Training Camp Notes, 2020 Fantasy Football

With just 8 days to go until kickoff, the NFL is packing our lives with all sorts of drama. I’m also binge watching Friday Night Lights for the first time and I’m in the middle of season 3. Every hour of the day is now an emotional roller coaster. 8 days! 8 days! Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. Unless you’re Leonard Fournette.

On Monday morning the Jaguars let Leonard Fournette go and created a twitter frenzy over what was quite frankly, a lateral move. I’m sorry guys and gals, I’ve just never been a fan! There isn’t anything that sticks out about his game to me. If you were drafting Leonard, you were drafting a guy who was going to get a lot of volume on a team that probably isn’t going to move the ball a ton. If your team isn’t moving the ball, your 3rd round RB isn’t going to find pay dirt.

On Tuesday afternoon, Fournette cleared waivers. Let’s face it, he hasn’t gotten much positive press since he has entered the league. Sometimes it’s an injury, sometimes writer’s are pointing out lack of effort. Are we living in a world where the #4 overall pick from the 2017 draft can’t find a suitor for the 2020 season? Why would the Washington Professional Football Team pay Fournette to do something slightly better than Adrian Peterson does? David Montgomery could be back by week 3, why not just wait it out? Don’t get me wrong, with Covid and injuries, luck will probably be on Fournette’s side with finding a home. But his drafters will have to be patient and live with the slight possibility that Fournette won’t be out there this year. One of our writers is in a draft as I’m writing this and asked the group, “should I take Fournette at the 9/10 turn?” My immediate response was, “NO!!!” Rudy followed up with there still being plenty of upside in that range that he would rather have and I 100% agree with Rudy.

I don’t have a great gauge on who the running back to own in Jacksonville is. Most analysts believe Armstead has the inside track with Ozigbo being a name to definitely watch. I’m in no rush to use a waiver priority or a bunch of FAAB on either of them. I really don’t want to invest in this offense.

Leonard Fournette wasn’t the only running back with team issues this week. Heading into Tuesday evening, Alvin Kamara hadn’t shown up to practice for four days and it was leaked to the media that the Saints were open to trading him. That fire has been put out for the most part. New reports suggest that his team is actually pretty close to a deal with the Saints and he may have been absent in part to a minor back injury. Kamara will be at practice today and he should soon have a new deal with the Saints. I wonder if the trade rumor brought Kamara’s team back to the table. It was a bit stressful, but everything should be okay with Kamara’s price.

Quick Hits

– Kenyan Drake is close to practicing in full. Like Drake suggested last week, there was nothing to worry about and it doesn’t seem like his week 1 status is in question. It should be very fun to watching this Arizona offense in action.

– A.J. Green is still only doing individual drills. I haven’t really been interested until I had a draft Saturday and he fell and fell. I decided to roll with upside instead and so far I’m not regretting that decision.

– Tyrell Williams’ season is over. He has been placed on IR and that brings Hunter Renfrow back into the mix and Bryan Edwards further into the spotlight. Bryan Edwards folks, he’s worth your attention.

– Chris Carson has said that he is 100% ready to go. I haven’t necessarily targeted Carson a bunch in drafts because his range is usually when I am looking at WRs, but Carson is obviously always very solid when healthy. I’m not overly concerned about Carlos Hyde in Seattle when it comes to Carson’s workload.

– Joe Mixon is a happily employed Cincinnati Bengal! Mixon reached a contract extension agreement with the Bengals ensuring that he will not be holding out the upcoming offseason.

– J.K. Dobbins will reportedly have a significant role with the Ravens in 2020. Dobbins is quite frankly probably already as good as aging Mark Ingram and I envision his role growing as the season rolls along.

– The Deebo Samuel watch continues. I’ve heard he’s 50/50 for week one, but barring any setbacks, we’ll definitely see him in September. I think this is a great cheap draft pick/buy opportunity.