Week 15 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1890)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, friends that welcome into Fantasy pros. This is
the Fantasy Football Podcast, and this is not just the
Week fifteen wide receiver ranks. This is the playoff Ranks episode.
I'm Chris Welsh. We've got Andrew Erickson, Pat Fitzmorris with us.
We're breaking down all the big top thirty six wide receivers,
all of your big decisions you've got to make this week.

(00:22):
And Ericktion you said something prime before we started the show.
Why don't you let everybody know what you think about
this week's ranks versus where we've been all season, weeks.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
One or fourteen.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's great that some of us did well in the
ranking these competitions. Some of us didn't do as well,
but none of that matters anymore. All that matters is
weeks fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, nailing these rankings, getting you to
move to your championship round and hopefully come away with
a league winning roster this season, So locked in, laser focused,
not trying to get too cute, but trusting the process

(00:52):
at the same time, looking forward to chopping up with
you guys.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, FITZI, Mike Mayer walks in the room and goes. Hey, guys,
I was the number ten rank or it doesn't matter.
We would just wedrop it. It doesn't matter because it's
playoff time. We only care about the next three weeks. FITZI,
you're gonna kill it. It's it's go time. It's crunch time, man.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:11):
Hopefully a lot of a lot of our people are
just kind of listening to this for sport because they
have Week fifteen buys and they're waiting to play their
first playoff game in Week sixteen. But it is a
do or die week for a lot of people. We're
playing do or die fantasy football now. It could be
a one week season for a lot of people, So
let's make it count in Week fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Also super underrated or by weeks. Bye weeks are super inderrated.
I don't play in a ton of fantasy leagues that
actually do bye weeks. But we've got my one home
league and I got a bye, and I'm just like
this rocks.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
This is the best.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
I just forget about it is. I just get to
chill and just watch everybody else just like scramble. It's amazing.
Hopefully we will help you not be scrambling and We're
gonna get you all the right decisions on what you're
gonna need to do with white House, because there are
some there's some big decisions. Whether you're gilletteing it or
you're just in your normal playoffs, We've got you covered
as we're going to go through the top thirty six.
Speaking of ranks, yes, we do care about what the

(02:07):
playoff ranks are going to look like, but we continuously
are tracking our ranks accuracy contest. Every single week we
highlight the top three who finished from the previous week,
and then obviously that is going to lead to an
end of season total. This week man Justin Boone from
Yahoo Fantasy Sports has been killing it and Justin finished
number one in the number one spot for week fourteen,

(02:29):
So shout out to Justin finishing I believe very high
so far in the overall contest. So Justin's killing it.
Ricky I want to say Lemon, but is that lamone?
Is that Ricky Lemon from the Fantasy Champions is number two?
And then Michael Bubble from the thirty third team. Those
are your top three. With a shout out to Mike

(02:50):
Mayor who comes in He's like who goes other than Yeah,
you finished nineteenth. Great job, great, you keep doing it.
It's annoying. Keep rocking it. Stop being so good, Mike Mayor.
It's a playoffs, so now you need to really step
it up as he has. He's finished nineteenth. You guys,
we were all kind of median. I was the lowest
of our group here, nothing horrible or anything like that,

(03:10):
kind of in the upper echelon. So we will try
to really really kill it this week. As Ericson said,
it's week fifteen. Let's roll with it before we start
the ranks. It is always giveaway time, and we have
got a crazy cool opportunity for you if you want
a chance to win a Bijon Robinson and Drake London's
signed mini helmet for free courtesy of our friends over

(03:32):
at Pristine Auction. Here's what you gotta do. Go to
fantasypros dot com slash contest, complete the form, then you
can do some stuff. Download the app, leave a review
on the podcast, follow us on ex, Instagram and TikTok
and you can do all of those things. Each one
is an entry, and then we'll be announcing a winner
right here on the podcast. So if you're watching on YouTube,

(03:53):
make sure you are subscribed, turn on notifications you don't
want to miss it. Bring home that Bijon and Drake
London signed many Helm for absolutely free, gentlemen. For the
people that want to follow along with us, they can
go to fantasypros dot com slash rankings where they can
find your rankings and all of the ECR. Here's the
big board for the wide receivers in week fifteen. The

(04:13):
top twelve. We've got Jackson Smith and Jigba coming in
at the number one spot, Jamar Chase, Poku, Nakua Rashi,
Rice DeVante, Adams, and Nico Collins. That is your top six.
The bottom half George Pickens, Amna Saint Brown, AJ Brown,
Jalen Waddle, Jamison Williams, and Michael Wilson. A lot of
chalk plays in there. I'm not trying to call him
not chalk, But then you throw in Michael Wilson and

