These 8 WRs Will Decide Your Fantasy Season
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1 hr 23 min
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Jul 27, 2026
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Mon, July 27, 2026
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Episode Transcript
0:00viewers, I think it's fair to say that nailing the year three wide receivers might be the critical piece to winning your fantasy football league this season.
0:07Just think about it, okay? We're about to talk about four names that have already been selected in the top two rounds
0:14at any point in their first two seasons in a fantasy football draft, and they all flopped.
0:18They all flopped. So the question is, were we wrong?
0:21Or is this like the perfect post hype opportunity for the first two seasons?
0:25It's an opportunity to find incredible value. There's only one person that can answer that for us.
0:30It is now our colleague over at Yahoo, Matt Harmon.
0:32How you doing, buddy? Colleagues. That sounds good, boys.
0:35That sounds really good. Now, if we have any big disagreements, you know, knockout, drag down, you know, fights or whatever on
0:41the show, I can just go straight to HR after this.
0:44So this is really good for me. But no, I am number one, super excited to have you guys here at Yahoo.
0:50I mean, I've respected both of your guys for work for so long and it's going to be an incredible partnership.
0:56It's already been super fun so far and we're just getting started.
0:59But secondly, and maybe more importantly for the viewers out there, I'm still I'll admit right off the top, like I'm still
1:05really bullish on a lot of the players in this class.
1:08Yes, like there are. It hasn't happened for some guys.
1:11It's kind of happened and then unhappened for a few of them, as you mentioned, Josh.
1:16But, you know, going back and looking at this group for the year three charting for reception perception, man, there's still a
1:22lot of players I really want to bet on.
1:24So I'm excited to talk about this. Yeah, there's kind of like two different tiers of players.
1:29So you got somebody like your smaller guys and there's like four guys that are all very similar to me.
1:34I'm trying to nitpick the exact differences between them all on their tape.
1:38And then after that, you have to, you know, acknowledge what offense they're actually playing in.
1:42But I went back and pretty much everybody went back to after watching them.
1:46I went to my rankings and I just kind of moved them up a little bit.
1:51Yeah, every single one of these guys a little bit up.
1:54Love all that. And I didn't even mention that outside of those four.
1:57We have two other former first round picks that we're talking about here today.
2:01So like there's a lot of investment in these players.
2:04How we're going to do this was going to go name by name of how they're being drafted right now over on
2:10Yahoo, give you stats, the underlying metrics. And maybe most importantly, the eye test with a number of these guys and see
2:16how they fit in a lot of new situations.
2:19So let's kick things off with the man in this group that's going earliest.
2:22That is Malik neighbors. Fourth pick of the third round right now on Yahoo.
2:26That is wide receiver 13. Harmon, hey, let me know right before we got started that Malik neighbors is avoiding the pup list.
2:33I mean, does this change your entire outlook, our entire outlook of Malik neighbors season and really where we should be drafting him right now?
2:40Yeah. I mean, listen, I think we still have a long way to go with this Malik neighbors injury situation.
2:45But I mean, for God's sakes, this is the most positive day of Malik neighbors news we've had in a long, long time.
2:51So I'll take it. Yeah. I mean, honestly, he's been somebody that just because of the way the tenor and kind of
2:58the way they've talked about the injury and everything.
3:00I just really haven't even thinking about, honestly, just haven't even really been considering.
3:04I mean, obviously, if you're doing like best ball drafts, that's one thing.
3:08But if you're looking at like traditional redraft leagues or it's just he's going to fall in an area where there are
3:14so many good wide receiver picks that I like this year that he's just been someone I'm like, all right, I'll I'll kind of just cross him off.
3:21And somebody is going to like him more than me.
3:24Now, if he's going to play, then I mean, this does change the conversation here, even if and I think we should
3:30probably acknowledge that he might not be himself all of 2026.
3:33Like even if he's going to be active week one and play throughout the course of the season, he might be a diminished version of himself.
3:40But if he's not a diminished version of himself, this is a guy that is very clearly not even just based on
3:47like the stats and the results so far, but reception, perception, the eye test.
3:50This guy is clearly of any of this group is is on the fastest track and is like right there knocking on
3:56that door of like a true tier one receiver in the NFL.
4:00And when I say that, I mean, like that's like three, four or five guys at any given point that is in that first tier.
4:07And I've got some RP data to kind of talk about that and unpack that a little bit.
4:12But yeah, man, this guy is is right on the precipice of graduating to that group.
4:16And unfortunately, just got hurt after, you know, four or so games with Russell Wilson last year.
4:21I'll say this. I think he's like the most mispriced player in fantasy right now.
4:25Yeah, I was reading Jordan Ron on for the last couple of weeks and he's all of a sudden been more optimistic.
4:31He was kind of being like, hey, what the hell is going on here?
4:35And then the last couple of weeks, he's like, I think he's not going to be on the publicist like the actual publicist like during the season.
4:42The fact that he's avoided the publicist like the training camp publicist is all the data that I need here, even if
4:48he's like 85% of what he has been throughout his career.
4:52That's still like the historical averages for T Higgins, a flowers, all the third round wide receivers.
4:56And if I'm going to be, you know, taking the exception player coming off an injury, had a little bit of setback in the offseason.
5:03It's probably the freak athlete that's 23 years old who's been a wide receiver one and there's no competition.
5:08The number two wide receiver for the Giants right now is Darius Slayton.
5:12Darius Slayton is not practicing right now either. So like I think he can go absolutely crazy.
5:17And when he's been the wide receiver one in fantasy, the Giants from his rookie season through week four, when he got
5:23hurt, they were 31st in points per game. 31st.
5:25I don't think the Giants are going to be 31st this year in scoring.
5:29And if he's going to be out there in week one, why shouldn't he be next to Devante Smith, AJ Brown, the two, three turn?
5:36That's where I'm ranking him right now. And he's been going in round four.
5:40I think that is going to correct really quick.
5:42Just to update everyone on the timeline towards ACL and lateral meniscus in week four.
5:47Surgery was delayed a month at that point. Then he had a setback.
5:50A second surgery was needed to remove scar tissue that was restricting his rehab.
5:54But it seems like ever since that second surgery, the rehab has been going great.
5:58Despite, you know, videos that we see on social media, him jockeying to first base in a charity softball league.
6:04Like everything seems to be in the right track.
6:06And Matt, what you said about he's kind of out of sight, out of mind because of who he's going around is exactly how I've interpreted too.
6:14Like he's going extremely early on Yahoo in comparison to other platforms.
6:17But no matter what, he was being selected around like the Garrett Wilsons, the Mecca Bukas, T Higgins, Ladd McConkie.
6:23We're going to talk about here in a little bit, many more names.
6:26And it's just difficult for me to go into a draft room and say, well, until today, all of the feedback that
6:32we've gotten in Malik neighbors is either mysterious or negative.
6:35Whereas I can paint a really pearly picture of how great these wide receivers going around him could explode this year and
6:41like be the guy that you need in round three or round four.
6:45But now based on this, and even if he isn't back to 100%, I have to change that tune completely.
6:50And Matt, I think that's always fun for us to do when we approach July and August, because we've been talking about
6:56these players since May and had these hard stances.
6:59And now we have to change them. Yeah. I mean, for like a different example, when we get to talking about Roma
7:05Dunze, I don't feel like I've changed my thought on that at all throughout, like since the season ended last year, like that bear situation.
7:12Cause I, we all knew DJ Moore was, was going to be gone and pretty much nothing has changed from that.
7:18This is one where, yeah, I'm glad that what I said in June or May probably doesn't apply to what it is
7:24in August, which is, which is great. Cause there's nothing worse than talking about this stuff all off season.
7:29And like you said, it's just a metronome of the entire thing, but I do kind of want to just take a
7:35step back and talk about neighbors as an individual player for a second, because I think that's really the crux of all of this is that.
7:42Yeah. Like the names that you mentioned, Zay flowers and a Mecca Buka good players.
7:46I like these players. This is a guy that is at a different level than that.
7:51Like even at Buka, who was a, you know, first round receiver prospect to me, Zay flowers, a first round receiver prospect to me.
7:57Like this was a tier higher of a prospect was Malik neighbors.
8:01And he has, and I had three guys as tier one prospects in this class.
8:05And he's the only one that like slam dunk, no doubt about it.
8:08The door is shut. He has been what he's supposed to be in the NFL.
8:13And I would say that he had kind of a dumber role last year than he did.
8:17And again, it's hard Hayden, right? Because he played almost like the entirety of the, his season last year, which was only
8:23a few games was with Russell Wilson. So it was very much like the Russell Wilson offense.
8:28It's all go routes. I mean, he ran a go route on 25% of the routes.
8:33I chartered for him, which was his entire season, because that's what Russell Wilson does.
8:37I came out of his rookie season and actually had a conversation with Malik neighbors after his rookie season, talking about the
8:43detail that he takes to being an after catch player, which I think might be the thing that is, is most diminished
8:49with him coming back from the injury, at least to start.
8:52But we'll put a pin in that. I was like, this guy's got to have more plays in space in year two than he did in year one.
9:00And he was in space on 48% of his catches in year one and reception perception that actually fell to 33%.
9:05So it just, I think even, and obviously we're talking about a Matt Nagy offense here, which is, let's be honest, that's tough at the same time though.
9:13I think he can be used in some of these ways where, you know, look, we're two different galaxies of, of talents,
9:19but like the way they've used Rasheed Rice to like get the ball in his hands in the Kansas city chiefs offense.
9:25We're talking about him and some of those gimmick roles.
9:28Neighbors is going to be a different beast. And again, just as a route runner, he is in a really small select
9:34group of players in reception perception at this point.
9:37Again, this is a truncated sample. It's not a full season sample.
9:40So keep that in mind when I say this, but over in the reception perception era.
9:44So 2014 to current, these are the only receivers that I've charted who have taken 30 than 30, fewer than 30% of
9:51their sampled snaps in the slot and have cleared the 98th percentile in success rate versus press coverage.
9:56A.J. Brown, Devontae Adams, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, three times Odell Beckham, three times.
9:59And then now this truncated sample for Malik neighbors.
10:02So a little bit dangerous to put his name near Odell Beckham, considering how his career with the Giants went with injuries.
10:08And Beckham is currently on the roster. Right. But still, yeah, that's the type of talent we're talking about here.
10:13It was kind of fascinating to see him in that role.
10:17There's like every single play was just down the field, but you can see how fast he is on those reps.
10:22And we saw in the first year where so much of it was kind of like underneath and some of it was
10:28a little bit more static than I would want.
