Fantasy Football Pop Quiz - NFC East

There may be no more exciting division for fantasy football production than the NFC East. It's true today and it was true in 2017, though the headlines have changed slightly. The Dallas Cowboys looked like the favorite after handing over the reigns fully to Dak Prescott, the Washington Redskins were finally going to unleash Josh Doctson and Rob Kelley on opposing defenses, and maybe the plucky Philadelphia Eagles would figure something out!

Haha. Hahaha. Maybe we're all idiots.

Or maybe it's not us that's the problem. The Cowboys head in 2018 adopting the full stars-and-scrubs strategy on an actual NFL offense, the Super Bowl champion Eagles are entering the season very injured, and all eyes are on the New York Giants and their new rookie Saquon Barkley, making us forget that their quarterback is now dulled in his old age. Also, we're largely ignoring the Redskins as a fantasy community, and I am very ok with that.

Dallas Cowboys

Save your dollar for __________

1. Rod Smith
2. Tavon Austin
3. Terrance Williams
4. Rico Gathers

It's worth taking a second here to remember how the Dallas Cowboys have fallen. The names I didn't include are Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott, two highly-valued offensive entities that are being taken in nearly all drafts. I also didn't include Allen Hurns and Michael Gallup, which.... how did we get here? Going as WR's 50 and 52 respectively per Fantasy Football Calculator, we're generally on the same page at Rotoballer that Gallup is not quite ready yet, and we have yet to see any consistent, healthy production out of Hurns as he enters his age-26 season. This is the Cowboys offensive components that are being drafted.

So may I direct your attention to Rico Gathers? Yes, the tight-end is facing some level of suspension for being pulled over for marijuana possession, and it was widely presumed the event would sour him and mean he was an obvious cut. But it should perk your fantasy radar that, well,  Cowboy's blog Blogging the Boys takes it one step further to say that Gathers may be used similarly to Dez Bryant in terms of end zone production. Considering he's going undrafted in even the deepest of leagues, he's worth keeping an eye on or throwing a dollar towards while we wait to see what the Cowboys do with him full time.

Washington Redskins

_________ will drop in a lot of drafts, and I'd recommend taking him

1. Alex Smith
2. Alex Smith
3. Alex Smith
4. Alex Smith

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. It was just last year that Alex Smith put up arguably his best season ever, and now he's being taken 17th overall. It's not just that quarterback is deep, it's not that Smith is suddenly on a different offense with a less productive coach, and it's not that Smith isn't the sexiest pick in the world. It's the fact that last season's #4 quarterback found a way to approve his efficiency and limit turnovers in crucial moments, and no Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce performance can take credit for those sort of adjustments.

In this offense, there are more unknowns than usual. Every receiver is coupled with questions of health and role, every running back stymied with a question mark of what's left in the tank and how will it be utilized. Save for a few shares of Crowder that I've gotten very deep in leagues, I'm not touching any other Redskins talent if I can help it. But Alex Smith will be an improvement for this offense, not any sort of step back. For Smith, it also represents a deeper receiver corp that could mean more across the board production, a boon for any fantasy quarterback.

If you're not someone who is keen on overpaying for Rodgers or reaching for Watson, then it's absolutely worth waiting for an Alex Smith and not thinking twice about it. Once again, he's poised to reward those who understand the quarterback's adjustments aren't temporary, and Smith could be seeing his best seasons in the twilight of his career.

Philadelphia Eagles

_________ are considered "fallers," and it's time to catch them.

1. Jay Ajayi
2. Corey Clement

No, those aren't your choices, that's the order. It's a trick question. Jay Ajayi started fantasy draft season as an RB2, a talented running back who may finally get his shot full time in the Eagles backfield now that he's learned the offense. His highest average among all players, per Fantasy Football Calculator, was Round 3, Pick 9 (12 team PPR.) Since then, Ajayi's stock plummeted, sending him all the way back to Round 4 in that same format. While this could be in part to his generally-unspecific nagging lower-body injuries (it's the foot now?), general sentiment on the back has also soured.

What's confusing is that his backup, Corey Clement, isn't exactly climbing up in draft boards as players look to nab Ajayi's potential successor. In fact, Clement's stock is dropping as well, dipping from a height of 10.02 all the way down to 11.09. Unless the truly unexpected happens and Josh Adams sees a lions share of carries with Ajayi potentially sidelined, owning one of the two of these backs is the way to hold onto the Philadelphia Eagles entire backfield, and not even for an incredibly high price.

If you're actively engaging in a Zero RB strategy this year, grab Ajayi as late as round 5 and Clement in the 11th, and add every other Philadelphia running back to your "watch" lists. Otherwise, Ajayi and Clement should be seen as opportunity buys if you waited on your second running back and want to make sure that you have your bases covered. At least one of them will see a double-digit workload with scoring potential.

New York Giants

The real sleeper in this offense is ____________

A: Sterling Shepard
B: Roger Lewis
C: Jonathan Stewart
D: Wayne Gallman

I'll fully cop to the fact that it's cheap to pick Sterling Shepard here, but this pick is more of a summary of the rest of this column; a player whose stock is dropping for no real reason, already a faller, and is an obvious talent. My colleague Brittany Smith trumpeted the fact that Shepard's ADP is around 110, and he's likely to see more work, not less, in 2018.  I'd go a step further and say that if you get to pick 100 and Shepard still isn't off the board, either your league is on rookie level or you're too preoccupied with the "Oh I totally should get this guy because someone told me to" sleepers.

If my columns haven't been clear enough, I'll shout it out now; the great, deep teams this year will identify inefficiency and poorly ranked players and gobble them up. Shepard is a bench player in just about every league, at least to start the season, but I doubt there are a lot better options that may end up becoming every week starters.

More Draft Prep and Analysis