Daily Archives: August 29, 2022

The current situation: Tua Tagovailoa has never played a full season in the NFL. He's never reached 20 total touchdowns in a season. Yet, he's one of 2022's top fantasy QB sleeper candidates and one of the players with the highest expectations for the season upon him.

Why?

Well, even though he's just entering Year 3 in the NFL, he's also entering the absolute best offensive ecosystem he's been in since his college days at Alabama. His new head coach, Mike McDaniel, is considered one of the brightest offensive minds in the NFL, being part of the 2017 Falcons' Super Bowl-bound offense; he was most recently the offensive coordinator for San Francisco.

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The Dolphins have also set up Tua for success, with Tyreek Hill in the Miami fold after a huge offseason trade, Chase Edmonds and Raheem Mostert added to the backfield, and Jaylen Waddle and Mike Gesicki already in place as explosive talents.

Few teams, let alone a single quarterback, can boast such a promising collection of surrounding attributes.

Will he meet expectations? DEPENDS ON YOUR EXPECTATIONS. Tua's comparisons to Drew Brees in terms of physical measurables and accuracy along with his NFL draft standing have seemed to buoy his career expectations ever since the Dolphins took him fifth overall in 2020. But what if he is just what he is: An average quarterback who can run a professional offense, but won't deliver high-flying numbers or results? It's not like the league doesn't pump out more of those passers than it does elite ones.

But beyond just Tua, his shiny new ecosystem does have some holes in it. Everyone acknowledges McDaniel knows offense, but does he know how to be the head coach of a team and mentor a young quarterback? It's not like Jimmy Garoppolo was putting up huge fantasy weeks during McDaniel's tenure as offensive coordinator. Maybe the Dolphins field a potent running game this season as opposed to an offense that turns Tua into a fantasy star.

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In fact, McDaniel's hire might actually be better for Tyreek Hill than for Tagovailoa. Don't forget, McDaniel helped turn Deebo Samuel into a fantasy cheat code last year, and if anyone has similar yards-after-the-catch skills to Deebo, it's Hill. That might help Tua's bottom line, but hey Jimmy G finished as the 17th-highest scoring fantasy QB in 2021, while Deebo finished as the second-highest scoring wide receiver.

In his defense, Tua is being drafted in the late-13th round according to current Yahoo ADP. So while his expectations are high in reality, he doesn't have to do much to return or surpass his fantasy draft investment. The real question should be, will he enter the upper echelon of fantasy quarterbacks this season? I'm not betting on it.

The current situation: Javonte Williams, in limited 2021 work, rushed for 903 yards, had another 316 through the air and scored seven times. He was forced to share the backfield with wily veteran Melvin Gordon, yet we were lucky to see what Williams could do when he had the backfield to himself 178 total yards and a TD in Week 12. And the fantasy community is VERY excited about the prospect of Williams being the Broncos' featured back. His current third-round ADP is good for the 14th running back being selected in drafts.

Will he meet expectations? NO, UNFORTUNATELY. That verdict seems very final for a player of this caliber, but we've seen this story in the NFL before. A young, talented running back gets everyone in the fantasy community excited. His ADP crashes through the stratosphere. Fantasy managers who land the buzzy back feel like they're in an exclusive club, ready to receive the laurels of the selection.

And then the young RB makes an error in pass protection or drops a couple of passes or isn't the second coming of rookie Todd Gurley or his coaching staff doesn't want to put too much pressure on his shoulders. Enter the bane of all our existences: The RBBC, where that young talent has to share the backfield with a reliable veteran and nobody wins in fantasy.

Like I said, we've seen it countless times before; it happened to Clyde Edwards-Helaire recently and Adrian Peterson is the king of veteran vultures. And it'll likely happen to Williams this season, with Gordon back in the fold. And as much as we all love Javonte, we all know coaching staffs just can't say no to a reliable, talented veteran (we're looking at you, Lions). And we can't deny that Gordon who still hasn't turned 30 was really, really good last year; 1,131 total yards, 10 touchdowns and a top-20 fantasy RB finish is nothing to sneer at. To think that the Broncos staff is just going to relegate Gordon to the bench for a pass play here and there is hard to believe.

