Badger of Honor is previewing the fantasy football season focusing only on former Wisconsin Badger players
Real football is fast approaching. Badger of Honor is looking ahead to the Wisconsin Football season. But we are also going to help you fantasy football players out.
Unfortunately, the Wisconsin Badger fantasy football influence might be a little understated since Wisconsin produces so many offensive lineman. Fantasy Football does not value OL performance in its scoring formula.
Russell Wilson is the first in our series of fantasy football previews looking at Wisconsin Badger players. Wilson has been a great real quarterback for the Seahawks, he’s been pretty productive in the fantasy realm too.
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- Four-star running back Darrion Dupree commits to Wisconsin Football
- Wisconsin Football wide receiver enters the transfer portal
Here is where various expert sites rank Wilson for the 2017 season based on standard scoring leagues:
- SI: QB #5
- ESPN: QB #6
- Yahoo: QB #4
- CBS: QB #4
- FOX Sports: QB #6
- Bleacher Report: QB #5
- Sporting News: QB #7
- NFL.com: QB #5
So that computes to an average of QB #5.25 across the fantasy lists I excerpted. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees were the top three at the position on every list except SI. SI put Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts in the top three with Rodgers and Brady.
But the Rodgers, Brady, Brees group is a pretty unimpeachable trident atop the fantasy football QB ranks. Wilson will always have added value even in run-heavy Seattle because of his legs. Of course, Wilson battled ankle and knee injuries last season which harmed his fantasy value.
Pat Fitzmaurice of SI discussed Wilson at length in his Seattle Seahawks fantasy football preview.
"Granted, Wilson had the worst fantasy showing of his five-year career last season, finishing QB11 despite throwing for a career-high 4,219 yards…Wilson is also due for a bump in rushing yardage. He’s averaged 537.8 rushing yards per season but plummeted to 259 last year, due largely to lower-body ailments."
Keep in mind, if he does hit his career mean for rushing yards that’s adding over 50 points to his fantasy total. That’s equal to an extra 12.5 TD passes or 1,250 passing yards.
Seattle does have a crowded backfield this year so it’s unlikely one RB will handle a full workload. The Seattle OL continues to be a problem which means more Wilson magic as he runs for his life.
Next: Wisconsin Badgers 2017 Schedule Rank #1
Personally, I’d rather go RB/WR early over spending a high pick on Rodgers, Brady, and Brees. If you can grab Wilson in the middle rounds that’s some serious value.