Since our Instagram audience didn’t seem to appreciate this meme, hopefully our newsletter audience does. :)

What’s in store:

• Is Russell Wilson losing ground to Justin Fields? 😯 He’s been out of practice for a while, and (allegedly) the former Bears QB is capitalizing.

• A little fuel for the Blake Corum hive… ESPN’s Sarah Barshop says that keeping Kyren Williams fresh will be a ‘priority’.

• Another week, another batch of Faraz’s camp takeaways. TL:DR; The Packers WR room is shaping up a bit differently than we expected.

• Redraft Kit Preview: Kyle Pitts. After three long years, he’s finally ready to break out onto the fantasy scene.

• Patriots, Browns have framework for Brandon Aiyuk trade, comes down to Aiyuk to accept prospective contract terms

  • The report came in late last night following rumors of a trade being more likely than an extension for Aiyuk. All signs are pointing towards Aiyuk being moved sooner rather than later (assuming he can come to an agreement on a potential new contract), which would have huge ramifications across the board in fantasy land. A deal in Cleveland would reportedly involve WR Amari Cooper, where the 49ers and Browns would swap WR1s. Aiyuk would likely be in line for more targets in 2024 than he’s ever had in his career, in Cleveland, even with Jerry Jeudy, Elijah Moore, and David Njoku comprising a very strong supporting cast. Meanwhile, Amari Cooper would likely take a small hit to his stock thanks to increased target competition (albeit in a better system and offense). Should Aiyuk find his way to New England, we could write it in pen that he’s the clear No. 1 target in the Patriots’ passing attack. He’d be much more volume dependent given that New England is projected to field a bottom-10 offense in 2024, but he’d earn the elusive true No. 1 WR workload he hasn’t been able to get in San Francisco. A deal in New England would reportedly involve former 49ers WR Kendrick Bourne, an addition that would have much less of an impact on the 49ers receiving corps than, say, the addition of Amari Cooper. In any case, Deebo Samuel stands to benefit in a big way from a Brandon Aiyuk move, opening up increased opportunity through the air to complement his work in the ground game. Meanwhile, 49ers 1st round WR Ricky Pearsall waits in the wings while the dust continues to stir up around Brandon Aiyuk’s future.

• Steelers QB situation heats up with Russell Wilson missing time with injury; battle for starting job is ‘more of a competition than it initially appeared’

  • The veteran QB was largely believed to be in the driver’s seat for the starting job early in the offseason, but the combination of time missed for Wilson and a few splash plays from Justin Fields in camp has helped to narrow the margin between the two signal callers. We’d be jumping the gun a bit by assuming that Fields will wrangle away the starting job at this pace – he was, in fact, trailing well behind Wilson during Spring OTAs, and it took an injury to Wilson to give him the opportunity to make things interesting. Nonetheless, that’s how things have played out and Fields could be back in fantasy starting lineups sooner than we originally thought a few weeks ago. While Wilson likely delivers a steadier hand in commanding the Pittsburgh offense, his fantasy ceiling remains much lower than that of Fields (who’s rushing upside has the potential to place him squarely in the fantasy QB1 conversation). However, the Steelers are built to rely on a strong defense while deploying a complementary offense – something Wilson likely fits the bill much better than Fields for. At the end of the day, with Pittsburgh and Mike Tomlin looking to maintain their streak of non-losing seasons, it’s unlikely that either QB holds onto the starting job for an extended period of time; however, should Fields continue to impress in camp, he could draw the start in Week 1 – or at the very least, shorten Russell Wilson’s leash come the regular season.

• ESPN’s Sarah Barshop says that the Rams are intent on keeping RB Kyren Williams fresh in 2024

  • Another day, another nugget about the Rams backfield. Should we know better than to believe anything we hear about these running backs with a month standing between us and the beginning of the regular season? Most likely – but we’re going to try and make sense of it anyway. Reports earlier this offseason indicated that Sean McVay liked rookie RB Blake Corum as a Kyren Williams ‘clone’ (i.e. if anything would happen to Williams, Corum could step right in and allow McVay to call the same offense). The fear for Kyren Williams’ detractors has been that Corum would establish a role for himself during the season and potentially eat into his workload – an issue exacerbated by the fact that Williams has a history of injuries that could allow Corum to capitalize on any time missed by the third-year back. Barshop’s exact words regarding the Rams’ intentions are that the team is ‘prioritizing’ keeping Kyren Williams fresh this season, which lends itself to the idea that Corum could get some more run by default in 2024 than originally imagined. Of course, take everything with a grain of salt in any discussion about a Sean McVay backfield; however, things don’t seem to be progressing in a way that suggests that Williams will be far and away the clear No. 1 in LA.

• Rams WR Puka Nacua considered ‘week to week’ after suffering apparent knee injury in practice

  • While it’s never ideal for a player to be dealing with any kind of injury, Puka’s comes early enough in training camp that it shouldn’t have any type of regular season impact barring a setback in his recovery. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that a source close to the situation indicated that the injury isn’t serious, which suggests that the second-year WR should still be on track to take the field come Week 1. However, should Puka miss any time to begin the season – especially if the Rams want to remain cautious to preserve him for the long run – veteran WR Cooper Kupp could be in line for a big bump in his target share in 2024. Coincidentally, the news of Puka’s injury comes at the same time as reports emerging from Rams camp about Cooper Kupp looking ‘all the way back’ after a down season in 2023. Kupp and Nacua traded blows down the stretch when both receivers were on the field in a battle over the No. 1 WR title, with Nacua carrying a slight edge over his teammate and mentor. At this point, Puka’s price in drafts is unlikely to suffer unless reports indicate a longer timetable for his recover is in the cards. However, Kupp’s third-round ADP becomes just a touch more secure in the event that Nacua would need to miss time or need a week or two to ramp back up to a full workload.

