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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Week 8 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1790)
00:42:08
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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
B
Look, if you smoke or dip, I'm going to give you a few good reasons to try Zyn nicotine pouches. First, Zyn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand, and Zyn offers an unbelievable rewards program. There's a lot of options for nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zen. Visit zen.com find to find Zen at a store near you. Again, that zen.com find zen spelled z y N. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. What's up, friends? And welcome into fantasy pros. This is the fantasy Football Podcast Week 8 ranks, and we're starting with wide receivers. I'm Chris Welsh. We've got Pat Fitzmaurice and Andrew Erickson as we enter our very first bipocalypse. It's Bipocalypse. Officially, six teams are on. That's cool. Especially when we had two last week. I don't know if there's any way we could, you know, space it out a little bit more. If only the NFL could figure out two, six, maybe make it four. It's officially bipocalypse. So not only are you dealing with injuries, not only are you dealing with rookies that are underperforming, but now all your other players are out. So we are going to help you try to cipher through all of the craziness with the ranks. Erickson, how bad is bipocalypse hitting you?
- [01:27]
C
Pretty badly. But I think that this is one of the more fun weeks of the fantasy football season because it allows you to play players that usually don't normally play. This is like sleeper week. And this is where I think the people that put in the work that are grinding the waiver wire, that are listening to these shows, this is where you get an edge because you figure out, oh, which wide receiver. Three am I going to start this week? Who is getting the usage? Who has a great matchup this week? And we're going to break it all down. So receivers, running backs. I think this is the week where the best players are going to win in the best fantasy managers. Yeah.
- [01:57]
B
And Fitzy. Also, the waivers were actually not too shabby even going into this week. I feel like we've had a couple, like, subpar ish waiver weeks. But, you know, you had Gadsden who really Gadsden at this point could play flex if you needed to throw him in as a. As a flex option. Xavier Leggett, if we want to stick to the wide receiver trend, is somebody that kind of pops up. He had a huge first read percentage obviously because of a sauce situation. But you've also got Dalton in at court. Like there were some decent wide receiver situations or at least overall waivers that make this bipocalypse not as destructive.
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A
It's manageable. The Mike Evans injury has kind of opened up the possibility that you could play guys like Tez Johnson or Sterling Shepard or Kate Otten this week. So yeah, it's not that bleak. And the good news is most seasons, I think in, in the recent past there have been two by apocalypses, two 16 bye weeks. This year only one. So that's good. We're moving in the right direction.
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B
They can only figure it out, but that's cool. Just randomly week eight we'll just have six teams on by because that's how it is. So we will be ciphering through all of these wide receivers. But let's give a little shout out. We do the ranks contest here on Fantasy Pros every single week when you go and you check out fantasypros.com rankings each week. Those ECR expert consensus ranks are powered by not only us here at Fantasy Pros, but the experts around the land. And each week we've got the flowers given to the number ones and twos and all of that. So on this show we always like to shout out the top three in the ranks contest. And coming in at number one, Brad Beatson from Bandit Football finishing with the top spot for week seven. Shout out to Brad for the number one ranks, Michael Boebel. Hopefully I said that correctly. The 33rd team came in at number two. And James Emerick Wilson from Armchair Scouting. Top three. Those are your top three most accurate rankers for week seven. Gentlemen. It was not Fitz. Was not Ericsson. It sure as hell wasn't me. Mike Mayer again. Mike Mayer with a top eight finish. That's our big shout out this week. We got to give him some love. Fitzy, does it, does it break your heart when you're submitting articles and stuff to, to, to Mayer and then he's out here just probably deciphering through. He's probably not actually this great of a ranker. He's just picking all of your great pieces and putting them together? No, I mean Mayor. Mayor rocks and he does it. But it hurts to see mayor do this. Well, Fitz, it does.
- [04:28]
A
I may have said this before, but we. The arrival of Mike Mayer's third child can't come soon enough. I believe that happens in November sometime and then he is going to be sleep deprived with three kids under the age of four or five years old. And yeah, it's going to be tough. So his rankings are going to stink down the stretch. Yeah, that's our chance to overtake Mike Mayer.
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B
Shout out to Mayor I also had a weird thing I just want to point out. I think I said this last week. Every week I have some random thing again. I think I'm just about where I always am. But I was ninth in running backs this week. Like last week I was like eighth and wide receiver. I just have the most weird thing presumably since we're moving down the line. For me it was tight ends, it was wide receivers. It's running back this week. I should be really good at quarterback. So just look out.
- [05:16]
C
Would you.
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A
Would you say you're an idiot savant? Ranker I'm an idiot.
