The New Orleans Saints wide receiver group has been uninspiring for fantasy football purposes this year, with most of the team’s offensive production coming from their running backs. Marquez Callaway, Tre’Quan Smith, and Deonte Harris lead the group, but should any of them start in your fantasy lineup on Thursday?
Marquez Callaway is the X receiver, I guess
Let’s start here — no New Orleans Saints wide receiver is inside the top 40 at the position in fantasy points scored this season. In fact, running back Alvin Kamara, who has only played in eight games, leads the team in receptions with 32.
Now that we have that context, Callaway has had a few nice games this season, and he’s somehow managed to log 6 receiving touchdowns (including a three-game stretch of scoring in each game, a streak that ended last week).
He’s the de facto outside wide receiver, standing at 6’2”, 202 pounds. Callaway’s two best games of the season from a yardage perspective happened before the Week 6 bye. He logged 74 yards in Week 4, followed by 85 yards and 2 TDs in Week 5. Since then, Callaway hasn’t topped 37 receiving yards.
Since the bye week, he’s been a touchdown-dependent flex option with three games of 5 fantasy points or less.
Deonte Harris leads the team in receiving yards
Although Callaway has scored 6 touchdowns this season, Harris has him narrowly beat in receiving yards with 427. Each of them has exactly 27 receptions so far this year. Whether because of their abilities, quarterback play, or a combination of the two, this WR group is one of the worst in the NFL.
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Harris has managed to score double-digit fantasy points only twice this season (the two games in which he scored a touchdown). Outside of those two games, Harris has averaged only 5.1 fantasy points per game. He has 3 total receptions over his last two games. Stay away.
Tre’Quan Smith has the worst matchup
Tre’Quan Smith, as overhyped as he’s been in recent years, has 20 targets over the last three weeks and rarely leaves the field. Even though he hasn’t topped 64 receiving yards this season and only has 2 TDs, Smith has had a few decent games recently. And by “decent,” I mean that I’m comparing him to his teammates (which admittedly is a low bar).
Much like Harris, however, Smith’s only two usable games from a fantasy perspective have come on the back of touchdowns. In the two games that he has found the end zone, he has cracked double-digits in fantasy points. Outside of those two games, he has failed to provide more than 8.9 fantasy points.
It’s a bleak story, and it doesn’t matter who is at quarterback. Callaway tends to line up on the left side of the formation, while Cowboys cornerback sensation Trevon Diggs tends to line up on the other side and should draw Smith a majority of the time. If it’s Taysom Hill under center, he’d be wise to keep the ball away from Diggs, which could lead to a higher target share for Callaway.
It’d be wise to look elsewhere, but Callaway is the best bet in this matchup with the Cowboys if you have to play a Saints receiver.
