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By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
It’s the moment that we’ve all been waiting for since the end of Super Bowl LVI in mid-February. Meaningful NFL football games! Now that the pre-season is only three games and teams are holding out their starters for the vast majority of those games, the first live game action that a lot of NFL players are getting in 2022 will come in Week 1 of the regular season. Instead of checking out how players did during their limited action in pre-season games, all we are left with is to evaluate how the reports are about practice (cue the Allen Iverson classic Practice video clip).
Before we get to the Starting lineup and Bench recommendations and the Week 1 Match-up of the Week, I need to mention the Thursday Night game. In two separate articles this week for Dynasty Owner, Matt Morrison – The Jerk said that he was looking forward to the “best Thursday Night Football game of the season in Week 1” as well as “a beatdown” during the Sunday games, which he defined as “I want to see a team win by more than 14 and score more than 30.” He got things a little mixed up as we all ended up watching the “beatdown” on Thursday Night Football instead of Sunday.
Buffalo controlled the Thursday night game and even though the score was tied 10-10 at halftime, the Bills looked like the better team from the game’s first drive. My other main takeaways are that my Cam Akers as Comeback Player of the Year prediction on the Wednesday afternoon Livestream might not come true if he only touches the ball three times a game and that Cooper Kupp might score as many (or more) Dynasty Owner fantasy points than he did last year. Kupp had 31.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (13 receptions, 128 receiving yards, 1 TD) on a night when the Rams offense and Matthew Stafford struggled. Last year, Kupp had a WR record 440.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 2021 and based on one week, it’s not inconceivable that he could do it again. For Buffalo, the change from Brian Daboll to Ken Dorsey as Offensive Coordinator appeared seamless, James Cook may have earned himself a trip to Sean McDermott’s doghouse by fumbling on his first NFL carry, and the off-season Twitter hype about Gabriel Davis appears to have not been hype at all. Worry not if you have James Cook on your Dynasty Owner roster, I remember how Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled last year on his second touch of the game in Week 1. He’s now back in Bill Belichick’s good graces, even if it took a while. I doubt McDermott will hold a grudge against Cook longer than Belichick did against Rhamondre so don’t trade Cook just yet.
Everybody now has two days to relax, watch some college football and then get back at it again on Sunday. The NFL schedule makers really worked hard to have Week 1 be “revenge game” week. There’s Russell Wilson returning to Seattle to face the Seahawks on Monday Night Football, Baker Mayfield taking on the Browns in Carolina and Joe Flacco taking on the Ravens as the Jets starting QB. The NFL probably didn’t think Joe Flacco would be the Jets starting QB in the year 2022, but somehow it happened, and he gets to play the team he won a Super Bowl for in the Baltimore Ravens almost ten years ago.
While we had a busy off-season here at Dynasty Owner, there weren’t any major rule changes. We still have our unique scoring rules like Bench scoring that adds 25% of the points from players on your Bench to your total final score and a Clutch scoring bonus of 3 points for any TD or FG that results in a lead change (score is tied or takes the lead) in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter or anytime during overtime. The Dynasty Owner salary cap is still 70% of the NFL salary cap so our 2022 cap is $145.74 million.
And we still have the best contest and prize in fantasy football – the Dynasty Owner Chase for the Ring! If your Dynasty Owner team wins its league and scores the most points over the course of the entire season, you win the Chase for the Ring, a Super Bowl-style ring and the title of “best of the best” in Dynasty Owner for the 2022 season. Our 2021 Champion was Jeff Rachlin (SKOL Vikings in League #31927). Check out the video highlighting his Ring ceremony and his all-expenses paid trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Everyone can learn about how to win at Dynasty Owner from Jeff, our 2019 Champion Eddie Driscoll (New York’s Strongest) and 2020 Champion Viktor Kilgore (Barbee Kilgore) by listening to or watching them on the Dynasty Owner Champions podcast.
Thanks for reading my weekly preview article and for being a Dynasty Owner. If you were a Dynasty Owner last year, thanks for coming back this year. For those of you first-time Dynasty Owners, or if it’s just your first time reading my preview article, here’s what to expect.
