Week 6 Fantasy Football Rankings WR and TE Rankings: Starts, Sits, Risers & Fallers (Ep. 2247)

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Welcome into fantasy pros, the fantasy football podcast. This is the wide receivers rankings episode terror Roberts here filling in one more time for Chris Welsh on the ranking shows this week. And of course, I've got Pat Fitzmorris and Andrew Erickson with me. And as a reminder, you guys can find all of our expert rankings at fantasy pros dot com slash rankings. Oh, boys, boys, boys, this is an interesting week because we've got quarterback injuries and quarterbacks returning. And it's always we trust the wide receivers, but do we trust their quarterbacks? Pat, how are you feeling about the wide receivers in general this week? Yeah, it is going to be a little bit of a challenge this week. And I felt like I didn't the level of trust, maybe in the wide receiver started to run out pretty early in the rankings like after about 17 or so, whereas normally there are about 25 wide receivers, you feel pretty good about not so much this week. Yeah, Erick said, how about you? Just looking to do better than I did last week in terms of ranking the wide receivers. And I get absolutely nuked. So that's why I'm coming on to share to listen to you guys. So you can put me in the right direction. Yeah, I feel like wide receivers are a treasure got situation. Like I knew that we were going to have the most epic Tadaro and McMillan game that ever existed. Why not push him up aggressively in rankings, but as you guys see, as we go through these rankings, you'll see some guys and good matchups that are being pushed up Detroit in particular. So yes, we are 100% going to talk about it. Don't worry. Let's go ahead and dive into the top 12 rankings. Of course, at the top, we've got Jackson Smith and Drake followed by Pooke Nekua after big return. Um, and we're all St Brown always steady. Then we've got Drake London CD Lam off the crazy crazy volume game. Nico Collins, good in his return, Zay flowers, dealing with a quarterback, injury, Chris Olave Michael Wilson, Malik neighbors Christian Watson and Garrett Wilson closing it out at wide receiver 12. We're going to pull up two guys to talk about in this range. And I think these are the perfect ones as we talked about just a second ago with the quarterback injuries and the matchups that push guys up. Um, we've still got Zay flowers that despite the fact that we might be going into and probably going to be going into Snoop hunt Lee territory. We have Zay flowers still holding strong at wide receiver seven after the incredible start that he has had this season. You guys are obviously have him as a top 10 option fits. You've got him at wide receiver seven, Erickson at wide receiver nine fits. How confident should we still feel despite the fact that we may be without Lamar Jackson this week? Yeah, maybe it feels a little fanciful to have him still as a top 10 receiver with Tyler homie at quarterback. Um, you know, but Tyler homie can throw a spiral. And Zay flowers has been amazing this year 16.8 yards per target and 6.64 yards per route run. And he has a 28.4% target share. I've no doubt he's going to be heavily involved. And he's going up against a Falcons defense that has been a complete past funnel this year. They're hard to run on. They're not so hard to throw on. Um, even though it's Tyler Huntley and not Lamar, I still feel pretty good about Zay flowers. Yeah, it's interesting. Atlanta is dealing with all of these injuries across the board on the line and the secondary suspension, obviously, but yet they're staying very strong upfront against the runs. You're right. Just, you know, we've got the injuries here. So despite the quarterback situation, this is still a positive matchup for Zay flowers. Erickson, how are you feeling about Zay this week? I still feel pretty good about him. It feels disingenuous to not move him down because of the quarterback change where going from large action to Tyler Huntley, although he's a pro quarterback. So you feel like I need to move Zay flowers down. But when you actually look at the numbers, last five games with Huntley, he actually has 0.5 points, we're getting better than he does with Lamar Jackson. So now a lot of that has to do is like touchdown variance where if he scores and something, because again, flowers has not been a touchdown guy, basically up until the season. So his targets, though, have gone up per game receptions have also gone up per game with Tyler Huntley. And that goes back to what kind of game scripts are the Ravens in when they don't have Lamar Jackson more negative game scripts, because the team doesn't play nearly as well. They're facing more trailing game scripts. So Huntley is to throw more and at least to more volume. So for the purposes of the game that we play, it may not be the worst thing in the world that Lamar Jackson is out. Again, it feels disingenuous to say that. But when you just look at the numbers and how things kind of pan out, it's like, well, should I be looking at the Zay flowers ranking as where we should be knocking them down really anyway. And if Lamar Jackson was playing in this game, where would Zay flowers be ranked? Yeah, like three. So for me, I'm kind of like, she had I just put him back up at three, because the way that Declan Doyle uses him in this offense, he's moving all around the formation. He's going to be the first read for every single drop back for Tyler Huntley. Like that is so obviously going to be the can't that the plan, fans already talked about how you attack the Falcons through the air. The Ravens offensive line is super compromised in the interior that continue to lose guys left and right. And the Falcons have the number one run defense of the NFL. So as much as I'd like to suggest that this game is going to be Derek Henry blow them up with 30 carries and he's going to get a lot of volume. How effective is that going to be if Derek Henry doesn't rip off one of these big marquee runs and he gets continually stuffed where no, they're down the Falcons offense is humming on the other side as I've done the last two weeks with Pentax and Bijon and Drake London. If the Ravens have no answers for that, I mean, it might be a boon for Zay flowers that do they're down 14 nothing. And they got to drop back to throw 45 times like sign me up for that. So again, I like coming on these shows, trying to be convinced otherwise of how I should move these players into me. It's like, there's no AJ Terrell pass funnel defense. Zay flowers with a full compliment of routes run. If you can run 40 routes in this game, he's