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The Buffalo Bills announced two blockbuster trades Friday. They acquired Jordan Matthews from the Philadelphia Eagles after sending Sammy Watkins to the Los Angeles Rams. Both moves will have a direct impact on the wide receivers' fantasy football value for the 2017 season.
Los Angeles has lacked a legitimate No. 1 wideout in recent years. It's a role Watkins is capable of filling if he's able to stay healthy, which was rarely the case during his time in Buffalo.
Meanwhile, Matthews should be given every opportunity to become the top target with the Bills following the move. That puts him in line to receive more looks than would have been the case in Philly alongside Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith.
Let's take a closer look at the outlook for both players after Friday's flurry of activity.
Sammy Watkins
The Bills traded up to select Watkins with the fourth overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. They never received the return on investment you expect from a top-five pick, in large part because he wasn't able to shake off lingering foot problems.
He's coming off a season where he racked up 28 catches for 430 yards and two touchdowns while being limited to just eight games.
Add in the fact he's being slotted into an offense being led by the unproven Jared Goff and he becomes one of the biggest boom-or-bust options available at the position.
Brad Evans of Yahoo Sports believes fantasy owners should steer clear of the big-play receiver.
"Trading in Tyrod Taylor for Jared 'Where does the sun rise/set again?' Goff is a fantasy death knell," he wrote. "Though improvements should be made, the Rams passer completed a disgusting 54.6 percent of his attempts last year. Watkins, who garnered 23.1 percent of the targets share in '16, will be the vertical centerpiece, but his unsightly catch rates and Goff's inaccuracy spell doom."
It's a fair argument, but there's an alternative outcome: Watkins stays healthy, Goff takes a step forward in his second season, and the Clemson product rides a ridiculous amount of targets to a monster fantasy season in a contract year.
Ultimately, it's probably best to view the Rams' newest addition as a No. 2 fantasy wide receiver. But the extreme range of potential outcomes doesn't make him a good choice for the faint of heart.
Jordan Matthews
Matthews' situation is a little more straightforward. He's played 46 of a possible 48 games since the Eagles drafted him in the second round three years ago, and he's made at least 67 catches every season, a streak that should continue despite Buffalo's run-first scheme.
Wide receiver is a position of weakness for the Bills. The team's other top options, Zay Jones and Anquan Boldin, are a rookie and a 36-year-old veteran who's best utilized as a red-zone and third-down possession weapon at this stage of his career.
That should equate to Matthews having a chance to take over as the team's No. 1 receiver right away, depending on how well he picks up the playbook during the rest of the preseason.
"Likely with renewed energy, I believe he returns at or near the WR2 level exhibited two seasons ago," Evans wrote on Yahoo Sports. "Recall in that campaign, Matthews was a red-zone machine posting a 66.7 percent catch rate inside the 20. Boldin and Jones will push for targets, but it's conceivable he churns out a line around 75-900-7 this season."
That's a fair projection and he could push for double-digit touchdowns if Boldin isn't able to fend off Father Time for another year.
So Matthews should be a major winner from Friday's trades, at least from a fantasy perspective. Expect him to make a substantial jump in average draft position in the coming weeks.
Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com
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