That smug sense of self-satisfaction—you guessed it—is from yours truly. Back in my Week 8 Dynasty Stock Watch, I discussed the viability of Brock Purdy as a deep stash. While I viewed it more of a hedge bet against Trey Lance, the injury concerns of Jimmy Garoppolo were an obvious oversight. I'll get into that more later.
Purdy's emergence illuminates one pressing concern I have about most dynasty leagues. If you don't have substantial number of bench spots, it's not really dynasty to me. If every breakout player amounts to a game of FAAB, you effectively have removed evaluation as part of the league process. Sure, the mind games of FAAB are all well and good, but without the ability to call your shots with deep bench stashes, you're removing one of the differentiators that separates homers who keep their team's sixth WR and the part-time GMs and scouts who can identify talent. Flex your evaluation talents and consider a deep bench like a stock portfolio where you can cultivate trade value.
Let's get to the dynasty stock watch...
Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
Expectations are always a bit high for Lamar Jackson and a so-so game seems to hit his value harder than his quarterback peers. Likewise, a minor knee injury has taken a big bite out of Jackson’s trade value. On FantasyCalc, he's down about 25% in 1QB dynasties and about the same percentage in superflex. It's a less pronounced shift on KeepTradeCut. I would keep in mind that FantasyCalc bases value changes on trades (people who roster the player) and KTC consumes player valuations from anyone who visits the site. Of course, managers who move the player think less of the player than the managers who keep the player. All that said, I would test the fortitude of your league’s Jackson manager.
He will be 26 soon and while one could argue Jackson won't have the long career of a Tom Brady given his running style of play, Jackson should very easily have another five elite years left. I suppose you could view him as less valuable than somebody like Joe Burrow (who is older than Jackson, weird right?) because Burrow could play another 10 years. But if you're planning out a decade, you're playing the game wrong anyway. Jackson still doesn't have the right receivers and they're using kick returners (Devin Duvernay) and speedy slot receivers (Rashod Bateman), underachievers (Demarcus Robinson) and a decade past his prime DeSean Jackson. Do I trust Baltimore to ever invest in a stable of deep threats to best use Lamar's gunslinger habits? No. But even a team that so incompetently manages this roster, can't keep a running back healthy, can't add an actual deep threat receiver (Bateman's great, but going deep is not his bread and butter) for their star player still produces a top-five fantasy season for Jackson. I'm buying, tweaked knee or not.
Price check: 2023 1st, 2023 2nd
Superflex: Two 2023 1sts, 2023 2nd
Win-now: Buy/Hold
Rebuild: Buy/Hold
