Fantasy Football Question of the Day 8/10

Starting July 25 until August 26 my friends Uly Velez, Josh Bede, and I will ask each other one fantasy football related question a day and give our individual answers to it. Feel free to check out my other fantasy football related posts on my blog, including questions from previous days. And if you have a question you would like us to answer just leave a comment below.

With Week 1 of the Preseason officially underway, name one, two, or a few players that you are keeping an eye on and why. For example, someone who is in a position battle for a starting job, a star coming back from a major injury, or a rookie showing what they can do.

Charles:

There are a number of players league wide that I will be watching, but the 2 that I'll be watching the most are from my team: Eagles RBs Donnell Pumphrey & Wendell Smallwood. For all of Spring and Training Camp so far one of the storylines has been how much the team has used Pumphrey in the passing game, essentially in the "Sproles role" as a threat coming out of the backfield and splitting out wide. His electric running skill and excellent vision have been well documented, but the one concern about him is going to remain: how is he going to hold up against the increased punishment that an NFL RB goes through? He's bulked up already from 176 lbs to 185 lbs which is a good sign but that's still relatively small. Scatbacks that don't make it in this league are ones that 1) Try to bounce most of their runs outside, and 2) Get tackled too easily. Pumphrey in college showed the ability to run between the tackles as good as anyone, but getting brought down by an arm tackle too often was an issue. If he's able to address that concern and show that his lack of significant muscle mass won't hinder him at this level then that'll go a long way into him being used more and more as the season goes on. Bulking up to the stature of guys like Darren Sproles or Devonta Freeman isn't a must, but he has to have enough strength in his lower body and continue to work on his overall balance. He most likely won't get enough touches to be a consistent fantasy option this season since Sproles is still on the team and will get his usual touches, but if you play in Dynasty Leagues Pumphrey is definitely someone to grab for the long term.

Then there is Smallwood. Last season he played fairly well when he got the reps but he couldn't stay healthy. Now the Eagles all of a sudden have a crowded backfield and if Smallwood wants to secure his spot as Blount's backup he has to stay healthy and improve his play further. He displayed good speed and vision last season but he didn't show a good ability to create in space or catch the ball well. Depending on how he plays in the preseason I can see him either earning a significant amount of carries and sharing the early down workload with Blount, or end up being the forgotten man and only getting a few touches a game. The coaches like him so he'll be given the opportunity to prove himself but he can't waste any time. If he does well, definitely consider grabbing Smallwood in your drafts for cheap or in the late rounds as a potential sleeper with Flex upside.

The player outside of Philly that I'll be keeping an eye on is Keenan Allen. I drafted Allen in my NFFL league to be my WR1. He was off to a great start in the first game of the season... and then he injured his knee and was out for the year. Reports have said Allen looks like he's back to normal, but as we know it might take players around a year to get back onto the field but it takes even more months for them to truly be 100% again. That's not always the case but we've seen it too often. Also, with the emergence of young studs Tyrell Williams and Hunter Henry, are Allen's targets going to dwindle? A lot of his appeal was in PPR leagues because he gets so many targets from Rivers, but if that goes down does that make his ceiling only at WR2 or even Flex? He's not being terribly overvalued in terms of price in Auction drafts or ADP in snake drafts so far, so depending on how he looks in the few snaps he gets in the preseason he might be someone worth taking a risk on.

Josh:

I am following a lot of players too but I am going to with the following: Jake Fisher and Cedric Ogbuehi of Cincinnati, Cam Robinson of Jacksonville, and Pat Elflein of Minnesota. Not on your player rankings? That's because they are key offensive lineman in lines that struggled last year. All 3 teams have very good rookie RBs in Mixon, Fournette, and Cook. In fact, they rate as 3 of my 4 best rookie running backs in the best running back class we have [potentially] ever seen. So with their skill unquestioned by me what I am questioning is the help they are going to get. The Bengals lost 2 All-Pro lineman and reports so far haven't been good. The Vikings on the other hand have been good from an offensive line that was among the worst in the NFL last year. And lastly, the surpise retirement in Jacksonville has pushed rookie Cam Robinson to start earlier than planned, but he was highly thought of before the draft. The play of these gentlemen is going to have a big effect on the rookie RBs. Of them I am most interested in Pat Elflein of the Vikings. They could definitely change Cook's value the most. PFF has ranked them 15th, up from 29th last year, and I think 29th was being nice. No RB on the team averaged 3.5 yards a touch and that was because yards before contact was the worst in the league. I don't see any studs on the line so it's going to be about how well they work together. If they can get Cook to the 2nd level of the defense, watch out.

Uly:

Jarrad Davis and Jabrill Peppers are two guys I'm really keeping an eye on this preseason. If Davis can stay on the field for all defensive packages he could turn into a pretty decent IDP. With 4.56 speed and a 39 in vertical he could be in position to make a lot of plays. As for Peppers, it'll be interesting to see where they line him up defensively. If they give him a honey badger type role he could also be a viable IDP depending what he is listed as. And for leagues with return yardage, he should be the team's top punt returner for what it's worth.