Sophomore slump. Or fear of it. That is a trend at the wide receiver position (as we look at the entries in the Fantasy Index Open). There were the three rookies with double-digit touchdowns last year, and they’re all a little lower than I expect.
Odell Beckham Jr., most notably. As well as he played in the second half of last year, I figured he’d be up there with Antonio Brown and Dez Bryant. But Beckham is definitely down in the 4th spot, behind not only those guys but also Julio Jones. (And not that these choices were made prior to the first preseason games; as well as Jones played in his debut in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, I’m guessing he’d probably be the No. 2 wide receiver if ballots were being submitted today).
I thought guys would be all over Mike Evans, who lit up last year in Tampa Bay, but he finished outside of the top 10, just behind T.Y. Hilton (and way behind the other nine receivers in the top 10).
Kelvin Benjamin, meanwhile, finished down in 15th. He’s not even the No. 3 sophomore receiver (Brandin Cooks came in just ahead of him). I thought much of the field would be crushed by Benjamin tearing his ACL, but he’s not as high as I thought he would be. Of the 192 entries, 30 didn’t even include Benjamin in their top 20 (and they’re the big winners in the injury situation – probably one of those guys will win at this position).
In my rankings, I’m not particularly high on Demaryius Thomas, Calvin Johnson or A.J. Green, but they were all generously graded, finishing 5th, 6th and 9th.
Picks that surprised me. The following guys were included in at least one of the top 20s: Cordarrelle Patterson, Kenny Britt, Tavon Austin, Terrance Williams, Anquan Boldin, Stevie Johnson, Victor Cruz, Brian Quick and Percy Harvin.
You never know.
We’ll score these top 20s in January. Winning gets an impossible large trophy from the team at Affordable Trophies.
Here are wide receiver results, with percentage of market share. If a player were 1st on every ballot, he’d grade out at 100 percent. If he were 10th on every entry, he’d be at 50 percent. If he were 20th by everyone, that would be 5 percent.
| FANTASY INDEX OPEN (wide receivers) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tm | Player | Pct |
| PIT | Antonio Brown | 94.6% |
| DAL | Dez Bryant | 89.8% |
| ATL | Julio Jones | 84.8% |
| NYG | Odell Beckham Jr. | 79.2% |
| DEN | Demaryius Thomas | 78.3% |
| DET | Calvin Johnson | 77.2% |
| GB | Jordy Nelson | 76.5% |
| GB | Randall Cobb | 60.5% |
| CIN | A.J. Green | 60.5% |
| IND | T.Y. Hilton | 48.0% |
| TB | Mike Evans | 44.7% |
| CHI | Alshon Jeffery | 44.6% |
| DEN | Emmanuel Sanders | 35.1% |
| NO | Brandin Cooks | 29.9% |
| CAR | Kelvin Benjamin | 26.9% |
| HOU | DeAndre Hopkins | 22.5% |
| PHI | Jordan Matthews | 14.3% |
| NE | Julian Edelman | 9.9% |
| NYJ | Brandon Marshall | 9.0% |
| ATL | Roddy White | 6.9% |
| SD | Keenan Allen | 6.0% |
| OAK | Amari Cooper | 5.9% |
| IND | Andre Johnson | 5.1% |
| DET | Golden Tate | 4.8% |
| WAS | DeSean Jackson | 4.6% |
| ARI | Larry Fitzgerald | 3.3% |
| BUF | Sammy Watkins | 2.6% |
| JAC | Allen Robinson | 2.3% |
| NE | Brandon LaFell | 2.1% |
| MIA | Jarvis Landry | 2.0% |
| BAL | Steve Smith | 1.9% |
| MIN | Charles Johnson | 1.7% |
| TB | Vincent Jackson | 1.5% |
| KC | Jeremy Maclin | 1.5% |
| PHI | Nelson Agholor | 1.4% |
| PIT | Martavis Bryant | 1.3% |
| NYG | Victor Cruz | 1.1% |
| ARI | John Brown | 1.1% |
| MIN | Mike Wallace | 1.1% |
| ARI | Michael Floyd | 0.8% |
| NYJ | Eric Decker | 0.5% |
| GB | Davante Adams | 0.5% |
| BAL | Breshad Perriman | 0.4% |
| SF | Torrey Smith | 0.4% |
| NYG | Rueben Randle | 0.4% |
| WAS | Pierre Garcon | 0.4% |
| MIA | DeVante Parker | 0.3% |
| STL | Brian Quick | 0.3% |
| BUF | Percy Harvin | 0.2% |
| SD | Stevie Johnson | 0.2% |
| STL | Tavon Austin | 0.2% |
| TEN | Kendall Wright | 0.2% |
| STL | Kenny Britt | 0.1% |
| MIN | Cordarrelle Patterson | 0.1% |
| NO | Marques Colston | 0.1% |
| DAL | Terrance Williams | 0.1% |
| SF | Anquan Boldin | 0.1% |
—Ian Allan