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Dynasty Wide Receiver Rankings and Tiers || Fantasy Football 2026
01:30:34
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- [00:00]
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- [01:11]
Dave Kluge
Last week Jeff Bell and I dove into running back rankings, grouping guys into buckets of players with similar scoring and production profiles. And today we're doing the same with wide receivers. Now if running backs are the cryptocurrency of the Dynasty markets, wide receivers are your safe mutual funds. The these are the guys that are going to appreciate in value over time. They are good strong investments to make in Dynasty. And Jeff, let's go ahead and start at the top here. I picked three guys that I just kind of lumped in a tier of their own. We've got Jackson Smith, Najigba, Puka Nukua and Jamar Chase. What order do you prefer those guys?
- [01:45]
Jeff Bell
In what order do I prefer? I'm still a Jamar Chase number one elitist probably given the connection with Joe Burrow. And I think that then I'm going to go with Pukinakua and Jackson Smith and Jigba after that really just kind of more uncertainty long term. But we talked, we were talking pre show about how things quickly change in Dynasty. But right now you've got Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. We know that connection well, well established. I'm still going to go with Jamar Chase.
- [02:12]
Dave Kluge
So I think that's pretty fair. And I actually said it in a different order than I have it. I actually have Pukinakua as my wide receiver one over the last three years, averaging more points per game than any other wide receiver in the league. Of course, the injuries have been a pretty constant theme in his career and I don't want to get like too hung up on injuries, but his injuries, they don't seem fluk. It's because of how he plays, like he is just reckless, abandoned on the football field. And that does lend or lead to injuries, I should say. But let's talk about this tier a little bit because last year, like it would have just been blasphemous to have your top three. Anybody besides ja' Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Ceedee Lamb. So like things are changing kind of quickly here. We see Ceedee Lamb coming off into injury plague season. We see Justin Jefferson coming off of a season where he just could not get on the same page with JJ McCarthy. Meanwhile, Puka Nukua finally gets like a third season that we feel really good about. Jackson Smith, Najigba has his big breakout. Is there anybody that you could see maybe next year that we're talking about inside this elite tier that we aren't talking about today?
- [03:10]
Jeff Bell
That we're not talking about today? If he's healthy, if he turns into a healthy year, Link Neighbors is there for me in that elite tier. But we are now two years down and neither have been a healthy year. He's coming off a very significant injury and there might be questions about him starting the season. So that is the guy to me that if he were to put it all together, given what we've saw, we've seen because it has been on par with what Puka Nuku has done when healthy. And so we've seen Malik Neighbors get there. If he were to put it together, that would be the guy for me.
- [03:42]
Dave Kluge
So before we go into this next year, I just want to, you know real quickly, these aren't flat rankings and Jeff and I, we had this discussion a lot last week kind of talking about this. This is kind of a different way to imagine dynasty rankings. You know, we're going to talk about the rankings inside every tier, but these are buckets of players that are similar age, similar scoring production. We even have some like injuries that tying some of these players together. So the next one we're going to talk about, this isn't necessarily the 4, 5, 6 in dynasty rankings, but these are the guys who are the almost elites, like very, very young players that we've seen a lot of promising signs from. So in this group, Jeff, I have Malik Neighbors who we just talked about Drake London, who has just been a target monster since coming into the NFL. And then this might be a surprising one, but I have Tedro McMillan as well, who coming off of a high end wide receiver two season, but all of the underlying peripheral metrics, his ability to draw targets, catch the ball, score, touchdown, that was all good. So you know these guys right here. Would you maybe try to tier up or down? Like what are you doing if you have some of these guys on your team or if you don't have them, like what are good ways to go about acquiring them? Because I don't want to say that anybody is like a very, very safe bet. But I think these guys have pretty insulated value. There's almost no chance that these guys are losing value over the next couple of seasons.
- [04:57]
Jeff Bell
I mean buy them when they're injured. So right now, Malik Neighbors, if we get closer into camp, if we start to get into the season, it looks like Malik Neighbors might start on the PUP or has any kind of negative injury news around him. That's where you should look on to acquire on him. Drake may had or Drake London had a buy window last year. I know I ended up, yeah, I ended up with Drake London in some cases. And that really is where it comes into it is some people that might be a little bit more short term thinking or people that might be trying to contend, trying to push towards winning that year in Dynasty, just buy these guys when, when that happens or Teterow McMillan comes in with really a lot of good positive vibes, good positive feelings around Teteromcmillen breaking out in year two. But if he starts slow, if Bryce Young looks like there's any, any regression at all, we do see pretty severe reactions to small sample sizes like that and we shouldn't.
- [05:55]
Dave Kluge
I mean this is a long game that we're playing here in Dynasty. So you and I, we've been talking about it all off season, like acquiring Malik Nabors. Yeah, he's coming off of the ACL. He might not be ready for week one, but still just 22 years old. Like the hope is that Malik Nabors is going to be a wide receiver one for the next eight to 10 years. So yeah, if you're not getting it week one this season or week four this season, that's fine. Like the hope is that this guy can be one of those elite prospects down the road and I think that's why you're buying low here. Now let's go to this next bucket, Jeff. And this One might have some surprising names in here, but I think these guys are a lot closer in value than a lot of dynasty managers are treating them. I lumped this one in. I grouped them as the elite 27 year old producers. Almost all these guys are getting drafted at or near the top 12 in redraft leagues this year. They are all going into their age, 27 seasons and all of them have pretty desirable draft capital. T. Higgins was around two guy, Nico Collins was around three guy. But for the most part these are guys who were drafted early in the NFL, have checked the boxes we want to see. The only knock we'd have on their Profiles is at 27 years old. They are getting close to the top of that age curve. But in this group we've got Justin Jefferson, CD Lamb, Aman Ross, St. Brown, 4th round pick I should mention also doesn't have the great draft capital there. Nico Collins, T. Higgins and Devonta Smith. Jeff, do you think people are going to have a reaction to hearing Justin Jefferson and CD Lamb lumped in with the same guys like T. Higgins and Devonta Smith that I just mentioned?
- [07:20]
Jeff Bell
They're absolutely going to have a reaction to that. And to me I just want to make sure you only you put them there because they're also 27 just like the other other players, right? I mean you still view them and value them as near elite or if not elite. I mean this is kind of the, the exercise that you're going through.
- [07:41]
Dave Kluge
But what I will say is doing this exercise does make me think that like if I could tear down from a Justin Jefferson to a CD Lamb, like I tried doing this in a league where I had CD Lam, I was like, yes, I love CD Lam, great player, first round draft capital has had a wide receiver one season under his belt. But last year we did see that like CD Lamb, Justin Jefferson, these guys are mortal. Like George Pickens took a big slice of the pie in Dallas. Justin Jefferson could not get on the same page with JJ McCarthy. So now it does have me wondering where like maybe Justin Jefferson and C.D. lamb Best case scenarios early in their career. Meanwhile Devonta Smith probably the worst case scenario early in his career. Like I don't think it's that crazy if you've got a CD Lamb to try to trade for DeVonta Smith. Plus and like there is still that idea that there's this huge chasm between them. My guess is that like if you're trading Ceedee Lamb for Devonta Smith, you could probably get a future first round pick on top of that and I think that's a great deal to make. Yeah.
- [08:38]
Jeff Bell
I mean, now 27 picks are the sacred everything. So you might not be able to get a 2027 pick to be able to do that. But I mean, I've already been wondering, 20, 28 picks. You know, I feel like I'm in way too many analyst leagues because I just don't see these deals of kind of tearing, moving within tiers or slight tiered down, picking up first. I see them when people ask me, should I do this? And usually I say, yes, you should get a first round pick to move Justin Jefferson for CD Lamb. I would get a first round pick to do that. They're like, yes, absolutely. But I feel like in, in play, in actual practice, I don't run into that too, too much. And really a lot of what you see, those types of deals strike me as people. I mean, sure, they're trying to capture micro pockets of value, but at the same time I feel like people are bored sometimes and they just want to make a trade.
- [09:30]
Dave Kluge
Well, let's move on to the next tier here, Jeff. And this one I labeled the strong metrics shaky production. These are all round one receivers in recent history who have the target share and have some sort of metric that we can get excited about, but they just haven't really turned in like the elite wide receiver one seasons yet. Chris Olave, coming off a wide receiver one season, but it's still left a little bit of meat on the bone. Garrett Wilson, of course, we know like one of the strongest target shares in the league. I think he was at like 36% last year, but the production has just kind of been high end wide receiver too. And then Zay Flowers, we saw him in the first half of the season, starting to put it together, slowed down a little bit over the second half. So, Jeff, this is a tier right here. I think whether you're rebuilding or contending, that I really want to try to get these guys on my team, they still have room to appreciate and value over the next two or three seasons. They have all the underlying metrics we want to see. You know, how do you go about acquiring these guys?
- [10:25]
Jeff Bell
I mean, by Zay Flowers before, by Garrett Wilson when he's hurt. I mean, I do have Zay Flowers in a fair amount of spots and I bought him as a rookie or bought him after the rookie year. I think it's tough. You're asking me, Dave, how do I acquire guys at their peak value, more or less is what you're asking me. And in my brain I'm saying I don't acquire guys at my peak at their peak value, Dave. I don't do that. I go out and I acquire. See, if we want to talk about guys, we'll get there. But like guys like Brian Thomas and Marvin Harrison Jr. And Roma Dunze is the guys that you should be out there trying to acquire right now.
- [10:57]
Dave Kluge
And you'll never guess this, Jeff, but I have all of those guys lumped together in a later tier that we will talk about before we get to that tier and before we get to the next tier. Though, if you're watching on YouTube, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe, leave a comment. All that good stuff. Jeff, we've been doing this fun game over on the fantasy show. Think of a random word, any random word that you can think of. This is how we know that people are actually watching the show. Give the YouTube listeners just a fun word to comment down in the YouTube comments so we know they actually watch this.
- [11:25]
Jeff Bell
Ecclesiastes.