(04:34):
it's one of those one thing does not feel like
the other. But that thing that doesn't feel like the
other has been performing just like all of the others
and in some cases better than them. You two find,
gentlemen are torn on this. You guys are in opposite directions.
He is ECR twelve. FITZI, you have him at twelve,
So let's start there with you. On the positive Michael

(04:54):
Wilson take for Week fifteen.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
I'm ranking him as if Marvin Harrison or won't be
back as of now, and the matchup against the Texans
is brutal. But Michael Wilson has had eighteen, fifteen and
sixteen targets in the three games Marvin Harrison Junior has missed,
and he's had ten or more catches and one hundred
and eighteen or more yards in all of them. So

(05:18):
while I do have expectations of less than ten catches
and one hundred and eighteen yards, I still think he's
going to be targeted heavily and you know, should be
good a pretty good volume play for week fifteen.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
So I wonder, Erickson, does it matter if Marvin Harrison
plays at all? Maybe that is what your rank is about,
because you've you've kind of buried him comparatively. This is
an end of wide receiver one. You've got him just
hugging in as a wide receiver. Two, you've got him
at wide receiver twenty one is stingly more of a
concern than Marvin Harrison being active or is it a combination?

(05:56):
What's with the buried Michael Wilson rank.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
The matchup is definitely the number one reason, because I
don't think that this is just a bad matchup. This
is the worst matchup. And we've seen quarterbacks far superior
to Jacoby Brissette faces Texans defense and look terrible Josh Allen,
Patrick Mahomes. And something you want to note here is
the Cardinals are going to be without their starting left
tackle Paris Johnson Jr. In this game against that Texans

(06:21):
defensive line. Look, Jacoby has been a great story this
year with the amount of garbage time that he's been
able to give us as fantasy managers. But I'm concerned
that this is where clock strikes midnight on this type
of production where he's just dropping back fifty to fifty
five times per game, getting all this garbage time stats,
and it doesn't come to fruition here. I mean, there's

(06:41):
a reason why this week Jacoby Presett is not a
top twelve quarterback in ECR because he's facing the Texans,
although he's always been in that top twelve range. When
Michael Wilson has had a lot of these big games,
So that's a big concern for me, Marvin Harrison Junior
playing if he is active in this game. We saw
the one game of the last four where he was
active and Michael Wilson was wide receiver forty nine on

(07:03):
the week here, So if anything, it makes it really
easy I think for fantasy managers, if Marvin Harrison plays,
you just don't play Michael Wilson because then you don't
have the target volume me then you're combining that with
the really poor matchups. So that's kind of I'm doing
it here. And when you look at Michael Wilson in
his worst game without Marvin Harris Junior, he was wide
receiver thirteen against the Jaguars. He didn't score in that

(07:24):
particular matchup, still had ten gaps for one hundred and
eighteen yards as a wide receiver thirteen. So I could
see it play where it is volume on his side.
But just given I think his efficient is probably going
to fall off substantially against the Texans, I have him
more in that wide receiver too territory. So again he's
still someone that you're probably going to start if Marvin
Harrison Junior is out. But I'm just trying to temper
expectations because of the brutal matchup.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Can I ask, do you think there's a possibility that
there's a better opportunity if Marvin Harrison is active? If
you're so worried about the Stingley situation, could Stingley lock
up Harrison creating a better opportunity for Michael Wilson Or
do you think Stingley is going to lock up on
Wilson if Harrison is active.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
I think that it's bad regardless, because last is really
good number two cornerback too. It's not just one guy
that makes his Texans defense be so elite.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
It's all of their players. So yeah, I just have
very a lot of concerns about the matchup.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
One thing, I just wanted to throw this in before
we jump out. We tend to not spend a lot
of time obviously on the wide receiver ones because they're
pretty easy discussion pieces. We were randomly having this discussion
off air, and I just want to get your quick
takes on like a versus here we're talking about AJ
Brown versus Jalen Waddle, but also just do like a
side throw in here of Jamison Williams when you're looking

(08:43):
at those three, FITZI, if you, how are you ranking
out those three? Because in also a world of like
who is not like the other, there's definitely a drop
After a Mona saying Brown, It's like, Okay, there's these
guys that have some warts at least obviously AJ Brown
has you know, been about his quarterback and his offense.
Jamison Williams with a manra and Jalen Waddle just feel

(09:06):
a little bit uncomfortable. It's Pittsburgh, Like, is there a
level of comfort of one of those three more than
the other?

Speaker 5 (09:11):
No, I've got AJ Brown wide receiver nine, Jamison Williams
wide receiver ten, Jalen Wattle wide receiver eleven.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
So there's no there's no standouts ericson, is there any
standout between those three for you?

Speaker 6 (09:22):
Either?

