Fantasy Football Player Notes

It really stinks that we may not get to see Moore play with a top-tier quarterback during his early years. He's an extremely good football player who's been stuck in a bad situation. He made the most of bad targets last year, finishing as the WR18 and delivering WR2 or better performances 60.0 percent of the time, which ranked eighth among wide receivers. Now another obstacle to cross. He'll have a new quarterback and a new head coach in 2020. The coach (Matt Rhule) also decided they needed to bring in Robby Anderson, a receiver who previously played under him, which could mean the targets get spread out a bit. The good news is that Bridgewater attempted a deep ball on just 7.1 percent of his pass attempts, which was the second-lowest rate in the NFL, and not an area where Moore operates. The talent is there for Moore to make a jump into WR1 status, but the situation doesn't seem ideal with virtually no offseason. He's best suited as a WR2 on fantasy teams, as top-24 should be his absolute floor.

Switching teams as a wide receiver this offseason seems... less than ideal. It does help, however, when there's a new quarterback on that team, as well as a coach you've played for in the past. Matt Rhule was the coach while Anderson was at Temple back in 2015. The issue is that Bridgewater's strengths don't really align with Anderson's. Bridgewater threw the ball 20-plus yards just 7.1 percent of the time last year, which ranked second lowest in the league. Anderson's skill set just doesn't align with Bridgewater's strengths as a passer, though they may try to force the issue after spending $20 million over two years on Anderson. Not having an offseason to build rapport makes me a bit more concerned, especially knowing we've seen Anderson's effort level best described as "inconsistent" on the field. It's tough to say he'll be a better fantasy option than he was in New York, only now his asking price is much lower. Being taken outside the top 50 wide receivers is a discount worth taking in best-ball leagues, but in redraft, it's tough to say he'll be a consistent contributor. He's the third option, at best.

There are a lot of analysts making excuses for Samuel's poor production last year, stating that his quarterback play was atrocious. While I don't disagree, there are plenty of wide receivers who've had bad quarterback play but managed to be useful. Samuel's 0.96 yards per route run in 2019 ranked dead last among the 157 wide receivers with at least 100 targets over the last five years. Heck, his teammate D.J. Moore was able to finish as the WR18. Based on the targets Samuel received and where they took place, he should have finished as the WR16. Look, I'm not saying Samuel is as bad as he was in 2019, but for him to become a reliable fantasy player, he'd have to overcome the fact that he's now the fourth-best target in the offense, behind McCaffrey, Moore, and Anderson. The Panthers also tried shopping Samuel this offseason, but ultimately held onto him. He's someone to look at during bye weeks when the Panthers are double-digit underdogs. Outside of that, you're just looking for an injury to him to become anything more than a WR5-type option.