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B
I'm definitely an idiot. The rest will leave it up to everybody else if you guys want to decide that. So those are our ranks. You can check them all out fantasybros.com rankings if you want to check them throughout the week, they do change. That's a good note to have as we're about to do this show. There could be slight differences depending on when you're listening to the show. But but fantasybros.com rankings if you want to check out all of the ECR stuff. Lastly, before we start up and we get into the wide receiver rankings giveaways, if you want a chance to win a sign AJ Brown Eagles jersey for free courtesy of our friends over@pristineauction.com all you've got to do is head over to fantasypros.com contest then complete the form we've got. Then you can either download the Fantasy Pros app, leave a review for the podcast, follow us on x Instagram TikTok. All of those are Antasypros, but the caveat is you can do all of them and that the more that you do are the more entries you will receive. We'll be announcing a winner right here on the podcast. So if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed. If you're not, come over to YouTube. Make sure you're subscribed. Turn on those notifications so you can be alerted when new episodes are up and you can claim your prize. Gentlemen, let's jump into the ranks. Everyone can follow along@fantasybros.com rankings, the wide receiver Rank Big board. Here is our top 12 for the week. Jamar Chase back at the number one spot. Just like, just like we needed. I Think we needed this for all of us here. Jamar Chase is back. Tough matchup against the Jets. Justin Jefferson coming in at 2. CD Lam at 3. Rasheed Rice all the way up at number 4. Drake London. Cortland Sutton. Ameka, Igbuka. Roma, Dunze, AJ Brown. Crystal Lave is number 10. Dick Metcalfe and Zay Flowers. So there's definitely some, you know, nice adjustments that have been had here. But let's hit into a couple of the bigger questions, and I think Rashee Rice kind of jumps out here, especially because you guys have got kind of a dramatic difference. But this bad boy is more about Erickson. Rasheed Rice is ECR wide receiver. 4. Fitzy, you've got him at 5, one spot lower. But Ericsson. And shout out to Erickson, who last week came in and said, devonte Adams is number one one, and he goes out and scores all those touchdowns. You've got Rasheed Rice as your number one wide receiver this week, Erickson. So let's hear what's got you all hyped up about Rasheed.
- [07:42]
C
Yeah, leave it to Devonte Adams to be the first receiver in history to score three touchdowns and not be the highest scoring receiver on the week. So even though I felt like I was right by the take, I was actually wrong in the rankings because I think he finished exactly where ECR had him. So sometimes you just. You feel like the process is good and just doesn't end up working with the right results. So the Adams call spiritually worked out, but did not work out.
- [08:06]
B
I think it was a good call. Like, I. I appreciate you, like, you know, you're keeping yourself accountable and stuff.
- [08:11]
C
I was curious because I'm thinking, man, okay, he had three touchdowns, but the yardage wasn't there. Where did he actually finish? And I think that he actually was five or six, which is where ECR.
- [08:20]
B
Was on him, which is actually crazy.
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A
But listen, in fairness, we thought that was going to be a competitive game, and Matthew Stafford might have to throw a little more than did, too. So.
- [08:29]
B
Yeah, and you called your number one wide receiver had three touchdowns in a week. So, like, we're going to. We're going to say this was a big win for you and calling him there, but. All right. Rasheed Rice.
- [08:38]
C
Yeah. Just very impressed with what Rice did right out of the gates in his first game played, and it was only on 40% of the snaps. In a blowout win for the Chiefs against the raiders, he had 11 targets and nobody else had more than five. So he's missed all this time hasn't played football in over a year and immediately steps into the Chiefs offense and is immediately the alpha. So I think that his role is going to increase. He's going to play a significantly higher snap share, especially in a game that may be more competitive or maybe it's just another blow. Again, they're facing the Commanders at home, massive favorites. Maybe we get Marcus Mariota, so maybe it's more of the same. But I think that the Chiefs want to get Rashi Rice the ball, especially around the red zone. He had half of his, nearly half of his targets were in the red zone. He's getting shovel passes, he's getting pop passes in the red zone to score touchdowns. So I think that the matchup is great against the Commanders. Their defense I think is terrible. So yeah, I just want to ride high on this Rashi Rice ranking, get ahead of it. And I know we talked about Rice and Worthy last week as it kind of felt like a hedge ranking where he was. And I was like thinking okay, next week these rankings are going to be very, very different and I'm trying to be more aggressive here. So yeah, so I'm a number one. Yeah.
- [09:48]
B
And it's not like you're not starting though. You know, many people might have an interesting spot of like, you know, a multitude of wide receivers and then they had picked up Rasheed Rice. Either way, Rasheed Rice is in really good spot. Bitsy, you're not super low on him. You've got him at 5. It's one spot lower than ECR. It does feel like wherever you have Rasheed Rice though, it has to tie in some capacity to how you're going to value Xavier Worthy. But let's get your take on Rasheed Rice because I agree with Erickson, like I think the snaps are going to go up. Mahomes wants to get him the ball. They were shovel past like they are going to force feed the ball to Rasheed Rice. But what do you think, Fitzgerald?
