It doesn’t seem like long ago when Jonnu Smith was finishing out games for the Tennessee Titans with nothing but goose eggs on the stat line.
But he’s quickly morphed from a player who was a non-factor to the team’s most key tight end. And beyond that, he could also become a huge asset for fantasy football teams in 2020.
Andrew Erickson of Pro Football Focus listed Smith as a potential breakout player in fantasy.
“Outside of Brown’s 20% target share, no other player had a higher target share than 16% (Corey Davis),” he wrote. “The fact of the matter is that there is an opportunity for targets behind Brown in this offense — targets that Jonnu Smith could command. Keep in mind that Delanie Walker and his 30 targets from last season are also gone.”
Smith made a lot of progress last season, ranking high in some of PFF’s metrics.
“In 2019, Smith showed that he could be an efficient receiver with the limited opportunities he did receive,” he wrote. “He ranked eighth in yards per route run among tight ends who were targeted at least 25 times, and he finished third in avoided tackles after the catch among that same group of players.”
Erickson’s prediction that Smith will handle a lot of the targets in the passing game seems spot-on, and it will be interesting to see how he continues to grow in the upcoming season.
