So it's April and I don't even have a ranking or analysis to my name yet.  By my standards, that's sad.  So in a half-assed effort to make up for it and get us all thinking about football again (even if only for five minutes), I've gone ahead and basically made power rankings for each team solely based off keepers.

I'm basically guessing who everyone will keep mind you, and I'm guessing overall value gained when keeping them too.  Sure I might be giving people ideas on who to keep, but you're all smart, so you would've figured it out anyways.

With that, we'll go in reverse order.  I'll be showing players, and in parenthesis, my best guess towards what their market value is and what their final dollar value will be to that specific owner.  So, for example, it would be something like "Trent Richardson (14/7)" where the 14 is his market value and 7 is what the owner would be paying for him to keep him.  If the numbers are bolded, that means a contract is already in place at that rate.

10. Bryan - TY Hilton (21/10), Sammy Watkins (11/8)

Two points here:

1. This, on paper, looks to be the strongest set of keepers in our league's history.  Enough guys blew up last year that nearly everyone was able to come away with a fairly strong set of keepers.  That being said...

2. Bryan's keepers probably leave something to be desired.  He has TY Hilton under a good deal, but he'll be the first to tell you that early in the year Hilton was pretty terrible at professional football.  It wasn't until Indy abandoned the Trent Richardson project that they started throwing it more and really let Hilton explode.  But after Hilton, there's really no value for anyone on Bryan's team.  That made this pick an absolute guess.  Watkins is only $3 in savings at $8 cost, but who else does he have?  Maclin joined the Chiefs, AJ Green is no longer under contract for Bryan, possibly making him more expensive to keep than his market value, and Brandan Oliver probably will be competing against a rookie for touches.  Luckily for Bryan, killer keepers hasn't been the biggest reason for success over the years, but even this is weak for what he's normally had.


9. Danny - Mike Evans (19/13), Lamar Miller (24/17)

If we were to make tiers for keepers, Bryan would be by himself, with Danny grouped together with the next four owners.  This group is characterized by one "proven" player (I use that term pretty liberally here) and one player who's had one good year and could be a fluke.  The thing that makes me put Danny here at nine are factors that his keepers have no control over.  How well will Jameis Winston get the ball to Evans?  The Dolphins want to get Damian Williams more involved, but how much?  Do they even trust Miller after he absolutely fell apart by about the 15th carry of the game?  Look it up, it's an interesting stat.

Evans is capable of destroying the league, and Miller is capable of handling himself admirably, but they haven't done enough compared to some of their peers to justify me putting them ahead of the next two owners.

I think the most important thing to take away from here, though, is that this will probably be the first year Danny doesn't have Cam Newton on his team going into the draft.  Is it "moment of silence" worthy?

(And don't think I didn't think long and hard that Danny might keep Kelvin Benjamin or Jonathan Stewart over Lamar Miller.  That still wouldn't change his position here though.)

8. Arun - Carlos Hyde (17/8), Randall Cobb (24/11)

The prize of Arun's tanking run from last year was Carlos Hyde.  After yours truly drafted him for $4 and traded him to Katarya, his 49ers squad dropped Frank Gore and handed the reigns to the former OSU "student-athlete".  Now, the Niners did sign Reggie Bush, but I don't think he'll have any effect on Hyde other than take away some of his carries.  And I'm not all that high on Hyde anyways, which probably means he'll have a good year.  But he'll get touches, and lots of them.  And he already has a knack for scoring TDs, so that's another thing going in his favor.  But the lack of receptions scares me.  And with a new OC, there's some uncertainty to how many total carries he'll get per game.

As for Cobb, he'll be good so long as Rodgers is throwing to him.  There's not much more you have to add, other than the fact that I think we'll see some regression as Rodgers can't possibly be that efficient this year as he was last year.  But Cobb is good and under a very good contract.

