Early 2019 Fantasy Football Rankings (Top 300): Tiers 5-14

We continue our look at the Never Too Early Player Rankings for our top 300 players and 2019 redraft leagues. These player rankings are brought to you courtesy of RotoBaller NFL writers Pierre Camus, Nick Mariano (11th-most accurate expert on FantasyPros in 2018, 9th-most accurate in 2017), and myself, Dominick Petrillo.

These rankings are a fun way to look ahead to the next season and find out where players are likely to be taken in fantasy drafts with league mates who go worship ADP rather than making their own projections. We are going to take a look at these players broken down by tier (as always) and then discuss a few players in each group. You may notice that kickers and defenses are conspicuously absent because there's just no need for that right now.

This time, we'll examine the middle and lower tiers of our rankings to find those hidden gems and ever-popular sleepers. To check out my analysis on Tiers 1-4, simply click here.

Top 300 Redraft Rankings (February 2019)

Tier Five - 2019 Rankings

We saw last season the tale of two ends of the same spectrum. In Deshaun Watson, we saw what can happen in some remarkable cases only a year removed from an ACL injury. In the other cases of Dalvin Cook, Carson Wentz and Allen Robinson we saw the other side of the coin.

This means it could be quite likely Derrius Guice is not going to come back and be the player he was projected to be. He is more of a projection for 2020 in my book. This means he is not a good play at this high of a tier and if I had the choice of him or a player lower in the draft, I would forgo the talent of Guice for the safety of other players in re-draft leagues. When a player has the type of injury Guice had, it is their tendency to overcompensate by trying to keep the pressure off the leg thereby causing injury to the other leg the following season. This happened to not only Robinson but also Cook in 2018, which led to a dreadful first half of the season by Robinson and an RB30 finish by Cook after just 11 games of action.

If you want to take Derrius Guice in dynasty drafts or as a late-round flier, he is certainly worth those prices. But he is not being drafted as a late-round flier which means you will need to spend more to get him. And more is not something you should want to spend on him in 2019.

With Cam Newton going to have to throw more as he ages and his scrambling continues to diminish, it will turn to the pass catchers to pick it up in Carolina. D.J. Moore will be the man to do this coming off a rookie season which started off slow but picked up a lot of steam late. This trend should continue into 2019 as Devin Funchess is a free agent and most likely will not return to the team who drafted him out of Michigan.

After being a double-digit round pick entering his rookie season, Moore's stock has done nothing but increase this offseason, raising to the fifth or sixth round and this is only going to go higher if it is shown Cam Newton is really going to be ready to go for training camp. Look for Moore to thrive as defenses sell out to stop McCaffery and take his place among the leading touchdown receiver threats in the NFL with Antonio Brown and Davante Adams.

The reason Jordan Howard is on my list is that I'm not convinced he is even on the Bears when the season starts. Tarik Cohen is clearly the better back for the Matt Nagy system and he showed it by finishing as the RB11 on the season.

Jordan Howard tried to work on his hands before last season but failed to make much progress. He is still a talented back and he should get a starting job on a team who is in the market for a two-down back. A team who could use him in a committee like the Philadelphia Eagles or the Oakland Raiders would make a good fit for his skills. If he stays in Chicago, this ranking is far too high for where he will likely finish. If he goes to a better fit, this could be his floor.

Tier Six - 2019 Rankings

After a lost rookie season in Los Angeles, Mike Williams showed some of the talent which caused the Chargers to take him as the number seven pick from Clemson in the 2017 draft.

It will have to be seen how much of this increase in production had to do with his ability to stay healthy and how much of it had to do with Hunter Henry missing the entire season. If the former is true and he really is this talented, Williams could be a solid WR3 for a fantasy team with high-upside players at the top two receiver positions. If his numbers turn out to be due to the Henry injury, at least you will have a solid flex player on a weekly basis.

43 receptions in 16 games does not seem like a lot but with the target share given to both Keenan Allen and Melvin Gordon these numbers were not expected to be much higher coming back from the back issues that plagued him during his rookie campaign. In 2019 these numbers should continue to rise as he hopefully comes into his third-year breakout and gives Philip Rivers and the Chargers the solid second option needed in the receivers group.