Next year, when Williams will still just be 23, seems more likely for the massive breakout we all know he's capable of.

The current situation: After being one of the most dominant fantasy forces in all of football, Christian McCaffrey is trying to make his way back from two lost seasons. It might even be a stretch to call them seasons, as he played a total of just 10 games the last two years.

Injuries took CMC off the field and out of fantasy managers' lineups. First, 2020 featured a high ankle sprain, a shoulder strain and then a thigh injury. He then missed most of the season in 2021 with a strained hamstring and another ankle injury.

Christian McCaffrey is trying to regain his place at the top of the fantasy running back group. (Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Yet, CMC is expected to be fully healthy heading into Week 1 as part of a new-look Panthers offense thanks to who will be under center.

Will he meet expectations? ABSOLUTELY YES. I mean, let's also not kid ourselves; Baker Mayfield who was officially named the Panthers' starter isn't Peyton Manning reborn or anything, but he's also not some scrub. You could make the argument that a healthy Mayfield is the best quarterback CMC has ever had to work with (I might not agree, but I'd listen to the argument nonetheless).

I know his recent seasons look horrible, but there are actually some silver linings to CMC's recent injuries. First of all, he hasn't suffered either of the two bigger injuries that have claimed other star runners over the years, namely issues with an Achilles or ACL. Also, even with this injury "history" Draft Sharks still grades CMC with a "5" durability score (5 being the highest), which considers him able to produce at a high level when dealing with or returning from minor injuries. And produce at a high level McCaffrey does, most recently collecting three top-15 fantasy scoring weeks (including two top-five) when he returned in 2021 after his first injury absence.

We know what CMC can do when he's healthy; he IS the Panthers' offense and one of the most dominant backs in football. He's also STILL ONLY 26 YEARS OLD. To call him injury prone at this stage of his career sounds like a reach. What isn't a reach is selecting him near the top of fantasy drafts this season.

[2022 Fantasy Draft Rankings: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | DEFs | Ks]

The current situation: Justin Jefferson is just the latest in a recent class of young wide receivers who are entering the NFL and producing from their very first snap.

And Jefferson might just be the best in the bunch.

Jefferson finished as the fourth-highest scoring wide receiver in 2021 fantasy, and he came second in yardage only to Cooper Kupp, who had a historic season. Jefferson isn't shy to history either, putting together the most receiving yards in the first two years of a career in NFL history (3,016 receiving yards, 17 touchdowns).

He'll walk into a Minnesota offense during his age-23 season that is expected to receive an infusion of excitement in 2022. The Vikings hired new head coach Kevin O'Connell, who most recently coordinated the Rams' Super Bowl-winning offense. No big deal.

O'Connell is expected to bring innovation to the Vikings' passing game which is great news for Jefferson.

Will he meet expectations? HE DEFINITELY CAN, BUT PROBABLY WON'T. Before you unleash the hounds, hear me out. There are a lot of factors that as of yet remain too unsolidified for me to say, "Yeah, Justin Jefferson will deliver Cooper Kupp's 2021 in 2022." Things like that new offense in Minnesota; it's all sunshine and rainbows now, but we won't know what it actually looks like until Week 1. Will they spread the ball around more, implementing Dalvin Cook's skills as a pass-catcher and the emerging KJ Osborn and the always-savvy Adam Thielen?

Things like, is Kirk Cousins even good enough to help JJ reach those heights on a new offense? Cousins has rightly been underrated most of his career, but he's also no Matthew Stafford, and he's also 34 years old; we're not talking about a talented young quarterback who's finally getting a passer-friendly offense.

We're talking about a veteran who's prone to as many bonehead moves as he is great ones. JJ can most definitely outplay a subpar QB, but I don't think anyone would argue that this would be a much easier expectation to reach if his quarterback was in a higher tier.

