Oh yes, it's time for the first batch of wide receiver rankings for the 2026 fantasy football season. Big question at the top, Hayden. Has the meta or strategy changed for drafting this position?

I think so because the elite wide receiver ones have not lost their value because when you start removing the wide receiver threes from being on the football field, all of a sudden the wide receiver ones get the ball more. So I don't think we should make any adjustments for like the top 10 12ish wide receivers in fantasy. But wide receiver two land, wide receiver three land, and then the further you could get down the bucket, it's really fallen off and we finally see price tags changing in baseball. And I think it's smart just because more tight ends are seeing the football field and we're running the ball more across the league and quarterbacks are running the ball themselves in the red zone instead of throwing touchdown passes more. So, it would make sense if fantasy wide receivers matter a little bit less in 2026 than they did 5 years ago. And it would also be nice if, you know, the top two round wide receivers wouldn't get hurt as often as they did. That that's a big change. But yeah, I mean, in many other seasons when the league was so passy, we could at least fall back on like a bit of a safety net of these slot wide receivers, these wide receiver threes on teams giving us some level of production. But as you all saw in the NFL draft, more and more teams aren't just focusing in on 12 personnel, also 13 personnel. And so, yes, you and I will be talking a lot this in season in stats versus film of, hey, who's that singular wide receiver that might be on the field of those three tight end sets, too.

Yep. And sometimes it's like a a blocking wide receiver that's out there anyways.

Exactly. So, like that even that it doesn't help us. So, we have to be very particular about who's going to be on the football field in 2026, which is kind of crazy. We had never had to like think that deeply at wide receiver.

Yeah. We we just did a running back rankings version of this, the top 55. Uh, I felt great about like the top 18 or 19. With that said, I do wonder if I'm gonna find myself when I get through a couple drafts starting running back running back saying I hate all my wide receivers. So, is it still worth it to draft, you know, a wide receiver in round one and then double tap running back knowing that we like so many after that and not just in the first round or the second round?

I think that's fair. Last thing I wanted to bring up is like maybe the last couple years we had a couple old wide receivers that were like aging out but they're like the stalworth of fantasy Cooper Cup, Mike Evans, you know, Devonte Adams, that kind of tier. I'm looking at the top 12, top 15 in my rankings. These guys are all like rookie contracts or just signed their second contract. So, we're not really worried about age as much anymore right now. It's kind of like the stable group towards the top and we don't have to like worry about age cliffs as much in wide receiver rankings.

All right, let's dive into it. Some very normal names here at the top. Uh, first is Jamar Chase for you. Any reason why?

Uh, pretty good football player. Uh, Joe Burrow's healthy right now. I was looking at the underdog pick and Bob. He's the only wide receiver projected for double digit touchdowns this year at 10 and a half. Uh, he was the target uh per game leader this past season. He's in the exceptional football player. If he's not the wide receiver one in a season, it's like wide receiver three or wide receiver five. So, um, as easy as it gets.

All right, Wide receiver two pretty easy as well. Puka Nakua Hayden, he didn't catch as many as Devonte Adams, but Puka Nakua did get more involved in the red zone in terms of scoring touchdowns. And when they're running it back with this entire offense, you would expect if everything, you know, is clean when week one kicks off that Puka Nakua might miss a game here or two, but uh, he is just an absolute baller on the field. The last eight games of the season, including the playoffs, he averaged 24.5 half BPR points. The second in their last eight games was Michael Wilson, which by the way, Michael Wilson, how crazy is that? At 17.7. So when Puka Nua is going, he is absolutely lapping the fields. Like only Jamar Chase can actually like dream of the ceiling that Pukua has. Obviously with the Matthew Stafford age and Pukanakua's crazy off season and stuff, I broke ties in favor of Jamar Chase, but really it's like to me these are the the top two guys.

And look, we were never going to move off of Pukanakua as a top three to five wide receiver asset. But the Rams did not invest in someone like Mai Lemon, for example, or Casey Conception, another one of these wide receivers. So it really is Pukanakua and Dvonte Adams and we're going to do this all over again.

All right, the third wide receiver for you is Jackson Smith and Jugba coming off of an incredible campaign and these are the top three projected wide receivers in terms of receiving yards in the pick lobby right now. In fact, JSN is number two at 1,324.

I mean, so many yards and that's that's a pretty big haircut for what he just did this last season. He was the wide receiver two right next to Puka Nua on a uh per game basis once you include the playoffs. Extremely efficient. There's not really a real target earner behind him. Uh the only thing I wanted to mention is we do have a new offensive coordinator. We really respect what Clint Kubak.

Which we know nothing about really.

Yeah, exactly. So I.

Because Clint Kubak just Sorry to cut you off. Clint Kubak at least we have had calling offenses in the NFL with New Orleans and prior to that with the Minnesota Vikings. I can't tell you that that's the case with this new guy.

Right. I'm expecting it's going to be a very balanced offense. Like this is a team that's built around the defense and I don't expect that to change all that much. Um JSN is going to have probably the highest target share in the NFL. They're probably not going to drop back all that much this season. He's in the prime of his career. Like really nothing too much should change. I'm not expecting to have the same exact season. It's hard to replicate that. Uh but these are like pretty clearly the top three guys and I I can listen to the order changing depending on your league format and your appetite for risk.

He had the highest target share of any player since at least the 2013 season this past year.

All right, before we move on, thank you for joining us for this episode, the Dynasty rookie rankings episode, the running back rankings episode. On top of that, uh we want to be the place that you get your fantasy football content all summer long and headed into the 2026 season. So, this content is totally free to all of you. Hit that subscribe button, leave a thumbs up so more and more people can find this channel while you draft this summer on the greatest platform that there is called Underdog.

All right, your wide receiver four is Aman Ross St. Brown. This is a layup. I mean, he's what been the wide receiver four it felt like like the last four seasons in a row. Um, like some minor changes, some new starting offensive lineman. Uh, new play caller once again, but this is the Aman Ross St. Brown offense. It's like Khalif Raymond uh as the the wide receiver or uh they lost Khif Raymond. It's like Isaac Tesla, but like the depth at the the wide receiver position is is still pretty weak. Jameson Williams coming on, Sam Laaporta coming on. Those type of guys are going to hurt his ability to be the wide receiver one overall. But I mean, we can just copy paste the target volume and his efficiency for like three straight seasons.

Justin Jefferson stands here at wide receiver 5. This is pretty important because Justin Jefferson, you got to scroll all the way down to find where Justin Jefferson finished last year as wide receiver 37 >> in points per game. That was with, you know, rotating chairs at the quarterback position, if you want to put it kindly. And now you and I are projecting Kyler Murray to win this battle outright in the summer and carry it on as the season goes along. And so that immediately vaults Justin Jefferson from wide receiver 37 to wide receiver five in your ranking.

This is a full bet on Justin Jefferson. And I think that Kyler Murray is maybe not an above average quarterback, but he kind of flirts with that bar. And I have full faith in Kevin O'Connell. And Kyler Murray wants to push the ball down the football field. So does Kevin O'Connell. So I think the return of the explosive plays is coming back from Justin Jefferson who I think is like tied for like the best wide receiver in the NFL still. So like don't want to overthink this one. I'm blaming this on the quarterback play mostly. And then I just think that Kyler Murray is actually a good fit for him. Like remember all those like DeAndre Hopkins like kind of just down the field back shoulder stuff. You can totally see Justin Jefferson vibing with that. So I think this is going to be a big rebound year for him.

Yeah. Hopefully those back shoulders are a lot better than Caler throwing to Marvin Harrison Jr. on those back shoulders.

Might be a Marv problem.

Worked out. Uh yeah, per our buddy Jared Smaller here, Justin Jefferson ranked fourth in expected touchdowns last year at 8.8, but then 70th in actual touchdowns at two. Uh and you saw a lot of that whenever you watched the red zone work here for the Minnesota Vikings.

