Everything that happens in the NFL has additional context when viewed from a fantasy football perspective. From position battles to injuries and so much more, the news cycle will constantly affect player values in fantasy football.
Our Fantasy Football Buzz file, with contributions from our ESPN fantasy writers and our NFL Nation reporters, aims to provide fantasy managers with the intel they need as news breaks around the league.
June 2: DJ Moore has the bigger name, but Khalil Shakir has better fantasy value
Eric Moody: The Buffalo Bills traded for Moore hoping he could give QB Josh Allen the proven No. 1 receiver Buffalo has been searching for. Moore has four 1,000-yard seasons, 608 career receptions, 8,213 receiving yards and 41 touchdowns. But in 2025, Moore was reduced to a 16% target share, his lowest mark since his rookie season in 2018 and finished as the WR35 in fantasy points after six straight top 25 finishes.
Moore could absolutely rebound with Allen as the season progresses, but for fantasy managers, this situation may make fellow WR Shakir the better value, since he’s readily available in the double-digit rounds and is projected for the second-most targets on the Bills this season.
Shakir already knows the offense, has Allen’s trust and could remain a steady short-to-intermediate option. He has cleared a 20% target share and 70 receptions in consecutive seasons, and he ranked top five among WRs in catch rate and yards after the catch in both years.
The obvious concern is TD upside. Shakir has never scored more than four TDs in a season, and has totaled only eight TDs with five end zone targets over the last two years. That limits his ceiling and keeps him more in the flex conversation. Still, there is a difference between limited upside and bad value. Shakir has finished just outside the top 35 in each of the last two seasons, and Buffalo’s four-year, $53 million commitment suggests the team still views him as an important part of the offense.
Moore’s arrival could lower Shakir’s target ceiling, but it also may allow him to stay in the role that fits him best. Shakir does not need to be the alpha to matter for fantasy, especially if he settles into the short-to-intermediate role underneath while Moore draws more defensive attention downfield.
June 1: Don’t believe the player: McCaffrey will see fewer touches
Eric Karabell: What is San Francisco 49ers star RB Christian McCaffrey supposed to say? That yes, he is concerned about yet another injury? Or that he doesn’t want the football a million times again? That he isn’t in absolutely awesome condition prepping for the season?
Reporters questioned McCaffrey at OTAs late last week and the future Hall of Famer — sounding a tad defensive as his coach Kyle Shanahan continues to proclaim the team wishes to lower his irresponsible (my word, not his) workload — proudly said “you prepare yourself for playing every snap” and “workload is really monitored in practice” and other stuff we must ignore.
I may be on an island on this one since McCaffrey is an annual headliner of my “Do Not Draft” list and — note to editors, spoilers ahead — he will be again, but I’m going with Shanahan on this one because this is obvious. After all, coach talk in May typically tends to be the proverbial “same old thing,” vague and easily dismissed, but Shanahan and his coaches are smart. They know they were quite fortunate to coerce a career-high 413 touches from McCaffrey, who turned them into more than 2,100 yards from scrimmage, 17 touchdowns and a league-leading 416.6 fantasy points.
History tells us the past two seasons McCaffrey came off a wildly inflated touch total were 2020 and 2025, and he managed to participate in a total of seven games in those seasons, ruining the 49ers and, for our purposes, myriad fantasy campaigns. It is, frankly, a small miracle this man handled 413 touches last season sans something breaking or tearing.
McCaffrey turns 30 this coming Sunday. We didn’t need the 49ers coach telling us McCaffrey would fall short of 400 touches again, nor do we need McCaffrey telling us we have nothing to worry about. We know we have something to worry about. We always do.
Perhaps this is merely a reminder that it doesn’t really matter so much what anyone says over the next three months, unless it does (you know, like actual injuries or depth chart stuff). Read all the offseason quotes you can from OTAs and camps and everything else, then decide for yourself what matters and what does not.
I feel like I could have written this little story last December, before the 2025 regular season even ended. Praise McCaffrey, a top-five fantasy scorer in five of his nine seasons, while still questioning the future. It’s great that he is saying all the right things, but we fantasy managers can also do all the right things — like cutting through the noise and expecting less from McCaffrey in 2026.
Eric Karabell: Beckham Jr. signing with the New York Giants is quite a nostalgic story, but he is hardly the same magician who once was the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and was selected to three Pro Bowls. Beckham, now 33, is a depth addition for the Giants, perhaps a bit more notable with current star Malik Nabers (knee) questionable for September action, but even then, there is little statistical upside here.
This version of Beckham is a journeyman, having played for the Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins from 2021 through 2024 (he sat out the 2022 and 2025 seasons), intriguing fantasy managers in name only for that overhyped span. Beckham, derailed by injuries and controversy for years, caught 35 passes for 565 yards for the 2023 Ravens, and he gets reunited with head coach John Harbaugh, but this is not the same situation.
While we may question if the awesome Nabers, still on the mend from an ACL tear and other knee concerns, will be ready to perform in Week 1 in September, the Giants have younger, more productive depth lurking in Darius Slayton and newcomer Darnell Mooney. The WR corps also features Calvin Austin III, Malachi Fields and Isaiah Hodgins, as well as JuJu Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios, two more veterans that were signed on Monday. It seems unlikely Beckham, even if he had a great opportunity for targets, would shine after so many years not doing so. It’s a fun signing, reminding many of yesteryear, but fantasy managers can ignore it.
Njoku’s one-year deal with the Chargers gives Justin Herbert another experienced playmaker in the red zone, but fantasy managers should view the veteran tight end as more of a rotational TE2 than a weekly starter. Njoku is now two seasons removed from his breakout 2023 campaign, in which he posted an 81-882-6 receiving line and finished sixth at the position. Since then, injuries and declining usage have become concerns. Njoku’s route participation dropped significantly in 2025, and he managed just 33 catches for 293 yards and four touchdowns in 12 games. While Njoku still maintained a healthy end zone target share last season, relying on touchdown production alone is rarely a reliable weekly fantasy strategy, even with Herbert at quarterback.
The signing could slightly lower expectations for ascending second-year TE Oronde Gadsden, who impressed as a rookie with 49 catches for 664 yards and three scores. Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the fantasy winner is Harold Fannin Jr. After overtaking Njoku midway through 2025, Fannin exploded for a 72-731-6 rookie season while commanding a massive target share from Week 7 onward. He finished as the TE6 last season, and with Njoku officially gone, Fannin enters 2026 firmly in the TE1 conversation with legitimate top-five upside. — Eric Moody
