ZEKE HAVOC
Twists & turns in Elliott ban leave limited fantasy choices
DRAFTING Ezekielkil Elliottlli has become like getting sucked into a fantasy soap opera. Every week, there is a big twist. Will Zeke get to play? Will his ban be reinstated? How are the Cowboys dealing with the distraction? You’ll find out this week on “As the Zeke Turns” (because comparing this melodrama to the show “Dallas” is just a little too on-the-nose).
Everyone knew drafting Elliott was a gamble. You risked possibly losing him for six games while dreaming a subprime draft slot would reward handsomely if the ban could have been avoided.
Then came this week’s bombshell episode: An injunction to delay the suspension until the actual appeal hearing was denied, meaning the Elliott ban will begin immediately. The appeal hearing is set for Dec. 1, meaning Zeke is out until a ruling comes from that hearing. So, as the plot thickens, you need to plan for a full sixgame absence.
Assuming a the ban runs full course, he will be eligible to return in Week 16, championship week in most fantasy leagues. And that week he faces a solid Seattle defense. If your league plays Week 17 (it shouldn’t), he gets the stingy Eagles run D. Because of the constant ambiguity surrounding the situation during the height of bye-week hell, you might not have been able to keep Alfred Morris or Darren McFadden or Rod Smith on your roster as backup plans.
If you have Morris, you should be reasonably confident plugging him in the lineup. We won’t start him ahead of provable commodities, like Carlos Hyde, Alvin Kamara or Doug Martin, but we put him in ahead of the C.J. Anderson/Aaron Jones variety.
Can you survive with McFadden or Smith? This is more perplexing. We expect Morris to get first crack at the “primary” job, which we think will be mainly non-passing personnel sets, and we envision some type of split between McFadden and Smith for the passing-down role. Since we prefer younger backs to ol der backs, we hedge toward Smith here, but we would like other options, particularly this week, such as Orleans Darkwa, Kenyan Drake.
We lean toward these options because of the uncertainty between DMC and Smith. But this soap opera has made surprise turns before. Tune in this week to see if it has another in store.