PodcastFrom Dynasty Points
Top WR Tiers and Rankings - 2026 Dynasty Fantasy Football
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
46 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Aug 5, 2026
Published
Wed, August 5, 2026
18
Player insights
17
Players mentioned
Topics
Luther BurdenAmon-Ra St. BrownCeeDee LambChris OlaveDrake LondonGarrett WilsonGeorge PickensJa'Marr ChaseJameson WilliamsJayden HigginsLadd McConkeyMarvin Harrison Jr.Matthew GoldenNico Collins
Player analysis
Player insights
Amon-Ra St. Brown
NegativeValue16:46
Amon-Ra St. Brown is a fantastic player, but his ADP is considerably higher than other prime-aged receivers like Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb. Analysts suggest he is a 'must explore' trade candidate because managers could potentially pivot to a younger asset like Drake London and maintain comparable production.
Insight pageCeeDee Lamb
PositiveRole22:09
CeeDee Lamb is a top-tier prime-aged dynasty asset. There is significant debate regarding whether he and George Pickens will both remain in Dallas, with analysts generally projecting a high probability that only one of them will be on the team by 2027.
Insight pageChris Olave
NegativeValue30:23
Chris Olave was moved down in dynasty rankings because he faces competition for targets from a rookie Jamar Chase likes. There is concern that Olave could lose market sentiment if he is out-targeted by younger teammates, making his current dynasty ranking feel fragile.
Insight pageDrake London
PositiveValue12:06
Drake London is viewed as a high-end dynasty asset, with analysts preferring him slightly over older prime-aged receivers like Justin Jefferson, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and CeeDee Lamb due to his youth. London averaged over 20 points per game in Michael Penix's starts and was the WR3 by fantasy points per game before his PCL injury last season.
Insight pageGarrett Wilson
NegativeProjection35:14
Garrett Wilson remains a highly regarded talent, but analysts are waiting for him to have a season with a confident quarterback. His dynasty value is currently being challenged by the rapid rise of players like Zay Flowers.
Insight pageGeorge Pickens
NegativeRole20:00
George Pickens is viewed as a 'wide receiver one by default' who faces uncertainty regarding his future in Dallas. While he showed flashes of elite production when CeeDee Lamb was out, there is skepticism about his consistency and the likelihood of him remaining in Dallas long-term given contract dynamics.
Insight pageJa'Marr Chase
PositiveValue3:31
Jamar Chase is a tier-one dynasty asset and the WR1 for Ryan Heath, who views him as a safer year-to-year bet than Jackson Smith & Jigba. Chase benefits from short-term stability with Joe Flacco as the Bengals' QB2, having previously produced strong fantasy performances with him.
Insight pageJameson Williams
NegativeBreakout53:42
Jameson Williams is identified as a high-volatility player with the most to gain or lose this season. If he proves he can handle higher target volume, he could launch into an upper tier of boom-bust receivers; conversely, a repeat of his early-season struggles could see him fall out of the top tier entirely.
Insight pageJayden Higgins
PositiveSleeper60:00
Higgins is a high-upside dynasty target who showed strong per-route production in college. Despite being slow-played by the Texans as a rookie, he is expected to force his way into two-receiver sets in 2026. He is viewed as a player with a delayed breakout potential similar to Nico Collins.
Insight pageLadd McConkey
NegativeUsage44:05
Despite his talent, there are concerns about his sophomore season, which saw a massive crash in targets per run (17.5%), catch rate, and yards per reception. There is skepticism that the Chargers' offense will be hyper-focused on him, as it may be extremely spread out among various receivers, tight ends, and running backs.
Insight pageLuther Burden
PositiveSleeper27:35
Jacob Sanderson is very high on Luther Burden, ranking him as his WR13, significantly higher than the industry consensus. He views Burden as a player with the upside to reach the 'two plus firsts' value range in dynasty.
Insight pageNegativeUsage42:05
Burden is viewed as a less compelling bet than Ladd McConkey due to a lack of proven NFL production and limited route running until the end of his rookie season. There are more 'nits to pick' with Burden's profile compared to McConkey's established full-time role.
Insight pageMarvin Harrison Jr.
NegativeProjection55:53
Marvin Harrison is categorized as a massive range-of-outcomes player. While he is currently held down by his situation, there is potential for improvement in 2027 with possible quarterback changes.
Insight pageMatthew Golden
PositiveValue66:52
Jamar Chase expresses skepticism toward Matthew Golden, noting that he does not have conviction in his talent and believes there are three other players on the offense who are better per-route target earners.
Insight pageNico Collins
PositiveProjection63:47
Nico Collins is considered a top-five real-life wide receiver who consistently obliterates yards-per-route-run metrics, though he struggles to reach fantasy WR1 status due to the Texans' conservative, run-heavy offense.
Insight pagePuka Nacua
NegativeUsage6:42
Puka Nakua is viewed as a special talent who averaged three more fantasy points per game than any other wide receiver in his healthy games last year. However, there is long-term concern regarding his production once Matthew Stafford retires, and some market sentiment suggests he may have already hit his peak value.
Insight pageRashee Rice
NegativeValue50:15
Jamar Chase is very low on Rashee Rice, noting that he has not touched him at all this offseason and does not plan to acquire more shares, despite his high ranking in the current tier.
Insight pageZay Flowers
PositiveBreakout30:59
Zay Flowers is rising in dynasty value, with analysts preferring him over Garrett Wilson and Nico Collins. There is optimism he could see over 160 targets this year with more design and red-zone usage, potentially positioning him as a top-tier asset by next year.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
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0:45The Fantasy Points Front Office. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Dynasty Points.