moving all over the field and why he's so good and why he's so effective is because elite after the catch. So it's not even on Tyler Huntley. Hey, just get the ball to say flowers and he'll do the rest. So to me, I'm like, I think I just got to move back up to like inside the top five because yeah, I love how deadpan Erickson was when he referred to Tyler Huntley as a pro ball quarterback. He said a lot of words after that, but I was just stuck on that the whole time. So don't worry, I caught all the words. I was like, day, Erickson is cooking all this argument here. Yeah, I mean, we get these, you know, superstar wide receivers. And here we go, anytime he has been on the field, I mean, quite it's incredible. There've been two games where we have not even seen him play 50% of snaps because of the injury situation. So it's it's very interesting. How much can we punish somebody who again, we're talking about a positive matchup and a situation where they could theoretically be playing from behind because of the way that the operative the op the Falcons have been operating incredible. So it'll be good really interesting all around to see how these two teams match up. Let's talk about another one that is very interesting, moving up in rankings, ironically, I get a ton of starts at questions about Michael Wilson. I wonder how many I will get this week in our favorite, most positive matchup that ever existed against Detroit. We've got Michael Wilson all the way up, the rinkers are not playing games on this one all the way up to wide receiver 19 after seeing what Tadaro and McMillan did last week. I mean, you just can't ignore it. I mean, so is that wide receiver nine and Erickson, you've got him at wide receiver seven fits at wide receiver 10. So yes, a bona fide top 10 receiver fits talk to us about Michael Wilson. You're playing him for sure. He's fourth in the league in targets right now behind only CD Lamb and Chris Alave and I'm on Ross ain't brown. And the fact that Marvin Harrison Jr can't get going is just benefiting Michael Wilson. He's clearly the number one receiver in this offense and the matchup with the Lions is amazing. I guess the only thing I worry about is that Jacobi resett has not exactly been a paragon of efficiency to begin with as a passer. And now they just lost Paris Johnson, their left tackle to a torn biceps. And he's done for the season. And I just this past game has not been functioning at a super efficient level to begin with. And now they lose their best past blocker. And I worry a little bit about how that goes. But look, you're you're playing Michael Wilson this week and feeling good about it. Yeah, incoming. You've had very good point on the offensive line. Still incoming 40 easy attempts for Jacobi preset in this matchup. Erickson, how are you feeling? Like what's what's the level of positivity that you've got to put him at wide receiver seven this week? I acknowledge the efficiency has definitely been lackluster for Michael Wilson in this cardinals past game and losing Paris Johnson doesn't help. But I mean, how many of it's aligned with Caroline Panthers down against the Lions like more and it didn't even matter because of just how bad the secondary is and he just slowed out eight and Hutchinson. That's all you got to do. And you can score at will against this Lions defense that can't get out of their own way. So you have dome script scenario playing in Arizona. So that at least they're at home. So at least they're not going to be dealing with crowd noise or anything like along those lines. If the Lions offense the other side that's going to be pushing the pedal to the metal. And we know that the cardinals are team that second half they're down 21 doesn't matter. We're going to keep dropping back to throw and we're going to get our guys as many targets humanly possible. So even though Wilson may not be super efficient, this guy has 30 targets in the last two games. Jacobin percent has had games where we've seen Michael Wilson go north of 15 targets. So even if it takes 18 targets to get him to 100. 100 yards, one way or another, he's gonna get there. So even if his catch rate is under 50%, the sheer amount of volume that he is seeing is just absolutely absurd, especially 'cause he's seeing a lot of downfield usage, seventh-highest area yard share. He's third in the NFL in red zone targets, so he has some positive touchdown regression that may work in his favor. And just looking back at last year, three of his biggest games, 185 yards. This is Michael Wilson, 185 yards on 18 targets, 142 yards on 16 targets. So although it feels weird to put Michael Wilson at wide receiver seven, he's had performances like this before in the past with this quarterback in these type of game scripts. So yes, ultra-confident in playing him, even if it's not the most efficient outing for Michael Wilson, I just think that he's just gonna get there. - Yeah, and key point that you made that I did want to highlight, they've been on the road for the past two games. And last week was a little bit of a wet game as well. So back at home, yeah, against Detroit, which is also a very positive environment for your golf to push aggressive volume. Yeah, this is a very lighted up scenario for both of these teams. Before we move on to our next group of wide receivers, if you want a chance to give your fantasy league the ultimate championship upgrade, courtesy of our friends at trophy smack, the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your shot. We are giving away a 26 to 36 inch custom football trophy. It is a massive centerpiece built to make your league championship feel like a big deal and the best part. You can make it your own. Choose your topper, personalize the center and front plaques, customize the columns and create a trophy that represents your league. To enter all you need to do is subscribe to the fantasy pro's YouTube channel right now. Drop a comment on any of our videos. Drop one right now and that is it. We'll be announcing the winner right here on the channel. So be sure to turn on those notifications so that you don't miss your chance to claim your prize. All right, let's go on to the next group of wide receivers. And it's a fun one because there's a lot of guys in here who have high upside and then there's some guys in here who unfortunately are super untrustworthy. Like Eric's and you are right. Once we get past those top 12 is where you have to start making those real decisions and rankings are shifting. We've got Parker Washington still holding on good. After the down week, wide receiver 13, then we've got Devon Tate Adams, Matthew Golden, continuing