This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
For everyone who was chasing a Dynasty Owner League Championship, they needed a few of the top point producers in their Starting lineup to make sure that they would win. Winning a League Championship was worth $100 million Dynasty Dollars for everyone and half of the total prize money pool for those in cash prize leagues ($600 in $1,200 prize pool leagues and $300 in $600 prize pool leagues). While it’s important to have the highest scoring players over the course of the season to help you reach the finals, the most important thing in the finals is having the highest scoring players for the week to win the Championship.
Since I’ve already written about what happened in the Chase for the Ring (Congrats again to Jeff on winning with his SKOL Vikings team) and the Match-ups of the Week, this article and the video will focus on the players who performed the best and the worst in Week 17. It’s the usual first part of the weekly recap article, just without the Match-up of the Week and Chase for the Ring Top 10 recap. If you want to know more about the Chase for the Ring, go check out the article published yesterday and watch yesterday’s Livestream.
While it’s important to “start your studs” as everyone says, it’s also important to know if those “studs” have a bad match-up against a top rated defense, bad game script due to being overmatched and likely to run the ball less (this is mainly for RBs), or an offense missing key players such as having a backup QB starting, or multiple starting offensive linemen injured and out. While some players were immune to a bad week this season, think Cooper Kupp who scored double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points in all 16 games, Diontae Johnson who did it in 14 out of 15 games, or Jonathan Taylor who is on a streak of 13 straight games with double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points, others might have great overall stats and rankings, but be more of a “boom or bust” player or slumping at the end of a long season. Yes, I’m looking at you Mike Williams and Tyler Lockett. Can you trust those players to perform in the playoff finals or is it safer to put them on the Bench, avoid the potential “bust” and still get 25% of their points on your Bench if they go out and have a “boom” week? Thanks to the 2021 Chase for the Ring Champion Jeff for dropping that knowledge on everyone during the Livestream.
On the other hand, some players are finally hitting their stride at the end of the season and their performance over the past few games should be weighed more heavily than their season-long stats. Back in 2019, Dynasty Owners with Kenyan Drake on their roster likely rode him to victory as he was the Value Player of the Week for both weeks of the playoffs (Dynasty Owner playoffs were only two weeks long in 2019). He had been traded to Arizona midway through the season and retained the lead RB role despite the return of David Johnson from injury after the Cardinals bye that season. Drake ended up scoring 48.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 15 (semi-finals) and 35.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 16 (finals) and moved up to finish the season as RB15. He was clearly outside of the Top 24 RBs before the Dynasty Owner playoffs started but likely ended up carrying his Dynasty Owners to a League Championship if they had him in their Starting lineup.
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 January 5th.
Dynasty Owner Player of the Week
We practically have a repeat of what was written here last week. Our third Dynasty Owner Player of the Week for the 2021 playoffs and seventeenth overall for the season is a player who is winning the honor for the second time this year, but the first time winning it by himself: Ja’Marr Chase
Back in Week 7, Ja’Marr Chase split the Player of the Week award with his teammate Joe Burrow. Burrow was the solo winner of the Player of the Week honor last week and now, it’s Chase who takes the award by himself. Chase had 61.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 17 (11 receptions, 266 receiving yards, 3 receiving TDs), the most points by any player in Dynasty Owner this season and third highest in Dynasty Owner history. The rarely obtained 6 point bonus for 200 yards rushing or receiving was the difference maker. His 266 receiving yards was the most by a rookie and 16th highest in NFL history. It was his second game in 2021 with more than 200 receiving yards and only the third one all season (Davante Adams had the other one). The QB throwing him the ball, Joe Burrow, had 51.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and was significantly far enough behind to give Chase the award on his own. Chase likely gave the League Championship to everyone who was chasing one and had him in their Starting lineup this week.
Week 17 Points: 61.6
2021 Salary: $7,547,410
Cost per Point: $122,523
Congratulations to Ja’Marr on winning your first solo Dynasty Owner Player of the Week honor and your second overall honor for the 2021 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 third Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week for the 2021 playoffs and seventeenth for the season is: Braxton Berrios
Jets rookie WR Elijah Moore was the team’s leading receiver until missing the past four games with a quadriceps injury and then because he was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list. In his place, Braxton Berrios has played very well and just moved ahead of Moore in Dynasty Owner fantasy points for the year (146.6 for Berrios versus 138.2 for Moore). Nearly half of those points (71.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) have come in the past four weeks, including a career-high 26.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions, 65 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 12 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 55 return yards, 1 fumble lost) in Week 17 against Tampa Bay. He scored a pair of TDs making it his third game in a row with a TD and the first game of his career with more than one TD. Not bad for a player who was available in a majority of Dynasty Owner leagues when the playoffs started.