- [11:28]
Dave Kluge
Ecclesiastes. Is that a book of the Bible? Is that what you just pulled out on us? If you spell Ecclesiastes, there you go. All right. Not only do you have to put it in the comments, but you also have to spell it correctly. That is your challenge is Ecclesiastes. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, please leave us a review with the word ecclesiastes in it. The 100 points to the most creative response that we can get with Ecclesiastes in there. Jeff, let's move on to the next one here. And this is a very, very small group. I didn't really know where to put these guys, so I just called them 25 year old game breakers. This is Jameson Williams and George Pickens, two guys that if you look over the course of their entire NFL careers have not had the desirable target share that we care about for long term production. But it doesn't matter. They score big plays, they score touchdowns. Like these guys have just been efficiency machines. They still have years to appreciate and value going into their age, 25 seasons. So you talk about, you know, some. We haven't talked about any buy lows yet and I don't know if these guys are buy lows, but like, I feel like this is the first tier we're talking about where some people might be trying to get out from under Jameson Williams and George Pickens. Like they are coming off of their best seasons. But I feel like there's still just this like underlying narrative with both players that it was fugazi that like their season wasn't real. You know, Sam Laporta was hurt. CD Lamb was hurt. So I think this is one where you actually could potentially buy low on some young budding superstars here.
- [12:55]
Jeff Bell
I mean again, George Pickens buy him last year. That was when the buy low was. I think, I do think you're getting people that are looking to sell him at a peak value right now. Jameson Williams, Yes, I think that Jameson Williams, given what I'm seeing in Redraft adp, given kind of this conversation. You ignited the conversation, Dave. I have my spotlight in that'll get published soon for Jameson Williams. But when you were doing this article, you, you made social media decide to talk about Jameson Williams for the last couple of days. So. So hopefully I'm dropping that argue or that article into a target rich environment. But yeah, I think that when you're looking at where just the willingness to write him off because of the injury to Sam Laporta last year, that's, that's a player that I think is probably worthwhile acquiring.
- [13:39]
Dave Kluge
I completely agree. And I will say, like, I feel like, you know, I started off talking about Jameson Williamson. This might be a buy low. I, no surprise to anybody has a lot of Jameson Williams in a lot of dynasty leagues. And I feel like everybody's been trying to buy low. Like I'm getting a lot of offers for Jameson Williams and kind of disrespectful offers, if I'm being honest, where I'm like, I see a guy who's 25 years old coming off wide receiver 19 two years ago, wide receiver 11 last year. I think he's only going to continue trending up, but I do see some people trying to buy Jameson Williams. So depending on the cost, as always. But you know, I think that this could be a player whose best days are still ahead of him despite coming off that top 11 season. The next one. We're going to talk about another small tier here, Jeff, but, and, and you, you know, having dove deep into these rookie wide receivers in our rookie guide, you might tell us if I'm missing somebody here, but I did put Carnell Tate and Jordan Tyson in a tier of their own. You know, you might be able to argue that Makai Lemon belongs in there or Casey Concepcion, but I do see Carnell Tate and Jordan Tyson. You guys were both drafted Inside the top 10 in the NFL draft as a tier above the rest of the rookies. Would you put anybody else in there? Do you think I made the right call breaking These two guys off, I
- [14:47]
Jeff Bell
think that you made the right call. We saw them both drafted where they were drafted. Top eight picks relative to Makai Lemon lasting to pick 20. I mean Makai Lemon would be the one to have the conversation about, but I have significant questions about what offense Eagles offense is going to look like. I think it's asking a lot of Mai Lemon to like hypothetically you're out there playing Madden, you might think that you can plug him into A.J. brown's spot. I think when it comes to actual practical football, it's either looking at a slot heavy role that the Eagles haven't traditionally run within their offense or it's him showing major development. So I think you're seeing here with Carnell Tate being the natural number one receiver for Cam Ward and then you're also having Jordan Tyson landing in. You talk about the Eagles offense, Kella Moore offense that we know has supported two receivers. So I think Jo Dyson there is in an offense that can support him as well. And I'm perfectly fine breaking these two off and leaving Mikhail Lemon into a different tier.
- [15:40]
Dave Kluge
So onto the next tier here. We've been doing some small tiers lately and this one's even smaller. This is a guy that's in a tier by himself. And Jeff, you can look at some of the other tiers that I named here and let me know if Rashi Rice belongs in another one. But he is just so hard to rank because, you know, obviously as a part of this Chief's offense, he is an elite fantasy producer. Like he is fifth in scoring per game among every wide receiver dating back to the start of the 2024 season. Of course, the context there is he played eight games two years ago, he played four or he played eight games last year. He played four games the year before. So we're looking at a very small sample size here. But kind of since the second half of his rookie season, he has just been unstoppable in fantasy football. But we also know that it's kind of a gadgety role, right? Like he kind of works as an extension of the run game. Very low adot a lot of what he does is after the cat. I do wonder with a guy like Rashi Rice, how does he do without Patrick Mahomes? How does he do if he ends up on a team besides the Chiefs at some point in his career? And that's why I do have Rashi Rice more reserved for contenders. I think if you're out here right now rebuilding, I don't know if you want to invest in a guy like Rashi Rice because I don't know if his value can really go up from here. I feel like it's just going to kind of stay flat or go down,
- [16:56]
Jeff Bell
you know, I can see how you arrived at Rushy Rice being in his own. I mean, he's not 27, so that knocks him out of the tier of 27 year olds that you made. He's not 25, so that knocks him out of THE tier of 25. He's not a rookie, so he knocks him out of that role. And then, and then at some point you're just sitting here saying, I mean Rasheed Rice probably shouldn't be on the board anymore. I've got to figure out somewhere to put him. Well, he's just going to go by himself. I get, I get where you got here, Dave.
- [17:19]
Dave Kluge
So I mean he probably like not technically 27, but if you had to lump him in somewhere, he's probably in that Nico Collins, T. Higgins, Devonta Smith sort of thing. But like, like, you know, those guys, I feel like they're pretty situation agnostic. Like if we got news right now that T. Higgins was traded to X team, it wouldn't really change his value all that much. Like T. Higgins, we still feel good about him. We feel good about Devonta Smith regardless where he is. Like Garrett Wilson, if he goes to a different team, we're probably feeling better about that than he is in New York where I feel like if the situation changes for Rashi Rice, this does feel like we're investing more in the offense and the environment than we are the player itself. And I think that's the thing for me, like in dynasty, I want to invest in players that I truly believe in and I just don't have that long term belief in Rashi Rice. And I didn't even talk about like the whole knucklehead factor of it that like this guy seems to be getting in trouble every single off season. That like that is another layer to his dynasty value that makes me not want to fully buy in.
- [18:21]
Jeff Bell
I would say on the you've got a guy, we'll get to it, but you've got a guy that you're calling over the hill. That I think is a really good example of situations mattering. I think DK Metcalf is a very good example of situations mattering because he's 28. He's just, just love. I mean he could have been the 27 tier, but he's 28 now. Halfway through the year, last Year he was a top 10 receiver in fantasy production kind of fell off towards the end of last year. He's left for dead. You've got him as Wash at 28 years old. And I think two or three years ago DK Metcalf was viewed as a top five dynasty wide receiver. I think that that is a player that really kind of proves the point of, I don't know that anybody is situational agnostic when it comes down to it because we've seen in the past some other receivers just last year, yeah, Justin Jefferson last year is one touchdown and doesn't produce. And Justin Jefferson was widely viewed as the most skilled receiver in the NFL prior to that year and. And now it's ready to leave him for dead as one down year. And yeah, I think that you're exactly right where she Rice is in the prime perfect position there. But you could put, you can say the players that are in good fantasy. I mean Garrett Wilson is a great example of, you know, maybe puts it together with Geno Smith this year. But I think the talent is certainly there. And we could have see Garrett Wilson landed in a different situation if he landed where Devonta Smith landed in Philadelphia or something like that. We could be having a completely different conversation about Garrett Wilson over the last couple of years.
- [20:01]
Dave Kluge
And on the flip side, like Chris Olave, I feel is like the reason why you do go out and buy these players who are giving the good, strong underlying metrics. Because like Chris Olave's first few years in the league, we knew he was a good player. The film was good, the underlying metrics were good, but the production just wasn't there. And then he gets like a semblance of good quarterback play for one season and then breaks out as a wide receiver. 1. So that's why you would have bet on these good profiles because, you know, situations change, but that talent does tend to stick long term. And that's a perfect segue into the next tier that I want to talk about. And these are guys that I'm willing to just buy high on. Jeff, Vlad Baconki, Emeka Igbuka, Luther Burden. These guys were all drafted pretty high. I mean, Luther Burden didn't get that round one draft capital, but it was drafted early in round two. These guys all did enough over their first couple of years that like we felt good about them. But Luther Burton, you know, going into year two, Mechagbuka going into year two, Lad Bikocki going into year three. So they're not the same exact age, but these all feel like guys that you can still buy that haven't really peaked in value yet. Like if all three of these guys turn in wide receiver one seasons and skyrocket in value, we're talking about them as top five, top eight dynasty wide receivers. It wouldn't surprise me one bit. And I think because they showed so much early in their career, because they've got the draft capital and the strong prospect profiles, their value is going to be insulated for the next two or three seasons.
- [21:18]
Jeff Bell
Seasons, yeah. And it is worth mentioning that Mecca Buka definitely, but lad Mikaki too, to some level. These guys were hurt last year and we saw Mecca Buuka started fantastic. He had that injury that looked like it was going to keep him out for multiple weeks. Then he was that surprise active player for the Lions game. And from that moment on that Monday night game against the Lions, he just wasn't involved. You could tell that he was. He was stuffing it out basically to be on the field. And I do think that we, we really do not accurately capture that. Just because the guy's on the field doesn't mean he's actually on the field. It becomes a decoy, becomes he's really doing his best and the team recognizes it and recognizes they can't feature him in the same ways that they have in the past. McConkey worked through an injury that he picked up in the preseason, so he kind of started slow off of that. Never really got burden.
- [22:12]
Dave Kluge
Burden was hurt to start training him.
- [22:14]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, yeah. And burden. I mean, burden's the next big thing, but you really crack it down. He had two good games basically at the end of the year, and he had really good underlying metrics. He's in a Ben Johnson offense. He's kind of being aggressively projected to be the Amanras A Brown. And so there's a lot going on in terms of just projection with Uther Burden relative to what he hasn't shown as much as the other two receivers that you're talking about here in the tier.
- [22:42]
Dave Kluge
And then I think the other added layer, all of the guys in this tier are all in situations where there was a veteran that was bringing in a lot of targets that's now out of the picture. Keenan Allen is gone from Los Angeles, Mike Evans has gone from Tampa Bay and DJ Moore is gone from Chicago. So that also gives these players better situations in 2026 where they could be more featured parts of their offense. So like I said, these guys aren't coming cheap, but these are all guys that I am happy to buy high on Whether I'm contending or rebuilding. And then this next one we talked about, Jeff, you kind of lumped together on your own at the top of the show just vibing through some guys that should be lumped together. I added a fourth guy into this tier but you talk about Marvin Harrison Jr. Roman Dunes a Brian Thomas Jr. I put Ricky Pearsall in here as well and I labeled this tier. Are year three breakouts still a thing? Because we used to love a good year three breakout. Now two disappointing seasons from a good prospect and Dynasty managers just leave these guys dead in the water. So this is one where I don't even think you're buying high here. These are all potential buyers. These are good players and they all also Jeff, something that we talk about a lot on the show. They are big bodied receivers that we know have a flatter learning curve coming into the NFL. We see these small twitched up guys can come out week one and immediately produce. These big bodied guys do take a little bit longer to acclimate. So year three breakouts for all of these players are very much so in play.
