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Author: Jay Poundsee (@JayPoundsNFL)
The free agent market has really been starting to dry up as the weeks pass, but this week there seems to actually be some depth to the point some of these players on the list may be arguable. At this point in the season you should have a pretty solid idea if your team is heading for the playoffs or a high draft selection, and base your free agent targets off of that.
I will do my best to try and select players that can help right now and are young enough to still have future upside to help those of you looking to next year too, but these players are naturally going to be more beneficial for owners fighting for playoff spots. I know sometimes as an owner it’s very easy to look at your team with a bias and have somewhat unrealistic expectations for how the season will go, but this is the time of year to be as honest as you can with yourself and make the right selections in who you are targeting. I envision the worst scenario for any losing owner is to pick a free agent up, have him win you a week and amount to nothing but a cap holds for next season.
If you are stuck in a rebuild don’t feel bad, I am in the same boat with my team performing well below expectations this season, but I have to say trading in this format has made even a pathetic losing season enjoyable. The salaries make trading extremely interactive and require a lot of strategy and thinking when trying to execute, just imagine how much fun trading will be if conditional picks become available. One last tip i would like to recommend is starting to factor in years and salary before picking up free agents, especially if you’re not exactly on the winning end of things. I can only imagine how much harder trying to rebuild a team is with most of its cap utilized vs. a team with over half the cap available.
Garret Gilbert (1-Year $690,000) – 28.87% Owned
Man did Gilbert Grape look great on Sunday against my Steelers. Yes, I stole Steve’s Gilbert Grape line for this article, because well… it was a hilarious comment, and one I was hoping would be true. Steve’s comment, while hilarious ended up not being the case as Gilbert came out and played much better than any expected against the vaunted Steelers defense. The Steelers have had a tendency over the Tomlin era to let bad teams stay in games, but I don’t think this was fully the case here. The Steelers came into this game with one plan, and that was to stop Zeke, Pollard and the run game. Gilbert recognized this early and began to pick the Steelers D apart with short to intermediate throws, finishing with 243 yards and a touchdown. He was also able to earn the respect of the defense which helped open up running lanes, and the play action pass.
I realize that the Cowboys have Andy Dalton who will be back healthy any week now, but this Sunday was the best the Cowboys have looked as a team since losing Dak which may have paved the way for Gilbert to remain under center moving forward. The Cowboys have only managed to win 2 games this season, and are somehow still in the thick of a playoff race thanks to the putrid division they play in. At this point with as bad as Dallas has looked, McCarthy may be coaching for his job and shouldn’t hesitate to go with Gilbert the way things went this weekend against a good football team. Gilbert slots in at number 1 this week with as important as the quarterback position is, and as hard as quality signal callers are to obtain.
Kalen Ballage (1-Year $750,000) – 20.62% Owned
In 2020 we have seen many odd things that’s for sure, but one thing we have seen that makes perfect sense is players like Robby Anderson and Kalen Ballage performing as soon as they were able to get away from the legend of his own world, Adam Gase. Ballage wasn’t a can’t miss prospect coming out of school by any means, but scouts and fantasy managers knew the kid had talent and could produce at the NFL level in some form.
In his first few years in the league for Miami, Ballage looked terrible averaging what seemed to be negative yards per carry, while looking inept as a runner. A few years down the road Ballage seemed to be nothing but a missed prospect and forgotten name, until the Chargers got banged up and needed a warm body. Ballage was much more than the warm body the Chargers needed totaling 15 carries for 69 yards a touchdown and added on 2 catches for 15 yards as well. The running back room for the Chargers looks similar to the 49ers roster with virtually everyone banged up and opening up carries for whoever is healthy.
Ballage may end up being the go-to back this week, but I want to air on the side of caution with him as I feel if Jackson or Pope are healthy, they will get carries over Ballage. After seeing week 9’s results, I think it’s safe to say the Chargers have seen enough of Josh Kelly and are phasing him out of the lineup with Pope, and Ballage out touching him in back to back weeks. We have now seen 3 players who looked very bad under Gase look like completely different competent players under new coaches, the players being Ballage, Anderson, and Tannehill. Only time will tell if Ballage can continue the trend Tannehill and Anderson have started.
