Carnell Tate fantasy football insight from Hayden Winks - PPR Rankings

It's debated how good Tate even is. I'm an optimist. First off, Tate is a 5-star recruit from the IMG Academy who snuck until the field early as a Buckeye. In last year's breakout season, he had a 72nd percentile yards per team pass attempt as a 21-year-old early-declare while sharing an offense with a college Julio Jones, and when I adjust for his team strength and age, his production profile is in the 92nd percentile. That's about average for a top-10 selection in the NFL draft. Tate is certainly less athletic than his peers, but his ball skills are at the tip top. He compared to DeAndre Hopkins and Calvin Ridley, both who are crafty in the route and win at the catch point despite not having 4.4 speed. The fact that he cleared 3.0 yards per route in both man and zone coverage is telling that his feel for the game is fantastic. In terms of target competition, Tate is in a great spot. Wan'Dale Robinson is the only long-term weapon, and he's a slot only type without a real ceiling. If Tate is as good as we all think, then he can be a 25% target share player long term. In fact, I'd project him for about 18-22% targets as a rookie even with Calvin Ridley still kicking. The value of said targets is unclear with Cam Ward's tape better than his (disastrous) numbers. Ward has a new staff and a new weapon to improve, but he can't miss as many throws and take as many sacks as he did during his rookie campaign. Ultimately, Tate's rookie season is comparable to rookie-season Tetairoa McMillan (WR24 per game in half PPR), Chris Olave (WR24), Garrett Wilson (WR30), Drake London (WR41...