Dynasty Analysis
No matter the format, the most important thing is that you and your league mates enjoy playing together. Play the types of leagues you like, and feel free to try new leagues. However, it’s also okay if you don’t want to play a specific format, like how I feel about IDP leagues. Just be a good person and an active owner, and you’ll enjoy your time in this world.
As the post-draft hype begins to fade and teams start looking for any asset on the waiver wire that they believe can help bolster their roster, everyone is looking for that next edge. In a recent argument on @TaleofTwoRivals, we bantered quickly about the value of UDFAs in a dynasty league but reached no real conclusion. I began to think of who can be this year’s Preston Williams. Who can take the mantle of Tony Romo, Arian Foster, and a few others and carry a team to the next level? Who can you buy low on? Who might be on the waiver wire? What follows is a case study of UDFAs who have finished in the top 24 of their position in a fantasy season, how their team responded to that success (were replaced via free agency, the draft, etc.) and what happened in the following year.
Lazard showed excellent ball skills while gaining the trust of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Starting in three games, he hauled in 35 catches for 477 yards and three touchdowns. When Lazard was targeted in the passing game, Aaron Rodgers had a 115.6 passer rating, good for 12th in the NFL.
As the post-draft hype begins to fade and teams start looking for any asset on the waiver wire that they believe can help bolster their roster, everyone is looking for that next edge. In a recent argument on @TaleofTwoRivals, we bantered quickly about the value of UDFAs in a dynasty league but reached no real conclusion. I began to think of who can be this year’s Preston Williams. Who can take the mantle of Tony Romo, Arian Foster, and a few others and carry a team to the next level? Who can you buy low on? Who might be on the waiver wire? What follows is a case study of UDFAs who have finished in the top 24 of their position in a fantasy season, how their team responded to that success (were replaced via free agency, the draft, etc.) and what happened in the following year.
In April, I started writing a series focusing on one player at a time, called “A Redraft Journey.” Like my “Dead to Me” series, I take a deep dive into a single player, breaking down their entire career in redraft fantasy football. However, unlike that series, this set of articles is meant to be more positively toned. I’m excited to get back to writing it, and I’m returning with a full breakdown of Melvin Gordon. He’s had an exciting roller-coaster ride both in the NFL and for fantasy owners, so let’s jump into it!
NFL teams represent personnel groupings with a two-number phrase. For example, you might have heard “11 personnel” mentioned in some of my articles. The first number refers to the number of running backs on the field, while the second number refers to the number of tight ends. Then, since there are five eligible receivers, if you subtract the sum of both numbers from five, you get the number of wide receivers. For example, an 11 personnel group denotes a one RB, one TE, and three WR formation, which is the standard base offense in today’s NFL. For dynasty owners, 11 and 12 personnel are the two main formations, and I’ll break down each in detail.
Curtis Samuel is now entering this 4th year in the NFL after being drafted in the 2nd round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Statistically, he has improved each season. While in the last year of his rookie contract with the Panthers, could he take another step forward? A lot of production and fantasy points were left on the table in 2019 and with some new pieces added to the puzzle in Carolina, dynasty owners wonder if his potential has been crushed or unlocked.
Calvin Ridley is among an elite list of eight players that have eclipsed 800 receiving yards and seven TDs in their first two seasons since 2000. This, combined with one of the best passing offenses in the league, is the definition of a breakout star waiting to happen.
Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans have come to an agreement that will keep the bruising running back in town for years to come. First reported by Ian Rapaport, the deal got done just an hour before the 4:00 P.M EST deadline for teams to sign franchise-tagged players to long term deals. While the exact details have yet to be disclosed, we know via Adam Schefter that the deal is a 4-year, $50 million contract with $25.5 million guaranteed. This moves him up a spot from the fifth highest-paid running back by average annual value (AAV) in 2020 to the fourth, leapfrogging David Johnson. More importantly for Henry, it moves him up to fourth in total value, just behind Le’Veon Bell at $52.5 million. With the workhorse back staying in Tennessee, what does this mean for the Titans offense?
Tyler Lockett finally stepped into the number one wideout role for the Seattle Seahawks in 2019 and produced elite numbers when he was healthy. In 2019, Lockett played in over 90% of the offensive snaps in 8 of his first 9 games. After he was hospitalized during week 10 against the 49ers, he was only able to hit 90% of offensive snaps again one time the rest of the way. Prior to the injury, Lockett had amassed 767 yards and 6 scores through 9 weeks. In the 7 weeks after, and including the game he was injured in, he only gained 290 yards and 2 scores. In those first 9 weeks, Lockett was the third-best wide receiver in fantasy.
When the Jacksonville Jaguars selected D.J. Chark in the 2nd round of the 2018 NFL Draft, they knew they were getting, if nothing else, a truly special athlete: an outside receiver standing 6’ 3” tall, with 4.3 speed and a 93rd percentile burst score. After Chark’s disappointing rookie season, in which he accumulated just 14 receptions in 11 games, many wrote him off as another combine warrior in the same vein as Breshad Perriman. In 2019 however, D.J. Chark broke out, turning 117 targets into over 1,000 receiving yards and 8 TDs and finishing as the WR17.
Preston Williams had a rocky career in college, playing two years as a bench player for Tennessee in 2015-2016 before transferring to Colorado State. After sitting out the 2017 season and having some off-field issues, Williams broke out in 2018. He recorded 96 receptions for 1,345 yards and 14 touchdowns, dominating the team’s passing game, far ahead of 2019 seventh-rounder Olabisi Johnson.
