Another Big Name Player on the Move! 😱

Can’t help but wonder who the other 5 teams are that are interested in trading for Jonathan Taylor. 🤔

What’s in store:

• Trey Lance could be on the move in short order 😳 Which teams should be picking up the phone?

• Making sense of Sam Howell, McLaurin’s injury, and more: Faraz unpacks a busy

• Choosing potential landing spots for Trey Lance: See where Zach would like to see the former 3rd overall pick end up!

• Is Dameon Pierce condemned to being an RB2? Tyler isn’t so sure that he can break the ceiling into the Top-12.

• Panthers WR D.J. Chark suffers hamstring injury, could be out for a few weeks

  • No potential timeline for return was given as of the writing of this newsletter. However, this doesn’t appear to be insignificant in any way, shape, or form – remember, Cooper Kupp needed a full three weeks to recover before returning to practice because of a hamstring injury of his own. Following that same timeline, Chark would be slated to return to action at the earliest in Week 2 - assuming the injury is no worse than Kupp’s. If Chark – who had been making the necessary strides in camp to profile as the Panthers’ top perimeter receiver and potential WR1 – misses time, both Adam Thielen and Jonathan Mingo would stand to see a small boost in value as long as Chark is out.

• Saints TE Juwan Johnson has reportedly established himself as one of Derek Carr’s “most reliable targets”

  • This report echoes similar sentiments coming out of Saints camp throughout the offseason, and it appears that Johnson could have a chance to sneak into the TE1 conversation if he can be a favorite target of Carr’s in the red zone. Johnson would potentially be even higher in rankings if not for the mixed signals New Orleans sent by signing TE Jimmy Graham out of the blue, but Graham’s presence – while he may not be fantasy relevant – likely hurts the floor of Johnson on a weekly basis. However, Johnson should have weekly TE1 upside despite a not-so-solid floor, which should be enough to get him rostered in most leagues as long as Derek Carr continues to favor him.

• 49ers are exploring trade options for Trey Lance after naming Sam Darnold their QB2

  • After an up and down offseason for Lance, San Francisco seems to have moved on from him and appears ready to move him in the coming days/weeks. Lance, the former 3rd overall pick in the 2021 draft, has played next to no football in the first two years of his career and has hardly had any chance to demonstrate his ability outside of practice. With a new home likely in the near future for the QB, there’s intrigue with Lance’s potential depending on where he lands. With his stock inflated slightly given the opportunity for him to land with a team where he can contribute immediately, he could be a sell “high” candidate (or “higher” relative to his value before, which was quite low).

• Corey Davis retires from the NFL

  • The headline says it all. Davis hangs up his cleats just ahead of a season where the Jets WR room became very crowded, with names like Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb – both close friends of Aaron Rodgers – entering the mix and likely limiting Davis’s opportunity. Allen Lazard now profiles as the clear-cut WR2 in the Jets offense, and could see his value increase along with greater opportunity behind Garrett Wilson.

• The Commanders starters played a whole half on Monday night, and that resulted in Terry McLaurin getting hurt at the end of the half. Nice going guys.

• For some reason these starters were all out there for that long… but he had x-rays on his right big toe, which came back negative. Hopefully that’s a bullet dodged and he’ll be good to go for Week 1.

  • McLaurin left the game during a 2-minute drill for Sam Howell and Washington’s offense, and once McLaurin was off the field, Howell targeted Jahan Dotson play after play - I think it was 5 targets in a row as soon as McLaurin left.

  • Either way, as JP Finlay indicated in our conversation together, both of these guys are going to have big years - we’re just hoping that McLaurin is fine. But since this is turf toe he’s dealing with, he’s in jeopardy to miss Week 1 – and there’s a chance he’s not 100% for several weeks at the start of the year.

  • What that means is that Jahan Dotson can get a boost for those few weeks… so just a bit of a bonus for anyone who’s drafting Dotson. I liked McLaurin this year, but this might be a tie-breaker between him and someone else in his tier on draft day unfortunately.

• And Howell himself - we’ve been saying it all off-season. This dude has it, and he showed it in the first half of this game. I know it’s preseason, but he’s looked pretty good so far in all of his action in 2023. He has weapons, he has a good offensive coordinator, and he’s showing some promise. He’s the ideal QB3 for me because he has Top-12 QB upside.

  • I’ve been saying it, and I think it can happen as long as his guys stay healthy. He has some rushing ability too guys, don’t forget. He has been named the Week 1 starter.

• As far as the split in this backfield, it looks similar - both Antonio Gibson and Brian Robinson were involved in different situations… and as you guys heard on the JP Finlay episode, I’m probably too low on Robinson… he’s still going to be very involved in the offense, and he’s more involved in the receiving game than we want to think he will be.

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• While not necessarily the most likely landing spot, Trey Lance offers much more intrigue under center in 2023 than Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask. And for an organization likely content to simply punt the 2023 season away while they vie for a higher draft pick, adding Lance could give them the opportunity to have their cake and eat it too.