- [10:23]
A
Yeah, I mean the tenor of his first game back overwhelmingly positive. I mean he ran 19 routes and had what, 10 or 11 targets. Only played 41% of the offensive snaps and a blood and the, the crazy stat I saw, I think so he had four targets inside the green zone, inside the 10 yard line. He's already ranked 11th in targets inside the 10 yard line on 19 routes on the season. Like that's pretty crazy. And now he gets a Washington defense that has been roughed up by slot receivers this season. It's a great setup, no question. I have Rice ranked behind Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, CD Lamb, Drake, London and London has a really nice matchup against the Dolphins, but I could certainly make a case for Rice to be ranked ahead of London, Jefferson, maybe even Lamb. Like the only guy who for sure in my opinion. And Erickson disagrees with this. Like I have to have Jamar Chase there after he was so hyper targeted last week.
- [11:25]
B
One other player that I don't think, you know the talent is necessarily a question but you know there were some injury stuff. Actually kind of shocked that he played last week. But they are down their true number one Ameca Ekbuca comes in at number seven. It's really good matchup this week against New Orleans. We've got the star ratings next to our wide receivers. It's a four star rating. Number seven is a pretty aggressive rank. But we're done with Mike Evans presumably for at least for the fantasy season, if not the whole season. He's going to be the guy. Chris Godwin is banged up with injuries. Where do we go and do we feel super comfortable comfortable with the injury stuff as well. You guys both have him at the same spot, so I think where we go is up. He's ECR 7, you guys both have him at 6. Fitzy, why don't you jump in and kick us off with your comfort level because this is an elite ranking for Emeka Igbuka and this, I mean it's essentially taken over what the Mike Evans role would have been in fantasy.
- [12:19]
A
I think you can make a case for ranking Ibuka even over Rasheed Rice or like I'd feel comfortable with him anywhere in this top six. I think there's a clear top six at wide receiver this week and he belongs in it. So with Evans expected to miss a couple of months with his broken collarbone, Ibuka is just set up to feast. Evans was coming back from a hamstring injury that had kept him out for three weeks and over those three weeks Ebuka was wide receiver five in a half point PPR fantasy scoring with 288 receiving yards and two touchdowns. It wasn't clear whether Ebuka was going to play in Week 7 because of his hamstring issue. That put a lot of fantasy managers in awkward positions. He played his hamstring, survived 75% of the snaps and had a season high 12 targets because the Buccaneers got put into chase mode against the Lions. And now Ameka Buka is the alpha receiver in Tampa, tied to a really good quarterback in Baker Mayfield and Evans is going to Be out a long time and no telling when Chris Godwin is going to be back. It's just a terrific setup.
- [13:27]
B
Ericsson, what do you think about Ameca Igbuka? This seems like this is going to be a preview for all of the weeks to come, but you know, I think this sets up perfectly. It's a great matchup. There's no Mike Evans. Godwin's kind of in question. Where are you? I know you're at six, but does, do you feel like you want to even be higher on Igbuka?
- [13:44]
C
No, I like having him here at 6. Just clear path to double digit targets. Positive matchup playing indoors at the New Orleans Saints and I mean hit two end zone targets last week too and just didn't score. So if he catches one of those, you're not even upset again. He's going to have five catches for over 60 yards and a touchdown. That's a solid outing for Ibuka. So you're starting him and yeah, he's a super talented player. I think that he will be healthier more so than he was last because I think Todd Wolves even said that we weren't even sure if he was because we didn't know he was going to play right. Like he had to warm up to get an idea of, okay, am I ready to go? We wouldn't been surprised if he was as healthy or a scratch last week. So the fact that he played basically pretty close to full snapshare, he should be back healthier next week and he should produce.
- [14:26]
B
A lot of the shows we all did, we kind of thought like I think even when you and I did the prop show, I was like, he's not going to play. Like we didn't think ikbuk was going to play. It was a great situation for Mike Evans, but you know, subpar game for in this last matchup for Baker Mayfield. But we know he's going to be littered with targets. It's a good, good spot. Let's go to the wide receiver twos. This is 13 through 24. Looking at the big board. Kicks off with Lad McConkey at number 13. Michael Pittman, Devonte Smith, T. Higgins, Tetaroa McMillan, Jalen Waddle, Quentin Johnston, Stefan Diggs at 20. Xavier Worthy of 21. Keenan Allen, Jordan Addison and Wando Robinson. How about that devonte Smith. How about that Eagles passing game? Holy moly. They got it going but the question is, is will they continue? Will it ever continue? And Obviously like is AJ Brown going to be the guy? Devontae Smith comes in at 15 here as Eagles are going up against the Giants. Both of you guys are not as into it. You guys have got him down at 21, so he's ranked AS and almost wide receiver one. You guys are closer to the wide receiver two territory. Erickson, why don't we kick it off? You've kind of been a Devontae Smith soothsayer as you as we would say with my Juwan Jennings, I feel like you are on the right. You're on the right keys of Devontae Smith. So why are you down on him this week? Like, do you think that this offense. Because I'm a little bit worried about this. They've passed for two weeks. I'm a little bit worried that this is set up that they're going to get back to like, hey, we're going to throw 11 times and we're going to run 40 times and they're going to get back to the running game. But what say you?
