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5 Rookie Wide Receivers You SHOULD Be Drafting in Fantasy Football

Sal Vetri26:01

Transcription

The NFL draft just gave us five rookie wide receivers who will absolutely impact your fantasy football leagues this year. Now, I'm Salvetri. I've helped over 10,000 people win their fantasy leagues the last few seasons alone, and I'm going to plan to do the same for you with this video.

Now, let's start with the rookie wide receiver Denzel Boston. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the second round. Many people thought Denzel Boston would go in the late first round. A lot of people considered him a safe prospect, a big body wide receiver, 6'4", 212 pounds. There weren't a lot of these big-bodied wide receivers in this year's draft, but this is a solid wide receiver out of Washington. He's 22 years old.

Now, the concerns are going to start with the fact that, okay, he didn't run the 40 time because, yes, he is a bigger wide receiver. He is not a fast wide receiver. He probably would have ran in the 4.6s. Probably would have hurt his draft stock. So, his agent said, "Don't run it." Makes sense to me. But he did go out there and actually do the agility testing, which for a big wide receiver, he had a 70th percentile agility testing. This is like your your three-cone, your drills. Um, overall, solid agility for a big wide receiver, better than a lot of people expected, especially when you're like a contested catch guy. 61% contested catches for him during his career at Washington.

And look, overall, this is a player who, we can show you right here, he was taken in the second round by the Cleveland Browns. They took two wide receivers, by the way, with their first three picks. A first-round pick, Casey Conception, wide receiver out of Texas A&M, Denzel Boston in the second round, early second round, the seventh pick in the second round. The reason why I bring that up, you're not taking two wide receivers with this much important draft capital for a team that is in a definite rebuild unless you think something bad about your current wide receiver room. So Cedric Tillman, Isaiah Bond, Jerry Judy, they don't trust those guys at all. That's why they just drafted Casey Conception and Denzel Boston.

Now, let's get into Denzel Boston's stats in Washington and college before we get into how he's going to translate in the NFL with the Browns. Now, overall, you'll see these first two seasons. 2022, just two games played, two receptions as a freshman. Seven games played, only five receptions in 2023. Okay, not a lot of early career production. Why is that? Well, he was playing on a Washington team that two years ago when they went to the college football playoffs with Michael Pennix at quarterback and their wide receivers were Rome Odunze, a top 10 overall pick in the NFL draft, Jalen McMillan, he's had good success at times, went healthy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jalen Polk, who went in the second round, I believe, with the Patriots. So, three studs who went to the NFL. That's why Denzel Boston wasn't playing early on. But then he started to be the guy in 2024 and this past year in 2025. And he looked good out there for a team that wasn't throwing all that much. He had 60-plus catches, 800-plus yards in back-to-back seasons, including a 25 and 26.5% target share. His production increased both of those years. In my opinion, his film looked solid in both of those years, maybe even a little bit better last year overall, which is good to see.

Now, if you do pull it up, there are going to be people who point out, okay, in his biggest games last year, uh, number one ranked when he played in Ohio State, he only had three catches for 26 yards. Please go watch that game where he only had three catches for 26 yards and try and tell me that it was Denzel Boston's fault. First of all, he's going up against the best of the best, the Caleb DS, the top 12 picks in the NFL draft type defensive backs, though against one of the best defenses and probably the best defensive back in all of college football last year when his quarterback wasn't even targeting him because Caleb DS was on him. That's why you're going to get a three for 26 performance. But we did get another sample later on in the season against the ranked Illinois team where Denzel Boston went for 10 catches and 153 yards. So that is good to see.

Denzel Boston to me, he's your prototypical X outside X outside wide receiver. We've seen Cedric Tillman in this Browns offense have success at times when healthy. I think Denzel Boston is a better player. That's why he went in the second round versus Tillman who was probably, I think, a third-round pick. I think he's a better player than Tillman overall. An upgrade. You can see a nice helpful tweet right here from NFL Dome over on Twitter. He says Washington's X wide receiver Denzel Boston, 6'4", 209 lbs. Waited his turn behind Rome Odunze. Like we said, Jalen Polk, Jalen McMillan, and also this is one I forgot. Jeremy Bernard was also there before he ended up transferring to Alabama. All drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL draft, including Jeremy Bernard, who ended up going to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, lot of competition very quietly there in this Washington um wide receiver room. But Boston the last two years when he got his opportunity was solid. Less than a 5% drop rate and a 54% contested catch on high-pointed balls last year. Overall, a 61% contested catch rate.

So, now we start to get to how he's going to factor into this offense in the Cleveland Browns. Their current wide receiver room entering the NFL draft. You ended up having Cedric Tillman there who was on IR to end last season. Isaiah Bond and Jerry Judy. Jerry Judy is somebody who does have a potential out in his contract next year. If he doesn't become like a surprise cut this year, which I wouldn't say is off the table. I don't think they're going to cut him, but there's a chance, then I think next year that 2027 out, they're going to exercise it. I don't see Jerry Judy being on this team next year. I think they're going to get out of it because again, they just drafted two wide receivers with the first and second round picks this year, which means that I think Jerry Judy is off this team next year and maybe they're not all that motivated to get him a lot of touches if they know he's not a part of their future plans if the season starts to go south, which it should. And also, Jerry Judy, for the most part, he's been highly inconsistent. Like you saw the top 24 finish back in 2024 when he had a couple of weeks stretch of good success down the end of the season with Jameis Winston who we've now seen has just been like a stimulus pack for wide receivers wherever he goes for a couple of weeks until he ultimately starts throwing too many picks and gets pulled. But last year even though he played 17 games, I get it. It was with bad quarterbacks. You had the Dillon Gabriel out there. You had the Shedeur Sanders. Joe Flacco. Like it was just all these different quarterbacks out there. Only 50 catches, 602 yards. But I hate to break it to you. Jameis Winston isn't coming back to save you this year. Right. There's no other quarterbacks here that are looking all that great for Jerry Judy. Recent reports say that Deshaun Watson has the inside track to be named the starting quarterback. That's a problem because, as Benjamin Solak, a great follow on Twitter, points out here, there have been 97 quarterback seasons of at least 200 passing attempts this century. Deshaun Watson's 2024 season, the last time we saw him play, ranked 92nd in yards per dropback. So, obviously pretty bad. Since then, he's had two Achilles tears, as Benjamin Solak points out. Uh, this isn't great for Jerry Judy, which might make you say, "Isn't that not great as well for Denzel Boston?" Yes, but Denzel Boston is going way later as of right now in early baseball and fantasy drafts compared to Jerry Judy.

Now, you might be saying the other option there is the second-year player that they took in the fifth round, Shedeur Sanders, who towards the end of last year. So, it flashed at times, but at the end of the day, Shedeur Sanders was not good. The Browns finished 32nd in completion percentage, 32nd in yards per attempt, and 32nd in interception rate. Dead last in all those under Shedeur Sanders. So obviously um it's not like he was any type of a a great quarterback for them. You can see right here Warren Sharp points out that the Browns quarterbacks totaled all those things we just said. Last in completion rate, last in yards per attempt, last in interceptions, including when Shedeur Sanders was the starter.

So what does Boston give them? Number one run blocker. That's going to get him on the field a lot more than Cedric Tillman in my opinion. First downs and touchdowns on 14% of his routes in the red zone. He'll be a big body. So at the end of the day, Denzel Boston is somebody who's going to go very late in fantasy drafts. I don't love the situation, but I like the draft capital. I like the fact that I think he should be starting right away ahead of Cedric Tillman because of that run blocking, because of the draft capital right away. And if that's the case, I think he was a first-round caliber type player for this draft. He should be making a fantasy impact based on the fact that he's going to go in the later rounds.

Now, this next guy might go a little bit earlier because he's profiling out as the Eagles wide receiver two to start the season. Assuming they do indeed get rid of A.J. Brown and he goes to the New England Patriots. A.J. Brown is who the Eagles took with the 20th overall pick in the first round. Not only did they take him in the first round of wide receiver, they traded up to take him, which shows you how much they wanted him, how much they didn't want other teams to have A.J. Brown.

