fantasy football fallers – Page 2

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.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 7

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 7.

Back in the old days of fantasy football, the touchdown was king. Yardage wasn’t measured in the tenth of a point. PPR wasn’t a thing. You accrued yardage juice (if any) in increments of 25 or 50 yards.

Touchdowns are no longer the primary measuring stick, which was a good thing in Week 6. Of the 15 games played, if you bet the Under on every game, you went 13-2.

Ten teams won while scoring 21 or fewer points, and only three teams scored more than 24 points (and one had 26). The point totals from top to bottom were 63, 57, 40, 40, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 30, 27, 26 and 23.

In the modern era of the NFL, we have never seen this – nor will we again. Here’s to hoping your fantasy team won with a season-low point total.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 6

The top risers and fallers heading into Week 6.

Everyone puts considerable stock in using their early draft picks on players they’re convinced will carry a roster. However, five weeks into the 2023 season, we’ve learned that the only consistent position for fantasy scoring are the elite wide receivers.

At quarterback, the top 10 players in passing yards include a lot of players who weren’t drafted to be a QB1 – namely Kirk Cousins (2nd), C.J. Stroud (3rd), Matthew Stafford (4th), Sam Howell (6th), Brock Purdy (8th) and Jared Goff (9th). In terms of touchdown passes, the same is true with Cousins (1st), Russell Wilson (tied for 2nd), Purdy (tied for 7th), Goff (tied for 7th), Jordan Love (9th), and Stroud (10th).

A similar run of unheralded players is happening at running back. Among the top 10 rushing yardage leaders, more than half are players who weren’t drafted to be an RB1 – De’Von Achane (2nd), Zack Moss (3rd), D’Andre Swift (4th), Breece Hall (6th), David Montgomery (7th), and James Conner (8th).

The only position that has held up with the top stars dominating the top spots are wide receivers, but there are exceptions. Among the top 10 receivers in yardage, you have Puka Nacua (2nd), DJ Moore (5th), and Nico Collins (8th). In terms of receptions, there is Nacua (1st), Adam Thielen (4th), and Michael Pittman (10th).

While the star players are in lineups every week because of their ability, in the first month-plus of the season, the back-of-the-roster guys and waiver pickups are doing just as much if not more damage.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 4

Fantasy football’s top risers and fallers entering Week 4.

Injuries are always part of the game – ask anyone who used a first-round pick on Nick Chubb – but there are times when your best players won’t be available to you by design.

Starting in Week 5, the NFL will do its annual attrition of available teams with bye weeks. While most savvy fantasy managers make sure they don’t box themselves in on draft day with too many players on bye at the same time, once roster moves start taking place, all that draft prep goes out the window.

Between Week 5 and Week 14, eight weeks will have byes, including four with four teams sitting and two weeks with six teams down. The best advice for your new-look roster is to plan ahead for the weeks that you’re going to be potentially crippled at a position and look in advance for a player who may be available to pick up and stash for a week or two to keep yourself from making a desperation waiver wire pick when everyone else panics. Sometimes forward thinking before the rest can pay dividends.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 3

These players are rising and falling in fantasy football leagues.

The Kansas City Chiefs are finding a way to rewrite history (at least in the fantasy football realm) like few others have. For a team that has a potent offense and are the defending champs in the middle of a dynasty – KC has only two players you want to start on a weekly basis – QB Patrick Mahomes and TE Travis Kelce.

Other than that, the Chiefs are a stew of role players who may step up one week and disappear the next.

Mahomes hasn’t been turning out the lights, but he has thrown for 531 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 75 yards through two games. Other than him? In two games, the Chiefs running backs have run for 113 yards. Fourteen different players have caught passes, but only one (WR Justin Watson) has more than 70 receiving yards, and nobody has caught more than six passes.

Yet, somehow the beat goes on. The Chiefs are the gold standard of the NFL, but when it comes to fantasy football, aside from Mahomes and Kelce, there isn’t an offensive player you feel comfortable playing – and likely get burned when you do.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 2

Assessing fantasy’s key risers and fallers entering Week 2.

