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Van Jefferson is not on anyone’s fantasy radar coming into drafts this season. Quietly selected in the second round of the 2020 draft, Jefferson walks into his rookie season with one of the best offensive schemes in the NFL. Other highly drafted prospects like Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, and Michael Pittman are getting the majority of the attention from the fantasy community. However, I believe Van Jefferson may be the most underrated and unheralded rookie of the 2020 class, and someone that could bring you sneaky value this upcoming fantasy season.
Back in March, I did a four-part series on the incoming rookie class. Now, it’s time to go back through my takes and examine how they’ve changed in the past few months. I’ve included all four of my original articles and all my live post-draft takes as links at the bottom of this article. In part one, I looked at the progression of top rookie quarterbacks from March until now. Let’s get into part two, covering how the consensus top-three running backs pre-NFL Draft have progressed in redraft value.
The DFF team recently did a half-PPR redraft mock. The draft was for a typical 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 2 Flex, 1 TE, 1 D/ST redraft format with no special bonuses. I want to go through my draft and strategy, round-by-round, and talk through what I was thinking at each pick. Let’s jump into it.
Back in March, I did a four-part series on the incoming rookie class. Now, it’s time to go back through my takes and examine how they’ve changed in the past few months. I’ve included all four of my original articles and all my live post-draft takes as links at the bottom of this article. I’ll start with part one, which covered quarterbacks.
The Los Angeles Rams felt the hangover of a Super Bowl loss in 2019, missing the playoffs with a 9-7 record. They finished 7th in total offense (yards gained) and 13th in total defense. The analytics firm Football Outsiders ranked the 2019 Rams defense 9th. This defense improved significantly over the 2018 version in both metrics while the offense regressed year over year.
For the first time since 2005, the Chargers will have a starting quarterback not named Philip Rivers. Rivers was a checkdown machine unlike almost any other quarterback in the NFL, as he heavily targeted all his running backs, not only Ekeler. The Chargers drafted Justin Herbert with the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft as their long-term starting quarterback and have Tyrod Taylor as their bridge starter. Both Taylor and Herbert scare me for Ekeler’s overall value.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Bears.
Green comes with numerous question marks. However, let’s not forget how successful Green has been as a fantasy asset when healthy and on the field despite playing with mediocre quarterback Andy Dalton. In 2018, Green was the WR8 in Weeks 1-8, averaging 18.5 PPG. He caught 45 of 76 targets for 687 yards and six touchdowns, which would have paced for 90 receptions, 152 targets, 1,374 yards, and 12 touchdowns over a full season.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Buccaneers.
As you can see, Cooks has been a highly productive receiver with every stop. It doesn’t matter if he was new to the roster or not. He hasn’t always been the most targeted receiver on his team. Only twice has this happened in his career. Once with the Saints in 2015 and once with the Patriots in 2017– yet he’s still put up four 1,000-yard seasons.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. I’ll reference my PPR redraft rankings at the time of writing. Let’s jump into the Dolphins.
In 2016 Adam Thielen came just short of the 1,000-yard receiving mark and was able to bring in five touchdowns. He led the team in receiving yards and only dropped two passes out of 92 targets. Thielen was the fifth-best wide receiver in terms of catch percentage at 75% and fourth-best in yards per target at 10.5. Pairing Thielen’s sticky hands with his speedy 4.45 40-yard dash time lead to a very dangerous target in the Vikings offense.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Colts.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Seahawks.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Eagles.
Carr wasn’t as bad as some might think in 2019, as he finished as the QB14, ahead of players like Baker Mayfield, Kirk Cousins, and Philip Rivers. However, because he played all 16 games while some other quarterbacks missed games, he only finished 22nd with 15.3 fantasy PPG, which is not impressive. The Raiders also signed Marcus Mariota to a significant contract to back up Carr, which demonstrates that they don’t completely trust him. Carr is only a streamer with no upside, and he’s my QB26.
There’s a big strategic difference between Superflex and tight end premium. Superflex requires or at least allows an extra starter at the quarterback position. Since quarterbacks score far more fantasy points than any other position, it almost always makes sense to start a second quarterback in that slot.
On the other hand, tight ends score the least of all the main fantasy positions. It’s possible to use a 2TE format to force fantasy owners to value tight ends. However, there are barely 12 fantasy-relevant tight ends in the league, let alone 24. Forcing people to start 24 tight ends every week isn’t a fair or viable fantasy format, in my view. It introduces even more randomness, as the bottom tight ends are wholly touchdown-dependent players.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. I’ll reference my PPR redraft rankings at the time of writing. Let’s jump into the Lions.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Ravens.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Falcons.
I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets in this article series. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Let’s jump into the Patriots.
Recently, the DFF team and I participated in a PPR, superflex, 1.5 PPR tight end premium redraft mock. Unlike our previous mock draft breakdowns, I’m not planning to go team-by-team and discuss how much I like each roster. However, I’ll reference my team, which I drafted from the 1.05 slot, as a basis for my general thoughts. The point of this exercise was to look at quarterback value and tight end value in this format and draw conclusions about strategy. In this first part, I’ll discuss how to handle the quarterback position in redraft superflex leagues, compared to both dynasty superflex and redraft 1QB formats.
In this article series, I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. Unfortunately for fantasy owners, this is another one of those fantasy black holes. It’s time to look at the unfortunate situation that is the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In this debate series, @DFF_Ztrain and I have broken down two different players so far, Derrius Guice and JuJu Smith-Schuster. You can find links at the bottom of this article if you want to read our previous work. Now, let’s jump into Baker Mayfield. I get the negative side this time, as I don’t love Mayfield or his situation in 2020. Here come the knives.
This is the third installment of our redraft value debates where @DFF_Karp and I go through some fantasy players that we feel differently about. This article will go into depth on Baker Mayfield, I’ll be telling you why he is a top 10 option at the position while @DFF_Karp will be taking the anti-Baker approach.