This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
By: Matt Morrison (@dynastyjerk)
Just when I thought there could have been no greater controversy than Wild Card weekend, the Divisional weekend looks like it may have outdone it. Last weekend’s controversy had nothing to do with an on-field mistake or injustice. Instead, many football fans (especially Bills fans) were upset that that current overtime rule worked against them. One of the greatest football games that I’ve ever seen came down to overtime. In overtime, the Chiefs won the coin toss and marched down the field for a game winning touchdown. The complaining about the rule came after Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills did not have a chance to possess the ball on offense. Pretty much my entire Twitter timeline was filled with the same complaint…
“It is unfair for one team to have an offensive possession and not the other.”
I’m not going to comment on whether I think the rule needs to be changed, and I truly believe the NFL has no plans to, but I will say this…If the Bills would have won, and the Chiefs had lost in the same fashion, obviously the outrage would be swapped. While many people may claim that the rules are unfair, every team accepts them and agrees to play by them. Both teams had ample time and opportunity to win the game in regular time. Neither was able to, and (as punishment) some of the outcome can be left to chance.
Let’s say for argument’s sake that the OT rule was to change. I think the best way to change it would be to allow both teams to possess the ball on offense once. That means that whether a team scores a field goal or a touchdown, the opposite team gets a chance for rebuttal. After both teams tie on their first possession, then it could go to sudden death. Although I’m sure there would still be some complaints as the team that won the initial coin flip would still have an offensive advantage. At any rate, let’s get talking about some free agents.
AFC East
Buffalo Bills
| Player | Age | Status | Current Salary | Estimated Value |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 34 | UFA | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 |
| Matt Breida | 26 | UFA | $1,055,000 | $1,000,000 |
Just a couple of notable Bills players to talk about today. First, we have Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders is 34 and clearly on the backside of his career. He was inconsistent in 2021, and it would be tough to trust him from a Dynasty Owner’s perspective. He will look for a salary close to what he currently has (1 year – $6,000,000). This is pretty much the going rate for aging wide receivers (think A.J. Green).
Matt Breida is kind of a fringe player to talk about, but he is rostered in 75% of Dynasty Owner leagues so here we are. He isn’t a startable asset in any Dynasty Owner league, but he should probably be rostered in most leagues. I honestly have no idea where Breida will end up. He’s been a journeyman running back his whole career. What I do know is that he will likely not make more than $2,000,000 per year, and it should be closer to $1,000,000.
New England Patriots
| Player | Age | Status | Current Salary | Estimated Value |
| James White | 29 | UFA | $2,462,500 | $2,000,000 |
| Brandon Bolden | 32 | UFA | $1,850,000 | $1,500,000 |
| Jakobi Meyers | 25 | RFA | $588,333 | $5,500,000 |
James White is an interesting player to talk about. He has almost always outperformed his fantasy projections. 2021 was looking to be much of the same for White until he suffered a season-ending hip injury in Week 3. Although it is a small sample size, White averaged 15.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for Week 1 and 2. I have to believe that White will return to New England. He has played every game of his career with the Patriots, and I think he will have a role for himself in 2022. Given his age, it’s likely he will sign another 1 year contract, and it will likely be worth around 2 million dollars. Expect very little change from White’s contract.
Brandon Bolden is 32, but I would consider that a young 32. He has only 383 touches in his nine year career. If you remember, Bolden was one of the few players who decided to opt out of the 2020 NFL season. All of this is to say that he has very little wear on him, at least from a game standpoint. Bolden essentially took over for the injured James White in 2021. While he was likely not as effective or efficient as White would have been, Bolden provided Dynasty Owners a fine fantasy season. Believe it or not, Bolden finished inside the Top 50 running backs in terms of Dynasty Dollars per Fantasy Point (DD/FP). Top 50 isn’t necessarily the gold standard for efficiency, but if he was one of your Bench running backs last year, you could have done much worse.