to moving up in the rankings, George Pickens, Jalen Waddle, Jameson Williams at 18, DK Metcalf, Luther Burton, Carnell Tate at 21, Mike Evans at 22, Stefan Diggs, and then Josh Downs Hold Strong at wide receiver 24. All right, let's pull out some of the ones that everybody's got the big question marks around in terms of trust level, right? We've got DK Metcalf, the first one we're gonna talk about coming off of surprisingly strong performance, but do we trust it? ECR has him at wide receiver 19, fits here at wide receiver 20, Ericsson wide receiver 22. So not too far back. So I'm certainly in the range of guys, the guy that we are putting into our starting lineups, fits, I'll start off with you. What's the, what's the feel this week with DK Metcalf? - Yeah, so Ericsson hates DK Metcalf, but he is 10th in the league in targets, and we were reminded last week against the Browns that DK Metcalf is still pretty good. Five catches, 115 yards on nine targets. You regret it if you benched him, and I do worry a little bit about the matchup with the Colts, who really give it up to slot receivers, but are pretty good against outside receivers. Colts have a lot of the second most fantasy points to slot guys, third fewest fantasy points to outside receivers, according to fantasy points data. And you know, Metcalf is probably gonna get locked up with Sasgardner for some of this game, but we were worried about him getting locked up with Denzel Ward last week against the Browns and Metcalf still clicked. So I think in a week like this, where there's a lot of ambiguity a wide receiver, you should probably just start him. - Yeah, volume is carrying, has it had a minimum of nine targets in all but one game. That was against Cincinnati. Ericsson, just a little bit lower on DK Metcalf, are you feeling it? Are you gonna shift over and beyond the DK Metcalf side? - I have moved him up a little bit, closer to the ECR up at now, wide receiver 22. So I still hate DK Metcalf because he made me lose money on Thursday night 'cause my bed is under and three quarters in, man. I'm feeling great. Denzel Ward is locking him down. He can't get open, he can't squeeze the football, he's always getting penalties. And then they move him inside, he gets masked up against, and forgive me, I don't remember the Browns slot corner, but the Browns slot funnel defense just gave it up to DK Metcalf and he was ripping off big plays. He had 22 receiving yards before the fourth quarter comeback, which he had 93 in the fourth quarter, comeback pushed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. So it felt good fading him, and then obviously I did not make that right call at the end of the day, but that's why you play four quarters. So no victory laps, no early victory laps from me from DK Metcalf, it's part of the reason why I was not great ranking receivers last week, but the Saw Scarter match I think is actually kind of interesting because a couple of weeks ago you asked me about this, I would be like, man, this is gonna be a tough spot for Metcalf, but dude, Saw Scarter has been getting cooked the last couple of games, and it has been against guys that are not particularly good. So maybe that's why Metcalf will have a good game, 'cause I don't think Metcalf's really that great. Sometimes he's, I think he's a little bit an overrated wide receiver, but the last two weeks, the Colts number one cornerback has been given up big production to guys like Xavier Hutchinson, Diamy Brown, and Trey Lombergs. Like, if he's getting mean by those guys, like, yeah, Metcalf is gonna have his fair chance to win some of these one-on-one matchups, and that's not even considering if they do decide to move him around the formation a little bit, which I thought they did a little bit more, against the Cleveland Browns to kind of open him up, because it's just one of these simple things that, I don't know why offices just don't do this. It's like, get this big, bodied guy, against this tiny, nickel-back, slot cornerback, and just watch him dominate, as opposed to, oh yeah, I just haven't tried to beat Denzel Ward one-on-one on 40 routes. It's like, dude, he's not gonna win these one-on-one matchups, that's not his game. So, yeah, I think that he is definitely a good start, and I think that the point that fits me with the end was really good where it's like, you know he's gonna get targets, right? If he's gonna still see nine, 10 targets, whatever ends up happening, you'll take, but the process suggests chasing the volume here in a relatively good matchup against the Colts defense that has been very underwhelming this season with an offense that is dropping back to throw a decent clip. I think makes a lot of sense. - Good thing the Colts didn't give up a lot to get saws, Gardner. - Yeah, I was gonna say, Carly Earsay, help us out. - And now they're gonna give up more to get Marvin Harris in junior. - Oh, the Colts, geez, yeah, we could, we could, you know what, we'll talk about the Colts more in a second, actually, but before we do that, we gotta talk about Carnell Tate moving on up in the rankings aggressively up to wide receiver, 21 off of the massive Breakout game, 145 yards, but now the matchup with Houston, but Houston defense been a little vulnerable, dealing with injuries as well, but you guys have not moved Carnell Tate up that much, which I totally understand. Erickson, you've got him at wide receiver, 28, fits at wide receiver, 27, so you guys are kind of on the same page, not overreacting, we're feeling good, but we're not overreacting too much. Fitz, how are you looking at Carnell Tate this week? - Oh man, it's great that we got the Breakout game from him last week, nine for 145 on 12 targets against the Ravens, more than doubled as receiving yardage from his first three games. Tate hadn't had more than 58 yards than any of those contests. I'm still finding it hard to trust the Titans passing game, which is why I'm behind consensus, and while the Texans have actually given up more fantasy points to wide receivers than any other defense so far, I'm still finding it hard to think of Houston as a good matchup for opposing passing games when they've got Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter steaming off the edges to pressure quarterbacks, and Carnell Tate is a guy who has to get downfield to do damage, and I just, I don't know if Cam Ward is gonna have enough time to find Carnell Tate on a bunch of downfield throws. So I do, I'm not as confident in Carnell Tate as ECR seems to be. - A decade ago, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil. - So we met with a lot of larger farmers, went from Bahia to Tokyo teens to Montagro so. - He brought a team of executives. They were gonna help the country get in on a gold rush. - Carbon and its derivatives are gonna be really the next great commodity that the globe's gonna trade. - But back home in Iowa, trouble was brewing. - If you live in Iowa, your land, your water, and your voice could all be at risk thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter. - Now people are questioning if his climate solutions have anything to do with climate at all. - You gotta get Bruce with a guy's credit. They're with all my kids. 