0:49We have been ranking the top running backs, top quarterbacks.
0:52We're continuing the series today with wide receivers. Jacob Sanderson, Ryan Heath, Thomas Tipple here to break down our top 30-plus wide receivers.
1:00We're going to have more sleeper-ish or back-end wide receiver threes towards the end of the show, which you're not going to want to miss.
1:08But obviously, we want to start out with the top tiers here.
1:12Jacob, why don't we talk about how we got to how we got here and maybe hammer home the fact that we're
1:19really just talking about our biggest discrepancies. Yeah, so we have been doing the same process for the last couple, which is
1:26we do our rankings in here pre-show. We have tiered breaks in the rankings, and then I create a score that tiers
1:34them out collectively based on our joint rankings and our joint tier breaks.
1:38And then because this is wide receiver, we wanted to have a few more names because the wide receiver 36, a lot
1:45more valuable than the tight end 36 in Dynasty.
1:48But we're not going to do a two-hour show.
1:51So I'm going to run through. We're going to highlight some of the guys that maybe Tom wanted to pick Ryan and I's brains on.
2:00We're going to highlight some of the guys that Ryan and I were the furthest apart on when we did our rankings.
2:07But otherwise, we're going to motor along here at a decent pace.
2:11So for the first tier, four-person tier, we wound up with Jamar Chase, Jackson Smith & Jigba, Puka Nakua, Malik Neighbors in that order.
2:19I'll note, I'm pretty darn sure this is the first time since we've been doing these rankings.
2:24And I guess also the last time because I think we've done – have we done all the positions yet?
2:31We haven't done tight end yet. All right. We have not done tight end yet.
2:36This is the first time, and I will guess based on who is at tight end, that it's the only time that
2:43we don't have the same wide receiver one. So I had Jackson Smith & Jigba in my one slot.
2:50Ryan came in with Jamar Chase. He had JSN at three.
2:53But otherwise, we had the same four names here clearly at the top of our Dynasty rank.
2:59Yeah, I guess for me to just expound on why JSN is not my number one, why it's Jamar Chase, then Puka, then JSN for me.
3:08And again, they're all in the same tier. I think they're all clearly just tier one Dynasty assets.
3:13For me, while there is an age difference that is nice, I just see Chase and Puka as safer year-to-year bets than I do with JSN.
3:22We've seen basically an elite season from him in only one year.
3:26It was with incredible efficiency off of the deep play-action game with Clint Kubiak, who has since moved on from Seattle.
3:33I do think that JSN is an alpha wide receiver.
3:36I think he's clearly a top fantasy wide receiver.
3:39I have him still as a round one redraft pick and everything.
3:43I just see a little bit more risk with the JSN just because there's kind of more moving parts here with his team.
3:51With Jamar Chase, he gets nice safety now, at least in the short term, with Joe Flacco as the Bengals QB2, where
3:58he was able to put up some really strong fantasy performances with Flacco.
4:02With Puka, I just think he's the most special talent.
4:06If I was just ranking the most talented receivers in the league, at least within the context of how they should continue
4:13to be used, it would be Puka Nakua. He averaged like three more fantasy points per game last year than any other
4:20wide receiver in only his healthy games. So excluding any games he was on the injury report, it was like a three-point
4:28gap between him and JSN and Chase. So that's kind of why I'm just giving a little bit more love and respect
4:35to Chase and Puka compared to JSN. But it's all nitpicking to me.
4:39I'm not thinking that Jacob is dumb for having JSN number one.
4:43Yeah, I have these three really close. I think you can put them in any order.
4:49The reason I go with JSN really is just age.
4:52I do have him ranked behind the other two in redraft this year.
4:56I think JSN over Puka I probably feel a little bit more strongly about because we've seen JSN thrive in, I mean,
5:03a very effective offense, but not an environment that I would say was so obviously constructed for elite fantasy production last year.
5:11It was a run-heavy offense. Sam Darnold at quarterback was totally fine, but not elite.
5:16And with Puka, I mean, I'm more than convinced that he's an elite wide receiver, but I do think there will be
5:23a slight downturn in production, maybe even more than slight when Matthew Stafford is out of the picture.
5:29So for me, it does calm down primarily to Chase versus Smith and Jigba for that spot.
5:35And it's just a matter of, do I care more about Chase, who I think projects a little bit better this year
5:42for the reasons that you mentioned, or do I want the extra two years?
5:47I personally want the extra two years a little bit more.
5:50We'll go through the rankings. I think you'll see, especially at the lower tiers of the rankings, my rankings skew a lot
5:57younger than Ryan's kind of throughout and especially towards the end.
6:01So probably not the last we'll hear of that theme.
6:04Yeah, Chase and still sits firmly at one for me until he's taken away from Joe Burrow or the Bengals defense proves they can do anything.
6:13I just don't think there's any beating him. No signs of slowing down.
6:17But again, we're talking about four of the top eight dynasty assets in the game.
6:22So it's really hard to really nitpick each and every one.
6:26There is a little bit. I should say if neighbors looks back to full health.
6:31Yeah. The second he looks back to full health, he immediately goes to not just my wide receiver one, but my overall number one.
6:39Like if we just see if we just see neighbors look like what he looked like before he towards ACL, I'm just instantly putting him up a one.
6:48I agree. The only reason he wouldn't be is because of the injury.
6:52But I am going to say like the no contract extension for Nakua and the what life looks like after Matthew Stafford
7:00is also why I can't get him up there.
7:03At the time when Stafford looked like he wasn't going into a cryogenic chamber to heal himself up like he was Goku.
7:10People were already looking to move off of Puka Nakua at his quote highest peak.
