0:01

Hey! It's

0:07

the Harris Football Podcast with

0:09

your host, Christopher Harris.

0:14

Welcome! Hey

0:17

everybody, welcome in. My name

0:19

is Chris and there is a veritable

0:21

possum's worth of things to talk about

0:23

today. That makes no sense.

0:25

Hello there. Thank you so much for listening today

0:27

though. I appreciate you sticking with

0:29

our very stupid show. It's

0:32

fun to be talking to you

0:34

on this Thursday morning, very early

0:36

here in Los Angeles, before conference

0:38

championship weekend commences. We're not really

0:40

going to talk too much about

0:42

the Sunday matchups on this episode

0:45

because in fact, that podcast

0:48

is already out. Jim

0:50

McCormick and I have already done a

0:52

Harris After Dark or whatever it's called

0:54

podcast for this week, which

0:56

is of course also a YouTube show. So

1:00

if you like to consume these

1:02

things as videos and see our

1:04

faces as we're saying things, you

1:06

can go to youtube.com/Harris Football.

1:09

The video I believe is up there now. It's

1:12

me and it's Jimmy and it's us

1:14

talking through how we expect the football

1:16

to play out this weekend. What we'll

1:19

be paying attention to. Plus

1:21

we'll make some spread pics and

1:23

some prop pics. Or

1:26

if you do prefer these things in podcast

1:28

form, well, you know, hopefully you're

1:30

subscribed because if you are, that podcast

1:32

is already in your feed as I

1:35

speak these very words

1:37

coming out of my face. All right. So

1:40

what I promised for the intro

1:42

of this main show today was

1:45

a film futures or whatever it's

1:47

called, where I tackle the film

1:49

of a young player and weigh in and

1:51

tell you what I think. But

1:54

since I made that promise in the interim,

1:56

I think something a little more pressing came up.

2:00

And so, yeah, we are doing some film

2:02

work right now, this very moment, but not really

2:04

on a very young player. Instead,

2:06

it's on this guy. I

2:10

like the way you're working. Not

2:13

a trash bag at all. There was

2:15

not that much call for that

2:17

sound drop in the second half

2:19

of the 2023 season for Staphon Diggs. I've

2:23

been asked countless times over the

2:25

past two months what in the world happened

2:27

to Staphon Diggs. By

2:29

now, it's such a big story

2:31

that even the not so sharp

2:34

sports coverers who don't notice much

2:36

beyond how confident Baker Mayfield looks

2:39

have taken note of this story.

2:41

And as the bills went down and yet

2:43

another vomit-strewn playoff loss,

2:45

we all watched as Staphon

2:48

Diggs, one of the very

2:50

first discoveries of the little podcast that

2:52

could rookie year, was 2015. That

2:55

was the first year of the podcast. Talked about

2:57

him then, talked about him in

2:59

really glowing terms in his second year.

3:01

And then in 2017, the touchdown started,

3:05

the Minneapolis Miracle happened at the

3:07

end of that season, and we

3:09

were all aboard. Been

3:11

a great ride, been pretty

3:13

unassailable. The first three

3:16

years in Buffalo, he goes crazy. And

3:19

yet, yeah, we

3:21

all watched this weekend what Staphon Diggs did. I'll

3:23

get to that in a second. I

3:27

don't know. Like, people who just look at stats are going to look back

3:29

at 2023 and say, ah, what's the

3:31

big deal? All right, so the yards are down a little bit. Still

3:34

caught 108, 107 balls, and he caught 108 last year. Still

3:38

scored eight touchdowns. Come on, Staphon Diggs had a

3:40

good year. He's fine. I look at stats. I'm

3:42

very smart. And of course,

3:45

I don't know, that's a straw

3:47

man. Even the media goobers who want

3:49

to spend 10 minutes talking about Lamar

3:51

Jackson's body language, even they know that

3:53

after week six of the season, you

3:56

know, Diggs through six games was

3:59

55. catches 620 yards,

4:01

five touchdowns, that's in six games,

4:03

and after week six, including the

4:05

playoffs, Diggs averaged five catches, 49

4:08

yards per game, only scored three

4:10

more times and none of those

4:12

scores came after November. And

4:15

I've been asked over and over, what

4:17

is it, what's going wrong, why is this

4:20

guy torpedoing my fantasy playoffs, how come the

4:22

Bills are winning now that

4:24

Stavon Diggs isn't doing anything? You

4:26

know, oh this is the new offensive coordinator

4:28

isn't it? This is Diggs

4:30

being washed isn't it? This is Josh

4:32

Allen hating Stavon Diggs isn't it? And

4:35

my answer is always, the

4:38

why is not really for us to know. It's

4:41

harder for us to know anything

4:44

about the whys of things unless it's

4:46

obvious on film and frankly, I'm

4:49

going game by game barely holding on

4:51

watching every game all season long. So

4:53

when I'm watching, I'm not only watching

4:55

Stavon Diggs and you know,

4:57

when the ball goes his way, I can tell you what

5:00

it looks like and what I'm

5:02

worried about or whatever, but you're probably going to have to wait to

5:04

the end of the season for me to really dig into it so

5:06

to speak. And then

5:08

Sunday's playoff game happened and Diggs did

5:10

three catches for 21 yards and he

5:13

dropped what could and maybe should have

5:15

been a long touchdown in the fourth quarter. And

5:18

suddenly now the time is

5:20

now right to do this film analysis that I

5:22

had been promising on Stavon Diggs. So what did

5:24

I watch? First off, I

5:26

watched every route of the Chiefs game to

5:29

get a sense of what he's doing and how the team

5:31

in its final form of 2023 preferred to use him. And

5:36

then next, you know, I understood what's

5:39

really been missing from Diggs's game for

5:42

like three months has been somewhat

5:44

longer targets. You

5:46

know, I'll talk about that a little bit more in

5:50

a minute. But to address that, I watched every

5:52

route that Stavon Diggs ran this year where

5:54

he got a target more than 10

5:56

yards down the field. And

5:58

I did the same thing. watched every

6:00

target of 10 plus areaards

6:04

from two seasons ago 2021 and that took a

6:08

while took a couple hours I made some

6:10

notes I'm not gonna read every note to

6:12

you because you would be bored

6:14

and eventually I think I just start repeating myself

6:16

but let me start with Sunday's game in

6:19

no way shape or form do I

6:22

watch the film from Sunday and think

6:24

that Stefan Diggs has an effort problem

6:26

he's busting his butt on routes he

6:28

is throwing his body toward misthrown balls

6:30

and taking big hits he is definitely

6:32

still trying obviously as everyone

6:35

trying to assess the situation will tell

6:37

you hey yeah the defense plays Stefan

6:39

Diggs a little different than a lot

6:41

of other receivers he gets some extra

6:43

attention like absolutely yes the

6:46

Chiefs played lots of two deep

6:48

safety type of defenses variations on

6:50

like cover two or quarters coverage

6:53

and even when they messed with

6:55

that a little bit and pulled one safety down

6:58

to the box the top safety usually shaded Stefan

7:00

Diggs his way even out of the slot not

7:03

new you know certainly not new this season

7:06

and very much part of every game plan

7:08

against the bills for years it's

7:10

how every defense handles all elite

7:13

receivers and you

7:15

as an offense have to decide how you want to

7:17

respond to it do you want to create plays that

7:19

so defensive confusion and force the ball to

7:22

your number one receiver or to just sort

7:24

of want to play ball sort of okay

7:26

we're just gonna stay away from our main

7:28

guy we're gonna throw a bunch of one-on-one

7:31

deep routes to Khalil Shakir or

7:33

a bunch of flat routes and

7:36

you know I think we all know that in this game

7:38

on Sunday and through the later part of the year not

7:41

that much creativity spent

7:43

by the bills to bust Stefan

7:45

Diggs loose there was

7:48

a play near the end of the first half

7:50

on Sunday where the bills stack three receivers on

7:52

the right side and Diggs was in that stack

7:54

and then he went in motion so that he

7:57

kind of became the slot receiver just before the

7:59

snap and they faked a stop route.

8:01

There was no linebacker in the middle and Diggs

8:03

caught a short pass and took it 15 yards.

