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Twitter Observations: Taysom Hill, Jalen Hurts, and Cam Akers’ Huge Night

Michael Moore Posted On December 12, 2020
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The fantasy playoffs are here and all the off-season work done on your dynasty teams will be put to the test. If you advance and win a championship (or two), all those moves you made will be worth it. If not, you’ll at least know your team is close to being a winner and maybe needs a few tweaks this next off-season. And if you aren’t in the playoffs, then it’s time to start researching what you’ll do with your rookie picks. Either way, the Tweets below highlight a few players who will factor in to those decisions.

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.

Green Akers

It took until the fantasy playoffs, but we finally had a true break-out game for Cam Akers. He handled the ball a season-high (for any Ram) 29 times for 171 yards as the Rams pounded the Patriots this week. Even more encouraging, he saw the most targets of any Rams back, too, with three and catching two of them. In all, a healthy Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson had a combined two touches compared to Akers’ 31.

The game concludes a three-game stretch for Akers where he totaled nearly 60 carries, 327 yards and two touchdowns. Those are RB1 numbers after rushing for more than 40 yards just once before that stretch.

Dynasty Impact: Kudos to those that still have Akers after taking him early in rookie drafts and were rewarded with nothing for the first three-quarters of the season. From the looks of his ADP, it was a lot of you:

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For those who moved on from Akers, they no doubt regret it as we could be looking like a redux of Todd Gurley in his prime Rams days. Akers has made quick work of both Brown and Henderson when it comes to touches and if Sean McVay is in charge, there’s no reason Akers can’t continue this level of production. I would project his value to tick up to a low-end RB1 in the off-season now that he’s secured the job in Los Angeles. He’s a literal keeper.

Power Taysom

No one knew what to expect when Taysom Hill was named the starter in place of the injured Drew Brees. Already 30, he’d attempted just 13 pass attempts in his career, instead being used as a Swiss-army knife for Sean Payton’s offense. But after three starts, and wins, it’s clear Payton was on to something when it came to Hill leading the offense.

Passing the ball, Hill’s completed just as many passes as anyone at over 70%. He’s thrown for over 230 yards in two of three contests and two touchdowns. Of course, the run game is where Hill has really excelled and brought a different dimension averaging nearly 60 yards and four touchdowns. In all, Hill’s been a QB1 in fantasy scoring in that span.

Dynasty Impact: Hill’s value has been all over the place. If you were to look him up on the DLF Trade Finder, Hill was being traded for anything from a first to a third-round pick in superflex leagues even after he started his current three-game stretch of QB1 numbers.

Of course, his future value is strictly tied to Drew Brees’ future in New Orleans. If this is Brees’ swan song in the NFL, it would make sense to fork over draft capital for Hill if he’s set to start next year. But we have no indication of that and can’t assume Brees bows out. Sure, he was showing some signs of decline – such as his 7.4 yards-per-attempt average, his lowest since 2010 – but he also had thrown 18 touchdowns against three interceptions in the nine games he’s played this year. For Hill owners, there will be a wait-and-see period this off-season to see what the Saints do. For now, they just enjoy the ride.

Hurts So Good

Last week, we discussed the beginning of (what could be) the end of Carson Wentz. That was prompted, and made official, by the news above that Jalen Hurts would start this week for the Eagles. For Philadelphia, they have nothing to lose by throwing the second-round rookie out there. They’re behind in the playoff race and would need to play differently than they are now anyway.

In the little action Hurts saw last week, it was a mixed bag. He was only 5/12 in pass attempts but did manage to throw for 109 yards and a touchdown and added 29 more yards rushing. It wasn’t enough for the Eagles to come back against the Packers but at least Hurts didn’t look lost.

Dynasty Impact: Being a second-round pick, instead of a high first, the leash for Hurts will be much shorter if he doesn’t produce this year. For all intents and purposes, this last month of the 2020 season is his audition to be an NFL starter, whether it’s in Philadelphia or somewhere else. Those that drafted Hurts in rookie drafts, especially superflex, need to monitor this last month just as closely as the Eagles do. It will determine if you have a solution at the position for the foreseeable future or if you need to dip again in rookie drafts when the 2021 class should have no shortage of options.

Beane Counter

Usually, a general manager of a real NFL team doesn’t have fantasy implications but this one does. The Bills locked up Brandon Beane after the most successful run in Bills history since their four-straight Super Bowl appearances. Not only did Beane bring in ‘his’ guys like Josh Allen and John Brown but he did it while quickly jettisoning players from the previous regime. Remember how incredible it was thought, at the time, that the Bills would let former top-five pick Sammy Watkins go? Three years later and it looks like the exact right move to make much like many other decisions Beane has made.

Dynasty Impact: To see just how much of an effect Beane’s had on the dynasty value of his key players, just look at the ADP of a few of them:

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Keep in mind Allen and Brown came on the scene in 2018 and have seen steady growth in their ADP; Devin Singletary was drafted in 2019 and has seen his increase over his rookie season. The only one to see any kind of plateau is Stefon Diggs who did see how value drop a bit coming from Minnesota but not significantly as he’s still a third or fourth round pick in dynasty startups and has performed as a literal WR1 in fantasy scoring.

In summation, having a Bill on your dynasty team is a solid investment as well as one of the steadier situations in fantasy.

michael moore
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