nakua. There's a Night
Football amanas Saint Brown, Jackson Smith and Jigba, Justin Jefferson
and Garrett Wilson. That's our top five. Nico Collins, DeVante Adams,
George Pickens, a Mecca, Igbuka, Jamar Chase at ten, Deebo

(04:34):
Samuel and Quintin Johnson at twelve, Just like we all
thought Week five was gonna look like in the ranks,
just when you all knew that Garrett Wilson would be
five and Quentin Johnson would be twelve. So we got
actually a couple things to talk about in the top twelve.
Let's start with George Pickens. George Pickens is ECR eight
this week. Both of you find gentlemen have him a
little bit lower. I'm curious if there's anything with that.

(04:57):
This is pretty minuscule, but you guys are lower than
consensus where everybody's kind of putting a big week on him.
What do you think about Pickens this week, FITZI.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
I under ranked Pickens last week because I was worried
that he would be miscast as an alpha receiver with
Cede Lambout. You know, Pickens had been miscast as a
lead receiver in Pittsburgh. I was bullish about Pickens during
draft season and got him in a few drafts because
I love the idea of George Pickens being able to
be the number two receiver and just do his thing,

(05:26):
and he was getting a big quarterback upgrade with Dak Prescott. Well,
Pickens did really well as an alpha receiver last week,
and it looked silly to have been worried about his
ability to thrive as a lead receiver against a defense
from Green Bay that most people consider one of the
best in the league. I'm still a little nervous about
ranking Pickens as a wide receiver one when he's probably

(05:46):
going to be seeing a lot of Sauce Gardner this week.
And I don't know if it's possible for Dak Prescott
to play as well as he did against the Packers.
Like I'm guessing that if you ask Dak, he would
tell you that last week's game was one one of
the two or three best games he's ever played at
any level of football. So if Pickens smashes again, I'm
gonna have to reassess how I feel about him. But yeah,

(06:10):
I mean, obviously you're you're starting him and probably feeling
pretty good about it after what we saw last week.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Ecktionon, you're a little bit lower. Are you worried about
the sauce for Pickens?

Speaker 2 (06:19):
I think that it's worth mentioning and when you're trying
to rank George Pickens, factoring in that because I don't
think that the Greenmay Packers have cornerbacks there as good
as Sauce Carter is. You look at the way that
Sauce Carter plays, I think that Pickens, they don't move
them around that much in the Dallas Cowboys formation, Like
he's strictly like a perimeter guy, Like they don't really

(06:41):
move him a ton into the slot. And so you're
gonna see Gardner basically match up with Pickens all game long.
And that's not a matchup that oh where Dallas like,
let's attack Sauce Gardner all day long. It doesn't make
a lot of sense where the Jets just put or
the Jets just lost their starting slot corner Michael Carter
to a concussion last week on a short week. So
if they find that Kamanti and has like all these
really favorable matchups inside Jake Ferguson from the inside of

(07:03):
the field, then I think that we see Dallas maybe
attack more of the inside of the field of the
Jets defense versus, okay, let's just attack the perimeter with
these fifty to fifty balls. I don't know if they
necessarily need to do that against the New York Jets.
So that's kind of my take on it. Just again,
you're starting George Pickens because of what the ceiling he
should show, but I don't think we're going to get
a repeat ceiling game from him against the New York

(07:24):
Jets and also to the Dallas couples are gonna be
out with another offensive line injury. Tyler Geiton had a
concussion as well, so that's just another offensive another down
three starters like in the past two weeks, like as
great as Dak played to fits his point, I think
it's going to come back down to earth just a tad.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
If there was like if you could go back in
time about a month or so ago, do you think
you would have ever and could have ever imagined a
scenario where George Pickens would rank higher than Jamar Chase.
That's kind of the big question now we are faced
with can we start Jamar Chase. It's a legitimate question
that we are all facing because it is multiple weeks
of what looks like the most I affectionately say pisspoor

(08:06):
offense in the NFL. They cannot do anything. The Bengals
are offensive line browning is not it. Jamar Chase still, though,
is a wide receiver one. This week he falls down
to ten. Fitzi you've got him at nine and Ericson
you've got him at six. You guys are still both
above consensus. You're holding out hope. There is absolutely a
mental side of this to like, imagine benching Jamar Chase

(08:30):
and he does go off. He is so crazy talented,
but we are seeing weeks and weeks of this not working.
I think anybody that is asking the question should I
start bop bop bop over Jamar Chase is justified And
I'm not sure that I fully buy in here, but
maybe there's some matchup stuff that's in play here. Ericson

(08:50):
on sexually start with you because you are the high guy.
You've got him at six this week. What is your
level of I mean, you have him at six, so
I know your level of warry isn't like crazy, but legitimately,
how far off are we from having to put him
in Brian Thomas territory into the twenties.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, I'm not trying to overreact to two bad games
from Jake Browning when the matchups have been terrible for him.
He's played back to back road games against the Minnesota
Vikings Brian Flores Defense No Boyo and at the Denver
Broncos on the road. So do we all just forget
about what happened the last time we saw Jake Browning
play at home against the Jaguars. Oh, jam Ar Chase

