BALLER MOVE: Target him at the end of the draft or as a waiver pick up.
ADP: 228 STD, 144 PPR
ANALYSIS: Playing behind the non-existing hands of Alfred Morris, Helu brought in 42 passes for a career-high 477 yards.
This season, Helu joins a backfield that contains Latavius Murray, Trent Richardson, maybe, and the receiving fullback Marcel Reece. Last season, between Murray, Reece, Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew, the team produced 101 receptions. McFadden (went to Dallas via free agency) and Maurice Jones-Drew (retired) are no longer with the team, leaving roughly 72 targets unclaimed.
With the leagues worst scoring defense left mostly unchanged this offseason, the Raiders are destined to play from behind a lot in 2015. This should mean plenty of passing down opportunities for Helu to step in. Murray, while he has shown to be a strong runner, has not shown the ability to be as strong of a receiver, leaving an opportunity for Helu to see more playing time.
Until quarterback David Carr (5.5 yards per attempt last season) can prove that he can get the ball to the new weapons on the outside (Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, etc.), he will continue to dump the ball off to his running backs.
Helu is not going to be the player you reach for in the 8th-10th round of your draft. He is going to be the bye-week fill-in that gets drafted in the last round if he gets drafted at all. Playing for this offense should heighten any type of excitement, but should warrant a career-year for a fifth-year player such as Helu. Expectations should be limited to around 300 rushing yards and two touchdowns to go with roughly 50-55 receptions for around 600 yards and three TDs. He should flirt with low-RB3 numbers this season- but there's some slight upside as Helu once took a 3-down role early in his career with the Redskins and excelled.
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