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By: Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl)
Dynasty Owners, it is that time again! As I mentioned in last week’s article, I will be breaking down one of Steve Van Tassell’s teams (Vantastics in League #30326) and it needs a rebuild. Steve is not one for rebuilds, so I am hoping all of you and myself can help him turn this roster around in a hurry. In today’s article I will cover Steve’s roster as currently constructed, potential players to Amnesty, and players I think Steve should cut, trade, or hold.
Before we jump into Steve’s rebuild, I will go over Jay’s weekly recap for the second to last time of this NFL season. In the Championship round, we had four teams left with the Rams playing the 49ers and the Bengals traveling to Kansas City to play the vaunted Chiefs. In Sunday’s first game, we had a Burrow vs Mahomes showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals shocking everyone and heading to the Super Bowl in L.A. In the game, the Chiefs pulled ahead to a 21-10 lead before not scoring from inside the 5 yard line just before halftime and never looked the same again. Make no mistake this was a huge meltdown by the Chiefs, but I give a ton of credit to the Bengals for fighting the entire game. In the second and last matchup of the day, we had the Rams finally top their rival 49ers. The 49ers had been 6-0 against the Rams in the previous six matchups. In this game, the 49ers also pulled out to a sizeable lead and allowed the Rams to comeback and book their ticket to the Super Bowl in their own stadium. I will make an early prediction on the game, but I will not lock this pick in until next week’s article. The Rams, not Bengals, will raise the Lombardi Trophy, but again this may change after I dig into things.
Enough of the realization that the season is almost over talking about the Super Bowl, let’s dig into Steve’s rebuilding team. All contracts listed are for the upcoming 2022 season.
Current Roster
Quarterbacks
| Player | 2022 Salary |
| Patrick Mahomes | $45,000,000 |
| Taysom Hill | $10,000,000 |
| Mason Rudolph | $5,080,000 |
| Teddy Bridgewater | Free Agent |
Running Backs
| Player | 2022 Salary |
| Chris Carson | $5,212,500 |
| Mike Davis | $2,750,000 |
| Devin Singletary | $974,500 |
| Darrel Williams | Free Agent |
| David Johnson | Free Agent |
| Phillip Lindsay | Free Agent |
| Raheem Mostert | Free Agent |
| Salvon Ahmed | Free Agent |
| Tony Jones | Free Agent |
| Ty’Son Williams | Free Agent |
Wide Receivers
| Player | 2022 Salary |
| Jerry Jeudy | $3,798,243 |
| Chase Claypool | $1,654,156 |
| Marquez Callaway | $765,000 |
| Scott Miller | $661,960 |
| Allen Lazard | Free Agent |
| Isaiah McKenzie | Free Agent |
| Jakobi Meyers | Free Agent |
| James Washington | Free Agent |
| Kalif Raymond | Free Agent |
| Nick Westbrook-Ikhine | Free Agent |
| Russell Gage | Free Agent |
Tight End
| Player | 2022 Salary |
| Hunter Henry | $12,500,000 |
| Brevin Jordan | $958,046 |
| Juwan Johnson | Free Agent |
| Robert Tonyan | Free Agent |
| Will Dissly | Free Agent |
As you can see Steve has a team that needs a rebuild. Below I have listed five categories and each player has a home in one of the said categories. Inside of each category, I have a brief explanation of what the category is as well as some insight on several of the players. If this is something that everyone enjoys, I will put out an article next week breaking down the players I did not cover this week.
Five Player Categories
Building Blocks
Building blocks are players you feel can start for several years without worry. When I rebuild my personal teams, I love to have certain players I call building blocks. When I have identified which players on my roster I want to build around I am always sure to let my league mates know. I also rarely consider running backs building blocks as I would likely move on from Jonathan Taylor if I were starting a rebuild today. One thing to always remember is that no player is untouchable, meaning if you are offered great value for one of your building blocks you should almost always take it. Let’s see who Steve can consider building blocks on his roster.
- Patrick Mahomes
- Jerry Jeudy
- Chase Claypool
- Brevin Jordan
I have listed four building blocks for Steve, but a couple of them are still questionable. Patrick Mahomes and Chase Claypool are the two players who I do not worry about much in the future. I know Claypool has no starting quarterback just yet, but I feel he has the talent to succeed as he continues to develop no matter who is throwing the ball. Jerry Jeudy is an extremely talented kid who has not been able to stay healthy or consistent just yet, but he also has not had much for a QB. While I am worried some about Jeudy, I do feel he is a future stud at the receiver position, especially if he can link up with a solid signal caller at some point. The last player, Brevin Jordan, is obviously a questionable building block, but I love how he played about halfway through the season showing real future potential.
Players to Trade
As a rebuilding owner, trading will be key to expediting your rebuild. If Steve can move some of these players away for any type of value, it has the potential to speed things up. When trading in a rebuild there is no real order in who to trade first but I usually start with the bigger names and use the others as throw-ins to get a deal done. Who should Steve trade? Let us look!
- Teddy Bridgewater
- Devin Singletary
- Mike Davis
- Darrel Williams
- Raheem Mostert
- Chris Carson
- Phillip Lindsay
- Russell Gage
- Allen Lazard
- James Washington
- Hunter Henry
- Juwan Johnson
As you can see, I have a dozen players for Steve to look to trade. There is a wide range of value in return for those players and I’ll highlight a few with different value.
If this were my team the first thing, I would look to do is move Devin Singletary before Buffalo drafts a running back. Singletary had a fantastic finish to the season and there will be someone who thinks that will continue into 2022. Playoff Lenny 2.0!