Speaker 3 (09:23):
I have them in the same order as Fits, although
I have Brown at nine, Williams at eleven, and Wattle
at thirteen. So I'm feeling a little bit more confident
of the ranking that Fits also has listed out and
that's because they do. Brown is on a heater three
straight hundred yard games. They're facing the Raiders. This is
a prime get right spot for the Eagles.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Offense.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
What does that actually mean. I don't know, but I
think it means that maybe they improve a little bit
from what we saw on Monday Night Football, where Jalen
Hurts was scoring as many negative points as you could
humanly do for a fantasy quarterback. Wattle does a little
bit concern me with Tua playing outside two is just
I mean, he's not the reason the Dolphins have been
winning games the last couple of weeks, So that concerns

(10:03):
about him playing on the road at Pittsburgh at night
in a primetime game. And then Jamison Williams is what
is the total in that game? Fifty six points? James
Williams in a dome. You just got to click the
button on him because his upside is immense and that's
a particular matchup that could be a monster shootout.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
All right, So let's jump out of the wide receiver ones.
Those are your core players. You're not making too much
about them. You're getting them in wide receiver twos. Kind
of it lives in the same world, but there are
going to be some bigger questions, especially in the Tears.
So let's look at wide receivers thirteen through twenty four
on the list starting at thirteen with Teteroa McMillan, Chris
Olave at fourteen, Terry McLaurin, Justin Jefferson at sixteen, DeVonta Smith,

(10:44):
Wandell Robinson, Zay Flowers, Jakobe Myers at twenty, followed by
Stefan Diggs, DK metcalf, Lad McConkey, and Juwan Jennings. We
have to talk about Justin Jefferson. Here are some numbers
for you. Two for eleven, two for four or four
for forty eight, five for sixty one, four for thirty seven.

(11:05):
Those are his game logs over the last five weeks
in half PPR. These numbers eighty one, ninety five, thirty eight,
twenty seven and forty four. Those, gentlemen, are the wide
receiver finishes in half PPR he has had over the
last five weeks. Justin Jefferson is lost in this offense.
Brosemer makes it worse for McCarthy. Emanman scoring thirty one

(11:29):
points and blowing out teams, had two catches four targets
to Justin Jefferson. This is an elite matchup, no doubt
against Dallas Cowboys. Let's not argue that, but I have
lost a level of confidence in this offense and JJ McCarthy,
whether they're winning or he looks good or not, in
being able to get him the ball, so wide receiver

(11:49):
sixteen even steel feels dicey. I feel like the only
reason he is here is because we have that versus
Dallas over on the right hand corner. So, Fitz, why
don't we start with you here? You guys are both
at or higher than consensus. Now consensus is low, but
I think there's going to be a lot of questions
surrounded it. We did tons of Titanic conversation last week.

(12:12):
Maybe we're still in that space. But regardless, if we are,
the boat sank a little bit more because two catches
for eleven yards on a blowout win for the Vikings
without him involved should create bigger questions. But you've got
him at sixteen fits.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Yeah, and it's certainly not a confident ranking, Welsh. I
mean no touchdowns in the last five games for Justin.
Jefferson hasn't had a one hundred yard game, or for
that matter, in eighty yard games since October fifth, and
at least he was getting targets a little while ago,
but now like the target counts are even starting to

(12:47):
come down like six, six and four in his last
three games.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
So yeah, I mean, we're just not feeling great.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
About the quarterback situation with JJ McCarthy. Although the matchup
against al is at least promising this week, I feel
like there's still a big game for Justin Jefferson coming
and hopefully to the people who were able to stagger
their way into the playoffs with Justin Jefferson having this

(13:15):
massively disappointing season, they get it this week because the
matchup is good, and it's just I'm looking at the
guys who I have ranked right below Justin Jefferson, Wandale Robinson,
Devonte Smith, Jacoby Myers, Terry McLaurin, like, I still fundamentally
think Justin Jefferson, even with bad QB play, is a

(13:35):
better start than those guys.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Jacoby Marrin's got the Jets four star matchup. Wandal Robinson
has the Washington Commanders one of the worst secondaries in football.
That Justin Jefferson could only get two catches off of
clear you can see, like I'm in I'm annoyed with it.
We had a big thing on out of bounds on
Monday where me and Bob I think we're looking at
a point. If it wasn't the Dallas Cowboys, Justin Jefferson
would be no better than a wide receiver three. At

(13:57):
this point, I agree the namesakes and Justin Jefferson are like, ugh,
but Jefferson didn't do anything against the Commanders. So now
you've got a Dallas Cowboys situation ericson, you've got him higher.
I get it, and I get that logic of like,
he's just so talented a game has to happen. Let's
put one through fifteen behind us, and stuff like that.
But if you were legitimately having the decision between Awandall

