Week 6 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1760)

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 Rank Show. We've got wide receiver
ranks for Week six. I'm Chris Welsh and joining me
as always is Pat Fitzmorris and Andrew Erickson, some pretty
high rankers. This week we're gonna be talking about our
top thirty six wide receiver ranks, some names in between
helping you guys make some of the tough decisions. We're

(00:22):
also we've got some giveaway stuff we're going to be
talking about, and as always, we give a little shout
out on our weekly ranks contests that we do every
single week. We have the weekly ones and this week, Yes,
Andrew Erickson did good. Do good on this show like
I predicted, Yes, FITZI did good. The boys we got
to give some flowers to our dear friend Derek Brown

(00:44):
for finishing number one in week five ranks FITSI Derek
Brown is also top five on the show. So how
this works is it's like an elimination. I think one
of you guys is going to get eliminated at the
end of the season and Debro is going to have
to join the show or it'll be me and then
you know, Ericson, you can host, which probably people would want.
So FITZI, what do you Yeah, what do you guys think, Debro?

(01:06):
FITZI will start with you, Debro one. You ended up
finishing thirty two, FITZI, so you know, no small order there.
Fantasy Pros are rocking in the accuracy contest.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, although you know, Jeff Propes is going to snuff
up my torch pretty soon to get Debro on the
ranking show at this rate. So I guess whoever's following
the primer this year has to be doing pretty well
because Debro is throwing out some crack advice.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, he's going nuts here. But Ericson, you get the
flowers for this show. You did finish seventeen, So again
no small order there. Your articles kind of laying people
out in the betting side, and here the primer actually
working very well for Debro. But shout out to Ericson
and seventeen. I think, like we were talking about this
soft air I had predicted for some reason, I felt

(01:51):
that you were going to rank highest on this show,
and it had to do with Wattle and Waddle definitely waddled.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Out, Yes, Jale and Waddle being a little bit higher
than consensus. On definitely helped give me a boost in
the rankings. But that's all the past. Again, it doesn't
matter anymore. No one cares what we did last week.
We care about getting it right for week six. So yeah,
just got to Readebros Primer this week and then all
finish in the top five.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, I'm just gonna do that. Remember when I was like, oh,
I'm I'm the one of the best tight end rankers gone,
that's gone, by the way, the number one tight end
ranker in the world. Andrew Rickson, You're just You're the
tight end whisper now, So there you go. So that's
how that's gonna roll today. So giving the top three
though we're talking about us, it wasn't just Derek Brown
the top three in the accuracy contest. So again, debro

(02:35):
go check out the primer. What a better promotion for it,
ever than for him to finish. I think he's finished
in the top two twice already. He's four over the
whole season, and he finished one last week. We also
had Matt Harmon. Matt Harmon finished from Yahoo finished two overall,
and Brad Beatson from Bandit Football finished three. So Deebro
Harmon and beats in all finishing inside the top three.

(02:58):
So shout out to those guys. Shout out to these
guys here on their rank And if you guys want
to check out where the ranks are every single week,
go to fantasypros dot com slash rankings. You listening probably
don't care as much about the accuracy contest outside of
if you want to dial up some of the weekly
ranks based on your own preferences of the people that
rank the highest, you can do that. You can play
around with it, or you can just check the full

(03:19):
consensus fantasypros dot com slash rankings and you can see
how it moves and shakes throughout the week. Before we
get into the wide receivers, which we're just about to do,
We've got a wide receiver for you to win some
awesome free autograph stuff because this is your chance to
win a signed AJ Brown Eagles jersey for free, courtesy
of our friends over at Pristineauction dot com. All you

(03:40):
got to do go to fantasypros dot com slash contest,
complete the form, then you can do a couple different things.
You can download the Fantasy Pros app Leaver review on
the podcast. You can follow us on ex Instagram, TikTok,
and Fantasy Pros and you can do all of those
things and they all give you more entries. We'll be
announcing a winner right here on the podcast. So if
you're watching, on you to make sure you're subscribed and

(04:01):
turn on notifications so you are alerted when new episodes
are up, and so you can take aj Brown home.
I think he wants you to take him home. He
wants to be anywhere with Philadelphia, so he wants to
be with you. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Does the jersey that happen comes with some sort of
book to read?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
It comes very clean. It comes very clean and unused.
Like you know, he only had one or two targets
in the game and a book. Maybe some tears, I
don't know. Really, you look good behind you, ericson good
little aj Brown behind you.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Yeah, I'll rock AJB every day.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Like you to wear it, like you to wear it
and catch more passes and aj Brown. All right, gentlemen,
let's get into this. Let's take a look at the
big board for wide receivers in week six. The big
board looks as such, Puka Nakua coming in at number one,
followed by a Monroe, Saint Brown, Jackson Smith and Jigba
Drake London, Ameca Eggbuka and Roma Doonsay. As your top

(04:54):
six seven to twelve, We've got Jamar Chase, Davante Adams,
George Pickens, Deebo, Samuel Xavier Worthy, and Garrett Wilson. By
the way, shout out to we did have the bounce
back Jamar Chase game, so that was probably very good
for Ericsson as well, which helped in the ranks because
he really bounced back kind of back into the good graces.
And yeah, actually we didn't even have this planned here.

