Week 7 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1775)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, Friends of Welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is
the Fantasy Football Podcast Week seven Wide Receiver Ranks. I'm
Chris well She joining me, of course, is Pat fitz
Morris and Andrew Erickson the Undertaker. We are here to
break down the top thirty six on the Fantasy Pros
consensus ranks for wide receivers, go a little bit deeper
talking about some other names. We've also going to give

(00:22):
you a little update on the accuracy contest and more.
Who knows, who knows what other fun is in store
for us? FITZI you said, it's what is it? Even weeks?
You are incredible on odd weeks, a little bit of
a struggle on the even weeks. Is that essentially what's
happening in the ranks? This weird oddity for you?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That is, I think my best even numbered week is
like seventy second or whatever I just had, and my
worst odd week is like twenty second or something. Yeah,
So it's an on again, off again thing for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
If everybody doesn't know, we obviously we do the weekly
ranks contest. Everybody in the industry is doing this. It
helps power the expert consensus ranks, but also it's you know,
it's a marker for to see where we're at Ericsson
odd or even weak for you, or no week, all
the weeks, no week.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
There's no tendency. Actually, the tendency with me when I
have bad weeks is when I spend extra time on
my rankings, because.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
I just make them worse.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
So it's the extra tinkering that I think that I'm
doing to get an edge that ultimately is my downfall.
So you know, we put in the work early in
the week, you make a few tweaks based on new
information and injuries, and then you just walk away.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's like when you walk away, it's like when you
took a test in school, Like whenever you change the
original answer, you always change it to the wrong answer.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's inevitable or how about more applicable? Have you ever
made a DFS change in a lineup that ever worked
out well? Like the first you know, you did the
first iteration and it has no real process and has
nothing good to it, And then you start doing some
work and you're like, well, I'm going to take this out.
It's always a failure. And that's essentially what happens with
the rank going.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
To take out Rico Dubtele. I like, it's just I
got to put someone else in, and.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I guess you had Rico Dawel and Pentathlon.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
This week is basically you just got to shoot from
the hip.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah yeah, Okay, Well we'll see where we're shooting from
the hips on this one. We're going to go through
the big boards on the top thirty six, so we'll
go kind of in tiers, the tiers of wide receiver ones, twos,
and threes. If you're new to this show, that'll be
the structure of it. First, let's do give some flowers
out and some shouts out to week six ranks in
the accuracy contest. Chris Raven is an absolute monster. I

(02:30):
believe this is the second or maybe third top three appearance.
Chris Raybon finished first from the Action Network, So shout
out to Chris for the number one overall finish. James
Emrick Wilson from Armchair Scouting finished two, and Jeff Ratcliffe
from FTN finished three. That is your top three Week
six most accurate rankers. We do have to give a

(02:52):
shout out. It's not to fits, it's not to ericson
Mike Freakin' mayor Mike Mayer with the tenth over Mike
is just I guess we could I feel like we
have say Mayor, Mike sounded weird. Mayor is an absolute
monster when it comes to any type of ranking, whether
it's baseball or football. He got the tenth overall rank,
and if you didn't tell, by the top of the show,

(03:14):
no one on this panel was anywhere close. This was
my consistency, by the way, is just consistently mid. I'm
always like in the seventies and I have one position
that I was incredible at as like top twenty in
wide receiver. This week, probably because of Kendrick Bourne finished
a little bit higher than you guys, we all kind
of stunk. We pick it back up because it's an

(03:35):
odds week, so you know, FITZI is ready to absolutely
rock it. But ranks Accuracy contest. You can check out
the scores over on Fantasy Pros just search accuracy and
you can do the weekly or the full one if
you care about that stuff. But again, Chris Raybron, James
Emick Wilson, and Jeff Ratcliff shout out to you guys
and even Mike Mayer before we start up. We've got

(03:56):
some giveaway action for you, and we're actually going to
have a little of a announcement because we've been doing
the Jamar Chase autograph jersey. Well on this show, I'm
going to give you the winner and we're going to
start the new contest. So first, the winner of the
Jamar Chase signed Bengals jersey giveaway is McCoy. That's it,
that's all I have. Just their name is McCoy. My

(04:17):
friend will be kind of tacting you to get you
that prize, So stay on the lookout and congratulations again
on winning from McCoy. But we are not done because
if you now want a chance to win a signed
AJ Brown Eagles jersey for free, it's probably super clean.
He's not really on the ground or doing much in
the games, so this might be game used super clean
courtesy of our friends over at Pristine Auction. All you've

(04:38):
got to do is head over to fantasypros dot com
slash contest, complete the form neither download the Fantasy Pros
app leaver review on the podcast, follow us on the socials, x, Instagram,
TikTok all at Fantasy Pros, and you can do all
of them, because all of them will get you more
entries will be announcing a winner right here on the podcast,
just like I did for McCoy. So if you're watching
on YouTube, be sure to subscribe, turn on those nodies

(05:00):
so you don't miss episodes, and to claim your prize.
Because McCoy's not watching and he never comes in and
claims it or responds to us, then I don't know,
maybe Fitz he's going to get it, or ericson Erickson
was a big pro Jamar Chase guy, so he might.
He probably deserves to keep it. So there you go.
That is our contest. Let's get to the ranks big

(05:22):
board top twelve for this week. We've got a mon
Ross Saint Brown at the tippy top number one, Jackson
Smith and Jigba at two, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Davante Adams,
top five, Drake London, Roma Dune Se, Nico Collins, George Pickens,
Deebo Cortland, Sutton and the returning Rashi Rice right in
at number twelve. These are your Chalky wide receivers, of course,