Now, A.J. Brown not an athletic player in terms of speed. 4.58 for his size, which his size is going to be 5'11", 192 pounds. You would like that to be a little bit quicker. You would like him to be in the 4.4s ideally, ideally the 4.3s. But I'm not worried about this because he's a player like an Amon-Ra St. Brown who's not going to run a fast 40 time, who's going to win based on his route running, his high football IQ, and his ability to get separation in the short areas of the field, also out of the slot. And if you look at his production in college, as NextGen Stats breaks it down right here in this wide receiver class. A.J. Brown ranked number one in production. That's why he was the Biletnikoff Award winner last year, the number one wide receiver in college football. That's why he was a first-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles. A smart organization. Let's just trust them. This is a guy who last year caught 79 balls for 1560 or 50, 1,000. There we go. 156 yards, 26% targets share for A.J. Brown. He was the best college football uh best wide receiver in college football last year in this draft. Overall, he wasn't the best. That's Jeremiah Smith, but we'll talk about him more next year. In terms of where A.J. Brown won, this is according to Reception Perception. Be sure to check out their website. It is a great tool and well worth whatever the investment is in it. If you're into this type of stuff, his man coverage, 85th percentile of beating man coverage, 75% success rate. Zone coverage, he was fantastic as a slot wide receiver, high football IQ player with good route running. This makes sense. He had a success rate of 83% against zone coverage. So these stats are fantastic. This is a player who knows how to get open. And now it looks like he should be the wide receiver two in this offense once A.J. Brown is traded away.

Now unlike Denzel Boston, A.J. Brown actually dominated his tougher competition. A ranked Illinois team, 11 catches, 151 yards. A ranked Michigan team, nine catches, 93 yards. A ranked Notre Dame team, four catches, 76 yards. You can keep going. A ranked Iowa team, 10 catches, 153 yards. He dominated the toughest competition last year, which is saying something.

So, here you go. Here's the news now on A.J. Brown. He's going to be traded. Most likely, it's going to be for a first-round pick. They're saying maybe a 2028 first-round pick to the Patriots. Who knows? After June 1st, once that ends up happening, you're going to get a depth chart that looks like this. DeVonta Smith is a number one. A.J. Brown will be a starter as a number two, probably out of the slot. And then Dantavian Wicks ends up becoming the number one outside receiver uh to take A.J. Brown's spot on the left side of the field. So, it would be Dantavian Wicks, DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown.

So, what does this look like overall? Well, it looks like a player that earns a 25-plus percent target share in his career and A.J. Brown is out of the offense. Lot more targets up for grabs. I'm going to bet that A.J. Brown has a lot more skills compared to the Dantavian Wicks, Hollywood Brown at this point in his career and Darius Slayton's of the world. I'm going to bet on A.J. Brown being able to earn that 18 to 20-plus percent target share in this Eagles offense.

Now, there's been a lot of talk that Jalen Hurts is a deep ball thrower and that's why they had success a couple years ago with the speedy DeVonta Smith and the big-bodied fast wide receiver and A.J. Brown. But in the middle of the field that Jalen Hurts struggles and he stinks and everybody's saying this. Well, as Guru Fantasy World points out on Twitter using PFF and I believe using NextGen Stats right here or actually both of these might be PFF. You can see that Jalen Hurts based on the short he passed Jalen Hurts to the short-center more than any other part of the field last year. Not only that, but there's a new offensive coordinator here, Kellen Moore, a former quarterback. We don't really know how he's going to call this offense, but let's just put this into context. We think the Eagles are a smart organization. GM Howie Roseman, we think is smart, right? We overall think they're a sound organization. Well, if that's the case, if they have a new offensive coordinator coming in and they drafted overall A.J. Brown in the first round, a player who wins in the middle parts of the field and with their second-round pick, they drafted Eli Stokers, a tight end who was basically like an oversized wide receiver who mostly just wins in the middle of the field. If these are where they're spending their first two picks on overall, and they signed Dantavian Wicks in free agency, who with the Packers was winning in the middle of the field most of the time, those are the guys they're going after. Don't we think that Kellen Moore is going to kind of build the offense around those players? Like, isn't that why they're drafting these guys? They're not drafting them not to use them. They're drafting them because the offensive coordinator is probably saying, "These are the guys we need for my offense." So, I actually am taking the optimistic view because I don't think this is like a bad organization like in past years with like, I don't know, a team like the Browns who trade all their draft picks away, signed guys like Deshaun Watson to a fully guaranteed contract, just make bad decisions left and right. That's not what the Super Bowl winning Eagles are. A team that has won the Super Bowl multiple times over the past decade. So, I'm not concerned about this at all. I think this is going to work out pretty well. I think A.J. Brown will be the wide receiver two on this team once A.J. Brown is traded away. And I think he'll be an instant fantasy producer uh in year one.

