Liz Loza and Scott Pianowski discuss the WR position as it stands now, and how the trend of giving WR rushing carries changes the landscape from a fantasy perspective, before discussing Tee Higgins’ fantasy value in next year’s drafts.
Video Transcript
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SCOTT PIANOWSKI: You can talk down anybody in fantasy, but I’m going to be proactive on Cooper Kupp next year. And I know, even in a regression season, nobody can match what he just did. But if there is a way to cover him, if teams had a way to stop Cooper Kupp, we would have seen it. And we’re in a golden age, right? We’re in a time where Deebo Samuel had all that rushing production, that Cordarrelle Patterson, what a wonderful story that was, right? I think the Bengals are going to realize that Ja’Marr Chase needs to touch the ball a lot more as a runner. He only had seven carries in the regular season. He had six in the playoffs. And I realize sometimes it’s just a sideways pass that gets scored as a run, it’s really more of a passing play. But I think they’ve screwed up. If they don’t have like 125 or 150 or 200 rushing yards for Chase next year, I think they missed the opportunity.
Again, the Rams’ season, their Super Bowl win, when push came to shove on fourth down, they handed the ball to Cooper Kupp. That’s a trend in the NFL that, I think, is only going to get more prevalent, where just to throw the ball to your special receiver, that’s great, but why not hand it off to him? Why not find more creative ways to get these guys involved? And you make Matt Harmon do more work with his Reception Perception, you know? I think that’s just the trend that’s going to keep expanding, as the college– as the concepts in the college game become more prevalent in the pro game as well.
LIZ LOZA: Well, and you have these creative playmakers that are coming from the Shanahan/McVay coaching tree, Zac Taylor, obviously, chief among them, right? So it seems incredibly likely for that to occur. I like that you mentioned– my next thought was the Bengals’ receivers. We are all completely, and rightfully so, enamored with and dazzled by Cooper Kupp’s performance last night and throughout the season. And the OBJ story is getting a ton of airtime as well.
But yes, let’s talk about Ja’Marr Chase and let’s talk about Tee Higgins. Interestingly, the Bengals had the number one most efficient supporting cast. So Joe Burrow and the Bengals had the highest supporting cast efficiency of any other offense in the league. The Rams, in fact, were offense number seven in terms of supporting cast efficiency. And I know part of it had to do with Woods going out early and finding rhythm with OBJ. But I do think Ja’Marr Chase is special. Where I’m at, I am– in fact, he was the player– Jason Klabacha, our manager, asked us to write about which player we were most excited to draft next season, and this was a couple of weeks ago, maybe even six weeks ago by now, and I said Ja’Marr Chase. Tee Higgins was the receiver to bet on in this game. I mean, he had himself a monster, monster game, converting four of seven for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Not a bad day at the office at all. In fact, more yardage than Kupp I feel like Tee Higgins might be the best discount in fantasy drafts next year because everyone’s going to be chasing Chase, and we already talked about Kupp. So if I can still get the number two in the Bengals’ offense, can he possibly fall to the third round? That’s not going to happen, right?
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: It could. I mean, yeah, he just turned 23, Higgins did, in the middle of January. And one of the reasons, I don’t want to go off on another Perine rant, but one of the reasons why that was so odd when he got used is because the Bengals all season they’ve had a very narrow concentration of where the ball goes. It’s been Mixon, it’s been Chase, it’s been Higgins, and then they’ve sprinkled in Tyler Boyd and Uzomah, when available. And that’s it. They don’t fool around with halfback– with fullbacks, they don’t fool around with second tight ends, they don’t fool around with fourth receivers. They say who are our main guys? They’re the guys getting the ball. And that’s why Higgins, some people might say, well, why would you draft a receiver in the third round when he’s not the, ostensibly, not the number one on his team? But because this tree is so narrow, because the quarterback play is going to be so high, because the offensive line can only get better, yeah, I think Higgins is a third-round pick.
And again, he’s 23 freaking years old. He was the early second round pick, which the way receivers are drafted, it’s kind of like what a first round pick used to feel like. I feel like Aaron Rodgers must hate watching the Bengals because he must see a player like Tee Higgins and be like, he should be on my team. I should be throwing– it should be Davante Adams and Tee Higgins, not Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Because the Packers, no disrespect to guys like Lazard and MVS, but man, do they really need at Tee Higgins-type of player.