0:00Number one wide receiver expert consensus ranker was kind enough to join me today. I'm having trouble with some of these wide receivers, so I brought in
0:08my guy, Jeff Bell, from Football Guys.
0:10We are going to be talking about his five favorite wide receivers to target in fantasy football drafts right now.
0:16And we're actually going to work from the end. We're going to go We're going to go in reverse order because one of
0:21the guys that you sent me, I was very surprised to see this name, very happy to see this name, and it's very topical
0:27because we're going to begin with DeShawn Stripling as a result of Ricky Pearsall's PCL injury flaring up. So, we're going to
0:34begin, Jeff. First of all, thank you very much for joining me. But, uh let's talk about let's Stripling about Stripling here.
0:40>> Absolutely, man. I really do appreciate the invitation. I mean, you're somebody that I've looked up to in the space and
0:45going way back of your on the couch episodes of Sigmund Bloom have always been appointment viewing for me. And so, anytime I get the chance, but yeah,
0:53little did I know that when I sent the names over to you that it would be officially become DeShawn Stripling Day,
0:58and we're turning it into DeShawn Stripling Week at this point.
1:01>> Yes. Yeah, it's it's everywhere. So, we've got Christian Kirk with the calf strain. We've got Ricky Pearsall with the PCL injury flare-up. George Kittle
1:10is on the physically unable to perform list. We already have people speculating, okay, are they going to bring Deebo Samuel in? What is the issue
1:16here? Stripling, a very interesting prospect in the sense of, okay, he was a five-year guy, great RAS, had an awesome 2026
1:25combine.
1:27Hard to find the production. So, how do you view Stripling this year?
1:31>> He turned it on during the college football playoffs. I I do think that that was a key there. He was a big part
1:35of that run that Ole Miss made. They pushed Miami right up to the limit right in the semifinals there. So, Stripling
1:41in the rookie guide, he's he was one of those as I was going through the rookie guide. I've done the the rookie guide
1:45with Football Guys for the last four years. I handle the wide receivers there. I watch all the wide receivers, and I mean, one of the things that stood out
1:53is as you're watching college wide receivers, so often you get what I call the Dante Thornton route tree, where it's basically either a nine route or a
2:01a screen is basically what all these receivers are running. And I think one of the things that stood out both with
2:07the old miss guys and with the Texas Tech guys is they were running the full route tree in in what they were doing
2:13there. And so, Stribling I think stood out as an athlete even before the testing came in. And then when the testing came in, he really lit it up
2:20there. And you're right on the production middle a little bit hit or miss. He's bounced around five-year player. He was the leading receiver for
2:26Oklahoma State and then Washington State and then ending up at Old Miss. But really kind of combination. And I understand where we can be off on this
2:34profile being a fifth-year player, not having a dominator score whatever it might be that stands out there. But as you get
2:42the testing again, that the production in the college football playoff I think are things that stand apart. And then you see him go 33rd over the all all in
2:50the draft and almost be a first-round pick there.
2:53>> 100% and the guys who do get that first-round they end up we we kind of get to peek behind the curtain earlier. You're
3:01you're there's in the recent vintage, most recent like five years, teams have gotten a lot smarter about roster building. It's not really the thing to
3:09do to spend a first-round pick even on a pass catcher, even on a tight end. Like Sedeeq I expect to play this year. You
3:16you basically you know, you're particularly the 49ers, they are in a Super Bowl window. You do not take guys early on in the draft and then say,
3:23"Hey, it would be really nice if he turned into something." Kind of think the same thing is true with Kaylin Black
3:28as well. I'm with you on Stribling. I think there's a clear role for him in the 49ers offense where he can basically
3:34just be the YAC guy. He And even if you don't think Stribling's any good, which there are going to be people out there
3:40who do not think he is, a comp I've been making is I mean very different style of players, but Dante Pettis had the one
3:46insane YAC year in this offense and then was basically out of football. I mean, he's hung around. He's on the Saints.
3:51Like he's on the bottom end of the roster, but I think that S Trubling due to already guys being injured, and
3:57he is an insanely good run blocker, which I think is actually a big part of uh of what the value that he's going to
4:03be adding into the 49ers. So, I like that for him as well. So, I really like taking him later on in these drafts.
4:11He's actually kind of like the last guy.
4:12You know, you're in a you're in a 16-man league right now. I mean, this is if you're not if you don't need a running
4:17back, if you're not going to try and play this year running back game, then I really like going with S Trubling as one
4:22of your final wide receivers. Another guy that uh that we brought up is Wan'Dale Robinson, who I mean, if you look at his game logs, it's it's so
4:31funny. How many wide receivers generate eight targets per game, eight and a half targets per game, and then go outside the top 100 picks after getting paid for
4:41the first time? I I I think in full PPR, I mean, this is kind of just like picking up a buck that you found on the
4:46street, Jeff.
