📈 The RB Primed For A Massive Breakout

Melvin Gordon will take your calls between drills...

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by the FFPC :

With Week 1 of the preseason in the books, here are four players who stood out (for better or for worse)...

📈 Travis Etienne is ready to rock

We finally got to see Etienne in action after a year absence. He played 22-of-25 snaps with the first-team and most importantly, went 6-of-6 on 3rd down snaps and 5-of-5 on snaps inside the 10-yard line. He flashed explosiveness on multiple runs, including this one in the first quarter. James Robinson will return eventually, but it's hard not to get excited about Etienne. More on him below in Sam's breakout piece.

👎 Antonio Gibson is in the dog house

The Commanders presumed starter had a rough outing. He predictably lost third down snaps to J.D. McKissic, fumbled on one of his first carries, got stuffed on multiple carries, and lost short yardage work to both rookie Brian Robinson and Jonathan Williams. Gibson still has explosive play making ability, but he's getting squeezed in almost every direction now and is losing favor with the coaches. He's a hard selection to make in managed leagues right now.

💥 Dameon Pierce is ready for primetime

He didn't run with the 1s–Marlon Mack and Dare Ogunbowale earned those honors–but the rookie looked great with his touches:

You can tell coach Lovie Smith loves him, too: "Pierce definitely caught my eye and everybody watching him. It's what we've been seeing in training camp." Pierce is starting to get pricey in drafts, but it feels justified.

💪 George Pickens continues to dominate

I don't think anyone popped up on my timeline more this weekend than Steelers rookie WR. He's been dominating in training camp and lit up the Seahawks DB's in his first NFL action.

PFF gave him the highest-graded score of any offensive rookie from Saturday's games and most importantly, he clearly has that dog in him:

If the Steelers can get anything resembling competent QB play, this is going to be a very fun passing offense. Pickens is a priority target late in drafts. You can still get him in the 13th round of FFPC drafts around WR65, but that might not last for long.

Hey fantasy players! Have you been looking for a place to play season-long fantasy football? Well you should check out our friends at the FFPC.

The FFPC has been around since 2008 and is a licensed fantasy operator with a huge selection of season-long leagues and contests. They've got best ball leagues starting from just $5. Want to step up from there? No problem, they've got several best ball and season-long contests with multi-million dollar prize pools and their flagship contest, the FFPC Main Event, has a ONE MILLION dollar grand prize.

They've also got a huge selection of dynasty startup leagues and much more. New users get $25 off their first entry. Simply click here and create your account!

📝 4 Tips for Drafting On FFPC

I’ve been drafting high stakes teams on the FFPC since 2016. It’s an incredibly fun format and there are massive prizes to be won, specifically a $1,000,000 top prize in the flagship Main Event contest.

Over the course of my seven years drafting on FFPC, I’ve made my fair share of drafting mistakes. In our first year we drafted Arian Foster in the 6th round of the Main Event and he retired after four games. Lol.

Since then I’ve learned how to better navigate this format and today I’m going to share a couple tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way so you can hit the ground running..

1. Prioritize an Elite TE. One of the most unique things about the FFPC settings is the TE-premium scoring. WRs still receive a full point per reception, but TEs receive 1.5 points per reception. This naturally pushes TEs up the draft board, but I’d argue that some of the elite TEs are still undervalued relative to what they can do for your lineup. In my Main Event drafts so far, we’ve taken Kyle Pitts twice in the second round, George Kittle in the third, and Darren Waller in the fourth.

Bonus: if you’d like to hear me and my Ship Chasing co-hosts navigate a Main Event slow draft, we recently completed a minisode series where we recorded an episode every time we were on the clock. You can find those episodes here.

2. The two Flex spots allow you to choose your own adventure. The lineup settings on FFPC require 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, K, D, and 2 FLEXES. Those flex spots can be a RB, WR, or TE. A lot of FFPC drafters prefer to fill their flex spots with RBs, but the full point PPR settings make WRs my preferred targets for the flex. I also think two elite TE builds can be attractive in certain situations when you get a good price on the second (in one of our drafts we took both Pitts and Waller on the same team).

3. You’ll want to get off to a fast start. The FFPC league settings feature a 12-week regular season before the Top 4 teams face off in a two week playoff in Weeks 13 and 14. This creates a tricky dynamic because there are eight teams on bye over the course of those two weeks. When drafting you’ll want to balance a team who doesn’t fall too far behind early while also not loading up on too many players with byes during those playoff weeks.

