Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Top 20 WR's, Kevin from The League, Fantasy News

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary: Episode on Top 20 WRs, Kevin from The League, and Fantasy News (August 18, 2015)

Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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Introduction

The Fantasy Footballers kick off the episode with their usual camaraderie, expressing excitement about returning after a brief hiatus. They tease the main topics of the day: the top 20 wide receivers, a special guest from "The League," and the latest fantasy news.

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Fantasy News and Updates (04:26 - 11:00)

The hosts delve into significant preseason developments impacting fantasy football enthusiasts:

• Ty Hilton’s Contract Extension: The Colts secured wide receiver Ty Hilton with a five-year, $65 million extension. Jason Moore remarks, “This puts Ty Hilton in a much better spot... he's going to be playing with Andrew Luck,” highlighting Hilton's value in dynasty and keeper leagues.

• Amir Abdullah’s Preseason Performance: Mike Wright praises Amir Abdullah's impressive preseason debut for the Detroit Lions, noting his 67 yards on seven carries. Andy Holloway adds, “It’s so weird that he’s really good,” emphasizing Abdullah's unexpected performance.

• Jonas Gray’s Dominance: Running back Jonas Gray led the Patriots with 74 yards and a touchdown against the Packers, showcasing his potential impact.

• Injury Updates:

  • Zach Ertz: Expected to miss a few weeks due to a groin injury, raising concerns about his reliability as a blocker.
  • Jordan Reed: Limited to one or two weeks of production before a season-ending injury.
  • Julius Thomas: The Jaguars’ $45 million investment is uncertain after a fractured hand, though a return by Week 1 is anticipated.
  • C.J. Anderson and Kevin White: C.J. Anderson exited the preseason opener with an ankle injury, while Kevin White faces surgery for a shin stress fracture, potentially sidelining him for the season.

• Eddie Royal’s Value: The Bears’ Eddie Royal has emerged as a valuable asset, reminiscent of Wes Welker in PPR leagues. Mike Wright states, “Eddie Royal is an extremely valuable potential Wes Welker, like a PPR monster.”

• Brandon Marshall and Martavis Bryant: Discussed briefly, highlighting Marshall’s consistency and Bryant's potential despite concerns over team dynamics.

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Top 20 Wide Receivers Breakdown (11:17 - 55:31)

The core segment of the episode features an in-depth discussion of the top 20 wide receivers, incorporating consensus rankings and individual insights.

1. Julio Jones (11:24 - 13:58)

Julio Jones tops the list as the consensus number one wide receiver. Despite a quiet preseason game, Mike Wright confidently asserts, “A plus B equals draft. Julio Jones.” The trio emphasizes his high target volume and integration into Kyle Shanahan’s offense, drawing parallels to Andre Johnson’s success under the same system.

2. Antonio Brown (14:13 - 19:20)

Antonio Brown secures the second spot, with Jason Moore advocating his value even in standard leagues: “He is worthy of being the number one even in a standard league.” The discussion highlights Brown’s consistency, touchdown potential, and role as a dominant receiver.

3. Calvin Johnson (15:20 - 16:39)

Calvin Johnson occupies the third position. While acknowledging his age and injury history, Andy Holloway states, “There’s no reason to doubt Calvin Johnson,” supporting his continued elite performance.

4. Dez Bryant (16:52 - 17:36)

Dez Bryant is ranked fourth, praised for his touchdown reliability: “If there was anybody I had to put, you know, like a bet of my house down on getting double, double-digit touchdowns is Dez Bryant.”

5. A.J. Green (17:53 - 19:20)

AJ Green follows at fifth, recognized for his high floor and consistent performance. Jason Moore praises his potential to finish number one, noting, “He’s the guaranteed high floor.”

6. Jordy Nelson (19:16 - 20:44)

At sixth, Jordy Nelson benefits from the effective Rodgers-led Packers offense, ensuring consistent targets and touchdown opportunities.

7. Demarius Thomas (20:44 - 24:38)

Demarius Thomas ranks seventh, with Jason Moore advocating for his consistent top-three finishes and red-zone prowess: “He is very consistent. He’s a great red zone target.”

8-10. Alshon Jeffrey and Odell Beckham Jr. (22:11 - 28:10)

• Alshon Jeffrey: Positioned at eighth in some rankings, Jeffrey is highlighted for his high target volume and potential for increased fantasy points if he maintains health and offensive opportunities.
• Odell Beckham Jr.: Ranked ninth, Beckham Jr.’s dynamic playmaking ability is lauded despite some inconsistencies and injury concerns.

11-20. Remaining Wide Receivers (28:10 - 55:31)

The hosts continue to break down the rest of the top 20 wide receivers, including:

• Randall Cobb (11)
• Ty Hilton (12)
• Mike Evans (13)
• Jordan Matthews (14)
• Vincent Jackson (15)
• Emmanuel Sanders (17)
• Martavis Bryant (18)
• Andre Johnson (19)
• Brandon Marshall (20)
• Brandon Cooks (20)

Each player is evaluated based on preseason performance, team dynamics, injury status, and projected fantasy impact. Notable discussions include:

• Randall Cobb vs. Jordy Nelson: Debates over whether Cobb should be a primary WR1 versus Nelson’s consistency.
• Ty Hilton’s Role: Emphasis on Hilton’s elevated status with the Colts’ new contract and his synergy with quarterback Andrew Luck.
• Mike Evans vs. Vincent Jackson: Analysis of their respective target volumes and touchdown potentials, with Jason Moore stating, “Vincent Jackson could finish above Mike Evans,” based on target distribution.

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Guest Interview: Steve Rannazizi ("Kevin from The League") (46:05 - 53:33)

The episode features an interview with Steve Rannazizi, known as "Kevin from The League," providing listeners with a humorous and insider perspective on the fantasy football landscape.

Highlights of the Interview:

• League Season Preview: Rannazizi shares insights into the upcoming season, including comedic elements like a cold open with Marshawn Lynch and appearances by football personalities such as Golden Tate and Randall Cobb.

• Listener Questions:

  • Draft Tips: Steve recommends hosting drafts at venues like Buffalo Wild Wings for an enhanced experience, emphasizing atmosphere and communal engagement.
  • League Trophy: Discussion about the league’s custom trophy, the Hazelton Cup, and its humorous parallels to iconic props like the Shiva and Sacco trophies.
  • Fantasy Picks: Responding to a question about choosing Le’Veon Bell vs. Adrian Peterson, Steve favors Peterson for his offseason conditioning and reduced wear and tear, aligning with Andy Holloway’s agreement.

• Future Plans: Steve teases his upcoming Comedy Central special "Breaking Dad" and a guest appearance on "New Girl," showcasing his multifaceted career beyond fantasy football.

Notable Quotes:

• Steve Rannazizi on Adrian Peterson vs. Le’Veon Bell: “I would just for that sheer fact, you get more games out of Adrian Peterson, hopefully.” (49:23)
• Mike Wright on league trophies: “They bury it... in a prop warehouse somewhere.” (48:28)

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Conclusion and Wrap-Up (55:31 - End)

The hosts express gratitude to Steve Rannazizi for joining the show and recap the wide receiver rankings. They announce an increase to four shows a week, promising deeper dives into wide receiver rankings, quarterback analyses, tight end discussions, daily news updates, and mailbag segments.

Andy Holloway humorously remarks, “I want somebody to go through the show and count how many times I said the word great,” emphasizing the enthusiastic tone of the episode.

Final Remarks:

• Encourage listeners to follow them on Twitter (@the_ffballers) and visit their website (www.thefantasyfootballers.com) for additional content and updates.
• Tease upcoming shows focusing on quarterbacks and tight ends, ensuring continual engagement and valuable fantasy insights.