For LeSean McCoy, being the lead rusher on the Bills was supposed to be a given in a season where there were no other offensive options. Sad to say that he wasn’t and not due to injury.

Yes, he had the most rush yards at the running back position, but he still fell 100 yards short of being the lead rusher on the team behind quarterback Josh Allen who finished with 581 yards and also doubled McCoy in rush touchdowns for the season. This leads many to believe the Bills will go after a free agent running back whether to replace McCoy or compliment him in the backfield. With a cap hit this season of $nine million it would be silly for Buffalo to bring him back if he was not in their plans as the starter. If they can sign s a player like Le’Veon Bell or even T.J. Yeldon, who are younger and have the same ability to catch the ball out of the backfield it would make sense for them to make this move.

McCoy finished as the running back 40 this season and this appears to be close to the top of the outcome range for him in 2019 unless a lot of things change on the Bills offense with additions to the line, receivers and tight end positions. All of these cannot be made in one offseason and after next season he may not be there. Here is one player where you would rather be one year early than one year late. Some may think you will already be late even taking him this season. I tend to agree.

Kenneth Dixon is an interesting case. The year of Alex Collins turned into the year of Gus Edwards. The year of Joe Flacco turned into the year of Lamar Jackson.

Well, 2019 should be the year of Kenneth Dixon. He is the most talented player in the Ravens backfield, or at least he must be since they have held him through injury and multiple suspensions. He also does something neither Collins and Edwards are not very good at. He catches the ball. A fact which is all the more important with Jackson at quarterback. A quarterback who can’t really throw the ball well and fumbles more than anyone else in the league makes it imperative the running back can catch dump offs when Jackson is in trouble. A feat likely to happen a lot as the rest of the league catches up to his antics.

The receivers on Baltimore leave something, OK a lot to be desired and the run game has been the main focus of the Ravens for many years under John Harbaugh. Who just signed a four-year contract extension to remain coach through 2022. The same year Lamar Jackson will be finished with his fifth-year option.

Dixon is going to go lower in drafts than either Edwards or Collins and he should be the starter going into the season making him the best value and not just the best player.

If you are looking for a running back with solid upside late in drafts, then Dixon should be under strong consideration. Not as a number or number two option like Collins was drafted last season, but instead more realistically on a mediocre Baltimore offense as a fourth or fifth option and flex play.

Tier Seven - 2019 Rankings

After taking over for Tyrod Taylor in the third game of the season, Baker Mayfield never looked back. Except maybe to flip off Hugh Jackson on the Bengals sideline. He led the Browns to a remarkable 7-8-1 finish on the season and in his starts, he led them to a 6-7 record. I know he Beat the Jets, but it doesn’t count.

His 27 touchdowns to 14 interceptions will need to come down and Nick Chubb in the backfield should allow for this to happen as he will have someone there, he can dump off to or hand off to instead of trying to fit balls into tight spots. The real issue for Mayfield is to find a receiver opposite Jarvis Landry to draw defenses away from the slot and open the middle of the field. If Antonio Callaway continues to improve and Richard Higgins continues his late-season stride, this could be a wildly potent offense under new head coach Freddy Kitchen and new offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who in Tampa Bay last season led a passing attack by Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston. If you were to combine the numbers of these two players, the quarterbacks would have been the sixth-ranked fantasy quarterback on the season. This is good for not only the production but also the improvement narrative for Mayfield who although good as a rookie, does have some refinement needed to continue to progress.

Mayfield could easily find himself finishing the season as a top-eight fantasy quarterback under the direction of the new coaching staff. For a quarterback you can get in the late rounds of your draft what more could you really want.

Bills wideout Robert Foster had 541 yards on 27 catches in his rookie season. This means in 2019, when he takes over the number one role in Buffalo and gets 100 receptions, he will finish with over 2,000 receiving and getting him this late in drafts no less.

