Ranking Steelers top 5 fantasy options for 2021 NFL season
It is fair to say Claypool has the highest ceiling of all the Steelers pass catchers
Chase Claypool is my #2 ranked fantasy player on this squad for a few reasons. Aside from his 4 touchdown performance against Philadelphia in 2020, he wasn’t as large of a fantasy threat for much of the season. He is entering his sophomore season with a more mature build while still being an athletic freak. Provided he stays healthy I am not concerned about the rookie wall he hit in 2020.
He is the best deep threat on this team and should benefit the most from the play-action sets being introduced in the new offense. His size and speed are off the charts. I was watching his somewhat minimal tape this preseason and saw some cleaner route running which only adds to my idea he could break out in a big way. If the Steelers find themselves behind or decide they need a quick score it’s probably going down the field to Mapletron. He has the ceiling to win fantasy owners some games and I wouldn’t be surprised if he put up multiple 20 point performances this year. In this kind of offense that has so many mouths to feed that is huge.
With that being said the scariest thing about Claypool is that he is a deep threat. Claypool will win people some games with 20+ points in one week while somewhat disappearing with 5-8 pts the next week. However, I still see Claypool as my favorite to top 300 fantasy points this season and he should land as a top 30 wide receiver at the end of the year in terms of point totals. His usage in jet sweeps and screens should help his floor when the deep ball isn’t as necessary in 2021.