BARLEY DIVISION
DEAD MONEY MILLIONAIRES (DMM)
Owner: Lew Edmonds
2023 Season: 7th Place
2022 Season: 9th Place
The Team
(Elite Contract,
*not-graded)
QB:
Matthew "WhoMe?" Stafford, Tyson "TheBagelBoy" Bagent, Derek "FamilyTruckster" Carr
RB:
Evan "Gray" Hull, Zamir "ItsGood2Be" White, Tyler "Algier" Allgeier, Jaylen Warren, Jerome Ford
WR:
DJ Moore, Cooper Kupp, Jakobi Meyers, Adam "Gotsa" Thielen, DeVonta Smith, Allen "DeadMoney" Lazard, KJ Osborn
TE:
Donald Parham, TJ "Broken" Hockenson, Jake Ferguson
K*:
Nothing to see here...
DEF*:
Indianapolis, Cleveland
Elite Contract: (Top 10 QB, Top 15 RB, Top 20 WR, Top 5 TE) + (Under or within $5 for Auction Value)
“Sponsored” by Fantraxhq.com
Players to Watch (PTW):
Derek Carr (QB): The DeadMoney DID improve slightly in 2023, up from their 9th Place finish in 2022. At issue is the fact that DMM is spending more time in the Consolation Bracket than any Dynasty Fantasy owner would like (keep in mind, Lew picked this team up from the ashes of a Toilet King season in 2021). What truly helped the DeadMoneys in 2023 was the QB position. Jalen Hurts was Top 5 all but two weeks of the season. Now that DMM has traded Hurts - a remnant of the GregDaze (KAK) - he turns to two veteran QBs, both in potentially high scoring offenses. The one to watch is Derek Carr. Carr is in his 2nd Year on his 2nd Team. He did little to nothing while in Las Vegas to make Davonta Adams great again, and in his maiden voyage under center in NOLa did little to improve his image as a winner. If he can take a solid step forward with the talent he has around him, I like DMM's chances at competing for a 6th place playoff spot. DMM has enough talent on his squad to stay competitive in Barley Division - a division with no team truly breaking out as the "alpha." However, if Carr fails to take the next step with a team that really needs him to put up the points...well...then the DeadMoneys will have hoped they nabbed another option in the Fall Auction as Stafford may not make it through another season.
Zamir White (RB): DMM truly struggled at the RB position in 2023. So much so, that Lew decided to trade his one Top 5er Jalen Hurts for a RB who is postured to blow up. Reviewing DMM's RBs in 2023 is like reviewing Trump's cabinet in 2020; ain't no one left cuz they all got fired or traded. Now DMM enters the Fall Auction and 2024 season with 2, maybe 3 RBs all capable of pulling in Top 10 production. No one is more consequential for the DeadMoneys than Zamir White. Zamir gets little love among fantasy analysts in terms of rankings, keep in mind that those same analysts had nothing to say about Kyren Williams at the start of 2023. Indeed, it may be too easy to pick Zamir as a breakout player, and thus many are glass half emptying the workhorse. White, if he breaks out, could be the game changer that Lew needs to earn his first Barley Division Championship. This will be particularly true if Jaylen Warren and Jerome Ford actually take the RB1 position from Harris and Chubb, respectively. If White turns out to be a Kirk Gagnon-like Vegas gamble, then DMM may find himself fighting to get out of Toilet King contention at the end of 2024.
Practice Squad (Taxi)
Josh Downs (WR - RS2)
Roman Wilson (WR - RS1)
Kimani Vidal (RB - RS1)
Tyrone Tracy (RB - RS1)
The PiTS
(TK’s Player in the Spotlight) - After establishing himself as the Charger's RB1, Kimani Vidal races into the Top 10 for running backs. Turns out Lew stumbled into a jewell while trading down 7 times to select him in the 2024 DFFL Rookie Draft. DMM gives him a contract by week 3, and doesn't look back. With DMM's RBs all cooking (making up for failure in his receiving corps), DMM jockeys between 1st and 2nd place for Barley Division Champion.
CAP (2024) - $120 ($10DM)
Draft Capital (2025 +): 13 Picks (8x 1st)
OVERALL GRADE
D
The DeadMoney Millionaires have no elite contracts, with over paid DJ Moore (22) and Solid Contract DeVonta Smith (23) the only players getting close to that criteria. That starts DMM at a terrifying F as a grade!
Compounding problems for the DeadMoneys is the fact that they have almost no depth with very little bench open for the Fall Auction.
As a positive, DMM can compete to bring in some wide reciever starters/depth in the Fall Auction as he has some CAP to use. At issue is the talent depth in the Fall Auction. One could argue that his Taxi has better options than the Waiver Wire.
The most significant positive for DMM's State of "Franchise" is his ownership of over EIGHT FIRST ROUND PICKS!! Indeed, DMM could use upwards of FIVE of these 1sts to attain more than enough talent to make him competitive - not just to win Barley Division, but also to get deep into the playoffs.
Guessing that DMM attains some receiver depth in the Fall Auction, makes some significant trades for talent, but keeps most of his picks for future Rookie talent, I see DMM in a position to be a darkhorse candidate like TMW. While ALL of Barley Division exists in this category for achieving relevance outide the division and in the playoffs, DMM could feasibly be the "D" that turns out to be a "B+" by the middle of next season. So much speculation in these assessments, but especially when it comes to how a manager uses their Picks.
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