Week 12 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1853)

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 Week twelve Wide Receiver Ranks. I'm
Chris Welsh. We of course have Pat fitz Morris and
the Undertaker Andrew Erickson in the house as we're going
to be breaking down all of our week twelve. Week twelve.
By the way, we're already at week twelve. How did

(00:21):
we get here? We were just doing week two. We're
at week twelve already, FITZI. Playoffs are right around the corners.
I'm already getting playoff questions. Some people starting up playoffs
and like week thirteen going early a little bit, But FITZI,
we're here.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's crazy. Home stretch is almost here.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
I try to think of if us not being in
the home stretch until Thanksgiving week at.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Least, But the fact is, like next week, Yeah, I've.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Got leagues where I'm pretty much out of the playoffs already.
I've got one league where I've clinched a buy already.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
We are clipping along at a good pace.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Ericson playoffs, teams, playoff questions, team pushes. How are we
feeling right now in these last couple of weeks?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Feeling good?

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Feeling not as burnt out as I usually am at
this point, but my schedule was kind of weird this
year where I actually I kind of came out of
the gates full sprint, and by week four I was
really stressed and things were not great. But because I
was able to overcome that, now I'm like smooth sailing.
So I feel relatively pretty good. Most of my leagues,
I'm in contention, not number one, but not last, so again,

(01:29):
still have a chance to make a playoff push, and
three weeks left of the regular season, three weeks for
fantasy playoffs, So let's get rocking.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
We're gonna get rocking and getting you to the home
stretch on the playoffs. We're gonna be going through a
top thirty six wide receivers. We're gonna have the big
board have some discussions around them and kind of get
you set and hopefully answering pre answering some questions that
you guys might have. As we always do, it is
rank accuracy time. Let's go and take a look last

(01:57):
week Week eleven ranks. We always shout out the top rankers,
and coming in at number one in the most accurate
Week eleven ranker was Bart Wheeler of hal To Fantasy Football.
Congratulations Bart. Coming in at number two is Dan Yanachko.
Hopefully we said that correctly. Dan, we were stressing before

(02:17):
the show and I'm like me and Fitz We're having
a huddle about it, So hopefully we said it correctly.
That's from EDS Football and Kyle Cunningham Roads from the
Analyst finished in the top three. Those are your top
three rankers most accurate with special shout outs to Mike
Freakin Mayer who just had a baby, who we are

(02:38):
literally kicking out of the company like slacks, like no
one wants him in there. Go do your thing. He
finished sixth this week with a baby in hand and
no sleep. He is literally a machine. Also a shout
out to FITZI you finished twenty seventh this past week,
so just outside the top twenty five, but you are

(02:59):
I believe, twenty two on the season, and I believe
Mike Mayor is sixteen. So you guys are in a heated,
heated race.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Fit see yeah, And I was relieved to not be
like out of the top one hundred last week because
Week eleven felt like the weirdest week of the season
and just like nothing felt right, I probably gave out
a lot of bad start sit advice last week. So
if I you know, if you asked me a question
and I gave you the wrong answer, I apologize if

(03:26):
I cost you your Week eleven matchup.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
The was it the Week eleven live stream we do
on YouTube? We had a billion Seawan Tucker questions and
shout out to Tom Strachan who just continuously kept saying
Sean Tucker and I'm like, what are we doing? Brother?
I'm like, I'm like, why are we all in on
Shaan Tucker so much? Oh? Because he's gonna score like that.
So if you had Shawn Tucker ranked, you did pretty

(03:50):
high ericson. I don't know if you had air Sean
Tucker ranked very high this past week.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
I had him a couple spots ahead of ECR, but
not enough to save my pretty atrocious day. Reason why
I wasn't highlighted here because it would take us too
long to scroll down to where my rankings finished in
week twelve, So or excuse me. In week eleven, so
looking to bounce back, and one of my start sit
decisions was I bench Sean Tucker. Had to watch him
score all those touchdowns and then one o'clock window, hating myself,

(04:17):
and then I realized I started Michael Wilson in the
flex instead, and technically it was the wrong decision, but
it felt like the right decision.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Michael Wilson was definitely speaking of the wide receiver front
here was definitely one of my more correct things from
last week. So I'm going to hold on to that.
I had a top fifty finish, but nothing super exciting
about that in my rank world. But there you go.
That's a shout out to the people. You guys can
check out all the ranks of fantasypros dot com slash Rankings.
You can see each weekly finish. There's also a tab

(04:45):
for accuracy if you want to go check that out.
But if you want to follow along with us and
the changes throughout the week as every expert ends up
submitting their ranks, fantasypros dot com Slash Rankings is the
place before we start up with the wide receivers. It's
giveaway time and you want a chance to win this
wide receiver justin Jefferson sign Vikings jersey for free courtesy
of our friends at Pristineauction dot Com. All you gotta

(05:08):
do is go to Fantasypros dot com slash contest. Complete
the form, then you can either download the Fantasy Pros app,
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We'll announcing a winner right here on the podcast. So
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(05:28):
notifications so you can be alerted when new episodes are up.
At claim your prize and if you're on the podcast,
go to YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros. Get that
vikings Jersey put it to use. Before he puts that
thing in a shredder, he looks like he is ready
to leave. I mean shout out to Justin Jefferson for
not absolutely losing his cool right now. But that's I
guess another discussion. All right, let's get into the ranks.

