With the injuries around him in the Lions’ wide receiver corps, Josh Reynolds has the look of a Week 4 fantasy sleeper.
After a couple slow games to start, though he did have a touchdown in Week 2, Lions wide receiver Josh Reynolds had his best overall game of the season in Week 3 against the Minnesota Vikings (six receptions for 96 yards, on 10 targets). Amon-St. Brown suffering a right ankle injury in the game may have pushed some target flow to Reynolds, and he suffered an ankle injury in the game himself.
St. Brown’s status for this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks is up in the air. He missed a second straight practice on Thursday, though it’s fair to assume he could play without practicing at all. Also of note on Thursday’s practice report is the downgrade from Wednesday of wide receiver DJ Chark, who did not practice with an ankle injury of his own.
If he were healthy, Chark would be an interesting option for fantasy lineups against the Seahawks. And he might play.
But the fantasy sleeper buzz can now shift a bit toward Reynolds, as he returned to practice on Thursday.
Josh Reynolds has the look of a possible Week 4 fantasy sleeper
Jared Goff obviously has a nice connection with St. Brown. That makes it easy to overlook or forget about Reynolds’ history with the quarterback, going back to their days with the Rams. It’s not a coincidence how Goff’s level of play rose late last season after the Lions picked Reynolds up off waivers from the Titans.
The Seahawks are allowing the seventh-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers so far this season (23.4 per game; Yahoo! 0.5-point PPR). But they’ve also allowed the fewest total targets to the position (43), and everything else falls from there. In their three games, five wide receivers have topped nine PPR points (full PPR) against them just with passing game production (removing Deebo Samuel’s rushing yardage in Week 2).
If St. Brown and Chark are limited on Sunday, Reynolds’ role gets larger. If they’re both out, he becomes the Lions’ No. 1 wide receiver for a week–provided he’s on the field himself. Expanded roles for Kalif Raymond and Quintez Cephus with St. Brown and Chark’s injury situations will not bump Reynolds off being a primary target for Goff.
Keep an eye on Friday’s final injury report for the Lions, and possibly even inactives an hour-and-a-half before Sunday’s 1 p.m. ET kickoff for the status of St. Brown/Chark. Reynolds is gaining a bit of sleeper appeal for Week 4, and he could be a nice last-minute pivot play as a WR3/flex in larger fantasy leagues.