As the Detroit Lions have questions marks at wide receiver this side of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds stood out as a potential answer. In Week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, he delivered with a team-high 80 yards on four catches that included a couple very clutch plays.
Meanwhile fellow veteran receiver Marvin Jones struggled, with just two catches on six targets with a drop and a red zone fumble. Jones will almost certainly see fewer snaps, with Kalif Raymond and perhaps rookie Antoine Green seeing an uptick, starting in Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks.
Reynolds played 70 percent of the snaps against the Chiefs, and at least while Jameson Williams is out suspended that role doesn't seem likely to go anywhere. After last Thursday night's game and again on Monday, head coach Dan Campbell took an opportunity to praise Reynolds.
"Yeah, Reynolds, he really came up big for us the other day and I would say he is notorious for that, in a good way,” Campbell told reporters on Monday. “He does kind of fly under the radar, but he’s a guy that we – I kind of tell him all the time it’s like man, ‘The more you can do, the harder it is on you.’ And he’s a guy who, he’s got a ton of versatility and we ask him to do a lot. He plays the X he plays the Z. He can play in the heavy packages."Via MLive
Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Josh Reynolds is a sneaky good plug-and-play for Week 2
Over 22 games as a Lion, since coming aboard in the middle of the 2021 season, Reynolds has been hard to rely on in fantasy. But for a three-week stretch last season (Week 3-5), when St. Brown was banged up, Reynolds was a WR1 in fantasy.
The middle of those three games in 2022, the one St. Brown missed entirely, was against the Seattle Seahawks. Reynolds posted seven receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown-on eight targets. The Lions will welcome the Seahawks to Ford Field again in Week 2.
In Week 1, with Cooper Kupp out, the Seahawks allowed 20 receptions for 262 yards to the Los Angeles Rams' wide receivers. Puka Nacua (10 receptions for 119 yards) and Tutu Atwell (six catches for 119 yards) accounted for a lot of that production, and they were WR9 and WR15 in full PPR scoring for the week respectively.
Among Lions' wide receivers, Reynolds is the easy Robin to St. Brown's Batman in a nice Week 2 matchup against the Seahawks. As a plug-and-play WR3 in deeper fantasy leagues (at least 12 teams), the "Serpent of Death" (one of Campbell's nicknames for Reynolds) is a fine option to consider. And he's basically available in every league (0.4 percent rostered in ESPN leagues; 1 percent rostered in Yahoo! leagues).