7:15So I definitely see there being a risk with Puka and why he is actually four for me with neighbors coming up ahead.
7:23Let's look at the next tier here in tier A.
7:26All right. So this one, we've got another four names here.
7:30We've got Drake London kicking it off. That was the number five guy for both Ryan and myself.
7:36And then we have Jefferson and St. Brown tied.
7:38We have them a six and seven in either order.
7:42And then CeeDee Lamb comes in at the eighth spot, which is where both of us had him.
7:48I mean, I think that the three, like, I don't know.
7:51I don't know if I, what's to say, middle-aged, prime-aged.
7:55The three prime-aged wide receivers are like maybe the three most similar assets in Dynasty anywhere where you have like these three
8:02guys that are all the same age, I think roughly, give or take, maybe like a couple of months.
8:08And all of them are going back to back to back in redraft formats as well.
8:14So there's just a lot of consensus regarding those three.
8:17I think you can put them in any order that you want.
8:21And then I think the interesting question comes like, do you want London over all three of them?
8:27Do you want all three of them over London?
8:30Would you find a way to split a difference?
8:33I, again, I'm an aegis. So I put London in there just ahead, even though I do have all three of them
8:40ranked above him in redraft this year. Uh, yeah, for me, I actually come to the conclusion a little bit differently.
8:47Uh, for me, it's that I have London ranked much closer to these guys in, in redraft this year than it sounds like you might.
8:55So I actually just have London ahead of Justin Jefferson in redraft straight up.
9:00Uh, I have him like behind, like, yeah, well behind St.
9:04Brown, uh, well behind Lamb. Um, but yeah, for me, it's close enough there that like I can squint enough and say,
9:11well, through the first 11 weeks before the PCL injury, Drake London was the wide receiver three by fantasy points per game.
9:18Uh, he averages over 20 points per game, uh, in Michael Penix's starts over his career.
9:24Will Penix start, uh, this year at, at some point, I think he will.
9:28But yeah, that's, that's like where you can get into the weeds and kind of argue back and forth.
9:34But for me, London's just like close enough to all of these guys in terms of fantasy scoring, in terms of talent
9:42that, yeah, I, I will, this is one of the few spots probably where I will just give the edge to the younger player.
9:50Um, as we've kind of talked about a lot this off season, I, I think we're maybe a little against the market,
9:57but in agreement on preferring London of this group very slightly.
10:01This won't be against the market for long, the, the, the 2020, 2021 wide receivers.
10:06So chase Jeff, this is why I come down a little bit on chase, but Jefferson, St.
10:11Brown and lamb, especially they are like right at the age break in dynasty where it seems like the market does not
10:19punish you very much for the difference in age between like 24 through 26, 27.
10:23But then once you get to 28, 29, 30, you just lose a lot every single year after that.
10:30And so I do think that if you have Jefferson, St.
10:33Brown or lamb, especially St. Brown, because he's ADP is considerably higher than the other two.
10:39Um, I do think that like, by no means are they must sells or priority cells.
10:44They're fantastic players, but I do think that there must explores because I think there's a pretty good chance that you can basically get the same value.
10:53That you would have gotten out of Amin, Ross St.
10:56Brown, like three years ago today. And you could have just rented his bankable wide receiver one production for the last three
11:04seasons, spin him into Drake London, get comparable production for the next two or three seasons, then spin off London into someone
11:11else before his value starts to turn down. I think if that's one way you can get ahead of the market a little bit.
11:19Perfect. Fair reasoning. Let's move on to the B tier.
11:22All right. The B tier. Um, so we got here, uh, another four guys.
11:27So we're going to do, um, Ted O'Romac Millen, George Pickens, Nico Collins, and Garrett Wilson.
11:32There was not a lot of, uh, difference in how we rank these guys really at all.
11:38I guess the one difference I had T-Mac, um, up in the tier with the other four guys.
11:44He's the last guy in my previous tier, but, um, otherwise we were pretty aligned.
11:49I think we had like them flipped in orders, but, um, for the most part, we were pretty locked in here.
11:56I don't know if you have any thoughts on this group, Tom.
12:00The Pickens one to me feels like the most fake of the high end wide receivers, just given the splits between he
12:07and Lamb when they were both healthy. And then of course, being in a situation where he's not the alpha when he
12:14got to be, when Lamb was out of the lineup, he looked like that Prince that was promised for so long.
12:21But we are heading towards a contract situation in Dallas.
12:24And I think he's currently in the best spot for him.
12:28And given what the Baltimore Ravens just paid Zay Flowers, you have to expect Pickens being next in line is looking for that next year tight bag.
12:37And we've seen what the attitude has gotten him into previously as well.
12:41If that doesn't end up coming down the road, it's a bit of a wild card.
12:47So to me, he feels like the most wide receiver one by default.
12:51Whereas when the next line of wide receivers come in, I can see both him and Nico Collins being the guys that get pushed out by default.
13:00But I think he definitely belongs here, given the flashes that we got to see.
13:05Just not as consistent to me and way too many red flags to me, especially moving out of Dallas.
13:11Again, that is the perfect scenario for him. So tough, tough.
13:15We'll see. If everyone was allocating percentages for 2027, how would you allocate the following three scenarios?
13:20Only Pickens is in Dallas. Only Lamb is in Dallas.
13:24Both are in Dallas. Or if you want to allocate neither are in Dallas, you can't.
13:29But I'm going to give that one 0%. I think there's a 65% chance that Lamb is the only one in Dallas.
13:36And I would be really even hard to say, but I would say there's almost a 0% chance that George Pickens and Lamb are in Dallas.
13:45I don't know. Yeah, I'd give it more than that.
