Week 1 Expert Fantasy Picks – Eric Ebron
Eric Ebron was supposed to be a game changer for the Detroit Lions when they took him with the No. 10 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. But he never quite caught on with Matthew Stafford and the Lions pass-happy offense. In four years he only caught 186 passes for 2,070 yards and 11 touchdowns.
It wasn’t surprising when they let him go in March. It also wasn’t surprising when someone else—the Indianapolis Colts — picked up and signed him within days of the Lions letting him go. Can he turn into a viable daily fantasy option with the Colts?
Why will he be any different in Indianapolis?
Players have struggled with the team that drafted them, been let go, and found success with their second team in the past. From what has been said about Ebron by the Colts staff via the Indianapolis Star, it sounds like that could be the case here:
“He’s really smart,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said of Ebron. “I knew that because we did our homework before he got here. We knew he was a smart player. But he’s like really a highly intelligent football player. And that’s really good because you want to use a guy with the versatility that he has and move him around and call all kinds of things with him. That helps. And he’s an explosive athlete.”
That’s nice, but…
It is great that he comes off as such a smart guy, but what will probably help his daily fantasy value more is the Colts roster. They are not built to be a great running team, so they will likely stick to the pass as they have in recent years.
As far as receivers go, they have TY Hilton—and that’s really it. They picked up Ryan Grant in free agency, but he’s nothing to write home about. That means the Colts are going to need to throw a lot of passes to Marlon Mack out of the backfield or throw a lot to the tight ends, Jack Doyle and Ebron.
The Colts only receiving threat was Hilton last season (because Montcrief was a bust), so they used Jack Doyle a lot. He was target 107 times (Hilton was targeted 108) and made 80 receptions for 690 yards and four touchdowns.
So—does this mean draft him?
Don’t make him your No. 1 tight end. But if you spend most of your salary cap on the other guys, he could be a surprisingly good sleeper.
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