(05:51):
Let's get to the big board. Here's your top twelve
four week twelve, starting with Pooka Nakua at number one,
going up against Tampa this week, Jackson Smith and Jigba
at two. I'man our Saint Brown, Rashi, Rice Cede, Lamb,
Nico Collins as your top six a Mecca at Buka,
Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, Stefan Diggs, T Higgins, and Chris Olave.
So the top end, I'm really not sure. There's a

(06:14):
ton of discussion. It's pretty easy decision making. But two
players at the bottom do kind of jump out at you,
one being T. Higgins coming in at Wide Receiver eleven
this week, and as you can see on here, no
Jamar Chase because Jamar's chase is suspended for recreating that
scene in ace Ventura two pet detective with the do

(06:37):
you remember the scene? Do you see it? Erickson? Yes,
of course, big as Ventura guy allow me to whatever
the whole scene was, so he I guess he is appealing,
but he suspended. But what this does is this puts
a big eye on T. Higgins as the theoretical number one.
But you've got Christian Gonzales up against ECR eleven. FITZI,

(06:59):
you're out side the top twelve, but ericson you are
making a stance. So top four, You've got T. Higgins
at four, so you are not worried about Christian Gonzalez.
Let's hear about T.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
Higgins Yep, not overly concerned about the matchup, because how
does Higgins win. He wins fifty to fifty balls. He
wins against man coverage. Like if you're Christian Gonzalez, like
saddle up man like T. Higgins is going to be
all over you in this particular matchup. And you look
at the way that the Patriots have deployed Gonzales this year.
He hasn't really shadowed a ton of different wide receivers.
Like the first time you really shoutowed anybody was Mecca

(07:32):
Agbuca in that game against the Buccaneers. What was that
Muca's finish that week against the Patriots wide receiver four
on the week. The week before against the Atlanta Falcons,
Drake London wide receiver one on the week, he caught
three touchdowns, none of which were Christian Gonzalez was in coverage.
So even though Gonzalez will cover T. Higgins on a
decent amount of his routes, it's not going to be

(07:54):
one hundred percent of the routes. And in those opportunities,
Joe Flack I was thaking the ball to Te Higgins.
And I also don't think that black O necessarily cares
what cornerback is on T Higgins. I think that he's
just going to drop back and throw it, whether he's covered,
whether he's not. And T Higgins we know as a
contested catch guy, big bodied wide receiver. Even if Gonzalez
is blanking him with coverage, well, he can go up
and still win those fifty to fifty balls. So I'm

(08:16):
chasing the upside here with T. Higgins. The last time
we saw him in a game without Chamar Chase five catches,
one hundred and forty yards in a touchdown on eight targets.
The Bengals are back at home, which I like a
little bit more for their offense overall. I know I
talked about last week just being a little bit lower
on the offense just because they were playing on the
road against the Steelers defense that had been a lot better.
And I'm just not so afraid of the Patriots secondary

(08:36):
and their entirety. Even with Christian Gonzalez locking up with
the Higgins for most of the game, you have.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Him afore, so you only have three wide receivers in front.
Who are the only three receivers you like more than
T Higgins this week?

Speaker 4 (08:48):
Puka, JSN and Rice.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's a group. Man, that's a group, FITZI, you are
not in the same camp. You do not have T
Higgins as a wide receiver one this week. You've got
him at fourteen just outside. Is this more of the
concern of Christian Gonzales clamping down on T Higgins with
no Jamar Chase.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, I mean to rank him wide receiver fourteen. I'm
not necessarily worried about him clamping down, Like, I'm not
worried about taking T. Higgins out of my lineups and
leagues where I have him, and I do have him
in quite.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
A few leagues.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
I just Ericson makes some really good points. Maybe I
shouldn't be fading him relative to ECR. But I do
wonder if maybe knowing that T. Higgins is gonna be
catching shadow coverage, probably from Christian Gonzales, like if the
real beneficiary is going to be Andre Josevash, who I've

(09:42):
got ranked as a wide receiver three this week and
think is startable. So yeah, I sometimes these good receivers
win matchups against good cornerbacks, Like I worry about it
less for the good receivers than I do for the
average receivers who are facing tough matchups from cornerbacks, So

(10:06):
not worried about starting Higgins. I'm just not so high
on him that I'm putting him as quite as high
as Ericson is.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
He has given a four star rating matchup rating, by
the way, so that's something to consider when thinking like,
is this a lockdown situation? Flaka loves T Higgins, so
I kind of like the aggression. I like being above
consensus on Higgins this week as a big major target.
The other guy that we're going to talk about is
number twelve on this list. It's Chris Olave going up
against Atlanta, who also has a four star matchup to start,