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Key Takeaways

• Top WR Rankings: Julio Jones and Antonio Brown lead the top ranks, with Calvin Johnson, Dez Bryant, and A.J. Green following closely.
• Injury Implications: Key injuries to players like Zach Ertz and Julius Thomas could impact their fantasy value.
• Player Value Analysis: Emphasis on evaluating players based on target volume, team dynamics, and consistency.
• Guest Insights: Steve Rannazizi provides a blend of humor and practical advice for fantasy enthusiasts.

This episode offers a comprehensive overview of the wide receiver landscape for the upcoming NFL season, enriched with expert analysis and entertaining discussions, making it a valuable resource for both seasoned and novice fantasy football players.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. Before we start today's show, we just want to remind you that it is brought to you by Handsome Fancy fellas. Better up that beard with some oil or some cream. Go to handsomefancy.com use promo code ballers for 15% off your order.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Mike Wright]

Hello, everybod. Hey, everybody. We're back.

[Jason Moore]

Felt like a long break.

[Andy Holloway]

Finally.

[Mike Wright]

This is the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. I am Andy Holloway, joined as always by Mike the fantasy hitman. Right.

[Jason Moore]

Hey.

[Mike Wright]

And Jason Moore.

[Jason Moore]

Hello.

[Mike Wright]

Is that. Is that Roy? Hello.

[Jason Moore]

That was Roy. Hello.

[Mike Wright]

We're back again. We got a great show for you today. We have our one through 20 wide receivers and the moment you've all been waiting for. Kevin from the league, Steve Ranazizi is on the show today.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we did it.

[Mike Wright]

We did it.

[Andy Holloway]

Kind of. Well, we got him on the show anyways.

[Mike Wright]

That's right.

[Jason Moore]

Huge win.

[Mike Wright]

Quick question for the day. Which player jumped off the screen in week one of the preseason whose name begins with the letters B through Z? Just kidding.

[Jason Moore]

You can go first.

[Andy Holloway]

It rhymes with Shamir schmabsmula.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, not bad. Not a bad debut for the guy you've touted the entire off season.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm calling it a win and I'm leaving the show. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

We are talking about Amir Abdullah. For those of you who don't know who shmem shmere schmeb shmula is. Mike. Mike has been a big Amir Abdullah fan. Running back for the Detroit Lions. Joy Bell has not yet hit the practice field, so Amir Abdullah's had some chance to shine, to strut his stuff.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that cut.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he looked good. He looked good. Really good. And he had a lot of opportunities. You know, in the first preseason game, you get like one drive for veterans and. Or one drive for a lot of these guys that are in your top, you know, 30 running backs. But for him, he had the opportunity to get on the field and get some action, and he looked mighty good.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, he did.

[Mike Wright]

I'd say this is a combo answer for me real quick is Teddy Bridgewater has looked very. Man, he's looked great for two straight weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

Great.

[Mike Wright]

And that team just has so many more weapons for him than they had last year and another year in the offense. I mean, the ascension you saw from even, I mean, Andrew Luck, those type of guys going into year two, Bridgewater is as sharp as they come mentally. And so I think he makes a.

[Andy Holloway]

Jump and the downfield attempts, they're coming.

[Mike Wright]

For Me, he's great.

[Jason Moore]

For me, the guy that jumps off the page, just jumps off was the Danny Woodhead who got one carry in preseason. He got the ball once and it happened to be on the eight yard line on a third down and he took it eight yards and he scored the touchdown. Just like he's gonna do a lot.

[Mike Wright]

It's so perfect. What happened to Woodhead on preseason game one, we're not adding too much to that, but it is exactly what you saw from him when he was healthy. And the reason he finished as a top 12 running back two years ago in PPR leagues is because he's very, very trustworthy around the goal line. From an offensive perspective. Rivers loves him. They love him in the game on third down and he takes, draws and finds his way into the end zone somehow.

[Jason Moore]

He's hard to tackle. Little guy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Lots going on in today's show. If you want to follow us, you can do so on twitter@the ffballers. Be sure to visit the website thefantasyfootballers.com youm can submit questions on there. We have the ability, if you need a question answered super fast from us, you will get one of us. You can go on there and you can specify that when you submit the question and you can get an answer within like eight hours. You know, for the emergencies in your life. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

This is high emergency stuff.

[Mike Wright]

I know. And you can get around. No, don't mess with that. Don't mess with that. You can also find us on YouTube. Like we said last week, this show is now four times a week, so you will not have a break. You will get us tomorrow and the day after and the day after. We'll be bringing you all the latest news, notes, information, all that stuff. Any other headlines, guys?

[Andy Holloway]

That's a lot of handsome.

[Mike Wright]

That's a lot of fancy.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I meant our faces.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, that's a good point.

[Andy Holloway]

On YouTube four times a week, right? Get those retina screens, people.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's get into the news.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Mike Wright]

It has been a bit of a break for us. Our, you know, the weekend happened, the preseason games happened, and so a lot of news to run through. I'm gonna let you boys stop me if there's something you want to talk about. Okay? Colts have signed wide receiver Ty Hilton to a five year, $65 million extension, which is big news because we stop there. We weren't sure.

[Jason Moore]

No, I think this is. I think this is big news because a lot of people were worried. Ty Hilton was going to be gone at the end of the year. They drafted Philip Dorsett to come in. If you're in a dynasty league, if you're in any kind of keeper league, this puts Ty Hilton in a much better spot for me because he's going to be playing with Andrew Luck.

[Mike Wright]

Amir Abdullah rushed for 67 yards on seven carries. That's so preseason opener.

[Andy Holloway]

It's so weird. So weird that he's really good.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, well, he had a good preseason game, you're right. Patriots running back Jonas Gray torch The packers for 74 and a touchdown.

[Andy Holloway]

Speaking of overreacting, is torched the right.

[Mike Wright]

Word you can use with Jonas Gray? Is it torched?

[Andy Holloway]

These are not.

[Mike Wright]

Did you watch the run? It was more like a ball rolling downhill.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it was more like a ball rolling uphill.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, you know what? It just shows that he's still in the mix there. Obviously. Week one, he's a good start. Potentially. With Legare blunt out, groin surgeon Dr. William Myers told Eagles coach Chip Kelly that Zach Ertz will likely miss a couple of weeks, but thinks he'll be fine by the opener. It's not good. It's not good news when a guy is trying to establish himself as a blocker part of your offense to miss time in the preseason. So I think the, you know what we've been saying about Ertz, which is you still need to wait and see. It just continues. He could be a value if he drops far enough, but I just don't think he will. Washington has decided to go without the tight end position this year. Silas Red and Niles Paul are both out for the year. Logan Paulson is out for the year and this leaves Jordan Reed to have a week or two of really good production before he is out for the year. No, I mean, in all honesty, if he can stay healthy. He's had rapport with RG3 before.

[Andy Holloway]

He's like Jordan Reed is like the anti Richard Reed where. You know Richard Reed. Mr. Fantastic where he's.

[Jason Moore]

We looked at each other like, who's Richard Reed? He's very.

[Andy Holloway]

He's very stretchy, you know. And Jordan Reed is clearly not very stretchy.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know how many ligaments he has left. He needs to stretch them.

[Jason Moore]

All right, hit that yoga Jordan Reed. If you, if you're somebody who streams tight ends, Jordan Reed has a great guy to grab late in your draft because he will be good until he's injured.

[Mike Wright]

Julius Thomas will go in for more tests. This is classic Jaguars situation. I feel bad for them because I Like the Jaguars. I like their coach, Gus Bradley. I like Bortles, I like Alan Robinson. But Julius Thomas, their $45 million investment is. He had a fractured hand on the game on Saturday. I saw him come off the field grabbing his hand. Now they say he'll be back by week one.

[Jason Moore]

I think he will be back.

[Mike Wright]

But it does this help? I mean, in the equation of fantasy, if he was a guy you wanted, is he dropping a little bit? No, he's a better value.

[Jason Moore]

No way. Because he's dropping now to where he is still too high. I mean, that's where I think we.