Week 17 Points: 26.1
2021 Salary: $644,602
Cost per Point: $24,697
Congratulations Braxton on the first Dynasty Owner Value Player of the Week honor of your career. Since he’s in the final year of his rookie late sixth round draft pick contract, it will likely be his last one.
Players Who Should Have Been Starters This Week
Let’s take a look at those players who should have been one of your Starters based on their performance in Week 17. These are players who might normally be on your Bench or Practice Squad, but likely weren’t Starters in Week 17 when they should have been and helped your Dynasty Owner team win your League Championship, third place game, or the Loser’s bracket tournament.
QB: Russell Wilson (NYJ) – 38.2 points
Wilson had great bookend games this season with 37.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points against the Colts in Week 1 and 38.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (236 passing yards, 4 passing TDs, 24 rushing yards). However, he was a Bench QB and averaged just 21.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game for the season. If you take out the first and last game, his average slips to 18.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game. His $35 million annual salary runs for three more seasons, it’s just not totally clear right now if he’ll be playing in Seattle or somewhere else in 2022. If he’s traded, his salary remains the same unless the new team restructures the deal. That’s an off-season discussion though. For Week 17, Wilson would have looked really good in the Starting lineup of a team playing for something in the final week of the Dynasty Owner season.
RB: Rashaad Penny (SEA) – 34.5 points
There were quite a few unlikely RBs at the top of the fantasy scoring heap in Week 17. Rashaad Penny had the most points of them all with 34.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (170 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs, 2 receptions, 15 receiving yards), so he is listed here in bold at the top. In addition, Devin Singletary had 25.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Rhamondre Stevenson had 24.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, Boston Scott had 24.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, and Jaret Patterson had 20.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points to merit consideration. Penny has been doing very well for the past couple of weeks as the lead RB for the Seahawks, but was still well outside of the top 50 RBs for the season prior to Week 17 (he is RB51 now), so some of his Dynasty Owners may not have locked Penny into their Starting lineup. Hopefully they did and got the full benefit of his RB1 performance for the week.
WR: Amon-Ra St. Brown (DET) – 35.4 points
So far, it’s three out of three players from the Week 17 Seattle-Detroit game, which isn’t too surprising since was the highest scoring game of the week with 80 combined points. St. Brown had eight or more receptions and at least 15.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points every week from Weeks 13 to Week 16 and a total of 92.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points over that span (23.15 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game). Week 17 was the best week of all for St. Brown in his rookie season as he scored both rushing and receiving TDs for 35.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (8 receptions, 111 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 23 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 1 2-pt conversion). Dynasty Owners with St. Brown and a game to play in Week 17 likely knew that he was on a roll and hopefully they had him in their Starting lineup.
Honorable mention to Cyril Grayson of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kristian Wilkerson of the New England Patriots who both are rostered in few Dynasty Owner leagues (1.8% for Wilkerson and 0.6% for Grayson) and got elevated to the active roster for the Week 17 game. Both had been active in prior weeks, but had been dropped back to the practice squad. Grayson scored the game-winning 33-yard TD reception with 15 seconds left in the Buccaneers 28-24 victory over the New York Jets and ended up with 23.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (6 receptions, 81 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD, 7 return yards). Wilkerson had 20.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 42 receiving yards, 2 receiving TDs) for the first receptions and TDs for the undrafted rookie WR.
TE: David Njoku (CLE) – 12.8 points
Outside of his tremendous game in Week 5 against the Chargers when he scored 27.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, David Njoku hasn’t been worth having in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup too many times. Week 17 was another time as he was TE7 for the week with 12.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 28 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD). It was actually the second best game of the season for Njoku and just his fourth game with more than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Njoku is rostered in less than half (44.4%) of Dynasty Owner leagues and hopefully a few of the Dynasty Owners with him on their roster got the benefit of his big game in their League Championship game.
Honorable mention to Anthony Firkser of the Tennessee Titans who had his best game of the 2021 season with 11.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 24 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD). It was his first TD of the season. Firkser was expected to be much better this season, as evidenced by his ADP of 162.7 (18th among TEs), but he hasn’t even been the best TE on Tennessee this season. Geoff Swaim has more Dynasty Owner fantasy points with 68.8 compared to 55.5 on the season for Firkser. Firkser was even behind MyCole Pruitt until this week as Pruitt had scored 48.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Even though Firkser was on a roster in 60.4% of Dynasty Owner leagues, it’s unlikely too many of those Dynasty Owner had him in their Starting lineup after such a disappointing season.