- [24:03]
Jeff Bell
Again Roman Dunes, they was hurt the middle of last year but I know that there are some concerning things out of his rookie year. Marvin Harrison Jr. I think that there was and Brian Thomas Jr. I think is both the the same kind of story on both of those players that Brian Thomas Jr. Obviously exploded as a rookie, was one of the very, very best rookie producers and then just had a down year. You could tell that both of these players, it's the mental side of the game for both of them that the dealing with pressure, dealing with the expectations, dealing with just looks that they've never seen before. Situate again, situations matter. And I think that both of these players have worked through some injuries, worked through some other things that have caused them to be in this area of the field area of the rankings where we're having significant questions about them. I'm still buying and I think that we talk about the players that acquire to acquire. You ask me when is the right time to buy Rasheed Rice. Right time to buy Rashi Rice is when he is in the news because he drove his car recklessly and you go buy him in Dynasty. The right time to buy Drake London is when they have Desmond Ritter at quarterback and he is not. They're not able to throw a forward pass because we get these little moments and especially now I think you've got people that they are living so hard in the that social media moment that you can't even see what's coming in a week from now that creates these windows. And this is a prime example here of, of. Of guys that we have seen Brian Thomas Jr be a difference making football player at the NFL level. We know he is an elite level athlete. He had a tough year last year. He was moving into a new offense. He had some drops, some concerns there and then it just kind of snowballed within itself. And you could see, you could see the release of. I think it was week three or week four, that Thursday night game that Marvin Harrison Jr. Had a big game against the Seahawks. You can see the mental load was
- [26:03]
Dave Kluge
he had two drops. He had two drops early in that game and then he caught the touchdown late in the game. He like dropped to his knees in the end zone and started crying. And then. Yeah, you talk about like the mental hurdles. Ricky Pierce always shot. Like that's going to take a mental toll on anybody. Roma Dunes A. His dad was acting a fool on Twitter, getting in arguments with Bears beat reporters. Like there were. Yeah, you know, I don't want to try to get in the head of an NFL player, but I think there were a lot of mental hurdles for these players last year that are just kind of overlooked that you can't quantify in a spreadsheet.
- [26:31]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And that's where a lot of it comes down to just understanding, understanding the human side of it and understanding the development and the understanding. Talk about the curse of expectations about like, Marvin Harrison Jr. Is supposed to be the greatest receiver prospect to ever come into the NFL. And like now we're ready to just write him off completely after. And his rookie year wasn't even that bad. It was. It's like that Ashton Jensen is a similar level of like his rookie year wasn't even that bad, especially relative to situation. But because expectations were so incredulous that they're just impossible to deliver on those.
- [27:10]
Dave Kluge
Let's go ahead and move to the next one here, Jeff. And this is a cluster of rookies I talked about. Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson kind of separating themselves. And then I see these like mid to late round one picks and a handful of guys on round two that I lumped together here. So I've got Makai Lemon, Casey Concepcion, Omar Cooper, Dijon Stribling and Denzel Boston. Is there anybody else? Chris Brazil was the one I was kind of on the fence with. Is there anybody else that you think should probably be in this bucket here? This is kind of similar to what we were talking about with the running backs last week where there's just like an arbitrary line that you need to draw somewhere in there. These are the guys that I am like trying to go out and acquire and then some of the other round two, round three guys we'll get to a little bit later in the show. I just don't have quite as much faith. Nathan.
- [27:54]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think that Denzel Boston's a guy that you're. I feel like I'm not really especially fantasy production even probably stribling. I would probably be more comfortable if you put them into the other rookie tier, I think. But, you know, it's. To me, it really comes down to Makai Lemon. I like really struggled to group Makai Lemon a mini tier by himself inside. It kind of is kind of is a little bit. But no, I, I, yeah, that's where I feel like I'm landing. And Stripling's a player that I liked quite a bit. I liked definitely above consensus, but even I was floored. Where he went off the board, I liked. I understand and I've talked with Mike Kashuba about this. Of there's, there's a certain receiver archetype that the analytics side is just going to miss of the. The NFL is going to take chances on big athletes outside essentially that might not have their production that says it's worth taking chances on it and they're going to get them wrong more often than not. And so like that's where I think the analytics side is right on it to ignore some of these guys because they're going to get them wrong more often than not. That being said, when you get it right, it is franchise altering like in terms of value that delivers off of it. And so like the Isaac T Sleep, the design, stribling, the spreadsheets are never going to pick these guys up, but NFL teams are going to take them on day two, always, not early day two, because they know that they're going to make that bet because if it hits, it's so worthwhile.
- [29:30]
Dave Kluge
And I think that's it for me. That's why I'm in on Stribling because like I think everybody, you know, we see this all the time. We're like, you know, the, the narrative around scribbling was that it was a terrible pick and everybody was mocking John lynch and, and pulling out his draft history and pointed to all of his misses over the years. And I understand that like, you know, it just kind of becomes a pile on on social media. But like now we're at the point where John Stribling is falling late into Round two. I've been getting him in round three of, of my dynasty rookie drafts, and I think we've just kind of, I don't know if overcounted or double corrected, like double counted or overcorrected, like, I don't know what the right terminology is here, but I think that we're like punishing stribling way more than we should be. At the end of the day, this Guy was drafted 33rd overall to a team that desperately needs a wide receiver. He could end up missing. But, like, once you get past the fourth pick in your dynasty rookie drafts this year, it already gets a little bit shaky. Once you get past the eighth pick, I feel like you're just completely in no man's land. So why shouldn't you be taking the shot on upside for a guy like stribling?
- [30:32]
Jeff Bell
Well, and the thing that gets me is that that, like, that fade is happening in strip league, but then it's like Chris Bell is the guy that. It's like the exact same thing, but a guy went, that went nearly two rounds later. But you're, you're making a bet on the same archetype. It's just that the consensus, the priors, where they were before the draft came in, had those two players very, very separately. I hear you. And you know, it's in the back of my mind, it's, I'm like fighting the devil and the angel on my shoulders, basically, when it comes down to struggling, because I'm thinking, well, come on, he went 32nd, 33rd in the draft. He's lands into a team that runs a good offense. Like, why this big fade? And then it's like I, I would go to draft him and he would sit right on my bench next to Xavier Leggette and Keon Coleman. And like all these other guys where I've also said, I mean, come on, they went 33rd.
- [31:22]
Dave Kluge
Or he moves up in your starting lineup next to T. Higgins and A.J. brown and D.K. metcalf. Like with these guys, these, these hyper, athletic round two receivers, yes, we've had a lot of them bust, but when they do hit, they can really, really turn a dynasty league around. So I'm just going to keep swinging for the upside there. And you know, just mentioned A.J. brown. That's a nice. Yeah, go ahead, Jeff. Sorry.
- [31:46]
Jeff Bell
But I was just going to say on, on that bet, though, you're looking at what people are avoiding him. To take clear backup running back or to take a guy like Chris Bell or to take day three wide receiver, it's at some level it's ridiculous of the where he's being valued. Even if we know that it's not a very good bet, you're still making a worse bet than to actually just to make that bet because you've decided it's not a good bet.
- [32:14]
Dave Kluge
My whole kind of just like general overarching philosophy on this rookie draft is not to judge anybody for any picks that they make 111 or beyond. I think you can go anywhere. Like, if you want to say that Drew Aller should be going at the top of round two, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. If you think that Nick Singleton should be going there, sure, go for it. If you think it's Eli Stowers, if you think it is Dijon Stribling, like whoever you want to take at the kind of back end of round one, top of round two. If you don't think that players getting back to you, just take them. I really think that this is just like a pick your flavors type of draft class. But let's go ahead and move to the next one here. Jeff. Prime vets on new teams and this is a shockingly big tier. Like we see a lot of guys right now that are in their athletic and productive primes that are now on new teams. I just got ahead of the News. I've got A.J. brown here. We're all kind of working under the assumption that he will be a Patriot this year. I also have DJ Moore now with the Buffalo Bills, Jalen Waddle with the Denver Broncos, Wandell Robinson, he's kind of the asterisk here, right? Like he's still in a Brian Dable offense but now with Tennessee instead of the Giants and then Michael Pittman with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I think this one, Jeff, we could see it totally break in one of two directions. Like we have seen Devonte Adams just last year go to the Rams and have one of his better seasons. We also saw Devonte Adams a couple years ago go to the Raiders and not have a good season. We've seen Brandon Marshall go to the New York jets and score 15 touchdowns. We've seen D.J. moore go to the Chicago Bears and have a huge breakout season. But we've also seen guys go to new teams and not really find their footing. So. So looking at this tier, like who do you think is best suited to thrive and who do you think might struggle in their new situations?
- [33:54]
Jeff Bell
I mean, A.J. brown's the layup to say that, you know, A.J. brown's landing with Drake May and especially if the team wants to give him the ball basically and become A.J. brown again. I do think that the consensus is way too off. DJ Moore, I don't really understand. DJ Moore is a fascinating one and he kept popping up as I was writing this Jameson Williams spotlight. DJ Moore kind of kept popping up, popping up because it was a little bit of the same thing with Jameson Williams where DJ Moore definitely had some down weeks last year and he was down at the mid point of the season. He kind of finished pretty strong in fantasy. He was a lot better than I think people realized last year in fantasy. And especially he very much like Jameson Williams, had the down first half of the year when everybody was paying attention, picked it up over the second half of the year when nobody's paying attention. And so I think that that's a player that landing in Buffalo with Josh Allen really answering a need for the bill. I mean, I love that obviously everybody can see the poster behind me or the you listen to the show, you know that Jeff is going in on the Bills guy. But at the same time, I do think that DJ Moore was a lot better last year than what people are recognizing. I mean, Waddle's interesting in terms of you start to kind of put piece together maybe that role in Denver and you start to look at what was Troy Franklin was doing, what Pat Bryant was doing Denzel. You start to kind of basically build into what the Jaylen Waddle role might potentially be. There's a lot there for Waddle should b Knicks be healthy. And I even like wand Robinson. I think that there's a lot of wand Robinson to do right away. Michael Pittman's probably the one that I'm a little bit more off on. I just don't know that I really want to invest heavily in that Pittsburgh Steelers offense so, so much. And really if I am going to invest in that offense. I already mentioned DK Metcalf. I'd much rather make the bet on DK Metcalf given his relative ADP and relative.
