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The Herd with Colin Cowherd
FantasyPros - The ONLY Wide Receivers You Need in Your 2026 Fantasy Football Drafts | Round-By-Round Targets (Ep. 1988)
01:01:12
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- [00:00]
Ryan Wormley
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Jake Seely
This is Daniel Cormier from the Daniel Cormier Show. This podcast is sponsored by Total Wireless, the official wireless partner of ufc. Power doesn't wait in the octagon or outside of it. You either make the move or you miss the moment. That's why you need a network that's just as powerful as you are. With Total Wireless, you get unlimited 5G data keeping you in the action from
- [00:26]
Andrew Erickson
the walkouts to the knockouts.
- [00:28]
Jake Seely
Now that's a total power move. Make your total power move today. Visit totalwireless.com or stop by your neighborhood Total Wireless store.
- [00:36]
Andrew Erickson
Additional terms apply.
- [00:38]
Jake Seely
See totalwireless.com for details.
- [00:41]
Ryan Wormley
Hello, everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan, warmly joined by Andrew Erickson and Jake Seely from the Athletic. We are talking wide receivers to draft in every single round of your drafts, taking an early look at one of the backbone positions of your fantasy teams. Uh, there was a running backs version of this episode last week. We're now doing the wide receiver version of it here this week. Jake, before we jump in, what do you got going on at the Athletic? Any draft stuff this time of year?
- [01:08]
Jake Seely
It's been done. This is that time of year where it's like, hey, you sit back and be like, man, this is. I just wait for the draft like everybody else. So updated. The biggest movers from free agency in the ranks, which is fun because we're talking. We're actually talking about a lot of them on these shows when we did the running back show, but other than that, yeah, the smash up rookie comparisons that I love to do, even if nobody else does, has been out for a few weeks. I got done early this year. I gave myself too much leeway in this off season, which is good, because things like what Andrew wanted to talk about at the top of the show is I'm beyond excited about, and I don't know what the hell you were doing that you weren't paying attention to this, because I don't know how you missed it. I'm so glad that Andrew brought it up.
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Ryan Wormley
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll just let you take it away. Erickson.
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Andrew Erickson
Worm. Did you not grow up with video games in your life, man? Like no Legend of Zelda. Never heard of what's a Star Fox? I mean, the fans have been clamoring for anything Star Fox related for years and years and years since they put out that atrocity, which was Star Fox zero. Oh, my God.
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Ryan Wormley
Yeah.
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Andrew Erickson
A total zero of a game. That's What? It was so. Yeah. Come on. Come on.
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Ryan Wormley
My only familiarity with Star Fox was in Super Smash Brothers. Yes. And you know, you could play it like the. The castle from Zelda was like a map you could play at. And like so. So in. In that point of view, like perspective,
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Jake Seely
you have zero Zelda experience.
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Ryan Wormley
I. I have played zero minutes of Zelda in my entire life. I. I had a game.
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Jake Seely
I thought the Taco Bell and the other stuff were issues with you, but holy.
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Ryan Wormley
I wasn't. I wasn't really allowed to do a lot of video games growing up just from my parents that, you know, they're very stereotypical. Like it's going to rot your brain, all that stuff. So I only ever played video games at friends houses. The one kind of game system I was allowed to have growing up was a Game Boy. But I was only. It's not that I was only allowed to. I only wanted to play Pokemon. I was all in on like Pokemon Yellow version is one I had. I loved playing that on the Game Boy would last for hours. I just never once even bothered to try Zelda or had it offered to me in any way directly.
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Jake Seely
This like they are rereleasing. Arguably. I actually have a 1A. 1B I linked to the past is my favorite. Ocarina of time is like 1B to 1A. I know ocarina of Time is everybody's favorite. Like I'm just slightly different again generation when you grew up. But dude, when this gets re released, you just go play this please. Like I'm assuming you have a switch, right? Like that's why like no, you don't even have a switch. I don't even know actually. I didn't even play Pokemon outside of stadium. But I played Za. I've actually been playing Za. So there you can reference on that one there. Like for Worm in his sheltered life. I thought I was sheltered. I wasn't allowed to watch he man growing up because the power of Grayskull, like so I thought I was sheltered.
- [03:53]
Ryan Wormley
I did get to play sports video games. So like I had. I had like Backyard Baseball 2001 is like maybe my most played computer game of all time.
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Jake Seely
That's redeeming you a little bit that
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Ryan Wormley
that was a big one for me. I had like mad in 06 and 08 by that point. I was getting to like middle school, high school. So. Yeah, but Eric's in your log.
- [04:11]
Andrew Erickson
So I logged so many hours in backyard baseball and I don't even know if I had the actual game. I got the Game or a CD ROM with. In a cereal box.
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Ryan Wormley
Yeah.
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Andrew Erickson
Where you got like a thousand free hours of backyard baseball. And I just constantly played and I was like a thousand hours. That's basically like forever. Like, like when you're a kid, like, you see that number and you think this is infinite amount of time. So I never actually had the real name.
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Ryan Wormley
The game of backyard baseball. And we'll get to the show quickly here. The game of backyard baseball that I had, you could do like little previews of like, it was like putt putt travels through time and pajama Sam and these other ones. But it also had a little preview of backyard football, which was really fun. But I could only play like a two minute game over and over again. I couldn't actually do the whole game. So it's kind of like sort of like limitation there that they gave you. And I never owned the full game. But yeah, backyard baseball. I had backyard basketball, backyard hockey. The backyard sports franchise is like goated. It's one of the.
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Jake Seely
I almost bought just for. It would have been such a waste of money. They came out with the bats for base. Backyard baseball. I almost bought the Pablo Sanchez bat and I'm just like, what am I going to do with this? Like it's. It was 300 doll. Like, no, this is.
- [05:19]
Ryan Wormley
That's so worth it. All right, well, let's talk steals. Let's try and identify some players here that we're going to find as good values in every round of your draft. We're looking at wide receivers, like I said. Thanks everybody for bearing with us at the beginning of the show. All of our 20, 26 consensus rankings and tiers can be found at fantasypros.com rankings. Those are already getting updated for the season. Even though it's still several months away, it moves quickly. We will be there in no time. And talking, you know, actual drafts here very, very soon. Much sooner than you think. So be checking out those rankings now. Update throughout the off season. We're going to go round by round. You guys are going to alternate. You each have taken six rounds. We're going to go through 12 total. We'll start off right at the very top in round one. Erickson, who is the wide receiver that
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Andrew Erickson
you are Targeting in round one, going with Justin Jefferson. He is the wide receiver. Six in terms of the ECR rank, 11th overall. I have him as my wide receiver. Five because I'm confident or more confident in the quarterback play for Minnesota this year than what we saw last year because I think that we all collectively need to do what happens in Men in Black, where you have the neural neuralizer right where you look at it, you completely forget what, what happened. And that's what we need to do with what we saw with Justin Jefferson playing with J.J. mcCarthy last year. I want to erase it from my mind because I don't think there's a scenario or it's the last ditch effort for the Minnesota Vikings that we're going to see that scenario play out again where McCarthy is the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, it's going to be Kyler Murray. And if Kyler Murray doesn't work out well, they brought back Carson Wentz. And five games with Carson Wentz last year, Justin Jefferson averaged 95 receiving yards per game, but he scored zero touchdowns. So although the Fantasy splits aren't super, super strong, the yardage is there. That's more predictive of the talent of Justin Jefferson. He's still a top five guy, if not a top three player. He's never finished worse than Fantasy's wide receiver six in a full season, despite the efforts from last year. Right. That was the one year last year looks like such an outlier. When you look at Jefferson's collective body of work as an NFL wide receiver and we didn't have a veteran quarterback, that's when he suffered the most with basically a glorified rookie in JD McCarthy last year in his 10 start. So I think that he is a round one layup where if you're picking at the end of round one, Justin Jefferson I think is a absolute great pick.
