Hey guys – welcome back for part two of this free agents series! I hope everyone enjoyed part one and, if you missed it, we went over these wide receivers: Allen Robinson, Kenny Golladay, Nelson Agholor, Will Fuller, and Marvin Jones. If any of those names caught your interest you can check out the full piece here.

Some of the biggest news this offseason was the announcement that the 2021 salary cap will be set to $182.5 million. (Down 8% from last year) This has really made things difficult for teams in free agency if you’re already over or near the cap limit. Alternatively, anyone who has a lot of space to work with is flourishing right now in this year’s deep free agency.

So with that, let’s kick things off with the logo dancing, TikTok superstar, JuJu Smith-Schuster!

1. JuJu Smith-Schuster

• Pittsburgh Steelers one-year, $8 million contract

If there was one word I could use to describe JuJu Smith-Schuster, it would be loyal. This guy turned down offers from the Ravens and Chiefs, according to The Atheltic’s Jason La Canfora. I don’t think there are a lot of free agents who would pass up an opportunity to play with either of these organizations with their current rosters. Regardless, that still wasn’t enough to pull him away from the Steelers and his veteran QB, Ben Roethlisberger.

Throughout the 2020 season, JuJu Smith-Schuster managed to log 711 snaps from out of the slot, which accounted for 82.2% of his total snaps. Even competing with Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson, JuJu Smith-Schuster was targeted 128 times, which ranked him #15 at the end of the season.

All of this is impressive and what we hope to see from a pass-friendly offense, but for JuJu Smith-Schuster to ever move up a tier, he would need either Claypool or Johnson to miss time.

YEAR:	2020
TEAM:	PIT
TARGETS:	128
RECEPTIONS:	97
YARDS:	831
CATCH%:	75.8%
TD:	9
EOS RANK:	25

2. Chris Godwin

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers one-year, $15.9 million contract, franchise tag

Well, the boys are back in town and Chris Godwin gladly signed his franchise tender to do one more Super Bowl run with Tom Brady. Alternatively, he easily would have been the most sought-after wide receiver of all the free agents this year.

Unfortunately, Chris Godwin was a tough asset to own last year as a fantasy manager. He never returned his draft capital, he was consistently injured to start the season, and he never delivered a big week-wining performance. However, he did have a string of consistent weeks where he still helped your team out down the stretch.

In addition, the biggest question mark I have around Chris Godwin this year is if Antonio Brown comes back. If he chooses not to return this definitely improves Chris Godwin’s fantasy output which is best-case scenario.

YEAR:	2020
TEAM:	TAM
GAMES:	12
TARGETS:	84
RECEPTIONS:	65
YARDS:	840
CATCH%:	77.4%
TD:	7
EOS RANK:	32

3. Corey Davis

• New York Jets three-year, $37.5 million contract

Ultimately 2020 looked like it was going to be Corey Davis’ year, and it appeared as if he perfectly molded into his role on the Titans’ offense. Fast forward to this offseason and he’ll be starting the 2021 season playing for the New York Jets.

The Jets are in the middle of a rebuild, and they’ve already brought in the right group of coaches to lead the way. Both the new head coach and offensive coordinator come from the San Francisco 49ers, and if Matt LaFleur brings the same run-first style offense from the 49ers, we could see Corey Davis being used for helping block, and he’s an excellent run and pass blocker.

Ideally, you wouldn’t want your wide receivers blocking, but if they are it also means they’ll see the field more, which in turn gives them more opportunities to put up points. Corey Davis can easily become a valuable draft pick this year. I’m keeping an eye on him in training camp and preseason to see what his usage will be like how this new offense will operate.

YEAR:	2020
TEAM:	TEN
GAMES:	14
TARGETS:	92
RECEPTIONS:	65
YARDS:	984
CATCH%:	70.7%
TD:	5
EOS RANK:	21

4. Curtis Samuel

• Washington Football Team three-year, $34.5 million contract

First of all, who doesn’t love this signing for Curtis Samuel?! Of all the free agents this year and possible outcomes, I’d say Curtis Samuel is one of the biggest winners this offseason.

Not only will he be reuniting with his old head coach, Ron Rivera. But, he’ll also be playing alongside his old college buddy and teammate Terry McLaurin! In addition, as of when this article is published, gunslinger Ryan Fitzpatrick is looking to be the one playing the starting role. This is gearing up to be one fun team to watch play this year!

Since Ron Rivera last coached the Panthers, he had Curtis Samuel running a lot of deep routes. But this past year we also got to see Curtis Samuel utilized in more specific situations, while D.J. Moore took on the role of being the teams’ deep ball threat. Ideally, it would be nice to see him used as much as possible because he’s shown he can handle it.

Curtis Samuel opens the field up not only for Antonio Gibson but also for Terry McLaurin. Terry will continue to be the defense’s number one focus, which opens up the door for Curtis Samuel to have a sneaky good fantasy football season and even produce weeks where he’s one of your team’s highest scorers.

YEAR:	2020
TEAM:	CAR
GAMES:	15
TARGETS:	97
RECEPTIONS:	77
YARDS:	851
CATCH%:	79.5%
TD:	3
EOS RANK:	24

5. AJ Green

• Arizona Cardinals one-year, $8 million contract.

Surely we must wrap things up with another veteran wide receiver! This one is one of my favorite free agents this year, A.J. Green. He used to be the type of player who could put up 30+ points on any given week and win you your matchup.

But a lot of time has passed since those years and a lot has changed. What we saw last season wasn’t at all what we hoped for. Remember how long we waited for A.J. Green to come back from injury last year? Then even more hype started to build once the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow.

Instead what we got was an unfortunate season and, needless to say, anyone who drafted A.J. Green at his ADP was disappointed.

Now A.J. Green is leaving for the Arizona Cardinals and joining another crowded room of wide receivers. DeAndre Hopkins is still the undisputed number one and Christian Kirk is the number two. So that just leaves A.J. Green to take on the number three role that may soon be vacated by Larry Fitzgerald, if the buzz around the league is true.

According to The Athletic’s Mike Sando, NFL executives around the league expect to see Larry Fitzgerald retire before the 2021 season.

Firstly, A.J. Green won’t hold much fantasy value unless something freaky happens to DeAndre Hopkins or Christian Kirk; he’ll be better for real-world football. It’ll be nice to see what he still has left in the tank and it only helps that he’s joining Kliff Kingsbury’s high octane four-wide receiver set offense.

YEAR:	2020
TEAM:	CIN
GAMES:	16
TARGETS:	104
RECEPTIONS:	47
YARDS:	523
CATCH%:	45.2%
TD:	2
EOS RANK:	75

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