629: Another Solid Wide Receiver Class

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Speaker 1: This is the Labor Podcast with your host JJ zacher Retha j J.

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Speaker 2: Zacher reson.

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Speaker 1: What's up everyone, It's JJ Zacharyesen in this episode six hundred and twenty nine of the Late Round Fantasy Football podcast sponsored by FanDuel. Thanks for tuning in. I think it's important to talk to people who approach things differently than you do. It helps you be more well rounded. I don't want to surround myself with people who think the exact same way that I do. And that's why today, to talk about this year's wide receiver class, I wanted to bring someone on the show who evaluates the position differently than I do, someone who has a totally different process. Because wide receiver is important to nail in your rookie drafts, you should want to understand these players from a lot of different angles. So I hit up Alfredo Brown from Football Guys in the Pretend GM podcast. Alfredo's a former scout at Florida International University, so he's got a film based approach with this prospect evaluation. I talked to Alfredo about what he looks for in wide receiver prospects, his surprise wide receiver one in this class and so much more. I learned something from the interview. I know that you will too. Before we get into our chat. Hey soccer fans, this season, Fandle and Captain Morgan are teaming up to give you a one of a kind soccer contest to spice up your game day, introducing the Captain Morgan's soccer pick them a weekly fantasy contest that's entirely free to play. The contest is simple. All I have to do is answer ten questions about Captain Morgan and that week's soccer matchup. People with the most correct answers will earn their share of cash prizes. Head over to fandle dot com Slash Free Games, Slash Captain Morgan and spice up game day with a free shot at cash prizes every Saturday. No purchase necessary. Twenty one years or older to enter. Location restrictions apply void where prohibited. Ce full terms at fandel dot com. Now, sit back, relax, and listen to Alfredo drops some knowledge about this year's wide receiver class. All right, Alfredo, we've seen some really good wide receiver classes over the last handful of years, even during seasons where we thought the wide receiver class wasn't going to be very good. It still ended up being pretty good. So I'm curious, at a high level, how do you view this twenty twenty two class.

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Speaker 2: All Right, So I'm gonna start us off here with an office quote. It's a quote, not dwite, shrewd, good, not great. He's checking Michael Scott's breath. That's kind of how this classes. The problem is that you're like, the offensive skill side of this draft isn't all that great to begin with. So we know that teams are probably going to latch onto players and reach for what they can get. We see that happen with free agents all the time, and it happens in the draft. I think that, like to I'd always like to compare to previous classes, right, So, I think as prospects they're ahead of that twenty nineteen class that had Hollywood Brown and AJ Brown and DK and Debo and even Terry mclauriny. I know that now those guys as pros are good, but as prospects they weren't all that great. I think this kind of compares a little bit closer to the twenty twenty class with CD Lamb and T Higgins, Justin Jefferson and Jerry, Judy, Claypool, Ayuk, a bunch of guys that all do things that are so different, yet they kind of cluster together. So there's a lot of quality here, but not too many upper echelon guys. I think it's gonna be similar to twenty twenty, we saw ten receivers get drafted in the top fifty. Then I think that we could probably see eight, nine, ten get drafted in the top fifty this year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I've looked at my model too. I think that class compares more favorably to this one. And the other thing too, is that this one doesn't have necessarily the high end talent like we saw last year. You know, it'smar Chase, DeVante Smith and even Jaylen Waddle.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: So I totally agree that you know, it's not as good as last year. It's not a bad class overalls, definitely better than the running back class, at least this wide stier class.

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Speaker 2: Seems to be. So let me ask you this.

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Speaker 1: So we sort of approach evaluating prospects a little bit differently, which is great, which is why I wanted to bring you on and talk to you about this kind of stuff. When you're evaluating these wide receivers, what are the things that you're looking for, Like, what do you care about most?

