College Football Best Bets of the Week: Week 9
Walter Waddell
After a couple of months with the Carolina Panthers, Diontae Johnson is reportedly heading back to the AFC North, traded from the Panthers to the Baltimore Ravens Tuesday afternoon, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The trade includes a fifth-/sixth-round pick swap.
Johnson was traded from Pittsburgh to Carolina this offseason. He struggled while Bryce Young was the quarterback for the Panthers but had three top-12 PPR weeks once the team made the change to Andy Dalton, scoring 26.2 in Week 3 (WR6), 21.3 in Week 4 (WR10) and 19.8 in Week 6 (WR12). Johnson had 1,161 yards in 2021 when he made the Pro Bowl, and he scored 7 and 8 touchdowns in 2020 and 2021 before going scoreless in 2022 and putting up 717 yards and 5 scores last year. So far in 2024, he has 357 yards and 3 touchdowns through seven games.
In Baltimore, he becomes the receiving thunder to Zay Flowers’ lightning, likely operating as the top contested-catch man. Of course, this offense runs through Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson first and last, so this move helps the overall Ravens offense more than it helps any individual fantasy asset. Johnson gets a small boost based on moving to a functional offense, but he still isn’t a fantasy starter. Jackson was already the overall QB1-or-close, so while this might help him with more touchdown luck a bit, there’s only so far he can move. Flowers and TEs Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely see their values take a hit, with only Andrews still a fantasy starter and him only barely if that.
Back in Carolina, rookie Xavier Legette should take over as the WR1 until and unless Adam Thielen returns from IR — and Thielen could find himself dealt before the deadline as well. Jalen Coker is the likely WR2. Guaranteed targets are guaranteed targets, so Legette and/or Coker could certainly flirt with fantasy relevance, especially once Andy Dalton is back under center. We have a lot of bye weeks coming up over the next month, so Legette and Coker could find themselves in fantasy lineups soon. But for the long run, this is a sign the Panthers will be looking hard at the receiver market this offseason, whether in free agency or the draft.
