FantasyPros - Week 9 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1806) - 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 you week nine wide receivers. We are
ready to hit everything which is most likely going to
be your two or three wide receiver sets and even
your flexes. We are ranking it and who are we?
We got Pat fitz Morris and Andrew Erickson in the

(00:22):
house too, the best rankers in the land. And that's
just not lip service either, because it's holding up. These
two are holding up well in the season long ranks contests.
And we're even going to give a shout out here
in a second to how week eight ranked. In little
spoiler alert, one of these two is inside the top
two for week eight we're going to talk about here,

(00:44):
so very exciting ericson what's up buddy, Happy Halloween that
is coming up this week.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, Halloween is on Friday. Recording this on Wednesday, so
getting hyped for that while you're in full Halloween form
with the Jackson Ellington T shirt. Got to love it
because that's basically Halloween and Christmas combined, which a lot
of people are really teetering. Okay, and we were talking
before we start recording. Some people are already putting up
their Christmas stuff. What do you guys think of the comments?

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Is it too early to put off Christmas stuff before
Halloween starts? When is the actual ideal time? I remember
it used to be like after Thanksgiving, but.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
It's the day after Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
But now you turn on.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
The TV and you'll see ads for Christmas stuff before
Halloween has even arrived.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So, buddy, have you been to a Walmart. They had
had like August, they had all the Christmas stuff that
was going up, but they've been up for months. They're done.
So yeah, I agree, it's just sooner and sooner. But
you know, it's vibes, man, It's it's vibes. And get
your candy with your candy canes out there for trick
or treating. Fitzie, what are you going to be for
Halloween this year?

Speaker 3 (01:44):
No costume planned, Welsh. But before we get to the
candy canes, we have to to finish with the candy corn.
Are you guys? Candy corn? Guys are like people. It
seems like it's a love it or hate it type
of candy.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Uh, I'm I can do for candy corn? Corn, but
I think I've got weird taste. I'm also I mean,
this is if I'm already not disliked. I'm a pineapple
on the pizza guy, So I think I can also
do like the candy corns. I think I probably sit
in the world of the trendy things to hate. I
tend to actually like, so I'm not actively seeking out

(02:18):
candy corn, but I'm a thumbs up on candy corn Erickson.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I think candy corn is good after like seven pieces,
and then after that it's going in the trash. So
everything in hoderation, I think, especially with candy. I also
approve the pineapple on pizza. The fruit sweetness works really
the fattiness of the pizza. It's a very good pairing.
Although when my wife and I order it, we don't
get ham we get pepperoni instead, so a little bit

(02:43):
more of the spice.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
I just just do the pine I have never been
in a room where we cleared house on pineapple pizza.
That's incredible. So I mean, wow, clean swat that pizza
is gonna be gone consensus ranks. Look at Louisiana in
a couple months.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
We're gonna get murdered in the YouTube card.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Dude, people are going to be so pissed off.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Is going to be mad at us. The full blooded
Italian is going to be upset with us about that take.
I mean he he is aggrieved by the pineapple on
pizza concept.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Okay, we're not putting candy corn on pizza, guys, so
calm down. But I'm not going to read the comments
because I know it'll be hat. All right, let's talk
about some ranks here. We talked about some pineapple pizza.
We talked about some candy. Let's talk about who was
the most accurate ranker and guess what Week eight is live.
You guys can check all your ranks out on fantasypros
dot com slash rankings. We also have the accuracy tab.

(03:38):
Shout out to the number one ranker in the land.
The Great Dalton Dell Dawn from the Deep Shot finished
number one in week eight, but it was followed up
by the one and only Pat Fitzmorris. Regardless of going
Dak Prescott over bow Nicks last week, it didn't matter
because Pat, you were simply too good. You finished two overall.

(04:02):
And another shout out because we always do the top three.
Mick Chiolella. I call him Mike. I always screw up
Mix's last name, and I screwed up the first. Mick
chi Ella, who was on this show a bunch last year,
finished third, So top three, but Fitzi flowers, My man,
that's an incredible top two finish. I want to say,
isn't that your second top two finish? Didn't you finish first?

(04:24):
One of these weeks there was Debro that finished first.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
You finished. I think it was Debro, and I can't
remember if I was two or three. That was when
we had Ellis. Brynn Johnson was also top three. I
can't remember how it shook out. I believe Debro was
number one. But yeah, I with the Dak Prescott over Boonix,
and I was too low on Ronde gadinst in the second,

(04:48):
as a lot of people have been reminding me. But
you know, I guess a few things worked out. But
we were talking about this before the show. How you
do in the rankings any in any given week really
doesn't matter to the people who are leaning on you
for that one lineup call. So anyone who benched Ronde
gadst in the second because of where I had him

(05:08):
ranked thinks I'm a full regardless of the fact that
I was second the contest least.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, we can't be right about all the stuff we
want we want to be. We can have right takes
where we want to get guys in and we just
can't put them over and they go nuts. We can, Ericson,
we can like Dak Prescott over Bonnicks, and sometimes it
doesn't end up working for me. But you know that's
how it goes. But Ericson, I want to also give
you some flowers here. You've finished. I believe it was

(05:34):
in the top twenty five, maybe it was thirty, but
beside that you had two top twelve finishes positionally number
five and wide receiver and number eleven in quarterback. So
some flowers deserved, my friend, as you are both on
the season long ranks. I believe inside the top twenty
five if I remember now, I'm not no, I'm like, no,

(05:55):
it's the top three.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I'm the low No, I'm the low man. I'm the
Fantasy Pros team.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Well, I also work here, so thanks about that, But
I would be the low man on that comparatively, well, No,
Joe and those guys would be. I am ahead of
Joe Piezapia, which is really my only goal each week.
But just want to give you a shout out. You've
ranked very well on wide receivers and quarterbacks. I think
you've done pretty well on wide receivers all year long,
and those are our shutouts. So are you going to
try to kill it again this week?

