← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
FantasyPros - Week 9 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers: Studs, Sleepers, and Must-Starts (Ep. 1806)
00:43:09
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A
This is an Iheart podcast.
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B
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C
What's up friends and welcome into Fantasy pros. This is the fantasy football podcast. I'm Chris Welsh and we have got ranks for you. Week nine wide receivers. We are ready to hit everything which is most likely going to be your two or three wide receiver sets and even your flexes. We are ranking it. And who are we? We got Pat Fitz, more Morris and Andrew Erickson in the house to the best rankers in the land. And that's just not lip service either because it's holding up. These two are holding up well in the season long ranks contest. And we're even going to give a shout out here in a second to how week eight ranked. And little spoiler alert, one of these two is inside the top two for week eight that we're going to talk about here. So very exciting. Erickson. What's up, buddy? Happy Halloween. That is coming up this week.
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D
Yes, Halloween is on Friday. Recording this Wednesday, so getting hyped for that. Welsh, you're in full Halloween form with the Jack Skellington T shirt. Gotta love that because that's basically Halloween and Christmas combined, which a lot of people are really teetering. Okay, I know we were talking before we started recording. Some people are already putting up their Christmas stuff. What do you guys think in the comments? Like, is it too early to put up Christmas stuff before Halloween starts? When is the actual ideal time? I remember it used to be like after Thanksgiving, but it's the day after Thanksgiving. But now you turn on the TV and you'll see ads for Christmas stuff before Halloween has even arrived.
- [01:56]
C
So, buddy, have you been to a Walmart? They had like August, they had all the Christmas stuff that was going up. They've been up for months. They're done. So. Yeah, I agree. It's just sooner and sooner. But you know, it's vibes, man. It's. It's vibes. And get your candy with your candy canes out there for trick or treating. Fitzy, what are you going to be.
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A
For Halloween this year, no costume planned. Welsh. But before we get to the candy canes, we have to finish with the candy corn. Are you guys candy corn guys or like people? It seems like it's a love it or hate it type of candy.
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C
I'm. I can do for candy corn, but I think I've got weird tastes. I'm also, I mean this is. I'm already not disliked. I'm a pineapple on the pizza guy, so I think I can also do like the candy corns. I think I probably sit in a world of the trendy things to hate I tend to actually like. So I'm, I'm not actively seeking out candy corn, but I'm a thumbs up on candy corn. Erickson.
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D
I think candy corn is good after like seven pieces and then after that it's going in the trash. So everything in moderation, I think, especially with candy. I also approve the pineapple on pizza. The fruity sweetness works.
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C
Really.
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D
The fattiness of the pizza, it's a very good pairing. Although when my wife and I order it, we don't get ham, we get pepperoni instead. So a little bit more of the spice.
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C
I just, just do the pineapple. I have never been in a room where we cleared house on pineapple pizza. That's incredible.
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A
So I mean, swee.
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C
Wow. Clean.
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D
Watch out for us in all Welsh. That piece is going to be gone.
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C
Consensus ranks. Look out, L.A. in a couple months.
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A
We'Re going to get murdered in the YouTube.
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C
People are going to be so pissed off.
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A
Joey P. Is going to be mad at us. The full blooded Italian is going to be upset with us about that take. I mean, he, he is aggrieved by the pineapple on pizza concept.
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C
Okay, we're not putting candy corn on pizza, guys, so calm down. But I'm not going to read the comments because I know it'll be hate. All right, uh, let's talk about some ranks here. We talked about some pineapple pizza. We talked about some candy. Let's talk about who was the most accurate ranker. And guess what? Week eight is live. You guys can check all your ranks out on fantasyprose.com rankings. We also have the accuracy tab. Shout out to the number one ranker in the land. The great Dalton Del Don from the Deep Shot finished number one in week eight. But it was followed up by the one and only Pat Fitzmaurice. Regardless of going Dak Prescott over Bo Nicks last week, it didn't matter because Pat, you were simply too good. You finished two Overall and another shout out because we always do the top three. Mike. Mick Chilila. I call him Mike. I always screw up Mick's last name and I screwed up the first. Mick Chilela, who was on this show a bunch last year, finished third. So top three. But Fitzy Flowers, my man, that's an incredible top two finish. I want to say. Isn't that your second top two finish? Didn't you finish first One of these weeks there was Zebra that finished first. You finished.
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A
I think it was Dbro and I can't remember If I was 2 or 3. That was when we had Ellis. Brin Johnson was also top three. I can't remember how it shook out. I believe Debro was number one. But yeah, I whiffed the Dak Prescott over Bo Nix and I was too low on Arande Gadsden the second, as a lot of people have been reminding me. But you know, I guess a few things worked out. But we were talking about this before the show. How you do in the rankings any in any given week really doesn't matter to the people who are leaning on you for that one lineup call. So anyone who benched around A Gadsden the second because of where I had him ranked thinks I'm a fool regardless of the fact that I was second in the contest last.