8:06

And that's the kind of thing we're talking about. We just

8:08

don't see it that much. In fact,

8:10

on the same drive right before halftime in the

8:12

red zone, you can see Diggs on the right

8:15

motioning to Josh Allen, hey, look at this. He's

8:18

pointing at the defense. He's trying to get Allen not

8:20

to put him in motion because if they just snapped

8:22

the ball, Diggs would have

8:24

had one-on-one coverage and nothing happening

8:27

or helping behind in the end zone.

8:29

But instead, Allen said, nope, go in

8:31

motion. And that wound up being,

8:33

remember that slant to James Cook, that Cook dropped

8:35

kind of within five yards of the end zone.

8:38

Third quarter, five minutes, 38 seconds

8:40

left. From the Chiefs 26, Diggs

8:43

was one-on-one against a corner. No

8:46

help over the top. And

8:49

he's on the right side and there's two safeties

8:52

back, but they are way over, they're shifted way

8:54

away from Diggs. Nobody was ever gonna get to

8:56

Diggs on that play if they just had

8:59

him try to run past the one guy. And yeah,

9:02

they threw a screen pass to Khalil

9:04

Shakir. That was

9:06

the play. They didn't call an audible. They

9:08

weren't doing extraordinary things to make sure Diggs was

9:10

the one making a play. The only other

9:13

really creative thing that happened

9:16

that the Bills did to free up Diggs, that was

9:18

the infamous drop in the fourth quarter, and

9:21

it was great and it was the kind

9:23

of play that you see the Raiders run for

9:25

Devontae Adams all the time. The thing that says,

9:27

all right, let's get one to our playmaker.

9:29

Diggs was the only receiver on the right

9:31

side, then Buffalo motion, Deontae Hardy outside Diggs. So

9:33

now Diggs is in the slot and

9:36

the Chiefs didn't have a pursuer when

9:38

Hardy moved. So Josh Allen had a pretty good

9:40

idea that it was zone. There were two safeties

9:42

high. So this is great. You know, this is

9:44

what we want. The corners on

9:47

that has to be as wide as the widest. He has

9:49

to cover Shakir. And Shakir

9:51

runs a little screen route, essentially a

9:53

little clear route, which means the Bills

9:56

have officially schemed Stefan Diggs against a

9:58

safety up top. I

10:00

mean, well, first off, a linebacker standing there

10:03

in zone illegally chucks digs on that play like

10:05

more than five yards downfield, but whatever. I don't

10:08

call that a lot of times. Allen

10:10

sees all this and digs hits the

10:12

Jets. The safety is Justin Reed,

10:14

a little more of a thumper than a cover

10:16

guy. He flips his hips, digs, dusts him. He

10:19

is by. And then

10:21

we remember what happens next. The ball goes

10:23

through, digs his arms, and the would-be go-ahead

10:25

touchdown doesn't happen. It should be

10:28

said, live and from the game broadcast

10:30

angle, I thought that throw from Josh

10:32

Allen was perfect. Watching the all

10:34

22, it was not perfect. It

10:36

was in fact under thrown. Digs

10:38

had more than a yard on Justin Reed,

10:40

and if the ball is out further, he's

10:42

catching it. It's an

10:44

easy score. As it is, Digs essentially had

10:46

to stop. He had to slow way down,

10:48

let the defender catch back up to him,

10:50

and that probably is what distracted him into

10:52

not catching the ball. But he's still open,

10:54

and he absolutely, of course, should still catch

10:56

it. I'm not making excuses. That's a drop.

10:58

That's bad. My point here

11:00

is bad job, Stefan Digs. Probably

11:02

Josh Allen could have done a better job

11:04

as well, but it was a rare occasion

11:07

when the Bills schemed something for Stefan Digs.

11:10

And then here's the part where we

11:12

have to start speculating, where everyone is

11:14

speculating, where the Twitter heroes are jumping

11:16

out to tell you, well, all this

11:18

is because Stefan Digs is washed, or

11:21

all this is because he has bad chemistry with

11:23

the quarterback now. This is

11:25

because Joe Brady was told not to design any plays

11:27

for him. Hey, did you know Digs turned 30? Yeah,

11:31

all those are possible explanations, but if you're one

11:33

of the people out there tweeting that you're positive

11:36

the reason for all this, all

11:38

due respect, you're a moron. You should stop

11:40

that, because when you watch film, you can't

11:42

prove a negative, and you can't know the

11:44

reasons. Unless you see somebody

11:46

limping, or being really slow, or being

11:49

terrible at something. A

11:51

big change in production, it's

11:53

hard to know the reasons. The

11:55

fact that the ball didn't go to Digs

11:57

down the field as much from week seven Onward

12:00

it's hard to know why Okay,

12:03

yes digs had 35 catches of 10

12:05

or more area yards this season. That's good 21

12:08

of those came in the first six games 14 of

12:11

them came in the last 13 games Stefan

12:13

digs only had five catches of 20

12:16

plus area yards all year and only

12:18

one from week seven forward That number

12:20

last season was 13 catches of

12:22

20 plus area yards five this year 13 last

12:24

year As

12:27

I said I went back and watched every digs target

12:29

of 10 plus area yards from this year and from

12:31

2021 just to get a closer Look

12:35

at what we would probably consider to be

12:37

Stefan digs as prime and

12:40

I'll say this here's my takeaway. I

12:43

Think on the dead run Stefan digs might look a

12:45

little slower this year than he did in 2021 Maybe

12:48

he doesn't look slow this year Maybe

12:51

a little less bounce a little less fu

12:53

speed as we say, especially when he's lined

12:55

up out wide I think

12:57

I could convince myself Maybe

12:59

yes, that's true But of

13:01

course our brains are not you know

13:05

Objective we're poisoned. We know the stats,

13:07

you know, and I'm sorry

13:09

like I watched the charger game Remember that Saturday

13:11

night game. There's a deep ball that got picked

13:13

off Watch that

13:15

one watch both Patriots games watch

13:19

The Dolphins game at the end of the year watch

13:21

the stealer game at the in the first round of

13:23

the playoffs There are plays

13:25

there were digs dusts someone gets open

13:28

deep all those times got the deep

13:30

target and Josh Allen blew the Throw

13:33

Josh Allen was not awesome throwing it

13:35

deep this year except for a couple

13:37

isolated occasions to Gabe Davis Now

13:40

even that sounds like an excuse for Stefan

13:42

digs I will say in each of

13:44

the cases I mentioned where digs got open running

13:46

deep and Alan missed the throw I'm

13:49

not gonna say that those plays were

13:51

classic dead sprints against tight coverage That

13:54

a elite corner was giving him as

13:57

with the one Sunday against the Chiefs. They were often against a

13:59

city or they were against zone or just

14:02

like a blown coverage. I

14:04

think it's possible for both things to be

14:06

true. That maybe Diggs has lost the peak

14:08

of his speed and that

14:10

Josh Allen for all the amazing Cam Newton

14:12

stuff he did this year kinda

14:15

sucked when he had bomb touchdowns

14:17

on his racket. On

14:19

passes of 20 plus air yards this

14:21

year, Allen had four touchdowns and nine

14:24

interceptions. And stats are whatever, but I

14:26

just watched all the film and it

14:28

backs it up. And also we

14:30

should probably not intimate that

14:32

Stefan Diggs was ever the fastest receiver

14:35

in the league. Very fast player, but

14:37

not Tyree Kill, right? Some of the

14:39

absolute best moments in the NFL

14:42

for him have come on insane stutter

14:44

go moves where the DB is just

14:46

lost the instant Diggs stops and Diggs

14:48

throws up his arm and Allen hits

14:50

him on a bomb. And I mean,

14:53

there are back shoulder deep balls from

14:55

2021 where Diggs has not

14:57

run by a guy that he's even, he sees

14:59

it, Allen sees it, and instead he stops and

15:01

the chemistry is so good that Allen can just

15:03

throw it to the back shoulder and Diggs can

15:05

make a catch down the field. The

15:08

answer for the reasons behind all this is I don't know.

15:11

You know, and stats aren't gonna tell us that and

15:15

really watching film sometimes isn't gonna, it's better, but

15:17

it's not gonna tell us reasons. You

15:19

know, we can't really get the reasons

15:21

out of publicly available information. The Bills

15:24

might know, the Bills might

15:26

have a feeling that he's washed or that

15:28

he was hurt or that I don't know.