7. Baron - Jordan Matthews (15/11), CJ Anderson (38/26)

I am stupid high on CJ Anderson this year.  Personal bias makes me put Baron ahead of Arun because of how much I like Anderson.  And I'm not afraid to profess my bias for him because I think it's a no-brainer that Baron will keep him.  Take Kubiak and his system, combine it with a one-cut runner in Anderson, and you've got a great combination for success.

And Jordan Matthews has the chance to be a good player, but much like my Sammy Watkins guess for Bryan, this is just a random shot in the dark for a keeper.  The cupboard to work with for Baron is pretty, wait for it, barren, and he'll probably have to take a shot on upside.  I mean, who else is he going to pick?  Brandon LaFell?  Torrey Smith?  Ray Rice?  <-- Yes, he still has Ray Rice on his team.

6. Jeff - Adrian Peterson (52/37), Mark Ingram (31/22)

Jeff comes in sixth with his one proven player in AP and a guy who's had one good year in Ingram.  So why is he ahead of Danny and Arun?  Well, have you seen an angry AP run?

I'm pretty convinced AP will be a Viking next year, and he'll be fresh.  Of course, he'll be 30 and I am a believer in the aging of running backs, but I think AP has at least one good year left in him, and in case you didn't know, Norv Turner ran the ball more in the red zone than any other coach when he was with the Chargers.  And it showed a bit last year with all the burn Asiata got in the red zone.  So picture angry AP with ample TD opportunities.  Yea, good pickup Jeff.

However...there's the case of Mark Ingram.  Everyone is talking about how the Saints are going to be running the ball more, and how good that is for Ingram.  I think he'll see an uptick in carries sure, but even with a declining Drew Brees, Sean Payton is a gambler, and he'll be throwing the ball to a bunch of different no names.  And Ingram SUCKED prior to last year, so he could be terrible and just have one good year.  It's the unknown factor that comes with Ingram (along with the fact that he costs $22) that doesn't have me putting Jeff higher in the rankings.

5. Sean - Odell Beckham (38/26), DeAndre Hopkins (16/6)

Odell Beckham Jr. is that. damn. good.  The only thing I can really say about his anticipated production next year is that we could see a decline in his numbers purely because regression has to happen right?  RIGHT?  But all the advanced stats don't show any reason why he would slow down (unlike Josh Gordon after he blew up).  The only way I see Beckham failing is if we see terrible Eli throwing him the ball, instead of decent Eli.

And then there's the unknown that is DeAndre Hopkins.  He'll have to deal with a terrible QB and more double coverage, but he was putting up big ol' numbers at the end of last year.  And Bill O'Brien knows offense, so he'll probably find him ways to get open.  Add in the fact that Arian Foster and Alfred Blue both were good last year, which means teams will be respecting the Texans running game, giving Hopkins some freedom.  I think he could finish Top 15 this year.

Sean has also surprised me before by keeping big name guys at market value when he kept Arian Foster last year.  And Payton Manning for that matter.  So he could come in an keep Antonio Brown.  But my projections show Brown being valued around $52, but with a cost to Sean of $58.  So it would be a matter of weighing risk for Sean, but if there's someone I could see doing this, it's him.

4. Tim - Demarco Murray (38/24), Alshon Jeffrey (22/16)

As we jump into Tier 2, we see some owners with players in the Top 10 at their respective positions, with very solid backgrounds of production.  Last year at this time, Tim had Demarco Murray on a killer contract ($14), but that expired, meaning to keep him, he'll probably have to pay a pretty penny more.  Which is especially unfortunate since Tim is down almost $30 of draft money before the season's even started.  He's also got a lot of wear and tear from last year; not to mention the uncertaintly of a switch to a new team and worse offensive line.  But there are positives.  For one, the Eagles run almost more run plays than any other team out there, they have a pretty decent O line themselves, and he's still in the prime of his career.  So there's a positive level to his uncertainty.

