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Finding bargains in a salary cap draft is how you take a good draft and turn it into a great one. It is how you turn a team that can make the playoffs into a team that can win a title. Targets aren’t limited to low-dollar players. Instead, they are players you anticipate your league being lower on than their value. Finding those deals isn’t always easy, but that’s why you’re here. Below are some salary cap targets at all price points.
Elite Targets
It is surprising to call one of the NFL's most dynamic players a possible bargain in drafts, but that’s what is happening. Jackson is checking in at QB4 for most drafters, and he’s slipping even further than that in some cases. Fantasy drafters tend to have a short memory, and last year’s injury has clouded people’s judgment. Jackson is still a threat to rush for 80+ yards on any given week, and if people are doubting him, that’s your cue to strike. Nominate him before Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes II, and Justin Herbert come off the board for the best shot at getting a depressed price. Jackson may be the single biggest opportunity at the quarterback position in salary cap drafts this year.
Calling him an elite target this year somehow feels a little premature after seeing him start for only one year. But since he’s coming off the board as the sixth quarterback, he’s officially in that territory. It might look like there isn’t much room for value there, but the situation in Philadelphia is stronger than it seems. The Eagles want to see if they have their quarterback of the future, so his starting job is fairly secure for 2022. Combine that with his upside due to his rushing ability, and you have the perfect target. Quarterback prices tend to drop quickly after the top guys have been rostered, so let Mahomes or Allen come off the board to set the market and then see if you can get QB6-8 pricing for Hurts. If Hurts continues to improve with A.J. Brown in town, he has the potential to finish at the top of the position for an extremely reasonable price. That’s what salary cap drafts are all about.
Middle-Tier Targets
There is often value to be had between the elite quarterbacks and the bargain quarterbacks. Managers in your leagues will likely go for one or the other, creating lower-than-expected prices on the middle-tier targets. Watch for this tendency in your salary cap rooms.
All he did last year was lead the league in touchdown passes, attempts, completions, and passing yards, and yet here he sits as a low QB1 option on most people’s boards. The key in salary cap drafts is correctly taking the temperature of the fantasy community, and right now, people aren’t as interested in Brady as they should be. Losing tight end Rob Gronkowski and the uncertain health of Chris Godwin has people thinking this year is finally the year Brady fails to deliver. That’s your opportunity to swoop in and grab him for a reasonable price. A well-timed nomination when there is a deep quarterback pool left is a good way to see what kind of deal you can get on the Tampa Bay signal-caller.
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For a guy who has only had two seasons with a touchdown rate below 6 percent, people are awful quick to discard Wilson’s performance after he came back from the injured finger last year. In Denver, he will have a talented group of offensive skill position players to help his transition, and there is plenty of history that says Wilson will be an efficient passer in Denver, just like he was in Seattle. Yet right now, drafters are barely taking Wilson as a QB1, and this should tip off salary cap drafters that an opportunity is there. Would you be surprised if you looked up at the end of the year and Wilson had thrown for 35 touchdowns and ran for 300 yards and 2 scores on the ground? Landing Wilson for a single-digit dollar amount is entirely possible in your salary cap room.
Even though there are people excited about the young quarterback, he still hasn’t pushed too far up the board because Jimmy Garoppolo is still in town. This presents an opportunity for salary cap drafters. In Lance’s two starts last year, he had 24 carries and 120 yards rushing. Any time a quarterback who has the chance to be a top-eight option can be drafted for a high QB2 price, he should be on your target list. The upside is undeniable, and the price should be somewhere in the $6-$8 range as it stands currently. Those are the kinds of gambles to make in a salary cap draft.
Bargain Shopping
From this article in 2021 about Cousins: “It seems like Cousins has been a quarterback target for salary cap draft drafters since the beginning of time. But here he is again.” And now it’s 2022, and Cousins still languishes. After 36 touchdowns in 2020, he followed it up with 34 touchdowns in 2021. What more does he have to do to get some respect in fantasy football circles? Cousins is one of those guys who can provide a solid floor for your team while you chase another quarterback lottery ticket. He can usually be drafted for $3-$5, and this year looks like it will be no different. Grab him cheaply and then shoot for upside with your backup. Pairing Cousins with Lance would be a dynamite combination.
The addition of one of the best wide receivers in the game is not something to be taken lightly. Carr had a nice season in 2021, but it was unspectacular due to a poor 3.7 percent touchdown rate which was his second-lowest mark since his rookie year. But he was fifth in pass attempts and fifth in passing yards and now gets Davante Adams to help his efficiency. If people are going to let you have Carr for $5 or less in your salary cap draft, then you should strongly consider it to see if he can get back over 30 touchdowns for the first time since his sophomore campaign. Carr is in the same model as Cousins, so don’t pair those two. Instead, grab Carr or Cousins and then match them up with someone who can explode. The combination is how you give yourself more chances to find elite production as the season begins.
Believe it or not, Fields did some things well as the season wore on during his rookie year. He was severely limited at times because the Chicago coaching staff refused to put him in advantageous situations for his skill set. But that staff is gone now, and Fields can try to build off his progress with a new system. It isn’t wise to spend too much on Fields. The good news is most people don’t see him as more than a middling QB2, so he should go for only a few dollars in most salary cap drafts. Pairing Fields with Carr or Cousins is a winning salary cap strategy and can usually be accomplished for $10 or less.
The Titans’ quarterback had one of the least efficient seasons of his career, producing one of the lowest net yards per attempt numbers he’s ever posted. He also finished with near career-low totals for his average depth of target and touchdown rate. Losing your top two receivers for large parts of the year can do that to a quarterback, but sometimes things just go poorly. Tannehill’s 2021 is evidence of that. Do you trust the previous years of efficiency or the one poor year? The cupboard is restocked with receiving talent, and Tannehill will only cost $1 in salary cap drafts. That’s an easy gamble to see if he's going to bounce back and be a Top 12 quarterback again in 2022.
When trying to go cheap at quarterback in salary cap drafts, you have to look for guys that nobody wants but still have real upside. That’s hard to find. Jones fits the bill in both regards. He can run, he’s had big fantasy games in his past, and now he has a new coaching staff. The best part about Jones is that nobody wants any part of the Giants, so he will only cost you $1. He gets a fourth-place schedule, has plenty of weapons, and can be paired with any number of other quarterbacks in a salary cap draft for almost no impact on your budget.
Conclusion
Attacking the quarterback spot in a salary cap draft requires a different strategy than the running back and wide receiver positions. A lot of teams in your drafts will roster only one quarterback, so patience is usually all that is required to score some deals. Finding deals at running back or wide receiver requires more finesse and timing, but you can check out some targets at those positions in the last two parts of this series.
In general, finding targets in a salary cap draft requires you to be able to read the room, and the whole fantasy community, to figure out how to find value as you move through the draft. The main goal, however, is to remember that you win your leagues by getting deals on some of these targets while paying market value for the truly top-tier, sought-after players. If you pair both of those together, that is how you end up pushing your salary cap roster over the top to make a run at a championship.
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