(14:19):
Robinson and Justter Jefferson, it's a slam dunk Jefferson for you.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
I don't know if I would say it's a slam dunk,
but one of them is facing the Dallas Cowboys, and
one of them isn't.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Dallas the Commanders.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, we just saw Jefferson do nothing against the Commanders,
so I'm going to go with the best matchup.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Again.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
This is you know, we sometimes try to push back
when we overvalue certain matchups, but when it comes to
the very ends of the spectrum, whether you're talking about
the Houston Texans. Nobody can score on this defense. The
versus side of that is the Dallas Cowboys. Every wide
receiver scores on this defense. Jameson Williams, I'm on our

(14:58):
Saint Brown last week Monster Games. So I think that
you just gotta play Jefferson. Obviously, it depends on what
your alternatives are, but you didn't go through the last
couple of weeks of absolutely no production. It's so funny.
He has fifteen receiving yards, which is almost the exact
same as his ECR ranking this week. Over the last
two games. It's almost so bad that it's comical that

(15:22):
he has to bounce back and just regress a little
bit positively, just because of how low it has been
for him. So I think that at these positive McCarthy
didn't play bad against the Commanders. I mean, it's just
kind of unlucky, right Josh Oliver caught two touchdowns. What
if that had been Jefferson instead. So I think that
McCarthy maybe building some momentum after a positive game against
the Commanders. He played better good Dallas matchup. You didn't

(15:45):
go through all the tough games for Jefferson to then
sit him against the number one defense. In terms of
fantasy points allowed to wide receivers, So I agree with it.
I think you have to play him as a wide
receiver too.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
This is as I have a lot of shares of
Justin Jefferson and a few of those actually did make
the play. I just feel dicey about it, but I
think the most important thing, regardless of my negativity to it,
it is always about the options. And I think when
you ask the questions of really you can't ask the
Jacobe Myers, Hwanda Robinson's or Terry mclaurin's, I think you
can still push to Jefferson. It's when people are going

(16:17):
to be like, hey, should I go debo over him?
Or Brian Thomas, And it's like, no, let's not go crazy.
It does a phenomenal matchup. He's talented. You would just
love for them to get him the ball. But I
do expect there's going to be quite a few questions
surrounded around Justin Jefferson. How about around Zay Flowers. Jay
Flowers comes in as ECR wide receiver nineteen going up
against the Cincinnati Bengals, and both of you find gentlemen

(16:38):
are actually slightly lower ericson why don't we start with you,
what's your take on Zay Flowers as to start this week.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
So, Zay Flowers is one of these wide receivers that
I think is always over valued in ECR. And even
when I'm looking at the screenshot in the show sheet,
you look at how often he's gone over his projection.
Four times he has gone over of his last sixteen games,
he's gone over his projection. So looks good on paper
doesn't always translate to on the field production coming off

(17:05):
a big game. But we've already seen this matchup against
the Bengals a couple weeks ago. Bengals don't give up
a lot of production to number one wide receivers. So
Zay Flowers did have that long touchdown taken off due
to a penalty, But I think that he's more of
a middling wide receiver too. In this offense. We know
how you attack the Cincinnati Bengals, Derrick Henry and the

(17:26):
tight ends not exactly the recipefore Zay Flowers smash again.
A player that sees too much volume in his offense
offers a decent floor because he's a really good player
can rate yards out to the catch. But is this
going to be a Zay Flowers back to back smash week.
I don't think so, which is why I have him
more in the lower end of the wide receiver two range,
a little bit lower than ECR.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, FITZI, he actually kind of has been a little
there's that inconsistency where it's like smash and then disappear.
Are you worried of a disappearing act for as A
Flowers this week?

Speaker 5 (17:56):
I'm not worried about the disappearing act. I'm worried more
about the lack of ceiling because like actually so Zay
hasn't scored a touchdown since Week one, and that's a
big reason he hasn't given us much of a ceiling.
But he is on pace for eleven hundred and sixty
five yards and he has given you at least a

(18:18):
little something most weeks. There have only been three times
this season where he hasn't given you double digit PPR points.
So one of those times was Thanksgiving Night against the Bengals.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
Two catches for six yards.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
And the Bengals have believed or not allowed the six
fewest Fantasy points to wide receivers this year. In as
Erikson said, they do pretty much blanket number one receivers
or have this season. But are we really going to
shy away from this matchup for Zay Flowers in a
game with a Vegas total of fifty two points? I
tend to think not. The market kind of expects a

