As we approach the redraft season, I want to begin a new series of recent risers and fallers based on events happening in the fantasy football world. In each article, I’ll give you two risers and two fallers. There are many reasons that a player could move up or move down, so I’ll cover various situations throughout this article series. I’ll also include the previous entries at the bottom of this page.
Risers
Recently, I’ve started to rise on Carson. As time has passed, Carson has looked fully healthy, and he has been a full participant in Seahawks’ camp. Teammate Rashaad Penny has looked nowhere near returning, while Carson’s only competition comes in the form of Carlos Hyde.
When I wrote my initial Seahawks’ redraft preview, I saw Carson as a middling RB2. He ranked as my RB20 and 43rd overall player. Carson seemed to come with considerable risk, although I did mention that I would move him up my rankings if he proved healthy.
Between Carson’s health and other players moving down, he now lands as my RB15 and 32nd overall player. Carson is a workhorse back on a run-first, high-powered offense. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has offered consistent praise for Carson throughout training camp, and I believe that Carroll will stick with Carson throughout the season. Therefore, I love Carson’s value in 2020.
I left Jones for dead during the NFL Draft season, and I assumed that rookie Ke’Shawn Vaughn would win the Buccaneers’ starting running back job. Even in mid-June, I saw the battle as a relatively dead heat, with Jones at RB34 and Vaughn at RB36. However, since then, Vaughn has completely squandered any opportunity he had to challenge Jones.
The Buccaneers signed veteran LeSean McCoy to take Vaughn’s place as Jones’ backup, relegating Vaughn to special teams. McCoy even stated that he’s only on the team to mentor Jones and that he doesn’t see himself as a threat to Jones’ job. Therefore, Jones is the locked-in starter on a Tom Brady-led offense, which should give Jones immense potential fantasy value.
Currently, I rank Jones as my RB26 and 61st overall player. I think that ranking perfectly encapsulates Jones’s upside and risk, and I hope to acquire many Jones’ shares at that price in 2020. He could be one of those league-winning type players you draft in the middle rounds.
Fallers
I can’t take it anymore with Jets’ head coach Adam Gase. Gase legitimately thinks that Frank Gore should represent serious competition for Bell, and he’s already causing another rift with Bell over that issue. I feel that Gase could decide to send Bell to the bench at any time, destroying his fantasy value. Even if Gase doesn’t go that far, he seems determined to create a committee backfield, with both Gore and rookie Lamical Perine playing alongside Bell.
Gase has ruined multiple fantasy assets, and he specifically sent Kenyan Drake to the bench numerous times in favor of Gore. Ryan Tannehill, DeVante Parker, and countless other players all succeeded once escaping from Gase. I think that Gase is a toxic influence for anything he touches, and I’d prefer to stay as far away as possible from any Jets’ players. Bell is the worst value of all of them, though, as he still comes with a high price tag of a late third-round pick.
In my original Jets’ preview, I ranked Bell as my RB15. However, I’ve significantly backed off that take, and I now have Bell down at RB22 and 44th overall. Bell is the type of player I don’t want to draft in a redraft league, as he comes with a significant downside and little upside. I can’t see Bell finishing as a high-end RB1, and I think his ceiling is around RB10-RB12 at best. The Jets’ offense is so horrible, making Bell’s floor non-existent.
Unlike Bell, nothing specific has happened to affect Singletary’s draft stock in 2020. Unfortunately, my perception of Singletary has changed over time. As I’ve taken a closer look at the Bills, I realized that they won’t give Singletary goal-line work, no matter what. I wrote a couple of articles about third-round rookie Zack Moss and how he will be a significant factor in 2020 for the Bills.
Rookie Zack Moss has excelled in Bills’ camp, and he’ll challenge Singletary for carries from the beginning of the season. Moss is a more bruising running back than Singletary who could occupy Frank Gore’s old role. Gore had 11 carries inside the 5-yard line in 2019, compared to only two for Singletary. I have to believe that Moss can bring more to the table in 2020 than Gore did in 2019, so I doubt that Singletary sees an increased workload.
Between Moss and quarterback Josh Allen, who scored nine rushing touchdowns, Singletary’s touchdown upside is very low. In my Bills’ redraft team focus, I had Singletary as my RB26 and in a similar tier to players like James Conner and David Johnson. Now, I’ve lowered him down a tier to my RB28 and 63rd overall player. I don’t hate drafting him, but I’d probably instead take a shot on a receiver in his value range.
Thanks for reading this article. You can find me on Twitter at @DFF_Karp. I love to interact with anyone in the community, so reach out at any time! I take fantasy questions and help with all formats, so keep sending those questions my way.