- [35:50]
Dave Kluge
So I just want to, you know, two things I want to say. First of all, you said A.J. brown is a layup and I think that's definitely, you know, how most people feel. But there also is the downside here that just doesn't really get talked about all that much. Like the Eagles have wanted to move on from AJ Brown what seems like pretty aggressively and he did, you know, end up finishing as a top 10 wide receiver last year. But it wasn't pretty, you know, it was a lot of Touchdowns. There was a lot of offense off field complaining and whatnot. I mean he to me just like didn't look like himself. It felt like they were kind of forcing him the ball to keep him happy. But I don't know, I don't know if it was that, that like that preseason quad injury was just hanging around all year or what. But I think that you know we do see these aging receivers, these big bodied aging receivers. You know, teams from outside the organization will aggressively target them and then they show up to camp and they aren't the player that they thought they were getting. Maybe this is me just like you know, Kenny Holiday 2.0 just like kind of worried about that situation that happened. But do you think that there is that potential here that like AJ Brown and I'm not saying that this is how I feel. I'm just kind of playing devil's advocate here because you called it a layup. Like do you think that we could potentially be on like A.J. brown over the hill alert?
- [37:05]
Jeff Bell
It's sure. Bigger receivers do tend to hit the wall. You think about Julio Jones. It felt like right Julio Jones was just going to keep rolling and then it over before we even realize what happened.
- [37:18]
Dave Kluge
When you're looking that comes to mind like five straight wide receiver Alan Robinson is out of the league.
- [37:24]
Jeff Bell
But that I think it was a pretty significant injury that played into that for Allen Robinson. That that's the thing of like you start to get into and that's where I probably give some credence to maybe the quad or the preseason of working through that. To me A.J. brown feels a lot like Trello. It just feels like one of those things of he is going to speak his mind. He is going to and at some level he's. He's going to, he's going to question coaching. He's going and to be fair, we all were questioning the Eagles coaching last year. Every single one of us was questioning Kevin Pitulu. Kevin Ptulu is not making those decisions anymore. So kind of fair to question the coaching. We've all questioned Jalen hurts in terms of Jalen hurts involvement in the passing game and upside in back the passing. So these things that I think, I do think it's A.J. brown's probably got a point about like a lot of this and, and so I think that that's where but at the same time he's going to come in just like Terrell Owens and May that year one is going to be very, very kumbaya. Year two, year three, year four, you're Starting to say, what are we doing here? We don't really know if we want this, to be team leader on this. And I think this, that. I think A.J. brown, I don't mean to paint. He's definitely not like the Antonio Brown tree of right diva wide receivers. I think that A.J. brown is a very thoughtful person who's not going to be afraid to speak his mind in terms of he's not. I don't expect A.J. brown to be in the club with Rashid Rice and popping up and drive like they were racing on the freeway type stories. I think that A.J. brown is going to be thoughtful about a situation, but he's going to tell you what he thinks and that even that can get grading over some time. And so I think there's a lot more of that. I think that if A.J. brown were completely happy and Philadelphia would be perfectly fine just continuing rolling with him.
- [39:23]
Dave Kluge
You know, you talk about Terrell Owens being kind of the. The character comp, if you will. I think Brandon Marshall probably fits in that same bucket as well. And Brandon Marshall did, like, early in his career. It was a lot worse than that, but it just kind of became like a character thing later in his career. And we saw with both terrell Owens and A.J. brown, like, or I'm sorry, Terrell Owens and Brandon Marshall. And we saw with AJ Brown when he moved to Philadelphia, like, every time these guys would switch teams, they would be reinvigorated and have like these amazing seasons. Like, Terrell Owens turned it on well, like age 34 with Cincinnati, like, I mean, like, these guys, like, you put them in a new environment and they can thrive well.
- [39:57]
Jeff Bell
And Randy Moss is like that. Randy Moss is a very intelligent, thoughtful person. He gets painted a certain way in the media, but I think the media has come around on him. He's in the media now, but Randy Moss is very much in that same way. And. And again, it's not like Antonio Brown is on a completely different reservation when it comes to the diva wide receiver behavior. That's not what we're saying with A.J. brown, but it's. We also saw Randy Moss, you know, be reinvigorated, but then also move on quick, relatively quickly. And I think that there's probably a segment of NFL receiver where teams are like, you know, they'll get us over the hop, or they're doing this thing right now, and then after a couple years, you're like, all right, well, let's see what else is out there.
- [40:43]
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- [41:46]
Dave Kluge
all right Jeff, for this next tier what I'm going to do is I'm going to name the tier and you tell me what player you think is going to be in this tier. This tier is called a cornerback wide receiver hybrid that no one can act normal about. Who do you think I'm talking about here Jeff?
- [42:00]
Jeff Bell
Troy Brown?
- [42:04]
Dave Kluge
We're obviously talking about Travis Hunter. Have you seen a bigger swing in anybody's value? I mean like we were talking about this guy as like the 102103 in rookie drafts last year I saw him get traded in a Dynasty League league for a third round pick. A 2026 third round pick because we got a national report. I think it was Ian Rapaport said that like oh you know Jacksonville might just keep him on cornerback. We have since heard from Liam Cohen, from James Gladstone, from Travis Hunter himself that he is going to be playing wide receiver. This is one to me like the fact that people are throwing in the towel on a guy drafted second overall, a 22 year old. Like, like I don't know what, like this guy should not be this polarizing. Like just if you can get Travis Hunter for a late first round pick I'm still making that trade but apparently people are out here trading him away for thirds. I don't know what's going on with Travis Hunter. It's mind boggling to me.
- [42:59]
Jeff Bell
Travis Hunter was a he was a high school defensive back who would occasionally play a little bit in college. He throughout until his senior year of college when he won the Heisman Trophy. Even before the year before he was still kind of a part time receiver, full time cornerback. And so the I think that, I think Jacksonville took him number two and basically we don't one, we didn't get a full season to even know what they were thinking in terms of development because he got hurt pretty early in the season. But I think when it comes down to it, you, you it's really, really difficult for him to be basically yo yoing full time on both sides of the ball. And you kind of need to get him comfortable in the way to approach that. To get him comfortable on the position that he's been playing full time for the last however many years is defensive back. And when you look at the depth chart of the Jaguars, it makes sense that he's playing full time defensive back. But at the same time time look at if you were to crack down targets of like how many targets do you really need to be fantasy relevant? If once you get to I ran a little bit of numbers with Khalil Shakira and it was basically secure. When the Bills were winning it would be about five targets per game and when they were losing it was about eight targets per game. And the difference between those two is like more or less a top 10, top five almost guy in targets and a guy that is like completely off the radar are. It doesn't really take that much to be fantasy relevant. So you can have Travis Hunter be a full time cornerback and scheme up seven touches in the game for him and it's going to be on the high end of how often a receiver is touching the ball. And so I do think it's just a lot of people need to take a walk or like touch grass. Like it's where a lot of it comes down.
- [44:53]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean he's one of these guys. I see him getting traded for cheap in all these leagues and people bragging on social media about how cheap they got Travis Hunter for. I just like, you know, when I saw him getting traded for a third, I just went out in every single league that I'm in that I don't have Travis Hunter. And I just offered up a 20, 26 second for Travis Hunter. Every single one was immediately rejected. It's really hard to make trades happen, Jeff. You know that like as soon as you send a trade offer, somebody's like, all right, what does Jeff Bell know that I don't what does Dave Kluge know that I don't? It makes it really hard for us to trade. But like I wanted to get Travis Hunter, I was unable to. But like you, the listener might be able to go out and get Travis Hunter. So, so just do that. Like just send that potshot offer out in every single league that you're in. See if you can flip a second round pick for Travis Hunter. Maybe nobody bites, maybe you get a bite, but I think that's a good process there. Next one I'm going to talk about Jeff. Air quotes around this tier. Name the former first round picks. We know that it's just like a death knell once the public starts referring to a player as a former first round pick. Now I don't think that everybody here is there yet, but these are guys that, that I think some people are starting to get nervous about despite the good draft capital. Jordan Addison, Quentin Johnson, Matthew Golden, Xavier Worthy and Xavier Leggett. Truthfully, Leggette should probably be down in a tier a little bit lower than this. These are all guys that like I am at the point now that I think the public has overreacted so much and punished these guys so much in dynasty rankings that I think they are all values and these, you know, I wasn't the biggest Matthew golden guy, I wasn't the biggest Xavier Worthy guy but they are just so cheap in dynasty leagues now that I think now is the time to go out and buy these guys and hope that they can have that year three, year four breakout.
- [46:30]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, you talk about what to do if you haven't done your rookie draft yet and you've got a late second. I mean Matthew Golden I think is a good player or even Xavier Worthy are good players to kind of target with those late seconds. Yeah, Legat, I, I am there on it's, I don't think it's going to happen with Legat and but I, I mean Jordan Addison, we've seen it happen, very much so and the Quentin Johnston conversation is just baffling at this point. I don't really know what people more need to see. We've seen him show up and clearly be a physical presence at the NFL level. The explosion, everything has translated with Quentin Johnson. I know that he was working through some injuries last year and kind of led into it. It's there. I mean this has been the week to talk about who the two receivers are going to be for the Chargers because now they have have competent tight ends and fullbacks and to me it's Pretty glaringly obvious that it's going to be. If you're looking at what two receivers do you want on the Chargers. I mean, Mike McDaniel came out and compared Quentin Johnston to Andre Johnson this week. So, I mean, it's pretty glaring that you would want Quentin Johnston and Lad McConkey. Of all the options probably of if you're going to look for two receivers, but it's Johnson falls into that. People have made jokes about him on social media, so they don't want to say anything nice about him. It like basically cognitive dissonance when it comes to Quentin Johnson. But stop offering me Quentin Johnson, people. Believe me. I have bought Quentin Johnson for cheap everywhere.
- [48:00]
Dave Kluge
Please do not buy him now coming off of his breakout year.
- [48:03]
Jeff Bell
Right.
