The Pros And Cons Of Week 2 (#FantasyFootball)

I don’t want to overreact, but Dez Bryant was right. The Cowboys don’t know what they’re doing.

Fine readers of the Going For 2 fanbase my name is @TheBLeagueSays and I am 100% wishing everyone affected by the Hurricane safety, shelter, and a speedy rebuild! And thank you for the awesome feedback and conversations following last weeks Pros and Cons – we know that Le’Veon Bell still hasn’t shown up, Khalil Mack was a monster and the Rams broke the Raiders in the second half with a dominant display; and I am absolutely looking forward to addressing Week 2. Once again please remember that the articles I bring to you will be based on the Pros and Cons of players or scenarios that the Fantasy Football Community has split ideas on heading into future fixtures for your matchups.

So before we get started – Thank you, and enjoy!

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It would be easy to rag on Buffalo. But that would be too easy. Odell Beckham Jr’s return? Speaks for itself – and a very welcome back! Aaron Rodgers’ heroics? I would rather that story get old and let tales of his legend speak about it once he (one day) gets his gold jacket. 

How about Dallas? Why should we talk about them? Hasn’t the footballing community seen and said enough about this to know what the problem is? Yeah, I’d say that is a fair statement. So what’s the problem? How about they are delusional enough to believe they are moving in the right direction? Surely not? Surely indeed! Which is surely why this week’s Pros And Cons is the sticky situation Dallas finds themselves in after just one week, and a few months of controversy.

I’ll tell you what, if you think Dez Bryant’s asking price for this year seemed like it was too high to not land him a contract, it would probably be justified now, and he would be remiss for not asking for more. The way their season has started off you would think that he, Jason Witten and Dan Bailey carried 49 others last season. Ok, I’m being a little facetious here. But this past weekend Dallas looked atrocious. Dallas looked overrated. Dallas looked unorganized. Dallas gave the Bills hope that they weren’t the worst team in the NFL. Luckily for Dallas, Detroit asked them to hold their beer…

But here is what was somewhat weird. There were people that had questioned some of the moves Dallas had made this offseason but (naturally) they were given the benefit of the doubt. But never really had any pundit outright had a shot at them (outside of the fantasy football community, the analytics community, my neighbor ‘angry’ Jason). However on the day during the call that halfway through the Dallas vs Carolina game that the two commentators calling it had this to say;

Joe Buck: “The Dallas Cowboys’ re-imagined offense: No Dez Bryant, no Jason Witten, they have six receptions in the half, 46 yards. They have four first downs and 61 total yards. This has been a whiff in the first half. The Cowboys didn’t run a play in the half in Carolina territory and have been penalized 60 yards.”

How about Buck’s colleague and Hall of Famer and Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman?;

Troy Aikman: “Well, Allen Hurns is the big free-agent acquisition from Jacksonville, No. 17 (and he has) had injuries the past couple of years (Hi! @TheBLeagueSays here, does someone want to tell Mr. Aikman, sir, that Allen Hurns having injuries over the last couple years probably reminds him of someone? Anyone?)… but he doesn’t have speed (Hi! @TheBLeagueSays here, once again, someones gotta tell Mr. Aikman, sir, that Allen Hurns having a lack of speed probably reminds him of the same someone? Noone wants to tell him?)… he’s not going to threaten anybody down the field.” (Hi! @TheBLeagueSays here: ok I’m gonna tell him. Hey, Mr. Aikman sir, does your assessment of Allen Hurns happen to remind you of (let’s say) a poor mans Dez Bryant by any chance? No? Right…)

The contradictory point of view, however, was heard just mere days before Week One kickoff vs Carolina as Mr. Aikman, sir, had this to say:

“The Dez from 2017 I don’t think they will miss at all. No matter who they’ve got coaching the Receivers. I don’t think Dez was a threat for most, if not all, of last year. When you get one-on-one looks, no matter who you are as a Receiver, that is what you are looking for as a Quarterback, and if you can’t beat defenders one-on-one, then you simply can’t play in the NFL.”