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C
We can't be right about all the stuff we want to be. We can have right takes where we want to get guys in and we just can't put them over and they go nuts. We can, Erickson. We can like Dak Prescott over Bo Nix and sometimes it doesn't end up working for me. But you know, that's how it goes. But Erickson, I want to also give you some flowers here. You finished, I believe it was in the top 25. Maybe it was 30. But beside that, you had two top 12 finishes positionally. Number five in wide receiver and number 11 in quarterback. So some flowers deserved, my friend. As you are both on the season long ranks, I believe inside the top 25, if I remember.
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D
I'm not.
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C
No, I'm like, no. Is it top third?
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D
I'm the low. No, I'm the low man on the fantasy pros team.
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C
Well, I also work here, so thanks about that. But I would be the low man on. On that comparatively. Well, no, Joe and those guys would be. I am ahead of Joe Pizza Pia, which is really my only goal each week. But just want to give you a shout out. You've ranked very well on wide receivers and quarterbacks. I think you've done pretty well on wide receivers all year long and those are our shout outs. Are you going to try to kill it again this week?
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D
Yes, ideally. I mean, I don't know if I have a spicy number one like I've had the last two weeks. Rice finally delivered. You know, after doing getting ranked him number one or talked about him as number one last week, he finished number two. So you know, that was a good call. And then, I mean, when you talk about I finished top five and receivers, I can tell it's because I was higher on Rice than consensus and Troy Franklin. Like, like those two guys alone because they were the number two scorers at the position. I'm just being higher on those guys versus consensus is definitely what helped put me up inside the top five.
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C
All right, well, again, Dalton, Del Don, Pat Fitzmaurice and Mick Chilala shout out to the boys for the top three finishes. Let's talk about some wide receiver ranks. But before we do, I believe this is your last opportunity to take some wide receiver action home with you because you've still got a chance to win the sign AJ Brown Eagles jersey for free courtesy of our friends over@pristineauction.com all you got to do is head over to fantasypros.com contest, complete the form, then you got a couple options. You can download the Fantasy Pros app, leave a review for the podcast, follow us on our socials, Instagram X and TikTok. It's all antasyprose and you can do all of those things and they all get you entries. We'll be announcing a winner on the podcast, which I'm guessing should be next week since it'll be the start of a new month. So if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed, turn on notifications so you don't miss anything, and you get your prize.
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D
A.J.
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Brown autographed jersey. Very, very cool. All right, fantasy pros.com rankings to follow along. Gentlemen, let's jump into it a little bit later than usual to get to the ranks, but we are here. Let's look at the big board with our top 12 wide receivers for the week. And it kicks off with none other than Jamar Chase, Puka, Nakua Jackson Smith and Jigba CD Lamb, Amanra St. Brown and Rasheed Rice. That is your top six, Justin Jefferson, Roma Dunese, Devonte Adams, Michael Pittman, DK Metcalf and George Pickens. Let's jump back to Rashi Rice when we're looking at the top 12. Obviously the top 12. These are all the starters that you're jumping into. Maybe there's some decisions. You do have four teams on a buy, so I'm really not sure. Many people are gifted the. You know, the extra ability to decide between incredible players, but sometimes important to talk about the weight of the. And the value of some of these guys. And you two are both quite a bit higher than consensus on Rasheed Rice. Fitz, you got him at four. Erickson, you're back at three. Fitz, let's start with you as the highest ranker from the previous week. Rasheed Rice well over consensus. Is he also comparatively going to be over Xavier Worthy? Has he completely taken over that spot?
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A
Yeah, I. I don't know about that. I think Worthy has still. He still has value. But I was initially with ECR on Rasheed Rice. I had him at wide receiver 6, but then I. I had a bit of a rethink on this after we got the news about Isaiah Pacheco's MCL sprain. And the way the Chiefs use Rasheed Rice, it's kind of an extension of the. Their running game with these quick passes, wide receiver screens. Just get the ball quickly to Rasheed Rice and let him weave through traffic. Isaiah Pacheco's absence could mean an even bigger role for Rice this week. And we're talking about a dude who's already had 16 catches and two rushing attempts in his first two games back from suspension.
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C
Yeah, they've been using him in that weird, like, goal line package, which has been interesting. But by the way, shout out to Rasheed Rice for coming up like, a half a yard short for my first. My first Kareem Hunt touchdown, being able to cash for last week. But, yeah, if you use them two straight weeks in that, like, weird goal line package, so it creates extra opportunities. Ericsson, what do you think? I mean, you've had two big weeks of Rasheed Rice ranking really, really high. Your full commitment is there's not a decision to be made if you have Rasheed Rice. He's over pretty much everybody.
