Fantasy Impact: Jarvis Landry/ Tyrod Taylor

Well, that escalated quickly. The Cleveland Browns decided to start the NFL league year a couple of days early by making a lot of noise on Friday night. First, the Browns made a trade with the Miami Dolphins to acquire Jarvis Landry. My brain was already getting to work about getting a Jarvis Landry Fantasy Impact article up, but then I decided to hold off until we actually knew who the quarterback was going to be for the Browns. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long, as about an hour after the Landry news broke, it was reported that the Browns have also made a deal with the Buffalo Bills to acquire quarterback Tyrod Taylor. I’ll leave the details of the trades to someone else because for right now, I want to focus on the fantasy impact of these two players. (The Browns also traded DeShone Kizer to the Packers for CB Demarious Randall and DT Danny Shelton to the Patriots) 

Jarvis Landry

At this point, we should all know that Landry is a major asset in PPR formats. But his standard scoring outputs may surprise you. He’s recorded over 100 receptions in two of his four seasons, and his lowest total was 84 back in his rookie season of 2014. This past season, he fell 13 yards shy of receiving for over 1,000 yards for the third straight time. However, instead of giving us the yardage in 2017, he gave us the touchdowns. Nine of them to be exact. May not seem like a lot, but his previous high in touchdowns was 5.

Over the past 3 seasons, Landry has an average finish as the #9 wide receiver in PPR formats. In case, you were wondering, that is good enough for wr1 status. The knock on him for standard scoring leagues is over-blown. Through those same three seasons, his standard scoring finishes are 15th (2015), 16th (2016), and 14th (2017). That is some pretty good consistency. Over that time, Landry has had Ryan Tannehill, Matt Moore and Jay Cutler as his quarterbacks. In fact, it seems like year after year we rank him lower than his production indicates because of ” the quarterback play”, “Devante Parker is going to take his targets away” or “Thy’re going to run more” etc etc. We could throw whatever we want out there and still he has been as consistent as anyone from a fantasy perspective.

So now he has Tyrod Taylor throwing him the ball. Would you consider that an upgrade, downgrade, or neutral transition? If you’re looking the fantasy production of the players, then it should be considered an upgrade, but we can’t look at just the fantasy numbers as an indicator for this because a lot of Taylor’s fantasy production is based on his running ability. So what does Jarvis Landry being in Cleveland, actually do for his fantasy production?

Fantasy Impact: Landry should still be drafted as low-end wr1 in ppr leagues, but his standard scoring outlook should be dropped to the back -end of the wr2 category. Going from the quarterbacks he had in Miami, to Tyrod Taylor, won’t change the fact that he’ll be targeted heavily and garner a lot of receptions. He’s a slot guy, and slot receivers are the guys quarterbacks look for near the line of scrimmage. He should be hovering around 88-105 range as far as receptions go. However, having Josh Gordon with him will take away some of the touchdowns we saw him have in 2017, and he should go back to scoring 4 or 5 on the season. His yardage will slip a little based on Tyrod Taylor using his legs and the addition of perhaps the best running back prospect we’ve seen for years (Barkley). Don’t shy away from him because he’s in Cleveland. I’m still comfortable drafting him in the late 2nd/early 3rd round of drafts.

Tyrod Taylor

I’m not the biggest believer in Tyrod Taylor, but when it comes to fantasy production, he’s just fine. He may not be someone I would draft as my backup or as my second quarterback in two quarterback leagues, but if I needed a guy for a bye-week fill-in or even a two game stretch, I would be ok with plugging him in. He’s not someone that you could expect a 30 point performance from, but he should have no problem getting you 18 points on any given week. That was the Buffalo Bills Tyrod Taylor. What is the Cleveland Browns Tyrod Taylor going to do? Let’s face it, he has better weapons on the receiving end in Cleveland. But his game is what it is. He has big arm and is fast. I wouldn’t expect the Browns to try to change his game, so he will still give you a great floor with his running ability. Having Josh Gordon on his team will help him down field and in the red zone for sure.

Fantasy Impact: Am I drafting him to be my starter? No. No I am not. I agree that waiting on quarterbacks is the way to go, but I won’t be that “I’ll wait until the very end and just draft Tyrod Taylor” guy. He’s not going to be a QB1. I know he was back in 2016, but there were just too many players at the position that under-performed that year. I don’t expect that to happen again. However, I do think that he should be a legitimate backup quarterback for those that like to carry two of them. It’s still too early for draft rankings, but I’m currently looking at Taylor in the QB 19-24 range.