Fantasy Football Player Notes

We've been hearing the Chark hype train started since Jay Gruden became the coordinator and said he'd be moving Chark around the formation a lot more. Fast forward to camp and everyone (I mean everyone) has been saying Chark's dominating camp. Now, to be fair, the Jaguars defense isn't a hard one to dice up, but neither is the Colts. In fact, Chark had his second-biggest game of the year against them, totaling eight receptions for 104 yards and two touchdowns in their Week 11 meeting. On top of that, the Colts lost their top cornerback Pierre Desir after voiding his contract. They'll be hoping sophomore cornerback Rock Ya-Sin takes a step forward after allowing nearly 10.0 yards per target in 2019. They signed Xavier Rhodes, who's likely to start, but he was among the worst cornerbacks in football last year with the Vikings, allowing a 127.8 QB Rating in his coverage. He's trended down over the last two years, so there's little reason to think he'll be able to keep up with the young Chark. Start Chark as a borderline WR1 this week, who should see eight-plus targets against the team that allowed the third-most fantasy points per target to wide receivers last year.

We're seeing a change of the guard as the top guy in the Lions offense, but you should know that Jones has actually averaged more targets per game than Kenny Golladay when they're both in the lineup over the last two years. We've watched Jones' yards per catch trend way down over the last few years, bottoming out at 12.6 yards per catch last year. Seeing as there were just nine receivers who tallied more than five catches against the Bears last year, a touchdown may be necessary to get him into WR2/3 territory. With the way Jones aligns most of the time (RWR 41.2 percent of the time), he'll see Kyle Fuller more than anyone. Fuller has been a bit hit-or-miss throughout his career, though it helps that the Bears front seven continually gets pressure. Still, Fuller allowed 887 yards in his coverage last year, which ranked as the second most among cornerbacks. Knowing Jones has caught just three balls in three of his last four games against the Bears, there's a lower floor than we'd like as fantasy players. Because of that, he's a boom/bust WR3/4 option this week. *Update* If Golladay has to miss this week, Jones' ceiling suddenly gets much higher, as he'd be locked into eight-plus targets. If Golladay sits, Jones would move into high-end WR3 territory.