It's not even June yet and we are drafting fantasy teams and placing bets. What a time to be alive...
In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter:
- Are you on team slow draft or team fast draft?
- Travis Etienne is back to full strength
- Geoff's 2 bets involving a Saints WR and the Lions
- We take a glass half full approach to Tyler Lockett
- It’s 5/24. Take it away, Peter Overzet…
With hot best ball summer officially underway, a debate threatens to tear apart the fantasy community...
You'd think being able to draft fantasy teams in May would unify the fantasy world, but that's sadly not the case. In fact, you must pick a side or risk getting trampled in battle...
The case for Slow Drafts: An 18-round best ball draft on Underdog takes around 45 minutes, but with slow drafts you have 8 hours per pick. Instead of carving out an hour of your day to draft, you can simply take a couple minutes to make a selection when you receive an on-the-clock notification. The drive-thru window of fantasy drafting, if you will.
The Slowest Draft
The case for Fast Drafts: There's nothing more agonizing than getting sniped in a draft. Actually, there's one thing more agonizing...waiting hours, and more likely, days, to see if you're going to get sniped. Fast drafts inject that fantasy dopamine directly into your veins over a 45 minute sprint. More casual drafters will often make mistakes during fast drafts as well, something you savvy Fantasy Life readers will be able to capitalize on.
Look, there's good people on both sides of this debate. I'm at around 80% fast drafts and 20% slow drafts right now. There's plenty of room for both. Can't we all just get along??!
🐆The RB1 in Jacksonville? Doug Pederson says Travis Etienne is a "full-go" for all practice activity after he missed his entire rookie season due to a Lisfranc injury. Here's some obligatory grainy camp footage of Etienne looking crisp.
🐦A new wrinkle to the Cardinals backfield. It's a bit messy behind James Conner now.
🍺Wen Gronk??? Sounds like it could be soon.
💪🏻The QB in the best shape of their life. Take a drink every time you hear that this summer. Actually don't, that would end poorly. "I just cleaned up my diet. I've learned more this offseason than I probably ever have about nutrition, sleep, wellness, all that stuff.
🥩The QB who gained weight. Unlike his AFC East peer, this QB is taking a different approach to the offseason. It's bulk season in Jersey, baby.
🥇2022 NFL MVP Odds. Oh no, I'm relapsing on Trey Lance. I can't not take him at +4000.
The sportsbooks have finally started to rolling out bets for the upcoming season. Today, Geoff Ulrich shares an early prop bet and a win total bet he likes...
💰Chris Olave under 719.5 yards (-105 odds currently)
As much as I like Chris Olave the player, I don’t think this prop total is taking into account his landing spot. To begin, the Saints leading WR in terms of yardage last year was Marquez Callaway at 698 yards. While that number will likely increase this year, Olave will also be battling for looks with target hogs Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry.
Before you scoff at Landry, he has never seen fewer than 100 targets in an NFL season when he’s played 15 or more games. The Saints, who were dead last in passing yards per game last year, project to be a low volume passing team again under former defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. Olave may simply be left fighting for scraps behind two great route runners in his rookie season. Take the under on this surprisingly high yardage total.
💰Detroit Lions over 6.5 wins (-120 odds currently)
The Lions went 3-13-1 in their first season under Dan Campbell. Detroit was the epitome of unlucky in 2021, though, as they lost an incredible five games by three points or fewer. To add insult to injury, kickers hit from 66 and 54 yards on separate occasions to steal games away from them as time expired.
Detroit added playmaking ability on both sides of the ball with Aiden Hutchinson and Jameson Williams and are bringing back the same HC and QB combo (Campbell and Jared Goff)–a rarity in the NFL these days given all of the player movement. A soft schedule (5th easiest in the NFL by opponent win percentage from 2021) sees them end the year with the Jets, Panthers, Bears, and Packers. Look for Detroit’s offense to be above average this year and for the Lions to push towards a .500 mark in the win column. Take the over.
The NFL offseason is all about hope. In this new series, our contributors will share the bull case for their favorite teams and players. Today, Jonathan Fuller shares why Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett can still succeed without Russell Wilson…
It’s hard to imagine any silver linings when going from Russell Wilson to Drew Lock as your QB, but if we dig deeper there are a few reasons for optimism. While most stats are not flattering to Lock, there are a few bright spots in his game that just happen to mesh perfectly with Tyler Lockett’s strengths as a WR.
In the 2020 season when Lock started the majority of games for Denver he excelled at throwing intermediate passes off of play-action, recording the 8th best passing grade on such throws per PFF. Last season, the Seahawks were a top 10 team in terms of play-action pass rate.
Also per PFF, there were three routes on which Lock had a passer rating of 100+ during the 2020 season: curl, dig, and flat. It just so happens that these are three of the routes that Lockett runs most frequently and grades very well on.
If Seattle wants to set Lock up to succeed that should mean plenty of targets for Lockett on the routes he is best at. This isn’t enough to give Lockett elite upside, but it does make him very likely to outperform his current ADP of WR42 on Underdog. Oh, and if Geno Smith ends up winning the job, it’s worth pointing out Lockett had a 12-catch, 142-yard performance in Smith’s third start last season, which suggests he still has weekly upside with Smith under center.
You can draft Lockett in Underdog Fantasy's Best Ball Mania III draft with a $2,000,000 prize to first. If you've yet to sign up, Fantasy Life subscribers get up to a $100 deposit match on Underdog when you use promo code LIFE.
List a random person who had as many touchdowns as Kenny Golladay last year.
I’ll start: Brenda Fricker.
Carson Wentz thoughts one hour into OTA;
* Dude is tall
* Dude has a cannon for a right arm
* Dude throws a quality deep ball
* Dude just tossed an INT. Corn Elder with the grab
Rushing Touchdown Production for Austin Ekeler:
2017 - 2
2018 - 3
2019 - 3
2020 - 1
2021 - 12
