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Sammy Watkins has never been able to endear himself to the fantasy community. Always showing promise and getting hype, he’s never shown much consistency. The upside comes in glimpses and we saw it in a big way last week. He was the Chiefs go-to guy in their high-octane passing attack. He caught nine passes for 198 yards and scored three touchdowns.
For sure, the game Watkins had last week isn’t repeatable. However, there is plenty of reason to be more optimistic with Watkins than the previous times he has let us down. One of the big reasons for the big Opening Game performance, Tyreke Hill left early in the game with a shoulder injury. With Hill out for multiple weeks, Watkins is the number one receiver for Kansas City.
Fantasy Impact: Here is a hot take. Until Tyreek Hill comes back, Watkins is going to be in the mix as one of the highest scoring receivers in fantasy. The Chiefs have the best offense in football and Patrick Mahomes is the league’s best quarterback. For fantasy purposes, this offense rarely fails and came through in a big week last week despite a tough matchup against the Jaguars. Watkins was targeted 11 times last week and that volume is likely to continue in the short term. For this week, it helps that Watkins is in a very favorable matchup against the Raiders. Kansas City has a 30.5 team total, the highest on the slate.
Recommendation: Start