If you noticed that your fantasy football league scores from Week 1 were lower than normal, there was a big reason why. Big points were expected with the hype of kickoff weekend, but they didn’t materialize.

Nine of 16 games had an Over/Under of 45 points or more. Week 1 featured games with point totals of 43, 41, 40, 38, 37, 37, 36, 34, 34, 33, 31, and 27 points. Only three games saw more than 45 points scored.

Week 1 provided a pair of important fantasy football reminders as it pertained to lower-than-expected point totals – the NFL pays defensive players, too. Despite all the add-ons to increase scoring (PPR, increased defense points, distance field goal bonuses), touchdowns remain the life blood of fantasy football.

These five players are falling in fantasy football drafts

Five players whose fantasy fortunes are heading in the wrong direction.

With training camps in full swing and teams starting to take the field for their preseason openers, it can only mean that we’re drawing ever closer to Week 1, and the start of another NFL season. Along with that, of course, comes the beginning of another year of fantasy football. While some leagues have already held their drafts, many more will do so between now and Sept. 7 when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Detroit Lions in the Kickoff Game.

With that in mind, here’s a look at five players to keep an eye on as they move down draft boards.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 17

The latest players on the upswing and downswing entering Week 17.

One certainty in the NFL is turnover. Typically, only about half of the division winners repeat, teams that had losing records the previous year become winners, and undervalued fantasy players from those teams become unexpected lineup staples.

Last year, 12 NFL teams won 10 or more games – six in each conference. Of those, only three (Buffalo, Kansas City and Cincinnati) will repeat that feat. The other three (Tennessee, New England and Las Vegas) currently have losing records.

In the NFC, only two teams that had double-digit wins last season (San Francisco and Dallas) are going to repeat. The Green Bay Packers (13-4 in 2021) are 7-8 and on playoff life support. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (13-4 in ’21) are 7-8 and only in the playoff hunt because the NFC South is so bad. The Los Angeles Rams (12-5) and Arizona Cardinals (11-6) have a combined record of 9-21 this year.

When you start your preparation for the 2023 fantasy draft, keep in mind which teams look to be on the upswing but not quite there yet – teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions. Given the up-and-down nature of the NFL, they could be in for big things next year and will likely garner more credibility than they had coming into this season – which was almost none.

Here is the Week 17 Fantasy Football Market Report.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 16

The latest key risers and fallers in fantasy football entering Week 16.

We’ve reached the point in the fantasy football season where the biggest decisions need to be made to get closer to a league championship. An epic season can fold like a card table with one decision.

I’ve never been a “ride or die” type fantasy player – you basically play the same lineup every week because you made the biggest investment in them. I’m more on letting matchups pick my lineup with the exception of unbenchable studs. Beyond that, I’m willing to sit a player I invested heavily in on draft day to play a hunch if the matchup is too juicy to pass.

When you roll the dice in the playoffs and hit, you remember it for a couple years. When you bench a guy you’ve been starting all season on a gut feeling and the guy goes off for three touchdowns? That stain lasts forever.

The ride-or-die people have fewer regrets.

Here is the Week 16 Fantasy Football Market Report.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 13

The latest risers and fallers in the fantasy football landscape.

An issue that impacts fantasy rankings every year is the perception coming into a season as to the teams that are going to be playing for something late in the season when fantasy titles are up for grabs. What makes the NFL great is that, while there are some dynasty teams like Kansas City that are good every year, there are also teams that rise to take their place among the elite.

With six weeks left to play, only three defending division champions find themselves currently in first place (Kansas City, Tennessee and Tampa Bay at 5-6). Both Philadelphia (10-1) and Minnesota (9-2) have surpassed their 2021 win totals. San Francisco and Miami finished third in their divisions last season. Baltimore finished last in the AFC North in 2021.

The NFL is the best reality show on television for a reason – you never fully know what to expect when the season begins, because there are twists and turns that most of us don’t see coming. Players you drafted expecting them to dwell on the bench have become your bell cows because the NFL is cyclical.

Here is the Week 13 Fantasy Football Market Report.