2016 Rankings: Tight Ends

July 11, 2016 | 2016 Fantasy Football, 2016 Rankings | 3 Comments

Year	Accuracy	Rank	High	Low	Percentile
2015	57.5%	22 out of 123	59.9%	51.6%	Top 20%
2014	58.1%	31 out of 125	60.7%	50.6%	Top 25%

While I could make this lede into the sexual innuendo piece it deserves to be, I'd rather pontificate on the, ah, who are we kidding? Who doesn't like a tight end? Oh, that's right, the Seattle Seahawks don't. And if we are to believe certain admissions, well then, neither does Nickelodeon Sports Kid's Choice Award nominee Russell Wilson. So the lesson here is... don't drink recovery water? Maybe? I'm not sure there is a lesson here actually, unless you are Jimmy Graham that is. And that lesson? Touchdowns would be easier to get on the basketball court at this point. I mean, has Graham even played basketball anyways? Is there a way we can confirm what is probably a hard-to-find fact? Besides this micro conversation of once one of the standard bearers of the position, the macro conversation isn't much different. There's Gronk, and then there's, well, uh, Jordan Reed? Yeah, this can't be right. Where did all the good tight ends go? That's also the story of my life, folks. Drops mic, leaves stage...

2016 Rankings: Running Back Sleepers, Breakouts and Busts

July 5, 2016 | 2016 Buy/Sell, 2016 Fantasy Football | 21 Comments

by: Zach

Welcome to the second installment of the "Sleepers, Breakouts and Busts" series! For almost the past two weeks, I have been "off the grid" on a cruise to Alaska, and then into the mainland, in areas like Ketchikan, Denali and Juneau, so I apologize that I couldn't get these out sooner, but I will have the other positions as out as soon as I can. Oh, and Alaska is neat. Hard to go to sleep at 10pm when it still looks like 2pm though. Running Backs are a position like no other. Position strategy changes from year to year, from wanting as many running backs as we can get our hands on, to not drafting any in the first few rounds (the Zero RB theory). More than any other position, there are a ton of busts year to year, so we're constantly finding new ways to approach the position and to eliminate all possibilities of drafting last year's Eddie Lacy. We want to be extra cautious when selecting them. Not that Quarterbacks are not important per se, but we can be a little braver when drafting them over HB's. Game flow, schedules, and talent all go into the perfect back. More so in game flow; we want the most touches possible, and those who do find themselves with a very healthy workload are consistently finding themselves at the top come January. We get very frustrated when they under-perform. Guys like Eddie Lacy, C.J. Anderson, Melvin Gordon, and DeMarco Murray, all caused ourselves to throw something at another thing (good joke Zach). More often than not, the wrong HB will cause our teams to crash and burn, much more so than any of the other positions. However one of the many reasons why many are switching to avoiding backs totally in the first few rounds is due to some diamonds in the rough on the waiver wires come October-December. But it is a high risk to bank on. Jay's rankings for the HB position for both Standard leagues and PPR have been released, in case you missed it. Running Backs are my favorite, and constantly, they're the position that defines my team, and a lot of the championship winning teams. Most owners who brought home hardware most likely had one of the three: David Johnson, Todd Gurley or Devonta Freeman. And what do they have in common? In August many owners weren't drafting them. And here are some you shouldn't sleep on in 2016...