10:31And some like back shoulder type of stuff and nothing like yards after the catch was like he's so close to Jamar Chase, like when he's fully healthy.
10:39And Jamar Chase is like literally slot outside underneath over the top of crossing over the middle.
10:43It doesn't matter. He's the best in the league.
10:46I like all that stuff. I think Malik neighbors is like this far below across the board.
10:51But I think we're talking about that level of player and the Giants.
10:54Let's be honest. They absolutely have to pepper him with targets this year, whether he's 80 percent of himself, 100 percent of himself.
11:01It doesn't matter. You just look around the room.
11:03There's nobody else out there. The other thing I was going to say, even if we go into this year and he
11:09misses week one, week two, you don't take zeros in your starting line.
11:13You throw Josh Downs in your freaking starting lineup and then you wait for Malik neighbors.
11:17You get some points and then you keep this thing going.
11:20Like, I think that I'm glad Matt hit on this.
11:23The starting point that we're talking about when him coming back from injury is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.
11:29So as much as we like these other guys that he's been going around, like we're hoping they become like 90 percent of Malik neighbors.
11:36Malik neighbors even coming back as 90 percent of himself is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL still.
11:42So, Hayden, do you think he just totally rebounds from an ADP standpoint?
11:46And now we'll just go in that cluster of Nico Collins, George Pickens, A.J.
11:49Brown, Devontae Smith. I think it'll be close. I would put him at the end of that tier.
11:54And let's just like see how the rest of this offseason goes.
11:58I will say Drake London and Nico Collins and A.J.
12:01Brown are in excellent spots like those guys. We're talking about very good players without the ACL.
12:05So I think it would take a lot for me to get over that hump.
12:09But I do think like he should be like ahead of Devontae Smith.
12:13Like Devontae Smith is a really good football player, but like he has like environmental issues that will be pretty hard to overcome himself.
12:20Yeah. Just to close this one in that three and a half game sample that we got last year, there might have
12:26been one snap where he kind of was given manufactured space.
12:29It was against the Washington Commanders where he motioned from the left at the snap to the right into a stack that
12:35gives him, you know, natural space to work in.
12:37This corner is terrified. And then just with his selling from a route standpoint creates even more separation.
12:42Like this is why we talk about pre-snap motion and especially into stacks, because if you give that to elite players, not
12:48only do you give them, again, space immediately, then they create even more separation on top of it.
12:53And then he went after the catch. He created another five yards after it.
12:57And Matt, you already answered my final question, which is going to be, I know reception perception has gone back multiple years of Matt Nagy offenses.
13:04Like what type of player and what can the utilization be like for this type of player in a Matt Nagy offense?
13:11And is there any optimism for that? I mean, I don't have a lot of optimism for the Matt Nagy offense.
13:16No. Shout out. By the way, I do think that matters a lot when it comes to the run game and talking
13:22about, you know, Cam Scadaboo and Tyron Tracy and these guys is that we can be honest.
13:27And Matt Nagy was a fallback plan for them.
13:30They thought Todd Mocken was going to be their office coordinator.
13:33And then obviously he's Cleveland head coach. So I think it pretty much is going to be, you know, Matt Nagy runs
13:39the pass game and Greg Roman runs the run game.
13:41I don't still don't love that though. Like the chiefs pass game is, was the one of the least enjoyable to watch over the last couple of years.
13:49So we'll see what that looks like. But yeah, no doubt neighbors can fit in that sort of creative touch after catch,
13:55you know, create space for these guys. If there's one thing this offense does still do well, it is create horizontal space for their players.
14:02And I do kind of, I mean, I like Malachi Fields enough as like even just a, you know, kind of a
14:08power player and a little bit of a sacrificial guy.
14:11So I think he would be nice if he emerged as the second receiver here.
14:15All right. As you guys can tell, this is going to be a long episode, but we have to do it.
14:21We got a deep dive. So buckle up, get comfortable, maybe grab some popcorn.
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14:30We're super excited. Matt, we're like 90% done with the end season schedule on top of, you know, going four days a week until the season starts.
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14:40So subscribe to this channel and obviously subscribe to Matt's channel down below.
14:43It'll be in the description down below. Okay. Let's jump to it.
14:47Lad McConkie, the ninth pick of the fourth round on Yahoo right now.
14:50That's wide receiver 18 at this point. And that's despite finishing last year as the wide receiver 35 and half PPR points per game.
14:57Simple question, Matt. Is this the perfect scheme for him to level up in?
15:01I mean, I think he'd be great in any scheme, but yeah, totally.
15:04This works out for me. This is another one where I haven't really changed my opinion based on what I kind of
15:11thought going into the offseason, which is just like this to me is the most obvious bounce back candidate in the NFL
15:17this year at the wide receiver position. Because like I go back and watch Lad McConkie last year.
15:22We know what the offensive line was. We know that Keenan Allen was soaking up the safety blanket, the binky targets there
15:28for Justin Herbert when he's playing in chaos. And by the way, like I don't know, Keenan gets talked about like he's just complete dust.
15:35Like he can still play a little bit. He's not he's not Pete Keenan Allen.
15:39He hadn't been Pete Keenan Allen for quite some time.
15:42But there's this is why receiver decline is just so tricky that sometimes it is just right off the cliff.
15:47But other guys age very gracefully and kind of plateau at some point.
15:51I think Keenan has plateaued here a little bit, obviously, but still a useful player.
15:55So it's not as if like, oh, a 50 year old Keenan Allen came and took Lad McConkie's lunch as it's kind of getting painted on fantasy Twitter.
16:03But anyways, point about McConkie, like I go back and watch him.
16:06I don't really think he did anything wrong other than like his contested catch work was, you know, that's always going to be volatile.
16:13Like some mistakes at the catch point this year, especially for a guy like him.
16:17I think that's totally excusable. But as a separator, still just as good as he was most critically, like where he wins
16:23as a route runner is in those big breaking routes in the intermediate area, which is that's going to be a lot
16:29of what this offense wants to do out of heavy personnel packages.
16:32He wins against man. He wins against zone. I still think he's a great vertical slot player as well.
16:37So 87th percentile in success rate versus man, the zone and press coverage this year clears all those numbers was just as good as a rookie as well.
16:45So to me, I think he's somebody that is an obvious bounce back candidate.
16:49He's a great fit in this scheme. It's just how high do you want to take him in fantasy is the question
16:55based on, again, a really good group of receivers that I like a lot of these picks here, but he is certainly one of them.
17:02Yeah, the two biggest things were definitely the Keenan Allen, almost like in a rebounder role, like third and six, like throw
17:08it to him at the sticks and like go break a tackle was kind of the Keenan Allen role.
17:13And it was fairly effective. And then the big thing was the catchable ball rate went from 78% down to 67%.
17:19If you look at the downfield intermediate target specifically, they were just like, I mean, it was like unacceptable.
17:24And like a lot of that Herbert was like running at the line of scrimmage or running away from guys.
17:30And like those balls had like just no chance.
17:32I will say the one thing that happened with glad McConkey, I thought like by himself, just isolating him was was the contested catch stuff.
17:3957% as a rookie three of 14 last year.
17:42There's some times where I thought players are kind of playing through him.
17:45And obviously I decided that's always going to be something.
17:48But as a rookie, he was like doing like Antonio Brown impression for a while there.
17:53And I was like, well, if he's going to do this kind of fold us during his rookie year, because I thought
17:59at Georgia, some of the contested catch stuff was a bit hit or miss.
18:03Right. But like Matt says, like that comes and goes.
18:05And I think that he's not going to have to be put in those situations because of the scheme.
18:11He's not going to probably run as many downfield routes because they're getting that from Quinton Johnson.
18:15But the intermediate stuff, hopefully some more quick hitters and stuff.
18:18I think that that type of target is going to come back up.
18:22I'm in the fourth round. The only thing I was in the back of my mind is they sometimes will rotate all the personnel grouping and stuff.
18:29Like would they ever take lad McConkey off the field for a couple of plays for like Trey Harris stuff?
18:35That's probably overthinking things. I think he's in that same cluster as, you know, a Mecca, Luca, Garrett Wilson, that type of tier.
18:41I'll take him over Luther Burden. But I think lad McConkey is still one of the better wide receivers in the league.
18:47Yeah, you just went through all those names. I mean, I really think that this area of the draft might be the most exciting section for wide receivers.
18:55I want all of them. And really, you can only take two of them at most.
19:00And that's frustrating. Really frustrating. We can just list stats of why the environment and how the environment collapsed around him.
19:05You guys talked about Justin Herbert running for his life.
19:08Apparently, lad McConkey ran a league high 95 pass routes without a pass attempt coming on the play due to sacks, scrabbles and throwaways.
19:15After Joe Alt's injury, this is going to retrieve bar.
19:18Lad averaged 2.7 catches for 38 yards per game.
19:20Again, we know that the environment just totally collapsed this past season.
19:23But man, when I went back and watched, it's just what you said, Matt, where you can just visualize it in this offense working out so well.
19:31Like there is this play multiple plays against the Chiefs where they weren't necessarily putting heavier bodies on the field, but they
19:37were doing condensed splits with like Darius Davis and Keenan Allen staying in and chip helping.
19:41But it was Quentin Johnson running for love of the game down the field.
19:45And then here comes lad McConkey underneath it. And both were like technically downfield routes, but it's in that cavern of space
19:51between the linebackers and in front of the safeties.
19:54And those in breakers from lad are diabolical. You know, I mean, the way he cuts inside and then if it's zone
20:00just settles in and find space and has these little nuanced movements to stay in a string with Justin Herbert.
20:05Oh, it's so good. It's so good. I don't think he's great after the catch.
20:10I think he kind of inherited a little bit of Tyler Lockett syndrome of falling down and preserving his body, but that's okay.
20:16He doesn't have to be great in everything. But man, I just think he can be the feature player that Mike McTain
20:22moves around and gets advantageous looks for and space for.
20:25And then he's going to maximize it even more in the system.
20:28Tyler Lockett's actually like kind of the devil's advocate, like warning if you want to be out on lad McConkey this year,
20:34just because number one, that was actually my player comparison for him as a prospect was I thought he would be Tyler Lockett.
20:41And by the way, Tyler Lockett was awesome. But, you know, you mentioned the injuries like that's one thing with lad just
20:47I mean, he's even in his rookie season. He's like scraping himself up off the field, you know, like putting his body
20:53back together like a, you know, a doll or something after getting hit and smacked in some of these intermediate in breaking
20:59routes, which will definitely happen in this role. And I could see a world where, you know, you mentioned Hayden, like they
21:05rotate in a Trey Harris for run blocking work just to give him like a breather.