- [48:04]
Dave Kluge
Exactly. What are we doing this next year that I want to talk about, Jeff? You know, when you look at the receivers last year, we kind of have the guys that have just like separated themselves already. Tedaro McMillan, Emeka Buka, Luther Burden, who we talked about, we feel good about those guys. And then we've got the other guys that were just like bearing after the rookie season that did nothing at all. And then we kind of have these guys that, like, you don't really want to move up or down all that much. And maybe you do want to move them down. Maybe. I am just holding on to hope, but these were two prospects that I liked last year that didn't get a lot of playing time but would flash occasionally when they're on the field. Jaden Higgins and Trey Harris. These are two guys that I am trying to buy low on. I think these are still good prospects that we knew were in tough situations. Jaden Higgins was playing behind Nico Collins. He was playing on the same team with Christian Kirk. That offensive line in Houston was terrible. Trey Harris had a ton of target competition ahead of him. These are guys that I'm okay. Just kind of like re rolling on for a little bit cheaper going into 2026. Do you have any year two guys, specifically Jeff, that you're kind of still holding on to hope for, even if you don't have a ton of reason to?
- [49:05]
Jeff Bell
Matthew golden, for sure. All right. I mean, there you go. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I. I think that otherwise, other than that, I'm moving down to look at the rest of your list. I mean, I. I like Pat Bryant, but then they went out and kind of nuked Waddle.
- [49:24]
Dave Kluge
Yeah.
- [49:24]
Jeff Bell
Kyle Williams, I think is still interesting. I think Kyle Williams, to me, Kyle Williams and Matthew golden are a little bit of the Same conversation on they played a lot but they didn't get the ball. So we don't like them in fantasy. But then I know I ran some numbers at the midpoint of last year when everybody was talking about Luther Burden's yards per route run that guys like Alec Pierce, guys like George Pickens, guys like Jackson, Smith and Jigba played an awful lot as rookies and didn't touch the ball much as rookies and had horrible yards per out runs as rookies. But they were on the field, they learned how to play within the offensive scheme structure that they were playing in and then all of a sudden they started to get the ball and all of a sudden they were big time fantasy contributors. So I think for me, looking at players, if you're looking for under the radar year two players, it's guys like golden or guys like Kyle Williams that were on the field that they just weren't overly schemed into the offense because that they'll start to get schemed in the offense. The ones that I'm more concerned about are guys that just couldn't find their way onto the field or I know there's been some talk about Jack Besh but like Jack Besh couldn't really even crack the lineup with, with the Raiders or everybody seems to be in on Isaac Tisla. He's flashed some moments but I think you're ultimately kind of just looking at the next maybe like Josh Reynolds or like Tim Patrick within that Lions offense with T. SLA So looking for some of these guys that again like, like, like a golden that has played a lot but has not gotten the ball which I think Jaden Higgins kind of lands there and Trey Harris. I didn't get a chance to talk about it earlier but we've talked about Keenan Allen or talked around Keenan Allen a couple times. I think Keenan Allen is especially through the middle of last year was starting to play with that fork in his back. I think Keenan Allen is, is kind of done and Trey Harris kind of definitely cracked into there on I know that they really like loved Trey Harris's blocking for the receiver position and Keenan Allen really slowed down the second half of last year. We know he's unsigned now. I would not be surprised to see him end up back with the Chargers. But I, I would be very surprised if we see anywhere near the fantasy relevance we got early last year.
- [51:43]
Dave Kluge
I think that he was like a 20% snapshare player late in the league. Like he was. Yeah, he was kind of like the, the on field wide receiver coach like he was telling the young guys what to do and then he'd go out there on third down, catch a ball and like just hobble back to the sideline.
- [51:57]
Jeff Bell
And then, and then he had a very incentive laden contract. And week 18 was the only time that he was super involved in the offense because his contract was full of incentives and they basically tried to get him some Money in week 18. Other than that, it just, he already lost the job to Trey Harris and that was as the third receiver.
- [52:16]
Dave Kluge
So let's talk about this next tier, Jeff. And this is one of the most interesting tiers here. I think these guys aren't the super young guys. You know, everybody wants to buy those 21, 22, 23 year olds. These guys aren't quite there, but they're also still on the correct side of the age curve and they are all quickly approaching their prime. I talked about like that huge cluster we had up top of all those 27 year olds. Like that is the prime years for wide receivers. All these guys are going to be hitting that within the next two or three seasons. And there's varying levels of value here, but I've got Alec Pierce, Christian Watson, Jaden Reed, Josh Downs, Khalil Shakir and Michael Wilson. Now I think these are guys that can be had for cheap in a lot of dynasty leagues. Alec Pierce might still have that, you know, big contract buzz right now that's pushing him up a little bit in value. But I think these are all guys that like, we waited for the huge breakout early in their career and they never had a huge breakout, but now they're approaching their athletic primes. These guys are all full time players in NFL offenses and I think because they never really hit that wide receiver one ceiling, a lot of people are just getting bored and trying to move on now. But these are all guys that I expect to be fantasy relevant this year. All it takes is a little bit of variance to break in their direction. All of these guys and, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Jeff, but like I think all of these guys theoretically could have wide receiver one upside, like touchdowns break in their direction. If I saw any of these guys finishing inside the top 12, top 15 next year wouldn't surprise me one bit. So this is a tier right here that I really want to go out and try to acquire and I'm not going out. You always talk about kind of changing the eye line here. I'm not sending a trade offer for somebody's Jaden Reed, but I'll try to put Together a package where I'm getting a Jaden Reed or Khalil Shakir or a Josh Downs as a part of that package in return.
- [53:59]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I did kind of laugh a little bit inside of you you're talking about. These guys didn't. Haven't shown, I mean Michael Wilson and kind of showed a number one wide receiver ceiling over three games over the, I think over the second half of last year. Dave, you crack it at the mid season. He was a wide receiver five over the, the back half of last year.
- [54:21]
Dave Kluge
I mean even the narrative that I've heard there is even the games where Marvin Harrison came back and wasn't 100% like we saw Michael Wilson didn't perform in those games. So we saw Michael Wilson. I don't want to take away from what he did. Like he was, was fantastic. I think he finished as a top 15 wide receiver on the season, but like just on fire down the stretch. But if you look at those splits when Marvin Harrison Jr. Was out there, he wasn't doing much of anything at all. So I think that's why a lot of people are trying to just like sell Michael Wilson now because it does look like, you know, the same reason people are trying to say sell Jameson Williams like saying that it only came because of injuries.
- [54:57]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, buy Michael Wilson from me because it only became because of injuries. Like, I mean, sure, I've played fantasy long enough. I've, I've seen that game before. I mean it, it wasn't really real. He should be selling him also buy him from me. But. Okay,
- [55:15]
Dave Kluge
so let's talk. Is there anybody else you want to talk about in this one? Jeff? I, I think this is one where like I am trying to buy all of these guys and it's just as simple as that. Pierce, Watson, Reed down, Shakir Wilson. I think all of these guys are going to have better production than their current dynasty value. And because they are still on the right side of the age curve, these guys can have a good season appreciate in value. And whether you just hold them for the next couple years and reap that production or flip them next offseason for more than they're worth. Now I think this is just kind of a sneaky tier of buys here, but let's talk about this next one here. Jeff.
- [55:47]
Jeff Bell
Well, I do want to talk about some of these other guys though real quick because let's talk about them. I don't. Alec Pierce is a very fun player and I've liked Alec Pierce quite a bit. Bit like coming out and I'M happy that he. But we have seen this play out where the guy gets the massive deal and we're kind of not quite sure. And then now he's dealing with a significant injury and this usually doesn't work out when it long term for kind of. We've seen this thing before. I think Shakir is really interesting because there's a big fade on Shier now that they've gotten DJ Moore. But if you were to really look at what the Bills. Last year, the Bills had one player capable of playing the slot. They had Khalil Shakir. Other than that, they did not have a single player in the roster capable of playing the slot. Now they have three receivers between DJ Moore, Khalil Shakir, and having Skyler Bell capable of playing the slot. And so if you look at what the usage was for Shakir when they were trailing or when they were in games like that, they would feature him heavily when they were trailing. And then in other games, he would just completely disappear. And there would be so many times where Shakir would have like 5 for 70 at the half and you're like, oh, it's gonna happen today. And then he would have one for eight in the second half because they would just run the ball and they would say, we can't get Khalil Shakira hurt in this game. I think Shakir, now that they have an offense that has the depth, but also they can feature him more. They can feature him and DJ More in. Compare in companionship more. And have Joe Brady used to do a lot of like stack three receiver sets, those types of things. They can run a lot of that stuff with Shakir and with DJ Moore. And I think that. And then also having Skyler Bell kind of as the backup. I think that there's a lot to like about Shakir this year. And especially the. Probably the number one thing to like is the value that you can get on him right now.
- [57:43]
Dave Kluge
I mean, we saw like it was very much so a one, two punch in Carolina with DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel. I mean, Khalil Skier can do a lot of things Curtis Amuel can do. And now they've got DJ Moore there. Like, I see a very similar offense. Like, Joe Brady's just trying to run it back. And even that year when he was fired from Carolina, I don't think he should have been fired. Like, he was the kind of silver lining in the offense that year, but he also was the scapegoat when things weren't going well and he was just the first to get the average. But yeah, I have a lot of faith in Joe Brady and I like this offense that they're putting together there. Next year we're going to talk about Jeff over the Hill and this is a wide range of value here and I know a lot of people are going to see Brandon Ayuk in this tier and say what the heck are you talking about? I don't know if Brandon Iuk's ever going to play football again. I don't know if you've seen his recent Instagram pictures and posts and whatnot. He has put on a lot of weight. He seems to be enjoying the swaths of money that he got from the San Francisco 49ers and doesn't look like a player who is itching to get back at a football field anytime soon. I also put DK Metcalf in here. You know, we saw him trending down a little bit over the second half of the season, just not in a great offense right now. I don't think that he's over the hill, but what I said was at best atop it. You know, these are all guys that are trending down at this point in their careers. Also Terry McLaurin, Devonte Adams, Chris Godwin, Courtland Sutton, Mike Evans, Von Diggs, Debo, Samuel Tyree, Kill Calvin Ridley, Cooper Crop Tyler. So look at the bottom of this tier like Cooper Cup, Kelvin Ridley, probably off the fantasy radar. DK Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, Devonte Adams, Chris Godwin could still have another wide receiver one season, maybe even three wide receiver one seasons in them. But these are all guys that need to be strictly reserved for contenders. If you're rebuilding right now, you don't want any of these guys on your team.
