Fantasy Football: Where You Should Draft Travis Etienne, Calvin Ridley and Other Jaguars
With the preseason wrapped up it is time to start drafting your fantasy teams.
We all love drafting players on our favorite team for that extra rooting interest but if you do it’s crucial to not overreach in the draft for them. If the pick doesn’t pan out, not only is your team suffering but you strengthened an opponent's roster by letting another player slip in the draft.
With the Jaguars offense projected to be better than ever their players are also being drafted higher than ever. Let’s take a look at the projected impactful fantasy players on this offense to see where you should be drafting them. I used average draft position (ADP) from FootballGuys, where they combined draft positions from numerous fantasy platforms around the industry.
Travis Etienne Jr.: RB12/32 overall
Our first Jaguar off the board is Travis Etienne Jr. He’s currently coming off the board in the later half of the third round. This seems like a reasonable spot to draft Etienne. While we don’t expect Etienne to carry the full workload with the addition of Tank Bigsby, it’s safe to assume he will still be getting the majority of the work on an offense projected to score a lot of points. He’s being drafted just behind the true workhorses left in the league and I think that’s very fair. Stick to the community with Etienne’s draft spot.
Calvin Ridley WR19/41 overall
I’d be curious to see how this number has moved over the last month but this one is still too low. I wrote about Calvin Ridley in my season-long prop article and how I love him to catch more than 70 passes. Well everything I said there translates here. Ridley looks like he's knocked off the rust and I’m expecting a monster season from him. I’d challenge anyone in the world to find me 18 wide receivers better than Ridley. I get this is fantasy but still. Wow. Pick 41 puts you in round 4 and unfortunately I’m not so sure that is going to cut it in your drafts that have yet to take place. I’d easily be willing to pull the trigger on Ridley starting in the back half of round 2 with guys like Chris Olave, Tee Higgins, and D.K. Metcalf.
Trevor Lawrence QB8/60 overall
Coming in at pick 60 overall and QB8 is the prince himself, Trevor Lawrence. I expect another huge leap from Lawrence on the field, but for redraft purposes I personally will probably stay away here. I think his positional ranking and ADP are fine. This one comes down to draft strategy. In a 1-QB league I think you either want one of the top guys who have the truly elite rushing upside (or if they are named Patrick Mahomes), or you want to wait and grab a guy later. Like I said, I fully expect a huge year from Lawrence, but he unfortunately lacks the rushing upside we love in fantasy and finds himself in a draft position where I really like the talent available to continue to build those positional guys.
Christian Kirk WR31/70 overall
Christian Kirk is a nice value in fantasy this year. He’s being drafted as WR31 and 70th overall. He burst onto the fantasy scene last season with a WR11 finish in standard scoring and he proved to be an extremely reliable target for Lawrence. Yes, adding Ridley to this offense cuts into Kirk’s target share but it also rolls coverages and attention away from him. Kirk will still be a very important part of this offense and since we expect the offense as a whole to take a huge leap I don’t have too much concern for them having two stable fantasy receivers. I think the fantasy community has knocked Kirk down too far with the addition of Ridley as he should still see enough targets to make his ADP worth it.
Evan Engram TE8/82 overall
Here’s another Jaguar I’m out on this year for redraft purposes. I follow the similar draft strategy with tight end as I do quarterback. If I don’t get either Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews I’m likely waiting a while as I feel there is a lot of value late. Engram’s impact in real life is much greater on the game than his impact in fantasy. As far as the rankings go I have no issue where Engram is ranked or being drafted. This is another draft strategy case here as I think the positional talent the board has available still is too much to pass up when you can find some late tight end sleepers like Greg Dulcich, Jake Ferguson, or Trey McBride.
Zay Jones WR61/145 overall
I love the draft position for Zay Jones. At WR61 and 145 overall, he’s being drafted as a bench player and will find himself with the playing time of a starter. Jones is going to play in two-WR sets so I don’t see him leaving the field often. He showed last year that he can make plays for this offense and he should still see a solid amount of targets. The level of defensive attention he will receive will be significantly lower and we’ve seen Lawrence show zero issues spreading the ball around. If Ridley were to go down, Jones would find himself playing that number one receiver role we saw him have success in last year. He should provide solid production for a pick this late in the draft even with no injuries to the offense.
Tank Bigsby RB50/146 overall
Like Calvin Ridley, I’m sure this number has risen and will keep climbing. Tank Bigsby was given a lot of run this preseason and he impressed with the chances he was given. He has impressed enough that a lot of people in the fantasy community think he is going to carve a decent chunk of work away from Etienne. Bigsby may have proved to the coaches he was the right pick and he may as well have even himself slightly more playing time than originally considered but this is still Etienne’s backfield. With that said I still really like the value here of RB50. If you find Bigsby making this far in your drafts go ahead and draft with confidence as you could easily be drafting a top fantasy running back in Etienne were to miss some time.