(10:35):
and sit is graded out as an A. The Falcons
are depleted across the board. You gotta imagine that offensively,
there could be some struggles on them giving up more,
giving away offensive drives. That's going to give a little
bit more of an opportunity for the Saints. But can
Chris o'lave thrive in that? Ericson, you've got him just
outside as a wide receiver two number thirteen, But Fitz,

(10:57):
you've got him higher than ECR. You've got him so
you like a Lave more than T. Higgins in this instance,
let's hear about your take on a Lave this week.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
We're still trying to get a handle on what the
quarterback change from Spencer Rattler to Tyler Shuck might mean
for Chris o'lave, But so far so in Spencer Rattler's
eight starts this season, a Lave averaged ten point four
targets a game, but only six point one yards per target.
In Tyler Shuck's two starts, Olave has only drawn twelve targets,

(11:29):
but he's averaging thirteen point four yards per target. Obviously,
that's a real small sample size with Tyler Schuck, but
Olave's average depth of target with the two quarterbacks is
pretty telling. Lave had an average depth of target of
nine point nine yards and Spencer Rattler starts so far
in Shuck starts fifteen point nine yards. So Olave is
getting to stretch his legs a little bit here, and

(11:52):
you would think that with Rashid Shaheed now in Seattle,
o Lave is going to see plenty of targets moving forward.
And the Atlanta passy it's been pretty good for much
of the season, but it completely fell apart against the
Panthers last week. With Bryce Young going for over four
hundred yards and three touchdowns, not really any cornerback matchups
I'm terrified by here.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
So I like Chris Olave a lot.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
This week, Erickson not saying you don't like him, You're
just one spot out of consensus. You don't have him
labeled as a wide receiver one. Do you think I
know thirteen is the labeling of a wide receiver? Two?
Do you see him more as a wide receiver two
or wide receiver one?

Speaker 4 (12:28):
This week still has a rookie quarterback making his third
NFL start. It's actually Chuck's first home start, which I
actually do like a little bit, especially just from a
perspective of wagering on this game. The Saints are laying
only one and a half points at home against a
Falcons team that just looks I mean, they'll look more
cook than the Thanksgiving turkey next week essentially with these
dirty birds. So I think that he's solid again. He's

(12:50):
shown a really high floor with the amount of volume
that he's seeing, and we've seen the deep ball get
kind of unlocked within the last couple weeks with Schuck
like fits alluded to. But the Falcons is one thing
that have been good. Is fifth and EPA against the
deep ball this year, so a lot of it doesn't
come down with one of those bigger two pass plays.
Maybe he doesn't finish as a wide receiver one, but
I think that you're starting him in basically every format,

(13:11):
especially in full PPR.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
All right, we are going to go and jump to
the next set of wide receivers, the wide receiver twos.
This is thirteen through twenty four. Starting off at thirteen
is Tetroha McMillan, Devonte Smith, George Pickens, Jamison Williams, A. J. Brown,
Roman Dunes is the first half. Second half Zay Flowers,
Michael Pittman, Michael Wilson, Wando Robinson, DK metcalf and Juwan Jennings.

(13:34):
Tedro McMillan comes in at thirteen. A lot of negativity.
I was poking at Joe about the negativity. We kind
of see why there was some negativity towards it. He
had a great game last week. He's now going up
against the San Francisco forty nine ers, which gave up
twelve billion targets to wide receivers, and Michael Wilson had
eighteen targets. So you can only imagine what Tedroa McMillan

(13:56):
is in for because their secondary is trash fit. You've
got him at fifteen, Ericson, you have him at twelve,
You've got him as a top twelve wide receiver. I
am in your camp. I am very pro Bryce Young
as a streamer of this week, and I'm very pro
teto at McMillan because the forty nine ers secondary has
absolutely nothing and this was that was a big, big
game for tetar Row and I think in a level

(14:18):
of confidence. But you speak on it, ericson, what do
you think about tetrow this week?

Speaker 4 (14:21):
Streight right from my notes alpha forty nine ers defense
equals trash next question fits to you. I guess the
last thing I would say with t Mac is we
were questioning what is the ceiling for t Mac? Every
week it's like double digit targets, thirty percent or higher
target share, but they never had that spiked week. And
then finally he does it in the matchup that we're

(14:42):
all concerned about against the Falcons great against wide receivers
AJ Terrell, Yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter. And then he
finally has his monster game. So now that ys has
a good matchup against the forty nine ers as a
straight up alpha guy's breaking out, and although Brys Sotung
got banged up last week, I'm not even sure he's
one hundred percent a lot to play against the forty
nine ers. Team Mac had a game with Andy Dalton
and was still the Alpha and was still productive, So

(15:04):
I don't even care if it's Andy Dalton under center
on Monday Night. Ted Troy McMillan is a wide receiver
one this week.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, that's where I'm at with it. Fitsy, what do
you think You've got him a little bit lower? You've
got him at fifteen. This is kind of like the
t Higgins thing where it's like, I mean, Erickson's much
higher on t Higgins. But maybe you feel the same
where you're just like, well, I got him at fifteen.
I still like him, or maybe there's something you don't
like about him, But talk to us about Teto.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
If there's anything I don't like about him, it's just
that I still don't totally trust the target distribution mechanism
for Tetero McMillan aka Bryce Young, But like the setup
does look pretty fantastic here, I mean giving up that
many yards last week. To Jacoby Brissett four hundred plus yards,