- [15:55]
C
And yeah, I do think there's always a concern that because they're still trying to establish the run like they still have shown, hey, we'd like to get Saquon Markley going at some point and when you're facing the New York Giants who have a bad run defense, then yeah, theoretically this should work. But they played the Giants two weeks ago and they couldn't really establish a run that effectively. So I think they're still going to try it. But again, another injury on their offensive line. We'll see how things kind of shake out. And Devontae Smith, another player where last week I ranked him ahead of A.J. brown and I thought it was good process. But then A.J. brown goes out and catches two touchdowns. So I end up being wrong anyway. Even though Smith has the yards and the targets, I was wrong again. So not as high on Smith this week compared to last week, especially in comparison to A.J. brown. A.J. brown was the more productive receiver when these guys both played the Giants. Just two weeks ago, Smith had a mediocre game, 4 for 49 on just five targets. Now Jalen Hurts did miss him deep in that game. Obviously Jalen Hurts did not miss him deep against the Minnesota Vikings. Jalen Hurts was just dicing up the Minnesota Vikings. But from a standpoint of is this going to be sticky? Probably not. I mean, Jalen Hurts just put up a perfect passer rating. He hit on every single one of his deep targets, which he has not done, especially against the Vikings defense that up until they had faced the Eagles had been one of the best defenses against the deep ball. So last week I feel like if you're okay, it's just going to be this every week. No, like we've seen this from Eagles receivers all year long where it's high highs. Then the next week comes and it's low lows. 15 target show the last time he faced the Giants it was the Dallas Goddard show the last time that these teams faced off. So that's what I'm afraid of. That's going to go back to Dallas guards the team Target Chair Leader A.J. brown has a productive game and Devontae Smith. Just look at his game logs or anyone that owns devontae Smith the fantasy he's never logged double digit games back to back. Every double digit game is followed by a dud. So I agree the on paper matchup is good here. But just following how these targets kind of shake out every single week, it doesn't always carry over from week to week. So that's why I'm just a little bit lower on ECR than Devontae Smith. But again, he's still a wide receiver too. You're still starting him. I just don't think he's going to be nearly as productive as he was last week.
- [18:03]
B
What's your gap between him and A.J. brown real quick like, because A.J. brown on this I think is nine. Dante Smith is 15. You kind of. I was going to ask you this regardless but. But now that you said Smith is over him, how big is the gap between the two for you?
- [18:17]
C
Nine spots. So I got Brown as a wide receiver, one low end and Smith is a middle wide receiver too, or backhand.
- [18:25]
B
Okay, Fitzy, what do you think about Devontae Smith? You got the same rank at 21. A lot of echoing, a little bit more optimism or maybe a little bit more pessimism into devontae Smith in this passing game.
- [18:36]
A
I don't think it's that Erickson and I are necessarily down on Devontae Smith. It's just that we're trying to be more even keel when I think ECR is a wild overreaction to have him at wide receiver 15 after understandably a huge day where he had nine catches for 183 yards and a touchdown. But ECR has been an absolute windsock on Devontae Smith all year because his production has oscillated wildly. Fantasy analysts don't know what to do with him as far as ranking him. Fantasy managers aren't sure whether to play him week to week. Smith had eight catches for 60 yards and a touchdown in Week 3, he moved up in the ECR. Then Smith had two catches for 29 yards against the Buccaneers. The next week he moved down in the rankings. Then he had 8 for 114 against the Broncos. He moved up in the rankings. Then 4 for 49 against the Giants. He moved down. So like we are definitely trying to play whack a mole here with ranking DeVontae Smith. It's been a really uneven ride. I'm just going to keep ranking Smith as the lower end wide receiver too. That I think he is. And you know, that matches where he is right now in fantasy scoring. He's wide receiver 23 1/2 point PPR fantasy points per game.
- [19:49]
B
Now that there's a trend though, and you go for that whack a mole, he's gonna blow up this week because it's all the trends have been saying. Like you said, he just kind of bombs out. Let's go to this next guy, T. Higgins. T. Higgins, you know, this is the Undertaker meme. Just him and Jamar Chase are just back. Now he comes in as wide receiver 16. This is another scenario where both of you guys are lower than ECR and T. Higgins, but not like any tier change. He's 16, Fitze's 18, Erickson's 20. There is a question on the matchup this week. Sauce Gardner, I believe, is in concussion proto. So you know, if he's there and he's locking down Jamar Chase, it opens up opportunities that you're going to, you know, you might want to force feed to Higgins if he's out. It just might be a free for all in general. So Fitz, talk to us about T. Higgins.