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D
Yeah, I think so. And I'm looking at my rank at him in number three, and I think that I could even push him higher. You talk about what he's done over the last two weeks. Have the Chiefs been pushed offensively in the last two weeks in any capacity? They've blown out both teams that they face. I know that the Commander's game was tied 77 going into the half, but if you look at that first half, Rashi Rice really didn't do that. Much in the first half. Again, he didn't score that touchdown. A lot of his production came in the second half. So when the Chiefs are blowing out other teams, Rashi Rice is first in fantasy points per game. And now you're facing Buffalo for, okay, now we can get a shootout where it's more back and forth. So when you're just talking, who has the most upside on this slate at wide receiver? I mean, Rashi Rice looks like he could score multiple touchdowns every single week because of how much they're using him around the red zone. He is Mahomes guy near the red zone. So in a matchup where you could see it actually go more back and forth, Rice's ceiling is, I think, one of the highest, if not the highest, in week nine.
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C
There's a couple wide receivers that, you know, have really incredible matchups. I'd say Rasheed Rice is one of them. Roma Dunes is also kind of put into this where, you know, maybe there's overall questions, but you've got the Bengals that are floating out there. You like George Pickens, who's going up, up against the Cardinals. The Colts have kind of typically struggled in their secondary, so, like, DK Metcalf is floating in there. But I think one of the biggest outlier for this week, in the week one ranks or the week nine ranks for wide receiver ones is Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman comes in as wide receiver 10 going up against Pittsburgh. Obviously the matchup kind of, you know, speaks in a really well spot. Both of you are slightly lower than ecr, but you guys do have a difference between one of you is wide receiver one, the other is top end of wide receiver two. And Fitzy, you are the wide receiver one on Michael Pittman. So not that Ericsson's necessarily going to disagree. The rank isn't like that far off. But your firm stance that Michael Pittman is in a spot where you're starting him over significant players, you're starting him over, lad. You're starting him maybe. I actually, I'm not looking at your rank, but ECR has Pittman over Pickens. Is that something you're doing? You're all in on Pittman this week?
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A
Yeah. And I do have Pittman ahead of Pickens. Pittman is wide receiver 7 in half point PPR, fantasy scoring and wide receiver 12 in fantasy points per game. And I don't just want to say scoreboard and leave the analysis at that. Pittman has scored six touchdowns in eight games. So, like, that's a career high in touchdowns for him. So it's probably good to be a little cautious with the players scoring touchdowns at an abnormally high rate. But on the other hand, Pittman has eight or more targets in half of his eight games. And in two of the four games where he had fewer than eight targets, the Colts won by 20 or more points. So the blowout game script might have tamped down his target volume a little bit. I think we can feel pretty confident about Pittman's target load in these competitive games. And I'd like to think Colts Steelers in Pittsburgh will be a competitive game. Plus the Colts offense is just so high functioning right now. It's just that sort of buoys your confidence in Pittman that everything has just worked so well both in the running game and the passing game.
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C
Erickson, what do you think? You've got him at 13? It's, I'm curious at the wide receiver that jumped over to make him a wide receiver too. It is kind of minuscule. But do you have any thoughts? Is your confidence level a little bit lower? You know, you've got him as the first of the wide receiver twos.
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I think for me it's just trying to be a little hesitant with how the target shakeout because we see the Colts passing game, they spread the ball to a lot of different players. And yes, Pittman ate last week, but you saw Downs and Tyler Warren kind of eat into each other, right? Tyler Warren was one of the few tight ends didn't pop off on National Tight Ends Day. It's a good matchup for him against the Pittsburgh Steelers who've been bad against tight ends this season. So I think that Pittman has obviously done enough this year where he's a touchdown machine and this offense is functioning at such a high level and you want to play guys against the Steelers. All the Colts are in play here, but it's a matter of, well, what if it's Al Pierce that comes down with the touchdown? It's not Michael Pittman or it's Josh Downs that ends up seeing the nine targets and Pittman goes back to four or five. So that's like the only concern which is like locked and loaded. But matchup wise you want to play all your receivers against the Pittsburgh steers allowing the most fantasy points per game. Two perimeter wide receivers, and I know they play a lot of man coverage, but for Pittman, his target share has been pretty steady. Whether it's zone or man, he's been efficient against both of those types of coverages. So I mean, you're starting him and the only reason I had trouble kind of figuring out where to rank him was I got a couple of question marks about like, where am I putting Nico Collins this week? Like, where is Drake London going this week? So those are kind of guys in a similar tier to Pittman and I just have question marks about like, well, they're, they're both injured last week. Are they going to play this week? So that's kind of caused a shakeup. But you're starting Pittman no matter what.
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A
I was, I was just going to ask how you have Pittman ranked vis a vis London and Collins. Very good receivers with tough matchups this week.
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Yeah. So it looks like Sir Tan's not going to play. So I think that's definitely works in favor for Nico Collins that you don't have this lockdown corner on the other side. So then again, Collins has also not been good this year and.
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A
Right.
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D
The defense of the Broncos is still good. So if C.J. stroud has no time to throw, then does it really matter who is covering Nico Collins? So I just think from a safety perspective, I mean, Pittman has just been so good. So even if the target floor isn't as high as someone like Drake London, London also has a really tough matchup against Gonzalez. So upside, again, that's what we always want to strive for here is who has the most upside and if Pittman has touchdown, great matchup. I think he is the move here, even if his target floor isn't as high.
