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| Wednesday, September 2, 2020 |
| As a notorious procrastinator, I feel like today is sort of my gift to you guys: It's time for a cram session. Today, I'll be focusing on making sure you're all caught up on the wild offseason by focusing on some of the biggest questions you might have heading into your draft. But that's just the appetizer for a huge day of Fantasy advice. Because tonight the Fantasy Football Today team will be joined by some of our best friends in the Fantasy industry for a six-hour Draft-A-Thon. |
| Starting at 6 p.m. EST on CBS Sports HQ and continuing until after midnight on our Twitch channel , it's all about getting you ready for the season, which means it's all about answering your questions. You'll have chances to interact with some of the best analysts in the industry, and you'll be helping us raise some money for a great cause with St. Jude Children's Hospital, to boot. Make sure you join us for the best Draft Prep show of the year. Head to our donation page ahead to make a contribution and get your chance to bid on some unique Fantasy Football draft experiences — like Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard, Heath Cummings or Ben Gretch calling you and helping you through your toughest draft questions. |
| Here's what you might have missed over the last few days before we get to the rest of today's newsletter. |
Draft Day Cheat Sheets
Fantasy Football Today Draft Guide RB Position Preview Alvin Kamara's holdout/trade rumors ADP Risers and Fallers Winning with rookies Jamey Eisenberg's Sleepers | Busts | Breakouts Heath Cummings' Sleepers | Breakouts | Busts |
| And here's what else we've got on tap today: |
| 🚨Draft Day cram session 📰Notes and quotes |
| 🚨Draft Day cram session |
| For many of you, Fantasy prep starts when you've got some spare time in the late summer, something I got a reminder of when I spent this weekend with members of one of my home leagues, who peppered me with questions I hadn't really even thought about in recent weeks. |
| "So, is the season actually happening? How are they going to handle all of this?" |
| If you aren't plugged in — and you've got a lot of reasons these days to be a little behind on NFL news — they're reasonable questions. And they are questions that need answering. It's a lot to keep up with, especially this offseason. |
| I answered 10 general questions about the NFL offseason, Fantasy drafts, the impact of COVID, and more here, and then I crowd-sourced 10 more questions from the rest of the non-Fantasy CBSSports.com staff to highlight 10 more player-focused things you need to know about below: |
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| Why is everyone so down on DeAndre Hopkins? |
| He's switching teams during an offseason with limited practice reps, to start, and that's just not a great situation to be in overall. Add in an offense in Arizona that spread the ball around a lot more than Houston's ever has, and there are real concerns that Hopkins' time as an elite receiver is done. However, I think concerns about his target volume are dramatically overstated — the Cardinals may throw the ball 100 more times than the Texans did last season. I still think 150 targets is more like Hopkins' floor than his ceiling. |
| Why shouldn't I take Lamar Jackson No. 1 overall? |
| When you can find someone in the 10th round who can drop 25-30 points in any given week and someone on waivers who can probably score 20 points in any given week, a first-round QB doesn't just have to be good — he needs to be extraordinary. There's only one lineup spot, and it's too easy to fill. |
| What's up with Kyler Murray being a top-five QB? |
| He had a more than solid rookie season and added an elite wide receiver via trade, but enough about Baker Mayfield's 2019. Murray is an elite talent with a skill set more conducive to Fantasy stardom than that of Mayfield, and the Cardinals offense figures to take a big step forward. |
| Is Cam Newton still Cam Newton? |
| Your guess is as good as mine. He ran away with the Patriots QB competition, but that's a pretty low bar. This question comes down to how Newton's generational athletic gifts have survived foot and shoulder injuries, and we won't really know until he's facing a real defense. That said, he's worth taking the chance on with an ADP still somehow outside the top 100. |
| Is there any case for someone besides Christian McCaffrey at 1.1? |
| Not really. It's not that McCaffrey is guaranteed to be RB1, let alone the No. 1 overall player — in fact, I'd pick the field over him — but it will probably require someone else's best-case-scenario season to beat McCaffrey's merely good outcome. |
| Why is Clyde Edwards-Helaire a first-round pick already? |
| Andy Reid's offense made Damien Williams a must-start option when he was healthy, and the Chiefs invested a first-round pick in CEH. I think the upside is somewhat overstated — I can't justify taking Edwards-Helaire over Michael Thomas, which actually happens sometimes — but it's not unreasonable to expect top-12 RB production from him. |
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| Should I trust Todd Gurley, Le'Veon Bell, and David Johnson again? |
| We can only be hurt so many times. Bell seems like the least likely of the three to provide a significant return on investment, while Gurley and Johnson are both at least in good spots to bounce back. As a No. 1 back, neither feels good, but both have some upside as No. 2 options if you want to fill the spot in your first five picks or so. |
