Day 2 Rookie Wideouts

We started the conversation last week, we talked about seven rookie receivers. This week we're gonna continue that conversation forward with another set of guys. And you know, Matt, this is our last chance to speculate pre draft. You know where guys might go. Particularly good fits the guys that we love. And this is, by most accounts, the deep, best wide receiver draft of our lifetimes. So these guys

mattered to mean the guys that were talking about. Normally, we're gonna talk about guys are gonna be taken second round, third round in a couple of cases, probably beyond that. And normally these guys are are really dicey to make an impact but not this year. Most of all the guys we talked about are gonna have a chance to make an immediate fantasy impact. Yeah. I think most of these wide receivers are probably, uh, if not wide receiver ones, at least wide receiver two or three's on their team.

So a lot of these guys are gonna get slot play and the rest of them are just gonna be on the field for the snaps and in their rookie years. So I like a lot of these guys from a fantasy perspective. Yeah, fantastic. Let's begin with the notable omission from our list last year, and that was Denzel Mims from when I said last year last week with Brian, Denzel Mims from Baylor, who Brian just didn't like and didn't want to include him in his in his top

seven guys. But I think he's crazy and I've gotten slated going in the first round, number twenty four to the Saints. Denzel Mims from Baylor. Breakdown Denzel MIM's game and and I'll talk maybe a little bit as well about why I like him so much as a potential Saint. Yeah, I think I have him as the fifth, maybe sixth wide receiver off the board. And it's a pretty legendary wide receiver class, as you said, but Mims is definitely

one of the biggest wide receivers in this class. Uh. Fortunately for fantasy players, he's also one of the fastest wide receivers in this class. Uh. He posted a four three eight forty at the Combine that was third among wide receivers. And he ranked second in college football with twenty contested catches last season. And if you watch some of his tape, it's it's seriously impressive. And I'm not gonna call him Randy Moss, but the way he maneuvered back to the ball in the air was kind of

Moss like. Uh, it feels like he's a late first round or you said you got him on the late first round. Uh. Bet online dot ag has him at negative one eighty minus one eighty to be picked in the first round according to the betting odds, So he's

a pretty big favorite to go in the first round. UM. I like I said, I think he's the fifth receiver off the board after lamb Rugs, Judy and Jefferson and the comps that I saw um from some of the draft experts out there are DJ Chark, who is really great last year, Kenny Golladay who's a stud, and Alshon Jeffrey, who up until the last season or two was one of the better Fantasy wide receivers. So I think the

sky's the limit for Denzel Mims. Yeah, what those guys have in common is they're all bigger bodied guys, and with the exception of Jeffrey, they can get downfield and they can get some separation downfield. And that's what's really special about Mims is you rarely get a big bodied receiver who has the speed to get downfield and can separate downfield. And I think that's part of what makes

him him really special. Those acrobatic catches you mentioned, the contested catches that you mentioned, that's um that part all boats really well for Denzel Mims. The the reoccurring negative that you hear about Denzel Mims is that Baylor just didn't ask him to do very much except go run fast and go run straight and we'll just heave up the ball. So there are a lot of people feel like he's got to learn a lot of the route

tree and it's there. He may have a first year or two that's really kind of used as a as a downfield specialist until he becomes more of a student to the rest of the field and can learn much more of the route tree. Well, and if he's a late first round wide receiver, that means he's instantly glomming onto an offense that's probably pretty good, most likely a playoff team right away. So you put a talent like that on a roster that's uh already been in the playoffs.