(09:26):
had a great game, like he was fine, and you
just look at Jim You look at Jake Browning in
his career as a backup, his record at home six
and two, on the road one and six. I think
that we are just burying Jake Browning after he just
had two really bad matchups on the road, Like that's
not his fault, Like the schedule just did not work
in his favor. So after week three, or excuse me,

(09:47):
after the game where Joe Burrow got hurt, it seemed
like okay, like we can be okay with Jake Browning.
The Jacksonville game was fine for Jamar Chase. He had
like sixteen targets, and now we're just gonna completely forget
that ever happened and just write him off because of
these two tougher matchups on the road. So that's why
I'm buying the dip on Jamar Chase, like his hue,
talented of a player to be kept down for week
after week. And you look at the Lions, They're down

(10:09):
to their starting quarterbacks. DJ Reach, you got put on
Injurr Reserve terry On Arnold is banged up again at
home the Bengals this is when you buy the dip
on Jamar Chase. So I'm starting him no matter what.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
I really like that.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
My biggest worry would be that offensive line is so
bad that Aiden Hutchinson's gonna turn Browning into a huggy
pillow like that. It looks really, really bad. And because
of that, you've seen a lot of like tied in,
you know, dump off stuff, but it doesn't take away
like this situation. Jamar Chase is insanely talented fits So
I think this is a bit that you're gonna get
a million questions about this, but the matchup definitely lines

(10:45):
up that this is still a great spot for Chase.
It's probably not the week to get cute about it,
even though it has been bad. But people are asking
some pretty hard questions, Fitzy, and you've got them at
nine though, and you've got them a little bit on
one spot above consensus right now.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, And after I posted my rankings and two morning,
someone on Twitter asked me why I was still ranking
Jamar Chase as a top ten receiver. And this Twitter
follower didn't identify himself as a Jamar Chase stakeholder, but
it was pretty obvious that he was, and no doubt
he was completely distraught by what he had just seen
from Jake Browning in the Cincinnati offense Monday night against

(11:18):
the Broncos. I totally understand the frustration, and I completely
understand that some Chase investors might be thinking about benching
Chase after a game in which he had five catches
for twenty three yards.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
So what I told this person.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
When he asked me about why I'm continuing to rank
Chase so highly is that Jamar Chase is insanely good
at football. And like I wasn't trying to be a
smart alec And I know that's an overly simplistic answer,
But when Joe Burrow had the season ending injury in
twenty twenty three and Jake Browning had to make a
bunch of starts late in the year, Chase had some
good games, like he had four catches for eighty one

(11:56):
yards in the first of those starts. Chase had eleven
catches for under and forty nine yards and a touchdown
in Browning's second start that year. But then again, Jamar
Chase averaged three point five catches and thirty eight point
three receiving yards over the last four games. He played
with Jake Browning in twenty twenty three, So it's not
all rosy here, Like, I'm not trying to sugarcoat things

(12:18):
for the Jamar Chase investors, Like the situation is kind
of bleak. Chase is not finishing. Is the overall wide
receiver one this year? But I don't think it's crazy
to rank this undeniably great player as a mid range
or low end wide receiver one in a week where
there are four teams un buying a bunch of good
receivers hurt?

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Do we think just as a quick like, we don't
have to go into crazy analysis of this. If he
bombs again this week, are we going to see the
week six plummet of Jamar Chase?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
We will in the rankings because people are knee jerking
on this kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
I do want to bring up one last thing. If
you're like, you're looking at your weekly matchup right and
your oponent has Jamar Chase? Are you is a side
relief if you see Jamar Chase on their bench or
do you want to face Chase this week?

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well that I mean that I think that ultimately is,
but that's for me. I don't know what that answer is, I.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I just think you can't put that type of upside
on the bench, especially with bye weeks.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I think you're indifferent about it. I think you're indifferent.
I think the answer is you're indifferent. If you see that,
you're just like, all right, this could go either way,
like he could absolutely destroy me or this you know,
he could be worth less than Josh downs. Like, I
think you're just completely indifferent. Where usually you would have
seen Jamar Chase and you're like, here we go, you know, like,
here we go. It's gonna be a problem. You're very

(13:37):
indifferent right now, and that's a space. But I don't
want to say like this is the be all end all.
But if he bombs out this week, three straight weeks
with a good matchup, I think this is where you're
gonna see guys like you to have him ranked below
the consensus moving forward. If he bombs out, all right,
So let's trap in and let's have We're gonna talk
about another top twelve wide receiver, but let's have a

(13:59):
bigger conversation around this guy that we need to have.
This is a family conversation about the Chargers wide receivers.
Quinton Johnston is number twelve. FITZI, I think I might
have said on this show last week that I think
Quentin Johnston deserved to be the top guy on that list,
But that was still me loving Ladd McConkey. I'm brooke

