You sort of know what you’re getting into with a player like Rashid Shaheed. This is an archetype of wide receiver that we’ve seen many times throughout the years. The type of player that can take the top off a defense with elite speed, yet is also the type of fantasy asset that can lay a big, fat goose egg on any given week. If you weren’t aware of that duality before, you certainly are now if you started Shaheed in Week 3.
After racking up seven receptions for 169 yards and two touchdowns in New Orleans’ first two contests of the season, Shaheed was held off the stat sheet in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles. Zero catches. Zero yards. Zero fantasy points. Not ideal.
So what can we expect moving forward? Is the real version of Shaheed the guy who lit the world on fire for two weeks? Or the guy who couldn’t muster a single reception in Week 3? As is usually the case, the answer is likely somewhere in the middle.
Shaheed entered Week 3 leading all qualified wideouts in receiving yards per target (18.8) and sitting tied for seventh in the NFL in aDOT (18.0). When your route tree tends to be as simple as “go deep,” it’s generally understood that a player’s efficiency will suffer. Yet that wasn’t the case with Shaheed, who hauled in an eye-popping 77.8% of his targets in Week 1 and Week 2. For context, among other WRs with at least five receptions and a catch rate over 75%, only one had an aDOT above even 14.0 yards.
So, regression stinks. However, an asset like Shaheed offsets that negative with supreme upside. Let’s even use his clunker versus Philadelphia as an example. Though, Shaheed didn’t finish with a catch, he did lead all Saints skill position players with 105 air yards — which ranked 13th among all wide receivers in Week 3. You might not get any hypothetical fantasy points based on potential, but that sort of opportunity tends to be predictive of future success.
In the end, Rashid Shaheed is a boom or bust option in your lineups. That’s just something you have to accept. He’s going to have bad games, yet his ceiling always makes him an intriguing high-end WR3, even in matchup with a Falcons secondary that’s surrendering only 5.8 yards per opponent passing attempt.
Start or Sit Rashid Shaheed? Start.
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