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Ryan Wormley
I wanted to ask specifically with Kyler, like, not that Marvin Harrison Jr. Is the player that Justin Jefferson is, but like we've seen like the prototypical ex receiver, like not click very well with Kyler, given the way Kyler plays the position. So I know, I know, like in a vacuum, it's just like, hey, this, whoever this person is, if it's not JJ McCarthy, this is just a massive step up from what Jefferson had last year. Do you have any concerns about Kyler being a good fit for Jefferson in Fantasy and just the way he plays the position?
- [08:10]
Andrew Erickson
I think there are some concerns with it, but it's also such a bigger improvement, I think, from McCarthy, where I'm willing to take on that risk. And Marvin Harrison Jr. Obviously didn't work out with Kyler Murray, but you know who did? DeAndre Hopkins, a established veteran who had put up big fantasy numbers before. So when you're making the comparison of who is Justin Jefferson more like, is he more like a veteran DeAndre Hopkins still operating at the peak of his powers, or Marvin Harrison Jr. Who was entering the NFL as a rookie in second season where the first year it was Kyler Murray. What does he say in the first thing after the first game Marvin Harrison Jr.
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Ryan Wormley
Played?
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Andrew Erickson
It's not my job to get the ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. Kyler Murray said that. Do you think he's saying that in Minnesota? I I think that he realizes my job is to get the ball to Justin Jefferson because I want to get paid. I want to get a contract extension with another team if it's not Minnesot. So look, Kyler Murray's been humbled, I think in terms of getting cut from the Arizona Cardinals. They got rid of him after they paid him. He has to show up in Minnesota and I think that he's going to be put in a position to do so with the weapons he has. And I think it's just simple as hey, pitch and catch was Justin Jefferson. I think he can get it done. So that's why I like Jefferson as a end of round one pick Jake
- [09:25]
Ryan Wormley
in this range at the end of round one, if you look at the overall, you know, updated rankings, Jefferson's the only wide receiver amongst the last four picks in the first round. It's Jonathan Taylor, James Cook, Justin Jefferson, Devon Achan. Do you like going with a receiver here or would you rather take one of these running backs if you're picking at the end of the first round?
- [09:44]
Jake Seely
Both. Why not both? GIF because it's funny, I actually have Jefferson at 12, the very last pick of the first round. I wouldn't mind if it ends up like maybe CD Lamb slides back and because people are concerned that Pickens had such a good year or maybe I'm trying to think who else might be there wide receiver wise, but oh my pick you could reach if you want to make sure you get him in the second round. When we talk about I don't mind going wide receiver, wide receiver, but I think you'll have the opportunity to be able to do both like a Jefferson, Gen D Jefferson, a chance, something like that. Even Jefferson Hampton at the turn, I think you're setting yourself up with a very high end wide receiver. They're both tier twos actually, the running backs that I'm bringing up and Justin Jefferson is in tier 2 for me of the wide receivers because it's such a small tier one with Smith and Jigba, Puka Nakua and Jamar Chase. So you're getting two elite tier 2 options at the turn, and I wouldn't have a problem doing that. And I'm glad that Erickson brought up Hopkins because that was going to be my point. He was top five in 2020 with Kyler Murray. And to be fair, Marvin Harrison was still top 30. It wasn't miserable. I think a lot of it was the expectation of Marvin Harrison as a whole, too.
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Ryan Wormley
Yeah. Jake, you mentioned your player here in round two, somebody you might even be willing to reach for early in the round. Let's get to that player. Now. Who are you taking in round two amongst the receivers?
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Jake Seely
Yeah, I'm a top 20 overall. It's Chris Olave. And really Chris Olave, similar to a lot of Ohio State wide receivers we kind of caught in this. They're just so good. We get tired of them in college and then look for other options. Or we see them in the NFL and they produce so well. It's just like, well, you know, it's cool. They're kind of boring or whatever it might be. But we were waiting for Chris Olave to put the touchdowns to it. And if you look at it with Tyler Schook took over in week eight. Chris Olave, why was your five in fantasy points per game at 15.1, 15.1. And that same time he was top 10 in team target percentage. Top 10 when I bring this up, because it's a bad one. But he's top 10 in off target percentage. And the fact that Shook was still off target, like he was actually almost twice as much or actually twice as frequently off target than Spencer Rattler. But it's the way that Shook plays with Olave. It's the downfield attempts, it's the yards per target, touchdown percentage, air yards, reception is 20 plus. Like, every single stat that we want for fantasy purposes with our quarterbacks was markedly better than it was with Rattler. And if you look at Alaven, the area per target kind of go back to his first two years and then the offset of that of like, okay, well, he had that added on with Shook. And what was the big difference is the touchdowns added. I know they're talking about whether or not they're drafting a wide receiver because there's still a void really next to a lave, but a lava is so good that I'm not concerned about it. This is one of those arguments where you could see it's kind of like the chicken and egg of like, oh, a better talent next to him might take some of the targets away. And then you go, well, the better target next to him Might free him more. I don't care which way it goes. Chris Olave with Tyler Schuck is one of the better connections we saw in the second half of the season. And that was Shook's first attempt in the NFL playing. I know he's an old rookie, but first he was still rookie first attempt in the NFL for half of the season and the connections immediately there in the ways that we want to see it. So round two sign me up for Olave all day long.
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Ryan Wormley
Erickson Olave, you know, late round two like 23rd overall wide receiver 11 if draft, you know, kind of order were to hold exactly based on ECR right now that would mean pairing him with a first round pick of like Jameer Gibbs. Do you like the idea of going with, you know, one of these elite running backs early in round one and then Olave late in round two?
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Andrew Erickson
Love is not my favorite wide receiver in that range. There's a couple guys I prefer a little bit more which is why I'm a little bit lower than Olave compared to Jake and the ECR because I want to see how things shake out in Philly. I think that you could make an argument Devontae Smith without A.J. brown and Eagles offense. I think I might prefer him over Olave. I also like Zay Flowers more than Chris Olave, so I think that he's fine where he's priced but I still think that shuck older prospect entering. I do have concerns about what his ceiling is like can he get an extra gear with this in the Kellenmore offense. So that's kind of where I get concerned. But I understand the thesis of the playoff. But yep, stacking together your favorite wide receiver, whether it is Olave, again, I like Flowers with a running back I think makes a lot of sense.
- [14:02]
Ryan Wormley
Do you like that that pairing that I threw out Jake in terms of like one of those elite running backs early in a lot of. Or would you rather even be interested in something like like if you took Puka early in round one and then pairing him with Olave, just getting two receivers off the bat, what kind of start would you prefer if you're getting a lave in round two?
- [14:17]
Jake Seely
I mean if we're talking video games and we can put like the overlay on my eyes, I don't know if you saw it, but my eyes like lit up with the sparkles. Like if you put the stars going through it like a hundred thousand percent, I would be all over that. If I could get Puka in a lava to start and start with my running back. Round three, by the way, when we did that show and then throwing Derek Henry in round three, which is still absurd. Like please. And Gibbs and him Bijan in it. Like, sign me up for that to start. Like give me that start right now. Like just give it to me and I will take it all day long.