(18:53):
lot of offense in this game, and.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
So do I.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
This is a love of revenge narrative. That's my favorite thing.
I'm always down for a revenge narrative. And how about
a Stephan Diggs revenge narrative. It'd be cool if he
was like doing a whole bunch of stuff leading up
to this as well, but that's not necessarily happening. He's
easyr twenty one ericson you've got him at eighteen, you're higher,
but fits you are much higher.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
Fits.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Are you buying revenge narrative for Stefan Digs in this
really tough Buffalo matchup? Do you think there's some expected
snow for better for worse offensively that can go? What
is your take on Stephan Digs out wide receiver fifteen
this week?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (19:29):
I mean, we'll have to check the weather report, and
if I'm not really concerned about snow, I think it's
wind that's the issue that would be a little scary,
but yeah, Revenge Game, baby, you said it Welsh. When
Diggs went up against the Bills in Week five, he
had ten catches for one hundred and forty six yards
on twelve targets, and those were the most targets, catches

(19:50):
and receiving yards. Digs his head in any game this season, and.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
I know he's laid eggs the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
Two catches for twenty yards against the Bengals, three catches
for ti twenty six yards against the Giants. But I
wouldn't hesitate to start Diggs this week.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Ericson, would you have any hesitation? You are higher than ECR,
a little bit lower than Fitsie. What's your take on
Stefan Diggs versus his old team?

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Imagine benchings Stefon Diggs in Revenge Game Part two. You
just you can't, you can't do it. You have to
play Digs. It doesn't matter what he's done over the
last couple of weeks. I know the production has kind
of tailed off after it looked like he was on
the ascension of being a lockdown loaded wide receiver one
rest of season. I will say to the way that
the Bills play defense, this is going to be a

(20:34):
bad game for Hunter Henry. So if the targets are
flowing elsewhere, they're going to look to Stefan Diggs, who
had a smash game in his first match against Buffalo,
and that was because he had a forty percent target
share and he didn't score in that game and they
were trying everything in their power to try to get
him into the end zone, in which he did not
do against the Buffalo Bills. So I think that this
is a great spot for Stefon Diggs and the upside

(20:56):
is too high to leave him on benches.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Wide receiver is wide receiver twenty four. Jawan Jennings ECR
twenty four. You guys are not crazy far apart, but
you are in different ends of the type of wide receiver.
Fitzi's got him as a wide receiver two, a little
bit higher than ECR. Ericson You've got him outside. It's
a good matchup. He's been okay. I mean some of

(21:20):
the touchdown equity has saved him that. I mean, Brock
Party has just been really bad. And I think the
offense is also inconsistent. You know, Pierceall doesn't exist. They
just don't have a guy that they give mass volume two.
So I think there's a level of uncomfortability with a
guy like Juwan Jennings ericson what do you think you've
got him at twenty six? You've got him as like
a higher end wide receiver three at this point.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, they feels safe, like a good play as a
wide receiver three. Like you said, good matchup against the
Tennessee Titans. He's had a real connection with Rock Party.
Getting back to last season, he's been the target leader
for the forty nine ers among the wide receivers in
the last seven games. I guess just in the back
of my mind, I still think that they are going
to try to get Pierce All going in some capacity,
especially as Hey, we're trying to make the playoffs. We

(22:03):
want to make a playoff run. We're coming out of
the bye week. Pearsall has been dealing with a plethora
of injuries. So would it be really shocking if we
come out and oh, Piersall and Jawan Jennings had the
same amount of targets in this game against the Tennessee Titans,
Like that wouldn't be too shocking for me. So that's
why I'm just a couple spots down on Jennings. Again,
if you're going to start one of these four to
nine receivers, you have to start Jennings because he has

(22:23):
been the guy. But when we're talking about these guys
next week, it wouldn't surprise you maybe we're ranking them
a little bit closer given that the Fortnites also have
a pretty favorable schedule.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Rest of the way, Betsy, what do you think about
Juwan Jennings in this matchup? I kind of agree coming
off of a buye, I feel like you got to
get Ricky pearsall going. But this offense, it runs for
Christian McCaffrey, it goes to George Kittle, and it's just
like median volume to whatever wide receivers are involved. But
this is like a really solid matchup.

Speaker 5 (22:51):
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if peersal did have a
similar amount of targets as Jiwan Jennings are even outproduced
and by But I am still sort of if I
have Juwan Jennings, I am a little.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Encouraged that Ricky Pearsaw.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
Has done nothing to this point, so like that it's
not a reason to shy away from Jennings. I shied
away from drafting Juwan Jennings. I don't have him in
any league because of Ricky Pearsaw. But if you have
Jennings now, I don't think Pearsaw is a reason not
to play Jennings. And look, Jennings has had four touchdowns
in his last five games, and he's had at least

(23:27):
four catches in seven straight games. So even if the
touchdowns aren't coming, there is a reasonable floory here.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
That he is not going to just throw up a
donut for you.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Favorable matchup against the Titans, they have a lot of
the sixth most receiving yards to wide receivers forty nine
ers haven't applied point total of something like twenty eight
in this game.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
I just I like the spot for.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
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Speaker 1 (25:18):
Wide receiver threes. Coming up on the big board at
number twenty five is a Mecca Agbuca coming in at
twenty six, Christian Watson, Chris Godwin, Courtland Sutton, Deebo, Samuel
Michael Pittman. At thirty thirty one through thirty six, we've
got Brian Thomas, Junior, Khalil Shakir, Alec Pierce, Luthor Burden,
Jordan Addison, and Jerry Judy. Can we trust a Mecca Agbuca?

