Breshad Perriman set to be WR1 for Buccaneers and fantasy owners

With the loss of Chris Godwin, to go with last week’s loss of Mike Evans, Breshad Perriman is set up to become the WR1 for the Bucccaneers with residual fantasy impact.

For the second time in as many games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost one of their top wide receivers to a hamstring injury. Chris Godwin left Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions with a hamstring injury, which coupled with the loss of Mike Evans to a similar injury in Week 14 pushed the door wide open for Breshad Perriman. The former first-round pick delivered big too, with five catches for 113 yards and three touchdowns against the Lions.

After Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians said the injury didn’t look good, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Monday that Godwin is expected to miss Week 16 against the Houston Texans. Week 17 against the Atlanta Falcons won’t mean anything, so there’s a solid chance Godwin is out for the season like Evans.

With one game left to be played on the Week 15 schedule, Godwin is the second-highest scoring fantasy wide receiver in full-point PPR scoring. Evans, even with that missed game Sunday, sits in a tie at WR6. Together, they will leave behind 17.6 targets per game.

Including his big game against Detroit, Perriman has at least 70 yards and five targets in three straight games, with touchdowns in the last two. He’s now in line for more work as Tampa Bay’s newly anointed No.1 wide receiver for Jameis Winston, in one of the highest volume passing attacks in the NFL.

Entering Week 15, with recent improvement presenting a bit of false narrative, the Texans were in the bottom half of the league in fantasy points allowed to wide receivers. They still have a vulnerable secondary, and it’s not a stretch to compare Perriman to Titans’ wide receiver A.J. Brown. On Sunday against Houston, Brown had eight receptions (on 13 targets) for 114 yards and a touchdown.

Perriman has quickly become a must-add in fantasy for the coming week, and as of this writing he’s owned in just 11 percent of Yahoo! leagues and 9.1 percent of ESPN leagues. Week 17 against the Falcons is also a favorable-looking matchup, if it matters in your league or as you hunt for DFS options.

Losing Godwin just ahead of championship week in most leagues is obviously not ideal, as losing Evans last week also wasn’t. But the Buccaneers’ top wide receiver for the rest of the season has fallen into the laps of fantasy owners, and Perriman is set to deliver WR1 numbers for his real team as well as fantasy teams in Week 16 and 17.