Would it be a kickoff to NFL Training Camp if the Bengals weren’t playing contract games with their players? Last year, it was the Tee Higgins saga. He eventually got his long-term deal, but it was a rocky road to get there. This year, they’re the only team that hasn’t signed their first round pick, Shemar Stewart. They are also at a contract standoff with their star on the defensive side of the ball, Trey Hendrickson. Luckily this year, it doesn’t have a major impact on fantasy football, but it’s a good reminder to be wary of Bengals players in dynasty. Notably, Chase Brown has two years left on his rookie deal. 

In the fantasy-relevant contract news, Terry McLaurin continues to be upset with the Commanders. Their GM Adam Peters says that they are working it out with their star wide receiver, but he didn’t report for the start of training camp. Meanwhile, James Cook has reported to Bills camp despite contract talks. Cook has participated in the off-season program while negotiations have continued. Now that the team is on the field, he is in attendance, but he’s holding in. I feel very good about Cook’s chances to play in Buffalo this season, and he should be primed for a big season. 

The Seahawks made a surprising cut prior to training camp opening up, saying goodbye to Noah Fant. Elijah Arroyo managers rejoiced, but he’s not guaranteed the starting job right off the bat. AJ Barner is in Seattle, and he’ll compete with Arroyo for the job. Barner, a fourth-round pick in 2024, caught 30 passes for 245 yards in his rookie season, starting in six games. Arroyo’s upside is higher for fantasy football, but he didn’t produce in college until 2024. He may take some time to get his feet wet in the NFL, leaving a door open for Barner to produce early in the season. 

Speaking of the 2024 Miami Hurricanes, when the Titans selected Miami QB Cam Ward with the number one pick, it was assumed that he would be the starting quarterback this season. That was all but confirmed this week when it was announced that Will Levis would undergo season-ending surgery on his shoulder. Ward’s only competition for the job now comes from Brandon Allen and Tim Boyle (the Titans haven’t come out and officially named Ward the starter yet). It’s great news for Ward managers, especially in superflex, where he could be a starting QB2 this season. Calvin Ridley is an underrated dynasty asset, but if there is a Ward injury, this offense will be in major trouble. 

Finally, Rashee Rice and Jordan Addison are awaiting potential NFL suspensions after their legal issues have been played out in the courts. Both Addison and Rice agreed to plea deals, the former receiving a fine and probation while the latter was sentenced to 30 days of jail time (to be served sometime in the next five years). Typically, the NFL turns around suspensions pretty quickly after a legal process concludes, but we still haven’t heard what the discipline will be for these wide receivers. Both of these players are young and should have long careers ahead of them, if they can stay on the straight and narrow. Be sure you don’t overreact to any impending suspensions in your dynasty leagues. 

Training camp headlines continue to come in at a rampant pace, and Dynasty League Football is the best site for following the headlines that mean the most to your dynasty leagues. Make sure to bookmark the Dynasty Fantasy Football Player News page for the latest info and dynasty analysis from Ken Kelly! Jaydon Blue was called lazy by a former Cowboys coach this week, check the link to see what that means for your dynasty shares of Blue and Javonte Williams! We’ve also started releasing our “Perfect Draft” series, highlighting the different strategies you should consider when you’re undertaking a dynasty startup draft.

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Kyren Williams is another player who is currently negotiating a new contract with his team. His situation doesn’t sound as dire as McLaurin’s or Cook’s, he reported to camp and said he’s confident that a deal will get done. With Williams in the news, let’s take a look at the Rams running back and what his value is for dynasty leagues. 

Williams peaked as a top 12 pick in the middle of last season, but his ADP has fallen outside of the top 30 going into the 2025 season. I’m not exactly sure what happened to see his value drop off 20 spots. Williams was the RB6 in PPR last year and, while he hit a mid-season lull weeks 9-12, he topped 20 PPR points thrice down the stretch and set a career high in attempts, yards and touchdowns. Despite the overall success, his YPC dropped from over 5 in 2023 to 4.11 in 2024. He also had a career high five fumbles, and another one in the post-season. He is the RB11 in ADP right now, going off the board at 35 overall. TreVeyon WIlliams is going just ahead of him, while Derrick Henry and Kenneth Walker are the next backs off the board after him. The DLF Expert Rankers have him at RB10 and 37 overall. 