- [59:28]
Jeff Bell
Well, I mean you can always flip them and I think a guy like Chris Godwin the value. I think if you're can go out and grab the value or what's going on with I think Courtland Sutton's fast. I think all these guys are very, very fascinating. I think Cortland Sutton's fascinating because it seems to be a big consensus fade and kind of way back seat to Jalen Waddle. But you can. I don't feel like Cortland Sutton's role gets diminished at all with Jalen Waddle. It's all just kind of the secondary pieces that they were using and Waddle takes that over. I mean, Diggs looked very, very good for portions last year. Maybe I'm just scarred for that by that Bills game, but he came back way better Than I think what anybody expected. I think this is a really, really interesting tier. I'm with you on iuk. He seems to me that either he has completely lost it or he's just actively trying to get cut as as much as he possibly can try to get cut so that he can go to Washington. And that also feels like 49ers are
- [60:26]
Dave Kluge
like spite holding him at this point. They don't want to let him go. Like it's just this weird standoff between IUK and the organization.
- [60:33]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, exactly. It 100% feels like that of basically like more. The 49ers know he's not going to play for the 49ers again. Like at some level, they probably want to see what he's willing to give up in order for them to release them. They're probably annoyed that they weren't able to get any value for it. It. But at the same time, if he's not going to play ball, if he's not going to give up a significant, significant portion of money, I mean, hold him until last cut day, basically. Because if you, if it's that spiteful, then you don't want to release him now and give him a full offseason to go to a team that is in your conference. I mean, let him, let him get released September 11, if that's what you have to do. But I think that that's to me. And then I think out of all of this, the one that's most fast, Tyree Kill, is. I think it's so fascinating because is he just done? Is Tyreek Hill just done? Because we. It wasn't that long ago, like less than 18 months ago in a calendar, basically. We were wondering if tyree kill could hit 2, 000 yards in a season. And now he's. He's done. He, like completely done. I don't know.
- [61:41]
Dave Kluge
I mean, this is another character guy that we've always known and teams were willing to put up with it when he was really good. I saw that man's leg fold like 90 degrees in the wrong direction last year. And then, you know, there's the, the legal issues on top of that. And Tyreek Hill too. Like, so much of his value comes from his athleticism. So now what is he? I don't know. Off the top of my head, I want to say he's 31 years old, I believe. I mean, he's definitely getting up there and she's 30, 32 years old at this point. So. So if we're looking at a season where he's going to have to recover this year. Like, I don't think he's going to be 100%. We see these dislocated knees. Like, we'll talk about Tank Dell a little bit later in the show, but like, that is one of the few injuries that still really scares me. We've seen ACLs, Achilles, these are all kind of routine recoveries at this point. Those dislocated knees can often be career enders. So for a 32 year old who really speed is his calling card, like let's say it takes him some time to get, get up to speed this year, then we're going to hope that he can rewind the clock in his age 33 season. I do understand the theoretical upside here, but it's just not a bet that I want to make.
- [62:46]
Jeff Bell
But like for free.
- [62:50]
Dave Kluge
I mean. Yeah, I mean, what are we talking here, like, can do? Do you think if you offered somebody a late third round rookie pick, are they giving you Tyree Kill for that? Because I think at that price you might as well take it. But I don't even know if you're gonna. I mean, like, it's still Tyreek Hill and I think the name holds some value there.
- [63:08]
Jeff Bell
I mean, we are doing dynasty content, but we're also shifting into redraft best ball mode. And like, I know Tyreek Hill's getting undrafted in some drafts or at the tail end of some drafts. Like, like Cooper, I think Cooper cup is, is legitimately. I just don't see that happening anymore. Like, it's. But like, and Calvin Ridley too, I feel like throwing dirt on him a little bit. I don't know. Some of these guys, like one of these guys, I feel like at the, the back end of here is gonna be, we're gonna be talking about him in week seven and saying, wow, that was free.
- [63:46]
Dave Kluge
And that's what I wrote in my article is like, yes, all these guys could rewind the clock. It is very much. You know, it's possible that it could happen that these guys could, but it's just not a bet that I really want him to make. And I just looked it up. I mean the value that I pulled out of my head, that's exactly where keep trade cut has it. Keep trade cut saying that Tyree Kill's value right now is a late 20, 26 third. So yeah, I think instead of drafting Eli Raritan, if you can get Tyree Kill, that might be the move. Like if you could spend your late third round pick and just flip it for Tyree Kill. Why not? But let's talk about some more rookies here, Jeff. After we talk about the over the hill guys. Now we'll talk about some more day two rookies. And these are some fun names here. Jeremy Bernard, Antonio Williams, Jacoby Lane, Ted Hurst, Chris Brazel, Zachariah Branch, Malachi Fields, Xavion Thomas, Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell. These are all guys that, you know, fit the mold of what we want to see for a day two guy who could potentially break out. We know the hit rate for these guys is what, 20, 30%. Like it's unlikely that they're all going to be fantasy relevant, but there's absolutely some gold inside this tier. So. So when you look at all of these names, Jeff, who's the guy that like really jumps out to you is having the most upside?
- [64:56]
Jeff Bell
I mean everybody's there on Antonio Williams and Jeremy Bernard right now and I think it's, it's easy to. Probably just easiest to flossly like slot them into what they're going to do out of all this group. I mean I know Brazil's probably going to have to earn it as a downfield threat that takes the top off of opposite Tedro McMillan and opposite Jalen Coker. Branch needs to show that he can actually play wide receiver, but there's opportunity there for him in Atlanta. Ted Hurst, it sounds like I say
- [65:27]
Dave Kluge
real quick, I just want to say on Branch we talked pre draft and I said that my favorite ideal fit for Branch would be Atlanta because both of the top receivers in Atlanta, Kyle Pitts and Drake London do work primarily downfield. So like Branch can kind of do exactly what he did at Georgia which is just feast on these underneath little targets. Like he can kind of be. Be a Wandale Robinson type of player in this offense. Like if there's one team that I had to pick for Branch to potentially break out on, I think Atlanta is kind of the perfect fit for him. Especially if Tua Tug of I Low is going to be the quarterback there and he is that short field release target. We could end up be looking at a sneaky amount of volume going to Zachariah Branch.
- [66:05]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, yeah. I think Fields is interesting. I think people are too low on Fields. Caleb Douglas. To me you talk about people being too low on Caleb Douglas. It's again it's, it's the same conversation as John Stribling. It just the consensus board was wrong on these guys where the teams are going to bet on them. But Caleb Douglas, I mean it's, it's like it's like, everybody's like, well, Chris Bell, he might be a 43 guy. Caleb Douglas is a 43 guy. That would be for Chris Bell. And he is a mover. He's, he's got good size. He was a starter as a true freshman on a Florida team with Ricky Piersol, had an injury, ended up at Texas Tech. Then he was the first receiver that the Dolphins took. But it's, it's like nobody wants to recognize or take a chance on that. I think Caleb Douglas is interesting and it's that, that argument. It reminds me a lot of the Titans last year on kind of the Chris Bell being the Alec Ao Manor of the conversation and Caleb Douglas kind of being the Cher DK of the conversation. And while it didn't really happen too, too much on offense, we know that DK came out and brought broke records in terms of being one of the best return guys as a rookie in NFL history. And then Damian Thomas is probably a little bit interesting just in terms of landing with Ben Johnson having that speed, especially if you're in a return yards league. Xavion Thomas, well, they're already talking about
- [67:28]
Dave Kluge
him as a running back. That, that is kind of the hope, is that he'll be taking snaps at running back. Ben Johnson has said that he was asked about that at a during an interview as well, and he played quite a bit of running back at lsu and that's something Sigmund Bloom talked about. He's like this doesn't look like when you watch him take snaps out of the backfield, he doesn't look like a wide receiver taking snaps out of the backfield. He just looks like a running back. So I think that is kind of the hope here is that they're going to toy with him a little bit because we saw Ben Johnson had no qualms about putting Burden and DJ Moore and other guys in the backfield. So I think that might be kind of the weird out for Xavian Thomas is that he, he ends up with like 60 carries out of the backfield and a handful of, you know, running back flares or whatever.
- [68:11]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I mean he is the, for the moment, he is the potential proxy for some of the things that Shabir Gibbs did with Ben Johnson. Probably. So. Yeah, that's interesting.
- [68:25]
Dave Kluge
Let's keep, let's keep it moving, Jeff, and talk about this next tier here. We already talked about some year two guys. You know, we talked about, about the guys as rookies that really checked all the boxes. The guys who checked a couple of boxes and these are guys that, like, maybe checked a box or at least were fun to watch or had some plays that could get us excited. Torrey Horton, Isaac Teasla, Jalen Noel, Alec Eomanor, Pat Bryant, Jack Besh, Kyle Williams, Jameer dk. All of these guys could end up just being on the waiver wire a year from now. But there's also, like, you know, if Isaac Thies breaks out, wouldn't surprise me if Torrey Horton gets healthy and becomes that secondary receiver in Seattle, it wouldn't surprise me if Jalen Noel. You know, I loved the prospect Jalen Noel, and we knew the last year was going to kind of be a zero with Christian Kirk there, but maybe his role can grow now with Christian Kirk out of the picture. So this is one where, you know, these guys are going to cost close to nothing, and I don't think there's anything here insulating value. These are just kind of like cheap lotto tickets that you can buy that could end up being something at some point.
- [69:24]
Jeff Bell
Point that's exactly right. And. And with that approach, as much as I previously threw dirt on Jack Besh, he probably does seem like the most interesting one, that if you were to look at the situation. But I think talk about the Titans guys, to talk about Amnor and talk about Chimaera dk, we. We're sitting here at this point last year saying, well, who's going to be the receivers for the Titans? This, we just see this. They went out and they added Cardinal Tate, number four. They added Wanda Robinson. And so I think that what we do in Dynasty is we kind of talk ourselves into these guys that we don't necessarily think are that good, or these guys that are day three wide receivers. And we say, well, there's nobody else there. And more often than not, what happens is the team also says, yeah, there's nobody else here. We better go out and get a real guy after this year. And so to me, the Raiders feel like very much like, sure, Jack Besh might get a shot, might work his way into the rotation, might be fantasy relevant, but at the same time, more likely it's going to be like Jeremiah Smith catching passes from Fernando Mendoza next year.
