Adam Thielen, Minnesota Vikings. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
Who is the better fantasy option: Adam Thielen or JuJu Smith-Schuster?
Once you get past your first pick or two in a fantasy football draft, you will inevitably have some tough decisions to make. Unless you totally bomb your first two picks, which is totally possible, you ultimately win and lose your fantasy season in the middle rounds. Who you pick as your starters go a long way towards how successful of a season you can potentially have.
The Fantasy Footballers did an installment of “Keep, Trade or Cut” on their latest episode. The three players they brought up were a trio of wide receivers in A.J. Brown of the Tennessee Titans, JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Adam Thielen of the Minnesota Vikings. Removing Brown from the equation, who should you draft in 2020: Thielen or Smith-Schuster?
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The idea from removing Brown from this equation is he offers the most upside in a trade. So you would in theory take him over Smith-Schuster and Thielen in the fourth round of any fantasy football draft. As for Smith-Schuster and Thielen, there are pros and cons to taking either of them off the board first in your league.
Adam Thielen or JuJu Smith-Schuster: Who are you drafting in fantasy?
Smith-Schuster had a down year with the Steelers for a few reasons. He dealt with injuries, quarterbacking instability and becoming a No. 1 wide receiver option for the first time in his career. Assuming Ben Roethlisberger can play like we know he is capable of, we should expect a bounce-back year out of Smith-Schuster in some capacity with Pittsburgh.
Thielen was more dinged up than Smith-Schuster last year, so that totally cratered his fantasy value entering this season. When healthy, Thielen is viewed as a top-10 wide receiver in the league, even with another capable player as a former teammate in Stefon Diggs. But with Diggs now on the Buffalo Bills, he becomes Kirk Cousins’ undisputed favorite target again in 2020.
So who should you end up taking? Assuming health is comparable, you have to go with Thielen over Smith-Schuster because we can expect a greater level of production out of Cousins than we would with Roethlisberger at this juncture. Cousins has Pro Bowls level in the tank, while Roethlisberger maybe has two years left in the tank period. Choose wisely here, guys.