Ranking receivers: Olave, Smith or McMillan? | Yahoo Fantasy Mailbag
Josh Norris & Joel Smyth answer your burning fantasy football questions ahead of the 2026 NFL season.
Video Transcript
Oh, yes.
Welcome to the Yahoo Fantasy Mailbag.
I'm Josh Norris.
That is Joel Smith, and we're answering your biggest questions ahead of the fantasy football season.
Let's dive right into it.
From Charlie Metzger, "Do salary cap drafts change your draft strategy at all?
Or do you stick with the two to three, round one, one to five running backs like you've been preaching?"
Yeah, we preached that a lot on our first and second episodes of this, Joel.
Maybe the people got sick of it a little bit.
But yeah, I would just love to hear overall, Joel, your strategy when, what I love about these formats, every single player is on the table for you to add here, rather than only a select one, depending on your draft slot.
Yeah, it makes it nice.
I still like, you know, spending up at running back in terms of a salary cap league.
The one change I would say would be at the quarterback position.
Mm-hmm.
People aren't going to spend real money or real value on getting a second quarterback.
So unless you're in, like, a huge league, like, if you're in your normal 12-team salary cap league, I would be fine paying next to nothing for the 11th or 12th quarterback off the board.
Just choose your favorite from, like, that 11 to 15 spot, and they're plenty fine compared to even just, like, the quarterback seven.
So I would try my best there to save money at the quarterback position and just going really late.
What I like most about it is I'm able to pair two or three players in specific rounds that I could never do in a normal redraft league.
And as you know, Joel, the more and more you do these drafts, the more rounds that you just wish you didn't have to select from, and the more rounds you absolutely love.
Like, there are certain pockets in the draft that just feel better to, to select.
Like, for example, right, I can spend money on Sam LaPorta, Christian Watson, and Ja'Darian Price.
They all go in the same exact round in your normal redraft leagues in round six.
I wouldn't be able to do that.
Now I can, right?
The same could be said for that pocket of wide receivers from Zay Flowers, Jaylen Waddle, Emeka Egbuka, Tedarrell McMillan, Ladd McConkie, Garrett Wilson.
I mean, heck, Joel, if you wanna spend up on two running backs and then spend on three of those wide receivers, that's awesome because in your other leagues, there is no way you could get three of those wide receivers on your roster.
And then one final point from me.
You mentioned quarterbacks, too.
You know, I love in these formats to just take the cheapest elite quarterback, right?
So it's that cluster of Joe Burrow, Drake May, Lamar, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels.
Sometimes in these redraft leagues, I dislike selecting them because at the end of my drafts, I feel like my roster is much worse.
I, I, I don't like the looks of it.
But, in this one, let's say three or four go off the board, then bing, bang, boom, I can just get the cheapest one and feel very comfortable about that.
Yeah, and this year it is nicer because we kinda have, like, five quarterbacks in that range, where usually you maybe have two or three.
This year we kind of have, like, a good chunk of five with Drake May and Jayden Daniels kind of being added in that in the last couple of years.
So makes that a little bit better, too.
Yeah, and final one.
I mentioned that whole cluster of wide receivers.
I either have to pick one of them or Colston Loveland, right?
Because he goes in the fourth round as well.
I can now get Colston Loveland and one of those names or, and two of those names.
And, uh- Yeah, that's a good- That's sweet.
I mean, I love round four and round six this year in drafts.
It's pretty awesome.
All right, moving on.
Moonshot Man.
"Rank these receivers," speaking of, "on how excited you'd be to draft them at the round 3-4 turn."
Moonshot Man read our minds.
All right, here's the list, Joel.
Chris Olave, DeVonta Smith, Tedarrell McMillan, Emeka Egbuka, Ladd McConkie, Zay Flowers, Jaylen Waddle, or at least who's your favorite two of the group.
Nope, we're gonna do the whole thing, Joel.
So, uh- Give me your rankings, and it better not be the exact list and order that he gave.
It will not be that exact order.
This is a tough question because-- It's a really good question because of how tough it is.
I think we both probably have Olave at number one, would be my guess, Josh.
