Dynasty 3rd-Year Breakout Candidates

The 2019 draft brought us many stars and many high hopes. Clyde-Edwards Helaire was the number one pick in most 1QB Drafts and Joe Burrow in 2QB and Superflex. Many players rose up on our draft boards like Jalen Reagor and Ke’Shawn Vaughn,  just to be names we look at now and wish we didn’t waste the first-round draft capital on them. The quarterbacks of this class have been second to none. With Justin Herbert tearing it up in Los Angeles, Joe Burrow being an offensive line away from being a Super Bowl champion.

We’ve also had our fair share of misses. Like what was Green Bay thinking with taking Jordan Love in the first? Many 2QB leagues were taking him at the beginning of the second round. With Aaron Rodgers signed for the next three years in Green Bay I don’t even know what you can get or trade for Love. Or the Talent of Bryan Edwards. Thought we hit a potential gold mine when instead, it was a landmine. We have two top-five dynasty wide receivers in Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb. Tee Higgins has made a massive jump into the top-10 of dynasty wide receivers and should only improve with second-year wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, and Jerry Jeudy is on the rise with Russell Wilson.

Let’s look at some names from the 2020 class who have a chance to make a name for themselves. Here are some of my candidates:

Tua Tagovailoa – Dolphins

Before the 2019 college football season, many pegged Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to be the consensus #1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Everyone knows that he had a season-ending hip injury and didn’t participate in the physical things at the combine or pro-days because we know what we were getting. Tagovailoa was drafted 5th overall, and we thought we would see the quarterback that we saw in Alabama. What we ended up getting was a game manager who wouldn’t throw the ball deep and didn’t look like what we expected.

Now, Brian Flores was fired, and that’s a whole nother story in itself so we’ll stick with who was hired to be the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins and that’s former 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniels. With an offensive mindset coach in play here what would be to improve the offense with and around Tagovailoa. The franchise tagging of tight-end Mike Gesicki was just the start. The addition of weapons didn’t stop there either.  Free-agent acquisition of Chase Edmonds as the first signing to start free-agency then the addition of another known running-back was added in Raheem Mostert. Along with wide receiver Cedrick Wilson, Tagovailoa now has the additional weapons needed for his success. Meaning one last thing to do was shore up that offensive line. They did just that by signing former Dallas Cowboys guard Connor Williams and pulling off the signing of the premier left tackle Terron Armstead.

Then the unexpected happened as out of the left-field, star-wide receiver Tyreek Hill was traded from the Kansas City Chiefs for multiple picks. So with a bolstered offensive line, solid depth, and play at running back and all these pass-catching pieces should give Tagovailoa plenty of time to find his targets. Per PFF, the Miami Dolphins offensive line ranked last with a league-leading 235 pressures and recorded the worst pass-blocking efficiency score in the NFL. With the new pieces on the offensive line, the only obvious thing they can do is go up. With all these new additions and another year of growth, we should not only see a massive step forward with the Miami Dolphins but a true-breakout season from Tagovailoa.

Tagovailoa could join the reigns of Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts is great for fantasy, but there are many questions about him from a real-life NFL perspective so keep an eye on him and his situation. Jordan Love was a wasted pick by the Green Bay Packers and has a lot to learn, but looks to be stuck behind Aaron Rodgers for at least the next three years so he’s at best a hold, or try and get what you can for him, DO NOT drop him.

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Cam Akers – Rams

We have seen the breakout of Jonathan Taylor as he was a league winner for many last years in the 2021 season. We’ve also seen flashes from D’Andre Swift, and he’s an obvious one, but Cam Akers is the one that gets me. rupturing his Achilles during the summer of 2021 knocked all of us dynasty lovers down a notch as the majority of us had our rookie drafts. We panicked. We were sending out trade offers to fill our running back slots. Another thing too that worried us too was how was he going to recover from the Achilles injury? He’s young, but is it career-ending? Will he still have the burst? Will he still have the power that we saw around the end of the 2020 season? Many of these questions ran through our panicking heads, and then we hear of a possible comeback for the end of the 2021 season.

