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Fantasy Football Draft: 2019 studs, sleepers and busts

By Adam Strangis

TEMPE, AZ - JUNE 11: Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws a pass during the Arizona Cardinals Minicamp on June 11, 2019 at the Arizona Cardinals Training Facility in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TEMPE, AZ - JUNE 11: Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws a pass during the Arizona Cardinals Minicamp on June 11, 2019 at the Arizona Cardinals Training Facility in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Fantasy Football Draft
Fantasy Football Draft: TAMPA, FL – NOVEMBER 25: Wide receiver Mike Evans #13 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hauls in a 42-yard pass from quarterback Jameis Winston #3 in the first quarter of the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Raymond James Stadium on November 25, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Will Vragovic/Getty Images) /

Wide Receiver – Studs

Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers – ADP of 20th overall, WR8

Since he broke into the league in 2014, Evans has never finished lower than WR24 and he has three top 12 finishes in that span. This might not help add to his stats, but Evans now gets to work with Bruce Arians who is king of taking deep shots. That’s going to be par for the course with Evans since he averaged 15.7 yards per target last season and Evans has yet to fall below 1,000 yards in any season.

Evans gets criticized in some circles for his lower reception totals and not much YAC(yards after catch) and while these are technically true, who cares? Yes, Evans has never eclipsed 100 receptions in a season.

Yes, only 239 of his 1,524 receiving yards came after the catch. Does that really matter? When Evans is getting the style of targets down the field, those are higher value targets. I’d rather my receiver get four targets 16 yards down field than seven targets six yards from the line of scrimmage.

Evans has so much more potential for big plays in that scenario and that’s all he’s done in his career. The Tampa receiver is still just 26 years old when the season starts and is one of the better fantasy assets in the game.

Stefon Diggs, Minnesota Vikings – ADP of 33rd overall, WR13 

I’ve come around on Diggs a little bit because when the season ended, I was a little disappointed in him. Sure, he finished as the WR11 in .5PPR, but the week to week consistency was downright terrible. Diggs had eight games under 50 yards and only five went over 80 yards.

That became especially frustrating as Adam Thielen went over 100 yards eight straight weeks to start the season, but the passing game really fell apart at the end. From Week 13 on, neither player went over 80 yards receiving and that could have a lot to do with John DeFilippo was fired and Kevin Stefanski was hired.

Coming into his first full season(and with Gray Kubiak in tow as an offensive advis0r), there’s optimism throughout the team that the Vikings will improve on the 13th highest passing yards in the league.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins will be entering his second year as well and if the offense can take a step forward, Diggs could wind up being even better than his finish last year. The targets between Thielen and Diggs were incredibly even at 153 and 149 and there’s not much of a reason to think the gap in production remains the same as 2018.

Thielen held the edge in aDOT at 9.5 to 8.6 but that doesn’t explain the near 350 yards more in production. Diggs could wind up being a bargain heading into his fifth full year.

Other Fantasy Football Draft Targets – T.Y. Hilton, Indianapolis Colts – Robert Woods, Los Angeles Rams – A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals

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