21:09And obviously, then you're going to run some routes.
21:12You're going to do play action. You know, Brennan Thompson, like some of these guys just to preserve lad McConkey's body.
21:18So I think that's when you're trying to break ties in favor of like an Emeka Buka or lad McConkey.
21:23Like I do think I could see like a 140 target season for a Buka more so than McConkey.
21:28But I mean, yeah, the efficiency could be there for lad.
21:31And there's no question that he shares a lot of variables.
21:34I know. I mean, I said this in February, so I'm not just copying everybody else.
21:39Like there are a lot of variables here and like the breakout season that JSN had last year.
21:44There's a lot of variables that they carry over from McConkey as well.
21:47Yeah, I think if he stays healthy, he's going to be a total baller.
21:51I think the snaps might be a little bit less than some of the other guys we're talking about.
21:57And there's some of the targets just just because like they don't run three wide receiver sets like pretty much at all.
22:03I think they were 29. But isn't that a good thing?
22:06Like, you know, the show we did with Ryan Heath, where I think the Chargers are going to be one of the teams that leans into heavier personnel.
22:13And not necessarily three tight ends, but they brought in a fullback on top of it that has history here.
22:19And so if there are more tight ends on the field, isn't that a good thing for the wide receivers to get things funneled in their direction?
22:26It's like a pro and a con. It's easier to earn a target.
22:30All the yards per route numbers are higher. Play action targets are better.
22:34And at the same time, if you lose four routes per game because they have to get Trey Harris on those, then you aren't even on the field.
22:41So I think it comes out to a wash.
22:44I think he's properly priced. I thought he's a little bit better after the catch, maybe, than you thought, Josh.
22:49I think there's a lot of like kind of ole stop start, like kind of jitterbug aspect to that.
22:55Like the best days of him is like almost like the Antonio Brown for a half second.
22:59The hard part is Antonio Brown stayed healthy for so long.
23:02He was so physical. He was able to withstand things.
23:05I think he was more powerful than Ladd McConkie and stuff.
23:08So I think Tyler Lockett is, I think, a pretty reasonable floor for him.
23:12I do think there's like maybe one level above that in terms of like being kind of a focal point of an offense that he can hit.
23:20But he's next to all the guys that you can say that about.
23:23I want all of them. One final note here from Reeves.
23:26Ladd McConkie's early down target share last year was basically identical to his rookie season.
23:30But his target share on third downs was 18.4%.
23:33And that was down 7% from his rookie year.
23:35And that was all Keenan Allen stuff. I mean, Keenan had like a 35% or something target share on third down.
23:41So I do wonder who is getting that work.
23:44Because as we saw last year, not just on third downs, but just overall, that Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle were both
23:50top 13 in yards per run this past season.
23:52Not bad for this offense. All right. We move on to Roma Dunze.
23:56The ninth pick of the sixth round on Yahoo right now.
23:59That is wide receiver 28. And he actually finished last year.
24:02I think I did the math correctly. His wide receiver 23 in points per game.
24:06That certainly doesn't fit the narrative of him this offseason.
24:09So, Matt, leaning into that, people on every single platform are certain that Luther Burden will outperform Robo Dunze.
24:14Are you? No. I mean, I think the gap between these two guys doesn't make any sense to me.
24:19And a lot of the – and by the way, I will not participate in the culture war of like you have
24:25to hate one and love the other. All right.
24:28I like both of these players. Unfortunately, just like the ADP market right now does kind of force you to make a
24:34really hard choice on Luther Burden when he's in that group of receivers that we really, really like.
24:39And at Dunze just goes so much later. And I just think a lot of the reasons to fade Roma Dunze just
24:45don't really stand up to merit to me. You know, number one, great, great player.
24:49I mean, I think he is really – he's not been perfect.
24:52I'm not going to say he's been blameless. Like, he had really big problems at the catch point last year, which based
24:59on his prospect profile and even based on his rookie season were kind of shocking to me.
25:03You know, he just made a lot of mistakes there.
25:06And I do think the injury compounded that conversation I had with him in February of this past year where he had
25:12talked about it was less of like the physical problems coming back from the injury.
25:16And like he didn't feel as much, you know, like himself and from a movement perspective.
25:21It was more about like the timing and rhythm within a very timing and rhythm detailed based offense that he kind of
25:27felt like he fell out of rhythm with the quarterback.
25:30And that was where some of those contested catch issues even got worse once he got back from the injury.
25:35So that's something that he – like you got to start there and say he needs to just be better at the
25:41catch point, period, end of story, no question about it in year three.
25:45That being said, like from a separation standpoint, he's unbelievable.
25:48Like this guy gets open, open, especially against press man coverage.
25:51And there's just no question that he's the best receiver on the roster doing that.
25:55And he definitely was a little bit worse. Like I don't love to split up the numbers, you know, but I have
26:01done it a decent chunk this year for some of these guys because there is like context worth pointing out here.
26:07He was definitely better before the injury, which tracks with the production too when he was incredibly productive to start the year.
26:13Like that's one of the things I find a little bizarre to be like, well, Ben Johnson inherited Roma Dunze.
26:18Yeah, he inherited Roma Dunze and then proceeded to run his entire passing game through Roma Dunze in the first eight weeks
26:24of the season before he suffered a foot fracture.
26:27So he's just such a tantalizing talent, can sink and separate in the intermediate area.
26:31And like what number one receivers are doing in the NFL right now, he's not going to get the same like Mickey
26:37Mouse touches and like creative touch stuff that Luther Burden will because Burden's much, much better with the ball in his hands.
26:43I think objectively better in that area, but like making explosive plays like Ben Johnson is all about making explosive plays.
26:49And Roma Dunze is not running like a bunch of nine routes either.
26:53He's not he's not this sacrificial X receiver. He's moving around pre-snap running as the Z receiver and running these big breaking outs and digs.
26:59That's where the most of his route tree is.
27:02And that's what that's like the first read stuff in this offense.
27:05So, you know, again, you don't have to hate Burden to like a Dunze, but a Dunze goes too low.
27:11Like people are way too down on him based on his film last year when he was healthy.
27:16I have a Dunze ranked ahead of Luther Burden.
27:18I feel good about that. And I saw the same thing with Rome is this is not like some static X receiver nonsense that we're frustrated about.
27:26Like he's in motion running at full speed. He's really fast for somebody as big as he is could tap the brakes and break either way.
27:33He's not going to be like Mr. Stop Start in terms of after the catch.
27:37Like you said, that's totally fine. I think then he's got the most potential to be dunking on players versus like Luther Burden.
27:43And I thought the two biggest things were, like you said, the catch point stuff is just like has to get better.
27:50But hopefully that gets better. And then the catchable ball rate slash kind of chemistry and zone coverage, kind of all that blends together there.
27:56He was 73rd out of 79 wide receivers in catchable ball rate over the last two seasons.
28:01That comes at the six highest average depth of target.
28:04I think a lot of that's just because he's not going to get some of the screens.
28:09He's like that intermediate guy, but put into advantageous situations.
28:11And his numbers were actually pretty good. Wide receiver 18 in usage, wide receiver 22 in targets per game.
28:17He just has to be more efficient. And I think a lot of that is just like Caleb Rome got to get on the same page.
28:24Make those catch the ball, you know, catch the freaking football.
28:27That would be nice. But we're talking about a top 10 pick here.
28:30I think that he's pretty well-rounded as long as he kind of makes these kind of improvements.
28:35So he's one of the guys that going into this, I have like the most questions about.
28:40And then after sitting there and watching it, I'm like, I can really see the vision where he's, he's like multiple rounds too low.
28:46I think he can be like pricing the second or third round next year after a huge season.
28:51I still want Colson Loveland the most, but Roma Dunze is a really good player.
28:56Yeah. Not just redraft. I think Roma Doonze is an awesome dynasty buy right now because his stock might not be any
29:02lower than it is right now because of all the focus on Luther Burden and Colson Loveland as second year players.
29:08I'm with you. I mean, his body control for his size, I really think is sensational.
29:12So smooth on those easy outbreakers and post cuts and everything.
29:15It's just like almost every single fingertip catch after the buy just went against him, you know?
29:20And then over a quarter of his past attempts in his direction over the final eight games were just purely inaccurate.
29:25This does leave me with a question and it might be an unanswerable question.
29:29I'm going to ask it anyways. Five touchdowns over the opening four games, then the bye week.
29:34And then obviously we know about what the left foot stress fracture and plantar fasciitis and everything.
29:39It leaves me this question, Matt. Does the end of season performances matter more than the beginning when we're just talking about fancy players at all?
29:46Because I feel like that determines where players end up going in our final, like the taste in our mouths from them.
29:52And should it like, should it at all? I mean, I've seen other folks do the research on this.
29:57So like maybe I'm speaking out of turn, but I don't think there's been any correlation between like how you finish the
30:03season and like what happens next year. Certainly sometimes like obviously the offense is fundamentally different now that Burden and Loveland have both emerged.
30:10So I don't know that like like Roma Junze pacing to be like a top five fantasy receiver like he was last year.
30:16That was probably always going to take a step back once we introduce these two young and really talented players.
30:22But yeah, I do think that the way the season ends always carries way too much weight as we're projecting into the
30:28next year when like the full body of work, especially when we're talking about a guy that did suffer a serious injury.
30:34And I don't want to just yada yada through the injury either.
30:37You know, he makes the new normal comment or whatever.
30:40And like, it's just funny, you know, if he never says that we probably are not sitting here having like that conversation
30:46at all when like Tedrow McMillan, no one talks about his foot injury and he like missed a huge chunk of the offseason with it.
30:53But yeah, man, I think that it's definitely worth investigating that part of it and the way the season ended.
30:59But, you know, still got back out there. I think still made a couple of plays in the playoffs.
31:04You know, Luther Burden didn't make any plays in the playoffs.
31:07So I do think it's just worth noting. Like this is a really good player.
31:11It actually got off. I actually think the way I've thought about this, and I'm curious if you guys feel the same way or think this makes sense.
31:19I think if you are, if you want to really bet on Caleb Williams, not getting any better, like he's just what
31:25he was last year, which is not the bet that I want to make.
31:29I think that does lead you into Luther Burden a lot because he's going to get like the easy button touches and stuff.
31:35And, you know, Roma dunes, it will still continue to have this like low catchable ball rate and all this stuff because
31:41he's just running the big boy routes. Like he's running the harder stuff at the same time.
31:46I also think that there's just no way that Luther Burden can have the role that he did last year.
31:52He won't be used that way. So then a lot of the kind of per route stuff is going to change and everything.
