It’s healthy to disagree. There are certainly plenty of takes this time of year around the fantasy football community. Some plant their flag on players as ‘their guys,’ while others are avoiding the same player at all cost. Let’s take a look at a few players that experts Derek Brown and Joe Dolan believer are currently ranked too high in our expert consensus rankings.
Rankings noted using FantasyPros half-PPR Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR).
JuJu Smith-Schuster (WR – KC): WR33
JuJu Smith-Schuster‘s current ranking as the WR33 in ECR is due to the “Patrick Mahomes effect.” This is spicy for a player who has seen his yards per route run decrease in each of the last four seasons, and his YAC per reception also fall in every season of his career (per PFF). Unfortunately, TikTok legend status won’t fill up the stat sheet or earn him more targets. Bypass Smith-Schuster and target Skyy Moore (WR57) later in drafts.
Amari Cooper (WR – CLE): WR22
The looming suspension for Deshaun Watson still hangs over the Browns’ 2022 season outlook, and the downgrade to Jacoby Brissett is notable, but Amari Cooper is still ranked as the WR22. I keep trying to make sense of this ranking, but it’s tough. Cooper couldn’t even reach that realm last year with better quarterback play from Dak Prescott, as he finished as the WR25. I get that the consensus views him as the only show in town, but my love for David Njoku is well documented, so I won’t let that slight stand. Cooper is a player in decline, as he’s seen his yards per route run dip in each of the past three seasons. I can’t consider Cooper anything more than a volume-based mid-WR3 (WR29) in my rankings.
Michael Thomas (WR – NO): WR28
Maybe Michael Thomas is still the same guy who had 149 catches for 1,725 yards in 2019. Who knows? He’s played seven games in the last two years and was out for all of 2021 with ankle problems. He’s 29 now and Drew Brees is no longer his quarterback. No one expects another 149-catch season, but it feels like we still might be overshooting the mark in expecting a WR2 season from a player who’s been out for so long and is returning to a totally different environment.
Robert Woods (WR – TEN): WR44
The prospects of Robert Woods bouncing back at age 30 post ACL were already dim, but landing with the Titans makes it even less likely. Before 2021 Woods was a player who looked to be on the back nine of his NFL career. His yards per route run had declined in each of the past four seasons. So his slight rebound in 2021 in this department is also fool’s gold. Woods did record a 1.74 yards per route run mark, but this was primarily inflated by his blowup game against the Seahawks, where he logged 4.17 yards per route run (per PFF).
He didn’t crest 1.5 yards per route run in five of his nine games played (per PFF). Now Woods finds himself on the wrong side of 30, recovering from a major injury, and on an offense that was 22nd in neutral pace with the fifth-highest neutral rushing rate in 2021. None of this culminates in a recipe for success in 2022.
FantasyPros Staff Consensus 2022 Redraft Fantasy Football Rankings
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