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Speaker 2: So, I mean the first thing that I was taught when I even started getting into scouting was to keep it simple, because I mean, when when you start to overcomplicate things, you start to you know, muddy up your analysis of a player. And especially being you know, a low lely scout, it's got to be something that's going to translate all the way up the ladder to every single person within the organization. They can read your report and get it, so you know, you start to find the things that matter most to you and for me is and what I was taught is do they have an elite trait something that can't be taught, size or athleticism, something that you know coaching will have no effect on. Then the other thing, at least what changes here since college players going to the NFL is we want to see production. And I think, you know, that's something that I've been trying to focus on a little bit more from the analytical side, is you know, understanding that what production means not just simply do they have numbers? Right? So you know, when you were on the field, did you dominate those touches? Did you disappear in big games where you went up against a good player? You know, things like that, good players, you know, like you even said and many people say, good players get the ball when they're on the field. You know, that's that's what they do. And lastly, for me, and this is one of the things I look at most probably most often when scouting a wide receiver, and it's just spatial awareness when they're when they are running their routes. It's something that doesn't necessarily show up in analytics or in the numbers, but I think it kind of lends itself to target volume and target share. Right, if you have a good understanding of where you're running on the field and how to get open, you're going to get the ball. And to me coming from the other side of it, you know, a high IQ football player is going to see what's around them, adjust to what's open. And you know, there's a really big major issue to me when a wide receiver runs a route straight into another defender or straight into zone coverage and they're not doing their quarterback any favors. They're not moving with their quarterback as he scrambles. You know, they just kind of follow the roadmap and just stick to that. So without seeing the big picture, that's kind of the thing that I'm going to look at most when it comes to a receiver.

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Speaker 1: All right, So let's dig into this class. Now. I think a lot of people would be surprised that your wide receiver won in this class. And I say a lot of people, I really mean just the dynasty community, because there's always this like dissonance and difference between the way that the dynasty community views guys because it's usually more numbers based and analytically driven versus how a typical scout that you would see on television or in the media would see a certain player. So I say surprise more so from a dynasty angle as opposed to what others might be feeling in the scouting community. But your wide receiver one in this class is Jamison Williams. So I want to ask you what stands out about Williams to you and why do you think that he's the best wide receiver in this class.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's funny. I was kind of I kind of knew you were going to ask this, and someone just today on the Pretend GM YouTube channel so it's pretty bold of you to have the new Henry Ruggs of the class at number one. And I'm like, all right, man, thanks, Yeah. I mean, we're starting to see him kind of magically go up draft boards, whether it's in Dynasty or NFL Draft, and you know, all over the place. And I do genuinely believe he would have been the wide receiver one had he not tore his ACL in the National Championship Game. The season that he had was just incredible. I mean to use another Office reference here to describe Jamison Williams. He's that episode of the Office where they put the speed gun out in front of the building and Michael's running alongside a car that goes thirty one miles per hour and he's like beat that, Like that's too Jamison Williams, he's the car. He's so stupidly fast, and he's been clocked at twenty three miles per hour. When you compare that to the guys in the NFL over the last five years, there's only been two players that were able to do that. It was Tyreek Hill at twenty three point two and Rahee mostered at twenty three miles power flat. So We're talking about a guy who's not just like fast for the combine or fast for his glass. He is elite level, all world fast for the NFL. For the record. He's not Henry Ruggs. Okay, he's a better deep ball tracker. He's a better, better, everything, better production all that. You know. Speed alone doesn't make a good wide receiver. It's understanding how to use that speed. He creates great separation at the top of the stem of his route. Defensive backs tend to panic a lot, and they bail out towards one direction, and then he's gone the other way. He gets a step on guys, he's gone. He led the SEC in touchdowns of twenty plus yards since twenty twenty. He's only been in the SEC since twenty twenty one, so it kind of just lends to how good he really is at getting opened deep. I just think that the two things that get in the way of when people are ranking him or looking at him, it's gonna be one. It's the acl. I don't think he's going to be one hundred percent for the first half of this rookie season, and I'm probably gonna get dunked on a lot because of that, Yeah, and I understand that. The other thing too, is a lot of people have questions of like, why wasn't he on the field more at Ohio State? You know, why was he not out there? I mean, obviously we see it's a great it's a great wide receiver room, but that's one of those intangible things that we don't we don't have the answer to that question. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's definitely one of the concerns that I have for him, just sort of like when when digging through things from a numbers driven perspective, is why is it that he felt the need to transfer? You know, obviously it was a very very crowded room in Ohio State, so it's understandable why he did. But you know, obviously you would rather him just beat that competition just naturally as opposed to moving. But at least he moved to a program where it's an unbelievable program. There's gonna be a lot of competition there inherently. So yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I like Williams. Not my wide receiver one, but I definitely like him. He's in that cluster of guys who I would not be shocked, you know, if he does become the best wide receiver in this class. Drake London very recently jumped into the wide receiver one spot in my model actually, and that's all because of projected draft capital. And he's also a guy who's been rising a decent bit And now he's a lot closer to Garrett Wilson, who was the older wide receiver one now the wide receiver two. They're very close in ranking overall, but Drake London's your wide receiver two. Some people have been concerned about his ability to separate. That's the big word these days with wide receivers because of what we've seen with guys like Nikhil Harry. We've just seen bus with wide receivers that have that inability to separate. It just seems to be something that a lot of people have been looking at more and more in recent memory. Do you see that with Drake London? Is that a concern for you?