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A
Yeah, I don't need, I don't know if you need Patrick Certain junior if you've got Nick Benito rushing against the Houston offensive line.
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C
By the way, is there a logic going back to the National Tight end date? How do they decide the date? Like any of these things, whether it's like National Second Grandparents Day, like it feels like they're like, you know, like a buying a star. Like I don't understand the logic behind the days. Like, is there something special about the National Tight End Day or is that just the only day that wasn't celebrating, you know, pistachio ice cream or sandwiches?
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D
Well, they made sure that it's obviously on a Sunday and they made sure that George Kittle wasn't injured. So like, when is Kittle going to be back from ir? Make sure he gets, I mean guys, that was the holiday.
- [16:43]
C
So it's a floating holiday. So it's a floating holiday. Gotcha.
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D
Floating holiday. Based around George Kittle's availability and if he's healthy or not. And I mean, was there a bigger Lock than George Kittle scored touchdown last week.
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C
Yeah, I know. He should have scored too much else.
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D
Jake Tungus stealing touchdowns from George Kittle on national tight ends. What are you doing, Tungus?
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C
He's trying to get in more tight end scoring. All right, let's go to the wide receiver twos here. Good conversation on those ones. This is 13 through 24. It's going to kick off with lad McConkey at 13. Drake, London, Jalen Waddle, Zay Flowers, Nico Collins at 17, Marvin Harrison at 18. That's your top half. You've got Brian Thomas at 19, Tea McMillan, Chris Olave, T. Higgins, Cor Portland Sutton and Stefon Diggs. Gentlemen, let's take a stop at Marvin Harrison. He is wide receiver 18. You guys are a little bit flipped on this. Fitzy, you're a little bit lower at 22. Erickson, you are right on consensus. So, Erickson, why don't you kick us off here with your take on Marvin Harrison this week?
- [17:36]
D
He's playing the Dallas Cowboys.
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C
Fitz, end of story.
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D
Like, he's playing the Dallas Cowboys. And there is a chance that we still don't get Kyler Murray back. And as weird as it sounds to admit and say the offense has looked better with Jacoby Brissette as the starting quarterback. So Jonathan Gannon said at the beginning of this week when they asked him about Kyler Murray and his chance to play on Monday. So we're not even going to get reports till Thursday because of the Cardinals playing on Monday night. And Gannon said that's a hypothetical to me. I don't know. This is after a bye week that he's asked about his starting quarterback's availability. So that sounds very pessimistic about Kyler Murray, who I know some people and maybe Welsh, you can chime in here being more plugged into the Arizona media if this is kind of been like a soft benching for Kyler and he's not really, like, totally injured, they just want to play Brissette, but they can't bench him outright, so they're using the injury as an excuse. So, yeah, for all those reasons, you got to play Marvin Harrison Jr. This week.
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C
I think this is similar to, like, the purdy ish thing. They're not willing to put him out unless he's 100%. There's already so much public scrutiny locally here on Kyler Murray that they're not going to like, I mean, what are they also playing for? You know, what. What games are they trying. Are they going to catch up in that division where everybody is like you know, five and two or five and three, whatever. Like I think it is. It's not quite a soft bench. It might be dolled up as that, but I do not think they're willing to like, you know, he's like, I'm 85%. They're like, well you're 100% on the bench. Then he's got to be 100% Fitzy. What do you think about Marvin Harrison regardless of the quarterback play? You guys want a holiday? How about National? Go up against the Cowboys Day, which is every Sunday. That's the one we want to celebrate. So yeah, it is kind of easy to just be like it's the Dallas Cowboys because they're the gift that continuously keeps on giving. But can they give to the Cardinals?
- [19:22]
A
Yeah, maybe I am underplaying the great matchup against the Cowboys and their laughably bad pass defense. I certainly was guilty of doing that last week and not ranking Bo Nicks or Troy Franklin highly enough. But man, Harrison is tied for wide receiver 40 in half point PPR fantasy points per game. He has scored fewer than seven half point PPR points in four of his seven games, averaging just 5.7 targets a game. And I am making this ranking with the projection that Kyler Murray is going to play and I probably would have had Harrison a couple spots higher had they already ruled out Murray and said that Brissette is going to make the start. Only two touchdowns for Marvin Harrison Jr. So far. I just, I still worry about the lack of chemistry between Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. And it just feels like a stretch to rank Harrison as a top 20 receiver. Even with a great matchup and even.
