Revamped Titans passing game offers fantasy hope

A revamped passing game and system offers fantasy promise.

Coming off another sub-.500 season, the Tennessee Titans fired head coach Mike Vrabel and didn’t re-sign longtime stalwarts like running back Derrick Henry and quarterback Ryan Tannehill. It felt like the end of an era as the club hired Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan to replace Vrabel and signed veteran wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd to jumpstart a passing attack that ranked 29th in the NFL last year (180.4 yards/game) and hasn’t finished in the top 20 since 2011.

That duo joins three-time All-Pro WR DeAndre Hopkins and 2022 first-rounder Treylon Burks in a receiver room that now boasts talent and experience. Questions remain, however, as QB Will Levis enters 2024 as the starter following an uneven showing as a rookie — he threw four TDs in his debut and then managed just four scoring strikes over his remaining eight games. Behind him are QBs Mason Rudolph and Malik Willis, neither of whom have lit up scoreboards in limited opportunities.

So, with the caveat that improved play from Levis is crucial to Tennessee’s receivers delivering the goods for fantasy football owners, let’s look at what Tennessee has to work with this season.

Fantasy footballers will lose Ja’Marr Chase for multiple weeks

Where to turn after losing Chase in fantasy football?

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase (hip) will miss four to six weeks of action, barring a new prognosis as he seeks multiple opinions on how best to move forward. Stash Chase on your bench or IR spot.

If the Bengals opt to place him on the Reserve/Injured list, Chase will miss meetings with Cleveland, Carolina, Pittsburgh and Tennessee — robbing fantasy football gamers of matchups with three top-six opponents when using data from the last five weeks of play.

Cincinnati should send more work toward the two most obvious options in Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd, but Mike Thomas and Hayden Hurst should garner upticks in action.

No one is going to step in to replace Chase outright. What makes this worst for fantasy owners is the timing of it all since waivers processed already in the vast majority of leagues, presumably picking clean the positional wealth. Therefore, any high-quality replacement is likely to come via trade or from within one’s roster personnel.

If you’re looking just to get by for a few weeks playing the matchups and need a warm body in a lineup, consider checking your waiver wire for the likes of Marvin Jones, Darius Slayton, Mack Hollins, Marquise Goodwin, Kalif Raymond, Sammy Watkins, the aforementioned Thomas, and Olamide Zaccheaus. It won’t be pretty, but that’s what we have to deal with given the dire circumstances.

Fantasy football team previews: AFC North

A team-by-team fantasy football outlook from the AFC North.

The 2022 fantasy football draft season is starting to heat up now that we’ve gone through the height of free agency and all of the chosen rookies have been assigned to their professional home cities.

The landscape has changed a great deal for many franchises after a whirlwind offseason, and our divisional preview series will help you stay on top of all of the changes to date.

AFC divisional previews

East | North | South | West

NFC divisional previews

East | North | South | West