We’ll look at two wide receivers today, one buy and one pass, for 2021 fantasy football. I don’t care for the term “bust” when describing a player, so I’m getting creative with my labeling (but if you must think of it that way, you can attribute my “pass” with “bust”). I’m using .5PPR ADP courtesy of fantasyfootballcalculator.com.
Buy Now: Mike Evans
Mike Evans will be 28 years old come the start of the 2021 season. Fun fact about Mike Evans: He is the only player to ever start their career with 7 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.
players with 1000+ receiving yards in each of their first seven seasons:
Mike Evans
end of list
a deep dive into the underrated Mike Evans…
how Tampa Bay's top-3 WRs play together…
and what @LordReebs thinks of Mike Evans production in 2021:https://t.co/psJ5SPaQcR
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) May 25, 2021
During those 7 seasons, Evans has averaged 8.7 touchdowns playing with the likes of Josh McCown and Mike Glennon in his rookie campaign (12 TDs as a rookie) and later Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
In 2020, Evans’s first year with Brady, Evans caught a career-high thirteen touchdowns despite only catching 70 balls. Tom Brady and just about everyone else from Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl run will be back for 2021. The gigantic target will again be in line for 10+ touchdowns even if he doesn’t improve on his near career lows of 70 catches for 1,006 yards.
Evans is going off the board at 4.03 (fourth round, third pick), a full two rounds after Austin Ekeler, D.K. Metcalf, and Stefon Diggs. You can buy Evans a full round early and still laugh all the way to the bank in 2021.
By-Pass: Stefon Diggs
Stefon Diggs is an amazing talent, and he finally had the opportunity to be the man in 2020. He took full advantage of that opportunity posting career highs in targets (168), receptions (127), and yards (1,535) and he led the league in those categories. Diggs caught eight touchdowns, one fewer than his career high of nine.
In a year where Josh Allen took a gigantic leap forward, going from 20 to 37 passing touchdowns, Diggs still only managed to come down with 8 TDs. The difference between week-tilting and league-tilting receivers is their touchdown upside, something Davante Adams showed us very clearly, leading all receivers in fantasy points in every format despite playing in only 14 games thanks to his 18 TDs.
Diggs is a great fourth-round pick, but his current ADP of 2.01 and WR3 value has Diggs going off the board at his absolute peak value. Instead of buying that latest hot stock at its absolute peak, take a relatively safe shot on bigger upside guys like DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Brown, both of whom are going later.
The last bit I’ll mention here, some food for thought, a little would you rather:
Antonio Gibson (2.03) or Cam Akers (2.05) and Mike Evans (4.03)
OR
Stefon Diggs (2.01) and David Montgomery (3.09) or Kareem Hunt (4.06)?
Let me know in the comments which pairing you’d rather have.