By The Hudsonian, Joshua Hudson
If you head over to the Club Fantasy Instagram page, you can stay up to speed on all the transactions as they occur, or as fast as my graphic designer can make some bomb ass pictures for you to like. Below you’ll see how I view all of the relevant NFL offseason transactions. I say relevant because, for the purposes of fantasy football, defensive signings don’t impact us as much as the offensive ones. I’ll cover the defensive signings when I do my team-by-team previews later in the summer.
I’ll identify the player, who they signed with or were traded to, and how I think it impacts their fantasy value going into 2017, positive or negative. Next up: Eddie Lacy signs with Seattle.
RB Eddie Lacy heads to the Seahawks in an attempt to right his career. Seattle hopes he emulates Beast Mode and becomes their workhorse. Design credit: Kathilia Colón (@katcolon37 on Instagram)
Transaction: Eddie Lacy signs with the Seattle Seahawks
Fantasy Outlook: Eddie Lacy spent the 2016 offseason doing P90x in an effort to maintain his ever ballooning midsection. He came into camp in good shape, and averaged 5.1 yards per carry during the season. The problem was it was on only 71 carries, as he played in just five games before landing on Injured Reserve. Because of that, Green Bay decided against bringing him back.
Battling his weight once again, Lacy sought a new team in free agency. The running back market has moved at a turtle’s pace with so much depth in the upcoming draft, but Lacy was arguably the best available RB on the open market. Seattle thought so, as they agreed to a one year deal with him. They even agreed to pay him $5.5 million. On one condition.
That’s right. Keep your weight in check.
Lacy has incentives in his contract tied to his weight. If he makes weight at certain points, he inches closer to that $5.5 million. I hear those Starbucks lattes are dangerous, Eddie!
What does Lacy bring to the Seahawks besides the need for an extra seat on their team jet? For all his weight issues, he is a good running back and agile for his size. The Seahawks want to bludgeon teams with their run game, something they weren’t able to do in 2016. Partly because of the ineffectiveness of their running backs and partly because of their lackluster offensive line play.
The Seahawks hope some of their young linemen will improve with a year under their belt and will likely look to add more to the line in the 2017 NFL Draft. Lucky for them, this draft isn’t loaded with quality at the position, which likely means the best of the bunch should be available at the tail end of the 1st round, where they just so happen to be selecting.
If Lacy remains healthy, even without great offensive line play, I would look for him to have around 800 yards and 5 touchdowns. He’s going to be working in a committee with Thomas Rawls and C.J. Prosise, so all three will get their touches. Prosise will likely be their passing down back. In limited time last season, we all saw how explosive he can be. Even with those modest numbers and plenty of competition for carries, Lacy is likely to be drafted as an RB2 because of his name. I think he’s definitely top 30 for certain, but top 20? That’s pushing it. This much I do know: owning him in 2017 is likely to give you headaches that even Tylenol can’t get rid of.