The Las Vegas Raiders selected WR Malik Benson in the sixth round of the NFL draft. Most managers will ignore him for seemingly good reasons. But he’s the right talent in the right spot to do a lot of fantasy damage.
While sixth-round WRs rarely make much fantasy noise, there are exceptions. Russell Gage earned fantasy relevance for a couple of seasons. Pierre Garcon was even more successful with 1,600+ career fantasy points. Antonio Brown was . . . well, statistically, one of the most dominant wideouts of the past 20 years.
So it’s not unheard of for a sixth-rounder to break through. It’s simply rare, and that alone is enough to scare away the fantasy community.
Benson is in an ideal spot to push for fantasy relevance in Year 1. He’s joined a receiving corps led by TE Brock Bowers, followed by wideouts Tre Tucker, Jaken Nailor, and Jack Bech. Beyond Bowers, no one is guaranteed more than five targets per game. This is a mostly unproven group. There’s plenty of room for an outsider to break through.
Additionally, it’s hard to imagine Vegas keeping #1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza on the sidelines for very long. This isn’t a playoff-caliber roster. It would be nonsensical for this team to ride a “hot hand” with Kirk Cousins — and that assumes Cousins still has hot hands.
I frequently eyeball rookie receivers who are playing with rookie quarterbacks. That doesn’t mean they’re draftable. But they’re certainly worth a closer look.
The market isn’t paying attention to Benson, giving him a WR128 ADP, with four Raiders ahead of him. Yet he’s a fast, fearless receiver who could quickly find himself in the starting lineup.
This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: Why Raiders WR Malik Benson might be fantasy’s biggest rookie bargain