Fantasy Football: One Wide Receiver to Target in Each Round of Your Draft
Doug Baldwin, Seattle Seahawks
ADP: 3.08 (WR13)
The third round is a murderers' row for wideouts. Currently, Mike Evans (3.01), T.Y. Hilton (3.02), Stefon Diggs (3.03), Adam Thielen (3.06), Doug Baldwin (3.08), Larry Fitzgerald (3.09), Tyreek Hill (3.11) and Amari Cooper (3.12) are all coming off the board in the third round.
Whew.
That's a loaded group, and while it's pretty easy to talk yourself into any one of them -- with Hill looking like the scariest of the group -- let's focus on Baldwin, who combines a high floor with elite upside.
Over the last three years, starting with 2017 and working back, Baldwin has been the PPR WR13, WR8 and WR10. He's been locked into a steady role as Russell Wilson's top target, seeing market shares of 20.90% (2017), 22.05% and 21.06% across those three campaigns.
Even if the Seattle Seahawks run the ball more this season, something a lot of their offseason chatter -- as well as their selection of Rashaad Penny in the first round -- points to, Baldwin should still be a heavily-targeted dude.
Thanks to the offseason departures of Jimmy Graham and Paul Richardson, who were second and third, respectively, on the team in targets with a combined 176 looks, Baldwin's target floor is still pretty high.
Plus, wanting to run the ball more is one thing; being able to do it is another. Their offensive line isn't very good -- our Jim Sannes ranked the group 26th -- so they may not be able to run it well, and they are favored in a mere 3 of their first 15 contests, so game scripts may push them toward airing it out (granted it's tough to put too much into lookahead lines this far out because teams can change drastically throughout a season).
Baldwin is the top target for one of football's best quarterbacks, and he's a first-class touchdown scorer, recording 26 touchdowns in his last 38 games, a span which starts with his mid-season breakout in 2015.
He has been dealing with a knee injury, but he's expected to be ready for Week 1. As long as things keep trending that way with his health, Baldwin is shaping up as one of the best early-round wideouts for 2018.