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Next up, we're going to talk about Carnell Tate. This one should feel obvious. He was a first-round pick for the Tennessee Titans, uh the fourth overall pick, 6'2", 192 pounds out of Ohio State. Carnell Tate to me was the cleanest prospect in this draft class. He's also pretty young, so a lot more growth for him. Maybe puts on some more size since he's only 21 years old. Some people were concerned about the athletic testing for Carnell Tate. Just a 4.53 40 time. I'm not worried about that. Not the type of player he is. Obviously, the Titans in the NFL are not worried about that because it seems like many teams were willing to take him in the top 10 and the Titans took him in the top five.

So, Tate goes to the Titans overall as like their new X outside wide receiver. I think it makes a lot of sense. This is a player who last year at Ohio State while competing with Jeremiah, or Jeremiah Smith, who will be the number one receiver in next year's draft class, was still able to earn 16% of the targets, 875 yards, next to the best wide receiver in college football. And also, he was a guy who went out there and had a nice end to the season against a Penn State defense that was solid, that had multiple solid draft picks this past year in the middle of rounds. Five catches, 124 yards. Wisconsin, six catches, 111 yards. Ranked Michigan team, five catches, 82 yards. Now you get to the national championship against some of the best defenses uh overall and in the playoffs against Miami, three catches, 37 yards. Indiana, four catches, 45 yards. Those are concerns, but also there was quarterback concerns in those games. Jeremiah Smith was taking on a lot of the target share as well in the biggest moments. I would also argue that game against Indiana that Carnell Tate actually played decently well. Four catches, 45 yards, and a touchdown against a very good Indiana team. And overall, when you look back at his uh the way that he played on a per-route basis, Matt Harmon from Reception Perception, we showed you them earlier. He charts every wide receiver. Carnell Tate's 77% success rate versus man coverage is the seventh-best mark for a prospect since the 2021 class. Also notes that he had zero drops last year and a very strong contested catch rate. So those things are very good.

Another stat that's worth pointing out, we've talked about Adam Schefter on Twitter before. Be sure to follow him. He says that the only wide receivers in the Power Four prospects since 2018, so we're talking the last eight seasons, uh, with a passer rating when targeted above 140, contested catch rate above 68%, which is elite, and a missed tackle rate above 20%. Here's the list over the last eight years. JSN, the best wide receiver in football last year, A.J. Brown, a dominant wide receiver. Justin Jefferson, we know how good he is, probably the best receiver in football the last 5 to seven years. And then there's Carnell Tate. So, he's on an amazing list. What does this mean? It means that he's a guy who will not only win after the catch, win at the catch point, and he has smooth route running enough to have be an efficient target for a passer rating perspective from your quarterback. So those things, very small list. Obviously, it's like cherry-picked stats in some ways, but stats that matter a lot for wide receiver production. He now lands on a Titans depth chart where I think he's the wide receiver one right away. You have two second-year players here in Treylon Burks, who actually led the wide receivers with 515 receiving yards last year. The other second-year player, fourth-round pick, Shamari Conley. I think he's talented, but the problem is he's more of like a slot wide receiver. He's probably going to be pushed out by DeAndre Hopkins, their big free agent signing for like 18 to $19 million per year, 140 targets in back-to-back seasons with the Giants, and Brian Daboll, who just so happens to also be the offensive coordinator this year. Calvin Ridley took a pay cut to stay with the team. He's 31 years old, coming off of a serious injury from last year. Not sure how much he has left in the tank, but if I had to guess, the starting wide receivers are most likely going to be DeAndre Hopkins in the slot, Calvin Ridley on the outside at least to start the season. We'll see what the training camp battle looks like with him, Shamari Conley, and Treylon Burks. And then your top five overall pick, Carnell Tate, who I believe is the best wide receiver in this wide receiver room.

