If you ever tried to print fantasy football rankings from our website before this week, you probably thought, “these are a mess.” I agree, they printed terribly. After researching print media stylesheets and implementing those changes, now they print much better.
While print is passé, I still find it useful, particularly when keeping notes to make adjustments to my fantasy football rankings. I print them and then each day from reading the news and doing research, write potential changes on the cheatsheets. Later, after updating them online, I print and repeat the process. Here is the first update for the 2020 season.
Quarterback Ranking Changes
Not a ton of changes to my fantasy football rankings at quarterback. It doesn’t look like I am far off ADP consensus at quarterback, either. This is a position where I am not usually going to draft a QB early or get locked into a particular player or two.
Rather, see how each draft flows and pick a quality quarterback at a good value. Say, a guy in the QB10 to QB18 range, and maybe two of them, one with upside to land in the Top 6.
That said, I started a superflex best ball draft last week for Draft Buddy members and I ended up with both Patrick Mahomes at 1.04 and Kyler Murray at 2.09. Felt the value was there for Murray, and Mahomes a no-brainer at 4th overall – for a superflex.
Here are the changes I made to my QB rankings:
- Dak Prescott swaps places with Deshaun Watson; Prescott up and Watson down. Love Watson but he feels a lot riskier with the departure of DeAndre Hopkins.
- Tempted to move Carson Wentz down not knowing the potential impact of rookie Jalen Hurts but no change for now.
- Matthew Stafford up to QB12 inside Tier 3, feeling I had him too low below much bigger wildcards Baker Mayfield and Daniel Jones.
- Philip Rivers down a tier thinking the Colts are going to primarily run the ball and not require Rivers to chuck it a lot.
- Ryan Fitzpatrick down below guys with more job security as news is relatively positive about Tua Tagovailoa’s rehab. In fact, I drafted Tua as my third QB is the aforementioned superflex draft.
- Added Brian Hoyer, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love to the rankings as key backups.
Running Back Ranking Changes
I noticed some personal bias in my early running back rankings for players I like and trust for talent, and less for their potential workload. Nick Chubb is a good example, who I love talent-wise and pegged him a late-1st round pick.
Upon reflection, I need to adjust Chubb down because he is negatively impacted by Kareem Hunt’s presence, Hunt being an excellent running back in his own right.
Going the other way, I haven’t really bought into Miles Sanders. I remember Doug Pederson in the past indicating a preference to split running back touches among his backs, and his actions supported that. However, split touches with who in 2020? The Eagles as of yet don’t have much behind Sanders. The opportunity is there for a big season.
Here are the changes to my fantasy football rankings at running back:
- Alvin Kamara did play through injury much of last season which prompted me to put him in the top tier, initially. However, the presence of Latavius Murray puts pressure on that status versus true workhorse backs Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley and Ezekiel Elliott. Those are my Tier 1 backs, Kamara down into Tier 2.
- Dalvin Cook is now a slight holdout risk, but no change in his ranking.
- Nick Chubb down, Tier 3 RB11.
- Miles Sanders up, Tier 2, RB10.
- Some uncertainty about Melvin Gordon’s workload but holding steady at RB16. In the superflex draft I got him at RB21. If Drew Lock can play reasonably well, this Denver team could be really good.
- I am not a believer in David Johnson, but he’s got a great opportunity for volume production on the Texans. Bumped him up to RB20.
- Similarly, Todd Gurley moves up and is a spot below Johnson.
- I moved Devin Singletary down and he does seem overvalued based on early ADP as I expect a workload share only modestly in his favor over rookie Zack Moss.
- Kareem Hunt up, per Nick Chubb comments earlier.
- No rank change but put a “target” icon on J.K. Dobbins. If he really clicks then he could unseat Mark Ingram earlier than expected and turn into a big windfall at a cheap price.
- Cam Akers up. I don’t think the Rams have any faith in Darrell Henderson.
- To show I am not entirely enamored with the rookies, Jonathan Taylor is modestly ranked at RB40 with a note here, “fumbling issues”, which this Reddit post supports. Taylor seems really overvalued being drafted ahead of the veteran Marlon Mack. Avoid.
- Matt Breida up as he is likely due a fair share of the workload with Jordon Howard. Blast from the past, I almost typed LaMont Jordan.
- Added a handful of potentially key backups, most notably Steelers Anthony McFarland, Jr. as an upside handcuff to James Conner.
Wide Receiver Ranking Changes
The majority of change here involved splitting my original tiers 1 and 2 into Tier 1, 2 and 3, for a little more separation at the top of the rankings. Tier 1 is more exclusive with a Top 4 ending at Julio Jones. Tier 2 splits off Cooper Kupp, who is in a 1A-1B situation with Robert Woods, from Adam Thielen, clearly a 1 on his lonesome since Stefon Diggs is no longer in Minnesota. Although, that doesn’t always work out to the benefit of the receiver. More projected targets but constantly tougher coverage.
I also noticed that I really don’t like (as a group) the wide receivers ranked from the mid-30s to late-40s. While the rankings make sense, am I excited to draft a player like Sterling Shepard (my rank WR42; drafted WR47) or Jamison Crowder (my rank WR43; drafted WR45)? Or, would I rather draft a Mecole Hardman (my rank WR53; drafted WR59) or Breshad Perriman (my rank WR60; drafted WR53)? Probably the latter, for upside and cheaper cost. I’ll need to revisit these WR rankings in more detail going forward.
Changes:
- I thought about moving Kenny Golladay up to WR5, ahead of Chris Godwin and Tyreek Hill. Check his numbers. That is without Matthew Stafford most of the year.
- Moved Amari Cooper down. I don’t trust him, he disappears too often.
- Added a “target” icon to DJ Chark because I keep hearing good things about him on the heels of a very productive second season.
- Moved JuJu Smith-Schuster up recognizing he is a very good WR who suffered a lot last year after Big Ben went out, plus dealt with his own injury issues.
- Moved Courtland Sutton down, not significantly, but need to recognize how Drew Lock will perform and how quickly rookie Jerry Jeudy might acclimate himself to being the primary receiver on the Broncos.
- I really like the Tier 5 group and moved Terry McLaurin into it.
- Some movement in the next group sees Marvin Jones and Julian Edelman up, and Michael Gallup down. This is mostly related to trust with respect to their share of targets in each respective offense.
- I had Diontae Johnson way down in the mid-50s in my initial wide receiver rankings but pushed him up to WR39 as there is a groundswell of hype building for this guy in the fantasy community.
- Only a couple of additions to the rankings, Denzel Mims and Brandon Aiyuk. A more detailed review prior to the next update should push the rankings up over 80 players.
Tight End Ranking Changes
Not too much changed here. Tyler Higbee and Noah Fant changed spots. Higbee was so good the back half of last season he moves a notch up. Concern with drops by Fant moves him down a bit.
Eric Ebron might not be locked in as the primary TE for the Steelers as I thought initially. As of early-April Ebron wasn’t fully recovered from offseason ankle surgery. Vance McDonald is still there and a quality player, to the extent he can stay healthy.
Did you know Texans’ Darren Fells had 9 receptions for 7 touchdowns in the red zone last season? I did not know that previously, and bumped him up.
My kicker and team defense rankings didn’t change this round. After I update the ADP, then I will alter the rankings in line with ADP for each of those positions.
So there you have it, my 2020 fantasy football rankings for mid-June. Our first scheduled update for Draft Buddy is early next week with updated projections, ADP and depth charts, plus these rankings. Pull them into Draft Buddy using the alternate rankings feature found on the offense tab.
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