K: Jason Myers (SEA) – 17.0 points
This one was pretty obvious. Jason Myers had only scored double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points once all season, was averaging only 3.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game and had been even worse since the Seahawks’ Week 9 bye with a 2.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game average. Needless to say, the 17.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point outing from him in Week 17 was completely unexpected. Myers had nine kicking attempts and made them all. He had 6 PATs and three successful FGs, one from each scoring range (36 yards for 2.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, 42 yards for 4.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, and 51 yards for 5.0 v Dynasty Owner fantasy points). Myers is rostered by a surprisingly high percentage of Dynasty Owners (82.25%) and hopefully a few of them had him in their Starting lineup.
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 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 only a few or no Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 17 when Dynasty Owners facing a League Championship match-up really could have used them to play well. All of them should have been riding your Dynasty Owner Bench or hanging out on the Practice Squad.
QB: Jalen Hurts (PHI) – 15.1 points
Usually, the QB listed here has fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points than 15.1, but almost all of the top QBs played well in Week 17. The exception was Jalen Hurts of the Eagles who only had 15.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (214 passing yards and 44 rushing yards) and then nearly had a railing, and several Eagles fans fall on him after the game was over. Technically, Carson Wentz had fewer Dynasty Owner fantasy points (14.4), but Hurts is rostered in every Dynasty Owner league, while Wentz is on a roster in only 11.8% of leagues. As Hurts had scored 29.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points against the Football Team just two weeks prior, his Dynasty Owners probably were figuring on similar production. They didn’t get it and hopefully had Hurts on their Bench, or his limited production in their Starting lineup didn’t change the outcome of their game.
RB: Ezekiel Elliott (DAL) – 4.0 points
Ezekiel Elliott had become TD-dependent as a Starter for your Dynasty Owner team over the past five weeks. In the three games he scored a TD, he had double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points with an average of 16.8 points per game. In the two games he didn’t, he had 9.0 and 6.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Since the Cowboys Week 7 bye, he hasn’t gotten over 100 yards of total offense, but has been seeing the ball plenty with an average of 15.2 touches per game. This week, it was a lack of touches (only 10) combined with his poor production and no TD that doomed his Dynasty Owners to only a 4.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point performance (16 rushing yards, 1 reception, 14 receiving yards). As the RB6 in Dynasty Owner for the season, it would have been difficult for a lot of people who have Elliott on their roster to leave him on the Bench in Week 17, but that would have been the correct decision.
Dishonorable mention to Dalvin Cook of the Minnesota Vikings who wasn’t much better than Elliott with only 4.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (13 rushing yards, 3 receptions, zero receiving yards). SKOL Vikings were able to win the Chase for the Ring with Cook in their Starting lineup, but nobody else had as good of a team as they did. For the rest of the Dynasty Owners with Cook playing in their League Championship, hopefully you were able to overcome his lack of production or decided to start someone else at RB this week and put Cook on your Bench.
WR: Marquise Brown (BAL) – 2.8 points
Without Lamar Jackson at QB, Marquise Brown’s production had declined in recent weeks, but not by a lot. What was probably more alarming to Brown’s Dynasty Owners than Jackson’s absence from the Ravens lineup would be the fact that Brown hadn’t caught a TD pass since the Ravens bye back in Week 8. He had six TDs in the first seven games of the season and then the TDs stopped. In Week 17, Brown had his worst game of the season with only 2.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (3 receptions, 28 receiving yards, 1 fumble lost). It was his first lost fumble, his fewest receiving yards, and tied for the fewest number of receptions of the season. Not a good week for Brown and for his Dynasty Owners to have him in their Starting lineups.
TE: Dawson Knox (BUF) – 0.0 points
Knox has been a surprisingly good TE for Buffalo all season. Despite missing two games, Knox was in the Top 10 TEs and averaging nearly 12.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game. He has 9 TDs on the season, which is tied with Mark Andrews and Hunter Henry for the most by a TE. None of that mattered in Week 17 as Josh Allen struggled throwing the ball, so Buffalo surprisingly leaned on their running game. As a result, Knox was only targeted twice, caught neither pass, nor ended up with a Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). The Falcons’ pass defense against TEs was rated around the middle of the pack in the NFL, so this wasn’t expected. Hopefully Dynasty Owners in the playoff finals with Knox on their team had another TE in their Starting lineup and sat Knox on the Bench.
