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Author: Steven Van Tassel (@SteveVT33)
Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season is in the books. Some people thought that it might not happen, but it did and for many people, it was spectacular. For others, it wasn’t so good, but they should be happy that football is back after months of uncertainty. For every 1-0 Dynasty Owner who’s crowing to his or her Twitter followers, friends, and league mates, there’s a Dynasty Owner sitting there with an 0-1 record and checking out their opponent’s team for Week 2.
This is our first regular season Dynasty Owner weekly recap article for 2020. For everyone back from the beta season, you know the drill. For everyone who is new or just didn’t read these recap articles last year, here’s what happens. We’ll name a Dynasty Owner Player of the Week and a Value Player of the Week, highlight a player at every position who should have been one of your Starters and one who should have been on your Bench or Practice Squad. We’ll also look at what happened in the Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week. Finally, we debut a new feature with a weekly look at the Chase for the Ring standings.
All stats are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the updated Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). There is also a 3 point bonus for clutch scoring, which is a score that results in a lead change in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth 1 point for every 40 yards.
Standard Dynasty Owner scoring for kickers gives you 1 point for every extra point, while a missed extra point will cost you 1 point. It’s 2 points for a field goal of between 0 and 39 yards, 4 points for a field goal between 40 and 49 yards and 5 points for a field goal of 50 yards or longer. A missed field goal of between 0 and 39 yards will cost you 3 points, while a miss of 40 yards or more is a loss of 2 points. For the purposes of this article, ADP and Dynasty Owner ownership statistics were current as of September 14th.
Dynasty Owner Player of the Week
Our first Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for 2020 is: Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers had himself quite a game on the road against a division foe in the Minnesota Vikings. Hopefully, you didn’t pay attention to any so-called analysts who suggested that you Bench Rodgers this week based on his 2019 performances against Minnesota. Last year, he was not very good in two starts against the Vikings (19.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2 and 9.5 points in Week 16), but this year was a different story. Rodgers accumulated a Dynasty Owner leading 43.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (364 passing yards, 4 passing TDs plus 2 rushing yards). All of that adds up to the second Dynasty Owner Player of the Week honor of his career.
Week 1 Points: 43.4
2020 Salary: $33,500,000
Cost per Point: $771,889
Congratulations Aaron on being the first Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for the 2020 season!
Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week
Because this is Dynasty Owner and we’re all looking for value from the players on our roster, we also have the Value Player of the Week. The first Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week for 2020 is: Nyheim Hines
All off-season, the talk about the Indianapolis backfield centered on when Jonathan Taylor would overtake Marlon Mack as the lead RB. However, on the first drive of the season, Nyheim Hines was in the backfield on first and 10 from the Jacksonville 12 yard line and took the ball into the end zone for a TD. Hines ended up catching an 8 yard pass from Philip Rivers in the second quarter for another TD. Marlon Mack got hurt and Hines ended up as the leading rusher for the Colts with 28 yards on 7 carries. Overall, Hines had quite the day with 27.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (28 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 8 receptions, 45 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 24 return yards). That performance combined with his $796,137 salary was a good enough combination to make Hines the Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week.
Week 1 Points: 27.9
2020 Salary: $796,137
Cost per Point: $28,535
Congratulations Nyheim on winning the first Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week honor for the 2020 season!
Players Who Should Have Been Starters This Week
Next, we look at those players who should have been in one of your Starters based on their performance in Week 1. We aren’t going to write that you should have started Lamar Jackson, Christian McCaffrey, Michael Thomas or Travis Kelce because each one of them was the #1 player in Dynasty Owner at their respective position in 2019 and should always be a Starter. Instead, these are players who might be Free Agents or on your Bench or Practice Squad, but likely weren’t Starters in Week 1 when they should have been.