31:58So it's a really interesting discussion between these two guys.
32:01But yeah, if Williams doesn't improve at all, then yeah, you can do the create a touch gimmicky things.
32:06But that's not what this offense wants to do.
32:08And it's not the way they use their players last year.
32:11Last note I had in the red zone. When it was Colson, Lovin and Roma dunes, a over 20% target share Luther Burden was at 8%.
32:19And then if you look at those targets that he got for Luther Burden, 30% of those were screen.
32:24So like in terms of just like normal drop back, throwing the ball into the end zone.
32:29It was very rarely Luther Burden last year, obviously as a rookie.
32:32But to me, that makes sense. Roma dunes, a Colson, Lovin, like have proven players that they can dunk on you if you look at their college tape.
32:40So I do think that the upside belongs to those two guys the most.
32:44Like you said, Matt, if Caleb, you know, throws more catchable targets, like it was just shocking how many times he just straight at this guys.
32:51Yeah, yeah, totally. Just on Yahoo, Luther Burden is going as the ninth pick of the fifth round and Rome is the 10th pick of the sixth round.
32:58So again, we have over a round difference between the two.
33:02All right, next Marvin Harrison Jr., sixth pick of the seventh round at this point as wide receiver 31.
33:07He finished last season as wide receiver 40 in points per game.
33:10Matt, I've known you for a very long time, like over a decade, maybe like two decades nearly at this point.
33:16It's crazy. I would not call you an optimist in regards to everything.
33:19I'm just being kind here. But with receivers, we'll unpack that later.
33:23I'd say you typically lean on the optimistic side.
33:25So does that even apply here to Marvin Harrison Jr.?
33:28Yeah, I will admit like I'm a pretty full blown like Marvin Harrison Jr.
33:32Apologist while also admitting that he is not obviously been the player that he was supposed to be.
33:37Like I think you can hold two opinions in your head at one time and that he's been a disappointment relative to
33:43he was the best prospect I think I've evaluated since the since Jamar Chase.
33:47He went forth overall. His name is frickin Marvin Harrison Jr.
33:50And I think he's been a disappointment relative to those expectations.
33:53Well, he's also not as bad as what he has been painted to be.
33:57And like some of that is his relationship with the quarterback was not, you know, with Kyler Murray just to me, like
34:03I said this to Nate Tice on 301, like the very beginning of this past season.
34:07I was like Drew Petsing, Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr.
34:10They just like all need to get away from each other.
34:13Like they could. I actually don't think that again, you got your way.
34:17Well, now they're all away from each other, obviously, which is we'll see how that goes.
34:21But like I don't think that Petsing's offense was like abhorrent or offensive, and I don't think like Kyler Murray is a
34:28total clown, but they just didn't all work together.
34:30I think they will find more success away from each other for a variety of different reasons.
34:35But I think obviously Harrison's role, it's just very traditional static X receiver.
34:38And that's really like not the player that he is.
34:41I think he is still like a misunderstood player for kind of like the guy he's supposed to be.
34:46He can have like some real dunk on you X receiver moments.
34:50But like we launched a new player comparison tool on the reception perception site this offseason.
34:54And if you go back and look at Marvin Harrison Jr.'s rookie year when he was a little bit healthier than he
35:00was this past year where he had just a ton of weird stuff going on.
35:04He has like three Calvin Ridley comps, you know, in his top comparables because he's more of that like nuanced route runner
35:10and makes mistakes at the catch point, just like just like Calvin does at times.
35:15So, yeah, I think like that's kind of more of the player you should be.
35:19And I do think he'll be better deployed in this offense, but like flat out people think that he can't separate or he doesn't get open.
35:26Totally disagree. Strong separator in particular areas while there are still some areas for growth as well.
35:31I thought last year was stacking guys vertically more often than he did as a rookie.
35:35I thought like speed wasn't necessarily like the thing that was kind of holding him back.
35:39It was I mean, the drops were just like, yeah, they were like really badly.
35:44Some of the most hilariously bad drops here. I mean, the one week four against the Seahawks was just like the like
35:50the most ridiculous drop of the entire football season.
35:52And by the way, I think he kind of and he even said something like this recently where he says, like, I don't even look at the positives.
36:00I only look at the negative. I'm like, there's like something to that, you know, with that whole the way that game played out for him.
36:07So that's something to keep in mind. There's like some like open.
36:10Like, I don't know if the sun was in his eyes drops where like he was like standing there and like just like drop the football.
36:18It was it was just a mess at the catch point with him.
36:21Once again, he's way too good to be doing that.
36:24I'm assuming that that stuff's going to get better.
36:26He's going to catch the ball cleaner than that.
36:29I see it the same way. I think he does create separation.
36:32I don't think that he's like some superstar in the making.
36:35I think he's going to end up being a really nice football player.
36:39I think that you can throw him at the X receiver and survive if you want to play in like the traditional role.
36:45I do think there's more that he can do there at the same time.
36:49Career 1% screen rate for him. I'm not sure if he's like so like jitter buggy that you have to be like throwing him the ball.
36:56I mean, he's broken four tackles in his career.
36:59Yeah, so that's it. That's that's the ultimate holdup is he's going to be a better real life receiver than a fantasy
37:05player, especially when you have Trey McBride, who's a complete alien working over the middle.
37:09And like you should be throwing that guy the ball.
37:12And then now this year now you have Jeremiah love.
37:15So I think after doing all this, I was like he's a nice player.
37:18Like no doubt about it. He's a nice player.
37:21And I'm concerned by the offense. The quarterback talent is so much lower than his skill competition.
37:26Michael Wilson's a real player. Now Jeremiah loves and get the ball.
37:29It's on Trey McBride where I'm still coming out of this.
37:32I'm like, I wanted to like him more, but I just don't see like the gimme stuff really applying to him enough
37:38to like overcome the fact that he's been the wider super 40 this last season or two.
37:43It's got to be the most times we've or like the highest ranked fantasy players in ADP for a team that is
37:49projected to win three and a half games. It's not going to end well.
37:53Like it's just it's not going to end well at all.
37:56It's not going to end well. And yet at the same time, Josh, your, you know, accusations here about me not being
38:02an optimist are going to you're going to fly in the face of what I'm about to say.
38:07I really think like LaFleur's offense from a schematic standpoint is going to do a do so much good for all of these guys.
38:14Yeah. And I mean, just like the complete lack of motion, especially motion at the snap for these players.
38:19I mean, never like that's that never, never in the car.
38:22Like that's fine. The Cardinals offense is just like under Petsing was pretty traditional, but it's pretty traditional for like what was
38:28going on in the NFL 10 years ago. And now you've got, you know, like what I think LaFleur is going to
38:34be able to do for these guys just to blur the line between like when Marvin Harrison Jr.
38:39Was an X receiver for this team the last two years.
38:42It's like, yeah, he was an X receiver, like outside boundary on the ball, whatever.
38:46Like that's it. But even just getting a guy like shoot, they had Greg Dortch on the roster.
38:51Like like what Jimmy Horn Jr. Was doing for like the Panthers with Tedrow McMillan last year where he's still the outside
38:57on ball receiver, but he's, you know, cutting across behind him and creating leverage for Tedrow to break inside.
39:02Like that, that, that stuff will happen this year in this offense, which it's going to make it a cool, like NFL
39:09pro watch it back on film offense. But I mean, obviously, unless Jacoby Brissett is just going to run back the tank
39:15commander stuff for last year, it's going to be tough for a team that is projected 32nd and is favored in zero games to open the season.
39:22Uh, this team has on Yahoo, on Yahoo, a second round pick and train McBride, a round two, three turn pick in Jeremiah love.
39:29I just mentioned the Marvin Harrison Jr. Is a seventh round pick.
39:32And then Michael Wilson's an eighth round pick. Yeah, that's right.
39:35And like Michael Wilson's good. Like he's, he's a player.
39:38He mogged Marvin Harrison Jr. At the end of flash.
39:41I mean, I know Marv wasn't playing, but like just in terms of production and overall, again, final taste in our mouth.
39:47Uh, yeah, I think you could say that how Michael Wilson ended the season was.
39:51The most impressive. A Cardinals wide receiver has looked over the last two years.
39:55Um, which honestly made me even more angry because my whole thing, you know, with, with this whole situation is like, why
40:01is it always just Michael Wilson at Z and Marvin Harrison at X?
40:04Like when Michael Wilson can very, like, again, you go look at the comps for him.
40:09It's all like T Higgins, like X receivers and stuff like that.
40:12So I, I, and I think they'll use more interchangeably here, but yeah, sorry, sorry to cut you off, but God, this is, that was so frustrating.
40:20That almost, it was so frustrating because I like Michael Wilson and they just completely, but then you talk about like Marv,
40:26when he was in the game, you like target mogs.
40:28Michael Wilson. It's just like you, it's just makes no sense.
40:32Yeah. And look, I would love just for my sanity to have 17 games of Jacoby Brissett, but we're not going to get that.
40:38You know, Carson Beck's going to get starts this year.
40:41The Cardinals schedule is the Chargers Seahawks, 49ers Giants, Lions Rams, Broncos, Cowboys Seahawks, Rams, Chiefs, commanders, and Eagles before their week 14 by.
40:48Um, sweet. It's rough. Yeah. We're going to see back and like third round rookies in the fantasy playoffs is like, it just not going to be pretty.
40:55By the way, the history of having like three, uh, pass catchers in the top 100 is already really bad.
41:01Like, unless you have like a, a truly elite, like the Joe Burrow with Tyler Boyd offenses.
41:06We're not getting that. Like multiple of these guys are going to bust at ADP.
41:10Um, I'm really nervous about the training bride stuff in round two.
41:13Like I would not recommend that. I wouldn't touch.
41:16Nope. Uh, I still, I don't think I can recommend Marv.
41:19Even if I went into this, I'm like, he's a little bit better than I thought he was after sitting there and just watching him in isolation.
41:26So here's, here's how, here's how I've advised, like how I'm going to handle the, the Marvin Harrison Jr.
41:31situation. If you can, if you can't tell, like I'm pot committed to Marv, uh, like forever, forever.
41:36So like, if he has a great season this year, I'm going to feel like joy from that.
41:41Regardless, I don't need to sit here for the next month and on, on our podcasts now guys and tell people to draft Marvin Harrison Jr.
41:48And then when he doesn't do anything, like they're pissed at me.
41:52So, uh, because that's the most likely outcome here.
41:54Uh, so yeah, I think if Marv is good this year, we can all just enjoy it.
41:59It doesn't need to help our fantasy teams. Cause he is going back to back in consensus rankings out there from experts,
42:05uh, with Roma Dunze and the two could not be more different.
