Last week, Willie Snead was one of several Saints to have a fantasy football relevant day. He was the second-highest scoring wide receiver, with a respectable 9.8 fantasy points last week against the Rams. However, last weekend against the Rams saw him getting just 38 yards and no touchdowns as a traditional wide receiver. The other six points came from a trick play deep bomb to a wide-open Tim Hightower. That was part of the Sean Payton mission to crush Gregg Williams’ soul, so it’s unlikely that particular play makes a re-emergence this week.
[embedit snippet=”Jeff ads”]
Snead started the Season off with a bang, going for 226 yards and two scores in the first two games this season. Since then, he bounced in and out of fantasy relevance, but mostly out. He had a two-score game in week ten against Denver, but he’s gone above 56 yards just once since week one, and the Denver game is the only time he has scored since week two. Willie Snead is consistently listed as a back-end WR3 in many circles, but the only thing consistent with Willie Snead is how limited his upside is (and how disappointing he is on a week-to-week basis). If you toss in the emergence of Michael Thomas and the squeaky-wheel nature of Brandin Cooks getting no looks last week, it doesn’t look good this week for Snead to get a lot of run this week.
The Lions also present a sneaky-bad matchup against wide receivers this season, allowing the ninth-fewest fantasy points this season to wide receivers. A lot of this credit goes to Darius Slay, who is among the better corners in the league, but the nature of their defense also stifles production. This season, they’ve allowed just six double-digit wide receivers (one every other week). This is surprising, when you consider how we would expect the Lions to perform. They’ve shut down the #1 and the #2 receiver, and no #3 receiver has topped Philip Dorsett’s 9.8 fantasy points in week one. The Lions are a surprisingly adept offense at defending wide receivers, and that does not bode well for Snead.
Snead keeps getting WR3 consideration on a weekly basis, but has not gotten the numbers this season to support that. He has dropped to third on the depth chart, and even his high target volume does not help him. He gotten at least seven targets in every game this season but week eleven at Carolina. He is a short-yardage wide receiver in the passing game and will be relegated to the third receiver with Cooks getting his squeaky-wheel treatment this week. With a surprisingly difficult matchup this week, he isn’t worth slotting into your lineup unless you’re exceptionally desperate. Remember: it took a six-point trick play last week to get Snead his second highest point total since week one.