Ace your draft with this strategy 🦸‍♂️

These are very well done. They’re right up there with the Seahawks and Buccaneers for best alternate/throwback uniforms in the league for sure.

What’s in store:

• ICYMI: Brandon Aiyuk is ready to move. The All-Pro WR has officially requested a trade from the team as of Tuesday.

• Davante Adams didn’t request a trade... But it sounds like the entire league is ready for him to be moved. Even though he says he’s staying in Vegas. 🤷‍♂️

• Jordan Love praises one of his receivers. 🧀 And no, it’s not Jayden Reed or Christian Watson.

• Drafting with an early pick in your league this year? You might want to consider this strategy…

• 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk officially requests trade from the 49ers with trade talks remaining at an impasse

  • Things have been trending in this direction for weeks, if not months, since the beginning of the offseason, but it’s now official: Aiyuk wants out of San Francisco. Of course, any team with as much talent as the 49ers have is likely to struggle to get all of its stars compensated in accordance with their talent and production under the league’s salary cap, but it appears Aiyuk could be trending towards being the first cap casualty among their loaded offensive core. The former 2020 first round pick certainly hasn’t tried to keep quiet about the ongoing stagnating contract negotiations; in fact, he’s done the opposite, going as far as listing the teams he’d most like to play for (including the Steelers and Commanders) and posting multiple times on social media about his desire to reunite with his former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels. The 49ers have openly stated that they do not intend to trade Aiyuk at this time despite interest from other teams. Aiyuk will be fantasy relevant wherever he’s traded and could even see his value rise should he ultimately leave the Bay Area, but the 49ers hold most of the cards in these contract negotiations with a year still remaining on his current rookie deal. Holdouts typically don’t end well for players who do so (just ask Le’Veon Bell), so there’s a chance that Aiyuk does suit up in the red and gold once again for 2024. However, we could be on the verge of a massive fantasy shakeup if trade talks would begin to pick up momentum as training camp begins.

• Raiders WR Davante Adams and his agents shut down speculation regarding a potential trade to the Jets

  • Speaking of trade discussions going nowhere fast, rumors surfaced and immediately were shut down earlier this week regarding a potential deal between the Raiders and Jets that would reunite the former Packers WR Davante Adams with Aaron Rodgers in New York. Without a doubt, a deal of such proportions would be an instant blockbuster just a month and a half from the start of the 2024 season, but if Adams’ own words, as well as his agents’, are any indicator, fantasy managers shouldn’t bank on Adams being moved any time soon. Trade rumors picked up steam following the release of Netflix’s ‘Receiver’ that depicted an obviously disgruntled Davante Adams criticizing then starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, as well as thanks to comments made by Aaron Rodgers over the weekend about being ‘excited to play with Adams once again.’ The whole situation reeks of Aaron Rodgers’ love for the spotlight and for stirring up drama, and it very much seems to be a large smokescreen given Adams’ stance on the situation; Adams appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast recently and assured us that he’s ‘locked in’ with the Raiders for 2024. Just for shiggles, a Davante Adams trade to New York would likely put a true breakout for Garrett Wilson on hold for the second year in a row, while Adams would also be slightly downgraded thanks to target competition from Wilson (27% target share, 0.26 targets per route run in 2023.)

• Packers QB Jordan Love anticipates a ‘monster year’ in 2024 for second-year WR Dontayvion Wicks

  • Between Jayden Reed, Christian Watson, and Romeo Doubs, it was already a crowded, three-headed Packers WR room to begin with heading into the second year of Jordan Love’s time as the starter in Green Bay – but Dontayvion Wicks is raring to make it four star pass catchers in the rotation after gaining steam as a sleeper heading into his sophomore season. Despite limited playing time during the 2023 season, Wicks was far and away the Packers’ most efficient receiver – his 2.31 yards per route run, 3.08 yards after contact per reception, 0.26 missed tackles forced per reception, and 0.115 first downs per route run all led the team last year. Wicks made waves with four touchdowns in his final three starts of the season, and with Jordan Love offering this nugget ahead of training camp, the hype is officially real surrounding the former fifth round pick. Even so, his price remains deflated all the way down the board as the WR59 – later than all three of Reed (WR34), Watson (WR41), and Doubs (WR54). He remains one of the best lottery tickets at the position heading into 2024 in a great scheme with an ascendant Jordan Love at quarterback.