The Rams have spent a draft pick at the position for two straight years. In 2024, they spent a third round pick on Blake Corum, and then this past April they selected Jarquez Hunter in the fourth. Despite the investment in Corum last season, the Rams’ running game leaned completely on Williams. Corum finished his rookie season with only 58 attempts and eight targets in the passing game. Based on these actions, one would assume the Rams plan to mix in Hunter and Corum more this season to take some of the pressure off of Williams. It will be fascinating to see what the Rams do with this contract situation, but if they sign him to a long-term deal, it indicates they still feel very good about Williams heading into his fourth NFL season.

THE PERFECT STARTUP DRAFT: 1QB VALUE

Over the span of the next few weeks, we’re going to be bringing you our 2025 versions of the “Perfect Draft.” Anyone who has followed us for any length of time knows you can’t enter a draft without a strategy, but which strategy you choose will directly affect who you want to target. With that in mind, these are the strategies we’re going to cover, in both 1QB and SF versions:

• Win Now

• Value

• Balanced

• Productive Struggle

• Fake Punt

• Bully QB/TE

• Robust RB

Today, we’ll continue the series with an analysis of a 1QB draft looking for value. In 1QB leagues, this is very likely the way to go. You plan to draft the best players available, worry less about positions, and you could even plan to flip players leading up to the start of the season. Inevitably, these teams are going to be very wide receiver-heavy. WR has the most value in dynasty leagues. Running backs tend to go higher in ADP than they’re ranked because managers are more worried about filling out their starting lineups.

We’re going to look at three different areas of the draft to demonstrate how to execute this strategy from anywhere in the draft order. I’m going to approach this exercise from a more scientific point of view than I have in the past for this series. Since we’re looking for the best possible values, I’m going to do three different drafts (from pick two, pick six, and pick ten) where the eleven other teams are picking the next player up in ADP, and the “user” team takes the next player still available in the DLF Expert Rankings. Because of this, there will be some repeat players on this list. Many start-up draft picks are bound to be trade,d and every draft format is a little different but this will give you an idea of who you can target throughout the draft.

Using July ADP, let’s have the perfect dynasty startup draft.

First Round

Early (Team One): Justin Jefferson, WR MIN (ADP: 2; Rank: 2)

Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase will be the first two picks in every one-quarterback startup draft. Chase would personally be my pick, and he is the pick according to ADP as well. Jefferson is the obvious pick here.

Mid (Team Two): Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR DET (ADP: 10; Rank: 4)

Late (Team Three): Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR DET (ADP: 10; Rank: 4)

The DLF Rankers are much higher on St. Brown than the ADP is, so he’s the pick in both the middle and the late first round. This is a clear example of the public preferring to draft running backs over wide receivers in startup drafts. The ADP has three running backs going ahead of St. Brown, while he is ranked over every running back in the rankings.

Second Round

Early (Team Three): AJ Brown, WR PHI (ADP: 19; Rank: 14)

Mid (Team Two): AJ Brown, WR PHI (ADP: 19; Rank: 14)

Brown is coming off his worst season as a Philadelphia Eagle. He missed four games and finished as only the WR20 in PPR. He’s also approaching the age cliff for wide receivers at 28 years old. But he still has matchup-winning upside every single week. The Eagles had 29 rushing touchdowns, second most in the league. If that number comes down this season, Brown should find the end zone more often.

Late (Team One): Tee Higgins, WR CIN (ADP: 24; Rank: 22)

Higgins finally got his long-term contract in Cincinnati, dashing managers’ hopes who believed he would leave the Bengals eventually and become a team’s WR1. While that’s a bit unfortunate, it may help to keep Higgins on the field more. The last two seasons, Higgins missed five games to injury. Last year’s injury specifically seemed to linger longer than most people expected, and it could’ve been to avoid a long-term injury that would impact his future contracts. Now that he has his long-term extension, he should be locked into fantasy WR2 production for years to come.