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First, the ruling comes down that Ezekiel Elliott will be suspended for the first six games of the season, and now, seemingly out of nowhere, the Bills have traded wide receiver Sammy Watkins to the Rams. The Bills have also traded for Eagles wide receiver Jordan Matthews.
I don’t think football twitter can handle anything else today.
— Fake Teams (@faketeams) August 11, 2017
Here are my very, very quick fantasy reactions:
Sammy Watkins
Watkins goes from Tyrod Taylor to Jared Goff. I understand that Taylor isn’t an elite quarterback but Goff has yet to show me that he can throw the ball successfully 20-yards down the field. You can bet Watkins is going to be the guy in LA but again the question remains if he can stay healthy. He drops in my WR rankings, had him at WR17, I’d drop him to the late 20’s.
Jordan Matthews
Big day for Matthews. He goes from being in a crowded Eagles offense to the number one guy in Buffalo. He joins rookie Zay Jones and ageless veteran Anquan Boldin. He’s going to get plenty of targets in the Bills’ offense and will likely be their leading receiver. He also upgrades from Carson Wentz to Taylor. Another plus. He definitely sees a bump in his rankings from WR44 where I had him.
LeSean McCoy
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY
Tyrod Taylor
I honestly don’t think this really changes things for him. Watkins is a better receiver than Matthews (at least he ought to be) but he has yet to stay healthy through a full season. I still like TyGOD as a late round quarterback given his ability to run. Plus he has Anquan Boldin. Have I mentioned how amazingly consistent Anquan Boldin is?
Todd Gurley
There’s now another legit NFL weapon on the Rams. If Watkins can stay healthy, he’s going to force defenses to play with high safeties, freeing up the box for Gurley to do his damage. I won’t say this suddenly makes Gurley a top 10 running back but I do think it helps him. It certainly makes me feel at least a little more confident in him moving closer to fantasy drafts.
Jared Goff
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA still no.