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yes? Ideally. I mean, I don't know if I have
a spicy number one like I've had the last two weeks.
Rice finally delivered, you know, after doing and ranked them
number one or talked about him as number one. Last
week he finished number two, so you know that was
a good call. And then I mean when you talk
about I finished top five and receivers, I can tell
it's because I was higher on Rice than Consensus and
Troy Franklin, like like those two guys alone, because they

(06:44):
were the number two scores at the position. I'm just
being higher on those guys versus consensus is definitely what
helped put me up inside the top five.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
All right, Well again, Dalton Dell, Don Pat Fitzmorris, and
Mick chile Ella shout out to the boys for the
top three finishes. Let's about some wide receiver ranks, but
before we do. I believe this is your last opportunity
to take some wide receiver action home with you, because
you've still got a chance to when the sign AJ
Brown Eagles jersey for free courtesy of our friends over

(07:12):
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over to Fantasypros dot com slash contest, complete the form.
Then you've got a couple options. You can download the
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at Fantasy Pros and you can do all of those
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(07:34):
next week since it'll be the start of a new month.
So if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed,
turn on notifications so you don't miss anything, and you
get your prize. AJ Brown Autograph jersey. Very very cool.
All right, Fantasypros dot Com slash rankings to follow along, gentlemen,
Let's jump into it a little later than usual to

(07:54):
get to the ranks, but we are here. Let's look
at the big board with our top twelve wide receivers
for the week, and it kicks off off with no
other than Jamar Chase Pukinakua, Jackson Smith and Jigba Cde Lambamnas,
Saint Brown and Rashi Rice. That is your top six
Justin Jefferson, Romadun Say, Devonte Adams, Michael Pittman, DK Metcalf
and George Pickens. Let's jump back to Rashie Rice when

(08:16):
we're looking at the top twelve. Obviously the top twelve,
these are all, you know, the starters that you're jumping into.
Maybe there's some decisions you do four teams on a buy,
So I'm really not sure many people are gifted the
you know, the extra ability to decide between incredible players,
but sometimes important to talk about the weight of the
and the value of some of these guys. And you

(08:36):
two are both quite a bit higher than consensus on
Rashi Rice, Fitz, You've got him at four, Ericson you're
back at three. Fitz. Let's start with you as the
highest ranker from the previous week. Rashi Rice well over consensus.
Is he also comparatively going to be over Xavier Worthy
as he completely taken over that spot.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yeah, I don't know about that. I think Worthy has
still he still has value. But I was initially with
ECR on Rashi Rice. I had him at wide receiver six.
But then I had a bit of a rethink on
this after we got the news about Isaiah Picchecko's mcl
sprain and the way the Chiefs use Rashi Rice. It's
kind of an extension of their running game with these

(09:16):
quick passes wide receiver screens. Just get the ball quickly
to Rashi Rice and let them weave through traffic. Isaiah
Pachecko's absence could mean an even bigger role for Rice
this week. And we're talking about a dude who's already
had sixteen catches and two rushing attempts in his first
two games back from suspension.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, they've been using him in that weird like goal
line package, which has been interesting. But by the way,
shout out to Rashie Rice for coming up like a
half a yard short from my first my first Kareem
Hunt touchdown being able to cash for last week. But yeah,
if you used him two straight weeks in that like
weird goal line package, so it creates extra opportunities. Erickson,
what do you think I mean? You've had two big

(09:55):
weeks of Rashi Rice ranking really really high. Your full
commitment is there's not a to be made. If you
have Rashi Rice, He's over pretty much everybody.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, I think so. And I'm looking at my rank
at him at number three, and I think that I
could even push him higher. You talk about what he's
done over the last two weeks. Have the Chiefs been
pushed offensively in the last two weeks in any capacity?
They've blown out both things that they faced. And I
know that the Commander's game was tied seven to seven
going into the half, But if you look at that
first half, Rashi Rice really didn't do that much in
the first half. Again, he didn't score that touchdown. A

(10:23):
lot of his production came in the second half. So
when the Chiefs are blowing out other teams, Rashie Rice
is first in Fantasy points per game. And now you're
facing Buffalo for okay, now we can get a shootout
where it's more back and forth. So when you're just
talking who has the most upside on this slight at
wide receiver, I mean, Rashie Rice looks like he could
score multiple touchdowns every single week because of how much

