Building Around A Konami Code Quarterback In 2020
Redraft season is on the horizon and roster construction is important to your success in season long leagues. Your roster construction starts during the draft and this series will focus on the “this or that” of selecting a position during the draft and what the ramifications of that selection for your team is.
For this exercise, the position group selected with the first picks will be contrasted by the opposite position in the later pick. For example, if you took a RB in round two vs a WR in round two, the round 10 selection would compare taking a WR to pair with your second round RB and vice versa. All ADP is derived from ffcalculator.com and is based on 12 team PPR. Let’s check out part five.
KONAMI CODE Quarterback OR WR2?
Drafting a QB with a rushing floor and who is in an air raid style of offense can be a dream combination for fantasy managers. Kyler Murray fits this mold. The Cardinals added an elite weapon by trading for WR DeAndre Hopkins which should boost Murray’s passing floor. Or would you rather have 2019 breakout star WR Terry McLaurin. McLaurin cemented himself with the Washington Football Team by leading the team in targets and receiving yards. Entering year two in the NFL, McLaurin should find more chemistry with college teammate and current QB Dwayne Haskins. Managers are faced with this decision with Murray’s current ADP of 58 and McLaurin’s ADP of 56. Here’s what they did in 2019:
Murray – QB7 (344.5 FP) QB13 (21.5 FP/G)
McLaurin – WR29 (191.9 FP) WR30 (13.7 FP/G)
WHO TO PAIR?
If you selected Murray at 58, you could pair him with Tyler Boyd (ADP 86). If you selected McLaurin at 56 you could pair him with Matt Ryan (ADP 84). Let’s examine their 2019 seasons.
Boyd – WR17 (226.9 FP) WR26 (14.2 FP/G)
Ryan – QB6 (348.0 FP) QB10 (23.2 FP/G)
Boyd saw an uptick in targets with star WR A.J. Green sitting out the year with an injury. The Bengals added QB Joe Burrow with the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and Green appears on track to be healthy for 2020. Will these additions drive Boyd’s volume down? His low yards per reception number concerns me as well. Ryan finished as an elite QB in 2019, and the Falcons get WR Calvin Ridley back to pair with stud WR Julio Jones. The Falcons also added RB Todd Gurley and get multiple injured offensive linemen back for 2020. Ryan may remain in the top six QBs for 2020.
2020 PROJECTIONS
VERDICT
In a 1QB league I find it hard to take a QB with a pick in the 50’s, but man, Kyler Murray is that good. When looking at Boyd vs McLaurin, I don’t see much of a difference. I do think Murray can take a step and finish as a top three QB in 2020, and could provided a significant positional advantage over Matt Ryan. McLaurin and Boyd are too similar to me to take McLaurin nearly 30 picks earlier, and in PPR, Boyd’s high target share makes me lean towards the former Pitt Panther. Give me Murray and Boyd in this one.
What do you think? What would you do?
