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Live Fantasy Football Draft Prep Q&A
RotoBaller writer and lead NFL columnist Zach Wilkins (@LopsidedTrades) answers all of your fantasy football questions every Thursday night through the NFL preseason, and all through the fantasy football season.
Zach has been studying tape all summer to prepare for the NFL season and help you win your fantasy leagues! Last night he held a live Q&A advice session to answer your fantasy football draft prep, sleepers, rankings dynasty, rookie and draft strategy questions. Below is the recap of the Q&A from 8/27.
Come join in on the fun every Thursday night and get your fantasy football draft strategy questions answered. If you want your own chat username, register here!
Draft Prep & Advice – August 27th Q&A Transcript
Don’t forget you can always head over to our fantasy football chatroom, anytime, and for a “free for all” banter about fantasy football. Enjoy RotoBallers!
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Hey guys we'll get this started in just a few minutes so get those questions rolling in! |
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Alright, what's up everyone? Lets talk about your drafts, the preseason and anything else football related! |
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just traded Brandin Cooks / Victor Cruz/ C.J. Spiller for Rob Gronkowski, Todd Gurley, Malcolm Floyd. Non Keeper, standard, non-ppr with return yrds counted. Did I get a bad deal? |
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Gronk is the best player in that deal, so that's a good start. I like Gurley and I believe he can be a special talent. In non PPR I'll probably take him over Spiller even though he might not start for the first few weeks. It's not a steal but I think its a good deal. Unless its a very deep league Floyd probably isn't worth rostering |
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unless you meaen Michael Floyd, in which case even better |
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dynasty keeper 2nd year of 3 for these two, lamar miller for $13 or justin forsett for $22? |
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Those two are about neck and neck in my rankings so I'll take Miller |
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nope i meant malcolm floyd but i dropped him today for markus wheaton |
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nice that is a very good move! |
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Keeper question? Which one player should I keep. Lamar Miller for an 11th rd pick, C.J. Anderson for 10th rd pick, or DeAndre Hopkins for 14th round pick? |
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All very good options, I would go with CJ Anderson. He |
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He's a borderline 1st round pick and I like that they just signed Evan Mathis |
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was worried about the Broncos offensive line before that. Feel much better now |
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bryan possibly out 4 games, right? |
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Yup! In case anyone missed it Martavis Bryant is facing a 4-game suspension. I just saw a tweet from Ian Rappoport saying it is for multiple failed marijuana tests so it looks pretty likely. Wheaton is definitely worth owning in all leagues but Bryant is most likely the #2 when he comes back |
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Concern regarding RBBC potential with Ronnie Hillman and Montee Ball? Compared to a guy like Hopkins who is the only horse in town? |
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Its a definite concern but the Texans offense is also going to be very bad (until Arian Foster comes back late September or even later). He'll get tons of targets but not sure how efficient the offense will be. Obviously the Broncos offense is excellent. I think CJ Anderson holds off the competition and gets plenty of touchdowns to make it worthwhile. Also you have to consider RB vs WR scarcity. soooo many good WRs this year in the middle rounds |
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14 team league, how good is Brandon Coleman on the Saints - late pick? |
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@MoneyBall, great question, there has been a lot of buzz around Coleman. He's a big dude and looks like he could be a great red zone target for the Saints. My problem is he still has zero NFL catches and zero catches through two regular season games. Its hard for me to really get behind that until he at least shows something. Still in a 14 team league he is a good flier if he falls to one of the last couple rounds. I wouldnt go earlier than that |
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I wrote about Coleman and several others in my Preseason Week 2 stock up/down article: http://dev.rotoballer.com/stock-rising-falling-2015-fantasy-football-preseason-week-2/273534 |
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16 team standard league with 2 flex spots. Which of these players should I keep(already keeping gronk) I can keep all six if I wanted: tony romo, lamar miller, chris ivory, brandon marshall, allen robinson, charles robinson |
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With keeper questions, its important to know: Is there a cost to keeping these players? (like you lose your first six picks or whatever or you lose the round you drafted them in) without knowing that its hard to say. But if there is no cost I don't see why you wouldn't. |
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yeah each one for each round |
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the less i keep the earlier i pick |
