Yahoo Fantasy’s Matt Harmon is joined by Kendall Valenzuela of Fantasy Life to break down the wideouts who could pay off for your fantasy team in 2023. Hear the full conversation on “Yahoo Fantasy Football Show”, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
KENDALL VALENZUELA: I’m gonna say–
MATT HARMON: All right.
KENDALL VALENZUELA: –Christian Watson, as a first breakout. When he took on that full-time role in week 10, that’s when his average target share was 23%. He averaged a wide receiver 1-worthy 17.2 PPR points per game. It just all connected for him. So when I say Christian Watson, I think that he maybe even, we say, continues his little breakout. He tapered off a little bit, towards the end of last year. But I’m making a bet on Christian Watson.
And I think that also goes along with making a bet on Jordan Love. Like, I think Jordan Love, playing behind and learning from Aaron Rodgers, is not gonna be as bad as people say or think he is. For me, Christian Watson, especially going into year two, which is pivotal, when we see a jump for these wide receivers– OK, he was good, the last year. But now he’s going to make a [INAUDIBLE]. And knowing this offense a little bit better, being more familiar with everyone. And so Christian Watson is someone, to me, that I really love this year.
MATT HARMON: I like him a lot more than some of the other, like, volatile receivers that go after, like, the wide receiver–
KENDALL VALENZUELA: Yeah.
MATT HARMON: –outside the top 15 guys. I like him a lot. And listen, Jordan Love has looked good in the preseason. So you can hang your hat on Jordan Love’s–
KENDALL VALENZUELA: Yes.
MATT HARMON: –pre-season performance.
[LAUGHTER]
I’ll go with a second-year receiver here. And this is the only name that’s a repeat from the Sleeper show. And this is obviously timely, with Terry McLaurin, who’s gonna be dealing with a turf toe injury to start this year. And I hate that because I’m a huge Terry guy.
KENDALL VALENZUELA: Yeah.
MATT HARMON: But Jahan Dotson, man, I think, had just an underrated awesome rookie season. Actually, if you’re purely box score scouting, he actually kind of had a similar season to Christian Watson. And he doesn’t get talked about in the same light, from a fantasy perspective, which is, I guess, understandable. Because one of them is the number one receiver and one of them is the number two receiver. But I think Jahan Dotson is also playing with a questionable quarterback. I think Jordan Love, even if we’re excited, is still a questionable quarterback. But I think he showed more complete receiver ability, Jahan Dotson, in his rookie season.
I mean, this is a guy, Kendall, I liked a lot, coming into the NFL. I thought he was gonna be, sort of, like a Doug Baldwin type of vertical slot receiver, a zone beater, best hands in the class that year. And there was a lot of good players that came in the– came out, obviously, last year, as rookie receivers. But he even outkicked my expectations. 81.1% success rate per zone, I thought that was gonna be the case. But they played it– played him almost exclusively outside. And he had an 87th percentile success rate versus press, top 10 contested catch rate. If anybody’s experienced playing with erratic quarterbacks, it’s Jahan Dotson–
KENDALL VALENZUELA: [LAUGHS]
MATT HARMON: –if you watched him back at Penn State. So, at this point, Jahan Dotson going off the board, consensus ADP, 84th overall, 36th wide receiver. I love taking him, in that group of volatile wide receivers. Love the talent. Obviously, with the situation, again, we’ll see how Good Sam Howell is. But, man, from a breakout receiver standpoint, he’s one of my favorite bets this year.