I love Justin Jefferson and would take him with a top-five fantasy pick this season. But his expectations are that of an eventual triple-receiving-crown winner, and that's just a bit too steep for me to bet on. The same way we don't expect Kupp to repeat is the same way I don't expect Jefferson to hit those numbers. Now, if one of the other Vikings' talented weapons were to go down for a long stretch, then it'd be easier for him to get there. After all, the answer to that problem would just be, "More Jefferson."

The current situation: Much digital ink has already been spilled about the disappointment Allen Robinson wrought on fantasy managers last season. No need to get too much into it here; it feels disrespectful to keep spinning that wheel, especially when it regards such a talented receiver forced to play in a nigh-impossible situation in 2021.

Robinson had made a career of outplaying bad quarterbacks for years, but everyone has their limits; even Tom Brady lost a few Super Bowls, after all.

2022, however, represents the first year in ARob's eight-season career (he's 28 years old) where he'll not only be in a great offensive ecosystem, but one of the very best in the entire league. He will also be playing with arguably the most talented teammates he's ever had in quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp. We saw what Odell Beckham Jr. was able to do in limited work with the eventual Super Bowl champs. The arrow is pointing exceptionally high for ARob.

Will he meet expectations? YES. Unless Allen Robinson reached his physical peak last season (highly unlikely), there's almost no negative to his 2022 outlook. With Kupp inhaling most, if not all, of the defensive attention, Robinson will be able to run circles around overmatched defenders; recall, Robinson was considered one of the better route-running alpha wideouts in football before last year's disaster. Not many teams can boast having a talent like that as their second wideout. As long as Stafford stays healthy and Sean McVay continues to innovate with the offensive playbook, ARob, with his individual talent and that of those around him, should smash his current sixth-round ADP to smithereens.

The current situation: Is there anyone with more hype surrounding him this fantasy draft season than Gabriel Davis?

I guess it's warranted, when you consider what Davis did in last season's playoffs and what he's walking into in Buffalo this season.

The Bills may have fallen to the Chiefs in the Divisional game, but Davis was the People's Winner. The then-22-year-old delivered an unbelievable 8-10-201-4 line in that game. That incredible explosion came after many flashes of big-play ability throughout his young career.

Davis is now expected to be Josh Allen's No. 2 target across from Stefon Diggs on one of the most prolific passing offenses in football. Not a bad job to have.

Will he meet expectations? YES. The numbers are just in Davis' favor. First of all, the Bills live and die via Allen's talents, whether on the ground or through the air; let's be honest their "running game" is pretty much just a way to give Allen a breather. Allen is also not known to throw to his backs; the man likes to throw to his wideouts and tight ends. And with Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders out of town, there's a plethora of available targets whose majority are likely set to be absorbed by Davis.

We can't buy too much into preseason and training camp hearsay, but we also can't ignore it, either. And if you've been keeping track, Davis' hype train has only been given more fuel throughout the offseason; at one point Davis was being called the best wideout in Bills' camp yes, with Diggs on the field.

Increased role + offensive ecosystem + strong individual talent. The way I see it, the only way Davis doesn't meet and/or exceed expectations is injury, or if Allen loses trust in him and decides to look Dawson Knox or Isaiah McKenzie's way instead. Considering what Davis did in the playoffs when the Bills needed it most I don't see that happening.

Read more from the original source:

Fantasy Football: Which players have the highest expectations in 2022 and will they reach them? - Yahoo Sports

Amazon is about to change how you watch or don't watch the NFL.

After lucrative rights negotiations and months of high-profile talent acquisition, "Thursday Night Football" will makes its Amazon Prime debut on Sept. 15. Up first: an AFC West showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers, featuring rivals with Super Bowl aspirations and two of the game's most electric young quarterbacks. It's a fine way to kick things off.

Take note that's a Week 2 matchup. The NFL is certainly excited about its new partnership with the America's dominant retailer and the roughly $1 billion annual rights fee that comes with it. It's just not limiting its Sept. 8 season kickoff between the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills to a streaming audience. NBC will handle that game. Which brings us to the crux of the change.