QB: Mitchell Trubisky (CHI) – 34.7 points
Even though he is rostered in a remarkably high 94% of Dynasty Owner leagues, I’ll venture to say that he wasn’t in the Starting lineup for a lot of those Dynasty Owners. And after three quarters, this seemed like the smart decision as Trubisky had just 153 passing yards and zero TDs. However, he threw for 89 yards and 3 TDs in the fourth quarter to lead the Bears to a 27-23 comeback victory over the Detroit Lions. All combined Trubisky had 34.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (242 passing yards, 3 passing TDs, 26 rushing yards, 1 fumble). Out of those 34.7 points, 25.45 of them came in the fourth quarter, including the 3 point clutch scoring bonus that he got for the 27 yard TD pass to Anthony Miller with 1:54 left in the game.
RB: Malcolm Brown (LAR) – 26.0 points
With Coach Sean McVay talking about a three-back rotation as late as last Tuesday, Dynasty Owners with Malcolm Brown on their roster can be forgiven for not having him in their lineup as a Starter for Week 1. How were they to know that Brown would finish the Sunday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys with 26.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (79 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs, 3 receptions, 31 receiving yards)? Brown was a Top 5 RB this week and finished with more Dynasty Owner fantasy points than consensus first round draft picks like Alvin Kamara and Clyde Edwards-Helaire, both of whom had excellent games as well. Brown is 40% of the way to his 2019 Dynasty Owner fantasy points total of 65.1. Beware of reading too much into this performance, since Brown had 17.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in last year’s season opener, then just 47.8 points for the rest of the season.
WR: Robby Anderson (CAR) – 25.5 points
For this week, Anderson was the Carolina WR to own as he turned eight targets into 25.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions, 115 yards receiving, 1 receiving TD and 1 2-pt conversion). He had the same number of targets as Curtis Samuel and only one fewer than DJ Moore, but turned his targets into more receptions than either Samuel (5) or Moore (4). Most of his points came on a single play, the 75-yard TD reception in the fourth quarter, but that’s ok with the 53% of Dynasty Owners who have Anderson on their roster. With an ADP of 227.4, he was a late round, depth WR pick-up for most of his Dynasty Owners, most of whom probably kept him riding the Bench or even worse, sitting on the Practice Squad and not earning any points for his great performance.
TE: David Njoku (CLE) – 14.0 points
Even though he’s rostered in 92% of Dynasty Owner leagues, it’s doubtful that too many of those Dynasty Owners had faith that Njoku would outscore the likes of George Kittle, Darren Waller and Hunter Henry this week. Njoku also had one more target than his teammate Austin Hooper (3 targets vs. 2 for Hooper). Njoku had 14.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 50 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD) before spraining his MCL and having to go on Injured Reserve for at least three games.
Honorable mention to Logan Thomas of the Washington Football Team. Despite being named the starting TE for Washington, only 29% of Dynasty Owners took a chance on Thomas and his $3,072,500 salary for 2020. Thomas ended up as a TE1 for Week 1 with 13.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 37 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD). He could be a top Free Agent Auction pickup on Wednesday with those stats if Dynasty Owners have more than $3 million in salary cap room or plans to release some underperforming injured player after Week 1.
K: Mason Crosby (GB) – 11.0 points Due to his $4.3 million annual salary and the fact that he only achieved double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points twice in 2019, Crosby is only owned in a remarkably low 21% of Dynasty Owner leagues. Dynasty Owners missed out on a chance for 11.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points from Crosby who kicked 5 PATs and made FGs of 31 and 43 yards in the Packers 43-34 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. He may get picked up in a few leagues by Dynasty Owners who have some salary cap room and had Austin Seibert on their roster since Seibert was released by Cleveland on Monday.
Players Who Should Have Been on the Bench or Practice Squad
For every player who should have been one of your Starters but wasn’t, we have some players who probably were Starters, but were better left on your Bench or Practice Squad. Here are some likely Starters who should have been riding your Dynasty Owner Bench or hanging out on the Practice Squad in Week 1.
QB: Carson Wentz (PHI) – 15.7 points
For the most part, the top QBs had pretty good weeks. The guys who did the worst are highly owned, but likely not in many Dynasty Owner Starting lineup, such as Ryan Fitzpatrick (3.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) or Tyrod Taylor (11.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), or low ownership players like Jared Goff (16% ownership; 12.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Therefore, Carson Wentz gets the nod here based on his 15.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance (270 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 2 rushing yards, 2 INT, 2 fumbles – 1 lost). Many of the Dynasty Owners with Wentz on their roster (79% ownership) may have started him against the Football Team and that decision didn’t pay off.
