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Pete Carroll called for Seahawks to focus on run game more — is that still the case?
“We needed to run the football more (down the stretch) and (have) more commitment (to it),” Carroll told 710 ESPN Seattle in January. “… We have always run the football and made (opponents bring) their safeties down. … You can force teams to do that, or they can just get their butt kicked running the ball. That’s a big emphasis in my mind of how we want to control what the game is all about.”
Can Jakobi Meyers be the Patriots next Julian Edelman?
Last season, wide receiver Jakobi Meyers was one of the very few standout players for the New England Patriots. The North Carolina State product showed he can step up when injuries arise, and that he could be a reliable weapon.
NFL’s most underappreciated players: Deion Jones, Allen Robinson, Dallas Goedert among NFC picks
One of my favorite offseason tasks is to scour every NFL roster and identify the most underappreciated player on each team using my context-based models. In the fast-paced NFL season, it’s easy to focus on superstars or skill-position players who help us win in fantasy football, but one of the most useful applications of analytics is to view every game from the previous campaign through the lens of a total-contribution metric to see where teams earned an edge that perhaps didn’t get as much attention as it should have during the season. With that in mind, here’s how I came up with my list of the most underappreciated players …
Predicting fantasy football sleepers and breakouts for 2021
As football enthusiasts shift their focus to the 2021 season, here are some under-the-radar fantasy football sleepers and breakout players to consider when drafting.
Here is a look at each major position on offense and where to find the best value in your fantasy football drafts.
Dynasty Sleepers: Quarterbacks (2021 Fantasy Football)
Dynasty sleeper quarterbacks are a different breed. At running back, we can tell stories of young backs climbing to the top of a depth chart, like James Robinson. At wide receiver, we have a rich history of physically gifted players overcoming rocky college journeys to ascend to the top of the sport, like Tyreek Hill.
In contrast, quarterbacks almost always fall in line with draft capital — 23 of the top 30 dynasty signal-callers were once first-round picks. The ones who have broken through are legends at this point. Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, and Kirk Cousins have all dominated the headlines for the last two decades. Identifying a sleeper quarterback carries the most reward in Superflex scoring, as you can secure a decades-long lineup piece for minimal capital. It’s time to slap on a blindfold and throw some darts.
Projecting Every AFC East Starter
With the 2021 NFL Draft and most of free agency in the rearview, Gregg Rosenthal will project starting lineups for all 32 teams because that’s his idea of fun. Check out the AFC East breakdowns below.
Bengals’ Samaje Perine: Set up for role behind Mixon
Perine should have a role in the Cincinnati offense this season, according to Jay Morrison of The Athletic.
Fantasy football mock draft: 10-team, PPR
The NFL draft and free agency are behind us, coaching staffs and rosters are set, and training camp is just a couple of months away. That means it’s time for fantasy football fanatics to start gearing up for the 2021 campaign!
With that in mind, we gathered our fantasy football experts to kick off the season with our first mock draft, a 10-team PPR format. For those new to fantasy, that means every time one of your players catches a pass, he earns one extra fantasy point.
Fantasy Football: Breaking down high-value touches and targets for all 32 NFL teams
When it comes to fantasy football, volume is king. We want players who generate the most targets and touches — more opportunities leads to more fantasy points. But not all opportunities are created equal.
End-zone targets, deep targets (20 yards or more), air yards and carries inside the 5-yard line are prime examples of high-value opportunities. We want players who have a command of their team’s high-value touches because that maximizes their fantasy upside.
In PPR formats, an end-zone target is worth nearly double a normal target. Deep targets net 1.3 times as much. A carry inside the 5-yard line more than quadruples the rate of fantasy points on a normal carry.
Identifying players with high-usage roles is critical to gaining an edge over the competition. That’s why I’ve broken down the high-usage roles across all 32 NFL teams to unearth as much value as we can heading into the 2021 fantasy football season.
Dynasty Fantasy Football Tiers: A shortage of QB1s until we see more from Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, and others
For years the mantra about quarterback has remained the same: Just wait. There was so much talent and the gap between the best and the merely “good” was smaller than at other positions. Plus, it was extremely rare for the No. 1 quarterback to repeat in the following year. It was easy, in redraft at least, to just wait.