- [14:45]
Ryan Wormley
We're talking ECR and personal fantasy rankings on this show, but if you want real world discussions on the NFL, it's time to subscribe to the Tailgate on YouTube or follow the Tailgate podcast wherever you listen to pods. The Tailgate isn't a fantasy channel. We'll go beyond the box score to cover the NFL draft, the roster moves that actually move the needle both on offense and defense, and the big picture NFL stories that define the league. So come out of the fantasy war room and park it here on the Tailgate for the news takes and the real world football talk you won't hear on a fantasy show. Just search Tailgate NFL channel on YouTube and hit subscribe or find the Tailgate on your favorite podcast app. Let's go to round three here, guys. Erickson, what receiver are you looking at here?
- [15:26]
Andrew Erickson
Looking at Rashi Rice. He is the wide receiver 12 in the ECR. I have him as wide receiver 10. And it's just kind of betting on the range of outcomes for Rashi Rice going in your favor where there's a scenario where he doesn't get suspended. Patrick Mahomes looks better coming off of his torn ACL and he drastically beats wide receiver 12 ECR because last year he was a top 5 wide receiver points per game during his truncated season. I mean, he was a red zone monster. He was seventh overall in red zone targets and he played eight games. So I understand why the Rice ranking is what it is because there's concern about, well, will they get suspended? What's Mahomes going to look like coming off of his ACL injury? Well, at least from the suspension perspective, I know that Drew Davenport does a lot of great work when it comes to the legalities of players and potential suspensions. And everything that he has suggested has said that it's probably going to be something that is 2027. And at that point Roshi Rice is going to be a free agent and it's not going to be the chief's problem because he may not even be on the team. So Kansas City, I think is going to try to push this. Like basically what happens with most of these players is everything just gets pushed another year later. So I think that Rice Right now is a value where he's going. Because if you look up in week one, Mahomes is starting, Rashi Rice is out there. He's not suspended, then I think he's going to drastically beat this. ECR rank at wide receiver 12 obviously does come with a ton of risks because there's a chance it doesn't work out. But in round three, I want to shoot for some upside here, and I think Rice has that, especially based on he's not coming off an injury anymore like he was last year. And I mean, top five points per game.
- [17:04]
Ryan Wormley
Jake, I feel like, like I'm not going to blame anybody who is just says, like, listen, round three, it's too much risk. I'm. I'm not going to be the guy to take that swing on Rice. If he was like a round five or six player, then, yeah, you. There's such clear upside. Like, of course you want to take a swing, but go. And he's 26th overall. So, like very early in round three, if anybody just stares at that and says, I just. I need to let somebody else be the one to take that risk on him, I won't blame them. How do you feel about Rice right now?
- [17:31]
Jake Seely
Right now, completely different. Only because, I mean, you said 26th overall. That's around where I have wide receiver. Just because if I'm drafting today, like, I'll take Jalen Waddle even in Denver, I'll take Jameson Williams and Terry McLaurin or Roman Dunes. Like, I just, I will take people that I know are playing in week one and I know their quarterback is playing in week one. I don't disagree with anything that Andrea said. It's just we are talking now in March. We're way out from almost April depending on when you're watching this. It's way off in the future of whether or not he is suspended multiple. So I know, like, it could be cleared, but I mean, this is not the first time he's been in trouble. Is Patrick Mahomes healthy for week one? Is Patrick Mahomes even 100% for week one? Just a lot of questions. If we knew both he's not suspended and we knew Patrick Mahomes was even 90% for Week 1 and 100% by the end of September? 100%. Andrew's right. He's a wide receiver one. It's just as of today. I wouldn't take that risk in March and April.
- [18:24]
Ryan Wormley
Right now, I think I'd rather have Tetarol McMillan, who's also around 3 pick in early ECR. Do you agree with that, Jake? Or would you rather have rice over the second year receiver?
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Jake Seely
Oh, yeah. That's like 12 spots in front of him. My next guy is in front of him. It's just again, it's because we're talking today. It's nothing that Andrew said I disagree with. Unlike some of the other things like the Zay Flowers take. But this one, it just. It's 100% as of today.
- [18:50]
Ryan Wormley
I know every time the three of us do a show, I feel like we always have to have an argument about Z Flowers. Flowers.
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Jake Seely
It's a given.
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Ryan Wormley
Well, I. I did want to ask Ericson because you. You mentioned his name earlier. He's obviously not in. In this ecr, not until round four. Would you rather have Zay or Rishi Rice today?
- [19:08]
Andrew Erickson
Today, probably Z Flowers. Then I guess you have to express some type of conservative approach with Rice. I guess for me, it's kind of my best ball mind where I'm thinking just go big or go home.
- [19:21]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah.
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Andrew Erickson
And Rice, every time you do a best ball draft or any of this draft, who's always at the top of the queue and always falls is Rashi Rice. Right. Every single time. So there are ways where you can get him where he does fall into round four because there's just so much ambiguity. But I think by the time. I guess I'm just based on the information that we have now, I do think it's more likely that he isn't actually suspended and that Mahomes does come back. I don't want to bet against Patrick Mahomes. He is one of these players, that super special athlete that I think that he's going to come back and Maybe not look 100%, but the way that he attacks everything, the way that he's attacking his rehab, he's probably rehabbing right now. I. I'm just very confident that he's going to come back and at least be able to feature and fuel Rice to success.
- [20:07]
Ryan Wormley
You would think if he's limited to that, Rice is the type of player that would be really helpful to him coming back from the injury and, you know, make plays after the catch and things like that. So. Would seem to be a good fit for what you would expect out of an early return from injury. Patrick Mahomes. Let's go to round four. Jake, who's your receiver here?
- [20:25]
Jake Seely
Yeah, this one is definitely as of today too, because as we were getting ready for this yesterday, a little rumor floated out that the team might be considering trading him, which was kind of weird to see, especially when they were originally going after wide receivers. But in any case, devonte Adams is a Ram as of today. Devonte Adams for the Rams last year, by the way, through Week 15, three more touchdowns than any other player, wide receiver or tight end. Through week 16, three more. 17, three more. 18, three more. Why I say that because week 15 is when he left and didn't play for the rest of the season until the playoffs and he still finished with three more than anybody. But here's the best part about it. Only McBride and Iman Ross St. Brown had more red zone targets than him. Again missed the final three games. He had 31. They had 32 and 34. But I want to take that a step further because he had 28 end zone targets. The next closest again, despite missing those three games is 18. He had 10 more than anybody else in three fewer games. That's Pickens and McBride that had 18. He had 28 end zone targets. He is Matthew Stafford go to in the red zone, especially end zone.
- [21:34]
Andrew Erickson
And.
- [21:35]
Jake Seely
And as long as they're all back together next year, there's no reason he can't finish as a wide receiver one again. But the best part about that is you don't have to take that risk. You don't have to take him as a wide receiver too at the high end. You get them all the way in round four in the mid tier of wide receiver twos. I don't know if maybe that's the concern that we have some of these rankings that maybe were done before we KNEW Stafford was 100% coming back. Maybe before we knew 100% that these rumors and the trade and all that type of stuff. But in any case, there's no reason that I see Devonte Adams isn't a back end wide receiver one with this team back together.
- [22:09]
Ryan Wormley
Erickson, I feel like every summer I hear you talk about red zone targets when discussing receivers in fantasy more than anyone. Does that mean that you would agree here with Jake in. In being excited about Tomato, who by the way, technically in ECR is 36th overall. So right at the end of round three, you could call it at the top around four hours.
- [22:26]
Jake Seely
It was 37 when I pulled it up. I want to be.
- [22:28]
Ryan Wormley
I know, I know. So I just want to throw it out there so people, if they win.
- [22:31]
Jake Seely
And look, I got in somebody's ear apparently.
- [22:34]
Ryan Wormley
Yes. But yeah, wide receiver 17, 36 overall technically right now, but was at the top around for when we put this together. Erickson, what do you think?