K: Matt Gay (LAR) – 0.0 points
Matt Gay was averaging 8.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game before Week 17 and hadn’t missed a FG attempt since Week 4 and a PAT attempt since Week 5. He had only missed two kicks all season before the 56 yard attempt in the first quarter of the Rams-Ravens game. He did make both of his PAT attempts and combined with the missed FG, he ended up with zero Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Gay had five games with 10.0 or more Dynasty Owner fantasy points and had been averaging 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points since the Rams’ Week 11 bye. Hopefully if you had Gay in your Starting lineup, his 0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points didn’t hurt your team’s chances of winning. His Dynasty Owners would have been better off if they put him on the Bench.
Dishonorable mention to Cowboys kicker Greg Zuerlein who also had zero Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Zuerlein also made both of his PAT attempts but missed a 43-yard FG. Zuerlein was lower ranked than Gay with 104.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 13 games played (8.0 points per game). Zuerlein had also missed more FGs and PATs than Gay (5 each before Week 17), which is why he is listed as just a dishonorable mention. Zuerlein would have been better on your Dynasty Owner Bench, but if you had him in your Starting lineup, hopefully his 0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points didn’t hurt your team’s chances of winning.
Preview Article Recommendations
There are no Week 18 Dynasty Owner games, so there will be no weekly preview article. As a result, we’ll have to recap my Week 17 Starter recommendations here and see how they worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok):
QB: Justin Fields – DNP (N/A recommendation)
RB: Boston Scott – 24.6 points (Good recommendation)
WR: Michael Gallup – 12.6 points (Just Ok recommendation)
TE: Gerald Everett – 6.6 points (Bad recommendation)
Since the recommendations came out earlier than normal, it wasn’t clear if Justin Fields was going to play or not. He didn’t end up playing so that recommendation doesn’t count. Boston Scott ended up in the Top 5 RBs for the week and was the second Good RB recommendation in a row (and also the only two Good ones for the season). Michael Gallup had an amazing TD catch, but got injured on it and his day ended with 12.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. He was well on his way to a really good day, but the recommendation ended up being Just Ok as he was just on the outside of the Top 24 WRs. The line between Just Ok and Bad is thin for TEs, but Gerald Everett only had 6.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and was a low-end Bench option, so that recommendation was Bad. A split for these recommendations was better than usual for the Starter recommendations for the year.
The Bench recommendations have better in 2021 as they were in 2020, but what about this week? Here’s how my Week 17 Bench recommendations worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok).
QB: Justin Herbert – 24.0 points (Just Ok recommendation)
RB: Alvin Kamara – 21.0 points (Bad recommendation)
WR: Terry McLaurin – 13.1 points (Bad recommendation)
TE: Kyle Pitts – 8.9 points (Just Ok recommendation)
While Justin Herbert was the QB10 for the week, most of the QBs ahead of him were players who were on the rosters of teams in the playoffs and performed better. Normally, that recommendation would be Bad, but I’m calling it Just Ok because he should have been on the Bench for many Dynasty Owners this week. Kyle Pitts was a low-end Starter, high-end Bench option so that recommendation was also Just Ok. Alvin Kamara was a Top 10 RB and clearly a Bad recommendation to Bench. Terry McLaurin was similar to Michael Gallup, but since he had 13.1 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and lots of WRs were worse, that also gets a Just Ok recommendation grade. No Good recommendations is not the way to finish off the season, but overall, the Bench recommendations were better than the Starter recommendations this year.
Conclusions
This article marks the official end of the 2021 Dynasty Owner season for me. No more games to recap or preview and definitely no more recommendations. The NFL season still marches on with Week 18 and the playoffs, but in terms of Dynasty Owner, it’s time to turn the page to the off-season. It’s been a great season and a lot of fun bringing these weekly recap and preview articles to all of my fellow Dynasty Owners.
The rest of the Dynasty Owner content for this week will recap the year as well. Since there’s no more players to target in the Free Agent Auction on a weekly basis, Jay Pounds is going to take a look back at the year in the Free Agent Auction on Thursday with an article and video. On Friday, Matt Morrison – The Jerk will offer up an article and video with his League Winners plus Dynasty Owner Player of the Year awards.
Please read all of our articles, watch our videos on YouTube or listen to them wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t forget to follow all three of us plus Dynasty Owner on Twitter as well. Thanks to all of my fellow Dynasty Owners on a great 2021 season. Special thanks to everyone who has read my articles and watched my videos this season. I appreciate all of you. Have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Follow us on Twitter: @SteveVT33 and @Dynasty_Owner