(25:39):
He comes in at wide receiver twenty five. Deep balls
have not been there. Mike Evans is looming, Chris Godwin
getting healthy, more ammunition for this offense, and it just
does not center around a Mecca Agbuca anymore. And this is,
you know, led to him being a wide receiver three
on this list. Fitzi's about on but ericson you are

(26:01):
a lot more bullish. You've got him at nineteen and
a solid wide receiver too here, So why don't you
kick us off? I asked the question, can you trust
to mechag Buka is nineteen representative of the level of.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Trust, Yes, it is.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
And for those that tuned into the prediction show with
myself and Worm, that was my top prediction this week
was like Buka was going to finish as the top
twenty wide receiver regardless of the status of Mike Evans.
And the latest news that we're getting here is that
looks like Mike Evans is probably gonna play on Thursday night.
That's what Todd Bowles said, saying that, hey, he's seen
enough for Mike Evans, and I kind of think this
might help Atbuka a little bit because the issue with

(26:34):
him has not been volume, right. You look at the
target numbers he's seen for the last seven games. He
has a twenty nine percent target share in his last
seven games. So it's not for a lack of opportunities,
it's he hasn't been converting. He has not been efficient.
Now part of that's on him. Dropped a touchdown last week.
He's had plays wiped off because of penalties. Baker Mayfield
has also not been that good over the last couple

(26:55):
of games as well. But this is a matchup we've
already seen him play. With Mike Evans in the lineup.
Back in Week one, he had two receiving touchdowns and
sixty seven receiving yards. We're playing for upside in the
Fantasy Championships, and Agbuka has shown this year. Hey, I
have top five weekly upside and specifically in this matchup,
we've already seen it play out. So with Mike Evans

(27:17):
back in the lineup, I would expect, like we saw
in Week one, he's gonna grab Shadow Coviac from aj
Terrell and that means you're going to see Agbuka get
more of these favorable matchups against some of these weaker
corners on the Atlanta Falcons. That should help boost his
efficiency and that should help him convert some of this
opportunity into actual production. So the coaches have been talking
about Agbuka a lot this week. Josh Gizzard has been

(27:38):
talking about, Hey, we need to get him going early.
We need to build his confidence, the same thing with
Todd Bowles, and that's from the Coach Index discord. So
I think that his upside is too great to leave
on the bench. This week, which is why I like
him as the top twenty. You just like the matchup.
The Falcons have been one of the worst teams against
Fantasy wide receivers this year, so I understand it's been bad,
but the volume has been there, the opportunity's been there,

(27:58):
and that's what.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
We're always chasing. You chase volume.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
So I don't think Abuka is nearly as bad of
a player as he's shown over the last seven weeks.
I know it's been really bad, but I want to
go back to them this week.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
FITZI, I don't know does your level of trust exist
because technically, you know, we talked about Juwan Jennings. He's
a four catch, you know, floor type of guy with
probably not a lot of ceiling, and you've got him higher.
You've got Juwan Jennings higher than a Mechaguca this week.
So by virtue of that, I kind of feel like
you are. You were just concerned about his overall production.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
Yeah, so the targets have been there. Since Week seven,
Abuka has averaged nine point seven targets a game, with
at least eight targets in all seven games over that span,
and I don't worry that much like I don't think
the targets are going to dry up completely with Mike
Evans back, And to Ericson's point, maybe Mike Evans does

(28:53):
occupy aj Terrell in this game, although I don't even
know if AJ Terrell plays. I think he's got some
sort of neck issue and just sort of a limited
participant in their walkthrough the other day. So the issue
for me with Abuka is that he has caught thirty
nine point seven percent of his targets and has averaged
five yards per target over his last seven games or

(29:16):
since week seven, yeah, seven games, so he's had some drops.
But maybe the Buccaneers passing game does become more functional
if Mike Evans is back this week against the Falcons,
because really it's been pretty dysfunctional for a while now,
and that's as much on Baker Mayfield as it is
on Abuka or any of the other parts. You know,
Tristan Wurf's hasn't been totally healthy. That's a big thing,

(29:39):
so we'll see. I think Mike Evans can only help,
and I don't consider that a major reason not to
start Abuka if you're on the fence with him this week.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Is there any major reason to not start Christian Watson.
Christian Watson comes in at twenty six. That reason might
be the Denver Broncos. Obviously they got they got Reid back,
They've got kind of Ericson lovingly used plethora by the way,
which immediately made me think of three amigos and want
to do the free amigos bit, which I think fits

