The first game of the NFL season is now in the books, as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-20 in a thriller. The biggest fantasy star wasn’t Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Lamar Jackson, or Derrick Henry … it was, well, an “unlikely” player.
Ravens TE Isaiah Likely had what many will call a “breakout” party, catching nine passes on 12 targets for 111 yards with a touchdown. He almost had a second touchdown, but he had a toe out of bounds as time ran out on the game.
In all, he scored 26.1 fantasy points. This performance was an eye-opener, not only for Likely but also for managers who drafted Mark Andrews.
A top-five tight end in drafts, Andrews was mostly unproductive with just two catches on two targets for 14 yards and 3.4 points. He had another catch called back due to a penalty, but that didn’t change the fact that the Ravens now seem to have a tight end committee.
I would warn Andrews managers not to have a total freak out, however. At least not yet.
Per PFF, Andrews played 59 snaps compared to Likely’s 53, and he ran a route on 64% of those snaps. Likely’s percentage of snaps with a route run was 66%. The Ravens also ran a ton of 12 personnel, so both Andrews and Likely were on the field together often. That’s a change from last season, when the team ran the fifth-fewest snaps in 12 personnel.
This means the Ravens' offense could look more like the ones we used to see with the New England Patriots when both Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were on the field at the same time often. So, while Likely was the bigger winner this week, managers should expect Andrews to get his share of opportunities the rest of the year.
Will Likely be the most added player on waiver wires in fantasy football next week? Absolutely. And he should be.
Will he duplicate these numbers regularly? No.
Lamar Jackson threw the ball 41 times in this game. He had that many attempts in just one game last season. So, when the game script isn’t negative, we’ll see more running in the future.
What’s more, I’d be looking to sell high on Likely if I drafted him or added him off the wire. While his ceiling might have been lower after this game, Andrews is healthy and not going anywhere. In fact, we might see an overcorrection in his favor in Week 2.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fantasy Managers Should Sell High on Isaiah Likely and Remain Patient With Mark Andrews.
