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By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
That’s not a mistake or misprint in the title, it says “turnover” on purpose. While there were plenty of turnovers in Week 2 of NFL action and a couple of them were crucial ones (see Chiefs, Kansas City), we are focusing on turnover here in the Week 2 recap. Some NFL teams had turnover under center as several QBs (Tua Tagavailoa, Andy Dalton, Tyrod Taylor) were hurt and had to be replaced. Fans of the Chicago Bears are hoping the turnover is permanent and Justin Fields takes over for the rest of the season. In San Francisco, there was also plenty of turnover in the 49ers backfield with three more RBs (Elijah Mitchell, Trey Sermon and JaMycal Hasty) getting hurt in Week 2, just one week after Raheem Mostert’s season ending injury.
More importantly, there was plenty of turnover in Dynasty Owner this week as eight out of the teams in last week’s Top 10 in the Chase for the Ring are no longer there. Some of them even dropped off the Top 25 leaderboard. What about your individual Dynasty Owner league – any turnover at the top of your league Standings? With hundreds of leagues, there are bound to be teams who were in the middle of the standings after Week 1 who are now on top and vice versa.
All stats cited 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 rostered percentage statistics were current as of the morning of September 21st.
Dynasty Owner Player of the Week
Our second Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for 2021 is: Derrick Henry
Having a RB win the Player of the Week honor is fairly rare. While this is Henry’s third time winning it, only two other RBs have ever been the recipient of this award (Nick Chubb in Week 4 of 2019 and Alvin Kamara in Week 16 of 2020). By scoring 49.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points this week (182 rushing yards, 3 rushing TDs, 6 receptions, 55 receiving yards), Henry eclipsed his personal best 49.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance from Week 6 of 2020. His third and final rushing TD of the day tied the Titans-Seahawks at 30-30 with just 29 seconds left in regulation time and was worth 6.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. It put Henry ahead of Cardinals QB Kyler Murray who scored 45.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points this week. This was Murray’s second consecutive runner-up performance of the 2021 season.
Week 2 Points: 49.7
2021 Salary: $12,500,000
Cost per Point: $251,509
Congratulations Derrick on winning your third overall Dynasty Owner Player of the Week honor. One more and you’ll be tied with Patrick Mahomes for the most in Dynasty Owner history!
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 second Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week for the 2021 season is: Tony Pollard
Two weeks and two RB wins for Value Player of the Week. In contrast to the Player of the Week award, there were fifteen times that a RB won this award in the first two seasons of Dynasty Owner and ten different RBs have been the Value of the Week. Ty’Son Williams made it sixteen RB wins and eleven different RB winners in Week 1 and Tony Pollard adds another name to the list with his first honor. However, this is not the highest scoring game of Pollard’s career as he scored 31.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 15 of last year. However, he was edged out for the Value of the Week award by Zach Pascal who scored slightly fewer points (27.9), but was earning only $660,000 and thus, was more valuable. That game was with Ezekiel Elliott out of the Cowboys lineup due to injury. This week, Elliott was healthy, but Pollard played better than Elliott and was the clear winner of the Value Player of the Week award with 26.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (109 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 3 receptions, 31 receiving yards, 71 return yards) in the Cowboys’ 20-17 victory over the Chargers.
Week 2 Points: 26.8
2021 Salary: $796,945
Cost per Point: $29,737
Congratulations Tony on your first Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week honor. Don’t be surprised if he wins another since he has two seasons left at his current salary.
Players Who Should Have Been Starters This Week
Next, we look at those players who should have been one of your Starters based on their performance in Week 2. We aren’t going to write that you should have started Derrick Henry or Kyler Murray because barring injury or bye week, both of them should always be in your Starting lineup. Instead, these are players who might normally be on your Bench or Practice Squad, but likely weren’t Starters in Week 2 when they should have been.
