Could Hunter Renfrow be a top-20 fantasy WR in 2020?

Yahoo Fantasy’s Liz Loza asks Adam Rank about his bold prediction that the Raiders wide receiver could have a breakout campaign this season. Subscribe to the Yahoo Fantasy Football Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Video Transcript

LIZ LOZA: Hunter Renfrow is a top-20 wide receiver says the guy who isn't famous for hot takes.

ADAM RANK: This is a-- this is a well-reasoned argument. This is-- listen, we talk about Josh Jacobs and how good he is, and I think that the way the Raiders are going to be constructed this season is having Henry Ruggs there is going to open it up, stretch the field, get down the field. I just don't think that Ruggs is going to have the volume to take away production from Hunter Renfrow.

And I know that it's super easy just to be like, oh, he'll be the Julian Edelman of this offense. But the difference is Julian Edelman was a quarterback in college. Hunter Renfrow was an exceptional wide receiver on a great team with great quarterback play. And so I think that as this team gets better, they're on the field more.

And I don't want to make too much about Derek Carr and his average yards per target and anything like that, but he tends not to stretch the field as much as other guys. That's fine. But he's still a good quarterback, and he's going to target Hunter Renfrow. I'm looking at as a volume play.

I would even say I like him so much that based on volume and in PPR leagues I think that he could flirt with being a top-10 guy. But because Josh Jacobs is having-- is going to have such a great season and because Darren "The Baller" Waller is there, that hurts his touchdown potential. So I think top 20 as a wide receiver two. I feel very comfortable making that statement.

LIZ LOZA: How many-- give me a general range, a fearless forecast, if you will, for number of receptions.

ADAM RANK: I think that north of 80.

LIZ LOZA: 80. OK.

ADAM RANK: I think there's going-- I think there's going to be a lot of opportunity there, and I'm trying to, like-- you know, you look at it last year. Chris Godwin was the wide receiver two with 86 receptions. I think that that's-- that's a number that Hunter Renfrow-- he obviously is not quite as dynamic, but I think that-- and this is one of the reasons why I don't like PPR as much, but, you know, like, the amount of targets-- and the guy catches. Like his expected catch rate is one of the best in the NFL. His passer rating when targeted one of the best in the NFL. There's a lot of things that you look at this player and you're like, OK, I can see this translating.

LIZ LOZA: I don't hate it. I think it's a sound argument. The only thing I think I wanted to add was that you also have Brian Edwards, the more physical Alshon Jeffery-type presence on the other side of the field which I think, you know, I don't expect in his rookie year to command a ton of targets but I do expect will draw enough defensive attention to, again, leave the middle of the field open for Renfrow to just work as a sure-handed chain mover.

I'm trying to even find-- Hunter Renfrow right now, by the way, being drafted in the 14th round. So if you can get--

ADAM RANK: It's crazy.

LIZ LOZA: If you can get top-20 production on a guy that you draft after the Denver defense--

ADAM RANK: [LAUGHS]

LIZ LOZA: --fine.