Every week of the 14-game Dynasty Owner regular season and three game playoffs, I’ll present a player at each position (QB, RB, WR, TE) who you should have as a Starter in your Dynasty Owner lineup. These won’t be the obvious choices. No recommendations to go ahead and start Josh Allen, Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Kupp, or Mark Andrews. Those guys are cemented in your Starting lineup unless something bad happens, or they are on bye. Players who are rostered in 100% (or nearly 100%) of Dynasty Owner leagues with low ADPs won’t be mentioned either. Nope, I’m going to recommend you Start players who were drafted to be on your Bench or Practice Squad. Think about the players who aren’t on a roster in every Dynasty Owner league or have high ADPs and could be found after the 15th round in a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft.
After that, I’ll name one player per position who should be on your Bench or Practice Squad. For these Bench recommendations, it’s just the opposite. I’ll suggest players drafted early in Dynasty Owner startup drafts to be Starters with the low ADP to prove it. However, they shouldn’t be in your Starting lineup for the week based on matchups, past performance against a team or something else.
Finally, I will look at one Dynasty Owner game, our Match-up of the Week. For the first 2022 Match-up of the Week, it’s time to check in with the 2021 Chase for the Ring winner and see who he’s playing in Week 1. What team is SKOL Vikings drew the Champ, and do they have a chance to defeat him?
All stats cited are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the 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 roster percentage statistics were current as of the morning of Friday, September 9th.
These Guys Should be Starters This Week
Every week but Week 1, we will look to see how my recommendations from the previous week worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok). In Week 1, we don’t have a previous week to review so let’s look back at how my recommendations fared in past years.
In 2019, I had almost the same percentage of Good recommendations (40%) as Bad ones (43%) with the remaining judged to be Just Ok (17%). In 2020, things took a turn for the worse with less than one-sixth (15%) of my recommendations being Good, over half (53%) being Bad and one-third (32%) falling into the Just Ok category. By position, my RB recommendations were the best as just one-third (33%) were Bad, while over two-thirds (69%) of my TE recommendation were Bad in 2020.
The 2021 recommendations were not as good for the second straight season. Out of 67 recommendation in total (4 per week for 17 weeks minus the one QB recommendation that was rendered “not applicable” as the recommended player did not play), just over one-quarter (27%) were rated as Good. Half (52%) were Bad while one-fifth (21%) were Just Ok. In terms of position, I had the most Good TE recommendations with 7, or 41%, and the fewest Bad recommendations at QB with only 6, or 38%. This is the exact opposite of what happened by position in 2020.
| Position | Good Picks | Good Pick % | Bad Picks | Bad Pick % | Just Ok Picks | Just Ok Pick % |
| QB | 5 | 31% | 6 | 38% | 5 | 31% |
| RB | 2 | 12% | 13 | 76% | 2 | 12% |
| WR | 4 | 24% | 8 | 47% | 5 | 29% |
| TE | 7 | 41% | 8 | 47% | 2 | 12% |
| All positions | 18 | 27% | 35 | 52% | 14 | 21% |
My best week was the playoff semi-finals (aka Week 16) with two Good recommendations (Russell Wilson and Justin Jackson), no Bad recommendations, and two Just Ok recommendations (Laquon Treadwell and C.J. Uzomah). In contrast, Week 9 was awful as all four recommendations (Tyrod Taylor, Boston Scott, Van Jefferson and Jordan Akins) were Bad.
After two tough years, my goal is to do better this year. In order to do so, I need a good start, so let’s see what players I’m recommending you get into your Starting lineup in Week 1.
Matt Ryan (QB – IND): Last season, I took a veteran QB starting fresh with a new team after an entire career spent with another team (Matthew Stafford). The Week 1 recommendation was Good, and the Rams won the Super Bowl with Stafford at QB. The Colts aren’t winning the Super Bowl with Matt Ryan this year, but I do think he’s worth having in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup this week if you have him (23.8% rostered).
