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By: Jay Pounds (@JayPoundsNFL)
As ironic as this may sound, I believe I just received one of the best orphan teams anyone will see and really defies the stereotype of orphan teams always being bad. The main issue with this is I am wanting to strip the team down to nothing and build it up with all of you and I just don’t see any positives from destroying what is already a phenomenal roster, luckily, I have a backup plan.
Before we get into the backup plan, I want to give you a bit of perspective on why we are going this route instead. I want to first start by breaking down the roster I was given so you can really understand why we are going with plan B instead. Below are the players on the roster by position.
| Quarterback | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End |
| Russel Wilson | Josh Jacobs | Kenny Golladay | Darren Waller |
| Gardner Minshew | Miles Sanders | Devonte Adams | Trey Burton |
| Derek Carr | Sony Michel | DJ Chark | Ian Thomas |
| Wayne Gallman | Allen Lazard | Kahale Warring | |
| Dion Lewis | Kelan Cole | ||
| Antonio Gibson | Quez Watkins | ||
| Justin Jackson | MVS | ||
| Jalen Guyton | |||
| Rashard Higgins |
Draft Picks – 2021 2nd, 3rd, 2022 all picks, 2023 all picks.
I did leave a few players off the list, most notably Auden Tate and the kickers. As you can see this team doesn’t need much work outside of tweaking a few minor things. The main two moves I am looking to make before the 2021 season are trading Wilson and Golladay for future picks, or young talent. In this league Prescott and Cooper are free agents, so by trading Wilson and Golladay I pick up whatever value I get in return on top of Prescott and Cooper in free agency.
I am hoping trading off these two for Cooper and Prescott will be enough to put this team over the top and make a real run at The Chase for the Ring! Enough about this orphan team, lets jump into plan B. Plan B will be to input my original rebuild team into this series instead of the team listed above. I have mentioned this team in previous articles, the cause of the rebuild is the fact that I severely underestimated the quarterback position in Dynasty Owner and injuries. Below I will go in depth into the team we will be building together by position, as well as listing all of the future draft assets I have acquired for the team.
The time has come for the start of the series I have been waiting for, the orphan rebuild series. I am really hoping this series will be a lot of fun and a lot of you will join in and provide some input on specific moves. I would also love to have a few of you join in on a few videos so we can talk in depth about certain moves that need to be made. Please feel free to message on Twitter or comment on the YouTube video if you would like to provide input. The team we will be rebuilding has extra draft picks and a few very solid building blocks.
Salary Cap and Draft Picks
- 2021 Salary – $83,754,494.
- Draft Picks – 2021 Round 1- picks 2, 5, 12 Round 2- pick 5 Round 3- pick 12. 2022- 2 1st round picks, 2 2nd round picks, 1 3rd round pick.
As soon as I committed to rebuilding my main focus was to get my salary cap number down significantly, which allows me to be flexible and take on any bad contracts needed. The first round of business with this was to move on from Julio Jones and his $22 million salary, which I was able to do rather quickly.
In return for Julio, I received Aj Green and Jalen Reagor, plus a 2022 2nd. After making this move, I followed by unloading every veteran on my roster I could for young talent, draft picks, and bad contracts with little time remaining. If you look at the Green part of the deal in other leagues it makes zero sense, but in Dynasty Owner it makes all of the sense in the world. Jones and his massive salary were nothing more than a one-year rental, which I turned into Reagor. The key here was Green and his $17 million deal that helped offset the cost of Jones. I used an amnesty on Green shortly after accepting the deal to open up the cap space.
I now have a relatively expensive quarterback and plenty of cap space to work with in the future. Draft picks are probably the biggest key when it comes to rebuilding, the more picks you have the more likely it is that you will find a stud. The biggest issue with the last statement is that you want to spread your draft capital out, so you aren’t tied strictly to one draft class. I was able to obtain what I feel is a sweet spot of draft assets in 2021 with picks in the beginning, middle, and end of the 1st round, which should allow me to take my favorite player from each tier in the first round.
The main goal with either the 2nd, or 5th overall pick is to find my quarterback of the future who will be on a rookie deal for the next 4-5 years. I will also look to find a top tier wide receiver, as well as quality depth at the receiver spot in the 2021 rookie draft. In the 2021 draft I will try to shy away from the running back spot and start targeting that position in the 2022 draft with the 2-1st round picks I have acquired. In the 2021 draft I feel solidifying the quarterback and wide receiver positions take priority.
