Dynasty

Rapid Reaction: Sony Michel to the L.A. Rams

Sony coming to Los Angeles helps give him a path towards more work than he would have found in New England. He wasn’t even in my top 40 for running backs before this but now he becomes a late-round pick you must make. Why? Darrell Henderson suffered a hand injury in his last pre-season game and while most reports say he will be good to go, Sean McVay will be more likely to give him a breather during the season. The Rams are all in on this season. Even with the arrival of Xavier Jones onto the scene in LA, Sony is a proven commodity and to me, he becomes the RB2 in that room and should take some series from him.

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Bull’s Crystal Ball: Predicting the Top Three at Each Position for 2021

I don’t see too many changes amongst the rankings at the top of the list. Josh Allen has a huge amount of rushing upside and if he can be close to as efficient as he was last year, with an upgraded receiving corps, he has the likelihood of repeating. Patrick Mahomes is on another level, but I do expect the Chiefs to utilize their RBs at some point. While this may seem like slander to not predict Mahomes at 1; he is still my Dynasty Startup 1.01 as I think we can expect top-5 performances into his 30s. That consistency is the value to pay up for early in a startup, but Allen’s rushing upside cannot be overlooked. Jalen Hurts has the luxury that Lamar Jackson had in his second season. Hurts started enough games to have a taste, but teams haven’t schemed for him yet. He has the potential to put up 1000 yards on the ground and is in an offense that will throw the ball more than Baltimore has, and will likely trail in more games which will necessitate airing it out. I would like to be proved wrong but I think this will be the ceiling season for Hurts and at some point this year we should seek to move your shares or ride him to the ship and move on. Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Justin Herbert will likely feature in or around this list but regression or low volume will likely limit their vault into the top-3. 

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Chasing Ships and Flipping Pieces: Part 3

The season is almost upon us! In FFPC leagues, there are barely two weeks left before we have to cut our rosters down to 20, including a kicker and a defense. On some of my dynasty squads, I am facing some steep cuts and difficult choices. How do I go about deciding which players to cut? Can I make some two-for-one trades that clear roster spots for me, or players for picks? Am I going to be fielding a competitive team that can contend for the title? Will there be a couple of impact players available on the first waiver run, and if so, will I have room to roster them? What about some later-round rookie picks that flashed during the preseason and I want to develop them? 

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Travis Etienne Injury Rapid Reaction

The Jaguars offense has looked putrid over the first two games of the season as they battle through the learning curve of a new offensive system with a new head coach, a new quarterback, and a new running back, both drafted in the first round, thus setting the stage for some large expectations. However, their first-round running back, Travis Etienne may not even get to see the field this year after suffering a Lisfranc injury in Monday night’s game against the Saints.

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David Montgomery: 2021 Dynasty Profile

Through his first 25 career games, Montgomery had yet to break out as he was averaging just over 54 rushing YPG, 3.6 YPC, 15.9 receiving YPG, and 7.2 YPR. In his last six games, he’s averaging an astonishing 99.7 rushing YPG, 5.2 YPC, 4.0 YPR, and 37.7 YPR. His late-season push last season moved him up to the RB4 spot in PPR leagues as he served as the RB1 during the last six weeks of the 2020 season.

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Dynasty Rookie Pick Hit Rates in FFPC

Most rookie drafts are done by now, though there may still be a few going on. If you are reading this and you still have some late-round draft picks for this year, don’t give them up just yet! You may think they are worthless or that you don’t have room on your roster for these assets, but there can and are league winners to be found in the third round or later of rookie drafts.

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Searching for RB Deep Stashes

In dynasty, one of the most under-appreciated assets is the bench stash running back. These cheap assets can climb up depth charts and become useful to either your starting lineup or for trade. These types of players can be acquired for a fourth-round rookie pick or less in most leagues but can return a second-rounder or more in trades if they become a starter. Even if it’s only for a couple of weeks. For example, last season I was able to trade Ryan Nall and a third-round rookie pick for a second-round rookie pick when he took over for David Montgomery. The hardest part is finding which players are the best bets to not only remain on a team but also climb a depth chart. This article will go over certain metrics you can look for when deciding between these late-round or free-agent RBs.

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Jonnu Smith: 2021 Dynasty Profile

The fantasy community had high hopes for a Jonnu Smith breakout last season and did in some ways despite some injuries and the Titans’ infamously low passing volume. He still finished as the TE15 in PPR and TE9 in standard, but 2020 was also a terrible year for tight ends. Smith got most of his work from his dominance in the red zone, finishing number five in targets and scoring at a 20% rate with eight touchdowns. His 448 yards on 41 receptions certainly left truthers wanting more.

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CeeDee Lamb: 2021 Dynasty Profile

CeeDee Lamb was a box-stuffing college prospect at Oklahoma. His Breakout Age of 19.4 ranks in the 80th percentile, while his 38.1% College Dominator ranks in the 77th percentile. Additionally, Lamb recorded a 97th-percentile College YPR and a 79th-percentile College Target Share. In other words, Lamb was highly targeted and extremely productive and efficient with the targets that he received–oh, and he did it all at a young age. To say that Ceedee Lamb was a “good” prospect would be a drastic understatement.