• Chase Brown continues to get the majority of first team reps over Zack Moss. It’s worth noting that Brown has experience with big workloads from his time in college, capping off his last season at Illinois with 328 carries.

• AJ Dillon is the current RB2 in Green Bay, but that doesn’t mean you should draft him as Josh Jacobs’ handcuff. He’s already shown us who is… Marshawn Lloyd is still the backup to draft. Jacobs is currently dealing with a groin injury.

• Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs remain the Packers’ primary receivers in 2-WR sets. It’s a bit concerning that Jayden Reed is still only running primarily in 3-WR sets… meanwhile, it’ll likely take an injury for Dontayvion Wicks to get real playing time.

• Andy Reid confirmed that Isiah Pacheco will fill the 3rd down role that Jerick McKinnon played last year. Pacheco played on 31% of 2-minute snaps and 15% of long down and distance snaps in 2023… this could be a potentially big boost to his fantasy value.

• Don’t be afraid to take Justin Fields with your last pick; there’s smoke that he could be the Steelers QB1 based on how camp is going so far. If we knew he was QB1, he’d be going in the single digit rounds. The word is he also has a real connection with George Pickens.

• Jonathan Brooks likely won’t be out there until after the first few weeks of the season. Chuba Hubbard is likely the Panthers workhorse until Brooks is cleared. Brooks should still be drafted for a second half takeover, but only if you have an IR spot.

• Bucky Irving is the clear RB2 behind Rachaad White, and is making some noise at camp. With a new offensive coaching staff, White’s usage as a bell cow for a second straight year is in question. Sean Tucker is in the background competing for the RB3 role.

• Don’t overreact to Jim Harbaugh’s remarks around Justice Hill getting a lot of playing time this year. Henry will play his early down workhorse role he’s always played, and Hill will be their primary pass-catching back. Nothing to see here.

• Keon Coleman is making highlight catches in camp, but Khalil Shakir is also emerging as a go-to target for Josh Allen. He’s being drafted in the double digit rounds, and he’s all the way down in the 14th round on ESPN. Drafting the Bills cheaper WRs might still be the way to go.

• Rookie RB Will Shipley is emerging as the RB2 behind Saquon Barkley. Shipley is a very good pass-catching RB who could be fantasy relevant if Barkley were to miss any games this year.

• Puka Nacua has a knee injury and is week to week, but the injury isn’t deemed to be serious. Suiting up for Week 1 shouldn’t be an issue.

• There’s a legit camp battle between Andrei Iosivas and Jermaine Burton for the Bengals WR3 spot. Either way, this will likely be an overall upgrade for the passing offense. Worth noting Burton tweaked his ankle on Thursday, but is now back.

• Rookie RB Dylan Laube is emerging as the Raiders pass-catching RB. It’s going to take a lot for him to be fantasy relevant, but he could carve out a role alongside Zamir White in 2-minute and long down and distance situations. Mattison is still likely the RB2 as the Raiders’ primary runner behind White.

• Ray Davis is making plays at camp, but is having fumbling issues. If he clears that up, we could see him beat out Ty Johnson for the RB2 spot and possibly even carve out a role alongside James Cook.

• DeVonta Smith is already a high-end WR, but he’s looking like an even better player this year. It’s very possible he plays more inside as we’ve seen multiple high-end WRs do in new OC Kellen Moore’s offense. 

The shackles of replacement-level QB play and Arthur Smith’s galaxy-brained coaching decisions have finally been broken, offering Pitts his first real shot at fantasy relevance since his historic rookie season all the way back in 2021. His utilization peripherals in 2023 were indicative of a tight end suffering from errant throw after errant throw from backup quarterbacks; despite earning a league-leading 24.9% air yards share among TEs, only 70% of passes thrown his way were deemed catchable, per Fantasy Life’s utilization report. That should come as no surprise considering his quarterbacks for the season were Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke.

With Kirk Cousins set to start for the Falcons, Pitts should see many more consistent, quality targets in 2024, and with Arthur Smith off to plague the Steelers with his baffling refusal to utilize the talent he’s given, Pitts could finally see his utilization match the unicorn talent he is. Pitts was also dealing with an MCL and PCL injury, the latter of which tends to have a very slow recovery; he looks to be at 100% going into 2024.

Check out the full QB & TE Breakouts episode on our Youtube! ⬇️

With Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier still headlining a dynamic ground game for Atlanta, the Falcons are likely to continue to lean on that strength – especially with Cousins making his return from his achilles injury. However, it may not be as heavy a dependence as Arthur Smith deployed last year, with the Falcons running the ball at the third-highest rate in the league in 2023. Any uptick in overall target volume will only stand to benefit Pitts, who will look to avoid making it three consecutive years since his rookie season without eclipsing 100 targets.

With Drake London and Bijan Robinson as his primary target competition, the distribution in 2024 should be very top-heavy between those three playmakers. For the fourth straight season, though, the Kyle Pitts hype is real – except this time, the stars may actually be aligning for his breakout year.