QB: Daniel Jones (NYG) – 33.9 points
After Week 1, Daniel Jones was a pretty solid Bench option for your Dynasty Owner team. He was drafted in the eighth or ninth round on average (ADP 100.9) in 2021 Dynasty Owner start-up drafts and finished the first week as QB16 with 25.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Jones improved upon his Week 1 performance in Week 2 as he scored 33.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (249 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 95 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD) in the Giants’ last second 30-29 loss to the Washington Football Team. That was good enough to be the QB5 in Dynasty Owner for Week 2 and someone who definitely should have been in your Starting lineup.
RB: Cordarrelle Patterson (ATL) – 23.6 points
Remember during the off-season and training camp when everybody playing fantasy football was wondering who was going to play RB for the Atlanta Falcons this season? Both of the team’s leading rushers from last year (Todd Gurley and Brian Hill) were free agents. The Falcons declined to sign either one when free agency opened. After a few days, they signed Mike Davis who filled in so well for Christian McCaffrey in Carolina in 2020. In mid-April, they released Ito Smith who was their third leading rusher last season. Everybody thought that they’d take a RB in the NFL draft, but they didn’t. They signed undrafted rookie free agents Javian Hawkins and Caleb Huntley and lots of people drafted those guys in leagues far and wide because they thought one of them would end up as Davis’ backup. Hawkins was the early favorite with an ADP of 30.3 in Dynasty Owner rookie drafts and 205.0 overall ADP. It was quite the shock when he got released after the Falcons’ second pre-season game. So, people started gravitating towards Caleb Huntley and D’Onta Foreman, but alas both of them got released during training camp as well. Qadree Ollison was still on the roster, so Dynasty Owners started drafting him (ADP 217.8) but then he was released. Finally, at the end of training camp, they signed Wayne Gallman who had been released by San Francisco and played pretty well and was RB34 in Dynasty Owner for the New York Giants in 2020. All along, nobody suspected that the answer might be Cordarrelle Patterson, the guy they signed back in mid-April when they released Ito Smith. Maybe people will now after his 23.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance (11 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 5 receptions, 58 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 27 return yards). He was right there under everyone’s noses since mid-April and hardly anyone believed that it would be him. Congrats to those of you who did and drafted him (ADP 233.7) in Dynasty Owner start-up drafts or held on to him from last season. He’s still available in almost one-third (30.8%) of Dynasty Owner leagues and only costs $3 million in salary cap.
WR: Rondale Moore (ARI) – 24.4 points
Two weeks and two Arizona Cardinals WR in this spot without D’Andre Hopkins getting injured. Last week, it was Christian Kirk with 24.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and this week, it’s Rondale Moore who outscored him by just a bit with 24.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (7 receptions, 114 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 40 return yards, 1 fumble). While Kirk had the flashier performance in Week 1 with two TDs, Moore had more yards (114 yards vs. 70 for Kirk in Week 1) and receptions (7 vs. 5 for Kirk in Week 1), which were actually worth more Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6.4) than the additional TD (6.0). Moore also earned an extra point for having 40 return yards. He appears to be the top return man for the Cardinals which will help your Dynasty Owner team if you have him on your roster since Dynasty Owners get 1 point per every 40 return yards. The competition for the WR2 spot in Arizona is fierce after two weeks and both Moore and Kirk look worthy of consideration for being in your Starting lineup after their play in the first two weeks of the season.
Honorable mention to Henry Ruggs who had 23.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 113 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 2 rushing yards, 22 return yards) in the Raiders’ Week 2 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. After two weeks, Ruggs is the leading WR for Las Vegas with a total of 30.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, which trails only TE Darren Waller who has scored 38.0 points. Similar to the WR who earned an honorable mention last week (Sterling Shepard), hopefully Dynasty Owners who believed in Ruggs and his role in the Raiders’ offense had him in their Starting lineup this week and benefitted from his production.