(05:43):
but there are a few things to talk about, particularly
DeVante Adams. You two fine gentlemen opposite spectrums with one
big hot take. He is ECR wide receiver number five
this week. He actually moved up over the last day
from eight to five, and fitz A, you have him
at eight, but ericson number one stunner for you. You've

(06:06):
got DeVante Adams as your top bill for this week.
So let's start with you. What's got you so hyped
with DeVante Adams? Is it simply Pooka could be out.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I expect Pooka Nikoua to not play in this game,
and even when he's played alongside Nikoua the season, DeVante
Adams is second and expected fantais points per game. He
leads the entire NFL in red zone targets.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
He is thirteen.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
He has caught two red zone targets. So all of
the usage for Devanta Adams suggests, Hey, this guy should
be a wide receiver one. And now you're taking pook
Nakua out of the offense, focusing all the touchdown appeal,
all the volume to DeVante Adams against the Jacksonville Jaguars,
which I think is a fine match. I mean, part
of the reason why Adams kind of struggled a little
bit with Matthew Stafford has been he's been drawing a

(06:48):
lot of the top cornerback coverage, which is kind of
freed up Pooko Nakoua in a lot of spots. But
this is a thesis with the play with Devonte Adams
during draft season, was Hey, what happens Ificua gets banged up?
Where are we gonna rank Adams that week? I'm ranking
him number one because all the usage is there for him,
And now you're taking the number one guy and expect
the fatasy points per game off the field, and now
you have the number two guy as the number one

(07:10):
in the offense attached to Matthew Stafford who just walks
out of bed and fuels Fantasy wide receiver ones. Like
that's what all Matthew Stafford does. So DeVante, yeah, turbo
smash this week. Number one from wide receiver for me, I.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Like it number one overall now, FITZI, if I don't
know how you ranked it. If you ranked it like
with Puka, maybe questionable. If Pooka is out, is there
any potential jump or are you just going to kind
of keep it a little bit lower than consensus.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
So this does factor in Pooka being out. And when
I was done ranking wide receivers. Admittedly, I kind of
stepped back for a big picture of view and was
sort of surprised I didn't have DeVante ranked a little higher.
And it is possible he gets like fifteen to sixteen
targets this week, in which case he's probably gonna smash,
But also possible we see en upticking targets for guys

(07:56):
like Jordan Whittington, who I know is a popular waiver
ad and like the leagues I'm in where it's twenty
roster spots and he was one of the only interesting
guys still available on at wide receiver, and he's got
all these wide receiver injuries. Maybe Tyler Higbee gets more
targets this week. I guess one of the things that
kept me from ranking Davante higher was that, as Ericson said,

(08:19):
he is underperforming his expected points. He's only averaging seven
point two yards per target. Davante adams career yards per
target is seven point eight, and in his heyday with
Aaron Rodgers, he had a couple of years where he
was over nine yards per target, And I think yards
per target is a better number to look at with
Adams than yards per rout run. Since playing with a

(08:40):
target hog like Pooka is going to suppress yards per
route run. But the fact that Devana is at seven
point two yards per target suggests that, I don't know,
maybe he's not quite the player at age thirty two
that he was in his twenties. You know what a
drag it is getting old, and I can tell you
about that firsthand. So that's why I'm not quite as
over the moon as Ericson is.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Rashi Rice returns to action, and I think that's gonna
be a big question. I think for the most part,
if you've had Rashi Rice, you're probably throwing him back in.
But I think there has been some trepidation. I saw
it in early week shows that I've done with a
couple of live streams, which by the way, also shout
out to our twitch when if you guys ever want
to check those out. People are still a little bit
uncertain about Rashie Rice, and this rank doesn't really create

(09:24):
or present any uncertainty. At wide receiver twelve, I think
this is roughly right, FITZI, you are in the same
spot you've got him at twelve. Rickson's a little bit lower.
So Fitz, let's start with you on the positive. You're
putting him as a wide receiver one, putting him as
a wide receiver two like Erickson's got. You guys are
still presenting this scenario where it's like we're all starting him.
But FITZI, you seem to think like this is a

(09:45):
full go. I think he's going to jump right back
into it, like first target of the game is going
to Rashi Rice. That's where Ericson and I do our
first catch bet over on betting pros for a guy
like Rashii Rice. But talk to us about him at
wide receiver twelve for you, I.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Do think he's going to step right back into sort
of the high volume role he had before Welsh And
by the way, there was an interesting thing numbers on
the Rashi Rice investors and what their records are through
the first six weeks, and the vast majority, I think,
like three quarters of teams with Rashi Rice have losing

(10:22):
records right now. I'm lucky enough to be getting back
in a league where I'm five and one. I'm pretty
excited about that. But I didn't ever see Rice ranked
highly enough in the draft rankings, And it was kind
of my respect for Xavier Worthy that damp in my
enthusiasm for Rice a little bit. I just figured that
when Rice was smashing in twenty twenty three and early

(10:43):
twenty twenty four before he got hurt, Worthy was either
not around twenty twenty three or not fully established in
the offense yet early twenty twenty four. I've had a
change of heart. I think those guys are going to
compliment each other perfectly, and the Chiefs they're happy to
butcher you with the passing game right now, Like their
passing rate over expected against the Lions last Sunday night

(11:06):
was plus thirteen point five percent. And I think Rashid
Rice just steps right into double digit targets. And we've
seen how well those little wide receiver screens and quick
hitters to Rice work. Like Andy Reid has a bag
full of that stuff and it all works pretty splendidly.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
We did these articles in the draft season. It's like,
you know, our favorite targets and must haves, and I
did one and the original edition of it had Rashie
Rice in until we started to get the word about
the suspension, and then there's the uncertainty, and I took
him off of that. I'm super pro Rashie Rice on
the field and what he does ericson what do you
think you're a little bit lower than consensus. It's still fine.

