Team Talent Alone: Mid-Season Stock Up, Stock Down
Welcome to the mid-season edition of Team Talent Alone. This week we’re doing Stock up / Stock down. If you want to know what Team Talent Alone is, check out the previous articles here or the list for the team here.
Sorry for the short one this week, sometimes life gets in the way but expect a return to normal with a full film review next week. Without further adieu, let’s do some Stock up, Stock down. First up, Lamar Jackson.
Stock up, Stock down
Lamar Jackson (Stock Up)
Stock way the Hell up on Lamar Jackson.
Lamar Started the season at 16:1 to win the MVP, now, he’s at 3.5:1 and I think this will be the last week you’ll be able to get odds that long. Typically, the winner of the MVP is the QB on the 1 or 2 Seed team, and *looks at standings* oh what do you know? Lamar is the QB on the 1 Seed.
He doesn’t have some of the underlying metrics you want to see on a “to win MVP Ticket”; he’s ranked 12th in epa/dropback and is on pace to fall short of the 30-touchdown mark, but I still have faith.
Plus no other MVP candidate has a carpet of himself.
Jonathan Allen (Stock Down)
Jonathan Allen is currently the third highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL.
Jonathan Allen is currently the 55th highest-graded defensive tackle in the NFL per PFF.
To be fair, the Commies’ defense has been…. weird. However, this season, Allen is not living up to the Hype or Price. He’s on track for his worst run defense season by PFF grade.
He’s on pace for 56 pressures which would be his second-best season, but, that is buoyed by a spike week against Denver (where he played defensive end).
He is currently on pace to crush his previous high for snap count so maybe we’ll see a second half of the season rebound but if a story comes out about an injury he’s been playing through, don’t be surprised.
CJ Stroud (Stock Up)
I was too low on CJ Stroud going into the season. In fact, Stroud wasn’t even on the opening day Team Talent Alone (back in the days of the My Guys title).
Saying Stroud is having a good season is an understatement. He is currently 7th in epa/play (first among rookies), 7th in yards (first among rookies), 4th in passer rating (first among rookies), 7th in passing touchdowns (first among rookies), and has thrown ONE INTERCEPTION (tied with Will Levis and Anthony Richardson, who have played 2 games and 4 games respectively).
ORotY is already a given for CJ Stroud, it’s starting to be a question of MVP votes.
Drake London (Stock Down)
Okay before I start tearing Drake London down, it’s the situation, not the player here. I really liked London coming out of South Carolina, but he’s starting to get really weighed down by bad QB play.
QBs have an 86.9 passer rating when targeting Drake London, London has ONE DROP all season and is 52.6% on 50/50 balls, including the one:
What does all of that mean together? I don’t really know.
Arthur Smith is like a Batman villain, he’s confusing and over the top and rich as hell so we have to go by his whim on game script. Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinickie are bad quarterbacks who should not be starting in the NFL.
Drake London is a good to very good wide receiver, we just need to get him a QB before he ends up being the new Allen Robinson.
Jordan Love (Stock Down)
OOF.
This one hurts. I was about as high as someone could be on Jordan Love going into the season and it is not going well.
Love is currently 21st in Success Rate, putting him right next to offensive powerhouses like Baker Mayfield and Mac Jones, and that’s before you adjust for his Week 9 blowout over the Rams.
He is sitting at the 29th spot in PFF Passing Grades and has a 3:2 interception-to-TD ratio.
Luckily, for Jordan Love (and me), the Packers have the 7th easiest remaining Strength-of-Schedule, maybe we see a dead cat bounce and Love will end the season looking like an NFL-caliber QB.
