My Dynasty Off-Season: Final Four Edition
Well, that was fun. Another year is in the books and hopefully you hoisted a dynasty league championship. While the games are great and results are obviously important, this is actually my favorite time of year. Yes, I actually enjoy the off-season more than actual fantasy football. I love breaking down the NFL Draft, evaluating rookies, re-establishing the veteran dynasty fantasy landscape and giving you all as much information as I can in order to be prepared for the beginning of the upcoming year.
This year, I’m going to be posting a regular series – My Dynasty Off-Season (yes, I changed it because I think this is better and because I tend to change my mind a lot). This series is intended for me to pull back the curtain a bit and share what I’m doing in terms of team building, roster evaluation, player assessments, trade possibilities, value changes or anything else I’m thinking of. My hope is this series helps guide you through your off-season and helps you be in position to win again next year.
We all know the NFL rules most parts of the calendar but try as they might, March Madness still dominates the back half of March and first week of April, so they’ll just have to be content with owning free agency, then taking over the world with the NFL Draft later this month. However, with the Final Four games winding down (congrats to South Carolina on the Women’s side), I decided to share some groups of four today before the Grand Finale of Purdue and UConn.
Let’s get to it!
Four Players I’m Buying in Dynasty Leagues
It would be easy to say I’m buying players like CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase or Amon-Ra St. Brown in a dynasty league right now but is that even really worthy to talk about? There’s no real value there in terms of buying because elite players like this have their trade values already baked in. However, what about some players who could be on the cusp of a value rise this upcoming season. These would be four players I’m targeting.
Tee Higgins wants out of Cincinnati and the Bengals don’t seem to be biting. Still, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before he’s going to be a WR1 on a team somewhere. Currently our 28th player ranked overall, it seems there’s still a runway for him to gain some value.
Tank Dell and Nico Collins could be seeing their values drop with the addition of Stefon Diggs. As I mentioned earlier this week, I think that’s a mistake. With Diggs now on what amounts to a one-year contract, I think this window to buy on these two could be very short.
Jordan Love is our QB11 and 75th player ranked overall but that may not match his ceiling. I mean, really, did anyone see that performance coming last season? If Love can build on what amounted to be his debut season, he’s a near lock to be a top-8 player at the position at this time next year.
Michael Mayer has dropped all the way to our TE14 and the 113th player ranked overall. He had a dreadfully slow start to his career last year but we started to see some real flashes late in the season. If the Raiders can get some better quarterback play, he should be a fast riser.
Four Rookies who I’ll be Targeting
I know the price tag is high but I’ll be taking Marvin Harrison Jr. with the 1.01 in leagues where I have it and I honestly think it would take an offer that overwhelms me to have me trade the pick. He just looks the part and in a draft that could be legendary for the position, he’s still at the top spot.
As much as I like Harrison, Malik Nabers looks pretty enticing. In short, I’m happy with either of the two receivers at the top of the draft and the 1.02 to me holds as much value as the 1.01 in most drafts. He just looks so explosive. LSU has had quite the history in churning out successful NFL wide receivers and Nabers looks like the next man up.
I might be a bit bias but Michael Penix has NFL talent. While most of the focus is going to be on the elite group of Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels, Penix has more rookie draft value to me. Instead of targeting one of these players highly in the draft, I’m just fine grabbing Penix later. While his late surge may take some of his sleeper value away, he’s an elite-level player if he stays healthy and gets put in the right offense.
One of my favorite “high risk, high reward” receivers in this draft is Devontez Walker. While his path to the NFL Draft is an odd one, I still like his talent. The situation he lands in is going to be a key to his future but I’ll be watching that pretty closely. If he had played more than 24 total games in his career, I think his draft stock would look a whole lot different.
Four Rookies I’ll be Fading
I’m just not buying JJ McCarthy being a top-5 NFL Draft pick (or top five Superflex pick for that matter). I understand quarterbacks are king on a lot of leagues but his rise seems to be a little manufactured because teams are so desperate to find their next signal caller. He’s good but is he really in that group of three with the others I’ve mentioned?
I love Brock Bowers and think there’s probably a 75% chance he’s the next big thing at the position. However, I just can’t swallow using a top-5 rookie pick on a tight end. This position is so unpredictable and there are actually more difference makers at tight end now than there have been over the past few years – I’d rather trade a second rounder for one of those than use an elite rookie pick on Bowers.
For the record, I really do think Caleb Williams is going to be a fine quarterback. However, I’m fairly certain the number of shares I may end up with Williams may be very few as I’d consider Harrison and Nabers possibly both ahead of him, even at the top of a Superflex draft. That might sound crazy but if one of these players turns out to be the next Jefferson or Chase, it really isn’t.
I love the production from Blake Corum but I also don’t see him being an elite level running back. I also think his name recognition is likely going to get him drafted higher than he should be in a lot of rookie drafts. For that reason, I’ll be letting him slip by me in most rookie drafts.
Who are you rooting for in the Purdue vs. UConn game tonight and why? Let us know in the comments below!
Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
