Cleveland Browns wide receiver Cedric Tillman joins a crowded wide receiver room, but one without any sure thing beyond Amari Cooper. With Day 2 draft capital, could Tillman challenge for the WR2 role by midseason? What is his fantasy football outlook for the 2023 season?
Behind in research? Get a trade offer in your dynasty or redraft league? Not sure who to start or sit this week? Leverage PFN’s FREE fantasy tools — our Fantasy Football Draft Kit, Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer and Calculator, and Start/Sit Optimizer! Put the finishing touch on your A+ draft with 1 of our 425+ fantasy football team names.
Cedric Tillman’s Fantasy Outlook
The Browns are no strangers to taking shots on third-round wide receivers. They drafted Anthony Schwartz in 2021 and David Bell last year. Neither has displayed any ability to be more than rotational depth at the NFL level. So, the Browns swung again. This time at Tillman.
The rookie third-rounder looks to make it “third times the charm” for third-round Browns wide receivers. He should already be ahead of Schwartz and Bell but will undoubtedly open the season behind Elijah Moore and Donovan Peoples-Jones.
Given that he played in the Hall of Fame game and Marquise Goodwin didn’t, it’s safe to say that Tillman will open the season as the team’s WR5.
Fantasy managers should not look at Tillman’s current status on the depth chart as a death sentence. He was never going to matter. And I won’t bury the lede here — there’s no reason even to consider drafting him.
This is more about whether there’s upside here in the event Tillman follows the tried-and-true rookie WR path of coming on strong in the second half.
Tillman spent five years in college. So, right off the bat, we’re not off to a hot start. He didn’t break out until his senior season, at which point he was older and bigger than most of the players he was going up against. Another strike against him.
On a more positive note, Tillman has great speed for his 6’3″, 213-pound frame. He looks like a classic X receiver but is probably more of a stretch Z. We can deduce that he is mostly straight-line speed from his seventh-percentile agility score.
Overall, Tillman is a suspect prospect and not one I am overly optimistic about bucking the recent trend of third-round Browns receivers struggling. He’s probably better than Bell and Schwartz, but that bar is so low it’s almost impossible not to clear.
Should Fantasy Managers Draft Tillman at His ADP?
Tillman isn’t even being drafted inside the top 250. He doesn’t even have an ADP. And I did not rank Tillman in my top 100 receivers.
Simply put, even in the deepest of fantasy drafts, there’s no reason to draft Tillman. Keep an eye on him and see if he pushes Moore or DPJ during the season. But unless and until that happens, Tillman is not a name of interest for 2023 fantasy football leagues.