5 Wide Receivers Being Selected Too Early in Fantasy Football Drafts
Kevin White, Chicago Bears
ADP: WR38
numberFire: WR48
Another darling of the offseason fantasy hype trains, Chicago Bears’ super-rookie Kevin White missed his entire actual rookie season in 2015 due to severe shin splints. He was selected top-five in the NFL Draft and nearly immediately place on injured reserve, so we have seen little-to-nothing of the potential superstar-in-waiting on an NFL field. To make matters that much more unnerving, White was a senior year breakout for West Virginia, a one-year NCAA wonder. There is so little track record for his success that it’s very fair to wonder if he can produce in the NFL, despite a deep-ball artist as his quarterback and playing opposite one of the best wideouts in the game.
White has immense size (at 6’3” and 216 pounds) to go along with blazing speed (4.35 40-yard dash), but there have been plenty of athletically-gifted receivers who have busted in the NFL. It should give us some pause that numberFire’s algorithms give Wayne Chrebet's age-31 season as White's best comparison: Chrebet had 397 receiving yards and 1 touchdown on 31 receptions that year. Our projections don’t think White will be that bad, but there is plenty of 2016 risk to this supremely talented prospect.