4:47>> Yeah, absolutely. The value and and I think all the things that all these wide receivers that I sent over to you, the
4:53value is the biggest thing here. But as you're moving through the wide receivers, like you mentioned, S Trubling's kind of that last fall off
4:58there. I really do think there's a cliff right after Wan'Dale Robinson where he's sitting. It's not only going out and getting paid. We usually don't see
5:05players of that profile even hit free agency because wide receivers are so rare, that production, that age is so rare. But it Brian Daboll coming in
5:13there, and obviously he knows Brian Daboll's offense. We can feel whatever way we want to feel about Daboll's offense at this point, but Wan'Dale
5:19Robinson knows it better than anybody on that Titans roster. So, I think you could definitely see him coming in. The question I think on him would be are we
5:27going to get the vertical threat that we saw last year, the development there, or is Daboll going to park him in the slot,
5:34the short areas? And I think that that's probably the biggest question, but we did see it. And that was one thing that
5:39we saw at Kentucky. He He was a running back at Nebraska, then worked his way into becoming a receiver.
5:44>> One of my It's one of my favorite stories is that he literally got recruited as a running back, changed position, changed schools, led two
5:51different schools in receiving. Like it you know, it's it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of fight
5:57in the dog. And and man does Wan'Dale have a lot of dog.
6:00>> He absolutely does. And that's the targets are there wide open. We know that they spent a top five pick on
6:06Carnell Tate. I don't feel like anybody else who's there is going to command any level of targets. And so I think it's
6:11it's again, when you're looking at a wide receiver 47-ish valuation, the guy that was a top 20 wide receiver last year, it's just an easy pick to make as
6:19you get to that area of the draft.
6:21>> I I completely agree. I mean, it's it's going to be based on the context of your team. Like if you if you have if you
6:28have if you start your draft Jamarr Chase, Rashee Rice, and Garrett Wilson, maybe you don't have as much of a need,
6:33but you know, a lot of builds this year, particularly if you have like a later draft pick, like you have 9, 10, 11, 12,
6:39you probably start running back, running back. There's a very good chance you might need a guy who projects for 10 and
6:44a half points in week one, which I think we are probably going to get from Wan'Dale Robinson. Now, the next guy on
6:51your list, it's actually funny. I was kind of anticipating this next guy on your list to be Courtland Sutton's teammate and not in fact one Mr.
7:02Courtland Sutton, who is at the 41 overall in our ranks here on the site.
7:08Courtland Sutton is basically Wan'Dale Robinson, but in terms of down the field, right? Very, very consistent between 10 and 14 fantasy points per game over the most
7:19recent four seasons. Think about all the change that he's seen there in Denver.
7:22He's changed coaches. He's changed quarterbacks about 16 times. However, I have a hard time seeing Jaylen Waddle not totally changing the context of how
7:32Courtland Sutton gets used.
7:34>> Well, I think that I have a hard time seeing Jaylen Waddle not totally change the context of how Marvin Mims, Troy
7:41Franklin, and Pat Bryant get used is I think where a lot of it comes out of it and you look at those guys. We we had
7:47spurts and you could never pick it right. You were never on the right guy, but you would have one one of those guys
7:52ended up being startable most weeks in fantasy it seemed more often than not opposite Courtland Sutton. So I see Denver going out getting Sutton
8:01I think I I absolutely think you're right that Wandel Robinson becomes not Wandel Robinson, Jaylen Waddle becomes the number one receiver there. So I
8:08think you're right in that, but he's probably into that. And I think a lot of it is you're getting Sutton as you get
8:13into the seventh round it's really starting to fall off at the wide receivers that you want to place a chip on. Sutton was a top top 12 wide
8:20receiver one last year. We know he has that connection with Bo Nix back-to-back thousand yard seasons. I think he's still I mean obviously age 30 season. I
8:28still think there's something there and I think that what you can see is Waddle come in, be the number one receiver, Sutton still have his game,
8:37basically be exactly what Sutton is, and then they start to sparse out these other receivers. It's going to be question what happens with Marvin Mims.
8:45He's going to be a free agent after this year. There's already some talk that his agent's not the most thrilled about that
8:50situation. I mean Pat Bryant has brought in some physicality, some blocking. I think you do see a situation though where they lean on having top two top
8:59wide receivers and at the value I think there's plenty of room there for Sutton to deliver.
