Chicago Bears: Taylor Gabriel: 2019 Fantasy Football Stat Projections

Taylor Gabriel had one of the best seasons of his career last year. Can he match that in 2019?

In 2018, Taylor Gabriel set career bests for targets, receptions and receiving yards. Gabriel emerged as one of 3 Chicago Bears with 90+ targets (Allen Robinson and Tarik Cohen are the others). Gabriel was a key cog to the Bears offense last year.

With Anthony Miller developing, drafting Riley Ridley and David Montgomery, as well as adding Mike Davis, and the possible emergence of Javon Wims and/or Adam Shaheen, just how many less targets will Gabriel see?

The answer could be a substantial drop.

Gabriel was an important addition to an offense last year that saw a developing quarterback in Mitch Trubisky and a new offense being installed by Matt Nagy.

The Bears needed as many new weapons as possible and Gabriel didn’t disappoint. But now it’s time to start looking at the business side of things. Gabriel signed a four-year contract but only has two of it guaranteed. The Bears can get out of the contract after this season with only $2 million in dead cap space.

Ryan Pace is going to have to be making some tough decisions regarding who to pay and who to let walk after this season and you can expect that with the draft pick of Riley Ridley, the Bears are hoping the core of their 2020 wide receivers will be Robinson, Miller and Ridley (with Wims and perhaps Emmanuel Hall lying in the weeds).

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In short, the Bears will most likely want to move on from Gabriel after this season which means, if the other players emerge this year, Gabriel won’t be phased out, but should definitely see less of the share of targets.

Gabriel was second on the team in targets last year and only one shy of tying Robinson for the team lead. In 2019, you should expect Robinson, Cohen, Miller and probably Trey Burton to all have more targets than Gabriel.

Not to mention, while Gabriel will have more targets than the Ridleys, Montgomerys and Shaheens of the world, those targets should increase meaning more reason to see a reduction in Gabriel’s role.

Gabriel is worth a stash in extremely deep leagues, but it’s hard to see Gabriel as a strong selection in regular fantasy leagues. Yes, he will get a few jet sweep plays so you’ll get a spattering of rushing yardage as well, but after seeing over 6 targets a game last year, it’s hard to see him seeing more than about 4 this year.

Anthony Miller: 2019 Fantasy Football Stat Projections. dark. Next

Gabriel is going to be best left on the waiver wire but he’s worth monitoring. If there is an injury to Robinson or Miller, Gabriel should see an increase in targets while either one of them are out.

Taylor Gabriel 2019 stat projections– 45 receptions, 500 yards, 11.1 yards per catch, 3 TDs, 8 carries, 72 yards, 9.0 yards per carry, 1 TD

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