Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. Special kickoff edition! In this edition, Ian explains why he's down on Allen Robinson, Sam Bradford, Samaje Perine, and the idea of using an early pick on a quarterback.
Question 1
Love the magazine. I've subscribed for more than a decade...and still think that you have the best fantasy football reference available. I play in a 12-team dynasty PPR league that allows us to keep 12 players indefinitely. Considering that 144 players are immediately off the board...the draft is essentially a rookie draft. Who do you like at 1.8 between: Kamara, Hunt, Perine, Howard, Njoku?
John Evans (Rochester, MN)
I’d be looking at three guys (of the ones you mention). Kansas City traded up to select Kareem Hunt, and he’s a run-catch guy who should be starting and featured pretty soon. Let’s see what he looks like the preseason, but he would be my pick today. With this being a PPR format, I would also be looking at Alvin Kamara. The Saints like using their running backs as pass catchers. Think about all the passes that have been caught by guys like Reggie Bush, Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas. Kamara catches a lot better than either Mark Ingram or Adrian Peterson, so I expect he’ll be moved into that third-down type role pretty quickly. And Howard. He looks like he’ll probably be a very good tight end for a lot of years, and that’s a position where you have a need. I’m not a big Perine fan. All he’s got to do is beat out Robert Kelley, but Perine looked awfully ordinary at times in college. He was splitting time with Joe Mixon last year, and it was very apparent that Mixon was the far better of the two. Perine had that game with 400-something yards as a freshman, but he got worse as a sophomore, and then another notch worse as a junior. To me, looks kind of like Isaac Redman – a poor man’s Michael Turner. Njoku has talent, but he’ll need time and is going to a really poor team.
Question 2
I notice the Vikings have really upgraded their offensive talent lately. Cook and Murray at tailback and they have 3 or 4 guys at WR who can play. Is Bradford in for a nice year? I don't love the player but his situation looks pretty nice.
David Kennedy (Steamburg, NY)
Offensive line should be a little better. They were plagued by injuries last year. That will help. But I don’t expect I would draft Sam Bradford, even in the last round of a draft. My preference is to carry two quarterbacks I can trust, using additional roster spots on handcuff-type running backs who might be something special. I would never, for example, selected Bradford before Jonathan Williams, James Conner, Devontae Booker or Joe Williams. Vikings should have three or four good receivers, depending on how Laquon Treadwell develops. Stefon Diggs in some games last year looked like he might be really special. They’ve got a nice tight end. But Bradford doesn’t seem to have any willingness or ability to drive the ball down the field. And when the running game is better this year (and it will be) that might cause the team to attempt fewer passes.
Question 3
3 year 12 team keeper league. This year is start over full draft. We keep 3 players, one per position for three years. My question, what is your favorite draft position? Our league is QB dependent big time! Top 4-5 picks are always QBs. Most important! We need a good QB for 3 years! We use a snake draft.
BEN HOGEVOLL (Siletz, OR)
There are a lot of good quarterbacks out there. If you were to let the other 11 draft their quarterbacks first, then pick up a couple, I think you would be just fine. I don’t have the scoring system in front of me, but I would be looking at Ezekiel Elliott and David Johnson. I don’t have the particulars of the draft, but how about choice No. 5? I get a running back there, and sitting in the middle of the order will help in deciding whether to select that initial quarterback in the third, fourth or fifth round.
Question 4
Ola. Great time-tested products. Ah yes, projections! My question is a request to review the high stakes fantasy football contests for September. Who is trusted? Who is the longest running? Any others besides NFFC, FFPC, FFWC? I seem to remember the WCOFF. I am taking a trip to Las Vegas September 7-11 and wondering if you ever entered any of these live world championship-type high stakes tournaments in Vegas? What format do you think is the most evenly set out for someone going from my local leagues to a high stakes league? Certainly I'll be taking your cheat sheet with me as I feel they are the best.
TIM WESTPHAL (New Berlin, WI)
I haven’t played any of those leagues, but they’ve all been in business for years. They’re legit. So it’s just a matter of you looking at the setup and picking which one appeals to you this most – which scoring system and format you like the most. One of them has an odd rule with extra flex players. You have to decide if you like PPR or standard scoring. And you should look at the format of how the league is set up.