13:48Maybe five? But I don't think they're more. I'm going to go 50.
13:53They're not going to pay. I don't think they pay both.
13:56I don't think they pay both. I'm going to go 50.
14:00Both are in Dallas. Interesting. 30 Lamb is in Dallas.
14:0320 Pickens is in Dallas. Interesting. I think I'm probably more like in between both of you.
14:09I'll probably go like 25 to 30 that they're both there.
14:12Maybe like a 20% that it's only Pickens. And then the rest, so 50-ish percent or whatever's left to only Lamb.
14:19I think like it's really tough because the Cowboys have proven time and time again that they will wait until the absolute
14:27last possible moment to get a deal done with any of their star players.
14:31And all it constantly does is drive the price up on them like at the longer they wait.
14:37So yeah, it already has. If they assign George Pickens to a long-term extension before the flowers and lava extensions, they would
14:45have gotten it done cheaper than they would if they tried today.
14:48Yeah, they always they constantly shoot themselves in the foot.
14:52But yeah, it's like it's extremely like yeah, it's it's hilarious as a non Cowboys fan.
14:57If that if I were a Cowboys fan, this would be like my number one axe that I would constantly be grinding on social media about the team.
15:06They're like it has enough liquid funds to pay off their entire credit card bill, but they just prefer to pay interest.
15:14So they only pay the minimum payment anyway, then they keep the rest in like a savings account that doesn't accrue any interest.
15:21That's just a perfect analogy. But yeah, there there is legit like as I said, that's a total of like a 50 percent chance.
15:29I said that only one of them is in Dallas in 2027.
15:33Sounds like Jacob's a bit higher on that. So, yeah, I really do think that could be what happens.
15:40Pickens, I'd be pretty happy about in any like high pass volume place.
15:44I think he can succeed as a number one receiver by himself.
15:48We saw like an obvious proof concept of that last year.
15:51But even if it is still the two of them, to me, the reason I have Pickens up in this tier and
15:59actually ahead of a Garrett Wilson and of a Nico Collins is even if you want to take like the worst case scenario for that from last year.
16:08So only the games that both Pickens and Lamb were fully healthy.
16:12You still got like 15 and a half fantasy points per game out of George Pickens in that sample.
16:18That's pretty competitive with or just straight up ahead of what you're getting out of Garrett Wilson and Nico Collins, at least recently.
16:26So, yeah, Pickens, I have like no problem being in this group.
16:30He's a guy I prefer, honestly. And our next group up is when we start to see some of the rookies pop in.
16:37So Tyson comes in next, followed by Alave, followed by a tie between Zay Flowers and Luther Burden, followed by Carnell Tate.
16:45And this is when we start to have a bit of a divergence in the rankings.
16:50And it's not a particularly surprising one. Ryan had Luther Burden at wide receiver 18.
16:55I had him at wide receiver 13. That's our first disagreement of more than three spots.
17:00I guess the other corresponding disagreement would be Alave.
17:03Ryan had three spots higher. But for the most part, Burden really the first major point of differentiation.
17:09I don't know if our listeners need to hear us argue about Luther Burden again.
17:14But maybe a new year, a new summer, we can put a new coat of paint on it.
17:20Yeah, I don't know, man. I hate arguing about Luther Burden with you because I'm high on Luther Burden.
17:27And I think relative to most ADP and things that are out there, I just feel like the loser villain having to
17:34say, no, actually, there are like three or four more guys that I'd prefer over him compared to you.
17:40You're just like the highest person in the industry.
17:43So it's almost not fair to even have this argument again.
17:47I'm actually not. I heard of Davis Matic. Yeah.
17:50You're right. Yeah, we'll get Davis on the show someday.
17:53And then I can feel like, yeah, I have even more space to be a Luther Burden hater.
17:59But yeah, that is not the case in any of my redraft content, certainly, that has been coming out the last couple weeks.
18:07Yeah, well, it must be nice looking at that ESPN ADP or Sleeper, whatever ADP was that has him completely buried that you get to use.
18:15That feels like a nice ad. The one guy that I found myself moving, it's the only time I actually did a
18:23literal rankings change while doing this, was I moved Chris Alave down.
18:26I previously had him up in the B tier, which kind of inherently makes sense to me because he had a more
18:34productive season than either of Garrett Wilson or Nico Collins.
18:37They're all about the same age. I think Alave might even be slightly younger than at least Nico.
18:43And so that's kind of how I'd had it set.
18:46And then I was thinking about my redraft rankings.
18:49And I'm like, well, Zay and Alave are, I think, the same age.
18:54Zay is actually even, I think, slightly younger. I have Zay ranked higher in redraft.
18:59Alave's got a new rookie that I love who he's competing with for targets and who I probably like to even get better over the course of time.
19:08Like, why do I have Alave ahead of Zay Flowers in my dynasty rankings?
19:13That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me.
19:16So I went in and did that move. I should have probably just moved Zay Flowers up, but I just didn't.
19:23It felt like a total noob thing to do to move him up a tier the same day he signed a big
19:30contract extension, even though my reasons for doing it weren't related to the contract extension.
19:35So I had to move someone else down instead.
19:38But I do think I probably should move Zay up a little bit higher to reflect how high I am on him in redraft.
19:46And then, yeah, the burden thing is like just, I don't know, I think the guy is the truth.
19:53Everything I hear at a Bears camp kind of just keeps confirming my priors.
19:57And I want to take shots on some of the younger guys who have the chance to get up into like the
20:05two plus firsts range, which I think are burdened Tyson Tate a little bit more than the Alave's, the Wilson's, the Collins, the Flowers.