The Quarterbacks
- Ryan Tannehill- 3 years $29,500,000
- Daniel Jones- 3 years $6,416,014
- Sam Darnold- 1 year $7,561,929
- Jameis Winston- Free agent
- Taylor Heinicke- Free agent
When I first started Dynasty Owner, I knew the quarterback position would be important, but it was for the wrong reasons. Going into the draft I had a strategy in my head and after the draft I honestly thought I nailed it. The strategy was finding 2 QB’s still on their rookie deals and draft them, which I did. What I quickly found out was that having a cheap QB would give you a huge advantage, if you had the right quarterback that is. I had taken Darnold and Jones leaving me with plenty of flexibility to take a player like Julio Jones and his massive salary or take CMC and be able to keep him for more than a year with his new deal looming.
The problem with this was Jones and Darnold had horrible seasons leaving me a solid 15–20-point gap I had to close elsewhere every week because of poor quarterback play. Late in the season I was close to making the playoffs and at worst had a great shot in the toilet bowl, so I swung some trades and had plenty of room to pick up Tannehill in the free agent auction. The future outlook at this position will definitely need some upgrading unless Darnold or Jones can take a significant leap forward in 2021.
Two things that would give this roster a tremendous boost is Winston landing a starting spot next season on another low salary deal, or Henicke getting the starting nod in Washington giving me plenty of options and trade ammo. If you have any ideas or input on which direction to go at the quarterback position, please let me know. What I am thinking is to try and sell Jones or Darnold for what should be a high-end draft pick and try to replace them in the draft with the 2nd overall pick and using the Darnold or Jones return on a position player.
The Running backs
- Jk Dobbins- 3 years $1,432,359
- Antonio Gibson- 3 years $1,226,433
- Aj Dillon- 3 years $1,321,458
- Kalen Ballage- Free agent
- Latavius Murray- 2 years $3,600,000
- Justin Jackson- Free agent
The running back position for my team looks wildly different than after the draft. The first pick I took was CMC and as we all know his season was a complete bust due to injury. Once I realized I was likely out of the running for the championship I knew it was time to offload the veteran backs I had. I traded Fournette, Hunt, Mixon, and CMC away this past season and ended up with some very good building blocks at the running back spot. The main problem I have with my building blocks being at the running back position is that I don’t feel the rest of my roster is there and may not be there until their 2nd deals.
This leaves me with a few choices I can make, the first being that I can build the rest of the roster while holding onto Gibson and Dobbins, wasting a year or years of their prime, or I can trade them at some point for future picks, and/or young talent at other positions. I feel I can get a ton of value in return for the first three running backs listed and I am leaning towards going that route if my receivers don’t pan out. Another way I could go about it is pairing one of them up with Jones or Darnold to see what kind of value they bring back.
One thing I am sure of at this position is that I will move on from Murray at some point this season, even if he doesn’t generate much in return. At this point in Murray’s career it’s to trade him and get some value or keep him until he is finished and ready to retire. After Murray the other two players (Ballage and Jackson) are both impending free agents and will be wildcards in terms of what they may bring back in a trade, or value to my roster. As you all can see there are some very tough choices to be made at the running back spot and I hope to get your input on where to go next.
Left off the list as a probable cut- Ryquell Armstead
The Wide Receivers
- Corey Davis- Free agent
- Brandin Cooks- 3 years $16,200,000
- Michael Pittman- 3 years $2,153,212
- Nelson Agholor- Free agent
- Marvin Jones- Free agent
- Jalen Reagor- 3 years $3,317,669
- Quintez Cephus- 3 years $734,822
- Travis Fulgham- Free agent
- Russell gage- 1 year $654,049
- Anthony Miller- Free agent
- Collin Johnson- 3 years $900,538
Let’s start the receiver position out with the most controversial player on the roster (in my opinion), which is Cooks. The outlook on Cooks just months ago looked extremely bright, yet that has drastically changed in recent weeks. Cooks doesn’t seem to be leaving Houston anytime soon, but his quarterback Deshaun Watson wants out in the worst way possible. Cooks was finally starting to find his groove with Watson and now they may never play another snap together.
If Watson does leave Houston, Cooks becomes an instant trade, or amnesty candidate. The building blocks this roster has at the receiver spot are Pittman, Reagor, and potentially Corey Davis, depending on where he lands in free agency. If 1 of these 3 receivers mentioned turns out to be a high end wr2 I will be a very happy camper, until then the chase for a star wideout continues. The wildcards on this roster are Cephus, Jones, Agholor, Fulgham, and Gage.
