RADIO
Golden Tate 2018 Outlook: The Undervalued Fringe WR1
6 years agoGolden Tate continues to be one of the most undervalued wide receivers in fantasy football, especially PPR leagues. Since Tate joined the Lions, he has been criminally undervalued come draft time (44.9 ADP the last three years) but outperforms that ADP. Typically, Tate is drafted as a WR2 or WR3 for your team, but offers high WR2 upside. When will we recognize how good he is?
Since joining the Detroit Lions in 2014, Tate has averaged 93 receptions for 1,056 yards per season. During that same time, he has racked up the sixth most receptions in the NFL with 372. Only Larry Fitzgerald, Demaryius Thomas, Jarvis Landry, Julio Jones and Antonio Brown have more. Those numbers have been good enough for one WR1 and three WR2 finishes.
Tate has been able to put together borderline WR1 seasons without the touchdowns so far, but what if the touchdowns finally come? If Tate had secured just one more touchdown last season, he would have finished as the WR10. If Tate had secured three extra touchdowns in 2016, then he would have finished as the WR12.
The departure of Eric Ebron and Darren Fells leave seven touchdowns from last year that will need to be claimed in 2018. Kenny Golladay will take a shot, but Tate has always been one of Matthew Stafford’s safest targets. Those touchdowns could make Tate a WR1 again for 2018.