20:12Yeah, that's honestly you could make a similar argument to me regarding like my redraft rankings.
20:18I have a Lave one spot ahead of Zay Flowers in redraft.
20:22It's just back to back for me. But yeah, I don't feel that like strongly about him this year.
20:28He's someone that I worry like loses a lot of kind of market sentiment and support.
20:33If there is even like a few weeks where Jordan Tyson comes in and out targets him like it's probably is like
20:41a pretty fragile dynasty ranking and dynasty ADP. But I mean, I don't know from it from like a median projection standpoint
20:48and everything we have at fantasy points. So Alave is like pretty strong.
20:52So, yeah, I don't know. I'm like a little I agree.
20:56I'm like also kind of struggling with that now that I actually think through where I have him ranked.
21:02I think I would like flip him and Jordan Tyson at the very least, though, just from having this conversation.
21:09Alave and Wilson are the hardest that I've I've really had to go back and forth.
21:14I've been a big Garrett Wilson guy forever. I just really need one year with a confident quarterback.
21:20Please someone that can that can make this happen for us.
21:24But I find it interesting that Zay Flowers, even in the startup that I'm in right now, already shot up past some
21:31of these guys significantly by a full round even before the contract extension was announced.
21:36So I feel like the hype for Zay Flowers has been building.
21:40I think I would actually prefer him over Garrett Wilson at this point, given the whole body of work, the offense that he's in.
21:48We can, in my opinion, I think we can very reasonably see over 160 targets at this point for Zay this year in Doyle system.
21:56A lot more design targets and please, for all of our sakes, more red zone targets.
22:01Really, the only thing missing from Zay's profile is more red zone targets.
22:06And if he gets those, I see him passing even guys like Nico Collins and Garrett Wilson and sitting next to George
22:13Pickens at this time next year in his age 26, 27 type season.
22:17So I think I prefer Flowers over everyone else in this tier.
22:21And I think he probably more so belongs in the B tier regardless of the money.
22:27But yeah, the Garrett Wilson, I had to make that decision.
22:30I made that decision at the, let's see, where did I have to make that?
22:35At the 4-1, I chose Garrett Wilson, one spot where, and Alave went immediately after at the 4-2.
22:41Tate went at the 4-6 and Ladd, McConkie, and Burden were the next two wide receivers off the board a little bit later in the fourth round.
22:50So you're definitely seeing this tier of player kind of move up in draft boards, even honestly right before my own eyes, right before signing onto here.
22:59So very interesting, this tier of player. Let's move to the D tier.
23:03All right, heading up one more tier. This is a bigger one.
23:07And we start off with Emeka Egbuka, then Rashi Rice, Makai Lemon.
23:11One of our biggest disagreements in Ladd, McConkie. Ryan had him at 18, I had him at 25.
23:17Then followed by T. Higgins, Jalen Waddle. Oh, I'm just realizing this now.
23:22Ladd, McConkie, T. Higgins, Jalen Waddle, Devonta Smith, all exactly tied on score.
23:26So that's a four-way tie. Ladd, McConkie, I mentioned we had a seven-spot disagreement on.
23:31On Devonta Smith, we also had a seven-spot disagreement on.
23:34That one, myself being a lot higher than Ryan was.
23:38And then AJ Brown rounds out the tier. That's a big group.
23:42And we had the big split on two of those guys.
23:45So maybe let's start with McConkie. Ryan, I mean, you've been doing a lot of McConkie bull posting, bull podcasting, bull tweeting.
23:52So you should be ready for this. Yeah, of course, man.
23:56Ladd, to me, and this is currently being confirmed by everything that I'm reading out of camp, is viewed as the clear
24:03number one do-it-all, do-everything option for this Chargers passing game.
24:07It sounds like they do not have any plans whatsoever to go out and sign a Keenan Allen or another veteran late in August.
24:15So I think that's, at least per Dan Graziano from ESPN, that's something that we can cross off the list and not worry about at this point.
24:24And when I step back and I look at Ladd McConkie's body of work in his rookie season and against kind of
24:31the countervailing forces that he was fighting with in his sophomore season, I see a potentially incredibly efficient per-route player that can
24:38win short, that can win deep, which is like a really underrated part of Ladd McConkie's game, is he's been a more
24:45efficient go-ball receiver than literally Tyreek Hill over the past two seasons, or over the past four seasons, actually, if you take the prime Tyreek Hill seasons even.
24:55And I just see this as like the queen chess piece for a Mike McDaniel offense that I think has a strong
25:02chance of leading the NFL in passing touchdowns this year.
25:05Like that's my Justin Herbert take. I just see the kind of efficiency cheat code case laid out for this entire Chargers offense.
25:13I want the biggest piece of their passing game.
25:16He's a year three player when we see these big, massive breakouts most often.
25:21Ladd is just, yeah, he's one of my favorite players to draft this year.
25:25He's one of my favorite upside bets. And I think, honestly, a better bet than Luther Burden.
25:31I have the two of them very close, basically back-to-back, both in my redraft and my dynasty rankings.
25:37But I prefer McConkie. I see less target competition here.
25:40And I think, honestly, McConkie has proven much more than Burden has at the NFL level.
25:45That's not to say both these guys can't succeed.
25:48Honestly, I think both of them probably will. But, yeah, I just prefer McConkie for having been efficient in a confirmed full-time role for his entire rookie season.
25:58As opposed to you can be like a Luther Burden hater and rattle off a bunch of stats about how he ran
26:05like so few routes until the last handful of games.
26:08And then you have to exclude the playoffs where he also wasn't that efficient or that productive.
26:14I just feel like there are honestly more nits I can pick with Burden than with McConkie.
