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The NFC South perennially provides a plethora of players we all want on our fantasy rosters. We go through more of these guys on the RB1 Fantasy Football Podcast, but here is a quick read on who I’m keeping an extra close eye on this upcoming season.
Trustworthy Elite — Alvin Kamara
General consensus seems to be that there are three big running backs at the top, then 5-6 guys making up that next tier of backs. But the consensus is wrong, Kamara deserves to be in that top tier of RBs. The only thing keeping Kamara from the tippy-top of our fantasy ranks s an injury hampered season in 2019, a season which left him ALL THE WAY DOWN at RB9 overall in PPR. The injuries are in the rear view mirror, too.
The Saints are perpetually one of the top scoring teams in the NFL, and Kamara will, again, be the unbelievably dynamic back we’ve seen in his first three seasons in the NFL.
Draft Kamara confidently anywhere in the top 5 in any format.
League Winner — Ronald Jones
For the league winner, I like to pick someone going a little later in drafts who is going to end up being a solid, week-in, week-out contributor to a fantasy squad. Jones fits that criteria to a T.
Jones has had a bit of a slow start to his NFL career, but something to keep in mind is that while Jones is going in to his third NFL season, he has just turned 23 earlier this August. We’ve seen improvement from year 1 to year 2, and I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I believe the Bucs will be a steadier team, offensively this season. A steadier hand at QB with Tom Brady replacing Jameis Winston should translate to more carries for the Bucs backs, and more opportunities to get those nice stats-by-accumulation games where we see a lead back get 15-20 carries as their team plays in a close contest.
Jones is going off the board at an ADP of 93, so just inside the 8th round. Don’t be afraid to jump up a round or two early and lock down RoJo for 2020.
Not Drafting — Chris Godwin
This is no indictment of Godwin’s talent, the fantasy hive mind has simply gone off the deep end burying Mike Evans, and making too much of the ‘slot receiver for Brady’ connection. Godwin is going ahead of George Kittle, Odell Beckham Jr., Lamar Jackson… all guys I’d rather have at the #19 spot. If you’re excited about Tampa Bay’s offense (and you should be) take the mysteriously discounted Mike Evans a round later than Godwin.
Late Sleeper — Emmanuel Sanders
The ‘sleeper’ moniker is a hard one to write about. Everyone who follows football even just a little has heard of Emmanuel Sanders. But, with Sanders’ move to New Orleans to play opposite Michael Thomas, we may finally be getting a viable number two receiver on the Saints. Now, this has been the fool’s gold we’ve chased for a long time, but Sanders showed us last year he is still an exceptional wide receiver. There should be plenty of yards and touchdowns to go around down in The Big Easy, and Sanders will end up as a viable week-to-week WR3/Flex play all season.