TE: Maxx Williams (ARI) – 16.4 points
While Rondale Moore led the Cardinals in targets and receiving yards in Week 2, he was tied for the lead in receptions with TE Maxx Williams. Both of them had seven receptions with Williams being targeted seven times for 94 yards compared with eight targets for 114 yards for Moore. Williams scored 16.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (7 receptions for 94 receiving yards) and nearly as many receptions and yards as he did in 2020 when he played in six games (8 receptions for 102 receiving yards). This week, the seven year veteran set new career records for receptions and receiving yards in a single game, so if you had him on your Dynasty Owner roster (only 1.2% rostered) and then in your Starting lineup this week, I applaud you for your foresight. He could be a deep TE stash, but his $3.5 million salary might prevent some Dynasty Owners from picking him up and scare others away who want to see another solid week before investing in him.
Honorable mention to another expensive (2 years/$7.1 million) and little rostered (5.9%) TE. It’s Jack Doyle who scored 13.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 64 receiving yards, 1 2-pt. conversion) this week for Indianapolis. Doyle had 5.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 and appears to be the top TE for the Colts with 12 targets through two games. The only other Colts TE with any targets through two games is Mo Alie-Cox who has four and just 2.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 18 yards). Doyle is expensive, so it’s doubtful that too many Dynasty Owners are going to run out and pick him up, especially since his contract has two years left on it. If you happen to have him on your Dynasty Owner roster, this was the week to have him in your Starting lineup.
K: Graham Gano (NYG) – 20.0 points
Gano is only rostered in an absurdly low 27.2% of Dynasty Owner leagues because the 34-year old veteran kicker has a 3 year, $14 million contract ($4.67 million per season). That makes him the second highest paid kicker in Dynasty Owner behind Justin Tucker at $5 million. However, Tucker was the #3 kicker in Dynasty Owner in 2020 with 129.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, while Gano was ranked #13 with 112.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Not only is he expensive but Gano was coming off a Week 1 performance of just 1.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point (1 PAT). Not too many people had the Giants scoring 29 points against the Football Team and Gano with a 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance (5 FGs of 23, 35, 47, 52 and 55 yards plus 2 PATs). That’s the most points by a kicker this season and puts Gano in a tie for third place overall with 21.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points behind only Daniel Carlson of the Raiders (29.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and Dustin Hopkins of the Football Team (25.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Worth monitoring if you need a kicker and have salary cap room. Gano might also possibly be worth starting in Week 3 if you have him already on your roster.
Players Who Should Have Been on the Bench or Practice Squad
For every player who should have been in your Starting lineup but wasn’t, we have at least one highly drafted or highly ranked player who probably was in your Starting lineup, but would have been better left on your Bench or Practice Squad. Here are some likely Starters who scored few or no Dynasty Owner fantasy points this week, so they should have spent Week 2 riding your Dynasty Owner Bench or hanging out on the Practice Squad.
QB: Dak Prescott (DAL) – 7.8 points
After throwing 58 passes in Week 1 and scoring 39.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Dak Prescott owners were likely very excited to have him on their roster with visions of how he played in 2020 before getting injured (36.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game). The Cowboys-Chargers Week 2 game was anticipated to be high scoring as well, likely fueling even more optimism for Prescott. All of that came crashing down in Week 2 as Prescott only threw for 237 yards with an interception and fumble for a lowly 7.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. It’s true that there were other QBs with fewer points this week (Zach Wilson with 0.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, but were you really starting him against Bill Belichick’s defense and Tua Tagavailoa who had 0.6 points but was injured early in the Dolphins game against Buffalo). Regardless, Prescott should have been on your Bench in Week 2.
A dishonorable mention for Jameis Winston of the New Orleans Saints who fell flat in his second start of the season with just 7.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (111 passing yards, 19 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 2 INTs). More troubling for Winston and his Dynasty Owners may be that he only threw 22 passes in Week 2 just one week after throwing 20 passes. A low volume passing offense isn’t what anybody wants their starting Dynasty Owner QB to lead, even if he only costs $5.5 million in salary like Winston does. After Week 1, plenty of Dynasty Owners with Winston on their roster likely inserted him into their Starting lineup for Week 2 when they shouldn’t have done so.