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Speaker 2: So, first of all, I think people like to exaggerate a lot of things come draft time, Like he's not DeVante Parker, Like he's not literally sewn onto his defender's jersey. Okay, Yeah, he's actually better at separating than people think. Drake Lennon's like half a point off of Jameson Williams for me in my film score. So he's nearly my wife receiver one as well. Right now, I think that what he does is yes, people are right, he's not fast, he's not a burner. That's not how he creates a separation. What he does a good job of working with what he has, you know, And so like so many people I'm sure have heard the narrative, it gets really tired around draft season. Yes, he was a basketball player, he played a previous sport, but this is one of the guys that actually shows up a lot in the way he plays the wide receiver position. He kind of almost runs his routes as if he's driving the lane, where he'll take that kind of little jab step to get a player to turn one direction. And for me, that's big is how can you manipulate the defender that's in front of you? And I mean we're talking about a dude that's six foot forge gigantic, six foot five wingspan. He does a great job with body control getting the jump balls. And it's not just so much that his body control allows him to contort in a way that he's kind of always open even when he's covered, So the separation is more of just kind of like what's God given to him in the size that he has, the catch ratius that he has. I think that he and Garrett Wilson, the guy that you mentioned, they have the best ball skills when it comes to contorting their body. So he may not have the extra step or two that maybe you want to see from a wide receiver, but even when he's covered, he's still kind of open. So it doesn't bother me as much as it does other people.

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Speaker 1: So we talked about the Ohio state wide receivers. Already they're getting a lot of love for good reason, and they're next in your rankings. So do you think that Garret Wilson and Chris Alave, you know, just giving their size, given their profiles, do you think they have a high enough ceiling to be fantasy football studs or are they more sort of floor picks at this point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good question because I'm kind of I'm going between that myself when I watch them. You never want to say that guy doesn't have enough ceiling, right, because any player can be anything. Undrafted guys shoot up to I mean, Cooper Cup was a mid rent, late round pick right, and yep, the wide receiver won this year. So you never want to say that, but when you when you go and you evaluate these guys, you kind of have to think of what is the most realistic outcome. You don't want to limit them. And I think that there's about seven or eight wide receivers in this class that could all have very high ceilings if they end up in the right spot. And I think that landing spot is huge, and it's gonna be really huge for these guys, Wilson and a Lave. It just seems, especially you mentioned the Dynasty community, when we talk about rookies in Dynasty, there's like this weird need to put your stamp on guys and if you change your opinion because of their landing spot, you're a coward or a flake. And that's I mean, that's just weird. Like that's part of the NFL. We change our opinion on pro pro players all the time based on where they land. So in my film scores, you know, I have Chris Alave as the wide receiver four. I don't think he's gonna end up being the first wide receiver drafted I don't think he's going to go in the top ten. But let's like use this example, right, If a Lave ends up going to the chief so the Packers, and Garret Wilson goes to like the Jets, a Lave is probably gonna go up higher than Garrett Wilson based on where I already have them and where they end up landing. So for me, when I look at what's kind of their ceiling, what's kind of their floor from a I guess a trade standpoint, a film score standpoint. For me, Garrett Wilson, he's got that ceiling of Deontay Johnson, a guy who suffered from drops a little bit, but he's a good, aggressive route runner. He doesn't have to be the biggest guy to go and work on the outside. And you know, I kind of like also have a floor, So I put a floor here of Ali Evans. That's a name that people probably have not heard in a long time, you know. And I don't think that Garrett Wilson really has a floor of being bad in the NFL. And I don't think either of these guys have a floor of being bad. I think they're kind of exactly what you labeled them as is safe picks. For Chris A. Lave, I put his ceiling as Emmanuel Sanders, a guy who you know, he's been primarily wide receiver two throughout his career, but you know, he had that shining moment in Denver, I believe it was in twenty fourteen where he was the wide receiver three overall. So things could happen, you know, pretty well for Chris A. Lave as well, and then on the other end his floor Corey Coleman, so like you could see kind of, you know, the bright side, the not so bright side, is my very long way of saying that these guys, yes, they have potentially be lower end wide receiver ones, but I see them pretty safe and realistically wide receiver twos throughout their career.