15:30

You know, maybe they don't know, right? Sunday

15:34

what I saw was Stefan Diggs relegated to being

15:36

more of a slot player than I think I've

15:38

ever seen him. The numbers say he ran about

15:41

half his routes out of the slot. Usually it's

15:43

like one third. Frankly watching the game back, it

15:45

felt like even more than that. He

15:47

was running slants into two high safeties,

15:49

a route that almost should never be

15:51

thrown. And Allen forced

15:53

it to him twice once it created

15:55

a crazy collision that concussed the other

15:58

guys, the other safety, Mike Edwards. They

16:00

tried a couple of stop routes out of the slot.

16:03

They tried a swing pass with Diggs lined

16:05

up at halfback. But I don't know,

16:07

these things were just in the course of doing

16:09

other stuff too. Not a ton of emphasis, not

16:11

a ton of scheming. Give Diggs

16:14

better throws on some of those deep balls

16:16

in the second half of the season. And

16:19

turn those incompletions into long

16:21

touchdowns. And we are

16:23

not devoting the first 15 minutes of the

16:25

show today to Staphon Diggs's decline. Like,

16:28

I'm putting this on Allen too. But

16:30

again, I do think maybe there's a little

16:33

less straight line speed. And

16:35

I just don't even see the

16:37

Bills really even calling those

16:39

sudden stop-start routes that we remember Diggs

16:41

by best. All that crazy route running.

16:43

I'm not seeing him really do that

16:45

as much anymore. Those aren't the routes.

16:48

So maybe Buffalo's coaches have taken a

16:50

look at the raw materials and decided,

16:52

nope, we're not forcing it to him

16:54

anymore. We're not constructing all that many

16:56

unique plays for him. But

16:58

I say maybe because we really can't know. Now

17:01

I do know, as we said with Andy Barons

17:03

on the show last week, Staphon Diggs is out

17:05

of guaranteed money. And I

17:07

do not care about the salary cap.

17:09

Cap hits do not matter. Redo Josh

17:11

Allen's deal for the hundredth time. You'll

17:13

find the money in the accounting. He

17:15

doesn't have guaranteed money. Actual

17:17

dollars don't need to be paid to him anymore. I

17:19

mean, it would be a bombshell

17:21

if they cut Staphon Diggs. I probably do

17:23

not expect it. But it is possible. And

17:26

obviously, if it happens, it would tell us what

17:28

was going on that Buffalo has decided the guy

17:30

is washed. And if they don't, yeah, we're

17:32

going to be stuck with this question of

17:34

like, what the heck happened? I

17:37

think it obviously darkens Staphon Diggs' fantasy

17:39

outlook for next year. I don't see

17:41

any way we can consider him as

17:43

a first round fantasy pick. But

17:46

there is, of course, still a chance that

17:48

in the late second round or like in

17:50

the third round, Diggs winds up in incredible

17:52

steel. Film can't answer

17:54

all the questions of why, but it can

17:57

show us what's been missing in Diggs'

17:59

History. The Case and in his surroundings.

18:01

It was legitimately a lot. To

18:04

Days kicked out so takes on the

18:06

rest of the show. Has to be

18:08

fun. Matt Harm and from Yahoo Fantasy

18:11

is gonna join and Matt and I

18:13

are each going to look into the

18:15

future. Ah and quite clear voice at

18:17

least come up with five name's apiece

18:19

who we think will jump up a

18:22

level in twenty twenty four. Usually these

18:24

players are on the younger side but

18:26

not necessarily there aren't a lot of

18:28

criteria. were just saying that we think

18:30

it's a different level of performance awaits

18:33

them. Ah when we. Close the final

18:35

curtain on this season and then see them

18:37

again in games that matter. In September, it's

18:39

five a level jumpers for twenty twenty four.

18:41

It'll be really fun. Hey, I do appreciate

18:44

you listening and if you appreciate the hard

18:46

work that goes into something like The Digs

18:48

film break, I sure would appreciate it. If

18:50

you would listen through the ads, be receptive

18:53

to them, not skip ahead and I really

18:55

do. Thank you so much for listening to

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football for twenty dollars off today's

20:23

guest wide receivers

20:25

they got to be approved by

20:27

you to ride with me don't

20:30

you know that is

20:33

a purple tan she tells each

20:35

teen your life life and i

20:37

put you in there but

20:43

today's it

20:55

is matt harman it's the boy young boy

20:57

you can find him on twitter at matt

21:00

harman underscore b y b uh you

21:02

can of course hear him on the ahu football show uh...

21:05

reg on the reg and most

21:07

importantly reception perception.com uh...

21:09

there are gonna be free agent profiles on

21:11

reception perception that drop in march i

21:14

met with just tell me the rookie

21:16

work that he's already been doing is gonna

21:18

drop earlier than ever i guess the

21:20

reception perception discord is is a flutter

21:22

with many uh... rookie rookie uh... thoughts

21:25

and profiles and stuff so that's gonna be exciting

21:27

hi matt thanks for coming on yeah

21:30

chris i appreciate it man uh... always love

21:32

doing this episode in particular and yeah people

21:34

are i normally i like to

21:36

get myself january off of doing any charting work

21:38

because you know i'm charting year round now at

21:40

this point and then obviously the next few months

21:42

are going to be heavy heavy uh... reception

21:45

perception charting months but everybody was talking about

21:47

these prospects coming in the incoming rookies how

21:49

good all these guys are and i i

21:51

just couldn't help myself so i i did

21:53

start diving into prospects early and yeah even

21:56

just dropping the free or excuse

21:58

me the the prospect like three game

22:01

samples into the discord we got a

22:03

lot of interesting Interesting

22:06

excitement based responses and

22:08

I will not elaborate any further Eggplant

22:12

emoji Yes, a lot of a

22:15

lot of eggplants a lot of yeah,

22:17

what a world what a world Good

22:21

receiver class though supposed to be supposed to

22:23

be very some some top-end dudes So I'll

22:25

be interested to see your takes on things

22:28

We were talking about digs before we hit

22:30

record people have already heard my digs take

22:32

you haven't like gotten to the full film

22:34

Work on him yet But

22:36

we it's it felt like I felt

22:38

validated that your initial perceptions felt sort

22:40

of along the lines of mine Yeah,

22:43

no, I definitely Almost

22:45

kind of like I don't know it

22:47

would be a great time for me to smart business move

22:50

like yeah Let me drop a digs profile, but I

22:52

got I got a schedule here man Got a

22:54

lot going on. So we'll get to it at

22:56

some point when it when it's time it'll come

22:58

right? All right, so Level

23:00

jumpers, which means nothing that's a made-up term that

23:03

I that I came up with a few years

23:05

ago And you did the show last year where

23:07

we were like whatever it means. Who are your

23:09

level jumpers? I'll

23:11

say from my point my part. It's

23:13

it's somewhat sometimes about

23:15

how I imagine Depth

23:18

charts might on Unfurl and how

23:20

something somebody might suddenly get more space on

23:22

his offense than he had this year Sometimes

23:24

it's just I think he's good and we

23:26

didn't get to see the full flower You

23:30

know, I don't know. It's not always just about usage.

23:32

It's not always just about ability It might be some

23:34

combination thereof and it doesn't even necessarily mean you know

23:36

He was taken in the 12th round now. I'm positive

23:38

that his level will be the seventh round It

23:41

just means like I think maybe good things are ahead for

23:43

a guy. Is that how you were looking at it? Pretty

23:46

much and yeah I think the best way that

23:48

you said it is that we haven't seen the

23:51

full Flower bloom or like we haven't seen them

23:53

like fully come out of their cocoon yet I

23:55

like that way of thinking about it and like I talked

23:57

a lot this year and This

24:00

is why this is a fun topic to talk

24:02

about. It took a lot on reception perception to

24:04

show about these guys that at

24:06

the wide receiver position, I think, graduated.

24:08

And I think you could say that

24:11

jumped up a level. I think CD

24:13

Lamb graduated this year from being a

24:15

superstar receiver into the elite tier, in

24:17

my opinion. I think

24:19

that DJ Moore graduated from very

24:21

good number one receiver to superstar

24:23

receiver. I think Brandon IU graduated

24:25

a level. Nico Collins obviously

24:28

graduated a level. That's

24:30

kind of like I'm not necessarily with all

24:33

of these names shooting to go from, hey,

24:35

this guy's going to go from whatever level

24:37

he's at before to number one receiver

24:39

or something like that. Obviously,

24:41

there are different levels of graduation, just

24:43

like you all graduated, hopefully, graduated different

24:45

levels of schooling through the years. That's

24:48

sort of in my view

24:50

of it what this exercise should be. Yeah, different levels

24:52

of graduation. That's fair. That's how I thought of it,

24:54

too. It's a good way to say it. So last

24:57

year, we both had some good names on here.

