Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. IR rules for fantasy leagues. Tua's up-and-down ratings. Whatever happened to Joe Burrow? Slow-starting offenses. And more.
Question 1
Long-time member of your site. Still love it and nice update this year. I wanted to get your take on a situation that has come up this year. In our league we are allowed to designate a player for IR only if the NFL declares his status as IR (we have two IR spots and then are able to pick up a FA). If a player is on the PUP list he must still remain on the active roster as he does not have the IR designation. The situation came to our attention as Nacua is now on IR (at least 4 weeks) vs. Hockenson still remains on the PUP list (likely out for several more weeks). In your expert opinion, would you allow PUP list players to be placed on IR roster spots allowing a team to pick up a FA? Our league is in a debate.
Ryan Logan (Minneapolis, MN)
Jonathon Brooks can be added to this discussion. He’s not on “injured reserve” because his injury occurred before he entered the league. He’s on the “non-football injury” list. Clearly, Hockenson and Brooks are in the same boat as Nacua. All three guys are hurt. It would be silly for Nacua to be eligible for your league’s reserve system but the others to be ineligible. In my opinion. But is the system really necessary? Why not just limit franchises to some number of roster spots, leaving it up to team owners whether they want to use them on players who are healthy, injury, suspended or whatever? If you feel that approach is too punitive to teams that happen to have a couple of injured players, just give every team one more spot. As the IR system is currently structured, it encourages teams to obtain players they’re really not interested in. My team, for example, might be fully healthy, but I don’t want to have my two IR spots sitting there. So I’d incentivized to perhaps add Keaton Mitchell and DJ Chark to my IR list, giving me first dibs on controlling their rights once they’re activated. Does that add to our league?
Question 2
Please explain why Tua was ranked all along as a QB2 (mid teens) for preseason drafting, and OMG now WOW top ranked QB1 in Week 1? I feel that I may have missed the boat drafting the likes of Trevor Lawrence and Caleb Williams, when Tua was still available in the draft.
Jim Bruno (Roebling, NJ)
Tagovailoa will have some big games. And heading into Week 1, I liked the look of that matchup, with Jacksonville not being used to that different style of offense. Both of Tagovailoa’s best games the last two years have come really early in the season – 400-yard games in shootout wins against the Chargers and Ravens. So I like the idea of pairing Tagovailoa with another quarterback, plugging him for favorable matchups. But he’s got limitations. There will be defenses that give him trouble, and he doesn’t run at all, putting him on an uphill slope for fantasy purposes. Last year, for example, he averaged 272 passing yards per game (2nd-best), with 29 TDs in 17 games (6th-best) but finished as only the 14th-best per-game quarterback for fantasy purposes. I also wonder if we’re going to get more concussion issues at some point. If we’re drafting today, I’m taking Lawrence before Tagovailoa. And I think we can get Williams to the point before long where he’s also better as a fantasy option.
Question 3
I’ve been following you since LaDainian was a rookie, obviously, I value your opinion. What did you see to have Burrow rated so high, like 2nd or 3rd most of the preseason? Between the Chase hold out and wrist injury, I’m confused. He’s on 3/4 of my teams because I couldn’t avoid him, mind you, I got good value with him.
Jeff Carter (Franklin, TN)
He was dreadful in Week 1. I didn’t see that coming. And as poorly as they played in that game, I wouldn’t want to put him on the field this week. I expect he’ll get things going, and I’ll sleep better when he does. In regards to his preseason grade, I didn’t give any weight to him suffering a wrist injury last November. I don’t think it’s relevant. He’s healthy, as far as I know. They just need to get things dialed in (and I believe that will happen). He was about the best quarterback in the league in his last five healthy games last year. Over the last three years, he’s averaged the 5th-best per-game quarterbacking numbers in the league.
Question 4
Did teams run fewer plays than usual in Week 1 (due to so many now running the play clock down before snapping)?
