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By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Week 10 of the NFL season featured the following: low-scoring games with favorites getting beat by teams with losing records, backups continue to matter more and more with each passing week with injuries to top position players and last minute inactive announcements, and bye weeks that are hurting Dynasty Owners’ ability to field teams with a full set of players in their Starting lineup and on the Bench.
In the NFL, two teams who went “all-in” for this season by either signing everyone from their Super Bowl team last year (Buccaneers) or acquiring veterans released by other teams or by trading away most of their 2022 draft picks (Rams) both lost to non-playoff teams (Football Team and 49ers). Both are now in the midst of two-game losing streaks. In addition, the NFC West leading Arizona Cardinals and AFC North leading Baltimore Ravens lost to teams with losing records (Carolina was 4-5 before defeating Arizona and Miami is 3-7 after winning against Baltimore). This comes on the heels of the Jaguars surprising win over the Bills in Week 9 and the Jets defeating the Bengals in Week 8 when the Bengals were 5-2 and the Jets were 1-5.
Week 10 in the NFL also saw a reduction in scoring for the third week in a row with NFL teams averaging only 43.1 points per game. It was the second lowest scoring week of the season after Week 7 (42.8 points per game) when six teams were on bye. This week should have seen more points as three of the teams on bye this week are averaging less than 20 points per game (New York Giants – 19.9, Chicago – 16.7 and Houston – 14.2). Houston is last in scoring, while Chicago is tied for 29th place with Detroit.
As a result, Dynasty Owner scoring appeared to be down as well with eight of the teams in the Top 10 of the Chase for the Ring scoring fewer points than their weekly average. The average number of points per week by the first place team and the 25th place team both went down and even the only team that moved into the Top 10 slightly underperformed their weekly average.
However, because some of the top players scored more Dynasty Owner fantasy points than in the past couple of weeks, the highest scoring team in Week 10 (HawkNation in League #27465) scored 208.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. This stopped a two-week slide in which the highest scoring Dynasty Owner team fell short of 200.0 points. However, this was still the third fewest points scored by the high scoring team of the week, so it appears that lower scoring Dynasty Owner games are not going away for now.
Part of the reason for the lower scoring Dynasty Owner games are the fewer points being put up by NFL teams, but injuries to key players are also contributing to it. Week 10 saw two Top 10 RBs go down with injuries (Aaron Jones and Cordarrelle Patterson) plus another one (Alvin Kamara) sit out the week. Kyler Murray missed his second consecutive week as a “game-time” decision causing some Dynasty Owners to get a zero from him in either their Starting lineup or Bench. While A.J. Dillon and Mark Ingram had a fine games in place of Jones and Kamara, nobody stepped up to replace Patterson’s points for the Falcons and Colt McCoy got injured in place of Murray and the Cardinals had to turn to their third string QB (Chris Streveler). In case you’re wondering, Streveler is rostered in 0.6% of Dynasty Owner leagues with an annual salary of $761,667.
Fortunately, most of these issues didn’t affect the teams in our Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week. Only one team scored fewer points than projected and fell short of their season-long average, while neither team had a key player get injured. Each team didn’t have full lineups with no Bench kicker for either team. We’ll see later which team that has gone “all-in” for the 2020 Dynasty Owner season won.
As I continue to repeat every week, if you want your Dynasty Owner team to be featured as the Match-up of the Week, then send me a message on Twitter (@SteveVT33). Hopefully someone has a good one that I can highlight for Week 11.
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 November 16th.
Dynasty Owner Player of the Week
Our tenth Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for 2021 is the first repeat winner of the honor this season. Our winner this week is none other than the most decorated player in Dynasty Owner history: Patrick Mahomes
He’s back! After three poor performances in a row that left many people wondering if NFL defenses had finally figured Patrick Mahomes out, he came back and had his best performance of the year and nearly the best one of his Dynasty Owner career with 54.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (406 passing yards and 5 passing TDs). He only finished .5 points behind his best ever performance of 416 passing yards and 5 passing TDs for 54.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points back in Week 8 of 2020. In a repeat of his Week 4 performance, he threw for five touchdowns. That was not his other Player of the Week award-winning week though as he “only” had 43.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points compared to 47.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for his teammate Tyreek Hill. He did win his fourth overall Player of the Week award in Week 1 this year with 43.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and has two more Player of the Week awards than any other player in Dynasty Owner history with his fifth one.
