🌟 Another WR Gets Traded

Someone give Jamaal Williams his own TV show already...

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter:

The most traded man in football, WR Brandin Cooks, is on the move to Dallas.

Matthew warned us this could happen the other day in his NFL Combine rumors piece on NBC Sports Edge:

Sure enough, a week-and-a-half later the Cowboys made their splash by trading a fifth-round pick in 2023 and a sixth-round pick in 2024 for the journeyman WR.

I guess it’s fair to quibble about what constitutes a “splash” these days, but the 29-year-old wideout has cleared 1,000+ yards in all but three of his nine years in the league and has done it with four different teams:

It’s a pretty good fit for Cooks as far as fantasy value goes. In Dak Prescott, he’ll have a competent QB throwing him the ball for the first time since 2020 when Deshaun Watson was under center for the Tex

Dallas has been starved for pass catchers ever since trading giving away Amari Cooper to the Browns for a fifth-round pick. They tried to backfill the void with veteran James Washington in free agency and Jalen Tolbert in the 2022 NFL draft, but neither sniffed the field last year.

With Cooks, Lamb, and Gallup, they’ll have a much-improved 3-WR set and Cooks will face far less attention from opposing defenses than he did in Houston.

Like the Panthers, the Texans now head into the 2023 season with a truly barren WR room.

They seem like a prime candidate to take a WR like Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Quentin Johnston with their 12th overall pick.

The other interesting fallout from this trade is what it means for DeAndre Hopkins, a fellow veteran WR who is reportedly on the trade block.

Hopkins is of similar age (30) and has a very similar contract to Cooks. He’ll certainly fetch more than Cooks, though.

We're humans who play fantasy football, which means we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall leads us in overreacting to what happened in Free Agency...

🍽️ Winner winner, NFL Free Agency dinner

Are we all recovered from the NFL news last week? No? That’s okay, we can give you the sparknotes version of what happened so you can stop mindlessly scrolling!

We saw key fantasy running backs on the move, an Aaron Rodgers saga (seemingly) coming to an end and much more. But who were the biggest winners from the week?

🐻 Chicago Bears

Let’s start here by recapping the huge trade that happened before free agency even started. The Panthers traded two first-round picks, 2023 and 2025 second-rounders, and wide receiver D.J. Moore to the Chicago Bears for the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft.

This was a pretty good haul for Chicago leading up to free agency because it addressed a key need (weapons for quarterback Justin Fields) and allowed the team to focus on other positions last week.

The goal throughout the whole offseason has been getting Fields the help and protection he needs to succeed.

To start, adding Moore to this offense is just straight-up exciting. Hell, we were chanting “Free D.J. Moore” when the Panthers rebuild started after trading Christian McCaffrey.

HE’S FINALLY FREE!

Moore recorded at least 1,100 receiving yards each season from 2019 to 2021 and notched a career-high seven touchdowns in 2022.

The Bears also made a handful of one-year signings that will surely have an impact on Fields and the overall offensive output. The Bears signed former Packers tight end Robert Tonyan and former Panthers running back D’Onta Foreman. It’ll be nice to see more two tight end sets with Tonyan and Cole Kmet next season and we all know what happened with Foreman last year after the departure of McCaffrey — he rushed for a career-high 914 yards and five touchdowns.

Chicago also signed guard Nate Davis, which was a solid move for a young, ascending player. Overall I think the Bears deserve a B+ grade for what they did over the last couple weeks.

🏆 Fantasy Winners

✈️ Darren Waller to the Giants

Talking about a quarterback that needed some weapons — Daniel Jones must have loved this move to get tight end Darren Waller. The key here will be Waller staying healthy, which honestly is a risk in and of itself. No Giant hit 60 catches or 750 receiving yards last season so Waller is coming into an ideal situation.

✈️ Miles Sanders to the Panthers

Former Eagles running back Miles Sanders is coming off the best season of his career. He finished the regular season with 279 touches, 1,347 total yards and 11 touchdowns and now goes to the Carolina Panthers (who just shipped Foreman off) where he will be the primary running back.

💪 The back who is promising an RB1 season in 2023. He’s also looking absolutely shredded.

🦁 The Lions pull off a big signing. They are going to be a real contender.

📅 A big update on Lamar coming soon? Sure sounds like it.

🚑 How to evaluate players coming back from injury. Nice thread here.

