WRs Rounds 3-5! Best and Worst Values in This Range (07/07 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fantasy Football Today - "WRs Rounds 3-5! Best and Worst Values in This Range"

Release Date: July 7, 2025

---

Introduction

In this episode of Fantasy Football Today, host Adam Aizer is joined by analysts Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg, and Heath Cummings to delve deep into the world of Wide Receivers (WRs) slated for rounds 3 to 5 of the fantasy football draft. The primary focus is on identifying the best and worst value WRs within this draft range, analyzing their Average Draft Positions (ADP), and providing strategic insights to help listeners dominate their leagues.

Overview of Wide Receivers in Rounds 3-5

Adam kicks off the discussion by outlining the WRs currently projected to be available between rounds 3 to 5. Based on early CBS ADP, the group identifies the following players:

• Round 3: Lad McConkey, Jackson Smith, Jigba T. Higgins, Garrett Wilson
• Round 4: Devonte Adams, Rasheed Rice, Marvin Harrison Jr., Tyreek Hill
• Round 5: Terry McLaurin, Xavier Worthy, DK Metcalf, Mike Evans, Travis Hunter, DJ Moore

Adam notes that while there are fewer WRs in this range compared to ADP projections from platforms like Fantasy Pros, the selected group offers a substantial mix of high-upside and reliable options.

Best Values in Rounds 3-5

Heath Cummings identifies Tyreek Hill as the standout value in this range. Highlighting his current ADP at 44th compared to Fantasy Pros' 24th position, Heath believes Hill is undervalued given his explosive potential.

Heath Cummings (06:02): "I think the favorite value is a value that does not reflect his current worth, and that's probably Tyreek Hill."

Dave Richard concurs, suggesting that Hill deserves a higher draft position due to his consistent high performance and the offensive improvements anticipated in his team.

Dave Richard (06:12): "I've got how... so I think those three guys should be at the top."

Both analysts emphasize Hill's ability to produce significant PPR points, especially as his team addresses previous offensive shortcomings.

Worst Values in Rounds 3-5

Conversely, the panel points out several WRs who may not offer the best value at their current ADP:

• Garrett Wilson: Despite his talent, Heath cautions against drafting Wilson too high, fearing that expectations may not align with his actual performance due to team dynamics.

  Heath Cummings (08:34): "And I like Wilson. I think he's going to have a solid season, maybe his best ever... drafting him that high just feels like it's a little bit of a reach."

• Jackson Smith (JSN): Jamie expresses concerns about Smith's role in his team's offense, suggesting that his high ADP may not be justified in a full PPR format.

  Jamie Eisenberg (09:26): "I think JSN is going a little too high. And this is full PPR."

• Mike Evans: While often considered a reliable WR, there are apprehensions about his performance given his age and recent team changes.

  Adam Aizer (14:18): "I never see him there though. So I, you know, I... would never take him at this cost."

In-Depth Discussion of Specific Players

Tyreek Hill

• ADP Discrepancy: Hill is discussed extensively due to his lower-than-expected ADP.

  Adam Aizer (06:44): "Tyreek's going 24th on Fantasy Pros. So what's the right spot for Tyreek Hill?"

• Potential Upside: The group anticipates Hill's role expanding with offensive improvements, positioning him as a must-draft in later rounds.

Garrett Wilson

• Role Uncertainty: Concerns about Wilson's utilization in his team's offense make him a risky pick in the 3rd round.

  Jamie Eisenberg (09:26): "I think JSN is going a little too high."

DJ Moore: The Fantasy Enigma

• Inconsistencies: DJ Moore is labeled as the "most mysterious man in fantasy football" due to his fluctuating performance metrics over the years.

  Adam Aizer (58:00): "But wide receiver 24 here... only twice has he been better than 26th per game."

• Potential Breakthrough: Despite past inconsistencies, there's a chance for Moore to shine if his team optimizes his role.

  Dave Richard (58:23): "But he... is it a bit of a mystery box?"

Best and Worst Value Analysis

The panel categorizes WRs based on their projected performance versus their ADP:

• Best Values: Tyreek Hill, Lad McConkey, and T. Higgins are highlighted as top picks due to their potential to outperform their current draft positions.

• Worst Values: Garrett Wilson, Jackson Smith, and Mike Evans are cautioned against due to inflated ADP and potential performance plateaus.

Strategic Insights and Conclusions

Adam Aizer wraps up by urging fantasy managers to prioritize WRs who offer the best upside relative to their draft position. He emphasizes the importance of understanding team dynamics, injury histories, and offensive strategies when making draft decisions.

Adam Aizer (37:35): "What do you think about the strategy of going? Well, I don't really know who I like in this group... you could go with the best passing offense."

The analysts collectively recommend focusing on WRs like Tyreek Hill and Lad McConkey in the mid-rounds while being cautious with higher ADP picks like Garrett Wilson and Jackson Smith. Additionally, they highlight the importance of monitoring team changes and player health leading up to the draft.

Notable Quotes

• Heath Cummings (06:02): "I think the favorite value is a value that does not reflect his current worth, and that's probably Tyreek Hill."

• Jamie Eisenberg (09:26): "I think JSN is going a little too high. And this is full PPR."

• Adam Aizer (58:00): "But wide receiver 24 here... only twice has he been better than 26th per game."

---

For fantasy football enthusiasts looking to refine their draft strategy, this episode offers invaluable insights into the WR landscape of rounds 3-5. By understanding the nuances of each player's situation, managers can make informed decisions to strengthen their rosters.

Transcript

[Adam Azer]

As a young adult, finding the right path to your future can feel overwhelming. It starts with Europe United's tuition free job training program, Career Pathways. If you're without a bachelor's degree but have a high school diploma or ged, you can get skills first training to succeed in the industries you're passionate about, all while earning a weekly educational stipend to offset basic expenses. From there, you you'll have access to internships and hands on experiences with Fortune 500 companies. And with Europe United's job placement services and personalized coaching and mentorship, you can put your knowledge, skills and most importantly, confidence into practice. Apply to Europe United today and take the first step toward achieving the career you want. Visit yearup.org to learn more.

[Dave Richard]

You all know I've been running an Airbnb for a while now and it's been a great way to make use of my extra space and especially when I'm traveling. And I've got some great trips coming up. First, I'm heading to Pinehurst, North Carolina for an annual golf trip with the crew. Always a blast. Then I'm swinging down to my old stomping grounds in Gainesville, Florida to catch a Gators game and slide into my favorite Mexican spot, La Tienda, for some steak tacos. What I love is that with the Airbnb co host network, I don't have to think twice about what's happening back home. I found a local pro who handles everything, creating the listing, managing bookings, messaging guests, even being there in person if anything comes up. I get to enjoy the trip, be in the moment and know everything's running smoothly. So whether you already host like I do or you've got a space just sitting empty while you're away, this is a total game changer. Find a co [e-mail] host this is fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play.

[Adam Azer]

Can you believe this?

[Dave Richard]

No, I can't.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

[Adam Azer]

Off to the races and he stays at his feet. This is gonna go the distance.

[Dave Richard]

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.

[Adam Azer]

Big week. Big week in the fantasy football world. Big week on the show. It's Wide Receiver Week. We're gonna talk about so many wide receivers beginning in round three today with lad McConkey and Jackson, Smith and Jigba. And over the next three days, working all the way through the end of most drafts. Welcome to Fantasy Football. Today. It is Monday, July 7th. I am Adam Azer with Dave, Richard, Jamie Eisenberg and Heath Cummings. It is also Scott Fishbowl day. This is the unofficial start of the fantasy football season. The Scott Fishbowl drafts are beginning and even more exciting. Tell your friends if you're listening, between now and 1:00pm Eastern today, Wednesday, we are on CBS sports network at 1pm with a special edition of fantasy football Today, CBS Sports Network. Find it on your cable or wherever, whatever you're watching. CBS Sports Network, 1pm Eastern today. We'll see you there. Okay. What's up, guys? Ready for Scott Fishbowl? Lot a lot of scoring nuances. Jamie, you think you got it all figured out?

[Heath Cummings]

I hope so. I mean, you know, it's year 15. I don't know exactly how many years I've been doing this, but Scott does an unbelievable job and, you know, it's just amazing all the money that he raises and the attention that. That it rightly deserves, rightly gets for, you know, his efforts and how many people take part in this. So, you know, I, I know there are people that are watching us that are, you know, hopefully doing it for the first time and, you know, people that are still excited to try and get into Scott Fishbowl. So continue to try to do so. It's just. It's just a lot of fun, you know, and I think a lot of people view it as the. The official kickoff to redraft season, which is a great thing as well. So, yeah, I'm excited to make my first pick and, you know, discuss it as much as we can on the show.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Have you seen the merch?

