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By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
Most of the time the focus is on the top teams in both the NFL and Dynasty Owner. Last week, the five undefeated Dynasty Owner teams were profiled here, but there’s no suspense about those teams making the Dynasty Owner playoffs since all of them have already clinched a spot. The top NFL teams will likely get flexed into the Sunday Night Football match-up over the next few weeks. For example, the Week 13 game between the AFC West division leading Kansas City Chiefs was moved to be played on Sunday night. The game featuring two teams in the battle for an AFC Wild Card (Bengals vs. Chargers) was not flexed into prime time.
NFL teams who make the playoffs as a Wild Card (seeds #5 and #6, and now #7) need to win four straight games to win the Super Bowl. That’s usually on top of having to win a few games down the stretch in the regular season to make the playoffs. Tampa Bay was a Wild Card last year and won the Super Bowl, making them the seventh team to win the Super Bowl, but not their division.
It can happen in Dynasty Owner as well. A few of our 2020 League Winners weren’t one of the top two teams and had to play in the first round of the playoffs. Some were even the #5 or #6 seed. In League #28274, B3lowradar made the playoffs at 7-6, but ended up defeating the top three seeds to win their League title. The Swamp Rats in League #35109 entered the playoffs as the #5 seed with a 7-6 record, but toppled the #2 seed in the finals to win. Those are just two examples, and we are likely to see more of them in 2021. If your Dynasty Owner team won last year as a #5 or #6 seed with a 7-6 or 6-7 record, let me know and I’ll mention it on Twitter.
This year, there are hundreds of those teams who have 4-7, 5-6, 6-5 and, in some cases, 7-4 records and need a solid finish to the season to make their League playoffs. My beta league has five teams at 6-5 and one at 5-6, all fighting to make the playoffs since the top four teams are all tied at 7-4. With ten teams having a shot of making the playoffs and only six spots, it’s very possible that one of the 7-4 teams could lose their next three games and miss out. I’m one of the 6-5 teams and need to win out to make it. I know that I’m trying my best to make it to the playoffs since things seem pretty wide open.
That’s because making the playoffs entitles Dynasty Owner teams to a minimum payout of $2 million Dynasty Dollars, while non-playoff teams need to make it to at least the finals of the Loser’s bracket to earn anything (an Amnesty Provision goes to both teams in the Loser’s bracket finals while the winner also gets the extra first round draft pick – 1.13). Making the playoffs should be the goal of all Dynasty Owner teams at the beginning of the season and for those with slimmer chances of making it, this is a key week to pick up a victory.
With making the playoffs top of mind, the recommendations for a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) to have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup and a player who should be on your Bench or Practice Squad, will focus on players who are on a high percentage of Dynasty Owner rosters. Making the correct Start-Bench decisions could keep a Dynasty Owner team in playoff contention for another week, or maybe even clinch them a berth this week.
For the Match-up of the Week, we’ll look at two teams in the middle of the pack of their League standings and see which one is favored to win and keep their quest for the playoffs alive. The loser is very likely out. Don’t forget that suggestions are welcomed for the remaining Match-ups of the Week. If you want your team or a team in your League to appear in the future, then send me a tweet (@SteveVT33).
With only a couple of weeks left in the regular season, let’s take a look at our remaining undefeated teams. All of these teams have defeated every team in their League once and it’s time for rematches. We have only four undefeated teams with Thee Camel Toe Jockey in League #66645 losing last week. The four remaining undefeated Dynasty Owner teams are:
| Team Name | League | Chase Position |
| DynastyTradeSchool (Mad Minshew) | 27458 | 3rd |
| Detroit’s Finest | 74733 | 22nd |
| Miami Crypt Keepers | 59074 | 71st |
| The HipHopOpatomus | 70068 | 94th |
Check back here next week and see how many of them are still undefeated and where they are in the Chase for the Ring.
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.
For the purposes of this article, ADP and Dynasty Owner rostered percentage statistics were current as of the morning of November 26th.