(11:46):
You're like high to mid wide receiver two here, You're
just are you taking a little bit of a safer
route because of what Worthies been doing, what Hollywood Brown
has been doing, There's maybe more weapons in the offense.
What do you think about Rahii Rice for this week?

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, I think there are still a lot of risks
involved with Rashie Rice. Again, I have him ranked where
you're still going to be starting him, but I'm more
in the wide receiver to territory. It's a different offense
from the last time we saw Roshi Race be the
wide receiver wanting Zaberworthy was a rookie who had played
a couple weeks. Markis Brown was on injured reserve, so
he wasn't a factor in this offense either. So all
those guys are pieces in this offense. And we've seen

(12:21):
twice with guys coming back from injuries not play full
snap shares for the Chiefs. Javier Worthy of the season.
He came back. Yes, he had a productive game, but
he only played fifty nine percent of the snaps. But checko.
When he came back last year after he was on
injured reserve, he played thirty seven percent snaps. Remember, Rushia
Race hasn't played a real football game in over a year,
like an entire calendar year. So to kind of just
throw him ba out into the flames, right Raiders double

(12:41):
digit targets like, maybe that happens. I think that's really
more the glass half full type of optimism, which in
fantasy we obviously always love to gravitate towards the upside case,
is enough to warrant starting him, especially in the matchup
against the Raiders. I mean they run a lot of
zone coverage. I mean that's where Rice just absolutely dominates,
like Matt Harmon's recepts and perceps in ninety ninth PERCENTU

(13:02):
in terms of success rate versus zone coverage. So the
matchup is there for him. He didn't play the Raiders
last season, but two years ago. Again it's the same
defensive coordinator. He had double digit targets in both games
against Las Vegas Raiders, but that was also on a
full ALLOTMENTO snap. So the coaching staff earlier in the
week was talking about how they're still not sure, like
how much Rice is going to play, So maybe we

(13:23):
do get more concrete information and if it's like, hey,
like he's full go of not limited, right sweet, Like
I'll move them up closer to ECR. But right now
I want to get more news about how he's being deployed.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, it's obviously an interesting conversation because Rice was taken
you know, probably ninety five percent of leagues as a
guy that was probably your wide receiver four or five.
So people legitimately are going to have questions of like
Rashid Rice versus Jayalen Waddell or Brian Thomas, and you know,
the rank is going to make this interesting and maybe
you want to be cautious if you've got really good plays.
I feel like Hetero and McMillan versus ra she Rice

(13:55):
is going to be like a wildly popular question. And
those are some pretty good guys.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, that's a good one to bring up. So when
Fitz mentioned Rice managers who are have losing records, I
am one of them. I have Rice in one league
and I'm two and four. I also have teedtro McMillan
in that league, and I'm going to probably start Rice
over Tea Mac this week.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Okay, So it's a good commitment that you're doing.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
All right.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
So some of those wide receivers that I end up
might being a question versus Rice, those are going to
pop up here in Wide Receiver two. So let's go
take a look at them. Big board for the Wide
Receiver two starts with Brian Thomas up at thirteen, moving
his way back up Jaalen Waddle at fourteen, DK metcalf,
Lad McConkie at sixteen, Xavier Worthy, Ttoroha McMillan, Chris Olave,
Stefan Diggs at twenty, aj Brown, Keenan Allen, Michael Pittman,

(14:37):
DeVante Smith. I meant to ask this with Rice, just
just a quick hit here, FITZI, do you think the
Xavier Worthy seventeen rank is too high relative to a
Rishi Rice twelve overall rank? Do you think they're both
going to eat here or is one going to suffer?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm in line with that. I've got a wide receiver eighteen.
I think it's just I think it's Hollywood Brown, Taekwon
On Thornton, Juju Smith, Schuster who just kind of fall
off the map.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Erickson, what do you think is is ever Worthy too
high with Rashi Rice returning.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
I don't think that he's too high. You know, Worthy
can always get there in one big play. But I
kind of feel like, however it's ranked this week, it's
going to be very different next week, right. I think
we're gonna kind of like one outcome where it's like, well,
Worthy just ended up cooking and Rice didn't play nearly enough.
We got to move Worthy back up, or it's like,
oh Rice is totally dust and Worthy now he's going

(15:29):
to be a wide receiver three and Rice is going
to be back in the top five. So to me,
it kind of looks like closer to like a hedge
ranking where the ranker is really unserent. I think that
this is a pretty like we want information. Like the
first thing going to write up in my recap article
with the chiefs is, well, what did Rice do right?
Like like how are the receivers deployed? What was the
target share? Like, because we just don't know what it's

(15:49):
going to do.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
See. I completely agree with that. I feel like it's
very hedge ranking, and I think it's something where like
when you do your ranks, it's this, But then if
we start to put to the test, and maybe I'm wrong.
When you start to put put to the test, I
think people are gonna have a hard time starting over it.
Like Tedo McMillan, we'll bring back to him. He was
number one on this list to talk about in the
wide receiver twos. He's EACYR eighteen. I feel like if

(16:11):
someone asked me that question, I look at that rank,
I'm going I'm going to go Teto McMillan over Xavier Worthy.
You two are both lower than consensus on Tetro Erickson's
at nineteen fifty. You're the lowest at twenty two. So
what's your take. Fits Let's start with you on tech
being just barely in that wide receiver two territory, and
then if you want, you can also do the like
Teto versus Worthy thing.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, definitely Worthy over tet Road McMillan. For me, McMillan
is going to be shadowed by Sauce Gardner this week,
who has allowed ten catches on throws into his coverage
this season according to PFF and Bryce Young is averaging
five point eight yards per past attempt this season. So
you know, we're not wildly confident in the target delivery.

