Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. Preview rankings for 2016. When is the best time to collect entry fees? How to score NFL players with a bunch of laterals. And more (not much more, but more).
Question 1
Now that the fantasy season is over do you have any revised opinions on Melvin Gordon and/or T.J. Yeldon? Last summer you were high on Gordon and low on Yeldon.
Mike McGraw (N Chelmsford, MA)
The Chargers traded up last year to get Melvin Gordon. They thought he would be the offensive piece that put them over the top. He put up huge numbers at Wisconsin, and I was of the school of thought he might be a Marcus Allen or Tiki Barber type of running back. None of that happened, of course. He struggled. He was too indecisive, and simply looked pretty ordinary all the way around. In hindsight, he probably should have been picked late in the third round. I would treat him as such heading into the 2016 season. Way too early to call him a bust. He might be playing in a new offense and under a new coach. He’s presumably working on his game. If I had to guess right now, I would say he’ll be the No. 30 running back on my board new July. As for Yeldon, I’d say he met expectations. Not a great or special back, but he looks like he can get the job done. If teams were redrafting, he’d be selected in about the same spot – middle of the second round. I would guess that Yeldon will be about 15th among running backs on my board in July (although with running back not being a particularly strong position in the league right now, he might end up ranking closer to 10th).
Question 2
Thanks for all your insight and weekly lineup rankings. I have one last very important question. We are a 12-team keep three (any three but must be from different positions). We play through Week 17 total points. Would you please list your top 12 WRs, RBs, QBs keepers for 2016. TEs with WRs. We keep our 17 players until 3 days before draft. Our last day for waivers is next week. Quite a few injured players are available.
BEN HOGEVOLL (Siletz, OR)
Just off the top of my head, I would say the following quarterbacks would be top-tier guys. That is, quarterbacks worth maybe selecting in the first five rounds of a typical draft (rather than settling for one or two outside the top 10): Brady, Roethlisberger, Luck, Bortles, Carr, Little Manning, Rodgers, Newton, Palmer, Wilson. That’s in no particular order. I’m leaving out some good quarterbacks that (for now) I would have in the next tier: Brees, Dalton, Mariota, Winston, Rivers, Romo, Stafford, Cousins, Ryan, Taylor and maybe Fitzpatrick. At tailback, guys I would right now consider maybe taking the top 25 overall would include: McCoy, LeVeon Bell, Yeldon, Peterson, Freeman, Ingram, Martin, Gurley, Hyde and maybe in a few months Langford or Matt Jones. Looks lean at running back. For pass catchers, there are a lot of really studly prospects. Receivers I right now would think might land in the top 25 overall would be A.Brown, Beckham, J.Jones, Watkins, Gronkowski, Marshall (age, maybe), A.J. Green, Hopkins, A.Robinson, Cooper, D.Bryant, Jeffery, Cooks and Evans.
Question 3
What is the best rule in collecting money for fantasy leagues? This has been a problem in my league for years. If we say pay by the draft, then we risk not having a draft/league for the year because some owners don't pay.
Robert Kurek (Blacksburg, VA)
For me, money isn’t a big factor. I don’t play with the goal of making money. It’s more about scoring points, winning games and managing your roster. So I am comfortable with keeping the money loose. That is, if you’re in a league with a group of long-time friends, I’m comfortable letting the money deadlines slide a little bit. That is, if Tom or Bill haven’t yet paid their 2015 entry fee, I’m not worried about it. That’s not what the league’s about. Those guys will pay before the start of the 2016 season; everything will eventually get squared up. That’s how it works in our league. But at the same time, keep in mind that leagues are different. If you’re in a league with people you don’t know, you haven’t yet reached that level of trust. In that kind of league, best to require that entry fees are due before the player picking starts.
Question 4
Question on how the NFL counts stats. I have Latavius Murray and last night's final play before halftime was one of those "Buffalo Bills multi-lateral" plays that inadvertently goes backwards or results in a fumble. Murray caught the initial pass for about 20-25 yards, before he lateraled and was no longer involved in the play. Initially he was credited with the catch and yardage to the spot he lateraled, which seems like the right thing to do! This morning I woke up to see my 23 point game was only 20.2. Any idea how that works and why he at least didn't get credit for the catch?