RB: Joe Mixon (CIN) – 5.1 points
That’s a bad week for the late first round, early second round draft pick (15.6 ADP). Mixon had plenty of touches (20), but not a lot of production with just 5.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (69 rushing yards, 1 reception, 2 receiving yards, 1 fumble lost).
Dishonorable Mention to Le’Veon Bell. Usually I try to exclude guys who get injured from this list, but Bell wasn’t doing much of anything for his Dynasty Owners before he got hurt in Week 1. He had only 6.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (14 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 32 receiving yards). Bell’s Dynasty Owners might be missing him for a couple of weeks due to a hamstring injury, and a few might even look to use their Amnesty Provision to get out from under his hefty contract ($13.125 million for three more years).
WR: Mecole Hardman (KC) – 2.1 points
Nobody of note who played in Week 1 had the dreaded Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), but Mecole Hardman came pretty close on Thursday night with only 2.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception, 6 receiving yards, 20 return yards). That’s not good for a guy who was likely drafted in the first ten rounds (ADP 114.4) of your draft. Don’t be surprised by this performance, he had five games in 2019 with fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points, including a couple in which he only got any points because of his role in the return game.
TE: Evan Engram (NYG) – 2.9 points
Only 2.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 receptions, 9 receiving yards) is definitely a disappointment from Engram. Engram is definitely a top second tier Dynasty Owner TE behind Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Mark Andrews, but he didn’t perform like one. It was for lack of trying to get him the ball by QB Daniel Jones who targeted Engram seven times in the Giants 26-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. All combined Giants TEs had just 8.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 39 receiving yards) – a sign that starting your TE against the Pittsburgh defense might be a bad idea this year.
K: Greg Zuerlein (DAL) – 2.0 points
This dishonor goes to Greg the Leg even though other kickers had fewer points and more misses (sorry to call you out Austin Seibert, but you did miss both of your kicks for Cleveland on Sunday and your job on Monday, and Stephen Gostkowski who finished with -1.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points after missing 3 FGs on Monday night). However, neither of those guys were the fourth kicker being drafted, on average, in Dynasty Owner. Zuerlein was and scored just 2.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points as he made both PAT attempts and a 33 yard FG, but missed a 53 yard FG attempt.
Dynasty Owner Matchup of the Week Recap
The Champ has been defeated! Anthony Huether and his VIP Club Dub team becomes the first Dynasty Owner to defeat Eddie Driscoll and New York’s Strongest. VIP Club Dub jumped out to an early 84.7-15.6 lead on Thursday night behind Patrick Mahomes, David Johnson, Will Fuller and Travis Kelce and never looked back. Congratulations to Anthony for this historic victory and to Eddie on winning the Ring last year – you’re still the gold standard in Dynasty Owner and nobody can take that away from you.
Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
Here it is – the first weekly 2020 Chase for the Ring leaderboard. We have a clear leader at the top, the only team to score more than 200 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 with 235.3 points. Congratulations to The Swamp Donkeys!
Not surprisingly, VIP Club Dub had both the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week in Aaron Rodgers and his teammate Davante Adams, who had 41.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points himself this week. They also had Calvin Ridley (33.9 points), Christian McCaffrey (28.4 points), Chris Carson (24.6 points), Mark Andrews (22.8 points) and Robert Woods (17.9 points) in their Starting lineup. However, the Swamp Donkeys did not get the 3 point Coaches bonus as they left Raheem Mostert and his 25.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on their Bench.
Conclusions
That’s all for Week 1. It’s on to Week 2 or as Bill Belichick would say “On to Cincinnati.”
Please read the recap every Tuesday and the preview articles which come out on Friday throughout the Dynasty Owner season. We will also have articles from Chris Wolf (@ckwolf21), Matt Morrison – The Jerk (@Dynastyjerk) and Jay Poundsee (@jaypoundsnfl) during the season as well. Follow all four of us plus Dynasty Owner (@Dynasty_Owner) on Twitter.
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