Frey’s Fantasy Focus: Receiving Groups to Watch
Josh Frey
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Wide receivers are tricky when it comes to fantasy. Many times, their scoring outputs can rely on who is throwing them the ball. For example, Keenan Allen may be a quality receiver in today’s NFL, but I would avoid drafting him because of the Chargers’ uncertainty at the QB position between Tyrod Taylor and rookie Justin Herbert. The other existing wide receiving personnel will also affect fantasy value. If there are two or three good to great receivers on a team, all three are going to lose fantasy value due to it. I’m not going to draft Sammy Watkins very high, even though he’s a good receiver, due to the fact that Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and Mecole Hardman are also in Kansas City.
The final, and possibly most important factor, is that the wide receiver depth chart is constantly evolving. One guy may start the season at the top of the depth chart, but if other guys running routes are getting open more frequently, they’re the ones that are going to see the ball thrown their way. I guess my advice here is don’t get too attached to certain wide receivers. It may be beneficial to let one go to bring in a new up and comer. Here are two groups of receivers to watch in 2020.
Dallas Cowboys– Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb
To start the 2020 season, Amari Cooper is at the top of Dallas’ depth chart for good reason. He put up career highs in receiving yards and touchdowns with 1189 yards and eight scores. Even so, he was anything but a dominant number one target in Dallas. His 119 targets ranked 21st in the NFL and were just six more than his rookie counterpart, Michael Gallup.
Gallup came into his own towards the end of the season as well, leading the Cowboys in receiving yards in five of their last seven games. Now, Dallas also throws rookie CeeDee Lamb into this mix as a great third option. It wouldn’t surprise me if Gallup usurped Cooper as the number one option in Dallas during the second half of the season.
Cincinnati Bengals– A.J. Green, Tyler Boyd, Tee Higgins
A.J. Green is back after missing the entire 2019 season, but for how long? The 32-year-old veteran now has an injury reputation at this point, missing at least six games in three of the last four seasons. After being burned by drafting him in two of those injury riddled seasons, you can bet that I will stay as far away from Green as possible. Not to mention he has a pair of young guns nipping at his heels, and at least one with a very similar skill set in first round pick Tee Higgins.
Tyler Boyd showed what he could do as a number one option last year, putting up the 18th most fantasy points at the wide receiver position, and Higgins looks primed to take on more targets as he gets used to the NFL and his team’s philosophy. On top of all this, fellow rookie Joe Burrow was known for his ability to spread the ball around at LSU last year and should look to do the same in Cincinnati. Boyd is probably worth picking up in the later rounds of the draft, and you should certainly keep an eye on Higgins in the free agency pool.