Los Angeles Chargers

Kenny Vaccaro

Raiding the IDP Waiver Wire: Week 2

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In light of what we saw in Week 2, Week 1 reminds me of the first scene at the Moscow hospital in the television series “Chernobyl.” Firefighters responded to the explosion of a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine. Those that survived were transported to Moscow for treatment for severe radiation exposure. The wife of firefighter Vasily finds her husband playing cards and smoking cigarettes on a hospital bed during a reprieve in symptoms. Week 2 of the 2020 NFL season was the end of that Chernobyl episode, where Vasily and his comrades experienced cellular disintegration turning them into molten lumps of flesh. Shocking and irreversible was the injury carnage of Week 2.

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Joe Burrow. Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Week 3 Streamers

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In this streaming article, I will provide you the best weekly options to stream quarterback, tight end, and D/ST. In each section, I’ll break down two streamers in detail, both of which will be under 50% owned, according to ESPN’s ownership percentage at the time of writing. Playing the matchups is a crucial feature of redraft fantasy football, and especially in a crazy 2020 season, active fantasy owners will have a massive advantage. I also want to provide added value for each type of streamer this season. I’ll highlight any players from 50-60% owned in each section if they’re superior options to both of my streaming candidates at that specific position. Those players are “probably owned,” but they could be out there in 10-team or shallower formats. I won’t offer analysis on these players, just the names and matchups.

If neither of my two suggested streamers is under 25% ownership percentage, I will give a “super-deep” option. That feature should help those owners playing in deeper leagues with few waiver-wire options. Like the “probably owned” players, I’ll list the players without analysis. I realize that all leagues are different, and I want to accommodate all of my readers.

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Rookie Stock Market: Week 1

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What really sets apart dynasty fantasy football from redraft football is the constant and never-ending ebb and flow of player values, specifically young players and rookies. Increasing the overall value of your team happens when you sell high and buy low, living by the classic stock market analogy. One way to having a truly stacked roster is getting out in front of young players and rookies before they blow up and become a real force in the league and an asset to your dynasty team. The point of this weekly article is to monitor the values of rookies each week identifying risers, fallers, buys, and sells, helping you come out ahead in the “Rookie Stock Market”, setting your team up for long term success.

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Against the Spread: NFL Week 2

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So the Jaguars… aren’t… tanking? Welcome to sports betting, where a team that has jettisoned off all of its talent somehow overcomes all odds to beat a team that went all-in on 2020. I’m sure I’m not the only one that got burned by Minshew Magic if my survivor pools are any indication. But, it still doesn’t take the sting out of it. At least we had a nice rebound with Washington pulling off the upset over a banged-up Eagles team. They’re not done yet, with defensive end Vinny Curry also suffering a significant injury. This will be a year to forget for Philadelphia. Overall we went 9-7-0, which isn’t the best but certainly not the worst. We will try to build on that this week.

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Week 2 Streamers

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In this streaming article, I will provide you the best weekly options to stream quarterback, tight end, and D/ST. In each section, I’ll break down two streamers in detail, both of which will be under 50% owned, according to ESPN’s ownership percentage at the time of writing. Playing the matchups is a crucial feature of redraft fantasy football, and especially in a crazy 2020 season, active fantasy owners will have a massive advantage. I also want to provide added value for each type of streamer this season. I’ll highlight any players from 50-60% owned in each section if they’re superior options to both of my streaming candidates at that specific position. Those players are “probably owned,” but they could be out there in 10-team or shallower formats. I won’t offer analysis on these players, just the names and matchups.

If neither of my two suggested streamers is under 25% ownership percentage, I will give a “super-deep” option. That feature should help those owners playing in deeper leagues with few waiver-wire options. Like the “probably owned” players, I’ll list the players without analysis. I realize that all leagues are different, and I want to accommodate all of my readers.

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#TomBomb: Los Angeles Chargers

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Is there a more underappreciated WR in the league than Keenan Allen? As far as Old Tom is concerned, that answer is a resounding no. Now, please understand, I’m not saying there aren’t other stud WRs who are also treated poorly, in the fantasy community. What I’m saying is that when you attempt to marry the disrespect with the stat-production, Mr. Keenan takes the cake, in Old Tom’s eyes. One reason, the main reason really, I believe Allen seems to have a tough time knocking off the negative vibes, stems from his year two regression and the following two injury-riddled campaigns. The final straw, unfortunately for many, was the torn ACL suffered in Week 1’s contest back in 2016. What that did was it gave Allen the all so important “injury-prone” tag, that found its justification in the reality of 25 missed games over the course of his team’s previous 34 contests. Ouch! (pun intended)

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2020 AFC Win Totals

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Finally, the 2020 NFL Season is less than one week away! While there were doubts that the season would occur due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are officially set to begin the season on September 10. For those of you wishing to sneak in some last-minute season-long plays, below are my predictions for AFC team win totals heading into this new year. A full disclaimer that these predictions are predicated on the belief that the season proceeds as planned with limited interruptions due to the pandemic.

All lines are provided by our friends at DraftKings. Deposit $20 into DraftKings today and receive not only a FREE DFF Membership, but also an extra $10 in DraftKings credit! It’s a no brainer!

