RADIO
Sometimes we're afraid of putting together players from the same team on our rosters, let alone weekly lineups. To a certain extent, that makes sense: the opportunities one gets will take away from the opportunities the other could have gotten. Why limit the fantasy upside of our team with two receivers playing in the same offense rather than picking two from different ones?
The truth is certain players are often overlooked, who while going at a cheap ADP, can still become game-changers. Every no. 1 wide receiver will get drafted inside the first 10 rounds of your draft, and there is nothing you can do to prevent that. When it comes to picking second-fiddles and flex options, you can take advantage of some "buried" receivers in certain depth charts that still carry tons of potential because of the teams they play for.
Today, I'm trying to highlight some teams/receivers worth stacking even if they will be sharing opportunities in their offenses. Let's get to it!
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2022 Crowded Depth Charts Worth Chasing
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Mike Evans & Chris Godwin & Russell Gage & Cameron Brate (& Rob Gronkowski)
Tom Brady. That's it, that's the full column right there. Or, at the very least, it could be, am I right? Brady is back for another run with Tampa Bay and, well, judging by the results of 2021 (he didn't win the Super Bowl) you bet he's coming with revenge in mind. Anyway, we're here to focus on pass catchers, not soul crushers. Although Tampa has a bit of both, they definitely have a ton more of the former.
Not only did the Bucs retain both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin (CG will miss some time as he's still recovering from a December ACL injury), but they doubled down on their WR depth-charting efforts by adding a legit threat in Russell Gage, and we have yet to hear the final word coming from TE Rob Gronkowski regarding his (un)availability for next season.
Evans might price himself out of your budget as the WR1 he is, but Godwin's injury is bumping him down a bit and none of Gage/Gronk/Brate/TyJohnson is going to cost a lot making all of them a viable unit to stack with Tom Brady as the QB. You just don't pay for a pair of receivers like Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins because you'd ruin yourself before even reaching the fifth round of your draft, but you definitely go chasing receiving corps such as the one from Tampa. The Bucs project to the most total PPR points among receivers/tight ends projected to be the no. 2-5 pass catchers in their squads while currently having a lower ADP than four other franchises (all of them projected to fewer points).
Green Bay Packers
Allen Lazard & Christian Watson & Robert Tonyan & Sammy Watkins & Randall Cobb
The Pack suffered a massively offensive blow this offseason losing Davante Adams and waving him goodbye as he joined his BFF Derek Carr in Las Vegas. Cold world, Aaron. You still shouldn't be overlooking Green Bay entering the 2022 season. For one, they have the reigning MVP and one of the best QBs to ever grace a football field. You can pretty much put yourself in the slot position, and even though you'd probably get a bunch of broken bones through the season, you'd still be good for some good fantasy outcomes.
Also, the Packers' have no bonafide fantasy threat (at a skill position) in place other than RB Aaron Jones with Allen Lazard projecting to the second-most PPR points with 192 (via PFF projections). Lazard, Sammy Watkins, Randall Cobb, and Christian Watson (and Jones, too) all are expected to get target shares above 11% with the first three at 14% or higher.
There will be a massive risk of drafting the wrong guy – or just the wrong unit as a whole – precisely because of those evened and balanced shares, but with the ridiculously low ADPs (Lazard has the highest one already down to 127 – a 10th+ round pick in 12-team leagues) you'd be well served to get the Lazard+Watson (ADP 140) combination early and then adding some Watkins/Cobb shares to your squads via waivers. With Rodgers still doing it you know, it's going to happen for all of them at some point.
Arizona Cardinals
Marquise Brown & Rondale Moore & A.J. Green & Zach Ertz (& DeAndre Hopkins)
Look at the chart below, then come back to this paragraph. Alright, we are here now. Did you miss something in that chart? Of course, you did, as DeAndre Hopkins is nowhere to be found in it. That's because PFF is playing it safe and leaving Hopkins straight out of the equation in their latest run of projections. Like, 100% out of them: he's not even listed in the full 573-player list of men with some projections for next season – although Hopkins, as I'm writing this, has only been suspended for the first six weeks of the season.
Reports from the very own Albert Breer from MMQB recently spoke about the possibility of Hopkins facing a release in 2023 if things don't click for him once he returns for the second half of the 2022 season. This could happen, of course, but read that again: in 2023. Even if Hopkins doesn't play this season or underperforms, he'd have to do so to massive extents to not return some value given he's currently boasting a reasonable and affordable 80 ADP and he's fallen as far as past the 100th pick in some drafts this early offseason.
Moving on from Hopkins, which is old news, what about Kyler Murray's freshest receiver in Marquise Brown? You can get Brown and TE Zach Ertz (who was reborn once he moved from Philly to Zona) to cover your WR1/TE1 positions while still having tons of room for snatching and slotting the likes of Rondale Moore, A.J. Green, and/or Antoine Wesley in your lineup in exchange for a low draft pick (past the 13th round) or just for free via waivers. Arizona's no. 2-4 pass-catchers project to the ninth-most total PPR points and that's not even factoring Hopkins' potential production into the equation.
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