Walking contradiction and I ain’t go no right! (Green Day anyone? No? Moving on then…)

Now, I’m not here to bash the Cowboys: their supporters and local media have done enough of that this week for everyone else to sit back and sip some tea. But I’m going to chime in any way, but first, did you know:

• That Dallas had seven different pass-catchers last weekend and ranked 30th overall in that Passing game with a dismal 138 total passing yards from 29 completions? But really only one player contributed, Cole Beasley, who had 73 yards (roughly 53% of team total). That means that the Cowboys had on average 6 other players contribute 65 yards (yay teamwork!) collectively or 10 yards each throughout the game. Which is pretty bad. Want to make it worse? It took 12 completions to hit that ‘extra’ 65 yards. That would be 5.4 yards per reception… Woof! Want to make it even worse? Beasley was the only player with at least three receptions or 30 yards in the air on the day.
• That this week, The Cowboys vs NY Giants game is only one of two games where Division rivals that meet who are both 0-1 to start the season (the other is Houston at Tennessee). New York had an up and down game vs Jacksonville (being generous) with a late Eli Manning blunder (shock, here come the Sam Darnold ‘you should have taken him with the Second pick (!) people – for the record I’m a Josh Rosen guy, I’d rather the Giants had of traded back and grabbed him instead) costing them a chance to win. Washington and Philadelphia had respectable wins and face weaker opponents in Indianapolis and Tampa – needless to say falling behind to 0-2 in the NFC East is not a place you want to be in. Also, only 10 teams (twice did the NFC grab both Wildcard slots) in since 2002 has the NFC East had a team qualify for the Playoffs through the Wildcard spot. And 2016 was the last time (Dallas and the NY Giants both went to the playoffs) and before that was in 2009. So to say that there isn’t a lot riding on this one? An understatement I’d say!
• That, since 2007 there had been 83 teams have started 0-2 and about 11% crept into the playoffs.

Now all of that is well and good, but hit me with some knowledge! What are…

THE PROS

Put simply, Right Tackle Ereck Flowers is in so much trouble:

So if I started off by saying that Flowers admits that he didn’t do his homework of how the Jaguars would attack and scheme then that right there is bad sign number one. Demarcus Lawrence in 2017 hit the lights with 14.5 Sacks and lined up 46 out of 48 times squaring up with the Right Tackle. Manning isn’t known to be the most nimble of units, so if Flowers can’t at least disrupt Lawrence’s efforts then I can see a world where the Giants are at 2nd and/or 3rd and long situations again. Which isn’t great because…

Their Defense – it’s kind of underrated:

Last year Dallas Ranked 8th Overall for the number of Yards Per Game conceded (318.1 YPG) while Ranking 10th Overall for Yards Per Play against them (5.1 YPP). On top of that, by the end of the year, they Ranked 13th Overall for Total points conceded (332) They Ranked 15th Overall in Sacks (38) for the year. They Ranked as having the 13th least amount of Penalty yards conceded over the year (800 Total) and also Ranked as 12th Overall in terms of spending time on the field (29:48).

Quietly, they’re really good and to be honest they did a respectable job last week – by only surrendering 16 points, away to the highly rated Panthers led by Cam Newton which happened only 4 times in 2017.

Decent when the lights are bright:

When Dallas and New York meet in Prime Time games, well, the results seem pretty one-sided. On Sunday Night Football, Dallas holds a 7-4 winning record (five wins of those were in Dallas) and on Monday Night Football hold a commanding 8-3 winning record (four wins of those were in Dallas). Both games last season, Dallas cleaned up victories too.

Talking about their Defence as a ‘Pro’ after they struggled in Week 1, get to…

THE CONS

It’s dead money. Their money is dead;

Via overthecap.com, Dez Bryant ($8 million), Tony Romo ($8.9 million) are still big names that are being paid by Dallas this season. And when players like Jarvis Landry, Allen Robinson and hey even Sammy Watkins all preferred to look elsewhere you have to think why it is they grabbed a younger albeit cheaper version of Dez Bryant in Allen Hurns. For me, Pros And Cons former subject Allen Hurns can deliver – I just don’t know if after what we have seen that is even possible right now. But again, you have to wonder why ‘top tiered talent’ went elsewhere and not a marquee destination and head towards the pure Football culture that Dallas can provide.

Now cutting bait with certain players has helped re-sign a handful of others (Travis Frederick, Zack Martin) which is huge for the teams stability – but some point, the Cowboys are going to have to address the killer 2016 draft they had which included Ezekiel Elliott, Jaylon Smith, and Dak Prescott while finding a way to keep as many pieces in-house. Which is going to be hard to do unless they can make more moves happen.

Their Offensive Coordinator sounds more Offensive than a Coordinator;

I live down here in Dallas and let me tell you it hasn’t stopped… And why should it when you have this from Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan; “I don’t see deficiencies. I see strengths in the numbers. I don’t like the term committee of receivers or whatever. The group as a whole I think will be our strength. I think all of them add significant strengths to our offense. They’re going to play significant snaps. Not just three guys. I think you’ll see four or five, even maybe six potentially play in games this year. So it’ll be fun to watch those guys grow and develop in our system.”