Really? How? It came out right before Christmas, after seeing a limited video on Akers that he, himself would be activated for the last three games of the NFL season. We got to see him in the season finale of Week 18 as he finished with five rushes for three yards and caught all three of his targets for another 10 yards. After not playing all season long, the 21-year-old back put the career-killing Achilles injury on the back burner. A major positive and a move in the right direction.  

In his second game back, we saw the elusiveness of Akers behind the power-back of Sony Michel.  He finished with 95 total yards, and even though his rushing wasn’t so efficient, his receiving game was. It was his best game and had me thinking it’s all uphill here for the second-year back, right? That wasn’t the case. Akers was held in check, even in the Super Bowl putting up a measly stat line. So what will make him different this year? For starters, come July he will be one year removed from when the injury occurred. An injury that takes at least eight months to recover from, Akers was cleared in an astonishing five and a half months and should be at full strength. Another piece that I love was the signing of Allen Robinson. Having another potential #1 wide receiver to pair with Cooper Kupp won’t allow defenses to stack the box against. Also, if defenses do try, the Rams have resigned their left tackle and center to keep the chemistry going and open holes for Akers.

Sony Michel and Darrell Henderson Jr. are a threat to Akers possibly being an RB1 for this offense and in fantasy who is being drafted as a mid-RB2 in dynasty startups. I’m still a little hesitant about him, but with the way he pushed and came back for the Rams, should make him kick it into the next gear for the 2022 season.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire – Chiefs

Ever since being the 1.01 in most rookie drafts, this is the doom or die point for Clyde Edwards-Helaire. He’s been a hit-or-miss RB2, but last season was a disaster for the former first-rounder. Going into this coming season, he’s being drafted as an RB3 and I am in hope for a nice bounce back. In a 16-team dynasty startup, I got Edwards-Helaire at the beginning of the sixth round.

Last season, Edwards-Helaire started off a bit like what we saw out of his rookie season. He was not efficient against the Browns or Ravens before a switch flipped and he put up two RB1 weeks in a row against the Chargers and Eagles. Was this the beginning of the former first-round pick finally showing up? Not quite. The next week, Edwards-Helaire suffered a grade 2 MCL sprain and landed on injured reserve for the next five weeks.

Coming back in Week 10 it was back to the Edwards-Helaire we all knew. Inefficient, not making plays for himself, and going down easily. Outside of a two-touchdown performance against Las Vegas, CEH was a bust. I wouldn’t bank on Edwards-Helaire being an RB1, but at his current value and rank, he should be an RB2 with RB1 weeks that I’m willing to buy right now. The value is reaching a low point and his biggest competition is Ronald Jones.

J.K. Dobbins – Ravens

Okay, I get it. I am listing three running backs that are “duh, obvious” but in reality are they? They have all shown the ability to be RB1’s in fantasy, but have all been injured, or just didn’t put up the stats we expected. This brings me to J.K. Dobbins. According to FantasyPros consensus rankings for a dynasty is on average the 39th player selected and the 15th running back. This is way too low! Many may have forgotten that Dobbins was once part of a crowded backfield with Mark Ingram and Gus Edwards. Adding on to that he was the lead running back from Week 8 on and didn’t look back. He scored a touchdown in all six of his last games of the 2020 season finishing with 805 rushing yards and nine touchdowns.

Needless to say, 2020 was a successful season and he was looking to carry it into the 2021 season. That was cut short as in the final pre-season game, Dobbins tore his ACL and was out for the 2021 season. There have been rumors about Melvin Gordon coming in for a visit, but if he didn’t sign it’s just a visit, no worries. With plenty of time to rehab, the thirst that Dobbins has, he should pick up right where he left off. A mid-RB2 should more than pay off as Dobbins will look to be an RB1 in 2022. 

All of these running backs have shown flashes of being RB1s,college-wide but just haven’t kept up with it due to injury or just not being able to cross the goal line with so many opportunities. D’Andre Swift and Antonio Gibson have popped and are viable RB1 in fantasy. Antonio Gibson though, just makes me a little nervous being a college-wide receiver. Zack Moss and Ke’Shawn Vaughn are more of just bench pieces. All others, yes I am including Eno Benjamin in this are at best bench pieces that you can drop for this year’s rookies or other waiver wire pieces.

Need more breakout candidates? Dynasty 3rd-Year Breakout Candidates 2.0

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