[Mike Wright]

Don'T agree on that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's true. You have Julius higher than I do. I don't think Julius is going to be all that great. And I could tell you catching those touchdowns, which is important and is probably going to happen from time to time, will be more difficult with broken fingers. It's just true.

[Andy Holloway]

That's a fact.

[Mike Wright]

That's true. C.J. anderson exited Friday night's preseason opener against Seattle with an ankle injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't worry about it.

[Mike Wright]

Not a headline news. But I will say this. Ronnie Hillman looked really good. He has had games in the past where he looks like the best running back on Denver. I'm not worried about Monte Ball's talent usurping C.J. anderson's, but Ronnie Hillman looks really good. And so you just have to keep him in the mix. We still love CJ I think he's four on my board right now, but he's got to get healthy. Speaking of not healthy, Kevin White needs surgery. So this is no good. Stress fracture in his shin. Danger of missing the entire season.

[Andy Holloway]

That stinks.

[Jason Moore]

You know what this does show, though? This shows that right now we're in a period of time where health news is not always accurate because it doesn't have to be like it does in the regular season. And whatever we thought was going on with Kevin White might point us towards some other players and say maybe it's a little worse than what the teams are letting on Drake Bell. And so it's just something we should keep keep a lookout for is all I'm saying.

[Mike Wright]

The Bears also have said the Eddie Royal's been in the standout in camp. And so you mix this with this news and Eddie Royal is an extremely valuable potential West Welker, like PPR monster. So we've seen it before from him. We've seen it before from him. With Cutler in Denver his rookie season, he almost had 100 balls. I think that he caught and So I think Eddie Royal is one of those great, great, great values right now. And I don't. Is he moving up? Yes, he's moving up. But you still. He's still probably a value where he's at.

[Jason Moore]

He's definitely a value where he's at. He's been one of my favorite guys. Two months ago, I've got a YouTube where I was touting Danny Woodhead and Eddie Royal because they were just not looked at at all. And now they're going, yeah, I know. But, you know, now they're going to end up skyrocketing. So.

[Mike Wright]

All right, a couple other bits of quick injury news. CJ Spiller went under the knife for a very minor arthroscopic surgery, but he will miss the entire preseason. So question marks around his role early in the season. And then Chris Johnson signed with the Cardinals on a one year, $2 million veteran minimum contract.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, not. He can get 2 million if he gets to the pro.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, because I think he only gets like 800 and something thousand this year.

[Andy Holloway]

No, guaranteed. He can get cut.

[Jason Moore]

So, Mike, what you're saying is he cannot get $2 million.

[Andy Holloway]

That is exactly what I'm saying.

[Mike Wright]

And then Philip Rivers signed a deal. Rivers and Hilton were two guys that a lot of people thought maybe wouldn't sign. And both signed before the season. No trade clause. So Rivers will finish his career in San Diego, in Los Angeles. Yeah, it's a good point. I want to remind everybody about fantasydraftwizard.com now is the time to go and run a bunch of mock drafts. Go against the experts, go against espn, Yahoo. Consensus rankings. Takes about two minutes to run a mock draft. And if your draft's coming up, you want to run through at least three or four of those hundred. Three or four hundred of [e-mail] it's free. We use it all the time. It's what we've used for our mock draft shows. You guys want to talk wide receiver?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

All right, so make sure you. Everybody stay tuned. We do have Kevin from the league coming on the show.

[Andy Holloway]

He has a real.

[Mike Wright]

Steve ran is easy.

[Andy Holloway]

He's a real person.

[Mike Wright]

No, I.

[Andy Holloway]

Real feelings and a real heart.

[Mike Wright]

It's true. You'll see it all on display for eight minutes.

[Andy Holloway]

His heart.

[Mike Wright]

No, he's on the show later, so make sure you stay tuned. We're excited about that. We've been talking about the league for a long time. All right, guys, you ready to talk consensus wide receivers?

[Jason Moore]

Julio?

[Mike Wright]

That is right. Number one on our consensus number top 20 board.

[Andy Holloway]

We're talking standard.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, this is standard league. We will talk about guys that we think are PPR standouts, like Eddie Royal. Julio Jones, number one on our board. He did nothing in preseason game one to dissuade.

[Andy Holloway]

He did nothing.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, no. I think he was 4 for 61 and a touchdown in one drive.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, one drive.

[Andy Holloway]

He's gonna be unstoppable.

[Mike Wright]

His cut on the touchdown run. If you haven't seen this, you want to go watch the highlight. His cut was not the kind of cut a big guy makes. And yet he made it.

[Jason Moore]

Big guy made it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. It was Abdullah esque, as Mike would say. Well, oh, no, I'm sorry. Abdullah is Barry Sanders. Well, according to Todd Bowles. According to Todd Bowles. Man, we're gonna have so many Abdullah Joy Bell discussions this year because it's gonna. It's gonna roll one direction.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Could.

[Andy Holloway]

It could run right down the middle.

[Mike Wright]

That's true. To the end zone. Julio Jones, 156 targets last year. He had the third best deep ball catch rate behind D. Jacks and Des. He is moving into a Kyle Shanahan offense that has been pretty much wide receiver. One dominant.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Andre Johnson had his best years ever under Kyle Shanahan when he finished first and second in fantasy production in 08 and 09. Pierre Garcon, who we've seen kind of fall off the map since Colts.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. He led the league in receptions under Shanahan and neither of those. I mean, Andre Johnson may be at his peak, but I mean, you're talking the same type of talent with Julio Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

I think that the most important Julio stat to me was of the guys who were the top five in yardage, Antonio Brown, Demarius Thomas, Jordy Emmanuel, and Julio. Julio had about a thousand or thousand one hundred fifty less snaps than those guys.

[Mike Wright]

So. So if that has the potential to increase, his fantasy production will increase.

[Andy Holloway]

Correct.

[Mike Wright]

A plus B equals draft. Julio Jones.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

If you want to remind everybody too, because a lot of people have been tweeting and emailing with questions of who we would take, you know, Desert Julio, Calvin or Antonio Brown. All of our rankings individually are on the website at the fantasy footballers.com youm just click the rankings button. You can see each of our rankings next to each other. You can also download those in Excel and if you wanted to print them out or keep them on you. We try to update those a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

Put it on like a plaque.

[Mike Wright]

Put it on a plaque that we remember all of the wrong choices. We Want you to forget that. Yeah. After you're done with the draft. Just burn the list. No, number two. Number two is Antonio Brown.

[Jason Moore]

Even in a standard.

[Mike Wright]

Even in a standard. Of course.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. No, I'm just pointing that out because some people feel like his value is ppr, but he is, he's worthy of being the number one even in a standard league. Just because his floor is just. It's a top. The Empire State.

[Andy Holloway]

His floor is five catches for 50 yards. Yeah, that's what he's gonna do.

[Mike Wright]

13 touchdowns last year, just under 1700 yards on 178 targets. I think the number that could adjust down would be the touchdown number.

[Andy Holloway]

It's possible.

[Mike Wright]

It's. Especially with Martavius Bryant in the mix there. If you watch Bryant on preseason game one. I was telling this to Jason yesterday. There are a couple players in my life that I've watched that when they beat someone deep, they beat them by 12 yards. Martavis Bryant beats people by 12 yards. You know, Randy Moss used to beat people by 12 yards down the field. It's impressive. He had a touchdown catch. And it doesn't hurt Antonio Brown to have a deep threat on the other side, but it could hurt the touchdown numbers a little bit. Do you agree?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I would agree, but I'm not worried about Antonio Brown at all.

[Mike Wright]

No, that offense is dynamic. So at number three, Calvin Johnson, are we in the minority having him this high?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't. I haven't looked around lately. But there's no reason to doubt Calvin Johnson.

[Mike Wright]

But he's old, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he is.

[Mike Wright]

He's been hurt, Mike.

[Jason Moore]

Even with no reason to doubt Calvin, the reason that maybe other people have him outside is just because there is such a good group of top tier wide receiver ones. You know, the guys that we're going to be covering here, Julio, and all the way down through AJ Green, they're all great. So they could finish above Calvin. It's just a matter of whether you think he's still healthy and still.

