| | | | Wednesday, August 4, 2021 | | If you've got Joe Mixon circled and underlined on your "I'm-never-drafting-him-again" list, you aren't alone. Mixon has been a source of frustration for many Fantasy players, and many have decided he just isn't worth the trouble anymore. | | Me, I'm moving in the opposite direction. I've been accused of being a contrarian before, but in this case, the logic is pretty obvious, I think: When Mixon has been disappointing, it's been because people expected him to be an elite Fantasy RB without an elite Fantasy RB's role. Now, with Giovani Bernard out of the picture, Mixon is poised to have a bigger role in the passing game than ever before -- and he's poised for his best Fantasy season ever as a result. | | The Fantasy Football Today team put out our running back breakout picks today, and Mixon's at the top of my list. Jamey Eisenberg's got Myles Gaskin at the top of his list -- he's on mine, too! -- Dave Richard has Jonathan Taylor, and Heath Cummings' list starts with D'Andre Swift. Hard to argue with any of those, and you can head here to see the rest of our biggest breakout candidates at the RB position. | | Today's FFT Newsletter is all about catching up on training camp news and notes from around the league, with a special focus on how the five first-round rookie quarterbacks are faring so far. But before we get to that, here's everything else from the FFT team in recent days you need to know about: | | #AskFFT RB Survey: ADP misses, who we're drafting, and moreRB Sleepers: Damien Harris, A.J. Dillon, and more of our favorite values Pick-by-pick series: Drafting from No. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12Believe It or Not: Is Melvin Gordon the lead back?FFT: Here's how players ranked 9-16 in ADP could bust | | Oh, and there's one other thing you need to know about: The Fantasy Football Today Telethon, coming up on September 1. We'll be live on CBS Sports HQ and on the Fantasy Football Today YouTube channel all day long, answering your questions with the help of a whole slew of special guests to help you get ready for drafts. | | And we're doing it for a great cause, as we are once again partnering with our good friends at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to raise money for a great cause. And we want to make sure you get something out of your donations, so we're going to be auctioning off a bunch of cool prizes and experiences all month. Starting with the chance to hop on a Zoom call with Jamey, Dave and Heath and get some face to face advice. If you want to jump on a call with me, you can make a donation here. And we'll have a lot more great experiences and items available to bid on in the coming weeks and during the Telethon. | | If you can, please consider helping out. Working with our amazing audience to raise money for St. Jude and its amazing mission is one of the highlights of the year for us here at FFT since we started the Telethon. Let's make it our best year yet. | | Now, let's catch up on the latest from around the NFL: | | | | FFT from Jaguars camp | | | | Fantasy Football Today on CBS Sports HQ is back this week, and we'll be live at noon EST every Monday through Friday from now until the end of the NFL season, so make sure you've got HQ bookmarked or make sure you've got the CBS Sports app on your favorite streaming device so you can watch live or on demand. I'll be sharing some interesting segments over the next few weeks right here, especially from our training camp visits, starting with Pete Prisco from Jaguars camp. | | There's some good stuff in that interview about Trevor Lawrence's early development, as well as some predictions for the WR trio of D.J. Chark, Laviska Shenault, and Marvin Jones -- "I think they'll divide up the catches. If you're looking for one guy to catch 70 passes, I don't know if that's going to happen. I think you might see 50-50-50, and I don't think anyone's gonna go higher than that -- but the most interesting thing to come from that check-in was definitely about the running backs, Travis Etienne and James Robinson. | | Here's what Pete had to say: | | "Etienne is going to mostly be used as a third-down back early in the season. I think Robinson will be the No. 1 RB at least for a couple of weeks, and Robinson looks good. His body has changed, he looks quicker and more explosive. But when you have a guy like Etienne who can provide that big play, you've got to get him on the field and get him on the field a lot. I think it'll play out that way. … He has that explosive ability and they trained him at wide receiver earlier this offseason. He said that was an adjustment