Holdout bell rings again for fantasy owners

We have another Le’Veon Bell situation on our hands.

Melvin Gordon is holding out of Los Angeles Chargers camp after both sides have reportedly given their contract extension offers. The star running back wants a new deal, but as of Friday, it looks like he’s not anywhere close to coming in.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the holdout “is expected to be prolonged and threatens to last into the season.”

Let’s look at it from a fantasy perspective, because drafting Bell last year turned out to be the worst pick in fantasy football history.

Owners are surely not going to want to be burned like that again (although, let’s point out that this is a little more certain than last year’s “oh yeah, Bell won’t hold out into the regular season … right?” drama).

Of course, we could wake up tomorrow and the Chargers will give him a deal and this will all be for naught.

But what if it turns into a Bell situation and you’re left at your draft not knowing if or when Gordon will come back? Suddenly, a surefire first-round pick seems far from a guarantee. And you don’t want to get cute in the first few rounds of your draft.

So here’s what I’d do: Wait. Either some owner is going to pull the trigger in the second round and do a lot of praying that the Chargers give in to Gordon, or the running back will sit around with owners daring each other to take him in a game of chicken. You can just hear it now: “HEY REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO LE’VEON BELL!”

I’ve looked at the early average draft positions via Fantasy Pros and I’ve found the spot I’m comfortable taking him at: It’s somewhere in the 40-50 range.

That’s where I see names like Phillip Lindsay, Melvin Ingram and the Rams’ receiving duo of Robert Woods and Brandin Cooks. Kenny Golladay is in there too.

In other words, it’s a spot where there are some Flex or WR2 names popping up, and because wideout is SO deep (you can get names like Chris Godwin, Tyler Lockett and Calvin Ridley later!), this is where the risk becomes enough to stomach with Gordon.

Now, as I said: You could be reading this in about a month and it’ll be moot. But if it’s not? That’s my advice. I may be less risk averse than you are, and that’s up to you if you want to fill an RB2 spot with a player who may take a while to come back, may not come back at all, and who if he DOES come back, could take a while to get up to speed. That may pay off in the end!

But watching those of you who chose Bell agonize for a full fantasy season made me firmly believe you shouldn’t take that same risk again.

Bell apologizes to fantasy football owners, promises big things

Fantasy football is really serious business for a lot of NFL fans.

Sure, some people take it way too seriously and let it control their lives and emotions for the entire season. Those people need to chill out a little bit.

A lot of owners who drafted Bell early in the first round last year weren’t too happy with the running back, as he opted to sit out the entire year, his last with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bell puts up huge numbers both rushing and receiving, so he’s fantasy gold. But not last year.

Now with the New York Jets, Bell took some time on Monday to apologize on Twitter to those who drafted him last year and promised big things from him this year:

Bell wrote: “this is loooong overdue!! but I want to take a moment to apologize to all the fantasy owners who picked me last year, I’m sorry I couldn’t pull through for y’all...but trust me, this year’s about to be wayyyy different...”

Good for Bell for having some fun with it. Jets fans sure are hoping that he can get back to being a stud this season.

Here’s my one fantasy tip for the season – if you get angry and are thinking of tweeting something hurtful about a player who gets injured or just doesn’t put up the numbers you wanted him to… just don’t. That’s a pretty childish thing to do and we should all be better than that.

Other than that, have some fun.

How to handle Green’s injury

It took one day of Cincinnati Bengals training camp for wideout A.J. Green — who has played full seasons in just two of the last five years — to go down with an injury.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the star receiver tore ligaments in his left ankle, which will leave him out anywhere from six to eight and he’s “not expected to be ready” to play in Week 1.

If you’re a fantasy football owner preparing for your upcoming draft, you’ve got to figure out what that means for drafting Green. That’s what we’re here for.

Where should I draft Green?

I was already nervous about Green’s ADP — 34th overall per Fantasy Pros — heading into this season. He’ll turn 31 later this week and with a recent history of injuries and the depth at WR (Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs and Brandin Cooks are being drafted lower than Green), I was worried he’d live up to that.

Now? Let’s assume he misses more than just the opener and needs some time to acclimate when he returns. He’s still the Bengals’ top wide receiver, so I’d take a chance on him in that 5th to 6th round range, maybe ahead of Chargers touchdown machine Mike Williams, who’s going around 61st overall. It’s more likely, however, that because of Green’s name and statistical history that some owner will take him before he lasts that long.

What does this do for Tyler Boyd?

His ADP pre-Green injury is 67th, and that should climb a bit after he broke out in 2018 with 76 catches, 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns. If he’s getting WR1 volume for a few weeks even while facing stiffer competition from opposing secondaries, that would theoretically bode well … except there are lots of experts pointing out that Boyd didn’t fare as well with Green out last year:

KIRBY LEE-USA TODAY SPORTS Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon wants a long-term contract and has not reported to camp.