I really like the odds there so in the Saints, and you know it's certainly no lock he'll go to the Saints, but the fit is so good because Michael Thomas is a player who's um really got a complete aime and can fill up most of the field. But what he doesn't have is that over the top speed. You know, he's not the guy who's gonna take the top off of the off of the off of the field and forced defense is back and back pedaling because

of his speed. Well, that's where Mims comes in, and it's would be perfect but as a compliment to Thomas and why I think that would be so lethal if those two get together, and where I could see Mims really vaulting, it's to me. It's almost an ideal landing spot if he could pick a place where Mims reasonably could go to a team that could perhaps utilize him the best. I think the Saints are one of those teams. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of teams that could he

could really be a difference maker for. Think about San Francisco with their second pick. Think about Kansas City. Uh, there's just Philadelphia is a place that they need a wide receiver as well. They pick twenty one, I believe. So there's a lot of really good spots that Denzel Mims could land. All right, Let's let's continue on with

a couple of other players. One of the other players that is being mentioned as a possible first rounder, and you see him periodically popping up near the bottom of the first round for some different different mocks, is the Colorado high upside, high risk, high reward guy, Lavishka Chanult. And this is the kid from Colorado who was super productive, elite playmaker ability, but also's got a variety of concerns

with him as well. What do you think of Laviska Chanult? Well, I like to give the NFL comps because that's always fun. And let's start Channault with his comps, which are Big Deebo Samuel or Big Percy Harvin. He lines up at wide receiver, running back, wildcat quarterback at at Colorado. That makes him the dreaded gadget player, and the gadget players don't always work out from a fantasy perspective, But because he he lined up in so many different spots, he

broke more tackles than any draft eligible wide receiver. According to Post with yeah Um, his forty time was an uninspiring four point five eight. He takes a lot of punishment in his game because he kind of seeks out guys to uh to try to destroy too. It also led to a handful of injuries at Colorado, including a shoulder injury and a toe injury. And get this, he was diagnosed with a pubic bone inflammation in February. I

wonder how he got that. That doesn't sound good. Um. His odds are being picked in the first round not that great if you think he will be though you're getting plus two fifteen odds for him to go in the first round. I don't think he's gonna be a first round pick. I think he's likely a mid to late second rounder. I could see him dropping into the third. We need him to go to an offense with a really clever offensive coordinator for him to be fantasy viable.

And if he goes to a spot where they're just not using the analytics and they're just not using their their brains to run smart ways, I think chant is going to be languished as kind of a special teams guy. Uh, he's explosive in away A few players are. He's awesome after the catch, and that's part of what you talked about being used as a running back, not just a little bit. He scored seven rushing touchdowns last year. She did,

and so he is. He is as lethal as anybody outside is Ceedee Lamb in this draft class after the catch and and I think you raise a good point that creative, open minded offensive coordinators will find ways to utilize him that can be very fantasy friendly. And you're right there, he falls into the wrong spot. I think he could be. You know, many of those dude seasons that Percy Harvin had for fantasy owners could end up

you know, emerging here as well. Well, you know that'll be It'll be fascinating to see where he goes but in the right place, He's a guy that could make a lot of sense um and could ultimately be just because of his freakish athletic ability lavishka Chanal could end up being a good player. Let's go to our number three, our third wide receiver that I want to talk about again, the guy that's being frequently mocked into the second round, and that is kJ Hammler from Penn State. The comp

I'm seeing on him a lot is Tavon Austin. Yeah, I have. Tavon Austin is one of his comps. Also Marquise Brown and uh, if we want to throw it way back, how about Peter Warwick from way back in the day. Um Hammler did not run at the combine, but by all accounts he's one of the fastest wide receivers in this draft. But at only five nine, he's also one of the smallest, only a hundred and seventy

eight pounds. But he's definitely one of those legitter bug guys that you just can't catch and he should really factor in heavily as a kick and punt returner in the league, and that actually might be his best role in the NFL. Um there's some worry about him dropping the ball. That was a bit of an issue at Penn State. It was hands. It was a massive, massive issue. I believe the stat I saw was um, and I apologize if for got this wrong. Is seventy catchable passes

last year. Twelve drops on seventy passes. That is a horrifying percentage. And if there's one trait that scares me about a receiver and the long term developmental prospects, it's drops. Because you've seen so many times where guys who have bad hands just can't get it all together. And not always, but more often than not. You know, it's handful of drops doesn't bother me at all, but when you're seeing that level of drops, I I really worry about that part.

