Quarter One Rankings Report (February 2024)
You read the headline right--VP is releasing his CFF rankings on a quarterly basis now, with explanations included, because you deserve only the best.
Become a savage and live life on your own terms. You want to be uncommon amongst uncommon people—period.
- David Goggins, Former Navy Seal
Oh—not the email you were expecting to receive today? “Is it August already?!” I can hear echoing through the inbox.
Fear not, you haven’t slept through Spring and Summer. This is a new product which I’m introducing this year— quarterly rankings updates. I will release another in Q2 (May) and then the final one in Q3 (August) like I did last year. And of course, as I introduced in November of last season, I’ll do weekly rankings for at least the QB/RB positions during the season. Note: these rankings are for standard re-draft formats.
I won’t lie to you, when I sat down to begin this document, at first I was overwhelmed. I then listened to a David Goggins motivational video, and after being called a bitch and a motherfucker at least a half dozen times, all of a sudden the inspiration was flowing out of me (thanks Goggins!).
What you should expect from these quarterly rankings is that the Q1 report is simply setting the ground work with an initial pool of names that are already on the radar. There will be new names added to my rankings in Q2 as I continue working through my own offseason research, up until the final rankings in the Q3 report released in August, which will be the most comprehensive of the rankings reports.
Since it’s early days, I have organized players into groups, rather than specified by the range I’d draft them in. This is because I have no ADP data or frame of reference for where a lot of these players are going to get drafted, so it’s very hard to assess where I would value them in my ranking. Within the groups, the players are loosely ranked, but the ordering of those bullets are not as thought out, so don’t take those too literally.
Also as a heads up, this iteration of rankings has omitted the WR position (lame, I know), but simply put—as I began the exercise I realized I could not deliver something actually useful at this moment for the WR position, given the scope of how many names there are that are relevant. Like I said, you deserve the best, and that means receiving a set of rankings that are actually meaningful. I think in Q2 I should be able to deliver on this position, but if all else fails, you can rest assured that the final rankings will have this group covered. And yes, every rankings report this year WILL have explanations for each player.
Keep in mind that this report is a snapshot of where I stand on players as of February 2024. A lot of things are going to change, including my assessment of various situations. It’s inevitable that I will change my opinion on a lot of things. That’s where the quarterly frequency of these reports comes in handy. It should help update on a more timely basis where I stand on players.
QB (71)
First Group
Kaidon Salter (LU) — I bounced around the idea of Brown, Salter, and Gabriel in this slot. In the end, the deciding factor for me was that Salter was more consistent than Brown, and doesn’t have the blemish of going to a new system and a new staff that Gabriel has. In this range, we are talking about marginal gains here. I could see myself drafting any of these three as the top QB in a draft, so take that for what it’s worth. However, Salter is the safest pick of the top three QBs in my mind. It should be noted that Liberty does not play a single P4 program in their 2024 schedule either, whereas Brown has to play Alabama, and Gabriel has to play teams like Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin on regular occasions.
Byrum Brown (USF) — I love the upside of a 6’3” live arm runner who plays under an elite system with Alex Golesh as his head coach. We saw this upside on several occasions in 2023, but we also saw some heavy volatility. Too much volatility to be QB1 in CFF. Now, we enter year two in the system, and that should provide some rewards for us as CFF players. Unlike Salter, Brown has the unenviable task of having to face a tough P4 program in Alabama, which might be an unplayable game (but maybe not with their new staff, that’s TBD).
Dillon Gabriel (OREG) — Gabriel was the most consistent of these three in 2023, but the problem is he no longer plays in that situation. That’s not to say that his new landing spot is bad, quite the opposite actually, but his move brings an inherent level of uncertainty. On the other hand, you look at what Bo Nix was able to do at Oregon, and especially under OC Will Stein, and the profile here looks quite attractive.