[Adam Azer]

No.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

The merch is amazing this year.

[Adam Azer]

Okay.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

So the divisions, I think, are sports teams, pro and college. So he basically took every single pro logo and like, Scott fishbowlized it.

[Dave Richard]

And, and to be clear, I was. I was on the pot a thon yesterday and. And Scott was sharing some of his graphic design work. He did none of that. We have. There's a talented cast. There's a talented cast of graphic designers that are helping out, although trying to get Scott some of Scott's designs on shirts for sure. I. Yeah, it's really exciting. And I. Mine doesn't kick off today because I'm doing a live event on Sunday in Kansas City.

[Adam Azer]

Oh, cool.

[Dave Richard]

But, yeah, it's. It's lots and lots of fun. Lots and lots of money raised for lots. Lots of good kids.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yep.

[Adam Azer]

And we'll talk about another way that we're raising money, the draftathon in a little bit. Okay, so here are the wide receivers we're talking about today based on early cbs, adp. Now, not a lot of wide receivers going in rounds three through five. It's wide receivers 11 through 24 in the rankings. And I think as we get closer to draft season, I would probably expect more wide receivers to be taken here. But this is what we've got so far. I mean, on Fantasy Pros, for example, there are 33 wide receivers off the board by this point. On CBS, only 24. But that's okay. It'll give us more time to talk about these players. So we got Lad, McConkey, Jackson, Smith and Jigba T. Higgins, Garrett Wilson, Devonte Adams, Rasheed Rice. And when we get to there, when we get to Adams and Rice, we're at the 3, 4 turn. So it's McConkey, JSN Higgins, Garrett Wilson, Adams and Rice in round three, maybe early into round four. Marvin Harrison, Tyreek Hill. They're in round four. And then Terry McLaurin, Xavier Worthy, DK Metcalfe, Mike Evans, Travis Hunter and DJ Moore. They are in round five. I'm not going to repeat all the names now because I'm saying them the entire show, but looking at these wide receivers, who would you guys say is your favorite value in this range? Heath, I'll start with you, boy.

[Dave Richard]

You're gonna love this. I think the favorite value is a value that does not reflect his current worth, and that's probably tyreek hill.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, 40. 44th here.

[Dave Richard]

Right. I've got a mile, kind of a tier of three guys at the top of this group, and it's Lad, who's first by ADP, Higgins who's third, and Tyree Kill, who's seventh in this group. So I think those three guys should be at the top.

[Adam Azer]

Lad, Higgins and Tyreek. Yeah, Tyreek's going 24th on fantasy pros. So what's the right spot For Tyreek Hill? 44th on CBS, 24th on Fantasy Bros. What's the right spot for Tyreek Hill.

[Heath Cummings]

Ahead of Marvin Harrison for sure.

[Dave Richard]

I'd say 36.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

He's going to be going closer to 24th by the time we get to August.

[Heath Cummings]

Ahead of Garrett Wilson.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

He's. He's going to move up. I think he's going to be one of the biggest risers in adp. Everyone's going to see that he's healthy. Everyone's going to remember how good he was. You check out the Dolphins offense from last year. I'm gonna go out and say that it was an anomaly. Tyreek was hurt. They had to. Offensive line sucked. They didn't Want. They wanted to protect Tua, they had to shorten his. His drop back. He's good at getting the ball out quick. They leaned into that A Chan was awesome. They leaned into that uncovered Johnnu.

[Heath Cummings]

They leaned into him.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think they're going to try and change that a little bit. Listen, Tyreek's injury was to his wrist. It wasn't to his ankles, it wasn't to his legs. He's still fast and he still has huge upside. Getting somebody like that, someone that has, I don't know if we could say 20 ppr point per game upside, but 18, is that crazy. 18 ppr points per game, that's his ceiling. You're getting that in round four. Someone. People are eventually going to start to. To grab him. I've got him within my rankings, and I feel like that's too low.

[Adam Azer]

I.

[Dave Richard]

The only thing, like, Dave listed a lot of good reasons why the offense was different last year. And I think the two that we don't know or how much they've changed is the offensive line and the desire to protect Tua.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Oh, I mean, they definitely want to protect Tua, there's no question about that. But I think they think their offensive line is better. And so until they realize that it still sucks, they're going to probably try and incorporate their receivers a little bit more.

[Adam Azer]

All right, let's go to the next question here. In this range of wide receivers, who is the worst value? Jamie Garrett.

[Heath Cummings]

Wilson. Garrett.

[Adam Azer]

Wilson going 33rd as wide receiver. Lemons. Well, there 14.

[Heath Cummings]

And I like Wilson. I think he's going to have a. A solid season, maybe his best ever. But I think just going ahead of, you know, Rice for sure is a mistake and probably Hill and Adams as well. I just think that's, You're. You're asking him to, you know, have this monstrous season essentially. And I know we've been hoping for that for, you know, since his. Since his rookie year. I just. The. The. The hope would be is that, you know, and, and probably this is what the. The ADP is reflective of. Like, can he do what DJ Moore did with Justin Fields? And I think that's certainly applicable. But to be drafting him that high just feels like it's a little bit of reach.

[Adam Azer]

Anyone want to nominate anyone else for worst value here?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Sure. I, I think JSN is going a little too high. And this is full PPR.

[Adam Azer]

He's going 30th overall as wide receiver. 12, right after McConkey, just ahead of T. Higgins. We've talked so much about T. Higgins over the last few weeks. I think you all know we like T. Higgins. Everybody likes T. Higgins in the second round, right?

[Heath Cummings]

Yes.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yes. Closer to the end of round two.

[Dave Richard]

Yeah, I've got him 25th, so, yeah, I mean, a little ahead. I. I would say if Rice is healthy and not suspended, then I think Worthy's probably. I agree with Jamie about Garrett Wilson, but I think Worthy would be my second worst value.

[Adam Azer]

I guess CBS ADP is pretty. It must be pretty running back heavy here because, man, I. I like a lot of these values, you know, especially after you get to like Tyreek Hill at 44, but McLaurin at 50, Xavier Worthy at 50, Metcalf 51, Evans 52, Travis Hunter 53rd overall, DJ Moore 56. I don't know, it just feels like I take.

[Dave Richard]

Also, don't forget quarterbacks. They're going to be much higher in regular ADP than they are fantasy pros or anywhere else, and they'll continue to go higher. But I think last I looked, we already had one or two quarterbacks in round two, and that's the way it's going to be.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, I mean, we've got five quarterbacks going in the first 40 picks in CBS ADP. Let's see where QB5 is going. QB5 is going 58th overall in fantasy pros ADP. So that makes sense.

[Dave Richard]

And that. Do you have the sources on the fantasy pros adp? Because I think that's probably still influenced by Best Ball.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Definitely influenced by Best Ball.

[Adam Azer]

I don't know. I don't have the sources.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

One of their biggest sources is underdog adp, which is.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, okay. Okay. So which wide receiver do you find yourself drafting the most? I'm. You know what, this is so ridiculous. How many wide receivers are we talking about here? 14 wide receivers. Right. Of these 14 wide receivers, who do you find yourself drafting the most? Guys?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I draft Devonte, Adams quite a bit.

[Heath Cummings]

Higgins and Metcalf. But that's a lot of best ball.

[Dave Richard]

Drafts, I would say. Higgins.

[Adam Azer]

We haven't really talked a lot about Metcalf, you know, other than whenever Rogers comes up. Why do you find yourself drafting a lot of Metcalf, Jamie?

[Heath Cummings]

I mean, I. I think just the opportunity that he has given Roger's history with his number one receiver, you know, and the fact that, you know, you're still hearing reports that they're trying to go get another receiver, which they probably should, knowing that it's Calvin Austin and Robert woods and whoever else they have.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Roman Wilson, baby.

[Heath Cummings]

Roman Wilson, opposite DK Metcalf, you know, I know the addition of John New Smith is, is a big help to that pass catching group, but I still think that Metcalf has a chance to, you know, sort of get back to his peak Seattle days. Maybe not his best Seattle days, but his peak Seattle days and you know, is just great value. You know, this is actually sooner than you see him in some drafts and again it's been a lot more best ball drafts for me, but he falls further than some of these guys. So I like the opportunity to, you know, take him as a, as a second wide receiver, in some cases a third wide receiver. And I just think the value is incredible.

