The Learning Curve: Fantasy Winners and Losers From Preseason Week 2
Week Two of the NFL preseason is in the books. Let’s take a look at some of the high and low lights from this weekend’s preseason games and what impact, if any, they may have on your fantasy draft prep.
Bills Defense Looks Good: Temper your excitement on this one by keeping in mind who they faced. The Bills D locked the Browns down, only allowing seven points. They had 2 interceptions and a sack and limited the Browns to less than 200 yards. They gave up only 3.7 yards per play and allowed a 27% conversion rate. The Bills D has been gaining attention this summer under new coordinator Jim Leonhard and yesterday’s showing did nothing to dispel the hype. But, as it was the Browns, take it with a grain of salt.
McCarthy Proves the Vikings Right: The Vikings named Kyler Murray their starter and JJ McCarthy promptly went out and showed everyone why. He airballed passes over his receivers head on at least three occasions, hit on only 50% of his passes and, to no one’s surprise, left the game early due to injury. If you were still hedging on Murray running away with the job, push your chips all in on Murray. McCarthy, who was outplayed by Carson Wentz yesterday, is no longer a threat (if he ever was).
Jeanty Dodges Bullet: Ashton Jeanty went down in practice and couldn’t put any weight on his leg when he left the field. All the armchair surgeons immediately went straight for the worst case scenario, many projecting a major knee injury. For the next three hours, everyone and their grandmother were trying to acquire Mike Washington Jr. If you have Jeanty, Washington becomes a must roster. If you don’t have Washington, the fact that you tried to pick him up should tell you he deserves to be on your future draft lists.
Carnell Tate May Struggle: Through no fault of his own, Carnell Tate may have trouble living up to expectations. His QB, Cam Ward, has looked very unimpressive in his two preseason outings. Against second and third team defenses, Ward has gone 13 for 24 for 126 yards. 40% of those yards came on two plays: an 18 yard pass to Calvin Ridley and a swing pass that Pollard broke for 33 yards. The total distances, in air, of Ward’s other passes in last night’s preseason game: 9,8,6,5,4,3,1. Unless Tate is catching a lot of screen passes, he may have trouble living up to his 6th/7th round cost.
Kicker on the Radar…hear me out: I know, I know, it’s a kicker. But kickers are people too. Titans kicker Joey Slye, who is rarely being drafted this year, has gone 8 for 8 in his two preseason games this year, with 4 of them being from 50+ yards out. The Titans aren’t scoring TD’s and Slye isn’t missing (even from downtown). Very much worth a pick in the last round of your draft.