- [20:39]
A
Yeah, I'm enthusiastic that Joe Flacco seems to be reinvigorating the Bengals offense and giving Jamar Chase and T. Higgins at least something close to the value we thought they were going to provide us with Joe Burrow at quarterback. So now, yes, Sauce Gardner has a concussion, might be out for the jets this week. So there's a good chance neither Chase nor Higgins is going to have to deal with one of the top cover men in the game. So I'm enthusiastic about Higgins. I'm just not quite as enthusiastic as ECR seems to be.
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B
Erickson, would you call yours enthusiasm when you're quite a few spots lower at 20? Like where, where's your take on. On T. Higgins?
- [21:18]
C
Well, I think I just want to know if Sas Gardner is going to play or not, because I think that if he plays, I think that's a major boost for for Higgins because that means he's probably going to see more of the inferior, even worse jets cornerbacks and they play a lot of man coverage. T. Higgins has kind of been the man coverage beater for the Cincinnati Bengals this season. Even though last week, I mean Jamar Chase was getting every single target, man coverage, zone cover, I mean didn't matter what coverage was like he was getting the ball. So I do think it is a good spot for Higgins. I guess for me. Why I'm maybe like a couple spots lowers on the Bengals receivers is. I mean is this a game we could see the Bengals play with a lead? Right. Like we haven't really seen that from Joe. I mean we've been in full blown Joe Blacko or Joe Flacco. 50 drop backs every single. He's dropping back to throw every single time. Where their favorites against the jets team starting Tyrod Taylor. So I kind of think that we could potentially see a semblance of a run game for Cincinnati. I think that they would benefit from a team holistically to establish some type of momentum with Chase Brown, kind of get him going a little bit. Because you look at the Jets, I mean they're facing the lowest pass rate this season tied with Miami. That does. And that's not because they're so great against the run or bad against the run. It's because they're always losing. Right. So teams just don't have to throw that much on them. And I think if you're looking at how many attempts is Flacco going to have, it's probably less than the last two weeks when they've spotted the other team double digits leads. So that's kind of my just take on this game in general. That's my way. Like I don't think we're going to see jamar chase with 25 targets again. And that's not because he's not going to have a dominant target share. It's just because I don't think Flacco is going to necessarily drop back to throw as much just based on the projected game script against the team that's 07 and the Bengals are home favorites. So but like I said, it's still a great matchup on paper for Higgins and I would probably move him up if Sauce Gardner does play.
- [23:11]
B
I mentioned in the Rasheed Rice conversation that I would imagine your rank of Rasheed Rice. This is a, you know, worldly. Your rank would probably read relative to how you're going to value Xavier Worthy and I think that kind of shows up in your guys ranks. Xavier worthy has an ECR of 21, so he's still kind of in that wide receiver 2 range. Fitzy is higher and Fitz had Rice a tiny bit lower than ECR. Erickson, you're quite a bit lower than ECR and you had Rasheed Rice as number one. Rasheed Rice is like a mid to lower wide receiver two in ECR. But Erickson, you've got him as a wide receiver three. A wide receiver 26 fits. He's got him at 19. So Erickson, let's get your take. I would imagine it's going to be relative to what you mentioned with Rasheed Rice, but I think it's a big question people are kind of pondering is like can Xavier Worthy still be relevant in this offense if he's wide receiver three like maybe. But you know, is there even wide receiver to upside anymore now that Rasheed Rice is back?
- [24:07]
C
I just look at the role that Worthy has on this Chiefs offense and with Rice back in the fold and even during the start of the year, I mean he's kind of been their vertical threat. Like they've been very focused on trying to get him the ball downfield, getting him in, in space with some of these reverse plays last week, you know, three catches on four targets for 35 yards. Again, I already talked about how clear it was that Rashi Rice was the alpha. I think that Worthy always has a chance to take one off the top of the defense and score on a long play. Especially when Mahomes is your quarterback and he's going to throw three touchdowns every single week. You always have some touchdown appeal with Worthy, which is why I think he's like a high end wide receiver 3. But is this the spot where the Chiefs are going to be pushed against the Commanders with Marcus Mariota as their quarterback? Maybe I think that he's more kind of like a Jameson Williams type where you really need the back and forth shootout type of environment for Xavier Worthy to hit in that particular matchup. Whereas just the situation and optics of this particular game, it doesn't scream to me, oh, they're going to really need Worthy in this game to beat the Commanders. I, I don't really think that's going to be the case. So I still think that he has a lot of upside because it only takes one for him to pay off starting him. But that's why I'm just a little bit lower just because I'm, I mean if he's gonna get four targets again or four or five targets is that enough to justify starting if he doesn't find the end zone or doesn't score on a long play. So that's my only concern.
- [25:30]
B
The Jameson Williams comp is pretty interesting because obviously like two very different players. But your your main point is like Jameson Williams has got to have that big giant play that makes him be the guy that Fitzy. What do you think about this in general? Like can Xavier Worthy really truly be you have him as a top 20 wide receiver. Can he be a top 20 wide receiver with four catches? Are we going to see those big plays? What do you think?