(10:46):
they're using him around the red zone. He is mahomes
guy near the red zone, So in a matchup where
you could see it actually go more back and forth,
Rice's ceiling is I think one of the highest, if
not the highest.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
In Week nine, there's a couple of wide receivers that
you know have really incredible matchups. I'd say where shei
Rice is one of them. Roman Dunes is also kind
of put into this where you know, maybe there's overall questions,
but you've got the Bengals that are floating out there.
You like George Pickens, who's going up against the Cardinals.
The Colts have kind of typically struggled in their secondary,
so like DK metcalf is floating in there. But I

(11:21):
think one of the biggest outlier for this week in
the Week one ranks are the Week nine ranks for
wide receiver ones is Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman comes in
as wide receiver ten going up against Pittsburgh. Obviously, the
matchup kind of, you know, speaks in a really well spot.
Both of you are slightly lower than ECR, but you
guys do have a difference between one of you is
wide receiver one. The other's top end of wide receiver

(11:43):
two and FITZI, you are the wide receiver one on
Michael Pittman. So not that Ericksons is necessarily going to disagree.
The rank isn't like that far off, but your firm
stance that Michael Pittman is in a spot where you
were starting him over. Significant players are starting him over. Lad,
you're starting him maybe I actually I'm not looking at
your rank, but ECR has Pittman over Pickins. Is that

(12:04):
something you're doing. You're all in on Pittman this week?

Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, and I do have Pittman ahead of Pickens. Pittman
is wide receiver seven in half point PPR fantasy scoring
and wide receiver twelve in fantasy points per game. And
I don't just want to say scoreboard and leave the
analysis at that. Pittman has scored six touchdowns in eight games,
so like, that's a career high in touchdowns for him.
So it's probably good to be a little cautious with

(12:29):
the players scoring touchdowns in a normally high rate. But
on the other hand, Pittman has eight or more targets
in half of his eight games, and in two of
the four games where he had fewer than eight targets.
The Colts won by twenty or more points, so the
blowout game script might have tamped down his target volume
a little bit. I think we can feel pretty confident

(12:49):
about Pittman's target load in these competitive games, and I'd
like to think Colts Steelers in Pittsburgh will be a
competitive game. Plus, the Colts offense is just so high
functioning right now. It's just that sort of booyies your
confidence in Pittman that everything has just worked so well,
both in the running game and the passing game.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Erickson, what do you think you've got him at thirteen?
It's I'm curious that the wide receiver that jumped over
to make him a wide receiver two. It is kind
of minuscule. But do you have any thoughts? Is your
confidence of a little bit lower? You know you've got
him as the first of the wide receiver twos?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
I think for me, it's just trying to be a
little hesitant with how the target shakeout because we see
the Colts passing game. They spread the ball to a
lot of different players. And yes, Pittman eight last week,
but you saw Downs and Tyler Warren kind of eat
into each other right, Tyler Warren was one of the
few tight ends didn't pop off on National tight Ends Day.
It's a good matchup for him against Pittsburgh. Steers have

(13:44):
been bad against tight ends this season, so I think
that Pittman has obviously done enough this year where he's
a touchdown machine and this offense is functioning such a
high level, and you want to play guys against the Steelers.
All the Colts are in play here, but it's a
matter of well, what if it's Al Pierce that comes
down with the touchdown, it's not my Pittman, or it's
Josh Downs that ends up seeing the nine targets and
Pittman goes back to four or five. So that's like

(14:04):
the only concern, which is like locked and loaded. But
matchup wise, you want to play all your receivers against
Pittsburgh Steers allowing the most fantasy points per game two
perimeter wide receivers, And I know they play a lot
of man coverage, but for Pittman, his target share has
been pretty steady. Whether it's zone or man. He's been
efficient against both of those types of coverages. So I mean,
you're starting him, And the only reason I had trouble

(14:26):
kind of figuring out where to rank him was. I
got a couple question marks about like where am I
putting Nico Collins this week? Like where's Drake London going
this week? So those are kind of guys in a
similar tier to Pittman, and I just have question marks
about like, well, they're they're both injured last week? Are
they going to play this week? So that's kind of
cause a shake up, but you're you're starting Pittman no matter.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
What I was, I was just going to ask how
you have Pittman ranked Visa v. London and Collins very
good receivers with tough matchups this week?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, so it looks like Sirtan's not going to play,
So I think that's definitely works in a favor for
Nico Collins that you don't have this down corner on
the other side. So then again, Collins is also not
been good this year, and the defense of the Broncos
is still good. So if he just drought has no
time to throw, then does it really matter who is
covering Nico Collins? So I just think from a safety perspective,

(15:14):
I mean, Pittman has just been so good, so even
if the target floor isn't as high as someone like
Drake London and then also has really tough matchup Kin Gonzalez.
So upside, that's what we always want to strive for
here is who has the most upside And if Pittman
has touchdown great matchup, I think he is the move
here even if his target floor isn't as high.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, I don't need I don't know if you need
Patrick certain Junior if you've got Nick Benito rushing against
the Houston offensive line.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
By the way, is there a logic going back to
the National tight End Date? How do they decide the date?
Like any of these things, whether it's like National Second Grandparents' Day,
it feels like they're like, you know, like buying a star.
Like I don't understand the logic behind the days, Like
is there something special about the National tight End Day
or is that just the only day that wasn't celebrating

(15:59):
you know, statio ice cream or sandwiches.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Well, they made sure that it's obviously on a Sunday,
and they made sure that George Kittle wasn't injured, so
like when is Kittle going to be back from ir
make sure he gets the I mean guys, that was
So it's.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
A floating holiday. So it's a floating holiday. Gotch call today.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Based around George Kittle's availability and if he's healthy or not.
And I mean, was there a bigger lock than George
Kettle's score touchdown last week?