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Speaker 1: So a few months ago, Treylon Burks within the Dynasty community was like the consensus wide receiver one can't miss guy, you know, not necessarily the way that people are viewing like Jumar Chase last year, but people were love on Treylon Burks. And since the combine, things have sort of gone in the opposite direction. You know, I would argue that people are overstating the combine, and they probably should have just felt this way about Burkes to begin with, you know, but but you have him at wide receiver five. That's probably on the lower end, you know, within the Dynasty world, the Dynasty community.

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Speaker 2: So what is your.

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Speaker 1: Concern if there is a major one or any of them about Treylon Burks.

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Speaker 2: This is another question that I knew was coming. I posted a very click baity style tweet the other day that was like, I don't have him as my wideceiver one, wide receiver two, And yeah, they let me have it the Treylon Burks support group out there on Twitter, and you know, like for the most part, I trust my eyes and I trust, you know, my process that I've seen here. And I was just like, okay, Like people are really in on this guy. What am I missing? And I try not to look at what other people are doing, but this time I did, and I went around. I started looking at like, what are all the experts saying? Like why why am I being told Traylon still so good? And now look like Daniel Jeremiah, Matt Walton, Dane Brugler, and even a fantasy guy Andy Holloway all have him as the wide receiver five. So I'm like, Okay, cool, like, I'm not crazy. Sometimes you just you need that little bit of reassurance. For me, the whole thing with Treylon is that he just gots he has so many question marks, and I hate that when it comes to a prospect of trying to invest high in him having all those what ifs. Like for you know, a lot of people thought he was going to be the six foot four, two hundred and thirty five pound freak running you know, a four to three. Ended up being just like a little bit less than six two two twenty five running a four to four. So it's still incredibly impressive, but it's not this you know, world world elite athlete that we all thought he was going to be. Combine testing isn't everything, but you know, it just shows that his athleticism is not going to supersede the concerns. And then the concerns we have is just that, you know, he was kind of used as like the really good kid on a high school football team, where it's just like give him the ball however we can. Yeah, they weren't necessarily it was like the high school team, that's not necessarily setting up that good player to be good at the college level. It's just like we gotta win games. Stuff the stat sheet, whatever it may be. He was used from the slot seventy seven percent of the time. We don't really know if he can play elsewhere and be good at that. He doesn't have a lot of experience running nuanced routes. I mean a lot of it is just stuff that's going to not really impress the NFL coaches. I don't like slants, screens, fades underneath mesh concepts, things that everyone should know how to do from a high school level. And so these are things that could really frustrate an NFL coach or even his quarterback in a training camp. And then that's when you start to get those reports of Traylon Brooks is really far behind the rest of the players on the team. So for him, I see a floor of Labisca chanault because he's just he's so athletic. You know, he's a guy that you know he could he can be Fantasy relevant. There's just a lot of little question marks. See. I also think he's very similar to Damarius Thomas, who came out of Georgia Tech and didn't have a lot of nuance to what he did either. This is kind of and and I know I'm going a little long on Trailon, but this is kind of the weird thing that I've started to preach is that I think that, honestly, his future is going to be going the Cordero Patterson route and being a running back. He reminds me a lot of Antonio Gibson from a size standpoint too. They're almost the exact same size. Gibson was a receiver in college as well, and I think that Burks is so much better the ball is already in his hands then beforehand and creating separation running routes. By the way, I think he's probably gonna end up on the Dallas Cowboys. I don't think Jerry Jones can help himself at that point. Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