for him but he's learned how to play the position and it's helped him catching the football. So, I think his value will come as an Alvin Kamara-type of back catching the ball out of the backfield." | | Jamey then asked whether Prisco expects Etienne to be the primary back by mid-season, and Pete said you should look for something like that. | | "It's gonna be hard to get Robinson out of that backfield, because he's in such good shape, he had such a good season, and he works his butt off. But I think, ultimately, when you draft a guy in the first round, you've gotta get him on the field in-between the tackles. You can't just bring him in on the field in third-down decisions. So I think that's how it'll play out. A month into the season, you'll see more and more carries for Etienne. | | | | Training camp updates | | | | Rookie QB check-in | | Live eyes on Trevor Lawrence -- Let's hear some more from Prisco, who had eyes on Lawrence at camp Tuesday: "Lawrence did not look good today. It was a struggle for him. I think there were a couple of routes that were run the wrong way, and I think that contributed to at least one of his interceptions. So, not a great day for Trevor Lawrence, but I think there's a lot of very good days ahead." So, that's not what you want to hear. But, let's be clear: Training camp interceptions don't really matter, especially right now. We're still at the part of camp where pads are optional and teams are mostly just installing their offense. Lawrence may not be great as a rookie, but it's hard to be too discouraged yet. Zach Wilson building rapport -- Wilson is getting all of the first-team reps, making him the only one of the first-year passers you can say that about. And he was joined for the first time in 11-on-11s Tuesday by Elijah Moore, the rookie wide receiver who has been drawing rave reviews so far this offseason. Corey Davis, Keelan Cole, and Jamison Crowder have dominated first-team work so far, but it seems like just a matter of time until Moore emerges as a starter, and potentially as Wilson's favorite weapon. He's small, but he's a special playmaker who can line up out wide but who really looks like he could dominate out of the slot. If Wilson is going to turn this Jets franchise around, Moore is going to help him do it. He's one of my favorite late-round WR targets. Trey Lance got his first first-team rep Tuesday -- Literally one day after Kyle Shanahan said the 49ers didn't have any plans to get Lance involved with the first-team offense. Another L for the coach-speak truthers. As has been the case in Chicago -- about whom more shortly -- Lance may not be the steadying presence veteran Jimmy Garoppolo is, but he's showing the ability to do a lot more than Garoppolo is even capable of . Now, it's worth noting that first-team rep Tuesday was on a designed run, so it's clear that Lance is still well below Garoppolo in the hierarchy. But he's been consistently drawing praise for the "wow" plays he makes, and while Garoppolo is obviously the favorite to start, Lance's upside might be hard to overlook. If he's going to start, the most likely point would be Week 7 against the Colts coming off the team's bye. But I still think there's a decent chance he gets the Patrick Mahomes treatment and sits the whole season if Garoppolo stays healthy. Justin Fields is opening eyes -- We're already starting to hear calls for Fields to supplant Andy Dalton as the starter in Chicago, though notably none have come from inside the Bears house. Yet. Fields and Dalton have said all the right things about working together and doing whatever is best for the team, but it's hard to see how anything but Fields starting could be best for the Bears as currently constituted. He's drawing rave reviews pretty much every day at camp, and it's a question of "if" not "when" for Fields. I also want to share a pretty fun quote from Dalton on Monday: "When he first got here, I asked him, 'What is it like to run 4.4?'