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah? I know he shows scored too much else.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Jake Tungus stealing touchdowns from George Kettle on national tight ends?
Like what do you do in Tungus?

Speaker 1 (16:26):
They're trying to get in more tight ends scoring? All right,
let's go to the wide receiver tubes here, good conversation
on those ones. This is thirteen through twenty four. It's
going to kick off with Lad mcconkee at thirteen, Drake London,
Jalen Waddles, A Flowers, Nico Collins at seventeen, Marvin Harrison
at eighteen. That's your top half. You've got Brian Thomas
a nineteen Tenoro and McMillan, Chris olave T Higgins, Courtland

(16:48):
Sutton and Stefan Digs. Gentlemen, let's take a stop at
Marvin Harrison. He is wide receiver eighteen. You guys are
a little bit flipped on this Fitz a year a
little bit lower at twenty two, ericson you are right
on consensus, So ericson, why don't you kick us off
here with your take on Marvin Harrison this week.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
He's playing the Dallas Cowboys. That's in the stories like, oh,
he's playing the Dallas Cowboys. And there's a chance that
we still don't get Kyler Murray back. And as weird
as it sounds to admit and say, the offense has
look better with Jacoby Brissett as the starting quarterbacks. So
jonathangan instead of the beginning of this week, and they
asked him abou Kyler Murray and his chance to play

(17:24):
on Monday, So we're never gonna get reports till Thursday
because of the Cardinals playing on Monday night. And Gannon said,
that's a hypothetical to me. I don't know. This is
after a bye week that he's asked about his starting
quarterbacks availability, So that sounds very pessimistic about Kyler Murray,
who I know some people and maybe whils you can
chime in here being more plugged into the Arizona media

(17:46):
if this has kind of been like a soft benching
for Kyler and he's not really like totally injured. They
just want to play per set, but they can't bench
him outright, so they're using the injury as an excuse.
So yeah, for all those reasons, you got to play
Martin Hairyo this week.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
I think it's as similar to like the prettiest thing.
They're not willing to put him out unless he's one
hundred percent. There's already so much public scrutiny locally here
on Kyler Murray that they're not gonna like, I mean,
what are they also playing for? You know what? What
games are they trying? Were they going to catch up
in that division where everybody is like, you know, five
and two or five and three whatever, Like I think

(18:21):
it is. It's not quite a soft bench. It might
be dulled up as that, but I do not think
they're willing to like, you know, he's like I'm eighty
five percent, They're like, well, you're one hundred percent on
the bench, then he's got to be one hundred percent.
Fits to what do you think about Marvin Harrison regardless
of the quarterback play. You guys want a holiday? I
have about National go up against the Cowboys Day, which
is every Sunday. That's the one we want to celebrate.

(18:42):
So yeah, it is kind of easy to just be like,
it's the Dallas Cowboys because of the gift that continuously
keeps on giving. But can they give to the Cardinals.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Yeah, maybe I am underplaying the great matchup against the
Cowboys and they're laughably bad pass defense. I certainly was
guilty of doing that last week and not ranking Bo
Nix or Troy Franklin highly enough. But Man Harrison is
tied for wide receiver forty in half point PPR Fantasy
points per game. He has scored fewer than seven half

(19:11):
point PPR points in four of his seven games, averaging
just five point seven targets a game. And I am
making this ranking with the projection that Kyler Murray is
going to play, And I probably would have had Harrison
a couple spots higher had they already ruled out Murray.
And so the Brissette is going to make the start.

(19:32):
Only two touchdowns for Marvin Harrison Junior so far. I
just I still worry about the lack of chemistry between
Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Junior. And it just feels
like a stretch to rank Harrison as a top twenty
receiver even with a great matchup and even with four teams, I'd.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Buy ay yea with the I would not have put
on my bingo card that we would be waiting on
Marvin Harrison's rank to make sure Kyler is not starting
in Jacoby Bris is starting. That would not have been
the thing that would make him potentially move up or
down if Kyler is not playing a funny one. All right,

(20:07):
another guy. We actually had the player on this guy's
other side in the next range, but let's talk about
them both together. There's kind of a growing sense that
this might end up being a Travis Hunter over Brian
Thomas situation going on in Jacksonville. There seems to be
some debate about it. We talked about this on Out
of Bounds, the Twitch show we do with a piece

(20:29):
of Pa and Bogman and myself, and this question has
continuously come up. The ranks do not indicate that this
week Brian Thomas is wide receiver nineteen. You both are
lower on Brian Thomas, but it is not in respect
of Travis Hunter jumping over him. So again, he was
our first guy we were going to talk about in the
next section, but let's just do it here too. Travis

