By: Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl)
Dynasty Owners, the regular season is just a couple of days away at the time of writing this and I know all of you are just as excited as I am. In the kickoff game, we will see the defending Super Bowl champion the Kansas City Chiefs take on last year’s sweetheart team who barely missed the playoffs, the Detroit Lions. The opener will have quite a few things I’ll be watching for, but none more closely than if the Lions offense can pick up where it left off in 2022. Down the stretch of 2022, the Lions may have been the best team in football and were easily a top 3 team during that stretch. We will quickly figure out if they are the team we saw at the end of last season or the team that we saw struggle during the beginning of the campaign. On the other side of the ball, I will be paying close attention to how the Chiefs utilize players such as Sky Moore ($1,612,625) and Kadarius Toney ($3,429,877).
Before we jump into today’s article, let’s quickly take a look at some of my favorite Week 1 matchups. My most anticipated Week 1 matchup has to be the Steelers vs. the 49ers, I know I’m biased but it has a ton of great storylines that will be fun to see play out. The Bengals vs. the Browns is another matchup will be paying close attention too with the Jaguars vs. the Colts being the last big matchup on my watchlist, though I would be happy with a Cardinals vs. Texans game at this point.
Hello folks, I will be bringing all of you a free agent article every week this season just as I have done the past few seasons. If you are new to this series of articles there is a small list of requirements with the main one being the player must be 75% rostered or below in Dynasty Owner. The only other requirement I have is that I would like the player to have a salary of $8,000,000 or less, but I will put a higher salary player on the list if I feel they are worth it. Free Agent Auction bids will process on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern) for this upcoming week, so there’s still time to get your bid in for Week 1. The Bid listed below is my recommended amount to secure the player for your Dynasty Owner team in the Wednesday Free Agent Auction run in a typical Dynasty Owner league.
Enough jibber jabber let’s look at the free agents for Week 0. Ya, I stole Week 0 from college football!
- Joshua Dobbs (QB – ARI) – 1 year/$2,000,000 – 72.37% Rostered
Is there anything better than a cheap starting quarterback in Dynasty Owner? I think not. As I have said so many times in the past, cheap productive quarterbacks are Dynasty Owner gold! I know Dobbs has not been named the starter just yet, but it has been fairly easy to see the writing on the wall ever since the team went out and traded for him a couple of weeks back. Many Dynasty Owners have decided that Dobbs is going to be the starter in Arizona as well because his roster percentage is up from 20.62% last week when he was a Deep Flyer in my Free Agent Watch article. Let’s look at why Dobbs should be the starter after only being in town a short period of time. In 2022, Dobbs did the same exact thing for the Titans and almost earned them a playoff berth in the process. In those 2 starts for the Titans, Dobbs finished with 411 yards passing, 2 touchdowns, as well as 2 interceptions. The Cardinals best chance at having a competent offense is with Dobbs under center and I believe the whole world outside of the Cardinals organization knows it.
Bid – $3,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
- Marvin Jones/Josh Reynolds (WR – DET) – 1 year/$3,000,000 – 66.54% (Jones) 33.85% (Reynolds) Rostered
I see not many are interested in either of these guys after I had both in last week’s article since their roster percentages increased by only a couple of percentage points. One of them is bound to be a quality player for at least the first half of the fantasy season while Jameson Williams ($4,365,448) is suspended for the first six games, then returns and gets eased back into the action. We have not seen much from Williams since he dominated his final year of college at Alabama, which is another factor working in both of these players’ favor. Williams is a tremendous talent, but he has been and still is a huge question mark which could mean a full season of a huge role for one of Jones or Reynolds. I know neither is a big name and both will probably make you feel like you need a bath if you put them anywhere near your Starting lineup, but one will be a very good Bench option for half of the year at minimum. Both are capable of racking up 400 yards receiving and a couple of touchdowns before Williams gets back from suspension, but which receiver will step up as the number 2 guy behind Amon-Ra St. Brown ($1,066,313)?
Bid – $1,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
- Adam Trautman (TE – DEN) 1 year/$1,124,851 – 52.92% Rostered
Were all of you as surprised as I was when I heard the news that Adam Trautman was the number 1 tight end for the Denver Broncos over Greg Dulcich ($1,314,785)? Do you think this is just a play to throw the Raiders off in Week 1? I don’t know either, but I can’t wait to find out. Trautman had some real hype behind him when the Saints and Sean Peyton drafted him out of Dayton and though he never really took off, Peyton apparently is still a believer after bringing Trautman to Denver and making him the starter. In all honesty, I am not thrilled about this as I wanted to see what Dulcich could do as a starter for a full season, and I think we all have a pretty good idea of what Trautman is at this point. However, a low salary and an opportunity to have a big role in a Sean Peyton coached offense means some of us have to take a shot with Trautman.
Bid – $2,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
- Darius Slayton (WR – NYG) – 2 years/$6,000,000 – 46.3% Rostered
I feel like a broken record talking about Darius Slayton so much, but I feel he is going to surprise some people this year when he goes over the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career. I know $6,000,000 seems steep for a player that could end up as the 3rd or 4th option in the Giants’ passing game, but I am expecting him to be the clear 2nd option in the passing game behind tight end Darren Waller ($17,000,000). As I mentioned last week, outside of 2021 Slayton has never had less than 724 yards receiving in a season and outside of injury I see no chance he does not hit those numbers again. Should Waller or Saquon Barkley ($10,091,000) go down at any point in the season, Slayton would be my bet to see an increased workload which is just another reason to pick up the Giants wideout.
Bid – $1,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
- Myles Gaskin (RB – MIN) – 1 year/$1,232,500 – 29.57% Rostered
I wanted to find a dark horse player to put on this list and Gaskin stood out to me quite a bit. The Vikings have shown they aren’t very confident in the players behind Alexander Mattison ($3,500,000) pretty much since the start of the pre-season and the signing of Gaskin further proves my theory. Gaskin has spent significant time as a lead back in the NFL and will make for an excellent 1-2 punch with Mattison and should Mattison go down at any point, Gaskin is more than capable of carrying the load for a few game stretch. I am not sure Gaskin will see a ton of work over the first couple of weeks to start the season, but I am confident he will have a role in the offense after just a few weeks. Gaskin is not the most talented player in the world, but he is respectable in the running game and does very well in the passing game which suits the team that just signed him well.
Bid – $1,000,000 Dynasty Dollars
Thank you all for reading! Be sure to check out all of the upcoming article from me and Steve plus the Dynasty Owner podcast this week and the Dynasty Owner Livestream every Wednesday afternoon. Stay safe out there and good luck on your 2023 Chase for the Ring!