[the following is my pitch for Razzball’s retro sci-fi themed magazine, RAZZBOT] 

The hallways at Razzball corporate headquarters echoed with the sound of piped-in crowd noise, tuned to the Cleveland Browns channel. The angry barks of Ohioans chanting “BAKER MAKER FAKER SHAKER” told that the noise generator bot had again glitched, stuck in rhyming mode. This pleased Razzball CEO Donkey Chompers, who was the cyborg iteration of his predecessor, Donkey Teeth.

Following the events of 2020, when Kahale Warring scored 18 receiving touchdowns, the Razzball analysts who had drafted him became world-wide celebrities renowned for their prognostication powers. Most of the Razzball analysts decided a career change was in order. BDon, Coach JB, and EverywhereBlair formed a boy band, The Razzbois. Rudy Gamble started a haberdashery for dogs. MB took up a career as Ben Rothlisberger’s stunt double. But Donkey Teeth wanted to become something…more. Having taken $25 off his NFFC best ball tournament by using the code “RAZZAUG,” he saved enough money to hire a high school robotics team and purchase their cheapest cybernetic augmentation: robot teeth. With his dental hygiene automated, Donkey Chompers had enough free time to devote to his new life goal: finding the next Kahale Warring. 

“Hey Kerryon,” Donkey Chompers called out to his FatHead cutout of Kerryon Johnson, “Turn it to the Bears channel.” The cutout remained stationary, perpetually mid-juke. “I can’t believe I took you in the 7th round,” he muttered, changing the channel on the noise generator just in time to hear about defensive linemen surging through the Bears guards to sack Mitch Trubisky. The crowd chanted, “Foles! Foles!”

Donkey Chompers turned his phone on, a shirtless picture of Dare Ogunbowale greeting him as his wallpaper. “Siri, show me some sleepers!” he shouted at his phone. 40 pages of baby onesies followed. “No, Siri! I want fantasy glory!” To which he was promptly brought to the community theater production of Glory, the riveting 1990 Civil War drama movie. Donkey Chompers threw his phone at his FatHead Kerryon cutout, decapitating the Johnson and shattering his phone. Now, he was alone but for the noise generator’s suspiciously low hum. Must be halftime. Suddenly, his mouth filled with an automated shot of Listerine. He swished it, gargled, and spat it on the floor.

His breath fresh, his phone broken, and his best friend beheaded, Donkey Chompers knew there was only thing to do. He pulled up the NFC website, chose a 3-pack of best ball leagues, typed in “RAZZAUG” to save $25, and started drafting. Kerryon went in the first round, of course. “You’re back on my team, bud,” Donkey Chompers said. 

RazzBowl ADP Data!

That’s right friends! Just like Donkey Chompers, you’re here to find some sleepers! A few weeks ago, 21 leagues of 12 people drafted in one of the biggest Pros-vs-Joes best ball contests on this planet earth. The hosting site, NFC, was kind enough to run the ADP data on our leagues, which allows me to compare the 21 RazzBowl leagues to the 65 Cutline leagues which have drafted in the past 2 months on NFC. 

The two leagues are more or less the same format, but the users are very different. Whereas the RazzBowl is about 75% “industry” people and 25% fans that were vetted through a rigorous process (Donkey Teeth checked Twitter profiles for positive comments about the Bears), the Cutline users are from any walk of life–industry, fans, people who like losing money to sharks, or somebody’s friend who came in to fill up a draft room. 

What this means for your drafting: you can look at the data below and find players that industry users were bullish or bearish on. I’ll give my own rationale on the players, and feel free to leave your opinions in the comments below. Ready? Let’s GOOOOO. 

RazzBowl Bulls

Nick Chubb (Razzbowl ADP: 11 / Cutline ADP: 18) — Chubb is one of the fastest running backs in the league and finished as RB 7 last year. Cleveland’s offensive line finished in the top 10 last year, and industry players seem confident that Kareem Hunt won’t cut into Chubb’s workload too much. 

Leonard Fournette (Razzbowl ADP: 25 / Cutline ADP: 40) — If you follow fantasy football Twitter, you know that Fournette is a ride or die player this year. There is no in-between on Fournette: either you’re drafting him with the belief that he maintains his top-10 RB performance, or you’re drafting him with the knowledge that the Jaguars tried to get rid of him in the off-season. RazzBowlers are clearly expecting more upside from Fournette, and he went much earlier in those drafts than in the Cutline drafts. Just don’t tell MB you drafted Fournette. 