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Speaker 1: And if he goes to Dallas, you run into the issue too that, you know, ceedee lamb, they want to put him in the slot more, and he should be in the slot more. It's just a natural place for him to be. And he's even said that. And Traylon Burks, I think a big flag for him is what you noted in the fact that he played in the slot so much at that size, and you would hope and think that a guy like that would be able to play the X more and he just didn't. And then I think a lot of the problem with Burkes and the way that people are sort of viewing Burks is AJ Brown period. It is just this this natural size comp that people keep making without the realization that AJ Brown is just very very good at football and he was always very very good at football. And so I think that when you sort of fixate yourself onto one of these higher end comps and just make this assumption that this player is, that can get you in a lot of trouble because you're not thinking about the floor that you were mentioning with like a Leviska Chanault, those kinds of guys that we've seen come out where they don't have that much nuance with what they do and they haven't really shown us that full route tree. So I I, you know, I I've definitely been been slowing my role with Traylon Burks. You know, I think you know, when I when I published my Prospect Guy, he was like wide receiver three, ish wide receiver two or three. You know, I thought that there was a clear separation of those top three with with them being a gap to the lave and Jamison Williams. But I don't see that anymore. It's just it's just not the way that that I see things now, not just because of the things that I just mentioned, but because they're smart people like you and the other guys you mentioned that are that are seeing some negative things with Burkes on film. It does seem like though, that those five wide receivers are sort of locks for the first round in the NFL Draft. I think that there is a very good chance that we see a lot more wide receivers in that first round, just because there's such a need at the position for a lot of those teams in the back half the first round. You know, some of those wide receivers being a guy like George Pickens, maybe Johann Dotson. Those those are the two wide receivers that have to me next in your rankings. So what do you like about them?

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Speaker 2: Okay? So George Pickens is this is the perfect example of kind of like how I base everything. Okay, he's got the perfect combo of tools. I make this reference a lot with my co host and the potentialm big and he gets really annoyed by it, and I'm just like, okay, man. Like, when we look at a players, it's like ingredients for a recipe, right, and if those ingredients are prepared by a great chef, you're gonna have a good entreck George Pickens has all the best ingredients. Like, he's got everything you look for. He's got the size of speed, the hands, physicality, body control, early production, all that. The only thing that's kind of not great is the fact that he had the injury. And then you have some of those off the field and tangible stuff that you're a little bit worried about. But him in the right situation, I mean, you're talking about late in the first round, and this the's are gonna be the two teams that are gonna get mentioned a lot, and it's gonna be Kansas City and Green Bay. The wide receivers that end up there are going to get really pushed up dynasty rookie draft boards because there's gonna be big expectations of them. But if he ends up in a place like that, I mean, maybe maybe I'm going out on the limb here. But it's just like that dreaded word potential that gets NFL teams in trouble. That's That's the thing is I just look at George Pickens and man, it's just so high for me. I think that had he been healthy, had he been playing a lot of the same things I said about Jamison Williams, we'd probably be talking about George Pickens being one of the top three or even two wide receivers in this draft class. As for the other guy you mentioned, Johan Dotson, I think he's just a really safe guy. I don't know that he's ever gonna be you know, that monster alpha wide receiver one type guy, great hands, good route runner, he kind of does everything pretty well, but there's nothing, you know, trait wise that stands out. He's fast, and you know that's great. I actually love your comp for him in your guide, t Y Hilton, not just because I agree with it, but because I'm an FIU alum and I love t Y Hilton. My only worry with him is that even if he does go first round or early second round, is that he might get pigeonholed into, you know, being like that little slot guy who maybe doesn't get all of the love he should. But you know, I think that he still has the tools to be productive from a fantasy standpoint, and we see guys like Jarvis Landry be productive for years and years just never truly become that alpha. But I actually like both those guys and I think they have a good opportunity to be very fantasy relevant. Yeah, you know, you.