(05:16):
I just want to get quick quick takes on this, FITZI,
what is your take in any potential improvement for Jamar
Chase and or t Higgins with Joe Flacco now is
the quarterback and looking like might be as early as this.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Week, potential improvement if Flacco can tap back into that
good yolo Joe Flacco. We were seeing the last couple
of years where he was just cutting it loose and
throwing into danger a lot of the times. But if
you have a receiver with a quarterback like that throwing
into danger, you don't care. You just want your guy
to get those downfield catches. So that's a potential bright

(05:49):
side thing. But then again, like Flacco has kind of
been showing his age, the forty year old Flacco averaging
what five point one yards per pass attempt this year
so far. And the bad thing is like part of
it is that he has just crumbled when under fire
this year, and the Browns have allowed I think, like
the ninth highest pressure.

Speaker 4 (06:09):
Rate in the league.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Well, the Bengals have alloted the fourth highest pressure rate,
So I don't think that's going to get any better
for Joe Flacco. It's just, you know, whether he can
do a little bit better under fire.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
I have my dots.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Erickson, You've had the trust, you had the belief in
Jamar Chase Browning has looked atrocious. Does SLACKO do anything
for you for Chase moving forward? Do you think it's
still just a volatile situation.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
I think it's still volatile situation.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I don't really think it's like that massive of an upgrade,
to be totally honest. Joe Flacco can't move and he's
playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL.
Like that's the big problem. It's why I got benched
with the Cleveland Browns because he couldn't move anywhere and
he was stuck behind a terrible offensive line. So I
think it's just the Bengals are just so desperate, like
they're trying to look at any other option, and for
some reason they couldn't get James Winston, like that was

(06:56):
like the one thing that could have saved this team,
or if Joe Burrow Samowa to come back from this injury.
And because the acquired Joe Flacco means like Jamis Winston's
not going to be a Bengal at any point, so
I am not optimistic. I would be talked about Chase
as a cell high off the monster game against the
Detroit Lions. Keep in mind, get that game was at
home where we talked about that in the show last week,
where Jake Browning's splits are much better playing at home

(07:19):
versus on the road, and the Lions lost like three
of their starting defensive backs in the game, and then
you started Chase getting all that production, especially late in
the fourth quarter. So on the road this week at
Green Bay, where he's gonna have like five seconds or yeah,
he wishes he had five seconds to throw half a
second to get the ball out to a guy he's
never thrown two before. Assuming that Joe Flecco even starts

(07:40):
this game, we don't know when he's going to be
the starter, If he'll start this week, next week, whatever.

Speaker 5 (07:45):
Yeah, I'm not really optimistic.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
And guess Chase is gonna have big games here and
there because he can make an eighty yard play out
of anything. But it's going to be a very, very
rocky ride. And I'm not nearly as bullish on him
this week as I was last week.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
I'd have really liked Russell Wilson together. I would have
been one I thought that had worked well. But it's
Joe Flacco all right. To the wide receivers we do
want to talk about full on. Roma Dunsea comes in
at wide receiver six this week on ECR. FITZI, you've
got him at seven, Ericson you've got him at nine.
So you guys are all in the top ten camp, well,
a tiny bit lower than consensus right now, FITZI, what's

(08:19):
got you guys so jazzed up about Roma Dunza this week?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, and I've been a little behind consensus on o'donsay,
I think most of the year, but I'm getting a
little closer to consensus. I mean, amazing what a good
offensive system can do for a talented player, isn't it.
Romo Dunesay is pretty clearly the lead receiver in the
Bears offense. Like before the season, it was sort of
hard to tell how things were going to shake out
with the Romo Dunesa Dj Moore combination.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Well, o'dunza is the main man.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
He is a twenty five point five percent target share
and forty two percent air yard share. They are only
seven players in the league with a higher air yard share,
and two of them are out for the year, Molik
Neighbors and Tyreek and one of his name, Calvin Austin third.
So I do feel pretty good about o'doonsay, and I'm
excited to see his matchup with rookie Trey Amos, who's

(09:09):
playing pretty well for the Commanders. But I do feel
like Odunzay should win that matchup.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Ericson a. Doonsay at six is a pretty big marker.
We've got a four star matchup rating, which we've got
the matchup ratings over on the Fantasy Pros Rankings page.
Only two wide receivers in the top twelve have that rating.
Tim and actually the next guy we're going to talk about,
and it's also the start sid is given an A plus.
Do you buy that A Donsay is in one of

(09:37):
the best spots and is going to absolutely eat this week?

Speaker 5 (09:39):
I did.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
He's in a very good spot. But like I pointed
out last week when I talked about the Chargers wide
receivers against the Commanders, who ended up having the most
producted day for fantasy it was Lamaconky. Now that wasn't
because he saw a boatload of targets because he caught
a touchdown, but the slot receivers in that specific matchup
between Lam McConkie and Keenan Allen, they were the most productive,
and we saw Quent Johnson put it first dud of

(10:01):
the season as the more perimeter wide receiver. So that's
the only thing I'd push back with Odoonsay Again, he
has run hot on touchdowns seeing all the high value
targets in this offense, and that's always in play regardless
of where you line up. But the Commanders are more
of a slot funnel defense. So if Chicago does something
different where Ben Johnson during the bie Weeek was in
the lab thinking, hey, let's use Luther Burden in the slot, like,

(10:23):
let's play this guy. So this is a Monday night game.
Luther Burden could have a breakout game in this in
this matchup. That's the only thing I would say. And
that could take technically like you know, water down Odoonsay,
but it would only be a one week blip and
you can go right back to Odunza anyway.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Regardless, he's a top ten receiver.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
The only other guy we're going to talk about in
this one is Xavier Worthy, who comes in at ECR
wide receiver eleven. You guys are a little bit on
opposite ends.