Week 10 Points: 54.3
2021 Salary: $45,000,000
Cost per Point: $828,729
Congratulations to Patrick Mahomes on winning the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week honor for the fifth time in your career and being the only player to repeat as Player of the Week so far this 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 tenth Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week for the 2021 season is also a repeat winner from earlier this season: D’Ernest Johnson
It’s the first repeat winner for Value Player of the Week in 2021 and not surprisingly, it’s a player with one of the lowest salaries in Dynasty Owner who did it. D’Ernest Johnson was the lead RB for the Cleveland Browns for the second time this season with Kareem Hunt still on Injured Reserve and Nick Chubb on the reserve COVID-19 list. Two other Browns RBs were also placed on the reserve COVID-19 list, so Johnson was pretty much the only RB available to play this week. He played and played well despite the Browns losing by a score of 45-7 to the New England Patriots. Johnson was the Browns’ leading rusher and receiver for the week and scored 21.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (99 rushing yards, 7 receptions, 58 receiving yards, 1 fumble). It wasn’t as good as his Value Player of the Week winning performance in Week 7 (26.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), but it was enough to easily be the best value in Dynasty Owner for the second time this season.
Week 10 Points: 21.7
2021 Salary: $585,000
Cost per Point: $26,959
Congratulations D’Ernest on being the first player to repeat as the winner of the Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week honor this season.
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 10. We aren’t going to write that you should have started Cooper Kupp because he’s still in the Top 10 in overall Dynasty Owner scoring and the only reason he’s not going to be in your Dynasty Owner lineup in Week 11 is because the Rams are on bye. Instead, these are players who might normally be on your Bench or Practice Squad (or even not on many Dynasty Owner rosters), but likely weren’t Starters in Week 10 when they should have been.
QB: Mac Jones (NE) – 27.9 points
Is Mac Jones the second coming of the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady? That’s the question a lot of Patriots fans are asking after the Patriots won their fourth straight game with Jones as their starting QB. Personally, as a Patriots fan and someone who has Jones on his roster in multiple leagues, I’m extremely happy with how Jones has played this season and his development as a NFL QB. However, I’m not ready to book a plane flight to Los Angeles in early February or declare that Jones is going to repeat Brady’s career in New England and lead the Patriots to six Super Bowl titles. However, it can’t be denied that Jones is easily the best rookie QB in the NFL right now by a wide margin after his 27.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy point effort (198 passing yards and 3 passing TDs) against Cleveland. He would have been a good QB to have in your Week 10 Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
Honorable mention to Trevor Siemian of the New Orleans Saints. Since Jameis Winston got injured, all Siemian has done is throw for over 700 yards with 5 passing TDs and zero interceptions. He has produced a total of 64.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, including 26.9 points this week (298 passing yards and 2 passing TDs). His average of just under 21.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game is just a shade below his predecessor at QB for New Orleans (Jameis Winston) who had 152.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in seven games (21.7 points per game). He hasn’t produced as high of a scoring game as some other backup QBs, like David Mills, Mike White or Josh Johnson, but so far, he hasn’t thrown four INTs in a game like both Mills and White did. While many people have called for Taysom Hill to be the Saints’ starter at QB, Siemian has quietly gotten the job done for both the Saints and the Dynasty Owners who have picked him up off the Free Agent Auction over the past couple of weeks. Hopefully those Dynasty Owners had him in their Starting lineup.
