Dynasty Stock Watch: Fantasy News to Monitor (August 30)

Welcome to the Dynasty Stock Watch, a weekly article where I address the changes in the dynasty fantasy football landscape. This will help us as managers stay current on the most recent headlines, while also allowing us to look at player and team trends to stay ahead of the curve.

Today, I'm looking at some more players whose stock is on the rise of falling as we head toward the start of the season.

On The Rise Ty Chandler, RB, Minnesota Vikings As one of the deeper names in the 2022 rookie class, Ty Chandler is a dual-threat running back who was a solid producer in college. In his one full season as a starter at UNC, he posted 1,308 scrimmage yards, and he had 3,819 scrimmage yards in his five CFB seasons between Tennessee and UNC. He flashed this in the preseason when given the chance to separate himself from Kene Nwangwu and DeWayne McBride , and he did just that, with McBride cut Tuesday. There is a new treat in the building, as the team brought in Myles Gaskin Wednesday morning, but I believe Chandler showed enough to hold off Gaskin. We have yet to see what Chandler can do with any kind of NFL work (he had six touches across three games in 2022), but with an unproven workhorse in Alexander Mattison ahead of him, there is a chance Chandler earns a significant role in this highly productive offense. With the state of the running back position in the NFL, Chandler could give us a few years of flex-worthy value.

Dameon Pierce, RB, Houston Texans Dameon Pierce exploded onto the scene as a rookie, producing 1,104 scrimmage yards and finishing as the RB27 in half-PPR despite missing four games. Even after this, there were concerns about Pierce's long-term outlook as a fourth-round pick, especially when the team added a respectable back in Devin Singletary in free agency. Most of these concerns have gone away in the preseason, as Pierce has played only with the starting offense and has played a significant amount of third downs. This was a concern in his rookie season as the team used Rex Burkhead and others in this role. With an increase here and an offense predicated on establishing the run, we could see Pierce ascend into one of the better fantasy running backs in the league.

Elijah Moore, WR, Cleveland Browns Elijah Moore had a mini breakout as a rookie on the Jets, but he failed to recreate this in year two after the team added Garrett Wilson to the mix. He gets a fresh start this year in Cleveland, and reports are making it look like he could bounce back in a big way. Throughout camp and the preseason, we have seen him become a versatile player for this Browns offense, and he is in line to be the secondary receiver behind Amari Cooper . In addition to this, the Browns have been vocal about becoming more pass-heavy now that they have Deshaun Watson at the helm all year. The release of Kareem Hunt and their lack of additions in the backfield lead me to believe they will lean on Watson and this passing attack more, which will open plenty of opportunities for Moore to break out into a weekly starter for the foreseeable future.

Fading Jerry Jeudy, WR, Denver Broncos Jerry Jeudy is an immense talent who has flashed a huge upside in the fantasy realm but has battled injuries since entering the league. He has missed 13 games over the last four years and is injured to start the season with a week-to-week injury. He is coming off his best season where he caught 67 balls for 972 yards and six scores, which does give us some hope. On the flip side, the Broncos offense has been trending in the wrong direction for the past few years. They did trade for Sean Payton to hopefully right the ship, but his systems tend to feature the running backs more than multiple wide receivers. This is why I don’t expect Jeudy to ascend into the high-end tier of wide receivers in this offense. He feels like a solid WR2-3 in fantasy, which has value, but it may be time to cut ties if you can in the trade market.

Marquise Brown, WR, Arizona Cardinals Marquise Brown has always been a volatile player for fantasy, but it is about to get worse. He has only topped 800 receiving yards once in his career, in a career-year 2021 where he caught 91 balls for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns. This past season we saw him battle injury that limited him to only 709 yards, but he was on pace for a career year before he got hurt. Normally this would be a good trend, but in this case, I am not buying it. The Cardinals are going into full tank mode after cutting Colt McCoy and starting to trade assets off. This leaves them with either Joshua Dobbs (whom they just traded for) or rookie Clayton Tune at the helm until Kyler Murray is back — if he even returns. As a result, I expect Brown to regress dramatically this year and potentially even be traded as he is in the final year of his deal. It seems unlikely Brown ever hits a reliable ceiling for us in fantasy.

Dynasty Stock Watch: Fantasy News to Monitor (August 30)

On The Rise

Ty Chandler, RB, Minnesota Vikings

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