Speaker 6 (10:48):
Fitz.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You've got him at fifteen, so you know we're still
in the same general space, but it is the difference
between a wide receiver one. Obviously in a two Ericson,
you have him at ten, a little bit higher, so
you're kind of designating like he is an absolute must
start fifteen kind of is the same. But also the
last week without Rashi Rice, So enjoy your Xavier Worthy
is why you got them? Ericson, let's start with you.

(11:09):
You're a little bit higher on Worthy.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
Is is this also.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Going to be the last week. I know this is
about this week in general, but I'm curious that what
you think this matchup is good for him? And do
you also kind of think this is going to be
the last week we're really really relevant on Xavier Worthy
with Rice coming back, I.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Think that he stays relevant.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
I think what you see is the Taekwon Thornton's, the
Marquise Browns, like those guys really fade into the background. Mahomes,
those guys are so inconsistent anyway, I'm sure that Mahomes
would rather throw to somebody else, like a Rashie Rice.
But I think Worthy has been solid over the last
two weeks since he's come back from that shoulder injury.
He has two hundred and fifty air yards over the
last two weeks, seventeen targets, twenty two percent target share.

(11:49):
He also has three en zone targets, but hasn't scored.
And it's kind of funny because every other Chiefs receiver
has scored, like Thorton scoring touchdowns, Markus Brown is scoring touchdowns,
Trevis Kels' scoring touchdowns, but Worthy hasn't found the end zone.
So I like him a lot in the spot to score.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
The Lions.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
We just talked about it. They don't have anyone left
in their secondary. Everybody's hurt. Did you read It's hurt,
Taron Arroold's hurt, Clille Dorsey's hurt. And that was the
reason why we saw the Bengals often start to score
points in the fourth quarter because their secondary pieces started
getting injured all over the place. So against with against
the Lions depleted secondary. Because every Worthy loves to take
the top off the defense, I think he's slaved up

(12:25):
some big plays, so I like starting.

Speaker 5 (12:27):
Him as a backhand wide receiver one this week.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Your fifteen rank is it relative to like you're a
little bit dicey on him? Is is it just a number, baby?
Is it just a number that doesn't really necessarily mean
anything and you still really like him? What's your take
on Worthy this week?

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (12:44):
I think I'm going to have to move him a little,
move him up just a bit because of all the
Lions cornerback injuries. I mean, they do have three cornerbacks
out for this game, which could mean a feast for Worthy.
But it still does seem like the Chiefs passing attack
is sort of an ensemble affair, like some Worthy, some
Travis Kelcey, some Taekwon Thornton, some Juju Smith Schuster. I

(13:07):
do agree with ericson that, you know, we like Worthy
more now than we will in a week when Rashid
Rice is back, although Worthy is going to remain fantasy relevant,
and I do think it's the guys like Juju Taekwon
Thornton who you won't be able to use even in
larger leagues. But you know, in the two games since
he's been back from the shoulder injury, Worthy had one

(13:29):
pretty big game against the Ravens five for eighty three
receiving plus two carries for thirty eight yards, then just
kind of a soso game against the Jaguars last week
six for forty two. So I don't know, Maybe he
has the big explosive play or two this week against
this injury depleted Lions secondary like we saw the Bengals
have late in that game last week. But yeah, I

(13:51):
just I don't know what the target share is going
to look like this week.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
All Right, we got a lot to cover in wide
receiver twos and threes, so we're going to just get
right into what why receiver thirteen through twenty four looks
like because we got a bunch of names to hit.
Tedoro and McMillan comes in at number thirteen, Cortland Sutton
at fourteen, Jalen Wattle top fifteen, Quentin Johnston, AJ Brown,
Marvin Harrison, DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman at twenty, followed by
Keenan Allen, Brian Thomas, Stefan Diggs, and Lad McConkey. That

(14:17):
is your top thirteen through twenty four. Let's start with
Quintin Johnston. You guys are more than welcome to also
throw a little bit of a ladd into that discussion
as he comes in at number twenty four. Here, Fitzy,
you've got him at seventeen. Rickson, you've got him at
twenty one. Fitzy, let's start with you. You're I mean,
you guys are both the tiny bit lowered Erickson quite

(14:37):
a bit more. Quentin Johnston didn't have the big week
that he's been having. I would say none of the
wide receivers though, took over like everyone's like, oh lad
can bounce back like he got a touchdown. But the
volume looked similar. It just looks similar across the board.
Just Quentin Johnson was a little bit less involved. Do
you think that was more the anomaly, or do you

(14:58):
think you know he is maybe in line to start
losing some shares as the season goes on.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's the thing we don't know. I think it's gonna
be volatile week to week because Quinton Johnston has to
share targets with lad McConkie, Keenan Allen. We're gonna get
some unpredictable weekly results with all of these guys. In
his first four games, Quentin Johnston averaged nine targets a
game and had at least seven targets in each of
those games with then in Week five only four targets,

(15:26):
Keenan Allen had nine, lad McConkie seven. And now the
concern is that the Chargers passing game isn't going to
be as effective without Joe Alt and that's sort of
what we saw against the Giants last week. Justin Herbert
was under duress for a lot of the day, had
only one hundred and sixty six passing yards, averaged five
point seven yards per attempt. So I do think the
Quentin Johnston emergence is real. He does seem to have