- [25:51]
A
Well, the difference with that Jameson Williams comparison is that the Lions have a fantastic running game and the Chiefs really do not. And the Chiefs are pretty much a pass first team even when they get these positive game scripts. But Erickson does make a good point. I don't know if we didn't see Worthy do much. He was kind of faded into the woodwork last week with Rasheed Rice back and the Chiefs having a commanding lead all day. So it was three catches, 35 yards on four targets, one carry for 13 yards. But I'm not that worried about Worthy overall because I think he and Rice have complementary skill sets. But it does help if you've got an opponent that is going to sort of force the issue on the Chiefs. Like I'll be pretty excited about Worthy in two weeks. I think it is when the Chiefs play the Bills and we're going to see a game with the Vegas total in the mid-50s probably. But it's interesting because we really haven't seen Rasheed Rice and Xavier Worthy play together yet. I mean, yes, they played together early in the 2024 season before rice got hurt. But Worthy wasn't fully integrated into the Chiefs offense at the time. Now he is. And we saw what Worthy is capable of late last season when he had that torrid stretch run. Yes, we have to account for the presence of Rice and I think that is going to make Worthy a more volatile week to week asset. But in a week with six teams on by, I do think Worthy is worthy of a wide receiver to ranking and you should probably start him if.
- [27:24]
C
You have felt that one coming.
- [27:26]
B
Boom boom boom. All right, wide receiver three is coming up. But first, today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet. The Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook app is top rated probably because there are so many promos and so much to bet. Week 8 doesn't kick off until tomorrow, but on Hard Rock Bet you're doing some Fantasy Research for this week, don't forget to check out those player odds to score on the Hard Rock Bet apple. You're going to get a profit boost for Thursday night's game, and if you want to parlay a few of your players to score, maybe you can even hit their yardage totals. And if you haven't tried your first bet on Hard Rock yet, there is still time for you to get $150 in bonus bets if you win. So just place $5 bet and if it hits, you're not only getting your winnings, you're getting 150 in extra bonus bets. It's a great day to download the Hard Rock Bet app and make your first deposit. Because tomorrow's Thursday. Every Thursday isn't just a new fantasy week, it's a new rewards drop on the Hard Rock Bet. That means you get even more promos on top of that welcome offer. We talk fantasy every week. That's our thing. They dish out a whole lot of rewards and promos every week. That's their thing. Download the Hard Rock Bet app and make your first bet today.
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- [29:49]
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Receiver Threes Big board starts off with George Pickens at number 25, Romeo Dobbs at 26, Khalil Shakir DJ Moore Rashid Shahid, Matthew Golden. At 30, 31 is Kendrick Bourne, followed by Juwan Jennings, Alec Pierce, Nico Collins, Troy Franklin, Keshan Booty. This is where you're feeling that bipocalypse. Those names changing out a little bit. Quite a few to talk about. Kind of in the same vein of Xavier Worthy, to me is George Pickens, you know, a wide receiver that in theory kind of thriving with the other guy not in there. Then you get a number one back. What does that make of them? I can be honest with you. I kind of thought Pickens would be a guy that. I mean, this matchup is a little bit relative, but I thought Pickens would be a guy we would see quite a bit higher than Xavier Worthy. Like he has a better opportunity to thrive in that passing offense than Worthy would. But he's lower here. He's at 25. A matchup against Denver is a little bit tougher. Fitz, you might agree with what I'm saying. Erickson, maybe not Erickson. You've got him at 26. Where did you have Worthy? Didn't you have Worthy at. We must have this wrong because we have somehow Pickens and Worthy is 26. So you guys probably both have them as a wide receiver 3. But Fitz, regardless of that, you have him at 16. So you're all in on Pickens right now. So hit us with George Pickens being almost a wide receiver one this week.
- [31:09]
A
Yeah, everyone is worried about Pickens getting shadowed by Patrick Certain Jr. First of all, I don't know if that's going to be the case. I mean, there might be instances where a CD Lamb lines up outside and maybe Certain follows Lamb there, I would think. Plus we saw George Pickens get shadowed by Sauce Gardner when Lamb was out in week five. And yes, Pickens target and catch totals crash that week. Only four targets and two catches. But on one of those catches, Pickens beat Gardner for a 43 yard touchdown. And he made a great play on the ball to score that touchdown. And that's what Pickens is known for. Freaky ball skills, making acrobatic catches in tight coverage. And even if he gets that tight coverage this week, I think he can still get home because of those crazy ball skills. So I'm starting him. I'm surprised ECR is that low on him. Like, as good as things have been for the Cowboys in this passing attack, as much as Dak Prescott has been slinging it around lately, I'm fine with Pickens. I wouldn't even think about benching him this week.