All of these players still have a way to go to prove themselves, aside from Jones who we will touch on in a moment. Agholor unexpectedly had a great year in Vegas during the 2020 season, and if he returns to the Raiders, he should have another quietly good year. I love players like Agholor because of the bench scoring here on Dynasty Owner, which I still feel gets hugely overlooked. Marvin Jones had a fantastic year in 2020, but for a rebuilding team he is too old to keep in long term plans. My biggest debate with Jones is, should I cut ties during free agency, or should I keep him and try to get a 3rd round pick in return? It is a risk because he is not a surefire trade candidate until his landing spot is known which would cause me to have to cut him or burn an amnesty.
Another factor I must consider is if Jones does sign elsewhere, it will improve the outlook of Cephus heading into 2021, though Stafford leaving town hurts. The last receiver on this list I want to touch on is Anthony Miller. Miller has the talent to be a quality slot guy in the NFL, but last season was a major disappointment for him. If Miller signs in a good system with a decent signal caller, I see him bouncing back in a big way. All of that said this position needs a lot of work and at least one Nuke Hopkins type player! This position will see a lot of overhaul in the coming weeks, stay tuned and hopefully help.
The Tight Ends
- Dallas Goedert- 1 year $1,406,068
- Drew Sample- 2 years $1,376,574
- OJ Howard- 1 year $2,773,655
- Adam Trautman- 3 years $1,124,850
Ahh the wonderful tight end position where you have to wait ages to see if you hit on a draft pick or not. As you can see on this roster, I have a few tight ends who are going to need a little bit more time to develop before I truly know what I have. Goedert is by far the most promising of the bunch and the one most ready to make a meaningful impact. The addition of Hurts with the Eagles does worry me some because I am unsure how Hurts, or the new system uses the tight end position. The way I feel about the Goedert situation will end up affecting my entire draft. If I feel the Eagles are going to continue featuring tight ends then I will be more than comfortable with the tight ends on my roster, if I don’t Kyle Pitts is a real possibility at pick number 5.
I will definitely need all of your input when trying to make this decision. Do I take Pitts and hope to have an edge over other owners at tight end or roll with Goedert? The wild card at tight end. I feel I have two true wild cards at this spot with Howard and Sample.
Coming into the NFL Howard was a very bright prospect who just hasn’t seemed to find a groove down in Tampa. If Howard can solidify himself in Tampa or elsewhere, he could finally have a breakthrough season. I consider Sample a wild card because of two reasons, how high he was drafted, and the quarterback he plays with. The Bengals spent a 2nd round draft pick on Sample in 2019 and he should be a major part of the offense moving forward. The one big knock I have on Sample (which he has no control over) is his quarterback who doesn’t seem to look for the tight end a whole lot.
The last player on this list is Adam Trautman who will start to get his opportunities in 2021. His team, the Saints are in really bad shape with the salary cap and have already cut the man in front of Trautman on the depth chart Jared Cook. Trautman seemed to make solid strides as a rookie and plays in a friendly offensive system. If the Saints get their quarterback position figured out Trautman should be in good shape moving forward. As you can see the real dilemma here is do I stick with Goedert or bypass players like Jamar Chase in the draft in favor of Pitts.
The Kicker(s)
- Graham Gano- Free agent
- Matt Prater- Free agent
- Cody Parkey- Free agent
If you can’t tell by my wonderful joke of a headline, this will be the conclusion too. I know kickers have a love hate relationship in the fantasy football community, but they still need to be talked about some. The main thing I want to stress with kickers is to keep 3 rostered so you aren’t taking zeros on bye weeks. I also try to stay flexible and cheap by staying away from the big money kickers on long deals. I don’t see a whole lot of meaningful talks going on with kickers but there will be cut keep questions.
I hope this is something the majority of you seem at least interested in. I think it could be a lot of fun for anyone who gets involved. I am going to shoot for one article/video every month with this series and if it seems to be something you all are interested in, I will do them a bit more often. If this is something you think you will take part in, be sure to follow me on Twitter, I will be posting all of the potential moves there before making them. The articles and videos on this series will be an in-depth look at discussed moves, future moves, and strategies. I hope to hear from everyone soon and good luck on your 2021 Chase for the Ring!
Follow us on Twitter: @Dynasty_Owner
If Twitter happens to be an issue for anyone, please let me know and I will start a public chat of some sort to discuss things on.