And here I thought I was looking at deep stashes…
Vaughn - I don’t know, man. Rookie RBs are either good right out of the gate, or never. Neither Fournette nor Jones are particularly great NFL RBs. Vaughn obviously doesn’t have the potential to challenge either one of them. What are the actual chances they will really let all other RBs go and hand him the keys to the backfield next year? I’d say: slim to none.
D’Ernest Johnson sounds better to me. Whenever his number was called, he performed. And he’s in a run-heavy team. If I had him, I’d hang on to him. I would also stash Demetric Felton, though. He’s a pass catching back, which means he could take a little longer to develop, but could see more action soon.
DPJ and Josh Palmer are stashes I agree with. I have Palmer sitting in my Taxi Squad, and definitely intend to carry him over to next year.
On TE, Freiermuth left the sleeper status behind him already. If you have a chance to get him, do it. I drafted him in all my dynasty leagues, as I knew people would sleep on him, with all the (justified) hype around Pitts. I knew Freiermuth would become a great TE whom you could start every week. I had not expected it to happen in his rookie year already.
My favorite stashes:
QB:
Kellen Mond, at least in 2 QB leagues. Will he become Cousins’ successor next year? I don’t know, but the chance is there. He’s worth a stash.
If Jordan Love is available in your league, get him now. He’ll start Sunday, so right now may be the last chance to acquire him for cheap or free.
RB:
Demetric Felton, as mentioned above. Yes, he is a gadget player. But so is Cordarrelle Patterson.
Chris Evans. Mixon isn’t getting any younger, and we know what that means for heavily utilized RBs. Perine will be around for another year, but Evans could usurp him next year.
Kene Nwangwu. Now here is a dart throw. But that guy is freakishly fast, look at his tape. He has some draft capital to his name, and will start contributing to special teams this week, after coming off an injury. Cook is ageing, Mattison isn’t great, and if Nwangwu can develop the vision to perform against NFL defenses, he could be huge.
Speaking about vision: Jermar Jefferson made his first NFL appearance last weekend. It resulted in a 2/6/1 rushing and 4/4/23/0 passing stat line. I went back to my draft notes and found: “Vision is his No. 1 trait, which is something you can’t teach. Good hands.” While I have to admit I have little other intel on him, I decided to stash him in one of my leagues.
WR:
Amari Rodgers. Don’t let his non-existent usage fool you. The Packers will never utilize rookie WRs. Look at Davante Adams’ 2014 stats. Yes, they were better than Rodgers’, but they didn’t exactly scream “future super star”, either. Stash Rodgers now, as I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets more involved this week, with Jordan Love throwing him the rock, as I would expect the two of them having spent a lot of time together in practice.
Van Jefferson. D-Jax is gone, and Jefferson is enroute to usurp Robert Woods already. The Rams have a high-volume passing offense, and if you want a part of it, Jefferson is your man. See if you can still get him cheap.
Edit: how could I forget Gabriel Davis? I had expected a breakout this year already, and it may still come. Even if not, Sanders and Beasley will be gone next year. The Bills are one of the top passing offenses. Davis is highly talented. What other arguments do we need?
TE:
Tommy Tremble looks good in his rookie season already. TEs usually need some time to adjust to the NFL level, but Tremble has almost no competition. He’s a good stash.
Dan Arnold. The Jags heavily utilize the TE position, and volume is king. A TE who scores an average 6.5 half PPR points without having seen the end zone even once so far? Gimme!