Breaking down these results broadly, we find that 4% of our sample QBs supported a WR1,17% supported a WR2, and 47% supported a WR3. In other words, since 2012, there’s been a 53% chance that a rookie QB fails to produce even a single wide receiver in the top 36. Considering there are only 32 teams in the NFL, that’s a pretty shocking revelation.
In this series of articles, we discuss some players from each defensive position group that are poised to break out this season. These players should put up a floor of respectable, fantasy starting lineup stat lines with the potential for positional top-15 ceilings. These are players that can be drafted or acquired with minimal draft capital in most full IDP leagues. An examination of the factors promoting these ascending players will take place in each article. Remarkably, there are quite a few players that are among the “IDP unseen,” as of now. We will start with the defensive line.
Cohen came into the NFL as a fourth-round pick in 2017, where he profiled as the pass-catching complement to two-down grinder Jordan Howard. Throughout his three seasons, Cohen has played every game and has increased his receptions year over year. In 2018, Cohen shined as the Bears’ offense found success. He averaged an incredible 10.2 yards/reception and 8.0 yards/target.
After writing one of my “Dead to Me” articles, I remembered how much I enjoyed it. In this series, I figuratively bury a new player in each column. Typically, I expect that player to stay buried after the 2020 season, and the player I’m discussing had significant fantasy value or fantasy hype in the past. Now, it’s Curtis Samuel’s turn at the redraft tombstone.
James Conner was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 3rd round of the 2017 NFL draft. He was quiet in his rookie season. But, when Le’Veon Bell held out in 2018, James Conner broke out in a big way. He finished as the RB6 with over 1,400 total yards, 55 receptions, and 13 TDs. Conner dealt with multiple injuries in 2019, appearing in just 10 games. His efficiency regressed as the Steelers offense crumbled in the absence of Ben Roethlisberger, but he still finished as the RB17 in PPR PPG.
We debated the rankings on Jalen Reagor, Henry Ruggs, Tee Higgins, Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, AJ Dillon, Bryan Edwards, Antonio Gandy-Golden, Zack Moss, and Joshua Kelley. We also touched upon players in their range, and who should be ascending or descending. I want to give a big thanks to everyone who contributed to this series of articles. I urge you to go follow them on twitter. Read the whole series for a number of opinions on players who could win you fantasy championships for years to come. This is the final part of the series, where we’ll look at more insights and tidbits about these rookies.
Kenny Golladay is coming off of two straight 1,000 yard seasons and finished as a top 10 fantasy receiver in 2019 at just 26 years old. Golladay overcame playing half of the season with a backup quarterback to lead the league in receiving touchdowns last year with 11 total scores and was one of three with double-digit touchdowns, but the only to score 11. He was also second in the league in average depth of target (15.7) and yards per target (10.3) among players with at least 100 targets. The only two receivers ahead of him were Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. We know when the ball finds Golladay it’s going to be deep downfield.
Higbee is one of my favorite 2020 values at tight end, coming in at TE6 in my redraft rankings. He’s in the same tier as Hunter Henry and Evan Engram, but neither of those players has anywhere close to Higbee’s upside. The Rams’ offense should improve from 2019, as quarterback Jared Goff had almost the same yardage in 2018 and 2019 but threw 10 fewer touchdowns. I expect to have many Higbee shares in my 2020 redraft leagues, and I would love to have him on my dynasty team.
After recently releasing my rookie rankings, I wanted to open up the floor to constructive criticism. I also wanted to see where I was not aligned with other DFF analysts. So, we conducted a round table discussion. This discussion is now a 10-part series of informal articles. In these articles, analysts debate why some of their favorite rookie(s) should be moved up. And in one case, moved down!
The famous saying “you can’t win your league on draft day, but you can lose it” is one that I remind myself of every year. Draft day is the most important day of the year on any fantasy football player’s calendar as stakes are high and one bad decision can unravel an entire offseason of hard work. Having a strategy in place before the draft will limit the possibility of any costly errors occurring. While a strategy is important, please remember that drafting is a fluid situation and this will only act as your foundation when building a successful team.
In the late rounds of redraft leagues, I’m always hunting for upside. There’s no point in playing it safe and taking boring contributors that provide no opportunity to make a difference or to be league-winners. These four players are an example of what I’m talking about, one at each position. I’m not saying that any of these players will hit, and I would bet against some of them doing so. However, they all have high-end potential. If I’m wrong about one of them, I can cut them after a week or two with little to no harm.
After recently releasing my rookie rankings, I wanted to open up the floor to constructive criticism. I also wanted to see where I was not aligned with other DFF analysts. So, we conducted a round table discussion. This discussion is now a 10-part series of informal articles. In these articles, analysts debate why some of their favorite rookie(s) should be moved up. And in one case, moved down!
Nick Chubb has had excellent success in his two NFL seasons. Once he took over from Carlos Hyde in 2018, Chubb began dominating the carries in the Browns’ backfield. From Weeks 7-17, Chubb was the RB8 and averaged 16.5 PPR points per game. He had 17.6 rushing attempts per game over that span, sharing only minimal touches with the Browns’ other running backs. Then in 2019, Chubb took a whopping 298 carries and gained 1,494, second in the NFL behind only Derrick Henry in both categories. Even once Kareem Hunt rejoined the Browns, Chubb still paced for over 1,350 yards across a full season. While Chubb lost passing-game work to Hunt, he was the Browns’ primary back and would have been a fantasy star if he’d been more successful in the red zone.