(15:51):
and like, I don't know if Bryce Young can have
a second straight four hundred yard game against the forty
nine ers, but man, like I know part of it
was the Cardinals falling into that deep hole against the
forty nine ers early on last week. But the forty
nine ers just had zero pass rush right now, Welsh Like,
as you know, they ranked dead last in sacks with
twelve dead last in pressure rate. The pressure rate is

(16:12):
thirteen point one percent, next worst is fifteen point six percent.
The forty nine Ers have gotten sacks on two point
nine percent of opponent drop pack dropbacks. Next lowest sack
rate three point nine percent. So basically, Welsh, uh, the
forty nine ers have less of a chance of getting
in a sack on an opponent dropback than I have

(16:33):
a finding a fair way with one of my t shots.
So the forty nine ers cornerbacks are basically sitting docs
with no pass rush. So yes, this is a great
spot for Tetero McMillan, and it's nice that there's renewed
faith in him after he was being ranked in wide
receiver three range last week and now after one hundred
and thirty yards and two touchdowns on a season high

(16:53):
twelve targets. He's a high end wide receiver too. In
the ECR.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, one of the weird things like PF they've got
like their matchup grades and stuff like that. I don't
understand this they have for whatever reason. McMillan's not up there,
but they've got laget up and it's only given like
a fair grade. But the corner back the Niners are
thirtieth to thirty two defensive secondary grade and the corner's
rank Upton Stout is one oh nine of one ten.

(17:20):
That's your slot receiver. By the way, Ronaldo Green is
seventy one of one ten and Lenor you know, he's
been like a top forty guy, but he's been banged up.
So it's just like the forty nine ers are just
it's fish and water man fish in a barrel, I
think is the better way to say it. Tedo McMillan
slam dunk this week. How about Michael Wilson, the guy
that did absolutely torch them? Super Pro Michael Wilson saved

(17:44):
some weeks. Should have been at the tippy top of
the waiver wire and it was announced before we started
the show that Marvin Harrison has already been nixed for
Week twelve, so it is going to be more of
Michael Wilson going up against the Jaguars. He comes in
at wide receiver twenty one on this list. Both of
you are higher, which I completely agree with. The matchup

(18:04):
grade is actually not super great on pros, but he's
number one. Brissette likes him. I think the Targets are
going to keep going. But what do you think fits?

Speaker 2 (18:12):
What we like about the matchup?

Speaker 3 (18:13):
I think is that the Jaguars defense is a complete
pass funnel. I believe the Jaguars opponents have the second
highest pass rate in the league. And obviously we can't
expect another fifty seven pass attempts from Jacoby Broussett or
another forty seven completions, but Wilson should once again be

(18:36):
the number one receiver on a team with limited options
in the passing game. It's Trey McBride, it's Wilson, it's
Greg Dortch, it's about it. In the matchup, yeah, it
seems favorable. The Jags are definitely easier to throw on
than they are to run on.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Not that this maybe necessarily matters but you've also they've
nicked De Marcato for the game, and they just the
windows open for Trey Benson been some plays. You know,
maybe there's more of a dedicated concentration on the running
game with him and Bam Knight. But if both of
those guys aren't and it's just Bam Knight, there's a
foreseeable thought that they might be passing forty plus times again,

(19:14):
ericson what do you think? What do you think about
Michael Wilson this week?

Speaker 4 (19:18):
If it was Marvin Harrison Junior that had last week's game,
where would he be ranked this week? It wouldn't be this.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Low top twelve probably yep.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
And that's not the throw shade at Marvin Harrison Junior
in any way. But to give credit to where credits do,
Michael Wilson, he took care of the opportunities in bald
out and although a lot of it did come in
garbage time, he was still tied for the team lead
and targets in the first half with Trey McBride, So
that to me suggests, hey, this is still sticky with
him as the wide receiver one, even if we don't

(19:47):
get as much garbage time with Jacoby Brissette against the
Jacksonville Jaguars. Their secondary has not been It's been also
really banged up. Jordan Lewis has been hurt. Greg Newsom
got hurt last week. So I think that this is
a favorable spot again for Michael Wilson. And where Jacksonville's
actually been at its best is actually in the slot
defending that position. So although he kind of suck Gregors
pop off a little bit, I think that he's probably

(20:08):
the most fugazi of the Arizona Cardinals passing contect. But
you don't want to chase from last week, but Michael
Wilson staying in the flames man like eighteen targets. Guys
don't put up eighteen targets by accident, especially when you
catch fifteen of them for one hundred and eighty five yards.
So Michael Wilson a former second round pick. He was
a really talented guy at Stanford. It was really injuries
that were his bugaboo why he wasn't more productive, but