All right, CD Lamb is your wide receiver six. And let's just throw in his running mate, too, because George Pickkins is your wide receiver seven. I'll say it, one of our best calls last offseason was telling everyone to draft George Pickkins. We got a lot of comments after week one against the Philadelphia Eagles that how dare you ask him to do that and then everyone was very happy towards the end of the season. So, uh, Hayden, why are these guys backtoback once again in your rankings? It's hard to kind of distinguish between the two because I I do think that CD Lamb is the slightly better player overall and I feel comfortable with his floor and at the same time George Pickins like f firmly like established himself as a legit wide receiver one himself. So last year is actually Pickkins who was outscoring CD Lamb. I think it's going to be a little bit closer. George Pickkins one of these guys where at any moment like he can be like traded away and stuff. I think that like wherever he could send off to if that does happen, it would not be as clean of a setup here. So, I did kind of break ties in in favor of CD Lamb here. But yeah, George Pickkins last year was a 17th overall player on a per game basis. CD Lamb was uh the 42nd overall player. I just feel better about Lamb's four.

Yeah. And if we look back at what CDAM has previously done, albeit not necessarily with a talent like George Pickkins next to him, he scored on a career low 4% of his receptions last year compared to his previous rate in his first five seasons uh at 7.7%. So should we should expect more touchdowns here for CD Lamb.

But I do I do think that CD Lamb could have been and and was the wide receiver one in like in contention. If Pickkins is there, I don't think like he really has like that range of outcome. So, I do think there's like a tier drop from the first couple guys into getting into the Justin Jefferson CD Lamb tier.

Drake London is your wide receiver eight here. Uh, we just went through the quarterback conversation with Justin Jefferson. Last year, we got it with Drake London with Michael Penn and Kurt Cousins and Drake London still bald at >> wide receiver 7. Hayden, we throw in Tuat Tonga Aoa and a new play caller and head coach and Kevin Sfansky and yet you expect him to basically finish exactly where he did last year. That's not a downgrade at all in your eye.

Um yeah, I'm not sure how much of a downgrade it is because Tua wants to throw the ball underneath and Drake London is kind of where that's where he wins, especially if they're going to do the slot stuff. Uh it's like what Zachariah Branch and Jan Dodson are like the new guys in the building. So, not there's like no target competition. I will mention Kyle Pittz has been like rumored as a potential like trade guy. I'm not sure if that's actually going to happen, but if they start removing Tyler Algier and the depth pieces like Darnell Moody and Kyle Pitts, like all of a sudden Drake Lynn is going to be in contention for like one of the highest volume plays. Uh so, like you said, wide receiver one on wide receiver seven expected points this last season in the prime of his career. Extremely good football player. Not that much target competition at all. for I don't like Tua as a um real life quarterback, but he he can give his number one wide receiver enough targets to to pay off here.

Nearly a 30% target share for him last year. No real pass catchers added. I mean, we can list the names, but we don't really have to list the names. Uh I will bring up that five of his seven touchdowns this past season were out of the slot. Whenever we go through stats versus film, uh I always bang the table for him to be utilized more in the slot. Remember, it was like a really slow start for him last year. Uh, and then Zack Robinson finally allowed him to play inside and we got like whenever he lined up there, he was getting the football and so hopefully Stfansky uh has brought in enough people around him to allow him to do that more often.

My last note of London, he's one of the only like wide receiver ones who had a negative completion percentage over expected. So like last year he was relentlessly missed. He has no business being in the negatives in that category. And I do think that for as much as we don't like to uh he's an accurate quarterback throwing the ball within 15 yards. And that's that's better than what Michael Pennix was last year. He was like very inaccurate. I would say.

Again, it is so hilarious to me that Kevin Sufansky drafts Dylan Gabriel and then the next spot he goes to just.

Tua.

Picks up Tua.

Get over here, bud. Yeah. It's like I want you to only do exactly what I say and I don't want you to have any physical traits to your game at all. That's it.

Mission accomplished. Uh yeah, the two other wide receivers on the team by the way for in agency, Jan Datson and Amad Zakius. And we know they added Zachariah Branch uh in the third round.

Yeah.

Okay. Malik Neighbors hopefully back to full health. Maybe a question on that as of right now if you listen to some of the beat writers. Uh is your a wide receiver nine? Yeah, he had 123 airs per game last year. Not many games, but that was going to be the highest in the NFL if he kept it up. It really just comes down to the injury. So, I think he's probably around 50/50 to be ready, like at full capacity in week one. Like, this thing could linger just a little bit just looking at like the complexity of his surgery and where he's kind of been. Maybe he's a little bit behind where we're typically seeing just looking at his brace and the way he's walking and whatnot. But by the end of the season, Blake Neighbors should absolutely be cooking. I love what they did with the offensive line, resign their right tackle, draft Francis Malinoa, who I projected as a guard at 10th overall. So, I think the line should be better. Jackson Dart going into second season should be better. And really, like the target competition is not scary still at all. If you add Isaiah likely, add Darnell Mooney, add Malachi Fields, like I mean, who cares? Like kind of across the board right there. If Malik Neighbors is ready to go, he does have like wide receiver one in his range of outcomes. But I think his best season will be like a year from now. Not this one though.

The foot injury is well I would just say the injury at large is what we're going to be paying attention to here with like neighbors during the summer. But hey, we've also, you know, done that in the past with a lot of these players and then once they hit the field, uh, they just dunk on all the rumors and mentions and reports and all that type of stuff and either ball out or don't. And so as much as time we're going to spend on, hey, is Malik Neighbors practicing today? Is he taking this one off? and all that type of stuff during preseason action. Uh in the end it might not matter.

Yeah. I mean he's the type of guy he's so athletic that he could rebound from this injury even if he was a little bit behind. And then also in week one if he catches a slant and takes it to the house we'll be like okay like.

Yeah.

I I I regret picking.

Also not a fan of Arvo Reese it sounded like on the draft coverage. Did you see that clip?

That was Yeah. I mean I wouldn't love if my star players were like live on the internet all the time. Um but I guess you have to deal with it.

Yeah. I mean that was a bleacher report one also these wide receivers let's not get on these like controversial streamers Twitch pages anymore on kick you know but that's just not.

Just be off the internet you won you you're making $30 million a year just you know go outside.

Yeah, we're trying to do that that's why we're on YouTube.

Yeah, don't be like us I would love to be neighbors come on.

All right, let's talk about a very questionable human being in uh Rishi Rice. I don't think I'm ruffling any feathers saying that but he's a ridiculous fantasy asset you know like when returning to the field last year in week seven, he was the wide receiver five in points per game. Now, again, we're dealing with some injuries here, but Rashi Rice went on the field in this Chief's offense, which once again added no one at pass catcher.

Uh has been a consistent top five fantasy option.

In his last eight game of the season, he was the wide receiver three in expected points, wide receiver six in actual points. Um they didn't do anything at wide receiver. like we kept mocking them wide receivers like they were in the mix for some wide receivers in free agency.

They're just running Taekwon Thornton and Xavier Worthy back and then an aging Travis Kelce. Uh so obviously the big thing is I think they're going to change the offense a little bit uh because of Kenneth Walker and they want to lean into the offensive line, but the reality is they got nobody. I mean for Rashid writes like all his warts you can potentially bring up in man coverage like it's one of these like truly who cares situations. The only addition was a fifth rounder in Cyrus Allen. Uh Hayden, if there were any bigger additions, I had a remember Jaylen Royals tweet in my drafts, but uh I didn't send it just in case.

Just in case something crazy happens this summer, but uh.

And I don't think he's going to get suspended or anything like that. The cases have been dropped and stuff. I think the NFL's like fully moved on.

All right, Nico Collins is the wide receiver 11. Nico is the freaking man. Uh, I just really hope at some point this Houston Texans offense gets it together for like a eightgame stretch. That'd be pretty cool.

Yeah, because he started off really hot. He across the season was the wide receiver 12 and wide receiver 10 usage. I think he's a better football player than those rankings, but last eight games of the season when CJ Strad was struggling. He was actually the wide receiver 16 on wide receiver 22 usage. They didn't really like bring like crazy additions in. Uh perhaps Tank Dell is back this year after like a truly like really nasty injury, but the offense going to roll through him. It just sounds like they're going to be extremely balanced. Their defense like might might have gotten better uh with Kaden McDonald, the second round defensive tackle, and then their first rounder is like a mauling guard converted to center. So, we're talking about like a rookie center. It there seems like they want to double down on this like downhill rushing style offense with David Montgomery. So, I'm a little bit worried that the Nico Collins like it'll be pretty volatile. I think on average he'll still be like a top 12ish receiver, but he's just not like going to get like the 10 targets per game like a lot of the guys that we just mentioned do.

