Rizzla discusses his post trade deadline Rest of Season rankings.
With a crazy trade deadline in the books and Le’veon Bell expected to return by week ten, as well as other players whose play vaulted them or dropped them down our rankings there is no better time to revisit our rest of season rankings for the 2018 fantasy football season.
Risers
Marlon Mack leaped up nine spots in our rankings after returning from injury and looking much more capable of carrying a full load than most thought was realistic. Mack has torched the Bills and Raiders over the past two weeks for 129 rushing yards per game and three total touchdowns on an average of a whopping 22 carries per game. Mack has assuaged his workload doubters and is now a high upside RB2 the rest of the way.
Courtland Sutton saw a massive 45 spot jump to 21st overall. With Demaryius Thomas out of town, redraft owners who were stashing Sutton since the season started over are rejoicing. Sutton profiles as a Alshon Jeffery type and has already flashed his upside in the NFL. Now with a consistent weekly role he should have no issue truly exploding onto the fantasy scene in the coming weeks. He can finish much higher than 21st overall the rest of the way as his top ten 18.5 yards reception (seventh among receivers) seems to indicate.
DJ Moore vaulted 36 spots to 35th overall following his week eight breakout. It may be alarming that a player with just one truly strong game sees such a jump but this is something we were waiting all season for. DJ Moore should have been starting over both Torrey Smith and Jarius Wright this season and showed the world exactly why with Smith sidelined versus one of the strongest defenses in the league in the Baltimore Ravens. Moore’s breakout potential is not only highlighted by his monster game but by his fantasy points per route of 0.65, which is eighth among receivers and his 2.32 fantasy points per target which places him fourteenth.
Marvin Jones jumped sixteen spots to 21st overall following the Golden Tate trade to the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a difficult task to rank both Golladay and Jones on a weekly basis because trying to project who Stafford would utilize as his number two after his top target was a game of chance at best. Now with a logjam of sorts cleared Jones steps up as the 1a in the receiver room. Always a talented receiver Jones now has the role to truly breakout in the second half. To put things in a bit of context, Marvin Jones has 387 receiving yards and five touchdowns on the season. Last season Jones’ month to month breakdown went something like this: October – 320 yards, one touchdown; November – 323 yards, five touchdowns; December – 370 yards, one touchdown. Jones can now actually better these numbers with Golden Tate gone to Philly as he is likely to see eight plus targets per game. Jones is locked in as a weekly WR2 with significant upside.
Jack Doyle immediately stepped back in as Andrew Luck’s number one target at the tight end position torpedoing Eric Ebron’s TE1 season along the way. Ebron and Doyle are going to cannibalize each other as far as their fantasy values are concerned but it looks like Doyle will remain the option with the higher weekly fantasy floor. Ebron will likely continue to be heavily involved in the red zone but may see Doyle receiving more targets on a weekly basis. Doyle climbed five spots in our rankings to 14th overall while Ebron now sits 15th.
Fallers
Carlos Hyde suffered an eleven spot tumble following his trade to the Jacksonville Jaguars struggling offense. At the time this deal was consummated we believed Hyde would immediately step in as the top back, but he has since missed a game and seen only six carries in the next. The Jags are now on a bye week and there have been rumblings all along, ones we didn’t believe, that Fournette may be back for week ten; news that if true all but destroys Hyde’s fantasy value the rest of the way. Hyde will take a major jump back up our rankings if/when it is revealed that the Jags intend to hold Fournette out until the week sixteen or seventeen but with them now looking unlikely to make the playoffs, there may be no more reason to ease Fournette back into action late in the season.
Golden Tate dropped fifteen spots to 37th overall in our rankings. This may indeed be too drastic of a drop for a receiver who will undoubtedly remain heavily involved in the Eagles weekly game plan but with both Ertz and Jeffery likely to see larger roles Tate now boasts a bench fantasy floor. There is no doubt Carson Wentz can support three fantasy relevant targets, especially when Tate’s versatility is taken into account which is why Tate remains in the WR3 conversation. With that said it should be noted that Tate’s weekly ranking as a WR2 had as much to do with his high weekly floor as his talent and role in the Lions offense. Despite Tate dropping in our rankings he profiles a solid buy low target if your rival owner is smart enough to realize Tate loses value with this deal; if they are one of the delusional types who think Tate gained value, well, just don’t bother.
Calvin Ridley saw another ten plus spot drop down our rankings after proving too inconsistent to trust as anything more than a bye week filler. Despite his monster two week stretch where he piled up five touchdowns and 200 receiving yards, Ridley has failed to take advantage of plus matchup after plus matchup and has seen Mohamed Sanu maintain his role while Austin Hooper saw his grow, especially in the red zone. Ridley still has strong dynasty league value but is more of a low floor, high upside WR4 at best the rest of the way in redraft leagues.
Eric Ebron was on fire with Jack Doyle on the shelf, finally highlighting the mammoth upside that made him a first round pick for the Detroit Lions. From weeks one to seven Ebron was the TE3, and was fifth among tight ends with a 19 percent target percentage and was third in targets with 59, receptions with 33 and air yards with 584. Fast forward to week eight with a healthy TY Hilton and Jack Doyle and Ebron saw a season low three targets while Doyle saw seven and TY saw five. Ebron is now more a high end TE2 with TE1 upside with Doyle all but certain to cap his weekly volume and thus his upside.