. He's special. If he's got that room in front of him, that's a part of his game that he can definitely use with his speed that he's got." When you talk about what Fields can bring that Dalton can't, that's at the top of the list, though Fields did admit he's still "a little scarred" from an illegal hit in the College Football Playoff semifinal game against Clemond that forced him briefly from the game. Mac Jones' terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day -- Everyone has bad days in camp, but whereas Lawrence's doesn't figure to mean anything, Jones' certainly do, since he's trying to overtake Cam Newton as the Patriots starter. And, by all accounts, Jones had a very bad day Tuesday. Newton got more reps with the first-team offense in 11-on-11s against the first-team defense, and outperformed Jones notably. Though it would have been hard not to, as Jones went 0 for 4 with an interception against the starters. He was 1 for 6 with the first team overall. Bill Belichick has repeatedly said Newton is currently the starter, and while Jones has had more good days than bad, it doesn't seem like he's close to overtaking him. He's the least interesting of the rookie quarterbacks for Fantasy and should be just a late-round pick in 2QB leagues. | | | | Injuries, news, and notes from camp | | Every week, Heath Cummings will be looking at the biggest storylines from around the NFL in training camp and the preseason to try to sort out what's really going on in his Believe It or Not series, and the first version was published Tuesday. Head here to see what Heath thinks about the Carson Wentz injury, the Ravens receiving corps and Melvin Gordon's role so far. | | Here's what else you need to know from around the league: | | Quarterback | | Dak Prescott (shoulder) won't play in the preseason opener -- It doesn't seem as if Prescott suffered a setback with his injured shoulder, but coach Mike McCarthy did say the team was taking a step back with his return. "We're being more conservative with his timetable," was the exact quote. It's too early in camp to be too concerned, but the last thing we want to see is a lingering shoulder injury for a guy who very well may have to lead the NFL in pass attempts for this offense to live up to expectations. Matthew Stafford (thumb) was expected to miss a few days, but he shrugged it off and was a full participant in the Rams' first full pads practice on Tuesday. The better news is, x-rays on the thumb came back negative. Stafford had surgery on it in the offseason, so the fact that there was no additional damage is a great sign. We'll keep an eye out on this, but for now it looks like Stafford has no interest in letting the thumb contusion keep him out of practice.Vic Fangio wouldn't say if Drew Lock or Teddy Bridgewater is ahead -- That's not surprising, as the expectation is that they'll continue to split work early in camp. Don't expect one or the other to pull ahead anytime soon, though at this point, I might handicap Lock as the favorite, based on comments from the coaching staff. Comments like this: "This is the best version of Drew I've seen. He's done a really good job," Pat Shurmur said. The Broncos need to see improvement from Lock, and that seems like what they've gotten so far. | | Running back | | The Colts are falling apart around Jonathan Taylor -- Wentz's injury was bad news, obviously, and the Colts got more bad news Wednesday with standout guard Quenton Nelson suffering a very similar injury to Wentz's. That will also require surgery and carries a similar timetable -- that is, 5 to 12 weeks, more or less. That means in the best-case scenario, Taylor won't have his starting QB or best offensive lineman through most of the preseason and training camp. And possibly not for the first month-plus of the season. Oh, and center Ryan Kelly is expected to miss a couple of weeks with an elbow injury, though that will hopefully be resolved well before the games matter. I'm not moving Taylor down much, but I was already lower than the consensus. He's going to fall out of the first round in most drafts until we see Wentz healthy. Sony Michel is splitting first-team reps -- Michel is the forgotten man in the Patriots backfield, but he's not going away. That's bad news for those of you who like Damien Harris as a sleeper -- like Jamey Eisenberg -- because we know the Patriots have no problem sharing work in the backfield. Michel looked good last season when Harris went down with injuries, and it's possible he could push for a significant role. Dalvin Cook is getting some Wildcat reps -- This is more about the Vikings coming up with contingency plans after their entire quarterback room with the exception of Jake Browning tested positive for COVID-19. But it's still interesting to see. Tarik Cohen (knee) is "weeks away" -- Matt Nagy said that, but he also said he doesn't want to put a timeline on his potential return. Cohen is recovering from a torn ACL and it seems he hasn't made as much progress as expected lately. Damien Williams is currently being drafted after Cohen, but that should probably flip until we get some positive news about Cohen. David Montgomery "looks faster" -- But the big winner if Cohen is limited or out to start the season would be Montgomery, who saw 4.9 targets per game with Cohen out in 2020. That