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 the final edition, part ten.
STAR QB OR WWE SUPERSTAR?
I love TE Rob Gronkowski. It is my opinion that he is the greatest TE to ever walk planet Earth, so don’t take the headline too seriously. I was shocked to see that Gronk and QB Deshaun Watson had similar ADPs (Gronk at 70, Watson at 69). So, would you rather have Gronk or Watson? Here’s what they did in 2019.
Gronk – Retired
Watson – QB5 (379.9 FP) QB5 (25.3 FP/G)
No snaps for Gronk in 2019, but that may be a blessing for the greatest TE ever. In 2018 Gronk looked like a piecemealed robot thrown together from a scrap pile. All reports indicate that Gronk is recovered from the injuries that had piled up over his Patriots career, and that he is back at an elite level. Joining the only QB he’s ever known doesn’t hurt either. Watson was pushing to be in the elite tier of QB with Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson at the end of the 2019 season and then GM/HC Bill O’Brien traded star WR DeAndre Hopkins away to Arizona. Many analysts then moved Watson down their boards. Losing Hopkins stinks, but maybe this leads to Watson running a bit more?
WHO TO PAIR?
If you selected Gronk at 70, you could pair him with QB Cam Newton (ADP 121). If you selected Watson at 69 you could pair him with TE Noah Fant (ADP 125). Let’s examine their 2019 seasons.
Newton – QB49 (28.4 FP) QB36 (14.2 FP/G)
Fant– TE14 (113.0 FP) T-TE28 (7.1 FP/G)
Newton only played in two games in 2019 and looked BAD. After his release, Newton couldn’t have landed in a better spot than New England. OC Josh McDaniels has proven to adapt his offense to the strengths of his team, so I expect Newton to flourish in 2020. Health is a concern, but the Patriots don’t have a real threat to Newton’s playing time. Fant had a couple of big games in 2019 to propel him to a TE14 finish. The Broncos continued to add weapons to the offense and now Fant figures to slot in as the third option behind WR Courtland Sutton and first round WR Jerry Jeudy. Throw in RB Melvin Gordon and maybe Fant sees less volume in 2019 than he did in 2020.
2020 PROJECTIONS
VERDICT
I’m against a QB early, but Watson at pick 69 feels like the right spot to take a game changer like him. I know the reports on Gronk have been great, but I find it hard to envision Gronk in the top 12 TEs to end the year. Sure, he could gel to start with QB Tom Brady in September, but that Tampa Bay offense has two alpha WRs to feed, former first round pick O.J. Howard and the running back room. I have Gronk projected to be in a TEBC (Tight End By Committee) with Howard and Cameron Brate as to keep Gronk fresh for the most crucial points in games. Couple this with my projection for Fant to grow in 2020, I’ll take Watson and Fant in this one.
What do you think? What would you do?
SEASONAL RANKINGS |TOP-300|
DYNASTY RANKINGS | QB | RB | WR | TE | 1QB ROOKIES | SF ROOKIES