- [32:19]
B
So Erickson you have to let me know because it's a mystery because we have like a typo on our sheet where you have two wide receivers at 26. So which wide receiver do you prefer, George Pickens or Xavier Worthy?
- [32:30]
C
So I'm worthy one spot ahead and that's just because I like his matchup overall against the Commanders more than I like the matchup overall against the Denver Broncos. The Denver Broncos are really talented secondary. Like they have a lot of key cornerbacks or tan is obviously the highlight. But I know that Fitz highlighted their really good slot corner when we talked about the show or the Denver Broncos secondary last week. So I don't think it's only certain is the reason why that they're a good defense. But I do think that there's going to be decent amount of times when certain does line up on George Pickens and that's a tough matchup for any wide receiver. Means her tan has been lights out against a lot of the receivers he's faced this year, some of the best receivers in the NFL and he doesn't go in the slot. So I mean if Dallas wants to keep things easy, it's hey, put Pickens on certain, maybe he can win some of these 50, 50 battles. But I mean just let CD land cook against an inferior slot cornerback and have him just go nuts. And I think that, I mean if they get the win like that should all that matters for George Pickens. So I understand why his ECR has obviously dropped but aside from the matchup because I think Fitz is right there are going to be opportunities for Pickens matchup in certain and he's shown all year long that hey, these 50, 50 balls are more like 90, 10 balls with George Pickens because he's been coming. But you also think eventually is it going to regress in some point? Like is he always going to catch these 50, 50 balls? So that's one concern. The other thing is when Lamb is back, like his target share has taken a hit. So six targets last week that was the third fewest in a game this season. The other two also being games that Lamb also played. So he's at 20% target share last week and the other two games of lamb it was 12%, 18%. So he has to make it on one or two big plays for him to feel good about starting him in your lineup. So that's why I think that he's closer to a back end wide receiver too because the general matchup isn't necessarily great. His targets are down because Lamb is back in the lineup. So for those reasons, why I'm farther outside of the wide receiver one range.
- [34:25]
B
Fitzy, anything else on George Pickens?
- [34:28]
A
No, that's it.
- [34:30]
B
That's it.
- [34:30]
A
I think you're playing him okay?
- [34:32]
B
Yeah, I think we're playing him. Matthew golden, let's. Fitzy, let's get you with Matthew golden here. ECR wide receiver 30. This, this is the feels, these are the feels of that bipocalypse in here. But I feel like I can't, can't get you with Matthew golden yet. But we really can't get anybody to be fair with the packers receiving core. He comes in at wide receiver 30 on ECR. Erickson's got him a little bit higher. You are more of the dramatic rank because you're lower. You have him outside of the wide receiver threes. So can Matthew golden not be the top pass catcher in Green Bay's offense or really does it just not matter because it's just a crapshoot and it's just if you're desperate, you're playing these guys. Or is it Romeo Dobbs?
- [35:16]
A
Yeah, everything. Every time you think Matthew golden is about to take off like he had on Green Bay's first possession against the Cardinals last week. Golden had three catches on that first drive and he was getting peppered with targets. And it seemed like, okay, this is, this is going to be the week. And then Matthew golden had just one more target and one more catch the rest of the game and finished with 4 for 37. The target counts well, just don't support a top 30 ranking even in a 16 bye week. He's had 23 targets in six games, under four a game. And now it's possible that Christian Watson comes back from his knee injury this week. Watson was practicing last week but wasn't activated. It's possible he gets activated for this game and that would sort of further complicate the target outlook for Golden. But hey, it, it is a 16 bye week and maybe some people are going to have to start golden and hope for a splash player too. And he's certainly capable of providing it with his speed, but there's just not much hope for that seven or eight catch game out of Matthew golden because the targets just aren't there.
- [36:28]
B
So Erickson, if Fitzy says, you know, there's nothing to justify, how do you justify the top third inside the top 30 rank? You've got him at 28 on Matthew Golden?
- [36:37]
C
Well, because I think that he has the profile where he could win in your week this week I think that the matchup is amazing against Pittsburgh Steelers, they're allowing the either most or second most passing yards per game to opposing quarterbacks. So that benefits Matthew Golden. Last four games for the packers, the leading receiver in terms of yardage is Matthew golden, not Romeo Dobbs. So he's getting it done despite a lackluster overall target share, which is always going to be the case. It's. It just. It has such the reek of smell of Jaden Reed where it's like he's doing so well. He's super efficient. But then the minute that he starts to look like he's gonna break out, Leflore's like, gotta put the training wheels back on Nappy golden, he can't be this good. So that's obviously the concern. But I think in this particular matchup, I think he has a really high ceiling. The Steelers can't generate any pressure. They can't stop the quick short passes. We just saw Joe Flacco destroy this defense. Joe Flacco, 40 years old. Do you think Jordan Love can't have success against the Steelers with Aaron Rodgers on the other sideline? I'm pretty sure Jordan Love wants to have a good game, so I think they're going to dial up the pass attack here. Matthew golden, in both the primetime games that we've seen recently against the Cowboys and against the Commanders, Matthew golden had deep shots in both those games. I Love missed them both times. If they connect on one of those deep shots in prime time, Matthew Golden's going to have a big game. So 83% raw participation last week, that was really high. He's played 70% of the snaps back to back weeks. And I'm not really as concerned about Watson whether he plays or not. Even if he does play, I think he's gonna be on a pretty limited snapshare. Even he's filling in for Dontabian Wicks who's also banged up with an injury. And we just look at over the last four weeks, again talking about how he has been the yardage leader for the Packers. Only Stefan Diggs and Kendrick Bourne are the receivers that have more yards than Matthew golden does. Without a touchdown, he hasn't scored yet. So I think this is a prime time spot for him to score a touchdown and be a part of a fantasy winning lineup.
