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NFL recap: Week 1 lessons learned

By Daniel Everhart

Black Lightning -- "The Book of Blood: Chapter One: Requiem" -- Image BLK205b_0095b.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Christine Adams as Lynn and Jennifer Riker as Dr. Jace -- Photo: Bob Mahoney/The CW -- © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved
Black Lightning -- "The Book of Blood: Chapter One: Requiem" -- Image BLK205b_0095b.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Christine Adams as Lynn and Jennifer Riker as Dr. Jace -- Photo: Bob Mahoney/The CW -- © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved /
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NFL Recap
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – APRIL 25: T.J. Hockenson of Iowa poses with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after being chosen #8 overall by the Detroit Lions during the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft on April 25, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

NFL Recap: Lessons learned

Okay so typically I’m not a guy who reads something and takes it as scripture – even if it’s backed by strong statistics. However, there was a really interesting stat I heard in the offseason about fantasy-relevant rookies and how there has basically never been a rookie tight end that was involved in the offense and turned out to be fantasy relevant. Hockenson is not that guy. He is breaking the mold and there’s a reason people are calling him baby Gronk. Matt Patricia is clearly trying to channel his former Patriots team here and use TJ Hockenson a ton. The guy got 9 targets with 6 catches, over 130 yards and a touchdown. That’s incredible for a tight end let alone a rookie tight end! He could really make Stafford a solid fantasy quarterback again.

Everyone was all over this guy due to the HBO show Hard Knocks so I didn’t get any shares of him in my drafts. I’m really kicking myself over it now but it’s probably a different world without Antonio Brown soaking up targets. I’m talking about the athletic freak Darren Waller. He looks like he might be a bit too slender to be a tight end but the guy is a monster. I’m actually surprised to see he “only” got 8 targets with 7 catches because it felt like Carr was looking his way constantly against the Broncos. He was an absolute matchup nightmare and I don’t see that trend changing.

There was a lot of surprising news this past week in regards to tight ends but one of the most eye-popping to me was Greg Olsen and how often he ran a route on plays Cam dropped back to pass – 93%. 93%! That’s incredible. Just to put that into context, the extremely popular OJ Howard ran routes on only 55% of Jameis Winston’s unfortunate dropbacks. Olsen didn’t kill it by any means in terms of his personal stats but he did get 9 targets. I’m not sure how many of them were catchable given Cam’s propensity to be a bit scattered but if I’m in need of a tight end, I’m buying Olsen with those numbers.

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