(15:48):
fixed his hands problems, But the big picture view of
Qj's fantasy value has to factor in the target competition,
and at least in the short term, it as to
factor in the Chargers' offensive line problems too.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Ericson, You've got him in twenty one. I got a
sneaky little suspicion that maybe Ladd McConkie has a number
that is higher than twenty one. But you tell me,
I'm not looking at your ranks. I might be completely wrong.
What do you think about Quentin Johnston? And how are
you ranking out the three Chargers wide receivers, so.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
You actually are wrong. I have Ladd ranked last. I
just have Johnson ranked the highest, but I'm lower on
the entire Chargers receiver room, I guess compared to consent
because I'm concerned about this offensive line, like this is
a major issue and you lose multiple pieces of these
cluster injuries cause a lot of concerns for me. With
Justin Herbert again seeing it last week, all the receivers

(16:37):
kind of across the board a little bit down, and
I guess with Johnson specifically, I do think that his
role overlaps the least when it comes to like Laddin Keenan,
because those guys are using a little.

Speaker 5 (16:46):
Bit more in the slot.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Johnson obviously the big playmaker, obviously has been a focal
point in the red zone. But if there are offensive
line issues and Justin Herbert has to get the ball
out quicker, well, Quentin Johnson has the fewest target. It's
when Justin Herbert has been under pressure this season, he
has the lowest target chair of the three receivers. He
also has the highest average depth of target on the team,

(17:08):
So if Herbert doesn't have time to sit back there
and throw the ball deep to Quinn Johnston, then he's
not gonna see as many targets. So I think that
it's they're all kind of in that wide receiver two territory.
Like that's why I have him outside the top twenty
but wid wide receiver twenty one because I think we're
probably best getting one guy that like hits in a
big way and the other guys are probably more like

(17:29):
floor plays, just because I think the overall ceiling is
a little bit capped, just based on the injuries. Now
it is Miami, so there's always this chance that, hey,
the s defens is just so bad it doesn't matter.
And I'm really interested to see what Greg Roman does
offensively where Okay, we know this is a really bad
run defense, but we're also down to our third and
fourth string running backs. Like, does it make sense for

(17:49):
me as the play caller to be like, all right,
let's feature these Jags in a good matchup or do
I just give my ball to Justin Herbert because he's
the best player on the team and he's going to
win this game. Because yes, Miami is worse against the run,
but I think that they can be pretty easily beat
through the air as well, just a matter of how
teams have attacked them. It's been on the ground mostly,
so that's something I'm interested to seeing. And I'm again

(18:10):
I'm not saying that I'm super confident with the Chargers' rankings.
I'm not sure if you guys feel different, but I
feel like I am hedging a little bit ranking them
all like in the twenties.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
I think that's the problem at the end of the day,
is the hedge that you play. Luckily, they're all kind
of like relevant ish, but it seems to be like
two of the three guys every single week. I think
this is a good matchup for Quentin Johnson this week.
We'll see where it spans. Out between lad and Keenan
Allen aj Brown? Can you trust him? That feels like
the weekly question. It's getting deeper and more and bigger

(18:42):
and super chats and everything everybody wants to know about
AJ Brown? Can we start them? Can we start him?
He is now fallen to ECR Wide Receiver seventeen, but
you two fine gentlemen are still ranking him higher. Ericson
You've got him at fourteen and we're going to go
back to FITZI though, because Vitz you still have him
as a wide receiver one. You've got him at eleven
this week. I have a feeling this might be about

(19:03):
the matchups some but you tell us Davante Smith a
big last week. Can AJ Brown get back into style?

Speaker 6 (19:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:10):
It does seem like a get right game and maybe
a squeaky wheel game for aj Brown, who seems less
than thrilled with his role so far in the Eagles
offense this season, Like he's currently wide receiver in forty
three in half point PPR Fantasy scoring and the guys
just behind him, by the way, Calvin Ridley, T. Higgins
and Jamison Williams talk about a disappointing group early on

(19:34):
in twenty twenty five. But yeah, the Eagles are not
as run heavy this year as they were last year,
but they're still the sixth run heaviest team in the league.
And passing game just hasn't always looked great under new
offensive coordinator Kevin Pattillo. I talk to an Eagles fan
and they will complain for an hour about what the
Eagles offense has looked like this season. But aj Brown

(19:56):
does have a twenty five point nine percent target share
so far in a thirty six point three percent air
yard share, and the matchup against the Giants is a
good one. Giants have given up a league high seventy
four receptions to wide receivers, They've given up the second
most receiving yards to wide receivers, and their collection of
cornerbacks Paul Sinadibo, Andrew Phillips, Cordell Flott just not all

(20:19):
that fearsome.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Erickson. Is this the situation like we talked about with
Jamar Chase where it was like boys just been getting bad.
He's got to get it this week, and if he
doesn't get it, then maybe we're going to start, like
really really dropping ranks. But the matchup also looks pretty
pretty good here. What do you think, what's you take
on AJ Brown this week?

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, the volume has been there for in the last
two weeks, Like he's had eight plus targets in back
to back game, So this isn't a week one occurrence
where he's just not getting targeted at all. So the
opportunities are there from they're trying to get him the ball,
and even in a tough matchup last week against Patricks
Ertan like he was able to do produce something. I mean,
he did a lot more than some receivers do when
they go up against the number one cornerback in the NFL.

