Fantasy Football: 3 most undervalued players

Allen Robinson leads the cast of NFL stars going too late in 2022 drafts as fantasy managers undervalue players based on last season's performances.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: I'm Matt Harmon of Yahoo Fantasy here to give you my three favorite undervalued players for this coming season.

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First up is Rams wide receiver Allen Robinson. I've been an Allen Robinson guy forever. He's one of my favorite players in Reception Perception, and I think you look at Robinson as a player that-- really, he's in a situation that's just almost too good to fail. The second wide receiver for the LA Rams, that's a juicy role for Allen Robinson, a player that they went out and targeted in free agency. Really, the only way that you could be down on Robinson this year is if you think he's totally washed, and I know that he had a down season last year statistically. But I think when you watch him play, he still beats man press coverage like a true outside wide receiver.

And honestly, I'd love for you to trust my evaluations on wide receivers, but you can really trust the Rams wide receivers on pro evaluations. They signed Robert Woods. People laughed at them for that contract. He became a true star for them, a great role player throughout his run there. They traded for Brandin Cooks, and he was like the missing piece right before they went on a Super Bowl run. They brought in Odell Beckham when people thought he was washed up in Cleveland. He became an important player for them in order to win the Super Bowl last year. He was, like, going to win Super Bowl MVP before he got hurt.

So the Rams know what they're talking about when it comes to pro veteran wide receivers. Robinson's the next guy in line. Robert Woods was in line for 130 targets. That's what he was on pace for before he got hurt last year. I think that's the bare minimum for Allen Robinson this year. There's a lot of upside with this wide receiver depth chart looking barren behind Cooper Kupp and Allen Robinson. I think this guy is a top 20 wide receiver and is going too late in drafts because people got their feelings hurt when he didn't show up last year.

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Next guy up is Christian Kirk. And you can laugh all you want at the contract. You can think he's overpaid. Who cares? It ain't your money. It's not my money. But what we're going to do is we're going to draft Christian Kirk, and we're going to make our own money this year in fantasy football because there's just a ton of opportunity on the table for Christian Kirk, a guy that we know the Jaguars paid a ton of money to, right? Like, I think he is clearly the best receiver on this roster.

While you might not think he's worth the contract, he's absolutely a good player. He fits into that archetype of a vertical slot receiver who beats zone coverage and doesn't just win those little pop gun targets like you see from your typical slot receiver. He gets down the field, wins on digs, wins on post routes in the vertical game. And Trevor Lawrence needs a guy like that to give him layups over the middle of the field.

I think Christian Kirk is going to walk right into 120 targets, and he's going outside the top 40 receivers right now. I have him ranked way ahead of consensus as the top receiver on an offense that's absolutely in line to get a play volume bump. I've currently got them top 10, the Jacksonville Jaguars, in pass attempts this year, and Christian Kirk is going to own the dominant share of those targets.

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Last guy up is Amon-Ra St. Brown. He's not going to do what he did last year. We know that. All the, like, Amon-Ra St. Brown doubters, that's the first thing they say. Well, he's not going to do what he did to end last year. Well, no kidding. He's not going to average 11 targets per game like he did to end the 2021 season. Nobody's asking you to believe that. His ADP right now is wide receiver 27. If people thought he was going to do that again, he'd be drafted in, like, the first or second round of fantasy. He's not. You're already getting the discount. That is assumed that he's not going to do that.

But people have overcorrected because he's not going to have that target volume. He's still going to have a huge role in this Lions offense. You-- you see them last year designing plays on film for Amon-Ra St. Brown. Not-- I get that other guys were hurt-- DeAndre Swift, TJ Hockenson. They had, like, a bunch of goofball receivers running out around him there. But that doesn't matter. What really matters is that when the playcalling changed over from Anthony Lynn to Dan Campbell, there was a clear role design for Amon-Ra St. Brown. He already got the playing time bump before those injuries happened. It's just check, check, check when it comes to a second-year breakout receiver for this guy.

I want to buy into players like Amon-Ra St. Brown, who sort of fit into, like, that Bud Light Cooper Kupp role as a big, vertical slot receiver who can win in the short game and can make plays after the catch. Tune out the noise. Tune out the doubters, and draft this guy at the discount already baked in to his ADP.