(20:49):
Hunter is twenty seven. But you guys are just both
lower on consensus than both of these guys, more significantly
about Brian Thomas. Fitzi, you're at twenty four, Ericson you're
at twenty six. Travis Hunter is ECR twenty seven. Fitzi
you're at thirty and Ericson you're at twenty nine. So
just lower overall fits. Why don't we start with you?
Clearly you do not think that it is going to

(21:11):
be Travis Hunter over Brian Thomas, but the confidence is
being lost in both of these wide receivers, and you
have got him barely holding on as a wide receiver too,
that is Brian Thomas.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yeah, so I don't think like ECR having both of
these guys as top twenty seven receivers with Trevor Lawrence
playing quarterback when the matchup is not against the Dallas
Cowboys just feels off to me, like someone's too high here.
And I definitely think Brian Thomas is a little too

(21:46):
high in ECR. Like he hurt his shoulder in the
Jaguars last game. The Jaguars were on by last week,
so maybe the shoulder won't be an issue, but we've
already seen Brian Thomas Junior try to play through a
wrist injury this season, and obviously hasn't been a good
season for BTJ to this point. So health is one concern,
and then the other is obviously that we saw big
surge in Travis Hunter's usage right before the bye, so

(22:09):
I'm not sure BTJ is still the clear number one
receiver for the Jaguars anymore. And that wouldn't necessarily be
a big problem if BTJ were playing in a prolific
passing attack, but you know, not really the case with
Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars. As for Hunter, it's important
not to get too dug in with your stances on

(22:31):
players if you play fantasy football, and I think Travis
Hunter is kind of a good test case for that.
Like I was not very int Travis Hunter before the season,
either for Redraft or Dynasty, and I know the Dynasty
podcast consumers know that. And my biggest concern was the
two way thing. The Jaguars said they wanted Hunter to

(22:52):
be primarily a wide receiver, but I figured that wasn't
etched in stone, and I worried that things could change
over the course of the season. Maybe the Jaguars decide
they need Hunter to play more snaps at corner and
fewer at wide receiver. And I also kind of worried about, well,
the presence of Brian Thomas Junior, who was so good
last year. I figured he might be sort of an
impediment for Travis Hunter's growth. And at first it seemed

(23:15):
like the cautious approach with Hunter was the right call.
He was playing between half and two thirds of the
snaps in most of his early season games, and it's
just hard to be fantasy relevant if you're not a
full time receiver. Plus, his usage was kind of quirky.
It was all like low a dot, close to the
line of scrimmage stuff, get him the balld, see if

(23:35):
he can do something after the catch. But over his
last two games, hunter snap shares have been seventy eight
percent and eighty seven percent. He didn't do much in
the first of those games four catches for fifteen yards
on seven targets against the Seahawks, but then right before
the bye that big game in London against the Rams,
eight catches, one hundred and one yards and a touchdown
on fourteen targets. So maybe the genie is out of

(23:58):
the bottle. Here with Travis Hunter on offense, and I
am worried that wide receiver thirty might not be high
enough for ranking for him, But I do you know,
I do think there's kind of a drop off in
the overall wide receiver rankings once we get past wide
receiver three range this week and Hunter is comfortably inside

(24:18):
that range.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Erickson, do you feel more confident that Brian Thomas is
fading and these two ranks are more about Thomas or
I guess I'm I mean, your ranke doesn't really dictate it,
but like, do you think on the other side, Travis
Hunter is surging and can overpass Brian Thomas? Like what
are you more staunchy about right now?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Hmmm, that's a good question because I think that fits
hit it at the top where this isn't even conversation
about receivers. It's can Trever Lawrence get these guys to
the pomis Land? Like that's like a big concern. So
in my mind, I'm trying to figure out, Okay, I
got to try to put Hunter ahead of Thomas, but
if they both are bad, then what's the difference? Like

(25:02):
that I want to start either Jaguars receiver this week
because even Hunter in that game against London, a lot
of that came when the Jaguars are getting blown off
the field.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
So is that which they'll be.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Doing all the time, by the way, which is not
a bad thing.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
But this week you see the matchup against the Raiders
and you think, okay, another dysfunctional team. Maybe the Jaguars
can get something done here. But the Raiders are also
coming off a bye week two, so maybe they throw
something different. I mean, you just look at the matchup.
This is just about the quarterback. So the Raiders run
the third highest amount of zone coverage this year. Trevor
Lawrence vers zone has been terrible. Twelve hundred yards, three touchdowns,

(25:35):
four picks, sixty percent completion rate against zone is the
lowest in the NFL. Passer rating seventy three point seven
is fifth lowest in the NFL. So I think that
fits and I are on the ball here with just
being lower on both guys in general, because I don't
think this is just oh smash spot for this Jags
offense to come out of the gates firing. I don't
necessarily think that's the case. When you look at the

(25:57):
receiver conversation. I do think that the matchup favors Travis
Hunter a little bit more than Thomas does. Again, Thomas
has struggled this year anyway to be consistent, and we
have not seen the chemistry with him as much as
I've been there with Trevor Lawrence and Travis Hunter. The
breadcrumbs are leading us to, hey, we're going to get
more Travis Hunter, specifically on offense. And if the Raiders
are deploying a lot of zone coverage, well what does