(20:59):
So I also think that they missed him on a
couple of deep shots and one of the routes that
he run downfield, Sertan was not covering him. Jalen Hurts
took a shot and just missed him. So that's unfortunately
always something that tends to happen with AJ Brown at
times when Galen Hurts is your quarterback. But I think
that this matchup against the Giants is really great, especially
when it comes to some of these kill shots downfield.
Giants are terrible against deep passes. Everybody knows it, Like

(21:21):
there's a reason why the Saints. One productive play they
had was a deep shot for Cigi for a long touchdown.
Like that's really all they did through the passing game
with Spencer Rattlers, So they're going to take shots with
aj Brown. He had a good game against the Giants
last year, five catch for eight nine yards and a touchdown.
I also think that the Eagles, it seemed weird last week,
how throw heavy they came out of that offense because

(21:42):
they were winning that game and you look up and
think that, oh, Jalen hurts through thirty eight times, so
they must have been trailing, but they weren't like this was, Hey,
we're going to throw the ball more. And I think
that the narrative has been guess the receivers want to
get more involved. I think that's part of it. But
I don't think Saque Barkley's one hundred percent healthy. I mean,
he's been on the injury report leading up to this game.
He only had six carries in the game against the
Denver Broncos. So if he is hampered by this knee

(22:05):
injury that he's dealing with, we don't know if he's
going to play or not. I think that they could
lean on the passing game a little bit more and
you're going to see a J. Brown and continue to
see targets. So he wants to play bullyball. He wants
to dominate the opposition, and I think against the Giants
little brother in the NC East, I think the Eagles
can finally give him what he wants.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
We've got two wide receivers in this range where you
guys are on complete opposite ends.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
It fits.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
He's a little bit closer to ECR. But Ericson these
kind of become about you. You're really really big on
is Michael Michael Pittman is wide receiver twenty this week fits.
You're a little bit lower than that at twenty two.
But Ericson, you're up at thirteen. You've got him higher
than a J. Brown, who were just talking about. So
let's start with you, Michael Pittman. This week, very very
high rank for you. He is in that must start territory.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
I just think that he's been a guy that has
produced every single week this season. And I understand that
a lot of it has come down to the touchdowns,
but if you look at Michael Pittman in his career,
this is what has been missing, right, has been the touchdowns.
He's had a ton of targs, He's had a ton
of receptions, and sometimes we get years where the regression
finally starts to cash in, where okay, finally, now Michael
Pittman finally can score touchdowns. Now, did I think it

(23:11):
was gonna be Daniel Jones that was gonna unlock this
side of Michael Pittman. Not necessarily, but he's looking for
him in the red zone constantly. So I don't think
there's nothing broke with Michael Pittman. So I'm not gonna
fix it. Like he's been a top twenty wide receiver
basically every single week except for the game he played
against the Denver Broncos. He's gonna keep scoring touchdowns. I'm
not afraid of the Arizona Cardinals, who look like they're
going in the complete opposite direction of a team. So

(23:33):
twenty three percent target share, that's leads the Colts, and
I think what Michael Pittman is putting to rest is
last year's what he did on the field. He was
playing with a broken back last year, like clearly not
one hundred percent, and that's why you saw these other
guys pop up. There was a Josh Downs versus Michael
Pittman discussion. I think that that there was some legitcy
to that because Josh Downs is a really talented player
in his own right. But I think the alpha when

(23:54):
it comes to the receivers is still Michael Pittman, and
I don't think he's gonna stop scoring touchdowns.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
So that's why I have him ranked his top fifteen
guy fits.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
You got him a twenty two. Is that alpha rank?
Is that an alpha rank to you?

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
I mean maybe it's not in alpha rank. I have
Pittman in several leagues on him, starting him totally confidently,
no thought to putting him on the bench. It's just
that Pittman ranks twenty fifth and receiving yards right now
among wide receivers, and he has four touchdowns in five games.
But he has managed to score four touchdowns in five

(24:29):
games despite only four red zone targets so far. So
he's definitely out kicking expectations with regard to touchdowns. In fairness,
maybe he should be doing a little bit better in
receiving yards.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
Like two of the last three Colts.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Games, one they won by twenty one points, one they
won by thirty four points. And they scaled back the
passing volume a little bit in those blowout victories. But
just generally, whenever I'm assessing receivers for rankings, I always
consider target counts, reception counts, receiving yardage to be at
little more a little more real than touchdown counts. And

(25:04):
you know Pittman's target counts so far just okay, he's
averaging seven targets a game, so it's not like he's
been a super high volume guy. I just I don't
I think he's closer to being wide receiver three than
a wide receiver one.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, makes sense. Last one in this range Brian Thomas.
What is Brian Thomas? Is he a one or three
in fantasy? I don't know. At this point. He is
ECR wide receiver twenty two. This is another opposite end
fits you're a couple spots lower, and Ericson, you haven't
met wide receiver seventeen. This is a trust category. So
I just want to go back to Ericson. You start
the positive narrative here, top twenty wide receiver, Brian Thomas.

(25:44):
You're still in.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yes, I'm still in because I've seen improvement from Brian Thomas.