(20:29):
still second round draft capital and I thought he showed
signs as a rookie, and then the Cardinals decided they
wanted more with Martin Harrison junior. But you know, he's
obviously been a disappoint for two years of his NFL career,
not entirely all his fault, but Wilson's taking care of
his opportunities. So I would stay in the flames.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Over under eight point five targets for Michael Wilson. Start
with you Rickson over Fitzi over Okay. So I mean,
if you guys are playing the nine to ten target game,
I think that puts good spot for him to, you know,
being able to at least be ranked as a top
twenty wide receiver this week. So I figured there's gonna

(21:07):
be a lot of questions about Michael Wilson for this week,
and you know he's going to be laying in that
top twenty range. You both have him as a top
twenty wide receiver. Final one in this is DK Metcalf
coming in at wide receiver twenty three. The grade matchup
looks pretty good against Chicago. You know, he kind of
continuously hovers into that like wide receiver two, maybe even
wide receiver three range. You both have him slightly higher. Ericson,

(21:29):
why don't we start with you, DK Metcalf. You've got
him at twenty one versus his twenty three rank. What
do you think?

Speaker 4 (21:34):
I like the matchup the Chicago Bears can be had
against their secondary. They've been dealing with a lot of injuries.
They had another injury last week, Turk Stevenson got banged up.
Now still TVD if they get Jalen Johnson back. Kyler Gordon,
I know, has been on IR but there's a potential
that he could practice this week. So there are some
question marks with d kon Metcalf in this projection against
the Bears because we also don't know, well, who's his

(21:54):
quarterback going to be? And do I feel more comfortable
if it's actually Mason Rudolph and not Aaron Rodgers starting
in this game considering and I talked about this with
Seth on the trade show because Metcalf was one of
my bi low targets. I think it's kind of like
a boost if Mason Rudolph is the quarterback because I
think Rudolph is Look, we've seen him facilitate receivers before.
I believe last year Calvin Ridley had a couple of

(22:16):
decent games with Mason Rudolph. I think that he was
on the Titans last year. Trying to remember exactly Mason
Rudolf's trajectory of his career, but we saw him with
George Pickens during that tenure with the Pittsburgh Series be
pretty productive as well. And the last three weeks, I
don't know if you guys remember, but remember we got
that report for Rogers that he injured his like a
finger on his throwing hand, like during pregame warmups. Ever

(22:38):
since that report, it's been bad for Ann Rodgers the
last three weeks, and that's when you've seen this fall
off with DK Metcalf in his production. Despite the fact
that he's still seeing a high target chair, he's still
seeing a lot of red zone targets, a lot of
air yards. So I think that you want to buy
into the match up here, and I think that you
probably feel even better about pressing the button on Metcalf
if you do have Mason Rudolph actually making the start,
and again if it is Rogers, I don't think that

(22:59):
downgrades Metcalf two substantial because hey, it's the Bears and
Rogers owns them.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
FITZI, you got him at the same rink. Let me
ask you, is he the end of a tier or
the start of a new tier? Based on the range,
So like right above him on ECR at least you
got Wandale, you got Michael Robinson, Pittman Flowers. Those are
the guys above below It's like Juwan Jennings and the
next range we're gonna talk about goes to you know,
Alec Pearson stuff. Do you think he is like this

(23:28):
start or end of a wide receiver two slash three tier.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
I think he's kind of at the start of a
three tier, like I have him ranked right below Roma Donsay.
I feel decidedly better about a Donsay thing I do
about d K, although I agree with ericson that I
don't think it would necessarily be a downgrade, maybe even
an upgrade if it's Mason Rudolph instead of Aaron Rodgers
this week. As for the matchup, so yes, the Bears

(23:53):
are giving up the fifth most Fantasy points per game
to wide receivers. But the Jalen Johnson thing is is
big could be back this week. I think it's better
than fifty to fifty he is back this week. Jalen
Johnson hasn't played since Week one. He is one of
the better perimeter corners in the league, and he would
probably I'm guessing cover DK Metcalf on a good number

(24:15):
of his routes. So if he plays like I might
move DK Metcalf down a few spots from wide receiver
twenty one. And really it's just been kind of a
downward trajectory for DK, and I know a lot of
it is Aaron Rodgers related. For six weeks of the season,
this weird catch and run thing with DK was working out,
and he was wide receiver ten and a half point

(24:36):
PPR fantasy points per game, averaging seventy one point two yards,
had four touchdowns. In five games. Since Week seven, DK
has averaged thirty nine receiving yards a game. High water
mark over that stretch was fifty five yards, and he
scored only one touchdown in his last five games. He's
wide receiver fifty four in fantasy points per game since
week seven.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
So things have not been going well.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, if you almost hope that maybe you do get
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and he starts targeting DK downfield a little bit more.

