Sal Vetri's Fantasy Fears: Kirk, Evans, & Brooks | Yahoo Fantasy Forecast

all right s we tasked you with coming up with a secret list of three guys that do have you a little bit panicked heading into this season uh because look sometime the people they're just in their feelings and look we we love you okay listeners fantasy Community you know life is too short for that kind of panic okay life is too short to be panicked about jir Gibbs with David Montgomery but sa sometimes there are situations that really have us worried and as a smart guy you're going to tell us those three that we really need to care about here so give me number one on your list yeah I'm going to be vulnerable here with you Matt so I appreciate I trust you on these the first one is Christian Kirk who is somebody that early on in the summer I was drafting a lot of as usually a seventh round pick and he kind of goes in a similar range right now but I think things maybe haven't totally worked against him but there's just these small things popping up that are giving me some concern the biggest one is Brian Thomas Brian Thomas was not having maybe the most outstanding beginning of camp but the last two to three weeks it's really come on and it's come on strong and when you start to say how he fits into this offense it looks good you see Evan Ingram in the preseason having two touchdowns continuing to look good with Trevor Lawrence let all tight ends in targets and receptions kind of quietly last season so those are two weapons already in the offense and now I'm starting to wonder if Brian Thomas is winning in the Deep to intermediate parts of the field if Ingram's controlling that middle part of the field obviously there's going to be some work for Christian Kirk but is it as much as I once thought four to six to eight weeks ago this is where some concerns come in you could look at that first preseason game when Kirk wasn't on the field in two wide receiver sets it's just five to 10 snaps we can't take too much from that they might have just wanted to see a formation with the rookie on the outside how it works but it's something that happened that's also I'm already a little concerned then I see that now I'm getting a little scared yeah we uh are publishing our wide receiver Fades piece on the site I well it be it will be up today as people are listening to this um and mine was Christian Kirk so we're actually on the same page with this one look Christian Kirk goes his like 70th overall player you draft it you draft Christian Kirk and it doesn't work out he's not going to sink your whole fantasy season so uh maybe a cowardly call by me to make him my wide receiver fade but he's just a guy that I've been drafting like drafting around you know in an area where I think you really got to get those receiver picks right uh he is a guy that that goes in a Range it I'm just I'm not really trying to take a player with his path to upside because I think there are some pretty serious blocks in terms of his path to upside you laid out Brian Thomas is the biggest one again to go back to the episode that we taped early this week with Dwayne McFarland I said and of course the social media team posted it shout out to them uh I'd rather have Brian Thomas straight up at this point over Christian Kirk uh I think by the end of the season he will be the number one receiver on this team Emin Ingram's role overlaps a little bit with Kirk uh I think Kirk is a good player but you know he's a slot mostly guy and we haven't said the name Gabe Davis yet s and because Gabe Davis is not a Target earner but he's a snap eater he is gonna be on the field pretty much for every single snap and and doing his thing which is mostly running vertical routes and not getting a lot of of separation and not getting a lot of targets but that still is going to impact everybody else in terms of their target ceilings in the offense so I think Kirk can still be a a decent wide receiver three maybe but there's no real path to a ceiling there anymore because I think Brian Thomas is is kind of established himself enough to this point yeah I think we're on the same page there the next the next guy that I have though is somebody who goes earlier so like you get a 70th overall like you were saying m Christian Kirk it won't kill you but this guy goes in round three in most drafts and it's Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers I mean maybe the most consistent player in NFL history 10 straight seasons of a thousand plus yards but he's now 31 years old which you know you should bring up in terms of when those wide receivers start to fall off it's something to think about and it seems like Chris Goblin's getting a little bit more involved in the offense in terms of being used in the right way Liam col this offseason has stated multiple times uh via coach speak index on Twitter that yeah they're going to put Chris gowin back in the slot we saw that in a very limited sample of seven snaps in the preseason he was in the slot for six of those where he's been more efficient especially as an aging receiver so does he start to earn more targets from Baker Mayfield Baker Mayfield in general got paid $100 million this offseason he was not in a prove it year anymore he proved it and he got a bag so how does he come into this season now we'll see what happens there and there's a brand new coach of course um in terms of offensive coordinator Dave Canalis being gone with Liam colem coming in how does that work in terms of how you're using the receivers Canalis was using them in a very specific way helping Baker Mayfield strengths we're hoping that that continues but it's not just guaranteed to be carbon copied over oh this one's tough man um the my super basic analysis on this which is not how I really feel it just feels like I never quite get the Mike Evans Chris Godwin thing right in terms of like which is the right year to be on because both of these guys are really good players and at times I actually think they've and you know before Chris Godin tour is ACL I thought there was a very narrow gap between those two guys like I thought Godwin was really rising up to be you know kind of in that I think he's he's topped out as maybe being a the best one of the best of the best number two receivers but he was certainly creeping up on Evans in terms of like his overall rankings among the League's Pantheon of wide receivers but these last few years it's been you know I thought godwood might be a better fit with Baker Mayfield than Mike Evans was but the way they used him wasn't totally right uh the way that you know Mike Evans was just deployed on all these outbreaking routes which is what Baker Mayfield loves to throw he doesn't love to work the middle of the field he loves to throw those outbreaking routes to the field uh because that's just where he's more comfortable working because of how how tall he is and just the way he plays the position so how much of that is going