Rookie SWOT: Will Fuller

Matt Price Posted On May 11, 2016

Editor’s Note: As our coverage of the 2016 NFL Draft and its impact on fantasy football continues, we bring you our 2016 Rookie SWOT series. These articles will feature video highlights, combine reviews, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, short-term expectations, long-term expectations and rookie draft advice for over 30 of the best dynasty league prospects from this year’s draft. We’ll follow that up with team-by-team draft reviews because, you know, that’s kind of what we live for.

Make sure you’re ready for your dynasty league rookie draft by staying up on all these articles, checking out our rookie draft guide, rookie rankings, rookie draft cheat sheet and mock draft rooms. There are simply no better resources out there for dynasty fantasy football enthusiasts.

[am4show have=’g1;’ guest_error=’sub_message’ user_error=’sub_message’ ]

Combine Review

Height – 6’0” (29th percentile)
Weight – 186 lbs. (15th percentile)
Hands – 8.25” (1st percentile)
Arm Length – 30.75” (16th percentile)
40-yard dash – 4.32 (97th percentile)
10-yard split – 1.51 (81st percentile)
3-cone drill – 6.93 (51st percentile)
Vertical Jump – 33.5” (23rd percentile)
Broad Jump – 126” (82nd percentile)

Video Clip

[youtube id=”jrbUq0yoZag” align=”center” maxwidth=”1000″]

Strengths

Speed for days – gets there in a hurry
Elite acceleration helps create vertical separation on ‘go’ routes
Cornerbacks give him a cushion to respect his speed, and he throttles down well making him effective on curls and comebacks
Above average in space with the ball in his hands. Can change directions without losing much speed
Tracks the ball well

Weaknesses

Undersized – unlikely to work the middle of the field or receive large volume of targets
Body catcher with inconsistent hands
Leaves his feet for no reason at times, but lacks the jumping ability to make contested plays in the air against bigger, stronger, or more explosive cornerbacks
Lacks “my ball mentality” when attempting to make contested catches

Opportunities

Fuller should see the field immediately across from target monster DeAndre Hopkins. With defenses focusing on stopping Hopkins, Fuller will see weaker coverage and more one on one situations, allowing him to do what he does best – take the top off a defense. The Texans new quarterback, Brock Osweiler has the arm strength and accuracy to throw Fuller a nice deep ball.

Threats

The Texans spent their first round pick – 21st overall – on Fuller, so he likely the day one starter, but he will certainly see competition for targets from the likes of second-year wide receiver Jaelen Strong and fellow rookie receiver Braxton Miller. As rare as it might be, veteran Cecil Shorts is also productive when healthy and on the field.

New Texans running back Lamar Miller is also a good pass catcher out of the backfield and is likely to notch 40+ receptions himself. Houston also spent a fourth-round pick on Tyler Ervin who will see time as a change of pace back and is also a very accomplished receiver.

Short-term Expectations

Don’t get me wrong – I expect Fuller to have some big games with lines like three catches for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Predicting when and where those will come though will be a difficult endeavor, to say the least. This is a team that wants to play great defense and ball-control offense. I suspect that Fuller will largely be a decoy-type player early on. His speed will force defenses to stay honest, and when they lapse Fuller will make them pay for it if Osweiler can get it to him.

Long-Term Expectations

Honestly, I don’t expect Fuller’s role to change much throughout his career. I’m sure other parts of his game will improve and he will have more productive seasons than what he will in his rookie year, but I largely expect him to remain a boom/bust fantasy option with a wide range of outcomes from week to week. There’s a good chance he will be so inconsistent that most of his big weeks will be on your bench. Because of this, I see him being a much better option in best ball leagues where you won’t have to figure out when to start him.

NFL Comparisons

It seems like the most common comp for Will Fuller is Desean Jackson, but Jackson came into the league running more of the route tree and has evolved his game into being much more than just a deep threat. It’s possible that Fuller gets there, but I see him much closer to guys like Ted Ginn and Mike Wallace. One trick speed ponies with inconsistent hands who are strategically valuable to their respective offenses, but make for dicey week to week fantasy options.

Projected Range for a Rookie Draft

According to DLF’s May rookie mock draft results, Fuller is going off the board around 1.09 as the sixth wide receiver off the board. Depending on how you feel about the landing spots for Derrick Henry and Kenneth Dixon, Fuller could be an option as early as 1.07. I could see him falling a few spots farther than that in leagues with owners that are enamored with Tyler Boyd and CJ Prosise.

[/am4show]

Author
Recent Posts

Matt Price

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

Senior writer and co-host of the DLF Dynasty podcast, the longest running dynasty focused podcast on the planet

Creator and Co-host of Dynasty Game night, the fantasy football game show.

Creator and host of the Zookeeper Stories podcast.