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. Today, we take a look at Rashod Bateman, who will be the top wide receiver (though #2 target) in Baltimore, who might just go back to their run-first ways. But, has the handwringing gone too far? Can we just trust him in our drafts? Let’s take a look at his 2022 fantasy football player profile!
Rashod Bateman ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: WR33, 79 overall
Average Auction Value: $3.4
Rashod Bateman Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Rec% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec |
| 2021 | 12 | 4 | 68 | 46 | 515 | 1 | 17.00 | 3.83 | 67.6% | 7.57 | 11.20 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tgt | HPPR Pts/Tgt | PPR Pts/Tgt |
| 2021 | 57.5 | 80.5 | 103.5 | 4.8 | 6.7 | 8.6 | 0.85 | 1.18 | 1.52 |
| Year | Air Yards | aDOT | YAC | YAC/Tgt | YAC/Rec | AYMS | Tgt MS |
| 2021 | 594 | 8.9 | 163 | 2.43 | 3.54 | 17% | 16% |
2022 Rashod Bateman Fantasy Football Overview:
Rashod Bateman had a slow start to his career, as he missed the first five games of the season due to a groin injury that cost him a trip to the IR and the beginning of his career. Despite the fantasy football cognoscenti hoping and praying that Rashod Bateman would be their roster’s savior, he averaged 4 catches for 43 yards per game in his twelve games last season. In the end, he had just two games inside the top-30 at wide receiver. So, there wasn’t much to get excited about for Rashod Bateman, at least not on the surface.
Underneath the surface… there wasn’t much going on there, either. The Ravens grew their target volume, as they ranked seventh in team pass plays per game with Lamar Jackson, after finishing 24th the year prior. That is a big-time leap in production opportunity… that mostly came out of all their good running backs getting hurt, and it mostly went to Mark Andrews and Marquise Brown. Now, those good running backs (J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards) are back, but Hollywood Brown (and his 246 targets over the last two years) has moved on to Arizona, meaning there are some opportunities to be had here in this offense. But, don’t expect Bateman to just step into 140+ targets this season. Their pass rate jumped to 54% after they finished 2021 with a 42% pass rate. So, while Rashod Bateman is basically guaranteed a 20% target share, the size of the pie those targets are coming out of shrunk dramatically this offseason.
2022 Rashod Bateman Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Rashod Bateman Salary Cap Value: $8
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet!
I’m not super bullish on Rashod Bateman, to be honest. I think that Mark Andrews commands a massive target share and that it will come off of Bateman’s dinner plate at the end of the day, which is potentially leaving him without enough targets to matter in fantasy football leagues. He’s a significant risk of busting and not being worth the pick… but the price is so amazing I can’t resist.
Bateman is currently WR33 by ADP, pick 79 overall, and just $3.4 AAV in salary cap drafts. He is literally going as a backup wide receiver in snake drafts and is among the group of wide receivers all jumbled together between $3 and $6 in salary cap drafts. That’s basically the same thing in both cases: value. If you can get Bateman at this value, there are basically zero downsides to scooping him up just to see what happens.
Best Case Scenario:
Rashod Bateman gets 170 targets as he and Mark Andrews split a 70% target share.
Worst Case Scenario:
Rashod Bateman gets 17 targets as Mark Andrews and Devin Duvernay split a 70% target share.
Check out all our 2022 player profiles, here.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Image Source: Rashod Bateman on Twitter]