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
First, let’s look at how my Week 11 recommendations fared (Good, Bad or Just Ok). I predicted performances worthy of being in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup for these four players last week. Thankfully Dynasty Owner has a Starting TE position, or I wouldn’t have had a Good recommendation. Here’s how many points my recommendations scored:
QB: Ryan Tannehill – 9.4 (Bad recommendation)
RB: Jeffery Wilson – 5.8 (Bad recommendation)
WR: Rashod Bateman – 5.9 (Bad recommendation)
TE: Adam Trautman – 16.8 (Good recommendation)
In six of the past seven weeks, my TE recommendation has been good. No thanks to Jordan Akins who ruined the streak in Week 9. This week, it was Adam Trautman who had a career high 16.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. The other three recommendations were Bad as none of the trio of Ryan Tannehill, Jeffery Wilson and Rashod Bateman had double-digit points. At least Bateman scored, unlike Keelan Cole who had a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and was nearly my recommendation. With teams in playoff contention maybe reading this article for some recommendations, I’ll try to avoid guys who aren’t rostered in many Dynasty Owner leagues and go with players who they might actually have as potential options for their Week 12 Starting lineup. Here they are:
Tyrod Taylor (QB – HOU): Taylor is rostered in nearly every Dynasty Owner league (96.45%), largely because of his one year contract for only $5.5 million. In four starts, Taylor has 2 TDs in three of them. Week 9 against Miami was the only week in which he didn’t have multiple TDs and at least 19.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. This week, Taylor and the Texans get to face the New York Jets defense, which has allowed 28.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to QBs since their Week 6 bye. For the whole season, they have allowed an average of 24.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to QBs, so they haven’t been good for most of the season, but just worse recently. Taylor is only averaging 191 passing yards per game and 26.5 rushing yards, but those yards plus two TDs would be 24.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, which should be good enough for all of the Dynasty Owners who have him and are in playoff contention to use in their Starting lineup.
Ty Johnson (RB – NYJ): In the Jets’ five games since their bye week, Ty Johnson has averaged 11.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game on just seven touches per game. He’s had to share carries and receptions with Michael Carter for all five of those games (plus Tevin Coleman for the past two) and therefore is only the RB40 for the season. Carter is out with a high ankle sprain and was averaging 16.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game over that same time period on an average of 17.4 touches per game. If Johnson can take over Carter’s touches and keep up his average, he’d score 27.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Since he’s playing the Houston Texans’ defense which is allowing the second most rushing yards per game to RBs, it’s possible he could reach that level of production. At a very low salary of just $672,976 this season, he is rostered in almost every Dynasty Owner league (99.41%). That means, there are plenty of Dynasty Owners who probably need a RB for their Starting lineup this week and can use him when he should exceed his average and be my first Good RB recommendation of the season.
Russell Gage (WR – ATL): Gage has been really hit or miss all season for the Falcons. He has played seven regular season games and produced a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) in three of them. He has been remarkably productive in the other four games, averaging 11.95 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game. In a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, it seems unlikely that Gage will produce another Blutarsky, so he should be in line for a productive game for everyone who has him and his $654,049 salary in Dynasty Owner (rostered in 99.41% of leagues). Opposing WRs are averaging 14.2 receptions for 174.4 yards against the Jacksonville defense, which is the fourth most receptions allowed per game and tenth most receiving yards allowed per game. Gage also had a productive game with 10.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (5 receptions, 49 receiving yards, 7 rushing yards) against Jacksonville back in 2019. A productive game, as opposed to a Blutarsky, would be helpful for Gage’s Dynasty Owners who should put him in their Starting lineups.
Albert Okwuegbunam (TE – DEN): Evan Engram should be the pick here as the Giants are playing the league worst defense against TEs (Philadelphia Eagles), but having little confidence in Engram and QB Daniel Jones leads me to pick someone else. Albert Okwuegbunam has been quietly efficient in his past three games with an average of 7.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game with 10 receptions for 136 receiving yards. He has gotten at least three targets and three receptions in each of the past three games. This week, the Broncos play against the Los Angeles Chargers who have allowed a pair of receiving TDs to TEs in each of the past two weeks (Tyler Conklin in Week 10 and Eric Ebron and Pat Freiermuth in Week 11). Not only did they all have TDs, but each one of them scored double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points (16.1 for Conklin, 11.4 for Ebron and 11.1 for Freiermuth). That makes eight TEs with double-digit points against the Chargers this season in ten games. Albert O should make it nine (and maybe Noah Fant makes it ten) this week so the Dynasty Owners with him and his $1.011 million salary on their roster (88.76%) should get him in their Starting lineup this week.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
The Bench recommendations were a little on the Bad side in Week 11, but better than the Starting lineup recommendations. That’s pretty typical this season. Let’s find out how each one of them did.
