THERE IS NO OFF-SEASON

June is winding down, and with that the teams’ off-season programs are wrapping up. Typically, this time of year, no news is good news, and that’s the case this week. The news has been slow, but that is a good thing for the middle of June. We’ve mostly avoided any major injuries or holdout situations, so dynasty managers don’t have to panic about any of their players, like they do most years at this time. Terry McLaurin remains the most significant holdout situation in the NFL, as he hasn’t participated in any of the team’s off-season activities. The Commanders seem committed to keeping him in DC, but he wants that commitment to come in the form of a contract, and it hasn’t come to fruition yet. Meanwhile, Deebo Samuel has earned some praise from his new head coach. Dan Quinn said he’d “forgotten until [he was] out here how fast he is.” He’s coming off of a terrible final season in San Francisco, but there could be room for a bounceback season in 2025 catching balls from Jayden Daniels. 

Last week’s newsletter broke down the signings of Aaron Rodgers, JK Dobbins and Nick Chubb. This week, the only (barely) significant fantasy signing came from the Big Easy. Cam Akers has signed a one-year deal with the Saints following a tryout at minicamp last week. A second-round pick in 2020, he’s largely been a bust in his NFL career. He spent most of last season with the Vikings, getting into 12 games and rushing the ball 64 times for 297 yards. While he’ll play a factor in this backfield, he isn’t likely to impact the production of Alvin Kamara. Behind Kamara, Akers will compete with Kendre Miller, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and sixth-round rookie Devin Neal for touches. Considering this team may have the worst offense in football this season, an oft-injured backup running back shouldn’t move the dynasty needle much. 

Speaking of Devin Neal, we are updating all of our rookie profiles at DLF now that the NFL Draft is in the books and rookie draft ADP has become more reliable. Neal’s profile will drop this weekend, along with his quarterback Tyler Shough. You can follow along right here with all of the updated rookie profiles and our continuing coverage of the 2025 rookie class! Be sure to check out the recent updates on Shedeur Sanders, Jaydon Blue, and Isaac TeSlaa!

The 49ers have been one of the class organizations in the league under the tutelage of John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan. But, in recent years, they’ve had to deal with several contentious situations in their wide receiver room. Brandon Aiyuk went toe-to-toe with Niners brass last summer, demanding a contract extension. It got ugly at times, but ultimately Aiyuk got his four-year, $120 million extension just before the start of the 2024 season. Seven underwhelming games later, he suffered a brutal knee injury, tearing his ACL and MCL. Despite November surgery, he’s back on the field with the Niners this summer, and he looks like he’s on track to play this season. Lynch said he’s done “a tremendous job coming back…it’s kind of incredible how well he’s healing, and he’s putting in the work.” Now that Aiyuk is back on the field, we have to wonder what impact this injury has had on his dynasty fantasy value. 

Aiyuk’s ADP was 18.75 right before his knee injury last season. After his poor on-field performance, and the brutal injury, his ADP has dropped all the way down to 60.33. That puts him down at WR31 overall, in the same range as Jameson Williams, Matthew Golden and Emeka Egbuka. The DLF Expert Rankers are a bit higher on Aiyuk, WR29 and 51st overall, but it’s still a massive dip from the opinions of last season. 

This is a serious injury Aiyuk is coming back from. He tore multiple ligaments in his knee, and usually that takes a toll on a player’s explosiveness, especially when they’re only a year removed from the injury. Oftentimes, it takes a player a full season or two to get back to the level that they were playing at before the injury. But, before the injury, he didn’t look anything like himself. In the six full games he played, he averaged only 9.7 PPR points per game. That put him down all the way at WR55 in PPR points per game through the first six weeks of the season. He had one good game (8/147/0 against Arizona) and the rest were horrible. With Deebo Samuel in Washington, the Niners may need to lean on Aiyuk more than ever this season, but I’m not sure he’ll be able to live up to that. They also have a healthy Ricky Pearsall, last year’s breakout Jauan Jennings, and a recently re-signed George Kittle to compete with Aiyuk for targets. I can’t buy the dip on Aiyuk just yet. I’d rather take a chance on one of the late-first rookie wide receivers (Egbuka and Golden) who are going in the same range as him in drafts. If he keeps slipping and starts to fall below the likes of Courtland Sutton, Jayden Higgins and Miachel Pittman, then I would start to consider buying in on Aiyuk.