RB: Rhamondre Stevenson (NE) – 29.4 points
Since we’re repeating things this week, let’s focus on another player who plays for the New England Patriots who should have been in your Starting lineup this week, but probably wasn’t. Since Rhamondre Stevenson wasn’t removed from the NFL concussion protocol until Sunday, his Dynasty Owners can be forgiven if they weren’t hustling to get him in their Week 10 Starting lineup. However, with Patriots starting RB Damien Harris out, Stevenson took the reins of the rushing offense and scored a season-high 29.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (100 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs, 4 receptions, 14 receiving yards). It’s his personal season-high and also the most Dynasty Owner fantasy points for a New England RB this season. A season which has featured five Patriots RBs (Harris, Stevenson, Brandon Bolden, J.J. Taylor and James White) who have had a game with over 15.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That’s why fantasy football players don’t like to rely on Patriots RBs. You never know which one is going to be spotlighted in a given week. In Week 10, it was Stevenson’s turn, and he should have been in your Starting lineup.
Honorable mention to A.J. Dillon of the Green Bay Packers who has been playing very well this season, but finally got his chance to be lead RB for the Packers with Aaron Jones injuring his MCL during their Week 10 game against Seattle. Dillon took advantage of his opportunity and had a repeat performance of the one that he gave the last time he carried the ball more than 20 times in a game, back in Week 16 of last year. This week, Dillon had 21 carries and scored 26.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (66 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs, 2 receptions, 62 receiving yards). Back in 2020, he got 21 carries against Tennessee and produced his best game as a professional with 27.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That performance last year was out of nowhere, whereas he has been building towards a big game for the past month and a half this year. He’s has gotten at least 10 touches per game in five of the past six weeks. Maybe that was enough to get some of his Dynasty Owners to put Dillon in their Starting lineup this week as that’s where he should have been.
WR: Kendrick Bourne (NE) – 24.1 points
Bourne has been a mainstay in the Tuesday Free Agent Auction targets article by Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl) for the past couple of weeks and I’m predicting we will see him again in this week’s article. From Week 3 to Week 7, Bourne had four games with 10.0 or more Dynasty Owner fantasy points before cooling off the past two weeks (4.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 8 and 6.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 9). However, he’s back and had his best performance of the season in Week 10 with 24.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 98 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 43 rushing yards). Bourne has a 3-year contract that pays him $5 million per season, which is why he is rostered in barely over half (53.85%) of Dynasty Owner leagues and keeps appearing as a Free Agent Auction target. If you picked Bourne up back when he made his first appearance there in Week 6 and was only rostered in 32.5% of Dynasty Owner leagues, I hope that you had him in your Starting lineup.
TE: Gerald Everett (SEA) – 14.3 points
Finally, we have our first non-New England Patriots player here. However, I do need to point out that while Gerald Everett had a fine and unexpected game this week for Seattle, he didn’t outscore Hunter Henry who had 19.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. It’s just that Henry was ranked in the top 12 TEs through nine weeks, so he should have been in your Starting lineup. On the other hand, Everett was not expected to be the Seahawks leading receiver in Week 10 and have his best performance of the 2021 season with 14.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions for 63 receiving yards). In fact, you need to go back two years to Week 10 of the 2019 season when he was on the Rams to find a performance this good from Everett. He has only averaged 5.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game in 2021 and just 4.2 points per game without Russell Wilson at QB. While Week 10 was pretty miserable for the Seattle offense, it wasn’t for Everett who welcomed the return of Wilson and should have been in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
K: Zane Gonzalez (CAR) – 16.0 points
Gonzalez had another solid week for his Dynasty Owners in Week 10 with 16.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (FGs of 27, 44, 48 and 49 yards plus two PATs). This is on the heels of his appearance as a honorable mention here in Week 8 when he had 15.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. After some early season misses, Gonzalez has been perfect since missing a 54-yard FG back in Week 5 against Dallas. Over the past six weeks as the Carolina offense has struggled to score TDs, Gonzalez has made all 16 FG and six PAT attempts. Since taking over from Ryan Santoso in Week 2, he has averaged 8.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game and had three games of 14.0 or more points. He has finally moved into the top 12 kickers in Dynasty Owner and should have been in your Starting lineup this week.