- [22:42]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah, I don't like devonte Adams next year. So this is where I You don't like touchdowns. I very much disagree. I don't like touchdowns. I don't like touchdowns. So there. Here's my issue with devonte Adams. From the efficiency standpoint, he showed a lot of signs of decline. Career low catch rate, career loan yards out to the catch. He's turning 33. He also missed time again. He was still producing before that, but missed time to a lower body injury. I don't think that that improves as a player gets older. So to me, especially with the rumors again, trade, what have you not, I think that he's still probably going to be on the Rams, but I think they're going to draft a wide receiver pretty high. You look at a lot of the mock drafts, it's Makai Lemon to the Rams. It's Jordan Tyson to the Rams. Okay, now you're adding in a third pass catcher to go along with the 12,000 tight ends that the Rams like to deploy. They're going to be introducing 14 personnel, which I didn't even know was a thing. They're going to have a million tight ends on the field. And the thing with me of him replicating touchdowns, Adams has always been a touchdown guy. Whether it was with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay or New York and even with the Las Vegas Raiders. He's always been a super present force in the red zone. Is Matthew Stafford going to throw as many touchdowns he did last year when he won the MVP? I think that last year McVeigh was making it a focal point like we want to get Stafford the mvp. We're jamming targets to demonte Adams in the red zone to make sure he gets the mvp. I don't know if that's the case here where it's more about we just need to keep Matthew Stafford healthy throughout the season and we know we can make a run at the super bowl. So I think that might cause a reduction. So if he goes from 15 scores to eight touchdowns again, it's still a good amount, but that's half of the touchdowns basically he scored from a year prior. Now also layering all the efficiency marks that fell off and maybe additional competition in the form of a new wide receiver. So he's probably the reason he's so low in ECR is probably because of me because I have him pretty buried. I'm not drafting devonte Adams because I have more concerns about him just not being able to replicate last year's production.
- [24:46]
Ryan Wormley
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Jake Seely
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Andrew Erickson
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Ryan Wormley
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- [26:04]
Jake Seely
with it gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting.
- [27:46]
Ryan Wormley
All linked and talking to each other.
- [27:49]
Jake Seely
Check out Odoo at o d o o.com that's o d o o.com Guys,
- [27:55]
Ryan Wormley
we've had a lot of disagreements so far on the show. I love it. Very fun this time of year to already be arguing about players. Let's go to round five. Ericsson, who is your receiver?
- [28:06]
Andrew Erickson
Death tac is death taxes and me liking Jalen Waddle in fantasy football. We're gonna run it back one more time. So Waddle for me is my value here. He is in the ECR. Wide receiver 24. I have him. Wide receiver 20 and when he first got traded to Denver, I kind of was not exactly sure how I felt about it, whether it was like a major upgrade or major downgrade. But then as I kind of like let my thoughts kind of fester a little bit more about how this is really good for Jalen Waddle. It just comes to the point where, okay, he's in an offense that is going to throw the ball significantly more than they were doing in Miami last year and what Miami forecasts to do this season. So even though he may not be as clear cut as the number one alpha wide receiver in Miami's offense versus The Broncos offense, who just have a lot of mouths to feed. Sean Payton loves to feature different players and have limited route participation for some of these wide outs, I do think that that just the fact that they throw so much more is actually going to benefit Jalen Waddle. So I think that he could still see a good chunk of volume in the Broncos offense and he wins with efficiency. Jalen Waddle has been one of the most super efficient wide receivers in the NFL. Last year, despite the limited volume, he was still 13th in yards per outrun, ninth in PFF receiving grade. He's only 27 years old, so still young. And he's out of the shadow of Tyree Kill Kill. I mean, part of the reason why he hasn't popped off more is because he's been competing for targets with an elite level player in Tyree Kill when he was healthy. So we've seen a pretty large sample size of Jalen Waddle operate without Tyree Kill. Just whether it's because Hill was limited, obviously he missed some games last year and at the beginning of the year when they were throwing the ball a little bit more before they just kind of really limited to a. As a passer, Waddle was averaging 68 receiving yards per game. He topped 82 yards in 511 games in 2025 average 7 plus targets per game. And then I also came to the idea that I think Cortland sun is really starting to lose that alpha in his game. Because last year we saw Troy Franklin see more usage than Cortland Sutton in this Denver Broncos offense, and Troy Franklin didn't take nearly as full advantage of it like he should. Have you looked at targets? We were having conversations, I remember on the weekly rank show of, well, who is the Denver Broncos number one wide receiver? And when it just came to, like, raw volume, Troy Franklin was actually seeing a ton of more volume than Cortland Sutton was at times. So if we're now shifting those types of usage to Jalen Waddle, who's super efficient, I think that you could really see him pop off here and have a top 15 type of finish. So where you're getting him as a wide receiver too, for a player that we know is super talented, gets a quarterback upgrade, offensive environment upgrade, and there's concerns about, well, there's too many mouths to feed. I like buying into him having a big season, so I really like Jalen Waddle where he's going as a value.
- [30:56]
Ryan Wormley
Ericsson, you said a lot of really smart things there and it's a compelling case. But at the same time, I. All I'm hearing is one of the more frustrating receivers in fantasy that you have like gotten to the mat for multiple times now paired with maybe the most frustrating play caller for fantasy managers.
- [31:13]
Andrew Erickson
No, but he's not. He's not calling plays anymore. That's true.
- [31:16]
Ryan Wormley
That's. That's a.
- [31:17]
Andrew Erickson
So that could be like, that could be our saving grace where it's Davis play call.
- [31:21]
Ryan Wormley
It's a Great Catter. But. But at first glance what I hear is a Sean Payton offense at Jaylen Waddle and a top 50 pick and it's just hard for me to feel confident in that. It's a good point about Peyton nut college plays. Jake, you mentioned Waddle earlier when we were talking about Rishi Rice as like a comparison. Was that because you like Waddle or were using him as an example to show how much you dislike Rice?
- [31:41]
Jake Seely
It was more the Rice side of things because like for everybody on the podcast you're not go check the video. But like I felt like doing that gif where I'm that guy and just like standing here behind the wall getting ready to jump in on this one because Erickson comes for Adams and yet we want to argue for a quarterback that threw 21 fewer touchdowns than Matthew Stafford. So even if Stafford takes a downtick, we're trying to get Bo Nix to uptick that far. By the way, Waddle's best season year two in touchdowns receiving is what he wanted to give Devonte Adams this year is 8. By the way, the next part about it, how about the fact that Waddle has only surpassed devonte Adams worst fantasy points. Worst fantasy points since he took over as a full time starter in year three. He's only surpassed that once and you're talking about Devonte Adams and being hurt. Jalen Wattle's hurt every damn year and it's soft tissue continually soft tissue. He's turning into Julio Jones. Where does he even finish the game or is he back on the sideline? All that being said, I don't hate it that much Erickson as I just came for you on that one. I have him in the next round and I would take him in the next round a lot of times alongside if my other option is already gone. That I don't to want giveaway just yet. So I don't hate the pick, I just hate the fact that he just came for devonte Adams. I want to support Jalen Waddle this much. That's all I'm saying.
- [32:56]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, and I would say like even to the point about like Bo Nixon, like how many more touchdowns behind Staffordy was like it's gonna be an upgrade on the last couple years of TUA for sure. Like at the very minimum even if.
- [33:08]
Jake Seely
Oh no question about it.
