The fantasy football playoffs begin for most leagues a month from now. As the postseason picture gets clearer, some teams will become less active. But that doesn’t mean contenders can just sit by and have their pickings from the waiver wire. Team managers needs to keep meticulous watch lists so they can scoop up those under-the-radar players before they hit mainstream. This week’s players are all wide receivers: Jalen Reagor, Josh Reynolds, and Willie Snead.
Week 11 Fantasy Football Watch List Featuring Jalen Reagor
Jalen Reagor
It is no secret that the Philadelphia Eagles are in desperate need of help at wide receiver. This issue dates back to last season, and they hoped to be able to grab one of the top three wide receivers in the 2020 NFL Draft. However, similar to how they took Dallas Goedert to spite the Dallas Cowboys, the Cowboys took CeeDee Lamb despite having two more-than-competent pass-catchers with Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup.
But the Eagles still went for receiver, opting for Jalen Reagor out of TCU. Reagor was dubbed as an explosive vertical threat, but touted for his route running skills as well. Coming into the year, Reagor was expected to be able to come in and immediately fill a void. During the first two weeks, it seemed like he would. Reagor has over 40 yards in each of his first two games. However, a thumb injury landed him on short-term IR. He wouldn’t make his return to the field until Week 8.
By then, the Eagles wide receiver depth chart was dangerously thin, leaving Reagor plenty of targets. Reagor has seen at least six targets in his two games back. He still needs to work on bringing more of them in though, as he has only secured 12 of his 21 targets on the year. But Reagor plays on an offense where Richard Rodgers led the team in yards. He will have plenty of opportunities to improve throughout his rookie year.
Josh Reynolds
A wide receiver to keep an eye on is Josh Reynolds on the Los Angeles Rams. Reynolds is a tough player to trust considering he’s in his fourth NFL season and has not been fantasy relevant to this point. However, it is worth noting that he has already set career highs in catches (30) and yards (416) just ten games into 2020. He has also drastically improved his catch rate, which has hovered around 50 percent, for 63.6 percent this year.
Reynolds has been getting more involved in the Rams offense the past three games. He has seen at least eight targets, four catches, and 44 yards during that span. This cumulated in last week’s ten target game, which he converted to eight catches for 94 yards.
Something also worth noting is snap counts. Reynolds snap counts had been sporadic from weeks one through five, going as high as 90 percent and as low as 51 percent. But Reynold’s snap share has been much more consistent during the last four games, with a low of 74 percent and a high of 83 percent. On the other hand, Cooper Kupp, was in the lineup for just 53 percent of snaps in week ten. His previous season low was week five with 82%.
Could Reynolds be part of the reason for this? Keep an eye on him to see if it is coincidence, or if he might be worth an add in fantasy football soon.
Willie Snead
Sticking with the wide receiver position, this one is still admittedly a deep dive. Willie Snead IV is a familiar name in the NFL. Snead has played for the New Orleans Saints and currently plays for the Baltimore Ravens. Snead had two relatively good years in New Orleans, accumulating over 1,800 yards. However, much of his time in Baltimore, Snead has served more as a role player. During his first two years combined, he didn’t even top 1,000 yards receiving.
Although he doesn’t have much of a chance at going over 1,000 in 2020, Snead has been coming on strong since the Ravens bye. Prior to that, Snead only received over three targets in a game once. Since the bye, he has only gone under seven targets once and even had a 100-yard receiving game in Week 8 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Ravens are desperate for a number one wide receiver. It doesn’t look like Marquise Brown is working out for the team. They even signed Dez Bryant, who hadn’t played in an NFL game since 2018. And that didn’t work. With tight end Nick Boyle also out for the year, Snead might be forced to pick up the slack as the only one capable behind Mark Andrews. If he can put up points this week against the Tennessee Titans, receiver-needy teams might want to pull the trigger.
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