Will Fuller 2021 Outlook: New Situation Brings Question Marks
4 years agoIt's not that Will Fuller isn't a very solid receiver, or that he doesn't have blazing speed. It's that he finds himself in a completely different situation than he was in a season ago, which naturally changes his outlook for the 2021 season. In 2020, Fuller saw 6.8 targets per game from Deshaun Watson. He turned those into 879 yards and eight touchdowns. Fuller caught those eight touchdowns in just 11 games. At that rate, he would have caught almost 12 touchdowns last season, which would have been good for 35% of all Watson's touchdowns. Fuller and Brandin Cooks saw, by far, the highest concentration of targets and touchdowns in Houston in 2020 due to the obvious lack of options in the passing game. Things are bound to be different in Miami. The Dolphins drafted Jaylen Waddle with the sixth overall pick and will pair him with a plethora of very solid pass-catching options this season, including DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki, Lynn Bowden Jr., and Fuller. Between Tua Tagovailoa and Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins threw just 24 touchdowns a season ago. If Fuller catches even 20% of 24 touchdowns (a fairly high rate), that'd be good for about five touchdowns, much less than his projected 12 from a season ago in Houston. He may see 100 targets from Tagovailoa this season, but the ceiling is much lower in Miami than it was with Deshaun Watson in Houston. Proceed with caution drafting Fuller to be anything more than a low-end WR3 this season.