Off a couple solid games, Lions wide receiver Kalif Raymond has the makings of a deep league fantasy lineup flier in Week 8.
Week 7 against the Dallas Cowboys was not an offensive showcase for the Detroit Lions. So you may have missed that Kalif Raymond led the team in catches (five), targets (six) and receiving yards (75).
Amon-Ra St. Brown being absent after an early head injury created an opportunity, and Raymond stepped up.
St. Brown is expected to play on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, after apparently not actually suffering a concussion against Dallas. But DJ Chark is still on IR of course, Josh Reynolds remains banged up and there’s still room for someone besides St. Brown to be a reliable target for Jared Goff.
Kalif Raymond has makings of a nice deep league fantasy flier for Week 8
Raymond had a 23.1 percent target share in Week 7 (26 pass attempts for Goff). In the game before the Lions Week 6 bye, Week 5 against the New England Patriots, he had five catches for 45 yards on seven targets—a 20 percent target share. It’s worth mentioning St. Brown was limited by an ankle injury in that pre-bye week game.
The Lions face the Miami Dolphins in Week 8. Entering the week Miami is allowing the eighth-most receptions and yards to wide receivers, which has translated to allowing the seventh-most fantasy points to the position (Yahoo!, 0.5-point PPR).
In concert with Goff being a streaming quarterback option that shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand this week, his target tree could be very narrow against the Dolphins. D’Andre Swift may be back, but otherwise it’s St. Brown, T.J. Hockenson and Raymond along with less than fully healthy Reynolds.
Reynolds’ status as the week goes on is worth watching (he did not practice on Wednesday) as an indicator of what Raymond’s role might be against Miami, with Friday’s injury report and the declaration of inactives on Sunday as the ultimate tells.
Raymond is available in basically every fantasy league (0.4 rostered in ESPN leagues, 1 percent rostered in Yahoo! leagues). In deeper leagues, or as a cheap DFS flier, he should be on the radar in Week 8.