But my number two, pretty confidently I would say, is DeVonta Smith, the second one that he listed.
Mm-hmm.
From there, three I have Jaylen Waddle, Zay Flowers at four, McMillan at five, Egbuka at six now with the injury, and then McConkie at number seven.
What do you got before I even break down those top two?
No, I love that.
Olave, DeVonta, Zay Flowers, Jaylen Waddle, T-Mac, Ladd, and Emeka is how I have it.
Okay, yeah.
So just switching Ladd and Egbuka and then, Zay Flowers- Yep and McMillan.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So Zay Flowers and Waddle.
All right, talk to me about Emeka.
Yeah.
Like, where are you at with Emeka and this injury?
Because prior to learning all of this, he was in the middle of this group.
I could listen to an argument that he should be, you know, maybe right after DeVonta Smith because, you know, being the Z in a Zach Robinson, Shanahan, McVay tree is just fantasy points all bundled up.
However, I am terrified, and Todd Bowles is very cagey.
He hadn't said this.
But I'm terrified this is, like, turf toe, right?
And that this might linger- on and on and on.
So I, I've had to rework and reshuffle Emeka Egbuka, and I put him at the bottom of this tier.
Yeah, and I can totally see that.
I think a lot of it is just, for me, when we had this group that is very close, and they're very talented, I'm trying to take the guy that is most proven and also healthiest.
Where a lot of these receivers, we have seen it year after year after year with a Jaylen Waddle, a DeVonta Smith, a Zay Flowers.
But they've had multiple seasons now where they were just really good NFL receivers, and they find themselves in really good spots this year.
I think Egbuka has a really good situation overall, but we, you know, we saw for about half a season there's other issues and now the injury.
Like, even comparing him to McMillan, like McMillan put it together for an entire year last year, and he's their- Yeah number one by a mile.
Like, he's gonna be their go-to guy in the red zone no matter what.
He is the focus of their offense.
Where Egbuka, there's just, like, a lot of other tiny flaws that I'd rather just avoid if I don't have to take him compared to the other receivers that are very similar.
Yeah.
Did we talk about Jalen Waddle on any of the last episodes?
I don't know if we did, and he's like one of the flag plant players for me this summer in that when you just think that Sean Payton made the move for a first-round pick to add Jalen Waddle because it unlocks his whole offense.
I mean, there's a number of ways you can look at this.
His yards per route run off of play action, and, you know, the Broncos were top five in play action rate this past season.
And then Joel, just like raw counting stats, he ran 442 routes last year compared to like 660 that Courtland Sutton ran.
So if you think Jalen Waddle was good and as a fantasy producer last season, what if you added, you know, another 220 routes onto his plate?
Like, that is just an amazing amount of more work that we're gonna see, and that should equal even more fantasy points for us.
Yeah, I, I do love him.
The stat that I keep saying is Denver as a wide receiver room was seventh in fantasy points- And Troy Franklin was- Yeah their second receiver, and they were seventh.
If you look at the other top 10, it's all these like amazing wide receiver, like the Cowboys, the Rams, the Bengals, then it's just the Broncos.
And while they're gonna throw it a ton, he has a lot of the tiny short targets, but then they also chuck it deep.
They haven't been completing many in the pass.
A lot of the chemistry with Troy Franklin there is not great, but with Waddle, we saw it today, 60-yard touchdown on Certain.
I don't know if you saw that.
Things like that just get me excited.
Yeah.
Love all that.
Okay, next question.
This comes from DoomsdayPicks9.
"Why are you so out on Javonte?
I don't see much of a difference between him and Chase Brown.
Non-elite backs and top five offenses with guaranteed volume."
Joel, I'll be honest to the people out there.
You and I before we kicked this show off, wondered who was this directed to, and I think it's at me.
I've got picked on in two straight episodes here.
First give me your take.
Like, where do you have Javonte Williams ranked right now?
I'll back you up.
I have him 32nd, kind of right- Okay at ADP.
I think the touchdown upside is still amazing in this offense.
The difference in general for Chase Brown, which I'm sure you'll get into, is just the receiving difference.
Like, that's the biggest one on top of a couple other things.
Yeah.