- [33:09]
Ryan Wormley
You said just yeah like it it's
- [33:11]
Jake Seely
if it was the Broncos. No Sutton, 100% like two rounds earlier. But and I actually that's one where I do agree with Erickson is I think that Sutton is kind of passing the point of being that clear he is the number one. I argued that Jalen Waddle saw an uptick for that column. I was talking about the biggest 10 risers in my, in my ranks. Jalen Waddle was one of them because I'd actually prefer him as the 1B to Sutton or the 1A. Like they're going to share very closely throughout the entire year. I prefer him in this situation than Malik Willis and hopefully being able to do something throwing only to Waddle and nobody else. And I know people will argue for the targets there. I just think it's going to be coming better from this offense with Bo Nick. So I do agree with Erickson in some ways. I'm just not going to go to like as you referenced to go to the mat. I'm not going to go to the mat for somebody who can't stay from messing up his legs every single year at this point. It's so frustrating. I actually hope he's right and finally we get the Waddle we saw in year two of his career.
- [34:08]
Ryan Wormley
Career and. And just confirming based on what you guys have said like Sutton is the 63rd overall player. You would rather have Waddle at 50 than Sutton at 63?
- [34:17]
Jake Seely
I have him back to back.
- [34:18]
Ryan Wormley
Oh yeah.
- [34:19]
Jake Seely
I think. I think Erickson's got a bigger gap than I do, but I have him back to back.
- [34:23]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah, yeah, I would rather have Waddle. I have concerns about the way that the offense operated last year where Sutton wasn't dominating as the alpha. Like there were times where he would come back and have productive games but. But a little bit more touchdown dependent and to the point with Waddle in terms of his touchdown upside. Last year The Broncos had two receivers ranked inside the top 12 in red zone targets. Troy Franklin and Corton Sutton were both top 12 guys. So part of Jalen Waddle and why he hasn't scored touchdowns. Look at his red zone targets. They're non existent in Miami. He never has been a red zone guy. Does that shift? Especially with. Okay, I'm not really concerned about Troy Franklin having a big role in this offense. If Waddle can take on those red zone targets, those two point conversion attempts, then I could see him having a career year in terms of touchdown receptions.
- [35:11]
Jake Seely
My biggest issue with this. Sorry, warmer. I was going to say my biggest issue in this round is I would just take a Buca all day long around five. That's all. That's really what it comes down to as well.
- [35:21]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah.
- [35:22]
Ryan Wormley
Buka is wide receiver 27 I like the buka.
- [35:24]
Andrew Erickson
This was probably again delayer on another thing when talking about round five. I liked a lot of the wide receivers here. Tougher one, whether it's so devonte Smith Egbuca, like Jake said, Mike Evans I think is going to be productive till his hamstring falls off the bone. Christian Watts, like, like there are a lot of good wide receiver options here. So if you're waiting on wide receiver a little bit, round five is a good area to strike. Yeah, yeah.
- [35:50]
Ryan Wormley
Round six, Jake.
- [35:52]
Jake Seely
And you could do it around six too because there's a lot of options. And then one of my favorites and this is, this is going to change and I feel like, like I said, a lot of people might have updated their rankings since the trade happened, but DJ Moore around 6 is criminal. And I feel like this is going to be one of the ones where I haven't gone to the mat that much. I used to be the J.J. moore hater at the beginning of his career because I would always rank him right around wide receiver 18 because it's like he's going to finish as a top 10 wide receiver or 37th every single week. Like just don't try to predict him, rank him as a wide receiver too. And that's okay. Back when he was with the Panthers and then everybody called me the hater but like I'm out. I've come full around because he's going to the Bills. He's going to the Bills. By the way, coming from two years ago with Justin and Tyson Badgeant. By the way, he was wide receiver 7 and wide receiver 11 of fantasy points per game at 14.1 he had 1300 plus yards and 8 touchdowns. He would have been wide receiver 7 in fantasy points per game last year. That's how wide receivers kind of fell off last year and that we had that real top tier and then a lot of that mix of inconsistency. But the biggest part about it is that he's going to a team that has needed the number one. Hasn't seen Josh Allen throw over 100 targets. Hasn't happened since he has Stefon Diggs in 2023 when he threw to him 160 times. And I don't need him throwing to Stefon Diggs to DJ Moore to see the 160 targets just treated as his number one. Diggs that year had 28/ish team percentage of the targets 29.4. By the way, for DJ Moore last year, despite the fact that he saw all that share and that's what I like also is that we saw DJ Moore last year used more in the slot than we had previously where Stefon Diggs was used almost the exact same percentage back in 2023 with the Bills. And that role that he's going to fill and the highest air yards per target since the Panthers is actually surprisingly last year from that role for DJ Moore, which is what he's going to be able to replicate for the Bills. We've been wanting the Bills to do this for how long since they lost Stefon Diggs basically the past two years. What are they trying to do? Make Josh Allen rise the talent of or raise the talent of all the wide receivers. They just got their number one. And I know everybody hates DJ Moore at this point and are frustrated with the Bears and everything like but no DJ Moore and the Bills is a completely different wide receiver just like we saw two years ago or with the Panthers or did Stefan Diggs with the Bills. So round six again criminal. He should be round four by the time we're drafting.
- [38:14]
Ryan Wormley
I I really do like a lot of these receivers in round six. I I I if rankings were to hold between now and August, like I can guarantee I'll be a drafting receiver in this range. Dj Moore, you know, Roma Dunes, they I quite like in round six. Even DK Metcalf, Cardell Tate like the fir a guy who's probably gonna be a top 10 pick as a rookie, you know, receiver, those guys tend to outperform expectation. Like I we'll see what the landing spot is for him. But like there's just a lot of names that I really like here in round six. Erickson, what do you think about DJ Moore who's you know, played for Joe Brady before when he was in Carolina.
- [38:46]
Jake Seely
He handsome?
- [38:47]
Andrew Erickson
I think he's, he's the textbook version of draft day value. You DJ Moore, we have some agreement. That's exactly how I feel about him. He's a great real life fit with what Josh Allen does well as a passer. He's a real great fit with what the Bills need offensively like Jake laid out. So I understand with more people get bored. Last year was a disaster but we kind of saw it coming a little bit where Ben Johnson immediately drafts two pass catchers with his first two picks and I am the king now. Now I'm moving on from DJ Moore and more. Still had games where when Odunze missed time, DJ Moore still came up big. So I don't think that DJ Moore doesn't have anything left in the tank. So I'm not really going to hold last year against him. When the coaching staff was trying to get these young guys on the field, we knew the writing was on the wall that DJ Moore is not long term in Chicago, so weren't surprised when he got traded. The Buffalo Bills was probably one of the best landing spots for him. The Stefan Diggs comparisons. Well, Diggs also in his final elite season with Buffalo before things kind of fell off the rails in the second half of his last year, he was 29 years old, same as DJ Moore, and that was his last elite season with the Buffalo Bills. He knows Joe Brady's offense. So look, six of seven seasons he's been wide receiver 22 or better. Six of seven, that's a really strong hit rate. And where is he going? Wide receiver 32. Right.
- [40:10]
Ryan Wormley
Like he was wide receiver 32 last year in this worst case scenario. And he's going the same place here despite being a better situation. That's yeah.
- [40:18]
Andrew Erickson
So I always try to look at players sometimes from the exercise of will this guy beat his ADP or beat his ECR ranking. And I think it's as simple as that with D.J. moore. Maybe he doesn't finish top five because Joe Brady refuses to have a wide receiver one. I could see that negative argument against D.J. moore, but oh no, he only finished as wide receiver 15 and I got him outside the top 30 receivers. You're gonna feel good about that, especially getting him in rounds even if he's
- [40:44]
Ryan Wormley
not a league winner. I find it very hard to believe he's not going to outperform this value. That's like the simplest way to put it. I want to let everybody know that they can join our Fantasy Pros Discord community chat with other fans to get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Our current schedule looks like this. Myself and Fitz at 5 Eastern on the first Tuesday of every month. Month. Then Bogman and Fitz at 5 Eastern on the third Tuesday of every month. Talking a lot of dynasty on those AMAs. Come get your questions answered and be on the show@fantasypros.com chat all right, guys, we're halfway through. We'll go a little quicker in the back half here. Round seven. Erickson, what do you have for us?