24:59

My number one was Travis Etienne, which I think,

25:01

well, for the first half of the year, that worked out

25:03

pretty good. I guess he slowed down. I had Jalen Warren

25:06

on there. I have Jalen Warren on every list, though, so

25:08

that probably doesn't impress anybody. I

25:10

had your super-deep sleeper, Rajeejit Jeeeed,

25:13

the yellow at Matt player, the super-deep sleeper.

25:17

Your number one was Drake London, and that

25:19

didn't really happen, but I think we can

25:21

safely say it wasn't Drake London's fault. You

25:23

had SA Pacheco on there? I definitely view

25:25

him as a graduation guy. You had Jacobi

25:27

Myers on there? I definitely view him as

25:29

a graduation guy. Johan

25:31

Dotson, not so much, but you know. Not so much. Well,

25:34

fun. I mean, we'll keep a record, and we'll see

25:37

how we do. Let's count them down. It's a pointless

25:39

countdown, though. Who cares what the order? But no, it's

25:41

a very important order. Who's your number five level jumper

25:43

for 2024? Yeah,

25:45

I was very determined to not reuse

25:47

any names. I actually looked

25:50

back on my list from previous years.

25:53

Since you send me the fascist

25:55

email, every fascist is new. This

25:58

one's not fascist. This one's nice. This

26:00

one is nice, yeah. Since you send me

26:02

the email of Talking Points, every

26:04

year I was able to sort through and see

26:06

all of our lists actually. And I've repeated some

26:08

names over the years. I was determined not to

26:10

do that, even though I definitely stand on Drake

26:12

London and Hahn Dassen specifically. I think there are

26:14

still candidates for this list this year, but I'm

26:16

not going to do them this year. I will

26:18

start with my number five guy, which

26:21

for me is Josh Downs, Colts wide receiver.

26:24

Big Josh Downs fan. I may have even come

26:26

on the show at some point during the year.

26:28

Who knows and talked about Josh Downs, but

26:30

really love him as

26:33

a route runner. Maybe could top out as

26:35

a Jacobi Meyers type of receiver, but to

26:37

me, I think he's so much more

26:40

explosive than that. I think he's a guy

26:42

that really wins despite his size. Obviously in

26:44

contested situations, he wins off the line of

26:47

scrimmage when he does see press coverage. He's

26:49

just really, I think, a detailed pro level

26:51

receiver that unfortunately picked up a knee injury

26:53

kind of at the wrong time and then

26:55

really never recaptured the momentum. It looked like

26:57

he was building at one point

26:59

this year. I love

27:01

this Colts offense. Big fan of Shane

27:03

Siken. Big fan of the mere

27:06

glimpses we got of Anthony Richardson. I think

27:08

there's more to build on there than maybe

27:10

people give it credit. I think they retain

27:12

Michael Pittman. I don't think he's going anywhere.

27:14

I think they'd be nuts to let him

27:16

walk. So there's obviously maybe a gap there

27:18

between the number one and number two receiver,

27:20

but overall, just really love Josh Downs, the

27:23

player. I think he's a guy I'd like

27:25

to bet on going forward. I

27:27

don't love him. I didn't love

27:29

him this year. He's

27:31

very small, first of all. He's a little

27:34

bit of a bias. He's quick. He's a

27:36

really, really quick player. No question about it.

27:38

He's not that fast, but he is super

27:40

quick. I get where the Jacobi Meyers comparison

27:42

comes from, and he's probably like the more

27:44

athletic version of Jacobi Meyers. I

27:47

love Meyers. Maybe I'll learn. I

27:49

didn't love Meyers at first. He was cast as the

27:51

savior. He's going to be the next Edelman. He's going

27:53

to be the next Edelman. I was like, well, no.

27:56

He's not that tough. He's not that guy. Maybe

27:58

Downs will grow on me a little bit. I

28:01

felt like he

28:04

belongs to that class of receiver that I'm

28:06

shoved like 30 receivers down my throat.

28:09

Somebody loves each of 30 rookie receivers and

28:11

I have to somehow differentiate among them and

28:15

with downs I went, okay, slot guy, 720 yards a

28:17

year, I'm done. But

28:20

you think that's wrong? I think there's a

28:22

little bit more of a ceiling there. I do get your

28:24

perspective though on like, I think

28:26

there's a little bit more to him than

28:28

that typical archetype of receiver. I always, I

28:31

love the term that Josh Norris and Hayden Winx

28:33

over at Underdog Fantasy kind of coined this year,

28:35

which is like the PPR scam receiver. You

28:38

know, the the Wandell Robinson, the Jamison

28:40

Crowder at his peak, peak

28:43

quote unquote, you know when he's catches like 14 passes for

28:45

99 yards within the Sam Darnold,

28:47

Adam Gaess Jets offense. I think there's

28:49

a little bit more to like

28:52

a light sprinkling of Tyler Lockett to

28:54

Josh Downs' game that maybe could get

28:56

him. Yeah, they could get him out of that archetype.

28:58

So I think there's just a little bit more ceiling

29:00

than you're giving him credit for. But I

29:02

could certainly see him from

29:05

a fantasy perspective bunched

29:07

and grouped into that like infinite wide

29:09

receiver three sadness to keep on, you

29:12

know, to keep on the Chris Harris

29:14

terms here. Well, I

29:16

mean, honestly, when it comes to receivers, you're the gold

29:18

standard. So if you're seeing more than I'm certainly willing

29:20

to give him a chance. I have a receiver at

29:22

five who if

29:24

we're talking about a graduation, what I'm hoping that

29:26

is that he graduates into a top three role

29:29

on his team. This is the biggest stretch here.

29:31

But I went back and watched Don Tavy

29:33

and Wicks film. He's on my list too.

29:35

Is he really? Wow. Yeah.

29:38

Okay. What number is he on

29:40

your list? He was I was tempted to put him

29:42

as my first name because he's actually somebody like probably

29:44

the deepest poll on my name, quote unquote. But yeah,

29:46

I mean, he was gonna be the next one out

29:49

of my mouth. All right. Let's just

29:51

talk about him then because people only hear my stupid voice. Well,

29:54

I mean, I'm curious what you thought about him

29:56

because I mean, I'll I'll actually say that what

29:58

I was going to do was I cheated. and

30:00

had Jaden Reid slash Dontavian Wix because I

30:02

think they could both kind of

30:04

graduate to different levels. Whereas,

30:06

like, we've already seen Jaden Reid be a useful

30:09

player. I think there is more to his game

30:11

than sort of like the gadget-y variety

30:13

that he's being kind of put in right now. Like,

30:16

I see people call him, like, the dairy belt debo.

30:18

And I'm like, look, that's no disrespect. Deebo Sam is

30:20

a great player, but I actually think there's more to

30:22

Jaden Reid's game than that. But

30:24

on Dontavian Wix specifically, he's a guy

30:27

I wrote up in the reception perception

30:29

mid-season rookie report. And

30:31

like, the guy beats press coverage. The guy runs

30:33

really good routes, in my opinion. I think he

30:35

beats man coverage at a rate that I'd like

30:37

to see for a young ascending receiver. There were

30:39

times at the beginning of the year where he

30:41

was one of the

30:43

most egregious offenders in terms of like, running

30:45

routes at the wrong depth and not being

30:47

where he was supposed to be to the

30:49

point that like, you could tell Matt LaFlore

30:51

went in the press conferences, not just

30:53

Dontavian Wix. Like, everybody on this team was guilty of

30:55

it because they're all so young. But he was like,

30:58

had smoke coming out of his ears, like being like,

31:00

I won. I'm calling good plays.

31:02

I'm dialing up good things in these guys that start

31:04

executing. But I can't throw my players under the bus,

31:06

which is good because these guys all developed throughout the

31:08

year. Wix was at one point, again,

31:11

like I'm the chief offender of that and

31:13

like dropping passes at bad times. But then

31:15

the growth you could see all the way

31:17

through. I love the

31:19

way he blocks. I think he developed into

31:21

a very reliable target for this team. Just

31:24

I think if somebody is going to break out to

31:26

be like a true ex-receiver on

31:28

this team, I think it's probably Wix.