Now in 2017, Dallas ranked 14th Overall in (combined) Yards Per Game (331.9 YPG) but finished 27th Overall with 196.3 YPG and that was with Dez Bryant and Jason Witten saddling up. Once again, with a new team and ‘more’ options; the ‘new look’ Cowboys in their first game of the year labored to 138 Passing Yards. I know Steve Sarkisian is on the hot seat at the moment but shouldn’t this be setting off alarms first?

Record breakers, broken records;

Last season Dez Bryant set the Cowboys all-time record for TD Receptions (73 total). Jason Witten (a former Walter Payton Man of the Year winner) is the all-time leader for Dallas and 4th all-time in the NFL with 1,152 Total Receptions. Dan Bailey has the second best all-time record for kicking accuracy with an 88.2% (behind only Justin Tucker). These guys, the backbone (yeah a Kicker can be a part of the hypothetical backbone of a team, so what!) of the Cowboys who are no longer there. That is a lot of influence, experience and team leaders who can no longer chip in when faced with adversity. When you need people to step up and make a big play (or kick!) and all you see is Terrence Williams then you should probably start to panic.

PROJECTIONS

Dak Prescott: 33 Attempts / 21 Completions at 64.57% Completion Rate / 220 Total Passing Yards / 1 Passing TD / 5 Carries / 18 Yards Rushing

Ezekiel Elliott: 20 Carries / 4.13 Yards Per Carry for 82.75 Yards / 4 Targets / 3 Receptions / 8.15 Yards Per Reception for 24.45 Yards / 1 TD

Cole Beasley: 7 Targets / 5 Receptions / 10.14 Yards Per Receptions for 50.7 Total Yards / 1 TD

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SUMMARY

First of all, as I said at the start of this article, I don’t want to overreact – it’s only one game. But what we have seen from Dallas already has looked like what we saw last year. The NFC East as a whole has a fairly tough schedule. And as we know, New York can be had – especially in Dallas – so even if the Cowboys are 1-1 at the end of the week they are then looking at Seattle, Detroit, Houston and Jacksonville over the next month. Winning is only going to cover up what everyone else can see. So realistically, if nothing changes will anything change if results over the next month don’t vary?

Secondly, I want to have a scan of the landscape and current trend with some of the more successful Franchises at the moment. Right now you can look at what Philadelphia and the L.A. Rams are doing with their roster construction. Both have Quarterbacks currently under their Rookie deals. Both have loaded up – whether it be through trading or free agency – on optimal talent on both sides of the ball and are giving their young leaders as much talent as possible to win now before the demand to pay a monster deal sets in. Both teams use new methods of coaching, combining up-tempo play with an analytics base used as a resource when executing in certain scenarios. A modern-day approach seeing better players executing more plays. But Dallas is getting crushed with a lack of imagination and without having the right people in place to actually address this then if nothing changes will anything change if personnel doesn’t adapt to modern coaching and recruitment?

Finally, as we know, Dallas is still paying a handful of guys who no longer wear the ‘big star’ on their shoulders and have (somewhat) lost their identity with how they take the field. A season ago you believed that Jason Witten down the seem could still make a big play. Two seasons ago you believed that Dez Bryant could win in every scenario, and even a season ago knew that at least he could contest for every possession thrown his way. Both of these guys (whether we believe it or not) helped Dak Prescott and caused enough of a headache to maybe take a bit of the focus away from the strong Ezekiel Elliott run game.

But their play has become so obvious, stagnant, basic and predictable that teams know that ‘stacking the box’ is the easiest way to stop them. In the last two seasons, Elliott has seen his loaded box percentage jump from 35.7% to 53.5%. And over the past 11 games, Dak Prescott has thrown less than 200 yards in 8 of the last 11 games. So at this point, everyone knows if you can stuff the ground game then there is a huge chance that Dak won’t beat you in the air. But then what?

Again. If nothing changes…

Right?

I want to thank you for getting this far and taking in everything I have presented. It’s Round 2 and I couldn’t be more amped up. Set your lineups accordingly and check out the DFS and Weekly Content all the hard-working staff is pumping out to get you best prepared. Also – download the Going For 2 app, then and rate, review and share with your loved ones. You all deserve it! You can as always follow and find me at @TheBLeagueSays and offer any view or conversation about this. Let’s all get better together!

Once again, Thank you and Enjoy!

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