Fantasy Football Player Notes

It should be an interesting debate regarding Woods this year, because on the surface, it appears that he gets an upgrade to Matthew Stafford. While that's true, it can be argued that Jared Goff's skill-set was tailormade for Woods' skill-set. The 7.1 air yards per target Woods saw in 2020 was the 10th-lowest mark among wide receivers. Meanwhile, Stafford likes to push the ball down the field a bit more. Because of the questions (good or bad), Woods should ultimately be viewed as a mid-to-low-end WR2.

It seemed like the Rams wanted to stretch the middle of the field with Kupp at times over the last couple years, though Jared Goff's inability to accurately throw the ball downfield hindered Kupp's upside. Of the eight deep targets he saw in 2020, just one was catchable. Kupp's not a burner by any means, but if he doesn't have splash plays, he's not going to be anything more than a boring PPR asset. There's more to his game than what we've seen, and it's possible that Matthew Stafford unlocks it. He should be treated as a safe, high-floor WR2.

Let's do an exercise... How many targets per game do you anticipate Beckham getting this year? I'm going with an extremely low number and say he averages 6.5 targets per game. That sounds more than reasonable, right? Beckham had 7.0 targets per game during the 2020 season before getting hurt and that includes a three-target game against the Steelers. The Browns were also throwing the ball a lot less early in the year as Baker Mayfield was still getting grasp on Kevin Stefanski's playbook. If Beckham gets 6.5 targets per game, that'd put him on pace for 104 targets, which again, is what I'd consider low. There were just 32 receivers in the NFL who hit that number last year, with 24 of them (75 percent) finishing as top-24 receivers and just two finishing worse than WR38. You mean to tell me with Beckham's talent, he can't produce top-24 numbers? There's health risks for sure, but there's also top-five wide receiver upside.