In Dynasty the equation has always been slightly different because quarterbacks have the longest careers, so locking up a young elite signal caller carried more value. That value has been enhanced over the past three years as a handful of quarterbacks have turned in elite performances before their 25th birthday.
NFL Team Preview: Dolphins are better in reality than for fantasy
We’re previewing every NFL team to get you ready for the 2021 season. Our analysts will tackle pressing fantasy questions and team win totals, in order from the squad with the least amount of fantasy relevancy all the way to the most talented team. Next up, the 27th-ranked Miami Dolphins.
PFF praised Seahawks stars, then ranked them low
The Focus of Professional Football has released a ranking, and we must discuss. Because offseason.
2021 Fantasy Football draft rankings: Defenses
Which group do you fall into? Will you be targeting the Rams DST early? Do the Broncos a bit later fit your bill? Or maybe you’re content with wrapping your team up with, say, the Cardinals defense, knowing full well you might drop them ahead of Week 1.
Whatever school of thought you fit into, our analysts will help you prepare with their DST draft rankings for 2021, and don’t forget to join or sign up for a fantasy football league now!
Projecting the NFL’s top 10 offenses in 2021: Buccaneers or Chiefs at No. 1?
The bulk of NFL roster reconstruction is behind us. The schedule is out. Yes, kickoff’s still four months away, but it’s high time for 2021 season forecasting. With that in mind, I wanted to explore the league’s top offenses via projected win share.
Remember, win share measures each player, position group and side of the ball’s ability to earn/prevent first downs, points and touchdowns. All rosters used to simulate the season in this exercise are the forecasted 53 as of May 18.
Alright, enough dilly-dally — let’s get to it! Here is the countdown of my top 10 offenses, based on updated win-share projections:
Mark Brunell: 2021 Lions could surprise like 1996 Jaguars
Early in Mark Brunell’s playing career, the expectations for the mid-1990s Jacksonville Jaguars were exceedingly low. Coming off an expansion season in which the Jags won just four games with the first-time starting QB, no one predicted an AFC Championship run in 1996.
As he begins his pro coaching career in Detroit as quarterbacks coach, Brunell said the 2021 Lions remind him of that Jaguars team.
‘GMFB’ breaks down the craziest NFL statistics
The “Good Morning Football” crew breaks down the craziest NFL statistics.
Fantasy Football Today: Aaron Rodgers, J.K. Dobbins, Michael Thomas lead list of 2021 regression candidates
You want to know a sure-fire way to win your Fantasy league? Draft only players who are about to have career years. Yep, it’s that easy.
OK, easier said than done. But that’s what it takes: Identifying players right before they have that one year where everything comes together perfectly. Sometimes, it never happens; some players are just steady as they come every year. But most players have that one season that stands above the rest of their career as their pinnacle, and they tend to lead countless players to Fantasy championships when it happens.
But what goes up must fall, as the man said, and one sure-fire way to put yourself in a hole on Draft Day is to go too aggressively after last year’s career-best seasons. You never want to pay a premium for last year’s production, after all. Sometimes, of course, a career year is just a career year so far, and figuring out the difference is one of the keys to succeeding in this game.
Fantasy Football: Can Clyde Edwards-Helaire still be Andy Reid’s next great RB?
The Chiefs met just about every 2020 preseason expectation laid out for them besides their obvious trip up against the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV. Regular season record of 14-2? That’ll work. Two relatively easy AFC playoff wins? Check. First-team All Pro campaigns for Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill to go along with another MVP-worthy season from Patrick Mahomes? You bet.
For everyone other than the most devout Sammy Watkins and Mecole Hardman truthers, the only real “disappointment” for the 2020 Chiefs was the production of first-round RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire. This isn’t to suggest that CEH was bad: 1,100 total yards from scrimmage and five trips to the end zone in 13 games is good. However, the man boasted an average draft position as the PPR RB5 in fantasy land by the time last season eventually came around.
