Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition: What is Jamaal Charles' value (if any) in a dynasty league? Is it time to pull the plug on Josh Robinson? And should Andrew Luck spend a week on the (fantasy) bench before making it back into lineups?
Question 1
Jamaal Charles is out for the year. I am in a 12-team, standard scoring keeper league where he would cost me a first-round draft pick to retain next season. I've happily kept him every year since he was dropped by another owner following his previous season-ending injury. Given Charles' age and injury, do you think he's worth a roster spot for the remainder of this year at that value next year?
Bradley Contento (Tucson, AZ)
When Charles tore his other ACL in 2011, he came back to run for 1,509 yards and 5 TDs, averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Also caught 35 passes for 236 yards, with another touchdown. So it’s possible he’ll prove to be worthy of a first-round pick next year. But he’ll be 29 in December, and keeping him prevents you from using that valuable roster spot for the remaining 10 weeks of this season. And if you were to let him go right now, what are the chances of being able to find an even better player at the 2016 draft? Pretty good, I think. That’s the route I would go (and you might even end up selecting Charles with that pick, which would be a win – since you got to use the roster spot this year).
Question 2
I'm in a 10-team, 2-QB keeper league. Any player drafted in rounds 9 thru 12 is eligible to be retained for up to three years. First retained keeper takes up pick 12, second retained keeper takes up pick 11, etc. The catch is that you only have 6 bench spots and a keeper must remain on your roster the entire season. I drafted (in order) Ryan Mathews, Josh Robinson, Dwayne Allen, and I kept Carlos Hyde whom I drafted in 2014 (mostly because of your raving about him last year in preseason). Managing the bench in this league is actually one of the most challenging parts of this league because mistakes can literally kill your team during the bye weeks and due to injuries. Try and hang on to all four keepers for the whole season and you'll lose games. It's happened to me before. QUESTION: Josh Robinson. He had great promise in the pre-season but he's fumbling away (literally) his chance to be Frank Gore's successor. If Indy is kicking the tires on Ahmad Bradshaw, is it time for owners of Josh Robinson to move on? Even those who have Josh Robinson as a keeper?
Andrew Napoli (Springfield, VA)
I thought Robinson ran well in the preseason. He broke a lot of tackles, consistently picking up extra yards. He looks like belongs in this league – like he’ll be starting some games. But it hasn’t quite translated yet. Including the third preseason game (the most important one) he’s gained only 43 yards on his last 22 carries. That’s under 2 yards per attempt. And he’s had issues with ball security. He lost a fumble against Jacksonville, and including the preseason I think there have been three other fumble-like incidents. Two in the preseason, I think, and he got it knocked out down near Buffalo’s goal line on a play that was nullified by a penalty. He’s not a particularly good pass catcher. I think that’s why the Colts signed Ahmad Bradshaw. But I believe Robinson will start some games before the end of the 2016 season. Gore is 32, and he can’t keep going forever.
Question 3
Tough decision. I have to make room for another wide receiver for this weekend. I have several good running backs. Do I cut Ameer Abdullah or Ronnie Hillman? I don't who has more potential going forward. They both have done nothing. I am in a TD, yardage, and return league.
GEORGE BIEDERMANN (Shingle Spgs, CA)
Neither guy is good enough to be counted on right now. They’re both on teams that rank in the bottom 3 in rushing. But both are good enough to at least be on fantasy rosters. Abdullah is explosive, and he’ll bust some big plays when they get more of the stuff around him fixed. I saw him make three big plays in their first game (at San Diego). He’s also returning kickoffs, for whatever that’s worth in your league – averaging 57 yards per game in that capacity. I think he’s Detroit best running back. With Hillman, he’s probably Denver’s top guy, and with that team being 5-0, there’s probably a better chance of them getting things turned around. Doesn’t return kickoffs and has caught 7 fewer passes than Abdullah, but a better chance (I think) of becoming a reliable running threat.
Question 4
In the Weekly, you declined to double-list the Indy players regarding Luck's injury, stating instead that "we’ll post something on the website on Thursday if it there’s any indication he won’t be healthy enough to make the start." Having Hilton, Moncrief and Gore in multiple leagues, I checked back numerous times yesterday hoping for updated rankings. Really sucks that you didn't get around to it, Ian. I don't know if your advice would have been good or bad, but that's not the point. The point is that you made a commitment to your paying customers and then broke it. And that sucks.
BILL REHOR (Culver City, CA)
Apologies. I just dropped the ball on that one. I just got busy doing other stuff. I like to re-watch some games in that window, I was writing the Mailbag, researching trivia questions and recording a podcast. And I may have forgotten I made the commitment. But it was an error, and I’ll try to avoid repeating it in the future.
Question 5
Yardage league: am I nuts to think of benching Luck for Andy Dalton?
Theodore Gaskell (Jacksonville, FL)
Not at all. Dalton is hot right now, and there’s nothing wrong with trying to ride the hot hand. Luck probably will be better than Dalton in the long run, but he’s struggling right now. It’s reasonable to set him aside for a week or two until they’ve got that offense sorted out. (That said, the Bengals have a tough matchup this week – at Buffalo – and after putting together the projections for both teams, I’ve got Luck higher than Dalton on my board this week.)
Question 6
As you're always on the cutting edge of a trendsetter in Fantasy Football world, I have question that I haven't seen posed either to you or in any other forum. With the advent of the "Targets" category (something that didn't exist when I started playing in 1992) how about we further divide that category a little bit for all those stat-hungry fantasy football fans and add the following: 1) Red Zone Targets, 2) Red Zone Runs, 3) Targets between the 20s, 4) Runs between the 20s. I'm not sure if you believe these sub-categories would be "useful" so to speak but they're certainly food for thought and would break out the more general "Targets" category while adding something for running backs that serves as a similar (if not the same) purpose.
STEVEN SALAMI (Hazlet, NJ)
I think I got this question earlier. I am of the school of thought that stats for inside the 10 are of more value than inside the 20. What is it, after all, that’s special about a play from the 17-yard line? How is that different from a play at the 26? It’s inside the 10 where you start seeing the big bulk of pass plays being run with the intention of trying to get it into the end zone. (And for running plays, I’m really more interested than inside the 5, rather than inside the 10.) With that in mind, around here we load all plays inside the 10 into a database. Not only plays but 2-point conversion attempts, which aren’t officially “plays” but are valuable barometers of an offense. Then we can sort and total those plays and results and look for patterns. We used to also do the same for red zone figures, but I found I didn’t use them nearly as much as the numbers for right down at the goal line.