Th- there's a lot of other things.
And look, we're talking about Javonte Williams, who I believe is the 33rd overall pick versus Chase Brown, who's the 15th overall pick.
So by the way, it's not, you know, just me that has them much different.
You know, every single fantasy draft out there has much different.
I just wanna put that out there, DoomsdayPicks9, even if I appreciate the question.
Look, I know it can seem, and maybe this is how you-- he, he thinks that they're packaged together,'cause last year they finished as running back 12 and running back 13 in points per game, so back to back.
But to me, there are clear differences when you dig a little bit deeper on that.
Like, the first five games for the Bengals, the entire offense sucked last year.
Joe Burrow got hurt.
Jake Browning stepped in as a starter.
But from when Joe Flacco and Joe Burrow started games to the end of the season in week six and on, Chase Brown was the running back eight in points per game.
And if you wanna take it a step further even beyond that, when just Joe Burrow returned, Chase Brown went nuclear.
He was second in running back points per contest, and he hit that glorified, you know, 20-half PPR scoring.
He averaged 105 yards per scrimmage at the final 11 weeks, at least 90 yards in every single game.
And as you said, only Devon Achane, Bijean Robinson, and Jahmyr Gibbs have more receptions than Chase Brown among running backs over the past two seasons.
So while I do appreciate that Javonte Williams is a feature back in a very good offense behind a good offensive line, to me, that's kind of, you know, the extent of the positives.
Whereas with Chase Brown, I think you could argue, Joel, that he is the best environment of any fantasy running back out there, and he also has the same workload.
Yeah, it's really nice.
And even with Burrow missing half the season last year, he had five more receiving points per game than Javonte Williams, eight and a half to three and a half basically, and that was with Burrow missing half the year.
It was still- Yep the receiving was just a really big gap.
Yeah.
I have him 15th overall right now in Chase Brown, and, I have Javonte Williams 42nd overall.
So again, there's a sizable gap there.
But part of me, man, I, I actually think I might move up Chase Brown one spot just after this conversation.
So I'm doing it on the fly.
I'm doing it on the fly.
All right.
We got one more question.
This is from Jad Fakhoury.
"Thoughts on Bijan Tutun in the Jags offense and his snap count."
There's also a second parter here.
It says, "Kenneth Walker bell cow volume or will Emmett Johnson or Emari Demercado affect his fantasy relevance?"
I always love a double question, so let's first start here with you, Joel.
What are your expectations with Bijan Tutun in year two with Liam Cohen?
Pretty high, but with the knowledge that it's a boom-bust play.
But I'm fine taking that when we get to late round five a lot of the times, especially in 10-team leagues, round six.
Fine with that because there's a couple things that we don't know, and that is the goal line split, which is important- Mm-hmm and the carry split overall.
But two things that we do know almost for certain is that Tutun's gonna get the receiving.
Rodriguez has under 10 career catches, and Tutun has that ability.
And then the second thing, Jacksonville's offense is gonna be good.
I have a lot of confidence in this Jacksonville offense as a whole.
So even if it's just like the bad case scenario, Rodriguez is the goal line back, and it's a pretty like 60/40, 50/50 carry split- Yeah I think Tutun can still like get close to his ADP, where if it go- does go his way and he's like closer to some sort of like main 1A bell cow role, then that's when we're talking like he could be like that low-end RB1 in fantasy or high-end RB2.
His ADP right now is running back 24.
That's the 10th pick of the fifth round.
I really do believe that this is one of the keys to fantasy football or could potentially be.
Like, if one of these guys outright wins the backfield, then we're talking about an incredible value in your drafts right now.
If we look at Liam Cohen the past two years, Bucky Irving was the running back 11 in points per game when he started under Liam Cohen.
Travis Etienne last year was the running back 10 in points per game in the games that he started.
S- let's just say some verbiage from Liam Cohen has irked me a little bit over the last few weeks, and maybe a bit nervous as someone that's drafted a bunch of Bachel Tutun.
He said, like, "We have to totally change our, you know, rushing style, and we want those four, six, eight, 10-yard gains, and not necessarily the explosives."
