Thursday Night Football played out largely as expected, but with a
couple of surprising disappointments for some of you. On the down side, Jimmy Graham was not the
best fantasy TE in the game. He wasn’t
even the best on his team. He was even
out-targeted by his backup, Luke Wilson.
Graham’s “what if” TD opportunity shows he’s still part of the game
plan. But two duds in two solid fantasy
playoff matchups has marred an otherwise fantastic post-serious-injury
season. And in the backfield, Thomas
Rawls turned 23 touches into less than four standard-scoring fantasy points. Facing a defense yielding 100+ rushing yards
per game on 4.1 YPC, I didn’t see that coming.
On the plus side, Russell Wilson got his three scores, Doug Baldwin was
(for most people) an acceptable low-end WR2 (with one bad throw costing him
elite WR1 numbers), and Tyler Lockett—a guy I’ve kept pushing despite a slow
injury recovery and interference from teammate Jermaine Kearse—made it two
blow-up games in three weeks. And on the
other side of the ball, Todd Gurley and Kenny Britt were unstartable as
expected. This was a game the Seahawks
had to own, and they did.
Looking ahead to this weekend, here are some underrated WRs, based on
Fantasy Pros’ collection of 115 experts.
As you can see from earlier posts, the number of experts keeps
increasing. That’s because some people
aren’t sharing their rankings until later in the week. The experts include all the names you know
(or don’t) from ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, CBS Sports, etc., as well as bloggers all
around the country.
And keep in mind Tyler Lockett was the 57th ranked WR this
week, well below where he should have been.
Only one person ranked him better than 35th (Razzball’s Tehol
Beddict, who wisely and boldly placed him 20th). So experts are fallible, and smart contrarianism
pays off in the long run.
Mike Wallace (#34) is a top 20 fantasy WR this year in a plus home
matchup. He should be a top 25 WR this
week without breaking a sweat more than once.
While I’m not very high on Allen Robinson (#38) or Marqise Lee (#48)
this week, I’m higher on them than pretty much everyone else. There’s no one else worth throwing to in
Jacksonville. Expect high-volume usage,
giving both WR2 upside, though realistically only one will be worth the dart
throw. So you’ve got a 50-50 shot.
J.J. Nelson (#49) – In fairness, a handful of experts had turned in
their rankings before learning Michael Floyd’s fate. But no excuses for everyone else. Nelson is on the WR3 radar with big-play
ability due to ungodly speed (4.28 40-yard dash at last year’s combine).
Sterling Shepard (#51) – There’s no reason for this. The Giants are playing a terrible Detroit
pass defense, and Shepard is Eli Manning’s #2 guy. He’s a largely TD-dependent WR2/3 this week
with WR4 downside—playable in most leagues.
Tyler Boyd (#55) and Brandon LaFell (#58) are fantastic flyers in deep
leagues assuming A.J. Green sits. As
with Jacksonville, you pick one if you’re desperate and have a 50-50 shot at a
TD.
And what is Breshad Perriman doing at #66? While his targets have been limited, Perriman
has scored in three of his past four games and also has cleared 50 yards in
three of four. He’s a WR2-upside DFS
bargain and a worthwhile sleeper in leagues where you’re choosing between him
and a Jet or 49er.