4. The million dollars is won Weeks 15-17. The regular season prize money is determined after Week 14, but the big time money in these contests is won in the playoffs in Weeks 15-17. All the best teams from the regular season will advance to a championship round during Weeks 15-17. The team that scores the most points over that span will ship the milly. Obviously getting there is the first step, but that top prize necessitates drafting players who can finish the season strong and also scoping out the schedule for teams playing in shootout-friendly environments.

We’re drafting Main Event teams live on stream for the rest of August over on Ship Chasing if you want to get more acclimated with the FFPC drafting landscape.

⚔️ DJ Moore breaks up a fight in the stands! This WR can do it all.

📉 Why a first round RB is going to see less touches and production this season. If you have an early draft pick, you'll want to read this.

📵 Melvin Gordon dunks on reporter. This is very funny.

🚑 Zach Wilson injured his knee. Here's the latest update.

💥 12 players who could be this season's breakout stars. Love this list from Mike Clay.

☀️ Drake London update. He got banged up in the the Falcons' first preseason game, but outlook sounds optimistic.

Drafting safe ain't it. We need to be taking big swings to win our leagues. Today, Sam shares two players he thinks are primed for breakouts...

🚀 Travis Etienne (RB18)

Sometimes we forget the potential for greatness. RB Travis Etienne was a first-round pick with a sterling collegiate profile just one year ago. He’s yet to play a snap in the regular season after a foot injury cost him his rookie campaign.

Etienne entered the league on the heels of:

• Almost 5,000 rushing yards

• Over 1,100 receiving yards

• 78 total TDs

It’s difficult to find a more complete profile.

Presumably recovered from his injury, Etienne has been the star of training camp. He reunites with college QB Trevor Lawrence which also provides a fun narrative.

Etienne is one of the most talented pass-catching backs in the league and should have plenty of opportunities to contribute through the air. The Jaguars don’t figure to be a strong team by way of their 6.5 projected win total over at BetMGM.

RB James Robinson, who injured his achilles in December, is surprisingly trending towards Week 1 availability. History has not been kind to RBs with this injury so we’ll see how effective Robinson is. The depth chart behind Etienne and Robinson is thin so the opportunities will be there.

According to the Fantasy Life ADP Tool, Etienne is going as a mid-RB2. It’s hard to not comp him to RB Alvin Kamara with his elite pass-catching upside. Oh, they’re also the same size at 5’10” / 215lbs.

The talent, pass catching, draft capital, and overall lack of offensive weapons makes Etienne a prime breakout candidate.

🚀 Darnell Mooney (WR28)

Looking for a potential WR1 going outside of WR2 range? Look no further than WR Darnell Mooney.

The trendy third-year wideout sports 4.38-speed and enters this season with massive upside. As a sophomore, he posted impressive numbers:

• WR6 in target share (27%)

• WR10 in targets (140)

• WR11 in air yards (1,463)

• WR18 in expected points/game

The Bears’ offense was 27th in scoring last season and mercifully moved on from Matt Nagy. QB Justin Fields enters his second season as the undisputed starter. He continues to build chemistry with his top receiver who has intriguing upside.

The team hasn’t added much offensive firepower to assist their young QB (unless you like 25-year old rookies). They’re also missing over 200 targets from last season. Most of that left with WR Allen Robinson while the rest was spread out among ancillary pieces.

To give you a glimpse of Mooney’s upside, Robinson posted WR1 finishes with similar statlines.

If a few extra TDs fall his way, Mooney could break into WR1 territory.

According to the Fantasy Life ADP Tool, his WR28 price makes him an enticing upside pick in your drafts.

Training camps and preseason action continue to push players up and down our draft boards. Today, Jonathan weighs in on a RB whose stock is on the rise...

J.K. Dobbins was activated off of the PUP list last Monday and his has already risen by more than half a round as a result. It was just a few short weeks ago when he was quote Tweeting Ian Rapoport and now the third year RB gets to prove his health on the field. The more positive reports and video evidence that emerge before the start of the season should only push his cost higher.

I’m no doctor (and I haven’t even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express recently) so I can’t speculate on Dobbins’ chances of returning to the player he was pre-injury, but the opportunity is certainly there for him. Fellow RB Gus Edwards is also recovering from a serious injury and his status for Week 1 sounds less promising than Dobbins. Behind those two are an assortment of uninspiring veterans and an unproven rookie.

The Ravens offseason moves suggest they want to return to a run-heavy offense which should mean Dobbins will get as much work as he can handle. His fantasy upside is somewhat capped by a lack of receptions, but as a mid 5th round pick he offers plenty of value for drafters. I am buying the hype on Dobbins return and his ADP can rise into the 4th round before I will think twice about taking him in drafts.