Hey everyone!
As each day goes on, MB and I will be going further and further in our NFL draft content, bringing you only the best as draft day draws closer and closer with each day passing. However, we are taking a short pause in the content to bring our look at the Top 100 for the upcoming 2017 season.
There has been a few notable changes in terms of franchise-tagging players, and different personnel changes that are definitely just beginning in what is going to be another crazy offseason. However, it is still great to have a slight idea of some players you were wrong about last year, but want to target this year, or even players you are still expecting to turn it around before it’s too late.
So, without further ado, here is a way too early look at the Top 100 for the upcoming 2017 season (standard scoring).
ADP – Average Draft Position
Again, I haven’t fully dived into each individual player, and we are still in March, so expect 100+ changes from now until August. This is my first time ever doing rankings for Razzball, so if a player has a really big change in my ranks versus the FantasyPros ECR, I’ll be fixing and analyzing my own thoughts as the year progresses.
However, let’s talk briefly about some players I do like, and one that I don’t like.
Carlos Hyde, HB San Francisco
The FantasyPros ECR has Hyde listed as the 21st-best player and the 12th-best back, yet I have him listed as my 9th best player and my 5th best back. I really couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Hyde is being treated as the same player as last year. With the arrival of new coach Kyle Shanahan, we should expect Hyde to have a pretty big year. As the lead back last year, Freeman finished as the 8th-best back, yet that came with a 60-40 split between him and Tevin Coleman. Yet Carlos Hyde has had a bigger workload, even last year, he kept a 70-30 split between him and Shaun Draughn. Like Matt Ryan and Julio before him, he’s the biggest offensive piece for Kyle Shanahan, and he’ll have no issue finishing as a HB1 in fantasy this season.
Mark Ingram, HB New Orleans
I honestly didn’t have an idea what Sean Payton’s plan was for New Orleans offense before the season (and during the season, for that matter), and I still don’t. We can pretty much just chalk up 4,000+ yard seasons each year when talking about Drew Brees, but where those yards will go to, and where the running game comes into is play is anyone’s guess. However, Ingram is a very consistent running back. He’s 5th out of all running backs in success rate (a good indicator of consistency), he’s 10th in running back DYAR, finishing as the 11th best back in fantasy. I’m just waiting on news that Tim Hightower will finally go away to move him up higher in my rankings.
Eric Decker, WR New York Jets
In 2015, Decker finished as the 10th-best receiver, finishing with 132 catches for 1,027 yards and 12 TD, also finishing in the top-12 in DYAR. This was all with Brandon Marshall and a *good* Ryan Fitzpatrick. Now with Marshall gone, and an offense shifting more and more to the passing game with the emergence of Bilal Powell (and Forte, for that matter), Decker finds himself as the big dog with only Quincy Enunwa to compete with. He’s not too high up on my rankings as of now, as he’s getting up there in age, combined with him coming back from a major injury and a shaky QB situation on his team, but it’s good that he’s back, and he could definitely pay off on his draft value.
Eddie Lacy, Green Bay
I was a huge fan of Lacy prior to this last season, and I was looking like a smart dude when Lacy was averaging like 7 yards per carry to start the year, but the issue was, Mike McCarthy wouldn’t give him the ball. Instead, he would resort to the air for most of their offensive production. Then Lacy went down, they threw it some more, then Ty Montgomery busted onto the scene (everyone was pretty shocked, but it was a great environment; the Packers have a good offensive line, and when they want to, the coaches are great and drawing up the right running plays), and Lacy was shut down for the year. Now he might very well be back, but it probably won’t matter with Montgomery now looking like the lead back. Which means Jen will make more fat jokes on future podcasts, in which a part of me will die. Shoutout to Jen.
As you may have noticed as of now, I didn’t really add any other players to this list. However, there are certainly players I feel confident about, such as Latavius Murray, Jamaal Charles or Adrian Peterson , but those players do not have certain futures. Because of this, they can’t be in my Top 100, but if they find themselves in favorable situations, I will add them as needed. There aren’t too many players that I am uneasy about, as we have yet to approach the draft. We haven’t hit that point yet, so when that time comes I’ll update it as needed.
The main goal of this article is to give you guys a brief look into my thoughts about this upcoming season as of now; identifying the players that are the highest on my priority list, and those who I still like, but aren’t that big of a priority.
As always, I enjoy reading your guys’ thoughts about my work, so if you have a question or comment, please don’t hesitate to leave one below. And of course, you can always find me on Twitter @ohuhave12. Go read a book.
