Jordyn Tyson is expected to miss the first month of the season. At least.
This is a big blow to the Saints, who selected Tyson with the 8th pick of the draft. They were figuring he would start opposite Chris Olave. Rashid Shaheed averaged almost 5 catches in his nine games in that role last year.
If Tyson is going to put up those kind of numbers, it likely won’t happen until the second half of the season. He’s expected to return to full strength in October, and then he’ll presumably need about a month to properly learn the offense and build a rapport with Tyler Shough.
Tyson had been plagued by hamstring injuries over the last year. He missed multiple games with injuries to both hamstrings last season at Arizona State, and he was sidelined by a minor hamstring injury in the offseason. This is a separate injury, suffered in a joint workout with Jacksonville. NFL Media says it will sideline him for about two months.
The injury probably will cause Tyson to go unselected in most fantasy leagues. He makes sense as a stash backup, with the potential of maybe putting up the hoped-for numbers in November and December, but that comes at the cost of a roster spot. In most leagues (I think) there aren’t quite enough roster spots to merit carrying him. (I think instead, he’ll spend the first few weeks sitting on the waiver wire, with teams picking him up in late September.)
For trickle-down impact, those looking for a short-term receiver can think about Devaughn Vele (pictured). I believe he’ll be a starter at the beginning of the season, and Kellen Moore tends to put together decent passing offenses, with the ball getting to his wide receivers.
Granted, Vele is a limited, low-upside receiver. Denver was happy to trade him for a Starbucks card. But they’ll get him the ball some. They proved that last year. In his last four games last year, he was in that starting spot, and the production was pretty good – 4.8 catches for 60 yards, with one touchdown in those four games.
Those looking for a warm-body type receiver for the first 4-6 games of the season can think about Vele. (Could be a patch receiver, for example, for those with the room to carry Tyson.)
| VELE: LAST FOUR GAMES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | Lg | TD |
| Atl. | 7 | 3 | 37 | 12.3 | 14 | 0 |
| at Mia. | 8 | 8 | 93 | 11.6 | 15t | 1 |
| at T.B. | 5 | 3 | 40 | 13.3 | 16 | 0 |
| Car. | 6 | 5 | 69 | 13.8 | 17 | 0 |
—Ian Allan