- [41:20]
Andrew Erickson
I'll go a little quicker, but not on this guy because I think this player deserves a long conversation. Marvin Harrison Jr. He is wide receiver 33 and I didn't think I was going to be coming to the mat for mhj But I believe Jake thought that he was very undervalued as well. So correct me if I'm wrong, 100
- [41:39]
Jake Seely
agree with this one.
- [41:40]
Andrew Erickson
And we said that on an earlier show earlier this off season and I got to thinking about it more and I started moving him up my rankings little by little. And then as I looked more at it, man, wide receiver 33 is just way too cheap for this player. Entering his third season last year, Marvin Harrison Jr. Was a big disappointment, also a big disappointment his rookie year. But now he's the cheapest he's ever been going in round seven. And I think a lot of what last year was because of the injuries. This guy got hit with everything that you could imagine when it comes to injuries. Concussion in week six, appendectomy in November, heel injury in week 13, foot injury in week 17. So he never got the benefit of the Jacoby Brissette 60 dropbacks per game because he was constantly banged up up. And I can't ignore the facts that Michael Wilson yes turned into Jerry Rice when Marvin Harrison Jr. Was out of the lineup, but he also turned into Casper When Marvin Harrison Jr. Was playing in those games, he had a 29 target rate per outrun. When Marvin Harrison Jr. Was not playing six, he basically missed a total of six games. I know one of the games he played like a couple snaps and then left the game. But when he played with Marvin Harrison Jr. 12% target rate per hour run. Basically a non factor. So I'm not convinced that Michael Wilson really is a thorn in the side of Marvin Harrison Jr. I think that Harrison Jr. Is the better wide receiver. I think that under a new coaching staff we should be open to the idea that they can use Marvin Harrison Jr. In a better way where they can take advantage of what he does well and put him in a position to succeed. The Michael Wilson numbers kind of paint a picture of okay, what's the upside of a number one wide receiver in a Cardinals offense led by Jacoby Brissett that okay, it's top five fantasy numbers. So I think Harrison Jr. Has a really high ceiling based on the talent profile. Year three breakouts still happen. Quentin Johnson last year. Kayshawn Booty. Year 3 breakout like this still happens. I think that Marvis Harrison Jr. We can't write him off after the injury plagues last year because there's a multiverse where he does stay healthy last year and he has Michael Wilson S games and he's around 4 pick as a result. But because he missed all those games with injuries, we never Got that opportunity. And he did start to come on down the stretch. Last five healthy games, he averaged nearly 13 points per game, which is right around low end fantasy wide receiver one numbers. So I didn't know if I was even going to include Marvin Harrison Jr. On my list of values here. At first I put Alec Pierce because I thought he was kind of interesting, but then thought about the Daniel Jones situation, about our conversation about being lower on Colts players, and just looking at Marvin Harrison Jr. I think if he's healthy, this is his floor rather than anywhere near what his ceiling and potential is as a former top five pick. So Marvin Harrison Jr. 24 years old, shown that he can command high value of air yards, red zone targets, end zone targets, the things we love for fantasy football. So, yeah, I'm in.
- [44:32]
Ryan Wormley
I totally agree. And the one thing I would add, because I don't really have much to say on top of what you said, is you said like, if he had the Michael Wilson finish when he stayed healthy last year, he'd be like as high as round four. I think he'd be like a late round two pick. Honestly, like, like it just given the hype around him as a prospect, the desire people have had to see him like take that step forward and break out and how great Michael Wilson was, if that was Marvin Harrison Jr. At the end of last year, I don't think he's getting out around to this year. Like, I, I, I think people want to be very hyped about him. So I, I, I totally agree on this one. And it's not Jake, like, you agree too.
- [45:06]
Jake Seely
Oh, and I was gonna say, the only thing I would add is I actually do disagree with one thing Erickson said. If we did see weeks nine, 10 and 13, because this is something I brought up multiple times that Brissette looked to Marvin Harrison as the one. He targeted him 29 times in those games. 18 to Michael Wilson, he was treated as the one. He was Marvin Harrison actually a thorn in Michael Wilson's side when he came back and then came back again. So I'm not saying that like, that's definitively the case here, but this is why I agree so much with Erickson on this one, is because, because I actually think there's a world where we might see Marvin Harrison top 20 next year and Michael Wilson's not in the top 20 with him. He's more of a wide receiver. Three, because Trey McBride is going to be a factor of one of the two.
- [45:49]
Ryan Wormley
Let's go to your round eight selection here.
- [45:51]
Jake Seely
Jake yeah, speaking of tight ends, we have a tight end that might not be healthy for week one, might not be healthy for half the season. Like there's, I know, talk that George Kittle is going to be aggressive and all that type of stuff, but his aggressiveness is what kind of caused a problem to his injury last year as he tried to play through all these things and then aggravated other things and hurt other things. So maybe take a chill and not take the aggressive route at this point of your career in this age. They said he's going the aggressive route to be ready for week one. No, I just want healthy George Kittle, like chill out, dude. But even if he's healthy and I know the additions and the moves that they made, but I just like Ricky Pearsall for what he does when health. That's the biggest question. But at this point of the draft where we're talking about these middle rounds, we've seen Ricky Pearsall when healthy and what he does in this offense and that he brings something that George Kittle or anybody else really, whether it was Ayuk when he was playing with this team and now he's gone. But whatever they do on their team this year is Ricky Pearsall is filling a void that like he doesn't need to worry about what they did at wide receiver. He doesn't need to worry about George Kittle being healthy or not. He just worries staying on the field himself. And if he's on the field himself, Brock Purdy is going to have his three, including Christian McCaffrey at the backfield. But if there's the downside to anything here for the other players is that the health to the other players like George Kittle brings Pearson to the conversation of kind of like the Buccaneers. What we saw is worst case, Pearson is probably a wide receiver. 3. He's going to be frustrating, but you're getting him as wide receiver 4 that you can plug into your wide receiver. 3. If Kittle's not back and healthy, then we're talking about the potential top 25 that we saw briefly at times last year. And that's what I really like about Peirce. I think he's great to have somebody alongside of him and not be the one, which is what they've done. And I think that if Kittle's not ready, you have potential top 25 worst case scenarios, he's a wide receiver. 3. So in this range, I feel like you're getting them at the perfect value if everybody is somehow healthy, but so much more room to improve if again he stays healthy but somebody else doesn't.
- [47:50]
Ryan Wormley
This is the one of all the names on the list today that I most feel confident is going to be going higher than this by the time we get to August. I feel like this is going to look low in hindsight. I mean it's, it's great pick for right now obviously because this is where he's ranked. But I, I feel like the hype machine will be there for Pierce all in the next several months and especially as we continue to get updates and some of these injury situations play out in San Francisco that, that he's going to look.
- [48:17]
Jake Seely
I think they just wanted the riskiest collection of receivers possible between Mike Evans, Christian. Christian Kirk's not playing the full season. George Kittle, who knows. There's like I don't know what the 49ers are doing when it comes to health though.
- [48:32]
Andrew Erickson
Just really rolling the dice.
- [48:33]
Ryan Wormley
Be like come on Eric, where are
- [48:35]
Andrew Erickson
you at this receivers hamstrings is going to hold on the longest. It's like roll the dice.
