Rizzla discusses the stunning trade of Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas to the Houston Texans and touches on the fantasy context for all of the fantasy relevant players affected.
According Mike Klis of 9news, the Houston Texans have retooled and acquired former pro bowl wide receiver Demaryius Thomas from the Denver Broncos in exchange for a fourth round pick and a swap of seventh round picks.
With Will Fuller lost for the season with a torn ACL the Houston Texans had to do something on the trade front as their in house depth chart behind all pro Deandre Hopkins consisted of rookie Keke Coutee, running back Tyler Ervin, no name Vyncint Smith and journeyman Sammie Coates.
For the Denver Broncos the future is now as far as it pertains to impressive rookie receiver Courtland Sutton. Sutton’s obvious readiness for a much larger role on offense had just as much to do with this trade as the $14 million owed to Demaryius next season.
This is one of the ever rare win-win trades as the Texans find a solid number two to replace the injured Will Fuller for a relatively low cost, while the Denver Broncos acquire draft capital and get to feature the more talented (at this point in Demaryius’ career anyways) Courtland Sutton.
Fantasy Context:
Demaryius Thomas gets a fantasy boost with this trade as he now has a good quarterback and gets to feast in single coverage across from Deandre Hopkins. While Demaryius stays in WR3 territory for our rest of season rankings he is actually now more of a low end WR2 when compared to the WR3’s behind him. This move is a much welcomed one not only for Thomas’ fantasy prospects but also for his NFL career as a good season could keep him in Houston on a restructured, incentive based deal.
Keke Coutee’s projected fantasy value takes a huge hit with this news. Coutee was trending as one of the potential second half breakouts following Will Fuller being lost for the season but is now more bench depth than an instant fantasy starter. There was always the chance that the Texans looked outside the organization for additional help and they did just that by bringing in Thomas. Coutee will still have deeper league ppr value, especially as a bye week filler but Thomas’ presence limits his fantasy upside and drops the impressive rookie back down to flex/flex2 territory depending on league size.
Deshaun Watson gets a fantasy boost with Demaryius Thomas coming to town as he was trending down in the wake of the confirmed ACL tear suffered by star wideout Will Fuller.
Courtland Sutton. A fantasy star was born on October 30th, 2018. In all seriousness Sutton is primed to explode and is available in 90 percent of yahoo leagues. We have Sutton pegged as a WR2 type in our updated rest of season rankings and in all honesty that may be a bit conservative. Sutton will likely now dominate outside receiver targets with the Broncos looking to keep Sanders in the slot as much as possible. We expect Sutton to jump to at least a 22 percent target share with Thomas out of town, a number that should continue to rise and could thrust him into the WR1 conversation by the end of the season.
Daesean Hamilton and even Tim Patrick also see boosts to their fantasy value following this trade. The Broncos will need one of them to step up in three wide sets and while the smart money is on Hamilton for deeper leaguers looking for an add, Patrick made his case for more playing time with an impressive week eight on limited touches. These were our thoughts on the two receivers we shared in our week nine hot pickups column:
“Tim Patrick is a 6’4 undrafted receiver that boasts decent speed for his size who can operate both deep and underneath and could play in the same vein Sutton did as the number three when he is on the field. Patrick slipped in the draft due to a lengthy injury history but has a large catch radius and offers upside as a 50/50 ball receiver. Daesean Hamilton on the other hand profiles more as a slot receiver and could be the more valuable ppr asset as he is expected to see snaps in the slot when Sanders kicks to the outside.”
Case Keenum’s desperation streamer fantasy value takes a hit with this news as he now has Emmanuel Sanders, a rookie (albeit a promising one) and two unproven receivers as his top receivers. Expect the Broncos to lean on Sanders and Sutton while placing a larger emphasis on the run game to try to hide the ever struggling Case Keenum.