(14:20):
breaking up with Lad McConkie. I'm done. I still think
he is talented. He doesn't work as an elite wide
receiver in this offense anymore because there are too many
good options. There's too many good options for Herbert. That's
the thing that was different from last year. It was
just like, oh, bad, bad bad, go to Lad, Lad saves.
Now Herbert can go to first read. Bam. He's up

(14:40):
a full percentage point on his first reads than he
was last year. You got Hampton as a great receiver.
That's what's creating this mix. So there's a Lad conversation
to have, there's a Keenan Allen conversation to have. But
I think the biggest change that everyone has come to
terms with after this week, and hoping they don't regret it,
is that Quinton Johnson now needs to be looked at

(15:00):
as the number one in this offense, and the consensus
ranks obviously tell that story of him going up to twelve.
You guys don't agree, though, you guys both have him
as wide receiver twenty. Now, that actually doesn't mean you
don't have him above the other guys. You just don't
have him singularly as high. So FITZI, let's start with
you your thoughts on Quinton Johnston. You're way lower than

(15:21):
the rest, and how do you sparse out this grouping
of wide receivers.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Now.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
I was on a show with my friend Kevin Tompkins
earlier this week, and Kevin and I were talking about
whether we need to adjust our priors on the Chargers
wide receivers based on what we've seen so far, and
I think we probably do. But I think it's less
about Lad McConkie than it is about Quentin Johnston and
Keenan Allen, and especially Quentin Johnston, like QJ, was talented

(15:49):
enough to be a first round pick in twenty twenty three,
he was drafted twenty first overall. He was the second
wide receiver taken in that draft, Jackson Smith and jig
But went one spot ahead of him at twentieth overall.
And Quinton Johnston's hands were obviously a major issue early
in his career, so much so that it seemed like
his problem with drops might be career threatening. And I

(16:11):
don't know what Quinton Johnston and Jim Harbaugh and the
Chargers coaches did to fix those problems, but QJ looks
like a totally new guy, supremely confident catching the ball
right now, And we are seeing the version of Quinton
Johnston the Chargers thought they were getting when they drafted him,
this big, fast playmaker who's an absolute monster after the

(16:33):
catch and a physical mismatch for pretty much every defender
who tries to cover him. And he's like quietly second
in the league in air yards right now, behind only
Molik Neighbors. So then you've got Keenan Allen, who's obviously
aging like fine wine, like he's still the Picasso of
route runners. But I don't want to bury Ladd McConkie

(16:53):
in the rankings because of the slow start, Like I
just don't believe that Ladd McConkie is going to finish
wide receive fifty six, which is where he is currently
ranked in half point PPR Fantasy scoring, behind Luke McCaffrey, Hunter,
renfro and DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
But what if he finishes his wide receiver thirty five.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
I mean he might, but like I'm still I think
the show that Lad McConkie put on in twenty twenty
four was pretty convincing. And I don't think he's playing
well right now, but I don't think it's gonna be
like this all season.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
But see, I think part of the problem is I
don't think it's that he's not playing well. It's that
the ball is not getting to him at the same
clip as before. Again, like in Week four, Ladd had
a twenty percent first read percentage, Quentin Johnson was almost
forty percent. He's also the air yards guy. Herbert doesn't
need to check down at the level that he did before.

(17:46):
Maybe it's even the checkdown percentage that was down a
full percent as well, Like he has got his big targets.
So what I'm about let me add also give your
rank after your rank of those three wide receivers can
get hurt.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah, So one of the reasons like this is kind
of specific to this week. The Chargers look very unlikely
to have Joe Alt, who was carted off with an
ankle injury. Luckily not super serious it seems, and he's
not going to miss extended time, but he's probably not
going to play this week. And maybe without Alt their

(18:18):
top offensive tackle, and they had already lost for Shaun Slater,
their other starting offensive tackle, to a torn pateeller tendon
in training camp. Maybe that necessitates the need for some
more quick throws, which seems like it's more up Ladds
Allie and up Keenan Allen's Allie than Quentin Johnston, who
again second in the league in air yards Right now,

(18:38):
I don't know if Justin Herbert is going to get
the time to wait for that, you know, those deeper
routes to develop this week.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
So maybe that's.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
Yeah, I've got QJ wide receiver twenty Lad twenty two,
Keenan Allen twenty three.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Okay, Erickson, let's get you take It's it's all the
same stuff that we built out here. I'm kind of done.
Not that Lad isn't super talented, it's just his usage
in the offense I think makes him a questionable starter.
He'll have a couple of games that blow up. Quinton
Johnson is the constant. Talk to us about the lower
rank of Quinton Johnson this week, and then how do
you sparse out those three charger wide receivers.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, I think that Fits did a good job of
hitting on the ascension of Quinton Johnson, So I don't
necessarily need to rehash that because I agree with all
the points that he made. I really want to focus
more on McConkie. And if you just look at this season,
this is per an exten stats. No receivers have faced
more double coverage than Keenan Allen and lab McConkey this year.
So that's like part of one of the reasons why
Johnson has been so productive. Not Gunn. He's taken a