He makes up for some of that uncertainty by having Jeffrey locked into a pretty good contract.  $16 for the #1 receiver on a team where the OC peppered Demayrius Thomas with opportunity is very good.  With Brandon Marshall being replaced by Eddie Royal though, that means Jeffrey could be seeing a lot more double coverage.  And Tim will tell you what happens when Jay Cutler meets double coverage.  But for a guy with almost no money to spend, using $40 on some very good players isn't the worst way to start a draft.

3. Jose - Rob Gronkowski (44/28), Jeremy Hill (33/23)

Ok, so my logical and biased reason why I'm third is simple: Gronk is easily the number one player at his position, and Jeremy Hill was the best runner to end the year last year.  And before you get all "No he wasn't!" on me, I'm saying he was the best runner, not fantasy running back.  I believe he was averaging the highest fantasy points per rush of any RB in the final six weeks of the season, and that was after the team had reintegrated Gio Bernard.  Of course, that means he'll absolutely revert back to the mean a bit.  But Hue Jackson is the OC, and he's working on taking the ball out of Andy Dalton's hands.  And he was the guy who made Darren McFadden relevant his one year.  So long as he's coaching, Hill will get A LOT of carries.  Unfortunately, he won't catch the ball.  Basically, he's what Carlos Hyde wishes to be.  Bias alert: I think Jeremy Hill could finish Top 5 next year.  So I'll be wrong on that one.

There really isn't any other reason to mention Gronk other than the fact that I'm projecting a savings of $16, for a total savings of $26 including Hill, which is third most of any team I did the math on.

2. Dan - Demayrius Thomas (37/18), Russell Wilson (18/8)

Alright, now we get into Tier 1 keepers.  These are keepers that are Top 5 at their respective positions.  Heck, they could end up being #1 at their positions by the end of the season.

Dan has had Demayrius Thomas pretty much since he's been in the league, and he'll have him for at least two more years.  Subsequently, the contract he has him on is so dang good that it's opened up the chance for him to get three to four elite players in each draft since we've been doing the auction system.  FYI - One of those players has always been Dez Bryant.

Speaking of Dez, Dan paid so much for him last year that to keep him this upcoming year would be cost prohibitive.  Which means Dan's best value comes from keeping Russell Wilson.  Did you know he had both Luck and Wilson on his team last year?  That means he gets his choice of super awesome QB to keep.  The reason I anticipate him keeping Wilson is for the pure savings.  He could keep Wilson for $8 or keep Luck for $39.  I know that Wilson's a bit trickier because so much of his performance is based upon his running ability, but Dan is pretty much in a no-lose situation here.  Luck would probably go for somewhere in the $40s, so he'll save money there, or he could keep Wilson and use that extra money on other positions.  Either way, both QBs are killer, and combined with Thomas, give Dan a big leg up to start the season.

1. Joe - Le'Veon Bell (58/38), Eddie Lacy (57/35)

Doesn't seem all that fair that Joe would have the best set of keepers coming off a championship, but that's the case here.  He made a pretty smart decision in keeping Lacy on a two year deal, although the big boy was pretty ineffective to start the season, so we don't know if he'll go through something like that again.  And the Packers could have games where they decide to throw the ball the whole dang game.  But right now Lacy is the #2 RB going off preseason boards.  And the guy below him?  Le'Veon.

You could make the argument that Jamaal Charles might be a better RB for fantasy than Le'Veon, but since this is my rankings and I look at scoring on a per game basis (as opposed to season totals), I'll take Le'Veon all day.  After his suspension, he'll rack up points.  And since he doesn't have a Knile Davis to share carries with, he'll run, catch, and run some more.  Without his suspension, I believe he's the number one player in fantasy.  And Joe drafted him for $36 last year.  Plus, since he is being suspended, his market value has dropped a bit, meaning Joe saves an extra two or three dollars.  That means a total projected savings of $20 off his market value.  In total, Joe could save $42 compared to market value on those guys.  That's nuts.  Take the pure dominance of having two Top-3 RBs and the money savings and you can see why I'm picking his keepers over everyone else's.