Who Should I Start? Treylon Burks or Ihmir Smith-Marsette

Saturday, December 13, 3:37 PM

Washington Commanders wide receiver Treylon Burks saw his playing time crater in Week 14's game against the Minnesota Vikings with the return of Noah Brown from Injured Reserve. The former 2022 first-round pick played a season-high 65.9% of the snaps in Week 13 against the Broncos, recording one catch for five yards and a touchdown on four targets. With Brown back in the lineup for the first time since Week 2, Burks only drew one target, and his snap share slid to 34.7% against the Vikings last week, ranking fourth among Washington's receivers. The 25-year-old will likely be limited to a depth role again on Sunday against the division-rival New York Giants. Burks hasn't shown enough in his first games in Washington to be considered as a fantasy option just yet, and that probably won't change before the year is over.

Saturday, August 24, 9:36 PM

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette (ankle) left the team's preseason finale against the Buffalo Bills early on Saturday after landing awkwardly completing a catch in the second quarter. The 24-year-old hauled in 2-of-3 targets for 11 yards while contributing 27 yards on two punt returns and a field-flipping 46 yards on his lone kick return. Smith-Marsette was productive before he picked up the injury and is expected to be the team's returner this upcoming season. Barring the severity of his ankle issue, that could still be the case. It's a bit early to tell how impactful the NFL's new kickoff rules will be come the start of the regular season. However, fantasy managers may want to keep the Iowa product on their radar as a sneaky option, depending on how your league values return yards. His Yahoo! ADP is far down enough that he'd be best suited as a prospective waiver-wire add.