This article is part of our On Target series.
The diminutive Nelson is a UAB (now defunct) product that has found a role in the Cardinals' vertical passing game because pretty much all of the WRs for Arizona have taken a step back. Michael Floyd is now basically unplayable, Larry Fitzgerald might not crack five seconds flat in the 40, and John Brown's snaps and practice time has been limited all season by concussion symptoms and sickle cell complications. I'm pretty aggressively buying this week against the 49ers and think that a 6-8 target per game role is totally viable for him. He's likely not a league winner on his own, but with Arizona still running a vertical offense, he could win you a week down the stretch.
Your WR1 moving forward in New Orleans: Micheal Thomas. I know that I have harped on him in this space plenty but this is more with an eye towards next year and keeper leagues. Despite a lackluster combine and college production, he's the top target option in a top five passing offense that plays eight games a year with over/unders north of 50. For me, he's firmly in a tier with talented guys in bad offenses like Allen Robinson or DeAndre Hopkins, and I think Thomas is basically a buy in any format (though the best time was probably two or three weeks ago before this sustained run of dominance).
Not so much about last week's results but what I expect to come
The diminutive Nelson is a UAB (now defunct) product that has found a role in the Cardinals' vertical passing game because pretty much all of the WRs for Arizona have taken a step back. Michael Floyd is now basically unplayable, Larry Fitzgerald might not crack five seconds flat in the 40, and John Brown's snaps and practice time has been limited all season by concussion symptoms and sickle cell complications. I'm pretty aggressively buying this week against the 49ers and think that a 6-8 target per game role is totally viable for him. He's likely not a league winner on his own, but with Arizona still running a vertical offense, he could win you a week down the stretch.
Your WR1 moving forward in New Orleans: Micheal Thomas. I know that I have harped on him in this space plenty but this is more with an eye towards next year and keeper leagues. Despite a lackluster combine and college production, he's the top target option in a top five passing offense that plays eight games a year with over/unders north of 50. For me, he's firmly in a tier with talented guys in bad offenses like Allen Robinson or DeAndre Hopkins, and I think Thomas is basically a buy in any format (though the best time was probably two or three weeks ago before this sustained run of dominance).
Not so much about last week's results but what I expect to come as the Seahawks battle for playoff positioning down the stretch. My biggest take away from Week 9 was that Russell Wilson finally seems to be something approximating healthy, and that's huge for Baldwin who, when things are functioning properly for the Seahawks, is their No.1 WR. Their ground game is a shell of its former self (Thomas Rawls will not be a full go all year, it seems, and the Christine Michael hype train is derailing before it's even out of the station), and the fact that Jimmy Graham is the more established red zone option doesn't particularly bother me, as the amount of RZ passes in total for Seattle will be higher than projected.
Don't look now, but Matthews is beginning to show what I projected him for out of college with 25 targets the last two weeks. Essentially, what we were waiting on was for Doug Pederson to realize that he was a standard deviation better than Nelson Agholor and the released Josh Huff, which to me should have been obvious. Matthews looks like a WR1, plays like a WR1 and now he's starting to be targeted like a WR1. He has a tough matchup against Desmond Trufant this week at home against Atlanta but if he sees another 10-plus targets in this matchup, I'm ready to issue a buy alert (an official one – I already own more Jordan Matthews stock than anyone should reasonably have, so I'm always excited when he looks like the player I expect him to be).
There is a trio of struggling WR this season (Alshon, Hopkins, Robinson) and the only one who is likely to help their owners win going down the stretch is Jeffery for one simple reason: he got Jay Cutler back. What we know about Cutler, going way back to his days in Denver, is that he hones in on whoever his WR1 is and endlessly pelts them with targets. What helped Brandon Marshall and Jeffery thrive in fantasy in years past has been that relationship with Cutler, who was not afraid to launch them balls regardless of coverage. Alshon is very cheap in daily fantasy this week and has an elite matchup against Vernon Hargreaves. The secret will be out after this weekend.