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Looking Ahead to Week Two

Ryan Tannehill: Still Underrated

Ryan Tannehill revitalized his career when joining the Tennessee Titans in 2019. After taking over in Week 7 as the starting quarterback in 2019, Tannehill never looked back. From Week 7 on, Tannehill was the quarterback three with 225 fantasy points, averaging 22 points per game. The following year, he finished as the quarterback seven with 350 fantasy points in 16 games. Even after these stellar finishes, people are still doubting him. This is evident by his ADP, which, according to DFF Rankings, is the 11th quarterback off the board. I am here to tell you that you are too low on Tannehill.

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Film Study Guide: Scouting Elite Route-Runners

Film vs Analytics is one of the contested debates in the fantasy community. Both are important and one hand washes the other. Scouting and watching film are the foundation of evaluating talent. If data was the only indicator of success, NFL scouts wouldn’t need a scouting department. They would hire a Google Intern to run algorithms for them. On the flip side, data can help you make unbiased decisions and adjust your rankings by having a macro-level view of a pool of statistics. It’s important to understand what coaches look at on the field or in training camp because they decide if a player will even see the field. Not your algorithm. Moreover, learning scouting and theory can help you understand why players perform the way they do and what makes your data sing or choke. 

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Jalen Richard OUT Indefinitely: It’s Time to Stop Sleeping on Kenyan Drake

Earlier this week, Tashan Reed of The Athletic reported that Las Vegas Raiders’ running back Jalen Richard sustained a foot injury after returning from the COVID-19 list and will be out indefinitely. The report had zero mention of what injury Richard suffered but to be immediately labeled as “out indefinitely” I have to assume it was fairly severe. Plus, foot injuries for skill position players are never a good thing as we have seen in the recent Carson Wentz saga and with Joe Mixon in season’s past.

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Justin Jefferson: Injury Reaction

Our hearts dropped this week as Vikings’ star Wide Receiver Justin Jefferson went down hard onto his left shoulder. Jefferson then left practice and was seen holding his wrist to support his shoulder. A classic sign of clavicle or collarbone injury. Thankfully, we didn’t have to speculate long as only a few hours later, Adam Schefter reported that Jefferson “has a sprained AC Joint” and it was considered “nothing serious, per source, but there would be further testing this weekend.” So right away, that tells us that Jefferson had an immediate radiograph or x-ray and it was determined that he did not fracture his collarbone which would have knocked him out for 6-8 weeks. 

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Startup Strategies: Drafting to Reload, Not Rebuild: Part 2 – Depth Evaluation

Hurray for the start of Training Camps!! We can finally begin overhyping Twitter highlights while we listen to the sweet voice of Liev Schreiber give hope to Cowboys fans via Hard Knocks. So as we squeeze in a few more startups before the regular season starts, let’s dive into Part II of our Startup Strategies series. Make sure to check out Part I where I focus on drafting a strong core pick-by-pick through the first nine rounds of a real draft I participated in, and how you can take my strategy and deep dive to draft a roster competitive enough to win now without having to rebuild later. In Part II we’ll take a broader look at the full roster post-draft to evaluate depth by position and consider immediate and future roster moves needed to bring home The Ship. 

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DeVonta Smith Sprains MCL: Is Smith too Small to Play in the NFL?

Well, it happened. Eagles rookie wide receiver DeVonta Smith left practice on Monday with an apparent knee injury. Smith had an MRI which helped diagnose him with a sprained MCL in his knee. According to reports, the injury is considered minor and he is only supposed to be out “a couple of weeks” per Ian Rapoport. 

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Soothsayers Roundtable: Quarterback Carousel

Beware of the Ides of March, the date March 15th was viewed by the Ancient Romans as a deadline for settling debts. The year was 44 BC and the Soothsayers informed the Dictator that their readings indicated death. A soothsayer is a minor priest also known as a haruspex, otherwise known for practicing animal sacrifice and reading the remnants of the body for signs from their deities. The practice of animal sacrifice is very similar to us fantasy players praying to the fantasy gods for a player they roster to get put back in for the goal line work as they fret a close competition. Back in Ancient Rome, the dictators and government generals would often consult with the Soothsayers regarding future war campaigns.

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Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down: NFC North

Welcome back to the “Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down” series. The NFC North is the eighth and final divisional breakdown. Check out other breakdowns by clicking on each respective division (AFC North, NFC West, AFC West, NFC South, AFC South, NFC East, AFC East) here at DFF. Keep in mind, there will be a player whose stock is up and a player whose stock is down from each team in this division. Enjoy. 

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How Much Is A FFPC Dynasty Roster Spot Worth?

How much is a dynasty roster spot worth? Or how much should it be worth? Has anyone really tried to come up with a quantitative measure that can be actionable in some way when we are managing our dynasty rosters? We have trade calculators, rankings, projections, all customizable by league settings (for the most part). But roster spots are largely ignored. When a trade is made that involves a two-for-one player exchange, a roster spot has been cleared for one owner. Or perhaps two spots in a three-for-one, although those kinds of deals are rarer.

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