I’ve been covering every preseason slate this year, which has led to me watching more preseason football than ever. I’m combining what I see with a deep dive into stats and playing time, and it’s allowed me to really optimize my rankings. I stayed up to 4 AM compiling my thoughts and making adjustments to the rankings. I also separated out the specific CSVs for each site and the standard PPR and Half-PPR rankings.
Below are my notes after Week 2 of the Preseason:
- Mack Hollins continues to go undrafted despite being locked into WR2 role in Atlanta. Could be steal of the draft.
- Jeff Wilson and Raheem Mostert get big boosts after Achane was carted off in Week 2. He’s week to week, and missing this time is killer for rookies. Only concern now is if they acquire another RB, but their ADP is so low it’s implying they will. Maybe they like these two guys and everyone is assuming wrong. That would make one or both of them total steals at their ADP.
- Panthers offense as a whole goes so low, but they should be passing a lot with Hurst, Mingo, Chark, Thielen as the 4 guys on the field. There will be boom games within this group and you can get them all very cheap.
- As expected, Slayton seems like WR1 for Giants. No reason he should go so late. Hyatt probably supplants someone midseason. My guess is Campbell so I’m very low on him.
- The Falcons utilize RBs more than any team. Allgeier is going to play a lot, often with Bijan on the field too. He can get you usable scores while providing elite handcuff upside.
- Kyle Pitts seems to be getting the same shitty usage as always. I continue to rank him way lower than ADP and end up with none.
- As expected, MVS is running the most routes for the Chiefs. People are really down on this role after it didnt produce much last year, but he’s coming off his best year in the league and should produce some boom games in the deep threat role.
- Sam Howell looks good but is targeting RBs a lot because the line is terrible. B-Rob and Gibson both get a slight boost. McLaurin may have gotten hurt on Monday night so keep an eye on that. Dyami Brown also played a lot which concerns me for Samuel’s job security. I’m not taking Brown but I am moving Samuel down.
- Deonte Hardy seems to be sharing the slot role with Dalton Kincaid. At this point you need to drop Shakir way down off your board cuz it seems he’s been beat out for every available role. What makes Hardy such a good pick now is that he went undrafted all summer long. So if he ends up being a league winner, he’ll still be low owned in the playoffs because most leagues won’t have him rostered at all. For that reason, I’m encouraging you to reach for him a bit more than you normally would for a guy with an ADP over 220.
- I’m still not convinced that the Seahawks backfield won’t be a committee between 3 guys. They’re all being drafted too high for me when you consider that risk. I have almost no exposure to any of them.
- The lack of Miles Sanders on the field this preseason keeps his role unknown. I think this is good because we can draft a guy in the 60s who could very well be an every down back. If we got confirmation in preseason he would go 15-20 spots earlier.
- Allen Robinson is clearly an every down WR in Steelers offense. Why are we sure Pickens and Diontae are top 70 picks but Robinson often doesnt even get drafted? I’ll take the last round pick with an unknown target share as long as I know he’ll be out there running routes.
- Also from the Steelers, it seems like Jaylen Warren is going to be really involved. Najee should be lower than ADP and Jaylen should be higher. This isn’t a new discovery but I just want to be sure everyone knows.
- Michael Wilson continues to be an every down WR2 for AZ. He should be going much earlier. Like Mack Hollins, he could win leagues.
- Dameon Pierce seems to have an every down role so far in preseason, but I’m not adjusting all that much. I don’t believe Singletary will ride the bench the way they’re making it look in the preseason. I think this will end up being a preseason overreaction.
- Musgrave and Reed are the best values in GB offense. 4 guys are running all the routes and two of them go around 160-170 while the other two go very early. We have no idea who will be Love’s favorite target, so we might as well take these late round options.
- Marvin Mims is the clear WR3 for Denver as expected. I think you want to be loading up on him.
- TE role is still a split in Denver. Dulcich seems like he’s just the third down guy. In a year with so many great late round tight ends, that makes him a pretty terrible pick.