QB: Kirk Cousins – 34.6 (Bad recommendation)
RB: J.D. McKissic – 6.0 (Good recommendation)
WR: D.J. Moore – 16.0 (Bad recommendation)
TE: T.J. Hockenson – 11.1 (Just Ok recommendation)
On the Bad side, we have Kirk Cousins who was the QB3 for the week and D.J. Moore who caught a TD pass from Cam Newton, which was his first TD reception since back in Week 4, to make him a low-end WR2 or solid FLEX starter. T.J. Hockenson was tied as the TE14 for the week, but had only 0.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points less than the TE12. That made the Hockenson recommendation Just Ok. The only good Bench recommendation was J.D. McKissic who took a backseat to Antonio Gibson for the second consecutive week since the Football Team’s bye week. Helping a Dynasty Owner team in playoff contention can also mean providing advice on Benching a player likely to have a bad week, so here are four players to leave on your Bench in Week 12.
Joe Burrow (QB – CIN): Burrow is the QB12 in Dynasty Owner right now, so he’s a low-end starter, but one who is rostered in 100% of leagues so lots of teams have the option of putting him in their Starting lineup. Two of the top 12 QBs (Kirk Cousins and Carson Wentz) are not rostered in too many leagues. Since winning the Player of the Week award in Week 7 against Baltimore, Burrow has only averaged 15.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points against the Jets, Browns and Raiders. Two of those three teams (Jets and Raiders) are in the bottom half of the NFL in passing yards allowed and Burrow threw for only 407 combined against them. He has also become turnover prone with a total of three INTs and a fumble in each of his last three games. Pittsburgh safety Minkah Fitzpatrick will be back in the Steelers lineup this week and linebacker T.J. Watt and cornerback Joe Haden should return as well to a defense that was only allowing 20.6 points per game before the three of them missed last week’s game against the Chargers. Burrow has only averaged 20.45 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in two career games against Pittsburgh. The return of those three starters to the Pittsburgh lineup should enable them to hold Burrow to his average, or below, and make him better suited to be on your Dynasty Owner Bench in Week 12.
Leonard Fournette (RB – TB): Just looking at the average rushing yards allowed per game stat shows that the Indianapolis Colts allow 111.6 rushing yards per game to rank in a tie for 15th place. However, they are allowing 32.2 of those yards to non-RBs including 79 yards rushing to Jacksonville WR Jamal Agnew in Week 10 and 62 rushing yards to Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson in Week 5. They have also only allowed RBs to score 5 TDs all season to rank 30th in the NFL. All of this is to say that the Colts rushing defense is better than they look. After all, they held Derrick Henry to below his average number of Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game in both games he played against them this year. Their pass defense has also allowed 23 receiving TDs to non-RBs, so that’s likely how Tom Brady will attack them, which should limit the number of touches that Fournette will get this week. Fournette only received 7 touches in Week 3 against the Rams to score 6.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and 11 touches in Week 8 against the Saints to score 7.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Count on a low touch week for Fournette and a week worthy of being on your Dynasty Owner Bench.
Courtland Sutton (WR – DEN): Originally, A.J. Brown was here, but he got ruled out of the Titans’ Week 12 game versus New England right before I edited the article, so I had to switch and go with Courtland Sutton. Sutton just signed a new contract (4 years, $60.8 million) that kicks in for the 2022 Dynasty Owner season, so his roster percentage is likely to drop from the 100% level that he is at now. The other thing that might make Dynasty Owners drop Sutton for free next year when that contract kicks in is seeing how his production drops with Jerry Jeudy in the Broncos lineup. It’s the same thing I said in this spot two weeks ago, but updated with more statistics. While Sutton is the WR32 for the season and likely a FLEX position play for his Dynasty Owners, he’s a whole lot better without Jerry Jeudy in the Broncos lineup (16.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in those six games) than when he’s in it (4.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in those four games). He has zero TDs in the four games with Jeudy in the lineup with only 6 receptions for 92 yards and a 2-pt conversion. The other main Broncos WR, Tim Patrick, has nearly identical statistics this season with and without Jeudy on the field (11.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in six games with Jeudy and 11.55 points in the four games without him). Start Jeudy or Patrick this week against the Chargers, but leave Sutton on your Bench.
