Fantasy Football Player Notes

From the time that Dwayne Haskins took over as the starting quarterback, McLaurin saw 47 targets, hauling in 30 of them for 461 yards and two touchdowns. He was the No. 36 wide receiver during that stretch. We have little concern about McLaurin's talent, but more concern about lack of touchdown upside with Haskins under center. Now the clear-cut No. 1 receiving option for this team, he'll surely see Darius Slay in coverage this week, a cornerback who's continually among the best in the game. He allowed just a 58.3 percent catch-rate in his coverage last year, which again, isn't great because McLaurin saw more than nine targets just once in 2019. In the game he did, it just so happens it was against the Lions (and Slay) in Week 12 when he turned 12 targets into 5/72/0. That's a realistic finishing stat line for him this week, though he'll have to do it on fewer attempts considering how few plays Eagles' opponents run. Many will run to say that the Eagles allowed 10 different wide receivers hit the 100-yard mark in 2019 and that McLaurin accounted for two of them, but that doesn't account for their massive upgrade with both Slay and Nickell Robey-Coleman. As the clear-cut No. 1 receiver in a negative gamescript, McLaurin should still be played as a low-end WR2 who offers a solid floor.

We saw the Panthers force the issue getting Samuel targets last year, though his efficiency was among the worst in the league. Was it due to the quarterback play? Maybe, though there are a lot of receivers who have to deal with poor quarterback play. New offensive coordinator Joe Brady should get creative with Samuel and find ways to utilize him closer to the line of scrimmage, though we have to project that to happen, as we haven't seen it with Samuel in the NFL just yet. The most consistent cornerback on the Raiders last year was Lamarcus Joyner, who covers the slot, which is where we should expect Samuel to play most of his snaps. Looking at the wide receivers who did well against the Raiders last year, not many of them were smaller receivers. The best game a sub-5-foot-11 receiver had against them was Mecole Hardman's 4/61/1 when Tyreek Hill was out of the lineup. I don't think Samuel offers so much upside that you can't pass on starting him, especially considering the negative reports that were coming out of camp. I'd rather sit back and watch how he's utilized in the new offense.

It's tough to gauge who will get the touches in the Washington offense outside of McLaurin, but it appears that Sims is on the right track. After a season-ending injury to Kelvin Harmon, they went out and signed Dontrelle Inman, though he's not someone who'll siphon many targets. Sims took over as the full-time slot receiver over the final four weeks of the 2019 season, totaling 36 targets, 20 receptions, 230 yards, and four touchdowns. Clearly, Haskins found a target in him, and it's not like they have a tight end who'll be stealing a bunch of those targets over the middle of the field. The issue is that Nickell Robey-Coleman was signed in free agency and he's quietly been one of the best slot cornerbacks in all of football. On 53 targets in the slot last year, he allowed just 32 receptions for 272 yards and one touchdown in his coverage. To better understand why it's a problem, Sims played 79 percent of his snaps in the slot last year, so he'll see a ton of Robey-Coleman. Sims is going to have some usable weeks, though this isn't one where I'd want to rely on him.