The Weekly Bender: Is It Fantasy Football Draft Season Already?

Wed May 14 4:13pm ET
By HOWARD BENDER
Fantasy Writer

Bender is high on Walker this year

To answer the question in the title, you’re damn right it is! Sure, many of us are still trying to sort through the first month of the fantasy baseball season, but between the NFL Draft, May OTA’s and June mini-camps, fantasy football season is here and drafts are starting up all over the place. Add in the fact that on May 14^th the NFL will announce its full schedule and we can finally line up the bye weeks properly, drafts are going to kick into high gear before you know it.

Some people are adamant about not drafting early. They like to see all the position battles take shape in training camp, which rookies are carving out roles for themselves and then see what injuries they will have to navigate through as Week 1 of the regular season approaches. There was a time when I was in that camp with both feet.

Today, I sing a bit of a different tune. There are definite advantages to drafting now as opposed to August. First and foremost is that the ADP is taking shape and we are going to find some spectacular bargains. We are still close enough to the draft where people are over-hyping the rookies and taking them far too early in drafts. That enables us to wait on some of the more productive, less-sexy veteran players who we know will perform well for us over the course of an 18-week season.

We are also at an advantage with regard to knowing who the coaches are and what schemes they will run this season. The more casual fantasy player will wait until training camp to see what roles are being established. This allows us to be more sensible with our speculative late-round picks. If you know how a coach/coordinator likes to run his offense, you can find useful fantasy components at bargain costs. Once training camp starts and roles are better defined for the public, the ADP will rise and you won’t find the draft cost to be as reasonable.

We’ll be going through this throughout the offseason, but it’s always great to see it in action too, right? That’s why I jumped into one of the drafts for The Fantasy Championship last week. I wanted to stake my claim on certain players, build a team using my post-Draft and preseason knowledge and see how it all stacked up with some of the fiercest high-stakes players here at RT Sports.

Below is a full round-by round, pick-by pick breakdown of my TFC draft last week. You can read all the player write-ups below and if you want to hear it all as it was happening live, check out the livestream I did with Jeff Paur. Enjoy!

Click Here for the Draft Board

Round 1:

Ja’Marr Chase, WR CIN – I’m not sure this even requires analysis, but for those wondering why him over someone like Saquon Barkley, it’s simple. Last season, he led all wide receivers in fantasy scoring by more than 60 points in PPR formats and he’s Joe Burrow’s No. 1 target in a pass-heavy scheme. The Bengals didn’t do much to bolster their already horrendous defense, so we can probably expect quite a number of shootouts once again.

Round 2:

Breece Hall, RB NYJ – The offense is going to look significantly different without Aaron Rodgers and with new offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand bringing over elements of what he learned under Ben Johnson, we can be excited for the usage we should see for Hall. Is Braelon Allen going to be a thing? He may be involved, but Hall is the lead guy and will be used as such.

Round 3:

Kenneth Walker III, RB SEA – This might be considered a reach by some but I don’t see him coming back to me in the next round, based on my draft position. The Seahawks brought in Klint Kubiak as their new offensive coordinator and he, in turn, added famed offensive line coach Rick Dennison to set up the blocking scheme. If you’re not familiar with how Klint’s father Gary built offenses with Dennison back in the day, just go back into NFL history and look for names like Mike Anderson, Reuben Droughns, Orlandis Gary, Steve Slaton, Arian Foster and Dalvin Cook. Every single one of them had their best seasons working under Kubiak and Dennison.

Round 4:

Courtland Sutton, WR DEN – With two locked-in running backs and Chase on the roster, I opted to dive back into the wide receiver pool. Sutton has led the Broncos in targets and receiving yards since Sean Payton and Joe Lombardi took over and will continue his work as the X-receiver in this offensive scheme. This is another “buy into the coaching system more than the name of the player” situation as Payton and Lombardi funnel targets to the X-receiver constantly. Remember Marques Colston? Michael Thomas? Heck, even Mike Williams was dominant when Lombardi was with the Chargers.

Round 5:

Mike Evans, WR TB – New offensive coordinator John Grizzard wants to maintain what Liam Coen did in Tampa Bay last year which means it’s more Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans for us again. Will it now be 12 straight seasons with 1,000 yards for the wideout? Probably.

Round 6:

Tyrone Tracy Jr., RB NYG – Starting rosters have two running backs and two wide receivers, so with three top receivers on the roster, I wanted to make sure I had a legitimate third running back as well. This draft was extremely RB-heavy, so the pickings were getting slim. Tracy is expected to be the lead back for the G-Men with Cam Skattebo serving as the complementary runner – think Tony Pollard/Tajae Spears – so grabbing him now as my third back makes sense.

Round 7:

Bo Nix, QB DEN – I am very bullish on the Broncos offense this year and Nix is a huge part of it. With top mobile QBs off the board, I still wanted to make sure I drafted someone with that element as well. Nix finished the season eighth overall in rushing yards for quarterbacks and now that he has a legitimate threat behind him in RJ Harvey, the RPO work should prove more effective and even get us some extra rushing work. In Year 2 of this offense, I think 4,000 passing yards with 500 rushing yards is well within reach.

