This article is part of our On Target series.
My friends! We are back for another year of fantasy football and, most interestingly to me, analyzing the play of wide receivers and tight ends week to week. The purpose of On Target is to draw your eyes to some evolving situations with fantasy-relevant pass catchers, and what that can mean for our fantasy teams.
This is not wholly unexpected but after one week, Green leads the NFL in targets. Before the season, I expected a pretty big increase in market share for AJG after the departure of Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu, but nothing like this. Green destroyed Revis Island to the point that he is now the owner of a super dilapidated property. I think he has established himself firmly in the same tier as Odell Beckham and Antonio Brown, above the Julio/ARob/Dez/Alshon/Hopkins group, and if you can send out a trade offer giving up an RB2 + second tier WR1 for Green, I would make that move.
Granted, it was the Cleveland Browns, but it is hard to not be impressed by JMatt's 13 target-114 yard-1 touchdown day. Most importantly, we learned that he will in fact play the outside wide receiver positions and that unlike under Chip Kelly, his athleticism will be trusted and used as a key part of the offense. Matthews was a blue chipper coming out of Vanderbilt and is still the SEC leader in receptions and yards, so a WR1 season wouldn't exactly be surprising. Carson
My friends! We are back for another year of fantasy football and, most interestingly to me, analyzing the play of wide receivers and tight ends week to week. The purpose of On Target is to draw your eyes to some evolving situations with fantasy-relevant pass catchers, and what that can mean for our fantasy teams.
This is not wholly unexpected but after one week, Green leads the NFL in targets. Before the season, I expected a pretty big increase in market share for AJG after the departure of Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu, but nothing like this. Green destroyed Revis Island to the point that he is now the owner of a super dilapidated property. I think he has established himself firmly in the same tier as Odell Beckham and Antonio Brown, above the Julio/ARob/Dez/Alshon/Hopkins group, and if you can send out a trade offer giving up an RB2 + second tier WR1 for Green, I would make that move.
Granted, it was the Cleveland Browns, but it is hard to not be impressed by JMatt's 13 target-114 yard-1 touchdown day. Most importantly, we learned that he will in fact play the outside wide receiver positions and that unlike under Chip Kelly, his athleticism will be trusted and used as a key part of the offense. Matthews was a blue chipper coming out of Vanderbilt and is still the SEC leader in receptions and yards, so a WR1 season wouldn't exactly be surprising. Carson Wentz showed enough to me that I think there is some overall offensive upside in Philly and Matthews would be a beneficiary of that. He's now a firm WR2 as opposed to that WR2/3 purgatory he was being drafted in.
Count this as me being genuinely surprised not that Fuller performed well, but that he earned 11 targets. In projecting the Texans offense, last year's pass heavy, fast-paced attack didn't seem like the right way to go about things. They paid millions of dollars to sign Lamar Miller and got younger at wide receiver while signing a QB who was better in a run-based offense. That didn't stop Hopkins and Fuller from combining for 18 targets and two touchdowns. Fuller is a primary waiver wire/trade target for me as I think the Texans coaching staff is very fond of his downfield abilities.
Tyrell Williams / Dontrelle Inman
For the second year in a row, we are wondering what the Chargers offense is going to look like without Keenan Allen. The initial answer is: not good. Williams had the better stats in the Chiefs game, mostly aided by a long reception where a linebacker lost him on a crossing route and he galloped free for 20 yards, but it was Inman who entered the game playing in Keenan's old role. Both are fine adds in deeper leagues but in 10- or 12-team PPR leagues, I don't think either is a priority. Antonio Gates and Danny Woodhead are likely to soak up much of the volume left over and the Chargers are certainly going to see what they have in Travis Benjamin now.
This sounds weird to say after a game where Kirk Cousins played very poorly (no touchdowns and two picks) but I am treating this like a buying opportunity on all Washington pass catchers. Reed had 10 targets, including three on the first drive, and Jackson hauled in six of his eight targets for 102 yards. Most of this game took place when the Steelers had gotten it out of hand, but Cousins had 44 drop backs and he is looking like a possibility to lead the NFL in passing attempts. Reed and DJax are the players you really want but even Crowder and Garcon have some deep league appeal in 16-teamers or leagues where you can start up to five wide receivers.
I promise to avoid the sordid topic of the 49ers as much possible here but I would be derelict in my duties if I did not discuss Kerley and his role with this team. Despite the total lack of talent, Chip Kelly is still going to lead the NFL in total plays run because that is how he plays football. Kerley had 11 targets last week and pretty clearly is in the slot/possession WR role that Bruce Ellington was supposed to inhabit. Kerley had 49 air yards last week, which is actually encouraging for a guy who normally works close to the line of scrimmage. I actually added Kerley in two of my 16-team leagues and think he'll be a viable cheap DFS play for the next few weeks.
