Have you ever seen the show Alone on the History Channel? It's a wilderness competition to see which contestant is able survive the longest in severe climates with no food and very few supplies. There's no camera crew, each contest is responsible for filming all their own footage so they're legit alone out there. A new season just started and *spoiler alert* one of the guys found an old boat which he repurposed into a hot tub by filling it with water and starting a fire underneath the hull. Man's genius knows no bounds. Point of this tangent is I'm that guy. I'm out here alone in cold, ranking Austin Ekeler, Miles Sanders and Kenyan Drake acres ahead of the rest of the fantasy world. It's alright though, I'm chilling over here in my homemade boat tub sipping on some juniper tea. Anyway, I went over most of these guys in my overall top 10 for 2020 fantasy football, but I won't make you click—only click if you really want more nonsense—because here's my top 10 running backs for 2020 PPR fantasy football with projections:
Monthly Archives: June 2020
Welcome to the master list of my devy prospects for single QB leagues! For those new to devy: in a “devy” league, short for developmental, managers can select players who are still in college (or high school) and stash them on a separate, inactive roster until they are drafted into the NFL. In this format, the player values can be all over the place and each manager's process for player evaluation becomes of utmost importance.
I have previously released articles with my position-specific rankings which describe in more detail my process and what I look for when ranking devy prospects. Check those out here: QB, RB, WR, and TE.
Fantasy Football Podcast: Only Way To Go Is Up with Jeff Erickson
June 11, 2020 | Fantasy Football Podcast |by: B_Don
B_Don and Donkey Teeth are joined by the co-founder of Rotowire, Jeff Erickson, on the newest podcast. We start by discussing the Dalvin Cook holdout and how people should be valuing Dalvin and his backfield partner (that may sound different than I thought), Alexander Mattison, along with the chance of multiple other backs potentially holding out.
Jeff and B_Don then compare notes from the 2019 RazzBowl to see which owner assembled a more lackluster squad. Jeff gives us his thoughts on the format and how he may adjust his approach from last year. We also discuss how COVID restrictions may affect the season and where there might be opportunity to find value.
Speaking of no way to go, but up, we finish our conversation with Jeff asking about his favorite team, the Bengals. We look the RB situation and discuss a potential Joe Mixon holdout, and ask Jeff where Mixon comes in his rankings. We wrap up with some talk about the passing game starting with Joe Burrow and moving on to the talented WR group that the Bengals have put together.
Allen Robinson, 2020 Fantasy Football Target
June 11, 2020 | Fantasy Football Strategy, Fantasy Football Targets | 2 Commentsby: MB
I have been tiptoeing around writing about Allen Robinson as a fantasy target. I really like Allen Robinson, which I will get to, but I have been writing a lot about players in the 25-40 ADP range as targets and I would love to focus on all parts of the draft board. But this year, more than ever, it is important to be diverse on the draft board. Especially if you play in more than one league. Every year you should have backup plans and tier your rankings because it’s assumed that you are going to get sniped at some point in every draft. But also, we need to assume that players that we draft will test positive for Covid-19 at some point in the season, so diversifying and not putting all of your eggs in one basket in every league is ideal. After all, if you play in a lot of leagues, it’s about return on investment. If you miss badly in one league, you can still have fighting chances in others.
Have you signed up for your chance at an entry into the 2020 RazzBowl yet? Remember when you tried out for your high school's rendition of Little Women back in the day, but didn't make the cut? Well now you have one more shot at fame and glory. So what are you waiting for!? I know, beating some idiot named Donkey Teeth in the largest fantasy football joes vs. pros best ball contest in the world may not sound all that glamorous, but Andy Behrens, Heath Cummings, Jake Ciely, Jeff Erickson, Derek Van Riper and Michael Salfino will all be competing too, along with a slew of other big names from the fantasy football world. Darik Buchar of the National Fantasy Football Championship joined us on last week's podcast to discuss the RazzBowl format and strategy. The Boof and I also talk a little about the RazzBowl format on our wildly popular new YouTube show, Fantasy Football Malpractice (11:20 mark):
In other news, the 2020 dynasty and redraft rankings page—including positional rookie rankings, devy rankings and IDP rankings— is filling out almost as quickly as my quarantine waistline. A couple days ago I gave you my top 10 quarterbacks for 2020 fantasy football. Without further adieu or click-bait, here's the top 20 quarterbacks for 2020 fantasy football:
Devin Singletary, 2020 Fantasy Football Bust
June 9, 2020 | Fantasy Football Strategy, Overrated | 2 Commentsby: MB
Devin Singletary may end up being a story of what could have been in 2020. The rumors had been going around for much of the offseason that Buffalo would be seeking another back to compliment Singletary, but I didn’t want to believe it so I pushed my chips in during an April bestball. And by pushing my chips in, I mean, I really pushed my chips in. The type of bestball draft that we were doing was a slow auction, where every player on the board has a clock of 12 hours that gets reset to 10 hours every time that there is a new bid. It goes a lot faster than you think, there is is usually 36 players on the board at a time that you can bid on.