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Speaker 1 (26:42):
Wide receiver threes. Let's kick it off with Alec Pierce
coming in at number twenty five. We've got Christian Watson,
Romeo Dobbs, Couple, Green Bay Guys, Jordan Addison, Khalil Shakir,
Ricky Piersall at thirty, Zivier Worthy, Trey Tucker, Darnell Mooney,
DJ Moore, Tes Johnson and Jerry Judy. Speaking of those
Green Bay wide receivers, Christian Watson is going to be

(27:03):
on a lot of our minds. He is wide receiver
twenty six on this list. He has moved above the
I always crutch touchdowns Romeo Dobbs from this week. It's
I only drop passes all day long, and Kristian Watson
makes all these great plays. He is now the wide
receiver of favor and also kind of been the you know,
the replacement guide to any of these injuries. He's with

(27:24):
like kind of the top of the waivers. A lot
of people were deciding between Michael Wilson or Christian Watson
this week. Michael Wilson's got the front for this week,
but from a season total, maybe Christian Watson. Fitzy, how
do you feel about him? You've got him one spot higher.
He just almost is a wide receiver too. But let's
talk about your green Bay wide receiver going up against Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
So, in the four games since his return, since his
debut this season, Watson has averaged nineteen point five yards
per catch, thirteen point eight yards per target, averaged up
of target twenty two point six yards. He's been a
big play vertical receiver. It's kind of a boomer Boss profile.
There's not a heavy target volume, and we're kind of

(28:04):
a truck trying to assign Watson this this medium outcome
ranking for a Boombus profile.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's tricky.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
But obviously, like me Ericson and all the other rankers
are kind of in similar spots here with our median
low end wide receiver too high end wide receiver three
ranking for Christian Watson. One thing that could maybe get
me to move Watson down a bit in the rankings
later this week would be if we get where that
Jayden Reid is going to be back. He's got his

(28:33):
practice window open after being on IR since week two
with a broken collar bone.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
He does have a chance to play this week.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Ericson, is that enough for you to move Watson at
all if Jaden Reid is active?

Speaker 4 (28:44):
I don't think so, because I don't know if Jayden
Reid coming back is going to dramatically alter Wat. I
mean we're looking at four to five targets right, I
think almost no matter what happens. I mean, even Watson's
game logs, you're not seeing someone that's commanding double digit targets.
Eam in this game against the Giants, where he popped off,
caught the two touchdowns, he had five targets. He's had

(29:06):
four targets in every single game besides last week, So
I think that the volume, unfortunately, and this is just
how the Green Bay Packers operate their offense, is no
one is wide receiver one. Everybody gets four to six targets,
and it's up to you to decide whether you make
it work or you don't make it work. Last week,
Watson made it work. Romeo Dobbs did not make it work.
So I think Watson is a boomer Bus type of play,

(29:28):
regardless of Jayden Reid coming back or not. But I
want to always try to shoot for upside, which Watson
has shown that he can do with the big plays,
averaging nearly twenty yards per catch, and against the Minnesota Vikings,
who are one of the most boom or bust type
of defenses. Yeah, you're looking at he can put up
a goose egg or he could score twenty five points.
I would embrace that type of risk in my fantasylant

(29:49):
because Watson can help win your week for you. So
I don't think I'm going to be moved too much.
If Jayden Reads end up playing maybe Dobbs if we
someone had actually probably moved down more because I think
he's more reliant on seeing steady volume, because he's just
not as efficient or frankly, not as good as Christian Watson.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Would you guys agree with this at all that I'm
just kind of staring at this list? Is this the
riskiest wide receiver threes we've had all season? Like, look
at this list of Worthy and Addison and jobs and
then the group we're going to talk about at the bottom,
like weave all year long, like what's our narrative? We're
like wide receiver threes? These are fun, and then we're
like running backs threes. They stink. I'm looking at this

(30:28):
and I'm like this stinks. Like these are options, but
there's just a lot of inherent risk. Guys, we're not
planning to talk about Ricky Piarsol, Can you trust Ricky Pirosow, Colusecure,
banged up Addison. I mean, there's just a lot of
weirdness that's in it. And then that takes us to
the bottom portion of this this list, and coming in
at thirty two is Trey Tucker. You want to talk

(30:48):
about things you can't trust going up against the Cleveland Browns.
He is wide receiver thirty two and you two are
on opposite ends of this. So Eric, Soon, why don't
we start it with you? You are on the positive,
You're one bought higher ECR wise on Trey Tucker at
thirty one, and fits he's on the other end. So
why don't you tell us the positive spin if there
really is one on Trey Tucker.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
He's the number one wide receiver on the Raiders. Eight
targets last week, four for forty seven and a touchdown.
He scored a touchdown against the Denver Broncos, but it
came back on a penalty, and they find ways to
scheme him up the ball. So even against a tougher
pass rush with Miles Garrett, get a bad offensive line
for the Raiders. Look, they are playing at home. The
Browns defense isn't as good on the road as it

(31:30):
is at home, and if he just doesn't have time
to throw, he's going to be checking it down to
Tray Tucker. So I mean that's about it again. I'm
not trying to be the high man on Trey Tucker.
So I can definitely see how fitzwill poor cold water
all over Trey Tucker, but I think that he's been
fine for most of the season as a wide receiver three,
and especially with Jacobe Myers no longer in the fold,
they're not using the rookie wide receivers at all in