Honorable mention to Philadelphia Eagles kicker Jake Elliott who was also on this list back in Week 8. For most of Dynasty Owner’s existence, Elliott has not been worth having on your roster. He’s been a bottom tier kicker all three seasons with a top tier price tag for the past two of them ($3.86 million annual salary). However, two weeks ago, he turned in his first double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance (15.0 points) in over a year and in Week 10, he did it again with 12.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. In the Eagles 30-13 victory over the Denver Broncos, Elliott had two FGs of 39 yards or less (23 yards and 30 yards) worth 2.0 points each, a 52-yard FG worth 5.0 points and three PATs each worth 1.0 point. That’s a repeat performance that worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and one that may get his Dynasty Owners to consider putting him there more frequently in the future.
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 only scored a few or zero Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 10. All of them should have been riding your Dynasty Owner Bench or hanging out on the Practice Squad.
QB: Russell Wilson (SEA) – 5.2 points
In the first four games of the season, Russell Wilson averaged 29.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game and was totally justifying his $35 million annual salary and 113.2 ADP in 2021 Dynasty Owner start-up drafts. However, he suffered a finger injury in Week 5 against the Rams and missed the last three games. Everyone who thought that he’d come back off Injured Reserve and play at the same level that he did in the first four weeks were sorely mistaken as he had his worst performance in Dynasty Owner history with only 5.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (161 passing yards, 32 rushing yards, 2 INTs) in his return to the Seahawks’ starting lineup. Hopefully you had someone else to put in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup this week and didn’t rush Wilson back into it.
RB: Cordarrelle Patterson (ATL) – 4.9 points
Week after week, Cordarelle Patterson has been going out and helping his Dynasty Owners win games. After scoring 9.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1, he ripped off seven consecutive weeks with at least 15.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. For the season, he was averaging 20.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per week and kept recording performances worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup on a weekly basis. He’s been so good; his Dynasty Owners likely have just had him in there since the Falcons’ Week 6 bye. Patterson did get injured in the Falcons’ 43-3 loss to Dallas, but he had only scored 4.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (25 rushing yards, 1 reception, 14 receiving yards) in the first half of the game and with the Falcons losing 36-3 at halftime, it appeared that maybe the Falcons were just resting him in advance of their game coming up on Thursday night. Regardless of whether he was pulled for the ankle injury or just for rest in a blowout loss, Patterson shouldn’t have been in your Week 10 Dynasty Owner Starting lineup.
WR: A.J. Brown (TEN) – 3.3 points
With Derrick Henry out likely for the rest of the regular season and Julio Jones suddenly popping up on the injury report and being ruled out for Week 10 (and subsequently put on Injured Reserve), the Tennessee offense seemed likely to be focused on getting the ball to their best remaining playmaker, A.J. Brown. Instead, the Titans spread the ball around as 11 players had a reception in their 23-21 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Brown only was targeted four times and had just 3.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (1 reception, 16 receiving yards, 7 rushing yards). Other WRs had worse weeks, like Russell Gage and K.J. Osborn who both had a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), but more Dynasty Owners were likely relying on Brown in their Starting lineup than both of those players. Brown’s Week 10 performance was disappointing and barely worthy of being on your Bench, never mind your Starting lineup.
TE: T.J. Hockenson (DET) and Mike Gesicki (MIA) – 0.0 points
Both of these top TEs are not strangers to this spot. Hockenson appeared here in Week 5 when he scored just 4.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and was an honorable mention in Week 3 when he had 3.0 points. Gesicki was on this list in Week 1 when he had his first Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) of the season. This week, Gesicki got his Blutarsky on Thursday while Hockenson did it on Sunday. Gesicki was targeted 7 times, so his Blutarsky was worse than Hockenson who only had one target, but that doesn’t matter since Dynasty Owner doesn’t hand out points for targets. Sadly, this just goes to show how difficult it is to rely on a TE in Dynasty Owner who is not named Travis Kelce. Mark Andrews and Darren Waller are close to being up there as consistent week in and week out performers at the TE position, but Hockenson and Gesicki aren’t quite there yet. Both have had multiple weeks in which they shouldn’t have been in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup, including this one.