- [20:19]
E
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- [21:21]
F
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- [21:52]
G
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- [22:22]
C
Aye aye aye with the I would not have put on my bingo card that we would be waiting on Marvin Harrison's rank to make sure Kyler is not starting and Jacoby Brissette is starting. That would not have been the thing that would make him potentially move up or down if Kyler is not playing. Funny one. All right. Another guy. We actually had the the player on this guy's other side in the next range. But let's talk about them both together. There's kind of a growing sense that this might end up being a Travis Hunter over Brian Thomas situation going on in Jacksonville. There seems to be some debate about it. We talked about this on out of Bounds, the Twitch show we with Pizza Pia and Bagman and myself. And you know, this question has continuously come up the ranks. Do not indicate that this week Brian Thomas is wide receiver 19. You both are lower on Brian Thomas, but it is not in respect of Travis Hunter jumping over him. So again, he was our first guy we were going to talk about in the next section, but let's just do it here too. Travis Hunter is 27, but you guys are just both lower on consensus than both of these guys. More significantly about Brian Thomas. Fitzy you're at 24. Erickson you're at 26. Travis Hunter is ECR 27. Fitzy you're at 30 and Erickson you're at 29. So just lower overall. Fitz why don't we start with you? Clearly you do not think that it is going to be Travis Hunter over Brian Thomas, but the the confidence is being lost in both of these wide receivers and you have got him barely holding on as a wide receiver too. That is Brian Thomas.
- [23:56]
A
Yeah. So I don't think like ECR having both of these guys as top 27 receivers with Trevor Lawrence playing quarterback when the matchup is not against the Dallas Cowboys just feels off to me like someone's too high here and I definitely think Brian Thomas is a little too high in ecr. Like he hurt his shoulder in the Jaguars last game. The Jaguars were on by last week, so maybe the shoulder won't be an issue. But we've already seen Brian Thomas Jr. Try to play through a wrist injury this season and obviously hasn't been a good season for BTJ to this point. So health is one concern and then the other is obviously that we saw a big surge in Travis Hunter's usage right before the buy. So I'm not sure BTJ is still the clear number one receiver for the Jaguars anymore. And that wouldn't necessarily be a big problem if BTJ were playing in a prolific passing attack. But you know, not really the case with Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars. As for Hunter, it's important not to get too dug in with your stances on on players if you play fantasy football. And I think Travis Hunter is kind of a good test case for that. Like I was not very into Travis Hunter before the season either for Redraft or Dynasty and I know the Dynasty podcast consumers know that and my biggest concern was the two way thing. The Jaguars said they wanted Hunter to be primarily a wide receiver, but I figured that wasn't etched in stone and I worried that things could change over the course of the maybe the Jaguars decide they need Hunter to play more snaps at corner and fewer at wide receiver. And I also kind of worried about, well, the presence of Brian Thomas Jr. Who was so good last year. I figured he might be sort of an impediment for Travis Hunter's growth. And at first it seemed like the cautious approach with Hunter was the right call. He was playing between half and two thirds of the snaps in most of his early season games and it's just hard to be fantasy relevant if you're not a full time receiver. Plus his usage was kind of quirky. It was all like low a dot close to the line of scrimmage stuff. Get him the ball and see if he can do something after the catch. But over his last two games, Hunter's snapchairs have been 78% and 87%. He didn't do much in the first of those games. Four catches for 15 yards on seven targets against the Seahawks. But then right before the bye, that big game in London against the Rams, eight catches, 101 yards and a touchdown on 414 targets. So maybe the genie is out of the bottle here with Travis Haunter on offense. And I, I am worried that wide receiver 30 might not be high enough a ranking for him. But I, I do, you know, I do think there's kind of a drop off in the overall wide receiver rankings once we get past wide receiver 3 range this week and Hunter is comfortably inside that range.
- [26:52]
C
Erickson, do you feel more confident that Brian Thomas is fading and these two ranks are more about Thomas or. I guess, I mean your rank doesn't really dictate it. But like, do you think on the other side Travis Hunter is surging and can overpass Brian Thomas? Like, what are you more staunchy about right now?
- [27:15]
D
Hmm, that's a good question because I think that fits hit it at the top where this isn't even a conversation about the receivers. It's can Trevor Lawrence get these guys to the promised land? Like that's like a big concern. So in my mind I'm trying to figure out, okay, I gotta, should I put Hunter ahead of Thomas? But if they both are bad, then what's the difference? Like, do I want to start either Jaguars receiver this week? Because even Hunter in that game against London, a lot of that came when the Jaguars are getting blown off the field. So is that.
- [27:46]
C
Which they'll be doing all the time, by the way, which is not a bad thing.
- [27:48]
D
But, but this week you see the matchup against the Raiders and you think, okay, another dysfunctional team. Maybe the Jaguars can get something done here. But the Raiders are also coming off a bye week too, so maybe they throw something different. And when you just look at the matchup, this is just about the quarterback. So the Raiders run the third highest amount of zone coverage this year. Trevor Lawrence versus zone has been terrible. 1200 yards, three touchdowns, four picks, 60% completion rate against zone is the lowest in the NFL. Passer rating 73.7 is fifth lowest in the NFL. So I, I think that Fitz and I are on the ball here with just being lower on both guys in general because I don't think that this is just oh, smash spot for this Jags offense to come out of the gates firing. I don't necessarily think that's the case when you look at the receiver conversation. I do think that the matchup favors Travis Hunter a little bit more than Thomas does. Again, Thomas has struggled this year anyway to be consistent, and we have not seen the chemistry with him as much as he's been there with Trevor Lawrence and Travis Hunter. The breadcrumbs are leading us to, hey, we're going to get more Travis Hunter, specifically on offense. And if the Raiders are deploying a lot of zone coverage, well, what does that mean? Who do we see dominate against zone coverage? It's these slot guys that are operating underneath like Travis Hunter. Hunter leads the Jaguars and catches this season despite 11 fewer targets than Brian Thomas Jr. And the Raiders second worst defense against slot receivers because they run so much zone coverage. So I feel like I want to put Travis Hunter ahead of Brian Thomas, but I want. Yeah, but. But that. I want to be below consensus on both guys at the same time.
