Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Week 1 is finally here! We've had enough time off, right? I, for one, have been looking forward to the opening game of the 2018 season (Falcons at Eagles) for months now, and in the meantime have tweaked my rankings algorithms to continue to provide you with some of the most accurate fantasy football advice available on the web on a weekly basis. This particular week, remove Le'Veon Bell from your lineups and do anything you can to pick up James Conner and play him. He has a lot to prove and may be auditioning on Sunday for a starring role in the Steelers' high-flying offense. Other notable suggested starts include James White, Kenny Stills, Tyler Eifert, and the Tennessee Titans. Good luck and feel free to reach out on Twitter at @drinkfive with your lineup questions. Cheers!

Welcome back! We're headed full speed into the 2018 draft season, and before the NFL kicks off in just a couple of weeks, you need to reacquaint yourself with the world of fantasy football. Tune in to the drinkive podcast throughout the season and make sure to follow the rankings of your favorite fantasy experts (which hopefully also includes us here at drinkfive.com!) to stay on top of your league(s). Best of luck!

It's hard to break out as a star in the NFL at any time, much harder as a rookie, and there's a whole extra degree of difficulty added when you're on a team in chaos like the Washington Redskins in 2017. Management upheaval, refusal to commit long-term to your quarterback (Kirk Cousins), and a lack of proven depth at important skilled positions (wide receiver, running back) made sure that the Redskins would have a losing record last season. Samaje Perine was drafted by the Skins in 2017, and enjoyed much success in College at Oklahoma - going down in history as the school's all-time leading rusher with 4,122 yards and in the process beating out the inimitable Adrian Peterson's former record (4,045). It makes sense, then, that Perine would be able to quickly take over the job in Washington and run with it. 

Read comments from Rich Tandler, Redskins Blogger and NBC Sports Washington correspondent: Need to Know: Five Redskins who must step up in 2018

He did, in fact, get handed the reins early on in the season when Rob Kelley went out in Week 2 with a rib injury, but poor average YPC (yards per carry) in subsequent games along with the return of incumbent starter Kelley, forced the coaches to rethink their depth chart. Perine's big break in 2017 occurred after Kelley suffered a high-ankle sprain and sprained MCL in Week 10 and then Chris Thompson broke his leg in Week 11. With both of the usual suspects sidelined, Perine was able to carve out a few successful games even behind an injured offensive line and was also a small presence in the passing game throughout. 

The Redskins have since traded for QB Alex Smith and signed him to a four-year, $94M extension, they will have $36 Million in salary cap space to sign some help at wide receiver, and the offensive line should start off the new season healthy. No one expects that the Skins will be a competitor to win their division (the Eagles & Cowboys won't be backing down anytime soon), but they can be much improved from their 7-9 record in 2017 and Perine could be a solid RB2 going forward (think a stronger, but slower Michael Turner for comparison).

Chris Thompson is an exciting RB on the Redskins and should continue to be, but he is not the goal-line back there and can not physically hold up to a large workload. Although Perine's YPC over the season was not an impressive number, much of that was due to a weak, injury-ridden offensive line that should be improved in the upcoming season and his average YPC was still better than Rob Kelley's. Finally, there was a serious lack of consistent downfield threats on the offense until Crowder and Doctson started to come on more in the second half of the season. Getting rid of Terrelle Pryor and trying to sign a talented wide receiver in free agency (Paul Richardson, Sammy Watkins, Donte Moncrief, to name a few) should open up some holes for Perine to capitalize on and increase the number of goal-line opportunities that this offense has each week.

The rumor mill kicks into high gear in the NFL off-season, and one of the biggest items on the agenda this year was whether or not Blake Bortles would remain the starting quarterback of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Bortles has only played 4 full seasons in the NFL and enjoyed a very successful 2015 (4,428 yards, 35/18 TD/INT ratio), but his productivity dropped in 2016 and his role as a game manager in 2017 didn't (for the most part) allow for many big offensive opportunities to be channeled through the QB position. 

Jaguars are giving QB Blake Bortles a new three-year, $54 million deal, worth up to $66.5M with incentives, that includes $26.5M guaranteed, tying him to Jacksonville through the 2020 season, per source.

Jacksonville out of QB market.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 25, 2018

What we know: The Jaguars have extended Blake Bortles for a 3-year $54M contract and may look to draft some more developmental talent at the position this year (and who wouldn't, with their current backup being an underwhelming Chad Henne?), but Bortles will be the clear-cut starter.

With Allen Robinson likely being re-signed to a new long-term contract (or franchise tagged if the two camps can't reach a deal by March 6th), and building on the pieces that have already worked well (defense/secondary, Leonard Fournette), Bortles has been given one more chance to prove that he deserves to be under center in Jacksonville and could be their franchise quarterback. 

Looking forward: Bortles underwent surgery on his right (throwing hand) wrist back in January, hoping to fix an issue that had been affecting him for the whole 2017 season. While true that there were plenty of games in which Bortles was simply managing the team into victories, it's also clear that toward the end of the season the team needed to lean on the passing game more, and he showed up when needed - putting up 9 passing TDs over the all-important weeks 13-16.

He also had an impressive divisional playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a shootout, continuing to stay one step ahead of Roethlisberger and the Steelers' offense throughout the game. The Jaguars made it to the playoffs last season for the first time since 2007 and the combination of a healthy Bortles & Robinson in addition to their existing pieces should lead them right back into the thick of it.