Jeremy Has Spoken: Maclin chooses the Ravens

Ken Kelly Posted On June 12, 2017

When the Chiefs released Jeremy Maclin last week, the football world (in fantasy and reality) was stunned. After all, Maclin was atop the depth chart on a Kansas City roster that wasn’t exactly overflowing with talent at the position. Regardless, Maclin has now moved on and chosen to take his talents to Baltimore and thus signed with the Ravens for two years after flirting with the Buffalo Bills and others last week. The move is an important one in dynasty leagues and one worth fully understanding, so let’s take a look at the affected parties.

Jeremy Maclin, WR BAL

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Maclin steps right in to replace the newly retired Steve Smith in Baltimore. The Ravens have had a lot of success in taking on veteran receivers over the years and the addition of Maclin promises to be no different. Over his seven year career, Maclin has posted 474 catches for 6,395 yards (good for a 13.5 yards per reception average) and scored 46 touchdowns. However, last year was a disappointment as he was only able to catch 44 passes for 536 yards (both career lows) and scored only two touchdowns in 12 games as his season featured a groin injury and the inability of Alex Smith to get him the ball in positions where he could make plays.

The Ravens could clearly use some other playmakers and Maclin should help a ton in the red zone to help fill the void left by Dennis Pitta’s unfortunate injury last week that has seemingly ended his career. Maclin has seen his ADP plummet over the past year as it has gone from a high point of 33.83 in September all the way down to 104.5 this past month. It should rise from this point a bit but he’s clearly no longer a priority on dynasty rosters as he’s seemingly destined to be more of a low-end WR2 or high-end Wr3 than a building block of a contender, even though he could lead the Ravens in targets this season and should most certainly be better. Make no mistake, this move is a good one for his value and he should see an uptick, I’d guess towards the 80-90 range soon.

maclin 1

Tyreek Hill, WR KC

There’s clearly no bigger winner from the Maclin move than Tyreek Hill. However, owners should still proceed with caution. As we stated last week in our player news feed, very few teams unleash their best wide receiver on kick and punt returns and if those are limited, scoring opportunities for Hill could be diminished or at least evened out. In fact, reports are surfacing today that Hill will indeed be taken off special teams duties. Owners who are penciling in target numbers and adding all those special teams plays are salivating but they could be disappointed if they believe Hill is all of a sudden a bona fide WR1. Patrick Mahomes is likely not going to start soon and Alex Smith and his popgun arm are still going to be slinging the football for a run-first team. Combine that with the fact Hill is going to face the opposition’s top corner each week and still has some character concerns and you have a player who could be overvalued. The needle is clearly moving up but it’s quite possible his value could be overinflated for the next couple of months, giving his owners an opportunity to acquire more predictable value at a palatable, or even a discounted price.

Breshad Perriman, WR BAL

If there’s a loser in this deal for the Ravens, it’s likely Perriman. Mike Wallace is going to be Mike Wallace and that means he’s going to have big games combined with clunkers along the way. Perriman is likely to lose snaps to Maclin, though Maclin’s ability to play the slot will help out everyone as they can easily play in three wide sets. Still, I’d expect the ADP averages of Wallace to stay steady and Perriman to drop a bit. The real interesting thing here is it’s rumored the Ravens are still interested in bringing on Eric Decker as well.

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Joe Flacco, QB BAL

It’s never a bad thing for a quarterback and get a new weapon and this signing should help Flacco. If anything, it guards against a significant receiver injury and helps add quality depth as Maclin slides in above Wallace and Perriman on the depth chart. The loss of Pitta was a significant one and adding Maclin should help cement Flacco’s status as a decent QB2.

Eric Decker, WR NYJ

The Jets are still looking to unload Decker and the Ravens would have been a nice fit. However, he’ll still have suitors and that bring us to the next group of players on the list…

Philadelphia and Buffalo Receivers

It’s being reported Maclin’s decision came down to the Eagles and Ravens, with the Bills coming in third. This is a significant development because it reveals the Bills and Eagles are both in the market for another receiver, possibly now including Decker. Buffalo’s interest should come as no surprise as they have little behind Sammy Watkins and Zay Jones. However, the interest from Philadelphia is very interesting after they added Torrey Smith and Alshon Jeffrey in the off-season. If their interest was indeed genuine, this does not look for the likes of Dorial Green-Beckham and his future in the City of Brotherly Love. It would also could be bad news for the likes of Jordan Matthews. Still, we’ll reserve judgment since nothing has come to fruition in Philadelphia as of yet.

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Ken Kelly

Co-Founder at DynastyLeagueFootball

Ken is a corporate trainer by day an a tireless editor of dynasty content by night. His passion for the World Champion Seattle Seahawks is second only to his love of fantasy football and the dynasty format.

Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK