A Wide Receiver to Target in Each Round of Your Fantasy Football Draft
Eddie Royal, Chicago Bears
ADP: 183 (14.01)
To say that Jay Cutler's season in 2014 was a mess is a bit of an understatement.
So bad was his 2014, in fact, that by Week 16, head coach Marc Trestman decided to bench him in favor of Jimmy Clausen.
Ouch.
In a last ditch effort to salvage Cutler's career in Chicago, the Bears front office hired conservative head coach John Fox and his offensive coordinator in Denver, Adam Gase, to run the show this offseason. Bringing with them an offense relying on easy, quick decisions, the Bears hope that a game plan predicated on working the short to intermediate part of the field can help kick-start Cutler's sputtering play at quarterback.
And who will be the Bears primary weapon to execute on this game plan?
None other than Eddie Royal, the same player who caught 91 passes from Cutler in his rookie season in Denver, which perhaps not coincidentally was also Cutler's lone 4,000-plus passing yard season of his career.
As I wrote about extensively, this is a match made in Heaven with Royal's ability to win in the short game and in the red zone and Cutler's ability to execute on throws in these same areas.
And with much-hyped rookie Kevin White both being injured and playing under the rookie-averse John Fox, and with Alshon Jeffery playing on the outside to stretch the field, the sheer volume of targets Eddie Royal will receiver underneath will make him a very worthwhile pick in the final rounds of your fantasy football drafts this year.