Who Should I Start? Deebo Samuel or Ja'Marr Chase

Thursday, July 25, 2:24 PM

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. looked slimmer during spring drills than he had last year, and he appears to have lost even more weight for the start of training camp. "I think he looks great," head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the offense took its first snaps in 11-on-11 drills. "I thought he looked great in OTAs and minicamp. And I think he looks better today." The 49ers are practicing without two wideouts, Brandon Aiyuk and first-round pick Ricky Pearsall (hamstring), so Samuel's fantasy draft stock remains in a state of flux until a clearer picture emerges of how this receiving corps might look for the start of the regular season. The 28-year-old Pro Bowl wideout totaled 12 touchdowns in 15 appearances in 2023, placing second at his position in PPR fantasy points per route run (0.67) and first in fantasy points per target (2.74) over 89 targets, and he's being treated as a WR1 bet at his second-round ADP this summer.

Thursday, July 25, 3:04 PM

Cincinnati Bengals star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase is not practicing on Thursday for the second consecutive day. He was seen standing on the sidelines in uniform but with no helmet. It appears to be a "hold in" for Chase, who is seeking a new contract as he enters his fourth season with the Bengals. He's scheduled to make $1 million in base salary this season and $4.86 million overall, but general manager Mike Brown didn't make it sound imminent that an agreement on an extension would be reached this week. The 24-year-old superstar wideout remains a consensus top-five pick in fantasy drafts this summer, and it's not time to adjust his ADP for this development quite yet. Last year, Chase closed as the WR11 overall in full-PPR fantasy points per game (16.4) over 16 appearances for Cincinnati.