It’s all because of the Colts’ Week 1 matchup against the Houston Texans. Yes, I am aware that the Texans went 3-0 in the pre-season and only allowed 33 points, but it was the pre-season and the only starting NFL QB they faced was Trey Lance. Lance completed 7 out of 11 passes for 49 yards. The second best QB they faced was Andy Dalton who completed all five of his passes for 51 yards and a TD. After that, it was a murderers’ row of future XFL signal callers in Ian Book, John Wolford, Bryce Perkins, Brock Purdy and Nate Sudfeld.
Houston gave up 62 points in two games versus the Carson Wentz-led Colts last year mostly because they let Jonathan Taylor run for 288 yards and 4 TDs. In order to avoid the same fate this year, the Texans defense is likely to focus on containing Taylor, which should allow Ryan to pick them apart. The Texans’ starting secondary is not likely to strike fear into Ryan as it consists of a veteran who allowed 67% of the passes thrown at him to be completed last year (Steven Nelson), two rookies (Derek Stingley Jr. and Jalen Pitre), and an undrafted fourth year player (Jonathan Owens) who saw his first NFL action on defense in November of last year and wasn’t elevated off the Texans’ practice squad for good until December.
Michael Carter (RB – NYJ): This was a difficult position to pick in 2021 and this year is likely to be no different. One thing on my side is that the 2021 crop of rookie RBs didn’t exactly come out and set the NFL on fire in their first games. Only two rookie RBs (Elijah Mitchell and Kenneth Gainwell) had over 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and only four (Mitchell, Gainwell, Najee Harris and Javonte Williams) had more than 10 touches in their first games. Don’t forget what I mentioned earlier about Rhamondre Stevenson and James Cook.
If I’m Jets Coach Robert Saleh, all this makes me think twice about giving rookie RB Breece Hall a heavy workload in his first NFL game and opens up at least a split of playing time and touches for Michael Carter.
Last year, Carter was being drafted in the fifth or sixth round in Dynasty Owner startup drafts (ADP 66.5) and this year, his ADP is nearly 50 places higher (113.6). Despite his salary cap friendly contract of $1,071,842, he is the 40th RB off the draft board on average, meaning few Dynasty Owners are drafting him with Week 1 Starting lineup plans.
They should do it as Carter had a decent rookie season as the RB29 in Dynasty Owner with 155.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in 14 games played (11.1 per game) with an average of just 13 touches per game. If Carter can pull off an average week from last year (45.6 rushing yards, 2.6 receptions, 23.2 receiving yards), he would have 9.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Add in a TD and he’s up to 15.4 points and looking like a solid RB2 or FLEX starter. Finally, I like that Carter had 7.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (63 rushing yards, 1 reception, 2 receiving yards) last year in Week 11 versus Miami when Joe Flacco was at QB and his best two games came with Mike White, not Zach Wilson, at QB for most or all of the game.
Russell Gage (WR – TB): It’s been a big turnaround for me on Russell Gage in recent weeks. After touting him all off-season and drafting him everywhere I could, I got worried because he wasn’t practicing much early in training camp. Now, I’m back and picking him as someone who should be in your Starting lineup in Week 1. The potential lack of availability of Chris Godwin for Sunday’s game against Dallas factored into this recommendation considerably. I would lean against Godwin playing Week 1 as Tampa Bay is a team with Super Bowl aspirations and they will need a healthy Godwin more in December and January than they do in September. If Godwin isn’t 100% on Sunday night, my money would be on him being inactive.
That would mean that all of the Buccaneers WRs would be more attractive as Starters. If you have Mike Evans, you’re starting him – no questions asked. However, both Gage and Julio Jones are being drafted as Bench options in the 14th to 17th round of a typical Dynasty Owner startup draft with ADPs of 179.3 (Gage) and 190.8 (Jones). I’m comfortable with both of them as Starters this week with Godwin out as Brady completed 32 passes for 379 yards and 4 TDs against Dallas in Week 1 last year. Fast forward a year and none of his top three receivers (Antonio Brown, Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski) from that game will be playing this week, assuming Godwin sits. They combined for 22 receptions, 316 receiving yards and all 4 TDs. Even if Gage gets one-quarter of that production, it’s 5 receptions for 79 yards and a TD (18.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points). That’s good enough to be a Starter on my Dynasty Owner team, what about yours?