[Dave Richard]

I, I have Metcalf a few spots ahead of 50. I think I'm at 47, which is the 47th highest player and he's 51. And ADP, I just think, and we've talked about this a little bit, but that, that conflict between Aaron Rodgers history and Arthur Smith's history and Aaron Rodgers Wide Receiver 1 Target Rate and DK Metcalf's Historical Target rate, like there's just, there's a lot of room between both, all of those things and which way it works out. Like Metcalf could be much better than this if Rogers wins out.

[Adam Azer]

Well, it seems like they're going to try to make a compromise between the run. You know, we've seen so many reports recently if they're going to not be quite as run heavy, but still it's going to be Arthur Smith's offense. Well, we will see how this works. Out of these 14 wide receivers, which do you typically avoid?

[Heath Cummings]

Evans?

[Dave Richard]

Yeah, I mean it's probably the guys we said we think are the worst value. But Worthy and Evans.

[Heath Cummings]

I never see Wilson get drafted this high. So I, you know, I, I, I draft Wilson, but I would never take him at this cost.

[Adam Azer]

But he's going 33rd. Don't you, don't you start considering Wilson around 36th or am I wrong?

[Heath Cummings]

Yes, but again it's, it's a question of the drafts that, that I do versus where I haven't ranked.

[Adam Azer]

I gotta say, guys, I, Evans at 52nd is I think too good to pass.

[Heath Cummings]

I never, I never see him there though.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, right, right, right.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Someone's taking him late round three, early round four, which is a mistake.

[Adam Azer]

But would you. Okay, so if, if Evans is going in the top 40, maybe that's too rich for you, but if he's going 50.

[Heath Cummings]

Oh, without a doubt.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

I mean again, this ADP I don't think is very Reflective of the drafts I've seen.

[Dave Richard]

Well, right. If you're doing best ball drafts and you look at this adp, it's not going to match up. You should probably talk about it in order of the wide receivers and not the overall picks.

[Heath Cummings]

Right.

[Dave Richard]

But I do think this is probably closer to what CBS ADP is going to look like than underdog ADP.

[Adam Azer]

Evans is wide receiver 22 in CBS ADP. He has never in his career finished outside the top 24 in any format. He's been like a top. I want to say he's been a top 12 wide receiver, maybe top 13 per game in full PPR, which is his worst format in five of the last seven seasons. He's, I would have to say the most consistent wide receiver in in football since entering the NFL. He's one I definitely want to spend a lot more time on later. But yeah, I mean, is this going to be the worst season of Mike Evans career? Age 32? He finally there, you expect so you think, right. But he was so good. He was wide receiver 11 per game last year.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think if everybody stays healthy in Tampa, including Godwin, which is really the big sticking point for me, then it sets up for Evans to have a down year. But yeah, I think even if he's getting picked at 50th overall and he averages 13, that what.

[Heath Cummings]

What was the averaging before God wins 14.3 through week?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yeah, well, I would be okay with that if I'm picking him after 50th overall. Yeah, wouldn't be ideal.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. So I was going back through my Mike Evans notes and we always talk about this. He was wide receiver 20, 23 per game in full PPR, 21 per game in non PPR in the first six games of the season. Obviously they didn't have a mecca buka back then. So we think a book is going to be more involved in. The third on the team in targets was Kate Otten. Basically those first six games with Godwin and Evans, Godwin and Evans had 50% of the targets and then Kate Otten had about a 14, a 16.5% target share. Evans had only a 22.3% target share. But there were two games in those six that I never talk about. One game against Denver where he got certain. One game against New Orleans and he is always terrible against New Orleans. He had three games in those six with more than 23 fantasy points in PPR. So when, you know, when you talk about these small sample size, you have to face certain once you have to face the team that always shuts you down once makes your numbers look a lot worse. So I, I did want to bring that up, I guess. I. Oh, it's just, oh, it's so hard to bet against Mike Evans.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

What a noise.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, you're right. With, with all that, it's just a question of will everybody be healthy and how much of the, what has it been? Two of the last three years or two of the last four? The late season push to get him his numbers. Like, will that happen again? It certainly could. Yeah, he's. If he's behind, but like he could still have a very solid season and see a, a little bit of a decline, if not a steep decline. And I think at this point, you know, I mean, he's talked about this like this is the deepest receiving core he's ever been a part of. You know, most, most talented wide receiver room, I think is the words he's used, which makes sense, you know, when you have Godwin back and an addition of a first round wide receiver. And, and let's not overlook Jalen McMillan and he finished last year as well. So, you know, I know Heath has talked about this, you know, the regression for Baker and if he does come down a little bit after all care highs plus his new offense coordinator. You know, I know it's a guy that was on staff, but, you know, he may have his own ideas and, and designs on getting Kate Otten more involved or, you know, using Jalen McMillan in a different role and, and getting these guys opportunities. You know, we have no idea. You know, Liam Cohen was fantastic, which is why I think, you know, the opportunity for Travis Hunter is great and obviously Brian Thomas as well, based on the numbers you just gave Adam in terms of the targets for those, those top two guys in the beginning part of the season. So there, there's, there's a lot to still like about Mike Evans, but at his age, with all the other guys there and just what you, your expectations are for him, I think it's going to determine how early you want to draft him. You know, so Dave said he's taking a lot of them and that makes sense. You know, if you're getting him at this price, why wouldn't you take him at this, at this cost? I think everybody would. But if it's, you know, around earlier, which I think is where he'll probably not around earlier, but, you know, six, seven spots earlier, 10 spots earlier, whatever the case may be, like when you start to compare them to some of these other guys, like for me I'm going to take the upside of, let's say Metcalf, for example, I think has a chance to have a better season than Mike Evans this year.

[Dave Richard]

So I, I, the other thing I think is interesting is that the name that's not on here and it's because we don't know for sure about the health. But Chris Godwin's not here.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Dave Richard]

And Chris Godwin was considerably better than Mike Evans when they were both healthy last year. If Chris Godwin is, we think he's fully healthy at the end of August, isn't he going to be out of Mike Evans?

[Adam Azer]

I just, again, I mean, I always go back to this. What does that mean, fully healthy? Because he, they're probably going to say, oh, he's great, you know, he's good to go. But then we always, we often see these seasons where guys are just not the same. Being fully healthy and then being fully back to form are different. So I don't know, I'm obviously not a doctor. This is the tough part, but coming off a really bad injury, I'm, I am sure that Tony Pollard was, quote, fully healthy coming off a similar injury. Not as bad, I don't think, as, as what Godwin had. But later in the year, right. His was in the playoffs, I think, but he just didn't regain his form coming off that broken ankle or broken leg, whatever it was for Pollard.

[Heath Cummings]

But Jacko, same thing last year.

[Adam Azer]

Right.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

So it's, and remember what Godwin did in 2023, he was coming off of a torn ACL and it took him a while to really get back into the player that we remembered him as.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think there's even like a little kerfuffle on social media. Wasn't his wife involved in that where they said that he wasn't himself and then.

[Heath Cummings]

Well, that was, that was the game, I believe was against Carolina. Catch the targets.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Heath Cummings]

And, and it was, I think, the end of a streak. Right. He had, he had a cash streak that ended in that game. I think he scored a rushing touchdown, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. And, and it was, you're right, Dave. It was something with one of his family members, met him, his wife. But the other thing with Godwin that makes me nervous is Abuka's role is almost by design the same as what Godwin's is. And we know that Godwin's been at his best when he's been in the slot or at least getting a lot of opportunities there. And if they kick him outside coming off the injury, you know, how much does that sort of maybe not again make him stink, but just brings back down what his, you know, high end potential could be. So I, I don't. As much as I worry about Evans and would love to see Godwin back to, you know, to his point, you know, being maybe the preferred option for this Tampa Bay passing game, I don't think I could rank Godwin ahead of Evans going into the season unless he just looks absolutely fantastic in camp, by all accounts.

[Dave Richard]

Right.

[Adam Azer]

Okay. I. I'm so glad you brought up that Carolina game because that was why I was kind of avoiding Mike Evans in drafts last season. Because the first. Because the last six or seven games. Yeah, the last seven games of. Of that season, he was only on pace for 126 targets, and Godwin was on pace for 141. And then the. The first six games of this season, Evans was on pace for 119 targets and Godwin was on pace for 140. So I'm trying to look up the numbers now. Pro football references being very slow, but that stretch of, I want to say 13 games from after that Carolina game, I mean, God, this is a low target time for Mike Evans. And it all changed when Chris Godwin got hurt. So, yeah, it's. It was. It was really. I'm glad you mentioned that. All right. Anyway, we got to take a break. A little late on that, so.

