THE CANADIAN PRESS
We are less than a week away from the start of the 2017 CFL season which means it’s time to finalize your fantasy strategy for the upcoming year.
Now let me take a moment to say one of the great things about preparing my Week 1 lineup is just how normal it all seems. But it wasn’t that long ago when this wasn’t the reality. Yes, there were small outcrops of sites and many hard-working, football-loving people trying to launch a mainstream infrastructure for CFL fantasy. But it wasn’t really until the last couple years when TSN and this website started to make it a reality.
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So you wake up one morning, you see the news that DraftKings is partnered up with the league for the second year in a row and suddenly you’re combing through Jamie Nye’s fantasy preview as you’re yelling at your screen, “No Jamie, I will not invest in Ross Scheuerman!”
We went from a baron wasteland of CFL Fantasy to suddenly deciding if it makes sense to start Darian Durant in Week 1 hoping for some juicy revenge yards against his former team.
Now our site is filled with great articles to help guide fans through the hazards that come from 20 weeks of playing fantasy football, so I won’t try to duplicate the fantastic work being done by the Brandon C. Williams’ of the world. Instead, I’ll give you some simple Do’s and Don’ts from someone who has played some form of fantasy football for 24 years.
Fantasy Do’s
1. Every week you must take Bo Levi Mitchell, Jonathon Jennings or Mike Reilly as your quarterback.
I know they’re expensive and they will eat up a great deal of your weekly salary cap but they’re also the most consistent point producers week in and week out. Yes, I know there is glory in finding just the right week to take Matt Nichols and he goes off for 300-plus yards and three touchdowns, but chasing glory isn’t going to win you any league, nor will chasing those outlier weeks.
I know it means more work scouring team rosters for the lesser known running backs and receivers but that’s part of the fun — finding those interesting matchups. Trust me, spend eight seconds deciding on your quarterback and an agonizing hour or so on your skill position players. Oh, and I withhold the right to include Zach Collaros on this list IF he starts hulking out like the 2015 version of him.
2. Ignore 85% of what you see in the pre-season.
Riders pivot Brandon Bridge was among the pre-season’s top performers (The Canadian Press)
The hard part is sifting through all the action, worthless quotes from players and lies from coaching staffs to find the couple nuggets of truth. It’s tempting to identify trends in the pre-season but remember: There are only two games for each organization and what a team looks like in June ain’t who they are going to be in September.
Yes, Shakir Bell fumbled on the opening kickoff for the REDBLACKS, but that still doesn’t change the fact that he is really good at making people miss and is always . . . wait, Ottawa cut him anyway? Really? That dude is so dangerous with the ball in his hand. Okay, never mind my Bell point, let’s keep this moving. The only things you need to monitor in the pre-season are serious injuries and if an unknown/promising young player has crazy numbers in both games and does it early against opposing teams’ starters.
3. Ignore 100% of the fourth quarter of what you saw in the pre-season.
Just to add to my last point: What happens in the fourth quarter of a pre-season game stays in the fourth quarter of a pre-season game. I don’t care if a receiver looks like Ray Elgaard in the final frame, he’s most likely going up against defenders who will be looking for work by the time you read this.
4. Ignore when Chad Owens says he has something left in the tank.
I hate writing this one because Owens has been so much fun to watch and for a five-year span from 2010 ’till 2014 he was such a dangerous player from receiver to returner. But when you add the Molotov Cocktail of 35 years of age, a broken foot in early October and uncertainty at the quarterback position, and I would avoid Owens at all costs. Plenty of other options out there for you to draft from.
Prove me wrong, Chad! Prove me wrong.
5. Keep an eye on Edmonton’s No. 2 receiver situation.
Brandon Zylstra could be second in line for targets from Mike Reilly this season (The Canadian Press)
First let me say how much I am going to miss you Derel Walker now that you’re with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The best place to look for value at the receiver position is in Edmonton, where players like Shamawd Chambers, Brandon Zylstra and Vidal Hazelton will be attempting to replace the production of Walker, who recorded 198 receptions, 2,699 yards and 16 touchdowns in his two seasons.
That is a great deal of fantasy points that are just floating in the air waiting for someone to snatch it up. Please allow me to jump on the Zylstra bandwagon. A rookie last season, he put up impressive numbers in the final six games of the season after coming off of the practice roster.
6. Steal as much as you can from Derek Taylor and claim it as your own.
Trust me, I do this all the time. Taylor, who works on SportsCentre and CFL on TSN and has a great video series called Details with Derek Taylor, is a treasure trove of statistical information that you won’t find anywhere else. Here are some samples from the 2016 season:
A. Matt Nichols was pressured on 15.6 per cent of his passes compared to Bo Levi Mitchell, who faced pressure on 18.8 per cent of his passes (wait, so Winnipeg had a better offensive line than Calgary????)