Austin Hooper (TE – TEN): Tennessee plays the New York Giants in Week 1, and the Giants released their starting middle linebacker from last year Blake Martinez just over a week ago. They also have a new defensive coordinator and all new defensive captains as Martinez was one along with Logan Ryan and Jabrill Peppers who both left in free agency. That defense gave up double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points for TEs on six occasions last season, including twice to Dalton Schultz. They also held Travis Kelce to only 3.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions for 27 yards and a lost fumble).
Double digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points is usually enough for a TE to be in the Top 12 TEs and thus, a Starter. Tennessee doesn’t have a lot of weapons in the passing game and should lean on Derrick Henry’s legs, but Ryan Tannehill will throw at least a few passes. Last season, Tennessee TEs combined for 195.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and three of those TEs are gone and being replaced by Hooper. Those three TEs (Anthony Firkser, MyCole Pruitt and Tommy Hudson) had 125.7 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, an average of 7.4 points per game, while returning TE Geoff Swaim had the remaining 70.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. The non-Swaim Tennessee TEs combined would have finished as TE20 for the season and if Hooper can consolidate those receptions and yards, he will have weeks in which he can be a Starter for your Dynasty Owner team.
This is shaping up as one of them with the Giants’ first game with a new head coach and defensive coordinator. I’d be comfortable with Hooper as my Starting TE if I don’t have one of the top three TEs (Mark Andrews, Travis Kelce, and Kyle Pitts) or if George Kittle is your TE1 and he doesn’t play.
These Guys Should Be on the Bench (or Practice Squad) This Week
Now it’s the time to look at how my Bench recommendations from the previous week worked out (Good, Bad or Just Ok). For Week 1, I’ll take a look back at how my previous season recommendations fared.
In 2019, I actually had more Good recommendations than Bad ones (42% Good vs. 32% Bad) with the remaining 27% being Just Ok. Similar to the Starting recommendations, things got worse in 2020 as the percentage of Good recommendations slipped down to just over one-third (35%), while the percentage of Bad recommendations increased to two-fifths (42%). The remaining one-quarter (23%) were Just Ok. Half (50%) of my TE Bench recommendations in 2020 were Good, making it my best position, followed closely by WR with seven out of 15 Good recommendations (47%). It was a mixed bag at RB as half (50%) of my Bench RB recommendations were Just Ok, but the balance was more Bad (31%) than Good (19%). Finally, I had the most Bad recommendations at QB (47%).
The 2021 Bench recommendations were a slight bit better overall. Out of 65 recommendation in total (4 per week for 17 weeks minus three recommendations rendered “not applicable” as the recommended player did not play), just over one-third (35%) were rated as Good, compared to almost two-fifths (38%) that were Bad and just over one-quarter (26%) that were Just Ok. In terms of position, it was a tie between QB and WR as both had 8 Good recommendations out of 17 weeks, or 47%. There were fewer Bad QB recommendations (4 for QB vs. 6 for WR). RB was definitely the worst position as only 3 recommendations were Good and 9 were Bad.
| Position | Good Picks | Good Pick % | Bad Picks | Bad Pick % | Just Ok Picks | Just Ok Pick % |
| QB | 8 | 47% | 4 | 24% | 5 | 29% |
| RB | 3 | 20% | 9 | 60% | 3 | 20% |
| WR | 8 | 47% | 6 | 35% | 3 | 18% |
| TE | 4 | 25% | 6 | 38% | 6 | 38% |
| All positions | 23 | 35% | 25 | 38% | 17 | 26% |
Last year started off strong as all four Week 1 Bench recommendations (Justin Herbert, Saquon Barkley, Allen Robinson, and Mike Gesicki) were Good. There were five weeks with zero Good recommendations (Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9 and Week 17), but Weeks 3 and 4 tie for the worst week as three recommendations each week were Bad. In Week 3, it was Tom Brady, Alvin Kamara, and Mark Andrews, while the Bad choices for Week 4 were Saquon Barkley, Marquise Brown and Dalton Schultz.