[Dave Richard]

Yeah, just last thing. Aren't the art. Isn't there some similarity there between the way we view Travis Kelsey's targets after Rashi Rice became a big part of the offense and early last year, and Mike Evans targets after Godwin got healthy in early last year.

[Adam Azer]

So I think the difference is back in 2023, Rasheed Rice has this big start, this big stretch. Right. Travis Kelsey was still getting a lot of targets then in the beginning of 2024, he was averaging, I think, four targets per game in the first three games. Again, 11 targets in the first three games. So I would say, like a longer stretch of. Of low targets for Evans. But the, but the. But never as bad as Kelsey in 2024. Does that make sense?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Sure.

[Adam Azer]

And I'll try to double check on that. I have it in my notes right here. So 2023, the last six games, Rasheed Rice had 56 targets. Yeah, actually, no, you're right. Travis Kelsey had 40 targets. Travis Kelsey had an 18.2% target share in those last six games. And then it got even worse than that in the first three games of 2024. So thank you for bringing that up. He said Kelsey has been phased out. It had been phased out basically, not necessarily intentionally until the Rice injury. All right, now we're going to take a break. Good points by you guys. Good stuff. We'll be right back. Tell you about the draft a thon and ways to get your question read on the air and the Toronto Argonauts and more of wide receivers in rounds three through five. Be right back. Ready to level up. Ciampa Casino is your playbook to fun. It's free to play with no purchase necessary. Enjoy hundreds of online social games like blackjack, slots and solitaire anytime, anywhere with fresh releases every week, whether you're at home or on the go. Let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you. Plus, get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus. Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Play Chump a Casino today. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void board prohibited by law 21 +TNCs apply.

[Dave Richard]

What's up, everyone? It's Cnajad, host of the Early Edge, part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network. Be sure to lock in with me and our team of sportsline betting experts every single day as we deliver our best bets across all the summer sports. We'll have you covered every day and all summer long in mlb, wnba, soccer, tennis, golf, and much more. If you want the early look on the betting plays of the day, you've got a home at the Early Edge. Download and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere podcasts are found.

[Adam Azer]

All right, folks, welcome back. Hope you all had a great Fourth of July. A little bit of a hot take. Hot dogs are great. But. But a good sausage, like, infinitely better than a hot dog. Not even a hot take, Right. But I mean, I had both at a barbecue. The sausage just blew it away. It was tremendous. Great barbecue. But I said one thing I wanted to have was a hot dog. I should change my. I should change that to sausage. Gonna do that going forward? Are you guys.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

You know what kind of sausage you had?

[Adam Azer]

No. Just sitting there in a tin and I was like, oh, last sausage. I'm gonna grab that. Yeah. You have a recommendation?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I've always been a bratwurst fan.

[Adam Azer]

I don't know that I've ever had a bratwurst.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I don't know if you'd like it.

[Heath Cummings]

I did in.

[Dave Richard]

Did you just.

[Adam Azer]

OMG me, Heath.

[Heath Cummings]

I did it. The only time I ever had it was at Lambo.

[Adam Azer]

You've been to Lambo?

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, I covered a Dolphins packers game previous Life and, you know, went in Rome.

[Dave Richard]

There you go.

[Adam Azer]

More like brought best. Am I right? Okay, so there's that. Also, if you're in the Scott Fishbowl, please read the rules. Holy cow. If you're on doing it on sleeper, you get two and a half points per reception. And I'm pretty sure you get half a point for a carry.

[Dave Richard]

Yep.

[Adam Azer]

So a workhorse running back who also catches passes, that's a lot. If you're on my fantasy league, you get a point per target and I point per catch as well. I don't know if any of us are playing on my fantasy league, but you get a point per target and a point per catch and a half a point per carry on my fantasy league. And tight ends get an extra point per reception. So.

[Dave Richard]

And there's no. You don't have to start any position, right?

[Adam Azer]

Yep. You just start 11 starters, no more than two quarterbacks, but you could start nine running backs, you could start 11 tight ends. I don't think so. I think you could have this. I think I'm seeing here 0 to 9 for wide receiver, running backside in. You can start nine running backs, wide receiver, side ends. Okay. So pay attention to your rules. Draftathon. Go to this URL tinyurl.com 2025ffT you see, we have sold four of our mailbag slots for $50. You have until. Well, we're gonna try to do the show on Friday, so try to get submitted by Wednesday if possible, maybe Thursday. And it costs 50 bucks. It goes to St. Jude. And this is the first of many things we're going to be auctioning off. But 10 mailbag slots at $50 each. We're going to be doing this weekly for our mailbags. Tinyurl.com 2025fft In a couple of weeks, the FFT opens. I think two weeks from today, the FFT open spots are going to be available 24 leagues of 12 to teams. There's a Nasor division, a Heath division, a Dave division, a Jamie Division, Schneier, Schaefer and. And other CBS people and guests from outside cbs. I'll tell you all about it pretty soon. The FFT Open. Can you win it? And if can you join it? It's gonna be $250 to join the FFT open. There are 264 slots available, I believe at 250 bucks. We're gonna raise $66,000 for St. Jude if we sell this out. And if you win, you're freaking awesome. All right. I have more to promote, but I will do it later. So remind me, I got to promote the new podcast feed stuff and we'll do that in a minute. What did we. Or we'll do that in a little while. What do we make of the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL claiming Shedeur Sanders negotiating rights?

[Dave Richard]

That's great marketing.

[Adam Azer]

Okay, it's just if he leaves the NFL. But it's not.

[Dave Richard]

They got you to talk. They got you to say the Toronto Argonauts on our podcast. Good job by them.

[Adam Azer]

All right then. That's all I got for news and notes. So wide receivers in rounds three through five, I'd love to give you guys a Lad McConkey stat, please. Here we go. Lad McConkey over the last 20 years, averaged the 10th most yards per game by a rookie wide receiver. If you look at the top 15, basically, I guess I'd say top 13. It's pretty much all stars. Here's the top 13 in yards per game as a rookie over the last 20 years. Odell Beckham, Justin Jefferson, Puka Nakua, Jamar Chase Malik, Neighbors, Michael Thomas, Brian Thomas Jr. Marquez Colson. Probably the worst player on this list is Marquez colson, Julio Jones, lad McConkey, AJ Green. He's in between Julio Jones and AJ Green, Mike Evans, Keenan Allen, and then you get Chris Olave and Amari Cooper. I mean, it's just. It's just amazing. And of the guys who finished ahead of him in yards per game, lad McConkey, there were nine of them, but two of them were rookies from last year as well, Neighbors and Brian Thomas. So of the seven, six of them average more yards per game the year after. He's. He's awesome. I think volumes is volume. The only thing that concerns us with Vlad McConkey and are you guys okay with him at the 2, 3 turn?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yes, to both questions.

[Adam Azer]

We.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I feel like there's a little bit of Brian Thomas Jr. Concern with lad McConkey because so late into the year he was the best wide receiver that the Chargers had and he took advantage of it. He had averaged almost 19 PPR points per game in his final seven, not including the playoffs, if you include the playoffs. He was over 20 PPR points per game and he was on a 153 target pace. I do worry about all the additions that the Chargers made this off season, hindering his target volume moving forward. Remember, it's not just Naji Harris and Omarion Hampton. It's also they drafted Trey Harris, they brought back Michael Williams for whatever that's worth. Quentin Johnson is still on the team. There's talk about Irande Gadsden. Maybe he gets two or three targets per game. The point is that I would be a little worried about lad McConkey getting a 153 target season, which is what his pace was at the end of last year. So I, I dug up this stat. Tell me what you guys think of this. There were eight games last year where the Chargers had 20 or more running back runs. In those games, Makaki averaged 16 PPR points per game. He scored six touchdowns. Everybody loves that. He had just six and a half targets per game. So super efficiency one on touchdowns. But I, I, the, the number that really sticks in my craw is going to be six and a half targets per game. And if that's the expectation for him, then even I have him ranked too high. I've got him as a top 12 receiver. I really love the talent. He can do anything that any wide receiver in this league can do. But if he's only going to get six and a half targets per game, that, that's no good.

[Adam Azer]

Well, that's okay. That, that would be if they, if they had 20 or more running back carries in every game, right?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Sure. But Listen, there were nine games where they had 19 or fewer running back runs. And he averaged 16.4 in those games. But his targets were 8.2.

[Heath Cummings]

When did those games come in the season?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

They were throughout the season. It was whenever any Chargers, any, not any one Charger running back, but the Chargers overall had 20 plus running back runs.

[Heath Cummings]

I guess I'm just curious because when Herbert was still dealing with the foot injury versus when Herbert was healthy. Sure.