- [70:30]
Dave Kluge
And this year it's probably going to be 180 targets going to Brock Bowers. I know everybody wants to find who's the receiver in Las Vegas. I'm here to tell you that their wide receiver one is almost assuredly Brock Bowers. Let's go to the next one, Jeff, and we'll start moving through these a little bit quicker. These are guys who I think could gain value like they are. These aren't the youngest guys in the world. These aren't your typical guys that you're reaching out for and hoping to acquire and hope that they can gain value. But these are guys that like, I think even if you're rebuilding are still sneaky targets because these are guys that immediately can come out week one and everybody can say, wow, these guys are a lot more involved in their offenses than I expected them to be. Romeo Dubs, Jalen Coker, Adonai Mitchell, Kayshawn Booty, Parker Washington, Trey Tucker, keon Coleman, Jalen McMillan, Troy Franklin and Ryan Flourno. Now none of These guys are 28, 29, 30 years old. These are all guys who are at or approaching the age apex here. But I think this is kind of a sneaky buy tier as well and not just for contenders. I think rebuilding or contending, you can go out and try to target these guys for cheap.
- [71:33]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I mean Mitchell's flashed, but do we really want to buy into that jets offense? I mean Dubs to meet Dubs to me one, he is the only player in the NFL that can run a goal line slant or him and Devonte Adams are the only players that can run an actual goal line slam. But I think that it's just kind of probably a lower upside bet. You're really, I mean you're talking about Boudet and Dubs as potentially being the if they sign when they trade for AJ Brown as just really secondary pieces, probably New England, Parker Washington, that might
- [72:08]
Dave Kluge
be when you go buy them, it's like right after that AJ Brown trade, when that's official, then you out and buy them for cheap because Kayshawn Booty, he is a free agent after this year and Romeo Dobbs, I think he could have a complimentary skill set. And you talk about Adonai Mitchell not wanting to buy into that jets offense. I think that is the common theme that most people will have when they think about Adonai Mitchell. But he also is a free agent after this year and I'd be much more excited about him if he lands somewhere where he has a path to relevance. So you know, you talk about some of the reasons to devalue these players and while I will agree with you also for taking a multi year look at these guys, these short term situations that we aren't crazy about could quickly flip going into 2027.
- [72:48]
Jeff Bell
Oh, they absolutely do and they always do. And I think this is a really interesting tier of players and you talk about who to buy cheap in Dynasty. This is the tier. I mean you called it could gain value quickly. All these guys within this tier do have the potential path to gaining value. And as we've already told the jokes about Keon Coleman. So even if he, he would be the next Quinton Johnston that if Keon Coleman were out to and do things, nobody's buy into it, you'd still have a buy window probably with Keon Coleman. And then my guy Ryan Flournoy sitting down here as solidifying himself as the wide receiver three in Dallas that something were to happen with George Pickens.
- [73:28]
Dave Kluge
It could be, you're saying the wide receiver 3. We could be looking at a week wide receiver too, whether it's a trade or a holdout. And that's something where Flournoy I think is off the radar for a lot of dynasty managers right now. But my goodness, like if something does happen to Pickens, Flournoy, we saw the upside on any given week last year. Next one I have, I might rewrite this title before I publish the article because it comes off as a little disrespectful. I called this one they are what they Are. And this is again kind of a wide dearth of players here. But Jacoby Myers, Jerry Judy, Juwan Jennings, Rashid Shahid, Rashad Bateman, Christian Kirk, Marquis Brown, Darnell Mooney, Demario Douglas, these are all guys that I think at one point there was hope that these guys would take this massive step forward and you know, become players that we can build our dynasty rosters around and it didn't happen. Now that doesn't mean that these aren't good players. They are going to be on NFL fields. They are guys that you can put in your flex spot every now and then if you need to. But I think the hope that these guys would ever skyrocket in value, I think we can can kind of put that to rest at this point. These guys, as the title says, they are what they are.
- [74:35]
Jeff Bell
I don't know where Jacoby Myers should go, but I don't feel like he should go here. But so that Jacoby Myers, if he
- [74:42]
Dave Kluge
was two years younger, I'd feel a lot better about him. I mean that's really all it comes down to. I mean I.
- [74:47]
Jeff Bell
And all you've done two years when he was two years younger was be a solid wide receiver too. And fantasy every year.
- [74:53]
Dave Kluge
Don't get me wrong, I've been drafting the heck out of Jacoby Myers in my best ball leagues. But we got to face the reality here. Like he's a, he's a 30 year old wide receiver. I think he is what he is Jeff. Like he's a very good wide receiver too and occasionally we'll give you a wide receiver one week and occasionally gives you a wide receiver three week.
- [75:12]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. Which is pretty good. I mean like he's valued out here but no, I think it's, it's like, like Juwan Jennings I think is a fascinating football signing. Like real football signing. I've talked about that with Lanning in Minnesota. Perfect complimentary skill set but it's not probably not the best. It's definitely not that I think there was hope out there that Juwan Jennings was going to be the Dolphins leading receiver or I don't know what people were hoping for but yeah it's, there's definitely that. That one's.
- [75:39]
Dave Kluge
Now he's going to be blocking for T.J. hawkinson.
- [75:42]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, yeah. And, and I to me I think Shahid is a more of an interesting real folks football conversation as well than actual fantasy football. He had definitely had his glimpses but I think we have, we've pretty much seen what Seattle's going to utilize him for. I don't know that there's like an explosion waiting to happen within that Seattle offense now. Losing Click Kubiak and once you start to move off him I think, I think Bateman is underrated in terms of everybody's ready for these late, these late third round, early fourth round rookies to over take Bateman and I think Bateman's been a pretty solid receiver. But then once you get into like I mean the Hollywood Brown never guessed
- [76:19]
Dave Kluge
I'm drafting a lot of Bateman in. Best ball too.
- [76:21]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm kind of giving it up now for Hollywood Brown or Demario Douglas to be kind of that happened there.
- [76:30]
Dave Kluge
Next one we've got another guy in a tier of his own, Tank Dell we talked about with Tyreek Hill a little bit earlier. These dislocated knees are tricky injuries to come back from and I just don't know where to put Tank Dow. I mean this guy, yeah he was like a wide receiver one his rookie season and then had a very disappointing year too that ended in a season ending injury. We hope he's going to play this year but like we aren't even 100% certain that he is going to play this year. And like these players when you miss an extended period of time like that age just flies by and like he was already an older prospect coming in now all Of a sudden, tank Dallas like two years removed from football entering his age 27 season and we're starting to get some buzz for Tank Dell again. But I don't know, like this is one to me, like I am rooting for him. Nothing would make me happier than to see Tank Dell rewind the clock and look like the player he was three years ago. But I just do not get the warm and fuzzies. Like I don't want that. I don't want him on my Dynasty rosters. I don't want to win my Best Bell rosters. Like I am just going to let other people deal with Tank Dell.
- [77:27]
Jeff Bell
Dave, this show has made me feel very old because we, we was like talking about these guys that, that, you know, we were talking pre show about like when we really started to play Dynasty year, when he started making content, those types of things. And like CD Lamb was like the young guy and now he's like, we're like, well, I mean he's already 27 and it's like gez, Jeff, like your pet, your prime is well past. Like why is Jeff Val even here anymore? He's already older than 27.
- [77:55]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, you, you would probably fit in the. I don't know what was the. The. The atop the eighth curve tier. That's. I think we're both there.
- [78:02]
Jeff Bell
Something like this. I don't know. Well, in case of emergency is where I'm going to be fitting here very
- [78:08]
Dave Kluge
soon and we will get to that tier in just a minute. But before then, day three rookies worth a shot. Jeff, this is a. We've said the term interesting tier probably 100 times on this show. If anybody's keeping track at home, let us know in the comments how many times we have said interesting tier. But this is an interesting tier, Jeff. I mean the, the hit rate for these guys is like 1%. But boy, when a day three wide receiver hits, they hit. You got Puka Dukua, Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown, Stefan Diggs and then you've got a thousand guys that you have just completely forgotten about. So in this one we've got Skyler Bell, Bryce Lance, Brendan Thompson, Elijah Surratt, Reggie Virgil, Kendrick Law, Cyrus Allen, Kevin Coleman, Colby Young, Dion Burks, Leon Lewis, Bond. I mean a lot of names and we probably won't even remember a lot of these names five years from now. But like is there anybody on this list that you could see when we talk about the. The Antonio Brown, Tyreek Hill, Stefan Diggs, Puka Nukua. Can you see any of These guys being mentioned in that group a couple of years from now.
- [79:09]
Jeff Bell
I mean, of course, my dude, Skyler Bell. I appreciate it. You know all about Skyler Bell. Bryce Lance, Brendan Thompson I think are my favorite.
- [79:17]
Dave Kluge
Day three guys play.
- [79:18]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. Yeah. I think Bryce Lance and Brendan Thompson are interesting just from a physical aspect of having elite level speed. And they put it all together. They've got the elite level tools to be able to deliver on that. I think Kenneth Law is an interesting conversation because I saw some people that were saying that like, well, that means Isaiah or Isaac TSLA is like solidified as the yc. And to me, I wrote it up when Kendrick Law was drafted that I very much see Kedd Kendrick Law kind of as their. They brought in Greg Dortch and Kendrick Law kind of as their Cleef Raymond kind of in that role within that offense. And then Isaac Tisla kind of as like the Tim Patrick's like Josh Reynolds role in the offense kind of the. The big third receiver and the. And then the gadget third receiver. I think that that's. It's not interesting for fantasy, but it's interesting in terms of football usage. And, and to me it's like the opposite of like wheels up for T slot saying no. They brought in a very dedicated skill set to have this other gadget role. Well, T slot is kind of power forward role type of of a role there. You know, like guys like Cyrus Allen, Kevin Coleman Jr. Like Dion Burks. It's like I just love people that love Dynasty like so much that they get so excited for like Cyrus Allen or Kevin Coleman Jr. And it's like you start to play Dynasty and it's just like the, the hope, I don't know, like maybe the hope just like the glimmer in your eye that you might have for a Cyrus Allen to pop. Like, it's, it's a lot harder for it to get there.
- [80:58]
Dave Kluge
So let's talk about the next one. And you alluded to this a little bit earlier, the break glass in case of emergency. These are guys that should probably be rock probably mostly on contenders. Guys that might have some weekly flex appeal here and there. I'll run through this one quickly. Jalen Naylor, Malik Washington, Marvin Mims Jr. Dontabian Wicks, Andre Josevac, Cedric Tillman, Tyquan Thornton, Kevonte Turpin, Jahan Dotson, Calvin Austin, John Metchie and Jalen Tolbert. So I think there are some good names atop this list like Jalen Naylor. You know, we jokingly said there is no wide receiver one in Vegas, but Jalen Naylor could be the wide receiver one in Vegas behind Brock Bowers. Of course Malik Washington could be the wide receiver one for the Miami Dolphins. I mean these are a lot of like talking ourselves into players that we don't really believe in all that much because of their current short term situation. Not a bet you want to make in dynasty. But if you're contending and you need some wide receiver depth, these are some good pieces you can go out and acquire.