The goal for 2022 is to get back to where I started in 2019 with more Good than Bad recommendations. Here are the players I’m recommending you keep on your Bench (or Practice Squad) to help me replicate my perfect record from Week 1 last year.
Aaron Rodgers (QB – GB): By using the criteria that I do for this; I’m limiting my choices to effectively only QBs expected to be in the Top 12 or drafted as one of the first 12 QBs in 2022 Dynasty Owner startup drafts. Therefore, the pool of potential Bench QBs is only about 16 (or half of the starting Week 1 QBs) and doesn’t contain a lot of bad QBs. As a result, I either need to find a good QB going against a great pass defense which is difficult to know for certainty in Week 1, take a QB who played badly in the pre-season, which is not a large pool of players since none of the top QBs play much pre-season football now, or find a potential troubling situation.
Aaron Rodgers fits the third criteria as he has an almost completely new group of WRs, lost his favorite one in Davante Adams who he targeted on 29% of his pass attempts in 2021 (155 out of 531), and might be without the services of his de facto WR1 in Allen Lazard according to reports as Lazard sat out practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Lazard and Randall Cobb are the only two WRs with significant game experience playing with Rodgers since the QB didn’t play a pre-season snap in 2022. Rodgers also struggled in Week 1 last year after not playing a pre-season snap with only 0.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (133 passing yards and 2 INTs). I’m going to predict that Rodgers struggles in Week 1 again this year against the Vikings and that his Dynasty Owners should keep him on their Bench.
Travis Etienne (RB – JAC): This one probably isn’t fair since he’s basically a rookie and nobody should rely on him this early in this season. However, since Dynasty Owners have been taking Etienne in the second or third round based on his ADP of 23.6, it shows that while I think people shouldn’t be relying on him, I’m in the minority on it. At worst, he’s the RB3 on a Dynasty Owner team and should be starting in those teams’ FLEX position.
Of course, many of the Dynasty Owners who drafted Etienne did so earlier in the off-season when it wasn’t clear if James Robinson would be playing Week 1. Robinson is expected to play on Sunday against Washington according to reports from as early as Monday. However, that didn’t stop Bayside Tigers from drafting Etienne with the 2.08 pick (#20 overall) in the Podcast Listener’s League #2 draft on Tuesday night, or Spirit in the Skyy from taking him with the 3.01 pick (#25 overall) in the Studs and Duds League #156861 which drafted the same night.
The Robinson news plus the facts that Etienne is basically a rookie since he missed the entire 2021 season, and the previous information that only two rookie RBs had over 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 last year are enough to justify this Bench recommendation. In the interest of providing more information, I’ll also point out that Etienne played in two pre-season games and only had 52 yards rushing on 17 carries (3.1 yards per carry) while catching just one pass for 10 yards on three targets. That would be only 7.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on 18 touches and since only Elijah Mitchell had that many Week 1 touches last year, I’m not optimistic Etienne is going to have that many opportunities or score double-digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points. That means he should be sitting on your Bench.
Keenan Allen (WR – LAC): In two games in 2021 against the Raiders, Keenan Allen only scored 21.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (13 receptions for 88 yards). An average of 10.9 points per game is pretty good for most WRs and would be 185.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for a 17 game season. That would have ranked as WR30 in Dynasty Owner last season, which is a FLEX Starter. However, WRs need to score more than 10.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points on a weekly basis to be Starter material and Allen just didn’t cut it against Las Vegas last year.
Since the Raiders moved to Las Vegas and Justin Herbert became the Chargers QB in 2020, Allen has only one TD against them. Herbert has thrown 10 TDs in those four games, so it’s clear that the Raiders have figured out a good plan for limiting Allen’s receptions and yards plus keeping him out of the end zone. In the past two seasons, Allen has averaged 6.9 receptions and 71 receiving yards per game. Those averages slip slightly against the Raiders to 5.75 receptions and 52 receiving yards per game.
