Fantasy Football: Robert Woods, Tee Higgins, and Jameson Williams are Chris Towers' guys for 2022 - CBSSports.com

2022-09-11 16:06:11 By : Ms. Bonnie Wu

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I just finished my last Fantasy Football draft of the preseason Tuesday afternoon, bringing my total to 14 teams that I'm managing this season. That's a pretty typical number for me, and I would assume most Fantasy analysts, though I've also done a few best-ball leagues that don't require managing and probably 25-30 mock drafts or more since the start of the offseason. 

That's a lot to keep track of, but every year before Week 1, I try to do exactly that. I've got a spreadsheet with every roster I've picked, and with a little help from the "CountIf" function, I can find out exactly which players I've drafted the most. And there usually aren't too many surprises there – it generally tends to be players I'm higher on than the consensus in my rankings, obviously. Those are, for better or worse, "my guys."

There are some surprises in the players I haven't picked, though. These are the 10 highest-ranked players in my rankings who I won't have on any of my rosters this season:

If you've been reading the Fantasy Football Today Newsletter, you'll know that I've got my concerns about Cook and Harris for injury reasons, and I'm a bit lower on Mixon and Williams than the consensus. But I'm surprised I won't have Swift, Fournette, Hill, or Conner on any of my rosters. I wasn't avoiding them or particularly down on them, it just never worked out that they ended up on my team.

The following 10 guys? They were targets, and I got them. Here's why. 

Woods ended up on half of my squads this season, which makes sense because I'm a lot higher than the consensus on him. The reason for that is pretty simple: I think he's the Titans clear No. 1 wide receiver, and while that never resulted in enough targets to A.J. Brown for our liking, it still came out to be a pace of around 130 over the past two seasons. Woods suffered his torn ACL later in the calendar than someone like Chris Godwin, who ends up going 50-70 picks ahead of Woods, too. Godwin is, of course, a better player than Woods, but Woods is pretty awesome in his own right, ranking 19th in points per game last season in PPR scoring with at least 15.0 points per game in each of his past four seasons. I'm not expecting him to get back to that level again, necessarily, but Woods still has WR2 upside at a WR4/5 price. He's been close to a top-30 WR for me throughout the draft process. 

Higgins had shoulder surgery in the offseason and has been pretty quiet in training camp, so I wonder if that's played a part in driving his price down. He's a borderline WR1 for, and I'm quite invested in the Bengals passing game at this point, having drafted both Ja'Marr Chase and Joe Burrow in three leagues. Higgins isn't as good as Chase, in all likelihood, but it wouldn't be a shock if he had more targets than his teammate, or at least came very close to matching him. Higgins is a pretty great player in his own right, coming off a season where he averaged 14.7 yards per catch and 9.9 per target with a 67.3% catch rate. Getting him toward the end of the third round is a steal I'm happy to make every time. 

I added another Williams pick in the draft I'm doing as I write this, and my decision-making process in the 12th round and later basically looks like this from our draft chat: 

Williams is on the NFI list to open the season and will have to miss the first four games, but by all accounts, his recovery from a January torn ACL has gone as well as hoped. I'm not expecting him to make much of an impact in the first half of the season, but Wiliams is arguably the most talented wide receiver in his draft class, and could emerge as a Fantasy difference maker down the stretch. And picking him basically gives me a free player to add on waivers at the start of the season where I've got an IR spot. 

Okwuegbunam became my default late-round tight end over the final few weeks of draft season, so if I didn't take one of the early-round guys, there was a pretty good chance I'd end up with him. I'm hoping he's the third option in an excellent passing game, and I think there's a chance he even starts to line up in the slot pretty regularly with Tim Patrick out for the season. Greg Dulcich being out to open the season should help him play big snaps early on, too. It's lining up well for a breakout from one of the better size/speed combos at the position. 

I pushed Kamara into the top-six of my overall rankings by the end of the draft process, and he's my No. 3 RB for Week 1, so it's no surprise I ended up getting him in a lot of leagues. But the thing is, I mostly still ended up drafting him in the second round, because his price never really adjusted for the likelihood that he'll play most of the season, which is what I expect. Even over the past week in NFC drafts, Kamara's ADP sits at 19.49, which makes him one of the more obvious values in drafts if he doesn't get suspended. I expect the Saints offense to be a lot more functional this year than last with an upgrade receiving corps, which should allow Kamara to be much more efficient than he was a year ago. He's been an elite Fantasy option basically every season of his career, I don't see a good reason for why Kamara won't be again in 2022. 

McCaffrey has been my No. 1 player since the very first round of rankings at the start of the preseason and I never waivered, so if he was still available by the time I picked, he was going to be on my team. That happened four times – sometimes from the No. 1 overall spot, once as low as fourth. I was thrilled every time it happened. 

They open against the Texans and Jaguars, so the Colts are my DST of choice this season. I'll drop them without a moment's hesitation ahead of the Week 3 matchup against the Chiefs and try to pick them up again when they get the Jaguars in Week 6. 

Samuel also made this list last season, which obviously didn't work out, but I'm hoping the fact that he's actually made it through training camp healthy gives him a better chance of making an impact. He's always one of my last two or three picks, just in case he can re-discover some of the unique skill set that made him such a useful Fantasy option in 2020. I'd love to see Samuel figure into the Commanders backfield split – remember, he had 31 carries for 200 yards and a couple of scores in 2020. If he has a similar role and gets, say, 100 targets – he had 105 in 2019 and 97 in 2020 – there's a pretty decent chance Samuel is a top-30 WR, and he's been free in drafts. 

In all honesty, writing the two sentences here represents the most thought I've put into any kicker choice this season. I can't say I have any special affinity for Elliott, but he's a solid kicker in a good offense who doesn't have any obvious tough defenses on the schedule to open the season. 

Given his inability to stay healthy, Mostert's low draft price makes sense. He's going to split backfield work with Chase Edmonds, and will likely be on the smaller side of the platoon given that Edmonds figures to see more passing downs work. But Mostert has experience in Mike McDaniels' offense going back to San Francisco, and he has averaged 5.7 yards per carry in 284 carries in that offense. Mostert doesn't have huge upside, but he could be in line for 15 carries when healthy, and that's enough when I'm building an RB-light roster that needs early-season help. 

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