In the underdog pickum lobby, he's actually eighth in projected receiving yards this season uh at over,00 yards. Um that's more than Rashi Rice and Malik Neighbors that we just talked about and George Pickkins as well. Uh, a quick note here on Tank Dell. I He hasn't played football in a long time. I still think people mischaracterize him. Like he's being listed on our lads, for example, as their slot wide receiver. Uh, he's more of a competition to me for like Jay Higgins than Jaylen Nolles. Uh, where he's an outside wide receiver who runs some of the best outbreaking routes. Again, who knows what he's going to be coming back from this major leg injury, but that's where Tankdale was doing most of his damage was as an outside wide receiver during his rookie season.

Yeah. And just for you guys who forgot, Tink Dell is a dislocated knee. Like not the kneecap, like the entire knee was dislocated. Like th those are historically career enders. He's so young and so athletic. There's a chance he can fight back. Um but I would be absolutely stunned. It' be one of the coolest stories if he can get back to where he was. I'm I don't expect it though.

Tedo McMillan is your wide receiver 12, the rookie of the year. Finished last year as the wide receiver 25 in points per game. How are you expecting this big of a jump?

Well, it's a year two player. I've really believed in him. The last eight games of the year, he he finished as the wide receiver 20. So, we're not like extrapolating that crazy of a jump here at all. Um, I think he's really good and I think if you read kind of like the the transactions that the the Panthers have had this off season, they're a little bit more athletic at center. Uh, and obviously they're trying to throw the ball down the field a little bit more if you're looking at the Chris Brazzle selection as well. Also, I think there's some signs they get rid of Rico Dael, don't really add somebody. There might be some signs that this team is going to pass the ball a little bit more and kind of open things out, spread things out for Bryce Young. Um, and man, I think McMillan's like a total stud. So, like there's a Drake London kind of range of outcomes here where I'm not pricing that pricing it in that that's for sure going to happen, but it would definitely not be a surprise if he was among the league leaders uh and targets this season. Speaking of Drake London, there were a couple games where T-Mac got into the slot and he was just a true mismatch there, too. Okay. Uh along with being a nice intermediate downfield receiver. Did an interview about a week and a half ago and said he played last season at around 205 pounds. Then this off seasonason put on an extra 10 to 15 pounds because that was his playing weight at Arizona. He said last year during his rookie season he just wasn't able to get his weight back.

Uh I thought he looked big last year. I he as we saw in the playoffs, too powerful to shove off that uh not the playoffs, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back. So, it'll be fascinating to see if he can keep on an extra 10 pounds to his weight here, too.

You hear that story a lot, especially for rookies, like that rookie wall. It's like you can't maintain your weight and you're just like running all day and like it's hard to like just keep it on. So, yeah, I I do like the call.

Wide receiver 13, T. Higgins. Hope he's healthy. Hope Chase is healthy. Hope Burrow is healthy for the entire season because if that's the case, uh we have seen T. Higgins be a top five fantasy wide receiver.

Yeah, last year he finished as the wide receiver 11 per game. Over the last eight games of the season, that was wide receiver seven right there. This offense is so so so sick right now. They they figured out their short yardage rushing situation which has helped them like maintain first downs and then they're going to throw the ball like crazy with Joe Burrow and everybody healthy going into this off seasonason. So, this is where he is. He with Jamar Chase healthy, he's a upside wide receiver, too. And then the second Jamar Chase misses any times, we'll be ranking T. Higgins as a top five guy. So, it's like one of the safest and one of the highest uh upside picks that you can make.

All right, Chris Olive finished last year as wide receiver nine in points per game. And here he lands as your wide receiver 14. I would say another big win for us last offseason. I go back to our show that we had with Ryan Heath who pointed out the first downs per route run stat and Chris Olive was kind of the sleeper of that list and that turned into truth. We'll do that show again this summer with Ryan Heath and I'll throw that stat out here with in a moment with some other players on this list. But Chris Olive um you know handpicked to continue on in this new trajectory of the Saints with Tyler Shuck and now Jordan Tyson. Yeah, he's fifth in targets per game last year and second in air yards per game, which is just an amazing profile. The only reason why I have him ranked lower uh this year than last season is because Jordan Tyson's like way better than what they were trotting out there this last season in terms of like projected volume. I love Rasheed Jah, but that was half the season and Rasheed uh has only been a like low volume player. And I think that Jordan Tyson if he hits it's more like a volume hog work like 12 yards and in type of wide receiver. Um so I just think that maybe the targets go down a little bit. You get Travis Hin in there. Um where I just think that the the volume might just come down for Chris Ave one tier. He's an amazing football player and Tyler Shuck has passed the the smell test to me so far and I like Kell Moore. though that there's a a re very reasonable floor here.

And I'm sure producer Weaves has thrown this graphic on the screen. But why we like Kell Moore as with the Cowboys and the Chargers and the Eagles is they run a ton of plays. They have super high pace and that is the one thing that he's carried with him everywhere. And you know stuff with Spencer Rattler because if you look in the entire season was not good and then with Tyler Shuck it was a lot better. So I wouldn't say it wasn't good. it just was kind of average and now it really like catapulted itself into a better uh section.

Okay, Devonte Smith's in a new role here and he's your wide receiver 15. What do you expect out of wide receiver one Devonte Smith?

I think he'll clearly be the top wide receiver on the team. AJ Brown's out of there and I love Mai Lemon, but Dvonte Smith I I think is like flirting with like top 10 status if you're like trying to like draft like as a NFL GM. Um, and then whenever AJ Brown has not been uh around, he completely goes crazy. So, the offense, I think the only way you can read into like the the new coaching staff is it can only get more pass heavy. It's hard to become like more runheavy than what they've been. So, I think the only way that you should be like changing your opinion on the play caller, it's a new play caller. We have no idea about him, is most likely it's going to result in more pass attempts. Um, and I think there's a chance maybe fewer tush push situations where Dvonte Smith can start scoring some more points. He's very up and down on a week- toeek basis, but that's always only because of the volume. And I think that we have that solved this year.

I think Don Dvonte Adams can do everything on the field. Uh, I will say some of the players that they brought in in Mai Lemon and Eli Sour can do real damage over the middle of the field, which might not perfectly align with the quarterback, but Dvonte Smith is the one that can like get vertical on those single high looks if they can force those more often this year. So, Devonte in those one-on-one situations, uh, outside the hashes, outside the numbers even is something that I love about his game. He plays so long. So long.

All right, AJ Brown fittingly is your wide receiver 16. Are you projecting this with him as a member of the New England Patriots with Drake May?

Yes. Yeah, of course. Um, which I think is probably an upgrade for him like you have a better quarterback uh team that's going to be more pass heavy. I think once they bring AJ Brown in, they might send Kahan somewhere else. Um, it's going to be AJ Brown for as much volume as as you can get. Sounds like it's gonna be uh a 2028 first rounder is kind of what Shfter was saying. So not 2027, like another year in advance. Um that's still big time draft capital. So uh the Patriots are going to try to get as much as they can. Obviously Brown and Vable's connection is going to help them out. And uh we saw Drake May, he was exceptional everywhere last year, but him throwing the ball down the football field like that was the reason why uh he's like an MVP type of candidate. And obviously we haven't seen that from AJ Brown for a little bit. I I do worry that the knees and the hamstrings and everything maybe is not the same level of explosiveness, but I do think that he's going to be a good match with Drake May.

Yeah, he had a career low in yards per route run last year, but that was still 17th among all wide receivers. So, it's like his worst is still pretty damn good.

It's insane.

Across the NFL.

