Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. Dynasty rankings for the rookie wide receivers. Can Julio become a touchdown scorer? And is it time to downgrade the Giants and their struggling offense?
Question 1
Dynasty league PPR where you can keep a player forever without sacrificing draft picks or anything. How would you rank the following? Parker, White, Dorsett, Perriman, Agholor.
Bob Evans ()
Not a huge difference between these guys. That is, while we can put them in an order, we must concede that the guy we rank 5th might end up being the best. That’s just the nature of the game we play. I really liked that touchdown Agholor scored against the Colts, where he showed two rare athletic traits on the same play. First, he had great hops to make a catch that 90 percent of wide receivers can’t make. And then, he somehow landed on the ground, turned and exploded up the sideline the remaining 25 or so yards for the touchdown. If he’s a step slower anywhere in that process, one of those defensive backs is able to push him out of bounds. Again, a play 90 percent of receives don’t make. So I will go with Agholor, but not by a ton. For the second slot, I’m selecting Kevin White. He won’t play a meaningful role this year and is extremely raw in terms of route running, but he’s a rare physical specimen. In terms of size and speed, he’s like Terrell Owens. Dorsett can pipeline off Andrew Luck, so I suppose I’ll stick him 3rd. But who knows how long it will be (if ever) that he’s better than T.Y. Hilton or Donte Moncrief? For the last two spots, I’ll go Parker-Perriman. Parker was drafted a lot sooner, and Perriman had problems with drops in college.
Question 2
Julio Jones looks like a player destined to wind up on the roster of many Index subscribers. He has been steadily rising in both the WR and Overall rankings. I believe I will have to make a choice between Jones and RBs like D. Murray or CJ Anderson in our 10-team, TD heavy, 1 keeper league. As you point out in the magazine, Julio has never been a big scorer in the past. Do you think the change in offensive coordinators will lead to Jones becoming an elite TD scorer in 2015?
Bob Heaps (Portage, MI)
That’s the hope. With a new offensive coordinator, maybe they can do a better job of utilizing him near the end zone. I believe they will try. He caught a short touchdown in their preseason opener against the Titans. In their second game, at New York, they tried to get it to him again when they were close to the goal line, but Darrelle Revis grabbed him as he was trying to get open. So I am of the school of thought that double-digit touchdowns are possible. But Jones’ ranking in standard and PPR formats is definitely built around the likelihood that he could catch 110-plus passes. He’s not my No. 1 guy in a TD-only format. With Julio, keep in mind that Andre Johnson comp. I’ve pointed to this one because Johnson was also playing in a system with Kyle Shanahan as his offensive coordinator. In two years with Shanahan, Johnson caught 115 and 101 passes, going over 1,565 yards each year. But Johnson caught only 8 and 9 TDs in those season – good but not great.
Question 3
How worried are you with how bad the Giants have looked? I was hoping to pick up Eli somewhat late as a top-notch backup. Now I can probably get him really late, but can I count on him?
Jane Williams (Wooster, OH)
I think they’ll get it figured out. That offense, recall, was remarkably bad in the preseason last year. Didn’t look like Ben McAdoo’s system was going to be a match with them at all. But they got it figured it. I imagine they will do so again. I’m not much worried about Eli Manning. Odell Beckham Jr., however, I get the feeling could have a much harder time as defenses make adjustments and do a better job of preparing for him.
Question 4
Long-time fan and subscriber (practically from the beginning - still consider your magazine the Bible). I have a couple of suggestions that would really help me in evaluating players on your board. The cheat sheets change weekly, and one of the things that interests me most is knowing which players made big moves up or down. If there was some way you could indicate that (even an arrow up or down, or if you wanted to get fancy, colored arrows to indicate a big move versus a more modest move), it would save me a ton of time (I currently do this manually). The second thing, and this may be more important than the first, is some indication on the cheat sheet to show players you are high on (or low on) compared to other experts. This actually becomes obvious when reading mailbags throughout the season because your subscribers tend to have the same players on their teams, which means they were available towards the middle rounds because other experts had them lower on their boards. It would be great to know that going in, so you could possibly hold off on some guys that might be available later in the draft because of your rankings versus other experts' rankings. I also do this manually (normally with pluses and minuses of different colors). I realize there is only so much room on the cheat sheet, but even if you included a couple of paragraphs at the end of the team by team analysis (player x made a big move up or down - I'm much higher or lower on player y than most experts), it would be extremely helpful. Thanks, and keep up the great work.
James Morton (New Orleans, LA)
These would be nice additions. Agreed. The other one I have heard a few times is ADP. That is, people would like for the cheat sheet to document the player’s ADP number. Also a useful tool. The problem with all of these suggestions, however, is manpower. They all take time and resources. With the idea of listing how much guys have changed in a week, for example, that’s a lot of numbers. There are 392 players in the stat download (Excel) file. I got out the last two Thursday versions, and 145 of those players moved by at least 5 spots. And that’s just one scoring system. Would need to be repeated for PPR and TD-only. (And Dynasty also, I suppose). It would be the same with comparing to rankings of other analysts and also with ADP data. We’re not talking about a 10-20 minute addition. We’re talking about at least a few hours each week where I am no longer working on scouting players and teams and working on the rankings themselves, but instead trying to compare the rankings to other rankings. So there’s a serious time crunch. I’m already working about 80 hours a week on this stuff – trying to watch all 16 games, read all the relevant camp reports, work on the projections, podcasts, mailbags, web postings, etc. --- so we’re at the point where if we want to add more things, we have to start taking things away. While I agree that it would be nice to add some of that other stuff, I’m hesitant to start cutting corners on this other stuff.
