Fantasy Football Player Notes

Aiyuk is a tough one to crack, as he exploded onto the fantasy scene last year, finishing with 583 yards and four touchdowns over his final seven games, but there were factors that helped him achieve those numbers. The major ones being the injuries to George Kittle and Deebo Samuel. There were just four games where the trio were on the field together, and during that time, Aiyuk saw just 21 targets (the lowest of the three) and had 13/189/1 combined in those games. To be fair, it was from Week 4-7, so it was very early in Aiyuk's rookie season, so it's possible he just hadn't earned the trust yet. There's a wide range of outcomes in his projections, going as high as a top-15 wide receiver, but also as low as a wide receiver in the WR30-36 range. You want equity when drafting, so taking Aiyuk as anything more than a WR3 when Kittle and Samuel are healthy is risky.

Something tells me that Samuel is going to become the Jarvis Landry of the 2020's. What do I mean by that? Well, he's probably going to finish better than where I have him ranked at the end of the season, but just because he finishes as the WR24 (hypothetically), it doesn't necessarily mean he's the 24th best receiver to roster. Through 22 career games, Samuel has never hit the "boom" mark of 25 PPR points. On top of that, there are suddenly a lot of mouths to feed in the 49ers pass attack. He's a solid player with a decent floor, but he won't be the reason you win a fantasy championship. You can take him as a stable WR3, or shoot for someone with a higher ceiling/lower floor.