9:05>> I think a lot of it is going to depend on how much can Bo Nix repeat leading the NFL in pass attempts while also
9:13increasing the average depth of target.
9:15Now, a point that I had not considered which is pretty good, which is that Jaylen Waddle can soak up a lot of guys
9:22who are running about 40 to 32% of the routes, the the Mims, the Franklin, the Lil Jordan Humphrey, the Michael Bandy.
9:30I mean you can certainly keep Courtland Sutton at 87% of the snaps and just have Jaylen Waddle take over for those guys
9:36where I would have a little bit I mean a 21% target share and a top 12 wide receiver season. I it it is it's I mean
9:44it's actually just kind of hard to do to have that little of a target share and Courtland Sutton is of the archetype
9:50that he could generate plenty of touchdowns heading into the age 31 season. Been wrong about I've been wrong about these things before. I I will
9:58probably still be more of a Jaylen Waddle drafter but look when the number one wide receiver ranker tells you you need to think about Courtland Sutton you
10:05got to start thinking about it. The next guy I honestly went to the mat so hard for Jameson Williams last year. I find
10:13that he is just ranked so appropriately this year that I haven't even spent that much time thinking or talking about him like I
10:20must have opened my rankings up looked at the end it was like yeah that's about right. He's about the 20th to 25th best
10:26wide receiver in fantasy football. I mean he was so much better last year after Dan Campbell took over the play calling that zero point game in week
10:35seven and then basically like never looked back after that. Why are you in on Jameson Williams as one of your primary targets this year?
10:43>> Again another player that we saw deliver a top 12 wide receiver season last year and that was really almost a half season
10:49top 12 finish and and I think that the ceiling ceiling is certainly there. I mean at the I'm looking at football guys
10:55ADP pulling from a bunch of different sites and it's kind of at wide receiver 27 across the industry. As you're moving
11:01through kind of working our way up now here as you're moving through the fifth round and do you think that there's a
11:05cliff about in the middle of that fifth round and to me it seems like Jameson William it's like Jameson Williams may
11:10Quinton Johnston kind of one of those last guys in that cliff there before you really start to step into some uncertainty. And so where he's being
11:18priced you're able to add him as your wide receiver three. You're able to add a player in his prime that we've seen be
11:24explosive in an offense that we want parts of and you're able to add him as a wide receiver three in a lot of builds
11:31still have a strong running back within that build, or go multiple different directions there. And so, at that valuation, it's just a piece that I love
11:39as you're moving through the draft because it gives you so much ceiling, and we know Amon-Ra St. Brown See that I
11:45think that that's the other interesting thing about Jameson Williams is we've seen him deliver that top season last year. We've never really seen the
11:52contingent upside, the George Pickens with CeeDee Lamb out of the lineup, contingent upside that we know it's it's in there for Jameson Williams. And I
12:01think the other part of it, he's been profiled as a boom-bust splash player, but it's to me, and I wrote a piece on
12:08Football Guys on Jameson Williams earlier this offseason, a lot of wide receivers, he doesn't he's not a more inconsistent than a lot of
12:16wide receivers are. It's just that the bottoms are so so strong. A zero here after we think he's ready to take off, a suspension,
12:23PED suspension out of nowhere. It's the things that only Jameson Williams would do that make us realize that valley outside of those peaks, and it's not all
12:33that different. I dig in dug into some consistency consistency stuff. I'm not a big consistency guy when it comes into it. I do like the ceiling of a guy like
12:42Jameson Williams, but he's overall, he's not really that more inconsistent. And if you want a consistent receiver, it's like Jakobi Meyers is the most
12:50consistent receiver in the NFL, and I'm not building a lot of teams around Jakobi Meyers.
12:54>> It's actually it's actually such a good point.
12:56>> Most fantasy football matchups are not close. Go >> Go >> you're if you're watching this right now, if you're on your phone, go pull up
13:03your app, go look at your home league last year. How many times was I within 20 points? How many times was I within
13:0810 points? How many times was I within five points? My guess would be way less than you think. Maybe on Sunday, you
13:14know, you have the experience, you have the sweat, and you're like, man, this is going to be really close, and then you
13:17realize that it definitely wasn't. So, I want to build a lot of my teams with guys like this, and then we're going to
13:25scale all the way up to the very top. I think it's a pretty interesting to think about the high-end wide receivers this
13:32year because these six guys, Ja'Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, JSN, St. Brown, Jefferson, and Lamb, I think they're actually going to effectively define the
13:41season because they are the only wide receivers who are projected for above 16 fantasy points per game, which is kind of that benchmark of when you would say
13:48it's an elite elite wide receiver season. And you highlighted one Mr.