Ross Dwelly (1-Year $750,000) 38.14% Owned
The 49ers have been the most beat up team this season, and it’s not even remotely close. Kittle, the 49ers pride and joy went down with a serious injury roughly a week ago with initial reports saying he would be out around 8 weeks, and while it seems it won’t be that long Kittle is almost a lock to miss the fantasy playoffs. Sunday against Green Bay the 49ers were not able to do much of anything without their star tight end, especially early in the game. The only true bright spot was Richie James (who you will see later), and his monster performance, though some may consider Dwelly’s 3 catch 55-yard day a success in his first game without Kittle leading the way. I am curious to find out if the production from Dwelly was more caused by the lack of play makers the 49ers had on the field, or a sign of things to come moving forward.
Dwelly is nowhere near Kittle’s talent level nor do I believe he’s even on Jordan Reeds talent level, but Dwelly played 42 snaps to Reed’s 13 seemingly acting as the 49ers tight end 1. I am unsure whether Reed was being eased back into things after missing multiple weeks on IR, or if the 49ers truly are going with Dwelly moving forward. No matter which direction the 49ers go on the season Dwelly should be rostered as he is a candidate to see plenty of work, and potentially play his way into viable option for next season. The biggest positives Dwelly has on his side is the fact that he is younger than Reed, the 49ers are losing, and seem to have realized this is a lost season.
Richie James (2-Years $634,143/Year) – 2.1% Owned
The rest of this list was extremely tight as far as production this season and beyond goes. I chose Richie James here in the 4th slot because of his age, talent, and monster game he put up against the Packers. James was drafted in 2018 by the 49ers and has been very effective as a return man throughout his short career. James has outlasted several players throughout his 49ers tenure, even players drafted early such as Dante Pettis. He has also survived constant change at the position on the depth chart, and through it all James has remained a constant. The 49ers have tremendous faith in James, and he showed everyone why Thursday night when the 49ers were more shorthanded than a David Price outing in the playoffs.
James, fresh off the injury report stepped in Thursday and delivered in a big way with 9 catches for 184 yards and a touchdown, all while outperforming Devante Adams on the same field. As we move forward James is nowhere near a lock with players like Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk due back in the lineup in the coming weeks, although this performance is a much-needed step in the right direction. With as banged up as the 49ers are at running back James may be a solid flex or bench option the rest of the way with San Francisco needing to throw the ball much more often than normal. James was able to show a good burst off of the line, along with creating separation continuously, and from what I have seen a very solid route runner.
Austin Mack (1-Year $765,833) – 0% Owned
I went with Mack in the final spot over players like Robinson, Zaccheaus, and David Moore because he is a rookie who performed well in place of a disgruntled veteran. Golden Tate was benched Sunday against the Washington Football Team due to performance and effort issues, which never ends well for said player. We may or may not have seen the last of Tate in a Giants uniform, but one thing is for certain, Mack stepped up big when called upon. Mack signed as an undrafted free agent this past off season out of The Ohio State University, and as we have seen so many times in the past, all players like Mack need is a chance.
With his chance, Mack hauled in 5 catches for 73 yards, and hopefully earning more of a role in the coming weeks. The Giants like the Cowboys have just 2 wins but are squarely in the mix for a division title, although it’s hard to imagine them deferring to a veteran over a possible up and coming rookie given the expectations of this team. Being an Ohio State die hard I was able to get more than a good look at Mack in college, and while raw Mack certainly has the skill set to succeed at the NFL level. Picking up players like Mack really early in their careers are what separates the good fantasy teams with depth from the bad teams. In Dynasty Owner there is no such thing as to much young, cheap talent, hoard it while you can.
As many fantasy leagues are starting to wind down with just a few weeks until playoffs followed by nothing until it’s time to redraft next year, here at Dynasty Owner we are just getting started. Outside of the initial draft day event there is no time more interesting than now in Dynasty Owner, as I mentioned above this is when things start to become clearer.
In any redraft league the teams that are out of it would have lost interest leaving unfair match ups because of unset lineups at times. The teams that aren’t in the playoff race in Dynasty Owner are busier than ever trying to unload contracts and pick up as much draft capital as possible. If you really start to ponder the idea around Dynasty Owner is as close as most will ever get to be a real NFL GM, handling salaries, and trying to identify the next James Robinson, or Austin Eckeler.
As I close out today, I would like to encourage everyone to tell a friend about Dynasty Owner, and hopefully they’ll be able to enjoy it with the rest of us! As always Good luck on your Chase for the Ring!
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