This article is part of our On Target series.
Adam Humphries / Cameron Brate (And Mike Evans)
I've covered Mike Evans twice already in this space but it is imperative to say that he is definitively the WR1 this week and if you were thinking of floating out trade offers for him, this is the last week you can probably do it. The whole Bucs offense gets a huge boost going against a 49ers team allowing opposing offenses to run over 70 plays per game. Adam Humphries is one of the most interesting WR waiver wire adds at the moment with Vincent Jackson on the IR, as I think his bad numbers the last two weeks are keeping him away from real consideration, but both he and Brate project to suck up a lot of volume for an offense that is top 10 in plays run per game and keeps losing running backs. With the coaching staff trying to use Jameis Winston as much as possible, Hump and Brate are both definitely starts this week and holds in all redraft formats as well as solid DFS plays.
Your leader in Football Outsiders' Effective Yards statistic for 2016? None other than Cole Beasley. Honestly, as a Dallas fan, this Beasley phenomenon seemed like something that would fade as Dak Prescott got more comfortable throwing down the field and with the team leaning so heavily on Ezekiel Elliot. That clearly has not been the case as Beas leads the team in targets and receiving yards. He is
Adam Humphries / Cameron Brate (And Mike Evans)
I've covered Mike Evans twice already in this space but it is imperative to say that he is definitively the WR1 this week and if you were thinking of floating out trade offers for him, this is the last week you can probably do it. The whole Bucs offense gets a huge boost going against a 49ers team allowing opposing offenses to run over 70 plays per game. Adam Humphries is one of the most interesting WR waiver wire adds at the moment with Vincent Jackson on the IR, as I think his bad numbers the last two weeks are keeping him away from real consideration, but both he and Brate project to suck up a lot of volume for an offense that is top 10 in plays run per game and keeps losing running backs. With the coaching staff trying to use Jameis Winston as much as possible, Hump and Brate are both definitely starts this week and holds in all redraft formats as well as solid DFS plays.
Your leader in Football Outsiders' Effective Yards statistic for 2016? None other than Cole Beasley. Honestly, as a Dallas fan, this Beasley phenomenon seemed like something that would fade as Dak Prescott got more comfortable throwing down the field and with the team leaning so heavily on Ezekiel Elliot. That clearly has not been the case as Beas leads the team in targets and receiving yards. He is never going to be a touchdown maker, but that doesn't matter in most PPR formats for what he costs to acquire. I would think that most owners of Beasley in 12-team leagues don't value him very highly relative to the rest of their roster, and he could be had for some sort of fringe-type players. The Cowboys are off this week so there is even a chance that he ends up dropped in some shallower leagues, and he would be an add for me if I was looking for some consistency from my WR3.
Well… what do we do now? Brown's track record with no Big Ben under center is less than stellar and it does make total sense. His sort of precision route running/underwhelming athleticism skill set is going to work better with a hyper-talented QB than the likes of Landry Jones. All of the Steelers' options get a giant chunk taken out of their value… duh. If you think that you can completely swindle Brown away from his current owner for 75 cents on the dollar, then you should absolutely pursue that if for no other reason than that Roethlisberger is likely to beat his injury timetable, and will certainly be back for the fantasy playoffs. Coates, Eli Rogers, Markus Wheaton, and Jesse James are all droppable in the interim, but this is a unique little situation where a catastrophe for a player's value can be made to work in your favor. The only Steeler who I wouldn't sell would be Le'Veon Bell, as his market share of team targets and red zone usage should see a steep increase as the team realizes they can't simply pass the ball to score points.
Is it possible that he isn't dead? With Theo Riddick and Eric Ebron both ruled out, Golden Tate became the de facto possession/short area pass catcher for a Lions offense that really needs that role in Jim Bob Cooter's scheme. You wouldn't really think of the correlation between Riddick and Tate,but they run the same sort of routes in the same areas of the field. The Lions get a prime matchup against a Washington team that has completely forgotten how to tackle, and Tate should see almost none of Josh Norman as he will be tasked with trying to keep Marvin Jones from getting open down the field. This is another potential explosion spot for Tate and I'm personally starting him over comparable options on my own teams (DeSean Jackson and Emmanuel Sanders in two separate leagues).
This is obviously for deep leaguers only, BUT… Terrelle Pryor currently has a hamstring injury that held him out of practice Wednesday, and if he is unable to play, I'm going to slot in 8-12 targets for Louis against a not-so-great Bengals secondary. Louis has some of the best Air Yards numbers of any unowned fantasy player (Air Yards are exactly what they sound like: the number of yards the ball travels in the air before it gets to the receiver on a target, complete or incomplete) and with the Browns literally trailing in every game they play by a touchdown or more, he's going to be in a consistently positive game script. I've added Louis in all my 16-team leagues and suggest you do the same.