• If Lance would play well in Tampa Bay, the Bucs could realistically challenge for what will most likely be the 4th seed in the NFC in a very weak NFC South. In that scenario where Lance plays like a clear upgrade over the current situation, the Bucs don’t have to treat the year as a lost cause from the get (as they’re likely currently planning to).

• If Lance wouldn’t play well, it’s right back to square one as things stand today. Baker Mayfield could come in and bridge Tampa Bay through the end of the season, and the Bucs’ record would likely be bad enough that they’d still be squarely in the mix for the top overall pick in 2024.

• The Buccaneers have all the tools they need to be a playoff contender in today’s NFC outside of a signal caller. A still-strong offensive line, an excellent WR corps and a serviceable defense are in place and likely to go to waste this season with Baker Mayfield at the helm. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be intrigued by the prospect of Trey Lance throwing passes to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin – this would be a fun landing spot.

• The floor with Lance is obviously low and there’s a chance that he never gets his feet beneath him after missing so much time to open the season. But if Lance could round into anything close to the form that he showed in college, he could have a fantastic ceiling.

2. Minnesota Vikings

• The idea with Lance landing in Minnesota is to have him likely fall into an understudy-type role behind Kirk Cousins, much like the Jets currently have in place with Aaron Rodgers and Zach Wilson (also, ironically, from the same 2021 draft class).

• In this scenario, Trey Lance offers no immediate fantasy value in redraft leagues and maintains a similarly low, but non-zero dynasty value. By all indications coming out of San Francisco, Lance is very much the project at QB today he was when he came into the league two years ago. The Vikings can stand to have him sit behind Cousins and turn to Lance when necessary should Kirk get hurt, or if Cousins would retire/go a different direction in free agency.

• In Minnesota’s offense, Lance would be set up with a very strong set of weapons and a good young coach in Kevin O’Connell. With Justin Jefferson in line for the largest WR payday and Jordan Addison playing on his rookie deal for the foreseeable future, Lance could easily reach his fantasy ceiling with the Vikings if he was ever able to become their QB1.

3. Las Vegas Raiders

• A longshot of a landing spot, but Las Vegas would not only be an interconference destination (the 49ers wouldn’t have to face the Raiders often), but also an attractive one given the core of players in place at Lance’s disposal.

• What really makes a potential landing with the Raiders interesting is the presence of former 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo, who Lance won the starting job away from to open 2022 but ultimately ceded it so after going down with injury just two weeks into the year.

• The Raiders are likely content to ride out 2023 with Jimmy G at quarterback and will address any needs at the position as they arise, but Lance would be set up nicely with Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers, Josh Jacobs, and rookie TE Michael Mayer if he were to land in Las Vegas.

Pierce was a preseason phenom, catching attention throughout the NFL and the fantasy football community in a monster preseason that earned him the starting job as a rookie.

While it did take him a bit to fully get up to production, failing to hit 9+ points in each of his first two games, he then caught fire in Week 3, going on a streak of seven consecutive games with 12+ points in an otherwise horrendous Houston offense. Unfortunately, he did then slow down a bit with performances of under 5 points in two of the next four games before missing the remainder of the season due to a high-ankle sprain in Week 14.

Overall, he was the lone bright spot in a rough Texans team, finishing as the RB27 in points and the RB21 in PPG. Perhaps even more notable, the Texans didn’t bring in any significant competition this offseason, replacing Rex Burkhead with Devin Singletary and opting to pass on drafting an RB.

The Texans’ offense should be much-improved all around, adding receiving weapons John Metchie III, Robert Woods, and Dalton Schultz while upgrading the O-Line and adding rookie C.J. Stroud at QB.

He was a low-end RB2/FLEX option almost all of 2022 and with the offensive changes this offseason, there doesn’t appear to be a reason for him to finish as anything else in 2023. At his current price as a mid-to-low RB2 (RB19 on ECR, RB20 on ADP) in the 5th round, I will consider him if there’s not a better RB option available. He doesn’t jump out as a must-target or a must-avoid, sitting right where his value should lie.

Check out more of Tyler’s in-depth player preview articles here!

While it’s important not to get caught up in the preseason rookie windstorm that happens inevitably each year, certain performances are important to pay attention to when looking for the next fantasy stars. And while the situation in Indianapolis may appear at first glance to be unraveling for everyone involved in the Colts offense, one rookie could have an excellent chance to stick out as a bright spot in 2023.

Josh Downs stands currently as the second-highest graded rookie wide receiver by PFF, posting an impressive 85.3 receiving grade through two preseason games. His ability to uncover and separate from his defender was one of his best skills in college, and that skillset should translate well into the pros where he’ll be tasked with doing the same his first year in Indy.

With Anthony Richardson starting at QB in Week 1 and presumable not having Jonathan Taylor flanking him in the backfield, the onus will fall quickly on Downs’ shoulders to help bring along Richardson and get him into a rhythm week by week. Downs has seemingly locked up the top slot role, and with a rookie at QB likely to experience growing pains inside the Colts offense, there’s a chance that Downs could become a favorite target of Richardson’s, both as a first read and after the play breaks down during improvisation.