QB: Stockton, Ewers, Howard, Gabriel, Leonard, Leavitt
RB: Wisner, Etienne, Skattebo, Henderson, James. Love, Judkins, Blue
WR: J. Smith, Stovall, T. Johnson, Guillory, Golden, Holden, Helm, Egbuka, Tate, Stewart
QB:
Literally every signal caller is viable on this slate. It is a 3 gamer, with every team sending out their best on this slate. Price wise you can’t ignore Gunner Stockton. He projects well PT/$ and is a salary life saver. He’s close to optimal at the price, and looked rock solid in his relief of Beck. He’s had time to practice now and we love the potential.
Quin Ewers is a steady option, and actually has some upside in the matchup. Don’t hate him, but prefer him stacked.
Will Howard will probably be the highest owned QB… unless it’s Dillon Gabriel. Both of these guys produced well in their first matchup, and we don’t mind a game stack one bit. Gabriel possesses more upside, but Howard is a lot of fun. Both are easily stacked, and have game breaking WR at their disposal. You can’t go wrong with either one optimal builds.
Leonard and Leavitt profile as strong GPP options. Leonard moreso due to his killer ground work. Leonard has just run so much this season, and a multi-TD rushing game could easily be in the cards here. Leavitt would have to vulture a bit, but we just like his potential leverage here.
RB:
Quintrevion Wisner is our optimal option here. Same schpiel as usual: huge workload, still slightly underpriced, and the best matchup on the slate. Jaydon Blue is squarely in play for GPPs. Wisner projects as the top PT/$ RB, but Blue isn’t too far behind, but will be unde- owned since he is Wisner’s understudy.
Trevor Etienne is the bellcow for UGA. He was 16 for 94-2 in the conference title game, while also tacking on 5 catches. This workload is too good to pass up. It’s no surprise he’s a PT/$ darling here. Etienne can be used in most formats
Cam Skattebo’s reputation precedes him. He has an EXTREME upside given the workload. We don’t love his matchup, but his raw projections and workload make him an excellent option here.
Henderson and Judkins clearly seem to be locked in a timeshare. Henderson has shown a bit more burst, and targets. This makes him more appetizing this slate, especially at his price. Henderson’s PT/$ make him close to an optimal play on this slate.
Jordan James and Jeremiyah Love are both just workhorse RB profiles, with high potential to find paydirt. We like both of these runners on this slate. We’ve lumped them together because they project so similarly, with such close salaries as well. The kicker for us in GPPs would be Love’s prowess for big plays.
WR:
Jeremiah Smith is the best big play threat on the slate. Projected top owned, top PT/$, and near the top in raw points. He had 13 targets the first time these teams met, and likely will be relied on decently in this spot. We like Smith as an optimal option.
Melquan Stovall and Xavier Guillory tried to step in for the injuries on the ASU depth chart. Considering Tyson was up 60 targets on all other pass catchers, it was fair to assume it wouldn’t be one player to step into his role. Instead we saw Stovall take 5 targets, and Guillory take on 4. Guillory had a 20 aDoT compared to 13 for Stovall. Both are solid options here, though we prefer — slightly — Guillory, because of that aDoT. TE Chemon Metayer saw a couple targets last game, and could be relied on more here.
Tez Johnson is Oregon’s go-to WR. He’s basically a lock for 8+ targets in their competitive games. Evan Stewart and Terrance Ferguson are the two more GPP sided options for Oregon, along with Treshaun Holden. Johnson is the clear top pass catcher here, with Ferguson coming in as a safety valve option. Stewart has been heavily utilized in the competitive games, and his route tree has potential to take the top off. Holden will probably be in line for 5+ targets here, and come in with more ownership than both Stewart and Ferg, which makes us love Stewart and Ferg in GPPs.
Matthew Golden is the top Texas WR for us. He will likely be extremely high owned here. With Isaiah Bond cleared to play we could see him actually taking some targets here. Bond will be severely under-owned, with decent upside… and a brutal floor. Gunnar Helm will assume his role as the safety valve with multi-TD upside.
Emeka Egbuka is a bonafide stud. He’s definitely behind Smith in this OSU offense now, but can crush in this role. He’s pretty locked into 7+ targets in his slot role, and had 10 last game against Oregon. Egbuka is a fairly safe play, while Carnell Tate would be considered much more GPP for us. Tate has the third most targets on OSU, but is 30 behind Smith and Egbuka. Sub 5 targets is probably a safe bet for Tate, but if he gets 5+ (which he did 5x this season) watch out.
Conclusion:
QB is the hardest position to find your optimal, with all the signal callers so close in PT/$, an projections overall. We like taking a long look at Stockton for your optimal lineups, along with Ewers. Will Howard will likely be one of the highest owned QBs as well, so he and Ewers are basically neck and neck here.
At the RB positon the optimal RB1 for us is Quintrevion Wisner. We like building around him at RB, and working through the other RB spots depending on the salary decisions you make at QB.
WR starts with Jeremiah Smith for us here. We like one of the cheap ASU WRs — Stovall or Guillory. We prefer the upside of Guillory, but Stovall could win the target battle.
A lot of your build depends on how you play out the QB position, so be sure to keep that — and the corresponding stacks — in mind while crafting your lineups!
We’ll be in Discord answering questions in the morning, let’s have a great New Year’s Day!