(16:55):
Mechanism that Tetroha McMillan is relying on here. So yeah,
I'm kind of recalibrating expectations for McMillan. I'm starting him
in the leagues where I have him, but I don't
feel great about it.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Erickson, what do you think is he going to get
sauced completely? And that's why McMillan just needs to keep
moving down.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, I think that the Sauce matchup probably limits the
ceiling for Tetroa. I think that he's probably a floor play.
I mean, besides, last week he'd seen eight plus targets
in five straight games. I do also think that if
Jalen Coker does come back, I think that does actually
kind of matter a little bit because I think that
Coker can demand targets and if he's getting a more
favorable matchup against some of the Jets other corners, especially
in the slot where the Jets have been absolutely cooked

(17:35):
the last couple of weeks without the other Michael Carter,
I think that you could see Coker kind of have
like a sneaky game here. Maybe it takes a little
bit off for t Max. So I think he's a
floor play. But yeah, Sauce Gardner is one of the
most positive think coming from the Jets defense.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, what you're hoping for I think with t mac
is that, you know, maybe you're hoping for more than
when George Pickens had two catches against Sauce when he
matched up against him. One of those catches went for
a long touchdown where he just kind of beat Sauce
on that play and made a nice catch.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
So yeah, I think two with mcgillan. I mean, he's
been really great in man coverage this season. You know,
he's not necessarily this like oh my god, he's gonna
be opened by like five yards. Like he can win
like contested catches similar to way to George Pickens. So
this isn't he's going to get blanked by Sauce Garden,
but like it's going to be a battle. Sauc will
win some of them, but so will Tetro McMillan. And
if the Caroenlina Panthers are more focused on running the football. Again,

(18:27):
what is the ceiling attached to Bryce Song I think
it's more of a four for sixty's kind of like, hey,
I'm happy with that type of performance. That was what
he had against the Patriots when it was a lot
of Christian Gonzalez covering him. So I think that's kind
of more realistic of what his projection is this week.
And then obviously you're happier the ends up finding the
end zone, which until last week he had not.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Speaking of the Patriots, I really wanted to talk about
this Stefan Diggs after the last two weeks, going into
week six, it really looked and felt like this is
the number one in this offense. And then of course
reality check the stats went down. Could have had a
better day had he not got that stupid push off
offensive pass interference call. Not that I was paying attention

(19:05):
because I had the receiving yard prop, but like he
didn't have the day that we were looking at or wanting,
and I kind of thought he might suffer a little
bit in the ranks. It's not really wide receiver twenty Fitsy,
you've got him at twenty, but Ericson you're even a
little bit higher. Was this just a matter of all?
I mean, Booty had one of those random big games
to Mario Douglass, you know, had that huge big play.

(19:29):
I feel like sometimes in those offenses there's like a
you know, this guy's not open, get to digs. Everybody
he seemed to be able to Drake May, just get
it done. Everybody was open and find those big spots.
Do you think Stefan Diggs Ericson is in play for
another return of being a pseudo wide receiver one.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yes, I very much do. To your point, if he
had made that fifty one yard catch, if that accounted,
then no one would really be complaining about, you know,
his lack of a box store a box score. And
when you're attached to Drake May, good things are going
to happen. Stefan Diggs has been one of the highest
grade receivers for PFF this season. He's been a fringe
wide receiver three for most of the year, and he's
called zero touchdowns right like, you're gonna have upside If

(20:09):
Drake May's gonna throw for two or three touchdowns every
single week, you know that they can't run the ball
effectively in the red zone. So I think there's tons
of upside. And when you look at the Titans matchup,
you know who's a number or dead last dvo against
number one wide receivers, It's the Tennessee Titans. So if
Mike Vrabel and the Patriots have their way with Tennessee
and can go up and down the field at will
against a team that just fired their head coach. Then

(20:31):
I think Diggs are gonna get opportunity to find the
end zone and be very productive. So I got no
problems going right back to Diggs fits.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
He's always a smile on your face when we talk
about any Patriots. Just I know you're just your Drake
may takes or just floating around in your head like
little messages and stuff. And he's looked incredible and he's
made Digs looks really good. I just I wanted to
consistently or continuously see more consistency out of him. He
just got a lot of the other wide receivers involved.
You don't seem super worried. I think people are going

(20:57):
to have a concern. Am I comfortable to go back
to the Digs? Well, and you're saying yes.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Part of the smile was Ericson mentioning the possibility of
the Patriots going up and down the field on the Titans.
It's like, huh, would Mike Vrabel have any incentive to
want to go up and down the field on the
Tennessee Titans just maybe, but yeah, So with the two
straight hundred yard games for Diggs and then kind of
the letdown last week with three for twenty eight against

(21:24):
the Saints, Buddy did have that big.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Play wiped out. Drake may just throws to the open guy.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
He is really good at that, and last week he
found some big plays with Kaishon Booty and Damio Douglas,
who also had another big play wiped out. Like da
Mario Douglas had the long TD catch, but he also
had another long TD catch wiped up by kind of
a dubious penalty. So some weeks it's going to be
Booty and guys like Damario Douglas showing up. Some weeks,

