8/28 update — The tiers have been updated for your fantasy drafting purposes. Here are some update notes for your perusal:
Bumped Nick Chubb and Javonte Williams, as they appear ready to start the season as the RB1 for their respective teams. But, I still don’t have a lot of faith in their ability to hold the job all season and put up consistent numbers.
Bumped Jalen Coker with Adam Thielen headed back to Minnesota.
Gave Tony Pollard a bump with the news that Tyjae Spears will miss the first four games with his ankle injury.
Continue to raise Emeka Egbuka with so much injury trouble for the Bucs pass catchers.
Pushed Brian Robinson back up as he is reportedly Christian McCaffrey’s backup after getting traded from Washington. Subsequently dropped Isaac Guerendo a little, but I do believe those two would split time if CMC were to miss time.
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The NFL season starts in a few weeks, which means it is officially fantasy football draft season. For my money, a tiered drafting sheet is THE way to draft. So, that’s what I’ve provided here for your perusal. Tiers help us place players with similar fantasy value into groups. Those groupings then allow us to visualize how many players at a certain position are left to draft compared to other positions. It’s a fairly simple, but effective way to manage your draft.
We’ve now had a whole training camp and two preseason weeks worth of games to help solidify rankings and tiers. We’re still waiting on Terry McLaurin’s contract dispute to be cleared up as well as the length and dates of Rashee Rice’s suspension, but overall there aren’t a glut of unanswered questions at this point.
Injuries
The rest of the questions are about injuries and some depth chart maneuvering. We’ll never be rid of injuries, so we might as well lean in and figure out where some of these guys stand.
Matthew Stafford, QB, Rams
Stafford has finally returned to practice after dealing with a back injury. His age and the complications of back injuries keep him as a risky fantasy player, but it’s nice to have some positive news for once for the Rams starting QB. And his presence is needed for the other offensive players to reach their fantasy potential.
Joe Mixon, RB, Texans
8/28 update — Mixon landed on the NFI list to start the season and there are no assurances he will play this season. Nick Chubb should get the start Week 1.
Mixon hasn’t practiced this preseason and there has been no positive news regarding his foot injury, while negative rumors swirl. There isn’t a lot to go on here, but time is running out. Nick Chubb and Dameon Pierce have been splitting first-team snaps, while rookie Woody Marks has upside behind those two.
Chris Godwin, WR, Buccaneers
8/28 update — Godwin won’t go on the PUP list, but that is due to the team wanting him to practice with the team. He still won’t be ready to play until sometime in October.
Godwin continues to recover from his ankle injury and has yet to be elevated from the PUP list. He could get ramped up in time to play early in the season or he could go on the regular season PUP list and miss the first four games or he could have had a setback and take even longer. The latter seems unlikely, as the team has said his rehab is on track with what they expected, but there have been no real timetables from the team and until we learn more, he remains risky.
Isaiah Likely, TE, Ravens
Likely broke a foot bone and had surgery in early August. The timetable for return is around six weeks, so the hope is he’ll return in the first few weeks of the season.
Khalil Shakir, WR, Bills
8/28 update — Shakir returned to practice and should be available for Week 1 as long as he has no setbacks.
Shakir was the Bills No. 1 receiver last season and hopes to build on that this year, but a high-ankle sprain has hurt his chances for a fast start to the season. The hope is still that he’ll be ready for Week 1, but he’ll probably need some time to ramp up to a full complement of snaps.
Najee Harris, RB, Chargers
8/28 update — Harris appears likely to return around Week 1 as he gets ramped up to play. Hampton should still get the Week 1 start and be in line to keep Harris at bay.
Harris has yet to practice after his Fourth of July eye injury, but was seen working out on the side of practice. Harris’ absence has likely helped rookie Omarion Hampton get a leg up on the competition.
Updates
The rankings and tiers will continue to be massaged as news comes out. Just as I was finishing these to be published, news came in that Brian Robinson Jr. won’t play on Monday night and will likely be traded or released. That really kills Robinson’s value, but helps Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s. The life of a fantasy ranker is never done! And we’ll continue to see moves and news that pushes the rankings needle as we get closer to kickoff. Every Friday until the season starts, I’ll keep the tiers updated for your fantasy football drafting needs.