For kJ Hamler, now, get the ball in his hands, all bets off. Because he's super fast, he's super elusive to catch even in tight spaces. I mean, that's his game. His game is get the ball in his hands somehow. And if he can get you know, eight nine touches a game, he he might break one. He's that good. Um. You know, this isn't a comp that I saw, but a little bit reminds me of maybe Tarik Cohen of the Bears. Uh, smaller guy who get get the ball in his hands a few times and see what happens.

But again, I think it's landing spot dependent how viable he is in a in a fantasy sense, because if we don't have an offensive coordinator who knows how to use a five nine one eight jitterbug player, I think he might be lost on the bench. See, I think it doesn't matter. These guys never are fantasy factors, reliable fantasy factors. Name me another guy like a Tavon Austin

who was a reliable fantasy producer. I can't right off hand if if you would have prepped me for this and I would have known that question is coming, I would have dug deep into the archives. But it's probably not that, Matt. I just don't think these guys are fantasy producers that you can count on. Is is is kJ Ham are going to break some slots, some slants, some some slant catches into long gains. Absolutely, he's gonna score some touchdowns. You're not gonna know where they're coming.

It's gonna be really really hard to know. And um and so I think, uh, I think kJ Hamler from a fantasy standpoint, does not interest me at least not very much. Let's let's work at a quick break. When we come back, I want to talk about the opposite a one of the better big bodied receivers that you're going to find in the in this draft class. When we come back, Welcome back more Fantasy Football Weekly. I'm

Paul Charge and my co host is Matt Harrison. We're breaking down the day two wide receivers and there could be a bunch of them. We've already talked about Denzel Mims and Lavishka Chanal and kJ Hammler, who I'm pretty down on. Let's talk about a big bodied receiver from Notre Dame named Chase Claypool. He's uh, he's one of the bigger guys in this draft class. He breaks tackles

with with strength. He's got, you know, areo typical ability of these bigger, stronger receivers that are taking higher draft They win these contested catches, Matt. He's got the ball, skills, the hands. There's a lot to like here from Chase Claypool. And we do see most of the fan the ongoing long term fantasy contributors. You're after you're our bigger bodied guys like Julio Jones and A. J. Green and and so many others. What do you what do you think

of Chase Claypool? Well, first off, I think that he's seven inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than kJ Hamler. Um, we're not sure that Chase Claypool will be a wide receiver at the pro level. A lot of people are talking about him as a tight end. Um and if if he does convert to tight end, that's fine because one of the comps I found on him was Darren Waller, and uh, Darren Waller did uh a pretty good job

last year. Uh. He did gain nine pounds between the Senior Bowl and the Combine, which probably means somebody he's in his ear saying, yeah, dude, you're probably gonna be a tight end at the pro level. But much like Darren Waller, Claypool was an incredible overall athlete, averaged forty five points per game in high school playing basketball. Uh, and he's one of two wide receivers at the Combine to weigh more than two thirty pounds and run a

sub four four five forty at the Combine. Do you know who the other wide receiver to do that was, Uh, he's got a robotic nickname, Megatron. Calvin Johnson was the only other one to do this. Um, his weaknesses are becoming a great receiver. Um, he's really big, he's not super awesome at the point of a contested catch, and his route running also leaves a little bit to be desired, which is why he's probably nudged toward the tight end position as well. He's likely a second rounder in my book, UM,

comps of Waller. And then if you're going to give him a comp as a wide receiver, probably DK Metcalf who's huge and fast, and maybe Vincent Jackson a little bit too, but he's a little bit of a slower side. That's you know. I like that. That's a I think that is a really good comp to Vincent Jackson. That makes a ton of sense. I like that. Now here's for a major red flag for fantasy owners to chase Claypool if if he goes to a team who's going

to convert him to tight end. That is a multi year conversion that is does not happen quickly and will take it will take time, and it and it means a very I think it means potentially very little playing time in his rookie year. I would be I would not chase Claypool down significantly for Dynasty Empire use if that happens, any use and re draft for that matter, just because I think you're gonna get just just the timeline for him to hit the field. It's just it's