🤝 Trade ideas for the Packers and Jets. Please get this done so we can move on.

❓ Can you name the Falcons WR2? Here is a hint.

💀 A reminder not to finish last in your fantasy league. Or this could happen.

🛩️ Where will Odell land? A major suitor emerges.

📷 Announcing your next team on Instagram is a power move. Well played, Adam Thielen.

The NFL Draft is fast approaching so it's time to dig into the 2023 rookie class. Today our resident dynasty guru Jonathan profiles an intriguing RB prospect...

👑 Devon Achane

• Rookie Draft ADP: 14

• Underdog ADP: 138.7

Devon Achane is fast. Like really fast. He was a three time track All-American as well as star RB at Texas A&M.

In 2021, he was clocked at 22.2 mph on a 96 yard kickoff return which puts his speed in the caliber of NFL elites, per Next Gen Stats. As impressive of a feat as that is, Achane brings more to the table than just speed.

He broke out during his sophomore season when he totaled 1,171 scrimmage yards and led the FBS (min. 100 attempts) with a gaudy 7.0 YPC. He also posted a career best 261 receiving yards on 24 catches that year, showcasing his ability to make big plays through the air.

In 2022, his efficiency regressed but he handled a larger workload and turned 196 carries into 1,100 rushing yards to go along with 36 receptions for 196 receiving yards and 11 total touchdowns.

Achane has all the indicators we like to see in an NFL prospect: young breakout age, production against elite competition, strong college dominator rating, and early declare for the NFL Draft.

Despite all that, he is still slipping to the second round of dynasty superflex rookie drafts.

Let’s take a closer look at his strengths and weaknesses to help determine if he is a value in drafts right now.

📈 Pros

One of the first things that stands out when watching Achane film is how often defenders appear to take horrible angles when pursuing him.

After a few minutes of seeing this over and over again, it becomes clear that they simply aren’t used to playing against that type of speed, which is pretty impressive, considering he played in the SEC.

Funny enough, Achane’s speed was so hyped coming into the combine that his 4.32 second 40-yard dash (best among RBs) and 1.53 second 10-yard split were considered somewhat disappointing. The fact remains that he has legit speed, even by NFL standards.

Fortunately, he isn’t just a straight-line sprinter either. Achane has the footwork, agility, and change of direction skills to create yards for himself as well as the vision and patience to work between the tackles.

He was a willing and capable inside runner despite playing behind a mediocre offensive line in his final collegiate season.

He doesn’t have the size or strength to move a pile, but he runs hard and has good contact balance, which should allow him to be an effective ball carrier at the next level with the potential for an explosive gain any time he touches the ball.

The other major strength of Achane’s game is as a receiver. He doesn’t have exceptional hands but he is a good enough pass catcher and route runner to be a true mismatch as a receiver out of the backfield as well as line up in the slot occasionally.

Teams will want to get the ball in his hands in a number of ways, so his versatility could be a key selling point to justify spending meaningful Day 2 draft capital.

📉 Cons

Achane tipped the scales at the NFL Combine at 5’8” and 188lbs, which is much smaller than expected for a feature back in the NFL. As such, his landing spot and projected role will be of extra importance.

Smaller players are increasingly able to play prominent roles in the NFL, but only so long as the coaching staff trusts them. A player like Achane runs the risk of being pigeon-holed into a passing-down role with minimal carries and no goal line work.

If he lands in an ideal spot, he has room to rise in drafts, but there is also a risk he could find himself as a Nyheim Hines type of player who is more impactful for real football than fantasy football.

Additionally, while Achane’s willingness to run inside and take contact is great from play-to-play and game-to-game, it does raise durability concerns for his career outlook.

Personally, I don’t penalize Achane for his smaller stature and will trust that his draft capital will reflect how concerned NFL teams are about his longevity.

👑 Fantasy Impact

Achane is one of the riskier high-level prospects in this class, but he has enough upside that he is interesting to me at his current draft cost in both dynasty and best ball leagues. He is currently my RB4 in the rookie class and someone that I will start to consider drafting in late Round 1 of my superflex rookie drafts.

It will be interesting to hear how the coaching staff of whichever team drafts him talks about his role.

He is unlikely to ever be a bellcow back, but he could handle 8-12 carries per week in addition to a major role in the passing game. If he gets that type of workload he could carve out a very valuable role for fantasy purposes.