[Mike Wright]

Let me ask you this because people are going to stare down this choice. We have him ahead of des Bryant and A.J. green right now. Jordy Nelson, those guys in a.

[Andy Holloway]

In consensus.

[Mike Wright]

In consensus. In a one, that's fine. But in a dynasty or keeper situation, how much are you, are you ticking Calvin down or how many years do you think Calvin has left at elite production level? Is it enough to where you don't care about the youth? I mean, Julio, we have ahead of him already. But what do you think about that dynamic?

[Andy Holloway]

If we're talking Dynasty keeper. I have the other guys above Calvin like Julio and Des and Green. Yeah, I'd rather have them even.

[Mike Wright]

If you think Calvin will be better this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Because I don't think, I don't think any one of these guys that we could predict right now is just going to be such a cut above this year. I mean, Calvin could.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, the tiers are the same.

[Jason Moore]

Exactly. So good point.

[Mike Wright]

Des Bryant comes in at number four. I guess we didn't talk too much about Calvin's target numbers, but they're through the roof. Obviously he was on a pace for 182 targets last year.

[Andy Holloway]

If you. That's adjusting some numbers.

[Mike Wright]

But yeah, we do that to make the rankings work.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he was, he had the two dummy games and where he was a distraction. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Dez Bryant comes in at number four. He has 56 touchdowns in the last five years. And you can just. If there was anybody I had to put, you know, like a bet of my house down on getting double, double digit touchdowns is DEZ Bryant.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Andy Holloway]

I would say if you're touchdown leagues, I want Des Bryant.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. He would be the number one clear wide receiver. If you're in a touchdown only league.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's, he's a dominant force. They lost Murray. They should pass around the goal line a little bit more. Just from necessity. If guys can't get in the end zone the way Murray did. AJ Green comes in at number five.

[Andy Holloway]

Hey guys, gals, don't forget about AJ Green.

[Mike Wright]

I know.

[Jason Moore]

Seriously, he's great.

[Mike Wright]

It's sad. He is great, he's wonderful. And you cannot let in a standard league.

[Jason Moore]

I have him at number three and.

[Andy Holloway]

I have no problem with that.

[Mike Wright]

I think he's four for me. So there's a reason he's right here.

[Jason Moore]

And here's the best part about A.J. green is that he's being drafted as the eighth wide receiver. And this is a guy who could finish number one. If you know everybody in this group, this first tier could finish as the number one. So to be able to get him, you know, later in the second round is like fantastic.

[Mike Wright]

He's the guaranteed high floor. You know, he's never had less than 1,006. Even last year when he was injured, he put up big numbers.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And he's Andy Dalton's favorite target. And Andy Dalton has more weapons at his disposal this year. So things should be better for that offense, which was already, I think even though Dalton had one of the career worst years in certain metrics, last year they were like the eighth Best offense.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And Jeremy Hill is only going to make him better. Get, get more defense drawing in.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Marvin Jones is back. Tyler Iford is healthy. Any thoughts on Green before we move on?

[Andy Holloway]

He's great.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I'll let him know. Number six is Jordy Nelson, a guy who very well could be getting not enough respect at number six on.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what I think about Jordan Nelson?

[Mike Wright]

He's great.

[Andy Holloway]

He's great.

[Jason Moore]

This first tier is really easy to talk about.

[Mike Wright]

There was a lot of news this week about, about Green Bay coming out and saying they want to play faster, speed up the game, AKA get more offensive plays for Aaron Rodgers and those wide receivers.

[Jason Moore]

And they did Crazy, crazy. That offense just getting faster and more plays.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. When you talk about consistency from a wide receiver, Jordy Nelson, you know, you have the Aaron Rodgers effect. You know, you have a good quarterback throwing him the ball. You don't have to guess on that. And since I think, you know, 120 targets a year average since 2013, that's pretty good. Not bad.

[Andy Holloway]

And he's very efficient. And Jordy Nelson can strike for a touchdown at any time.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that was really annoying. Every time I played played you last year is that was the best, you know. Oh, no. Jordy Nelson's being kept under wraps in this game. They're really focusing on him. And then he catches, you know, a back shoulder 40 yarder and just cuts it back across the field to the end zone.

[Andy Holloway]

He had that the primetime game against Minnesota where he had, I think two catches and he was still one of the top fantasy producers of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So it's hard to depend on that. But if there was situation to depend on it, it's Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers in that combination and he's a big guy, he's going to score touchdowns and so he's reliable and that's why he's number six. So. And number seven is, is Demarius Thomas.

[Andy Holloway]

And we'll let Jason talk because Jason has him numero uno.

[Jason Moore]

I do. I've got him very number one. Yeah. I've got him in a standard league. And the reason is because if you look back the last several years, he's finished in the absolute top three. He is very consistent. He's a great red zone target. And Julius Thomas, who was one of the most important tools for getting red zone touchdowns last year, is gone. So I think that you still got Peyton Manning and he's still going to lead the team in targets, maybe even lead the league in targets as he Generally does or gets right near there. And so there's no reason to expect anything but his numbers to go up a little bit. And his red zone targets numbers can.

[Mike Wright]

Go up target wise.

[Jason Moore]

Not target wise, but I think that when it comes to red zone targets, I think those are going to go up. I think his targets are going to stay the same, which is basically the best of everyone.

[Mike Wright]

Wow, that's incredible.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, well, I mean, you lose weapons on the offense, so I feel like he's a lock this year. Now, if we're talking dynasty leagues, I'm a little bit more afraid because I don't know the future of his quarterback situation. But this year in a redraft I love.

[Mike Wright]

Don't you have a Brock Osweiler jersey? No.

[Jason Moore]

No, I don't.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I can't really argue with anything you said other than the fact that I think a season like 2012 and 2013 is more likely for him. 150 target range, 90 receptions, 1500 yards, 10 touchdowns. No big deal. No big deal. All right. Alshon Jeffrey is our consensus.

[Andy Holloway]

So are we agreed that we're kind of getting out of the top tier?

[Jason Moore]

I. This is where. This is where. And I wanted to bring this up. Alshon Jeffrey is the beginning of Tier 2 to me. However, there's one guy here that we haven't brought up.

[Mike Wright]

Who I was.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mike Wright]

Odb, we haven't talked.

[Andy Holloway]

You're still counting him. He's in your top tier.

[Mike Wright]

I think this is our muddy water tier because some of us have these guys as top tier, some don't. Because Jeffrey and ODB are both in my top 10.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So he's in my top 10. I'm just talking top tier.

[Jason Moore]

I do think for me, when they.

[Mike Wright]

Are both in my top tier.

[Jason Moore]

When it comes to drafting. When it comes to drafting Alshon Jeffrey, I have him finishing as an. As a wide receiver one, but I see him as in my second tier of.

[Mike Wright]

Interesting.

[Jason Moore]

I don't think he has. I don't think he's has the ability to finish number one. I do think he has the ability to finish as a number one, but not the number one.

[Mike Wright]

Interesting.

[Jason Moore]

Whereas all the other guys. I do. And obviously Odell Beckham also does. So I would put him up.

[Mike Wright]

You have him at eight, Mike, you have him at nine. Jeffrey. I'm sorry, inverse that. But you guys have him at 8, 9 range. I have Jeffrey at 5 right now. I don't think the Kevin White news is bad news for Alshon Jeffrey.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it is not.

[Mike Wright]

And just from a Target perspective. I mean he was near the top of the league last year in targets. It's going to be the Alshon Jeffrey show there.

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

It's just a matter of how much do they pass comparatively to last year. What is the John Fox effect and how they hand the ball off, how their defense plays.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I just don't see the offense, I mean that's really. He's going to be the number one and he is super talented. I've got him as a, as a wide receiver one, but I just don't see the offense being so prolific that they're going to be able to have the number one wide receiver. And this year they have 11 of their 16 games against the top half of defense. It's only only five games against bottom half defenses. So he's going to have.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, right. Right now.