Keenan Allen (Razzbowl ADP: 40 / Cutline ADP: 55) — The Chargers have Tyrod Taylor starting the season at QB and many fans are suspicious how that will affect Keenan Allen. To be fair, Tyrod has never thrown for more than 217 yards/game in his career. That said, that number is higher than both Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen’s yards/game in 2019, and you’re going after Marquise Brown and Stephon Diggs, right? Don’t be too worried about Allen. 

Phillip Lindsay (Razzbowl ADP: 84 / Cutline ADP: 112) — I can’t explain this one. Razzball generally agrees that Melvin Gordon is taking the reigns in Denver, with Lindsay taking a much reduced role. Barring an injury to Gordon, Lindsay should take about 30% of the rushing workload, which is not terribly useful in best ball formats. Lindsay is very much a floor play. Given that Tarik Cohen, Jordan Howard, Kerryon Johnson were about the same ADP, Lindsay seems awfully pricy for the RazzBowl crowd. 

Kerryon Johnson (Razzbowl ADP: 85 / Cutline ADP: 116) — Kerryon obviously wasn’t stellar last year, but he also succumbed to injury by mid-season. DeAndre Swift’s arrival has clearly bothered managers on Kerryon Johnson, but with no pre-season this year, there’s ample opportunity for Johnson to have productive games, especially in the first half of the year. Rudy projects Johnson to have a slight edge in workload compared to Swift. 

Austin Hooper (Razzbowl ADP: 100 / Cutline ADP: 134) — Cleveland’s new tight end was highly prized by Razzbowl drafters. Donkey Teeth and BDon gave a quick Hooper update on the podcast about a week ago. Baker Mayfield will throw a ton, and Hooper’s tied with Hunt for 3rd on the team for targets. Given how low he’s being drafted in standard leagues — about round 12 — he’s a huge upside play. 

Razzbowl Bears

Jonathan Taylor (Razzbowl ADP: 41 / Cutline ADP: 31) — If you’re on Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly seen the hulk-like picture of Jonathan Taylor circulating. Great, he’s huge. He also hasn’t touched the field once and Marlon Mack and Nyheim Hines are no slouches in the running back department; Mack finished as RB22 last year, right by David Montgomery, Carlos Hyde, and Devonta Freeman. OK, maybe that’s not an impressive list. Again, rookie RBs already don’t have a large market share of carries, and Taylor appears in a crowded backfield. Given that Razzbowlers were looking at Keenan Allen and Cooper Kupp at the same ADP, they went for the sure receiving targets over the risk of Taylor’s workload. 

Diontae Johnson (Razzbowl ADP: 86 / Cutline ADP: 73) — There’s a recent surge to draft Steelers WR. Last year, Big Ben’s injury destroyed the Steelers’ receiving corps’ fantasy performance. Going into 2020, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson have the “off-year” discount. Razzbowlers are probably more defensive about Diontae Johnson because, well, Big Ben doesn’t look long for the NFL. 

Alexander Mattison (Razzbowl ADP: 113 / Cutline ADP: 84) — The Vikings’ backup RB was drafted nearly three rounds earlier in Cutline than in RazzBowl. Mattison’s draft ranking will probably vary greatly up until the start of the season. When the Razzbowl began drafting, Cook was threatening a holdout and Mattison’s value surged. Shortly after the start of the Razzbowl draft, Cook showed up to training camp and seemed content. Then, last week, he began complaining about his contract again. Because Mattison’s value is linked to Cook’s playing time, you’ll see him fluctuate wildly in drafts. That said, Duke Johnson’s ADP is right next to Mattison, and you know what I think about Duke!

Ke’Shawn Vaughn (Razzbowl ADP: 123 / Cutline ADP: 86) Rookie running back in a field with Ronald Jones and LeSean McCoy. Tom Brady is in town. Gronk is ripping his shirt off in Tampa now. Don’t forget Dare Ogunbowale! The Buc’s offense is nearly too-powerful now, and the market share of carries for running backs will be tough to predict. The Razzbowl draft occurred before Shady signed with the Bucs, but even then, Vaughn was going around round 10 in the Razzbowl. In the same time frame of drafting, Cutline drafters were chasing Vaughn’s upside and drafting him nearly in round 7 on average. I won’t tell you not to draft Vaughn, but when Tarik Cohen is going around ADP 87, I think you take Cohen over Vaughn every time. 

Takeaways

Well, are you going to take a rookie running back this year? Or are you going to take the grizzled veteran running back? Most of the big ADP discrepancies were running backs. Given how scarce running backs with high market share of carries and targets are, it shouldn’t be surprising that industry mavens are going for the “sure thing” while Cutline players are going for rookies.

Now that you’ve got some bullish and bearish players, go out there and draft a winner! 

If you’ve got some ADP all-stars, let me know down in the comments, and give me a follow on Twitter @Everywhereblair.