Richard Loppnow (Ephrata, WA)
Yes. That’s observant of you to notice this. Offenses did run about 3 fewer plays per game in Week 1 (compared to last year). Fewer than any of the last four years (but more than some other seasons going further back). Passing numbers were down in the openers, with teams averaging 204 passing yards, and with just 35 touchdown passes. I hope that we’re not going to be seeing that for the entire season. If we scroll back to the 2019-22 seasons, teams averaged 245 passing yards in Week 1, and with an average of 53 touchdown passes. (Rushing, on the other hand, was up in Week 1, with teams averaging 122 yards in their first games, with 12 more touchdowns than in either of the two previous seasons.)
| WEEK 1 OFFENSIVE AVERAGES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Pass/G | TDP | Run/G | TDR |
| 2017 | 223.0 | 38 | 87.2 | 19 |
| 2018 | 233.5 | 46 | 101.8 | 23 |
| 2019 | 259.5 | 58 | 94.3 | 19 |
| 2020 | 235.9 | 48 | 117.0 | 35 |
| 2021 | 254.8 | 58 | 109.1 | 27 |
| 2022 | 231.3 | 48 | 117.8 | 22 |
| 2023 | 211.0 | 37 | 104.7 | 24 |
| 2024 | 203.5 | 35 | 121.5 | 36 |
Question 5
Love the magazine and what you guys do - long time subscriber! Having trouble deciding between Khalil Shakir and Jameson Williams for Week 2. I like Shakir as a primary Bills receiver against Miami, but Jameson Williams put up some serious numbers last week. What are your thoughts? Thank you!
Anthony Guido Jr. (Savannah, GA)
Bills seem like they’re really going to be spreading things around. They’ve got a couple of tight ends, and looks like they’ll be using a four-man weave at wide receiver. Of all of those guys, Shakir is the craftiest with the ball in his hands on underneath routes, but it’s going to be tough to count on him. With the Lions, it’s a more consolidated attack. There’s Williams, LaPorta and St. Brown, and that’s about it. Maybe throw in Gibbs. So if his ankle checks out OK, he’s the pick every week over Shakir. (Williams was a limited participant at practice on Wednesday; today’s listing should be showing up online soon.)
Question 6
After Week 1, I'm being offered Ja’Marr Chase, Jordan Love and Courtland Sutton for Patrick Mahomes, Chris Olave, and Jayden Reed. I have Dak Prescott, so I'm willing to part ways with Mahomes and use him or a combination of Dak & Love once he's back and healthy. What do we think?
Adam Bey (Fenton, MO)
It's a clever idea. According to my numbers, the combination of Chase & Sutton will be noticeably better than Reed & Olave. (Chase had the lousy opener, but they’ll get him going.)
Question 7
I was wondering why you stopped putting the players names in bold in the weekly write ups? It sure saves time for those us just wanting to find the ones that are on our fantasy teams. I appreciate all the work you guys put into your products, you are the best in the business!
Damon Duhon (Baton Rouge, LA)
Agreed. I like the guys to be in bold. (I didn’t realize they weren’t). If you open the PDF file, they are in bold there. I see that there’s another area of the site where the bolding is getting lost. Let me check into this and see if we can get this fixed for future weeks.
Question 8
In a league with 4 points per touchdown pass. Love is my starter and I had drafted Cousins as the backup. Fields is available so I am leaning towards him just to get me through this week. Am I bailing on Cousins too soon?
PAUL NICKAS (Jacksonville, FL)
Probably. But there’s something to be said for the here and now. Love could be back in a couple of weeks. They haven’t put him on IR. Other quarterbacks will be shaking free. You may even re-sign Cousins (who looked awfully gimpy last week).
Question 9
Should I drop Andrews and add Likely?
Ray Phillips (Cornelius, NC)
I don’t know that I would release Andrews. I think he might still be a starter-caliber tight end. He’s still going to be on the field a bunch. But from what I saw in the Week 1 game, I think Likely will be better than Andrews.
Question 10
Someone dropped Calvin Ridley in my league. My bench receivers are JSN and Shakir. Would you drop either for Ridley? I am keen to keep Shakir, but have concerns about JSN target share in without an injury. Ridley of course comes with the risk that TEN will suck and the bad QB play.
Jeff Hornstein (Miami, FL)
I don’t know that any of them are going to hit the greatness threshold. That was an awfully disappointing debut for Smith-Njigba. With DK Metcalf paired up against Patrick Surtain for most of that game, I would have thought JSN would have been busier. With DeAndre Hopkins’ age and knee issues, I would be more inclined to pivot to Ridley.
Question 11
I have Harris/Warren and Robinson/Ekeler, but McLaughlin is available - Would you rather be holding Warren and Ekeler or McLaughlin for the rest of the season?
Chase Grainger (Weston, FL)
I would take McLaughlin before either of those guys. I looks like they’ll be using him a ton in the passing game. I understand that none of his catches went anywhere in the opener, but I think they’ll get it figured out. McLaughlin will catch a lot more passes than Warren and Ekeler, I’m thinking, so he’d be my choice.