Fantasy Football For Breakfast (Fri, 7/19)
It's Friday's Fantasy Football For BreakFast! Furnished for the finest fans to flirt with the fantastic flavors of first-rate professional football. Five-stars! Follow me on Twitter, @mattkdelima
Marquise Brown "PROGRESSING WELL"
NEWS: The former Oklahoma wideout "should be back on the field in a few weeks." Brown will open the season on the active/NFI (non-football injury) list.
ANALYSIS: Brown's status for Week 1 is still up in the air. He had surgery in February and while I do think he'll eventually be the best WR on the Ravens' roster, there are just too many factors against him. First, Lamar Jackson limits any WR's potential since this is going to be a run-minded offense with conservative tendencies. FullTime Fantasy's Advanced ADP puts him at 162.2 and WR69 off the draft board. In a 12-team league, that makes him your WR6. His late-round flier status is appropriate and I wouldn't mind a slight reach for him since he's at least a WR1 candidate as he competes with Willie Snead and Jordan Lasley for that role.
Demarcus Robinson ROLE EXPANSION
NEWS: Robinson will be asked to play Chris Conley's role in 2019.
ANALYSIS: Conley was the de facto WR3 behind Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins (at least when Sammy was healthy). The key word being "healthy." We still don't know what Hill's suspension could be, Watkins is always some kind of banged up and this now places Robinson firmly in the WR3 spot. Robinson's ADP is 233.13 and you can get him for dirt cheap. VALUE ALERT! In this high-powered offense, we're basically one Watkins rolled ankle away from the 233rd pick being Mahomes #2 target behind Travis Kelce. I'll take it, but be patient. Pick 233 is 19.05 so wait on it. It's mid-July. A lot can happen in about 6 weeks.
JALEN RICHARD TO LOSE TARGETS TO Josh Jacobs
NEWS: A beat writer is speculating that Jalen Richard will lose some of his passing-down playing time to the rookie Josh Jacobs.
ANALYSIS: The Oakland Raiders got a good one in Jacobs and any news that supports the idea he'll be more of a workhorse back is good news for us Fantasy owners.
However, Richard was a solid flex option in PPR leagues that was once-again going under the radar. I don't mind him as a flier even with this news because he still holds handcuff value as well. RBs get injured and you can't get too picky by the time Weeks 10 & 11 roll around.
Richard had 68 receptions last year and that's a big potential number for Jacobs to even flirt with in addition to three-down rushing production.
However, for my money, Jacobs is in no-mans land on draft day. He's going around Pick 41 in high-stakes leagues which puts him in the company of Mark Ingram, Kenny Golladay and Tyreek Hill. This area is full of guys with Tier 1 potential but there's just one that one issue for all these guys which holds us back from taking them sooner. Compared to Jacobs, the names I listed have a pro resume to fall back on. Jacobs has total bust potential which means I can't have him as my RB1 and ideally, he'd be my RB3 if I implement a heavy RB strategy and snag three of them in the first four rounds.
Fun fact: The first RB picked in the draft hasn't been a bust since 2014's Bishop Sankey out of Washington. 2015 Gurley, 2016 Elliott, 2017 Fournette, 2018 Barkley. So recent history is at least on the side of Jacobs. My hot take back in 2014 was "I'm saying 'No Thanky to Bishop Sankey." Yeah, I'm not funny.
