Davante Adams and Amari Cooper Fantasy Fallout

We had two massive trades go down on Tuesday in the NFL. Davante Adams has been sent to the New York Jets and Amari Cooper is now a Buffalo Bill. We’ll take a look at both trades and the impact for all four teams affected.

🛫 New York Jets 🟢 

Aaron Rodgers gets his man back. It might be easy to forget that Davante Adams is still a premiere wide receiver in the NFL after being mired in Las Vegas for the past several years. It doesn’t make the Jets a contender all of a sudden (because they have issues beyond the personnel), but it does give their offense more firepower.

When the trade first went down, I broke down the target share like this:

Of course, numbers will fluctuate week-to-week, but this is how I see things playing out in general. Adams will be the target leader and face the top opposing corner more often than not. He’s a fantasy WR1 until proven otherwise. Garrett Wilson becomes what he has been for the majority of the season: a WR2. Wilson has been living on volume alone to boost his numbers. He’s not a bad receiver, he’s good, but he’s not Davante Adams. He will benefit from easier matchups, but he won’t be the top dog in this offense.

Allen Lazard will more or less continue his role in the offense. He still has the rapport with Rodgers going for him, and he plays a different role than Adams and Wilson. He’s had receptions of 36, 25, 27, and 52 yards this season and will continue to be the primary deep threat and a big red zone target.

As for Breece Hall, I think his target share stays fairly stable, but it will dip down slightly. Tyler Conklin, Xavier Gipson, Braelon Allen, Jeremy Ruckert, and Malachi Corely will fight for the scraps left behind. Mike Williams has been put on the trade block, so his time in New York is over.

☠️ Las Vegas Raiders ⚫️ 

Brock Bowers is in contention for TE1 on the season, as if he wasn’t already. He leads all tight ends in targets, receptions, and yards by a wide margin, just lacks the touchdowns of a guy like George Kittle. The offense will certainly cap his scoring upside, but will he rack up receptions and yards? Oh yes. Is he very good? Again, oh yes.

Jakobi Meyers is the only other Raider I’m really considering here. He might be the 1B in the target tree, as he’s only been slightly behind Bowers in targets per game. He will face harder matchups on the outside as compared to Bowers in the interior of the field, but I think the Raiders will continue to move Meyers around the formation, hopefully helping him find favorable matchups.

As for the rest of the team, Tre Tucker and Alexander Mattison get a boost in targets. Tucker is a flex candidate only in good matchups. Mattison at least has some rushing volume to go along with his target share, so he still interests me as a potential every-week RB3 start.

🦬 Buffalo Bills 🔵 

Amari Cooper getting traded to the Bills is a game-changer for that team. Cooper, at least in my estimation, is not a bad receiver. His lackluster numbers in Cleveland are more the direct result of Deshaun Watson absolutely sucking rather than Cooper succumbing to age. Dalton Kincaid has not stepped up this year as many had hoped, and Khalil Shakir is not the typical WR1. Keon Coleman could become one, but he will need time to grow and develop, something rookies don’t often have (and usually to their demise). With Cooper on the team, it eases the burden on everyone.

Cooper is instantly the top dog and will siphon targets away from almost everyone. He’s a locked-in high-end WR2 with WR1 upside. Kincaid you will still start because tight ends are a wasteland this year. Coleman, on the other hand, can arguably be dropped if there is someone else on the waiver wire who could potentially have a better upside or more secure target share (Demario Douglas, for example). Khalil Shakir loses some luster and is probably just a FLEX play when the matchup is right.

And no I’m not forgetting about Curtis Samuel. But I have hardly mentioned him at all this year, even in the preseason, and so far that has panned out. He will likely continue to be a non-factor.

🐶 Cleveland Browns 🟠 

As much as I have tried to block this team from my mind as a fan, here I am, forced to write about them. While I want to completely roast them here, I must restrain myself and speak from a fantasy football perspective.

Jerry Jeudy and David Njoku are the clear top dogs in the offense now. Yay. Just what the offense needed. Conceding the season by trading away Cooper while retaining, and starting, the true problem of why the season is going so badly. Ahem, anyway, I think it’s worth a shot keeping Jeudy and Njoku.

Jeudy’s catch percentage is only 55%, but with the increase in volume, potentially he becomes a decent fantasy asset. Watson hasn’t been a very good downfield thrower, but Jeudy has run about 32% of his routes out of the slot this year. Hopefully, the shorter target distance slot routes offer plus Cooper no longer on the outside gives Jeudy a slight bump in production in the short-intermediate area of the field. If he can connect on a deep throw from time to time, hooray.

David Njoku is interesting mainly because he’s a tight end and could easily be the No.1 target in the offense. Whether that means anything remains to be seen. But, because he’s a tight end running shorter routes, Watson should be able to make those throws.

Cedric Tillman may operate as the X receiver for the Browns unless they opt to evaluate Elijah Moore more heavily than before. Cleveland needs to see what they have in them, so I do expect a bump in work for both of them. That does not mean they are startable and are only speculative adds in deep formats or in dynasty.

That’s all I have for now! Hopefully, that helps clear the air for you or makes it just as muddy as before. Who knows.

Oh, one last thing: