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Jesse James 2019 Player Outlook: New Team, Same Problems?
5 years agoJames had a hard time being a consistent fantasy option during his years with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not only did he have to split snaps and targets with Vance McDonald at tight end, he had to somehow get quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s attention when Antonio Brown and JuJu Schuster were always taking all of the targets. There just were not enough passes to go around in Pittsburgh’s passing attack for James to be successful. He signed with the Detroit Lions for multimillions in the offseason, but he may encounter some of the same problems there as he did in Pittsburgh. Detroit drafted T.J. Hockenson in the first round in April, so James will have stiff competition to be the team’s No. 1 tight end. Wideouts Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr. have both had 1,000-yard years recently and will demand plenty of targets as well. With his 6’7”, 260-pound body you would think James would be proficient in the red zone, but he only scored nine touchdowns in his four NFL seasons. The equation is not adding up to James being able to post more than 40 receptions for 500 yards and four touchdowns. He cannot be counted on as anything more than a TE2 or TE3 for fantasy football purposes in 2019.
