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Is it safe to draft Michael Thomas before an RB1?

Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon and The Late-Round Podcast's JJ Zachariason discuss where it makes sense to draft Saints WR Michael Thomas. Subscribe to the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Video Transcript

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MATT HARMON: I think there's, like, almost no questions when it comes to Thomas's individual outlook this year. I mean, obviously he's probably not gonna catch that many passes again. You know, whatever. I still think he's a very safe pick.

But my big question is, what running backs do you start considering Thomas ahead of? You know, when do you start to think, OK, I'm gonna askew taking a running back here in the first round, and I'm gonna start to think about Michael Thomas?

JJ ZACHARIASON: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I'm of the belief that you can get-- you know, you go, CMC, Barkley, you got Zeke. There's Dalvin Cook. I think that you're-- at this point, it's like around-- I have Clyde Edwards-Helaire sort of in that range because of the potential upside.

But that's sort of where-- you know, once things get a little bit foggy, that's sort of where I'm starting to lean more wide receiver and looking at Michael Thomas. But I do have some concerns about the Saints offense because Drew Brees last year was out of his mind when he got back from that injury.

In terms of touchdown rate, he was basically pacing to have the best season of his career. So there should be some regression there. You know, like you said, I think that he's one-- you know, Michael Thomas is one of the easiest to project players in terms of just what his target share should look like.

You know what is average at the targets-- it's a little bit lower, but you know that he's just going to have that high catch rate and yada, yada, yada. He'll be able to produce. But I do worry a little bit about what the touchdown upside looks like.

But I still think, you know, he's still my wide receiver one. I think you can make an argument for Adams. But Thomas is still my wide receiver one.

I think once you start to hit that ambiguous area where the running backs at least have some negative marks in terms of what their workload looks like, whether it be their receiving share, whether that be their rushing share, or whether that be-- you know, in CEH's case we don't know exactly how heavily he's gonna be used in that offense.

That's where I would go with a wide receiver. I would take all the workhorses ahead of him, though.

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