Yahoo Sports fantasy analysts Matt Harmon and Sal Vetri break down the Panthers trading Diontae Johnson to the Ravens and what it means for both teams moving forward. Hear the full conversation on the “Yahoo Fantasy Forecast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Panthers trade Deontay Johnson and 1/6 round pick to the Ravens for 1/5 round pick.
So this is basically just a pick swap and the Ravens get Deonte Johnson who leaves behind a hapless Carolina Panthers team going nowhere.
I don’t.
Panthers are gonna have to hope that, you know, Xavier Leggett and Jalen Coker really hit the rest of the way because otherwise they’re gonna be looking at another rookie quarterback next year with nobody to throw to.
So that’s a whole another conversation, but this one is a bit of a tough not to untangle here from a fantasy perspective in Baltimore.
Sal I wrote about this for the site so people can go read the piece if they want, but I’m not sure how to feel about this again, purely from fantasy because obviously for real life, Ravens get another playmaker on the cheap here.
Why not?
You’re already a great offense.
Add another separator.
Sure.
Uh But what do you think this does to both Deontay Johnson and of course, the other guys there in Baltimore?
Yeah.
My initial thoughts are, I believe this is a slight bump like maybe the slightest of bumps for Deontay Johnson and that sounds crazy because, yeah, real life as of right now, he goes from the 32nd ranked offense in the NFL to the number one ranked offense.
It got as good as it possibly could only lasted eight games in Carolina.
And he said, see you later.
So I think this is honestly though, not that big of an upgrade in terms of fantasy because he’s going into an offense that’s passing the ball less than 30 times times per game right now.
Like we know Derek Henry’s there, we know this is kind of the offense always, Lamar Jackson has been in a low pass volume offense and this is a guy who earns 26 percent of his team’s targets in his career.
Obviously, the far majority of that has been with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it’s been across so many different quarterbacks now.
I mean, we’re talking six or seven different quarterbacks in his career continues to earn elite numbers in terms of targets because he separates versus man coverage, he gets open and that’s what quarterbacks like.
So he goes into this offense, I think he’s going to continue to earn his targets.
But instead of seeing, you know, uh 25 to 28 to 30% of the targets as like a high number in an offense that could be throwing the ball 35 to 40 times a game, this is now going into one that’s probably gonna be leaning closer to 2728 pass attempts a game most weeks, which just hurts his overall volume upside, but maybe a couple more touchdowns, a couple more efficient passes going his way downfield.
So I can kind of see it being a wash.
But I do think this hurts guys like Z Flowers because you’re seeing weeks where he’s getting 89, 10 targets in a game.
I have to imagine.
Now that’s dropping by at least 1 to 2 targets per game and his projections moving forward and if he’s losing targets, he’s losing fantasy points and potential.
So that definitely hurts him.
So that’s where my head goes right away.
Rasha Bateman comes off the field more so that obviously hurts him.
I think slight bump up for Deonte Johnson based on offensive environment and the rest of the guys here, I have to say they get a tick down.