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Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver (WR) Chris Conley is a fantasy football sleeper and ADP value for the 2019 season. Justin Carter breaks down Conley's value in fantasy drafts.
BALLER MOVE: Target Around ~260 Overall
Current ADP: ~300
Marqise Lee is still not practicing at Jaguars' training camp. That leaves the team with a top-three receiving group of Dede Westbrook, D.J. Chark, and Chris Conley. Keelan Cole seems to be a pretty distant fourth of the healthy guys. Terrelle Pryor's going to be cut unless Lee starts the year on the PUP list.
If Westbrook -- who'll play primarily out of the slot -- is going to be the team's most targeted receiver, the battle to be the second-most targeted receiver is wide open. Lee's got the edge on talent, but his recovery from a preseason ACL tear last season has been extremely slow and there's a good chance that he doesn't end playing much of a role this year.
Meanwhile, Conley and Chark have both had strong training camps and the fight for which one ends up playing more snaps looks to be going down to the wire. But last year we saw Chark struggle to adapt to the NFL and in particular struggle in the red zone, where he failed to bring in all three of his targets. Conley brought in seven of his 10 red-zone targets last year, totaling 48 yards and five touchdowns. So, there's reason one why I see Conley getting that spot.
Another is that both Conley and Chark have similar athletic profiles. Both have 98th percentile 40-yard dash times and can be used as deep-ball threats for new quarterback Nick Foles. To me, that suggests that if athleticism is virtually equal, you go with the receiver that you can trust more. Conley's that guy. He's a more reliable target for Foles, someone who you can trust to make tougher catches than Chark can.
Conley was 54th among wide receivers last year in fantasy points per target with 1.76. Chark wasn't targeted enough to qualify for a percentile rank, but he had just 0.92 fantasy points per target. Chark's catch rate of 43.8 percent is just incredibly discouraging. Maybe his training camp showing is indicative of a leap in his game, but I'm more willing to believe that Conley establishes himself as the team's second outside receiver once Lee is back.
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