Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Dak's first preseason games and storylines to watch
It should be unveiled any minute now. After all, the most-skilled sculptors of greater-Dallas have worked around the clock the past 48 hours to design and create the bronze likeness of Dak Prescott outside AT&T Stadium.
Sure, the rookie trigger looked sharp in his preseason debut against the Rams to the tune of 10-12 passing for 139 yards with two touchdowns. "Dimes" were dropped. However, let’s not get drunk in the moment. If you want to call “dibs” that you believed Prescott would be the second-coming of {insert a quarterback that won’t offend your knowledge of the game here}, by all means, proceed. It’s just funny to me how this can be posted Week 1 of the NFL preseason …
.@15_DakP out here looking like a Pro Bowler...
— NFL (@NFL) August 14, 2016
Another perfect TD pass from the rookie! #DALvsLA https://t.co/WQKIAsaEK5
“Looking like a Pro Bowler…” Wow. While Tony Romo’s recent health issues have pushed Cowboy Nation and fantasy football owners to eagerly embrace “who is next?”, I think we need to pump the breaks on commissioning Prescott’s statue and think bobblehead first.
Pay attention to the Ravens Backfield
I touched on the Ravens’ running back depth chart in Adam Meyer’s fantasy football draft Q&A earlier on Monday. Although the Ravens are the same team who gave Trent Richardson a shot at redemption earlier this year, it’s the other former Browns’ running back in camp who intrigues me most.
Despite missing two games in 2014, Terrance West actually led the Browns in rushing with 673 yards on 171 carries (3.9 YPR) and four touchdowns. He rushed 16 times for 100 yards in Week 1 of the 2014 season against the Steelers.
The ending to his Cleveland chapter – both NFL and fantasy value – are like so many where West paid for the sins of others. I don’t think we know how good he can be in the NFL yet. My hope is they carve out a role for him in Baltimore, but that’s asking a lot with Justin Forsett returning from injury and Buck Allen and rookie back Kenneth Dixon all vying for touches.
As much preseason games are hard to grade, how the Ravens’ backfield shakes out has my attention – if only to find running back ADP value on draft day.
Ladarius Green’s Health Still A Mystery
If you caught my fantasy spin piece on the Chargers’ receiving corps late last week, Ladarius Green’s current medical situation (headaches/ankle) was noted at the bottom of the feature. Reports on Monday have no further information and no timetable for Green to be cleared and join the Steelers in camp. So, as of right now Jesse James is the TE-1. Fantasy owners need to focus on the play and coverage of Darrius Heyward-Bey, Markus Wheaton and Sammie Coates this camp as James’ isn’t the ideal fit for Ben Roethlisberger’s pass attack. His ADP has dipped from TE-9 a few weeks ago to TE-13 and outside of typical 12-team fantasy football leagues.
Latavius Murray’s 2016 Outlook
One of my favorite NFL beat writers is the Raiders’ Vic Tafur. This little Twitter gem from earlier today includes “coach speak” that helps my argument for drafting Latavius Murray. So, I’m sharing it …
Del Rio wants Murray to have more carries than last year. Even w/ addition of Washington. Will be more carries to go around. #Raiders
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) August 15, 2016
Murray finished 2015 with 266 rush attempts and 307 touches. For comparison, only Adrian Peterson and Doug Martin carried the ball more times last season. So, while I appreciate Del Rio’s thoughts on his running back’s 2016 workload, the likelihood of it happening is low. What I would take from this is, Murray is the team’s RB-1 and rookie DeAndre Washington is going to have to rip it away from Murray. FantasyFootballCalculator.com has Murray’s PPR-ADP on the rise to the early-fourth round with a round bump for standard scoring leagues.