26:20Similar bets, definitely per-route extrapolations, play-caller extrapolations just on talented players.
26:23But, yeah, McConkie is my preference. Yeah, the Ladd stuff is just a really tough one for me, especially in Dynasty.
26:30I mean, I haven't been ahead of market on him in redraft, but I find the case a little bit more compelling.
26:37I mean, you get the huge payoff in Dynasty if you're right because he is just 24 years old, and that's huge.
26:45I just found last year to be pretty darn alarming where it was not just unproductive overall, but it was 17.5% targets per run.
26:53It was a massive crash in targets per run from year one to year two with a corresponding crash in catch rate and in yards per reception.
27:02So, like, was earning volume less far down the field, was catching fewer balls, was doing less after the catch.
27:08Like, just everything was worse, and I understand there were some environmental issues, but he was getting, like, legitimately out-targeted on a
27:16per-route basis early in the season, even by QJ and Keenan Allen, who are players I don't think particularly highly of.
27:22So, I look at this offense this year, I do think it's going to smash.
27:27I'm a huge Mike McDaniel fan. I'm a huge Justin Herbert fan.
27:31I think Ladd McConkie is probably the best pass catcher on the team and is probably the lead pass catcher on the team.
27:39But I'm just not so sure that it's going to be so hyper-focused on him.
27:44I think he'll probably be the ostensible wide receiver one, but I could just see it being extremely spread between McConkie and
27:51QJ and Harris and my guy Thompson and all three tight ends and three running backs and everybody rotating in and off the field.
27:59And I think that there's a world where that works for McConkie, where he's the guy who gets to stay on the
28:07field all the time, and there's other guys that are coming in and off with decoys.
28:12I'm just getting the sense that there's a lot of different guys that I think have a lot of different strengths that
28:19McDaniel is going to scheme scuff up for, and it's going to be a bit rotational.
28:24And I think McConkie to be the fixture within that, I think needs to prove that that rookie year was real.
28:31And I mean, I loved him coming off the rookie year.
28:35I was really impressed. I also liked him more of the market with his college profile, but it wasn't like a superstar college profile.
28:43So it makes me a little bit uncomfortable. I've seen like one year being amazing, one year being poor.
28:49That's not that dissimilar to the profiles entering year three of like Rome and BTJ and Marv, none of whom are in this tier.
28:57I have him ranked a lot closer to those guys.
29:01All those guys were also better prospects than him.
29:04And so from a dynasty standpoint, I'm kind of trying to balance this idea that, yeah, he is going two plus rounds
29:11higher than all of those guys in redraft leagues.
29:14And that matters to me, even if I'm not really clicking him in redraft leagues.
29:19But from a dynasty standpoint, I view those four as being pretty similar bets.
29:23So he's down a tier for me, but I definitely can understand the optimism and I could see how it gets to being like week one.
29:32And he's had 11 targets. He's running all the routes and it's just going to be Ladd McConkie season.
29:38So he's not a fun player to be fading by any stretch.
29:42And I definitely don't want to have zero. I'm lucky I still have some shares from his rookie year and I don't plan on selling them all.
29:51Yeah, my biggest issue with Ladd McConkie is still that I still think they're going to run the ball more than people want them to.
30:00And it's going to be, I don't know, probably very hard for them to hit their target ceiling unless all of the
30:07other weapons are just not really factored in. I do like the Jalen Waddle pick in here.
30:12I'm surprised to see Rasheed Rice in this tier.
30:15Personally, especially as high as he is ranked, I am very low on Rasheed Rice.
30:20I have not touched him at all this offseason.
30:23I just probably won't buy any more than I already have.
30:27But that's a pretty solid tier. Obviously love my Jalen Waddle.
30:31Definitely have him here. Prefer him over guys like T.
30:34Higgins at this point. But who else do we have the largest discrepancies on?
30:39Yeah, the other one was Smith. So I had Smith seven spots higher than Ryan did.
30:44And this is one I'm actually really interested to hear.
30:47So we talked about Olave and Tyson earlier. You had them ranked back to back.
30:52You had Smith, though, ranked quite a bit behind Makai Lemon.
30:56In my opinion, Smith's a better player than Olave and Tyson's a better player than Lemon.
31:01So I found that interesting. Yeah, this is honestly just like an ideological consistency oversight to me.
31:07I have Smith and Olave ranked very similarly in redraft.
31:10So yeah, those are just two names that need to be pinched on my list.
31:15So yeah, I would certainly bring him up into this tier.
31:19Kind of pinch those two a bit closer together.
31:22I'm honestly not sure what I was thinking. You've just been ideological consistency mogged.
31:26Yep. That was easy. All right. We got well, we have one more.
31:31We have one more full tier of players that both of us ranked.
31:35And then maybe after that, we won't get them on the sheet.
31:39But I'll just list off the players that one of us ranked at the end of the show.
31:45So in terms of the players that both of us ranked here and felt the last tier, we start off with Marvin
31:52Harrison, followed by Jameson Williams, followed by Roma Dunzey, followed by Brian Thomas Jr., Christian Watson.
31:57And things we would not have guessed by any stretch a year ago, the last player that both of us have ranked, Parker Washington.
32:05Unfortunately, not a lot of interesting discrepancies on this tier.
32:09We had, I think, every player in this group within two spots of each other.
32:14So we see this one pretty similarly. But if there's someone you want to pick out, Tom, I'd be happy to chat about someone.
32:22I think Jameson Williams after this year is going to see himself enter that D section.
32:27I think like these other wide receivers, their peaks are really high and their lows can be fairly miserable.
32:33And if Jameson Williams has another year like he did last year, I think he has the most to gain and the most to lose.
