Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. What can A.J. Brown do for you? Can Daniel Jones be a poor man's Jalen Hurts? Whatever happened to Chris Rodriguez? And more.
Question 1
Dynasty TD-dependent league WR question. I have A.J. Brown who appears to have fallen out of favor with the Eagles run-first offense. Is it time to move on from him? Or wait several more weeks? Potential replacements include players getting targets such as Kayshon Boutte, Michael Pittman and Jakobi Meyers.
Howie Fishman (Venice, FL)
I would stick with Brown. He caught one pass in the opener, but I don’t know that things have changed all that much. Jahan Dotson looks like he’s ready to do a little more, but I think Brown is still their top guy. He’s scored 7 TDs in each of his last two seasons – 14 TDs in his last 30 games, and I think that’s basically still what he is. Boutte is not in the conversation. Pittman is trapped in a lesser offense and won’t necessarily be one of the top 3 touchdown catchers on his own team. He’s caught 8 touchdowns in his last 33 games. Meyers has caught 4 TDs in his last 16 games. The Jakobi-A.J. discussion would get more interesting in a PPR format.
Question 2
Does anyone know why Chris Rodriguez was a healthy scratch? As high as he was rated, I thought he would be the goal line RB for Washington.
Pat Britton (Carmichael, CA)
Dan Quinn in August (after the Brian Robinson trade) said Rodriguez would be the team’s short-yardage and goal-line back. That, of course, didn’t happen in Week 1. Rodriguez wasn’t even active. They went primarily with Austin Ekeler and Jacory Croskey-Merritt at running back in their first game. But I wouldn’t rule out seeing Rodriguez in that role at some point. I don’t think there’s much chance they’ll simply be rolling with an Ekeler-JCM tandem for all 17 games.
Question 3
I'm in a 12 team Superflex PPR My second QB is Bryce Young who looked pretty awful last week Daniel Jones looked great, albeit against a weak Miami D. Question is right now nobody is in a position to grab a QB Should I stay the course with Bryce or roll the dice even though he has Denver this week that he is now with the right team and could shine?
Todd Verebey (Woodcliff Lake, NJ)
I would keep Young. As poorly as he played in Week 1, he had that nice run to close out last year. Going forward, I expect he’ll look more like that 2024 version rather than what you saw on Sunday. Young in his final 10 games last year averaged 210 passing and 22 rushing yards, with a combined 20 TDs. With Daniel Jones, you’ll getting a guy who’s always struggled with deep passes, pocket awareness and closing out drives in the red zone. I liked the 2 TD runs on Sunday – in that regard, he could be a poor man’s Jalen Hurts. But I think Young will be better.
Question 4
I have Sutton, Pearsall and Detroit's Williams and just added Egbuka. My league only allows me to keep 3 WR's. Who would you drop?
JOSEPH MARCOCCIO (Barrington, RI)
Sutton is the best of the four, I think. He was a top-10 receiver in the second half of last year, and that still seems to be in place. For the others, I suppose it would be best to go with the guys who are getting it done right now – leaving Jameson, I think, as your odd man out (thought it seems weird to let a player of his talent slide onto the wire). If and when Chris Godwin gets back to full strength (he’s shooting for Week 5), that could push Egbuka below Williams.
Question 5
One thing that inevitably happens if we follow the Fantasy Index is that we end up drafting players that you all rank higher than the ADP. One thing that could be helpful, is to include the ADP in the Fantasy Index alongside your rankings. The higher the delta between your index and the ADP, the more (or less) likely we are to draft them. It could be interesting to highlight the players that are, say, 5+ spots higher/lower in the ranking and add more color in the notes as to why you are bucking the trend (faithful adherents to your rankings will, likely, have some of the same players across multiple teams). One example is Calvin Ridley - he's on a bunch of my teams, and you wrote an article on your thinking behind him. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd love to see these players highlighted and more details on your reasoning behind them (either in the notes section or in articles). That would be super helpful. Love you guys, keep up the great work!
David Cole (San Carlos, CA)
This is a good suggestion. I’m not excited about trying to squeeze more bells and whistles onto an already cluttered and crowded Cheat Sheet, but we should make more of an effort to identify and discuss the differences between rankings and ADP. Occasionally, I will get out the ADP and cross-merge it with our rankings, identifying the dozen or so key guys, then write an article pointing them out. I’ve done it more in the past than I did this summer. I will try to get back to that next time around.
Question 6
I'm very curious why the following happened. I posed a question about my draft where history told me the top 3 running backs would go. I had pick 4, and questioned if I should take Chase. You were kind enough to answer me via email, which you said yes, take Chase. When the cheat sheets came out according to my half-point PPR, Chase was ranked #8. What changed?
Patrick LaMendola (Penfield, NY)
I don’t know that anything changed. Chase has been our No. 1 wide receiver all along. He’s still our No. 1 wide receiver, and I imagine you’ll be very happy with him. (I wouldn’t be worried about Week 1 at all.) In regards to overall lists, they vary based on the scoring system and also the size of the league. I was looking at PPR rankings and half-PPR rankings a few weeks back and noticed that running backs tend to drift up some in those rankings – taking away half of each player’s points from receptions affects wide receivers more than running backs. That’s a contributing factor for your particular league. Also key is where you decide to set the supply-demand baselines at each position. That’s tied to the size of the league and the preferences of the individual owner. For me, when I’m going into a draft, I tend to focus on first identifying the players I think will be picked in about the first 8-9 rounds – maybe the top-100 players (but look at those guys in the 90s and outside the top 100 and decide whether you think they belong in your key group or not. After the key group of 100 or so players are identified, you count up how many at each position (QB-RB-WR-TE) are inside that group. Their values are then measured by how much better they are than the best player at each position who didn’t make it into the hot 100. In a general sense, if we follow this process, Chase turns out as a clear No. 1 player overall in most scoring systems. Apparently in your league, how your triggers are set up, he came in at No. 8. Using our player grading system, the No. 8 ranking tells me that there’s a bigger statistical difference between those first seven running backs and player No. 40 or 45 (or whatever) at that position, rather than the difference between Chase and receiver 50 or 55 (or wherever its set) at that position. That’s surprising to me, but I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ve got him now, and I expect you’ll be happy with him.
Question 7
Trever Lawrence at Bengals, or Baker Mayfield vs Houston Texans this week?
Jim Furry (Conway, SC)
I will go Mayfield. I don’t like the matchup, with Houston bringing pressure and Tampa Bay playing without Tristan Wirfs. But that style of defense does tend to result in touchdowns coming through the air. Only two defenses allowed more touchdown passes last year. Mayfield is the better player, with 44 touchdown passes in his last 18 games. Lawrence has thrown 24 in his last 18 games.