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It is in the name NFL Daily, fresh content in your feed, every day, all season long. Matthew Stafford coming off his MVPC. - On a dazzling darts from Matthew Stafford. - Big time trades that shake up the NFL. - AJ Brown is loose! - And of course, those Seahawks trying to run it back and win another Lombardi trope. - The Seahawks win Super Bowl 60. They are bringing Lombardi back to the Northwest. - If it's happening on a football field, NFL Daily will cover it. Listen to NFL Daily on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Yeah, that's a good point about the fact that they're going, that offensive line is gonna have to be able to hold off the defensive line in order to get the ball down field to Tate. - Erickson, how are you feeling? Are there apprehensions regarding Tate this week? - A little bit. I think that you definitely want to, and you feel like you want to chase the high from last week where ManSky had over 145 receiving yards, breakout game. We're so excited about it. He has arrived. He is him, car and L Tate. But then you look at the matchup against the Texans. And yeah, they have been getting crushed by explosive plays this season. 30th and deep ball passing expected points allowed. Eighth and EPA per pass attempt faced this season. But look at who they have faced. Buffalo, top 10 offense, Bengals, top 10 offense, Cowboys, top five offense, Indianapolis. And that was the only game that the defense actually played well when they played a bad offense. Where are the Titans following that scale? Probably dead last. So this is probably a spot where the Texans defense from last year actually shows up. Because that defense has not been anywhere except in the Indianapolis Colts game. So again, providing context behind how these teams have performed. A lot of it's based on, well, who have they gone up against? So this is the easiest matchup for the Texans defense. And that's why I'm just a little bit hesitant on, yes, last week. I thought last week was a good matchup for the Titans. I thought that the Raven Secondary has been beaten at times this season. So again, Carl Tate can still catch a deep ball. And that's how he's going to pay off a wide receiver three type of price tag. But in terms of actual consistency, I think we're probably more likely to get some of his older games or he's still seeing a lot of volume, but maybe not really having this high type of ceiling, especially in a game that if it's a little bit lower scoring, it's a divisional game. The Texans are road favorites playing in Tennessee. Maybe this is more of a game that goes through the slog and not really a fun shootout type of environment where at least last week the Titans were slinging the ball over the yard, especially in the second half where Tate was able to collect even more yardage. So you feel confident that he's going to get some volume because he has been the target share leader. He's 17 target share per game this season at 27% that's 7th best in the NFL among wide receivers. But I just think that expecting him to do something like this again again. Can you say, right? One week over 100 yards were like, dude, he has arrived. He is him next week, air ball. Like and that happens with rookies. So just yeah, that's the only reason. And again, if you didn't start him last week, you definitely feel gutted because like, oh my god, I missed it. And then you feel like I got to start him this week. But if you play fantasy along enough, you know how this goes, right? Like you start the guy after the high and then he just bring in bus the next week because that's our fantasy football work. So why receiver three? Don't go more aggressive than that in my opinion. Yeah, I agree with that one. Let's talk about someone who is quite literally the exact opposite of current L Tate in terms of age situation and quarterback as well. Mike Evans, we know when he's on the field, he is fantastic. It's just a question of him continuing to play through these injuries. And we've also got an interesting matchup this week. So Mike Evans at ECR, wide receiver 22. You guys are slightly further back with fits. You have him at wide receiver 24, Eric's in at wide receiver 26, although comparison, you guys clearly both have him ranked ahead of a guard guy like car and L Tate. So is it, you know, still leaning on the veteran presence and the upside and proven knowing exactly what he can do when he's on the field? Fits will start off with you. Yeah, Evans said season high eight targets last week against Denver, finished with five catches, 76 yards. He's got two touchdowns this season. I know Seattle's a tough matchup. I just don't really want to fade Mike Evans, especially when he is playing with a quarterback, Brock Pertey, who has just been lights out this season. So tough matchup for sure, I'm still starting Mike Evans. Yeah, Erickson. How about you? Yeah, he's probably someone that I definitely feel like I need to move up a little bit. The fact that he was able to do what he did last week, wow, grimacing after every single reception because the dude's playing with friggin' broken ribs and goes out and leads the team in targets despite playing just 59% of the snaps. Look, Kyle Shanahan has turned a new leaf this year where he's actually monitoring the health of his players to make sure that they're not going to be gone by the mid part of the season, right? Yeah. He is much more aware and in tune of how these guys are feeling health wise and managing their workloads. But that hasn't been a bad thing for Mike Evans because when he's on the field, the dude's getting the rock. Like, that's so apparent that he and Brock Pertey already have a built connection. And even though he didn't score last week, he got tackled at the one-yard line. So I think that there's an opportunity still for Mike Evans where even if he only played 50%, 60% of the snaps, where is he going to be on the field in third-down conversions and in the red zone? And they're going to need him to try to upset the Seattle Seahawks. So