RADIO
It’s full steam ahead for Week 2 and welcome to the first #TrendingNow of the 2018 regular season. If you are new to this article, thanks for jumping in and taking some time to read it. This is the one article I keep each season that is strictly dynasty based.
If you don’t play in dynasty leagues there are two things you should do. Number one: try it sometime, it’s a blast! If you love fantasy football and only focus on redraft, then it’s time to broaden your horizons. The second thing is to continue reading, because this information is still good for you. Even if you don’t use it right now, plug names into the back of your mind and keep them there. It could come in handy when you draft next season.
Before we get into the players for this week, let's break it down first. #TrendingNow is all about a player’s current value and whether it is #TrendingUp or #TrendingDown focusing both points on the long-term outlook of the player. So, if a guy had a huge first week, but he’s not listed here, either I didn’t have enough room, or I haven’t jumped on his long-term bandwagon as of yet. Enough of the small talk, let’s get to it!
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#TrendingUp
Phillip Dorsett - WR, NE
The former first-round pick was almost irrelevant. Fantasy owners thought the Andrew Luck to Dorsett connection was going to be a fruitful one in Indianapolis but it never quite materialized. In two seasons with the Colts, Dorsett only had 753 receiving yards and was even less relevant after being traded to the Patriots last season for Jacoby Brissett. Is Tom Brady the secret ingredient that the Dorsett recipe for success needs?
The Patriots have a revolving door at receiver right now and even though they just signed Corey Coleman, we don’t know what is going to happen here. Julian Edelman will be back in a few games as well, but how much longer will he be in New England? It’s possible that we see a Nelson Agholor like trajectory with Dorsett. If Coleman can succeed in New England on the outside and Dorsett can stay in the slot, that is a good young pair to have together considering Dorsett is still only 25 years old. New England has a habit of taking players who seem down to their last life and bringing them back to full health.
Phillip Lindsay - RB, DEN
Time to talk to about the second Phillip in this article and one that may have surprised fantasy owners the most in Week 1 outside of Ryan Fitzpatrick. We have been riding the Royce Freeman hype train for weeks, including myself, and it looks like for one week, he derailed it. Lindsay’s value is going to completely lie in pass catching work for the Broncos and that’s okay.
Lindsay had 15 carries last week for the Broncos and while that worries Freeman owners, it shouldn’t. I don’t see that type of usage coming again anytime soon. Lindsay only checks in at 5’9” and 190 pounds, which doesn’t stand up to the 6’ and 229 pounds, a true two down back. Lindsay had the hot hand last week and the team rolled with it. His performance is enough to get me on board. Even if Lindsay develops into a pass catching back without the extra work on the ground, that is still valuable enough to be a PPR commodity. The Broncos offense is #TrendingUp itself so having a safe play like Lindsay out of the back field could produce a flex play every week for Case Keenum.
Will Dissly - TE, SEA
If I gave you three guesses to pick the Seahawks player you would have 105 yards and a touchdown in Week 1, I’m going to assume you would have not picked Will Dissly. Here we are though and it’s time to consider him long-term for the Seahawks tight end position.
Nick Vannett seemed like the guy who would win this spot and fill in for Jimmy Graham who is off to Green Bay, but he only had two targets to Dissly’s five in Week 1. The question is whether Dissly can keep it up and with the loss of Doug Baldwin, he could very well help for the rest of the season. Is the TE position in Seattle fantasy viable though?
Graham had 170 catches for 2,048 yards and 18 touchdowns the last three seasons and finished as the TE6 and TE4 the past two seasons. This isn’t a way of comparing Dissly to Graham, because that isn’t close, but we all know Seattle doesn’t have the best offensive line and the defensive is not good anymore. Russell Wilson will need to throw a lot the rest of the season and maybe longer. In dynasty leagues, it’s time to scoop Dissly up.
#TrendingDown
Doug Baldwin - WR, SEA
Since we are already on the topic of the Seahawks, why not just stick here to talk about Doug Baldwin’s value. Believe me when I say this is much harder for me to write than it is for you to read. Baldwin is one of the few players who I was all in on during the off-season. If he could have stayed healthy, he was in for a WR1 performance. The Wilson-Baldwin stack would have been one of the best all season.
Baldwin has always been very underrated and fantasy owners have never quite given him the love he deserves. Now that he misses time with two bad knees, that is going to grow over the season regardless of the performance he puts together (if there is a performance.) We know he is going to miss multiple weeks now and if it extends further into the season, owners will turn their back on him, not willing to be bitten a second time.
If you currently own Baldwin, I would recommend that you move Baldwin as soon as he is back for a couple of healthy games. Target an owner who looks playoff bound with a weakness at receiver and sell like you have never sold before. The soon to be 30-year old will only have one more short window to sell if he makes it back on the field.
LeSean McCoy - RB, BUF
This may not be much of a surprise, but there are still many LeSean McCoy fans who believe he has enough gas left in the tank to help fantasy teams. That may be correct, but the team around him isn’t good enough to help him find that value. If you didn’t watch the Bills this past week, you didn’t miss much.
McCoy only had seven carries for 22 yards, but the biggest concern was his lack of production in the passing game. One catch for negative one yards just isn’t the McCoy we are used to. That may be what we get from now on though. It appears that Josh Allen is set to take over as the starter for the Bills and as much as I don’t agree with that due to his need to develop, he’s not going to be the type of QB to check down to his running back. Allen is going to unleash that arm of his and won’t be looking to his running backs much. We saw the same thing with Patrick Mahomes and Kareem Hunt this past week as well. The gunslinger with a huge arm isn’t going to look towards his running back too often.
The Bills offensive line is in shambles right now and it doesn’t appear the offense will have much rhythm this season either. If you think McCoy getting out of Buffalo is best for his value, I don’t think it will be. The talent pool is very deep at the position in the NFL right now and if they cut him this off-season, he will possibly need to compete with Le’Veon Bell, Carlos Hyde and Mark Ingram in free agency with another solid class of running backs in the draft this year and maybe one of the best classes we will see in 2020. The curtains could be closing soon.