(21:50):
Hunter Henry is going to pop off, but very often
Stefan Diggs is going to be the guy getting open
because Stefan Diggs is still really good.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
The question is going to continue week in and week out,
and I don't know if it'll keep rising. But AJ Brown,
AJ Brown and actually Digs swapped before we started the
show on ECR as a reminder, the ranks change is
more analysts end up putting in their ranks, and he
dropped from ECR twenty to Eser wide receiver twenty one,
so he is below Digs. But Fitzi, you've got a

(22:21):
little swap here, because you've got Digs at twenty, you
have AJ Brown at nineteen. Ericson, you have pushed AJ
Brown outside of the wide receiver twos. He is wide
receiver twenty five. So let's the start of wide receiver threes.
So Erickson, let's kick it off with you. Are you
just officially done with the AJ Brown business? Because there's
a lot of wide receivers people are going to have

(22:41):
that are going to be able to make better decisions,
and it feels like this could be the week AJ
Brown is going to hit a lot more benches.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah, this is a bad spot for AJ Brown against
the Minnesota Vikings on the road. The Vikings have allowed
the fewest fantasy points per game to perimeter wide receivers,
and that's where A. J. Brown has been primarily lining
up in this twenty twenty five Eagles offense. The issue too,
is that, I mean, he's been seeing volume. So it's
not a matter of well he's not getting enough targets. Well,
he is getting enough targets. He's just not being efficient,
Like he's out squeezing the football. He's not creating yards

(23:10):
out to the catch, Like this is what's frustrating fantasy managers.
And when you just look at him versus Devonte Smith,
Demante Smith is ranked behind AJ Brown every single week.
But Smith has outscored Brown in four of four of
the six games they've played together this season. And it
should actually five and one if you count, or if Smith,
just if Jalen Hurts doesn't miss Smith wide open down
the field against the New York Giants at the Thurday Night,

(23:32):
it's almost a clean sweep of DeVonta Smith out producing
AJ Brown. And we just look at this particular matchup
against the Vikings. I talked about how they're really good
against perimeter receivers, Well they're not as good against slot receivers,
and that's where DeVante Smith has been used in this offense.
He's a career high in terms of his slot rate.
Bikings have allowed the fifth highest percentage of their fantasy
points to wide receivers. Yes, it's already a low number,
but when they are giving it up two receivers, it

(23:53):
has been through the slot. So I'm just gonna rank
Dvante Spith, thehead of a J Brown this week, because
that's worked more often than not throughout the entire season,
and in this particular matchup, I think it prefers swift,
or excuse me, it prefers for Devonte Smith. And when
they played the Vikings two years ago, it was Smith
that went nuclear against this Brian Florest defense four cats

(24:13):
of one hundred and thirty one yards in a touchdown
on five targets, and AJ Brown had the same amount
of targets but very inefficient, low yardage total. So I
think we should get more of the same, just more
frustrating AJ Brown.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
It's what do you think about AJ Brown? You got
him above digs, You've got him in the teams, but
there's definitely frustration. I think anytime we talk about AJ
Brown there's no optimism anymore.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Oh yeah, there's frustration.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
And I know I'm going to be getting questions on
Sunday morning about starting alec iamanor or Sterling Shepherd or
Jordan Whittington over AJ Brown. And you know, I'm going
to tell people to roll with AJ Brown like because
as Ericson said, the target counts have been there for
AJ Brown. Target counts in his last four games ten nine,
eight nine, and yeah, a couple of those games were duds.

(24:57):
He had two catches for seven yards against the Buccaneer,
five for forty three against the Broncos, but last week
six for eighty against the Giants.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
Not great, but not bad.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
And who would have thought that this Kevin Patila offense
would kind of wreck everyone in the Eagles offense except
for Dallas Goddard, who's like the new Antonio Gates apparently.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
And I know the matchup against the Vikings.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Isn't easy, but like, I'm just gonna keep playing AJ
Brown because he's really good and it's been frustrating so far,
but I think A J.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
Brown is eventually going to pay off.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm gonna start AJ Brown if I don't have really
like decent options, Like that's the level. I'm at. Another
option that I think you can legitimately start over, especially
if Quentin Johnson is out. Is Keenan Allen. He comes
in at wide receiver twenty two. Fitz, you've got him
at twenty four. Ericson, you are the high guy at seventeen. Here,
I also would like to throw in because we're not

(25:52):
gonna well, I mean, he was already on this list
at sixteen, But throw in like Lad and how your
comparison are kind of weekly comparison of Ladding Keenan Allen Here, Fitzy,
we'll start with you. You've got him at twenty four.
I don't know where you have got Lad at Ladd
ended up being sixteen on this list. What do you
make of Keenan Allen versus Lad for this week?

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Yeah, so I have got Lad at wide receiver sixteen.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
And you would have thought last week, in a game
where the Chargers had to play without Quinton Johnston, it
would be a smash spot for both Keenan Allen ad
Ladd mcconkeye well. Lad smashed seven catches for one hundred
yards and a touchdown. Keenan Allen only four catches for
twenty seven yards on seven targets, and Keenan Allen only
played fifty six point three percent of the Chargers offensive snaps.