Now, we mentioned it in a previous video, but Brian Daboll is indeed the new offensive coordinator for the Titans. A whole entire coaching overhaul here with Robert Saleh being the new head coach, and Brian Daboll has created fantasy-friendly environments. You think back to his days with the Bills, you think back to what he did creating Josh Allen into the fantasy superstar that he is today. That's a win. And then you look at it last year, Jayden Daniels, he made a fantasy superstar um when he was actually healthy last year. Cameron Jordan and healthy was averaging 19 fantasy points per game as the starter. DeAndre Hopkins, Malik Neighbors, they've all had big seasons. Even at times Theo Johnson has been a nice player. He knows how to use his best players, Brian Daboll on offense. Even if it doesn't translate to real-life wins, it helps us in fantasy. You then factor in that Jayden Daniels, they're doing everything they can to make Jayden Daniels have a lot more support this year. Bringing in DeAndre Hopkins, bringing back Calvin Ridley, bringing in Brian Daboll, drafting Carnell Tate, right? So Jayden Daniels entering year two who showed a lot of good flashes in a terrible situation last year. I think Jayden Daniels if he takes a step forward obviously helps the whole offense including Carnell Tate.

Next up, let's talk about another wide receiver here and that I believe you should be drafting based on where they currently go in fantasy drafts. And we got to talk about Chris Brazzell. I think he was a steal in round three. The Panthers got this guy in round three. Think he could have easily been a second-round pick because Chris Brazzell, if we look at it right here, this is a 6'1", 194-pound receiver. But that's not the craziest part about him. All right, he's already like a big wide receiver. He's going to be dominant. He joins a big wide receiver room overall in Carolina, but he also ran a 4.37. I mean, this is a Carolina team that has monsters overall size-wise, like all 6'3", 6'4", 6'5" wide receivers. But Chris Brazzell brings something different. He brings the juice downfield. Very rare for a wide receiver to be this big and that fast. But he is, and he was the first wide receiver taken by this team, the only wide receiver taken by this team in this year's NFL draft in the third round. Overall, solid spot for him to land. Decent enough draft capital to make an impact right away. And he had good production last year at Tennessee. A gimmicky offense overall, but Chris Brazzell's production, unlike a Jalin Hyatt, who was getting a lot of vertical usage out of the slot, which doesn't translate to the NFL. Chris Brazzell's was on the outside, thousand yards receiving, 22% target share in that offense. I thought it was solid overall. And then you look at the toughest matchup of the year against Georgia, six catches, 177 yards, and three touchdowns. Bowled out in the toughest matchup against the best defense he probably faced.

Now, I mentioned how the Panthers have a massive wide receiver room. You can check it out right here. Robert Griffin III points it out. Look at this wide receiver room for Bryce Young to be throwing to this year. 6'5" Terrace Marshall had a nice rookie season of over 1,000 yards. 6'3" Jonathan Mingo, their slot wide receiver last year on 60% of the snaps. Undrafted. Looks good. Legette and Brazzell are 6'4" and 6'1" and their tight ends are both 6'4". So just absolute monsters out there.