K: Daniel Carlson (LV) – 2.0 points
After starting the season with three consecutive weeks of double-digit points, Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson was likely in the Starting lineup for most of his Dynasty Owners in Week 4 when he had zero Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Since then, it’s been quite the fall as he is now barely holding on to a spot as one of the top 12 kickers in Dynasty Owner. He’s currently tied for 11th place with 68.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. While that’s a respectable average of 7.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game, it’s just a bit over half of his average from the first three weeks (15.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game). This week was nearly a repeat of Week 4, in which Carlson was held without a FG, although he did have two PATs and 2.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points this week. This is the second time Carlson has appeared here, but it may be the last unless he starts scoring more points than he has over the past six games (23.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, or just 3.8 points per week). Hopefully his Dynasty Owners went off his recent history, not season long ranking, and had him on their Bench in Week 10.
Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week Recap – Thee Camel Toe Jockey vs. Asian Zing
In a repeat of the previous nine weeks of the Dynasty Owner season, Thee Camel Toe Jockey won again in League #66645. This week, it was a convincing victory over the second place team in the League, Asian Zing.
Thee Camel Toe Jockey had double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points from every player in their Starting lineup, except kicker Greg Joseph who had only 9.0 points, while Asian Zing only had two players in single-digits (DK Metcalf and Matt Gay). Coming into Monday Night Football, Thee Camel Toe Jockey had a 23.12 point lead, but Asian Zing looked like they had a chance for a come from behind victory with Cooper Kupp and Matt Gay left to go in their Starting lineup, plus Tyler Higbee on their Bench. Thee Camel Toe Jockey had Deebo Samuel in their Starting lineup plus Brandon Aiyuk on the Bench. Those two 49ers players ended up outscoring the three Rams players on Asian Zing by a margin of 31.7 to 28.95 to preserve Thee Camel Toe Jockey’s undefeated season.
With their undefeated season still intact, the only remaining question is: Will Thee Camel Toe Jockey be back in the Top 10 of the Chase for the Ring and stay in fourth place?
Chase for the Ring Leaderboard
The answer is a resounding Yes as once again, we had little movement within the Top 10 in the Chase for the Ring. Thee Camel Toe Jockey was able to maintain their fourth place position in the standings. Nine out of last week’s Top 10 stayed intact with eight teams finding themselves in the exact same position as last week.
SKOL Vikings (League #31927) were able to hold on to the top spot in the Chase for the Ring and actually increase their lead over The Road Warriors. SKOL Vikings are now ahead of the field by 8.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, an increase of 7.3 points from last week. The only new team in the Top 10 are Detroit’s Finest from League #74733 who jumped eight spots and now occupy tenth place with Crow Valley Corvids dropping out of the Top 10 after being back for one week. Not only did Crow Valley Corvids drop down to 17th place, but they also suffered their first loss of the Dynasty Owner regular season. Despite a poor week from their namesake, bradysbunch12 went from tenth place to seventh place, while Heeb Unit dropped from seventh place down to ninth place. That’s it. Once again, there was little change in at the top of the Chase for the Ring standings.
Conclusions
Let’s repeat what we’ve learned so far this season. First, there are no dominant NFL teams as for each of the past three weeks, a team headed to a losing record has beaten one of the top teams in the NFL. Second, the injuries are mounting as the season goes along and backups continue to matter for both NFL and Dynasty Owner teams. Third, bye weeks continue to wreak havoc with the ability of Dynasty Owners to set full lineups on a weekly basis. Finally, the Chase for the Ring continues to be competitive with a couple of teams at the top, but those teams are not unbeatable, as there are only three unbeaten teams in the Top 25.
Every week, Dynasty Owners get the following content to help them in their quest to win their League and compete in the Chase for the Ring. In case you don’t know the schedule, let me repeat it. First, we have Jay Pounds doing the Monday Night Football preview on Monday afternoons and his Free Agent Auction targets article and video on Tuesdays. Matt Morrison – The Jerk continues his Wednesday article and video series on Opportunities and then is back on Thursday afternoon with his Thursday Night Football preview. Finally, my article and video previewing the rest of the weekly slate of games will appear on Friday. Check it out to see how my Week 10 recommendations fared and what teams are featured in the Match-up of the Week.
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