Buy or Sell: Matt Ryan

by | Aug 22, 2014 | Fantasy Football

Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers remain the Big Three when it comes to fantasy football QBs. After that there’s a buying-sellingmess of guys in the second and third tiers who can win you championships. Matt Ryan falls somewhere in that mix.

Even sans Tony Gonzalez, Ryan has all the skill position talent a signal caller could need to rack up money-making stats. Yet Ryan, so far in his career, seems to be just short of living up to what people are expecting. With Julio Jones back, Roddy White returning healthy and Harry Douglas now an established number three, is this the year Ryan takes his game up a notch? Or does a faulty offensive line pair with a questionable ground attack to once again leave Ryan owners frustrated?

Matt Ryan
ADP: 87
QB: 12

Buy: Anthony

If you weren’t on the Matt Ryan bandwagon early last year, you were stuck in standing room only. With two top targets in Julio Jones and Roddy White, plus a Hall of Fame tight end, Ryan was a popular choice to sneak into the top five at quarterback. Instead, his offensive line went to hell, Jones missed the season with an injury, White played hurt much of the season, and the Falcons season went bust. Yet Ryan STILL managed to finish ninth at the position in fantasy points. What does he get for his efforts? An ADP of 12th at the quarterback position. (more…)

Buy or Sell: Andre Johnson

by | Aug 22, 2014 | Fantasy Football

Andre Johnson has played with some mediocre QBs, from David Carr to Case Keenum, throughout his 11-year career and all he has buying-sellingdone was put up numbers. But as he enters year 12, it appears as though he’s tiring of that situation – he spent much of the offseason publicly pondering life away from the Texans.

The aging vet has still put up 3,005 receiving yards the past two seasons combined. Does he have another season of consistency and production in him? Or is this the year that fantasy drafters regret taking the Texans wideout?

Andre Johnson
ADP: 34.9
WR: 11

Buy: Tony

Several people I know have been down on Andre Johnson in fantasy circles for several seasons, citing his advancing age, his missing of 9 games in 2011 (and 3 in 2010), and lack of double digit touchdown seasons. And you can’t deny any of those factors. Hell, this year you can add in DeAndre Hopkins being in his second season, and playing with Ryan Fitzpatrick to the mix. (more…)

Buy or Sell: Tom Brady

by | Aug 19, 2014 | Fantasy Football

Tom Brady has long been a cornerstone for fantasy franchises, a QB you could count on to put up top three or four numbers. But buying-sellinghe’s getting up there in age and his once full cupboard of weapons is now, for reasons ranging from homicide to injury to age, somewhat bare. That said, he still put up more than 4,000 yards passing and threw 25 TDs in a year in which he lost for all or part of the season Aaron Hernandez, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Shane Vereen and others. Figuring out how to balance these factors make him one of the trickier players to peg heading into 2014.

Tom Brady
ADP: 62.9
QB: 9

Buy: Maggio

It’s easy to look at Tom Brady’s final 2013 stats and his age—he’s 37—and after taking a gander at the other shiny objects at the quarterback position write him off and forget about him.

But you can’t look objectively at last year and simply assume Brady’s decline has begun. Danny Amendola, Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson all played only 12 games for various reasons, Vereen played in just eight, and Gronkowski was present for seven. So what did Brady do? He took a four-year backup in Julian Edelman and turned him into a 1,000-yard receiver. (more…)

Mock Madness – Picking from the Eight spot

by | Aug 19, 2014 | Fantasy Football

This weekend I conducted four 12-team mock drafts on ESPN.com drafting from the eighth position each time, trying out different strategies to see what team I liked the best. They are listed by position and the round in which I selected the players is in parentheses.

A few takeaways for me:

  • I had the chance to take Eddie Lacy in the first draft I did at the No. 8 spot. That opportunity didn’t afford itself again.
  • I like all of the top dozen quarterbacks enough to take the upside of Johnny Manziel as my backup option, figuring that if he goes bust I can get a serviceable one-week replacement off waivers.
  • Rashad Jennings and Joique Bella are two backs I like a lot that slip regularly to the 5th and 6th rounds, respectively. One could assemble a nice 1-2 punch at WR, get a nice TE or QB, and still grab a RB before going with those two to round out a very solid starting lineup across the board.

So overall, if I had to pick one of these teams to play out the season with, I’d probably say draft 3. That would change if it turned out Josh Gordon wasn’t suspended for the season, in which case I’d go draft 1. But, I could’ve also foregone Wheaton in draft 3 and taken Gordon instead, in which case draft 3 would easily be the winner.

If you had to play with one of these teams for the entire season, which would you pick? (more…)

Buy or Sell: Joique Bell

by | Aug 18, 2014 | Fantasy Football

Experts saw great things coming from the Calvin Johnson/Reggie Bush tandem in 2013. And they weren’t completely wrong. But by buying-sellingseason’s end it was Joique Bell, not Bush, who was the more oft-used back.

Yet despite that, Bush is going off the board as the 15th running back in fantasy drafts at ESPN while Bell is languishing as the RB 26. The workload breakdown this year has yet to be determined. Will Bell continue earning carries away from the more heralded teammate? Or will Bell fade back into a secondary role as the Lions move forward with a new offensive coordinator?

Joique Bell
ADP: 73.3
RB: 26

Buy: Maggio

Step forward if you led the Lions backfield in receiving yards and rushing touchdowns in 2013. Not so fast, Reggie Bush. It was, in fact, Joique Bell who accomplished both feats, finishing just a reception shy of the pass-catching whiz in Scott Linehan’s offense. (more…)