John Laghezzas Top 150 rest of season rankings: Devin Singletary, Khalil Shakir on the rise

The​​​​​​​​​​ Big Board takes into​​​​​​​​​ consideration​​​​​​​​​​ past​​​​​​​​​​ returns,​ current​​​​​​​​​ situation/performance​ and​​​​​​​​​ expected​ future gains​​​​​​​​​ in​​​​​​​​​​ determining​​​​​​​​​​ who​ should be included​​​​​​​​​ among​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ the​​ Top 150 fantasy football players. Essentially, the Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for a GM who is planning to participate in a draft today. Half-point PPR scoring settings are used as the baseline for the Big Board.

Allow me to take a quick second to thank every one of our wonderful readers of The Athletic, whose comments and interactions served as the catalyst for this amazing experience. Life’s so funny, you never know where it might lead you. I think back to reading this very piece myself as a much younger fantasy football player in a completely different profession, and just how truly surreal this is. I never imagined when I first started I’d be pinch-hitting for the inimitable Brandon Funston, in command of the legendary Big Board at the most critical point of the fantasy season. Last thing, do not take it easy on me just because it’s my first day on the job — we really want to know what you think in the comments below — I’ll do my absolute best to respond to everyone.

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Before we dive into the rankings, here are a few of the main factors driving this latest update:

• Injuries are the worst part of fantasy, and football in general. They also single-handedly create the most opportunities and, thus, the largest ranking changes. A season-ending injury to Joe Burrow instantly dropped superstar Ja’Marr Chase out of the Top 10 WRs, Tee Higgins outside the Top 75 overall, and Tyler Boyd nearly off the list altogether. Jake Browning came in and did just about what we’d expect from a QB with nearly as many years played (5) as career completed passes (8) — a 57% completion rate at just under 5.0 yards per attempt. Unfortunately for anyone who spent a first-round pick on Chase, despite connecting for a short TD on Sunday, Browning only targeted his alpha on ~21% of attempts. The quality of the Ravens’ defense kept me from overreacting too much to this but, if the Bengals implode against the Steelers next week, expect the slide to continue.
• The injury door swings both ways and sometimes those pesky red suitcases can giveth, as well as taketh away. A groan rumbled across the fantasy nation when Baltimore’s stud tight end Mark Andrews suffered a cracked fibula, ending his regular season. Deep leaguers and best ballers everywhere were already familiar with the Ravens’ pun-inducing backup TE Isaiah Likely. The second year behemoth (6-foot-5′, 230 pounds) out of Coastal Carolina possesses the physical ability to take over games, with the experience in the BAL system to potentially step into Andrews’ role. In limited action as a featured weapon in 2022, fantasy managers got legitimate target volume in ceiling games Week 8 at Tampa Bay (6-77-1) and again Week 18 at Cincinnati (8-103-0). As a potential needle mover in a prolific offense at an underwhelming position, I’m proactively planting my flag on the very likely chance I’m correct. (Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I’ll see myself out.)
• We all know head coaches, team owners, coordinators (and apparently some sideline reporters) all bend the truth to their own ends in professional football. Personally, I don’t fault them. It’s easier for me to assume they’re chasing a competitive edge, but that’s a story for another day. However, there is one time a team’s brass cannot distort the truth — after kickoff. A big part of my formula for identifying next week’s waiver headliners is picking up on upticks in utilization. Shameless self-promotions aside, whatever state secrets these field generals think they’re protecting are out of the bag after the whistle blows. Our first alarm sounded when the Texans started throttling down their usage of Dameon Pierce, who was out-snapped by backup Devin Singletary in Week 6 heading into their bye. That trend continued in Week 8, which eventually ended up being a leading indicator for a true flipping of the Houston backfield. Since then, Pierce has gone down with an ankle injury and Singletary’s not only secured a vital role for HOU, but one of the very best in all of fantasy. Over the past two weeks, Singletary’s played +13% more snaps than any other RB, leading the league in rushing yards and finishing as fantasy’s RB3 in that span. Whether or not Dameon Pierce’s return is imminent, I’m ranking Singletary as a backend RB1 heading into Week 12.
• It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, people. The biggest downward slide on my initial board belongs to Buffalo’s Gabe Davis, who I have at least 30 spots below expert consensus. The disparity made me wonder if it was an overreaction at first, until I started thinking about the competitive context for the Bills hitting a fever pitch under a new coordinator with no room for error. Prescient in retrospect, I even highlighted Davis’ teammate Khalil Shakir all the way back on November 3 as a potential breakout player down the stretch. His ability to create separation from the slot and create yards after the catch melds well with Buffalo and Josh Allen’s shotgun-heavy style.  In case you were wondering just how bad things have cratered for Davis lately, he’s fantasy football’s WR81 over the past three weeks, nearly 60 spots behind Shakir.

John Laghezza's Top 150 ROS rankings

(Photo of Devin Singletary: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)

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