Spring OTAs are underway, which means the firehose of grainy camp footage is open for business. Welcome to hot best ball summer...
In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter:
- We announce our partnership with Underdog Fantasy
- Pete shares his 5 favorite targets in early drafts
- We investigate the Seahawks backfield
- Take a glass half full approach to JuJu Smith-Schuster
- It’s 5/19. Take it away, Peter Overzet…
It may seem hard to believe, but some of us have already started drafting fantasy teams. Yes, I realize it's only May 19th and the season is still months away, but that is the beauty of best ball.
With the best ball format, we get all of the fun that comes with drafting without having to manage the roster throughout the season. That's right, we do the drafting and Underdog Fantasy will set our lineups with the best scores for us throughout the season.
We're excited to be partnering with Underdog to deliver you all kinds of best ball content throughout the summer, including strategy for their recently launched Best Ball Mania III contest which features a $10,000,000 prize pool and $2,000,000 to first place.
Even better, Underdog is hooking up Fantasy Life subscribers with up to a $100 deposit match when you use promo code LIFE. That's essentially 4 free entries into their BBM3 contest just for signing up and depositing $100.
I've already drafted 17 teams in the contest (I know, I know, I have a sickness) and put together a list of my five favorite targets and their current ADPs.
💥 RB Breece Hall - NYJ (ADP: 49.3)
I've been surprised to see the undisputed top 2022 rookie RB regularly available in the 5th round of drafts. It's fair to worry about Michael Carter being involved early on, but a talent like Hall with fresh legs is primed to surge down the stretch when it matters most for our rosters. I think he'll be a late third/early fourth round pick by the end of the summer.
💥 WR Rondale Moore - ARI (ADP: 119.1)
Go ahead, get the Moore aDot jokes out of your system now, I'll wait...Moore was being drafted higher than this last year as a rookie and now DeAndre Hopkins is suspended for the first 6-games of the season. Moore led all WRs in yards after the catch last year (7.9) and will have plenty of chances for explosive plays out of the gate in 2022.
💥 QB Daniel Jones - NYG (ADP: 173.3)
There's almost no risk in taking Jones at this ADP. The Giants are now led by previous Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll who will do his best to turn Jones into a poor man's Josh Allen and the front office has provided him with more than adequate weapons, including rookie addition Wan'dale Robinson. It's not always pretty with Jones, but the Giants are going to be a fun fantasy team this year.
💥 TE Gerald Everett - LAC (ADP: 174.5)
At this point we know the drill with the TE position. There's a few elite studs at the top and then a mile-long flat tier. I certainly want some exposure to mid-tier guys like Mike Gesicki and Albert Okwuegbunam, but there's not a better cost-adjusted TE bet in drafts right now than Everett. TE scoring is largely correlated to the best offenses and QBs and the Justin Herbert-led Chargers fit the bill. With Jared Cook still a FA, Everett has a clear runway to a big role.
💥 RB D'Onta Foreman - CAR (ADP: 202.8)
In 2020, Christian McCaffrey's backup Mike Davis was unselected in most drafts before ultimately becoming a league winner. In 2021, the field overcorrected by regularly drafting Chuba Hubbard, who didn't do much. Recency bias continues to reign supreme, as drafters are now essentially ignoring CMC's new backup, Foreman, until the 17th round of drafts. Foreman looked awesome last year in relief of Derrick Henry and would be an absolute smash if CMC were to get hurt again.
🤝 A messy Seattle backfield? Pete Carroll tipped his hand recently on how he might deploy rookie RB Ken Walker and Rashaad Penny.
🎥 Grainy training camp szn is almost here. Might as well kick things off with Cooper Kupp on the loose.
🙌 What's on tap for Dalvin Cook this year? Interesting nugget from Chad Graff in this piece on The Athletic about how Cook is being used at early practices. “I don’t want to just sit up here and tell y’all everything,” Cook said. “We’ve got Green Bay Week 1, so we’re gonna wait and see.”
🐎 Don't forget about this Colts WR. Alec Pierce is getting all the buzz, but Parris Campbell is ready to rock.
🥇 2022 WR Rankings. Lord Reebs has you covered with his Top 100 rankings for the WR position. From my vantage point here's a pretty big tier gap after the Top 12.
💪 The first ever ambidextrous QB? The future is wild.
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, Kevin Tompkins shares why he sees a renaissance coming for for Chiefs WR JuJu Smith-Schuster…
Remember when JuJu Smith-Schuster put up a tremendous PPR WR8 season for the Steelers in 2018 opposite Antonio Brown? It seems like so long ago, but what if I told you we could get closer–maybe not ALL the way–to that kind of elite production in 2022?
The Chiefs subtracted Tyreek Hill from the 2022 equation, but added multiple pieces like Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and 2022 second-round selection Skyy Moore. So besides Travis Kelce, there’s room for another elite producer in this Patrick Mahomes-led offense.
The drafting of Moore was a big domino in favor of Smith-Schuster, who will likely command an outside role instead of a lower-upside slot role like he transitioned to in Pittsburgh. If the Chiefs had kept their 50th-overall selection instead of trading down to draft a bigger-bodied wide receiver like George Pickens or Alec Pierce, we wouldn’t have been as excited about Smith-Schuster getting pushed to the slot. It's very unlikely Smith-Schuster will ever come off the field in 3WR sets.
While his perceived fantasy value has taken a hit due to the shoulder injury that caused him to miss 12 games last season, he can reclaim a lot of that value and then some in 2022. The glass is very much half full for JuJu in Kansas City in 2022.
Tight End Confessionals
@PFF_Fantasy@Giants quit it
Alvin Kamara, James Conner, and Saquon Barkley all averaged 3.7 yards per carry last season.