- [48:39]
Ryan Wormley
Erickson, where you at on him?
- [48:42]
Andrew Erickson
I love Pearsall, especially in round eight. I couldn't believe when I looked up this stat but he led the 49ers in receiving yards per game last year.
- [48:49]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, thank you.
- [48:50]
Andrew Erickson
At 59, I know. I think Christian Caffrey was right behind him because of how much involvement he has at a receiver. But he has flash weekly upside. He had four games with 85 plus receiving yards. You know how many games Mike Evans had with 85 plus receiving yards last year? 1. Now he did miss half the season. So that's the caveat there when again I can make stats say whatever they want. That being said, both guys have shown a high weekly ceiling and I think Piersol as a year three player year three breakouts still happen. We don't know if he can stay healthy or not but if he does dramatically will outpace this round eight. ADP Mike Evans Is he a bet to stay healthy all year long? Probably not. So considering the price, I think that this is a great pick by Jake Erickson.
- [49:33]
Ryan Wormley
Round 9 who do you have?
- [49:35]
Andrew Erickson
Half Wandell Robinson is going as the wide receiver 44 despite the fact that he is one of only five wide receivers to have recorded at least 130 or more targets in each of the last two seasons. The other four players are Jamar Chase, Amanra, St. Brown, Jacksonville Jigba, Justin Jefferson who I believe are all going in round one. So I think that Wandell Robinson right now he slotted in as the Titans number one wide receiver, we'll see what they do in the draft but even if they add somebody I don't think that they would necessarily overlap with. Wandell's going to be our slot guy and we've seen him operate as a volume hog in Brian Dabel's offense. That's who's calling the shots with Cam Ward entering his second season. I think Cam Ward is a good enough quarterback to fuel a wide receiver to success. And Wanda Robinson what's encouraging about what his usage was last year and the fact that he improved significantly two years ago. He saw a bunch of targets and I think put up one of the worst yardage total. He failed to get over 700 yards despite having 130 targets which is Deontay Johnson levels of bad yards per target essentially just comical but then surpassed over a thousand yards last year. I think he's improving as a player who dealt with some injuries as he first entered the NFL. A former second round pick. I think Wandell just, I mean wide receiver 44. Going back to our conversation with DJ Moore. How does he not beat this ADP when he has over 100 cat. Oh wait, does he have over 92 catches second straight years 30 target share last year, eighth highest mark in the NFL. I, I, I just think that the ECR is asleep at the wheel here with wando.
- [51:10]
Ryan Wormley
He's exactly 100th overall. Jake, do you feel like there's is more of a floor play from Erickson or do you see a ceiling with Wandale?
- [51:18]
Jake Seely
I think the ceiling is last year but last year he was a top 20 wide receiver and he would need to lose almost 2 1/2 points per game to be wide receiver. 44 and points per game which is I agree with Andrew on this one mostly because if this was 31 other teams he signed with I'd be more hesitant. But Brian Dable is the offensive coordinator who peppers the living hell of Wellendale in his offenses and what is he going to ask Cam Ward to do? Throw 140 plus targets his way. Whether or not Calvin Ridley is surprisingly back with this team and Ayu Manor is a nice outside but outside kind of Darius Slayton on this team than their version of him and it kind of kills DK unfortunately. But Wando's going to be their top target option because Dable's calling the shot.
- [52:01]
Ryan Wormley
Jake, let's go to round 10.
- [52:03]
Jake Seely
Yeah so speaking of loving people, I was a big fan and love Jaden Higgins but you know somebody who actually loves him more than I do, surprisingly. And if you're taking people's opinion, I'm pretty sure you're going to take this guy's opinion over mine when it comes to anybody in the NFL. Steve Smith, senor, by the way, he said he's not a sleeper last year because I've watched so much of him, saw all the same things I did. The route running, the separation, the physicality of the pointed cat. Like he gushed about him. And he gushed about him late in the year when he finally started getting opportunities. And he finally started getting his opportunities when Demico Ryan's woke up and said, hey, the buy is over, they're not rookies anymore. And then we finally see that it could be he was only a wide receiver for the rest of the season, but we see the upside for next year of being able to step in and be the consistent number two. I said he's a lot like Marvin Jones in the NFL. With Marvin Jones, 6000 yards, 6, 7, 8 touchdowns, he can be a wide receiver 3, maybe creep into the wide receiver 2 range. Tank Dell at this point and we just want him to play in the NFL. Who knows if he even comes back from that gruesome injury and plays. Jalen Noel is a really nice talent as well, but he's filling the Christian Kirk role which is going to be 3 wide out of the slot, sometimes outside. But the true number two for ability is Jaden Higgins and could he bust obviously 100% but at this point of the draft to get somebody who has top 35 upside. Also relying on the fact that CJ Stroud can bounce back to look anything like he did his rookie season. And it's, it's a free, it's almost like a free gamble. Like why not take the chance on somebody that's going to be a potential top 30, 35 wide receiver versus just another Christian Kirk who's going to get hurt anyway?
- [53:36]
Ryan Wormley
Yeah, Erickson, what I like about Nico or not Nico, what I like about Jaden Higgins is. Well, I was going to say it's, it's not just that I think he can be very good with Nico on the field. Nico has missed games. He's missed multiple games in every year of his career. It's not that he's missed like half the season all the time time, but he's played in 14, 10, 15, 12, 15 games. So he has not reached 16 games in a season. Those games when he's out. I think Higgins, especially in year two, have you been in the offense already? Like I will be really excited about him in any games that Nico's out.
- [54:03]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah, that was what I was going to follow up with Jake if How much of this is baking in as Nico Collins wide receiver handcuff insurance where okay, Higgins alone can offer this type of value in round 10 if Nico Collins plays all the it's game but if he misses, okay, well now he's stepping into that Nico Collins role. I know that the Texans comped Higgins to Nico Collins, so they're obviously confident that he can take on it because they know Nico Collins does get banged up. So yeah, Higgins, I wasn't really sure how I felt about him because I also like Noel as well but someone that I probably need to move up. So I'm glad that Jake included.
- [54:36]
Jake Seely
Well, yeah, the argument for him as a rookie is that if something happens to Nico, Hagan stays on the field. The Kirk is the Noel. So Noel, if Nico gets hurt, yeah, he'd see an uptick next year. But like last year, it was only going to be if something happened to Kirk, which it did. So yeah, that, that's, that's why I think there's even more upside. I wasn't even factoring that in is how much I like him.
- [54:55]
Ryan Wormley
I might be less interested if he was going higher but like 118th overall. Why did you do 48? That. That's really also.
- [55:02]
Andrew Erickson
It's a bench player. Right. You don't need to start. You can kind of see how things shake out. Is CJ Stroud still seeing ghosts or no. Like his office line looks way better.
- [55:09]
Ryan Wormley
He really is the wide receiver version of those of those running backs that we have every year in this range who are like this is going to be a value even if the guy ahead of doesn't get hurt. And then if the guy out of him does get hurt right then the value is insane. And this feels like the wide receiver version of that. Erickson, last player from you round 11.