it's alluded to it, but I don't want to bet against this guy, man. Let's do it as an absolute warrior and if you get to knock that out of the game and so be it, we're all going to be wrong, where we ranked him, he's going to be a bust. But if that doesn't happen, well, I think you're going to be happier that you started him especially as a wide receiver too. But even if it does happen quite frankly, you look at the Miami game just 50% of snaps still managed to get just over eight fantasy points. So it's a situation where at least we know if he is active and on the first drive, you're probably getting to maybe three targets his way with the touchdown opportunity. So there is at least the reality of a certain floor, even if for some reason he gets knocked out in the second half and can't make it through the game. So yeah, really, really good point on both ends for you guys. Now someone that unfortunately is not dealing with a fantastic quarterback situation in the shaky team environment, we talked about the Colts just a second ago and let's look at Josh Downs at wide receiver 24 in ECR. He is still holding on strong despite the fact that we were just wildly underwhelmed in what we were expecting to be a decent matchup for him against Washington. Erickson, you've got him at wide receiver 23 fits, you've got him at wide receiver 21. So you guys just slightly higher, is it a, is it a volume thing? Erickson will start off with you. What is, what is, what should keep us holding on strong with Josh Downs despite the fact that we've got no Alec Pierce and we've still yet to see a ceiling game from him. Well, we're still seeing all the routes, which is good. So he's not being pigeonholed back into a part time role. The bad thing is that he's still being used mostly inside as a sought receiver. So in certain matchups, he can take advantage of that thought JJ Zacharyson did a really good job of pointing out that last week against the commanders, their defense had been really giving it up to a lot of perimeter wide receivers, which is why we saw guys like LeCon Treadwell and Ash and Dylan like pop off to have like productive games and we're like, where's Josh Downs? Is he inactive too? Like I woke up and Josh Downs put up an air ball in London. What's going on here? And that was really the reason why it was because the commander's defense is more of a funnel outside the numbers type of defense and unfortunately in this matchup against the Steelers, it's the same thing. They have a lot of the fewest points per game percentage wise to slot receivers and Downs right now has been 72% slot rate this season. So I think Downs is falling back into that middling wide receiver three territory where we like the talent, we know we can command targets, but I think we might get somewhere to what we got again last week just because of where he's deployed on the field. And the fact that I mean, Daniel Jones, like, dude, he's not, he's not, he is not him. And he's like, that is so clear that this guy has lost a step coming off of the Achilles injury, which I think most of them. also was kind of expected that they were definitely not going to repeat what they did in the first half of 2025. So with Jamal Dean out also for the Steelers, unfortunately, unless they decide to move Josh Downes outside, which they can still do, right, that's still a possibility, but not necessarily I want to necessarily bank on in my rankings, because he has deployed more in the slot. Now, does that change a little bit if Keenan Allen does come back? Because you could see the corollary where he comes back gets nuked in the rankings, but then blows up because oh, after week five, he actually played more outside and took advantage of some of these worse perimeter cornerbacks for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who obviously don't have Joy-Port of Junior anymore and won't have Jamal Dean. So I would keep status on Keenan Allen. I actually think I'll move Josh Downes up if Keenan Allen actually ends up playing, but for right now if Alan misses another game, just give him more slot usage for Josh Downes, which unfortunately is not the best matchup against the Steelers. Yeah, that's an excellent point on that one. It's very interesting to see how one receiver, like Keenan Allen, coming back in, can adjust. It's kind of like Philadelphia last week. We thought, okay, Devonte Adams, ex name, we're going to see, maybe we'll see McKay Limon on the outside a little bit more. And now, now we didn't. So hopefully we can get this going with Josh Downes. Before we move on to our next set of receivers, if you're not sure how to start, get fast, free, start, or sit advice with the fantasy pros, who should I start tool? Compare your players and get instant recommendations powered by more than 150 fantasy experts. Set your best line up today at fantasyproves.com/start. All right, moving on to wide receivers 25 through 36. At 25 kicking it off, we've got Romeo Dobbs coming off the big game where he actually stepped up as the man who did in fact get paid. Then we have Jordan Addison, Debo Samuel, Devon Vale, Roma Dunze, Denzel Boston, Malik Washington, moving up in the rankings, Don Tavian Wix, Kasey Konsepcion, Trey Tucker, Ameka Ibuka, and Jacobi Myers. I love the names that we are going to talk about here, not because I particularly love putting them into my starting lineup, but because these are again, a lot of names that people have a lot of starts to questions around. It's in that flex range where you're thinking, do I do this or do I trust a guy that's a little bit lower in a better matchup. So let's pull out and talk about Devon Vale and this one who is operating as the Saints wide receiver to. He continues to see interesting volume as Tyler Schuck just continues to push aggressive volume. We talked about that a little bit earlier in the running backs ranking show when we were talking about Avon Camera. The offensive line unfortunately is just struggling, but we continue to see this aggressive volume from Tyler Schuck. So Fitz, why don't you start us off here with Devon Vale. We have him at our wide receiver 28 in ECR. You guys are significantly lower. You're not again. This is a big game guy, not adjusting too much and overreacting. You've got him at wide receiver 35 in Ericsson at wide receiver 42. Fitz is matchup playing a big role in this one. It is. Vikings are a difficult matchup and they're going to put pressure on Tyler Schuck. As you mentioned, Tara, that Saints offensive line has some issues. I feel like Vale is maybe benefiting from the garbage time touchdown he got in ECR. Last week, total cosmetic touchdown, really