42:08And I don't know if you guys agree or disagree.
42:11I almost want to take like a mystery box and Carnell Tate above Marvin Harrison Jr.
42:16This year. I don't know. Those. Give me another name.
42:18I literally have them back to back at like the end of that tier.
42:22Yeah. And I'm a little worried. Carnell Tate's going to get target mogged by Wanda Robinson with the cheapies, but that's a, for another podcast.
42:29Just, just how the consensus rankings are going. It's Marv, then Carnell Tate, then Alec Pierce, DK Metcalf.
42:34And then actually brings us to our next name in Brian Thomas Jr.
42:38Who's the eighth pick in the eighth round over on Yahoo.
42:41That's wide receiver 36. He finished last year, as we all know, as the wide receiver of 45 in points per game.
42:47You know, one of the questions of fantasy draft season is how are the Jags going to deploy their wide receivers?
42:53So for you, Matt, from week 10 on after Jacoby Myers was added to this roster, where did and does Brian Thomas Jr.
42:59Fit in that group? I kind of think we do need to throw out most of, if not all of Brian Thomas
43:05Jr.'s 2025 season due to injuries, you know? And by the way, that's just a theme with like all of these guys with Marv.
43:12I mean, he had appendicitis, concussion, and then the heel injury.
43:15All, of course, after Kyler Murray gets benched. Classic.
43:17But yeah, I mean, Rome injuries. Some of the guys we haven't even talked about yet.
43:22Just tons of injuries. So it's a theme for this entire class and why I think drafters in fantasy right now just
43:28aren't looking at these 2024 receivers when they should be.
43:30And Dynasty Bros should be buying these guys because they've just left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
43:35And that includes Brian Thomas Jr. But I think if you want to just look at what his season was last year
43:42in isolation, like there were a couple of things you even in this fantastic rookie season where we can be honest.
43:47He did go crazy in the back half when everybody else was hurt and they were a lost team and Mac Jones is throwing passes.
43:54That doesn't mean that like he can't produce for Trevor Lawrence.
43:57But even in this great rookie season, you could nitpick a couple of things, which primarily was like running quick routes over
44:03the middle of the field and beating zone coverage consistently.
44:06And those became like two massive issues that defined his entire second season as a rookie 77% success rate versus zone coverage, which was 38th percentile mark.
44:14But for his archetype, it's not the worst thing in the world that falls down to 69.8% this past year, which is
44:20just like a mess for in terms of success rate versus zone.
44:23Um, I think that that can get better with health.
44:26You know, he said it doesn't hurt to run anymore in OTAs, which is encouraging.
44:30So it really does come down to the role for him.
44:33And that's where I get kind of like I can go both ways on this Brian Thomas Jr.
44:38situation because theoretically, like if this is a team that's running more heavy personnel, if this is a team that's going to
44:44have a receiver rotation to me, like the base case for what's going to happen in Jacksonville this year is going to
44:50look very similar to the Green Bay Packers, where it's a bunch of guys rotating in and out and they still play
44:56heavy personnel and they want to run the football a decent bit.
45:00Well, the guy that ends up playing the most there is usually like Romeo Dobbs because he was the X receiver and
45:06like BTJ should be the team's X receiver. And I think we've gotten to a point and this is partly my fault
45:12with because of saying sacrificial X receiver where like people have begun to think like being an X receiver is bad.
45:18Like, no, you want to be you want to have an awesome X receiver and BTJ theoretically could be that even last
45:24year while he's having this nightmare season, still solid results as a man press beater, just more so on the vertical plane,
45:30not the stuff going over the middle of the field.
45:32But I think he can still be a really valuable player for Jacksonville in that role and even X receivers in this offense.
45:39You know, if you like Mike Evans in 2024, if he just has Mike Evans's route tree in a Liam Cohen offense,
45:45I think that's good enough to not be like a sacrificial player, you know?
45:49So I'm actually totally comfortable drafting him in fantasy this year because I think if somebody is going to be a big
45:55hit from this room, it's going to be BTJ, but I don't know how many universes that he is that big hit.
46:01Yeah, you kind of are the Robert Oppenheimer of the sacrificial X wide receiver.
46:05Yeah, what have I done? I know. Look what happened to him and look what happened to you.
46:10I mean, here you are. We'll see how it goes for me.
46:13Go ahead. No spoilers. I haven't seen it yet.
46:16Dude, even I've seen Oppenheimer and I haven't seen anything.
46:18I'll go to the movies. It's insane. I've watched this tape.
46:21The thing with Brian Thomas is he's going to catch the ball cleaner than he did last year.
46:26I just think part of the thing was you're getting absolutely obliterated, hurt his wrist in the preseason that caught up to him.
46:33And but I don't think he's going to have the same role that he had as the rookie season.
46:38Like you guys said, just because of the surrounding parts to some of the rotation that could come into play here.
46:44So last year, he was the widest. We were 37 in expected points.
46:47I think it's a good baseline. Here's the thing where I think could get better for him.
46:52I think he can still be a really good player and like outproduce that.
46:56And speaking like the Packers guys, when you said that, I know he's going to play a lot of like the Dobbs
47:02role, like role, like on the line of scrimmage.
47:05But I do think that he can have a Christian Watson type of season.
47:08If things go well, he has to get a lot better at that.
47:12He's got to play a little bit faster. So some of the notes that I had is last year, he only had eight receptions against man coverage.
47:20I think that plays in and he was just like not himself the year before that, like almost tripled that number.
47:25And he was winning down the football field. There were some slant wins after the catch, which we did not see at all this last season.
47:33I just get a little bit concerned that all the manufactured stuff is just like not going to go to him anymore.
47:39Under five air yards, he had three and a half targets two years ago.
47:42This last year, that was down at 1.3. So screen rain went from 11% down to 1%.
47:47I thought he was really good in the screen manufacturer department.
47:50I'm just not sure if we're going to get that because Parker Walker.
47:54I think Parker's getting it. Yeah. Parker's going to get a lot of that.
47:58They do that stuff with Tootin. And Brendan Strange was kind of absorbing, not the exact manufacturer touches, but like in that general parts of the field.
48:05Jacoby Myers can kind of do that thing. Obviously, Travis Hunter.
48:08So it's kind of the middle ground between the two seasons.
48:11I feel really good. He's going to be way better in isolation.
48:15I just don't think that the role is going to necessarily come with him.
48:18Boom, bust, wide receiver three. To me, it's like a classic fantasy archetype.
48:22He can absolutely outperform this ADP. I mean, when you have and finish with an 18.1 ADOT over what the final seven, eight games of the season.
48:29If those hit and you run hot, then yeah.
48:32I mean, those are massive points. You're going to have massive weeks on top of it.
48:36At the same time, I firmly do believe like we have seen already the best fancy output from Brian Thomas Jr.
48:42in the NFL. And I know we're already entering his year three, and that's a very short time in his NFL career.
48:48But like what we saw at the end of his rookie season that forced us to draft him at the one two turn.
48:55I just don't know if we're going to see that in this version of the Liam Cohen offense because the room is so stacked.
49:01And just how they utilized BTJ at the end of last year.
49:05And again, it's a small sample. We are working with small samples here.
49:08But at the same time, this is the entire supporting cast that's returning on top of actually drafting a tight end in round two.
49:15That's going to allow them to play more heavier personnel sets.
49:18But getting back to it, Brian Thomas Jr. ranked third among these receivers on the team in terms of the targets from
49:24week 10 on 17% of his routes. 21% for Jacoby Myers.
49:2725.5% for Parker Washington. I already mentioned in 18.
49:30A 1.35 yards per route run. 36% of his targets in that span were 20 plus yards on the field.
49:35I just think like from an environmental standpoint, the crossing routes, mill the field, that fringe on down the field, but are
49:41more intermediate is such a focal point for Liam Cohen.
49:44And we discussed why, but BTJ was such like a net negative in that area of the field that going out and
49:50getting Jacoby and now the emergence of Parker Washington and also Britain's range in that area just makes him like so much
49:56lower in that totem pole that he's still going to have routes on this team.
50:00But I just think like he's not even close to being a funnel type player that he was and we were hoping to at this point last year.
50:08Yeah, I think that's right. At the same time, like we just mentioned Harrison, Carnell Tate, like I would take the shot on BTJ over those guys.
50:15And I like Harrison. I think I might rather have Harrison and Dynasty just on the chance that they fall into a
50:22quarterback in next year's draft, which they probably could.
50:24But yeah, BTJ stuff. But at the same time, like if there's a big hit from this room, I think it will be BTJ.
50:31But I don't know that there's going to be a big hit from this room because like Travis Hunter is still going
50:37to run at least like 20% of the routes, maybe more than that.
50:40You know, I just like it's going to be very rotation heavy base, the whole deal.
50:45So we'll see. I've been listening to the Jaguars reporters.
50:48We have to. It's like the number one thing between the backfield and the receiver mix for all the training camp.
50:53They think that Travis Hunter is going to play like infinitely more snaps at corner.
50:57And one of the reporters even thinks that CJ Williams might play more snaps than Travis Hunter.
51:02And Travis is like only going to play a little bit of wide receiver.
51:06The more I've kind of thought about this, like isn't the simplest answer, like Jacoby Myers is like just not nearly as involved.
51:12He does some of the sacrificial stuff. We can applaud his blocking stuff.
51:16And then like we go back to Brian Thomas, Parker, Washington at one.
51:20I don't know. He stays there. He's like a rash, man.
51:23Like, yeah, I think that he's just the peak of Brian Thomas and watching Parker, Washington, Parker, Washington.
51:28I think clears Jacoby Myers. I think that the easiest stuff could be Jacoby just like takes a backseat, not in terms
51:34of like a bunch of playing time difference, but just like where you're dialing things up.
51:38I just I'm hoping that Brian Thomas gets a little bit better.
51:41And then I really like what Parker Washington was doing and like some of the similar stuff that Jacoby Myers provides.
51:47I think that's up to Brian Thomas, Jr., though, like if if he shows the inconsistencies and the negative plays, then obviously
51:53they'll lean more in those two wide receiver sets on the steady Eddie.
51:57That is Jacoby Myers. But maybe he has the opportunity to like have that role early on.
52:02And if he is consistent in it, then he does keep Jacoby off the field in those scenarios.
52:07Yeah, I mean, this is a fascinating one. Also, they go through a period of time facing outside corners like Denzel Ward,
52:13Patrick Sertan, Christian Gonzalez, DJ Turner, Quinion Mitchell and Derek Stingley.
52:16And we know where Brian Thomas, you're just going to line up a lot.
