It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the wide receivers. We continue with a sophomore wide receiver who will have a whole mess of competition for targets from a rookie quarterback. Let’s take a look at 2021 Laviska Shenault!
Laviska Shenault ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: WR46, Pick 121
Average Auction Value: $1.3 (T-WR47)
Laviska Shenault Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Rec% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec |
| 2020 | 14 | 12 | 79 | 58 | 600 | 5 | 6.58 | 4.14 | 73.4% | 7.59 | 10.34 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tgt | HPPR Pts/Tgt | PPR Pts/Tgt |
| 2020 | 99.1 | 128.1 | 157.1 | 7.1 | 9.2 | 11.2 | 1.25 | 1.62 | 1.99 |
| Year | Air Yards | aDOT | YAC | YAC/Tgt | YAC/Rec | AYMS | Tgt MS |
| 2020 | 493 | 6 | 298 | 3.77 | 5.14 | 13% | 15% |
2021 Laviska Shenault Fantasy Football Overview:
I really liked Laviska Shenault coming out of college! He was one of my favorite wide receivers in 2020, and I really wanted him on the 49ers with Kyle Shanahan. I can’t exactly be mad at Brandon Aiyuk fitting that mold, especially since at this point he’s better than Laviska Shenault at football. It’s appropriate that I wanted him on the 49ers because Deebo Samuel made us all fall in love with Laviska Shenault. After all, Shenault can’t really track the ball downfield, but he sure is dangerous with the ball in his hands.
2021 Laviska Shenault proponents will tell you that he has a chance to break out this year, as a favorite target of Trevor Lawrence. They also say that he has WR2 upside, which I am going to throw some cold water on. Only five guys have top-24 WR seasons with first-round rookie QBs since 2010. Laviska Shenault isn’t exactly Reggie Wayne, Jarvis Landry, Steve Smith, Mike Evans, or Keenan Allen. That’s why I have some trouble seeing this upside with Laviska Shenault and Trevor Lawrence.
There’s also that he really… wasn’t that good last year. His multipurpose role never really developed, with him getting five of his 18 carries on the season in week two. Other than that, the Jaguars mostly used him as a regular wide receiver. He finished with at least six targets in 8-of-14 games last year. In those 8 games, he averaged 4.6 receptions for 52 yards. That’s fine, but his season-high was 86 yards, and he topped 50 yards just three times on the year. He was just okay, and the target distribution this season got more complicated with the additions of both Marvin Jones Jr. and Travis Etienne in the draft.
2021 Laviska Shenault Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Laviska Shenault Auction Value: $1
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet!
Laviska Shenault could have a breakthrough season, which is why I can’t get mad at you if you take him at his draft day price. He’s a buck in auction drafts and is likely your WR5. He’s a good upside play at that price, but I would rather guys like Darnell Mooney in that range. He just didn’t do very much last year with his opportunity, and he wasn’t even very dangerous with the ball (fewer than 5 yards after the catch per reception last year). He was fine. But people have convinced themselves that he was transcendent. Show me what exactly he did well last year. Here, check out his PlayerProfiler.com page. I’ll wait.
Best Case Scenario:
He turns into Deebo Samuel for Jacksonville. Granted, everything about Jacksonville screams that the offense won’t be as good as the 49ers’ 2019 NFC Champion run’s setup. But, maybe he can be Deebo?
Worst Case Scenario:
Urban Meyer seemingly forgot he had Laviska Shenault (or straight up didn’t care about Viska) when he drafted Travis Etienne. It’s not out of the picture that he gets left in London during their international game and switches to soccer.
Check out all our 2021 player profiles, here.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Header Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/D.J_Moore.jpg under CC BY SA 2.0]