Drafting Ja’Marr Chase Could Ruin Your Dynasty Team (2021 Fantasy Football)
Dynasty managers always love the shiny new toys that enter the game each year. We all look forward to our rookie drafts and thoroughly enjoy the rookie pick trade talks, ongoing positional rankings debate, and even the eventual landing spot discussions after the NFL draft. But oftentimes, dynasty managers are blinded by this new shine and can miss the bigger picture. I think this is already happening with new Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase.
Chase’s dynasty startup 1QB ADP is 21st overall. He is going as the WR8 off the board ahead of guys like Calvin Ridley (WR – ATL), DeAndre Hopkins, (WR – ARI), and Michael Thomas (WR – NO), all of whom are perennial fantasy studs. In SuperFlex startups, he’s going a little later at pick 54 and as WR12, ahead of guys like Terry McLaurin (WR – WAS), Chris Godwin (WR – TB), and Allen Robinson (WR – CHI). In both cases, he’s being drafted as a WR1 in 12-team leagues. That’s way too early.
NFL Team Preview: Outside of Darren Waller, Raiders fantasy football prospects are risky
We’re previewing every NFL team to get you ready for the 2021 season. Our analysts will tackle pressing fantasy questions and team win totals, in order from the squad with the least amount of fantasy relevancy all the way to the most talented team. Next up, the 28th-ranked Las Vegas Raiders.
Fantasy Football: Post-draft half-point PPR mock features a zero-RB strategy plus a modified version
Now is the time you should be doing mock drafts. Do as many as you can between now and your real draft. It’s the best way to prepare, and you can do all kinds of mock drafts on CBS Sports right here. I love doing mock drafts. If I could, I would do a mock draft every day from the time the Super Bowl ended until kickoff of the following season. I’m a junkie, I admit it. I’m addicted to drafting. My boss thinks it’s work to put together these mock drafts, but I have him fooled. This is fun.
Fantasy Football: Top-10 QB rankings for best ball leagues
With the big names at RB, WR and TE all accounted for, the time has come to rank the engines behind every NFL offense: quarterbacks.
Samaje Perine Is Now Cincinnati Bengals’ Key Handcuff Running Back Behind Joe Mixon In Fantasy Football
The Bengals released Giovanni Bernard, making Samaje Perine Joe Mixon’s top backup.
Fantasy fallout: Bengals release RB Giovani Bernard
With Bernard gone, it appears that Samaje Perine will get the first crack at the backup job after averaging 4.8 yards per carry on 63 attempts for three touchdowns. But Trayveon Williams also has a shot at picking up work. Of course, the team could also draft a running back to compete with those two. Perine did impress the team though, and if Mixon were to have injury trouble again, he’s first in line at the moment.
2021 NFL Mock Draft v3.1
Shoutout to the 49ers for setting us up for a wild month of mock drafts!
Here’s my 3rd 2021 NFL Mock Draft… Let me know what you think!
NFL Mock Draft Monday 1.0
It’s April which means the countdown to this year’s NFL Draft (April 29th) is finally here. Here’s our 1.0 version of all the latest mock drafts from around the web. Enjoy!
Cummings’ 3-Round 2021 NFL Mock Draft
It’s April. Draft month. And soon, the 32 NFL teams will face the next crucial step in the team-building process. We’ve spent months building up to it with the Senior Bowl and pro days, and now, the 2021 NFL Draft is just weeks away. We’ve put together a 3-Round 2021 NFL Mock Draft in honor of the draft’s heightened proximity. How did your team fare?
With the fifth pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Bengals select…
As of right now, the Bengals own the No. 5 selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, set to kick off April 29th in Cleveland, Ohio. That is about the only thing we know for certain. But even that is subject to change.
The Bengals could decide to trade down in the draft in order to pick up another early-round selection and help shore up some of the gaps that remain from another year of free-agent frenzy that saw the defense almost completely re-tooled.
Cowboys 2021 NFL mock draft tracker: We’ve reached peak consensus when it comes to Dallas’ pick at 10
How much mystery will there be when the Cowboys go on the clock at pick #10 in the 2021 NFL draft? If you believe the mock drafts, the position that the Cowboys take is already a known entity. We surveyed 10 recent mocks and all 10 had the Cowboys taking a cornerback at pick #10. Now they’re just debating of which one the Cowboys will take. Some of the argument is really just about which one is available at pick #10.
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