- [29:16]
C
You can still do that. Well, I guess you can't do that.
- [29:19]
D
And that's where the rankings become kind of complex because I did this with AJ Brown and devonte Smith, where I wanted to rank Smith over AJ Brown. He ended up having more yards, but AJ Brown caught more touchdowns. So moving Brown down didn't actually benefit anybody because you wanted to start both players. But in this case, I. I don't think that we should be super aggressive starting either guy. Although the matchup, when I'm kind of looking at things, seems like it's going to get more favorable for Hunter in just terms of raw volume. But if it's low adot stuff again, what is 4 for 40 really going to do for you? So maybe these guys really just don't have high ceilings. This week is really the conversation, and they're more like wide receiver. Three plays.
- [29:55]
C
Okay, you get one word response. Fact or fiction? Travis Hunter is the number one wide receiver in Jacksonville over Brian Thomas. Rest of season. Erickson, Fitzy.
- [30:17]
A
Fiction.
- [30:18]
C
We should. We needed that. Like, what was that music or that game show music? That tension that was building up there. All right, so we have a fact and a fiction of Travis Hunter. That's it. We'll continuously talk about it. Maybe this week will tell us a little bit more of a story that we can continue on the next episode. One more in this wide receiver range. T. Higgins. T. Higgins, wide receiver, 22, going up against the Chicago Bears. Fitzy, you are. You're a high man here. You've got him at 18. Erickson's right on consensus fits. Let's jump to you here, T. Higgins, Flacco, it was a little banged up as well. What do you think about T. Higgins this week?
- [30:54]
A
He might be banged up, but not as banged up as the Chicago Bears secondary. The Bears were without their three best cornerbacks last week. Jalen Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Tyreek Stevenson. All out in Week eight. Johnson and Gordon, they're going to be out again. They're both on ir, I believe. I'm not sure about Stevenson, who has a shoulder issue, but, you know, by no means is Tyreek Stevenson a shutdown cornerback anyway. I just think Bengals receivers versus Bears cornerbacks is an epic mismatch this week. So I think both Jamar Chase and T. Higgins are going to eat.
- [31:28]
C
As long as there's no Jake Browning, though. Like Browning. What can Browning do for you? Absolutely nothing. That's what we found out. So, like, we can't do Browning whatsoever. What do you think, Erickson? You're. You're on consensus for T. Higgins. He's definitely moved into just a spot. We just feel a lot better.
- [31:43]
D
Yeah, I think with me, the only thing I have hesitant about pushing Higgins up higher is the volume because this offense is Jamar Chase 1. Jamar Chase 2. Jamar Chase 3. Jamar Chase has a 46% target share for the Bengals in the last three games. I know I talked about Rice as the highest ceiling. If you're going to see 20 targets in a game, then clearly Jamar Chase obviously has an extremely high ceiling to be the wide receiver one on the week. And he also benefits from all those Bears cornerbacks that which is such a banged up secondary. So I think that last week it was a little scary seeing Higgins targets dip so dramatically. Now he did score a 44 yard touchdown because he's a good player and he can do that even on limited volumes. So I think he can still find a way to be a wide receiver too, even if he doesn't see a ton of volume. But it was kind of the concern I had in that matchup anyway because it was the jets. The Bengals were able to run the ball a little bit more effectively and Flacco attempted 12 fewer pass attempts than the week before. So when we take out 10 to 12 pass attempts, it's not coming out of Chase's targets. It's coming out of T. Higgins and the tight ends as the ancillary pieces in the Spangles passing attack. So the Bears again, terrible against the pass, also terrible against the run. So if Flacco is banged up, they want to protect him. How do they do that establish the run game, get Chase Brown going. Smash AP Ryan so that's my only concern with Higgins if he doesn't see enough targets. But as we saw last week, he can get it done in one big play. So he's still going to be in your lineup as a wide receiver, too.
