Kenny Golladay Fantasy Value Could Skyrocket as Lions' Top Wide Receiver

Kenny Golladay was one of only 11 wide receivers to notch 12-plus targets in four or more games in the 2018 season.

His role was constantly in flux though, making it hard to nail down an exact fantasy football outlook for the 2019 season. He opened last year in a crowded receiving corps, playing alongside Golden Tate and Marvin Jones. Tate was traded after Week 8 though, and things quickly changed again when Jones' season ended after Week 10.

Even with Jones healthy again, Golladay projects as the Detroit Lions' top wide receiver for the upcoming season, and even at a high average draft position (ADP) of WR18, per FantasyPros.com, he could return some serious value.

Golladay had already shown some promise in his 2017 rookie season, but 2018 was when his coming out party really started. He turned 119 targets into 70 receptions, 1,063 yards and five touchdowns, finishing as WR21.

His numbers really picked up when Tate left as well, going from 6.3 targets per game to 9.3. He scored fewer touchdowns in the second half of the season, but TDs are always going to be volatile, and his increase in targets, receptions and yards per game is a much more important factor.

Granted, most of those Tate-less games also came with Marvin Jones on the shelf. But there are two good reason to not be overly concerned about that.

The first is that he still showed big upside in the two games he played with Jones and without Tate — notching 19.8 fantasy points, in PPR leagues, on 13 targets in one of those contests (Week 10 against the Chicago Bears).

The other is that he showed the ability to be a top WR even with defenses keying in on him as the only real weapon in the Lions' passing game. He averaged 13.9 fantasy points per game (in PPR leagues) after Jones' injury while Bruce Ellington — not exactly someone defenses are forced to respect — served as the Lions' No. 2 WR.

The Lions' offense is not an especially exciting unit, and we could certainly see Golladay's fantasy efficiency continue to be held back by a lack of touchdowns. Ultimately volume is what we're looking for in fantasy football though, and that's something he should offer no shortage of.

As a third or fourth round pick in 12-team leagues, there's plenty of risk involved in drafting Golladay. The Lions could be playing from behind a lot in 2019 though, and Golladay has the upside to see one of the NFL's highest target totals.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.