[Jason Moore]

Well, right. I mean preseason, you know, judging who the good defenses are always changes.

[Mike Wright]

But it's always interesting because most of the guys we've talked about have done it. Okay. They've all finished in that top tier and so we know that somebody will probably be in that top tier that hasn't done it before. And for me, that's what makes Jeffrey the pick. Right. I have to project forward on him. I don't necessarily disagree with you. I can't see him being the number one overall wide receiver. It's hard for me to see that. But I think he can be a top five guy and that's why he's there for me.

[Andy Holloway]

I agree the easily top five that would not shock me. I agree with you guys that one would be a little surprising. But. But not like what? Not like Odell Beckham coming on the scene last year. If Jeffries won at the end of the year you go, oh, I didn't completely see that come.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I mean I think PPR wise you got to remember he is. All the things that Jason just said about Demarys Thomas could apply to Alshon Jeffrey from a target perspective because Adam Gase who, who moved Thomas from 145 to 185 targets is now in Chicago and so bubble screens, those type of things that you know into rounds, those things that they worked on with demarius. If Jeffrey now, right now he's got a little calf injury and he's hurt, but if he's healthy this season, that's why I project him forward. He averaged, you know, nine targets a.

[Andy Holloway]

Week last year and without Marshall he was at 11.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So yeah, don't want to linger on him.

[Jason Moore]

But Is no Peyton Manning. So.

[Mike Wright]

No, it's a fair point.

[Andy Holloway]

Jay Cutler, I love. Yes, Jay Cutler is an accurate quarterback. We've had this discussion before that Jay Cutler is. Is a kind of like a poor man's Brett Favre to me, where he gets a lot of crap because he's willing to sling it and throw some interceptions.

[Mike Wright]

And his grimace, his facial grimace.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, his body language is.

[Mike Wright]

The average is 3.2. Three facial grimaces a game that I take the over on the tops in the league.

[Andy Holloway]

That guy is the epitome of a sourpuss face. But I love Jay Cutler.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I. Hey. Better for Alshon. Jeffrey. Odell Beckham Jr. Is number nine on our consensus rankings.

[Jason Moore]

Standard. This is for standard. Because obviously I just want to say that because when it.

[Mike Wright]

We know. I know we know it's standard, but.

[Jason Moore]

But I think.

[Mike Wright]

Why does it matter with him? It doesn't even matter.

[Jason Moore]

People listening, I think are going to be like, why is Odell Beckham that low? Some people have him number one.

[Mike Wright]

What difference does it make? It doesn't matter to me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm saying it might matter to some.

[Andy Holloway]

It matters to Jason's rankings.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I'm saying, like, it's not. It's not a Wes Welker. I mean, he's going to put up numbers in standard and PPR leagues. How much did it change in your PPR rankings?

[Andy Holloway]

He has him top five in ppr.

[Mike Wright]

So you have. So you think the volume. Well, seven to five. You go from seven to five. Yeah, for me and ppr, he goes seven to seven. So Mike. Mike goes from nine to nine. So he doesn't move. He doesn't move in Jason and Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

And I. I will say Beckham, of all the guys we've mentioned so far, he just. He has the most question marks, which is why he is where he is for me. Would it surprise me if all of a sudden he's number one?

[Mike Wright]

Aren't those question marks just like exciting unknowns for a guy like Odell? Becky?

[Jason Moore]

Not when they're in the first round. Maybe they're exciting unknowns when you're talking about a fourth or fifth round.

[Mike Wright]

The Johns, you play to win the play to win the game.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, but I just. His target count over the last four games of 16 targets a game is just. That's not sustainable now.

[Mike Wright]

Are those in standard games there are those PPR games.

[Andy Holloway]

That's actually real life games.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, okay.

[Andy Holloway]

So that. I think it equates to both.

[Mike Wright]

I got to get me a ODB little figure for the desk here. I want the catch.

[Jason Moore]

Ooh, that'd be a good one.

[Andy Holloway]

So do we do something weird to his hamstrings?

[Mike Wright]

No, we have to, like, paint them red. We put some ice on them, put some arrows.

[Andy Holloway]

Warning.

[Mike Wright]

Just wrap them up. All right, so we like Odell Beckham Jr. We just don't necessarily. Mike's been on several radio shows talking about this specific fact that the target numbers were so insanely high. 14 a game. Is that right? 14.3 a game.

[Andy Holloway]

May. What? Where are we looking at 12 games?

[Mike Wright]

132 target.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no. 14.3 yards of catch.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, well, then I'm looking at the wrong stat. But his. His target numbers. I can do the math real quick on that. His first extremely high.

[Andy Holloway]

His first eight games, he was at eight targets. Okay, so in the final four, he was at 16.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, those. Those games that push.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm no mathematician, but that sounds like double. Yeah, I think you're right.

[Jason Moore]

Also, one important thing we can't forget is that he is on the COVID of Madden.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you haven't even talked.

[Mike Wright]

He'll be fine, guys.

[Jason Moore]

Cover a Madden? He's going to die in a car wreck.

[Mike Wright]

Wasn't Sherman on the COVID of Madden last year?

[Jason Moore]

And look what happened to him in the Super Bowl.

[Mike Wright]

In the super bowl, man. ODB is going to drop a catch in the Super Bowl.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't make me get into all the. No, we're not breaking down the bad curse.

[Mike Wright]

We're not. We're not. Wait, you think it's real?

[Andy Holloway]

I just. I just said do not make me get into it.

[Mike Wright]

All right. Number 10 is Hard Knocks Darling. DeAndre Hopkins. So far, Mike is happy because we finally watched it.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, you did?

[Mike Wright]

Of course we did. We wanted to watch it before it came on hbo.

[Jason Moore]

Go one day late.

[Mike Wright]

Did it really come on finally?

[Andy Holloway]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Jason Moore]

I wasn't there the. The night of.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, so he looked great. Obviously there is some concern with that offense. The quarterback position is.

[Andy Holloway]

Is who it's gonna be. Hoyer, we've seen.

[Mike Wright]

We've seen wide receivers with elite talent be just fine. Specifically with Brian Hoyer. Josh Gordon was dominant with Brian Hoyer. A number one finish. So it doesn't mean that Hopkins can't do it. I think what we don't know about Hopkins is if he can do it because he's never been a number one. It's been Andre Johnson's show. This is the Hopkins show. Now he's got Shorts. Jalen Strong caught a touchdown. And Shorts caught a touchdown. In the game.

[Andy Holloway]

Pants.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, that's true. Shorts and pants.

[Andy Holloway]

Sorry.

[Mike Wright]

That was bad, Mike. That was bad. You can't talk about Hopkins.

[Jason Moore]

You know, I think Hopkins is going to be great. Other than one thing that kind of pulses him just down a little bit to me, and I don't know if I had reflected this in my rankings was Arian Foster being out. The games that Arian Foster has played in or played out of over the last two years with Hopkins, his targets have gone up, his receptions have gone up, his yards have gone up, but his overall fantasy points go down because he has never. In all the games, which there's quite a handful. He's never had a touchdown in those games. And. And I think that that's, you know, obvious. Totally dependent on game flow and situation. He's going to have some touchdowns this year, but with Arian Foster being out. Well, and that's a big difference to me because if Arian Foster, let's say he does miss those first eight games, then I think that the touchdowns are going to be less available for Hopkins because the offense is going to be slowed. So I really like him, but touchdowns scare me a little bit with him.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I understand that. And obviously, the 147 targets gone from Andre Johnson, that'll be distributed among those wide receivers. Yeah, that's our top 10 right there.

[Andy Holloway]

So before we get to the bottom 10, we just want to take a second to thank our sponsor, Handsome Fancy, and talk a little bit about it. So here's the deal, fellas. You got the beard, you got to take care of the beard. You need to be gentle and calm. Is this a soothing voice?