(26:38):
They just plugged rookie Tray Harris into Quinton Johnston's role,
so Allen wasn't playing in two receiver sets. That's kind
of what has me holding back in his ranking a
little bit. Like a wide receiver twenty four. I'm still
playing him unless I'm in an eight or ten team
league and I'm loaded at wide receiver.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
It's just I can't put a guy in my top
twenty if he's playing under sixty percent of the offensive snaps.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Erickson, I'm actually pretty stoked here to hear what your
take on Ladd is because you've got Keenan Allen at seventeen.
So where does Ladd compare to this conversation because clearly
you are team Keenan Allen right now.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, I think for me, I'm not as concerned about
the raw snap share because the routes really didn't dip
that much. We still at seventy four percent of the routes,
which is kind of what his status quo has been
the rest of most of the season because the Chargers
were running the football all over the Miami Dolphins. So
why do we need to put him out there when
he's run blocking Like the old man doesn't need to
run block, Like, get him off the field. Get these

(27:38):
young bucks out there blocking for Kimani Videll, Like that's
what we need to do.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
So young bucks like Will Disley, by the way.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, exactly, all the young bucks on one up those
massive holes.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Man.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
The Dolphins run defense is actually it's literally so bad.
But I like Allen still because he's still seeing again,
even the lowes snapshare, he still saw seven targets. I
think he's seen seven targets in every single game that
he's played this season. Still a chance that Quinn Johnson
doesn't play. He has a hamstring injury, so we know
those things can kind of linger, So we'll see what
his status is closure to week seven. But the Colts,

(28:12):
how do you attack them? Passing? Passing touchdowns? They've allowed
the second highest passing touchdown rate this season, and despite
the down game last week, Allen still had a bunch
of red zone targets. Like when Justin Herbert drops back
to throwing the red zone, who's he looking for? It's
Keenan Allen number thirteen. And that's why he was so
good at the start of the year. Because he caught
three touchdowns in three games. We knew it was gonna Okay.
Is he gonna be able to keep this up? Obviously

(28:34):
he hasn't had any touchdowns over the last couple of weeks,
but I think he gets back here. Colts defense, I
think overall, I mean the Colts. They don't have a
lot of corners left, like they've dealt with so many
injuries to all their different cornerbacks. They've allowed the third
most points to Fantasy wide receivers this season. So when
it's a good matchup, I know it can be you're
kind of throwing your hands up in the air a
little bit when it comes to some of these Chargers receivers.

(28:54):
I think we talked about them basically every single week
on the show, and it's always like, well, like, who'd
be like this week? But usually one or two of
them end up hitting, And I think that Allen, given
the matchup, is definitely worth starting as a top twenty guy,
especially if Johnson.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
You were Alan over Maconky though, right, No, I've allad
the highest. Oh yeah, where do you have lad? Fifteen? Okay?
Oh so they're like right next to each other.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Okay, So so I mean it's like they're all they're
all always like from fifteen to twenty.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah a week. Yeah, then that it feels like a hedge,
but it's like not because they all perform at certain levels.
And I think Lad is holding up not a trade show,
but like to me, I'm still a little bit in
the like good opportunity to move off of lad right
now because he's getting an extra benefit with Quentin Johnston
being out. But you know we'll end up seeing wide Receiver.
Three conversations coming up, But first, let's talk about our

(29:41):
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Speaker 1 (31:14):
All right, wide receiver three. The big board starts with
Jordan Addison. We've got Jamison Williams, Romeo Dobbs, Hello, Kendrick
Bourn at twenty eight, Wando Robinson at twenty nine, Jacoby Myers, T. Higgins,
DJ Moore, Matthew Golden, Rashid Shaheed, C. D Lamb. That's
a little bit of a placeholder rank clearly, and Josh Downs,

(31:35):
Romeo Dobbs. Romeo Dobbs is ECR twenty three. Fitzy, you've
got him at thirty three. Ericson you've got him at
twenty nine. You guys are both lower than consensus. I
would also like you guys to mix in a little
bit of Matthew Golden where we can. So Fitzy, let's
start with you quite a bit lower. He's still a
wide receiver three. So I guess ec arvers is where
you have him. It's a little bit relevant. But what

(31:57):
do you think I thought Matthew Golden started to really
show out this past week, kind of talked about him
when you and I did that Sunday show as a
player that like, you know, if you were in a
desperate spot. I'm definitely comfortable playing him. What do you
think about Dobbs this week versus Golden fits.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
It seems as if Romeo Dobbs ecr.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Is still coasting on the fumes of his three touchdown
game against the Cowboys in Week four, but he is
averaging five point six targets a game. His season high
in yardage is sixty eight yards. He's even in that
game against the Cowboys, Romeo Dobbs only had fifty eight
receiving yards with his three touchdowns. The Packers just spread

(32:34):
it around, and the Packers team pass rate over expected
is minus four point two percent, tied for seventh lowest.
They're a run heavy team and they should probably get
a run friendly game. Script as six and a half
point favorites over the Cardinals this week. So yeah, I
just I don't know if Romeo Dobbs is going to
be a wash in targets this week, because he really

(32:58):
never is. And I've Matthew Golden ranked wide receiver thirty seven,
Like there's an undeniable big play potential with Golden savaging
fifteen point one yards per catch and eleven point two
yards per target. That's great, but he has nineteen targets
in five games and hasn't had more than six targets
in any game this year.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Erickson, what do you think we thought it was going
to be Tucker Craft week? He got the touchdown, which
was nice, paid out, but you know, we didn't hit
some of our others. It was just an everybody week,
a little bit more of Matthew Golden. When do you
think about Dobbs versus Golden this week?

