Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition: ranking the top shutdown cornerbacks.
Question 1
Who are the projected shutdown corners for this year? I am a long time fan of Fantasy Index. I don't remember how long I have been using your services, seems like forever. Thanks.
PATRICK KEHOE (Strasburg, VA)
Thanks for the kind words. For shutdown corners, I would put Patrick Peterson at the top of the list. He’s not at the Revis Island level that Darrelle Revis reached in his prime, but he’s huge, fast and really sticks with guys – especially the larger wide receivers. NFL Network released its top 100 players a few months back (voted on by players) and Peterson was the top-ranked cornerback, coming in at 19th.
Marcus Peters might be ready to move up into the top spot. He’s younger – entering just his third year – and has the best ball skills in the league. He comes up with interceptions that others don’t, catching balls that are tipped or that bounce off receivers’ hands. And he has a great feel breaking on balls a half-step early when he knows where it’s going to go. He’s picked off 14 balls in his first 31 games, which is remarkable in today’s game (NFL teams averaged 13 interceptions last year).
Richard Sherman has been an all-NFL corner over the last five years, but I worry about his lack of speed and his tendency to butt heads with teammates and coaches. Aqib Talib similarly has been great, but at 31 he could be starting to slow down. Janoris Jenkins got a lot better last year when he moved from the Rams to the Giants. Stephon Gilmore could be that cornerback this year.
Other cornerbacks who definitely would be in almost everyone’s top-10 list: Josh Norman, Xavier Rhodes and Chris Harris. Two others the top 100 list last year: Casey Hayward (Chargers) and Malcolm Butler. Jason Verrett was on his way to becoming one of those guys until tearing his ACL.
Other cornerbacks making over $10 million per year (according to OverTheCap.com): Trumaine Johnson (Rams), Desmond Trufant (Atl.), A.J. Bouye (Jac.), Joe Haden (Clev.), Darius Slay (Det.), Byron Maxwell (Mia.), Dre Kirkpatrick (Cin.), Jimmy Smith (Balt.) and Logan Ryan (Tenn.). Jalen Ramsey had a good rookie season for the Jaguars but seems to be the opposite of Peters when it comes to finding the ball; Ramsey had only 2 interceptions last year and only 3 in 41 games at Florida State.
Question 2
When's the podcast coming back?
Jacob Wilson (Crandall, TX)
Soon. Hopefully next week. Justin Eleff got married on Saturday. Let’s get him back and settled in, and then we’ll get it fired up. We have been trading emails on players and situations where we disagree. He thinks Cam Newton will bounce back; I do not. He thinks Jared Goff will be a better pro than Carson Wentz (which I think is crazy). He likes O.J. Howard, while I think Cameron Brate will be better this year.
Question 3
Wouldn't including return yardage and return TD's to individual players scoring add both complexity and purity to all (non-scoring only) fantasy leagues?
ALBERT CHAPMAN (Naples, FL)
It adds a little wrinkle. In the projections we put together, we include return touchdowns but not return yards. (If you don’t want the return touchdowns in your rankings, use the “custom rankings” feature on the website). Six players last year saw significant playing time on the field and also finished with over 500 return yards: Tyreek Hill (976 yards), Tyler Lockett (849), Cordarrelle Patterson (801), Jalen Richard (708), Ted Ginn (593) and Marqise Lee (548). If you were giving those guys a point for every 10 return yards, they would have picked up an extra 50-100 points.