After another week of pre-season football, starting lineups and usage trends are beginning to emerge that will shape the success of your fantasy leagues. So today we’ll go through the biggest wide receiver and tight end winners and losers from the last week of the pre-season.
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Winners:
-Chris Godwin has been activated off the PUP list and looks set to start the year on the 53-man roster. He’s unlikely to play in week one but this suggests he’ll be involved sooner rather than later. Godwin was the WR2 on a per-game basis last season and while Liam Coen has left, there’s still a good chance Godwin becomes an absolute bargain later in the season if he can regain full health.
-Devaughn Vele has been traded to the Saints and has a good chance to be the starting slot receiver in New Orleans. This has been a valuable role for Kellen Moore at times making a Vele a viable late-round or dynasty pickup. This consolidates the feeling that Brandin Cooks may simply be a rotational receiver in NOLA, with Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed and Vele likely to start in most three receiver sets. Meanwhile, Troy Franklin now appears set to take on the less-valuable slot role in Denver. Courtland Sutton and Marvin Mims remain the valuable receivers for the Broncos, with Evan Engram the main man across the middle of the field and Pat Bryant always a threat for the third receiver role.
-Tyler Conklin appears to have won the starting tight end job in LA, but it remains to be seen just how valuable it will be. With a hoard of quality receivers available, I’d expect a lot of 11 personnel and plenty of blocking tight end Will Dissly to enhance the valuable Harbaugh run game. Conklin is at best a super-deep league pickup while Orande Gadsden is a taxi squad stash at best.
-Colston Loveland is splitting snaps with Cole Kmet during the second pre-season game, after Kmet sat out the first game. This seems like bad news but it’s pretty standard for rookie tight ends to take a while to win the every-down job. (They can’t all be Sam LaPorta.) The good news is that Loveland continued to be used on all three downs (as was Kmet). This suggests Loveland could end up the every down starter simply by outplaying Kmet rather than starting as a purely third down tight end. Nevertheless, I’m still avoiding Loveland in redraft leagues given the amount of target competition in Chicago.
-Elic Ayomanor is still in the conversation for the third receiver role in Tennessee. He’s not draftable in redraft (would you be drafting Van Jefferson if Ayomanor weren’t there?) but it does consolidate his dynasty value. I still like Chimere Dike as the slightly better long-term prospect but I can’t ignore the value of any starter in a deeper dynasty league.
-Beaux Collins is threatening Jalin Hyatt for the primary backup receiver role in New York. Collins was an UDFA out of Notre Dame who spent his first three college seasons at Clemson. A highly touted recruit who never lived up to his potential, Collins has the quality to turn into an NFL starter, though it’s hard to see him becoming fantasy relevant. He’s a fine pickup in super-deep dynasty leagues that have taxi squads.
Losers:
-Rashee Rice’s suspension drama drags on. It seems we will not get clarity on his suspension length until a few weeks into the season, and it’s not impossible it will take up over half the season. Reportedly, the league suggested a 10 week suspension initially, though 4-6 weeks appears more likely according to some. Given this could easily affect Rice’s fantasy playoff availability, I’m totally avoiding him in redraft leagues and he is now my WR41.
-Brock Bowers has been losing early down snaps to Michael Mayer. It’s worth noting that this also happened last pre-season, but it’s still a concerning choice. Bowers was already close to Trey McBride for me and this is nearly enough for me to move the Cardinal above the Raider.
-Tre Harris appears to be behind not only Ladd McConkey, Quentin Johnston and Keenan Allen, but also behind fifth-round rookie KeAndre Lambert-Smith. While it is possible he moves up the depth chart later in the season, he is almost droppable in redraft leagues as he’ll need at least one injury, maybe two, to win a starting role that may not even be valuable. KLS is now even more worth picking up in dynasty leagues while Allen and Johnston are interesting late round pot shots.
-Jayden Higgins is also in danger of starting the season as a backup, with Xavier Hutchinson starting over Higgins in the most recent pre-season matchup. The two alternated drives though, meaning they are close. I’d expect Higgins will win the job at some stage, but it’s not impossible Hutchinson is on the field an irritating amount, especially early in the season.
-The 49ers receiver room just can’t take a trick. Brandon Aiyuk will miss a fair chunk of the season, Jauan Jennings has a ‘calf injury’ (he’s holding out so that may be overblown), Demarcus Robinson is suspended, Jordan Watkins, the WR5, has a high-ankle sprain and Russell Gage, the WR6, has an MCL sprain. It looks like San Fran may go into the season starting Ricky Pearsall, Jacob Cowing and Isaiah Hodgins. Though their trade for Sky’y Moore could mean it’s more of a rotation behind Pearsall. Regardless, this hurts Brock Purdy and helps Christian McCaffrey, Pearsall and George Kittle, who will likely be getting a whole lot of volume. Kittle remains my half-PPR TE1 (and my PPR TE3) while CMC is my RB3.
-Cedric Tillman is at threat of losing snaps to Diontae Johnson, with the veteran establishing himself as a significant part of the Browns offense, but not in the slot, which oddly looks like it will be manned by Jamari Thrash. Tillman was one of my favorite upside late-round picks this pre-season, but this puts a bit of a dampener on that. I’m still drafting him, but later than I was.
-Noah Fant appears set to play the early-down role we saw rookie Erick All used in before his injury last season. This limits Mike Gesicki to third down duties and, with so much receiving talent around him, makes him very hard to trust for fantasy. He’s at best a dynasty stash with little point in picking him up in standard redraft leagues.
-Second round rookie Luther Burden remains clearly behind Olamide Zaccheaus for the slot role in Chicago. Burden has battled injuries which could be the reason for his slow rise up the depth chart, but at this stage in the season it’s hard to draft a player who looks unlikely to have a starting role in the first half of the season. And it may not even be a particularly valuable role with so many other mouths to feed in Chicago.
-Meanwhile, another second round rookie in Jack Bech is also on the outer, and this one seems less likely to change. The Raiders will start Jakobi Meyers in the slot with rookie D’Onte Thornton and Tre Tucker on the outside. None of these roles are particularly valuable with Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty the cornerstones of this offense, but Thornton is an intriguing pickup in dynasty and deeper redraft leagues.
-Rookie Mason Taylor has not consolidated an every down tight end role as we had hoped. It appears Jeremy Ruckert will still be in on plenty of 11 personnel situations, which limits Taylor’s weekly floor. He will still have some good weeks and is a good dynasty pickup, but I’m not interested in him in redraft leagues that aren’t best ball. Likewise, AJ Barner and Elijah Arroyo are still battling it out for the Seahawks tight end role and I’m avoiding both in redraft, while Arroyo is the better of the two as a dynasty prospect.
-Taysom Hill has been a fun late-round tight end pickup, especially in best ball leagues. But he appears nowhere near returning to the gridiron and is best left on waivers unless you have a heap of free IR slots.
If you have questions on your drafts and leagues, make sure you hit me up on Instagram @TheFantasyFirstDown or on Twitter @FantasyFirstDwn. Also make sure you check out my dynasty, rookie and redraft rankings and my video analysis of all positional hit rates. And finally, if you’re looking for personalised rankings for your drafts, email me.
