Fantasy Football Player Notes

After finishing as the WR17 in 2018 and then the WR23 in 2019, Boyd's being disrespected in fantasy drafts, coming off the board outside the top 30 wide receivers. Sure, A.J. Green is back in the lineup, but drafters aren't high on him, either. Oddly enough, Boyd was a better fantasy asset with Green in the lineup in 2018. Boyd is 25 years old, it's surely not his age. Do people really think that Joe Burrow will be a downgrade from Andy Dalton? That can't be it. Looking at Burrow at LSU, his top receiver (stat-wise) was Justin Jefferson, who put up a stupid 111 receptions for 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns. Jefferson was his slot receiver. While it's a different offense, we know Boyd saw 147 targets in the first year of Zac Taylor's offense. He's the ideal WR3 who's already proven to be better than that, and if the public is right on Green being "done", then Boyd would be a mega-hit in fantasy.

I get it, he hasn't been healthy the last two years. However, when he's been on the field, Green has been a legitimate superstar. Since 2000, here's the list of wide receivers who've posted WR2 or better type numbers at a higher percentage than Green: Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, and Odell Beckham. That's the end of the list. He's played his entire career with Andy Dalton. Now moving to Joe Burrow, the quality of the targets should improve. You could argue that Green didn't have a chance to work with Burrow this offseason, but that's the case with all of Burrow's new group of pass catchers. There is legitimate top-10 upside with Green, which is extremely hard to find where he's being drafted. There's risk, but with where he's being drafted, it's worth it.

We don't know for certain who the No. 3 wide receiver will be in the offense to start the year, but knowing there's been limited workouts, my guess would be that Ross is the guy. He compliments A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd well, while Tee Higgins would clash with Green. If you don't think Ross is a good football player, I urge you to get on NFL Game Pass and watch him. There were a lot of times he was open for what would've been a long gain/touchdown, but Andy Dalton simply missed him. Insert Joe Burrow, who completed 76.3 percent of his passes at LSU last year, including feather-like touch on his deep ball. Ross saw five-plus targets in 6-of-8 games last year, so it's clear that Zac Taylor felt he could make a difference. With both Green and Boyd healthy, Ross won't be seeing that consistent of targets, but should either of them miss time, Ross would be a plug-and-play upside option. Contrary to belief around the industry, Ross should be selected in one of the final rounds of your draft.

I believe the Bengals selected their eventual A.J. Green replacement in Higgins. He's not the most physically gifted or athletic receiver, but Higgins continually makes plays look easy. The game simply comes to him naturally. He has a lot of room to grow as a complete receiver, though, so he should be learning and paying attention to Green's habits throughout the 2020 season. Should Green miss time, Higgins would likely get the nod over the inefficient Auden Tate, who finished 23 spots lower than he should've based on his expected fantasy output. Some are expecting Higgins to start as the No. 3 wide receiver over John Ross, but I'm not one of them, especially with the shortened offseason. If any of the starters were to miss time, Higgins would absolutely be worth a pickup.

The return of A.J. Green pushed Tate down the depth chart. The second-round draft pick of Tee Higgins buried him. Despite playing just 12 games, Tate ranked 51st in targets among wide receivers last year with 80 of them. Despite being 6-foot-5 and 228 pounds, he scored on just one of them. Clearly, the Bengals did not think of him as Green's successor. It's possible that he's the handcuff to Green because he knows the offense and played that role last year, but it'd only be a matter of time before the rookie Higgins took over.