Speaker 3 (33:29):
I think that both guys are in that wide receiver
three kind of conversation. Hey, you need a flex play
with some upside. I mean, look, we see a Packers
player pop. You know, every week it seems usually it's
just Josh Jacobs because he's the one that kind of
bogarts most of the touchdowns. But you know, we've seen
Dobbs have a bunch of touchdowns in a game. He
has eight plus targets and back to back weeks. He
had a thirty five percent target share last week, and

(33:50):
he sees a lot of high value opportunities. So he
sees him in the red zone, he sees him downfield.
So although I agree with fits where yeah, the Packers
like to spread the ball out Dobbs the last two weeks,
you know, he has been the clear cut wide receiver one.
Duntavin Wicks is injured, so that could also play a factor.
I don't think the league Heath is necessarily someone that
they're trying to get involved a lot. So maybe that

(34:11):
does kind of raise the floor a little bit of
the guys like Dobbs and of Matthew Golden. But I
mean the floor basically said it after the game where
Matthew Golden they're talking about, hey, like, we're we gonna
get Matthew Old more touches. He's like, well, we're not
trying to force feed anybody. It's like, oh, great, like
things you absolutely love to hear. So, but that's just
how they run their offense. This is it from day

(34:32):
one now. They told us they don't like number one
wide receivers, so I think that they're all good enough
where they can get by, especially given the matchup against Arizona,
and Arizona's defense isn't one to be afraid of. So
I think wide receiver threes have some floors because they're
good players. Jordan loves a good quarterback, but chances are
only one of them is really gonna pop. And if
it's Josh Shakups scoring three rushing touchdowns, then you're gonna

(34:53):
be left hold in the bag, which and you probably
started someone else.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
It's literally like copy and paste the Jayden Reid conversations
to Golden and it's just like we're like, look all amazing,
he can do all this stuff, and they're just like,
that's cool. Here's four plays for you a week. And
you're like, oh, you know, you just get frustrated. Yeah,
You're like, okay, that's never gonna work. All right. This
next wide receiver, he's the new Juwan Jennings. It's Kendrick Bourne.

(35:17):
He comes in at wide receiver twenty eight. You guys
are not super high on him. I think the question
arises about Juwan Jennings, and as I said off air,
un told fifth Juwan Jennings he just might be done.
He's he's the Tim Robinson meme. He's like, I've got
fifty five broken ribs and fifty five twisted ankles and
he's just hurt. He's got an acidine amount of injuries.

(35:39):
It's comical when he's just like, they got like five
broken ribs and stuff. He's just like a decoy out there.
Kendrick Bourne has been a monster, but there are caveats
to it. Mac Jones makes him a monster. We haven't
seen it with Rock Purty, Ricky Piarsow coming back, especially
if Perty were to come back. There's that mixture. So
there's this big question. But Kendrick Bourne, is that a
couple of weeks where he actually it goes absolutely ballistic.

(36:01):
They're using him like Juwan Jennings was used in the past,
and he shows up at ECR twenty eight, Erickson at
thirty four. But Fitzy, you're down at thirty nine, so
you are not a believer in Kendrick Bourne. What are
your caveats to Kendrick Bourne? Here is this like Pearsol
is gonna play You don't know, brock Purty, Like, how
are you sparsing this out? Because this is a pretty
dramatic difference versus ECR, because ECR he is a wide receiver. Three.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
You say, no, I'm tentatively projecting all of Ricky piersall,
George Kittle.

Speaker 4 (36:32):
And Juwan Jennings to play John kittleback, you know, yeah,
and which case.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Suddenly Kendrick Bourne drops to number five in the target
pecking order behind Christian McCaffrey, Kittle, pearsall Jennings. I mean,
we'll see if all those guys play, and if one
or more of them don't, I'll certainly move up Born
in the rankings. And you know, maybe Jennings with his
five sprained ankles, it's the guy who misses this game.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
What Erickson? What do you think thirty four? You've got
him just barely touching in here. It's big, big games.
But you know, like, I'm almost worried more about Brock
Purty starting over Mac for Kendrick Bourne, then I am
like Kittle and pure Saw being back. That might sound silly,
but I think you kind of know what I'm getting at.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Yeah, I think that his ranking is going to change
dramatically based on who else is playing for the forty
nine ers. You know, Brian Thomas Junior, who would he
break out with during his rookie year. Wasn't Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
It was Mac Jones.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
And then what happened when they took away Mac Jones.
It hasn't been nearly as fun for Brian Thomas Junior
this year. So look, Mac Jones is kind of like
a beta Matthew Stafford in terms of making guys Fantasy relevant.
But this chemistry goes back to their three years spent
in New England, like three entire seasons Mac Jones with
Kendrick Bourne, like, this is a real connection that doesn't
exist with Rock Purty. Like, so the points are just

(37:47):
going to disappear if Rock Purty is the quarterback, if
Kittle's back, if Ricky Piersall is back. So I get
like why he's ranked here because you have to respect
the production that he's done. But if all those guys
are back, he's going to be buried in my rank.
And I think that he's not someone that you want
to play, and I think that you're really chasing points
with him than anything else, because the entire situation has
changed dramatically and.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
We're not like in a bye week bipocalypse or anything
like that situation either. So all right, two more wide receivers.
Let's hit Wandell Robinson. He is ECR twenty nine as
the number one FITZ. You've got him at thirty. Erickson,
you've got him in twenty six. But the Denver Bronco
is a tough matchup. Ericson. Let's start with you almost
to wide receiver two for you. Wandeal's been getting it done.