B. Shakir Bell made a defender miss every 2.8 touches, the highest rate in the league.
C. Of Kenny Shaw’s 77 receptions, only once did he make a tackler miss.
D. Nik Lewis was fifth among receivers for yards after the catch and no receiver did a better job eluding defenders.
Check out his Twitter page, watch his videos and then steal as much as you can for your weekly lineups. Then, when you are at the hottest parties, casually drop that Kenny Shaw statistic and watch as the room universally applauds you for your knowledge and wit.
7. Ignore Ricky Ray’s 2014 season!!!
The biggest question for Ricky Ray might be who’s on the receiving end of his passes (The Canadian Press)
Listen, I am a big fan of disillusion. Anytime I look into a full length mirror it is an exercise of lying to myself. But you need to run away from Ricky Ray (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme but it’s a good slogan for the 2017 season). Anyone looking to start him will look at his gaudy completion percentage which is a product of both his legitimate god given skills, his work ethic AND the amount of time he threw screens and short out passes over the past several seasons.
They will also look back to 2014 and see nearly 4,600 yards and 28 touchdowns and wonder: ‘what if he could do that again?’ I’m going to go on a limb and say he won’t. Ray is three years older, I don’t trust his offensive line and I bet you can’t name more than one of his receivers. Seriously, how many starters at the receiver position can you name WITHOUT the help from Google or CFL.ca? …. I’ll wait.
You can write as many positive pieces about DeVier Posey as you want but I’m skeptical about the weapons around Ray.
8. Set your lineup early!
If you only take one thing from this column, please let it be this tip. I forgot last year several times and I write for the league. In Week 5 there is a game on a Wednesday and there are 11 Thursday games in total. Trust me, you will forget to set your lineup.
Get it done on Tuesday night and then feel free to make changes later. There is nothing worse than on a Thursday night you’re enjoying a good game, you have just watched a long touchdown run and you realize “oh yeah, I wanted to start Jerome Messam this week.”
Fantasy Don’ts
1. Be a hero.
This is the most important tip I can give. I get it: you want to find weekly diamonds in the rough. You want to be that guy that can proclaim you knew this was the week that Rob Bagg would go off. Congratulations, you fantasy hero! Unfortunately, most weeks, this sort of hubris will lead you to ruin. I’m not saying don’t take chances — you should — just don’t let it be the framework of your weekly lineups.
I’ll give you a quick example: I love Chris Rainey as much as the next person. We saw what he did in Week 1 to beat Calgary. BUT he had just 36 rushing attempts and 30 receptions. Rainey is great for the highlights, just not for your lineup.
2. Draft Ernest Jackson too high.
Ernest Jackson comes to the Als from a prolific offence in Ottawa (MontrealAlouettes.com)
Our last memory of Jackson was catching the game-winning touchdown in the Grey Cup. Jackson didn’t drop a pass in 2016 and has gone over 1,000 yards in the past two seasons. However, Jackson went from the best 1-2 punch at quarterback with Henry Burris and Trevor Harris to a Montreal offence that was second-last in points scored and dead-last in passing yards in 2016.
3. Be that poser guy
“What’s that? You think that Kamar Jordan is a sneaky dark horse in 2017?” Guess what, so do the rest of us. We all know what he did late in 2016. Plus, with no Bakari Grant, his total targets should go up. If you’re gonna act like the cock of the walk of CFL Fantasy than you have to step up your game. You have to give me some super sleepers before I’m impressed.
4. Freak out if Mike Reilly gets hurt.
I have written about James Franklin many times. The guy is a starter just waiting to get a chance to be a regular starter. I’m not saying start him over Jennings or Mitchell but his receivers will still be productive with him under centre.
5. Draft Darian Durant.
Don’t do it, Saskatchewan fans that are pining for the good ol’ days. Admit it CFL fans, we all thought Durant’s season may have been done at the end of May when he had to leave the practice field with an apparent knee injury.
6. Take a Tiger-Cats running back!
The lack of touches could hinder C.J. Gable’s value in 2017 (Dario Ayala/CFL.ca)
If 1998 Mike Pringle suddenly appeared on Barton Street he would only get 11 carries under Coach Kent Austin. Stealing from Derek Taylor (see, I practice what I preach!): the Tiger-Cats called running plays just 24 per cent of the time which was the lowest mark in the league.
7. Fall in love with what Kienan LaFrance did in the playoffs.
Yes, I know he looked great on that snowy day piling up 157 yards and a touchdown in a 35-23 win over Edmonton but just consider the big picture. The Saskatchewan Roughriders were second-last in rushing yards in 2016, LaFrance is dealing with a hamstring injury and the team has other running backs in the picture. I hope LaFrance has a long career but there is a good chance he ends up a remarkable one hit wonder.
