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The 2022 season officially started a month ago, and we’re about two weeks away from the draft. Teams are hard at work trying to fix last season’s mistakes, and we are hard at work analyzing those teams. There’s never going to be a perfect team, so there is always something that needs to be fixed. Some rosters have more issues than others, but everyone has at least one big need this offseason.

The Cardinals have a solid roster at the top level, but don’t have much depth at pretty much every position. Their season last year tumbled after injuries hit Kyler Murray, J.J. Watt, and DeAndre Hopkins. So far this offseason, the roster has only gotten smaller. Christian Kirk, Chandler Jones, and Chase Edmonds all left. Their weakest position is probably CB, Byron Murphy and Jeff Gladney are serviceable but not true CB1s. With the little cap they have left, perhaps they could give a veteran CB a call hoping they will play on a contender’s discount.

The Philadelphia Eagles were one of the highest-volume rushing teams in the NFL last season. They finished 97 carries above league average and only one short of the league-leading Tennessee Titans. Regardless of where the carries are coming from, the Eagles are one of the most run-heavy teams in the NFL and have plenty of opportunity to go around.

Miles Sanders is likely to become a post-hype sleeper following this season. I’ll be in at cost if interest is unexpectedly low during his impending free agency. Kenneth Gainwell has one more chance, and his prospect profile hints at tantalizing upside. He’s one of the highest-upside zero RB targets in 2022. It would not shock me if he just outplayed Sanders this season.

Welcome to the latest and greatest arena where fantasy football takes thrive or die. A place where fantasy football propositions can gain validity or be thrown by the wayside. This is the second installment of the Fantasy Football Shark Tank.

Allen Robinson, Russell Gage, and Chase Edmonds should all be targeted in 2022. Given their talents and their new situations it will. Despite not being their new teams’ primary pass catchers, Gage and Robinson will get fantastic quarterback upgrades. And Edmonds is looking like he will get the first crack at being the Dolphins number one running back. It’s good process rostering any of these three players in the 2022 season. 

The Houston Texans had a low-volume rushing attack in 2021, finishing No. 24 in the league in attempts. Their total of 420 was over 30 carries fewer than league average. It marked two consecutive seasons with carry totals near the bottom of the league (they ranked No. 31 in 2020). Houston is likely to be bad again next season, and we don’t have much to go off of to project how much they’d like to either run or throw the ball in an ideal world.

The Texans are going to be bad next season, but volume is the tail that wags the fantasy points dog. If Marlon Mack is healthy, he’s easily the best running back on this team. The other backs currently under contract are Rex Burkhead, Royce Freeman, Scottie Phillips, Dare Ogunbowale, and Darius Anderson. Still only 26, Mack could have one more RB2-level season left in the tank.

PlayerProfiler/RotoUnderworld Head Game Analyst and NFL Draft Analyst Cody Carpentier is back for more; now breaking down his NFL Mock Draft 5.0 in a short team-by-team series. Next up is the Chicago Bears. If you want to see your favorite team, go to Twitter @CarpentierNFL and leave Cody a comment on what team you want to see broken down next.

With the departure of many interior linemen over the last three years, it’s time to build back from the inside. Darian Kinnard is a massive human, and the interior version of Trevor Penning in this draft. During the Senior Bowl, Kinnard had the opportunity to take that next step. But he fell behind his counterparts in Zion Johnson and Cole Strange. Previously discussed as an early-second rounder, the Raiders re-coup some value due to a poor Combine and mediocre Senior Bowl.

The second-best running back on the Browns is D’Ernest Johnson, not Kareem Hunt. He’s one of the few best backup running backs in the league. And he deserves the same kind of sleeper/handcuff buzz in dynasty that guys like Khalil Herbert get. Johnson is also in a unique situation among handcuffs. He’s able to step into legitimate volume with an injury to either Hunt or Nick Chubb. His likelihood of fantasy utility is doubled in relation to guys like Alexander Mattison.

The improvement in quarterback play we’re likely to see when Deshaun Watson takes over for the Browns will be the tide that lifts all boats. Nick Chubb should see the lion’s share of that boost. And D’Ernest Johnson is a sneaky beneficiary as an under-the-radar stud who is likely to be usable in fantasy lineups in 2022. He’s one of the best throw-in trade targets in dynasty.

Derek Carr was great last season and now gets Davante Adams to throw the ball to. He finished as the QB14 in fantasy last season but should improve upon it with the best receiver in the NFL at his disposal and a loaded division with shootout potential. There will be many startable quarterback options this season. Carr is firmly entrenched as one.

Chase Edmonds is already one of the best receivers out of the backfield and will get the opportunity to showcase more of that skillset this season in a revamped Miami offense that saw them acquire Terron Armstead and Tyreek Hill. Miami’s offensive line should hold up better than the last two seasons while plenty of space should be created underneath as defenses have to deal with both Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The Dolphins offense will improve as a whole, and Edmonds looks like a big beneficiary.

PlayerProfiler/RotoUnderworld Head Game Analyst and NFL Draft Analyst Cody Carpentier is back for more; now breaking down his NFL Mock Draft 5.0 in a short team-by-team series. Next up is the Chicago Bears. If you want to see your favorite team, go to Twitter @CarpentierNFL and leave Cody a comment on what team you want to see broken down next.

Entering the Senior Bowl, Alec Pierce was thought of as a late third/early fourth round pick in the Draft. But not so fast. After two above-average to good days in Mobile, he left the Senior Bowl without playing in the game. I physically saw him leaving the airport, but I wasn’t going to be that guy to ask why. I just had to infer it was one of two things. Either he had received really good news from scouts and coaches, or he was hurt. And I didn’t see anything wrong with him.

Before Tony Pollard got to town, Ezekiel Elliott was a highly-drafted running back in his early 20s who had put up composite scores of 84.6, 52.3 (in that suspension-shortened 2017 season), and 89.7. When healthy and in shape, he was consistently one of the best pure runners in the league as a young player. The decline has come quickly for Zeke. He’s recently only added value in short yardage and against heavy box counts relative to Pollard’s output.

We’re left playing the same game we’ve been playing with the Ezekiel Elliott-Tony Pollard duo for the last three years. Except the value that Pollard’s youth added to that equation is nearly gone.We’re approaching the moment of truth on this backfield. The most likely outcomes for Pollard all end in disappointment for dynasty gamers. Cash out and get off the ride while you still can.

PlayerProfiler/RotoUnderworld Head Game Analyst and NFL Draft Analyst Cody Carpentier is back for more; now breaking down his NFL Mock Draft 5.0 in a short team-by-team series. Next up is the Green Bay Packers. If you want to see your favorite team, go to Twitter @CarpentierNFL and leave Cody a comment on what team you want to see broken down next.

If you play any devy Fantasy Football, you remember the name George Pickens. He fits that mold of Davante Adams that all of the Packers fans are clamoring for. He dealt with injury at Georgia, tearing his ACL last spring causing him to miss most of the 2021 season. But he returned for the final stretch to make key plays for Georgia en route to a National Championship. He could’ve taken to the easy way out, knowing he was a potential first-round talent and just resting the knee to get healthy for the process. But he didn’t. He wanted to win.