31:31

Which is weird because they have Christian Watson, you

31:34

know? Yeah, but I don't

31:36

know where you are with Christian Watson. I said this

31:38

to James Coe on the show, I think

31:41

a couple days ago. Like

31:43

tell me, like sell me

31:46

on Christian Watson and don't tell

31:48

me how big he is. Like don't use height

31:50

or weight or anything like that. And

31:53

then I mean I get that is a thing and you

31:55

can't change it. But man, I

31:57

think from a skill set perspective, he is not.

32:00

shown that ability to be like a true

32:02

ex-receiver. You know he's made

32:04

some deep plays not so much towards the end of this

32:06

year because he was hurt and he's always hurt right that's

32:08

a problem. I mean

32:11

the fact is that when when Jaden Reed and

32:13

Christian Watson both got healthy D'Autavia Wicks went back

32:15

to being a rotational player went back to being

32:17

the fourth receiver that happened in the playoffs like

32:19

he didn't do anything in the playoffs but

32:22

like all he did was kill people before

32:24

then yeah you know like I

32:26

had never heard of the dude I'm not the one

32:28

who beats the bushes for for

32:30

whatever round versus fifth round receivers um

32:33

you know I saw that Bears game toward the end of the year. It

32:36

does still film I watched last night I

32:39

mean he runs an out route where the corner

32:41

is playing outside leverage he should not be able to

32:43

get to the out and he gives

32:46

a really hard fake to the in and

32:48

the defender is like what and suddenly he's

32:50

open and love hits it and then his

32:53

his red zone touchdown that game I'm told

32:55

that Bears rookie corner Terrell Smith

32:57

is good and I don't

32:59

know I don't grade corners but I'm told he's

33:02

good he was like one of PFF's favorite rookies

33:04

at that position this year and Wicks made

33:07

him fall down like just yeah

33:09

on the dead stop just made him fall down and

33:11

went like ran over in breaking route and like I

33:13

don't know I kind of did almost

33:15

put him up just to see if you you had

33:17

fully formed opinions about him so now I feel smart

33:21

yeah no I love him I think he's a really

33:23

good player and even the route he ran on his

33:25

touchdown against the Cowboys in the wild card round yeah I know he

33:28

didn't catch he passed against the 49ers he was

33:30

he was blocking his ass off on a lot

33:32

of those perimeter runs there which is or even

33:34

like the inside runs he's he's a good blocker

33:36

which I do appreciate out of receivers um

33:39

but overall like yeah that that Cowboys touchdown the

33:41

route he ran uh I

33:43

thought was a was a great move to present like

33:45

a clear target to Jordan Love when he was under

33:48

pressure and Love does love to throw the Love loves

33:50

to throw those like fade away routes

33:52

under pressure and Wicks

33:54

I think is a good is a good target there so yeah I'm I'm

33:56

with you man he was like I said he was going to be on

33:58

my list as well We

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tell them Harris sent you. Okay,

35:18

we're back with Matt, and we're talking some level jumpers,

35:20

and we, right before the break, came up with a

35:22

mutual pick. So I'll

35:24

do my number four in this completely pointless countdown.

35:26

The numbers don't matter, but we'll pretend like they

35:28

do. I said Zach

35:30

Charbonnet. I kind

35:32

of just wanted to say Jaylen Warren again, but I'm not allowed to do that.

35:37

And the difficulty

35:39

with Charbonnet is I actually like Ken Walker

35:42

better still. Ken Walker

35:44

is a more favored player of mine. But

35:47

the graduation, as you put it, for

35:49

Zach Charbonnet, I think

35:51

he's a different kind of player and a

35:53

super useful and fun kind of player who

35:56

the graduation will be more to a work share.

36:00

Everybody who just decides because of draft

36:02

capital a guy automatically is useful for

36:04

fantasy You know that

36:06

that was what was assumed would happen last

36:09

year didn't I had Ken Walker on every

36:11

team that probably he was My most owned

36:13

player in any in all leagues because I

36:15

just assumed the rookie wouldn't immediately jump in

36:17

I think it probably will happen for this

36:19

year My my way

36:21

of framing Charbonnet is

36:23

like if you like what Isaiah Pacheco has done

36:26

You don't you don't get the typewriter feet with

36:28

Zach Charbonnet, but the physical the

36:31

smashing into guys There's

36:34

a play that I put on Instagram actually put a Dontavian

36:36

Wix play on Instagram last night So if people want to

36:38

see that play but like there's if you go

36:40

back at Harrison Paul Instagram There's a

36:43

there's a Charbonnet play that I have on there

36:45

of him getting near the end zone and Ejecting

36:47

a defensive back from the club who's trying to

36:49

tackle him like what stands out with Ken Walker

36:51

is holy moly That guy has good vision and

36:54

super fast what stands out with Charbonnet is like

36:56

pretty good vision not terribly elusive,

36:58

but okay, but Wow,

37:00

he's gonna kill you and There's

37:03

a there's a big touchdown season coming for I think

37:05

for Zach Charbonnet. I Like

37:07

to pick I really always

37:09

enjoy well rounded

37:12

physical backs Pacheco

37:14

like you mentioned was on my list last year.

37:16

Yeah, and and that's Really

37:18

why I think he I like that comparison There

37:21

is definitely Pacheco is just such a

37:24

weird and unique back that it's tough to compare

37:26

anybody to him But I see your point about

37:28

like a physical back who could be kind of

37:30

a tone setter I do think Charbonnet could be

37:32

that type of guy and he could play in

37:34

the past game a little bit as well Which

37:36

you know that was kind of how Pacheco eventually

37:38

when McKinnon got injured Access to higher ceiling or

37:40

better floor I guess and fantasy. That's something that

37:42

Charbonnet can do as well. All right, who's

37:44

your number three? my

37:47

number Three on

37:49

this list is we talked about Stefan Diggs

37:51

Khalil Shakir is on this list for me

37:54

I'm a big fan of Shakir was a

37:56

big fan of him in the draft process

38:00

I thought he, when he, again, at

38:02

Boise State in his reception perception sample,

38:04

he showed he could beat man coverage

38:06

and he can work underneath against his

38:08

own coverage. And

38:10

really, in terms of that class, I

38:13

thought he had excellent contact balance,

38:15

like in the open field. As an

38:17

open field runner, he was extremely good

38:20

at staying on his feet, at breaking

38:22

tackles, working angles. And that's the

38:24

thing I think we haven't seen

38:26

enough of yet at the NFL level, and

38:28

obviously jumping from who you're playing at Boise

38:30

State to who you're playing at the NFL,

38:32

maybe he just never has that type of

38:34

eye-popping ability. But I think in the playoffs

38:36

we saw a little bit of that, especially

38:38

I think the Chiefs game we saw him

38:41

do a little bit more yak stuff.

38:44

I think he's ultra reliable. I think he's a

38:46

guy that, I think the Bills

38:48

should have got him on the field earlier. I

38:51

understand their theory with Isaiah McKenzie

38:53

and their theory with Deontay Hardy,

38:56

but I think

38:58

that give me the reliable

39:00

guy in that slot receiver position as

39:02

opposed to some of the speed-based slots.

39:06

I don't know what Koulushikir's feeling is, like I've

39:08

gotten that question a lot, especially in Dynasty. I

39:10

don't know, maybe he's never like a difference maker,

39:12

quote unquote, but I think he's a darn good

39:14

player who, if the Bills are looking to remake

39:16

their receiver core, which I think they probably, I

39:19

mean they certainly are going to lose Gabe Davis,

39:21

I think, you know, it's like we can't have

39:23

Trent Sherfield getting major targets in a playoff game.