(38:29):
But does this matchup have you scared it all? It
doesn't really seem like it versus the rank.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Well not really because patrick' Tertan doesn't really go into
the slot that much and that's kind of where Wandeal
does most of his damage. So I mean, it's gonna
be a tough day of the office for litt Jordan Humphrey.
He's gonna get the Patchester Tan treatment, so he's not
gonna be I don't know, maybe Jack Starte just launching
up to him and he'll make all these fantastic catches.
So we'll see how that shakes out. I just saw
someone to add a little Jordan Humphrey in one of
my fantasy leagues. I just like, see how that works

(38:55):
out for you. But yeah, I'm not worried about the match.
Wandell has been the guy the last two weeks. He's
feen targets over the last two games without in the
leakue neighbors. That's the most of any New York Giants
wide receiver so or any receiver overall. So I think
that the flora is there for him. Does he find
the enzone like last week, probably not, but especially in
full PPR, I think that he's a wide receiver three
and yeah, I think I just I like the floor

(39:17):
that he offers as the number one guy, and I
don't think the matchup is tough for him without Certan.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Having Lil as part of your first name is like elite,
so Lil pap Fitzmorris, what do you think about Wandel
Robbinson this week? You're one spot lower than consensus.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
I mean, I do agree with Ericson that there's probably
a floor because who the heck else is Jackson Dart
going to throw to. But at the same time, like
I'm not as high in the matchup as Ericson is. Yeah,
Wandell's gonna avoid Patrick certain Junior most of the game
because he mainly operates in the slot. But Broncos slot
corner Jakwan Millon is pretty good too, Like he's allowed
fourteen completions for one hundred and twenty seven yards on

(39:53):
throws into his coverage according to PFF, and PFF has
McMillan greated the third best among the one undred and
eight corners to whom they've assigned greats, Like he is
grated better than Patrick Certan junior right now. So Robinson
is probably going to see a good number of targets,
but no guarantee is going to be able to do
anything with him.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Final one we're going to talk about is T Higgins
maybe back did Joe Flacco, did he become a lead again?
Did he unleash the wide receivers in his quick release
and getting T Higgins involved? Higgins has kind of been
a non starter for a couple of weeks or it's
just like absolute desperation, not that it's must play, but
EASR thirty one, we've got him in that startable range.

(40:32):
You guys both have him slightly higher fits You've got
him at twenty nine, Erickson's at thirty. So what do
you think about T Higgins now with Joe Flacco?

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, I mean, for me, it's just cautious optimism that
things are going to work out with Flacco, who now
at least has had a chance to learn the names
of his starting offensive lineman after being around for a
little while. Like we saw Tee Higgins have five catches
for sixty two yards last week against the Packers. That
was the highest catch in yardage totals. T Higgins's posted

(41:00):
this season, So yeah, it's I would say it's optimism,
but cautious optimism that like Higgins and Chase are gonna
start to click a little more with Flacco, not to
the extent that they would with Joe Burrow, but certainly
more than they were doing with Jake Browning Erickson.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
What do you think are you in any slightly higher
confidence level with T Higgins?

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Well, like Fitz said, it was Higgins basically best game
of the season when he had Joe Flacco as his quarterback.
I think this matchup is really interesting against the Steelers
because we saw last year that Pittsburgh is not afraid
to We're gonna put Joey Porter Junior on Higgins as
the bigger receiver between him and Chase, and then we're
gonna bracket Chase with multiple guys. So that gives Higgins

(41:44):
one on one opportunities where it's not a matter of okay,
is he opened. Flacco just be says, hey, it's man coverage,
T Higgins, I'm gonna make I'm gonna let my guy
make a play. And we know that Flacco likes to
do that, like he had the sixth highest tight window
throw rate last week against the Green Bay Packers, so
he wasn't afraid to try to jam it into one
of his receivers. Now, they did try to get the
ball really, really quickly, so that does concern me. If

(42:06):
they're trying to mitigate the pass rush from the Pittsburgh
Steelers that there may not be that many downfield attempts
for T Higgins, but they're gonna take at least a
couple of shots. So I think the upside case for
T Higgins is there, especially when we've seen him kind
of take advantage Joey Porter Junior in the past. There
was a game last year where he got flagged six
times covering T Higgins, So as a fantasy manager can

(42:28):
be pulling your hair out being like, man, this guy
had so many targets that didn't count because he was
getting flagged. I think that he's worth the upside case.
And if he dugs out, it's a Thursday night game,
so you can reassess your lineup and say, hey, okay,
I need more upside because te Higgins lay an egg
on Thursday night. But if he goes out and scores
twenty four or twenty five points because he finds the
end zone catches a long one, then you're feeling good.

(42:50):
You can play safe the rest of your lineup. So
I think, just strategically speaking, I think that he is
worth the dart throw this week week as a high
upside wide receiver. Three.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
The wide receiver ranks for week seven got you in
the books. There If some of the guys we talked
about or even the verses didn't answer your question, remember
we've got the Start and Sit live stream that's here
on YouTube Thursday's at three pm Eastern. Come with all
your questions. You can drop super chats, you can load
up on it. It's an hour full of answering all

(43:20):
of that. And if you're on the podcast YouTube dot
com slash Fantasy pro subscribe click notifications, get in there
and ask those questions. There you go. That's it. Wide
receiver ranks in the books. Go to fantasycros dot com
slash rankings if you want to follow along with the
rest of the ranks and all week long for Pat
Fitzmorris and Andrew Ericson. I'm Chris Welsh. We'll talk to
you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
If you love the show, the best freeway to support
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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Andrew Erickson

Joe Pisapia

Derek Brown

Thor Nystrom

Ryan Wormeli

Pat Fitzmaurice

Matthew Freedman

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Week 7 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1775)