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Irv Smith Jr.’s 2020 Fantasy outlook!
Some thoughts...
{A THREAD}
Irv Smith Jr.’s 2020 Fantasy outlook!
Some thoughts...
{A THREAD}
At 22-years-old in his rookie season, Irv Smith Jr. was playing a position with one of the steepest learning curves. Despite that, he logged 60% (612) of Minnesota’s snaps last season and posted a 50/39/350/2 line while playing behind Kyle Rudolph.
Although his numbers certainly don’t jump off the page, it’s important to remember that the Vikings were an extremely run-heavy team in 2019 and Smith was the second string TE. But it’s what happened towards the end of the season that gets me excited...
When playoff time came, the rookie began to see more time on the field. Both he and Rudolph were seeing snaps with 11-personnel with Smith often replacing the veteran Rudolph in passing downs. That tells me the coaching staff trusted the rookie down the stretch.
Heading into the 2020 season, former OC Kevin Stefanski is now in Cleveland and Gary Kubiak will assume the play calling duties. In his 21 seasons prior (LARGE SAMPLE SIZE) as an OC, Kubiak’s TEs were targeted on average 23% of the time - 2% higher than league average in 2019.
The Vikings defense also lost a ton of key players on defense in the offseason - so odds are they won’t be as dominate. That should lead to Kirk Cousins throwing the ball a lot more than he has in years past. Which only means more targets for Smith...
Reports out of Vikings’ camp has been that Smith Jr is set to take on a larger role in 2020 with Kubiak saying, “I think there's a lot more there, and Irv's going to give it to us, and I've got to make sure I get him in position to do that."
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