[Mike Wright]

It's scary, actually.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I was.

[Mike Wright]

Do you talk to your beard that way? Because I have a baby beard. I don't talk to it that way. Well, but I do use Handsome Fancy beard oil.

[Andy Holloway]

If you want to condition, you want to get the tangles out, you want to have a healthier, shinier, just overall, great.

[Mike Wright]

If you want to bribe your wife into letting you keep the beard, hey, that's true.

[Jason Moore]

Because it smells fresh and refreshing and fresha.

[Andy Holloway]

That's a.

[Mike Wright]

That's a lot of that is true. Go to handsomefancy.com use promo code.

[Andy Holloway]

Ballers get 15% off your order.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's hit the second part of the rundown. Wide receiver wise. We got got time to get through these. We do if we. If we bust them out. Randall Cobb at 11, Ty Hilton at 12, and Mike Evans at 13. We just talked about the offense in Green Bay, and The fact they're going to be moving faster. Cobb was great last year. Just, I mean, that's the best word to describe him.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And he was for all the people who are, oh, Jordan Matthews is gonna be terrible because he's in the slot. Randall Cobb did all of his damage from the slot. That's where for all of his touchdowns came from. He was 126 targets, 1300 yards, 12 touchdowns, 6.6 yards after the catch. So we know Randall Cobb is great with that. But are you guys comfortable taking Randall Cobb as your first receiver?

[Mike Wright]

That's the hardest thing in the world. Every time I face that decision, I'm like, do I want Cobb as my number one?

[Andy Holloway]

It doesn't feel as good.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

The only reason I'm fine taking him as my number one is because normally when that situation has happened, he's fallen to me and I've drafted say one or two good running backs. Where, where it's okay. The last half of last year, if you look at the targets, they were going to Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. Overall on the year, Nelson was the number one targeted wide receiver. And then you look at the middle of the year and it was about even. And you look at the last third of the year and more targets were going to Randall Cobb than to Jordy Nelson. So I think the arrow is pointing up on him right now and it's, you know, you want an in that offense. So if there's picking up the pace, he is the pace type of guy. So I don't love him as my number one because I want in every league to have one of those top eight guys. But if I can get two stud running backs and then have Randall Cobb fall to me, I'm happy there as a number.

[Mike Wright]

That would be delightful. Yeah. All right, let's talk about Ty Hilton and Mike Evans real quick. Give me some, give me the good and the bad of these two guys. What are some green lights that make you think they could be a top 12 wide receiver?

[Andy Holloway]

So for Ty Hilton, the biggest status you've Andrew Luck throwing the ball, who is a fantastic quarterback. What surprisingly surprises me about Ty Hilton is his yards after catches is a bottom half wide receiver. That's very interesting to me because you think of Ty Hilton as a catch and go guy, but he's still going to be big plays. That's, that's the, the other concern with Hilton is, is it just big plays?

[Mike Wright]

He just desean Jackson Ultra.

[Andy Holloway]

Exactly. That's where I was going to where he, he'll be More consistent with the big games. But he's still going to give you those low floor games occasionally.

[Mike Wright]

What will Andre Johnson do to Ty Hilton?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think he.

[Mike Wright]

Anything?

[Jason Moore]

No, I don't think.

[Mike Wright]

What about Philip Dorsett and Johnson?

[Andy Holloway]

Philip Dorset's the bigger question.

[Jason Moore]

Philip Dorsett could cut in, but I think Philip Dorsett's going to play mostly in that third wide receiver. I feel like, yeah, I feel like Ty Hilton and Andre Johnson are going to be on the field every play. They're not going to cut into each other. They're going to make the defense have to be honest one way or another. And you're going to have some games where one guy's better and some games where the other guy's better. But Ty Hilton, especially now with that long term deal, knowing he is a.

[Mike Wright]

Colt, that's a big deal.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it really is.

[Mike Wright]

Because you, you, you didn't know if they were going to start rotating Dorset in more to replace him next year or just mix and match those guys. This says Ty Hilton's your, your number one wide receiver.

[Jason Moore]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

In Indianapolis. So let's go, let's move on here. We can talk about Evans when we get to number 15 here. So Evans was 13, Jordan Matthews at 14, Vincent Jackson at 15 and Emmanuel Sanders at 16. So couple brief, brief comments on Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans because we have them both. I mean that's. To have a tandem on a bad team with a Rookie quarterback at 13 and 15 says you think there's going to be a lot of production through the air.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

You guys are both extremely high on Vincent Jackson. I like him, but I like him as a low end too. I'm, I am a Mike Evans guy. So I want to hear you guys talk about Vincent Jackson. Sure.

[Jason Moore]

So Vincent Jackson, I think I'm the reason that he's pulled up the most.

[Andy Holloway]

You are incorrect.

[Mike Wright]

It's me. It's apparently it's me.

[Jason Moore]

Really?

[Mike Wright]

I have him at 12.

[Jason Moore]

Wow.

[Mike Wright]

I have him ahead of Evans.

[Jason Moore]

I have him ahead of Evans as well.

[Andy Holloway]

I have him at 12.

[Jason Moore]

I have him one spot ahead of Evans and I think that that's, you know, a lot of people look at this and I think that's one of those where they look at and go, what are you talking about? But you actually look at the numbers and you go. And you look at the tape as well. And there's all the reason in the world for it. Because what happened last year, you had Vincent Jackson actually as the number one wide receiver there. Right. More targets, more Yards, I believe more catches. But he didn't get the touchdowns. Mike Evan got the touchdowns. And if you want to try to predict touchdowns with anybody but DEZ Bryant, it's difficult to do. Look at Julio Jones, who's so great. Julio Jones came in and I think his first or second year had 10 touchdowns. And then last year he. Yeah, he didn't. And so you just don't know where they're going. And I think with a rookie quarterback coming in, you know, I did the stats on this once in the far off season. Rookie quarterbacks tend to target the vets more than their young studs. And so I really believe that Vincent Jackson could finish above Mike Evans. Mike Evans could finish. I've got them literally next to each other in my rankings.

[Mike Wright]

And the thing is, is if they're next to each other in your rankings, you're going to end up with Vincent Jackson on every team. Yeah, because he is available at a place in the draft that isn't the sexy place that Mike Evans is going at. And I don't have anything wrong with Evans at all. I think Evans will get his. He might be that Dez Bryant type of guy that can get 10 touchdowns every year because of his size. But I'm with you. I think Vincent Jackson, those target numbers give me. Targets give me. He's still a downfield guy. Middle of the field, downfield. He's going to be reliable and I like him.

[Jason Moore]

He caught a 50 yarder or something like that. 47 yards in the preseason look good.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So at four. So that was 13 and 15 were Evans and Jackson. 14 is Jordan Matthews. We've talked a lot about him in the past. We don't have to talk too much about it right now. We definitely don't with that voice going on over there, Mike.

[Andy Holloway]

So Jordan Matthews, slot receiver.

[Mike Wright]

Jordan Matthews, go. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Slot receivers are just terrible.

[Mike Wright]

Funny because Cobb, Matthews and Sanders. Well, Sanders will be in the slot a lot this year and those are three guys in this little range. Do you. Okay, simple question about Matthews. Do you disagree with me that it will be a week to week thing who explodes there? Do you just think Matthews floor is just so high you have to take them here?

[Andy Holloway]

I will agree that there. There will be weeks where somebody else like Aguilar or is Aguilar or Aguilar. We need to.

[Mike Wright]

No, it's not Aguilar. It's not Aguilar.

[Andy Holloway]

Aguilar.

[Mike Wright]

It's like Aguilar. Wait, I can't say it now. A group Oe. Oe. In the middle of that.

[Jason Moore]

So what we're saying here is we.

[Mike Wright]

Need a nickname ago. There's Nelson.