- [55:23]
Andrew Erickson
Who do you have going with Josh Downs? I. I did talk about how I thought Al Pierce might be a pretty good value where he's going, but I think I'm just going to go farther down the Colts wide receiver room to a cheaper player. Josh Downs. He is going as the wide receiver 52. He has played three NFL seasons. He has never finished worse than wide receiver 48. So even if he just sticks in the crappy role of the Colts have put him in where he's only playing in three wide receiver sets, he's still probably going to finish as a top 50 wide receiver and that's because I just believe that Josh Downs is a good wide receiver. Last year PFF's 20th highest graded wide receiver for the second straight year he was hyper targeted when on the field. 24 target rate per out run that led all Colts wide receivers and tight ends last year over Tyler Warren, over Alec Pierce, over Michael Pittman Jr. So when Josh Towns is on the field field he gets open and gets Targets fantasy points data 20th and average separation score. So yes, the usage is the thing that's really frustrating with Josh Downs. But could that change without Michael Pittman in the fold? Yeah, I think that is possible. And where you're getting him outside the top 50, I think it's a good bet to make. So Josh Downs for me, worst case scenario, okay, he ends up just being a wide receiver four that maybe can pop off if somebody misses time in the Colts offense. But the upside case is hey, good wide receiver, expanded role, maybe Dan Jones does come back and is able to function at a high level. Okay, I feel good about this pick here.
- [56:48]
Ryan Wormley
Jake, Josh Downs is 126th overall wide receiver 52 as Ericson mentioned. Is that too high, too low or just right for you?
- [56:55]
Jake Seely
It's a bit too low. And just because the opportunity with no Michael Pittman and I'm a Josh Downs fan as well, it really just comes down to what is the quarterback situation. There's a lot of assumptions and I'm assuming the team when they threw that contract, that's assuming that Daniel Jones can be 100 by week one. But I think that's a mission major question. And they're talking about trading Anthony Richardson. So the backup plan, I just, I don't know how much to trust Leonard or the rest of their options there. So I like Josh Downs. It's just where does this offense go in 2026 is the bigger question.
- [57:27]
Ryan Wormley
Let's wrap things up here. Round 12. Jake, who do you have?
- [57:30]
Jake Seely
I have somebody that I not only think is egregious to be down here, I would take over my previous two. As in I would take him over Higgins and I would take him over Ricky Pearsall. Because I don't know if people are just assuming the Patriots are drafting around one wide receiver or what's going on, but they sign Romeo Dobbs. You want to find a metric, go find one. Drake May is top 10, if not top five in deep ball throwing. He's first in EPA in drop back of 20 plus yards downfield. He's second in total yards despite only being having 70 attempts which was fifth in the league. He's third and on target percentage. I could keep going down the line. He's a great D bowl thrower. The Patriots were top five in taking attempts downfield and he did it with a bunch of dudes that like Keisha Booty and Williams and the corpse of Stefon Diggs at this point and 15 tight ends. And now you bring in somebody who has averaged over 13 yards per reception the past two years and has room for more because what does Dobbs do? Gets downfield and makes some big plays. Overshadowed a little bit by a finally healthy Christian Watson. Last year then they needed to do as much as before when there is no Christian Watson on the field. But they that's the appeal there is. You've seen it from Dobbs and you've seen that he can do this. They sign him. Should he be a number one in the NFL as a number one wide receiver for teams? No. But as of right now he is definitively the number one for the Patriots with one of the best ball, best deep ball throwers in the league. My only concern at this point and why I actually have Romeo Dobbs as a wide receiver three like maybe they bring somebody in a shock us. Maybe they make the AJ Brown trade and of course this is going to not be the same after that. But Drake may shave his head this year. So like I'm worried that like legit just happened this morning. I don't know if he's going the Samson route and all of a sudden his powers are going to go out the window. I'm a little bit concerned there. But all that being said, Romeo Dobbs should be ahead of guys we've already talked about.
- [59:17]
Ryan Wormley
I mean he was a wide receiver 3 last year. Last year he finished his wide receiver 36 in in total fantasy points at like and now he has this great Runway for targets. He's playing with a better. I mean not that Jordan Love is bad. I like Jordan Love. But a better quarterback now. I, I really like Dobbs. I totally agree with you. We were talking about him on the Dynasty show a few weeks ago. It was after he had signed with New England and he was still like wide receiver 60 or something in Dynasty. He's 25 years old paired with his great quarterback now they're going to add other receivers eventually but like they don't have them right now. I thought that was way too low and and Fitz and Bogman actually pushed back on me on that and I feel like I was taking crazy pills so I'M happy to hear that. I'm. I'm not according to you Jake, that, that he is definitely way too too low here. Erickson, as the resident Patriots fan, I'm wondering what you think about that Dobbs.
- [60:03]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah, I think that Dobbs, if he had gotten a ton of steam and everybody loved this and everybody was okay, we gotta draft him in round five it'd be like whoa, whoa, we gotta pump the brakes like he's not that good. But when you look up and See always round 12 type of value when he should be the there's always a receiver like this that always signs in free agency that we just don't or the consensus doesn't get super excited about having with Christian Kirk when he went to Jacksonville it's like this guy's gonna be the number one and nobody wants this guy guy Jacoby Myers when he first went to the Raiders it's hey, same thing like they paid him to be their number one receiver and he's good. So even though Dobbs I don't think is this elite, great, super talented wide out, he does the little things well. He went downfield and he's a red zone presence. He scored three touchdowns in one game last year. He had a monster.
- [60:48]
Ryan Wormley
That was half his touchdowns of the season though.
- [60:51]
Jake Seely
Right?
- [60:51]
Andrew Erickson
But no, but the two comparisons he
- [60:52]
Jake Seely
made are really good comparisons for what we're talking about.
- [60:55]
Ryan Wormley
Oh totally.
- [60:56]
Andrew Erickson
But the what he can showcase in a week to week basis where yeah the Patriots don't necessarily feature at one guy but Dobbs can be the one that stands out the most from a conglomerate of players where again if he can just be as Diggs from last year then you feel, I mean Diggs was kind of going in this range last year too as the number one. I was more concerned because he was coming off an ACL injury. Dobbs is not. And unless you're just freaking about his concussions or something like that, that's more of a dynasty concern I think for redraft draft he makes a ton of sense as a great value in round 12, especially in leagues where you have to start multiple flexes. I mean you can trot out Romeo Dobbs as your second flex or a wide receiver four spot. I'm in wide, I'm in leagues of dynasty with I have to start a million wide receivers and I've had some really sad weeks where I would have loved to have Romeo Dobbs as an option to slide in as a wide receiver three or four.
- [61:43]
Ryan Wormley
I mean we talked about this on a few different players today, but like there's just no world where he's healthy and he's not outperforming wide receiver 54 in, in the current construction of this offense, there's just no, even if you don't, even if you don't view him as a guy who's like the upside to go like finish top 12 or something, like he's going to outperform our
- [62:00]
Andrew Erickson
receiver 54, I think that's the, the argument against him is the rankers are having, oh well, this guy is more upside. This guy has more upside. Like, Dobbs has never been a top 20 wide receiver ever. So okay, I guess I can get that. But he's never played with Drake, may have one wide receiver on his team.
- [62:15]
Ryan Wormley
It's really helpful in a league where you have to start three receivers and there's 12 teams and there's multiple flags lexes, which is a lot of the leagues that we play in, having a guy like Dobbs to just fill in that back spot. To your point, Erickson. So like, yeah, I, I, I totally agree with this one. I think it's a great call. All right, just quickly run through the names we listed here. Justin Jefferson, Chris Olave, Rashid Rice, Devonte Adams, Jalen Waddle, DJ Moore, Marvin Harrison Jr. Ricky Pierce, Saul Wondale Robinson, Jaden Higgins, Josh Downs, and Romeo Dobbs. Those are our favorite wide receiver targets in every round of your draft. Although there was some fun disagreement today, so maybe not a consensus racist list there, but these guys combined list. We'll say for Erickson and Jake, I'm Ryan Wormley. Thanks everybody so much for tuning in. We'll see you again next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts, at fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and tick tock at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasycrows.
- [63:37]
Jake Seely
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