Fantasy Football: Just how high is Austin Ekeler’s ceiling in 2021? | Fantasy Football News, Rankings and Projections
[ad_1]
We’re in the middle of the NFL off-season and it’s officially time to start fantasy football prep. I’ll answer the biggest questions for the 2021 season. Click here to read the series of questions answered so far.
Some NFL players are just cooler than others. Maybe it’s natural bragging rights, maybe a visor, a bit of turf tape on your arms: “Look good, feel good, play good” is a lifestyle decision worth pursuing in all areas of life.
in the Austin disgustIn this case, the man is a baller thanks to his excellent skills on the field and (most of all) his Preference for wild air guitar after finding its way into the end zone.
The 26-year-old talent exploded in 2019 with 1,550 yards and 11 scores before limping to an additional 933 yards and a trio of touchdowns in a 2020 injury-cut campaign. We don’t have any evidence of Disgust acting as anything other than a high-end RB as he was signed as an undrafted free agent prior to 2017.
What follows is a breakdown of how good Disgust was and what to think of him as a fantasy football asset before 2021.
Disgust has been the definition of a Stud Fantasy RB for the past two seasons
I’m not a huge fan of full point-per-reception scoring as the difficulty in real life varies in catching the ball and winning or getting 10 yards. Anyway, it’s the game we play, and that is why reception-friendly RBs have become the stars of fantasy.
Keep in mind: NFL RBs averaged 0.64 fantasy points per rush attempt in 2020 compared to 1.58 per target. A goal is almost 2.5 times more valuable in fantasy land than a rush attempt; That’s why Sub-200 carry backs like disgust and Alvin Kamara to continue to thrive despite the lower workload on site and to rank among the top six again Fantasy opportunity score when we look at each other PFF forecasts for 2021.
Everything Ekeler did when he was positioned as a charger started RB without it Melvin Gordon in the picture is the ball to the devil (excluding disgusting three-snap game of week 4 in 2020 when he was injured):
- Play as fantasy soccer RB1: 7
- Play as fantasy soccer RB2: 13
- Absolutely worst performance: RB31
- With Herbert: RB14, RB3, RB8, RB21, RB8, RB26, RB16, RB15
This type of soil is almost impossible to get in fantasy land. It just doesn’t matter that Disgust has never got 20 carries in a game as long as he continues to act as one of the most prolific pass catchers in the position.
Make no mistake: Ekeler has more skills than any RB when it comes to shining as a pure recipient. Overall, since 2017, no RB has driven more yards per route on average than Ekeler when lined up in the slot or far out.
Throw the ball to Austin Ekeler and good things happen pic.twitter.com/hvsSeMei9j
– Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) February 24, 2021
Ekeler is the 25th highest rated running back by PFF in the rushing grade under 115 RBs with at least 100 carries since 2017. He is the first in the score of 121 backs. It’s like Ekeler was built in a lab, with the sole focus on creating the most imaginative RB for 2021.
The one kryptonite: the use of goal lines. In 2019, Ekeler (7 rush attempts within the 5-yard line) was heavily overtaken by Gordon (13) during each of Justin Herbert (7), Kalen Ballage (6) and Joshua Kelley (5) saw more goal-line usage than Ekeler (2) in 2020.
Not so great: We like it when our fantasy players score touchdowns. The good news for Disgust is that it’s legal for him to score TDs when the ball is outside the 5-yard line, and the output of the Chargers Offensive 2021 might just be good enough to keep the entire TD- Enlarge equity cake.
This Chargers violation looks borderline erotic on paper
Subscribe to PFF Edge to read on
Do you already have a subscription? log in
[ad_2]
