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Fantasy Football Player Profile: Donte Moncrief

By Adam Strangis

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 11: Donte Moncrief #10 of the Jacksonville Jaguars catches a pass in the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 11, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 11: Donte Moncrief #10 of the Jacksonville Jaguars catches a pass in the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 11, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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JACKSONVILLE, FL – SEPTEMBER 30: Donte Moncrief #10 of the Jacksonville Jaguars reaches for the football on the way to a second half touchdown during their game against the New York Jets at TIAA Bank Field on September 30, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FL – SEPTEMBER 30: Donte Moncrief #10 of the Jacksonville Jaguars reaches for the football on the way to a second half touchdown during their game against the New York Jets at TIAA Bank Field on September 30, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /

Fantasy Football Player Profile: Donte Moncrief

Best Case Scenario 

Let’s take a step back and understand what is not there from the 2018 Steelers offense. Steelers fans have their feelings about Antonio Brown, myself included. Putting that aside, he leaves behind 167 targets(fifth in the league), 15 touchdowns(most), 1,273 yards(ninth most) and 1,899 air yards (fifth-most). He finished with a 26 percent target share and roughly 500 more air yards than Smith-Schuster. In honesty, the hype around Smith-Schuster has probably covered up what a massive loss Brown is to this offense on the field.

However, these metrics all leave a ton of slack that needs to be picked up. Per sharpfootballstats.com, the Steelers ran 11 personnel 74 percent of the time. As a quick side note, if you are not following Warren Sharp, please rectify that. There seems to be a nice pathway for both Moncrief and James Washington to get a lot of playing time together. The difference between offensive philosophy can’t be overstated here either.

Pittsburgh finished first in passing attempts and third on passing yards last season. Even if they fell off seven passing attempts a game, they would have finished inside the top 10. The three year average for passing attempts works out to 39 per contest, which would have been fifth last year. Moncrief will slide into an offense coming off a year where he did lead the Jags in air yards, going over 1,000 for the first time in his career.

He also fits very well as for as formations go. Last season, he played over 90 percent of his snaps as an outside receiver. Smith-Schuster ran nearly 59 percent of his routes out of the slot, so sliding Moncrief on one side and Washington mans the other side makes a fairly natural fit. With the 22 percent red-zone target share being open, Moncrief has a wide-open path. Washington has yet to show much and Rogers and Ryan Switzer are limited players. Diontae Johnson is a third-round rookie. Since he’s opened camp as the number two receiver, Moncrief has a path for 80-100 targets, 850-1,000 yards, and 8-10 touchdowns.

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