As you prepare for your upcoming draft, it is important to keep an eye on who is moving up/down the draft boards and the rankings for your host league. To help you get ahead of the curve on this below, we have highlighted some of the most notable moves in the past 7 days on ESPN Live drafts for the first 6 Rounds.
Our thoughts on these moves and the players at these draft spots are included.
Connect with us to ask us any direct questions.
Happy Drafting
-Ring Factory Management
Most Notable 7-Day Movers and Thoughts on ESPN Live Drafts
1st Round: Don't Overthink it. JJ and CMC
Chase is being taken at #2 comfortably ahead of RB’s
While we like Chase, we would still push for CMC here. Locking in the RB differential with CMC is worth it. We have highlighted this but Chase has huge upside some weeks but fades in others vs other Top WR. Last year, he finished as a WR2 or better (Top 24 that week) in only 58% of the weeks he played. With that said we think Chase has a monster year and if you prefer the WR slot and JJ is gone, this is the pick
Ekeler moved slightly ahead of CMC a few weeks ago
We are taking CMC ahead of Ekeler. Ekeler is a great pick at 4/5/6 but the Top 3 should be JJ, CMC and Chase.
Kelce is going 5th consistently
We don’t like the price tag here, but we get the desire to do it. (we have done it in prior years but it hasn’t worked that well). If you want to take a shot at high-end TE look to Andrews in the 3rd round or after or wait even longer for the upside call option on D.Waller who could get back to his beast mode in NY.
2nd Round: Can Tony Pollard be your League Winner? We think so.
Our ideal draft from the 1.03 slot for 10 team
Pollard +5 spots with his average pick at 15.8
This doesn’t bother us. Pollard is easily an early 2nd Rd pick to us. We have him ranked #5 overall at RB and think he is set up for a Top 5 and potentially Top 3 finish at RB.
Garrett Wilson is moving up, avg pick of #20
We like Wilson, I mean how can you not like the offensive potential of the WR1 for the Jets this year? We have him ranked #10 and are comfortable that should be his floor with the upside to try to crack the Top 5 among WR this year. But that is very dependent on Rogers and how the offense clicks. What I don’t like on ESPN is that he is going ahead of Amon-Ra now (just barely). We have Amon-Ra at #8 and think the volume of opportunities he will get and the advantage of us having seen how well he was in sync in that offense last year ranks him above G. Wilson with a touch less risk
3rd Round: How high should Waddle go?
Waddle -2 spots to an avg pick of 26.9
This feels about right. We have Waddle ranked at #12 but many could argue that our WR’s ranked from #12-#16 could be interchangeable. (Higgins is our #16). The debate for anyone to have on Waddle is how high you take the #2 WR of his own team vs some very strong #1 WR’s still available. We are comfortable you should go for it with Waddle around the #12-#14 range at WR the Dolphins' passing attack will be strong but keep in mind the Tua injury risk is a real issue, and without him, the picture changes a lot.
DK +2.4 spots to an avg pick of 27.2
No issues here. We have DK ranked right behind Waddle at #13. I would like to get him more in the 4th round when possible. I would note that T. Lockett is going around pick #88. So, 60+ picks or 6 ROUNDS after DK. Pretty strong value for a guy that just does it every year. Worth a late-round value look (provided you don’t take DK earlier)
J. Taylor -7.4 spots to an avg pick of 28.9, almost fading into the 4th round.
What to do, what to do here. The narrative is ugly. He is playing with an inexperienced rookie QB who likes to run (read: he will steal TD from RB’s). But the value at some point will become an interesting risk/reward. Keep in mind that last year when he was healthy he still only ranked as the RB18. He scored only 4 TD’s last year (after having 33 in his first 2 seasons). This feels like you want it to be someone else’s problem this year unless he drops into the late 4th round or early 5th
4th Round
C. Olave +8 spots to an avg pick of #33, approaching the end of the 3rd round
This Olave love is real, and we feel justified. We have him ranked #11 overall, and that feels like a safe floor for him with upside towards the Top 5 overall WR depending on how that offense clicks. We just wish the fantasy world wasn’t all on the same train here. With that said, pick #33 is still a really good value, grab him if you can.
