Fantasy Football Player Notes

He was coming off foot surgery last year, and it was the reason I was avoiding him in drafts. Same calendar year surgery on foot/ankle never goes well for pass catchers. Still, Brown went out there and played well the first two weeks, racking up 253 yards and two touchdowns over the first two weeks. Unfortunately, the injuries to his lower body added up as the year went on and his performances reflected that, as he topped 50 yards just once over the remaining 12 games he played. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman has said Brown's "had a great offseason." Brown's schedule is great to start the year, too. In Weeks 2-5, he'll play against the Texans, Chiefs, Washington, and Bengals. The upside to Brown is a DeSean Jackson-like presence of someone who won't be a consistent WR1, but rather one you play as a WR2/3 who gives you "boom" potential on a weekly basis. However, if the Ravens don't up their pass attempts, it'll be hard figuring out when those booms will come. Relying on him as more than a WR3 this year would probably be a mistake, because there's not much evidence suggesting they'll throw the ball a lot more than they did in 2019.

Have the Ravens written him off as a bust? After drafting him in the third round last year, they had him playing behind guys like Seth Roberts and Willie Snead. He played just 27.2 snaps per game and saw just 22 targets his rookie year despite being healthy for all 16 games. He did score three touchdowns on those targets, and outside of Mark Andrews, he's probably the dark horse to lead the team in receiving touchdowns at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. Still, he needs to be on the field for that to happen. My guess would be that he starts on the perimeter opposite Marquise Brown with Roberts gone, so there's some sort of opportunity here. The issue is that they targeted wide receivers just 172 times last year. Even a 15 percent increase (which is a lot) would bring them up to 200 targets. Without an injury, it's going to be difficult for Boykin to see more than 50-60 targets, even as a starter.