Speaker 5 (25:47):
Over the last two weeks.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
First three weeks in the season, his catch rate was
absolute garbage, basically catching under fifty percent of his passes.
Not look like he was on the same page at all.
Whichever Lawrence. Now, I think that they're still taking signs
and still developing that chemistry. But the last two weeks
he has a seventy percent catch rate. He had a
season high in yardage last week. Britton Strange is on
an injured reserve. Like the picture is being painted for

(26:09):
Brian Thomas, you know that he's going to continue to
improve as he's seeing opportunities in this Jaguars offense. He
needs to be the guy. We're still not getting the
Travis Hunter. Okay, he's gonna play on offense, only he's
still kind of playing on defense and they're still trying
to figure out how they're going to use him. There's
no figuring out who the number one wide receiver on
the Jaguars is and who's going to leave the team
in targets this week against the Seattle Seahawks. His name
is Brian Thomas Junior. So that's giving me confidence. I

(26:31):
think he's building that confidence as well with what I've
seen over the last couple of weeks, so I think
that he's a top twenty guy. Get the matchup against
Seattle's tougher. But I just believe that the guy is
talented and I think that he's on the right trajectory.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
If it's with him being at twenty five, do you
feel pessimistic about him or is this where you're going
to like paint a positive narrative, Like does a number
one wide receiver on the Jags matter at this point anymore?
Plus a bad matchup? You tell us Brian Thomas twenty
five for.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
You, I did move him up, so now I'm in
line with ECR at wide receipt twenty three because of
the Brenton Strange injury. So we know how good Brian
Thomas is, but he and Trevor Lawrence just haven't really
clicked yet. I am optimistic that BTJ is going to
get back on the same sort of track he was
on last year. I just have a lot of faith
in Jaguars head coach Liam Cohen as an offensive choreographer.

(27:20):
And someone mentioned this that last year when Cohen was
with the Buccaneers, like someone asked him how long it
took his offense to start clicking and performing the way
he had hoped it would, and he said it was
about a month. And now we're about a month in
with the Jaguars, so maybe we'll start to see his

(27:40):
offense bear a little more fruit. But so far, Thomas
has only one game with more than seven targets. He's
only had one game with more than fifty five receiving yards.
He still hasn't had a touchdown catch, although he did
have a touchdown run back in Week one, and Ericson
said it even though you wouldn't have thought it with
the way Baker Mayfield diced him up last week. The

(28:03):
Seattle pass defense is pretty good and the Seahawks have
one of the better secondaries in the league, so I
do think it's kind of a tough matchup. Maybe the
target share, we finally see BTJ get more than seven
targets with Brenton strange out, but I'm just still sort
of pumping the brakes until we get more positive signs wide.

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Speaker 1 (30:00):
Receiver threes twenty five through thirty six. We start with
Zay Flowers at twenty five, followed by Calvin Ridley, Devonte Smith,
Chris Olave, Jamison Williams, Jacoby Myers, DJ Moore, T. Higgins,
Keon Coleman. Final three is Romeo Dobbs, Rashid Shaheed and
Matthew Golden. Can Zay Flowers exist with Cooper Rush. He

(30:21):
comes in at twenty five this week. That was kind
of his rank all the time. I think that floats
out there. He's ECR twenty five fits. You've got him
at twenty nine. Ericson you are on ECR fits. Let's
talk with you here, you're a little bit lower here.
What what's your take on Zay Flowers for Week six?

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, I'm just concerned about what the Ravens offense is
going to look like with Cooper Rush at quarterback. Presumably
he will be the quarterback again. The Ravens gone by
in week seven, and you know, maybe the Ravens, said
Lamar Jackson, again just to make sure he comes back
as healthy as possible in week eight.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
But can the Ravens move the.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Ball well enough to get Flowers more than the five
targets he saw last week? To his credit, he gave
us a floor game. He caught all five of those
targets for seventy two yards. But the odds of getting
a Za Flowers ceiling game with Cooper rushiat quarterback seem
pretty remote. The odds of getting a touchdown not great.
So I just I think there's more of a floor

(31:23):
here than we normally get with Zay Flowers when Lamar
Jackson is at quarterback.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I actually think that's like a good term to use,
the floor in the ceiling, because was that five for
seventy two the absolute ceiling for Jay Flowers with Cooper
Russia Erickson or do you think there's more to be had?
You've got him in an ECR, So it's not like
you're like pounding the table and having a parade for
Zay Flowers or anything like that, but you know you're
at like twenty five top of the ECR or top
of the wide receiver threes. What's your take on Zay

(31:48):
Flowers this week?

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Well, I would say that if he scores on that
long catch, then that would be a ceiling, would be
five for seventy five in a touchdown. But I think
that that's the best case scenario with say Flowers. And
if we think back to our debates during the offseason
talking about Za Flowers, we had concerns about his touchdown
upside with Lamar Jackson as the quarterback. So I think
on one end of the spectrum, because they're going to

(32:12):
be facing negative game script, you have a situation where
a Flowers actually may see double digitarget double digit targets,
which wasn't always a thing when Lamar Jackson and Derek
Henry were just running the show. So I think that
there is that floor opportunity with Flowers in a full PPR,
but he's probably not going to catch a touchdown. He
has to rip off of these one or two big plays,
and that's probably more on him than the actual quarterback. Now,

(32:33):
he's a really talented player, so that's always in his range.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
I think that he's.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Probably that wide receiver three where there are two games
on by unless you really feel really great about your
other options, like am I gonna start Hassan Haskins over
say Flowers?

