Deja Vu: Who is This Year’s Ja’Marr Chase in Fantasy Football?

When it comes to fantasy football, using the past to predict the future is something I love to do, especially when it comes to taking an analytical approach. While nothing is a perfect science when it comes to predicting sports, we know that if we can find someone in our drafts to repeat the success of certain players from last year such as Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Kupp or Ja’Marr Chase, or avoid the disappointments from others, we will definitely have an advantage on our opponents as we saw the advantages that those results created last year. 

This “Deja Vu” series will be us doing our best to look at trends, metrics and statistics from the last season that might indicate which players can repeat some of the outcomes that we saw from different players last year. 

In previous articles, we have already talked about who will be this year’s Kupp and this year’s Taylor, and today we will be talking about this year’s Ja’Marr Chase, aka the fantasy rookie of the year. Last year, despite being drafted as the sixth or seventh rookie off the board, Chase finished as the highest-scoring rookie and was also inside the top 10 in PPR scoring among non-QBs. 

Let’s take a look at which rookies have the upside to be league winners. 

The Other Candidates

• Breece Hall, New York Jets — I love his upside and do think he has value at current ADP, but he is going to be the first rookie off the board in almost every draft, so we can’t quite make him this year’s Chase.
• Chris Olave, New Orleans Saints — Another high-upside option, especially if Jameis Winston performs well. Still, consistency worries me a little bit, especially if we see Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara play the majority of games. 
• Garrett Wilson, New York Jets — Wilson’s upside is very high if we can get a good season out of his QB, Zach Wilson. He will have to compete with Elijah Moore for targets, but I think he could see him lead this team in targets at the end of the year. 

This Year’s Ja’Marr Chase: Treylon Burks

This year’s Chase is Treylon Burks of the Tennessee Titans. The Titans were comfortable enough to move A.J. Brown knowing that they had the ability to add Burks to the team. They also added Robert Woods, but I do think we see Burks lead this team in targets, and I think he slides into the role Brown vacated very well. Additionally, we will also likely see an ultra-motivated Ryan Tannehill this year, which could lead to some strong performance. Depending on where you look, Burks is coming off the board as the fourth or fifth rookie in drafts, yet his role compared to everyone outside of Breece Hall is much more defined and secure in my opinion. This will allow Burks to earn tons of opportunities and targets, and that should translate to great things with the athleticism and upside that Burks has as a WR.