RB: Clyde Edwards-Helaire (KC) – 1.6 points
With the exception of Saquon Barkley, no early round Dynasty Owner draft pick has been more disappointing than Clyde Edwards-Helaire. His ADP in 2020 was 18.3 and he finished as RB21. He even went with the overall #1 pick in at one of my leagues in 2020. Getting a low end RB2 with a first or second round pick isn’t what Dynasty Owners counted on when drafting Edwards-Helaire. Despite this poor performance in 2020, Dynasty Owners still drafted him early in 2021 start-up leagues as his ADP was only slightly higher at 19.9. Nobody drafted in the first two rounds on average has gotten fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points over the first two weeks than Edwards-Helaire. He followed up his pedestrian 10.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance in Week 1 with a complete dud of just 1.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2 (46 rushing yards and 1 lost fumble). The turnover was crucial in the Chiefs’ 36-35 loss to the Baltimore Ravens as it came late in the fourth quarter. He’s probably not in too much danger of losing his spot as the top RB in Kansas City as he’s accounted for 27 out of the 41 rushing attempts by the Chiefs in the first two games (Darrel Williams has the second most among RBs with four). However, Dynasty Owners should consider putting Edwards-Helaire on the Bench this week and should have had him there in Week 2.
WR: Antonio Brown (TB) – 2.7 points
I thought about awarding this to Brandon Aiyuk again as he only scored 1.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 2, but after what happened in Week 1, Dynasty Owners shouldn’t have been counting on him to perform well enough to be in their Starting lineup. Instead, the dishonor goes to Antonio Brown who followed up his stellar Week 1 performance of 23.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points with a 2.7 point performance (1 reception for 17 yards) in Week 2. Brown was the odd man out for the Buccaneers this week, just as Mike Evans was in Week 1. With four high-quality pass catchers (Evans, Brown, Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski) to get the ball to on offense, the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady can’t feed everyone enough targets on a weekly basis to make them worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup. Weeks like this are going to happen to somebody on Tampa Bay and this just happened to be the week Dynasty Owners should have left Brown on the Bench.
TE: Tyler Higbee (LAR) – 1.8 points
Dynasty Owners who are spending $7.25 million to have Tyler Higbee on their roster are expecting better than 1.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception for 8 yards). At least he had 11.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 and no other TE for the Rams has even been targeted with a pass over the first two weeks of the season. Matthew Stafford has only targeted six players with throws in 55 pass attempts, so at least Higbee appears to be one of the few options for Stafford’s passes. It just wasn’t Higbee’s week as Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods did most of the receiving work in Week 2 (14 receptions for 227 yards). Higbee should have been on your Dynasty Owner Bench.
K: Jason Sanders (MIA) – 0.0 points
Through no fault of his own, this dishonor goes to Jason Sanders of the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins only produced 216 yards of total offense and turned the ball over three times. Despite reaching the red zone three times, Sanders didn’t attempt a field goal and the Dolphins didn’t score any TDs so he couldn’t kick any extra points. Sanders did kick off to start the second half, but that was his only appearance. Dynasty Owners with Sanders on their roster likely had him in their Starting lineup because he was the top kicker in Dynasty Owner in 2020 with 153.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (9.6 points per game) and scored 10.0 or more points in nine games. They weren’t expecting Sanders to not attempt a kick, otherwise they would have put him on their Bench, or better yet, their Practice Squad for the week.
Dishonorable mention to Jacksonville kicker Josh Lambo for his -3.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance in Week 2. His 1.0 point performance in Week 1 combined with his 248.7 ADP means if you have Lambo on your Dynasty Owner roster (45.6% rostered), he probably is your Bench kicker. However, if you got excited because he was kicking in the thin air in Denver and put him in your Starting lineup, he rewarded your faith by missing FGs of 48 and 52 yards (worth -2.0 points each). He did nail his only PAT attempt though. That’s pretty terrible for a kicker making $3.875 million for two more years.
Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week Recap – SKOL Vikings vs. Scubon1c Plagu3
With Top 25 Chase for the Ring pedigree, both teams performed well in Week 2, but were under their projections of 177.8 for SKOL Vikings and 169.6 for Scubon1c Plagu3. SKOL Vikings missed theirs by more which caused them to lose by just 2.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (154.6 to 151.7). It came down to Monday Night Football as both teams had players in their Starting lineup with the Scubon1c Plagu3 duo of D’Andre Swift and T.J. Hockenson scoring a combined 32.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to overtake SKOL Vikings who got 20.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points from Davante Adams. Kyler Murray led Scubon1c Plagu3 with 45.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and Terry McLaurin had 27.7 points. Six players in the SKOL Vikings Starting lineup scored double-digit points, including QB Justin Herbert who had 19.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. However, SKOL Vikings started Herbert over the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady who had 41.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Starting Brady over Herbert would have given SKOL Vikings the victory and sole possession of first place in League #31927. That spot belongs to the 2-0 Scubon1c Plagu3, despite the fact that SKOL Vikings has scored 0.1 more Dynasty Owner fantasy points through two weeks of play. These two teams will face off in Week 13 of the regular season and probably again in the playoffs, so this may not be the last time they will appear as the Match-up of the Week.
Even those both teams had a lot of points this week, they both slipped out of the Top 25 in the Chase for the Ring with SKOL Vikings now in 28th place and Scubon1c Plagu3 in 29th place. Don’t be surprised to see both teams back in the Top 25 at some point in the season and maybe appearing on the Thursday podcast with Tim and Seth.
Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
We know that neither SKOL Vikings or Scubon1c Plagu3 are in the Chase standings, but who exactly is in the Top 10 now. How much turnover was there from Week 1 to Week 2?
Your new Chase for the Ring leader is Crow Valley Corvids from League #34654 with 402.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. They were in ninth place after the first week and are one of only two teams to appear in the Top 10 in both weeks. My Corona moved down one spot from fourth place to fifth place. The rest of the Top 10 are all new this week – talk about turnover!
The second place team in Week 1 (Juan Blanco in League #71012) is still in the Top 25, but now resides in 21st place overall. Neezy453, our Week 1 leader, has fallen out of the Top 25 and is now in 76th place overall. At least they won their Week 2 game and are still in first place in League #53939. That’s how quickly the Chase for the Ring standings can change in just one week. If your Dynasty Owner team has a good Week 3 performance, maybe you’ll be in the Top 10 or Top 25 next week.
Conclusions
It’s two games down and 15 games to go for the NFL season, but only a dozen regular season games left for Dynasty Owners. If your Dynasty Owner team isn’t close to cracking the Chase for the Ring standings and started off 0-2 in your league, hopefully it’s because of bad luck and you still think you have a chance to make the playoffs. With only two weeks completed, there’s plenty of time to turnover your roster and pick up some wins, starting in Week 3. If it’s not your year, it’s probably time to go back and read the off-season rebuilding articles by Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl)
Other Dynasty Owners could be sitting pretty in first place in their league and maybe thinking about contending for the Chase for the Ring. Is that your team? How are you going to turnover your roster in that scenario? Are you going to make moves in the Free Agent Auction or are you targeting some guys in trades to help make your run?
If you need help in any scenario, Dynasty Owner has plenty of great content coming out this week to assist you and maybe help you win your League Championship and the Chase for the Ring. Later today (Tuesday), Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl) is back with an article and video to help you figure out what players you need to target in the Free Agent Auction. Matt Morrison – The Jerk has an article and video dropping on Wednesday, then his Thursday Night Football preview on Thursday afternoon. Finally on Friday, I’m back with an article and video that will preview the Week 3 slate of games. I’ll also have another Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week and see how my Week 2 recommendations fared.
Please read all of our articles, watch our videos on YouTube or listen to them wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t forget follow all three of us plus Dynasty Owner on Twitter as well. Thanks, and have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Follow us on Twitter: @SteveVT33 and @Dynasty_Owner