(19:39):
massive talent jump in how they've used him, but he's
gotten a lot of favorable looks, like the opportunities have
been there for him, and unlike past years where he's
kind of blown those opportunities being attached to Justin Herbert,
this year he's really capitalizing on it and why he's
been so productive. So I don't think the production is
just going away, but eventually, like the ebbs and flows
are going to kind of shift a little bit where

(20:00):
you're not going to just see McConkey just never produce
ever again, Like I don't think he's gonna be wide
re Serre fifty six rest of season. In fact, if
you go back to last year, the only guy that
has faced double coverage more than Lam McConkey is Jamar
Chase since the beginning of twenty twenty four, so teams
have been rolling coverage towards mconkee to be like, no,
we're not letting this guy beat us, and then Quin
Johnson has been absolutely feasting. So eventually you're gonna see
teams all right, well, now we have to pay more

(20:21):
attention to this third year breakout because he's absolutely killing us.
We can let up a little bit on La mcconky,
and I think this particular matchup against the Commanders this
is a spot where I think lad can finally bounce
back because they're one of the worst defenses in the
NFL this year against slot receivers. They're dead last in
yards per target to the slot. The leader in slot
routes for the Chargers is Lam mcconky. So although they're

(20:43):
mixing in Keenan Allen a little bit, even Quentin Johnson
to an effect in the slot. It's interesting because even
though McConkie is running in most of his routes from
the slot, he's been the least productive slot receiver for
the Chargers. I believe Johnson and Allen both had like
more yards, more catches and have been just we're productive
with those opportunities. Whereas mcconky, he hasn't played great. Like

(21:04):
that's the other thing too, like part of it is
on him. The usage. Again, it hasn't been ideal, but
he's also dropped more passes than we're occasionally used to
him seeing, hasn't been winning these fifty to fifty balls
and obviously hasn't scored any touchdowns. I think that changes
because of the matchup this weekends the Commanders where I
slot funnel defense third most targets, fourth, most points allowed
to slot receivers this season, Like I mentioned four league

(21:24):
high yards per target ten point one to pass catches
aligned in the slot this season. I don't think that's
gonna be Want to notice, when the Charges are putting together,
the game plans like, oh wow, like we can really
get lad going this particular week. So I don't think
this is the week to bench Lae mcconka a and
then get Yes, he's more of that wide receiver too,
just because I don't think the other guys completely go away.
But Yeah, I'm in on Lad this week.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, And I'm not going to make a big argument
about like this week and how you want to approach it.
I think it's the bigger piece of this is like
when you guys make the argument that Hey is not
going to be wide receiver fifty six, that's not necessarily
telling like because again, if he's wide receiver thirty eight
or thirty six or thirty five or something like that, well,
guess what, he's super inconsistent and that's my problem with
him knowing when to start him. So you want to

(22:07):
see consistency. Hopefully this is the start of it. He
is way too talented to not be used. But I
do feel he's kind of a hard, hard start in general.
But you guys are kind of seeing that with Quinton Johnson.
So do you have it ranked Johnston, Ladd, and Keenan Allen, Like.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Fits, I have it Lad Johnston and then Keenan Allen.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Because you have Lad above everybody.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Okay, I just believe in the matchup this week, like
this is Ladd's spot to have a productive game like
he had his rookie year, And yes he's I think
he's one spot ahead Quin Johnson's room, because I don't
expect Johnson to to lay an egg in any capacity.
I mean, Marshall Lattimore is I mean, he's turning to
like a turnstyle type of cornerback where I kind of
hope that you they put Lattimore on Johnston more on

(22:46):
one and just kind of see how that goes. And
that's obviously a matchup that Johnson should win. But I
think that this slot matchup for lat McConkey is ideal
for him to get going.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
All right, let's move to the wider It's a lot
of conversation we had on the wider sh ones, but
there are some good things we need to do in there.
Let's go to wide receiver twos this week. We've got
thirteen through twenty four, starting with Courtland Sutton, followed by
Jay Flowers, Tteroa, McMillan, Michael Pittman, AJ Brown, Jaylen Waddle,
Xavier Worthy, Keenan Allen, Jacobe Myers, Marvin Harris, and Brian
Thomas and Olave.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
That tells you right there, we got Keenan Allen as
far as ecr as the number two. So lad has
dropped down there a couple points to hit on here.
Let's start with Michael Pittman ECR sixteen. You guys are
both lower, Fitzi at nineteen, Ericson at twenty four, even lower.
Let's get a quick hit Eric, So I whan't we
start with you? Michael Pittman. This is probably the highest
he's ranked this season. You guys are a little bit lower,

(23:41):
but you still are in starting range. What are your
thoughts on Michael Pittman for this week as a starter?

