Roundtable Week 10: Longshot Victory Laps

Photo: Bob Donnan, USA Today Sports

Welcome to Week 10 of the 2022 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. Topics are now split into separate features.

This week's roundtable features these four topics:

• Longshot Victory Laps (see below)
• Fantasy Shockers of 2022
• From A Mile Away...And Still Missed
• Is Justin Fields' Redraft Value Sustainable?

LongShot Victory Laps

Matt Waldman: Pick a development you knew was remote, but you called it and it's either working out or showing signs of doing so.

Sean Settle: A player I was high on for a major rebound this season was Josh Jacobs. He was gaining Davante Adams on the outside to prevent teams from stacking the box, Hunter Renfrow showed he can be a top 15 receiver given the opportunity, and Darren Waller is a big enough target to draw the interest of a linebacker on every play. With back-to-back 1,000 rushing-yard seasons to start his career, Jacobs always had the ability to excel.

Touchdowns were never an issue despite splitting carries at the goal line last season. This year, Jacobs has a career-high of 5.4 yards per carry and is on pace to shatter his career rushing mark. His receiving numbers are in line with last season, and he is on pace to tie his rushing touchdown record with 12. Jacobs fell down the draft board for many and became an RB3/Flex option in many standard leagues. He was an easy choice at that price tag for me and has continued to pay off so far this season.

Jordan McNamara: Jalen Hurts development as a passer was apparent at the beginning of last year. The team dropped back to pass more than 40 times per game in the first half of the season before falling below 30 times per game in the second half of the season. Their response to the offensive change was to trade for and extend A.J. Brown. I liked the potential of Hurts if Philadelphia went back to a high volume, which they have done thus far this season with Hurts cashing in on the opportunity. Sometimes the decisions teams make are transparent about the direction they want to go, and this is one of those cases.

Sam Wagman: I believed that Zach Ertz would yet again show his consistency and be a top-five tight end in points per game. A lot of noise was made by the Arizona Cardinals this offseason offensively. They brought in Marquise Brown, and even with the DeAndre Hopkins suspension to start the year, Ertz figured to take a step back with the drafting of top tight end Trey McBride in the draft. No worries, though, as Ertz is currently the TE3 in PPR formats. He doesn't wow anybody, but he only has one game under 10 fantasy points and has finished as a top 10 option every week except two weeks. He's a must-start on a weekly basis at a position that has very little consistency.

Dave Kluge: The amount of pushback I got this off-season for touting Allen Lazard almost made me question myself. The basis for my stance leaned heavily on history and narrative, and that can be a fickle game. But I’m glad I stuck to my guns. Lazard has had at least 100 yards or a touchdown in every game where he has been healthy this year. Despite the slow start to his career, Lazard has seamlessly stepped into the coveted role of Aaron Rodgers’ WR1. In March, I had Lazard pegged as a top-36 wide receiver in fantasy.

After the Packers opted against using their first-round picks on wide receivers, I bumped him up a bit more. I bumped him even higher when Sammy Watkins was the only free-agent signing. By the time the fantasy football draft season hit, Lazard was my WR22. I drafted him as my WR4 or WR5 in almost every league, and he has been a consistent contributor.

Jonathan Morris: I would love to just say Ken Walker in this spot, but realistically I was more of a believer in the Seahawks' running game, so I must include Rashaad Penny in this victory lap. I was targeting both running backs in hopes that one would run away with the job or if the unfortunate injury happened, I would have a stud who was guaranteed an abundance of touches every week.

I lucked out a bit with the way the injuries played out and only had a few weeks to sit through a split backfield. Now I have a potential league winner in Kenneth Walker, whose draft stock had sunk even lower after it was announced he wouldn’t be healthy enough to start the year (once again, I can’t brag too much here because Walker’s stock sinking only elevated Penny who I was targeting as well).

Walker has been highly regarded for years now, and after watching his running style in the Big 10, I was excited to target him in fantasy after Pete Carroll and the Seahawks spent a second-round pick on him. Carroll’s Seahawks backs have always found success, and Walker has far succeeded in the already lofty expectations I had for him.

Craig Lakins: I was trying to acquire Rhamondre Stevenson wherever I could this summer, knowing it was a bet on his talent and development in his second year as a pro. The injuries to the other backs there couldn't be predicted, but it was clear that Damien Harris was due for touchdown regression from last season's 15. Some of that had to go to Stevenson. Once Ty Montgomery went down, the passing down role belonged to Stevenson as well. It's resulted in him being an RB1 on the season and averaging 19.8 fantasy points over his last seven games.

Waldman: Chris Olave. He was my No.1 receiver pre-draft, post-draft, and my highest-rated rookie wide receiver with starter value in my preseason fantasy rankings. As someone who has earned some grief for my high ranking of Hakeem Butler and Dante Pettis, my preseason rookie rankings of A.J. Brown, Justin Jefferson, and Olave as the best immediate fits and fantasy starters year one over the past few years is worth a few laps.

If you'd like to see the rest of the topics, once again, you can find them here:

• Fantasy Shockers of 2022
• From A Mile Away...And Still Missed
• Is Justin Fields' Redraft Value Sustainable?

Thanks, and good luck this week!