DYNASTY RANKINGS OUTLIERS: ADDISON HAYES

AT DLF, we offer a variety of dynasty rankings to share our values and guide dynasty managers towards building dominant and competitive rosters for years to come. Those rankings offerings include regularly updated top-250 lists for 1QB and superflex leagues, along with rookie, devy, IDP, and the original set of Cornerstone rankings in the dynasty space.  We pride ourselves on avoiding “cookie-cutter” rankings and allowing our team of experts to present the rankings that they themselves use to build strong dynasty squads.

With that said, when we see a player ranked much higher or lower compared to consensus rankings, it can sometimes raise an eyebrow. While I never doubt or diminish these ranks, I do sometimes wonder why. What am I overlooking about this player that led to the aggressive placement in the data set? That’s exactly what I will try to answer in this series.

I’ve reached out to each of our team members who contribute any type of rankings to Dynasty League Football, asking them about the players they are highest and lowest on, compared to consensus ranks. I hope this series will shed some light on the thought process of our team and potentially change your thinking about individual players.

First up is our lead voice from the DLF Youtube channel, Addison Hayes, who is one of our Superflex Rookie rankers. Addison is bold in his thoughts, and our YouTube viewers likely won’t be surprised by this list of highs and lows among the incoming rookie class.

Rankings Outliers: Addison Hayes

1. Kyle Williams has been a big post-Draft riser after earning earlier-then-expected draft capital and landing in a spot where he could contend for a starting role early in his career. You’re above-consensus on Williams. How much does Stefon Diggs’ presence impact that ranking? Also, does the Patriots’ history of whiffing on wide receiver prospects concern you at all with Williams?

Addison Hayes: I love Kyle Williams. He is by far my favorite and probably most-rostered rookie in this year’s class. And to my credit, I was high on Williams coming into the draft and was hopeful he would be a Day Two pick to hopefully a good landing spot, and boy did both things come true. Williams is this year’s sleeper breakout rookie receiver, like Brian Thomas Jr. was last year and Rashee Rice was in 2023 – both of whom I was heavily in on as rookies.

To answer the questions about Stefon Diggs’ presence and the Patriots draft history bluntly – no, I don’t care at all about either. My pre-draft comp for Williams was actually Diggs, so for him to be able to watch and learn with the veteran is only beneficial, I think. Diggs himself is also a 32-year-old receiver coming off an ACL injury on effectively a one-year deal, as he can be cut next year to save almost $17 million in cap space. Sure, he’s looked good in the clips of camp we’ve seen already, but there’s a world where Diggs is just not who he was prior to the injury, especially at another year older.

To speak to the Patriots’ wide receiver history, it doesn’t bother me. Each year and each prospect are independent of each other, even if they’re drafted to the same team. Plus, they have a new general manager, Eliot Wolf, who took over in 2024 and has only been with the Patriots organization since 2020, so any draft decisions New England made before him feel disingenuous to apply to Williams. Granted, Wolf seems to have swung and missed on Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker, but Williams is a substantially better prospect than both guys, and Wolf was the director of player personnel and operations in Green Bay when they drafted Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, and Davante Adams, so I also think he’s capable of some slam dunk picks.

Kyle Williams is a really good prospect. Prior to the NFL Draft, he was actually tied with Tetairoa McMillan, Luther Burden, and Travis Hunter as the top receivers in this class based on my model, then draft capital separated them out. He’s decently sized, runs a 4.4, is a great route runner and one of the best separators in the entire class, and has production to back it up at two programs in college. Plus, he has a better-than-fair chance to be Drake Maye’s WR1 for the foreseeable future. Williams is probably the most slept on receiver in this entire class, and I would not be shocked if he were a top-15 dynasty wide receiver this time next year.