39:25

I think Koulushikir is part of their future. Yeah,

39:28

the question is, does he have to be a slot player

39:30

at all? I think you said

39:32

it right, the Kansas City game, because having just watched

39:34

every route that Diggs ran, I couldn't help but seeing

39:36

Shakir. Shakir was more involved in the game plan, frankly,

39:38

than Diggs was. I

39:41

couldn't help but wonder, like, is

39:43

the future, because Diggs ran the slot like half his routes

39:45

in that game, and maybe it's because he's hurt. Like maybe,

39:47

you know, maybe the elephant in the room that we're going

39:50

to find out is like Diggs was hurt all year, his

39:52

back was, whatever. But

39:54

like, if the future is a 31-year-old Stavon

39:57

Diggs in the slot, then Shakir

39:59

on the outside. interests me. He's not a

40:01

burner, he's not Gabe Davis on

40:03

ex-receiver, but thank God he's not Gabe Davis because

40:05

the only way Gabe Davis can help you is

40:07

just by being tall and running all the way

40:09

down the field and it's very clear that Buffalo

40:11

thinks Shakir can do more than that. Yep,

40:14

I love that. I'm with you

40:16

that based on just simply based on who he was

40:18

in college I think there was an ability to beat

40:20

man coverage and work yeah probably as a flanker. I

40:22

think him and Diggs actually if Diggs

40:24

is still on the team and right now at this

40:26

point I do expect him to be on the team

40:29

next year. It's simply because of the financial situation that

40:31

they're in. I think

40:33

they actually can do a lot there with getting Diggs free

40:36

releases and he's always worked as a flanker

40:38

primarily. He's alternating between flanker and ex because

40:40

he can beat press coverage. Stephon Diggs I'm

40:42

talking about here but because

40:44

of Gabe Davis, Gabe Davis'

40:46

limited versatility, it was

40:49

really when Shakir got into the lineup that they

40:51

could do a little bit of alternating there and

40:54

you know Diggs has experience playing in the slot

40:56

too back in his early Minnesota day so I

40:58

like that call by you. I think that Kalushik

41:00

here is the guy who could play a little

41:02

bit flanker as well. Yeah, he's interesting. He didn't

41:04

really pop to me as a rookie. I heard

41:06

so much about him. Matt Wahlben loved him. You

41:08

loved him and then this year certainly he as

41:10

the year went along they needed him more and

41:13

I'm with you like compared to the

41:15

other Slappies that they were thrown out there he certainly looked

41:17

better than that. My number three

41:19

I put Trey McBride on here and

41:24

I'll just say it like I

41:26

didn't really know Trey McBride from Adam until

41:28

like October of

41:30

this year you know because again I get you get

41:32

as a person who doesn't break

41:34

down rookie tape and who kind of relies

41:36

on you and other people to tell me

41:38

what they think coming in you get thrown

41:40

so many names and I

41:42

know he's not a rookie but like you know he hadn't

41:45

done anything yet and so like I just have you get

41:47

thrown like no this obscure Titan is gonna be amazing this

41:49

guy you've never heard is gonna be amazing there's just so

41:51

many people telling you that so many players are gonna be

41:53

amazing that I'm just sort of like whatever

41:55

dude I'll see it when I see it and

41:58

then Trey McBride doesn't do anything at first And

42:00

I'm like, yeah, I don't have to worry about

42:02

him. I don't even know that he's capable of anything.

42:04

I don't know what he is. And then suddenly in

42:06

October, you started to

42:09

get one catch per game, where

42:11

you just go, wait, he did what? The

42:14

crazy freak athleticism jumping and catching

42:16

uncatchable balls. I don't know that

42:18

he's a technician. I don't know

42:20

that he's ready to be

42:22

Sam LaPorta, like a super reliable, controlled,

42:25

maybe he is. I don't know. I can't tell that

42:27

yet, because it's not really how Arizona used him. But

42:30

in offense that desperately needed

42:32

people to throw to when Kyle Murray came back, he

42:35

was the only thing that really worked. And there

42:37

are just so many wow plays that I go, yeah, I

42:39

think I'm going to start to believe it. And maybe

42:42

there's even more consistency to

42:44

come. But a dude who's capable of those

42:46

kind of highlights, I'm definitely interested in. Yeah.

42:51

Tranvig Bride, honestly, he was

42:53

not good as a rookie. I

42:55

remember watching Cardinals stuff at some times.

42:59

I mean, he's just leaving a lot

43:01

to be desired. And he had some

43:03

opportunity. And then I was honestly kind

43:06

of skeptical when Zach Hertz. Honestly,

43:08

I thought Zach Hertz wasn't going to be on this

43:10

team for a long time. And then it took until

43:12

the end of the year when they finally waved him.

43:14

And now he's on the Lions practice squad or whatever.