R. Stevenson has dropped 5 spots to an avg pick of 41.8 going at the turn of the 3-4th round or early 4th round
Zeke oh Zeke….what will that do? We don’t think that much. Zeke is a nice pickup for the Pats from an NFL standpoint, but this drop might be too much for Rhamondre who we have ranked at #12 RB, and honestly, we should probably be bumping him ahead of J. Taylor at this point. Zeke isn’t having zero impact on Stevenson but everyone is pointing to the goal line work, as they should. But Rhamondre only had 5 rushing TD’s last year and 5 in his rookie campaign. And he finished as RB#11 last year with only those 5 TD’s while Damien Harris got 10 touches a game and had 3 TD’s last year (vs 15 in 2021 so the Pats can score more!) So the potential is there that Zeke gets more goal-line carries, but Rhamondre will grab more opportunities this year and his RB11 finish last year should be a floor to build on this year with the potential for a better offense in NE
5th Round
Ridley is moving up. +4.9 spots to an avg of 49.8
We like Ridley and view this as a great risk/reward in the 5th still. We have him ranked #18 among WR.
Jeudy is moving up. +5.5 spots to an avg of 50.4
We might be too low here but we have Jeudy at #32 among WR. Will he finish that low, likely not? He finished last year at #21 WR and we all know the Broncos' passing game couldn’t have been worse. Our ranking is really just telling you that we don’t think rolling the dice on the potential changes in Denver is worth it, not in the 5th round. Not when talent like Fields and Herbert are still available in the 5th and they can be difference makers to your team. We would rather take the chance on DJ Moore in the 6th Round (esp if you take Fields in the 5th and build the QB/WR stack)
6th Round
G. Kittle -5.3 spots to 53.2 avg draft position
We agree here. If you want the clear difference makers at TE then go get them (Kelce, Andrews and maybe TJ). Otherwise, we would wait and again, to our comments under Jeudy above, not give up 5th-6th round capital for Kittle who when he is on can be a stud. But he plays in an offense with so many weapons that when he will be on is so dependent on scheme and match-ups you never know which week he can hit. If he slips to the 8th/9th he starts to look like a potential flyer on risk/reward
A. Kamara +3.7 spots to an avg 55.6 draft spot, 6th round
This is starting to get interesting and worth looking at but in ESPN he is still going ahead of players like A. Mattison, K. Walker, J. Conner. All we have ranked higher, are not suspended, not playing in new offenses, not competing with a rookie at their position, etc. So we are still fading him here and have him ranked #27. So why is it interesting? Well we know the suspension (3 games) and we know that Rookie K.Miller is already banged up. And as horrible as it felt to have Kamara last year he finished as RB#18 on 13 games started. He still had 275+ opportunities and had 6 TD. Kamara has shined over the years because of receptions when for 3 straight years he had 80+. Last year was 57 receptions, up from 47 the prior year. Any back who can have the potential for 60+ receptions needs your attention. Keep an eye on this. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone taking the flyer on Kamar in round 7, 8 or 9. But 6 is too rich
B. Hall -22 spots to 58.7 avg
Wow. Do we all think D. Cook is now going to be the #1 RB in the Jets offense all year? We do not. Cook will give the Jets a chance to ease Breece back from his injury but it is possible by Week 6 Breece is getting the majority of the carries, and if that happens he is going to be a steal dropping this much. It is a tough call, but if Breece gets healthy, he could be a leader for you during your playoffs. What did we see last year we liked in him so much?
In 7 games last year Breece had nearly 700 yards of offense with 5 TD on 99 touches. He was only the starter in 2 of those games. In the 3 games where his snap % was above 60% he finished as the RB 4, 6 and 16. He has massive upside if he can get healthy.
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