(31:52):
this Raiders offense. So Tucker, Emmy saw tire Lockett kind
of turned back into the guy that we thought he was,
Like he wasn't commanding targets. So I think Tucker is
the guy that you know every time we watch Raiders
games or I watch Raiders games, they just talk about
how much the coaching staff loves Tray Tucker and getting
him involved, and he's really fast, so he can always
break off a big play. So yeah, that's about it

(32:12):
for Tucker.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
I was why it was head into that game, just
because I had multiple bets in it and there I
feel like there were a couple of targets to Tyler
Locke that didn't get registered like that just due to
the plays, like he was a little bit involved. But
regardless of the point outside of Bowers, like, Tucker is
the guy FITZI you don't like, I hate haight him,
but you definitely you've booted him out of wide receiver
three range. You're eight spots off of Ericson, So that's

(32:34):
not like the biggest thing in the world. But he
is a wide receiver three in ECR, and you have
him as a mid wide receiver floor four type of
guy at thirty nine.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, and you mentioned how weird the wide receiver three
scene is. This week, I've got andre Yosavash ranked in
wide receiver three range, and I'd rather play Yosavash than Tucker.
I mean, quite frankly, I think Yosavash might be a
better receiver. Like I don't trust the Raiders offense, I
certainly trust the Bengals offense more than the Raiders, and
I don't really love the player here, Like Trey Tucker

(33:06):
has averaged one point one four yards per route run
for his career. But then again, I mentioned last week
that Michael Wilson had averaged one point zero nine yards
per route run for his career, and Michael Wilson wound
up doing pretty well last week, So maybe you should
play Trey Tucker this week. But like he's been Boomer
Boss this year, he has put up fewer than six

(33:27):
half point PPR Fantasy points in five of ten games
this season, so he has bricked in half his games.
But he's had a thirty six point nine point game
and a couple of twelve point games, So boomer bus
profile for sure. I will correct Erickson when he says
that Trey Tucker is their number one receiver. Brock Bowers
is their number one receiver. But you know, I guess

(33:47):
Trey Tucker's number.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
Two positionally as a wide receiver. I think because what
he's saying, yeah, not the target here.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Ours is the number one tight end and the number
one receiver there.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
You go, all right, let's put let's put some mode
to test here because you want to talk about Trey Tucker.
How about this? I think this is going to be
a billion questions for everybody. Darnell Mooney, this is real
sick test here. Thirty three at wide receiver. You guys
are on the opposite end again, but this time it
is flipped. Doesn't look like we got I think they've

(34:20):
already ruled out No, Drake London. Pennox is out for
the season. It's Kirk Cousins. They are going up against
the Saints, So however you want to look at that
matchup again, you guys are on the opposite end, So Fitz,
you get to kick it off here. You actually, you
guys are literally just flipped on Mooney and and Trey Tucker.
Where Ericson wants Trey Tucker, you seem to want Mooney.

(34:41):
He is going to be the theoretical number one fits
So talk to us. How sick can you get with
Darnell Mooney?

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Can we ascribe a Michael Wilson type set up to
Darnell Mooney? There there are some problems with that one,
you know, is just it's Kirk Cousins versus Jacoby Brossett,
and Jacoby Brissett still has like a functional arm. I'm
not sure Kirk Cousins could break a pane of glass
with his arm these days. And that's kind of a

(35:11):
problem with Darnell Mooney being sort of a vertical receiver.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
And Mooney's had a really tough year.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
I don't know if he's been healthy since summer when
you know, he's had a collarbone injury, He's had what
a hamstring issue, So yeah, he is technically the number
one receiver, but we could see just as many targets
for guys like Caderyl Hodge and Casey Washington this week.

(35:40):
So I don't know if we should really be giving
Mooney a huge bump for that.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
I think he's.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Startable, but I'm not necessarily expecting ten or twelve targets
this week.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Erickson, you are the Trey Tucker of Mooney that that
fits he had. You've got him outside of a startable
wide receiver, which is a top thirty six, You've got
him at thirty nine. Not as optimistic about Darnell Mooney.
Eh feels like a trap. Right.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
We did this a couple of weeks ago when he
got the start. London was out, Cousins was the quarterback,
and he face planted. It was terrible. And I agree
with Fitz. I don't think that he's one hundred percent healthy,
but the guy has been terrible this year. He is
PFF's worst graded wide receiver this season, and I don't
agree that he is the worst wide receiver in the NFL.

(36:29):
Mooney's had a thousand yard seasons. Just twenty twenty five
is not a year, right. He has one top thirty
six finish all season long. And it's not that he's
not seeing targets. He's just not hauling them in and
Kirk Cousins the arm I don't think the styles make
a lot of fit together. The first thing the coaches
say when they talk about, oh we're out with Pennix,

(36:50):
we don't have Drake London. The first thing the coaches
say is, oh, yeah, we got to run the ball
more like. It's not like, oh, let's feature Darnel Mooney
as our number one wide receiver. It's okay, let's hide
kirk Cousin like that's the strategy. And against the Saints,
you aren't expecting one team to kind of blow out
the other team, even if I like the Saints at home,
So I think that they're going to be able to
feed Bijean and Tada's year as many carries as I