- [33:07]
C
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- [34:17]
B
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- [34:44]
C
Receiver threes kicking off with Keenan Allen at 25. Travis Hunter is at 26 who we were just talking about Xavier Worthy, Jordan Addison, Khalil Shakir and Debo Samuel going up to 30, 31 to 36 is Wandell Robinson, Quinton Johnston, Romeo Dobbs, DJ Moore, Jameson Williams and Juwan Jennings. Let's talk about Wandell. I think this is actually a fantastic matchup in the quarterback episode. I want to talk about Jackson Dart because the 49ers defense is garbage. They're hurt, they got bunch of nothing here and you know, there's not a ton of pass catchers. But I think like Wandell is in a pretty dang good spot where I think Jackson Dart is going to be able to move around and get the ball to him. He's only at 31. Fitzy, you've got him at 27. Erickson, you are in consensus. So let's jump back to Fitzy again. You're a little bit more the high man. I think this is a decent spot against a 49ers defense that is just ravaged by injuries. And Dart has continuously looked good. And the loss of Cam Scatter Boo is I would assume is probably going to get the ball in the air just a tiny bit more. But what say you, Fitzy? You are a little bit higher on Wandell this week.
- [35:50]
A
Yeah, good matchup. You said it, Welsh. We saw Jalen Noel sort of gash the 49ers last week on real limited snaps. And Wandell is clearly the go to guy for Jackson Dart in the passing game. He's averaging 7.1 targets a game. And maybe we get the same sort of dynamic with Wondale that I was talking about earlier with Rasheed Rice potentially benefiting from the absence of Isaiah Pacheco. Like Rishi Rice, Wandell Robinson is this short area catch and run receiver and kind of an extension of the Giants running game. And now maybe there's an even greater need for Wondale in this offense now that Camp Scatterboo is out for the season.
- [36:30]
C
Erickson, you're right at consensus. No big strong feeling. We were talking about tears earlier. Do you think Wandell is in a tier where the drop off has like really happened at wide receiver or he's near the end right before the drop off?
- [36:42]
D
I think he's probably near the end. I think that you feel pretty comfortable playing him. I don't think that anyone is. Oh man, I gotta play Wandell Robinson this week. I'm totally screwed. I don't think that's the case because you guys pointed out it is a good matchup against a pretty banged up 49ers defense. I was actually higher on Wandale Robinson when Fitz pulled the names here. I had him at wide receiver 23 I actually pulled him back because he did. He was quiet last week. He had zero catches in the first half. He just finished with three catches for 48 yards on four targets. And I was like, well, why did this happen? Like, what happened to his targets? And actually like his targets have dropped dramatically when Darius Slayton has actually been playing in the lineup. And we saw last week Darius Slayton had a long touchdown catch that came back on a penalty. So I actually think that Slayton might be a sneaky play here as well. Because when you look at the target share for Robinson in games with Slayton over the last couple weeks with Jackson Dart as the quarterback, so he has a 29% target share when Slayton is not playing in those games. That drops to 19% when Slayton is available. And it's actually just kind of flat between Theo Johnson, Darius Slayton and Wanda Robinson. So I think those three guys are all going to kind of see their fair share of targets. We talked about this last week with the 49ers, although Dalton Schultz, of course, he lets me down. What do you know? That's when. That's what happens. You bet on a catch and fall down tight end to deliver is they lay an egg even in a prime matchup. But I still think that again, Theo Johnson is not that type of player. Like he can actually create yards after the catch and make big plays against the 49ers defense that doesn't have Fred Warner. You still want to target it with opposing tight ends. So I think that maybe I wanted to give more credit to Theo and Slayton just because when those guys have also been on the field, it has been more of a flat target chair and really hasn't been Wanda dominating the target. So that's why I have him closer to the mid range wide receiver.
- [38:24]
C
Three deep play stuff. The 49ers safeties are just garbage. Just Mustafa doesn't know what he's doing out there. They're not good in coverage, but Wandell has been the target monster. It's an interesting matchup. What do we do? I can kind of tell with Quentin Johnson anymore. We have completely fallen off from all the excitement. We're just donuts after donuts. ECR32. Fitz, you've got him at 32. Erickson, you're even lower. He is almost not a wide receiver.
- [38:51]
D
3.
- [38:51]
C
Erickson, let's go with you. Quentin Johnson looks like with Gadsden coming up in the offense, it is completely taken away from Johnson and he's in a spot where it's not Startable. That tier you guys just talked about, where it's like, where does it fall off? Johnson might be the start of the fall off here because, like, you feel like you want to say he's the very end, like, we'll take a shot. I don't think so. I think he might be the beginning of the fall off because it's like, where the hell is he going to get targets? Erickson?
- [39:16]
D
Yeah, I think that. Well, I want to give a shout out to dbro in the primer. I thought he did a great job of summarizing Quinn Johnson's matchup last week and how this just wasn't the spot for him with Johnson. Like, it's very matchup dependent and it's not even is this defense good or bad against wide receivers, it's, well, what kind of defense are they running? Single high? Like, is it zone? Is it man? Because Johnson has a very specific role in this Chargers offense. And with the emergence of all these of more of the underneath targets between Gadson and Kenan Allen and Lamb McConkey kind of doing what we expected him to do after what he did as a rookie, well, that's kind of leaving Johnston as the left out, essentially. It's obviously a good matchup. When you look at the Titans, the Titans just trade away half their secondary, right? Legerius Sneed is on injured reserves. So the Chargers, if they decide, hey, yeah, let's make it a Quentin Johnson game, however, if a team just traded away all of its personnel, what does that mean? They're probably just going to run a lot of basic zone coverage and just let's not get beat over the top. And unfortunately, that's kind of what Johnson's role has become. So as the guy with the longest adot more deep vertical routes, and that just doesn't bode well for him in this specific matchup. So I would definitely recommend whatever Deebo writes up pertaining to this specific game. It's probably going to be spot on. So that might be an additional layer of analysis. But just based on like what I've done, the Titans already use a lot of zone coverage. I would assume that this is not another Johnson week and you really need to wait. I mean, when you look at the schedule, it might be, hey, you might need to bench this guy till week 16 when they play the Dallas Cowboys, and then you just play him that week and he just goes like, absolutely nuclear. But besides that, I'm going to guess that this matchup is probably not going to be favorable. If you look at QJ versus just zone coverage. He's just a 14% target share, which is lower than the other two wide receivers and Gatson Fitzy.
