New England Patriots

NFL Kickoff Countdown: 8 Divisional Sleepers

Football is in the air folks! Training camp highlight tweets are crackling on our timelines and the preseason overreactions are flying through the air. Most importantly, the DFF Kickoff Countdown marches on! So, with eight days left until kickoff, I’ll be bringing you one sleeper from all eight divisions.

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Cam Newton Released: Rapid Reaction

Former NFL MVP Cam Newton has been released by the New England Patriots. If you’ve followed me at all over the last few months you know this comes as no surprise. By all accounts, the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft Mac Jones outperformed Newton all offseason during camp and joint practices. We all witnessed Jones stand out above the pack in the preseason games, which clearly gave the Patriots the confidence to move forward with the 15th overall pick as their starting quarterback.

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IDP Preseason Trades Impact

As the NFL finishes their final week of preseason games, it’s important for us dynasty IDP managers to keep abreast of under-the-radar activity happening throughout the league. Tuesday, August 31st is the official NFL cut day, but some savvy NFL franchises are making trades to adjust their rosters prior to cut day.  Let’s analyze the latest defender trades to find where IDP value can be had!

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Rapid Reaction: Sony Michel to the L.A. Rams

Sony coming to Los Angeles helps give him a path towards more work than he would have found in New England. He wasn’t even in my top 40 for running backs before this but now he becomes a late-round pick you must make. Why? Darrell Henderson suffered a hand injury in his last pre-season game and while most reports say he will be good to go, Sean McVay will be more likely to give him a breather during the season. The Rams are all in on this season. Even with the arrival of Xavier Jones onto the scene in LA, Sony is a proven commodity and to me, he becomes the RB2 in that room and should take some series from him.

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week 10 dfs

Sleeper, Breakout, Bust: Tight Ends

Tight end is one of the most infuriating positions to navigate when it comes to draft day. Should you spend an early draft pick and secure one of the elites? Or should you sit back and wait for the later rounds to try and find that diamond in the rough that is basically free? I have approached both strategies, and I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer.  It comes down to what you, the fantasy manager, prefer in your roster construction. Obviously, the league settings may alter one’s strategy, but both have their benefits. This article will highlight one sleeper, one breakout, and one bust at the tight end position. Hopefully, this can narrow down some options and pave the way for how you go about the tight end position.

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Jonnu Smith: 2021 Dynasty Profile

The fantasy community had high hopes for a Jonnu Smith breakout last season and did in some ways despite some injuries and the Titans’ infamously low passing volume. He still finished as the TE15 in PPR and TE9 in standard, but 2020 was also a terrible year for tight ends. Smith got most of his work from his dominance in the red zone, finishing number five in targets and scoring at a 20% rate with eight touchdowns. His 448 yards on 41 receptions certainly left truthers wanting more.

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Redraft 2021: Backfields to Avoid

Finding a true bell-cow running back in the NFL is hard to come by these days. Most teams elect to utilize multiple backs for various situations. Whether it is goal-line work, third down, or simply just to keep the defense guessing, more running backs are getting involved on offense at a more frequent rate. While plenty of value and fantasy points can come from running backs on the same team, there are a few backfields that I am avoiding at all costs.

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DFF Redraft League: Drafting from the Twelve Spot

This week I drafted an 18-man roster in a 14-team 0.5 PPR staff redraft league for @DFF_Fantasy. It is also TE Premium, where they get a full 1.0 PPR. There are 11 starting positions, QB/2RB/2WR/TE/3FLEX/K/DEFplus seven bench spots. There are also bonus points for converted first downs, both on receptions and in the running game.

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Rookie Quarterback Mousetrap Revisited

In 2020, Justin Herbert became the first rookie QB to throw for over 4,000 yards and 25 TDs. He broke the NFL rookie record for TD passes and completions, in fact. As a result, Keenan Allen put together a more impressive season than any WR in our sample. Still, digging a little deeper, Allen did leave some meat on the bone. He finished as the WR7 in PPG despite seeing the second-most targets per game. He recorded a career-low of 9.9 yards per reception, as well. These minor inefficiencies can likely be chalked up to the growing pains of a rookie QB.