52:20Yeah, that's where he could get sacrifice. That's where the X can be sacrificial in those situations.
52:24So it's tough. Yeah. He is still going as the first Jaguars wide receiver on every single platform and in every single ranking out there.
52:31He is very close in the same round as Parker Washington and Jacoby's a round or two later, depending on where you're drafting.
52:38But yeah, I want to get this right and I want to get the backfield right.
52:42Like that is critical. I think league settings really matter for these two between Thomas and Parker Washington.
52:47Like the roles are so different that, you know, full PPR, half PPR, best ball, not best ball like that type of stuff matters here.
52:54All right. We got a few more names. We're just shy of an hour before you guys go any further.
52:59Give us a thumbs up. Give us over a thousand likes on this video.
53:03That would be generous and helpful. We'll give you a thank you on top of that.
53:08Hit a subscribe, subscribe to Matt show. It's in the link in the description down below.
53:12We have so much stuff coming up between the two of us collaborating and not, and you should tune into it all
53:18because we're going to give you good information. All right.
53:21Yeah. Speaking of good information, let's talk about Ricky Pierce.
53:24All the second pick of the 10th round on Yahoo.
53:27That's wide receiver 41 finished last year's wide receiver 52.
53:29Regrettably. I spent all of last summer telling people to draft Ricky Pierce.
53:33All when he played, you know, he performed. There are four games, top 24 scoring wide receiver.
53:38He only appeared in nine. So Matt, I'm here to ask you, should I spend the rest of this summer telling people to draft Ricky Pierce?
53:45All because I really want to. Josh, we're doing it.
53:48We're doing it again, man. Um, we're so doing it again.
53:51God, there's a range of receivers where it's like Ricky Pierce, all Josh downs, Jaden Reed.
53:55And I'm like, can, can we just, that that's where I almost want to go full boomer and, you know, load up
54:01on running backs and just hit those. But they all go kind of in the same range.
54:06So you got to make picks there, which is tough.
54:09But, um, anyways, second time we've mentioned Josh down sneakily on the, it's a running joke for a reason, baby.
54:14Uh, but yeah, Ricky Pierce, all, I still can't believe there are people out there that swear.
54:19This guy's like not a good receiver. They just like, don't have eyeballs there.
54:23They're in the spread. They're way too deep in the spreadsheets.
54:26Get out of the spreadsheets and watch the film.
54:28Ricky Pierce, all really good player and was productive.
54:31Like when he was healthy for five seconds last year, he was third in the NFL in receiving yards for the first three weeks of the season.
54:38They can never take it away from us. Um, I mean, it was going to work.
54:43Damn it. It was going to work. And that was all while last year, my theory on this.
54:48And obviously I could be, I could be totally off on this, but like they basically had to cobble together the role
54:54that they thought Brandon Iuke was going to play for this team by essentially having Jennings play way too much outside on
55:00ball than is, is conducive for his skillset. And for Ricky Pierce, all to be this massive vertical route player, which he
55:06can definitely do a strong success rate versus man numbers last year.
55:09And he wins on those big breaking routes, which is good.
55:12But I mean, I think if you go back and look at what he was doing as a rookie, he was more
55:18off the ball, more in the, more in the slot and running these games game.
55:22And yeah, these, and the, and even before that too, like his first game and this film wasn't great.
55:28Cause he was coming back from the gunshot injury, the gunshot situation.
55:31But like, he was running all of these like return routes, like whip routes, like go outside, snap it back inside to
55:37give Purdy these like big chunk completions over the middle of the field.
55:41And then there just wasn't almost any of that last year because they had to make him the vertical player.
55:46Cause the other option was Juwan Jennings who like Josh, you probably run faster than Juwan Jennings at this point.
55:52I don't know. Maybe Hayden runs faster than like a four, seven, six coming out of Tennessee.
55:56If I'm not mistaken, that would be, that would be the fastest fantasy analyst has run ever.
56:01Like, I don't care who it is. Just quick sidebar.
56:04Roto Pat was certain over like the decade I worked with him that he could clear five seconds.
56:09Love you Roto Pat, but every single time that made me.
56:12That's absurd. I could do it if it wasn't for my bad knee, but that's a separate conversation.
56:17Anyways. Yeah. I think that when you, when you just look at Ricky Pierce, like I think he could end up really
56:23being more like a, just a different player at the position this year because they added Mike Evans.
56:28So like Mike Evans, just being the extra receiver of this offense outside on ball, it's going to allow Ricky Pierce all
56:34to do a lot of the big breaking routes, but also just get way more layups than he did last year, which was essentially none.
56:41Yeah. I mean, if you look at his like a dot, how involved he is, like the manufacturer department, he's like closest
56:47to like Rashid Shahid, Jordan Addison, Jameson Williams. I think that he has more lateral ability than, than some of those guys.
56:53And yeah, you just like not put in those situations.
56:56I think that he's a near lock to have more than five targets per game, which is what he had last year.
57:02I mean, he's playing through that season on like one and a half leagues.
57:06It's interesting because I think he's really good at like the vertical intermediate stuff, like all, like he can really tap the
57:12brakes and, and hit all these big breaking routes.
57:14Yes. He's done zero after the catch and like the underneath stuff.
57:18He's broken zero tackles, according to PFF. Like we got to figure that out.
57:22Like he's too good to not be doing that.
57:24Sometimes when I watch him, like when he gets tackled, like he really gets tackled.
57:28It's kind of like the Lad McConkie stuff. I think he's a tier below Lad McConkie athletically, but it is like fascinating
57:34to see somebody who you'd think gets involved in that department.
57:37Like none of it. And that's, you know, that's a kiddo thing.
57:41That's a McCaffrey thing. That's you can name a bunch of different reasons, but that is like the one glaring weakness in the profile so far.
57:48And I think injuries and all that type of stuff could explain some of it.
57:52So Ricky, I saw you mentioned broke zero tackles.
57:55I've been charting, you know, hundreds of receivers since 2014.
57:57There's these are the only guys that have like zero broken tackles in the season that I've charted.
58:02There's going to be some names that we've already discussed and one that we will discuss in a second.
58:08And Ricky Pearsall, Marvin Harrison Jr. from his rookie season, Aidy Mitchell from his rookie season, Josh Palmer, DJ Chark, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, Van Jefferson and Henry Ruggs.
58:15So like that's it's a very small group of players.
58:18And he went down on first contact on 85% of the plays I charted in his rookie season as well.
58:23Like he's just like break a tackle Ricky Pearsall challenge is definitely like I would love to see him get more layups
58:29than he did last year because he didn't get any.
58:32But I don't know he's gonna be doing much after the catch because which is weird because he's like a decent kick returner.
58:39I think Mike Evans is such a huge window for Ricky Pearsall in that.
58:42I agree. Like it's so obvious when you're watching this 49er scene and they're somewhat healthy that Kyle loves to move Ricky around.
58:49And that's only going to be good things for us.
58:52You know, he's the one that you get in these full speed motions, these fly motions, getting into stacks and these free releases.
58:58And if that's the case, he is one of these guys to me that you give him separation, he sustains it and
59:04can even create it at multiple levels. So as long as Mike Evans hamstrings stay intact, I think that allows us to
59:10have Ricky Pearsall in like the best situation possible for him.
59:13I'm just I can't believe I'm so optimistic for a guy who has like 99 targets in his career so far and
59:19less than a thousand yards through two seasons. I don't want to be of this mindset of well, he's had these fluke
59:25and crazy injuries over these last two years and that's just going to sustain itself because I really do think when it
59:31all comes together for this 49er scene, if it ever is again, Ricky Pearsall is just gonna be like a massive beneficiary
59:37for because Kyle is exactly the type of play caller.
59:40I think that's going to get the most out of this styling of a player.
59:44I like all these guys in this range. I I put Ricky Pearsall a tier above all the guys in this ADP
59:50just because I think that his ultimate upside is like he plays every single snap, you know, George Kittle.
59:56Like we'll see if he's going to play the first month of the season.
60:00Like I don't think that's a given of given when he actually tore his Achilles.
60:04Mike Evans has been struggling to stay held. He's still pretty good football player when he's been out there, though.
60:09And yeah, the CMC stuff, like if he goes down with an injury and we're talking about 2530 touches per game going somewhere else.
60:16So I think his like pathway to being like the wide receiver 16 and scoring this year is a little bit clearer
60:22to me than a lot of the other guys that have like not done it yet that have flashed.
60:27And yeah, right now he's he seems good to go.
60:30So just quickly in rankings of where these guys are listed because Michael Wilson, Michael Pittman, Quentin Johnson, Makai Lemon, Ricky Pearsall,
60:36then Jacoby Myers, Jordan Addison, Wondale Robinson. Oh, my God.
60:39Yeah. I mean, Ricky Pearsall over all of those guys.
60:42It's just like if you're trying to hit if you're just trying to get on base and like a best ball format,
60:48like the Michael Pittman, Jacoby Myers, you know, boring picks like I get it.
60:52But but yeah, Wondale, too, is in that bucket.
60:54But yeah, any Quentin Johnson is fine. But yeah, I would take Ricky Pearsall over all those guys.
60:59You know, his his top two comparables, by the way, in the player comparison tool on the site are like two Adam
61:05Thielen seasons, which I think like ultimate up. I don't know.
61:08That's like white guy to white guy, but I know that input is not in the tool.
61:13It makes sense. But like, yeah, like kind of flanker slot runs.
61:16Isn't just a bunny hop receiver runs big breaking routes.
61:19It's I think that's like the best use for him.
61:22I mean, I will say we just appeared on the Ringer Fancy football show for a two parter.
61:27It turned into and you were shouted out for that Ricky Pearsall Adam Thielen because Heifetz said he did the drop down
61:33and went to skin color and said, oh, it's right.
61:36Jack Besh to the current version of Cooper Cup.
61:38I heard that. I heard that on the show today.
61:41OK, let's talk about Xavier Worthy. I'm not and am excited for this conversation at the same time.
61:46He's going in the 11th round on Yahoo. Simple question for you, Matt.
61:49Matt, what is Xavier Worthy and what can he be?
61:52Yeah. So let's just be honest. I was lower than consensus on Xavier Worthy as a prospect.
61:57I was lower than consensus on Xavier Worthy coming out of his rookie year.
62:01At the same time, if I'm going to do the like, hey, we got to give this guy a pass for this,
62:07that and the other due to injuries. We have to be intellectually consistent here and say that we can give Xavier Worthy
62:13a pass for his second season because he got blasted by a teammate that is listed.
62:17And I'm going to emphasize listed as 85 pounds heavier than him.
