Just finished reading Mike Tagliere’s “Mike Tagliere’s Top-150 Fantasy Football Rankings (2021)”.
It starts with 3 players who read like an episode of “MASH”. Tags has even written the happy ending where all three hit their ceilings. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, “if wishes were ponies, we’d all ride.” And at least 2 of these 3 players have very unstable floors. McCaffrey and Barkley both displayed the full depth of their floors last year.
Even worse, Tags points out a new floor for Barkley (losing touches to improved receivers), and yet still leaves him in the top 3. That’s similar to Alvin Kamara’s floor, losing targets because Jameis Winston doesn’t traditionally target RB’s much.
Dalvin Cook is the only one who belongs in the top 3 conversation. While he has never played more than 14 games in a season, his rushing numbers have improved every season. He has a strong floor that only seems to get stronger.
Using Tags’ own analysis, his top 3 RB’s should be Cook, Derrick Henry, and Ezekiel Elliott. Henry’s efficiency should improve with the better receiving targets (can he get more than 17 td’s?). Elliott will improve with the return of Dak Prescott and one of the NFL’s stellar offenses. Both Henry and Elliott show high floors with impressive ceilings, which is what you want from early first round picks.
Looking down Tags’ QB’s, I have just one question: Why is Deshaun Watson (34th) rated one space higher than Tyrod Taylor (35th)? I get the low rankings here, but at least Taylor is a potential streaming option. At this point, Watson is a potential zero for the entire season.
As for WR’s, why is A.J. Brown rated above D.K. Metcalf and Justin Jefferson? Brown’s target ceiling just got capped even more with the arrival of Julio Jones. Both Metcalf and Jefferson outplayed Brown last season, and Brown’s situation just capped his targets, while the other two are still in similar situations, with Jefferson possibly getting better in his 2nd season.
On to the kickers. Like with most ECR rankings, Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson gets absolutely no respect, even after finishing as the 4th highest kicker last season. Tags doesn’t even rate Carlson in his top 15, along with Miami’s Jason Sanders, who was the number 1 kicker last season. The Falcons’ kicker Younghoe Koo was the number 2 kicker in fantasy, and Tags mysteriously drops him to 5th place. One could say Tags totally bobbles the snap on his kickers!
Tags’ defense rankings are a little better, but not by much. Top five finisher Miami falls off the list entirely, while Indianapolis drops down from 3rd to 13th.
Tags, your list needs some work.