Speaker 5 (32:46):
Like, probably not.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
I don't think I'm there yet with Hassan Haskins, But
if there are some other receivers that, oh, I really
like this guy's ceiling this week, I think we're going
to lean towards that because I know Zay is probably
more of a floor play than a ceiling plague. And
last week he had five for seventy two. I only
ran twenty one routes. The Ravens had no offensive place
because they played so bad in the Texas Town to
the ball the entire time, so that's still in play

(33:07):
because they're playing the Los Angeles Rams this week, which
is not again a really tough matchup for their defense.

Speaker 5 (33:12):
So the Rams are going to score a ton of points.
So yeah, that's it for me and Flowers.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
All Right, I'm going to call an audible. We're calling
an audible on a guy on a sheet here because
we did not have him. So we'll get some live
reaction just because it just hit me looking at this
player and it didn't hit me before. Is Covin Ridley.
Covin Ridley jumps in at ECR twenty six and I
just wanted to get your guys take on of so
Apologies for calling the audible without the full prep here,

(33:40):
but he's a guy that like not only wasn't on
this list, but was being talked about as a drop candidate,
and it just it did occurred to me like him
coming in as one of the highest wide receiver threes
has a lot of people back in the good graces.
So Fitsy, maybe we can start with you, what is
your take. I don't know where you have him ranked here,
but what's your take on cow Ridley? Like do you

(34:01):
buy last week as being him back in this offense
moving forward?

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Where is Ridley in ECR twenty six? Oh jeez, no,
I've got a wide receiver thirty four, Okay, I mean
like he was having some major drop issues early in
the season, and yeah, good game against the Cardinals last week.
Although I think, you know, he had that big forty

(34:27):
seven yard catch late to set things up. I just
I'm not sure if I totally buy it yet with
Calvin Ridley, he had had no more than fifty seven
receiving yards in any previous game. He'd been thirty or
fewer receiving yards in three of his first four and
just really having major issues with his hands to the

(34:48):
point where like he was briefly benched I think in
week four. So yeah, I'm not quite ready to put
Calvin Ridley back in the circle of trust.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yeah, that's kind of the big question. And is he
back in the circle of trust? Erickson? So he is
twenty six. The rankers have him high, FITZI does not.
Where are you at?

Speaker 3 (35:08):
I think I'm a little bit more optimistic because we
finally saw a good game from Calvin Ridley. I know
that came late into that contest against the Arizona Cardinals,
but this is something that I've been trying to keep
in mind with two players last year, the high rookie
quarterbacks that start out the season really bad veteran guys,
and he was. And these were players I was comparing
to Calvin Ridley was Cortland Sutton, who was terrible with

(35:30):
Bonix to start the year last year. And Terry McLaurin
was also equally bad with Jayden Daniels to start the
year last year. So are we seeing now, Okay, Calvin Ridley,
He's played a month plus with cam Ward. Now they're
far any starting to gel, So I'm a little bit
more open to this being real. And they're also playing
the Las Vegas Raiders, so it's not a defense that
I'm afraid of in any capacity, especially when you look

(35:51):
at how you beat the Raiders. The Raiders kind of
throw everything at to kind of stop the run. So
I think that you could see an opportunity where they're
passing in alc i am in or he's had any
to kind of like be the Alph in this offense,
and it's looked like that was potentially happening. And now
Calvin really is he you know the undertaker meme, right,
He's coming back from being you know, left off from
au Manor. You know, I was telling people, yeah, cut

(36:11):
really at au Manor because he looks like he's the
guy not the case here last week, and I think
that you could see something positive again for really, So
I don't really disagree with him as a wide receiver three.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
And by the way, really might be super matchup sensitive.
Like started with a nightmare matchup against Denver in week one,
then the Rams in the Colts to you know, neutral,
to slightly tougher that average matchups. You know, God also
struggled against the Texans, and then week five gets the

(36:42):
injury depleted Cardinals secondary and now he gets a pretty
soft matchup against the Raiders. So maybe there is more
hope than I'm giving him credit for with that wide
receiver thirty four ranking.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
So what was your rank Erickson wide receiver thirty two?

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Thirty two?

Speaker 2 (36:59):
No, much more optimistic than Yeah, you set us up,
you set us up.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
You're like more optimistic, like two spots higher that I
was expecting, like twenty four twenty.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
All right, all right, you did get more optimisms, all right,
he laid out this whole thing. You're like by the way,
I'm thirty two, so I'm six spots lower than that.
That's a fun one. All right, this is going to
be an interesting one, Ridlely. There's gonna be a lot
of questions about Romeo Tobbs. There's gonna be a lot
of questions about this week. You have the touchdo in
touchdown bonanza. He comes in at ECR thirty four this week,

(37:32):
so that is a starting wide receiver. You guys are
a little bit split fits. You've got him at forty. Ericson,
you've got him at thirty five. Rickson's a little optimistic
about Romeo Dobbs, So Ericson, let's start with you. Let's
hear about Dobbs here thirty five. He is a starter?
What say you? Are you trusting that touchdown equity that
he had that he can kind of continue holding some
fantasy relevance.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
That's been his role since he's been on the Packers.
He's always kind of been Jordan Love's go to guy
in the red zone. Now, it's not going to catch
three touch downs every single week, but he's gonna catch
another touchdown because he's facing the Bengals. That defense is
just terrible. Yeah, I think that's very firmly in playing
you catch touchdown. It's pretty easy to finish as a
top thirty six wide receivers. So I think if you're
hurting a receiver or flex, you want an upside play.

