Best and worst fantasy football landing spots for Kenny Golladay

The 2021 NFL free agency period is about to kick off, and this year’s class of WRs is absolutely loaded. Among the top WRs potentially hitting the open market is Kenny Golladay.

Golladay will be 27 when the next season starts and has played his entire four-year career in Detroit thus far. But where will Golladay play in 2021? Where should fantasy football players be rooting for him to land … and where they should be rooting for him to avoid?

This article will examine Golladay’s best and worst free agency landing spots from a fantasy football perspective. We’ll try to stick with realistic teams.

Kenny Golladay’s journey to free agency

Golladay’s 2020 campaign was mostly lost due to injury, but he has been emerging has a top WR in the league since 2018. He posted back-to-back 1,000-plus yard seasons in 2018 and 2019 and was on pace to do it again in 2020 before injuries derailed the campaign.

On top of this, Golladay has proven to be one of the best touchdown-makers in the league. He led all players with 11 scores in 2019.

Golladay is a proven WR1 both in real life and in fantasy, and where he suits up next will have big ramifications for fantasy players.

Best landing spots for Kenny Golladay for fantasy football

Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens do not pass a ton, so this may be an odd “best landing spot” for Golladay, but he hasn’t needed a crazy amount of volume to be a big fantasy producer in the past. He hasn’t topped 120 targets or 70 receptions in a given season yet, but he’s still able to go over 10 TDs and 1,100 yards. He’s a big-play WR, and he could thrive in Baltimore as their first alpha WR1 of the Lamar Jackson era. He should see similar volume (120 targets) and give Jackson a target other than Mark Andrews to look for in the red zone.

Detroit Lions: This might be the most likely scenario. The Lions could franchise tag Golladay or sign him to a long-term deal. And while this might elicit some groans on Twitter, it wouldn’t be bad for his fantasy value. Jared Goff is obviously a step down from Matthew Stafford, but Goff has supported up to three legit fantasy WRs at the same time. There’s little doubt he would keep Golladay as a fringe fantasy WR1, at worst.

Worst landing spots for Kenny Golladay for fantasy football

Chicago Bears: If Allen Robinson leaves in free agency, the Bears will have a huge positional need at WR. And while Robinson has been a successful fantasy player in Chicago despite the poor QB play, we have seen him consistently produce with bad QBs in his career. Golladay has only ever played with a good QB in Stafford. That’s not to say Golladay can’t perform with Mitchell Trubisky (or whoever is under center in Chicago), but it’s not the ideal landing spot for his fantasy value. 

Cleveland Browns: Cleveland has been linked to some of the big WR names in free agency. A lot of that might (probably) has to do with rumors that Odell Beckham is potentially on his way out of Cleveland. But there hasn’t been much smoke there, so it’s hard to put too much stock into it. But even if Golladay does go to Cleveland with OBJ out, Golladay then assumes that OBJ which … which hasn’t exactly been fruitful for fantasy. And if Golladay joins with OBJ still there, he becomes, at best, the 1B to Beckham’s 1A. It’s not among the most exciting potential landing spots for fantasy.