just dramatically reduced. When you need to go learn how to block in line tight it's such a different position. I would be worried. Yeah, he he probably falls out of you know, the the rookie draft first round if he becomes a tight end. But uh, I mean, really, the sky's the limit for a guy of that size and and and the ability in the open field. So I still like him quite a bit. All right, Let's

go to Brandon Ayak from Arizona State. This is a player I like a lot, and I think could be a sneaky entrant to the bottom of the first round, potentially to San Francisco, which is where I currently have him mocked. Brandon Ayak, what is I want to see? If you are as it? If you like him as much as I do. I do like him quite a bit, and I think You're right right on the money there that I think he might be a tail end of the first round guy. Everything I've read about a Yook

is that he's the hardest worker in this wide receiver class. Uh. He's one of those guys who wasn't really recruited, went to JUCO for two years, started every game in his two years at Arizona State after after moving up to D one. UH really didn't break out until his senior season, but Nikil Harry was right in front of him. In his junior year. UM had some pretty decent success in the return game. Had both a punt and kick return touchdown last season, and that's something that NFL teams do

look for in wide receivers and UM. One of the things that I forget who said this, but I was listening to another podcast and UM, guys who hit the pro level, if they have a special teams touchdown on their resume from college, they're much likelier to break out and be something of the success in the NFL. UM great deep speed, very big hands, and very long arms for his six ft zero frame, but wasn't a world

beater and contestant catch situations. UH, and he's a bit of a late breakout in college, and late breakouts are always a slight concern that it might just be a flash in the pan year. Um they gave him comps of d J. Moore as a wide receiver, which is great, time Montgomery in the return game, which is also great. So I think Brandon Auk has a a very good chance of being a noisemaker in this draft either too. I'll be fascinating to see his landing spot, and I

think he can help. I think he can help almost every team. I don't think he's He's not somebody that you need to find just the right spot for. There's so this deep. This distract is super deep, and slot receivers in particular, that's not him either. So I I love the flexibility and I think his landing spot it could be it could be helpful almost for every single

team he might go to. Let's go to k J. Hill of Ohio State, speaking of slot receivers, ran almost entirely from the slot and ran almost entirely underneath routes. And I think there's another guy that's gonna have to learn a broader route tree than what he showed at Ohio State. And kJ Hill to me is is a specialist. That is a guy I need to find this landing spot that's gonna use his unique slot receiver middle of

the field talents best. Yeah. So I was reviewing all the kJ Hill tape that I could find, and I just didn't see anything that looked particularly elite he was. He was at Ohio State, and Ohio State dominated this season, and he was wide open on nearly every single one of the highlights that I saw. I didn't see any moves or super elite speed or size. But he caught the ball a lot and he ran into the end

zone a lot. Is that a product of elite separation or route running or is it because Ohio State was so good and they were up by twenty points and nobody can cover anybody with J K. Dobbins in the backfield. So um, his metrics at the combine four six forty at the combine, that's not good. NFL dot Com gave him a backup Special Teams grade as an overall grade for him. Um. Like I said, speed's not great, scouts are saying that a separation and route running his average.

Once he gets the ball in space. He does have a knack for finding the end zone, and he comes from the Ohio State wide receiver program, so he's got that pedigree. He read shirted his first year because Michael Thomas, Curtis Samuel, and Braxton Miller were ahead of him on the depth chart. But I think on the upside, he's Cold Beasley in the NFL. That's the combine for him. I don't think that he's anything more than a slot receiver that pops up for a good game now and then.

But it really isn't a guy that you want on your fantasy roster. Yeah, I'm with you. Don K J. Hilt does not interest me, and I think, like I said, I think he needs to find just the right spot for him to be effective um and I don't know that that's gonna happen. I see a potential slide for him in the draft as well. Let's go to uh we got two receivers left that I want to talk about. Let's take a quick break, get to Juwan Jennings from Tennessee and Brian Edwards is one of my favorite sneaky

under the our guys. But I don't know what the radar is anymore because I'm seeing his name pop up a lot as everybody's favorite sleeper. So I'll talk about those two guys when we come back for the final segment of Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchi and Matt Harrison, with you were breaking down the second tier of rookie wide receivers have already broken down Denzel Mims, Laviska, Chenalt kJ Hamler, Chase Claypool, Brandon Ayuk kJ Hill we both

don't like much. And now let's turn our attention to our final two guys. Juwan Jennings from tennesse See another guy that didn't run only from the slot, but most of his production came from the slot um but still has a lot of parts to his game that could be pretty compelling here and I think that again, in the in the right spot, I think he could be successful. And I definitely like him as a as a as a slot receiver more than I like k J. Hill.

