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By Matt Morrison (@dynastyjerk)
As promised in the last article, today I will bring you the candidates for Value of the Year (VOTY). Here at Dynasty Owner, not only are we concerned about fantasy production, but we are also concerned about player’s salaries. There is a hard salary cap of $145.74 million that no team can exceed throughout the year. This means that Dynasty Owners need to be careful when drafting, and they have to be able to find value. All the players who I’m going to talk about today are players who have had exceptional value throughout the first half of this season.
As many of you know, the value metric we use at Dynasty Owner is DD/FP or Dynasty Dollars per Fantasy Point. This is not the end, all be all of fantasy metrics, but it’s the best we have right now. DD/FP is a fine metric, and it’s the basis for my article today. There are ten players who I will be talking about today. As I did last year, I can almost guarantee that one of these ten players will be the Value of the Year when this regular season closes out. Let’s get into it…
Value Of The Year Candidates
Before I start, I want to mention that this is not a comprehensive list. There are players with more Dynasty Owner fantasy points (DOFP) and better DD/FP stats than some of these players I’m writing about. I don’t include those players because I deemed them to be not in a good enough situation to be a contender for the VOTY.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Jalen Hurts | $1,506,292 | 209.0 | $7,207 |
Jalen Hurts is up first. He is a quarterback which gives him a little bit of an advantage over anyone else since he touches the ball more and has many more opportunities. Hurts is QB5 on the year, and he’s the only quarterback in the Top 25 with a salary under $2,000,000. I hate to ruin the suspense so early, but Hurts is likely to be the Value of the Year in 2022.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Tony Pollard | $796,945 | 108.7 | $7,332 |
Depending on how the Cowboys backfield shakes out over the second half of the season, Pollard could easily dethrone Hurts. Pollard has shown himself to be more productive, more explosive and healthier than Ezekiel Elliott ($15,000,000) this year. I have to think that if the Cowboys had a different owner, Pollard would already be the lead back. Regardless, his salary is the lowest of any player I’m going to talk about today. In fact, his salary is half of some of the players. This gives him a salary advantage at the moment.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Rhamondre Stevenson | $1,057,264 | 135.5 | $7,803 |
Stevenson is a player who I have rarely talked about this year. I think that’s a combination of his quiet ascension as the Patriots lead running back, and the fact that I don’t own him in any Dynasty Owner leagues. The truth is that Stevenson has been superb this year. He is the best running back on the team, and the cream is rising to the top. He is RB7 at the moment, which is unbelievable for a player with a salary barely over $1,000,000.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Khalil Herbert | $902,677 | 101.8 | $8,867 |
It’s interesting that all three of the running backs I’ve talked about were once considered the RB2 for their respective teams. I suppose that is still true about both Pollard and Herbert, but it may not be for long. All three running backs have shown themselves to be more dynamic than their more tenured co-workers. Obviously that is expected as players get older and younger players replace them. I’m not saying that Herbert is going to completely replace David Montgomery ($1,003,845) this year. To be clear, I don’t think that will happen. I do contend that Herbert has earned a larger share of the workload though. Even with his current touch and snap percentage, he is a contender for VOTY.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Dameon Pierce | $1,118,858 | 107.7 | $10,389 |
Here we have our first workhorse running back. Pierce is tied for fifth most carries by a running back this season. He has a stranglehold on the first and second down offense for Houston. While the Texans may not have many scoring opportunities this year, Pierce is making up for that with volume. He is an outside contender, but still worth mentioning.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Miles Sanders | $1,337,544 | 103.5 | $12,923 |
Sanders is a player who I think could actually make a run at this title. He has a favorable schedule for the rest of the season. I’m worried that he won’t be able to overcome having the third highest salary on this list.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Terry McLaurin | $961,918 | 100.4 | $9,581 |
Terry McLaurin has the lowest salary of any wide receiver on this list. He is also the most efficient wide receiver this year so far. His explosive plays and rapport with both Carson Wentz ($32,000,000) and now Taylor Heinicke ($2,375,000) have made for a fine fantasy season (WR24) so far. I’m not convinced Terry will win the Value of the Year, but he will be close to winning that award for wide receivers.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| A.J. Brown | $1,413,092 | 134.9 | $10,475 |
Unfortunately, Brown’s salary is going to be too high for him to have a realistic shot at this award. I hate saying this because he is one of my favorite players in the league, but the numbers are not in his favor. It’s strange that a WR7 making less than $1,500,000 a year is likely not going to win a value award, but that shows you how efficient some of these players have been.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown | $1,066,313 | 94.2 | $11,320 |
Speaking of my favorite players in the NFL, St. Brown is one of them. He has missed one game this year, and he left very early in another one. Those missing games are going to really hurt his chances at becoming the VOTY. Regardless, he is one of the most efficient players currently.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| DK Metcalf | $1,146,513 | 96.3 | $11,906 |
Finally, we have a staple in the Value of the Year conversations. DK Metcalf may not always be an official candidate, but he is always on the radar. This streak will end next year when his salary substantially increases to $24 million per year (3 years/$72 million).
Honorary Mentions
There are a few players I want to mention here. I don’t think they have any chance to be the VOTY, but they are close.
| Player | 2022 Salary | DOFPs | DD/FP |
| Eno Benjamin | $849,428 | 86.9 | $9,775 |
| James Robinson | $763,333 | 74.3 | $10,274 |
| Antonio Gibson | $1,233,159 | 108.7 | $11,345 |
| Devin Duvernay | $1,143,952 | 101.3 | $11,293 |
| Gabriel Davis | $998,595 | 81.8 | $12,208 |
| Davis Mills | $1,304,383 | 101.0 | $12,915 |
Conclusion
The main takeaway from this article should be that a quarterback or running back will likely win the VOTY award. We have one player that shows up on this list that was also on it last year. His name is Terry McLaurin.
It’s also worth mentioning that there are no tight ends that made this article. This is a big change of pace considering a tight end (Mark Andrews – $14,000,000) won the Value of the Year last year. Andrews finished the 2021 season as the TE1 in Dynasty Owner fantasy points (271.7) and also the TE1 for DD/FP ($3,177) on a salary of $863,290.
Message me on Twitter (@dynastyjerk) and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I would appreciate it if you followed @Dynasty_Owner on Twitter as well as subscribed to Dynasty Owner on YouTube. Thank you all. Take care and be safe.
TheJerk