(26:19):
that mean? Who do we see dominant agains zone coverage?
It's these slot guys that are operating underneath, like Travis Hunter.
Hunter leads the Jaguars and catches this season despite eleven
fewer targets than Brian Thomas Junior, and the Raiders second
worst defense against slot receivers because they run so much
zone coverage. So I feel like I want to put
Travis Hunter ahead of Brian Thomas, but I want yeah,

(26:39):
but I want to be below consensus on both guys
at the same time.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
You can still do that, well, I guess you can't
do that.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
And that's where the rankings become kind of complex because
I did this with A J. Brown DeVante Smith, where
I wanted to mark Smith over AJ Brown. He ended
up having more yards, but A J. Brown has caught
more touchdowns, So moving Brown down didn't actually benefit anybody
because you wanted to start both players. But in this case,
I don't think that we should be super aggressive starting
either guy. Although the matchup when I'm kind of looking

(27:07):
at things, seems like it's going to get more favorable
for Hunter in just terms of raw volume. But if
it's low a dot stuff, Again, what is four for
forty really going to do for you? So maybe these
guys really don't have high ceilings. This week is really
the conversation and they're more like wide receiver three plays.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Okay, you get one word response. Fact or fiction. Travis
Hunter is the number one wide receiver in Jacksonville over
Brian Thomas. Rest of season ericson in fact, FITZI fiction,

(27:45):
we should we have we needed that, Like what was
that that music durned or that game show music? That
tension that was building up there? All right, so we
have a fact that a fiction of Travis Hunter. That's
it will continue untill you talk about it, and maybe
this week will tell us a little bit more of
a story that we can continue on the next episode.
One more in this wide receiver range T Higgins. T
Higgins Wide Receiver twenty two going up against the Chicago Bears.

(28:09):
FITZI you are, You're a high man here. You've got
him at eighteen. Ericson's right on consensus fits. Let's jump
to you here, T Higgins Flacco. I think it was
a little bit banged up as well. What do you
think about T Higgins this week?

Speaker 3 (28:21):
He might be banged up, but not as banged up
as the Chicago Bears secondary. The Bears were without their
three best cornerbacks last week. Jalen Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Tyreek
Stevenson all out in week eight. Johnson and Gordon they're
going to be out again. They're both on IR I believe.
I'm not sure about Stevenson. It was a shoulder issue,

(28:41):
but you know by no means it's Tyrek Stevens and
a shutdown cornerback anyway. I just think Bengals receivers versus
Bears cornerbacks is an epic mismatch this week. So I
think both Jamar Chase and T Higgins are going to eat.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Hard as long as there's no Jake Browning. Though, like browning.
What can browning do for you? Absolutely nothing, That's what
we found out. So like, we can't do browning whatsoever?
What do you think ericson You're you're on consistence for
T Higgins, He's definitely moved into just a spot. We
just feel a lot better.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, I think with me, the only thing I have
hesitant about pushing Higgins up higher is the volume, because
this offense is Jamar Chase one, Mar Chase two, jamr
j A's three e. Mar Chase has a forty six
percent target chair for the Bengals in the last three games,
So I know I talked about Rice as the highest ceiling.
If you're gonna see twenty targets in a game, then
clearly Jamar Chase obviously has an extremely high ceiling to

(29:31):
be the wide receiver one on the week, and he
also benefits from all those Bears cornerbacks that which is
such a banged up secondary. So I think that last
week it was a little scary seeing Higgins' targets dip
so dramatically. Now, he did score four to four yard
touchdown because he's a good player and he could do
that even on limited volumes. So I think he can
still find a way to be a wide receiver two
even if he doesn't see a ton of volume. But

(29:52):
it was kind of the concern I had that matchup anyway,
because it was the Jets. The Bengals were able to
run the ball a little bit more effectively, and Flacco
attempted twelve few pass attempts than the week before. So
when we take out ten to twelve pass attempts, it's
not coming out of Chase's targets. It's coming out of
t Higgins and the tight ends as the ancillary pieces
in the spangles passing attack. So the Bears again terrible

(30:14):
against the pass, also terrible against the run. So if
Laco is banged up, they want to protect him. How
do they do that? Establish the run game? Get Chase
Brown going smash p Ryan. So that's my only concern
with Higgins if he doesn't see enough targets. But as
we saw last week, he can get it done in
one big play. So he's still going to be in
your lineup as a wide receiver two.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
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Speaker 1 (32:11):
Wide Receiver threes kicking off with Keenan Allen at twenty five,
Travis hunter Is at twenty six. We were just talking
about Xavier Worthy, Jordan Addison, Khalil Shakir, and Deebo Samuel.
Going up to thirty thirty one to thirty six is Wandell, Robinson,
Quentin Johnston, Romeo Dobbs, DJ Moore, Jamison Williams, and Juwan Jennings.

(32:31):
Let's talk about Wandell. I think this is actually a
fantastic matchup in the quarterback episode. I want to talk
about Jackson Dart because the forty nine Ers defense is garbage.
They are hurt, they got a bunch of nothing here,
and you know there's not a ton of pass catchers.
But I think like Wandell is in a pretty dang
good spot where I think Jackson Dart is going to

(32:52):
be able to move around and get the ball to him.
He's only at thirty one. Fitzi, you've got him at
twenty seven. Ericson you aren't consensus, so it's back to
FITZI again, you're a little bit more of the high man.
I think this is a decent spot against a forty
nine Ers defense that is just ravaged by injuries, and
Dart has continuously looked good and the loss of Cam
Skataboo is I would assume he's probably gonna get the

(33:13):
ball in the air just a tiny bit more. But
what say you, FITZI, you are a little bit higher
on Wandell this week.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah, good matchup, you said O Welsh. We saw Jalen
Knowell sort of gash the forty nine ers last week
on Unreal Limited Snaps, and Wandell is clearly the go
to guy for Jackson Dart in the passing game. He's
averaging seven point one targets a game. And maybe we
get the same sort of dynamic with Wandal that I
was talking about earlier with Rashie Rice potentially benefiting from

(33:40):
the absence of Isaiah Pacheco. So like Rashie Rice, Wandel
Robinson is this short area catch and run receiver and
kind of an extension of the Giants running game. And
now maybe there's an even greater need for Wandeal in
this offense now that Camp Scataboo is out for the season.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Erickson, you're right at consensus, no big strong field. We
were talking about tiers earlier. Do you think Wandell is
in a tier where the dropoff has like really happened
at wide receiver or he's near the end right before
the dropoff.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I think he's playing near the end. I think that
you feel pretty comfortable playing him. I don't think that
anyone is Oh man, I gotta play Wandell Robinson this week.
I'm totally screwed. I don't think that's the case, because
you guys pointed out it is a good match up
against the pretty banged up forty nine ers defense. I
was actually higher on Wandale Robinson when FITS pulled the names.
Here I met wide receiver twenty three. I actually pulled
him back because he did. He was quiet last week.

(34:31):
He had zero catches in the first half. He just
finished with three catches for forty eight yards on four targets,
and I was like, well, why did this happen? Like
what happened to was targets, and actually like his targets
have dropped dramatically when Darius Slayton has actually been playing
in the lineup, and we saw last week Dary Slayton
had a long touchdown catch that came back on a penalty.
So I actually think that Slayton might be a sneaky
play here as well, because when you look at the

(34:52):
target chair for Robinson in games with Slayton over the
last couple of weeks with Jackson Dart as the quarterback,
so he has a twenty nine percent target chair when
Slaton is not playing in those games, that drops to
nineteen percent when Slayton is available, and it's actually just
kind of flat between Theo Johnson, Darius Slayton, and Wanda Robinson.
So I think those three guys are all going to

(35:12):
kind of see their fair shrif off targets. We talked
about this last week with the forty nine ers, although
Dalton Schultz, of course he lets me down. What do
you know, That's what happens. You bet on a catch
and fall down tight end to deliver, is they lay
an egg even in a prime matchup. But I still
think that again, THEO Johnson is not that type of player,
like he can actually create yards after the catch and
make big plays against the forty nineers defense that doesn't

(35:33):
have Fred Warner, you still want to target it with
posing tight ends. So I think that maybe I wanted
to give more credit to THEO and Slayton just because
when those guys have also been on the field, it
has been more of a flat target share and it
really hasn't been Wandale dominating the target. So that's why
I have him closer to the mid range wide receiver three.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Deep play stuff. The Hordy Anders safeties are just garbage.
Just Mustafa doesn't know what he's doing out there. They're
not good in coverage. But Wanda has been the target monster.
It's an interesting matchup. What do we do? I can
kind of tell with Quintin Johnson anymore. We have completely
fallen off from all the excitement. We're just donuts after
donuts ECR thirty two. Fitzy, you've got him at thirty

(36:14):
two Ericson, you're even lower. He is almost not a
wide receiver three ericson, let's go with you, Quentin Johnson.
Looks like with Godsden coming up in the offense, it
is completely taken away from Johnson and he's in a
spot where it's not startable that tier. You guys just
talked about where it's like, where does it fall off?
Johnson might be the start of the falloff here, because
like you feel like you want to say he's the

(36:36):
very end, like we'll take a shot. I don't think so.
I think he might be the beginning of the falloff
because it's like, where the hell is he going to
get targets Erickson?

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah, I think the we I want to give a
shout out to Debro in the primer. I thought he
did a great job of summarizing quin Johnson's matchup last
week and how this just wasn't the spot for him
with Johnson, Like it's very matchup dependent, and it's not
even is this defense good or bad against wide receivers,
it's what kind of defense are they running? Single high?

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Like?

