Best Value Fantasy Player Per Team, NFC East Edition
In the fourth of an eight-part series, I make an argument for the best value fantasy player on each team in the NFC East (see last week’s NFC South here). All rankings and Average Draft Positions were averaged from Fantasy Pros 2022 Fantasy Rankings and various ESPN 2022 Fantasy rankings as of June 29, 2022. Check in next week for the AFC West!
Dallas Cowboys – Michael Gallup
Embed from Getty ImagesMajor injuries to WR2s lowers their rankings disproportionally, in my opinion. If CeeDee Lamb were to be questionable for Weeks 1-4, his ADP would drop two or three rounds, but Michael Gallup’s ACL injury has him leaving drafting boards in the 11th round and beyond, putting him around WR65! The general consensus is that rookie Jalen Tolbert is going to step into the WR2 role in Dallas and he’s going off the board before Gallup in many drafts. Not. Going. To. Happen. Gallup finished 2020 (he only started eight games in 2021) 35th in wide receiver fantasy scoring and that was with both Lamb and Amari Cooper competing with him all 16 games! Cooper’s departure leaves over 100 targets vacant. I’m not forgetting Dalton Schultz, either, who is primed for over 100 targets this season. Tolbert lacks the experience for the kind of production in his first NFL season that would make such a significant dent in a healthy Gallup’s fantasy performance. Gallup is the definition of value right now.
Philadelphia Eagles – Kenneth Gainwell
Searching for value in Philadelphia is not easy; it may be the capital of Overvalue this season. I’ll eat this paragraph if Jalen Hurts throws for more than 4,200 yards. How is A.J. Brown is projected between WR10-12 from a quarterback with less than 3200 passing yards and a paltry 16 passing touchdowns last season? Brown would need at least 1100 yards and six touchdowns to hit the top 12. Let’s add that to Dallas Goedert’s hefty TE6-8 ranking, which would require somewhere in the neighborhood of 850 yards and five touchdowns. That would present a problem for DeVonta Smith going off draft boards in the sixth round as WR34. I mean, unless we’re projecting 500 receiving yards each for Jalen Reagor, Quez Watkins, and Kenneth Gainwell, the numbers just don’t add up. So, either Hurts passes a WHOLE LOT more for the top Eagles’ receivers to hit their rankings, or he finishes near his own ranking by rushing a lot again, and the receivers come up short. He doesn’t do both. Thus, I have found detriment instead of value. But if you just have to bank on an Eagle, do take Gainwell after the 12th round, especially in PPR formats.
New York Giants – Kenny Golladay
According to ADP, no one, save Saquon Barkley, is going to be scoring fantasy points in New York this season. These are appropriate rankings; no Giants wide receiver ranked in the top fifty in fantasy scoring last season, no running back wound up in the top thirty, and no tight end finished in the top twenty. Still, this type of wasteland is where value is created. Kenny Golladay is the man of value here and the case is simple. He’s being taken at the WR52-55 area in the 11th round and beyond. We have to believe that the management and coaching overhaul in New York will improve their offense. There’s nowhere to go but up when you’ve been in the bottom three worst offenses for the past two seasons. Speaking of two seasons ago, let’s take a quick trip back to 2019 when Golladay finished in the top three (non-PPR) and top ten (PPR) fantasy scoring at the wide receiver position. That just happened to be the last season he was healthy (he missed three games and played injured nearly all last season). He is healthy now. Daniel Jones is due for possibly the most touchdown progression of any quarterback out there this season. Golladay should be one of your main post 10th round targets this year. I’d take him in the 8th happily and might have the guts to reach for him in the 7th just because I believe.
Washington D.C. – Commanders
Embed from Getty ImagesLogan Thomas might be my favorite sleeper in the NFC. Don’t worry this isn’t women’s intuition or fortune telling. His average rank is around TE18 right now and he’s going to finish the season in the top 12 at his position. Thomas finished as TE9 in fantasy scoring in 2020 with Alex Smith and Taylor Heinicke splitting the games as his quarterback. Injury kept Thomas out of 11 games last season. Carson Wentz, though injury prone and generally faded in fantasy projections, has a favorable history with talented tight ends. In 2020, Dallas Goedert was Wentz’ favorite receiver and in 2019, the Eagles’ top two receivers were Goedert and Zach Ertz, both tight ends. And they both finished in the top fantasy scoring that year at their position! This is a bounce back year for a beast of a performer.
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