Okay, we need a big bounceback season here from Lad Manki. And maybe you could say a couple percentage points dropped in terms of like onfield talent and just skill, but I I think it was just a weird case of variance that lasted like the entire season and no Kenan Allen right now. And we get Mike McDaniel calling plays in comparison to what Greg Roman last year. So that's a huge boost I think for ladaki stock. I don't think Keenan's going to return just looking at the rest of their roster. And I think that the the new coaching staff is going to value what Lad McConi brings to the table more so than what Greg Roman. Uh just looking at like, it's not going to be the totally different quarterbacks, but if you're looking into the wide receivers, there's a lot of Lad McConi and the Tyreek and Jaylen Wadd types and they would get him them on like bubble screens, a lot of RPO slant types. we just did not see nearly as many like you know not manufacturer touches but like underneath touches for Lad Mcconkey this previous season and that's where he was going absolutely crazy and then he only had one and a half uh targets per game that were over 15 air yards and there's no reason it should be that low either. I I think that the volume's going to come around this year because McDaniel knows ball and I think that Greg Roman was like really kind of hamstrung just by the offensive tackles that he had and hopefully that all fixes itself this year. I'm also really excited to see what Mike McNo does with a quarterback like Justin Herbert compared to the Tua stuff which many years it was awesome, you know, scoring production, but that was all like timing based and landmarks and again some hey look over here and then we're going to throw it over here or go in this direction.

Um I just wonder if it's going to be more of like a not traditional drop back passing game. Yeah. Yeah.

But if it's less reliant on, okay, if it's not open at this point, then the play's over, oh, you have a phenom at quarterback, and we can just do more and more and more things.

Chargers were third slowest in seconds elaps per play. Um, and I just don't think that's going to be the case here.

Garrett Wilson is your wide receiver, 18. This is with Gino Smith and Frank Reich and a uh filled barn of skill position players here. So, uh what are you expecting with Garrett Wilson?

He's a player where he's had like the worst situation around him that you really can't even take what he's done throughout his NFL career and kind of like apply it, especially when you have a new coaching staff, new quarterback, new receivers and stuff. So, this is a completely just like vibes-based ranking. I think he's really good still. Um, and if he is as good as I I think he can be, it's in the way where he can get a bunch of volume. And I'm hoping that Gino Smith last year it was just that the coaching staff like was not prepared. Now I don't feel great about Frank Reich. Uh, I will admit, but one of these years he's got to go absolutely crazy. Like he's way too good. Um, and I think that Omar Cooper is like an a nice ad, but he I didn't view him as a first round wide receiver. And then I think Kenyan Sadi, I think if he does hit his ceiling, I think it's going to take a couple years just based off of his tape at Oregon. So I think this would be the year where he can kind of put things together.

It's interesting looking at the ADPs right now over an in underdog, which by the way, you can draft at this very moment. If you're, you know, waiting for your coffee or at the beach and wanting to avoid family, just go and draft. The link's in the description down below. Um AJ Brown's being selected one spot ahead of Devonte Smith and then here with Garrett Wilson, you are right in line with ADP basically as wide receiver 17 overall and you're a couple spots ahead on L Manki as your 17th wide receiver and he's going 20th.

All right, let's talk about Jaylen Wadd. And I'm like having to scroll down to see where Jaylen Wadd is here. Wide receiver 24 and you're wide receiver 19. So this is your biggest onion hanger so far here, Hayden. Why do you love the fit so much with uh let's say Davis Web and the Denver Broncos? Well, I think Jaylen Waddle is just an exceptional football player and we have not really seen that because of some injuries and then how just like stale that offense was with Tua and I just think that the downfield opportunities are way back like Tua just did not have the arm strength or the ability to buy enough time to throw the ball down the football field and that's exactly what Bo Nicks uh has done um when he's been healthy. So, they traded the what the 30th overall pick for him. like that's a big investment. They're going to be paying him a ton of money over the next couple seasons. I think I really appreciated what Courtland Sutton did. Like maybe more so than anybody, but I think Courtland Sutton's his game's not going to be um in a volume based way now that they have Jaylen Wadd. Like he's the Joker. Like we've been waiting for who's Shawn Payton's Joker. It's Jaylen Wadd. It's not the Evan Ingrams. It's not RJ Harvey. It's Jaylen freaking Waddle. Think all the bubble screens that we've seen from Marvin Mims and Troy Franklin, those go to Jaylen Wadd. And those big crossers where Bo Knicks is escaping from the pocket and throwing the ball downfield, those are to Jaylen Wadd. I think there's a huge fantasy football ceiling here. And I want to grade this uh thing really positively.

Yeah, we'll talk about this tomorrow or Friday in the quarterback ranking show. Did you see that uh Bon Knicks is having a secondary surgery like this time on his knee to clean up? I believe.

Yeah. Uh makes me a little bit nervous. I saw somebody floated out from someone from the Steelers um media was like, "Hey, I wonder if they feel, you know, Shawn Peyton and Aaron Rogers want to link up if this Bo Knicks thing is going sideways." I think that's a very low outcome, but it was interesting.

Yeah, but we love rumors this time of year, that's for sure.

Zay Flowers is your wide receiver 20. Uh Declan Doyle as the offensive play caller. Very little to be known about him. It's the first time he's going to be calling plays in the league. But, um, Zay Flowers is going to remain as the wide receiver one here for the Ravens. And they've even dropped some tight ends along the way.

I think a very good off seasonason for Z Flowers. I thought he took a step up this last season. Maybe shown a little bit more physicality and a little bit more streamlined route running. Um, and then at the same time, the offense is likely to get a maybe a little bit faster and a little bit more pass heavy just because we've been dealing with uh Todd Mon and then before that, uh, Greg Roman and, you know, Ben Johnson styled offense, not necessarily really fast, but they do target their slot wide receivers, uh, a ton, and I think that's safe flowers. So, they got better on the offensive line, spent the 14th overall pick on a guard. Um, and then they didn't really add much target competition. And I'm a little bit nervous about Mark Andrews just like the state of Mark Andrews. That last year you're like watching a totally different football player and they don't really have a lot of depth. And even if like Elijah Serat and Jacobe Lane hit, it's going to be in a low volume way. Like you're not going to like throw, you know, nine targets a game to like a back shoulder specialist. So the ball is going to go to Z Flowers.

Can I be a bit of a Debbie Downer here? Uh, I like Z Flowers. I can see him, you know, finishing in this range. I know last year he finished as the wide receiver 14 in points per game. I kind of wonder if he ever has like a top eight wide receiver season.

I agree with that. I agree.

Because he just is not a red zone target for this team at all. Like last year he had 10 red zone targets. That's the same number as Malik Washington had. Uh the same number that Ashen Genty and RJ Harvey had. Isaac Tesla also had 10. and he just had one red zone touchdown. And so we either need like those long bombs from Lamar Jackson to hit uh or you know, Dean Dor would change things up. But I just don't think that in condensed fields that Z Flowers is ever going to be like a real go-to player for this team.

And he is one of these like negative regression candidates if you're looking at completion percentage over expected. His was at like plus 10% which is like equivalent to like what a MVP quarterback would be. And then uh more simple stat here is to use the wide receiver 13. But my usage model made him the wide receiver 28 last season. So kind of splitting the difference there. He's a very good football player, but like inside the 10 yard line, obviously you're not gonna throw it to a 5'6 wide receiver.

Okay, let's talk about Jameson Williams. It was an up and down rocky season. Uh we know change of play caller, then got him on the drag routes that we want, the end breakers that we want and kind of unlock that. And you know, I think two reasons why Dan Campbell hired someone like Drew Petting is he probably sat him down. And he's like, "Look, we can't have just everything go through Aman Ross Brown. We have Jamir Gibbs utilize him to the max and then we have this guy in Jameson Williams who is one of the most explosive players in the league on a weekly basis. We need to get him at least five to seven targets."

In the last eight games of his season, he was the wide receiver 15 on wide receiver 17 usage. Like that was a a a really nice stretch of him getting the ball. and they do such a good job for somebody that does not get the slot snaps. Most of his or not most, but a large majority of his targets are actually over the middle where it's the most efficient stuff. So, you're not seeing a bunch of like back shoulder fades for JMO. It's all these crossing routes and slant routes where he can take it to the distance. So, uh I feel really good about Jameson Williams right here. Like a a floor hasn't been established. The only wrinkle that you can put into this is new offensive line just like maybe things don't shake up. I thought last year's offensive line was pretty overrated. The real one's just Sam Leaporta being fully healthy because Leaporta missed a lot of time this last year and Leaporta is a really good football player and I do think those two guys compete a little bit. Um, so I I knocked him down like a little bit from that, but it Jameson Williams a very real football player.

DJ Moore is a Buffalo Bill and he ranks here as your wide receiver 22. What are your expectations?