impressive catch. I'll give Devon Vale that very acrobatic, but it was the end of the game in a blowout. Because Vale got that touchdown, I think that sort of put him elevated his status in the minds of some rankers, he isn't hit 70 yards in any of his first four games. This is a difficult matchup. I can't quite get him into mid range high end wide receiver three status this week, more of a low end wide receiver three for me. Yeah, I think that makes a ton of sense. Ericsson also match up and maybe a little bit more. Let's push him back for you. First half, he had one catch for two yards on two targets. Yeah. So I think that the garbage time look on Devon Vale, the Saints are just in for a rude awakening. The trash man's not coming to pick up the trash this week. So just be very careful with the Saints because they've been boosted by just raw volume. Tyler Schuck has 180 pass attempts this season that leads the NFL. And the Vikings are not a team where they will build such a grand lead in my opinion where the Saints will have opportunities to fit. There's no such thing as soft coverage in Brian Flores. Like he doesn't play off coverage. It's oh no, every single yard you have to earn. They don't give up garbage time points. So I think that's just a really tough spot for the Saints offense and in Devon Vale, I just think he's going to feel probably the brute of this type of match up. Yeah, I was actually going to ask you that exact explanation there. We might be in a weird situation where unfortunately it's bad defense, but also the bad situation of the offense with Kyler Murray just not being that effective that you don't get into a chasing point situation code. So it could be just a very weird game script. We'll talk about somebody else who has not been a super game script because he is the wide receiver one. It has been Denzel Boston holding it down in Cleveland, ECR wide receiver 30. So he's falling slightly behind Devon Vale, but you guys are not on board with that. You guys both have Denzel Boston above Vale in your rankings fits at wide receiver 26, Erickson at wide receiver 29 fits. Since you're a little higher, let's start off with you on Denzel Boston. I love this guy. I think this kid is a star in the making. I want to be above consensus on Denzel Boston every week. Four catches 89 yards last week. He's averaging 71 yards a game. He scored two touchdowns. He's averaging 21.8 yards per catch, 12.9 yards per target, 2.39 yards per route run. Jets are not a match up to be feared. I want Denzel Boston in my lineups. Yeah, Erickson, how about you? I would rather start him in the carnal tape this week, because I think that Denzel Boston has been through four weeks the most consistent rookie wide receiver in the NFL. So I'm not going to let one carnal tape we break out game, although I'm excited about him, to tear me from the entire sample size, which has been Denzel Boston dominating, not even seeing the most targets on the Browns offense, but operating clearly as that number one wide receiver. And they talked about it on the entire broadcast on Thursday night. Who does to Sean Watson trust the most of all these receivers? Denzel Boston. So the consistency's been there, the ceiling's been there because of how he's used downfield, and the matchup is great against the New York Jets. So to me, it's just kind of boggling where we're just ready to like crown carnal tape. He's locked and loaded and it's like, well, Denzel Boston. I mean, who's been better at court? Like Sean Watson or Cam Ward this year? It's probably been Sean Watson. Like, and I don't want to admit that. Like, trust me, I don't want to Sean Watson to be good, but the proof is in the pudding, guys. Yeah. He's been way more consistent than carnal tape has been this year. I think that this ranking in ECR is, you know, a little, little disrespectful, I think. It is. It's like he's got the stench of the Browns on him, but the Browns technically don't have a stench right now in terms of how they've been operating. And you mentioned he's got the ceiling and he's got a floor. So no matter how this offense is operating, he is consistently getting those looks that makes him a very safe flex option. So I'm 100% with you guys on this one. Malik Washington, though, is a very interesting one. I've, you know, we've been skeptical to get on board with Malik Washington and understandable. It is Miami. And Malik Willis has been going through it, unfortunately, as he is trying to push through bad offensive line, just bad team situation in general. But he is up to wide receiver 31. Remember, this is half PPR. He does have an edge in full PPR fits. You've got him at wide receiver 35. And Erickson, wide receiver 35 too. So you guys equally below on Washington and consensus. What are the what are the apprehensions with Malik Washington aside from the obvious, right? Yeah. I mean, put it in the Dolphin's offense. So that's going to cap his ceiling because he's got really great usage through four games. Washington has a 27% target share. That is six ties in the NFL. The result. He has not been higher than wider receiver 39 in any game this season. So that's where you can't get too excited about a guy like Malik Washington because the offense is just going to always happen. And part of it's also on him too. Right. Like he has to be better at converting. Now he is coming off his best game of the season. So maybe that's ECR kind of buying into the fact that, okay, maybe he's a young player who started to really kind of turn the corner here, come into his own, get caught all five of his targets last week for 67 yards, merely a 29% target share. It is also nice to that he's also getting some carries out of the backfield given the injuries to Devon A. Chan and the fact that he had all the Gordon and Jamen right. They are giving carries to Malik Washington as well. So match up is good. Bengals fourth worst for slot receivers. Malik Washington north of 60% slot snaps over the last two games. I think that he is a good flex play, but not someone that I'm like, man, I got a jam in Malik Washington. So he just because we've seen it, right? Yeah. He is not he is not showing that he can even be a wide here that hasn't happened yet. So that's the only like pushback that I would do against like the ECR, but he is trending in the right direction, I would say. Yeah, that's how about you? Yeah, that 27.2% target share is good, but it means a little less on a team. that has the second fewest pass attempts in the league. But what's good about Washington, I think this year, compared to the role he was playing last year, is it seemed like every target