Awesemo fantasy football expert Matt Gajewski is breaking down expert draft strategies for the 2021 fantasy football season on Yahoo, ESPN and CBS. Matt’s taking a deeper look into where players are being drafted, and where we can find value. Today, he’s focusing on Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook. After analyzing his fantasy football rankings, Matt tells you whether or not Cook is worth a Top 3 draft pick in 2021.
Fantasy Football Draft Rankings: Dalvin Cook, Running Back
More 2021 Fantasy Football Rankings
Running Backs: Draft Christian McCaffrey No. 1 Overall?
From a production standpoint, McCaffrey still holds the crown as the NFL’s elite feature back. The Panthers eased McCaffrey in during his 117-carry rookie season in 2017. From there, he eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing and 100 catches in back-to-back seasons in 2018 and 2019. McCaffrey’s 2019 was one of the top seasons ever produced by a running back. McCaffrey rushed for 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns on 287 carries while adding 116 receptions for another 1,005 yards and four touchdowns. He even spent 11% of his snaps in the slot or out wide in 2019.
McCaffrey played on 91.3% and 93.4% of snaps, respectively, in 2018 and 2019. While he only appeared in three games last year, McCaffrey touched the ball 26, 22 and 28 times in those games. He also played on 97%, 64%, and 71% of snaps despite suffering injuries in the latter two. However, the Panthers did very little to address their running back depth behind McCaffrey this offseason. Mike Davis departed during free agency, and the team only added rookie Chuba Hubbard on Day 3 of the NFL Draft. Without other viable options, McCaffrey looks likely to handle another enormous workload.
Digging into the workload specifics, McCaffrey handled 93% of all running back carries and 94% of all running back targets in 2019. This massive workload also included 80.6% of Carolina’s red zone duties. He is already handling a three-down and goal-line role and has shown the ability to dominate all phases of the game.
See Matt Gajewski’s entire 2021 Fantasy Football Rankings article and mock draft cheat sheets.
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