It has been a long time since the Super Bowl, and remembering exactly how things left off last year can be a challenge. So, I’ll be writing up a fantasy preview for each NFL team to give us a quick refresher on what happened last year, and what changes took place in the offseason. All fantasy stats will be in ESPN scoring format unless otherwise noted.
If I missed any change or left out any big notes, throw them down in the comments for me!
What Did They Do Last Year?
This is likely to be the shortest team preview article of all 32.
The Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, and they’re bringing back just about every key piece on both the coaching staff and between the lines for 2021. We’ll just get right to it.
Quarterback
| OVR Rank | Player | G | COMP | ATT | YDS | TD | INT | ATT | YDS | TD | FFP | FFP/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Tom Brady | 16 | 401 | 610 | 4,633 | 40 | 12 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 337.9 | 21.1 |
| 53 | Blaine Gabbert | 4 | 9 | 16 | 143 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 16 | 0 | 15.3 | 3.8 |
In 2020, there were some growing pains as Tom Brady adjusted to his new team. Still, Brady was a serviceable fantasy starter with only a couple of real dud weeks in his first season with the Bucs. He’s currently our QB11 and going in the middle of the seventh round per FF Calculator.
If you don’t swing for the fences with someone like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, Brady should absolutely be your backup plan. 50 passing touchdowns is not outside the realm of possibilities in Year 2 with the league’s best receiver corps.
Wide Receivers
| PPR Rank | STD Rank | Player | G | TGT | REC | YDS | TD | STD PTS | STD PTS/G | PPR PTS | PPR PTS/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 7 | Mike Evans | 16 | 109 | 70 | 1,006 | 13 | 178.6 | 11.2 | 248.6 | 15.54 |
| 31 | 30 | Chris Godwin | 12 | 84 | 65 | 840 | 7 | 126 | 10.5 | 191 | 15.92 |
| 65 | 65 | Antonio Brown | 8 | 61 | 45 | 483 | 4 | 72.1 | 9 | 117.1 | 14.64 |
| 73 | 67 | Scotty Miller | 14 | 53 | 33 | 501 | 3 | 69.5 | 5 | 102.5 | 7.32 |
| 127 | 119 | Tyler Johnson | 10 | 18 | 12 | 169 | 2 | 28.9 | 2.9 | 40.9 | 4.09 |
| 163 | 164 | Justin Watson | 3 | 11 | 7 | 94 | 0 | 9.4 | 3.1 | 16.4 | 5.47 |
| 169 | 180 | Jaydon Mickens | 2 | 10 | 7 | 58 | 0 | 5.8 | 2.9 | 12.8 | 6.4 |
| 219 | 219 | Cyril Grayson | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Again, I’m going to be brief. Do you need to hear me wax poetic about how Mike Evans is the only receiver ever to start his career with 7 straight 1,000-yard seasons? Am I going to convince a lot of people on the fence that Chris Godwin is good?
Mike Evans isn’t being drafted until the beginning of the fourth round. Draft Mike Evans in the third round in every league.
Related: Wide Receivers to Buy Now and By-Pass in 2021 Fantasy Football
Chris Godwin is going in the middle of the fourth, and that seems a little rich for me. However, I believe we saw a big step back for Godwin thanks to his injuries more than because he forgot how to play football. Taking a shot on Godwin at his ADP is a decent bet.
Antonio Brown is currently free, surprisingly, and you should ear-mark a roster spot for Brown. My buddy Pete Rogers wrote a piece here talking about AB’s 2021 potential, along with other late-round receivers with WR1 upside this year.
Running Backs
| PPR Rank | STD Rank | Player | G | ATT | YDS | TD | TGT | REC | YDS | TD | STD PTS | STD PTS/G | PPR PTS | PPR PTS/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 15 | Ronald Jones | 14 | 192 | 978 | 7 | 42 | 28 | 165 | 1 | 158.3 | 11.3 | 186.3 | 13.31 |
| 35 | 38 | Leonard Fournette | 12 | 97 | 367 | 6 | 47 | 36 | 233 | 0 | 96 | 8 | 132 | 11 |
| 100 | 97 | Ke'Shawn Vaughn | 6 | 26 | 109 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 34 | 1 | 18.3 | 3.1 | 23.3 | 3.88 |
| 96 | 111 | LeSean McCoy | 8 | 10 | 31 | 0 | 19 | 15 | 101 | 0 | 13.2 | 1.7 | 28.2 | 3.53 |
| 162 | 162 | Kenjon Barner | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Why waste a pick on Leonard Fournette or Ronald Jones when you can get the Buccaneers true No. 1 back, Giovanni Bernard, for free?
Fournette and Jones both failed to lock down the lion’s share of the work last year, leaving fantasy managers guessing week to week as to who would get the volume. This is the worst fantasy bind to be in because it’s likely you’ll continue to guess wrong, eating up valuable roster space.
The bet I’ll be taking on the Bucs backfield is that Tom Brady has his new James White in the recently acquired Giovani Bernard (Gio > White talent wise in my opinion). I’m betting Gio will be a solid RB2/Flex for us all year. I try not to always preach ‘just take the cheaper guy’, but in this case, you should just take the cheaper, more talented guy.
Tight End
| PPR Rank | STD Rank | Player | G | TGT | REC | YDS | TD | STD PTS | STD PTS/G | PPR PTS | PPR PTS/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 7 | Rob Gronkowski | 16 | 77 | 45 | 623 | 7 | 104.3 | 6.5 | 149.3 | 9.33 |
| 36 | 36 | Cameron Brate | 13 | 34 | 28 | 282 | 2 | 40.2 | 3.1 | 68.2 | 5.25 |
| 58 | 53 | O.J. Howard | 4 | 19 | 11 | 146 | 2 | 26.6 | 6.7 | 37.6 | 9.4 |
| 94 | 94 | Tanner Hudson | 4 | 7 | 3 | 41 | 0 | 4.1 | 1 | 7.1 | 1.78 |
| 117 | 117 | Antony Auclair | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Rob Gronkowski doesn’t seem to have enough left in the tank to dominate like he did just a few years ago. He has shown us, though, that he is still an absolutely un-checkable beast for a few plays a game.
In a world where we only have three or so tight ends worth drafting highly, taking Gronk as part of a tight end committee is… fine. I’ll continue to preach it though—spend up on tight end folks.
Additional Notes
Per the brilliant Warren Sharp’s strength of schedule work, the Bucs have the fifth easiest schedule looking at opponents’ win total. However, they have the 28th easiest schedule looking at projected defensive efficiency.
I’ll call that a slight lean towards the Bucs schedule is a little on the easier side, amazingly, as they attempt to repeat as Super Bowl Champs.
PS: Tampa Bay faces the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, and New York Jets (in that order) in the fantasy playoffs.
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Thanks to FFToday.com for hosting such great stats info!
Thanks to TheHuddle.com for their great Coaching Change Tracker