Adonai Mitchell had a solid Week 1, posting 9.0 FPTS in the Jets’ win over the Titans. Following this outing, is the receiver a player we should be considering off waivers for our fantasy football teams?
Adonai Mitchell Fantasy Outlook
While Mitchell’s 9.0 FPTS don’t jump off the page, he was efficient and his role was strong.
As expected, Mitchell operated as New York’s No. 2 receiver behind Garrett Wilson in Week 1. Wilson led the way with seven targets compared to three for Mitchell, but both receivers ran 21 routes on 26 dropbacks for Geno Smith. Mitchell hauled in all three of his targets for 60 yards.
Mitchell’s aDOT was at 19.7 and he averaged 2.86 YPPR, both of which are very encouraging.
Mitchell appears to be locked into a full-time role for this Jets’ offense. While the 3/60/0 line isn’t anything to write home about, Smith only threw the ball 24 times and the Jets finished dead last in pass rate for Week 1 (38%), as they led for the entire game. This isn’t going to happen every week and New York is likely to find itself in negative game scripts often, given a weak roster.
Just look at this coming Sunday’s matchup vs. the Packers, for example. Despite the Jets being 1-0 and the Packers being 0-1, the Jets are a 4.5-point underdog for this game on DraftKings Sportsbook, suggesting a pass-heavy game plan is likely for New York.
The Jets are going to pass the ball at a much higher clip in this contest and in general going forward. Not only can we expect more volume for Mitchell, but Smith looked great in Week 1. If the veteran can continue to be an effective passer all season, Mitchell is going to naturally have solid upside on a weekly basis.
Smith completed 19-of-24 passes for 205 yards, resulting in 9.0 YPA. The 35-year-old finished as PFF’s highest-graded passer for Week 1, which comes after he finished as PFF’s sixth-highest graded passer for the preseason. Smith was terrible with the Raiders last season, but he was a Pro Bowler in two of his previous three seasons with the Seahawks before joining Las Vegas.
Smith has only played one game for the Jets since his original stint with the team, but there is definitely a real chance that last season was just an outlier campaign due to a poor fit and that he is going to have a strong bounce-back season in New York.
Even if Smith is just slightly above average, he is a notable upgrade from Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook, who were the quarterbacks Mitchell played with after being traded to the Jets at the deadline last season. In his seven games with New York after being acquired, Mitchell had performances of 27.2 and 17.4 FPTS, but he scored single digits in the other five.
The wideout has an erratic history and doesn’t bring the safest floor, but Mitchell should have some strong showings this season if the Jets are a competent offense. Mitchell is a viable WR3 for deeper leagues going forward and snagging him off the waiver wire makes sense if you are thin at receiver. On Yahoo, Mitchell is only rostered in 16% of leagues.