[Andy Holloway]

I will concede that there will be weeks, the full Nelson where he is the highest scoring receiver on the team, but I think far often it will be Jordan Matthews. From the first half to the second half, the light switch really went on for Jordan Matthews. It's points per game jumped up by about five. Jeremy Macklin is gone. That's 143 targets, 1300 yards. I mean, that has to be replaced. And it to me, it's not going to be replaced by a rookie. It's going to be replaced by a guy who's bigger, a better receiver and already knows the offense.

[Jason Moore]

You also see Jordan Matthews used in a different way from the slot. You see long routes and routes where he busts open deep from the slot. That's not generally what happens, but you saw that, you know, just, just last year and this year in the preseason. I think his yards per catch for a slot guy are higher than some. You know, he's not a Cole Beasley.

[Mike Wright]

He is not a Cole Beasley. Not many are.

[Jason Moore]

There's only one.

[Mike Wright]

There's only one Cole Beasley. There's only one. I will say this, regardless of Jordan Matthews specifically, I'm super excited about that offense. I want three, three quarterbacks run that offense well in the preseason. And the system is great. They're going to be efficient and they're going to score a lot of points. So it's going to be exciting in Philadelphia. So let's let me give you the last four on our list. You guys pick out some guys to talk about the last four for our top 20 wide receivers. Consensus rankings for the fantasy footballers are Emmanuel Sanders, 17 Martavis Bryant, 18 Andre Johnson, 19 Brandon Marshall and 20 Brandon Cooks. So let me go through those again one more time. Sanders, Bryant. Johnson. Marshall. Cooks. We have received a lot of grief about Brandon Cooks.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And because we don't want to get on board.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I will say this. I have gotten on board a little bit more with Brandon Cooks just because of volume. What concerned me about Cooks is what they did with him in his last half of the season because he didn't play a full season, but his yards per catch skyrocketed and his targets plummeted. And I was concerned of him being a desean Jackson type where he's just, he's going to explode three weeks of the year and then the other times you're going to be very unhappy. He's on your team because of how.

[Mike Wright]

He played in the second half.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, because of what they did. So the jury, to me, is still out on Cooks. I. I will take him on my team. I'll be a much more secure and happier taking him on my team. I don't know if I'm gonna. If I'm willing to pay the price of his adp, though.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's gonna be good. He's not gonna be a touchdown guy, though. I mean, he'll get a few touchdowns, but I just don't see him as. And just so you know, Andy, this is standard scoring.

[Mike Wright]

Did you know that's a good. That's a good guy to point it out on a little bit?

[Jason Moore]

You know, I'm just saying.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, for the 10th time, yeah, good to know.

[Jason Moore]

But I think that's. I'm much more down on Drew Brees and the Saints passing attack this year as a whole, so that is indicative of why Cooks is a little lower for me.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not down on Breeze at all, but I'm down on Cooks as being some prolific wide receiver. One capable guy, I think Colston, Coleman, the running game, Spiller, the backs platoon, Nick Tune, the mix and match there will just equate to good weeks for Cooks. Not as great weeks for Cooks. But, man, there's some venom. There is some love for Brandon Cooks that has come across the Twitter Sphere and our YouTube channel where it's like, how can you possibly. This guy, as somebody told me he's gonna have like 130 receptions this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Wow, that's a lot.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, and the fact I couldn't see that was incredible.

[Andy Holloway]

So. So moving to Brandon Marshall.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, let's talk about Brandon Marshall. I want to know. Geno Smith's gone. I want to know what he's going to do this year.

[Andy Holloway]

I like Fitzmagic. I liked him better when he had his big beard.

[Mike Wright]

Ryan Fitzpatrick.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

You always got to give the name then nickname Mike. Some people don't know that you do that.

[Andy Holloway]

I apologize. Brandon Marshall, some people think he is a product of Jay Cutler and Jay Cutler alone. But when you break down Marshall's numbers of in games with Jay Cutler or some other quarterback, he's just a couple points lower.

[Mike Wright]

Wasn't he a number completely number one wide receiver with Orton. I think he was the number one.

[Andy Holloway]

With Orton that I cannot speak to.

[Mike Wright]

Off the top of my head, but.

[Andy Holloway]

His receptions are a half a reception down. Targets one target down. I mean, he's still a great player. He's getting older, and we Saw him get injured. But you know what his injury was, was a punctured lung. That's not just going to happen every single year.

[Jason Moore]

He didn't, he didn't pull a punctured lung.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. He's not having.

[Jason Moore]

I ran a route, my lung got punctured.

[Mike Wright]

He said that after it happened. That would have been awesome.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's what I mean by that is that's more of a fluky injury. Yes, fluky injuries happen all the time, but I'm not concerned about that. I think Brandon Marshall going to be great and he's going to be a great value.

[Mike Wright]

The last guy I'll speak to really quickly is Martavis Bryant. There's been some concern with Wheaton and the fact that Big Ben has come out and said that Wheaton is that number two. I'm just going to go on record right now and say that doesn't matter whatsoever. I've officially said goodbye to any fears that I have about Marcus Wheaton.

[Andy Holloway]

You let it go.

[Mike Wright]

I let it go. I'm not. You waiting for me to break out in the song.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I was.

[Mike Wright]

I'll tell you who let it go. And that's Martavius Bryant down the sideline for about 50. And it looked effortless. And he's just too supremely talented to not be on the field. He will be on the field a lot and he will produce because Big Ben throws a great deep ball and he buys time in the pocket. And Bryant is a perfect, you know, he's, he's the perfect guy for that. And you can't double cover him. And if you do, you have to take away from, I mean, who do you, who do you cover? Let me ask you this. Do you, do you bring guys into the box for Lev Bell? Do you double, double cover the best wide receiver in the game, maybe Antonio Brown? Or do you double cover the deep threat and Mark Tavis Bryant? Yeah, you do choose first.

[Andy Holloway]

I put 13 men on the field.

[Mike Wright]

That's how you do it.

[Jason Moore]

You're a good D coordinator.

[Andy Holloway]

They'll never catch me. So.

[Mike Wright]

So they, you know, Bryant is at the bottom of those three in terms of priority for defenses most weeks. And, you know, I just don't think guys are going to be able to stop him over the top unless you try to, you know, let Antonio Brown and Lev Bell do stuff. This is why this offense is so good. And so Bryant, I think, is a value pick still. I think he's coming into a second year where he gets the opportunity to play every day. He's a hard worker. I like what I see in camp and in, in preseason. So, Brian, football's good.

[Andy Holloway]

Football teams are not dumb. They know what happened to their offense. As soon as Bryant started playing, everything got. Got a much better. They're scoring more, more yards.

[Mike Wright]

All right, all right, we've got, we've got to move on here. We have Steve Rannazizi from the league on the show. So let's go ahead and talk to him.

[Jason Moore]

You talking to me?

[Andy Holloway]

The fantasy footballers are now joined by Steve Rannazizi, or as you all know him, Kevin from the league. What's going on, Steve?

[Steve Rannazizi]

Nothing. How are you guys doing?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we are doing fantastic. Thank you so much for, for joining us. We know you're a busy guy, so we're going to start immediately with the show. What can we expect from the final season of the league?

[Steve Rannazizi]

Well, we start the show off. This is a season off this year. The cold open is with Marshawn lynch, and we comedically put the super bowl to bed from last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Right?

[Steve Rannazizi]

Yeah, it's really, it's a great, great way to start the show off this year. And then we have a lot of great cameos by football players. Golden Tate's on the show, Randall Cobb's on the show this year. And then we have our great guest stars from years past. Leslie Bibb comes back, Ike Barinholtz, Seth Rogen's back, and of course, Jason Mandukas is Rafi. So we, we have a lot, a lot of great comedy going on and this year's gonna end with a bang.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, that sounds great. So, Steve, we, we opened up Twitter to our listeners to ask you a couple questions. So this one, this one comes from Tevepolo and he wants to know, please tell me this is Kevin's year. I cannot take another Xmas.