As we all know there are many ways to skin a cat and drafting your fantasy football team is no different. Don’t draft a QB early. Zero RB strategy. Grab at least 2 RBs in the first 3 rounds. Which one is right? Well the one that wins of course as each season presents us with different options depending on trends in the NFL. With IDP leagues becoming more and more popular and many trying them out for the first time, what are some strategies that will help you win?
I usually try and come up with witty and/or euphonious titles for my pieces. Then I open the door, wine and dine, and provide copious amounts of foreplay for my loyal and content-thirsty audience. Today, though, it's all about the business, so no fooling around.
FADE AUSTIN EKELER!
What a time to be alive! 2020 has brought us pandemics, protests, rioting, looting and working from home in your underwear. You can cut the country's social tension with that frosting spatula you've been using to itch your back. But whether you're black, white, brown or cartoon, there's one force with the power to unite us all: 2020 fantasy football rankings! Who's with me? *crickets* Alright, maybe I got a little overexcited. It's been awhile since I've had any human contact. Forget about six feet, I'm not allow to get within 300 feet of my girlfriend, Kerryon. But enough about the sad life of a donkey in love, here's my top 10 quarterbacks for 2020 fantasy football:
It happened again. Episode 4 of the legendary Fantasy Football Malpractice show is now playing on computers near you. The Boof and Dr. Donkey Teeth are taking over YouTube!
This week we have a brief real talk about the current social climate in the United States before diving into fantasy football. In the news and notes segment we chat about DeAndre Hopkins' proclamation that his numbers will only improve in Arizona and how the COVID induced NFL training facilities limits might provide opportunity for us fantasy football players. Then we dive into the RazzBowl, introducing the format for those not in the know. Sign up for the RazzBowl now!
Later in the Dynasty Dive segment we talk dynasty tight ends, including Jonnu Smith, Mark Andrews and the beast, Darren Waller. Lastly the show rounds out with a discussion about the evolution of gadget players in the NFL and who might see a fantasy uptick in 2020 due to this usage. Buckle up and prepare for some malpractice!
When I wrote about the top 25 defensive lineman, it was easy to get excited about it. There were players who got you revved up when thinking about their explosiveness coming off the ball, dominating the offensive lineman and putting a hit on the quarterback.
Writing about the next 25 conjures up very little of those feelings. Historically, this is the shallowest position for IDP leagues as once you get past the top 10-20 players, there is very little difference in the next 30-40. Last year in my home league (scoring was 0.5/tackle, 3/sack/FF/INT, so big play skewed), Joey Bosa finished as DL22 with 4.16 ppg. Brian Burns was DL51 with 3.12 ppg. That’s only 1 ppg difference between those two players. Is it better to have Bosa, well of course, but over a season, it probably made little difference in your record on a week to week basis. Now this may change a bit with the change in position designation by some sites as many OLBs will be designated at Edge and moved into the defensive line category. This will expand the choices at defensive line and make this group of 25 more interesting. I'll cover this topic as we get more clarity as to what most sites will do.
I usually spend the introduction writing about some aspect from my life or the player's connection to my fantasy strategy that I am writing about. But this time I have to give it up to my Razzball companion and friend, Rudy Gamble. Rudy is one of the founders of Razzball and one of the boldest fantasy football rankers in the yearly FantasyPros rankings contest. For a short time a couple of years ago we did a weekly podcast during the season and I was always excited to hop on with him and was fascinated to learn more about his process.
During the season, Rudy's projections are behind a paywall, but during the preseason, you can view them for free. He has all of his rankings and depth charts for each team. What I really like about Rudy's rankings compared to the rankings that you can just google, is that Rudy lists the stat projections for each player. So you can take a look at a lot of stuff that you aren't getting elsewhere, including targets. I was combing through his projections recently and had to do a double take when he had Terry McLaurin as his WR4? Look, I'm with you, that's crazy talk. But clearly, you don't have to pay a WR4 price tag for him so I decided to take a deeper look.