Jakobi Meyers is my favorite Patriot player to speculate about. He had a very healthy season to the tune of 186.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. His salary was $588,333, and he finished as WR2 for DD/FP. He is a restricted free agent (RFA) which means that his free agency will be a little more complicated than if he was an unrestricted free agent. Here is what I wrote about RFAs last year…
“A restricted free agent includes any NFL player that has served for three years and that has an expiring contract. A RFA can receive a “qualifying” offer from his current team, but he is free to explore other teams as well. If another team gives him a better offer, his current team is allowed time to give a matching or better offer with the hopes of retaining that player. (This could be referred to as “first rights of refusal”). This is a very simplified way of explaining it, but for our purposes that’s the summary.”
Meyers fits that description, and he will look to make somewhere between 5 and 6 million dollars per year. He has earned that with a very solid past couple of years.
Miami Dolphins
| Player | Age | Status | Current Salary | Estimated Value |
| Will Fuller | 27 | UFA | $10,625,011 | $8,000,000 |
| Phillip Lindsay | 27 | UFA | $3,250,000 | $3,000,000 |
| Malcom Brown | 28 | UFA | $1,750,000 | $2,500,000 |
| Mike Gesicki | 26 | UFA | $1,652,981 | $12,000,000 |
| Salvon Ahmed | 23 | ERFA | $695,000 | $1,500,000 |
| Preston Williams | 24 | RFA | $588,333 | $4,000,000 |
We have a six pack of free agents for the Dolphins. I’m not going to break down every one of them today mainly because I don’t think we need to, but I will talk about all of them in depth at a later time.
Will Fuller essentially had a lost season with the Dolphins. He had only four receptions in 2021 which means he made more than 2.5 million dollars per reception. I would have to think that Miami just wants to wash their hands from this deal and move on. Anyone who looks to pick up Fuller would be looking at an $8,000,000 market value.
Phillip Lindsay was largely forgotten about this season. At least I forgot about him. He was waived by the Texans in late November. The Dolphins claimed him and actually gave him three games with more than 10 carries. Unfortunately, he was unable to amass more than 42 yards in any of those games. I anticipate Lindsay will make around $3,000,000 next year, but I’m not sure the nearly 75% roster percentage in Dynasty Owner is going to last.
Finally, I want to mention Mike Gesicki. Gesicki has earned himself a top tier tight end contract. That looks like somewhere between 11 and 13 million dollars per year. I also think there is a decent chance the Dolphins use a franchise tag on him. This would put him in the 11 million dollar range, but it would negate the need for a long term contract. This could push the long term money down the road for another year.
New York Jets
| Player | Age | Status | Current Salary | Estimated Value |
| Jamison Crowder | 28 | UFA | $9,500,000 | $10,000,000 |
| Tevin Coleman | 28 | UFA | $1,100,000 | $1,000,000 |
| Braxton Berrios | 26 | UFA | $644,602 | $6,000,000 |
The Jets have three notable offensive free agents that I’m keeping my eye on. Jamison Crowder is one of them. Crowder finished as the WR68 in 2021. I would consider him a much more effective real life wide receiver as opposed to a fantasy wide receiver. It’s no wonder that he is only rostered in 35 percent of Dynasty Owner leagues. A previous salary of 9.5 million dollars mixed with barely over 100 Dynasty Owner fantasy points is just not a recipe for success. What’s worse is that I anticipate his contract will increase slightly for 2022. If I rostered him in any league, I would wait until he signs a new contract and then drop him for free.
Tevin Coleman was mostly a non-factor for fantasy football in 2021. He is still rostered in over 78 percent of Dynasty Owner leagues which is why I’m talking about him. This roster percentage is solely due to his 1.1 million dollar contract and not his performance on the field. I have no problem with anyone continuing to roster him over the off-season as I don’t anticipate he will make much more than $1,000,000 per year.
Finally, we come to Braxton Berrios. Berrios is a seldom talked about player in any fantasy football format, but he actually had a pretty healthy 2021 season. He finished as the WR48 and also finished as WR6 in DD/FP. He was a very good value given his nearly league minimum salary ($644,602). I expect his salary to increase by about 10 times though. I’m not sure if he will still be rosterable in most leagues with that increase.
If there is any player that you want me to spend more time talking about, just message me on Twitter (@dynastyjerk) and let me know. I would appreciate it if you followed @Dynasty_Owner on Twitter as well as subscribed to Dynasty Owner on YouTube. Take care everyone and be safe.
TheJerk