Fantasy Football winners and losers after the NFL Draft

Fantasy Football Loser: Kerryon Johnson

The Lions seem to be over Johnson, as he has played just 18 games since being drafted in 2018. Johnson’s 10.6 points per game last year was also a huge fall from the 13.9 from his rookie season.

They picked up Georgia’s D’Andre Swift with the third selection of the second round. Swift’s 1,218 rushing yards were the fifth-most in the SEC last season. Swift has obviously produced, and stayed healthy, which is quite the opposite of Johnson thus far in his NFL career.

Swift also comes from a school that has produced plenty of the league’s top talent at the position (Sony Michel, Nick Chubb, and Todd Gurley were all drafted within the first two rounds since 2015).

Johnson still has two more years on his rookie contract, so he’s not totally done for, yet. He is still a good pass-catcher out of the backfield, so expect him to be a third-down back, but in order to take a load off of the injury-prone back, as well as due to a lack of production with his 3.6 yards per carry last year, Swift seems to be the lead guy out of that backfield sooner rather than later.

Fantasy Football Winner: Derek Carr

Carr has been struggling to have the same production as he did in 2016, when he led the Raiders to a 12-3 record before injury. He threw for 28 touchdowns while being intercepted just six times, while 47 percent of his targets were to Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree. The next two seasons were just bad – Jared Cooks was the team’s leading receiver in 2017 and 2018 with 688 and 896 receiving yards, respectively.

Tyrell Williams was off to a hot start last year, but plantar fasciitis affected him from Week 4 on. But with a hopefully healthy Williams, and after seeing the emergence of Darren Waller, the Raiders drafted Henry Ruggs III out of Alabama with the 12th overall pick. Ruggs was the first receiver off the board.

Now, the Raiders have three legitimate weapons in the passing game on the outside, and running back Josh Jacobs is just getting warmed up. This is Carr’s best offense, on paper, since 2016. Plus, Carr’s 17.13 points per game from Week 8 on last year was the 16th best of all QBs.

Carr has not lived up to his contract, nor do I expect him to this upcoming season, but look to stash him in later rounds in keeper leagues, or even on the waiver wire in your dynasty drafts coming up.

Fantasy Football Loser: Michael Gallup

Yep. This is who I traded Andrews for. Before the draft, to be fair. And I got the 11th pick as well. Had to.

I was extremely high on Gallup before the draft. Of course, the CeeDee Lamb pick takes some of that mojo away.

Despite Lamb arguably the second-best receiver on the Cowboys right now, I don’t think Gallup’s floor sinks much. The problem is, his ceiling certainly is not rising after the Cowboys drafted the Oklahoma product with the 17th pick.

Lamb was arguably the best wide receiver in this year’s draft. With Randall Cobb and Jason Witten gone, that is 166 targets that can be spread out. While to start, I think that will go to the proven-reliable Gallup, Lamb’s productivity will increase as the season goes on.

Of course, quarterback Dak Prescott had a career year last year, throwing for over 4,900 yards. But it is tough to see him repeat that.

After a 66-1,107-6 season last year, Gallup had an opportunity to become a mid-WR2 or even a low-end WR1, but Lamb will put that to a halt.

Gallup should still be a top-25 receiver this season – again, Cobb and Witten’s departures leave targets to be accounted for, but after the 2020 season, Gallup might not be the same force in that Cowboy offense as he was last season.