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Against the Spread: NFL Week 1 2020

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Let’s start this year off spicy. Not only do I think the Redskins cover, I think they pull off the upset and beat the Eagles outright (+225 ML). I am firmly planting my flag that the Eagles will not be a good team this year. They have been absolutely ravaged by injuries and the season hasn’t even begun. The Eagles have lost their starting left tackle, right guard, and a whole host of receivers. Down two starters on their offensive line, who do the Eagles draw Week One? Just a Washington team boasting five first-round picks in their front seven. Couple this with the reported accuracy issues Carson Wentz is experiencing so far in camp, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Washington pull off the upset in this one.

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Week 1 Streamers

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In this streaming article, I will provide you the best weekly options to stream quarterback, tight end, and D/ST. In each section, I’ll break down two streamers in detail, both of which will be under 50% owned, according to ESPN’s ownership percentage at the time of writing. Playing the matchups is a crucial feature of redraft fantasy football and, especially in a crazy 2020 season, active fantasy owners will have a massive advantage. I also want to provide added value for each type of streamer this season. I’ll highlight any players from 50-60% owned in each section if they’re superior options to both of my streaming candidates at that specific position. Those players are “probably owned,” but they could be out there in 10-team or shallower formats. I won’t offer analysis on these players, just the names and matchups. If neither of my two suggested streamers is under 25% ownership percentage, I will give a “super-deep” option. That feature should help those owners playing in deeper leagues with few waiver-wire options. Like the “probably owned” players, I’ll list the players without analysis. I realize that all leagues are different, and I want to accommodate all of my readers.

Even though it’s Week 1, many fantasy drafts happened a while ago, and now fantasy owners are looking for streamers. Let’s jump into it!

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Sleeper Series: Joshua Kelley

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After writing my redraft team breakdown series, I decided to start a new series as we approach the 2020 fantasy season. Every week, or probably more often than that, I’m going to bring you one fantasy sleeper representing a massive value in 2020 redraft leagues. All the links to previous articles are at the bottom of the article. In the first article, I detailed my methodology behind this series, so go back and read that piece if you haven’t yet! Now, it’s time to jump into my first rookie running back of this sleeper series. Chargers’ running back Joshua Kelley is a strong sleeper candidate for 2020, and he could provide league-winning upside. Let me tell you why you should look Kelley’s way late in 2020 drafts.

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Chris Carson: 2020 dynasty profile

The 2020 All-Uglies

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Everyone wants the hot new thing. As kids, we all wanted the brand new toy for Christmas and turned our noses up at the pairs of socks we sometimes got instead. Now that we are adults we want the cool new sports car instead of the pre-owned Honda. It’s the same in fantasy football. Everybody wants to be the guy who drafts the young running back who vaults himself into the first round next year. We all target those third-year wide receivers looking for that elusive breakout. But you know what? Those socks are a good present. They get the job done and you use them all the time. That pre-owned Honda is reliable and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to maintain. You can find similar values every year in fantasy football. No one in your draft room will let out a sigh of relief when you take one of these guys, but they’ll get the job done for you. These are the used cars and Christmas socks of the 2020 fantasy season. I present to you 2020 All-Uglies.

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Austin Ekeler: 2020 Dynasty Profile

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Austin Ekeler: Los Angeles Charger and defier of the odds. The UDFA out of Western State blew the top off every fantasy analyst’s big board last year by finishing as the RB4. Oh, and he shared the load with Melvin Gordon from weeks 5 onward. He was electrifying every step of the way finishing second among running backs in both catches and receiving yards, plus finishing number one in yards per touch. Ekeler makes his living in PPR leagues due to his ability in the passing game, both as a reliable check-down and a threat out of the backfield where he played 30% of his snaps. How good is he as a receiver? Since 2017, Ekeler is the number one receiving back in the NFL ranked by PFF at 94.2. Numbers two and three on that list? Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara. Enough said.

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The Rookie QB Mousetrap

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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.

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DFF Rookie Round Table, Part 9: Joshua Kelley

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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!  

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Redraft Team Focus: Chargers

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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.

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Superflex Dynasty Backup QBs: Tier 2

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In this series, I’m looking at the backup quarterback landscape with a focus on dynasty superflex formats. In those leagues, having a starting quarterback is extremely valuable, so many backups are rostered, with the number depending on how deep the league is. Keep in mind that the backup listed here is the backup in dynasty value, not necessarily the backup on the NFL roster. In part one, I examined the top tier of dynasty backups, the potential future long-term starters. Let’s jump into the second tier. Unlike the first tier, this second group consists of a varied and diverse set of quarterbacks.

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NFL Draft Rounds 4-7: Redraft Reaction

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In this article, I’ll give rapid-fire takes on any skill players in Rounds 4-7 of the NFL Draft that I believe might be redraft viable. On Thursday, I wrote up the first round, on Friday, I did articles on the second and third round. Those links are at the bottom of this article. For these last four rounds, I’ll only pick out a few notable players that I expect to make an impact in redraft potentially. With each player, I’ll note their path to redraft relevance. It is important to note that any player listed below is, by definition, a long-shot. Very few late-round rookies hit in redraft. 

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