[Adam Azer]

Chargers were 12th in running back carries per game last year. 22 per game. Almost every team averaged at least 20 per game. 24 of the 32 teams got to 20 running back carries per game. So that's not even that high of a benchmark. Yeah, they drafted Hampton. They brought in Naji. That's right.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

They want to get better at running the ball.

[Adam Azer]

All right, let me, let me make it more broad here. I've got three, I've got four wide receivers in this, in this list here that are being drafted in round three. And that would be Lab McConkey, Jackson, Smith and Jigba. T. Higgins and Garrett Wilson. For simplicity sake and organization sake, I'm going to take Adams and Rice and make them 37th overall and put them in round four. So McConkey, JSN T. Higgins, Garrett Wilson. And they're all Going in the first half of round three. Well, that's not. Not quite true. But the first two thirds of round three. Any values here that you. We love t Higgins at 31. We think he's a second round pick. Anything here that really jumps out. Smith and Jigba and Garrett Wilson. We said earlier we're not great values at 30 and 33 overall. Heath, how do you feel about them? When should JSN and Garrett Wilson go around force?

[Dave Richard]

Fine, I think. But it like. I think if you really like one of them, take them at the end of round three is fine. But like I said, I. I think Lad T and Tyreek are in a tier above the rest of the wide receivers in this range. So I'd be more happy with them early in round three. And the other guys I be 34 turn of the earliest.

[Adam Azer]

Why not JSN guys? Why does anybody like JSN in round three?

[Heath Cummings]

In the round three.

[Dave Richard]

I think concerns about a more run heavy offense, a quarterback downgrade and the. Whatever you think the chance is, the potential that Cooper cup is the guy he was at the beginning of last year, not the guy he was at the end.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Cooper Cup's presence is pushing JSN outside more often. And I don't, I don't love that form. I know that. I know that Just because you line up wide doesn't mean you have to always run a route 12 yards down the sideline. And he can. We're gonna see JSN run a bunch of in breaking routes when he's lining up wide. But I just not having the, the option routes, the versatility to go in any direction, I. I think that's going to hurt him a little bit. So as long as Cooper cup is healthy on top of the fact that he just mentioned they want to run the ball more. They've talked about it a ton. Makes me a little bit nervous about jsn. Makes me a hell of a lot more nervous about him in half and non ppr. But a little more nervous in full ppr.

[Adam Azer]

Okay. All right then let's go to the round four guys here. And that would be an interesting group. Rashid Rice, Devonte Adams, Marvin Harrison Jr. And Tyreek Hill. And Rice and Adams are at the 34 turn. So Rashid Rice, Devonte Adams, Marvin Harrison Jr. And Tyree kill. Obviously Tyree Kill, we. We love. We think he's. I'm sorry, did I ask you guys earlier where you think Tyreek Hill should go? Like 2, 3. Turnish.

[Heath Cummings]

He's closer to there now.

[Dave Richard]

Yes, I've got 3, 4 turn, but.

[Adam Azer]

If not a little 3, 4 turn for Heath, 2, 3 ish for Jamie. What'd you say, Dave?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think he'll end up being right up there with Higgins and McConkey at the two, three turn.

[Adam Azer]

Right. So Heath, if you have him in the same tier as Higgins and McConkey, where do you have Higgins and McConkey if you have Tyree kill at the 2 3, at the 3, 4 turn?

[Dave Richard]

I mean, I've got him at the, at the, the back of the term, but I have the other guys in round three, so.

[Heath Cummings]

Okay, okay.

[Adam Azer]

So just where's McConkey in your overall rankings? And Higgins?

[Dave Richard]

McConkey is 33rd. Higgins is 25.

[Adam Azer]

Okay.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I've got T at 23, McConkey 24, Tyree kill behind them.

[Adam Azer]

Okay. And I mean, do I say you're welcome for the Tyree Kill love, or do we just.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

No, you, you deserve a lot of credit for this. You were ahead of the.

[Dave Richard]

You should say you're welcome for the John O. Smith trade.

[Adam Azer]

I know.

[Dave Richard]

Is what you should say.

[Adam Azer]

I, yeah, I, I, I kind of felt I, I would have been the high guy on Hill without the John who Smith, even if Johnny Smith had not been traded. But also, I did make the case on our last show. Could. Can Darren Waller not do what Tyree. What, what John who Smith did last year? A four and a half yard, eight out or whatever, Catch a bunch of balls at the line of scrimmage? You know, I feel like most people could do that, but. All right, anyway. Rasheed Rice, Devonte Adams, Marvin Harrison Jr. How do you rank those three? Jamie she, Rice Adams, and Marvin Harrison Jr.

[Heath Cummings]

Right now it's Adams, Rice, Marv. But Rice can easily jump ahead of Adams any day.

[Adam Azer]

How you guys feel about this group? Break it. Break it down.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Good. It's a, all these guys have potential to finish top 10. Some of them have potential to finish top five.

[Adam Azer]

I'm talking just, I'm sorry, specifically Adams, Rice, and Harrison.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Azer]

Because they all, they all scare me to varying degrees, but they all excite me, too.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yeah, Harrison doesn't excite me. He scares me the most. I don't like that he's put on weight. I'm nervous about what his role will turn into. I think he needs to have the type of volume that like Trey McBride had last year in order to push for a top 12 spot in fantasy.

[Adam Azer]

Go on, discuss Jamie Heath. Want to get in there?

[Heath Cummings]

I mean, I think, I think the thing with Harrison, obviously, you know, we'll see how much the, the weight gain is, is a hindrance to him if it's gonna, you know, slow him down by any stretch. But the fact that he scored eight touchdowns as a rookie, I think is something that hopefully he can build off of and, you know, if he can get to that double digit number, that will certainly boost him in the right direction. He wants to obviously get better at contested catches and breaking tackles, which is why I think he added the weight, because it's all muscle, you know, it's not Debo Samuel. Wait, so, you know, for a guy who was, I think I saw this morning was 18th and contested catches last year, you know, if he can get into that top 10 range and, and you know, perform like some of the guys I know that you were concerned about last year, for example, Adam, like a Drake London, you know, who doesn't necessarily separate as much, but can, you know, win on some of those, then that certainly will help him, you know, even more. So this is the right range to take a chance on him, you know, with the hope that he's the guy that we were all, you know, promoting for the most part, industry wise, as a top, you know, I'll say top 20, just to be conservative, top 20 overall pick, in some cases a first round pick. So the, the upside is still there, the potential is still there, the opportunity is still there because they did nothing to enhance their receiving core, which I think speaks volumes how much they feel about him, you know, and even speaking to, you know, to their coaching staff, you know, that there, there's, there's a lot to love about the situation that Harrison is in, but he's got to prove it. And so, you know, when you start to compare him to obviously, you know, the first two guys right behind him, you know, I think you easily make the case that Tyree Kill situation is better if he's right. And Terry McLaurin's coming off arguably his best season. So I think those two guys should go ahead of him. You know, and then you start the sliding scale of Mike Evans's consistency, DK Metcalf, his upside and his opportunity, you know, Xavier Worthy, what he did, you know, so, you know, a lot of people have different opinions on it, but I think when you start to get to the round four range, the receivers that are on the board, and again, upside, Marvin Harrison Jr. Has as much as anybody.

[Adam Azer]

It gets pretty interesting at this range of wide receiver, once we get close to wide receiver, 18 or so. And I'd love to have two, two guys that I don't really have question marks about, you know, and because we think running backs kind of deep. Right. So taking advantage of that, maybe getting two of the top. Let's see, in this ADP Higgins is top, is 17th or something like that. Two of the top 17ish wide receivers. Just me speaking here and not having, you know, not having Marvin Harrison Jr be my number two. Now Tyreek Hill changes everything, but he'd be in that mix too. I'd love him to be my wide receiver too.

[Dave Richard]

Well, I think that's kind of the. The point though of Adams, Rice and Harrison at this range is you might have a wide receiver one. It doesn't really take that much imagination to see any of those guys as a wide receiver. 1.

[Adam Azer]

Correct.

[Dave Richard]

But you also might have a wide receiver 3.

[Adam Azer]

Is you say that for Rice just because he's coming back from the injury. Yeah.

[Dave Richard]

And there's. Yeah, that's pretty much just it.

[Adam Azer]

Now what gets me about, I mean.

