32 Teams, 32 Questions: AFC North

Eric Olinger

It’s preseason time, which means we get to see all 32 teams doing something at least relatively meaningful. It also means there are only a few weeks left until the rosters and depth charts are set for the start of the season. We are going to take a little trip around the league and take a look at all 32 teams and address one of the biggest fantasy questions about each of them. After all, in terms of dynasty leagues, if you aren’t thinking about these things now you’re already behind.

Baltimore Ravens

After all the injuries, which skill position players are worth targeting?

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The Ravens didn’t make it too far into the 2017 season before injuries swept through the offense. Kenneth Dixon was expected to compete for significant carries after his four-game suspension, but will now spend 2017 on injured reserve recovering from meniscus surgery.

Dennis Pitta finished 2016 with career highs in both catches (86) and yards (729) with the expectation of building upon those numbers until he dislocated and fractured his hip for the second time. The Ravens have since cut him, and his career is likely over. His backup, Crockett Gillmore, was also waived with an injury settlement after suffering an MCL and meniscus injury.

At the wide receiver position, the Ravens added Jeremy Maclin in free agency to pair with Mike Wallace and oft- injured Breshad Perriman, but you can’t count on Perriman. He’s constantly battling soft tissue injuries and has looked pedestrian. Combine all this with the biggest injury question mark of all in Joe Flacco and his bad back, and this team has “boom or bust” written all over it.

The obvious fantasy assets are Maclin, Wallace, Danny Woodhead and Terrance West but they’re already rostered in every league. As long as Flacco is on the field and we’re not subjected to the walking dumpster fire better known as Ryan Mallett, Maclin will get his. He should finish in the neighborhood of 85 catches for 1,100 and 7-8 touchdowns.

Wallace will pair very nicely with Maclin’s skill-set a lot like how DeSean Jackson did back in their Philly days. People laughed at me when I told them to buy Wallace last off-season, but he finished with 72 receptions for 1,017 yards and four touchdowns. I’ll take WR3 production at WR4 prices all day, every day! He has the opportunity to improve on those numbers in 2017 too.

Woodhead and West should form a potent “bash and dash” duo in PPR leagues and should both offer RB2 stats throughout the season. We all know what Woodhead brings to the table in the passing game and he’ll offer an upgrade on Kyle Juszczyk who signed with the 49ers this off-season after catching 78 passes for 587 yards and four touchdowns over the last two years.

If you’re looking for a deep sleeper in this group though, I’d take a look at rookie Quincy Adeboyejo. Adeboyejo is an undrafted free agent from Ole Miss and might never be a big time NFL wide receiver, but he can play inside and outside and can flat out fly. He also has short area explosiveness. He could help fill the void left by all the injured tight ends. He has a good shot at making the roster but if he doesn’t it’s a low cost investment with a fair amount of dynasty upside.

Cincinnati Bengals

How will this three headed monster at running back shake out for the Bengals and dynasty leaguers?

The Bengals running back situation has been confusing dynasty leaguers since 2013 when they selected Giovani Bernard 37th overall. He had the look of a dynasty PPR RB1 for at least the next six+ years. He had a solid rookie campaign with 695 rushing yards, 56 receptions for 514 yards and eight total touchdowns. Dynasty leaguers were excited their first round selection panned out.

Then, the Bengals surprised everyone by selecting Jeremy Hill with the 55th overall pick the very next year. For some reason, nobody really expected Hill to put a serious dent into Bernard’s fantasy output. Hill was expected to be more of a battering ram who excelled at the goal line and in short yardage situations. Bernard carried an August dynasty ADP of 13.17 as the RB4 in 2014, while Hill was had an ADP of 82.5 as RB25. When the dust settled, it was Hill who finished as the Bengals running back to own as he finished as the RB11 in PPR leagues with 1,124 rushing yards and nine touchdowns while adding 27 catches for 215 yards receiving. Bernard finished as a mid-RB2 at RB18 with 680 yards and five touchdowns on the ground while catching 43 passes for just 349 yards and a pair of scores in 13 games.

In 2015, they finished within 11 points of each other and both had settled in as mid-RB2s. Bernard was the elite pass-catcher we thought he was, and Hill was the touchdown-scoring monster we all expected. Everyone seemed like they had found their role and we know what to expect moving forward. 2016 saw Hill stay the course, he finished as the RB22 in PPR leagues but Bernard struggled with injuries and missed six games.

Overall, this team struggled badly as the offensive line had a hard time creating running lanes for either back. Fast forward to this year’s draft and the Bengals were back at their second round shenanigans as they took Joe Mixon with the 48th overall selection. We all know about Mixon and his off-field issues, so I’m not going to rehash them here. On the field, he had all the talent to be a first round selection. He seems to be a nice mix of both Hill and Bernard, and has drawn rave reviews from coaches and beat writers alike.

