Emeka Egbuka fantasy football insight from Hayden Winks - PPR Rankings

Egbuka's rookie season will be remembered for his WR9 start through Week 11, and then a rug-pull WR64 finishing from Week 12-18. There are splits to get to that can explain some of that. First, Baker Mayfield's injuries. He played through a bunch, but he suffered an AC Joint sprain to his shoulder in Week 12, and I thought he just looked worse. Egbuka's catchable ball rate dropped to 50% from that point forward, which was tied for worst among WRs. It was at 61% in Weeks 1-11. Egbuka also had his own injury. From ESPN's Benjamin Solak: "A Week 6 hamstring injury robbed him of his top speed; NFL Next Gen Stats tracking data had Egbuka with 11 routes of at least 18 miles per hour through the first five weeks of the season ... and 11 such routes in the remaining 12 weeks, after the hamstring injury." Hopefully Egbuka and Mayfield can stay healthier because it was a thing of beauty on these posts routes early on. The last thing to note is Egbuka's splits with Mike Evans. Egbuka's target share jumped from 18.5% to 28.5% without the future Hall of Famer, and his expected half PPR points vaulted from 8.9 (WR41) to 12.5 (WR12). Evans being in San Francisco for this season and Chris Godwin getting another year older could really allow Egbuka to shine. New Bucs OC Zac Robinson comes from the Rams where he turned the Z receiver spot into record-breaking production with Cooper Kupp. Robinson said this about Egbuka: "He's very similar to a Cooper Kupp just in terms of the way that his brain works with the game of football and natural instincts." In 2022, 19% of Kupp's receptions were...