Round 8:

Evan Engram, TE DEN – And that completes by Broncos stack, a strategy I often like to apply to large-field tournaments. Payton and Lombardi have been looking for a player to serve as their “joker,” a non-receiver who can line up as such, run clean routes and has good hands. Engram showed us that he can play that part after dominating with targets and receptions in Jacksonville. The correlation between what Payton and Lombardi are doing now versus how they built their team in New Orleans is evident. Harvey plays the Alvin Kamara role, Sutton is the Michael Thomas role and that leaves Engram to be the next Jimmy Graham? Yes, please!

Round 9:

Marquise Brown, WR KC – He’s a field-stretcher who can go over the middle as well and he signed another one-year, prove-it deal with the Chiefs. He wants to pad his stats thanks to Patrick Mahomes and then head out to free agency again. It would have happened last year had he not gotten hurt. While the pick is solid, I probably made a mistake here, though. Seeing Zach Charbonnet go two picks later was a punch in the guy. He’s the handcuff to Walker and given the injuries Walker has sustained and with how Charbonnet received all the touches in his [Walker’s] absence, you know he’s going to be featured at times this season. If I could change one pick in this draft for me, this would be it.

Round 10:

Jaydon Blue, RB DAL – This was my “on-tilt, need RB depth pick” after steaming over Charbonnet for over a full round. Tough to believe in Javonte Williams or Miles Sanders at this point, so it does seem reasonable to believe Blue could end up the featured back by the early-to-middle of the season. If he does become a starter, my RB corps is fierce.

Round 11:

Cedric Tillman, WR CLE – He’s the field-stretcher for the Browns offense. Who’s throwing the football is still up for grabs, but regardless of who is under center, Tillman will be relied upon to be a strong, vertical threat. Hen playing in tournaments like this, you need some “boom or bust” guys.

Round 12:

J.J. McCarthy, QB MIN – Having been in situations like this and being forced to the waiver wire for QB help, I thought it best to grab a backup. Hopefully, when the NFL schedule comes out, I won’t have a bye week issue, but in the meantime, I’m going to push the chips alli n for McCarthy. He’s got a mobile element to his game, he’s in a pass-heavy offense and he’s got elite-level targets in Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson.

Round 13:

Tyler Conklin, TE LAC – While the rest of the world still believes Will Dissly is the Chargers top tight end, I’ll sneak in Conklin here because I believe he WILL be the team’s top pass-catching tight end. Greg Roman loves to use 12-personnel and Dissly profiles more as the in-line blocker. That’s why they added Conklin in free agency. I’m not saying he’s the next Mark Andres, but a similar snap count and potential target share? Maybe!

Round 14:

Darius Slayton, WR NYG – He’s the forgotten man in New York and that’s fine by me. Let the world focus on Malik Nabers. Slayton should work himself in opposite Nabers most of the way with Wan’Dale Robinson working out of the slot for shorter, chain-moving routes. Slayton can stretch the field with his speed and he’s been surprisingly strong with his given workload.

Round 15:

Roschon Johnson, RB CHI – He’s a depth-play running back for me here, but let’s face it – the Bears did nothing to beef up that running back room. D’Andre Swift takes the lead role but we’ve seen him fizzle out as the season rolls on. If the Bears don’t sign Nick Chubb (the rumor mill is spicy!), Johnson could earn a larger role.

Round 16:

Tyler Lockett, WR TEN – He can stretch the field and he can work out of the slot. The best way to get Cam Ward ready for his NFL career is to boost his confidence with some solid pass-catching veterans. I expect hi to work opposite Calvin Ridley and have some good “boom or bust” potential.

Round 17:

Pat Bryant, WR DEN – Yes, another man from the Broncos. Following the draft, Sean Payton discussed how Bryant reminds him of Michael Thomas. That’s a pretty big endorsement. If we aren’t enamored with Sutton, perhaps Bryant gets an opportunity to shine as a potential-receiver.

Round 18:

Houston Texans D/ST – We need to start a team defense, so considering the power, speed and ability to turn the ball over, we can lock in Will Anderson, Danielle Hunter and the Texans. Strong sack totals and their improving secondary led by Derrick Stingley should land us some picks in the defensive backfield.

Round 19:

Will Lutz, K DEN – Yes, we also need to start a kicker. Obviously, I’m bullish on the Broncos offense, but we also get the altitude and thin air in Denver which helps the ball travel further. Lutz was 16-for-18 in field goals over 40 yards. I’ll take that all day.

Round 20:

Miles Sanders, RB DAL – My own personal Mr. Irrelevant. He’s a potential handcuff for the Dallas running back room. We’ll see what he does. Nothing wrong with having two-thirds of a room this early in the preseason. It will sort out before the season starts and if he’s a first-cut, so be it.

So, there you have it, folks. A little pick-by-pick TFC breakdown. Again, if you want to hear the breakdown (and the Round 9 meltdown) in real time, check out the livestream Jeff Paur and I did on the RT Sports YouTube page. And don’t forget to join us every Wednesday night at 9 PM as we bring you more draft coverage throughout the preseason.

The Weekly Bender: Is It Fantasy Football Draft Season Already?

The Paur Report