5 Detroit Lions to target in upcoming 2023 fantasy football drafts

5. WR Kalif Raymond

Raymond has found a home with the Lions, and he'll be sticking around a little longer with news of a two-year contract extension. Last year, despite not quite playing half of the team's offensive snaps last year, he finished second on the team with 616 receiving yards (and third in catches with 47). Zero touchdowns is dismal, but if he had even just repeated 2021's four scores things would have looked little better.

Raymond is a smaller receiver, and a natural fit for slot snaps (Pro Football Focus graded him as their second-best receiver on screen passes last year). But he has been doing some work on the outside during training camp, as a hint he will get some work there in Williams' absence over the first six weeks.

It takes widening the wide receiver pool to PPR for Raymond to register on ADP data. He's WR94 on ESPN (full PPR).

Andrew Erickson of Fantasy Pros had Raymond on his list of deep sleeper wide receivers earlier this summer.

"Over the last two seasons, Raymond has finished as a top-60 fantasy WR. He ended the 2022 season ranking 23rd in yards per route run and 11th in catch rate. He’s an underrated piece of this ascending Lions offense, and he will no doubt have a pristine opportunity to earn targets early on with Jameson Williams sidelined for the first six weeks of the season. Raymond is elusive, which is shown through his work as a special team return man. His 13.2 yards per punt return ranked third in the NFL last season."

- Andrew Erickson, Fantasy Pros

In fantasy leagues that count return yards, Raymond's role and prowess as a punt returner adds to his value.

It certainly requires a very deep (12 or more teams), probably PPR-tilted league to have Raymond on your draft radar. But he's lined up to be useful over the first six weeks, a big chunk of the fantasy regular season, and maybe longer.