They got to get him the ball a lot because they invested a lot of picks and then a crazy extension on top of it. So DJ Moore, I think you can get him in the like some of the Cleo Shakir manufactured touches and I think that they will off offset a little bit of the Shakir stuff for DJ Moore. And then the best DJ Moore seasons to me have been like down the football field scramble drill type of situations and obviously you're expecting Josh Allen to be really good at those. So, uh, I think as much as I didn't like the trade for the Buffalo Bills, I mean, it would be a pretty big surprise if DJ Moore could not pull it off, um, in fantasy football land. So, I'm a little bit worried that the last season was so much worse than the previous seasons, but I think we're going to get a big rebound, um, with the Bills.

Okay, let's talk about Emecha Eggbuka again from our buddy Jared Small here. 74% of his targets through week six last year were deemed catchable. And we all know how he almost had the inverse uh post by buy rookie bump season where his best stuff was in this opening six weeks of the year and then that dropped down to 50% from week seven on and his fantasy stats uh followed suit. So this is year two Ibuka it was a real jackal and hide situation not just with him but with the offense and the quarterback play. So, are we going to see a stable player? Because he was kind of deemed as a stable player coming out of Ohio State.

I think he will stabilize here. I think them losing Mike Evans is a big deal. Um, I do think that there's a chance Chris Godwin has a little bit of a re uh rebound season just because he's.

You know, entering the season healthier than he was previously, but I don't think that Chris Go is going to go back to where he was averaging like what nine 10 targets per game. So I think the most likely outcome is Amecha does establish himself as the top guy.

Um, it is crazy the stats that he had late late in the season. So I have 122 qualifying wide receivers for their last eight games of their seasons. He was 117th in efficiency, which is like my model versus how many fantasy points they scored. 117 out of 122. He was the wide receiver 87 over his last eight games. So we need a monster return from AMCA.

Uh, he's gonna play probably a little bit more outside than I think that he should just because of, you know, Chris Godwin's presence there, but Baker should be healthier. Baker should play better football this year. Um, the defense is a lot better, so I think the Bucks will be more watchable in general. I think things will kind of establish here. Zack Robinson last year with the Falcons did not have three usable wide receivers, you know. So, I kind of wonder how he's going to manufacture this offense with three guys who can get the football.

>> So, >> that's the most vanilla take you'll ever hear on the show. >> Mike Evans is your wide receiver 24. Speaking of, uh, and Mike Evans is now a San Francisco 49er, so we know he's going to miss a handful of of games. Uh, the hamstring thing has literally lasted six or seven seasons at this point, but boy, does he bring a different dimension to Kyle Shanahan's offense, right?

So, this thing could go obviously either way. We have the injury. We also have the age cliff concerns with Mike Evans. Uh, obviously last year was not the most efficient season from him. Uh, negative 8.6 six completion percentage over expected among the worst, but that is largely, I think, a Baker Mayfield problem. Uh, he's healthy like right now and if things go well, we're talking about, you know, the Shanahan offense, which is always cooking at the top of efficiency metrics. So, I think whenever he's out there, he's going to be easily the number one guy in targets. Uh, they want to scale back Christian McCaffry's workload a little bit. George KD is expected to be back there for week one, but we're talking about an older tight end who's coming off a torn Achilles. So, I I think that's just going to be Mike Evans kind of running away with it. And I think Ricky Paw is like a nice player, but not a volume guy. Like his best stuff's like big drag or big crossing routes and whatnot. So, I do think Mike Evans can kind of do a little bit of everything still. So, for as long as he's healthy, I think that we're going to want him in our fantasy lineups.

>> Speaking of age, Cliff, next up is Devonte Adams. He's your wide receiver 25. You're a couple spots ahead of consensus there. Uh, I think I could easily make the case that he should be ranked ahead of Mike Evans. And then I could also easily make the case that he should not be. He was awesome last year in terms of touchdowns through week 15 all wide receivers in scores with 14. And you can say that that can regress possibly. Uh, but this is the Rams and it's also a team that just freaking loves to throw the football inside the 10 yard line. as we saw Stafford and Devonte Adams kind of had that mindmeld where it's a run called that then they switch when they get you know isolated coverage and that's often a touchdown pass. At the same time it is kind of on my radar that after just one season and a very productive one at that Shawn McVey was making calls and even told Devonte that hey uh if we got AJ Brown you might not have been on this team anymore.

>> Yeah. At the same time they didn't add anybody at wide receiver at all. like it it's making me nervous how little they added at wide receiver for the Rams side, but for Dvonte Adams, it's great news for him. I mean, he slowed down by the end of the season. So, the last eight games, he was the wide receiver 22 across the entire season. He was the the wide receiver nine. So, there's some concerns there. He was clearly dealing with that hamstring injury late in the season where even if he wasn't fully missing a game, he was kind of like taking some plays off. So,

>> that's a risk. Uh, there's also some some upside if he's not dealing with those injuries. So, I think it's just like how I said with Mike Evans, I think when he's healthy, I'll rank him as a top 20 wide receiver and then you have to price in that he's more likely to get injured. I think his quarterback's more likely to get injured. So, for seasonl long rankings, he he goes down a tier.

>> Based on everything so far, I think the market has Tara McLaren maybe the most mispriced and he's sitting right here as wide receiver 26. He's basically the only wide receiver on this team. some might argue the only pass catcher on this team. And if we get a healthy Jaden Daniels behind, you know, a heavily invested offensive line, we've already heard his new play caller and David Blau say, quote, "This thing's going to be built around how do we get Terry 10 targets a game." Music to my ears.

>> He had 5.9 targets per game last year. So, that would be almost twofold. Uh, that would be nice.

>> Play caller.

>> It would it would be nice. Uh, you've convinced me. How How much higher should I go? him versus how two old guys or ahead of DJ Moore maybe.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. Let's go Terry ahead of >> DJ Moore. Just to update you guys on the Brandon Iuk situation.

>> The 49ers know that the Commanders want Brandon Iayuk. They've already paid him all of the money. So, there's no incentive for the 49ers to release Brandon Iayuk. The longer they wait, the more likely the commander is going to say, "You know what? I'm going to send you a seventh round pick." Which would help the 49ers financially. So, if this pattern holds, there's no reason to believe that the 49ers are going to get rid of him until like September 1st. And if that's the case, like it's like Brandon Iayuk off the freeway uh trying to enter into an offense that's like completely changed this offseason. I think it's a lot to ask. So, I think it's a sharp play to just like double down on Terry McLaren. Uh, and Aayou can't be practicing until he's on his new team, you know, his

>> and who knows where he is.

>> Yeah, he has he's gonna be on a stream somewhere. Like, really? He's gonna show up on a stream somewhere.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay, next up you have Carno Tate, the first rookie on this list as wide receiver 27. Again, hopefully you tuned into our dynasty rookie rankings for your rookie drafts out there. Uh, why see Tate at 27?

>> I think he's a really good prospect. He was nitpicked by the analytics community. Uh, but I think once you add the context of who's competing with targets and how young he is and he's a five-star and how good the tape is, I think that he looked like a really good prospect. Maybe pretty close to Tedoa McMillan this last year. So, his his closest comps were to me were like Tedo McMillan, Chris Olive, Garrett Wilson, Drake London, Roma Dun. Those guys finished as the wide receiver 24, wide receiver 24, 30, uh, 41, and then Adun was the wide receiver 61 during the rookie season. So, we're talking about like a wide receiver three to wide receiver four is most likely I think he's going to dominate targets here. Um, Calvin Ridley I think has fallen off and then Juan Del Robinson's going to get some targets here but in the red area and whatnot. It's going to be all Carnell Tate. So, it's like what's our evaluation of Cam Ward? I think it'll get a lot better uh this next season. I don't think that Carninal Tate has a crazy upside as a rookie. Um, but I do think there's more volume potentially here. I think his route running showcased more inbreaking, outbreaking routes. Uh, and he just didn't need to get spam targets because he had Jeremiah Smith in Ohio State was blowing everybody out.

>> Okay. I think I set the odds at about minus 1,000 that you would have Luther Burton under consensus here. Uh, he's being drafted as wide receiver 21, which even as his biggest fan, that that is pretty rich. But you have him here as wide receiver 28. So, just talk to me about what you're seeing with Luther Burton heading into his second season.

