Darnell Mooney should continue to blossom for the Chicago Bears
One thing that held Darnell Mooney back from increased production last year was the erratic quarterback play. Personally, I thought Mitch Trubisky should have started more games, but that is in the past and no reason to dwell on it any longer. Neither Nick Foles nor Trubisky has the consistency of Andy Dalton (who is still nothing better than average).
The hope here is Justin Fields sees the field at some point and really lights things up. Either way though, Mooney should see an upgrade this season and his deep balls should be placed better than he saw most of 2020. In fact, Darnell Mooney would likely have finished with a couple of extra touchdowns last season if deep balls were put in a better position. Can Andy Dalton bring that change to the offense this season?
If he can, or maybe Justin Fields will bring it, then Darnell Mooney could finish with even better fantasy football stats than what I am projecting. Either way, Mooney should finish with better stats this year than last year.
I have Darnell Mooney finishing with 102 targets this year. I am projecting him to catch 65 of them for a 63.7% catch rate. He will average 12.4 yards per reception for 806 yards and six touchdowns. If we look at 2020 outcomes, Darnell Mooney would have finished with 116.6 fantasy points in standard fantasy football leagues and 181.6 fantasy points in PPR fantasy football leagues. This would have given Mooney a ranking of WR36 in PPR leagues and WR35 in standard leagues.
I would expect Mooney to finish somewhere near these rankings, if not better, in 2021.