- Aug 6, 2019

DEFEND YOUR MOVES OFF-SEASON 2019 #7!!!!!!!

What's up, Special Ed?

WE'LL TELL YA WHAT'S UP - WE GOT KEEPERS THIS YEAR!!!!!

That's right, for the first time ever Special Ed players will pick one KEEPER from last year's roster. Going forward keepers will only be late-round picks. But this is a Very Special Special Ed Season - we're welcoming a new league member this year. Since he has to inherit that shit-show team that we don't talk about, and all his pick sucked, everybody gets to keep ANY player from last year's squad, and New Guy gets to keep our best left-overs. Seems fair(?)

The new guy is Fay's friend Mike Tobin. The DYM research department tracked him down on twitter. If you guys wanna give him a follow, here he is:

WELCOME TO THE LEAGUE, MIKEY!!!!!

Now, as a Very Special Public Service to the Special Ed League, we're gonna break-down everybody's final rosters from last year and make some suggestions for each of your Keepers.

YOU'RE WELCOME!!!

We'll start with the Reigning Champions:

Ah this team was so money, you guys!

Wyld Allyns!!

Man, what a ride. Since we finally figured out how to spell his name right, Christian McCaffrey is gonna be our guy again for this year. In fact, we’ve got him ranked #1 overall.

We recently told somebody our fantasy strategy this year is drafting guys we think are on steroids, with McCaffrey as the prime example. First thing this guy says is “How about Zach Ertz?”

We had a good laugh but, seriously, that’s something to think about.

If we could, we would keep almost every one of these guys, though, we LOVED this team. We doubt we’ll be able to bring Kamara back but, FYI, we’re gonna try to draft this exact same this year. Maybe a couple guys we’d throw back, not many. Gotta get Tyler Boyd back on there too.

THE KEEPER: Christian McCaffrey

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Alvin Kamara, Baker Mayfield, Marlon Mack, Keenan Allen, Robby Anderson, Chicago Defense

In retrospect, The Commish’s team looks even better than ours right now. He’s also only got a couple guys we wouldn’t want to keep. But this team would be much harder to draft again. If Melvin shows up before draft day, there’s 5 first round picks on this team. Wooo!

THE KEEPER: Saquon Barkley

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Davante Adams, Nick Chubb, James Conner, Mel Gordon, Matt Ryan

Paul went heavy on WR early in last year’s draft. He’s got three stud WRs to choose from although off-season antics have tarnished their value a bit.

He does have one potential work-horse RB on the roster in Joe Mixon. Mixon seems like a break-out candidate for the third year in a row now, but the safe money is on Julio.

THE KEEPER: Julio Jones

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Joe Mixon, Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown

If Doug hadn’t dropped Odell in week 13 this woulda been a more interesting decision.

Either way we still think Hopkins is the obvious choice here though.

The best RB is Damien Williams. The Chiefs seem committed to him, but he still smells like Dolphin. Very unsexy keeper.

THE KEEPER: DeAndre Hopkins

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Damien Williams, Amari Cooper

Dave traded for Mahomes before the deadline last year. It was an absolute blockbuster at the time, but will now likely go down as the Greatest Trade in Special Ed History.

Mahomes is definitely the sexiest Keeper in the league this year, but Fay’s choice is not as cut and dry as it may seem. JuJu and Dalvin Cook are generally drafted ahead of Mahomes in sharp leagues this summer. There’s certainly a lot of value in locking in that top-10 RB or WR. Some would say that the right thing to do is to lock in that top-10 RB or WR. Not us, but some people would say that.

THE KEEPER: Patrick Mahomes

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: JuJu Smith-Schuster, Dalvin Cook, Justin Tucker

How was this team ever good? It’s like a dream at this point. Remember when Adam Theilen and Adrien Peterson kicked everybody’s ass for the first couple months last year? How weird was that?

Kelce and Mike Thomas are easily the best players on this roster, so the choice is fairly clear. But one thing about Mike Stanley is he’s an even bigger Penn State homer than The Commish so don’t be surprised if he keeps Chris Godwin or Allen Robison instead.

THE KEEPER: Michael Thomas

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Travis Kelce, Adam Theilen, Chris Godwin, Allen Robison II

We loved Matt LaCosse as an under-the-radar late-season pick-up last year. This year he is the heir-apparent to Gronk, and potentially a very sneaky Keeper.

THE KEEPER: David Johnson

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Deshaun Watson, Matt LaCosse, Stefon Diggs, T.Y. Hilton

Of course the Actual Gronk is NOT a viable keeper. As a matter of fact, Matt has easily the most destitute keeper situation of all. There’s only a few guys on here that we would want to roster this year, and we wouldn’t go out of our way for ‘em.

Andrew Luck probably has the clearest path to being top-5 at his position but that’s still not great value. Gurley still generally gets drafted in the second round, but it’s hard to imagine anybody who owned him last year is drafting him there now.

Tough spot, but even if Matt’s not a true believer maybe there’s a trade to be had.

THE KEEPER: Todd Gurley

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Andrew Luck

Zeke is holding out of camp, but we have a feeling he’ll show up right after they finish the pre-season drug tests. He’s definitely on the potential juicers list, so Zeke is as safe a keeper as there is. Very solid keeper.

Although DeSean Jackson could be enticing now that he’s back on the Eagles, that’s Jeff’s GUY.

THE KEEPER: Ezekiel Elliott

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Mike Evans, George Kittle, DeSean Jackson

What a disgrace. Let’s all just pretend this never happened.

THE KEEPER: NONE (claims Alvin Kamara)

COULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR: Zach Ertz

Now let’s take a little preview of the NEW first round, so we know what to expect once the Draft Order comes out.

Based on the latest ADP from FantasyPros.com, everybody’s got a keeper in the top 20 but only 6 of them are top 10, so the value of the first round draft slots becomes a bit stratified. Picks 1 and 2 are now mid-first-round-value picks but the late-first-round picks are now late-second-round value. We just have to get through this first round then all the rankings will be normalized with everybody on your list just moved up ten spots.

There’re still a lot of weird things that can happen and the keepers will impact a lot of peoples’ strategies. There’ll still be a handful of work-horse RBs available in the New First, plus Davante Adams and Travis Kelce as potential early pick wild cards. Of course Jeff is going to take Zach Ertz in the first no matter where he is, but honestly players like that could be especially attractive this year for those of us who are able to keep a top RB. THIS IS GONNA BE FASCINATING!!!!!

Here’s the latest Rankings:

1 Saquon Barkley NYG

2 Alvin Kamara NO

3 Christian McCaffrey CAR

4 Ezekiel Elliott DAL

5 DeAndre Hopkins HOU

6 Le'Veon Bell NYJ 1

7 Davante Adams GB 2

8 David Johnson ARI

9 James Conner PIT 3

10 Michael Thomas NO

11 Julio Jones ATL