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Ravens @ Buccaneers
By: Matt Morrison (@dynastyjerk)
The Baltimore Ravens will travel to central Florida to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I would assume that both teams think they have underperformed this season so far. I know that is true for the Buccaneers who are a surprising 3 – 4. Tampa Bay is coming off of a seemingly horrendous loss to the Carolina Panthers. Tom Brady ($15,000,000) was unable to produce a single touchdown in Week 7. In fact, the Buccaneers didn’t score a touchdown at all. They will look to rebound against a stout Ravens’ defense.
The game was a straight up “pick em”, but the line has moved, and the Buccaneers are favored now by two points. It also has a somewhat underwhelming Over/Under of 46. I’ll pick the Ravens on the road in this game. They seem like the more well-rounded team at the moment.
What To Watch For
If there was one thing that shocked me in Week 7, it was the absolute breakout of Ravens’ running back Gus Edwards ($4,500,000). Edwards led all Baltimore rushers in touches with 16. He had 66 yards on the ground with two short touchdowns (1 yard and 7 yards). Barring injury, Edwards should without a doubt be the goal line back for the Ravens for the rest of the year. What I want to see is how the rushing distribution works against a solid rushing defense.
Value of the Game Recap
Eno Benjamin was my Value of the Game (VOTG) pick in Week 7. This one was a big hit. James Conner ($7,000,000) was once again ruled out prior to game time. This allowed a great opportunity for Benjamin, and he pulled through with 23.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points (DOFP). This exceeded my expectations.
| Week 7 Projection | Salary | Receptions | Total Yards | TDs | DOFP |
| Eno Benjamin | $849,428 | 3 | 83 | 1 | 16.3 |
| Week 7 Actual | Salary | Receptions | Total Yards | TDs | DOFP | DD/PT |
| Eno Benjamin | $849,428 | 4 | 113 | 1 | 23.3 | $36,456 |
Benjamin was the VOTG last week, and I am finally back on track with a win. In fact, his Dynasty Dollars per Fantasy Point (DD/PT) value of $36,456 made him the Value Player of the Week. I’m 3 – 4 on the season.
Overall Record: 3-4
Starters
All the players on this list are ones who I would feel comfortable starting in Dynasty Owner this week.
Lamar Jackson ($23,016,000)
Tom Brady ($15,000,000)
We have two top tier options at quarterback this week. Yes, Brady has struggled this season, but he is still QB11, sitting between Daniel Jones ($6,416,014) and Kirk Cousins ($33,000,000). Definitely not what his Dynasty Owners expected this year, but you have to keep starting him. He has too many offensive weapons, and the Buccaneers will figure out their offense at some point.
Lamar is currently QB4, and is a rock solid start for the rest of the season.
Gus Edwards ($4,500,000)
Gus Edwards is fresh off his first game of the season. As I talked about at the beginning of this article, he will likely be the Ravens’ primary goal line and short yardage back. That is a valuable player to have on one of the heaviest rushing teams in the league.
Leonard Fournette ($7,000,000)
Fournette had his worst game of the year in Week 7. He finished with 4.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points, and more than half of those came on a couple of receptions for 7 yards. Continue to start him each week. I have him as my RB7 in my weekly rankings.
Rashod Bateman ($3,149,853)
Mike Evans ($16,500,000)
Chris Godwin ($20,000,000)
A trio of receivers is next. Evans and Bateman are the top two wide receivers for their teams at least when healthy. Monitor both of their injuries prior to kickoff, but I expect both of them to be able to go.
Godwin has no injury designation and should be started in most Dynasty Owner leagues.
Mark Andrews ($14,000,000)
Andrews played more than 85 percent of the snaps for the Ravens on Sunday (56 out of 64 snaps), but he only finished with a single rush for four yards. That is highly out of character for Andrews. I would be more concerned about his injury if it had kept him off the field in Week 7. It did not, so I’ll chalk that performance up to bad luck.
Bench
Here at Dynasty Owner, you not only get points from your Starting lineup, but also from your Bench. Your Dynasty Owner teams get 25 percent of the points scored from players on your Bench added to the total final score. This means that Bench scoring could (and often does) affect the outcome of individual matches as well as championships. Here are the players I would be okay putting on my Bench.
Kenyan Drake ($1,035,000)
Devin Duvernay ($1,143,952)
Cade Otton ($1,123,486)
All three of these players are “emergency” start type players. Yes, I’d be happy to have all three of them on my Dynasty Owner roster, but I would not feel comfortable starting any of them either. Hence, this is where they land in the Bench category. All three should get you a floor of about 5.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points which is fine with me.
Value of the Game
I really don’t have much of a choice for the Value of the Game (VOTG) pick. There are less than a handful of good choices to score Dynasty Owner fantasy points with a low salary. I will once again take a chance on a WR2 catching a touchdown. That player this week will be Devin Duvernay. I know I just said that his floor is 5.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points. Obviously 5.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy points is not going to be good enough to lock up the VOTG. I’m projecting more of a 14.0 – 18.0 Dynasty Owner fantasy point night.
| Week 8 Projection | Salary | Receptions | Total Yards | TDs | DOFP |
| Devin Duvernay | $1,143,952 | 5 | 50 | 1 | 16.0 |
Other players on my short list include Kenyan Drake and Scotty Miller ($661,960). Both would qualify for the low salary, but I don’t see Drake getting enough work to be fantasy relevant and a VOTG pick.
Scotty Miller wasn’t really considered as even a Bench player for me so I would have a very hard time making him a VOTG pick.
Thank you all for reading. Take care and be safe.
TheJerk