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, I had to move him up a little bit
since I first put my rankings in and just kind
of a peek behind the curtain for when we're doing these.
We do our initial ranks and then fits will take
out certain players that we think are most debatable to
talk about. But then as I'm kind of prepping for
the show, I'll go back in and kind of update
things based on stark differences. And Michael Pittman, to me,
was one of the players that I kind of looked
again at and thought, now I think I am too

(24:06):
low on him because you just look at what he's
done this year. He's been a top twenty two finisher
in all the games that he played except against the Broncos,
which we all know is okay, this is the Patricks
retained matchup. Nobody ever plays really well against him, so
it's okay that he was wide receiver sixty six that week.
So he's been locked and loaded as the top twenty
two guy, and the Raiders have a lot of the
third most Fantasy points to wide receivers, so I moved

(24:26):
him up much closer to the ECR rank.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
FITZI you on the buy in. I mean, like I said,
as Ericson said, Pittman has been finishing high. He is
not ranked high really whatsoever, but now this is the
first week that everybody is just kind of in as
he goes up against the Raiders, which is one of
the few in this wide receiver two range four star
matchups according to Fantasy Pros. If you check out on
the ranks page, you can go and see all of

(24:50):
that and it is also given an A rating. What
do you think about Pittman?

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah, as Ericson said, this is a really attractive matchup
with the Raiders having a lot of the fourth most
receiving r and fourth most receptions to wide receivers, and
Pittman's been pretty consistent as far as volume has at
least four catches in every game. But I do think
maybe the ECR is just a little bit of an
overreaction to the touchdown output for Michael Pittman. So far,

(25:16):
He's had three touchdown catches, but he's only had one
red zone target this entire season. Like his his touchdowns
have come from outside the twenty yard line. And I
think Tyler Warren is kind of clearly Daniel Jones go
to guy close to the end zone, So maybe he's
just a little overinflated as far as where ECR has him.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Unfortunately, Tyreek Hill had the dislocated knee might be career threatening.
He's definitely out for this season. That's what we know.
But what it has unlocked is Jalen Waddle. Sison ericson
the smile comes because he knew, he knows what was coming.
Where we can just freely get back to betting overs
on Jalen Waddle. That's all that we really want in
this world. He is ECR eighteen. Both of you have

(26:01):
got him higher. Fitzy at fifteen, Erickson's at fourteen fifty.
Let's start with you real quick. He becomes the de
facto number one. I think that puts him in a
good spot. I think some people might argue he would
want to go even higher. I can already feel in
like the Sunday chat, we're gonna get like Waddle or
Jamar Chase. I feel like that's like a question that's
going to start popping up. But how excited should we be?

(26:21):
You guys are higher than ECR. This is a pretty
good rank on Wattle here, So FITZI what you take?

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, no matter how eternal my Jalen Wattle optimism, I'm
never going to be able to outflank Erickson on Jalen Wattle.
That's just a given, you know. And I just don't
want to stop batting on a former top ten draft
pick who began his career with three straight thousand yard seasons.
And you know, now with Tua healthy and Tyreek Hill

(26:46):
no longer round, you would have to imagine that Jalen
Wattle's going to get at least some additional targets.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
I think we're gonna talk about Milake Washington a little
bit later. I think he is a super sneaky option
as well as a big deep threat. I think maybe
a warrior and could be that just like this passing
offense is already kind of you know, there's some stinkiness
to it that the stink can continue on and it's
just one less target. But like, Waddle's a guy that
finds himself open. You've got him at fourteen. How did

(27:13):
you not just get him as a wide receiver twelve?
Just do it, Just do the thing and get him
as a twelve. But let's let's hear optimism on Waddle
right now.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Well, we have a four game sample size including the
last game that we saw with Wattle and Tyry Kill,
where Hill has played less than fifty percent of the
snaps and the Dolphins offense, and in those games, Wattle
has averaged over eight targets per game seventy six receiving
yards per game. So, look, drafted jayl and Wattle. He's
on all my teams and I'm not going to bench
him in the first game that Tyrey Hill's not playing. Again,

(27:42):
this was never the idea behind the play that Hill
would suffer an injury like he did. Again, there's always
a chance that I thought, Okay, maybe Terry Kill does
get traded and then you get Wattle with like this
opportunity to be the wide receiver one, and now we're
getting that opportunity here with with Hill's injury, So I
think you gotta start. I mean, it's gonna be disappointing
if it's not the exact boom game that we expected,

(28:05):
maybe in his first outing. It's the Carolina Panthers, who
are a team that we know a lot of teams
mostly attacked through the ground game and don't necessarily need
to throw the ball over. But this is just a
bad defense overall, top to bottom. It's not a matchup
to be feared in any capacity. And Wattle has been
pretty good this year. He's actually PF's twentieth highest graded
wide receiver this season through four games. Hasn't had the

(28:25):
massive volume numbers, but it's been efficient, and you're expecting
the volume to uptick without Terry killing the lineup. And
I think Wash when you mentioned like you felt good
about me doing well this week in the rankings, I
think it was a subtle nod at Hey, the Jalen
Wattle call. You gotta be above consensus on Jayla Wattle
because he's gonna deliver a smash week.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, it was just a feeling that grew in me,
that's all.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
That it was.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
I didn't even like have any logic to it. There
you go, it might be all about Wattle. One more
in this range. Kobe Meyers ECR twenty one this week,
ericson you got him at twenty three, serret a little
bit lower than consensus. So this is one of the
situations where you guys are on opposite ends. FITZI, you
got them quite a bit higher. You've got him at sixteen.
That's actually the ECR Michael Pittman range. So FITZI, why
don't you spit some positive and maybe Erson's got a

(29:07):
little bit of negative?

Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yeah, I mean Jacoby Myers had kind of a quiet
game last week. Four catches, thirty yards, but he had
a team high seven targets in a game where Gino
Smith only attempted twenty one passes for the Raiders. So
Myers has a twenty six point eight percent target share
on the season, ranks twenty fifth in the league in
air yards and sixth in the league in yards after

(29:28):
the catch, so that that's a pretty nice combination. And
I don't hate the matchup against the Colts, who have
allowed the second most receptions and the fifth most receiving
yards to wide receivers this season.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, Erckson, the Colts cornerbacks definitely, PFF grades are relatively
bad kind of across the board. So if they get
back to you know, air rating a little bit with
the Raiders, Jacoby Myers is going to get some targets.
You're a little bit more pessimistic though you got him
in twenty three.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
I did move him up a few spots. Thought more
about the Colts and their defense, how they don't have
Keny Moore, who was there best cornerback, and he was
a guy that was manning the slot. Well, that's where
Jacoby Myers runs. The majority of his routes is from
the slot. So I think that this is a bounce
back game for Jacoby Myers and he's in this tier
of receiver where it's him versus how many receivers can

(30:13):
I rank ahead of AJ Brown this week? And Jacoby
Myers now falls into that category. So I'm now starting
Jacoby Myers over A J. Brown, is starting Chargers wide
receivers over AJ Brown just because Yeah, that's that's the
AJ Brown experience that we're all going through right now.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
I'm glad you brought that up. We didn't really talk
about him at seventeen. Where do you have him ranked?
AJ Brown?

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I have him at twenty three, and I think that
if you can make a compelling case to start somebody
over him, I would. He's not. It's not to extent
where I think you should just pick someone off off
the waiver wire and start that player over a J.
Brown just because he does have a projection every week. No, no,
Trey Tucker, not doing Trey Tucker over AJ Brown type

(30:53):
of analysis. But again like Jameson Williams of J. J. Brown. Yeah, sure,
just because I think we can all agree that a J.
Brown steiling is not high in this matchup or in
this offense.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Fitzigu, where do you have a J. Brown? Just real quick?

Speaker 4 (31:07):
I've got him a wide receiver fourteen, but I'm gonna
have to move him down. I mean, Pat Patrick's aertan
and just like yeah, the total reluctance of the Eagles
to like throw the ball when they're not down multiple scores,
I don't get it. Like the Eagles man four and
oh and flying high, but I think they've been out

(31:28):
gained in all four of their games so far. Like
the passing game they've They've got to get it going,
because like there's just no indication that they are going
to be able to I don't know. I guess they
did play from behind against the Rams, but you know,
it took a miracle with the blocked kick at the
end of that game to save them. But man, like
the Eagles passing offense is just bleak right now.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
There's some dude out there that like somehow got Chase
Brown in neighbors and they just were like celebrating in
the preseason and they're just in shambles right now. So
shout out to that guy. Let us know who you are.
We got wide receiver threes coming up. But first, today's
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Speaker 1 (33:30):
Wide receiver threes, gentlemen, that's where Lad McConkie comes in.
He comes in at twenty five, followed by Jamison Williams,
DeVante Smith, Wandel Robinson, Jordan Addison, Stefan Diggs, Juwan Jennings.
Though I think he will come off, because I don't
think he's gonna play at thirty one, t Higgins, Khalil Shakir,
Chris Godwin, Kean Coleman, and Trey Tucker. Gentlemen, we got
to talk about Wandel Robinson, the new number one in

(33:52):
New York. Is that a good thing? ECR twenty eight fifty.
You've got him at thirty two, Ericson, you've got him
at twenty nine. We got Jackson Dart running the off.
Maybe Slayton gets a bump up. I don't know, but
Wandale has He's been able to be a target monster,
and now he is the guy on this team. Is
it worth anything? Ericson, let's start with you wide receiver
twenty nine. You're just about it consensus, But you guys

(34:14):
are both still just a tiny bit lower. You're not
stoked about Wandell.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
I mean, he's a top three receiver attached to a
rookie quarterback. I think that you can't just copy and
paste well what we thought when the League Nambers would
do you do that to Wandelle Robinson. I think that
the talent levels are completely different. Now that's not to
say that Wando can't, you know, suck up a lot
of volume in this offense from Jackson Dart. I think
it's definitely the case. We saw it last year with
Wandell Robinson. He saw a lot of targets in the

