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A key part of dynasty football leagues is planning for the future. Justin Carter looks at four players who may be able to contribute to your fantasy team in 2020 and beyond.
The cool thing about dynasty leagues is that you can have a lot of issues with your team and instead of just throwing your hands in the air in frustration, you can instead pivot to next year and work on grabbing players who can help you in the future.
There's a lot of young guys in the league right now who aren't in the best situations for 2019, but who have a pretty good shot of being viable options in 2020. If your dynasty team is a year away from being a year away, making proactive moves for future talent is a good call. A lot of people do that in the form of trading for future picks, but you can also do it another way by picking up/trading for some deep stashes.
Let's take a look at some players who likely won't play much of a role this year, but should in the future.
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Teddy Bridgewater - QB, New Orleans Saints
I don't know if Drew Brees is going to retire after the 2019 season. He's still younger than Tom Brady, so he could have a few more seasons in him. But Brees also has the makings of someone who'll hit that age-wall a little before Brady, so it's reasonable to think the Saints could be in need of a quarterback in 2020.
As long as they have Brees, Alvin Kamara, and Michael Thomas together, the Saints aren't going to bottom out and wind up with a top draft pick, though, which means they have to find their quarterback of the future some other way, unless they plan to waste the first post-Brees year on a tank job. It's a good thing, then, that the team signed Teddy Bridgewater before last season and then gave him another one-year deal before this season.
Obviously, Bridgewater's impending free agency looms, but it also loomed after the 2018 season and New Orleans was able to keep him.
Bridgewater can be had for nothing in non-Superflex leagues and for very cheap in Superflex. The Saints locked up Thomas on a long-term extension this offseason, so Bridgewater could theoretically take the starting role next year in an offense that's perfectly built for him to succeed -- a top receiver, a very good receiving back, and a host of promising weapons around those guys.
In Bridgewater's second NFL season and most recent full season -- which, granted, was back in 2015 -- he threw for 14 touchdowns and 3,231 yards while completing 65.3 percent of his passes. That completion percentage ranked ninth in the league that year. He also added three rushing touchdowns.
Someone's going to step into a situation post-Brees in New Orleans that's perfectly built for a top-15 quarterback season at minimum. Right now, Bridgewater appears to be in the lead to be that guy.
Damarea Crockett - RB, Houston Texans
The Texans waived D'Onta Foreman, giving full reins of this backfield to Lamar Miller. But Miller is in the final year of his deal with the Texans and with a lot of players coming due soon for extensions, the Texans would be wise to not spend cap space on re-signing Miller. If they choose to let him go, the Texans backfield is wide open moving forward. They could draft someone or sign a cheap veteran, or they could give expanded roles to a pair of UDFA rookie backs, Damarea Crockett and Karan Higdon.
I'm highlighting Crockett here because he's been getting a lot of work at camp in goal-line packages, which suggests to me that he's got a better shot of making this roster and actually being around when 2020 rolls around. With Foreman gone, Crockett's essentially absorbed Foreman's role at camp.
But the story with Crockett is the same story there was with Foreman, which is that 2019 is more of an audition for the lead role than it is anything else. The trade for Duke Johnson likely means that there's even less of a role for a rushing-down back to spell Lamar Miller since Miller won't be an every-down back now, so betting on Crockett to have fantasy value in 2019 seems like a pretty bad bet. But the Texans like him, and they'll need someone for early-down work in 2020.
Darwin Thompson - RB, Kansas City Chiefs
Thompson appears to be buried fourth on the Chiefs' depth chart at running back even after an impressive opening to the preseason:
In the preseason opener against the Bengals, Thompson ended up with 22 rushing yards on five carries and a 29-yard touchdown reception. He looked the part of an NFL running back, which is an admittedly vague thing to say but also...I don't know, it feels like the best way to describe Thompson. We have just one year of FBS stats to go off of for Thompson, but that one season with Utah State showed him be capable of making things happen on the ground (153 carries for 1044 yards and 14 touchdowns) and in the receiving game (23 catches for 351 yards and two touchdowns).
But unless injuries happen, Damien Williams and Carlos Hyde will see the vast majority of the touches this year, relegating Thompson to the occasional touch. The post-Hyde era of Chiefs football is where Thompson is most dangerous.
The issue with stashing him right now in a dynasty is that his price is jumping. Don't trade for Thompson today. Don't trade for him tomorrow. But once the season gets here and he's playing the role of the third or fourth back in Kansas City, that price is going to go down, and that's when you strike. I can definitely see Thompson being the starting running back in an Andy Reid offense in 2020, which is a really good role to have.
Jazz Ferguson - WR, Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks have a lot of receivers, but they aren't the most impressive receivers, and three of the guys who are higher on the depth chart right now -- Jaron Brown, David Moore, and Keenan Reynolds -- will be free agents next year.
Ferguson has stood out in training camp and in the team's preseason opener, where he had four catches for 54 yards and a touchdown. Momentum seems to be building for Ferguson to grab the final spot on this roster. If he doesn't, a spot on the Seattle practice squad might not happen as other teams would be interested in Ferguson, which seems to make it more likely he's on the final roster.
Ferguson has all the usual concerns you get with a guy who played at the FCS level but do not forget that he started his college career at LSU. He only recorded a pair of catches during his time there, as he ended up being suspended for a failed drug test and transferring to a Northwestern State. Ferguson isn't a "went to a small school because no one believed in him" guy. He's a "had off-field issues that forced him to move down in competition" guy. He should, therefore, have the physical skills to be an NFL receiver.
But Ferguson won't instantly leap up a crowded depth chart. Expecting fantasy-relevant production this season is a stretch. What he does offer, though, is some promise. If he can impress when he is on the field, the Seahawks will be much more willing to move on from other wideouts and use Ferguson more once 2020 rolls around.
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