>> Yeah, it was a promising rookie season from him for sure. or like the athleticism fully translated. He was not uh causing problems during during the season it didn't seem like. Uh and then they get rid of DJ Moore to like fully open up. Luther Burden, Coulson Lovel, and Roma Dunzi. Those are three young players. I think all three of them have immense talent. Uh and we'll just see where the ball goes. I feel best about Coulson Lovelin. Like I know he's going to be a superstar. I think that Luther Burton has that chance. he was not like pigeon holed as a slot guy last year either, which was uh really nice for him. So yeah, there's a he has a crazy upside here as well. And then at the same time, the last eight games he was the wide receiver 32 and wide receiver 36 usage. Um so I'm kind of sticking kind of in the middle here. I I think he's g a lot of hype. Uh and I don't want to like fully discount that Roman Dunes wasn't, you know, he was a top 10 pick himself.

>> right? I think my counter to what you just said on the second half of the season is his role is just like basically completely changed now. Like when they drafted him, everyone said, "Well, he's just going to be the Lama Day Zakius." Not you, just everyone uh else. Uh to me, he was always going to be the DJ Moore replacement. And for a team that we think is going to live out of 12 personnel a lot, it's him versus Khalif Raymond >> in two wide receiver sets. And so Luther Burn's going to be out there all the freaking time. And you know, his 2.69 69 yards per route run is top five among rookie wide receivers since like 2014. I understand like the final three games that was not good and that was not the case. It was 1.5, 1.2 and then point8 yards per route run. So like the playoffs were were not great for him.

>> But at the same time he also fits in this first down reception rate uh you know per route run where he was 12th in the NFL last year on among players who had 200 plus routes. So, I think there's a ton of underlying metrics and that doesn't even point to how just freaking sick he is with the ball in his hands and I think how much Ben Johnson absolutely loves him as a player.

>> Only thing I'll say about the per route numbers is he had like a what a 60-yard touchdown or something like that off of like a flea flicker and then he was getting some manufacturer touches as he was kind of being brought along. So, I think he's one of those guys where like as you uh get him on the field more his per route numbers are going to come down a little bit. That said, like 2.6 six yards per route run is like incredible, incredible stuff. So, I don't want to nitpick that too much. He's just one of these guys where like you extrapolate does not mean he's going to be wide receiver five in yards per route uh in his second season. That sounds crazy.

>> Okay. Christian Watson came back in just a massive way when he rejoined the field in week eight. He was the wide receiver 19 in points per game the rest of the way. Uh, we already know that Romeo Dobs is off this team. They are basically down to three wide receivers out after also trading away Dantavian Wixs. So when Christian Watson, even dating back to his rookie season, when he is on a hot streak, he is on a freaking hot streak. At the same time, I think he won in different ways last year than he's ever shown his career previously.

>> Yeah, he still had a 16.1 average depth of target and I think that's always going to be how his uh bread gets buttered. But they've really cleared out the the depth at wide receiver and I think all these guys instead of being a rotation is just going to be like the top three guys and that's just kind of what it is and we should see more targets in general. Tucker Craft comes back from injury. He was really really good but uh that's a big injury to be coming back from and Christian Watson was completely balling out uh down the stretch there. So he's always going to be one of these guys that's like better in baseball. Uh, but I feel really good about him in the prime of his career. I feel good that he's going to be in two wide receiver sets. I feel great about Jordan Love with Laflur. So, uh, this is kind of where he's been. Um, like I try to like kind of smooth out some of these downfield throws that he has, but he was the wide receiver 14 over the last eight games of the season. So, this might be too low.

>> Roma Dunce is next. Uh, this is kind of the roller coaster portion of all these wide receiver ranks. Uh, you'll you'll tend to note because he was a wide receiver 10 in points per game weeks one through eight before a reported heel injury that he tried to play through and really couldn't get to 100% with. At the same time, he was I think 72nd uh among all wide receivers in terms of catchable targets that went in his direction. And then there were also plenty of other opportunities when there were catchable passes that he did not come up with. Yeah, he was, I thought, really frustrating and I would say quite frankly like disappointing on tape. I thought that the contested catch stuff in his hands in general, ball tracking was just like not where it needed to be. And he did seem like one of these guys that was like not always on the same page in zone coverage and that could be a Caleb Williams problem. But typically, it's not the quarterback, it's it's the wide receiver at at fault there. So, I think he's immensely talented when you watch him like for how big he is on some of these in cuts and curl routes. Like the way he can drop his hips and like come back to the football at that size to me is really impressive. But like you said, it was just the efficiency was so bad. So he was the wide receiver 15 in usage last year, which is like that's a sign that there could be a huge season coming, but he's only the wide receiver 27 in actual half PPR points per game. So I think there's like the same like upside case can be made with Odun as Luther Burden. Um, there's maybe a little bit more proof of concept with with Luther Burden last year, but Roma Dunay is a total stud. If you can just get the the ball tracking in zone field taken care of, then I think there's a huge upset here.

>> All right, Alec Pierce is next. He got paid millions of dollars and did not show up on streams this summer. Shout out to you, Alec Pierce. Um, and what a season for him last year. I mean, if we look from, I don't know, week nine and on, he had weeks of wide receiver 15, 14, 13, four, and then week 18 when it really shouldn't count for wide receiver production, uh, in terms of fantasy football. Wide receiver two >> that week.

>> Um, they also traded away Michael Pitman Jr. and brought in absolutely nothing. That's Nick Westbrook, Aeen, and then a seventhrounder in Deion Burks. So, we know how hot this Colts offense was, and for many reasons, it was hot because of Alec Pierce and those downfield shots. The question is, can that repeat itself after everything this team went through at the end of last year? I think the efficiency stuff's going to come down for sure, just because it's, you know, that was the best ball Daniel Jones has ever played. And he's coming off of a torn Achilles, and it's his right foot. And the theory is that's the foot that you're using to explode as a passer, your back foot. So there could be some downfield uh weaknesses from Daniel Jones this year. That said, he averaged 104 air yards per game last year. So they went Malik Neighbors, Olive, Puka, Dvonte Adams, Cidam, Alec Pierce was next, then followed by Roma, JSN, Mike Evans. So he was getting the ball down the football field a ton. I think that like you said with Michael Pitman uh being out of there, targets like in general targets are going to come up here. Did want to note he had a ankle procedure done this month kind of out of the blue to us. Uh that's the recovery time was three months. There's more than three months before week one, but like all of a sudden like three month recovery time in the middle of the offseason. Like if they knew they had to do this, like why not do this earlier on? Just like something that's like the culture of the team is like everything can go wrong this season, right? You know, like every >> when it goes right, they are the number one offense in the NFL.

>> So we're firmly in the boom bust tier. Um, and if I do think if he's on the football field in training camp and the ankle problem's not a concern, I do think I'll probably move him up like five, six spots.

>> Well, you're already ahead of consensus. He's wide receiver 33 on, excuse me, 34 on underdog right now and you have him as wide receiver 31.

>> Okay. Brian Thomas Jr. I mean,

>> Hayden fantasy community at large loves to draft secondyear wide receivers. They did that last year with LAD and Neighbors and BTJ and they got sucker punched in the face. So, what are you expecting now from year three Brian Thomas Jr.?

>> I think he's still really good at football. I think that he has a huge uh like spike week potential. I'm running out of reasons to believe that the volume is going to be there on a weekly basis because that's what Jacobe Myers and I'll say especially Parker Washington were bringing to the team >> late in the football field uh late in the football season. And then the big thing is obviously when Jacksonville is burning second round picks on blocking only tight end prospects, we have to envision that the amount of three wide receiver sets that they were running last year is probably going to come down. The only way you can justify it is uh if we're playing all these tight ends. I'm not 100% convinced Brian Thomas is going to be out there in two wide receiver sets. I think it's maybe likely, but it's not a guarantee because Jacobe Myers is such an asset blocking. Um and then we haven't even brought up Travis Hunter. Like it seems like John Shipley is not believing uh the national reporters that he's like only going to be a corner. He still thinks there's going to be some wide receiver stuff involved. And then Jackson wide receiver stuff involved might be like 10 snaps per game though. I don't think it's going to go back to you know >> this entire plan of building the passing attack around Travis Hunter and him getting you know wide receiver one nod during the by-week because that was a crossroads moment for his entire career because >> you know they wouldn't beat the 49ers without Travis Hunter. They wouldn't beat the Chiefs without Travis Hunter's big plays. Then he got all the coach speak and the squeaky wheel stuff during the by-week and then he has that knee injury and right after that they make the trade for Jacobe Myers, you know.