I’m not saying Allen is going to put up the dreaded Blutarsky (0.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), but it appears that he’s more likely to not score a TD and have fewer than 10.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points than he is to have a TD and hit his usual per game averages. He’s probably a high-end Bench option this week (and maybe when the Chargers play the Raiders again), not a Starter.
Darren Waller (TE – LV): While he’s not listed on the official Week 1 injury report, Waller has missed time during training camp and the pre-season with a hamstring injury. Since he’s not on the injury report, I’m comfortable that he’s going to play, or at least try to play, but not confident that he’s going to be the Darren Waller who was the TE2 in Dynasty Owner in 2020 and TE4 in 2019. In case you haven’t heard, the Raiders acquired a WR via trade this off-season from the Packers (Davante Adams) and he went to college with Raiders QB Derek Carr. As a result, many people believe that Adams is going to take targets away from Waller and WR Hunter Renfrow.
The Raiders face the Chargers in Week 1 and typically Waller has performed well against the men in the powder blue uniforms. He has scored three TDs over the past two seasons in four games vs. the Chargers and averaged 15.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. However, this is a revamped Chargers defense and it’ll be interesting to see how they stand up to Waller, Adams, Renfrow and Carr in Week 1. An improved pass rush could force Waller to block more and lower his target share and fantasy production. Finally, several other top TEs (Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts, T.J. Hockenson, Dallas Goedert, and Pat Freiermuth) have favorable matchups this week against weaker defenses. There’s not a lot of TEs to choose from so Waller ais my TE to leave on your Dynasty Owner Bench this week.
Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week – SKOL Vikings vs. Scubon1c Plagu3
It’s time for our first Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week for the 2022 season. Since everyone was tied for first place before the Thursday night games, every Week 1 Match-up is compelling and worthy of previewing. However, there’s really only one team to mention here and that’s the 2021 Chase for the Ring winning SKOL Vikings team in League #31927. Here’s how their match-up is going after Thursday night’s game.
SKOL Vikings has a pretty big lead so far over Scubon1c Plagu3 – 68.7 to 2.38 behind his Starting WRs Cooper Kupp (31.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), Stefon Diggs (26.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points), kicker Matt Gay (6.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and Bench WR Gabriel Davis (18.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, which adds 4.7 points to his total score). Scubon1c Plagu3 had two Bench players go for their team on Thursday, but only got 2.38 Dynasty Owner fantasy points as Bills TE Dawson Knox only scored 1.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points and kicker Tyler Bass had just 8.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. The projections have Scubon1c Plagu3 closing the gap on the Champ, but still falling short by 31.48 points. This is bad luck for Scubon1c Plagu3 as they are projected to score more Dynasty Owner fantasy points in Week 1 than every team in the league other than SKOL Vikings.
Scubon1c Plagu3 is a good Dynasty Owner as well. They finished second in their league’s regular season last year with an 11-3 record, but lost in the semi-finals to Jhausdawg and ended up finishing in fourth place. SKOL Vikings had a 13-1 regular season record and defeated Jhausdawg in close match-up in the League Championship game by a score of 148.25 to 136.16.
In a “regular” dynasty league, the Championship team has a good chance to repeat because they can keep the team intact if they want. Not in Dynasty Owner! Our 2020 Champion Viktor ended up dropping or trading half of the Starters from his Championship team. That team finished in third place in the 2021 regular season with a 10-4 record then lost in the semi-finals by 7.03 points to Punky Bruschi’s, but finished in third place by beating Footy Football for that spot.
SKOL Vikings had to retool their team as well to keep it under the salary cap, so they made 12 off-season trades (starting on January 12th) and 31 Free Agent Auction pickups (starting on January 10th) for a total of $62 million Dynasty Dollars. However, 23 out of the 31 Free Agent Auction pickups only cost them the minimum bid amount of $1 million Dynasty Dollars. They spent $18 million Dynasty Dollars to reacquire Tom Brady after he un-retired. They also lost two Free Agent Auction bids.
