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You may have seen the headline "Bengals cut Brandon LaFell" and yawned. I get it, he wasn't on your radar anyway. But this is not irrelevant news in Fantasy Football because it provides opportunity for a pair of young wide receivers who have taken different paths so far in their careers.

John Ross is a blazing fast receiver the Bengals took in the first round in 2017. Despite his pedigree, Ross could not get healthy or out of Marvin Lewis' doghouse as a rookie. He saw two targets and one carry in three games and actually finished with negative Fantasy points on the year because of a fumble. But he's been getting a lot of buzz in camp and he still has that speed and pedigree.

Tyler Boyd was a second-round pick in 2016, and he's actually been a reliable target when given the opportunity. Boyd caught better than 66 percent of his targets each of his first two years in the league. He's not the big-play threat that Ross is, but he's been very solid underneath and could be a chain mover. 

With LaFell out of the picture, there are suddenly 89 targets from 2017 available. Either of these receivers could claim those targets and break out into a flex-worthy role. Ross is the one I'd target for upside, but Boyd may give you more consistent production in really deep leagues. Neither of these guys become must-own options in a standard CBS league, but they should be on everyone's radar to start the season. If Ross continues his impressive camp during preseason action, he'll start to rise up draft boards.

Here are my current expectations for the Bengals without LaFell.

*Rankings expressed below are in terms of expected Fantasy points. This is a part of our actual Fantasy Football rankings but not a direct correlation to my rankings. Things like injury risk, upside, etc. factor into rankings but they're not being talked about here. This is simply an expectation as the team is currently constructed.

PLAYER

EXPECTED FP

POS. RANK

EXPECTED PPR FP

POS. RANK

A.J. Green

187.4

#6

279.4

#7

Joe Mixon

159.1

#17

194

#19

Giovani Bernard

114.7

#40

163.7

#30

Tyler Eifert

72

#25

114

#26

Andy Dalton

299.1

#21

299.1

#21

Breaking down the touches

Bill Lazor took over the Bengals offense after Week 2 last year, but also had two year's experience in Miami. It's difficult to reconcile the three years. In his first year in Miami, the Dolphins were one of the fastest teams in the league, running over 1,100 plays. Last year, the Bengals barely ran 900. Part of that is because of how bad last year's Bengals team was. I expect them to come in just under 1,000 plays this season. But if Lazor starts talking about speeding things up and playing fast, I could certainly see bumping that.

What has been consistent is Lazor's offense has a pretty normal distribution of passes between receivers, tight ends and running backs. In fact, last year was his lowest target percentage for tight ends, at 16 percent, which makes sense when Tyler Kroft is your best option. If Eifert could return to full strength, he'll get plenty of targets. There's just reason to doubt that he will.

Bengals touches

Player

RuSHARE

RuATT

ReSHARE

TGT

REC

TD

Joe Mixon

55%

216

8%

44

35

7

Giovani Bernard

28%

110

12%

65

48

4

A.J. Green

0%

0

28%

152

91

9

John Ross

0%

0

15%

82

45

4

Tyler Boyd

0%

0

15%

82

48

3

Tyler Eifert

0%

0

11%

60

42

5

Tyler Kroft

0%

0

8%

44

28

3

Of note: 

  • For as long as Giovani Bernard is around, I would not expect Mixon to earn a true workhorse role. Bernard should handle most of the third-down work and he'll get a little bit of action in the running game as well.
  • A.J. Green turns 30 this year year and just posted a career low in catch rate and yards per game. I'm not saying he's lost a step and I believe it had more to do with the team around him than anything else, but I'll be watching him closely early in the season.
  • If you think Eifert's projections look low, they are. He's one of a few players I just can't make myself project for 16 games, probably because he's only played 10 games since 2015. Admittedly, he's more valuable than his projection. Any week that he's 100 percent healthy, he's a startable option. When he's not, Kroft should be a fine streamer.

The Leftovers

Cody Core and  Kroft both flashed at times last year and could get another opportunity if Ross and Eifert struggle with availability again. Kroft doesn't have much in the way of explosion, but Dalton loves to look at his tight end in the red zone. If Eifert is hurt again before your Fantasy draft, Kroft becomes a No. 2 tight end.

I was surprised when the Bengals took Mark Walton in the fourth round of the draft, but it sounds like they're hoping he can become the Bernard replacement and they can let the veteran walk after 2018. Walton needs one injury to have a role in this offense and two to become someone everyone is looking at. For now, he's a Dynasty stash who could start paying off as soon as 2019.