(30:12):
you could probably appreciate. But they've just got a whole
bunch of wide receivers. Christian Watson has been the guy.
But is Denver a place that you should be worried
about the starts of Christian Watson? Betsy, why don't we
start with you? You've got him at twenty six. Ericson's
one spot higher. But is Kristian Watson more of a
concern start than he has been in the previous weeks
going up against the Broncos.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
Yeah, definitely because of that matchup, and Christian Watson just
had really nice games against the Lions and Bears. And
the Lions have allowed the second most passing plays of
twenty or more yards this season. Bears have a lot
of the third most passing plays of twenty or more yards.
Denver Broncos have a lot of the fifth fewest completions
of twenty or more yards. So this is a really

(30:55):
tough matchup. But look, I mean it's it's Christian Watson
do this on big plays, not so much his target volume.
He's had five touchdowns over his last four games, eighteen
point one yards per catch on the season, eleven point
seven yards per target big plays efficiency. I just don't
know if you can live on big plays against the

(31:15):
Denver pass defense, which is terrific.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Erickson, can he live off of any big plays. I mean,
I like the volume. I want the volume, and he
kind of lacks that. So when you get like a
really tough matchup like this, it's also going to take
away big plays and there isn't any perceived volume. He
seems riskier than he does in any normal week for sure.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
I mean, you just look at the game logs for
Christia Watson to fit this point awesome, it's the Bears,
Ausman's the Lions, Vikings tougher matchup wide receiver thirty six,
Giants wide receiver five awesome, Eagles wide receiver forty six.
So there's a clear pattern of when he's ripping off
these explosive plays. Obviously, part of that is on him

(31:57):
and how well he has been playing in these positive matchups.
But we have to use this to our advantage, right,
He's been really easy to tell. Big game for Christian
Watson based on good matchups, bad game for Christian Watson.
Bad matchups and playing at Denver that's always going to
be a tough draw for any wide receiver. So I
think when I opened up my rankings this week, I
was trying to give credit to Christian Watson based on

(32:19):
how well he has looked and played, how expulsive he's been.
But the facts of the facts he had four targets
last week and somehow got over eighty receiving yards, right,
that is not sustainable. It's crazy when you look at
him compared to Agbuka, who I do have ranked and
so does ECR ahead of Christian Watson, which seems absolutely
ludicrous because of how well they have or how well
they the how different they have been in terms of production.

(32:40):
Christian Watson is wide receiver sixteen in points per game
since week eight, he's wide receiver forty one and expected
points per game, whereas Egbuka is outside the top forty
in points per game, but he's wide receiver three and
expected points per game, so one of them's getting all
the usage no production, and then Watson is kind of
the reverse of that. So eventually things are going to
come to a regression with him, and I think that

(33:02):
this is probably the spot where things maybe come back
down to earth a little bit for Christian Watson. So
I still think he has upside because of the play
that he can offer, but I think it's more like
maybe he rips off one big play and he doesn't
find in the end zone. It's probably a end up
closer to a wide receiver three than a top fifteen guy.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
He's been the last two weeks.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
We do a couple shows over on twitch as well,
if people don't check them out Twitch dot Tv, Slash
Fantasy Pros, and I've been on both the Monday and
the Tuesday show, and one of the most common things
that has popped up after the words Philip and Rivers
has been Alec and Pierce. And there's a big concern.

(33:41):
I mean, I think there's a general concern I just
want to throw out about all of the guys. You know,
I'm just kind of cherry picking Alec Pierce here, But
I think the reason his name has come up so
much is an expectation that old man Rivers is gonna
come in and not sling the ball like this is
going to be like a lot of short yard stuff
and Alec Pierce off of that deep ball on the corners,

(34:02):
and you're probably gonna see Philip Rivers a lot of
dump offs to Tyler Warren, which is when we talk
about the tight end episodes. I still like Tyler Warren,
Josh Downs, maybe Pittman, but it seems like Alec Piers
is the biggest concern of any of these players. And
then on top of it, Seattle Seahawks this week, So
Alec Pierce comes in as wide receiver thirty three, you

(34:24):
both have him lower Ericson, you are the absolute lowest
FITZI is just squeaking him in as a wide receiver.
Three Ericson is Alec Pierce just a massive avoid moving
forward especially until I mean, I know there's not a
whole lot of you know, wait till next week, like
you got to survive the next week. But I think
that's why you have to bench him, because you don't

(34:44):
know what it's going to look like with Rivers, and
if you have him and you move on and it
is a thing, then we can talk about it. But
at this point, it just does not seem like a
play with Rivers in that offense doesn't seem.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Worth the risk the right I play Alec Pierce when
we have no idea what his quarterback is going to
look like. Who hasn't played football in five years? Right,
This isn't the Joe Flacco thing where at least he
played one year ago and then they picked him up.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Off the couch.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
They don't even know kind of shape Philip Rivers is in.
How many hits can he even take behind that Colts
offensive line?