Now we talk about all these wide receivers. So where does Chris Brazzell break in as a rookie? I mean, I basically think he's going to have a camp battle with Xavier Legette. Xavier Legette, who's a former first-round pick. They traded up in the first round to take him a couple years back. You have Terrace Marshall, a surefire starter for this team, obviously as their number one option last year. And then Jonathan Mingo has just been way more productive than Xavier Legette. Mingo's probably going to remain in the slot in three wide receiver sets like we saw him often do 59% of the time last year. So then it comes down to Chris Brazzell or Xavier Legette. And honestly, I know Legette has dealt with a lot of injuries. I know he's a big-bodied fast wide receiver. But if in your first two years in the NFL, you're not doing much and then the team drafts a third-round wide receiver who I'm assuming they're going to try and have get on the field as much as possible, a very similar player to Xavier Legette, just a little bit smaller size-wise in terms of weight. But if all you could do in the first two years of your career in the NFL is put up 363 yards and 497 yards. And despite being this big fast player, you're not even getting a lot of downfield usage in this offense. You're getting just 10 yards per catch both seasons. Part of that is the play calling, right? Part of that is the quarterback as well being a little bit shorter, struggling in the middle of the field as well and struggling with inconsistencies in his downfield passing. But at the end of the day, Xavier Legette, we can say it, he's just not been it at this point. I think Chris Brazzell is that guy who will be the starting X wide receiver opposite of Terrace Marshall, not the starting X wide receiver, the starting outside wide receiver opposite Marshall, who will be the X. You get it?

Now, according to Reception Perception and Matt Harmon, you can see right here some notes. Chris Brazzell last year really succeeded versus uh more so zone coverage 73% of the time. His contested catches were through the roof. 73% contested catch rate is fantastic. Um he would go on to say an obvious blend of red flags and appealing upside. You'll see what Brazzell's steal clearly stands out from some of the other Tennessee wide receivers. Um yeah, obviously there's going to be some red flags. That's why this is not a first-round wide receiver. He's more so like struggles a little bit against man coverage, but he's mostly going to see zones. Most wide receivers see zones over 60% of the time in the NFL. So, similar to Jayden Daniels, a former number one overall pick, another number one overall pick in Bryce Young, the team is doing everything they can, maybe the last ditch effort this year to try and surround him with as much talent as possible. Terrace Marshall entering his second year. Jonathan Mingo is there and now they draft Chris Brazzell. We'll see if that's enough for him to succeed. And then, I mean, if you look at it like the wide receiver running back room, they didn't add anybody. Jonathan Brooks coming off of two torn ACLs. They're saying he's looking better, but it's going to be Chuba Hubbard who's like an okay pass-catching running back, not elite by any means. So the target share is really just going to be like Terrace Marshall should see a 25-plus percent target share. And then Jonathan Mingo and Chris Brazzell, assuming he wins a starting job in camp, are going to be battling for that wide receiver two job. Hopefully one of them in this offense can earn like an 18 to 20% target share.

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Okay, next up we got to talk about Jordan Tyson who I believe is maybe my favorite rookie wide receiver. Like I like Carnell Tate. I like the situation. But Jordan Tyson, he just has that juice to be like the next big wide receiver in the NFL. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints, number eight overall, 6'2", 203 pounds out of Arizona State, a 21-year-old wide receiver who has his biggest concern was his injury history. But as you can see right here, look here's the injury history. Uh 2022 he had that ACL, PCL, MCL tear caused him to miss basically most of 2023. 2024 his season ended later on he missed two games with a fractured clavicle and in 2025 he had a hamstring that ended up costing the final three games of the season and ended up costing him going to um any type of like offseason workouts, any type of uh NFL combine, a pro day. He had to hold hold a private workout a couple of days before the NFL season started because he just wasn't healthy before that. At that private workout he basically did this type of stuff. He was running routes on air just to show that he was healthy. If you have a strained hamstring, I've talked about this before. You're not doing this. You're not pushing off. You're not cutting. You're not accelerating. You're not jumping up. You're not doing these things with a hamstring that is still injured. Um even if it's not 100% right now, as his private workout was in mid-April, he's going to be fine come week one, assuming he doesn't have another reinjury to the hamstring.

