1) Kendrick Bourne

As of today, Kendrick Bourne is available in 87% of ESPN fantasy leagues. As of today, he’s also likely better than at least one person on 100% of the benches in 10-team leagues (assuming normal roster size) rosters considering he currently ranks as a top-35 WR in PRK.

Assuming your team has at least 4 receivers, Bourne is likely at least worth a pickup in your league.

AIR BOURNE. @BournePoly11 went and got it for the TD!

📺: @NFLonCBS / Patriots app pic.twitter.com/HD3gVdydjI

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 14, 2021

He’s also one of the most under-the-radar starts next week when he faces a vulnerable Falcons team that just gave up 30+ points to the Cowboys by halftime.

Bourne is a unique player who offers the Patriots a level of explosiveness that they haven’t seen at the receiver position in a while. He’s much faster than the 4.6 40-yard dash he ran at the combine that has partially contributed to him to be an unheralded player his entire career.

He’s got incredible vision, underrated route-running, and big-play ability. His hands never seem to let owner down either. If you see its a Bourne target, he’s likely coming down with the ball.

New England knows how talented Bourne is as they constantly look for opportunities to get him the ball. In addition to hauling in all 4 of his targets for 98 yards and a TD last week, Bourne also received 3 carries that went for 43 yards while Bourne averaged over 10 yards per carry.

He catches. He runs. He runs and catches.

Add 48 yards for @BournePoly11.

📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/JcjHTKz9d1

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 14, 2021

He’s the definition of a boom-or-bust player as he’s only received more than 4 targets in 3 of the season’s 10 weeks, and he’s never put up double-digit points more than two weeks in a row, scoring 7 points or less in half his games including in two of his last 3.

He’s also put up 50 yards or more and 10 fantasy points or more in half his games despite his pedestrian target share (Bourne hasn’t seen more than 4 targets in a game in 6 weeks).

Need more proof of his confusing volume compared to production? Bourne is 30th in receiving yards in 2021 with 520 (more than Jakobi Meyers & Nelson Agholor), yet he is 59th in targets with a mere 40 (less than Meyers/Agholor).

Although, his talent level and involvement in an offense with an accurate quarterback makes his usual 2-4 targets much more meaningful than the average fan might know.

 

2) Jamal Agnew

Here’s the thing: the Jags suck. Plain and simple, they are terrible right now. Not as bad as the Lions mind you, but decently awful.

But what that means is anybody who consistently gets targets in that offense has potential upside because they are always trying to claw their way back into games and throwing around constantly by necessity.

Beyond that fact, Jamal Agnew has massive appeal because he appears to have stolen the Laviska Shenault role in the Jags offense, yielding him consistent targets and carries most weeks.

That boy got the burners.@jamalagnew | #JAXvsIND pic.twitter.com/vLq4runcoq

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) November 14, 2021

An interesting stat for confirmation bias: Agnew has 20 catches (on 30 targets) in the 5 games since D.J. Chark Jr. suffered a season-ending injury.

Everyone likely believed it would be Marvin Jones or Laviska who saw an increase in targets or touches, but it has been Agnew who has seen the biggest increase in workload 70 yards or a touchdown in 3 of the last 4 weeks.

He has also scored less than 10 points in just one of those 5 games, has at least 5 targets in each game in that stretch, and he has gotten at least 1 carry in 3 of those 5 games.

Agnew is an interesting dice roll especially because he is likely just scratching the surface of his talent as a receiver. He played cornerback in college and into the start of his NFL career, and began to focus full time on offense just last season.

.@jamalagnew 2021 so far?
Week 2: 102 yard return TD
Week 3: NFL record 109 yard return TD
Week 4: One of the best catches of the year

📺: #MIAvsJAX — Sunday 9:30am ET on CBS
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/duH0mi3QrU

— NFL (@NFL) October 15, 2021

Agnew has produced surprisingly well considering his few opportunities. He flashes speed regularly and is ridiculously efficient considering his workload and experience.

Agnew already has two 100-yard returns for touchdowns this year and his role is expanding to maybe a poor man’s Patterson role in this offense where he gets a meaningful few rushes each game while also receiving at least 5 targets each of the past 5 weeks.

Jamal Agnew’s role is becoming more promising in the offense too. Over the last 2 games, he has played 84 snaps (42 snaps per game).

Over the last 2 weeks, Agnew has also caught 11 of 13 targets for 119 yards, leading the team in yards per route run (39 in the NFL) during that period, per PFF.