13:54Nacua uh to talk about today is one of your favorite wide receivers to draft and and honestly, it's such a good such
14:00a good player to talk about because we do not really talk about Puka like Julio Jones, like Ja'Marr Chase, like like we
14:07it just for whatever reason the the the conversation around him just doesn't ever feel like it. And maybe it's just because I'm old and Puka is is a young
14:15man. It's actually probably cuz he was a fifth-round rookie from BYU, honestly.
14:19That that's probably it, right? It it really is.
14:23>> Yeah, I absolutely think that's it. And I'm I'm there with you. It's a player that I mean, some people were on him as a
14:28rookie, but even then, nobody was taking him in the third round of their dynasty rookie drafts. And so, to say that
14:33people were in on him, it was to varying degrees. How often do we see fifth-round players become what Puka Nacua has
14:40become? And I mean, he checks the boxes that you we would want to see. He's got physicality, he's obviously a high-level
14:46athlete that's translated to the NFL.
14:48And just the volume that sits there within that offense. Everything is schemed up in that offense to work around Puka Nacua at this point. We've
14:56seen Cooper Kupp in similar offensive structure deliver some of the best wide receiver seasons in NFL history. And so, that And we've already seen Puka Nacua
15:05deliver some of the best recei- seasons in history. And I think when you're looking at Nacua and what he represents for me, putting him on this list usually
15:12means I drew a top four pick. And I do think that there's some level of separation with those top four players.
15:18I love building around one of those and getting that pick there. The other part of it is when you've got that top four
15:22pick, and especially picks two through three, you're seeing a lot of the fall off in that second round, where you're still able to get a Brock Bowers or a
15:31chance falling occasionally, a Derrick Henry, or if you wanted to go with Nico Collins or Drake London, that type of player. It seems to me a real fall off
15:39at the 212 usually. And so, getting that 104, getting one of those top four high-end players that I think can be
15:46foundational pieces, and also still getting that value out of round two.
15:50That's what Nacua represents. And so, you're you're asking about my four favorite wide receivers to draft. I love when I get a draft pick of Nacua,
15:57because I know what pick slot I got I drew out of that.
16:00>> Yeah, that's actually I mean, that's a huge advantage to be able to build your team out that way. I I guess here's
16:06here's my question.
16:07>> Yeah.
16:08>> Do you think that any of Puka, Chase, JSN, any of these guys, they're they're so good with such a ceiling, right? I
16:15mean, they are projected for I mean, depending on whose projections you're using, either about the same or a hair less or a hair more than Bijan or Gibbs
16:23with the caveat that actually wide receivers have access to higher ultimate scores than running backs do in full PPR formats, because
16:3311 catches is the equivalent, you know, 12 catches, you just scored two touchdowns on top of um whatever you did. Would Would you take any of these
16:39guys 101 in any you know, standard people This is not Scott Fishbowl style, but like is there is there ever a reason
16:47you would consider it?
16:49>> Well, I don't know. Today we just got the news that Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs are having hold-ins and >> Hold-ins, yeah.
16:54>> I do think for all the talk that we spend all this off season about football, we still get into the camp
17:01opens and we're like, well, we probably didn't really talk about that very much.
17:04I don't know that anybody talked about that too much, but here we go with this.
17:07And we do it does seem to be players that miss the preseason or miss portions of camp disappoint that season more
17:16often than not. I mean, I don't have any statistical backing of that. I'm just going straight gut feel on that, but it
17:20seems most people like >> Multiple multiple studies have been done on this that have backed it up, which is guys who guys who are either skip
17:28training camp, guys who are injured in training camp, injured in the preseason, they tend across the board, they actually do have lower fantasy points
17:36per game. Now, obviously some of that is stuff like Le'Veon Bell or I'm I mean Terry McLaurin last year, he's a guy who
17:43would go into that sample of like you you the tail ends drag it down, but it still does show that it is more likely than
17:51you would probably think. Jeff, thank you very much for telling me your five favorite wide receivers to draft in fantasy football this year. People were
17:58interested in finding more of your work, where would they go and get it?
18:01>> I I do the old exclusively at Footballguys. You can find me at Footballguys and that's where most everything is coming out. I'm the host
18:07of the Dynasty Show. I was just able to have your co-host Jacob Sanderson on this week. That's up on YouTube. You can
18:13check that episode out. You can find me on Twitter at socials at For Whom J Bell Tolls and that's pretty much the only
18:20places you can find me at this point.
18:22>> There you go. All right, everyone, go check him out if you want more of my stuff, you can get over on
18:25flockfantasy.com.
18:27Go Davis over there. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, and I'll be back with you guys tomorrow.
