Juwan Johnson is going 155.8 overall in PFN’s fantasy mock draft simulator, which is second-defense territory. However, he is one of the best fantasy football sleepers available to help win your league!
Kyle Monangai’s Knee and Zach Charbonnet’s ACL Change Both Prices
Johnson caught 77 passes for 889 yards and three touchdowns on 102 targets last season, all career highs, and finished as the TE10 in half-PPR scoring.
“I think he’s a potential consistent week-to-week starting tight end,” PFN’s Jacob Infante said on The Hot List. “And with his current ADP of 155.8, he’s certainly not being drafted like one.” Johnson saw eight red zone targets in 17 games and has scored three times in each of the last two seasons, which is the whole reason he is this cheap.
New Orleans spent the offseason stacking pass catchers around him, signing Noah Fant, taking Oscar Delp in the third round and using the eighth overall pick on Jordyn Tyson. Tyson is already on injured reserve with a hamstring and cannot play before Week 5. Johnson finished second on the team in targets behind only Chris Olave, and Tyler Shough enters his first full year as the starter in Kellen Moore’s offense.
Infante’s case for Kyle Monangai at 103.4 was the handcuff. “I think [Monangai] is one of the most valuable handcuff running backs in fantasy this year,” he said. The evidence is Week 9 against Cincinnati, the game D’Andre Swift missed. Monangai carried 26 times for 176 yards, put up 198 total yards and finished as the RB3 that week. Across the full season he ran for 783 yards and five touchdowns and averaged 8.6 PPR points per game.
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Monangai hyperextended his right knee on Aug. 16 after Grady Jarrett tangled him up in a non-padded practice, and Ben Johnson still called him week-to-week on Sept. 1. Chicago opens at Carolina on Sept. 13. The Bears kept him off injured reserve at cutdowns, so they expect him back inside the first month, with Roschon Johnson handling the change-of-pace work until then. I would still take him at 103. You may just be starting the year with a handcuff who cannot play.
Charbonnet is the one I would pass on. Infante described a knee injury and PUP status. It is a torn left ACL from the Jan. 17 divisional-round win over San Francisco, with surgery on Feb. 20, and Seattle moved him to reserve/PUP on Aug. 30, which makes Week 5 against the 49ers his earliest game. He was the RB27 in fantasy points per game last year on 204 touches with 12 rushing touchdowns, and that was at full health while splitting carries with Kenneth Walker III.
Walker left for Kansas City in free agency, Seattle drafted Jadarian Price 32nd overall, and Price gets a month of first-team reps before Charbonnet can play a snap. “You need to have a good plan at running back ahead of him,” Infante said. Price is the plan I would rather own.
Makai Lemon Isn’t Philadelphia’s No. 2 Receiver Yet
Makai Lemon went 20th overall after Philadelphia traded up with Dallas, and Infante has him at an ADP of 112. “I think that he’s very clearly the wide receiver two in that Eagles offense,” he said. He isn’t, not in September. A hamstring cost Lemon most of the summer and he opens the season as the No. 3, behind DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks, with Hollywood Brown also in the room and Sean Mannion calling plays for the first time.
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KC Concepcion goes a round later at 124.8 and has the cleaner path to targets. Cleveland took him 24th overall and added Denzel Boston in the second round, and the competition is Jerry Jeudy coming off 602 yards and Harold Fannin Jr. Concepcion caught three passes and scored the Browns’ only touchdown on a jet sweep in the preseason opener at Chicago.
“I do think that KC has significant upside,” Infante said, and the quarterback room is why nobody is paying for it. Deshaun Watson beat out Shedeur Sanders for Week 1, and Dillon Gabriel is on injured reserve with a back injury.
Somebody in Cleveland still has to throw the ball. I would rather have Concepcion at 124.8 than Lemon at 112.