(37:10):
want and hide kirk Cousins. So I think that Mooney
is a trap this week. I get if you're in desperation. Yes,
he's gonna project decently, well, his projects are gonna probably
have him as a top thirty six wide receiver. But
I just I'm trusting what I've been seeing with Mooney
this year and what the advanced metrics have shown that
Mooney's just been terrible and Honestly, I don't think the
Saints are just like this terrible pass defense. If you

(37:31):
look at them this year eleventh and fewer yards allowed
per game, under two hundred passing yards allowed per game
this season. I think actually has some cornerbacks that are
like pretty decent. So I don't think that this is
a oh it's the Bengals the Cowboys. Just Mooney can
get there in a great matchup. I really don't think
that is. In a divisional game. The Saints are nineteenth
and total defense of DVOA, which based on the fact

(37:52):
that they're a two to eight team, that's kind of
surprising to me. So I think there are better upside
options like Yoshi bas like give me that guy over
darn On Mooney, like give me him and the spots
starting against the Patriots versus Mooney.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Where there were two, there's now three. For our discussing
wide receiver wolfpack, we are letting Jerry Judy join the group.
Is Jerry Judy has entered the chat. Trey Tucker from
Darnell Moody to Jerry Judy comes in at wide receiver
thirty six on this list. Going up against the Raiders
and you two Sikos both have him above consensus, so

(38:26):
ericson why don't you, why don't you jump into our
third and the wolf pack of gross wide receivers? You're
starting Jerry Judy this week?

Speaker 4 (38:34):
Legendary. Yes, Jerry Judy is in starting consideration this week.
A lot of what I've thought about this year with
some of these receivers and quarterbacks changing, is styles make
fights right? Does the quarterback wide receiver style on how
they play fit to see success? And something I remember
Travis Hunter talking about during the combine was who are

(38:57):
some of the wide receivers he studied the most at
the NFL. One of those receivers was Jerry Judy. So
I think that again we Sawsha dr Sanders have a
lot of success with Travis Hunter with these bubble screens
stuff behind the line of scrimmage, and the coaching staff
continues to rave about Judy as we got to get
you toy the ball, We gotta get you to the ball,
We got to get Youty to the ball. So with
a rookie quarterback making his first start on the road, Yeah,

(39:19):
I think that when they're going to be dropped back
to throw, they're going to be throwing to Jerry Judy.
Even in the one game when Shudar came in last week,
the most targeted receiver in his time playing was Jerry
Judy with four targets. Was it efficient? No, because it's
probably not going to be efficient. But if you're going
to see double digit targets, I think that warrants at
least a wide receiver three type of consideration, especially with Judy. Again,

(39:40):
two weeks ago, he did finally have a decent game,
So it's not just the every single week is terrible
for Judy. At least we have a sample size of
one game out of their bye week where he actually
did something, and it's against the Raiders who just got
absolutely shredded by Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens, basically anyone on Dallas.
So again, Judy's not to that level. The Browns are not.
Else Cowboys off desively, But I think that he can

(40:01):
do enough to salvage a a top thirty six finish Fitz.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Can he do enough? Can shoudor do enough? Can Judy
do enough? This is this is a tough one to stomach.
You guys have been doing your Yoshi vas thing the
whole time. Give me him over Jerry Judy. Just putting
Jerry Judy in a lineup feels grosser than putting Darnell
Mooney or Trey Tucker. But you tell me, FITZI it does.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
I mean, if I'm trying to talk myself into this Welsh, well.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
I mean looking at it.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Where he ranks in Fantasy scoring wide receiver sixty one
and half point PPR. It's hard to make a case,
but Jerry Judy does rank nineteenth among wide receivers in targets,
seventeenth among wide receivers in air yards. Gets this matchup
against the Raiders, whose cornerbacks are terrible, And you know
the Raiders have a lot of the second most Fantasy

(40:49):
points per game to wide receivers this season. And if
it's Shadoor Sanders, well we know it is going to
be Shaddour Sanders starting in place of the concussed Dylan Gabriel.
Chadour is probably going to be more aggressive throwing downfield
than Gabriel was because it would be hard to be
less aggressive than Gabriel was throwing downfield. So maybe that's
good for Jerry Judy. Yeah, I mean it's a dicey case.

(41:10):
And wide receiver three is just kind of a same
call this week.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Well, if you've got more questions, don't worry. We got
the weekly start and sit live stream right here on
the YouTube where you guys can come and ask any
of those specific ones. We'll be here every Thursday and
this Thursday at three pm Eastern. So if you're on
the podcast YouTube dot com slash fantasy Fantasy pro subscribe,
click the note the bell to be notified. Don't miss
any of it, get all those questions answered. That is

(41:36):
going to do it. Wide receivers for Week twelve in
the Books for Andrew Ericson and Pat fitz Morris. I'm
Chris Welsh. We're out of here. Goodbye. We'll talk to
you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 6 (41:45):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast.
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Andrew Erickson

Joe Pisapia

Derek Brown

Thor Nystrom

Ryan Wormeli

Pat Fitzmaurice

Matthew Freedman

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Week 12 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1853)