Day 8: Warning Flag Wednesday

 

Day 8: Warning Flags

Blurb:

In fantasy, it's important to have your own personal red flags that concern you about a player. This is often injury history in the case of veterans. However, you should keep red flags in mind when looking at potential college and high school prospects as well. These could be physical traits, competition, production, injury history, or any stat from a swath of potential warning signs that you could look to. For me, one in particular stands out: WR Height. I say this because their are quite a few highly touted Devy picks in the 2021 NFL Draft who are below 6'0":

1. Jaylen Waddle 5'10"
2. Rondale Moore 5'09"
3. Elijah Moore 5'09"
4. Tutu Atwell 5'09"
5. Dazz Newsome 5'11"

These are concerning to me (especially Waddle and Rondale who are projected to be Late 1st - Early 2nd rookie picks in most leagues) as the outlook for Wide Receivers under 6'0" is pretty bleak. DynastySFlex on Twitter does a terrific job of outlining why you should be concerned by the production expected out of these Wide Receivers:

"There have been 22 1st/2nd round WR since 2003 between 5’10-5’11. Just 5 of them have hit a top 24 season. None of them hit a top 5 season."

After scanning through each of the drafts since 2003 and the fantasy production by Wide Receivers in that time, I confirmed this stat for myself.

I write today's blurb specifically because I think that the dynasty community as a whole is too excited about Jaylen Waddle. Though he's constantly had to battle his way through historic depth chart, I worry about his inability to put together a 1,000 yard receiving season. You might respond to that by saying "Well he would have in 2020 had he not sustained an ankle injury that took him out of most of Alabama's games." I think you'd be correct. However, for a wide receiver whose primary quality is just being fast, I'm apprehensive about drafting one who had recently sustained a major ankle injury.

Now, to compile with my concerns, he's older than Jerry Jeudy, who I have ranked high and above beyond Waddle.

I'm not saying that Jaylen Waddle WILL bust, or even that he probably will. However I, as a person who enjoys all sorts of fantasy football, will not be investing the amount of draft capital necessary to obtain Waddle. If he succeeds, that's awesome! However, if he doesn't, none of my fantasy teams will suffer for it.

What are your major red flags? Do you disagree with me on Jaylen Waddle? Comment down below!