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2021 Buy Low Dynasty Sleepers

It’s officially start-up season! The buzz of the NFL Draft and free agency has worn off, rookie drafts are wrapping up, and dynasty managers are left chasing that sweet high. We’re all scraping for every bit of info we can from OTAs like we’re searching for a loose fry at the bottom of the bag. Welcome to The Void. The space between OTAs and Mini-Camps where every fantasy junkie is trying to fill said void anyway we can. Most of us are now obsessively trading or telling ourselves “just one more startup,” followed by more obsessive trading. Depending on what boat you’re in, let’s look at those cheap sleepers you can either buy low on the league trade block or take a flier during a startup so you can spend that high draft stock elsewhere using Sleeper’s ADP data, and scouting reports from NFL.com.

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Fantasy Stock Up, Stock Down: AFC East

For the next couple of weeks, we are going to project whose fantasy stock is up and whose fantasy stock is down entering the 2021 season. There will be a player whose stock is up and a player whose stock is down from each team. We will be breaking down each division at a time. In this edition, we will analyze the AFC East.

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DFF Draft Coverage: Mac Jones to the Patriots

Mac Jones is a quarterback who will reflect the system he is in, and the Patriots do not have much to work with outside their free-agent tight end additions. He will be drafted higher than the typically QB5 in a Superflex Rookie Draft, however, he does not become a value until the late second-round. He could have a long career paired up with legendary coach Bill Belichick, but his upside is capped as a QB2 with the weapons that surround him.

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Patriots: WR Reaction

Day one of the NFL’s free agency period only had a few big-name offensive skill players find teams. But there was one extremely active team…the New England Patriots. The Patriots made roughly 99% of the signings on Monday and each one came with criticism. On the offensive side of the ball, they added Jonnu Smith at the tight end position and the wide receiver duo of Agholor and Bourne. Agholor signs a two-year $26 million dollar deal while Bourne signed a three-year deal, worth $22.5 million. 

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Jonnu Smith Signs With New England

In college Jonnu Smith broke out as a true freshman for FIU with 388 yards and two TDs, earning a dominator rating of 23.8%. A 710 yard and eight TD sophomore season was Smith’s most productive, as he earned a 42.6% dominator rating. However, injuries slowed down Smith in the latter half of his collegiate career. Smith was a piece of the 2016 Jared Goff trade that landed the Titans a litany of draft capital. Smith was selected in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans at the 100th overall pick. In his four seasons with the Titans, Smith amassed 114 catches for 1,302 yards and 16 TDs. He is coming off his most productive season in which he turned 65 targets into 41 catches, 448 yards, and eight TDs along with one rushing TD. He finished as the TE20 in fantasy football, underperforming based on his TE16 dynasty ADP.

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2021 Dynasty Profile: Damien Harris

Harris found more success in his sophomore season. In ten games, he carried the ball 137 times for 691 yards and 2 TDs. However, with just 7 targets in that span, he failed to make a real impact in the receiving game. During that stretch of ten games–Weeks 4 through 14–Harris was the RB29. His 9.1 PPR points per game placed him between Devin Singletary and Jamaal Williams for the season. 

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IDP Draft Preview: Gregory Rousseau

At 6’6” and 265 pounds, the Hurricane defensive lineman has excellent height for a pass rusher. Rousseau has a good base weight but should be able to add even more muscle as he develops in the NFL. His size, explosion, and speed are already above average coming into the NFL, but within a few years, I would expect Rousseau to play at 280 to 290 pounds and become the prototypical size for an NFL defensive end.

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pitts te vs wr

2021 NFL Draft Preview: Team Needs Picks 11 – 15

This is the third article of the team needs series covering teams picking 11 through 15. Obviously, free-agency acquisitions will make a major difference as to who teams will draft. These predictions and needs will therefore change as we acquire more information. However, many are of the thinking that it’s better to supplement with free-agency and build through the draft. Teams want to get young assets and have them develop cohesion with the team. Therefore, the draft is often more predictive of a team’s long-term confidence in a player.  

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