00:21:12
Speaker 1: Mentioned the landing spot stuff in the back end of the first round, with Kansas City and Green Bay in particular, and I think that this class is flat enough just in terms of talent at the top that we could see one if one of these wide receivers does go to those teams at the end of the first round, we could see them make a giant leap in rankings just because it is so flat. You know, it's not like we're talking someone jumping Jamar Chase or someone jumping a Jalen Waddle or DeVante Smith, because these guys are relatively relatively interchangeable and ranked to some degree, because you know, the guys that you just talked about Dotson, and especially a guy like Pickens, who we know has a crazy ceiling like it would not be shocking if he ends up being the wide receiver one in this class, especially if he goes to a spot like Green Bay in Kansas City, where he's playing with Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes, So I got to ask you about some other wide receivers here. Christian Watson, he has been a fairly tough evaluation for me for a lot of reasons. So I'm curious what separates him for you because you have him over sky Moore and David Bell, two guys who pop a lot more analytically on my end, So I'm curious why you like him more than those guys.

00:22:17
Speaker 2: You're not alone. Christian Watson was a very tough evaluation for me as well, because you're you're looking at a guy that you feel like, Okay, he only really does one thing maybe, and he's just very trades based and he's going up against lower end competition. It's just it's so enticing. It's so enticing from an NFL standpoint. That's what they want as well. You know, the gms and coaches, they want those trades based guys, and you got to assume that. You know, he keeps getting so much love and he's likely going to get some high draft capital as well. Sky Moore too, like sky Moore is another guy. The two of them have absolutely killed this pre draft process. Whereas David Bell. I don't know of a player that I've seen have a worse pre draft process than David Bell. But I still think he's going to be pretty productive for what it's worth. But yet, with Christian Watson, the thing is, you know, I started to peel back the layers a little bit more and not just look at the film that I saw, but you know, let's take a look at how he did in the Senior Bowl. Let's start reading the articles about what was going on, what were scouts saying things like that, I look a little bit more into the production. I actually do like the fact that he was a three year starter, despite you know, despite it being a small program, he went from one quarterback to another and was still able to produce, you know, and being able to go to the Senior Bowl and do this against players that were, you know, from the bigger schools, the better caliber of players supposedly, and he still looked like a man amongst boys. I think that's good. That kind of that little narrative, and I hate to talk about the narrative, but sometimes it's just true, and that little narrative is going to push him probably up that draft board, being six or four running a four to three. That's just insane. Someone's going to be taking a shot on him early in that NFL draft, And I do love, you know, how he separates, and I do think that he's a great deep ball threat, but I think more so with not talked about often enough, it's just his yards after catchability. And he's actually very similar to Treylon in that aspect, is that he's so good once the ball is in his hand. It's actually it's it's funny because I looked at it and he had nearly fifty rushing attempts over there in North Dakota State, and it was a very similar thing. It's just give the big kid the ball as much as we can, and I think that he did it in a way that translates a little bit better to the NFL, and I think that's one of the bigger differences for him.

00:24:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, more and more hype around Watson right now to the point where we could see him go in the late first round. It's not out of the question at this point, just given how things have gone and trended for him. You know, as you noted throughout this offseason in this draft process, I gotta ask you, is there anyone in this class that you feel like just unbelievably confident, and that could go either way. You know, I'm not even just saying someone that you feel really really good about, but someone maybe that you don't feel good about that that others seem to be really into that you just feel very confident in their outlook.

