Who is the best WR in football right now? | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast
With some of the NFL's top wideouts off to historic starts to the season, Yahoo Sports' Scott Pianowski and Andy Behrens reassess wide receiver rankings and their fantasy impact as we head into Week 8.
Video Transcript
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: How many receivers are ahead of Ja'Marr Chase right now on the sheet? I mean, I think Kupp is, right now in the redraft, if you were starting fresh, I would take Henry first, I would take Kupp second. You were allowed to take Ja'Marr Chase anywhere from three on. You can take him over Adams, you could take Adams over Chase. I think that's a coin flip.
Tyreek Hill, no. DeAndre Hopkins, I mean, I think you should still try to trade him. He still doesn't have a double digit target game. Stefon Diggs is fine. I mean, Chase right now is my number three receiver and I really could have him at number two.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, it's kind of wild. I was-- I was-- a little thing I was tweeting about yesterday, like, I legitimately think that maybe Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase are the one, two in some order if we're drafting a dynasty roster right now, at least the wide receiver position, right? They both played on the same damn college team just a couple of years ago. I can't think of many players that I want ahead of them.
So yeah, you beat me to it. We talked about-- we talked about Burrow last week on the pod and valuing him rest of season. So is Chase overall? Is he, like, if we're just redrafting right now from scratch, is he in the first half of the first round?
Is he in the middle of the first round? Like, where does he go overall relative to all the other running backs too, because this is ridiculous. He's on pace for over 1,800 yards on the season and he's basically scoring a touchdown per week. And it-- I don't know, we're deep enough in right now.
We're seven games in. Like, it's legit. There's no-- like, we're not having fun with on pace numbers anymore, we're at nearly half the season.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: You had a key phrase, we're seven games in. It's time to stop thinking, oh, is Cordarrelle Patterson, like, a legitimate thing? We're in deep into October now. Yes, Cordarrelle Patterson is a real thing. The funny thing about Kupp, I believe I-- I forget who mentioned this on Twitter.
I believe his yards per target would easily be the highest in history. He's not getting targeted off. You would think, oh, the way he's playing, he should be getting targeted off the bus. Tee Higgins had 15 targets yesterday. I mean, they're not even forcing the ball to Ja'Marr Chase, which I think they're perfectly within their rights to do.
ANDY BEHRENS: Right? It's only within the last couple of weeks that Ja'Marr Chase even has, like, double digit targets.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: And man, look also, I wasn't as emphatic about this as some people, but I thought Cincinnati maybe should have taken an offensive lineman, maybe should have taken Sewell. The idea of being, OK, you already have some pretty good receiving talent here. Joe Burrow got beaten up really good in his rookie year, obviously, it ended with an injury.
So I-- it wasn't that I was like, you can't take Chase. I thought Sewell was the right pick. I leaned Sewell. I wasn't making my Twitter brand all about, oh my God, the Bengals screwed up again.
It was nothing like that, but, so you know, old takes exposed. They've probably have plenty of material with me, you know, once they find out I took Metcalf over Adams. They can have a good laugh about that, but yeah, the Bengals are fun, man.
I, by the way, have-- I don't think I have Ja'Marr Chase anywhere. I'm just enjoying this as a fan and I'm hoping what he has the next 200 yards, two or three touchdown blow up. You mentioned Jefferson, I mean, this is a Jefferson season, this is a Randy Moss season.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: This is a season where he just toys with the NFL and you just hope it isn't coming at your expense. I've been fortunate enough that my opponents haven't had that much Ja'Marr Chase. I'm sure it's coming. There are storm clouds rumbling, it just hasn't fall on me yet, but sometimes the players, like Jefferson, I didn't have-- I don't think I had any Jefferson last year, but the guy was so much fun, how much could how could you root against them?
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, I've got-- I don't mean to say that I-- I mean, I got a million things wrong in the preseason, right? Like, I don't even know how many--
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: You always do.
ANDY BEHRENS: --things I got wrong in the preseason, but one of the nice things about fantasy football is you only need to get a couple of big things right and--
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: That's a great point.
ANDY BEHRENS: --I got the Ja'Marr Chase versus Tee Higgins thing right and I'm going to end up getting the Cooper Kupp versus Robert Woods thing right, and those are just two of the huge hinge points, basically, of 2021 fantasy football, I think.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Oh yeah, Kupp, you know-- The thing with Kupp, we knew he had touch down upside. He was one of the three players who had double digit touchdowns two years ago. We know he's a great route runner, but he got comfortable with Stafford so quickly, those guys eat breakfast together. And McVay, with all those crossing routes and those combination routes, they just they don't just scheme for Cooper Kupp, they scheme so Cooper Kupp is wide freaking open. It looks like the defense--
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --has been told, Cooper Kupp has a communicable disease. Do not go near him. He's covered in and toxic waste. You don't want any part of Cooper Kupp. He's got radiation, you know, whatever it is.
He's always open and he's got a profile to score touchdowns. He's got double digit targets in every week. Again, DeAndre Hopkins, week seven, he doesn't have a double digit target game the whole season. Kupp has--
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --all he has is double digit target games. That's such an overwhelming weapon. Again, my rule of thumb on these things, if you're-- the Kupp trade offer you've been fielding is not an overwhelming yes, it's no.