| Wait, where did Leonard Fournette go? |
| He's a free agent now, that's where. The best case scenario for Fournette is that he doesn't sign until after the season starts, when he can find a job replacing an inevitably injured starter. He's actually a sneaky-awesome gamble if he remains unsigned and falls to around pick 100, because he may have plenty of options for a significant role in just a few weeks. |
| Should I trust Odell Beckham, Adam Thielen and JuJu Smith-Schuster after last year? |
| I'm most iffy on Thielen, a 30-year-old in what might still be a very low pass-volume offense who just had a season ruined by hamstring injuries. Beckham and Smith-Schuster still have obvious top-12 potential in my eyes — and I prefer JuJu, personally — but I have a harder time seeing it for Thielen. Though I'm definitely in the minority on the one, given his ADP, nearly a full round ahead of Beckham. |
| I've heard TE is really deep this year. Don't I hear that every year? Is it finally true? |
| Maybe! The thing about tight end is, the floor for Fantasy relevance is so low that it's not that hard for a late-round pick or waiver-wire add to end up a top-10 option. The question is whether the likes of Hayden Hurst, T.J. Hockenson, Mike Gesicki, Irv Smith or Chris Herndon can make the leap to must-start status. I'm fine waiting for them. |
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| 📰Notes and Quotes |
| Typically the bottom of this newsletter is chock full of fascinating nuggets from around the NFL, gleaned from beat writer reports of practice, quotes from notable players and coaches, and more. Unfortunately, most teams are limiting media availability to practices even more in the lead up to the season, which means the flow of news may slow to a trickle. Great, just when we need information the most. |
| An already tricky draft season is going to leave us scrounging around for news on injuries, depth charts and more. I'll do everything I can to keep you up to date, but head over to Spotify, Apple or wherever else you consume podcasts to make sure you're getting Fantasy Football Today in 5 every morning for our breakdown of all the biggest news in just five minutes. |
| Joe Mixon signed a four-year extension, putting to rest the whispers that his absence from practice over the last week might have been the start of a holdout. Let's hope Kamara follows suit, though I don't quite buy the idea that Mixon should be an automatic first-rounder now that he's signed — unless they included a stipulation in his contract that they'll finally start using him in the passing game. Tyrell Williams was placed on IR with his shoulder injury. That isn't terribly surprising, despite reports in recent days he would try to play through it. This should free up a starting spot for rookie Bryan Edwards, who becomes a fascinating late-round dart throw. Chris Herndon left practice with a chest injury. He initially tried to practice through it after being checked by trainers before leaving for the locker room early. We'll have to keep a close eye on this one, because Herndon has been a star at training camp and is a popular late-round sleeper around here. Devine Ozigbo could see a significant role early on for the Jaguars with Ryquell Armstead having missed so much of training camp due to a non-COVID-related illness. Armstead is the more intriguing of the two from a talent perspective, but Ozigbo needs to be on your draft board for the late rounds, at least. Devante Parker (undisclosed) was out yet again Tuesday. This one is quickly becoming a real concern, especially given how few details the Dolphins have given and are likely to give Deebo Samuel was once considered a possible PUP list candidate to start the season after suffering a Jones fracture in his foot in the offseason, but The Athletic reported in recent days Samuel actually has a chance to play in Week 1 against the Cardinals . He would almost certainly be used in a limited role, and the risk of re-injury with this specific issue is high, so don't draft Samuel planning on him being a Week 1 contributor. However, he's a late-round pick these days, and if Samuel is ready to make an impact relatively early on, he proved as a rookie he can be an impact player. The assumption for the Giants has always been that this would be a pretty even split in terms of playing time and targets between Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton and Golden Tate, but The Athletic's Dan Duggan wrote Monday that Tate might be looking at reduced playing time with the team likely to use more two-WR sets. Shepard has apparently been the most impressive receiver in camp, and if Tate is more of a role player, it could be enough to make Shepard stand out from the crowd. |
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| The Fantasy Football Today Draft Guide is here, and I promise, you'll want to have it by your side on Draft Day. We've boiled down everything you need to draft in one place, with consensus expert rankings and auction values, tiers, a round-by-round walkthrough, and Draft Day strategies and rules from Jamey, Dave, Heath and Ben. It's the next best thing to having them next to you while you draft. Head here to sign up for it, because it's absolutely free — which seems like a good value to me. |
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