he got in 2025 within five yards of the line of scrimmage. And now I think his average depth of target is closer to like 10 yards this year. He's got a 31.1% ariard share for the dolphin. So that's the good news, but the low pass volume is restrictive and like Malik Washington has scored three touchdowns at 35 career NFL games. So not a lot of touchdown upside here. So it's kind of empty volume, yeah, not super excited about him, but there's a floor here, I guess. Yeah, there's a floor and the floor is the ceiling. Unfortunately, so you guys are right on that. If it came with some more yardage, we could get behind it, but it's just not coming, unfortunately. Well, let's talk about some deeper plays as well. Now these are very interesting ones that people will be keyed in on because they're injury related. Erickson, talk to us about Khalil Shakir and the possibility with DJ Moore playing through an injury. Yeah, DJ Moore's banged up. We don't know how effective or how much he is going to play. If he even is going to play on Monday 'cause the bills are facing the Rams on Monday night. So we're not going to get his injury status until Thursday at the earliest, but Shakir stepped up last week alongside Keen Coleman, caught seven to eight targets for 82 yards. So Shakir has always been a floor play for the most part, his entire career, summer two, what we just talked about with Link Washington, but he does also play on the bills offense. So there is always a slight chance that he can erupt in a ceiling type of performance because this bill's offense can score 30 points on literally anybody. He has been used more in the red zone so far this season. So he is also a positive touch down regression candidate. And the fact that they're playing the Rams in a dome as underdogs, oh, bills, bills, bills, bills, bills, bills. Even the bills. So give me the receivers. I like Shakir as a strong wide receiver three play. Do you like Shakir or Keen Coleman more? I think that Shakir is way safer and way less of a high variance type of play. Where Keen Coleman wins a lot down field, wins 50-50 balls. Obviously he's shown a lot of growth, but if DJ Moore is active, I do think that that also limits Keen Coleman's role where Shakir's role will stay the same regardless because of how he operates in the slot. - That is an excellent point because if you're waiting and we don't get this until a game time decision, the safer option for sure is going to be Keen Coleman having, or Kilio Shakir having a solidified role regardless of what happens with DJ Moore. But Pat, yours is also an injury guy that is moving on up in rankings. Talk to us about Dante Myers. - Yeah, the former Canadian football league standout. All of a sudden is playing a fantasy relevant role for the Bengals. I've got him right now at Wide Receiver 30. That is assuming Jamar Chase and T Higgins are both out. Obviously I'll have to drop him a little bit, but it looks like he's gonna be Joe Burrow's number one Wide Receiver this week. So I think Dante Myers is a sneaky start and just as a bonus, Tara, I've got Marvin Harrison Jr. ranked inside my top 40 this week because he's playing the Detroit Alliance. If Marvin can't come to life against the Lions, abandon all home. I got a bad, they got a busis frame die as much as dude, that's what's gonna happen, right? Like Wilson is gonna get absolutely ghosted in this game. It's all gonna go to Marv because they're like dude, we can get at least a second round pick now. If he has a monster game against the Detroit Lions, do you see what Team Act did to this Lions defense? We got to just feed Marvin Harrison's unit. Dude, I could tell you see that happening. Oh man. Okay, this is like a worst nightmare coming true because I need Michael Wilson big boom this week, I'm relying on it. Okay, so cross our fingers, that is not gonna happen, but it could. All right, let's talk about tight ends, but before we do that, just as a reminder, take the guesswork out of your start-sit decisions with the fantasy pros start-sit assistant instantly. See your optimal lineup based on your roster scoring settings and advice for more than a hundred fantasy experts. You can even set your lineup with just one click. So get started at fantasyproves.com/start-sit. All right, let's go into the tight ends. We're gonna top the top 12 tight ends. We've got Tremac bride, of course, at number one, Brock Bauer's at two. Sam Laporta, holding on at three, George Kiddell at four, Tyler Warren, Dalton King Cade, Tucker Craft coming off the big game. Isaiah likely at eight, Coastan Loveland, Harold Fanon, Jr., Johan Johnson, and Micah Sikki closing things out at 12. Coming in there with the Bengals wide receivers all banged up makes sense. So let's start things out. We're gonna pull out a few of these names to go in depth. We're gonna talk about Isaiah likely. He's an interesting one because we know he's the second look in this offense. We saw the Malik neighbors bounce back. It's just a matter of how much, how much are we trusting, James Wednesday? And what we saw last week carried through. EZR has him at tied in eight fits and Ericsson, you're both higher. Fits a little bit more tied in five, Ericsson at tied in seven fits. Talk to us about buying into Isaiah likely. He has a 30.4% target share right now. It is Malik neighbors and Isaiah likely. It's a very polarized target tree for the Giants. Isaiah likely is target counts. So far in his first four games, eight, 10, 5, and 12. And he is up against the Washington defense that's given up the third most fantasy points to tight ends. Commanders have allowed five TD catches to tight ends. I think it's a pretty good spot for likely. Yeah, and that the low game was unfortunately a weather game. So outside of that, he has absolutely been cooking in terms of those targets. Ericsson, how are you feeling about him this week? Elite usage for Isaiah likely ran around on 88% of the dropbacks last week. So yeah, game is Winston is obviously the big variable here. But in two of the last three games, likely has been getting fed, getting targeted. And I think that's that's the bar right to pass when you're tight end. It's not always going to be perfect. But likely checks off enough of the box is just based on the volume to match up that he is a strong play this week. Let's talk about another Titan in that range. Coming in a little bit lower. Juan Johnson at Titan 11. Ericsson despite not being team Tyler Schuck, you are a team. And then Fitch, you've got him at Titan 14. He's had a very solid floor. But that was a weird game. I don't know about you guys. But I felt like as I was watching it, I'm