to map over from Dave Canal's offense to Liam Cohen's offense how much is Cohen gonna come in here and just say hey what what worked with last year works for me you know uh Jaylen McMillan is also a guy who's been getting hype uh that that's certainly a part to point of this too the rookie wide receiver but at the same time s the only reason I can't get fully on board with you about panicking about Mike Evans is last year Evans Saw 136 targets Chris Godwin saw 130 nobody else saw more than 70 I I think that's maybe maybe Jaylen McMillan can establish himself to be like a 75 Target receiver something like that but I think that would be a little bit of a stretch just based on how I view him as a player so like in terms of just the overall volume in the offense I think there's still more than enough for Evans to at least maybe meet his ADP maybe not CRA crush it uh because for we're just asking him to score a few more touchdowns like we don't need him to see more than 130 targets to be a value at his respective ADP so I'm not panicked on Mike Evans I I think he's okay as a third round pick but I do hear some of your points of concern on this one thank you you've Cal you've calmed my nerves a good amount I feel I feel good now and and to add an extra bonus the offensive line should be improved adding grah Barton which should only help things yeah and their second round pick last year Cody Mack I think should just be more equipped to handle the NFL like he was a guy coming from a small school last year day you know day two draft pick like rookie offensive lineman could really struggle they got great play out luki uh Tristan wor is one of the best left tackles in the league now at this point I think that Improvement on the offensive line is actually the most important note here that could help the Run game but also could help the pass game too like I got like Baker May every quarterback is worse Under Pressure than they are when they're kept clean but for Baker he's always been a guy that when you can protect him you're going to get the best out of him so that's that's a good thing to know here too all right give me your last one s let's go let's let's he the last player that you're panicked on hopefully this one uh you you finished with the bangang yeah so the last one is actually one that a listener had earlier so we're sharing some concerns here and it is Jonathan Brooks the Panthers running back uh second round pick it's not a concern around the recent news like I said we've kind of already known that he's going to miss a couple of weeks like that's something I already knew okay he's going to miss an extra game there is that chance that it's more but we're going to assume we get him back for week five it's more so the concern now that chuba hubard has that first four weeks to potentially in some good matchups look good which maybe takes until now like week seven or eight instead of right away week five when Jonathan Brook starts to take over at least increases the risk of a time share for a little bit more which is not really what I want when I'm spending a Draft pick on him the nice thing is he seems to at least in live drafts right now be falling a round or two but that is where my concerns come in right now especially in a lot of drafts earlier this summer if you were spending like that eighth round pick on him how could you think the Panthers offense is going to be this year you know like that that I think is a big question to this I mean they're I think I don't know I'm not going to speak for usal I think that they are going to be they're going to be better than they were last year which shoot is not saying very much but how high do you think this offense can fly this year yeah I don't I mean I if they get near League average I think that's a massive win for them um they've done everything they possibly could have in terms of supporting Bryce young I think the offensive line might be the second most improved unit behind the Jets heading into this year which should help everybody around them they brought in some pieces as well obviously Deontay Johnson first round pick Xavier Legette been banged up in Camp maybe starts to get going a little bit as the season starts so I mean if if they finish as the 20th 18th offense in the NFL I think that's a massive win after what they were last year dead last in yards per play um just averaging like something putrid below like five yards per play so anything above that is a win there's a couple the the reason I ask that is because I think the popular comparison for Jonathan Brooks and the optimistic case is well look at what Bree Hall did last year I think there's a couple of the good point for for Jonathan Brooks here is that I think he's gonna play in a better offense than what Bree Hall played in last year whatever Bryce young is whatever Dave Canales is it will be better than Nate Hackett and you know freaking Tim Bole uh or Trevor Simian or whatever okay so that's just point one in Brooks's favor the two things that I think are problematic for Jonathan Brooks is one Whatever Jonathan Brooks is I think he's probably not gonna be as good as Breece Hall you know I you know Panthers fans can feel free to be optimistic about Jonathan Brooks like hey I'm an idiot and maybe I look like an idiot maybe Jonathan Brooks is the best back in the league but R Hall is one of the best running backs in the league so I I don't necessarily think there's a a lot of competition there but your point about chuba hubard which oh my God this must be the most any any podcast has freaking talked about chuba hubard in the last few weeks I think chuba hubard is better than whatever 2023 dvin cook was right if we're still using this Bree Hall comparison so the thing I think that if you're panicking about Brooks you've really got to believe that chuba hubber is good enough to hold down a 1B is or maybe even just the straightup I I don't think he'll end up holding the top job but just be like a real member of a committee with Jonathan Brooks because if you're drafting Brooks you're hoping he comes back and he's just a set it and forget it running back for you if he's a guy that's in a murky committee on an offense that's at best 18th 20th I think that's where some of the panic comes in um I just don't know if I totally feel that way about chuba hubard s but it it that's sort of the Crux somehow that's the Crux of this discussion here is how good is chuba hubard yeah and it could obviously go either way hubard can absolutely stink those first couple of games and they have to get my sanders involved and that's just looking ugly and they can't wait to get Jonathan Brooks back but it just gives it it opens the door now for that chance of maybe a longer committee because even when Brooks comes back he's not seeing a full workload week five if that's when he comes back they're probably going to give him a week or two uh to just ramp up back from the injury first games in the NFL