Fantasy Football Player Notes

Derrick Henry made fantasy drafters that overlooked him look silly in 2022, finishing the season as the RB4 overall and in points per game (18.3). He finished second in carries and third in rushing yards (23.4 touches per game) while also posting career highs in targets, receptions and yards per route run. The bad offensive situation hardly influenced Henry's fantasy numbers and he did not seem hampered by the foot injury that knocked him out of the second half of the 2021 season. Fading Henry in 2022 was betting on him to hit the wall playing behind a shaky offensive line finally. And that bet did not go well. But another year of a heavy workload combined with the Titans' grim 2023 outlook with major questions on offense, will bring concerns about drafting Henry early in 2023.

Treylon Burks is staring down a sophomore season with tons of opportunities at his disposal to put his disappointing rookie season in the past. Burks saw a 17.6% target share last season while ranking 35th in air-yard share and 32nd in yards per route run. While none of these numbers will inspire confidence in Burks entering year two, his 17th-ranked route win rate and 24th-ranked open rate (tied with Marquise Brown, per ESPN analytics) should. Burks enters the offseason with only 32-year-old Robert Woods, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, and Chigoziem Okonkwo to compete for targets in 2023. Burks falls in the WR3/4 bucket, but he could easily crush that expectation.

A fourth-round draft pick from Maryland, Chigoziem "Chig" Okonkwo was a pleasant surprise for the Titans in his rookie season, catching 32 passes for 450 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 14.1 yards per catch and 9.8 yards per target, flashing impressive speed and tackle-breaking ability after the catch. Okonkwo is an exciting addition to the TE pool, although the Titans' grim QB situation might force us to temper our enthusiasm for this up-and-comer.

Now in the twilight of his career, Tannehill should be considered a functional game manager with limited fantasy appeal. Tannehill finished as a top-12 QB in 2020 and 2021, but he boosted his fantasy value with seven TD runs in each of those two seasons, and we can't count on that sort of rushing production from a quarterback who'll be entering his age-35 season and had only two TD runs last season.