Fantasy Football: Key ADP up and down results ahead of NFL preseason week 2

Coming off a full week of preseason, we’ve seen ADP moves across the board! We kicked off last week’s ups and downs with a set of players who saw moves based on training camp hype and injuries.

This week, the majority of movements can be attributed to real soccer.

It was a weekend full of excitement, but many teams gave us key indicators that we can apply directly to our fantasy drafts. As a result, this week’s list of up and down players focuses on players who are the subject of heated debate and whose positioning on their teams is uncertain.

Let’s start with a combination of amounts and descendants that I’ve been looking forward to talking about – an amount and descendant of the even backfield!

FALL: Tony Pollard, RB, Tennessee Titans

RISER: Tyjae Spears, RB, Tennessee Titans

I’m not kidding when I say I’m patiently waiting for the moment when Pollard falls while Spears rises, specifically for this article.

I spent much of the offseason debating who the Titans’ true RB1 would be. Like many fantasy analysts, I was hoping that Derrick Henry’s departure would allow Spears to take over the top spot after a promising performance in 2023.

Instead of starting with Spears and adding a complementary short-yardage back, the Titans added Pollard, a back with a very similar profile to Spears.

All the offseason debates can finally be put to rest as the Titans were very generous and gave us a glimpse of the running backs usage for this season. Pollard started the game, but Spears played right away and the splits were pretty even. They were the only backs playing with the starters and were used interchangeably – both used on every down and in the red zone. Spears scored the touchdown.

The touchdown and excitement of the snaps with the starters helps Spears’ ADP go up and Pollard’s is naturally down. Using two backs on every down is not a common practice. But then again, Pollard and Spears are extremely similar and that type of usage would work well and allow the Titans to use a hot approach.

Do they go up and down in My Rankings? No… but there’s a good reason.

Let me be clear: I aggressively ranked Spears at RB26 heading into the Week 1 preseason game. My vision for this backfield was that Spears would outperform Pollard and drafting him as a borderline RB2 was warranted. The preseason outing doesn’t change how I view Spears. However, Pollard won’t drop in my rankings. A 1A/1B backfield was expected.

But Pollard looked excellent Saturday with four carries for 31 yards and a long of 24. If this is a true backfield split between two talented backs, low-end RB2/high-end RB3 is warranted for both players and that’s exactly where I have them both ranked.

RISER: Tank Dell, wide receiver, Houston Texans

The Texans’ receiving corps rankings are one of the big mysteries of 2024. Nico Collins was WR6 in Half-PPR last year and is the Texans’ highest-ranked receiver in Yahoo’s expert rankings. The rankings seem like a steal…