62:21And I'm going to go ahead and actually take the over on the 85 pounds there.
62:25So, yeah, I think that a lot of, you know, where these second season was just really banged from the start, literally.
62:31But, you know, it wasn't a good result on the field.
62:34Like he really struggles to separate. He goes down on first contact all the time.
62:38He's not going to be useful against press man coverage whatsoever, which is a problem because the Chiefs best receiver is only good against zone coverage.
62:46So that's really like these two guys just should not be on the same team together whatsoever.
62:50It's just is a nightmare in that room because of that.
62:53But I mean, he's not a completely useless player.
62:56There are areas where he definitely wins. Like he's good on quick out routes against man coverage.
63:00He can win there. But it's just the deep stuff is not is not come together for him, mostly because he just
63:07is he's just he's just too small. He's just playing out position.
63:10Like to me, what's his numbers like on the line of scrimmage, like just sitting there watching and just like he's on
63:16the line of scrimmage way too often. And he just can't get enough space to like be good and on breaking routes.
63:22He's like the 71 percent snaps outside. He was on the ball, which went up from 43 percent to 53 percent.
63:28Yeah, you felt it. You felt that. Yeah. To me, he should never be on the ball.
63:33Like he shouldn't. He should never be on the ball.
63:35He's 165 pounds. Come on. Be a good downfield receiver.
63:38You have to be more than fast because these corners at an NFL level, just an average one right now, slow him down to their speed.
63:45And then they can just play at that. And then when the ball is a tight window target, they just play through
63:51him and he can't come up with it. It's so fascinating to me, like just going through this.
63:56He caught four of 16 20 plus yard targets this past season, seven of 21 the year before and was only four of 13 on the intermediate reception.
64:04During his rookie season as well. Like he really is Hayden to go back to what you were saying.
64:09He's like a nine yard and underneath wide receiver so far in his career.
64:13And that's kind of not how at least I thought he was going to be utilized in the NFL.
64:18Yeah. Last year was I'm almost willing to throw it completely out because the type of routes that on the show.
64:24I know. But this one, I feel I think he may be even stronger about because Andy Reid said that they were
64:30going to throw him a lot of crossing routes and they said they couldn't do that.
64:35They were going to throw him screens. His screen rate dropped like almost to zero this last year because they knew if
64:41he got tackled on that delicate shoulder, like you just be out for even longer than that.
64:46And all that said, when Taequann Thornton's you're also your third guy, like someone's getting jammed.
64:50Like, so who is that going to be? I do in the back of my mind.
64:54I do wonder. Do we just start like closing the gap between where she rice and Xavier worthy and the manufactured touches
65:01and how you're utilizing them to some degree? I think that would be a smart thing, just like, you know, hedging against
65:07the entire situation that you have in Kansas City there.
65:09But the he has to face more off coverage to win downfield like that's just kind of the reality or you have
65:15to get him running crossers where I think he's got a little bit better of a chance.
65:20But in order to do that, you have to, you know, make that a priority.
65:24And I think that they probably were going to do that last year to some extent.
65:29The second play of this season before he lost his shoulder was actually a run to Xavier worthy.
65:34It's like you can kind of extrapolate maybe where this thing was going, but it's you have to really speculate here to get excited about Xavier worthy.
65:41Two things. One, like you get two beers in me and I would tell you that Cyrus Allen, their fifth round pick
65:47is easily the best man coverage receiver on this team.
65:50It's not. Well, yeah, it's not Rasheed Rice. I mean, Rasheed Rice has a 4.69 average depth of target the last three
65:56seasons, which out of 117 receivers that have run 200 or more routes.
66:00I tell you, Matt, I am shit out of Rasheed Rice this year, though.
66:04Cool. Have fun with that. I actually worry that was this was going to be my second point.
66:09I actually worry that if they can if they can credibly run the ball, are they still going to do all the scammy targets to Rasheed Rice?
66:16And they're going to run the ball this year.
66:19I mean, they were the worst. He had the lowest a dot and they were the worst run game over the last
66:25two years by a decent bit in terms of explosive plays.
66:28So that would be my one worry with Rasheed Rice on the field.
66:31And it's like the hard part with Rice is like, yeah, it's like there's nothing wrong with worthy, even though it's too
66:37limited of a skill set to taking the first round in the NFL draft, whatever.
66:41But like individually, he's a useful player. Rice is a useful player.
66:45But it's just like the way that them being in the same room together is just a huge problem when they don't
66:51have like George Pickens as the number one receiver or something.
66:54Yeah. And technically, I think you could argue that Travis Kelsey is also occupying kind of the same area.
66:59There's another role. You can't role cater to three guys.
67:02Correct. But what if Kelsey is not involved in the offense?
67:05Like that's what I'm saying. Like if Rice scales back a little bit, Kenneth Walker stuff's working.
67:10And then all of a sudden, like Kelsey, like that's where you can picture like Xavier worthy being a boom bust flex
67:16option wide receiver three, which he has. Not done for a very long part.
67:20I think that you can squint and see how things are kind of falling into place for him.
67:25But I think anything beyond that, like he hasn't shown that he's good enough to belong in that tier.
67:30Yeah. And look, the one offseason move that this team made an offense was to add Ken Walker.
67:35And hopefully that changes the math for them just in terms of coverages.
67:38At the same time, you know, the quarterback needs to hit those downfield passes for that to work.
67:43Nick or Colano posted today that in games where she rice has played, Xavier worthy has averaged 2.7 catches.
67:49Per game. Not great. Yeah, not great. You know, and then just overall in his career, he has three games of reaching 80 yards, receiving over 34 appearances.
67:56So, yeah, I mean, maybe Ken Walker is how this whole thing is going to change.
68:01But if it does change, like as much as I think for she rice is a linear skill set player, I still
68:07think that linear skill set is better than what Xavier worthy's linear skill set is.
68:11But maybe I'm going to agree with that. No, I agree.
68:14I agree with that. Okay. Okay. Moving on. Jalen Coker.
68:17You texted me. We got to talk about him.
68:1916th round. You have loved Jalen Coker for multiple seasons since he's entered the NFL and since you got a taste in preseason and everything like that.
68:27Why have you been so on board with Jalen Coker, whereas it even took the Panthers a while to fit him in the starting lineup?
68:34I know we're not going to sit here and advocate for him to be drafted on Yahoo, for example, because he's going in the 16th round.
68:41But just overall, do you think the public has the correct perception of what Jalen Coker's talents are?
68:46No, guys, a stud. Like he's a great receiver.
68:48He's in the only reason the Panthers took forever to do it is one little out of shape at times.
68:54You hear the whispers about that. He'd need to get his body right.
68:58That's okay. Coming from Holy Cross. All right. They don't have the most, you know, I'm not going to say.
69:03Well, speak for yourself. But, you know, I mean, for Jalen Coker, he's getting an NFL weight room, whatever.
69:08He's got his body right. His nutrition, you know, that's fine.
69:11But like skill set wise, this is the archetype of receivers that are smoking in the NFL right now.
69:17Big body. Not as he's not like I know he's listed as 6'3", like 215 pounds.
69:21He's a little bit lighter than that. He's actually built more like Chris Godwin.
69:25And that's kind of the type of player that I think he is like Jacoby Myers is like Chris Godwin type.
69:31He can be a power slot, but can win outside big breaking routes.
69:34He's much better against press man coverage than you would think for somebody that is a UDFA that I'm saying is like Jacoby Myers.
69:41Myers is also a good route runner in those areas as well.
69:44So, yeah, I think he's just a really, really good player.
69:47They got an absolute steal. And I think it's actually I'm not going to sit here and like advocate for the Panthers offense.
69:54I know everybody's first retort is the quarterback, and I get that.
69:57But these reports about McMillan playing more in the slot and everything I think are legit because one he can't he can
70:03almost can't play fewer snaps in the slot than he did last year.
70:0715% last year. Yeah, it was 107th or 101st out of 117 receivers with 200 plus routes last year.
70:12So, yeah, he he's towards the bottom. He's not quite in the George Pickens Rashad Bateman zone, but like he's pretty much just an X.
70:19That's going to change this year. A big part of that is because Coker can actually play on the outside, like watch
70:25him late in the season, like Rams line up against man coverage as an X receiver.
70:29Big. Oh, the Rams game. Big wins on go routes.
70:32And they draft Chris Brazel, who's just like the perfect sacrificial receiver, at least to start, like get him on the Alec
70:38Pierce path where he's just clear in space earlier and then see what he can be by, you know, year four or whatever.
70:45And, you know, Leggett's going to do his thing every now and again, maybe.
70:48But I think they're one of these teams that actually could go against the trend because they have these big body receivers and be more spread.
70:56Now, I wish they didn't have to pack up offensive tackles necessarily.
70:59But yeah, that's a part of the issue there.
71:01But yeah, I think they could be one of these teams to go against the trend, spread things out, get these three receivers on the field a lot.
71:09And I think Coker is going to get a lot more targets than people think.
71:13I think the fact that Coker can win on the outside is like the reason why T-Max is going to go in the slot this year.
71:21I mean, it's like perfect, perfectly timed for Coker to be breaking out as they drafted Ted Aroa.
71:26I thought his film was pretty legit. He's one of these interesting guys where his catch radius is pretty big.
71:31And then you're like, he's not like blowing by guys like with like straight line speed.
71:35But then like you go look, he had a 42 and a half inch vertical, which is absurd.
71:40So he's got this like nice catch radius working over the middle.
71:44I think Jacoby Myers is an excellent comp there.
71:46Just like to remind folks, nine for 134 and a touchdown in the playoff game.
71:50He played 88% of the snaps there for a lot of his career.
71:54He was kind of in that 66% snap rate in those games.
71:57He averaged nine and a half half EPR points, which would have been like wide receiver 34.
72:02There's no way he's not playing 85, 90, 95% of the snaps this year.
72:06Like they have to do that. The other two guys, Brazel and Leggett, those guys will rotate as the wide receiver three.
72:12And I think the best of Bryce stuff is the spread them out stuff.
72:16Like that's how I would orchestrate this thing. If you can't block them up, get the ball out quickly.
72:21Let Bryce throw these huge lollipops towards the sideline, like right as the ball is snapped.
72:26And like, I think Coker can come down with some of those.
72:29And obviously Ted Aroa can too. So I see how the offense is kind of coming together here.
72:34I think that Coker should be drafted in redraft leagues.
72:37I think there's enough here. And if T-Mac did go down with an injury, I think he's skilled enough that he would be an every week starter.
72:44Cause just the rest of the offense, like those guys are just like not target earners.
