fantasy football trends – 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.

5 players whose fantasy football stock is rising after the preseason

These five players are on the rise after a strong preseason.

One of the dangers of holding your fantasy football draft too early is that player value can change dramatically during training camp and the preseason. While situations like injuries, free-agent signings, and surprise retirements can move the needle, this article will instead focus on five players that improved their stock by performing well in July and August.

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 15

The most important risers and fallers heading into Week 15.

When it’s sweltering in July and August, natural complainers yip about the heat. I’m thinking about December and January. In July, you don’t even have a fantasy roster. In December and January, you’re horrified to learn your fast-track offense is playing in Buffalo in January and the weather outside is frightful.

What separates good fantasy owners from really good ones is they take into account holiday season weather in July. When I’m on the clock and I have two players I could go either way on, I will go with the player in the more climate-controlled conditions when it comes to fantasy playoff time.

It stuns me that this isn’t a metric fantasy football management. It’s one-and-done in the playoffs. Don’t wake up Sunday morning and see snowplows on a field and straight flags and be caught unaware. That’s how fantasy seasons die.

I say this because there is currently a “superstorm” making its way across the country. A lot of people will be impacted. By the time it gets to the East Coast, it’s going to be all rain. On Sunday. It could be a lot of rain and, more importantly, a lot of wind – the bane of NFL offenses.

Just sayin’.

Here is the Week 15 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.

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 7

Fantasy football risers and fallers entering Week 7.

We’re only six weeks into the 2022 season, and it’s already become bizarro world for quarterbacks.

Retreads Geno Smith and Marcus Mariota are getting a chance to replace franchise legends – and have the same win-loss record as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford. P.J. Walker is the starter in Carolina after two former No. 1 overall picks fought it out in training camp prior to suffering injuries. Jacoby Brissett is holding down the fort in Cleveland.

Cooper Rush is 4-1 replacing Dak Prescott in Dallas. Miami has started three different quarterbacks the last three weeks and all three have been injured. Bailey Zappe is creating a QB controversy in New England. Mitch Trubisky won, lost and then regained his starting job in Pittsburgh. The Trey Lance era was derailed after five quarters.

At a time when franchise quarterbacks are at a premium for fantasy owners, a lot of teams are playing without them – and we’re only a third of the way through the season.

Here is the Week 7 Fantasy Football Market Report:

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 5

The most important risers and fallers in fantasy football.

One of the aspects of fantasy football that never fails to amaze me is when fantasy owners don’t take into account bye weeks. Week 5 will be the last time in a long time that every player on most rosters will be available.

Injuries do their part to gut fantasy rosters, so players who had no draft-day intention of being in the starting lineup are there more weeks than not. Bye weeks are a meaningless gutting – those guys are healthy, just not playing.

There will be eight weeks in which at least two and as many as six teams will be on bye. If you’re a seasoned fantasy player, you probably paid attention to the bye weeks as you were assembling a draft/auction roster, but a lot has happened since then.

A week from now it will dawn on some casual players that the bye weeks have started. You can be ahead of that curve and prepare for it now. If you see a week that will be rough, make a trade to diversify your roster. There will be someone in your league who effectively forfeits a week because too many key players are on their bye. Don’t let that be you.

Here is the Week 5 Fantasy Football Market Report: