By The Hudsonian, Joshua Hudson
If you head over to the Club Fantasy Instagram page, you can stay up to speed on all the transactions as they occur, or as fast as my graphic designer can make some bomb ass pictures for you to like. Below you’ll see how I view all of the relevant NFL offseason transactions. I say relevant because, for the purposes of fantasy football, defensive signings don’t impact us as much as the offensive ones. I’ll cover the defensive signings when I do my team-by-team previews later in the summer.
I’ll identify the player, who they signed with or were traded to, and how I think it impacts their fantasy value going into 2017, positive or negative. Next up: Vernon Davis remains in Washington.
TE Vernon Davis remains with the Redskins as arguably the best insurance policy in football. He’s gonna give that Aflac duck a run for its money. Design credit: Kathilia Colón (@KatColon37 on Instagram)
Transaction: Vernon Davis re-signs with the Washington Redskins
Fantasy Outlook: Davis was asked to fill in for Jordan Reed last season instead of just being the 2nd tight end. It lifted Davis’ production – he finished 21st among TEs with 44 catches and 583 yards and 2 TDs – and ultimately led to a new 3-year contract. See, everyone that watches football knows that Jordan Reed is ultra-talented. You know, when he’s healthy. Having a good insurance policy like Davis, a former 1st round pick with multiple Pro Bowls on his resume, can be useful.
Davis’ role is exactly that though – emergency TE1. As long as Reed is healthy, Davis isn’t a blip on the fantasy radar. BUT, and this is a big BUT, if Josh Doctson – the Redskins’ 2016 1st round pick – doesn’t bounce back as expected from his Achilles injury, you could see a lot of 2 tight end sets to compensate. Losing two 1,000 yard receivers – DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon – isn’t the easiest thing for an offense to overcome. The ‘Skins managed to sign FA WR Terrelle Pryor, himself a 1,000 yard receiver with Cleveland, and still have last year’s breakout receiver Jamison Crowder. Between those five WRs/TEs, there is plenty of offensive numbers to put up.
If I had to guess, Davis has a season similar to 2016 – hovering around TE20 with some weeks in the top 10. Those top 10 weeks will likely be when Reed is nursing an injury. If you draft Reed this year, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to handcuff him to Davis.