Invest in Woodhead
It’s really hard not to like Danny Woodhead’s fantasy situation this year. With a change of scenery in Baltimore, we think it’s the right time to make an investment in the newest Raven.
As quarterback Joe Flacco’s favorite target Dennis Pitta suffered a season ending injury during offseason practice, new team member Danny Woodhead is in a great position to take on a lot of the underneath work this year. That’s in addition to his usual dump-off passes out of the backfield.
Another feather in Woodhead’s cap is the fact that the Baltimore Ravens receiving corps isn’t anything to write home about with the likes of Jeremy Maclin, Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman. As running back Terrence West will likely handle the heavy lifting out of the backfield by himself this year, this leaves Woodhead in a very nice position to catch a myriad of check-down passes and pose as a sneaky good option in the red zone.
Woodhead’s season ending ACL injury last year appears to be of little concern, but it does leave the running back one year removed from live game action. In 2015, Woodhead totaled more than 750 receiving yards with Philip Rivers at the controls. As Rivers is certainly a guy that likes to spread the ball around, Woodhead has a good chance to surpass those numbers in Baltimore given that Flacco has very few weapons on offense (following the loss of his main safety valve in Dennis Pitta). Due to the circumstances, there’s a very good chance that Woodhead could notch 800-yards and 10 touchdowns as a receiving back this year.
On the ground, Woodhead is certainly good for 300 or so yards as well. However, it’s hard to see the Ravens pushing him too hard in the running game being that he’ll be Flacco’s primary check-down option from here on out. Not since Ray Rice has Flacco had someone that he could dump-off passes to with confidence when the downfield bank is closed.
Woodhead’s bread and butter is catching check-down passes and making something out of nothing. He’s in a unique class with other mini-backs Darren Sproles and Dion Lewis. We like the idea of drafting Woodhead instead of either of them given his unique setup as the main target out of the backfield in Baltimore. While Sproles competes with multiple backs in Philly and Lewis’ coach Bill Belichick is puzzling to figure out, John Harbaugh is more apt to use Woodhead consistently. For these reasons, Woodhead is a wise investment for your fantasy team — draft him with confidence.
