It has been a long, annoying, and stressful five months since the Chiefs won the Super Bowl and put a cap on the 2019 NFL season. We saw many major moves made in NFL Free Agency. A record breaking contract for Mahomes. And suffered through uncertainty of if the NFL would even come back. Now that we have a bit of a clearer picture of the 2020 season, it’s time to go through the fantasy football questions that have been nagging at me with training camps getting ready to open up around the league…
Will Christian McCaffery live up to the expectations?
CMC is a fantasy god. We know this. He is the consensus number one pick in all fantasy formats this year, no question. However, will he finish the year as the top running back? This is the first year where he is the slam dunk in everyone’s mock drafts. With a new head coach and another year of wear and tear; will CMC be the best player in fantasy football this year again?
What can we really expect from Deandre Hopkins in Arizona?
Hopkins is a hall of famer even at the young age of 28 years old. He has huge fans within the GCF company and I am one of them. He will always get my respect, but is he going to be a fantasy number one receiver? Within Kliff Kingsbury’s innovative offense Kyler Murray has thrived. It seems all he needs is a true deep threat, elite wide receiver to take it to an MVP level. But is that going to be the case? A change of scenery can sometimes effect a player immensely. I’m personally targeting D Hop in the second round, but I am concerned his status as a elite fantasy receiver may be at risk.
How good will Saquon Barkley be? And will he stay healthy?
Barkley was touted as a future hall of famer before he was even drafted by the NY Giants. A great guy off the field and a beast on it. I can’t tell you how many ESPN segments I watched of grown men and women mesmerized by Barkley’s thighs. It got to be too much. However, the Penn State legend proved that he could live up to the hype in his rookie year, and then had a poor second season due to injuries. Barkley finished strong the final weeks of the season going from outside the top 20 the the top overall fantasy player in the last few games. Just in time for all the fantasy owners teams he destroyed by having a poor first 13 weeks. Can Barkley bounce back? In a new offense and with his first full year with a new quarterback, I think he has a major shot to be the best fantasy player of the 2020 season.
Who will be the big bust in the first round?
It happens every year boys and girls. You take what you think is a stud skill position player in the first round and BOOM he tears his ACL, or BOOM he puts up 15 Carries for 43 yards and is splitting time with a rookie back you never heard of. Or even worse, you draft a stud wide receiver and go with the zero running back strategy and he plays like a third string receiver who can not find the end zone. The early rounds are littered with busts, but who will be the bust this year? My early money is on Dalvin Cook. We will find out soon. Some of us will find out the hard way.
What fantasy football player will come out of nowhere and shock the world?
This is another thing we see every year. A player comes from out of the blue and changes your fantasy teams destiny from championship hopeful to championship contender. we have seen it so many times With position players but even with defenses. The patriots defense last year was one of the top scoring fantasy units in all the football. As well as the Bears the year before. Who will come out of the blue and push a lucky team over the hump?
How will the season look in the age of COVID-19?
I wrote a blog last week detailing the issues between the NFL and the NFLPA. A league that has had almost half a year to prepare for a season in this unprecedented time seems to not really have all their ducks in a row. They are trying to piece everything together before the year starts, and both sides are presenting a united front, but it is hard for a fan not to wonder what the hell is really going on here? Why did the league drag their feet and not have all of the safety precautions as well as financial details worked out by now? I have faith they will work it out, but honestly I had that same faith that the MLB and their players union would work things out easily too. And we all know how that ended up.
Let us know your answers to these questions and send us your burning fantasy football questions @grandcentralfan on Twitter!