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Does he even finish the game like? That is a
big concern for me. For Philip Rivers.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
I was a little bit more optimistic about the Colts
offense if it was gonna be Riley Leonard, because I
thought that he showed some signs of okay, like maybe
he can do this, he can move around more in
the pocket or in the pocket can Philip Rivers move like?
Is he going to just be a sitting duck back there?

Speaker 2 (35:36):
So that has.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Major concerns for me. So I'm trying to get away
from as many Colts not named Jonathan Taylor as I can,
because I asked the question, what is the upside case
without Pears?

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Oh, maybe he catches a long touchdown.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Okay, I can list off fifteen other wide receivers that
I hope can maybe catch a long touchdown that aren't
attached to forty four year old quarterbacks who haven't played
in five years.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
So yeah, I mean you could drop Ballock Piers.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
I would rather have someone start him against me than
have me started in my lineup, So that's the way
I see it.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, I mean I think you can look at like
guys that are ranked below him at this point, like
Jayden Higgins has that type of Kayshaan Boody. I mean literally, dude,
Kayshawan Boody is literal like fifty yard, Like two catches,
one's fifty yard for a touchdown. That's the Alec Pierce play.
And that's with Drake May and he's ranked forty four.
So I'm in agreement. Here A quick follow up and
then to fits they haven't like confirmed confirmed. It looks

(36:32):
like Philip is going to go. But if Riley Leonard
were to play, do you what's different about this is
it still like we can still cut him because you
said you have a little bit of optimism. So if
Riley Leonard were there, would it be like, well, maybe
he is a wide receiver three or is it still
let's just move forward with cutting him and let's let's
go with Kaisham Boody. Let's I mean Ricky Piersall's wide
receiver forty six. Would you rather go with all that upside?

Speaker 2 (36:55):
They could rather chase upside.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
I don't see that attached with a offense that we
saw them all last year with subpark quarterback play and
it was an utter disaster. Daniel Jones fixed everything and
now he's out of the picture. So why are we
not just going to go back to the Colts offensive
twenty twenty twenty four when none of these guys were
usable in any capacity. So I feel like one week

(37:20):
at Seattle it's going to be a slap in the
face of reality where, wow, we can't use any of
these guys rest of season. And I'm trying to get
ahead of it by not bombing in my first round
of the Fantasy playoffs, by relying on Colts pass catchers
when the other thing is too It's not like one
guy is the alpha. They like to spread the football
around to four different players at times, and that's what

(37:40):
makes it so tough. So even if one of the
guys is productive, one guy maybe scores a touchdown, are
you so confident that it's going to be Pittman or
Pierce or Warrent or Downs or Jonathan Taylor? Like who's
going to score the touchdown? If they even find the
end zone against Seattle, one of the best defenses in
the NFL on the road.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Fit So you know, by the way, the very first
play the game is going to be a play action
Jonathan Taylor and a fifty yard bomb to Alec Pierce. Now,
just that we're talking about all this, but if it's
you do have him inside is a wide receiver three
at thirty five. So you know the conversation we just
had where do you differ or do you kind of
stand in the same space, but you just he's Alecor
is a little too talented to throw aside.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
Yeah, I dropped him to wide receiver thirty eight this morning,
and that is still feeling too high. Like I'm right now,
I have him one spot ahead of Jayden Higgins and
I'm looking at that and thinking, no, that's that's not right.
I'm probably going to have him outside the top forty
by the time we hit the weekend.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Okay, so then I'm guessing you.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
I mean it's co sign.

Speaker 5 (38:43):
Big big player bust and Philip Rivers is not really
a deep ball artist, so your chances of getting the
big player probably worse than they are with Riley Leonard.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
All right, there you go. Those are your wide receivers.
There could be a lots more questions for you, and
that's why we got you covered. Check out the live
streams three pm Easter on Thursday. If you've got more
start and sick questions. It's playoff time. It's more critical
than ever. If you're listening on the podcast, go to
YouTube dot com slash Fantasypro, subscribe, click on notification, be
there for the live streams. It's playoffs, baby. Doesn't matter

(39:14):
where we were, it matters where we're going. We're going
to help get you there. Wide receiver ranks in the
books for Ericson and Pat Fitzmorris. I'm Chris Wells. Thank
you guys so much for hanging out with us, and
good luck in your playoff matchups. We'll talk to you
next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
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Speaker 6 (39:31):
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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 15 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1890)