Fantasy Football Player Notes

Where has his role gone in this offense? We thought it was due to Joe Flacco under center, but after seeing just five targets in Week 12 with Darnold under center, you have to wonder if they're trying to move away from the slot receiver as the primary option. You'd have to go all the way back to Week 5 to find the last time Crowder finished with more than 48 yards. He's no longer someone who absolutely needs to be started. The Raiders matchup is tougher in the slot than it is on the perimeter, too. Lamarcus Joyner has allowed 34-of-48 passing for just 353 yards and no touchdowns in his coverage this season. The Raiders did allow big games to both Keenan Allen and Chris Godwin, but both of those wide receivers see plenty of time on the perimeter, which is something Crowder knows nothing about. The more comparable receivers would be Cole Beasley (3/32/1), Jarvis Landry (4/52/0), Curtis Samuel (5/38/0), and Russell Gage (3/34/0), who were all held in check against them. Crowder should be considered a low-upside WR4/5-type option who might have a higher floor than some in that range, but you might be better off sacrificing some floor for ceiling.

It's pretty remarkable when you consider everything he's been through with three different teams, but Perriman has averaged 10.2 yards per target over the last three years, which ranks fifth among wide receivers with 100-plus targets over that time. His targets have been inconsistent all year, as we've talked about several times. Here are his target totals by week: 5, 2, 8, 2, 7, 4, 8. If the trend were to hold, we'd be looking at a 2-4 target game this week, though we hope that's not the case. The Raiders have seen just 53.6 percent of targets directed at wide receivers, which ranks as the third-lowest mark in the league. Another downside is that Darnold has thrown the ball deep on just 9.7 percent of his attempts, while Joe Flacco threw the ball deep on 19.4 percent of his attempts. That's where Perriman makes up most of his value. The Raiders might be missing starting cornerback Damon Arnette for this game, as he suffered a pretty bad concussion in Week 12. His replacement, Isaiah Johnson, allowed 5-of-9 passing for 42 yards and a touchdown in his coverage last week. The Raiders haven't been too susceptible to the deep ball (32 completions of 20-plus yards), which makes Perriman a boom-or-bust WR5 with his fluctuating target share.

Gore continues to see a significant workload each week and he now has a fantastic matchup against the Raiders run defense. Gore can be viewed as a high-end RB3 with little upside.

He now has three straight games with eight targets, which is certainly good news, and he's also totaled at least 62 yards in each of them. We noticed that other rookies took some time to acclimate to the NFL, so it could be starting to click for Mims. The matchup he'll have against the Raiders will be primarily against Damon Arnette (who suffered a concussion last week) or Isaiah Johnson. Neither of them has been particularly good this year, allowing a combined 33-of-47 passing for 473 yards and three touchdowns. That's over 10.0 yards per target and a touchdown every 15.7 targets. Still, the production against them has been quite spread out, as there've been just nine wide receivers all year who've topped 68 receiving yards against them. Ultimately, Mims should offer a somewhat stable floor as a low-end WR4 but it's hard to love him in this offense that's constantly underachieving.

So much for potentially building some momentum, eh? After his three-target game in Week 11 where he scored, Herndon went back to more of the 2020 version of himself in Week 12, finishing with as many targets as you and I had. Zero. It's not like this matchup is one to target with tight ends, either. Outside of Travis Kelce, they've allowed just one tight end to top 9.3 PPR points.