Questions
JV
Who to keep?
Auction league, $300 auction budget and value listed gets deducted from starting budget. 6 pts for ALL TD, otherwise std non-ppr scoring.Kelce $1
Cooks $1
I'm leaning Kelce because of a) positional scarcity with his TD potential and b) the fact that I am pretty sure I'll be able to snag some good WR value in the mid stages of the auction. Other thoughts? FWIW, my other keeper is Latavius at $3 which leaves me $296 to go nuts at the auction. I'm pretty sure I'll have the most starting $
One thing that I find ironic...so many people are willing to look at a random player who had a higher than norm stat last year, and point out that they will likely not repeat that this year. Dez Bryant, for example. Most people are quick to acknowledge that there will likely be some TD regression from him. I never see people apply this Kelce, and the two metrics that have most experts so enamored with him: his catch percentage and his Yards after Catch measurement. Both were at or near historic levels last year, and while its not often cited, its a big part of why everyone has him rated so high. I'm sorry, but he's not like to catch over 80% of his targets again. The YAC thing is maybe a little less flukey, but still, to expect the same numbers he had last year would be a mistake.
I'm not saying Kelce isn't worth owning, especially at the price you'd have to pay for him...I'm just saying that if its possible he regresses at all in those two metrics from last season, where he only averaged 7 points per game anyways, he might not be the superstar everyone is projecting him to be. It's true he should get more playing time...but more playing time in the offense he plays in may not necessarily translate to fantasy gold.
Cooks, on the other hand, plays in an offense that has consistently produced fantasy gold...and while the Saints may make a slight shift towards a more balanced attack this year, it's not like they're going to stop letting Drew Brees throw the ball just because Jimmy Graham, Pierre Thomas, and Kenny Stills aren't on the team anymore. One thing I think is interesting about Cooks...last year, in the 10 games he played, he only caught less than 5 passes three times. That actually works out to a pretty safe production floor for him. Now, his YPC was roughly only 10, and he's not really a "take the top off the defense" kind of receiver, but if his targets go up from his rookie season, I feel like he's going to catch a lot of passes.