43:18

Insider's acting like this is a big move. What

43:21

a cataclysmic move here in

43:24

the NFL. OK, it's the guy we've all heard his

43:26

name, whatever. But yeah, I think like I

43:28

thought when Earth went down or started to get banged

43:30

up, I was like, I don't even know if Tranvig Bride is going

43:32

to pop really because he just wasn't

43:34

that impressive as a rookie, to be honest. But

43:36

then you're right. He did more than pop. And

43:38

one thing I can't get out of my head

43:40

is watching. I think

43:43

it was the Texans Cardinals game, but it

43:45

was one point. I

43:48

think it was that game because I was specifically so

43:50

dialed into that one. And

43:52

I remember the broadcast team

43:55

saying that both Kyler Murray

43:57

and the coaching staff had separately told the

43:59

team. them that we they

44:01

were starting to encourage Trey McBride

44:04

to freelance like just we think

44:06

he's so good that he can do like what

44:08

Travis Kelsey does like just read

44:10

don't worry about the route as it's designed

44:13

read the coverage sit down in the zone and

44:15

like I'm gonna find you and obviously like Kyler

44:18

Murray is fine but he's not pat my home so

44:20

it's never gonna be quite that crazy but that note

44:22

always stuck to me that that is how this

44:25

group of the guys there

44:27

in Arizona the coach staff and the quarterback

44:29

thought of Trey McBride I think that's pretty

44:31

encouraging praise and

44:33

he's not gonna be Gronk he's not gonna be

44:35

Kelsey he's not gonna block anybody he's smaller on

44:37

that for by the NFL tight end standards and

44:39

so there are probably some when playing time limitations

44:41

and there'll be another tight end of the field

44:43

some of the times and like I don't know

44:45

that Trey McBride is ever the tight end one

44:47

if he just strikes

44:50

me the athletic profile like he's

44:52

not even that much of a freak athlete he's not like super fast

44:55

or anything but just like a basketball

44:57

player maybe type type dude like I don't know

44:59

the ball skills are crazy I can say and

45:01

I wouldn't I'm with you you

45:03

know I thought through through the like end

45:05

of September into October I was like I

45:07

don't care who is this guy I don't

45:09

care you know and I now I care

45:11

number two my number two

45:14

I'll go off the receiver track here I'll talk about

45:16

Taj a Spears the one

45:19

yeah I was a little worried that he

45:21

might be on your list but I

45:23

had to go with the running back and honestly

45:25

he's like the only player I have conviction with

45:28

I'm definitely interested what you think about him

45:30

I just think he's really explosive and there's

45:33

obviously gonna be an opportunity here with Chris

45:35

I don't know if I've ever seen a player

45:38

like give a

45:41

farewell address to

45:43

a to a to a home like

45:45

crowd like Derek Henry did in week 17

45:48

or week 18 excuse me oh my god

45:50

I can't believe it is so week 17

45:52

in week 18 he's given like a farewell

45:54

address to the home crowd and it's not

45:57

like he's gonna retire and it's

45:59

not like It just there's just

46:01

no like it's so clear. They're not bringing him

46:03

back, which is pretty wild Anyways,

46:06

I just think obviously there's gonna be opportunity

46:09

there, and I think he's a good player

46:11

with explosive ability I don't know

46:13

Do you think he can be like a true

46:15

bell cow back or is he gonna kind of

46:17

work in that Jalen Warren variety of player? Somewhere

46:21

in between somewhere between I he's he's probably

46:23

too small to be most guys who are

46:25

whatever he is 511 200 maybe

46:28

he's a little maybe he's got the pro he

46:30

got in the program and and weighs a little

46:32

more now, but You

46:35

know I think I

46:37

don't think he's destined for frustrating platoon,

46:40

but I do think Deontay

46:42

Foreman will be there. You know someone will be there. Yeah,

46:44

and we'll be like come on man Can't you get the

46:46

touchdown sometimes and we'll be you know we'll be like this

46:49

is annoying in some weeks We're gonna be I think

46:51

he's a hell of a player actually we did Players we

46:53

love on film with Chris Ray bond like a month ago

46:56

on the show and I he was on that

46:58

list for me So people are hearing me talk about

47:00

him again, and that's why it's probably better that you

47:02

talk about him Easy

47:04

speed just really easy speed like plays where he

47:07

gets the corner, and you're just like oh Did

47:10

defensive defensive back does not know what angle

47:12

to take this and and also easy stop

47:15

start and like usually when

47:17

they stop start Pretty well and wind up making

47:19

more I go okay. I think that probably means

47:21

good vision I don't think we have the full

47:23

book on what Taji Spears can be yet because

47:25

he simply wasn't used as a main guy He

47:27

had only basically the one game where he's a

47:29

lead back And he did great when Derek Henry

47:32

got concussed or not concussed because

47:34

it wasn't a concussion because he could play next yeah, whatever Like

47:38

yeah, I am I don't think he's

47:40

Bijon Robinson. I don't think he's Breece

47:42

Hall But I think

47:44

he's you know for he's just not that big right. He's

47:46

not gonna be able to run the same Wide

47:49

variety of stuff those guys can do again and again

47:51

and again, but yeah super excited

47:53

about him Now he's got

47:55

so much juice man. I'm

47:57

I'm really excited about him as well Excited

48:00

to see just again like I

48:02

think there's so much opportunity there and hey

48:04

as as eclor constantly reminds me He

48:07

whatever his listed weight is he plays like at

48:10

190 so There

48:13

if that gives you encouragement about I mean obviously eclor

48:15

did not have a good season this year And he'd

48:17

be the first one to tell you that but even

48:19

in his previous season he played like 190 So I

48:21

think maybe Spears can be kind of in that variety

48:24

and frankly like I think he's got more juice than

48:26

eclor did In his prime no shade to my co-host

48:28

there But yeah, he's I think that

48:30

he's gonna be a hell of a player Taking

48:34

care of your health not always easy,

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but for the last three seasons. I've

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it's a gym day I always feel confident

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49:58

Harris Alright,

50:01

we're back with Matt and we have... well,

50:03

I think we have two names left to

50:05

talk about but it's possible that we doubled

50:08

up. I'll do my two

50:10

and if it's the same as your

50:12

one, then we're screwed because we... I

50:14

can't possibly be. My

50:16

two is JSN, Jackson Smith Najigba. Did

50:19

he make that one? Okay. No, no,

50:21

he didn't but I'm really interested to hear what you have to say about him. So

50:24

I wouldn't want

50:26

to tell you that I completely fell in love

50:28

because I don't think you got

50:30

to see everything he can do. I mean, I

50:34

would almost have to believe we didn't see everything he

50:36

could do because you

50:38

people, you freaks who watch college film in

50:40

addition to the NFL film, when do you

50:42

sleep? You know,

50:45

you were so... not you personally, you collectively were

50:47

so high on JSN. You don't understand this is

50:49

a number one receiver and I would look at

50:51

the numbers and I would be like, are you

50:54

sure? No, trust me, trust me. He

50:56

was the one. You had Chris Olave there, you

50:58

had Garrett Wilson there. No, no, no, it was

51:01

JSN. Okay, and now it's Marvin Harrison. Some

51:03

of that is hype but

51:07

in some regards, I'm kind of trusting

51:09

that there's a little more there that they just

51:11

didn't... he didn't really go down the field that

51:13

much. Every so often,

51:15

he did make a couple of big plays. He didn't run

51:17

a ton of routes down the field and

51:19

he was very clearly third in the pecking order.

51:22

He was hurt early and fell behind a little

51:24

bit and yada yada yada, all the things everybody

51:26

knows. I gotta say though

51:29

that towards the end of the season,

51:31

it did feel like he was out Tyler Lockett... Tyler

51:34

Lockett-ing Tyler Lockett. It felt like I

51:36

was seeing young Tyler Lockett again, maybe

51:38

not quite the speed, you

51:40

know, the deep suit or at least again, not being given the chance

51:42

yet. But what did we always love

51:45

about Tyler Lockett? Kind of just always

51:47

figured out how to get open. I saw

51:49

a lot of man coverage early on,

51:51

could break off a route, seemed to

51:53

understand almost like a quarterback's

51:56

eye view of the field where he

51:58

could feel, oh no, there's not a guys over there I think

52:00

I'm gonna break my rod off in that direction and then if

52:03

you know had to pat the ball JSN

52:05

was often a late in the play guy

52:07

which to me is

52:09

always like that's what

52:11

I love about Jacobi Myers how I learned to

52:13

love Jacobi Myers because it wasn't

52:16

so much that Myers made plays in

52:18

structure it was that the second things

52:21

went wrong he just had an

52:23

innate sense again a kind of a quarterback sense

52:25

in Myers's case legitimately because he was a quarterback

52:28

he would know which way to go and where to be and

52:30

make a late in the play play which you

52:32

know that because that makes you the quarterback's best

52:34

friend and that's what I'm most excited about seeing

52:36

with JSN is how many you know

52:39

the box score isn't gonna show how many times maybe

52:41

he wasn't the first read but

52:43

as things were chaotically breaking down

52:45

he became the scramble

52:47

drill guy and just great chemistry

52:49

and reliability so I'm kind

52:51

of putting together the idea of of

52:54

that thing that I really liked with the

52:56

untapped potential with Tyler Lockett I think probably

52:58

not being there I mean he's like an

53:01

eight million dollar guy with no guaranteed

53:03

cash we talked about it with Barron's last week it

53:05

feels love the guy but feels like it's the time

53:07

probably you don't want to pay that guy eight million

53:10

and maybe JSN gets that combination of

53:12

opportunity to do more stuff and chemistry

53:14

chemistry with presumably Gino Smith you know

53:17

I can I can see him working his way

53:19

above the infinite sadness okay so

53:21

I'm glad you brought up Jason he's

53:23

not on my list but like let's

53:25

let's do some his like history on

53:27

the on the college profile specifically number

53:30

one like you said I liked

53:32

JSN a lot he was a I

53:34

have a stacked board like of the past

53:36

three and then this year will be four

53:38

classes on reception perception like how I viewed

53:40

these guys all his prospects and then like

53:42

I said stacked together so JSN

53:44

was to me a clear first

53:47

round receiver prospect I think he

53:49

was the only clear

53:51

first round receiver prospect in last

53:53

year's class I think other

53:55

guys were kind of like late one type of

53:57

you know grades or whatever

54:00

whatever for me. That

54:02

being said, any time that

54:04

anyone would say he was

54:06

actually the best guy at Ohio State, he was

54:08

better than Chris Olavian, better than Garrett Wilson, and

54:11

I actually had both those guys say that to

54:13

me at the Super Bowl last year, and even

54:15

to those guys, I'm like, I don't think so. I

54:20

totally disagree. I think both of

54:22

those guys were much better players

54:24

and much better prospects. They were

54:26

top 10 worthy picks to me.

54:29

That's how good those guys were in college

54:31

and reception, perception, all that stuff. But

54:34

that doesn't mean that to me, I think JSN got

54:36

a little overhyped with the tier

54:38

of his own stuff. I'm

54:40

not holding that against him. I think that's just, like you

54:42

said, the noise from people who

54:44

watched him last year. I don't

54:48

know what people expected this year. I

54:50

didn't draft him. I liked him a lot. I

54:52

didn't draft him on a single team and honestly

54:55

never thought about drafting him on a single team

54:57

because he was always going to be, even if

54:59

he didn't get hurt in the offseason, which does

55:01

matter. I don't care when it was, any type

55:03

of progress lost as a rookie is not

55:06

good. Even if he didn't get hurt in

55:08

training camp and some practice time or whatever,

55:10

he was going to be behind two

55:12

really good veteran receivers in DK Metcalf and Tyler

55:14

Lockett. There was just no way around that. I

55:16

liked you Smith, but he's not an

55:19

elite quarterback that's going to elevate three receivers.

55:21

They were never going to be that type

55:24

of offense. So like to me, JSN on

55:26

film and isolation in reception perception in the

55:28

rookie report, and obviously I'll have the full

55:30

profile up, he was fine and like maybe

55:33

fine doesn't get you excited based on

55:35

whatever the previous expectations were.