Not since the advent of the RedZone channel or perhaps the 2006 premier of "Thursday Night Football" itself has the business of delivering the NFL to fans undergone such a seismic shift.

NFL fans without Amazon Prime have a decision to make this fall. (AP Photo/Doug Benc)

The most glaring impact of Amazon's foray into NFL coverage is that one must subscribe to Amazon Prime to watch out-of-market "TNF" games (in-market games will still air on local airwaves). This won't be an issue for a large swath of fans.

CEO Jeff Bezos announced in 2021 that global Prime membership had exceeded 200 million worldwide. Amazon doesn't divulge specific numbers of U.S. subscribers, but industry estimates have placed that tally anywhere between 147 million and 172 million members in recent years, a number that was inflated at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as more consumers opted to have goods delivered to their homes.

In short, if you're a football fan (or not) in America, there's a good chance you already subscribe. But there are plenty of NFL fans out there who don't for myriad reasons, whether it be ethical, budgetary or otherwise. Amazon announced in February that the price of membership is going up from $119 annually to $139. For football fans who don't already subscribe, that now becomes the cost of watching "TNF." Is it worth it? That all depends on the individual consumer.

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For some, the price will certainly be too much for a single game a week amid an increasingly fractured streaming landscape that's asking sports fans to shell out subscription fees across multiple platforms. You're a UFC fan? Get an ESPN+ subscription. Baseball? Sign up for Peacock. And Apple TV+. Wanna watch all the Premier League action? Peacock again. Now Amazon is hoping you'll come on over to watch the NFL.

There is one exception that's reportedly about to be announced bars and restaurants. They won't have to work streaming into their infrastructure.

After initially reporting earlier this month that Amazon agreed to have DirectTV continue to provide "TNF" coverage to bars and restaurants, Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reported Tuesday that an official announcement was imminent, with comments from DirecTV Chief Content Officer Rob Thun that seemed to confirm it.

So fans will likely be able to hit up their favorite sports bar to catch "TNF" in the fall. For fans declining to subscribe because of budgetary concerns, a night out with a bar/restaurant tab might not be the answer.

This is one of the most anticipated elements of the new football season. How strong is Amazon's broadcast game as it takes on America's king of sports? All signs point to very.

Amazon has kept Bezos in an ongoing competition with Elon Musk as the world's richest man. After committing roughly $1 billion annually in rights fees, Amazon's not skimping on the product.

Amazon's secured deals with a number high-profile sportscasters, most notably play-by-play icon Al Michaels, who will anchor the platform's game coverage. Exact terms of his deal weren't disclosed, but it's reportedly in the range of $15 million annually. He'll be joined in the booth by analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who will moonlight with Amazon alongside his regular job as ESPN's top college football voice.

"Thursday Night Football" viewers will hear a familiar voice on the call in Al Michaels. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

The studio show will include the likes of fellow NFL and broadcasting mainstays Tony Gonzalez and Richard Sherman, as well as veteran NFL reporter Michael Smith and host Charissa Thompson, who will reportedly take on the role in addition to her Sunday duties as the host of "Fox NFL Kickoff." (Aqib Talib was also scheduled to take part, but he decided to step away in light of his brother's alleged involvement in a shooting death at a youth football game in Texas.)

Will the investment in talent lead to more subscribers and viewers? Amazon believes so. At least that's the company line.

"This new duo will certainly resonate with our viewers and keep them coming back to watch on Prime Video and Twitch week after week," Amazon's head of ad sales Danielle Carney said in an April company statement in response to the acquisitions of Michaels and Herbstreit.

Will the broadcast talent really make a dent on Amazon's bottom line? That's difficult to quantify. Matchups and stakes drive ratings, not who's on the mic. The real value here is in legitimacy.

Amazon's "TNF" coverage is the first step in what's expected to be more exclusive streaming NFL coverage see the ongoing "NFL Sunday Ticket" negotiations. It can't afford to present a product that's not in line with the NFL's standards. The league surely wouldn't have done business with Amazon without quality assurances. Expect some growing pains, but an overall premium product.

