What is the fantasy fallout of Deshaun Watson's suspension? | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast

In the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast, Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don examine the impact of the Watson suspension on the Browns offense including Nick Chubb and Amari Cooper.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

MATT HARMON: Sounds like this is the final-- like we can finally put this to bed. Deshaun Watson is going to miss 11 games for the Cleveland Browns. I think this probably takes them out of the Jimmy Garoppolo market if he's not gonna miss an entire season. I don't know if it should. I think they're still kind of-- 11 games is a long time to start Jacoby Brissett. But I think that's probably how this is going to go. So it's been tough to project the Browns. It's been tough to talk about the Browns. It still-- I mean, it doesn't feel great to talk about the Browns from a football perspective, obviously, because of the whole Deshaun Watson thing. But what does this do to this offense with 11 games gone for Deshaun Watson?

DALTON DEL DON: It's a good point about the Jimmy G-- another trade partner gone because Zach Wilson's injury looked like it opened one up. But it seems to me like he's just going to have to be released by the Niners at this point. Oh, yeah-- big news here. I expected probably a full season here. So I don't really know what to do with my rankings with 11 games. I mean, that's just weird. Obviously, the fantasy playoffs matter the most. So, certainly, it's better news than the whole season if you have Nick Chubb or Amari Cooper or David Njoku. So yeah, it could have been worse, for sure. I mean, the range of outcomes here certainly featured a lot longer than 11 games.

MATT HARMON: Six was kind of the bare minimum for any sort of, like, me being interested in any of these Browns. For me, personally, I'm not gonna draft Amari Cooper at any point where he's going to go. He's never been a 24% target player. He's never been a guy that's been a dominant target share receiver. I know it looks that way on this depth chart because these other guys are Donovan Peoples-Jones and Anthony Schwartz-- rookie David Bell. There's a lot of unproven players. But Cooper's never been a dominant target share receiver. I don't think he's good enough, especially at this stage of his career, to be a dominant target share player. I'm not going to draft Amari Cooper if Deshaun Watson is missing 11 games.

DALTON DEL DON: I have him buried way further in my wide receivers-- 39. But I'll probably move him up a little bit with this news. But yeah, wildly, he's never exceeded a 22% target share throughout his career. He has massive indoor/outdoor splits. And now Jacoby Brissett throwing to him-- yeah, no thanks. So, wherever I move him up to, it'll still be lower than where he's being drafted. So yeah, I'm with you. I'm out on Cooper. And Nick Chubb might, like I said earlier, might be one of the best running backs in the NFL. You know he's the only player in NFL history with four consecutive seasons of 5-plus yards per carry on more than 150 attempts.

I mean, if we gave him a Henry workload, he would be a superstar. But, unfortunately, there's Kareem Hunt, D'Ernest Johnson-- and even Jerome Ford looks exciting. Don't be surprised if they trade one of those-- Johnson and Hunt. But also, Ford is there too. And it's still a committee. So, with a poor offense-- and, also, he's not targeted. That hurts his fantasy. So Nick Chubb's one of the better real-life players that gets nicked in fantasy, based on his situation. The only guy I could get excited about here is Njoku.

I think he was paid like a top-five tight end with that contract they gave him in the offseason season-- no longer competing with Austin Hooper. Jacoby Brissett-- the last time he was a starter in 2019, Ebron and Jack Doyle combined for a 30% target share. So Brisset loves to throw to his tight ends, apparently. So yeah, Njoku remains in his prime. He has some crazy workout numbers. And if we're out on Cooper, yeah, draft in Njoku late.

MATT HARMON: I think we should at least have a conversation about the fact that Deshaun Watson-- it's going to be forever since we've seen him play football. Obviously, he's had some preseason action. He's had some training camp action with the team. It's not like a total, total absence. Watson, odds are, will probably still be a good quarterback. I think there's a chance Deshaun Watson is just never a top-five quarterback again.

DALTON DEL DON: He had a really ugly stat line in his first preseason action, although one play I saw was a bad drop that would have continued a drive. But it was ugly stats. So, as gross as all this off-field stuff is with Watson-- and I do agree. The two years off could affect his on-field play as well. But last time we did see him play, I mean, dude was arguably the best player in the NFL. 8.9 YPA on positive-- that led the NFL. Without DeAndre Hopkins and a bad coaching staff-- 33 touchdowns, seven interceptions-- I mean, playing outdoors with bad teammates. I mean, yeah, he was a super-duper star, if not underrated-- even though he was treated as a star-- the last time we saw him play football.

MATT HARMON: Long story short, definitely don't draft Deshaun Watson at all in a one-quarterback league. Don't even-- if you can let somebody else waste your time with that, I think, is the thing, for sure. But yeah, I don't know. I just wouldn't be surprised if he comes back after 11 games this season, and it's just like, eh, he's good. But he's not great, I guess. Be open to that possibility.