(34:40):
games that League Nambers missed last year. But so to
Darius Slayton. So I don't know that we necessarily need
to hone in on it's just going to be Dart
to Wandell Robinson this entire matchup. But it is a
game where you're expecting to at least be close and
not a scenario where the Giants getting blown out or
blowing out the Saints. It's more of back and forth.
So I think that they passed volumes be pretty steady

(35:00):
throughout the contest, and I think that he's a solid
start this week.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
I think he's even better in a full PPR and
Jackson Dart moves around so much in the offense. I
think Wandell's a guy that is going to be able
to fight. I think they're gonna use Slayton in some
of that deeper stuff and Wandale's going to be a
safety net. So I actually like him a bit more. FITZI,
you're gonna get inundated with Wandell questions this week. I
have no doubt about it as the new number one here,
but your thirty two rank, I don't know. To me,
that kind of says like you just are very disinterested.

(35:26):
You'd rather play higher up, So you're pretty disinterested in
him in the preseason as well. Now he's the number one,
but there still isn't a lot of like love for him.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
Yeah, I mean there was that kind of surprise early
in the season with his usage with Russell Wilson, where
he was running much deeper routes. I mean, last year
Wandell Robinson's averaged up the target was four point eight yards.
This year it's a ten yards, which is really unexpected.
I don't know if it's going to stay that way.
I think they might need him to go back to
being that short area wide receiver, in which case, you know,

(35:56):
get ready for more of the usual wandel Robinson six
for thirty three stat lines, which don't really help that much.
I mean, they'll they'll keep you afloat in a PPR league,
but you know, I mean last year this guy had
what ninety three catches for six hundred and ninety nine
yards and there just wasn't a lot of impact there.

(36:20):
So I kind of worry we're going to go back
to that sort of usage with Wandell Robinson. I think
the passing numbers for Jackson Dart are going to be
probably pretty bleak, and so I just can't get super
excited about him. And yet at the same time, I
think you're probably starting Wandell Robinson if you have him,
considering all the buys and the injuries.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
And I got a couple shares of him. Jordan Addison.
This is a situation where you guys are both lower,
but you guys seem to be on a much bigger
spectrum of him. He is ECR twenty nine for this week,
he's going up against Cleveland tougher defense. Fits You've got
him at thirty one. Ericson, you got him at forty,
so kind of bearing him down there. He really didn't
do much until the big giant play. That's what really

(37:01):
brought him into the offense. Wentz definitely likes that shorter
inside stuff. I've talked about it a bunch with like
the tight ends. Addison can kind of play that role,
but Jefferson is playing a lot more of it. But Ericson,
you got him at forty, so we're in like no
start territory. Very disinterested in Addison. Let's hear your breakdown.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, because without the eighty one yard catch, he went
three for thirty three last week with Carson Wentz as
the quarterback. I don't like the Is this game going
to be a shootout between Dylan Gabriel and Carson Wentz
in London?

Speaker 4 (37:30):
No?

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I really don't think so. So I don't think this
is going to be a fun game where we can
start ancillary pieces because the game is popping off, we're
seeing points. I think the total is thirty five and
a half now, the lowest on the weak by far. Again,
we had preseason games with higher totals than thirty five
and a half points is Vikings and Browns. So I

(37:51):
think this game is just going to be a slog
on both sides potentially, And I'm trying to avoid starting
players in this game if I can, and that gluse Adson.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Cueue up my Judkins rushing tempt That again fits the
all right, Fitz, what do you think about Addison? You're
you're a little bit closer to the consensus. He's a
tough start, but you have him one spot higher than
one Dell as well.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
The total's really down at thirty five and a half. Huh,
that's like in Iowa Wisconsin game.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I think it's I mean, last I checked, I think
it's somewhere in that range. But that was before they
announced Gabriel as a starter, so I'm sure that'd be
unders have been a heavy hitting at Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
I so, I know Addison is the second banana behind
Justin Jefferson. I know Carson Wentz doesn't inspire great confidence
in the Minnesota passing game. But Addison is a terrific
player who's usage in his first game back from suspension
was pretty reassuring. Like I didn't know how much he
was going to play last week. He played ninety six
percent of the offensive snaps, got eight targets, So that

(38:49):
was you know, and I know the eighty one yard
catch kind of made his day.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
But for that kind of.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Usage with a pretty good player, And I think, even
though it hasn't really been the case, I do think
the Brons are going to be kind of a pass
funnel because they're just really hard to run against. So yeah,
I think Addison's kind of been starter territory this week.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Chris Godwin, I think, well, his targets defied where he
was ranked. Unfortunately he couldn't catch any of them. That
was a discussion that FITZI and I had last week.
He is ECR thirty four this week. You guys are
on a little bit of split. FITZI, you are on
the negative, Rickson's a little bit on the positive. What's
got you on the negative? It's clearly not the target share,

(39:31):
but it definitely was, you know, maybe the legs And
I think there's some quarterback playing discussion here, so you
barely have Yeah, I mean you have Chris Godwin under Jordanadison,
you have him under Wan Dale. He had the ten
targets but couldn't pull him down. So what's your concerns
with Chris Godwin this week?