Who are the RBs we would be happy building our team around in the hero RB build? As a baseline, your hero RB is a player who has to be dependable and who will give you RB1 numbers week-in and week-out – and preferably be a high-end RB1. This is a running back that you grab very early in your draft (think first or second round) so that you’re able to focus on other positions in the next 4 or 5 rounds to start your draft

An easy way for this to happen to you is if your pick winds up being inside the top-7 or 8 in the first round of your fantasy draft. There are obvious big names at all the positions (WR and RB being the most popular in non-superflex formats), but for the most part the big three at running back this year includes Christian McCaffrey, Breece Hall, and Bijan Robinson. Insert tier break. Those three are the running backs that I would be most comfortable with implementing a hero-RB strategy with; all of them have their workloads locked in while operating on presumably high-end offenses.

For what it’s worth, I’d also personally add Kyren Williams to that list – but there are a lot of people out there who seem to think Blake Corum ends up being more of a 1B than a breather back for Kyren. Sean McVay loves Kyren, and he was also super efficient last year, too.

There’s also a case for these guys as your hero RB too, but each of them has at least one or two things working against them that the guys above don’t:

• Jahmyr Gibbs, DET

• Jonathan Taylor, IND

• Saquon Barkley, NYG

• Derrick Henry, BAL (maybe…)

The good thing about hero RB as opposed to zero RB is that you’re not just leaving your hopes up to shaky RBs - if you grab your first RB in round 5 or 6, there’s a reason why they’re going that late; their upside isn’t guaranteed like a hero RB’s is. The only negative around hero RB is that you are taking the risk that an early asset has a higher chance of getting hurt because they’re a RB. Lose your first pick of the draft, and you’re immediately in the hole each week at running back. It’s a great strategy when players stay healthy, but be prepared to ride the rollercoaster if your running back is the lucky winner who gets injured often.

Jayden Daniels can finish as a Top-5 fantasy QB as a rookie, and this is how it would happen.

Kliff Kingsbury has experience drafting a mobile quarterback and finding success with him in Year 1; look no further than in 2019 when he was HC for the Cardinals and broke in a rookie Kyler Murray. That year, Murray finished as the overall fantasy QB12 (18.8 fantasy points per game) with 3722 passing yards, 544 rushing yards, and 5.8 rush attempts per game. Very good.

But Daniels might have even more upside because of his 14.1% scramble rate in college, which was third highest in CFB since 2019. For reference, Lamar Jackson had the highest rate in the NFL last year at 11%.

Not only that, but Daniels’ 17% designed rushing rate can carry over. All three NFL QBs with that mark or higher were Top-12 QBs last year. Even if the passing production isn’t there, he can still succeed… since 2000, there were 24 QBs who threw for less than 3500 yards but had more than 80 rushing attempts. 20 of them averaged more than 20 FPPG (which correlates to Top-8 finish), and 11 of those 20 averaged more than 22 FPPG (which correlates to Top-5 finish).

My point? All Daniels needs to do is average about 205 passing yards and 4.7 rush attempts/game. And frankly, that shouldn’t be an issue; Kyler Murray averaged 5.8 rushing yards/game in his rookie year. But it also comes down to Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. In his four years with Murray, Kingsbury’s offenses ranked 1st in offensive plays/game (Washington was bottom-12 last year) and 6th in early down neutral pass rate. That means more scrambling opportunities for Daniels, more passing opportunities, more plays, more rushing attempts, and of course: more fantasy points.

Can we see a rookie year similar to RGIII’s when he passed for 3200 yards and ran for 815 yards for Washington in his rookie season? He averaged 21.17 FPPG, which correlates to a high-end fantasy QB1.

History tells us that Daniels has a pretty safe floor if he stays healthy (Top-12) and has the upside to finish Top-5 like the 45% of QBs since 2000 did with similar but conservative projections for him.