- [38:35]
B
Final one for the wide receivers in the wide receiver threes. I'm actually going to flip it a little bit because the guy we want to talk about is Troy Franklin. Troy Franklin jumps out on ECR. He's 35. We're still going to talk about him, but I'm going to just present you guys with a with a who'd you rather and where you at on this rank? Fitzy is a little bit lower than Troy Franklin. Erickson, you're higher than ECR and obviously the Dallas matchup really stands out. But the other guy is 36k. Sean Booty really kind of jumps out as well. I think a little bit torn, has the big play, gets the touchdowns. He's definitely a red zone target. So Fitzy, you're not super into Troy Franklin, having him as a mid tier wide receiver for Troy Franklin or KSAN Booty.
- [39:21]
A
This week I have Keisha and Booty ranked one spot higher and I've got Booty right between golden and Franklin. 39 and 40. Excuse me, 37, 38, 39 at wide receiver.
- [39:35]
B
So what's your take on Franklin having him lower? It's a fantastic matchup this week, which I definitely think is powering his rank up, but you don't seem to be buying it.
- [39:43]
A
An attractive matchup for sure, but Franklin has played between 58% and 62% of Denver's offensive snaps in four straight games. He's not a full time player and Bonix has not been great lately. He's averaging 6.1 yards per attempt on the season, 5.8 yards per attempt over his last three games. Those are bad numbers. And I know we like the matchup. I get it. Yes, Dallas, their past defense has been a train wreck. But like I don't think a matchup with the Cowboys is going to turn Bo Nix into John Elway in Denver this weekend. I just don't so I'm reluctant to just put helium in all these rankings for the Broncos pass catchers and quarterback for that matter.
- [40:28]
B
Erickson, you're not you've got Franklin up at 32. You might think this is going to be Bo Elway, but talk to us about Franklin and Booty or Franklin this week in the ranks it's going to be Franklin.
- [40:39]
C
For me, matchup is divine. He also had 10 targets last week. He had almost 150 air yards last week. He's checking off all the boxes of a guy that is about to have a monster game. And yes, the usage. Again, just look at any Denver Broncos player and there's going to be some type of usage training wheels on that particular player. It's not that bad. Still, Franklin's still running ahead of Marvin Mims, so I think that he's still with the clear cut wide receiver two ran a route on 73% of the drop backs last week against the Giants and this was the craziest stat that I pulled when it came to Troy Franklin. So when you combine red zone targets and two point conversion attempts, Franklin ranks second in the NFL among all wide receivers and red zone targets and two point conversions. He has more red zone targets than Cortland Sutton does this year when they get close to scoring. Bo Nix is looking for Troy Franklin constantly. They're scheming up plays for him on two point conversions and in the red zone. Devonte Adams is the only guy that has more and that he's worth three touchdowns last week. So I think this is just a prime spot for where it's it feels like an uncomfortable click, but the matchup is perfect. He's getting targets, he's seeing air yards and he's seeing red zone opportunities. So I think he's gonna at least at score touchdown and the matchup is just too good. So I'm starting Troy Franklin.
- [41:56]
B
When bipocalypse happens, you got to get ugly and Troy Franklin is a top 36 wide receiver. That's what we're talking about. That's getting ugly. There's a lot more ranks. You can check out fantasypros.com rankings if you want to follow all your wide receivers throughout the week. And as well if we didn't answer a question that you've got and I imagine you're going to have one to a million wide receiver questions this week or any position. You guys can come and check us out on the weekly start and sit live stream on our YouTube channel where you can ask any of those specific who'd you rathers? You could say hey, here's four guys. Who you cutting here or who you putting on the bench? We'll be with you every Thursday, 3pm Eastern. So those on the podcast go to YouTube.com fantasypros subscribe, click on the bell to be notified and then you won't miss any of the action that we got going on that's going to do it for the wide receiver ranks for Fitz and Erickson. I'm Welsh. Thank you guys for hanging out with us and good luck in week eight.
- [42:49]
C
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.
- [42:52]
B
If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple podcasts@fantasypros.com.
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C
Review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok Antasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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