David Leonard (Ormond Beach, FL)
This play originally involved Murray catching a pass and gaining 24 yards. Other guys were also involved, most notably Amari Cooper losing 24 yards after the ball was lateraled to him. On this kind of play, Murray gets credit for a reception and 24 receiving yards, just as if he was tackled at the end of the play. Cooper isn’t credited with a catch, but the yards are putting in the receiving yards ledger. That is, if he had 2 catches for 30 yards prior to the play, then after losing the 24 he would then read 2 catches for 24 yards. That’s definitely how they do it. In this case, there was a penalty on the play for an ineligible downfield pass. The Chargers chose to enforce the penalty, and it negated the play entirely.
Question 5
I've used your newsletter for 24 years now. At the end of this year I will have played 100 fantasy seasons. I'm 21-8 in Super Bowls with 4 more Super Bowl teams this year. All my leagues keep at least 12 players . What would really make my holiday season merry would be to have you publish (Wk 17 perhaps) dynasty cheat sheets for TD only, PPR, & standard scoring, on three sheets of paper arranged just like your weekly cheat sheets. Decisions made at the end of the season regarding who to bring back from IR & who to drop, plus off-season decisions about who to trade and who to trade for, play such a big part in next season's success. Thanks for all the fun years!
JOHN BENNETT (Chino, CA)
I’m just seeing this now. Too late to get into the Week 17 product (which was sent earlier in the week). I put together dynasty lists for QB-RB-TE-WR a week or two back. Not a lot of movement since that time. Steve Smith is coming back for another year, so move him up a few spots. Mike Gillislee keeps playing well, so I guess I would move him up a few spots, but the Bills also have LeSean McCoy and Karlos Williams. On the last wide receiver list, I don’t think Josh Gordon is on there, but he makes sense. He’s a massive off-field risk, but if he can straighten out his act, he could be a top-15 receiver. I’ve got some other stuff going on, but I will try to re-post those dynasty lists before the games start on Sunday.
Question 6
Thanks for all the help. Made it to finals in both leagues I am in. As always, when week 17 games in play I have a tougher time on who to pick because it seems that these waiver pickups get more points then the stars who have been scoring all year. Anyway, my main question is do you know what players/teams still have something to shoot for and will be playing most their starters and best players? I am trying to decide at QB between Fitz, Ryan, Taylor and Cousins. I know I will sit Cousins cause nothing to play for and my gut tells me to go Ryan because it seems the best players each year in week 17 are those who aren't in the playoffs and just are playing to show what have for next season. Any advice???
jim bo (USA)
I wouldn’t go near Cousins. Locked in as the No. 4 seed, Washington is looking to rest players. I saw a blurb go by where Jay Gruden was saying Cousins would probably start, but I doubt that they’ll use him in the second half. And they might hold out other valuable cogs in that offense – Jordan Reed, DeSean Jackson. With your other three, you’ve got Fitzpatrick and Taylor going head to head in Orchard Park. That was a defensive struggle last time those teams plays (in that Thursday night ‘Color Rush’ game). I think Matt Ryan is your guy. He’s at home in a dome, and he’s working against a defense that’s allowed a league-record 43 TD passes.
Question 7
Playing for 3rd place this week. TD only league (bonus pts for longer TDs). Should I start Zach Miller or assume Gronk gets pulled early enough and start Chandler? Also who between Evans and Garcon, and which 2 RBs between Freeman, Murray, Hillman and Artis-Payne (assuming all are healthy enough to play and accounting for teammates/oponents who might get pulled).
Sarah Clark (Sherman Oaks, CA)
I like Zach Miller and what he should do. With Alshon Jeffery out, I think Miller is kind of their go-to guy right now. Even if the Patriots were to rule out Gronkowski entirely, I wouldn’t consider starting Chandler ahead of Miller. And Patriots need to win; I don’t believe there’s any intention there of holding out regulars. With the wide receivers, I would start Evans – easily. With the running backs, Freeman is No. 1 by a mile, while Hillman is a distant fourth. I am just start the revisions for the Week 17 projections now. I believe I’ll have Artis-Payne a little higher than Murray.