>> Um, and what Jacobe Myers brought to this team and Parker Washington is what Brian Thomas Jr. couldn't. And that's just toughness over the middle of the field. Like we saw in the preseason, we saw in the regular season where Brian Thomas Jr. got alligator arms and just was not tough enough when going through trash and critical key routes that are like the foundation for a Liam Cohen passing attack. He he was not converting those. And so I think he needs to do that in training camp. He needs to do that in preseason and in early parts of the regular season or I'm kind of with you. I wouldn't be surprised if we do see a two wide receiver set of Jacobe Myers and Parker Washington instead. And then last eight games of the season once we had Meyers and Parker Washington coming on it was Parker Washington was wide receiver 20 in expected points. Jacobe Meyers wide receiver 18, Thomas wide receiver 57. So

>> yep,

>> I really want to believe that Brian Thomas could be like an exceptional football player. He might be one of these guys where it's better in real life and the shot plays are there and there's a value add to the offense by him being available as a 4-3 guy on the outside and then the fantasy points kind of come and go. So better in best type. Uh, don't love his pathway to being like a consistent wide receiver this year though.

>> Yeah. I think the downside might be like a Martavis Bryant type where he has some unreal moments, gamechanging, you know, stretches of the season.

>> Yeah. Uh, and then just when you think, oh, he's turned the corner and yeah, this guy might be one of the most talented wide receivers in the league, then he kind of regresses. And

>> I wish he got traded. It would have made our life a lot easier if Brian Thomas got traded. It's just not going to happen.

>> All right, Jordan, fifth year option picked up, wide receiver, 33. Uh, this team does not have a third wide receiver unless they sign Jawan Jennings on the roster. So, we're going to see a bunch of Jordan Addison once they get on the field.

>> I think he's really good. I think Kyler Murray is going to be a huge upgrade and I think I think it'll probably be Jawan uh Jennings here. Um and still like that doesn't move me too much. So y >> it's boom bust variety. We've seen Jordan Addison be be like a top 24 wide receiver for stretches. I don't think we're going to get back to that level of play. Um, but there's a chance that that could happen on like in best ball where we don't have to predict which week he's going to come down with a 45 yard pass. I just think that Kyler Murray it's a good fit. like Sam Darnold and Kyler Murray like have a lot more overlap than you would kind of think on how they attack the the football field. I think that we could see a similar Sam Darnold season um from the Vikings this year.

>> Yeah, it makes sense to me that if you rank Justin Jefferson as wide receiver five ahead of consensus, then you are six spots ahead of consensus here on Jordan Addison 2 as your wide receiver 33 compared to wide receiver 39 that the public have.

>> What can go wrong? Uh Jordan Tyson, anything you want to add compared to our draft grade shows or rookie draft show?

>> Um I think it's a good landing spot. It's not the greatest one. He's going to have a path to playing time. I think that he if he does hit, he does seem like a volume hog type of wide receiver here. Um, he's got he's just got to clean up his game overall. But Chris Olive working down the field and then Tyson more like choice routes, slot opportunities, slants, that type of stuff is kind of where he wins. And I did think that he struggled against press man coverage. But I do trust Kell Moore motion stacked, get him in the slot, more free releases. I think that um Kell Moore is going to say, "OVA, you're going to have to the difficult stuff and then Jordan Tyson's going to be like the fun guy to kind of limit some of the weaknesses that I saw on tape." So I I don't want to read into the weaknesses too much here. the ultimate hedge. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson backto back in rankings as wide receiver 35 and 36. Uh, why do you like Marv more, Hayden?

>> I hate that you framed it that way cuz I was going to say this. I don't know who I like more and I don't know who I should be ranking higher. Uh, my stance is that that what I'm guessing ADP has Marvin uh a lot uh higher than Michael Wilson.

>> Yes. So Marv is wide receiver 33 on underdog right now and Michael Wilson is wide receiver 40.

>> Yeah. I mean I think Michael Wilson's better than Marvin Harrison. Uh, like right now. I think two years from now Marvin Harrison there's no excuses why he shouldn't be better than Michael Wilson. I will say this though with Jeremiah Love there with Trey McBride fully established and both of these guys competing. Are we sure that either one of these guys are going to be like reliable options in fantasy? Like we saw the best of Jacobe Brassette last year. Like he was putting in the garbage time fantasy work and still Marvin Harrison wasn't able to get there and like what if the Jacobe garbage time stuff is not hitting as hard or what if it's like we're committed to Jeremiah uh love getting all of his stuff that there just like not enough volume to go around? Like my my big picture thought is the Cardinals are going to be bad and there's like five guys we should be excited about in fantasy. Like that's where like the what can go wrongs all across the board uh come from. So I'm nervous about both of these guys I guess.

>> Yeah, we've seen that with teams that don't win a lot of games like the Raiders for example last year like how early we were >> drafting Brock Bowers and Ashen Genty. Uh you mentioned the Jets with Garrett Wilson and Bree Hall and all that type of stuff. Uh sometimes the math doesn't math.

>> Yeah. So, we'll have that long conversation as we go along here uh this summer because, you know, we like to bring up, you know, projected team points and see where that stacks up with ADP.

>> I will say Michael Wilson, I think, is a real football player. He does a lot of like dirty work stuff. Uh he can play the ball well at the catch point. I thought his zone field was a lot better than Marvin Harrison. So, like zone field, I think it's definitely Michael Wilson. Zone field is something in theory you should get better at the more football you play. Um, but

>> Okay. Mai Lemon, anything you want to add from our many, many, many draft conversations about him?

>> I think he's kind of one of these like the math might not math all that great once you get the wide receivers involved. Goddard plus Sters, um, Wixs plus Hollywood Brown. I think that there's a chance Ma Lemon like runs away with it. But he needs the offense to get a little bit more pass heavy because when it was Brown and Smith like those guys were so volatile and I think like the odds that Mai Lemon's on the same tier as Devonte Smith and AJ Brown is like that's like a top 20th percentile outcome. I think that as a rookie that's that's expecting a lot. I mean, the Shawn Manning has to be on the Shane Psych and Kell Moore end of this versus the what Brian Johnson, Kevin Patulo stuff because in the latter, that's when they couldn't really support two wide receivers. But the former, both those guys were like top 15 assets in the position for for many occasions. So,

>> we're going to find out what Shawn Man brings to the table here. DK Metaf is your wide receiver 38. Um, he had a weird season in that it was by far and away the lowest AD out of his career and then he really got there based on some red zone touchdowns and some I would say fluke yards after catch plays that he just outran everyone. Now, he's a freak and he can create fluke plays versus everyone else, but I just don't know how confident I am in this whole thing and with him returning to exactly what he did last year, especially when you add in Michael Pitman Jr. and even Jeremy Bernard into this equation.

>> All great points. Like, it's a total shock to see a 9.9 A dot for DK Metaf. That just like shows you the state of the Aaron Rogers offense. Like, I think it's going to be Aaron Rogers the quarterback, but like I'm a little bit less sure now than I was yesterday after that report. Uh, the Michael Pitman stuff is a real like that's a big deal because Pitman's a very reliable player who can win underneath and if that's all Aaron Rogers wants to do like that's legit competition for Metaf and Metaf last year was only the wide receiver 25 and wide receiver 30 usage. Like more target competition in there is like a pretty big deal. Um, and you know Aaron Rogers can just get a lot worse than he was last year. Like that's totally in the range of outcomes as a what 43 year old.

>> Okay, we've already talked about other wide receivers on these next three, so I'm just going to throw them up on the board and if you want to add anything, you can. Okay,

>> and your favorite player in the league, Courtland Sutton is wide receiver 39, Chris Godwin as wide receiver 40, and then Parker Washington as wide receiver 41.