A quality product is in place. An unusually enticing Thursday night slate featuring Ravens-Buccaneers, Colts-Broncos, Packers-Titans and Bills-Patriots, in addition to its AFC West kickoff, also bodes well for Amazon. But it's reportedly already bracing advertisers for a ratings dip from previous seasons.

The Thursday night lineup features some enticing matchups starting with Chiefs-Chargers. (Kirby Lee/Reuters)

AdAge reported on Monday that Amazon told advertisers in a recent sales pitch to expect lower numbers while charging less for 30-second ad spots than Fox did on Thursday nights last season.

"Amazon took estimates down pretty significantly versus what there was out there from Fox," an ad executive told AdAge.

Meanwhile, Nielsen will provide data to back up those viewership numbers in a first-of-its kind streaming deal. Amazon and Nielsen announced on Tuesday that they reached a three-year agreement for the media data firm to provide ratings numbers for "TNF." It marks the first time in Nielsen's history that the firm responsible for tabulating traditional TV ratings will report on streaming numbers.

So is this a problem for Amazon? Not likely. The reduced viewership estimates were surely baked in long before Amazon put in its final bid for the streaming rights. Common sense dictates that a product that was previously available over airwaves and traditional cable and satellite formats won't be as easy for viewers to access on a less-familiar streaming platform.

Meanwhile, Amazon's financial structure and motivations differ from Fox's, ESPN's and NBC's. Prime is a portal for Amazon to generate revenue through other avenues. Folks who tune into watch "TNF" may stick around to watch the latest offering from Amazon Studios. They may stumble upon a third-party studio in the Prime network that generates revenue for Amazon.

The New York Times reports that streaming services like HBO Max and Starz pay Amazon 15% or more of each subscription sold through Prime. Per the Times, these deals generate more than $3 billion annually. And that's before millions log in every week to watch NFL football.

And now there are reported talks of a Black Friday game streaming on Prime. Because what better way to keep folks home and out of the Best Buy and Walmart aisles on the busiest shopping day of the year?

Meanwhile, in the era of streaming and DVR, live sports is the last vestige of must-watch commercial live TV. Sports fans largely want to watch games as they happen, even if it means sitting through ads they're conditioned to bypass elsewhere. And a bad day at the NFL ratings office is still monumentally better than any other broadcast's best day.

Per the Sports Business Journal, 95 of the top 100 rated TV programs in 2021 were sports games. Of those, 75 were NFL games. Per the report, the NFL claimed 15 of the top 16-rated broadcasts in 2021 and 29 of the top 31. President Joe Biden's inauguration snuck in as the seventh-most watched program of the year while his address to Congress in April ranked 17th. Football is king and a lucrative opportunity for Amazon.

This all adds up to the inevitable. Amazon's NFL streaming deal is not a blip. It's the future. Traditional broadcasts aren't going away. But streaming's foothold backed up by deep pockets such as Amazon's and Apple's are an ingrained and growing part of the sports and NFL landscape.

For consumers, it comes down to priorities and how much they're willing to pay.

Read this article:

How Amazon's foray into NFL streaming impacts the viewer and the business - Yahoo Sports

Through City Swing, Tari Cash is disrupting stereotypes surrounding golf. (Photo: City Swing)

Sports have the incredible ability to bring individuals of all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels together. However, it's not as simple to expose people to various athletics. One woman is looking to change that narrative, and she's using golf as a means to introduce more women and minorities to the sport.

Tari Cash is the founder of City Swing, a Washington, D.C.-based virtual golf facility that allows individuals of all experience levels to put their skills to the test. Cash's motivation for starting the brand catapulted following an episode in April 2018. According to CNN, police were called on five Black women for allegedly playing golf too slowly at a semi-private course in Pennsylvania they'd recently joined.

Cash has capitalized off the early success with City Swing Foundation, a nonprofit that provides access, free lessons and equipment to underrepresented and unserved communities in the nation's capital.

The former Under Armour exec spoke with Yahoo Sports about City Swing's birth, misconceptions about golf and a greater need for minority inclusion within the golf community.

