Fantasy Football Draft or Pass: Terry McLaurin

WR Terry McLaurin enjoyed a breakout season as a rookie, will he repeat in 2020?

It's never too early to start your fantasy football research, and we here at SI Fantasy want to provide you with the best information possible heading into your drafts. Our "Draft or Pass" video series takes a closer look at a fantasy player that will be debated often leading up to fantasy drafts. Are our hosts targeting this player specifically? Are they avoiding him entirely?

Today's video focuses on Washington wide receiver Terry McLaurin.

Draft at current ADP: 60.0 (WR28)?

McLaurin burst onto the fantasy scene as a rookie last season, catching 58 passes for 919 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games. He finished as the WR25 in total scoring and WR28 in average fantasy points per game in PPR formats. His very early ADP has him sitting right at that WR28 number for 2020. Should fantasy managers draft or pass on the Washington sophomore at that price?

A lot depends on the progression of quarterback Dwayne Haskins. He showed flashes of improvement late last season and if that carries over under new head coach Ron Rivera then I’m very bullish on McLaurin’s upside. Haskins will be a focal point for Washington and media criticism for the rest of the year. From Chris Russell of RedskinsReport:

“I'm glad that Haskins has an opportunity to prove himself to this staff. He deserves that. I think he will ultimately be successful and prove himself worthy but I do feel it will also be a bumpy road.

“He might take a step backwards along the way or at least sideways. It's going to be interesting to see the journey plays out.”

I’m fine taking him as a Top 30 wide receiver, but he’s not someone I’d reach for. If he falls into Round 6, great. If not, I’m comfortable passing because the tier he’s in (ADP-wise) has plenty of talented players, including A.J. Green, D.K. Metcalf, Jarvis Landry, Julian Edelman, Tyler Boyd and Deebo Samuel. McLaurin is priced appropriately and should be around 1,000 receiving yards in 2020. But until tangible progress from Haskins is made, he lacks the upside of the other aforementioned wide receivers. 

Read the full transcript below:

Bill Enright: Washington wide receiver Terry McLaurin enjoyed a breakout season as a rookie, but what is he going to do as he enters the second year of his NFL career? Let's find out if we are drafting or passing for fantasy football and for that, I bring on Jaime Eisner and Chris Russell from Redskins' Report. Jamie, I'll start with you. When it comes to McLaurin's ADP and what he brings to the table, are you drafting or are you passing?

Jaime Eisner: Yeah, I think we need to add a third adjective here or third verb, and that's gonna be "meh." I like him a lot. He's a really talented player, but he's going right now right around that round-five, round-six as the wide receiver 28, which is where he finished last year on a per-game basis in PPR. There are a lot of other really good receivers in that range. D.K. Metcalf, A.J. Green's of the World, Deebo Samuel... So there's a lot of guys and a lot of talented fantasy players in that spot. I like him as a wide receiver 3, but he's more of a guy that I would let fall to me. He's not somebody I'm going to reach out to. His progression and his upside are going to be tied to how much does Dwayne Haskins progress in year two?

Chris Russell: Chris, Jaime mentioned Dwayne Haskins' progression, and we saw McLaurin really open up the season with what I think was five touchdowns in the first four games, scoring in first of the three and then two in week six. Then he kind of fell off the table, only scoring two more touchdowns the rest of the year. That kind of seems to be right in sync with when Haskins took over. What do you expect from this duo's relationship in year number two?

Chris Russell: Well, they have a strong connection, of course, from their time at Ohio State. But I think that the falloff there was more Dwayne getting acclimated, Bill Callahan being more conservative and run-heavy in the offense and Terry drawing more double team coverage and "nobody" guys on the other side to help him out. With the drafting of Antonio Gandy-Golden and the continued maturation of Kelvin Harmon and Steven Sims Jr., who is undrafted from the slot along with Terry in year 2, I expect that to mean improvement and overall freedom to do more stuff. Don't forget, he only played 14 games last year. He this week for and he missed the final week, week 17. So you would have probably easily eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark and maybe more touchdowns if he would've played in all 16.

Bill Enright: Great analysis from both Jaime and Chris. Thank you guys so much. Plenty more fantasy football strategy and advice. You can find it all from Sports Illustrated by going to SI.com/fantasy.