But what are your thoughts? I'll let you go first, what are your thoughts on Joan Jennings from Tennessee UH six three to ten. Another big dude, but he's this year's baggage prospect. UH tons of off field issues stemming all the way back to high school. Mostly dealing with just his attitude around his team. He quit his high school team, he was kicked off Tennessee's roster in seen. They allowed him to come back, but he had to miss half of the Gator Bowl this year due to

stomping on an opponent. So he's got that baggage with him. But with that comes a lot of talent, and the right coaching staff might be able to get the most out of him. He had only fifty seven receptions for the Valls last year, but somehow he broke twenty nine tackles seven receptions. That's insane. I mean, if your broken tackles. For a wide receiver to break tackles on half their catches,

that's amazing. Yeah, that's pretty good. Uh. He's very big, he's very strong, he's very slippery in the open field. He's really good at the point of catch. So he's got a lot of those physical tools that could make him a very successful NFL receiver. Um the two knocks, he's got the million dollar arm ten cent head thing going for him. Plus his combine time on his forty

was slow four point seven two. That's actually um So I've seen him go as high as the first round in some mocks, but I don't believe there's a chance in that happening. But I've also seen him ranked like twenty eight among wide receiver prospects on some people's big boards. So there's a giant range of outcomes for where this guy might end up, and it all depends on which team is in love with him and where they're willing

to pick him. But the best comp I found for him, and I think this is a good comp Uh and Kuan Bolden. Uh not a super fast guy, but big, and UH had all the other tools to make him a really successful player. John Jennings, Tennessee. Let's let's go to Brian Edwards. This guy's fascinating, and I think had he not just broken his foot in February and suffered a d injury a few months before that, we'd be talking about Brian Edwards as a as potentially an early

second round wide receiver. And I still think there's a chance he goes there. He's the all time South Carolina leader in receiving yards, he was productive throughout his entire career, and he feels like a guy that foot aside, assuming the foot's ready by the openers the kind of guy that you could that could be a starter as a rookie on opening day. Yeah, and you talked about how he held the record in South Carolina. He was Deebo

Samuel's running mate for the Game Cox until last season. Uh, he holds the record over you know, guys like Sydney Rice who are who are down there and Uh. Um so Edwards played forty eight games for the Game Cox. He caught a reception in every one of his forty eight games there. That's amazing. Uh. And and he recorded at least six receptions in each of his final eight games in college. Um. Good size, not elite speed, more of a good route runner. He's pretty smart guy. Uh.

Finds himself an open space a ton. Uh was tough to bring down with his big size, even in a tough SEC conference. Uh. The worry is, like you said, the foot injury and the knee injury at the tail end of his senior season. Uh. He did have injury to the same knee at his senior year in high school. Uh. That probably caused him to drop too. I think he's probably a third round pick. He could drop as far as the fourth. But he's a guy that could absolutely

be a steal and he will. He will work his way as a successful outside wide receiver in the pros um. I think he's a second option. He's like a wide receiver too on his own team, but he should deliver good consistency as an NFL starter. And the comps, I saw James Jones, who had a couple of pretty good years as a fantasy player top thirty wide receiver seasons and uh, Martavis Bryant without the baggage. Uh, both kind of similar players. So, uh, Brian Edwards is kind of

an interesting dude. And I think there's gonna be a team out there that's gonna get him late. They're gonna sluff the wide receiver position even though they need one, and they'll probably pick him up near the tail end of the third round. And uh, I feel like they got a really good value. You and I see this guy pretty differently. I think there's gonna be a team that takes him in the second round because of his un Brian Edwards has unbelievable balance and leaping ability. His