>> I think the guy with the most upside here is is I think Parker Washington low-key like his numbers on a per route basis last year were exceptional. The way that the way that they they talk about him, they absolutely love him. Um, and like he's entering the prime of his career. So, you're talking about like the toughness, slot work and stuff. Like Parker Washington brings a whole lot of that. And I think that they paid Jacobe Myers for like obviously like the receiving production is like the main thing, but there's blocking culture reasons why I think that they wanted to pay Jacobe Myers. And I do wonder if just Parker Washington just got a little bit more juice here. So, I think like the more I think about this, like I don't have a great reason why Brian Thomas should be like so much higher than the rest of these guys. I think especially like in full PPR. I mean, Parker Washington last eight games of the season was he was balling. Like totally balling.

>> Yeah. Parker Washington right now in drafts is going as the wide receiver 35. So you are considerably lower.

>> Okay. I'm going to move him up. Put him ahead of um Mai Lemon right now. He was the wide receiver 13 on wide receiver 20 usage. Last eight games of the season.

>> He's built like a running back. He's like 5'9 and a half 200 lb. And you see it like in these contested situations too. These these tight window targets. He just is strong. He is a strong dude. Okay, let's talk about the first, actually the second two Packers wide receivers here. Uh, you have Jaden Reed as your wide receiver 42 and Matthew Golden as your wide receiver 44. So, so much frustration in the past about the Packers wide receiver room that they rotate after rotate and on paper they can't really do that anymore because there's a clear top three in Christian Watson, in Matthew Golden, and in Jane Reed. So, should that maybe ease our mind a little bit about drafting these guys this year?

>> Definitely. So, it's like the most excited I've been about Jaden Reed. Um, who do you think is going to be in two wide receiver sets? I'm guessing it's going to be Golden over Reed still just because it's been so many years where they just have not leaped uh Reed into those, but like there was some three wide receiver sets where Jaden Reed wasn't playing all the snaps. I think that's going to go up. So, yeah, I'm excited about both of them. I would not be surprised if one of these guys were the unlocks for fantasy football in general. Uh, because the wide receiver depth is just like not that great in fantasy and these are the guys that have a path to upside and I want to keep betting on uh young players attached to Jordan Love and Laflur. We'll we'll go into the Matthew Golden discussion a lot more for in an upcoming episode and once we like really deep dive on the the film.

>> Watching him throughout the season, I thought the film was pretty solid and it he was just missed like five times that could have added 250 yards to his profile. Then if those would have went through, nobody would have been complaining. So we'll see.

>> Xavier Worthy is sandwiched between them as your wide receiver 43. And then after that is Josh DS. And then after that is Ricky Pieraw. I'm not saying they like >> share the exact same wide receiver profile. I mean Worthy and Persaw kind of do. Uh, Josh DS we know is more of a closer line of scrimmage player >> but he has the opportunity like if ever if ever Shane Syen and Chris Ballard viewed him as a two wide receiver set player it is now because he is competing with Nick Westbrook Aeen for that spot.

>> What do you think is going to happen? Do you think he's actually going to be in two wide receiver sets? I I'm I'm middle grounding it.

>> He has to.

>> Yeah. I mean, he is 510 170 pounds. Like some coaching staffs would just be like it's it's a non-negotiable. I I'm with you where if I was running it, I would throw him out there and see see what happens. Um, but I I don't know that that's for sure going to happen. And last year he had 41 air yards per game. Like that's just like not good enough. So, this would be middling it where he's either playing full-time snaps or not. If he's playing full-time snaps, I think that he would be right there with, you know, like the Jordan Madison Tyson tier and then if he kind of gets stuck then and the and the Colts regress a little bit, then he's not going to be a starting asset. So, very difficult one. I can't wait to read the the training camp reports and stuff that we get closer to get a better idea of that. But, it's one of the bigger storylines. I will say in this range though, I kind of want to take that shot.

>> Yeah.

>> Um in comparison to some of the other wide receivers we talked about,

>> am I lower on consensus than DS? I don't I don't want to be like on the surface of it.

>> Uh are we going to have to rework this thing again? Let's see. So Josh DS is your wide receiver 45. He's wide receiver 51 right now.

>> Okay, good. All right. I feel good about that.

>> Uh Matthew Golden also wide receiver 50. So you're ahead there, too. Uh, Jacobe Meyers, a man that we've talked about without saying his name, is wide receiver 47. He was wide receiver 27 in points per game since and once he was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don't have a whole lot to add here. I do think all that applies. More tight ends is probably bad news for Jacobe. I think there's some upside for Brian Thomas like rebounding to some degree and then obviously Parker Washington was actually like the focal point of the pass game offense. So I think that Jacobe Myers well paid and traded for. I'm not sure if it's fully going to translate to fantasy points.

>> All right, Can I just throw all these other names on the board?

>> please?

>> Yeah, let's go for it.

>> Okay. It's not like we have an entire summer to talk about.

>> I don't want I'm saving some of my bullets here. And I'm starving. I'm so hungry.

>> Michael Pitman, wide receiver 48. Quinton Johnson, wide receiver 49. Romeo Dobs, the first New England Patriots pass catcher here, is wide receiver 50. Then Jaylen Coker, wide receiver 51. Uh Juanale 52. and then we'll close things out with Casey Conpion, the first Cleveland Browns wide receiver on the board.

>> Was those last 10 names any different than the names in the wide receiver 31 to 40 range? I mean, it's almost the same exact >> maybe have Alec Pierce in a different tier than that.

>> Sure. Jordan Tyson, Parker Washington, you know, but I would say this from Courtland Sutton down to 53. I think like that is so what wide receiver 40 to wide receiver 53 like >> Metaf Pitman's like I mean that's a tossup who's going to have more fantasy points. Uh and then like players like Quinton Johnston like there's always a chance like the rest of his profile like just kind of straightens out a little bit and he goes crazy. And the Jaylen Cooker I Okay, let's spend a quick second on Jaylen Coker because >> sure >> Jaylen Coker was he was really good down the stretch. He was the wide receiver 24 on wide receiver 49 usage in his last eight games of the season. So he's a little bit of a negative regression can I remember a big touchdown whereas busted coverage but this is a real football player and an offense I think is going to pass the ball a little bit more and he's going to be out there in two wide receiver sets. I'm pretty confident in that. though. Like Jaylen Coker versus Marvin Harrison Jr. Like I mean what is the difference?

>> The undrafted guy in his draft class versus the top five pick in his own draft class. I love it. Yeah. I mean Coker's 9.8 yards per target over the last two seasons is eighth in the NFL of wide receivers at 50 plus targets. Eighth.

>> He's a good ball player. He's like really reliable working over the middle. Big body. Um, they trust him.

>> And vertical shots too. like in one-on-one situations, if they get the running game going, then they will throw that rock down the field. I think we're going to see an even more vertical passing game here.

>> Yeah. So, I think just after talking through all this, you got to get one of these top guys because I don't think there's that big of a difference between like the second and the third tier and then there's like no difference between like the third and the fifth tier and you have to get some level of wide receivers for your for your starting lineup. So, I think I want to like load in load up on like the Godwin to Conpsion tier. Like I want like three of those guys and I want an established wide receiver one and then the rest of these guys I'm probably going to be loading up on that like round two, round three wide or running backs that we love the round four running backs. Like that's a good tier running backs. I think that's how I'm probably going to start off a lot of my best drafts this summer.

>> And then when we get to like round 17 18 there's a bunch of rookie wide receivers going in that area right now in Deshawn Strippling and Antonio Williams. Um, I'll even throw in Ryan Florenoi, who yes, he'll run some three wide receiver sets in Dallas, but I think Ryan Florenoi might be one of like the sleeper wide receivers across the league.

>> Yeah, we can't let go of all of our takes uh in April here, but Ryan Florenoi was popping in some of the metrics I was looking at, and I have I have a lot of interest.

>> First downs, receptions per route run. Uh, Ryan Fornoy is right behind Luther Burton in that metric.

>> Wow. Wow. Yep. Yeah. All right, that does it. Thank you all for tuning in. Uh, like I said in the running back rankings video, if you would be interested in like a premium product that we would create for this summer, for the entire summer that has like updated rankings and a whole bunch of other things, let us know in the comments down below. Um, we want to give it to you if there's interest. So, uh, let us know. All right, that does it. Shout out to Mosha and Louise behind the scenes. Hayden for whipping up these rankings. Check out the running backs and dynasty rookies as well as in the future quarterbacks and tight ends.

Get Our Mobile App

The Ultimate (early) 2026 Fantasy Football WR Rankings

Transcription