55:38

But being fine as a rookie is

55:41

more than enough for me to think, okay, yeah, if

55:43

Tyler Lockett does move on or there's more opportunity or

55:45

he continues to grow, because I think there was real

55:47

real shine as a route runner

55:49

late in the season, especially in

55:52

the season. So that's more than enough for me to think like, okay, he can be a really,

55:56

really good player at some point. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's one

55:58

where maybe the. Depth chart matters,

56:00

but also yeah, I like that

56:03

chemistry aspect the smarts. He seemed like a very smart

56:05

player to me All right, so

56:07

my one was Baltimore

56:29

I'll say they flowers is my number one

56:31

level jumper I think he can

56:33

graduate into that like number one receiver Book

56:37

to me when I was watching rookie receivers this year

56:39

and I said a lot of rookie receivers here on

56:41

this list But I mean come on. What are we

56:43

talking about? These guys are definitely gonna jump levels Like

56:46

when I was watching receivers, I was charting this year

56:48

for RP Obviously there was Puka

56:51

But the next most oppressive guy to me was

56:53

they flowers and I think he gets typecasted

56:55

just like I said with Jaden Reed gets

56:57

typecasted a little bit as like a gadget

56:59

receiver man They flowers runs

57:02

some big boy routes on the outside

57:04

smaller guy I get that but like

57:07

the rowdy ran in the divisional round against

57:09

the Texans when he break he sells go

57:11

go go go and Then he breaks it

57:13

on the outside You see that a lot

57:15

even sometimes he doesn't get the ball like

57:17

I think there's a real potential for him

57:19

to be Maximized in that intermediate area as

57:21

a separator against physical man coverage. We didn't see enough

57:24

of that as a rookie I think we can see

57:26

more of that going forward Like I think he could

57:28

truly like I said break out to be a number

57:30

one receiver I still really like Rashad Bateman who I'm

57:32

sure I've said on this list over the years like

57:35

500 times I

57:37

think he can actually be better the further he gets away

57:39

from injuries and stuff like that I think

57:41

those guys can be a nice little complimentary doing and

57:43

they might still add to that room because I don't

57:45

think Beckham Beckham Is obviously a long-term player for them

57:48

and Andrews and likely are really good at tight end

57:50

But yeah, man, I'm a big Zay flowers fan I think

57:52

there's more than what we saw as a rookie and what we saw

57:54

is rookie was already really good I agree.

57:56

I fell in love right away. He's the only one

57:58

really I fell in love for I mean We

58:00

all eventually got through got around like

58:02

oh Puka is definitely not a fluke. You know, we

58:04

all got through got there but The

58:07

one of the first round receivers. He

58:10

was the one who immediately I was like everybody

58:12

should have him And he didn't have a great

58:14

fantasy season. He didn't lead to directly to tons

58:16

of championships, but you could just

58:18

see it right away and like Committing

58:22

the sin of not being Tyreke Hill

58:24

who the most enthusiasts, you

58:26

know The big Z flowers enthusiasts and draft process

58:28

were like he's Tyreke is like, okay I mean

58:30

he so the sin that he's committed is not

58:32

being as fast as Tyreke Hill will will all

58:34

just have to live with How dare you? Yeah,

58:36

you can you can be a really great player

58:38

in the league and not be Tyreke hit Tyreke

58:40

Hill. I Don't know

58:43

you're gonna have to still sit on that island alone

58:45

with Sean Bateman Nelson Aguilar

58:47

gets too much play. So we're gonna park company

58:49

on Bateman a little bit With

58:52

Bateman, it's just about reliability just my hands

58:55

Availability and stuff but I you know, I went through

58:57

a Bateman phase I just you know, I grew out

58:59

of it. You'll you'll join me

59:01

here some sometime soon, but say flowers. Yeah

59:04

Bateman will always go down as I think of what could

59:06

have been had he not, you know dealt with all the

59:08

injuries and all that but yeah, I mean, I think you

59:10

could just round it to be a Fine

59:14

player but not I'm obviously that whatever dreams

59:16

I had for him to come in. Yeah

59:18

league are dead No, it's so

59:20

good to hear you loved say flowers I mean, I think

59:22

I knew that because we talked about him when you reviewed

59:24

some Ravens film with me on the show as

59:27

the course of the year went along but it's just good to hear that Good

59:30

that it's good to have my opinion validated by

59:32

somebody who's really doing the work and I

59:34

I fully agree I mean if I'm gonna compare

59:37

like flowers to JSN I certainly

59:39

even if locket leaves I certainly would

59:41

be drafting in fantasies a flowers ahead

59:43

of JSN He's he's got

59:45

potential again. We're talking graduation and

59:48

we're not saying he's gonna be on CD Lambs level

59:50

But you're also not gonna have to pay a first-round

59:53

pick for him Like it's there's a chance for him

59:55

to graduate to the level where he gets to be

59:57

a really great fantasy value Which

59:59

could be? be pretty exciting. This

1:00:01

list was exciting. I put the names that

1:00:04

we mentioned in today's show notes so people

1:00:06

missed anything. Just check them out inside

1:00:08

the show notes. You can follow Matt on

1:00:11

Twitter at Matt Harmon underscore BYB. You

1:00:13

can listen to him on the Yahoo

1:00:16

Fantasy Football podcast whenever that

1:00:18

show drops on the reg and

1:00:20

receptionperception.com to get a more robust

1:00:22

version of some of the receiver

1:00:24

talk that we had here on

1:00:27

this show. I could not recommend

1:00:29

receptionperception more. Thank you for

1:00:31

doing this list yet again and thank you

1:00:33

for taking time from your burgeoning

1:00:35

off season to coming on and we'll

1:00:38

have you on again. I'm sure around

1:00:40

draft time we'll get some thoughts. Yeah

1:00:44

man, absolutely. I've

1:00:47

thoroughly been enjoying this rookie class already

1:00:49

so definitely would love to drop some

1:00:52

takes on that whenever you want. Hey, anytime you

1:00:54

want me on the show, I'm always game. Not

1:00:56

only do I love doing this list every year,

1:00:59

I enjoy looking back on it as well because

1:01:02

as Adam Hart said from Football Guys points out,

1:01:05

if receptionperception loves a guy, you should be on

1:01:07

him a year later. I'll be here telling you

1:01:09

to love him. Shout out

1:01:12

to Dontabian Wicks and Josh Downs for having

1:01:14

a breakout 2025 season. Thank

1:01:20

you so much for listening. Let me

1:01:22

also thank three great sponsors if you

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enjoyed it and you appreciate the hard

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work that went into the show. Maybe

1:01:29

supporting one of the sponsors is a

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great way to express that thanks. We

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had Brooklinen, self-explanatory,

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great stuff. Use it every single

1:01:38

day. Collective, if you're an entrepreneur,

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really recommend Collective, and AG1. I've

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got my AG1 canister. That's

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my canister right here of AG1. You can

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find a full list of all of our current sponsors

1:01:52

at harrisfootball.com. It does help the show if you use

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the promo codes, if you have the means, if you

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have a need. If you don't, I'm so

1:01:58

happy to have you listening. If

1:02:00

you do, I don't get commission or anything, but it

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is advertising arrangement where

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they're tracking how many times the codes

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get used and your support. I do

1:02:08

appreciate it so much. That will

1:02:11

do it for this week's episode coming

1:02:13

up next week on the show. We're

1:02:15

gonna do our traditional listener request episode,

1:02:17

which we always do in the one

1:02:19

week break between the conference championships and

1:02:22

the Super Bowl. And I'm gonna

1:02:24

be honest with you, I don't know who the guest is gonna

1:02:26

be, but it's gonna be funny, it's gonna be great. So I'm

1:02:28

gonna be asking the people of the book for their questions

1:02:30

and in the Facebook group, if

1:02:32

you're not a person of the book and you wanna

1:02:34

ask a question for the show, all

1:02:37

you gotta do is get a book of mine. It's really easy,

1:02:39

just get a book of mine. Amazon, it's a real sit right

1:02:41

there. And we'll have

1:02:43

some fun ones, some football ones,

1:02:45

some silly ones, and

1:02:48

we will find a guest too, because I haven't done

1:02:50

that yet. But I'm gonna get to it, I gotta

1:02:52

go play golf, but I gotta get to it, right?

1:02:54

And I will do that. And we'll

1:02:56

be back here next Thursday to do

1:02:58

a listener request episode. Until then, thanks

1:03:00

again so much for listening. Your hat

1:03:02

is awesome, you're awesome for wearing it.

1:03:04

I will talk to you next week.

1:03:07

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