Is Isaiah McKenzie A Good Fantasy Football Pickup For Week 4? Waiver Wire Outlook

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie had one of the best games of his career in Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins. He was targeted nine times and caught seven passes for 76 yards and a touchdown. Following the game, he is the Bills’ second-leading receiver in terms of yards and touchdowns. While he had a slow start to his career after being drafted in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, McKenzie has caught on in Buffalo beginning towards the end of last season.

Since Week 14 of 2021, McKenzie has made a catch in every game, including Buffalo’s two playoff games, and went for over 75 yards twice. He had his breakout game in Week 16 against New England, with 11 catches for 125 yards and a score.

Now he has 11 receptions in the first three weeks of 2022 for 132 yards and two touchdowns. Should you add McKenzie to your fantasy team?

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What Did Isaiah McKenzie Do In Week 3?

McKenzie was on the field for 46 snaps, third-most on the team, and ran 41 routes. He was targeted nine times and caught seven and added 36 yards-after-catch to 40 air yards for 76 on the day. He was Josh Allen’s safety blanket a few times when faced with fierce Miami blitzes. Unfortunately for the Bills, McKenzie couldn’t reach the sideline on the final play of the game, and time expired before the offense could get another play off.

Buffalo aired the ball out 63 times. That’s 25 more passing attempts than they had in Week 2 against the Titans and 32 more than in Week 1 against the Rams. They won’t throw the ball this much very often. They had to lean on the passing game were in a close game with a tough divisional foe. They had a couple of long drives that ended with no score.

McKenzie was the Bills’ lead slot receiver. He lined up wide 14 times too, which he infrequently does. He did so this game because Stefon Diggs rested a number of plays due to the heat and the heavy workload, while backup wide receiver Jake Kumerow left the game with an ankle injury in the first quarter. However, McKenzie produced the vast majority of his catches from the slot and in the middle of the field, as he has all season.

What Is Isaiah McKenzie’s Role In The Bills Offense?

McKenzie is the slot receiver. He took over Cole Beasley’s role. During his three years in Buffalo, Beasley had over 100 targets and between 700 and 950 receiving yards playing the slot each season. McKenzie played ahead of free agent addition Jamison Crowder, also a slot receiver in the preseason and continues to do so in the season. McKenzie has had 82 snaps and 15 targets, while Crowder has had 65 snaps and eight targets. McKenzie had out-snapped Crowder in every game.

McKenzie is a little bit more versatile than Crowder. He’s a “gadget guy” with a 4.42 40-yard time who has run 30.8% of his routes from out wide in his career. Crowder has run 23.1% of his routes lined up wide. But McKenzie has produced more from the slot than wide this season.

From this, you can see that McKenzie has a much larger role in the Bills' offense than he did last season. He is averaging 27 snaps a game this year, compared with 10 last year. He already has half as many targets this year as he did all of last year. You can expect McKenzie’s playing time to continue at this level since he is the team’s No. 1 slot receiver.

He won’t get nine targets most games, but he might in Week 4 as the Bills, the NFL’s No. 3 scoring offense, face the Ravens, the No. 1 scoring offense. It should be another shootout in which both teams will have to throw the ball to keep up.

Should I Add Isaiah McKenzie To My Fantasy Football Team?

Isaiah McKenzie is the WR35 in PPR, just behind Mike Williams and ahead of Russell Gage. Some of the receivers behind him might have more upside to overtake him, like his own teammate Gabe Davis (WR58, but he missed Week 2), Mike Evans (WR55; he missed Week 3, and the Bucs are off to a slow start), Brandin Cooks (WR51, but he has yet to have a TD or a 100-yard game), and DeAndre Hopkins (suspended until Week 7). Still, McKenzie should be able to continue to produce at approximately his current level, and that makes him a good addition to your fantasy teams.

Isaiah McKenzie could be a low-end WR3 and a solid WR4 or WR5 in 12-team leagues. The Bills are one of the best offenses, and “Lil Dirty” has one of the best QBs throwing him the ball. Starting slot receiver on the Bills can be a valuable position. The fact that McKenzie put up most of his fantasy points from the slot and not out wide means that it was the Bills’ overall volume, not the injury to Kumerow, that allowed for McKenzie to have his big game.

When Should I Start Isaiah McKenzie?

The Bills will have some other high-volume games this season, and some of them will be predictable for fantasy managers. This upcoming week against Baltimore should be a good week to start McKenzie. The Ravens have allowed 353.3 passing yards per game and have allowed three 100-yard performances in the past two games.

Other quality starting opportunities for McKenzie include the rematch with Miami, which helpfully occurs during the fantasy playoffs in Week 15, a Week 6 showdown with Kansas City, Week 8 vs Green Bay, right after Buffalo’s bye, and maybe even Week 10 vs Minnesota or Week 12 in Detroit.

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