[Heath Cummings]

To be fair, what Worthy did at the end of last season, you know, could certainly be a big problem for Rice. And we don't know what Marquis Brown is going to bring to this offense because we didn't see him healthy last year for the entirety of the season. And now you have a, you know, what'd you say? Travis Kelsey lost 100 some pounds. So you have a more in shape Travis Kelsey. And so the best of Rice has been with the, the start of the decline for Kelsey and the lack of the other guys being contributors or even on the field with him, you know, so this could easily be a, A problem for Rice. I, I tend to agree with you though, Heath, that this is, you know, his. He should be the best receiver in this offense based on what we've seen from him his last, you know, 10 regular season games and what he did in the playoffs two years ago. But again, coming back from the injury with all these other mouths to feed now. And what if it's not a more, I don't want to say past friendly, but you know, a more dynamic passing attack for the Chiefs and you know, we're still getting the same old or the last two years of what.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the dink and dunk stuff, you mean.

[Heath Cummings]

Right. There could, there could be a lot of flaws in what happens to him, you know, because again, if Worthy is better in their mind, then it's a huge problem for Rice.

[Adam Azer]

What gets me about Rice is that he's unlike anyone else in, you could say in football. I mean, he's so such A low adot guy. He does almost nothing downfield, but on the rare occasion that they'll throw that. He had a 44 yard touchdown catch last year where he just absolutely burned an outside cornerback. Well, what?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yes and no. The corner played it poorly.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, well, he took a really nice step inside. He burned the guy off the line.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Great throw from Homes, too. Look, you got to give him credit for it. I'm not going to poo poo it. Yeah, he had a great catch on an over route against Atlanta.

[Adam Azer]

He did.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

He can win downfield, but they don't use him that way. Or they didn't use him that way.

[Adam Azer]

Right.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Last year he was almost a compliment to the run game. He had a bunch of screens and short area targets. You know, slants right off the snap where he's getting the ball and then he breaks a tackle, linebacker tries to tackle him and he just. He skips right past him. He was great with yak and that really helped him out a lot. And that's what helped him buy a lot of targets early on. If the run game can't get going, that's going to be great for Rishi Rice because then he'll have a chance to get way north of seven targets per game. But they could use Worthy in a similar fat. They did use Worthy in a similar fashion toward the end of last season. And they can use Brown the same way. Kelsey's a short area target now and an easy guy. He's been an easy guy from a home. So Drum, dump the ball off, too. But at least we did see Rice last year have a couple of downfield hits that were really, really good. If he's healthy, if that knee is right, like they're saying, and he's like, good to go for training camp. It's just another reason to be excited about Rice.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, they just keep saying that they're going to throw the ball downfield more, but the thing is they. They can throw the ball downfield more and still throw the ball a lot underneath to Rashid Rice or downfield. All right, let me get a break in here and we'll talk about Terry McLaurin, Xavier Worthy, DK Metcalf, Mike Evans, Travis Hunter, and the most mysterious man in fantasy football, DJ Moore. Before we go to break, though, I just want to let you know of a couple things that are happening in our podcast feeds. We have two feeds. We have the one you're listening to right now. Fantasy football today. Oh, this does not include Dynasty. Nothing's changing with FFT Dynasty. But fantasy Football Today and Fantasy Football Today Express. Starting this week, the Express episodes, Those quick hit 8 to 10 minute episodes that you know they're going to be part of the Fantasy Football Today feed. They're just going to live in here. The Express feed is changing to Fantasy Football Today beyond the Box Score. Hosted by Jacob Gibbs and Dan Schneier. They finally have their podcast, the perfect home for the fantasy nerds out there. Deep data dives, advanced metrics, matchup breakdowns, all the good stuff. So again, the short form episodes are now going to live in the main FFT feed and the old Express feed becomes beyond the Box Score. Make sure that you're subscribed to both to cover all of your fantasy football bases and of course, subscribe to Fantasy Football Today. Dynasty. Be right back to talk about the round five wide receivers after this on WhatsApp. No one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat, we're trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast. Your personal messages stay between you, your.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Friends and your family.

[Adam Azer]

No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone. I'm Dexter Morgan.

[Dave Richard]

I've been through hell, but now I'm.

[Heath Cummings]

Back for my curtain call.

[Adam Azer]

And what better place to hide than New York City?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

There may be a new area coming.

[Dave Richard]

Code, but my code never changes. In a city full of monsters, my.

[Heath Cummings]

Dark urges will feel right at home.

[Dave Richard]

Dexter Resurrection, starring Michael C. Hall, Uma Thurman and Peter Dinklage. New series streaming July 11th on the Paramount plus with Showtime Plan in round.

[Adam Azer]

Five, we have six wide receivers. Round five being picks 49 through 60. These are PPR. Is PPR ADP? It's Terry McLaurin, Xavier Worthy, DK Metcalf, Mike Evans, Travis Hunter and DJ Moore. Terry McLaurin, Xavier Worth, DK Metcalf, Mike evans, Travis Hunter and DJ Morris. Want to do a quick fantasy Pros check in? McLaurin going for 50th on our website, 32nd on fantasy pros and yeah, I never see him go this late. The other guys, I mean, I. Do you feel like you could buy Worthy, Metcalf, Evans, not Evans, Worthy, Metcalf, Hunter and more being 5th round picks and McLaurin and Evans likely to be higher? Is that how you sort of perceive it right now?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yes, I can see Worthy getting up there too.

[Adam Azer]

I mean this ADP is ADP it is what it is, but we don't have that many drafts yet, so. All right, we'll see. Any, anywho, who do you like best in this group of six? Who's your highest ranked?

[Dave Richard]

McLaurin.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Reluctantly, it's Evans.

[Adam Azer]

Heath. Talk about Terry McLaurin, what you like about him?

[Dave Richard]

Well, I, I think I've talked more about why he's not going to probably repeat what he did last year. But he finally scored touchdowns last year because he finally got a really good quarterback. And there's a chance that second year quarterback gets to throw a little bit more than he did last year. There's a chance that second year quarterback improves as a passer. Hopefully McLaurin's target share is not impacted by Debo Samuel because McLaren really didn't have enough targets to justify his fantasy production last year. Which is why I think you see him in round four and not in at the two, three turn where last year's production may justify. So the question really is, is there a volume increase to make up for the near certain touchdown regression that's coming?

[Adam Azer]

Yeah. Terry McClure had 13 touchdowns. He had 117 targets in 17 games. I kind of get rid of the first two games cause Jaden Daniels didn't seem to know what he was doing. And then after that, you know, Daniels figured it out. But even, Even then it's 119 target pace and the red zone and green zone targets didn't really go up. What did go up were the end zone targets. And he had a career high catch rate on his end zone targets. 69 catch rate on his end zone targets is very, very good. But yeah, I mean at the, at the other end, like do we think, do we think that Jaden Daniels can be better than 4,000 yards and 28 touchdowns? Because that was basically, that was his pace after week two.

[Heath Cummings]

Yes.

[Dave Richard]

I haven't projected for 4,000, 228.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Right. I think that that's, I think he can be better than 4,028, but as Heath is projecting, not much better than that.

[Adam Azer]

Okay. And remember, you know, you mentioned more pass attempts Heath when Cliff Kingsbury had Kyler Murray, this guy threw the ball a ton. 35 or more pass attempts per game basically. And DeAndre Hopkins obviously benefited from it. All right, so McLaurin Evans, you said Dave is your favorite. McLaurin second for you.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think he's actually going to be third for me. This is, this is the set that always gives me the heebie jeebies on Terry McLaurin is that last year 29 of his PPR fantasy production was touchdowns. And if you adjust his touchdowns from 13 to 8, eight would be the second most of his career. He's averaging 14 PPR points per game. And yeah, I know he was great on end zone targets and, and that was awesome. I just can't help but feel like they've got more options this year with what they can do down there compared to last year. And so I, I just, I don't want to, I don't want to spend too. I don't want to spend a big pick on Terry McLaurin. If he falls into my lap, we're talking late round four, round five. I'm good with it. But another player that just don't want to draft too close to a ceiling. Whereas Evans, the biggest strike against him is that he's old. The next strike against him is what happened early on last year and that could come back to haunt us. No question about it. But if he's healthy for camp, he's going to be the go to. He's the alpha in the offense still. I believe that. And if he's.

[Adam Azer]

Last year.

[Heath Cummings]

What?

[Adam Azer]

He wasn't the alpha last year when.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

They were in the early going. He wasn't.

[Heath Cummings]

But. Right.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think push comes to shove, they need a big play. They're calling Evan's number a big play.

[Adam Azer]

For sure in the end zone too.

[Dave Richard]

What was the percentage on McLaurin?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

29.

[Dave Richard]

So 27.5 of Mike Evans PPR points were touchdowns. He's done it more often.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

But we've seen it from Evans before and I'm not expecting Evans is in that exact same boat. I just, I feel a little bit safer with him than I do McLaurin. And I get it if you don't. I totally do.

