Let's zoom in on a few guys making news in training camp, and the resulting fantasy implications:
(1) On Monday Marty Ventrella asks for feedback on Jordan Matthews. A lot's changed in three days. At the start of the week, my view on Matthews was mixed. On the one hand, he was competing for the Pats' #2 WR job for weeks 1-4, and presumably the #3 job when Edelman returns Week 5. Playing with Tom Brady, that automatically made him relevant. However, he's also dropped 19 passes on 382 career targets, which is pretty bad. All told, Matthews had a decent ceiling in the WR3/4 range and a horrendous floor of 16 DNPs.
Yesterday New England cleared up this muddled situation by placing Matthews on injured reserve, as his hamstring injury proved more serious than originally reported. So that's that. Except, of course, it isn't.
With Malcolm Mitchell's status in doubt, the injured Kenny Britt is now my favorite "other" Patriot wideout to watch. Phillip Dorsett and Cordarrelle Patterson don't have the skill-set to be a true #2 or even a #3, meaning if Britt can get healthy and get the starting nod Week 1, he'll have instant WR4+ appeal and could (yes, could) overtake Edelman starting Week 5. The team's also brought in Eric Decker for a tryout. Surely Wes Welker can't be far behind. . . . I'd keep an eye on Britt's health over the next week. If he looks doubtful for Week 1, I'd expect New England to part with one or two of their 2019 draft picks (they have six thru the first three rounds) in exchange for an instant-impact, top-50-caliber NFL receiver.
(2) Chris Thompson shared yesterday that he won't feel 100% healed from his broken leg until November. He's on the field in camp and has looked pretty good. But doctors told him it'll take a year to heal fully, and he also acknowledged the mental challenges of running with the ball and worrying about re-injury. He was last year's 10th best PPR RB before going down on only 10 touches per game; the point is, he doesn't need a ton of volume to be fantasy-relevant.
If, like me, you view Thompson as a bargain at his RB-35 ADP, this latest story is good news. It means he might slip further in drafts, giving you a good shot at grabbing an RB2-upside PPR weapon at an RB4 price.
(3) Browns reporter Scott Petrak wrote yesterday that David Njoku has been dropping a lot of passes in camp. On the one hand, that shouldn't matter. It's camp, and Njoku is a prized 2017 first-rounder who's expected to get more run in Year 2.
But we need to look deeper. Njoku dropped three passes on 60 targets last year (not great) and had eight drops in two college seasons. This isn't a fluky situation; it's the continuing of a bad trend. While Njoku has plenty of time to correct things, Seth DeValve isn't going anywhere. Njoku's TE-13 ADP now looks a little aggressive. Right now I certainly wouldn't reach for him as a TE1, and instead would hope to snag him around 14-16 in deep leagues, with little to lose if he falters.
(1) On Monday Marty Ventrella asks for feedback on Jordan Matthews. A lot's changed in three days. At the start of the week, my view on Matthews was mixed. On the one hand, he was competing for the Pats' #2 WR job for weeks 1-4, and presumably the #3 job when Edelman returns Week 5. Playing with Tom Brady, that automatically made him relevant. However, he's also dropped 19 passes on 382 career targets, which is pretty bad. All told, Matthews had a decent ceiling in the WR3/4 range and a horrendous floor of 16 DNPs.
Yesterday New England cleared up this muddled situation by placing Matthews on injured reserve, as his hamstring injury proved more serious than originally reported. So that's that. Except, of course, it isn't.
With Malcolm Mitchell's status in doubt, the injured Kenny Britt is now my favorite "other" Patriot wideout to watch. Phillip Dorsett and Cordarrelle Patterson don't have the skill-set to be a true #2 or even a #3, meaning if Britt can get healthy and get the starting nod Week 1, he'll have instant WR4+ appeal and could (yes, could) overtake Edelman starting Week 5. The team's also brought in Eric Decker for a tryout. Surely Wes Welker can't be far behind. . . . I'd keep an eye on Britt's health over the next week. If he looks doubtful for Week 1, I'd expect New England to part with one or two of their 2019 draft picks (they have six thru the first three rounds) in exchange for an instant-impact, top-50-caliber NFL receiver.
(2) Chris Thompson shared yesterday that he won't feel 100% healed from his broken leg until November. He's on the field in camp and has looked pretty good. But doctors told him it'll take a year to heal fully, and he also acknowledged the mental challenges of running with the ball and worrying about re-injury. He was last year's 10th best PPR RB before going down on only 10 touches per game; the point is, he doesn't need a ton of volume to be fantasy-relevant.
If, like me, you view Thompson as a bargain at his RB-35 ADP, this latest story is good news. It means he might slip further in drafts, giving you a good shot at grabbing an RB2-upside PPR weapon at an RB4 price.
(3) Browns reporter Scott Petrak wrote yesterday that David Njoku has been dropping a lot of passes in camp. On the one hand, that shouldn't matter. It's camp, and Njoku is a prized 2017 first-rounder who's expected to get more run in Year 2.
But we need to look deeper. Njoku dropped three passes on 60 targets last year (not great) and had eight drops in two college seasons. This isn't a fluky situation; it's the continuing of a bad trend. While Njoku has plenty of time to correct things, Seth DeValve isn't going anywhere. Njoku's TE-13 ADP now looks a little aggressive. Right now I certainly wouldn't reach for him as a TE1, and instead would hope to snag him around 14-16 in deep leagues, with little to lose if he falters.