Chris Carson is tougher to judge, but he is someone I would hold onto for a while before trading in hopes things become clearer for him, potentially outside of Seattle, with the emergence of Rashaad Penny.
I also listed a few players like Mike Davis, who is a player that may not return value at all in a trade and will need to be cut.
The last player I want to talk about is Hunter Henry. Henry is a tough call especially for a Patriots’ fan like Steve. While Henry is just 27, I do think his ceiling is a little more limited than I would like as a rebuilding owner for his price. I am also not so sure anyone will give up much value for him when trading, but I would wait until the season starts look for a bad contract to emerge and trade Henry then with a nice draft pick attached.
Players to Hold
No matter what situation your team is in you will almost certainly find yourself holding players, but the reasons become vastly different depending on the outlook of your team. Holding players can often amount to nothing but every now and again you find yourself a star. While I am not sure any of these players have that potential, I do think some can contribute moving forward and can, at worst become tradeable to a contender bringing back future value to your roster. Let’s dive into the players Steve should hold.
- Mason Rudolph
- Tony Jones
- Jakobi Meyers
- Isaiah McKenzie
- Marquez Callaway
- Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
- Robert Tonyan
We will start with one of the more obvious holds on Steve’s team, Mason Rudolph. Rudolph has a potential starting job in Pittsburgh come 2022 and will be playing on a very cheap contract ($5.08 million) at his position. I personally feel Rudolph should be held until the Steelers either acquire a veteran starter or hand the keys over to a rookie. If a QB that is clearly better finds their way on the Steelers roster, Rudolph becomes a droppable player.
A player like Jakobi Meyers is a player who I would consider a long term hold but not an actual building block. The main thing I worry about with Meyers is what his next contract will be and if he leaves New England. Either way he’s still a hold for rebuilding owners at just 25 years old.
The next player is one some may question as a hold, and it is none other than Tony Jones. I have Jones as a hold to see if he ends up back with the Saints as the Number 3 guy as Mark Ingram will be back in 2022.
One player I am not sure of on this list is Robert Tonyan who is coming off of a season ending injury. Tonyan proved to be a solid player before the injury, and I think I would hold him the majority of 2022 before deciding his fate.
The last player I will cover here is Marquez Callaway and I am holding him simply because of potential and a cheap 2022 contract. If Callaway shows he can contribute consistently he may be worth keeping but, in that scenario, he will also return solid value in a trade. The worst case scenario here with Callaway is that he plays bad enough that he cannot be traded, and he costs Steve’s rebuilding team less than $1,000,000 against the cap in 2022.
Players to Cut
Just as all teams have players to hold, they also have players to cut. As I am sure all of you are aware cutting players is part of the game but it’s also something that can be hard to do if a player is pulling on your heart strings. The main thing I look for when cutting players is if they have a realistic shot at producing enough that I can trade them in the near future. Roster turnover is a big key in rebuilding, and it starts by cutting players.
- Salvon Ahmed
- David Johnson
- Ty’Son Williams
- Scott Miller
- Kalif Raymond
- Will Dissly
- Taysom Hill
I won’t take up too much of your time while we are virtually taking out Steve’s trash, but we got to cover something right? Obviously, I am joking as these men are professional athletes and are nowhere near trash virtual, or not.
The first player here is one who pulled on my own personal heart strings, Salvon Ahmed. I was an Ahmed truther since his college days in Washington but it’s time to move on. If Ahmed did not beat out the likes of Duke Johnson, Myles Gaskin, and Malcom Brown, then he’s never going to beat out another depth chart unless he’s in the CFL.
David Johnson is someone that some may hold but I am looking at him just as I did Ahmed. If you can’t beat out Rex Burkhead, you are not a starter in the NFL.
The last guy I want to touch on is Kalif Raymond. Raymond had a respectable 2021 but I don’t see him as much more than a special teams guy moving forward and can be dropped for someone with more potential.
Who I Would Amnesty
Ahh one of my favorite little things about Dynasty Owner where you can move on from your team’s personal Antonio Brown for free. If any of you are not aware the Amnesty Provision is where you are able to drop any player, you want for no fee.
- No one
At the moment, Steve has no players that I would suggest moving on from and would try to target a bad contract at some point for extra draft capital with the Amnesty Provision in mind. Steve can also go the route of trading his Amnesty but from what I have found you can obtain more value by targeting bad contracts in-season on contending rosters. In this scenario, you can’t lose as you can Amnesty the player as soon as the deal goes through and keep the draft capital you obtained.
Draft Picks
Not much to talk about here, Steve has all of his draft picks and has not acquired any from other Dynasty Owners up to this point.
Summary
As I stated above Steve has a team that is definitely in need of a rebuild and he has his work cut out for him as this league has the likes of 2020 Chase for the Ring champ Barbee Kilgore, Joe and Jerry from Rotowire, Dynasty Rewind, Spotrac, our fearless leader Tim, and many more great fantasy minds involved. The first step of business for Steve will be to start trying to trade some of these players as well as picking up some fresh meat for the players on the cut list. It is ok to be patient dropping and picking up players as you should always have a purpose for picking up a certain player. The main thing I would look for in trades is young stud starting wide receivers and potential starting receivers like Josh Palmer, Nico Collins, and Gabriel Davis. I would also be on the lookout for another young tight end or two to acquire in trades or the draft. The way this roster is currently structured, I would not target a running back until Steve feels confident about the QB, TE, and WR positions. I also see a possibility for a somewhat quick rebuild if your league mates are interested in your tradeable players with Jeudy and Claypool realizing their potential.
Thank you all for reading and feel free to add any input you would like on Twitter! Please be sure to check out our other articles from Steve, Matt, and Nate. Stay safe and good luck on your 2022 Chase for the Ring!