Fantasy Football: The Downside for Each Top-20 Pick

Brandin Cooks, WR, New England Patriots

Downside: Usage

Brandin Cooks' fantasy upside got a nice jolt with Julian Edelman's season-ending injury. Depending on how the Patriots use him, he could very easily finish the year as a strong WR1.

With that being said, since we're looking at downside here, questions around volume still do exist. That is, at least, elite volume.

The Patriots love to funnel their targets to the slot. Wes Welker dominated the role in New England when he was healthy, and Edelman has hit or at least has extrapolated to hit a 24% market share in the New England offense each season since becoming a thing in 2013. And then there's Rob Gronkowski, who dominates in the market share department when healthy, too.

Meanwhile, the Patriots have also found use of their running backs out of the backfield, having targeted them on well over 15% of passes in each of the past five seasons.

Essentially, if Cooks plays strictly on the outside, we may not see the top volume we generally want to see out of a mid (and now potentially early) second-round selection. But like I said, the potential is there, as he's the best outside receiver they've had since Randy Moss.