quote about Montgomery looking faster came from Bears GM Ryan Pace, which is notable, though doesn't necessarily mean much. The key takeaway here is that Montgomery has top-five upside if Cohen is out, as he showed last season. Jerick McKinnon could be the Chiefs primary backup -- The Athletic's Nate Taylor has McKinnon as an early riser in camp, noting his obvious skills as a receiver. However, it was interesting to see Taylor say McKinnon could pass Darrel Williams as the primary backup behind Clyde Edwards-Helaire. I think that would still likely mean Williams would be the starter if Edwards-Helaire got hurt, but maybe McKinnon is carving out a role as a legitimate weapon in the passing game. Xavier Jones and Jake Funk have been getting some first-team reps -- Don't worry, this doesn't mean either is likely to push Darrell Henderson for the No. 1 job. But it's not surprising to see the Rams giving other guys an opportunity to show what they do, given Henderson's injury history. Coach Sean McVay has talked about how important it will be to find ways to keep Henderson fresh and healthy, so there is going to be room for more than one back to have a role here. Whichever ends up as the No. 2 will be worth targeting with one of your last picks as a sleeper to stash. | | Wide receiver | | Kenny Golladay left with a leg injury -- It's not clear what the injury is, but he came up grabbing the back of his leg after he limped off following a play early in practice. There's no reason to panic yet, but it's worth remembering that Golladay missed most of last season with a hip injury that just never seemed to heal right, so hopefully this doesn't become another lingering issue. Tyreek Hill sat out practiced with knee tendinitis -- This doesn't seem to be much to be concerned about, but we'll just keep an eye on it for the next few days. Tendinitis isn't an acute injury, it's the kind of thing that builds up over time, and I'd bet most NFL players deal with it at some point. Amari Cooper (ankle) is close to returning -- But he admitted he's not 100% yet , and his recovery from ankle surgery is going slower than expected. Still, we're five weeks away from the start of camp and he has two years of experience in this offense, so as long as he's healthy by the start of the season, Cooper should be fine. Expect CeeDee Lamb's ADP to continue to climb with everyday Cooper misses, of course. And expect me to draft a lot more Cooper than Lamb. Christian Kirk is dealing with an undisclosed injury -- Coach Kliff Kingsbury said it was a "minor deal," but there may not be any such thing for a guy whose stock is already trending down and now has added competition for playing time from Rondale Moore and A.J. Green . Moore is starting to make his presence felt in Cardinals camp, and his playmaking skills (especially with the ball in his hands) could make him one of the most important players on this offense. If he gets an opening, he may not give it back. Moore is an excellent sleeper. Jalen Reagor has been cleared to practice -- Reagor's camp got off to a delayed start because he was dealing with an off-field issue, so it's good to see him back at it. With Devonta Smith out with a knee sprain for at least a couple weeks, Reagor has a chance here to prove his rookie season wasn't a harbinger of things to come. I like him as a post-hype sleeper in the later rounds on Draft Day. Kadarius Toney made his camp debut Tuesday -- But he didn't practice as the Giants continue to work him in slowly after coming off the COVID-19 list. He was spotted on the practice fields for the field time working in individual drills, but Joe Judge made it sound like he still isn't 100% cleared by the trainers yet. Given that Toney missed some of the offseason program too, it seems like the No. 24 pick in this year's draft has a lot of work to catch up on. He's looking unlikely to have much value in re-draft. | | Tight end | | Kylen Granson is drawing praise in camp -- The Colts fourth-round pick has "justified Frank Reich's pre-draft love" per Albert Breer. Rookie tight ends rarely make an impact, and fourth-round rookie tight ends especially, but with just 31-year-old Jack Doyle and career backup Mo Alie-Cox to really contend with, maybe the rookie out of SMU can make a name for himself. It sounds like he's got his coach's trust. | | | | | | | | Soccer Lives on Paramount+ | | Drop In. Ride On. | Stream 2,000+ soccer matches a year from UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Serie A, NWSL, USMNT & USWNT in Concacaf qualifiers and much more. Start your free trial today!
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