He said we were, quote, "hunting up efficiency."
I kind of hate that, Joel.
Like, I think that's setting the bar really low.
Why not try to, you know, do that and hit the explosive plays, which would be, you know, Bachel Tutun.
But at the end of the day, like, I'm just drafting a lot more Tutun than Chris Rodriguez, even if Tutun goes multiple rounds ahead of C-Rod, just because I believe he's gonna get the first opportunity at this, the first crack at it.
And he has to fail for, like, multiple weeks in order to totally cede the backfield over to Chris Rodriguez.
Yeah.
I'm fine with taking the risk at this point, and just betting on the offense, and coaching, and talent, and combo, and just hoping, you know, that it gets a little bit of that workload.
Yeah.
And we all know that Liam Cohen coached Chris Rodriguez in college at Kentucky, so that relationship is maybe a barrier that Bachel Tutun has to get over.
And yes, when you look at any of those efficiency numbers, Chris Rodriguez ranks, like, top three or four in that last year.
But just a few ticks down, and some in the top 10 in a lot of those underlying numbers.
Bachel Tutun is right there, too.
So let's not overlook that on top of it.
Okay, the last part of this.
With Ken Walker III, who, why, is the number 13 overall player?
I believe he's the 13th overall player this year.
Is he gonna get vultured, basically, by Emma Johnson or Amari Dimercato?
Joel, I am unmoved and not nervous in the least bit.
What about you?
Basically the same.
I kind of want to be more nervous than I am.
But there's so many Like, every single sign is pointing toward him having, like, full bell cow volume.
One, they paid him a ton.
After multiple years of trying to get that bell cow running back, they just, like, couldn't.
Pacheco got injured, all that sort of stuff.
They paid him a ton.
They bring him in.
They've talked him up nonstop about, like, "Oh, he's actually, like, doing really well in receiving.
We can use him more there."
Yeah.
All that different stuff.
And Kareem Hunt, like, his volume in the red zone was amazing.
And Kareem Hunt is obviously not there anymore, and W- Walker is a lot more talented than an older free agent Kareem Hunt.
Dimercato's not gonna be the red zone guy.
Emma Johnson, the big thing is, like, Kansas City takes a long time on their rookies usually.
And it's not like Johnson is some, like, round-one talent that's close to Walker, nor is he, like, bigger.
He's 200 pounds.
Walker's sitting over 210.
I don't see anything that really moves me or scares me on Walker not getting all the valuable touches, and close to 80% of the regular touches.
Absolutely love that.
And by the way, when Kenneth Walker has reached the 60% snap mark in 26 games in his career, he's averaged 17 and a half fantasy points.
That's pretty good.
I think when a team prioritizes him as the only real big addition to their offense the entire off-season, they're gonna play him more than 60% snaps in almost every single game.
So if he can keep that up, that's pretty awesome.
And, Jad, it's probably on me.
You probably think I'm the boy who cried wolf because I told you to draft Ken Walker III last year.
But look, we all have eyeballs.
If, and I mean if, he was given that full workload like he got at the end of the regular season, and in the playoffs, and the Super Bowl, you saw what happened.
You have a fantasy superstar.
Because Ken Walker III is one of the best talents at running back across the league.
And I j- I firmly believe he's gonna get there with this.
Like, the, the main reason why the Chiefs added him was because they were 10th in rush yards before contact per attempt.
That's what they, you know, their offensive line created.
But then they were 32nd in rush yards after contact per attempt.
So Ken Walker III, if you give him that same space that you gave, you know, the Neanderthal that is Kareem Hunt last season with, you know, a 60-pound weight vest that he's running with, just more and more explosives and more yards created on his own is what Ken Walker's gonna bring to the table this year.
I have a lot of confidence.
Scary amount of confidence- Okay, good right now in Ken Walker.
Again.
Glad to hear it.
All right.
You can follow me @JoshNorris.
You can follow Joel @FantasySmyth.
Yes, that is Smith with a Y.
And be sure to send us in your questions.
We have a lot of fun with this show, and we love hearing from all of you.
And we'll check you out on the next episode of the Yahoo Fantasy Mailbag.
See you then.
