Kansas City Chiefs - Fantasy News

Chris Conley 2017 Fantasy Projections

by Tom Joyce

8/11/17

NFL

Kansas City Chiefs

Chris Conley

Chris Conley showed Kansas City Chiefs fans last year that he is a player on the rise. The wide receiver took on a much larger role than the previous year and handled the extra responsibilities well.

As we enter the 2017 campaign, he is primed to take another step in his third NFL season. The biggest question, however, will be just how big of a role he ends up playing. Will he be a 1,000-yard receiver and end-zone threat, or will 2017 not be much different than 2016 for him?

Why Chris Conley Will Be A 2017 Fantasy Football Stud

In all likelihood, Conley will see an expanded role with the Chiefs this season for a couple of reasons. First off, the number of chances he received increased from just 31 as a rookie to 69 last year. Because of his efficiency—catching 63.8 percent of the balls intended for him—it seems likely that he would receive more chances.

In early June, the team released Jeremy Maclin, and he was scooped up by the Baltimore Ravens. Last year, Maclin was the Chiefs No. 2 receiver and had 44 receptions on 76 targets for 536 yards in 12 games. Without him in the picture, Conley will most likely slide into Maclin’s role, which should also give him more targets.

Maclin was on pace for over 100 targets last year, which still would have been a career low for him. With that in mind, there is a chance a healthy Conley could be targeted over 100 times if he slides into Maclin’s role and fills it well.

In the past two seasons, Conley has been completely healthy, so his status is not something to worry about.

Why Chris Conley Will Be A 2017 Fantasy Football Bust

Yes, Maclin is no longer blocking him on the depth chart, but this is not a reason to expect Conley to see his targets increased immensely. He is still behind Tyreek Hill, and the team uses tight end Travis Kelce heavily. Not to mention as far as NFL offenses go, the Chiefs run more than average.

Even if Conley is getting increased touches, there is no way to say for sure if he will be used in the end zone. Because the Chiefs like to run when they can and have a dependable tight end, it would be hard to expect him to be a preferred target in the red zone.

Keep in mind that Conley only has one touchdown grab in his NFL career—and it didn’t come last year. If Conley is not catching any touchdowns and is not in a position to come up with a 100-yard game every now and then, then he is not a great option to target. Last year, he only put up 4.69 Dober Fantasy Points per game because of those factors.

Even if Conley ends up replicating what Maclin did last year, he still would not be targeted in the end zone much. Maclin only had two touchdown grabs last year despite being considered a “deep ball threat” throughout the duration of his career (13.5 yards per reception in his career).