[Adam Azer]

So follow up, Dave.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I'm leaning that way.

[Adam Azer]

You have Evans ahead of McLaren. You said McLaren's going to be third. Who's the other guy that you have ahead of McLaurin in this?

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I have Worthy in there just because he has built in upside. If the Chiefs follow through with attacking downfield, this is who's going to be the biggest benefactor of all. He's the, he's the main guy in this offense that has speed. I know Hollywood Brown has speed too, but he proved it as recently as his very last game in the super bowl where he can just. He. It doesn't matter who's covering him, he can outrun them. And then on top of that, and we saw it throughout the year he, he's got great variety to his routes and it wouldn't take much for him to see to do well and be hyper efficient, even if it's six and a half targets per game and he gets carries on top of that. So I'm definitely going to tap into some of Xavier Worthy in my drafts this year. But he's right in that range of receivers in that late round four, early round five that I would target as a number two fantasy receiver.

[Heath Cummings]

There's, there's like four guys I think, unless I'm forgetting somebody, but they all feel like they have a very similar profile because of the touchdowns. And it's McLaurin, it's Evans, I put Metcalf there and Cortland Sud and it's like if you like that type of player who the targets could obviously, you know, vary to a certain degree. The catches are going to vary to a certain degree. They'll probably be, you know, 11, 1200 yards, but they're double digit touchdown guys. Right. Sutton's not here, right?

[Adam Azer]

You're saying wait for Sutton.

[Heath Cummings]

I would. I mean if that's the type of player you're looking to draft based on cost, like Sun's done it for two.

[Adam Azer]

Years in a row, it makes sense. And Sutton finished the season so strong as, as Bo Nix got better now they did add Evan Ingram, but. Yeah, no, that's, it's a good point actually. I was going to ask a more general question about this group, Jamie. So let's say the draft unfolds in a way where you only have one wide receiver and Adams and Rice and Harrison and Tyreek Hill are off the board. So now this group of McLaurin, Worthy, Metcalf, Evans, Hunter, DJ Moore are going to be your number two receiver. And I guess I'll say we're in a three receiver league here either way. How do you feel about these guys being your number two receiver? Because they are in the top 24. They're just not as glamorous as some of the other guys ahead of them. Do you take two of them? You know, what do you do if you only have one wide receiver? As you get to round five, I.

[Heath Cummings]

Would probably look to take two of them. So just based on, at this point, so we're four rounds, you're saying this is around four and five around.

[Adam Azer]

This is round five and I still.

[Heath Cummings]

Get two of them.

[Adam Azer]

I mean, well, that's, that's a good point. Would you, would you take, if, if you, one of them leaked into round six, would you take two of them.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah, but I would probably like, I would. I have Sutton ranked ahead a few of these guys, so I would probably look to go that route. And, you know, Jerry Judy comes into play as well, you know, so there are, there are some receivers that aren't listed here that I think I could still get, you know, in, in round five and round six. But yes, I think at this point, if I only have one wide receiver, I probably drafted, I'll say one of the top two tight ends, you know, maybe George Kittle. But. And I, and I, you know, went against what my typical strategy would be, would be to probably take two running backs as well. So, yeah, I would, I would be chasing receiver at this point, you know, based on how I like to build my rosters. So, yes, if I can get two of these guys that, if they're top 24 and, you know, based on my rankings. Yeah, absolutely.

[Dave Richard]

But if this, in that scenario also, like you're talking about, you've either got two elite running backs and either an elite quarterback or tight end, or you have both an elite quarterback and tight end and like.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah.

[Dave Richard]

And an elite running back. So I'm okay. And I agree, like, I would take Sutton over all of these guys in round five, except for McLaurin. And I think if you can get him in round six, that's pretty fantastic. We haven't talked about DJ Moore yet, but I think he almost fits in that Marvin Harrison Jr. Devonte Adams, group of. Might be a wide receiver one, might be a wide receiver three.

[Adam Azer]

Oh, my gosh, I can't stand DJ Moore. He's hard enough to analyze. Well, he's hard enough to analyze if you look at his career before they drafted Luther Burden and Colston Loveland, Right? And then they have those two guys that it's just like, who is DJ Moore? But I think the last two guys on this list, Travis Hunter and DJ Moore, are the two that we've spoken very little about. So we'll get to them. Let's do a quick exercise. Do you see top 12 upside for the following players? I'm just going to read them in order. These round five wide receivers, you see top 12 upside for Terry McLaurin. And by the way, in full PBR, he, even with the 13 touchdowns last year, he was wide receiver 16 per game. But Terry McLaurin, yes or no?

[Heath Cummings]

No.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

No.

[Dave Richard]

Not realistic.

[Adam Azer]

Xavier Worthy?

[Heath Cummings]

No, no.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Close, but no.

[Adam Azer]

I do, I, I not. It's not super realistic, but it involves Mahomes having a big year and Worthy is just arguably the fastest wide receiver in football. The Chiefs know how to make that. Awesome, right? True. It's true. DK Metcalf, top 12 potential.

[Heath Cummings]

No. No.

[Adam Azer]

Yes from Heath.

[Dave Richard]

I said no.

[Adam Azer]

I said yes from Jamie.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Yep.

[Adam Azer]

That's bold. He's only done that once. He's got to watch again.

[Heath Cummings]

Roger's history.

[Adam Azer]

Okay. Mike Evans.

[Heath Cummings]

Yes.

[Adam Azer]

Yes. How can we say no to this? It does it almost every year. I know.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Well, he was 11th on a per game basis last year. That is right about where he could end up this year.

[Dave Richard]

Yeah, I guess. And. And maybe if we're considering injury possibilities for Evans, like Godwin not being okay, then we should do the same for others. And I should say yes more often. Like, if everybody's healthy. I don't think that's realistic.

[Adam Azer]

I think there's just a difference between, again, healthy and.

[Dave Richard]

Well, Godwin's coming off an injury. Unlike somebody like Rushy Rice.

[Adam Azer]

No, the. The. Like the. Rashi Rice and Chris Gobbin are the most comparable guys.

[Heath Cummings]

Okay.

[Adam Azer]

But I'm not saying, oh, there's an injury to Debo Samuel, there's an injury to Brian Thomas Jr. You know what I mean? I'm saying guys that are coming back.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

You're not making up an injury.

[Adam Azer]

I'm just saying guys that might not perform that well because of last year's injury. Travis Hunter, top 12 upside.

[Heath Cummings]

No.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, that would. That would be a little surprising. But he's Travis Hunter, right?

[Dave Richard]

No. Yeah, I think I wouldn't want to put any limitations on what Travis Hunter could do on a football field. It's true.

[Adam Azer]

DJ Moore, top 12 upside, including a cornerback.

[Dave Richard]

Yes.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

No, no. DJ Moore.

[Heath Cummings]

No.

[Adam Azer]

Two yeses and a no for DJ Moore. All right, who do you guys like better, Travis Hunter or DJ Moore? Let's finish with these two guys.

[Heath Cummings]

More, more, more.

[Dave Richard]

Is my second favorite player in this round.

[Adam Azer]

Oh, all right, let's talk about that then. Sell me on it.

[Dave Richard]

I don't like. I think that it's still a bit of a mystery box in terms of who the wide receiver one's going to be for the Bears, and that's why DJ Moore falls. But I. The fact that Luther Burton missed almost everything this summer and Colston Loveland did the same, I think that matters for rookie pass catchers. And if DJ Moore ends up in that wide receiver role, one role for Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams is just not terrible, then, holy cow, how good could Dj Moore be? Can you imagine DJ Moore with all those Amanra St. Brown targets and then working after the catch as he has throughout partial times of his career.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, it'd be great. Anyone, Anyone want to add anything to DJ Moore, the most confusing player in the fantasy enigma. Can I call him that? The fantasy enigma? D.J. moore?