contested catch rate is amazing. He's gets a good Yeah, guy's big enough to break tackles. He's a big bodied guy who still has balance and leaping ability. I think they're gonna be a handful of teams. As as as medical science has changed so much Matt over the last you know, ten twenty years, I just think the the impact of injuries just isn't what he used to be, and that nobody is it's almost nobody is truly injury

prone anymore. I just think there's some guys that have worse luck than others, and there are sure there are some guys that that do the injuries really do cut short there career, but mostly medical science has just changed so much that I don't know that it really makes that big of a difference anymore. And I think they're gonna be there's gonna be a team in the second round. I believe that's going to look past this injury and just say we've got a guy who's got some really

really special traits in Brian Edwards. Again, the contestant catches, the balance, the leaping ability, the one handed catches, He's he's really a special player in some tangible ways. And I think there's going to be teams out there that are going to decide that they they're going to overlook that injury and all. It takes one in the second round, and I think it's gonna happen, you know, Charge, I think you're right about a lot of things about the

about the medical side of it. But we're in a weird year where a lot of these teams did not get to bring these guys into their own facilities and have their own medical personnel check them out. So a lot of what they're relying on is what happened at the Combine and and what happened at the Senior Bowl. A lot of these guys didn't have pro days with

staff on hand. So I think that there's gonna be a little bit of trepidation and people are going to back off of some of these guys uh with the injury designation just because they haven't had the opportunity to see them in person. And so that's why I'm worried about guys like Brian Edwards, and I'm worried about tah Uh. I think that he could fall outside of the top ten in in in the first round of the draft, and and I think that uh, his hip is a

pretty big concern. So I think there's a lot of guys with the injury bugs in the back that uh might fall. Okay, I think that's a very fair point that injury guys to some teams are gonna be more skittish and injury guys because they couldn't look at them themselves. I think in other cases they're gonna go, well, we've we've seen this particular injury a dozen times or a thousand times, and we know, you know, we know how

this injury works, and there just aren't that many variables. Um. As for TOA dropping out of the top ten, I knew I'd get you going on that. If nothing else, there would be teams drafting like you know, Las Vegas

at twelve, um, Tampa Bay at fourteen. There will be other teams that would drop, that would go up from a up in the draft to go get him into the top ten, even if for some reason, you know, the team's in the top ten weren't comfortable with to although you know, I just think I think you're crazy if you think that's the case. How you know, how does TWA get by Miami at five and the Chargers

at six? That can't happen? Um? I think I think I think Miami passes because they think that uh, they can either get a quarterback later or they're or they're happy waiting on the position one more year and building the team first. And I think the Chargers are in love with Herbert. I just think that that's how it's gonna go. Everything I've heard about the Chargers is there in love with Herbert and that's the guy that's no.

But here's the thing. Chargers are projecting that potentially because they want to They want to not give the impression that they're desperate for two US so that if they need to move up to number two or they need to move up to number three, that they don't have to overpay to get there. So I think that's you know, I'm still going at too. I think two can go

as early as two for sure. If I'm Washington, I would take it to it too, because I'm not a believer in Dwayne Haskins based on what we've seen so far. So and I think all all that can do is extend the suffering of rate of Redskins fans who have been waiting for a quarterback for you know, years and years and are still gonna be waiting because they still don't have their guy in Dwayne Haskins. Alright, churche uh.

If we're gonna make a one dollar bet, um, I will take Justin Herbert going before to a Oh done giving away a dollar here, that's right, give it away a dollar, and I don't want you paying me in pennies or nickels. I want a sack of jewiah. Oh, I guess I can probably find that the tooth fairy in my house brings sack of jewias. I want. This is a sackato. We a bet between you and I about who goes first to or Justin Herbert. Done deal?

All right, great job today, Thank you, Matt. Yeah, absolutely yeah. We'll be back next week for draft reaction, and at that point the draft will be well, have round one in the books. We'll talk about all the Round one rookies that went next Friday on Fantasy Football Weekly. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.