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Is its zone? Is it? Man? Because Johnson has a
very specific role in this Chargers offense, and with the
emergence of all these more of the underneath targets between
Gatson and Keenan Allen and Lam McConkie kind of doing
what we expected him to do after what he did
as a rookie, Well that's kind of leaving Johnston as
the left out. Essentially, it's obviously a good matchup when

(37:21):
you look at the Titans. The Titans just trade away
half their secondary right Lagarious need is on interpreserves, so
the Chargers if they decide, hey, yeah, let's make it
a Quentin Johnson game. However, if a team just trade
away all of its personnel, what does that mean? They're
probably just gonna run a lot of basic zone coverage
and just let's not get beat over the top, and unfortunately,
that's kind of what Johnson's role has become, so as

(37:42):
the guy with the longest A dot more deep vertical routes,
and that just doesn't bode well for him in this
specific matchup. So I would definitely recommend whatever Deebo writes
up pertaining to this specific game, it's probably gonna be
spot on. So that might be an additional layer of analysis,
But just based on like what I've done, the Titans
already use a lot of zone cover, bridge I would
assume that this is not another Johnston week, and you

(38:03):
really need to wait. I mean, when you look at
the schedule, it might be, hey, you might need to
bench this guy till week sixteen when they play the
Dallas Cowboys, and then you just play him that week
and he just goes like absolutely nuclear. But besides that,
I'm going to guess that this matchup is probably not
going to be favorable. If you look at QJ versus
just zone coverage, he's just the fourteen percent target shair,
which is lower than the other two wide receivers and Gatson.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
FITZI is Quentin Johnston going to be Liam Neeson for Halloween?
That he has a very specific set of skills that
are never in play here. What do you think pretty much?

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Yeah, I mean, in addition to everything Ericson said about
QJ versus Zone and I agree, check Deebro's primer for
the good stuff on that. I was already feeling pretty
uneasy about having a rank Quentin Johnston as a wide
receiver two every week early in the season when he
was putting up these great numbers, and it seemed like
we had to rank him that highly and make sure
he was in our lineups every week. But the presence

(38:56):
of Lad McConkie and Keenan Allen always made Johnston's fantasy
the outlook seems sort of fragile. And now we've got
Ronde gadst in the second stepping up and giving the
Chargers a fourth, big time weapon for Justin Herbert. So
I just I don't want to overreact to the zero
target game against the Vikings in Week eight, in a
game where Justin Herbert didn't need to throw very much

(39:17):
because the Chargers were in total command. But I do think,
I just think the vol the production for QJ is
going to be really volatile the rest of the way,
Like we're gonna get some splash games where he makes
a big play or two, and then we're gonna have
some real quiet games where Herbert throws to the other
guys in QG just gets left out in the cold.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
One last one that we're gonna hit. We'll do kind
of a quick hitter on this one, because is it
Jamison Williams week? Is that what is officially been activated?
He comes in as wide receiver thirty five, and both
of you guys say, no, no, you are like five
or six spots higher. Fitzy, you've got him at twenty nine. Ericson,
you've got him at thirty. FITZI is it Jamison Williams Week?

(39:58):
I think it is, and I'm the national holiday.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
I'm gonna save the line about Ford Field for Ericson,
but I'm just sticking to my priors here. Jamison Williams
is good. He's usage just been disappointing so far. But
I would imagine that it was a focal point of
the Lions bye week to try to scheme up ways
to get Jamison Williams more involved in the offense. And

(40:21):
you know, the big players are coming. I think they're
going to come soon, and I'm not that worried about
the matchup with the Vikings after how we saw the
Vikings look against the Chargers in the weeknd.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Erickson, would you like to anoint this coming weekend officially
Jamison Williams week You can just take ali because you
can just make them up. You can just make up
a national Holidays. So would you like it to be
officially Jamison Williams Sunday.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
I don't know what that entails necessarily. I don't know
if we're going to get one hundred and like three
touchdowns from Jamison Williams. Is because we know that the
Lions like to establish the run whenever they get the
opportunity to do so. In The Vikings also have faced
the league's highest run rate this year. But if James
Willims can get done on limited volume, I think it can.
You look at the Vikings this year. Just a couple

(41:06):
of weeks ago, Jalen Hurts could do no wrong passing
deep on this defense. I mean, Vante's Been and Aja
Brown were just cooking downfield. We know Jameson Williams can
have a big role as a downfield threat. Vikings are
thirty first and deep passing EPA allowed this season, So
I think this is a pretty obvious spot to get
him going. And I know it feels weird to chase
a guy after he basically did nothing, but the week
before James Williams had a really good game and was

(41:28):
really productive against the Kansas City Chiefs. So yes, it's
very ping pongy. But you got to play the matchups
every single week with some of these receivers that are
more volatile that don't see the consistent targets, and I
think that the planets are at least aligning for this
week to be a good Jmo week versus the bad
Jamo week that we got before the bye week.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
Wait Ford Field, say the line, Bart, Yes, say.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Ford Field, course field of the NFL. You always bet
the overs, although the overs have not been hitting it
nearly as high as a rate as I and my
bankrawl would like to see. All that means is we're
doing obviously.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
Do always do all right? That is going to do
it for the wide receiver ranks. If we did not
end up like answering a question you might have had,
guess what we've got you covered on our YouTube. We
got to start and sit live stream where you can
come and bring any question you want, Thursday, three pm
Eastern on the podcast. Go to YouTube dot com slash
Fantasy Pros. Make sure you subscribe don't miss it. That's
it for FITZI and ericson I'm Welsh. Good luck this week.

(42:24):
We'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 5 (42:26):
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
at Fantasypros dot com slash review, or on Spotify.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
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FantasyPros - Week 9 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1806)

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