*Real Fantasy Rankings

speculadora · (This post was last modified: 06-09-2020, 03:01 PM by speculadora.)

Since everyone winds up with this list anyway I might as well make money on it

Quarterback
1. Franklin Armstrong
2. Easton Cole
3. Wolfie McDummy
4. Cooter Bigsby
5. Jay Cue
6. Brock Phoenix

This one is probably straightforward enough. Quarterbacks who run a little are better in fantasy. I would have McDummy at #2 but I'm still a little concerned about his volume overall. I think you could rank 2-3 however you want. Cooter is firmly in the mix but I'm not sure YKW will have the same level of volume with Cooter a season deeper in regression. Cue is a wildcard, could wind up anywhere from 1st to 6th here in the end depending on how Arizona does overall. I think Phoenix finally breaks out this season. Philadelphia looks a lot better than they did last season and they have plenty of weapons for him.

Runningback
1. Mathias Hanyadi
2. Mako Mendonca
3. Marcella Toriki
4. Forrest Gump
5. Darrell Williams
6. Dax Frost
7. Baby Yoda
8. Ashley Owens
9. Sam Torenson
10. Tatsu Nakamura

This is the list I am least certain of. Hanyadi is definitely the top back in the league right now, coming off (I believe) his second consecutive season leading non-QBs in points. With Leaf Jr. out of the picture in Austin and Kichwa in, I think Mendonca might be more in the flex-y type role Leaf was that was very productive in fantasy last season. After those two I'm not sure. The NOLA duo have both been very productive and Toriki now has the TPE advantage, but there's limited upside because they both have to share one backfield. There's sort of another tier after that that starts at 5 an ends at 7, I think. These three guys are all largely going uncontested for the lion's share of carries in their respective backfields. All three also play on teams that might not score a ton. If the Banks to QB move works out for Sarasota then Frost could vault into the top 5 tier for me. Then 8, 9, 10 are sharing backfields. Owens has the highest floor. You can basically rank these three in any order, I think, and put Acura Skyline in instead of any if you were so inclined.

Wide Receiver
1. Bender B. Rodriguez
2. Saba Donut
3. Net Gaines
4. Sean O’Leary
5. Nacho Varga
6. Action Jackson
7. Rayne Gordon
8. Hugh Mongo
9. Rod Tidwell
10. William Lim

Ranking Rodriguez as the top wide receiver this season is probably my boldest move. That said, Yellowknife has consistently had elite level production from their top receiver for a long time now, and that torch should be getting passed from Swift to Rodriguez this season. If you're a little more risk averse then Saba is probably a solid 1B to Rodriguez's 1A for me. I'm not 100% how Austin will sort out their dynamic between Gaines and Tidwell, but it seems like it should be Gaines' turn in the primary receiver role, which catapults him up. Sean O'Leary should improve on last season's numbers with improved quarterback play, but overall I'm a little bit worried about Chicago scoring enough to put him firmly in that upper echelon. The Nacho Varga prediction also might be a little bold based on recent seasons, but I think Philly's passing attack takes a big step forward this season and Varga could represent good value as a top receiver on his team. Action Jackson has spent two seasons in roughly this spot and now probably sacrifices a little bit of yardage for higher upside in the Wraiths' offense. Gordon and Mongo are pretty similar to me as high TPE wideouts in offenses that won't pass enough to really make them worth drafting even with their high TPE totals. Austin's passing attack should produce enough volume to keep Tidwell as a worthy choice. William Lim seems likely to be Colorado's top receiver, a role that had James Bishop in a pretty good spot last season. He's a little low on TPE but it might not make a huge difference if he gets the primary wide receiver role.

Tight End
1. Austin McCormick
2. Jeffrey Phillips
3. Heath Evans
4. Earl Sauce
5. Daniel George
6. Avon Blocksdale Jr.

Small change here from my original rankings that I'll get to, but let's start at the top. Austin McCormick is NOLA's top receiving threat and should probably match his numbers from last season. Jeffrey Phillips is in a similar spot for OCO despite Mongo's presence. Heath Evans had a lot of volume last season with more than 50 receptions and should continue to improve as he and the Outlaws both get better. Earl Sauce burned a lot of people last season, but if the Yeti roll with their playoff strat from S22 then Sauce could surprise as Colorado used him a bit as a wide receiver during their Ultimus run. Now, the inclusion of Daniel George is a new one. We originally were on the fence on whether he'd be called up but we didn't want to get in a bidding war for inactive Jammerson Irving and then George returned from a brief period of inactivity. He'll probably play a similar role to Irving's from last season, which is pretty solid for his fantasy potential. Then I've got Blocksdale as basically the best of the rest, but Leon McDavid could definitely wind up in this group too.

Kicker
1. Dougie Smalls
2. Alex Dasistwirklichseinnachname
3. Alfredo Crisco
4. Silver Banana
5. Herbert Prohaska
6. Lefty Louis

This is basically a descending order of team touchdowns scored last season, I think. Kicker fantasy scoring is probably going to have more to do with opportunity than anything, and no kickers have more opportunity than ones on good offenses. Hence the rankings.

Defense
1. Yellowknife Wraiths
2. Colorado Yeti
3. Orange County Otters
4. New Orleans Second Line
5. Austin Copperheads
6. Philadelphia Liberty

Sacks seem to be a really good indicator of overall defensive quality in this sim, and Yellowknife and Colorado kind of blew the competition away in those stats. The Otters could creep up as our defense overall continues to improve, but for now it seems like the top two are sort of in their own group. Then OCO a step below, and NOLA and Austin just a step behind that. I think. There's not a ton of spread in defensive scoring output so I wouldn't stress this too much.