[Heath Cummings]

Sure. I mean, I, I think he's nailed it. You know, it, it's, it's a big mystery right now. You know, Odunze is getting a lot of love and he could easily be that guy. You know, Burden and Loveland can come back healthy in camp and, you know, anything that, you know, the, the motivating tools that Ben Johnson is using the, in the media for Burden, you know, can certainly, you know, come to fruition. And he comes out and he balls out in camp. A lot depends on, obviously, Caleb Williams, you know, playing like the number one overall pick with three offensive lineman upgrades that hopefully we'll keep him from getting sacked at a record pace. But, I mean, obviously DJ Moore is the most proven guy in this, you know, receiving core and has shown the ability to, you know, do well with different quarterbacks at times, to do well with different systems at times. And to your point, Adam, it's hard to, you know, sort of, you know, put a finger on what, what exactly he's going to be, but at this cost, it's fantastic, you know, to take a chance on him. And, you know, even last year when they made the coaching change, you know, we started to see him get fed targets. I know it wasn't exactly the best targets, but he was getting fed targets and that could still be the case once again. So I think just given, you know, the, the potential and it's, it's worth taking chances on Odunze at his cost and even Burden at his cost. But, you know, Ben Johnson decides that D.J. moore is, is that guy, and it's still the same front office and ownership. They paid D.J. moore last year a pretty hefty contract, so they probably still believe in him. You know, I, I think he's, he's easily somebody at, again, at this price to take a chance.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I agree and I, I do, I worry about him because it could go the other way. And when you, when you talked about Ben Johnson motivating through the media, I thought you were talking about how he kind of called out DJ Moore for loafing it at times last year and having bad body language on the field, and he wants him motivated. But the thing that stands out to me, his, his targets after. Shit, I don't know what Shane Waldron was thinking last year with DJ Moore after he got fired. DJ Moore's targets went up by 2 per game. His ADOT fell by about 4 yards per game. His PPR points went from 11.1 to 17.3. I I'm hoping that he's used a little bit more explosively, but still gets a lot of volume. He's average in the neighborhood of eight targets per game each of the last two seasons, just with very different results. This is yet another receiver that you're drafting closer to the floor than the ceiling. And that makes me feel okay taking him in this range. He's not going to be my favorite in this range. I worry about the upside, but he can still be a quality number two fantasy receiver.

[Adam Azer]

I like that you said you drafting DJ more closer to his floor than his ceiling because he's look 56 is a great value for him. But wide receiver 24 is another way to look at it because usually wide receiver 24 is off the board well before pick 56. Like I said, the CBS ADP is not so high on wide receivers, but wide receiver 24 here. And this is PPR ADP. This is where D.J. moore has finished in the last six seasons. He's been in the league seven years, last six seasons. This is D.J. moore per game in PPR 13th, 25th. Nope, that's overall. This is per game. Sorry. 14th, 26th, 26th, 36, 9th and 27th. So only once has D.J. moore been worse than wide receiver 27 per game in PPR. And that's great when you're taking him 24th, but only twice has he been better than 26th per game. That's why he's kind of an enigma. And I don't think he's just some safe player. I think he's obviously really good and has big upside, but it for some reason. Well, it's not for some reason. He's been on bad passing offense for most of his career. Four straight years where he's been on a team that's been bottom five in gross passing yards per game. There's a lot going on with DJ Moore is kind of a tricky one to analyze in my opinion.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Where did you say he finished last year in PPR points per game?

[Adam Azer]

27Th.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Okay. Yeah, that's close to where I was at four games with 16 plus and.

[Adam Azer]

33Rd and non PPR and. And he was one of. He's one of seven wide receivers over the last five years with 130 or more targets in a year and fewer than a thousand yards. He and Wondale Robinson did that last year. I mean just. It was A terrible year.

[Dave Richard]

Well, their quarterback play was similar.

[Adam Azer]

Yeah, that's the thing. And. And we're projecting a leap for Caleb Williams. If it doesn't happen. Like, if it doesn't happen and you're taking no. 1 right now, you know, Xavier Worthy is going ahead of DJ Moore. But if you're going to take DJ Moore over Xavier Worthy, you're running a big risk of betting on Caleb Williams over Patrick Mahomes.

[Dave Richard]

I don't. There's not a safe wide receiver in this round, I don't think. I guess at my point, like, we're. I'm terrified by Terry McLaurin if he has the same targets as last year, but as a touchdown regression, we all expect. Yep, there's a huge risk that Rashi Rice comes back and just earns nine targets a game. And Xavier Worthy is the big play guy, and that's pretty much it. DK Metcalf is on an Arthur Smith offense. Mike Evans is 32 and could have Chris. What if Chris Godwin's fully healthy and he has the same targets here he did last year? Then he's, you know, Travis, center, might be a cornerback.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I don't think he. For the record, I think Hunter will play a ton of wide receiver this year.

[Adam Azer]

I do, too. Very pessimistic view of round five.

[Dave Richard]

No, I'm just saying that I don't think you should hold DJ Moore's floor against him in comparison to the other guys that are being drafted ahead of him, because they all have terrifying risks.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

And if. If you've heard the whole show and you kind of get grossed out by a lot of the names, then you should probably be a 0 RB drafter this year. Collect as many of those top 15 wide receivers as you can.

[Adam Azer]

I think. What do you think about the strategy of going? Well, I don't really know who I like in this group. They're all kind of risky. I'm going to go with the bet with my favorite quarterback. And maybe that's not Mahomes, and maybe that's Baker Mayfield.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Maybe it's going to take Mayfield in this range.

[Adam Azer]

No, I'm so sorry. That was a really stupid way of putting it. I meant. No, no. My favorite quarterback attached to one of these wide receivers. Oh. And maybe that's not. Maybe that's not Mahomes with Worthy. Maybe that is Mayfield with Evans. Maybe you think it's Trevor Lawrence with Travis Hunter. You just go for the best passing offense.

[Dave Richard]

Also, I think Mayfield slash Mahomes is the perfect example of guys that are Actually potentially available. I don't think Jalen Hurts is going to be available in round five of very many real fantasy football drafts.

[Adam Azer]

Right. No, but. No, I said that poorly. But thank you for calling me out on that also.

[Dave Richard]

That just like draft Cortland Sutton.

[Heath Cummings]

Yeah.

[Adam Azer]

Maybe the.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

The goal is you just lump them all together in the same tier and you take the last guy or you target the last guy as late as you can.

[Adam Azer]

I, I'm a little nervous about Bo Nix, though. I. I've seen some stuff on social media. I've seen Dan Schneier break it down where Bo Nicks, you know, ran the Sean Payton offense very well, but when things broke down, when he didn't have a lot of time in the pocket, it didn't go so great. He threw a lot of balls, like at the line of scrimmage. Maybe it's because I kind of had my doubts on Bonix going in and maybe he could be bad and Corland Sutton could still have a really solid year. But again, you know, if you just, just, you might look back and go, jeez, I really should have just taken Xavier Worthy because I missed out on this. Patrick Mahomes, this opportunity, this is the opportunity in the draft, whether it's Rice, Worthy, Mahomes or Kelsey, to get a piece of the Chief's offense. If you're into the Chief's offense.

[Heath Cummings]

Well, it's also like if you. If you plan your draft accordingly, like, this could be your third receiver, which is minimizing the risk, especially with such a deep running back. Group.

[Adam Azer]

Final. Give me. Each of you, give me 10 seconds on Travis Hunter.

[Heath Cummings]

Well, that's easy.

[Adam Azer]

10.

[Heath Cummings]

Liam Cohen. Liam Cohen. Maximizing his top two wide receivers last year. Like, that's the upside for Travis Hunter.

[Dave Richard]

Ultimate mystery Bucks.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think he's going to get.

[Dave Richard]

Anything is possible.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I think. I think he's going to get volume. I bet he's going to be involved in the red zone a solid amount. I don't know how well they'll be able to run the ball. Look for him to get in the neighborhood of seven targets per game. Be a good borderline number two wide receiver. Sorry, that was longer than 10 seconds.

[Adam Azer]

Unbelievable. All right, so far in my Scott Fishbowl draft, Bijan Robinson and Malik Neighbors are off the board. Malik Neighbors.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

I've got Josh Allen and Saquon Barkley off the board.

[Adam Azer]

Okay.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

Someone did us a solid and took Saquon early.

[Adam Azer]

Wow. Yeah. I don't think you should take a running back that's not going to catch a lot of balls. He could catch more this year, but targets and catches are key. All right, thanks everybody very much. We appreciate it. We will talk to you tomorrow with rounds six through eight of our wide receiver adp. Have a great day and go to our draft a thon page. The link is in the episode description and we'll, we'll see you tomorrow. Oh, we'll see you at one o', clock, CBS Sports Network. Bye. Paramount Podcasts now streaming on Paramount plus.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

The suspect is trying to evade us.

[Adam Azer]

You're walking into the unknown. We had somebody out there starting starting fires for the heck of it. It's dark. There's no road signs. We need the help of everyone.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

When there's chaos below, he's bailing on foot. This individual did not want to be caught.

[Adam Azer]

They go high, the helicopter sees you.

[Jamie Eisenberg]

He never realized we were above watching him the whole time. An all new season of Chopper Cops now streaming on Paramount Plus.