Injury Breakdown: Rashod Bateman - BAL

I'll be honest, I just don't really understand the hype surrounding Rashod Bateman. I get that he was a first-round pick, I get that he was highly regarded in the NFL draft (27th overall, first-round pick), but he only had one good year in college and now has put together back-to-back subpar seasons in the NFL. Sometimes, I just think the fantasy community holds on to hope for every single young wide receiver with some draft capital, thinking they're going to end up breaking out and being a stud. But that's just not what we've seen from Rashod Bateman thus far in his career.

He has not been able to stay healthy in two years in the league; he's already missed 16 games due to injury. In the games that he played in, he's never even put up a top 12 fantasy performance. Now, he's coming off of two foot injuries in one year, including a Lisfranc fracture, and we're supposed to just expect him to break out as a fantasy star? I just don't believe it until I see it with a guy with this type of profile.

So far, Rashod Bateman has to compete with pass-catching options like Mark Andrews, Zay Flowers, OBJ, and JK Dobbins is still there. And they're all playing with a quarterback that hasn't really ever shown to be an elite thrower to anyone outside of Mark Andrews. So why am I still talking about Rashod Bateman? He's just on the "do not draft" list. This guy is not going to break out this year, and he may never break out.