After bouncing from the Seahawks to the Chargers during the offseason, it’s time for Gerald Everett to breakout. Sure, he’ll compete for Justin Herbert’s targets with Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, and Austin Ekeler, but Everett has the athletic profile and will get mismatches in this offense to make fantasy noise in 2022.
According to The Athletic’s Daniel Popper, the Chargers see Everett as a more-athletic Jared Cook, who finished fourth on last year’s team with 82 targets. The team also hopes Everett will provide the offense with more explosiveness after the catch than the led-footed veteran.
“They plan to get the ball in Everett’s hands in a variety of ways, from screens to flat routes to jet sweeps, and he could be poised for a career season,” Popper added.
These words align with what Chargers’ offensive coordinator, Joe Lombardi, said about the tight end after they inked him in free agency.
“The good thing about Gerald is that we kind of look at him as a complete tight end,” Lombardi said. “He’s a good blocker. He’s a good receiver. The thing that jumps out on the tape, really — because he was a free agent the last two years, so we watched him with the Rams and then in Seattle — when he gets the ball in his hands, he’s a weapon. That’s an exciting thing to add, that element. He’s a good receiver, as well. Blocker, receiver, running after the catch, there are a lot of things that we like.”
Lombardi said both he and HC Brandon Staley have had their eye on Everett since Staley was the defensive coordinator for the Rams (with Everett there as the Rams’ tight end) in 2020.
Everett is coming off his best NFL season with the Seahawks when he hit career highs in targets (63), receptions (48), receiving yards (478), touchdowns (4), and fantasy points per game (7.9). Now playing in LA with Herbert in a high-flying offense, expect the tight end to exceed his TE19 and 165 ADP on Underdog Fantasy.
Everett currently sits at TE18 on The Wolf’s 2022 Fantasy Football Rankings & Big Board — three spots higher than the Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR). In reality, Everett has a chance to finish as a top-12 tight end whose price currently sits in the late teens or early 20s.