72:49So I think that he's like a good, like handcuff and redraft.
72:52And then in best ball, I do think that he's good enough to like have random spike weeks.
72:57And new play caller here in Brad Aidsic. And Hayden, you and I have talked with us at length this summer.
73:03This team, despite having the same coaching staff has still struggled to start seasons of how to build a correct passing attack.
73:09And I think from the jump this year, they're finally going to attack down the field.
73:13Again, people have their thoughts on Bryce Young. But if you look at the underlying numbers, he is one of the more efficient downfield throwers in the league.
73:21And you see that in that Rams game. Like a lot of those were really nice throws.
73:26And I think they're going to lean into that from the start with these bigger bodies that they have.
73:31And T-Mac can do that. And Jalen Coker can definitely do that.
73:34And like, he was going to be in three wide receiver sets to start last year.
73:39And then as soon as they trade away Adam Thielen, he gets injured in training camp.
73:43And then, you know, things have gotten better as the wide receiver room.
73:47Hunter Renfro was their slot receiver. And like, no disrespect to Hunter Renfro made a big time comeback.
73:52But like, that is the slot only of slot onlys of all time.
73:55So, yeah. And then when Hunter's in there, you know, then you can't move T-Mac in the slot because Hunter Renfro can't play anywhere else.
74:02So, like, I bet T-Mac plays like 30% of the snaps in the slot.
74:06So, it's doubling what he did last year. Let's not go crazy and start calling him a big slot out there and just overemphasize and stuff.
74:13Like Drake London. Yeah. I mean, like Drake London.
74:16They were the same family of receivers. I think London's a little bit better and has a higher ceiling.
74:21I liked it better as a prospect. But, yeah.
74:23Like, London was 39% snaps in the slot in 2024 on passing plays.
74:27That's good enough. And when they're in the slot, the ball is basically going to them.
74:31Yeah. I'm excited for Jalen Coker. Really fun player.
74:34Really good player. Makes some difficult grabs and then makes some highlight real ones on the outside.
74:39Okay. Let's end this episode with some three quick hitters.
74:41Just because for us sickos that have been drafting best ball all summer, these guys are kind of relevant.
74:47First is Adonai Mitchell. Matt. Matt. Chances that he's the second highest scoring wide receiver on the Jets this season.
74:52Even? I mean, I think it's like even between him and...
74:55Pretty good. He is the only receiver in the NFL.
74:58James Coe jokes about this. Like, every receiver, I'm like, yeah, he could be better off the ball.
75:03He could be better in the slot. He's like the only receiver.
75:06I never want to see him in the slot.
75:09I never want... Like, just... Like, he should be what George Pickens was last year.
75:13Like, the farthest away from the ball. You're doing your own thing.
75:16Because I know he gets kind of painted as this great separator.
75:20Super overrated as a separator because he can't beat zone coverage.
75:23But like these one-on-one situations on like just basically four routes.
75:26Slant. Body control. He can't roll out, you know, nine.
75:28He can be good on those routes, but that's about it.
75:31No more notes than that for me. That's it.
75:34Hayden, is there a difference to you, though, in your mindset with him where, you know, at the start of the summer
75:40on Underdog, we were drafting him in the 18th round.
75:43And now, because we hate all those picks, basically, from the 14th round to the 18th round, now he's a 15th round pick.
75:49Like, is there any change in your wavelength on that?
75:52No, I think that's fair. Like, that's where I would be ranking him.
75:55Um, I think that Omar Cooper, the, are they going to trust him in two wide receiver sets?
76:00Because I think they are going to use two wide receiver sets a lot because they have, you know, Mason Taylor as
76:07a, as somebody, whoever's going to be out there in two wide receiver sets is going to be the one that outscores the one that's not in them.
76:14So is Omar Cooper going to push Adonai Mitchell, not in three wide receivers.
76:18It's the two wide receiver set stuff. And like, we'll see.
76:21Omar Cooper is kind of like, I think probably best in the slot did play some flanker.
76:26Like he's kind of in between. And I think it's just up to him just like to push Adonai Mitchell and best ball.
76:32I'm sure Mitchell will have a couple 40 yard touchdowns this year, but the volume is not going to be there consistently.
76:38Obviously Matt, I don't even know if you charted this guy, but I have to ask, cause this is the bleakest widers heaver room in the NFL.
76:46What should our thoughts be on Malik Washington? Oh God.
76:49I haven't charted Malik Washington yet, but I did like him as a prospect.
76:52Um, no, it's okay. I've done it. Like I've done a couple of games.
76:56I don't have a full profile up on him yet.
76:59Cause, uh, he will, and he, but he will be on the site because I did like him as a prospect and
77:05I'm just curious, but for the most part, I think he's, he's like been a creative touch guy who, um, can win
77:11against zone coverage at times, but I don't think there's like a high, high ceiling here.
77:16But again, did like him as a prospect. Uh, he showed he could beat man coverage at UVA.
77:21So that was exciting. And I think he should be better with the ball in his hands than he's been so far.
77:27So I do like Malik Washington. I'm holding out like a little bit of hope for him, but I mean, my God, the dolphins just right.
77:34I mean, what a, what a disaster. That's why I asked because of what this wide receiver room is at this point.
77:40And like, other than Chris bell, is he the most exciting name from that group?
77:44Like I have found myself literally getting to drafts and end of best ball leagues and saying, I don't want to draft any of these guys.
77:51Why not just take a shot on Malik Washington instead of Jalen Tolbert and Tutu Atwell, you know, you don't take, never take Tutu Atwell or Jalen Tolbert.
77:59Like, come on. It's Greg Dulcich for me. You guys can have, oh yeah.
78:03Yeah. Yeah. Someone I was taking in that range, Matt.
78:06And I mean, this guy might've climbed the most in the last month than any other player is Ryan Flournoy of the Dallas Cowboys.
78:12He's a very fun player. Yeah. He has climbed from round 18 up to the middle of the 14th round.
78:18Matt, if this was, I don't know, the 2011 NFL season, I think we could really get excited about Ryan Flournoy as like a slot type player.
78:25Uh, I just fear. And I know that he really won't have any fantasy relevance unless one of these Cowboys wide receivers
78:31are sidelined for a long period of time. But as soon as he is, he will headline the waiver wire column or video for every single person.
78:39No. Yeah. Named no because of that. And, uh, dynasty wise is, is a good, you know, I stuck him at the
78:45end of my benches all last year. Cause, um, you know, shout out.
78:49I hate to give producer Colin any credit, but I'm going to give him credit here that he was on me all last year.
78:55Like you got to chart Ryan for the guy's really good.
78:58And I was like, Colin, he's a Cowboys fan.
79:01I'm like, I'm not charting Ryan Flournoy. And then Nate said to do it.
79:05So I was like, all right, I'll listen to Nate.
79:07Uh, so I did. And like, he's legit. Flournoy is legit.
79:10Good. Like he's a, he was a legitimately good player can, can beat man coverage, can sink and win over the middle of the field.
79:17Uh, I actually think his presence as a third receiver, sometimes like what the, what these third receivers are and what they
79:23do to the top two guys for fantasy for us is definitely more important than what they are in their own right.
79:30Even though I think Flournoy is a legit good player and he would be awesome if either of these two guys weren't
79:36on the team, but you gotta remember like last year CD lamb opened up the season as the Z receiver, not as the slot receiver.
79:43Cause their third receiver was the aforementioned Jalen Tolbert and Kevante Turpin, who, you know, is a tiny like kick returner.
79:48Now that Flournoy has emerged. I actually think that kicks lamb back into the slot more cause Flournoy can win coverage as a Z receiver.
79:55I totally agree. He was part of our wide receiver sleepers just for that very reason.
80:00Like when lamb was out, he saw more of the slot stuff, but then at the same time you saw him on
80:06the outside and two wide receiver set looks and he actually held his own as an outside wide receiver.
80:11Like Florida, when did you say he, when did you say he was like back in the 18th round?
80:16Was that, uh, I think at the start of the summer, he was like a 17th or 18th round pick.
80:22Yeah, dude. Literally the last video I posted on my YouTube channel, uh, was like Ryan Flournoy is a good player.
80:28Like peace out. I'm going to Portugal for, you know, two weeks and I come back and he's like a 14th round.
80:34He's a 14th round pick. Yes. Yes. That's what happens.
80:37That's what happens. Hayden, any closing thoughts here? I've had a really good tier of receivers to be buying low on this
80:43for injuries just across, across the board. I think all these guys have upside.
80:46I think the Ricky Pierce all shot is really good one to take later on.
80:51And then I think that you can swing. I would say like Roma Doomsday is a really good swing at where he's being drafted.
80:57And then I think the Malik neighbor stuff, if you're drafting for today, I think his ADP is going to go up,
81:03but the PUP stuff is a really big deal.
81:06Yeah. Rome is the guy for me that I, I mean, just he's the one I want most out of this group at cost.
81:12I agree with neighbors and McConkie too. One other name, just to note, like I think Jalen McMillan took some nice steps
81:19at the end of last year against man coverage as a vertical player and at least can be like their X receiver
81:25while Ted Hurst gets up to speed coming up from Georgia state.
81:28So that's useful for the Mecca Ibuka bags as well.
81:31But we'll have to see if Keon Coleman can make the video next year, but we'll see.
81:35No answer is I don't like his odds. I do not like his odds.
81:39All right. That's going to do it for us.
81:42This is the first episode of our Yahoo era.
81:44We have four episodes per week until the season kicks off at least four episodes per week.
81:49Who knows? We might go crazy. So hit subscribe.
81:51Join us here. We're so excited to be a part of this amazing team that Matt has now been a part of
81:58for years and years and years and has helped build.
82:00He was a major reason why we wanted to join this Yahoo crew.
82:04And if you're new to our channel, we have plenty of other videos already on the channel from earlier in the summer.
82:10I mean, sleepers. We have Ron Stewart's favorite picks.
82:12Five running backs. You wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.
82:16I mean, we've got tons of stuff out there.
82:18So go and check it all out. Go and watch another video.
82:21And we'll be back here tomorrow with another one.
82:24Matt, thanks so much. Anything you want to plug before we get out of here?
82:28Yeah. Yahoo fantasy forecast. You plugged the YouTube channel several times.
82:31Definitely check that out. And reception perception dot com.
82:34I got profiles on all these guys. The new player comparison tool where, you know, like I said, it's fun.
82:39You can get lost on that thing, man. Just playing around a little bit.
82:43So I think people will enjoy it. Awesome. All right, everyone.
82:46Up the Velo. We'll talk to you guys soon.
82:48See ya.