32:42Right? Because if he comes out and proves that it wasn't the Sam Laporta thing, it wasn't just a play color change,
32:49and he was the big play with a higher target volume wide receiver, I think you're going to see him launch himself
32:56into that next upper tier boomer bus type wide receiver.
32:59If he comes out and shows what he was in the first, well, I believe, what was it?
33:05Six or so games of last year where it was same old, same old.
33:10I think he almost falls out of this tier altogether with the new wave of rookies coming in.
33:16So I like Jameson Williams. I've talked about him as being my favorite, like, archetype for a wide receiver four or five
33:23on your team and your flex plays. But between him and Roma Dunze, I really feel like these two guys have the most to either gain or lose.
33:33These two are my picks for dropping with, sorry, Jameson Williams moving up a tier and Roma Dunze dropping out of the top 30, top 36 altogether.
33:41These are my two picks for the guys that really have the most to gain and the most to lose coming into this year.
33:49I think this is kind of the biggest boom bust group, right?
33:53I mean, definitely the two names that you threw out, but like Marvin Harrison and Brian Thomas are massive wide range of outcomes players.
34:01Parker Washington is a massive range of outcomes player.
34:04I mean, he could just be their wide receiver one or he could go back to being a nothing.
34:11So, yeah, super fun group. It's a volatile group.
34:14And definitely, I think, take some cojones to list off.
34:17I'll list off the receivers who didn't make our final tier here, but one of them had at least on their list.
34:24So guys that made my list and not Ryan's were Josh Downs, Jordan Addison, Matthew Golden, and Omar Cooper Jr.
34:31And this is where you really see the age split.
34:34But because guys that made Ryan's list and not mine, Mike Evans, Devante Adams, Terry McLaurin, and then his young guy of choice, Jaden Higgins.
34:42I really want to hear about the Jaden Higgins one because I don't think he would, he was even close to making my list.
34:50So I want to hear about that one. Oh, he's awesome.
34:54Is he? Yeah. Based on why? I know that everyone at Fantasy Points loves this guy, but why?
35:00So first, I'll just say overall, answer the Jaden Higgins question.
35:04But first, I want to say overall on our list, I think Josh Downs was my next player.
35:10I think like maybe even more so than the age, I think the difference here might be a little bit of like format.
35:17Because to me, guys like Jordan Addison, Matthew Golden are much more like I have much more interest in them in like
35:24the deeper formats, the deeper starting lineups where I just need more wide receivers.
35:29Whereas with, I think like your standard start 10, I'm going to value the Mike Evans types just a little bit more.
35:36The impact of one player on the lineup is just bigger.
35:40If you can hit kind of like that twilight of his career wide receiver one season with an Evans or an Adams
35:47or a McLaurin or what have you. So I think that maybe even more so than the age is like our biggest
35:55difference because all those guys would be a similar tier for me.
35:59When it comes to Jaden Higgins, of course, you're two wide receivers.
36:03I want to be interested in in on in Dynasty.
36:06When I look back at last year's class kind of in hindsight, both in terms of their college profiles and what they accomplished as rookies.
36:14Higgins is just the one that I can write like the best fan fiction for in terms of why there would be
36:21a bit of a kind of delayed big breakout.
36:24Right. So Higgins to me in my prospect model was one of the better like early round two wide receivers that it's ever seen.
36:32It liked him more than T Higgins. It liked him more than AJ Brown.
36:37He just had really, really strong per route production next to Jalen Noel and another day to pick in college.
36:44Right. So it really liked to see that. Then he comes into the NFL and the Texans slow play him to an absurd degree.
36:52Right. Xavier Hutchinson is starting over him for a significant portion of the season.
36:56But Higgins forces his way into the starting lineup.
36:59He's very likely playing in two receiver sets as we enter 2026.
37:03And even more so, like this coaching staff is just extremely boomer and has always kind of slow played these types of players.
37:11Higgins is of sort of this outside clasher archetype a little bit that where we have seen a bit like longer of
37:18a development curve for in the NFL. With Nico Collins himself being a prime example.
37:23And then, yeah, it helps that like all of our film guys at Fantasy Points, Brett Whitefield included, can't shut up about how awesome this guy is.
37:32So that's really what it is for me. I have him like similarly to Josh Downs.
37:37If you're drafting in redraft, I would probably click Josh Downs.
37:41But I just see if one of those two guys hits, I see way more just value upside with Jaden Higgins.
37:48I don't know the age difference. I think it's like two years.
37:52But Higgins is like more, I think, of like a wide receiver that the Dynasty community would just like hop on board
37:59with if we did see a breakout, I'd say.
38:02So that's kind of what gives him the slight edge for me in my rankings.
38:07Yeah, I mean, a big part of this is just he did not pop for me at all as a prospect.
38:14So that's probably the biggest difference. But I guess that the other stuff is like it would just need a ton to
38:21get me excited about a Houston receiver. Like I'm starting to get excited about Nico Collins.
38:27And I think he's a top five real life wide receiver in the league who like obliterates yards per outrun every single year.
38:34And he is like struggling to be a fantasy wide receiver one in this very boomer offense.
38:40And so like now I have to go down from from Nico to Higgins.
38:45Like that's it's the rotation stuff was super crazy last year.
38:48I'm optimistic that will not be the case this year, but I'm not certain about it because they have Tank Dell coming back.
38:56They have Jalen Noel, who I still like. They have Xavier Hutchinson, who they seem to like for reasons that are I'm completely unaware of, but they do.
39:05And they've been bringing them up this offseason whenever they bring up any of the receivers.
39:10Nick Kelly's always like you can't forget about Xavier Hutchinson.