like, man, Juan Johnson is just racking up. And then when you look at the end and the final score from a fantasy perspective, you're looking at what 12 fantasy points just under like, huh, it felt like it was a little more when I was watching it. So Fitch, let's start off with you. A little bit of skepticism around Juan Johnson. Is this match up? Yeah, it is match up, Tara. And it took me a long time to come around on Juan Johnson. I was kind of like a perennial fader of him. And Andrew Cooper, my buddy, finally convinced me that Juan Johnson was actually good. And I started ranking him accordingly. But the Vikings are really tough on Titans. And we talked about how tough they are in quarterbacks. Maybe not quite as tough on Titans. But they're giving up the, let's see, sixth fewest fantasy points to Titans this year. Last year was the eighth fewest fantasy points to Titans. They're giving up the eighth lowest target share to Titans this year. Basically teams tend to throw to their wide receivers against the Vikings, not to their Titans. And I just, we've talked about how we don't like the spot for Tyler Schuck. I don't really like it for Juan Johnson either. You're staying. You're staying strong team. Juan Johnson on this one. But there are some problems with this match up. Yeah, I haven't met Titan 11, but as we have gone through all of the rankings today, talking about the Saints, talking about Tyler Schuck, I think that he might actually be a sit. Then a start this week. I know that you always just want to buy into the volume with a play like Juan Johnson. He has really good usage and sometimes that's all it takes. Again, it's Titan, right? Like sometimes you'll just take four for 40 and be like, it's good enough. Because sometimes that's just what Titans do. I think that that is basically what you probably don't get from Juan Johnson. Four for 40 type of stat line. Maybe he catches a touchdown. But as I think more about this match up and coming away with what is going to be the stat line for the Saints passing game, I'm just so down on it overall. And teams have to play the Viking so different than any other team because of how much they blitz. Is this a situation where Juan Johnson is not playing as much or running as many routes? Because they got to have extra guys in to pass protect to pick up all these blitz. I know that we talked about that. I think on one of the Packers matchups with Tucker Kraft against the blitz. Something like along those lines. So that's on the back of my mind. So I think if you can pivot off to Juan Johnson, I would try to. If you do like one of these other streamers. But I think like Gaseki, for example, I think it would probably be a better start. Just based on the ceiling play of him. We've seen him play without tomorrow's A&D. He can just go absolutely nuclear. Whereas Juan Johnson, you're just hoping that he hits the floor. So if you're okay with that, then I think that you can keep in your line-ups. I mean, I'm in spots where I have to play him. I can get my flex because I just have no one left that I can use. But definitely someone to be lower on. Vikings, fewest catches allowed per game to tight ends this season. Let's talk about the guy that ECR has ranked right ahead of him. And you guys also both have a head of Juan Johnson. It's her old fan in junior. ECR is tied in ten and you both have him at tight and eight We're sitting the touchdowns have been coming through lately. Thank you to Sean Watson on that one But they yardage not quite getting there So he is a wee bit touchdown dependent, but if they're coming through we got to match up against the Jets Yeah, why not so you guys have both moved him up a little bit and rankings fits talk to us about Harold van Jr We've not got the yardage from fan and yet, but I am not going to Doubt the yardage potential of a guy who in his final college season at bowling green led all of FBS Football in receptions and receiving yardage as a tight end and then came to the Browns this dysfunctional team and Immediately had over 700 receiving yards for them as a rookie So I think the yardage is going to be there and it's pretty nice that we've gotten the three touchdowns the last two weeks Plus I think you might have had a two-point conversion catch in there as well I'm pretty much never sitting Harold fan in Yeah, how the Eric's and how about you? He's too involved in the offense when you have a tight end that has juice Unlike Kate and who also plays all the snaps the big difference is fan and can actually create yards after the catch and squeeze the football when it's thrown his way 89% snapshare last week 94% route participation when you are running a route on basically every single drop-back and you play tight end It's such a cheat code at the position like I don't know where that's to I imagine that's top three in the NFL. So when you're on the field that much It just puts you in a totally different tier than other tight ends So you have to continue to start held fan and I think the fact that the yard has had been there for the touchdowns a bit That's just showing how many outs he has because oh well He doesn't score this week, but maybe this is a week he gets the yard So we know the targets are kind of fluctuated it has been a positive trend for him since week one with the Sean Watson S is scored back obviously play with sugar most of last season That's when he was his most productive So user distal lead still a mid-range fantasy tight end one and good to see despite the fact you know We talked about the continued evolution of Denzel Boston and we're starting to see more from Casey Concepcion So we've still got this excellent young group of past catchers and Harold Fanon is still holding strong and you're right Just different avenues to get there. He'll get it some way. There's different avenues But that wraps things up for this show guys before we head out Make sure that you're liking the video and if you're watching on YouTube and make sure that you're subscribed to the Fantasy Pro's YouTube channel and podcasts as well So you don't miss out on any of the fantasy football content that we got going on and tools For Pat Fitzmorris and Andrew X and I'm Tara Roberts. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time Thanks for listening to the fantasy pros fantasy football podcast if you love the show the best free way to support us Is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcasts at fantasy pros.com/review or on Spotify follow us on X Instagram and TikTok at fantasy pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash fantasy pros you This is an iHeart podcast Guaranteed Human