Hunter Henry (TE – NE): Henry has been the most efficient TE in Dynasty Owner scoring this season as Matt Morrison mentioned in his article this week. Henry has 7 TDs from just 33 receptions and TDs account for over one-third (37%) of his Dynasty Owner fantasy points. He’s ranked as the TE7 in Dynasty Owner, but has fewer receptions than every TE in the top 16 except Dawson Knox. Tennessee has only allowed three TDs to TEs all season, so it’s probable that Henry will go without a TD in Week 12. He’s only had five games without a TD this season and is averaging just 5.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in those games. As a Patriots fan, I hope Henry scores a TD, but the data are indicating the opposite, so I’d put Henry on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week – Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad vs. 36 Chambers
For our twelfth Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week, we have a battle of two teams on the edge of playoff contention in League #76065, also known informally as the Polian League since it features Team Polian from the Inside Football Podcast with Bill Polian. Team Polian is 7-4 and sits in third place, while Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad and 36 Chambers are both 5-6 and in ninth and tenth place, respectively. However, the sixth place team in the League is also 5-6 and only scored under 100.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points more than both of them. However, it’s unlikely that both of those teams will make the playoffs as one of them will have seven losses after this week and a 7-7 record seems unlikely to be a playoff team in this League.
Usually, these projections are listed from before the Thursday Night Football game, but even with three games on Thanksgiving Day, neither Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad nor 36 Chambers had anybody in their Starting lineup play already. Only 36 Chambers Bench QB Trevor Siemian (11.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad Bench WR Deonte Harris (3.72 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) have played, while 36 Chambers doesn’t have a Bench kicker with Matt Prater on bye.
The projections show an extremely close match-up with 36 Chambers projected to win by only 2.52 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. The biggest advantage in the Starting lineups is at TE for 36 Chambers with George Kittle (15.87 projected points) over Pat Freiermuth (9.97 projected points) for Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad. Bench scoring is projected to be close as well with Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad having a QB and kicker advantage with Tua Tagovailoa and Chase McLaughlin over the previously mentioned Trevor Siemian and Matt Prater. However, both of the Bench WRs for 36 Chambers (Michael Pittman and Chase Claypool) are projected to score over 10.0 points more than Deonte Harris has already scored for Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad.
Maybe this will be a featured game in Jay’s Monday Night Football preview article when 36 Chambers will be finished, while Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad will have Russell Wilson, Terry McLaurin, and Jason Myers still to play in their Starting lineup. Find out who wins in the Week 12 recap article, moves to .500 for the 2021 season and stays in playoff contention.
Conclusion
With only three weeks remaining in the Dynasty Owner regular season, hopefully all of your teams are at least in playoff contention. The final weeks of the fantasy football season are always a lot more fun if your team has a chance to win something, whether it be just Dynasty Dollars, or Dynasty Dollars plus cash.
Just because both Doritos Cheese Ninja Squad, 36 Chambers, and maybe your Dynasty Owner team haven’t clinched a playoff berth yet doesn’t mean that they can’t go on a three-game win streak to end the regular season, then sweep through the playoffs and win their League. It happened last year for at least a couple of teams, why not yours this year?
Please read my weekly preview article each and every week to see who should be in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and who should be on your Bench. While some Dynasty Owners may heed my advice, others might disagree, or not have a better option for their Starting lineup and choose to ignore a Bench recommendation. Other Dynasty Owners may not need Starting lineup help as they have a stud player at a position who isn’t moving to the Bench unless he’s injured or on bye. Hopefully, the choices for your Starting lineup and Bench are solid, your team wins its game and stays in contention for the playoffs and even the Chase for the Ring.
In addition to this weekly preview article, Dynasty Owner has plenty of other great content to help your team, especially if it’s in playoff contention. On Monday, Jay Pounds will preview the Monday Night Football matchup from the Dynasty Owner perspective. Tuesday has a double shot of Dynasty Owner content with my Week 12 recap article and Jay’s Free Agent Auction targets article and video. Wednesdays is when Matt Morrison – The Jerk will dive into a topic of his choosing with an article and a video. In keeping with the playoff contenders theme, he’s going to start speculating on the players who he thinks will be league winners for a lot of Dynasty Owner teams. On Thursday, it’ll be back to normal for Week 13 with Matt’s Thursday Night Football preview article.
Don’t forget about the weekly Dynasty Owner livestream on Wednesday with myself, Tim Peffer, and Dr. Cousin Justin. If there is a particular injured player who you are interested in learning more about during the livestream, drop me a line on Twitter (@SteveVT33) and I’ll put it on the list for Cousin Justin to research. Set the timer on YouTube so you don’t miss it live, or make sure to watch it afterwards. Either way, don’t forget to smash the Like button.
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 the Dynasty Owner team of writers 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