[Steve Rannazizi]

I don't know if it's Kevin Dear. We have not read the final couple episodes. I would love it to be Kevin Dear. I think it'd be a really fun way for me to end the series, to go out as a winner, but I don't know, who knows? Kevin's not a winner. I don't think so. I don't know how it's gonna end.

[Andy Holloway]

This one comes in from a canyon 22. Do any of the cast members bring home the Shiva or the Sako in real life?

[Steve Rannazizi]

No. Oh, no, no, no. We have, we have a trophy for our league amongst ourselves called the Hazleton cup, which is named after Katie, who plays my wife on the show, Katie Asleton.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Steve Rannazizi]

And because she won it the first year. So it's called the ATM Cup. So that is the trophy that we get to pass around and to our, you know, our homes in the off season. But the league trophy, the Shiva and the Sacco, they are in some sort of warehouse in Encino somewhere. They spend the. Spend the winter.

[Andy Holloway]

It's like Indiana Jones. They bury it.

[Steve Rannazizi]

Yeah, they just buried in a prop warehouse somewhere.

[Andy Holloway]

Pluckm wants to know who on the show knows the least about football and basically just reads player names off a script.

[Steve Rannazizi]

John Lajoie plays Taco. And it's not. I mean, he's. He's Canadian. He's. He's from Montreal. He knows a lot about hockey, but he doesn't know anything about football. Like, we've been to three Super Bowls and he can't tell you the teams that were playing in the Super Bowl. He may be able to remember the colors. He thought Peyton Manning was on the Browns because I said, well, one team is orange. Remember orange? And he's like, the Browns. And I was like, no, wrong. The Browns have not made it to a Super bowl in a very ever. So, yeah, John Lajoie does not know a lot about football. I don't think he'd mind anyone telling him.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, and the last one from Twitter at rionj, this one's a legit fantasy question. He has the number two pick, Le'Veon Bell or Adrian Peterson.

[Steve Rannazizi]

I'm saying Adrian Peterson just because I think that a year off he's kept his body in shape, he's going to have, you know, a little bit less wear and tear. Le'Veon Bell ran, you know, we had a lot of rushes last year. He suspended the first two games. So I would just for that sheer fact, you get more games out of Adrian Peterson, hopefully.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we completely agree with you.

[Steve Rannazizi]

Oh, good. Thank you.

[Andy Holloway]

And we're asked a ton by the listeners. How do they improve their draft day experience? Do you have any tips of making the draft an even more perfect event besides eating a boatload of Buffalo Wild Wings? Of course.

[Steve Rannazizi]

Well, first of all, what I would do is I'd go to BuffaloWild Wings.com you can find out where your nearest Buffalo Wild Wings is on the website there. You can book your. You can book your own little fantasy draft for your whole team, your whole league to have it at Buffalo Wild Wings. They've got WI Fi. They, of course, have the delicious wings and the beer. But the atmosphere, it's like you can really. You'll be surrounded by people who are so invested, just like you guys are, that the experience is just unbelievable. It really is. So to me, having it and having it in a cool environment, in a cool atmosphere, that's like the key to a good Draft Day experience.

[Andy Holloway]

That sounds great. So, yeah, Steve, I don't know who runs the the Show Twitter page, but. But back in July, our fans were bombarding it with requests to get the fantasy footballers on the show. And this. We know this is your last season, so we're throwing the Hail Mary. We're doing everything we possibly can. Is there any possible way to get the fantasy footballers or the podcast on the show? We're independent. There's no red tape. We're ready to go.

[Steve Rannazizi]

Got it. All right, do you want. What answer? Do you want the honest answer, or do you want, like, do you want the LA answer? The LA answer is, hey, man, I'm gonna work on it and I'll see what I can get done. The honest answer is there's no chance. 0%. We barely have enough time to get the people that we've already scheduled on the show, never mind trying to add in and wedge in some extra people. So I apologize, but there's probably zero percent chance that we can get anyone else. Squeeze anyone else into the. Into the. Into the show.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we got you on the podcast, so that's. We consider that a 50% win.

[Steve Rannazizi]

I'm your. I'm your. Your secondary gift.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah, sorry about that. We called Paul, but he turned us down.

[Steve Rannazizi]

That's great. I'm your consolation prize.

[Andy Holloway]

So what's. What's next for you, Steve? Since this is the final season, what can people look forward to for you?

[Steve Rannazizi]

Well, first on the horizon is September 19th. I've got my second Comedy Central special coming out called Breaking dad, and that'll be on at midnight. Comedy Central on the 19th, and then the New Girl. The show. New Girl. I'll be on that show.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, great.

[Steve Rannazizi]

Couple episodes. I start filming that right after the league's over, so. All right, so is very, very different perspective.

[Andy Holloway]

Is there anything else that you want to plug real quick before we know you got to go?

[Steve Rannazizi]

No, I mean that. Watch the special on Comedy Central. It's going to be tremendous. It's real. I'm super, super proud of it.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so big, big thank you to Steve on the league, at f or on the show, on the channel fx. What time is that on and what day?

[Steve Rannazizi]

I think we're on Wednesday nights, and I don't know what time. Probably somewhere around 10 o'clock I think this is. I shouldn't have all this information, but, you know, hit the guide button. You have a guide button, right?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steve Rannazizi]

Hit the guide button or go to this thing called the Internet and you just look up when it starts and I don't know, East Coast Central time. You can't miss it or dvr. However, people, if you miss something now that you really want to watch, then you're just a dumb, dumb.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well, thank you so much, Steve. If you see a bearded gentleman poking out of the bushes, just let him be in the frame. Don't do anything about it. All right?

[Steve Rannazizi]

That's that. I'll make you a deal. If that happens, then we won't cut you out.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, thank you so much, Steve.

[Steve Rannazizi]

No worries. Cheers, guys.

[Mike Wright]

All right, special thanks to Steve Rannazizi for coming on the show today. I think you heard it there in the interview. Obviously we'll be on the league next week. Yeah, it'll either be in the bush by volition or.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you're going to read in the papers, bearded man escorted off closed Hollywood.

[Mike Wright]

With Jeremy Hill tattoo upon chest, easily identifiable. I was saying this. When we go in public, people will know if anybody listens to the show, they will recognize this only when Mike is with us.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And I will say this. If you recognize me, do not make eye contact with me.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, he will. He will kill you.

[Mike Wright]

Or he'll just give you like a sample of handsome fancy beard oil that he carries on him and all.

[Andy Holloway]

I could do that.

[Mike Wright]

Special thanks, though, to Steve. We appreciated that. That was a lot of fun having him on the show. Hopefully you enjoyed the wide receiver rundown today, get you ready for the draft. Just to let you know, we are back. We're not back to, but we are now on four shows a week, which means tomorrow you will get some deeper wide receiver rankings from us. You don't have to wait an extra day. We will be here tomorrow for you.

[Jason Moore]

What about the day after that, Andy?

[Mike Wright]

We'll be there. What about the day? Hey, hold on. Let's stay on the day after that. Thursday we have. We'll be talking quarterbacks and we have JJ Zacharies and on the late round qb. Yeah. So nobody better to talk about our streaming love and love of streaming quarterbacks than J.J. zachary Sin. So stay tuned for that Friday. We got some tight ends. We're hitting news every day. We're going to be hitting the mailbag. We kind of ran out of time today for the mailbag, but we're going to answer questions because we've got more shows every week, so send in those questions. The Fantasy Footballers Calm. Follow us on twitter @the ffballers and check out the YouTube channel. You guys have any final thoughts before we say goodbye to the Foot Clan?

[Andy Holloway]

My final thought is, I want somebody to go through the show and count how many times I said the word great, because it's probably 273 you want tweeted at.

[Mike Wright]

Get it at us.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Goodbye.

[Mike Wright]

All right, see you, everybody.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Don't forget to visit us on the web at www.thefantasyfootballers.com and follow us on Twitter the FFballers.