Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 18

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 18.

With most fantasy leagues done for the season, thoughts are already turning to 2024 for half the NFL. Even though several games on the Week 18 schedule are “meaningless” to fans, coaches and players are looking at who will and won’t be part of their future moving forward.

With so many teams having questions at quarterback, this may be the most impactful offseason in years. That begins this week as organizations start making the critical decisions from head coaches on down as to the direction their teams with be taking.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 17

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 17.

When you make it to within smelling distance of a fantasy football league title, it leaves long-lingering memories when one guy kills what seemed like a sure championship season. Bad beats last longer than winning in one’s memory.

Amari Cooper ended pretty much every season of fantasy teams he played against. He not only had a career day with 11 receptions for 265 yards and two touchdowns but caught a two-point conversion pass to put his weekly number at 51.5 PPR.

If you’ve played fantasy football long enough, you enjoyed more success than failure but a season-ending gut-punch like that won’t leave a stain, it will leave a scar.

There’s always next year, but this year is going to linger for those who got done like that. It wasn’t the first time it’s happened. It won’t be the last time. But if it happened to you in Week 16, it will be awhile before someone else can tell a more heart-wrenching story over a couple adult beverages about how their fantasy season ended.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 16

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 16.

The list of teams that have been eliminated from playoff consideration in the NFL has grown markedly with each week. But that doesn’t mean their games are meaningless.

Pay attention to those players who are getting a look late in the season for teams that are playing out the season when the competition remains real. Often times, if somebody shines in December on a team whose season is done, get an in-road to landing a bigger role the following season.

If you’re still chasing a league title, keep your eyes on the prize. If not, put some focus to the NFL teams that have been eliminated and get an insight on their plans for next year. You may bet the edge you need to turn things around next year.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 14

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 14.

Week 13 had the chance to be a separation week for a lot of playoff contenders, but instead has created a logjam that will likely have an inordinate number of teams still in contention as the season winds down.

In the AFC, only three teams (New York Jets, Tennessee and New England) aren’t either in a playoff spot or within two games of a berth. Four teams are 7-5, three are 6-6, and two are 5-7. In the NFC, only three teams aren’t within two games of a playoff spot (Washington, Arizona and Carolina) with five teams at 6-6, two at 5-7, and two at 4-8.

The good news for those looking to nail down a fantasy championship, a lot more teams than usual will have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs and will continue putting their best foot forward until they’re mathematically eliminated.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 13

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 13.

Every season brings surprises that weren’t necessarily expected from where fantasy players were drafted. Not many would have guessed that Sam Howell and C.J. Stroud would be No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in passing yards heading into December. Few would have projected that the top 10 rushers in the league 12 weeks into the season would include Raheem Mostert (No. 2), D’Andre Swift (No. 4), James Cook (No. 6), Travis Etienne (No. 7) and Zack Moss (No. 10).

But when it comes to receiving yards, the script hasn’t changed. The wide receivers expected to be at or near the top of the charts were picked high because they’ve been there before. Of the top 12 in receiving yards, only Puka Nacua is a surprise. The other top guys were drafted as top guys – Tyreek Hill, Keenan Allen, CeeDee Lamb, A.J. Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Stefon Diggs, Ja’Marr Chase, DJ Moore, Brandon Aiyuk, Mike Evans and Davante Adams.

As you prepare next year for your fantasy football draft, keep it in the back of your mind that receivers are much more predictable than quarterbacks and running backs for top-end value – and should be ranked as such.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 12

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 12.

The NFL gets accused of stomping on the holidays and this year that argument holds a lot of water – as both Thanksgiving and Christmas will become all-NFL-all-the-time casualties.

There was a time when Thanksgiving meant the Detroit Lions early, the Dallas Cowboys late and men in stretch pants sleeping on the couch at 7 p.m. Now, there are three Thanksgiving Day games, the first “Black Friday” game, and the slate on Sunday and Monday. Christmas falls on a Monday this year, and the NFL has doubled down.

In Week 16, there will be a game on Thursday, two on Saturday, the regular slate on Sunday and three on Christmas Day. While this is a little unseemly for having family get-togethers with hardcore fans in the house, it creates a unique scenario in which if you are heavily invested (or your opponent is) in early games, you can make chess-like roster moves during the fantasy playoffs at multiple times to bolster your roster and swing for the fences. Nobody is complaining yet. Wait until someone gets greased because of Monday roster change that helped negate a quarterback. Happy holidays, everybody.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 11

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 11.

Quarterbacks always make headlines in the NFL, but what wide receivers have accomplished so far this season has been amazing. It seems like history is made every week, and it has been spread throughout the league.

Tyreek Hill topped 1,000 receiving yards in eight games. A.J. Brown had six straight games with more than 125 receiving yards. In the eight games he has played, Amon-Ra St. Brown has either 100 yards, a touchdown or both. Michael Pittman Jr. has caught eight or more passes in seven of 10 games. In the four games without Cooper Kupp, rookie Puka Nacua caught 39 passes for 501 yards.

This year more than most, the biggest headline in fantasy football hasn’t been about the quarterbacks, it’s been about the weekly back-breaking performances by wide receivers.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 10

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 10.

There are some weeks that are worse than others as it pertains to bye weeks. Depending on how invested you or your Week 10 opponents are in specific teams, it can be argued this is the most gut-wrenching loss of talent of any bye week of 2023.

The four teams sitting next weekend are the Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams. It’s one thing to have players on your roster. It’s another to have them in your starting lineup.

Unavailable this week will be quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa and Matthew Stafford. So are running backs Isiah Pacheco, Raheem Mostert and D’Andre Swift. Also gone are wide receivers Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. So are tight ends Travis Kelce and Dallas Goedert (for a while). So are their kickers and defenses.

A lot of guys who have been in fantasy football lineups every week are down in Week 10. Roster depth will be tested, because it would hard for any fantasy team not to have a taste of one or more them. Hopefully your crippling is minimal.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 9

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 9.

Week 8 showed us once again how an injury to a quarterback can have a ripple effect. The Minnesota Vikings lost Kirk Cousins for the season with a torn Achilles. With a lot of uncertainty about his replacement, even after Minnesota acquired Joshua Dobbs, the value of all Vikings fantasy players take a huge hit – from Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson on down.

The same was true with the New York Jets in Week 1. For the first time in years, a slew of Jets players ended up on fantasy rosters on draft day – only to see their weekly value bottom out when Aaron Rodgers went down.

Quarterbacks last longer in fantasy drafts than their value indicates, because so many of them are equally productive from week-to-week. But when you lose one, the ripple effect on the rest of the offense can be devastating.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 8

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 8.

Parity has been running rampant in the NFL the last couple of weeks, and it has had an impact on fantasy rosters.

In Week 6, only three of the 30 teams playing scored more than 24 points in one of the lowest-scoring weeks in the modern era of the NFL. The week also saw the last two unbeaten teams (Philadelphia and San Francisco) lose.

In Week 7, strange things continued. In the 10 games played Sunday afternoon, six of them were won by the team with the worse record in the matchup. This included three 1-5 teams (New England, Chicago and the New York Giants) getting their second win of the season – all against teams that came in with a record of .500 or better. The trend continued Monday with Minnesota beating the 5-1 San Francisco 49ers.

Just when you think you have the 2023 season figured out, the NFL proves that you should expect the unexpected.