Sometimes you don’t appreciate your normal teacher until you have to endure a substitute. Though not all subs are created equal, by and large you don’t expect to learn as much, you expect class to be more dull, and often the lessons don’t have the same amount of creativity.
Then the full-time teacher returns, and the students start to catch back up. Well, for those fantasy managers with Dak Prescott on their rosters, class is back in session.
The Cowboys’ starting quarterback has been out since Week 1 with a hand injury. He told the media after practice Thursday that he will return to the lineup Sunday against the Lions. And that is good news for anyone with Cowboys on their fantasy rosters.
Now, let’s make it clear, Cooper Rush was an excellent substitute quarterback. The Cowboys went 4-1 with him at the helm. They remain in the playoff and division races. They performed well … but not excellently.
Though the class behaved well under Rush’s watch and have fine grades on their report cards, their standardized fantasy tests score leave something to be desired.
First, Rush was no Prescott replacement as a fantasy QB. He ranks 26th among fantasy QBs, and Prescott was drafted to be a top-10 option, at least. So anyone who went from Prescott to Rush as their fantasy QB went from a low-end QB1 to an unplayable option.
But that isn’t where we’re really interested. It is the other positions that QB impacts that are more important in our view. And those haven’t been great so far, either.
Now, we’re not going to pretend we were shouting about Ezekiel Elliott’s good fortune in 2022. We did no such thing. So his rank of 26th among RBs is not a big surprise for the Madman. It is how that ranking came to be, however, that we find meaningful.
Zeke has looked better than we anticipated. He seems to have quicker feet and looks more elusive that we recall over the past year or two. That’s good for those with Elliott on their rosters. Plus, with Prescott returning, the holes he looks to run through should become larger and even easier to find, since defenses will have to focus more on the passing game than they did against Rush.
But here’s the thing: We’re not sure Elliott’s youthful look will last. Hence, we don’t buy completely into his Dak-bump. He didn’t get younger, we still remember a slower version very recently, so we’re not going to be surprised if the energy wanes and we get version of Zeke who hides in the back of the class with the full-time teacher, instead of constantly raising his hand in participation with the substitute. So we’re going to try to sell Zeke, based on the Dak-bump theory, in the hope another manager will bite.
Beyond Elliott, though, we like the bump we expect to get for CeeDee Lamb, Michael Gallup and Dalton Schultz. The scores should rise for the rest of the class.