Ok this is probably not going to happen, but one this is going to happen. He is going to be the number one receiver on the team based on their current roster and he will also spend the offseason trying to build on the rapport he will need with Josh Allen to move the Bills back into playoff contention after a year away. While surprise is the easiest word to use for Josh Allen and his ability to run, his arm has never been in doubt.

The man he liked to sling the ball to was Foster as he averaged 20 yards per catch on his receptions and with Zey Jones manning the slot and a likely new running back in the back field, this should open up more deep shots for Foster and Allen to connect on.

Drafting him is a risk worth taking in the last rounds of your draft when you are looking for a boom or bust dart throw. He certainly fits into this mold and with Kelvin Benjamin finally eating his way through all the wings in Buffalo before leaving, Foster will be the man next season.

Tiers 8-14 - 2019 Rankings

If Antonio Brown does leave Pittsburgh, it will fall to James Washington to try to minimize the loss to the offense. JuJu Smith-Shuster is ready to step in as the number one, but it is predicated on James Washington being ready to move in as a weapon on the other side so defenses can not just roll coverages to JuJu and remove him from the game.

Washington had a not-so-hot rookie season which was besieged by injury and inconsistency from the 2017 college wide receiver of the year. In 14 games, 16 receptions and 217 yards are not what the Steelers or many analysts were expecting, and he will need to have a breakthrough this season if the Steelers want to make it back to the playoffs after a one-year hiatus. The division is getting tougher with the Ravens and the Browns getting better and Pittsburgh will need to keep up if they don’t want to get left behind.

Much like Robert Foster, Washington is the type of player you want to look at in late rounds of drafts. He has a high ceiling to go along with his low floor but at this point in drafts, the juice is worth the squeeze.

With Cooper Kupp on the sidelines and a full recovery likely still a season away, Josh Reynolds has filled in and the Rams have not missed a beat with him in the lineup. Being surrounded by stars like Todd Gurley, Robert Woods and Brandin Cooks makes it a lot easier to succeed and this is not going to change any in 2019 with all of them coming back to the team. Jared Goff has gotten better in each of the last two years and should continue to improve next season and the defense which started off slow should also be a more cohesive unit next season making a Rams return to the Super Bowl more than a slight possibility.

Reynolds, like a lot of the players taken in this point is a value play. A way to get a piece of a good offense at a lower price than having to spend a high pick on another player. But unlike some of those other players we have discussed, he already has the defined role on the team which we are hoping for out of others.

Reynolds will have the slot role as long as Kupp is out of the lineup and this makes him a very dangerous weapon especially when the team gets down in the red zone. Getting him as the wide receiver four or five on your team can make a solid roster great as he has the ability on this offense to finish as a wide receiver three and bring back remarkable return on investment.

C.J. Anderson, wow. What a difference a team change can make! Many people thought he would be solid in Carolina as the backup to Christian McCaffery with Ron Rivera claiming he wanted to give McCaffery 25 touches a game. No one thought he was being serious but when it happened and Anderson was left out in the cold, it was a nice surprise when he was released.

After lasting a week in Oakland, he was again released when Jon Gruden realized he was too good to be on one of his teams. Landing in Los Angeles to backup another star in Todd Gurley was just what Anderson needed, as he finished the year on a tear and led the Rams to the Super Bowl as the starting running back in the playoff matchups against the Cowboys and the Saints while Gurley nursed through a supposed leg injury.

Coming into the offseason, we do not know where he is going to sign. He is only one season removed from a 1,000-yard season with the Broncos and after his finish to the season, he will not likely re-sign to remain as a backup in Los Angeles. The main free agent backs before his breakout were Le’Veon Bell, T.J. Yeldon and Tevin Coleman but he has now entered this conversation. Dare I say, only behind Le’Veon Bell at this point? Once we find where he will land, it will be easier to attain a value for him on his new team.

Look for him to go to a team like the Philadelphia Eagles or perhaps the Bills although as with some of the other players who may move this offseason, don’t count out the Jets or Colts and their mega bucks. Especially to the one who doesn’t land Bell.

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