Speaker 4 (39:46):
Mainly matchup Seattle's defenses number one in DVOA. They have
one of the best defensive backfields in the league and
they've given up the second fewest receiving yards to opposing
wide receivers. But again, Godwin kind of like Addison, where
the usage was better than I expected in his first
game back, Like eighty six percent snapchare for Godwin, ten targets,

(40:07):
one hundred and forty six air yards, which was kind
of a shocker in his first game back from that
gruesome ankle injury last year only three catches for twenty
six yards. But yeah, the usage was encouraging. With Mike
Evans out and maybe Bucky Irving out too, like, Godwin
should be pretty heavily involved again and I will be
moving him up if Bucky Irving has ruled out Erickson.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Is the usage from last week the reason we should
have more optimism on Godwin.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Yeah, he was at number three and expected fantasy points
among all wide receivers last week, So for him to
finish with under what under thirty receiving yards was very,
very underwhelming. But this is the stuff that we look
at one week and identify as BI low players. The
following week, he checked off all those types of boxes,
and you expect that, hey, maybe a little rusty coming

(40:55):
in his first game. You know, missed all of the preseason,
wasn't active, So I think that it's okay to look
at Hey, it wasn't necessarily squeezing the football, not making
great plays, but a lot of that was against when
quinnla Mitchell was covering him, Cooper Degene was covering, like
these really talented second year players were going to match
him one on one with Chris Godwin, and you know,
sometimes he's not going to win those types of battles.
So I believe in Baker Mayfield, who creates some magic.

(41:16):
Chris Godwin is going to be heavily involved. Like we
saw last week. I think they can be better improve
in this next week, back from his injury and with
a full playing time role. So that for those reasons,
that's why I'm a little bit more optimistic about Chris Godwin.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
That's your top thirty six that goes through the numbers,
but we always take a look. Who's a wide receiver
that is not in the top thirty six that should
be FITSI we mentioned this guy's name a little bit earlier,
but this is your highlighted deeper play.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
This week, Malik Washington. He is going to have an
enhanced role with Tyreek Hill out, and maybe not just
in the passing game. Like Malik Washington has eight rushing
attempts this season. And this is a dude who had
one hundred and ten catches for over fourteen hundred yards
in his final college season Virginia. Malik Washington can play Erickson.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
You're picking a guy that literally just dropped the ball
every time it was thrown to him, and he's got
a bomby thirty six point five over total is actually
the number here. So who's your post thirty six wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
So he was in my top thirty six before Dylan
Gabriel was announced as the star, so I did move
him down a couple spots. I do think that he'll
be somewhere when I finally settle in on the rankings.
Probably in that wide receiver thirty six fringe, it's Jerry Judy.
And it's really just based on Cedric Tillman not playing,
because when Cedric till miss games last year, Jerry Judy's
numbers doubled. Essentially, they were so much better than they

(42:39):
were when Cedric Tillman was playing, because every time Tillman plays,
he produces Jerry Judy like that has been a constant
since last year. Jerry Judy, I think that we all
agree he's kind of like a fake Alpha in every way.
He usually drops a lot of the opportunities, but he
does get a lot of volume. Still, if the Browns
are scheming up plays for their rookie receiver or the

(43:00):
rookie quarterback, what do we see a lot with rookie quarterbacks.
Is they hone in on their number one guy, like
they don't necessarily go through all their reads. If Jerry
Judy is a number one read on a lot of
these plays, well then he's going to get volume in
this spot. So he's wide receiver twenty and expect the
fantasy points per game. And I don't know why, but
the coaching staff still loves him. Know after the game
the head coach is still saying, Jerry Judy, he's our guy,
He's our best wide receiver. So whether that's because Jerry

(43:21):
Judy's got dirt on him or not, I'm not exactly sure,
but the fact that there are still some positives to
look at when it comes to Judy in this particular matchup,
even against the Vikings. And again, he's not a ceiling play.
He is a floor play where I think that he
will see least enough volume to probably maybe crack in
the top thirty six, but probably not be better than
like a top thirty receiver when the dust settles.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
If we didn't get to a big question that was
in your brain based off of these ranks, don't forget
that we've got our weekly start and sit live stream
on our YouTube channel where you guys can come and
ask any of your specific start and sick questions, especially
wide receiver ones. Will be here every Thursday, three pm Eastern.
Those on the Pot podcast YouTube dot com Slash Fantasy
Fantasy Pros subscribe, click get notified, and the you can

(44:05):
get your questions answered. That's going to do it for
the week five wide receiver ranks for Pat Fitzmorris and
mister Andrew Ericson. I'm Chris Welsh. Good luck and we'll
talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
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FantasyPros - Week 5 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1745)

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