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gotcha. Alright in that case Lamar Miller is definitely a keeper. Thats 2 rounds, everyone else is iffy. I'd consider Ivory and Marshall but in the third round thats a little early even with keepers. |
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should i trade deandre hopkins and travis kelce for a.j. green |
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Thats surprisingly tough for me. I really like Green, he's my WR7 and the last of my elite tier of WRs. Hopkins is a step down but I really like Kelce as well. I think I'd have to hold. Green is my 16th ranked player overall and Hopkins is 30th. Kelce is a bit too much to cover the gap but it is very close. |
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my roster is odell beckham jr, Adrian Peterson, Jeremy hill, lamar miller, bench: chris ivory, ameer abdullah, jarvis landry and nelson agholor |
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yea im thinking of holding |
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That's looking like a pretty solid team. Great WRs and RBs I wouldn't give up a potentially special TE to upgrade at WR |
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yea and then i have matt ryan as my qb. I picked up teddy bridgewater and matthew bradford so i have 3 qbs. Between Teddy, bradford and carson palmer which one do you think has the best numbers this year? |
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I generally roster 2 quarterbacks at most. especially if I have a solid starter like Ryan. For me it goes Bradford > Palmer > Teddy. Bradford is in the highest volume offense with very good receivers. With consistent Matt Ryan already around I would want the most upside in my backup and that would be Bradford. The risk with him is injury and that's not a big deal with Ryan there. |
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zach im doing a 2pt ppr 12 team draft in a week, don't know my draft position, should i do early pick top rb late pick top wr? what should i do respectively in round 2? thanks, |
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Great, let's talk some draft strategy. For me the most important aspect of the early rounds is value value value! I really don't like to plan for taking one specific position. Whoever 'falls' to me at my draft slot is who I will take. |
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That said, if I am picking in the 1st half of round 1, that almost always means a running back, especially because I have DeMarco Murray in my top six and not many others do. But don't feel forced to grab a WR in round two just because you got a RB in the first. |
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oh wait, haha sorry I didn't see that it was TWO point ppr. That definitely changes things |
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Like you could make a case for Antonio Brown #1 overall and Randall Cobb extra early. |
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but everything else I said remains true. Huge emphasis on RBs that can catch obviously like Matt Forte, Jamaal Charles, Justin Forsett etc. |
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yeah ive been doing mocks where i ignore rbs completely |
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unless a forsett falls to me in the 3rd |
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Forsett would be a huge steal in the 3rd in that format. Look at a guy like Spiller in the 4th-5th as well |
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My league is 2QB with 6pt passing TD. Typically 7/10 of the first picks end up being QBs. Who, besides Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers would you look at with the extra passing TD points as a 1st round pick? |
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Honestly, I don't let 6 point passing Tds change my valuation of QBs very much if at all. in 2QB, Rodgers, Luck, Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning are all potential first rounders in 2QB I'd probably go top RB/WR outside of that and settle for the next tier of QBs otherwise |
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speaking of forsett, joe flacco recently said he's not sure if dennis pitta will play this year, i think that helps forsett's value in terms of reception opportunities |
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Yeah I'm not counting on Pitta for anything this year. if he plays, its great for the offense but with the drafting of Maxx Williams and everything I've read it seems questionable at best. In the Marc Trestman offense 50-60 receptions seems just about a lock with 70+ possible. This is the same guy that got Forte a record breaking 102 receptions last year of course. |
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WR Question. What do you think of dropping Roddy White for Markus Wheaton> |
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I'm not big on Roddy but I wouldn't do that. Wheaton is only a guaranteed starter for 4 games. It may be more, but he also had plenty of opportunities last year and didn't do much. |
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have my draft in 2 hours |
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I have 7th pick in a 3wr /flex .5 ppr league. If marshawn lynch isnt open should i reach on forte or grab a wr? |
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at the 7th pick I would grab Antonio Brown if he's there but otherwise I'm fine taking Forte or Demarco Murray |
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But pittsburgh did run 60% 3 WR sets, and they've said wheaton > bryant |
