In our “32 in 32” series, we are highlighting three of the most notable fantasy football players for each team, covering all 32 teams in 32 days!
Jimmy Garoppolo (QB – Las Vegas Raiders):
Garoppolo began 2022 as the backup to Trey Lance in San Francisco, which ultimately turned into Garoppolo leading the 49ers to the playoffs with Lance’s season-ending injury in Week 2 paving the way for Garoppolo to start the next 10 games before a season-ending foot injury.
In his 11 games of action, Garoppolo was serviceable, going for 2,437 yards and 16 TDs to 4 INTs. He was a ‘game manager’, which worked for reality but left him relatively insignificant for fantasy. During his stretch as the 49ers’ QB1, he was the QB15 in points and the QB17 in PPG for fantasy, only eclipsing 18 points once.
The good news: it’s unlikely he’ll be able to play the ‘game manager’ role in Las Vegas.
Neither the supporting cast nor the defense is at a level remotely close enough to allow Garoppolo to play the “don’t lose” style of football he was accustomed to in San Francisco. Carr saw this force him to finish 11th in passing attempts, even when missing time.
With Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers at his side, he has a true WR1 and a serviceable WR2, but it’s still far from an ideal situation. Given this, and his relative lack of production throughout his career (from a fantasy standpoint), it’s difficult to value him as anything more than a waiver wire/streaming QB with QB2 upside.
Josh Jacobs (RB – Las Vegas Raiders):
2022 was a career year for Josh Jacobs, who saw his best numbers in nearly every category last season. With over 2,000 total yards and 12 TDs, he ended the season as the RB3 in PPR scoring behind only Austin Ekeler and Christian McCaffrey.
For as consistent as his workload was in 2022, tallying 16+ touches in all but two games, Jacobs’ production was wildly inconsistent with 30+ points in 4 games while failing to hit the double-digit point threshold in 5 games.
Such weekly inconsistencies and the fact that this was Jacobs’ first season as a true workhorse (393 touches, next-most was in 2020 with 306) introduces a large amount of risk on his 2023 prospects, especially with the change at QB from Derek Carr to Jimmy Garoppolo, which should be a lateral move but introduces variability in the offense.
It’ll be very interesting to see where he goes on draft day, currently projecting as a mid-RB1 (RB6 on ECR, RB8 on ADP) around the tail-end of the 1st round. At that price, I’m comfortable with Jacobs, even though I do expect notable regression heading into 2023, producing closer to his typical numbers prior to 2022.
Davante Adams (WR – Las Vegas Raiders):
Adams showed he can produce without Aaron Rodgers in 2022, going for one of the best seasons in his career with 100 catches for 1,516 yards, 14 TDs, and finishing as the WR2 in his first year in Las Vegas.
He was once again the clear focal point of the offense, setting a career-high in targets (180) that ranked 2nd to only Justin Jefferson (184) and was the highest target share (30.7%) in the league. That workload gave him a pretty stable floor with 13 of 17 games of 7+ targets and 10+ points.
The Raiders’ change at QB, moving from Adams’ former college QB in Derek Carr to newly-acquired Jimmy Garoppolo, introduces some uncertainty. Adams had an extremely established rapport with both Aaron Rodgers and Derek Carr, which allowed him to not only command the massive target share he received but also produce effectively off of that workload. Introducing a new QB, which he has never played with and has no rapport with introduces new security questions for 2023.
With that said, it’s still impossible to dismiss Adams’ yearly production (and consistency). Currently going as the WR7 off the board in the early-to-mid 2nd round range, he’s a solid mid-WR1 option with overall WR1 potential.