BELL TOLLS
Fantasy fallout from Le’Veon holdout
RISK assessment can be risky. I mean, it’s right there in the name.
Hence, there was risk in drafting Le’Veon Bell. There were reports over the summer he might sit out a large portion of the season. Like most, the Madman dismissed such a possibility as remote, because history tel l s us such financial squabbles routinely get resolved before the season. Not many players are willing to sacrifice huge sums — in Bell’s case, almost a million per game.
But here we are, with the prospect of Bell missing signif icant time now a distinct possibility.
Maybe you drafted James Conner as a handcuff, and though you will take a hit in production, you at least have a playable asset to plug in Bell’s place. Others, like the Madman, don’t particularly care for handcuffs. We more often are subbing in our third running back — guys like Royce Freeman or Alex Collins or Lamar Miller — all of whom we would start over Conner even if we had him.
Bell’s situation is more compli- cated than just replacing him this week. We s i mply don’ t know when he will return. You trade him tomorrow for pennies on the dollar and he could show up next Tuesday.
Only trade him away if you are stuck for RB options, and only if you don’t have to do so at a steep discount. If you can get, say, a Joe Mixon or Devonta Freeman or Jordan Howard, it works. You are downgrading but hedging against the worst case — Bell sits out half the season and you’re dangerously weak at RB2.
For now, Conner is playable as an RB3/Flex — behind guys like Kenyon Drake and Derrick Henry; on par with the likes of Marshawn Lynch, Carlos Hyde and Dion Lewis; ahead of Chris Carson, Jordan Wilkins and Adrian Peterson.
On the daily front, it changes a number of things. Certainly it puts Conner in play as a cheap RB option (FanDuel $5,000; DraftKings $4,500). But he also will be hugely popular, which aggravates our large tournament interests. And because we anticipate a tough game for the Steelers — a revamped Browns squad, on the road, with Bell distraction in play — we’re not high on any Steelers in cash games.
Of course, anyone is in play in large guaranteed prize pool tournaments (GPPs). Antonio Brown always is an option, despite his price and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s rough home/road splits. Wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Washington also get GPP boosts.
We suggest some small shares of these players, but don’t recommend too much exposure.
In the meantime, let’s join together to send our friend Le’Veon a message: Please come back.