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Yeah Wheaton will likely be the WR2 on the depth chart but not for fantasy purposes. Look at Philadelphia last year for example, Riley Cooper was a 16 game starter but Jordan Matthews still blew by him in terms of fantasy relevance. |
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12-tm PPR, drafting 3rd overall. Am I crazy to take Antonio Brown with my first pick, and snag Forsett, LeSean McCoy, or Miller with my 2nd or 3rd? |
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Not crazy at all. I've heard some fantasy analysts argue for Brown #1 overall in PPR. I'd still go with one of Lacy/Charles/ Le'Veon Bell but you can easily make a case for Brown at #3 |
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Do you think it's better to have Brown/Alshon Jeffery/LMiller or Charles/Jeffery/Matthews? |
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Oh...and Jeffery or Mike Evans?? |
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While I love Evans, I'll definitely take Jeffery over him. I really like both of those scenarios but I think slight edge to Brown/Jeffery/Miller |
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thoughts on gurley? you like him for later in the year and fantasy playoffs? |
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Yeah I really do believe Gurley is a special talent and obviously the Rams do too if they took him 10th overall. It may take him a while to really get going coming off a major injury but I do expect him to make a big impact at some point this year. Probably about week 6 or so is where I would expect him to start looking really good |
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Zach with martavis out 4 games with the Susp can I expect an increase amount of targets for brown? |
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Maybe a tiny bit but Brown was already the heart of the offense and the most targeted receiver. He really doesn't have anywhere to go haha |
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but you can be assured he will get a LOT of targets |
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Thoughts on the probability of Vernon Davis regaining the chemistry he had with Colin Kaepernick before last year |
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? |
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I think its very possible Vernon Davis rebounds. He was dropped in my dynasty league with 26 player rosters and I immediately grabbed him up just in case that does happen. Davis was a top 5 TE in 2013 and he's 31 so he isn't totally ancient. Not a bad late round TE at all |
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Thoughts on Frank Gore in a PPR (vs guys like Miller, Latavius Murray, McCoy)? |
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Gore is obviously in an amazing offense that also saw Ahmad Bradshaw get a ridiculous number of rec touchdowns last year but he is clearly below Miller and McCoy for me. He's caught just 20+ passes once in the last 4 years and even in the Colts offense I'm not expecting a huge rebound as a receiver, thus limiting his PPR value |
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I'll be wrapping this up at 9 PM Eastern so just a few more questions for tonight, but next week I'll be back probably Wednesday night! |
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Zach what's your take on shane Vereen in Ppr? |
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Shane |
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I haven't been finding myself taking Vereen in any mocks. He's an interesting player but he's never had more than 840 yards from scrimmage in a season and averaged just 52 yards a game last year with the Patriots. I'd be surprised if that went up with the Giants. |
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He WAS still pretty valuable in PPR but his current price is just a bit too high for me. |
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thoughts on the browns rb battle? who comes out on top? and does the winner present good value running behind that formidable o-line? |
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Great question. last year Mike Pettine and the Browns were extremely frustrating when it came to knowing who was going to be getting the bulk of the carries in any given week and I worry that may happen again this year. I lean towards Isaiah Crowell as the starter though. If the Browns stick with one guy I think he can be a good value at his current ADP but Im doubtful. I like Duke Johnson too but I'm not buying Terrance West at all. |
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Hopkins or Matthews (PPR)? |
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I love Matthews but in PPR I give the slight edge to Hopkins. He might be one of the top five most targeted receivers this year. Andre Johnson was last year I believe, even despite Hopkins presence. For at least the first 3-4 weeks this offense will pretty much run entirely through short passes to Hopkins. He'll be a great PPR play |
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Thanks so much for your time! |
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Thanks guys, this was a lot of fun! The plan is for these to run 8 PM every Wednesday for the rest of the season. |
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but for now my hour is up. If you still have some questions (and I do see a couple rolling in) tweet me @LopsidedTrades link for the lazy: https://twitter.com/LopsidedTrades |
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I'm always more than happy to respond there! just have to keep it to 140 characters or less haha |
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