Dan Campbell sends a message to fantasy managers about Isaac TeSlaa

The Lions' offensive struggles against Green Bay went beyond any individual's poor performance or usage (or lack of usage). But in the aftermath it's easy to call for TeSlaa to play more, and moving forward there's nowhere for his snap count to go but up.

Dan Campbell sends clear message to fantasy managers about Isaac TeSlaa

During his press conference on Monday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked about TeSlaa's role in the offense.

"I think we really wanted to try to get him involved last week", Campbell said. "But then he got sick and he missed a lot of practice, so then we didn't feel comfortable trying to load him up with stuff. So it was gonna be very limited. But certainly, we'd like to use him more."

READ MORE: Why Lions fans shouldn't hit the panic button after brutal Week 1 loss to Packers

As the Lions' WR3 by default on Sunday, Kalif Raymond topped 40 offensive snaps in a game (44) for the first time since the 2022 season. By all accounts TeSlaa has picked up the offense well, only to be derailed heading into Week 1 by an illness. So it's fair to assume he would have played something like 30-40 offensive snaps against the Packers if he hadn't been sick during the week.

During the preseason, even if he should have only been drafted in the deepest of leagues, TeSlaa became a bit of a fantasy football darling. His touchdown catch against the Packers, in what will likely be his lowest snap total of the season barring injury, may bring back a little bit of that fantasy buzz.

As Week 2 waiver wire plans are taking shape, Campbell has sent a not-so hidden message to fantasy managers. With that aforementioned tilt toward leagues with more teams (12 or more) and deeper benches in mind, TeSlaa is currently rostered in 6.1 percent of ESPN leagues and 9 percent of Yahoo! leagues. There are a lot of worse ways to fill a bench spot in those applicable fantasy leagues.