Yahoo Sports: How did you come up with the concept of City Swing?

Tari Cash: "We started the company in 2018 and I think the years leading up to its inception is when it really started to click how much I was using golf as a strategic tool to create relationships with executives at the companies I worked with. They were seeing me differently after we played golf together or spoke about our our shared love for golf. At the same time, indoor golf and golf simulation was becoming a trend. It was very popular in Asia and was slowly making its way to the United States, but hadn't really jumped off.

"So, the intersection of me understanding that this was an important tool for business reasons and the fact that there was not an indoor golf simulator in D.C., those were really the key points that gave me the confidence to say, 'Let's go do this.' We started with a popup in 2018 just to see if it made sense. Thankfully, it really resonated with the local community and once we got validation, I thought, 'Let's try to create a company.' "

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YS: Why do you think golf was the solution to connecting with executives compared to other method you tried in the past?

TC: "Yeah. I love that question. When golfing, you're spending four to five hours with these people. You're put into a foursome and the majority of athletic activity is a very small fraction of the total round. Most of the time you're riding in a cart or you're walking to your ball, so you're talking about family, vacations, business, etc. And that's how quality relationships are built when not in a conference room or a dinner where you're maybe getting 10 minutes with someone. Even though it's a long round, it's a much more efficient way to build deep relationships."

YS: I want to pivot to your foundation. Is that something that you knew you wanted to establish when you first started City Swing?

TC: "Yeah, I did. City Swing was born in 2018 and the foundation two years later. But we were always a social impact company from the very beginning. My mission has always been to create spaces where women and people of color feel really comfortable and connected to the game. The foundation is really our way of being able to go to those groups, provide a really fun and free first golfing experience and hopefully give them the tools needed to truly learn the game. My philosophy is that as you learn golf, those other characteristics like leadership and team building will also develop."

YS: What is a misconception that people normally have when you first interact with them about their golfing experience and how is City Swing working to eliminate those misconceptions?

TC: "I think the biggest misconception is that you need to be good at golf to start playing. So many people, particularly women, find they are actually ready to play on the course for a long time before they actually begin. That really only comes with time and practice. Particularly for women, we tend to wait, I think, a little longer than necessary to learn the game.

"At City Swing, we're going to teach you the terminology, how to use the equipment and, of course, the etiquette. There are techniques to golf that makes playing seamless. Once you nail those down, the focus can be on fostering healthy relationships. It's just about going at your own pace. We all remember the first time we learned to do anything, right?

"Women of color are an underrepresented group in general, and they haven't been playing golf because they haven't been invited into the game. Not because there's a lack of interest. We're making it inviting and welcoming, which in turn sees an increase in curiosity."

YS: Looking ahead, what are other intentions you want to take with not only City Swing, but also the foundation?

TC: "City Swing has three components to it. We've got our brick-and-mortar, the golf truck and the foundation. The three of those really work together to make golf more accessible and welcoming. The truck and the studios are huge opportunities for us to scale and grow the foundation as well. What we'll do is focus on mobilizing the golf truck for both events and our foundation. Eventually we'll open more studios nationwide and overseas. The goal is to be a global brand, and I believe we'll get there in due time."

Original post:

Tari Cash, a former bank exec, is on a mission to make golf more accessible and affordable - Yahoo Sports

The NFL preseason is just about over. Following Sunday night's contest between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions, coaches will gather to discuss which players on the roster bubble will make the final 53-man roster.

The final day to make that determination is Tuesday, Aug. 30. Teams must have their final 53-man roster submitted by 4 p.m. ET.

Being on the roster bubble isn't always a bad thing. Players who performed well in the preseason could find themselves traded to another club. Even those who do get cut can get picked up by another team, or land on a team's practice squad.

Want to know what moves your favorite team is making as its final roster takes shape? Keep it here for updates and analysis of the biggest moves before NFL rosters are finalized.

Read more:

NFL 2022 roster cuts: Which players will be released or traded before the start of the regular season? - Yahoo Sports