Committee Brewing in New York? 🤔

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• When asked about acquiring a No. 1 receiver, Panthers HC Dave Canales said ‘I think we got that guy… I think that’s Xavier [Legette]’

  • The Panthers certainly aren’t shying away from throwing their support behind their first round draft selection from last season, with Canales insisting that despite the departure of Diontae Johnson (whom he dubbed their true WR1 before the beginning of 2024) Legette is very much the alpha they’re looking for to fill that role. Legette’s rookie season came with plenty of struggles, including a barely startable bottom line each week and not a lot of upside to speak of as Bryce Young struggled to being the year before picking up the slack in the closing weeks of the season. Also working against Legette moving forward is the presence of plenty of competition around him – Adam Thielen and Jalen Coker were both fantasy relevant last year, even more so than Legette – and the potential for the Panthers to go rogue on these comments and add a difference making WR in the draft. There are questions about the quality of the offense and whether Young can snowball last season’s end-of-year momentum into the beginning of and throughout the 2025 season, but having the support of the coaching staff is a good place to start for Legette as he looks to bounce back – and break out – into true weekly fantasy relevance.

• Jets HC Aaron Glenn said that Breece Hall is ‘in a good place’ but mentioned that the team has ‘three running backs’ they’re ‘going to utilize as much as possible’

  • Not exactly music to Breece Hall managers’ ears, especially considering that this is an entirely new coaching staff entering 2025. It also raises eyebrows considering the way Glenn and new OC Tanner Engstrand’s former team, the Lions, utilized two running backs in favor of one bell cow during their time there. Of course, Breece has more than demonstrated his ability to be a workhorse in the Jets offense, even with Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis challenging for snaps behind him; from Weeks 1-11 in 2024 before going down with an ankle injury, Breece had all the ‘Hall’marks of a bell cow RB1 – he ranked 4th in snap share, 6th in rush attempts share, 2nd in route participation, 4th in target share, and finished as a top-12 RB in five of his first seven games. Hall struggled towards the end of the season, though, and it seems like the new administration is interested in featuring more than just Breece in the backfield. From a real life perspective, that makes sense – Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis looked the part of a dynamic 1-2 in the games where Breece was limited/didn’t play at all. However, a change in workload from his usual bell cow role could mean Breece is being overvalued in drafts today. Whether or not the Jets follow through on these comments by actually implementing a three-man backfield remains to be seen, but our antennaes should be up heading into OTAs this spring/summer.

• Eagles HC Nick Sirianni described the team’s current relationship with TE Dallas Goedert by saying ‘right now, he’s on our team’

  • Don’t sugarcoat it too much, Nick. It’s somewhat of a cryptic response from the Eagles head man after Goedert’s name was tossed around a few times in trade speculation at the beginning of the league year. Besides an apparent inability to stay healthy for a full 17-game season, Goedert was largely phased out of the Eagles’ gameplan during their Super Bowl-winning season in 2024 – he eclipsed six targets just three times in 2024, missed most or all of eight games, and finished as a fantasy TE1 just twice – both before the Eagles Week 5 bye. The addition of Saquon Barkley turned the Eagles into the league’s most run-heavy team, and between his 2000 yards on the ground and the presence of A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith in the receiving game, Goedert became a distant 3rd target in the pecking order in 2024 and has fallen almost entirely out of favor in Philly’s offense. A change of scenery could be in the best interest of both sides if Sirianni’s comments are any indicator, and there are plenty of teams this offseason in the market for a difference-making tight end. Goedert is just a year removed from three-straight top-15 finishes at the position, and his services would likely be picked up elsewhere happily. One potential destination: the Colts, who have a gaping hole at tight end in their offense and also employ former Eagles OC Shane Steichen as their HC.

"Courtland is one of our guys, team captain -- I've said this a couple years in a row -- we want him here.” George Paton had this to say about WR Courtland Sutton, who’s coming off one of the best – if not the best – seasons of his career.

Sutton was the overall fantasy WR15 last year – the highest he’s ever finished in his career. That’s spurred on talks of a new extension with the team, and he’ll probably get it – but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows last season…

Sutton and Bo Nix didn’t hit the ground running to start the season. Nix was making his first starts in the NFL and struggled out of the gate, tossing just 5 touchdowns to go with 5 interceptions and finishing outside the weekly top-12 fantasy QBs in five of his first seven games. He was delivering catchable passes to Sutton at the lowest rate in that span (53%).

Things hit rock bottom in Week 7 for Sutton during his infamous cardio game against the Saints. He finished with 0 targets, 0 yards, and 0 fantasy points. That capped off a stretch from Weeks 1-7 where Sutton was borderline unstartable in lineups – he averaged just 8.7 PPR points per game.

It wasn’t a utilization problem, though – Sutton was being targeted relatively often, and especially on money throws - Sutton’s numbers stacked up relatively well through the first seven weeks of the season:

• Target Share: 22% (17th)

• Air Yards Share: 38% (5th)

• End Zone Targets per Game: 1.0 (3rd)

It took a while for Sutton and Nix to connect. But once they did, it was golden…

Courtland Sutton made it up to his fantasy managers from Week 8 onward, posting the following stats among 35 WRs from Weeks 8-18, minimum 300 routes:

• Target Share: 27% (t-6th)

• Air Yards Share: 49% (1st)

• End Zone Targets per Game: 1.1 (t-3rd)

• PPR pts/game: 18.2 (WR10 in that span)

Bo Nix also saw a remarkable improvement as a passer in that span, too, moving from middle of the pack numbers to among the league’s best in a few key categories:

Weeks 1-7

• 60.3 Overall Grade

• 84.3 Deep Passing Grade

• 53% Catchable Target Rate

Weeks 8-18

• 84.6 Overall Grade

• 93.8 Deep Passing Grade

• 79% Catchable Target Rate

Despite the strong finish to the season, Courtland Sutton is coming off the board all they way down as the WR30 in early Underdog Best Ball Drafts. Part of that is likely the addition of Evan Engram this offseason. Simply put, Evan Engram is an elite target-earning tight end. He averaged a 22.3% target share over his three seasons in Jacksonville, and topped 24% in each of his past two seasons before being released and signing in Denver.

Engram will constitute the most significant target competition Sutton has had since Jerry Jeudy. Sutton’s 25% target share last season easily led the Broncos pass catchers – no other player notched a target share higher than 13% (DeVaughn Vele).

Could Courtland Sutton’s week-to-week ceiling take a hit as a result of adding Engram? Of course it could. But on an offense that ranked 10th in points per game overall in 2024 and that’s trending up, Sutton has a clear path to outperforming his current WR30 ADP if he can post just similar numbers to his utilization in the second half of 2024.

Sutton has one year left on his deal with the Broncos, and he’s made it clear that he wants to stay in Denver – but also doesn’t want to play out the final year without an extension. One thing is clear, though: he’s earned it, and he’s looking like the one of the early candidates to be undervalued in 2025 drafts.