- [81:53]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think we. I know you have Naylor and Washington at top of your tier. I think those are both interesting players like you said, situationally wise because there is potential there we could see. I mean I would it be shocking if Malik Washington got one like 90 to 100 catches in a completely broken down like Dolphins offense. He might only get 700 yards off of those catches because they're not utilizing him downfield.
- [82:19]
Dave Kluge
But Wandell Robinson 20, 24 special.
- [82:22]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, yeah. I mean it could be there. It, it's potentially there.
- [82:28]
Dave Kluge
Let's talk about the next one and we're going to move through these quick. Jeff, let's just kind of pick like one or two players from each year that we want to talk about year two guys to worry about. I mean truthfully these guys can probably be dropped in most formats, but you want to hold on to hope in deep formats and this might just be a guy that you just still have an affinity for that you want to hold on to. Don't let me stop you from rostering these guys if you want to. But not much promise that we saw from their rookie seasons. Isaiah Bond, Tez Johnson, Jalen Royal, Jalen lane, Dante Thornton Jr. Kanata Mumfield, Ty Felton, Savion Williams, Keandre Lambert, Smith Aryan or Keandre Lambert Smith, Arian Smith, Fton Kism, Xavier Estrepo and Jimmy Horn. Jeff, is there a single guy in this list that you say, you know what, I still want to keep that guy rostered just in case Kanana Mumfield.
- [83:12]
Jeff Bell
I want to keep in the Kanana Mumfield rostered because I think he did show flashes last year with the Rams. It is the Rams. It is Sean McVey. But I think that Mumfield, when you look at what the Rams had in their receiver room prior to that, a guy like Jordan Whittington or having the tutu Atwell like very rule specific players. Whereas Bumfield I think was a departure when they brought in Devonte Adams. They also drafted Canada Mumfield and Mumfield can kind of be. I know that Devonte Adams kind of took him under his wing, but I think Mumfield can be that that player that can move throughout the offense because really what they. They moved away from Cooper cup being married to the slot and having to have other receivers around that, that made that work into versatility out of their receiver core. And I think Mumfield had shows really strong flashes as a rookie.
- [84:05]
Dave Kluge
So I've got a bunch more tiers in my full article, but I'm going to make the executive call, Jeff. We're going to do two more tiers and then we'll call it a day. If you want to read the rest of what I, I have to say on these players, you can find the article@footballguys.com but let's do two more tiers here. Could maybe be useful in deep leagues. Maybe. So this is like, you know, the break Classic in case of emergency. This is even a bigger emergency. These guys could maybe be useful. Darius Slayton, Devon Bailey, Luke McCaffrey, Lama de Zakias, Xavier Hutchison, Tutu Atwell, Josh Palmer, Mitch Tinsley. I mean, we are really, really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, Jeff. But anybody in this list that you could say, like, yeah, you know, if you're contending this is a good wide receiver. Eight to have on your roster for bye weeks and injuries.
- [84:48]
Jeff Bell
I mean, Vale got kneecapped in the draft.
- [84:51]
Dave Kluge
Yeah.
- [84:52]
Jeff Bell
Other than that. I mean, there's people. There's like a. Slayton's always like round
- [84:58]
Dave Kluge
20 best ball pick people.
- [85:00]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And I don't understand it at all because I feel like there are so many better upside. We've seen like neighbors out and Slayton doesn't do. I don't know. There. There's like the subsect that is grabbing Slayton in the last round of every single best ball. And to me, it just doesn't make any sense at all.
- [85:19]
Dave Kluge
You know, Jeff, I'm looking something up real quickly because I, I have a hunch. Derek Slayton, he's been in the league for a while now. He is over 100 career games under his belt. How many times do you think he is eclipsed 100 yards?
- [85:33]
Jeff Bell
Like three, seven.
- [85:36]
Dave Kluge
He's got seven under his belt. Last of which came two seasons ago. So, yeah, I don't know, like, there's still people out there pounding the table for Darius Slayton. You want to hear that on this show? And then let's talk about this last one. Just because we have to talk about this one. Probably retiring soon. You're probably Wondering, like, I have, you know, been listening to this show now for an hour and 24 minutes, and you guys haven't talked about DeAndre Hopkins, Hopkins, Adam Thielen, Keyleth, Keenan Allen, Tyler Lockett. Like, yeah, these are guys that were wide receiver ones, like, just two, three seasons ago, but, man, the NFL moves fast. Maybe these guys play somewhere this year, but I have a feeling these guys are all just treading towards retirement.
- [86:19]
Jeff Bell
We. We have talked about Keenan Allen. We haven't said a single good thing about Keenan Allen on this show
- [86:25]
Dave Kluge
is what we said about Keenan Allen.
- [86:27]
Jeff Bell
Allen, my dude. And. And so imagine. Imagine, like, three years ago telling people that we're recording this show and we're going to have this tier. It's going to have DeAndre Hopkins, it's going to have Keenan Allen, even Adam Thielen, Tyler Lockett in it. And the guy that you're putting on top of this tier, my dude, Mac Hollins. And, yeah, I love Mac.
- [86:46]
Dave Kluge
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I mean, yeah, I guess we could put him in, like, the. Could maybe be usable in deep leagues.
- [86:53]
Jeff Bell
No, but just. I'm saying, like. I'm saying, like, look at. Look what Matt Collins has done. He's leading the tier with DeAndre Hopkins and company.
- [87:00]
Dave Kluge
He had himself a couple of nice seasons over the last few years that we felt good about, but like I said, you know, we just went. How many did we go deep here, Jeff? We made it to 151 names.
- [87:11]
Jeff Bell
Whoo.
- [87:11]
Dave Kluge
I go even deeper in my article.
- [87:14]
Jeff Bell
I do this. This next tier. I saw somebody tweet yesterday, is it safe to drop Jalen Polk? And I want to let you know, yeah, you're okay to drop in your dynasty. Yeah.
- [87:27]
Dave Kluge
So, yeah. So, I mean, this. These next tiers, we've got a mix of trailing Burks and Jalen Hyatt and Jonathan Mingo. I'm not even going to read them all off, but a lot of guys who were names that, like, you know, just some of them, as recent as a year or two ago, there were still hives out there pounding the table for these guys. But, yeah, I mean, I. I have to round out talking about everybody who is, like, still Rob in Dynasty leagues, and some of these guys are. But really, I mean, anybody we haven't talked about on this show is probably safe to drop.
- [87:56]
Jeff Bell
It's safe to drop. I think Traylon Burks is still a little bit interesting because if we're talking about situations in him being in Washington, you could see. I mean, it's Dice Samuel. It is May. So like Antonio Williams has already become Amon Russia Nate Brown before he even hits the field. Traylon Burks could be that number two receiver in Washington. Other than that, anybody else in these lists? I just don't know that I see it.
- [88:28]
Dave Kluge
This is tough going this deep. Luckily, we got quarterbacks next week, tight ends the week after. We won't be going 150 plus deep on those shows. But, Jeff, any final thoughts here on wide receivers? My, my next hurting. I feel like I could retire soon after sitting upright in this chair this hour and a half.
- [88:47]
Jeff Bell
I mean, I'm glad that I didn't have another show that I had to run off to so that we were able to get to mentioning trailing Burks could be the wide receiver too, in Washington. But, you know, if, if that happens, then we'll forget about what show I said that on, but we could clip it.
- [89:04]
Dave Kluge
So you know what I want to say, Jeff? Here's how we'll end this show. Dynasty moves a lot faster than I think people realize.
- [89:11]
Jeff Bell
Yes.
- [89:12]
Dave Kluge
There are two guys that we didn't mention today that were the consensus dynasty wide receiver one in 2017. I'm sorry, 2019 and 2020. 2019. The consensus wide receiver one in dynasty was Michael Thomas. We didn't talk about him today. He hasn't played football in years. Going into 2020, the consensus wide receiver one in Dynasty, JuJu Smith Feaster. Another name that we didn't talk about is deep down on this list as a guy who is safe to drop. So, so, you know, we have, like, we talk all the time about, like, you know, projecting years out and all that. Like, you know, right now. Jamar Chase. Yeah, he is the consensus wide receiver one. And I'm not saying to drop Jamar Chase, but, like, it's just crazy to think, Jeff, that right now, in 2026, Jamar Chase, the wide receiver one. We could be doing the show five years from now. When we're talking now, we say Jamar Chase could still have 10 years of elite production under his belt, but who's to say that five years from now we aren't doing a show just like this? And Jamar Chase is at the very bottom of the tier. Like, the NFL moves quick, and it is a lot harder to predict than people realize. And I think that is my major takeaway, having done Dynasty, content with you for the last five, six years now is like, these things that we talk about, like, they are absolutes and truths. Then all of a sudden, you get five years away from those takes and you look back and you're like, what were we thinking?
- [90:26]
Jeff Bell
Think about it wasn't that long ago that there was a big argument between Jermaine Burton and Andre Yoshivas about who was going to be the heir apparent to Tyler Boyd. Tyler Boyd out of the league immediately it was Yoshivas. Hasn't mattered at all. At all. And yeah, so I mean that I think, but I think that that's it's great. It is great that we care passionately about these things because in reality we're probably looking for escape from things quite often when we do care passionately about these things and it does provide us with this escape, just recognize that it's the escape and don't need to take anything personally and probably it's not going to matter.
- [91:14]
Dave Kluge
Jeff, you want to talk about like wars that were had over the off season. It was just three years ago that we were talking about Jahan Dotson or Traylon Burks. Who do you want to take with the 107 in your rookie draft drafts? Two names that weren't mentioned on today's show until the very, very end. So yeah, these things do move a lot quicker than I think that we realize in the moment. And that's why every single year we have to do these same exercises of going through all the players, ranking them, bucketing them, looking at what they did, what they're going to do, new offensive situations. And it is that point of the off season where you get to hang out here and watch us make the sausage right here on The Football Guys YouTube channel talking through all this stuff. This isn't the time for like hard takes. This is Jeff and I just like vibing out talking through these situations as they come up. Next year we're doing or next week we're doing quarterbacks, then we're doing tight ends and then after that we're diving into our divisional breakdown. So really fun content planned here over the next couple of months over on The Football Guys YouTube channel. Whether you're watching on the Fantasy channel or the Dynasty channel, we appreciate you taking that time. As always. Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. If you made it to the end of the show really helps the show grow, grow and it just makes us feel good knowing that you know you like and enjoy the show that you are listening to. But thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you soon.
- [92:36]
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Dave Kluge
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Dave Kluge
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Dave Kluge
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