(38:14):
I think Rummy Dobbs can do that, you know, not
just bad players. I don't think score three touchdowns like
Dobbs does, so I think that he is a fine
start as a backand wide receiver.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
Three.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I know that the Packers like to spread the wealth,
and I think that if Dobbs doesn't end up delivering,
it's just because, oh, well, Tucker Craft and Josh Jacob
scored all the touchdowns, and if that's what beats me
with starting Dobbs, and so be it. But this is
a great matchup for him against a terrible defense, So
I'm not going to overthink it. When Jordan Love and
the Packers have the highest implied team, if this Packer
seems going to score the most points, like, you probably
want the guy who has the most red zone equity

(38:46):
among their wide receivers and your starting lineup. So that's
the kind of way I see it. But I do
understand that the floor probably isn't super high just because
he doesn't see a ton of volume.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
FITZI you got him at forty. Do you have Matthew
Golden high or Romeo Dobbs higher?

Speaker 2 (39:01):
I believe I've got Yeah. I think no, that's okay.
I'll check it real fast.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
I think I have Dobbs one spot higher than Golden.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
So it's close enough that it's like it's not like
an immediate like, oh, it's clearly this guy that is interesting.
You have Dobs ahead, so love to get your breakdown
on Romeo Dobbs a little bit lower. You got it
more of like a flex play this week in a
three wide receiver setup.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I mean I have no beef with anyone who's starting
Romeo Dobbs this week.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
I just don't be too aggressive.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
If you have several good flex options, I would just
say not to chase the three touchdown game that Dobbs
had against Allas in Week four. Like, the target distribution
in Green Bay is just so unpredictable, and I think
there's a pretty good chance the Packers get a run
friendly game script as fourteen and a half point home
favorites against the Bengals, And if that's the case, maybe

(39:54):
Jordan Love throws fewer than thirty passes, because we know
that if you can Mett lafleur is can ta to
just run it thirty five times against an overmatched opponent.
So plus, our guy deebro has pointed out that Dobbs
is normally much better against man than zone, and the
Bengals don't especially play man at a high rate. I

(40:16):
think they're just kind of middle of the pack as
far as that goes. So yeah, Dobbs is a reasonable option,
but I wouldn't elevate him over other guys just because,
like you'd think, the touchdown equity is going to repeat.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Last up here, a wide receiver that is not in
the thirty six that should be. You guys both put
this player, so we're gonna nix him, but Terry McLaurin.
Terry mclatin's rank just so low because of the injury stuff,
But that would be a player that would be up there.
You guys both put a couple different names on. Don't
you each pick one? FITZI will start with you wide
receiver that is not in the top thirty six that
you think should be this week.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
I think Juwan Jennings also falls into that category. For
Ericson and I like, and that's the thing. He'll obviously
be top thirty six if we know for sure he's playing.
I think that's still up in the air as of
this recording. But for me, another guy would be Keyon Coleman.
He's wide receiver thirty nine in ecr Ivan wide receiver
thirty two. I just I always think there's upside with

(41:13):
the Bills passing game, even though Josh Allen likes to
spread it around.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Erickson, you got a name you also, you had Juwan Jennings,
you had McLaurin in there, But you got one other
name that you think is a top thirty six guy
this week that is not ranked that way.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Well, I actually wanted to talk more about Juwan Jennings
because I'm just very confident that he is going to
play this week and that Ricky Piersall probably won't play
this week. So what we saw from I mean, Jennings
has played one healthy game all year and he went
five or eight nine and ten targets with a touchdown.
So he's kind of the forgotten forty nine Ers wide
receiver because we really haven't seen him put it all

(41:47):
together aside from one week. Because he's been so banged
up with several different injuries. But Tampa Bay they don't
have anybody like we're talking about the Lion secondary. The
Buccaneers secondary is also depleted by a ton of injuries.
So this is a team that every year Todd Bowles.
Their defense is a pass fuddle defense. They sell out
to stop the run and then teams throw all over them,

(42:08):
just like we saw last week with Seattle and Sam Darnold.
So I'm very confident that I'm starting Jennings like this
week as a top twenty guy. If he's out there,
especially Piercel's not kill is definitely not going to be back.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
Shanantai.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
That's a long shit that he plays, and last year
against the Buccaneers, Jennings seven catches for ninety three yards.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Rashid Chihed was the other name, by the way, since
Ericson wanted to talk about Jennings, which I got no
problem about talking about Juwan Jennings, but Rashid Chihed another
one of those guys to take a look at that's
in the thirty six. There you go, You guys want
to check out who is in the top thirty six.
As everyday changes in these ranks change. You can also
see who Ericsson, Debro Fitzi who they've individually got as well,
just by going to fantasycros dot com slash rankings. If

(42:50):
we did not answer a big question in your wide
receiver world, well guess what. We got a weekly start
and sit live stream right here on our YouTube where
you guys can come and ask specific start and sick questions.
Thursday's three pm Eastern so on the podcast. Get on
over to YouTube YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros. Make
sure you're subscribed. Click on the notification so you'll get

(43:11):
a little buzz when we go live and we can
answer anything that we didn't hit for you. That's gonna
do it. Wide receiver ranks in the books for week
six four Andrew Ericson and Pat pits Morris. I'm Chris Welsh.
We'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 6 (43:23):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast.
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
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Speaker 4 (43:34):
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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 6 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1760)