39:14He's huge for what we do. They also have about 17 tight ends.
39:18So there's going to be a lot of the personnel stuff.
39:22Like there's a world, I guess, where they go really heavy personnel, but it's Higgins and Collins run all the routes.
39:29And that would be really beneficial. I foresee that it would be more rotational between him and Dell and Noel and other guys.
39:36But then even if you do get Higgins running all the routes, like I don't see him being particularly close to Nico's level.
39:44And so then like, am I getting two fantasy wide receivers out of a team with a quarterback that's been rough the
39:51last two years and that wants to play so slow and so run heavy and so conservative?
39:57It's tough. I'd be willing to bet into it if I had more conviction on the talent.
40:02For me, he was a pretty middling prospect who had a sub 1.5 rookie yards per route run.
40:08Like I look at like Jaden Higgins versus a Matthew Golden.
40:12And I'm like, Golden's set up to be, you know, potentially the one that they've cleared the decks for.
40:18And they want to run all the routes on a good offense.
40:22I'm like, Higgins is like trapped behind Nico Collins playing on a bad offense.
40:27I don't see those two as being particularly close.
40:30I can't do it with Matthew Golden. I can't do it.
40:34I don't like Matthew Golden either. Like, it's not like that's like a guy that I love or that I have a conviction on.
40:42Um, I, I, if I guess if I had the conviction on Higgins talent that you guys did, but I had Golden
40:49rated higher as a prospect, um, and with the draft capital factored in obviously.
40:53And then, uh, like the situations to me are like massively different.
40:57So yeah, if I had the conviction, the talent, maybe, but Higgins, I don't think he makes my top 50 right now in dynasty.
41:05Gotcha. Yeah. I, I don't have my model in front of me.
41:09I believe my updated model from this past off season had Higgins higher than Matthew Golden.
41:15So yeah, I think, I think it really is just like a talent, uh, conviction thing.
41:20I, maybe I'm even more convicted on like this working with Christian Watson than you are too.
41:26That could also be, if we're just making that comparison, I think that, uh, goes into it a lot for me with
41:33Matthew Golden is like, I, I just, he's on an offense while, while yes, it's like a, it's a play caller.
41:40I like more in an offense. I like more.
41:43There are three other guys on that offense that I think are massively better players than him and probably better per route
41:50target earners than him over like pretty large NFL samples.
41:53Uh, I agree. You have to be a little bit imaginative with the Texans this year for how is Higgins going to pop immediately.
42:01He would probably need like a Nico Collins injury or something like that to really deliver, uh, like high, like high end
42:09fantasy upside, uh, as early as this year. But he's also someone that I, I might say like it, it could totally
42:16be a scenario where at the end of the year for like a four or five game sample, uh, Higgins kind of
42:23pops and we enter a dynasty off season saying, wow, this guy's really good.
42:28Like I, I can see that kind of scenario too.
42:31Like we're currently doing with Luther burden. Um, so that that's where I'd go.
42:36Um, but yeah, of course, if you're not convicted on the talent and you shouldn't listen to me, I think that there are two.
42:44I had him 45 in my ranking. So he is, there you go.
42:48He is in the top 50. There we go.
42:51I think there are two players that you can say have a lot to gain just from a next season, like a 20, 27 quarterback changes.
43:00Casey Concepcion. Right. And it's someone like Jaden Higgins.
43:03Right. Cause I think Baker Mayfield quarterback change. I think, I think Baker Mayfield could be a Houston Texan next year.
43:10I think that that's a possibility as well as my Lamar Jackson conspiracy theory.
43:14And then for Concepcion, it is the tank for arch or one of the other quarterbacks.
43:20Cause I don't think Sanders or Watson are the starting quarterback in 2027.
43:24So I think Concepcion could definitely move up. I think he's being held down by his situation.
43:29I think somebody like Higgins could be with his situation where a lot of these other guys, like Marv, you could argue
43:37could potentially, I mean, Carson Beck started in the hall of fame game guys.
43:41Like, maybe that's him, maybe not, but he also could be a wider.
43:46I'm excited to watch that. Oh, I need it.
43:49I need it. I can't wait to watch Carson Beck in the hall of fame game.
43:54Kenny Pickett versus, uh, Carson Beck. I can't wait.
43:57That's one of the better hall of fame game quarterback matchups we've had.
44:01Sure. One hall of fame game standards. That's pretty good.
44:05One's a former first rounder. I mean, you can't, you can't argue with that kind of talent has started for three seasons at two college football playoffs.
44:14So that's right. So I think Marvin could be another guy who's, you could argue is held down by a situation, maybe
44:21going into next year, but there are a couple of those guys, uh, in that tier.
44:26And obviously like we just talked about with Higgins, somebody who's kind of fighting to, to break into that tier himself.
44:33So we'll be interesting to see. These are our rankings.
44:36You can catch them here. Watch the episode hit like, remember if you are watching this on Wednesday, when this releases, that
44:44means you might've missed the live and you're not going to want to do that.
44:49We are showcasing the fantasy points front office, everything it can do for you in the dynasty section, how and why it
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45:01I put a lot of time and a lot of effort into this and designing it in a way that it would
45:08be something that I myself would want to pay for.
45:12And I hope that that comes through with how much it can help you guys.
45:16So go and check that out. That's also on the fantasy points, YouTube channel.
45:21Not going to want to miss that. We'll see you guys next week where we drop some knowledge on dynasty tight ends
45:28before we really get to start talking about football.
45:31It's not that far away guys. So stay locked in.
45:35Remember that clear eyes and full hearts can never lose that your best days are always spent tilting.
45:41And we'll see you guys next time.
