NFL
Fantasy Football: 5 Wide Receivers With Major Touchdown Upside
Which players should you target for huge scoring upside in your fantasy football drafts?

Mike Wallace, Baltimore Ravens

Mike Wallace has been a headache for fantasy football owners recently, and that has most people very low on him. He is nearly free in drafts, going towards the end of the 13th round according to FantasyFootballCalculator.com's average draft position data.

Letting him slip that late in drafts is completely disregarding the fact that, despite his horrible 2015 season, the 30-year-old Wallace still has huge upside.

Since he left Pittsburgh, Wallace has been playing on offenses that prefer to run the ball in scoring range. His 2013 and 2014 Dolphins teams had a 1.28 and 1.11 red zone pass-to-run ratio, respectively (both more run-heavy than the league average), and the 2015 Vikings' 0.71 red zone pass-to-run ratio was the second-lowest in the league.

Those teams were similarly run-heavy on the goal line, with the Dolphins ranking 26th in red-zone pass-to-run ratio in 2013, 15th in 2014, and the Vikings ranking 30th in 2015.

Wallace finds himself in a much better situation this year, playing in a Marc Trestman-led offense. Under Trestman, the Ravens ranked ninth with a 1.67 pass-to-run ratio in the red zone in 2015, and his 2014 Bears squad was the most pass-heavy in the league.

While the volume hasn't been there for him, Wallace has still shown strong efficiency over those last three seasons, with 13 touchdowns on 40 red zone targets (good for a 32.5% touchdown rate) and an impressive 9 touchdowns on 16 goal line targets (a 56.25% touchdown rate).

He has also shown an elite ability to score touchdowns from outside the red zone. Since he came into the league in 2009, 174 players have seen at least 200 targets outside the red zone. Among that group, Wallace's 4.33% touchdown rate ranks an impressive 8th.

Wallace is a player with the ability to score from anywhere on the field, and finally finding himself on an offense that will be putting the ball in the air, especially near the end zone, we could see an impressive return to form and a big touchdown total.

Prev

Related News

An Introduction to FanDuel Research

Jim Sannes  --  Aug 24th, 2016

The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast, Mailbag 7/21/23

JJ Zachariason  --  Aug 24th, 2016

The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast, Approaching Unique Leagues

JJ Zachariason  --  Aug 24th, 2016