- [40:58]
C
Is Quentin Johnston going to be Liam Neeson for Halloween? That he has a very specific set of skills that are never in play here. What do you think?
- [41:06]
A
Pretty much, yeah. I mean in addition to everything Erickson said about QJ versus zone and I agree. Check DBRO's primer for, for the good stuff on that. I was already feeling pretty uneasy about having to rank Quentin Johnston as a wide receiver two every week early in the season when he was putting up these great numbers and it seemed like we had to rank him that highly and make sure he was in our lineups every week. But the presence of lad McConkey and Keenan Allen always made Johnston's fantasy outlook seem sort of fragile. And now we've got a Ronda Gadsden the second stepping up and and giving the Chargers a fourth big time weapon for Justin Herbert. So I just, I don't want to overreact to the zero target game against the Vikings in Week 8 in a game where Justin Herbert didn't need to throw very much because the Chargers were in total command. But I do think, I just think the vol the production for QJ is going to be really volatile the rest of the way. Like we're going to get some splash games where he makes a big player to and then we're going to have some real quiet games where Herbert throws to the other guys and QJ just gets left out in the cold.
- [42:10]
C
One last one that we're going to hit. We'll do kind of a quick hitter on this one because is it Jameson Williams week? Is that what is officially been activated? He comes in as wide receiver 35 and both of you guys say no, no, you are like five or six spots higher. Fitzy, you've got him at 29. Erickson, you've got him at 30. Fitzy. Is it Jameson Williams week?
- [42:31]
A
I think it is and I'm not national holiday. I'm going to save the line about Ford Field for Erickson, but I'm just sticking to my priors here. Jameson Williams is good. His usage has been disappointing so far, but I would imagine that it was a focal point of the Lions bye week to try to scheme up ways to get Jameson Williams more involved in the offense. And the big plays are coming. I think they're going to come soon. And I'm not that worried about the matchup with the Vikings after how we saw the Vikings look against the Chargers in Week eight.
- [43:07]
C
Erickson, would you like to anoint this coming weekend officially Jameson Williams Week? You can just take a holiday because you can just make them up. You can just make up a national holiday. So would you like it to be officially Jameson Williams Sunday?
- [43:18]
D
I don't know what that entails necessarily. I don't know if we're going to get 100 like three touchdowns from Jameson Williams is because we know that the Lions like to establish the run whenever they get the opportunity to do so. And the Vikings also have faced the league's highest run rate this season. But if Jameson Williams can get it done on limited volume, I think he can. You look at the Vikings this year. Just a couple weeks ago, Jalen Hurts could do no wrong passing deep on this defense. I mean, Devonta Smith and A.J. brown were just cooking downfield. We know Jameson Williams can have a big role as a downfield threat. Vikings are 31st in deep passing EPA allowed this season. So I think this is a pretty obvious spot to get him going. I know it feels weird to chase a guy after he basically did nothing but the week before Jameson Williams had a really good game and was really productive against the Kansas City Chiefs. So yes, it's very ping pongy, but you got to play the matchups every single week with some of these receivers that are more volatile that don't see the consistent targets. And I think that the planets are at least aligning for this week to be a good JMO week versus the bad JMO week that we got before the bye week.
- [44:19]
A
Wait, Ford Field. Say the line, Bart.
- [44:21]
C
Yes, say it.
- [44:22]
D
Ford Field. Course field of the NFL. You always bet the overs, although the overs have not been hitting at nearly as high as a rate as I and my bankroll would like to like to see.
- [44:31]
C
All that means is we're due obviously do always do. All right, that is going to do it for the wide receiver ranks. If we did not end up like answering a question you might have had guess what? We've got you covered on our YouTube. We got to start and sit live stream where you can come bring any question you want. Thursday, 3pm Eastern. If you're on the podcast go to YouTube.com fantasypros make sure you're subscribed. Don't miss it. That's it for Fitzy and Erickson. I'm Welsh. Good luck this week. We'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.
- [45:00]
A
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.
- [45:03]
D
If you love the show, the Best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple podcasts@fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram and TikTok at fantasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
- [45:42]
E
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F
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G
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D
Nice.
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G
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A
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