Will Riley Ridley emerge as a rookie fantasy owners can depend on?
Not many people expected the Chicago Bears to draft a wide receiver with any of their draft picks in 2019. But when Riley Ridley slid into the fourth round, despite having limited draft capital, Ryan Pace pulled the trigger.
At first glance, you might look at the selection, and even if you recognize the value, you may wonder what the point is of adding Ridley to a crowded group of wide receivers.
But when you look big picture, you’ll see why this makes sense. Most teams use standard 3-WR sets. The Bears do some different looks with 2 TE sets and 2 RB sets and move Cohen all over the place, but you’ll still see the standard 3 WRs out there often.
When everyone is healthy, those 3 receivers are Taylor Gabriel, Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller.
We know the Bears love Miller and have 3 years of control with him before he needs to be paid. Robinson is the team’s WR1. Gabriel was great for the Bears in 2018, but Gabriel is replaceable and his money can be used elsewhere.
The Bears will have some tough decisions to make on the 2020 roster and Gabriel seems to be up at the top of the list in terms of someone who the Bears could release and use his money on someone else (his guaranteed money will basically be off the books).
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That’s where Ridley can step in and take the place of Gabriel and if Ridley is what he appears to be, he can step in and become a key cog in the offense.
What does that mean from a fantasy perspective?
It means, don’t expect much of anything from Ridley in 2019, but if dynasty/deep keeper leagues is your thing, stashing Ridley for a season could mean excellent things for your squad in 2020.
Ridley’s 2019 value is close to zero. From a targets perspective, you should expect Robinson, Miller, Gabriel, Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen, Tarik Cohen and Cordarrelle Patterson (perhaps even David Montgomery) to have more targets than him.
As a fantasy rule, anyone who is going to be eighth or ninth on their team in targets isn’t worth a spot. Ridley should go undrafted in standard or PPR leagues and the Bears receiving core would have to see some substantial injuries (two or three key targets out) for Ridley to get pushed into the regular rotation.
Ridley has value as a dynasty stash and that’s it.
Riley Ridley 2019 stat projections– 13 receptions, 155 yards, 12.0 yards per catch, 1 TD, 1 carry, 6 yards