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NFL headlines that could impact fantasy owners

Date: June 19, 2019

By: Jorie Mickens

The Oakland Raiders will be featured in HBO’s 14th season of “Hard Knocks,” a sports-based reality television show that showcases player’s personal lives, rookies adjusting to the NFL life and more.

There a plenty of reasons why the Raiders will be must-see television this summer. The Raiders acquired star receiver Antonio Brown and his archnemesis Vontaze Burfict this offseason. During a 2016 playoff game, Burfict received a three-game suspension for a dirty hit on Brown, a hit that gave Brown a concussion and forced him to miss the rest of the 2016 playoffs.

Burfict also received a $112,000 fine for another dirty hit on Brown during a game in October just last year. There is certainly bad blood between the two. Fantasy owners will see how Brown handles the pressures of his new team and teammates thus, affecting his draft stock.

While Brown is bound to be the most fantasy relevant player on the Raiders this season, rookie running back Josh Jacobs is likely to be overvalued by fantasy players this season. Every season of “Hard Knocks,” a promising player on the featured team with potential to be a sleeper gets drafted too high and underperforms for their new draft position.

In 2018 after “Hard Knocks,” Cleveland Browns players Carlos Hyde and Josh Gordon shot up draft boards only to disappoint fantasy owners when they finished where they were projected too at the beginning of the summer.

Take note of where Jacobs is going now, if you can grab Jacobs in the late third or early fourth rounds of your draft, do so, otherwise do not cave into the pressure of selecting the rookie running back early. Looking at other impactful fantasy news, the Minnesota Vikings signed tight-end Kyle Rudolph to a four year/$36 million contract last week. Rudolph finished as the tight-end-seven in PPR leagues last season, playing all 16 games.

Rudolph provides fantasy owners with another fantasy relevant tight end which is consistently one of the weakest positions in fantasy football. The Vikings also selected rookie tight end Irv Smith Jr. with the 50th overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. Fantasy football enthusiasts had hopes Smith Jr. would make an impact this season, but Rudolph will hinder his ability to shine during the 2019 season.

The New York Jets looked to add depth in their backfield when the team signed veteran running back Bilal Powell to a one-year deal last week. This move is an indicator that star running back Le’Veon Bell might not be the workhorse fantasy owners are used too.

Bilal Powell suffered a neck injury last season and contemplated calling it quits for his career. Rookie running back Trenton Cannon, second-year man Elijah McGuire and Isaiah Crowell filled in the lineup after Powell went down last season.

Although Crowell is gone, the Jets brought in 26-year old running back Ty Montgomery. It is hard to believe the Jets will keep all five running backs on the roster. Who makes the cut and the roles of each running back will be more clear as the 2019 season nears but, fantasy players should not dismiss this news.

Star running back Bell may have to share large amounts of playing time with two other running backs during the season, impeding his ability to put up big fantasy numbers fantasy owners are accustomed too.

Jorie Mickens can be reached at jorie.mickens@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, WSOU

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