00:24:48
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is really hard to say even with my favorite guys, like there has to be room for doubt, even especially if they go to a bad landings. But I think, like the only guy that I said I don't care where he goes was Jamar Chase. That's like, I don't I don't care if he ends up on the worst team, whoever the quarterback is, he's gonna be really good. This class isn't so much like that. But you know what, man, I'm gonna double down because this is the only guy that when I watched the film, I genuinely said wow, like I was commenting out loud, like some kind of weirdo just a loan in my office. And it is Jamison Williams. Jamison Williams, I think that he's not necessarily that I'm confident that he's going to be a star. But I think he's the one out of this class that is most likely to be the star. He just reminds me of Justin Jefferson in the way that he separates and tracks the deep ball. Just his ability to manipulate cornerbacks to me, is just really impressive. It shows a high IQ player that also has the traits to go with it. You're gonna hear this is probably a lot, but he's a genuine threat to score every single play, right Like, you're gonna hear that when they do the little video and he gets drafted. But I think this is more so just about his skill set and what the NFL has done. You know, across the NFL yards after catch, it's increased for the last five seasons. This is a guy who has amazing yards after catch ability. He's averaging nearly twenty yards per catch at al Bama last year, and just to kind of give it a number even more so, the NFL hit an all time high in yards after catch this season with over sixty three thousand yards after catch. Just teams are passing more, they're passing deeper, they're passing more often, they're passing on first down. Now, it's just the league is really really leaning into deep ball presence and who the guys are going to take the top off, and creative coaches find ways to give a player like Cooper Cup tons of space to work with after he catches that ball. And all I'm thinking about is the video of Jamison Williams absolutely burning the Georgia defenders and the secondary after he's got two guys to have an angle on him, And I'm just thinking of, like, Wow, you put him in a good offense with a smart coach, he can be an absolute star.

00:26:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, and definitely not Henry Ruggs, you know, and I've seen people throw that out there as well, both you know, from a film standpoint, obviously you're seeing that with Jamison Williams. I can say from an analytical standpoint, does not have the Henry Ruggs profile that was just so objectively not good, especially compared to that draft capital.

00:26:58
Speaker 2: So I like it.

00:26:58
Speaker 1: I like the confidence in Jamison Williams. So we don't we obviously can't get to every wide receiver. You know, this is gonna be the last question for you, So do you have any wide receivers that that could be maybe deeper sleepers that we could see go day three, maybe late day two. Who you think could just surprise everyone.

00:27:16
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, and I have a feeling you're gonna like this one. And for me, it's Khalil Shakir.

00:27:20
Speaker 1: There we go.

00:27:21
Speaker 2: He just he reminds me so much of the guy I really liked last year as as the mid round player, and that was Amana Saint Brown. I know that they don't compare exactly, but I mean I thought Almora would go maybe like late second round, early third he slipped in a day three. I think Shakiir is a really similar guy. They're both nearly the same size, six foot one five. I believe Amana ran like a four or five four or five flat or something like that, and Shakiro ran a four to four. So I mean he's even a little bit faster, and they both have very similar strengths, very precise route runners, quick in space. It was one thing that I don't think a lot of people know, is you know, to watch the route runners is how well can they sink their hips and change direction? And we get so used to seeing that for running backs, who can you kind of make defenders miss? But as a wide receiver, you gotta be able to make defenders miss before you have the ball, and that's what he does really well. He's got precise footwork and it's just heat. Dude. The guy makes some crazy circus catches. He's another one with great body control, just doesn't have the crazy size like a Drake London, and I don't think he has. I don't think that he has a bad floor. He's the guy that I believe has potentially be a starting slot wide receiver for an NFL team from day one. He's gonna be that guy that gets picked probably you know, round four, and you're gonna get all those reports about him that he's thriving in camp. He's getting open constantly. You know, he's one of those guys the quarterbacks just finding over and over and over. I think his hands might be top four or five in the class. So yeah, I love Khalil Shakir. I think he's going to be a steal for an NFL team and you know, dynasty managers out there looking for a good rookie in the mid to eight rounds of their draft.

00:28:49
Speaker 1: Awesome stuff. Alfredo, really appreciate you hopping onto chat. You all should be following Alfredo on Twitter at Alfredo Brown GM and check out his show The Pretend GM. It's a really well done pod and I had the pleasure of going on earlier this offseason. And of course you can find me on Twitter at Late Round QB. You can find this podcast, the Late Round Fantasy Football podcast pretty much anywhere podcasts can be found, and don't forget to check out lateround dot com to see all the things that I'm offering, including the Late Round Prospect Guide. Thanks again to Alfredo, Thanks to all of you for listening. I'll talk to you later in the week with the Mailbag episode.