Welcome mafiosos to a little Q and A session with the only @Heady_Football. I took some time to gather some questions you on Twitter, our DFF Army, have asked over the off-season along with some questions I have been asked off-line, by my friends and family. Yes, don’t be shocked, I do have a life outside of fantasy football. Granted, it’s not much but it is one nevertheless. So, without further adieu, here are some of the best questions I received.
Who is the wide receiver you most expect to make that jump from just a good dude to THE dude, like Stefon Diggs did last year?
There are many players out there with the potential to make that jump from being a middle-of-the-pack WR2 to being an elite WR1, but the bigger issue is identifying that young wide receiver who is going to make the jump from being a nobody to being a somebody. The easy answer is Marquez Callaway. But that cat is out of the bag. While we don’t know what he will do in the regular season, our DFF contributor master @RookieWhisper highlighted him last year already so it’s on to another wide receiver in that talented NFC South. Enter Russell Gage. But Kyle Pitts is there, you say. Yes, yes he is. But here is the thing. Matt Ryan like every veteran quarterback prefers to throw to dudes he trusts and Pitts has yet to be able to earn that. In addition, defenses will be keying in on Ridley and Pitts so that will leave Gage with more desirable matchups allowing him to thrive. Finally, he scored 10.8 ppg without Julio in the lineup so he has proven he can elevate his game when given the opportunity. I will not be leaving a draft without him as long as someone hasn’t sniped him. I would be comfortable with drafting him at any point after the 9th round.
I have Marquez Callaway on my taxi squad and my team isn’t competitive this season. Should I sell him now or wait for in-season? What should I be asking for in the trade?
This isn’t as tricky of a question as it appears. Right now is when you should sell him. Odds are, once the season starts, there will be another wide receiver that blows up and everyone will be clamoring over them and trying to obtain the hottest new wide receiver. Think DeSean Jackson circa 2018 and 2019. Leaving you with fewer offers than expected. As for cost? A 2nd round draft pick is a fair offer for him. He hasn’t produced before and with a Michael Thomas return looming on the horizon, strike while the iron is hot. Plus, if you are rebuilding, what you need are draft picks.
Rank these running backs for redraft. Trey Sermon, Myles Gaskin, Chase Edmonds, Kareem Hunt.
This is all about winning championships, nothing more, nothing less. Trey Sermon is the running back I want down the stretch. He will end up being the lead back in San Francisco and with their panache for running the ball, he is the man to grab. While he won’t be the lead back initially, with Mostert more than likely to miss some time, he will take over and carry the load. After Sermon, it gets a little murky due to injury concerns and other running backs taking carries away from Gaskin, Edmonds, and Hunt. End of the day, I go Gaskin, Edmonds, and Hunt in that order. I do like Hunt more as a player, but with the unlikelihood of Chubb missing time, Hunt won’t see the field nearly enough to supplant the running backs I have ahead of him.
What team has the more crowded wide receiver corps, Dallas or Cincinnati? Follow up, how would you approach it?
Let’s initially take a look at these team’s top four wide receivers: Cincinnati has Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and Tate, while Dallas has Cooper, Lamb, Gallup, and Wilson. Talentwise, they are virtually equal to me but I have different views depending on the league type. In redraft leagues, I am going with the Cowboys. The uncertainty of Burrow’s comeback from injury along with the uncertain things we are hearing out of Bengals camp concerning Chase and that offensive line makes me hesitant to side with them. Dynasty wise though? I forecast Cincinnati to be the more intriguing wide receiver corps due to the fact of their youth. Every serious contributor is 25 years old or younger which means they will have many years to grow and develop into something special. When I have to decide who to go with in dynasty, for me, youth always wins when the talent level is equal or close to it.
As for how I would approach it? I am drafting CeeDee Lamb as the first wide receiver out of this talented group as he has the most upside out of any of them. Amari Cooper and Tee Higgins will both be top 24 WRs but CeeDee has the potential to be a top 10 wide receiver while the odds of the other two being top 10 are there, CeeDee is the more exciting and has the highest ceiling.
I am in a rebuild for my dynasty, 1QB league, what position should I target considering I have a young talented quarterback? Running back? Wide Receiver?
In dynasty, I hold the positions in this order: quarterback, wide receiver, running back. This is due to the average career length of your elite players at each position and you should draft them accordingly. You’ll notice I didn’t mention tight end and that was on purpose. On average tight ends do not produce until at best, year three of their career. This means that you can typically wait to find a tight end in the second round of your rookie drafts and stash them until they produce. Another option would be to stream the position or trade for one of the up-and-coming stars such as T.J. Hockenson or Mike Gesicki. While having someone like Travis Kelce or Darren Waller on your squad is a game-changer, Waller was out of the league in 2017, so there is always talent to be found at this position in free agency. Disclaimer, while someone like Kyle Pitts is a game-changer, he is a once in a decade type of player and should be drafted accordingly.
Outside of the ideal stacks of Mahomes/Kelce (Hill), Rodgers/Adams, Allen/Diggs, Prescott/Lamb which lower-end quarterback or wide receiver tandem do you expect to be able to produce?
The easy button on this for me is Fitzpatrick and McLaurin. I wrote about them earlier in the off-season when Washington signed Curtis Samuel. While they are not the sexy pick, they are the easy ones for me. If you don’t like Fitzpatrick as your quarterback due to his streakiness, I completely understand and can appreciate it.
Might I be able to intrigue you with an entrée of Ben Roethlisberger and Diontae Johnson? Both of these two shouldn’t be drafted at the top of their position but both offer top 12 potentials in PPR format at a heavily discounted price. Big Ben should throw for over 4,000 yards with this offense and that means 1,200 yards for his lead WR isn’t out of the question. Hell, you could draft JuJu or Chase Claypool and get 1,000 yards from them. While it will not be fun to watch these guys play, it will be entertaining to see what the stat line will be at the end of the fourth quarter. Either way, Big Ben is not being drafted until the 8th round at the earliest in all of my drafts so far and his wide receivers aren’t going off the board until the 4th round at the earliest. To me? That is insane value and offers the best lower-end stack you can wait on but have success.
There you have it, folks, thanks for stopping by to see some of the most common questions I have been seeing/asked concerning fantasy football. If you have more questions, reach out to me or check out the articles our dedicated DFF Army contributors have provided as we are here for you. For without y’all we are nothing, but together, we are unstoppable. Until next time.