So what do we do? If history has taught us anything when it comes to Marvin Lewis and the Bengals drafting of running backs, it is they don’t draft them to sit. Hill is maintaining the “starter” designation at the moment, but Mixon is seeing a lot of first team play in both of the team’s preseason games so far. As long as the rookie can handle NFL pass protection, it sounds like he’s going to work his way into serious playing time sooner rather than later. It’s just hard to see Hill and Bernard not having some kind of role in this offense in 2017. I think all three of these guys will flash at times with Mixon being the “safest” of the three.

I do believe this offense will be very frustrating as they ride the hot hand each week. The thing is, Hill will be a free agent after the season and could land a starting gig elsewhere. He’d look great in Giants blue or lining up behind Carson Wentz in Philly. Bernard is signed through 2020 and will maintain a role with a capped fantasy ceiling.

Cleveland Browns

How long will the “battle” between Brock Osweiler and DeShone Kizer go before the Browns play the rookie?

The Browns appear to finally be building this thing right. They have a ton of cap room and are building through the trenches, while getting better at each level. Even their trade for Osweiler was a thing of beauty. The Texans wanted to get rid of this guy so bad that they traded him, a 2018 second round pick and a 2017 sixth round pick to the Browns for a 2017 fourth round pick. The Browns made out like bandits as they had the cap space to absorb the ridiculous contract Houston shelled out to the horrible quarterback a year earlier.

Then, they smartly passed on reaching for a quarterback with one of their three first round picks and let the draft come to them. With the 52nd selection of the draft, they landed on DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame who unexpectedly fell in the draft. A lot of teams red flagged him after making some pretty arrogant comments about himself, but you definitely want your quarterback to be confident.

This “battle” shouldn’t take long. Brock Osweiler is 6’7” of crappy quarterback and is not going to be the answer for the Browns or anybody else. He’ll bounce around the league as a career backup who cashed in one time when the stars aligned and two teams were desperate for a quarterback. Kizer, although he has flaws to his game, needs to be the Browns signal caller in 2017. Kizer misses some throws sometimes and makes some questionable decisions, but he is also an aggressive playmaker who keeps his eye downfield and does well incorporating his running backs into the passing game.

With Kenny Britt and Corey Coleman on the outside, Duke Johnson occupying the field around the line of scrimmage, and rookie tight end David Njoku ripping the seam, the Browns have to find out what they have in Kizer. They have two first round picks in 2018 (theirs and the Texans’) and three second round picks (theirs, the Eagles’ and the Texans’) so they have more than enough ammo to navigate the draft in a class better loaded with franchise signal callers should they not like what they see from Kizer.

Pittsburgh Steelers

How many fantasy studs will this offense produce?

A lot.

There aren’t a lot of NFL offenses virtually guaranteed to produce a top three running back, a top three wide receiver and a top ten quarterback, but this is that kind of offense with Le’Veon Bell, Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown. These guys are highly coveted dynasty assets with Bell and Brown both carrying top seven overall average draft positions.

The Steelers player with the next highest ADP is Martavis Bryant at 39th overall. Dynasty owners are warming back up to Bryant after he missed all of 2016 due to substance abuse issues, and he finally appears to have his head on straight and received his wake-up call. At 25 years old, he could prove to be a massive steal for dynasty leaguers but he could also relapse and find himself out of the league for good.

The fourth option in this offense is where it gets interesting. Eli Rogers, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Jesse James and Darrius Heyward-Bey are all fighting for targets and all carry varying degrees of value depending on league size. People seem to have forgotten about Rogers after a solid rookie season with 48 catches for 594 yards and three scores in 13 games. Ben raved about the wide receiver last year and he showed he can play the game at this level.

Jesse James is trying to carry the torch handed off by Heath Miller at tight end but has yet to make a huge NFL impact but he’s definitely trending in the right direction. The problem with his fantasy value is the amount of red zone looks Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant all get. There just aren’t as many opportunities for him to make him a viable TE1 in fantasy leagues with so many other better options at the position.

With Darrius Heyward-Bey, they have a big play wide receiver who brings weekly boom-or-bust potential heavily reliant on Ben’s deep ball. His value takes a huge hit each week Martavis Bryant suits up. The fact we’re even talking about this guy after the way his career started is impressive enough. Then we have JuJu Smith-Schuster, the wild card in all of this. Smith–Schuster is just 20 years old and won’t turn 21 until November. He was one of the nation’s best receivers at USC and brings reliability and dependability to the Steelers offense. He could eventually settle into an Eric Decker-type of role as a wide receiver who can excel in traffic and be dynamic in the red zone when called upon but serve better when lined up across from a true WR1.

A deep flier on this offense is rookie running back James Conner. Obviously, Le’Veon Bell is a super stud and will “get his” whenever he’s healthy and playing, but he has yet to sign his tender and report to camp. All too often when players hold out of camp and miss preseason games they suffer some sort of injury early in the season, usually something soft tissue-related like a bum hamstring. This could give Conner the potential to have solid spot start ability. At worst, he’s a solid handcuff like DeAngelo Williams has been over the last couple years.

Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.

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eric olinger
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