So, he goes with the eighth overall pick in the draft. I thought it was a very savvy draft pick by the New Orleans Saints. I didn't think he was actually going to fall that far. Jordan Tyson, absolute beast. His 2024 season was the best probably out of any wide receiver in this draft class. It rivals what A.J. Brown did last year in terms of production. 30% target share, 1100 yards, 75 catches. He was just so dominant at Arizona State. He plays with physicality and he's a reliable wide receiver. As you can see right here, last season Jordan Tyson, 97 targets, only one drop of the football, gets yards after the catch. We've talked about this stat in the past, but he ranks number one since 2021 in wide receivers' target rates. So ranks first in percentage of routes with a target in college football. The guy who ranks number two is also pretty good and Puka Nacua, arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL. The way that you could think about Jordan Tyson is I think he's like a more souped-up Garrett Wilson in some regards and like the play style just plays a little bit more physical, can offer a little bit more yards off the catch, maybe even a bigger frame already, even though he's a rookie coming into the NFL than a Garrett Wilson.

As Matt Harmon points out here, Jordan Tyson dominates zone coverage. Uh this is according to Reception Perception. 85.6% success rate versus zone is not only the best in this class, but it's the fifth best since he's been charting in 2021. And this is the perfect fit for this team because you already have Chris Olave who's a known man-beater on this team. Now you drop in a known zone-beater in Jordan Tyson. And it's a really nice uh schematic fit into Kellen Moore's offense entering year two in Kellen Moore's offense with the Saints. And in year one, since they traded away Michael Thomas before the trade deadline, the only real option in that offense at the wide receiver position was Chris Olave. That's why he ranked top five in the NFL with 156 targets. A 29% target share was elite. This is probably going to drop though this year now that you're going to have Jordan Tyson entering that room. Kellen Moore is a coach that I trust. We've seen him do it at multiple stops obviously with the Dallas Cowboys. We saw him do it last year with the Saints. He turned that Saints offense into a very high-paced offense to the point where Juwan Johnson was one of the best tight end options in fantasy because they were just running so many plays. And once Rashid Shaheed was traded away, when Chris Olave wasn't open, Juwan Johnson was getting peppered with targets left and right. You can now expect a lot of those Juwan Johnson targets to be going to Jordan Tyson. A much more talented player than Juwan Johnson. Nothing against Johnson. This is the Saints' current expected offense. Derek Carr, who was very good to end last year, by the way, the final month to month and a half of the season. He was probably a top 10 NFL quarterback overall. He looked really good, although against weak competition. They added Travis Etienne in the backfield. As of right now, Kamara's on the team. Wouldn't be shocked if he retires or gets cut. Wide receiver room looks awesome. Chris Olave coming off of his best season in the NFL last year. Jordan Tyson. And then Juwan Johnson, former wide receiver turned tight end who did have a really good season last year. So the question basically comes down to can Derek Carr be legit? Like last year he faced very soft competition to end his season. If we pull up his game logs on Player Profiler, you could see that to end the year. I mean some of these matchups were just cakewalk matchups. You have a Miami team that was a cakewalk matchup. If you know anything about the Miami secondary last year, same thing for Tampa. Same thing for Carolina. The Jets at this point in week 16 had traded away their entire secondary. Sauce Gardner, their entire defensive line. The Titans were terrible on defense last year. That's why they traded up in the first round to invest in it this year. And also the Falcons. So like you're talking about these final five to six games where he found a lot of success, 80% completions, 75%, 68% throwing for 300 yards and three touchdowns in some of those games against weak competition. But if that continues this year for Derek Carr, not only against the weak competition, but the good to great, well then both of these wide receivers are going to have no problem succeeding in the NFL. So I'm going to be high on Jordan Tyson this year. We also should point out that although Chris Olave was able to stay healthy last year, he left at least three to four games early with injuries. He was on and off the field. He's suffered concussions. He's dealt with a lot of injuries in the past. So, if he was to get banged up this year, Jordan Tyson does have the mold to easily be a number one option for an NFL team.

So, those are the five rookie wide receivers you should be drafting this year in fantasy football. I appreciate you all tuning in. If you want to see the five rookies who can break fantasy football across all positions, you can check out this video that we released earlier in the month right here. Be sure to check it out. I think it'll help you a ton. And I'll see you all in the next.