Twitter Observations: Davante Adams is Still a Stud, Josh Allen is Not

Michael Moore

As we cross the half-way point of the NFL season, it’s clear which of your dynasty teams are in the playoff hunt and which ones are in the hunt for the first pick in your rookie drafts. And as most trade deadlines near, the buying and selling will heat up including deals that will include the players below. Let’s see what Twitter has to say about them and what it means for your dynasty prospects.

A reminder: This space will be dedicated to an assortment of things we find on Twitter and what it means for our dynasty teams. Most fantasy tweets undoubtedly have a redraft slant to them but we’re here to talk about the dynasty implications

Adams for Peace

There’s no doubt that when the Packers failed to add a receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft, Aaron Rodgers wasn’t happy. However, Davante Adams dynasty owners were thrilled he kept his role as target-hog. Case in point, Adams has seen double-digit targets in each of the five games he’s finished this season, is averaging 112 yards per game and has scored eight times in just six games total. The complete domination is why, as the Tweet above points out, Adams is fantasy’s top receiver.

Dynasty Impact: Dynasty rankers have seen risers and fallers at receiver (including a new number one) yet Adams is about as steady as they come. Entering his seventh year in the league, he is in his prime and the situation around him (quarterback, offense) is unchanged. Injuries will always be a small price to pay as an Adams owner – he hasn’t played a full 16-game season since the last Presidential election year – but they have yet to be significant and he more than makes up for it. Adams is that rare dynasty asset where he can help your team whether it’s a playoff contender or in rebuilding mode. Either way, he’s a strong hold.

Dolphin Tale

That was quick. After Miami turned over the offense to rookie Tua Tagovailoa last week, the thought was they did so because he was fully healthy and ready to fulfill his destiny as a franchise quarterback. But apparently, according to the Tweet above, Tua is merely auditioning for the role. Credit the Dolphins for not assuming anything but it’s still an interesting turn of events for the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft.

Dynasty Impact: With the Dolphins expedited timeline of wanting to know how good Tua is, the same goes for dynasty owners. It appears he won’t have a full season to show how good he can be and, regardless, he’s not exactly off to a good start. In his first start, which the Dolphins won, he completed just 55% of his passes, lost a fumble and averaged just over four yards per attempt.

That average is ok for a running back but horrible for a quarterback. And the juxtaposition of the quarterback taken right behind him – Justin Herbert – completing nearly two-thirds of his passes so far while having a 15:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio is all the more glaring. For those who drafted Tua, he’s nothing more than a hold. But if he has another poor performance, I will look to trade him quickly before the Dolphins move on.

Loose Allen

Yikes. After a month where Josh Allen was a top-three fantasy option and being talked about in the same breath as Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson, he – and his dynasty value – have come crashing back down to Earth. After throwing for at least 300 yards in his first three games, Allen has just one such game in the last month. And after throwing at least two touchdowns in the first six games of the season, he’s thrown none over his last two.

The question for Allen – and his dynasty owners – is which player will they get the rest of the season. The one who started out hot and still has a completion percentage eight points higher than his career average and a full yard above his career yards-per-attempt average? Or the one from the last two games who has no passing touchdowns and two turnovers?

Dynasty Impact: For those who traded for Allen early in the season, they may be feeling some buyer’s remorse. The first month’s stats for Allen – enumerated in the Tweet above – were complete outliers for the third-year quarterback. It made people wonder what was going on. Was it a natural progression of a quarterback in year three of the same system? The addition of stud receiver Stefon Diggs? Whatever it was, it raised his ADP significantly.

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But now that Allen’s stats are leveling off, his dynasty owners are stuck. If they (or you) unloaded a lot of assets – especially in superflex leagues – there’s no way you could recoup what was spent. And it’s not exactly a promising future if you trade for him now even at his depressed value. He’s a hold either way.

Haste Management

Thanks to a mini-outbreak of (thankfully) non-COVID injuries to the San Francisco backfield, rookie JaMycal Hasty – fifth on the depth chart – was slated to be the next 49ers back to see significant carries. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as the 49ers fell behind early and his services were no longer needed.

Instead, Jerick McKinnon popped back up as the 49er running back du-jour, seeing the snap count share mentioned above including 15 touches. For his part, rushed for three yards on four carries but did add ten yards on two receptions. Still, it’s apparently why Hasty was this far down the pecking order.

Dynasty Impact: It was disappointing for those few dynasty owners that had Hasty, but his usage shouldn’t be all that surprising. All season, the 49ers have failed to have a fully healthy backfield (quarterback included) so we haven’t seen what a typical rotation would look like from game-to-game or even quarter-to-quarter.

Remember that even the 49ers most valuable dynasty asset at running back – Raheem Mostert – saw more than ten carries just five times last season when he was supposedly at the top of the depth chart. Just look at the crowded ADP for these running backs.

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As effective as the 49ers running game is, it can be viewed as the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. There’s simply no running back that can be trusted now or even in the future. If you’re able to trade any 49ers running back for rookie picks or a piece that can more consistently help your dynasty team, I would do it.

michael moore