Only seven players (Justin Herbert, Tyreek Hill, Dalton Schultz, Tom Brady, Tee Higgins, Matt Gay and Greg Joseph) remain who were in their Starting lineup or Bench during the 2021 playoffs. They moved Dalvin Cook, Josh Jacobs, Deebo Samuel, Travis Kelce, Davante Adams and Diontae Johnson from the Ring winning team in 2021 and replace them with Joe Mixon, Najee Harris, Stefon Diggs, Cooper Kupp, Chase Edmonds, Tony Pollard and Gabriel Davis. Not a complete overhaul, but more transactions and trades than in your typical dynasty league.
Conclusion
Week 1 has already started, and the Chase for the Ring standings are updated if you want to check out where your team is after the Bills-Rams game. B-Lo Zero Bills sit at the top because they have seven Bills players in their Starting lineup and Isaiah McKenzie on their Bench. The only non-Bills player in their Starting lineup is Travis Kelce and yes, they had James Cook and his -2.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (2 rushing yards, 1 lost fumble) in their Starting lineup. Check out where your team is at the end of Week 1 and read my weekly recap article to find out what teams are in the Top 10 in the Chase for the Ring.
Please read this weekly preview article each and every week to see my recommendations for who should be in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and who should be on your Bench. If you have one of the players mentioned, hopefully it will assist you with your lineup decisions. 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.
In addition to this weekly preview article, Dynasty Owner has plenty of other great content to help you win your League Championship and maybe the Chase for the Ring. Our 2022 in-season publication schedule is as follows:
- Mondays: The week is starting, but the NFL football week is almost over. Almost, but not quite yet! To get ready for some more football, Jay Pounds will preview the Monday Night Football matchup from the Dynasty Owner perspective. Monday is also when the Champions podcast will be released on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
- Tuesdays: In the morning, I’ll recap the week in the NFL and the Match-up of the Week, award the Dynasty Owner Player of the Week and the Value Player of the Week. I’ll also check and see how my weekly recommendations fared and highlight players at each position who should have been in your Dynasty Owner Starting lineup and those who should have been on the Bench or Practice Squad. Later in the day, Jay Pounds will have his weekly Free Agent Auction targets article. This article will help you figure out what players to bid on before the first Free Agent Auction run of the week is processed on Wednesday at 5 AM (Eastern).
- Wednesday: It’s time for Matt Morrison – The Jerk to dive into a topic of his choosing. His first article for 2022 had his Week 1 Watchlist. These articles usually focus on certain series, such as “Don’t Tilt” and may include player breakdown and blind comparisons. Matt also does weekly rankings now and those will pop up on Wednesdays as well.
- Thursday: It’s time to start the football week! Thursday Night Football is happening every week and Matt Morrison – The Jerk will preview the Thursday night game, tell you what to watch for, which players on both teams you should have as Starters and who should be on your Bench. At the end, he’ll pick his “Value of the Game”. He selected Gabriel Davis ($998,595) in Week 1. While Davis didn’t score the 31.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (including two TDs with the second being a clutch score), Matt projected, he didn’t miss by much. Davis had 18.8 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (4 receptions, 88 receiving yards, 1 TD). Only Josh Allen, Cooper Kupp and Stefon Diggs had more points than Davis and all of them have salaries that are millions of dollars higher.
- Friday: The end of the week, but almost all of the weekly NFL games are still two days away. You can get your Friday started by listening to the Dynasty Owner podcast with me and Jay or watch it on YouTube. Just like the Champions podcast, it’s available wherever you get your podcasts. Finally in the afternoon, it’s time for me to preview the Sunday and Monday games and look into one Dynasty Owner Match-up of the Week – just like I did this week. I’ll make my recommendations of players to get in your Starting lineup and which ones to keep on your Bench. As a special treat, we will also have Nate Christian doing an article every other Friday on his favorite topic, which is highlighting some of the college players that he’s watching for the 2023 NFL Draft.
Please read all of our articles, listen to the podcasts and watch the Livestream with me and Dynasty Owner CEO Tim Peffer on Wednesdays at 4 PM or afterwards if you can’t catch us live. Don’t forget follow 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