Question 5
I'm in a 12-team ppr league that allows the following starting options: 1 RB/3WRs, 2RBs/2WRs, or 3RBs/1WR. I think it's clearly best to opt for 1RB/3WRs and draft accordingly - agreed? I have the 6th pick. I'm assuming RBs Bell, Lacy, Peterson and Charles will be gone. I will easily take WR Brown at 6 but in a savvy league let's say he's gone as well. Now what? The next-best RB is enticing because I can have that one position locked up and then go WRs for the next 3 or 4 rounds. But I might miss out on a Tier 1 WR if I wait. (I know Gronk is an option but 6 is too early for me). So, is there a RB you would take ahead of any WR (except Brown) in this scenario?
Brian Carter (Spencer, MA)
You listed the different formation options – the different mix of running backs and wide receivers – but I don’t think that’s a question that needs to be answered. Let the draft determine that. When I hear of such a rule (and it’s the same in a league with a double flex), tell myself, “fine; positions don’t matter.” So instead of running backs and wide receivers, let’s just think of that as one position. “Field players,” if you will. So when you’re picking 6th, you’ll want to just take the most productive “field player” who’s available. I would hope for Julio Jones in that spot. Brandin Cooks, he’ll be a consideration in the second round. It would be awesome to get Cooks in the third, but hoping for him to be available at 3.06 in a PPR league, that’s a stretch.
Question 6
In a standard 12-team league. Is Dwayne Allen worth a roster spot? Or should I attack the situation in NE with Jonas Gray? I have Charles Clay as my other TE.
huy le (oxnard , CA)
Allen will be a lot better than Clay. Just a much better passing offense. I will grant the Colts also have Coby Fleener, but Allen seems to be their main tight end. Fleener is more of a hybrid who often lines up as a wide receiver. I envision Fleener’s playing time being much more heavily influenced by the additions of Andre Johnson and Phillip Dorsett. All of Fleener’s big games last year, recall, came when Allen was injured. In the 11 games that they both were healthy, Allen caught 8 more passes (33-25) and outscored him 7-3.
Question 7
I'm in a competitive 16-team semi-keeper auction league. We usually draft guys who will never come off waivers in smaller leagues. We draft 14 players before the pre-season begins, then can hit the waiver wire during the pre-season to bring our rosters up to 20 players, before cutting down to 16 before the real season starts. My starters are pretty solid, but with so much talent off the table in this format, keeping high-potential 3rd and 4th stringers can become fairly important. I wish I could keep all these guys, but I'm going to probably have to release three or four of them before the season starts. Wonder what your opinion of these guys is in terms of potential this season. If I'm lucky, I won't need to count on any of these guys, but which ones do you think I'll be least likely to regret throwing back? Ronnie Hillman (I have CJ Anderson), Brandon Oliver (I have Melvin Gordon), Jerick McKinnon, Brandon Coleman, Phillip Dorsett, Cody Latimer.
Ron Uetz (Manville, NJ)
Lots of good players. You have Anderson and Gordon, so I think Hillman and Oliver are pretty much required keeps. You’re trying to build a team, and they fit into what you’re doing. Gotta keep those guys. McKinnon and Dorsett have good long-term value, but I would put them a tier down. Of the six, Latimer is the first one I would be willing to part with. Not that he’s terrible, but he’s stuck behind Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, and both of those guys are under 30.
Question 8
I want to thank you for putting Andrew Luck on the cover, I used the cover jinx to justify taking Jamaal Charles to my nephew. He's new to fantasy and was adamant in taking a QB (Luck) with the 3rd pick.
JAMES TALLEUR (Highland, NY)
We’ll see. In general, my preference would also be to take Charles, but Luck could be pretty special. He’s got that great quartet of wide receivers, and he’s playing 10 games against AFC South and NFC South defenses.
Question 9
I have the 6th pick in my 12-team standard scoring keeper league. (3 rounds complete) I will be picking a WR, please rate these guys in order. Cooks, Adams, Tate, Hopkins, Sanders and Jeffries.
BARRY ST PETER (Pittsfield, MA)
I’ll take Cooks. Can’t believe he’s still available in the fourth round.
Question 10
I'm in a keeper league where you can keep 4. My 3 so far are Luck, Hyde and Ellington. Would you keep Foster or Jeffery? Thank you. Ron
RON PATTERMAN (Verona, WI)
Foster is in the mix. I won’t be a surprise if he winds up being better than both Hyde and Ellington. If you can guarantee me that Foster will miss only three games, I would take him ahead of both of those guys. But we can’t do that, so let’s go with Jeffery as that fourth keeper. A terrible team and an offense that’s probably headed down, but he’s the clear No. 1 option there, and you’re going to need somebody to catch some balls.